the ordinary duties of life mister daly anxious to make some return for the kindness shown him offered to act as tutor to all the children who were old enough for school duties
but rosie put her arms about her father's neck and looking beseechingly into his eyes said she preferred her old tutor
so they shall my darlings she answered for mamma loves to teach you the young carringtons too and their mother preferred the old way so mister daly's kind offer was declined with thanks
and perhaps he was not sorry being weak and languid and in no danger of suffering from ennui with horses to ride
elsie expected her children to find it a little hard to go back to the old routine but it was not so
gathered about her for a little chat before returning to their play mamma said eddie we've had a nice long holiday and it's really pleasant to get back to lessons again so it is said vi don't you think so elsie
stones and oh i don't know how many things that are different here from what we have at home at home why this is home isn't it mamma exclaimed eddie yes my son one of our homes yes and so beautiful said vi
does it darling asked mamma giving her a smile and a kiss yes mamma and i love ion dearly
i am glad my children that you love knowledge their mother said because it is useful the more knowledge we have the more good we can do if we will and then it is a lasting pleasure
mamma how pleasant that will be said elsie thoughtfully
won't you show them to us yes we will go now me too mamma asked harold yes all of you come i want you all to see everything that i have that once belonged to my dear mother aunt rosie wants to see them too said vi
they shall see them afterwards i want no one but my own little children now replied mamma taking harold's hand and leading the way she led them to the room a large and very pleasant one light and airy where flowers were blooming and birds singing
vines trailing over and about the windows lovely pictures on the walls cosy chairs and couches work tables well supplied with all the implements for sewing others suited for drawing
quantities of books games and toys nothing seemed to have been forgotten that could give pleasant employment for their leisure hours or minister to their amusement there was a burst of united exclamations of wondering delight from the children as the door was thrown open and they entered
mamma i don't know how to thank you and my dear father
yes it is from his kind hand all our blessings come
yes indeed frank is a dear good little boy and i like to have you together mamma unlocked the door of a large light closet as she spoke
grandma's things they said softly yes these are what my dear mother played with when she was a little girl like elsie and vi said mamma
night clothes morning wrappers gay silks and lovely white dresses
indeed almost everything in the shape of toys that the childish heart could desire
then begged their mother to tell them again about dear grandma they had heard the story all that mamma and mammy could tell many times but it never lost its charm yes dears i will i love to think and speak of her elsie said
little elsie said drawing a deep sigh as the tale came to an end yes poor little girl playing up here all alone said eddie cept mammy corrected vi
ah daughter i had jesus to love me and help me in all my childish griefs and troubles the mother answered with a glad smile and mammy to hug and kiss and love me just as she does you
ah i am so glad so thankful that my darlings have never suffered for lack of love i too mamma and i and i
eddie ran to open it ah i thought i should find you here daughter mister dinsmore said coming in
you do well to preserve them with care as mementoes of your mother he remarked coming back and seating himself by her side
o grandpa you could tell us more about her and dear mamma too when she was a little girl said little elsie seating herself upon his knee twining her arms about his neck and looking coaxingly into his face ah what a dear little girl your mamma was at your age he said
though not dearer than she is now elsie returned the loving glance and smile while her namesake
then went on to relate how he had first met their mother's mother then a very beautiful girl of fifteen an acquaintance took him to call upon a young lady friend of his
what did you think the first minute you saw her grandpa asked eddie
but she poor thing had none to love or cherish her but her mammy
leaning on his knee and gazing affectionately into his face i'm glad you do he said patting her soft round cheek
we saw each other daily i asked her to be my own little wife and she consented
no one being present except the minister the sexton and her friend and mine who were engaged to each other and her faithful mammy her guardian was away in a distant city and knew nothing about the matter
mister dinsmore's voice faltered he paused a moment
we never saw each other again when i went back in the morning the house was closed and quite deserted
and that was our mamma cried the children once more crowding about her to lavish caresses upon her they thanked their grandfather for his story and vi looking in at the closet door again said in her most coaxing tones mamma
not now daughter though perhaps i may allow it some day when you are older but see here will not these do quite as well
in sixteen sixty six robert cavalier
came to canada and set out from his seigneurie near the rapids of montreal to find the long sought road to china instead of doing that he discovered the ohio river first of white men
he voyaged across the great lakes and sailed down the mississippi to its mouth
and built frontier posts in the wilderness
louisiana in honor of king
soon afterward this seigneur's brother
founded new orleans and attracted many french pioneers there
in the north they pressed westward and came in sight of the rocky mountains at that time it seemed as if france was to own at least two thirds of the continent
in seventeen fifty five and
years later the english general wolfe
and france's chance was over
soon afterward france to outwit england gave spain new orleans and her claim
valley west of the river to which the name louisiana now came to be restricted
could not keep his fingers from north america he planned to win back the new france that had been given away
he meant to colonize and fortify this splendid empire but before it could be done enemies gathered against his eagles at home and to save his european throne he had to forsake his western colony
repossessing herself of so much territory he sent robert r livingston and james monroe to paris to try to buy new orleans and the country known as the floridas
jefferson and the people in the eastern united states were dismayed at the price paid for what they considered almost worthless land but the west was delighted owning the mouth of the great mississippi and with the country beyond it free to them to explore
in time this purchase of louisiana or the territory stretching to the rocky mountains forming the larger part of what are now thirteen of the states of the union
scarcely anything was known of louisiana except the stories told by a few hunters jefferson decided that the region must be explored and asked his young secretary meriwether lewis
lewis chose his friend william clark to accompany him and picked thirty two experienced men for their party may fourteenth
missouri river near saint louis the nearer part of this country had already been well explored by hunters and trappers and especially by that race of adventurous frenchmen who were rovers by nature
driving their light canoes over the waters of the great rivers and often sharing the tents of friendly indians they met many had become almost more indian than white man had married indian wives and lived the wandering life of the native
such a man captain lewis found at the start of his journey and took with him to act
meeting small bands of indians and passing one or two widely separated frontier settlements they had to pass many difficult rapids in the river but as they were for the most part expert boatmen they met with no mishaps
consisting of seven houses with as many families located there
as they went up the river they frequently met canoes loaded with furs coming down day by day they took careful observations and made maps of the country through which they were traveling
and when they met indians tried to learn the history and customs of the tribe captain lewis wrote down many of their curious traditions
numbering about five hundred warriors the little osages who lived some six miles distant from the others and numbered half as many men
the osages lived in villages and were good farmers usually peaceful although naturally strong and tireless captain lewis found a curious tradition
founder of the nation was a snail who lived quietly on the banks of the osage until a high flood swept him down to the missouri and left him exposed on the shore the heat of the sun at length ripened him into a man
but with the change in his nature he did not forget his native haunts on the osage but immediately bent his way in that direction he was however soon overtaken by hunger and fatigue when happily the great spirit appeared
and giving him a bow and arrow showed him how to kill and cook deer and cover himself with the skins he then pushed on to his home but as he neared it he was met by a beaver
the osage readily consented and from this happy marriage
of the wasbasha or osages who kept a reverence for their ancestors never hunting the beaver because in killing that animal they would kill a brother of the osage
the explorers found however that since the value of beaver skins had risen in trade with the white men these indians were not so particular in their reverence for their relatives
on july twenty first
and named the site council bluffs
the indians were friendly and each day taught the white men something new
the whip rattles made of the hoofs of goats and deer
each tribe differed in some way from its neighbors for the first time the explorers found among the rickarees eight sided earth covered lodges and basket shaped boats made of interwoven boughs covered with buffalo skins
besides these were antelopes beavers bears badgers deer and porcupines and the river banks supplied them with plover grouse geese turkeys ducks and pelicans
and they lived well during the whole of the summer
each member of this tribe was accustomed to select a particular object for his devotion and call it his medicine
i was lately the owner of seventeen horses but i have offered them all up to my medicine and am now poor
they were able to leave their camp at fort manden and start on again the upper missouri they found was too shallow for the large barge they had used the previous summer
while the others embarked in six canoes and two large open boats that they had built during the winter so far
but as they now turned westward they came into a region entirely unknown
the party had by this time three interpreters
the indian's skill in woodcraft and who also knew the language of the white explorers
the bird woman who had originally belonged to the snake tribe but who had been captured in her childhood by blackfeet indians
they were now very far north near the northwest corner of what is the state of north dakota game was still plentiful but the banks of the river were covered with a coating of alkali salts
which made the water of the streams bitter and unpleasant for drinking occasionally they came upon a deserted indian camp but in this northern territory they found few roving tribes when there was a favorable wind they sailed along the missouri
where they found a large number of porcupines feeding
captain lewis christened the stream porcupine river
now they were continually coming upon new rivers many of them broad with swift flowing currents and all of them appealing to the love of exploration the missouri was their highroad however and so they simply stopped to name the different streams they came to
the country along this stream was bare for some distance with gradually rising hills beyond the game here was very plentiful
one evening the men in the canoes saw a large grizzly lying some three hundred paces from the shore six of them landed and hid
within forty paces of the bear four of the hunters fired and each lodged a ball in the bear's body the animal sprang up and roared furiously at them as he came near them the two hunters who had not yet fired gave him two more wounds
one of which broke a shoulder but before they had time to reload their guns the bear was so near them that they had to run for the river he almost overtook them two jumped into the canoes the other four separated
only seemed to attract his attention toward the hunters until finally he chased two of them so closely that they threw away their guns
when one of the others on shore shot him in the head and finally killed him they dragged him to shore and found that eight balls had gone through him in different directions the hunters took the bear's skin back to camp and there they learned that another adventure had occurred
upset the canoe the boat would have turned upside down but for the resistance of the canvas awning the other boats hastened to the rescue righted the canoe and by baling her out kept her from sinking they rowed the canoe to shore and the cargo was saved
at a distance
a short distance beyond this captain lewis
along the musselshell the country was covered with wild roses and small honeysuckle
the mosquitoes annoying the noonday sun uncomfortably hot and the nights very cold the missouri river along which they were still traveling was now heading to the southwest
most of which seemed to have been deserted for five or six weeks from this fact they judged that they were following a band of about
they knew that the minnetarees of the missouri often
fastening the skin of the head
thus disguised the indian would take a position between a herd of buffalo and the precipice overlooking a river the other hunters would steal back of the herd and at a given signal chase them
the buffaloes would run in the direction of the disguised brave who would lead them
as he reached the edge he would quickly hide himself in some crevice
who in their turn would be closely pursued by the hunters the whole herd therefore would usually rush over the cliff and the hunters
this method of hunting was very extravagant but at that time the indians had no thought of preserving the buffaloes one of the rivers lewis passed in this region he named the slaughter river on account of this way of hunting
when the missouri turned southward the explorers came to many steep rapids around which the canoes had to be carried which made traveling slow
in the opening spring even in that bare country lewis found places near the river filled with choke cherries yellow currants wild roses and prickly pears in full bloom in the distance the mountains
ahmateahza or missouri which they had said approached very near to the columbia river lewis knew that the success of his expedition depended largely upon choosing the right stream because
had ascended the rocky mountains beyond they should find that the river they had taken did not bring them near the columbia they would have to return and thereby would lose a large part of the summer which was the only season when they could travel
and if he had not been able to catch himself with his mountain stick
and had slipped down to the very edge of the precipice where he lay with his right arm and leg over the cliff
lewis saw the danger but calmly told the other to take his knife from his belt with his right hand
with great presence of mind the man did this and getting a foothold raised himself on his knees
his knife in one hand and his rifle in the other in this manner the man regained a secure place on the cliff captain lewis considered that this method of traveling was too dangerous
where the water was only breast high this adventure taught them the danger of crossing the slippery heights above the stream but as the plains were broken by ravines almost as difficult to pass
they therefore hid their heaviest boat
the river three hundred yards wide was shut in by steep cliffs and for ninety yards from the left cliff the water fell
the rest of the river shot forward with greater force and being broken by projecting rocks sent clouds of foam into the air as the water struck the basin below the falls
and lewis found that for three miles
was one line of rapids and cascades overhung by bluffs five miles above the first falls the whole river was blocked by one straight shelf of rock over which the water ran in an even sheet a majestic sight
this part of the missouri however offered great difficulties to their travel
of steep falls and rapids
and the carpenter built a carriage to transport the boats
meantime clark studied the river and found that a series of rapids made a perilous descent and that a portage of thirteen miles would be necessary
they had to stop and search for a substitute and finally found willow trees which provided them with enough wood to patch up the boat carriage
half a mile from their new camping place the carriage broke again and this time they found it easier to carry boat and baggage than to build a new conveyance captain lewis described
the men he wrote are loaded as heavily as their strength will permit the crossing is really painful
for more than a few minutes from the heat and fatigue they are all obliged to halt and rest frequently and at almost every stopping place they fall and many of them are asleep in an instant
while they were busy making this portage they had several narrow escapes from attacks by grizzly bears
the sleeping men were in danger from their claws a tremendous storm added to their discomfort and the hailstones were driven so furiously by the high wind that they wounded some of the men
chaboneau and his indian wife and young child
protected by shelving rocks under which they could take refuge
rain and hail beat upon their shelter
her husband also caught at her and pulled her along but he was so much frightened at the noise and danger that but for clark's steadiness he with his wife and child would probably have been lost
had they waited a minute longer they would have been swept into the missouri just above the great falls they reached the top in safety and there found york
they pushed on to camp where the rest of the party had already taken shelter and had abandoned all work for that day while the men were building a new boat of skins captain lewis spent
much time studying the animals trees and plants of the region making records of them to take home
it is heard at different periods of the day and night lewis wrote
in quick succession it is loud
of ordnance at the distance of three miles the minnetarees frequently mentioned this noise like thunder
superstition or perhaps a falsehood
by the philosophy of the watermen
it may be supposed from what has just been said that the love of physical gratifications must constantly urge the americans to irregularities in morals
disturb the peace of families and threaten the security of society at large such is not the case the passion for physical gratifications produces in democracies effects very different from those which it occasions
in aristocratic nations it sometimes happens that wearied with public affairs and sated with opulence amidst the ruin of religious belief and the decline of the state the heart of an aristocracy
may by degrees be seduced to the pursuit of sensual enjoyments only at other times the power of the monarch or the weakness of the people without stripping the nobility of their fortune
compels them to stand aloof from the administration of affairs and whilst the road to mighty enterprise is closed abandons them to the inquietude of their own desires
they then fall back heavily upon themselves and seek in the pleasures of the body oblivion of their former greatness when the members of an aristocratic body are thus exclusively devoted to the pursuit of physical gratifications
they commonly concentrate in that direction all the energy which they derive from their long experience of power such men are not satisfied with the pursuit of comfort
they require sumptuous depravity and splendid corruption the worship they pay the senses is a gorgeous one and they seem to vie with each other in the art of degrading their own natures
the stronger the more famous and the more free an aristocracy has been the more depraved will it then become and however brilliant may have been the lustre of its virtues
i dare predict that they will always be surpassed by the splendor of its vices the taste for physical gratifications leads a democratic people into no such excesses
the love of well being is there displayed as a tenacious exclusive universal passion but its range is confined to build enormous palaces to conquer or to mimic nature
to plant an orchard to enlarge a dwelling to be always making life more comfortable and convenient to avoid trouble and to satisfy the smallest wants without effort and almost without cost these are small objects
but the soul clings to them it dwells upon them closely and day by day till they at last shut out the rest of the world and sometimes intervene between itself and heaven this it may be said
can only be applicable to those members of the community who are in humble circumstances wealthier individuals will display tastes akin to those which belonged to them in aristocratic ages i contest
the proposition in point of physical gratifications the most opulent members of a democracy will not display tastes very different from those of the people whether it be that springing from the people they really share those tastes
or that they esteem it a duty to submit to them in democratic society the sensuality of the public has taken a moderate and tranquil course to which all are bound to conform
it is as difficult to depart from the common rule by one's vices as by one's virtues rich men who live amidst democratic nations are therefore more intent on providing for their smallest wants
than for their extraordinary enjoyments they gratify a number of petty desires without indulging in any great irregularities of passion thus they are more apt to become
the especial taste which the men of democratic ages entertain for physical enjoyments is not naturally opposed to the principles of public order nay it often stands in need of order that it may be gratified
nor is it adverse to regularity of morals for good morals contribute to public tranquillity and are favorable to industry
men wish to be as well off as they can in this world without foregoing their chance of another some physical gratifications cannot be indulged in without crime from such they strictly abstain
the enjoyment of others is sanctioned by religion and morality to these the heart the imagination and life itself are unreservedly given up till in snatching at these lesser gifts
men lose sight of those more precious possessions which constitute the glory and the greatness of mankind the reproach i address to the principle of equality
is not that it leads men away in the pursuit of forbidden enjoyments but that it absorbs them wholly in quest of those which are allowed by these means a kind of virtuous materialism
may ultimately be established in the world which would not corrupt but
causes of fanatical enthusiasm in some americans although the desire of acquiring the good things of this world is the prevailing passion of the american people certain
momentary outbreaks occur when their souls seem suddenly to burst the bonds of matter by which they are restrained and to soar impetuously towards heaven
in all the states of the union but especially in the half peopled country of the far west wandering preachers may be met with who hawk about the word of god from place to place
whole families old men women and children cross rough passes and untrodden wilds coming from a great distance to join a camp meeting where they totally forget for several days and nights in listening to these discourses
the cares of business and even the most urgent wants of the body here and there in the midst of american society you meet with men full of a fanatical and almost wild enthusiasm which hardly exists in europe
from time to time strange sects arise which endeavor to strike out extraordinary paths to eternal happiness religious insanity is very common in the united states nor ought these facts to surprise us
it was not man who implanted in himself the taste for what is infinite and the love of what is immortal those lofty instincts are not the offspring of his capricious will
their steadfast foundation is fixed in human nature and they exist in spite of his efforts he may cross and distort them destroy them he cannot
the soul has wants which must be satisfied and whatever pains be taken to divert it from itself it soon grows weary restless and disquieted amidst the enjoyments of sense
if ever the faculties of the great majority of mankind were exclusively bent upon the pursuit of material objects it might be anticipated that an amazing reaction would take place in the souls of some men
they would drift at large in the world of spirits for fear of remaining shackled by the close bondage of the body it is not then wonderful if in the midst of a community whose thoughts tend earthward
a small number of individuals are to be found who turn their looks to heaven i should be surprised if mysticism did not soon make some advance amongst a people solely engaged in promoting its own worldly welfare
i should rather say that it was by the luxuries of rome and the epicurean philosophy of greece
if their social condition their present circumstances and their laws did not confine the minds of the americans so closely to the pursuit of worldly welfare
it is probable that they would display more reserve and more experience whenever their attention is turned to things immaterial and that they would check themselves without difficulty
but they feel imprisoned within bounds which they will apparently never be allowed to pass
that the americans apply the principle of interest rightly understood to religious matters if the principle of interest rightly understood had nothing but the present world in view it would be very insufficient
for there are many sacrifices which can only find their recompense in another and whatever ingenuity may be put forth to demonstrate the utility of virtue
it will never be an easy task to make that man live aright who has no thoughts of dying it is therefore necessary to ascertain whether the principle of interest rightly understood is easily compatible with religious belief
the philosophers who inculcate this system of morals tell men that to be happy in this life they must watch their own passions and steadily control their excess that lasting happiness
can only be secured by renouncing a thousand transient gratifications and that a man must perpetually triumph over himself in order to secure his own advantage the founders of almost all religions
have held the same language the track they point out to man is the same only that the goal is more remote instead of placing in this world the reward of the sacrifices they impose
they transport it to another nevertheless i cannot believe that all those who practise virtue from religious motives
i have known zealous christians who constantly forgot themselves
and i have heard them declare that all they did was only to earn the blessings of a future state i cannot but think that they deceive themselves i respect them too much to believe them
christianity indeed teaches that a man must prefer his neighbor to himself in order to gain eternal life but christianity also teaches that men ought to benefit their fellow creatures for the love of god
a sublime expression man searching by his intellect into the divine conception and seeing that order is the purpose of god freely combines to prosecute the great design
and whilst he sacrifices his personal interests to this consummate order of all created things expects no other recompense than the pleasure of contemplating it
i do not believe that interest is the sole motive of religious men but i believe that interest is the principal means which religions themselves employ to govern men and i do not question
that this way they strike into the multitude and become popular it is not easy clearly to perceive why the principle of interest rightly understood should keep aloof from religious opinions
and it seems to me more easy to show why it should draw men to them let it be supposed that in order to obtain happiness in this world
a man combats his instinct on all occasions and deliberately calculates every action of his life that instead of yielding blindly to the
he has learned the art of resisting them and that he has accustomed himself to sacrifice without an effort the pleasure of a moment to the lasting interest of his whole life
if such a man believes in the religion which he professes it will cost him but little to submit to the restrictions it may impose reason herself counsels him to obey and habit has prepared him to endure them
if he should have conceived any doubts as to the object of his hopes still he will not easily allow himself to be stopped by them and he will decide that it is wise to risk some of the advantages of this world
in order to preserve his rights to the great inheritance promised him in another to be mistaken in believing that the christian religion is true says pascal is no great loss to anyone
but how dreadful to be mistaken in believing it to be false the americans do not affect a brutal indifference to a future state they affect no
perils which they hope to escape from they therefore profess their religion without shame and without weakness but there generally is even in their zeal
something so indescribably tranquil methodical and deliberate that it would seem as if the head far more than the heart brought them to the foot of the altar
the americans not only follow their religion from interest but they often place in this world the interest which makes them follow it
in the middle ages the clergy spoke of nothing but a future state they hardly cared to prove that a sincere christian may be a happy man here below but the american preachers are constantly referring
to the earth and it is only with great difficulty that they can divert their attention from it to touch their congregations they always show them how favorable religious opinions are to freedom and public tranquillity
and it is often difficult to ascertain from their discourses whether the principal object of religion is to procure eternal felicity in the other world or prosperity in this
of the taste for physical well being in america in america the passion for physical well being is not always exclusive but it is general and if all do not feel it in the same manner
yet it is felt by all carefully to satisfy all even the least wants of the body and to provide the little conveniences of life is uppermost in every mind
something of an analogous character is more and more apparent in europe amongst the causes which produce these similar consequences in both hemispheres several are so connected with my subject as to deserve notice
when riches are hereditarily fixed in families there are a great number of men who enjoy the comforts of life without feeling an exclusive taste for those comforts
the heart of man is not so much caught by the undisturbed possession of anything valuable as by the desire as yet imperfectly satisfied of possessing it
and by the incessant dread of losing it in aristocratic communities the wealthy never having experienced a condition different from their own entertain no fear of changing it
the existence of such conditions hardly occurs to them the comforts of life are not to them the end of life but simply a way of living they regard them as existence itself
enjoyed but scarcely thought of as the natural and instinctive taste which all men feel for being well off is thus satisfied without trouble and without apprehension their faculties are turned elsewhere
and cling to more arduous and more lofty undertakings which excite and engross their minds hence it is that in the midst of physical gratifications
the members of an aristocracy often display a haughty contempt of these very enjoyments and exhibit singular powers of endurance under the privation of them
all the revolutions which have ever shaken or destroyed aristocracies have shown how easily men accustomed to superfluous luxuries can do without the necessaries of life
whereas men who have toiled to acquire a competency can hardly live after they have lost it if i turn my observation from the upper to the lower classes i find analogous effects produced by opposite causes
amongst a nation where aristocracy predominates in society and keeps it stationary the people in the end get as much accustomed to poverty as the rich to their opulence
the latter bestow no anxiety on their physical comforts because they enjoy them without an effort the former do not think of things which they despair of obtaining
desire them in communities of this kind the imagination of the poor is driven to seek another world the miseries of real life inclose it around
and flies to seek its pleasures far beyond when on the contrary the distinctions of ranks are confounded together and privileges are destroyed when
hereditary property is subdivided and education and freedom widely diffused the desire of acquiring the comforts of the world haunts the imagination of the poor and the dread of losing them that of the rich
many scanty fortunes spring up those who possess them have a sufficient share of physical gratifications to conceive a taste for these pleasures not enough to satisfy it
they never procure them without exertion and they never indulge in them without apprehension they are therefore always straining to pursue or to
retain gratifications so delightful so imperfect so fugitive if i were to inquire what passion is most natural to men who are stimulated and
mediocrity of their fortune
appropriate to their condition than this love of physical prosperity the passion for physical comforts is essentially a passion of the middle classes with those classes it grows and spreads
with them it preponderates from them it mounts into the higher orders of society and descends into the mass of the people i never met in america with any citizen so poor
as not to cast a glance of hope and envy on the enjoyments of the rich or whose imagination did not possess itself by anticipation of those good things which fate still obstinately withheld from him
on the other hand i never perceived amongst the wealthier inhabitants of the united states that proud contempt of physical gratifications which is sometimes to be met with even in the most opulent and
dissolute aristocracies most of these wealthy persons were once poor they have felt the sting of want they were long a prey to adverse fortunes and now that the victory is won
the passions which accompanied the contest have survived it their minds are as it were intoxicated by the small enjoyments which they have pursued for forty years
not but that in the united states as elsewhere there are a certain number of wealthy persons who having come into their property by inheritance possess without exertion
an opulence they have not earned but even these men are not less devotedly attached to the pleasures of material life the love of well being is now become the predominant taste of the nation
relating to family matters showing how mister kenwigs underwent violent agitation and how missus kenwigs was as well as could be expected it might have been seven o'clock in the evening
and it was growing dark in the narrow streets near golden square when mister kenwigs sent out for a pair of the cheapest white kid gloves those at fourteen pence and selecting the strongest which happened to be the right hand one
walked downstairs with an air of pomp and much excitement and proceeded to muffle the knob of the street door knocker therein having executed this task with great nicety mister kenwigs pulled the door to after him
and just stepped across the road to try the effect from the opposite side of the street satisfied that nothing could possibly look better in its way mister kenwigs then stepped back again and calling through the keyhole to morleena to open the door
vanished into the house and was seen no longer now considered as an abstract circumstance there was no more obvious cause or reason why mister kenwigs should take the trouble of muffling this particular knocker
because for the greater convenience of the numerous lodgers the street door always stood wide open and the knocker was never used at all the first floor the second floor and the third floor
had each a bell of its own as to the attics no one ever called on them if anybody wanted the parlours they were close at hand
while the kitchen had a separate entrance down the area steps
this muffling of the knocker was thoroughly incomprehensible but knockers may be muffled for other purposes than those of mere utilitarianism as in the present instance was clearly shown
there are certain polite forms and ceremonies which must be observed in civilised life or mankind relapse into their original barbarism no genteel lady was ever yet confined indeed
no genteel confinement can possibly take place without the accompanying symbol of a muffled knocker missus kenwigs was a lady of some pretensions to gentility missus kenwigs was confined and therefore
mister kenwigs tied up the silent knocker on the premises in a white kid glove i'm not quite certain neither said mister kenwigs arranging his shirt collar and walking slowly upstairs
whether as it's a boy i won't have it in the papers pondering upon the advisability of this step
mister kenwigs betook himself to the sitting room where various extremely diminutive articles of clothing were airing on a horse before the fire
the doctor was dandling the baby that is the old baby not the new one it's a fine boy mister kenwigs said mister lumbey the doctor you consider him a fine boy do you sir returned mister kenwigs
it's the finest boy i ever saw in all my life said the doctor i never saw such a baby it is a pleasant thing to reflect upon and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species
that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last
morleena was a fine baby remarked mister kenwigs as if this were rather an attack by implication upon the family they were all fine babies said mister lumbey and mister lumbey went on nursing the baby with a thoughtful look
whether he was considering under what head he could best charge the nursing in the bill was best known to himself during this short conversation miss morleena as the eldest of the family
and natural representative of her mother during her indisposition had been hustling and slapping the three younger miss kenwigses without intermission which considerate and affectionate conduct
brought tears into the eyes of mister kenwigs and caused him to declare that
that child was a woman she will be a treasure to the man she marries sir said mister kenwigs half aside i think she'll marry above her station mister lumbey i shouldn't wonder at all replied the doctor
the doctor shook his head ay said mister kenwigs as though he pitied him from his heart then you don't know what she's capable of all this time there had been a great whisking in and out of the other room
the door had been opened and shut very softly about twenty times a minute for it was necessary to keep missus kenwigs quiet and the baby had been exhibited to a score or two of deputations from a select body of female friends
who had assembled in the passage and about the street door to discuss the event in all its bearings indeed the excitement extended itself over the whole street and groups of ladies might be seen standing at the doors
some in the interesting condition in which missus kenwigs had last appeared in public relating their experiences of similar occurrences some few acquired great credit from having prophesied the day before yesterday
directly they saw mister kenwigs turn pale and run up the street as hard as ever he could go some said one thing and some another but all talked together and all agreed upon two points first
in the midst of this general hubbub doctor lumbey sat in the first floor front as before related nursing the deposed baby and talking to mister kenwigs he was a stout bluff looking gentleman
with no shirt collar to speak of and a beard that had been growing since yesterday morning for doctor lumbey was popular and the neighbourhood was prolific and there had been no less than three other knockers muffled one after the other within the last forty eight hours
well mister kenwigs said doctor lumbey this makes six you'll have a fine family in time sir i think six is almost enough sir returned mister kenwigs pooh pooh said the doctor
nonsense not half enough with this the doctor laughed but he didn't laugh half as much as a married friend of missus kenwigs's
and who seemed to consider it one of the best jokes ever launched upon society
taking his second daughter on his knee they have expectations oh indeed said mister lumbey the doctor and very good ones too i believe haven't they asked the married lady
it's not exactly for me to say what they may be or what they may not be it's not for me to boast of any family with which i have the honour to be connected at the same time missus kenwigs's is i should say
said mister kenwigs abruptly and raising his voice as he spoke that my children might come into a matter of a hundred pound apiece perhaps perhaps more but certainly that and a very pretty little fortune said the married lady
there are some relations of missus kenwigs's said mister kenwigs taking a pinch of snuff from the doctor's box and then sneezing very hard for he wasn't used to it that might leave their hundred pound apiece to ten people
and yet not go begging when they had done it ah i know who you mean observed the married lady nodding her head i made mention of no names and i wish to make mention of no names said mister kenwigs with a portentous look
many of my friends have met a relation of missus kenwigs's in this very room as would do honour to any company that's all i've met him said the married lady with a glance towards doctor lumbey it's naterally very gratifying to my feelings as a father
to see such a man as that a kissing and taking notice of my children pursued mister kenwigs it's naterally very gratifying to my feelings as a man to know that man it will be naterally very gratifying to my feelings as a husband
having delivered his sentiments in this form of words mister kenwigs arranged his second daughter's flaxen tail and bade her be a good girl and mind what her sister morleena said
that girl grows more like her mother every day said mister lumbey suddenly stricken with an enthusiastic admiration of morleena
what i always say what i always did say she's the very picter of her having thus directed the general attention to the young lady in question the married lady embraced the opportunity of taking another sip of the brandy and water
and a pretty long sip too yes there is a likeness said mister kenwigs after some reflection but such a woman as missus kenwigs was afore she was married good gracious such a woman
mister lumbey shook his head with great solemnity as though to imply that he supposed she must have been rather a dazzler talk of fairies cried mister kenwigs
i never see anybody so light to be alive never such manners too so playful and yet so sewerely proper as for her figure it isn't generally known said mister kenwigs dropping his voice
but her figure was such at that time that the sign of the britannia over in the holloway road was painted from it but only see what it is now urged the married lady does she look like the mother of six
quite ridiculous cried the doctor she looks a deal more like her own daughter said the married lady so she does assented mister lumbey a great deal more mister kenwigs was about to make some further observations
most probably in confirmation of this opinion when another married lady who had looked in to keep up missus kenwigs's spirits and help to clear off anything in the eating and drinking way that might be going about put in her head to announce
and that there was a gentleman at the door who wanted to see mister kenwigs most particular shadowy visions of his distinguished relation flitted through the brain of mister kenwigs as this message was delivered
and under their influence he dispatched morleena to show the gentleman up straightway why i do declare said mister kenwigs standing opposite the door so as to get the earliest glimpse of the visitor as he came upstairs it's mister johnson
how do you find yourself sir nicholas shook hands kissed his old pupils all round intrusted a large parcel of toys to the guardianship of morleena bowed to the doctor and the married ladies and inquired after missus kenwigs
in a tone of interest which went to the very heart and soul of the nurse who had come in to warm some mysterious compound in a little saucepan over the fire i ought to make a hundred apologies to you for calling at such a season said nicholas
but i was not aware of it until i had rung the bell and my time is so fully occupied now that i feared it might be some days before i could possibly come again no time like the present sir said mister kenwigs the sitiwation of missus kenwigs sir
is no obstacle to a little conversation between you and me i hope you are very good said nicholas at this juncture proclamation was made by another married lady that the baby had begun to eat like anything
whereupon the two married ladies already mentioned rushed tumultuously into the bedroom to behold him in the act the fact is resumed nicholas
where i have been for some time past i undertook to deliver a message to you ay ay said mister kenwigs and i have been added nicholas already in town for some days without having had an opportunity of doing so
it's no matter sir said mister kenwigs i dare say it's none the worse for keeping cold message from the country said mister kenwigs ruminating that's curious i don't know anybody in the country miss petowker suggested nicholas
missus kenwigs will be glad to hear from her
how odd things come about now that you should have met her in the country well hearing this mention of their old friend's name the four miss kenwigses gathered round nicholas open eyed and mouthed
to hear more mister kenwigs looked a little curious too but quite comfortable and unsuspecting the message relates to family matters said nicholas hesitating oh never mind said kenwigs glancing at mister lumbey
who having rashly taken charge of little lillyvick found nobody disposed to relieve him of his precious burden all friends here nicholas hemmed once or twice
at portsmouth henrietta petowker is observed mister kenwigs yes said nicholas mister lillyvick is there mister kenwigs turned pale but he recovered and said
the message is from him said nicholas mister kenwigs appeared to revive he knew that his niece was in a delicate state and had no doubt sent word that they were to forward full particulars yes
that was very kind of him so like him too he desired me to give his kindest love said nicholas very much obliged to him i'm sure your great uncle lillyvick my dears interposed mister kenwigs
his kindest love resumed nicholas and to say that he had no time to write but that he was married to miss petowker mister kenwigs started from his seat with a petrified stare caught his second daughter by her flaxen tail
and covered his face with his pocket handkerchief morleena fell all stiff and rigid into the baby's chair as she had seen her mother fall when she fainted away and the two remaining little kenwigses shrieked in affright
my children my defrauded swindled infants cried mister kenwigs pulling so hard in his vehemence at the flaxen tail of his second daughter that he lifted her up on tiptoe and kept her for some seconds in that attitude
villain ass traitor drat the man cried the nurse looking angrily around what does he mean by making that noise here silence woman said mister kenwigs fiercely
have you no regard for your baby no returned mister kenwigs more shame for you retorted the nurse ugh you unnatural monster
let him die he has no expectations no property to come into we want no babies here said mister kenwigs recklessly take em away take em away to the fondling with these awful remarks
mister kenwigs sat himself down in a chair and defied the nurse who made the best of her way into the adjoining room and returned with a stream of matrons declaring that mister kenwigs had spoken blasphemy against his family and must be raving mad
appearances were certainly not in mister kenwigs's favour for the exertion of speaking with so much vehemence and yet in such a tone as should prevent his lamentations reaching the ears of missus kenwigs had made him very black in the face
besides which the excitement of the occasion and an unwonted indulgence in various strong cordials to celebrate it
but nicholas and the doctor who had been passive at first doubting very much whether mister kenwigs could be in earnest interfering to explain the immediate cause of his condition the indignation of the matrons was changed to pity
and they implored him with much feeling to go quietly to bed the attention said mister kenwigs looking around with a plaintive air the attention that i've shown to that man
and the pints of ale he has drank in this house it's very trying and very hard to bear we know said one of the married ladies but think of your dear darling wife oh yes and what she's been a undergoing of
only this day cried a great many voices there's a good man do the presents that have been made to him said mister kenwigs reverting to his calamity the pipes the snuff boxes
a pair of india rubber goloshes that cost six and six ah it won't bear thinking of indeed cried the matrons generally but it'll all come home to him never fear mister kenwigs looked darkly upon the ladies
as if he would prefer its all coming home to him as there was nothing to be got by it but he said nothing and resting his head upon his hand subsided into a kind of doze then the matrons again
observing that he would be better tomorrow and that they knew what was the wear and tear of some men's minds when their wives were taken as missus kenwigs had been that day and that it did him great credit
and there was nothing to be ashamed of in it far from it they liked to see it they did for it showed a good heart and one lady observed as a case bearing upon the present that her husband was often quite light headed from anxiety on similar occasions
and that once when her little johnny was born it was nearly a week before he came to himself again during the whole of which time he did nothing but cry is it a boy is it a boy in a manner which went to the hearts of all his hearers
at length morleena who quite forgot she had fainted when she found she was not noticed announced that a chamber was ready for her afflicted parent and mister kenwigs
having partially smothered his four daughters in the closeness of his embrace accepted the doctor's arm on one side and the support of nicholas on the other and was conducted upstairs to a bedroom
having seen him sound asleep and heard him snore most satisfactorily and having further presided over the distribution of the toys to the perfect contentment of all the little kenwigses nicholas took his leave
the matrons dropped off one by one with the exception of six or eight particular friends who had determined to stop all night the lights in the houses gradually disappeared
chapter twenty five a visit from louise that day was destined to be an eventful one for when i entered the house and found eliza ensconced in the upper hall on a chair with mary anne doing her best
to stifle her with household ammonia and liddy rubbing her wrists whatever good that is supposed to do i knew that the ghost had been walking again and this time in daylight eliza was in a frenzy of fear
she clutched at my sleeve when i went close to her and refused to let go
coming just after the fire the household was demoralized and it was no surprise to me to find alex and the under gardener struggling down stairs with a heavy trunk between them
but she was so excited i was afraid she would do as she said drag it down herself and scratch the staircase i was trying to get my bonnet off and to keep the maids quiet at the same time now eliza
when you have washed your face and stopped bawling i said come into my sitting room and tell me what has happened liddy put away my things without speaking the very set of her shoulders expressed disapproval
well i said when the silence became uncomfortable things seem to be warming up silence from liddy and a long sigh if eliza goes i don't know where to look for another cook
more silence rosie is probably a good cook sniff liddy i said at last don't dare to deny that you are having the time of your life you positively gloat in this excitement
you never looked better it's my opinion all this running around and getting jolted out of a rut has stirred up that torpid liver of yours it's not myself i'm thinking about she said goaded into speech
and maybe it wasn't but i know this i've got some feelings left and to see you standing at the foot of that staircase shootin through the door i'll never be the same woman again well i'm glad of that
anything for a change i said and in came eliza flanked by rosie and mary anne her story broken with sobs and corrections from the other two was this at two o'clock two fifteen
rosie insisted she had gone up stairs to get a picture from her room to show mary anne a picture of a lady mary anne interposed she went up the servants staircase and along the corridor to her room which lay between the trunk room and the unfinished ball room
she heard a sound as she went down the corridor
but she looked in the trunk room and saw nobody she went into her room quietly the noise had ceased and everything was quiet then she sat down on the side of her bed and feeling faint
she was subject to spells i told you that when i came didn't i rosie
took a nap all right i said go on
i thought i'd die somethin hit me on the face and i set up sudden and then i seen the plaster drop droppin from a little hole in the wall and the first thing i knew an iron bar that long
fully two yards by her measure shot through that hole and tumbled on the bed
fainting corrected rosie i'd a been hit on the head and killed i wisht you'd heard her scream put in mary anne and her face as white as a pillow slip when she tumbled down the stairs
you may have dreamed it in your fainting attack but if it is true the metal rod and the hole in the wall will show it eliza looked a little bit sheepish
but the bar was gone when mary anne and rosie went up to pack my trunk that wasn't all liddy's voice came funereally from a corner eliza said that from the hole in the wall a burning eye looked down at her
the wall must be at least six inches thick i said with asperity unless the person who drilled the hole carried his eyes on the ends of a stick eliza couldn't possibly have seen them but the fact remained
and a visit to eliza's room proved it i might jeer all i wished some one had drilled a hole in the unfinished wall of the ball room passing between the bricks of the partition and shooting through the unresisting plaster of eliza's room with such force
as to send the rod flying on to her bed i had gone up stairs alone and i confess the thing puzzled me in two or three places in the wall small apertures had been made none of them of any depth
not the least mysterious thing was the disappearance of the iron implement that had been used i remembered a story i read once about an impish dwarf that lived in the spaces between the double walls of an ancient castle
i wondered vaguely if my original idea of a secret entrance to a hidden chamber could be right after all and if we were housing some erratic guest who played pranks on us in the dark and destroyed the walls that he might listen hidden safely away
to our amazed investigations mary anne and eliza left that afternoon but rosie decided to stay it was about five o'clock when the hack came from the station to get them and to my amazement it had an occupant
when the message came to come up for two girls and their trunks i supposed there was something doing and as this here woman had been looking for work in the village i thought i'd bring her along already i had acquired the true suburbanite ability to
take servants on faith i no longer demanded written and unimpeachable references i
have learned not to mind if the cook sits down comfortably in my sitting room when she is taking the orders for the day
when she came however i could hardly restrain a gasp of surprise it was the woman with the pitted face she stood somewhat awkwardly just inside the door and she had an air of self confidence that was inspiring
yes she could cook was not a fancy cook but could make good soups and desserts if there was any one to take charge of the salads and so in the end i took her as halsey said when we told him
it didn't matter much about the cook's face if it was clean i have spoken of halsey's restlessness on that day it seemed to be more than ever a resistless impulse that kept him out until after luncheon i think he hoped constantly
that he might meet louise driving over the hills in her runabout possibly he did meet her occasionally but from his continued gloom i felt sure the situation between them was unchanged
part of the afternoon i believe he read gertrude and i were out as i have said and at dinner we both noticed that something had occurred to distract him he was disagreeable which is unlike him nervous
looking at his watch every few minutes and he ate almost nothing he asked twice during the meal on what train mister jamieson and the other detective were coming
he dug his fork into my damask cloth and did not hear when he was spoken to he refused dessert and left the table early excusing himself on the ground that he wanted to see alex
was not to be found it was after eight when halsey ordered the car and started down the hill at a pace that even for him was unusually reckless shortly after alex reported that he was ready to go over the house preparatory
to closing it for the night sam bohannon came at a quarter before nine and began his patrol of the grounds and with the arrival of the two detectives to look forward to
at half past nine i heard the sound of a horse driven furiously up the drive it came to a stop in front of the house and immediately after there were hurried steps on the veranda our
and gertrude always apprehensive lately was at the door almost instantly a moment later louise had burst into the room and stood there bareheaded and breathing hard where is halsey she demanded
above her plain black gown her eyes looked big and somber and the rapid drive had brought no color to her face i got up and drew forward a chair he has not come back i said quietly sit down child
you are not strong enough for this kind of thing i don't think she even heard me he has not come back she asked looking from me to gertrude
where can i find him for heaven's sake louise gertrude burst out tell us what is wrong
he has gone to the station for mister jamieson what has happened to the station
yes i said listen there is the whistle of the train now she relaxed a little at our matter of fact tone and allowed herself to sink into a chair perhaps i was wrong she said heavily he
will be here in a few moments
everything is right we sat there the three of us without attempt at conversation both gertrude and i recognized the futility of asking louise any questions her reticence was a part of a role she had assumed
our ears were strained for the first throb of the motor as it turned into the drive and commenced the climb to the house ten minutes passed fifteen twenty i saw louise's hands grow rigid as they clutched the arms of her chair
i watched gertrude's bright color slowly ebbing away and around my own heart i seemed to feel the grasp of a giant hand twenty five minutes and then a sound but it was not the chug of the motor
it was the unmistakable rumble of the casanova hack gertrude drew aside the curtain and peered into the darkness it's the hack i am sure she said evidently relieved something has gone wrong with the car and no wonder
it seemed a long time before the creaking vehicle came to a stop at the door louise rose and stood watching her hand to her throat and then gertrude opened the door admitting mister jamieson and a stocky middle aged man
when the door had closed and louise realized that halsey had not come her expression changed from tense watchfulness to relief and now again to absolute despair her face was an open page
i asked unceremoniously ignoring the stranger did he not meet you no mister jamieson looked slightly surprised i rather expected the car but we got up all right you didn't see him at all
louise demanded breathlessly mister jamieson knew her at once although he had not seen her before she had kept to her rooms until the morning she left no miss armstrong he said i saw nothing of him what is wrong
every instant is precious mister jamieson i have reason for believing that he is in danger but i don't know what it is only he must be found
now however he went quickly toward the door i'll catch the hack down the road and hold it he said is the gentleman down in the town mister jamieson louise said impulsively i can use the hack
take my horse and trap outside and drive like mad try to find the dragon fly it ought to be easy to trace i can think of no other way only don't lose a moment the new detective had gone and a moment later
jamieson went rapidly down the drive the cob's feet striking fire at every step louise stood looking after them when she turned around she faced gertrude who stood indignant almost tragic in the hall
she said accusingly i believe you know this whole horrible thing this mystery that we are struggling with if anything happens to halsey i shall never forgive you
i tried to warn him nonsense i said
he is always late any moment we may hear the car coming up the road but it did not come after a half hour of suspense louise went out quietly and did not come back i hardly knew she was gone
at eleven o'clock the telephone rang it was mister jamieson
it has collided with a freight car on the siding above the station
but we shall probably find him send warner for the car but they did not find him at four o'clock the next morning
at daylight i dropped into exhausted sleep halsey had not come back
i had trembled in every limb before ever i heard the sound of the sudden scuffle and from a variety of reasons the relief of having hollins's revolver withdrawn from my nose the knowledge that maisie was close by
the gradual wearing down of my nerves during a whole day of heart sickening suspense but now the trembling had deepened into utter shaking i heard my own teeth chattering and my heart going like a pump as i stood there
staring at the man's face over which a grey pallor was quickly spreading itself and though i knew that he was as dead as ever a man can be i called to him and the sound of my own voice frightened me
mister hollins i cried mister hollins and then i was frightened still more for as if in answer to my summons but of course because of some muscular contraction following on death
the dead lips slightly parted and they looked as if they were grinning at me at that
and turned to run back into the room where we had talked but as i turned there were sounds at the foot of the stair and the flash of a bull's eye lamp and i heard chisholm's voice down in the gateway below hullo up there he was demanding
is there anybody above it seemed as if i was bursting my chest when i got an answer out to him oh man i shouted come up there's me here and there's murder
i heard him exclaim in a dismayed and surprised fashion and mutter some words to somebody that was evidently with him and then there was heavy tramping below and presently chisholm's face appeared round the corner
and as he held his bull's eye before him its light fell full on hollins and he jumped back
mercy on us he let out what's all this the man's lying dead dead enough chisholm said i gradually getting the better of my fright and murdered too
but who murdered him god knows i don't he trapped me in here not ten minutes ago
and he left me and he was no sooner down the stairs here than i heard a bit of a scuffle and him fall and groan and i ran out to find that and somebody was off and away have you seen nobody outside there
you can't see an inch before your eyes
he answered bending over the dead man we've only just come round from the house but whatever were you doing here yourself i came to see if i could find any trace of miss dunlop in this old part i answered and he told me
just before this happened she's in the tower above and safe and i'll go up there now chisholm for if she's heard aught of all this there was another policeman with him and they stepped past the body
and followed me into the little room and looked round curiously i left them whispering and opened the door that hollins had pointed out there was a stair there as he had said set deep in the thick wall
and i went a long way up it before i came to another door in which there was a key set in the lock and in a moment i had it turned and there was maisie
and i had her in my arms and was flooding her with questions and holding the light to her face to see if she was safe all at once you've come to no harm you're all right you've not been frightened out of your senses how did it all come about
i rapped out at her oh maisie i've been seeking for you all day long and and then being utterly overwrought i was giving out
queer giddiness coming over me and if it had not been for her i should have fallen and maybe fainted and she saw it and got me to a couch from which she had started when i turned the key
and was holding a glass of water to my lips that she snatched up from a table and encouraging me who should have been consoling her
and me so weak as it seemed that i could only cling on to her hand making sure
there there it's all right hugh she murmured patting my arm as if i had been some child
there's no harm come to me at all
i've had food and drink and a light as you see they promised me i should have no harm when they locked me in but oh it's seemed like it was ages since then they who i demanded who locked you in
sir gilbert and that butler of his hollins she answered i took the short cut through the grounds here last night and i ran upon the two of them at the corner of the ruins and they stopped me and wouldn't let me go
and locked me up here promising i'd be let out later on sir gilbert i exclaimed
of course i'm sure she replied who else and i made out they were afraid of my letting out that i'd seen them it was sir gilbert himself said they could run no risks you've seen him since i asked
no not since last night she answered and hollins not since this morning when he brought me some food i've not wanted for that she went on with a laugh pointing to things that had been set on the table
and he said then that about midnight tonight i'd hear the key turned and after that i was free to go but i'd have to make my way home on foot
aye i said shaking my head i'm beginning to see through some of it but maisie you'll be a good girl and just do what i tell you and that's to stay where you are until i fetch you down
for there's more dreadfulness below where sir gilbert may be heaven knows but hollins is lying murdered on the stair and if i didn't see him murdered i saw him take his last breath she too shook a bit at that
and she gripped me tighter you're not by yourself hugh she asked anxiously you're in no danger but just then chisholm called up the stair of the turret asking
that's good news said he but will you tell mister hugh to come down to us and you'd best stop where you are yourself miss dunlop there's no very pleasant sight down this way have you no idea at all who did this
he asked as i went down to him you were with him man alive i've no more idea than you have i exclaimed he was making off somewhere in yon car that's below
and he was going down the stairs to the car when it happened but i'll tell you this miss dunlop says sir gilbert was here last night
frightened she'd let out on them if she got away then the glasgow tale was all lies he exclaimed it came from this man too that's lying dead it's been a put up thing d'ye think mister hugh
it's all part of a put up thing chisholm said i hadn't we better get the man in here and see what's on him and what made you come here yourselves and are there any more of you about we came asking some information at the house he answered
and we were passing round here under the wall on our way to the road when we heard that car throbbing and then saw your bit of a light and that's a good idea of yours and we'll bring him into this place and see if there's aught to give us a clue
slip down he went on turning to the other man and bring the headlights off the car so that we can see what we're doing do you think
he whispered when we were alone
oh don't ask me i exclaimed it seems like there was nothing but murder on every hand of us and whoever did this can't be far away only the night's that black and there's so many holes and corners hereabouts that it would
be like searching a rabbit warren you'll have to get help from the town aye to be sure he agreed but we'll take a view of things ourselves first there may be effects on him that'll suggest something
we carried the body into the room when the policeman came up with the lamps from the car and stretched it out on the table at which
and there was little that had any significance except that in a purse which he carried in an inner pocket of his waistcoat
the other policeman who held one of the lamps over the table while chisholm was making this search waited silently until it was over and then he nodded his head at the stair
there's some boxes or cases down in yon car he remarked all fastened up and labelled it might be worth while to take a look into them sergeant what's more there's tools lying in the car
that looks like they'd been used to fasten them up we'll have them up here then said chisholm stop you here mister hugh
while that's lying here you might cover him up he went on with a significant nod it's an ill sight for even a man's eyes that there were some old moth eaten hangings
about the walls here and there and i took one down and laid it over hollins wondering while i did this office for him
it was that he had carried away into death and why that queer and puzzled expression had crossed his face in death's very moment and that done i ran up to maisie again
and we talked quietly a bit until chisholm called me down to look at the boxes there were four of them stout new made wooden cases clamped with iron at the corners and securely screwed down
and when the policemen invited me to feel the weight i was put in mind in a lesser degree of gilverthwaite's oak chest what do you think's like to be in there now mister hugh asked chisholm
aye and isn't gold one of the heaviest it'll not be lead that's in here and look you at that he pointed to some neatly addressed labels tacked strongly to each lid
john harrison passenger by s s aerolite newcastle to hamburg
the diamond cross colonel ashley there was a formal questioning note in the merchant's voice that is my name yes sir er mister
you are a private detective yes mister grafton was evidently sparring for time he seemed uneasy he looked uneasy and it required no very astute mind to know that he was uneasy out of his element
i have a case i wish you would take up for me went on the merchant it is somewhat peculiar most cases that come to us are and the colonel smiled and it is delicate i could say that of nearly every one also
so that i may rely on your silence and er discretion sir the colonel fairly bristled i beg your pardon i should not have asked that but i am all upset over this matter
then sir let me ease your mind by stating that whatever you tell me will be in strict confidence as far as lies in my power to so observe it i can not compound a felony so if you have in mind the disclosure of anything that would incriminate you incriminate me yes or
involve you in any way if you have anything like that in mind please don't tell me about it i should feel obliged to make use of my knowledge
i have often heard you spoken of and i have read of more than one of your cases so when i got in this well i may as well call it trouble i at once thought of you i am fortunate i believe in seeing colonel ashley himself who i understood had retired or
i came here prepared to pay any reasonable amount and the merchant drew out his wallet the colonel held up a protesting hand please don't not yet he said i can not accept a retaining fee until i have heard more of your case
it may be that i can not serve you give me some inkling of what you want i hope you are not in serious trouble it is serious for me then i hope i can help you please be as frank as you think best
the franker you are the fewer questions i shall have to ask go on well then i want to find a certain valuable diamond cross a diamond cross yes i don't know just what it is worth but i believe a small fortune
and was it stolen from you no though i do own a store where jewelry is sold we don't carry an expensive line this cross belonged to a friend of mine
nothing very complicated or troublesome in that i suppose the cross was stolen from you while it was temporarily in your possession and you don't like to let your friend know for fear she may suspect you such things have happened
did you ever read de maupassant's diamond necklace i never did i'd advise you to also walton
so you don't dare tell your friend the diamond cross is gone oh yes she knows it then why the worry except about getting it back well there are complications
there was a world of meaning in that exclamation aaron grafton turned a deep red and bit his lips
we detectives are used to all sorts of complications and more than once they have to do with women often enough there is nothing more serious than a little indiscretion but i can see where outsiders might make trouble particularly husbands
i take it then that you and the lady were out together without her husband knowing it i hope he doesn't know of it for though on my honor there was nothing wrong in our being together it might be hard to make him believe that
i quite agree with you particularly if he were jealous as many husbands are so you want me to try to get this diamond cross belonging to the married lady back for you without her husband knowing anything about it that's it
where were you when you were robbed of it i wasn't robbed of it i never said i was oh i beg your pardon i must have inferred that please go on and if you don't mind my asking you kindly get to the point
it would be better since i already know yours i shall keep them in strict confidence however now that i am fairly well assured there is no ulterior motive in your visit to me proceed well then
the diamond cross which is worth i don't know how many thousand dollars belongs to missus cynthia larch the wife of langford larch who keeps a large hotel in colchester i know the place go on
as his caller looked a bit surprised oh i didn't know that well this was missus larch's cross it is a family heirloom i believe though many suppose her husband gave it to her for a wedding present
you call her cynthia i have known her since we were both children i see pray go on in fact we were sweethearts continued grafton and were engaged but the match was broken off by her father
nor did she i fancy though she was willing to take me as i was but her folks made trouble they brought such pressure to bear on her that she gave in and married larch who was and is wealthy but whose social position was beneath hers
don't think i am telling you this out of mere jealousy aaron grafton went on and his manner was earnest i loved her deeply and sincerely i do yet but
i went away after she threw me over he resumed
going out with him but i came back though the old wound still hurt i tried not to let her see we became friends again
perhaps i have acted foolishly but of late i have seen her quite often i began to feel that her married life was not happy i took pains to enquire and learned that it was not
i tried to make her a little happier by talking to her once or twice she met me and we walked together in the woods the colonel looked sharply at his caller oh for god's sake don't put any wrong construction on it
i'd give my very life to make her happy and do you think i'd i don't doubt you for a moment sir thank you said mister grafton
he paused a moment to overcome his emotion and resumed
it was to talk over what course was best for her to pursue under certain circumstances that she and i walked out together we went in secret for there are gossiping and wagging tongues in colchester as elsewhere and if i
the leading merchant in the town was seen to be alone with pretty cynthia larch whose husband was a friend of judges and politicians who frequent his hotel there would be talk little short of scandal i quite agree with you so you walked in secret yes
and it was while we were out together that the cross she was wearing became unfastened and fell i most clumsily stepped on it greatly marring the setting she was distressed of course but i said i would take it to a jeweler's and have it repaired without any one being the wiser
she agreed that was best so i took it to missus darcy's place and she was found murdered broke in the old detective quickly aaron grafton started from his chair how in the name of heaven did you know that he cried
i thought that not a soul but i knew it i did not even tell cynthia the explanation is simple said the colonel i will be almost as frank with you as you have been with me i know more about you than you think wait a moment
the colonel stepped into a closet he made a few rapid changes in his clothing and took off a tiny bit of eyebrow which had been added to his own a short time before
then he confronted the merchant the man i saw in the jewelry store gasped grafton i remember now seeing you there the day i went to look for the diamond cross and didn't find it said the detective
i wondered what so perturbed you but now i know at first i did think you might know something of the murder god forbid said the merchant earnestly and reverently amen echoed the colonel
that is why i revealed myself to you but you must keep my secret if i am to help you i am known in colchester as colonel brentnall having registered at the hotel under that name i will keep that name for the present
i followed you here in fact i only entered this office a minute or two ahead of you so it was to find the diamond cross you visited the store of the murdered woman yes
i took the cross to her the night before she was killed and she promised to have her cousin fix it without telling him whose it was and get it back to me secretly in a day or so i thought cynthia could
then wear it again without her husband knowing it had ever been out of her possession but the murder changed all my plans
really i was so distressed i didn't know what to think i did not want to tell any one what i was looking for so i went about quietly but i could not find it then i was obliged to ask darcy about it secretly of course and without hinting as to the ownership
he said missus darcy had not given it to him nor asked him to repair it nor was it in the shop as far as he knew
and there was none none unless you call the taking of the diamond cross a theft for that alone is missing and i'd give half my fortune to get it back
cynthia's husband may ask about it at any moment and what excuse can she give
agreed the detective well i'll see what i can do first i thought you wanted me to work on the murder case but as i am already engaged on that to try to clear darcy i can as well include the diamond cross mystery also
i wonder if they have any connection i don't see how they can have missus darcy may merely have put the cross away secretly and it may take a careful search of the place to find it maybe so i'll have to nose around a bit there came a knock on the office door come
called out the colonel his clerk handed him a telegram tearing it open the detective read a message from one of his agents in a distant western city it said spotty morgan arrested here to day
and he hurried to a private booth in a back office leaving grafton to himself after he had telephoned colonel ashley sat in silence in the booth musing now i wonder he said to himself if grafton is telling me the truth
almost any one would believe his story it sounds straight enough and yet i can't take any chances i guess i mustn't lose sight of you aaron grafton
and perhaps larch isn't so bad a chap as you'd have me believe trust a disgruntled lover for saying the worst about the other chap yes i can't afford to take any chances
chapter seven the colonel is surprised this said colonel ashley to himself as he glided rapidly along the street is very much like old times very much
i never expected to do any shadowing again what's that walton says about man proposing and providence disposing or was it walton i must look it up meanwhile continuing his musing
and with a satisfied smile on his face a smile that might indicate that the colonel was not so very much averse to giving over his fishing for the time being to take up his profession once more he followed aaron grafton as the merchant left the jewelry store
mused the colonel what his object was in coming to the darcy place and nosing around as he did there must have been some object a man such as he is doesn't do things like that for fun and it wasn't mere curiosity either
if it was he'd have been at the place before when the evidences of the crime were there to be stared at by those who care for such things and that aaron grafton hasn't been there since i was forced into this thing i'm positive for i was forced into it
grumbled the old detective i just couldn't resist the pleading of her eyes
but no matter i must see what friend aaron is up to and what his little game is
before i arrived i must ask darcy about that poor lad he's in tough luck just when he ought to be thinking of getting married well i'll do what i can
there were few tricks known to modern detectives of which colonel ashley was not master among them being the ability to disguise himself not by clumsy beards and false moustaches though he used them at times
but by a few simple alterations to his face and carriage of course costume played its part when needed but the time had not yet come for that
he was now following grafton without the latter being aware of it no very difficult matter in a city the size of colchester and on one of its main streets i think i want to know a little more about him mused the colonel
having followed his man to the latter's store and even inside it where he made a trifling purchase and having seen mister grafton enter his private office the detective paid a visit to darcy in the jail how is she colonel
were the first words of the prisoner when they were in the warden's office with a detective from the prosecutor's office seated a few chairs away it was only under such arrangements that visitors were allowed to see the jewelry worker how is amy
but i came to talk about something else i suppose so this horrible affair but she still believes in me doesn't she he asked eagerly
maybe it won't be for long
i shan't mind if i'm proved innocent at last i hope we can manage that all right then you do believe in me colonel of course i do otherwise i wouldn't take up your case
answer them and as briefly as possible i'll get you out of here as soon as i can if i hadn't been as slow as a carp i might have the right man here now in your place
eh what's that did i say anything and the detective seemed roused from a reverie for he had spoken his last remarks in a low voice you spoke about a carp the right man oh i
now to business and the colonel drew some papers from his pocket darcy looked at his new friend in some surprise certainly the colonel had spoken as though he might at one time have had a chance to get the right man did that mean the real murderer
darcy shook his head his nerves were beginning to go back on him he feared do you know aaron grafton asked the colonel oh yes replied darcy every one in town knows him as one of the prominent merchants was he at the store the day of the
the day missus darcy was killed i don't remember so many things happened there were so many in the place as i think back though i don't remember seeing him
very good did he ever do any business with you i mean buy anything in the store why yes i think very possibly he might
how about having his watch repaired i'd remember i think if i had fixed his watch i'm sure i didn't he has a fine one for i've seen him stop in front of our window and compare his time with our chronometer i see now another matter
can you in any way account for the fact that so many of the clocks in the store clocks that as i understand it ordinarily go for many days stopped at different hours the night of the killing can you explain that somewhat to the surprise of the colonel darcy was silent for a moment
then the young man slowly answered no no i can't explain it i don't know what did it well then i'll have to fish on that alone i guess i thought you knowing a lot about clock works might have some explanation
you know most of the timepieces were stopped all of them in fact except the watch in your cousin's hand yes i remarked that at the time that watch was going yes so you told me you thought it was her heart beating i wish oh
how i wish it had been exclaimed darcy in tones of despair
but it's too late to think of that now do you happen to know what became of that watch the one in her hand it belonged to an east indian you said yes to singa phut
i was to make one little adjustment in it for him and he was to come in early to get it it wasn't much the hair spring i think had become caught up and it ran very fast
but i never got the chance no i don't recall what happened to that watch i suppose the detectives have it
he has cried darcy yes he called at the court house and begged that it be given to him said it was an ancient timepiece which he had owned for many years and as it could have no connection with the crime they let him take it oh
well i suppose that was all right no singa phut didn't have a thing to do with the killing i'm positive of that and his alibi is perfect said the colonel well i guess you've told me all i want to know
you haven't any reason to suspect any one have you darcy not a soul god knows i wouldn't want to name any one either much as i'd like to get out of here myself missus darcy had no enemies
not a one in the world that i know of she was a friendly woman of course that was good business policy no she had no enemies most people liked her so i've heard well we'll get at the truth somehow now brace up
laughing and darcy did manage to utter what might pass for a laugh it was a good attempt
though there's room for improvement said the detective now i'll leave you i have lots to do i'm sorry colonel to put you to all this trouble pooh now i'm in it there's no trouble that's too much i'll get about the same fun out of this as i would if i fished
and i'll fish with greater enjoyment later on when i've cleared you i hope you do colonel and if there's anything i can do thanks but miss mason has already arranged to have me whip her father's trout stream when this case is over
and the colonel assumed the military appearance that so well befitted him stop worrying i'll try colonel don't try do it one question well one only what is it do you think mister grafton
the detective smiled and shook his finger at darcy you just let me do the thinking he advised as he turned to go out colonel ashley spent two busy days most of his time being given over to investigating aaron grafton
and the more he saw of that gentleman the more the detective became convinced that the merchant knew something of the crime
i wouldn't admit even to myself mused the colonel that he had a hand in it or that he was an accessory before or after but he certainly knows something about it and enough to make him worry that's what aaron grafton is doing worrying
and he's worrying about something that ought to be in the jewelry shop and isn't now what is it this very evidently was something for colonel ashley to discover and with all his skill he set himself to this task
for the time being he dropped several other ends tangled ends of the skein he hoped to unravel and devoted his time to grafton and at the end of two days the detective learned that the merchant was going to make a hurried trip to new york
a trip not directly connected with his store for those trips were made at other times of the year well if he goes to new york i go too said the colonel grimly and he went on the same train with aaron grafton though unknown to the latter
it was a skilful bit of shadowing the detective did on the journey to the metropolis so skilful that though the merchant plainly showed by his nervousness that he thought he might have been followed he did not seemingly suspect the quiet man seated not far from him
reading a little green book the colonel had adopted a simple but effective disguise in new york which was reached early in the morning after a night journey the colonel again took up the trail keeping near his man
follow that taxi the colonel ordered the driver of his machine as it rolled out of the pennsylvania station just a few lengths behind the one in which grafton rode
the following was well done and a little later the two machines drew up in front of the big office building in which colonel ashley had his headquarters whew
he does want to see me excitedly thought the colonel what in the world for this is getting interesting i've got to do a little fine work now he must never suspect at least for a while that i have been in colchester
next to the elevator in which aaron grafton rode up was another tom you're an express for the time being whispered the colonel to the operator there's a man headed for my offices and i must get in ahead of him here's a dollar i get you colonel
shoot and the car shot up with speed enough to cause the colonel to gasp used as he was to rapid motion
judges like the criminal classes have their lighter moments and it was probably in one of his happiest and certainly in one of his most careless moods that mister justice denman conceived the idea of putting the early history of rome
and worse poetry here is a passage from the learned judge's account of romulus poor tatius by some unknown hand was soon assassinated some said by romulus command i know not
but twas fated sole king again this romulus play'd some fantastic tricks lictors he had who hatchets bore bound up with rods of sticks he treated all who thwarted him no better than a dog
sometimes twas heads off lictors there sometimes ho lictors flog then he created senators and gave them rings of gold old soldiers all their name deriv'd from senex which means old
as numa dying only left a daughter named pompilia the senate had to choose a king they choose one sadly sillier if jack goes to the bad mister justice denman will have much to answer for
after such a terrible example from the bench it is pleasant to turn to the seats reserved for queen's counsel mister cooper willis's tales and legends if somewhat boisterous in manner is still very spirited and clever
the prison of the danes is not at all a bad poem and there is a great deal of eloquent strong writing in the passage beginning the dying star song of the night sinks in the dawning day
and the dark blue sheen is changed to green and the green fades into grey and the sleepers are roused from their slumbers
how few of all their numbers are left them by the foe not much can be said of a poet who exclaims oh for the power of byron or of moore to glow with one and with the latter soar
and yet mister moodie is one of the best of those south african poets whose works have been collected and arranged by mister wilmot pringle the father of south african verse comes first of course and his best poem is undoubtedly
afar in the desert afar in the desert i love to ride with the silent bush boy alone by my side away away from the dwelling of men by the wild deer's haunt by the buffalo's glen
where the gnu the gazelle and the hartebeest graze
by the skirts of grey forests o'erhung with wild vine where the elephant browses at peace in his wood and the river horse gambols unscared in the flood and the mighty rhinoceros wallows at will
in the fen where the wild ass is drinking his fill it is not however a very remarkable production the smouse by fannin has the modern merit of incomprehensibility
it reads like something out of the hunting of the snark i'm a smouse i'm a smouse in the wilderness wide the veld is my home and the wagon's my pride the crack of my voerslag shall sound o'er the lea
i'm a smouse i'm a smouse and the trader is free i heed not the governor i fear not his law i care not for civilisation one straw
while my arm carries fist or my foot bears a toe trek trek ply the whip touch the fore oxen's skin i'll warrant we'll go it through thick and through thin loop
the south african poets as a class are rather behind the age they seem to think that aurora is a very novel and delightful epithet for the dawn on the whole they depress us chess by mister louis tylor
is a sort of christmas masque in which the dramatis personae consist of some unmusical carollers a priggish young man called eric and the chessmen off the board the white queen's knight begins a ballad
and the black king's bishop completes it the pawns sing in chorus and the castles converse with each other the silliness of the form makes it an absolutely unreadable book mister williamson's poems of nature and life
are as orthodox in spirit as they are commonplace in form a few harmless heresies of art and thought would do this poet no harm nearly everything that he says has been said before and said better the only original thing in the volume
is the description of mister robert buchanan's grandeur of mind this is decidedly new doctor cockle tells us that mullner's guilt and the ancestress of grillparzer are the masterpieces of german fate tragedy
his translation of the first of these two masterpieces does not make us long for any further acquaintance with the school here is a specimen from the fourth act of the fate tragedy
hugo elvira after long silence leaving the harp steps to hugo and seeks his gaze hugo softly though i made sacrifice of thy sweet life
the father has forgiven can the wife forgive elvira on his breast she can hugo with all the warmth of love dear wife elvira after a pause in deep sorrow
must it be so beloved one hugo sorry to have betrayed himself what in his preface to the circle of seasons a series of hymns and verses for the seasons of the church
expresses a hope that this well meaning if somewhat tedious book may be of value to those many earnest people to whom the subjective aspect of truth is helpful the poem beginning
lord in the inn of my poor worthless heart guests come and go but there is room for thee has some merit and might be converted into a good sonnet the majority of the poems however are quite worthless
there seems to be some curious connection between piety and poor rhymes lord henry somerset's verse is not so good as his music most of the songs of adieu are marred by their excessive sentimentality of feeling
and by the commonplace character of their weak and lax form there is nothing that is new and little that is true in verse of this kind the golden leaves are falling falling one by one their tender adieux calling
to the cold autumnal sun the trees in the keen and frosty air stand out against the sky twould seem they stretch their branches bare to heaven in agony it can be produced in any quantity
lord henry somerset has too much heart and too little art to make a good poet and such art as he does possess is devoid of almost every intellectual quality and entirely lacking in any intellectual strength
she cries and proceeds to tell how imagination paints old egypt's former glory of mighty temples reaching heavenward of grim colossal statues whose barbaric story
the caustic pens of erudition still record whose ancient cities of glittering minarets reflect the gold of afric's gorgeous sunsets the caustic pens of erudition is quite delightful
and will be appreciated by all egyptologists there is also a charming passage in the same poem on the pictures of the old masters the mellow richness of whose tints impart by contrast greater delicacy still to modern art
this seems to us the highest form of optimism we have ever come across in art criticism it is american in origin missus davis as her biographer tells us
one the story of the kings of rome in verse by the hon g denman judge of the high court of justice trubner and co two tales and legends in verse
kegan paul three the poetry of south africa
four chess a christmas masque by louis tylor fisher unwin five poems of nature and life by david r williamson blackwood
songs of adieu by lord henry somerset chatto and windus nine
by cora m davis
a few years ago some of our minor poets tried to set science to music to write sonnets on the survival of the fittest and odes to natural selection socialism and the sympathy with those who are unfit seem
if we may judge from miss nesbit's remarkable volume to be the new theme of song the fresh subject matter for poetry the change has some advantages scientific laws are at once too abstract and too clearly defined
and even the visible arts have not yet been able to translate into any symbols of beauty the discoveries of modern science at the arts and crafts exhibition we find the cosmogony of moses not the cosmogony of darwin
to mister burne jones man is still a fallen angel not a greater ape poverty and misery upon the other hand are terribly concrete things we find their incarnation everywhere
and as we are discussing a matter of art we have no hesitation in saying that they are not devoid of picturesqueness the etcher or the painter finds in them a subject made to his hand
and the poet has admirable opportunities of drawing weird and dramatic contrasts between the purple of the rich and the rags of the poor from miss nesbit's book comes not merely the voice of sympathy but also the cry of revolution
this is our vengeance day our masters made fat with our fasting shall fall before us like corn when the sickle for harvest is strong old wrongs shall give might to our arm
remembrance of wrongs shall make lasting the graves we will dig for our tyrants we bore with too much and too long the poem from which we take this stanza is remarkably vigorous
and the only consolation that we can offer to the timid and the tories is that as long as so much strength is employed in blowing the trumpet the sword so far as miss nesbit is concerned will probably remain sheathed
personally and looking at the matter from a purely artistic point of view we prefer miss nesbit's gentler moments her eye for nature is peculiarly keen
she has always an exquisite sense of colour and sometimes a most delicate ear for music many of her poems such as the moat house absolution and the singing of the magnificat are true works of art
with its dainty dancing measure its delicate and wilful fancy and the sharp poignant note of passion that suddenly strikes across it marring its light laughter and lending its beauty a terrible and tragic meaning
from the sonnets we take this at random not spring too lavish of her bud and leaf but autumn with sad eyes and brows austere when fields are bare
and woods are brown and sere and leaden skies weep their enchantless grief spring is so much too bright since spring is brief and in our hearts is autumn all the year
least sad when the wide pastures are most drear and fields grieve most robbed of the last gold sheaf these too the opening stanzas of the last envoy are charming
the wind that through the silent woodland blows o'er rippling corn and dreaming pastures goes straight to the garden where the heart of spring faints in the heart of summer's earliest rose
dimpling the meadow's grassy green and grey by furze that yellows all the common way gathering the gladness of the common broom and too persistent fragrance of the may
gathering whatever is of sweet and dear the wandering wind has passed away from here has passed to where within your garden waits the concentrated sweetness of the year
but miss nesbit is not to be judged by mere extracts her work is too rich and too full for that mister foster is an american poet who has read hawthorne
which is wise of him and imitated longfellow which is not quite so commendable his rebecca the witch is a story of old salem written in the metre of hiawatha with a few rhymes thrown in
and conceived in the spirit of the author of the scarlet letter the combination is not very satisfactory but the poem as a piece of fiction has many elements of interest
mister foster seems to be quite popular in america the chicago times finds his fancies very playful and sunny and the indianapolis journal speaks of his tender and appreciative style
he is certainly a clever story teller and the noah's ark which somehow had escaped the sheriff's hand is bright and amusing and its pathos like the pathos of a melodrama
is a purely picturesque element not intended to be taken too seriously we cannot however recommend the definitely comic poems they are very depressing mister john renton denning
dedicates his book to the duke of connaught who is colonel in chief of the rifle brigade in which regiment mister denning was once himself a private soldier his poems show an ardent love of keats
and a profligate luxuriance of adjectives and i will build a bower for thee sweet a verdurous shelter from the noonday heat thick rustling ivy
broad and green and shining with honeysuckle creeping up and twining its nectared sweetness round thee violets and daisies with their fringed coronets and the white bells of tiny valley lilies
shall grow around thy dwelling luscious fare of fruit on which the sun has laughed this is the immature manner of endymion with a vengeance and is not to be encouraged still
mister denning is not always so anxious to reproduce the faults of his master sometimes he writes with wonderful grace and charm sylvia for instance is an exceedingly pretty poem
and the exile has many powerful and picturesque lines mister denning should make a selection of his poems and publish them in better type and on better paper the get up of his volume
to use the slang phrase of our young poets is very bad indeed and reflects no credit on the press of the education society of bombay the best poem in mister joseph mc kim's little book is
undoubtedly william the silent it is written in the spirited macaulay style awake awake ye burghers brave shout shout for joy and sing with thirty thousand at his back
comes forth your hero king now shake for ever from your necks the servile yoke of spain and raise your arms and end for aye false alva's cruel reign ho
brussels fair pour forth your warriors brave and join your hands with him who comes your hearths and homes to save some people like this style missus horace dobell
who has arrived at her seventeenth volume of poetry seems very angry with everybody and writes poems to a human toad
such as some one not a friend of
did on a certain occasion of a glib utterance of calumnies
in many cases i have deliberately employed alliteration believing that the music of a line is intensified thereby says mister kelly in the preface to his poems and there is certainly no reason why mister kelly
should not employ this artful aid alliteration is one of the many secrets of english poetry and as long as it is kept a secret it is admirable mister kelly it must be admitted
uses it with becoming modesty and reserve and never suffers it to trammel the white feet of his bright and buoyant muse his volume is in many ways extremely interesting most minor poets are at their best in sonnets
but with him it is not so his sonnets are too narrative too diffuse and too lyrical they lack concentration and concentration is the very essence of a sonnet
which is elaborately commonplace but the flight of calliope has many charming passages it is a pity that mister kelly has included the poems written before the age of nineteen youth is rarely original
of albany new york it is a word borrowed from the indians and should we think be returned to them as soon as possible the most curious poem of the book is called scenes at the holy home
they are anachronisms now and it is odd that they should come to us from the united states in matters of this kind we should have some protection
lays and legends by e nesbit longmans green and co
rebecca the witch and other tales by david skaats foster g p putnam's sons
poems and songs by john renton denning
but that otherwise poetry is an admirable thing this however seems to us a somewhat harsh view of the subject little poets are an extremely interesting study
the best of them have often some new beauty to show us and though the worst of them may bore yet they rarely brutalise poor folks lives for instance
is a volume that could do no possible harm to any one these poems display a healthy rollicking g r sims tone of feeling an almost unbounded regard for the converted drunkard
and a strong sympathy with the sufferings of the poor as for their theology it is of that honest downright and popular kind which in these rationalistic days is probably quite as useful
as any other form of theological thought here is the opening of a poem called a street sermon which is an interesting example of what muscular christianity can do in the sphere of verse making what
god fight shy of the city he's t other side up i guess if you ever want to find him whitechapel's the right address those who prefer pseudo poetical prose to really prosaic poetry
pictures in the fire into leaders for the daily telegraph as from the literary point of view they have all the qualities dear to the asiatic school what a splendid leader the young lions of fleet street
would have made out of the prestige of england for instance a poem suggested by the opening of the zulu war in eighteen seventy nine now away sail our ships far away o'er the sea
far away with our gallant and brave the loud war cry is sounding like wild revelrie and our heroes dash on to their grave for the fierce zulu tribes have arisen in their might
and in thousands swept down on our few but these braves only yielded when crushed in the fight man to man to their colours were true
the conception of the war cry sounding like wild revelrie is quite in the true asiatic spirit
the fairies for instance is a very pretty poem and reminds us of some of dicky doyle's charming drawings and nat bentley is a capital ballad in its way the irish poems however
are rather vulgar and should be expunged the celtic element in literature is extremely valuable but there is absolutely no excuse for shrieking shillelagh and o gorrah women must weep
by professor harald williams has the most dreadful cover of any book that we have come across for some time past it is possibly intended to symbolise the sorrow of the world but it merely suggests the decorative tendencies of an undertaker
and is as depressing as it is detestable however as the cowl does not make the monk so the binding in the case of the savile club school does not make the poet and we open the volume without prejudice
the first poem that we come to is a vigorous attack on those wicked and misguided people who believe that beauty is its own reason for existing and that art should have no other aim but her own perfection
here are some of the professor's gravest accusations why do they patch in their fatal choice when at secrets such the angels quake but a play of the vision and the voice
oh it's all for art's sake why do they gather what should be left and leave behind what they ought to take and exult in the basest blank or theft oh it's all for art's sake
it certainly must be admitted that to patch or to exult in the basest blank is a form of conduct quite unbefitting an artist the very obscurity and incomprehensible character of such a crime
adding something to its horror however while fully recognising the wickedness of patching we cannot but think that professor harald williams
is happier in his criticism of life than he is in his art criticism his poem between the banks for instance has a touch of sincerity and fine feeling that almost atones for its over emphasis
joseph and his brethren bears no resemblance to that strange play on the same subject which mister swinburne so much admires indeed it may be said to possess all the fatal originality of inexperience however
as to the dialogue he says i have put the language of real life into the mouths of the speakers except when they may be supposed to be under strong emotion then their utterances become more rapid
broken figurative in short more poetical well here is the speech of potiphar's wife under strong emotion
seizing him love me or death ha dost thou think thou wilt not and yet live by isis no and thou wilt turn away iron marble mockman ah i hold thy life
love feeds on death it swallows up all life hugging or killing i to woo and thou unhappy me oh the language here is certainly rapid and broken
and the expression marble mockman is we suppose figurative but the passage can scarcely be described as poetical though it fulfils all mister buchan's conditions still
tedious as zuleekha and joseph are the chorus of ancients is much worse these ideal spectators seem to spend their lives in uttering those solemn platitudes that with the aged pass for wisdom
who have absolutely no hesitation in interrupting the progress of the play with observations of this kind
ah but favour extreme shown to one among equals who yet stand apart
the demons jealousy envy hate in the breast of those passed by it is a curious thing that when minor poets write choruses to a play they should always consider it necessary to adopt the style
and language of a bad translator we fear that mister bohn has much to answer for god's garden is a well meaning attempt to use nature for theological and educational purposes
it belongs to that antiquated school of thought that in spite of the discoveries of modern science invites the sluggard to look at the ant and the idle to imitate the bee it is full of false analogies
and that a fond father should learn from the example of the chestnut that the most beautiful children often turn out badly we must admit that we have no sympathy with this point of view and we strongly protest against the idea that
the flaming poppy with its black core tells of anger's flushing face and heart of sin the worst use that man can make of nature is to turn her into a mirror for his own vices
nor are nature's secrets ever disclosed to those who approach her in this spirit however the author of this irritating little volume
is not always botanising and moralising in this reckless and improper fashion he has better moments and those who sympathise with the duke of westminster's efforts to provide open spaces for the people
will no doubt join in the aspiration god bless wise grosvenors whose hearts incline workmen to fete and grateful souls refine though they may regret that so noble a sentiment
is expressed in so inadequate a form it is difficult to understand why mister cyrus thornton should have called his volume voices of the street however
and the wise old roman bondsman saw no terror in the dead children when the play was over going softly home to bed have a pleasant tennysonian ring
the ballad of the old year is rather depressing bury the old year solemnly has been said far too often and the sentiment is suitable only for christmas crackers the best thing in the book is
the poet's vision of death which is quite above the average missus dobell informs us that she has already published sixteen volumes of poetry and that she intends to publish two more
between the hours of ten and two o'clock judging from the following extract we cannot say that we consider this a very favourable time for inspiration at any rate in the case of missus dobell
were anthony trollope and george eliot alive which unfortunately they are not as regards the subject of quack snubbing you know to support me i am sure they hadn't been slow
for they too hated the wretched parasite that fattens on the freshest the most bright of the blossoms springing from the public press and that oft are flowers that even our quacks should bless
women must weep by professor f harald williams swan sonnenschein and co
joseph and his brethren a trilogy
god's garden by heartsease james nisbet and co
in sober truth it may well be that these hopes are but a reflection in those that live happily and comfortably of the vain longings of those others who suffer with little power of expressing their sufferings in an audible voice
when all goes well the happy world forgets these people and their desires sure as it is that their woes are not dangerous to them the wealthy
is now at last forcing itself on the attention of the masters times of change disruption and revolution are naturally times of hope also and not seldom the hopes of something better to come are the first tokens that tell people that revolution is at hand
though commonly such tokens are no more believed than cassandra's prophecies or are even taken in a contrary sense by those who have anything to lose since they look upon them as signs of the prosperity of the times and the long endurance of that state of things which is so kind to them
yet a few words may be necessary concerning the birth of our present epoch and the hopes it gave rise to and what has become of them that will not take us very far back in history as to my mind our modern civilization begins with the stirring period about the time of the reformation in england
for centuries past its end was getting ready by the gradual weakening of the bonds of the great hierarchy which held men together the characteristics of those bonds were theoretically at least personal rights and personal duties between superior and inferior all down the scale
to buy goods cheap that you might sell them dear was a legal offence forestalling to buy goods in the market in the morning and to sell them in the afternoon in the same place was not thought a useful occupation and was forbidden under the name of regrating
i remember three passages from contemporary history or gossip about the life of those times which luck has left us and which illustrate curiously the change that has taken place in the habits of englishmen a lady writing from norfolk four hundred years ago to her husband in london
amidst various commissions for tapestries groceries and gowns bids him also not to forget to bring back with him a good supply of cross bows and bolts since the windows of their hall were too low to be handy for long bow shooting
indeed i confess that it is with a strange emotion that i recall these times and try to realize the life of our forefathers men who were named like ourselves spoke nearly the same tongue lived on the same spots of earth
the strings of packhorses along the bridle roads the scantiness of the wheel roads
the scarcity of bridges and people using ferries instead or fords where they could the little towns well bechurched often walled the villages just where they are now except for those that have nothing but the church left to tell of them but better and more populous
their churches some big and handsome some small and curious but all crowded with altars and furniture and gay with pictures and ornament the many religious houses with their glorious architecture the beautiful manor houses some of them castles once
we should not know into what country of the world we were come the name is left scarce a thing else and when i think of this it quickens my hope of what may be even so it will be with us in time to come
that epoch began with the portentous change of agriculture which meant cultivating for profit instead of for livelihood and which carried with it the expropriation of the people from the land the extinction of the yeoman and the rise of the capitalist farmer and the growth of the town population which
and the reign of commercial contract and cash payment began to take the place of the old feudal hierarchy with its many linked chain of personal responsibilities
that had no duties attached to it save the payment of a land tax the hopes of the early part of the commercial period may be read in almost every book of the time expressed in various degrees of dull or amusing pedantry
but the times were stirring and gave birth to the most powerful individualities in many branches of literature and more and campanella at least from the midst of the exuberant triumph of young commercialism gave to the world prophetic hopes of times yet to come
when that commercialism itself should have given place to the society which we hope will be the next transform of civilization into something else into a new social life
this period of early and exuberant hopes passed into the next stage of sober realization of many of them for commerce grew and grew and moulded all society to its needs the workman of the sixteenth century worked still as an individual with little co operation
and was certain to go on from better to better these hopes were not on the surface of a very revolutionary kind but nevertheless the class struggle still went on and quite openly too for the remains of feudality
aided by the mere mask and grimace of the religion which was once a real part of the feudal system hampered the progress of commerce sorely and seemed a thousandfold more powerful than it really was because in spite of the class struggle
there was really a covert alliance between the powerful middle classes who were the children of commerce and their old masters the aristocracy an unconscious understanding between them rather in the midst of their contest that certain matters were to be respected even by the advanced party
the unwillingness of all the leaders save a few enthusiasts to carry matters to their logical consequences even when the march of events had developed the antagonism between aristocratic privilege and middle class freedom of contract so called finally
till at last in france the culminating corruption of a society still nominally existing for the benefit of the privileged aristocracy forced their hand
and since any stick will do to beat a dog with
so in france they had to ally themselves with the proletariat which shamefully oppressed and degraded as it had been now for the first time in history began to feel its power the power of numbers
by means of this help they triumphed over aristocratic privilege but on the other hand although the proletariat was speedily reduced again to a position not much better than that it had held before the revolution the part it played therein gave a new and terrible character to that revolution
as to the hopes of this period of the revolution we all know how extravagant they were
and try to conceive how the privilege of the old noblesse must have galled the respectable well to do people of that time well the reasonable part of those hopes were realized by the revolution in other words it accomplished what it really aimed at
the freeing of commerce from the fetters of sham feudality or in other words the destruction of aristocratic privilege the more extravagant part of the hopes expressed by the eighteenth century revolution were vague enough
and tended in the direction of supposing that the working classes would be benefited by what was to the interest of the middle class in some way quite unexplained by a kind of magic one may say which welfare of the workers as it was never directly aimed at but only hoped for by the way
so also did not come about by any such magical means and the triumphant middle classes began gradually to find themselves looked upon no longer as rebellious servants but as oppressive masters the middle class had freed commerce from her fetters of privilege
and had freed thought from her fetters of theology at least partially but it had not freed nor attempted to free labour from its fetters the leaders of the french revolution even amidst the fears suspicions and slaughter of the terror upheld the rights of property so called
and died or suffered the torture of prison for attempting to put into practice those words which the republic still carried on its banners and liberty fraternity and equality were interpreted in a middle class or if you please a jesuitical sense
as the rewards of success for those who could struggle into an exclusive class and at last property had to be defended by a military adventurer and the revolution seemed to have ended with napoleonism nevertheless the revolution was not dead
nor was it possible to say thus far and no further to the rising tide commerce which had created the propertyless proletariat throughout civilization had still another part to play which is not yet played out she had and has to teach the workers to know what they are
to educate them to consolidate them and not only to give them aspirations for their advancement as a class but to make means for them to realize those aspirations all this she did nor loitered in her work either
from the beginning of the nineteenth century the history of civilization is really the history of the last of the class struggles which was inaugurated by the french revolution and england who all through the times of the revolution and the caesarism which followed it
her temperate climate extensive sea board and many harbours and lastly her position as the outpost of europe looking into america across the ocean doomed her to be for a time at least the mistress of the commerce of the civilized world
and its agent with barbarous and semi barbarous countries the necessities of this destiny drove her into the implacable war with france a war which nominally waged on behalf of monarchical principles was really though doubtless unconsciously
and which he soon masters and having mastered it has nothing more to do but to go on increasing his speed of hand under the spur of competition with his fellows until he has become the perfect machine which it is his ultimate duty to become
since without attaining to that end he must die or become a pauper you can well imagine how this glorious invention of division of labour this complete destruction of individuality in the workman and his apparent hopeless enslavement to his profit grinding master
stimulated the hopes of civilization probably more hymns have been sung in praise of division of labour more sermons preached about it than have done homage to the precept do unto others as ye would they should do unto you
to drop all irony surely this was one of those stages of civilization at which one might well say that if it was to stop there it was a pity that it had ever got so far
to work for its own disadvantage and for the advantage of the upper class nor will the latter allow the useful class to work on any other terms this arrangement necessarily means an increasing contest first of the classes one against the other
but many of them believe that the system though obviously unjust and wasteful is necessary though perhaps they cannot give their reasons for their belief
i call upon them firstly to consider whether the system itself might not be changed and secondly to look round and note the signs of approaching change let us remember first that even savages live
all industrial society is founded on that fact even from the time when workmen were mere chattel slaves what a strange society then is this of ours
wherein while one set of people cannot use their wealth they have so much but are obliged to waste it another set are scarcely if at all better than those hapless savages who have neither tools nor co operation
as we all very well know that he can
but in order to work unwastefully he must work for his own livelihood and not to enable another man to live without producing if he has to sustain another man in idleness who is capable of working for himself he is treated unfairly
who help him according to their capacities he ought to feel and will feel when he has his right senses that he is working for his own interest when he is working for that of the community so working his work must always be profitable
therefore no obstacle must be thrown in the way of his work the means whereby his labour power can be exercised must be free to him the privilege of the proprietary class must come to an end remember that at present the custom is
that a person so privileged is in the position of a man with a policeman or so to help guarding the gate of a field which will supply livelihood to whomsoever can work in it crowds of people who don't want to die come to that gate but there stands law and order
and says pay me five shillings before you go in and he or she that hasn't the five shillings has to stay outside and die or live in the workhouse well that must be done away with
the field must be free to everybody that can use it to throw aside even this transparent metaphor those means of the fructification of labour
land and neither use it himself or allow any one else to use it and though it is clear that in each case he is injuring the community the law is sternly on his side in any case a rich man accumulates property not for his own use
but in order that he may evade with impunity the law of nature which bids man labour for his livelihood and also that he may enable his children to do the same that he and they may belong to the upper or useless class
it is not wealth that he accumulates well being well doing bodily and mental he soon comes to the end of his real needs in that respect even when they are most exacting it is power over others what our forefathers called riches that he collects
socialism would abolish entirely and in that sense would make an end of private property nor would it need to make laws to prevent accumulation artificially when once people had found out that they could employ themselves
and that thereby every man could enjoy the results of his own labour for socialism bases the rights of the individual to possess wealth on his being able to use that wealth for his own personal needs and labour being properly organized every person male or female
not in nonage or otherwise incapacitated from working would have full opportunity to produce wealth and thereby to satisfy his own personal needs if those needs went in any direction beyond those of an average man
and this latter proceeding by the way when it is done without the sanction of the most powerful part of society is called theft though on the big scale and duly sanctioned by artificial laws it is as we have seen the groundwork of our present system
once more that system refuses permission to people to produce unless under artificial restrictions under socialism every one who could produce would be free to produce
so that the price of an article would be just the cost of its production and what we now call profit would no longer exist thus for instance if a person wanted chairs he would accumulate them till he had as many as he could use and then he would stop
since he would not have been able to buy them for less than their cost of production and could not sell them for more in other words they would be nothing else than chairs under the present system they may be means of compulsion and destruction
as formidable as loaded rifles no one therefore would dispute with a man the possession of what he had acquired without injury to others and what he could use without injuring them and it would so remove temptations toward the abuse of possession
for instance it will have to seek him out to develop his special capacities and satisfy any needs he may have if any beyond those of an average man so long as the satisfaction of those needs is not hurtful to the community furthermore you cannot give him more than he can use
i will not say more necessary neither is the difficulty of producing the more special and excellent work at all proportionate to its speciality or excellence the higher workman produces his work as easily perhaps as the lower does his work
if he does not do so you must give him extra leisure extra means for supplying the waste of power in him but you can give him nothing more the only reward that you can give the excellent workman is opportunity for developing and exercising his excellent capacity
i repeat you can give him nothing more worth his having all other rewards are either illusory or harmful i must say in passing that our present system of dealing with what is called a man of genius is utterly absurd
but in this respect it is only a matter of degree the point of the whole thing is this that the director of labour is in his place because he is fit for it not by a mere accident being fit for it he does it easier than he would do other work
and needs no more compensation for the wear and tear of life than another man does and not needing it will not claim it since it would be no use to him his special reward for his special labour is i repeat that he can do it easily and so does not feel it a burden
nay since he can do it well he likes doing it since indeed the main pleasure of life is the exercise of energy in the development of our special capacities again as regards the workmen who are under his direction he needs no special dignity or authority
they know well enough that so long as he fulfils his function and really does direct them if they do not heed him it will be at the cost of their labour being more irksome and harder all this in short is what is meant by the organization of labour
and leaving them free to do that
we shall never escape from the great tyranny of the modern world having mentioned the difference between the competitive and commercial ideas on the subject of the individual holding of wealth and the relative position of different groups of workmen
i will very briefly say something on what for want of a better word i must call the political position which we take up or at least what we look forward to in the long run the substitution of association for competition is the foundation of socialism and will run through all acts done under it
on this side of the movement opinion is growing steadily it is clear that quite apart from socialism the idea of local administration is pushing out that of centralized government to take a remarkable case
the success which is to day attending the struggles of ireland for independence is i am quite sure owing to the spread of this idea it no longer seems a monstrous proposition to liberal minded englishmen that a country should administer its own affairs
the feeling that it is not only just but also very convenient to all parties for it to do so is extinguishing the prejudices fostered by centuries of oppressive and wasteful mastership and i believe that ireland will show that her claim for self government
and on the other goodwill towards that of other localities well the spread of this idea will make our political work as socialists the easier men will at last come to see that the only way to avoid the tyranny and waste of bureaucracy
for organizing the distribution of goods the migration of persons in short the friendly intercommunication of people whose interests are common although the circumstances of their natural surroundings made necessary differences of life and manners between them
and thirdly that it aims at getting rid of national rivalry which in point of fact means a condition of perpetual war sometimes of the money bag sometimes of the bullet
and substituting for this worn out superstition a system of free communities living in harmonious federation with each other managing their own affairs by the free consent of their members yet acknowledging some kind of centre whose function it would be to protect the principle
which is sometimes called communism cannot be realized all at once society will be changed from its basis when we make the form of robbery called profit impossible by giving labour full and free access to the means of its fructification
in order that the last controversy may be settled that we can at present foresee and the question solved as to whether or no it is necessary as some people think it is that society should be composed of two groups of dishonest persons
we shall then be relieved from the tax of waste and consequently shall find that we have as aforesaid a mass of labour power available which will enable us to live as we please within reasonable limits we shall no longer be hurried and driven by the fear of starvation
which at present presses no less on the greater part of men in civilized communities than it does on mere savages the first and most obvious necessities will be so easily provided for in a community in which there is no waste of labour
no very heavy sacrifice will be required for attaining this object but some will be required for we may hope that men who have just waded through a period of strife and revolution will be the last to put up long with a life of mere utilitarianism
though socialists are sometimes accused by ignorant persons of aiming at such a life on the other hand the ornamental part of modern life is already rotten to the core and must be utterly swept away before the new order of things is realized there is nothing of it
there is nothing which could come of it that could satisfy the aspirations of men set free from the tyranny of commercialism we must begin to build up the ornamental part of life its pleasures bodily and mental scientific and artistic social and individual
and so far would not be burdensome but it would be a task of daily recurrence and therefore would spoil our day's pleasure unless it were made at least endurable while it lasted in other words all labour even the commonest must be made attractive
since social morality the responsibility of man towards the life of man will in the new order of things take the place of theological morality or the responsibility of man to some abstract idea
next the day's work will be short this need not be insisted on it is clear that with work unwasted it can be short it is clear also that much work which is now a torment would be easily endurable if it were much shortened
nothing but the tyranny of profit grinding makes this necessary a man might easily learn and practise at least three crafts varying sedentary occupation with outdoor occupation calling for the exercise of strong bodily energy for work in which the mind had more to do
the form that education will take in a socially ordered community at present all education is directed towards the end of fitting people to take their places in the hierarchy of commerce these as masters those as workmen
the education of the masters is more ornamental than that of the workmen but it is commercial still and even at the ancient universities learning is but little regarded unless it can in the long run be made to pay due education is a totally different thing from this
or one's master the amount of talent and even genius which the present system crushes and which would be drawn out by such a system would make our daily work easy and interesting under this head of variety
i will note one product of industry which has suffered so much from commercialism that it can scarcely be said to exist
while it lasted everything that was made by man was adorned by man just as everything made by nature is adorned by her the craftsman as he fashioned the thing he had under his hand
and though the beauty produced by this desire was a great gift to the world yet the obtaining variety and pleasure in the work by the workman was a matter of more importance still for it stamped all labour with the impress of pleasure
all this has now quite disappeared from the work of civilization if you wish to have ornament you must pay specially for it and the workman is compelled to produce ornament as he is to produce other wares he is compelled to pretend happiness in his work
so that the beauty produced by man's hand which was once a solace to his labour has now become an extra burden to him and ornament is now but one of the follies of useless toil and perhaps not the least irksome of its fetters
besides the short duration of labour its conscious usefulness and the variety which should go with it there is another thing needed to make it attractive and that is pleasant surroundings
the misery and squalor which we people of civilization bear with so much complacency as a necessary part of the manufacturing system is just as necessary to the community at large as a proportionate amount of filth would be in the house of a private rich man
and made his family sleep five in a bed he would surely find himself in the claws of a commission de lunatico but such acts of miserly folly are just what our present society is doing daily under the compulsion of a supposed necessity
which is nothing short of madness i beg you to bring your commission of lunacy against civilization without more delay for all our crowded towns and bewildering factories are simply the outcome of the profit system
capitalistic manufacture capitalistic land owning and capitalistic exchange force men into big cities in order to manipulate them in the interests of capital the same tyranny contracts the due space of the factory so much that
for instance the interior of a great weaving shed is almost as ridiculous a spectacle as it is a horrible one there is no other necessity for all this save the necessity for grinding profits out of men's lives and of producing cheap goods for the use
or in short where they find it happiest for them to live as to that part of labour which must be associated on a large scale this very factory system under a reasonable order of things
such as smoke stench and noise nor would they endure that the buildings in which they worked or lived should be ugly blots on the fair face of the earth
now for some time slain by commercial greed would be born again and flourish so you see i claim that work in a duly ordered community should be made attractive by the consciousness of usefulness
by its being carried on with intelligent interest by variety and by its being exercised amidst pleasurable surroundings but i have also claimed as we all do that the day's work should not be wearisomely long it may be said
how can you make this last claim square with the others if the work is to be so refined will not the goods made be very expensive
but if we did it would mean that our new won freedom of condition would leave us listless and wretched if not anxious as we are now which i hold is simply impossible we should be contented to make the sacrifices necessary
persons either by themselves or associated for such purposes would freely and for the love of the work and for its results stimulated by the hope of the pleasure of creation
the past degradation and corruption of civilization may force this denial of pleasure upon the society which will arise from its ashes if that must be we will accept the passing phase of utilitarianism
that is to increase the precariousness of life among the workers and to intensify the labour of those who serve the machines as slaves their masters all this they do by the way while they pile up the profits of the employers of labour
or force them to expend those profits in bitter commercial war with each other in a true society these miracles of ingenuity would be for the first time used for minimizing the amount of time spent in unattractive labour
which by their means might be so reduced as to be but a very light burden on each individual all the more as these machines would most certainly be very much improved when it was no longer a question as to whether their improvement would pay the individual
but rather whether it would benefit the community so much for the ordinary use of machinery which would probably after a time be somewhat restricted when men found out that there was no need for anxiety as to mere subsistence
and learned to take an interest and pleasure in handiwork which done deliberately and thoughtfully could be made more attractive than machine work again as people freed from the daily terror of starvation find out what they really wanted
being no longer compelled by anything but their own needs they would refuse to produce the mere inanities which are now called luxuries or the poison and trash now called cheap wares no one would make plush breeches when there were no flunkies to wear them
nor would anybody waste his time over making oleomargarine when no one was compelled to abstain from real butter adulteration laws are only needed in a society of thieves and in such a society they are a dead letter
yet it is not difficult to conceive of some arrangement whereby those who did the roughest work should work for the shortest spells and again what is said above of the variety of work applies specially here
once more i say that for a man to be the whole of his life hopelessly engaged in performing one repulsive and never ending task is an arrangement fit enough for the hell imagined by theologians but scarcely fit for any other form of society
and yet if there be any work which cannot be made other than repulsive either by the shortness of its duration or the intermittency of its recurrence or by the sense of special and peculiar usefulness and therefore honour
the produce of such work cannot be worth the price of it now we have seen that the semi theological dogma that all labour under any circumstances is a blessing to the labourer is hypocritical and false
and therefore we see that civilization has bred a dire curse for men but we have seen also that the work of the world might be carried on in hope and with pleasure if it were not wasted by folly and tyranny
by the perpetual strife of opposing classes it is peace therefore which we need in order that we may live and work in hope and with pleasure peace so much desired if we may trust men's words
for it will mean the rich classes grown conscious of their own wrong and robbery and consciously defending them by open violence and then the end will be drawing near
but in any case and whatever the nature of our strife for peace may be if we only aim at it steadily and with singleness of heart and ever keep it in view
a reflection from that peace of the future will illumine the turmoil and trouble of our lives whether the trouble be seemingly petty or obviously tragic and we shall in our hopes at least live the lives of men
wishing to be satisfied what degree of truth there was in a story which a friend of johnson's and mine had told me to his disadvantage
was one day when johnson was at dinner with him seized for debt and carried to prison
upon which the gentleman's sister who was present could not suppress her indignation what sir said she are you so unfeeling as not even to offer to go to my brother in his distress
you who have been so much obliged to him and that johnson answered madam i owe him no obligation what he did for me he would have done for a dog
johnson assured me that the story was absolutely false but like a man conscious of being in the right and desirous of completely vindicating himself from such a charge
he did not arrogantly rest on a mere denial and on his general character but proceeded thus
i was very intimate with that gentleman and was once relieved by him from an arrest but i never was present when he was arrested never knew that he was arrested
and i believe he never was in difficulties after the time when he relieved me i loved him much yet in talking of his general character i may have said though i do not remember that i ever did say so
that as his generosity proceeded from no principle but was a part of his profusion he would do for a dog what he would do for a friend but i never applied this remark to any particular instance
and certainly not to his kindness to me if a profuse man who does not value his money and gives a large sum to a whore
gives half as much or an equally large sum to relieve a friend it cannot be esteemed as virtue
and if said at all it must have been said after his death sir i would have gone to the world's end to relieve him the remark about the dog if made by me was such a sally as might escape one when painting a man highly
on tuesday september twenty third johnson was remarkably cordial to me it being necessary for me to return to scotland soon i had fixed on the next day for my setting out
and i felt a tender concern at the thought of parting with him he had at this time frankly communicated to me many particulars which are inserted in this work in their proper places and once
when i happened to mention that the expence of my jaunt would come to much more than i had computed he said why sir if the expence were to be an inconvenience you would have reason to regret it but if you have had the money to spend
i know not that you could have purchased as much pleasure with it in any other way during this interview at ashbourne johnson and i frequently talked with wonderful pleasure of mere trifles
which had occurred in our tour to the hebrides for it had left a most agreeable and lasting impression upon his mind he found fault with me for using the phrase to make money
yet we hear the sages of the law delivering their ideas upon the question under consideration and the first speakers in parliament entirely coinciding in the idea
which has been ably stated by an honourable member or
from the english pronunciation of the syllable ear and he thought it better not to have that exception he praised grainger's ode on solitude in dodsley's collection
and repeated with great energy the exordium
or climb the andes clifted side or by the nile's coy source abide or starting from your half year's sleep from hecla view the thawing deep
or at the purple dawn of day
alternate sensations of pathetick dejection so that i was ready to shed tears and of daring resolution so that i was inclined to rush into the thickest part of the battle sir said he
i should never hear it if it made me such a fool much of the effect of musick i am satisfied is owing to the association of ideas that air which instantly and irresistibly excites in the swiss
has i am told no intrinsick power of sound and i know from my own experience that scotch reels though brisk make me melancholy because i used to hear them
in my early years at a time when mister pitt called for soldiers from the mountains of the north and numbers of brave highlanders were going abroad never to return
many of which are very soft never fail to render me gay because they are associated with the warm sensations and high spirits of london this evening
while some of the tunes of ordinary composition were played with no great skill my frame was agitated and i was conscious of a generous attachment to doctor johnson as my preceptor and friend
mixed with an affectionate regret that he was an old man whom i should probably lose in a short time i thought i could defend him at the point of my sword
my reverence and affection for him were in full glow i said to him my dear sir we must meet every year if you don't quarrel with me johnson nay sir you are more likely to quarrel with me than i with you
my regard for you is greater almost than i have words to express but i do not choose to be always repeating it
before leaving boston i devoted one day to an excursion to lowell
and am desirous that my readers should do the same i made acquaintance with an american railroad on this occasion for the first time
as these works are pretty much alike all through the states their general characteristics are easily described
the main distinction between
everybody smokes and in the second nobody does as a black man never travels with a white one
which is a great blundering clumsy chest such as gulliver put to sea in from the kingdom of brobdingnag
the seats instead of stretching from end to end are placed crosswise each seat holds two persons there is a long row of them on each side of the caravan
a narrow passage up the middle and
there is usually a stove fed with charcoal or anthracite coal
it is insufferably close and you see the hot air fluttering between yourself and any other object you may happen to look at like the ghost of smoke in the ladies car
wears no uniform he walks up and down the car and in and out of it as his fancy dictates leans against the door
or enters into conversation with the passengers about him a great many newspapers are pulled out and a few of them are read everybody talks to you
if you say no he says yes interrogatively and asks in what respect they differ you enumerate the heads of difference one by one and he says yes
still interrogatively to each then he guesses that you don't travel faster in england
says yes again still interrogatively and it is quite evident don't believe it
after a long pause he remarks partly to you and partly to the knob on the top of his stick that
upon which you say yes
yes again affirmatively this time and upon your looking out of window tells you that behind that hill and some three miles from the next station
your answer in the negative naturally leads to more questions in reference to your intended route always pronounced rout and wherever you are going
and that all the great sights are somewhere else if a lady take a fancy to any male passenger's seat
and he immediately vacates it with great politeness politics are much discussed so are banks so is cotton quiet people avoid the question of the presidency
for there will be a new election in three years and a half
the great constitutional feature of this institution
which is an unspeakable comfort to all strong politicians and true lovers of their country that is to say to ninety nine men and boys out of every ninety nine and a quarter
except when a branch road joins the main one there is seldom more than one track of rails so that the road is very narrow and the view where there is a deep cutting by no means extensive
when there is not the character of the scenery is always the same mile after mile of stunted trees some hewn down by the axe some blown down by the wind
many mere logs half hidden in the swamp
the very soil of the earth is made up of minute fragments such as these each pool of stagnant water has its crust of vegetable rottenness
on every side there are the boughs and trunks and stumps of trees in every possible stage of decay decomposition and neglect
on an open country glittering with some bright lake or pool broad as many an english river but so small here
the train calls at stations in the woods where the wild impossibility of anybody having the smallest reason to get out is only to be equalled
it rushes across the turnpike road where there is no gate no policeman no signal nothing but a rough wooden arch on which is painted when the bell rings look out for the locomotive
clatters over frail arches rumbles upon the heavy ground shoots beneath a wooden bridge which intercepts the light for a second like a wink suddenly awakens
and people leaning from their doors and windows and boys flying kites and playing marbles and men smoking and women talking and children crawling and pigs burrowing and unaccustomed horses plunging and rearing
close to the very rails there on on on tears the mad dragon of an engine with its train of cars scattering in all directions a shower of burning sparks from its wood fire
until at last the thirsty monster stops beneath a covered way to drink the people cluster round and you have time to breathe again
and gladly putting myself under his guidance drove off at once to that quarter of the town
although only just of age for if my recollection serve me it has been a manufacturing town barely one and twenty years
those indications of its youth which first attract the eye give it a quaintness and oddity of character which
it was a very dirty winter's day and nothing in the whole town looked old to me except the mud which in some parts
and might have been deposited there
in one place there was a new wooden church which having no steeple and being yet unpainted looked like an enormous packing case without any direction upon it
i was careful not to draw my breath as we passed and trembled when i saw a workman come out upon the roof lest with one thoughtless stamp of his foot he should crush the structure beneath him and bring it rattling down
among which it takes its course
in its murmurings and tumblings as one would desire to see one would swear that every bakery grocery and bookbindery and other kind of store
took its shutters down for the first time and started in business yesterday
and when i saw a baby
wondering where it came from never supposing for an instant that it could have been born in such a young town as that
each of which belongs to what we should term a company of proprietors but what they call in america a corporation i went over several of these such as a woollen factory a carpet factory and a cotton factory
examined them in every part and saw them in their ordinary working aspect with no preparation of any kind or departure from their ordinary everyday proceedings i may add that i am well acquainted
visited many mills in manchester and elsewhere in the same manner i happened to arrive at the first factory just as the dinner hour was over
indeed the stairs of the mill were thronged with them as i ascended they were all well dressed
for i like to see the humbler classes of society
and even if they please
as a worthy element of self respect in any person i employed and should no more be deterred from doing so because some wretched female
than i would allow my construction of the real intent and meaning of the sabbath to be influenced by any warning to the well disposed founded on his backslidings on that particular day
which might emanate from the rather doubtful authority
as i have said were all well dressed
they had serviceable bonnets good warm cloaks and shawls and were not above clogs and pattens moreover
and there were conveniences for washing they were healthy in appearance many of them remarkably so
the most lisping
i should have thought of the careless moping slatternly degraded
as themselves in the windows of some there were green plants which were trained to shade the glass in all there was as much fresh air cleanliness and comfort
as the nature of the occupation would possibly admit of out of so large a number of females
only then just verging upon womanhood it may be reasonably supposed that some were delicate and fragile in appearance
but i solemnly declare that from all the crowd i saw in the different factories that day i cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression
not one young girl whom assuming it to be a matter of necessity that she should gain her daily bread by the labour of her hands i would have removed from those works
they reside in various boarding houses near at hand
whose characters have not undergone the most searching
any complaint that is made against them by the boarders or by any one else is fully investigated
they are removed and their occupation is handed over to some more deserving person there are a few children employed in these factories but not many the laws of the state forbid their working more than nine months in the year
and there are churches and chapels of various persuasions
in which they have been educated at some distance from the factories and on the highest and pleasantest ground in the neighbourhood stands their hospital or boarding house for the sick
it is the best house in those parts and was built by an eminent merchant
like that institution at boston which i have before described it is not parcelled out into wards but is divided into convenient chambers
each of which has all the comforts of a very comfortable home the principal medical attendant resides under the same roof
or attended with greater gentleness and consideration the weekly charge in this establishment for each female patient is three dollars or twelve shillings english but no girl employed by any of the corporations
may be gathered from the fact that in july eighteen forty one no fewer than nine hundred and seventy eight of these girls
the amount of whose joint savings was estimated at one hundred thousand dollars or twenty thousand english pounds
a great many of the boarding houses secondly nearly all these young ladies subscribe to circulating libraries
a repository of original articles written exclusively by females actively employed in the mills which is duly printed published and sold
four hundred good solid pages which i have read from beginning to end the large class of readers startled by these facts will exclaim with one voice how very preposterous
these things are above their station in reply to that objection
they labour in these mills upon an average twelve hours a day which is unquestionably
from accustoming ourselves to the contemplation of that class as they are
i think that
startle us by their novelty and not by their bearing upon any abstract question of right or wrong for myself i know no station in which the occupation of to day cheerfully done
i know no station which has a right to monopolise the means of mutual instruction improvement and rational entertainment or which has ever continued to be a station very long
as a literary production
the fact of the articles
and contentment and teach good doctrines of enlarged benevolence a strong feeling for the beauties of nature as displayed in the solitudes the writers have left at home
is a favourable school for the study of such topics
to fine clothes fine marriages fine houses or fine life some persons might object to the papers being signed occasionally with rather fine names but this is an american fashion
one of the provinces of the state legislature of massachusetts
as the children improve upon the tastes of their parents these changes costing little or nothing scores of mary annes are solemnly converted into bevelinas every session it is said
that on the occasion of a visit from general jackson or general harrison to this town i forget which but it is not to the purpose he walked through three miles and a half of these young ladies
all dressed out with parasols and silk stockings
that any worse consequence ensued than a sudden looking up of all the parasols and silk stockings in the market and perhaps the bankruptcy of some speculative new englander who bought them all up at any price
in expectation of a demand that never came i set no great store by the circumstance in this brief account of lowell and inadequate expression of the gratification it yielded me
and those of our own land many of the circumstances whose strong influence has been at work for years in our manufacturing towns
so to speak for these girls often the daughters of small farmers come from other states
the contrast would be a strong one for it would be between the good and evil
i abstain from it
all those whose eyes may rest on these pages to pause and reflect upon the difference between this town and those great haunts of desperate misery to call to mind
if they can in the midst of party strife and squabble the efforts that must be made to purge them of their suffering and danger and last and foremost to remember how the precious time is rushing by
i returned at night by the same railroad and in the same kind of car one of the passengers being exceedingly anxious to expound at great length to my companion not to me of course
i feigned to fall asleep but glancing all the way out at window from the corners of my eyes
in watching the effects of the wood fire which had been invisible in the morning but were now brought out in full relief by the darkness
and i climbed onto the platform
or that they meant there's nothing in sight and in truth the ocean was deserted not a sail on the horizon the tips of crespo island had disappeared during the night
then his operations finished
his eyes straying over the surface of the ocean meanwhile some twenty of the nautilus's sailors all energetic well built fellows climbed onto the platform
these seamen obviously belonged to different nationalities although indications of european physical traits could be seen in them all if i'm not mistaken i recognized some irishmen some frenchmen
and a native of either greece or crete even so these men were frugal of speech
whose origin i couldn't even guess so i had to give up any notions of questioning them the nets were hauled on board
huge pouches
and a chain laced through the lower meshes trailing in this way from these iron glove makers the resulting receptacles scoured the ocean floor and collected every marine exhibit in their path that day
they gathered up some unusual specimens from these fish filled waterways anglerfish whose comical movements qualify them for the epithet clowns black commerson anglers equipped with their antennas
undulating triggerfish encircled by little red bands bloated puffers whose venom is extremely insidious
cutlass fish whose electrocuting power equals that of the electric eel and the electric ray scaly featherbacks with brown crosswise bands
finally some fish of larger proportions a one meter jack with a prominent head
it was a fine catch but not surprising in essence these nets stayed in our wake for several hours
so we were never lacking in provisions of the highest quality which the nautilus's speed and the allure of its electric light could continually replenish these various exhibits from the sea
others to be preserved after its fishing was finished and its air supply renewed i thought the nautilus would resume its underwater excursion
look at this ocean professor doesn't it have the actual gift of life doesn't it experience both anger and affection last evening it went to sleep just as we did and there it is waking up
after a peaceful night no hellos or good mornings for this gent
see he went on it's waking up under the sun's caresses it's going to relive its daily existence
and i side with the scholarly commander maury
ah yes exactly or how right you are
with long pauses between sentences
yes he said the ocean owns a genuine circulation and to start it going the creator of all things
and microscopic animal life
and very active in equatorial zones brings about a constant interchange of tropical and polar waters
you'll understand why water can freeze only at the surface as the captain was finishing his sentence i said to myself the pole is this brazen individual claiming he'll take us even to that location
meanwhile the captain fell silent
and unceasingly then going on salts he said
fill the sea in considerable quantities professor and if you removed all its dissolved saline content you'd create a mass measuring four million five hundred thousand cubic leagues
and don't think that the presence of these salts is due merely to some whim of nature no they make ocean water less open to evaporation and prevent winds from carrying off excessive amounts of steam
which when condensing would submerge the temperate zones salts play a leading role the role of stabilizer for the general ecology of the globe captain nemo stopped
straightened up took a few steps along the platform and returned to me as for those billions of tiny animals he went on those infusoria that live by the millions
eight hundred thousand of which are needed to weigh one milligram their role is no less important they absorb the marine salts they assimilate the solid elements in the water
and since they create coral and madrepores they're the true builders of limestone continents and so
there absorbs more salts left behind through evaporation gets heavier sinks again and brings those tiny animals new elements to absorb the outcome
a double current rising and falling constant movement constant life more intense than on land
more infinite such life blooms in every part of this ocean an element fatal to man they say but vital to myriads of animals and to me
he was transfigured and he filled me with extraordinary excitement there he added out there lies true existence
and i can imagine the founding of nautical towns clusters of underwater households that like the nautilus would return to the surface of the sea
then again who knows whether some tyrant
with a vehement gesture then addressing me directly as if to drive away an ugly thought
he asked me do you know the depth of the ocean floor at least captain
could you quote them to me so i can double check them as the need arises here i replied
if i'm not mistaken an average depth of eight thousand two hundred meters was found in the north atlantic and two thousand five hundred meters in the mediterranean
we'll show you better than that i hope as for the average depth of this part of the pacific i'll inform you that it's a mere four thousand meters
this said captain nemo headed to the hatch and disappeared down the ladder i followed him and went back to the main lounge
and the log gave our speed as twenty miles per hour over
regularly fixed the positions i found reported on the chart
almost every day the panels in the lounge were open for some hours and our eyes never tired of probing the mysteries of the underwater world the nautilus's general heading was southeast
however from lord knows what whim one day it did a diagonal dive by means of its slanting fins reaching strata located two thousand meters underwater the thermometer
on november twenty sixth at three o'clock in the morning
on the twenty seventh it passed in sight of the hawaiian islands where the famous captain cook met his death on february fourteenth seventeen seventy nine
when i arrived on the platform that morning
the largest of the seven islands making up this group
the various mountain chains running parallel with its coastline
among other specimens from these waterways our nets brought up some peacock tailed flabellarian coral polyps flattened into stylish shapes and unique to this part of the ocean
three miles off in latitude eight degrees fifty seven south
chief member of this island group that belongs to france
there our nets brought up some fine fish samples
all fish worth classifying in the ship's pantry after leaving these delightful islands to the protection of the french flag
the nautilus covered about two thousand miles from december fourth to the eleventh its navigating was marked by an encounter with an immense school of squid unusual mollusks
a greek physician predating galen
they numbered in the millions
following the itineraries of herring and sardines we stared at them through our thick glass windows they swam backward with tremendous speed moving by means of their locomotive tubes
chasing fish and mollusks
the ten feet that nature has rooted in their heads like a hairpiece of pneumatic snakes despite its speed the nautilus navigated for several hours in the midst of this school of animals
it changed its setting and decor for the mere pleasure of our eyes
and we were called upon not simply to contemplate the works of our creator in the midst of the liquid element but also to probe the ocean's most daunting mysteries
in a comparatively unpopulated region of the ocean
when conseil interrupted my reading would master kindly come here for an instant he said to me in an odd voice what is it conseil it's something that master should see i stood up went
leaned on my elbows before the window and i saw it in the broad electric daylight
quite motionless hung suspended in the midst of the waters i observed it carefully trying to find out the nature of this gigantic cetacean then a sudden thought crossed my mind
a ship i exclaimed yes the canadian replied a disabled craft that's sinking straight down ned land was not mistaken we were in the presence of a ship
whose severed shrouds still hung from their clasps its hull looked in good condition
the stumps of three masts chopped off two feet above the deck indicated a flooding ship that had been forced to sacrifice its masting but it had heeled sideways filling completely
and it was listing to port even yet a sorry sight this carcass lost under the waves but sorrier still was the sight on its deck where lashed with ropes to prevent their being washed overboard
some human corpses still lay i counted four of them four men one still standing at the helm then a woman
i could make out her features which the water hadn't yet decomposed with a supreme effort
and the poor little creature's arms were still twined around its mother's neck the postures of the four seamen seemed ghastly to me twisted from convulsive movements
as if making a last effort to break loose from the ropes that bound them to their ship and the helmsman standing alone calmer his face smooth and serious
what a scene we stood dumbstruck hearts pounding before this shipwreck caught in the act as if it had been photographed in its final moments so to speak
and already i could see enormous sharks moving in eyes ablaze
he was particularly drawn to these clerks by the fact that they both had crooked noses one bent to the left and the other to the right
where he paid for their entrance there was one lanky three year old pine tree and three bushes in the garden besides a vauxhall which was in reality a drinking bar where tea too was served and there were
a few green tables and chairs standing round it
the clerks quarrelled with some other clerks and a fight seemed imminent svidrigailov was chosen to decide the dispute
but they shouted so loud that there was no possibility of understanding them the only fact that seemed certain was that one of them had stolen something and had even succeeded in selling it on the spot to a jew
but would not share the spoil with his companion finally it appeared that the stolen object was a teaspoon belonging to the vauxhall it was missed and the affair began to seem troublesome
and walked out of the garden it was about six o'clock he had not drunk a drop of wine all this time
threatening storm clouds came over the sky about ten o'clock there was a clap of thunder and the rain came down like a waterfall the water fell not in drops but beat on the earth in streams
there were flashes of lightning every minute and each flash lasted while one could count five drenched to the skin he went home locked himself in opened the bureau took out all his money
and tore up two or three papers then putting the money in his pocket he was about to change his clothes but looking out of the window and listening to the thunder and the rain he gave up the idea
took up his hat and went out of the room without locking the door he went straight to sonia she was at home she was not alone the four kapernaumov children were with her she was giving them tea
she received svidrigailov in respectful silence looking wonderingly at his soaking clothes the children all ran away at once in indescribable terror
svidrigailov sat down at the table and asked sonia to sit beside him she timidly prepared to listen i may be going to america sofya semyonovna
well did you see the lady to day i know what she said to you
sonia made a movement and blushed those people have their own way of doing things
they are really provided for and the money assigned to them i've put into safe keeping and have received acknowledgments
take them well now that's settled here are three five per cent bonds to the value of three thousand roubles take those for yourself entirely for yourself and let that be strictly between ourselves
so that no one knows of it whatever you hear you will need the money for to go on living in the old way sofya semyonovna is bad and besides there is no need for it now i am so much indebted to you
and so are the children and my stepmother said sonia hurriedly and if i've said so little please don't consider that's enough that's enough but as for the money arkady ivanovitch i am very grateful to you but i don't need it now
i can always earn my own living don't think me ungrateful if you are so charitable that money it's for you for you sofya semyonovna and please don't waste words over it i haven't time for it you will want it
has two alternatives a bullet in the brain or siberia sonia looked wildly at him and started don't be uneasy i know all about it from himself and i am not a gossip
i won't tell anyone it was good advice when you told him to give himself up and confess it would be much better for him well if it turns out to be siberia he will go and you will follow him
that's so isn't it and if so you'll need money you'll need it for him do you understand giving it to you is the same as my giving it to him besides you promised amalia ivanovna
i heard you how can you undertake such obligations so heedlessly sofya semyonovna it was katerina ivanovna's debt and not yours
you can't get through the world like that if you are ever questioned about me to morrow or the day after you will be asked
and don't show the money to anyone or say a word about it well now good bye he got up my greetings to rodion romanovitch by the way you'd better put the money for the present in mister razumihin's keeping you know mister razumihin
of course you do he's not a bad fellow take it to him to morrow or when the time comes and till then hide it carefully
she longed to speak to ask a question but for the first moments she did not dare and did not know how to begin how can you how can you be going now
why be starting for america and be stopped by rain ha ha
by the way tell mister razumihin i send my greetings to him tell him arkady ivanovitch svidrigailov sends his greetings be sure to he went out leaving sonia in a state of wondering
anxiety and vague apprehension it appeared afterwards that on the same evening at twenty past eleven he made another very eccentric and unexpected visit the rain still persisted
lived in third street in vassilyevsky island he knocked some time before he was admitted and his visit at first caused great perturbation but svidrigailov could be very fascinating when he liked
vanished immediately the decrepit father was wheeled in to see svidrigailov by the tender and sensible mother who as usual began the conversation with various irrelevant questions she never asked a direct question
but began by smiling and rubbing her hands and then
for instance when svidrigailov would like to have the wedding she would begin by interested and almost eager questions about paris and the court life there and only by degrees brought the conversation round to third street
on other occasions this had of course been very impressive but this time arkady ivanovitch seemed particularly impatient and insisted on seeing his betrothed at once
though he had been informed to begin with that she had already gone to bed the girl of course appeared svidrigailov informed her at once that he was obliged
reflected and kissed her again
at the thought that his present would be immediately locked up in the keeping of the most sensible of mothers he went away leaving them all in a state of extraordinary excitement but the tender mamma speaking quietly in a half whisper
settled some of the most important of their doubts concluding that svidrigailov was a great man a man of great affairs and connections and of great wealth there was no knowing what he had in his mind
he would start off on a journey and give away money just as the fancy took him so that there was nothing surprising about it of course it was strange that he was
and all these people of high society didn't think of what was said of them and didn't stand on ceremony possibly indeed he came like that on purpose to show that he was not afraid of anyone above all
not a word should be said about it for god knows what might come of it and the money must be locked up and it was most fortunate that fedosya the cook had not left the kitchen
and so on and so on they sat up whispering till two o'clock but the girl went to bed much earlier amazed and rather sorrowful svidrigailov meanwhile exactly at midnight crossed the bridge on the way back to the mainland
but continually looking for something on the right side of the street he had noticed passing through this street lately that there was a hotel somewhere towards the end built of wood but fairly large and its name he remembered was something like adrianople
he was not mistaken the hotel was so conspicuous in that god forsaken place that he could not fail to see it even in the dark it was a long blackened wooden building and in spite of the late hour
there were lights in the windows and signs of life within he went in and asked a ragged fellow who met him in the corridor for a room the latter scanning svidrigailov pulled himself together and led him
at once to a close and tiny room in the distance at the end of the corridor under the stairs there was no other all were occupied the ragged fellow looked inquiringly is there tea asked svidrigailov yes sir what else is there
veal vodka savouries bring me tea and veal and you want nothing else he asked with apparent surprise nothing nothing the ragged man went away completely
how was it i didn't know it i expect i look as if i came from a cafe chantant and have had some adventure on the way it would be interesting to know who stay here he lighted the candle and looked at the room more carefully
the walls looked as though they were made of planks covered with shabby paper
yellow could still be made out one of the walls was cut short by the sloping ceiling
the murmur had not ceased from the moment he entered the room he listened someone was upbraiding and almost tearfully scolding but he heard only one voice
one of them a very curly headed man with a red inflamed face was standing in the pose of an orator without his coat with his legs wide apart to preserve his balance and smiting himself on the breast
and that only the finger of providence sees it all
but obviously had not the slightest idea
there were wine glasses a nearly empty bottle of vodka bread and cucumber and glasses with the dregs of stale tea after gazing attentively at this svidrigailov turned away indifferently and sat down on the bed
the ragged attendant returning with the tea could not resist asking him again whether he didn't want anything more and again receiving a negative reply finally withdrew
he began to feel feverish he took off his coat and wrapping himself in the blanket lay down on the bed he was annoyed it would have been better to be well for the occasion he thought with a smile the room was close
the candle burnt dimly the wind was roaring outside he heard a mouse scratching in the corner and the room smelt of mice and of leather he lay in a sort of reverie one thought followed another he felt a longing to fix his imagination on something
it must be a garden under the window he thought there's a sound of trees how i dislike the sound of trees on a stormy night in the dark they give one a horrid feeling he remembered how he had disliked it
this reminded him of the bridge over the little neva and he felt cold again as he had when standing there i never have liked water he thought even in a landscape and he suddenly smiled again at a strange idea
but i've become more particular like an animal that picks out a special place for such an occasion
i suppose it seemed dark cold ha ha
by the way why haven't i put out the candle he blew it out they've gone to bed next door he thought not seeing the light at the crack well now marfa petrovna now is the time for you to turn up it's dark and the very time and place for you
but now you won't come he suddenly recalled how an hour before carrying out his design on dounia he had recommended raskolnikov to trust her to razumihin's keeping
but what a rogue that raskolnikov is he's gone through a good deal he may be a successful rogue in time
but now he's too eager for life these young men are contemptible on that point but hang the fellow let him please himself it's nothing to do with me he could not get to sleep
and a shudder ran over him no i must give up all that now he thought rousing himself i must think of something else it's queer and funny i never had a great hatred for anyone
a bad sign a bad sign i never liked quarrelling either and never lost my temper that's a bad sign too and the promises i made her just now too damnation
but who knows perhaps she would have made a new man of me somehow he ground his teeth and sank into silence again again dounia's image rose before him just as she was when after shooting the first time she had lowered the revolver in terror and
gazed blankly at him so that he might have seized her twice over and she would not have lifted a hand to defend herself if he had not reminded her he recalled how at that instant he felt almost sorry for her
aie damnation these thoughts again i must put it away he was dozing off the feverish shiver had ceased when suddenly something seemed to run over his arm and leg under the bedclothes he started ugh hang it
i believe it's a mouse he thought that's the veal i left on the table he felt fearfully disinclined to pull off the blanket get up get cold but all at once something unpleasant ran over his leg again he pulled off the blanket and lighted the candle
shaking with feverish chill he bent down to examine the bed there was nothing he shook the blanket and suddenly a mouse jumped out on the sheet
but the mouse ran to and fro in zigzags without leaving the bed slipped between his fingers ran over his hand and suddenly darted under the pillow he threw down the pillow but in one instant felt something leap on his chest and dart over his body
and down his back under his shirt he trembled nervously and woke up the room was dark
the wind was howling under the window how disgusting he thought with annoyance he got up and sat on the edge of the bedstead with his back to the window it's better not to sleep at all he decided
he was not thinking of anything and did not want to think but one image rose after another incoherent scraps of thought without beginning or end passed through his mind he sank into drowsiness perhaps the cold or the dampness or the dark
or the wind that howled under the window and tossed the trees roused a sort of persistent craving for the fantastic he kept dwelling on images of flowers he fancied a charming flower garden a bright warm almost hot day a holiday
trinity day a fine sumptuous country cottage in the english taste overgrown with fragrant flowers
with flower beds going round the house the porch wreathed in climbers was surrounded with beds of roses a light cool staircase carpeted with rich rugs was decorated with rare plants in china pots
he noticed particularly in the windows nosegays of tender white heavily fragrant narcissus bending over their bright green thick long stalks he was reluctant to move away from them
the floors were strewn with freshly cut fragrant hay
came into the room the birds were chirruping under the window and in the middle of the room on a table covered with a white satin shroud stood a coffin the coffin was covered with white silk and edged with a thick white frill
among the flowers lay a girl in a white muslin dress
but her loose fair hair was wet there was a wreath of roses on her head
and the smile on her pale lips was full of an immense unchildish misery and sorrowful appeal svidrigailov knew that girl there was no holy image no burning candle beside the coffin no sound of prayers the girl had drowned herself
she was only fourteen but her heart was broken and she had destroyed herself crushed by an insult that had appalled and amazed that childish soul had smirched that angel purity with unmerited disgrace and torn from her a last scream of despair
unheeded and brutally disregarded
the wind howled svidrigailov came to himself got up from the bed and went to the window he felt for the latch and opened it the wind lashed furiously into the little room and stung his face and his chest
under the window there must have been something like a garden and apparently a pleasure garden there too probably there were
now drops of rain flew in
so that he could only just make out some dark blurs of objects svidrigailov bending down with elbows on the window sill gazed for five minutes into the darkness
resounded in the darkness of the night ah the signal the river is overflowing he thought
flooding the basements and cellars the cellar rats will swim out and men will curse in the rain and wind as they drag their rubbish to their upper storeys what time is it now
and he had hardly thought it when somewhere near a clock on the wall ticking away hurriedly struck three aha it will be light in an hour why wait i'll go out at once straight to the park i'll choose a great bush there drenched with rain
so that as soon as one's shoulder touches it millions of drops drip on one's head he moved away from the window shut it lighted the candle put on his waistcoat his overcoat
and his hat and went out carrying the candle into the passage to look for the ragged attendant who would be asleep somewhere in the midst
it's the best minute i couldn't choose a better
between an old cupboard and the door he caught sight of a strange object which seemed to be alive he bent down with the candle and saw a little girl not more than five years old shivering and crying with her clothes as wet as a soaking house flannel
she did not seem afraid of svidrigailov but looked at him with blank amazement out of her big black eyes now and then she sobbed as children do when they have been crying a long time but are beginning to be comforted the child's face was pale and tired
she was numb with cold how can she have come here she must have hidden here and not slept all night he began questioning her the child suddenly becoming animated chattered away in her baby language
something about mammy and that mammy would beat her and about some cup that she had bwoken the child chattered on without stopping he could only guess from what she said that she was a neglected child whose mother probably a drunken cook
in the service of the hotel whipped and frightened her that the child had broken a cup of her mother's and was so frightened that she had run away the evening before had hidden for a long while somewhere outside in the rain at last had made her way in here
and spent the night there crying and trembling from the damp the darkness and the fear that she would be badly beaten for it he took her in his arms went back to his room
and began undressing her the torn shoes which she had on her stockingless feet were as wet as if they had been standing in a puddle all night when he had undressed her he put her on the bed covered her up and wrapped her in the blanket from her head downwards
she fell asleep at once then he sank into dreary musing again what folly to trouble myself he decided suddenly with an oppressive feeling of annoyance
in vexation he took up the candle to go and look for the ragged attendant again and make haste to go away damn the child he thought as he opened the door but he turned again to see whether the child was asleep he raised the blanket carefully the child was sleeping soundly
she had got warm under the blanket and her pale cheeks were flushed
of childhood it's a flush of fever thought svidrigailov it was like the flush from drinking as though she had been given a full glass to drink her crimson lips were hot and glowing but what was this he suddenly fancied that her long black
eyelashes were quivering as though the lids were opening and a sly crafty eye peeped out
yes it was so her lips parted in a smile the corners of her mouth quivered
but now she quite gave up all effort now it was a grin a broad grin there was something shameless provocative
the shameless face of a french harlot now both eyes opened wide
what at five years old svidrigailov muttered in genuine horror what does it mean and now she turned to him her little face all aglow holding out her arms accursed child svidrigailov cried
but at that moment he woke up he was in the same bed still wrapped in the blanket the candle had not been lighted
it was nearly five he had overslept himself he got up put on his still damp jacket and overcoat feeling the revolver in his pocket he took it out and then he sat down took a notebook out of his pocket
and in the most conspicuous place on the title page wrote a few lines in large letters reading them over he sank into thought with his elbows on the table the revolver and the notebook lay beside him
some flies woke up and settled on the untouched veal which was still on the table
he tried till he was tired but could not catch it at last realising that he was engaged in this interesting pursuit he started got up and walked resolutely out of the room a minute later he was in the street a thick milky mist hung over the town
he was picturing the waters of the little neva swollen in the night petrovsky island the wet paths the wet grass the wet trees and bushes and at last the bush he began ill humouredly staring at the houses trying to think of something else
the bright yellow wooden little houses looked dirty and dejected with their closed shutters the cold and damp penetrated his whole body and he began to shiver from time to time he came across shop signs and read each carefully
a man in a greatcoat lay face downwards dead drunk across the pavement he looked at him and went on a high tower stood up on the left bah he shouted
it will be in the presence of an official witness anyway he almost smiled at this new thought and turned into the street where there was the big house with the tower at the great closed gates of the house a little man stood with his shoulder leaning against them
his face wore that perpetual look of peevish dejection which is so sourly printed on all faces of jewish race without exception
stared at each other for a few minutes without speaking
nothing brother good morning answered svidrigailov this isn't the place i am going to foreign parts brother to foreign parts to america america svidrigailov took out the revolver and cocked
robin stained his face and bade stuteley do the same ere starting to the royal tourney the morning was overcast and doubtful when the two lads set forth
their hands and faces were brown as walnut juice could make them and whilst robin carried only his best longbow and a good quiver of arrows young will had loaded himself with quarter staff axe and pike all very difficult to carry robin bade him leave one or the other of these weapons
and reluctantly the pike was returned to warrenton then merrily they started away through the forest
even while robin wondered whether will or his men might again demand toll of him master will himself suddenly appeared and without a word placed his bow across their path
are you dumb friend added stuteley impudently as the outlaw made no immediate reply will smiled then
without waiting an answer he stepped back and withdrew his bow pass then locksley and good fortune attend you he went on we may meet again ere the day be done but it is not sure you will not try for the purse will
cried robin as if surprised i have no use for it
i did but stay you to speak of your cousin
spoke the little esquire your cousin geoffrey of montfichet has gone to france continued will speaking freely so soon as robin had nodded in confirmation of stuteley's discretion like as not master geoffrey has not talked with you as to his business with us in this greenwood
i know nothing beyond that we did bind my cousin's armor about with red ribbon replied robin uneasily he remembered the clerk's warning and a presentiment of coming evil pricked him
i meant not that will believe me said robin hastily but there are two
and are jealous also of you and he told him of his adventure in the early part of the day when they last had met will listened with a frown
give me now some token whereby i may know which of my men are traitors i should only know their voices will said robin regretfully the outlaw shrugged
turning to leave them go your ways locksley and win the purse is there no toll enquired robin smiling again am i truly free of sherwood will
said the outlaw briefly then without further ado he strode away from him they watched his lithe form disappear tis sure that our disguise is none too good sighed robin pondering upon the ready way in which the outlaw had recognized him soon afterward
rain fell and a heavy storm raged amongst the trees the two youths crept into the hollow of one of the larger oaks to shelter themselves whilst waiting there they heard the noise of an approaching cavalcade it was a body of archers coming from lincoln to compete for the purse of gold
they cantered past the tree wherein robin and stuteley lay hidden and took no heed of the drenching rain all were merry with wine and very confident that one amongst them would surely win the prize the only question was which one these nottingham clods cried one scornfully
a piece i'll toss to the heralds and another to you staveley
the rest of his speech was lost through the one addressed turning violently upon him and thrusting at him with his pike thus tumbling him into the mire stuteley laughed outright at this and for a moment startled the rest of this worshipful company
robin rather vexed at his esquire's want of caution came with him from out of the hollow of the tree the lincolnshire men halted and robin asked for a lift to the field where already the tourney was being commenced are you going to the sherwood tourney and with a bow
there are no targets such as your shafts might reach
said stuteley vexed to hear robin called gipsy
why that means twenty crowns for you to find laughed another of the men loudly
i promise you twenty crowns to twenty crowns
in warrant of my words why master i am surely the very man to hold your purse called out the lately fallen champion readily
tis known throughout lincoln that never have i given short measure in all my life
show me your crown friend said robin eyeing him now stirrup me but i have given my last piece to a poor beggar whom we did meet in the wood then i will hold my purse myself master much cried robin putting it quickly back into his bosom
but have no fear if you can beat me
beside this very tree at noon to morrow if i should win if not i'll yield this purse to the miller ere i leave the tourney
grunted the first archer here's half my saddle i'll only ask a silver penny for a seat on it i'll take you for nought gipsy shouted much
you've spoken fair and i like you
this horse is one of most wayward character hurry then said the leader
forward friends quick march they rattled off at a smart pace robin mounted behind the good natured much and stuteley upon the captain's horse the miller told robin confidentially a full score of times that he much
was bound to win the archery contest being admittedly the first bowman in the world harkee gipsy called he at length over the point of his shoulder to patient robin behind him i'll not take your crown i swear it
buy ribbons for her then with the crown i give you robin expressed his thanks very cordially this fellow seemed an honest hearted rogue
as it was all the jousting was done and most of the nobles had already gone away the sheriff was fussily preparing himself to escort the prince to the castle when the horns blew announcing the arrival of the lincolnshire bowmen they had pushed their way clumsily through the array of tents and now
blundered into the lists through the gate robin was glad indeed of his stained face and semi disguise not being over proud of his companions he gave will stuteley a signal to detach himself from them and come to his side the two youths then hastened to the archers stand
six others were seriously injured yet the prince looked far from being satisfied and his glance strayed for ever to the gate when the lincoln men had come noisily trooping in his face had lit up and his hand had made a half movement to find the jewelled hilt of his sword
master carfax too had started to his feet in evident concern when the heralds announced these new comers
clearly they were eagerly expecting the appearance of other folk but quickly recovering himself john re found all the old elegance of his manners
in his box master monceux gave the signal for the archery contest to be begun and robin soon saw that the archers against him were men very different from those who had been at nottingham fair
when it came to the turn of the prince's own bowman hubert of normandy a man slim conceited and over dressed but nevertheless a very splendid archer the first shaft flew so cleanly and so swift
that it pierced the very middle of the target and stuck out on the other side full half its length robin had to shoot immediately after him and waited a few moments whilst the markers were tugging at the norman's arrow a sudden inspiration flashed across the lad's mind
and advancing a step he bade them desist they wonderingly fell back leaving hubert's arrow fixed spitefully in the target
but even as he spoke robin's arrow flew hissing from his bow a silence fell upon the onlookers and even the smiling prince leaned forward in his box then a great shout went up of amazement and incredulity the markers and heralds thronged about the target
and hid it from the general view until they were impatiently pulled away by some of the prince's bodyguard a marvel was seen then by all eyes robin's arrow standing stiffly out from the center of the target with hubert's wand
split down on either side of it flush to the very face of the mark robin himself could scarcely credit his own success
twas a feat worthy of hubert himself said the sheriff bombastically to the prince he had not recognized robin i have seen hubert perform just such a trick on many occasions sir said carfax this fellow has done no uncommon thing believe me he went on
that is true said the prince as if thoughtfully his face showed smiling again let the contest go on and hubert shall shoot again with this young trickster
said one of the courtiers if that is so his shooting is of no avail be it never so good cried carfax triumphantly tell them that the archer is disqualified my lord he continued addressing the sheriff and bid them discover who he may be
carfax turned again to the prince and began a whispered conversation with him the prince listened nodding his head in approval well monceux what do they say he asked the sheriff languidly as the other returned
it seems sire that the archer is one who came in with a company of lincoln bowmen no one knows him hereabout i have said that he is disqualified and now the others will shoot again
in sooth i do think so answered the prince laughing rather conceitedly but monceux bid this lad to me forthwith i would speak with him the sheriff went about the task but robin had disappeared
for suddenly amidst the throng his eyes had encountered those strange grey blue ones of mistress fitzwalter
robin had walked down the lists to see for himself that his shaft had split the norman's fairly and in turning away to find stuteley
piercing gaze she allowed her eyes to rest fully on young fitzooth's ardent glance for the briefest moment then she looked away unconcernedly
is it you who have beaten the prince's best archer
her eyes were wells of innocent fun the way in which she lingered over the last syllables brought robin still deeper into the deep waters it is your servant madame was all that he could find to say
nor i i shall never forget cried he impulsively your eyes are always in my memory
but there take my colors since you will be my knight she untied a ribbon from her hair and gave it into his outstretched palm and now farewell take the prince's prize and spend the pennies worthily
buy your sweetheart some ribbons but keep that which i have given you she tossed her curls again as she added the last word robin was beginning a vehement protestation that he had no sweetheart when stuteley's voice broke in upon him master
and given the prize to hubert tis a vile injustice
what do you say asked mistress fitzwalter in amazement it is even so lady that my lord the sheriff has ruled my master out of the court for the reason that he did not give in his name before drawing his bow cried stuteley a wicked conspiracy it is
tis thus that these prizes are given the game's arranged beforehand ah but i know how these nottingham folk do plot
and treacherous when stuteley had begun there were many who were ready to side with him but his unlucky conclusion turned these possible friends into enemies even mistress fitzwalter drew back for an instant be silent will said robin vexed at once
the prince is asking for you friend said carfax suddenly appearing he touched robin on the shoulder as he turned to depart his gimlet eyes saw how the girl shrank away from them into her box he looked swiftly at her
his highness graciously condescended to enquire your name and rank said he pausing will he give the purse to me then asked robin surprised
you cannot win a prize every day master locksley he spoke at a shrewd guess and saw that his shaft had hit the mark mistress fitzwalter's interest in robin had given him the clue
i'll not go to the prince said robin wrathfully tell him master fetch and take that i have won this prize in all fairness and i will shoot with hubert again if he needs another beating you'll cool your heels in the stocks locksley said carfax viciously so much is evident
the sheriff has a quarrel with you already and tis well that you are here to answer master ford's complaint the prince will send for you in style since you will not go kindly to him bide but a few minutes i'll not keep you waiting he strode off in heat
robin became aware that the people were eyeing them both with none too friendly glances he felt that he and will stuteley were in a difficult position escape seemed to be out of the question jump over the ledge of my box robin
whispered a sudden small voice and so make your way through the door at the back of it hasten gratefully robin did as she bade him and stuteley without waiting for invitation followed mistress fitzwalter instantly opened the door for them
hurry i pray you cried she i see them coming for you both the prince has sent his pikemen robin pushed will out before him and turning caught her little hand in his thanks thanks he muttered hurriedly and strove to kiss her fingers
and stay not until you reach locksley we may meet again to talk of thanks she added seeing that he still hesitated give me at least your name panted poor robin at the door not that i shall ever forget you i am called marian
chapter ten squire george left them next morning he bade warrenton stay at locksley and charged young stuteley to let him know if the dame or his master should want for aught then having pressed some money upon his sister to meet their necessities
he bade them affectionate farewell he took robin's letter to monceux and added his own request to it never doubting that so ordinary a matter as this would be long a doing the rangership of locksley woods was robin's by every right
for the house and garden had been given to hugh fitzooth in perpetuity by the king so at least they all had understood master monceux lord sheriff of nottingham took the letters and read them with a thin smile then bore them to his daughter's chamber and laid them before her
truly the enemies of our king are not lacking in audacity sneered master monceux when mistress monceux had mastered the scrolls what will you do asked she curiously this is the young archer who won my arrow
remarked the sheriff robin fitzooth of locksley observe that his father has been killed by one of the king's deer like as not whilst he was attempting to snare it his son asks now for the post
say you so then this boy is of the outlaws of sherwood her thin lips parted over her white teeth in an evil doubt
ford is a very untrustworthy knave i would that some other of the foresters had told you the sheriff was vexed at this i have no hesitation in the matter child but give heed for now i must either agree to this recommendation of my lord montfichet
eagerly send ford or one of the scullions from our kitchen that they may know our contempt for them and bid the young archer to us here
the stocks she added vindictively will you reply to those scrolls then child said the sheriff glad to be relieved of a task which he did not relish
i hear that young locksley is not over fond of him but be discreet in your scrivening and say only that which is necessary child i will bring the letters when they are penned and will read them to you said his daughter
in due course then came the sheriff's reply to robin's request it was couched in arrogant terms and bade the youth report himself within ten days at nottingham castle
in order that the question of his appointment to a post in the king's foresters might be weighed and considered as for the rangership of locksley that had already been given to one master john ford
who would take up the duties so soon as robin and mistress fitzooth could arrange to render him the house at locksley and all it contained to this end the sheriff's messenger was empowered to take stock and inventory of all furniture and belongings
and to make note of all things broken or in disrepair since those would have to be counted against them when they left the place robin not knowing the worse indignities that were to befall did he come to nottingham for reply flung the letter into the messenger's face
go take back this answer to your master flamed the lad locksley is my mother's and my own and not the sheriff of nottingham's further tell him that i will administer locksley woods and the men shall obey me even as they did my father and this is all that i say in answer to your insolent lord
take this also fellow cried stuteley heroically that my master's squire will very instantly do battle on his behalf with all enemies at quarter staff single stick or at wrestling with the hands
snarled the messenger wrathfully master monceux will send you enough of pupils and to spare and i will be glad to have a bout with you now if you sicken for't said will valiantly but robin bade him be still
on the fifth day after the man's visit however one of the locksley foresters refused to obey young fitzooth saying that he had no right to command him i have this right
and he bade warrenton and stuteley to seize the man and deprive him of his longbow and quiver nor would he suffer the forester to become repossessed of them until he had humbly asked pardon thereafter seeing that this youth had a man's determination
the men remained loyal to him within ten days came master ford himself at the head of ten fellows armed with such powers of forcible entry as the sheriff could grant robin received the forester civilly but told him plainly that locksley was his
master ford smiled very superior to these brave words death master robin is a thing a long way off from us both i do conceive said he therefore is there small valiance in your prating so lightly of it
for the rangership has come to me through no seeking of mine own the quarrel if there be one is between yourself and master monceux and in reason you should let me into possession here and take your anger to nottingham i speak to the sheriff in that i speak to you john ford retorted the lad
take back your men and yourself be content with the captaincy of the foresters of sherwood this part of the forest will be administered under the king's pleasure by me what if i could show you the king's dismissal of your father snarled the other
if you could show it to me you would answered robin calmly nevertheless i will show it to you insolent cried master ford losing his temper
he went on furiously and giving robin this name out of desire to prick him to young robin the epithet recalled a sudden vision of the maid fitzwalter and her queer little toss of her curls as she had christened him ford must have been near to have overheard it
so was there double insult in his words robin looked him full in the face and then turned contemptuously from him play all the games you know friend said he and walked into the house the forester bit his lip in vexation he scarce knew how to act
the sheriff had told him to take forcible possession of the house but this might only be done now after a sanguinary encounter for warrenton the squire of gamewell's man was there and had eyed him malevolently
and talk with the locksley foresters had shown them to be now ranged on robin's side after waiting for three hours master ford set about a return into nottingham meaning to ask for permission to bring back the sherwood foresters with him to locksley
was beaten and robbed of all he had and sent back in ignominious fashion into nottingham town he and all the ten men that the sheriff had sent with him master ford made a fine story of this for the greedy ears of mistress monceux
there could be no doubt that strong friendship at the least existed between them so that any blow at robin must recoil upon mistress fitzwalter demoiselle monceux therefore credited largely master ford's story
go to the hall and there await my father master ford said mistress monceux at last i will speak again with him when he has returned from gamewell he is there now on your behalf in a way she added meaningly
monceux knowing that montfichet would require an explanation of the refusal to instal robin in his father's place had set himself out to be beforehand with the squire
by telling him the story of the peacocked arrow
tis like enough that he picked up one of their arrows
asked the sheriff with ready reply well that is true and yet stay i do mind me that the clerk of copmanhurst did speak of some shooting match
the thing is quite plain to me the clerk himself has been suspected of colleaguing with these robbers of the forest friend gamewell whispered the sheriff leaning forward towards the squire and they do say that will was at our tourney
was none other indeed than the very roughbeard from whom young robin so cleverly did snatch my arrow of gold nay nay i think the evidence points very strongly against fitzooth yet since he is your nephew
i have forborne to press my charge against him i'll believe no harm of robin said the squire decisively still you will see there is reason in my refusal of his request smiled monceux and old gamewell had to agree although unwillingly
so were the clouds upon robin's horizon gathering apace he gravely continued in his duties at locksley filling up his leisure with long and frequent practice in archery with warrenton
and so engrossed did robin become in his present life and the necessity of making a living for them all that master monceux his summons
of ford were forgotten he killed such of the deer as his father had under the king's charter for their own sustenance and gathered the fruits from the garden at locksley there were cows to be milked and sheep to be sheared the men worked for him without question
only one matter troubled robin soon would come round the time when the emoluments of the rangership would be due and then robin would have to face the sheriff and make him pay the moneys
having stifled any objections montfichet might have had to his refusal to recognize robin as ranger the sheriff was quite content to bide his time knowing that once in nottingham robin would be entirely in his power
unforeseen events however upset these schemes and hastened matters even while robin was perfecting himself in the use of the longbow under warrenton and in the art of wrestling with little lithe stuteley the lean faced man whom he saw at the tourney
returned suddenly to nottingham from london bearing news to the sheriff that he was to prepare the town at once for a visit from the young prince john
master simeon carfax to give the lean faced one his full style bade them arrange for a great tourney to be held in sherwood itself
prince john may well be king over us in the end murmured the sheriff to himself and he dismissed all thought of robin and his defiance the sheriff had some suspicion that master carfax had had more to do with this sudden visit of the erstwhile rebellious prince
than that pinch nosed gentleman would allow further he saw with some misgiving that between carfax and his own daughter there was an understanding and he decided to speak firmly with her but
as she was still vexed with him for not having dealt with young fitzooth as promptly as she had designed the sheriff thought it wise to wait his opportunity meanwhile robin passed his days equably
and now he could notch warrenton's shaft at one hundred paces a feat difficult in the extreme the old retainer took huge delight in training the lad i do hear of a brave business in archery to be done in sherwood forest he said
and i would have you enter there in the lists and bear away the prince's bag of gold even as you did the sheriff's arrow tell me of this warrenton cried robin interested at once where did you learn this item
gabbled warrenton it seems that the young prince is already tired of london ways and the court of his father the king and has agreed to come here to us at nottingham so that he may be more free he brings with him many of the fine ladies of the court
and full a hundred score of followers and they do tell me that some of the barons are with him master fitzurse to wit
robin smiled at the old man's emphatic speech when is this prize to be offered warrenton and what other marvels are there to be the man at arms commenced afresh there is to be a tourney
ay but the archery i have told you that the prince offers a fine prize know also that he brings with him hubert the most renowned of all archers so that he deems the prize already won the prince puts a hundred gold pieces into the purse and hubert
pockets it in advance is he a fair bowman this hubert i know but one archer better than he lording yourself and i have seen the finest archery in the world you talk heedlessly warrenton said robin rebuking him
yet secretly he was flattered by this sincere belief in him i'll go with you to nottingham and stuteley shall stay here on guard said robin but stuteley begged most earnestly that he should be allowed to go also so that robin came nigh to giving up the plan all together
for he would not consent to leave the dame unprotected
warrenton himself with fine self sacrifice offered to remain at locksley it will be wisest that you should go unattended after all lording concluded warrenton enter the lists unknown unannounced as though you were some forester master monceux means no good to you
so be circumspect and forget not the things that i have taught you
he is a very pretty bowman
a loss of importance half stunned dick lay for a long time on the newspapers and musty straw in the disused coal bin of the tenement cellar
this is what i call tough luck he muttered to himself and tried to force the somewhat loose gag from his mouth but it would not come as soon as he felt strong enough
he began to work on the rope which bound his hands together but the rascals who had placed him in the cellar had done their work well and the cord refused to budge with difficulty he managed to stand erect
the bin was not only pitch dark but full of cobwebs and the latter brushed over his face whenever he moved then a spider crawled on his neck greatly adding to his discomfort
hour after hour went by and poor dick was wondering what the end of the adventure would be when he heard a footstep overhead and then came the indistinct murmur of voice
somebody is in the room overhead he thought and tried to make himself heard but before he could do this the footsteps moved off and he heard the slamming of a door
then all became as quiet as before an hour more went by and the youth began to grow desperate he was thirsty and his mouth and nose were filled with dust and dirt
rendering him far from comfortable in moving around his foot came in contact with an empty tomato can and this gave him an idea he knelt down
and with the can between his heels tried to saw apart the rope which bound his hands behind him the position was an awkward one and the job long and tiring
he was now free so far as his bodily movements went but he soon discovered that the coal bin was without any opening but a long narrow chute covered with an iron plate and that the heavy door
was securely bolted with all force he threw himself against the door but it refused to budge presently he remembered that he had several loose matches in his vest pocket
and taking out one of these he lit it and then set fire to a thick shaving that was handy and which being damp burnt slowly hullo
here's something of a trap door he exclaimed as he gazed at the flooring above head i wonder if i can get out that way he dropped the lighted shaving in a safe spot and put up his hands
the cut out spot in the flooring went up with ease and dick saw a fairly well furnished room beyond through one of the windows of the room he saw that daybreak was at hand
i've been down here all night he ejaculated and putting out the light leaped up and drew himself through the opening once in the room he put the trap down again
and rearranged the rag carpet he had shoved out of place the door to the room was locked so the boy hurried to the window throwing open the blinds he was about to leap out into the tenement alley
when a woman suddenly confronted him she was tall and heavy and had a red disagreeable face what are you doing in my rooms young fellow she demanded i'm trying to get out of this house
i was locked up in the cellar by a couple of bad men and got out by coming through a trap door in your floor a likely story sneered the woman who had been away during the night and had heard nothing of the search for dick
you look like a sneak thief anyway you haven't any right in my rooms she came closer and as dick leaped to the ground clutched him by the arm let me go madam i won't
i'm going to hand you over to the police i don't think you will retorted dick and with a twist he wrenched himself loose and started off on a run the woman attempted to follow him
but soon gave up the chase dick did not stop running until he was several blocks away then he dropped into a walk
i suppose they couldn't make it out and went home he mused i had better get to frank's house without delay dick was still a block away from senator harrington's residence
my gracious where have you been burst out tom as he rushed forward you look as if you'd been rolling around a dirty cellar and that is just about what i have been doing answered dick with a sickly laugh
do you know anything of buddy girk he added quickly he ran away from the tenement and arnold baxter was with him replied sam did you follow them no we tried to find out what had become of you
each had to tell his story and then dick was led into the house he lost no time in brushing up and washing himself and by that time breakfast was ready in the dining room
it's a curious adventure truly said senator harrington as he sat down with the boys i am glad you got out of it so well
the next time you see anything of those rascals you had better lose no time in informing the police the senator was one of that class of busy men who eat breakfast and read their morning newspaper at the same time
having listened to what dick had to say he unfolded his paper and propped it up against a fruit dish before him excuse me but i am in a hurry he remarked apologetically
i want to catch a train for new york at eight thirty five and hullo what's this rush and wilder brokers and bankers
this is news certainly rush and wilder cried frank is that the firm you do business with yes frank they have lost over sixty five thousand dollars besides a lot of unregistered bonds
that's a big loss will you suffer i don't know but what i shall i'll have to let that trip to new york go and look into this and senator harrington settled back
to read the account of the robbery in full they haven't any trace of the thieves have they asked tom no it says a rear window was broken open and the iron bars unscrewed
the safe door was found closed but unlocked then the thieves had the combination put in sam more than likely i wonder if baxter and girk committed that crime came from dick
i think they would be equal to it they were up to some game it might be returned senator harrington with interest but how would those men obtain the combination of rush and wilder's safe
i'm sure i don't know but yes they mentioned a man named mooney who was to assist them perhaps he is known around the bankers offices we can soon find out
what were you boys going to do this morning i was going back to the tenements to see if i couldn't have baxter and girk arrested said dick if they learn you have escaped they will probably clear out
i suppose that's so but i might go down and see yes i'd do that later on you can come over to rush and wilder's offices this was agreed to and as soon as breakfast was over
caleb yates was on hand and all visited the apartment baxter and buddy girk had occupied it was found that the men had not returned
they have skipped for good take my word on it muttered tom and the others agreed with him
the four boys left the vicinity and boarding a street car made their way to the thoroughfare upon which were located the offices of the bankers and brokers who had been robbed a crowd was collected about the place
and two policemen were keeping those outside in check i want my money one old man was shouting this is a game of charley rush to do us out of our cash i don't believe the office was robbed at all
you keep quiet or i'll run you in replied one of the policemen and the old man lost no time in slinking out of sight
and told who he was i'll send in word and see answered the policeman at the door oh frank came from the main office and senator harrington beckoned to his son and all four of the boys went in
they found half a dozen men present including the members of the firm a detective and the bookkeeper a young man named fredericks
you are the only one who had the combination besides ourselves fredericks charles rush was saying to the bookkeeper i hate to suspect you but
gasped the bookkeeper and fell back as if about to faint i don't know what to think i can give you my word i was not near the offices from four o'clock yesterday afternoon
until i came this morning after you have you spoken of the safe combination to anybody no sir did you put the combination down in writing
the combination was an unusually
yes far too easy for our good groaned mister rush then he gazed at the four boys curiously what brought you here he asked
we thought we might know something of this affair said dick and told his story there may be something in that said the detective especially if those men fail to turn up at that tenement again
did you mention a man named mooney cried fredericks i did do you know this mooney put in mister wilder to the bookkeeper
has a brother in law named mooney a wild kind of a chap who used to hang around more or less we'll call subrug in and find out where this mooney is now said charles rush
he's been a constant worry to me he used to borrow money but lately i wouldn't give him any more and so he stopped coming around was he ever in here
the janitor thought for a moment i think he was sir about a month ago he started to help me clean the windows but he was too clumsy
dick is taking his time that's certain the remark came from sam after the boys who had been left in the alleyway had waited the best part of half an hour for the elder rover's reappearance
perhaps he has found something of interest suggested frank and perhaps he has fallen into a trap put in tom i've a good mind to hunt him up if you go i'll go with you said sam
began tom when they saw the front door of the tenement opened and two men hurried forth both had their hats pulled far down over their eyes and had their coat collars turned up
even though the night was warm out of sight cried sam in a low voice and they dropped down behind the stoop of the second tenement one of those men was buddy girk
ejaculated tom when the pair had passed up the alleyway and don't you know who the other was demanded sam it was dan baxter's father impossible sam arnold baxter is in the hospital and
no wonder he walked with a cane am i not right frank i don't know i'm sure i don't remember dan's father but that was buddy girk beyond a doubt
all of the boys were considerably excited and wondered if it would be best to follow up the vanishing pair
i'm going to hunt for him he added and before the others could stop him he entered the tenement he stumbled around the lower hallway for several minutes and then called out softly dick dick
no answer came back and he continued his search then lighting a match he mounted the rickety stairs and called out again phat are ye a raisin such a row about
sorry to disturb you have you seen anything of him
replied the irishman i've got to find my brother sir i'm afraid he has met with foul play he came to see the men who just went out
foul play is it
i heard em carryin on in their room a while ago which room is it please there ye are
tom tried the door no it's locked the two men just went out he raised his voice dick where are you dick
if yez call like that yez will have the wholt tiniment aroused said the irishman an it's a bad crowd on the nixt flure i kin tell ye that i can't help it i am bound to find my brother
replied tom desperately disappearing for a moment the irishman came out half dressed and with a lighted candle in his hand by this time sam and frank had followed tom to the upper floor
soon several men and women put in an appearance including dutch jake
i guess so said tom
open der door und took him inside took him inside burst out sam and tom simultaneously yah replied dutch jake but failed to add that he had had anything to do with the capture
von of dem say dot poy vos stole some money alretty it was a cock and bull story to make him a prisoner said tom i'm going to find him if i can
and he threw himself on the door with all of his strength at first the barrier refused to budge but when sam and frank also pushed it gave way with a bang hurling the trio to the floor inside
by this time the excitement had been communicated to the next tenement in which lived caleb yates
replied tom boldly we want to find my brother and he related how dick had disappeared
i'm going to find my brother if i have to turn the house upside down and i am going to find him too put in sam
they looked like very respectable gentlemen both of them you had better go about your business after you have paid me for breaking down the door you shan't ransack their property
if you stop us i'll call in the police and have you arrested came promptly from tom this threat nearly took away caleb yates breath arrested he gasped yes arrested
my brother came in here and is missing those two men are our enemies if you want to keep out of trouble you will help us to hunt up my brother that is just what you had better do sir added frank
demanded the irate landlord i am frank harrington son of senator harrington at this unexpected announcement
the jaw of the landlord dropped perceptibly why er i didn't know you were senator harrington's son he stammered i think if you wish to keep out of trouble you had best aid us all you can
the young man we are after came in here a short while ago
girk once robbed him of his watch i see and you are sure of your men if you are search away for i want no shady characters in these houses
the search began immediately several of the inmates of the tenements taking part everything in the room girk and baxter had occupied was turned topsy turvy but no trace of dick was brought to light
until tom looked under the table here's his pocket knife he cried and held the article up this proves that he came in here beyond a doubt
put in sam they couldn't have spirited him away he can't be far off said frank again was the search renewed the men had had one large room and one small apartment
where were located a dilapidated bed and a small writing table on the table lay some writing material and several scraps of paper but they were of no value
the search through the rooms and hallways of the tenement lasted fully an hour by this time the tenants who had gathered began to grow sleepy again and one after another went back to their apartments
i don't think you are going to find anything remarked caleb yates to my way of thinking that boy must have followed the two men when they left he couldn't do that without our seeing him said sam
it's too bad we didn't follow girk and baxter up at least as far as the street perhaps dick is at our house waiting for us to come back put in frank let us go home and see
we can come back early in the morning he looked at his watch do you know that it is after two o'clock i'm afraid my father will worry about me they talked the matter over
and decided to return to frank's home without further delay it was a silent trio that walked the streets which were now practically deserted tom and sam were much worried
and frank hardly less so for the senator's son and dick had been warm friends for years when they reached the mansion they found senator harrington pacing the library nervously well
here you are at last he cried i was wondering what had become of you he listened to their tale with close attention no dick has not come in he said at least i think not
run up to the bedrooms frank and see frank did as requested and soon returned no he isn't about he said disappointedly
dick is made a prisoner the hallway of the tenement was pitch dark the door standing open for a foot or more from a rear room came a thin stream of light under a door
he heard an irishman and his wife talking over some factory work the man had been promised girk can't be there he thought when he heard an upper door open hullo buddy back again
muttered a strangely familiar voice and then the upper door was closed and locked wondering where he had heard that voice before dick came forward again
and ascended the rickety stairs they creaked dismally and he fully expected to see somebody come out and demand what was going on but nobody came and soon the upper hall was gained
and he reached the door which he rightfully guessed had just been opened and closed yes everything is all okay were the first words to reach his ears but i had a sweet job to find mooney he's cracked on music it seems
his father's worst enemy who had been left at the hospital in ithaca with a broken limb and several smashed ribs baxter had tackled dick while the two were on a moving train and while trying to throw the boy off
had gotten the worst of the encounter by tumbling off himself arnold baxter is it possible muttered dick to himself he must have a constitution like iron to get around so soon
no mooney won't fail us said buddy girk i gave him a mighty good talkin to i did i can't afford to have him go back on us growled arnold baxter
i'm not well enough yet to do this job alone how does your chest feel oh the ribs seem to be all right but my leg isn't
i shouldn't wonder but what i'll have to limp more or less for the rest of my life that puts me in mind whom do you reckon i clapped eyes on down at the concert hall tonight i'm sure i don't know
any of our enemies those three rover boys what arnold baxter pushed back his chair in amazement can they be be following me he gasped no
i saw em by accident they had been to the concert but they don't belong here they live on a farm called valley brook near the village of dexter's corners they were with another boy a well dressed chap maybe they are paying him a visit
arnold baxter shook his head i don't like this if they have got wind of anything but how could they get wind persisted buddy girk that would remain to be found out
you must remember buddy that they are down on me because of that row i once had with their father over that gold mine i know it and by the way i never got nothin out of that deal neither growled buddy girk
didn't i tell you that some papers were missing i half believe anderson rover took them with him when he set out for africa then they are gone for good not if he comes back buddy that man is like his boys
bound to turn up when you least expect it that gold mine was what's that arnold baxter stopped short and leaped to his feet a wrangle in the hallway just outside of the door had interrupted him
let me go came from dick i have done no harm i dink you vos von sneak thief alretty stand still bis i find owit it's dutch jake cried buddy girk
he has collared somebody in the hall i'll see who it is he threw open the door and allowed the light of a lamp to fall on dick and the burly man who had captured the youth
great smoke it's one of dem rover boys he cried dropping into his old time manner of speech
you know dot young feller demanded the man who had been mentioned as dutch jake yes i do and he's up to no good here replied buddy girk
yes no wait a minute girk turned to arnold baxter
ha i told you they were regular rats for that sort of work fumed arnold baxter don't let him go why not he may know too much bring him in here till i question him
his cries came to a sudden ending as buddy girk clapped a large and somewhat dirty hand over his mouth run him in here jake said the former tramp
answered the german doubtfully it's all right he
that's right in with him and dick was run into the room after which dutch jake retired as suddenly as he had appeared he was an elderly man of a queer turn of mind
and all by himself occupied a garret room of the tenement as soon as the door was locked arnold baxter faced dick now will you keep quiet
or shall i knock you over with this he demanded and raised a heavy cane he had grown into the habit of carrying since he had escaped from the hospital on the very day that the authorities were going to transfer him to the jail at ithaca
don't you dare to touch me arnold baxter cried the boy boldly will you keep quiet that depends what do you want of me you followed girk to this place and were spying on us
i think i had a right to follow girk he is wanted by the authorities as you know you heard us planning to do something perhaps i did i know you did all right then don't ask me about it
growled baxter uneasily thank you for nothing don't get impudent that is what old crabtree used to say the rovers always were too important for their own good young man
we know how to do the fair thing by others and that is more than you shut up i'm in no humor to listen to your preaching
not just yet i want to know how much you overheard of my talk with buddy girk i reckon he heard all of it growled the fool if i was you baxter i wouldn't let him go at all
you would keep him a prisoner buddy girk nodded
would you leave him in this room i don't know girk scratched his tangled head of hair no i wouldn't i'll tell you where to take him
he finished by whispering into arnold baxter's ear
it will serve him right are you going to let me go demanded dick uneasily for he saw that the two were plotting to do him injury no came from both without another word
dick leaped for the door the key was in the lock but ere he could turn it buddy girk hauled him back a scuffle followed which came to a sudden termination when arnold baxter raised his heavy cane
and struck the boy on the back of the head with a million stars dancing before his eyes poor dick went down completely dazed
girk lost no time in following up the advantage thus gained and by the time dick felt like rising he found his hands bound behind him and a gag of knotted cloth stuffed into his mouth
then his feet were fastened together and he was rolled up in an old blanket much the worse for wear and the want of washing now come on before anybody else spots us exclaimed baxter
if you can lift him alone i'll bring the light i'm no good on the carry yet all right light the way answered buddy girk and took up the form of the boy taking up the smoky lamp
i don't believe he'll get out in any hurry dick's form was dropped on a heap of dirty newspapers and straw then girk and baxter left the bin there was a heavy door to the place
and this they closed and shoved the rusty bolt into the socket in a second more they were on their way upstairs again
and ben swayed about in his chair as if he was already doing it in imagination you may take a turn round my field on lita any day she would like it and thorny's saddle will be here next week said miss celia
pleased to see that the boy appreciated the fine pictures and felt such hearty sympathy with the noble animals whom she dearly loved herself needn't wait for that i'd rather ride bareback oh i say
where the horses talked asked ben suddenly recollecting the speech he had puzzled over ever since he heard it no i brought the book but in the hurry of my tea party forgot to unpack it i'll hunt it up to night remind me thorny
there now i've forgotten something too squire sent you a letter
ben rummaged out the note with remorseful haste protesting that he was in no hurry for mister gulliver and very glad to save him for another day leaving the young folks busy with their games miss celia sat in the porch to read her letters for there were two
and as she read her face grew so sober then so sad that if any one had been looking he would have wondered what bad news had chased away the sunshine so suddenly no one did look
no one saw how pitifully her eyes rested on ben's happy face when the letters were put away and no one minded the new gentleness in her manner as she came back to the table
to show him how the dissected map went together and never smiled at his mistakes so kind so very kind was she to them all that when after an hour of merry play she took her brother in to bed
the three who remained fell to praising her enthusiastically as they put things to rights before taking leave she's like the good fairies in the books
said betty enjoying a last hug of the fascinating doll whose lids would shut so that it was a pleasure to sing bye sweet baby bye with no staring eyes to spoil the illusion what heaps she knows
more than teacher i do believe and she doesn't mind how many questions we ask i like folks that will tell me things added bab whose inquisitive mind was always hungry i like that boy first rate and i guess he likes me though
he wants me to teach him to ride when he's on his pins again and miss celia says i may she knows how to make folks feel good don't she and ben gratefully surveyed the arab chief now his own
won't we have splendid times she says we may come over every night and play with her and thorny and she's goin to have the seats in the porch lift up so we can put our things in there all day and have em handy
and i'm going to be her boy and stay here all the time i guess the letter i brought was a recommend from the squire yes ben and if i had not already made up my mind to keep you before i certainly would now my boy
something in miss celia's voice as she said the last two words with her hand on ben's shoulder made him look up quickly and turn red with pleasure wondering what the squire had written about him mother must have some of the party
so you shall take her these bab and betty may carry baby home for the night she is so nicely asleep it is a pity to wake her good by till to morrow little neighbors continued miss celia and dismissed the girls with a kiss is ben coming too
asked bab as betty trotted off in a silent rapture with the big darling bobbing over her shoulder not yet i've several things to settle with my new man tell mother he will come by and by off rushed bab with the plateful of goodies
and drawing ben down beside her on the wide step miss celia took out the letters with a shadow creeping over her face as softly as the twilight was stealing over the world while the dew fell and every thing grew still and dim
ben dear i've something to tell you she began slowly and the boy waited with a happy face for no one had called him so since melia died the squire has heard about your father
and this is the letter mister smithers sends hooray where is he please cried ben
as if she wanted him to come and help her he went after the mustangs and sent some home but could not come himself went further on i s'pose yes he said he might go as far as california
and if he did he'd send for me i'd like to go there it's a real splendid place they say he has gone further away than that to a lovelier country than california i hope and miss celia's eyes turned to the deep sky
where early stars were shining didn't he send for me where's he gone
for there was a quiver in her voice the meaning of which he felt before he understood miss celia put her arms about him and answered very tenderly ben dear if i were to tell you that he was never coming back
could you bear it i guess i could but you don't mean it oh ma'am he isn't dead cried ben
my poor little boy i wish i could say no there was no need of any more words no need of tears or kind arms around him he knew he was an orphan now
and turned instinctively to the old friend who loved him best throwing himself down beside his dog ben clung about the curly neck sobbing bitterly oh sanch he's never coming back again
could only whine and lick away the tears that wet the half hidden face questioning the new friend meantime with eyes so full of dumb love and sympathy and sorrow that they seemed almost human wiping away her own tears
miss celia stooped to pat the white head and to stroke the black one lying so near it that the dog's breast was the boy's pillow presently the sobbing ceased and ben whispered without looking up tell me all about it i'll be good
then as kindly as she could miss celia read the brief letter which told the hard news bluntly for mister smithers was obliged to confess that he had known the truth months before and never told the boy lest he should be unfitted for the work they gave him
of ben brown the elder's death there was little to tell except that he was killed in some wild place at the west and a stranger wrote the fact to the only person whose name was found in ben's pocket book mister smithers offered to take the boy back and
do well by him averring that the father wished his son to remain where he left him and follow the profession to which he was trained will you go ben asked miss celia hoping to distract his mind from his grief by speaking of other things
no no i'd rather tramp and starve he's awful hard to me and sanch and he'd be worse now father's gone don't send me back let me stay here folks are good to me there's nowhere else to go
went down again on sancho's breast as if there were no other refuge left you shall stay here and no one shall take you away against your will i called you my boy in play now
you shall be my boy in earnest this shall be your home and thorny your brother we are orphans too and we will stand by one another till a stronger friend comes to help us
with such a mixture of resolution and tenderness in her voice that ben felt comforted at once and thanked her by laying his cheek against the pretty slipper that rested on the step beside him as if he had no words in which to swear loyalty to the gentle mistress
whom he meant henceforth to serve with grateful fidelity
and gravely put his paw upon her knee with a low whine as if he said count me in and let me help to pay my master's debt if i can miss celia shook the offered paw cordially and the good creature crouched at her feet like a small lion
bound to guard her and her house for evermore don't lie on that cold stone ben come here and let me try to comfort you she said stooping to wipe away the great drops that kept rolling down the brown cheek half hidden in her dress
but ben put his arm over his face and sobbed out with a fresh burst of grief you can't you didn't know him oh daddy daddy if i'd only seen you jest once more
no one could grant that wish but miss celia did comfort him for presently the sound of music floated out from the parlor music so soft so sweet that involuntarily the boy stopped his crying to listen
then quieter tears dropped slowly seeming to soothe his pain as they fell while the sense of loneliness passed away and it grew possible to wait till it was time to go to father in that far off country lovelier than golden california
how long she played miss celia never minded but when she stole out to see if ben had gone she found that other friends even kinder than herself had taken the boy into their gentle keeping
chapter six the stormy episode just ended
that had now arisen in the investigation but he would have time to go over them at his leisure while the work of interrogation was undertaken by the judge
who was to write down question and answer verbatim a little to one side with the light full on the face the witness was seated
the judge first and behind him those of the chief detective and the commissary of police i trust madame that you are equal to answering a few questions
oh yes i hope so indeed i have no choice replied the countess bravely resigned they will refer principally to your maid ah said the countess quickly and in a troubled voice
yet she bore the gaze of the three officials without flinching i want to know a little more about her if you please of course anything i know i will tell you she spoke now with perfect self possession but if i might ask
why this interest i will tell you frankly you asked for her we sent for her and yes she cannot be found she is not in the station the countess all but jumped from her chair in her surprise
surprise that seemed too spontaneous to be feigned impossible it cannot be she would not dare to leave me here like this all alone parbleu she has dared most certainly she is not here
ah madame what indeed can you form any idea we hoped you might have been able to enlighten us i cannot monsieur not in the least perchance you sent her on to your hotel
to warn your friends that you were detained to fetch them perhaps to you in your trouble the trap was neatly contrived but she was not deceived how could i i knew of no trouble when i saw her last oh
indeed and when was that last night at amberieux as i have already told that gentleman
well she has gone away somewhere it does not much matter still it is odd and for your sake
another little trap which failed
no indeed and she must be held to strict account for it must justify it give her reasons so we must find her for you i am not at all anxious really the countess said quickly
and the remark told against her well now madame la comtesse as to her description will you tell us what was her height figure colour of eyes hair general appearance she was tall
above the middle height at least slight good figure black hair and eyes pretty that depends upon what you mean by pretty some people might think so in her own class how was she dressed
in plain dark serge bonnet of black straw and brown ribbons i do not allow my maid to wear colours exactly and her name age place of birth
born i believe in paris the judge when these particulars had been given looked over his shoulder towards the detective but said nothing it was quite unnecessary
now rose and left the room he called galipaud to him saying sharply here is the more detailed description of the lady's maid and in writing have it copied and circulate it at once give it to the station master and to the agents of police round about here
i have an idea only an idea that this woman has not gone far it may be worth nothing still there is the chance
anyhow set a watch for her and come back here meanwhile the judge had continued his questioning and where madame did you obtain your maid in rome she was there out of a place
i heard of her at an agency and registry office when i was looking for a maid a month or two ago then she has not been long in your service no as i tell you she came to me in december last well recommended strongly
she had lived with good families french and english and with you what was her character irreproachable well
when we want her we shall be able to lay hands on her i do not doubt madame may rest assured pray take no trouble in the matter i certainly should not keep her very well very well and now another small matter i see
the compartment d with berths numbers nine and ten i think nine was the number of my berth it was you may be certain of that now next door to your compartment do you know who was next door i mean in seven and eight
the countess's lip quivered and she was a prey to sudden emotion as she answered in a low voice it was where where there there madame said the judge reassuring her as he would a little child you need not say
it is no doubt very distressing to you yet you know she bent her head slowly but uttered no word now this man this poor man had you noticed him at all no no not afterwards of course
it would not be likely but during the journey did you speak to him or he to you
no distinctly no nor see him yes i saw him i believe at modane with the rest when we dined ah exactly so he dined at modane
was that the only occasion on which you saw him you had never met him previously in rome where you resided whom do you mean the murdered man who else no not that i am aware of at least i did not recognize him as a friend
i presume if he was among your friends pardon me that he certainly was not interrupted the countess well among your acquaintances he would probably have made himself known to you i suppose so
and he did not do so he never spoke to you nor you to him i never saw him the occupant of that compartment except on that one occasion i kept a good deal in my compartment during the journey alone
it must have been very dull for you said the judge pleasantly i was not always alone said the countess hesitatingly and with a slight flush i had friends in the car
the exclamation was long drawn and rather significant who were they you may as well tell us madame we should certainly find out i have no wish to withhold the information she replied now turning pale
possibly at the imputation conveyed why should i and these friends were sir charles collingham and his brother they came and sat with me occasionally sometimes one sometimes the other during the day
of course during the day her eyes flashed as though the question was another offence have you known them long the general i met in roman society last winter it was he who introduced his brother very good so far
the general knew you took an interest in you that explains his strange unjustifiable conduct just now i do not think it was either strange or unjustifiable interrupted the countess hotly he is a gentleman
but we will pass on you are not a good sleeper i believe madame indeed no i sleep badly as a rule then you would be easily disturbed now last night did you hear anything strange in the car
more particularly in the adjoining compartment nothing no sound of voices raised high
that is odd i cannot understand it we know beyond all question from the appearance of the body the corpse that there was a fight an encounter yet you a wretched sleeper with only a thin plank of wood between you and the affray
hear nothing absolutely nothing it is most extraordinary i was asleep i must have been asleep a light sleeper would certainly be awakened how can you explain how can you reconcile that
the question was blandly put but the judge's incredulity verged upon actual insolence easily i had taken a soporific i always do on a journey i am obliged to keep something sulphonal or chloral by me on purpose
then this madame is yours and the judge with an air of undisguised triumph
the countess with a quick gesture put out her hand to take it no i cannot give it up look as near as you like
of course it is mine where did you get it not in my berth no madame not in your berth but where pardon me we shall not tell you not just now i missed it last night went on the countess slightly confused
after you had taken your dose of chloral no before and why did you want this it is laudanum for my nerves i have a toothache i i really sir
i need not tell you all my ailments and the maid had removed it so i presume she must have taken it out of the bag in the first instance and then kept it that is what i can only suppose
brian wendover was thinking of her and dreaming of her and building the whole fabric of his life on a happy future to be shared with her cherishing the sweet certainty that she loved him
and that he had only to say the word which was to unite them for ever he had been in no haste to say that fateful word life was so sweet to him in its present stage he was so confident of the future
by what urania had told him about ida the slanderer's malice was obvious but the slander might have some element of truth he watched ida narrowly during the first month of their acquaintance
expecting to find the serpent trail somewhere but no trace of the evil one had appeared she was frank straightforward intelligent to a high degree and with that eager thirst for knowledge which is
generally accompanied by a profound humility he could see in her no base worship of wealth for its own sake no craving for splendour or fashionable pleasures she found delight in all the simplest things
in rustic scenery in hill and down and wood in dogs and horses and birds and flowers music and books a girl who could be happy in such a life as ida palliser lived at kingthorpe
must be in a manner independent of fortune her pleasures were not those that cost money if she is the kind of girl miss rylance describes her she will set her cap at me he thought
one mistake and one failure will not daunt her but there was no such setting of caps for a long time ida treated mister wendover of the abbey with the perfect frankness of friendship
then as his love grew showing itself by every delicate and unobtrusive token there came a change and a subtle one in her conduct and the lover told himself with triumphant heart that he was beloved
her sweet shyness her careful avoidance of every possible tete a tete her evident embarrassment on those rare occasions when she found herself alone with him
surely these things meant love and love only there could be no other meaning he was no coxcomb ready to believe every woman in love with him
he had gone through the world very quietly admiring many women but never till now having found one who seemed to him worth the infinite anxieties and fevers
and now he had found that pearl above price the one woman predestinate to be adored by him he was happily placed in life for a lover since a lover should always be an orphan
fathers and mothers are sore clogs upon the fiery wheel of love he was rich in every way his own master his kindred were kindly simple minded people
who would give gracious welcome to any virtuous woman whom he might choose for his wife there was no impediment to his happiness provided always that ida palliser loved him and he believed that she did love him
this sense of security had made him less eager to declare himself he was content to wait for his opportunity and now summer was waning though it was summer still the days were no less lovely
not a leaf had fallen in the woods red roses flushed the gardens with bloom yellow roses hung in luxuriant clusters on arches and walls but the days were shortening the sunsets were earlier
coming inconveniently before dinner was over at the knoll and the wykehamists began to be weighed down by a sense of impending doom
that date so fatal to ida palliser and there was much cheerfulness at the knoll in honour of the occasion this year the event was not to be signalised by a picnic they had been picnicking all the summer
and it was felt that the zest of novelty would be wanting to that form of entertainment so it was decided in family counsel that a friendly dinner at home with a little impromptu dancing and perhaps a charade or two afterwards
would be an agreeable substitute for the usual outdoor feast brian
aunt betsy and ida palliser were to be the only guests but these with the family made a good sized party blanche undertook to play as many waltzes as might be required of her
and also took upon herself the arrangement and decoration of the dessert which was to be something gorgeous more boxes of peaches and grapes had been sent over from wimperfield in the absence of sir vernon and his brother
who were still in scotland bessie's anniversary was heralded somewhat inauspiciously by a tremendous gale which swept across the hampshire downs after doing no small mischief in the channel
and wrecking a good many fine old oaks and beeches in the new forest it was only the tail of a storm which had been blowing furiously in scotland and the north of england and no one as yet knew the extent of its destructive force
the morning after that night of howling winds was dull and blustery with frequent gusts of rain
said horatio as the slanting drops lashed the windows at breakfast time it may rain and blow as hard as it likes between now and six o'clock for all we need care a wet day will give us time to get up our charades and for blanche to thump at her waltzes
be sure you give us the blue danube the blue danube is out said blanche tossing up her pointed chin
out of time out of fashion hang fashion what do i care for fashion cried the wykehamist fashion means other people's whims and fancies people who are led by fashion have no ideas of their own
byron is out of fashion but he's my poet added horatio as who should say and that ought to be a sufficient set off against any lessening of his european renown
think of the poor creatures at sea murmured kind hearted missus wendover as a sharp gust shook the casement nearest to her
travellers by sea must expect bad weather it's an important factor in the sum of their risk and their minds are prepared for the contingency but when one has planned a picnic party on the downs a wet day throws out all one's calculations
the rain came and went in fitful showers the wind blustered a little and then died away in sobs while the young wendovers spent their morning noisily and excitedly in laborious industries of the most frivolous kind
the end and aim of which was to make a gorgeous display in the evening before luncheon the wind was at rest and the gardens were smiling in the sunlight under the hot blue sky of summer and after luncheon
the wendover girls and boys were rushing all over the garden cutting flowers
said blanche stopping to pant and wipe her crimson countenance when her two baskets were nearly full he'll impart his own peculiar starchiness to the whole business oh hang it he'll give the thing a grown up flavour anyhow replied reginald
besides the man can talk though he's deuced shallow and that is more than anyone else can in these parts brian will be the hero of this evening's festivity just as brian walford was of the last don't you remember how nice he looked
said blanche as they went back to the house loaded with roses heliotrope geranium and ferns poor fellow sighed bessie who was so sentimental that she could but suppose her favourite cousin a martyr to blighted love
if brian of the abbey proposes to ida as i feel convinced he will and if she accepts him as she is sure to do it will simply break brian walford's heart not a little bit
that he should care for her now if she be not fair to me what the deuce care i how fair she be and do you suppose i am going to waste in despair and all that kind of thing not if i know it say what you like i believe
brian walford was deeply in love with ida and that he has never been here since that time because he can't bear to see her knowing she doesn't care for him that's skittles exclaimed the youthful sceptic
using a favourite expression of his father's to express incredulity the reason brian doesn't come to kingthorpe is that he has other fish to fry elsewhere as if anybody would come to kingthorpe who wasn't obliged
five sharp words are spoken and a crisis ensues when yeobright was not with eustacia he was sitting slavishly over his books when he was not reading he was meeting her
these meetings were carried on with the greatest secrecy one afternoon his mother came home from a morning visit to thomasin
i have been told an incomprehensible thing she said mournfully the captain has let out at the woman that you and eustacia vye are engaged to be married we are said yeobright but it may not be yet for a very long time
you will take her to paris i suppose she spoke with weary hopelessness
keep a school in budmouth as i have told you that's incredible the place is overrun with schoolmasters you have no special qualifications what possible chance is there for such as you
there is no chance of getting rich but with my system of education which is as new as it is true i shall do a great deal of good to my fellow creatures dreams dreams
if there had been any system left to be invented they would have found it out at the universities long before this time never mother they cannot find it out because their teachers don't come in contact with the class which demands such a system
that is those who have had no preliminary training my plan is one for instilling high knowledge into empty minds without first cramming them with what has to be uncrammed again before true study begins
i might have believed you if you had kept yourself free from entanglements but this woman if she had been a good girl it would have been bad enough but being she is a good girl so you think a corfu bandmaster's daughter
what has her life been her surname even is not her true one she is captain vye's granddaughter and her father merely took her mother's name and she is a lady by instinct
they call him captain but anybody is captain he was in the royal navy no doubt he has been to sea in some tub or other why doesn't he look after her
but that's not all of it there was something queer between her and thomasin's husband at one time i am as sure of it as that i stand here eustacia has told me he did pay her a little attention a year ago but there's no harm in that
whatever you do you will always be dear to me that you know but one thing i have a right to say which is that at my age i am old enough to know what is best for me missus yeobright remained for some time silent and shaken as if she could say no more
then she replied best is it best for you to injure your prospects for such a voluptuous idle woman as that don't you see that by the very fact of your choosing her you prove that you do not know what is best for you
you give up your whole thought you set your whole soul to please a woman i do and that woman is you how can you treat me so flippantly said his mother turning again to him with a tearful look
you are unnatural clym and i did not expect it very likely said he cheerlessly you did not know the measure you were going to mete me and therefore did not know the measure that would be returned to you again
you answer me you think only of her you stick to her in all things that proves her to be worthy i have never yet supported what is bad and i do not care only for her i care for you
when a woman once dislikes another she is merciless o clym please don't go setting down as my fault what is your obstinate wrongheadedness if you wished to connect yourself with an unworthy person why did you come home here to do it
you have come only to distress me a lonely woman and shorten my days i wish that you would bestow your presence where you bestow your love clym said huskily you are my mother i will say no more beyond this
and the moist hollows of the heath had passed from their brown to their green stage yeobright walked to the edge of the basin which extended down from mistover and rainbarrow by this time he was calm and he looked over the landscape
in the minor valleys between the hillocks which diversified the contour of the vale the fresh young ferns were luxuriantly growing up ultimately to reach a height of five or six feet he descended a little way
flung himself down in a spot where a path emerged from one of the small hollows and waited hither it was that he had promised eustacia to bring his mother this afternoon that they might meet and be friends his attempt had utterly failed
he was in a nest of vivid green the ferny vegetation round him though so abundant was quite uniform it was a grove of machine made foliage a world of green triangles with saw edges and not a single flower
the air was warm with a vaporous warmth and the stillness was unbroken
gloomily pondering he discerned above the ferns a drawn bonnet of white silk approaching from the left and yeobright knew directly that it covered the head of her he loved his heart awoke from its apathy to a warm excitement and jumping to his feet he said aloud
i knew she was sure to come she vanished in a hollow for a few moments and then her whole form unfolded itself from the brake only you here she exclaimed with a disappointed air whose hollowness was proved by her rising redness and her half guilty low laugh
where is missus yeobright she has not come he replied in a subdued tone i wish i had known that you would be here alone she said seriously and that we were going to have such an idle pleasant time as this
pleasure not known beforehand is half wasted to anticipate it is to double it i have not thought once today of having you all to myself this afternoon and the actual moment of a thing is so soon gone it is indeed
poor clym she continued looking tenderly into his face you are sad something has happened at your home never mind what is let us only look at what seems
but darling what shall we do said he still go on as we do now just live on from meeting to meeting never minding about another day you i know are always thinking of that i can see you are
but you must not will you dear clym you are just like all women they are ever content to build their lives on any incidental position that offers itself whilst men would fain make a globe to suit them
i have feared my bliss she said with the merest motion of her lips it has been too intense and consuming there is hope yet there are forty years of work in me yet and why should you despair
i am only at an awkward turning i wish people wouldn't be so ready to think that there is no progress without uniformity ah your mind runs off to the philosophical side of it well
these sad and hopeless obstacles are welcome in one sense for they enable us to look with indifference upon the cruel satires that fate loves to indulge in
upon coming suddenly into happiness have died from anxiety lest they should not live to enjoy it i felt myself in that whimsical state of uneasiness lately but i shall be spared it now let us walk on
clym took the hand which was already bared for him it was a favourite way with them to walk bare hand in bare hand and led her through the ferns they formed a very comely picture of love at full flush as they walked along the valley that late afternoon
the sun sloping down on their right and throwing their thin spectral shadows tall as poplar trees far out across the furze and fern
a certain glad and voluptuous air of triumph pervading her eyes at having won by her own unaided self a man who was her perfect complement in attainment appearance and age on the young man's part
and the incipient marks of time and thought were less perceptible than when he returned the healthful and energetic sturdiness which was his by nature having partially recovered its original proportions they wandered onward till they reached the nether margin of the heath
they stood still and prepared to bid each other farewell everything before them was on a perfect level the sun resting on the horizon line streamed across the ground from between copper coloured and lilac clouds
stretched out in flats beneath a sky of pale soft green all dark objects on the earth that lay towards the sun were overspread by a purple haze against which groups of wailing gnats shone out
rising upwards and dancing about like sparks of fire o
your mother will influence you too much i shall not be judged fairly
they cannot nobody dares to speak disrespectfully of you or of me oh how i wish i was sure of never losing you that you could not be able to desert me anyhow clym stood silent a moment
his feelings were high the moment was passionate and he cut the knot you shall be sure of me darling he said folding her in his arms we will be married at once o clym do you agree to it
if if we can we certainly can both being of full age and i have not followed my occupation all these years without having accumulated money and if you will agree to live in a tiny cottage somewhere on the heath
would your grandfather allow you i think he would on the understanding that it should not last longer than six months i will guarantee that if no misfortune happens if no misfortune happens
she repeated slowly which is not likely dearest fix the exact day and then they consulted on the question and the day was chosen it was to be a fortnight from that time
the luminous rays wrapped her up with her increasing distance and the rustle of her dress over the sprouting sedge and grass died away as he watched the dead flat of the scenery overpowered him
there was something in its oppressive horizontality which too much reminded him of the arena of life it gave him a sense of bare equality with and no superiority to a single living thing under the sun
a being to fight for support help be maligned for
trust me i am advising you now to act as a sensible man should only read them and you will see the pleasure you will derive from them for come tell me can there be anything more delightful than to see as it were
here now displayed before us a vast lake of bubbling pitch with a host of snakes and serpents and lizards and ferocious and terrible creatures of all sorts swimming about in it while from the middle of the lake there comes a plaintive voice saying
if thou wouldst win the prize that lies hidden beneath these dusky waves prove the valour of thy stout heart and cast thyself into the midst of its dark burning waters
else thou shalt not be worthy to see the mighty wonders contained in the seven castles of the seven fays that lie beneath this black expanse and then the knight almost ere the awful voice has ceased without stopping to consider
without pausing to reflect upon the danger to which he is exposing himself
and a delightful grove of green leafy trees presents itself to the eyes and charms the sight with its verdure while the ear is soothed by the sweet untutored melody of the countless birds of gay plumage that flit to and fro among the interlacing branches
here he sees a brook whose limpid waters like liquid crystal ripple over fine sands and white pebbles that look like sifted gold and purest pearls there he perceives a cunningly wrought fountain of many coloured jasper and polished marble here another of rustic fashion
mingled with fragments of glittering crystal and mock emeralds make up a work of varied aspect where art
suddenly there is presented to his sight a strong castle or gorgeous palace with walls of massy gold turrets of diamond and gates of jacinth in short so marvellous is its structure
that though the materials of which it is built are nothing less than diamonds carbuncles rubies pearls gold and emeralds
and after having seen all this what can be more charming than to see how a bevy of damsels comes forth from the gate of the castle in gay and gorgeous attire such that were i to set myself now to depict it as the histories describe it to us i should never have done
who plunged into the boiling lake by the hand and without addressing a word to him leads him into the rich palace or castle and strips him as naked as when his mother bore him and bathes him in lukewarm water and anoints him all over with sweet smelling unguents
they lead him to another chamber where he finds the tables set out in such style that he is filled with amazement and wonder to see how they pour out water for his hands distilled from amber and sweet scented flowers how they seat him on an ivory chair
to see how the damsels wait on him all in profound silence how they bring him such a variety of dainties so temptingly prepared that the appetite is at a loss which to select to hear the music that resounds while he is at table by whom or whence produced he knows not
and then when the repast is over and the tables removed for the knight to recline in the chair picking his teeth perhaps as usual and a damsel much lovelier than any of the others to enter unexpectedly by the chamber door and herself by his side
and begin to tell him what the castle is and how she is held enchanted there and other things that amaze the knight and astonish the readers who are perusing his history but i will not expatiate any further upon this as it may be gathered from it
that whatever part of whatever history of a knight errant one reads it will fill the reader whoever he be with delight and wonder and take my advice sir and as i said before read these books
and raise your spirits should they be depressed for myself i can say that since i have been a knight errant i have become valiant polite generous well bred magnanimous courteous dauntless gentle patient
and fortune thwart me not to see myself king of some kingdom
the poor man is incapacitated from showing the virtue of generosity to anyone
and gratitude that consists of disposition only is a dead thing just as faith without works is dead for this reason i should be glad were fortune soon to offer me some opportunity of making myself an emperor so as to show my heart in doing good to my friends
particularly to this poor sancho panza my squire who is the best fellow in the world and i would gladly give him a county i have promised him this ever so long
sancho partly heard these last words of his master and said to him strive hard you senor don quixote to give me that county so often promised by you and so long looked for by me
for i promise you there will be no want of capacity in me to govern it and even if there is i have heard say there are men in the world who farm seigniories paying so much a year and they themselves taking charge of the government while the lord with his legs stretched out enjoys the revenue they pay him
and not stand haggling over trifles but wash my hands at once of the whole business and enjoy my rents like a duke and let things go their own way that brother sancho said the canon only holds good as far as the enjoyment of the revenue goes
and here capacity and sound judgment come in and above all a firm determination to find out the truth for if this be wanting in the beginning the middle and the end will always go wrong and god as commonly aids the honest intentions of the simple as he frustrates the evil designs of the crafty
returned sancho panza all i know is i would i had the county as soon as i shall know how to govern it
and i shall be as much king of my realm as any other of his and being so i should do as i liked and doing as i liked i should please myself and pleasing myself i should be content
and when one has nothing more to desire there is an end of it so let the county come and god he with you
but for all that there is a good deal to be said on this matter of counties to which don quixote returned i know not what more there is to be said i only guide myself by the example set me
when he made his squire count of the insula firme and so without any scruples of conscience i can make a count of sancho panza for he is one of the best squires that ever knight errant had the canon was astonished at the methodical nonsense
if nonsense be capable of method that don quixote uttered
at the impression that the deliberate lies of the books he read had made upon him and lastly he marvelled at the simplicity of sancho who desired so eagerly to obtain the county his master had promised him by this time the canon's servants
who had gone to the inn to fetch the sumpter mule had returned and making a carpet and the green grass of the meadow serve as a table they seated themselves in the shade of some trees and made their repast there that the carter might not be deprived of the advantage of the spot as has been already said
as they were eating they suddenly heard a loud noise and the sound of a bell that seemed to come from among some brambles and thick bushes that were close by and the same instant they observed a beautiful goat spotted all over black white and brown spring out of the thicket
with a goatherd after it calling to it and uttering the usual cries to make it stop or turn back to the fold the fugitive goat scared and frightened ran towards the company as if seeking their protection and then stood still
ah wanderer wanderer spotty spotty how have you gone limping all this time what wolves have frightened you my daughter won't you tell me what is the matter my beauty but what else can it be except that you are a she and cannot keep quiet
for if you who ought to keep and lead them go wandering astray what will become of them
for being a female as you say she will follow her natural instinct in spite of all you can do to prevent it take this morsel and drink a sup and that will soothe your irritation and in the meantime the goat will rest herself and so saying
he handed him the loins of a cold rabbit on a fork the goatherd took it with thanks and drank and calmed himself and then said
for i know already by experience that the woods breed men of learning and shepherds harbour philosophers at all events senor returned the goatherd they shelter men of experience and that you may see the truth of this and grasp it
though i may seem to put myself forward without being asked i will if it will not tire you gentlemen and you will give me your attention for a little tell you a true story which will confirm this gentleman's word and he pointed to the curate as well as my own
to this don quixote replied
from the high intelligence they possess and their love of curious novelties that interest charm and entertain the mind as i feel quite sure your story will do so begin friend for we are all prepared to listen i draw my stakes said sancho
and will retreat with this pasty to the brook there
and if the man is not well filled or his alforjas well stored there he may stay as very often he does turned into a dried mummy thou art in the right of it sancho said don quixote go where thou wilt and eat all thou canst
for i have had enough and only want to give my mind its refreshment as i shall by listening to this good fellow's story
chapter two treats of oliver twist's growth education and board for the next eight or ten months oliver was the victim of a systematic course of treachery and deception
he was brought up by hand the hungry and destitute situation of the infant orphan was duly reported by the workhouse authorities to the parish authorities the parish authorities inquired with dignity of the workhouse authorities
whether there was no female then domiciled in the house who was in a situation to impart to oliver twist the consolation and nourishment of which he stood in need the workhouse authorities replied with humility that there was not
upon this the parish authorities magnanimously and humanely resolved that oliver should be farmed or in other words that he should be dispatched to a branch workhouse some three miles off
where twenty or thirty other juvenile offenders against the poor laws rolled about the floor all day without the inconvenience of too much food or too much clothing under the parental superintendence of an elderly female
quite enough to overload its stomach and make it uncomfortable the elderly female was a woman of wisdom and experience she knew what was good for children and she had a very accurate perception of what was good for herself
so she appropriated the greater part of the weekly stipend to her own use and consigned the rising parochial generation to even a shorter allowance than was originally provided for them thereby finding in the lowest depth a deeper still
and proving herself a very great experimental philosopher everybody knows the story of another experimental philosopher who had a great theory about a horse being able to live without eating and who demonstrated it so well
that he had got his own horse down to a straw a day and would unquestionably have rendered him a very spirited and rampacious animal on nothing at all if he had not died four and twenty hours before he was to have had his first comfortable bait of air
unfortunately for the experimental philosophy of the female to whose protecting care oliver twist was delivered over a similar result usually attended the operation of her system
for at the very moment when the child had contrived to exist upon the smallest possible portion of the weakest possible food it did perversely happen in eight and a half cases out of ten either that it sickened from want and cold or fell into the fire from neglect
or got half smothered by accident in any one of which cases the miserable little being was usually summoned into another world and there gathered to the fathers it had never known in this occasionally
when there was some more than usually interesting inquest upon a parish child who had been overlooked in turning up a bedstead or inadvertently scalded to death when there happened to be a washing though the latter accident was very scarce anything approaching to a washing being of rare occurrence in the farm
the former of whom had always opened the body and found nothing inside which was very probable indeed and the latter of whom invariably swore whatever the parish wanted which was very self devotional besides the board made periodical pilgrimages to the farm
and always sent the beadle the day before to say they were going the children were neat and clean to behold when they went and what more would the people have it cannot be expected that this system of farming would produce any very extraordinary or luxuriant crop
oliver twist's ninth birthday found him a pale thin child somewhat diminutive in stature and decidedly small in circumference but nature or inheritance had implanted a good sturdy spirit in oliver's breast it had had plenty of room to expand
thanks to the spare diet of the establishment and perhaps to this circumstance may be attributed his having any ninth birth day at all be this as it may however it was his ninth birthday and he was keeping it in the coal cellar with a select party of two other young gentleman who
after participating with him in a sound thrashing had been locked up for atrociously presuming to be hungry when missus mann the good lady of the house was unexpectedly startled by the apparition of mister bumble the beadle striving to undo the wicket of the garden gate
goodness gracious is that you mister bumble sir said missus mann thrusting her head out of the window in well affected ecstasies of joy susan take oliver and them two brats upstairs and wash em directly
my heart alive mister bumble how glad i am to see you sure ly now mister bumble was a fat man and a choleric so instead of responding to this open hearted salutation in a kindred spirit he gave the little wicket a tremendous shake
and then bestowed upon it a kick which could have emanated from no leg but a beadle's lor only think said missus mann running out for the three boys had been removed by this time
although this invitation was accompanied with a curtsey that might have softened the heart of a church warden it by no means mollified the beadle do you think this respectful or proper conduct missus mann inquired mister bumble grasping his cane
to keep the parish officers a waiting at your garden gate when they come here upon porochial business with the porochial orphans are you aweer missus mann that you are as i may say a porochial delegate and a stipendiary i'm sure mister bumble
that it was you a coming replied missus mann with great humility mister bumble had a great idea of his oratorical powers and his importance he had displayed the one and vindicated the other he relaxed
well well missus mann he replied in a calmer tone it may be as you say it may be lead the way in missus mann for i come on business and have something to say
missus mann ushered the beadle into a small parlour with a brick floor placed a seat for him and officiously deposited his cocked hat and cane on the table before him mister bumble wiped from his forehead the perspiration which his walk had engendered
glanced complacently at the cocked hat and smiled yes he smiled beadles are but men and mister bumble smiled now don't you be offended at what i'm a going to say observed missus mann with captivating sweetness
you've had a long walk you know or i wouldn't mention it now will you take a little drop of somethink mister bumble not a drop nor a drop said mister bumble waving his right hand in a dignified but placid manner
i think you will said missus mann who had noticed the tone of the refusal and the gesture that had accompanied it just a leetle drop with a little cold water and a lump of sugar mister bumble coughed
replied missus mann as she opened a corner cupboard and took down a bottle and glass it's gin i'll not deceive you mister b it's gin do you give the children daffy missus mann inquired bumble following with his eyes the interesting process of mixing
ah bless em that i do dear as it is replied the nurse i couldn't see em suffer before my very eyes you know sir no said mister bumble approvingly no you could not you are a humane woman missus mann
here she set down the glass i shall take a early opportunity of mentioning it to the board missus mann he drew it towards him you feel as a mother missus mann he stirred the gin and water i
i drink your health with cheerfulness missus mann and he swallowed half of it and now about business said the beadle taking out a leathern pocket book the child that was half baptized oliver twist is nine year old to day
inflaming her left eye with the corner of her apron and notwithstanding a offered reward of ten pound which was afterwards increased to twenty pound notwithstanding the most superlative and i may say supernat'ral exertions on the part of this parish said bumble
the beadle drew himself up with great pride and said
you mister bumble i missus mann we name our fondlings in alphabetical order the last was a s swubble i named him this was a t twist i named him the next one comes will be unwin
and the next vilkins i have got names ready made to the end of the alphabet and all the way through it again when we come to z why you're quite a literary character sir said missus mann well well said the beadle
evidently gratified with the compliment perhaps i may be perhaps i may be missus mann he finished the gin and water and added oliver being now too old to remain here the board have determined to have him back into the house
i have come out myself to take him there so let me see him at once i'll fetch him directly said missus mann leaving the room for that purpose oliver
having had by this time as much of the outer coat of dirt which encrusted his face and hands removed as could be scrubbed off in one washing was led into the room by his benevolent protectress make a bow to the gentleman oliver said missus mann oliver made a bow
which was divided between the beadle on the chair and the cocked hat on the table will you go along with me oliver said mister bumble in a majestic voice oliver was about to say that he would go along with anybody with great readiness
when glancing upward he caught sight of missus mann who had got behind the beadle's chair and was shaking her fist at him with a furious countenance he took the hint at once for the fist had been too often impressed upon his body not to be deeply impressed upon his recollection
these mail wagons were two wheeled cabriolets upholstered inside with fawn colored leather hung on springs and having but two seats one for the postboy the other for the traveller
the wheels were armed with those long offensive axles which keep other vehicles at a distance and which may still be seen on the road in germany the despatch box an immense oblong coffer was placed behind the vehicle and formed a part of it
this coffer was painted black and the cabriolet yellow these vehicles which have no counterparts nowadays had something distorted and hunchbacked about them and when one saw them passing in the distance and climbing up some road to the horizon
they resembled the insects which are called i think termites and which though with but little corselet drag a great train behind them but they travelled at a very rapid rate
after the mail from paris had passed
just as it was entering the town with a little tilbury harnessed to a white horse which was going in the opposite direction and in which there was but one person a man enveloped in a mantle the wheel of the tilbury received quite a violent shock
the postman shouted to the man to stop but the traveller paid no heed and pursued his road at full gallop that man is in a devilish hurry said the postman the man thus hastening on was the one whom we have just seen struggling in convulsions which are certainly deserving of pity
whither was he going he could not have told why was he hastening he did not know he was driving at random straight ahead whither
but he might have been going elsewhere as well at times he was conscious of it and he shuddered he plunged into the night as into a gulf something urged him forward something drew him on
no one could have told what was taking place within him every one will understand it what man is there who has not entered at least once in his life into that obscure cavern of the unknown however he had resolved on nothing decided nothing formed no plan
done nothing none of the actions of his conscience had been decisive he was more than ever as he had been at the first moment
he repeated what he had already said to himself when he had hired scaufflaire's cabriolet that whatever the result was to be there was no reason why he should not see with his own eyes and judge of matters for himself that this was even prudent
that he must know what took place that no decision could be arrived at without having observed and scrutinized that one made mountains out of everything from a distance that at any rate when he should have seen that champmathieu some wretch
his conscience would probably be greatly relieved to allow him to go to the galleys in his stead that javert would indeed be there
old convicts who had known him but they certainly would not recognize him bah what an idea
and that there is nothing so headstrong as suppositions and conjectures that accordingly there was no danger that it was no doubt a dark moment
that he was master of it he clung to this thought at bottom to tell the whole truth
nevertheless he was going thither as he meditated he whipped up his horse which was proceeding at that fine regular and even trot which accomplishes two leagues and a half an hour in proportion as the cabriolet advanced
he felt something within him draw back
but without seeing them the morning has its spectres as well as the evening he did not see them but without his being aware of it and by means of a sort of penetration which was almost physical
these black silhouettes of trees and of hills added some gloomy and sinister quality to the violent state of his soul each time that he passed one of those isolated dwellings which sometimes border on the highway he said to himself
and yet there are people there within who are sleeping the trot of the horse the bells on the harness the wheels on the road produced a gentle monotonous noise these things are charming when one is joyous and lugubrious when one is sad
it was broad daylight when he arrived at hesdin he halted in front of the inn to allow the horse a breathing spell and to have him given some oats the horse belonged as scaufflaire had said to that small race of the boulonnais which has too much head
too much belly and not enough neck and shoulders but which has a broad chest a large crupper thin fine legs and solid hoofs a homely but a robust and healthy race the excellent beast had travelled five leagues in two hours
and had not a drop of sweat on his loins he did not get out of the tilbury the stableman who brought the oats suddenly bent down and examined the left wheel are you going far in this condition said the man
he replied with an air of not having roused himself from his revery why have you come from a great distance went on the man five leagues ah why do you say ah the man bent down once more
was silent for a moment with his eyes fixed on the wheel then he rose erect and said because though this wheel has travelled five leagues it certainly will not travel another quarter of a league he sprang out of the tilbury what is that you say my friend
just see here the wheel really had suffered serious damage the shock administered by the mail wagon had split two spokes and strained the hub so that the nut no longer held firm my friend he said to the stableman
certainly sir do me the service to go and fetch him he is only a step from here hey master bourgaillard master bourgaillard the wheelwright was standing on his own threshold he came examined the wheel
and made a grimace like a surgeon when the latter thinks a limb is broken can you repair this wheel immediately yes sir when can i set out again to morrow to morrow there is a long day's work on it are you in a hurry sir
in a very great hurry i must set out again in an hour at the latest impossible sir i will pay whatever you ask impossible well in two hours then impossible to day two new spokes and a hub must be made
monsieur will not be able to start before to morrow morning the matter cannot wait until to morrow what if you were to replace this wheel instead of repairing it how so
certainly sir have you not a wheel that you can sell me then i could start again at once a spare wheel yes i have no wheel on hand that would fit your cabriolet two wheels make a pair two wheels cannot be put together hap hazard
in that case sell me a pair of wheels not all wheels fit all axles sir try nevertheless it is useless sir i have nothing to sell but cart wheels we are but a poor country here
have you a cabriolet that you can let me have the wheelwright had seen at the first glance that the tilbury was a hired vehicle he shrugged his shoulders you treat the cabriolets that people let you so well if i had one i would not let it to you
well sell it to me then i have none what not even a spring cart i am not hard to please as you see we live in a poor country there is in truth added the wheelwright
an old calash under the shed yonder which belongs to a bourgeois of the town who gave it to me to take care of and who only uses it on the thirty sixth of the month never that is to say i might let that to you for what matters it to me
but the bourgeois must not see it pass and then it is a calash it would require two horses i will take two post horses where is monsieur going
and monsieur wishes to reach there to day yes of course by taking two post horses why not does it make any difference whether monsieur arrives at four o'clock to morrow morning certainly not there is one thing to be said about that you see
by taking post horses monsieur has his passport yes well by taking post horses monsieur cannot reach arras before to morrow we are on a cross road the relays are badly served the horses are in the fields
the season for ploughing is just beginning heavy teams are required and horses are seized upon everywhere from the post as well as elsewhere monsieur will have to wait three or four hours
and then they drive at a walk there are many hills to ascend come then i will go on horseback unharness the cabriolet some one can surely sell me a saddle in the neighborhood without doubt but will this horse bear the saddle
that is true you remind me of that he will not bear it then but i can surely hire a horse in the village
yes that would require such a horse as does not exist in these parts you would have to buy it to begin with because no one knows you but you will not find one for sale nor to let for five hundred francs or for a thousand what am i to do
the best thing is to let me repair the wheel like an honest man and set out on your journey to morrow to morrow will be too late the deuce is there not a mail wagon which runs to arras when will it pass to night
both the posts pass at night the one going as well as the one coming what it will take you a day to mend this wheel a day and a good long one if you set two men to work if i set ten men to work what if the spokes were to be tied together with ropes
that could be done with the spokes not with the hub and the felly is in a bad state too is there any one in this village who lets out teams no is there another wheelwright the stableman and the wheelwright replied in concert with a toss of the head no
he felt an immense joy it was evident that providence was intervening that it was it who had broken the wheel of the tilbury and who was stopping him on the road he had not yielded to this sort of first summons
he had just made every possible effort to continue the journey he had loyally and scrupulously exhausted all means he had been deterred neither by the season nor fatigue nor by the expense he had nothing with which to reproach himself
he breathed again he breathed freely and to the full extent of his lungs for the first time since javert's visit it seemed to him that the hand of iron which had held his heart in its grasp for the last twenty hours had just released him it seemed to him that god was for him now
and was manifesting himself he said himself that he had done all he could and that now he had nothing to do but retrace his steps quietly if his conversation with the wheelwright had taken place in a chamber of the inn
no one would have heard him things would have rested there and it is probable that we should not have had to relate any of the occurrences which the reader is about to peruse but this conversation had taken place in the street any colloquy in the street inevitably attracts a crowd
there are always people who ask nothing better than to become spectators while he was questioning the wheelwright
after listening for a few minutes a young lad to whom no one had paid any heed detached himself from the group and ran off
this child returned he was accompanied by an old woman monsieur said the woman my boy tells me that you wish to hire a cabriolet these simple words uttered by an old woman led by a child made the perspiration trickle down his limbs
he thought that he beheld the hand which had relaxed its grasp reappear in the darkness behind him ready to seize him once more he answered yes my good woman i am in search of a cabriolet which i can hire and he hastened to add but there is none in the place
certainly there is said the old woman where interpolated the wheelwright at my house replied the old woman he shuddered the fatal hand had grasped him again the old woman really had in her shed a sort of basket spring cart
the wheelwright and the stable man in despair at the prospect of the traveller escaping their clutches interfered it was a frightful old trap
the wheels were rusted and eaten with moisture it would not go much further than the tilbury a regular ramshackle old stage wagon the gentleman would make a great mistake if he trusted himself to it
all this was true but this trap this ramshackle old vehicle this thing whatever it was
he paid what was asked left the tilbury with the wheelwright to be repaired intending to reclaim it on his return had the white horse put to the cart climbed into it and resumed the road which he had been travelling since morning
at the moment when the cart moved off he admitted that he had felt a moment previously a certain joy in the thought that he should not go whither he was now proceeding he examined this joy with a sort of wrath and found it absurd
why should he feel joy at turning back after all he was taking this trip of his own free will no one was forcing him to it and assuredly nothing would happen except what he should choose as he left hesdin he heard a voice shouting to him stop stop
it was the old woman's little boy monsieur said the latter it was i who got the cart for you well you have not given me anything he who gave to all so readily thought this demand exorbitant and almost odious
ah it's you you scamp said he you shall have nothing he whipped up his horse and set off at full speed he had lost a great deal of time at hesdin he wanted to make it good the little horse was courageous and pulled for two
but it was the month of february there had been rain the roads were bad and then it was no longer the tilbury the cart was very heavy and in addition there were many ascents he took nearly four hours to go from hesdin to saint pol
four hours for five leagues at saint pol he had the horse unharnessed at the first inn he came to and led to the stable as he had promised scaufflaire
does not monsieur wish to breakfast come that is true i even have a good appetite he followed the woman who had a rosy cheerful face she led him to the public room where there were tables covered with waxed cloth
make haste said he i must start again i am in a hurry a big flemish servant maid placed his knife and fork in all haste he looked at the girl with a sensation of comfort
his breakfast was served he seized the bread took a mouthful and then slowly replaced it on the table and did not touch it again a carter was eating at another table he said to this man why is their bread so bitter here
the carter was a german and did not understand him he returned to the stable and remained near the horse
what did he do during this journey of what was he thinking
this is a sort of contemplation which sometimes suffices to the soul and almost relieves it from thought
to travel is to be born and to die at every instant perhaps in the vaguest region of his mind he did make comparisons between the shifting horizon and our human existence all the things of life are perpetually fleeing before us the dark and bright intervals are intermingled
after a dazzling moment an eclipse we look we hasten we stretch out our hands to grasp what is passing each event is a turn in the road and all at once we are old we feel a shock all is black we distinguish an obscure door
the gloomy horse of life which has been drawing us halts and we see a veiled and unknown person unharnessing amid the shadows
it is true that the days were still short
raised his head and said to him that horse is very much fatigued the poor beast was in fact going at a walk are you going to arras added the road mender yes if you go on at that rate you will not arrive very early
he stopped his horse and asked the laborer
nearly seven good leagues how is that the posting guide only says five leagues and a quarter ah returned the road mender so you don't know that the road is under repair you will find it barred a quarter of an hour further on there is no way to proceed further really
you will take the road on the left leading to carency you will cross the river when you reach camblin you will turn to the right
you do not belong in these parts no and besides it is all cross roads stop sir resumed the road mender shall i give you a piece of advice your horse is tired
there is a good inn there sleep there you can reach arras to morrow i must be there this evening that is different but go to the inn all the same and get an extra horse the stable boy will guide you through the cross roads he followed the road mender's advice
retraced his steps and half an hour later he passed the same spot again but this time at full speed with a good horse to aid a stable boy who called himself a postilion was seated on the shaft of the cariole still he felt that he had lost time
night had fully come they turned into the cross road the way became frightfully bad the cart lurched from one rut to the other he said to the postilion keep at a trot and you shall have a double fee in one of the jolts the whiffle tree broke
there's the whiffle tree broken sir said the postilion i don't know how to harness my horse now this road is very bad at night
he replied have you a bit of rope and a knife yes sir he cut a branch from a tree and made a whiffle tree of it this caused another loss of twenty minutes but they set out again at a gallop the plain was gloomy
low hanging black crisp fogs crept over the hills and wrenched themselves away like smoke there were whitish gleams in the clouds a strong breeze which blew in from the sea produced a sound in all quarters of the horizon as of some one moving furniture
everything that could be seen assumed attitudes of terror how many things shiver beneath these vast breaths of the night he was stiff with cold
eight years previously and it seemed but yesterday the hour struck from a distant tower he asked the boy what time is it seven o'clock sir
at that moment he for the first time indulged in this reflection thinking it odd the while that it had not occurred to him sooner that all this trouble which he was taking was perhaps useless that he did not know so much as the hour of the trial
that he was foolish to go thus straight ahead without knowing whether he would be of any service or not then he sketched out some calculations in his mind that ordinarily the sittings of the court of assizes began at nine o'clock in the morning that it could not be a long affair
that the theft of the apples would be very brief that there would then remain only a question of identity four or five depositions
that he should arrive after all was over
chapter six sister simplice put to the proof but at that moment fantine was joyous she had passed a very bad night her cough was frightful her fever had doubled in intensity she had had dreams
in the morning when the doctor paid his visit she was delirious he assumed an alarmed look
all the morning she was melancholy said but little and laid plaits in her sheets murmuring the while in a low voice calculations which seemed to be calculations of distances her eyes were hollow and staring
they seemed almost extinguished at intervals then lighted up again and shone like stars it seems as though at the approach of a certain dark hour the light of heaven fills those who are quitting the light of earth
each time that sister simplice asked her how she felt she replied invariably well
some months before this at the moment when fantine had just lost her last modesty her last shame and her last joy she was the shadow of herself now she was the spectre of herself physical suffering had completed the work of moral suffering
this creature of five and twenty had a wrinkled brow flabby cheeks pinched nostrils teeth from which the gums had receded a leaden complexion a bony neck prominent shoulder blades frail limbs a clayey skin
and her golden hair was growing out sprinkled with gray alas how illness improvises old age at mid day the physician returned gave some directions inquired whether the mayor had made his appearance at the infirmary and shook his head
as exactness is kindness he was exact about half past two fantine began to be restless in the course of twenty minutes she asked the nun more than ten times what time is it sister three o'clock struck
at the third stroke fantine sat up in bed she who could in general hardly turn over joined her yellow fleshless hands in a sort of convulsive clasp and the nun heard her utter one of those profound sighs which seem to throw off dejection then fantine turned and looked at the door
no one entered the door did not open she remained thus for a quarter of an hour her eyes riveted on the door motionless and apparently holding her breath the sister dared not speak to her the clock struck a quarter past three
fantine fell back on her pillow she said nothing but began to plait the sheets once more half an hour passed then an hour no one came every time the clock struck fantine started up and looked towards the door then fell back again
her thought was clearly perceptible but she uttered no name she made no complaint she blamed no one but she coughed in a melancholy way one would have said that something dark was descending upon her she was livid and her lips were blue
she smiled now and then five o'clock struck then the sister heard her say very low and gently he is wrong not to come to day since i am going away to morrow sister simplice herself was surprised
in the meantime fantine was staring at the tester of her bed she seemed to be endeavoring to recall something all at once she began to sing in a voice as feeble as a breath the nun listened this is what fantine was singing
lovely things we will buy as we stroll the faubourgs through roses are pink corn flowers are blue i love my love corn flowers are blue yestere'en the virgin mary came near my stove in a broidered mantle clad and said to me here
hide neath my veil the child whom you one day begged from me haste to the city buy linen buy a needle buy thread lovely things we will buy as we stroll the faubourgs through dear holy virgin beside my stove i have set
a cradle with ribbons decked god may give me his loveliest star i prefer the child thou hast granted me madame what shall i do with this linen fine
roses are pink and corn flowers are blue i love my love and corn flowers are blue
make of it soiling not spoiling not a petticoat fair with its bodice fine which i will embroider and fill with flowers
lovely things we will buy as we stroll the faubourgs through roses are pink corn flowers are blue i love my love corn flowers are blue
this song was an old cradle romance with which she had in former days lulled her little cosette to sleep and which had never recurred to her mind in all the five years during which she had been parted from her child she sang it in so sad a voice
and to so sweet an air that it was enough to make any one even a nun weep the sister accustomed as she was to austerities felt a tear spring to her eyes the clock struck six fantine did not seem to hear it
she no longer seemed to pay attention to anything about her sister simplice sent a serving maid to inquire of the portress of the factory whether the mayor had returned and if he would not come to the infirmary soon
the girl returned in a few minutes fantine was still motionless and seemed absorbed in her own thoughts the servant informed sister simplice in a very low tone that the mayor had set out that morning before six o'clock
in a little tilbury harnessed to a white horse cold as the weather was that he had gone alone without even a driver that no one knew what road he had taken that people said he had been seen to turn into the road to arras
that others asserted that they had met him on the road to paris that when he went away he had been very gentle as usual and that he had merely told the portress not to expect him that night
while the two women were whispering together with their backs turned to fantine's bed the sister interrogating the servant conjecturing fantine with the feverish vivacity of certain organic maladies which unite the free movements of health
with the frightful emaciation of death had raised herself to her knees in bed with her shrivelled hands resting on the bolster and her head thrust through the opening of the curtains and was listening all at once she cried
why are you talking so low what is he doing why does he not come her voice was so abrupt and hoarse that the two women thought they heard the voice of a man they wheeled round in affright answer me cried fantine the servant stammered
the portress told me that he could not come to day be calm my child said the sister lie down again fantine without changing her attitude continued in a loud voice and with an accent that was both imperious and heart rending he cannot come
why not you know the reason you are whispering it to each other there i want to know it the servant maid hastened to say in the nun's ear say that he is busy with the city council sister simplice blushed faintly
for it was a lie that the maid had proposed to her on the other hand it seemed to her that the mere communication of the truth to the invalid would without doubt deal her a terrible blow and that this was a serious matter in fantine's present state her flush did not last long
the sister raised her calm sad eyes to fantine and said monsieur le maire has gone away fantine raised herself and crouched on her heels in the bed her eyes sparkled indescribable joy beamed from that melancholy face
gone she cried he has gone to get cosette then she raised her arms to heaven and her white face became ineffable her lips moved she was praying in a low voice when her prayer was finished sister she said
i am willing to lie down again i will do anything you wish i was naughty just now i beg your pardon for having spoken so loud it is very wrong to talk loudly i know that well my good sister but you see i am very happy the good god is good
just think he has gone to montfermeil to get my little cosette she lay down again with the nun's assistance helped the nun to arrange her pillow and kissed the little silver cross which she wore on her neck
try to rest now and do not talk any more fantine took the sister's hand in her moist hands
like this she must be a big girl now she is seven years old she is quite a young lady i call her cosette but her name is really euphrasie stop
oh how good m le maire is to go it is very cold it is true he had on his cloak at least he will be here to morrow will he not to morrow will be a festival day to morrow morning sister you must remind me to put on my little cap that has lace on it
but the diligences go very quickly he will be here to morrow with cosette how far is it from here to montfermeil the sister who had no idea of distances replied oh i think that he will be here to morrow to morrow to morrow said fantine
i shall see cosette to morrow you see good sister of the good god that i am no longer ill i am mad i could dance if any one wished it a person who had seen her a quarter of an hour previously would not have understood the change she was all rosy now
she spoke in a lively and natural voice her whole face was one smile now and then she talked she laughed softly the joy of a mother is almost infantile well resumed the nun now that you are happy mind me and do not talk any more
for you are going to have your child sister simplice is right every one here is right and then without stirring without even moving her head she began to stare all about her with wide open eyes and a joyous air and she said nothing more
the sister drew the curtains together again hoping that she would fall into a doze between seven and eight o'clock the doctor came not hearing any sound he thought fantine was asleep entered softly and approached the bed on tiptoe he opened the curtains a little
and by the light of the taper he saw fantine's big eyes gazing at him she said to him she will be allowed to sleep beside me in a little bed will she not sir the doctor thought that she was delirious she added see there is just room
the doctor took sister simplice aside and she explained matters to him
who believed that the mayor had gone to montfermeil that it was possible after all that her guess was correct the doctor approved he returned to fantine's bed and she went on you see
in truth you did not know it i am cured cosette will arrive to morrow the doctor was surprised she was better the pressure on her chest had decreased her pulse had regained its strength a sort of life had suddenly supervened
and reanimated this poor worn out creature doctor she went on
the doctor recommended silence and that all painful emotions should be avoided he prescribed an infusion of pure chinchona and in case the fever should increase again during the night a calming potion as he took his departure he said to the sister
she is doing better if good luck willed that the mayor should actually arrive to morrow with the child who knows there are crises so astounding
it is indispensable to present the accomplished lady who was of sufficient importance in the suite of the dorrit family to have a line to herself in the travellers book missus general was the daughter of a clerical dignitary in a cathedral town
where she had led the fashion until she was as near forty five as a single lady can be a stiff commissariat officer of sixty famous as a martinet
and had solicited to be taken beside her on the box of the cool coach of ceremony to which that team was harnessed his proposal of marriage being accepted by the lady the commissary took his seat behind the proprieties with great decorum
and missus general drove until the commissary died in the course of their united journey they ran over several people who came in the way of the proprieties but always in a high style and with composure
and they all had feathers and black velvet housings with his coat of arms in the corner missus general began to inquire what quantity of dust and ashes was deposited at the bankers
but for the perfect regulation of her mind she might have felt disposed to question the accuracy of that portion of the late service which had declared that the commissary could take nothing away with him
in this state of affairs it occurred to missus general that she might form the mind and eke the manners of some young lady of distinction or that she might harness the proprieties to the carriage of some rich young heiress or widow
and become at once the driver and guard of such vehicle through the social mazes missus general's communication of this idea to her clerical and commissariat connection was so warmly applauded that but for the lady's undoubted merit
it might have appeared as though they wanted to get rid of her testimonials representing missus general as a prodigy of piety learning virtue and gentility were lavishly contributed from influential quarters
thus delegated on her mission as it were by church and state
opened negotiations with the lady and as it was a part either of the native dignity or of the artificial policy of missus general but certainly one or the other to comport herself as if she were much more sought than seeking
the widower pursued missus general until he prevailed upon her to form his daughter's mind
the execution of this trust occupied missus general about seven years in the course of which time she made the tour of europe and saw most of that extensive miscellany of objects which it is essential that all persons of polite cultivation should see
with other people's eyes and never with their own when her charge was at length formed the marriage not only of the young lady but likewise of her father the widower was resolved on
in all quarters where he thought an opportunity might arise of transferring the blessing to somebody else that missus general was a name more honourable than ever the phoenix was to let on this elevated perch
when mister dorrit who had lately succeeded to his property mentioned to his bankers that he wished to discover a lady well bred accomplished well connected well accustomed to good society who was qualified at once to complete the education of his daughters
pursuing the light so fortunately hit upon and finding the concurrent testimony of the whole of missus general's acquaintance to be of the pathetic nature already recorded mister dorrit took the trouble of going down to the county of the county widower
to see missus general in whom he found a lady of a quality superior to his highest expectations might i be excused said mister dorrit
why indeed returned missus general stopping the word it is a subject on which i prefer to avoid entering i have never entered on it with my friends here and i cannot overcome the delicacy mister dorrit
with which i have always regarded it i am not as i hope you are aware a governess o dear no said mister dorrit pray madam do not imagine for a moment that i think so
he really blushed to be suspected of it missus general gravely inclined her head i cannot therefore put a price upon services which it is a pleasure to me to render if i can render them spontaneously
but which i could not render in mere return for any consideration neither do i know how or where to find a case parallel to my own it is peculiar no doubt but how then
mister dorrit not unnaturally hinted could the subject be approached i cannot object said missus general
to mister dorrit's inquiring in confidence of my friends here what amount they have been accustomed at quarterly intervals to pay to my credit at my bankers mister dorrit bowed his acknowledgements permit me to add
said missus general that beyond this i can never resume the topic also that i can accept no second or inferior position
i think two daughters were mentioned two daughters i could only accept it on terms of perfect equality as a companion protector mentor and friend
two daughters were mentioned two daughters said mister dorrit again it would therefore said missus general be necessary to add a third more to the payment whatever its amount may prove to be
which my friends here have been accustomed to make to my bankers mister dorrit lost no time in referring the delicate question to the county widower and finding that he had been accustomed to pay three hundred pounds a year to the credit of missus general
arrived without any severe strain on his arithmetic at the conclusion that he himself must pay four missus general being an article of that lustrous surface which suggests that it is worth any money
missus general conceded that high privilege and here she was in person missus general including her skirts which had much to do with it was of a dignified and imposing appearance ample rustling
gravely voluminous always upright behind the proprieties she might have been taken had been taken to the top of the alps and the bottom of herculaneum without disarranging a fold in her dress or displacing a pin
if her countenance and hair had rather a floury appearance as though from living in some transcendently genteel mill it was rather because she was a chalky creation altogether than because she mended her complexion with violet powder
or had turned grey if her eyes had no expression it was probably because they had nothing to express if she had few wrinkles it was because her mind had never traced its name or any other inscription on her face a cool
waxy blown out woman who had never lighted well missus general had no opinions her way of forming a mind was to prevent it from forming opinions she had a little circular set of mental grooves or rails
on which she started little trains of other people's opinions which never overtook one another and never got anywhere even her propriety could not dispute that there was impropriety in the world
but missus general's way of getting rid of it was to put it out of sight and make believe that there was no such thing this was another of her ways of forming a mind to cram all articles of difficulty into cupboards
accidents miseries and offences were never to be mentioned before her passion was to go to sleep in the presence of missus general and blood was to change to milk and water
when all these deductions were made it was missus general's province to varnish
she dipped the smallest of brushes into the largest of pots and varnished the surface of every object that came under consideration the more cracked it was the more missus general varnished it
there was varnish in missus general's voice varnish in missus general's touch an atmosphere of varnish round missus general's figure missus general's dreams ought to have been varnished
her steps now fast now lingering slow in varying motion seek relief
stifles a heart that scarce can beat and though so late and lone the hour
and on the pavement spread before the long front of the mansion grey
which pale on grass and granite lay not long she stayed where misty moon and shimmering stars could on her look but through the garden archway soon her strange and gloomy path she took
some firs coeval with the tower their straight black boughs stretched o'er her head
rustled her dress and rapid tread there was an alcove in that shade screening a rustic seat and stand weary she sat her down and laid her hot brow on her burning hand
to solitude and to the night some words she now in murmurs said and trickling through her fingers white some tears of misery she shed god help me in my grievous need
days long a constant weight the yoke of absolute despair a suffering wholly desolate who can for ever crush the heart restrain its throbbing curb its life
dissemble truth with ceaseless art with outward calm mask inward strife she waited as for some reply the still and cloudy night gave none
ere long with deep drawn trembling sigh her heavy plaint again begun unloved i love unwept i weep grief i restrain
hope i repress vain is this anguish fixed and deep vainer desires and dreams of bliss my love awakes no love again my tears collect and fall unfelt
my sorrow touches none with pain my humble hopes to nothing melt for me the universe is dumb stone deaf and blank and wholly blind life i must bound
existence sum in the strait limits of one mind that mind my own oh narrow cell dark imageless a living tomb
there must i sleep there wake and dwell content with palsy pain and gloom again she paused a moan of pain a stifled sob alone was heard
long silence followed then again her voice the stagnant midnight stirred must it be so is this my fate can i nor struggle nor contend
and am i doomed for years to wait watching death's lingering axe descend and when it falls and when i die what follows vacant nothingness the blank of lost identity
i've heard of heaven i would believe for if this earth indeed be all who longest lives may deepest grieve most blest whom sorrows soonest call oh
leaving disappointment here will man find hope on yonder coast hope which on earth shines never clear and oft in clouds is wholly lost will he hope's source of light behold fruition's spring
where doubts expire and drink in waves of living gold contentment full for long desire will he find bliss which here he dreamed rest which was weariness on earth knowledge
will he find love without lust's leaven love fearless tearless perfect pure to all with equal bounty given in all unfeigned unfailing sure
will he from penal sufferings free released from shroud and wormy clod all calm and glorious rise and see creation's sire existence god
then glancing back on time's brief woes will he behold them fading fly swept from eternity's repose like sullying cloud from pure blue sky if so
endure my weary frame and when thy anguish strikes too deep and when all troubled burns life's flame think of the quiet final sleep think of the glorious waking hour
which will not dawn on grief and tears but on a ransomed spirit's power certain and free from mortal fears seek now thy couch
then from thy chamber calm descend with mind nor tossed nor anguish torn but tranquil fixed to wait the end
and when thy opening eyes shall see mementos on the chamber wall of one who has forgotten thee shed not the tear of acrid gall the tear which welling from the heart
burns where its drop corrosive falls and makes each nerve in torture start at feelings it too well recalls when the sweet hope of being loved threw eden sunshine on life's way
when the hand trembled to receive a thrilling clasp which seemed so near and the heart ventured to believe another heart esteemed it dear when words half love all tenderness
as hourly spoken when the long sunny days of bliss only by moonlight nights were broken till drop by drop the cup of joy
with purple light was glowing and faith which watched it sparkling high still never dreamt the overflowing it fell not with a sudden crashing
it poured not out like open sluice no sparkling still and redly flashing drained drop by drop the generous juice i saw it sink and strove to taste it
my eager lips approached the brim the movement only seemed to waste it it sank to dregs all harsh and dim these i have drunk and they for ever have poisoned life and love for me
a draught from sodom's lake could never more fiery salt and bitter be oh love was all a thin illusion joy but the desert's flying stream
and clouded proud and stern nor wherefore friendship's forms forgetting he careless left and cool withdrew nor spoke of grief nor fond regretting
and neither word nor token sending of kindness since the parting day his course for distant regions bending went self contained and calm away
oh bitter blighting keen sensation which will not weaken cannot die hasten thy work of desolation and let my tortured spirit fly vain as the passing gale
my crying though lightning struck i must live on i know at heart there is no dying of love and ruined hope alone still strong and young
and warm with vigour though scathed i long shall greenly grow and many a storm of wildest rigour
rebellious now to blank inertion my unused strength demands a task travel and toil and full exertion are the last only boon i ask
whence then this vain and barren dreaming of death and dubious life to come i see a nearer beacon gleaming over dejection's sea of gloom
the very wildness of my sorrow tells me i yet have innate force my track of life has been too narrow effort shall trace a broader course the world is not in yonder tower
earth is not prisoned in that room mid whose dark panels hour by hour i've sat the slave and prey of gloom one feeling turned to utter anguish is not my being's only aim
when lorn and loveless life will languish but courage can revive the flame he when he left me went a roving to sunny climes beyond the sea and i
the weight of woe removing am free and fetterless as he new scenes new language skies less clouded may once more wake the wish to live strange
foreign towns astir and crowded new pictures to the mind may give new forms and faces passing ever may hide the one i still retain defined and fixed and fading never
stamped deep on vision heart and brain and we might meet time may have changed him chance may reveal the mystery the secret influence which estranged him
love may restore him yet to me false thought false hope in scorn be banished i am not loved nor loved have been
traitors mislead me not again to words like yours i bid defiance tis such my mental wreck have made of god alone and self reliance i ask for solace hope for aid
morn comes and ere meridian glory o'er these my natal woods shall smile both lonely wood and mansion hoary i'll leave behind
arranging long locked drawers and shelves of cabinets shut up for years what a strange task we've set ourselves how still the lonely room appears how strange this mass of ancient treasures
mementos of past pains and pleasures these volumes clasped with costly stone with print all faded gilding gone these fans of leaves from indian trees
these crimson shells from indian seas these tiny portraits set in rings once doubtless deemed such precious things keepsakes bestowed by love on faith
and worn till the receiver's death now stored with cameos china shells in this old closet's dusty cells i scarcely think for ten long years a hand has touched these relics old
and coating each slow formed appears the growth of green and antique mould all in this house is mossing over all is unused and dim and damp nor light nor warmth
the rooms discover bereft for years of fire and lamp the sun sometimes in summer enters the casements with reviving ray but the long rains of many winters
the daw and starling nestle where the tall turret rises high and winds alone come near to rustle the thick leaves where their cradles lie i sometimes think when late at even
i climb the stair reluctantly some shape that should be well in heaven or ill elsewhere will pass by me i fear to see the very faces familiar thirty years ago even in the old accustomed places
which look so cold and gloomy now i've come to close the window hither at twilight when the sun was down and fear my very soul would wither lest something should be dimly shown
too much the buried form resembling of her who once was mistress here lest doubtful shade or moonbeam trembling might take her aspect once so dear hers was this chamber
in her time it seemed to me a pleasant room for then no cloud of grief or crime had cursed it with a settled gloom
in shroud and sheet on yonder bed before she married she was blest blest in her youth blest in her worth her mind was calm its sunny rest shone in her eyes more clear than mirth
and when attired in rich array light lustrous hair about her brow she yonder sat a kind of day lit up what seems so gloomy now these grim oak walls
even then were grim that old carved chair was then antique but what around looked dusk and dim served as a foil to her fresh cheek her neck and arms of hue so fair
eyes of unclouded smiling light her soft and curled and floating hair gems and attire as rainbow bright reclined in yonder deep recess
watching the sun she seemed to bless with happy glance the glorious sky she loved such scenes and as she gazed her face evinced her spirit's mood beauty or grandeur ever raised in her a deep felt gratitude
but of all lovely things she loved a cloudless moon on summer night full oft have i impatience proved to see how long her still delight would find a theme in reverie out on the lawn
or where the trees let in the lustre fitfully as their boughs parted momently to the soft languid summer breeze alas that she should e'er have
deceived by false and guileful tongue she gave her hand then suffered wrong oppressed ill used she faded young and died of grief by slow decay open that casket
she grew uncherished learnt untaught to her the inward life of thought full soon was open laid i know not if her friendlessness did sometimes on her spirit press but plaint she never made
the book shelves were her darling treasure she rarely seemed the time to measure while she could read alone and she too loved the twilight wood and often in her mother's mood away to yonder hill would hie
like her to watch the setting sun or see the stars born one by one out of the darkening sky nor would she leave that hill till night trembled from pole to pole with light even then upon her homeward way
long long her wandering steps delayed to quit the sombre forest shade through which her eerie pathway lay you ask if she had beauty's grace i know not
a keen and fine intelligence and better still the truest sense were in her speaking mien but bloom or lustre was there none only at moments fitful shone
was in her words displayed she still began with quiet sense but oft the force of eloquence came to her lips in aid language and voice unconscious changed and thoughts in other words arranged
her fervid soul transfused into the hearts of those who heard and transient strength and ardour stirred in minds to strength unused yet in gay crowd or festal glare grave and retiring was her air
twas seldom save with me alone that fire of feeling freely shone
nor wonder's gaze nor even exaggerated praise nor even notice if too keen the curious gazer searched her mien nature's own green expanse revealed the world the pleasures she could prize
on free hill side in sunny field in quiet spots by woods concealed
yet nature's feelings deeply lay in that endowed and youthful frame shrined in her heart and hid from day they burned unseen with silent flame in youth's first search for mental light
be calm in frenzy smile at pain pale with the secret war of feeling sustained with courage mute yet high the wounds at which she bled revealing only by altered cheek and eye
she bore in silence but when passion surged in her soul with ceaseless foam the storm at last brought desolation and drove her exiled from her home and silent still she straight assembled
the wrecks of strength her soul retained for though the wasted body trembled the unconquered mind to quail disdained she crossed the sea now lone she wanders
though dimmed so long with secret pain she will return but cold and altered like all whose hopes too soon depart like all on whom have beat unsheltered
the bitter blasts that blight the heart no more shall i behold her lying calm on a pillow smoothed by me no more that spirit worn with sighing
will know the rest of infancy if still the paths of lore she follow twill be with tired and goaded will she'll only toil the aching hollow the joyless blank of life to fill
and oh full oft quite spent and weary her hand will pause her head decline that labour seems so hard and dreary on which no ray of hope may shine
thus the pale blight of time and sorrow will shade with grey her soft dark hair then comes the day that knows no morrow and death succeeds to long despair
so speaks experience sage and hoary i see it plainly know it well like one who having read a story each incident therein can tell
touch not that ring twas his the sire of that forsaken child and nought his relics can inspire save memories sin defiled i who sat by his wife's death bed i
who his daughter loved could almost curse the guilty dead for woes the guiltless proved and heaven did curse they found him laid when crime for wrath was rife cold
and lopped his desperate days you know the spot where three black trees lift up their branches fell and moaning ceaseless as the seas still seem in every passing breeze the deed of blood to tell
they named him mad and laid his bones where holier ashes lie yet doubt not that his spirit groans in hell's eternity but lo
infects our thoughts with gloom
what are currants a kind of small raisins or dried grapes whence are they brought from several islands of the archipelago particularly zante and cephalonia and from the isthmus of corinth in greece
do they grow on bushes like our currants no on vines like other grapes except that the leaves are somewhat thicker and the grapes much smaller they have no pips and are of a deep red or rather black color
when are they gathered and how are they dried
and laid on the ground in heaps till dry
and packed in barrels for exportation what do you mean by exportation the act of conveying goods for sale from one country to another what are raisins grapes prepared by drying them in the sun
or by the heat of an oven raisins of damascus so called from the capital city of syria near which they are cultivated are very large flat and wrinkled on the surface soft and juicy inside and nearly an inch long
raisins of the sun or jar raisins so called from being imported in jars
they are of a reddish blue color and are the produce of spain whence the finest and best raisins are brought there are several other sorts named either from the place in which they grow or the kind of grape of which they are made
as those of malaga valencia
in what manner are they dried the common way of drying grapes for raisins is to tie two or three bunches of them together while yet on the vine and dip them into a lye made of hot wood ashes
this makes them shrink and wrinkle after this they are cut from the branches which supported them but left on the vine for three or four days separated on sticks in an upright position to dry at leisure
different modes however are adopted according to the quality of the grape the commonest kinds are dried in hot ovens but the best way is that in which the grapes are cut when fully ripe and dried by the heat of the sun
on a floor of hard earth or stone lye a liquor made from wood ashes of great use in medicine bleaching
a soft luscious fruit the produce of the fig tree the best figs are brought from turkey but they are also imported from italy spain and the southern part of france
the islands of the archipelago yield an inferior sort in great abundance in this country they are sometimes planted in a warm situation in gardens but being difficult to ripen they do not arrive at perfection
the figs sent from abroad are dried by the heat of the sun or in furnaces for the purpose luscious sweet to excess cloying what is rice
a useful and nutritious grain cultivated in immense quantities in india china and most eastern countries in the west indies central america and the united states and in southern europe
and is more extensively consumed than any other species of grain not even excepting wheat nutritious wholesome good for food does it not require a great deal of moisture yes
it is usually planted in moist soils and near rivers where the ground can be overflowed after it is come up the chinese water their rice fields by means of movable mills placed as occasion requires upon any part of the banks of a river
the water is raised in buckets to a proper height and afterwards conveyed in channels to the destined places what is sugar a sweet agreeable substance
holy wars saracens turks or arabs how is it prepared the canes are crushed between large rollers in a mill and the juice collected into a large vessel placed to receive it
it is then boiled and placed in pans to cool when it becomes imperfectly crystallized in which state we use it this is called raw or soft sugar loaf sugar
or the hard white sugar is the raw brown sugar prepared by refining it till all foreign matter is removed is the sugar cane the only vegetable that produces sugar
all vegetables contain more or less sugar but the plant in which it most abounds is the sugar cane in the united states a large quantity of sugar is prepared from the sap of the sugar maple tree
and the juice runs into a vessel placed to receive it it is then prepared in the same manner as the juice of the sugar cane what is sugar candy sugar purified and crystallized
sugar boiled till it is brittle
and then formed into twisted sticks what is sago a substance prepared from the pith of the sago palm which grows naturally in various parts of africa and the indies the pith
which is even eatable in its natural state is taken from the trunk of the tree and thrown into a vessel placed over a horse hair sieve water is then thrown over the mass and the finer parts of the pith pass through the sieve
the liquor thus obtained is left to settle the clear liquor is then drawn off and what remains is formed into grains by being passed through metal dishes with numerous small holes it is next dried by the action of heat
and in this state it is exported the sago palm also produces sugar what is millet and in what countries does it grow millet is an esculent grain
it is cultivated in many parts of europe but most extensively in egypt syria china and hindostan whence we are furnished with it
except as a curiosity esculent good for food for what is millet used it is in great request amongst the germans for puddings for which it is sometimes used amongst us
and in america it is a native of south eastern asia and the adjoining islands describe its nature and use
much used in medicine and cookery the indians eat the root when green as a salad chopping it small with other herbs they also make a candy of it with sugar the ginger sold in the shops here is dried
which is done by placing the roots in the heat of the sun or in ovens after being dug out of the ground quantities not only of the dried root but also of the candied sugar are imported what are nutmegs
a delicate aromatic fruit or spice brought from the east indies
a thick fleshy coat like our walnut which opens of itself when ripe under this lies a thin reddish network of an agreeable smell and aromatic taste called mace this wraps up the shell
which opens as the fruit grows the shell is the third cover which is hard thin and blackish under this is a greenish film of no use and in the last you find the nutmeg which is the kernel of the fruit
what are its uses the nutmeg is much used in our food and is of excellent virtue as a medicine it also yields an oil of great fragrance is the mace used as a spice
yes it is separated from the shell of the nutmeg and dried in the sun it is brought over in flakes of a yellow color smooth and net like as you see it in the shops
its taste is warm bitterish and rather pungent its smell aromatic it is used both in food and medicine as the nutmeg and also yields an oil pungent of a hot
biting taste what is pimento or allspice the dried unripe berry or fruit of a tree growing in great abundance in jamaica particularly on the northern side of that island on hilly spots near the coast
it is also a native of both indies the pimento tree is a west indian species of myrtle it grows to the height of twenty or thirty feet the leaves are all of a deep shining green
and the blossom consists of numerous branches of small white aromatic flowers which render its appearance very striking there is scarcely in the vegetable world any tree more beautiful than a young pimento about the month of july
when is the time to gather the spice about the month of september not long after the blossoms are fallen the berries are gathered by the hand one laborer on the tree employed in gathering the small branches
will give employment to three below who are generally women and children in picking the berries they are then spread out thinly and exposed to the sun at its rising and setting for some days when they begin to dry
they are frequently winnowed and laid on cloths to preserve them better from rain and dew by this management they become wrinkled and change from green
great quantities are annually imported what are its uses it forms a pleasant addition to flavor food it also yields an agreeable essential oil and is accounted the best and mildest of common spices
essential pure extracted so as to contain all the virtues of the spice in a very small compass why is it called allspice because it has been supposed to combine the flavor of cloves nutmegs and cinnamon
the french call it round clove from its round shape and the taste being somewhat like that spice what is pepper the product of a creeping shrub growing in several parts of the east indies asia
and america in what manner does pepper grow and what part of the shrub is used pepper is the fruit of this shrub and grows in bunches or clusters at first green as it ripens it becomes reddish
until having been exposed for some time to the heat of the sun or probably gathered before perfectly ripe it becomes black as in the condition we have it there are two sorts the black and the white what is the white pepper
the white pepper is merely the black deprived of its outside skin for this purpose the finest red berries are selected and put in baskets to steep either in running water or in pits dug for the purpose near the banks of rivers
sometimes they are only buried in the ground in any of these situations they swell and burst their skins from which when dry they are carefully separated by rubbing between the hands or fanning what is cayenne pepper
corn barley pearl barley oats rye potatoes
coffee and chocolate what is corn corn signifies a race of plants which produce grain in an ear or head fit for bread the food of man or the grain or seed of the plant separated from the ear
what is generally meant by corn in this country maize or indian corn is generally meant but in a more comprehensive sense the term is applied to several other kinds of grain such as wheat rye barley
the cretans sicilians and egyptians also lay claim to the same from the accounts in the bible we find that its culture engaged a large share of the attention of the ancient hebrews culture growth
cultivation hebrews the children of israel the jews who were the athenians inhabitants of athens the capital city of greece who were the cretans
the inhabitants of crete an island of the archipelago who were the sicilians inhabitants of sicily the largest island of the mediterranean sea now a part of italy and separated from the mainland
by the strait of messina where do the egyptians dwell in egypt a country of africa it is extremely fertile producing great quantities of corn
in ancient times it was called the dry nurse of rome and italy from its furnishing with corn a considerable part of the roman empire and we are informed both from sacred and profane history
the corn of syria has always been very superior and by many classed above that of egypt for what is barley generally used it is very extensively used for making malt from which are prepared beer ale
for which reason its consumption is very considerable barley broth being a dish very frequent there ingredient a separate part of a body consisting of different materials what is pearl barley
barley freed from the husk by a mill what are oats
oats are also eaten by the inhabitants of many countries after being ground into meal and made into oat cakes oatmeal also forms a wholesome drink for invalids by steeping it in boiling water
what are the uses of rye in this and some other countries it is much used for bread either alone or mixed with wheat in england principally as food for cattle especially for sheep and lambs
when other food is scarce in winter rye yields a strong spirit when distilled distilled subjected to distillation the operation of extracting spirit from a substance by evaporation and condensation
of what country is the potato a native potatoes grew wild in peru a country of south america whence they were transplanted to other parts of the american continent and afterwards to europe
the honor of introducing this useful vegetable into england is divided between sir francis drake in fifteen eighty and sir walter raleigh in fifteen eighty six some ascribing it to the former and others to the latter
they were cultivated only in the gardens of the nobility and were reckoned a great delicacy they now constitute a principal article of food in most of the countries of europe and america
in ireland they have long furnished nearly four fifths of the entire food of the people what part of the plant is eaten the root which when roasted or boiled affords a wholesome and agreeable meal what is tea
the leaves of an evergreen shrub a native of china and japan in which countries alone it is extensively cultivated for use the tea plant was at one time introduced into south carolina where its culture appears to have been attended
with but little success it may yet become a staple production of some portions of the united states evergreen retaining its leaves fresh and green through all seasons how is it prepared for use
by carefully gathering the leaves one by one while they are yet small young and juicy they are then spread on large flat iron pans and placed over small furnaces
what is next done they are then removed with a kind of shovel resembling a fan and poured on mats whence they are taken in small quantities and rolled in the palm of the hand always in one direction
until they cool and retain the curl how often is this operation repeated two or three times the furnace each time being made less hot the tea is then placed in the store houses or packed in chests
and sent to most of the countries in europe and america describe the appearance of the tea tree the tea tree when arrived at its full growth which it does in about seven years is about a man's height the green leaves are narrow and jagged all round
the flower resembles that of the wild rose but is smaller the shrub loves to grow in valleys at the foot of mountains and on the banks of rivers where it enjoys a southern exposure to the sun though it endures considerable variation of heat and cold
as it flourishes in the northern clime of pekin where the winter is often severe and also about canton where the heat is sometimes very great the best tea however grows in a temperate climate the country about nankin
between which two places it is situated what produces the difference between green and bohea or black there are varieties of the plant
what nation first introduced it into europe the dutch in sixteen ten it was introduced into england in sixteen fifty what is coffee the berry of the coffee tree
a native of arabia the coffee tree is an evergreen and makes a beautiful appearance at all times of the year but especially when in flower and when the berries are red which is usually during the winter it is also cultivated in persia
the east indies liberia on the coast of africa the west indies brazil and other parts of south america as well as in most tropical climates tropical being within the tropics
who was the original discoverer of coffee for the drink of man it is not exactly known
it appears that in the city of aden it became in the latter half of that century a very popular drink first with lawyers studious persons and those whose occupation required wakefulness at night and soon after with all classes
its use gradually extended to other cities
towards the end of the seventeenth century it was carried to batavia
and at last young trees were sent to the botanical garden at amsterdam who introduced it into france and england thevenot the traveller brought it into france and a greek servant named pasqua
taken to england by mister daniel edwards
first set up the profession of coffee man and introduced the drink among the english how is it prepared
till they are of a deep brown color and then ground to powder and boiled metallic consisting of metal what is chocolate a kind of cake or paste made of the kernel of the cacao nut
describe the cacao nut tree it resembles the cherry tree and grows to the height of fifteen or sixteen feet the cacao nut tree bears leaves flowers and fruit all the year through where does it grow
where it is largely cultivated of what form is the fruit it is somewhat like a cucumber about three inches round and of a yellowish red color it contains from ten to forty seeds
each covered with a little rind of a violet color when this is stripped off the kernel of which they make the chocolate is visible how do they make it into a drink
cocoa toddy cherries bark cork cochineal cloves cinnamon and cassia of what form is the tree which bears those large nuts called cocoa nuts
it is tall and straight without branches and generally about thirty or forty feet high at the top are twelve leaves ten feet long and half a foot broad above the leaves grows a large excrescence in the form of a cabbage
excellent to eat but taking it off kills the tree the cocoa is a species of palm is not the indian liquor called toddy produced from the cocoa tree yes
between the leaves and the top arise several shoots about the thickness of a man's arm which when cut distil a white sweet and agreeable liquor while this liquor exudes the tree yields no fruit but when the shoots are allowed to grow
it puts out a large cluster or branch on which the cocoa nuts hang to the number of ten or twelve
of asia the indies africa arabia the islands of the southern pacific and the hottest parts of america what are the uses of this tree
the leaves of the tree are made into baskets they are also used for thatching houses the fibrous bark of the nut and the trunk of the tree are made into cordage sails and cloth the shell into drinking bowls and cups
the kernel affords a wholesome food and the milk contained in the shell a cooling liquor from what country was the cherry tree first brought
on the southern borders of the black sea from which place this tree was brought to rome
a d fifty five what is the meaning of a d
latin words for in the year of our lord
a renowned roman general is the wood of the cherry tree useful it is used in cabinet making for boxes and other articles what is bark the exterior part of trees
which serves them as a skin or covering exterior the outside does it not undergo some change during the year each year the bark of a tree divides and distributes itself two contrary ways
the outer part gives towards the skin till it becomes skin itself and at length falls off the inner part is added to the wood the bark is to the body of a tree what the skin of our body is to the flesh
of what use is bark bark is useful for many things of the bark of willows and linden trees ropes are sometimes made the siamese make their cordage of the cocoa tree bark as do most of the asiatic and african nations
in the east indies they make the bark of a certain tree into a kind of cloth some are used in medicines as the peruvian bark for quinine others in dyeing as that of the alder
that of a kind of birch is used by the indians for making canoes what are canoes boats used by savages
and sometimes of pieces of bark fastened together how do the savages guide them with paddles or oars they seldom carry sails and the loading is laid in the bottom are not the savages very dexterous in the management of them
yes extremely so they strike the paddles with such regularity that the canoes seem to fly along the surface of the water at the same time balancing the vessels with their bodies to prevent their overturning dexterous
expert nimble do they leave their canoes in the water on their return from a voyage no they draw them ashore hang them up by the two ends and leave them to dry
were not books once made of bark yes the ancients wrote their books on the barks of many trees
not the exterior or outer bark but the inner and finer which is of so durable a texture that there are manuscripts written on it which are still extant
yes especially that of the oak but the best oak bark is used in tanning what is cork the thick spongy external bark of the cork tree a species of oak
there are two varieties of this tree the broad leaved and the narrow it is an evergreen and grows to the height of thirty feet the cork tree attains to a very great age where is the tree found in spain
italy france and many other countries the true cork is the produce of the broad leaved tree what are its uses cork is employed in various ways but especially for stopping vessels containing liquids
and on account of its buoyancy in water in the construction of life boats it is also used in the manufacture of life preservers and cork jackets the greatest quantities are brought from catalonia in spain
they made coffins of it lined with a resinous composition which preserved the bodies of the dead uncorrupted what is cochineal a drug used by the dyers for dyeing crimsons and scarlets
and for making carmine a brilliant red used in painting and several of the arts is it a plant no it is an insect the form of the cochineal is oval
it is about the size of a small pea and has six legs armed with claws and a trunk by which it sucks its nourishment what is its habitation it breeds in a fruit resembling a pear
the plant which bears it is about five or six feet high at the top of the fruit grows a red flower which when full blown falls upon it the fruit then appears full of little red insects having very small wings these are the cochineals
by spreading a cloth under the plant and shaking it with poles till the insects quit it and fly about which they cannot do many minutes but soon tumble down dead into the cloth where they are left till quite dry
when the insect flies it is red when it is fallen black
powdered over with a kind of white dust from what countries is the cochineal brought from the west indies jamaica mexico and other parts of america what are cloves
the dried flower buds of the clove tree
but afterwards transplanted by the dutch who traded in them to other islands particularly that of ternate it is now found in most of the east indian islands describe the clove tree
it is a large handsome tree of the myrtle kind its leaves resemble those of the laurel though the clove tree is cultivated to a great extent yet so easily does the fruit on falling take root
the clove when it first begins to appear is white then green and at last hard and red when dried it turns yellow and then dark brown what are its qualities
the clove is the hottest and most acrid of aromatic substances one of our most wholesome spices and of great use in medicine it also yields an abundance of oil which is much used by perfumers and in medicine acrid
of a hot biting taste aromatic fragrant having an agreeable odor what is cinnamon an agreeable aromatic spice the bark of a tree of the laurel kind
the cinnamon tree grows in the southern parts of india but most abundantly in the island of ceylon where it is extensively cultivated its flowers are white resembling those of the lilac in form and are very fragrant
they are borne in large clusters the tree sends up numerous shoots the third or fourth year after it has been planted these shoots are planted out when nearly an inch in thickness how is the bark procured
the trees planted for the purpose of obtaining cinnamon throw out a great number of branches apparently from the same root and are not allowed to rise higher than ten feet but in its native uncultivated state
the cinnamon tree usually rises to the height of twenty or thirty feet how is the cinnamon tree cultivated by seed sown during the rains
and by transplanting old stumps the cinnamon tree in its wild state is said to be propagated by means of a kind of pigeons that feed on its fruit in carrying which to their nests
the seeds fall out and dropping in various places take root spring up and become trees propagated spread extended multiplied what else is obtained from this tree
the bark besides being used as a spice yields an oil highly esteemed both as a medicine and as a perfume the fruit by boiling also produces an oil used by the natives for burning in lamps
it becomes a solid substance like wax and is formed into candles
with a testimonial oliver mankell was again in the charge of warder slater warder slater looked very queer indeed he actually seemed to have lost in bulk
the same phenomenon was observable in the chief warder who followed close upon the prisoner's heels mankell seemed as ever completely at his ease
there was again a suspicion of a smile in his eyes and about the corners of his lips his bearing was in striking contrast to that of the officials his self possession in the presence of their evident uneasiness
gave him the appearance in a sense of being a giant among pigmies yet the major at least was in every way a bigger man than he was there was silence as he entered
a continuation of that silence which had prevailed until he came the governor fumbled with a paper knife which was in front of him the inspector leaning forward in his chair
seemed engrossed by his boots the doctor kept glancing perhaps unconsciously at his hat the chaplain though conspicuously uneasy
it was he who temporarily usurping the governor's functions addressed the prisoner your name is oliver mankell the prisoner merely smiled
three months hard labour the prisoner smiled again for for pretending to tell fortunes the smile became more pronounced the chaplain cleared his throat oliver mankell i am a clergyman
i know that there are such things as good and evil i know that for causes which are hidden from me the almighty may permit evil to take visible shape and walk abroad upon the earth
but i also know that though evil may destroy my body
the chaplain pulled up his words and manner though evidently sincere were not particularly impressive while they evidently had the effect of increasing his colleagues uneasiness they only had the effect of enlarging the prisoner's smile
when he was about to continue the governor interposed i think mister hewett if you will permit me mankell i am not a clergyman the prisoner's smile almost degenerated into a grin
i have sent for you for the second time this morning to ask you frankly if you have any reason to complain of your treatment here the prisoner stretched out his hands with his familiar gesture have you any
complaint to make is there anything within the range of the prison rules you would wish me to do for you again the hands went out then tell me quite candidly what is the cause of your behaviour
when the governor ceased the prisoner seemed to be considering what answer he should make then inclining his head with that almost saturnine grace if one may coin a phrase
your character what do you mean in the first interview with which you favoured me i ventured to observe that it would be my endeavour during my sojourn within these walls to act upon the advice
the magistrate tendered me what
what advice was that he said i claimed to be a magician he advised me for my character's sake to prove it during my sojourn here i see and
for my character's sake i am but beginning you perceive oh you're but beginning you call this but beginning do you may i ask if you have any intention of going on
oh sir i have still nearly the whole three months in front of me until my term expires i shall go on with gathering strength unto the end
as he said this mankell drew himself up in such a way that it almost seemed as though some inches were added to his stature you will will you well you seem to be a pleasant kind of man
the criticism seemed to have been extracted from the governor almost against his will he looked round upon his colleagues with what could only be described as a ghastly grin
to being transferred to another prison sir the prisoner's voice rang out and his hearers started perceptibly perhaps that was because their nerves were already so disorganised
the governor took out his handkerchief and wiped his brow i am bound to tell you mankell judging from the experiences of the last two days if this sort of thing is to continue with gathering strength
the end will not be long the prisoner seemed lost in reflection the officials seemed lost in reflection too but their reflections were probably of a different kind
there is one suggestion i might offer let's have it by all means we have reached a point at which we shall be glad to receive any suggestion from you you might give me a testimonial
give you what you might give me a testimonial the governor looked at the prisoner then at his friends a testimonial might we indeed what sort of testimonial do you allude to
you might testify that i had regained my reputation redeemed my character that i had proved to your entire satisfaction that i was the magician i claimed to be
the governor leaned back in his seat your suggestion has at least the force of novelty i should like to search the registers of remarkable cases
to know if such an application has ever been made to the governor of an english jail before what do you say hardinge the major shuffled in his chair i i think i must return to town the prisoner smiled the major winced
that that fellow's pinned me to my chair he gasped he appeared to be making futile efforts to rise from his seat you cannot return to town dismiss the idea from your mind
the major only groaned he took out his handkerchief and wiped his brow the governor looked up from the paper knife with which he was again trifling
oh sir of what value is a testimonial which is not voluntary quite so
may i ask you for paper pens and ink the prisoner bent over the table and wrote on the paper which was handed him what he had written he passed to the governor mister paley found inscribed
in a beautifully fair round hand as clear as copperplate the following testimonial the undersigned persons present their compliments to colonel gregory
oliver mankell sentenced by colonel gregory to three months hard labour has been in canterstone jail two days that short space of time has however convinced them that colonel gregory acted wrongly
in distrusting his magic powers and so casting a stain upon his character this is to testify that he has proved to the entire satisfaction of the undersigned inspector of prisons
and officials of canterstone jail that he is a magician of quite the highest class the signatures of all those present should be placed at the bottom observed the prisoner as the governor was reading the testimonial
apparently at a loss for words with which to comment upon the paper he had read the governor handed it to the inspector the major shrank from taking it i i'd rather not he mumbled i think you had better read it
said the governor thus urged the major did read it good lord he gasped and passed it to the doctor the doctor silently having read it passed it to the chaplain i will read it aloud
said mister hewett he did so for the benefit probably of slater and mister murray supposing we were to sign that document what would you propose to do with it inquired the governor
i should convey it to colonel gregory indeed in that case he would have as high an opinion of our characters as of yours and yourself what sort of action might we expect from you
i should go the governor's jaw dropped go oh would you my character regained for what have i to stop exactly what have you
we will think the matter over the prisoner dropped his hands to his sides looking the governor steadily in the face sir i conceive that answer to convey a negative
the proposition thus refused will not be made again it only remains for me to continue earnestly my endeavours to retrieve my character until the three months are at an end
the chaplain was holding the testimonial loosely between his finger and thumb stretching out his arm mankell pointed at it with his hand it was immediately in flames the chaplain releasing it
it was consumed to ashes before it reached the floor returning to face the governor gain the prisoner laid his right hand palm downwards on the table
spirits of the air in whose presence i now stand i ask you if i am not justified in whatever i may do his voice was very musical
his upturned eyes seemed to pierce through the ceiling to what there was beyond the room grew darker there was a rumbling in the air the ground began to shake
the chaplain who was caressing the hand which had been scorched by the flames burst out with what was for him a passionate appeal
declared the major there's nothing i wouldn't do to oblige you mister mankell stammered the chief warder same ere cried warder slater
the darkness the rumbling and the shaking ceased as suddenly as they began the prisoner smiled perhaps i was too hasty he confessed
it is an error which can easily be rectified he raised his hand a piece of paper fluttered from the ceiling it fell upon the table it was the testimonial your signature major hardinge
should head the list i i i'd rather somebody else signed first that would never do it is for you to lead the van you are free to leave your seat the major left his seat
apparently not rejoicing in his freedom he wrote william hardinge in great sprawling characters add inspector of prisons
the major added inspector of prisons with a very rueful countenance mister paley it is your turn mister paley took his turn with a really tolerable imitation of being both ready and willing
which had been given the major he added governor of his own accord now doctor it is you the doctor thrust his hands into his trousers pockets i'll sign if you'll tell me how it is done
tell you how it is done how what is done how you do that hanky panky of course hanky panky the prisoner drew himself straight up
is it possible that you suspect me of hanky panky yes sir i will show you how it's done if you wish it you shall be torn asunder where you stand
i always placed a literal interpretation on the twenty eighth chapter of the first book of samuel it is singular how my faith is justified
the chief warder placed his spectacles upon his nose where they seemed uneasy and made quite a business of signing and such was warder slater's agitation that he could scarcely sign at all
but at last the testimonial was complete the prisoner smiled as he carefully folded it in two i will convey it to colonel gregory he said it is a gratification to me
to have been able to retrieve my character in so short a space of time they watched him a little spellbound perhaps and as they watched him
the threat sir lulworth quayne sat in the lounge of his favourite restaurant
who had lately returned from a much enlivened exile in the wilds of mexico
when the asparagus and the plover's egg are abroad in the land and the oyster has not yet withdrawn into it's summer entrenchments and sir lulworth and his nephew were in that enlightened after dinner mood
when politics are seen in their right perspective even the politics of mexico most of the revolutions that take place in this country nowadays
are the product of moments of legislative panic take for instance one of the most dramatic reforms that has been carried through parliament in the lifetime of this generation it happened shortly after the coal strike
of unblessed memory to you who have been plunged up to the neck in events of a more tangled and tumbled description the things i am going to tell you of may seem of secondary interest
but after all we had to live in the midst of them sir lulworth interrupted himself for a moment to say a few kind words to the liqueur brandy he had just tasted and them resumed his narrative
whether one sympathises with the agitation for female suffrage or not one has to admit that its promoters showed tireless energy and considerable enterprise
in devising and putting into action new methods for accomplishing their ends as a rule they were a nuisance and a weariness to the flesh but there were times when they verged on the picturesque
there was the famous occasion when they enlivened and diversified the customary pageantry of the royal progress to open parliament by letting loose thousands of parrots
in a clamorous cloud of green and grey and scarlet it was really rather a striking episode from the spectacular point of view unfortunately however for its devisers
the secret of their intentions had not been well kept and their opponents let loose at the same moment a rival swarm of parrots which screeched i don't think and other hostile cries
thereby robbing the demonstration of the unanimity which alone could have made it politically impressive in the process of recapture the birds learned a quantity of additional language
which unfitted them for further service in the suffragette cause some of the green ones were secured by ardent home rule propagandists and trained to disturb the serenity of orange meetings
by pessimistic reflections on sir edward carson's destination in the life to come in fact the bird in politics is a factor that seems to have come to stay quite recently at a political gathering
held in a dimly lighted place of worship the congregation gave a respectful hearing for nearly ten minutes to a jackdaw from wapping under the impression that they were listening to the chancellor of the exchequer
who was late in arriving but the suffragettes interrupted the nephew what did they do next after the bird fiasco said sir lulworth the militant section made a demonstration of a more aggressive nature
they assembled in force on the opening day of the royal academy exhibition and destroyed some three or four hundred of the pictures this proved an even worse failure than the parrot business
and the drastic weeding out of a few hundred canvases was regarded as a positive improvement moreover from the artists point of view it was realised that the outrage constituted a sort of compensation for those whose works
since out of sight meant also out of reach altogether it was one of the most successful and popular exhibitions that the academy had held for many years then the fair agitators fell back on some of their earlier methods
they wrote sweetly argumentative plays to prove that they ought to have the vote they smashed windows to show that they must have the vote and they kicked cabinet ministers to demonstrate that they'd better have the vote and still
the coldly reasoned or unreasoned reply was that they'd better not their plight might have been summed up in a perversion of gilbert's lines twenty voteless millions we voteless all against our will
twenty years hence we shall be twenty voteless millions still and of course the great idea for their master stroke of strategy came from a masculine source lena dubarri
who was the captain general of their thinking department met waldo orpington in the mall one afternoon just at a time when the fortunes of the cause were at their lowest ebb
waldo orpington is a frivolous little fool who chirrups at drawing room concerts and can recognise bits from different composers without referring to the programme but all the same he occasionally has ideas
he didn't care a twopenny fiddlestring about the cause but he rather enjoyed the idea of having his finger in the political pie also it is possible though i should think highly improbable that he admired lena dubarri anyhow
when lena gave a rather gloomy account of the existing state of things in the suffragette world waldo was not merely sympathetic but ready with a practical suggestion turning his gaze westward along the mall
towards the setting sun and buckingham palace he was silent for a moment and then said significantly you have expended your energies and enterprise on labours of destruction
why has it never occurred to you to attempt something far more terrific what do you mean she asked him eagerly create do you mean create disturbances
we've been doing nothing else for months she said waldo shook his head and continued to look westward along the mall he's rather good at acting in an amateur sort of fashion lena followed his gaze
and then turned to him with a puzzled look of inquiry exactly said waldo in answer to her look but how can we create she asked it's been done already
before he could finish the sentence she had kissed him she declared afterwards that he was the first man she had ever kissed and he declared that she was the first woman who had ever kissed him in the mall so they both secured a record of a kind
within the next day or two a new departure was noticeable in suffragette tactics they gave up worrying ministers and parliament and took to worrying their own sympathisers and supporters for funds
the ballot box was temporarily forgotten in the cult of the collecting box the daughters of the horseleech were not more persistent in their demands
were not more desperate in their expedients for raising money
what they were going to do with it no one seemed to know not even those who were most active in collecting work the secret on this occasion had been well kept certain transactions that leaked out from time to time
only added to the mystery of the situation don't you long to know what we are going to do with our treasure hoard lena asked the prime minister one day when she happened to sit next to him
i was hoping you were going to try a little personal bribery he responded banteringly but some genuine anxiety and curiosity lay behind the lightness of his chaff of course i know he added
that you have been buying up building sites in commanding situations in and around the metropolis two or three i'm told are on the road to brighton and another near ascot you don't mean to fortify them do you
something more insidious than that she said you could prevent us from building forts you can't prevent us from erecting an exact replica of the victoria memorial on each of those sites
they're all private property with no building restrictions attached which memorial he asked not the one in front of buckingham palace surely not that one that one she said
you can't be serious it is a beautiful and imposing work of art at any rate one is getting accustomed to it and even if one doesn't happen to admire it one can always look in another direction
but imagine what life would be like if one saw that erection confronting one wherever one went imagine the effect on people with tired harassed nerves who saw it three times on the way to brighton and three times on the way back
imagine seeing it dominate the landscape at ascot and trying to keep your eye off it on the sandwich golf links what have your countrymen done to deserve such a thing
they have refused us the vote said lena bitterly the prime minister always declared himself an opponent of anything savouring of panic legislation but he brought a bill into parliament forthwith
and successfully appealed to both houses to pass it through all its stages within the week and that is how we got one of the most glorious measures of the century
henrietta maria and mazarin the cardinal rose and advanced in haste to receive the queen of england he showed the more respect to this queen deprived of every mark of pomp and stripped of followers
as he felt some self reproach for his own want of heart and his avarice but supplicants for favor know how to accommodate the expression of their features
ah said mazarin to himself what a sweet face does she come to borrow money of me and he threw an uneasy glance at his strong box he even turned inside the bevel of the magnificent diamond ring
the brilliancy of which drew every eye upon his hand which indeed was white and handsome your eminence said the august visitor it was my first intention to speak of the matters that have brought me here to the queen my sister
but i have reflected that political affairs are more especially the concern of men madame said mazarin your majesty overwhelms me with flattering distinction he is very gracious thought the queen
can he have guessed my errand give continued the cardinal your commands to the most respectful of your servants alas sir replied the queen
i have lost the habit of commanding and have adopted instead that of making petitions i am here to petition you too happy should my prayer be favorably heard
your eminence it concerns the war which the king my husband is now sustaining against his rebellious subjects you are perhaps ignorant that they are fighting in england added she with a melancholy smile
and that in a short time they will fight in a much more decided fashion than they have done hitherto i am completely ignorant of it madame said the cardinal accompanying his words with a slight shrug of the shoulders
alas our own wars quite absorb the time and the mind of a poor incapable infirm old minister like me well then your eminence said the queen
in case of a check mazarin made a slight movement one must foresee everything in the case of a check he desires to retire into france and to live here as a private individual what do you say to this project
the cardinal had listened without permitting a single fibre of his face to betray what he felt and his smile remained as it ever was false and flattering and when the queen finished speaking he said
do you think madame that france agitated and disturbed as it is would be a safe retreat for a dethroned king
the weight was not so heavy when i was in peril interrupted the queen with a sad smile and i ask no more for my husband than has been done for me you see that we are very humble monarchs sir
oh you madame the cardinal hastened to say in order to cut short the explanation he foresaw was coming with regard to you that is another thing
all which does not prevent you refusing hospitality to his son in law sir nevertheless
that that great that sublime monarch when proscribed at one time as my husband may be demanded aid from england and england accorded it to him and it is but just to say that queen elizabeth was not his niece
peccato said mazarin writhing beneath this simple eloquence your majesty does not understand me
partly because doubtless i explain myself in french speak italian sir
the perspiration stood in large drops on mazarin's brow that admiration is on the contrary so great so real madame returned mazarin without noticing the change of language offered to him by the queen
came into france i would offer him my house my own house but alas it would be but an unsafe retreat some day the people will burn that house as they burned that of the marechal
poor concino concini and yet he but desired the good of the people yes my lord like yourself said the queen ironically mazarin pretended not to understand the double meaning of his own sentence
but continued to compassionate the fate of concino concini well then your eminence said the queen becoming impatient what is your answer
will your majesty permit me to give you counsel speak sir replied the queen the counsels of so prudent a man as yourself ought certainly to be available madame believe me the king ought to defend himself to the last he has done so sir and this last battle
proves that he will not yield without a struggle but in case he is beaten well madame in that case my advice
my advice is that the king should not leave his kingdom absent kings are very soon forgotten if he passes over into france his cause is lost but persisted the queen if such be your advice and you have his interest at heart
send him help of men and money for i can do nothing for him i have sold even to my last diamond to aid him if i had had a single ornament left
oh madame said mazarin your majesty knows not what you ask on the day when foreign succor follows in the train of a king to replace him on his throne it is an avowal that he no longer possesses the help and love of his own subjects
to the point sir said the queen to the point and answer me yes or no if the king persists in remaining in england will you send him succor if he comes to france will you accord him hospitality
speak madame said the cardinal affecting an effusive frankness of speech
so much at heart after which your majesty will i think no longer doubt my zeal in your behalf the queen bit her lips and moved impatiently on her chair well what do you propose to do she said at length come speak
i will go this instant and consult the queen and we will refer the affair at once to parliament with which you are at war is it not so you will charge broussel to report it enough sir enough
i understand you or rather i am wrong go to the parliament for it was from this parliament the enemy of monarchs that the daughter of the great
received the only relief this winter which prevented her from dying of hunger and cold and with these words henrietta rose in majestic indignation whilst the cardinal raising his hands clasped toward her
exclaimed ah madame madame how little you know me mon dieu but queen henrietta without even turning toward him who made these hypocritical pretensions crossed the cabinet opened the door for herself and passing through the midst
of the cardinal's numerous guards courtiers eager to pay homage the luxurious show of a competing royalty she went and took the hand of de winter who stood apart in isolation poor queen already fallen
though all bowed before her as etiquette required she had now but a single arm on which she could lean it signifies little said mazarin when he was alone it gave me pain and it was an ungracious part to play
bernouin bernouin entered see if the young man with the black doublet and the short hair who was with me just now is still in the palace bernouin went out and soon returned with comminges who was on guard
as i was re conducting the young man for whom you have asked he approached the glass door of the gallery and gazed intently upon some object doubtless the picture by raphael which is opposite the door he reflected for a second and then descended the stairs
i believe i saw him mount a gray horse and leave the palace court but is not your eminence going to the queen for what purpose monsieur de guitant my uncle has just told me that her majesty had received news of the army
it is well i will go
had really acted as he had related in crossing the gallery parallel to the large glass gallery he perceived de winter who was waiting until the queen had finished her negotiation at this sight the young man stopped short
but as if fascinated at the sight of some terrible object his eyes dilated and a shudder ran through his body one would have said that he longed to break through the wall of glass which separated him from his enemy
with what an expression of hatred the eyes of this young man were fixed upon de winter he would not have doubted for an instant that the englishman was his eternal foe but he stopped doubtless to reflect for instead of allowing his first impulse which had been to go straight
to lord de winter to carry him away he leisurely descended the staircase left the palace with his head down mounted his horse which he reined in at the corner of the rue richelieu and with his eyes fixed on the gate waited until the queen's carriage had left the court
he had not long to wait for the queen scarcely remained a quarter of an hour with mazarin but this quarter of an hour of expectation appeared a century to him at last the heavy machine which was called a chariot in those days came out
rumbling against the gates and de winter still on horseback bent again to the door to converse with her majesty the horses started on a trot and took the road to the louvre which they entered
before leaving the convent of the carmelites henrietta had desired her daughter to attend her at the palace
more difficult to bear in gilded chambers mordaunt followed the carriage and when he had watched it drive beneath the sombre arches he went and stationed himself under a wall over which the shadow was extended and remained motionless
amidst the moldings of jean goujon
the reader must now cross the seine with us and follow us to the door of the carmelite convent in the rue saint jacques
leaving the church a woman and a young girl dressed in black the one as a widow and the other as an orphan have re entered their cell
and at a short distance from her stands the young girl leaning against a chair weeping the woman must have once been handsome but traces of sorrow have aged her the young girl is lovely and her tears only embellish her
the lady appears to be about forty years of age the girl about fourteen oh god prayed the kneeling suppliant protect my husband guard my son and take my wretched life instead oh god murmured the girl leave me my mother
your mother can be of no use to you in this world henrietta said the lady turning around your mother has no longer either throne or husband she has neither son money nor friends the whole world my poor child has abandoned your mother
and she fell back weeping into her daughter's arms courage take courage my dear mother said the girl ah tis an unfortunate year for kings said the mother and no one thinks of us in this country for each must think about his own affairs
as long as your brother was with me he kept me up but he is gone and can no longer send us news of himself either to me or to your father i have pledged my last jewels sold your clothes and my own to pay his servants
who refused to accompany him unless i made this sacrifice we are now reduced to live at the expense of these daughters of heaven we are the poor succored by god but why not address yourself to your sister the queen asked the girl
alas the queen my sister is no longer queen my child another reigns in her name one day you will be able to understand how all this is well then to the king your nephew shall i speak to him
you know how much he loves me my mother alas my nephew is not yet king and you know laporte has told us twenty times that he himself is in need of almost everything then let us pray to heaven said the girl
they had just finished their double prayer when a nun softly tapped at the door of the cell enter my sister said the queen i trust your majesty will pardon this intrusion on her meditations
but a foreign lord has arrived from england and waits in the parlor demanding the honor of presenting a letter to your majesty oh a letter a letter from the king perhaps news from your father do you hear henrietta and the name of this lord
lord de winter lord de winter exclaimed the queen the friend of my husband oh bid him enter
and the queen advanced to meet the messenger whose hand she seized affectionately whilst he knelt down and presented a letter to her contained in a case of gold ah my lord said the queen you bring us three things which we have not seen for a long time
gold a devoted friend and a letter from the king our husband and master de winter bowed again unable to reply from excess of emotion on their side the mother and daughter retired into the embrasure of a window
to read eagerly the following letter dear wife we have now reached the moment of decision i have concentrated here at naseby camp all the resources heaven has left me and i write to you in haste from thence
here i await the army of my rebellious subjects i am about to struggle for the last time with them if victorious i shall continue the struggle if beaten i am lost i shall try in the latter case alas in our position one must provide for everything
i shall try to gain the coast of france but can they will they receive an unhappy king who will bring such a sad story into a country already agitated by civil discord your wisdom and your affection must serve me as guides
the bearer of this letter will tell you madame what i dare not trust to pen and paper and the risks of transit he will explain to you the steps that i expect you to pursue i charge him also with my blessing
for my children and with the sentiments of my soul for yourself my dearest sweetheart the letter bore the signature not of charles king but of charles still king
and let him be no longer king cried the queen let him be conquered exiled proscribed provided he still lives alas in these days the throne is too dangerous a place for me to wish him to retain it
but my lord tell me she continued hide nothing from me what is in truth the king's position is it as hopeless as he thinks alas madame more hopeless than he thinks his majesty has so good a heart that he cannot understand hatred
is so loyal that he does not suspect treason england is torn in twain by a spirit of disturbance which i greatly fear blood alone can exorcise but lord montrose replied the queen i have heard of his great and rapid successes of battles gained
i heard it said that he was marching to the frontier to join the king yes madame but on the frontier he was met by lesly he had tried victory by means of superhuman undertakings now victory has abandoned him montrose beaten at philiphaugh
was obliged to disperse the remains of his army and to fly disguised as a servant he is at bergen in norway heaven preserve him said the queen it is at least a consolation to know that some who have so often risked their lives for us are safe
and now my lord that i see how hopeless the position of the king is tell me with what you are charged on the part of my royal husband well then madame said de winter the king wishes you to try and discover the dispositions of the king and queen toward him
alas you know that even now the king is but a child and the queen a woman weak enough here monsieur mazarin is everything does he desire to play the part in france that cromwell plays in england
oh no he is a subtle conscienceless italian who though he very likely dreams of crime dares not commit it and unlike cromwell who disposes of both houses mazarin has had the queen to support him in his struggle with the parliament
more reason then he should protect a king pursued by parliament the queen shook her head despairingly if i judge for myself my lord she said the cardinal will do nothing and will even perhaps act against us
much more so would be that of the king my lord added henrietta with a melancholy smile it is sad and almost shameful to be obliged to say that we have passed the winter in the louvre without money without linen almost without bread and often not rising from bed because we wanted fire
wherefore did you not apply then madame to the first person you saw from us such is the hospitality shown to a queen by the minister from whom a king demands it but i heard that a marriage between the prince of wales and mademoiselle d'orleans was spoken of said de winter
yes for an instant i hoped it was so the young people felt a mutual esteem but the queen who at first sanctioned their affection changed her mind
oh my lord continued the queen without restraining her tears it is better to fight as the king has done and to die as perhaps he will than live in beggary like me courage madame courage do not despair
the interests of the french crown endangered at this moment are to discountenance rebellion in a neighboring nation mazarin as a statesman will understand the politic necessity are you sure said the queen doubtfully that you have not been forestalled
by whom by the joices the prinns the cromwells by a tailor a coachmaker a brewer ah i hope madame that the cardinal will not enter into negotiations with such men ah what is he himself asked madame henrietta
but for the honor of the king of the queen well let us hope he will do something for the sake of their honor said the queen a true friend's eloquence is so powerful my lord that you have reassured me give me your hand and let us go to the minister and yet she added
suppose he should refuse and that the king loses the battle his majesty will then take refuge in holland where i hear his highness the prince of wales now is and can his majesty count upon many such subjects as yourself for his flight alas no madame
allies said the queen shaking her head
well madame said de winter when the queen had dismissed her attendants well my lord what i foresaw has come to pass what does the cardinal refuse to receive the king france refuse hospitality to an unfortunate prince
ay but it is for the first time madame i did not say france my lord i said the cardinal and the cardinal is not even a frenchman but did you see the queen it is useless replied henrietta the queen will not say yes when the cardinal says no
are you not aware that this italian directs everything both indoors and out and moreover i should not be surprised had we been forestalled by cromwell he was embarrassed whilst speaking to me and yet quite firm in his determination to refuse
then did you not observe the agitation in the palais royal the passing to and fro of busy people can they have received any news my lord not from england madame i made such haste that i am certain of not having been forestalled
i set out three days ago passing miraculously through the puritan army and i took post horses with my servant tony the horses upon which we were mounted were bought in paris besides the king i am certain awaits your majesty's reply before risking anything
you will tell him my lord resumed the queen despairingly that i can do nothing that i have suffered as much as himself more than he has obliged as i am to eat the bread of exile and to ask hospitality from false friends who smile at my tears
and as regards his royal person he must sacrifice it generously and die like a king i shall go and die by his side madame madame exclaimed de winter your majesty abandons yourself to despair and yet perhaps there still remains some hope
what can be done with four four devoted resolute men can do much assure yourself madame and those of whom i speak performed great things at one time and where are these four men ah that is what i do not know
and these men were your friends one of them held my life in his hands and gave it to me i know not whether he is still my friend but since that time i have remained his and these men are in france my lord i believe so
one of them was called the chevalier d'artagnan ah my lord if i mistake not the chevalier d'artagnan is lieutenant of royal guards but take care for i fear that this man is entirely devoted to the cardinal
that would be a misfortune said de winter and i shall begin to think that we are really doomed but the others said the queen who clung to this last hope as a shipwrecked man clings to the hull of his vessel the others my lord
the second i heard his name by chance for before fighting us these four gentlemen told us their names the second was called the comte de la fere
oh mon dieu it is a matter of the greatest urgency to find them out said the queen since you think these worthy gentlemen might be so useful to the king oh yes said de winter for they are the same men listen madame and recall your remembrances
have you never heard that queen anne of austria was once saved from the greatest danger ever incurred by a queen yes at the time of her relations with monsieur de buckingham it had to do in some way with certain studs and diamonds well it was that affair madame
these men are the ones who saved her and i smile with pity when i reflect that if the names of those gentlemen are unknown to you it is because the queen has forgotten them who ought to have made them the first noblemen of the realm
well then my lord they must be found but what can four men or rather three men do for i tell you you must not count on monsieur d'artagnan it will be one valiant sword the less but there will remain still three without reckoning my own
now four devoted men around the king to protect him from his enemies to be at his side in battle to aid him with counsel to escort him in flight are sufficient not to make the king a conqueror but to save him if conquered and whatever mazarin may say once on the shores of france your royal husband
may find as many retreats and asylums as the seabird finds in a storm seek then my lord seek these gentlemen and if they will consent to go with you to england i will give to each a duchy the day that we reascend the throne besides as much gold as would pave whitehall
seek them my lord and find them i conjure you i will search for them madame said de winter and doubtless i shall find them but time fails me has your majesty forgotten that the king expects your reply and awaits it in agony
then indeed we are lost cried the queen in the fullness of a broken heart at this moment the door opened and the young henrietta appeared then the queen with that wonderful strength which is the privilege of parents repressed her tears and motioned to de winter to change the subject
but that act of self control effective as it was did not escape the eyes of the young princess she stopped on the threshold breathed a sigh and addressing the queen why then do you always weep mother when i am away from you she said
the queen smiled but instead of answering see de winter she said i have at least gained one thing in being only half a queen and that is that my children call me mother instead of madame then turning toward her daughter
my mother replied the young princess a cavalier has just entered the louvre and wishes to present his respects to your majesty he arrives from the army and has he says a letter to remit to you on the part of the marechal de grammont i think
ah said the queen to de winter he is one of my faithful adherents but do you not observe my dear lord that we are so poorly served that it is left to my daughter to fill the office of doorkeeper madame have pity on me exclaimed de winter you wring my heart
and who is this cavalier henrietta asked the queen
the queen smiling made a sign with her head the young princess opened the door and raoul appeared on the threshold advancing a few steps toward the queen he knelt down madame said he i bear to your majesty a letter from my friend the count de guiche
who told me he had the honor of being your servant this letter contains important news and the expression of his respect at the name of the count de guiche a blush spread over the cheeks of the young princess and the queen glanced at her with some degree of severity
you told me that the letter was from the marechal de grammont henrietta said the queen
it is my fault madame said raoul i did announce myself in truth as coming on the part of the marechal de grammont but being wounded in the right arm he was unable to write and therefore the count de guiche acted as his secretary there has been fighting then asked the queen motioning to raoul to rise
yes madame said the young man at this announcement of a battle having taken place the princess opened her mouth as though to ask a question of interest but her lips closed again without articulating a word while the color gradually faded from her cheeks
the queen saw this and doubtless her maternal heart translated the emotion for addressing raoul again and no evil has happened to the young count de guiche she asked for not only is he our servant as you say sir but more he is one of our friends
no madame replied raoul on the contrary he gained great glory and had the honor of being embraced by his highness the prince on the field of battle the young princess clapped her hands and then ashamed of having been betrayed into such a demonstration of joy
she half turned away and bent over a vase of roses as if to inhale their odor let us see said the queen what the count says and she opened the letter and read madame
i have commanded my son the count de guiche who with his father is equally your humble servant
and that this victory cannot fail to give great power to cardinal mazarin and to the queen over the affairs of europe
is the friend of my son who owes to him his life he is a gentleman in whom your majesty may confide entirely in case your majesty may have some verbal or written order to remit to me i have the honor to be with respect et cetera marechal de grammont
at the moment mention occurred of his having rendered a service to the count raoul could not help turning his glance toward the young princess and then he saw in her eyes an expression of infinite gratitude to the young man
they can gain battles yes the marechal de grammont is right
it will do nothing for english even if it does not harm them this is recent news sir continued she and i thank you for having made such haste to bring it to me without this letter i should not have heard till to morrow perhaps after to morrow the last of all paris
madame said raoul the louvre is but the second palace this news has reached it is as yet unknown to all and i had sworn to the count de guiche to remit this letter to your majesty before even i should embrace my guardian
your guardian is he too a bragelonne asked lord de winter i once knew a bragelonne is he still alive no sir he is dead and i believe it is from him my guardian whose near relation he was inherited the estate from which i take my name
and your guardian sir asked the queen who could not help feeling some interest in the handsome young man before her what is his name the comte de la fere madame replied the young man bowing de winter made a gesture of surprise and the queen turned to him with a start of joy
the comte de la fere she cried have you not mentioned that name to me as for de winter he could scarcely believe that he had heard aright the comte de la fere he cried in his turn oh sir reply i entreat you is not the comte de la fere a noble whom i remember
yes sir you are right in every particular and who served under an assumed name under the name of athos latterly i heard his friend monsieur d'artagnan give him that name that is it madame that is the same god be praised
and he is in paris continued he addressing raoul then turning to the queen we may still hope providence has declared for us since i have found this brave man again in so miraculous a manner and sir where does he reside pray
thanks sir inform this dear friend that he may remain within that i shall go and see him immediately sir i obey with pleasure if her majesty will permit me to depart go monsieur de bragelonne said the queen and rest assured of our affection
raoul bent respectfully before the two princesses and bowing to de winter departed the queen and de winter continued to converse for some time in low voices in order that the young princess should not overhear them
but the precaution was needless she was in deep converse with her own thoughts then when de winter rose to take leave
and this order of saint michael which came from my husband they are worth about fifty thousand pounds i had sworn to die of hunger rather than part with these precious pledges but now that this ornament may be useful to him or his defenders everything must be sacrificed
take them and if you need money for your expedition sell them fearlessly my lord but should you find the means of retaining them remember my lord that i shall esteem you as having rendered the greatest service that a gentleman can render to a queen
and in the day of my prosperity he who brings me this order and this cross shall be blessed by me and my children madame replied de winter your majesty will be served by a man devoted to you i hasten to deposit these two objects in a safe place
nor should i accept them if the resources of our ancient fortune were left to us but our estates are confiscated our ready money is exhausted and we are reduced to turn to service everything we possess
in an hour hence i shall be with the comte de la fere and to morrow your majesty shall have a definite reply the queen tendered her hand to lord de winter who kissing it respectfully went out and traversed alone and unconducted those large dark and deserted apartments
question seventy seven of those things which belong to the powers of the soul in general in eight articles we proceed to consider those things which belong to the powers of the soul
first in general secondly in particular under the first head there are eight points of inquiry one whether the essence of the soul is its power two
whether there is one power of the soul or several three how the powers of the soul are distinguished from one another four of the orders of the powers one to another
five whether the powers of the soul are in it as in their subject six whether the powers flow from the essence of the soul seven
for augustine says
that mind knowledge and love are in the soul substantially or which is the same thing essentially
further the soul is nobler than primary matter but primary matter is its own potentiality much more therefore is the soul its own power
further the substantial form is simpler than the accidental form a sign of which is that the substantial form is not intensified or relaxed but is indivisible but the accidental form is its own power
further we sense by the sensitive power and we understand by the intellectual power but that by which we first sense and understand is the soul according to the philosopher
further whatever does not belong to the essence is an accident therefore if the power of the soul is something else besides the essence thereof it is an accident which is contrary to augustine who says that the foregoing
are not in the soul as in a subject as color or shape or any other quality or quantity are in a body for whatever is so does not exceed the subject in which it is
further a simple form cannot be a subject but the soul is a simple form since it is not composed of matter and form as we have said above question seventy five
therefore the power of the soul cannot be in it as in a subject
first because since power and act divide being and every kind of being we must refer a power and its act to the same genus therefore if the act be not in the genus of substance
the power directed to that act cannot be in the genus of substance now the operation of the soul is not in the genus of substance for this belongs to god alone whose operation is his own substance wherefore
is the divine essence itself this cannot be true either of the soul
whatever has a soul would always have actual vital actions as that which has a soul is always an actually living thing for as a form the soul is not an act ordained to a further act
which potentiality however does not exclude the soul therefore it follows that the essence of the soul is not its power for nothing is in potentiality by reason of an act as act
augustine is speaking of the mind as it knows and loves itself thus knowledge and love as referred to the soul as known and loved are substantially or essentially in the soul
for the very substance or essence of the soul is known and loved in the same way are we to understand what he says in the other passage that those things are one life one mind one essence or as some say
this passage is true in the sense in which the potential whole is predicated of its parts being midway between the universal whole and the integral whole for the universal whole is in each part according to its entire essence and power
therefore in no way can it be predicated of each part yet in a way it is predicated though improperly of all the parts together as if we were to say that the wall roof
and foundations are a house but the potential whole is in each part according to its whole essence not however according to its whole power
therefore in a way it can be predicated of each part but not so properly as the universal whole in this sense augustine says that the memory understanding and the will are the one essence of the soul
as does existence for to act belongs to what exists now the composite has substantial existence through the substantial form and it operates by the power which results from the substantial form
hence an active accidental form is to the substantial form of the agent for instance heat compared to the form of fire as the power of the soul is to the soul
that the accidental form is a principle of action is due to the substantial form
but not the proximate principle in this sense the philosopher says that the soul is that whereby we understand and sense
if we take accident as meaning what is divided against substance then there can be no medium between substance and accident because they are divided by affirmation and negation that is
according to existence in a subject and non existence in a subject in this sense as the power of the soul is not its essence it must be an accident
whereas whatever is beyond the essence of a thing cannot be called accident in this sense but only what is not caused by the essential principle of the species for the proper does not belong to the essence of a thing
but is caused by the essential principles of the species wherefore it is a medium between the essence and accident thus understood
when augustine says that knowledge and love are not in the soul as accidents in a subject this must be understood in the sense given above inasmuch as they are compared to the soul not as loving and knowing
but as loved and known his argument proceeds in this sense for if love were in the soul loved as in a subject it would follow that an accident transcends its subject since even other things are loved through the soul
although the soul is not composed of matter and form yet it has an admixture of potentiality as we have said above question seventy five
and for this reason it can be the subject of an accident the statement quoted is verified in god who is the pure act
rational and sensitive as differences are not taken from the powers of sense and reason but from the sensitive and rational soul itself but because substantial forms which in themselves are unknown to us
are known by their accidents
further to operate belongs to what is in act but by the one essence of the soul man has actual existence in the different degrees of perfection as we have seen above question seventy six
therefore by the one power of the soul he performs operations of various degrees on the contrary the philosopher places several powers in the soul
i answer that of necessity we must place several powers in the soul to make this evident we observe that as the philosopher says
the lowest order of things cannot acquire perfect goodness but they acquire a certain imperfect goodness by few movements and those which belong to a higher order acquire perfect goodness by many movements
and those yet higher acquire perfect goodness by few movements and the highest perfection is found in those things which acquire perfect goodness without any movement whatever
thus he is least of all disposed of health who can only acquire imperfect health by means of a few remedies better disposed is he who can acquire perfect health
by means of many remedies and better still he who can by few remedies best of all is he who has perfect health without any remedies
but man can acquire universal and perfect goodness because he can acquire beatitude yet he is in the last degree according to his nature of those to whom beatitude is possible
therefore the human soul requires many and various operations and powers but to angels a smaller variety of powers is sufficient in god there is no power or action beyond his own essence
there is yet another reason why the human soul abounds in a variety of powers because it is on the confines of spiritual and corporeal creatures and therefore the powers of both meet together in the soul
the intellectual soul approaches to the divine likeness more than inferior creatures in being able to acquire perfect goodness although by many and various means and in this it falls short
of more perfect creatures
but a multiform power is superior to it if it is over many things
one thing has one substantial existence
for nothing is determined to its species by what is subsequent and extrinsic to it but the act is subsequent to the power and the object is extrinsic to it
therefore the soul's powers are not specifically distinct by acts and objects
further contraries are what differ most from each other therefore if the powers are distinguished by their objects it follows that the same power could not have contrary objects
this is clearly false in almost all the powers for the power of vision extends to white and black and the power to taste to sweet and bitter
further if the cause be removed the effect is removed hence if the difference of powers came from the difference of objects the same object would not come under different powers
this is clearly false for the same thing is known by the cognitive power and desired by the appetitive
belong also to some one power as sound and color belong to sight and hearing which are different powers yet they come under the one power of common sense
therefore the powers are not distinguished according to the difference of their objects on the contrary things that are subsequent are distinguished by what precedes but the philosopher says
i answer that a power as such is directed to an act wherefore we seek to know the nature of a power from the act to which it is directed
and consequently the nature of a power is diversified as the nature of the act is diversified now the nature of an act is diversified according to the various natures of the objects
which is the end of growth now from these two things an act receives its species namely from its principle or from its end or term for the act of heating differs from the act of cooling
therefore the powers are of necessity distinguished by their acts and objects nevertheless we must observe that things which are accidental do not change the species
for since to be colored is accidental to an animal its species is not changed by a difference of color but by a difference in that which belongs to the nature of an animal
which is sometimes rational and sometimes otherwise hence rational and irrational are differences dividing animal constituting its various species in like manner therefore
not any variety of objects diversifies the powers of the soul but a difference in that to which the power of its very nature is directed
thus the senses of their very nature are directed to the passive quality which of itself is divided into color sound and the like and therefore there is one sensitive power with regard to color
namely the sight and another with regard to sound namely hearing but it is accidental to a passive quality for instance to something colored to be a musician or a grammarian
act though subsequent in existence to power is nevertheless prior to it in intention and logically as the end is with regard to the agent and the object
but the power of the soul does not regard the nature of the contrary as such but rather the common aspect of both contraries as sight does not regard white as such but as color
this is because of two contraries one in a manner includes the idea of the other since they are to one another as perfect and imperfect
nothing prevents things which coincide in subject from being considered under different aspects therefore they can belong to various powers of the soul
the higher power of itself regards a more universal formality of the object than the lower power because the higher a power is to a greater number of things does it extend
therefore many things are combined in the one formality of the object which the higher power considers of itself while they differ in the formalities regarded by the lower powers of themselves
thus it is that various objects belong to various lower powers which objects however
there is no before and after but all are naturally simultaneous but the powers of the soul are contradistinguished from one another therefore there is no order among them
further the powers of the soul are referred to their objects and to the soul itself on the part of the soul there is not order among them because the soul is one
further where there is order among powers we find that the operation of one depends on the operation of another but the action of one power of the soul does not depend on that of another
and the powers are many and since a number of things that proceed from one must proceed in a certain order there must be some order among the powers of the soul accordingly we may observe a triple order among them
while the third is taken from the order of the objects now the dependence of one power on another can be taken in two ways according to the order of nature
forasmuch as perfect things are by their nature prior to imperfect things and according to the order of generation and time forasmuch as from being imperfect a thing comes to be perfect
thus according to the first kind of order among the powers the intellectual powers are prior to the sensitive powers wherefore they direct them and command them
for the powers of the nutritive soul are prior by way of generation to the powers of the sensitive soul for which therefore they prepare the body the same is to be said of the sensitive powers with regard to the intellectual
but in the third kind of order certain sensitive powers are ordered among themselves namely sight hearing and smelling for the visible naturally comes first
the species of a given genus are to one another as before and after like numbers and figures if considered in their nature although they may be said to be simultaneous
this order among the powers of the soul is both on the part of the soul which
this argument is verified as regards those powers among which
it would seem that all the powers of the soul are in the soul as their subject for as the powers of the body are to the body so are the powers of the soul to the soul
but the body is the subject of the corporeal powers therefore the soul is the subject of the powers of the soul
further the operations of the powers of the soul are attributed to the body by reason of the soul
not through the body in fact without the body as fear and such like and some things through the body but if the sensitive powers were not in the soul alone as their subject
the soul could not sense anything without the body therefore the soul is the subject of the sensitive powers
of all the other powers on the contrary
i answer that the subject of operative power is that which is able to operate for every accident denominates its proper subject now the same is that which is able to operate
and that which does operate wherefore the subject of power is of necessity the subject of operation as again the philosopher says in the beginning of
as sight by the eye and hearing by the ear and so it is with all the other operations of the nutritive and sensitive parts
therefore the powers which are the principles of these operations have their subject in the composite and not in the soul alone
all the powers are said to belong to the soul not as their subject but as their principle because it is by the soul that the composite has the power to perform such operations
plato's opinion was that sensation is an operation proper to the soul just as understanding is now in many things relating to philosophy augustine makes use of the opinions of plato
not asserting them as true but relating them however as far as the present question is concerned when it is said that the soul senses some things with the body and some without the body
this can be taken in two ways firstly the words with the body or without the body may determine the act of sense in its mode of proceeding from the sentient
thus the soul senses nothing without the body because the action of sensation cannot proceed from the soul except by a corporeal organ secondly
since therefore the powers of the soul are many and various they cannot proceed from its essence
therefore the soul does not produce its powers within itself on the contrary the powers of the soul are its natural properties
therefore the powers of the soul proceed from its essence as their cause i answer that the substantial and the accidental form partly agree and partly differ
they agree in this that each is an act and that by each of them
actual they differ however in two respects
and its subject is something purely potential but the accidental form does not make a thing to exist absolutely but to be such or so great or in some particular condition
wherefore the actuality of the accidental form is caused by the actuality of the subject so the subject forasmuch as it is in potentiality is receptive of the accidental form
the accident being caused by an extrinsic agent secondly substantial and accidental forms differ because
since that which is the less principal exists for the sake of that which is the more principal matter therefore exists on account of the substantial form
now it is clear
or else this subject is the composite now the composite is actual by the soul whence it is clear that all the powers of the soul whether their subject be the soul alone or the composite
flow from the essence of the soul as from their principle because it has already been said that the accident is caused by the subject according as it is actual and is received into it according as it is in potentiality
in a certain order or again if there be diversity of recipients thus from the one essence of the soul many and various powers proceed both because order exists among these powers
and also by reason of the diversity of the corporeal organs
from this we may gather that the essence of the soul is the cause of all its powers
and as their active principle and of some as receptive thereof
one of them does not arise from another but all the powers of the soul are created at the same time with the soul therefore one of them does not arise from another
therefore one power does not arise from another
further one opposite does not arise from the other opposite but everything arises from that which is like it in species now the powers of the soul are oppositely divided as various species
therefore one of them does not proceed from another on the contrary powers are known by their actions but the action of one power is caused by the action of another power
that among the powers of the soul there are several kinds of order therefore one power of the soul proceeds from the essence of the soul by the medium of another
it follows that those powers of the soul which precede the others
are the principles of the others after the manner of the end and active principle for we see that the senses are for the sake of the intelligence and not the other way about the senses moreover
are a certain imperfect participation of the intelligence wherefore according to their natural origin they proceed from the intelligence as the imperfect from the perfect but considered as receptive principles
and as something material with regard to the intelligence on this account the more imperfect powers precede the others in the order of generation for the animal is generated before the man
as the power of the soul flows from the essence not by a transmutation but by a certain natural resultance and is simultaneous with the soul so is it the case with one power as regards another
an accident cannot of itself be the subject of an accident but one accident is received prior to another into substance as quantity prior to quality in this sense
one accident is said to be the subject of another as surface is of color inasmuch as substance receives an accident through the means of another the same thing may be said of the powers of the soul
the powers of the soul are opposed to one another as perfect and imperfect as also are the species of numbers and figures but this opposition does not prevent the origin of one from another
further the powers even of the sensitive soul are not weakened when the body becomes weak
therefore the powers of the soul are not corrupted when the body is corrupted but remain in the separated soul
one but memory remains in the separated soul for it was said to the rich glutton whose soul was in hell remember that thou didst receive good things during thy lifetime
further joy and sorrow are in the concupiscible part which is a power of the sensitive soul
but it is clear that separate souls grieve or rejoice at the pains or rewards which they receive therefore the concupiscible power remains in the separate soul
but the imagination is a power of the sensitive part therefore the power of the sensitive part remains in the separate soul and consequently all the other powers on the contrary it is said
that of two substances only does man consist the soul with its reason and the body with its senses therefore the body being dead
the sensitive powers do not remain i answer that as we have said already
all the powers of the soul belong to the soul alone as their principle but some powers belong to the soul alone as their subject as the intelligence and the will
these powers must remain in the soul after the destruction of the body but other powers are subjected in the composite
but they remain virtually in the soul as in their principle or root so it is false that as some say these powers remain in the soul even after the corruption of the body
it is much more false that as they say also the acts of these powers remain in the separate soul because these powers have no act apart
that book has no authority and so what is there written can be despised with the same facility as it was said although we may say that the soul takes with itself these powers
these powers are said not to be weakened when the body becomes weak because the soul remains unchangeable and is the virtual principle of these powers
the recollection spoken of there is to be taken in the same way as augustine
places memory in the mind not as a part of the sensitive soul
and yet it seems to me that when the minister is out of spirits the opposition ought to be joyous ah you do not know with what i am threatened
and since we had our choice as they say at least how could we choose that i understand you must lay in a stock of hilarity
my dear friend said albert to beauchamp it is plain that the affairs of spain are settled
vicomte you know i give my daughter two millions ah
the king has made him a baron and can make him a peer but he cannot make him a gentleman and the count of morcerf is too aristocratic to consent for the paltry sum of two million francs to a mesalliance
but two million francs make a nice little sum replied morcerf it is the social capital of a theatre on the boulevard
never mind what he says morcerf said debray do you marry her you marry a money bag label it is true well but what does that matter it is better to have a blazon less and a figure more on it you have seven martlets on your arms
on my word i think you are right lucien said albert absently
who is he but before he had finished
with large and open brow piercing eyes and black mustache
under circumstances sufficiently dramatic not to be forgotten a rich uniform half french half oriental set off his graceful and stalwart figure and his broad chest was decorated with the order of the legion of honor
the young officer bowed with easy and elegant politeness
said albert with affectionate courtesy the count of chateau renaud knew how much pleasure this introduction would give me you are his friend be ours also
what has he done asked albert oh nothing worth speaking of
it is very well for you who risk your life every day but for me who only did so once
exactly so on what occasion asked beauchamp
well i do not prevent your sitting down to table replied beauchamp chateau renaud can tell us while we eat our breakfast
diplomat or not i don't know
which he terminated so entirely to my satisfaction that had i been king
even had i been able to offer him the golden fleece and the garter well since we are not to sit down to table said debray take a glass of sherry and tell us all about it you all know that i had the fancy of going to africa
said albert gallantly yes but i doubt that your object was like theirs to rescue the holy sepulchre you are quite right beauchamp observed the young aristocrat it was only to fight as an amateur
but i recollect perfectly one thing that being unwilling to let such talents as mine sleep i wished to try upon the arabs the new pistols that had been given to me in consequence i embarked for oran
i retreated with the rest for eight and forty hours i endured the rain during the day and the cold during the night tolerably well but the third morning my horse died of cold
you are mistaken for i have made a vow never to return to africa you were very much frightened then asked beauchamp well yes and i had good reason to be so replied chateau renaud i was retreating on foot for my horse was dead
and two more with my pistols but i was then disarmed and two were still left one seized me by the hair that is why i now wear it so short for no one knows what may happen the other swung a yataghan and i already felt the cold steel on my neck
when this gentleman whom you see here charged them shot the one who held me by the hair and cleft the skull of the other with his sabre he had assigned himself the task of saving a man's life that day
heroic action interrupted chateau renaud i was chosen but that is not all
then from hunger by sharing with me guess what a strasbourg pie asked beauchamp no his horse of which we each of us ate a slice with a hearty appetite it was very hard the horse
said morcerf laughing no the sacrifice returned chateau renaud ask debray if he would sacrifice his english steed for a stranger
but for a friend i might perhaps
besides as i had the honor to tell you heroism or not sacrifice or not that day i owed an offering to bad fortune in recompense for the favors good fortune had on other days granted to us
at half past ten precisely asked debray taking out his watch oh
do you think i cannot be saved as well as any one else
our breakfast is a philanthropic one
two benefactors of humanity what shall we do
we have only one monthyon prize well it will be given to some one who has done nothing to deserve it said beauchamp
asked debray you have already answered the question once but so vaguely that i venture to put it a second time really said albert i do not know
but since that time who knows where he may have gone
well with the five minutes grace we have only ten left i will profit by them to tell you something about my guest
catching a fever there and i did more than that replied morcerf for i caught one i was informed that i
about twenty four thousand francs unfortunately i had not above one thousand five hundred i was at the end of my journey and of my credit i wrote to franz
would have scrupulously kept his word but franz did come with the four thousand crowns said chateau renaud
ah this gentleman is a hercules killing cacus a perseus freeing andromeda no he is a man about my own size armed to the teeth he had not even a knitting needle but he paid your ransom
and they apologized to him for having carried you off said beauchamp just so why he is a second ariosto
i do not think so added chateau renaud with the air of a man who knows the whole of the european nobility perfectly does any one know anything of a count of monte cristo he comes possibly from the holy land
i think i can assist your researches said maximilian monte cristo is a little island i have often heard spoken of by the old sailors my father employed a grain of sand in the centre of the mediterranean an atom in the infinite
precisely cried albert
he has purchased the title of count somewhere in tuscany he is rich then
that is what deceives you debray i do not understand you have you read the arabian nights what a question well
which means which means that my count of monte cristo is one of those fishermen he has even a name taken from the book since he calls himself sinbad the sailor and has a cave filled with gold and you have seen this cavern morcerf
asked beauchamp no but franz has for heaven's sake not a word of this before him franz went in with his eyes blindfolded and was waited on by mutes and by women to whom cleopatra was a painted strumpet
so that what he took for women might have been simply a row of statues the two young men looked at morcerf as if to say
and i also said morrel thoughtfully have heard something like this from an old sailor named penelon
you are vexed are you not that he thus gives a clew to the labyrinth my dear albert said debray what you tell us is so extraordinary ah
the chamber cuts down their salaries every day so that now they have scarcely any
lest on the first demonstration i make in favor of mehemet ali the sultan send me the bowstring and make my secretaries strangle me
and albert himself could not wholly refrain from manifesting sudden emotion
or steps in the ante chamber the door had itself opened noiselessly the count appeared dressed with the greatest simplicity
every article of dress hat coat gloves and boots was from the first makers he seemed scarcely five and thirty
the count advanced smiling into the centre of the room and approached albert who hastened towards him holding out his hand in a ceremonial manner punctuality said monte cristo is the politeness of kings
five hundred leagues are not to be accomplished without some trouble and especially in france where it seems it is forbidden to beat the postilions my dear count replied albert
whom i had invited in consequence of the promise you did me the honor to make and whom i now present to you they are the count of chateau renaud whose nobility goes back to the twelve peers and whose ancestors had a place at the round table
an editor of a paper and the terror of the french government but of whom in spite of his national celebrity you perhaps have not heard in italy since his paper is prohibited there
at this name the count
but at the same time with coldness and formality stepped a pace forward and a slight tinge of red colored his pale cheeks
said he it is a handsome uniform no one could have said what caused the count's voice to vibrate so deeply and what made his eye flash which was in general so clear lustrous and limpid when he pleased
you have never seen our africans count
he has an open look about him that pleases me in spite of the singular remark he has made about me gentlemen said albert germain informs me that breakfast is ready my dear count allow me to show you the way
they passed silently into the breakfast room and every one took his place gentlemen said the count seating himself
i am a stranger and a stranger to such a degree that this is the first time i have ever been at paris the french way of living is utterly unknown to me and up to the present time i have followed the eastern customs
which are entirely in contrast to the parisian i beg you therefore
or too arabian now then let us breakfast with what an air he says all this muttered beauchamp decidedly he is a great man a great man in his own country added debray a great man in
the count was it may be remembered a most temperate guest albert
expressing his fears lest at the outset the parisian mode of life should displease the traveller in the most essential point my dear count said he i fear one thing
as that of the piazza di spagni
and have had some dishes prepared expressly did you know me better returned the count smiling
give one thought of such a thing for a traveller like myself who has successively lived on maccaroni at naples polenta at milan olla podrida at valencia pilau at constantinople karrick in india
and swallows nests in china i eat everywhere and of everything only i eat but little and to day
what cried all the guests you have not eaten for four and twenty hours no replied the count
so that i was somewhat late and therefore i did not choose to stop
yes you have a recipe for it an infallible one that would be invaluable to us in africa who have not always any food to eat and rarely anything to drink yes said monte cristo but unfortunately
a recipe excellent for a man like myself would be very dangerous applied to an army
oh yes returned monte cristo
for example here is debray who reads and beauchamp who prints every day a member of the jockey club has been stopped and robbed on the boulevard four persons have been assassinated in the rue saint denis or the faubourg saint germain
and yet these same men deny the existence of the bandits in the maremma the campagna di romana or the pontine marshes tell them yourself that i was taken by bandits and that without your generous intercession
instead of receiving them in my humble abode in the rue du helder ah said monte cristo you promised me never to mention that circumstance
it was not i who made that promise cried morcerf it must have been some one else whom you have rescued in the same manner and whom you have forgotten pray speak of it for i shall not only i trust relate the little i do know but also a great deal i do not know
well you promise me if i tell all i know to relate in your turn all that i do not know that is but fair replied monte cristo well said morcerf for three days i believed myself the object of the attentions of a masque
whom i took for a descendant of tullia or poppoea
and i say contadina to avoid saying peasant girl what i know is that like a fool a greater fool than he of whom i spoke just now i mistook for this peasant girl a young bandit of fifteen or sixteen with a beardless chin and slim waist
and who just as i was about to imprint a chaste salute on his lips placed a pistol to my head and aided by seven or eight others led or rather dragged me to the catacombs of saint sebastian
and who deigned to leave off reading to inform me that unless the next morning before six o'clock four thousand piastres were paid into his account at his banker's at a quarter past six i should have ceased to exist
who ordinarily have so little respect for anything i assure you franz and i were lost in admiration nothing more simple returned the count
when he was quite a child and only a shepherd
gave me a poniard the hilt of which he had carved with his own hand
in after years whether he had forgotten this interchange of presents
or whether he did not recollect me he sought to take me but on the contrary it was i who captured him and a dozen of his band i might have handed him over to roman justice which is somewhat expeditious and which would have been particularly so with him
but i did nothing of the sort i suffered him and his band to depart with the condition that they should sin no more said beauchamp laughing i see they kept their promise no monsieur
upon the simple condition that they should respect myself and my friends perhaps what i am about to say may seem strange to you who are socialists
and preserving a neutrality towards them it is society and my neighbor who are indebted to me bravo cried chateau renaud
my dear vicomte returned monte cristo
in all i have done anything that merits either from you or these gentlemen the pretended eulogies i have received you were no stranger to me for i knew you from the time i gave up two rooms to you invited you to breakfast with me
lent you one of my carriages
and saw with you from a window in the piazza del popolo the execution that affected you so much that you nearly fainted i will appeal to any of these gentlemen could i leave my guest in the hands of a hideous bandit as you term him besides you know
but to day you see it was a reality
i will keep it returned morcerf
accustomed as you are to picturesque events and fantastic horizons amongst us you will not meet with any of those episodes with which your adventurous existence has so familiarized you our chimborazo is mortmartre our
where they are now boring an artesian well to water the caravans we have plenty of thieves though not so many as is said but these thieves stand in far more dread of a policeman than a lord france is so prosaic and paris so civilized a city
or a grotto in which the commissary of police has not put up a gaslamp there is but one service i can render you and for that i place myself entirely at your orders that is to present
besides you have no need of any one to introduce you with your name and your fortune and your talent monte cristo bowed with a somewhat ironical smile you can present yourself everywhere and be well received i can be useful in one way only
if knowledge of parisian habits of the means of rendering yourself comfortable or of the bazaars can assist you may depend upon me to find you a fitting dwelling here i do not dare offer to share my apartments with you as i shared yours at rome
but am yet egotist par excellence for except myself
unless that shadow were feminine ah said the count
i recollect that at rome you said something of a projected marriage may i congratulate you
and he who says in projection
no replied morcerf my father is most anxious about it and i hope ere long to introduce you if not to my wife
tell me is not her father baron danglars yes returned morcerf a baron of a new creation what matter said monte cristo if he has rendered the state services which merit this distinction
enormous ones answered beauchamp although in reality a liberal
so that he wears the ribbon
but at his button hole ah interrupted morcerf laughing
but spare my future father in law before me
you just now spoke his name as if you knew the baron i do not know him returned monte cristo but i shall probably soon make his acquaintance for i have a credit opened with him by the house of richard and blount of london
if the stranger expected to produce an effect on morrel
yet as he has not replied to any of them
in the pompadour style that my sister has inhabited for a year in the rue meslay you have a sister asked the count
a most excellent sister married
happy asked the count again as happy as it is permitted to a human creature to be replied maximilian
who remained faithful to us in our fallen fortunes emmanuel herbaut monte cristo smiled imperceptibly i live there during my leave of absence continued maximilian and i shall be
at the disposition of the count whenever he thinks fit to honor us one minute cried albert
take care you are going to immure a traveller sinbad the sailor a man who comes to see paris you are going to make a patriarch of him
since my habitation is already prepared what cried morcerf
was i so badly lodged at rome said monte cristo smiling parbleu at rome you spent fifty thousand piastres in furnishing your apartments but i presume that you are not disposed to spend a similar sum every day
it is not that which deterred me replied monte cristo
but you have then a valet de chambre who knows paris said beauchamp
he is black and cannot speak returned monte cristo it is ali cried albert in the midst of the general surprise yes ali himself my nubian mute whom you saw i think at rome certainly said morcerf
i recollect him perfectly but how could you charge a nubian to purchase a house and a mute to furnish it
i am quite sure that on the contrary he will choose everything as i wish he knows my tastes my caprices my wants he has been here a week with the instinct of a hound hunting by himself he will arrange everything for me
he knew that i should arrive to day at ten o'clock
it contains the number of my new abode
and very princely added chateau renaud what do you not know your house asked debray no said monte cristo i told you i did not wish to be behind my time
the young men looked at each other
but every word he uttered had such an air of simplicity that it was impossible to suppose what he said was false besides why should he tell a falsehood we must content ourselves then said beauchamp with
i in my quality of journalist open all the theatres to him
asked debray no he is a countryman of yours
he has been a soldier a smuggler in fact everything
and you have chosen this honest citizen for your steward said debray of how much does he rob you every year on my word replied the count not more than another i am sure he answers my purpose knows no impossibility
and so i keep him then continued chateau renaud since you have an establishment a steward
i have something better than that said monte cristo i have a slave
it cost me more but i have nothing to fear
who will tell her the first person who sees her she only speaks romaic that is different but at least we shall see her said beauchamp or do you keep eunuchs as well as mutes oh no replied monte cristo
i do not carry brutalism so far every one who surrounds me is free to quit me and when they leave me will no longer have any need of me or any one else it is for that reason perhaps that they do not quit me they had long since passed to dessert and cigars
i must return to the minister's
oh we have three millions for our police it is true they are almost always spent beforehand
good morning as he left the room debray called out loudly my carriage bravo said beauchamp to albert
when matilda first beheld her she had a great inclination to embrace her for her heart bounded towards the only creature she had been acquainted with from her cradle but she suddenly checked herself and pretended to continue her reading
but ellen spoke to her kindly though she told her that she was so situated as not to be able to chat at present zebby comprehended this and would have withdrawn
but not to have a single word from her whom in her heart she still considered as her young mistress the faithful creature could not endure after waiting some minutes in vain she dropped a second humble courtesy and said how you do missy
me very glad see you larn booky but me hopes you spare one look one wordy for poor zebby me go away one long weeky to nurse white man baby pretty as you missy yes said matilda reproachingly
you went away and left me very willingly though it was to wait on a person you never saw before ah missy you no lovee me and poor white woman lovee me much you makee beer spit in my face
she givee me tea gruel out of her own cup you callee me black beetle she callee me good girly good nursy good every ting matilda gave a deep sigh
she well remembered that it was on the very day of her outrage that zebby had quitted her and in her altered sense of justice she could not help seeing the truth of the poor negro's statement she looked up with an ingenuous sense of error depicted on her countenance and said
i am sorry zebby that i used you so ill but i will never do it again the poor african was absolutely astonished for never had the voice of concession been heard from the lips of matilda before even to her own parents
and the idea of her humility and kindness in this acknowledgment so deeply affected the faithful creature that after gazing at her in admiration for a moment she burst into tears and then clasping her hands she exclaimed in a broken manner
oh tankee god tankee god pretty missy be good girly at last her lovee her good mamma her pity poor negro her go up stair when her die oh me be so glad
great god lovee my dear missy now matilda felt the tears suffuse her own eyes as the kind heart of her late faithful slave thus gave vent to its natural and devout emotions and she gave her hand to zebby who kissed it twenty times
ellen was so delighted with this proof of good disposition in matilda and with the honest effusions of the poor negro that she could not forbear gratifying her own affectionate little heart by running to tell her dear mamma
who truly rejoiced in every proof of matilda's amendment and doubted not but it would prove the forerunner of virtue in a child who appeared convinced of her faults and desirous of improving herself
it was now near christmas and missus harewood was inquiring for a boarding school where she could place miss hanson she would have preferred to keep her at home and have a governess who might attend to the instructions necessary both for her and ellen
but the bad temper and insolent airs of matilda had prevented this as missus harewood could not bear the idea of subjecting an amiable young person whom she designed for that situation to be tormented with such a girl
she knew that in schools two faults seldom fail to be cured these are impertinence or insolence and affectation one rendering a person disagreeable the other ridiculous
and every member in the community of which a school consists is ready to assist the ruler in punishing the one and laughing at the other one morning when matilda got out of bed she went to look whether the morning was fine and the moment she got to the window
eagerly cried out in great surprise ellen ellen get up this moment and come to the window the whole world is covered with white
as if the angels were emptying feather beds upon the earth it snows said ellen calmly i recollect my papa told us you had never seen it snow
do pray tell me she cried what snow is and why i never saw it before snow said edmund is nothing but drops of rain which in passing through the cold air become congealed or frozen
if you take this pretty light substance into your warm hand it will melt and become a rain drop again as edmund spoke he opened the window a very little way caught some snow and showed her the effect he spoke of
but why did i never see this in barbadoes because barbadoes lies nearer to the sun than england and is much warmer even in winter therefore the rain drops never pass through that region of cold air which freezes them in northern climates
if you were to go farther north you would find still more snow and ice the same i saw you looking at yesterday i will lend you a little book where you will see a description of a palace of ice and of whole mountains of snow called glaciers
and if you please i will show you that part of the globe or earth in which those effects begin to take place but my dear ellen pray lend matilda your tippet for she looks as much frozen as the snow she must take great care of herself in this cold climate
he apprehended that the cold which he felt himself to be severe had made her ill and he inquired what was the matter with her in a tone of real commiseration i am so so very ignorant said matilda sobbing
oh that's it cried charles gaily then you and i may shake hands for i am ignorant too oh no european children know every thing but i am little better than a negro
i find what your mamma said was very true i know nothing at all dear matilda how can you say so said edmund though you have not read as much as we have yet you have seen a great deal more than any of us
and you are the youngest of the company you know consider you have crossed the atlantic ocean seen groves of orange trees and spices grow and the whole process of sugar making
you know the inside of a ship as well as a house and we never saw any thing better than a sloop or sailed any where but on the thames
and many curious fish on your voyage
mamma says it is only wilful ignorance that is blameable matilda wept still more while the children thus tried to comfort her this distressed them all but they rejoiced to see their parents enter the room persuaded that they would be able to comfort her better
and ellen instantly besought their attention to the subject by relating as much of the foregoing conversation as was necessary
no no it is not exactly that i am crying for said matilda interrupting her it is because i have been so very naughty and you are all so so so
so what my dear said mister harewood drawing her towards him and placing her by his side in the same manner he was accustomed to let ellen stand when she was much in his favour the action however kindly meant for a time redoubled her tears
and the children understanding their mamma's look withdrew to the room where they usually breakfasted without the least symptom of discontent although they perceived their mamma fill a cup of tea for matilda at her own table
when they were gone and the little girl had somewhat recovered mister harewood whispered her did you mean to say my dear that my children were so clever or so proud or so what oh sir they are so good
that was what i wanted to say for there was edmund who always looked so grave and was poring over his books he talked to me quite kindly and never made the least game of me for all i must look like a fool in his eyes who has seen the snow all his life
and then charles who is so full of fun and nonsense and who i always thought could not abide me he spoke to me as if he was sorry for me and made it out that we were both ignorant alike and when i remembered how i had looked at them and behaved to them
i felt as if my heart would break ellen is always so good that i did not think so much of her kindness but nobody knows again the repentant girl wept and at length with difficulty proceeded
nobody knows how dearly i love her and you too
now she saw how much it was not only her duty but happiness to do so and mister harewood assured her that he had no doubt but in the course of a few years he should see her as sensible good and well informed as his own children
and then i shall not be an object of pity sir no you will be one of affection and esteem oh i doubt that must never never be
never despair though you have many battles with yourself yet never relinquish the hope of final conquest and be assured you will find every victory easier than the last when you find pride rising in your heart think on your ignorance and it will make you humble
and when you are inclined to be angry with those around you remember what you have this day confessed respecting their kindness and it will make you bear with the present vexation
and if at any time you are discomfited in any pursuit either of virtue or knowledge recollect what i now say that with many faults yet you have some merit and may therefore reasonably hope to attain more
have i indeed said the now humbled girl yes you have an inquiring mind which is one great step towards the attainment of knowledge and you are sincere and open hearted
which enables your friends to see what is the real bent of your disposition and to give you the advice really necessary and i hope with this groundwork of good you will be a very different girl when your mother again sees you
one day when edmund and charles had been at home about a week the latter ran eagerly into the sitting parlour crying out oh mamma there is betty's sister down stairs with the poor little twins in her arms which were born just when matilda came
they have short frocks now but i perceive they have no shoes suppose we young ones subscribe and buy them some poor things there is my eighteen penny piece for shoes mamma shoes and hats too if we can raise money enough
missus harewood could not help smiling at charles's eagerness as she remembered the useful mortification he had experienced the last time his charity was called upon and as she took up the money she observed to him
i am glad to see this charles it is a proof you are more provident than you used to be and with your propensity to spending it requires no little effort to save in a large school where there are always many temptations
i think your proposal is a very good one
pray step down stairs and tell betty to bring up the little innocents we shall all be glad to see them charles flew out of the room and in less than a minute returned with the mother carrying a babe in each arm
she was a very decent woman the widow of a soldier who died before his poor children were born she now endeavoured to maintain herself and them by taking in washing together with the pay of the parish which although small
she received very thankfully and managed very carefully look mamma what pretty little feet they have cried ellen i am sure charles was a good boy to think about shoes for them was it not very kind of him matilda
because you know little boys seldom love little babies so much as girls do matilda answered yes mechanically for her mind was abstracted and affected by the remembrance this scene was calculated to inspire
missus harewood feeling for her evident embarrassment sent the poor woman down stairs to take some refreshment and then laid a three shilling piece as her own share of the contribution besides charles's subscription on the table
edmund laid a shilling on the table saying if more is wanted i will give you another with great pleasure i hope mamma you know that i will
yes edmund i do know that you will do any thing in your power for you are regular and prudent as well as a kind hearted boy and therefore have always got something to spare for the wants of others i perceive too
that you have the good sense to examine the nature of the claim made upon you and that you give accordingly you are aware and i wish all the young ones to be so likewise that this although an act of charity is not called for by any immediate distress
it is not one of those cases which wring the heart and drain the purse
i wish you children to be free and liberal for we are told in the scriptures that god loveth a cheerful giver but in order to render you also frequent givers you must be prudent ones i have only one shilling in the world said ellen laying it on the table
then sixpence is as much as you ought to give said missus harewood giving her a sixpence in change when observing that she took it with an air of reluctance she said my dear ellen be satisfied you are a little girl and have not half your brother's allowance you know
it is sufficient while this was passing matilda had been fumbling in her pocket and blushing excessively her mind was full of painful recollections yet fraught with gleams of satisfaction
but she wished very much to do two very contrary things and whilst she still hesitated miss campbell said here is another sixpence ma'am which i will take and give you an eighteen pence as i wish to give you a shilling with edmund's proviso
but said matilda with a mixture of eagerness and hesitation then there will be no change for me and i wish to give the same as ellen don't i want change ma'am i i believe i do
a something which showed missus harewood a great deal of what was passing in the mind of this self convicted but compassionate and ingenuous girl missus harewood took her shilling and returned her sixpence
which she evidently received with pain but an effort to smile as ellen had done in return for the smile of her mamma after a short pause missus harewood said well matilda your delicacy is now satisfied
you have not affected any display of humanity or ostentatious exhibition of wealth in order to humble your young friends but i perceive your heart is not satisfied that heart is really interested in these babes and conscious that it is in your power to do more
you are mortified at stopping short of your own wishes and their wants oh dear ma'am replied matilda you have read all the thoughts of my heart at least all but one
and if you think it right and ellen will not think me proud i will indeed be very glad if you will accept a crown for my subscription i shall receive it with pleasure and i can venture to assure you that my children will neither feel envy
anger nor any other emotion except joy at seeing the little objects of their care benefited and you happy for they have been taught only to value such actions according to the motive in one party and their usefulness to the other but matilda
if it is not a very great secret i should be glad to know what that one other thought in your heart was which i did not guess upon this occasion matilda did not find this question so easy of reply as missus harewood had expected it to be
she blushed and hung down her head but on perceiving that missus harewood was going to release her from all necessity of reply she struggled to conquer what she deemed a weakness in herself and answered thus
i remembered too how miserable i was and altogether how much i had to lament
where every day of my life i may learn something good and where i have been a great deal more happy than ever i was before even in the house with my own parents matilda stopped a moment as if she thought her confession had perhaps infringed on her duty
but recollecting that all her past sorrow had been laid to the proper account which was her own bad temper and pride she again proceeded in it
when i thought on these things i came close up to you but my heart beat so quick i could not speak or else i had a guinea in my hand the last my dear mamma gave me and i wished very much to give you that
but then the memory of my foolish pride the last time came again into my mind i became ashamed and determined in all things to be guided by ellen who is almost a year older than i and a great deal better
no no not better said ellen warmly and even her brothers who loved her very dearly struck with the same admiration of matilda's frankness and generosity exclaimed
you are as good as ellen now matilda indeed you are missus harewood tenderly kissing her assured her of her approbation saying
both towards god and man and that you have the most sincere desire to conquer those faults which you have already greatly amended therefore i am determined to permit you to exercise your benevolence in the most extensive manner that your heart could wish
knowing as i do that your fortune is fully equal to any act of charity and that your good mamma will not fail to approve of it
thank you thank you dear missus harewood oh you are my english mother and i love you much more than any other person in the world except my barbadoes mamma the children eagerly crowded round their mother's chair to hear what the good news was
which promised to benefit sally and make matilda happy i know said missus harewood that the purchase of a mangle would set up the poor woman in her profession as a washerwoman and enable her to earn at least ten shillings a week more
it was my intention to purchase one for her myself at christmas but i could not do it before as my charity purse has been very much run upon lately
when mister harewood comes in i will ask for the money and to morrow we will all go in the coach and see matilda purchase it but my dear girl suppose you just step and inform the poor woman of your intention which i am certain you had rather do without witnesses
it will not only increase her pleasure but enable her to prepare her apartment for such a noble and useful piece of furniture matilda left the room but returned almost immediately
i wanted to know what she said and how she looked when you told her the good news i did not speak to her myself i commissioned zebby to do it for i knew it would give her quite as much pleasure as the poor woman herself could receive
and surely she has a right to receive every good i can bestow as a slight atonement for the pain i have so very frequently given her scarcely had matilda given this proof of consideration and amiable feeling
when sally and zebby rushed into the room together followed by betty who was truly grateful for the kindness thus bestowed on her sister sally with tears of joy thanked her young benefactress
her words were few but they were those of respect and thankfulness and showed she was deeply sensible of the benefit she experienced poor zebby delighted with the goodness of her young mistress audibly expressed her pleasure with all the characteristic warmth of her country
and not a little proud of those virtues which she fancied she had assisted to nurture oh cried she dis be my own beautiful missy own goodness
she makee poor negro all happy singee and dancee every body no more whip massa buckraman every body delight every body glad every body good christian when missy go back
the spontaneous effusion of joy uttered by this daughter of nature affected all the party and the joyful bustle had not subsided when mister harewood entered on being informed of the cause
he gave his full assent and produced the money necessary for the purchase of the mangle
the following day was pleasantly employed in arranging the poor woman's new acquisition and when matilda saw her grateful happy countenance and learned the manner in which the machine would be worked and its usefulness in smoothing linen
she felt the value of a useful life and a sense of her own importance distinct from the idle consequence which is the result of vanity and pride
but perfectly compatible with the self distrust and true humility which was now happily taking a deep root in her young mind missus harewood was gratified in perceiving such results of her maternal care for matilda
it is thus with llangorren whose ostensible mistress is miss linton the aunt and legal guardian already alluded to but though presiding over the establishment it is rather in the way of ornamental figure head since she takes little to do with its domestic affairs
leaving them to a skilled housekeeper who carries the keys kitchen matters are not much to miss linton's taste being a dame of the antique brocaded type with pleasant memories of the past that go back to bath and cheltenham where in their days of glory as hers of youth
she was a belle and did her share of dancing with a due proportion of flirting at the regency balls no longer able to indulge in such delightful recreations the memory of them has yet charms for her and she keeps it alive and warm by daily perusal of the morning post
with a fuller hebdomadal feast from the court journal and other distributors of fashionable intelligence in addition she reads no end of novels her favourites being those which tell of cupid in his most romantic escapades and experiences
though not always the chastest of the prurient trash there is a plenteous supply furnished by scribblers of both sexes who ought to know better and doubtless do
but knowing also how difficult it is to make their lucubrations interesting within the legitimate lines of literary art and how easy out of them thus transgress the moralities
miss linton need have no fear that the impure stream will cease to flow any more than the limpid waters of the wye nor has she but reads on devouring volume after volume in triunes as they issue from the press and are sent her from the circulating library
at nearly all hours of the day and some of the night does she so occupy herself even on this same bright april morn when all nature rejoices and every living thing seems to delight in being out of doors
when the flowers expand their petals to catch the kisses of the warm spring sun dorothea linton is seated in a shady corner of the drawing room up to her ears in a three volume novel still odorous of printer's ink and binder's paste
absorbed in a love dialogue between a certain lord lutestring and a rustic damsel daughter of one of his tenant farmers whose life he is doing his best to blight and with much likelihood of succeeding
if he fail it will not be for want of will on his part nor desire of the author to save the imperilled one he will make the tempted iniquitous as the tempter should this seem to add interest to the tale or promote the sale of the book
miss linton herself receives a shock caused by a rat tat at the drawing room door light such as well trained servants are accustomed to give before entering a room occupied by master or mistress to her command come in
a footman presents himself silver waiter in hand on which is a card she is more than annoyed almost angry as taking the card she reads reverend william musgrave
only to think of being thus interrupted on the eve of such an interesting climax which seemed about to seal the fate of the farmer's daughter it is fortunate for his reverence that before entering within the room another visitor is announced and ushered in along with him
indeed the second caller is shown in first for although george shenstone rung the front door bell after mister musgrave had stepped inside the hall there is no domestic of llangorren but knows the difference between a rich baronet's son and a poor parish curate
as which should have precedence to this nice if not very delicate appreciation the reverend william is now indebted more than he is aware it has saved him from an outburst of miss linton's rather tart temper which under the circumstances otherwise he would have caught
for it so chances that the son of sir george shenstone is a great favourite with the old lady of llangorren welcome at all times even amid the romantic gallantries of lord lutestring not that the young country gentleman has anything in common with the titled lothario
who is habitually a dweller in cities instead the former is a frank manly fellow devoted to field sports and rural pastimes a little brusque in manner but for all well bred and what is even better well behaved
there is nothing odd in his calling at that early hour sir george is an old friend of the wynn family was an intimate associate of gwen's deceased father and both he and his son have been accustomed to look in at llangorren court sans ceremonie
no more is mister musgrave's matutinal visit out of order though but the curate he is in full charge of parish duties the rector being not only aged but an absentee so long away from the neighbourhood as to have become almost a myth to it
for this reason his vicarial representative can plead scores of excuses for presenting himself at the court there is the school the church choir and clothing club to say nought of neighbouring news which on most mornings make him a welcome visitor to miss linton
and no doubt would on this but for the glamour thrown around her by the fascinations of the dear delightful lutestring it even takes all her partiality for mister shenstone to remove its spell and get him vouchsafed friendly reception
miss linton he says speaking first i've just dropped in to ask if the young ladies would go for a ride the day's so fine i thought they might like to
ah indeed returns the spinster holding out her fingers to be touched but under the plea of being a little invalided excusing herself from rising yes no doubt they would like it very much
who neither rides nor has a horse and less shenstone himself indeed both as the lady proceeds they have been listening with ears all alert for the sound of soft footsteps and rustling dresses instead they hear words
not only disappointing but perplexing nay i am sure continues miss linton with provoking coolness they would have been glad to go riding with you delighted but why can't they asked shenstone impatiently interrupting
because the thing's impossible they've already gone rowing indeed cry both gentlemen in a breath seeming alike vexed by the intelligence shenstone mechanically interrogating on the river
certainly answers the lady looking surprised why george where else could they go rowing you don't suppose they've brought the boat up to the fishpond oh no he stammers out i beg pardon how very stupid of me to ask such a question
i was only wondering why miss gwen that is i am a little astonished but perhaps you'll think it impertinent of me to ask another question why should i what is it only whether whether she miss gwen i mean
said anything about riding to day not a word at least not to me how long since they went off may i know miss linton oh hours ago very early indeed
but gwen's maid informs me they left the house then and i presume they went direct to the river do you think they'll be out long earnestly interrogates shenstone i should hope not returns the ancient toast of cheltenham with aggravating indifference
for lutestring is not quite out of her thoughts there's no knowing however miss wynn is accustomed to come and go without much consulting me this with some acerbity
possibly from the thought that the days of her legal guardianship are drawing to a close which will make her a less important personage at llangorren surely they won't be out all day timidly suggests the curate
is it likely they will miss linton i should say not
is it possible she exclaims looking at the ormolu dial on the mantelshelf ten minutes to one how time does fly to be sure i couldn't have believed it near so late almost luncheon time of course you'll stay gentlemen
as for the girls if they're not back in time they'll have to go without
but miss linton they may have returned from the river and are now somewhere about the grounds shall i run down to the boat dock and see it is mister shenstone who thus interrogates if you like by all means i shall be too thankful
shame of gwen to give us so much trouble she knows our luncheon hour and should have been back by this thanks much mister shenstone as he is bounding off she calls after
don't you be staying too else you shan't have a pick mister musgrave and i won't wait for any of you shall we mister musgrave shenstone has not tarried to hear either question or answer a luncheon for apicius were at that moment nothing to him and little more to the curate who though staying
would gladly go along not from any rivalry with or jealousy of the baronet's son they revolve in different orbits with no danger of collision simply that he dislikes leaving miss linton alone
nine days had passed and the tenth day was nearly at an end since miss gwilt and her pupil had taken their morning walk in the cottage garden the night was overcast since sunset there had been signs in the sky from which the popular forecast had predicted rain
the reception rooms at the great house were all empty and dark allan was away passing the evening with the milroys and midwinter was waiting his return not where midwinter usually waited among the books in the library
but in the little back room which allan's mother had inhabited in the last days of her residence at thorpe ambrose nothing had been taken away but much had been added to the room since midwinter had first seen it
the books which missus armadale had left behind her the furniture the old matting on the floor the old paper on the walls were all undisturbed
and the french window still opened on the garden but now to the relics left by the mother were added the personal possessions belonging to the son the wall bare hitherto
with a portrait of missus armadale supported on one side by a view of the old house in somersetshire and on the other by a picture of the yacht among the books which bore in faded ink missus armadale's inscriptions from my father
were other books inscribed in the same handwriting in brighter ink to my son hanging to the wall ranged on the chimney piece scattered over the table were a host of little objects
some associated with allan's past life others necessary to his daily pleasures and pursuits and all plainly testifying that the room which he habitually occupied at thorpe ambrose
was the very room which had once recalled to midwinter the second vision of the dream here strangely unmoved by the scene around him so lately the object of his superstitious distrust
allan's friend now waited composedly for allan's return and here more strangely still he looked on a change in the household arrangements due in the first instance entirely to himself
his own lips had revealed the discovery which he had made on the first morning in the new house his own voluntary act had induced the son to establish himself in the mother's room under what motives had he spoken the words
growth of the new interests and the new hopes that now animated him the entire change wrought in his convictions by the memorable event that had brought him face to face with miss gwilt
was a change which it was not in his nature to hide from allan's knowledge he had spoken openly and had spoken as it was in his character to speak the merit of conquering his superstition was a merit which he shrank from claiming
until he had first unsparingly exposed that superstition in its worst and weakest aspects to view it was only after he had unreservedly acknowledged the impulse under which he had left allan at the mere
that he had taken credit to himself for the new point of view from which he could now look at the dream then and not till then he had spoken of the fulfillment of the first vision as the doctor at the isle of man might have spoken of it
he had asked as the doctor might have asked where was the wonder of their seeing a pool at sunset when they had a whole network of pools within a few hours drive of them and what was there extraordinary in discovering a woman at the mere
when there were roads that led to it and villages in its neighborhood and boats employed on it and pleasure parties visiting it so again he had waited to vindicate the firmer resolution with which he looked to the future
until he had first revealed all that he now saw himself of the errors of the past the abandonment of his friend's interests the unworthiness of the confidence that had given him the steward's place
of leaving allan were all pointed out the glaring self contradictions betrayed in accepting the dream as the revelation of a fatality
of free will in toiling to store up knowledge of the steward's duties for the future and in shrinking from letting the future find him in allan's house were in their turn unsparingly exposed to every error
he resolutely confessed before he ventured on the last simple appeal which closed all will you trust me in the future will you forgive and forget the past a man who could thus open his whole heart
without one lurking reserve inspired by consideration for himself was not a man to forget any minor act of concealment of which his weakness might have led him to be guilty toward his friend
allan's dearest interests to have revealed the discovery of his mother's room but one doubt still closed his lips the doubt whether missus armadale's conduct in madeira had been kept secret on her return to england
careful inquiry first among the servants then among the tenantry
as repeated to him by the few persons left who remembered them convinced him at last that the family secret had been successfully kept within the family limits
once satisfied that whatever inquiries the son might make would lead to no disclosure which could shake his respect for his mother's memory midwinter had hesitated no longer
he had taken allan into the room and had shown him the books on the shelves and all that the
my one motive for not telling you this before sprang from my dread of interesting you in the room which i looked at with horror as the second of the scenes pointed at in the dream forgive me this also and you will have forgiven me all
with allan's love for his mother's memory but one result could follow such an avowal as this he had liked the little room from the first as a pleasant contrast to the oppressive grandeur of the other rooms at thorpe ambrose
and now that he knew what associations were connected with it his resolution was at once taken to make it especially his own the same day all his personal possessions were collected and arranged in his mother's room in midwinter's presence
under those circumstances had the change now wrought in the household arrangements been produced and in this way had midwinter's victory over his own fatalism by making allan the daily occupant of a room which he might otherwise hardly ever have entered
actually favored the fulfillment of the second vision of the dream the hour wore on quietly as allan's friend sat waiting for allan's return sometimes reading sometimes thinking placidly he whiled away the time
no vexing cares no boding doubts troubled him now the rent day which he had once dreaded had come and gone harmlessly a friendlier understanding had been established between allan and his tenants
mister bashwood had proved himself to be worthy of the confidence reposed in him the pedgifts father and son had amply justified their client's good opinion of them wherever midwinter looked the prospect was bright the future was without a cloud
he trimmed the lamp on the table beside him and looked out at the night the stable clock was chiming the half hour past eleven as he walked to the window and the first rain drops were beginning to fall
he had his hand on the bell to summon the servant and send him over to the cottage with an umbrella when he was stopped by hearing the familiar footstep on the walk outside how late you are said midwinter as allan entered through the open french window
was there a party at the cottage no only ourselves the time slipped away somehow he answered in lower tones than usual and sighed as he took his chair you seem to be out of spirits pursued midwinter
what's the matter allan hesitated i may as well tell you he said after a moment
who can it be but miss gwilt there was a sudden silence allan sat listlessly with his hands in his pockets looking out through the open window at the falling rain if he had turned toward his friend when he mentioned miss gwilt's name
i suppose you don't approve of it he said after waiting a little there was no answer it's too late to make objections proceeded allan i really mean it when i tell you i'm in love with her a fortnight since you were in love with miss milroy
said the other in quiet measured tones pooh a mere flirtation
he looked round as he spoke midwinter turned his face aside on the instant and bent it over a book i see you don't approve of the thing allan went on do you object to her being only a governess you can't do that i'm sure
if you were in my place her being only a governess wouldn't stand in the way with you no said midwinter i can't honestly say it would stand in the way with me he gave the answer reluctantly and pushed his chair back out of the light of the lamp
a governess is a lady who is not rich said allan in an oracular manner and a duchess is a lady who is not poor and that's all the difference i acknowledge between them miss gwilt is older than i am i don't deny that
what age do you guess her at midwinter i say seven or eight and twenty what do you say nothing i agree with you do you think seven or eight and twenty is too old for me
if you were in love with a woman yourself you wouldn't think seven or eight and twenty too old would you i can't say i should think it too old if if you were really fond of her once more there was no answer
i have made no objection i don't say you have but you don't seem to like the notion of it for all that there was another pause midwinter was the first to break the silence this time
are you sure of yourself allan he asked with his face bent once more over the book are you really attached to this lady have you thought seriously already of asking her to be your wife
i am thinking seriously of it at this moment said allan i can't be happy i can't live without her upon my soul i worship the very ground she treads on how long his voice faltered and he stopped
how long he reiterated have you worshipped the very ground she treads on longer than you think for i know i can trust you with all my secrets don't trust me nonsense i will trust you
there is a little difficulty in the way which i haven't mentioned yet it's a matter of some delicacy and i want to consult you about it between ourselves i have had private opportunities with miss gwilt midwinter suddenly started to his feet and opened the door
he took up his bedroom candle a little impatiently put it down again and walking back to the open window stood looking out in the direction of the cottage i wonder if she's thinking of me he said to himself softly
she was thinking of him she had just opened her desk to write to missus oldershaw and her pen had that moment traced the opening line
the sight of miss middleton running inflamed young crossjay with the passion of the game of hare and hounds he shouted a view halloo and flung up his legs she was fleet she ran as though a hundred little feet were bearing her onward smooth as water over the lawn
and the sweeps of grass of the park so swiftly did the hidden pair multiply one another to speed her so sweet was she in her flowing pace that the boy as became his age translated admiration into a dogged frenzy of pursuit
and continued pounding along when far outstripped determined to run her down or die suddenly her flight wound to an end in a dozen twittering steps and she sank young crossjay attained her with just breath enough to say you are a runner
and you don't pant a bit was his encomium dear me no not more than a bird you might as well try to catch a bird young crossjay gave a knowing nod wait till i get my second wind
now you must confess that girls run faster than boys they may at the start they do everything better they're flash in the pans they learn their lessons
and that is untrue have you never read of mary ambree and mistress hannah snell of pondicherry and there was the bride of the celebrated william taylor and what do you say to joan of arc
they weren't english then it is your own countrywomen you decry sir young crossjay betrayed anxiety about his false position and begged for the stories of mary ambree and the others who were english
see you will not read for yourself you hide and play truant with mister whitford and the consequence is you are ignorant of your country's history
of her fun and an acknowledgment of his peccancy she commanded him to tell her which was the glorious valentine's day of our naval annals the name of the hero of the day and the name of his ship
to these questions his answers were as ready as the guns of the good ship captain for the spanish four decker and that you owe to mister whitford said miss middleton he bought me the books young crossjay growled and plucked at grass blades and bit them
foreseeing dimly but certainly the termination of all this miss middleton lay back on the grass and said are you going to be fond of me crossjay the boy sat blinking
and he might have flown at her neck had she been sitting up but her recumbency and eyelids half closed excited wonder in him and awe his young heart beat fast because my dear boy she said leaning on her elbow
you are a very nice boy but an ungrateful boy and there is no telling whether you will not punish any one who cares for you come along with me pluck me some of these cowslips and the speedwells near them i think we both love wild flowers she rose and took his arm
you shall row me on the lake while i talk to you seriously it was she however who took the sculls at the boat house
i like brave boys and i like you for wanting to enter the royal navy
if you do not learn you must get the captains to pass you you know somebody spoils you miss dale or mister whitford
sir willoughby does i don't know about spoil i can come round him i am sure he is very kind to you i dare say you think mister whitford rather severe you should remember he has to teach you so that you may pass for the navy
you must not dislike him because he makes you work supposing you had blown yourself up to day
sir willoughby says when he's married you won't let me hide ah it is wrong to pet a big boy like you
generally half crown pieces i've had a crown piece i've had sovereigns and for that you do as he bids you and he indulges you because you well but though mister whitford does not give you money
he gives you his time he tries to get you into the navy he pays for me
and as for liking him if he were at the bottom of the water here i'd go down after him i mean to learn we're both of us here at six o'clock in the morning when it's light and have a swim he taught me only i never cared for schoolbooks
are you quite certain that mister whitford pays for you my father told me he did and i must obey him he heard my father was poor with a family he went down to see my father my father came here once and sir willoughby wouldn't see him
i know mister whitford does and miss dale told me he did
you ought to love him i like him and i like his face why his face it's not like those faces miss dale and i talk about him she thinks that sir willoughby is the best looking man ever born were you not speaking of mister whitford
yes old vernon that's what sir willoughby calls him young crossjay excused himself to her look of surprise do you know what he makes me think of his eyes i mean he makes me think of robinson crusoe's old goat in the cavern
i like him because he's always the same and you're not positive about some people miss middleton if you look on at cricket in comes a safe man for ten runs he may get more and he never gets less and you should hear the old farmers talk of him in the booth
that's just my feeling miss middleton understood that some illustration from the cricketing field was intended to throw light on the boy's feeling for mister whitford young crossjay was evidently warming to speak from his heart but the sun was low
she had to dress for the dinner table and she landed him with regret as at a holiday over before they parted he offered to swim across the lake in his clothes or dive to the bed for anything she pleased to throw
like the reed warbler on the branch beside the night stream a simple song of a lighthearted sound independent of the shifting black and grey of the flood underneath a step was at her heels i see you have been petting my scapegrace
mister whitford yes not petting i hope i tried to give him a lecture he's a dear lad but i fancy trying
she had been rowing she said and as he directed his eyes according to his wont penetratingly she defended herself by fixing her mind on robinson crusoe's old goat in the recess of the cavern
i must have him away from here very soon said vernon here he's quite spoiled speak of him to willoughby i can't guess at his ideas of the boy's future but the chance of passing for the navy won't bear trifling with
and if ever there was a lad made for the navy it's crossjay the incident of the explosion in the laboratory was new to vernon and willoughby laughed he said
i would rather have had him under me up to the last three months
but he's ruined here and i am going so i shall not trouble him for many weeks longer doctor middleton is well my father is well yes he pounced like a falcon on your notes in the library
i am in for a controversy papa will not spare you to judge from his look i know the look have you walked far to day nine and a half hours my flibbertigibbet is too much for me at times and i had to walk off my temper
she cast her eyes on him thinking of the pleasure of dealing with a temper honestly coltish and manfully open to a specific all those hours were required not quite so long you are training for your alpine tour
i leave the hall and shall probably be in london with a pen to sell willoughby knows that you leave him as much as mont blanc knows that he is going to be climbed by a party below he sees a speck or two in the valley he has not spoken of it
he would attribute it to changes vernon did not conclude the sentence she became breathless without emotion but checked by the barrier confronting an impulse to ask what changes she stooped to pluck a cowslip
i saw daffodils lower down the park she said one or two they're nearly over we are well off for wild flowers here he answered do not leave him mister whitford he will not want me you are devoted to him
i can't pretend that then it is the changes you imagine you foresee if any occur why should they drive you away well i'm two and thirty and have never been in the fray a
kind of nondescript half scholar and by nature half billman or bowman or musketeer
papa will not like your serving with your pen in london he will say you are worth too much for that good men are at it i should not care to be ranked above them they are wasted he says error
if they have their private ambition they may suppose they are wasted but the value to the world of a private ambition i do not clearly understand you have not an evil opinion of the world said miss middleton sick at heart as she spoke
with the sensation of having invited herself to take a drop of poison he replied one might as well have an evil opinion of a river here it's muddy there it's clear one day troubled another at rest
we have to treat it with common sense love it in the sense of serving it not think it beautiful part of it is part of it the reverse papa would quote the mulier formosa
except that fish is too good for the black extremity woman is excellent for the upper how do you say that not cynically i believe your view commends itself to my reason
she was grateful to him for not stating it in ideal contrast with sir willoughby's view if he had so intensely did her youthful blood desire to be enamoured of the world that she felt he would have lifted her off her feet
when she said love it
but the sober in the sense of serving it entered her brain and was matter for reflection upon it and him she could think of him in pleasant liberty uncorrected by her woman's instinct of peril he had neither arts nor graces
nothing of his cousin's easy social front face she had once witnessed the military precision of his dancing and had to learn to like him before she ceased to pray that she might never be the victim of it as his partner
he walked heroically his pedestrian vigour being famous but that means one who walks away from the sex not excelling in the recreations where men and women join hands he was not much of a horseman either sir willoughby enjoyed seeing him on horseback
and he could scarcely be said to shine in a drawingroom unless when seated beside a person ready for real talk even more than his merits his demerits pointed him out as a man to be a friend to a young woman who wanted one
his way of life pictured to her troubled spirit an enviable smoothness and his having achieved that smooth way she considered a sign of strength and she wished to lean in idea upon some friendly strength
his reputation for indifference to the frivolous charms of girls clothed him with a noble coldness and gave him the distinction of a far seen solitary iceberg in southern waters the popular notion of hereditary titled aristocracy
resembles her sentiment for a man that would not flatter and could not be flattered by her sex he appeared superior almost to awfulness she was young but she had received much flattery in her ears and by it she had been snared
and he disdaining to practise the fowler's arts or to cast a thought on small fowls appeared to her to have a pride founded on natural loftiness they had not spoken for awhile when vernon said abruptly
the boy's future rather depends on you miss middleton i mean to leave as soon as possible and i do not like his being here without me though you will look after him i have no doubt but you may not at first see where the spoiling hurts him
he should be packed off at once to the crammer before you are lady patterne use your influence willoughby will support the lad at your request the cost cannot be great there are strong grounds against my having him in london even if i could manage it may i count on you
i will mention it i will do my best said miss middleton strangely dejected they were now on the lawn where sir willoughby was walking with the ladies eleanor and isabel his maiden aunts
you seem to have coursed the hare and captured the hart he said to his bride started the truant and run down the paedagogue said vernon ay you won't listen to me about the management of that boy sir willoughby retorted the ladies embraced miss middleton
one offered up an ejaculation in eulogy of her looks the other of her healthfulness then both remarked that with indulgence young crossjay could be induced to do anything clara wondered whether inclination or sir willoughby had disciplined their individuality out of them
and made them his shadows his echoes she gazed from them to him and feared him but as yet she had not experienced the power in him which could threaten and wrestle to subject the members of his household to the state of satellites
though she had in fact been giving battle to it for several months she had held her own too well to perceive definitely the character of the spirit opposing her she said to the ladies ah no mister
whitford has chosen the only method for teaching a boy like crossjay i propose to make a man of him said sir willoughby what is to become of him if he learns nothing
if he pleases me he will be provided for i have never abandoned a dependent clara let her eyes rest on his and without turning or dropping
he was very sensitive to the intentions of eyes and tones which was one secret of his rigid grasp of the dwellers in his household they were taught that they had to render agreement under sharp scrutiny
studious eyes devoid of warmth devoid of the shyness of sex that suddenly closed on their look signified a want of comprehension of some kind it might be hostility of understanding was it possible he did not possess her utterly
he frowned up clara saw the lift of his brows and thought my mind is my own married or not
the adventure of the pea green patrician away to india a life on the ocean wave once more and may it prove less wavy in plain prose my arrangement with my proprietor mister elworthy
thus we speak in the newspaper trade included a trip to bombay for myself and elsie so as soon as we had drained upper egypt journalistically dry we returned to cairo on our road to suez i am glad to say
my letters to the daily telephone gave satisfaction my employer wrote you are a born journalist i confess this surprised me for i have always considered myself a truthful person still as he evidently meant it for praise
i took the doubtful compliment in good part and offered no remonstrance i have a mercurial temperament my spirits rise and fall as if they were consols monotonous egypt depressed me as it depressed the israelites
but the passage of the red sea set me sounding my timbrel i love fresh air i love the sea if the sea will but behave itself and i positively revelled in the change from egypt
so as to secure good berths and still more unfortunately in a letter to lady georgina i had chanced to mention the name of our ship and the date of the voyage i kept up a spasmodic correspondence with lady georgina nowadays
tuppence ha'penny a fortnight the dear cantankerous racy old lady had been the foundation of my fortunes and i was genuinely grateful to her or rather i ought to say she had been their second foundress
for i will do myself the justice to admit that the first was my own initiative and enterprise
besides let me whisper strictly between ourselves an indirect way of hearing about harold
all the colouring matter of the body seemed somehow to have faded out of him
a pallid anaemic indefinite hobbledehoy with a high narrow forehead and sketchy features he had watery restless eyes of an insipid light blue
as a rule the best part of his attention it was so sparse and so blanched that he felt it continually to assure himself no doubt of the reality of its existence i need hardly add that he wore an eye glass
ordinary person could have been quite so flavourless
and judicious selection he went on gazing in a vacant way at the water below an ineffectual patrician smile playing feebly round the corners of his mouth meanwhile then he turned and stared at me as i lay back in my deck chair
for a minute he looked me over as if i were a horse for sale when he had finished inspecting me he beckoned to somebody at the far end of the quarter deck the somebody sidled up with a deferential air
which confirmed my belief in the pea green young man's aristocratic origin
for he has gradations of flunkeydom he is respectful to wealth polite to acquired rank but servile only to hereditary nobility indeed you can make a rough guess at the social status of the person he addresses
by observing which one of his twenty seven nicely graduated manners he adopts in addressing him the pea green young man glanced over in my direction and murmured something to the satellite whose back was turned towards me
he was asking whether i was the person he suspected me to be the satellite nodded assent whereat the pea green young man screwing up his face to fix his eye glass
he must be heir to a peerage i felt convinced nobody short of that rank would consider himself entitled to stare with such frank unconcern at an unknown lady presently
it further occurred to me that the satellite's back seemed strangely familiar i have seen that man somewhere elsie i whispered putting aside the wisps of hair that blew about my face so have i dear
elsie answered with a slight shudder
the man turned and strolled slowly past us
he cast a glance at us as he went by a withering glance of brazen effrontery
it was that variable star our old acquaintance mister higginson the courier
no longer the count or the mysterious faith healer the diplomat hid his rays under the garb of the man servant depend upon it elsie i cried clutching her arm with a vague sense of fear
this man means mischief there is danger ahead when a creature of higginson's sort who has risen to be a count and a fashionable physician descends again to be a courier
you may rest assured it is because he has something to gain by it he has some deep scheme afloat
his master looks weak enough and silly enough for anything elsie answered eyeing the suspected lordling i should think he is just the sort of man such a wily rogue would naturally fasten upon
i said the two together may make a formidable combination but never mind we're forewarned i think i shall be even with him
that evening at dinner in the saloon the pea green young man strolled in with a jaunty air and took his seat next to us the red sea by the way was kinder than the mediterranean
it allowed us to dine from the very first evening cards had been laid on the plates to mark our places i glanced at my neighbour's it bore the inscription viscount southminster
lady georgina's nephew harold tillington's cousin so this was the man who might possibly inherit mister marmaduke ashurst's money
i remembered now how often and how fervently lady georgina had said kynaston's sons are all fools if the rest came up to sample i was inclined to agree with her it also flashed across me that lord southminster might have heard
and of my acquaintance with harold tillington at schlangenbad and lungern with a woman's instinct i jumped at the fact that the pea green young man had taken passage by this boat on purpose to baffle both me
he might desire for example that harold should marry me under the impression that his marriage with a penniless outsider would annoy his uncle for the pea
if so his obvious cue would be to promote a good understanding between harold and myself in order to make us marry so that the urbane old gentlemen might then disinherit his favourite nephew and make a new will
or again the pea green young man might on the contrary be aware that mister ashurst and i had got on admirably together when we met at florence
he might merely have heard that i had drawn up uncle marmaduke's will at the office and he might desire to worm the contents of it out of me whichever was his design i resolved to be upon my guard in every word i said to him
that the colourless young man had torn himself away from the mud honey of piccadilly for this voyage to india only because he had heard there was a chance of meeting me that was a politic move whoever planned it himself or higginson
for a week on board ship with a person or persons is the very best chance of getting thrown in with them whether they like it or lump it they can't easily avoid you
we ought to be friends rathah i think yah know my poor deah old aunt lady georgina fawley i bowed a somewhat freezing bow
lady georgina is one of my dearest friends i answered no really poor deah old georgey
now that's what i call chivalrous of yah magnanimous isn't it i like to see people stick up for their friends and it must be a novelty for georgey
for between you and me a moah cantankerous spiteful acidulated old cough drop than the poor deah soul it ud be difficult to hit upon lady georgina has brains i answered
i will admit that she does not suffer fools gladly he turned to me with a sudden sharp look in the depths of the lack lustre eyes already it began to strike me that though the pea green young man was inane he had his
due proportion of a certain insidious practical cunning
and according to her almost everybody's a fool especially her relations there's a fine knack of sweeping generalisation about deah skinny old georgey
the few people she reahlly likes are all archangels the rest are blithering idiots there's no middle course with her i held my peace frigidly
she thinks me a very special and peculiah fool he went on crumbling his bread lady georgina i answered is a person of exceptional discrimination
i would almost always accept her judgment on anyone as practically final he laid down his soup spoon fondled the imperceptible moustache with his tapering fingers and then broke once more into a cheerful expanse of smile
it spread over his face as the splash from a stone spreads over a mill pond now that's a nice cheerful sort of thing to say to a fellah he ejaculated fixing his eye glass in his eye with a few
fierce contortions of his facial muscles that's encouraging don't yah know as the foundation of an acquaintance makes a good cornah stone calculated to place things
marmy's doing very well thank yah as well as could be expected in fact bettah habakkuk on the brain it's carrying him off at last he has
bright's disease very bad drank port don't yah know and won't trouble this wicked world much longah with his presence it will be a happy release especially for his nephews
to like the urbane old gentleman as i had grown to like the cantankerous old lady
and his real liking for me had softened my heart to him and my face must have shown my distress for the pea green young man added quickly with an afterthought
it's all right for harold tillington you ought to know that as well as anyone and bettah for it was you who drew up his will for him at florence i flushed crimson i believe
i was not asking on mister tillington's account i answered i asked because i have a personal feeling of friendship for your uncle mister ashurst his hand strayed up to the straggling yellow hairs on his upper lip once more
and he smiled again this time with a curious undercurrent of foolish craftiness that's a good one he answered georgey told me you were original marmy's a millionaire
and many people love millionaires for their money but to love marmy for himself
old boah in london society i like mister ashurst because he has a kind heart and some genuine instincts i answered he has not allowed all human feeling to be replaced by a cheap mask of pall mall cynicism
oh i say how's that for preaching
i'm a forgiving creachah no thank you i prefer this hock your friend then
to my great disgust elsie held out her glass i was annoyed at that
in spite of this beginning lord southminster almost
i could not make out precisely what he was driving at but i saw he had some artful game of his own to play and that he was playing it subtly
his vapidity did not prevent him from being worldly wise with the wisdom of the self seeking man of the world who utterly distrusts
he harped so often on this string that on our second day out as we lolled on deck in the heat i had to rebuke him sharply he had been sneering for some hours there are two kinds of silly simplicity lord southminster i said at last
and just as one sided to overlook the good as to overlook the evil in humanity
besides losing half the joy of living then you think me a fool like georgey he broke out i should never be rude enough to say so i answered fanning myself well
you're what i call a first rate companion for a voyage down the red sea he put in gazing abstractedly at the awnings such a lovely freezing mixture a fellah doesn't need ices when you're on tap
for my parasol or my smelling bottle he fetched me chairs he stayed me with cushions he offered to lend me books he pestered me to drink his wine and he kept elsie in champagne which she annoyed me by accepting
she would observe in her simple fashion do you know i think he's
and he'll be an earl by and by i call it romantic
to see you a countess elsie i said severely with one hand on her arm you are a dear little soul and i am very fond of you but if you think i could sell myself for a coronet to
green complexion and glassy blue eyes i can only say my child you have misread my character he isn't a man he's a lump of putty i think elsie was quite shocked that i should apply these terms
to a courtesy lord the eldest son of a peer nature had endowed her with the profound british belief that peers should be spoken of in choice and peculiar language if a peer's a fool lady georgina said once to me
people think you should say his temperament does not fit him for the conduct of affairs if he's a roue or a drunkard they think you should say he has unfortunate weaknesses what most of all convinced me however
that the wishy washy young man with the pea green complexion must be playing some stealthy game was the demeanour and mental attitude of mister higginson his courier
and deference itself to us he behaved to us both almost as if we belonged to the titled classes he treated us with the second best of his twenty seven graduated manners
he fetched and carried for us with a courtly grace which recalled that distinguished diplomat the comte de laroche sur loiret at the station at malines with lady georgina it is true
at his politest moments i often caught the undercurrent of a wicked twinkle in his eye and felt sure he was doing it all with some profound motive but his external demeanour was everything that one could desire from a well trained man servant
i smiled and held my tongue silence costs nothing but mister higginson's political opinions i felt sure were of that simple communistic sort which the law in its blunt way calls fraudulent
they consisted in a belief that all was his which he could lay his hands on higginson's a splendid fellah for his place yah know miss cayley lord southminster said to me one evening as we were approaching aden
doosid intelligent extremely so i answered then the devil entered into me again
yaas that's just it don't you know georgey told me that story screamingly funny wasn't it and i said to myself at once
higginson's the man for me i want a courier with jolly lots of brains
see how frank i am miss cayley
the truth is very rare you ought to respect me for it it depends somewhat upon the kind of truth i answered with a random shot i don't respect a man for instance
for confessing to a forgery he winced not for months after did i know how a stone thrown at a venture had chanced to hit the spot and had vastly enhanced his opinion of my cleverness
you have heard about doctor fortescue langley too i suppose i went on
wasn't it real jam
that he and i are engaged in pulling off a big coup togethah if it were not for that
and the empire for nothing i judged as much i answered
why the neutral tinted young man should be so communicative to an obviously hostile stranger
he was absurdly anxious to humour us just at first it is true he had discussed the subjects that lay nearest to his own heart
and he loved the turf whose sward we judged he trod mainly at tattersall's he spoke to us with erudition on two year old form and gave us several safe things for the spring handicaps
the oaks he considered a moral for clorinda he also retailed certain choice anecdotes about ladies whose christian names were chiefly tottie and flo and whose honoured surnames have escaped my memory
most of them flourished i recollect at the frivolity music hall
our subjects he had heard us talk about florence for example and he gathered from our talk that we loved its art treasures so he
it was a beautiful study in human ineptitude
chawming place florence i dote on the
i know them all by heart
i've spent houahs and houahs feeding my soul in the galleries and what particular painter does your soul most feed upon i asked bluntly with a smile the question staggered him
i could see him hunting through the vacant chambers of his brain for a florentine painter then a faint light gleamed in the leaden eyes and he fingered the straw coloured moustache with that nervous hand till he almost put a visible point upon it
he said tentatively with an inquiring air yet beaming at his success don't you think so splendid artist raphael and a very safe guess i answered leading him on
you can't go far wrong in mentioning raphael can you but after him he dived into the recesses of his memory again peered about him for a minute or two and brought back nothing
i can't remembah the othah fellahs names he went on they're all so much alike all in elli don't yah know but i recollect at the time
i answered he tried to look through me and failed then he plunged like a noble sportsman that he was on a second fetch of memory
very sweet i admitted so simple so touching so tender so domestic i thought elsie would explode but she kept her countenance
that i was making game of him however he fished up a name once more and clutched at it savonarola too he adventured i adore savonarola
and so rare elsie murmured then there is fra diavolo i suggested going one better
ah what did he paint he asked with growing caution
with the roses and the glories
all askew aren't they like this i remembah them very well but
he's the fellah who used to paint all his women crooked but
i've often drunk it and romano's well every fellah knows romano's is a restaurant near the gaiety theatre besides i continued in a drawl like his own there are
and gnocchi and vermicelli and
and all of whom i don't doubt you admiah elsie exploded at last
much i'm not taking any
the gray tower of the good duchess anne was hung with garlands of ivy and gay with tufts of fragrant wallflowers and along the fosse the shadows deepened daily as the young leaves thickened on the interlacing branches overhead
wooden shoes clattered to and fro as the girls brought water from the fountain in place saint louis men with their long hair embroidered jackets and baggy breeches drank cider at the inn doors and the great breton horses
shook their high collars till the bells rang again as they passed along the roads that wound between wide fields of colza buckwheat and clover up at the chateau
which stood near the ruins of the ancient castle the great banner streamed in the wind showing as its folds blew out the device and motto of the beaumanoir two clasped hands and the legend
in the courtyard hounds brayed horses pranced
for the count was going to hunt the wild boar presently away they went with the merry music of horns the clatter of hoofs and the blithe ring of voices till the pleasant clamor died away in the distant woods
where mistletoe clung to the great oaks and menhirs and dolmens
a boy's face looked out full of eager longing a fine strong face but sullen now with black brows dark restless eyes and lips set
as if rebellious thoughts were stirring in his mind he watched the gay cavalcade disappear until a sunny silence settled over the landscape broken only by the larks and the sound of a girl's voice singing as he listened
when it rested on a blue gowned white capped figure sprinkling webs of linen spread to bleach in the green meadow by the river rance if i may not hunt
the boy struck a volume that lay on the wide ledge with a petulant energy that sent it fluttering down into the court yard below half ashamed and half amused young gaston peeped to see if this random shot had hit any one
but all was quiet and deserted now so with a boyish laugh and a daring glance at the dangerous descent he said to the doves cooing on the roof overhead
here's a fine pretext for escape being locked in
tell no tales of the time i linger
my pretty birds then swinging himself out as if it were no new feat he climbed boldly down through the ivy that half hid the carved flowers and figures which made a ladder for his agile feet
where he was welcomed by a rosy brown eyed lass whose white teeth shone as she laughed to see him leap the moat dodge behind the wall and come bounding toward her his hair streaming in the wind
and his face full of boyish satisfaction in this escapade the old tale he panted as he threw himself down upon the grass and flung the recovered book beside him
this dreary latin drives me mad and i will not waste such days as this poring over dull pages like a priest when i should be hunting like a knight and gentleman
had father nevin trusted to my honor i would not have run away but he locked me in like a monk in a cell and that i will not bear just one hour yvonne one little hour of freedom
then i will go back else there will be no sport for me to morrow said the lad recklessly pulling up the bluets that starred the grass about him
said the girl reverently turning the pages of the book she could not read no need of that i like you as you are and by my faith i doubt your great willingness for when i last played tutor
and left you to spell out the pretty legend of saint coventin and his little fish i found you fast asleep with the blessed book upon the floor laughed gaston turning the tables on his mentor with great satisfaction
the girl laughed also as she retorted my tutor should not have left me to play with his dogs i bore my penance better than you and did not run away come now we'll be merry
will you talk or shall i sing while you rest this hot head and dream of horse and hound and spearing the wild boar added yvonne
and not that of a peasant rough with hard work since i may not play a man's part yet amuse me like a boy
it is long since i have heard one
let me think a bit till i remember your favorites and do you listen to the bees above there in the willow setting you a good example idle boy
while she sat beside him racking her brain for tales to beguile this truant hour her father was the count's forester and when the countess had died some sixteen years before
leaving a month old boy good dame gillian had taken the motherless baby and nursed and reared him with her little girl so faithfully and tenderly
as babies the two slept in one cradle as children they played and quarrelled together and as boy and girl they defended comforted and amused each other
but time brought inevitable changes and both felt that the hour of separation was near for
gaston was receiving the education befitting a young count the chaplain taught him to read and write with lessons in sacred history and a little latin of the forester he learned woodcraft
and his father taught him horsemanship and the use of arms accomplishments considered all important in those days
but dearly loved athletic sports and at sixteen rode the most fiery horse without a fall handled a sword admirably could kill a boar at the first shot and longed ardently for war
that he might prove himself a man a brave high spirited generous boy with a very tender spot in his heart for the good woman who had been a mother to him and his little foster sister whose idol he was
for days he seemed to forget these humble friends and led the gay active life of his age and rank but if wounded in the chase worried by the chaplain disappointed in any plan or in disgrace for any prank
he turned instinctively to dame gillian and yvonne sure of help and comfort for mind and body companionship with him had refined the girl and given her glimpses of a world into which she could never enter
who was both her prince and brother her influence over him was great for she was of a calm and patient nature as well as
his will was law yet in seeming to obey she often led him and he thanked her for the courage with which she helped him to control his fiery temper and strong will now
as she glanced at him she saw that he was already growing more tranquil under the soothing influences of the murmuring river the soft flicker of the sunshine and a blessed sense of freedom so
while she twisted her distaff she told the stirring tales of warriors saints and fairies
but best of all was the tale of gaston's own ancestor
we will always stand by one another and be true to the motto of our house till death
as we shall see just at that moment the sound of hoofs made the young enthusiasts start and look toward the road that wound through the valley to the hill
was all they saw but the change that came over both was comical in its suddenness for the gallant knight turned to a truant school boy daunted by the sight of his tutor while the rival of the maid of orleans grew pale with dismay
i am lost if he spy me for my father vowed i should not hunt again unless i did my task he will see me if i run
whispered gaston ashamed of his panic yet unwilling to pay the penalty of his prank but quick witted yvonne saved him for lifting one end of the long web of linen she showed a hollow whence some great stone had been removed
and gaston slipped into the green nest
on came the chaplain glancing sharply about him being of an austere and suspicious nature he saw nothing however but the peasant girl in her quaint cap and wooden sabots
singing to herself as she leaned against a tree with her earthen jug in her hand the mule paused in the light shadow of the willows to crop a mouthful of grass before climbing the hill and the chaplain seemed glad to rest a moment
for the day was warm and the road dusty come hither child and give me a draught of water he called and the girl ran to fill her pitcher offering it with a low reverence thanks daughter
a fine day for the bleaching but over warm for much travel
said the old man when he had drunk and with a frowning glance at the room where he had left his prisoner he drew a breviary from his pocket and began to read while the mule browsed along the road side
yvonne went to sprinkling the neglected linen wondering with mingled anxiety and girlish merriment how gaston fared the sun shone hotly on the dry cloth and as she approached the boy's hiding place
a stir would have betrayed him had the chaplain's eyes been lifted sprinkle me quickly i am stifling in this hole whispered an imploring voice
and the thirst will pass quoted yvonne taking a naughty satisfaction in the ignominious captivity of the wilful boy a long sigh was the only answer he gave and taking pity on him
she made a little hollow in the linen where she knew his head lay
the chaplain looked up but the girl coughed loudly as she went to refill her jug with such a demure face that he suspected nothing
the moment he disappeared a small earthquake seemed to take place under the linen for it flew up violently and a pair of long legs waved joyfully in the air as gaston burst into a ringing laugh
which yvonne echoed heartily then springing up he said throwing back his wet hair and shaking his finger at her you dared not betray me but you nearly drowned me wicked girl
i cannot stop for vengeance now but i'll toss you into the river some day and leave you to get out as you can then he was off as quickly as he came eager to reach his prison again before the chaplain came to hear the unlearned lesson
yvonne watched him till he climbed safely in at the high window and disappeared with a wave of the hand when she too went back to her work little dreaming what brave parts both were to play in dangers and captivities
of which these youthful pranks and perils were but a foreshadowing two years later in the month of march seventeen ninety three
for the old count had been an officer of the king's household and hastened to prove his loyalty yvonne's heart beat high with pride as she saw her foster brother ride gallantly away beside his father
with a hundred armed vassals behind them and the white banner fluttering above their heads in the fresh wind she longed to go with him but her part was to watch and wait to hope and pray till the hour came when she like many another woman in those days
could prove herself as brave as a man and freely risk her life for those she loved four months later the heavy tidings reached them that the old count was killed and gaston taken prisoner
great was the lamentation among the old men women and children left behind but they had little time for sorrow
burned the chateau and laid waste the abbey now mother i must up and away to find and rescue gaston i promised and if he lives it shall be done let me go you are safe now
and there is no rest for me till i know how he fares said yvonne
whither they had hastily fled for protection go my girl and bring me news of our young lord may you lead him safely home again to rule over us answered dame gillian devoted still
yet she let her daughter go without a murmur feeling that no sacrifice was too great so yvonne set out
the pretty winged creature frightened by the destruction of its home had flown to her for refuge and she had cherished it for its master's sake now when it would not leave her but came circling around her head a league away from dinan
she accepted the good omen and made the bird the companion of her perilous journey there is no room to tell all the dangers disappointments and fatigues endured before she found gaston but
after being often misled by false rumors
his own reckless courage had brought him there for in one of the many skirmishes in which he had taken part he ventured too far away from his men and was captured after fighting desperately to cut his way out now
alone in his cell he raged like a caged eagle feeling that there was no hope of escape for the fort stood on a plateau of precipitous rock washed on two sides by the sea
he had heard of the massacre of the royalist emigrants who landed there and tried to prepare himself for a like fate
i do it but one knee i bend for my god the other for my king
past which the gulls flew screaming and watched the fishers at their work the women gathering sea weed on the shore
bitterly did he regret the wilfulness which brought him there well knowing that if he had obeyed orders he would now be free to find his father's body and avenge his death oh for one day of liberty
as he spoke he shook the heavy bars with impotent strength
wrung from him by captivity and despair standing so with eyes too dim for seeing something brushed against his hair and a bird lit on the narrow ledge he thought it was a gull and paid no heed
but in a moment a soft coo started him and looking up he saw a white dove struggling to get in blanchette he cried and the pretty creature flew to his hand
pecking at his lips in the old caressing way he knew so well my faithful bird god bless thee exclaimed the poor lad
so touched so glad was he to find in his dreary prison even a dumb friend and comforter but blanchette had her part to play
and presently fluttered back to the window ledge cooing loudly as she pecked at something underneath her wing then gaston remembered
and with a thrill of joy looked for the token hardly daring to hope that any would be found yes there tied carefully among the white feathers was a tiny roll of paper with these words rudely written on it
be ready help will come y the brave girl the loyal heart i might have known she would keep her promise and come to save me and gaston dropped on his knees in gratitude
blanchette meantime tripped about the cell on her little rosy feet ate a few crumbs of the hard bread dipped her beak in the jug of water dressed her feathers daintily then flew to the bars and called him
he had nothing to send back by this sure messenger but a lock of hair and this he tied with the same thread in place of the note then kissing the bird he bade it go
carrying joy with it and leaving hope behind after that the little courier came often unperceived carrying letters to and fro for yvonne sent bits of paper and gaston wrote his answers with his blood
and a quill from blanchette's wing he thus learned how yvonne was living in a fisher's hut on the beach and working for his rescue as well as she dared
her neighbors thought her a poor soul left desolate by the war and let her live unmolested so she worked on secretly and steadily playing her part well
and a boat ready to receive the fugitives her plan was perilously simple but the only one possible for gaston was well guarded and out of that lofty cell it seemed that no prisoner could escape without wings
a bird and a woman lent him those wings and his daring flight was a nine days wonder at the fort
but gaston was well trained and the boyish pranks that used to bring him into dire disgrace now helped to save his life thus when the order came written in the rude hand he had taught yvonne long ago
pull up the thread which blanchette will bring at midnight watch for a light in the bay then come down and saint barbe protect you he was ready for the tiny file of watch spring brought by the bird
had secretly done its work and several bars were loose he knew that the attempt might cost him his life but was willing to gain liberty even at that price for imprisonment seemed worse than death to his impatient spirit
the jailer went his last round the great bell struck the appointed hour and gaston stood at the window straining his eyes to catch the first ray of the promised light when the soft whir of wings gladdened his ear and blanchette arrived
looking scared and wet and weary for rain fell the wind blew fitfully
but obedient to its training it flew to its master
he knew what to do and tying a bit of the broken bar to one end as a weight he let it down praying that no cruel gust would break or blow it away in a moment a quick jerk at the thread bade him pull again
a cord came up and when that was firmly secured a second jerk was the signal for the last and most important haul up came the stout rope knotted here and there to add safety and strength to the hands and feet that were to climb down that frail ladder
the rope was made fast to an iron staple inside
while blanchette flew down to tell yvonne he was coming the moment the distant spark appeared he bestirred himself set his teeth and boldly began the dangerous descent
rain blinded him the wind beat him against the rock bruising hands and knees
and blessing yvonne for the knots that kept him from slipping when the gusts blew him to and fro more than once he thought it was all over but the good rope held fast and strength and courage nerved heart and limbs
one greater than saint barbe upheld him and he dropped at last breathless and bleeding beside the faithful yvonne there was no time for words only a grasp of the hand a sigh of gratitude
and they were away to the boat that tossed on the wild water with a single rower in his place
i found him looking for you he is true as steel in in and off or you are lost whispered yvonne flinging a cloak about gaston thrusting a purse a sword and a flask into his hand and holding the boat while he leaped in
but you he cried i cannot leave you in peril after all you have dared and done for me no one suspects me i am safe go to my mother she will hide you and i will follow soon
waiting for no further speech
and watched it vanish in the darkness then went away to give thanks and rest after her long work and excitement
reached home safely and dame gillian concealed him in the ruins of the abbey till anxiety for yvonne drove him out to seek and rescue in his turn for she did not come and when a returning soldier
brought word that she had been arrested in her flight and sent to nantes gaston could not rest but disguising himself as a peasant
who loved yvonne and would gladly die for her and his young master their hearts sunk when they discovered that she was in the boufflay an old fortress once a royal residence and now a prison
crowded with unfortunate and innocent creatures arrested on the slightest pretexts
hundreds of men and women were there suffering terribly and among them was yvonne brave still but with no hope of escape for few were saved and then only by some lucky accident
like a sister of mercy she went among the poor souls crowded together in the great halls hungry cold sick and despairing and they clung to her as if she were some strong sweet saint who could deliver them or teach them how to die
after some weeks of this terrible life her name was called one morning on the list for that day's execution and she rose to join the sad procession setting forth which is it to be she asked
as she passed one of the men who guarded them a rough fellow whose face was half hidden by a shaggy beard you will be drowned we have no time to waste on women
a slip of paper was pressed into her hand
i am here it was gaston in the midst of enemies bent on saving her at the risk of his life remembering all he owed her and the motto of his race the shock of this discovery nearly betrayed them both
courage my sister it is soon over i fear nothing now cried yvonne and went on to take her place in the cart
it is enough to say that in the confusion of the moment yvonne found opportunity to read and destroy the little paper which said briefly when you are flung into the river call my name and float i shall be near
she understood
she employed every moment in loosening the rope that tied her hands and keeping her eye on the tall bearded man who moved about seeming to do his work while his blood boiled with suppressed wrath and his heart ached with unavailing pity
it was dusk before the end came for yvonne and she was all unnerved by the sad sights she had been forced to see but when rude hands seized her she made ready for the plunge sure that gaston would be near
he was for in the darkness and uproar
and while she floated he cut the rope then swam down the river with her hand upon his shoulder till they dared to land both were nearly spent with the excitement and exertion of that dreadful hour but hoel waited
where they gave her fire food dry garments and the gladdest welcome one human creature ever gave to another being a robust peasant the girl came safely through hardships that would have killed or crazed a frailer creature
and she was soon able to rejoice with the brave fellows over this escape so audaciously planned and so boldly carried out they dared stay but a few hours and before dawn were hastening through the least frequented ways toward home
finding safety in the distracted state of the country which made fugitives no unusual sight and refugees plentiful
and that a happy one completed their joy and turned their flight into a triumphant march pausing in the depths of the great forest of hunaudaye to rest
the two young men went to find food leaving yvonne to tend the fire and make ready to cook the venison they hoped to bring it was nightfall and another day would see them in dinan they hoped but the lads had consented to pause for the girl's sake
for she was worn out with their rapid flight
and pointed to a green slope before them an early moon gave light enough to show them a dark form moving quickly into the coppice and something like the antlers of a stag showed above the tall brakes before they vanished
not to hunt your fellow creatures my lord but i forgive you for it was well done and i had a hard run to escape he said still laughing but how came you here cried both the youths in great excitement for the good man was supposed to be dead
a long tale for which i have a short and happy answer come home to supper with me and i'll show you a sight that will gladden hearts and eyes he answered shouldering his load and leading the way to a deserted hermitage
which had served many a fugitive for a shelter as they went
and pointing to the figure of a man with a pale face and bandaged head lying asleep beside the fire it was the count sorely wounded but alive thanks to his devoted follower who had saved him when the fight was over
and after weeks of concealment suffering and anxiety had brought him so far toward home no need to tell of the happy meeting that night nor of the glad return for though the chateau was in ruins and lives were still in danger
and nursed her master back to health
and gaston went to the wars again a new chateau rose on the ruins of the old
for the sake of argument let us suppose that you could fulfill the law in the spirit of the first commandment of god thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart it would do you no good
a person simply is not justified by the works of the law the works of the law according to paul include the whole law judicial ceremonial moral
now if the performance of the moral law cannot justify how can circumcision justify when circumcision is part of the ceremonial law the demands of the law may be fulfilled before and after justification
there were many excellent men among the pagans of old men who never heard of justification they lived moral lives but that fact did not justify them peter paul
all christians live up to the law but that fact does not justify them for i know nothing by myself says paul
the nefarious opinion of the papists which attributes the merit of grace and the remission of sins to works must here be emphatically rejected the papists say that a good work performed before grace
has been obtained is able to secure grace for a person because it is no more than right that god should reward a good deed when grace has already been obtained
any good work deserves everlasting life as a due payment and reward for merit for the first god is no debtor they say
but because god is good and just it is no more than right they say that he should reward a good work by granting grace for the service but when grace has already been obtained they continue god is in the position of a debtor
and is in duty bound to reward a good work with the gift of eternal life this is the wicked teaching of the papacy now if i could perform any work acceptable to god and deserving of grace
and once having obtained grace my good works would continue to earn for me the right and reward of eternal life why should i stand in need of the grace of god and the suffering and death of christ
christ would be of no benefit to me christ's mercy would be of no use to me this shows how little insight the pope and the whole of his religious coterie have into spiritual matters
and how little they concern themselves with the spiritual health of their forlorn flocks they cannot believe that the flesh is unable to think speak or do anything except against god
if they could see evil rooted in the nature of man they would never entertain such silly dreams about man's merit or worthiness with paul we absolutely deny the possibility of self merit
god never yet gave to any person grace and everlasting life as a reward for merit the opinions of the papists are the intellectual pipe dreams of idle pates
that serve no other purpose but to draw men away from the true worship of god the papacy is founded upon hallucinations the true way of salvation is this
first a person must realize that he is a sinner the kind of a sinner who is congenitally unable to do any good thing whatsoever is not of faith is sin
those who seek to earn the grace of god by their own efforts are trying to please god with sins they mock god and provoke his anger the first step on the way to salvation is to repent
the second part is this god sent his only begotten son into the world that we may live through his merit he was crucified and killed for us
by sacrificing his son for us god revealed himself to us as a merciful father who donates remission of sins
for christ's sake god hands out his gifts freely unto all men that is the praise and glory of his mercy the scholastics explain the way of salvation in this manner
when a person happens to perform a good deed god accepts it and as a reward for the good deed god pours charity into that person they call it charity infused this charity is supposed to remain in the heart
they get wild when they are told that this quality of the heart cannot justify a person they also claim that we are able to love god by our own natural strength to love god above all things
at least to the extent that we deserve grace and say the scholastics because god is not satisfied with a literal performance of the law but expects us to fulfill the law according to the mind of the lawgiver
therefore we must obtain from above a quality above nature a quality which they call formal righteousness we say faith apprehends jesus christ christian faith is not an inactive quality in the heart
if it is true faith it will surely take christ for its object christ apprehended by faith and dwelling in the heart constitutes christian righteousness for which god gives eternal life
in contrast to the doting dreams of the scholastics we teach this first a person must learn to know himself from the law with the prophet he will then confess all have sinned
and come short of the glory of god and there is none that doeth good no not one and against thee thee only have i sinned having been humbled by the law
and having been brought to a right estimate of himself a man will repent he finds out that he is so depraved that no strength no works no merits of his own will ever deliver him from his guilt
he will then understand the meaning of paul's words i am sold under sin and they are all under sin at this state a person begins to lament who is going to help me
in due time comes the word of the gospel and says son thy sins are forgiven thee believe in jesus christ who was crucified for your sins remember your sins have been imposed upon christ
in this way are we delivered from sin in this way are we justified and made heirs of everlasting life in order to have faith you must paint a true portrait of christ the scholastics caricature christ
into a judge and tormentor but christ is no law giver he is the lifegiver he is the forgiver of sins you must believe that christ might have atoned for the sins of the world with one single drop of his blood
instead he shed his blood abundantly in order that he might give abundant satisfaction for our sins here let me say that these three things faith christ and imputation of righteousness
are to be joined together faith takes hold of christ god accounts this faith for righteousness this imputation of righteousness we need very much because we are far from perfect
as long as we have this body sin will dwell in our flesh then too we sometimes drive away the holy spirit we fall into sin like peter david and other holy men
nevertheless we may always take recourse to this fact that our sins are covered and that god will not lay them to our charge
where christ and faith are lacking there is no remission or covering of sins but only condemnation after we have taught faith in christ we teach good works
since you have found christ by faith we say begin now to work and do well love god and your neighbor call upon god give thanks unto him praise him confess him
these are good works let them flow from a cheerful heart because you have remission of sin in christ when crosses and afflictions come our way we bear them patiently for christ's yoke is easy
and his burden is light when sin has been pardoned and the conscience has been eased of its dreadful load a christian can endure all things in christ to give a short definition of a christian
because of his faith in christ this doctrine brings comfort to consciences in serious trouble when a person is a christian he is above law and sin
when the law accuses him and sin wants to drive the wits out of him a christian looks to christ a christian is free he has no master except christ a christian is greater than the whole world
verse sixteen even we have believed in jesus christ that we might be justified the true way of becoming a christian is to be justified by faith in jesus christ
and not by the works of the law we know that we must also teach good works but they must be taught in their proper turn when the discussion is concerning works
and not the article of justification here the question arises by what means are we justified we answer with paul by faith only in christ are we pronounced righteous and not by works
not that we reject good works far from it but we will not allow ourselves to be removed from the anchorage of our salvation the law is a good thing but when the discussion is about justification
that we might be justified by the faith of christ and not by the works of the law we do not mean to say that the law is bad only it is not able to justify us to be at peace with god
we have need of a far better mediator than moses or the law we must know that we are nothing we must understand that we are merely beneficiaries and recipients of the treasures of christ
so far the words of paul were addressed to peter now paul turns to the galatians and makes this summary statement verse sixteen
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified by the term flesh paul does not understand manifest vices such sins he usually calls by their proper names as adultery
fornication et cetera by flesh paul understands what jesus meant in the third chapter of john that which is born of the flesh is flesh john three six flesh here
means the whole nature of man inclusive of reason and instincts this flesh says paul is not justified by the works of the law
they say a person who performs this good deed or that deserves the forgiveness of his sins a person who joins this or that holy order has the promise of everlasting life
to me it is a miracle that the church so long surrounded by vicious sects has been able to survive at all god must have been able to call a few who in their failure to discover any good in themselves
to cite against the wrath and judgment of god simply took to the suffering and death of christ and were saved by this simple faith nevertheless god has punished the contempt of the gospel
and of christ on the part of the papists by turning them over to a reprobate state of mind in which they reject the gospel and receive with gusto the abominable rules
ordinances and traditions of men in preference to the word of god until they went so far as to forbid marriage god punished them justly
this is then our general conclusion by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified verse seventeen but if while we seek to be justified by christ
we ourselves also are found sinners is therefore christ the minister of sin god forbid either we are not justified by christ or we are not justified by the law
the fact is we are justified by christ hence we are not justified by the law if we observe the law in order to be justified or after having been justified by christ we think we must further be justified by the law
we convert christ into a legislator and a minister of sin what are these false apostles doing paul cries they are turning law into grace and grace into law
they are changing moses into christ and christ into moses by teaching that besides christ and his righteousness the performance of the law is necessary unto salvation they put the law in the place
of christ they attribute to the law the power to save a power that belongs to christ only the papists quote the words of christ if thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments
with his own words they deny christ and abolish faith in him christ is made to lose his good name his office and his glory and is demoted to the status of a law enforcer reproving terrifying
and chasing poor sinners around the proper office of christ is to raise the sinner and extricate him from his sins papists and anabaptists deride us because we so earnestly require faith
faith they say makes men reckless what do these law workers know about faith when they are so busy calling people back from baptism from faith from the promises of christ to the law
with their doctrine these lying sects of perdition deface the benefits of christ to this day they rob christ of his glory as the justifier of mankind and cast him into the role of a minister of sin
they are like the false apostles there is not a single one among them who knows the difference between law and grace we can tell the difference we do not here and now argue whether we ought to do good works
or whether the law is any good or whether the law ought to be kept at all we will discuss these questions some other time we are now concerned with justification our opponents refuse to make this distinction
all they can do is to bellow that good works ought to be done we know that we know that good works ought to be done but we will talk about that when the proper time comes now we are dealing with justification
and here good works should not be so much as mentioned paul's argument has often comforted me he argues if we who have been justified by christ are counted unrighteous
why seek justification in christ at all if we are justified by the law tell me what has christ achieved by his death by his preaching by his victory over sin and death
either we are justified by christ or we are made worse sinners by him the sacred scriptures particularly those of the new testament make frequent mention of faith in christ
whosoever believeth in him is saved shall not perish shall have everlasting life is not judged et cetera in open contradiction to the scriptures our opponents misquote
he that believeth in christ is condemned because he has faith without works our opponents turn everything topsy turvy they make christ over into a murderer and moses into a savior
is not this horrible blasphemy verse seventeen is therefore christ the minister of sin this is hebrew phraseology
there paul speaks of two ministers the minister of the letter and the minister of the spirit the minister of the law and the minister of grace the minister of death and the minister of life
moses says paul is the minister of the law of sin wrath death and condemnation whoever teaches that good works are indispensable unto salvation
that to gain heaven a person must suffer afflictions and follow the example of christ and of the saints is a minister of the law of sin wrath and of death
for the conscience knows how impossible it is for a person to fulfill the law why the law makes trouble even for those who have the holy spirit
what will not the law do in the case of the wicked who do not even have the holy spirit the law requires perfect obedience it condemns all who do not accomplish the will of god
but show me a person who is able to render perfect obedience the law cannot justify it can only condemn according to the passage
cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them paul has good reason for calling the minister of the law the minister of sin for the law reveals our sinfulness
the realization of sin in turn frightens the heart and drives it to despair therefore all exponents of the law and of works deserve to be called tyrants and oppressors
the purpose of the law is to reveal sin that this is the purpose of the law can be seen from the account of the giving of the law as reported in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of exodus
moses brought the people out of their tents to have god speak to them personally from a cloud but the people trembled with fear fled and standing aloof they begged moses speak thou with us and we will hear
but let not god speak with us lest we die the proper office of the law is to lead us out of our tents in other words out of the security of our self trust into the presence of god
that we may perceive his anger at our sinfulness all who say that faith alone in christ does not justify a person convert christ into a minister of sin a teacher of the law and a cruel tyrant
who requires the impossible all merit seekers take christ for a new lawgiver in conclusion if the law is the minister of sin it is at the same time the minister of wrath and death
as the law reveals sin it fills a person with the fear of death and condemnation eventually the conscience wakes up to the fact that god is angry if god is angry with you he will destroy and condemn you forever
many a person commits suicide verse seventeen god forbid christ is not the minister of sin but the dispenser of righteousness and the giver of life christ is
sin and death all who believe in him are delivered from law sin and death the law drives us away from god but christ reconciles god unto us for he is the lamb of god
that taketh away the sins of the world now if the sin of the world is taken away it is taken away from me if sin is taken away the wrath of god and his condemnation are also taken away
let us practice this blessed conviction verse eighteen for if i build again the things which i destroyed i make myself a transgressor
i have not preached to the end that i build again the things which i destroyed if i should do so i would not only be laboring in vain but i would make myself guilty of a great wrong
by the ministry of the gospel i have destroyed sin heaviness of heart wrath and death i have abolished the law so that it should not bother your conscience any more
should i now once again establish the law and set up the rule of moses this is exactly what i should be doing if i would urge circumcision and the performance of the law as necessary unto salvation
instead of righteousness and life i would restore sin and death by the grace of god we know that we are justified through faith in christ alone we do not mingle law and grace
faith and works we keep them far apart let every true christian mark the distinction between law and grace and mark it well
we must not drag good works into the article of justification as the monks do who maintain that not only good works but also the punishment which evildoers suffer for their wicked deeds deserve everlasting life
when a criminal is brought to the place of execution the monks try to comfort him in this manner you want to die willingly and patiently and then you will merit remission of your sins and eternal life
what cruelty is this that a wretched thief murderer robber should be so miserably misguided in his extreme distress that at the very point of death
he should be denied the sweet promises of christ and directed to hope for pardon of his sins in the willingness and patience with which he is about to suffer death for his crimes the monks are showing him the paved way to hell
these hypocrites do not know the first thing about grace the gospel or christ they retain the appearance and the name of the gospel and of christ for a decoy only in their confessional writings
faith or the merit of christ are never mentioned in their writings they play up the merits of man
god forgive thee brother the merit of the passion of our lord jesus christ
always a virgin and of all the saints the merit of thy order the strictness of thy religion the humility of thy profession the contrition of thy heart
the good works thou hast done and shalt do for the love of our lord jesus christ be available unto thee for the remission of thy sins
amen true the merit of christ is mentioned in this formula of absolution but if you look closer you will notice that christ's merit is belittled while monkish merits are aggrandized
they confess christ with their lips and at the same time deny his power to save i myself was at one time entangled in this error
i thought christ was a judge and had to be pacified by a strict adherence to the rules of my order but now i give thanks unto god the father of all mercies
who has called me out of darkness into the light of his glorious gospel and has granted unto me the saving knowledge of christ jesus my lord we conclude with paul that we are justified by faith in christ without the law
once a person has been justified by christ he will not be unproductive of good but as a good tree he will bring forth good fruit a believer has the holy spirit
oh pussy said the queen one day you are happier than i am for you have a dear kitten just like yourself and i have nobody to play with but you don't cry answered the cat
laying her paw on her mistress's arm crying never does any good i will see what can be done the cat was as good as her word as soon as she returned from her drive she trotted off to the forest to consult a fairy who dwelt there
and very soon after the queen had a little girl who seemed made out of snow and sunbeams the queen was delighted and soon the baby began to take notice of the kitten as she jumped about the room
unless the kitten lay curled up beside her two or three months went by and though the baby was still a baby the kitten was fast becoming a cat and one evening when as usual the nurse came to look for her
to put her in the baby's cot she was nowhere to be found what a hunt there was for that kitten to be sure the servants each anxious to find her as the queen was certain to reward the lucky man searched in the most impossible places
boxes were opened that would hardly have held the kitten's paw books were taken from bookshelves lest the kitten should have got behind them drawers were pulled out for perhaps the kitten might have got shut in
and it fell into a clump of rose bushes the princess of course ran after it at once
answered ingibjorg very much puzzled for she knew nothing of what had taken place so long ago don't you remember how i always slept in your cot beside you and how you cried till i came but girls have no memories at all
why i could find my way straight up to that cot this moment if i was once inside the palace why did you go away then asked the princess
and were so horrified at the sight of a strange cat
the princess was very much vexed with her ladies in waiting for frightening away her old playfellow and told the queen who came to her room every evening to bid her good night yes it is quite true what kisa said answered the queen
as usual her attendants let her do anything she pleased and sitting down on a mossy bank where a little stream tinkled by soon fell sound asleep
the princess saw with delight that they would pay no heed to her and wandered on and on expecting every moment to see some fairies dancing round a ring or some little brown elves peeping at her from behind a tree but alas she met none of these
and began to be sorry that she had not stayed within reach of help but as there was no use in disobeying the giant she walked meekly behind
and at length began to cry
which he picked up and put in his pocket
how long it was since she had set out in the morning she could not tell it seemed years to her of course but the sun was still high in the heavens when she heard the sound of wheels and then with a great effort for her throat was parched with fright and pain she gave a shout
i am coming was the answer and in another moment a cart made its way through the trees driven by kisa who used her tail as a whip to urge the horse to go faster
in her two front paws laid her upon some soft hay and drove back to her own little hut in the corner of the room was a pile of cushions and these kisa arranged as a bed
and when the cat drove the cart up to the palace gate lashing the horse furiously with her tail and the king and queen saw their lost daughter
we will talk about that by and by said the cat as she made her best bow and turned her horse's head the princess was very unhappy when kisa left her without even bidding her farewell she would neither eat nor drink
nor take any notice of all the beautiful dresses her parents bought for her she will die unless we can make her laugh one whispered to the other is there anything in the world that we have left untried
nothing except marriage answered the king and he invited all the handsomest young men he could think of to the palace
hakadah coowah was the sonorous call
in answer to the summons there emerged from the woods which were only a few steps away a boy accompanied by a splendid black dog there was little in the appearance of the little fellow to distinguish him from the other sioux boys
he hastened to the tent from which he had been summoned carrying in his hands a bow and arrows gorgeously painted while the small birds and squirrels that he had killed with these weapons dangled from his belt
within the tent sat two old women one on each side of the fire uncheedah was the boy's grandmother who had brought up the motherless child
wahchewin was only a caller but she had been invited to remain and assist in the first personal offering of hakadah to the great mystery it had been whispered through the teepee village that uncheedah intended to give a feast in honor of her grandchild's first sacrificial offering
this was mere speculation however for the clear sighted old woman had determined to keep this part of the matter secret until the offering should be completed
believing that the great mystery should be met in silence and dignity the boy came rushing into the lodge followed by his dog ohitika
who was wagging his tail promiscuously as if to say master and i are really hunters hakadah breathlessly gave a descriptive narrative of the killing of each bird and squirrel as he pulled them off his belt and threw them before his grandmother
this blunt headed arrow said he actually had eyes this morning
my ohitika is upon him he knelt upon one knee as he talked his black eyes shining like evening stars sit down here said uncheedah to the boy i have something to say to you
you see that you are now almost a man observe the game you have brought me it will not be long before you will leave me
for a warrior must seek opportunities to make him great among his people you must endeavor to equal your father and grandfather she went on they were warriors and feast makers
but it is not the poor hunter who makes many feasts do you not remember the legend of the feast maker who gave forty feasts in twelve moons and have you forgotten the story of the warrior who sought the will of the great mystery
to day you will make your first offering to him the concluding sentence fairly dilated the eyes of the young hunter for he felt that a great event was about to occur in which he would be the principal actor but uncheedah resumed her speech
this somewhat confused the boy not that he was selfish but rather uncertain as to what would be the most appropriate thing to give then too he supposed that his grandmother referred to his ornaments and playthings only so he volunteered
are these the things dearest to you she demanded not the bow and arrows but the paints will be very hard to get for there are no white people near and the necklace it is not easy to get one like it again
but think my boy you have not yet mentioned the thing that will be a pleasant offering to the great mystery the boy looked into the woman's face with a puzzled expression
if the blackfeet or the crows do not steal him uncheedah was not fully satisfied with the boy's free offerings perhaps it had not occurred to him what she really wanted but uncheedah knew where his affection was vested his faithful dog
you must remember she said that in this offering you will call upon him who looks at you from every creation in the wind you hear him whisper to you he gives his war whoop in the thunder he watches you by day with his eye the sun
at night he gazes upon your sleeping countenance through the moon in short it is the mystery of mysteries who controls all things to whom you will make your first offering by this act you will ask him to grant to you what he has granted to few men
i know you wish to be a great warrior and hunter i am not prepared to see my hakadah show any cowardice for the love of possessions is a woman's trait and not a brave's
during this speech the boy had been completely aroused to the spirit of manliness and in his excitement was willing to give up anything he had even his pony
but he was unmindful of his friend and companion ohitika the dog so scarcely had uncheedah finished speaking when he almost shouted grandmother i will give up any of my possessions for the offering to the great mystery
the other was ohitika the woman had been invited to stay although only a neighbor the dog by force of habit had taken up his usual position by the side of his master when they entered the teepee
without moving a muscle save those of his eyes he had been a very close observer of what passed had the dog but moved once to attract the attention of his little friend he might have been dissuaded from that impetuous exclamation
grandmother i will give up any of my possessions it was hard for uncheedah to tell the boy that he must part with his dog but she was equal to the situation hakadah she proceeded cautiously you are a young brave
he is brave and you too are brave he will not fear death you will bear his loss bravely come here are four bundles of paints and a filled pipe let us go to the place
when the last words were uttered hakadah did not seem to hear them he was simply unable to speak to a civilized eye he would have appeared at that moment like a little copper statue his bright black eyes were fast melting in floods of tears
when he caught his grandmother's eye and recollected her oft repeated adage tears for woman and the war whoop for man to drown sorrow he swallowed two or three big mouthfuls of heartache
and the little warrior was master of the situation grandmother my brave will have to die let me tie together two of the prettiest tails of the squirrels that he and i killed this morning to show to the great mystery what a hunter he has been
let me paint him myself this request uncheedah could not refuse and she left the pair alone for a few minutes while she went to ask wacoota to execute ohitika
every indian boy knows that when a warrior is about to meet death he must sing a death dirge hakadah thought of his ohitika as a person who would meet his death without a struggle
so that only red was required and this hakadah supplied generously
to this he fastened two of the squirrels tails and a wing from the oriole they had killed that morning just then it occurred to him that good warriors always mourn for their departed friends and the usual mourning was black paint he loosened his black braided locks
ground a dead coal mixed it with bear's oil and rubbed it on his entire face during this time every hole in the tent was occupied with an eye among the lookers on was his grandmother she was very near relenting
had she not feared the wrath of the great mystery she would have been happy to call out to the boy keep your dear dog my child
as it was hakadah came out of the teepee with his face looking like an eclipsed moon leading his beautiful dog who was even handsomer than ever with the red touches on his specks of white it was now uncheedah's turn to struggle with the storm and burden in her soul
but the boy was emboldened by the people's admiration of his bravery and did not shed a tear as soon as she was able to speak the loving grandmother said no my young brave not so you must not mourn for your first offering wash your face
submitted ohitika to wacoota with a smile and walked off with his grandmother and wahchewin the boy and his grandmother descended the bank following a tortuous foot path until they reached the water's edge
then they proceeded to the mouth of an immense cave some fifty feet above the river under the cliff
a little stream of limpid water trickled down from a spring within the cave the little watercourse served as a sort of natural staircase for the visitors a cool pleasant atmosphere exhaled from the mouth of the cavern
a feeling of awe and reverence came to the boy it is the home of the great mystery he thought to himself and the impressiveness of his surroundings made him forget his sorrow very soon wahchewin came with some difficulty to the steps
she placed the body of ohitika upon the ground in a life like position and again left the two alone
while the filled pipe was laid beside the dead ohitika she scattered paints and tobacco all about again they stood a few moments silently then she drew a deep breath and began her prayer to the great mystery
o great mystery we hear thy voice in the rushing waters below us we hear thy whisper in the great oaks above our spirits are refreshed with thy breath from within this cave o hear our prayer behold this little boy and bless him
allowing experiments to be performed on their own bodies and giving their lives without fear in the hope of saving invalids and sufferers but no story is more thrilling than that of the belgian priest named father damien
father damien's real name was joseph de veuster
not far from the city of louvain that became famous in the world war when the germans sacked it burned its university and murdered its inhabitants a strong religious impulse ruled the de veuster family and out of three children
two were destined for a religious life as a matter of fact all three finally entered the service of the church a girl named pauline who entered a convent and two brothers auguste and joseph who became respectively
originally the parents of these three children had decided that auguste was to become a priest and joseph was to enter business and be a merchant but it could easily be seen the priesthood was also the life for joseph
who had a serious and contemplative nature even when very young and spent much of his time in prayer and meditation on one occasion when only four years old joseph had been found
on his knees before the altar of the church when it was supposed that he had wandered away from home and been lost in the woods or the fields about the town
and of herding sheep until he became known as the little shepherd when joseph was eighteen his sister pauline left home to enter the convent and even before that time his brother had gone to paris to study at the home of the picpus fathers
joseph himself in accordance with his parents design that he was to become a business man went to a town in france called braine le comte to learn the rudiments of a commercial career
and to study the french language but while he had gone there willingly he felt the desire for a religious life more and more strongly
until he finally told his parents that he desired to be a priest it was not difficult for him to obtain their consent and joseph went to paris to study at the same school that his brother had attended in paris joseph served as a novice and when this term was ended he went to louvain
where his brother was already a priest in holy orders
joseph himself planned to take the name of father damien for some time joseph lived with his brother in louvain where he continued his studies but he was not yet ordained as a priest when an event took place that changed the whole course of his life
and was destined in the end to make his name famous throughout the civilized world the picpus fathers like many other catholic brothers were great missionaries carrying on this service in what were then called the sandwich islands
now better known as the hawaiian islands under the government of the united states
in that far country than by remaining in louvain where he had his parish after his passage had been engaged however
if it would be his pleasure for him to take his place and engage in the missionary work that had been intended for the elder brother
and soon a letter was received consenting to the new arrangement wild with delight he told his brother of what had taken place and at once commenced making his preparations for the voyage the islands to which father damien was bound are of the greatest tropical beauty
and the natives have become known all over the world for their strange customs their unusual music and their skill in swimming the deep blue waters that surround the land where they live
at that time however they were suffering from the ravages of the most terrible disease perhaps in the entire world certainly the one most feared from the times of the bible down to the present day this was the disease of leprosy
leprosy was not a native disease in the hawaiian islands originally
but had been carried there by merchants or voyagers from the far east where was its home but it spread so rapidly among the natives that before long it seemed as if the hawaiian islands themselves had been the cradle of this terrible scourge this was due we are told
to the hospitable habits of the islanders who lived closely together
deserted by their friends and relatives living in wretchedness and desolation
after a voyage of five months in which his ship contended with many gales and much rough weather father damien arrived in the sandwich islands
and was at once made a full priest and given a parish in a wild part of the country a parish so large that it took him days to go from one end of it to the other
he worked hard and soon became well known among the natives under his care and to his fellow churchmen as a man of great earnestness and much physical strength one day father damien happened to be at a meeting of churchmen
which was being addressed by the bishop who said that he deeply regretted that he could spare no priest to send to the island of molokai to the unfortunate lepers who seemed to be cast off there forsaken of god and man alike
and whose condition was wretched beyond belief but father damien at once arose and pointed out to the bishop that a priest could be spared for such service
for one of the newcomers to the islands could take charge of his own parish while he himself he said would go to molokai and spend his life in caring for the lepers whose condition made his heart bleed whenever he thought of them
it can be imagined that a gasp of astonishment and admiration went through the assemblage that heard this courageous offer for the man who volunteered for such service was going to living death to a place of horror and human suffering
but father damien thought little of all this
and he made the offer in simple sincerity without a thought of himself or of the dangers that he would encounter
and those that lived there tried to forget their unhappy lot in wild orgies and revels drinking a fiery spirit they distilled themselves called ki which was made from the root of a plant that grew in profusion on the island fighting and gambling as they chose and dying like dogs
as he could not sleep in the huts of the lepers the brave priest made his lodging on the ground beneath a pandanus tree and calling his new parishioners together he preached to them with brave and comforting words telling them that they must not despair
but make the most of their lives as they were and that he would help them to build better houses and bring to them the comforts that they needed and at once he busied himself getting building materials from the government with which trim cottages were built
and water pipes through which he had fresh water piped down to the settlement from a cold spring above the cliff he built a chapel and a dispensary and not content with this he bandaged the sores of the lepers with his own hands and washed their wounds
through his efforts a hospital was finally provided and a doctor came to molokai and following his example sisters of mercy and brave missionaries came there to work but for a long time
father damien was alone with his charges performing rough tasks with none to aid him except the aid that he obtained from the lepers themselves it cannot be thought that a man who performed such services could forever escape contracting the disease
and after father damien had been ten years on molokai he found himself a victim of the scourge against which he had so bravely and successfully contended a visit to the resident doctor confirmed the worst of his fears
and after that when speaking to his congregation he used the words we lepers telling them that he himself had received the cross from which they suffered and henceforth was one of them in something more than name
although he was now an invalid he did not fail to perform his priestly duties until the end but he never told his family in belgium of the misfortune
they learned it eventually from others and the shock of the discovery hastened his mother's death after fifteen years service among the lepers father damien died of the disease leaving behind him a name for pure self sacrifice that has not been surpassed
since the beginning of the christian era he had lived to see the leper colony grow from a ribald obscene settlement to an orderly hospital where as much as was possible was done for the sufferers that were compelled to remain there
and he had the satisfaction of knowing that others would carry on efficiently the work that he had begun but in spite of all his bravery and his self sacrifice this heroic priest was not without his traducers a short time after his death a certain missionary named doctor hyde
made scurrilous charges against him which were answered by that great writer robert louis stevenson
while the bare spots were purple with the wild dakota crocuses
upon the lowest of a series of natural terraces there stood on this may morning a young sioux girl whose graceful movements were not unlike those of a doe which chanced to be lurking in a neighboring gulch on the upper plains not far away were her young companions all busily employed with the wewoptay as it is called
the sharp pointed stick with which the sioux women dig wild turnips they were gayly gossiping together or each humming a love song as she worked only snana stood somewhat apart from the rest in fact concealed by the crest of the ridge
it was now full born day the sun shone hot upon the bare ground and the drops stood upon snana's forehead as she plied her long pole there was a cool spring in the dry creek bed near by
well hidden by a clump of choke cherry bushes and she turned thither to cool her thirsty throat in the depths of the ravine her eye caught a familiar footprint the track of a doe with the young fawn beside it the hunting instinct arose within
it will be a great feat if i can find and take from her the babe the little tawny skin shall be beautifully dressed by my mother
ah a mother's ruse snana entered the thorny enclosure which was almost a rude teepee and tucked away in the further most corner lay something with a trout like speckled tawny coat she bent over it the fawn was apparently sleeping
presently its eyes moved a bit and a shiver passed through its subtle body thou shalt not die thy skin shall not become my work bag unconsciously the maiden spoke
the mother sympathy had taken hold on her mind she picked the fawn up tenderly bound its legs and put it on her back to carry like an indian babe in the folds of her robe
and the mother was not too far away to hear now she called frantically for her child at the same time stamping with her delicate forefeet yes sister you are right she is yours but you cannot save her to day
the hunters will soon be here let me keep her for you i will return her to you safely and hear me o sister of the woods that some day i may become the mother of a noble race of warriors and of fine women as handsome as you are
at this moment the quick eyes of the indian girl detected something strange in the doe's actions she glanced in every direction and behold
and flew for the nearest scrub oak on the edge of the bank up the tree she scrambled with the fawn still securely bound to her back the grizzly came on with teeth exposed and the doe mother in her flight came between him and the tree
giving a series of indignant snorts as she ran
and they immediately gave a general alarm mato saw them but appeared not at all concerned and was still intent upon dislodging the girl who clung frantically to her perch presently there appeared upon the little knoll several warriors mounted and uttering the usual war whoop
as if they were about to swoop down upon a human enemy this touched the dignity of mato and he immediately prepared to accept the challenge every indian was alive to the possibilities of the occasion for it is well known that mato or grizzly bear alone among animals
is given the rank of a warrior so that whoever conquers him may wear an eagle feather woo woo the warriors shouted as they maneuvered to draw him into the open plain
he answered with hoarse growls threatening a rider who had ventured too near but arrows were many and well aimed and in a few minutes the great and warlike mato lay dead at the foot of the tree
the men ran forward and counted their coups on him just as when an enemy is fallen then they looked at one another and placed their hands over their mouths as the young girl descended the tree with a fawn bound upon her back
so that was the bait they cried and will you not make a feast with that fawn for us who came to your rescue the fawn is young and tender and we have not eaten meat for two days it will be a generous thing to do added her father who was among them ye e e she cried out in distress do not ask it i have seen this fawn's mother i have promised to keep her child safe see i have saved its life
even when my own was in danger ho ho wakan ye lo yes yes tis holy or mysterious they exclaimed approvingly
it was no small trouble for snana to keep her trust as may well be supposed all the dogs of the teepee village must be watched and kept at a distance neither was it easy to feed the little captive
that the mother would return she crouched under a clump of bushes near by and gave the doe call it was a reckless thing for her to do for such a call might bring upon her a mountain lion or ever watchful silver tip but snana did not think of that
in a few minutes she heard the light patter of hoofs and caught a glimpse of a doe running straight toward the fawn's hiding place when she stole near enough to see the doe and the fawn were examining one another carefully as if fearing some treachery at last both were apparently satisfied
the doe caressed her natural child and the little one accepted the milk she offered in the sioux maiden's mind there was turmoil a close attachment to the little wild creature had already taken root there contending with the sense of justice that was strong within her
now womanly sympathy for the mother was in control and now a desire to possess and protect her helpless pet i can take care of her against all hunters both animal and human
they are ever ready to seize the helpless fawn for food her life will be often exposed you cannot save her from disaster o takcha my sister let me still keep her for you she finally appealed to the poor doe
who was nervously watching the intruder and apparently thinking how she might best escape with the fawn just at this moment there came a low call from the wood it was a doe call but the wild mother and her new friend both knew that it was not the call of a real doe
it is a sioux hunter whispered the girl you must go my sister be off i will take your child to safety while she was yet speaking the doe seemed to realize the danger she stopped only an instant to lick fondly the tawny coat of the little one
then she bounded away as snana emerged from the bushes with her charge a young hunter met her face to face and stared at her curiously he was not of her father's camp but a stranger ugh you have my game
tosh she replied coquettishly it was so often said among the indians that the doe was wont to put on human form to mislead the hunter that it looked strange to see a woman with a fawn and the young man could not forbear to gaze upon snana you are not the real mother in maiden's guise tell me truly if you are of human blood
he demanded rudely i am a sioux maiden do you not know my father she replied ah but who is your father what is his name he insisted nervously fingering his arrows
do not be a coward surely you should know a maid of your own race she replied reproachfully ah you know the tricks of the doe what is thy name hast thou forgotten the etiquette of thy people
and wouldst compel me to pronounce my own name i refuse thou art jesting she retorted with a smile
chapter ten perhaps there is nothing more delightful in the romance of boyhood than the finding of some secret hiding place whither a body may creep away from the bustle of the world's life to nestle in quietness for an hour or two
more especially is such delightful
one may look down upon the bustling matters of busy every day life while one lies snugly hidden away unseen by any as though one were in some strange invisible world of one's own
myles and gascoyne found one summer afternoon they called it their eyry and the name suited well for the roosting place of the young hawks that rested in its windy stillness looking down upon the shifting castle life in the courts below behind the north stable
a great long rambling building thick walled and black with age lay an older part of the castle than that peopled by the better class of life a cluster of great thick walls rudely but strongly built now the dwelling place of stable lads and hinds
swine and poultry from one part of these ancient walls and fronting an inner court of the castle arose a tall circular heavy buttressed tower considerably higher than the other buildings and so mantled with a dense growth of aged ivy
as to stand a shaft of solid green above its crumbling crown circled hundreds of pigeons white and pied clapping and clattering in noisy flight through the sunny air several windows some closed with shutters
and near the top of the pile was a row of arched openings as though of a balcony or an airy gallery myles had more than once felt an idle curiosity about this tower and one day as he and gascoyne sat together
he pointed his finger and said what is yon place that answered gascoyne
that they call brutus tower for why they do say that brutus he built it when he came hither to britain i believe not the tale mine own self ne'theless it is marvellous ancient and old robin the fletcher
telleth me that there be stairways built in the wall and passage ways and a maze wherein a body may get lost an he know not the way aright and never see the blessed light of day again marry said myles
who liveth there now no one liveth there said gascoyne saving only some of the stable villains and that half witted goose herd who flung stones at us yesterday when we mocked him down in the paddock he and his wife and those others dwell in the vaults beneath
like rabbits in any warren no one else hath lived there since earl robert's day
the story goeth that earl robert's brother or step brother was murdered there and some men say by the earl himself sin that day it hath been tight shut myles stared at the tower for a while in silence
it is a strange seeming place from without said he at last and mayhap it may be even more strange inside hast ever been within francis nay said gascoyne
an i had lived here in this place so long as thou i wot i would have been within it ere this beshrew me said gascoyne but i have never thought of such a matter he turned and looked at the tall crown rising into the warm sunlight with a new interest
for the thought of entering it smacked pleasantly of adventure how wouldst thou set about getting within said he presently why look said myles seest thou not yon hole in the ivy branches
methinks there is a window at that place an i mistake not it is in reach of the stable eaves a body might come up by the fagot pile to the roof of the hen house and then by the long stable to the north stable and so to that hole
wouldst go there aye said myles briefly so be it lead thou the way in the venture i will follow after thee said gascoyne as myles had said
the climbing from roof to roof was a matter easy enough to an active pair of lads like themselves but when by and by they reached the wall of the tower itself they found the hidden window much higher from the roof than they had judged from below
perhaps ten or twelve feet and it was besides beyond the eaves and out of their reach myles looked up and looked down above was the bushy thickness of the ivy the branches as thick as a woman's wrist
knotted and intertwined below was the stone pavement of a narrow inner court between two of the stable buildings methinks i can climb to yon place said he thou'lt break thy neck an thou tryest said gascoyne hastily
nay quoth myles i trust not but break or make we get not there without trying so here goeth for the venture thou art a hare brained knave as ever drew breath of life quoth gascoyne
and will cause me to come to grief some of these fine days ne'theless an thou be jack fool and lead the way go and i will be tom fool and follow anon if thy neck is worth so little mine is worth no more
it was indeed a perilous climb but that special providence which guards reckless lads befriended them as it has thousands of their kind before and since so by climbing from one knotted clinging stem to another
they were presently seated snugly in the ivied niche in the window it was barred from within by a crumbling shutter the rusty fastening of which after some little effort upon the part of the two gave way and entering the narrow opening
they found themselves in a small triangular passage way from which a steep flight of stone steps led down through a hollow in the massive wall to the room below at the bottom of the steps was a heavy oaken door which stood ajar
hanging upon a single rusty hinge and from the room within a dull gray light glimmered faintly myles pushed the door farther open it creaked and grated horribly on its rusty hinge and
as in instant answer to the discordant shriek came a faint piping squeaking a rustling and a pattering of soft footsteps the ghosts cried gascoyne in a quavering whisper and for a moment
myles felt the chill of goose flesh creep up and down his spine but the next moment he laughed nay said he they be rats look at yon fellow francis be'st as big as mother joan's kitten give me that stone
he flung it at the rat and it flew clattering across the floor there was another pattering rustle of hundreds of feet and then a breathless silence the boys stood looking around them and a strange enough sight it was
the room was a perfect circle of about twenty feet across and was piled high with an indistinguishable mass of lumber rude tables ruder chairs ancient chests bits and remnants of cloth and sacking and leather
old helmets and pieces of armor of a by gone time broken spears and pole axes pots and pans and kitchen furniture of all sorts and kinds a straight beam of sunlight fell through a broken shutter like a bar of gold
and fell upon the floor in a long streak of dazzling light that illuminated the whole room with a yellow glow by r lady said gascoyne at last in a hushed voice here is father time's garret for sure didst ever see the like myles
look at yon arbalist sure brutus himself used such an one nay said myles but look at this saddle marry here be'st a rat's nest in it clouds of dust rose as they rummaged among the mouldering mass
setting them coughing and sneezing now and then a great gray rat would shoot out beneath their very feet and disappear like a sudden shadow into some hole or cranny in the wall come said myles at last brushing the dust from his jacket
an we tarry here longer we will have chance to see no other sights the sun is falling low an arched stair way upon the opposite side of the room from which they had entered wound upward through the wall
the stone steps being lighted by narrow slits of windows cut through the massive masonry above the room they had just left was another of the same shape and size but with an oak floor sagging and rising into hollows and hills where the joist had rotted away beneath
above was another room above that another
which was where solid perhaps fifteen feet thick from the third floor a straight flight of steps led upward to a closed door from the other side of which shone the dazzling brightness of sunlight and whence came a strange noise
a soft rustling a melodious murmur the boys put their shoulders against the door which was fastened
once twice suddenly the lock gave way and out they pitched headlong into a blaze of sunlight a deafening clapping and uproar sounded in their ears and scores of pigeons suddenly disturbed rose in stormy flight
they sat up and looked around them in silent wonder they were in a bower of leafy green it was the top story of the tower the roof of which had crumbled and toppled in leaving it open to the sky
with only here and there a slanting beam or two supporting a portion of the tiled roof
a net work of shimmering green through which the sunlight fell flickering this passeth wonder said gascoyne at last breaking the silence aye said myles i did never see the like in all my life then
look yonder is a room beyond let us see what it is francis entering an arched door way the two found themselves in a beautiful little vaulted chapel about eighteen feet long and twelve or fifteen wide
it comprised the crown of one of the large massive buttresses
the boys pushed aside the trailing tendrils and looked out and down the whole castle lay spread below them
they could see the gardener with bowed back patiently working among the flowers in the garden the stable boys below grooming the horses a bevy of ladies in the privy garden playing at shuttlecock with battledoors of wood
a group of gentlemen walking up and down in front of the earl's house they could see the household servants hurrying hither and thither two little scullions at fisticuffs and a kitchen girl standing in the door way scratching her frowzy head
it was all like a puppetshow of real life each acting unconsciously a part in the play the cool wind came in through the rustling leaves and fanned their cheeks hot with the climb up the winding stair way
we will call it our eyry said gascoyne
and that was how it got its name
the two friends kept the secret of the eyry to themselves for a little while now and then visiting the old tower to rummage among the lumber stored in the lower room or to loiter away the afternoon in the windy solitudes of the upper heights and in that little time
when the ancient keep was to them a small world unknown to any but themselves a world far away above all the dull matters of every day life they talked of many things that might else never have been known to one another
mostly they spoke the crude romantic thoughts and desires of boyhood's time chaff thrown to the wind in which however lay a few stray seeds fated to fall to good earth and to ripen to fruition in manhood's day
in the intimate talks of that time myles imparted something of his honest solidity to gascoyne's somewhat weathercock nature and to myles's ruder and more uncouth character gascoyne lent a tone of his gentler manners
learned in his pagehood service as attendant upon the countess and her ladies in other things also the character and experience of the one lad helped to supply what was lacking in the other
picked up during his school life in those intervals of his more serious studies when prior edward had permitted him to browse in the greener pastures of the gesta romanorum and the disciplina clericalis of the monastery library
and gascoyne was never weary of hearing him tell those marvellous stories culled from the crabbed latin of the old manuscript volumes upon his part gascoyne was full of the lore of the waiting room and the antechamber and myles
who in all his life had never known a lady young or old excepting his mother was never tired of lying silently listening to gascoyne's chatter of the gay doings of the castle gentle life in which he had taken part so often in the merry days of his pagehood
i do wonder said myles quaintly that thou couldst ever find the courage to bespeak a young maid francis never did i do so nor ever could rather would i face three strong men than one young damsel
whereupon gascoyne burst out laughing marry quoth he they be no such terrible things but gentle and pleasant spoken and soft and smooth as any cat no matter for that said myles
i would not face one such for worlds it was during the short time when so to speak the two owned the solitude of the brutus tower that myles told his friend of his father's outlawry and of the peril in which the family stood
and thus it was i do marvel said gascoyne one day as the two lay stretched in the eyry looking down into the castle court yard below i do marvel now that thou art stablished here this month and more
canst thou riddle me why it is so myles the subject was a very sore one with myles until sir james had told him of the matter in his office that day
he had accepted the change from their earlier state and the bald poverty of their life at crosbey holt with the easy carelessness of boyhood
his was a brooding nature and in the three or four weeks that passed he had meditated so much over what had been told him that by and by it almost seemed as if a shadow of shame rested upon his father's fair fame
even though the attaint set upon him was unrighteous and unjust as myles knew it must be he had felt angry and resentful at the earl's neglect and as days passed and he was not noticed in any way his heart was at times very bitter
so now gascoyne's innocent question touched a sore spot and myles spoke with a sharp angry pain in his voice that made the other look quickly up
sooner would my lord have yonder swineherd serve him in the household than me said he why may that be myles said gascoyne because answered myles with the same angry bitterness in his voice
either the earl is a coward that feareth to befriend me or else he is a caitiff ashamed of his own flesh and blood and of me the son of his one time comrade gascoyne raised himself upon his elbow and opened his eyes wide in wonder
why should he be afeared to befriend thee who art thou that the earl should fear thee myles hesitated for a moment or two wisdom bade him remain silent upon the dangerous topic
but his heart yearned for sympathy and companionship in his trouble i will tell thee said he suddenly and therewith poured out all of the story so far as he knew it to his listening wondering friend
and his heart felt lighter to be thus eased of its burden and now said he as he concluded is not this earl a mean hearted caitiff to leave me the son of his one time friend and kinsman
and in a strange place without once stretching me a helping hand he waited and gascoyne knew that he expected an answer i know not that he is a mean hearted caitiff myles said he at last hesitatingly
the earl hath many enemies and i have heard that he hath stood more than once in peril having been accused of dealings with the king's foes he was cousin to the earl of kent
there be more reasons than thou wottest of why he should not have dealings with thy father i had not thought said myles bitterly after a little pause that thou wouldst stand up for him and against me in this quarrel gascoyne
him will i never forgive so long as i may live and i had thought that thou wouldst have stood by me
and do love thee more than any one in all the world myles
to think that the earl was not against thee and indeed from all thou has told me i do soothly think that he and sir james mean to befriend thee and hold thee privily in kind regard then why doth he not stand forth like a man
and befriend me and my father openly even if it be to his own peril said myles reverting stubbornly to what he had first spoken gascoyne did not answer but lay for a long while in silence
knowest thou he suddenly asked after a while who is this great enemy of whom sir james speaketh and who seeketh so to drive thy father to ruin nay said myles i know not
for my father hath never spoken of these things and sir james would not tell me but this i know said he suddenly grinding his teeth together an i do not hunt him out some day and slay him like a dog he stopped abruptly
and gascoyne looking askance at him saw that his eyes were full of tears whereupon he turned his looks away again quickly and fell to shooting pebbles out through the open window with his finger and thumb
said myles after a while not i said gascoyne
nay said myles briefly perhaps this talk more than anything else that had ever passed between them
for as i have said myles felt easier now that he had poured out his bitter thoughts and words and as for gascoyne
but the old tower served another purpose than that of a spot in which to pass away a few idle hours or in which to indulge the confidences of friendship for it was there that myles gathered a backing of strength for resistance against the tyranny of the bachelors
that it has been told how they found the place and of what they did there feeling secure against interruption myles falworth was not of a kind that forgets or neglects a thing upon which the mind has once been set perhaps his chief objective
since the talk with sir james following his fight in the dormitory had been successful resistance to the exactions of the head of the body of squires he was now more than a month had passed
so one day he broached a matter to gascoyne that had for some time been digesting in his mind it was the formation of a secret order calling themselves the knights of the rose their meeting place to be the chapel of the brutus tower
and their object to be the righting of wrongs as they said myles of arthur his round table did right wrongs but prithee what wrongs are there to right in this place quoth gascoyne
after listening intently to the plan which myles set forth why first of all this said myles clinching his fists as he had a habit of doing when anything stirred him deeply that we set those vile bachelors to their right place
and that is that they be no longer our masters but our fellows gascoyne shook his head he hated clashing and conflict above all things and was for peace why should they thus rush to thrust themselves into trouble
let matters abide as they were a little longer surely life was pleasant enough without turning it all topsy turvy then with a sort of indignation why should myles who had only come among them a month
take such service more to heart than they who had endured it for years and finally with the hopefulness of so many of the rest of us he advised myles to let matters alone and they would right themselves in time
but myles's mind was determined his active spirit could not brook resting passively under a wrong he would endure no longer
but look thee myles falworth said gascoyne all this is not to be done withouten fighting shrewdly wilt thou take that fighting upon thine own self as for me i tell thee i love it not
why aye said myles i ask no man to do what i will not do myself gascoyne shrugged his shoulders so be it said he an thou hast appetite to run thy head against hard knocks
do it mercy's name i for one will stand thee back while thou art taking thy raps there was a spirit of drollery in gascoyne's speech that rubbed against myles's earnestness out upon it cried he
his patience giving way seest not that i am in serious earnest why then dost thou still jest like mad noll my lord's fool an thou wilt not lend me thine aid in this matter say so and ha done with it
and i will bethink me of somewhere else to turn then gascoyne yielded at once
and having once assented to it entered into the scheme heart and soul three other lads one of them that tall thin squire edmund wilkes before spoken of were sounded upon the subject they also entered into the plan of the secret organization
with an enthusiasm which might perhaps not have been quite so glowing had they realized how very soon myles designed embarking upon active practical operations one day myles and gascoyne showed them the strange things that they had discovered in the old tower
the inner staircases the winding passage ways the queer niches and cupboard and the black shaft of a well that pierced down into the solid wall and whence perhaps the old castle folk had one time drawn their supply of water in time of siege
and with every new wonder of the marvellous place the enthusiasm of the three recruits rose higher and higher they rummaged through the lumber pile in the great circular room as myles and gascoyne had done and at last tired out they ascended to the airy chapel
that came blowing briskly in through the arched windows it was then and there that the five discussed and finally determined upon the detailed plans of their organization canvassing the names of the squirehood and selecting from it a sufficient number of bold and daring spirits
to make up a roll of twenty names in all gascoyne had as i said entered into the matter with spirit and perhaps it was owing more to him than to any other that the project caught its delightful flavor of romance perchance said he
as the five lads lay in the rustling stillness through which sounded the monotonous and ceaseless cooing of the pigeons perchance there may be dwarfs and giants and dragons and enchanters and evil knights and what not even nowadays
we may go forth into the world and do battle with them and save beautiful ladies and have tales and gestes written about us as they are writ about the seven champions and arthur his round table perhaps myles who lay silently listening to all that was said
was the only one who looked upon the scheme at all in the light of real utility but i think that even with him the fun of the matter outweighed the serious part of the business so it was that the sacred order of the twenty knights of the rose came to be initiated
they appointed a code of secret passwords and countersigns which were very difficult to remember and which were only used when they might excite the curiosity of the other and uninitiated boys by their mysterious sound
they elected myles as their grand high commander and held secret meetings in the ancient tower where many mysteries were soberly enacted of course in a day or two all the body of squires knew nearly everything concerning the knights of the rose
and of their secret meetings in the old tower the lucky twenty were the objects of envy of all not so fortunate as to be included in this number and there was a marked air of secrecy about everything they did that appealed to every romantic notion of the youngsters looking on
fighting continued at intervals throughout the night and daylight found the exhausted delawares still keeping weary vigil at the edge of the camp
they watched the dawn of the new day with gloomy forebodings for they feared to imagine what might happen before it ended the iroquois showed no intention of abandoning the fight
they felt sure that the three war parties would unite for the final attack and they knew that there was little chance of holding them off each grim delaware warrior felt defeat and death hovering over him my brothers
a new day has come said black panther before it ends i believe our brothers the minsi will come to help us pretty soon we will hear them shouting the war cry then the iroquois will run like rabbits we must keep our hearts brave
now they are hiding out there in the woods yes they are afraid to face us in the light come we will let them hear our war cry
the iroquois immediately answered the challenge and the delawares shook their heads soberly however as the time passed and the iroquois made no further attempts against the village
they believed that their foes were waiting to make one supreme effort under cover of the night and they hoped that the minsi war party would arrive in the meantime
the approach of night filled them with dread they feared that long before daylight
the possibility staggered them they suddenly realized what it meant they would be wiped out destroyed from the land and their women and children would be homeless the thought filled them with new determination they pledged themselves to fight even harder than they had fought before
the delawares nerved themselves for their task they knew that the attack would come suddenly at any moment and the thought kept them in trying suspense
they strained their ears to catch a warning
the uncanny silence strained their nerves
and see their foes within arm's reach of them
the suspense was ended the fight had begun the delawares felt relieved light the fires light the fires cried the warriors near the point of attack no no not yet shouted black panther
a moment afterward the great iroquois war party rushed upon the camp
then at the proper signal they rose and grappled with them the delawares fought desperately but they were hopelessly outnumbered
light the fires light the fires screamed the delawares this time black panther realized the necessity for it then as the flames roared through the piles of dry brush
he saw the iroquois at the edge of the camp
onondagas oneidas and mohawks had combined
and the iroquois eventually fought their way into the camp for an instant the delawares faltered then they rallied about their gallant war chief and fought with the fury of despair
he realized that he alone was to blame for the plight of his tribesmen and the thought drove him to distraction it seemed as if his perilous journey to the mohawk camp had been in vain
getanittowit appeared to have turned against him
running fox was beside himself with grief in the midst of the desperate encounter
o getanittowit send the powerful medicine creatures to aid me he shouted excitedly then a loud mocking laugh rose above the sounds of battle
he knew instinctively that it came from standing wolf a moment afterward he saw him fighting recklessly at the head of his warriors
his tribesmen were dropping on both sides of him but as yet he was unharmed
no no he cannot harm you for i am going to kill him running fox cried hysterically see i have the skin of gokhos the great white medicine owl my brothers i have taken away the power from standing wolf
now you will see something i am going to kill that man i am going to bring our brothers the minsi pretty soon you will hear them now you must watch me the next moment he bounded past his astonished tribesmen
the latter shot an arrow at him
then as running fox laughed
standing wolf uttered a yell of rage and rushed forward war club in hand
yes i have the power shouted running fox come you must follow me
and his followers they suddenly became panic stricken and fled from the camp at that very instant the delaware war cry rang through the night and a moment afterward a great company of minsi fighting men poured into the village
they threw themselves upon the bewildered oneidas and onondagas and completely overwhelmed them the minsi gained a quick and easy victory for the superstitious iroquois believed that some powerful medicine spirit had suddenly come to the aid of their foes
they too retreated from the camp in wild disorder and sought safety in flight
and they followed their fleeing foes far into the wilderness
late the following day
it was a notable gathering and the stern delaware war chief looked upon his warriors with great pride then his eyes sought out running fox and for a moment he was almost overcome by his emotion my people
standing wolf the great mohawk war chief is dead
the warriors who escaped are running toward their villages it will be a long time before they come here again
and brought away the skin of the mysterious white medicine owl spotted deer went with him those young warriors have done the greatest thing that has ever been done by a delaware but running fox has done something bigger than that
that fierce warrior killed many of our people yes he killed many of our women and children he destroyed our crops and burned our lodges we wished to live in peace but he would not let us he brought great trouble upon us
now he will never trouble us again running fox has brought it to pass he is very young but he has become a great warrior
then they suddenly stopped
chapter twelve smoke running fox immediately took the lead and turned toward the north he believed that the shawnees would hesitate to follow them far in that direction for fear of being led into an ambush
it was not long however before they heard signals ringing through the night a short distance behind them the shawnees are close we must travel faster said running fox dawn was breaking when they reached the end of the lake
having heard nothing further from their pursuers they believed that they had turned back however the fact that both the mohawks and the shawnees were painted for war kept them alert to their danger
i believe the best thing to do is to keep going ahead until the sun goes down declared running fox then we will climb to a high place and look for smoke if we do not see it then we must circle around yes we must climb to all the high places and look every way
i do not believe the mohawk camp is beyond two suns journey away
i do not see any other way to do replied spotted deer they resumed their way into the north
perhaps it is not near that water suggested spotted deer perhaps we have gone the wrong way no i do not believe it said running fox i am thinking about something different the mohawks are at war with the shawnees
then how can we find the camp inquired spotted deer
we must ask getanittowit to help us
running fox to make a half circle toward the east while spotted deer made a similar detour toward the west they agreed to meet at dark at a great spire shaped rock on the summit of a low hill directly ahead of them
i will do as you tell me agreed spotted deer running fox made his way toward a ridge of hills less than a half day's journey to the eastward he had traveled about two thirds of the distance when he suddenly came upon the remains of a small fire
and cleverly concealed by a screen of brush
he found some tracks leading toward the east
i must watch out for that person running fox told himself he reached the ridge of hills a short time afterward and looked anxiously toward the north for evidence of the mohawk camp the sky was clear and cloudless however and there was no trace of smoke
running fox felt troubled
still he had no thought of turning back
it suggested many interesting possibilities and running fox studied it closely for a long time it puzzled him
besides there was but one dense column of smoke while smoke from a village usually rose in several thin columns or hovered above the camp in light hazy clouds running fox decided therefore that the smoke which he saw must be a signal
the possibility quickened his interest
in a few moments he saw it separate into a number of puffs or clouds
he searched the sky in all directions hoping to see an answer but none appeared i believe some one is talking to the mohawk camp said running fox the delaware realized that if his guess was true it was quite probable that the signal would go unanswered
he hurried away to meet spotted deer
this time however his signal brought an immediate response for spotted deer was waiting for him we have found each other it is good said spotted deer it is good my brother replied running fox have you looked around
yes i have circled all around this hill there is no one hiding here spotted deer assured him
running fox told what he had seen to the eastward and spotted deer listened with great attention the smoke particularly impressed him
perhaps that smoke was sent up by the shawnees he suggested perhaps a mohawk scout was talking with the war party well it may turn out that way but i feel different about it insisted running fox now you must tell me what you found out
spotted deer said that he had gone a considerable distance toward the west without discovering any signs of his foes then he had climbed to the top of a mountain to reconnoiter
but it faded from the sky before he could convince himself then he had set out to meet running fox that is what happened concluded spotted deer well we have not done much running fox declared gloomily
this time however they remained together and turned toward the north running fox felt convinced that the village was somewhere in that direction
i believe there must be a trail going toward that camp declared spotted deer
and then running fox proposed that they should circle toward the west that will bring us near the place where you saw something that looked like smoke he told spotted deer
then for a long time they traveled in silence running fox seemed moody and thoughtful and spotted deer made no attempt to rouse him
spotted deer there are two things that trouble me running fox said finally spotted deer remained silent
first i am troubled because i have not found gokhos the great white medicine owl continued running fox if we had the skin of that mysterious bird i believe much good would come of it but i am troubled about another thing yes i am troubled about the shawnees
i believe the mohawks will keep many warriors around the village well now i will tell you something different
those are good words spotted deer declared admiringly you will soon find gokhos the great white medicine owl and then we will be able to do some great things i am not thinking about the shawnees stop running fox interrupted excitedly i see smoke rising behind that ridge
that is the place i was looking at said spotted deer
i believe we have found the mohawk camp declared running fox we must watch sharp
spotted deer i believe we are in great danger
the thought filled them with joy they believed that they were almost within sight of their goal and they were eager to verify their hopes however
he had little doubt that if the camp really was on the other side
therefore he decided to wait until night came to his assistance we must stay here until it gets dark he told spotted deer
travelled over several provinces and then arrived at a port where i embarked
but all was in vain our endeavors had no effect the sails were split into a thousand pieces and the ship was stranded
to get upon some planks and we were carried by the current to an island which lay before us there we found fruit and spring water which preserved our lives
and saw some houses which we approached
here they made us sit down and gave us a certain herb which they made signs to us to eat my comrades not taking notice that the blacks ate none of it themselves thought only of satisfying their hunger
and ate with greediness but i suspecting some trick would not so much as taste it
and that when they spoke to me they knew not what they said the negroes fed us afterward with rice prepared with oil of cocoanuts
their design was to eat us as soon as we grew fat
i grew leaner every day the fear of death under which i labored turned all my food into poison i fell into a languishing distemper which proved my safety
seeing me to be withered lean and sick deferred my death meanwhile i had much liberty so that scarcely any notice was taken of what i did
and this gave me an opportunity one day to get at a distance from the houses and to make my escape an old man who saw me and suspected my design
at that time there was none but the old man about the houses the rest being
therefore being sure that they could not arrive in time to pursue me
but i speedily set forward again and travelled seven days avoiding those places which seemed to be inhabited and lived for the most part upon cocoanuts which served me both for meat and drink
and saw some white people like myself gathering pepper of which there was great plenty in that place this i took to be a good omen and went to them without any scruple the people who gathered pepper
those negroes replied they eat men and by what miracle did you escape their cruelty i related to them the circumstances i have just mentioned at which they were wonderfully surprised
they presented me to their king who was a good prince
which surprised him and he afterward gave me clothes and commanded care to be taken of me the island was very well peopled plentiful in everything
this agreeable retreat was very comfortable to me after my misfortunes and the kindness of this generous prince completed my satisfaction
so that in a very little time i was looked upon rather as a native
all the people the king himself not excepted rode their horses without bridle or stirrups
and embroidered it with gold
as i paid my court very constantly to the king he said to me one day sindbad i love thee i have one thing to demand of thee which thou must grant i have a mind thou shouldst marry
that so thou mayst stay in my dominions and think no more of thy own country
beautiful and rich the ceremonies of marriage being over i went and dwelt with my wife and for some time we lived together in perfect harmony i was not however satisfied with my banishment
which my present settlement how advantageous soever could not make me forget
fell sick and died i went to see and comfort him in his affliction and finding him absorbed in sorrow i said to him as soon as i saw him god preserve you and grant you a long life alas replied he
this is a law in this island
while he was giving an account of this barbarous custom the very relation of which chilled my blood
they dressed the corpse of the woman in her richest apparel and all her jewels as if it had been her wedding day then they placed her on an open bier and began their march to the place of burial
the husband walked first next to the dead body they proceeded to a high mountain
they took up a large stone which formed the mouth of a deep pit and let down the body with all its apparel and jewels
suffered himself to be placed on another bier without resistance
the ceremony being over
alas my own wife fell sick and died i made every remonstrance i could to the king not to expose me a foreigner to this inhuman law i appealed in vain
sought to soften my sorrow by honoring the funeral ceremony with their presence and at the termination of the ceremony i was lowered into the pit
the nature of this subterranean place it seemed an endless cavern and might be about fifty fathoms deep i lived for some time there upon my bread and water
i went on sometimes lost sight of it but always found it again and at last discovered that it came through a hole in the rock which i got through and found myself upon the seashore at which i felt exceeding joy
i made a sign with the linen of my turban
they heard me and sent a boat to bring me on board it was fortunate for me that these people did not inspect the place where they found me but without hesitation took me on board we passed by several islands
and among others that called the isle of bells about ten days sail from serendib with a regular wind and six from that of kela where we landed lead mines are found in the island also indian canes and excellent camphire
and the isle of bells which is about two days journey in extent is also subject to him the inhabitants are so barbarous that they still eat human flesh after we had finished our traffic in that island we put to sea again and touched at several other ports
at last i arrived happily at bagdad
the delawares immediately set out to find the distant lake and learn the identity of the people whom spotted deer had seen they followed the route which running fox had taken several days before
they judged that the water was about two days journey away does that look like the water you saw running fox asked spotted deer yes it is the same replied spotted deer
then he turned toward the west and pointed out the route which the unknown war party had followed well if they did not turn off some other way they must be at the water by now declared running fox
yes that is how i feel about it agreed spotted deer
later in the day as they were making their way through a dense swamp they heard a harsh cry over their heads looking up they saw a large bald eagle circling slowly above the tree tops running fox immediately became excited
that means a fight yes i saw him flying around like that before i had the battle with the bear do you hear him calling well that is the war cry of his people spotted deer i believe we are going into some kind of danger well
i do not know about those things but i believe that what you say is true said spotted deer
we must keep together and watch sharp he warned spotted deer
the lads wondered whether they were encamped somewhere along the shore of the lake
they stopped on the top of a low ridge some distance back from the water we will wait here until it gets dark said running fox then we will crawl down there and see if we can find out anything
they wondered where the mohawk camp was located they believed it was somewhere toward the north still they saw no evidence of it they searched the sky until dark
then as night finally shut down
the delawares stole down through the silent black woods as softly and as cautiously as woakus the fox
for they knew that if the mohawks were actually on the war trail they would not dare to expose themselves in that manner even in the heart of their own stronghold therefore when the lads found nothing to alarm them they advanced carefully along the shore of the lake
it must be that those warriors have stopped there said spotted deer it is mysterious replied running fox if those people are on the war trail why do they make a fire the lads were unable to explain it they had seen the mohawks painted for war
and under those circumstances it seemed incredible that they would dare to make a fire it appeared as if it must have been lighted by some one else still that too seemed beyond belief
the delawares realized that even a large war party of enemies would scarcely be so bold in the domains of their foes
yes that may be true agreed running fox
what is it inquired spotted deer well these people may he oneidas or onondagas said running fox
perhaps they do not know that the mohawks are on the war trail
well if this water is near the mohawk village why did these people stop here if they are the same people you saw then they must have arrived here before the last sun appeared why did they wait here
what you say is true replied spotted deer but i will tell you how it might be i do not believe these people are mohawks i believe i was wrong about that
well perhaps they have made a long journey perhaps they want to rest perhaps the mohawks do not know they are here then they must wait
then the mohawks will get ready a big feast it is the proper way to do
well i see that it may be as you say said running fox but we will not find out about it by sitting here and talking we see a fire well we must creep up close and find out who made it i am ready declared spotted deer
they rose and began a daring advance along the edge of the lake they moved with great caution
however the fire was a considerable distance ahead of them and they believed that they would be comparatively safe until they got within bow shot of it then they were startled by a loud splash in the river
what was that spotted deer whispered anxiously sh cautioned running fox they listened many moments but the silence was unbroken
perhaps it was maschilamek the trout then as they heard nothing more they continued toward the fire
they knew that the wind was in their favor it gave them confidence for they realized that there was less likelihood of being heard
spotted deer stopped it is only sasappis the fire fly whispered running fox
we must be careful not to harm him a short distance farther on they were halted by the deep ringing notes of the big horned owl
it was repeated three times in rapid succession and the delawares immediately became suspicious a few moments afterward they heard another owl calling directly behind them
we have run into a trap running fox whispered savagely come we must get to the water it is the only chance they were close upon the river
and that they must fight against heavy odds to save themselves they saw now that the fire was a clever ruse of their enemies to draw their foes into an ambush the lads had little doubt that they were again face to face with the hated mohawks
it is dark and they may go by us
no that would be foolish replied running fox
if we climb into a tree they will know where we have gone then they will wait until it gets light and kill us like wisawanik the squirrel the next moment a piercing yell rang through the night
then running fox recovered his wits and took command come we must fight our way to the water he cried fitting arrows to their bows they hurried toward the river they had not covered half of the distance when two stalwart figures rose out of the darkness to oppose them
an arrow sped close to running fox and the next instant his own arrow dropped his enemy to the ground turning to call spotted deer he heard him thrashing about in the undergrowth
he felt sure that he was not a mohawk but he was unable to identify him running fox noted however that the warrior's face was streaked with charcoal in token of war then the lads heard their foes closing in upon them and they realized that they must be off
as they sped toward the river they heard some one behind them shouting
now i know who these people are cried running fox that person behind us is shouting the shawnee name for the mohawks yes this is a shawnee war party they take us for mohawks it is good
then as an arrow hummed ominously above their heads the lads plunged forward and swam furiously to escape from bow shot
and as soon as they reached deeper water the delawares dove from sight
and then they turned and swam toward the opposite shore they passed through the water as silently as winingus the mink for they knew that sharp eared foes were listening to catch the faintest sound
it drove them to greater efforts and they raced through the water at top speed
they moved more cautiously they believed that having lost sight of them in the darkness their crafty foes were listening to hear them leave the water
we will swim ahead until we are a long ways above this place proposed spotted deer
if the shawnees reach land they will travel faster than we can move through the water
we will swim ahead a little ways and then we will walk out they swam some distance farther and then waded ashore
the fire was still burning brightly on the opposite shore
i cannot recall what happened during the first months after my illness i only know that i sat in my mother's lap or clung to her dress as she went about her household duties my hands felt every object and observed every motion and in this way
i learned to know many things soon i felt the need of some communication with others and began to make crude signs a shake of the head meant no and a nod yes a pull meant come
and a push go was it bread that i wanted
i made the sign for working the freezer and shivered indicating cold my mother moreover succeeded in making me understand a good deal i always knew when she wished me to bring her something
and i would run upstairs or anywhere else she indicated indeed i owe to her loving wisdom all that was bright and good in my long night i understood a good deal of what was going on about me
when they were brought in from the laundry and i distinguished my own from the rest i knew by the way my mother and aunt dressed when they were going out and i invariably begged to go with them i was always sent for when there was company
one day some gentlemen called on my mother and i felt the shutting of the front door and other sounds that indicated their arrival on a sudden thought
to put on my idea of a company dress standing before the mirror as i had seen others do i anointed mine head with oil and covered my face thickly with powder then i pinned a veil over my head so that it covered my face
and fell in folds down to my shoulders
so that it dangled behind almost meeting the hem of my skirt thus attired i went down to help entertain the company i do not remember when i first realized that i was different from other people but i knew it before my teacher came to me
my friends did not use signs as i did when they wanted anything done but talked with their mouths sometimes i stood between two persons who were conversing and touched their lips i could not understand and was vexed
i moved my lips and gesticulated frantically without result this made me so angry at times that i kicked and screamed until i was exhausted i think i knew when i was naughty for i knew that it hurt ella my nurse to kick her
but i cannot remember any instance in which this feeling prevented me from repeating the naughtiness when i failed to get what i wanted
martha washington the child of our cook and belle an old setter
were my constant companions martha washington understood my signs and i seldom had any difficulty in making her do just as i wished it pleased me to domineer over her
we spent a great deal of time in the kitchen kneading dough balls helping make ice cream grinding coffee quarreling over the cake bowl
we carried off to the woodpile a cake which the cook had just frosted and ate every bit of it i was quite ill afterward and i wonder if retribution also overtook the turkey the guinea fowl likes to hide her nest in out of the way places
and it was one of my greatest delights to hunt for the eggs in the long grass i could not tell martha washington when i wanted to go egg hunting but i would double my hands and put them on the ground which meant something round in the grass
the milkers would let me keep my hands on the cows while they milked and i often got well switched by the cow for my curiosity the making ready for christmas was always a delight to me of course i did not know what it was all about
but i enjoyed the pleasant odours that filled the house and the tidbits that were given to martha washington and me to keep us quiet we were sadly in the way but that did not interfere with our pleasure in the least they allowed us to grind the spices
i cannot remember however that the ceremony interested me especially nor did my curiosity cause me to wake before daylight to look for my gifts martha washington had as great a love of mischief as i
with long golden curls one child was six years old the other two or three years older the younger child was blind that was i and the other was martha washington
i turned my attention to martha's corkscrews she objected at first but finally submitted thinking that turn and turn about is fair play she seized the scissors and cut off one of my curls
she sometimes started and quivered with excitement then she became perfectly rigid as dogs do when they point a bird i did not then know why belle acted in this way but i knew she was not doing as i wished
this vexed me and the lesson always ended in a one sided boxing match belle would get up
give one or two contemptuous sniffs
went off in search of martha many incidents of those early years are fixed in my memory isolated but clear and distinct making the sense of that silent aimless dayless life all the more intense
one day i happened to spill water on my apron and i spread it out to dry before the fire which was flickering on the sitting room hearth the apron did not dry quickly enough to suit me so i drew nearer and threw it right over the hot ashes
viny my old nurse to the rescue throwing a blanket over me she almost suffocated me but she put out the fire except for my hands and hair i was not badly burned about this time i found out the use of a key
one morning i locked my mother up in the pantry where she was obliged to remain three hours as the servants were in a detached part of the house
this most naughty prank of mine convinced my parents that i must be taught as soon as possible after my teacher miss sullivan came to me i sought an early opportunity to lock her in her room
i went upstairs with something which my mother made me understand i was to give to miss sullivan but no sooner had i given it to her
i imitated this action even wearing his spectacles thinking they might help solve the mystery but i did not find out the secret for several years then i learned what those papers were and that my father edited one of them
my father was most loving and indulgent devoted to his home seldom leaving us except in the hunting season he was a great hunter i have been told and a celebrated shot next to his family he loved his dogs and gun
his hospitality was great almost to a fault and he seldom came home
his special pride was the big garden where it was said
i remember his caressing touch as he led me from tree to tree from vine to vine and his eager delight in whatever pleased me he was a famous story teller after i had acquired language
he used to spell clumsily into my hand his cleverest anecdotes and nothing pleased him more than to have me repeat them at an opportune moment i was in the north
when i heard the news of my father's death he had had a short illness
then all was over this was my first great sorrow my first personal experience with death
she is so near to me that it almost seems indelicate to speak of her for a long time i regarded my little sister as an intruder i knew that i had ceased to be my mother's only darling and the thought filled me with jealousy
she sat in my mother's lap constantly where i used to sit and seemed to take up all her care and time one day something happened which seemed to me to be adding insult to injury at that time
i had a much petted much abused doll which i afterward named nancy she was alas the helpless victim of my outbursts of temper
at this presumption on the part of one to whom as yet no tie of love bound me i grew angry i rushed upon the cradle and over turned it and the baby might have been killed had my mother not caught her as she fell thus
we know little of the tender affections that grow out of endearing words and actions and companionship but afterward when i was restored to my human heritage
chapter seven the next important step in my education was learning to read as soon as i could spell a few words my teacher gave me slips of cardboard on which were printed words in raised letters
i quickly learned that each printed word stood for an object an act or a quality i had a frame in which i could arrange the words in little sentences
and at the same time carrying out the idea of the sentence with the things themselves one day miss sullivan tells me i pinned the word girl on my pinafore and stood in the wardrobe on the shelf i arranged the words is
in wardrobe nothing delighted me so much as this game
often everything in the room was arranged in object sentences from the printed slip it was but a step to the printed book i took my reader for beginners and hunted for the words i knew
when i found them my joy was like that of a game of hide and seek thus i began to read of the time when i began to read connected stories i shall speak later for a long time i had no regular lessons
even when i studied most earnestly it seemed more like play than work everything miss sullivan taught me she illustrated by a beautiful story or a poem whenever anything delighted or interested me
she talked it over with me just as if she were a little girl herself what many children think of with dread as a painful plodding through grammar hard sums and harder definitions is to day one of my most precious memories
i cannot explain the peculiar sympathy miss sullivan had with my pleasures and desires perhaps it was the result of long association with the blind added to this she had a wonderful faculty for description she went quickly over uninteresting details
and never nagged me with questions to see if i remembered the day before yesterday's lesson she introduced dry technicalities of science little by little making every subject so real that i could not help remembering what she taught
we read and studied out of doors preferring the sunlit woods to the house all my early lessons have in them the breath of the woods the fine resinous odour of pine needles blended with the perfume of wild grapes
little downy chickens and wildflowers the dogwood blossoms meadow violets and budding fruit trees
ah me how well i remember the spicy clovery smell of his breath
few know what joy it is to feel the roses pressing softly into the hand
sometimes i caught an insect in the flower i was plucking and i felt the faint noise of a pair of wings rubbed together in a sudden terror as the little creature became aware of a pressure from without
pressed my face against the smooth cheeks of the apples still warm from the sun and skipped back to the house our favourite walk was to keller's landing an old tumbledown lumber wharf on the tennessee river used during the civil war to land soldiers
there we spent many happy hours and played at learning geography i built dams of pebbles made islands and lakes and dug river beds all for fun and never dreamed that i was learning a lesson i listened with increasing wonder
to miss sullivan's descriptions of the great round world with its burning mountains buried cities moving rivers of ice and many other things as strange she made raised maps in clay so that i could feel the mountain ridges and valleys
and follow with my fingers the devious course of rivers i liked this too
into zones and poles confused and teased my mind
suggests a series of twine circles and i believe that if any one should set about it he could convince me that white bears actually climb the north pole
from the first i was not interested in the science of numbers miss sullivan tried to teach me to count by stringing beads in groups and by arranging kintergarten straws i learned to add and subtract
i studied zoology and botany once a gentleman whose name i have forgotten sent me a collection of fossils tiny mollusk shells beautifully marked
and a lovely fern in bas relief these were the keys which unlocked the treasures of the antediluvian world for me with trembling fingers i listened to miss sullivan's descriptions of the terrible beasts with uncouth unpronounceable names
tearing down the branches of gigantic trees for food and died in the dismal swamps of an unknown age for a long time these strange creatures haunted my dreams and this gloomy period formed a somber background to the joyous now
filled with sunshine and roses and echoing with the gentle beat of my pony's hoof another time a beautiful shell was given me and with a child's surprise and delight i learned how a tiny mollusk had built the lustrous coil for his dwelling place
and how on still nights when there is no breeze stirring the waves the nautilus sails on the blue waters of the indian ocean in his ship of pearl
just as the wonder working mantle of the nautilus changes the material it absorbs from the water and makes it a part of itself so the bits of knowledge one gathers undergo a similar change and become pearls of thought again it was the growth of a plant that furnished the text
for a lesson we bought a lily and set it in a sunny window very soon the green pointed buds showed signs of opening the slender fingerlike leaves on the outside opened slowly reluctant i thought
once having made a start however the opening process went on rapidly but in order and systematically there was always one bud larger and more beautiful than the rest which pushed her outer covering back with more pomp
as if the beauty in soft silky robes knew that she was the lily queen by right divine while her more timid sisters doffed their green hoods shyly until the whole plant was one nodding bough of loveliness and fragrance
and feel the tadpoles frisk about and to let them slip and slide between my fingers one day a more ambitious fellow leaped beyond the edge of the bowl and fell on the floor where i found him to all appearance more dead than alive
the only sign of life was a slight wriggling of his tail but no sooner had he returned to his element than he darted to the bottom swimming round and round in joyous activity he had made his leap he had seen the great world
and was content to stay in his pretty glass house under the big fuchsia tree until he attained the dignity of froghood then he went to live in the leafy pool at the end of the garden where he made the summer nights musical with his quaint love song
thus i learned from life itself at the beginning i was only a little mass of possibilities it was my teacher who unfolded and developed them when she came everything about me breathed of love and joy and was full of meaning
she has never since let pass an opportunity to point out the beauty that is in everything nor has she ceased
it was my teacher's genius her quick sympathy her loving tact
that made it so pleasant and acceptable to me she realized that a child's mind is like a shallow brook which ripples and dances merrily over the stony course of its education and reflects here a flower there a bush yonder a fleecy cloud
and she attempted to guide my mind on its way knowing that like a brook it should be fed by mountain streams and hidden springs until it broadened out into a deep river capable of reflecting in its placid surface
billowy hills the luminous shadows of trees and the blue heavens as well as the sweet face of a little flower any teacher can take a child to the classroom but not every teacher can make him learn
he will not work joyously unless he feels that liberty is his whether he is busy or at rest he must feel the flush of victory and the heart sinking of disappointment before he takes with a will
the tasks distasteful to him and resolves to dance his way bravely through a dull routine of textbooks my teacher is so near to me that i scarcely think of myself apart from her
chapter one it is with a kind of fear that i begin to write the history of my life i have as it were a superstitious hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist
the task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one when i try to classify my earliest impressions i find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present the woman paints the child's experiences in her own fantasy
a few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my life but the shadows of the prison house are on the rest besides many of the joys and sorrows of childhood have lost their poignancy
and many incidents of vital importance in my early education have been forgotten in the excitement of great discoveries in order therefore not to be tedious i shall try to present in a series of sketches
though it is true that there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors and no slave who has not had a king among his my grandfather caspar keller's son entered large tracts of land in alabama and finally settled there
to purchase supplies for the plantation
was a captain in the confederate army and my mother kate adams was his second wife and many years younger her grandfather benjamin adams married susanna e goodhue
their son charles adams was born in newburyport massachusetts and moved to helena arkansas
who belonged to the same family of everetts as edward everett and doctor edward everett hale after the war was over the family moved to memphis tennessee i lived up to the time of the illness that deprived me of my sight and hearing
in a tiny house consisting of a large square room and a small one in which the servant slept it is a custom in the south to build a small house near the homestead as an annex to be used on occasion such a house my father built after the civil war
and when he married my mother they went to live in it it was completely covered with vines climbing roses and honeysuckles from the garden it looked like an arbour the little porch was hidden from view
it was the favourite haunt of humming birds and bees the keller homestead where the family lived
because the house and the surrounding trees and fences were covered with beautiful english ivy its old fashioned garden was the paradise of my childhood even in the days before my teacher came
i used to feel along the square stiff boxwood hedges and guided by the sense of smell would find the first violets and lilies there too
i recognized it by its leaves and blossoms and knew it was the vine which covered the tumble down summer house at the farther end of the garden here also were trailing clematis drooping jessamine
and some rare sweet flowers called butterfly lilies because their fragile petals resemble butterflies wings but the roses
never have i found in the greenhouses of the north such heart satisfying roses as the climbing roses of my southern home they used to hang in long festoons from our porch filling the whole air with their fragrance
the beginning of my life was simple and much like every other little life i came i saw i conquered as the first baby in the family always does there was the usual amount of discussion as to a name for me
the first baby in the family was not to be lightly named every one was emphatic about that my father suggested the name of mildred campbell an ancestor whom he highly esteemed
and he declined to take any further part in the discussion my mother solved the problem by giving it as her wish that i should be called after her mother whose maiden name was helen everett
but in the excitement of carrying me to church my father lost the name on the way very naturally since it was one in which he had declined to have a part when the minister asked him for it
that it had been decided to call me after my grandmother and he gave her name as helen adams i am told that while i was still in long dresses i showed many signs of an eager self asserting disposition
everything that i saw other people do i insisted upon imitating at six months i could pipe out how d'ye and one day i attracted every one's attention by saying tea tea tea quite plainly
even after my illness i remembered one of the words i had learned in these early months it was the word water and i continued to make some sound for that word after all other speech was lost i ceased making the sound wah wah
only when i learned to spell the word they tell me i walked the day i was a year old my mother had just taken me out of the bath tub and was holding me in her lap
i slipped from my mother's lap and almost ran toward them the impulse gone i fell down and cried for her to take me up in her arms these happy days did not last long one brief spring
musical with the song of robin and mocking bird one summer rich in fruit and roses one autumn of gold and crimson sped by and left their gifts at the feet of an eager delighted child then in the dreary month of february
came the illness which closed my eyes and ears and plunged me into the unconsciousness of a new born baby they called it acute congestion of the stomach and brain the doctor thought i could not live
see or hear again i fancy i still have confused recollections of that illness i especially remember the tenderness
with which i awoke after a tossing half sleep and turned my eyes so dry and hot to the wall away from the once loved light which came to me dim and yet more dim each day
but except for these fleeting memories if indeed they be memories it all seems very unreal like a nightmare gradually i got used to the silence and darkness that surrounded me
a luminous sky trees and flowers which the darkness that followed
when i left new york the idea had become a fixed purpose and it was decided that i should go to cambridge this was the nearest approach i could get to harvard and to the fulfillment of my childish declaration
at the cambridge school the plan was to have miss sullivan attend the classes with me and interpret to me the instruction given of course my instructors had had no experience in teaching any but normal pupils and my only means of conversing with them
with the idea of preparing for college but i had been well drilled in english by miss sullivan
i had had moreover a good start in french and received six months instruction in latin but german was the subject with which i was most familiar in spite however of these advantages there were serious drawbacks to my progress
miss sullivan could not spell out in my hand all that the books required
although my friends in london and philadelphia were willing to hasten the work for a while indeed i had to copy my latin in braille so that i could recite with the other girls
to answer my questions readily and correct mistakes i could not make notes in class or write exercises but i wrote all my compositions and translations at home on my typewriter
each day miss sullivan went to the classes with me and spelled into my hand with infinite patience all that the teachers said in study hours she had to look up new words for me and read and reread notes and books i did not have in raised print
how slow and inadequate her spelling was
in special lessons twice a week to give miss sullivan a little rest but though everybody was kind and ready to help us there was only one hand that could turn drudgery into pleasure that year i finished arithmetic reviewed my latin grammar
and read three chapters of caesar's gallic war in german i read partly with my fingers and partly with miss sullivan's assistance schiller's lied von der glocke and taucher heine's
the history of frederick the great's magnificent achievements and the account of goethe's life i was sorry to finish
and charming descriptions of vine clad hills streams that sing and ripple in the sunshine and wild regions sacred to tradition and legend the gray sisters of a long vanished imaginative age
a feeling a love and an appetite mister gilman instructed me part of the year in english literature we read together as you like it burke's speech on conciliation with america and macaulay's life of samuel johnson
and his clever explanations made my work easier and pleasanter than it could have been had i only read notes mechanically with the necessarily brief explanations given in the classes
burke's speech was more instructive than any other book on a political subject that i had ever read my mind stirred with the stirring times and the characters round which the life of two contending nations centred seemed to move right before me
i wondered more and more
how it was that king george and his ministers could have turned a deaf ear to his warning prophecy of our victory and their humiliation then i entered into the melancholy details of the relation in which the great statesman stood to his party
and to the representatives of the people i thought how strange it was that such precious seeds of truth and wisdom should have fallen among the tares of ignorance and corruption in a different way macaulay's life of samuel johnson
was interesting my heart went out to the lonely man who ate the bread of affliction in grub street and yet in the midst of toil and cruel suffering of body and soul always had a kind word and lent a helping hand to the poor and despised
i rejoiced over all his successes i shut my eyes to his faults and wondered not that he had them
to the demosthenes of great britain at the cambridge school for the first time in my life i enjoyed the companionship of seeing and hearing girls of my own age i lived with several others in one of the pleasant houses connected with the school the house where mister howells used to live
and we all had the advantage of home life i joined them in many of their games even blind man's buff and frolics in the snow i took long walks with them we discussed our studies and read aloud the things that interested us
so that miss sullivan did not have to repeat their conversation at christmas my mother and little sister spent the holidays with me and mister gilman kindly offered to let mildred study in his school
the subjects i offered were elementary and advanced german french
each candidate was known not by his name but by a number
but as i had to use a typewriter my identity could not be concealed it was thought advisable for me to have my examinations in a room by myself because the noise of the typewriter might disturb the other girls
while i repeated the words aloud to make sure that i understood him perfectly the papers were difficult and i felt very anxious as i wrote out my answers on the typewriter mister gilman spelled to me what i had written
and he inserted them i wish to say here that i have not had this advantage since in any of my examinations at radcliffe no one reads the papers to me after they are written and i have no opportunity to correct errors unless i finish before the time is up
in that case i correct only such mistakes as i can recall in the few minutes allowed and make notes of these corrections at the end of my paper if i passed with higher credit in the preliminaries than in the finals there are two reasons in the finals
no one read my work over to me and in the preliminaries i offered subjects with some of which i was in a measure familiar before my work in the cambridge school
which mister gilman gave me from previous harvard papers mister gilman sent my written work to the examiners with a certificate that i
had written the papers all the other preliminary examinations were conducted in the same manner none of them was so difficult as the first
a midsummer night's dream hermia and lysander were lovers but hermia's father wished her to marry another man named demetrius now in athens where they lived there was a wicked law
by which any girl who refused to marry according to her father's wishes might be put to death hermia's father was so angry with her for refusing to do as he wished that he actually brought her before the duke of athens
to ask that she might be killed if she still refused to obey him the duke gave her four days to think about it and at the end of that time if she still refused to marry demetrius she would have to die
lysander of course was nearly mad with grief and the best thing to do seemed to him for hermia to run away to his aunt's house at a place beyond the reach of that cruel law and there he would come to her and marry her
but before she started she told her friend helena what she was going to do helena had been demetrius sweetheart long before his marriage with hermia had been thought of and being very silly like all jealous people
she could not see that it was not poor hermia's fault that demetrius wished to marry her instead of his own lady helena she knew that if she told demetrius that hermia was going as she was to the wood outside athens he would follow her
and i can follow him and at least i shall see him she said to herself so she went to him and betrayed her friend's secret now this wood where lysander was to meet hermia
and where the other two had decided to follow them was full of fairies as most woods are if one only had the eyes to see them and in this wood on this night were the king and queen of the fairies oberon and titania
now fairies are very wise people but now and then they can be quite as foolish as mortal folk oberon and titania who might have been as happy as the days were long had thrown away all their joy
in a foolish quarrel they never met without saying disagreeable things to each other and scolded each other so dreadfully that all their little fairy followers for fear would creep into acorn cups
and hide them there so instead of keeping one happy court and dancing all night through in the moonlight as is fairies use the king with his attendants wandered through one part of the wood while the queen with hers
kept state in another and the cause of all this trouble was a little indian boy whom titania had taken to be one of her followers oberon wanted the child to follow him
and be one of his fairy knights but the queen would not give him up on this night in a mossy moonlit glade the king and queen of the fairies met
said the king what jealous oberon
you spoil everything with your quarreling come fairies let us leave him i am not friends with him now it rests with you to make up the quarrel said the king give me that little indian boy and i will again be your humble servant and suitor
set your mind at rest said the queen your whole fairy kingdom buys not that boy from me come fairies and she and her train rode off down the moonbeams well go your ways
said oberon but i'll be even with you before you leave this wood then oberon called his favorite fairy puck puck was the spirit of mischief he used to slip into the dairies and take the cream away
and get into the churn so that the butter would not come and turn the beer sour and lead people out of their way on dark nights and then laugh at them and tumble people's stools from under them when they were going to sit down and upset their hot ale over their chins when they were going to drink
now said oberon to this little sprite fetch me the flower called love in idleness the juice of that little purple flower laid on the eyes of those who sleep will make them
when they wake to love the first thing they see i will put some of the juice of that flower on my titania's eyes and when she wakes she will love the first thing she sees were it lion bear
while puck was gone demetrius passed through the glade followed by poor helena and still she told him how she loved him and reminded him of all his promises
and still he told her that he did not and could not love her and that his promises were nothing oberon was sorry for poor helena and when puck returned with the flower he bade him follow demetrius
and put some of the juice on his eyes so that he might love helena when he woke and looked on her as much as she loved him so puck set off and wandering through the wood found not demetrius but lysander
on whose eyes he put the juice but when lysander woke he saw not his own hermia but helena who was walking through the wood looking for the cruel demetrius
he loved her and left his own lady under the spell of the purple flower when hermia woke she found lysander gone and wandered about the wood trying to find him
and oberon soon found that he had made a mistake and set about looking for demetrius and having found him put some of the juice on his eyes and the first thing demetrius saw when he woke was also helena
so now demetrius and lysander were both following her through the wood and it was hermia's turn to follow her lover as helena had done before
the end of it was that helena and hermia began to quarrel and demetrius and lysander went off to fight oberon was very sorry to see his kind scheme to help these lovers turn out so badly so he said to puck
these two young men are going to fight you must overhang the night with drooping fog and lead them so astray that one will never find the other when they are tired out they will fall asleep
then drop this other herb on lysander's eyes that will give him his old sight and his old love then each man will have the lady who loves him
a midsummer night's dream then when this is done all will be well with them so puck went and did as he was told and when the two had fallen asleep without meeting each other
puck poured the juice on lysander's eyes and said when thou wakest thou takest true delight in the sight of thy former lady's eye jack shall have jill nought shall go ill
musk roses and eglantine there titania always slept a part of the night wrapped in the enameled skin of a snake oberon stooped over her and laid the juice on her eyes saying
what thou seest when thou wake do it for thy true love take now it happened that when titania woke the first thing she saw was a stupid clown
one of a party of players who had come out into the wood to rehearse their play this clown had met with puck who had clapped an ass's head on his shoulders so that it looked as if it grew there
directly titania woke and saw this dreadful monster she said what angel is this
if i am wise enough to find my way out of this wood that's enough for me said the foolish clown do not desire to go out of the wood said titania the spell of the love juice was on her and to her
the clown seemed the most beautiful and delightful creature on all the earth i love you she went on come with me and i will give you fairies to attend on you so she called four fairies whose names were peaseblossom
cobweb moth and mustardseed you must attend this gentleman said the queen feed him with apricots and dewberries purple grapes green figs and mulberries steal honey bags for him from the bumble bees
and with the wings of painted butterflies fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes
sit down with me said the queen to the clown and let me stroke your dear cheeks and stick musk roses in your smooth sleek head and kiss your fair large ears my gentle joy where's peaseblossom
asked the clown with the ass's head he did not care much about the queen's affection
ready said mustardseed oh i want nothing said the clown only just help cobweb to scratch i must go to the barber's for methinks i am marvelous hairy about the face would you like anything to eat said the fairy queen
i should like some good dry oats said the clown for his donkey's head made him desire donkey's food and some hay to follow shall some of my fairies fetch you new nuts from the squirrel's house asked the queen
said the clown but please don't let any of your people disturb me i am going to sleep then said the queen and i will wind thee in my arms and so when oberon came along
he found his beautiful queen lavishing kisses and endearments on a clown with a donkey's head and before he released her from the enchantment
he persuaded her to give him the little indian boy he so much desired to have then he took pity on her and threw some juice of the disenchanting flower on her pretty eyes
and then in a moment she saw plainly the donkey headed clown she had been loving and knew how foolish she had been oberon took off the ass's head from the clown and left him to finish his sleep with his own silly head
thus all was made plain and straight again oberon and titania loved each other more than ever demetrius thought of no one but helena and helena had never had any thought of anyone but demetrius
as for hermia and lysander they were as loving a couple as you could meet in a day's march even through a fairy wood so the four mortal lovers went back to athens and were married
in which joseph rouletabille makes a remark to monsieur robert darzac which produces its little effect
bounding the vast property of monsieur stangerson and had already come within sight of the entrance gate when our attention was drawn to an individual who half bent to the ground seemed to be so completely absorbed in what he was doing
at one time he stooped so low as almost to touch the ground at another he drew himself up and attentively examined the wall then he looked into the palm of one of his hands and walked away
with rapid strides finally he set off running still looking into the palm of his hand rouletabille had brought me to a standstill by a gesture hush frederic larsan is at work
don't let us disturb him rouletabille had a great admiration for the celebrated detective i had never before seen him but i knew him well by reputation at that time
before rouletabille had given proof of his unique talent larsan was reputed as the most skilful unraveller of the most mysterious and complicated crimes his reputation was world wide
and the police of london and even of america often called him in to their aid when their own national inspectors and detectives found themselves at the end of their wits and resources
at the outset of the mystery of the yellow room
to return with all haste
had made all speed doubtless knowing by experience that if he was interrupted in what he was doing it was because his services were urgently needed in another direction so as rouletabille said he was that morning already at work
we soon found out in what it consisted what he was continually looking at in the palm of his right hand was nothing but his watch the minute hand of which he appeared to be noting intently
then he turned back still running stopping only when he reached the park gate where he again consulted his watch and then put it away in his pocket shrugging his shoulders with a gesture of discouragement
he pushed open the park gate reclosed and locked it raised his head and through the bars perceived us rouletabille rushed after him and i followed frederic larsan waited for us monsieur fred
said rouletabille raising his hat and showing the profound respect based on admiration which the young reporter felt for the celebrated detective can you tell me whether monsieur robert darzac is at the chateau at this moment here is one of his friends of the paris bar
who desires to speak with him i really don't know monsieur rouletabille replied fred shaking hands with my friend whom he had several times met in the course of his difficult investigations i have not seen him
said rouletabille pointing to the lodge the door and windows of which were close shut
will not be able to give you any information monsieur rouletabille why not because they were arrested half an hour ago arrested cried rouletabille
then they are the murderers frederic larsan shrugged his shoulders when you can't
he said with an air of supreme irony you can always indulge in the luxury of discovering accomplices did you have them arrested monsieur fred not i i haven't had them arrested
i am pretty sure that they have not had anything to do with the affair and then because because of what asked rouletabille eagerly because of nothing said larsan shaking his head
because there were no accomplices
you have an idea then about this matter said larsan looking at rouletabille intently yet
you have not yet gained admission here i shall get admission i doubt it the orders are strict i shall gain admission if you let me see monsieur robert darzac do that for me you know we are old friends i beg of you monsieur fred
the face of rouletabille at the moment was really funny to look at it showed such an irresistible desire to cross the threshold beyond which some prodigious mystery had occurred it appealed with so much eloquence not only of the mouth and eyes
but with all its features that i could not refrain from bursting into laughter frederic larsan no more than myself could retain his gravity meanwhile standing on the other side of the gate he calmly put the key
in his pocket i closely scrutinised him he might be about fifty years of age he had a fine head his hair turning grey a colourless complexion and a firm profile
his forehead was prominent his chin and cheeks clean shaven his upper lip without moustache was finely chiselled his eyes were rather small and round with a look in them that was at once searching and disquieting
he was of middle height and well built with a general bearing elegant and gentlemanly there was nothing about him of the vulgar policeman in his way he was an artist and one felt that he had a high opinion of himself
the sceptical tone of his conversation was that of a man who had been taught by experience his strange profession had brought him into contact with so many crimes and villanies that it would have been remarkable if his nature had not been a little hardened
larsan turned his head at the sound of a vehicle which had come from the chateau and reached the gate behind him
he is here the cab was already at the park gate and robert darzac was begging frederic larsan to open it for him explaining that he was pressed for time to catch the next train leaving epinay for paris then he recognised me
while larsan was unlocking the gate monsieur darzac inquired what had brought me to the glandier at such a tragic moment i noticed that he was frightfully pale and that his face was lined as if from the effects of some terrible suffering is mademoiselle getting better
i immediately asked yes he said she will be saved perhaps she must be saved he did not add or it will be my death but i felt that the phrase trembled on his pale lips
rouletabille intervened you are in a hurry monsieur but i must speak with you i have something of the greatest importance to tell you frederic larsan interrupted may i leave you he asked of robert darzac have you a
thank you i have a key and will lock the gate larsan hurried off in the direction of the chateau the imposing pile of which could be perceived a few hundred yards away
robert darzac with knit brow was beginning to show impatience i presented rouletabille as a good friend of mine but as soon as he learnt that the young man was a journalist he looked at me very reproachfully
excused himself under the necessity of having to reach epinay in twenty minutes bowed and whipped up his horse but rouletabille had seized the bridle and to my utter astonishment stopped the carriage with a vigorous hand
then he gave utterance to a sentence which was utterly meaningless to me the presbytery has lost nothing of its charm nor the garden its brightness the words had no sooner left the lips of rouletabille
pale as he was he became paler his eyes were fixed on the young man in terror and he immediately descended from the vehicle in an inexpressible state of agitation come
he stammered then suddenly and with a sort of fury he repeated let us go monsieur he turned up by the road he had come from the chateau rouletabille still retaining his hold on the horse's bridle
i addressed a few words to monsieur darzac but he made no answer
it was not till six o'clock that i left the chateau taking with me the article hastily written by my friend in the little sitting room
the reporter was to sleep at the chateau taking advantage of the to me inexplicable hospitality offered him by monsieur robert darzac to whom monsieur stangerson in that sad time left the care of all his domestic affairs
nevertheless he insisted on accompanying me to the station at epinay in crossing the park he said to me frederic is really very clever and has not belied his reputation
do you know how he came to find daddy jacques's boots near the spot where we noticed the traces of the neat boots and the disappearance of the rough ones there was a square hole freshly made in the moist ground
where a stone had evidently been removed larsan searched for that stone without finding it and at once imagined
with which to sink the boots in the lake
that escaped me but my mind was turned in another direction by the large number of false indications of his track which the murderer left and by the measure of the black foot marks corresponding with that of daddy jacques's boots
which i had established without his suspecting it
that the murderer had sought to turn suspicion on to the old servant up to that point
for i tell you he is working on wrong lines and i i must fight him with nothing i was surprised at the profoundly grave accent with which my young friend pronounced the last words he repeated
yes terrible terrible
at that moment we passed by the back of the chateau night had come a window on the first floor was partly open a feeble light came from it as well as some sounds which drew our attention
we approached until we had reached the side of a door that was situated just under the window rouletabille in a low tone made me understand that this was the window of mademoiselle stangerson's chamber
the sounds which had attracted our attention ceased then were renewed for a moment and then we heard stifled sobs we were only able to catch these words which reached us distinctly
my poor robert rouletabille whispered in my ear
my inquiry would soon be finished he looked about him the darkness of the evening enveloped us we could not see much beyond the narrow path bordered by trees which ran behind the chateau
the sobs had ceased if we can't hear we may at least try to see said rouletabille and making a sign to me to deaden the sound of my steps
he led me across the path to the trunk of a tall beech tree the white bole of which was visible in the darkness this tree grew exactly in front of the window in which we were so much interested its lower branches
being on a level with the first floor of the chateau from the height of those branches one might certainly see what was passing in mademoiselle stangerson's chamber evidently that was what rouletabille thought for enjoining me to remain hidden
he clasped the trunk with his vigorous arms and climbed up i soon lost sight of him amid the branches and then followed a deep silence in front of me the open window remained lighted
and i saw no shadow move across it i listened and presently from above me these words reached my ears
after you pray somebody was overhead speaking exchanging courtesies what was my astonishment to see on the slippery column of the tree two human forms appear and quietly slip down to the ground
rouletabille had mounted alone and had returned with another good evening monsieur sainclair it was frederic larsan the detective had already occupied the post of observation
when my young friend had thought to reach it alone neither noticed my astonishment i explained that to myself by the fact that they must have been witnesses of some tender and despairing scene between mademoiselle stangerson lying in her bed
and monsieur darzac on his knees by her pillow i guessed that each had drawn different conclusions from what they had seen it was easy to see that the scene had strongly impressed rouletabille in favour of monsieur robert darzac
while to larsan it showed nothing but consummate hypocrisy acted with finished art by mademoiselle stangerson's fiance as we reached the park gate larsan stopped us
he cried i left it near the tree he left us saying he would rejoin us presently have you noticed frederic larsan's cane asked the young reporter as soon as we were alone
he seems to take great care of it it never leaves him one would think he was afraid it might fall into the hands of strangers i never saw it before to day where did he find it it isn't natural that a man who had never before used a walking stick should
the day after the glandier crime never move a step without one
and picked up his cane from the ground a proceeding to which i was perhaps wrong not to attach some importance we were now out of the park rouletabille had dropped into silence
his thoughts were certainly still occupied with frederic larsan's new cane i had proof of that when as we came near to epinay he said
he began his inquiry before me he has had time to find out things about which i know nothing where did he find that cane then he added it is probable that his suspicion
has led him to lay his hand on something tangible has this cane anything to do with it where the deuce could he have found it as i had to wait twenty minutes for the train at epinay
we entered a wine shop almost immediately the door opened and frederic larsan made his appearance brandishing his famous cane
he said laughingly the three of us seated ourselves at a table rouletabille never took his eyes off the cane he was so absorbed that he did not notice a sign larsan made to a railway employe
a young man with a chin decorated by a tiny blond and ill kept beard on the sign he rose paid for his drink bowed and went out i should not myself have attached any importance to the circumstance
by the reappearance of the man with the beard at one of the most tragic moments of this case i then learned that the youth was one of larsan's assistants and had been charged by him to watch the going and coming of travellers at the station of epinay sur orge
i turned my eyes again on rouletabille ah monsieur fred
i have always seen you walking with your hands in your pockets it is a present replied the detective recent insisted rouletabille no it was given to me in london
may i look at it oh
fred passed the cane to rouletabille it was a large yellow bamboo with a crutch handle and ornamented with a gold ring
returned it to larsan with a bantering expression on his face saying
possibly said fred imperturbably read the mark there in tiny letters cassette six a opera cannot english people buy canes in paris
when rouletabille had seen me into the train he said you'll remember the address yes cassette six a opera rely on me you shall have word tomorrow morning
and wrote to my friend a man unmistakably answering to the description of monsieur robert darzac same height slightly stooping putty coloured overcoat bowler hat purchased a cane similar to the one in which we are interested
on the evening of the crime about eight o'clock monsieur cassette had not sold another such cane during the last two years fred's cane is new it is quite clear that it's the same cane fred did not buy it since he was in london
like you i think that he found it somewhere near monsieur robert darzac but if as you suppose the murderer was in the yellow room for five or even six hours and the crime was not committed until towards midnight
mister bloom ate his strips of sandwich fresh clean bread with relish of disgust pungent mustard the feety savour of green cheese sips of his wine soothed his palate
not logwood that tastes fuller this weather with the chill off nice quiet bar nice piece of wood in that counter nicely planed like the way it curves there
i wouldn't do anything at all in that line davy byrne said it ruined many a man the same horses vintners sweepstake licensed for the sale of beer wine and spirits for consumption on the premises
heads i win tails you lose true for you nosey flynn said unless you're in the know there's no straight sport going now lenehan gets some good ones he's giving sceptre today zinfandel's the favourite
lord howard de walden's won at epsom morny cannon is riding him i could have got seven to one against saint amant a fortnight before that so davy byrne said he went towards the window and
taking up the pettycash book scanned its pages i could faith nosey flynn said snuffling that was a rare bit of horseflesh saint frusquin was her sire
she won in a thunderstorm rothschild's filly with wadding in her ears blue jacket and yellow cap bad luck to big ben dollard and his john o'gaunt he put me off it ay
he drank resignedly from his tumbler running his fingers down the flutes ay he said sighing mister bloom champing standing looked upon his sigh
nosey numbskull will i tell him that horse lenehan he knows already better let him forget go and lose more fool and his money dewdrop coming down again cold nose he'd have kissing a woman
still they might like prickly beards they like dogs cold noses old missus riordan with the rumbling stomach's skye terrier in the city arms hotel molly fondling him in her lap
o the big doggybowwowsywowsy wine soaked and softened rolled pith of bread mustard a moment mawkish cheese nice wine it is taste it better because i'm not thirsty
bath of course does that just a bite or two then about six o'clock i can six six time will be gone then she mild fire of wine kindled his veins
i wanted that badly felt so off colour his eyes unhungrily saw shelves of tins sardines gaudy lobsters claws all the odd things people pick up for food
out of shells periwinkles with a pin off trees snails out of the ground the french eat out of the sea with bait on a hook silly fish learn nothing in a thousand years
if you didn't know risky putting anything into your mouth poisonous berries johnny magories roundness you think good gaudy
one fellow told another and so on try it on the dog first led on by the smell or the look tempting fruit ice cones cream instinct orangegroves for instance
need artificial irrigation bleibtreustrasse yes but what about oysters unsightly like a clot of phlegm filthy shells devil to open them too who found them out
garbage sewage they feed on fizz and red bank oysters effect on the sexual aphrodis he was in the red bank this morning was he oysters old fish at table perhaps
he young flesh in bed no june has no ar no oysters but there are people like things high
jugged hare first catch your hare chinese eating eggs fifty years old blue and green again dinner of thirty courses each dish harmless might mix inside
idea for a poison mystery that archduke leopold was it no yes or was it otto one of those habsburgs or who was it used to eat the scruff off his own head
cheapest lunch in town of course aristocrats then the others copy to be in the fashion milly too rock oil and flour raw pastry i like myself half the catch of oysters they throw back in the sea to keep up the price
cheap no one would buy caviare do the grand hock in green glasses swell blowout lady this powdered bosom pearls the elite creme de la creme
they want special dishes to pretend they're hermit with a platter of pulse keep down the stings of the flesh know me come eat with me royal sturgeon high sheriff coffey the butcher
right to venisons of the forest from his ex send him back the half of a cow spread i saw down in the master of the rolls kitchen area whitehatted chef like a rabbi combustible duck
just as well to write it on the bill of fare so you can know what you've eaten too many drugs spoil the broth i know it myself dosing it with edwards desiccated soup geese stuffed silly for them
lobsters boiled alive do ptake some ptarmigan wouldn't mind being a waiter in a swell hotel tips evening dress halfnaked ladies may i tempt you to a little more
yes do bedad and she did bedad huguenot name i expect that a miss dubedat lived in killiney i remember du de la french still
it's the same fish perhaps old micky hanlon of moore street ripped the guts out of making money hand over fist finger in fishes gills can't write his name on a cheque think he was painting the landscape with his mouth twisted moooikill
worth fifty thousand pounds stuck on the pane two flies buzzed stuck glowing wine on his palate lingered swallowed
sun's heat it is seems to a secret touch telling me memory touched his sense moistened remembered hidden under wild ferns on howth below us bay sleeping sky
no sound the sky the bay purple by the lion's head green by drumleck yellowgreen towards sutton fields of undersea the lines faint brown in grass buried cities
pillowed on my coat she had her hair earwigs in the heather scrub my hand under her nape you'll toss me all o wonder coolsoft with ointments her hand touched me caressed
her eyes upon me did not turn away ravished over her i lay full lips full open kissed her mouth yum softly she gave me in my mouth the seedcake warm and chewed
mawkish pulp her mouth had mumbled sweetsour of her spittle joy i ate it joy young life her lips that gave me pouting soft warm sticky gumjelly lips
take me willing eyes pebbles fell she lay still a goat no one high on ben howth rhododendrons a nannygoat walking surefooted dropping currants
screened under ferns she laughed warmfolded wildly i lay on her kissed her eyes her lips her stretched neck beating woman's breasts full in her blouse of nun's veiling
fat nipples upright hot i tongued her she kissed me i was kissed all yielding she tossed my hair kissed she kissed me me and me now
stuck the flies buzzed his downcast eyes followed the silent veining of the oaken slab beauty it curves curves are beauty
shapely goddesses venus juno curves the world admires can see them library museum standing in the round hall naked goddesses aids to digestion
they don't care what man looks all to see never speaking i mean to say to fellows like flynn suppose she did pygmalion and galatea what would she say first
all ambrosial not like a tanner lunch we have boiled mutton carrots and turnips bottle of allsop
immortal lovely and we stuffing food in one hole and out behind food chyle blood dung earth food have to feed it like stoking an engine they have no
never looked i'll look today keeper won't see bend down let something drop see if she dribbling a quiet message from his bladder came to go
to do not to do there to do a man and ready he drained his glass to the lees and walked to men too they gave themselves manly conscious lay with men lovers
a youth enjoyed her to the yard when the sound of his boots had ceased davy byrne said from his book
he does canvassing for the freeman i know him well to see davy byrne said
trouble nosey flynn said not that i heard of why i noticed he was in mourning was he nosey flynn said so he was faith
you're right by god so he was i never broach the subject davy byrne said humanely if i see a gentleman is in trouble that way it only brings it up fresh in their minds
it's not the wife anyhow nosey flynn said i met him the day before yesterday and he coming out of that irish farm dairy john wyse nolan's wife has in henry street with a jar of cream in his hand
taking it home to his better half she's well nourished i tell you plovers on toast and is he doing for the freeman davy byrne said nosey flynn pursed his lips
he doesn't buy cream on the ads he picks up you can make bacon of that how so davy byrne asked coming from his book nosey flynn made swift passes in the air with juggling fingers he winked he's in the craft
he said do you tell me so davy byrne said very much so nosey flynn said ancient free and accepted order he's an excellent brother light life and love by god
they give him a leg up i was told that by a well i won't say who is that a fact o it's a fine order nosey flynn said
they stick to you when you're down i know a fellow was trying to get into it but they're as close as damn it by god they did right to keep the women out of it davy byrne
but be damned but they smelt her out and swore her in on the spot a master mason that was one of the saint legers of doneraile davy byrne sated after his yawn said with tearwashed eyes
and is that a fact decent quiet man he is i often saw him in here and i never once saw him you know over the line god almighty couldn't make him drunk nosey flynn said firmly
slips off when the fun gets too hot didn't you see him look at his watch ah you weren't there if you ask him to have a drink first thing he does he outs with the watch to see what he ought to imbibe declare to god he does
there are some like that davy byrne said he's a safe man i'd say he's not too bad nosey flynn said snuffling it up
help a fellow give the devil his due o bloom has his good points but there's one thing he'll never do his hand scrawled a dry pen signature beside his grog i know davy byrne said
nothing in black and white nosey flynn said paddy leonard and bantam lyons came in tom rochford followed frowning a plaining hand on his claret waistcoat day mister byrne day gentlemen
they paused at the counter who's standing paddy leonard asked i'm sitting anyhow nosey flynn answered well what'll it be paddy leonard asked i'll take a stone ginger bantam lyons said how much
paddy leonard cried since when for god sake what's yours tom how is the main drainage nosey flynn asked sipping for answer tom rochford pressed his hand to his breastbone and hiccupped
would i trouble you for a glass of fresh water mister byrne he said certainly sir paddy leonard eyed his alemates lord love a duck he said look at what i'm standing drinks to
cold water and gingerpop two fellows that would suck whisky off a sore leg he has some bloody horse up his sleeve for the gold cup a dead snip zinfandel is it nosey flynn asked
tom rochford spilt powder from a twisted paper into the water set before him that cursed dyspepsia he said before drinking breadsoda is very good davy byrne said tom rochford nodded and drank
say nothing bantam lyons winked i'm going to plunge five bob on my own tell us if you're worth your salt and be damned to you paddy leonard said who gave it to you
mister bloom on his way out raised three fingers in greeting so long nosey flynn said
paddy leonard said a suckingbottle for the baby mister bloom walked towards dawson street his tongue brushing his teeth smooth something green it would have to be spinach say
then with those rontgen rays searchlight you could at duke lane a ravenous terrier choked up a sick
surfeit returned with thanks having fully digested the contents first sweet then savoury mister bloom coasted warily ruminants his second course
their upper jaw they move wonder if tom rochford will do anything with that invention of his wasting time explaining it to flynn's mouth
invent free course then you'd have all the cranks pestering he hummed prolonging in solemn echo the closes of the bars don giovanni
m'invitasti feel better burgundy good pick me up who distilled first some chap in the blues dutch courage that kilkenny people in the national library now i must
bare clean closestools waiting in the window of william miller plumber turned back his thoughts they could and watch it all the way down swallow a pin sometimes come out of the ribs years after
tour round the body changing biliary duct spleen squirting liver gastric juice coils of intestines like pipes but the poor buffer would have to stand all the time with his insides
what does that teco mean tonight perhaps don giovanni thou hast me invited to come to supper tonight the rum the rumdum doesn't go properly keyes two months if i get nannetti to
two pounds eight three hynes owes me two eleven prescott's dyeworks van over there if i get billy prescott's ad two fifteen five guineas about on the pig's back could buy one of those silk petticoats for molly
colour of her new garters today today not think tour the south then what about english wateringplaces brighton margate piers by moonlight her voice floating out
those lovely seaside girls against john long's a drowsing loafer lounged in heavy thought gnawing a crusted knuckle handy man wants job small wages will eat anything
mister bloom turned at gray's confectioner's window of unbought tarts and passed the reverend thomas connellan's bookstore why i left the church of rome birds nest
women run him they say they used to give pauper children soup to change to protestants in the time of the potato blight society over the way papa went to for the conversion of poor jews same bait
why we left the church of rome a blind stripling stood tapping the curbstone with his slender cane no tram in sight wants to cross do you want to cross mister bloom asked
the blind stripling did not answer his wallface frowned weakly he moved his head uncertainly you're in dawson street mister bloom said molesworth street is opposite
do you want to cross there's nothing in the way the cane moved out trembling to the left
and saw again the dyeworks van drawn up before drago's where i saw his
horse drooping driver in john long's slaking his drouth there's a van there mister bloom said but it's not moving i'll see you across do you want to go to molesworth street
yes the stripling answered south frederick street come mister bloom said he touched the thin elbow gently then took the limp seeing hand to guide it forward say something to him
better not do the condescending they mistrust what you tell them pass a common remark the rain kept off
stains on his coat slobbers his food i suppose tastes all different for him have to be spoonfed first like a child's hand his hand like milly's was sensitive
sizing me up i daresay from my hand wonder if he has a name van keep his cane clear of the horse's legs tired drudge get his doze that's right clear behind a bull in front of a horse
thanks sir knows i'm a man voice right now first turn to the left the blind stripling tapped the curbstone and went on his way drawing his cane back feeling again
mister bloom walked behind the eyeless feet a flatcut suit of herringbone tweed poor young fellow how on earth did he know that van was there must have felt it see things in their forehead perhaps
kind of sense of volume weight or size of it something blacker than the dark wonder would he feel it if something was removed feel a gap queer idea of dublin he must have tapping his way round by the stones
could he walk in a beeline if he hadn't that cane bloodless pious face like a fellow going in to be a priest penrose that was that chap's name look at all the things they can learn to do
read with their fingers tune pianos or we are surprised they have any brains why we think a deformed person or a hunchback clever if he says something we might say
embroider plait baskets people ought to help workbasket i could buy for molly's birthday hates sewing might take an objection dark men they call them
sense of smell must be stronger too smells on all sides bunched together
each person too then the spring the summer smells tastes they say you can't taste wines with your eyes shut or a cold in the head
also smoke in the dark they say get no pleasure and with a woman for instance more shameless not seeing that girl passing the stewart institution head in the air look at me
i have them all on must be strange not to see her kind of a form in his mind's eye the voice temperatures when he touches her with his fingers must almost see the lines the curves
his hands on her hair for instance say it was black for instance good we call it black then passing over her white skin different feel perhaps feeling of white
postoffice must answer fag today send her a postal order two shillings half a crown accept my little present stationer's just here too wait think over it
with a gentle finger he felt ever so slowly the hair combed back above his ears again fibres of fine fine straw then gently his finger felt the skin of his right cheek
downy hair there too not smooth enough the belly is the smoothest no one about there he goes into frederick street perhaps to levenston's dancing academy piano might be settling my braces
walking by doran's publichouse he slid his hand between his waistcoat and trousers and pulling aside his shirt gently felt a slack fold of his belly but i know it's whitey yellow want to try in the dark to see
he withdrew his hand and pulled his dress to poor fellow quite a boy terrible really terrible what dreams would he have not seeing life a dream for him
where is the justice being born that way all those women and children excursion beanfeast burned and drowned in new york holocaust karma they call that transmigration for sins you did in a past life
the reincarnation met him pike hoses dear dear dear pity of course but somehow you can't cotton on to them someway
after his good lunch in earlsfort terrace old legal cronies cracking a magnum tales of the bench and assizes and annals of the bluecoat school i sentenced him to ten years
i suppose he'd turn up his nose at that stuff i drank vintage wine for them the year marked on a dusty bottle has his own ideas of justice in the recorder's court wellmeaning old man
police chargesheets crammed with cases get their percentage manufacturing crime sends them to the rightabout the devil on moneylenders gave reuben j a great strawcalling
now he's really what they call a dirty jew power those judges have crusty old topers in wigs bear with a sore paw and may the lord have mercy on your soul hello placard
mirus bazaar his excellency the lord lieutenant sixteenth today it is in aid of funds for mercer's hospital the messiah was first given for that yes handel
what about going out there ballsbridge drop in on keyes
wear out my welcome sure to know someone on the gate mister bloom came to kildare street first i must library straw hat in sunlight tan shoes
turnedup trousers it is it is his heart quopped softly to the right museum goddesses he swerved to the right
almost certain won't look wine in my face why did i too heady yes it is the walk not see
making for the museum gate with long windy steps he lifted his eyes handsome building sir thomas deane designed not following me didn't see me perhaps light in his eyes
the flutter of his breath came forth in short sighs quick cold statues quiet there safe in a minute no didn't see me after two just at the gate my heart
his eyes beating looked steadfastly at cream curves of stone sir thomas deane was the greek architecture look for something i his hasty hand went quick into a pocket took out
read unfolded agendath netaim where did i busy looking he thrust back quick agendath afternoon she said i am looking for that yes that
try all pockets handker freeman where did i ah yes trousers potato purse where hurry
marilla cuthbert is surprised
and the eager luminous eyes she stopped short in amazement matthew cuthbert who's that she ejaculated where is the boy there wasn't any boy said matthew wretchedly
no boy but there must have been a boy insisted marilla we sent word to missus spencer to bring a boy well she didn't she brought her i asked the station master and i had to bring her home
she couldn't be left there no matter where the mistake had come in well this is a pretty piece of business ejaculated marilla during this dialogue the child had remained silent her eyes roving from one to the other all the animation fading out of her face
suddenly she seemed to grasp the full meaning of what had been said dropping her precious carpet bag she sprang forward a step and clasped her hands
nobody ever did want me i might have known it was all too beautiful to last i might have known nobody really did want me
burst into tears she did sitting down on a chair by the table flinging her arms out upon it and burying her face in them she proceeded to cry stormily marilla and matthew looked at each other deprecatingly across the stove
finally marilla stepped lamely into the breach well well there's no need to cry so about it yes there is need the child raised her head quickly revealing a tear stained face and trembling lips
mellowed marilla's grim expression
what's your name the child hesitated for a moment will you please call me cordelia she said eagerly
no o o it's not exactly my name but i would love to be called cordelia it's such a perfectly elegant name i don't know what on earth you mean if cordelia isn't your name what is
anne shirley
but oh please do call me cordelia
and anne is such an unromantic name unromantic fiddlesticks said the unsympathetic marilla anne is a real good plain sensible name you've no need to be ashamed of it oh i'm not ashamed of it explained anne
i've always imagined that my name was cordelia at least i always have of late years
but i like cordelia better now but if you call me anne please call me anne spelled with an e what difference does it make how it's spelled asked marilla with another rusty smile as she picked up the teapot
oh it makes such a difference it looks so much nicer
i can and a n n looks dreadful but a n n e looks so much more distinguished
very well then anne spelled with an e can you tell us how this mistake came to be made we sent word to missus spencer to bring us a boy were there no boys at the asylum oh yes there was an abundance of them
but missus spencer said distinctly that you wanted a girl about eleven years old and the matron said she thought i would do you don't know how delighted i was i couldn't sleep all last night for joy oh she added
it wouldn't be so hard what on earth does she mean demanded marilla staring at matthew she she's just referring to some conversation we had on the road said matthew hastily
i'm going out to put the mare in marilla have tea ready when i come back did missus spencer bring anybody over besides you continued marilla when matthew had gone out she brought lily jones for herself
if i was very beautiful and had nut brown hair would you keep me no we want a boy to help matthew on the farm a girl would be of no use to us
i'll lay it and your bag on the hall table anne took off her hat meekly
in vain she nibbled at the bread and butter
she did not really make any headway at all you're not eating anything said marilla sharply
anne sighed i can't i'm in the depths of despair can you eat when you are in the depths of despair i've never been in the depths of despair so i can't say responded marilla
weren't you well did you ever try to imagine you were in the depths of despair no i didn't then i don't think you can understand what it's like
it's very uncomfortable feeling indeed when you try to eat a lump comes right up in your throat and you can't swallow anything not even if it was a chocolate caramel
i've often dreamed since then that i had a lot of chocolate caramels but
i do hope you won't be offended because i can't eat everything is extremely nice but still i cannot eat i guess she's tired said matthew
best put her to bed marilla marilla had been wondering where anne should be put to bed
but although it was neat and clean it did not seem quite the thing to put a girl there somehow but the spare room was out of the question for such a stray waif so there remained only the east gable room marilla lighted a candle and told anne to follow her which anne spiritlessly did
the hall was fearsomely clean the little gable chamber in which she presently found herself seemed still cleaner marilla set the candle on a three legged three cornered table and turned down the bedclothes i suppose you have a nightgown she questioned
anne nodded yes i have two the matron of the asylum made them for me
so things are always skimpy at least in a poor asylum like ours i hate skimpy night dresses but one can dream just as well in them
with frills around the neck that's one consolation well undress as quick as you can and go to bed i'll come back in a few minutes for the candle
you'd likely set the place on fire when marilla had gone anne looked around her wistfully the whitewashed walls were so painfully bare and staring that she thought they must ache over their own bareness the floor was bare too
braided mat in the middle such as anne had never seen before in one corner was the bed a high old fashioned one with four dark low turned posts in the other corner was the aforesaid three corner table adorned with a fat red velvet pin cushion
above it hung a little six by eight mirror midway between table and bed was the window
placed them neatly on a prim yellow chair and then taking up the candle went over to the bed good night she said a little awkwardly but not unkindly anne's white face and big eyes appeared over the bedclothes with a startling suddenness how can you call it a
marilla went slowly down to the kitchen and proceeded to wash the supper dishes matthew was smoking a sure sign of perturbation of mind he seldom smoked for marilla set her face against it as a filthy habit but at certain times and seasons he felt driven to it
realizing that a mere man must have some vent for his emotions well this is a pretty kettle of fish she said wrathfully this is what comes of sending word instead of going ourselves richard spencer's folks have twisted that message somehow
one of us will have to drive over and see missus spencer tomorrow that's certain
yes i suppose so said matthew reluctantly you suppose so don't you know it
it's kind of a pity to send her back when she's so set on staying here
marilla's astonishment could not have been greater if matthew had expressed a predilection for standing on his head
now no i suppose not not exactly stammered matthew uncomfortably driven into a corner for his precise meaning i suppose we could hardly be expected to keep her
i can see as plain as plain that you want to keep her
persisted matthew you should have heard her talk coming from the station oh she can talk fast enough i saw that at once it's nothing in her favour either i don't like children who have so much to say
and if i did she isn't the style i'd pick out there's something i don't understand about her
i'm not suffering for company said marilla shortly
it's just as you say of course marilla said matthew rising and putting his pipe away i'm going to bed
it was not until the next friday that marilla heard the story of the flower wreathed hat she came home from missus lynde's and called anne to account anne missus rachel says you went to church last sunday with your hat rigged out ridiculous
with roses and buttercups what on earth put you up to such a caper a pretty looking object you must have been
becoming fiddlesticks it was putting flowers on your hat at all no matter what color
you are the most aggravating child
never let me catch you at such a trick again missus rachel says
she couldn't get near enough to tell you to take them off till it was too late she says people talked about it something dreadful of course they would think i had no better sense than to let you go decked out like that oh i'm so sorry said anne
i never thought you'd mind the roses and buttercups were so sweet and pretty
maybe you'd better send me back to the asylum that would be terrible i don't think i could endure it
nonsense said marilla vexed at herself for having made the child cry i don't want to send you back to the asylum i'm sure all i want is that you should behave like other little girls and not make yourself ridiculous don't cry any more i've got some news for you
diana barry came home this afternoon i'm going up to see if i can borrow a skirt pattern from missus barry
anne rose to her feet with clasped hands the tears still glistening on her cheeks the dish towel she had been hemming slipped unheeded to the floor oh marilla i'm frightened
now don't get into a fluster and i do wish you wouldn't use such long words it sounds so funny in a little girl i guess diana'll like you well enough it's her mother you've got to reckon with
if she has heard about your outburst to missus lynde and going to church with buttercups round your hat
must be polite and well behaved and don't make any of your startling speeches for pity's sake if the child isn't actually trembling anne was trembling her face was pale and tense
oh marilla you'd be excited too if you were going to meet a little girl you hoped to be your bosom friend and whose mother mightn't like you she said as she hastened to get her hat they went over to orchard slope by the short cut across the brook
missus barry came to the kitchen door in answer to marilla's knock she was a tall black eyed black haired woman with a very resolute mouth
how do you do marilla she said cordially come in
yes this is anne shirley said marilla spelled with an e gasped anne who tremulous and excited as she was was determined there should be no misunderstanding on that important point missus barry not hearing or not comprehending
merely shook hands and said kindly how are you
said anne gravely then aside to marilla in an audible whisper there wasn't anything startling in that was there marilla diana was sitting on the sofa reading a book which she dropped
and the merry expression which was her inheritance from her father this is my little girl diana said missus barry diana you might take anne out into the garden and show her your flowers
this to marilla as the little girls went out and i can't prevent her
she's always poring over a book i'm glad she has the prospect of a playmate perhaps it will take her more out of doors outside in the garden which was full of mellow sunset light streaming through the dark old firs to the west of it stood anne and diana
barry garden
it was encircled by huge old willows and tall firs beneath which flourished flowers that loved the shade prim right angled paths neatly bordered with clamshells intersected it like moist red ribbons
and in the beds between old fashioned flowers ran riot there were rosy bleeding hearts and great splendid crimson peonies white fragrant narcissi and thorny sweet scotch roses pink and blue and white columbines
and lilac tinted bouncing bets clumps of southernwood and ribbon grass and mint purple adam and eve daffodils and masses of sweet clover white with its delicate fragrant feathery sprays
scarlet lightning that shot its fiery lances over prim white musk flowers a garden it was where sunshine lingered and bees hummed and winds beguiled into loitering purred and rustled
oh diana said anne at last clasping her hands and speaking almost in a whisper oh do you think you can like me a little
i never heard of but one kind said diana doubtfully there really is another oh it isn't wicked at all it just means vowing and promising solemnly well i don't mind doing that agreed diana relieved how do you do it
we must join hands so said anne gravely it ought to be over running water
i'll repeat the oath first i solemnly swear to be faithful to my bosom friend diana barry as long as the sun and moon shall endure
diana repeated the oath with a laugh fore and aft then she said you're a queer girl anne i heard before that you were queer but i believe i'm going to like you real well when marilla and anne went home diana went with them as for as the log bridge
walked with their arms about each other at the brook they parted with many promises to spend the next afternoon together well did you find diana a kindred spirit asked marilla as they went up through the garden of green gables
oh yes sighed anne blissfully unconscious of any sarcasm on marilla's part oh marilla i'm the happiest girl on prince edward island this very moment i assure you i'll say my prayers with a right good will tonight
diana is going to lend me a book to read
don't you think diana has got very soulful eyes i wish i had soulful eyes
she's going to give me a picture to put up in my room it's a perfectly beautiful picture she says a lovely lady in a pale blue silk dress a sewing machine agent gave it to her
i'm an inch taller than diana but she is ever so much fatter
but i'm afraid she only said it to soothe my feelings we're going to the shore some day to gather shells
isn't that a perfectly elegant name
anne had to live through more than two weeks as it happened almost a month having elapsed since the liniment cake episode it was high time for her to get into fresh trouble of some sort little mistakes such as absentmindedly emptying a pan of skim milk
not really being worth counting a week after the tea at the manse diana barry gave a party
when they found themselves in the barry garden a little tired of all their games and ripe for any enticing form of mischief which might present itself this presently took the form of daring daring was the fashionable amusement among the avonlea small fry just then
would fill a book by themselves first of all carrie sloane dared ruby gillis to climb to a certain point in the huge old willow tree before the front door which ruby gillis albeit in mortal dread of the fat green caterpillars with which said tree was infested
then josie pye dared jane andrews to hop on her left leg around the garden without stopping once or putting her right foot to the ground which jane andrews gamely tried to do
and had to confess herself defeated josie's triumph being rather more pronounced than good taste permitted anne shirley dared her to walk along the top of the board fence which bounded the garden to the east now to walk board fences requires more skill and steadiness of head and heel
than one might suppose who has never tried it but josie pye
duly cultivated for walking board fences
reluctant admiration greeted her exploit for most of the other girls could appreciate it
i don't believe it said josie flatly i don't believe anybody could walk a ridgepole you couldn't anyhow couldn't i cried anne rashly then i dare you to do it said josie defiantly
anne turned pale but there was clearly only one thing to be done
all the fifth class girls said oh partly in excitement partly in dismay
i must do it my honor is at stake said anne solemnly i shall walk that ridgepole diana or perish in the attempt if i am killed you are to have my pearl bead ring anne climbed the ladder
amid breathless silence gained the ridgepole
and that walking ridgepoles was not a thing in which your imagination helped you out much nevertheless she managed to take several steps before the catastrophe came then she swayed lost her balance
stumbled staggered and fell sliding down over the sun baked roof and crashing off it through the tangle of virginia creeper beneath all before the dismayed circle below could give a simultaneous terrified shriek
anne are you killed shrieked diana throwing herself on her knees beside her friend oh anne dear anne
to the immense relief of all the girls
who was the cause of anne shirley's early and tragic death
no diana i am not killed but i think i am rendered unconscious
sobbed carrie sloane oh where anne before anne could answer missus barry appeared on the scene at sight of her anne tried to scramble to her feet but sank back again with a sharp little cry of pain what's the matter
my ankle gasped anne oh diana please find your father and ask him to take me home
marilla was out in the orchard picking a panful of summer apples when she saw mister barry coming over the log bridge and up the slope with missus barry beside him and a whole procession of little girls trailing after him
at that moment marilla had a revelation in the sudden stab of fear that pierced her very heart she realized what anne had come to mean to her
that anne was dearer to her than anything else on earth
sensible marilla had been for many years anne herself answered lifting her head don't be very frightened marilla i was walking the ridgepole and i fell off i expect i have sprained my ankle
i might have known you'd go and do something of the sort when i let you go to that party said marilla sharp and shrewish in her very relief
mercy me the child has gone and fainted it was quite true overcome by the pain of her injury anne had one more of her wishes granted to her she had fainted dead away matthew hastily summoned from the harvest field was straightway dispatched for the doctor
who in due time came to discover that the injury was more serious than they had supposed anne's ankle was broken
a plaintive voice greeted her from the bed
it was your own fault said marilla twitching down the blind and lighting a lamp and that is just why you should be sorry for me said anne
i'd have stayed on good firm ground and let them dare away such absurdity said marilla anne sighed but you have such strength of mind marilla i haven't
oh i am an afflicted mortal
there there i'm not cross said marilla you're an unlucky child there's no doubt about that but as you say you'll have the suffering of it
anne had good reason to bless her imagination many a time and oft during the tedious seven weeks that followed
and tell her all the happenings in the juvenile world of avonlea
but there is a bright side to it marilla you find out how many friends you have why even superintendent bell came to see me and he's really a very fine man
i believe now he really does mean them
he could get over that if he'd take a little trouble i gave him a good broad hint
it does seem so strange to think of superintendent bell ever being a boy even my imagination has its limits
now it's so easy to imagine missus allan as a little girl missus allan has been to see me fourteen times isn't that something to be proud of marilla
even josie pye came to see me
if i had been killed she would had to carry a dark burden of remorse all her life diana has been a faithful friend she's been over every day to cheer my lonely pillow but oh i shall be so glad when i can go to school for i've heard such exciting things about the new teacher
every other friday afternoon she has recitations and everybody has to say a piece or take part in a dialogue
diana and ruby gillis and jane andrews are preparing a dialogue called a morning visit for next friday
recitations miss stacy takes them all to the woods for a field day and they study ferns and flowers and birds and they have physical culture exercises every morning and evening
anne's history do you know said anne confidentially i've made up my mind to enjoy this drive it's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will of course you must make it up firmly
i'm just going to think about the drive oh look there's one little early wild rose out isn't it lovely don't you think it must be glad to be a rose
i'm sure they could tell us such lovely things and isn't pink the most bewitching color in the world i love it but i can't wear it redheaded people can't wear pink not even in imagination
did you ever know of anybody whose hair was red when she was young but got to be another color when she grew up no
and i shouldn't think it likely to happen in your case either anne sighed well that is another hope gone my life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes
i don't see where the comforting comes in myself said marilla why because it sounds so nice and romantic just as if i were a heroine in a book you know i am so fond of romantic things
and a graveyard full of buried hopes is about as romantic a thing as one can imagine isn't it i'm rather glad i have one are we going across the lake of shining waters today
we're going by the shore road shore road sounds nice said anne dreamily is it as nice as it sounds just when you said
and white sands is a pretty name too but i don't like it as well as avonlea avonlea is a lovely name
how far is it to white sands it's five miles and as you're evidently bent on talking you might as well talk to some purpose by telling me what you know about yourself
if you'll only let me tell you what i imagine about myself you'll think it ever so much more interesting
i was eleven last march said anne resigning herself to bald facts with a little sigh and i was born in bolingbroke nova scotia
my mother's name was bertha shirley aren't walter and bertha lovely names i'm so glad my parents had nice names
well say jedediah wouldn't it
but i've never been able to believe it i don't believe a rose would be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage
a husband was enough responsibility missus thomas said that they were a pair of babies and as poor as church mice
yes and muslin curtains in all the windows muslin curtains give a house such an air i was born in that house missus thomas said i was the homeliest baby she ever saw i was so scrawny and tiny and nothing but eyes
but that mother thought i was perfectly beautiful i should think a mother would be a better judge than a poor woman who came in to scrub wouldn't you i'm glad she was satisfied with me anyhow
because she didn't live very long after that you see she died of fever when i was just three months old i do wish she'd lived long enough for me to remember calling her mother
and father died four days afterwards
that left me an orphan and folks were at their wits end so missus thomas said what to do with me you see nobody wanted me even then it seems to be my fate
brought up by hand that ought to make people who are brought up that way better than other people because whenever i was naughty missus thomas would ask me how i could be such a bad girl
and i lived with them until i was eight years old i helped look after the thomas children
and i can tell you they took a lot of looking after then mister thomas was killed falling under a train and his mother offered to take missus thomas and the children but she didn't want me
mister hammond worked a little sawmill up there and missus hammond had eight children she had twins three times i like babies in moderation but twins three times in succession is too much
i told missus hammond so firmly when the last pair came
i lived up river with missus hammond over two years and then mister hammond died and missus hammond broke up housekeeping she divided her children among her relatives and went to the states i had to go to the asylum at hopeton because nobody would take me they didn't want me at the asylum either
not a great deal i went a little the last year i stayed with missus thomas
we were so far from a school that i couldn't walk it in winter and there was a vacation in summer so i could only go in the spring and fall
and most of the seasons by james thompson
that is just full of thrills of course i wasn't in the fifth reader i was only in the fourth
missus thomas and missus hammond good to you asked marilla looking at
you don't mind very much when they're not quite always
you know it's very trying to have a drunken husband you see and it must be very trying to have twins three times in succession don't you think but i feel sure they meant to be good to me
anne gave herself up to a silent rapture over the shore road and marilla
pity was suddenly stirring in her heart for the child
what if she marilla should indulge matthew's unaccountable whim and let her stay he was set on it and the child seemed a nice teachable little thing she's got too much to say thought marilla
she's ladylike it's likely her people were nice folks the shore road was woodsy and wild and lonesome on the right hand scrub firs
on the left were the steep red sandstone cliffs so near the track in places that a mare of less steadiness than the sorrel might have tried the nerves of the people behind her down at the base of the cliffs were heaps of surf worn rocks
or little sandy coves inlaid with pebbles as with ocean jewels beyond lay the sea shimmering and blue and over it soared the gulls their pinions flashing silvery in the sunlight
isn't the sea wonderful said anne rousing from a long wide eyed silence once when i lived in marysville mister thomas hired an express wagon and took us all to spend the day at the shore ten miles away i enjoyed every moment of that day
even if i had to look after the children all the time i lived it over in happy dreams for years but this shore is nicer than the marysville shore aren't those gulls splendid would you like to be a gull i think i would that is if i couldn't be a human girl
don't you think it would be nice to wake up at sunrise and swoop down over the water and away out over that lovely blue all day
oh i can just imagine myself doing it
in which captain armine proves himself a complete tactician the midnight moon flung its broad beams over the glades and avenues of armine as ferdinand riding miss temple's horse re entered the park
he looked little like a pledged and triumphant lover
that was past henrietta temple was the light
thither he directed all the energies of his being and to gain that port or sink was his unflinching resolution it was deep in the night before he again beheld the towers and turrets of his castle
and the ivy covered fragment of the old place seemed to sleep in peace under its protecting influence a wild and beautiful event had happened since last he quitted those ancient walls
and what would be its influence upon them but it is not for the passionate lover to moralise for him
lost in the ravishing and absorbing present for a lover that has but just secured the object of his long and tumultuous hopes is as a diver who has just plucked a jewel from the bed of some rare sea
panting and wild he lies upon the beach and the gem that he clutches is the sole idea that engrosses his existence ferdinand is within his little chamber
that little chamber where his mother had bid him so passionate a farewell ah he loves another woman better than his mother now nay even a feeling of embarrassment and pain
he drives his mother from his thoughts it is of another voice that he now muses it is the memory of another's glance that touches his eager heart he falls into a reverie
the passionate past is acted again before him in his glittering eye and the rapid play of his features may be traced the tumult of his soul a doubt crosses his brow
worked in her own fine dark hair a smile of triumphant certainty irradiates his countenance as he rapidly presses the memorial to his lips and imprints upon it a thousand kisses
and holding this cherished testimony of his felicity to his heart sleep at length descended upon the exhausted frame of ferdinand armine
but the night that brought dreams to ferdinand armine brought him not visions more marvellous and magical than his waking life he who loves lives in an ecstatic trance
the world that surrounds him is not the world of working man it is fairy land he is not of the same order as the labouring myriads on which he seems to tread
flowers for her were made so sweet and birds so musical all nature seems to bear an intimate relation to the being we adore and as to us life would now appear intolerable a burthen of
insupportable and wearying toil without this transcendent sympathy so we cannot help fancying that were its sweet and subtle origin herself to quit this inspired scene the universe itself would not be
suffused the soft and tremulous sky
freshened with the light and vanishing dew the air was vocal with a thousand songs all was bright and clear cheerful and golden ferdinand awoke from delicious dreams
and gazed upon the scene that responded to his own bright and glad emotions
and greets the object of its fond solicitude amid perfumed gardens and in the shade of green and silent woods whatever may be the harsher course of his career
however the cold world may cast its dark shadows upon his future path he may yet consider himself thrice blessed to whom this graceful destiny has fallen and amid the storms and troubles of after life
oppression may bruise his spirit but baulked daunted deserted crushed
still he has not lived in vain business however rises with the sun the morning brings cares
then is the season that we are best qualified to struggle with the harassing brood still ferdinand armine the involved son of a ruined race seldom rose from his couch seldom recalled consciousness after repose
without a pang nor was there indeed magic withal in the sweet spell that now bound him to preserve him from this black invasion
he might have forgotten his own broken fortunes
as brave as that of armine but the very inspiring recollection of henrietta temple the very remembrance of the past and triumphant eve
miss grandison might arrive this very day it was an improbable incident but still it might occur while he was thus musing his servant brought him his letters which had arrived the preceding day
letters from his mother and katherine his katherine they brought present relief the invalid had not amended their movements were still uncertain katherine his own kate
that he would instantly fly to her only that he daily expected his attendance would be required in town on military business of urgent importance to their happiness this might this must necessarily delay their meeting
he should hurry off in the meantime
he had a faithful servant an italian in whose discretion he had justly unlimited confidence to him ferdinand intrusted the duty of bringing each day his letters to his retreat which he had fixed upon should be
that same picturesque farm house in whose friendly porch he had found the preceding day such a hospitable shelter
the waves lie still and gleaming and the lull'd winds seem dreaming and the midnight moon is weaving her bright chain o'er the deep whose breast is gently heaving as an infant's asleep
so the spirit bows before thee to listen and adore thee with a full but soft emotion like the swell of summer's ocean lord byron
lines to an indian air i arise from dreams of thee in the first sweet sleep of night
my cheek is cold and white alas my heart beats loud and fast o press it to thine own again where it will break at last
p b shelley
thus mellow'd to that tender light which heaven to gaudy day denies one shade the more one ray the less
or softly lightens o'er her face where thoughts serenely sweet express how pure how dear their dwelling place and on that cheek and o'er that brow so soft so calm yet eloquent
the smiles that win the tints that glow but tell of days in goodness spent a mind at peace with all below a heart whose love is innocent lord byron
she was a phantom of delight when first she gleam'd upon my sight a lovely apparition sent to be a moment's ornament her eyes as stars of twilight fair
like twilight's too her dusky hair but all things else about her drawn from may time and the cheerful dawn a dancing shape an image gay to haunt to startle and waylay
i saw her upon nearer view a spirit yet a woman too her household motions light and free and steps of virgin liberty a countenance in which
promises as sweet a creature not too bright or good for human nature's daily food for transient sorrows simple wiles praise blame love kisses tears and smiles and now
the very pulse of the machine a being breathing thoughtful breath a traveller between life and death the reason firm the temperate will endurance foresight strength and skill
a perfect woman nobly plann'd to warn to comfort and command and yet a spirit still and bright with something of an angel light w wordsworth
she is not fair to outward view as many maidens be
a well of love a spring of light but now her looks are coy and cold to mine they ne'er reply and yet i cease not to behold the love light in her eye
her very frowns are fairer far than smiles of other maidens are h coleridge
i fear thy kisses gentle maiden thou needest not fear mine my spirit is too deeply laden
i fear thy mien thy tones thy motion thou needest not fear mine innocent is the heart's devotion with which i worship thine p b shelley
by a mossy stone half hidden from the eye fair as a star when only one is shining in the sky she lived unknown and few could know when lucy ceased to be
i travell'd among unknown men in lands beyond the sea nor england did i know till then what love i bore to thee tis past that melancholy dream nor will i quit thy shore a second time
for still i seem to love thee more and more among thy mountains did i feel the joy of my desire and she i cherish'd turn'd her wheel beside an english fire
thy mornings showed thy nights conceal'd the bowers where lucy play'd and thine too is the last green field that lucy's eyes survey'd w wordsworth
then nature said a lovelier flower on earth was never sown this child i to myself will take she shall be mine and i will make a lady of my own myself
will to my darling be both law and impulse and with me the girl in rock and plain in earth and heaven in glade and bower shall feel
she shall be sportive as the fawn that wild with glee across the lawn or up the mountain springs and her's shall be the breathing balm and her's the silence and the calm of mute insensate things
the floating clouds their state shall lend to her for her the willow bend nor shall she fail to see e'en
that shall mould the maiden's form by silent sympathy the stars of midnight shall be dear to her and she shall lean her ear in many a secret place where rivulets dance their wayward round
and beauty born of murmuring sound shall pass into her face and vital feelings of delight shall rear her form to stately height her virgin bosom swell such thoughts to lucy i will give
while she and i together live here in this happy dell thus nature spake the work was done how soon my lucy's race was run she died
a slumber did my spirit seal i had no human fears she seem'd a thing that could not feel the touch of earthly years no motion has she now no force she neither hears nor sees
the tombs in westminster abbey mortality behold and fear what a change of flesh is here
where from their pulpits seal'd with dust they preach in greatness is no trust here's an acre sown indeed with the richest royallest seed that the earth did e'er suck in
since the first man died for sin here the bones of birth have cried though gods they were as men they died here are sands
ignoble things dropt from the ruin'd sides of kings here's a world of pomp and state buried in dust once dead by fate f beaumont
sixty eight the last conqueror victorious men of earth no more proclaim how wide your empires are
though you bind in every shore and your triumphs reach as far as night and day yet you proud monarchs must obey and mingle with forgotten ashes
when death calls ye to the crowd of common men devouring famine plague and war each able to undo mankind death's servile emissaries are
nor to these alone confined he hath at will more quaint and subtle ways to kill a smile or kiss as he will use the art shall have the cunning skill to break a heart
j shirley sixty nine death the leveller the glories of our blood and state are shadows
not substantial things there is no armour against fate death lays his icy hand on kings sceptre and crown must tumble down and in the dust be equal made
with the poor crooked scythe and spade some men with swords may reap the field and plant fresh laurels where they kill but their strong nerves at last must yield they tame but one another still
early or late they stoop to fate and must give up their murmuring breath when they pale captives creep to death the garlands wither on your brow
upon death's purple altar now see where the victor victim bleeds your heads must come to the cold tomb only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom
if deed of honour did thee ever please guard them and him within protect from harms he can requite thee for he knows the charms that call fame on such gentle acts as these
and he can spread thy name o'er lands and seas whatever clime the sun's bright circle warms lift not thy spear against the muses bower the great emathian conqueror
j milton seventy one on his blindness when i consider how my light is spent ere half my days in this dark world and wide
and that one talent which is death to hide lodged with me useless though my soul more bent to serve therewith my maker and present my true account lest he returning chide
doth god exact day labour light denied i fondly ask but patience to prevent that murmur soon replies god doth not need either man's work or his own gifts
who only stand and wait j milton seventy two character of a happy life
how happy is he born and taught that serveth not another's will whose armour is his honest thought and simple truth his utmost skill whose passions not his masters are
who never understood how deepest wounds are given by praise nor rules of state but rules of good who hath his life from rumours freed whose conscience is his strong retreat
whose state can neither flatterers feed nor ruin make accusers great who god doth late and early pray more of his grace than gifts to lend and entertains the harmless day with a well chosen book or friend
or fear to fall lord of himself though not of lands and having nothing yet hath all sir h wotton
seventy three the noble nature
doth make man better be or standing long an oak three hundred year to fall a log at last dry bald and sere a lily of a day is fairer far in may
although it fall and die that night it was the plant and flower of light in small proportions we just beauties see
but keep them with repining restlessness let him be rich and weary that at least if goodness lead him not yet weariness may toss him to my breast
g herbert seventy five the retreat happy those early days when i shined in my angel infancy
and in those weaker glories spy some shadows of eternity before i taught my tongue to wound my conscience with a sinful sound or had the black art to dispense a several sin
to every sense but felt through all this fleshly dress bright shoots of everlastingness o how i long to travel back and tread again that ancient track
where first i left my glorious train
that shady city of palm trees but ah my soul with too much stay is drunk and staggers in the way some men a forward motion love
but i by backward steps would move and when this dust falls to the urn in that state i came return h vaughan
seventy six
and by the fire help waste a sullen day what may be won from the hard season gaining time will run on smoother till favonius re inspire the frozen earth
that neither sow'd nor spun what neat repast shall feast us light and choice of attic taste with wine whence we may rise to hear the lute well touch'd or artful voice warble
immortal notes and tuscan air he who of those delights can judge and spare to interpose them oft
yet once more o ye laurels and once more ye myrtles brown with ivy never sere i come to pluck your berries harsh and crude
and with forced fingers rude shatter your leaves before the mellowing year bitter constraint and sad occasion dear compels me to disturb your season due for lycidas is dead
he must not float upon his watery bier unwept and welter to the parching wind without the meed of some melodious tear begin then sisters of the sacred well
that from beneath the seat of jove doth spring begin and somewhat loudly sweep the string hence with denial vain and coy excuse so may some gentle muse with lucky words
favour my destined urn and as he passes turn and bid fair peace be to my sable shroud for we were nursed upon the self same hill
together both ere the high lawns appear'd under the opening eye lids of the morn we drove a field and both together heard what time the gray fly winds her sultry horn
battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night oft till the star that rose at evening bright toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel meanwhile
the rural ditties were not mute temper'd to the oaten flute rough satyrs danced and fauns with cloven heel from the glad sound would not be absent long and old damoetas loved to hear our song
but o the heavy change now thou art gone now thou art gone and never must return thee shepherd thee the woods
fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays as killing as the canker to the rose or taint worm to the weanling herds that graze or frost to flowers that their gay wardrobe wear
when first the white thorn blows such lycidas thy loss to shepherds ear where were ye nymphs
for neither were ye playing on the steep where your old bards the famous druids lie nor on the shaggy top of mona high nor yet where deva spreads her wizard stream ay me
i fondly dream had ye been there
what could the muse herself that orpheus bore the muse herself for her enchanting son whom universal nature did lament
when by the rout that made the hideous roar his gory visage down the stream was sent down the swift hebrus to the lesbian shore alas what boots it with incessant care to tend the homely
slighted shepherd's trade and strictly meditate the thankless muse were it not better done as others use to sport with amaryllis in the shade or with the tangles of neaera's hair
fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise that last infirmity of noble mind to scorn delights and live laborious days
when we hope to find and think to burst out into sudden blaze comes the blind fury with the abhorred shears and slits the thin spun life but not the praise
and touch'd my trembling ears fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil nor in the glistering foil set off to the world nor in broad rumour lies
but lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes and perfect witness of all judging jove as he pronounces lastly on each deed
he ask'd the waves and ask'd the felon winds what hard mishap hath doom'd this gentle swain and question'd every gust of rugged wings that blows from off each beaked promontory
they knew not of his story and sage hippotades their answer brings that not a blast was from his dungeon stray'd the air was calm and on the level brine
next camus reverend sire went footing slow his mantle hairy and his bonnet sedge inwrought with figures dim
and on the edge like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe ah who hath reft quoth he my dearest pledge last came and last did go
the pilot of the galilean lake two massy keys he bore of metals twain
he shook his mitred locks and stern bespake how well could i have spared for thee young swain enow of such as for their bellies sake creep and intrude and climb into the fold
or have learn'd aught else the least that to the faithful herdman's art belongs what recks it them what need they they are sped
their lean and flashy songs grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw the hungry sheep look up and are not fed but swoln with wind and the rank mist they draw rot inwardly
and foul contagion spread besides what the grim wolf with privy paw daily devours apace and nothing said
but that two handed engine at the door stands ready to smite once and smite no more return alpheus the dread voice is past that shrunk thy streams
return sicilian muse and call the vales and bid them hither cast their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues ye valleys low
where the mild whispers use of shades and wanton winds
throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes that on the green turf suck the honey'd showers and purple all the ground with vernal flowers
that forsaken dies the tufted crow toe and pale jessamine the white pink and the pansy freak'd with jet the glowing violet the musk rose
ay me whilst thee the shores and sounding seas wash far away where'er thy bones are hurl'd whether beyond the stormy hebrides
under the whelming tide visitest the bottom of the monstrous world or whether thou to our moist vows denied sleep'st by the fable of bellerus old
where the great vision of the guarded mount looks toward namancos and bayona's hold look homeward angel now and melt with ruth and
o ye dolphins waft the hapless youth weep no more woeful shepherds weep no more for lycidas your sorrow is not dead
in the forehead of the morning sky so lycidas sunk low but mounted high through the dear might of him
and other streams along with nectar pure his oozy locks he laves
there entertain him all the saints above in solemn troops and sweet societies that sing and singing in their glory move and wipe the tears for ever from his eyes
thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills while the still morn went out with sandals gray he touch'd the tender stops of various quills
and twitch'd his mantle blue to morrow to fresh woods and pastures new
or at their posts as the cossacks say towards evening that same lukashka the snatcher about whom the old women had been talking was standing on a watch tower of the nizhni prototsk post situated on the very banks of the terek
leaning on the railing of the tower and screwing up his eyes
now down at his fellow cossacks and occasionally he addressed the latter the sun was already approaching the snowy range that gleamed white above the fleecy clouds the clouds undulating at the base of the mountains grew darker and darker
the clearness of evening was noticeable in the air a sense of freshness came from the woods though round the post it was still hot the voices of the talking cossacks vibrated more sonorously than before
the moving mass of the terek's rapid brown waters contrasted more vividly with its motionless banks the waters were beginning to subside and here and there the wet sands gleamed drab on the banks and in the shallows the other side of the river
just opposite the cordon was deserted only an immense waste of low growing reeds stretched far away to the very foot of the mountains on the low bank a little to one side could be seen the flat roofed clay houses
and the funnel shaped chimneys of a chechen village the sharp eyes of the cossack who stood on the watch tower followed through the evening smoke of the pro russian village the tiny moving figures of the chechen women visible in the distance in their red and blue garments
although the cossacks expected abreks to cross over and attack them from the tartar side at any moment especially as it was may when the woods by the terek are so dense
in places for a horseman to ford it and despite the fact that a couple of days before a cossack had arrived with a circular from the commander of the regiment announcing that spies had reported the intention of a party of some eight men to cross the terek and ordering special vigilance
no special vigilance was being observed in the cordon the cossacks unarmed and with their horses unsaddled just as if they were at home spent their time some in fishing some in drinking and some in hunting
only the horse of the man on duty was saddled and with its feet hobbled was moving about by the brambles near the wood and only the sentinel had his circassian coat on and carried a gun and sword the corporal
a tall thin cossack with an exceptionally long back and small hands and feet was sitting on the earth bank of a hut with his beshmet unbuttoned on his face was the lazy bored expression of a superior
he dropped his head upon the palm first of one hand and then of the other an elderly cossack with a broad greyish black beard was lying in his shirt girdled with a black strap close to the river
as they monotonously foamed and swirled others also overcome by the heat and half naked were rinsing clothes in the terek plaiting a fishing line or humming tunes as they lay on the hot sand of the river bank
one cossack with a thin face much burnt by the sun lay near the hut evidently dead drunk by a wall which though it had been in shadow some two hours previously was now exposed to the sun's fierce slanting rays
lukashka who stood on the watch tower was a tall handsome lad about twenty years old and very like his mother his face and whole build in spite of the angularity of youth indicated great strength
both physical and moral though he had only lately joined the cossacks at the front it was evident from the expression of his face and the calm assurance of his attitude that he had already acquired the somewhat proud and warlike bearing peculiar to cossacks
and to men generally who continually carry arms and that he felt he was a cossack and fully knew his own value his ample circassian coat was torn in some places his cap was on the back of his head chechen fashion and his leggings had slipped below his knees
his clothing was not rich but he wore it with that peculiar cossack foppishness which consists in imitating the chechen brave everything on a real brave is ample ragged and neglected only his weapons are costly
but these ragged clothes and these weapons are belted and worn with a certain air and matched in a certain manner neither of which can be acquired by everybody and which at once strike the eye of a cossack or a hillsman lukashka had this resemblance to a brave
he kept looking at the distant tartar village taken separately his features were not beautiful but anyone who saw his stately carriage and his dark browed intelligent face would involuntarily say what a fine fellow look at the women
what a lot of them are walking about in the village said he in a sharp voice
nazarka who was lying below immediately lifted his head and remarked they must be going for water supposing one scared them with a gun
it wouldn't reach what mine would carry beyond
i'll go and visit girey khan and drink buza there said lukashka angrily swishing away the mosquitoes which attached themselves to him a rustling in the thicket drew the cossack's attention a pied mongrel half setter
came running to the cordon lukashka recognized the dog as one belonging to his neighbour uncle eroshka a hunter and saw following it through the thicket the approaching figure of the hunter himself
uncle eroshka was a gigantic cossack with a broad snow white beard and such broad shoulders and chest that in the wood where there was no one to compare him with he did not look particularly tall so well proportioned were his powerful limbs he wore a tattered coat and
sandals made of undressed deer's hide tied on with strings while on his head he had a rough little white cap he carried over one shoulder a screen to hide behind when shooting pheasants and a bag containing a hen for luring hawks and a small falcon
over the other shoulder attached by a strap was a wild cat he had killed
gunpowder and bread a horse's tail to swish away the mosquitoes a large dagger in a torn scabbard smeared with old bloodstains and two dead pheasants having glanced at the cordon he stopped hy lyam
he called to the dog in such a ringing bass that it awoke an echo far away in the wood and throwing over his shoulder his big gun of the kind the cossacks call a flint he raised his cap had a good day good people eh
he said addressing the cossacks in the same strong and cheerful voice quite without effort but as loudly as if he were shouting to someone on the other bank of the river yes yes uncle
wiping the sweat from his broad red face with the sleeve of his coat ah there's a vulture living in the plane tree here uncle as soon as night comes he begins hovering round said nazarka winking and jerking his shoulder and leg come come said the old man incredulously
really uncle you must keep watch replied nazarka with a laugh the other cossacks began laughing the wag had not seen any vulture at all but it had long been the custom of the young cossacks in the cordon to tease and mislead uncle eroshka
every time he came to them eh you fool always lying exclaimed lukashka from the tower to nazarka nazarka was immediately silenced it must be watched
but have you seen any boars watching for boars are you said the corporal bending forward and scratching his back with both hands very pleased at the chance of some distraction it's abreks one has to hunt here and not boars
you've not heard anything uncle have you he added
abreks said the old man no i haven't i say have you any chikhir let me have a drink there's a good man i'm really quite done up
he added well and are you going to watch inquired the corporal as though he had not heard what the other said i did mean to watch tonight replied uncle eroshka maybe with god's help i shall kill something for the holiday
then you shall have a share you shall indeed uncle hallo uncle called out lukashka sharply from above attracting everybody's attention all the cossacks looked up at him just go to the upper water course there's a fine herd of boars there
i'm not inventing really the other day one of our cossacks shot one there i'm telling you the truth added he readjusting the musket at his back and in a tone that showed he was not joking ah lukashka the snatcher is here said the old man looking up
where has he been shooting haven't you seen i suppose you're too young said lukashka close by the ditch
we were just going along the ditch when all at once we heard something crackling but my gun was in its case elias fired suddenly but i'll show you the place it's not far you just wait a bit i know every one of their footpaths daddy mosev said he
turning resolutely and almost commandingly to the corporal it's time to relieve guard and holding aloft his gun he began to descend from the watch tower without waiting for the order come down said the corporal after lukashka had started and glanced round
is it your turn gurka then go true enough your lukashka has become very skilful he went on addressing the old man
left the cordon and went towards the place on the terek where they were to lie in ambush nazarka did not want to go at all but lukashka shouted at him and they soon started after they had gone a few steps in silence the cossacks turned aside from the ditch
and went along a path almost hidden by reeds till they reached the river on its bank lay a thick black log cast up by the water the reeds around it had been recently beaten down shall we lie here asked nazarka
sit down here and i'll be back in a minute i'll only show daddy where to go this is the best place here we can see and not be seen said ergushov so it's here we'll lie it's a first rate place nazarka and ergushov
spread out their cloaks and settled down behind the log while lukashka went on with uncle eroshka
said lukashka stepping softly in front of the old man i'll show you where they've been i'm the only one that knows daddy show me you're a fine fellow a regular snatcher replied the old man also whispering having gone a few steps lukashka stopped
stooped down over a puddle and whistled
he spoke in a scarcely audible voice pointing to fresh hoof prints christ bless you answered the old man the boar will be in the hollow beyond the ditch he added til watch and you can go
lukashka pulled his cloak up higher and walked back alone throwing swift glances now to the left at the wall of reeds now to the terek rushing by below the bank i daresay he's watching or creeping along somewhere thought he of a possible chechen hillsman
suddenly a loud rustling and a splash in the water made him start and seize his musket from under the bank a boar leapt up his dark outline showing for a moment against the glassy surface of the water and then disappearing among the reeds lukashka pulled out his gun and aimed
but before he could fire the boar had disappeared in the thicket lukashka spat with vexation and went on on approaching the ambuscade he halted again and whistled softly his whistle was answered
nazarka all curled up was already asleep ergushov sat with his legs crossed and moved slightly to make room for lukashka
showed him where answered lukashka spreading out his cloak but what a big boar i roused just now close to the water i expect it was the very one you must have heard the crash i did hear a beast crashing through i knew at once it was a beast i thought to myself
lukashka has roused a beast ergushov said wrapping himself up in his cloak
we must have discipline i'll lie down and have a nap and then you will have a nap and i'll watch that's the way
the night was dark warm and still only on one side of the sky the stars were shining the other and greater part was overcast by one huge cloud stretching from the mountaintops the black cloud
blending in the absence of any wind with the mountains moved slowly onwards its curved edges sharply denned against the deep starry sky only in front of him could the cossack discern the terek and the distance beyond
occasionally the reeds would sway and rustle against one another apparently without cause seen from down below against the clear part of the sky their waving tufts looked like the feathery branches of trees
close in front at his very feet was the bank and at its base the rushing torrent a little farther on was the moving mass of glassy brown water which eddied rhythmically along the bank and round the shallows farther still water
banks and cloud all merged together in impenetrable gloom
in which the experienced eyes of the cossack detected trees carried down by the current only very rarely sheet lightning mirrored in the water as in a black glass disclosed the sloping bank opposite the rhythmic sounds of night
the rustling of the reeds the snoring of the cossacks the hum of mosquitoes and the rushing water
or the crashing of an animal breaking through the thick undergrowth in the wood once an owl flew past along the terek flapping one wing against the other rhythmically at every second beat just above the cossack's head it turned towards the wood and then
striking its wings no longer after every other flap but at every flap it flew to an old plane tree where it rustled about for a long time before settling down among the branches at every one of these unexpected sounds
the watching cossack listened intently straining his hearing and screwing up his eyes while he deliberately felt for his musket the greater part of the night was past the black cloud that had moved westward revealed the clear starry sky from under its torn edge
and the golden upturned crescent of the moon shone above the mountains with a reddish light the cold began to be penetrating nazarka awoke spoke a little and fell asleep again lukashka feeling bored got up
drew the knife from his dagger handle and began to fashion his stick into a ramrod his head was full of the chechens who lived over there in the mountains and of how their brave lads came across and were not afraid of the cossacks and might even now be crossing the river at some other spot
he thrust himself out of his hiding place and looked along the river but could see nothing and as he continued looking out at intervals upon the river and at the opposite bank now dimly distinguishable from the water in the faint moonlight
he no longer thought about the chechens but only of when it would be time to wake his comrades and of going home to the village in the village he imagined dunayka his little soul as the cossacks call a man's mistress and thought of her with vexation
silvery mists a sign of coming morning glittered white above the water and not far from him young eagles were whistling and flapping their wings at last the crowing of a cock reached him from the distant village followed by the long sustained note of another
time to wake them thought lukashka who had finished his ramrod and felt his eyes growing heavy turning to his comrades he managed to make out which pair of legs belonged to whom
he turned again towards the horizon beyond the hills where day was breaking under the upturned crescent glanced at the outline of the opposite bank at the terek and at the now distinctly visible driftwood upon it for one instant it seemed to him that he was moving
and that the terek with the drifting wood remained stationary again he peered out one large black log with a branch particularly attracted his attention the tree was floating in a strange way right down the middle of the stream neither rocking nor whirling
it even appeared not to be floating altogether with the current but to be crossing it in the direction of the shallows lukashka stretching out his neck watched it intently the tree floated to the shallows stopped and shifted in a peculiar manner
lukashka thought he saw an arm stretched out from beneath the tree supposing i killed an abrek all by myself he thought and seized his gun with a swift unhurried movement putting up his gun rest placing the gun upon it
and holding it noiselessly in position cocking the trigger with bated breath he took aim still peering out intently i won't wake them he thought
but his heart began beating so fast that he remained motionless listening suddenly the trunk gave a plunge and again began to float across the stream towards our bank
and now by the faint light of the moon he caught a glimpse of a tartar's head in front of the floating wood he aimed straight at the head which appeared to be quite near just at the end of his rifle's barrel he glanced cross
right enough it is an abrek he thought joyfully and suddenly rising to his knees he again took aim
in the name of the father and of the son in the cossack way learnt in his childhood and pulled the trigger a flash of lightning lit up for an instant the reeds and the water and the sharp
the piece of driftwood now floated not across but with the current rocking and whirling stop i say exclaimed ergushov seizing his musket
whispered lukashka grinding his teeth abreks whom have you shot asked nazarka who was it lukashka lukashka did not answer he was reloading his gun and watching the floating wood a little way off it stopped on a sand bank
and from behind it something large that rocked in the water came into view what did you shoot why don't you speak insisted the cossacks abreks i tell you said lukashka don't humbug did the gun go off
i've killed an abrek that's what i fired at muttered lukashka in a voice choked by emotion as he jumped to his feet a man was swimming he said pointing to the sandbank
look there said lukashka seizing him by the shoulders and pulling him with such force that ergushov groaned he looked in the direction in which lukashka pointed and discerning a body immediately changed his tone o lord but i say more will come i tell you the truth
said he softly and began examining his musket that was a scout swimming across either the others are here already or are not far off on the other side i tell you for sure lukashka was unfastening his belt and taking off his circassian coat
what are you up to you idiot exclaimed ergushov only show yourself and you've lost all for nothing i tell you true if you've killed him he won't escape let me have a little powder for my musket pan you have some
catch me going alone go yourself said nazarka angrily having taken off his coat lukashka went down to the bank don't go in i tell you said ergushov putting some powder on the pan look he's not moving i can see it's nearly morning wait till they come from the cordon
you go nazarka you're afraid don't be afraid i tell you luke i say lukashka tell us how you did it said nazarka lukashka changed his mind about going into the water just then go quick to the cordon and i will watch
tell the cossacks to send out the patrol if the abreks are on this side they must be caught said he that's what i say they'll get off said ergushov rising true they must be caught ergushov and nazarka rose and crossing themselves
started off for the cordon not along the riverbank but breaking their way through the brambles to reach a path in the wood now mind lukashka they may cut you down here so you'd best keep a sharp look out i tell you
go along i know muttered lukashka and having examined his gun again he sat down behind the log he remained alone and sat gazing at the shallows and listening for the cossacks but it was some distance to the cordon and he was tormented by impatience
he kept thinking that the other abreks who were with the one he had killed would escape he was vexed with the abreks who were going to escape
chapter nine it was growing light the chechen's body which was gently rocking in the shallow water was now clearly visible suddenly the reeds rustled not far from luke
and he heard steps and saw the feathery tops of the reeds moving he set his gun at full cock and muttered in the name of the father and of the son but when the cock clicked the sound of steps ceased hallo cossacks don't kill your daddy
said a deep bass voice calmly and moving the reeds apart daddy eroshka came up close to luke i very nearly killed you by god i did said lukashka what have you shot asked the old man his sonorous voice resounded through the wood
and downward along the river suddenly dispelling the mysterious quiet of night around the cossack it was as if everything had suddenly become lighter and more distinct there now uncle you have not seen anything but i've killed a beast said lukashka
uncocking his gun and getting up with unnatural calmness the old man was staring intently at the white back now clearly visible against which the terek rippled he was swimming with a log on his back i spied him out
do you see inquired luke how can one help seeing said the old man angrily and a serious and stern expression appeared on his face you've killed a brave he said apparently with regret
well i sat here and suddenly saw something dark on the other side i spied him when he was still over there it was as if a man had come there and fallen in strange and a piece of driftwood a good sized piece comes floating
not with the stream but across it and what do i see but a head appearing from under it strange i stretched out of the reeds but could see nothing then i rose and he must have heard the beast and crept out into the shallow and looked about no you don't i said
as soon as he landed and looked round you won't get away oh there was something choking me
he waited a little and then swam out again and when he came into the moonlight i could see his whole back in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost and through the smoke i see him struggling
the lord be thanked i've killed him and when he drifted onto the sand bank i could see him distinctly he tried to get up but couldn't he struggled a bit and then lay down everything could be seen look he does not move he must be dead
and so you got him said the old man he is far away now my lad and again he shook his head sadly
and the loud voices of cossacks approaching along the bank on horseback and on foot are you bringing the skiff shouted lukashka you're a trump luke lug it to the bank shouted one of the cossacks
without waiting for the skiff lukashka began to undress
wait a bit nazarka is bringing the skiff shouted the corporal you fool
take your dagger with you shouted another cossack get along cried luke pulling off his trousers he quickly undressed and crossing himself jumped plunging with a splash into the river then with long strokes of his white arms
lifting his back high out of the water and breathing deeply he swam across the current of the terek towards the shallows a crowd of cossacks stood on the bank talking loudly three horsemen rode off to patrol the skiff appeared round a bend
lukashka stood up on the sandbank leaned over the body and gave it a couple of shakes quite dead he shouted in a shrill voice the chechen had been shot in the head he had on a pair of blue trousers a shirt
and a gun and dagger were tied to his back above all these a large branch was tied and it was this which at first had misled lukashka what a carp you've landed cried one of the cossacks who had assembled in a circle as the body lifted out of the skiff
was laid on the bank pressing down the grass how yellow he is said another where have our fellows gone to search i expect the rest of them are on the other bank if this one had not been a scout he would not have swum that way why else should he swim alone said a third
must have been a smart one to offer himself before the others a regular brave said lukashka mockingly shivering as he wrung out his clothes that had got wet on the bank his beard is dyed and cropped and he has tied a bag with a coat in it to his back
that would make it easier for him to swim said some one i say lukashka said the corporal who was holding the dagger and gun taken from the dead man keep the dagger for yourself and the coat too but i'll give you three rubles for the gun
you see it has a hole in it said he blowing into the muzzle i want it just for a souvenir lukashka did not answer evidently this sort of begging vexed him but he knew it could not be avoided see what a devil said he
frowning and throwing down the chechen's coat if at least it were a good coat
said lukashka evidently forgetting his vexation and wishing to get some advantage out of having to give a present to his superior all right you may go take the body beyond the cordon lads said the corporal still examining the gun and
put a shelter over him from the sun perhaps they'll send from the mountains to ransom it it isn't hot yet said someone and supposing a jackal tears him would that be well remarked another cossack we'll set a watch if they should come to ransom him
well lukashka whatever you do
chimed in the cossacks see what luck god has sent you without ever having seen anything of the kind before you've killed a brave buy the dagger and coat and don't be stingy and i'll let you have the trousers too said lukashka
one cossack bought the coat for a ruble and another gave the price of two pails of vodka for the dagger drink lads i'll stand you a pail said luke i'll bring it myself from the village and cut up the trousers into kerchiefs for the girls said nazarka
the cossacks burst out laughing have done laughing said the corporal and take the body away why have you put the nasty thing by the hut
in a commanding voice to the cossacks who reluctantly took hold of the body obeying him as though he were their chief after dragging the body along for a few steps the cossacks let fall the legs which dropped with a lifeless jerk
and stepping apart they then stood silent for a few moments nazarka came up and straightened the head which was turned to one side so that the round wound above the temple and the whole of the dead man's face were visible see what a mark he has made right in the brain he said
he won't get lost his owners will always know him no one answered and again the angel of silence flew over the cossacks the sun had risen high and its diverging beams were lighting up the dewy grass
near by the terek murmured in the awakened wood and greeting the morning the pheasants called to one another the cossacks stood still and silent around the dead man gazing at him the brown body
with nothing on but the wet blue trousers held by a girdle over the sunken stomach was well shaped and handsome the muscular arms lay stretched straight out by his sides the blue freshly shaven round head
with the clotted wound on one side of it was thrown back the smooth tanned forehead contrasted sharply with the shaven part of the head the open glassy eyes with lowered pupils stared upwards seeming to gaze past everything
under the red trimmed moustache the fine lips drawn at the corners seemed stiffened into a smile of good natured subtle raillery the fingers of the small hands covered with red hairs were bent inward and the nails were dyed red
lukashka had not yet dressed he was wet his neck was redder and his eyes brighter than usual his broad jaws twitched and from his healthy body
he too was a man he muttered evidently admiring the corpse yes if you had fallen into his hands
the angel of silence had taken wing the cossacks began bustling about and talking two of them went to cut brushwood for a shelter others strolled towards the cordon luke and nazarka ran to get ready to go to the village
half an hour later they were both on their way homewards talking incessantly and almost running through the dense woods which separated the terek from the village mind don't tell her i sent you but just go and find out if her husband is at home luke was saying in his shrill voice
and i'll go round to yamka too said the devoted nazarka we'll have a spree shall we when should we have one if not to day replied luke
chapter seven sylvia sees a ghost it was splendid declared sylvia as grace and flora dismounted and the three little friends entered the house flora's black mammy was waiting for them on the piazza
come up to my room girls and rest until it's time to dress for supper said flora flora's room was just across the hall from the one where grace and sylvia were to sleep instead of a small white bed like theirs there was a big bed of dark mahogany
with four tall high posts the bed was so high that there was a cushioned step beside it
that's my great grandmother and her father built this house
people would run after her coach just to look at her and flora looked at her companions expectantly quite forgetting that she had told them the story before oh flora every time i come out here you tell me about your wonderful great grand mother said grace
well it does declared flora sylvia had never heard of lady caroline's ghost do tell me about it flora she urged there was a wide cushioned seat with many pillows beneath the windows and here the girls established themselves very comfortably
yes tell sylvia the story said grace piling up several cushions behind her back of course it isn't true but it's thrilling it is true persisted flora my mother says that her own governess saw lady caroline's ghost
and that she had on the very hat she has on in the portrait and the same blue dress and lace collar you know there's a secret stairway in this house it leads from one of the closets in your room down to a closet in my father's library and out of doors and lady caroline's ghost always comes in that way
sylvia looked up at the beautiful pictured face with a little shiver i guess that the governess dreamed it she said of course she did declared grace i think you look like that picture flora she added
why there is an account of it in a book but grace shook her head laughingly flora show sylvia your lovely lace work she said flora nodded but sylvia was sure that she was not pleased at grace's refusal to believe in the ghost mammy
called flora and in a moment the black woman stood bobbing and smiling in the doorway bring my lace work said flora yas missy and mammy trotted across the room to a little table in the further corner
she opened it and set it down in front of her little mistress do's yo want anyt'ing else missy flora she asked if i do i'll call replied the little girl and mammy again disappeared the basket was lined with rose colored silk and there were little pockets all around it
in the centre lay a cushion on which was a lace pattern defined by delicate threads and tiny circles of pins a little strip of finished lace was rolled up in a bit of tissue paper flora took off the paper see it is the jessamine pattern she explained
my mother's governess was a belgian lady and she taught my mother how to make lace and my mother taught me i wish i could make lace said sylvia it would be lovely to make some for a present for my mother of course it would i'll teach you this winter
promised the good natured flora let me see your hands you know a lace maker's hands must be as smooth as silk because any roughness would catch the delicate threads sylvia's hands were still scratched and roughed from her fall in miss rosalie's garden and her scramble over the wall
and flora shook her head you'll have to wait awhile and you must wear gloves every time you go out and wash your hands in milk every night she said very seriously now i'll show you my embroidery
and another basket was brought and opened this basket was also lined with rose colored silk but the silk had delicate green vines running over it on the inside of the cover held in place by tiny straps were two pairs of shining scissors with gold handles
a gold mounted emery bag shaped like a strawberry an embroidery stiletto of ivory and a gold thimble flora lifted out the embroidery frame and putting on her thimble took a few exact dainty stitches in the collar what lovely work you can do flora
exclaimed sylvia don't you ever play dolls
oh i used to replied flora but since i began school at miss patten's i don't seem to care about dolls
announced grace oh only just a little responded flora quickly i think flora can do more things than any girl i ever knew declared sylvia admiringly and i was just thinking that the servants did everything in the world flora laughed
you never lived on a plantation or you couldn't think that why my mother works more than mammy ever did she has to tell all the house darkies what to do and see that all the hands have clothes and that the fruits are preserved why she's always busy replied flora
and of course ladies have to know how to do things she concluded when grace and sylvia went to their own room flora went with them i'll show you where that secret staircase is she said and opening the closet door pressed on a broad panel which moved slowly there
and grace declared that she was almost too sleepy to walk up stairs but sylvia was not at all sleepy after the colored girl had helped them prepare for bed blown out the candle and left the room she lay watching the shadows of the moving vines on the wall she wished she was at home
for who knew but that estralla's master might sell her before she returned sylvia wondered what she could do to protect the little girl i might hide her she thought but what place would be secure
suddenly she remembered something that she had heard captain carleton say when she was eating luncheon on that unlucky trip to fort sumter this fort could make south carolina give up slavery he had said why then of course estralla would be perfectly safe if she was only at fort sumter
concluded the little girl with a long sigh of relief i must get her there just as soon as i get home she decided then suddenly sylvia sat straight up in bed the closet door had swung softly open and a figure with a big hat and trailing dress stepped out
sylvia was not frightened it's the ghost she whispered and leaning across poked grace exclaiming
i think it is a lovely song said sylvia i'll tell my mother about it i am so glad you told me grace sylvia fulton was ten years old and had lived in charleston south carolina for the past year before that the fultons had lived in boston
grace waite lived in the house next to the one which mister fulton had hired in the beautiful southern city and the two little girls had become fast friends they both attended miss patten's school usually grace's black mammy esther escorted them to and from miss patten's
but on this morning in early october they were allowed to go by themselves as they walked along they could look out across the blue harbor and see sailing vessels and rowboats coming and going in the distance were the three forts whose historic names were known to every child in charleston
grace never failed to point them out to the little northern girl and to repeat their names castle pinckney she would say pointing to the one nearest the city
fort sumter and fort moultrie don't stop to tell me the names of those old forts this morning said sylvia i know just as much about them now as you do we shall be late if we don't hurry miss patten's house stood in a big garden which ran nearly to the water's edge
the schoolroom opened on each side to broad piazzas and there was always the pleasant fragrance of flowers in the big airy room sylvia was sure that no one could be more beautiful than miss patten she looks just like one of the ladies in your godey's magazine
and with her pretty soft black curls her rosy cheeks and pleasant voice no one could imagine a more desirable teacher than miss rosalie pattten there were just twelve little girls in her school there were never ten or fourteen
miss patten would never engage to take more than twelve pupils and the twelve always came
school had opened the previous week and sylvia had begun to feel quite at home with her new schoolmates the winter before missus fulton had taught her little daughter at home
miss patten always stood near the schoolroom door until all her pupils had arrived as each girl entered the room she made a curtsey to the pretty teacher and then said good morning to the pupils who had already arrived and took her seat
then the pupils were ready for their lessons isn't miss rosalie lovely sylvia whispered as she and grace moved to their seats and doesn't she wear pretty clothes grace nodded she had been to miss rosalie's school for three years and she wondered a little at sylvia's admiration for their teacher
grace was eager to get to her desk from where she sat she could see the grim lines of the distant forts and this morning they had a new value and interest for her for at breakfast she had heard her father say
it was only justice that south carolina should control them and if the state seceded from the union charleston must take possession of the forts with the consent of the united states government if possible but if this was refused by force grace had been thinking about this all the morning
she resolved to ask miss rosalie why the united states should interfere with the sovereign state of south carolina which her father had said would defend its rights question time was just before the morning session ended then each pupil could ask a question
but as a rule only one or two of the girls had any inquiry to make to day however there were several who had questions to ask and grace waited with what patience she could until it was her turn when miss rosalie smiled at her and called her name grace rose and said please miss rosalie
the teacher's dark eyes seemed to grow larger and brighter and she straightened her slender shoulders as if preparing to defend the rights of her state my dear girl who would question the right of south carolina to control all forts on her territory
we all realize that this is a time of uncertainty for our beloved state we may be treated with harshness with injustice but every loyal carolinian will protect his state the little girls looked at each other with startled eyes what was miss rosalie talking about they wondered
and what did grace waite mean about anybody taking fort sumter or fort moultrie
school was dismissed with less ceremony than usual that morning and the little girls started off in groups talking and questioning each other about what miss rosalie had said two or three ran after grace and sylvia to ask grace what she meant by her question
of course we know that northern people want to take our slaves away from us
were greatly admired by auburn haired blue eyed sylvia but of course they can't do that but how could they take our forts i don't know responded grace that's why i asked miss rosalie i guess i'll have to ask my father
we'll all ask our fathers said elinor and to morrow we will tell each other what they say i don't suppose your father would care if the forts were taken and she turned suddenly toward sylvia
i suppose all the yankees would like to tell us what we ought to do sylvia looked at her in surprise the tall girl had never taken any notice of the little boston girl before and sylvia could not understand why elinor should look at her so scornfully or speak so unkindly
the other girls had stopped talking and now looked at sylvia as if wondering what she would say i don't know what you mean she answered bravely but i know one thing my father would want what was right that's real yankee talk said elinor
they say slavery isn't right there was a little murmur of laughter among the other girls for in eighteen sixty the people of south carolina believed they were quite right in buying negroes for slaves and in selling them when they desired
so these little girls some of whom already owned a colored girl who waited upon them had no idea but what slavery was a right and natural condition and were amused at elinor's words
demanded grace before sylvia could reply sylvia has not said or done anything to make you talk to her this way and grace linked her arm in sylvia's and stood facing the other girls well grace waite you can associate with yankees if you wish to
come on girls grace waite can do as she pleases and elinor followed by two or three of the older girls went scornfully down the street sylvia wait and a little girl about sylvia's age came running down the path it was flora hayes
and next to grace waite sylvia liked her the best of any of her new companions don't mind what elinor mayhew says she's always horrid when she dares to be said flora flora's father was a wealthy cotton planter
and their charleston home was in one of the historic mansions of that city beside that there was the big old house on the ashley river ten miles from the city where the family stayed a part of the time
she was always smiling and friendly and was better liked than elinor mayhew who as flora said was always ready to tease the younger girls i don't know what she meant said sylvia as with grace on one side and flora on the other they started toward home she is just hateful declared grace
but i did want to know it would be dreadful not to see them where they have always been
i know better than that taking the forts means that the government of the united states would own them instead of south carolina grace laughed good naturedly
both grace and flora advised sylvia not to tell her mother of elinor's unkindness or of her taunting words
you see it will make your mother sorry and she will fret about it flora had said
she would not tell her mother about it she almost dreaded seeing elinor again and wondered why elinor's mother had not wanted miss patten to take her as a pupil mister and missus fulton were surprised when at supper time sylvia demanded to know what a yankee was
she thought her mother looked a little troubled but her father smiled yankee is what britishers call all americans he answered then elinor mayhew is just as much a yankee as i am
thought sylvia and she smiled so radiantly at the thought that missus fulton was reassured and did not question her the next day was saturday and mister fulton had planned to take his wife and sylvia to fort moultrie
during the summer workmen had been making necessary repairs on the fortifications but visitors were always welcomed by the officers in charge one of whom captain carleton was a college friend of sylvia's father
sylvia could row a small boat very well and her father had purchased a pretty sailboat which he was teaching her to steer she often went with her father on trips about the harbor and the little girl always thought that these excursions were the most delightful of pleasures
there was a favorable breeze this saturday afternoon and the little boat with its shining white paint and snowy sail skimmed swiftly across the harbor sylvia watched the little waves which seemed to dance forward to meet them
looked at the many boats and vessels and quite forgot elinor mayhew's unkindness her mother and father were talking of the black servants whom they had hired with the house of mister robert waite grace's uncle
sylvia heard them speak of aunt connie the good natured black cook who lived in a cabin behind the fultons kitchen aunt connie wants to bring her little girl to live with her their master is willing if we have no objections sylvia heard her mother say oh let the child come mister fulton responded
but presently a violent jolt aroused him to the fact that he was driving over wooden pavements of a kind compared with which the cobblestones of the town had been as nothing like the keys of a piano the planks kept rising and falling
and unguarded passage over them entailed either a bump on the back of the neck or a bruise on the forehead or a bite on the tip of one's tongue at the same time chichikov noticed a look of decay about the buildings of the village the beams of the huts had grown dark with age
many of their roofs were riddled with holes others had but a tile of the roof remaining and yet others were reduced to the rib like framework of the same it would seem as though the inhabitants themselves had removed the laths and traverses on the very natural plea
that the huts were no protection against the rain and therefore since the latter entered in bucketfuls
when all the time there was the tavern and the highroad and other places to resort to suddenly a woman appeared from an outbuilding apparently the housekeeper of the mansion but so roughly and dirtily dressed as almost to seem indistinguishable from a man
chichikov inquired for the master of the place
she replied almost before her interlocutor had had time to finish then she added
said chichikov then pray walk into the house the woman advised then she turned upon him a back that was smeared with flour and had a long slit in the lower portion of its covering
he passed into an equally dark parlour that was lighted only by such rays as contrived to filter through a crack under the door when chichikov opened the door in question the spectacle of the untidiness within struck him almost with amazement
it would seem that the floor was never washed and that the room was used as a receptacle for every conceivable kind of furniture on a table stood a ragged chair with beside it a clock minus a pendulum and covered all over with cobwebs
against a wall leant a cupboard full of old silver glassware and china on a writing table inlaid with mother of pearl which in places had broken away and left behind it a number of yellow grooves stuffed with putty
lay a pile of finely written manuscript an overturned marble press turning green an ancient book in a leather cover with red edges a lemon dried and shrunken to the dimensions of a hazelnut the broken arm of a chair
a tumbler containing the dregs of some liquid and three flies the whole covered over with a sheet of notepaper a pile of rags
and a yellow toothpick with which the master of the house had picked his teeth apparently at least before the coming of the french to moscow as for the walls they were hung with a medley of pictures
among the latter was a long engraving of a battle scene wherein soldiers in three cornered hats were brandishing huge drums and slender lances it lacked a glass and was set in a frame ornamented with bronze fretwork and bronze corner rings
representative of some flowers and fruit half a water melon a boar's head and the pendent form of a dead wild duck attached to the ceiling there was a chandelier in a holland covering
enclosing a caterpillar lastly in one corner of the room lay a pile of articles which had evidently been adjudged unworthy of a place on the table yet what the pile consisted of it would have been difficult to say
seeing that the dust on the same was so thick that any hand which touched it would have at once resembled a glove prominently protruding from the pile was the shaft of a wooden spade and the antiquated sole of a shoe never would one have supposed that a living creature had tenanted the room
was betrayed by the spectacle of an old nightcap resting on the table whilst chichikov was gazing at this extraordinary mess a side door opened and there entered the housekeeper who had met him near the outbuildings
but now chichikov perceived this person to be a man rather than a woman since a female housekeeper would have had no beard to shave whereas the chin of the newcomer with the lower portion of his cheeks strongly resembled the curry comb which is used for grooming horses
chichikov assumed a questioning air and waited to hear what the housekeeper might have to say the housekeeper did the same at length surprised at the misunderstanding chichikov decided to ask the first question is the master at home
he inquired yes replied the person addressed then were is he
retorted the other i am the master
during his travels it had befallen him to meet various types of men some of them it may be types which you and i have never encountered but even to chichikov this particular species was new in the old man's face there was nothing very special
it was much like the wizened face of many another dotard save that the chin was so greatly projected that whenever he spoke he was forced to wipe it with a handkerchief to avoid dribbling and that his small eyes were not yet grown dull
but twinkled under their overhanging brows like the eyes of mice when with attentive ears and sensitive whiskers they snuff the air and peer forth from their holes to see whether a cat or a boy may not be in the vicinity
no the most noticeable feature about the man was his clothes in no way could it have been guessed of what his coat was made for both its sleeves and its skirts were so ragged and filthy
while instead of two posterior tails there dangled four of those appendages with projecting from them a torn newspaper also around his neck there was wrapped something which might have been a stocking a garter or a stomacher
but was certainly not a tie in short had chichikov chanced to encounter him at a church door he would have bestowed upon him a copper or two for to do our hero justice he had a sympathetic heart
but in the present case there was standing before him not a mendicant but a landowner and a landowner possessed of fully a thousand serfs the superior of all his neighbours in wealth of flour and grain
and the owner of storehouses and so forth that were crammed with homespun cloth and linen tanned and undressed sheepskins dried fish and every conceivable species of produce nevertheless such a phenomenon is rare in russia
where the tendency is rather to prodigality than to parsimony for several minutes plushkin stood mute
and everything else in the room that he too could not begin a conversation but stood wondering how best to find words in which to explain the object of his visit for a while he thought of expressing himself to the effect that
having heard so much of his host's benevolence and other rare qualities of spirit he had considered it his duty to come and pay a tribute of respect but presently even he came to the conclusion that this would be overdoing the thing
and after another glance round the room decided that the phrase benevolence and other rare qualities of spirit
accordingly the speech mentally composed he said aloud that having heard of plushkin's talents for thrifty and systematic management he had considered himself bound to make the acquaintance of his host and to present him with his personal compliments
i need hardly say that chichikov could easily have alleged a better reason
with toothless gums plushkin murmured something in reply but nothing is known as to its precise terms beyond that it included a statement that the devil was at liberty to fly away with chichikov's sentiments
however the laws of russian hospitality do not permit even of a miser infringing their rules wherefore plushkin added to the foregoing
he went on also i feel bound to say that i can see little good in their coming once introduce the abominable custom of folk paying calls and forthwith there will ensue such ruin to the management of estates
that landowners will be forced to feed their horses on hay not for a long long time have i eaten a meal away from home although my own kitchen is a poor one and has its chimney in such a state that were it to become overheated it would instantly catch fire
what a brute thought chichikov i am lucky to have got through so much pastry and stuffed shoulder of mutton at sobakevitch's also went on plushkin i am ashamed to say that hardly a wisp of fodder does the place contain
but how can i get fodder my lands are small
in the end therefore i shall be forced to go and spend my old age in roaming about the world
said chichikov who told you that no matter who it was you would have been justified in giving him the lie he must have been a jester who wanted to make a fool of you a thousand souls indeed why just reckon the taxes on them
wholesale you say echoed chichikov greatly interested yes wholesale replied the old man then might i ask you the exact number
yes damn it and since that date i have been bled for taxes upon a hundred and twenty souls in all
upon a hundred and twenty souls in all and chichikov's surprise and elation were such that this said he remained sitting open mouthed yes good sir replied plushkin i am too old to tell you lies
somehow he seemed to have taken offence at chichikov's almost joyous exclamation wherefore the guest hastened to heave a profound sigh and to observe that he sympathised to the full with his host's misfortunes
but sympathy does not put anything into one's pocket retorted plushkin for instance i have a kinsman who is constantly plaguing me he is a captain in the army damn him
in telling me that he has a sympathetic heart chichikov hastened to explain that his sympathy had nothing in common with the captain's since he dealt not in empty words alone but in actual deeds
for the purpose of cutting the matter short and of dispensing with circumlocution to transfer to himself the obligation of paying the taxes
just described departed this world the proposal seemed to astonish plushkin for he sat staring open eyed at length he inquired my dear sir have you seen military service no
replied the other warily but i have been a member of the civil service oh of the civil service and plushkin sat moving his lips as though he were chewing something
are you prepared to lose by it yes certainly if thereby i can please you my dear sir my good benefactor in his delight plushkin lost sight of the fact that his nose was caked with snuff of the consistency of thick coffee
and that his coat had parted in front and was disclosing some very unseemly underclothing what comfort you have brought to an old man yes as god is my witness for the moment he could say no more
instantaneously aroused emotion had as instantaneously disappeared from his wooden features once more they assumed a careworn expression and he even wiped his face with his handkerchief then rolled it into a ball
and rubbed it to and fro against his upper lip
is to pay the annual tax upon these souls and to remit the money either to me or to the treasury yes that is how it shall be done we will draw up a deed of purchase as though the souls were still alive and you had sold them to myself
quite so a deed of purchase echoed plushkin once more relapsing into thought and the chewing motion of the lips
and lawyers are so devoid of conscience in fact so extortionate is their avarice that they will charge one half a rouble and then a sack of flour and then a whole waggon load of meal i wonder that no one has yet called attention to the system
upon that chichikov intimated that out of respect for his host he himself would bear the cost of the transfer of souls this led plushkin to conclude that his guest must be the kind of unconscionable fool
has in reality served in the army and run after actresses wherefore the old man no longer disguised his delight but called down blessings alike upon chichikov's head and upon those of his children
he had never even inquired whether chichikov possessed a family next he shuffled to the window and tapping one of its panes shouted the name of
and after much stamping of feet burst into the room this was proshka a thirteen year old youngster who was shod with boots of such dimensions as almost to engulf his legs as he walked the reason why he had entered thus shod
was that plushkin only kept one pair of boots for the whole of his domestic staff this universal pair was stationed in the hall of the mansion so that any servant who was summoned to the house
and enter the parlour dry shod subsequently leaving the boots where he had found them and departing in his former barefooted condition indeed had any one on a slushy winter's morning glanced from a window into the said courtyard
here it is and tell her to get out some loaf sugar for tea
listen to what more i have to tell you tell mavra that the sugar on the outside of the loaf has gone bad so that she must scrape it off with a knife and not throw away the scrapings but give them to the poultry also
or i will give you a birching that you won't care for your appetite is good enough already but a better one won't hurt you don't even try to go into the storeroom for i shall be watching you from this window you see the old man added to chichikov
one can never trust these fellows presently when proshka and the boots had departed he fell to gazing at his guest with an equally distrustful air since certain features in chichikov's benevolence now struck him
as a little open to question and he had begin to think to himself after all the devil only knows who he is whether a braggart like most of these spendthrifts or a fellow who is lying merely in order to get some tea out of me
finally his circumspection combined with a desire to test his guest
seeing that a man might be alive to day and dead to morrow to this chichikov assented readily enough merely adding that he should like first of all to be furnished with a list of the dead souls
so he got out his keys approached a cupboard and having pulled back the door rummaged among the cups and glasses with which it was filled at length he said
but i used to possess a splendid bottle of liquor probably the servants have drunk it all for they are such thieves
went and threw away a lot of it and never even replaced the stopper consequently bugs and other nasty creatures got into the decanter but i cleaned it out and now beg to offer you a glassful
the idea of a drink from such a receptacle was too much for chichikov so he excused himself
a man of good society wheresoever one may be a man of that kind never eats anything
whom one can never satisfy however much one may give him for instance that captain of mine is constantly begging me to let him have a meal though he is about as much my nephew
as it happens there is never a bite of anything in the house so he has to go away empty but about the list of those good for nothing souls i happen to possess such a list
with that plushkin donned his spectacles and once more started to rummage in the cupboard and to smother his guest with dust as he untied successive packages of papers so much so that his victim burst out sneezing
finally he extracted a much scribbled document in which the names of the deceased peasants lay as close packed as a cloud of midges
chichikov grinned with joy at the sight of the multitude stuffing the list into his pocket he remarked that to complete the transaction
repeated plushkin but why moreover
seeing that every one of my servants is either a thief or a rogue day by day they pilfer things until soon i shall have not a single coat to hang on my back then you possess acquaintances in the town
ever possessed has either left me or is dead but stop a moment
even in my old age he has once or twice come to visit me for he and i used to be schoolfellows and to go climbing walls together yes him i do know shall i write him a letter by all means
yes him i know well for we were friends together at school over plushkin's wooden features there had gleamed a ray of warmth a ray which expressed if not feeling
at all events feeling's pale reflection just such a phenomenon may be witnessed when for a brief moment a drowning man makes a last re appearance on the surface of a river and there rises from the crowd lining
may clutch the rope which has been thrown him may clutch it before the surface of the unstable element shall have resumed for ever its calm dread vacuity but the hope is short lived and the hands disappear
even so did plushkin's face after its momentary manifestation of feeling become meaner and more insensible than ever
lying on the table he went on but where it is now i cannot think that comes of my servants being such rascals
as well as to hurrying about with cries of
whereupon there ensued the following conversation
i swear that i have seen no paper except the bit with which you covered the glass
why should i make off with it twould be of no use to me for i can neither read nor write you lie you have taken it away for the sexton to scribble upon
you might accuse me of any other fault than theft
bad woman we are doing this because you robbed your master and then stoke up the fire still hotter nevertheless i shall continue to say you are roasting me for nothing
you have been accusing me for no reason whatever
plushkin's very eyes for a moment or two he chewed silently
well and what are you making such a noise about
you answer back with ten go and fetch me a candle to seal a letter with and mind you bring a tallow candle for it will not cost so much as the other sort and bring me a match too mavra departed and plushkin seating himself
and taking up a pen sat turning the sheet of paper over and over as though in doubt whether to tear from it yet another morsel at length he came to the conclusion that it was impossible to do so and therefore dipping the pen
into the mixture of mouldy fluid and dead flies which the ink bottle contained
while momentarily checking the speed of his hand lest it should meander too much over the paper and crawling from line to line as though he regretted that there was so little vacant space left on the sheet
he asked as subsequently he folded the letter what you have some runaways as well exclaimed chichikov again greatly interested certainly i have my son in law has laid the necessary information against them
but says that their tracks have grown cold however he is only a military man
but of no use for laying a plea before a court
about seventy surely not alas yes never does a year pass without a certain number of them making off yet so gluttonous and idle are my serfs that they are simply bursting with food
whereas i scarcely get enough to eat i will take any price for them that you may care to offer tell your friends about it and should they find
seeing that a living serf on the census list
at present worth five hundred roubles
thought chichikov to himself after which he explained to plushkin that a friend of the kind mentioned would be impossible to discover since the legal expenses of the enterprise would lead to the said friend having to cut the very tail from his coat before he would
get clear of the lawyers nevertheless added chichikov seeing that you are so hard pressed for money
i feel moved to advance you well to advance you such a trifle as would scarcely be worth mentioning but how much is it asked plushkin eagerly and with his hands trembling like quicksilver twenty five kopecks per soul
what in ready money yes in money down nevertheless consider my poverty dear friend and make it forty kopecks per soul venerable sir would that i could pay you not merely forty kopecks
but five hundred roubles i should be only too delighted if that were possible since i perceive that you
are suffering for your own goodness of heart by god that is true that is true plushkin hung his head and wagged it feebly from side to side yes
all that i have done i have done purely out of kindness see how instantaneously i have divined your nature by now it will have become clear to you why it is impossible for me to pay you five hundred roubles per runaway soul for by now
the fact that i am not sufficiently rich
kopecks and so to make it that each runaway serf shall cost me in all thirty kopecks
and throw in another two kopecks pardon me but i cannot
seventy eight souls at thirty kopecks each will amount to to only for a moment did our hero halt
will amount to twenty four roubles ninety six kopecks
and then handed him the money plushkin took it in both hands bore it to a bureau with as much caution as
and arrived at the bureau and glancing round once more carefully packed the cash in one of his money bags where doubtless
lastly the money concealed
and seemed at a loss for further material for conversation are you thinking of starting at length he inquired on seeing chichikov making a trifling movement though the movement was only to extract from his pocket a handkerchief
nevertheless the question reminded chichikov that there was no further excuse for lingering yes i must be going he said as he took his hat then what about the tea thank you i will have some on my next visit what
even though i have just ordered the samovar to be got ready well well i myself do not greatly care for tea for i think it an expensive beverage moreover the price of sugar has risen terribly
then shouted the samovar will not be needed return the sugar to mavra and tell her to put it back again but no bring the sugar here and i will put it back good bye dear sir finally he added to chichikov
may the lord bless you hand that letter to the president of the council and let him read it yes he is an old friend of mine we knew one another as schoolfellows with that this strange phenomenon
this withered old man escorted his guest to the gates of the courtyard and after the guest had departed ordered the gates to be closed made the round of the outbuildings for the purpose of ascertaining whether the numerous watchmen were at their posts
peered into the kitchen where under the pretence of seeing whether his servants were being properly fed he made a light meal of cabbage soup and gruel
and then returned to his room meditating in solitude he fell to thinking how best he could contrive to recompense his guest for the latter's measureless benevolence i will present him he thought to himself with a watch it is a good silver article
not one of those cheap metal affairs and though it has suffered some damage he can easily get that put right a young man always needs to give a watch to his betrothed no he added after further thought
i will leave him the watch in my will as a keepsake meanwhile our hero was bowling along in high spirit such an unexpected acquisition both of dead souls and of runaway serfs had come as a windfall
even before reaching plushkin's village he had had a presentiment that he would do successful business there but not business of such pre eminent profitableness as had actually resulted as he proceeded he whistled hummed with
hand placed trumpetwise to his mouth and ended by bursting into a burst of melody so striking that selifan after listening for a while nodded his head and exclaimed
by the time they reached the town darkness had fallen and changed the character of the scene the britchka bounded over the cobblestones
where the travellers were met by petrushka with one hand holding back the tails of his coat which he never liked to see fly apart
the waiter ran out with candle in hand and napkin on shoulder whether or not petrushka was glad to see the barin return it is impossible to say but at all events he exchanged a wink with selifan
seemed momentarily to brighten then you have been travelling far sir said the waiter as he lit the way upstarts yes said chichikov what has happened here in the meanwhile nothing sir
replied the waiter bowing except that last night there arrived a military lieutenant he has got room number sixteen
driving three grey horses on entering his room chichikov clapped his hand to his nose
had the windows opened but i did have them opened replied petrushka nevertheless this was a lie as chichikov well knew though he was too tired to contest the point after ordering and consuming a light supper of sucking pig
one day the god thor with his servant thialfi and accompanied by loki set out on a journey to the giant's country thialfi was of all men the swiftest of foot he bore thor's wallet containing their provisions
when night came on they found themselves in an immense forest and searched on all sides for a place where they might pass the night and at last came to a very large hall with an entrance that took the whole breadth of one end of the building here they lay down to sleep
but towards midnight were alarmed by an earthquake which shook the whole edifice thor rising up called on his companions to seek with him a place of safety on the right they found an adjoining chamber into which the others entered but thor remained at the doorway with his mallet in his hand
prepared to defend himself whatever might happen a terrible groaning was heard during the night
and as the giant soon waked up thor contented himself with simply asking his name my name is skrymir said the giant but i need not ask thy name for i know that thou art the god thor but what has become of my glove
thor then perceived that what they had taken overnight for a hall was the giant's glove and the chamber where his two companions had sought refuge was the thumb skrymir then proposed that they should travel in company and thor consenting they sat down to eat their breakfast and when they had done
so they travelled the whole day and at dusk skrymir chose a place for them to pass the night in under a large oak tree skrymir then told them he would lie down to sleep but take ye the wallet he added and prepare your supper
skrymir soon fell asleep and began to snore strongly
he found the giant had tied it up so tight he could not untie a single knot at last thor became wroth and grasping his mallet with both hands he struck a furious blow on the giant's head
and whether they had supped and were ready to go to sleep
but sleep came not that night to thor
what's the matter are there any birds perched on this tree i felt some moss from the branches fall on my head how fares it with thee thor but thor went away hastily saying that he had just then awoke and that as it was only midnight there was still time for sleep he however
resolved that if he had an opportunity of striking a third blow it should settle all matters between them
up to the handle but skrymir sat up and stroking his cheek said an acorn fell on my head what art thou awake thor me thinks it is time for us to get up and dress ourselves but you have not now a long way before you to the city called utgard
i have heard you whispering to one another that i am not a man of small dimensions
wherefore i advise you when you come there not to make too much of yourselves for the followers of utgard loki will not brook the boasting of such little fellows as you are you must take the road that leads eastward mine lies northward so we must part here
thor and his companions proceeded on their way and towards noon descried a city standing in the middle of a plain
on arriving they entered the city and seeing a large palace before them with the door wide open they went in and found a number of men of prodigious stature sitting on benches in the hall going further they came before the king utgard loki whom they saluted with great respect
the king regarding them with a scornful smile said if i do not mistake me that stripling yonder must be the god thor then addressing himself to thor he said perhaps thou mayst be more than thou appearest to be
in some feat or other excel all other men the feat that i know said loki is to eat quicker than any one else and in this i am ready to give a proof against any one here who may choose to compete with me
to come forward and try his skill with loki a trough filled with meat having been set on the hall floor loki placed himself at one end and logi at the other
adjudged that loki was vanquished utgard loki then asked what feat the young man who accompanied thor could perform
answered that he would run a race with any one who might be matched against him the king observed that skill in running was something to boast of but if the youth would win the match he must display great agility
in the first course hugi so much out stripped his competitor that he turned back and met him not far from the starting place
utgard loki then asked thor in what feats he would choose to give proofs of that prowess for which he was so famous
the cupbearer having presented it to thor utgard loki said whoever is a good drinker will empty that horn at a single draught though most men make two of it but the most puny drinker can do it in three thor looked at the horn which seemed of no extraordinary size though somewhat long
however as he was very thirsty
that he might not be obliged to make a second draught of it but when he set the horn down and looked in he could scarcely perceive that the liquor was diminished after taking breath thor went to it again with all his might but when he took the horn from his mouth it seemed to him that he had drunk rather less than before
although the horn could now be carried without spilling how now thor said utgard loki thou must not spare thyself if thou meanest to drain the horn at the third draught thou must pull deeply
and i must needs say that thou wilt not be called so mighty a man here as thou art at home if thou showest no greater prowess in other feats than methinks will be shown in this thor full of wrath again set the horn to his lips and did his best to empty it but on looking in found the liquor was only a little lower
i now see plainly said utgard loki that thou art not quite so stout as we thought thee but wilt thou try any other feat though methinks thou art not likely to bear any prize away with thee hence what new trial hast thou to propose said thor
we have a very trifling game here answered utgard loki in which we exercise none but children it consists in merely lifting my cat from the ground nor should i have dared to mention such a feat to the great thor if i had not already observed that thou art by no means what we took thee for
as he finished speaking a large gray cat sprang on the hall floor
but the cat bending his back had notwithstanding all thor's efforts only one of his feet lifted up seeing which thor made no further attempt this trial has turned out said utgard loki just as i imagined it would the cat is large
but thor is little in comparison to our men little as ye call me answered thor let me see who among you will come hither now i am in wrath and wrestle with me i see no one here said utgard loki looking at the men sitting on the benches
who would not think it beneath him to wrestle with thee let somebody however call hither that old crone
and let thor wrestle with her if he will she has thrown to the ground many a man not less strong than this thor is a toothless old woman then entered the hall and was told by utgard loki to take hold of thor the tale is shortly told
the more thor tightened his hold on the crone the firmer she stood at length after a very violent struggle thor began to lose his footing and was finally brought down upon one knee utgard loki then told them to desist adding that thor had now no occasion to ask any one else in the hall to wrestle with him
utgard loki ordered a table to be set for them on which there was no lack of victuals or drink
and on parting asked thor how he thought his journey had turned out and whether he had met with any men stronger than himself thor told him that he could not deny but that he had brought great shame on himself and what grieves me most he added
nay said utgard loki
and by my troth had i known beforehand that thou hadst so much strength in thee
i would not have suffered thee to enter this time
but i slipped aside and thy blows fell on the mountain where thou wilt find three glens one of them remarkably deep
i have made use of similar illusions in the contests you have had with my followers in the first loki
but logi was in reality nothing else than fire and therefore consumed not only the meat
hugi with whom thialfi contended in running was thought
which thou wast not aware of but when thou comest to the shore thou wilt perceive how much the sea has sunk by thy draughts thou didst perform a feat no less wonderful by lifting up the cat and to tell thee the truth
will not sooner or later lay low but now as we are going to part let me tell thee that it will be better for both of us if thou never come near me again for shouldst thou do so i shall again defend myself by other illusions so that thou wilt only lose thy labor
and get no fame from the contest with me
the river god achelous told the story of erisichthon to theseus and his companions whom he was entertaining at his hospitable board while they were delayed on their journey by the overflow of his waters having finished his story he added
but why should i tell of other persons transformations when i myself am an instance of the possession of this power sometimes i become a serpent and sometimes a bull with horns on my head
i once could do so but now i have but one horn having lost one and here he groaned and was silent theseus asked him the cause of his grief and how he lost his horn to which question the river god replied as follows
who likes to tell of his defeats yet i will not hesitate to relate mine comforting myself with the thought of the greatness of my conqueror
perhaps you have heard of the fame of dejanira the fairest of maidens whom a host of suitors strove to win hercules and myself were of the number and the rest yielded to us two
his stepmother i on the other hand said to the father of the maiden behold me the king of the waters that flow through your land i am no stranger from a foreign shore but belong to the country a part of your realm
as i said this hercules scowled upon me and with difficulty restrained his rage my hand will answer better than my tongue said he i yield to you the victory in words but trust my cause to the strife of deeds
with that he advanced towards me and i was ashamed after what i had said to yield i threw off my green vesture and presented myself for the struggle he tried to throw me now attacking my head now my body my bulk was my protection and he assailed me in vain
for a time we stopped then returned to the conflict we each kept our position determined not to yield foot to foot i bending over him clenching his hand in mine with my forehead almost touching his thrice hercules tried to throw me off and the fourth time he succeeded
i struggled to get my arms at liberty panting and reeking with perspiration
my knees were on the earth and my mouth in the dust finding that i was no match for him in the warrior's art i resorted to others and glided away in the form of a serpent i curled my body in a coil and hissed at him with my forked tongue he smiled scornfully at this and said
it was the labor of my infancy to conquer snakes so saying he clasped my neck with his hands i was almost choked
vanquished in this form i tried what alone remained to me and assumed the form of a bull he grasped my neck with his arm
nor was this enough his ruthless hand rent my horn from my head the naiades took it consecrated it and filled it with fragrant flowers plenty adopted my horn and made it her own and called it cornucopia
and sought a union with her the meaning is that the river in its windings flowed through part of dejanira's kingdom
when the river swelled it made itself another channel thus its head was horned hercules prevented the return of these periodical overflows by embankments and canals and therefore he was said to have vanquished the river god and cut off his horn finally the lands formerly subject to overflow but now redeemed
became very fertile and this is meant by the horn of plenty there is another account of the origin of the cornucopia jupiter at his birth was committed by his mother rhea to the care of the daughters of melisseus a cretan king they fed the infant deity with the milk of the goat
amalthea jupiter broke off one of the horns of the goat and gave it to his nurses and endowed it with the wonderful power of becoming filled with whatever the possessor might wish
aetna from which the smoke and flames of their furnaces are constantly issuing apollo shot his arrows at the cyclopes which so incensed jupiter that he condemned him as a punishment to become the servant of a mortal for the space of one year
amphrysos admetus was a suitor with others for the hand of alcestis the daughter of pelias who promised her to him
who should come for her in a chariot drawn by lions and boars this task admetus performed by the assistance of his divine herdsman and was made happy in the possession of alcestis but admetus fell ill
and being near to death apollo prevailed on the fates to spare him on condition that some one would consent to die in his stead admetus in his joy at this reprieve thought little of the ransom and perhaps remembering the declarations of attachment which he had often heard from his courtiers
and dependents fancied that it would be easy to find a substitute but it was not so brave warriors who would willingly have perilled their lives for their prince shrunk from the thought of dying for him on the bed of sickness
men asked
they cannot in the course of nature live much longer and who can feel like them the call to rescue the life they gave from an untimely end but the parents distressed though they were at the thought of losing him shrunk from the call then alcestis with a generous self devotion
proffered herself as the substitute admetus fond as he was of life would not have submitted to receive it at such a cost but there was no remedy the condition imposed by the fates had been met and the decree was irrevocable alcestis sickened as admetus revived
just at this time hercules arrived at the palace of admetus and found all the inmates in great distress for the impending loss of the devoted wife and beloved mistress hercules to whom no labor was too arduous resolved to attempt her rescue
he went and lay in wait at the door of the chamber of the dying queen and when death came for his prey he seized him and forced him to resign his victim alcestis recovered and was restored to her husband
milton alludes to the story of alcestis in his sonnet on his deceased wife methought i saw my late espoused saint brought to me
to her glad husband gave rescued from death by force though pale and faint j r lowell has chosen the shepherd of king admetus for the subject of a short poem he makes that event the first introduction of poetry to men men called him
but a shiftless youth in whom no good they saw and yet unwittingly in truth they made his careless words their law and day by day more holy grew each spot where he had trod till after poets only knew their first born brother was a god
antigone
antigone was as bright an example of filial and sisterly fidelity as was alcestis of connubial devotion she was the daughter of oedipus and jocasta who with all their descendants were the victims of an unrelenting fate
and was driven forth from his kingdom thebes dreaded and abandoned by all men as an object of divine vengeance antigone his daughter alone shared his wanderings and remained with him till he died and then returned to thebes her brothers
had agreed to share the kingdom between them and reign alternately year by year
when his time expired refused to surrender the kingdom to his brother polynices fled to adrastus king of argos who gave him his daughter in marriage and aided him with an army to enforce his claim to the kingdom this led to the celebrated expedition of the seven against thebes
which furnished ample materials for the epic and tragic poets of greece
and knew by his art that no one of the leaders except adrastus would live to return but amphiaraus on his marriage to
polynices knowing this gave eriphyle the collar of harmonia
this collar or necklace was a present which vulcan had given to harmonia on her marriage with cadmus and polynices had taken it with him on his flight from thebes eriphyle could not resist so tempting a bribe and by her decision the war was resolved on and amphiaraus went to his certain fate
but could not avert his destiny pursued by the enemy he fled along the river when a thunderbolt launched by jupiter opened the ground and he
but we must not omit to record the fidelity
as an offset to the weakness of eriphyle
placing a ladder against the wall he mounted but jupiter offended at his impious language struck him with a thunderbolt when his obsequies were celebrated evadne cast herself on his funeral pile and perished early in the contest
the goddess in her wrath deprived him of his sight but afterwards relenting gave him in compensation the knowledge of future events
he declared that victory should fall to thebes if menoeceus
the heroic youth learning the response threw away his life in the first encounter
should decide their quarrel by single combat they fought and fell by each other's hands
the uncle of the fallen princes
forbidding every one on pain of death to give it burial antigone the sister of polynices
unmoved by the dissuading counsel of an affectionate but timid sister and unable to procure assistance she determined to brave the hazard and to bury the body with her own hands she was detected in the act and creon gave orders that she should be buried alive
as having deliberately set at naught the solemn edict of the city her lover
unable to avert her fate would not survive her and fell by his own hand
missus jameson in her characteristics of women has compared her character with that of cordelia in shakspeare's king lear the perusal of her remarks cannot fail to gratify our readers
alas i only wished i might have died with my poor father wherefore should i ask for longer life o i was fond of misery with him e'en what was most unlovely grew beloved when he was with me o my dearest father
beneath the earth now in deep darkness hid worn as thou wert with age to me thou still wast dear and shalt be ever francklin's sophocles penelope
mythic heroines whose beauties were rather those of character and conduct than of person
spartan prince ulysses king of ithaca sought her in marriage and won her over all competitors when the moment came for the bride to leave her father's house icarius unable to bear the thoughts of parting with his daughter
ulysses gave penelope her choice to stay or go with him
ulysses and penelope had not enjoyed their union more than a year
during his long absence and when it was doubtful whether he still lived and highly improbable that he would ever return penelope was importuned by numerous suitors from whom there seemed no refuge but in choosing one of them for her husband penelope however
employed every art to gain time still hoping for ulysses return
her husband's father she pledged herself to make her choice among the suitors when the robe was finished during the day she worked at the robe but in the night she undid the work of the day
which is used as a proverbial expression for anything which is perpetually doing but never done
but solan's last loud cry had not been without effect for a moment later a dozen guardsmen burst into the chamber though not before i had so bent and demolished the great switch that it could not be again used to turn the powerful current
into the mighty magnet of destruction it controlled the result of the sudden coming of the guardsmen had been to compel me to seek seclusion in the first passageway that i could find and that to my disappointment proved to be not the one with which i was familiar
but another upon its left they must have either heard or guessed which way i went for i had proceeded but a short distance when i heard the sound of pursuit i had no mind to stop and fight these men here when there was fighting aplenty elsewhere in the city of kadabra
fighting that could be of much more avail to me and mine than useless life taking far below the palace but the fellows were pressing me and as i did not know the way at all
i soon saw that they would overtake me unless i found a place to conceal myself until they had passed which would then give me an opportunity to return the way i had come and regain the tower or possibly find a way to reach the city streets
the passageway had risen rapidly since leaving the apartment of the switch and now ran level and well lighted straight into the distance as far as i could see the moment that my pursuers reached this straight stretch i would be in plain sight of them
from the corridor undetected presently i saw a series of doors opening from either side of the corridor and as they all looked alike to me i tried the first one that i reached it opened into a small chamber luxuriously furnished
looked within the larger apartment before me were a party of perhaps fifty gorgeously clad nobles of the court standing before a throne upon which sat salensus oll the jeddak of jeddaks was addressing them
the allotted hour has come he was saying as i entered the apartment and though the enemies of okar be within her gates naught may stay the will of salensus oll the great ceremony must be omitted
that no single man may be kept from his place in the defenses other than the fifty that custom demands shall witness the creation of a new queen in okar
and we may return to the battle while she who is now the princess of helium looks down from the queen's tower upon the annihilation of her former countrymen and witnesses the greatness
immediately two guardsmen appeared dragging the unwilling bride toward the altar her hands were still manacled behind her evidently to prevent suicide her disheveled hair and panting bosom betokened that
chained though she was still had she fought against the thing that they would do to her at sight of her salensus oll rose and drew his sword
beneath which the poor beautiful creature was dragged toward her doom a grim smile forced itself to my lips as i thought of the rude awakening that lay in store for the ruler of okar and my itching fingers fondled the hilt of my bloody sword
as i watched the procession that moved slowly toward the throne a procession which consisted of but a handful of priests who followed dejah thoris and the two guardsmen i caught a fleeting glimpse of a black face peering from behind the draperies
upon which stood salensus oll awaiting his bride now the guardsmen were forcing the princess of helium up the few steps to the side of the tyrant of okar and i had no eyes and no thoughts for aught else a priest opened a book and raising his hand
what i was most concerned in of course was the rescuing of dejah thoris
if such a thing were possible
when however i saw the vile hand of salensus oll reach out for the hand of my beloved princess i could restrain myself no longer and before the nobles of okar knew that aught had happened
with the flat of my sword i struck down his polluting hand and grasping dejah thoris round the waist i swung her behind me as with my back against the draperies of the dais i faced the tyrant of the north and his roomful of noble warriors
the jeddak of jeddaks was a great mountain of a man a coarse brutal beast of a man and as he towered above me there his fierce black whiskers and mustache bristling in rage i can well imagine that a less seasoned warrior might have trembled before him
with a snarl he sprang toward me with naked sword but whether salensus oll was a good swordsman or a poor i never learned for with dejah thoris at my back i was no longer human i was a superman and no man could have withstood me then
with a single low for the princess of helium i ran my blade straight through the rotten heart of okar's rotten ruler and before the white drawn faces of his nobles salensus oll rolled grinning in horrible death to the foot of the steps below his marriage throne
for a moment tense silence reigned in the nuptial room then the fifty nobles rushed upon me furiously we fought but the advantage was mine for i stood upon a raised platform above them and i fought for the most glorious woman of a glorious race
and i fought for a great love and for the mother of my boy and from behind my shoulder in the silvery cadence of that dear voice rose the brave battle anthem of helium which the nation's women sing as their men march out to victory
that alone was enough to inspire me to victory over even greater odds and i verily believe that i should have bested the entire roomful of yellow warriors that day in the nuptial chamber of the palace at kadabra had not interruption come to my aid
fast and furious was the fighting as the nobles of salensus oll sprang time and again up the steps before the throne only to fall back before a sword hand that seemed to have gained a new wizardry from its experience with the cunning solan
and noted that the sound of the battle anthem had ceased was dejah thoris preparing to take her place beside me heroic daughter of a heroic world it would not be unlike her to have seized a sword and fought at my side
for though the women of mars are not trained in the arts of war the spirit is theirs and they have been known to do that very thing upon countless occasions but she did not come and glad i was
and then of a sudden all that remained of them formed below me for a last mad desperate charge but even as they advanced the door at the far end of the chamber swung wide and a wild eyed messenger sprang into the room the jeddak of jeddaks he cried
he alone may revive the flagging courage of our warriors he alone may save the day for okar where is salensus oll the nobles stepped back from about the dead body of their ruler and one of them pointed to the grinning corpse
the messenger staggered back in horror as though from a blow in the face then fly nobles of okar he cried for naught can save you hark they come as he spoke we heard the deep roar of angry men from the corridor without
and the clank of metal and the clang of swords without another glance toward me who had stood a spectator of the tragic scene the nobles wheeled and fled from the apartment through another exit
almost immediately a force of yellow warriors appeared in the doorway through which the messenger had come they were backing toward the apartment stubbornly resisting the advance of a handful of red men who faced them and forced them slowly but inevitably back
above the heads of the contestants
kantos kan he was leading the little party that had won its way into the very heart of the palace of salensus oll in an instant i saw that by attacking the okarians from the rear i could so quickly disorganize them that their further resistance would be short lived
i wanted the men of helium to see me and to know that their beloved princess was here too for i knew that this knowledge would inspire them to even greater deeds of valor than they had performed in the past though great indeed must have been those which won for them
a way into the almost impregnable palace of the tyrant of the north as i crossed the chamber to attack the kadabrans from the rear a small doorway at my left opened and to my surprise revealed the figures of matai shang
father of therns and phaidor his daughter peering into the room a quick glance about they took their eyes rested for a moment wide in horror upon the dead body of salensus oll upon the blood that crimsoned the floor upon the corpses of the nobles
who had fallen thick before the throne upon me and upon the battling warriors at the other door they did not essay to enter the apartment but scanned its every corner from where they stood and then when their eyes had sought its entire area
a look of fierce rage overspread the features of matai shang and a cold and cunning smile touched the lips of phaidor then they were gone but not before a taunting laugh was thrown directly in my face by the woman
a great shout rang through the corridor and for a moment drowned the noise of battle for the prince of helium they cried for the prince of helium and like hungry lions upon their prey they fell once more upon the weakening warriors of the north
the yellow men cornered between two enemies fought with the desperation that utter hopelessness often induces fought as i should have fought
as lay within the power of my sword arm it was a glorious battle but the end seemed inevitable
so that to me was left the remnants of the yellow men within the throneroom they kept me busy too
and it gave the red men in the corridor beyond no avenue of escape should their new antagonists press them too closely but i have faced heavier odds myself than were pitted against me that day
and i knew that kantos kan had battled his way from a hundred more dangerous traps than that in which he now was so it was with no feelings of despair that i turned my attention to the business of the moment constantly my thoughts reverted to dejah thoris
and i longed for the moment when the fighting done i could fold her in my arms and hear once more the words of love which had been denied me for so many years during the fighting in the chamber i had not even a single chance to so much as steal a glance at her
where she stood behind me beside the throne of the dead ruler i wondered why she no longer urged me on with the strains of the martial hymn of helium but i did not need more than the knowledge that i was battling for her to bring out the best that is in me
it would be wearisome to narrate the details of that bloody struggle of how we fought from the doorway the full length of the room to the very foot of the throne before the last of my antagonists fell with my blade piercing his heart and then with a glad cry
i turned with outstretched arms to seize my princess and as my lips smothered hers to reap the reward that would be thrice ample payment for the bloody encounters through which i had passed for her dear sake from the south pole to the north
chapter twelve doomed to die for an instant i stood there before they fell upon me but the first rush of them forced me back a step or two my foot felt for the floor but found only empty space
i had backed into the pit which had received issus for a second i toppled there upon the brink then i too with the boy still tightly clutched in my arms pitched backward into the black abyss we struck a polished chute
the opening above us closed as magically as it had opened and we shot down unharmed into a dimly lighted apartment far below the arena as i rose to my feet the first thing i saw was the malignant countenance of issus glaring at me
through the heavy bars of a grated door at one side of the chamber rash mortal she shrilled you shall pay the awful penalty for your blasphemy in this secret cell here you shall lie alone and in darkness with the carcass of your accomplice
festering in its rottenness by your side until crazed by loneliness and hunger you feed upon the crawling maggots that were once a man that was all in another instant she was gone and the dim light which had filled the cell
blackness pleasant old lady said a voice at my side who speaks i asked tis i your companion who has had the honour this day of fighting shoulder to shoulder with the greatest warrior that ever wore metal upon barsoom
i thank god that you are not dead i said i feared for that nasty cut upon your head it but stunned me he replied a mere scratch maybe it were as well had it been final i said
we seem to be in a pretty fix here with a splendid chance of dying of starvation and thirst where are we beneath the arena i replied we tumbled down the shaft that swallowed issus as she was almost at our mercy
he laughed a low laugh of pleasure and relief and then reaching out through the inky blackness he sought my shoulder and pulled my ear close to his mouth nothing could be better he whispered there are secrets within the secrets of issus of which
issus herself does not dream
i laboured with the other slaves a year since in the remodelling of these subterranean galleries and at that time we found below these an ancient system of corridors and chambers that had been sealed up for ages the blacks in charge of the work explored them
taking several of us along to do whatever work there might be occasion for i know the entire system perfectly there are miles of corridors honeycombing the ground beneath the gardens and the temple itself
where the blacks never go there we may live for a time and who knows what may transpire to aid us to escape he had spoken all in a low whisper evidently fearing spying ears even here and so i answered him in the same subdued tone
so i cannot desert him no said the boy one cannot desert a friend it were better to be recaptured ourselves than that then he commenced groping his way about the floor of the dark chamber
on a level floor of soft sand very quietly i lowered myself from the inky cell above into the inky pit below so utterly dark was it that we could not see our hands at an inch from our noses never i think
have i known such complete absence of light as existed in the pits of issus for an instant i hung in mid air there is a strange sensation connected with an experience of that nature which is quite difficult to describe
when the feet tread empty air and the distance below is shrouded in darkness there is a feeling akin to panic at the thought of releasing the hold and taking the plunge into unknown depths although the boy had told me that it was but ten feet to the floor below
i experienced the same thrills as though i were hanging above a bottomless pit then i released my hold and dropped four feet to a soft cushion of sand
and i will replace the trap this done he took me by the hand leading me very slowly with much feeling about and frequent halts to assure himself that he did not stray into wrong passageways
presently we commenced the descent of a very steep incline it will not be long he said before we shall have light at the lower levels we meet the same stratum of phosphorescent rock that illuminates omean
never shall i forget that trip through the pits of issus while it was devoid of important incidents yet it was filled for me with a strange charm of excitement and adventure
on the unguessable antiquity of these long forgotten corridors the things which the stygian darkness hid from my objective eye could not have been half so wonderful as the pictures which my imagination wrought as it conjured to life again the ancient peoples
of this dying world and set them once more to the labours the intrigues the mysteries and the cruelties
of the dead sea bottoms that had driven them step by step to the uttermost pinnacle of the world where they were now intrenched behind an impenetrable barrier of superstition in addition to the green men there had been three principal races upon barsoom
the various races had made war upon one another for ages and the three higher types had easily bested the green savages of the water places of the world but now that the receding seas necessitated constant abandonment of their fortified cities
the result of which is shown in the present splendid race of red men i had always supposed that all traces of the original races had disappeared from the face of mars yet within the past four days i had found both whites and blacks in great multitudes
could it be possible that in some far off corner of the planet there still existed a remnant of the ancient race of yellow men my reveries were broken in upon by a low exclamation from the boy at last the lighted way he cried
and looking up i beheld at a long distance before us a dim radiance as we advanced the light increased until presently we emerged into well lighted passageways from then on our progress was rapid until we came suddenly to the end of a corridor
i was close at his heels silently we dropped to the deserted deck and on hands and knees crawled toward the hatchway a stealthy glance below revealed no guard in sight and so with the quickness and the soundlessness
of cats we dropped together into the main cabin of the submarine even here was no sign of life quickly we covered and secured the hatch then the boy stepped into the pilot house touched a button and the boat sank amid swirling waters toward the bottom of the shaft
even then there was no scurrying of feet as we had expected and while the boy remained to direct the boat i slid from cabin to cabin in futile search for some member of the crew
only our first ancestor knows he replied we reached the submarine pool in omean without incident here we debated the wisdom of sinking the craft before leaving her but finally decided that it would add nothing to our chances for escape
there were plenty of blacks on omean to thwart us were we apprehended however many more might come from the temples and gardens of issus would not in any way decrease our chances
we were now in a quandary as to how to pass the guards who patrolled the island about the pool at last i hit upon a plan
yersted that will be the simpler way to return i said smiling as i handed the forged order to the boy come we shall see now how well it works but our swords he exclaimed what shall we say to explain them
since we cannot explain them we shall have to leave them behind us i replied is it not the
in the power of the first born it is the only way i answered
and i think once out that we shall find no great difficulty in arming ourselves once more in a country which abounds so plentifully in armed men as you say he replied with a smile and shrug
i could not follow another leader who inspired greater confidence than you come let us put your ruse to the test boldly we emerged from the hatchway of the craft leaving our swords behind us and strode to the main exit which led to the sentry's post
at sight of us the members of the guard sprang forward in surprise and with levelled rifles halted us i held out the message to one of them he took it and seeing to whom it was addressed turned and handed it to torith
who was emerging from his office to learn the cause of the commotion the black read the order and for a moment eyed us with evident suspicion
and my heart sank within me as i cursed myself for a stupid fool in not having sunk the submarine to make good the lie that i must tell his orders were to return immediately to the temple landing i replied
torith took a half step toward the entrance to the pool as though to corroborate my story for that instant everything hung in the balance for had he done so and found the empty submarine still lying at her wharf the whole weak fabric of my concoction
would have tumbled about our heads but evidently he decided the message must be genuine nor indeed was there any good reason to doubt it since it would scarce have seemed credible to him that two slaves would voluntarily have given themselves into custody in any such manner as this
it was the very boldness of the plan which rendered it successful were you connected with the rising of the slaves asked torith we have just had meagre reports of some such event all were involved i replied but it amounted to little
the guards quickly overcame and killed the majority of us he seemed satisfied with this reply take them to shador he ordered turning to one of his subordinates
once within the palace i drew sola to the dining hall and when she had greeted her father after the formal manner of the green men she told the story of the pilgrimage and capture of dejah thoris seven days ago after her audience with zat arras dejah thoris attempted to slip from the palace in the dead of night
i knew that something had occurred then to cause her the keenest mental agony and when i discovered her creeping from the palace i did not need to be told her destination hastily arousing a dozen of her most faithful guards i explained my fears to them
and as one they enlisted with me to follow our beloved princess in her wanderings even to the sacred iss and the valley dor we came upon her but a short distance from the palace with her was faithful woola the hound but none other
when we overtook her she feigned anger and ordered us back to the palace but for once we disobeyed her and when she found that we would not let her go upon the last long pilgrimage alone she wept and embraced us and together we went out into the night toward the south
the following day we came upon a herd of small thoats and thereafter we were mounted and made good time we travelled very fast and very far due south until the morning of the fifth day we sighted a great fleet of battleships sailing north they saw us before we could seek shelter
that evening one of the smaller cruisers that had been far in advance of the fleet returned with a prisoner a young red woman whom they had picked up in a range of hills under the very noses they said of a fleet of three red martian battleships
from scraps of conversation which we overheard it was evident that the black pirates were searching for a party of fugitives that had escaped them several days prior
that they considered the capture of the young woman important was evident from the long and earnest interview the commander of the fleet held with her when she was brought to him later she was bound and placed in the compartment with dejah thoris and myself the new captive was a very beautiful girl
she told dejah thoris that many years ago she had taken the voluntary pilgrimage from the court of her father the jeddak of ptarth she was thuvia the princess of ptarth and then she asked dejah thoris who she might be
and when she heard she fell upon her knees and kissed dejah thoris fettered hands and told her that that very morning she had been with john carter prince of helium and carthoris her son dejah thoris could not believe her at first
dejah thoris knew that it could be none other than the prince of helium for who she said upon all barsoom other than john carter could have done the deeds you tell of and when thuvia told dejah thoris of her love for john carter
and his loyalty and devotion to the princess of his choice dejah thoris broke down and wept
i do not blame you for loving him thuvia she said and that your affection for him is pure and sincere i can well believe from the candour of your avowal of it to me the fleet continued north nearly to helium but last night they evidently realized that john carter had indeed escaped them
and so they turned toward the south once more shortly thereafter a guard entered our compartment and dragged me to the deck there is no place in the land of the first born for a green one he said and with that he gave me a terrific shove that carried me toppling from the deck of the battleship
evidently this seemed to him the easiest way of ridding the vessel of my presence and killing me at the same time but a kind fate intervened and by a miracle i escaped with but slight bruises the ship was moving slowly at the time
i lay all night where i had fallen and the next morning brought an explanation of the fortunate coincidence that had saved me from a terrible death as the sun rose i saw a vast panorama of sea bottom and distant hills lying far below me
when i reached it i found to my delight that it belonged to helium here a thoat was procured for me the rest you know for many minutes none spoke dejah thoris in the clutches of the first born i shuddered at the thought
but of a sudden the old fire of unconquerable self confidence surged through me i sprang to my feet and with back thrown shoulders and upraised sword took a solemn vow to reach rescue and revenge my princess a hundred swords leaped from a hundred scabbards
here we discussed the details of our expedition until long after dark
for that length of time at least they will be comparatively safe he said and we will at least know where to look for them
the former agreed to take such vessels as we required into dock as rapidly as possible
for many years the black had been in charge of the refitting of captured battleships that they might navigate omean and so was familiar with the construction of the propellers housings and the auxiliary gearing required
it was estimated that it would require six months to complete our preparations in view of the fact that the utmost secrecy must be maintained to keep the project from the ears of zat arras kantos kan was confident now that the man's ambitions were fully aroused
with you and carthoris out of the way there would be little to prevent him from assuming the title of jeddak and you may rest assured that so long as he is supreme here there is no safety for either of you there is a way cried hor vastus to thwart him effectually and for ever
what i asked he smiled i shall whisper it here but some day i shall stand upon the dome of the temple of reward and shout it to cheering multitudes below what do you mean asked kantos kan john carter jeddak of helium
of helium are permitted to choose fairly their next jeddak whom they choose may count upon the loyalty of my sword nor shall i seek the honour for myself until then tardos mors is jeddak of helium
his representative as you will john carter said hor vastus but what was that he whispered pointing toward the window overlooking the gardens the words were scarce out of his mouth ere he had sprung to the balcony without there he goes he cried excitedly
the guards below there the guards we were close behind him and all saw the figure of a man run quickly across a little piece of sward and disappear in the shrubbery beyond he was on the balcony when i first saw him cried hor vastus quick let us follow him
together we ran to the gardens but even though we scoured the grounds with the entire guard for hours no trace could we find of the night marauder what do you make of it kantos kan asked tars tarkas a spy sent by zat arras he replied it was ever his way
i hope he heard only our references to a new jeddak i said if he overheard our plans to rescue dejah thoris it will mean civil war for he will attempt to thwart us and in that i will not be thwarted there would i turn against tardos mors himself
were it necessary if it throws all helium into a bloody conflict i shall go on with these plans to save my princess nothing shall stay me now short of death and should i die my friends
will you take oath to prosecute the search for her and bring her back in safety to her grandfather's court upon the hilt of his sword each of them swore to do as i had asked it was agreed that the battleships that were to be remodelled should be ordered to hastor
another heliumetic city far to the south west kantos kan thought that the docks there in addition to their regular work would accommodate at least six battleships at a time as he was commander in chief of the navy
and the details of the entire plan had been mapped out
tars tarkas was to get into communication with thark and learn the sentiments of his people toward his return from dor if favourable he was to repair immediately to thark and devote his time to the assembling of a great horde of green warriors
whom it was our plan to send in transports directly to the valley dor and the temple of issus while the fleet entered omean and destroyed the vessels of the first born upon hor vastus devolved the delicate mission of organising a secret force of fighting men sworn to follow john carter
wherever he might lead as we estimated that it would require over a million men to man the thousand great battleships we intended to use on omean and the transports for the green men as well as the ships that were to convoy the transports
it was no trifling job that hor vastus had before him after they had left i bid carthoris good night for i was very tired and going to my own apartments bathed and lay down upon my sleeping silks and furs for the first good night's sleep
i had had an opportunity to look forward to since i had returned to barsoom but even now i was to be disappointed how long i slept i do not know when i awoke suddenly it was to find a half dozen powerful men upon me a gag already in my mouth
and a moment later my arms and legs securely bound so quickly had they worked and to such good purpose that i was utterly beyond the power to resist them by the time i was fully awake never a word spoke they and the gag effectually prevented me speaking
silently they lifted me and bore me toward the door of my chamber as they passed the window through which the farther moon was casting its brilliant beams i saw that each of the party had his face swathed in layers of silk i could not recognize one of them
when they had come into the corridor with me they turned toward a secret panel in the wall which led to the passage that terminated in the pits beneath the palace that any knew of this panel outside my own household i was doubtful yet the leader of the band did not hesitate a moment
little gervais jean valjean left the town as though he were fleeing from it he set out at a very hasty pace through the fields taking whatever roads and paths presented themselves to him
without perceiving that he was incessantly retracing his steps he wandered thus the whole morning without having eaten anything and without feeling hungry he was the prey of a throng of novel sensations
he was conscious of a sort of rage he did not know against whom it was directed
or humiliated there came over him at moments a strange emotion which he resisted and to which he opposed the hardness acquired during the last twenty years of his life this state of mind fatigued him
he perceived with dismay that the sort of frightful calm which the injustice of his misfortune had conferred upon him was giving way within him he asked himself what would replace this
at times he would have actually preferred to be in prison with the gendarmes
it would have agitated him less although the season was tolerably far advanced there were still a few late flowers in the hedge rows here and there whose odor as he passed through them in his march recalled to him
memories of his childhood these memories were almost intolerable to him it was so long since they had recurred to him
in this manner all day long as the sun declined to its setting casting long shadows athwart the soil from every pebble
which was absolutely deserted there was nothing on the horizon except the alps
in the middle of this meditation
a joyous sound became audible he turned his head and saw a little savoyard about ten years of age coming up the path and singing his hurdy gurdy on his hip and his marmot box on his back
one of those gay and gentle children who go from land to land affording a view of their knees through the holes in their trousers without stopping his song
the lad halted in his march from time to time and played at knuckle bones with some coins which he had in his hand his whole fortune probably among this money there was one forty sou piece
the child halted beside the bush without perceiving jean valjean and tossed up his handful of sous which up to that time he had caught with a good deal of adroitness on the back of his hand this time
the forty sou piece escaped him and went rolling towards the brushwood until it reached jean valjean jean valjean set his foot upon it in the meantime
the child had looked after his coin and had caught sight of him he showed no astonishment but walked straight up to the man the spot was absolutely solitary as far as the eye could see
there was not a person on the plain or on the path the only sound was the tiny feeble cries of a flock of birds of passage which was traversing the heavens at an immense height
the child was standing with his back to the sun which cast threads of gold in his hair and empurpled with its blood red gleam the savage face
sir said the little savoyard with that childish confidence which is composed of ignorance and innocence my money what is your name said jean valjean
go away said jean valjean sir resumed the child
and made no reply the child began again my money sir jean valjean's eyes remained fixed on the earth
my piece of money cried the child my white piece my silver it seemed as though jean valjean did not hear him the child grasped him by the collar of his blouse and shook him
at the same time he made an effort to displace the big iron shod shoe which rested on his treasure i want my piece of money my piece of forty sous
he still remained seated his eyes were troubled
in a sort of amazement then he stretched out his hand towards his cudgel and cried in a terrible voice
little gervais i give me back my forty sous if you please take your foot away sir if you please then irritated though he was so small and becoming almost menacing
come now will you take your foot away take your foot away or we'll see ah it's still you said jean valjean and rising abruptly to his feet his foot still resting on the silver piece he added
will you take yourself off the frightened child looked at him then began to tremble from head to foot and after a few moments of stupor he set out
or to utter a cry nevertheless
and jean valjean heard him sobbing in the midst of his own revery
the sun had set
he had eaten nothing all day it is probable that he was feverish he had remained standing and had not changed his attitude after the child's flight
the breath heaved his chest at long and irregular intervals his gaze fixed ten or twelve paces in front of him seemed to be scrutinizing with profound attention
the shape of an ancient fragment of blue earthenware which had fallen in the grass all at once he shivered he had just begun to feel the chill of evening he settled his cap more firmly on his brow
sought mechanically to cross and button his blouse advanced a step and stopped to pick up his cudgel at that moment he caught sight of the forty sou piece which his foot had half ground into the earth
and which was shining among the pebbles it was as though he had received a galvanic shock what is this he muttered between his teeth he recoiled three paces then halted
without being able to detach his gaze from the spot which his foot had trodden but an instant before as though the thing which lay glittering there in the gloom had been an open eye riveted upon him
seized it and straightened himself up again and began to gaze afar off over the plain at the same time casting his eyes towards all points of the horizon as he stood there erect and shivering like a terrified wild animal which is seeking refuge
he saw nothing night was falling the plain was cold and vague great banks of violet haze were rising in the gleam of the twilight he said
ah and set out rapidly in the direction in which the child had disappeared after about thirty paces he paused looked about him and saw nothing then he shouted with all his might
little gervais little gervais he paused and waited there was no reply the landscape was gloomy and deserted
he was encompassed by space there was nothing around him but an obscurity in which his gaze was lost and a silence which engulfed his voice
an icy north wind was blowing and imparted to things around him a sort of lugubrious life the bushes shook their thin little arms with incredible fury one would have said that
they were threatening and pursuing some one he set out on his march again then he began to run
with a voice which was the most formidable and the most disconsolate that it was possible to hear
little gervais assuredly if the child had heard him
but the child was no doubt already far away he encountered a priest on horseback he stepped up to him and said
have you seen a child pass no said the priest one named little gervais i have seen no one he drew two five franc pieces from his money bag and handed them to the priest
with a marmot i think and a hurdy gurdy one of those savoyards you know i have not seen him little gervais
such persons pass through these parts we know nothing of them jean valjean seized two more coins of five francs each with violence and gave them to the priest for your poor he said then he added wildly
have me arrested i am a thief the priest put spurs to his horse and fled in haste much alarmed
in the direction which he had first taken in this way he traversed a tolerably long distance gazing calling shouting
towards something which conveyed to him the effect of a human being reclining or crouching down it turned out to be nothing but brushwood or rocks nearly on a level with the earth at length at a spot where three paths intersected each other
he stopped the moon had risen he sent his gaze into the distance and shouted for the last time
little gervais
his shout died away
but in a feeble and almost inarticulate voice it was his last effort his legs gave way abruptly under him
as though an invisible power had suddenly overwhelmed him with the weight of his evil conscience he fell exhausted on a large stone his fists clenched in his hair and his face on his knees
and he cried i am a wretch then his heart burst and he began to cry it was the first time that he had wept in nineteen
as we have seen quite thrown out of everything that had been his thought hitherto he could not yield to the evidence of what was going on within him
he hardened himself against the angelic action and the gentle words of the old man you have promised me to become an honest man i buy your soul
from the spirit of perversity i give it to the good god this recurred to his mind unceasingly to this celestial kindness he opposed pride
which is the fortress of evil within us he was indistinctly conscious that the pardon of this priest was the greatest assault and the most formidable attack which had moved him yet
that his obduracy was finally settled if he resisted this clemency that if he yielded he should be obliged to renounce that hatred with which the actions of other men had filled his soul
through so many years and which pleased him that this time it was necessary to conquer
and that a struggle a colossal and final struggle had been begun between his viciousness and the goodness of that man in the presence of these lights he proceeded like a man who is intoxicated
as he walked thus with haggard eyes did he have a distinct perception of what might result to him from his adventure at d did he understand all those mysterious murmurs which warn or importune the spirit
at certain moments of life did a voice whisper in his ear that he had just passed the solemn hour of his destiny
a middle course for him that if he were not henceforth the best of men he would be the worst that it behooved him now so to speak to mount higher than the bishop or fall lower than the convict
that if he wished to become good be must become an angel
here again some questions must be put which we have already put to ourselves elsewhere did he catch some shadow of all this in his thought in a confused way
misfortune certainly as we have said does form the education of the intelligence nevertheless it is doubtful whether jean valjean was in a condition to disentangle all that we have here indicated
if these ideas occurred to him he but caught glimpses of rather than saw them
on emerging from that black and deformed thing which is called the galleys the bishop had hurt his soul
the future life the possible life which offered itself to him henceforth all pure and radiant filled him with tremors and anxiety he no longer knew where he really was like an owl
who should suddenly see the sun rise the convict had been dazzled and blinded as it were by virtue that which was certain that which he did not doubt was that he was no longer the same man
that everything about him was changed that it was no longer in his power to make it as though the bishop had not spoken to him and had not touched him in this state of mind he had encountered little gervais
and had robbed him of his forty sous why
was this the last effect and the supreme effort as it were of the evil thoughts which he had brought away from the galleys a remnant of impulse a result of what is called in statics acquired force it was that
and it was also perhaps even less than that let us say it simply it was not he who stole it was not the man it was the beast who by habit and instinct had simply placed his foot upon that money
while the intelligence was struggling amid so many novel and hitherto unheard of thoughts
he had done a thing of which he was no longer capable however that may be this last evil action had a decisive effect on him it abruptly traversed that chaos which he bore in his mind and dispersed it
placed on one side the thick obscurity and on the other the light and acted on his soul in the state in which it then was as certain chemical reagents act upon a troubled mixture
by precipitating one element and clarifying the other first of all even before examining himself and reflecting all bewildered like one who seeks to save himself he tried to find the child in order to return his money to him
then when he recognized the fact that this was impossible he halted in despair
i am a wretch he had just perceived what he was and he was already separated from himself to such a degree
the hideous galley convict
his blouse on his hips his knapsack filled with stolen objects on his back with his resolute and gloomy visage with his thoughts filled with abominable projects
excess of unhappiness had as we have remarked made him in some sort a visionary this then was in the nature of a vision
he had almost reached the point of asking himself who that man was and he was horrified by him his brain was going through one of those violent and yet perfectly calm moments
in which revery is so profound that it absorbs reality one no longer beholds the object which one has before one and one sees as though apart from one's self the figures which one has in one's own mind
thus he contemplated himself so to speak face to face and at the same time athwart this hallucination he perceived in a mysterious depth a sort of light which he at first took for a torch
on scrutinizing this light which appeared to his conscience with more attention he recognized the fact that it possessed a human form and that this torch was the bishop
his conscience weighed in turn these two men thus placed before it the bishop and jean valjean nothing less than the first was required to soften the second
by one of those singular effects which are peculiar to this sort of ecstasies in proportion as his revery continued as the bishop grew great and resplendent in his eyes
so did jean valjean grow less and vanish after a certain time he was no longer anything more than a shade all at once he disappeared
the bishop alone remained he filled the whole soul of this wretched man with a magnificent radiance jean valjean wept for a long time
he wept burning tears he sobbed with more weakness than a woman with more fright than a child as he wept daylight penetrated more and more clearly into his soul
an extraordinary light a light at once ravishing and terrible his past life his first fault his long expiation his external brutishness his
internal hardness his dismissal to liberty rejoicing in manifold plans of vengeance what had happened to him at the bishop's the last thing that he had done
that theft of forty sous from a child a crime all the more cowardly and all the more monstrous since it had come after the bishop's pardon all this recurred to his mind
and appeared clearly to him but with a clearness which he had never hitherto witnessed he examined his life and it seemed horrible to him his soul and it seemed frightful to him
in the meantime a gentle light rested over this life and this soul it seemed to him
by the light of paradise how many hours did he weep thus
whither did he go no one ever knew the only thing which seems to be authenticated is that that same night
about three o'clock in the morning saw as he traversed the street in which the bishop's residence was situated a man in the attitude of prayer
in the shadow in front of the door
the discovery in paul street a few months after villiers meeting with herbert mister clarke was sitting as usual by his after dinner hearth resolutely guarding his fancies from wandering in the direction of the bureau
for more than a week he had succeeded in keeping away from the memoirs and he cherished hopes of a complete self reformation but in spite of his endeavours
he had put the case or rather the outline of it conjecturally to a scientific friend who shook his head and thought clarke getting queer and on this particular evening clarke was making an effort to rationalize the story
i have not seen you for many months i should think nearly a year come in come in and how are you villiers want any advice about investments no thanks i fancy everything i have in that way is pretty safe no clarke
i am afraid you will think it all rather absurd when i tell my tale i sometimes think so myself and that's just what i made up my mind to come to you as i know you're a practical man mister villiers was ignorant of the memoirs to prove the existence of the devil
but this i think beats all i was coming out of a restaurant one nasty winter night about three months ago i had had a capital dinner and a good bottle of chianti and i stood for a moment on the pavement thinking what a mystery there is about london streets and the companies that pass along them
a bottle of red wine encourages these fancies clarke and i dare say i should have thought a page of small type
we walked up and down one of those long and dark soho streets and there i listened to his story he said he had married a beautiful girl some years younger than himself and as he put it she had corrupted him body and soul he wouldn't go into details
he said he dare not that what he had seen and heard haunted him by night and day
there was something about the man that made me shiver i don't know why but it was there i gave him a little money and sent him away and i assure you that when he was gone i gasped for breath his presence seemed to chill one's blood
i suppose the poor fellow had made an imprudent marriage and in plain english gone to the bad well listen to this villiers told clarke the story he had heard from austin you see he concluded
there can be but little doubt that this mister blank whoever he was died of sheer terror he saw something so awful so terrible that it cut short his life and what he saw he most certainly saw in that house which
had got a bad name in the neighbourhood i had the curiosity to go and look at the place for myself it's a saddening kind of street the houses are old enough to be mean and dreary but not old enough to be quaint
as far as i could see most of them are let in lodgings furnished and unfurnished and almost every door has three bells to it here and there the ground floors have been made into shops of the commonest kind it's a dismal street in every way i found number twenty was to let
and i went to the agent's and got the key of course i should have heard nothing of the herberts in that quarter but i asked the man fair and square
and told me the herberts had left immediately after the unpleasantness as he called it
i have always been rather fond of going over empty houses there's a sort of fascination about the desolate empty rooms with the nails sticking in the walls and the dust thick upon the window sills but i didn't enjoy going over number twenty paul street
heavy feeling about the air of the house of course all empty houses are stuffy and so forth but this was something quite different i can't describe it to you but it seemed to stop the breath i went into the front room and the back room
and the kitchens downstairs they were all dirty and dusty enough as you would expect but there was something strange about them all i couldn't define it to you i only know i felt queer it was one of the rooms on the first floor though that was the worst
it was a largish room and once on a time the paper must have been cheerful enough but when i saw it paint paper and everything were most doleful but the room was full of horror i felt my teeth grinding as i put my hand on the door and when i went in
however i pulled myself together and stood against the end wall wondering what on earth there could be about the room to make my limbs tremble
in one corner there was a pile of newspapers littered on the floor and i began looking at them they were papers of three or four years ago some of them half torn
people stared at me as i walked along the street and one man said i was drunk i was staggering about from one side of the pavement to the other and it was as much as i could do to take the key back to the agent and get home
suffering from what my doctor called nervous shock and exhaustion one of those days i was reading the evening paper and happened to notice a paragraph headed starved to death
a model lodging house in marylebone a door locked for several days and a dead man in his chair when they broke in the deceased said the paragraph was known as charles herbert
his name was familiar to the public three years ago in connection with the mysterious death in paul street tottenham court road the deceased being the tenant of the house number twenty
which i am sure it was the man's life was all a tragedy and a tragedy of a stranger sort than they put on the boards and that is the story is it said clarke musingly yes that is the story
scarcely know what to say about it there are no doubt circumstances in the case which seem peculiar the finding of the dead man in the area of herbert's house for instance
but after all it is conceivable that the facts may be explained in a straightforward manner as to your own sensations when you went to see the house i would suggest that they were due to a vivid imagination
i don't exactly see what more can be said or done in the matter you evidently think there is a mystery of some kind but herbert is dead where then do you propose to look i propose to look for the woman the woman whom he married she is the mystery
the two men sat silent by the fireside
and villiers wrapped in his gloomy fancies i think i will have a cigarette he said at last and put his hand in his pocket to feel for the cigarette case ah he said starting slightly i forgot i had something to show you
you remember my saying that i had found a rather curious sketch amongst the pile of old newspapers at the house in paul street here it is
it was covered with brown paper and secured with string and the knots were troublesome in spite of himself clarke felt inquisitive
and unfolded the outer covering inside was a second wrapping of tissue and villiers took it off and handed the small piece of paper to clarke without a word there was dead silence in the room for five minutes or more
the two men sat so still that they could hear the ticking of the tall old fashioned clock that stood outside in the hall and in the mind of one of them the slow monotony of sound woke up a far far memory
it had evidently been drawn with great care and by a true artist for the woman's soul looked out of the eyes and the lips were parted with a strange smile clarke gazed still at the face it brought to his memory one summer evening long ago
he saw again the long lovely valley the river winding between the hills
he heard a voice speaking to him across the waves of many years and saying clarke mary will see the god pan
listening to the heavy ticking of the clock waiting and watching watching the figure lying on the green chair beneath the lamplight mary rose up and he looked into her eyes and his heart grew cold within him who is this woman
he said at last his voice was dry and hoarse that is the woman who herbert married clarke looked again at the sketch it was not mary after all there certainly was mary's face but there was something else
something he had not seen on mary's features when the white clad girl entered the laboratory with the doctor nor at her terrible awakening nor when she lay grinning on the bed whatever it was the glance that came from those eyes the smile on the full lips
or the expression of the whole face clarke shuddered before it at his inmost soul and thought unconsciously of doctor phillip's words the most vivid presentment of evil i have ever seen he turned the paper over mechanically in his hand
and glanced at the back good god clarke what is the matter you are as white as death
as clarke fell back with a groan and let the paper drop from his hands i don't feel very well villiers i am subject to these attacks pour me out a little wine thanks that will do i shall feel better in a few minutes
villiers picked up the fallen sketch and turned it over as clarke had done you saw that he said that's how i identified it as being a portrait of herbert's wife or i should say his widow
better thanks it was only a passing faintness i don't think i quite catch your meaning what did you say enabled you to identify the picture
was written on the back didn't i tell you her name was helen yes helen vaughan clarke groaned there could be no shadow of doubt now don't you agree with me said villiers that in the story i have told you to night
and in the part this woman plays in it there are some very strange points yes villiers clarke muttered it is a strange story indeed a strange story indeed you must give me time to think it over
the fragments amongst the papers of the well known physician doctor robert matheson of ashley street piccadilly who died suddenly of apoplectic seizure at the beginning of eighteen ninety two a leaf of manuscript paper was found
covered with pencil jottings these notes were in latin much abbreviated and had evidently been made in great haste
and some words have up to the present time evaded all the efforts of the expert employed
the following is a translation of doctor matheson's manuscript whether science would benefit by these brief notes if they could be published i do not know but rather doubt
to use it or to burn it as he may think fit as was befitting i did all that my knowledge suggested to make sure that i was suffering under no delusion at first astounded i could hardly think but in a minute's time i was sure that my pulse was steady and regular
and that i was in my real and true senses i then fixed my eyes quietly on what was before me though horror and revolting nausea rose up within me and an odour of corruption choked my breath i remained firm
to see that which was on the bed lying there black like ink transformed before my eyes the skin and the flesh and the muscles and the bones and the firm structure of the human body that i had thought to be unchangeable
and permanent as adamant began to melt and dissolve i know that the body may be separated into its elements by external agencies but i should have refused to believe what i saw for here there was some internal force of which i knew nothing
that caused dissolution and change here too was all the work by which man had been made repeated before my eyes i saw the form waver from sex to sex dividing itself from itself and then again reunited
then i saw the body descend to the beasts whence it ascended and that which was on the heights go down to the depths even to the abyss of all being the principle of life which makes organism always remained while the outward form changed
the light within the room had turned to blackness not the darkness of night in which objects are seen dimly for i could see clearly and without difficulty but it was the negation of light objects were presented to my eyes if i may say so without any medium
for one instance i saw a form shaped in dimness before me which i will not farther describe but the symbol of this form may be seen in ancient sculptures and in paintings which survived beneath the lava too foul to be spoken of
as a horrible and unspeakable shape neither man nor beast was changed into human form there came finally death i who saw all this not without great horror and loathing of soul here write my name
declaring all that i have set on this paper to be true robert matheson
such raymond is the story of what i know and what i have seen the burden of it was too heavy for me to bear alone and yet i could tell it to none but you villiers who was with me at the last knows nothing of that awful secret of the wood
of how what we both saw die lay upon the smooth sweet turf amidst the summer flowers half in sun and half in shadow and holding the girl rachel's hand called and summoned those companions and shaped in solid form upon the earth we tread upon
the horror which we can but hint at which we can only name under a figure
nor of that resemblance which struck me as with a blow upon my heart when i saw the portrait which filled the cup of terror at the end what this can mean i dare not guess i know that what i saw perish was not mary and yet in the last agony mary's eyes looked into mine
whether there can be any one who can show the last link in this chain of awful mystery i do not know but if there be any one who can do this you raymond are the man and if you know the secret it rests with you to tell it or not as you please
i am writing this letter to you immediately on my getting back to town i have been in the country for the last few days perhaps you may be able to guess in which part while the horror and wonder of london was at its height
for missus beaumont as i have told you was well known in society i wrote to my friend doctor phillips giving some brief outline or rather hint of what happened and asking him to tell me the name of the village where the events he had related to me occurred he gave me the name
as he said with the less hesitation because rachel's father and mother were dead and the rest of the family had gone to a relative in the state of washington six months before the parents he said had undoubtedly died of grief and horror caused by the terrible death of their daughter
on the evening of the day which i received phillips letter i was at caermaen and standing beneath the mouldering roman walls white with the winters of seventeen hundred years i looked over the meadow where once had stood the older temple of the god of the deeps
and saw a house gleaming in the sunlight it was the house where helen had lived i stayed at caermaen for several days the people of the place i found knew little and had guessed less those whom i spoke to on the matter seemed surprised that an antiquarian
as i professed myself to be should trouble about a village tragedy of which they gave a very commonplace version and as you may imagine i told nothing of what i knew most of my time was spent in the great wood that rises just above the village and climbs the hillside
and goes down to the river in the valley such another long lovely valley raymond as that on which we looked one summer night walking to and fro before your house for many an hour i strayed through the maze of the forest turning now to right and now to left
pacing slowly down long alleys of undergrowth shadowy and chill even under the midday sun and halting beneath great oaks lying on the short turf of a clearing where the faint sweet scent of wild roses came to me on the wind and mixed with the heavy perfume of the elder
whose mingled odour is like the odour of the room of the dead a vapour of incense and corruption i stood at the edges of the wood gazing at all the pomp and procession of the foxgloves towering amidst the bracken and shining red in the broad sunshine
and beyond them into deep thickets of close undergrowth where springs boil up from the rock and nourish the water weeds dank and evil but in all my wanderings i avoided one part of the wood it was not till yesterday that i climbed to the summit of the hill
and stood upon the ancient roman road that threads the highest ridge of the wood here they had walked helen and rachel along this quiet causeway upon the pavement of green turf shut in on either side by high banks of red earth
and tall hedges of shining beech and here i followed in their steps looking out now and again through partings in the boughs and seeing on one side the sweep of the wood stretching far to right and left and sinking into the broad level and beyond the yellow sea
and the land over the sea on the other side was the valley and the river and hill following hill as wave on wave and wood and meadow and cornfield and white houses gleaming and a great wall of mountain and far blue peaks in the north
and into this pleasant summer glade rachel passed a girl and left it who shall say what i did not stay long there in a small town near caermaen there is a museum
containing for the most part roman remains which have been found in the neighbourhood at various times on the day after my arrival in caermaen i walked over to the town in question and took the opportunity of inspecting the museum
fragments of tessellated pavement which the place contains i was shown a small square pillar of white stone which had been recently discovered in the wood of which i have been speaking and as i found on inquiry in that open space where the roman road broadens out
on one side of the pillar was an inscription of which i took a note some of the letters have been defaced but i do not think there can be any doubt as to those which i supply the inscription is as follows
to the great god nodens the god of the great deep or abyss flavius senilis has erected this pillar on account of the marriage which he saw beneath the shade
the custodian of the museum informed me that local antiquaries were much puzzled not by the inscription or by any difficulty in translating it but as to the circumstance or rite to which allusion is made
and now my dear clarke as to what you tell me about helen vaughan whom you say you saw die under circumstances of the utmost and almost incredible horror i was interested in your account
but a good deal nay all of what you told me i knew already i can understand the strange likeness you remarked in both the portrait and in the actual face
you remember that still summer night so many years ago
and of the god pan you remember mary she was the mother of helen vaughan who was born nine months after that night mary never recovered her reason she lay as you saw her all the while upon her bed
and a few days after the child was born she died i fancy that just at the last she knew me i was standing by the bed and the old look came into her eyes for a second and then she shuddered and groaned and died
it was an ill work i did that night when you were present i broke open the door of the house of life without knowing or caring what might pass forth or enter in i recollect your telling me at the time sharply enough and rightly too in one sense
that i had ruined the reason of a human being by a foolish experiment based on an absurd theory you did well to blame me but my theory was not all absurdity what i said mary would see she saw
but i forgot that no human eyes can look on such a sight with impunity and i forgot as i have just said that when the house of life is thus thrown open there may enter in that for which we have no name and human flesh may become the veil of a horror one dare not express
i played with energies which i did not understand you have seen the ending of it helen vaughan did well to bind the cord about her neck and die though the death was horrible the blackened face the hideous form upon the bed
changing and melting before your eyes from woman to man from man to beast and from beast to worse than beast all the strange horror that you witness surprises me but little what you say the doctor whom you sent for saw and shuddered at i noticed long ago
i knew what i had done the moment the child was born and when it was scarcely five years old i surprised it not once or twice but several times with a playmate you may guess of what kind it was for me a constant an incarnate horror
and after a few years i felt i could bear it no more and i sent helen vaughan away you know now what frightened the boy in the wood the rest of the strange story and all else that you tell me
as discovered by your friend i have contrived to learn from time to time almost to the last chapter and now
do you know i am convinced that what you told me about paul street and the herberts is a mere episode in an extraordinary history i may as well confess to you that when i asked you about herbert a few months ago i had just seen him you had seen him where
he begged of me in the street one night he was in the most pitiable plight but i recognized the man and i got him to tell me his history or at least the outline of it in brief it amounted to this he had been ruined by his wife
and i mean to find her sooner or later i know a man named clarke a dry fellow in fact a man of business but shrewd enough you understand my meaning not shrewd in the mere business sense of the word but a man who really knows something about men and life well
i laid the case before him and he was evidently impressed he said it needed consideration and asked me to come again in the course of a week a few days later i received this extraordinary letter austin took the envelope drew out the letter and read it curiously
it ran as follows my dear villiers i have thought over the matter on which you consulted me the other night
throw the portrait into the fire blot out the story from your mind
you will think no doubt that i am in possession of some secret information and to a certain extent that is the case but i only know a little i am like a traveller who has peered over an abyss and has drawn back in terror what i know is strange enough and horrible enough
but beyond my knowledge there are depths and horrors more frightful still more incredible than any tale told of winter nights about the fire i have resolved and nothing shall shake that resolve to explore no whit farther
and if you value your happiness you will make the same determination come and see me by all means but we will talk on more cheerful topics than this austin folded the letter methodically and returned it to villiers
villiers told his story as he had told it to clarke and austin listened in silence he seemed puzzled how very curious that you should experience such an unpleasant sensation in that room he said at length
i hardly gather that it was a mere matter of the imagination a feeling of repulsion in short no it was more physical than mental it was as if i were inhaling at every breath some deadly fume which seemed to penetrate to every nerve and bone and sinew of my body
i felt racked from head to foot my eyes began to grow dim it was like the entrance of death yes yes very strange certainly you see your friend confesses that there is some very black story connected with this woman
did you notice any particular emotion in him when you were telling your tale yes i did he became very faint but he assured me that it was a mere passing attack to which he was subject did you believe him i did at the time but i don't now
he heard what i had to say with a good deal of indifference till i showed him the portrait it was then that he was seized with the attack of which i spoke he looked ghastly i assure you then he must have seen the woman before but there might be another explanation
what do you think i couldn't say to the best of my belief it was after turning the portrait in his hands that he nearly dropped from the chair the name you know was written on the back quite so after all it is impossible to come to any resolution in a case like this
i hate melodrama and nothing strikes me as more commonplace and tedious than the ordinary ghost story of commerce but really villiers it looks as if there were something very queer at the bottom of all this the two men had without noticing it turned up ashley street
leading northward from piccadilly it was a long street and rather a gloomy one but here and there a brighter taste had illuminated the dark houses with flowers and gay curtains and a cheerful paint on the doors
and looked at one of these houses geraniums red and white drooped from every sill and daffodil coloured curtains were draped back from each window it looks cheerful doesn't it he said yes and the inside is still more cheery
one of the pleasantest houses of the season so i have heard i haven't been there myself but i've met several men who have and they tell me it's uncommonly jovial whose house is it a missus beaumont's and who is she i couldn't tell you
i have heard she comes from south america but after all who she is is of little consequence she is a very wealthy woman there's no doubt of that
i hear she has some wonderful claret really marvellous wine which must have cost a fabulous sum lord argentine was telling me about it he was there last sunday evening he assures me he has never tasted such a wine and argentine as you know is an expert by the way that reminds me
argentine asked her how old the wine was
about a thousand years i believe lord argentine thought she was chaffing him you know but when he laughed she said she was speaking quite seriously and offered to show him the jar of course he couldn't say anything more after that but it seems rather antiquated for a beverage doesn't it
why here we are at my rooms come in won't you thanks i think i will i haven't seen the curiosity shop for a while it was a room furnished richly yet oddly where every jar and bookcase and table
and every rug and jar and ornament seemed to be a thing apart preserving each its own individuality anything fresh lately said villiers after a while no i think not you saw those queer jugs didn't you i thought so
austin glanced around the room from cupboard to cupboard from shelf to shelf in search of some new oddity his eyes fell at last on an odd chest pleasantly and quaintly carved which stood in a dark corner of the room ah
he said i was forgetting i have got something to show you austin unlocked the chest drew out a thick quarto volume laid it on the table and resumed the cigar he had put down did you know arthur meyrick the painter villiers
a little i met him two or three times at the house of a friend of mine what has become of him i haven't heard his name mentioned for some time he's dead you don't say so quite young wasn't he yes
what did he die of i don't know he was an intimate friend of mine and a thoroughly good fellow he used to come here and talk to me for hours and he was one of the best talkers i have met
about eighteen months ago he was feeling rather overworked and partly at my suggestion he went off on a sort of roving expedition with no very definite end or aim about it i believe new york was to be his first port but i never heard from him
stating that he had attended the late mister meyrick during his illness and that the deceased had expressed an earnest wish that the enclosed packet should be sent to me after his death that was all and haven't you written for further particulars
i have been thinking of doing so you would advise me to write to the doctor certainly and what about the book it was sealed up when i got it
it is something very rare meyrick was a collector perhaps no i think not hardly a collector
they are peculiar but i like them but aren't you going to show me poor meyrick's legacy yes yes to be sure the fact is it's rather a peculiar sort of thing and i haven't shown it to any one
i wouldn't say anything about it if i were you there it is
it isn't a printed volume then he said no it is a collection of drawings in black and white by my poor friend meyrick villiers turned to the first page
on the third page was a design which made villiers start and look up at austin he was gazing abstractedly out of the window
absorbed in spite of himself in the frightful walpurgis night of evil strange monstrous evil that the dead artist had set forth in hard black and white the figures of fauns and satyrs and aegipans danced before his eyes the darkness of the thicket
the dance on the mountain top the scenes by lonely shores in green vineyards by rocks and desert places passed before him a world before which the human soul seemed to shrink back and shudder
he had seen enough but the picture on the last leaf caught his eye as he almost closed the book austin well what is it do you know who that is it was a woman's face alone on the white page
i do who is it it is missus herbert are you sure i am perfectly sure of it poor meyrick he is one more chapter in her history
they are frightful lock the book up again austin if i were you i would burn it it must be a terrible companion even though it be in a chest yes they are singular drawings but i wonder what connection there could be between meyrick and missus herbert
or what link between her and these designs ah who can say
but in my own opinion this helen vaughan or missus herbert is only the beginning she will come back to london austin depend on it she will come back and we shall hear more about her then
it was a dark wet gloomy night in autumn when in an upper room of a mean house situated in an obscure street or rather court near lambeth there sat all alone a one eyed man grotesquely habited
either for lack of better garments or for purposes of disguise in a loose greatcoat with arms half as long again as his own and a capacity of breadth and length which would have admitted of his winding himself in it head and all
and so very poor and wretched in its character perhaps missus squeers herself would have had some difficulty in recognising her lord quickened though her natural sagacity doubtless would have been by the affectionate yearnings and impulses of a tender wife
but missus squeers's lord it was and in a tolerably disconsolate mood missus squeers's lord appeared to be as helping himself from a black bottle which stood on the table beside him he cast round the chamber a look
which the glance of mister squeers so discontentedly wandered or in the narrow street into which it might have penetrated if he had thought fit to approach the window
the bedstead and such few other articles of necessary furniture as it contained were of the commonest description in a most crazy state and of a most uninviting appearance the street was muddy dirty and deserted
having but one outlet it was traversed by few but the inhabitants at any time and the night being one of those on which most people are glad to be within doors
mister squeers continued to look disconsolately about him and to listen to these noises in profound silence broken only by the rustling of his large coat as he now and then moved his arm to raise his glass to his lips
mister squeers continued to do this for some time until the increasing gloom warned him to snuff the candle seeming to be slightly roused by this exertion
traced upon it by the wet and damp which had penetrated through the roof broke into the following soliloquy
an uncommon pretty go
a follering up this here blessed old dowager petty larcenerer mister squeers delivered himself of this epithet with great difficulty and effort
that's the worst of ever being in with a owdacious chap like that old nickleby
i never see soliloquised mister squeers in continuation i never see nor come across such a file as that old nickleby never he's out of everybody's depth he is he's what you may call a rasper is nickleby
to see how sly and cunning he grubbed on day after day
till he found out where this precious missus peg was hid and cleared the ground for me to work upon
ah he'd have made a good un in our line but it would have been too limited for him his genius would have busted all bonds and coming over every obstacle broke down all before it till it erected itself into a monneyment of well
making a halt in his reflections at this place
proceeded to con over its contents with the air of a man who had read it very often and now refreshed his memory rather in the absence of better amusement than for any specific information the pigs is well
said mister squeers the cows is well and the boys is bobbish young sprouter has been a winking has he i'll wink him when i get back cobbey would persist in sniffing while he was a eating his dinner and said that the beef was so strong it made him
very good cobbey we'll see if we can't make you sniff a little without beef
it's part of a deep laid system
as would have died exactly at the end of the quarter taking it out of me to the very last and then carrying his spite to the utmost extremity the juniorest palmer said he wished he was in heaven
i really don't know i do not know what's to be done with that young fellow he's always a wishing something horrid
pretty wicious that for a child of six mister squeers was so much moved by the contemplation of this hardened nature in one so young that he angrily put up the letter and sought in a new train of ideas a subject of consolation
it's a long time to have been a lingering in london he said
and there's their keep to be substracted besides there's nothing lost neither by one's being here because the boys money comes in just the same as if i was at home and missus squeers she keeps them in order
it's pretty nigh the time to wait upon the old woman from what she said last night i suspect that if i'm to succeed at all i shall succeed tonight so
and put myself in spirits missus squeers my dear your health leering with his one eye as if the lady to whom he drank had been actually present
it is not surprising that he found himself by this time in an extremely cheerful state and quite enough excited for his purpose what this purpose was soon appeared for after a few turns about the room to steady himself
but what's the use of tapping he said she'll never hear i suppose she isn't doing anything very particular and if she is it don't much matter that i see with this brief preface mister squeers applied his hand to the latch
of the door and thrusting his head into a garret far more deplorable than that he had just left and seeing that there was nobody there but an old woman who was bending over a wretched fire for although the weather was still warm the evening was chilly walked in and tapped her on the shoulder
well my slider said mister squeers jocularly
inquired peg ah it's me
it's and governed by squeers understood as a acorn a hour but when the h is sounded the a only is to be used as a
i've done it accidentally delivering this reply in his accustomed tone of voice in which of course it was inaudible to peg mister squeers drew a stool to the fire and placing himself over against her
i've come according to promise roared squeers so they used to say in that part of the country i come from observed peg complacently
amiable as he possibly could the while for peg's eye was upon him and she was chuckling fearfully as though in delight at having made a choice repartee do you see this this is a bottle
bawled squeers this is a glass peg saw that too see here then said squeers accompanying his remarks with appropriate action
your health slider and empty it
which i'm forced to throw into the fire hallo
and hand it over to you
said peg she understands that anyways muttered squeers watching missus sliderskew as she dispatched her portion
now then let's have a talk how's the rheumatics
missus sliderskew didn't know but suggested that it was possibly because they couldn't help it
is all philosophy together that's what it is the heavenly bodies is philosophy and the earthly bodies is philosophy if there's a screw loose in a heavenly body that's philosophy
that's philosophy too or it may be that sometimes there's a little metaphysics in it but that's not often philosophy's the chap for me
if a parent asks a question in the classical commercial or mathematical line says i gravely why sir
are you a philosopher no mister squeers he says
then sir says i i am sorry for you for i shan't be able to explain it naturally the parent goes away and wishes he was a philosopher and equally naturally thinks i'm one
saying this and a great deal more with tipsy profundity and a serio comic air and keeping his eye all the time on missus sliderskew who was unable to hear one word mister squeers concluded by helping himself and passing the bottle
to which peg did becoming reverence that's the time of day said mister squeers
again missus sliderskew chuckled but modesty forbade her assenting verbally to the compliment twenty pound ten better repeated mister squeers than you did that day when i first introduced myself don't you know
ah said peg shaking her head but you frightened me that day did i said squeers well it was rather a startling thing for a stranger to come and recommend himself by saying that he knew all about you
and what your name was and why you were living so quiet here and what you had boned and who you boned it from wasn't it peg nodded her head in strong assent but i know everything that happens in that way you see continued
nothing takes place of that kind that i an't up to entirely
of first rate standing and understanding too
that gets themselves into difficulties by being too nimble with their fingers i'm mister squeers's catalogue of his own merits and accomplishments which was partly the result of a concerted plan between himself and ralph nickleby
and flowed in part from the black bottle was here interrupted by missus sliderskew
she cried folding her arms and wagging her head and so
no replied squeers that he wasn't
tell me all about it again cried peg with a malicious relish of her old master's defeat
let's hear it all again beginning at the beginning now as if you'd never told me let's have it every word now now beginning at the very first you know when he went to the house that morning
mister squeers plying missus sliderskew freely with the liquor
complied with this request by describing the discomfiture of arthur gride with such improvements on the truth as happened to occur to him and the ingenious invention and application of which had been very instrumental in recommending him to her notice in the beginning of their acquaintance
and wrinkling her cadaverous face into so many and such complicated forms of ugliness
he's a treacherous old goat said peg and cozened me with cunning tricks and lying promises but never mind i'm even with him i'm even with him
but with the disappointment besides you're a long way ahead out of sight slider quite out of sight and that reminds me he added handing her the glass if you want me to give you my opinion of them deeds
and tell you what you'd better keep and what you'd better burn why now's your time slider there an't no hurry for that said peg with several knowing looks and winks oh very well
observed squeers it don't matter to me you asked me you know i shouldn't charge you nothing being a friend you're the best judge of course but you're a bold woman slider how do you mean bold said peg why
littering about when they might be turned into money them as wasn't useful made away with
laid by somewheres safe that's all returned squeers but everybody's the best judge of their own affairs all i say is slider i wouldn't do it come said peg
don't talk as if it was a treat
had not become so extremely affectionate
repressing with as good a grace as possible these little familiarities for which there is reason to believe the black bottle was at least as much to blame as any constitutional infirmity on the part of missus sliderskew he protested that he had only been joking
and in proof of his unimpaired good humour
and now you're up my slider bawled squeers as she rose to fetch them bolt the door peg trotted to the door and after fumbling at the bolt crept to the other end of the room
and from beneath the coals which filled the bottom of the cupboard drew forth a small deal box
a small key with which she signed to that gentleman to open it mister squeers who had eagerly followed her every motion lost no time in obeying this hint and throwing back the lid
gazed with rapture on the documents which lay within now you see
and staying his impatient hand what's of no use we'll burn what we can get
any we could get him into trouble by and fret and waste away his heart to shreds
for that's what i want to do and what i hoped to do when i left him i thought said squeers that you didn't bear him any particular good will but i say why didn't you take some money besides
some what asked peg some money roared squeers
so that she may have the pleasure of nursing me some money slider money why what a man you are to ask cried peg with some contempt if i had taken money from arthur gride
he'd have scoured the whole earth to find me aye and he'd have smelt it out and raked it up somehow if i had buried it at the bottom of the deepest well in england no no i knew better than that i took what i thought his secrets were hid in
and them he couldn't afford to make public let'em be worth ever so much money he's an old dog a sly old cunning thankless dog he first starved and then tricked me and if i could i'd kill him
all right and very laudable said squeers but first and foremost slider burn the box you should never keep things as may lead to discovery always mind that
and burn it in little
peg expressing her acquiescence in this arrangement mister squeers turned the box bottom upwards and tumbling the contents upon the floor handed it to her the destruction of the box being an extemporary device for engaging her attention
in case it should prove desirable to distract it from his own proceedings there said squeers you poke the pieces between the bars and make up a
and taking the candle down beside him mister squeers with great eagerness and a cunning grin overspreading his face entered upon his task of examination if the old woman had not been very deaf she must have heard when she last went to the door
the breathing of two persons close behind it and if those two persons had been unacquainted with her infirmity they must probably have chosen that moment either for presenting themselves
they remained quite still and now not only appeared unobserved at the door which was not bolted for the bolt had no hasp but warily and with noiseless footsteps advanced into the room
as they stole farther and farther in by slight and scarcely perceptible degrees and with such caution that they scarcely seemed to breathe
as the light of the fire did that of his companion both intently engaged and wearing faces of
who took advantage of the slightest sound to cover their advance
and all was silent stopped again this with the large bare room damp walls and flickering doubtful light combined to form a scene
could scarcely have failed to derive some interest from and would not readily have forgotten of the stealthy comers frank cheeryble was one and newman noggs the other newman had caught up by the rusty
when frank with an earnest gesture stayed his arm and taking another step in advance
he could plainly distinguish the writing which he held up to his eye mister squeers not being remarkably erudite appeared to be considerably puzzled by this first prize which was in an engrossing hand and not very legible except to a practised eye
having tried it by reading from left to right and from right to left and finding it equally clear both ways he turned it upside down with no better success ha ha ha chuckled peg
who on her knees before the fire was feeding it with fragments of the box and grinning in most devilish exultation
nothing particular replied squeers tossing it towards her it's only an old lease as well as i can make out throw it in the fire missus sliderskew complied and inquired what the next one was
this said squeers is a bundle of overdue acceptances and renewed bills of six or eight young gentlemen but they're all m p so it's of no use to anybody throw it in the fire
peg did as she was bidden and waited for the next
take care of that slider literally for god's sake it'll fetch its price at the auction mart what's the next inquired peg why this said squeers
seems from the two letters that's with it
take care of that for if he don't pay it his bishop will very soon be down upon him we know what the camel and the needle's eye means
what's the matter said peg nothing replied squeers only i'm looking for
bonds take care of them warrant of attorney take care of that two cognovits take care of them lease and release burn that ah
madeline bray come of age or marry the said madeline here burn that
you know what it is to be in love with a woman you know how it cuts short the days and with what loving listlessness one drifts into the morrow you know that forgetfulness of everything which comes of a violent confident reciprocated love
every being who is not the beloved one seems a useless being in creation one regrets having cast scraps of one's heart to other women and one can not believe in the possibility of ever pressing another hand
than that which one holds between one's hands the mind admits neither work nor remembrance nothing in short which can distract it from the one thought in which it is ceaselessly absorbed
every day one discovers in one's mistress a new charm and unknown delights existence itself is but the unceasing accomplishment of an unchanging desire
the soul is but the vestal charged to feed the sacred fire of love
there we listened to the cheerful harmonies of evening both of us thinking of the coming hours which should leave us to one another till the dawn of day at other times we did not get up all day we did not even let the sunlight enter our room
but only to bring in our meals and even these we took without getting up
to that succeeded a brief sleep for disappearing into the depths of our love we were like two divers who only come to the surface to take breath nevertheless i surprised moments of sadness even tears in marguerite
i asked her the cause of her trouble and she answered our love is not like other loves my armand
repenting of your love and accusing me of my past you should let me fall back into that life from which you have taken me
tell me that you will never leave me
at these words she looked at me as if to read in my eyes whether my oath was sincere then flung herself into my arms and hiding her head in my bosom said to me
one evening seated on the balcony outside the window we looked at the moon which seemed to rise with difficulty out of its bed of clouds and we listened to the wind violently rustling the trees we held each other's hands
and for a whole quarter of an hour we had not spoken when marguerite said to me winter is at hand would you like for us to go abroad where to italy you are tired of here
i am afraid of the winter i am particularly afraid of your return to paris why
will you go abroad i will sell all that i have we will go and live there
will you by all means if you like marguerite let us travel i said but where is the necessity of selling things which you will be glad of when we return i have not a large enough fortune to accept such a sacrifice
if that will amuse you the least in the world after all no she said leaving the window and going to sit down on the sofa at the other end of the room why should we spend money abroad i cost you enough already here
you reproach me marguerite it isn't generous
she said giving me her hand this thunder weather gets on my nerves i do not say what i intend to say and after embracing me she fell into a long reverie
and yet i often found her sad without being able to get any explanation of the reason except some physical cause fearing that so monotonous a life was beginning to weary her i proposed returning to paris
prudence now came but rarely but she often wrote letters which i never asked to see though every time they came they seemed to preoccupy marguerite deeply i did not know what to think
one day marguerite was in her room i entered she was writing to whom are you writing i asked to prudence do you want to see what i am writing
and i answered that i had no desire to know what she was writing and yet i was certain that letter would have explained to me the cause of her sadness next day the weather was splendid
marguerite proposed to me to take the boat and go as far as the island of croissy she seemed very cheerful when we got back it was five o'clock
said nanine as she saw us enter she has gone again asked marguerite yes madame in the carriage she said it was arranged quite right said marguerite sharply
still the carriage did not return how is it that prudence does not send you back your carriage i asked one day one of the horses is ill and there are some repairs to be done
it is better to have that done while we are here and don't need a carriage than to wait till we get back to paris prudence came two days afterward and confirmed what marguerite had said
and when i joined them they changed the conversation
prudence complained of the cold and asked marguerite to lend her a shawl so a month passed and all the time marguerite was more joyous and more affectionate than she ever had been nevertheless the carriage did not return
the shawl had not been sent back and i began to be anxious in spite of myself and as i knew in which drawer marguerite put prudence's letters i took advantage of a moment when she was at the other end of the garden went to the drawer
and tried to open it in vain for it was locked when i opened the drawer in which the trinkets and diamonds were usually kept these opened without resistance but the jewel cases had disappeared
my good marguerite i said to her i am going to ask your permission to go to paris they do not know my address
i have no doubt he is concerned i ought to answer him go my friend she said but be back early i went straight to prudence come said i without beating about the bush
tell me frankly where are marguerite's horses sold the shawl sold the diamonds pawned and who has sold and pawned them
why did you not tell me because marguerite made me promise not to and why did you not ask me for money because she wouldn't let me and where has this money gone in payments
is she much in debt thirty thousand francs or thereabouts ah my dear fellow didn't i tell you you wouldn't believe me now you are convinced
the upholsterer whom the duke had agreed to settle with was shown out of the house when he presented himself
he was given part payment out of the few thousand francs that i got from you
marguerite wanted to sell everything but it was too late and besides i should have opposed it but it was necessary to pay and in order not to ask you for money she sold her horses and her shawls and pawned her jewels
would you like to see the receipts and the pawn tickets and prudence opened the drawer and showed me the papers ah you think she continued with the insistence of a woman who can say i was right after all
ah you think it is enough to be in love and to go into the country and lead a dreamy pastoral life no my friend no by the side of that ideal life there is a material life
and the purest resolutions are held to earth by threads which seem slight enough
if marguerite has not been unfaithful to you twenty times it is because she has an exceptional nature it is not my fault for not advising her to for i couldn't bear to see the poor girl stripping herself of everything
she wouldn't she replied that she loved you and she wouldn't be unfaithful to you for anything in the world
but one can't pay one's creditors in that coin and now she can't free herself from debt unless she can raise thirty thousand francs all right i will provide that amount you will borrow it
good heavens why yes a fine thing that will be to do you will fall out with your father cripple your resources and one doesn't find thirty thousand francs from one day to another believe me my dear armand
i know women better than you do do not commit this folly you will be sorry for it one day be reasonable i don't advise you to leave marguerite but live with her as you did at the beginning
let her find the means to get out of this difficulty the duke will come back in a little while the comte de n if she would take him he told me yesterday even would pay all her debts
he has two hundred thousand a year it would be a position for her while you will certainly be obliged to leave her
and nothing would prevent your still being marguerite's lover she would cry a little at the beginning but she would come to accustom herself to it
imagine that marguerite is married
i have already told you all this once only at that time it was merely advice and now it is almost a necessity what prudence said was cruelly true
she went on putting away the papers she had just shown me women like marguerite always foresee that some one will love them never that they will love otherwise they would put aside money
and at thirty they could afford the luxury of having a lover for nothing if i had only known once what i know now in short say nothing to marguerite and bring her back to paris you have lived with her alone for four or five months
that is quite enough shut your eyes now that is all that any one asks of you at the end of a fortnight she will take the comte de n and she will save up during the winter
and prudence appeared to be enchanted with her advice which i refused indignantly not only my love and my dignity would not let me act thus but i was certain that feeling as she did now
enough joking i said to prudence tell me exactly how much marguerite is in need of i have told you thirty thousand francs and when does she require this sum
before the end of two months she shall have it prudence shrugged her shoulders i will give it to you i continued but you must swear to me that you will not tell marguerite that i have given it to you
don't be afraid and if she sends you anything else to sell or pawn let me know
she has nothing left i went straight to my own house to see if there were any letters from my father
the white cat by the comtesse d'aulnoy
and because they were all so good and so handsome he could not make up his mind to which of them to give his kingdom for he was growing an old man and began to think it would soon be time for him to let one of them reign in his stead
so he determined to set them a task to perform and whichever should be the most successful was to have the kingdom as his reward it was some time before he could decide what the task should be but at last he told them
that he had a fancy for a very beautiful little dog and that they were all to set out to find one for him they were to have a whole year in which to search and were all to return to the castle on the same day and present the various dogs they had chosen
at the same hour the three princes were greatly surprised by their father's sudden fancy for a little dog but when they heard that whichever of them brought back the prettiest little animal was to succeed his father on the throne
they made no further objection for it gave the two younger sons a chance they would not otherwise have had of being king so they bade their father good bye and after agreeing to be back at the castle at the same hour and on the same day
when a year should have passed away the three brothers all started together a great number of lords and servants accompanied them out of the city but when they had ridden about a league they sent everyone back
and after embracing one another affectionately they all set out to try their luck in different directions the two eldest met with many adventures on their travels but the youngest saw the most wonderful sights of all
he was young and handsome and as clever as a prince should be besides being brave wherever he went he enquired for dogs and hardly a day passed without his buying several big and little greyhounds spaniels
lap dogs and sheep dogs in fact every kind of dog that you could think of and very soon he had a troop of fifty or sixty trotting along behind him one of which he thought would surely win the prize so he journeyed on from day to day
not knowing where he was going until one night he lost his way in a thick dark forest and after wandering many weary miles in the wind and rain he was glad to see at last a bright light shining through the trees
he thought he must be near some woodcutter's cottage but what was his surprise when he found himself before the gateway of a splendid castle at first he hesitated about entering for his garments were travel stained and he was drenched with rain
so that no one could have possibly taken him for a prince all the beautiful little dogs he had taken so much trouble to collect had been lost in the forest and he was thoroughly weary and disheartened however something seemed to bid him enter the castle
so he pulled the bell immediately the gateway flew open and a number of beautiful white hands appeared and beckoned to him to cross the courtyard and enter the great hall
beside which stood a comfortable arm chair the hands pointed invitingly towards it and as soon as the prince had seated himself they proceeded to take off his wet muddy clothes and dress him in a magnificent suit of silk and velvet
when he was ready the hands led him into a brilliantly lighted room in which was a table spread for supper at the end of the room was a raised platform upon which a number of cats were seated all playing different musical instruments
the prince began to think he must be dreaming when the door opened and a lovely little white cat came in she wore a long black veil and was accompanied by a number of cats dressed in black and carrying swords she came straight up to the prince
and in a sweet sad little voice bade him welcome then she ordered supper to be served and the whole company sat down together they were waited upon by the mysterious hands but many of the dishes were not to the prince's liking
stewed rats and mice may be a first rate meal for a cat but the prince did not feel inclined to try them however the white cat ordered the hands to serve the prince with the dishes he liked best and at once without his even mentioning his favorite food
he was supplied with every dainty he could think of after the prince had satisfied his hunger he noticed that the cat wore a bracelet upon her paw in which was set a miniature of himself but when he questioned her about it she sighed
and seemed so sad that like a well behaved prince he said no more about the matter soon after supper the hands conducted him to bed
and did not awaken until late the next morning on looking out of his window he saw that the white cat and her attendants were about to start out on a hunting expedition
he hurried down to join his hostess the hands led him up to a wooden horse and seemed to expect him to mount at first the prince was inclined to be angry but the white cat told him so gently that she had no better steed to offer him
that he at once mounted feeling very much ashamed of his ill humor they had an excellent day's sport the white cat who rode a monkey proved herself a clever huntress climbing the tallest trees with the greatest ease
and without once falling from her steed never was there a pleasanter hunting party and day after day the time passed so happily away that the prince forgot all about the little dog he was searching for and even forgot his own home and his father's promise
at length the white cat reminded him that in three days he must appear at court and the prince was terribly upset to think that he had now no chance of winning his father's kingdom but the white cat told him that all would be well and giving him an acorn
bade him mount the wooden horse and ride away the prince thought she must be mocking him but when she held the acorn to his ear he heard quite plainly a little dog's bark inside this acorn she said is the prettiest little dog in the world
the prince thanked her and having bidden her a sorrowful farewell mounted his wooden steed and rode away before he reached the castle he met his two brothers who made fine fun of the wooden horse
and also of the big ugly dog which trotted by his side
hoping that it would gain the prize when they reached the palace everyone was loud in praise of the two lovely little dogs the elder brothers had brought back with them but when the youngest opened his acorn and showed a tiny dog lying upon a white satin cushion
they knew that this must be the prettiest little dog in the world however the king did not feel inclined to give up his throne just yet so he told the brothers that there was one more task they must first perform they must bring him a piece of muslin so fine
that it would pass through the eye of a needle so once more the brothers set out upon their travels as for the youngest he mounted his wooden horse and rode straight back to his dear white cat she was delighted to welcome him
and when the prince told her that the king had now ordered him to find a piece of muslin fine enough to go through the eye of a needle she smiled at him very sweetly and told him to be of good cheer in my palace i have some very clever spinners
she said and i will set them to work upon the muslin the prince had begun to suspect by this time that the white cat was no ordinary pussy but whenever he begged her to tell him her history she only shook her head mournfully
and sighed well the second year passed away as quickly as the first and the night before the day on which the three princes were expected at their father's court the white cat gave the young prince a walnut telling him that it contained the muslin
then she bade him good by and he mounted the wooden horse and rode away this time the young prince was so late that his brothers had already begun to display their pieces of muslin to the king when he arrived at the castle gates
the materials they had brought were of extremely fine texture and passed easily through the eye of a darning needle but through the small needle the king had provided they would not pass then the youngest prince stepped into the great hall
and produced his walnut he cracked it carefully and found inside a hazel nut this when cracked held a cherrystone inside the cherrystone was a grain of wheat and in the wheat a millet seed
the prince himself began to mistrust the white cat but he instantly felt a cat's claw scratch him gently so he persevered opened the millet seed and found inside a beautiful piece of soft white muslin
that was four hundred ells long at the very least it passed with the greatest ease through the eye of the smallest needle in the kingdom and the prince felt that now the prize must be his
so he told the princes that before any one of them could become king he must find a princess to marry him who would be lovely enough to grace her high station and whichever of the princes brought home the most beautiful bride should really have the kingdom for his own
and told her how very unfairly his father had behaved to him she comforted him as best she could and told him not to be afraid for she would introduce him to the loveliest princess the sun had ever shone upon
the appointed time passed happily away and one evening the white cat reminded the prince that on the next day he must return home alas said he where shall i find a princess now the time is so short that i cannot even look for one
then the white cat told him that if only he would do as she bade him all would be well take your sword cut off my head and my tail and cast them into the flames she said the prince declared that on no account would he treat her so cruelly
but she begged him so earnestly to do as she asked that at last he consented no sooner had he cast the head and the tail into the fire than a beautiful princess appeared where the body of the cat had been
the spell that had been cast upon her was broken and at the same time her courtiers and attendants who had also been changed into cats hastened in in their proper forms again to pay their respects to their mistress
the prince at once fell deeply in love with the charming princess and begged her to accompany him to his father's court as his bride she consented and together they rode away during the journey the princess told her husband the story of her enchantment
she had been brought up by the fairies who treated her with great kindness until she offended them by falling in love with the young man whose portrait the prince had seen upon her paw and who exactly resembled him now the fairies wished her to marry the king of the dwarfs
and were so angry when she declared she would marry no one but her own true love that they changed her into a white cat as a punishment when the prince and his bride reached the court all were bound to acknowledge that the princess was by far
the loveliest lady they had ever seen so the poor old king felt that now he would be obliged to give up his kingdom but the princess knelt by his side kissed his hand gently
for she was rich enough to give a mighty kingdom to each of his elder sons and still have three left for herself and her dear husband so everyone was pleased and there was great rejoicing and feasting in the king's palace
the star wife in the days when the buffalo raced and thundered over the earth and the stars danced and sang in the sky a brave young hunter lived on the bank of battle river
he was fond of the red flowers and the blue sky and when the rest of the indians went out to hunt in waistcloths of skin he put on his fringed leggings all heavy with blue beads and painted red rings and stripes on his face
till he was as gay as the earth and the sky himself high feather was his name and he always wore a red swan's feather on his head one day
when high feather was out with his bow and arrows he came on a little beaten trail that he had never seen before and he followed it but he found that it went round and round
it came from nowhere and it went to nowhere what sort of animal has made this he said and he lay down in the middle of the ring to think looking up into the blue sky while he lay thinking
he saw a little speck up above him in the sky and thought it was an eagle but the speck grew bigger and sank down and down till he saw it was a great basket coming down out of the sky he jumped up
and ran back to a little hollow and lay down to hide in a patch of tall red flowers then he peeped out and saw the basket come down to the earth and rest on the grass in the middle of the ring twelve beautiful maidens
were leaning over the edge of the basket they were not indian maidens for their faces were pink and white and their long hair was bright red brown like a fox's fur and their clothes were sky blue and floating light as cobwebs
the maidens jumped out of the basket and began to dance round and round the ring trail one behind the other drumming with their fingers on little drums of eagle skin and singing such beautiful songs as high feather had never heard
then high feather jumped up and ran towards the ring crying out let me dance and sing with you the maidens were frightened and ran to the basket and jumped in and the basket flew up into the sky
and grew smaller till at last he could not see it at all the young man went home to his wigwam
but he could not eat and he could not think of anything but the twelve beautiful maidens his mother begged him to tell her what the matter was and at last he told her and said he would never be happy till he brought one of the maidens home to be his wife
those must be the star people said his mother who was a great magician the prairie was full of magic in those days before the white man came and the buffalo went you had better take an indian girl for your wife
don't think any more of the star maidens or you will have much trouble i care little how much trouble i have so long as i get a star maiden for my wife he said and i am going to get one if i have to wait till the world ends
if you must you must said his mother so next morning she sewed a bit of gopher's fur on to his feather and he ate a good breakfast of buffalo meat and tramped away over the prairie to the dancing ring
as soon as he came into the ring he turned into a gopher but there were no gophers holes there for him to hide in so he had to lie in the grass and wait presently he saw a speck up in the sky
and the speck grew larger and larger till it became a basket and the basket came down and down till it rested on the earth in the middle of the ring the eldest maiden put her head over the edge and looked all around
north and east and south and west there is no man here she said so they all jumped out to have their dance but before they came to the beaten ring the youngest maiden spied the gopher and called out to her sisters to look at it
away away cried the eldest maiden no gopher would dare to come on our dancing ground it is a conjuror in disguise so she took her youngest sister by the arm and pulled her away to the basket and they all jumped in
and the basket went sailing up into the sky before high feather could get out of his gopher skin or say a word the young man went home very miserable but when his mother heard what had happened she said
it is a hard thing you want to do but if you must you must to night i will make some fresh magic and you can try again to morrow next morning high feather asked for his breakfast but his mother said
you must not have any buffalo meat or it will spoil the magic you must not eat anything but the wild strawberries you find on the prairie as you go then she sewed a little bit of a mouse's whisker on to his red feather
and he tramped away across the prairie picking wild strawberries and eating them as he went till he came to the dancing ring as soon as he was inside the ring he turned into a little mouse and made friends with the family of mice
that lived in a hole under the grass and the mother mouse promised to help him all she could they had not waited long
the eldest sister put her head over the edge and looked all around north and west and south and east and down on the ground there is no man here she said and i do not see any gopher but you must be very careful
so they all got out of the basket and began to dance round the ring drumming and singing as they went but when they came near the mouse's nest the eldest sister held up her hand and they stopped dancing and held their breath
then she tapped on the ground and listened it does not sound so hollow as it did she said the mice have a visitor and she tapped again and called out come and show yourselves you little traitors or we will dig you up
but the mother mouse had made another door to her nest just outside the ring working very fast with all her toes and while the maidens were looking for her inside the ring she came out at the other door with all her children
and scampered away across the prairie the maidens turned round and ran after them all but the youngest sister who did not want any one to be killed and high feather came out of the hole and turned himself into what he was and caught her by the arm
come home and marry me he said and dance with the indian maidens and i will hunt for you
and you will be much happier than up in the sky her sisters came rushing round her and begged her to go back home to the sky with them but she looked into the young man's eyes and said she would go with him wherever he went
so the other maidens went weeping and wailing up into the sky and high feather took his star wife home to his tent on the bank of the battle river high feather's mother was glad to see them both but she whispered in his ear
you must take her with you everywhere you go and he did so he took her with him every time he went hunting and he made her a bow and arrows but she would never use them
she would pick wild strawberries and gooseberries and raspberries as they went along but she would never kill anything and she would never eat anything that any one else had killed she only ate berries and crushed corn one day
while the young man's wife was embroidering feather stars on a dancing cloth and his mother was gossiping in a tent
a little yellow bird flew in and perched on high feather's shoulder and whispered in his ear there is a great flock of wild red swans just over on loon lake if you come quickly and quietly you can catch them before they fly away
but do not tell your wife for red swans cannot bear the sight of a woman and they can tell if one comes within a mile of them high feather had never seen or heard of a red swan before all the red feathers he wore he had had to paint
he looked at his wife and as she was sewing busily and looking down at her star embroidering he thought he could slip away and get back before she knew he had gone but as soon as he was out of sight
the little yellow bird flew in and perched on her shoulder and sang her such a beautiful song about her sisters in the sky that she forgot everything else and slipped out and ran like the wind and got to the dancing ring
just as her sisters came down in their basket then they all gathered round her and begged her to go home with them but she only said high feather is a brave man and he is very good to me and i will never leave him
when they saw they could not make her leave her husband the eldest sister said if you must stay you must but just come up for an hour to let your father see you because he has been mourning for you ever since you went away
the star wife did not wish to go but she wanted to see her father once more so she got into the basket and it sailed away up into the sky her father was very glad to see her and she was very glad to see him
and they talked and they talked till the blue sky was getting gray then she remembered that she ought to have gone home long before now i must go back to my husband she said that you shall never do said her father
and he shut her up in a white cloud and said she should stay there till she promised never to go back to the prairie she begged to be let out but it was no use then she began to weep and she wept so much
that the cloud began to weep too and it was weeping itself quite away so her father saw she would go down to the earth in rain if he kept her in the cloud any longer and he let her out what must i do for you he said
to make you stay with us here and be happy i will not stay here she said unless my husband comes and lives here too i will send for him at once said her father so he sent the basket down empty and it rested in the middle of the dancing ring
now when high feather reached loon lake he found it covered with red swans he shot two with one arrow and then all the rest flew away he picked up the two swans and hurried back to his tent and there lay the dancing cloth
with the feather stars on it half finished but no wife could he see he called her but she did not answer he rushed out with the two red swans still slung round his neck and hanging down his back and ran to the dancing ring but nobody was there
i will wait till she comes back he said to himself if i have to wait till the world ends so he threw himself down on the grass and lay looking up at the stars till he went to sleep early in the morning
he jumped up with the two red swans still slung round his neck and climbed into the basket there was nobody there and when he began to climb out again he found that the basket was half way up to the sky it went up and up
and at last it came into the star country where his wife was waiting for him her father gave them a beautiful blue tent to live in and high feather was happy enough for a while but he soon grew tired of the cloud berries that the star people ate
and he longed to tramp over the solid green prairie so he asked his wife's father to let him take her back to the earth no said the star man because then i should never see her again if you stay with us you will soon forget the dull old earth
the young man said nothing but he put on the wings of one of the red swans and he put the other red swan's wings on his wife and they leapt over the edge of the star country and flew down through the air to the prairie and came to the tent
where high feather's mother was mourning for them and there was a great feast in the village because they had come back safe and sound the star wife finished embroidering her dancing cloth that day and whenever the indians danced she danced with them
she never went back to the star maidens dancing ring but she still lived on berries and corn because she would never kill anything except one thing and that was the little yellow bird
and ends with the cromwells it is because between these reigns the tunic achieves maturity becomes a doublet and dies
the peculiar garment or rather this garment peculiar to a certain time runs through its various degrees of cut it is at first a loose body garment with skirts
the skirts become arranged in precise folds the folds on the skirt are shortened the shorter they become the tighter becomes the coat then we run through with this coat in its periods of puffings slashings this that and the other sleeve
all coats retaining the small piece of skirt or basque and so to the straight severe cromwellian jerkin with the piece of skirt cut into tabs until the volume ends and hey presto there marches into history a persian business
a frock coat straight trim quite a near cousin to our own garment of afternoon ceremony
afterwards the statute cap as ordered by elizabeth became as i say the ordinary head wear though some no doubt kept hoods upon their heavy travelling cloaks this cap which some of the bluecoat boys still wear
one cap of wool knit thicked and dressed in england
twenty marks by year in lands and their heirs
edward according to the portraits always wore a flat cap the base of the crown ornamented with bands of jewels the bluecoat boys and long may they have the sense to keep to their dress
show us exactly the ordinary dress of the citizen except that the modern knickerbocker has taken the place of the trunks also the long skirts of these blue coats were in edward's time the mark of the grave man
others wore these same skirts cut to the knee that peculiar fashion of the previous reign the enormously broad shouldered appearance still held in this reign to some extent
though the collars of the jerkins or as one may more easily know them overcoats or jackets open garments were not so wide and allowed more of the puffed shoulder of the sleeve to show indeed the collar became quite small
as in the windsor holbein painting of edward and the puff in the shoulders not so rotund the doublet of this reign shows no change but the collar of the shirt begins to show signs of the ruff of later years
it is no larger but is generally left untied with the ornamental strings hanging antiquarian research has as it often does muddled us as to the meaning of the word partlet
to plain bands to falling bands laced neckcloth stock to the nine pennyworth of misery we bolt around our necks dress on the whole is much plainer sleeves are not so full of cuts and slashes and they fit more closely to the arm
the materials are rich but the ornament is not so lavish the portrait of edward by gwillim stretes is a good example of ornament rich but simple shoes are not cut about at the toe quite with the same splendour but are still broad in the toe
for the women it may be said that the change towards simplicity is even more marked the very elaborate head dress the folded diamond shaped french hood has disappeared almost entirely and for the rich
the half hoop set back from the forehead with a piece of velvet or silk to hang down the back will best describe the head gear
as the embroidery is often detachable and answers the same purpose as the man's partlet this later became a separate article and was under propped with wires to hold it out stiffly
hail wedded love mysterious law true source of human offspring sole propriety in paradise of all things common else by thee adult'rous lust was driven from men
among the bestial herds to range by thee founded in reason loyal just and pure relations dear and all the charities of father son and brother first were known thou art the fountain of domestic sweets
whose bed is undefiled and chaste pronounced here love his golden shafts employs here lights his constant lamp and waves his purple wings reigns here and revels not in the bought smile of harlots
loveless joyless unendear'd casual fruition nor in court amours
or serenade which the starved lover sings to his proud fair best quitted with disdain italian debauchery
if chastity is none of the most shining virtues of the french it is still less so of the italians almost all the travellers who have visited italy agree in describing it as the most abandoned of all the countries of europe
at venice at naples and indeed in almost every part of italy women are taught from their infancy the various arts of alluring to their arms the young and unwary and of obtaining from them while heated by love or wine
every thing that flattery and false smiles can obtain in those unguarded moments and so little infamous is the trade of prostitution and so venal the women that hardly any rank or condition set them above being bribed to it
nay they are frequently assisted by their male friends and acquaintances to drive a good bargain
the vows of fidelity which they make at the altar are like the vows and oaths made upon too many other occasions only considered as nugatory forms which law has obliged them to take but custom absolved them from performing
they even claim and enjoy greater liberties after marriage than before
or gallant who attends her to all public places hands her in and out of her carriage picks up her gloves or fan and a thousand other little offices of the same natures but this is only his public employment
as a reward for which he is entitled to have the lady as often as he pleases at a place of retirement sacred to themselves where no person not even the most intrusive husband must enter to be witness of what passes between them
the italians themselves however endeavor to justify it in their conversations with strangers and baretti has of late years published a formal vindication of it to the world in this vindication he has not only deduced the original of it from pure platonic love
but would willingly persuade us that it is still continued upon the same mental principles a doctrine which the world will hardly be credulous enough to swallow even though he should offer more convincing arguments to support it than he has already done
that besides the bramins a set of innocent and religious priests who have rendered their women virtuous by treating them with kindness and humanity there are another sect of religio philosophical drones called fakiers
under a pretence of superior sanctity
wear no clothes considering them only as proper appendages to sinners who are ashamed because they are sensible of guilt while they being free from every stain of pollution have no shame to cover in this original state of nature
these idle and pretended devotees assemble together sometimes in armies of ten or twelve thousand and under a pretence of going in pilgrimage to certain temples like locusts devour every thing on their way
the men flying before them and carrying all that they can out of the reach of their depredations while the women not in the least afraid of a naked army of lusty saints throw themselves in their way
or remain quietly at home to receive them it has long been an opinion well established all over india that there is not in nature so powerful a remedy for removing the sterility of women as the prayers of these sturdy naked saints
on this account barren women constantly apply to them for assistance which when the good natured fakier has an indication to grant he leaves his slipper or his staff at the door of the lady's apartment with whom he is praying
a symbol so sacred that it effectually prevents any one from violating the secrecy of their devotion but should he forget this signal and at the same time be distant from the protection of his brethren
but though they venture sometimes in hindostan to treat a fakier in this unholy manner in other parts of asia and africa such is the veneration in which these lusty saints are held
that they not only have access when they please to perform private devotions with barren women but are accounted so holy that they may at any time in public or private confer a personal favor upon a woman without bringing upon her either shame or guilt
and no woman dare refuse to gratify their passion nor indeed has any one an inclination of this kind because she upon whom this personal favor has been conferred is considered by herself and by all the people as having been sanctified
and made more holy by the action so much concerning the conduct of the fakiers in debauching women seems certain but it is by travellers further related that wherever they find a woman who is exceedingly handsome
they carry her off privately to one of their temples but in such a manner as to make her and the people believe that she is carried away by the god who is there worshipped who being violently in love with her took that method to procure her for his wife
this done they perform a nuptial ceremony and make her further believe that she is married to the god when in reality she is only married to one of the fakiers who personates him
women who are treated in this manner are revered by the people as the wives of the gods and by that stratagem secured solely to the fakiers who have cunning enough to impose themselves as gods upon some of these women through the whole of their lives
in countries where reason is stronger than superstition we almost think this impossible where the contrary is the case there is nothing too hard to be credited something like this was done by the priests of ancient greece and rome
and a few centuries ago tricks of the same nature were practiced by the monks and other libertines upon some of the visionary and enthusiastic women of europe hence we need not think it strange if the fakiers generally succeed in attempts of this nature
when we consider that they only have to deceive a people brought up in the most consummate ignorance and that nothing can be more flattering to female vanity
mahometan plurality of wives but it is not the religion of the hindoos only that is unfavorable to chastity
that of mahomet which now prevails over a great part of india is unfavorable to it likewise
hence while the men riot in unlimited variety the women are in great numbers confined to share among them the scanty favors of one man only this unnatural and impolitic conduct induces them to seek by art and intrigue
what they are denied by the laws of their prophet as polygamy prevails over all asia this art and intrigue follow as the consequence of it some have imagined that it is the result of climate
but it rather appears to be the result of the injustice which women suffer by polygamy for it seems to reign as much in constantinople and in every other place where polygamy is in fashion as it does on the banks of the ganges or the indus
the famous montesquieu whose system was that the passions are entirely regulated by the climate
for why should the burning suns of patan only influence the passions of the fair why should they there transport that sex beyond decency which in all other climates is the most decent and leave in so cool and defensive a state
that sex which in all other climates is apt to be the most offensive and indecent to whatever length the spirit of intrigue may be carried in asia and africa however the passions of the women may prompt them to excite desire
and to throw themselves in the way of gratification we have the strongest reasons to reprobate all these stories which would make us believe that they are so lost to decency as to attack the other sex
even then the mother is not allowed to save her child unless she can find a man who will patronise it as a father in which case the man is considered as having appropriated the woman to himself and she is accordingly extruded from this hopeful society
these few anecdotes sufficiently characterise the women of this island
but the roman ladies in performing the rites sacred to the good goddess were even more afraid of the men than our masons are of women for we are told by some authors that so cautious were they of concealment
that even the statutes and pictures of men and other male animals were hood winked with a thick veil the house of the consul though commonly so large that they might have been perfectly secured against all intrusion in some remote apartment of it was obliged to be evacuated by all male animals
and even the consul himself was not suffered to remain in it before they began their ceremonies every corner and lurking place in the house was carefully searched and no caution omitted to prevent all possibility of being discovered by impertinent curiosity
or disturbed by presumptive intrusion but these cautions were not all the guard that was placed around them the laws of the romans made it death for any man to be present at the solemnity
it was only once attempted to be violated though it existed from the foundation of the roman empire till the introduction of christianity and this attempt was made not so much perhaps with a view to be present at the ceremony
pompeia the wife of caesar having been suspected of a criminal correspondence with claudius and so closely watched that she could find no opportunity of gratifying her passion
claudius was directed to come in the habit of a singing girl a character he could easily personate being young and of a fair complexion as soon as the slave saw him enter she ran to inform her mistress
the mistress eager to meet her lover immediately left the company and threw herself into his arms
upon which he left her and began to take a walk through the rooms always avoiding the light as much as possible while he was thus walking by himself a maid servant accosted him and desired him to sing
he took no notice of her but she followed and urging him so closely that he was at last obliged to speak his voice betrayed his sex the maid servant shrieked and running into the room where the rites were performing told that a man was in the house
ordered the doors to be secured and with lights in their hands ran about the house searching for the sacrilegious intruder they found him in the apartment of the slave who had admitted him
and though it was in the middle of the night immediately dispersed to give an account to their husbands of what had happened claudius was soon after accused of having profaned the holy rites but the populace declaring in his favor
the judges fearing an insurrection were obliged to acquit him
there is amongst us a female character not uncommon which we denominate the outrageously virtuous
women of this stamp never fail to seize all opportunities of exclaiming in the bitterest manner against every one upon whom even the slightest suspicion of indiscretion or unchastity has fallen taking care as they go along to magnify every mole hill into a mountain
and every thoughtless freedom into the blackest of crimes but besides the illiberality of thus treating such as may frequently be innocent you may credit us dear countrywomen when we aver that such a behavior instead of making you appear more virtuous
only draws down upon you by those who know the world suspicions not much to your advantage your sex are in general suspected by ours of being too much addicted to scandal and defamation a suspicion which has not arisen of late years
as we find in the ancient laws of england a punishment known by the name of ducking stool annexed to scolding and defamation in the women though no such punishment nor crime is taken notice of in the men
this crime however we persuade ourselves you are less guilty of than is commonly believed but there is another of a nature not more excusable from which we cannot so much exculpate you which is that harsh and forbidding appearance you put on
you should bestow on every one of your sex who has deviated from the path of rectitude a behaviour of this nature besides being so opposite to that meek and gentle spirit which should distinguish female nature
is in every respect contrary to the charitable and forgiving temper of the christian religion and infallibly shuts the door of repentance against an unfortunate sister willing perhaps to abandon the vices into which heedless inadvertency had plunged her
and from which none of you can promise yourselves an absolute security we wish not fair countrywomen like the declaimer and satirist to paint you all vice and imperfection
nor like the venal panegyrist to exhibit you all virtue as impartial historians we confess that you have in the present age
is not the levity dissipation and extravagance of the women of this century arrived to a pitch unknown and unheard of in former times is not the course which you steer in life almost entirely directed by vanity and fashion
throwing aside reason and good conduct and despising the counsel of your friends and relations seem determined to follow the mode of the world however it may be mixed with vice do not the generality of you dress and appear above your station
and are not many of you ashamed to be seen performing the duties of it
the shaving of shagpat the shaving of shagpat an arabian entertainment by george meredith chapman and hall eighteen fifty six
it is nearly forty years since i first heard of the shaving of shagpat i was newly come in all my callow ardour into the covenant of art and letters and i was moving about still bewildered in a new world
in this new world one afternoon dante gabriel rossetti standing in front of his easel remarked to all present whom it should concern that the shaving of shagpat was a book which shakespeare might have been glad to write
i now understand that in the warm rossetti language this did not mean that there was anything specially reminiscent of the bard of avon in this book but simply that it was a monstrous fine production and worthy of all attention
but at the time i expected from such a title something in the way of a belated midsummer night's dream or love's labour's lost i was fully persuaded that it must be a comedy and as the book even then was rare
i got this dramatic notion upon my mind and to this day do still clumsily connect it with the idea of shakespeare but in truth the shaving of shagpat has no other analogy with those plays
which bacon would have written if he had been so plaguily occupied than that it is excellent in quality and of the finest literary flavour the ordinary small collection of rarities has no room for three volume novels
those signs manual of our british dulness and crafty disdain for literature one or two of these simulacra these sham semblances of books i possess because honoured friends have given them to me
even so i would value the gift more in the decency of a single volume the dear little duodecimos of the last century of course are welcome in a library that was a happy day when by the discovery of
a ferdinand count fathom i completed my set of smollett in the original fifteen volumes but after the first generation of novelists the sham system began to creep in
with fanny burney novels grow too bulky and it is a question whether even scott or jane austen should be possessed in the original form of the moderns only thackeray is bibliographically desirable
hence even of mister george meredith's fiction i make no effort to possess first editions yet the shaving of shagpat is an exception i toiled long to secure it
and now that i hold it may its modest vermilion cover shine always like a lamp upon my shelves it is not fiction to a bibliophile it is worthy of all the honour done to verse
within the last ten years of his life we had the great pleasure of seeing tardy justice done at length to the genius of mister george meredith i like to think that after a long and noble struggle against the inattention of the public
after the pouring of high music for two generations into ears whose owners seemed to have wilfully sealed them with wax so that only the most staccato and least happy notes ever reached their dulness
george meredith did before the age of seventy reap a little of his reward i am told that the movement in favour of him began in america if so more praise to american readers
who had to teach us to appreciate de quincey and praed before we knew the value of those men yet is there much to do had george meredith been a frenchman what monographs had ere this been called forth by his work
in germany or italy or denmark even such gifts as his would long ago have found their classic place above further discussion but england is a gallio
and in defiance of mister le gallienne cares little for the things of literature if a final criticism of george meredith existed where in it would the shaving of shagpat
find its place there is fear that in competition with the series of analytical studies of modern life that stretches from the ordeal of richard feverel to one of our conquerors
it might chance to be pushed away with a few lines of praise now i would not seem so paradoxical as to say that when an extravaganza is held up to me in one hand
and a masterpiece of morality like the egoist in the other i can doubt which is the greater book but there are moods in which i am jealous of the novels and wish to be left alone with my arabian entertainment
delicious in this harsh world of reality to fold a mist around us and out of it to evolve the yellow domes and black cypresses the silver fountains and marble pillars
of the fabulous city of shagpat i do not know any later book than the shaving in which an englishman has allowed his fancy untrammelled by any sort of moral or intellectual subterfuge to go a roaming
by the light of the moon we do this sort of thing no longer we are wholly given up to realism we are harshly pressed upon on all sides by the importunities of excess of knowledge if we talk of gryphons
the zoologists are upon us of oolb or aklis the geographers flourish their maps at us in defiance but the author of the shaving of shagpat in the bloom of his happy youthful genius
defied all this pedantry in a little address which has been suppressed in later editions he said december eighth eighteen fifty five
it has seemed to me that the only way to tell an arabian story was by imitating the style and manner of the oriental story tellers but such an attempt whether successful or not
may read like a translation i therefore think it better to prelude this entertainment by an avowal that it springs from no eastern source and is in every respect an original work
if one reader of the shaving of shagpat were to confess the truth he would say that to him at least the other the genuine oriental tales appear the imitation and not a very good imitation
the true genius of the east breathes in meredith's pages and the arabian nights at all events in the crude literality of sir richard burton pale before them like a mirage
the variety of scenes and images the untiring evolution of plot the kaleidoscopic shifting of harmonious colours all these seem of the very essence of arabia
and to coil directly from some bottle of a genie ah what a bottle as we whirl along in the vast and glowing bacchanal we cry like sganarelle qu'ils
ma mie pourquoi vous videz vous
ah why indeed for the shaving of shagpat is one of those very rare modern books of which it is certain that they are too short and even our excitement at the mastery of the event
is tamed by a sense that the show is closing and that shibli bagarag has been too promptly successful in smiting through the identical but perhaps of all gifts
there is none more rare than this of clearing the board and leaving the reader still hungry who shall say in dealing with such a book what passage in it is best or worst
either the fancy carried away utterly captive follows the poet whither he will or the whole conception is a failure perhaps after the elemental splendour and storm of the final scene
what clings most to the memory is how shibli bagarag
touched the great lion with the broken sapphire hair of garraveen or again how on the black coast of the enchanted sea wandering by moonlight he found the sacred lily and tore it up and lo
its bulb was a palpitating heart of human flesh or how bhanavar called the unwilling serpents too often and failed to win her beauty back till at an awful price she once more and for the last time
contrived to call her body guard of snakes hissing and screaming around her there is surely no modern book so unsullied as this is by the modern spirit none in which the desire to teach a lesson
in what is utterly outside the limits of experience it belongs to that infancy of the world when the happy guileless human being still holds that somewhere there is a flower to be plucked a lamp to be rubbed
or a form of words to be spoken which will reverse the humdrum laws of nature call up unwilling spirits bound to incredible services and change all this brown life of ours to scarlet and azure
and mother of pearl little by little even our children are losing this happy gift of believing the incredible
and that class of writing which seems to require less effort than any other and to be a mere spinning of gold thread out of the poet's inner consciousness is less and less at command and when executed gives less and less satisfaction
the gnomes of pope the fays and
one thing puzzled peter rabbit and johnny chuck and striped chipmunk a great deal after they had come to know unc billy possum and his funny ways they had talked it over and wondered and wondered about it and tried to understand it
and even had asked unc billy about it unc billy had just grinned and said that they would have to ask his mammy of course they couldn't do that and unc billy knew they couldn't
for unc billy's mammy had died long before he even thought of coming up from ol virginny to the green forest and the green meadows where they lived he said it just to tease them and when he said it he chuckled until they chuckled too
and can't find out that you most want to find out it was just so with peter rabbit and johnny chuck and striped chipmunk the more they talked about it the more they wanted to know why was it that unc billy possum played dead
instead of trying to run away when he was surprised by his enemies they always tried to run away so did everybody else of their acquaintance excepting unc billy possum there must be a reason said peter gravely
as he pulled thoughtfully at one of his long ears of course there is a reason asserted johnny chuck chewing the end of a blade of grass there's a reason for everything added striped chipmunk combing out the hair of his funny little tail
then of course grandfather frog knows it said peter of course why didn't we think of him before exclaimed the others i'll beat you to the smiling pool shouted peter of course he did
for his legs are long and made for running but striped chipmunk was not far behind johnny chuck took his time for he knew that he could not keep up with the others besides he was so fat that to run made him puff and blow
grandfather frog sat just as usual on his big green lily pad and he grinned when he saw who his visitors were for he guessed right away what they had come for chug a rum
what is it you want to know now he demanded before peter could fairly get his breath if you please grandfather frog we want to know why it is that unc billy possum plays dead replied peter as politely as he knew how
grandfather frog chuckled just to fool people stupid said he of course we know that replied striped chipmunk but what we want to know is how he ever found out that he could fool people that way
and how he knows that he will fool them i suspect that his mammy taught him said grandfather frog with another chuckle way down deep in his throat but who taught his mammy persisted striped chipmunk
grandfather frog snapped at a foolish green fly and when it was safely tucked away inside his white and yellow waistcoat he turned once more to his three little visitors and there was a twinkle in his big goggly eyes
that you will have a story and i suppose that the sooner i tell it to you the sooner you will leave me in peace unc billy possum's grandfather a thousand times removed was was this way back in the days when the world was young
interrupted peter grandfather frog scowled at peter if i have any more interruptions there will be no story to day said he severely peter looked ashamed
was very much as unc billy is now only he was a little more spry and knew better than to stuff himself so full that he couldn't run he was always very sly and he played a great many tricks on his neighbors
and sometimes he got them into trouble but when he did he always managed to keep out of their way until they had forgotten all about their anger one morning the very imp of mischief seemed to get into old mister possum's head
yes sir it certainly did seem that way and when you see mischief trotting along the lone little path if you look sharp enough you'll see trouble following at his heels like a shadow i never knew it to fail
it's just as sure as a stomach ache is to follow overeating just here grandfather frog paused and looked very hard at peter rabbit but peter pretended not to notice and after slowly winking one of his big goggly eyes at johnny chuck
as i said before the imp of mischief seemed to be in old mister possum's head that morning for he began to play tricks on his neighbors as soon as they were out of bed he hid old king bear's breakfast while the latter had his head turned
and then pretended that he had just come along he was very polite
then whenever old king bear came near the place where it was hidden old mister possum would hide it somewhere else old king bear was hungry and he worked himself up into a terrible rage
old mister possum was very sympathetic and seemed to be doing his very best to find the lost meal at last old king bear turned his head suddenly and caught sight of old mister possum hiding that breakfast in a new place
my my but his temper did boil over it certainly did and if he could have laid hands on old mister possum that minute it surely would have been the end of him but old mister possum was mighty spry
and he went off through the green forest laughing fit to kill himself pretty soon he met mister panther he was very polite to mister panther he told him that he had just come from a call on old king bear and hinted that old king bear was then enjoying a feast
and that there might be enough for mister panther if he hurried up there at once now mister panther was hungry for he had found nothing for his breakfast that morning so he thanked old mister possum and hurried away to find old king bear
and share in the good things old mister possum had told about old mister possum himself hurried on chuckling as he thought of the way mister panther was likely to be received with old king bear in such a temper
it was such a good joke that old mister possum tried it on mister wolf and mister fisher and mister fox in fact he hunted up every one he could think of and sent them to call on old king bear and without really telling them so
he made each one think that he would get a share in that breakfast now there wasn't any more breakfast than old king bear wanted himself and by the time mister panther arrived there wasn't so much as a crumb left then one after another
the others came dropping in each licking his chops
at first he didn't know what to make of it but pretty soon mister fox delicately hinted that they had come in response to the invitation sent by mister possum
when he saw them coming he realized that what he had thought was a joke had become no longer a laughing matter for him he was too frightened to run so he scrambled up a tree he quite forgot that mister panther and mister lynx could climb just as fast as he
up the tree after him they scrambled and he crept as far out as he could get on one of the branches mister panther didn't dare go out there so he just shook the branch
when he got his breath again he still kept his eyes closed
presently while he was wondering why they didn't jump on him and tear him to pieces old king bear spoke i guess mister possum won't play any more jokes mister panther said he
you just knocked the life out of him when you shook him off that branch mister panther came over and sniffed at mister possum and turned him over with one paw all the time mister possum lay just as if he were dead
because he was too frightened to move i didn't mean to kill him said mister panther we certainly will miss him
leave him here as a warning to others growled old king bear each in turn came up and sniffed of mister possum and then they all went about their business he waited long enough to make sure that they were out of sight
and then took the shortest way home when he got there and thought it all over he thought that the best joke of all was the way he had made everybody think that he was dead and then a bright idea struck him he would try the same trick
whenever he was caught so the next time he got in trouble instead of running away he tried playing dead it was such a success that he taught his children how to do it and they taught their children and so on down to unc billy whom you know
unc billy says it is a lot easier than running away and safer too
now don't bother me any more for i want to take a nap concluded grandfather frog thank you cried peter rabbit and johnny chuck and striped chipmunk
the means of raising the requisite amount of money became during the next few weeks the anxious theme of all ralph's thoughts his lawyers enquiries soon brought the confirmation of clare's surmise
and it became clear that for reasons swathed in all the ingenuities of legal verbiage
in return for a substantial consideration be prevailed on to admit that it was for her son's advantage to remain with his father the day this admission was communicated to ralph
his first impulse was to carry the news to his cousin his mood was one of pure exaltation he seemed to be hugging his boy to him as he walked paul and he were to belong to each other forever
no mysterious threat of separation could ever menace them again he had the blissful sense of relief that the child himself might have had on waking out of a frightened dream and finding the jolly daylight in his room
clare at once renewed her entreaty to be allowed to aid in ransoming her little cousin but ralph tried to put her off by explaining that he meant to look about look where in the dagonet coffers
oh ralph what's the use of pretending tell me what you've got to give her it was amazing how his cousin suddenly dominated him but as yet he couldn't go into the details of the bargain
that the reckoning between himself and undine should be settled in dollars and cents seemed the last bitterest satire on his dreams he felt himself miserably diminished by the smallness of what had filled his world
nevertheless the looking about had to be done and a day came when he found himself once more at the door of elmer moffatt's office his thoughts had been drawn back to moffatt
by the insistence with which the latter's name had lately been put forward by the press in connection with a revival of the ararat investigation moffatt it appeared had been regarded as one of the most valuable witnesses for the state
his return from europe had been anxiously awaited his unreadiness to testify caustically criticized then at last he had arrived had gone on to washington and had apparently had nothing to tell
ralph was too deep in his own troubles to waste any wonder over this anticlimax but the frequent appearance of moffatt's name in the morning papers acted as an unconscious suggestion besides to whom else could he look for help
the sum his wife demanded could be acquired only by a quick turn and the fact that ralph had once rendered the same kind of service to moffatt made it natural to appeal to him now the market moreover happened to be booming
might have a good thing up his sleeve moffatt's office had been transformed since ralph's last visit paint varnish and brass railings gave an air of opulence to the outer precincts and the inner room
with its mahogany bookcases containing morocco bound sets and its wide blue leather arm chairs lacked only a palm or two to resemble the lounge of a fashionable hotel moffatt himself as he came forward
gave ralph the impression of having been done over by the same hand he was smoother broader more supremely tailored and his whole person exhaled the faintest whiff of an expensive scent
he installed his visitor in one of the blue arm chairs and sitting opposite an elbow on his impressive washington desk listened attentively while ralph made his request
moffatt twisted his moustache between two plump square tipped fingers with a little black growth on their lower joints i don't suppose he remarked there's a sane man between here and san francisco who isn't consumed by that yearning
having permitted himself this pleasantry he passed on to business yes it's a first rate time to buy no doubt of that
heard of a soft thing that won't wait i presume
all kinds of em there's always other fellows after them moffatt's smile was playful well i'd go considerably out of my way to do you a good turn because you did me one when i needed it mighty bad
in youth you sheltered me yes sir that's the kind i am he stood up sauntered to the other side of the room and took a small object from the top of the bookcase fond of these pink crystals
he held the oriental toy against the light oh i ain't a judge but now and then i like to pick up a pretty thing ralph noticed that his eyes caressed it well now let's talk
you say you've got to have the funds for your your investment within three weeks that's quick work and you want a hundred thousand can you put up fifty ralph had been prepared for the question but when it came
he felt a moment's tremor he knew he could count on half the amount from his grandfather
but what of the rest well there was clare
and after all the money was clare's it was dagonet money at least she said it was all the misery of his predicament was distilled into the short silence that preceded his answer yes
i think so well i guess i can double it for you moffatt spoke with an air of olympian modesty anyhow i'll try only don't tell the other girls
there broke the shout of a small boy racing across a suburban lawn when i pick him up to night he'll be mine for good ralph thought as moffatt summed up there's the whole scheme in a nut shell
oh if you're sure ralph was already calculating the time it would take to dash up to clare van degen's on his way to catch the train for the fairfords his impatience made it hard to pay due regard to moffatt's parting civilities
glad to have seen you he heard the latter assuring him with a final hand grasp wish you'd dine with me some evening at my club and as ralph murmured a vague acceptance how's that boy of yours by the way moffatt continued
but i understood you kept him with you yes that's what i thought well so long clare's inner sitting room was empty but the servant presently returning
led ralph into the gilded and tapestried wilderness where she occasionally chose to receive her visitors there under popple's effigy of herself she sat small and alone on a monumental sofa
behind a tea table laden with gold plate while from his lofty frame on the opposite wall
portrayed by a powerful artist cast on her the satisfied eye of proprietorship ralph swept forward on the blast of his excitement felt as in a dream the frivolous perversity of her receiving him in such a setting
instead of in their usual quiet corner but there was no room in his mind for anything but the cry that broke from him i believe i've done it he sat down and explained to her by what means trying as best he could
i understand he's in with rolliver now and rolliver practically controls apex this is some kind of a scheme to buy up all the works of public utility at apex they're practically sure of their charter
and moffatt tells me i can count on doubling my investment within a few weeks of course i'll go into the details if you like oh no you've made it all so clear to me she really made him feel he had
and besides what on earth does it matter the great thing is that it's done she lifted her sparkling eyes and now my share you haven't told me he explained that mister dagonet
to whom he had already named the amount demanded had at once promised him twenty five thousand dollars to be eventually deducted from his share of the estate his mother had something put by that she insisted on contributing
and henley fairford of his own accord had come forward with ten thousand it was awfully decent of henley even henley clare sighed then i'm the only one left out
ralph felt the colour in his face well you see i shall need as much as fifty her hands flew together joyfully but then you've got to let me help oh i'm so glad so glad
i've twenty thousand waiting he looked about the room checked anew by all its oppressive implications you're a darling but i couldn't take it i've told you it's mine every penny of it
yes but supposing things went wrong nothing can if you'll only take it i may lose it i sha'n't if i've given it to you
her look followed his about the room and then came back to him can't you imagine all it will make up for the rapture of the cry caught him up with it ah yes he could imagine it all
he stooped his head above her hands i accept he said and they stood and looked at each other like radiant children she followed him to the door and as he turned to leave
ralph caught the look and a flood of old tendernesses and hates welled up in him he drew her under the portrait
chapter three my father my father was a tall staid solemn man who walked slowly with long strides he spoke very little
and generally looked as if he were pondering next sunday's sermon his head was grey and a little bent as if he were gathering truth from the ground once i came upon him in the garden standing with his face up to heaven
and i thought he was seeing something in the clouds but when i came nearer i saw that his eyes were closed and it made me feel very solemn
he used to walk much about his fields especially of a summer morning before the sun was up this was after my mother's death i presume he felt nearer to her in the fields than in the house there was a kind of grandeur about him i am sure
for i never saw one of his parishioners salute him in the road without a look of my father himself passing like a solemn cloud over the face of the man or woman for us we feared and loved him both at once i do not remember ever being punished by him
but kirsty of whom i shall have to speak by and by has told me that he did punish us when we were very small children neither did he teach us much himself except on the occasions i am about to mention and i cannot say that i learned much from his sermons
these gave entire satisfaction to those of his parishioners whom i happened to hear speak of them but although i loved the sound of his voice and liked to look at his face as he stood up there in the ancient pulpit clad in his gown and bands i never cared much about what he said
of course it was all right and a better sermon than any other clergyman whatever could have preached but what it was all about was of no consequence to me i may as well confess at once that i never had the least doubt that my father was the best man in the world
nay to this very hour i am of the same opinion notwithstanding that the son of the village tailor once gave me a tremendous thrashing for saying so on the ground that i was altogether wrong seeing his father was the best man in the world
at least i have learned to modify the assertion only to this extent
the church was a very old one had seen candles burning heard the little bell ringing and smelt the incense of the old catholic service
it leaned against them like a weary old thing that wanted to go to sleep it had a short square tower like so many of the churches in england and although there was but one old cracked bell in it
although there was no organ to give out its glorious sounds although there was neither chanting nor responses
as far as i can judge to the awe and respect they feel when they enter the more beautiful churches of their country there was a hush in it which demanded a refraining of the foot a treading softly as upon holy ground
and the church was inseparably associated with my father the pew we sat in was a square one with a table in the middle of it for our books my brother david generally used it for laying his head upon that he might go to sleep comfortably
my brother tom put his feet on the cross bar of it leaned back in his corner for you see we had a corner apiece put his hands in his trousers pockets and stared hard at my father for tom's corner was well in front of the pulpit
my brother allister whose back was to the pulpit used to learn the paraphrases all the time of the sermon i happiest of all in my position could look up at my father if i pleased a little sideways
or if i preferred which i confess i often did study a rare sight in scotch churches the figure of an armed knight carved in stone which lay on the top of the tomb of sir worm wymble at least
that is the nearest i can come to the spelling of the name they gave him the tomb was close by the side of the pew with only a flagged passage between it stood in a hollow in the wall and the knight lay under the arch of the recess so silent so patient
with folded palms as if praying for some help which he could not name from the presence of this labour of the sculptor came a certain element into the feeling of the place
and the arch over him and from the arch my eye would seek the roof and descending rest on the pillars or wander about the windows searching the building of the place discovering the points of its strength and how it was upheld
so that while my father was talking of the church as a company of believers and describing how it was held together by faith i was trying to understand how the stone and lime of the old place was kept from falling asunder
and thus beginning to follow what has become my profession since for i am an architect but the church has led me away from my father he always spoke in rather a low voice but so earnestly that every eye as it seemed to me
but mine and those of two of my brothers was fixed upon him i think however that it was in part the fault of certain teaching of his own better fitted for our understanding that we paid so little heed even tom with all his staring
knew as little about the sermon as any of us but my father did not question us much concerning it he did what was far better on sunday afternoons in the warm peaceful sunlight of summer with the honeysuckle filling the air of the little arbour in which we sat
and his one glass of wine set on the table in the middle he would sit for an hour talking away to us in his gentle slow deep voice telling us story after story out of the new testament
or in the cold winter nights he would come into the room where i and my two younger brothers slept the nursery it was and sitting down with tom by his side before the fire that burned bright in the frosty air would open the great family bible on the table
turn his face towards the two beds where we three lay wide awake and tell us story after story out of the old testament sometimes reading a few verses
which in shakspere fashion he presented after the modes and ways of our own country and time i shall never forget joseph in egypt hearing the pattering of the asses hoofs in the street and throwing up the window and looking out
and seeing all his own brothers coming riding towards him or the grand rush of the sea waves over the bewildered hosts of the egyptians we lay and listened with all the more enjoyment that while the fire was burning so brightly
and the presence of my father filling the room with safety and peace the wind was howling outside and the snow drifting up against the window
i cannot tell any better than most of my readers how and when i began to come awake or what it was that wakened me i mean i cannot remember when i began to remember or what first got set down in my memory as worth remembering
sometimes i fancy it must have been a tremendous flood that first made me wonder and so made me begin to remember at all events i do remember one flood that seems about as far off as anything
the rain pouring so thick that i put out my hand in front of me to try whether i could see it through the veil of the falling water the river which in general was to be seen only in glimpses from the house for it ran at the bottom of a hollow
was outspread like a sea in front and stretched away far on either hand it was a little stream but it fills so much of my memory with its regular recurrence of autumnal floods
that i can have no confidence that one of these is in reality the oldest thing i remember indeed i have a suspicion that my oldest memories are of dreams where or when dreamed the good one who made me only knows they are very vague to me now
one only i can recall and it i will relate or more properly describe for there was hardly anything done in it i dreamed it often it was of the room i slept in only it was narrower in the dream and loftier
and the window was gone but the ceiling was a ceiling indeed for the sun moon and stars lived there the sun was not a scientific sun at all
but one such as you see in penny picture books a round jolly jocund man's face with flashes of yellow frilling it all about just what a grand sunflower would look if you set a countenance where the black seeds are
and the moon was just such a one as you may see the cow jumping over in the pictured nursery rhyme she was a crescent of course that she might have a face drawn in the hollow
who seemed to be her husband he looked merrily at her and she looked trustfully at him and i knew that they got on very well together the stars were their children of course and they seemed to run about the ceiling just as they pleased
but the sun and the moon had regular motions rose and set at the proper times for they were steady old folks i do not however remember ever seeing them rise or set they were always up and near the centre before the dream dawned on me
it would always come in one way i thought i awoke in the middle of the night and lo there was the room with the sun and the moon and the stars at their pranks and revels in the ceiling mister sun nodding and smiling across the intervening space to missus moon
and she nodding back to him with a knowing look and the corners of her mouth drawn down i have vague memories of having heard them talk at times i feel as if i could yet recall something of what they said but it vanishes the moment i try to catch it
it was very queer talk indeed about me i fancied but a thread of strong sense ran through it all when the dream had been very vivid i would sometimes think of it in the middle of the next day and look up to the sun saying to myself
he's up there now busy enough i wonder what he is seeing to talk to his wife about when he comes down at night i think it sometimes made me a little more careful of my conduct when the sun set i thought he was going in the back way and when the moon rose
when they might come and talk about me again it was odd that although i never fancied it of the sun i thought i could make the moon follow me as i pleased i remember once my eldest brother giving me great offence by bursting into laughter
when i offered in all seriousness to bring her to the other side of the house
but i must return to my dream for the most remarkable thing in it i have not yet told you in one corner of the ceiling there was a hole and through that hole came down a ladder of sun rays very bright and lovely
where it came from i never thought but of course it could not come from the sun because there he was with his bright coat off playing the father of his family in the most homely old english gentleman fashion possible
that it was a ladder of rays there could however be no doubt if only i could climb upon it i often tried but fast as i lifted my feet to climb down they came again upon the boards of the floor
at length i did succeed but this time
but at this time we were five there was a little baby he was very ill however and i knew he was not expected to live i remember looking out of my bed one night and seeing my mother bending over him in her lap
it is one of the few things in which i do remember my mother i fell asleep but by and by woke and looked out again no one was there not only were mother and baby gone but the cradle was gone too i knew that my little brother was dead
i did not cry i was too young and ignorant to cry about it i went to sleep again and seemed to wake once more but it was into my dream this time there were the sun and the moon and the stars but the sun and the moon had got close together
and were talking very earnestly and all the stars had gathered round them i could not hear a word they said but i concluded that they were talking about my little brother i suppose i ought to be sorry i said to myself and i tried hard but i could not feel sorry
meantime i observed a curious motion in the heavenly host they kept looking at me and then at the corner where the ladder stood and talking on for i saw their lips moving very fast and i thought by the motion of them that they were saying something about the ladder
i got out of bed and went to it
i would try once more to my delight i found it would bear me i climbed and climbed and the sun and the moon and the stars looked more and more pleased as i got up nearer to them till at last the sun's face was in a broad smile
but they did not move from their places and my head rose above them and got out at the hole where the ladder came in what i saw there i cannot tell i only know that a wind such as had never blown upon me in my waking hours blew upon me now
i did not care much for kisses then for i had not learned how good they are but somehow i fancied afterwards that the wind was made of my baby brother's kisses and i began to love the little man who had lived only long enough to be our brother
and get up above the sun and the moon and the stars by the ladder of sun rays but this i say i thought afterwards
and that i fell down the ladder into the room again and awoke as one always does with a fall in a dream sun moon and stars were gone the ladder of light had vanished and i lay sobbing on my pillow
i have taken up a great deal of room with this story of a dream but it clung to me and would often return and then the time of life to which this chapter refers is all so like one that a dream comes in well enough in it
there is a twilight of the mind when all things are strange and when the memory is only beginning to know that it has got a notebook and must put things down in it it was not long after this before my mother died and i was sorrier for my father than for myself
he looked so sad i have said that as far back as i can remember she was an invalid hence she was unable to be much with us she is very beautiful in my memory but during the last months of her life we seldom saw her
and the desire to keep the house quiet for her sake must have been the beginning of that freedom which we enjoyed during the whole of our boyhood so we were out every day and all day long finding our meals when we pleased and that as i shall explain
without going home for them i remember her death clearly but i will not dwell upon that it is too sad to write much about though she was happy and the least troubled of us all her sole concern was at leaving her husband and children
but the will of god was a better thing to her than to live with them my sorrow at least was soon over for god makes children so that grief cannot cleave to them they must not begin life with a burden of loss he knows it is only for a time
when i see my mother again she will not reproach me that my tears were so soon dried little one i think i hear her saying
you will tell me all about it some day yes and we shall tell our mothers shall we not how sorry we are that we ever gave them any trouble sometimes we were very naughty and sometimes we did not know better my mother was very good
but i cannot remember a single one of the many kisses she must have given me i remember her holding my head to her bosom when she was dying
chapter seven missus mitchell is defeated after this talk with my father i fell into a sleep of perfect contentment and never thought of what might be on the morrow till the morrow came
then i grew aware of the danger i was in of being carried off once more to school indeed except my father interfered the thing was almost inevitable i thought he would protect me but i had no assurance he was gone again
for as i have mentioned already he was given to going out early in the mornings it was not early now however i had slept much longer than usual i got up at once intending to find him but to my horror
my enemy missus mitchell came into the room looking triumphant and revengeful i'm glad to see you're getting up she said it's nearly school time the tone and the emphasis she laid on the word school
even if her eyes had not been fierce with suppressed indignation i haven't had my porridge i said your porridge is waiting you as cold as a stone she answered if boys will lie in bed so late
what can they expect nothing from you i muttered with more hardihood than i had yet shown her what's that you're saying she asked angrily i was silent make haste she went on
and don't keep me waiting all day you needn't wait missus mitchell i am dressing as fast as i can is papa in his study yet no and you needn't think to see him he's angry enough with you i'll warrant
she little knew what had passed between my father and me already
you needn't think to run away as you did yesterday i know all about it missus shand told me all about it i shouldn't wonder if your papa's gone to see her now and tell her how sorry he is you were so naughty i'm not going to school
we'll see about that i tell you i won't go and i tell you we'll see about it i won't go till i've seen papa if he says i'm to go i will of course but i won't go for you
you will and you won't she repeated standing staring at me as i leisurely but with hands trembling partly with fear partly with rage was fastening my nether garments to my waistcoat
that's all very fine but i know something a good deal finer now wash your face i won't so long as you stand there i said and sat down on the floor she advanced towards me if you touch me i'll scream
i cried she stopped thought for a moment and bounced out of the room but i heard her turn the key of the door i proceeded with my dressing as fast as i could then and the moment i was ready opened the window
which was only a few feet from the ground scrambled out and dropped i hurt myself a little but not much and fled for the harbour of kirsty's arms but as i turned the corner of the house i ran right into missus mitchell's
who received me with no soft embrace in fact i was rather severely scratched with a pin in the bosom of her dress there that serves you right she cried that's a judgment on you for trying to run away again after all the trouble you gave us yesterday too
you are a bad boy why am i a bad boy i retorted it's bad not to do what you are told i will do what my papa tells me your papa there are more people than your papa in the world
i'm to be a bad boy if i don't do what anybody like you chooses to tell me am i none of your impudence this was accompanied by a box on the ear she was now dragging me into the kitchen
there she set my porridge before me which i declined to eat well if you won't eat good food you shall go to school without it i tell you i won't go to school she caught me up in her arms
she was very strong and i could not prevent her carrying me out of the house if i had been the bad boy she said i was i could by biting and scratching have soon compelled her to set me down but i felt that i must not do that for then i should be ashamed before my father
i therefore yielded for the time and fell to planning nor was i long in coming to a resolution i drew the pin that had scratched me from her dress i believed she would not carry me very far but if she did not set me down soon i resolved to make her glad to do so
further i resolved that when we came to the foot bridge which had but one rail to it i would run the pin into her and make her let me go when i would instantly throw myself into the river for i would run the risk of being drowned rather than go to that school
were all my griefs of yesterday overcome and on the point of being forgotten to be frustrated in this fashion my whole blood was boiling i was convinced my father did not want me to go he could not have been so kind to me during the night
and then send me to such a place in the morning but happily for the general peace things did not arrive at such a desperate pass before we were out of the gate my heart leaped with joy for i heard my father calling missus mitchell missus mitchell
i looked round and seeing him coming after us with his long slow strides i fell to struggling so violently in the strength of hope that she was glad to set me down i broke from her ran to my father and burst out crying
papa papa i sobbed don't send me to that horrid school i can learn to read without that old woman to teach me really missus mitchell said my father taking me by the hand and leading me towards her where she stood visibly flaming with rage and annoyance
really missus mitchell you are taking too much upon you i never said the child was to go to that woman's school in fact i don't approve of what i hear of her and i have thought of consulting some of my brethren in the presbytery on the matter before taking steps myself
i won't have the young people in my parish oppressed in such a fashion terrified with dogs too it is shameful she's a very decent woman mistress shand
but i doubt very much whether she is fit to have the charge of children and as she is a friend of yours you will be doing her a kindness to give her a hint to that effect it may save the necessity for my taking further and more unpleasant steps
indeed sir by your leave it would be hard lines to take the bread out of the mouth of a lone widow woman and bring her upon the parish with a bad name to boot she's supported herself for years with her school and been a trouble to nobody
except the lambs of the flock missus mitchell i like you for standing up for your friend but is a woman because she is lone and a widow to make a moloch of herself and have the children sacrificed to her in that way
she had better see to it you tell her that from me if you like and don't you meddle with school affairs i'll take my young men he added with a smile to school when i see fit
i'm sure sir said missus mitchell putting her blue striped apron to her eyes i asked your opinion before i took him i believe i did say something about its being time he were able to read
but i recollect nothing more you must have misunderstood me he added willing to ease her descent to the valley of her humiliation she walked away without another word sniffing the air as she went
from that hour i believe she hated me my father looked after her with a smile and then looked down on me saying she's short in the temper poor woman and we mustn't provoke her
i was too well satisfied to urge my victory by further complaint
and great patches of water appeared here and there complete ponds which a little stretch of imagination might easily convert into lakes the travellers were often up to their knees but they only laughed over it
and indeed the doctor was rather glad of such unexpected baths but for all that he said the water has no business to wet us here it is an element which has no right to this country
for fresh meat was a necessity altamont and bell kept their guns loaded and shot ptarmigans guillemots geese and a few young hares but by degrees
nor even an hour to lose
besides the sledge was often coming to difficult places when each man was needed to lend a helping hand
they came to a lake several acres in extent and still entirely frozen over the sun's rays had little access to it owing to its situation and the ice was so strong
it was strong enough to bear both the travellers and their sledge
from which the doctor concluded that it did not extend to the pole but that most probably this new america was an island up to this time the expedition had been attended with no fatigue
the travellers had only suffered from the intense glare of the sun on the snow which threatened them with snow blindness at another time of the year
but at present there was no night at all happily the snow was beginning to melt and the brilliancy would diminish
and the rain fell in torrents hatteras and his companions however marched stoically on and even hailed the downpour with delight knowing that it would hasten the disappearance of the snow
and yet far as the eye could reach was one interminable plain
and even the doctor surveyed with considerable satisfaction the haunches of meat they managed to procure from time to time don't let us stint ourselves he used to say on these occasions
food is no unimportant matter in expeditions like ours especially said johnson when a meal depends on a lucky shot you're right johnson
so covered was it with cones and sharp lofty peaks a strong breeze from the south east was blowing which soon increased to a hurricane sweeping over the rocks covered with snow
and the huge masses of ice which took the forms of icebergs and hummocks though on dry land the tempest was followed by damp warm weather which caused a regular thaw
on all sides nothing could be heard but the noise of cracking ice and falling avalanches the travellers had to be very careful in avoiding hills and even in speaking aloud
for the slightest agitation in the air might have caused a catastrophe
distinguishing them from those of switzerland and norway often the dislodgment of a block of ice is instantaneous and not even a cannon ball or thunderbolt could be more rapid in its descent
the loosening the fall and the crash happen almost simultaneously happily however
a phenomenon which was long a subject of patient inquiry among the learned of both hemispheres they came to a long chain of low hills which seemed to extend for miles
and were all covered on the eastern side with bright red snow it is easy to imagine the surprise and half terrified exclamations of the little company at the sight of this long red curtain
in the heart of the alps and that the colour proceeded solely from the presence of certain corpuscles about the nature of which for a long time chemists could not agree
they could not decide whether these corpuscles were of animal or vegetable origin but at last it was settled that they belonged to the family of fungi being a sort of microscopic champignon
turning the snow over with his iron tipped staff the doctor found that the colouring matter measured nine feet deep he pointed this out to his companions that they might have some idea of the enormous number
this phenomenon was none the less strange for being explained
the reflection of the sun's rays upon it produced the most peculiar effect lighting up men and animals and rocks with a fiery glow as if proceeding from some flame within
which open and shut like a savage pair of pincers suppose we were to hear that in a desert island a monster like that but the size of a wolf
was just emerging from the thick jungle and making for a traveller for some modern robinson crusoe and that in another moment it would be sticking its tusks into him
a twelve chambered revolver at least to say nothing of a breech loading rifle and explosive bullets
proper genuine history i will lose no time in saying that the creature is quite harmless to any of us even the smallest by this i do not mean to suggest
that it has not a very fierce and brutal temper only the victims of its bloodthirsty instincts move in a world so tiny that we tread it under foot unnoticed
it is an ogre ever hungering after fresh meat like the famous ogre of your fairy tales you know the one who welcomed hop o' my thumb and his brothers to his house one evening
a good runner whose nimble legs promptly take to flight and baffle the clumsy corpulent hunter's attempts to attack her you might as well tell the tortoise to run and catch the gazelle
our ogre possesses no greater agility in comparison with the ant and moreover there is another reason that makes it quite impossible for him to run after anything like the crab
he can only really walk backwards which is not exactly the way to overtake your quarry when it's in front of you to be fat and heavy to walk backwards
and to be obliged to have live ant for one's dinner is a difficult a very difficult problem what would you do in such a case come try to find something
rack your brains you can think of nothing well never mind plenty of others including myself could not think of anything either
everyday common sense expressed in proverbs tells us over and over again that necessity is the mother of invention this great truth
which we have learnt by personal experience we shall learn once more from the ant hunter but first let us give him a name to simplify our story
naturalists call him the ant lion a very happy term which reminds us that like the lion he lives by carnage
slaughtering live prey in this case ants now that we have christened him we can go on when he wants his dinner the ant lion says to himself
short legged
perfect we'll use that talent for walking backwards we'll use those tools the shovel and tongs
we'll make craft take the place of the agility which we lack and the dinner will come along no sooner said than done
in a nice dry spot warmed by the sun and sheltered from the rain by an overhanging rock the wily animal selects a place where ants are incessantly moving to and fro on household matters
gravely with the mathematical accuracy of an engineer tracing the foundation of a well planned building the ant lion walks backwards with his body dug into the sand he turns and turns
but gradually coming nearer the centre where he arrives in the end if any obstacle such as a large bit of gravel which would spoil the work makes its appearance
all these cavities are constructed on one and the same principle the slope is very steep and formed of extremely loose sand nothing however light
followed by a headlong fall when the work is finished the scoundrel buries himself in the sand right at the bottom of the funnel his pincers alone appear outside
ever ready to snap but nevertheless hidden as far as possible and now the ant lion remains completely motionless and waits he waits for hours
for days for weeks if necessary for his patience is unequalled he waits for his dinner to come to him as he cannot go after his dinner himself
bringing a little honey in her crop for her mates who are working at a distance just as the goodwife on the stroke of noon brings the reaper his midday meal in the fields in her hurry
or perhaps in her heedlessness she has not seen the precipice she steps upon it but only just on the edge it makes no difference as soon as her foot is on the perfidious slope
the fall ends in the middle of the slope and the ant recovering her balance tries to scramble back to the top the sand trickles under her feet no matter
she goes to work with so much prudence she so skilfully makes use of the smallest solid support she is so careful to move sideways instead of going straight up the slope
that it looks as though the climb ought to be achieved without fresh impediment her knees her delicate feelers seem atremble with excitement one more effort only a little effort and the thing is done
suddenly from the sky there falls upon the poor wretch thick as hailstones a rain of grains of sand which for the tiny ant is as bad as a regular rain of pebbles
who is the brute that takes delight in thus stoning the distressed ant who clings in her despair now to this side now to that as best she may so as not to roll to the bottom of the precipice
the brute is the ant lion the ruffian lying in ambush down in his funnel see what he is doing he takes on his flat head a load a shovelful of sand
and flings it in the air towards the ant with a sudden quick jerk of the neck like the movement of a spring the shovelfuls follow rapidly one after the other whoosh and whoosh
there's one you don't want another there's one all the same what can the ant do i ask you on the slope of that terrible trap where the ground falls from under her in a rushing torrent
while a hail of pebbles dashes down from above in vain she struggles with all the pluck of despair for each step forward she takes three back coming nearer and nearer
to the dreadful jaws that are waiting for her at the bottom of the funnel bruised and dazed with the stoning she rolls over and over right into the jaws
the jaws seize her and everything disappears under the sand not a trace remains of the recent tragedy peacefully buried in the sand of his lair the ant lion devours his astutely captured prey
when the meal is over there remains a dry carcass which must be thrown away for if left in the funnel it might frighten any game in future and betray the hunter in his ambush
a jerk of the shovel that is to say a toss of the flat head flings it outside the hole then the ant lion repairs the damage done to his trap removes the coarser grains of sand
touches up the slopes to make them ready for a new slide he buries himself as i have described and awaits the coming of the next ant that is how the ant lion secures his dinner
chapter twenty eight preparations for departure hatteras would not inform his crew of their situation for if they had known that they had been dragged farther north
they would very likely have given themselves up to the madness of despair the captain had hidden his own emotions at his discovery
but he hid his delight so profoundly that even the doctor did not suspect it
and there was no reason for doubting his veracity they should find things exactly in the same state as he had left them for no new expedition had gone to these extreme continents
since eighteen fifty three there were few or no esquimaux to be met with in that latitude they could not be disappointed on the coast of new cornwall as they had been on beechey island
the low temperature preserves the objects abandoned to its influence for any length of time all probabilities were therefore in favour of this excursion across the ice it was calculated
that the expedition would take at the most forty days and johnson's preparations were made in consequence the sledge was his first care it was in the greenland style
and kept bent like a bow by two thick cords the form thus given to it gave it increased resistance to shocks it ran easily on the ice but when the snow was soft on the ground
their buckskin harness was in good condition and they could draw a weight of two thousand pounds without fatigue the materials for encampment consisted of a tent
should the construction of a snow house be impossible a large piece of mackintosh to spread over the snow to prevent it melting in contact with the human body
and lastly several blankets and buffalo skins they took the halkett boat too the provisions consisted of five cases of pemmican weighing about four hundred and fifty pounds
they counted one pound of pemmican for each man and each dog there were seven dogs including dick and four men they also took twelve gallons of spirits of wine
a sufficient quantity of tea and biscuit a portable kitchen with plenty of wicks oakum powder ammunition and two double barrelled guns
they also used captain parry's invention of indiarubber belts in which the warmth of the body and the movement of walking
johnson was very careful about the snow shoes they are a sort of wooden patten fastened on with leather straps when the ground was quite hard and frozen
they took four whole days each day at noon hatteras took care to set the position of his ship they had ceased to drift he was obliged to be certain in order to get back
he next set about choosing the men he should take with him some of them were not fit either to take or leave but the captain decided to take none but sure companions
as the common safety depended upon the success of the excursion shandon was therefore excluded
james wall was ill in bed the state of the sick got no worse however and as the only thing to do for them was to rub them with lime juice and give them doses of it the doctor was not obliged to stop
and he made one of the travellers johnson very much wished to accompany the captain in his perilous enterprise but hatteras took him aside and said in an affectionate tone
johnson i have confidence in you alone you are the only officer in whose hands i can leave my ship i must know that you are there to overlook shandon and the others
they are kept prisoners here by the winter but i believe them capable of anything you will be furnished with my formal instructions which in case of need will give you the command
and if we don't come back wait for the next breaking up time and try to push forward towards the pole but if the others won't go don't mind us and take the forward back to england
are those your last commands captain yes
very well sir they shall be carried out said johnson simply the doctor regretted his friend but he thought hatteras had acted wisely in leaving him
and was the right man to render service during the encampments on the snow simpson was not so sure but he accepted a share in the expedition and his hunting and fishing capabilities
might be of the greatest use the expedition consisted therefore of four men hatteras clawbonny bell and simpson and seven dogs
the provisions had been calculated in consequence during the first days of january the temperature kept at an average of thirty three degrees below zero
hatteras was very anxious for the weather to change he often consulted the barometer but it is of little use in such high latitudes a clear sky in these regions does not always bring cold
he could not bear to see his ship burnt piece by piece before his eyes all the poop had gone into the stove on the sixth then in the midst of whirlwinds of snow
the order for departure was given the doctor gave his last orders about the sick bell and simpson shook hands silently with their companions hatteras wished to say his good byes aloud
but he saw himself surrounded by evil looks and thought he saw shandon smile ironically he was silent and perhaps hesitated for an instant about leaving the forward
but it was too late to turn back the loaded sledge with the dogs harnessed to it awaited him on the ice field bell started the first
johnson accompanied the travellers for a quarter of a mile then hatteras begged him to return on board and the old sailor went back after making a long farewell gesture
open the atlas once more at the map of russia and look downward from the crimea across the black sea toward the southwest
you see a narrow strait marked bosporus leading from the black sea to the sea of marmora and on either side of the strait a black dot one marked constantinople the other scutari
it is to scutari that we are going but we must not pass the other places without a word for they are very famous this is the land of story and every foot of ground every trickle of water
to conceal her from the eyes of hera his jealous wife zeus turned io into a snow white heifer but hera suspecting the truth persuaded him to give the poor pretty creature to her
then followed a sad time hera set argus a giant with a hundred eyes to watch the heifer
the poor heifer maiden was so unhappy that zeus sent hermes to set her free and the cunning god told stories to argus till he fell asleep and then cut off his head hundred eyes and all
which stung her cruelly and pursued her over land and sea the poor creature fled wildly hither and thither swam across the ionian sea which has borne her name ever since
roamed over the whole breadth of what is now turkey and finally came to the narrow strait or ford between the two seas
and here again she left
but it is very famous those of you who care about moths will find another reminder of io in the beautiful saturnia io which is named for the greek maiden and her cruel foe saturnia
being another name for hera or juno the scenery along the banks of the bosporus is so beautiful that whole books have been written about it on either side are seven promontories and seven bays
indeed it is almost a chain of seven lakes connected by seven swift rushing currents the promontories are crowned with villages towns palaces ruins each with its own beauty
its own interest its own story but we cannot stay for these we must go onward to where at the lower end of the passage with its long narrow harbor the golden horn curling round it
lies constantinople the wonder city here indeed we must stop for a moment for this is one of the most famous cities of history in ancient days when rome was in her glory
and long before it was byzantium that lay shining in the curve of the golden horn byzantium the rich the powerful the desired of all fought over through successive generations by persian
greek gaul and roman conquered liberated conquered again in the second century of our era it was besieged by the roman emperor severus
and after a heroic resistance lasting three years was taken and laid waste by the conqueror but the city sprang up again more beautiful than ever and a century and a half later
not a prophet but a great soldier surnamed the conqueror who finally conquered it in fourteen fifty three after another tremendous siege of which you will read in history
took refuge in the great church of saint sophia and were there barbarously slaughtered by the ferocious turks in the south aisle of the church the dead lay piled in great heaps
and in over this dreadful rampart rode mohammed on his war horse and as he rode he lifted his bloody right hand and smote one of the pillars and there so the story says
from that time to our own constantinople has been the capital city of the turkish empire again i wish i might tell you about at least a few of its many wonders for i have seen some of them
it is to the last named that we are going although actually a suburb of constantinople scutari is a town in itself and a large and ancient one
in the earliest times of the great persian monarchy it was called chrysopolis the golden city its present name means in persian a courier who carries royal orders from station to station
been a rendezvous for caravans messengers travelers of every description here xenophon and his greeks returning from the war against cyrus
halted for seven days while the soldiers disposed of the booty they had won in the campaign here for hundreds of years stood the three colossal statues
for the burying ground of scutari is one of the largest in the world and its silent avenues hold some say
it is a strange place this great burying ground beside each tomb rises a cypress tree tall and majestic the tombs themselves are mostly pillars of marble
with a globe or ball on the top and perched atop of this globe is in many cases a turban or a fez carved in stone and painted in gay colors
the women's tombs are marked by a grapevine or a stem of lotus also carved in marble at foot of the column is a flat stone hollowed out in the middle to form a small basin
some of these basins are filled with flowers or perfumes in others the rain and dew make a pleasant bathing and drinking place for the birds who fly in great flocks about the quiet place
not far from this great cemetery is another place of burial that of the english and this is laid out like a lovely garden and watched and tended with loving care
for here rest the brave men who fell in this terrible war of the crimea
that towers foursquare over all the neighborhood we must look well at this building the barrack hospital of scutari for this is what florence nightingale came so far to see
through all the long wearisome journey
her eyes were set steadfastly forward following her swift thoughts and eyes and thoughts sought this one thing this gaunt bare building rising beside the new made graves
i have travelled up north as far as lahore down south up to tranquebar and from karachi to calcutta having resorted to third class travelling
among other reasons for the purpose of studying the conditions under which this class of passengers travel i have naturally made as critical observations as i could
i have fairly covered the majority of railway systems during this period now and then i have entered into correspondence with the management of the different railways about the defects that have come under my notice
but i think that the time has come when i should invite the press and the public to join in a crusade against a grievance which has too long remained unredressed
though much of it is capable of redress without great difficulty on the twelfth instant i booked at bombay for madras by the mail train
it was labelled to carry twenty two passengers these could only have seating accommodation there were no bunks in this carriage whereon passengers could lie with any degree of safety or comfort
there were two nights to be passed in this train before reaching madras if not more than twenty two passengers found their way into my carriage before we reached poona it was because the bolder ones kept the others at bay
with the exception of two or three insistent passengers all had to find their sleep being seated all the time
the pressure became unbearable the rush of passengers could not be stayed the fighters among us found the task almost beyond them the guards or other railway servants came in only to push in more passengers
a defiant memon merchant protested against this packing of passengers like sardines in vain did he say that this was his fifth night on the train the guard insulted him and referred him to the management at the terminus
there were during this night as many as thirty five passengers in the carriage during the greater part of it some lay on the floor in the midst of dirt and some had to keep standing
a free fight was at one time avoided only by the intervention of some of the older passengers who did not want to add to the discomfort by an exhibition of temper on the way passengers got for tea
tannin water with filthy sugar and a whitish looking liquid mis called milk which gave this water a muddy appearance i can vouch for the appearance but i cite the testimony of the passengers
as to the taste not during the whole of the journey was the compartment once swept or cleaned the result was that every time you walked on the floor or rather cut your way through the passengers seated on the floor
you waded through dirt the closet was also not cleaned during the journey and there was no water in the water tank refreshments sold to the passengers were dirty looking
handed by dirtier hands coming out of filthy receptacles and weighed in equally unattractive scales these were previously sampled by millions of flies
i asked some of the passengers who went in for these dainties to give their opinion many of them used choice expressions as to the quality but were satisfied to state that they were helpless in the matter
they had to take things as they came on reaching the station i found that the ghari wala would not take me unless i paid the fare he wanted i mildly protested and told him
i would pay him the authorised fare i had to turn passive resister before i could be taken i simply told him he would have to pull me out of the ghari or call the policeman
the return journey was performed in no better manner the carriage was packed already and but for a friend's intervention i could not have been able to secure even a seat my admission was certainly beyond the authorised number
this compartment was constructed to carry nine passengers but it had constantly twelve in it at one place an important railway servant swore at a protestant
threatened to strike him and locked the door over the passengers whom he had with difficulty squeezed in to this compartment there was a closet falsely so called
it was designed as a european closet but could hardly be used as such there was a pipe in it but no water and i say without fear of challenge that it was pestilentially dirty the compartment itself was evil looking
dirt was lying thick upon the wood work and i do not know that it had ever seen soap or water the compartment had an exceptional assortment of passengers
there were three stalwart punjabi mahomedans two refined tamilians and two mahomedan merchants who joined us later the merchants related the bribes they had to give to procure comfort
one of the punjabis had already travelled three nights and was weary and fatigued but he could not stretch himself he said he had sat the whole day at the central station watching passengers
these three men were bound for ludhiana and had still more nights of travel in store for them what i have described is not exceptional but normal
purulia asansol and other junction stations and been at the mosafirkhanas attached to these stations they are discreditable looking places where there is no order no cleanliness
but utter confusion and horrible din and noise passengers have no benches or not enough to sit on they squat on dirty floors and eat dirty food
they are permitted to throw the leavings of their food and spit where they like sit how they like and smoke everywhere the closets attached to these places defy description
i have not the power adequately to describe them without committing a breach of the laws of decent speech disinfecting powder ashes or disinfecting fluids are unknown
the army of flies buzzing about them warns you against their use but a third class traveller is dumb and helpless he does not want to complain even though to go to these places may be to court death
i know passengers who fast while they are travelling just in order to lessen the misery of their life in the trains
but yet to no purpose at the imperial capital a certain third class booking office is a black hole fit only to be destroyed
is it any wonder that plague has become endemic in india any other result is impossible where passengers always leave some dirt where they go and take more on leaving
on indian trains alone passengers smoke with impunity in all carriages irrespective of the presence of the fair sex and irrespective of the protest of non smokers and this
notwithstanding a bye law which prevents a passenger from smoking without the permission of his fellows in the compartment which is not allotted to smokers
the existence of the awful war cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the removal of this gigantic evil war can be no warrant for tolerating dirt and overcrowding
one could understand an entire stoppage of passenger traffic in a crisis like this but never a continuation or accentuation of insanitation and conditions that must undermine health and morality
compare the lot of the first class passengers with that of the third class in the madras case the first class fare is over five times as much as the third class fare
does the third class passenger get one fifth even one tenth of the comforts of his first class fellow it is but simple justice to claim that some relative proportion be observed between the cost
and comfort it is a known fact that the third class traffic pays for the ever increasing luxuries of first and second class travelling surely a third class passenger is entitled at least
to the bare necessities of life in neglecting the third class passengers opportunity of giving a splendid education to millions in orderliness sanitation decent composite life
and cultivation of simple and clean tastes is being lost instead of receiving an object lesson in these matters third class passengers
have their sense of decency and cleanliness blunted during their travelling experience among the many suggestions that can be made for dealing with the evil here described i would respectfully include this
let the people in high places the viceroy the commander in chief the rajas maharajas the imperial councillors and others who generally travel in superior classes
without previous warning go through the experiences now and then of third class travelling
and the uncomplaining millions will get some return for the fares they pay under the expectation of being carried from place to place
chapter one the creation six busy days it took in all
the seventh someone said twas good and rested should you think he could knowing what the result would be
claire beecher kummer it takes much longer to write a geography than according to moses
it took to create the world which it is the geographer's business to describe and since the critic has been added to the list of created beings it is no longer the fashion for the author to pass judgment on his own work
let us imagine however that concealed in the cargo of hypothetic nebula destined for the construction of the terrestrial globe was a protoplasmic stowaway
that sprang to being in the shape of a critic just as the work of creation was finished would it not be interesting to speculate upon that critic's reception of the freshly made world
we may be sure that he would have found many things not to his liking technical defects such as the treatment of grass and foliage in green instead of the proper purple
the tinting of the sky which any landscape painter will tell you would be more decorative done in turquoise green than cobalt blue like the foolish butterfly in the talmud who
to impress missus butterfly stamped his tiny foot upon the dome of king solomon's temple our critic might have declared the world too flimsy in construction he would certainly have found fault with the solar system and the plumbing
the absence of heat in winter when there is the greater need of it and the paucity of moisture in the desert places where it never rains the comicality of the ape family might have provoked
and if he wished to be very impressive indeed he would pretend that he had penetrated the veil of anonymity and hint darkly that he detected evident traces of a feminine touch
in that however our critic would only have been anticipating for is there not at this very moment on the press a suffrage edition for women only of the rubaiyat
in which one verse is amended to read thus the ball no question makes of ayes or numbers but right or left as strikes the player goes and she who tossed it down into the field she knows about it all
she knows she knows preface strictly private for the reader only dear reader this is for you and you only
we have a confession to make it would be useless to attempt concealment we have the digression habit
all we ask gentle reader is that when we stray too far you will favour us with a gentle reminder chapter two
when the acrobatic reader has fetched his breath and looks back at the fearsome list of geographers he has skipped strabo anaximander hecatoeus
demoeritus eudoxus
polybius posidonius and charles f king
the geographer's task is endless
the glaciers file away the mountains into valleys and plains beneath the ocean busy insects are building the foundations of new continents
under the earth fiery demons are ready at all times to burst forth and help to destroy the old ones it really begins to look as if this planet would never be finished
in the first chapter of his geography moses tells us there were only two people in the world today we are preparing to put up the standing room only notice
in another thousand years for aught we know the earth may be going round dark and tenantless and bearing the sign to let
what are we but microscopic weevils in the mouldy crust of earth sufficient unto the day is the weevil thereof chapter three the giddy globe
francis bacon called it a bubble shakespeare an oyster rossetti a midge and w s gilbert addresses it familiarly as a ball
roll on thou ball roll on through pathless realms of space roll on what though i'm in a sorry case what though i cannot meet my bills
what though i swallow countless pills never you mind roll on it rolls on but these people belong to a privileged class that is encouraged even paid
to distort the language and they must not be taken too literally the giddy globe is really quite large not to say obese
her waist measurement is no less than twenty five thousand miles in the hope of reducing it the earth takes unceasing and violent exercise
but though she spins round on one toe at the rate of a thousand miles an hour every day and round the sun once a year she does not succeed in taking off a single mile
or keeping even comfortably warm all over no wonder the globe is giddy questions explain the nebular hypothesis
few persons who have visited the french capital within the last ten or twelve years can have failed to have seen him and once seen he was not to be forgotten while passing through the public streets there was nothing in his personal appearance to distinguish him
he drove a pair of bay horses attached to an open carriage with two seats the back one always occupied by his valet
at other times near the column in the place vendome but usually
or the place de la madeleine on sundays his favorite locality was the place de la bourse
with a most self satisfied countenance which seemed to say i am master here
arriving at his destined stopping place his carriage halted his servant handed him a case from which he took several large portraits of himself which he hung prominently upon the sides of his carriage
and also placed in front of him a vase filled with medals bearing his likeness on one side and a description of his pencils on the other he then leisurely commenced a change of costume
his round hat was displaced by a magnificent burnished helmet mounted with rich plumes of various brilliant colors his overcoat was laid aside and he donned in its stead
a costly velvet tunic with gold fringes he then drew a pair of polished steel gauntlets upon his hands
and placed a richly mounted sword at his side his servant watched him closely and upon receiving a sign from his master he too put on his official costume which consisted of a velvet robe
and a helmet the servant then struck up a tune on the richly toned organ which always formed a part
the grotesque appearance of these individuals and the music soon drew together an admiring crowd then the great charlatan stood upon his feet his manner was calm dignified
imposing indeed almost solemn for his face was as serious as that of the chief mourner at a funeral his sharp intelligent eye scrutinized the throng which was pressing around his carriage until
it rested apparently upon some particular individual when he gave a start then with a dark angry expression as if the sight was repulsive he abruptly dropped the visor of his helmet
and thus covered his face from the gaze of the anxious crowd this bit of coquetry produced the desired effect in whetting the appetite of the multitude who were impatiently waiting to hear him speak
he raised his hand and his servant understanding the sign stopped the organ
stepped forward to the front of the carriage gave a slight cough indicative of a preparation to speak opened his mouth but instantly giving a more fearful start and assuming a more sudden frown than before he took his seat
as if quite overcome by some unpleasant object which his eyes had rested upon thus far he had not spoken a word at last the prelude ended and the comedy commenced
stepping forward again to the front of his carriage where all the gaping crowd could catch every word he exclaimed gentlemen you look astonished you seem to wonder and ask yourselves
who is this modern quixote what mean this costume of by gone centuries this golden chariot these richly caparisoned steeds what is the name and purpose of this curious knight errant
gentlemen i will condescend to answer your queries
the great charlatan of france yes gentlemen i am a charlatan a mountebank it is my profession not from choice but from necessity you gentlemen created that necessity
you would not patronize true unpretending honest merit but you are attracted by my glittering casque my sweeping crest my waving plumes
you are captivated by din and glitter and therein lies my strength years ago i hired a modest shop in the rue rivoli but i could not sell pencils enough to pay my rent whereas by assuming this disguise
i have succeeded in attracting general attention and in selling literally millions of my pencils and i assure you there is at this moment scarcely an artist in france or in great britain
who don't know that i manufacture by far the best blacklead pencils ever seen and this assertion was indeed true his pencils were everywhere acknowledged to be superior to any other
he would take a blank card and with one of his pencils would pretend to be drawing the portrait of some man standing near him then showing his picture to the crowd it proved to be the head of a donkey
a hearty laugh would be sure to follow and then he would exclaim now who will have the first pencil only five sous one would buy and then another a third and a fourth would follow
and with the delivery of each pencil he would rattle off a string of witticisms which kept his patrons in capital good humor and frequently he would sell from two hundred to five hundred pencils in immediate succession
then he would drop down in his carriage for a few minutes and wipe the perspiration from his face while his servant played another overture on the organ this gave his purchasers a chance to withdraw
and afforded a good opportunity for a fresh audience to congregate then would follow a repetition of his previous sales and in this way he would continue for hours
to those disposed to have a souvenir of the great humbug he would sell six pencils a medal and a photograph of himself for a franc twenty cents
after taking a rest he would commence a new speech when i was modestly dressed like any of my hearers
punch and his bells would attract crowds but my good pencils attracted nobody i imitated punch and his bells and now i have two hundred depots in paris i dine at the best cafes drink the best wine
live on the best of everything while my defamers get poor and lank as they deserve to be
envious swindlers men who try to ape me but are too stupid and too dishonest to succeed they endeavor to attract notice as mountebanks
and then foist upon the public worthless trash and hope thus to succeed ah defamers of mine you are fools as well as knaves fools to think that any man can succeed by systematically and persistently cheating the public
knaves for desiring the public's money without giving them an equivalent i am an honest man
by a peculiar play of feature and of voice and with unique and original gestures which seemed to excite and captivate his audience about seven years ago i met him in one of the principal restaurants in the palais royale
a mutual friend introduced me
i am delighted to see you i have read your book with infinite satisfaction it has been published here in numerous editions i see you have the right idea of things your motto is a good one
i have much wanted to visit america but i cannot speak english so i must remain in my dear belle france i remarked that i had often seen him in public and bought his pencils aha you never saw better pencils
you know i could never maintain my reputation if i sold poor pencils but sacre bleu my miserable would be imitators do not know our grand secret first attract the public by din and tinsel
by brilliant sky rockets and bengola lights then give them as much as possible for their money you are very happy i replied in your manner of attracting the public your costume is elegant
your chariot is superb and your valet and music are sure to draw thank you for your compliment mister b but i have not forgotten your buffalo hunt your mermaid nor your woolly horse they were a good offset to my rich helmet and sword
both are intended as advertisements of something genuine and both answer the purpose after comparing notes in this way for an hour we parted and his last words were mister b
i have got a grand humbug in my head which i shall put in practice within a year and it shall double the sale of my pencils don't ask me what it is but within one year you shall see it for yourself and you shall acknowledge
knows something of human nature my idea is
but it is one grand secret
add another wrinkle to my horns but poor fellow within four months after i bade him adieu the paris newspapers announced his sudden death they added that he had left two hundred thousand francs
which he had given in his will to charitable objects the announcement was copied into nearly all the papers on the continent and in great britain for almost everybody had seen or heard of the eccentric pencil maker
his death caused many an honest sigh and his absence seemed to cast a gloom over several of his favorite halting places the parisians really loved him and were proud of his genius
he was shrewd and possessed a thorough knowledge of the world he was a gentleman and a man of intelligence extremely agreeable and witty his habits were good he was charitable he never cheated anybody
he always sold a good article and no person who purchased from him had cause to complain i confess i felt somewhat chagrined that the monsieur had thus suddenly taken french leave
without imparting to me the grand secret by which he was to double the sales of his pencils but i had not long to mourn on that account
as they say of john brown mouldering in his grave judge of the astonishment and delight of all paris at his reappearance in his native city in precisely the same costume and carriage as formerly
and heralded by the same servant and organ that had always attended him
and that the extensively circulated announcements of his sudden death had been made by himself merely as an advertising dodge to bring him still more into notice and give the public something to talk about
aha monsieur barnum he exclaimed did i not tell you i had a new humbug that would double the sales of my pencils i assure you my sales are more than quadrupled
you yankees are very clever but by gar none of you have discovered you should live all the better if you would die for six months
the patronizing air with which he made this speech slapping me at the same time familiarly upon the back
leave your supper and leave your sleep and come with your playfellows out in the street up the ladder and down the wall a child of three sat up in his crib and screamed at the top of his voice
his fists clinched and his eyes full of terror at first no one heard
then the housekeeper passed that way and hurried to soothe him he was her special pet and she disapproved of the nurse
there's nothing to frighten him georgie dear it was it was a policeman he was on the
he came in jane said he would policemen don't come into houses dearie turn over and take my hand
he came here where is your hand harper the housekeeper waited till the sobs changed to the regular breathing of sleep before she stole out
we met tisdall on dowhead when we were in the donkey cart this morning p'r'aps that's what put it into his head
and the master know nothing about it if ever i catch you again et cetera a child of six was telling himself stories as he lay in bed it was a new power
and he kept it a secret a month before it had occurred to him to carry on a nursery tale left unfinished by his mother and he was delighted to find the tale
as it came out of his own head just as surprising as though he were listening to it
there was a prince in that tale and he killed dragons but only for one night ever afterwards georgie dubbed himself prince pasha giant killer and all the rest
you see he could not tell any one for fear of being laughed at and his tales faded gradually into dreamland where adventures were so many that he could not recall the half of them
they all began in the same way or as georgie explained to the shadows of the night light there was the same starting off place a pile of brushwood stacked somewhere near a beach
and round this pile georgie found himself running races with little boys and girls these ended ships ran high up the dry land and opened into cardboard boxes
or gilt and green iron railings that surrounded beautiful gardens turned all soft and could be walked through and overthrown so long as he remembered it was only a dream
and instead of pushing down houses full of grown up people a just revenge he sat miserably upon gigantic door steps trying to sing the multiplication table up to four times six
the princess of his tales was a person of wonderful beauty she came from the old illustrated edition of grimm now out of print
and as she always applauded georgie's valour among the dragons and buffaloes he gave her the two finest names he had ever heard in his life annie and louise
in a real sea by his nurse and he said as he sank poor annieanlouise she'll be sorry for me now but annieanlouise walking slowly on the beach called
ha ha said the duck laughing which to a waking mind might not seem to bear on the situation it consoled georgie at once and must have been some kind of spell for it raised the bottom of the deep
and he waded out with a twelve inch flower pot on each foot as he was strictly forbidden to meddle with flower pots in real life he felt triumphantly wicked
but did not pretend to understand removed his world when he was seven years old to a place called oxford on a visit here were huge buildings surrounded by vast prairies
with streets of infinite length and above all something called the buttery which georgie was dying to see because he knew it must be greasy and therefore delightful
he perceived how correct were his judgments when his nurse led him through a stone arch into the presence of an enormously fat man who asked him if he would like some bread and cheese georgie was used to eat
and would have taken some brown liquid called
pepper's ghost this was intensely thrilling
while mister pepper himself beyond question a man of the worst waved his arms and flapped a long gown and in a deep bass voice georgie had never heard a man sing before told of his sorrows unspeakable
some grown up or other tried to explain that the illusion was made with mirrors and that there was no need to be frightened georgie did not know what illusions were
was just saying things after the distressing custom of grown ups and georgie cast about for amusement between scenes next to him sat a little girl dressed all in black
her hair combed off her forehead exactly like the girl in the book called alice in wonderland
there's a di ack lum plaster on
georgie answered complying dothent it hurt her grey eyes were full of pity and interest
perhaps it will give me lockjaw it lookth very horrid
she put a forefinger to his hand and held her head sidewise for a better view here the nurse turned
she isn't strange she's very nice i like her an i've showed her my new cut the idea you change places with me she moved him over and shut out the little girl from his view
i am not afraid truly said the boy wriggling in despair but why don't you go to sleep in the afternoons same as provost of oriel
georgie had been introduced to a grown up of that name who slept in his presence without apology georgie understood that he was the most important grown up in oxford hence
he strove to gild his rebuke with flatteries this grown up did not seem to like it but he collapsed
mister pepper was singing again and the deep ringing voice the red fire
who had been so kind about his cut when the performance was ended
he spoke no more than was necessary till bedtime but meditated on new colors and sounds and lights and music and things as far as he understood them the deep mouthed agony of mister pepper
mingling with the little girl's lisp that night he made a new tale from which he shamelessly removed the rapunzel rapunzel let down your hair princess gold crown grimm edition and all
that when he came to the brushwood pile he should find her waiting for him her hair combed off her forehead more like alice in wonderland than ever
it is not unpleasant to spend eight and twenty days in an easy going steamer on warm waters in the company of a woman who lets you see that you are head and shoulders superior to the rest of the world
particularity of atlantic liners there is more phosphorescence at the bows and greater silence and darkness by the hand steering gear aft awful things might have happened to georgie
but for the little fact that he had never studied the first principles of the game he was expected to play so when missus zuleika
of his home and so forth all the way up the red sea
to converse with a woman for an hour at a time then missus zuleika turning from parental affection spoke of love in the abstract as a thing not unworthy of study
and in discreet twilights after dinner demanded confidences georgie would have been delighted to supply them but he had none and did not know it was his duty to manufacture them
missus zuleika expressed surprise and unbelief and asked those questions which deep asks of deep she learned all that was necessary to conviction and being very much a woman resumed
the motherly attitude do you know she said somewhere in the mediterranean i think you're the very dearest boy i have ever met in my life and i'd like you to remember me a little
you will when you are older but i want you to remember me now you'll make some girl very happy
that depends here are your bean bags for the ladies competition i think i'm growing too old to care for these tamashas they were getting up sports and georgie was on the committee
he never noticed how perfectly the bags were sewn but another woman did and smiled once he liked missus zuleika greatly she was a bit old of course but uncommonly nice there was no nonsense about her
a few nights after they passed gibraltar his dream returned to him she who waited by the brushwood pile was no longer a little girl but a woman with black hair that grew into a widow's peak
combed back from her forehead he knew her for the child in black the companion of the last six years and as it had been in the time of the meetings on the lost continent
he was filled with delight unspeakable they for some dreamland reason were friendly or had gone away that night and the two flitted together over
till they saw the house of the sick thing a pin point in the distance to the left stamped through the railway waiting room where the roses lay on the spread breakfast tables and returned by the ford
and the city they had once burned for sport to the great swells of the downs under the lamp post wherever they moved a strong singing followed them underground but this night there was no panic
all the land was empty except for themselves and at the last they were sitting by the lamp post hand in hand she turned and kissed him he woke with a start
staring at the waving curtain of the cabin door he could almost have sworn that the kiss was real next morning the ship was rolling in a biscay sea and people were not happy
any one left you a legacy in the middle of the bay georgie reached for the curry with a seraphic grin i suppose it's the gettin so near home and all that i do feel rather festive this mornin
rolls a bit doesn't she missus zuleika stayed in her cabin till the end of the voyage when she left without bidding him farewell
and then the nurse caught them and richard was sent to bed but he did not go there was no sleep in that house that night sleepiness filled it like a thick fog
dickie put out his rushlight and stayed quiet for a little while but presently it was impossible to stay quiet another moment so very softly and carefully he crept out and hid behind a tall press at the end of the passage
he felt that strange things were happening in the house and that he must know what they were presently there were voices below voices coming up the stairs
the nurse's voice his cousins and another voice where had he heard that other voice the stopped clock feeling was thick about him as he realized that this was one of the voices
the voice that had said he is more yours than mine the light the nurse carried gleamed and disappeared up the second flight of stairs dickie followed
he had to follow he could not be left out of this the most mysterious of all the happenings that had so wonderfully come to him he saw when he reached the upper landing that the others were by the window
there was whispering going on he heard her words here so jump
edred it must be no elfrida climbed up on
and jumped out out of the third floor window undoubtedly jumped another followed it that was edred it is a dream said dickie to himself
made one bound to the window
stood up and jumped and he heard as his knee touched the icy window sill the strange voice say another and then he was in the air falling falling
i shall wake when i reach the ground dickie told himself
he had not fallen a couple of yards before he was caught by something soft as heaped feathers or drifted snow it moved and shifted under him took shape it was a chair no a carriage
the strange steed to a low swoop that should bring him near the flare of torches in the street outside the great front door and as the swan laid its long neck low in downward flight
rise into the sky and sail away towards the south quite without meaning to do it he pulled on the reins the swan rose he pulled again and the carriage stopped at the landing window
hands dragged him in the old nurse's hands
and on the landing inside the open window the nurse held him fast in her arms my lamb she said my dear foolish brave lamb dickie was pulling himself together
if it's a dream he said slowly i've had enough i want to wake up if it's real real with magic in it you've got to explain it all to me every bit
i can't go on like this it's not fair oh tell him and have done said the voice that had begun all the magic
and vanished quite suddenly just as a candle flame does when you blow the candle out i will said the nurse come love i will tell you everything she took him down into a warm curtained room
blew to flame the gray ashes on the open hearth gave him elder wine to drink hot and spiced and kneeling before him rubbing his cold bare feet she told him there are certain children
born now and then it does not often happen
children who are not bound by time as other people are and if the right bit of magic comes their way those children have the power to go back and forth in time just as other children go back and forth in space
the space of a room a playing field or a garden alley often children lose this power when they are quite young sometimes it comes to them gradually so that they hardly know when it begins
and leaves them as gradually like a dream when you wake and stretch yourself sometimes it comes by the saying of a charm that is how edred and elfrida found it they came from the time that you were born in
and they have been living in this time with you and now they have gone back to their own time
from what they were at deptford
it wasn't that i noticed any difference so much as that i felt something queer i couldn't understand it it felt stuffy as if something was going to burst that was because
while those other kids were here pretending to be them dickie asked oh they were somewhere else in julius caesar's time to be exact
they haven't the charm to them it will be like a dream that they have forgotten
and jumping out of the window dickie urged the swans were white magic the white mouldiwarp of arden did all that
and how it was the badge of arden's house its picture being engraved on tinkler
dickie and the nurse sat most of the night talking by the replenished fire for the tale seemed endless dickie learned that the edred and elfrida who belonged to his own times had a father
who was supposed to be dead i am forbidden to tell them said the nurse but thou canst help them and shalt i should like that said dickie but can't i see the white mouldiwarp
i dare not even i dare not call it again to night the nurse owned but maybe i will teach thee a little spell to bring it on another day it is an angry little beast at times but kindly and hard working
to thy house she told him the mouldiwarp who is the badge and the mouldiwarp who is the crest and the great mouldiwarp
who talked of thee and how can i find my cousins
lay out the moon seeds and the other charms and wish to be where they are going then thou canst speak with them wish to be there a week before they come
that thou mayst know the place and the folk now dickie asked
he talked with the nurse every day and learned more and more wonders of which there is no time now for me to tell you but they are all written in the book of the house of arden in that book too
it is written how dickie went back from the first james's time to the time
and took part in the merry country life of those days and there found the old nurse herself edred and elfrida and helped them to recover their father from a far country
and the cliff that none could climb and the children who were white cats and the mouldiwarp who became as big as a polar bear with other wonders and when all this was over
elfrida and edred wanted dickie to come back with them to their own time but he would not he went back instead to the time he loved when james the first was king and when he woke
in the little panelled room it seemed to him that all this was only dreams and fancies
very funny and rather self important the second mouldiwarp he had not yet met i have told you all these things very shortly because they were so dream like to dickie
that always happens said the nurse if you stumble into some one else's magic it never feels real but if you bring them into yours it's quite another pair of sleeves
because that's where they are now they're seven months ahead of you in your own time but said dickie very much bewildered as i am myself and as i am afraid you too must be
if they're seven months ahead won't they always be seven months ahead odds bodikins said the nurse impatiently how often am i to tell you that there's no such thing as time but there's seasons
and the season you'll go back to tis autumn so you must live the seven months in their time and then it'll be summer and you'll meet them and what about lord arden in the tower
will he be beheaded for treason dickie asked oh that's part of their magic it isn't in your magic at all lord arden will be safe enough and now my lamb i've more to tell thee
but come into thy panelled chamber where thy tutor cannot eavesdrop and betray us and have thee given over to him wholly and me burned for a witch these terrible words kept dickie silent
till he and the nurse were safe in his room and then he said come with me to my time nurse they don't burn people for witches there no said the nurse
but they let them live such lives in their ugly towns that my life here with all its risks is far better worth living thou knowest how folk live in deptford in thy time how all the green trees are gone
and good work is gone and people do bad work for just so much as will keep together their worn bodies and desolate souls and sometimes they starve to death and they won't burn me
now listen she sat down on the edge of the bed and dickie cuddled up against her stiff bodice edred and elfrida first went into the past to look for treasure
it is a treasure buried in arden castle by the sea which is their home they want the treasure to restore the splendor of the old castle
and to mend the houses of the tenants and to do good to the poor and needy but you know that now they have used their magic to get back their father
but your magic will hold and if you lay out your moon seeds round them in the old shape and stand with them in the midst holding your tinkler and your white seal you will all go
whithersoever you choose
that thou canst not thou canst only choose
go into it and then seek for the treasure there and then i'll do it dickie said and then
the ardens stay where duty binds them and go where duty calls
thou'rt richard arden there as here she said thy grandfather's name got changed by breathing hard on it from arden to harden and that again to harding
thus names are changed ever and again and dickie of deptford
the time is not ripe for thee to take up all thine honors there she said and now dear lamb since thy tutor is imagining unkind things in his heart for thee go quickly
set out thy moon seeds and when thou hearest the voices say i would see both mouldiwarps and thou shalt see them both thank you said dickie i do want to see them both
see them he did
not even the ground under his feet or the touch of his clenched fingers against his palms they were very white the mouldiwarps outlined distinctly against the gray blueness
and the mouldiwarp he had seen in that wonderful adventure in the far country smiled as well as a mole can and said thou'rt a fair sprig of de old tree muster dickie so e be
in the thick speech of the peasant people round about talbot house where
said the mouldiwarp so's e so there's two of ye sure enough it was very odd to see and hear these white moles talking like real people
and looking like figures on a magic lantern screen but dickie did not enjoy it as much as perhaps you or i would have done it was not his pet kind of magic
he liked the good straightforward old fashioned kind of magic that he was accustomed to the kind that just took you out of one life into another life and made both lives as real one as the other still
one must always be polite so he said
there's purty manners the mouldiwarp said the pleasure is ours said the mouldierwarp instantly dickie could not help seeing that both these old creatures were extremely pleased with him
when shall i see the other mouldiwarp he asked to keep up the conversation the one on our shield of arms you mean the mouldiestwarp said the mouldier
as i will now call him for short
he is very great i work the magic of space my brother here works the magic of time and the great mouldiestwarp controls us and many things beside you must only call on him
when you wish to end our magics and to work a magic greater than ours what could be greater dickie asked and both the creatures looked very pleased
he is a worthier arden than those little black and white chits of thine
which is what to save time we will now call the mouldiwarp
an so should be said the mouldy shortly all's for the best and the end's to come where'd ye want to go my lord i'm not my lord
and i want to go back to mister beale and stay with him for seven months and then to find my cousins back thou goes then
that part's easy and for the second half of thy wish no magic is needed but the magic of steadfast heart and the patient purpose and these thou hast
without any helping or giving of ours said the courtly mouldierwarp they waved their white paws on the gray blue curtain of mist and behold they were not there any more
turning to dawn and dickie was able again to feel solid things the floor under him his hand on the sharp edge of the armchair and the soft breathing comfortable weight of true
asleep against his knee he moved the dog awoke and dickie felt its soft nose nuzzled into his hand and now for seven months work
said dickie got up put tinkler and the seal and the moon seeds into a very safe place and crept back to bed he felt rather heroic
he did not want the treasure it was not for him he was going to help edred and elfrida to get it he did not want the life at lavender terrace
so let him feel a little bit of a hero
she went straight to the bed and taking rosamond in her arms sat down with her by the fire my poor child she said two terrible failures and the more the harder
they get stronger and stronger what is to be done couldn't you help me said rosamond piteously perhaps i could now you ask me answered the wise woman
when you are ready to try again we shall see i am very tired of myself said the princess but i can't rest till i try again
that is the only way to get rid of your weary shadowy self and find your strong true self come my child i will help you all i can for now i can help you
yet again she led her to the same door and seemed to the princess to send her yet again alone into the room she was in a forest a place half wild half tended
the trees were grand and full of the loveliest birds of all glowing gleaming and radiant colors which unlike the brilliant birds we know in our world sang deliciously
every one according to his color the trees were not at all crowded but their leaves were so thick and their boughs spread so far that it was only here and there a sunbeam could get straight through
all the gentle creatures of a forest were there but no creatures that killed not even a weasel to kill the rabbits or a beetle to eat the snails out of their striped shells as to the butterflies
words would but wrong them if they tried to tell how gorgeous they were the princess's delight was so great that she neither laughed nor ran
they were nowhere neither on the high trees nor on the few shrubs that grew here and there amongst them were there any blossoms and in the grass that grew everywhere there was not a single flower to be seen
ah well said rosamond again to herself where all the birds and butterflies are living flowers we can do without the other sort
and there on the root of a great oak sat the loveliest
with her lap full of flowers of all colors but of such kinds as rosamond had never before seen she was playing with them burying her hands in them tumbling them about and every now and then picking one from the rest and throwing it away
all the time she never smiled except with her eyes which were as full as they could hold of the laughter of the spirit a laughter which in this world is never heard only sets
the eyes alight with a liquid shining rosamond drew nearer for the wonderful creature would have drawn a tiger to her side and tamed him on the way a few yards from her
as well she might where none grew save in her own longing but to her amazement she found instead of a flower thrown away to wither one fast rooted and quite at home she left it and went to another
but it also was fast in the soil and growing comfortably in the warm grass what could it mean one after another she tried until at length she was satisfied
she watched then until she saw her throw one and instantly bounded to the spot but the flower had been quicker than she there it grew fast fixed in the earth and she thought
looked at her roguishly something evil moved in her and she plucked it don't don't cried the child my flowers cannot live in your hands rosamond looked at the flower
it was withered already she threw it from her offended the child rose with difficulty keeping her lapful together picked it up
spoke to it kissed it sang to it oh such a sweet childish little song the princess never could recall a word of it and threw it away
rosamond's bad temper soon gave way the beauty and sweetness of the child had overcome it and anxious to make friends with her she drew near and said
won't you give me a little flower please you beautiful child there they are they are all for you answered the child pointing with her outstretched arm and forefinger all round
but you told me a minute ago not to touch them yes indeed i did they can't be mine if i'm not to touch them if to call them yours you must kill them then they are not yours and never never can be yours
they are nobody's when they are dead but you don't kill them i don't pull them i throw them away i live them how is it that you make them grow
and throw it away and there it is where do you get them in my lap i wish you would let me throw one away
no i have none then you can't throw one away if you haven't got one
i am not mocking you said the child looking her full in the face with reproach in her large blue eyes oh
that's where the flowers come from said the princess to herself the moment she saw them hardly knowing what she meant
threw away all the flowers she had in her lap but one by one and without any sign of anger when they were all gone she stood a moment and then in a kind of chanting cry called two or three times
came gently trotting the loveliest little snow white pony with great shining blue wings half lifted from his shoulders straight towards the little girl neither hurrying nor lingering
he trotted with light elastic tread rosamond's love for animals broke into a perfect passion of delight at the vision
she rushed to meet the pony with such haste that although clearly the best trained animal under the sun
it was that had so startled him when he perceived it was a little girl he dropped instantly upon all fours and content with avoiding her
rosamond stood gazing after him in miserable disappointment when he reached the child he laid his head on her shoulder
and after she had talked to him a little he turned and came trotting back to the princess almost beside herself with joy
not withstanding her love for them she was in the habit of using with animals and she was not gentle enough in herself even to see that he did not like it
and was only putting up with it for the sake of his mistress but
which threw her flat on the grass and trotting back to his mistress bent down his head before her as if asking excuse for ridding himself of the unbearable the princess
was furious she had forgotten all her past life up to the time when she first saw the child her beauty had made her forget and yet she was now on the very borders of hating her
what she might have done or rather tried to do had not peggy's tail struck her down with such force that for a moment she could not rise i cannot tell but
while she lay half stunned her eyes fell on a little flower just under them it stared up in her face like the living thing it was and she could not take her eyes off its face
it was like a primrose trying to express doubt instead of confidence it seemed to put her half in mind of something and she felt as if shame were coming
but the moment her fingers touched it the flower withered up and hung as dead on its stalks as if a flame of fire had passed over it then a shudder thrilled through the heart of the princess and she thought with herself saying
the flowers wither when i touch them and the ponies despise me with their tails what a wretched coarse ill bred creature i must be
there is that lovely child giving life instead of death to the flowers and a moment ago i was hating her i am made horrid and i shall be horrid and i hate myself and yet
she heard the sound of galloping feet and there was the pony with the child seated betwixt his wings coming straight on at full speed for where she lay i don't care she said
they may trample me under their feet if they like i am tired and sick of myself a creature at whose touch the flowers wither
but while yet some distance off he gave a great bound
rose yards and yards above her in the air and alighted as gently as a bird just a few feet on the other side of her the child slipped down and came and kneeled over her
did my pony hurt you she said i am so sorry yes he hurt me answered the princess but not more than i deserved
for i took liberties with him and he did not like it oh you dear said the little girl
he is a good pony though a little playful sometimes would you like a ride upon him you
cried rosamond sobbing i do love you so you are so good
would you like to ride my pony repeated the child with a heavenly smile in her eyes no no
my clumsy body would hurt him said rosamond
what mind it cried rosamond almost indignantly then remembering certain thoughts that had but a few moments before passed through her mind she looked on the ground and was silent
you don't mind it then repeated the child i am very glad there is such a you and such a pony and that such a you has got such a pony said rosamond
still looking on the ground but i do wish the flowers would not die when i touch them i was cross to see you make them grow but now i should be content if only i did not make them wither
as she spoke she stroked the little girl's bare feet which were by her half buried in the soft moss and as she ended she laid her cheek on them and kissed them
dear princess said the little girl the flowers will not always wither at your touch try now only do not pluck it flowers ought never to be plucked except to give away
touch it gently a silvery flower something like a snow drop grew just within her reach timidly
the flower trembled but neither shrank nor withered touch it again said the child it changed color a little and rosamond fancied it grew larger touch it again said the child
and changed and deepened in color till it was a red glowing gold rosamond gazed motionless when the transfiguration of the flower was perfected she sprang to her feet with clasped hands
gazing at the child did you never see me before rosamond she asked no never answered the princess i never saw any thing half so lovely look at me
said the child and as rosamond looked the child began like the flower to grow larger quickly through every gradation of growth she passed
until she stood before her a woman perfectly beautiful neither old nor young for hers was the old age of everlasting youth rosamond was utterly enchanted and stood gazing without word or movement
until she could endure no more delight then her mind collapsed to the thought had the pony grown too she glanced round there was no pony no grass
no flowers no bright birded forest but the cottage of the wise woman and before her on the hearth of it the goddess child the only thing unchanged
you must set out for your father's palace immediately said the lady but where is
asked rosamond looking all about here said the lady and rosamond looking again saw the wise woman folded as usual in her long dark cloak and it was you all the time
she cried in delight and kneeled before her burying her face in her garments it always is me all the time said the wise woman smiling
or a thousand others returned the wise woman but the one you have just seen is the likest to the real me that you are able to see just yet but
and that me you could not have seen a little while ago but my darling child she went on lifting her up and clasping her to her bosom you must not think because you have seen me once
that therefore you are capable of seeing me at all times no there are many things in you yet that must be changed before that can be now however you will seek me
every time you feel you want me that is a sign i am wanting you there are yet many rooms in my house you may have to go through but when you need no more of them then you will be able to throw flowers
like the little girl you saw in the forest the princess gave a sigh do not think the wise woman went on
you do not know you cannot yet think how living and true they are now you must go
she led her once more into the great hall and there showed her the picture of her father's capital and his palace with the brazen gates there is your home she said go to it
the princess understood and a flush of shame rose to her forehead she turned to the wise woman and said will you forgive all my naughtiness and all the trouble i have given you
if i had not forgiven you i would never have taken the trouble to punish you if i had not loved you do you think i would have carried you away in my cloak how could you love such an ugly ill tempered rude hateful little wretch
i saw through it all what you were going to be said the wise woman kissing her
to be what i saw i will try to remember said the princess holding her cloak and looking up in her face go then said the wise woman rosamond turned away on the instant
ran to the picture stepped over the frame of it heard a door close gently gave one glance back
front of alabaster gleaming in the pale yellow light of an early summer morning looked again to the eastward
against the sky and ran off to reach it it looked much further off now than when it seemed a picture
she saw before her in the dusk of the thick wood a group of some dozen wolves and hyenas standing all together right in her way with their green eyes fixed upon her staring she faltered one step
and keeping straight on dashed right into the middle of them they fled howling as if she had struck them with fire she was no more afraid after that and ere the sun was up
which no bad thing could step upon and live with the first peep of the sun above the horizon she saw the little cottage before her
when she came near it she saw that the door was open and ran straight into the outstretched arms of the wise woman the wise woman kissed her and stroked her hair set her down by the fire
and gave her a bowl of bread and milk when she had eaten it she drew her before her where she sat and spoke to her thus rosamond if you would be a blessed creature instead of a mere wretch
you must submit to be tried is that something terrible asked the princess turning white no my child but it is something very difficult to come well out of
nobody who has not been tried knows how difficult it is but whoever has come well out of it and those who do not overcome never do come out of it
and being still the same miserable creature as before
i will not tell you exactly but i will tell you some things to help you one great danger is that perhaps you will think you are in it before it has really begun
and say to yourself oh this is really nothing to me it may be a trial to some but for me i am sure it is not worth mentioning and then before you know it will be upon you
and you will fail utterly and shamefully i will be very very careful said the princess only don't let me be frightened
you shall not be frightened except it be your own doing you are already a brave girl and there is no occasion to try you more that way
as long as you keep them outside of you and do not open the cottage of your heart to let them in i will tell you something more
nobody can be a real princess do not imagine you have yet been any thing more than a mock one until she is a princess over herself that is until
she makes herself do it so long as any mood she is in makes her do the thing she will be sorry for when that mood is over she is a slave and no princess
a princess is able to do what is right even should she unhappily be in a mood that would make another unable to do it for instance if you should be cross and angry
you are not a whit the less bound to be just yes kind even a thing most difficult in such a mood though ease itself in a good mood loving and sweet
nay more her might goes farther than she could send it for if she act so the evil mood will wither and die and leave her loving and clean do you understand me dear rosamond
as she spoke the wise woman laid her hand on her head and looked oh so lovingly into her eyes i am not sure said the princess humbly
if i say it just comes to this that you must not do what is wrong however much you are inclined to do it and you must do what is right
however much you are disinclined to do it i understand that said the princess i am going then to put you in one of the mood chambers of which i have many in the house its mood will come upon you
and you will have to deal with it she rose and took her by the hand the princess trembled a little but never thought of resisting the wise woman led her into the great hall with the pictures
and through a door at the farther end opening upon another large hall which was circular and had doors close to each other all round it of these she opened one
her little white rabbit came to meet her in a lumping canter as if his back were going to tumble over his head her nurse in her rocking chair by the chimney corner sat just as she had used
the fire burned brightly and on the table were many of her wonderful toys on which however she now looked with some contempt
but just gone from the room and returned again oh
thought the princess to herself looking from her toys to her nurse the wise woman has done me so much good already
she went towards the door your queen mamma princess cannot see you now said her nurse i have yet to learn that it is my part to take orders from a servant said the princess with temper and dignity
i beg your pardon princess returned her nurse politely
she is alone with her most intimate friend the princess of the frozen regions
now little bunny leap frogging near the door happened that moment to get about her feet just as she was going to open it
but the rabbit looked very limp and odd
the next moment she removed it from her face and rosamond beheld not her nurse but the wise woman standing on her own hearth while she herself stood by the door
leading from the cottage into the hall first trial a failure said the wise woman quietly
overcome with shame rosamond ran to her fell down on her knees and hid her face in her dress need i say any thing said the wise woman
no no cried the princess i am horrid you know now the kind of thing you have to meet are you ready to try again may i try again cried the princess jumping up
i'm ready i do not think i shall fail this time the trial will be harder rosamond drew in her breath and set her teeth the wise woman looked at her pitifully but took her by the hand led her to the round hall
opened the same door and closed it after her the princess expected to find herself again in the nursery but in the wise woman's house no one ever has the same trial twice
she was in a beautiful garden full of blossoming trees and the loveliest roses and lilies a lake was in the middle of it with a tiny boat so delightful was it that rosamond forgot all
about how or why she had come there and lost herself in the joy of the flowers and the trees and the water presently came the shout of a child merry and glad
rushed a lovely little boy with his arms stretched out to her she was charmed at the sight ran to meet him caught him up in her arms kissed him
she followed he made straight for the boat
then he caught up the little boat hook and pushed away from the shore there was a great white flower floating a few yards off and that was the little fellow's goal but alas no sooner had rosamond caught sight of it
huge and glowing as a harvest moon than she felt a great desire to have it herself the boy however was in the bows of the boat and caught it first
and for a moment he tugged at it in vain but at last it gave way so suddenly that he tumbled back with the flower into the bottom of the boat then rosamond almost wild at the danger it was in
as he struggled to rise hurried to save it but somehow between them it came in pieces
when the boy got up and saw the ruin his companion had occasioned he burst into tears and having the long stalk of the flower still in his hand struck her with it across the face it did not hurt her much
for he was a very little fellow but it was wet and slimy she tumbled rather than rushed at him seized him in her arms tore him from his frightened grasp and flung him into the water
his head struck on the boat as he fell and he sank at once to the bottom
with white face and open eyes the moment she saw the consequences of her deed she was filled with horrible dismay she tried hard to reach down to him through the water
but it was far deeper than it looked and she could not neither could she get her eyes to leave the white face its eyes fascinated and fixed hers and there she lay leaning over the boat
and springing to her feet she saw a lovely lady come running down the grass to the brink of the water with her hair flying about her head
but rosamond could not answer and only stared at the lady
at her drowned boy then the lady caught sight of the dead thing at the bottom of the water and rushed in and plunging down struggled and groped until she reached it
in her arms his head hanging back and the water streaming from him
she said holding the body out to her and this is your second trial and also a failure the dead child melted away from her arms and there she stood the wise woman
with one arm wet up to the shoulder she threw herself on the heather bed and wept from relief and vexation both
shut the door and left her alone rosamond was sobbing so that she did not hear her go when at length she looked up and saw that the wise woman was gone her misery returned afresh and tenfold and she wept and wailed
the hours passed the shadows of evening began to fall and the wise woman
his hut was ten versts away from a railroad station in one direction and twelve versts away in the other about four versts away there was a cotton mill that had opened the year before
and its tall chimney rose up darkly from behind the forest the only dwellings around were the distant huts of the other track walkers semyon ivanov's health had been completely shattered
the sun had roasted him the cold frozen him and hunger famished him on the forced marches of forty and fifty versts a day in the heat and the cold and the rain and the shine
the bullets had whizzed about him but thank god none had struck him semyon's regiment had once been on the firing line for a whole week there had been skirmishing with the turks
only a deep ravine separating the two hostile armies and from morn till eve there had been a steady cross fire thrice daily semyon carried a steaming samovar and his officer's meals from the camp kitchen to the ravine
the bullets hummed about him and rattled viciously against the rocks semyon was terrified and cried sometimes but still he kept right on the officers were pleased with him
because he always had hot tea ready for them he returned from the campaign with limbs unbroken but crippled with rheumatism he had experienced no little sorrow since then
he arrived home to find that his father an old man and his little four year old son had died semyon remained alone with his wife they could not do much
it was difficult to plough with rheumatic arms and legs they could no longer stay in their village so they started off to seek their fortune in new places
but nowhere found luck
once he happened to ride on an engine and at one of the stations the face of the station master seemed familiar to him semyon looked at the station master and the station master looked at semyon and they recognised each other
he had been an officer in semyon's regiment you are ivanov he said yes your excellency how do you come to be here semyon told him all where are you off to
i cannot tell you sir idiot what do you mean by cannot tell you i mean what i say your excellency there is nowhere for me to go to i must hunt for work sir
the station master looked at him thought a bit and said see here friend stay here a while at the station you are married i think where is your wife yes your excellency i am married
my wife is at kursk in service with a merchant well write to your wife to come here i will give you a free pass for her there is a position as track walker open i will speak to the chief on your behalf
i shall be very grateful to you your excellency replied semyon he stayed at the station helped in the kitchen cut firewood kept the yard clean and swept the platform
in a fortnight's time his wife arrived and semyon went on a hand trolley to his hut the hut was a new one and warm with as much wood as he wanted there was a little vegetable garden the legacy
of former track walkers and there was about half a dessiatin of ploughed land on either side of the railway embankment semyon was rejoiced he began to think of doing some farming
of purchasing a cow and a horse he was given all necessary stores a green flag a red flag lanterns a horn hammer screw wrench for the nuts a crow bar spade
broom bolts and nails they gave him two books of regulations and a time table of the train at first semyon could not sleep at night and learnt the whole time table by heart
sit on the bench at his hut and look and listen whether the rails were trembling or the rumble of the train could be heard he even learned the regulations by heart although he could only read by spelling out each word
it was summer the work was not heavy there was no snow to clear away and the trains on that line were infrequent semyon used to go over his verst twice a day
examine and screw up nuts here and there keep the bed level look at the water pipes and then go home to his own affairs
there was only one drawback he always had to get the inspector's permission for the least little thing he wanted to do semyon and his wife were even beginning to be bored two months passed
and semyon commenced to make the acquaintance of his neighbours the track walkers on either side of him one was a very old man whom the authorities were always meaning to relieve he scarcely moved out of his hut
his wife used to do all his work the other track walker nearer the station was a young man thin but muscular he and semyon met for the first time on the line midway between the huts
semyon took off his hat and bowed good health to you neighbour he said the neighbour glanced askance at him how do you do he replied then turned around and made off later the wives met
semyon's wife passed the time of day with her neighbour but neither did she say much on one occasion semyon said to her young woman your husband is not very talkative the woman said nothing at first then replied
but what is there for him to talk about every one has his own business go your way and god be with you however after another month or so they became acquainted
semyon would go with vasily along the line sit on the edge of a pipe smoke and talk of life vasily for the most part kept silent but semyon talked of his village and of the campaign through which he had passed
i have had no little sorrow in my day he would say and goodness knows i have not lived long god has not given me happiness but what he may give so will it be that's so
stood up and said it is not luck which follows us in life but human beings there is no crueller beast on this earth than man wolf does not eat wolf but man will readily devour man
come friend don't say that a wolf eats wolf the words came into my mind and i said it all the same there is nothing crueller than man if it were not for his wickedness and greed it would be possible to live
everybody tries to sting you to the quick to bite and eat you up semyon pondered a bit i don't know brother he said perhaps it is as you say and perhaps it is god's will
to put everything unpleasant on god and sit and suffer means brother being not a man but an animal that's what i have to say and he turned and went off without saying good bye semyon also got up
neighbour he called why do you lose your temper but his neighbour did not look round and kept on his way semyon gazed after him until he was lost to sight in the cutting at the turn
he went home and said to his wife arina our neighbour is a wicked person not a man however they did not quarrel they met again and discussed the same topics
said vasily on one occasion and what if we are poking in these huts it's not so bad you can live in them live in them indeed bah you you have lived long and learned little
looked at much and seen little what sort of life is there for a poor man in a hut here or there the cannibals are devouring you they are sucking up all your life blood and when you become old they will throw you out
just as they do husks to feed the pigs on what pay do you get not much vasily stepanych twelve rubles and i thirteen and a half rubles why
by the regulations the company should give us fifteen rubles a month with firing and lighting who decides that you should have twelve rubles or i thirteen and a half ask yourself
you understand it is not a question of one and a half rubles or three rubles even if they paid us each the whole fifteen rubles i was at the station last month the director passed through i saw him
i had that honour he had a separate coach he came out and stood on the platform i shall not stay here long i shall go somewhere anywhere follow my nose but where will you go stepanych
leave well enough alone here you have a house warmth a little piece of land your wife is a worker land you should look at my piece of land not a twig on it nothing
i planted some cabbages in the spring just when the inspector came along he said what is this why have you not reported this why have you done this without permission dig them up roots and all he was drunk
but this time it struck him three rubles fine vasily kept silent for a while pulling at his pipe then added quietly
you are hot tempered no i am not hot tempered but i tell the truth and think yes he will still get a bloody nose from me i will complain to the chief we will see then
and vasily did complain to the chief
three days later important personages were coming from saint petersburg and would pass over the line they were conducting an inquiry so that previous to their journey it was necessary to put everything in order
ballast was laid down the bed was levelled the sleepers carefully examined spikes driven in a bit nuts screwed up posts painted and orders given for yellow sand to be sprinkled at the level crossings
the woman at the neighbouring hut turned her old man out to weed semyon worked for a whole week he put everything in order mended his kaftan cleaned and polished his brass plate until it fairly shone
vasily also worked hard the chief arrived on a trolley four men working the handles and the levers making the six wheels hum the trolley travelled at twenty versts an hour but the wheels squeaked
it reached semyon's hut and he ran out and reported in soldierly fashion all appeared to be in repair have you been here long inquired the chief since the second of may your excellency
all right thank you
the traffic inspector he was travelling with the chief on the trolley replied vasily spiridov spiridov spiridov ah is he the man against whom you made a note last year
he is well we will see vasily spiridov go on the workmen laid to the handles and the trolley got under way semyon watched it and thought there will be trouble between them and my neighbour
about two hours later he started on his round he saw some one coming along the line from the cutting something white showed on his head semyon began to look more attentively it was vasily
he had a stick in his hand a small bundle on his shoulder and his cheek was bound up in a handkerchief where are you off to cried semyon vasily came quite close he was very pale
white as chalk and his eyes had a wild look almost choking he muttered to town to moscow to the head office head office ah you are going to complain i suppose give it up
no mate i will not forget it is too late see he struck me in the face drew blood so long as i live i will not forget i will not leave it like this semyon took his hand
give it up stepanych i am giving you good advice you will not better things better things i know myself i shan't better things you were right about fate it would be better for me not to do it
but one must stand up for the right but tell me how did it happen how he examined everything got down from the trolley looked into the hut i knew beforehand that he would be strict
and so i had put everything into proper order he was just going when i made my complaint he immediately cried out here is a government inquiry coming and you make a complaint about a vegetable garden
here are privy councillors coming and you annoy me with cabbages i lost patience and said something not very much but it offended him and he struck me in the face i stood still i did nothing
just as if what he did was perfectly all right they went off i came to myself washed my face and left and what about the hut my wife is staying there she will look after things
never mind about their roads vasily got up and collected himself good bye ivanov i do not know whether i shall get any one at the office to listen to me
surely you are not going to walk at the station i will try to get on a freight train and to morrow i shall be in moscow the neighbours bade each other farewell
vasily was absent for some time his wife worked for him night and day she never slept and wore herself out waiting for her husband on the third day the commission arrived an engine
luggage van and two first class saloons but vasily was still away semyon saw his wife on the fourth day her face was swollen from crying and her eyes were red
has your husband returned he asked but the woman only made a gesture with her hands and without saying a word went her way semyon had learnt when still a lad to make flutes out of a kind of reed
he used to burn out the heart of the stalk make holes where necessary drill them fix a mouthpiece at one end and tune them so well that it was possible to play almost any air on them
he made a number of them in his spare time and sent them by his friends amongst the freight brakemen to the bazaar in the town he got two kopeks apiece for them on the day following the visit of the commission
he left his wife at home to meet the six o'clock train and started off to the forest to cut some sticks he went to the end of his section at this point the line made a sharp turn
and struck into the wood at the foot of the mountain about half a verst away there was a big marsh around which splendid reeds for his flutes grew he cut a whole bundle of stalks and started back home
the sun was already dropping low and in the dead stillness only the twittering of the birds was audible and the crackle of the dead wood under his feet as he walked along rapidly
he fancied he heard the clang of iron striking iron and he redoubled his pace there was no repair going on in his section what did it mean he emerged from the woods
the railway embankment stood high before him on the top a man was squatting on the bed of the line busily engaged in something semyon commenced quietly to crawl up towards him he thought
it was some one after the nuts which secure the rails he watched and the man got up holding a crow bar in his hand he had loosened a rail so that it would move to one side
a mist swam before semyon's eyes he wanted to cry out but could not it was vasily semyon scrambled up the bank as vasily with crow bar and wrench slid headlong down the other side
my dear friend come back give me the crow bar we will put the rail back no one will know come back save your soul from sin vasily did not look back but disappeared into the woods
semyon stood before the rail which had been torn up he threw down his bundle of sticks a train was due not a freight but a passenger train and he had nothing with which to stop it no flag he could not replace the rail
and could not drive in the spikes with his bare hands it was necessary to run absolutely necessary to run to the hut for some tools god help me he murmured semyon started running towards his hut
he was out of breath but still ran falling every now and then he had cleared the forest he was only a few hundred feet from his hut not more when he heard the distant hooter of the factory sound six o'clock
oh lord have pity on innocent souls in his mind semyon saw the engine strike against the loosened rail with its left wheel shiver careen tear up and splinter the sleepers and just there there was a curve
and the embankment seventy feet high down which the engine would topple and the third class carriages would be packed little children all sitting in the train now never dreaming of danger oh lord tell me what to do
no it is impossible to run to the hut and get back in time semyon did not run on to the hut but turned back and ran faster than before he was running almost mechanically blindly he did not know himself
what was to happen he ran as far as the rail which had been pulled up his sticks were lying in a heap he bent down seized one without knowing why and ran on farther it seemed to him the train was already coming
he heard the distant whistle he heard the quiet even tremor of the rails but his strength was exhausted he could run no farther and came to a halt about six hundred feet from the awful spot
then an idea came into his head literally like a ray of light pulling off his cap he took out of it a cotton scarf drew his knife out of the upper part of his boot and crossed himself muttering god bless me
he buried the knife in his left arm above the elbow the blood spurted out flowing in a hot stream in this he soaked his scarf smoothed it out tied it to the stick and hung out his red flag he stood waving his flag
the train was already in sight the driver would not see him would come close up and a heavy train cannot be pulled up in six hundred feet and the blood kept on flowing semyon pressed the sides of the wound together so as to close it
but the blood did not diminish evidently he had cut his arm very deep his head commenced to swim black spots began to dance before his eyes and then it became dark there was a ringing in his ears
he could not see the train or hear the noise only one thought possessed him i shall not be able to keep standing up i shall fall and drop the flag the train will pass over me help me oh lord
all turned black before him his mind became a blank and he dropped the flag but the blood stained banner did not fall to the ground a hand seized it and held it high to meet the approaching train the engineer saw it
shut the regulator and reversed steam the train came to a standstill people jumped out of the carriages and collected in a crowd they saw a man lying senseless on the footway drenched in blood
and another man standing beside him with a blood stained rag on a stick vasily looked around at all then lowering his head he said bind me
lorna growing formidable having reconnoitred thus the position of the enemy master huckaback on the homeward road cross examined me in a manner not at all desirable
for he had noted my confusion and eager gaze at something unseen by him in the valley and thereupon he made up his mind to know everything about it in this however he partly failed for although i was no hand at fence and would not tell him a falsehood
i managed so to hold my peace that he put himself upon the wrong track and continued thereon with many vaunts of his shrewdness and experience and some chuckles at my simplicity thus much however he learned aright that i had been in the doone valley several years before
and might be brought upon strong inducement to venture there again but as to the mode of my getting in the things i saw and my thoughts upon them he not only failed to learn the truth but certified himself into an obstinacy of error from which no after knowledge was able to deliver him
and this he did not only because i happened to say very little but forasmuch as he disbelieved half of the truth i told him through his own too great sagacity upon one point however he succeeded more easily than he expected
viz in making me promise to visit the place again as soon as occasion offered
but i could not help smiling at one thing that according to his point of view my own counsel meant my own and master reuben huckaback's
and leaving behind him shadowy promise of the mountains he would do for me my spirit began to burn and pant for something to go on with and nothing showed a braver hope of movement and adventure than a lonely visit to glen doone by way of the perilous passage discovered in my boyhood
therefore i waited for nothing more than the slow arrival of new small clothes made by a good tailor at porlock for i was wishful to look my best and when they were come and approved i started regardless of the expense and forgetting like a fool
how badly they would take the water what with urging of the tailor and my own misgivings the time was now come round again to the high day of saint valentine when all our maids were full of lovers and all the lads looked foolish
and none of them more sheepish or innocent than i myself albeit twenty one years old and not afraid of men much but terrified of women at least if they were comely and what of all things scared me most was the thought of my own size and knowledge of my strength
which came like knots upon me daily in honest truth i tell this thing which often since hath puzzled me when i came to mix with men more i was to that degree ashamed of my thickness and my stature in the presence of a woman that i would not put a trunk of wood on the fire in the kitchen
but let annie scold me well with a smile to follow
many a time i longed to be no bigger than john fry was whom now when insolent i took with my left hand by the waist stuff and set him on my hat and gave him little chance to tread it until he spoke of his family and requested to come down again
now taking for good omen this that i was a seven year valentine though much too big for a cupidon i chose a seven foot staff of ash and fixed a loach fork in it to look as i had looked before
and leaving word upon matters of business out of the back door i went and so through the little orchard and down the brawling lynn brook not being now so much afraid i struck across the thicket land between the meeting waters and came upon the bagworthy stream near the great black whirlpool
nothing amazed me so much as to find how shallow the stream now looked to me although the pool was still as black and greedy as it used to be and still the great rocky slide was dark and difficult to climb though the water which once had taken my knees
was satisfied now with my ankles after some labour i reached the top and halted to look about me well before trusting to broad daylight the winter as i said before had been a very mild one
and now the spring was toward so that bank and bush were touched with it the valley into which i gazed was fair with early promise having shelter from the wind and taking all the sunshine the willow bushes over the stream hung as if they were angling with tasseled floats of gold and silver
bursting like a bean pod between them came the water laughing like a maid at her own dancing and spread with that young blue which never lives beyond the april and on either bank the meadow ruffled as the breeze came by
opening through new tuft of green daisy bud or celandine or a shy glimpse now and then of the love lorn primrose though i am so blank of wit or perhaps for that same reason these little things come and dwell with me and i am happy about them
and long for nothing better i feel with every blade of grass as if it had a history and make a child of every bud as though it knew and loved me and being so they seem to tell me of my own delusions how i am no more than they except in self importance
while i was forgetting much of many things that harm one and letting of my thoughts go wild to sounds and sights of nature a sweeter note than thrush or ouzel ever wooed a mate in floated on the valley breeze at the quiet turn of sundown
the words were of an ancient song fit to laugh or cry at love an if there be one come my love to be my love is for the one loving unto me
of a gilded bliss only thou must know love what my value is if in all the earth love thou hast none but me this shall be my worth love to be cheap to thee but if so thou ever strivest to be free
twill be my endeavour to be dear to thee so shall i have plea love is thy heart andbreath clinging still to thee love in the doom of death all this i took in with great eagerness not for the sake of the meaning which is no doubt an allegory
but for the power and richness and softness of the singing which seemed to me better than we ever had even in oare church but all the time i kept myself in a black niche of the rock where the fall of the water began lest the sweet singer espying me
should be alarmed and flee away but presently i ventured to look forth where a bush was and then i beheld the loveliest sight one glimpse of which was enough to make me kneel in the coldest water by the side of the stream she was coming to me
even among the primroses as if she loved them all and every flower looked the brighter as her eyes were on them i could not see what her face was my heart so awoke and trembled only that her hair was flowing from a wreath of white violets
and the grace of her coming was like the appearance of the first wind flower the pale gleam over the western cliffs threw a shadow of light behind her as if the sun were lingering never do i see that light from the closing of the west even in these my aged days
without thinking of her ah me if it comes to that what do i see of earth or heaven without thinking of her the tremulous thrill of her song was hanging on her open lips and she glanced around as if the birds were accustomed to make answer
to me it was a thing of terror to behold such beauty and feel myself the while to be so very low and common but scarcely knowing what i did as if a rope were drawing me i came from the dark mouth of the chasm and stood afraid to look at her
she was turning to fly not knowing me and frightened perhaps at my stature when i fell on the grass as i fell before her seven years agone that day and i just said lorna doone she knew me at once from my manner and ways
and a smile broke through her trembling as sunshine comes through aspen leaves and being so clever she saw of course that she needed not to fear me oh indeed she cried with a feint of anger
because she had shown her cowardice and yet in her heart she was laughing oh if you please who are you sir and how do you know my name i am john ridd i answered the boy who gave you those beautiful fish when you were only a little thing seven years ago to day
yes the poor boy who was frightened so and obliged to hide here in the water and do you remember how kind you were and saved my life by your quickness and went away riding upon a great man's shoulder as if you had never seen me and yet looked back through the willow trees
oh yes i remember everything because it was so rare to see any except i mean because i happen to remember
for she had kept her eyes upon me large eyes of a softness a brightness and a dignity which made me feel as if i must for ever love and yet for ever know myself unworthy unless themselves should fill with love which is the spring of all things
and so i could not answer her but was overcome with thinking and feeling and confusion neither could i look again only waited for the melody which made every word like a poem to me the melody of her voice
but she had not the least idea of what was going on with me any more than i myself had i think master ridd you cannot know she said with her eyes taken from me what the dangers of this place are and the nature of the people
yes i know enough of that and i am frightened greatly all the time when i do not look at you she was too young to answer me in the style some maidens would have used the manner i mean which now we call from a foreign word coquettish and more than that
lest strong hands might be laid on me and a miserable end of it and to tell the truth i grew afraid perhaps from a kind of sympathy and because i knew that evil comes more readily than good to us therefore without more ado or taking any advantage
although i would have been glad at heart if needs had been to kiss her without any thought of rudeness
and have no more to say to her until next time of coming so would she look the more for me and think the more about me and not grow weary of my words and the want of change there is in me for of course i knew what a churl i was compared to her birth and appearance
but meanwhile i might improve myself and learn a musical instrument the wind hath a draw after flying straw is a saying we have in devonshire made peradventure by somebody who had seen the ways of women mistress lorna i will depart'
mark you i thought that a powerful word
if any rogue shot me it would grieve you i make bold to say it and it would be the death of mother few mothers have such a son as me try to think of me now and then and i will bring you some new laid eggs for our young blue hen is beginning
i thank you heartily said lorna but you need not come to see me you can put them in my little bower where i am almost always i mean whither daily i repair to read and to be away from them only show me where it is
thrice a day i will come and stop nay master ridd i would never show thee never because of peril only that so happens it thou hast found the way already
and she smiled with a light that made me care to cry out for no other way except to her dear heart but only to myself i cried for anything at all having enough of man in me to be bashful with young maidens so i touched her white hand softly when she gave it to me
and fancying that she had sighed was touched at heart about it and resolved to yield her all my goods although my mother was living and then grew angry with myself for a mile or more of walking to think she would condescend so
chapter nine the straight simplicity of eve for the next three weeks eric marshall seemed to himself to be living two lives as distinct from each other as if he possessed a double personality in one
he taught the lindsay district school diligently and painstakingly solved problems argued on theology with robert williamson called at the homes of his pupils and took tea in state with their parents went to a rustic dance or two and played havoc all unwittingly with the hearts of the lindsay maidens
but this life was a dream of workaday he only lived in the other which was spent in an old orchard grassy and overgrown where the minutes seemed to lag for sheer love of the spot and the june winds made wild harping in the old spruces
here every evening he met kilmeny in that old orchard they garnered hours of quiet happiness together together they went wandering in the fair fields of old romance together they read many books and talked of many things
kilmeny played to him and the old orchard echoed with her lovely fantastic melodies at every meeting her beauty came home afresh to him with the old thrill of glad surprise in the intervals of absence it seemed to him that she could not possibly be as beautiful as he remembered her
and then when they met she seemed even more so he learned to watch for the undisguised light of welcome that always leaped into her eyes at the sound of his footsteps she was nearly always there before him and she always showed that she was glad to see him with the frank delight of a child watching for a dear comrade
she was never in the same mood twice now she was grave now gay now stately now pensive but she was always charming thrawn and twisted the old gordon stock might be but it had at least this one offshoot of perfect grace and symmetry
her mind and heart utterly unspoiled of the world were as beautiful as her face all the ugliness of existence had passed her by shrined in her double solitude of upbringing and muteness she was naturally quick and clever
delightful little flashes of wit and humour sparkled out occasionally she could be whimsical even charmingly capricious sometimes innocent mischief glimmered out in the unfathomable deeps of her blue eyes sarcasm even was not unknown to her
now and then she punctured some harmless bubble of a young man's conceit or masculine superiority with a biting little line of daintily written script she assimilated the ideas in the books they read speedily eagerly and thoroughly
always seizing on the best and truest and rejecting the false and spurious and weak with an unfailing intuition at which eric marvelled hers was the spear of ithuriel trying out the dross of everything and leaving only the pure gold
in manner and outlook she was still a child yet now and again she was as old as eve an expression would leap into her laughing face a subtle meaning reveal itself in her smile that held all the lore of womanhood and all the wisdom of the ages
her way of smiling enchanted him the smile always began far down in her eyes and flowed outward to her face like a sparkling brook stealing out of shadow into sunshine he knew everything about her life she told him her simple history freely
she rarely spoke of her mother eric came somehow to understand less from what she said than from what she did not say that kilmeny though she had loved her mother had always been rather afraid of her there had not been between them the natural beautiful confidence of mother and child
of neil she wrote frequently at first and seemed very fond of him later she ceased to mention him perhaps for she was marvellously quick to catch and interpret every fleeting change of expression in his voice and face she discerned what eric did not know himself
that his eyes clouded and grew moody at the mention of neil's name once she asked him naively are there many people like you out in the world thousands of them said eric laughing she looked gravely at him then she gave her head a quick decided little shake
i do not think so she wrote i do not know much of the world but i do not think there are many people like you in it one evening when the far away hills and fields were scarfed in gauzy purples and the intervales were brimming with golden mists
eric carried to the old orchard a little limp worn volume that held a love story it was the first thing of the kind he had ever read to her for in the first novel he had lent her the love interest had been very slight and subordinate
this was a beautiful passionate idyl exquisitely told he read it to her lying in the grass at her feet she listened with her hands clasped over her knee and her eyes cast down it was not a long story
and when he had finished it he shut the book and looked up at her questioningly do you like it kilmeny he asked very slowly she took her slate and wrote yes i like it but it hurt me too i did not know that a person could like anything that hurt her
i do not know why it hurt me i felt as if i had lost something that i never had that was a very silly feeling was it not but i did not understand the book very well you see it is about love and i do not know anything about love
mother told me once that love is a curse and that i must pray that it would never enter into my life she said it very earnestly and so i believed her but your book teaches that it is a blessing it says that it is the most splendid and wonderful thing in life which am i to believe
love real love is never a curse kilmeny said eric gravely there is a false love which is a curse perhaps your mother believed it was that which had entered her life and ruined it and so she made the mistake there is nothing in the world
or in heaven either as i believe so truly beautiful and wonderful and blessed as love have you ever loved asked kilmeny with the directness of phrasing necessitated by her mode of communication which was sometimes a little terrible
no said eric honestly as he thought but every one has an ideal of love whom he hopes to meet some day
i suppose i have mine in some sealed secret chamber of my heart i suppose your ideal woman would be beautiful like the woman in your book oh yes i am sure i could never care for an ugly woman said eric laughing a little as he sat up
our ideals are always beautiful whether they so translate themselves into realities or not but the sun is going down time does certainly fly in this enchanted orchard i believe you bewitch the moments away kilmeny
your namesake of the poem was a somewhat uncanny maid if i recollect aright and thought as little of seven years in elfland as ordinary folk do of half an hour on upper earth
some day i shall waken from a supposed hour's lingering here and find myself an old man with white hair and ragged coat as in that fairy tale we read the other night will you let me give you this book i should never commit the sacrilege of reading it in any other place than this
it is an old book kilmeny a new book savouring of the shop and market place however beautiful it might be would not do for you this was one of my mother's books she read it and loved it
i'll write your name in it that quaint pretty name of yours which always sounds as if it had been specially invented for you
and the date of this perfect june day on which we read it together then when you look at it you will always remember me and the white buds opening on that rosebush beside you and the rush and murmur of the wind in the tops of those old spruces
he held out the book to her but to his surprise she shook her head with a deeper flush on her face won't you take the book kilmeny why not she took her pencil and wrote slowly unlike her usual quick movement
do not be offended with me i shall not need anything to make me remember you because i can never forget you but i would rather not take the book i do not want to read it again it is about love and there is no use in my learning about love even if it is all you say
nobody will ever love me i am too ugly you ugly exclaimed eric he was on the point of going off into a peal of laughter at the idea when a glimpse of her half averted face sobered him
on it was a hurt bitter look such as he remembered seeing once before when he had asked her if she would not like to see the world for herself kilmeny he said in astonishment you don't really think yourself ugly do you she nodded without looking at him and then wrote
oh yes i know that i am i have known it for a long time mother told me that i was very ugly and that nobody would ever like to look at me i am sorry it hurts me much worse to know i am ugly than it does to know i cannot speak
i suppose you will think that is very foolish of me but it is true that was why i did not come back to the orchard for such a long time even after i had got over my fright i hated to think that you would think me ugly and that is why i do not want to go out into the world and meet people
he stared at me so i knew it was because he thought me so ugly and i have always hidden when he came ever since eric's lips twitched in spite of his pity for the real suffering displayed in her eyes
he could not help feeling amused over the absurd idea of this beautiful girl believing herself in all seriousness to be ugly but kilmeny do you think yourself ugly when you look in a mirror he asked smiling
i never knew there was such a thing until after mother died and i read about it in a book then i asked aunt janet and she said mother had broken all the looking glasses in the house when i was a baby but i have seen my face reflected in the spoons and in a little silver sugar bowl aunt janet has
and it is ugly very ugly eric's face went down into the grass for his life he could not help laughing and for his life he would not let kilmeny see him laughing
a certain little whimsical wish took possession of him and he did not hasten to tell her the truth as had been his first impulse instead when he dared to look up he said slowly i don't think you are ugly kilmeny oh but i am sure you must she wrote protestingly
even neil does he tells me i am kind and nice but one day i asked him if he thought me very ugly and he looked away and would not speak so i knew what he thought about it too do not let us speak of this again it makes me feel sorry and spoils everything
i forget it at other times let me play you some good bye music and do not feel vexed because i would not take your book it would only make me unhappy to read it i am not vexed said eric and i think you will take it some day yet after i have shown you something i want you to see
oh it is a great deal she wrote naively but you do like me even though i am so ugly don't you you like me because of my beautiful music don't you i like you very much kilmeny answered eric laughing a little
but there was in his voice a tender note of which he was unconscious kilmeny was aware of it however and she picked up her violin with a pleased smile
he left her playing there and all the way through the dim resinous spruce wood her music followed him like an invisible guardian spirit kilmeny the beautiful he murmured and yet good heavens the child thinks she is ugly
she with a face more lovely than ever an artist dreamed of a girl of eighteen who has never looked in a mirror i wonder if there is another such in any civilized country in the world
i wonder if margaret gordon could have been quite sane
perhaps he doesn't want her to find out eric had met neil gordon a few evenings before this at a country dance where neil had played the violin for the dancers influenced by curiosity he had sought the lad's acquaintance neil was friendly and talkative at first
his face and manner changed he looked secretive and suspicious almost sinister a sullen look crept into his big black eyes and he drew his bow across the violin strings with a discordant screech as if to terminate the conversation
once outside the major took no further part in the affair as the commanding officer of the post it would have been out of place for him to have given encouragement to a fight even by his interfering to see that it should be a fair one
this however was attended to by the younger officers who at once set about arranging the conditions of the duel there was not much time consumed the terms had been expressed already
and it only remained to appoint some one of the party to superintend the ringing of the bell which was to be the signal for the combat to commence this was an easy matter
since it made no difference who might be entrusted with the duty a child might have sounded the summons for the terrible conflict that was to follow a stranger chancing at that moment to ride into the rude square of which the hotel rough and ready
formed nearly a side would have been sorely puzzled to comprehend what was coming to pass the night was rather dark though there was still light enough to make known the presence of a conglomeration of human beings
assembled in the proximity of the hotel most were in military garb since in addition to the officers who had lately figured inside the saloon others along with such soldiers as were permitted to pass the sentries
had hastened down from the fort on receiving intelligence that something unusual was going on within the square women too but scantily robed
soldiers wives washerwomen and senoritas of more questionable calling had found their way into the street and were endeavouring to extract from those who had forestalled them an explanation of the fracas
the conversation was carried on in low tones it was known that the commandant of the post was present as well as others in authority and this checked any propensity there might have been for noisy demonstration
the crowd thus promiscuously collected was not in close proximity with the hotel but standing well out in the open ground about a dozen yards from the building towards it however the eyes of all were directed
with that steady stare which tells of the attention being fixed on some engrossing spectacle they were watching the movements of two men whose positions were apart one at each end of the heavy blockhouse
known to be the bar room of the hotel and where as already stated there was a door though separated by the interposition of two thick log walls and mutually invisible
these men were manoeuvring as if actuated by a common impulse they stood contiguous to the entrance doors at opposite ends of the bar room through both of which glared the light of the camphine lamps
falling in broad divergent bands upon the rough gravel outside neither was in front of the contiguous entrance but a little to one side just clear of the light neither was in an upright attitude but crouching
not as if from fear but like a runner about to make a start and straining upon the spring both were looking inwards into the saloon where no sound could be heard save the ticking of a clock
their attitudes told of their readiness to enter it and that they were only restrained by waiting for some preconcerted signal that their purpose was a serious one could be deduced from several circumstances
both were in their shirt sleeves hatless and stripped of every rag that might form an impediment to action while on their faces was the stamp of stern determination
but there was no fine reflection needed to discover their design the stranger chancing to come into the square could have seen at a glance that it was deadly the pistols in their hands
cocked and tightly clutched the nervous energy of their attitudes the silence of the crowd of spectators and the concentrated interest with which the two men were regarded proclaimed more emphatically than words
that there was danger in what they were doing in short that they were engaged in some sort of a strife with death for its probable consummation so it was at that moment when the crisis had come
the duellists stood each with eye intent upon the door by which he was to make entrance perhaps into eternity they only waited for a signal to cross the threshold
and engage in a combat that must terminate the existence of one or the other perhaps both were they listening for that fatal formulary one two fire
no another signal had been agreed upon and it was given a stentorian voice was heard calling out the simple monosyllable
three or four dark figures could be seen standing by the shorn trunk on which swung the tavern bell the command instantly set them in motion and along with the oscillation of their arms dimly seen through the darkness
could be heard the sonorous tones of a bell that bell whose sounds had been hitherto heard only as symbols of joy calling men together to partake of that which perpetuates life was now listened to as a summons of death
the ringing in was of short duration the bell had made less than a score of vibrations when the men engaged at the rope saw that their services were no longer required the disappearance of the duellists
who had rushed inside the saloon the quick sharp cracking of pistols the shivering of broken glass admonished the ringers that theirs was but a superfluous noise and dropping the rope they stood like the rest of the crowd
listening to the conflict inside no eyes save those of the combatants themselves were witnesses to that strange duel at the first dong of the bell both combatants had re entered the room
neither made an attempt to skulk outside
a hundred eyes were upon them and the spectators understood the conditions of the duel that neither was to fire before crossing the threshold once inside the conflict commenced the first shots filling the room with smoke
both kept their feet though both were wounded their blood spurting out over the sanded floor the second shots were also fired simultaneously but at random the smoke hindering the aim
then came a single shot quickly followed by another and succeeded by an interval of quiet previous to this the combatants had been heard rushing about through the room this noise was no longer being made instead
there was profound silence had they killed one another were both dead no once more the double detonation announced that both still lived the suspension had been caused
as they stood peering through the smoke in the endeavour to distinguish one another neither spoke or stirred in fear of betraying his position again there was a period of tranquillity similar to the former but more prolonged
it ended by another exchange of shots almost instantly succeeded by the falling of two heavy bodies upon the floor there was the sound of sprawling the overturning of chairs then a single shot the eleventh
and this was the last that was fired the spectators outside saw only a cloud of sulphurous smoke oozing out of both doors and dimming the light of the camphine lamps
this with an occasional flash of brighter effulgence close followed by a crack was all that occurred to give satisfaction to the eye
that was gratified by a greater variety there were heard shots after the bell had become silent other sounds the sharp shivering of broken glass the duller crash of falling furniture rudely overturned in earnest struggle
the trampling of feet upon the boarded floor at intervals the clear ringing crack of the revolvers but neither of the voices of the men whose insensate passions were the cause of all this commotion
the crowd in the street heard the confused noises and noted the intervals of silence without being exactly able to interpret them the reports of the pistols were all they had to proclaim the progress of the duel
eleven had been counted and in breathless silence they were listening for the twelfth instead of a pistol report their ears were gratified by the sound of a voice recognised as that of the mustanger
my pistol is at your head i have one shot left an apology or you die by this the crowd had become convinced that the fight was approaching its termination
some of the more fearless looking in beheld a strange scene they saw two men lying prostrate on the plank floor both with bloodstained habiliments both evidently disabled
where they had crawled closer to get a last shot at each other one of them in scarlet scarf and slashed velvet trousers slightly surmounting the other and holding a pistol to his head
such was the tableau that presented itself to the spectators as the sulphurous smoke drifted out by the current between the two doors gave them a chance of distinguishing objects within the saloon
at the same instant was heard a different voice from the one which had already spoken it was calhoun's no longer in roistering bravado
almost a whisper enough damn it drop your shooting iron
chapter thirty five an uncourteous host the chicken hearted fool fool myself to have trusted to such a hope
and let the scoundrel escape
dead as a drowned rat and without risking anything even disgrace not a particle of risk
the whole settlement would have said i had done right my cousin a young lady betrayed by a common scamp a horse trader who would have said a word against it such a chance why have i missed it death and the devil
it may not trump up again such were the reflections of the ex captain of cavalry while at some paces distance following his two cousins on their return to the hacienda
on re entering the patio whether the blubbering baby be in earnest going after to apologise to the man who has made a fool of his sister ha ha it would be a good joke were it not too serious to be laughed at
he is in earnest else why that row in the stable tis he bringing but his horse
the door of the stable as is customary in mexican haciendas opened upon the paved patio it was standing ajar but just as calhoun turned his eye upon it a man coming from the inside pushed it wide open
and then stepped over the threshold with a saddled horse following close after him the man had a panama hat upon his head and a cloak thrown loosely around his shoulders this did not hinder calhoun from recognising his cousin henry
as also the dark brown horse that belonged to him fool so you've let him off spitefully muttered the ex captain as the other came within whispering distance give me back my bowie and pistol
they're not toys suited to such delicate fingers as yours bah why did you not use them as i told you you've made a mess of it i have tranquilly responded the young planter i know it
i've insulted and grossly too a noble fellow insulted a noble fellow ha ha ha you're mad by heavens you're mad i should have been had i followed your counsel cousin cash
fortunately i did not go so far i have done enough to deserve being called worse than fool though perhaps under the circumstances i may obtain forgiveness for my fault at all events i intend to try for it
and without losing time where are you going after maurice the mustanger to apologise to him for my misconduct
ha ha ha surely you are joking no i'm in earnest if you come along with me you shall see then i say again you are mad not only mad but a damned natural born idiot
you are by jesus christ and general jackson you're not very polite cousin cash though after the language i've been lately using myself i might excuse you perhaps you will one day imitate me
and make amends for your rudeness without adding another word the young gentleman one of the somewhat rare types of southern chivalry sprang to his saddle gave the word to his horse and rode hurriedly through the saguan
calhoun stood upon the stones till the footfall of the horse became but faintly distinguishable in the distance then as if acting under some sudden impulse he hurried along the verandah to his own room
entered it reappeared in a rough overcoat crossed back to the stable went in came out again with his own horse saddled and bridled led the animal along the pavement as gently as if he was stealing him
and once outside upon the turf sprang upon his back and rode rapidly away for a mile or more he followed the same road that had been taken by henry poindexter
it could not have been with any idea of overtaking the latter since long before the hoofstrokes of henry's horse had ceased to be heard and proceeding at a slower pace calhoun did not ride as if he cared about catching up with his cousin
he had taken the up river road when about midway between casa del corvo and the fort he reined up and after scrutinising the chapparal around him struck off by a bridle path leading back toward the bank of the river
as he turned into it he might have been heard muttering to himself a chance still left a good one though not so cheap as the other it will cost me a thousand dollars
so long as i get rid of this irish curse who has poisoned every hour of my existence if true to his promise he takes the route to his home by an early hour in the morning what time i wonder
these men of the prairies call it late rising if they be abed till daybreak never mind
i know that it must be the same as we followed to the wild horse prairies he spoke of his hut upon the alamo that's the name of the creek where we had our pic nic the hovel cannot be far from there
the mexican must know the place or the trail leading to it which last will be sufficient for his purpose and mine a fig for the shanty itself the owner may never reach it there may be indians upon the road
there must be before daybreak in the morning as calhoun concluded this string of strange reflections he had arrived at the door of another shanty that of the mexican mustanger
having slipped out of his saddle and knotted his bridle to a branch he set foot upon the threshold the door was standing wide open from the inside proceeded a sound easily identified as the snore of a slumberer
it was not as of one who sleeps either tranquilly or continuously at short intervals it was interrupted now by silent pauses anon by hog like gruntings
interspersed with profane words not perfectly pronounced but slurred from a thick tongue over which but a short while before must have passed a stupendous quantity of alcohol
perhaps less reverential exclamations of
as if the speaker was engaged in an apostrophic conversation with all the principal characters of the popish pantheon calhoun paused upon the threshold and listened
half interrogatively half unconsciously at the individual whose voice had intruded itself into his drunken dreams the unsteady examination lasted only for a score of seconds
with an unintelligible speech subsided into a recumbent position when a savage grunt succeeded by a prolonged snore proved him to have become oblivious to the fact that his domicile contained a guest
another chance lost said the latter hissing the words through his teeth as he turned disappointedly from the door a sober fool and a drunken knave two precious tools wherewith to accomplish a purpose like mine
curse the luck all this night it's been against me it maybe three long hours before this pig sleeps off the swill that has stupefied him three long hours and then what would be the use of him twould be too late too late
as he said this he caught the rein of his bridle and stood by the head of his horse as if uncertain what course to pursue no use my staying here it might be daybreak before the damned liquor gets out of his skull
i may as well go back to the hacienda and wait there or else or else the alternative that at this crisis presented itself was nor spoken aloud
roughly tearing his rein from the branch and passing it over his horse's head
jack and his comrades once there was a poor widow as often there has been and she had one son a very scarce summer came and they didn't know how they'd live till the new potatoes would be fit for eating
so jack said to his mother one evening mother bake my cake and kill my hen till i go seek my fortune and if i meet it never fear but i'll soon be back to share it with you so she did as he asked her
and he set out at break of day on his journey his mother came along with him to the yard gate and says she jack which would you rather have half the cake and half the hen with my blessing
or the whole of em with my curse o musha mother says jack
sure you know i wouldn't have your curse and damer's estate along with it well then jack says she here's the whole lot of em with my thousand blessings along with them so she stood on the yard fence
and blessed him as far as her eyes could see him well he went along and along till he was tired and ne'er a farmer's house he went into wanted a boy at last his road led by the side of a bog
and there was a poor ass up to his shoulders near a big bunch of grass he was striving to come at
says he help me out or i'll be drowned never say't twice says jack and he
i'm going to seek my fortune till harvest comes in god bless it and if you like says the ass i'll go along with you who knows what luck we may have with all my heart it's getting late let us be jogging
were hunting a poor dog with a kettle tied to his tail he ran up to jack for protection
much obleeged to you where is the baste and yourself going we're going to seek our fortune till harvest comes in
and get rid of them ill conducted boys purshuin to em well well throw your tail over your arm and come along they got outside the town and sat down under an old wall and jack pulled out his bread and meat
you look as if you saw the tops of nine houses since breakfast says jack here's a bone and something on it may your child never know a hungry belly says tom it's myself that's in need of your kindness
may i be so bold as to ask where yez are all going we're going to seek our fortune till the harvest comes in and you may join us if you like and that i'll do with a heart and a half says the cat and thank'ee for asking me
off they set again and just as the shadows of the trees were three times as long as themselves they heard a great cackling in a field inside the road and out over the ditch jumped a fox with a fine black cock in his mouth
oh you anointed villain says the ass roaring like thunder at him good dog says jack and the word wasn't out of his mouth when coley was in full sweep after the red dog reynard dropped his prize like a hot potato
maybe i won't remember your kindness if ever i find you in hardship and where in the world are you all going we're going to seek our fortune till the harvest comes in
and sit on neddy's crupper when your legs and wings are tired well the march began again and just as the sun was gone down they looked around and there was neither cabin nor farm house in sight well well says jack
the dog and cat lay in the ass's warm lap and the cock went to roost in the next tree well the soundness of deep sleep was over them all when the cock took a notion of crowing bother you black cock says the ass
what's the matter it's daybreak that's the matter don't you see light yonder i see a light indeed says jack but it's from a candle it's coming and not from the sun
as you've roused us we may as well go over and ask for lodging so they all shook themselves
and rocks and briars till they got down into a hollow and there was the light coming through the shadow and along with it came singing
easy boys says jack walk on your tippy toes till we see what sort of people we have to deal with so they crept near the window and there they saw six robbers inside with pistols and blunderbushes
and cutlashes sitting at a table eating roast beef and pork and drinking mulled beer and wine and whisky punch wasn't that a fine haul we made at the lord of dunlavin's
says one ugly looking thief with his mouth full and it's little we'd get only for the honest porter here's his purty health the porter's purty health cried out every one of them and jack
bent his finger at his comrades close your ranks my men says he in a whisper
so the ass put his fore hoofs on the sill of the window
they blew out the candles threw down the table and skelped out at the back door as if they were in earnest and never drew rein till they were in the very heart of the wood jack and his party got into the room
at first the robbers were very glad to find themselves safe in the thick wood
this damp grass is very different from our warm room says one i was obliged to drop a fine pig's foot says another
says another and all the lord of dunlavin's gold and silver that we left behind says the last i think i'll venture back says the captain and see if we can recover anything that's a good boy
and made for the room door to look for a candle inside he trod on the dog's tail and if he did he got the marks of his teeth in his arms
when he recovered his breath and he staggered and spun round
back foremost but the ass received him with a kick on the broadest part of his small clothes and laid him comfortably on the dunghill when he came to himself he scratched his head and began to think what happened him
and as soon as he found that his legs were able to carry him he crawled away dragging one foot after another till he reached the wood well well cried them all when he came within hearing
any chance of our property you may say chance says he and it's itself is the poor chance all out ah will any of you pull a bed of dry grass for me
all the sticking plaster in enniscorthy will be too little for the cuts and bruises i have on me ah
when i got to the kitchen fire looking for a sod of lighted turf what should be there but an old woman carding flax and you may see the marks she left on my face with the cards i made to the room door as fast as i could
and who should i stumble over but a cobbler and his seat and if he did not work at me
with his awls and his pinchers you may call me a rogue well i got away from him somehow but when i was passing through the door it must be the divel himself that pounced down on me with his claws
and his teeth that were equal to sixpenny nails and his wings ill luck be in his road well at last i reached the stable
i got a pelt from a sledge hammer that sent me half a mile off if you don't believe me i'll give you leave to go and judge for yourselves oh my poor captain says they
we believe you to the nines catch us indeed going within a hen's race of that unlucky cabin well before the sun shook his doublet next morning jack and his comrades were up and about
they made a hearty breakfast on what was left the night before and then they all agreed
and give him back all his gold and silver jack put it all in the two ends of a sack and laid it across neddy's back and all took the road in their hands away they went through bogs up hills down dales
and sometimes along the yellow high road
and who should be there airing his powdered head his white stockings and his red breeches but the thief of a porter he gave a cross look to the visitors and says he to jack what do you want here my fine fellow there isn't room
would you tell a body says the cock that was perched on the ass's head who was it that opened the door for the robbers the other night ah maybe the porter's red face didn't turn the colour of his frill
and the lord of dunlavin and his pretty daughter that were standing at the parlour window unknownst to the porter put out their heads i'd be glad barney says the master to hear your answer to the gentleman with the red comb on him
ah my lord don't believe the rascal sure i didn't open the door to the six robbers and how did you know there were six you poor innocent said the lord never mind sir says jack
all your gold and silver is there in that sack and i don't think you will begrudge us our supper and bed after our long march from the wood of athsalach begrudge indeed not one of you will ever see a poor day if i can help it
and the ass and the dog and the cock got the best posts in the farmyard and the cat took possession of the kitchen
dressed him from top to toe in broadcloth and frills as white as snow and turnpumps and put a watch in his fob when they sat down to dinner the lady of the house said jack had the air of a born gentleman about him
and laughed so loud that the whole world heard him there are twelve iron spikes out here in the garden behind my castle on eleven of the spikes are the heads of kings sons who came seeking my daughter in marriage
not one was able to get it and tell me what stopped the gruagach gaire from laughing i took the heads off them all when they came back without the tidings for which they went
and i'm greatly in dread that your head'll be on the twelfth spike for i'll do the same to you that i did to the eleven kings sons
what put a stop to the laughing of the gruagach the shee an gannon made no answer but left the king and pushed away to know could he find why the gruagach was silent he took a glen at a step
a hill at a leap and travelled all day till evening then he came to a house the master of the house asked him what sort was he and he said a young man looking for hire
well said the master of the house i was going tomorrow to look for a man to mind my cows if you'll work for me you'll have a good place the best food a man could have to eat in this world and a soft bed to lie on
the shee an gannon took service and ate his supper then the master of the house said i am the gruagach gaire now that you are my man and have eaten your supper you'll have a bed of silk to sleep on
next morning after breakfast the gruagach said to the shee an gannon go out now and loosen my five golden cows and my bull without horns and drive them to pasture but when you have them out on the grass
ate the sweet apples himself and threw the sour ones down to the cattle of the gruagach gaire
and old trees breaking the cowboy looked around and saw a five headed giant pushing through the trees and soon he was before him
and too small for two
you nasty brute
tis little i care for you and then they went at each other so great was the noise between them that there was nothing in the world but what was looking on and listening to the combat
they fought till late in the afternoon when the giant was getting the upper hand and then the cowboy thought that if the giant should kill him his father and mother would never find him or set eyes on him again
with the second thrust to his waist and with the third to his shoulders i have you at last you're done for now said the cowboy then he took out his knife cut the five heads off the giant
and when he had them off he cut out the tongues and threw the heads over the wall then he put the tongues in his pocket and drove home the cattle that evening the gruagach
to hold the milk of the five golden cows
the son of the king of tisean came and took the giant's heads and claimed the princess in marriage when the gruagach gaire should laugh after supper the cowboy would give no talk to his master
but kept his mind to himself and went to the bed of silk to sleep on the morning the cowboy rose before his master
you who used to laugh so loud
i'm sorry said the gruagach that the daughter of the king of erin sent you here
i'll make you tell me said the cowboy and he put a face on himself that was terrible to look at and running through the house like a madman could find nothing that would give pain enough to the gruagach
but some ropes made of untanned sheepskin hanging on the wall he took these down caught the gruagach fastened him by the three smalls and tied him so that his little toes were whispering to his ears
and the gruagach said i lived in this castle
we ate drank played cards and enjoyed ourselves till one day when my sons and i were playing a slender brown hare came rushing in jumped on to the hearth
but if he did we were ready for him my twelve sons and myself as soon as he tossed up the ashes and ran off we made after him and followed him till nightfall when he went into a glen we saw a light before us
i ran on and came to a house with a great apartment where there was a man named yellow face with twelve daughters and the hare was tied to the side of the room
and a great stork boiling in the pot the man of the house said to me there are bundles of rushes at the end of the room go there and sit down with your men he went into the next room
and brought out two pikes one of wood the other of iron and asked me which of the pikes would i take i said i'll take the iron one for i thought in my heart that if an attack should come on me
i could defend myself better with the iron than the wooden pike yellow face gave me the iron pike
on the point of the pike i got but a small piece of the stork and the man of the house took all the rest on his wooden pike we had to fast that night and when the man and his twelve daughters ate the flesh of the stork
they hurled the bare bones in the faces of my sons and myself
way beaten on the faces by the bones of the stork next morning when we were going away the man of the house asked me to stay a while and going into the next room he brought out twelve loops of iron and one of wood
and said to me put the heads of your twelve sons into the iron loops
and put the wooden one on his own neck then he snapped the loops one after another till he took the heads off my twelve sons
he took the skin of a black sheep that had been hanging on the wall for seven years and clapped it on my body in place of my own flesh and skin and the sheepskin grew on me and every year since then i shear myself
i clip off my own back when he had said this the gruagach showed the cowboy his back covered with thick black wool after what he had seen and heard the cowboy said
when the hare ran in and before they could stop him he was out again but the cowboy made after the hare and the gruagach after the cowboy and they ran as fast as ever their legs could carry them till nightfall
and when the hare was entering the castle where the twelve sons of the gruagach were killed the cowboy caught him by the two hind legs and dashed out his brains against the wall and the skull of the hare was knocked into the chief room of the castle
and fell at the feet of the master of the place who has dared to interfere with my fighting pet screamed yellow face i said the cowboy and if your pet had had manners
he might be alive now the cowboy and the gruagach stood by the fire a stork was boiling in the pot as when the gruagach came the first time
the cowboy and the gruagach were at home in the place that time in the morning the master of the house went into the next room
brought them out and asked the cowboy which would he take the twelve iron
what could i do with the twelve iron ones for myself or my master i'll take the wooden one he put it on and taking the twelve iron loops put them on the necks of the twelve daughters of the house
then snapped the twelve heads off them and turning to their father said
and make them as well and strong as when you took their heads
and brought the twelve to life again and when the gruagach
then we must be there in time said the gruagach and they all made away from the place as fast as ever they could the cowboy the gruagach and his twelve sons they hurried on and when within three miles of the king's castle
there was such a throng of people that no one could go a step ahead we must clear a road through this said the cowboy we must indeed said the gruagach and at it they went
and gave a blow that sent him spinning
struck that blow asked the king of erin it was i said the cowboy what reason had you to strike the man who won my daughter
is here himself he'll tell you the whole story from beginning to end and show you the tongues of the giant so the gruagach came up and told the king the whole story how the shee an gannon had become his cowboy
had guarded the five golden cows and the bull without horns cut off the heads of the five headed giant killed the wizard hare and brought his own twelve sons to life and then said the gruagach he is the only man in the whole world
i have ever told why i stopped laughing and the only one who has ever seen my fleece of wool when the king of erin heard what the gruagach said and saw the tongues of the giant fitted in the head he
made the shee an gannon kneel down by his daughter
then the son of the king of tisean was thrown into prison and the next day they put down a great fire and the deceiver was burned to ashes
the eldest got tired of staying at home and said he'd go look for service he stayed away a whole year and then came back one day dragging one foot after the other and a poor wizened face on him
when he was rested and got something to eat he told them how he got service with the gray churl of the townland of mischance and that the agreement was whoever would first say he was sorry for his bargain
should get an inch wide of the skin of his back from shoulder to hips taken off if it was the master
if it was the servant he should get no wages at all but the thief says he gave me so little to eat and kept me so hard at work that flesh and blood couldn't stand it and when he asked me once
when i was in a passion if i was sorry for my bargain i was mad enough to say i was and here i am disabled for life vexed enough were the poor mother and brothers
oh won't i be glad to see the skin coming off the old villain's back said he all they could say had no effect he started off for the townland of mischance and in a twelvemonth he was back just as miserable
and helpless as his brother all the poor mother could say didn't prevent jack the fool from starting to see if he was able to regulate the gray churl he agreed with him for a year for twenty pounds
and the terms were the same now jack said the gray churl if you refuse to do anything you are able to do you must lose a month's wages i'm satisfied said jack
and if you stop me from doing a thing after telling me to do it you are to give me an additional month's wages i am satisfied says the master or if you blame me for obeying your orders
i am satisfied said the master again the first day that jack served he was fed very poorly and was worked to the saddleskirts next day he came in just before the dinner was sent up to the parlour
they were taking the goose off the spit but well becomes jack
in came the master and began to abuse him for his assurance oh you know master you're to feed me and wherever the goose goes won't have to be filled again till supper are you sorry for our agreement
the master was going to cry out he was but he bethought himself in time oh no not at all said he that's well said jack next day
to get my dinner now and not lose time coming home from the bog that's true jack said she so she brought out a good cake and a print of butter and a bottle of milk thinking he'd take them away to the bog
but jack kept his seat and never drew rein till bread butter and milk went down the red lane now mistress said he i'll be earlier at my work to morrow if i sleep comfortably
on the sheltery side of a pile of dry peat on dry grass and not be coming here and going back so you may as well give me my supper
she gave him that thinking he'd take it to the bog but he fell to on the spot and did not leave a scrap to tell tales on him and the mistress was a little astonished he called to speak to the master in the haggard and said he
told the master he came up jack you anointed scoundrel what do you mean to go to sleep
the mistress god bless her
yes you rascal i do hand me out one pound thirteen and fourpence if you please sir one divel and thirteen imps you tinker
what for oh i see you've forgot your bargain are you sorry for it
i'll give you the money after your nap next morning early jack asked how he'd be employed that day you are to be holding the plough in that fallow outside the paddock the master went over about nine o'clock
to see what kind of a ploughman was jack and what did he see but the little boy driving the bastes and the sock and coulter of the plough skimming along the sod and jack pulling ding dong again the horses
no but i'll speak to you didn't you know you bosthoon that when i said holding the plough
the master caught himself in time but he was so stomached he said nothing
an are you sorry for our agreement
jack ploughed away like a good workman all the rest of the day in a day or two the master bade him go and mind the cows in a field that had half of it under young corn be sure particularly said he
to keep browney from the wheat while she's out of mischief there's no fear of the rest about noon he went to see how jack was doing his duty and what did he find but jack asleep with his face to the sod browney grazing near a thorn tree
horns and the other end round the tree
down came the switch on jack jack you vagabone do you see what the cows are at
to be sure you lazy sluggard i do hand me out one pound thirteen and fourpence master you said if i only kept browney out of mischief the rest would do no harm there she is
as harmless as a lamb are you sorry for hiring me master to be that is not at all i'll give you your money when you go to dinner now understand me don't let a cow go out of the field
nor into the wheat the rest of the day never fear master and neither did he
the next day three heifers were missing and the master bade jack go in search of them
and peeping into the holes he was making what are you doing there you rascal
hand me one pound thirteen and four pence before you sit down to your dinner
i'm not sorry will you begin if you please and put in the thatch again just as if you were doing it for your mother's cabin oh faith i will sir with a heart and a half and by the time the farmer came out from his dinner
jack had the roof better than it was before for he made the boy give him new straw says the master when he came out go jack and look for the heifers and bring them home and where will i look for em
go and search for them as if they were your own the heifers were all in the paddock before sunset next morning says the master jack the path across the bog to the pasture is very bad the sheep does be sinking in it every step
go and make the sheep's feet a good path about an hour after he came to the edge of the bog and what did he find jack at but sharpening a carving knife and the sheep standing or grazing round is this
said he everything must have a beginning master said jack and a thing well begun is half done
and i'll have the feet off every sheep in the flock while you'd be blessing yourself feet off my sheep you anointed rogue and what would you be taking their feet off for
says you jack make a path with the foot of the sheep oh you fool i meant make good the path for the sheep's feet it's a pity you didn't say so master
hand me out one pound thirteen and fourpence if you don't like me to finish my job divel do you good with your one pound thirteen and fourpence
and i'll be sure to see that they'll give you something for yourself about eleven o'clock while the master was in great spirits he felt something clammy hit him on the cheek it fell beside his tumbler and when he looked at it what was it but the eye of a sheep
well he couldn't imagine who threw it at him or why it was thrown at him after a little he got a blow on the other cheek
well he was very vexed but he thought better to say nothing in two minutes more
so all came again into the other room and jack was made sit down and everybody drank his health and he drank everybody's health at one offer and six stout fellows saw himself and the master home and waited in the parlour
while he went up and brought down the two hundred guineas and double wages for jack himself when he got home he brought the summer along with him to the poor mother and the disabled brothers
in my sketch of joseph balsamo alias the count alessandro de cagliostro i referred to the affair of the diamond necklace known in french history
as the collier de la reine or queen's necklace from the manner in which the name and reputation of marie antoinette
became entangled in it i shall now give a brief account of this celebrated imposition perhaps the boldest and shrewdest ever known
on the quai de la ferraille not far from the pont neuf stood the establishment part shop part manufactory of messrs boehmer and bassange
the most celebrated jewelers of their day after triumphs which had given them world wide fame
and made them fabulously rich they determined
and crown the professional glory of their lives their correspondents in every chief jewel market of the world were summoned to aid their enterprise and in the course of some two or three years
they succeeded in collecting the finest and most remarkable diamonds that could be procured in the whole world of commerce the next idea was to combine all these superb fragments in one grand ornament
to grace the form of beauty a necklace was the article fixed upon
were expended on the design each and every diamond was specially set
and all were arranged together in the style best calculated to harmonize their united effect form shape
and the result
and the anxious labor of many months was the most exquisite triumph that the genius of the lapidary and the goldsmith could conceive
the whole necklace consisted of three triple rows of diamonds or nine rows in all containing eight hundred faultless gems
the triple rows fell away from each in the most graceful and flexible curves over each side of the breast and each shoulder of the wearer the curves starting from the throat
whence a magnificent pendant depending from a single knot of diamonds each as large as a hazel nut hung down half way upon the bosom in the design of a cross and crown
surrounded by the lilies of the royal house the lilies themselves dangling on stems which were strung with smaller jewels rich clusters and festoons spread from the loop
over each shoulder and the central loop on the back of the neck was joined in a pattern of emblematic magnificence corresponding with that in front it was in seventeen eighty two that this grand work was finally completed
and the happy owners gloated with delight over a monument of skill as matchless in its way as the pyramids themselves but alas
the necklace might as well have been constructed of the common boulders piled in those same pyramids as of the finest jewels of the mine for all the good it seemed destined to bring the poor jewelers beyond the rapture of beholding it
the necklace was worth one million five hundred thousand francs equivalent
rather too large a sum to keep locked up in a casket the reader will confess
had not entirely paid for it yet they had ten creditors on the diamonds in different countries and an immense capital still locked up in their other jewelry of course then after their first delight had subsided
they were most anxious to sell an article that had to be constantly and painfully watched and that might so easily disappear
how many a nimble fingered and stout hearted rogue would not in those days have imperiled a dozen lives to clutch that blazing handful of dross convertible into an elysium of pomp and pleasure
it would hardly have been a safe noonday plaything in moral gotham let alone the dissolute paris of eighty years ago the first thought of course
was that the only proper resting place for their matchless bauble was the snowy neck of the queen marie antoinette then the admired and beloved of all
her peerless beauty alone could live in the glow of such supernal splendor and the french throne was the only one in christendom that could sustain such glittering weight moreover
the queen had already once been a good customer to the court jewelers for in seventeen seventy four she bought four diamonds of them for seventy five thousand dollars
would not have hesitated to fling it on the shoulders of the du barry
easily listened to the delicate insinuations of his court jewelers and one fine morning laid the necklace in its casket on the table of his queen her majesty
for a moment yielded to the promptings of feminine weakness and danced and laughed with the glee of an overjoyed child in the new sunshine of those burning sparkling dazzling gems
once and once only she placed it on her neck and breast and probably the world has never before or since seen such a countenance in such a setting
it was almost the head of an angel shining in the glory of the spheres but a better thought prevailed and quickly removing it she with a wave of her beautiful hand declined the gift
and besought the king to apply the sum to any other purpose that would be useful or honorable to france whose finances were sadly straitened
we want ships of war more than we do necklaces said she the king was really delighted at this act of the queen's and the incident soon becoming widely known
for at least twenty four hours after it occurred in fact
called the suffren after the great admiral of that name boehmer who seems to have been the business manager of the jeweler firm found his necklace as troublesome
as the cobbler did the elephant he won in a raffle and tried so perseveringly to induce the queen to buy it that he became a real torment she seems to have thought him a little cracked on the subject
and one day when he obtained a private audience he besought her either to buy the necklace or to let him go and drown himself in the seine out of all patience
the queen intimated that he would have been wiser to secure a customer to begin with that she would not buy that if he chose to throw himself into the seine it would be entirely on his own responsibility
and that as for the necklace he had better pick it to pieces and sell it the poor german
time passed on madame campan one of the queen's confidential ladies happened to meet boehmer one day and the necklace was alluded to what is the state of affairs about the necklace
asked the lady highly satisfactory replied boehmer whose serenity of countenance madame campan had already remarked i have sold it to the sultan at constantinople for his favorite sultana
this the lady thought rather curious but she was glad the thing was disposed of and said no more time passed on again in the beginning of august seventeen eighty five boehmer took the trouble
to call on madame campan at her country house somewhat to her surprise has the queen given you no message for me he inquired no said the lady what message should she give
an answer to my note said the jeweler madame remembered a note which the queen had received from boehmer a little while before along with some ornaments sent by his hands to her as a present from the king
it congratulated her on having the finest diamonds in europe
the queen could make nothing of it and destroyed it
the queen burned the note she does not even understand what you meant by writing that note this statement very quickly elicited from the now startled german a story which astounded the lady he said the queen owed him
the first instalment of the money for the diamond necklace that she had bought it after all that the story about the sultana
and did not wish the purchase known and boehmer said she had employed the cardinal de rohan to buy the necklace for her
for her and by him to her now the queen as madame campan knew very well had always strongly disliked this cardinal he had even been kept from attending at court in consequence
and she had not so much as spoken to him for years and so madame campan told boehmer and further she told him he had been imposed upon no said the man of sparklers decisively it is you who are deceived
she is decidedly friendly to the cardinal i have myself the documents with her own signature authorizing the transaction for i have had to let the bankers see them in order to get a little time on my own payments
here was a monstrous mystification for the lady of honor who told boehmer to instantly go and see his official superior the chief of the king's household she herself being very soon afterwards summoned to the queen's presence
the affair came up and she told the queen all she knew about it marie antoinette was profoundly distressed by the evident existence of a great scandal and swindle
with which she was plainly to be mixed up through the forged signatures to the documents which boehmer had been relying on now for the cardinal louis de rohan
was descended of the blood royal of brittany was a handsome proud dissolute foolish credulous unprincipled noble now almost fifty years old a thorough rake of large revenues
but deeply in debt he was peer of france archbishop of strasburg grand almoner of france commander of the order of the holy ghost
said to be the most wealthy in europe and a cardinal he had been ambassador at vienna a little after marie antoinette was married to the dauphin and while there had taken advantage of his official station to do a tremendous quantity of smuggling
he had also further and most deeply offended the empress maria theresa
by gross irreligion and above all by a rather flat but in effect stingingly satirical description of her conduct about the partition of poland this she never forgave him
neither did her daughter marie antoinette and accordingly when he presented himself at paris soon after she became queen he received a curt repulse and an intimation
that he had better go to strasburg now in those days a sentence of exclusion from court was to a french noble
and de rohan was just silly enough to feel this infliction most intensely he went however and from that time onward for year after year lived the life
of a persevering adam thrust out of his paradise hanging about the gate and trying all possible ways to sneak in again once for instance
to let him get inside the grounds during an illumination and was recognized by the glow of his cardinal's red stockings from under his cloak but he was only laughed at for his pains the porter was turned off
and the poor silly miserable cardinal remained out in the cold breaking his heart over his exclusion from the most tedious mess of conventionalities that ever was contrived except those of the court of spain
about seventeen eighty three this great fool fell in with an equally great knave
where he begins to converge along with the rest towards the explosion of the necklace swindle this was cagliostro who at that time came to strasburg and created a tremendous excitement
with his fascinating countess his egyptian masonry his spagiric food a kind of brandreth's pill of the period which he fed out to poor sick people his elixir of life
and other humbugs the cardinal sent an intimation that he would like to see the quack the quack whose impudence was far greater than the cardinal's pride sent back this sublime reply if he is sick let him come to me
and i will cure him if he is well he does not need to see me nor i him this piece of impudence made the fool of a cardinal more eager than ever after some more affected shyness
cagliostro allowed himself to be seen he was just the man to captivate the cardinal and they were quickly intimate personal friends practising transmutation alchemy masonry
and still more particularly conducting a great many experiments on the cardinal's remarkably fine stock of tokay wine whatever poor de rohan had to do he consulted cagliostro about it and when the latter went to switzerland
lastly is to be mentioned
of the necklace affair she seems to have been really a descendant of the royal house of valois
created count de saint remi the family had run down and become poor and rascally one of jeanne's immediate ancestors having practiced counterfeiting for a living she herself had been protected
had come to paris and was living in poverty in a garret hovering about as it were for a chance to better her circumstances she was a quick witted bright eyed brazen faced hussy not beautiful
but with lively pretty ways and indeed somewhat fascinating her protectress the countess de boulainvilliers was now dead while she was alive jeanne had once visited her at de rohan's palace of saverne
and had thus scraped a slight acquaintance with the gay cardinal which she resumed during her abode at paris everybody at paris knew about the diamond necklace and about de rohan's desire to get into court favor
jeweller cardinal queen and swindler all together into her plot just as the key stone drops into an arch and locks it up tight no mortal knows where ideas come from
suddenly a conception is in the mind whence or how we do not know any more than we know life the devil himself might have furnished that which now popped into the cunning wicked mind of this adventuress
de rohan is crazy after the queen's favor i am crazy after money now if i can make de rohan think that the queen wants the necklace and will become his friend in return for his helping her to it if i can make him think
i am her agent to him then i can steal the diamonds in their transit a wonderfully cunning and hardy scheme and most wonderful was the cool keen promptitude with which it was executed the countess began to hint to the cardinal that she was fast getting into the queen's good graces
by virtue of being a capital gossip and story teller and that she had frequent private audiences soon she added intimations that the queen was far from being really so displeased with the cardinal
and showed the keenest emotions of hope and delight on a further suggestion he presently drew up a letter or memoir humbly and plaintively stating his case which the countess undertook to put into the queen's hands
it was the first of over two hundred notes from him
beseeching argument expostulation and so on all entrusted to jeanne she burnt them i suppose in order to make her dupe sure that she told the truth about her access to the queen jeanne more than once made him go and watch her enter a side gate
into the grounds of the trianon palace to which she had somehow obtained a key and after waiting he saw her come out again sometimes under the escort of a man who was she said
this was villette de retaux a pal of jeanne's and of her husband lamotte who had by the way become a low class gambler
told how much the amiable marie antoinette longed to expend certain sums for benevolent purposes if she only had them but she was out of funds and the king was so close about money the poor cardinal bit again
if the queen would only allow him the honor to furnish the little amount the countess evidently hadn't thought of that she reflected hesitated the cardinal urged she consented it was not much and was so kind as to carry the cash herself
at their next meeting she reported that the queen was delighted telling a very nice story about it the cardinal would only be too happy to do so again and sure enough he did and quite a number of times too contributing in all to the funds
of the countess in this manner about twenty five thousand dollars well after a time the cardinal is at strasburg when he receives a note from the countess that brings him back again as quick as post horses can carry him
it says that there is something very important very secret very delicate that the queen wants his help about he is overflowing with zeal what is it only let him know his life his purse his soul
are at the service of his liege lady his purse is all that is needed with infinite shyness and circumspection the countess gradually half unwillingly lets him find out that it is the diamond necklace
that the queen wants by diabolical ingenuities of talk she leads de rohan to the full conviction that if he secures the queen that necklace he will thenceforward bask in all the sunshine of court favor
that she can show or control and at proper times sundry notes from the queen are bestowed upon the enraptured noodle these are written in imitation of the queen's handwriting
who personated the queen's valet and who was an expert at counterfeiting
desires to grant to her beloved servant the cardinal this suggestion was rendered practicable
which are found though rarely in history and which are too improbable to put into a novel the casual discovery of a young woman of loose character who looked much like the queen whether her name was
and with immense precautions this ostrich of a cardinal was one night introduced into the gardens of the trianon and shown a little nook among the thickets where a stately female in the similitude of the queen received him with soft spoken words
of kindly greeting allowed him to kneel and kiss a fair and shapely hand and showed no particular timidity of any kind yet the interview had scarcely more than begun before steps were heard some one is coming exclaimed the lady
it is monsieur and madame d'artois we must part there she gave him a red rose you know what that means farewell and away they went mademoiselle d'oliva to report to her employers and the cardinal
in a seventh heaven of ineffable tomfoolery to his hotel but the interview and the lovely little notes that came sometimes fixed the necklace business and if further encouragement had been needed cagliostro gave it
about the future of the affair having indeed kept him fully informed about it for a long time as he did of all matters of interest so the quack set up his tabernacles of mummery in a parlor of the cardinal's hotel
and conducted an egyptian invocation there all night long in solitude and pomp and in the morning he decreed in substance go ahead
were only too happy to bargain with the great and wealthy church and state dignitary a memorandum of terms and time of payment was drawn up and was submitted to the queen that is
swindling jeanne carried it off and brought it back with an entry made by villette de retaux in the margin thus bon bon approuve
that is good good i approve marie antoinette de france the payment was to be by instalments at six months and quarterly afterwards the queen to furnish the money to the cardinal
while he remained ostensibly holden to the jewellers she thus keeping out of sight so the jewels were handed over to the cardinal de rohan he took them one evening in great state to the lodgings of the countess where with all imaginable formality
there came a knock at the door and when it was open a tall valet entered who said solemnly on the part of the queen de rohan knew it was the queen's confidential valet for he saw with his own eyes that it was the same man
who had escorted the countess from the side gate at the trianon and so it was to wit villette de retaux who calmly receiving the fifteen hundred thousand franc treasure marched but as solemnly as he had come in
the swindle was consummated but there is no whisper of the disposition of the spoils villette and jeanne's husband lamotte went to london and amsterdam and had some money there
but seemingly no more than the previous pillages upon the cardinal might have supplied nor did the countess subsequent expenditures show that she had any of the proceeds but that is not the last of the rest of the parties to the affair by any means
having a little bill to meet beset madame campan about his letter and the money the queen was to pay him there intervened six months during that time countess jeanne was smoothing as well as she could with endless lies and contrivances
the troubles of the perplexed cardinal who couldn't seem to see that he was much better off in spite of his loyal performance of his part of the bargain but this application by boehmer
had been perpetrated on somebody or other of course waked up a commotion at once the baron de breteuil a deadly enemy of de rohan got hold of it all and in his overpowering eagerness to ruin his foe
quickly rendered the matter so public that it was out of the question to hush it up it seems probable that jeanne de lamotte expected that the business would be kept quiet for the sake of the queen and that thus any very severe or public punishments
would be avoided and perhaps no inquiries made
but de breteuil's officiousness prevented it and there was nothing for it but legal measures
having barely been able to send a message in german to his hotel to a trusty secretary who instantly destroyed all the papers relating to the affair jeanne was also imprisoned
being caught at brussels and amsterdam were in like manner secured as for cagliostro he was also imprisoned some accounts saying that he ostentatiously
gave himself up for trial this was a public trial before the parliament of paris with much form
was acquitted gay d'oliva appeared to have known nothing except that she was to play a part and she had been told that the queen wanted her to do so so she was let go villette was banished for life lamotte
had escaped to england and was condemned to the galleys in his absence which didn't hurt him much cagliostro was acquitted but jeanne was sentenced to be whipped branded on the shoulder with the letter v
and banished this sentence was executed in full but with great difficulty for the woman turned perfectly furious on the public scaffold flew at the hangman like a tiger bit pieces out of his hands shrieked
cursed rolled on the floor kicked squirmed and jumped until they held her by brute force tore down her dress and the red hot iron going aside as she struggled
plunged full into her snowy white breast planting there indelibly the horrible black v while she yelled like a fiend under the torment of the smoking brand she fled away to england
lived there some time in dissolute courses and is said to have died in consequence of falling out of a window when drunk or as another account states
of being flung out by the companions of her orgy whom she had stung to fury by her frightful scolding before her death she put forth one or two memoirs false scandalous things
the unfortunate queen never entirely escaped some shadow of disrepute from the necklace business for to the very last both on the trial and afterwards jeanne de lamotte impudently stuck to it
that at least the queen had known about the trick played on the cardinal at the trianon and had in fact been hidden close by and saw and laughed heartily at the whole interview so sore and morbid was the condition of the public mind in france in those days
at the point at which in its most perfect manifestation it has attained to the completely adequate knowledge of its own nature express itself anew in two ways
either it wills here at the summit of mental endowment and self consciousness simply what it willed before blindly and unconsciously and if so knowledge always remains its motive
in the whole as in the particular case or conversely this knowledge becomes for it a quieter which appeases and suppresses all willing
this is that assertion and denial of the will to live which was stated above in general terms as in the reference of individual conduct a general not a particular manifestation of will
it does not disturb and modify the development of the character nor does it find its expression in particular actions but either by an ever
more marked appearance of the whole method of action it has followed hitherto or conversely by the entire suppression of it it expresses in a living form the maxims
which the will has freely adopted in accordance with the knowledge it has now attained to by the explanations we have just given of freedom necessity and character
we have somewhat facilitated and prepared the way for the clearer development of all this which is the principal subject of this last book but we shall have done so still more when we have
turned our attention to life itself the willing or not willing of which is the great question and have endeavoured to find out generally what the will itself which is everywhere the inmost
what is generally and mainly to be regarded as its position in this its own world
we see this in the simplest of all natural phenomena gravity which does not cease to strive and press towards a mathematical centre to reach which would be the annihilation both of itself and matter
we see it in the other simple natural phenomena a solid tends towards fluidity either by melting or dissolving for only so will its chemical forces be free rigidity
is the imprisonment in which it is held by cold the fluid tends towards the gaseous state into which it passes at once as soon as all pressure is removed from it no body is without relationship
electricity transmits its inner self repulsion to infinity though the mass of the earth absorbs the effect galvanism is certainly so long as the pile is working an aimless
unceasingly repeated act of repulsion and attraction the existence of the plant is just such a restless never satisfied striving a ceaseless tendency
through ever ascending forms till the end the seed becomes a new starting point and this repeated ad infinitum nowhere an end nowhere a final satisfaction
nowhere a resting place it will also be remembered from the second book that the multitude of natural forces and
organised forms everywhere strive with each other for the matter in which they desire to appear for each of them only possesses what it has wrested from the others and thus a constant
internecine war is waged from which for the most part arises the resistance through which that striving which constitutes the inner nature of everything is at all points hindered
struggles in vain yet from its nature cannot leave off toils on laboriously till this phenomenon dies when others eagerly seize its place and its matter
we have long since recognised this striving which constitutes the kernel and in itself of everything as identical with that which in us where it manifests itself
most distinctly in the light of the fullest consciousness is called will its hindrance through an obstacle which places itself between it and its temporary aim we call suffering
and on the other hand its attainment of the end satisfaction wellbeing happiness we may also transfer this terminology to the phenomena of the unconscious world
then we see them involved in constant suffering and without any continuing happiness for all effort springs from defect from discontent with one's estate
is thus suffering so long as it is not satisfied but no satisfaction is lasting rather it is always merely the starting point of a new effort
the striving we see everywhere hindered in many ways everywhere in conflict and therefore always under the form of suffering thus
presents itself distinctly to us in the intelligent world in the life of animals whose constant suffering is easily proved but without lingering over these intermediate grades we shall turn to the life
of man in which all this appears with the greatest distinctness illuminated by the clearest knowledge
the suffering also becomes more and more apparent in the plant there is as yet no sensibility and therefore no pain
a certain very small degree of suffering is experienced by the lowest species of animal life infusoria and radiata even in insects the capacity to feel and suffer is still limited
it first appears in a high degree with the complete nervous system of vertebrate animals and always in a higher degree the more intelligence develops thus in proportion as knowledge attains to distinctness
as consciousness ascends pain also increases and therefore reaches its highest degree in man and then again the more distinctly a man knows the more
the man who is gifted with genius suffers most of all in this sense that is
the accurate relation between the degree of consciousness and that of suffering by exhibiting it in a visible and clear form in a drawing the upper half of his drawing represents women
whose children have been stolen and who in different groups and attitudes express in many ways deep maternal pain anguish and despair the lower half of the drawing represents sheep
whose lambs have been taken away they are arranged and grouped in precisely the same way so that every human head every human attitude of the upper half
has below a brute head and attitude corresponding to it thus we see distinctly how the pain which is possible in the dull brute consciousness is related to the violent grief
which only becomes possible through distinctness of knowledge and clearness of consciousness we desire to consider in this way in human existence
how essential to all life
that is enlightened by knowledge the will appears as an individual the human individual finds himself as finite in infinite space and time
and consequently as a vanishing quantity compared with them he is projected into them and on account of their unlimited nature he has always a merely relative never absolute when and where
of his existence for his place and duration are finite parts of what is infinite and boundless his real existence is only in the present whose
unchecked flight into the past is a constant transition into death a constant dying for his past life apart from its possible consequences for the present and the testimony
regarding the will that is expressed in it is now entirely done with dead and no longer anything and therefore it must be as a matter of reason
indifferent to him whether the content of that past was pain or pleasure but the present is always passing through his hands into the past the future is quite uncertain and always short
is a constant hurrying of the present into the dead past a constant dying but if we look at it from the physical side it is clear that as our walking is admittedly merely a
every breath we draw wards off the death that is constantly intruding upon us in this way we fight with it every moment
at longer intervals
for we became subject to him through birth and he only plays for a little while with his prey before he swallows it up we pursue our life however with great interest and much solicitude
as long as possible as we blow out a soap bubble as long and as large as possible although we know perfectly well that it will burst
willing and striving is its whole being which may be very well compared to an unquenchable thirst but the basis of all willing is need deficiency and thus pain
consequently the nature of brutes and man is subject to pain originally and through its very being if
on the other hand it lacks objects of desire because it is at once deprived of them by a too easy satisfaction
thus its life swings like a pendulum
this has also had to express itself very oddly in this way after man had transferred all pain and torments to hell there then remained nothing over for heaven but
but the constant striving which constitutes the inner nature of every manifestation of will obtains its primary and most general foundation
and what gives strength to this command is just that this body is nothing but the objectified will to live itself man as the most complete objectification of that will is
with these he stands upon the earth left to himself uncertain about everything except his own need and misery consequently the care
for the maintenance of that existence under exacting demands which are renewed every day
the whole of human life
this is directly related the second claim that of the propagation of the species
with cautious steps and casting anxious glances
round him he pursues his path for a thousand accidents and a thousand enemies lie in wait for him thus he went while yet a savage thus he goes in civilised life there is
no security for him
the life of the great majority is only a constant struggle for this existence itself with the certainty of losing it at last but what enables them to endure this wearisome battle
is not so much the love of life as the fear of death which yet stands in the background as inevitable and may come upon them at any moment life itself is a sea
by doing so comes nearer at every step
death nay even steers right upon it this is the final goal of the laborious voyage and worse for him than all the rocks from which he has escaped now
it is well worth observing that on the one hand the suffering and misery of life may easily increase to such an extent that death itself in the flight from which the whole of life consists becomes desirable
and we hasten towards it voluntarily and again on the other hand that as soon as want and suffering permit rest to a man
requires diversion the striving after existence is what occupies all living things and maintains them in motion but when existence is assured then they know not what to do with it
thus the second thing that sets them in motion is the effort to get free from the burden of existence to make it cease to be felt
accordingly we see that almost all men who are secure from want and care now that at last they have thrown off all other burdens become a burden to themselves
and regard as a gain every hour they succeed in getting through and thus every diminution of the very life which till then they have employed all their powers to maintain as long as possible
it makes beings who love each other so little as men do seek each other eagerly and thus becomes the source of social intercourse moreover even from motives of policy
public precautions are everywhere taken against it as against other universal calamities for this evil may drive men to the greatest excesses just as much as its opposite extreme
through solitary confinement and idleness and it is found so terrible that it has even led prisoners to commit suicide as want is the constant scourge of the people
and want by the six week days thus between desiring and attaining all human life flows on throughout the wish is in its nature pain
the attainment soon begets
the end was only apparent possession takes away the charm the wish the need presents itself under a new form
the conflict is just as painful as against want that wish and satisfaction should follow each other neither too quickly nor too slowly reduces the suffering
and constitutes the happiest life
by a nature which is obviously different from that of others thus here also accounts are squared but to the great majority of men purely intellectual pleasures are not accessible
they are almost quite incapable of the joys which lie in pure knowledge they are entirely given up to willing if therefore anything is to win their sympathy to be interesting to them
we may find in trifles and everyday occurrences the naive expressions of this quality thus for example at any place worth seeing they may visit they write their names
in order thus to react to affect the place since it does not affect them again when they see a strange rare animal they cannot easily confine themselves to merely observing it
they must rouse it tease it play with it merely to experience action and reaction but this need for excitement of the will manifests itself very specially
in the discovery and support of card playing which is quite peculiarly the expression of the miserable side
want care for the maintenance of life if we succeed which is very difficult in removing pain in this form it immediately assumes a thousand others varying
according to age and circumstances such as lust passionate love jealousy envy hatred anxiety
against which we then strive in various ways if finally we succeed in driving this away we shall hardly do so without letting pain enter in one of its earlier forms
and the dance begin again from the beginning for all human life is tossed backwards and forwards between
depressing as this view of life is i will draw attention by the way to an aspect of it from which consolation may be drawn
and perhaps even a stoical indifference to one's own present ills may be attained for our impatience
and quite universal for example the necessity of age and of death and many daily inconveniences
it is rather the consideration of the accidental nature of the circumstances that brought some sorrow just to us that gives it its sting
but if we have recognised that pain as such is inevitable and essential to life and that nothing depends upon chance but its mere fashion the form under which it presents itself
would at once be occupied by another which now is excluded by it and that therefore fate can affect us little in what is essential
but in fact such a powerful control of reason over directly felt suffering seldom or never occurs besides through this view of the inevitableness of pain
of the supplanting of one pain by another and the introduction of a new pain through the passing away of that which preceded it one might be led to the paradoxical but not absurd hypothesis
nor be more than filled however much the form of the suffering might change thus his suffering and well being would by no means be determined from without but only through that measure
that natural disposition which indeed might experience certain additions and diminutions from the physical condition at different times but yet on the whole would remain the same
actually befalls us as soon as we have overcome the first pain of it our disposition remains for the most part unchanged and conversely
that after the attainment of some happiness we have long desired we do not feel ourselves on the whole and permanently very much better off and agreeably situated than before
only the moment at which these changes occur affects us with unusual strength as deep sorrow or exulting joy but both soon pass away for they are based upon illusion
for they do not spring
new future which is anticipated in them only by borrowing from the future could pain or pleasure be heightened so abnormally and consequently not enduringly
it would follow from the hypothesis advanced that a large part of the feeling of suffering and of well being would be subjective and determined a priori as is the case with knowing
and we may add the following remarks as evidence in favour of it human cheerfulness or dejection are manifestly not determined by external circumstances such as wealth and position
for we see at least as many glad faces among the poor as among the rich further the motives which induce suicide are so very different that we can assign
no motive that is so great as to bring it about even with great probability in every character and few that would be so small that the like of them had never caused it
but to that of the inner condition the physical state
even to the extent of joyfulness takes place it usually appears without any external occasion it is true that we often see our pain arise only from some definite external relation
and are visibly oppressed and saddened by this only then we believe that if only this were taken away the greatest contentment would necessarily ensue but this is illusion
the measure of our pain and our happiness is on the whole according to our hypothesis subjectively determined for each point of time and the motive for sadness is related to that
just as a blister which draws to a head all the bad humours otherwise distributed is related to the body
the pain which is at that period of time essential to our nature and therefore cannot be shaken off would without the definite external cause of our suffering be divided at a hundred points
and appear in the form of a hundred little annoyances and cares about things which we now entirely overlook because our capacity for pain is already filled by that chief evil
which has concentrated in a point all the suffering otherwise dispersed this corresponds also to the observation that if a great and pressing care is lifted from our breast by
its fortunate issue another immediately takes its place the whole material of which was already there before yet could not come into consciousness as care because
there was no capacity left for it and therefore this material of care remained indistinct and unobserved in a cloudy form on the farthest
as the chief care of the day completely fills the throne excessive joy and very keen suffering always occur in the same person for they condition each other reciprocally
and are also in common conditioned by great activity of the mind both are produced as we have just seen not by what is really present but by the anticipation of the future
but since pain is essential to life and its degree is also determined by the nature of the subject sudden changes because they are always external cannot really alter its degree
thus an error and delusion always lies at the foundation of immoderate joy or grief and consequently both these excessive strainings of the mind can be avoided by knowledge
every immoderate joy exultatio insolens
always rests on the delusion that one has found in life what can never be found there lasting satisfaction of the harassing desires and cares which are constantly breeding new ones
from every particular delusion of this kind one must inevitably be brought back later and then when it vanishes must pay for it with pain
as the joy its entrance caused was keen so far then it is precisely like a height from which one can come down only by a fall
therefore one ought to avoid them and every sudden excessive grief is
the vanishing of such a delusion and so conditioned by it consequently we might avoid them both if we had sufficient control over ourselves to survey things always
with perfect clearness as a whole and in their connection and steadfastly to guard against really lending them the colours which we wish they had the principal
every one carries about with him its perennial source in his own heart we rather seek constantly for an external particular cause as it were
a pretext for the pain which never leaves us just as the free man makes himself an idol in order to have a master for we unweariedly strive from wish to wish
and although every satisfaction however much it promised when attained fails to satisfy us but for the most part comes presently to be an error of which we are ashamed
yet we do not see that we draw water with the sieve of the
but ever hasten to new desires
caetera post aliud
or what is more rare and presupposes a certain strength of character till we reach a wish which is not satisfied and yet cannot be given up
in that case we have as it were found what we sought something that we can always blame instead of our own nature as the source of our suffering
and thus although
at variance with our fate we are reconciled to our existence for the knowledge is again put far from us that suffering is essential to this existence itself
and the contempt for all lesser sorrows or joys that proceeds from it consequently an already nobler phenomenon than that constant seizing upon ever new forms of illusion
chapter twenty eight in merry england when marian recovered consciousness she found herself on board ship and a lady attending to her wants when she was at last able to ask how she came there
the lady nurse told the following story on the evening of holy thursday about the time the storm arose our vessel lay to opposite a place on saint mary's coast called pine bluff and the mate put off in a boat to land a passenger
as they neared the shore they met another boat rowed by two men who seemed so anxious to escape observation as to row away as fast as they could without answering our boat's salute our mate thought very strange of it at the time
but the mysterious boat was swiftly hid in the darkness and our boat reached the land the mate and his man had to help to carry the passenger's trunks up to the top of the bluff and a short distance beyond
where a carriage was kept waiting for him and after they had parted from him they returned down the bluff by a shorter though steeper way and just as they reached the beach in the momentary lull of the storm they heard groans
immediately the men connected those sounds with the strange boat they had seen row away and they raised the wick in the lantern and threw its light around and soon discovered you upon the sands moaning though nearly insensible
they naturally concluded that you had been the victim of the men in the boat who were probably pirates their first impulse was to pursue the carriage and get you placed within it and taken to some farmhouse for assistance but a moment's reflection convinced them
that such a plan was futile as it was impossible to overtake the carriage there was also no house near the coast they thought it likely that you were a stranger to that part of the country and in the hurry and agitation of the moment
they could devise nothing better than to put you in the boat and bring you on board this vessel that is the way you came here the grateful gaze of marian thanked the lady and she asked
rachel holmes answered the lady blushing gently my husband is a surgeon in the united states army he is on leave of absence now for the purpose of taking me home to see my father and mother they live in london i am of english parentage
marian feebly pressed her hand and then said you are very good to ask me no questions and i thank you with all my heart for dear lady i can tell you nothing the next day the vessel which had put into new york harbor on call
sailed for liverpool marian slowly improved her purposes were not very clear or strong yet mental and physical suffering and exhaustion had temporarily weakened and obscured her mind
her one strong impulse was to escape to get away from the scenes of such painful associations and memories and to go home to take refuge in her own native land the thought of returning to maryland to meet the astonishment the wonder
the conjectures the inquiries and perhaps the legal investigation that might lead to the exposure and punishment of thurston was insupportable to her heart no no rather let the width of the ocean divide her from all those horrors
undoubtedly her friends believed her dead let it be so let her remain as dead to them she should leave no kindred behind her to suffer by her loss should wrong no human being true there were miriam and edith
but that her heart was exhausted by its one great all consuming grief it must have bled for them yet they had already suffered all they could possibly suffer from the supposition of her death it was now three weeks since they had reason to believe her dead
and doubtless kind nature had already nursed them into resignation and calmness that would in time become cheerfulness if she should go back there would be the shock the amazement the questions the prosecutions perhaps the conviction
and the sentence and the horrors of a state prison for one the least hair of whose head she could not willingly hurt and then her own early death or should she survive her blighted life
could these consequences console or benefit edith or miriam no no they would augment grief it was better to leave things as they were better to remain dead to them a dead sorrow might be forgotten living one never
for herself it was better to take fate as she found it to go home to england and devote her newly restored life and her newly acquired fortune to those benevolent objects that had so lately occupied so large a share of her heart
some means also should be found when she should grow stronger and her poor head should be clearer so that she should be able to think to make edith and miriam the recipients of all the benefit her wealth could possibly confer upon them
and so in recollecting meditating planning and trying to reason correctly and to understand her embarrassed position and her difficult duty passed the days of her convalescence as her mind cleared
the thought of angelica began to give her uneasiness she could not bear to think of leaving that young lady exposed to the misfortune of becoming thurston's wife and her mind toiled with the difficult problem of how to shield angelica without exposing thurston
a few days after this marian related to her kind friends all of her personal history that she could impart without compromising the safety of others and she required and received from them the promise of their future silence in regard to her fate
as they approached the shores of england marian improved so fast as to be able to go on deck and though extremely pale and thin she could no longer be considered an invalid when on the thirtieth day out their ship entered the mouth of the mersey
upon their arrival at liverpool it had been the intention of doctor holmes and his wife to proceed to london but now they decided to delay a few hours until they should see marian safe in the house of her friends
was a retired dissenting clergyman living on his modest patrimony in a country house a few miles out of liverpool and now at eighty years enjoying a hale old age doctor holmes took a chaise
and carried marian and rachel out to the place the house was nearly overgrown with climbing vines and the grounds were beautiful with the early spring verdure and flowers the old man was overjoyed to meet marian and he received her with a father's welcome
he thanked her friends for their care and attention and pressed them to come and stay several days or weeks but doctor holmes and rachel simply explained that their visit was to their parents in london which city they were anxious to reach as soon as possible and
thanking their host they took leave of him of his old wife and marian and departed the old minister looked hard at marian you are pale my dear well i always heard that our fresh island roses
withered in the dry heat of the american climate and now i know it but come we shall soon see a change and what wonders native air and native manners and morning walks will work in the way of restoring bloom marian did not feel bound to reply
and her ill health remained charged to the account of our unlucky atmosphere the next morning the old gentleman took marian into his library told her once more how very little surprised and how very glad he was that instead of writing she had come in person
he then made her acquainted with certain documents and informed her that it would be necessary she should go up to london and advised her to do so just as soon as she should feel herself sufficiently rested
marian declared herself to be already recovered of fatigue and anxious to proceed with the business of settlement their journey was thereupon fixed for the second day from that time and upon the appointed morning marian attended by the old clergyman
set out for the mammoth capital where in due season they arrived a few days were busily occupied amid the lumber of law documents before marian felt sufficiently at ease to advise her friends
of her presence in town only a few hours had elapsed after reading her note and address before she received a call from missus holmes and her father doctor coleman a clergyman of high standing in the church of england friendliness and a beautiful simplicity
characterized the manners of both father and daughter rachel entreated marian to return with her and make her father's house her home while in london she spoke with an affectionate sincerity that marian could neither doubt nor resist
and when doctor coleman cordially seconded his daughter's invitation
and the same day mister burney bade a temporary farewell to his favorite and departed for liverpool and marian accompanied her friend rachel holmes to the house of doctor coleman we may not pause to trace minutely the labors of love
in which marian sought at once to forget her own existence and to bless that of others a few events only it will be necessary to record in the very first packet of baltimore papers received by doctor holmes
she knew by the date that it took place within two weeks after she sailed from the shores of america and her anxiety on that young lady's account was set at rest after a visit of two months doctor holmes and his lovely wife prepared to return to the united states
and the little fortune that marian intended to settle upon edith and miriam was intrusted to the care of the worthy surgeon to be invested in bank stock for their benefit as soon as he should reach baltimore it was arranged that the donor
should remain anonymous or be known only as a friend of miriam's father
chapter twenty five the struggle ended in the meantime jacquelina had reached home sooner than she had expected it was just dark and the rain was beginning to fall as she sprang from the carriage and darted into the house
met her in the hall took her hand and said oh my dear lapwing
for indeed the professor gives me a great deal of anxiety and if you had stayed away to night i could not have been answerable for the consequences there now hurry up stairs and change your dress and come down to tea it is all ready and we have a pair of canvasback ducks roasted
very well aunty but is grim in the house i don't know my love you hurry jacquelina tripped up the stairs to her own room which she found lighted warmed and attended by her maid maria
she took off her bonnet and mantle and laid them aside and began to smooth her hair dancing all the time and quivering with suppressed laughter in anticipation of her fun when she had arranged her dress she went down stairs and passed into the dining room
where the supper table was set see if nace grimshaw is in his room and if he is not we will wait no longer said the hungry commodore thumping his heavy stick down upon the floor festus sprang to do his bidding
and after an absence of a few minutes returned with the information that the professor was not there jacquelina shrugged her shoulders and shook with inward laughter they all sat down
and amid the commodore's growls at grim's irregular hours and jacquelina's shrugs and smiles and sidelong glances and ill repressed laughter the meal passed and when it was over the commodore leaning on missus waugh's arm
the elf danced about the room
and the longer doctor grimshaw remained away the more excited she grew she skipped about like the very sprite of mischief
presently oh shan't we though the grim maniac he has gone to detect me and he'll break in upon thurston and marian's interview won't there be an explosion
what fun what delicious fun wr r r r i can scarcely contain myself begone maria vanish i want all the space in this room to myself oh fun alive what a row there'll be
me thinks i hear the din of battle oh
sang the elf springing and dancing and spinning and whirling
her dance was brought to a sudden and an awful close the hall door was thrown violently open hurried and irregular steps were heard approaching the parlor door was pushed open and doctor grimshaw staggered forward and paused before her
yes her frolic was brought to an eternal end she saw at a glance that something fatal irreparable had happened there was blood upon his hands and wrist bands oh more far more
there was the unmistakable mark of cain upon his writhen brow before now she had seen him look pale and wild and haggard and had known neither fear nor pity for him
but now an exhumed corpse galvanized into a horrid semblance of life might look as he did with just such sunken cheeks and ashen lips and frozen eyes with just such a collapsed and shuddering form yet withal
incurable despair his fingers talon like in their horny paleness and rigidity clutched his breast as if to tear some mortal anguish thence and his glassy eyes were fixed in unutterable reproach upon her face
thrice he essayed to speak but a gurgling noise in his throat was the only result with a last great effort to articulate the blood suddenly filled his throat and gushed from his mouth
for a moment he sought to stay the hemorrhage by pressing a handkerchief to his lips but soon his hand dropped powerless to his side he reeled and fell upon the floor jacquelina gazed in horror on her work
and then her screams of terror filled the house the family came rushing in foremost entered the commodore shaking his stick in a towering passion and exclaiming at the top of his voice what the devil is all this what's broke loose now
exclaimed jacquelina wringing her pale fingers and pointing to the fallen man the sight arrested all eyes the miserable man lay over on his side ghastly pale and breathing laboriously
every breath pumping out the life blood that had made a little pool beside his face missus waugh
the commodore drew near half stupefied as he always was in a crisis what what what's all this who did it how did it happen he asked with a look of dull amazement
give me a sofa cushion maria to place under his head mary l'oiseau hurry as fast as you can and send a boy for doctor brightwell tell him to take the swiftest horse in the stable and ride for life and death and bring the physician instantly for doctor grimshaw is dying hurry
dying eh what did you say henrietta inquired the commodore in a sort of stupid blind anxiety for he was unable to comprehend what had happened
what is the matter what ails grim he has ruptured an artery said missus waugh gravely as she laid the sufferer gently back upon the carpet and placed the sofa pillow under his head
grim nace speak to me how do you feel oh heaven he doesn't speak he doesn't hear me oh henrietta he is very ill he is very ill he must be put to bed at once and the doctor sent for come here maria
said the old man waking up to anxiety stay the doctor has been sent for but he must not be moved it would be fatal to him indeed i fear that he is beyond human help said henrietta as she wiped the gushing stream from the lips of the dying man
beyond human help eh what nace no no no no it can't be said the old man kneeling down and bending over him in helpless trouble attend doctor grimshaw while i hurry out and see what can be done mary
said missus waugh resigning her charge and then hastening from the room
as her limited knowledge suggested and she and mary l'oiseau applied them but in vain every effort for his relief seemed but to hasten his death the hemorrhage was subsiding so also was his breath it is too late he is dying
said henrietta solemnly dying no
speak to me nace you're not dying
stooping down and raising the sufferer in his arms and gazing half wildly half stupidly at the congealing face he continued thus for some moments until missus waugh putting her hand upon his shoulder said gravely and kindly
lay him down commodore waugh he is gone gone gone echoed the old man in his imbecile distraction and dropped his gray head upon the corpse and groaned aloud
missus waugh came and laid her hand affectionately on his shoulder he looked up in such hopeless helpless trouble and cried out
he was my son my only only son my
oh henrietta is he dead
is he quite gone he is gone commodore waugh lay him down come away to your room said henrietta gently taking his hand jacquelina white with horror was kneeling with clasped hands and dilated eyes
gazing at the ruin the old man's glance fell upon her there and his passion changed from grief to fury fiercely he broke forth it was you you are the murderess you
i never meant it i am very wretched i wish i'd never been born cried jacquelina wringing her pale fingers
chapter twenty four night and storm the heavens were growing very dark the wind was rising and driving black clouds athwart the sky the atmosphere was becoming piercingly cold the snow
that during the middle of the day had thawed was freezing hard yet marian hurried fearlessly and gayly on over the rugged and slippery stubble fields that lay between the cottage and the beach a rapid walk of fifteen minutes
brought her down to the water's edge but it was now quite dark nothing could be more deserted lonely and desolate than the aspect of this place from her feet the black waters spread outward
till their utmost boundaries were lost among the blacker vapors of the distant horizon afar off a sail dimly seen or guessed at glided ghost like through the shadows landward the boundaries of field and forest
hill and vale were all blended fused in murky obscurity heavenward the lowering sky was darkened by wild scudding black clouds driven by the wind through which the young moon seemed plunging
and hiding as in terror the tide was coming in and the waves surged heavily with a deep moan upon the beach not a sound was heard except the dull monotonous moan of the sea and the fitful
hollow wail of the wind the character of the scene was in the last degree wild dreary gloomy and fearful not so however it seemed to marian who filled with happy generous
and tumultuous thoughts was scarcely conscious of the gathering darkness and the lowering storm as she walked up and down upon the beach listening and waiting she wondered that thurston had not been there ready to receive her
but this thought gave her little uneasiness it was nearly lost as the storm and darkness also were in the brightness and gladness of her own loving generous emotions there was no room in her heart for doubt or trouble
if the thought of the morning's conversation and of angelica entered her mind it was only to be soon dismissed with fair construction and cheerful hope and then she pictured to herself the surprise the pleasure of thurston
which should set them both free to pursue their inclinations and plans for their own happiness and for the benefit of others and she sought in her bosom if the letters were safe yes there they were she felt them
her happiness had seemed a dream without that proof of its reality for once she gave way to imagination and allowed that magician to build castles in the air at will
thurston and herself must go to england immediately to take possession of the estate that was certain then they must return but ere that she would confide to him her darling project one
one that she had longingly dreamed of but never as now hoped to realize and edith she would make edith so comfortable edith should be again surrounded with the elegancies and refinements of life
and miriam miriam should have every advantage of education that wealth could possibly secure for her either in this country or in europe if edith would spare miriam
above all thurston a heavy drop of rain struck marian in the face and for an instant woke her from her blissful reverie she looked up why did not thurston come
the storm would soon burst forth upon the earth
were he by her side there would be nothing formidable in the storm for he would shelter her with his cloak and umbrella as they should scud along over the fields to the cottage and reach the fireside before the rain could overtake them
what could detain him at such a time she peered through the darkness up and down the beach to her accustomed eye the features of the landscape were dimly visible that black form looming like a shadowy giant before her
was the headland of pine bluff with its base washed by the sullen waves
she listened the moan of the sea the wail of the wind were blended in mournful chorus it was the only sound that broke the dreary silence of the hour hark no there was another sound
amid the moaning and the wailing of winds and waves and the groaning of the coming storm was heard the regular fall of oars soon followed by the slow grating sound of a boat
marian paused and strained her eyes through the darkness in the direction of the sound but could see nothing save the deeper denser darkness around pine bluff she turned
and under cover of the darkness moved swiftly and silently from the locality the storm was coming on very fast the rain was falling and the wind rising and driving it into her face
and wrapped her shawl tightly about her as she met the blast oh where was thurston and why did he not come she blamed herself for having ventured out yet could she have foreseen this no
for she had confidently trusted in his keeping his appointment she had never known him to fail before what could have caused the failure now had he kept his tryste they would now have been safely housed at old field cottage
perhaps thurston seeing the clouds had taken for granted that she would not come and he had therefore stayed away yet no she could not for an instant entertain that thought well she knew that had a storm risen and raged as never a storm did before
thurston upon the bare possibility of her presence there would keep his appointment no something beyond his control had delayed him and unless he should now very soon appear something very serious had happened to him
and she resolved to hurry home she had just turned to go when the sound of a man's heavy measured footsteps approaching from the opposite direction fell upon her ear she looked up half in dread
and strained her eyes out into the blackness of the night it was too dark to see anything but the outline of a man's figure wrapped in a large cloak coming slowly on toward her as the man drew near
she recognized the well known figure air and gait she had of the identity she hastened to meet him exclaiming in a low eager tone thurston
the man paused folded his cloak about him drew up and stood perfectly still why did he not answer her why did he not speak to her why did he stand so motionless and look so strange
she could not have seen the expression of his countenance even if a flap of his cloak had not been folded across his face but his whole form shook
thurston dear thurston
as she pressed toward him but he suddenly stretched out his hand to repulse her gasping as it were breathlessly not yet not yet and again his whole frame shook with an inward storm
what could be the reason of his strange behavior oh some misfortune had happened to him that was evident would it were only of a nature that her own good news might be able to cure and it might be so
full of this thought she was again pressing toward him when a violent flurry of rain and wind whistled before her and drove into her face concealing him from her view when the sudden gust as suddenly passed
she saw that he remained in the same spot his breast heaving his whole form shaking she could bear it no longer she started forward and put her arms around his neck and dropped her head upon his bosom
and whispered in suppressed tones dearest thurston what is the matter tell me for i love you more than life the man clasped his left arm fiercely around her waist lifted his right hand
and hissing sharply through his clenched teeth you have drawn on your own doom die
and pushed her from him one sudden piercing shriek and she dropped at his feet grasping at the ground and writhing in agony her soul seemed striving to recover the shock
and recollect its faculties she half arose upon her elbow supported her head upon her hand and with her other hand drew the steel out from her bosom
the blood followed and with the life stream her strength flowed away the hand that supported her head suddenly dropped and she fell back the man had been standing over her speechless
motionless breathless like some wretched somnambulist suddenly awakened in the commission of a crime and gazing in horror amazement and unbelief upon the work of his sleep suddenly he dropped upon his knees by her side
put his arm under her head and shoulders and raised her up but her chin fell forward upon her bosom and her eyes fixed and glazed he laid her down gently groaning in a tone of unspeakable anguish
miss mayfield my god what have i done and with an awful cry between a shriek and a groan the wretched man cast himself upon the ground by the side of the fallen body the storm was beating wildly
upon the assassin and his victim but the one felt it no more than the other
mostly beech and decent mansions there appeared to be a great quantity of corn land and the soil looked much more fertile than it is in general so near the sea the rising grounds indeed were very few
and around copenhagen it is a perfect plain of course has nothing to recommend it but cultivation not decorations if i say that the houses did not disgust me i tell you all i remember of them
but without any striking feature to interest the imagination
just before i reached copenhagen i saw a number of tents on a wide plain and supposed that the rage for encampments had reached this city
but i soon discovered that they were the asylum of many of the poor families who had been driven out of their habitations by the late fire entering soon after i passed amongst the dust and rubbish it had left
affrighted by viewing the extent of the devastation for at least a quarter of the city had been destroyed there was little in the appearance of fallen bricks and stacks of chimneys
nothing to attract the eye of taste but much to afflict the benevolent heart the depredations of time have always something in them to employ the fancy or lead to musing on subjects which withdrawing the mind from objects of sense
seem to give it new dignity but here i was treading on live ashes the sufferers were still under the pressure of the misery occasioned by this dreadful conflagration i could not take refuge in the thought
they suffered but they are no more a reflection i frequently summon to calm my mind when sympathy rises to anguish i therefore desired the driver to hasten to the hotel recommended to me
that i might avert my eyes and snap the train of thinking which had sent me into all the corners of the city in search of houseless heads this morning i have been walking round the town
certainly i have seen it in a very disadvantageous light
still the utmost that can or could ever i believe have been said in its praise might be comprised in a few words the streets are open and many of the houses large but i saw nothing to rouse the idea of elegance or grandeur
if i except the circus where the king and prince royal reside the palace which was consumed about two years ago must have been a handsome spacious building the stone work is still standing and a great number of the poor
during the late fire took refuge in its ruins till they could find some other abode beds were thrown on the landing places of the grand staircase where whole families crept from the cold
deprived of their home at present a roof may be sufficient to shelter them from the night air but as the season advances the extent of the calamity will be more severely felt i fear though the exertions on the part of government are very considerable
private charity has also no doubt done much to alleviate the misery which obtrudes itself at every turn still public spirit appears to me to be hardly alive here
to this the inhabitants would not consent and the prince royal not having sufficient energy of character to know when he ought to be absolute calmly let them pursue their own course till the whole city seemed to be threatened with destruction adhering
with puerile scrupulosity to the law which he has imposed on himself of acting exactly right he did wrong
would have stopped he was afterwards obliged to resort to violent measures but then who could blame him and to avoid censure what sacrifices are not made by weak minds
a gentleman who was a witness of the scene assured me likewise
it would soon have been got under but they who were not immediately in danger did not exert themselves sufficiently till fear like an electrical shock
even the fire engines were out of order
of the necessity of keeping them in constant repair but this kind of indolence respecting what does not immediately concern them seems to characterise the danes a sluggish concentration in themselves makes them so careful to preserve their property
in which there is a shadow of hazard
i was surprised not to see so much industry or taste as in christiania indeed from everything i have had an opportunity of observing
the men of business are domestic tyrants coldly immersed in their own affairs and so ignorant of the state of other countries that they dogmatically assert that denmark is the happiest country in the world
the prince royal the best of all possible princes and count bernstorff the wisest of ministers as for the women they are simply notable housewives without accomplishments or any of the charms that adorn more advanced social life
this total ignorance may enable them to save something in their kitchens but it is far from rendering them better parents on the contrary the children are spoiled as they usually are when left to the care of weak indulgent mothers
become the slaves of infants enfeebling both body and mind by false tenderness i am perhaps a little prejudiced as i write from the impression of the moment for i have been tormented to day by the presence of unruly children
thou hast haunted me ever since may arrival and the view i have had of the manners of the country exciting my sympathy has increased my respect for thy memory i am now fully convinced that she was the victim of the party she displaced
who would have overlooked or encouraged her attachment had not her lover
ripe for the change had sufficient spirit to support him when struggling in their behalf such indeed was the asperity sharpened against her
even after so many years have elapsed charged with licentiousness not only for endeavouring to render the public amusements more elegant
because she erected amongst other institutions
disgusted with many customs which pass for virtues though they are nothing more than observances of forms often at the expense of truth she probably ran into an error common to innovators
as the king's conduct had always been directed by some favourite they also endeavoured to govern him from a principle of self preservation as well as a laudable ambition but not aware of the prejudices they had to encounter
their oppressors had better have accused them of dabbling in the black art for the potent spell still keeps his wits in bondage
which to avoid danger
for he is allowed to be absolutely aim idiot excepting that now and then an observation or trick escapes him which looks more like madness than imbecility what a farce is life this effigy of majesty
is allowed to burn down to the socket whilst the hapless matilda was hurried into an untimely grave as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods
the wreck being lightened was sinking more slowly but none the less surely the hopelessness of their situation
is there anything else we can throw overboard the doctor whom every one had forgotten rose from the companion and said yes what asked the chief the doctor answered our crime they shuddered and all cried out
amen the doctor standing up pale raised his hand to heaven saying kneel down they wavered
the doctor went on
they weigh us down it is they that are sinking the ship let us think no more of safety let us think of salvation our last crime above all the crime which we committed or rather completed just now o wretched beings who are listening to me
it is that which is overwhelming us for those who leave intended murder behind them it is an impious insolence to tempt the abyss he who sins against a child sins against god true
and cape la hogue it is france there was but one possible shelter for us which was spain france is no less dangerous to us than england
but to the gibbet hanged or drowned we had no alternative god has chosen for us let us give him thanks he has vouchsafed us the grave which cleanses brethren the inevitable hand is in it
remember that it was we who just now did our best to send on high that child and that at this very moment now as i speak there is perhaps above our heads a soul accusing us before a judge whose eye is on us
the evil that we have wrought if the child survives us let us come to his aid if he is dead let us seek his forgiveness let us cast our crime from us let us ease our consciences of its weight
let us strive that our souls be not swallowed up before god for that is the awful shipwreck bodies go to the fishes souls to the devils have pity on yourselves kneel down i tell you repentance is the bark which never sinks
you are wrong you still have prayer the wolves became lambs such transformations occur in last agonies tigers lick the crucifix when the dark portal opens ajar belief is difficult
unbelief impossible however imperfect may be the different sketches of religion essayed by man even when his belief is shapeless even when the outline of the dogma is not in harmony
in that fatal second he feels weighing on him a diffused responsibility that which has been complicates that which is to be the past returns and enters into the future
what is known becomes as much an abyss as the unknown and the two chasms the one which is full by his faults the other of his anticipations mingle their reverberations
it is this confusion of the two gulfs which terrifies the dying man they had spent their last grain of hope on the direction of life hence they turned in the other their only remaining chance was in its dark shadow
they understood it it came on them as a lugubrious flash followed by the relapse of horror that which is intelligible to the dying man is as what is perceived in the lightning everything then nothing you see
then all is blindness after death the eye will reopen and that which was a flash will become a sun they cried out to the doctor thou thou there is no one but thee we will obey thee what must we do speak
the doctor answered the question is how to pass over the unknown precipice and reach the other bank of life which is beyond the tomb being the one who knows the most my danger is greater than yours
he added knowledge is a weight added to conscience he continued
good said the doctor the low hood of the companion on which he leant his elbows made a sort of table the doctor took from his pocket his inkhorn and pen and his pocket book out of which he drew a parchment
had extinguished the torches one after another there was but one left
and holding it in his hand came and stood by the doctor's side the doctor replaced his pocket book in his pocket put down the pen and inkhorn on the hood of the companion unfolded the parchment and said listen
then in the midst of the sea on the failing bridge a sort of shuddering flooring of the tomb the doctor began a solemn reading to which all the shadows seemed to listen the doomed men bowed their heads around him
the flaming of the torch intensified their pallor what the doctor read was written in english now and then when one of those woebegone looks seemed to ask an explanation the doctor would stop to repeat
whether in french or spanish basque or italian the passage he had just read stifled sobs and hollow beatings of the breast were heard
the reading over the doctor placed the parchment flat on the companion seized his pen and on a clear margin which he had carefully left at the bottom of what he had written he signed himself gernardus geestemunde doctor
who not knowing how to write made a cross the doctor by the side of this cross wrote barbara fermoy of tyrrif island in the hebrides
the chief signed gaizdorra captal the genoese signed himself under the chief's name
under these signatures the doctor added a note of the crew of three men the skipper having been washed overboard by a sea but two remain and they have signed the two sailors affixed their names underneath the note
the northern basque signed himself galdeazun the southern basque signed ave maria robber then the doctor said capgaroupe here
capgaroupe drank off the last mouthful of brandy and handed the flask to the doctor the water was rising in the hold the wreck was sinking deeper and deeper into the sea
the sloping edges of the ship were covered by a thin gnawing wave which was rising all were crowded on the centre of the deck the doctor dried the ink on the signatures by the heat of the torch
galdeazun went forward
it is done said the doctor and from out all their mouths vaguely stammered in every language came the dismal utterances of the catacombs
aro rai amen it was as though the sombre voices of babel were scattered through the shadows as heaven uttered its awful refusal to hear them the doctor turned away from his companions in crime and distress
the wreck was sinking behind the doctor all the others were in a dream prayer mastered them by main force they did not bow they were bent there was something involuntary in their condition
they wavered as a sail flaps when the breeze fails and the haggard group took by degrees with clasping of hands and prostration of foreheads attitudes various yet of humiliation
the deep reserve of nature which enveloped him preoccupied without disconcerting him he was not one to be taken unawares over him was the calm of a silent horror on his countenance the majesty of god's will comprehended
this old and thoughtful outlaw unconsciously assumed the air of a pontiff he said attend to me he contemplated for a moment the waste of water and added now we are going to die then he took the torch from the hands of ave maria
then the doctor cast the torch into the sea the torch was extinguished all light disappeared nothing left but the huge unfathomable shadow it was like the filling up of the grave in the darkness the doctor was heard saying
let us pray all knelt down it was no longer on the snow but in the water that they knelt they had but a few minutes more the doctor alone remained standing
the flakes of snow falling on him had sprinkled him with white tears and made him visible on the background of darkness he might have been the speaking statue of the shadow the doctor made the sign of the cross and raised his voice
while beneath his feet he felt that almost imperceptible oscillation which prefaces the moment in which a wreck is about to founder he said
the irishwoman repeated in gaelic understood by the basque woman
sanctificetur nomen tuum
sicut in coelo sicut in terra said the doctor no voice answered him he looked down all their heads were under water they had let themselves be drowned on their knees
and raised it above his head the wreck was going down as he sank the doctor murmured the rest of the prayer for an instant his shoulders were above water then his head then nothing remained but his arm holding up the flask
as if he were showing it to the infinite his arm disappeared there was no greater fold on the deep sea than there would have been on a tun of oil the snow continued falling one thing floated
the little house was waiting as it had waited for many years
it leaned toward the sheltering hillside as though to gather from the kindly earth some support and comfort for old age five and twenty winters had broken its spirit
summers came and went but only a few straggling blooms made their way above the mass of weeds in early autumn thistles and milkweed took possession of the place the mournful purple of their flowering
and at night when the autumn moon shone dimly
convoyed them about the garden but they never went beyond it each year the panoply of purple spread farther more surely hiding the brave blooms beneath far down the path beside the broken gate
across from it and quite hiding the ruin of the gate was a rose bush which every june put forth one perfect white rose love had come through the gate and love had gone out again but this one flower was left behind
brambles grew about the doorstep and the hinges of the door were deep in rust
a beacon to the wayfarer or a message of cheer to the disheartened since the little house was alone the secret spinners had hung a drapery of cobwebs before the desolate windows as though to veil the loneliness from passers by
no fire warmed the solitary hearth no gay and careless laughter betrayed the sleeping echoes into answer within the house were only dreams
and a low rocker facing it was swerved sharply aside the evidence of daily occupation suddenly interrupted was all there a quiet content overlaid by a dumb creeping paralysis
the march wind blew fiercely through the night and the little house leaned yet more toward the sheltering hill afar in the village
the midnight train from the city by which the people of rushton regulated their watches and clocks strangely enough it stopped and more than one good man turning uneasily upon his pillow wondered if the world might have come to its end
half an hour afterward a lone figure ascended the steep road which led to the house a woman fearless of the night because life had already done its worst to her
the moon shone fitfully among the flying clouds and she guided herself by its uncertain gleams pausing now and then in complete darkness to wait for more light ghost like a long white chiffon veil trailed behind her
even in the night she watched furtively and listened for approaching footsteps one hand holding the end of her veil in such a way that she might quickly hide her face outside the gate she paused irresolute
at the last moment it seemed as if she could never enter the house again a light snow had fallen upon the dead garden covering its scarred face with white miss evelina noted quickly that her garden too
was hidden as by chiffon a gust of wind made her shiver or was it the veiled garden nerving herself to her necessity she took up her satchel and went up the path as one might walk with bared feet up a ladder of swords
each step that took her nearer the house hurt her the more
her heart surged painfully as she entered the musty darkness it was so that miss evelina came home after five and twenty years the thousand noises of an empty house greeted her discordantly
a rattling window was answered by a creaking stair a rafter groaned dismally and the scurrying feet of mice pattered across a distant floor fumbling in her satchel miss evelina drew out a candle and a box of matches
presently there was light in the little house a faint glimmering light which flickered when the wind shook the walls and twinkled again bravely when it ceased she took off her wraps
and through force of habit pinned the multitudinous folds of her veil to her hair forgetting that at midnight and in her own house there were none to see her face then she made a fire for the body must be warmed
though the heart is dead and the soul stricken dumb she had brought with her a box containing a small canister of tea and she soon had ready a cup of it so strong that it was bitter with her feet upon the hearth
and the single candle flickering upon the mantel shelf she sat in the lonely house and sipped her tea her well worn black gown clung closely to her figure and the white chiffon veil thrown back did not wholly hide her abundant hair
i have come back she thought i have come back through that door i went out of it laughing at twenty at forty five i have come back heart broken and i have lived why did i not die
she questioned for the thousandth time if there had been a god in heaven surely i must have died the flames leaped merrily in the fireplace and the discordant noises of the house resolved themselves into vague harmony a cricket
there had never been anything but happiness in the house the misery had been outside peace and quiet content had dwelt there securely but the memory of it brought no balm now as though it were yesterday the black walnut chair
her own embroidery had apparently but just fallen from the chair and the dream that had led to its fashioning was only a dream from which she awoke to enduring agony with swift hatred she turned her back upon the embroidery frame
time as time had ceased to exist for her she suffered until suffering brought its own far anodyne the inability to sustain it further then she slept from sheer weariness before dawn usually she awoke
sufficiently rested to suffer again when she felt faint she ate scarcely knowing what she ate for food was as dust and ashes in her mouth in the bag that hung from her belt was a vial of laudanum
renewed from time to time as she feared its strength was waning she had been taught that it was wicked to take one's own life and that god was always kind not having experienced the kindness she began to doubt the existence of god
and was immediately face to face with the idea that it could not be wrong to die if one was too miserable to live her mind revolved perpetually in this circle and came continually back to a compromise she would live one more day
there was always a to morrow when she should be free but it never came the fire died down and the candle had but a few minutes more to burn it was the hour of the night when life is at its lowest
when souls pass out into the great beyond miss evelina took the vial from her reticule and uncorked it the bitter pungent odour came as sweet incense to her nostrils no one knew she had come
she drew a long breath of the bitterness the silken leaves of the poppies flowers of sleep had been crushed into this the lees must be drained from the cup of life before the cup could be set aside
every one came to this sooner or later why not choose why not drain the cup now when it had all been bitter why hesitate to drink the lees the monstrous and incredible passion of the race was slowly creeping upon her
her eyes gleamed and her cheeks burned the hunger for death at her own hands and on her own terms possessed her frail body to the full if there had been a god in heaven she said aloud surely i must have died the words startled her
and her hand shook so that some of the laudanum was spilled it was long since she had heard her own voice in more than a monosyllabic answer to some necessary question inscrutably veiled in many folds of chiffon
she held herself apart from the world and the world carelessly kind had left her wholly to herself slowly she put the cork tightly into the vial and slipped it back into her bag tomorrow she sighed
the fire flickered and without warning the candle went out in a gust of wind which shook the house to its foundations stray currents of air had come through the crevices of the rattling windows and kept up an imperfect ventilation
she took another candle from her satchel put it into a candlestick of blackened brass and slowly ascended the stairs she went to her own room though her feet failed her at the threshold
and she sank helplessly to the floor too weak to stand she made her way on her knees to her bed leaving the candle in the hall just outside her door as she had suspected it was hardest of all to enter this room
mute reminders of a lost joy mocked her from every corner of the room she knelt there until some measure of strength came back to her and with it a mad fancy to night she said to herself i will be brave
for once i will play a part since to morrow i shall be free to night it shall be as though nothing had happened
and not to to death she laughed wildly
the sound dying at last into a silence like that of the tomb she brought in the candle took the dimity gown from the bed and shook it to remove the dust in her hands it fell apart broken because it was too frail to tear
she laid it on a chair folding it carefully then took the dusty bedding from her bed and carried it into the hall dust and all in an oaken chest in a corner of her room was her store of linen
hemmed exquisitely and embroidered with the initials e g she began to move about feverishly fearing that her resolution might fail the key of the chest was in a drawer in her dresser
her hands so long nerveless were alive and sentient now when she opened the chest the scent of lavender and rosemary long since dead struck her like a blow the room swam before her
yet miss evelina dragged forth her linen sheets and pillow slips musty but clean and made her bed once or twice her veil slipped down over her face
the candle burning low warned her that she must make haste in one of the smaller drawers of her dresser was a nightgown of sheerest linen wonderfully stitched by her own hands she hesitated a moment then opened the drawer
it was yellowed and musty and as frail as a bit of fine lace but it did not tear in her hands i will wear it she thought grimly as i planned to do long ago at last she stood before her mirror
the ivory tinted lace falling away from her neck and shoulders her neck was white and firm but her right shoulder was deeply hideously scarred burned body and burned soul she muttered and this my wedding night
for the first time in her life she pitied herself not knowing that self pity is the first step toward relief from overpowering sorrow when detachment is possible the long slow healing has faintly but surely begun
she unpinned her veil took down her heavy white hair and braided it there was no gleam of silver even in the light it was as lustreless as a field of snow upon a dark day
that done she stood there staring at herself in the mirror and living over remorselessly the one day that like a lightning stroke had blasted her life her veil slipped unheeded from her dresser to the floor
leaning forward she studied her face that she had once loved then swiftly learned to hate even on the street closely veiled she would not look at a shop window lest she might see herself reflected in the plate glass
and she had kept the mirror in her room covered with a cloth since the day she left the hospital
no human being save herself had seen her face she had prayed for death but had not been more than slightly ill upborne as she was
but that he trusted soon to see him better and would call again the next day unless she sent for him earlier he went directly home
he felt himself becoming violent and unreasonable as if raging under the pain of stings he was ready to curse the day on which he had come to middlemarch
for this hateful fatality which had come as a blight on his honorable ambition and must make even people who had only vulgar standards regard his reputation as irrevocably damaged in such moments
a man can hardly escape being unloving lydgate thought of himself as the sufferer and of others as the agents who had injured his lot he had meant everything to turn out differently
and others had thrust themselves into his life and thwarted his purposes
unmitigated calamity and he was afraid of going to rosamond before he had vented himself in this solitary rage lest the mere sight of her should exasperate him and make him behave unwarrantably
there are episodes in most men's lives in which their highest qualities can only cast a deterring shadow over the objects that fill their inward vision
lydgate's tenderheartedness was present just then only as a dread lest he should offend against it not as an emotion that swayed him to tenderness for he was very miserable
only those who know the supremacy of the intellectual life the life which has a seed of ennobling thought and purpose within it can understand the grief of one who falls from that serene activity into the absorbing soul wasting struggle
with worldly annoyances how was he to live on without vindicating himself among people who suspected him of baseness
condemnation and yet how was he to set about vindicating himself for that scene at the meeting which he had just witnessed although it had told him no particulars had been enough to make his own situation
thoroughly clear to him bulstrode had been in dread of scandalous disclosures on the part of raffles lydgate could now construct all the probabilities of the case he was afraid of some betrayal in my hearing
that was why he passed on a sudden from hardness to liberality and he may have tampered with the patient he may have disobeyed my orders i fear he did
but whether he did or not the world believes that he somehow or other poisoned the man and that i winked at the crime if i didn't help in it and yet and yet he may not be guilty of the last offence and it is
just possible that the change towards me may have been a genuine relenting the effect of second thoughts such as he alleged
what we call the just possible is sometimes true and the thing we find it easier to believe is grossly false in his last dealings with this man bulstrode may have kept his hands pure in spite of my suspicion to the contrary
if he met shrugs cold glances and avoidance as an accusation and made a public statement of all the facts as he knew them who would be convinced it would be playing the part of a fool to
offer his own testimony on behalf of himself and say i did not take the money as a bribe
assertion and besides to come forward and tell everything about himself
in to this man and after all the suspicion of bulstrode's motives might be unjust but then came the question whether he should have acted in precisely the same way if he had not taken the money
certainly if raffles had continued alive and susceptible of further treatment when he arrived and he had then imagined any disobedience to his orders on the part of bulstrode he would have made a strict inquiry and if his
he would have thrown up the case in spite of his recent heavy obligation but if he had not received any money if bulstrode had never revoked his cold recommendation of bankruptcy
would he lydgate have abstained from all inquiry even on finding the man dead would the shrinking from an insult to bulstrode
would the dubiousness of all medical treatment and the argument that his own treatment would pass for the wrong with most members of his profession have had just the same force or significance with him
and resisting all reproach if he had been independent this matter of a patient's treatment and the distinct rule that he must do or see done that which he believed best for the life committed to him would have been
the point on which he would have been the sturdiest as it was he had rested in the consideration that disobedience to his orders however it might have arisen could not be considered a crime
that in the dominant opinion obedience to his orders was just as likely to be fatal and that the affair was simply one of etiquette whereas again and again in his time of freedom he had denounced the perversion of pathological doubt
into moral doubt and had said the purest experiment in treatment may still be conscientious my business is to take care of life and to do the best i can think of for it science is properly more scrupulous than dogma
and must keep the conscience alive alas the scientific conscience had got into the debasing company of money obligation and selfish respects
is there a medical man of them all in middlemarch who would question himself as i do said poor lydgate with a renewed outburst of rebellion against the oppression of his lot and yet
they will all feel warranted in making a wide space between me and them as if i were a leper my practice and my reputation are utterly damned i can see that even if i could be cleared by valid evidence
it would make little difference to the blessed world here i have been set down as tainted and should be cheapened to them all the same already there had been abundant signs which had hitherto puzzled him that just when he had been paying off his debts
the townsmen were avoiding him or looking strangely at him and in two instances it came to his knowledge that patients of his had called in another practitioner
the general black balling had begun no wonder that in lydgate's energetic nature the sense of a hopeless misconstruction easily turned into a dogged resistance
the scowl which occasionally showed itself on his square brow was not a meaningless accident already when he was re entering the town after that ride taken in the first hours of stinging pain
he was setting his mind on remaining in middlemarch in spite of the worst that could be done against him he would not retreat before calumny as if he submitted to it he would face it to the utmost and no act of his
it belonged to the generosity as well as defiant force of his nature that he resolved not to shrink from showing to the full his sense of obligation to bulstrode it was true
that the association with this man had been fatal to him true that if he had had the thousand pounds still in his hands with all his debts unpaid he would have returned the money to bulstrode
sullied with the suspicion of a bribe
nevertheless he would not turn away from this crushed fellow mortal whose aid he had used and make a pitiful effort to get acquittal for himself by howling against another i shall do as i think right and explain to nobody
he was going on with an obstinate resolve but he was getting near home and the thought of rosamond urged itself again into that chief place from which it had been thrust by the agonized struggles of wounded honor and pride
travellers did not often carry full information on christian art either in their heads or their pockets and even the most brilliant english critic of the day mistook the flower flushed tomb of the ascended virgin
for an ornamental vase due to the painter's fancy
fermenting still as a distinguishable vigorous enthusiasm in certain long haired german artists at rome and the youth of other nations who worked or idled near them were sometimes caught in the spreading movement
one fine morning a young man whose hair was not immoderately long but abundant and curly and who was otherwise english in his equipment had just turned his back on the belvedere torso
in the vatican and was looking out on the magnificent view of the mountains from the adjoining round vestibule he was sufficiently absorbed not to notice the approach of a dark eyed animated german who came up to him and placing a hand on his shoulder
said with a strong accent come here quick else she will have changed her pose quickness was ready at the call and the two figures passed lightly along by the meleager towards the hall
where the reclining ariadne then called the cleopatra lies in the marble voluptuousness of her beauty the drapery folding around her with a petal like ease and tenderness
they were just in time to see another figure standing against a pedestal near the reclining marble a breathing blooming girl whose form
quakerish gray drapery her long cloak fastened at the neck was thrown backward from her arms and one beautiful ungloved hand pillowed her cheek pushing somewhat backward the white beaver bonnet
halo to her face around the simply braided dark brown hair she was not looking at the sculpture probably not thinking of it her large eyes were fixed dreamily on a streak of sunlight which fell across the floor
but she became conscious of the two strangers who suddenly paused as if to contemplate the cleopatra and without looking at them immediately turned away to join a maid servant
what do you think of that for a fine bit of antithesis said the german searching in his friend's face for responding admiration but going on volubly without waiting for any other answer
there lies antique beauty not corpse like even in death but arrested in the complete contentment of its sensuous perfection and here stands beauty in its breathing life with the consciousness of christian centuries in its bosom
i saw her wedding ring on that wonderful left hand
i saw him parting from her a good while ago and just now i found her in that magnificent pose only think he is perhaps rich and would like to have her portrait taken ah
there she goes let us follow her home no no said his companion with a little frown you are singular ladislaw you look struck together do you know her i
sauntering down the hall with a preoccupied air while his german friend kept at his side and watched him eagerly what
he looks more like an uncle a more useful sort of relation he is not my uncle i tell you he is my second cousin said ladislaw with some irritation
you are not angry with me for thinking missus second cousin the most perfect young madonna i ever saw angry nonsense i have only seen her once before for a couple of minutes when my cousin introduced her to me just before i left england
they were not married then i didn't know they were coming to rome but you will go to see them now you will find out what they have for an address since you know the name shall we go to the post and you could speak about the portrait
confound you naumann i don't know what i shall do i am not so brazen as you bah
and amateurish if you were an artist you would think of mistress second cousin as antique form animated by christian sentiment
sensuous force controlled by spiritual passion yes and that your painting her was the chief outcome of her existence the divinity passing into higher completeness and all but exhausted in the act of covering your bit of canvas
i do not think that all the universe is straining towards the obscure significance of your pictures
so far as it is straining through me adolf naumann
said the good natured painter
and as a painter i have a conception which is altogether genialisch of your great aunt or second grandmother as a subject for a picture therefore the universe is straining towards that picture through that particular hook or claw
which it puts forth in the shape of me not true but how if another claw in the shape of me is straining to thwart it the case is a little less simple then not at all the result of the struggle is the same thing picture or no picture logically
no nonsense naumann english ladies are not at everybody's service as models and you want to express too much with your painting you would only have made a better or worse portrait with a background
which every connoisseur would give a different reason for or against and what is a portrait of a woman your painting and plastik are poor stuff after all they perturb and dull conceptions instead of raising them language is a finer medium
yes for those who can't paint said naumann there you have perfect right i did not recommend you to paint my friend the amiable artist carried his sting but ladislaw did not choose to appear stung
he went on as if he had not heard language gives a fuller image which is all the better for beings vague after all the true seeing is within and painting stares at you with an insistent imperfection i feel that especially about
you must wait for movement and tone there is a difference in their very breathing they change from moment to moment this woman whom you have just seen for example how would you paint her voice pray
but her voice is much diviner than anything you have seen of her i see i see you are jealous no man must presume to think that he can paint your ideal this is serious my friend
you and i shall quarrel naumann if you call that lady my aunt again how is she to be called then
good suppose i get acquainted with her in spite of you
yes suppose said will ladislaw in a contemptuous undertone intended to dismiss the subject
peggy's visitors and francis resolution the girls were somewhat later in rising on the morning after the party than usual
and when they got up they found that peggy was out on one of those errands that jane and elsie had been accustomed to do for her
from her real skill and punctuality
and this week she had had more work than she could manage
and had been kind to willie when he was in his last illness jane sometimes with and sometimes without elsie had always gone to tell this woman about the work but on this occasion peggy had to take the long walk herself
not that she grudged it for to put half a crown in poor lizzie marr's pocket was worth a good deal of trouble and fatigue
she had returned about twelve o'clock when the girls were getting ready to join their cousin in their promised walk and just as she got to the top of the stairs a man's foot was heard at the bottom
when a sharp tap was heard at the door and peggy opened it and they beheld not francis but mister brandon
i thought i could not be mistaken in those elbows i have followed you from prince's street all this long way but you would never turn round
and how are you again peggy peggy shook hands with her old master and gazed at him with great surprise surely these are not the bairns you used to speak of
i met them last night at a party how do you do miss melville said he shaking hands with elsie first and then with jane but what brought you here on this day said peggy
here is your address said mister brandon
swinton shire i was going to see you to morrow but you have saved me a journey to no purpose i brought the bairns into the town for better schooling and on account of tam
and grandfather finds it agrees brawly with him too grandfather said peggy raising her voice this is master brandon that you have heard me speak about whiles the first master i had in australia
grandfather expressed his sense of the politeness of mister brandon in coming all that way to see peggy not but what she was a good lass and worth going a long journey to have a crack with
well peggy said mister brandon taking a seat near the fire and how do you like this cold country after so many years in a hot one the winters are not so bad but the springs are worse to stand
but if a body's moving and stirring about they can aye keep heat in them if moving and stirring can keep you warm you will never be cold but peggy you will want to hear the news indeed do i said peggy
the diggings are going on as brisk as ever i suppose just as brisk and sheep as dear and wool steady so you see i've taken a holiday
i must go back for i have not made my fortune yet but by the by it is a great pity that you left melbourne when you did
on his own account now bought a flock and run for an old song
it was not to be said peggy calmly but has he any bairns two peggy and he is very proud of them ay ay a man has need to be proud and pleased with his own and the wife
oh she's a nice enough person getting a little uppish now but not the manager you are said mister brandon
though i dare say he has written to you on the same subject my man of business said peggy with a little pride i have not heard from him for a long time he is very sorry indeed that you let the tenant have a right of purchase to your shop
if he borrows the money
but they must just provide for themselves
but in your hands i have no doubt it will be turned to good account here come the bairns now said peggy as the quick noisy steps of the heavily shod children were heard clattering up the stairs
name them as they come in tom jamie nancy jessie willie a fine lot of youngsters upon my word and sure to make good colonists
and as he said this mister brandon saw a tear stand in the eye of the devoted aunt at his praises of her orphan charge god be praised they have their health and on the whole they are good bairns though a thought noisy whiles
said she there's a gentleman at the stairfoot said tom he says he has come for you and your sister miss melville and as it was our dinner time he would not come up
and be sure to be in time for the school
and then they went for a walk by daylight he was struck more with the change that had shown itself in both of his cousins
jane's proposal on the previous night to go to missus dunn's had distressed him more than any other of her projects and yet he could do nothing to prevent it unless by making the sacrifice which my young lady readers think he should have made
long ago and given up the estate to marry his cousin all for love
is a fascinating course of procedure in books and on the stage
it was only lately that francis had discovered how very dear jane was to him
with any reasonable chance of obtaining her he would have exerted every effort and made every sacrifice to gain such a companion for life he would have given up all his more expensive bachelor habits his book buying
and his public amusements and thought domestic happiness cheaply purchased by such privations and if jane could have shared his brighter fortune
he would have offered his hand and heart long before but now even supposing that he had contracted no expensive habits and he found that he had that he liked the handsome fortune and the luxuries annexed to it
it was not his own personal gratification that he was required to give up
his place at the bank of scotland was filled up
and he must prepare not only for providing for a wife and family but for elsie too and until this day elsie had shrunk from him and he had rather despised her but during their walk he saw the affectionate and sincere nature of jane's sister
he thought that he could not only offer her a home but that he had some prospect of making it a happy one which is by far the most important thing in such matters and he gradually brought himself to believe that it was right
he should make the sacrifice other opportunities of usefulness might open themselves in some other sphere he would give up cross hall to the benevolent societies if jane would only consent to be his wife the cousinship he thought no objection
and as unlike each other in temperament and constitution as if they were not related neither jane nor elsie was likely to keep her health at a sedentary employment it was the daily long walk that had kept them so well
that he knew to be her greatest comfort and his own most precious possession but she could not she would not refuse him he saw the kind look of her eyes and felt convinced that though jane believed it was only friendship
the knowledge that she was all the world to him would change it into love and then to begin life afresh no longer solitary no longer unloved
it was the day after mister casaubon had been buried and dorothea was not yet able to leave her room that would be difficult you know chettam as she is an executrix and she likes to go into these things property land that kind of thing
as an executrix dorothea would want to act and she was twenty one last december you know i can hinder nothing sir james looked at the carpet for a minute in silence and then lifting his eyes suddenly
all business must be kept from her and as soon as she is able to be moved she must come to us being with celia and the baby will be the best thing in the world for her
and meanwhile you must get rid of ladislaw you must send him out of the country here sir james's look of disgust returned in all its intensity mister brooke put his hands behind him
walked to the window and straightened his back with a little shake before he replied that is easily said chettam easily said you know my dear sir persisted sir james restraining his indignation within respectful forms
it was you who brought him here
i mean by the occupation you give him yes but i can't dismiss him in an instant without assigning reasons my dear chettam
ladislaw has been invaluable most satisfactory i consider that i have done this part of the country a service by bringing him by bringing him you know mister brooke ended with a nod turning round to give it
it's a pity this part of the country didn't do without him
you admit i hope that i have a right to speak about what concerns the dignity of my wife's sister sir james was getting warm of course my dear chettam of course but you and i have different ideas different
not about this action of casaubon's i should hope interrupted sir james i say that he has most unfairly compromised dorothea i say that there never was a meaner more ungentlemanly action than this
with the knowledge and reliance of her family a positive insult to dorothea well you know casaubon was a little twisted about ladislaw ladislaw has told me the reason dislike of the bent he took you know
ladislaw didn't think much of casaubon's notions thoth and dagon that sort of thing and i fancy that casaubon didn't like the independent position ladislaw had taken up i saw the letters between them you know
said sir james but i believe casaubon was only jealous of him on dorothea's account and the world will suppose that she gave him some reason and that is what makes it so abominable coupling her name with this young fellow's
seating himself and sticking on his eye glass again it's all of a piece with casaubon's oddity this paper now
well no not the urgency of the thing by and by perhaps it may come round as to gossip you know sending him away won't hinder gossip people say what they like to say not what they have chapter and verse for
said mister brooke becoming acute about the truths that lay on the side of his own wishes i might get rid of ladislaw up to a certain point take away the pioneer from him and that sort of thing but i couldn't send him out of the country
if he didn't choose to go didn't choose you know mister brooke persisting as quietly as if he were only discussing the nature of last year's weather and nodding at the end with his usual amenity
was an exasperating form of obstinacy good god said sir james with as much passion as he ever showed let us get him a post let us spend money on him if he could go in the suite of some colonial governor
grampus might take him and i could write to fulke about it but ladislaw won't be shipped off like a head of cattle my dear fellow ladislaw has his ideas
it's my opinion that if he were to part from me to morrow you'd only hear the more of him in the country with his talent for speaking and drawing up documents there are few men who could come up to him as an agitator
an agitator you know agitator said sir james with bitter emphasis feeling that the syllables of this word
of its hatefulness but be reasonable chettam dorothea now as you say she had better go to celia as soon as possible she can stay under your roof and in the mean time things may come round quietly
then i am to conclude that you decline to do anything
no i didn't say decline
ladislaw is a gentleman
said sir james his irritation making him forget himself a little i am sure casaubon was not
i don't know that said sir james it would have been less indelicate one of poor casaubon's freaks that attack upset his brain a little
it all goes for nothing she doesn't want to marry ladislaw but this codicil is framed so as to make everybody believe that she did
then frowningly but i suspect ladislaw i tell you frankly i suspect ladislaw i couldn't take any immediate action on that ground chettam
it would look all the worse for dorothea to those who knew about it it would seem as if we distrusted her distrusted her you know that mister brooke had hit on an undeniable argument did not tend to soothe sir james
he put out his hand to reach his hat implying that he did not mean to contend further and said still with some heat
because her friends were too careless i shall do what i can as her brother to protect her now you can't do better than get her to freshitt as soon as possible chettam i approve that plan altogether said mister brooke well pleased
that he had won the argument it would have been highly inconvenient to him to part with ladislaw at that time when a dissolution might happen any day
a rich old abbot who lived in grand style in a great house called the abbey every day a hundred noble men sat down with him to dine and fifty brave knights in fine velvet coats and gold chains
waited upon him at his table when king john heard of the way in which the abbot lived he made up his mind to put a stop to it so he sent for the old man to come and see him how now my good abbot
he said i hear that you keep a far better house than i how dare you do such a thing don't you know that no man in the land ought to live better than the king and i tell you that no man shall o king said the abbot
and the brave knights who are with me think ill of you said the king how can i help but think ill of you all that there is in this broad land is mine by right and how do you dare to put me to shame
your head shall be cut off and all your riches shall be mine i will try to answer them o king said the abbot well then said king john as i sit here with my crown of gold on my head you must tell me
to within a day just how long i shall live sec ond ly you must tell me how soon i shall ride round the whole world and lastly you shall tell me what i think
but if then you fail to answer me you shall lose your head and all your lands shall be mine the abbot went away very sad and in great fear he first rode to oxford here was a great school
if any of the wise pro fess ors could help him but they shook their heads and said that there was nothing about king john in any of their books then the abbot rode down to cam bridge
in that great school could help him at last
for now he had not a week to live
as the abbot was riding up the lane which led to his grand house he met his shep herd going to the fields welcome home good master cried the shepherd what news do you bring us from great king john
sad news sad news said the abbot and then he told him all that had happened cheer up cheer up good master said the shepherd have you never yet heard
that a fool may teach a wise man wit i think i can help you out of your trouble you help me cried the abbot how how well answered the shepherd you know that everybody says
so lend me your servants and your horse and your gown and i will go up to london and see the king if nothing else can be done i can at least die in your place
you are very very kind and i have a mind to let you try your plan but if the worst comes to the worst you shall not die for me i will die for myself so the shepherd got ready to go at once he dressed himself with great care
over his shepherd's coat he threw the abbot's long gown and he bor rowed the abbot's cap and golden staff when all was ready no one in the world would have thought that he was not the great man himself then he mounted his horse
and with a great train of servants set out for london of course the king did not know him welcome sir abbot he said it is a good thing that you have come back but prompt as you are
if you fail to answer my three questions you shall lose your head i am ready to answer them o king said the shepherd indeed indeed said the king and he laughed to himself well then
answer my first question how long shall i live come you must tell me to the very day you shall live said the shepherd until the day that you die and not one day longer and you shall die when you take your last breath
the king laughed again indeed he said
you are not only witty but you are wise and we will let this answer pass and now comes my third and last question what do i think
and i have come to beg your pardon for him and for me and with that he threw off his long gown the king laughed loud and long a merry fellow you are said he
o king that cannot be said the shepherd
confession and avoidance aphorism are seldom couched in such terms that they should be taken as they sound precisely or according to the widest extent of signification but do commonly need exposition and admit exception
but interfere thwart and supplant one another issac barrow the very essence of an aphorism is that slight exaggeration which makes it more biting whilst less rigidly accurate leslie stephen
on girls a pearl a girl browning there are of course girls and girls yet at heart they are pretty much alike in age naturally they differ wildly
but this is a thorny subject suffice it to say that all men love all girls the maid of sweet sixteen equally with the maid of untold age there is something exasperatingly something or otherish about girls and they know it
which makes them more something or otherish still there is no other word for it a girl is a complicated thing it is made up of clothes smiles a pompadour things of which space and prudence forbid the enumeration here
these things by themselves do not constitute a girl which is obvious nor is any one girl without these things which is not too obvious where the things end and the girl begins many men have tried to find out
many girls would like to be men except on occasions at least so they say but perhaps this is just a part of their something or otherishness why they should want to be men men cannot conceive men pale before them
run before them and after them swear by them and at them and a bit of a chit of a thing in short skirts and lisle thread stockings will twist able bodied males round her little finger it is an open secret that girls are fonder of men
than they are of one another which is very lucky for the men girls differ and the same girl is different at different times when she is by herself she is one thing when she is with other girls she is another thing when she is with a lot of men
she is a third sort of thing when she is with a man but this baffled even agur the son of jakeh as a rule a man prefers a girl by herself this is natural
and yet is said that you cannot have too much of a good thing if this were true a bevy of girls would be the height of happiness yet some men would sooner face the bulls of bashan some foolish men probably poets
have sought for and asserted the existence of the ideal girl this is sheer nonsense there is no such thing and if there were she could not compare with the real girl
as some one ought to have said are excellent things in woman other men equally foolish have regarded girls as playthings i wish these men had tried to play with them they would have found that they were playing with fire and brimstone
than the high spirited high bred girl of this she is quite aware to our cost i speak as a man the consequence is her price has gone up and man has to pay high and pay all sorts of things
ices sweets champagne drives church goings and sometimes spot cash men are always wishing they knew all about girls it is a precious good thing that they don't
not that this is in any way disparaging to the girls the fact is a girl is an infinite puzzle and it is this puzzle that among other things
what a man doesn't know about a girl would fill a saratoga trunk
would go into her work box the littlest girl is a little women no boy knows this and precious few grown up men thus many a grown up man plays with a girl then finds himself in love with her as to the girl
always the girl knows whether the play is leading she probably chooses the game very late in life does a man learn the truth and significance of that ancient proverb that kissing goes by favour for
the masculine mind is the slave of law and justice aphrodite never heard of law or justice she was born at sea that is to say few are the men who at some time in their lives have not wondered at the vagaries
should the favored one be openly convicted that alters not one whit his statue with the girl for a girl having given her heart never recalls it not wholly she may regret she never recoils in other words
to the man of her own free lawless choice a girl is always loyal to subsequent and subordinate attachments she is dutiful so even the renegade if loved by a girl will be upheld by that girl through thick and thin
secretly it may be for often the girl nevertheless devotedly and only under compulsion will he listen to the detractor he may desert her or if he sticks to her he may beat her no matter he holds her heart
in the hollow of his hand but but few things mystify poor law abiding man than this that the central the profoundest the most portentous puzzle of the universe the weal of woe of two high aspiring
much enduring youthful human souls should be the sport of what seems to him
in mathematical language which will not sophisticate her the integral of love yet in the short years between sixteen and twenty a girl's love will undergo rapid and startling developments
than a girl with none she knows more of men especially of their weaknesses and idiosyncrasies and to know the weaknesses and idiosyncrasies of men is perhaps a wife's chief task unless it be to put up with them
often enough the freckled and fringrant girl wins over the professional beauty sometimes grown up girls are just as shy as little ones and for the same reasons because there is no one who knows how to play with them girls often play with love
as if it were one of the amusements of life but a day comes when love proves itself the most sensuous thing on earth and a girl is quick to discover the kind of love that is required of her as a rule many a girl who has been sore put to it
to prove herself whole hearted for of course always every suitor expects whole heartedness and this every girl instinctively knows indeed is not a half hearted love or a half hearted acceptress of love a contradiction in terms
a certain measure of the sophisticated or unsophistication of a youthful damsel may be found
young women themselves but rarely unsophisticated view with a certain pitying sort of curiosity unsophisticatedness in men and a young man's unsophisticatedeness it is a great delight to a woman to eradicate yet
a girl regards with complex emotions the man who has blossomed under the genial warmth of her rays the flattery to own powers is counterbalanced by the evidence of lack of power in him a girl thinks she detects flippancy in seriousness
a woman thinks she detects seriousness in flippancy what would be conduct decidedly risque in a city miss is often innocent playfulness in a country maid
girls play with love as if it were a doll very soon after twenty they discover it is a dynamo
often works more havoc than happiness for either one of the parties to the concealed compact receives or pays attention which perturb the other or a subsequent and acknowledged lover looks askance at the previous entanglement
since even if a clandestine engagement as is usually the case is merely a flirtation with the emoluments
are not nice things for a subsequent and avowed lover whether masculine or feminine to think upon lastly a laxity with regard to the claims of courtship is apt to breed a laxity with regard to the claims of wedlock in short
flirtations like clandestine engagements are an affront to love
should be as attached as much importance as to the wedding ring indeed
and often enough a dangerous yet with extraordinary deftness she treads it she must win her a mate
she makes believe to be captured
to be wooed and wedded is the law of her being yet not for one moment dares she to exhibit too great an alacrity to obey that law for she knows instinctively that an easy victory prognosticates a fickle victor
is she abundantly endowed with the very attributes that make for wife and mother hood a strong and swaying passion and an affection unbounded she must hold them in leash with exemplary patience for alas
are they given the rein for a single passing moment instead of being accounted unto her for righteousness they work her ruin she must win her one man and she must win him for life but she cannot pick or choose for she must wait to be asked
if she make test of many admirers she is described as a flirt if conscientious and demure she await her fate a desirable fate is by no means assured in truth it seems that too often a girl must dissemble
hateful as dissemblance in men t'is a hard road indeed that a girl has to travel to win her a fellow farer for life she must go out of her way to accommodate so many travelers and this one is lured by this and that one by that
and another by something unnoticed by the throng but an she dissembles one iota too much her fellow farers look askance and he who eventually joins her for good upbraids her for that by which she won
often enough a preposterous assumption with it she is looked upon too much and always always a girl has to pretend that never did she descend to dissemblance
chapter six embellishments sixty four embellishments or graces
agrements are ornamental tones either represented in full in the score or indicated by certain signs the following are the embellishments most commonly found trill or shake mordent
inverted mordent or prall trill turn gruppetto inverted turn appoggiatura
representing these embellishments and it is impossible to give examples of all the different forms the following definitions represent therefore only the most commonly found examples and the most generally accepted interpretations
an imperfect trill is one closing without a turn sixty six
in the case of both mordent and double mordent
is sometimes called a transient shake because it is really only a part of the more elaborate grace called trill
the turn comes at the very end but in both cases the time taken by the embellishment is taken from the time value of the principal note for further details
the principal tone next the highest tone third
is taken from that of the melody tone the appoggiatura was formerly classified into long appoggiatura
one when it is possible to divide the principal tone into halves then the appoggiatura receives one half the value of the printed note
is always accented but the acciaccatura never is the stress always falling on the melody tone see grove
it was necessary to introduce graces of all sorts
of sustaining tone for any length of time but with the advent of the modern piano with its comparatively great sustaining power and also with the advent in vocal music of a new style of singing german lieder singing as contrasted
with italian coloratura singing
little red riding hood in a great wide forest full of beautiful trees and green glades and thorny thickets there lived a long time ago a wood cutter and his wife
who had only one child a little girl she was so pretty and so good that the sun seemed to shine more brightly when its light fell upon her rosy little face
and the birds would seem to sing more sweetly when she was passing by her real name was maisie but the neighbors round about all called her little red riding hood
was at the time when all the birds and beasts or very nearly all could speak just as well as you or i and nobody was surprised to hear them talk as i suppose one would be nowadays well
as i was saying little red riding hood lived with her parents in a little white cottage with a green door and a thatched roof and red and white roses climbing all over the walls
to peep at the child who was so like them it was on a bright spring morning early in may when little red riding hood had just finished putting away the breakfast cups that her mother came bustling in from the dairy
here's a to do she said farmer hodge has this very minute told me that he hears your grannie isn't quite well and i can't leave the cheese making this morning for love or money do you go my dear
here's your basket and don't be too long away honey so little red riding hood
and set off down the sunny green slope with her basket in her hand at a brisk pace but as she got deeper into the forest she walked more slowly everything was so beautiful the great trees waved their huge arms over her
all white with blossom and the child began singing as she went she could not have told why but i think it was because the beautiful world made her feel glad the path wound along through the trees and as it grew wider after turning a corner
for where two cross paths divided there sat a big gray wolf licking his long paws and looking sharply about him and good morning red riding hood said he good morning mister wolf she answered
and where may you be going sweet lass said the wolf as he walked beside her oh grannie isn't very well and mother cannot leave the cheese making this morning and so i'm taking her some little dainties in my basket
and i am to see how she is and tell mother when i get back said the child with a smile and said the wolf
through the copse and down the hollow and over the bridge and three meadows after the mill
why then i do believe she is a very dear old friend of mine whom i have not seen for years and years now i'll tell you what we'll do you and i i will go by this way and you shall take that and whoever gets there first
shall be the winner of the game so the wolf trotted off one way and red riding hood went the other and i am sorry to say that she lingered and loitered more than she ought to have done on the road well what with one thing and another
when she crossed the last meadow from the mill
poor grannie must have to be sure to make her so hoarse thought the child then she pulled the bobbin and the latch went up and red riding hood pushed open the door and stepped inside the cottage it seemed very dark in there
after the bright sunlight outside and all red riding hood could see was that the window curtains and the bed curtains were still drawn and her grandmother seemed to be lying in bed with the bed clothes pulled almost over her head and her great
white frilled nightcap nearly hiding her face now you and i have guessed by this time although poor red riding hood never even thought of such a thing that it was not her grannie at all but the wicked wolf who had hurried to the cottage
then the wolf stretched out his large hairy paws and began to unfasten the basket oh said red riding hood what great arms you have grannie
and your eyes grannie what great yellow eyes you have
and oh oh grannie cried the child in a sad fright
growled the wolf springing up suddenly at red riding hood but just at that very moment the door flew open and two tall wood cutters
but where is grannie asked little red riding hood when she had thanked the brave wood cutters oh
can the cruel wolf have eaten her up and she began to cry and sob bitterly when who should walk in but grannie herself as large as life and as hearty as ever
dinner giving snobs further considered if my friends would but follow the present prevailing fashion i think they ought to give me a testimonial for the paper on dinner giving snobs which i am now writing
to a handsome comfortable dinner service of plate not including plates for i hold silver plates to be sheer wantonness and would almost as soon think of silver teacups a couple of neat teapots a coffeepot
little inscription to my wife missus snob and a half score of silver tankards for the little snoblings to glitter on the homely table where they partake of their quotidian mutton if i had my way
and my plans could be carried out dinner giving would increase as much on the one hand as dinner giving snobbishness would diminish to my mind the most amiable part of the work lately published by my esteemed friend
alexis soyer the regenerator what he in his noble style would call the most succulent savoury and elegant passages are those which relate not to the grand banquets and ceremonial dinners but to his dinners at home
as it is that of which you partake yourself for towards what woman in the world do i entertain a higher regard than towards the beloved partner of my existence missus snob who should have a greater place in my affections
than her six brothers three or four of whom we are pretty sure will favour us with their company at seven o'clock or her angelic mother
for whom finally would i wish to cater more generously than for your very humble servant the present writer now nobody supposes that the birmingham plate is had out the disguised carpet beaters
introduced to the exclusion of the neat parlour maid the miserable entrees from the pastrycook's ordered in and the children packed off as it is supposed to the nursery but really only to the staircase
down which they slide during the dinner time waylaying the dishes as they come out and fingering the round bumps on the jellies and the forced meat balls in the soup nobody i say supposes that a dinner at home is characterized by
the horrible ceremony the foolish makeshifts the mean pomp and ostentation which distinguish our banquets on grand field days such a notion is monstrous i would as soon think of having my dearest bessy
sitting opposite me in a turban and bird of paradise and showing her jolly mottled arms out of blond sleeves in her famous red satin gown ay or of having mister toole every day in a white waistcoat at my back shouting
silence faw the chair now if this be the case if the brummagem plate pomp and the processions of disguised footmen are odious and foolish in everyday life
when they ask us to dine if it be pleasant to dine with your friends as all persons with good stomachs and kindly hearts will i presume allow it to be it is better to dine twice than to dine once
it is impossible for men of small means to be continually spending five and twenty or thirty shillings on each friend who sits down to their table people dine for less i myself have seen at my favourite club
the senior united service his grace the duke of wellington quite contented with the joint one and three and half pint of sherry nine and if his grace why not you and i this rule i have made and found the benefit of
whom you have the honour of knowing if such be not the case i am far from wishing that their graces should treat me in a similar fashion splendour is a part of their station as decent comfort let us trust of yours and mine
fate has comfortably appointed gold plate for some and has bidden others contentedly to wear the willow pattern and being perfectly contented indeed humbly thankful for look around o jones
and see the myriads who are not so fortunate to wear honest linen while magnificos of the world are adorned with cambric and point lace surely we ought to hold as miserable envious fools
and to flaunt his magnificent fan tail in the sunshine the jays with peacocks feathers are the snobs of this world and never since the days of aesop were they more numerous in any land
than they are at present in this free country how does this most ancient apologue apply to the subject in hand the dinner giving snob the imitation of the great is universal in this city from the palaces of kensingtonia
and belgravia even to the remotest corner of brunswick square peacocks feathers are stuck in the tails of most families scarce one of us domestic birds but imitates the lanky
and shrill genteel scream o you misguided dinner giving snobs think how much pleasure you lose and how much mischief you do with your absurd grandeurs and hypocrisies you stuff each other with unnatural forced meats
and entertain each other to the ruin of friendship let alone health and the destruction of hospitality and good fellowship you who but for the peacock's tail might chatter away so much at your ease and be so jovial and happy
the dishes and the drink and the servants and the plate and the host and hostess and the conversation and the company the philosopher included the host is smiling and hob nobbing and talking up and down the table
should disclose his real quality of greengrocer and show that he is not the family butler the hostess is smiling resolutely through all the courses smiling through her agony though her heart is in the kitchen and she is speculating with terror
lest there be any disaster there if the souffle should collapse or if wiggins does not send the ices in time she feels as if she would commit suicide that smiling jolly woman the children upstairs are yelling
as their maid is crimping their miserable ringlets with hot tongs tearing miss emmy's hair out by the roots or scrubbing miss polly's dumpy nose
the servants are not servants but the before mentioned retail tradesmen the plate is not plate but a mere shiny birmingham lacquer and so is the hospitality and everything else the talk is birmingham talk the wag of the party
with bitterness in his heart having just quitted his laundress who is dunning him for her bill is firing off good stories and the opposition wag is furious that he cannot get an innings jawkins the great conversationalist
is scornful and indignant with the pair of them because he is kept out of court young muscadel that cheap dandy is talking fashion and almack's out of the morning post and disgusting his neighbour missus fox
who reflects that she has never been there the widow is vexed out of patience because her daughter maria has got a place beside young cambric the penniless curate and not by colonel goldmore the rich widower from india
the doctor's wife is sulky because she has not been led out before the barrister's lady old doctor cork is grumbling at the wine and guttleton sneering at the cookery and to think that all these people might be so happy
and easy and friendly were they brought together in a natural unpretentious way and but for an unhappy passion for peacocks feathers in england gentle shades of marat and robespierre
there were times when as philip had once said good temper annoyed him more than anything and perhaps he was unconsciously disappointed at having lost his old power of fretting and irritating guy and watching him champ the bit so as to justify his own opinion of him
every proceeding of his cousins seemed to give him annoyance more especially their being at home together and guy's seeming to belong more to hollywell than himself he sat by with a book and watched them as guy asked for laura's letter and amy came
to look over his half finished answer laughing over it
and the other holding the letter and guy watching her amused face and answering her remarks
mere factitious circumstance of wealth in possession of happiness
he thought it shallow because of their mirth and gaiety as if they were only seeking food for laughter finding it in mistakes for which he was ready to despise them arnaud had brought
his mind had hardly opened to railroads and steamers
guy and amabel both young and healthy caring little about bad dinners and unwilling to tease the old man by complaints or alterations of his arrangements had troubled themselves little about the matter took things as they found them ate dry bread when the cookery was bad
walked if the road was shocking went away the sooner if the inns were intolerable made merry over every inconvenience and turned it into an excellent story for charles they did not even distress themselves about sights which they had missed seeing
philip thought all this very foolish and absurd showing that they were unfit to take care of themselves and that guy was neglectful of his wife's comforts in short establishing his original opinion of their youth and folly so passed the first evening perhaps the worst because besides
what he had heard about laura he had been somewhat over fatigued by various hot days walks certain it is that next morning he was not nearly so much inclined to be displeased with them for laughing when in speaking to anne he inadvertently called her mistress miss amabel
never mind said amy as anne departed and he looked disconcerted as a precise man always does when catching himself in a mistake
guy is always doing it and puzzles poor arnaud sorely by sending him for miss amabel's parasol and the other day said guy when thorndale's brother at munich inquired after lady morville i had to consider who she was oh
you saw thorndale's brother did you yes he was very obliging guy had to go to him about our passports
he brought his wife to call on us and asked us to an evening party did you go guy thought we must and it was very entertaining we had a curious adventure there in the morning we had been looking at those beautiful windows of the great church when i turned round and saw a gentleman an englishman
we met again in the evening and presently mister thorndale came and told us it was mister shene shene the painter yes he had been very much struck with guy's face it was exactly what he wanted for a picture he was about
and he wished of all things just to be allowed to make a sketch did you submit yes said guy
the next day he took us through the gallery and showed us all that was worth admiring and in what character is he to make you appear that is the strange part of it said amabel don't you remember how guy once puzzled us by choosing sir galahad for his
it is that very sir galahad when he kneels to adore the saint greal mister shene said he had long been dreaming over it and at last
as he saw guy's face looking upwards it struck him that it was just what he wanted it would be worth anything to him to catch the expression i wonder what i was looking like ejaculated guy did he take you as yourself or as sir galahad
as myself happily how did he succeed
could some fay the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us as far as the sun burnt visage is concerned the glass does that every morning
yes but you don't look at yourself exactly as you do at a painted window said amy in her demure way i cannot think how you found time for sitting said philip
he promises it to me when he has done with sir galahad said amy two three evenings you must have been a long time at munich a fortnight said guy there is a great deal to see there philip did not quite understand this nor did he think it very satisfactory that
to make the best of them to day and returned to his usual fashion of patronizing and laying down the law they were so used to this that they did not care about it indeed
the day was chiefly spent in an excursion on the lake landing at the most beautiful spots walking a little way and admiring or while in the boat smoothly moving over the deep blue waters
and talking over the book with which their acquaintance had begun i promessi sposi never did tourists spend a more serene and pleasant day on comparing notes as to their plans
it appeared that each party had about a week or ten days to spare the captain before he must embark for corfu and sir guy and lady morville before the time they had fixed for returning home
and get the signor capitano to be their interpreter philip thought it would be an excellent thing for his young cousins for him to take charge of them and show them how people ought to travel so out came his little pocket map
marked with his route before he left ireland whereas they seemed to have no fixed object but to be always going somewhere it appeared that they had thought of venice but were easily diverted from it by
his design of coasting the eastern bank of the lago di como and so across the stelvio into the tyrol
all together as far as botzen whence philip would turn southward by the mountain paths while they would proceed to innsbruck on their return home amabel was especially pleased to stay a little longer on the banks of the lake
and if she secretly thought it would have been pleasanter without a third person she was gratified to see how much guy's manner had softened philip's injustice and distrust making everything so smooth and satisfactory
she told her husband that she thought his experiment had not failed she was making the breakfast the next morning when the captain came into the room and she told him guy was gone to settle their plans with arnaud after lingering a little by the window philip turned and with more abruptness than
was usual with him said you don't think there is any cause of anxiety about laura no certainly not said amy surprised she has not been looking well lately but doctor mayerne says it is nothing and you know' she blushed and looked down
were many things to make this a trying time is she quite strong can she do as much as usual she does more than ever mamma is only afraid of her overworking herself but she never allows that she is tired
besides walking to east hill on thursday to help in the singing and she is getting dreadfully learned guy gave her his old mathematical books and charlie always calls her miss parabola philip was silent knowing too well why she sought to stifle care in employment
and feeling embittered against the whole world against her father against his own circumstances against the happiness of others nay perhaps against the providence which had made him what he was
how exclaimed both philip and amy i have just heard that there is a fever at sondrio and all that neighbourhood and every one says it would be very foolish to expose ourselves to it what shall we do instead said amy i told arnaud
know in an hour's time i thought of venice venice oh yes delightful
i say that i cannot see any occasion for our being frightened
well fed healthy persons merely passing through the country you see we could hardly manage without sleeping there said guy we must sleep either at colico or at madonna now colico they say is a most unhealthy place at this time of year
and madonna is the very heart of the fever sondrio not much better i don't see how it is to be safely done and though very likely we might not catch the fever i don't see any use in trying that is making yourself a slave to the fear of infection
i don't know what purpose would be answered by running the risk said guy if you chose to give it so dignified a name as a risk said philip i don't then said guy smiling i should not care if there was any reason for going there but as there is not i shall face mister
edmonstone better if i don't run amy into any more chances of mischief is amy grateful for the care said philip after all her wishes for the eastern bank amy is a good wife said guy for venice then i'll ring for arnaud you will come with us won't you philip
to be sufficient to deter o philip you surely will not said amy my mind is made up amy thank you i wish you would be persuaded said guy i should like particularly to have you to lionize us there and i don't fancy your running into danger
the argument lasted long philip by no means approved of venice especially after the long loitering at munich thinking that in both places there was danger of guy's being led into mischief by his musical connections therefore he did his best for amabel's sake
to turn them from their purpose persuaded in his own mind that the fever was a mere bugbear raised up by arnaud and perhaps in his full health and strength almost regarding illness itself as a foible far more the dread of it
he argued therefore in his most provoking strain becoming more vexatious as the former annoyance was revived at finding the impossibility of making guy swerve from his purpose while additional mists of suspicion arose before him
nay that his cousin wanted to escape from his surveillance and follow the beat of his inclinations and the whole heap of prejudices and half refuted accusations resumed their full ascendancy never had his manner been more vexatious
though without departing from the coolness which always characterized it but all the time guy while firm and unmoved in purpose kept his temper perfectly and apparently without effort even amabel glowed with indignation at the assumption
with which he was striving to put her husband down though she rejoiced to see its entire failure for some sensible argument or some gay lively good humoured reply
very behaviour which used to cause him so many struggles having once seriously said that he did not think it right to run into danger without adequate cause he held his position with so much ease that he could afford to be playful and laugh at his own dread of infection
his changeableness and credulity never had temper been more entirely subdued for surely if he could bear this he need never fear himself again so passed the hour and amabel was heartily glad when the debate was closed by arnaud's coming for orders
to let fall a few crumbs of counsel or commendation for silly little amy well amy you yielded very amiably and that is the only way you will always find it best to submit
he got no further in his intended warning against the dissipations of venice for her eyes were fixed on him at first with a look of extreme wonder then her face assumed an expression of dignity and gently but gravely she said i think you forget to whom you are speaking
the gentlemanlike instinct made him reply i beg your pardon' and there he stopped as much taken by surprise as if a dove had flown in his face he actually was confused for in very truth
he had after a fashion forgotten that she was lady morville not the cousin amy with whom guy's character might be freely discussed he had often presumed as far with his aunt but she though always turning the conversation had never given him a rebuff amabel had not done
and in her soft voice firmly though not angrily she spoke on one thing i wish to say because we shall never speak on this subject again and i was always afraid of you before you have always misunderstood him i might almost say chosen to misunderstand him
it is not because i am his wife that i say this indeed i am not sure it becomes me to say it yet i cannot bear that you should not be told of it because you think he acts out of enmity to you you little know how your friendship
how after all you have done and written he defended you with all his might when those at home were angry how he sought you out on purpose to try to be real cordial friends philip's face had grown rigid and chiefly at the words those at home were angry
it is his own want of openness my opinion has never changed no i know it has never changed said amy in a tone of sorrowful displeasure whenever it does you will be sorry you have judged him so harshly
she left the room and philip held her in higher esteem he saw there was spirit and substance beneath that soft girlish exterior and hoped she would better be able to endure the troubles which her precipitate marriage was likely to cause her but
his combined fickleness and obstinacy had only become more apparent than ever fickleness in forsaking his purpose obstinacy in adherence to his own will displeased and contemptuous
philip was not softened by guy's freedom and openness of manner and desire to help him as far as their roads lay together he was gracious only to lady morville whom he treated with kindness
which became her position well though it could not hurt him perhaps she thought this amiability especially insufferable for when she arrived at varenna her chief thought was that here they should be free of him
come philip said guy at that last moment i wish you would think better of it after all and come with us to milan thank you my mind is made up well mind you don't catch the fever for i don't want the trouble of nursing you
thank you i hope to require no such services of my friends said philip with a proud stem air implying i don't want you good bye then said guy then remembering his promise to laura he added i wish we could have seen more of you
they will be glad to hear of you at hollywell you have had one warm friend there all along he was touched for a moment by this kind speech and his tone was less grave and dignified remember me to them when you write he answered and tell laura
she must not wear herself out with her studies good bye amy i hope you will have a pleasant journey the farewells were exchanged and the carriage drove off poor little amy said philip to himself how she is improved he has
and little marvel if he should abuse his advantages poor little amy i have less hope than ever since even her evident wishes could not bend his determination in this trifle but she is a good little creature happy in her blindness may it long continue
it is my uncle and aunt who are to be blamed he set himself to ascend the mountain path and they looked back watching the firm vigorous steps with which he climbed the hill side then stood to wave his hand to amabel looking a perfect specimen of health and activity
just like himself said amy drawing so long a breath that guy smiled but did not speak are you much vexed said she
then if you have not i can tell you who has what do you think of his beginning to give me a lecture how to behave to you did he think you wanted it very much
i could not let him go on guy was so much diverted at the idea of her wanting a lecture on wife like deportment that he had no time to be angry at the impertinence and he made her laugh also by his view that was all force of habit now guido good
only say you are very glad he is gone his own way on the contrary i am sorry he is running his head into a fever said guy pretending to be provoking
amabel slept and awakened to the knowledge that it was her wedding day she was not to appear at the first breakfast but she came to meet charles in the dressing room and as they sat together on the sofa
arm his gift a bracelet of his mother's hair his fingers trembled and his eyes were hazy but he would not let her help him her thanks were obliged to be all kisses no words would come but charlie charlie how could i ever have promised to leave you
nonsense who ever dreamt that my sisters were to be three monkeys tied to a dog it was impossible not to smile though it was but for a moment charles's mirth was melancholy
and dear charlie you will not miss me so very much do pray let charlotte wait upon you after the first perhaps i may not hate her oh amy i little knew what i was doing when i tried to get him back again for you i
stand up and let me take a survey very pretty i declare you do my education credit there if it will be for your peace i'll do my best to wear on without you
the only one i could forgive for presuming to steal you amy here he is come in he added as guy knocked at his door to offer to help him down stairs guy hardly spoke and amy could not look in his face
it was late and he took down charles at once after this she had very little quiet every one was buzzing about her and putting the last touches to her dress at last just as she was quite finished charlotte exclaimed
oh there is guy's step may i call him in to have one look missus edmonstone did not say no and charlotte opening the dressing room door called to him he stood opposite to amy for some moments then said with a smile
i was wrong about the grogram i would not for anything see you look otherwise than you do it seemed to missus edmonstone and laura that these words made them lose sight of the details of lace and silk that had been occupying them
so that they only saw the radiance purity and innocence of amy's bridal appearance no more was said for mister edmonstone ran up to call guy who was to drive charles in the pony carriage amabel of course went with her parents poor child
her tears flowed freely on the way and mister edmonstone
was very much overcome while his wife hardly refraining from tears could only hold her daughter's hand very close the regular morning service was a great comfort by restoring their tranquillity
and by the time it was ended amabel's countenance had settled into its own calm expression of trust and serenity she scarcely even trembled when her father led her forward her hand did not shake and her voice though very low
was firm and audible while guy's deep sweet tones had a sort of thrill and quiver of intense feeling no one could help observing that laura was the most agitated person present
she trembled so much that she was obliged to lean on charlotte and her tears gave the infection to the other bridesmaids all but mary ross who could never cry when other people did and little marianne who did nothing but look and wonder
mary was feeling a great deal both of compassion for the bereaved family and of affectionate admiring joy for the young pair who knelt before the altar it was a showery day with gleams of vivid sunshine
and one of these suddenly broke forth casting a stream of colour from a martyr's figure in the south window so as to shed a golden glory on the wave of brown hair over guy's forehead then passing on and tinting the bride's white veil
either that golden light or the expression of the face on which it beamed made mary think of the lines where is the brow to wear in mortal's sight the crown of pure angelic light charles stood with his head leaning against a pillar as if he could not bear to look up
mister edmonstone was restless and almost sobbing missus edmonstone alone collected though much flushed and somewhat trembling while the only person apparently free from excitement was the little bride
her hand clasped in his her head bent down her modest steadfast face looking as if she was only conscious of the vow she exchanged the blessing she received and was as it were lifted out of herself
it was over now the feast in its fullest sense was held and the richest of blessings had been called down on them
in the fresh bright graciousness of their extreme youth and the six bridesmaids following laura and lady eveleen two strikingly handsome and elegant girls charlotte with the pretty little fair marianne mary ross and grace harper
the village people who stood round might well say that such a sight as that was worth coming twenty miles to see
him her especial charge and to succeed to all amy's rights missus edmonstone asked whether laura would not prefer going with him but she hastily answered no thank you let charlotte for with her troubled feelings
she could better answer talking girls than parry the remarks of her shrewd observant brother some one said it would rain but charlotte still pleaded earnestly
charlotte drove off with elaborate care then came a deep sigh and she exclaimed well he is our brother and all is safe yes said charles no more fears for them had you any i am very glad if you had why
quite grand and terrible as if he must act ogre i am not sure
that he might appear suddenly and forbid the banns entirely for amy's sake and as the greatest kindness to her oh however he can't separate them now let him do his worst and while amy is guy's wife i don't think we shall easily be made to quarrel
i am glad the knot is tied for i had a fatality notion that the feud was so strong that it was nearly a case of the mountains bending and the streams ascending
no said charlotte it ought to be like that story of rosaura and her kindred don't you remember the fate would not be appeased by the marriage till count julius had saved the life of one of the hostile race that would be it perhaps they will meet abroad and guy will do it
that won't do philip will never endanger his precious life nor ever forgive guy the obligation well i suppose there never was a prettier wedding how silly of me to say so i shall be sick of hearing it before
i do wish all these people were gone
i should like to shut myself up and cry and think what i could ever do to wait on you indeed charlie i know i never can be like amy but if you be anything but sentimental i don't want to make a fool of myself said charles with a smile and tone as if he was keeping sorrow at bay
were left to ourselves this evening we should be so desperately savage that we should quarrel furiously and there would be no amy to set us to rights
yes i see now who you take after puss you'll be just like her when you are her age so i mean to be
but how lovely dear amy did look here's the rain exclaimed charles as some large drops began to fall in good time to prevent them from being either savage or sentimental though at the expense of charlotte's pink and white
for they had no umbrella and she would not accept a share of charles's carriage cloak she laughed and drove on fast through the short cut and arrived at the house door just as the pelting hail was over having battered her thin sleeves
and made her white bonnet look very deplorable the first thing they saw was guy with bustle close to him for bustle had found out that something was going on that concerned his master and followed him about more assiduously than ever as if
that he was to be left behind to charlotte's care charlotte how wet you are never mind charlie is not she sprung out holding his hand and felt as if she could never forget that moment when her new brother first kissed her brow where's amy
here and while guy lifted charles out charlotte was clasped in her sister's arms are you wet charlie
the cloak to myself you are wet through poor child come up at once and change said amy flying nimbly up the stairs up even to charlotte's own room the old nursery and there she was unfastening the drenched finery
o amy don't do all this let me ring no the servants are either not come home or are too busy charles won't want me he has guy can i find your white frock oh but amy let me see
lady morville must not begin by being lady's maid let me let me charlotte dear i sha'n't be able to do anything for you this long time amy's voice trembled and charlotte held her fast to kiss her again
we must make haste said amy recovering herself there are the carriages while the frock was being fastened charlotte looked into the prayer book amy had laid down there was the name amabel frances morville and the date
has he just written it said charlotte yes when we came home o amy dear dear amy i don't know whether i am glad or sorry i believe i am both said amy at that moment
missus edmonstone and laura hastened in then was the time for broken words tears and smiles as amy leant against her mother who locked her in a close embrace and gazed on her in a sort of trance at once of maternal pride and of pain
how bitter were her tears and how forced her smiles far unlike the rest no one would care to hear the details of the breakfast and the splendours of the cake how charlotte recovered her spirits while distributing the favours
and lady eveleen set up a flirtation with markham and forced him into wearing one though he protested with many a grunt that
and lady morville all the time laura was active and useful feeling as if she was acting a play sustaining the character of miss edmonstone the bridesmaid at her sister's happy marriage while the true laura philip's laura was lonely dejected
wretched half fearing for her sister half jealous of her happiness forced into pageantry with an aching heart
she was glad when her mother rose and the ladies moved into the drawing room glad to escape from eveleen's quick eye and to avoid mary's clear sense glad to talk to comparative strangers glad of the occupation of going to prepare amabel for her journey
this lasted a long time there was so much to be said and hearts were so full and amy
to perform all the little services to charles which she relinquished while her mother had so many affectionate last words and every now and then stopped short to look at her little daughter saying she did not know if it was not a dream
at length amabel was dressed in her purple and white shot silk her muslin mantle and white bonnet missus edmonstone left her and laura to have a few words together and went to the dressing room there she found guy leaning on the mantelshelf
he started as she entered
i could not help coming once more this room has always been the kernel of my home my happiness here indeed it has been a very great pleasure to have you here you have been very kind to me he proceeded in a low reflecting tone
you have helped me very much very often even when
as if i were charles i did not think then he was silent
find words smiling tried to say
and ended by giving him a mother's kiss i wish i could tell you half said guy
made a home to one who had no right to any coming as a stranger i found we found one to love with all our hearts said missus edmonstone i have often looked back and seen that you brought
a brightness to us all especially to poor charles yes it dates from your coming and i can only wish and trust guy that the same brightness will rest on your own home there must be brightness where she is said guy
i need not tell you to take care of her said missus edmonstone smiling i think i can trust you but i feel rather as i did
sent her and laura to a party of pleasure by themselves laura at this moment came in alone with amy she could not speak she could only cry and fearful of distressing her sister she came away
yet what could she say he spoke first laura you must get up your looks again now this turmoil is over don't do too much mathematics and wear yourself down to a shadow laura gave her sad forced smile
will you do one thing for me laura i should like to have one of your perspective views of the inside of the church would it be too troublesome to do oh no i shall be very glad don't set about it till you quite like it and have plenty of time thank you i shall think it
is a proof that you can forgive me for all the pain i am causing you i am very sorry
and as her mother was gone she could not help adding but don't try to comfort me guy don't blame yourself
it may be set right at any rate he will be glad to know you see the rights of it laura wept still more but she could never again lose the sisterly feeling those kind words had awakened
if philip had but known what he missed charlotte ran in oh i am glad to find you here guy i wanted to put you in mind of your promise you must write me the first letter you sign your affectionate brother i won't forget charlotte guy
where's guy called mister edmonstone
you must come down both of you or you'll be too late missus edmonstone hastened to call amabel those moments that she had been alone amabel had been kneeling in an earnest supplication that all might be forgiven that she had done amiss in the home of her childhood
it had two windows and a large stove two thirds of the space were taken up by shelves used as beds the planks they were made of had warped and shrunk opposite the door hung a dark coloured icon with a wax candle sticking to it
and a bunch of everlastings hanging down from it by the door to the right there was a dark spot on the floor on which stood a stinking tub the inspection had taken place and the women were locked up for the night
the occupants of this room were fifteen persons including three children it was still quite light only two of the women were lying down
a consumptive woman imprisoned for theft and an idiot who spent most of her time in sleep and who was arrested because she had no passport the consumptive woman was not asleep but lay with wide open eyes
her cloak folded under her head trying to keep back the phlegm that irritated her throat and not to cough some of the other women
stood looking out of the window at the convicts down in the yard and some sat sewing
who had seen maslova off in the morning she was a tall strong gloomy looking woman her fair hair which had begun to turn grey on the temples hung down in a short plait
she was sentenced to hard labour in siberia because she had killed her husband with an axe for making up to their daughter she was at the head of the women in the cell and found means of carrying on a trade in spirits with them
beside her sat another woman sewing a coarse canvas sack this was the wife of a railway watchman there are small watchmen's cottages at distances of about one mile from each other along the russian railways
and the watchmen or their wives have to meet every train imprisoned for three months because she did not come out with the flags to meet a train that was passing and an accident had occurred
she was a short snub nosed woman with small black eyes kind and talkative the third of the women who were sewing was theodosia a quiet young girl white and rosy very pretty
with bright child's eyes and long fair plaits which she wore twisted round her head she was in prison for attempting to poison her husband she had done this immediately after her wedding
she had been given in marriage without her consent at the age of sixteen because her husband would give her no peace but in the eight months during which she had been let out on bail she had not only made it up with her husband but come to love him
although her husband her father in law but especially her mother in law who had grown very fond of her did all they could to get her acquitted she was sentenced to hard labour in siberia
the kind merry ever smiling theodosia had a place next maslova's on the shelf bed and had grown so fond of her that she took it upon herself as a duty to attend and wait on her
two other women were sitting without any work at the other end of the shelf bedstead one was a woman of about forty with a pale thin face who once probably had been very handsome
she sat with her baby at her thin white breast the crime she had committed was that when a recruit was according to the peasants view unlawfully taken from their village
an aunt of the lad unlawfully taken was the first to catch hold of the bridle of the horse on which he was being carried off the other who sat doing nothing was a kindly grey haired old woman hunchbacked and with a flat bosom
she sat behind the stove on the bedshelf and pretended to catch a fat four year old boy who ran backwards and forwards in front of her laughing gaily this boy had only a little shirt on and his hair was cut short
as he ran past the old woman he kept repeating there haven't caught me this old woman and her son were accused of incendiarism she bore her imprisonment with perfect cheerfulness but was concerned about her son
and chiefly about her old man who she feared would get into a terrible state with no one to wash for him besides these seven women there were four standing at one of the open windows holding on to the iron bars
they were making signs and shouting to the convicts whom maslova had met when returning to prison and who were now passing through the yard one of these women was big and heavy with a flabby body red hair and freckled on her pale yellow face
her hands and her fat neck she shouted something in a loud raucous voice and laughed hoarsely this woman was serving her term for theft beside her stood an awkward dark little woman no bigger than a child of ten
with a long waist and very short legs a red blotchy face thick lips which did not hide her long teeth and eyes too far apart she broke by fits and starts into screeching laughter at what was going on in the yard
she was to be tried for stealing and incendiarism they called her khoroshavka behind her in a very dirty grey chemise stood a thin miserable looking pregnant woman who was to be tried for concealment of theft
this woman stood silent but kept smiling with pleasure and approval at what was going on below with these stood a peasant woman of medium height the mother of the boy who was playing with the old woman and of a seven year old girl
she was serving her term of imprisonment for illicit sale of spirits she stood a little further from the window knitting a stocking and though she listened to the other prisoners words she shook her head disapprovingly frowned
and closed her eyes but her seven year old daughter stood in her little chemise her flaxen hair done up in a little pigtail her blue eyes fixed and holding the red haired woman by the skirt
attentively listened to the words of abuse that the women and the convicts flung at each other and repeated them softly as if learning them by heart the twelfth prisoner who paid no attention to what was going on
was a very tall stately girl the daughter of a deacon who had drowned her baby in a well she went about with bare feet wearing only a dirty chemise
the thick short plait of her fair hair had come undone and hung down dishevelled and she paced up and down the free space of the cell not looking at any one
maslova in prison maslova reached her cell only at six in the evening tired and footsore having unaccustomed as she was to walking gone ten miles on the stony road that day
she was crushed by the unexpectedly severe sentence and tormented by hunger during the first interval of her trial when the soldiers were eating bread and hard boiled eggs in her presence
her mouth watered and she realised she was hungry but considered it beneath her dignity to beg of them three hours later the desire to eat had passed and she felt only weak
it was then she received the unexpected sentence at first she thought she had made a mistake she could not imagine herself as a convict in siberia and could not believe what she heard but seeing the quiet
business like faces of judges and jury who heard this news as if it were perfectly natural and expected she grew indignant and proclaimed loudly to the whole court that she was not guilty
finding that her cry was also taken as something natural and expected and feeling incapable of altering matters she was horror struck and began to weep in despair
knowing that she must submit to the cruel and surprising injustice that had been done her what astonished her most was that young men or at any rate not old men
one of them the public prosecutor she had seen in quite a different humour had condemned her while she was sitting in the prisoners room before the trial and during the intervals she saw these men looking in at the open door
pretending they had to pass there on some business or enter the room and gaze on her with approval and then for some unknown reason these same men had condemned her to hard labour though she was innocent of the charge laid against her
at first she cried but then quieted down and sat perfectly stunned in the prisoners room waiting to be led back she wanted only two things now tobacco and strong drink in this state
botchkova and kartinkin found her when they were led into the same room after being sentenced botchkova began at once to scold her and call her a convict well what have you gained justified yourself have you
what you have deserved that you've got out in siberia you'll give up your finery no fear maslova sat with her hands inside her sleeves hanging her head and looking in front of her at the dirty floor without moving only saying
so don't you bother me i don't bother you do i
she did brighten up a little when botchkova and kartinkin were led away and an attendant brought her three roubles are you maslova he asked
he said giving her the money a lady what lady you just take it i'm not going to talk to you this money was sent by kitaeva the keeper of the house in which she used to live
as she was leaving the court she turned to the usher with the question whether she might give maslova a little money the usher said she might having got permission she removed the three buttoned swedish kid glove from her plump white hand
and from an elegant purse brought from the back folds of her silk skirt took a pile of coupons in russia coupons cut off interest bearing papers are often used as money just cut off from the interest bearing papers which she had earned in her establishment
chose one worth two roubles and fifty copecks added two twenty and one ten copeck coins and gave all this to the usher the usher called an attendant and in his presence gave the money
belease to giff it accurately said carolina albertovna kitaeva the attendant was hurt by her want of confidence and that was why he treated maslova so brusquely maslova was glad of the money
because it could give her the only thing she now desired if i could but get cigarettes and take a whiff
and all her thoughts centred on the one desire to smoke and drink she longed for spirits so that she tasted them and felt the strength they would give her and she greedily breathed in the air when the fumes of tobacco reached her from the door of a room that opened into the corridor
but she had to wait long for the secretary who should have given the order for her to go forgot about the prisoners while talking and even disputing with one of the advocates about the article forbidden by the censor at last about five o'clock she was allowed to go
and was led away through the back door by her escort the nijni man and the tchoovash then still within the entrance to the law courts she gave them fifty copecks asking them to get her two rolls and some cigarettes
the tchoovash laughed took the money and said all right i'll get em and really got her the rolls and the cigarettes and honestly returned the change she was not allowed to smoke on the way
and with her craving unsatisfied she continued her way to the prison when she was brought to the gate of the prison a hundred convicts who had arrived by rail were being led in the convicts bearded
clean shaven old young russians foreigners some with their heads shaved and rattling with the chains on their feet filled the anteroom with dust noise and an acid smell of perspiration
passing maslova all the convicts looked at her and some came up to her and brushed her as they passed
said one my respects to you miss said another winking at her one dark man with a moustache
rattling with his chains and catching her feet in them sprang near and embraced her what don't you know your chum come come don't give yourself airs showing his teeth and his eyes glittering when she pushed him away you rascal
coming in from behind the convict shrank back and jumped away the assistant assailed maslova what are you here for maslova was going to say she had been brought back from the law courts but she was so tired
that she did not care to speak she has returned from the law courts sir said one of the soldiers coming forward with his fingers lifted to his cap well hand her over to the chief warder i won't have this sort of thing yes sir
sokoloff take her in shouted the assistant inspector the chief warder came up
and making a sign with his head for her to follow led her into the corridor of the women's ward there she was searched and as nothing prohibited was found on her
nekhludoff meant to rearrange the whole of his external life to let his large house and move to an hotel but agraphena petrovna pointed out that it was useless to change anything before the winter
no one would rent a town house for the summer anyhow he would have to live and keep his things somewhere and so all his efforts to change his manner of life he meant to live more simply as the students live led to nothing
not only did everything remain as it was but the house was suddenly filled with new activity all that was made of wool or fur was taken out to be aired and beaten the gate keeper the boy the cook and corney himself took part in this activity
all sorts of strange furs which no one ever used and various uniforms were taken out and hung on a line then the carpets and furniture were brought out and the gate keeper and the boy rolled their sleeves up their muscular arms
and stood beating these things keeping strict time while the rooms were filled with the smell of naphthaline when nekhludoff crossed the yard or looked out of the window and saw all this going on he was surprised at the great number of things there were
all quite useless their only use nekhludoff thought was the providing of exercise for agraphena petrovna corney the gate keeper the boy and the cook
but it's not worth while altering my manner of life now he thought while maslova's case is not decided besides it is too difficult it will alter of itself when she will be set free or exiled and i follow her
on the appointed day nekhludoff drove up to the advocate fanarin's own splendid house which was decorated with huge palms and other plants and wonderful curtains in fact
money acquired without labour which only those possess who grow rich suddenly in the waiting room just as in a doctor's waiting room he found many dejected looking people sitting round several tables
on which lay illustrated papers meant to amuse them awaiting their turns to be admitted to the advocate the advocate's assistant sat in the room at a high desk and having recognised nekhludoff he came up to him
and said he would go and announce him at once but the assistant had not reached the door before it opened and the sounds of loud animated voices were heard the voice of a middle aged sturdy merchant with a red face and thick moustaches
and the voice of fanarin himself fanarin was also a middle aged man of medium height with a worn look on his face both faces bore the expression which you see on the faces of those who have just concluded a profitable but not quite honest transaction
your own fault you know my dear sir fanarin said smiling we'd all be in eaven were it not for hour sins oh yes yes we all know that and both laughed un naturally
said fanarin seeing him and nodding once more to the merchant he led nekhludoff into his business cabinet furnished in a severely correct style won't you smoke
said the advocate sitting down opposite nekhludoff and trying to conceal a smile apparently still excited by the success of the accomplished transaction thanks i have come about maslova's case yes yes directly
he said you saw this here fellow why he has about twelve million roubles and he cannot speak correctly and if he can get a twenty five rouble note out of you he'll have it if he's to wrench it out with his teeth
he says eaven and hour and you say this here fellow nekhludoff thought with an insurmountable feeling of aversion towards this man who wished to show by his free and easy manner
that he and nekhludoff belonged to one and the same camp while his other clients belonged to another he has worried me to death a fearful scoundrel i felt i must relieve my feelings said the advocate
well how about your case i have read it attentively but do not approve of it i mean that greenhorn of an advocate has left no valid reason for an appeal well then what have you decided
one moment tell him he said to his assistant who had just come in that i keep to what i have said if he can it's all right if not no matter but he won't agree well no matter and the advocate frowned
after a pause i have freed one insolvent debtor from a totally false charge and now they all flock to me yet every such case costs enormous labour why don't we too lose bits of flesh in the inkstand
as some writer or other has said well as to your case or rather the case you are taking an interest in it has been conducted abominably there is no good reason for appealing
still he continued we can but try to get the sentence revoked this is what i have noted down he took up several sheets of paper covered with writing and began to read rapidly
slurring over the uninteresting legal terms and laying particular stress on some sentences
according to the decisions et cetera the verdict et cetera so and so maslova pronounced guilty of having caused the death through poison of the merchant smelkoff and has according to statute fourteen fifty four of the penal code been sentenced to siberia
et cetera et cetera he stopped evidently in spite of his being so used to it he still felt pleasure in listening to his own productions this sentence is the direct result of the most glaring judicial perversion and error
he continued impressively and there are grounds for its revocation firstly the reading of the medical report of the examination of smelkoff's intestines was interrupted by the president at the very beginning this is point one
but it was the prosecuting side that demanded this reading nekhludoff said with surprise that does not matter there might have been reasons for the defence to demand this reading too oh
it is a ground for appeal though to continue secondly he went on reading when maslova's advocate in his speech for the defence wishing to characterise maslova's personality
referred to the causes of her fall he was interrupted by the president calling him to order for the alleged deviation from the direct subject yet as has been repeatedly pointed out by the senate the elucidation of the criminal's characteristics
and his or her moral standpoint in general has a significance of the first importance in criminal cases even if only as a guide in the settling of the question of imputation that's point two he said
with a look at nekhludoff but he spoke so badly that no one could make anything of it nekhludoff said still more astonished the fellow's quite a fool and of course could not be expected to say anything sensible
fanarin said laughing but all the same it will do as a reason for appeal thirdly the president in his summing up
omitted to inform the jury what the judicial points are that constitute guilt and did not mention that having admitted the fact of maslova having administered the poison to smelkoff the jury had a right not to impute the guilt of murder to her
since the proofs of wilful intent to deprive smelkoff of life were absent and only to pronounce her guilty of carelessness resulting in the death of the merchant which she did not desire this is the chief point
yes but we ought to have known that ourselves it was our mistake and now the fourth point the advocate continued the form of the answer given by the jury contained an evident contradiction
maslova is accused of wilfully poisoning smelkoff her one object being that of cupidity the only motive to commit murder she could have had the jury in their verdict acquit her of the intent to rob
or participation in the stealing of valuables from which it follows that they intended also to acquit her of the intent to murder and only through a misunderstanding which arose from the incompleteness of the president's summing up
omitted to express it in due form in their answer therefore an answer of this kind by the jury absolutely demanded the application of statutes
and another debate on the question of the prisoner's guilt then why did the president not do it i too should like to know why fanarin said laughing then the senate will of course correct this error
that will all depend on who will preside there at the time well now there it is i have further said he continued rapidly a verdict of this kind gave the court no right to condemn maslova to be punished as a criminal
of course it all depends on what members will be present at the senate if you have any influence there you can but try i do know some all right only be quick about it else they'll all go off for a change of air
then you may have to wait three months before they return then in case of failure
this too depends on the private influence you can bring to work in this case too i am at your service i mean as to the working of the petition not the influence thank you
now as to your fees my assistant will hand you the petition and tell you one thing more the procureur gave me a pass for visiting this person in prison
but they tell me i must also get a permission from the governor in order to get an interview at another time and in another place than those appointed is this necessary yes i think so but the governor is away at present
a vice governor is in his place and he is such an impenetrable fool that you'll scarcely be able to do anything with him is it meslennikoff yes i know him said nekhludoff and got up to go
at this moment a horribly ugly little bony snub nosed yellow faced woman flew into the room it was the advocate's wife who did not seem to be in the least bit troubled by her ugliness
she was attired in the most original manner she seemed enveloped in something made of velvet and silk something yellow and green and her thin hair was crimped she stepped out triumphantly into the ante room
followed by a tall smiling man with a greenish complexion dressed in a coat with silk facings and a white tie this was an author nekhludoff knew him by sight she opened the cabinet door and said
who will read his poems and you must absolutely come and read about garshin nekhludoff noticed that she whispered something to her husband and thinking it was something concerning him wished to go away
but she caught him up and said i beg your pardon prince i know you and thinking an introduction superfluous i beg you to stay and take part in our literary matinee it will be most interesting m fanarin will read
said fanarin spreading out his hands and smilingly pointing to his wife as if to show how impossible it was to resist so charming a creature nekhludoff thanked the advocate's wife with extreme politeness for the honour she did him in inviting him
but refused the invitation with a sad and solemn look and left the room what an affected fellow
in the ante room the assistant handed him a ready written petition and said that the fees including the business with the senate and the commission would come to one thousand roubles
and explained that m fanarin did not usually undertake this kind of business but did it only to oblige nekhludoff and about this petition who is to sign it the prisoner may do it herself
or if this is inconvenient m fanarin can if he gets a power of attorney from her oh no i shall take the petition to her and get her to sign it said nekhludoff
the burdock never grows alone but where there grows one there always grow several
great white snails which persons of quality in former times made fricassees of ate and said
for they thought it tasted so delicate lived on dock leaves and therefore burdock seeds were sown now there was an old manor house where they no longer ate snails they were quite extinct
all was burdocks and there lived
venerable old snails they themselves knew not how old they were but they could remember very well that there had been many more that they were of a family from foreign lands and that for them and theirs the whole forest was planted they had never been outside it
but they knew that there was still something more in the world which was called the manor house and that there they were boiled
but what happened further they knew not or in fact
but it was said to be delightful and particularly genteel neither the chafers the toads nor the earth worms whom they asked about it could give them any information
that they knew the forest was planted for their sake
now they lived a very lonely and happy life and as they had no children themselves they had adopted a little common snail which they brought up as their own but the little one would not grow for he was of a common family but the old ones especially dame mother snail thought they could observe how he increased in size
and she begged father if he could not see it that he would at least feel the little snail's shell and then he felt it
there are also rain drops said mother snail
you will see that it will be wet here i am very happy to think that we have our good house and the little one has his also
than for all other creatures sure enough but can you not see that we are folks of quality in the world
our son shall not go into an ant hill if you know nothing better than that we shall give the commission to the white gnats they fly far and wide in rain and sunshine they know the whole forest here both within and without we have a wife for him said the gnats
at a hundred human paces from here there sits a little snail in her house on a gooseberry bush
it is only a hundred human paces well then let her come to him said the old ones
and so they went and fetched little miss snail it was a whole week before she arrived but therein was just the very best of it for one could thus see that she was of the same species and then the marriage was celebrated six earth worms shone as well as they could in other respects the whole went off very quietly
he was too much affected and so they gave them as a dowry and inheritance the whole forest of burdocks and said
and if they lived honestly and decently and increased and multiplied
be boiled black and laid on silver dishes after this speech was made the old ones crept into their shells and never more came out
so from this they concluded that the manor house had fallen to ruins and that all the men in the world were extinct and as no one contradicted them so of course it was so
the children often came with a whole pitcher full of berries or a long row of them threaded on a straw and sat down near the young tree and said oh how pretty he is what a nice little fir but this was what the tree could not bear to hear
at the end of a year he had shot up a good deal and after another year he was another long bit taller for with fir trees one can always tell by the shoots how many years old they are
and when there was a breeze i could bend with as much stateliness as the others neither the sunbeams nor the birds nor the red clouds
gave the little tree any pleasure in winter when the snow lay glittering on the ground a hare would often come leaping along and jump right over the little tree oh that made him so angry but two winters were past and in the third the tree was so large that the hare was obliged to go round it
that after all is the most delightful thing in the world
with noise and cracking the branches were lopped off and the trees looked long and bare
in spring when the swallows and the storks came the tree asked them
have you not met them anywhere the swallows did not know anything about it but the stork looked musing nodded his head and said yes i think i know
on the ships were magnificent masts and i venture to assert
i may congratulate you for they lifted themselves on high most majestically oh were i but old enough to fly across the sea but how does the sea look in reality what is it like that would take a long time to explain said the stork and with these words off he went
rejoice in thy vigorous growth and in the fresh life that moveth within thee and the wind kissed the tree and the dew wept tears over him but the fir understood it not when christmas came quite young trees were cut down
these young trees and they were always the finest looking retained their branches
where are they going to asked the fir they are not taller than i there was one indeed that was considerably shorter and why do they retain all their branches whither are they taken
we know whither they are taken the greatest splendor and the greatest magnificence one can imagine await them we peeped through the windows and saw them planted in the middle of the warm room and ornamented with the most splendid things with gilded apples with gingerbread with toys and many hundred lights
and then asked the fir tree trembling in every bough and then what happens then we did not see anything more it was incomparably beautiful
that is still better than to cross the sea
yes then something better something still grander will surely follow or wherefore should they thus ornament me something better something still grander must follow but what oh how i long how i suffer i do not know myself what is the matter with me
rejoice in our presence said the air and the sunlight rejoice in thy own fresh youth
and was green both winter and summer
and towards christmas he was one of the first that was cut down the axe struck deep into the very pith the tree fell to the earth with a sigh
he could not think of happiness for he was sorrowful at being separated from his home from the place where he had sprung up he well knew that he should never see his dear old comrades the little bushes and flowers around him anymore perhaps not even the birds the departure was not at all agreeable
then two servants came in rich livery and carried the fir tree into a large and splendid drawing room portraits were hanging on the walls and near the white porcelain stove stood two large chinese vases with lions on the covers there too
and the fir tree was stuck upright in a cask that was filled with sand
for green cloth was hung all round it and it stood on a large gaily colored carpet oh how the tree quivered what was to happen the servants as well as the young ladies decorated it on one branch there hung little nets cut out of colored paper and each net was filled with sugarplums
dolls that looked for all the world like men the tree had never beheld such before were seen among the foliage and at the very top a large star of gold tinsel was fixed it was really splendid beyond description splendid this evening they all said how it will shine this evening
oh thought the tree if the evening were but come if the tapers were but lighted
perhaps the other trees from the forest will come to look at me perhaps the sparrows will beat against the windowpanes i wonder if i shall take root here
he knew very much about the matter but he was so impatient that for sheer longing he got a pain in his back
the candles were now lighted what brightness what splendor
it blazed up famously help help cried the young ladies
now the tree did not even dare tremble what a state he was in he was so uneasy lest he should lose something of his splendor that he was quite bewildered amidst the glare and brightness when suddenly both folding doors opened and a troop of children rushed in as if they would upset the tree
the older persons followed quietly the little ones stood quite still
what are they about thought the tree what is to happen now and the lights burned down to the very branches and as they burned down they were put out one after the other and then the children had permission to plunder the tree
the children danced about with their beautiful playthings no one looked at the tree except the old nurse who peeped between the branches but it was only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been forgotten a story a story cried the children drawing a little fat man towards the tree he seated himself under it and said
now which will you have that about ivedy avedy or about humpy dumpy who tumbled downstairs and yet after all came to the throne and married the princess ivedy avedy cried some
am i to do nothing whatever for he was one of the company and had done what he had to do and the man told about humpy dumpy that tumbled down who notwithstanding came to the throne and at last married the princess and the children clapped their hands and cried oh go on do go on
but the little man only told them about humpy dumpy
humpy dumpy fell downstairs and yet he married the princess yes yes that's the way of the world thought the fir tree and believed it all because the man who told the story was so good looking
so then the fir tree told the whole fairy tale for he could remember every single word of it
next night two more mice came and on sunday two rats even but they said the stories were not interesting which vexed the little mice and they too now began to think them not so very amusing either do you know only one story asked the rats only that one answered the tree
i heard it on my happiest evening but i did not then know how happy i was it is a very stupid story don't you know one about bacon and tallow candles can't you tell any larder stories no said the tree
at last the little mice stayed away also and the tree sighed after all it was very pleasant when the sleek little mice sat round me
now that too is over but i will take good care to enjoy myself when i am brought out again but when was that to be
the trunks were moved the tree was pulled out and thrown rather hard it is true down on the floor but a man drew him towards the stairs where the daylight shone
he felt the fresh air the first sunbeam and now he was out in the courtyard all passed so quickly
the court adjoined a garden and all was in flower
the lindens were in blossom the swallows flew by and said
exultingly and spread out his branches but alas they were all withered and yellow
and glittered in the sunshine in the court yard some of the merry children were playing who had danced at christmas round the fir tree and were so glad at the sight of him one of the youngest ran and tore off the golden star only look what is still on the ugly old christmas tree said he trampling on the branches
he thought of his first youth in the wood of the merry christmas eve and of the little mice who had listened with so much pleasure to the story of humpy dumpy tis over
but now tis past tis past and the gardener's boy chopped the tree into small pieces
and it sighed so deeply each sigh was like a shot the boys played about in the court and the youngest wore the gold star on his breast
however that was over now the tree gone the story at an end all all was over
wrote to my mother that she must send little beatrice up to montressor place for the christmas holidays so i went joyfully though my mother grieved to part with me she had little to love save me my father conrad montressor having been lost at sea when but three months wed
my aunts were wont to tell me how much i resembled him being so they said a montressor to the backbone and this i took to mean commendation for the montressors were a well descended and well thought of family and the women were noted for their beauty this i could well believe
since of all my aunts there was not one but was counted a pretty woman
hoping that when i should be grown up i might be counted not unworthy of my race the place was an old fashioned mysterious house such as i delighted in
and strange dim family portraits on the walls to gaze upon until i knew each proud old face well and had visioned a history for it in my own mind for i was given to dreaming and was older and wiser than my years having no childish companions to keep me still a child
had all married well so said people who knew and lived not far away
who had always gotten on well with her step daughters or to help prepare for some festivity or other for they were notable housekeepers every one
and saw to it that i did not read too many fairy tales or sit up later at nights than became my years but it was not for fairy tales and sugarplums nor yet for petting that i rejoiced to be at the place at that time
though i spoke not of it to anyone i had a great longing to see my uncle hugh's wife concerning whom i had heard much both good and bad
and all the countryside rang with talk of his young wife i did not hear as much as i wished for the gossips took heed to my presence when i drew anear and turned to other matters
and i did hear that missus montressor had chosen a wife for her stepson of good family and some beauty
yet might so have done had not my uncle on his last voyage to the indies for he went often in his own vessels married and brought home a foreign bride of whom no one knew aught save that her beauty was a thing to dazzle the day and that she was of some strange alien blood
such as ran not in the blue veins of the montressors some had much to say of her pride and insolence and wondered if missus montressor would tamely yield her mistress ship to the stranger
but others who were taken with her loveliness and grace said that the tales told were born of envy and malice and that alicia montressor was well worthy of her name and station so i halted between two opinions and thought to judge for myself
but when i went to the place my uncle hugh and his bride were gone for a time and i had even to swallow my disappointment and bide their return with all my small patience but my aunts and their stepmother talked much of alicia and they spoke slightingly of her
saying that she was but a light woman and that no good would come of my uncle hugh's having wed her with other things of a like nature also they spoke of the company she gathered around her thinking her to have strange and unbecoming companions for a montressor
although my good aunts supposed that such a chit as i would take no heed to their whisperings when i was not with them helping to whip eggs and stone raisins and being watched to see that i ate not more than one out of five i was surely to be found in the wing hall poring over my book and grieving
that i was no more allowed to go into the red room
built in a curious way the hall was lighted by small square paned windows and at its end a little flight of steps led up to the red room whenever i had been at the place before and this was often i had passed much of my time in this same red room
the room was low ceilinged and dim hung with red damask and with odd square windows high up under the eaves and a dark wainscoting all around it and there i loved to sit quietly on the red sofa and read my fairy tales or talk dreamily
to the swallows fluttering crazily against the tiny panes
but i had got no further than the steps when missus montressor came sweeping down the hall in haste and catching me by the arm pulled me back as roughly as if it had been bluebeard's chamber itself into which i was venturing then seeing my face
there there little beatrice did i frighten you child forgive an old woman's thoughtlessness
and let me tell you she is not over fond of intruders
as had been my habit to talk to the swallows and misplace nothing but missus montressor saw to it that i obeyed her and i went no more to the red room but busied myself with other matters for there were great doings at the place and much coming and going my aunts were never idle
there was to be much festivity christmas week and a ball on christmas eve and my aunts had promised me though not till i had wearied them of my coaxing that i should stay up that night and see as much of the gaiety as was good for me
though i did this the more readily for that when they thought me safely asleep they would come in and talk around my bedroom fire saying that of alicia which i should not have heard
though not until my scanty patience was well nigh wearied out
with much lamenting over my skinny neck and arms and bade me behave prettily as became my bringing up so i slipped in a corner my hands and feet cold with excitement for i think every drop of blood in my body had gone to my head
then the door opened and alicia for so i was used to hearing her called
she came proudly forward to the fire and stood there superbly while she loosened her cloak
but i neither saw nor heard aught at the time save her only for her beauty when she came forth from her crimson cloak and hood was something so wonderful that i forgot my manners and stared at her as one fascinated as indeed i was
for never had i seen such loveliness and hardly dreamed it
but my uncle's wife was as little like to them as a sunset glow to pale moonshine or a crimson rose to white day lilies
and wavering over the rich masses of her red gold hair she was tall so tall that my aunts looked but insignificant beside her and they were of no mean height as became their race yet no queen could have carried herself more royally
and all the passion and fire of her foreign nature burned in her splendid eyes that might have been dark or light for aught that i could ever tell but which seemed always like pools of warm flame now tender now fierce
i told my foolish self that never had i heard music before nor do i ever again think to hear a voice so sweet so liquid as that which rippled over her ripe lips i had often in my own mind pictured this my first meeting with alicia
now in one way now in another but never had i dreamed of her speaking to me at all so that it came to me as a great surprise when she turned and holding out her lovely hands said very graciously
come kiss me child and i went despite my aunt elizabeth's black frown for the glamour of her loveliness was upon me and i no longer wondered that my uncle hugh should have loved her
yet i felt rather than saw for i was sensitive and quick of perception as old young children ever are that there was something other than pride and love in his face when he looked on her and more in his manner than the fond lover as it were a sort of lurking mistrust
and she filled my thoughts so fully that it was no surprise when i raised my eyes and saw her coming down the hall alone her bright head shining against the dark old walls
when she paused by me and asked me lightly of what i was dreaming since i had such a sober face i answered her truly that it was of her whereat she laughed as one not ill pleased and said half mockingly
perchance the warmth of your young life may thaw out the ice that has frozen around my heart ever since i came among these cold montressors
but i could not answer them so twere little harm after that i spent a part of every day with her in the red room and my uncle hugh was there often and he would kiss her and praise her loveliness not heeding my presence for i was but a child
yet it ever seemed to me that she endured rather than welcomed his caresses and at times the ever burning flame in her eyes glowed so luridly that a chill dread would creep over me
had said she being a bitter tongued woman though kind at heart that this strange creature would bring on us all some evil fortune yet then would i strive to banish such thoughts and chide myself for doubting one so kind to me
when christmas eve drew nigh my silly head was full of the ball day and night but a grievous disappointment befell me for i awakened that day very ill with a most severe cold
and though i bore me bravely my aunts discovered it soon when despite my piteous pleadings i was put to bed where i cried bitterly and would not be comforted for i thought i should not see the fine folk and more than all alicia
but that disappointment at least was spared me for at night she came into my room knowing of my longing
and when i saw her i forgot my aching limbs and burning brow and even the ball i was not to see for never was mortal creature so lovely as she standing there by my bed her gown was of white and there was nothing i could liken the stuff to save moonshine
falling athwart a frosted pane and out from it swelled her gleaming breast and arms so bare that it seemed to me a shame to look upon them yet it could not be denied they were of wondrous beauty white as polished marble
and all about her snowy throat and rounded arms and in the masses of her splendid hair were sparkling gleaming stones with hearts of pure light
and i gazed at her drinking in her beauty until my soul was filled as she stood like some goddess before her worshipper
and to such even the admiration of a child is sweet then she leaned down to me until her splendid eyes looked straight into my dazzled ones
for they say the word of a child is to be believed
i found my voice and told her truly that i thought her beautiful beyond my dreams of angels as indeed she was whereat she smiled as one well pleased then my uncle hugh came in and though i thought
that his face darkened as he looked on the naked splendour of her breast and arms as if he liked not that the eyes of other men should gloat on it yet he kissed her with all a lover's fond pride while she looked at him half mockingly then said he
sweet will you grant me a favour and she answered it may be that i will and he said do not dance with that man tonight alicia i mistrust him much
she looked at him with some scorn but when she saw his face grow black for the montressors brooked scant disregard of their authority as i had good reason to know she seemed to change and a smile came to her lips though her eyes glowed balefully
as embraced him her voice was wondrous sweet and caressing as she murmured in his ear he laughed and his brow cleared though he said still sternly do not try me too far alicia then they went out
after that my aunts also came in very beautifully and modestly dressed but they seemed to me as nothing after alicia for i was caught in the snare of her beauty and the longing to see her again so grew upon me that after a time i did an undutiful and disobedient thing
i had been straitly charged to stay in bed which i did not but got up and put on a gown for it was in my mind to go quietly down
myself unseen but when i reached the great hall i heard steps approaching and having a guilty conscience i slipped aside into the blue parlour and hid me behind the curtains lest my aunts should see me then alicia came in
yet i instantly bethought myself of a lean black snake with a glittering and evil eye which i had seen in missus montressor's garden two summers agone and which was like to have bitten me
john the gardener had killed it and i verily thought that if it had a soul it must have gotten into this man alicia sat down and he beside her and when he had put his arms about her he kissed her face and lips
nor did she shrink from his embrace but even smiled and leaned nearer to him with a little smooth motion as they talked to each other in some strange foreign tongue i was but a child and innocent nor knew i aught of honour and dishonour
and from that hour i mistrusted alicia though i understood not then what i afterwards did and as i watched them not thinking of playing the spy i saw her face grow suddenly cold and she straightened herself up and pushed away her lover's arms
then i followed her guilty eyes to the door where stood my uncle hugh and all the pride and passion of the montressors sat on his lowering brow yet he came forward quietly as alicia and the snake drew apart and stood up
at first he looked not at his guilty wife but at her lover and smote him heavily in the face
with a muttered oath nor was he stayed my uncle turned to alicia and very calmly and terribly he said from this hour you are no longer wife of mine
and there was that in his tone which told that his forgiveness and love should be hers nevermore then he motioned her out and she went like a proud queen with her glorious head erect and no shame on her brow as for me
when they were gone i crept away dazed and bewildered enough
as disobedient people and eavesdroppers ever do but my uncle hugh kept his word and alicia was no more wife to him save only in name yet of gossip or scandal there was none for the pride of his race kept secret his dishonour
nor did he ever seem other than a courteous and respectful husband nor did missus montressor and my aunts though they wondered much among themselves learn aught for they dared question neither their brother nor alicia who carried herself as loftily as ever
and seemed to pine for neither lover nor husband as for me no one dreamed i knew aught of it and i kept my own counsel as to what i had seen in the blue parlour on the night of the christmas ball
after the new year i went home but ere long missus montressor sent for me again saying that the house was lonely without little beatrice so i went again and found all unchanged though the place was very quiet and alicia went out but little from the red room
of my uncle hugh i saw little save when he went and came on the business of his estate somewhat more gravely and silently than of yore or brought to me books and sweetmeats from town but every day i was with alicia in the red room
where she would talk to me oftentimes wildly and strangely but always kindly
though never quite liking her strange ways
though she sometimes coaxed me and grew pettish and vexed when i would not but she guessed not my reason march came in that year like a lion exceedingly hungry and fierce and my uncle hugh had ridden away through the storm nor thought to be back for some days
in the afternoon i was sitting in the wing hall dreaming wondrous day dreams when alicia called me to the red room and as i went i marvelled anew at her loveliness for the blood was leaping in her face and her jewels were dim before the lustre of her eyes
her hand when she took mine was burning hot and her voice had a strange ring come little beatrice she said come talk to me for i know not what to do with my lone self today time hangs heavily in this gloomy house i do verily think this red room has an evil influence over me
ghosts of a ruined and shamed life nay shrink not do i talk wildly i mean not all i say my brain seems on fire little beatrice come it may be you know some grim old legend of this room it must surely have one
tush never be so frightened child forget my vagaries tell me now and i will listen whereat she cast herself lithely on the satin couch and turned her lovely face on me
how that generations agone a montressor had disgraced himself and his name and that when he came home to his mother she had met him in that same red room and flung at him taunts and reproaches forgetting whose breast had nourished him
but his mother went mad with her remorse and was kept a prisoner in the red room until her death so lamely told i the tale as i had heard my aunt elizabeth tell it when she knew not i listened or understood alicia heard me through and said nothing
save that it was a tale worthy of the montressors whereat i bridled for i too was a montressor and proud of it but she took my hand soothingly in hers and said little beatrice if tomorrow or the next day they should tell you those cold proud women
that alicia was unworthy of your love tell me would you believe them and i remembering what i had seen in the blue parlour was silent for i could not lie so she flung my hand away with a bitter laugh
and picked lightly from the table anear a small dagger with a jewelled handle it seemed to me a cruel looking toy and i said so whereat she smiled and drew her white fingers down the thin shining blade in a fashion that made me cold
such a little blow with this she said such a little blow and the heart beats no longer the weary brain rests the lips and eyes smile never again twere a short path out of all difficulties my beatrice
and i understanding her not yet shivering begged her to cast it aside which she did carelessly and putting a hand under my chin she turned up my face to hers little grave eyed beatrice tell me truly
would it grieve you much if you were never again to sit here with alicia in this same red room and i made answer earnestly that it would glad that i could say so much truly then her face grew tender and she sighed deeply
and this she hung around my neck
it may be that i shall never ask another of you your people i know those cold montressors care little for me
so when the morrow's come and they tell you that alicia is as one worse than dead think not of me with scorn only but grant me a little pity for i was not always what i am now
and i did so wondering much at her manner for it had in it a strange tenderness and some sort of hopeless longing then she gently put me from the room and i sat musing by the hall window until night fell darkly
yet ere the thought had grown cold the door opened and he strode down the hall his cloak drenched and wind twisted in one hand a whip as though he had but then sprung from his horse in the other what seemed like a crumpled letter
nor was the night blacker than his face and he took no heed of me as i ran after him thinking selfishly of the sweetmeats he had promised to bring me but i thought no more of them when i got to the door of the red room
alicia stood by the table hooded and cloaked as for a journey but her hood had slipped back and her face rose from it marble white save where her wrathful eyes burned out with dread and guilt and hatred in their depths
while she had one arm raised as if to thrust him back as for my uncle he stood before her and i saw not his face but his voice was low and terrible speaking words i understood not then though long afterwards i came to know their meaning
and swore that naught should again thwart his vengeance with other threats wild and dreadful enough yet she said no word until he had done and then she spoke but what she said i know not save that it was full of hatred and defiance and wild accusation
such as a mad woman might have uttered and she defied him even then to stop her flight
for he was a wronged and desperate man
own dishonour then she made as if to pass him but he caught her by her white wrist she turned on him with fury and i saw her right hand reach stealthily out over the table behind her where lay the dagger
and he said i will not then she turned herself about and struck at him with the dagger and never saw i such a face as was hers at the moment he fell heavily yet held her even in death so that she had to wrench herself free
she rushed past me unheeding and fled down the hall like a hunted creature and i heard the heavy door clang hollowly behind her as for me i stood there looking at the dead man for i could neither move nor speak and was like to have died of horror
and presently i knew nothing nor did i come to my recollection for many a day when i lay abed sick of a fever and more like to die than live
so that when at last i came out from the shadow of death my uncle hugh had been long cold in his grave and the hue and cry for his guilty wife was well nigh over since naught had been seen or heard of her since she fled the country with her foreign lover
nor would she let me keep alicia's chain but made away with it
and i never saw the red room more for missus montressor had the old wing torn down deeming its sorrowful memories dark heritage enough for the next montressor
warren frequently felt that his talk with her was something like consultation with a specially clever and sympathetic professional confrere her suggestions or conclusions were invariably worth consideration more than once his reflection upon them had led him to excellent results
she made one night a suggestion with regard to the extraordinary case which struck him as being more than usually astute is she an intellectual woman she inquired not in the least
an unsparingly brilliant person might feel himself entitled to the right to call her stupid is she talkative far from it one of her charms is the nice respect she seems to feel for the remarks of others and she is not excitable
rather the reverse if excitability is liveliness she is dull i see slowly you have not yet thought it possible that she might well be under some delusion warren turned quickly and looked at her
it is wonderfully brilliant of you to have thought of it a delusion he stood and thought it over do you remember his wife assisted him with the complications which arose from young missus jerrold's running away under similar circumstances
to scotland and hiding herself in a shepherd's cottage under the impression that her husband was shadowing her with detectives you recollect what a lovable woman she was and what horror she felt of the poor fellow yes yes that was an extraordinary case too
missus warren warmed with her subject here is a woman obviously concealing herself from the world in a lodging house plainly possessing money owning a huge ruby ring receiving documents stamped with imposing seals
taking exercise only by night heart wrung over the non arrival of letters which are due every detail points to one painful dubious situation on the other hand she presents to you the manner and aspect of a woman who is absolutely not dubious
and who is merely anxious on the one point a dubious person would be indifferent to isn't it then possible that over wrought physical condition may have driven her to the belief that she is hiding from danger doctor warren was evidently following the thought seriously
she said reflecting that all that mattered was that she should be safe
but as the result of another memory how sane she seems he was thinking of this possible aspect of the matter as he mounted the staircase of the house in mortimer street the next day the stairway was of the ordinary lodging house type
its dinginess somewhat alleviated by the fact that the cupps had covered the worn carpet with clean warm coloured felting the yellowish marbled paper on the walls depressed the mind as one passed it the indeterminate dun paint had defied fog for years
the whole house presented only such features as would encourage its proprietors to trust to the sufficing of infrequent re decoration
she had introduced palliations by degrees and with an unobtrusiveness which was not likely to attract the attention of neighbours unaccustomed to lavish delivery by means of furniture vans she had brought in a rug or so
and had gradually replaced objects with such as were more pleasant to live with and more comfortable to use doctor warren had seen the change wrought and had noted evidences that money was not unobtainable
the maid also was a young woman whose manner towards her mistress was not merely respectful and well bred but suggestive of watchful affection bordering on reverence jane cupp herself was a certificate of decorum and good standing
it was not such young women who secluded themselves with questionable situations
as she laid her hand on the drawing room door to open it and announce him it occurred to doctor warren that he would tell mary that evening that if missus jameson had been the heroine of any unconventional domestic drama it was an unmistakable fact that jane cupp would have
quite six months ago and there she was in a neat gown and apron evidently a fixture because she liked her place her decent young face full of sympathetic interest the day was dull and cold but the front room was warm and made cheerful by fire
missus jameson was sitting at a writing table there were letters before her and she seemed to have been re reading them she did not any longer bloom with normal health her face was a little dragged and the first thing he noted in the eyes she lifted to him was that they were bewildered
she has had a shock he thought poor woman he began to talk to her about herself with the kindly perception which was inseparable from him he wondered if the time had not come when she would confide in him
her shock whatsoever it had been had left her in the position of a woman wholly at a loss to comprehend what had occurred he saw this in her ingenuous troubled face he felt as if she was asking herself what she should do
it was not unlikely that presently she would ask him what she should do he had been asked such things before by women but they usually added trying detail accompanied by sobs and appealed to his chivalry for impossible aid
sometimes they implored him to go to people and use his influence emily answered all his questions with her usual sweet good sense she was not well yesterday she had fainted was there any disturbing reason for the faint he inquired
it was because i was very much disappointed she answered hesitating i had a letter which it was not what i expected she was thinking desperately she could understand nothing
it was not explainable that what she had written did not matter at all that james should have made no reply i was awake all night she added that must not go on he said i was thinking and thinking nervously
i can see that was his answer perhaps she ought to have courage to say nothing it might be safer but it was so lonely not to dare to ask anyone's advice that she was getting frightened india was thousands and thousands of miles away
and letters took so long to come and go anxiety might make her ill before she could receive a reply to a second letter and perhaps now in her terror she had put herself into a ridiculous position how could she send for lady maria to mortimer street and explain to her
she realised also that her ladyship's sense of humour might not be a thing to confide in safely warren's strong amiable personality was good for her it served to aid her to normal reasoning though she was not aware of the fact her fears
her simplicity and her timorous adoration of her husband had not allowed her to reason normally in the past she had been too anxious and too much afraid her visitor watched her with great interest and no little curiosity
he himself saw that her mood was not normal she did not look as poor missus jerrold had looked but she was not in a normal state he made his visit a long one purposely tea was brought up and he drank it with her he wanted to give her time to make up her mind about him
when at last he rose to go away she rose also she looked nervously undecided but let him go towards the door her move forward was curiously sudden no no she said please come back i oh i really think i ought to tell you
he turned towards her wishing that mary were with him she stood trying to smile and looking so entirely nice and well behaved even in her agitation if i were not so puzzled or if there was anybody she said
if you could only advise me i must i must keep safe
he said quietly yes she answered i am so anxious and i am sure it must be bad for one to be anxious always
my name is not missus jameson doctor warren i am i am lady walderhurst he barely managed to restrain a start
but mary had been right emily blushed to her ears with embarrassment he did not believe her but i am really she protested i really am i was married last year i was emily fox seton perhaps you remember
she was not flighty or indignant her frank face was only a little more troubled than it had been before she looked straight into his eyes without a doubt of his presently believing her good heavens if
she walked to the writing table and picked up a number of letters they were all stamped with the same seal she brought them to him almost composedly i ought to have remembered how strange it would sound she said in her amenable voice
i hope i am not doing wrong in speaking i hope you won't mind my troubling you it seemed as if i couldn't bear it alone any longer after which she told him her story the unadorned straightforwardness of the relation made it an amazing thing to hear
even more amazing than it would have been made by a more imaginative handling her obvious inability to cope with the unusual and villainous combined with her entire willingness to obliterate herself in any manner in her whole souled tenderness
for the one present object of her existence were things a man could not be unmoved by even though experience led him to smile at the lack of knowledge of the world which had left her without practical defence her very humbleness and candour made her a drama in herself
perhaps i was wrong to run away perhaps only a silly woman would have done such a queer unconventional thing but i could think of nothing else so likely to be quite safe until lord walderhurst could advise me and when his letter came yesterday
and he did not speak of what i had said her voice quite failed her captain osborn has detained your letter lord walderhurst has not seen it life began to come back to her she had been so horribly bewildered as to think at moments
the information you sent him is the most important and moving a man in his position could receive do you think so really she lifted her head with new courage and her colour returned it is impossible that it should be otherwise
it is i assure you impossible lady walderhurst
although the most legitimate was that of the worthy old baron who was only distressed on account of the common cause we shall hardly said he one morning to waverley when they had been viewing the castle
which takes root within the place besieged or it may be of the herb woodbind parietaria or pellitory we shall not i say gain it by this same blockade or leaguer of edinburgh castle
for this opinion he gave most learned and satisfactory reasons that the reader may not care to hear repeated having escaped from the old gentleman waverley went to fergus's lodgings by appointment to await his return from holyrood house
i am to have a particular audience to morrow said fergus to waverley overnight and you must meet me to wish me joy of the success which i securely anticipate
the morrow came and in the chief's apartment he found ensign maccombich waiting to make report of his turn of duty in a sort of ditch which they had dug across the castle hill and called a trench
in a short time the chief's voice was heard on the stair in a tone of impatient fury callum why callum beg diaoul he entered the room with all the marks of a man agitated by a towering passion
and there were few upon whose features rage produced a more violent effect the veins of his forehead swelled when he was in such agitation his nostril became dilated his cheek and eye inflamed and hislook that of a demoniac
these appearances of half suppressed rage were the more frightful because they were obviously caused by a strong effort to temper with discretion an almost ungovernable paroxysm of passion and resulted from an internal conflict of the most dreadful kind
which agitated his whole frame of mortality as he entered the apartment he unbuckled his broadsword and throwing it down with such violence that the weapon rolled to the other end of the room i know not what he exclaimed
withholds me from taking a solemn oath that i will never more draw it in his cause load my pistols callum and bring them hither instantly instantly callum whom nothing ever startled dismayed or disconcerted
obeyed very coolly evan dhu upon whose brow the suspicion that his chief had been insulted called up a corresponding storm swelled in sullen silence awaiting to learn where or upon whom vengeance was to descend
so waverley you are there said the chief after a moment's recollection yes i remember i asked you to share my triumph and you have come to witness my disappointment we shall call it evan now presented the written report he had in his hand
which fergus threw from him with great passion i wish to god he said the old den would tumble down upon the heads of the fools who attack and the knaves who defend it i see waverley you think i am mad leave us evan but be within call
the colonel's in an unco kippage said missus flockhart to evan as he descended i wish he may be weel the very veins on his brent brow are swelled like whipcord
when this officer left the room the chieftain gradually reassumed some degree of composure i know waverley he said that colonel talbot has persuaded you to curse ten times a day your engagement with us nay never deny it
for i am at this moment tempted to curse my own would you believe it i made this very morning two suits to the prince and he has rejected them both what do you think of it what can i think answered waverley till i know what your requests were
why what signifies what they were man i tell you it was i that made them i to whom he owes more than to any three who have joined the standard for i negotiated the whole business and brought in all the perthshire men when not one would have stirred
i am not likely i think to ask anything very unreasonable and if i did they might have stretched a point well but you shall know all now that i can draw my breath again with some freedom you remember my earl's patent it is dated some years back
for services then rendered and certainly my merit has not been diminished to say the least by my subsequent behaviour now sir i value this bauble of a coronet as little as you can or any philosopher on earth
for i hold that the chief of such a clan as the sliochd nan ivor is superior in rank to any earl in scotland but i had a particular reason for assuming this cursed title at this time
you must know that i learned accidentally that the prince has been pressing that old foolish baron of bradwardine to disinherit his male heir or nineteenth or twentieth cousin who has taken a command in the elector of hanover's militia
and to settle his estate upon your pretty little friend rose and this as being the command of his king and overlord
the old gentleman seems well reconciled to and what becomes of the homage curse the homage i believe rose is to pull off the queen's slipper on her coronation day or some such trash
well sir as rose bradwardine would always have made a suitable match for me but for this idiotical predilection of her father for the heir male
and which of course would supersede that difficulty
i could have no objection but fergus said waverley i had no idea that you had any affection for miss bradwardine and you are always sneering at her father i have as much affection for miss bradwardine my good friend
as i think it necessary to have for the future mistress of my family and the mother of my children she is a very pretty intelligent girl and is certainly of one of the very first lowland families and with a little of flora's instructions and forming
will make a very good figure as to her father he is an original it is true and an absurd one enough but he has given such severe lessons to sir hew halbert that dear defunct the laird of balmawhapple and others
that nobody dare laugh at him so his absurdity goes for nothing i tell you there could have been no earthly objection none i had settled the thing entirely in my own mind but had you asked the baron's consent said waverley or rose's
to what purpose to have spoke to the baron before i had assumed my title would have only provoked a premature and irritating discussion on the subject of the change of name when as earl of glennaquoich i had only to propose to him
or in a scutcheon of pretence or in a separate shield perhaps any way that would not blemish my own coat of arms and as to rose i don't see what objection she could have made if her father was satisfied perhaps the same that your sister makes to me you being satisfied
fergus gave a broad stare at the comparison which this supposition implied but cautiously suppressed the answer which rose to his tongue o we should easily have arranged all that so sir i craved a private interview and this morning was assigned
and i asked you to meet me here thinking like a fool that i should want your countenance as bride's man well i state my pretension they are not denied the promises so repeatedly made and the patent granted they are acknowledged
but i propose as a natural consequence to assume the rank which the patent bestowed i have the old story of the jealousy of c and m trumped up against me i resist this pretext and offer to procure their written acquiescence
in virtue of the date of my patent as prior to their silly claims i assure you i would have had such a consent from them if it had been at the point of the sword and then out comes the real truth and he dares to tell me to my face
that my patent must be suppressed for the present for fear of disgusting that rascally coward and faineant naming the rival chief of his own clan who has no better title to be a chieftain than i to be emperor of china and who is pleased to shelter his dastardly reluctance
to come out agreeable to his promise twenty times pledged under a pretended jealousy of the prince's partiality to me and to leave this miserable driveller without a pretence for his cowardice the prince asks it as a personal favour of me forsooth
not to press my just and reasonable request at this moment after this put your faith in princes and did your audience end here end o no i was determined to leave him no pretence for his ingratitude
and i therefore stated with all the composure i could muster for i promise you i trembled with passion the particular reasons i had for wishing that his royal highness would impose upon me any other mode of exhibiting my duty and devotion
as my views in life made what at any other time would have been a mere trifle at this crisis a severe sacrifice and then i explained to him my full plan and what did the prince answer
why it is well it is written curse not the king no not in thy thought why he answered that truly he was glad i had made him my confidant to prevent more grievous disappointment for he could assure me upon the word of a prince
that miss bradwardine's affections were engaged and he was under a particular promise to favour them so my dear fergus said he with his most gracious cast of smile
her ladyship is not here she has gone out
her face became the colour of her clean white apron out she gasped hester turned sharply round to the lake she said what do you mean by staring in that way jane did not tell her what she meant
she incontinently ran from the room without any shadow of a pretence at a lady's maid's decorum
through that she darted and flew across paths and flowerbeds towards the avenue of limes
her maid her well bred jane cupp who had not drawn an indecorous breath since assuming her duties was running after her calling out to her waving her hands her face distorted her voice hysteric
her hand had been outstretched towards the rail she drew back a step in alarm and stood staring how strange everything seemed to day she began to feel choked and trembling a few seconds and jane was upon her clutching at her dress
don't till we're sure on on what then jane realised how mad she looked how insane the whole scene was and she gave way to her emotions partly through physical exhaustion and breathlessness
and partly through helpless terror she fell on her knees the bridge she said
there's things being plotted and planned that looks like accidents
she her emily felt as if she was passing through another nightmare
the little basket of needlework shook in lady walderhurst's hand she swallowed hard and without warning sat down on the roots of a fallen tree her cheeks blanching slowly oh jane she said in simple woe and bewilderment
i don't understand any of it how could how could they want to hurt me her innocence was so fatuous that she thought that because she had been kind to them
they could not hate or wish to injure her but something for the first time made her begin to quail she sat and tried to recover herself she put out a shaking hand to the basket of sewing she could scarcely see it because suddenly tears had filled her eyes
bring one of the men here she said after a few moments tell him that i am a little uncertain about the safety of the bridge
to her they seemed inhuman and uncanny was it because good faithful ignorant jane had been rather nervous about ameerah
she had been startled more than once by finding her near when she had not been aware of her presence she had of course heard hester say that native servants often startled one by their silent stealthy seeming ways
but the woman's eyes had frightened her and she had heard the story about the village girl she sat and thought and thought her eyes were fixed upon the moss covered ground
the under gardener's heavy step and jane's lighter one roused her she lifted her eyes to watch the pair as they came he was a big young man with a simple rustic face and big shoulders and hands the bridge is so slight and old she said to him
that it has just occurred to me that it might not be quite safe examine it carefully to make sure the young man touched his forehead and began to look the supports over jane watched him with bated breath when he rose to his feet they're all right on this side my lady he said
i shall have to get in the boat to make sure of them that rest on the island
look at the railing well said lady walderhurst i often stand and lean on it and and watch the sunset she faltered at this point because she had suddenly remembered that this was a habit of hers and that she had often spoken of it to the osborns
there was a point on the bridge at which through a gap in the trees a beautiful sunset was always particularly beautiful it was the right hand rail facing these special trees she rested on when she watched the evening sky
the big young gardener looked at the left hand rail and shook it with his strong hands that's safe enough he said to jane try the other said jane he tried the other something had happened to it
it broke in his big grasp his sunburnt skin changed colour by at least three shades
jane heard him gasp under his breath he touched his cap and looked blankly at lady walderhurst jane's heart seemed to herself to roll over she scarcely dared look at her mistress but when she took courage to do so
she found her so white that she hurried to her side thank you jane she said rather faintly the sky is so lovely this afternoon that i meant to stop and look at it i should have fallen into the water which they say has no bottom
no one would have seen or heard me if you had not come she caught jane's hand and held it hard her eyes wandered over the avenue of big trees which no one but herself came near at this hour it would have been so lonely
so lonely the gardener went away still looking less ruddy than he had looked when he arrived on the spot lady walderhurst rose from her seat on the mossy tree trunk she rose quite slowly don't speak to me yet jane she said
and with jane following her at a respectful distance she returned to the house and went to her room to lie down there was nothing to prove that the whole thing was not mere chance mere chance it was this which turned her cold it was all impossible
it had been so slight a structure from the first
she had leaned upon the rail often lately one evening she had wondered if it seemed quite as steady as usual what could she say whom could she accuse because a piece of rotten wood had given away she started on her pillow
it was a piece of rotten wood which had fallen from the balustrade upon the stairs
and yet what would she appear to her husband to lady maria to anyone in the decorous world if she told them that she believed that in a dignified english household an english gentleman even a deposed heir presumptive
was working out a subtle plot against her such as might adorn a melodrama she held her head in her hands as her mind depicted to her lord walderhurst's countenance lady maria's dubious amused smile
she would think i was hysterical she cried under her breath he would think i was vulgar and stupid
that i was a fussy woman with foolish ideas which made him ridiculous captain osborn is of his family i should be accusing him of being a criminal and yet i might have been in the bottomless pond in the bottomless pond and no one would have known
if it all had not seemed so incredible to her if she could have felt certain herself
the ayah who so loved hester might hate her rival a jealous native woman might be capable of playing stealthy tricks which to her strange mind might seem to serve a proper end captain osborn might not know
it would be too insane too dangerous too wicked
if the fall had killed her where would have been the danger for the man who would only have deplored a fatal accident if she had leaned upon the rail and fallen into the black depths of water below
what could have been blamed but a piece of rotten wood she touched her forehead with her handkerchief because it felt cold and damp there was no way out her teeth chattered they may be as innocent as i am
and they may be murderers in their hearts i can prove nothing i can prevent nothing oh do come home there was but one thought which remained clear in her mind she must keep herself safe she must keep herself safe
in the anguish of her trouble she confessed by putting it into words a thing which she had not confessed before and even as she spoke she did not realise that her words contained confession if i were to die now she said with a touching gravity
he would care very much a few moments later she said it does not matter what happens to me how ridiculous or vulgar or foolish i seem if i can keep myself safe until after
and consequently none but the most elementary studies were at that time suited to his years of course it was not the duty of general menesius to attend personally to the instruction of his little pupil in these things
general menesius resided in the palace with his charge
that is with all who belonged to or were connected with his mother's branch of the family with those who were connected with the children of alexis first wife he was an object of continual jealousy and suspicion
the division between the two branches of the family became more decided than ever and when sophia obtained her release from the convent and managed to get the control of public affairs
in consequence of theodore's imbecility as related in the first chapter one of the first sources of uneasiness for her in respect to the continuance of her power was the probability that peter would grow up to be a talented
and energetic young man and would sooner or later take the government into his own hands she revolved in her mind many plans for preventing this the one which seemed to her most feasible at first
was to attempt to spoil the boy by indulgence and luxury she accordingly it is said attempted to induce menesius to alter the arrangements which he had made for peter so as to release him from restraint
and allow him to do as he pleased her plan was also to supply him with means of pleasure and indulgence very freely thinking that a boy of his age would not have the good sense or the resolution to resist these temptations
thus she thought that his progress in study would be effectually impeded and that perhaps he would undermine his health and destroy his constitution by eating and drinking
or by other hurtful indulgences but sophia found that she could not induce general menesius to co operate with her in any such plans he had set his heart on making his pupil
and to have another arrangement made for the boy by which she thought her ends would be attained so menesius bade his young charge farewell not however without giving him in parting
most urgent counsels to persevere as he had begun in the faithful performance of his duty to resist every temptation to idleness or excess and to devote himself while young with patience
perseverance and industry to the work of storing his mind with useful knowledge and of acquiring every possible art and accomplishment which could be of advantage to him when he became a man
after general menesius had been dismissed sophia adopted an entirely new system for the management of peter before this time theodore had died and peter in conjunction with john
had been proclaimed emperor sophia governing as regent in their names the princess now made an arrangement for establishing peter in a household of his own at a palace situated in a small village at some distance from moscow
have fallen into the snare so adroitly laid for them and been ruined but peter escaped it whether it was from the influence of the counsels and instructions of his former governor or from his own native good sense
he even contrived to turn the hours of play and the companions who had been given to him as mere instruments of pleasure into means of improvement
and learned with them all the evolutions and practiced all the discipline necessary in a camp
he caused himself to be taught to drum not merely as most boys do just to make a noise for his amusement but regularly and scientifically so as to enable him to understand and execute all the beats and signals used in camp
and the wheelbarrow with which he worked in making the fortification was one which he had constructed with his own hands he did not assume any superiority over his companions in these exercises but took his place among them as an equal
obeying the commands which were given to him when it came to his turn to serve and taking his full share of all the hardest of the work which was to be done nor was this all mere boys play
pursued for a little time as long as the novelty lasted and then thrown aside for something more amusing peter knew that when he became a man he would be emperor of all russia
he knew that among the populations of that immense country there were a great many wild and turbulent tribes half savage in habits and character that would never be controlled but by military force and that the country too
was surrounded by other nations that would sometimes unless he was well prepared for them assume a hostile attitude against his government and perhaps make great aggressions upon his territories
or to wheel earth and construct fortifications with his own hands still less to make the wheelbarrows by which the work was to be done but he was aware that he could superintend these things far more intelligently and successfully
if he knew in detail precisely how every thing ought to be done and that was the reason why he took so much pains to learn himself how to do them as he grew older he contrived to introduce higher and higher branches of military art into the school
and to improve and perfect the organization of it in every way after a while he adopted improved uniforms and equipments for the pupils
as fast as he himself and his companions advanced in years and in power of appreciating studies more and more elevated the result was that when at length he was eighteen years of age
and the time arrived for him to leave the place the institution had become completely established
and it continued in successful operation as such for a long time afterward
that so many of the leading nobles attached themselves to his cause
and take the power into his own hands
chapter nine the marine store dealer
to see some likeness to the dead man but there was no likeness to be seen for whereas gilverthwaite was a big and stalwart fellow this was a small and spare woman
whose rusty black clothes made her look thinner and more meagre than she really was all the same
for her speech was like his
so you believe you're the sister of this man james gilverthwaite ma'am began mister lindsey motioning the visitor to sit down and beckoning maisie to stop with us what might your name be now
else i shouldn't have taken the trouble to come all this way my name's hanson missus hanson i come from garston near liverpool aye just so a lancashire woman said mister lindsey nodding
your name would be gilverthwaite then before you were married to be sure sir same as james's she replied him and me was the only two there was i've brought papers with me that'll prove what i say
i went to a lawyer before ever i came and he told me to come at once and to bring my marriage lines and a copy of james's birth certificate and one or two other things of that sort
and of course i would like to put in my claim to what he's left if he's left it to nobody else just so agreed mister lindsey aye and how long is it since you last saw your brother now
the woman shook her head as if this question presented difficulties
she answered and to the best of my belief sir
it was just after i was married to hanson and that was when i was about three and twenty and i was fifty six last birthday james came once to see me and hanson soon after we was settled down
and i've never set eyes on him from that day to this but i should know him now he was buried yesterday remarked mister lindsey it's a pity you didn't telegraph to some of us
the lawyer i went to sir said go yourself replied missus hanson so i set off first thing this morning let me have a look at those papers said mister lindsey
which went to prove that this man had been born in liverpool about sixty two years previously that as mister lindsey was quick to point out fitted in with what gilverthwaite had told my mother and myself about his age well
he said turning to missus hanson you can answer some questions no doubt about your brother and about matters in relation to him first of all do you know if any of your folks hailed from this part
not that i ever heard of sir she replied no i'm sure they wouldn't they were all lancashire folks on both sides
do you know if your brother ever came to berwick as a lad asked mister lindsey with a glance at me
said missus hanson he was a great masterful strong lad and he'd run off to sea by the time he was ten years old
you say you've never seen him for thirty years or more but have you never heard of him she nodded her head with decision at that question yes she replied i have heard of him just once
there was a man a neighbour of ours came home from central america maybe five years ago and he told us he'd seen our james out there and that he was working as a sub contractor or something of that sort on that panama canal there was so much talk about in them days
mister lindsey and i looked at each other panama that was the password which james gilverthwaite had given me so here at any rate was something however little that had the makings of a clue in it
aye he said panama now he was there and that's the last you ever heard that's the very last we ever heard sir she answered till of course we saw these pieces in the papers this last day or two
do you know aught of that man john phillips whose name's in the papers too he asked no sir nothing she replied promptly never heard tell of him
and you've never heard of your brother's having been seen in liverpool of late he went on never heard that he called to see any old friends at all
that he was certainly in liverpool
he never came near me sir she said and i never heard word of his being there from anybody
and at last the woman put the question which it was evident she was anxious to have answered definitely
maybe your mother hugh can find missus hanson a lodging i answered that my mother would no doubt do what she could to look after missus hanson and presently the woman went away with maisie leaving her papers with mister lindsey
he turned to me when we were alone some folks would think that was a bit of help to me in solving the mystery hugh said he but hang me if i don't think it makes the whole thing more mysterious than ever
i answered where sir panama he exclaimed with a jerk of his head panama just that it began a long way off panama as far as i see it and what did begin and what was going on
after the murder of john phillips and it was just the eighth night after my finding of the body that i got into the hands of abel crone abel crone was a man that had come to berwick about three years before this
quiet and peaceable in his ways and inoffensive enough but a rare hand at gossiping about the beach and the walls you might find him at all odd hours either in these public places or in the door of his shop
and i was helping him to build hutches for the beasts in his father's back yard and we were wanting some bits of stuff iron and wire and the like and knowing i would pick it up for a few pence at crone's shop i went round there alone
before i knew how it came about crone was deep into the murder business they'll not have found much out by this time yon police fellows no doubt mister moneylaws he said
eyeing me inquisitively in the light of the one naphtha lamp that was spurting and jumping in his untidy shop they're a slow unoriginal lot the police
what's wanted in an affair like this is one of those geniuses you read about in the storybooks the men that can trace a murder from the way a man turns out his toes
or the like of that something more than by ordinary you'll understand me to mean mister moneylaws
you haven't thought of following anything up yourself mister moneylaws i suppose me i exclaimed what should i be following up man i know no more than the mere surface facts of the affair
and the next instant he was close to me in the gloom and looking sharply in my face are you so sure of that now he whispered cunningly
what for did you not let on in your evidence
come you could have knocked me down with a feather as the saying is when he said that and before i could recover from the surprise of it he had a hand on my arm
chapter one the mountain curdie was the son of peter the miner he lived with his father and mother in a cottage built on a mountain and he worked with his father inside the mountain a mountain is a strange and awful thing
in old times without knowing so much of their strangeness and awfulness as we do people were yet more afraid of mountains but then somehow they had not come to see how beautiful they are as well as awful and they hated them
and what people hate they must fear now that we have learned to look at them with admiration perhaps we do not feel quite awe enough of them
but of glowing hot melted metals and stones and as our hearts keep us alive so that great lump of heat keeps the earth alive it is a huge power of buried sunlight that is what it is
now think out of that cauldron where all the bubbles would be as big as the alps if it could get room for its boiling certain bubbles have bubbled out and escaped up and away
and there they stand in the cool cold sky mountains think of the change and you will no more wonder that there should be something awful about the very look of a mountain from the darkness
for where the light has nothing to shine upon much the same as darkness from the heat from the endless tumult of boiling unrest up with a sudden heavenward shoot into the wind and the cold and the starshine
that comes wandering about the house at night and everlasting stillness except for the wind that turns the rocks and caverns into a roaring organ for the young archangels that are studying how to let out the pent up praises of their hearts
and the molten music of the streams rushing ever from the bosoms of the glaciers fresh born think too of the change in their own substance
and the trees growing out of its sides like hair to clothe it and the lovely grass in the valleys and the gracious flowers
like the rich embroidery of the garment below
and along with all these
and the frightful gulfs of blue air cracked in the glaciers and the dark profound lakes covered like little arctic oceans with floating lumps of ice all this outside the mountain
running ceaselessly cold and babbling through banks crusted with carbuncles and golden topazes or over a gravel of which some of the stones arc rubies and emeralds perhaps diamonds and sapphires who can tell
and whoever can't tell is free to think all waiting to flash waiting for millions of ages ever since the earth flew off from the sun a great blot of fire and began to cool
then there are caverns full of water numbingly cold fiercely hot hotter than any boiling water from some of these the water cannot get out and from others it runs in channels as the blood in the body
little veins bring it down from the ice above into the great caverns of the mountain's heart whence the arteries let it out again gushing in pipes and clefts and ducts of all shapes and kinds through and through its bulk
until it springs newborn to the light and rushes down the mountainside in torrents and down the valleys in rivers down down rejoicing to the mighty lungs of the world that is the sea
heaved up in billows twisted in waterspouts dashed to mist upon rocks beaten by millions of tails and breathed by millions of gills whence at last melted into vapour by the sun
it is lifted up pure into the air and borne by the servant winds back to the mountaintops and the snow the solid ice and the molten stream well when the heart of the earth has thus come rushing up among her children
bringing with it gifts of all that she possesses then straightway into it rush her children to see what they can find there with pickaxe and spade and crowbar with boring chisel and blasting powder
they force their way back is it to search for what toys they may have left in their long forgotten nurseries hence the mountains that lift their heads into the clear air and are dotted over with the dwellings of men
are tunnelled and bored in the darkness of their bosoms by the dwellers in the houses which they hold up to the sun and air curdie and his father were of these their business was to bring to light hidden things
they sought silver in the rock and found it and carried it out of the many other precious things in their mountain they knew little or nothing silver ore was what they were sent to find and in darkness and danger they found it
but oh how sweet was the air on the mountain face when they came out at sunset to go home to wife and mother they did breathe deep then the mines belonged to the king of the country
and the miners were his servants working under his overseers and officers he was a real king that is one who ruled for the good of his people and not to please himself
and he wanted the silver not to buy rich things for himself but to help him to govern the country and pay the ones that defended it from certain troublesome neighbours and the judges whom he set to portion out righteousness among the people
that so they might learn it themselves and come to do without judges at all nothing that could be got from the heart of the earth could have been put to better purposes than the silver the king's miners got for him
there were people in the country who when it came into their hands degraded it by locking it up in a chest and then it grew diseased and was called mammon and bred all sorts of quarrels
but when first it left the king's hands it never made any but friends and the air of the world kept it clean about a year before this story began a series of very remarkable events had just ended
upon the mountain on one of its many claws stood a grand old house half farmhouse half castle belonging to the king and there his only child
till she was nearly nine years old and would doubtless have continued much longer but for the strange events to which i have referred at that time the hollow places of the mountain were inhabited by creatures called goblins
who for various reasons and in various ways made themselves troublesome to all but to the little princess dangerous mainly by the watchful devotion and energy of curdie however
their designs had been utterly defeated and made to recoil upon themselves to their own destruction so that now there were very few of them left alive and the miners did not believe there was a single goblin remaining in the whole inside of the mountain
the king had been so pleased with the boy then approaching thirteen years of age that when he carried away his daughter he asked him to accompany them
was worth ten thousand offers to die for his sake and would prove so when the right time came as for his father and mother they would have given him up without a grumble for they were just as good as the king
and he and they understood each other perfectly but in this matter not seeing that he could do anything for the king which one of his numerous attendants could not do as well curdie felt that it was for him to decide
so the king took a kind farewell of them all and rode away with his daughter on his horse before him
as for his verses there was no occasion to make any now he had made them only to drive away the goblins and they were all gone a good riddance only the princess was gone too
he would rather have had things as they were except for the princess's sake but whoever is diligent will soon be cheerful and though the miners missed the household of the castle they yet managed to get on without them
peter and his wife however were troubled with the fancy that they had stood in the way of their boy's good fortune it would have been such a fine thing for him and them too they thought if he had ridden with the good king's train
how beautiful he looked they said when he rode the king's own horse through the river that the goblins had sent out of the hill he might soon have been a captain they did believe the good kind people did not reflect
that the road to the next duty is the only straight one or that for their fancied good we should never wish our children or friends to do what we would not do ourselves if we were in their position
mildendo the metropolis of lilliput described together with the emperor's palace a conversation between the author and a principal secretary concerning the affairs of that empire the author's offers to serve the emperor in his wars
the first request i made
was that i might have license to see mildendo the metropolis which the emperor easily granted me but with a special charge to do no hurt either to the inhabitants or their houses
of my design to visit the town the wall which encompassed it is two feet and a half high and at least eleven inches broad so that a coach and horses may be driven very safely round it and it is flanked with strong towers at ten feet distance
i stepped over the great western gate and passed very gently and sidling through the two principal streets only in my short waistcoat for fear of damaging the roofs and eaves of the houses with the skirts of my coat
i walked with the utmost circumspection to avoid treading on any stragglers who might remain in the streets although the orders were very strict that all people should keep in their houses at their own peril
the garret windows and tops of houses were so crowded with spectators that i thought in all my travels i had not seen a more populous place
each side of the wall being five hundred feet long the two great streets which run across and divide it into four quarters are five feet wide the lanes and alleys which i could not enter but only view them as i passed
are from twelve to eighteen inches the town is capable of holding five hundred thousand souls the houses are from three to five stories the shops and markets well provided the emperor's palace is in the centre of the city
where the two great streets meet it is enclosed by a wall of two feet high and twenty feet distance from the buildings i had his majesty's permission to step over this wall and the space being so wide between that and the palace
i could easily view it on every side the outward court is a square of forty feet and includes two other courts in the inmost are the royal apartments which i was very desirous to see
from one square into another were but eighteen inches high and seven inches wide now the buildings of the outer court were at least five feet high and it was impossible for me to stride over them without infinite damage to the pile
though the walls were strongly built of hewn stone and four inches thick at the same time the emperor had a great desire that i should see the magnificence of his palace but this i was not able to do till three days after
which i spent in cutting down with my knife some of the largest trees in the royal park about a hundred yards distant from the city of these trees i made two stools each about three feet high
and strong enough to bear my weight the people having received notice a second time i went again through the city to the palace with my two stools in my hands when i came to the side of the outer court i stood upon one stool
and took the other in my hand this i lifted over the roof and gently set it down on the space between the first and second court which was eight feet wide i then stept over the building very conveniently from one stool to the other
and drew up the first after me with a hooked stick
and lying down upon my side i applied my face to the windows of the middle stories which were left open on purpose and discovered the most splendid apartments that can be imagined there i saw the empress and the young princes in their several lodgings
with their chief attendants about them her imperial majesty was pleased to smile very graciously upon me and gave me out of the window her hand to kiss but i shall not anticipate the reader with further descriptions of this kind
because i reserve them for a greater work which is now almost ready for the press containing a general description of this empire from its first erection through along series of princes with a particular account of their wars and politics
laws learning and religion their plants and animals their peculiar manners and customs with other matters very curious and useful my chief design at present being only to relate such events and transactions as happened to the public
one morning about a fortnight after i had obtained my liberty reldresal principal secretary as they style him for private affairs came to my house attended only by one servant
and desired i would give him an hours audience which i readily consented to
as well as of the many good offices he had done me during my solicitations at court i offered to lie down that he might the more conveniently reach my ear but he chose rather to let me hold him in my hand during our conversation
said he might pretend to some merit in it but however added that if it had not been for the present situation of things at court
for said he as flourishing a condition as we may appear to be in to foreigners we labour under two mighty evils a violent faction at home and the danger of an invasion
but however this be
and all offices in the gift of the crown as you cannot but observe and particularly that his majesty's imperial heels are lower at least by a drurr than
and to let him know that i thought it would not become me who was a foreigner to interfere with parties but i was ready with the hazard of my life
a brief wire had contained the welcome invitation and up to the time when i had received it i had been unaware that hilton was back in england moreover beyond the fact that his house uplands was near h for which i was instructed to change at new street station birmingham
i had little idea of its location but he added wire train and will meet at h so that i had no uneasiness on that score i had contemplated catching the two forty five from euston but by the time i had got my work into something like order
i decided that the six fifty five would be more suitable and decided to dine on the train altogether there was something of a rush and hustle attendant upon getting away and when at last i found myself in the cab bound for euston i sat back with a long drawn sigh
the quest of the prophet's slipper was ended in all probability that blood stained relic was already eastward bound hassan of aleppo its awful guardian had triumphed and had escaped retribution earl dexter was dead
i could not doubt that for the memory of his beautiful accomplice carneta
have i not said that it lived with me even as the picture of her lovely pale face presented itself to my mind the cab was held up by a temporary block in the traffic and my imagination played me a strange trick another taxi ran close alongside
almost at the moment that the press of vehicles moved on again certainly i had no more than a passing glimpse of the occupants
for that of earl dexter the travellers however were immediately lost to sight in the rear and i was left to conjecture whether this had been a not uncommon form of optical delusion or whether i had seen a ghost
at any rate as i passed in between the big pillars the gateway of the north i scrutinized and closely the numerous hurrying figures about me
none of them by any stretch of the imagination could have been set down for that of dexter the stetson man no doubt i concluded i had been tricked by a chance resemblance
having dispatched my telegram i boarded the six fifty five i thought i should have the compartment to myself and so deep in reverie was i that the train was actually clear of the platforms ere i learned that i had a companion he must have joined me at the moment that the train started
certainly i had not seen him enter but suddenly looking up i met the eyes of this man who occupied the corner seat facing me this person was olive skinned clean shaven fine featured and perfectly groomed
his age might have been anything from twenty five to forty five but his hair and brows were jet black his eyes too were nearer to real black than any human eyes i had ever seen before excepting the awful eyes of hassan of aleppo hassan of aleppo
it was to that hour a mystery how his group of trained assassins the hashishin had quitted england since none of them were known to the police it was no insoluble mystery i admit but nevertheless it was singular that the careful watching of the ports had yielded no result
could it be that some of them had not yet left the country could it be i looked intently into the black eyes they were caressing smiling eyes and looked boldly into mine
i picked up a magazine pretending to read but i supported it with my left hand my right was in my coat pocket and it rested upon my smith and wesson so much had the slipper of mohammed done for me i went in hourly dread of murderous attack
the night swallowed him up my fears had been justified the man was one of the hashishin a spy of hassan of aleppo what did it mean i craned from the window searching the platform right and left but there was no sign of him
when the train left northampton i found myself alone and i should only weary you were i to attempt to recount the troubled conjectures that bore me company to birmingham
more than an hour later i found myself standing at ten minutes to eleven upon the h platform watching the red taillight of the local disappear into the night
then i realized to the full that with four miles of lonely england before me there hung above my head a mysterious threat a vague menace
the solitary official who but waited my departure to lock up the station was the last representative of civilization i could hope to encounter until the gates of uplands should be opened to me what was the matter with which i was warned not to interfere
might i not by my mere presence in that place unwittingly be interfering now with the station master's directions humming like a refrain in my ears i passed through the sleeping village and out on to the road
the moon was exceptionally bright and unobscured although a dense bank of cloud crept slowly from the west and before me the path stretched as an unbroken thread of silvery white twining a sinuous way up the bracken covered slope to where sharply defined against the moonlight sky a coppice in grotesque silhouette marked the summit
the month had been dry and tropically hot and my footsteps rang crisply upon the hard ground there is nothing more deceptive than a straight road up a hill and half an hour's steady tramping but saw me approaching the trees
i had so far resolutely endeavoured to keep my mind away from the idea of surveillance now as i paused to light my pipe a never failing friend in loneliness i perceived something move in the shadows of a neighbouring bush
and the very incongruity of its appearance served to revive all my apprehensions taking up my grip as though i had noticed nothing of an alarming nature i pursued my way up the slope leaving a trail of tobacco smoke in my wake
and having my revolver secreted up my right coat sleeve successfully resisting a temptation to glance behind i entered the cover of the coppice and now invisible to any one who might be dogging me stood and looked back upon the moon bright road
there was no living thing in sight the road was empty as far as the eye could see the coppice now remained to be negotiated and then if the station master's directions were not at fault uplands should be visible beyond
it was a long way behind so far that had the moon been less bright i could never have discerned it what it was i could not even conjecture but it had the appearance of a vague gray patch moving not along the road
the sight was unnerving what were these things that approached silently stealthily like snakes in the grass a fear unlike anything i had known before the quest of the prophet's slipper had brought fantastic horror into my life came upon me
revolver in hand i ran ran for my life toward the gap in the trees that marked the coppice end and as i went something hummed through the darkness beside my head some projectile some venomous thing that missed its mark by a bare inch
painfully conversant with the uncanny weapons employed by the hashishin i knew now beyond any possibility of doubt that death was behind me a pattering like naked feet sounded on the road and without pausing in my headlong career i sent a random shot into the blackness
the crack of the smith and wesson reassured me i pulled up short turned and looked back toward the trees nothing no one
a shrill whistle minor eerie in rising cadence sounded on the dead silence with piercing clearness six whistles seemingly from all around me replied some object came humming through the air and i ducked wildly
on and on i ran flying from an unknown but as a warning instinct told me deadly peril ran as a man runs pursued by devils
the road bent sharply to the left then forked overhanging trees concealed the house and the light though high up under the eaves was no longer visible
trusting to providence to guide me i plunged down the lane that turned to the left and almost exhausted saw the gates before me saw the sweep of the drive and the moonlight gleaming on the windows none of the windows were illuminated
they were locked without a moment's hesitation i hurled my grip over the top and clambered up the bars as i got astride from the blackness of the lane came the ominous hum and my hat went spinning away across the lawn
the black cloud veiled the moon and complete darkness fell
chapter sixteen the questing hands within my view from the corner of the room where i sat in deepest shadow
through the partly opened window it was screwed like our own were rows of glass houses gleaming in the moonlight and beyond them orderly ranks of flower beds extending into a blue haze of distance
by reason of the moon's position no light entered the room but my eyes from long watching were grown familiar with the darkness and i could see burke quite clearly as he lay in the bed between my post and the window
i seemed to be back again in those days of the troubled past when first nayland smith and i had come to grips with the servants of doctor fu manchu a more peaceful scene than this flower planted corner of essex it would be difficult to imagine
but either because of my knowledge that its peace was chimerical or because of that outflung consciousness of danger which actually or in my imagination preceded the coming of the chinaman's agents
what information had burke to sell he had refused for some reason to discuss the matter that evening and now enacting the part allotted him by nayland smith he feigned sleep consistently
all the chances were in our favor to night for whilst i could not doubt that doctor fu manchu was set upon the removal of the ex officer of new york police neither could i doubt that our presence in the farm was unknown to the agents of the chinaman
according to burke constant attempts had been made to achieve fu manchu's purpose and had only been frustrated by his burke's wakefulness there was every probability that another attempt would be made to night
any one who has been forced by circumstance to undertake such a vigil as this will be familiar with the marked changes corresponding with phases of the earth's movement which take place in the atmosphere at midnight at two o'clock and again at four o'clock
during those fours hours falls a period wherein all life is at its lowest ebb and every physician is aware that there is a greater likelihood of a patient's passing between midnight and four a m than at any other period during the cycle of the hours
to night i became specially aware of this lowering of vitality and now with the night at that darkest phase which precedes the dawn an indescribable dread such as i had known before in my dealings with the chinaman assailed me
watched intently the bright oblong of the window without the slightest heralding sound a black silhouette crept up against the pane the silhouette of a small malformed head a dog like head
deep set in square shoulders malignant eyes peered intently in higher it arose that wicked head against the window then crouched down on the sill and became less sharply defined as the creature stooped to the opening below
there was a faint sound of sniffing judging from the stark horror which i experienced myself i doubted now if burke could sustain the role allotted him in beneath the slightly raised window came a hand
perceptible to me despite the darkness of the room it seemed to project from the black silhouette outside the pane to be thrust forward and forward and forward that small hand with the outstretched fingers
the unknown possesses unique terrors and since i was unable to conceive what manner of thing this could be which extending its incredibly long arms now sought the throat of the man upon the bed
quick sir quick screamed burke starting up from the pillow the questing hands had reached his throat choking down an urgent dread that i had of touching the thing which reached through the window to kill the sleeper
they seemed to be of steel wire and with a sudden frightful sense of impotence
despite the confusion of my mind i became aware of sounds outside and below me twice the thing at the window coughed there was an incessant lash like cracking
of a pistol snarling like that of a wild beast came from the creature with the hairy arms together with renewed coughing but the steel grip relaxed not one iota i realized two things the first that in my terror at the suddenness of the attack
i had omitted to act as pre arranged the second that i had discredited the strength of the visitant whilst smith had foreseen it desisting in my vain endeavor to pit my strength against that of the nameless thing
to the great amazement of weymouth and myself as i leaped back to the window and uplifted this primitive weapon a second shot sounded from below and more fierce snarling coughing and guttural mutterings assailed my ears from beyond the pane
lifting the heavy blade i brought it down with all my strength upon the nearer of those hairy arms where it crossed the window ledge severing muscle tendon and bone as easily as a knife might cut cheese a shriek
a shriek neither human nor animal but gruesomely compounded of both followed and merged into a choking cough like a flash the other shaggy arm was withdrawn and some vaguely seen body went rolling down the sloping red tiles
with a second piercing shriek louder than that recently uttered by burke wailing through the night from somewhere below i turned desperately to the man on the bed who now was become significantly silent
a candle with matches stood upon a table hard by and my fingers far from steady i set about obtaining a light this accomplished i stood the candle upon the little chest of drawers and returned to burke's side merciful god i cried
of all the pictures which remain in my memory some of them dark enough i can find none more horrible than that which now confronted me in the dim candle light burke lay crosswise on the bed his head thrown back and sagging one rigid hand he held in the air
defied all my efforts
i took a knife from my pocket and tendon by tendon cut away that uncanny grip from burke's throat but my labor was in vain burke was dead
i think i failed to realize this for some time my clothes were sticking clammily to my body i was bathed in perspiration and shaking furiously i clutched at the edge of the window avoiding the bloody patch upon the ledge
what had been the meaning of that scream which i had heard
there was a great stirring all about me smith i cried from the window smith for mercy's sake where are you footsteps came racing up the stairs
behind me the door burst open and nayland smith stumbled into the room god he said and started back in the doorway have you got it smith i demanded hoarsely in sanity's name what is it what is it
come downstairs replied smith quietly and see for yourself he turned his head aside from the bed very unsteadily i followed him down the stairs and through the rambling old house out into the stone paved courtyard
perhaps you had better return to the house he said looking him squarely in the eyes
brace up said smith laying his hand upon his shoulder remember he chose to play with fire one wild look the man cast from smith to me then went off staggering toward the farm smith i began
he turned to me with an impatient gesture
i suppose i did not awake very readily following the nervous vigilance of the past six months my tired nerves in the enjoyment of this relaxation were rapidly recuperating
i no longer feared to awake to find a knife at my throat no longer dreaded the darkness as a foe so that the voice may have been calling indeed had been calling for some time and of this i had been hazily conscious
then ere the new sense of security came to reassure me the old sense of impending harm set my heart leaping nervously
now i sat up abruptly clutching at the rail of my berth and listening there was a soft thudding on my cabin door and a voice low and urgent was crying my name
through the open porthole the moonlight streamed into my room and save for a remote and soothing throb inseparable from the progress of a great steamship nothing else disturbed the stillness i might have floated lonely upon the bosom of the mediterranean
but there was the drumming on the door again and the urgent appeal doctor petrie doctor petrie i threw off the bedclothes and stepped on to the floor of the cabin fumbling hastily for my slippers a fear that something was amiss
that some aftermath some wraith of the dread chinaman was yet to come to disturb our premature peace began to haunt me i threw open the door
upon the gleaming deck blackly outlined against a wondrous sky stood a man who wore a blue greatcoat over his pyjamas and whose unstockinged feet were thrust into red slippers it was platts the marconi operator
i turned without a word slipped into my dressing gown and with platts passed aft along the deserted deck the sea was as calm as a great lake ahead on the port bow an angry flambeau burned redly beneath the peaceful vault of the heavens
platts nodded absently in the direction of the weird flames stromboli he said we shall be nearly through the straits by breakfast time
have you got it demanded my companion as we entered the room
platts shook his head that's the mystery he declared look
then it may come from messina it doesn't come from messina replied the man at the table beginning to write rapidly
platts stepped forward and bent over the message which the other was writing here it is he cried excitedly we're getting it stepping in turn to the table i leaned over between the two and read these words as the operator wrote them down
but again the pencil was traveling over the paper lies upon you all end of message
the operator stood up and unclasped the receivers from his ears there high above the sleeping ship's company with the carpet of the blue mediterranean stretched indefinitely about us we three stood looking at one another
by virtue of a miracle of modern science some one divided from me by mile upon mile of boundless ocean had spoken and had been heard is there no means of learning i said from whence this message emanated
platts shook his head perplexedly they gave no code word he said god knows who they were it's a strange business and a strange message
i stared him hard in the face an idea had mechanically entered my mind but one of which i did not choose to speak since it was opposed to human possibility but
had i not seen with my own eyes the bloody streak across his forehead as the shot fired by karamaneh entered his high skull had i not known so certainly as it is given to man to know that the giant intellect was no more
the mighty will impotent i should have replied the message is from doctor fu manchu my reflections were rudely terminated and my sinister thoughts given new stimulus by a loud though muffled cry
i leaped from the room and almost threw myself down the ladder it was karamaneh who had uttered that cry of fear and horror
although i could perceive no connection betwixt the strange message and the cry in the night intuitively i linked them intuitively i knew that my fears had been well grounded that the shadow of fu manchu still lay upon us
karamaneh occupied a large stateroom aft on the main deck so that i had to descend from the upper deck on which my own room was situated to the promenade deck again to the main deck and thence proceed nearly the whole length of the alleyway
karamaneh's eyes were wide with fear her peerless coloring had fled and she was white to the lips aziz who wore a dressing gown thrown hastily over his night attire had his arm protectively about the girl's shoulders the mummy
she whispered tremulously the mummy
appeared in various stages of undress a stewardess came running from the far end of the alleyway and i found time to wonder at my own speed for starting from the distant marconi deck yet i had been the first to arrive upon the scene
we will give you something to enable you to sleep i turned to the group my patient has had severe nerve trouble i explained and has developed somnambulistic tendencies
stacey carefully closed the door he was an old fellow student of mine and already he knew much of the history of the beautiful eastern girl and her brother aziz
thanks to your presence of mind the ship's gossips need know nothing of it
she remained in that state of passive fear in which i had found her the lovely face pallid and she stared at me fixedly in a childish expressionless way which made me fear that the shock to which she had been subjected whatever its nature
had caused a relapse into that strange condition of forgetfulness from which a previous shock had aroused her
something has frightened you he said gently seating himself on the arm of karamaneh's chair and patting her hand as if to reassure her tell us all about it for the first time since our meeting that night the girl turned her eyes from me and glanced up at stacey
a sudden warm blush stealing over her face and throat and as quickly departing to leave her even more pale than before she grasped stacey's hand in both her own and looked again at me send for mister nayland smith without delay
she said and her sweet voice was slightly tremulous he must be put on his guard i started up why i said for god's sake tell us what has happened
i suppose i had set eyes upon fu manchu some five or six times prior to this occasion and now he was dressed in the manner which i always associated with him probably because it was thus i first saw him
he wore a plain yellow robe and with his pointed chin resting upon his bosom he looked down at me revealing a great expanse of the marvelous brow with its sparse neutral colored hair
never in my experience have i known such force to dwell in the glance of any human eye as dwelt in that of this uncanny being his singular affliction if affliction it were the film or slight membrane which sometimes obscured the oblique eyes
was particularly evident at the moment that i crossed the threshold but now as i looked up at doctor fu manchu it lifted revealing the eyes in all their emerald greenness the idea of physical attack upon this incredible being seemed childish
inadequate but following that first instant of stupefaction i forced myself to advance upon him a dull crushing blow descended on the top of my skull and i became oblivious of all things
this awakening was accompanied by none of those hazy doubts respecting previous events and present surroundings which are the usual symptoms of revival from sudden unconsciousness even before i opened my eyes before i had more than a partial command of my senses
i knew that with my wrists handcuffed behind me i lay in a room which was also occupied by doctor fu manchu this absolute certainty of the chinaman's presence was evidenced not by my senses
but only by an inner consciousness and the same that always awoke into life at the approach not only of fu manchu in person but of certain of his uncanny servants a faint perfume hung in the air about me
i do not mean that of any essence or of any incense but rather the smell which is suffused by oriental furniture by oriental draperies the indefinable but unmistakable perfume of the east
whilst the difference between marseilles and suez for instance is even more marked now the atmosphere surrounding me was eastern but not of the east that i knew rather it was far eastern
perhaps i do not make myself very clear but to me there was a mysterious significance in that perfumed atmosphere i opened my eyes
i lay upon a long low settee in a fairly large room which was furnished as i had anticipated in an absolutely oriental fashion the two windows were so screened as to have lost from the interior point of view all resemblance to european windows
the end in which i lay was as i have said typical of an eastern house and a large ornate lantern hung from the ceiling almost directly above me the further end of the room was occupied by tall cases
some of them containing books but the majority filled with scientific paraphernalia rows of flasks and jars frames of test tubes retorts scales
at a large and very finely carved table sat doctor fu manchu a yellow and faded volume open before him
bubbling in a test tube which he held over the flame of a bunsen burner
dividing his attention between the volume the contents of the test tube and the progress of a second experiment or possibly a part of the same which was taking place upon another corner of the littered table
a huge glass retort the bulb was fully two feet in diameter fitted with a liebig's condenser rested in a metal frame and within the bulb floating in an oily substance was a fungus some six inches high
shaped like a toadstool but of a brilliant and venomous orange color three flat tubes of light were so arranged as to cast violet rays upward into the retort and the receiver wherein condensed the product of this strange experiment
could have produced such effect upon me as those cold and carefully calculated words spoken in that unique voice which rang about the room sibilantly in its tones in the glance of the green eyes in the very pose of the gaunt high shouldered body
there was power force i counted myself lost and in view of the doctor's words studied the progress of the experiment with frightful interest but a few moments sufficed in which to realize that for all my training i knew as little of chemistry
of chemistry as understood by this man's genius as a junior student in surgery knows of trephining
thus in the heavy silence of that room a silence only broken by the regular bubbling from the test tube i found my attention straying from the table to the other objects surrounding it and at one of them my gaze stopped and remained chained with horror
it was a glass jar some five feet in height and filled with viscous fluid of a light amber color out from this peered a hideous dog like face low browed with pointed ears and a nose almost hoggishly flat
by the death grin of the face the gleaming fangs were revealed and the body the long yellow gray body rested or seemed to rest upon short malformed legs whilst one long limp arm the right
hung down straightly in the preservative the left arm had been severed above the elbow fu manchu finding his experiment to be proceeding favorably lifted his eyes to me again
and his eyes were filmed like the eyes of one afflicted with cataract he was a devoted servant doctor petrie but the lower influences in his genealogy sometimes conquered then he got out of hand
that in one of those paroxysms of his he attacked and killed a most faithful burman one of my oldest followers fu manchu returned to his experiment
the horror of the thing was playing havoc with my own composure however there i lay fettered in the same room with this man whose existence was a menace to the entire white race whilst placidly he pursued an experiment designed if his own words were believable
something i knew of the history of that ghastly specimen that thing neither man nor ape for within my own knowledge had it not attempted the life of nayland smith and was it not i who with an ax had maimed it in the instant of one of its last slayings
i sought furtively to move my arms only to realize that as i had anticipated the handcuffs were chained to a ring in the wall behind me the establishments of doctor fu manchu were always well provided with such contrivances as these
i uttered a short harsh laugh fu manchu stood up slowly from the table and placing the test tube in a rack stood the latter carefully upon a shelf at his side
and in my absence that profound knowledge of chemistry of which i have had evidence in the past will
at some future time possibly when you are my guest in china
fungus he walked quietly to a curtained doorway with his cat like yet awkward gait lifted the drapery and with a slight nod in my direction
i was just thinking about getting up when he came into my room he looked at me in horror my dear fellow he said and you haven't even packed you'll be late here get up and i'll pack for you while you dress do i said briefly first of all what clothes are you going to travel in
there was no help for it i sat up in bed and directed operations right said herbert now what about your return ticket you mustn't forget that you remind me of a little story i said i'll tell it you while you pack that will be nice for you
once upon a time i lost my return ticket and i had to pay two pounds for another and a month afterwards i met a man a man like you who knows all about tickets and he said you could have got the money back if you had applied at once so i said
but unfortunately it was too late no unfortunately it wasn't he got the two pounds the most expensive cigarette i've ever smoked well that just shows you said herbert here's your ticket put it in your waistcoat pocket now
but i haven't got a waistcoat on silly which one are you going to put on i don't know yet this is a matter which requires thought give me time give me air
he looked at his watch and the trap starts in half an hour help i cried and i leapt out of bed half an hour later i was saying good bye to herbert i've had an awfully jolly time i said and i'll come again you've got the ticket all right rather
and i drove away amidst cheers cheers of sorrow it was half an hour's drive to the station
because i had left my ticket on the dressing table after all i gave my luggage to a porter and went off to the station master i wonder if you can help me i said
well we needn't worry about that i've left it at home he didn't seem intensely excited what did you think of doing he asked i had rather hoped that you would do something you can buy another ticket and get the money back afterwards
yes yes but can i i've only got about one pound six
ah well that leaves a penny ha'penny to be divided between the porter this end lunch tea the porter the other end and the cab i don't believe it's enough even if i gave it all to the porter here think how reproachfully he would look at you ever afterwards
it would haunt you the station master was evidently moved he thought for a moment and then asked if i knew anybody who would vouch for me i mentioned herbert confidently he had never even heard of herbert
i've got a tie pin i said station masters have a weakness for tie pins and a watch and a cigarette case i shall be happy to lend you any of those the idea didn't appeal to him
the best thing you can do he said is to take a ticket to the next station and talk to them there this is only a branch line and i have no power to give you a pass so that was what i had to do
well the money would last longer that way but unless i could overcome quickly the distrust which i seemed to inspire in station masters there would not be much left for lunch i gave the porter all i could afford a ha'penny mentioned apologetically that i was coming back and stepped into the train
at the junction i jumped out quickly and dived into the sacred office i've left my ticket on the dressing that is to say i forgot well anyhow i haven't got it i began and we plunged into explanations once more
this station master was even more unemotional than the last he asked me if i knew anybody who could vouch for me i mentioned herbert diffidently he had never even heard of herbert i showed him my gold watch my silver cigarette case
and my emerald and diamond tie pin that was the sort of man i was the best thing you can do he said walking with me to the door is to take a ticket to plymouth and speak to the station master there this is a most interesting game i said bitterly
what is home when you speak to the station master at london i suppose i've a good mind to say snap extremely annoyed i strode out and bumped into you'll never guess herbert
i rode after you the train was just going jumped into it been looking all over the station for you it's awfully nice of you herbert didn't i say good bye your ticket he produced it left it on the dressing table he took a deep breath i told you you would
bless you i said as i got happily into my train you've saved my life i've had an awful time i say do you know i've met two station masters already this morning who've never even heard of you you must enquire into it
at that moment a porter came up did you give up your ticket sir he asked herbert i hadn't time to get one said herbert quite at his ease i'll pay now and he began to feel in his pockets the train moved out of the station
a look of horror came over herbert's face i knew what it meant he hadn't any money on him hi he shouted to me and then we swung round a bend out of sight well well he'll have to get home somehow
many people had recovered through his exorcisms if added the friend the disease is neglected it becomes serious try therefore this method of procuring relief at once and before it is too late
genji therefore sent for the hermit but he declined to come saying that he was too old and decrepit to leave his retreat what shall i do exclaimed genji shall i visit him privately eventually
taking four or five attendants he started off early one morning for the place which was at no great distance on the mountain it was the last day of march and though the height of the season for flowers in the capital was over yet
on the mountain the cherry trees were still in blossom they advanced on their way further and further the haze clung to the surface like a soft sash does round the waist and to genji who had scarcely ever been out of the capital
the scenery was indescribably novel the ascetic lived in a deep cave in the rocks near the lofty summit genji did not however declare who he was and the style of his retinue was of a very private character
yet his nobility of manners was easily recognizable welcome your visit cried the hermit saluting him perhaps you are the one who sent for me the other day i have long since quitted the affairs of this world
and have almost forgotten the secret of my exorcisms i wonder why you have come here for me so saying he pleasingly embraced him he was evidently a man of great holiness he wrote out a talismanic prescription
while he himself proceeded to perform some mysterious rite during the performance of this ceremony the sun rose high in the heavens genji meantime walked out of the cave and looked around him with his attendants the spot where they stood was very lofty
and numerous monasteries were visible scattered here and there in the distance beneath there was immediately beyond the winding path in which they were walking a picturesque and pretty building enclosed by hedges its well arranged balconies and the gardens around it
apparently betokened the good taste of its inhabitants whose house may that be inquired genji of his attendants they told him it was a house in which a certain priest had been living for the last two years ah i know him said genji
strange indeed would it be if he were to discover that i am here in this privacy they noticed a nun and a few more females with her walking in the garden who were carrying fresh water for their offerings and were gathering flowers
cried the attendants in tones of surprise surely the reverend father would not indulge in flirtations who can they be and some of them even descended a little distance and peered over the enclosure where a pretty little girl was also seen amongst them
genji now engaged in prayer until the sun sank in the heavens his attendants who were anxious about his disease told him that it would be good for him to have a change from time to time hereupon he advanced to the back of the temple
and his gaze fell on the far off capital in the distance which was enveloped in haze as the dusk was setting in over the tops of the trees around what a lovely landscape exclaimed genji the people to whom such scenery is familiar
are perhaps happy and contented nay said the attendants but were you to see the beautiful mountain ranges and the sea coast in our various provinces the pictures would indeed be found lovely then
some of them described to him fuji yama while others told him of other mountains
thus as they depicted them to him they cheered and gladdened his mind one of them went on to say among such sights and at no great distance there is the sea coast of akashi in the province of harima which is i think especially beautiful
i cannot indeed point out in detail its most remarkable features
here too the home of the former governor of the province constitutes an object of great attraction
he is the descendant of a high personage and was not without hope of elevation at court but being of an eccentric character he was strongly averse to society he had formerly been a chiujio of the imperial guard
but having resigned that office had become governor of harima he was not however popular in that office in this state of affairs he reflected within himself no doubt that his presence in the capital could not but be disagreeable
when therefore his term of office expired he determined still to remain in the province he did not however go to the mountainous regions of the interior but chose the sea coast there are in this district
several places which are well situated for quiet retirement and it would have seemed inconsistent in him had he preferred a part of the sea coast so near the gay world nevertheless a retreat in the too remote interior would have been too solitary
and might have met with objections on the part of his wife and child for this reason it appears that he finally selected the place which i have already alluded to for the sake of his family
when i went down there last time i became acquainted with the history and circumstances of the family and i found that though he may not have been well received in the capital yet that here having been formerly governor
he enjoys considerable popularity and respect his residence moreover is well appointed and of sufficient magnitude and he performs with punctuality and devoutness his religious duties nay almost with more earnestness
than many regular priests here genji interrupted what is his daughter like without doubt answered his companion the beauty of her person is unrivalled and she is endowed with corresponding mental ability
successive governors often offer their addresses to her with great sincerity but no one has ever yet been accepted the dominant idea of her father seems to be this what have i sunk to such a position well i trust at least
that my only daughter may be successful and prosperous in her life he often told her i heard that if she survived him and if his fond hopes for her should not be realized it would be better for her to cast herself into the sea
genji was much interested in this conversation and the rest of the company laughingly said ah she is a woman who is likely to become the queen of the blue main in very truth her father must be an extraordinary being
the attendant who had given this account of the ex governor and his daughter was the son of the present governor of the province he was until lately a kurand and this year had received the title of jugoi his name was yoshikiyo
and he too was a man of gay habits which gave occasion to one of his companions to observe ah perhaps you also have been trying to disappoint the hopes of the aged father another said well our friend has given us a long account
but we must take it with some reserve she must be after all a country maiden and all that i can give credit to is this much that her mother may be a woman of some sense who takes great care of the girl i am only afraid that if any future governor
should be seized with an ardent desire to possess her she would not long remain unattached what possible object could it serve if she were carried to the bottom of the sea the natives of the deep would derive no pleasure from her charms
remarked genji while he himself secretly desired to behold her ay thought his companions with his susceptible temperament what wonder if this story touches him
the day was far advanced and the prince prepared to leave the mountain the hermit however told him that it would be better to spend the evening in the temple and to be further prayed for his attendants also supported this suggestion
so genji made up his mind to stay there saying then i shall not return home till to morrow the days at this season were of long duration and he felt it rather tiresome to pass a whole evening in sedate society so
he went out of the temple and proceeded to the pretty building enclosed by hedges all the attendants had been despatched home except koremitz who accompanied him they peeped at this building through the hedges
in the western antechamber of the house was placed an image of buddha and here an evening service was performed a nun raising a curtain before buddha offered a garland of flowers on the altar and placing a kio or sutra
i e buddhist bible on her arm stool proceeded to read it she seemed to be rather more than forty years old her face was rather round and her appearance was noble her hair was thrown back from her forehead
and was cut short behind which suited her very well she was however pale and weak her voice also being tremulous two maiden attendants went in and out of the room waiting upon her
she was about ten years old or more and wore a white silk dress which fitted her well and which was lined with yellow her hair was waved like a fan and her eyes were red from crying what is the matter
have you quarrelled with the boy exclaimed the nun looking at her there was some resemblance between the features of the child and the nun so genji thought that she possibly might be her daughter inuki has lost my sparrow
which i kept so carefully in the cage replied the child that stupid boy said one of the attendants has he again been the cause of this where can the bird be gone and all this too after we had tamed it with so much care
she then left the room possibly to look for the lost bird the people who addressed her called her shionagon and she appeared to have been the little girl's nurse to you said the nun to the girl
the sparrow may be dearer than i may be who am so ill but have i not told you often that the caging of birds is a sin be a good girl come nearer
the contour of the child like forehead and of the small and graceful head was very pleasing genji as he surveyed the scene from without thought within himself if she is thus fair in her girlhood what will she be when she is grown up
one reason why genji was so much attracted by her was that she greatly resembled a certain lady in the palace to whom he for a long time had been fondly attached the nun stroked the beautiful hair of the child and murmured to herself
how splendid it looks would that she would always strive to keep it thus her extreme youth makes me anxious however her mother departed this life when she only a very young girl but she was quite sensible at the age of this one
supposing that i were to leave her behind i wonder what would happen to her as she thus murmured her countenance became saddened by her forebodings the sight moved genji's sympathy as he gazed
for she silently watched the expression of the nun's features and then with downcast eyes bent her face towards the ground the lustrous hair falling over her back in waves the nun hummed in a tone sufficiently audible to genji
the dews that wet the tender grass at the sun's birth too quickly pass nor e'er can hope to see it rise in full perfection to the skies shionagon who now joined them and heard the above distich
consoled the nun with the following the dews will not so quickly pass nor shall depart before they see the full perfection of the grass they loved so well in infancy at this juncture a priest entered and said
do you know that this very day prince genji visited the hermit in order to be exorcised by him i must forthwith go and see him genji observing this movement quickly returned to the monastery thinking as he went
what a lovely girl he had seen i can guess from this thought he why those gay fellows referring to his attendants so often make their expeditions in search of good fortune what a charming little girl have i seen to day who can she be
would that i could see her morning and evening in the palace where i can no longer see the fair loved one whom she resembles he now returned to the monastery and retired to his quarters soon after a disciple of the priest came
saying my master has just heard of the prince's visit to the mountain and would have waited on him at once but thought it better to postpone calling nevertheless
and feels disappointed that he has not yet had an opportunity of doing so genji said in reply
and therefore by the advice of my friends i came to this mountain to be exorcised if however the spells of the holy man are of no avail to me his reputation might suffer in consequence
for that reason i wish to keep my visit as private as possible nevertheless i will come now to your master thereupon the priest himself soon made his appearance and after briefly relating the circumstances
which had occasioned his retirement to this locality he offered to escort genji to his house saying my dwelling is but a rustic cottage but still i should like you to see at least the pretty mountain streamlet which waters my garden
genji accepted the offer thinking as he went i wonder what the priest has said at home about myself to those to whom i have not yet been introduced but it will be pleasant to see them once more the night was moonless
the fountain was lit up by torches and many lamps also were lighted in the garden genji was taken to an airy room in the southern front of the building where incense which was burning threw its sweet odors around the priest related to him
many interesting anecdotes and also spoke eloquently of man's future destiny genji as he heard him felt some qualms of conscience for he remembered that his own conduct was far from being irreproachable the thought troubled him
that he would never be free from the sting of these recollections through his life and that there was a world to come too oh could i but live in a retreat like this priest as he thus thought of a retreat
he was involuntarily taken by a fancy that how happy would he be if accompanied to such a retreat by such a girl as he had seen in the evening and with this fancy her lovely face rose up before him suddenly he said to the priest
i had once a dream which made me anxious to know who was living in this house and here to day that dream has again come back to my memory the priest laughed and said a strange dream even were you to obtain your wish
it might not gratify you the late lord azechi dainagon died long ago and perhaps you know nothing about him well his widow is my sister and since her husband's death her health has not been satisfactory
so lately she has been living here in retirement ah yes said genji venturing upon a guess and i heard that she bore a daughter to dainagon yes she had a daughter but she died about ten years ago
i know not how it came to pass but she became secretly intimate
but the prince's wife was very jealous and severe so she had much to suffer and put up with i saw personally the truth that care kills more than labor
the little one is her daughter and no wonder that she resembles the one in the palace
how would it be if i had free control over her and had her brought up and educated according to my own notions so thinking he proceeded to say how sad it was that she died did she leave any offspring she gave birth to a child at her death
which was also a girl and about this girl the grandmother is always feeling very anxious then said genji let it not appear strange to you if i say this but i should be very happy to become the guardian of this girl
will you speak to her grandmother about it it is true that there is one to whom my lot is linked but i care but little for her and indeed usually lead a solitary life your offer is very kind replied the priest
but she is extremely young however every woman grows up under the protecting care of some one and so i cannot say much about her only it shall be mentioned to my sister
the priest said this with a grave and even a stern expression on his countenance which caused genji to drop the subject he then asked the prince to excuse him for it was the hour for vespers and as he quitted the room to attend the service
said he would return as soon as it was finished genji was alone a slight shower fell over the surrounding country and the mountain breezes blew cool the waters of the torrent were swollen and the roar of them
might be heard from afar broken and indistinct one might hear the melancholy sound of the sleepy intonation of prayers even those people who have no sorrow of their own often feel melancholy from the circumstances in which they are placed
so genji whose mind was occupied in thought could not slumber here the priest said he was going to vespers but in reality it was later than the proper time for them genji perceived
they were very quiet yet the sound of the telling of beads which accidentally struck the lectern was heard from time to time the room was not far from his own he pulled the screen slightly aside and standing near the door
he struck his fan on his hand to summon some one what can be the matter said an attendant and as she came near to the prince's room she added perhaps my ear was deceived and she began to retire buddha will guide you
fear not the darkness i am here said genji sir replied the servant timidly pray do not think me presumptuous said genji but may i beg you to transmit this poetical effusion to your mistress for me
since first that tender grass i viewed my heart no soft repose e'er feels but gathering mist my sleeve bedews and pity to my bosom steals surely you should know sir
that there is no one here to whom such things can be presented believe me i have my own reasons for this said genji let me beseech you to take it so the attendant went back and presented it to the nun
i do not see the real intent of the effusion thought the nun perhaps he thinks that she is already a woman but she continued wonderingly how could he have known about the young grass
and she then remained silent for a while at last thinking it would be unbecoming to take no notice of it she gave orally the following reply to the attendant to be given to genji you say your sleeve is wet with dew
tis but one night alone for you but there's a mountain moss grows nigh whose leaves from dew are never dry when genji heard this he said
through the mouth of a third person although i thank the lady for even that much i should feel more obliged to her if she would grant me an interview and allow me to explain to her my sincere wishes
this at length obliged the nun to have an interview with the prince he then told her that he called buddha to witness that though his conduct may have seemed bold it was dictated by pure and conscientious motives
all the circumstances of your family history are known to me continued he look upon me i pray as a substitute for your once loved daughter i too when a mere infant
was deprived by death of my best friend my mother and the years and months which then rolled by were fraught with trouble to me in that same position your little one is now allow us then to become friends
we could sympathize with each other twas to reveal these wishes to you that i came here and risked the chance of offending you in doing so believe me i am well disposed at your offer said the nun
but you may have been incorrectly informed it is true that there is a little girl dependent upon myself but she is but a child her society could not afford you any pleasure and forgive me therefore
if i decline your request yet let there be no reserve in the expression of your ideas interrupted genji but before they could talk further the return of the priest put an end to the subject and genji retired to his quarters
after thanking the nun for his kind reception the night passed away and dawn appeared the sky was again hazy and here
the deer too which were to be seen here added to the beauty of the picture gazing around at these genji once more proceeded to the temple
when two find the softer and the manlier that a chain of kindred taste has fastened mind to mind percival's poems in one of the cool green alleys at the oaks
rose and adelaide dinsmore were pacing slowly to and fro each with an arm about the other's waist in girlish fashion while they conversed together in low confidential tones
at a little distance to one side the young son and heir had thrown himself prone upon the grass in the shade of a magnificent oak story book in hand much interested he seemed in his book
with pride and delight the tiny rosebud steady herself against a tree then run with eager tottering steps and a crow of delight into her nurse's outstretched arms to be hugged kissed praised and coaxed to try it over again
hurriedly approaching the little toddler he stooped and held out his hands saying in tender half tremulous tones come darling come to papa she ran into his arms crying
and catching her up he covered her face with kisses
what is it horace asked rose anxiously as they neared each other
i bring you strange tidings my rose he answered low and sadly as she laid her hand upon his arm with an affectionate look up into his face hers grew pale bad news from home she almost gasped
no no i've had no word from our absent relatives or friends and i'm not sure i ought to call it bad news either
it has been going on for years on his part i can see it now but blind fool that i was i never suspected it till to day when it came upon me like a thunderbolt what who
travilla after years of patient waiting he has won her at last our darling and and i've given her to him
papa what
mister dinsmore and the ladies smiled faintly
and i'm afraid will hardly consider it necessary to ask yours
my son
nor i said rose and he's a great deal too old for her
it's really too ridiculous that need not be is not an inevitable consequence of the match smiled mister dinsmore softly caressing the little one clinging about his neck
still conversing on the same subject the minds of all being full of it to the exclusion of every other they moved on as if by common consent towards the house do you think it can be possible that she is really and truly in love with him queried rose
one glance at the beaming faces the rich color coming and going in elsie's cheek the soft glad light in her sweet brown eyes was a sufficient reply to rose's question
but little horace leaving his father's side rushed up to elsie and catching her hand in his cried i'll never give my consent
to the child's surprise elsie only blushed and smiled while mister travilla without the slightest appearance of alarm or vexation said ah my dear boy you may just as well
but the others had come up and inquiring looks smiles and kindly greetings were exchanged mister travilla said rose half playfully but with a tear trembling in her eye
you have stolen a march upon us and i can hardly forgive you just yet i regret that exceedingly my dear madam he answered with a smile that belied his words
well i shall be quite willing to be considered a brother in law
i see a carriage don't you papa it is your uncle edward's said mister travilla yes said adelaide lora and her tribe are in it no doubt and probably missus bowles too
carrie howard you know elsie they have been late in calling some good reason for it and they are none the less welcome remarked rose quickening her pace
twould have been a much more suitable match said lora though i'd have preferred the one in contemplation
but suppose we proceed to business we should have a double wedding i think oh don't talk of it yet said rose with a slight tremble in her voice
adelaide's is to be within the next two months and
and i should have serious objections to being used as a foil to elsie's youth and beauty the howards and mister travilla stayed to tea and shortly before that meal the party was increased by the arrival of walter dinsmore and missus dick percival
and left its ugly pencilings here and there over the once pretty face so that it already began to look old and care worn she was very gayly dressed in the height of the fashion and rather overloaded with jewelry
but powder and rouge could not altogether conceal the ravages of discontent and passion
so almost childish in its sweet purity and innocence of expression so you are single yet enna said with a covert sneer
will they said mister dinsmore with a laugh in which all present joined enna herself excepted
you needn't laugh said enna
to bear that reproach is not the worst calamity that can befall a woman replied mister dinsmore gravely then changed the subject by a kind inquiry in regard to arthur
chapter twenty two a prisoner after some consultation between the leaders
it was known to possess a garrison of some sixty men only and although strong
and taking two mounted retainers he started the force remaining in the forest some eight miles distant
i will ride he said close up to the castle walls my armour is good and i care not for arrow or crossbow bolt it were best you fell back
archie then rode forward toward the castle
he turned aside and rode to the edge of the fosse that they suspected that he was a foe running to the walls they opened fire with arrows upon him but by this time archie had seen all that he required
across the promontory ran a sort of fissure some ten yards wide and as many deep from the opposite edge of this the wall rose abruptly
several arrows had struck his armour and glanced off and archie now turned and quietly rode away his horse being protected by mail like himself
coming at full gallop toward the promontory was a strong body of english horse flying the banner of sir ingram de umfraville
and drawing his sword he galloped at full speed to meet them as he neared them sir ingram himself one of the doughtiest of edward's knights rode out with levelled lance to meet him at full gallop the knights charged each other
striking the knight forward on to his horse's neck
such a conflict could not last long
when he recovered he was in a room in the keep of the castle two knights were sitting at a table near the couch on which he was lying ah exclaimed one on seeing archie open his eyes and move i am glad to see your senses coming back to you sir prisoner
seeing that in this war we must needs send our prisoners to king edward whose treatment of them is not i must e e n own gentle for indeed you fought like any paladin i deemed not that there was a knight in scotland save the bruce himself
who could have so borne himself and never did i ingram de umfraville
my head rings with it still my helmet will never be fit to wear again and as the leech said when plastering my head had not my skull been of the thickest you had assuredly cut through it
i am sir archibald forbes archie replied
there is none in the scottish ranks against whom king edward is so bitter
and now under bruce it is ever coming to the front
nevertheless sir knight i will send to king edward begging him to look mercifully upon your case seeing how bravely and honourably you have fought thanks for your good offices sir ingram
have fought for my country against a foreign enemy but king edward does not hold himself to be a foreign enemy the knight said
it were an easy way archie rejoined to gain a possession to nominate a puppet from among the nobles already your vassals
but i own to you that seeing i have fought beside him in gascony when he as a feudal vassal of the king of france made war upon his lord i cannot see that the offence is an unpardonable one when you scotchmen do the same here
however sir i regret much that you have fallen into my hands for to carlisle
i must forthwith send you i must leave you here with the governor for in half an hour i mount and ride away with my troop he will do his best to make your sojourn here easy until such time as i may have an opportunity of sending you by ship to carlisle and now farewell sir he said giving archie his hand
thanks sir ingram archie replied i have ever heard of you as a brave knight and if this misfortune must fall upon me
the governor now had a meal with some wine set before archie and then left him alone i am not at carlisle yet archie said to himself unless i mistake we shall have sir james thundering at the gate before morning
and e e n now he will be marching towards the castle
a prodigious uproar raged in the castle
three or four minutes later the governor with six soldiers two of whom bore torches entered the room you must come along at once sir knight the governor said
it was in vain for archie to think of resistance he was unarmed and helpless two of the soldiers laid hands on him and hurried him along until they reached the lower chambers of the castle the governor unlocked a door and with one of the torch bearers led the way down some narrow steps
another door was opened and the fresh breeze blew upon them as they issued forth
archie and the six soldiers entered her four of the latter took the oars
with muttered curses the men bent to their oars and every minute took them further away from knockbawn
and the possibility of his being sent off by sea had not entered his mind
he had noticed on embarking that there were no other boats lying at the foot of the promontory and pursuit would therefore be impossible
where archie was delivered by the soldiers to the governor with a message from their commander saying that the prisoner sir archibald forbes was a captive of great importance and was by the orders of sir ingram de umfraville who had captured him
to be sent on to carlisle to the king when a ship should be going thither a fortnight passed before a vessel sailed archie was placed in irons and so securely guarded in his dungeon that escape was altogether impossible
the winds were contrary and the vessel was ten days upon the voyage
the aged monarch in the last extremity of sickness lay upon a couch several of his nobles stood around him so he said as the prisoner was brought before him this is archibald forbes the one companion of the traitor wallace who has hitherto escaped my vengeance
so young sir you have ventured to brave my anger and to think yourself capable of coping with the lion of england i have done my utmost sir king archie said firmly such as it was for the freedom of my country
nor i ever took vow of allegiance to you maintaining ever that the kings of england had neither claim nor right over scotland
but others will take our places and so the fight will go on until scotland is free scotland will never be free the king said with angry vehemence
man woman or child to bear the name
with these words archie turned and walked proudly from the king's presence an involuntary murmur of admiration at his fearless bearing escaped from the knights and nobles assembled round the couch of the dying monarch
when two days later archie entered the gates of berwick castle the bells of the city were tolling for a horseman had just ridden in with the news that edward had expired on the evening before
his body should be boiled in a cauldron until the flesh should be separated from the bones after which the flesh should be committed to the earth but the bones preserved and that as often as the people of scotland rebelled
his heart he directed should be conveyed to and deposited in the holy land
in many respects his reign was a great and glorious one for he was more than a great conqueror he was to england a wise and noble king
greatest of the plantagenets historians have striven to excuse and palliate his conduct toward scotland
which had not a shadow of foundation save from the submission of her anglo norman nobles almost all of whom were his own vassals and owned estates in england were just and righteous such is not the true function of history
edward's sole claim to scotland was that he was determined to unite under his rule england scotland wales and ireland
or whatever you have laid up in store for me
my darling how very very lovely you are he said the words bursting spontaneously from his lips
there is no flaw in your beauty and your face beams with happiness papa turned flatterer she cried springing up and allowing him to draw her to his knee i'm waiting for the lecture she said presently
you know i always like to have disagreeable things over as soon as possible who told you there was to be a lecture
i don't remember nor i either so let us to business
do you know how much you are worth not precisely sir she answered demurely taking the chair and folding her hands pensively in her lap but very little i presume since you have given me away for nothing
but you belong to me still she looked at him with glistening eyes thank you dearest papa
please excuse my wilful misunderstanding of your query
my dear child it is fully three times that papa is it indeed
which you know has been a very long one you own several stores and a dwelling house in new orleans a fine plantation with between two and three hundred negroes
no the property is yours i have been only your steward and must now render up an account to you for the way in which i have handled your property you render an account to me
my own dear father she said low and tremulously while her face flushed crimson
i am fully satisfied and very
he regarded her with a smile of mingled tenderness and amusement while softly patting and stroking the small white hand laid lovingly upon his could i could any father do less for his own beloved child he asked
not you i know papa but may i ask you a question as many as you like
i mean how much do you own in money land et cetera something less than a million
of mine that wouldn't balance the scales either he said laughingly and besides mister travilla has now some right to be consulted
he spoke very gravely and elsie's face reflected the expression of his no i do not wish it now papa she said in a low sweet voice i will undertake it asking him for wisdom and grace to do it aright
they were busy for the next hour or two over the papers there cried elsie at length we have examined the last one and i think i understand it all pretty thoroughly i think you do and now another thing
ought you not to go and see for yourself your property in louisiana elsie assented on condition that he would take her certainly my dear child can you suppose i would ever think of permitting you to go alone thank you papa and
painful associations no doubt poor creature
was sold away from her and there she lost her children
ah papa she cried laying her cheek to his please don't talk so it hurts me then dearest i shall not say it again though indeed i was not reproaching you it is right
very right that husband and wife should be more than all the world beside to each other elsie's cheek crimsoned
always contriving for my enjoyment mister dinsmore followed his wife from the room
but i have a little business with him yes i'm very glad it is a good plan but don't hurry elsie away
i promise to be careful to obey orders he answered sportively is that all
can't you go too you and aunt adelaide four make as nice a party as two and the babies can be driven over quite safely with their mammies to take care of them
said her husband we would be very glad no
putting on an air of pretended pique babies do you call me a baby
i beg ten thousand pardons
i will try not papa she answered i beg your pardon horace dear and assure you i think you are quite a manly young man now i must prepare for my ride papa
cromwell had to determine whether he would put to hazard the attachment of his party the attachment of his army his own greatness nay his own life in an attempt which would probably have been vain to save a prince whom no engagement could bind
with many struggles and misgivings and probably not without many prayers the decision was made charles was left to his fate the military saints resolved that in defiance of the old laws of the realm
and of the almost universal sentiment of the nation the king should expiate his crimes with his blood he for a time expected a death like that of his unhappy predecessors edward the second and richard the second
but he was in no danger of such treason those who had him in their gripe were not midnight stabbers what they did they did in order that it might be a spectacle to heaven and earth and that it might be held in everlasting remembrance
to a party bent on effecting a complete political and social revolution in order to accomplish their purpose it was necessary that they should first break in pieces every part of the machinery of the government
the lords unanimously rejected the proposition that the king should be brought to trial their house was instantly closed no court known to the law would take on itself the office of judging the fountain of justice
a revolutionary tribunal was created that tribunal pronounced charles a tyrant a traitor a murderer and a public enemy and his head was severed from his shoulders before thousands of spectators in front of the banqueting hall
of his own palace in no long time it became manifest that those political and religious zealots to whom this deed is to be ascribed had committed not only a crime but an error
all his regal dignity and confronting death with dauntless courage gave utterance to the feelings of his oppressed people manfully refused to plead before a court unknown to the law appealed from military violence to the principles of the constitution
asked by what right the house of commons had been purged of its most respectable members and the house of lords deprived of its legislative functions and told his weeping hearers that he was defending not only his own cause but theirs
reaction which never ceased till the throne had again been set up in all its old dignity at first however the slayers of the king seemed to have derived new energy from that sacrament of blood by which they had bound themselves closely together
and separated themselves for ever from the great body of their countrymen england was declared a commonwealth the house of commons reduced to a small number of members was nominally the supreme power in the state in fact
the great majority of the roundheads the anglican church the presbyterian church the roman catholic church england scotland ireland yet such was his genius and resolution
that he was able to overpower and crush everything that crossed his path to make himself more absolute master of his country than any of her legitimate kings had been and to make his country more dreaded and respected than she had been during many generations
under the rule of her legitimate kings england had already ceased to struggle but the two other kingdoms which had been governed by the stuarts were hostile to the new republic the independent party was equally odious to the roman catholics of ireland
and to the presbyterians of scotland both those countries lately in rebellion against charles the first now acknowledged the authority of charles the second but everything yielded to the vigour and ability of cromwell
in a few months he subjugated ireland as ireland had never been subjugated during the five centuries of slaughter which had elapsed since the landing of the first norman settlers
by making the english and protestant population decidedly predominant for this end he gave the rein to the fierce enthusiasm of his followers waged war resembling that which israel waged on the canaanites smote the idolaters with the edge of the sword
drove many thousands to the continent shipped off many thousands to the west indies and supplied the void thus made by pouring in numerous colonists of saxon blood and of calvinistic faith strange to say under that iron rule
and to clamour for protecting laws from ireland the victorious chief
he had consented to profess himself a presbyterian
the austere puritans
under their inspection and control a solemn and melancholy court this mock royalty was of short duration in two great battles cromwell annihilated the military force of scotland charles fled for his life and
with extreme difficulty escaped the fate of his father the ancient kingdom of the stuarts was reduced for the first time to profound submission of that independence so manfully defended against the mightiest and ablest of the plantagenets
no vestige was left the english parliament made laws for scotland english judges held assizes in scotland even that stubborn church which has held its own against so many governments scarce dared to utter an audible murmur
the parliament forgot that it was but the creature of the army the army was less disposed than ever to submit to the dictation of the parliament indeed
the few members who made up what was contemptuously called the rump of the house of commons had no more claim than the military chiefs to be esteemed the representatives of the nation the dispute was soon brought to a decisive issue cromwell filled the house with armed men
the speaker was pulled out of his chair the mace taken from the table the room cleared and the door locked the nation which loved neither of the contending parties but which was forced in its own despite
yet were certain limitations still imposed on him by the very army to which he owed his immense authority that singular body of men was for the most part composed of zealous republicans
and pined for the fleshpots the taskmasters and the idolatries of egypt the object of the warlike saints who surrounded cromwell was the settlement of a free and pious commonwealth
to establish by their aid a dictatorship such as no king had ever exercised but it was probable that their aid would be at once withdrawn from a ruler who even under strict constitutional restraints
the kingly name and dignity the sentiments of cromwell were widely different he was not what he had been
he had during the thirteen years which followed gone through a political education of no common kind he had been a chief actor in a succession of revolutions he had been long the soul and at last the head of a party
pacified and regulated kingdoms it would have been strange indeed if his notions had been still the same as in the days when his mind was principally occupied by his fields and his religion and when the greatest events which diversified the course of his life were a cattle fair
or a prayer meeting at huntingdon he saw that some schemes of innovation for which he had once been zealous whether good or bad in themselves were opposed to the general feeling of the country and that if he persevered in those schemes he had nothing before him
but constant troubles which must be suppressed by the constant use of the sword he therefore wished to restore in all essentials that ancient constitution which the majority of the people had always loved and for which they now pined
the course afterwards taken by monk was not open to cromwell the memory of one terrible day separated the great regicide for ever from the house of stuart what remained was that he should mount the ancient english throne and reign according to the ancient english polity
to the kingly office than to king charles the first or king charles the second would soon kiss the hand of king oliver the peers who now remained sullenly at their country houses
would when summoned to their house by the writ of a king in possession gladly resume their ancient functions northumberland and bedford manchester and pembroke would be proud to bear the crown and the spurs the sceptre and the globe
before the restorer of aristocracy a sentiment of loyalty would gradually bind the people to the new dynasty and
the royal dignity might descend with general acquiescence to his posterity the ablest royalists were of opinion that these views were correct and that if cromwell had been permitted to follow his own judgment the exiled line would never
have been restored but his plan was directly opposed to the feelings of the only class which he dared not offend the name of king was hateful to the soldiers some of them were indeed unwilling to see the administration in the hands of any single person
the great majority however were disposed to support their general as elective first magistrate of a commonwealth against all factions which might resist his authority
or that the dignity which was the just reward of his personal merit should be declared hereditary in his family
as the army would bear that his elevation to power might not seem to be merely his own act he convoked a council composed partly of persons on whose support he could depend and partly of persons whose opposition he might safely defy
but in a few years he thought it safe to proceed further and to restore almost every part of the ancient system under hew names and forms the title of king was not revived
girt with a sword of state clad in a robe of purple and presented with a rich bible in westminster hall his office was not declared hereditary but he was permitted to name his successor and none could doubt that he would name his son
a house of commons was a necessary part of the new polity in constituting this body the protector showed a wisdom and a public spirit which were not duly appreciated by his contemporaries
the vices of the old representative system though by no means so serious as they afterwards became had already been remarked by farsighted men cromwell reformed that system on the same principles on which mister pitt
very few unrepresented towns had yet grown into importance of those towns the most considerable were manchester leeds and halifax representatives were given to all three
an addition was made to the number of the members for the capital the elective franchise was placed on such a footing that every man of substance whether possessed of freehold estates in land or not had a vote for the county in which he resided
were summoned to the assembly which was to legislate at westminster for every part of the british isles to create a house of lords was a less easy task democracy does not require the support of prescription
monarchy has often stood without that support but a patrician order is the work of time oliver found already existing a nobility opulent highly considered and as popular with the commonalty
that he offered to the chiefs of illustrious families seats in his new senate they conceived that they could not accept a nomination to an upstart assembly
the protector was therefore under the necessity of filling his upper house with new men who during the late stirring times had made themselves conspicuous
how oliver's parliaments were constituted however was practically of little moment for he possessed the means of conducting the administration without their support and in defiance of their opposition
his wish seems to have been to govern constitutionally and to substitute the empire of the laws for that of the sword but he soon found that hated as he was both by royalists and presbyterians
he could be safe only by being absolute the first house of commons which the people elected by his command questioned his authority and was dissolved without having passed a single act his second house of commons
moderated only by the wisdom the sobriety and the magnanimity of the despot the country was divided into military districts those districts were placed under the command of major generals
both of cavaliers and levellers the loyal gentry declared that they were still as ready as ever to risk their lives for the old government and the old dynasty if there were the slightest hope of success but to rush
at the head of their serving men and tenants on the pikes of brigades victorious in a hundred battles and sieges would be a frantic waste of innocent and honourable blood both royalists and republicans
encompassed him thick on every side had he been a cruel licentious and rapacious prince the nation might have found courage in despair and might have made a convulsive effort to free itself from military domination
but the grievances which the country suffered though such as excited serious discontent were by no means such as impel great masses of men to stake their lives their fortunes and the welfare of their families against fearful odds
was not heavy when compared with that of the neighbouring states and with the resources of england property was secure even the cavalier who refrained from giving disturbance to the new settlement enjoyed in peace
whatever the civil troubles had left hem the laws were violated only in cases where the safety of the protector's person and government was concerned justice was administered between man and man
had there been so little religious persecution the unfortunate roman catholics indeed were held to be scarcely within the pale of christian charity but the clergy of the fallen anglican church
in spite of the strong opposition of jealous traders and fanatical theologians permitted to build a synagogue in london
that the tyrant suffered none but himself to wrong his country and that
he had at least given her glory in exchange
the most formidable power in the world dictated terms of peace to the united provinces avenged the common injuries of christendom on the pirates of barbary vanquished the spaniards by land and sea
seized one of the finest west indian islands and acquired on the flemish coast a fortress which consoled the national pride for the loss of calais she was supreme on the ocean she was the head of the protestant interest
all the reformed churches scattered over roman catholic kingdoms acknowledged cromwell as their guardian the huguenots of languedoc the shepherds who in the hamlets of the alps professed a protestantism older than that of augsburg
unless favour were shown to the people of god the english guns should be heard in the castle of saint angelo in truth there was nothing which cromwell had
unhappily for him he had no opportunity of displaying his admirable military talents except against the inhabitants of the british isles while he lived his power stood firm an object of mingled aversion admiration
and dread to his subjects few indeed loved his government but those who hated it most hated it less than they feared it had it been a worse government it might perhaps have been overthrown in spite of all its strength had it been a weaker government
it would certainly have been overthrown in spite of all its merits but it had moderation enough to abstain from those oppressions which drive men mad and it had a force and energy which none but men driven mad by oppression would venture to encounter
the manner in which the court abused its victory made the remission speedy and complete every moderate man was shocked by the insolence cruelty and perfidy with which the nonconformists were treated
the penal laws had effectually purged the oppressed party of those insincere members whose vices had disgraced it and had made it again an honest and pious body of men the puritan a conqueror
a ruler a persecutor
had been detested the puritan betrayed and evil entreated
in his prosperity had claimed brotherhood with him hunted from his home forbidden under severe penalties to pray or receive the sacrament according to his conscience yet still firm in his resolution
when it was noised abroad that the court was not disposed to treat papists with the same rigour which had been shown to presbyterians a vague suspicion that the king and the duke were not sincere protestants
sprang up and gathered strength many persons too who had been disgusted by the austerity and hypocrisy of the saints of the commonwealth began to be still more disgusted by the open profligacy of the court and of the cavaliers
and were disposed to doubt whether the sullen preciseness of praise god barebone might not be preferable to the outrageous profaneness and licentiousness of the buckinghams and sedleys even immoral men
complained that the government treated the most serious matters as trifles and made trifles its serious business a king might be pardoned for amusing his leisure with wine wit and beauty but it was intolerable
that he should sink into a mere lounger and voluptuary that the gravest affairs of state should be neglected and that the public service should be starved and the finances deranged in order that harlots and parasites might grow rich
a large body of royalists joined in these complaints and added many sharp reflections on the king's ingratitude his whole revenue indeed would not have sufficed to reward them all in proportion to their own consciousness of desert
for to every distressed gentleman who had fought under rupert or derby his own services seemed eminently meritorious and his own sufferings eminently severe every one had flattered himself that whatever became of the rest
and that the restoration of the monarchy would be followed by the restoration of his own dilapidated fortunes none of these expectants could restrain his indignation when he found that he was as poor under the king
after cutting down their oaks and melting their plate to help his father now wandered about in threadbare suits and did not know where to turn for a meal at the same time a sudden fall of rents took place
saw with indignation the increasing splendour and profusion of whitehall and were immovably fixed in the belief that the money which ought to have supported their households had by some inexplicable process
gone to the favourites of the king the minds of men were now in such a temper that every public act excited discontent charles had taken to wife catharine princess of portugal
the marriage was generally disliked and the murmurs became loud when it appeared that the king was not likely to have any legitimate posterity dunkirk won by oliver from spain was sold to lewis the fourteenth king of france
had regarded the house of austria was it wise men asked at such a time to make any addition to the strength of a monarchy already too formidable dunkirk was moreover prized by the people
not merely as a place of arms and as a key to the low countries but also as a trophy of english valour it was to the subjects of charles what calais had been to an earlier generation and what the rock of gibraltar
but it was notorious that the charges of dunkirk fell far short of the sums which were wasted at court in vice and folly it seemed insupportable that a sovereign profuse beyond example in all that regarded his own pleasures
it could in no way promote the national interests it involved us in inglorious unprofitable
singularly unfavourable to the health and vigour of the english race but the murmurs excited by these errors were faint when compared with the clamours which soon broke forth the government engaged in war with the united provinces
the house of commons readily voted sums unexampled in our history sums exceeding those which had supported the fleets and armies of cromwell at the time when his power was the terror of all the world
ill qualified to contend against the great men who then directed the arms of holland
was a task too hard for that administration
the king feasted with the ladies of his seraglio and amused himself with hunting a moth about the supper room then at length tardy justice was done to the memory of oliver everywhere men magnified his valour
genius and patriotism everywhere it was remembered how when he ruled all foreign powers had trembled at the name of england how the states general now so haughty had crouched at his feet
and how when it was known that he was no more amsterdam was lighted up as for a great deliverance and children ran along the canals shouting for joy that the devil was dead even royalists
exclaimed that the state could be saved only by calling the old soldiers of the commonwealth to arms soon the capital began to feel the miseries of a blockade fuel was scarcely to be procured tilbury fort
the place where elizabeth had with manly spirit hurled foul scorn at parma and spain was insulted by the invaders the roar of foreign guns was heard
if the enemy advanced the tower should be abandoned great multitudes of people assembled in the streets crying out that england was bought and sold the houses and carriages of the ministers were attacked by the populace
and it seemed likely that the government would have to deal at once
a pestilence surpassing in horror any that during three centuries had visited the island swept away in six mouths more than a hundred thousand human beings and scarcely had the dead cart ceased to go its rounds
had there been a general election while the nation was smarting under so many disgraces and misfortunes it is probable that the roundheads would have regained ascendency in the state but the parliament was still the cavalier parliament
encroaching on the province of the executive government the gentlemen who after the restoration filled the lower house though they abhorred the puritan name
the commons alone could legally grant him money they could not be prevented from putting their own price on their grants the price which they put on their grants was this that they should be allowed to interfere with every one of the king's prerogatives
to wring from him his consent to laws which he disliked to break up cabinets to dictate the course of foreign policy and even to direct the administration of war to the royal office and the royal person they loudly and sincerely
professed the strongest attachment but to clarendon they owed no allegiance and they fell on him as furiously as their predecessors had fallen on strafford the minister's virtues and vices alike contributed to his ruin
he was the ostensible head of the administration and was therefore held responsible even for those acts which he had strongly but vainly opposed in council he was regarded by the puritans
and by all who pitied them as an implacable bigot
who wished to repair their ruined fortunes
the presbyterians of scotland attributed to him the downfall of their church the papists of ireland attributed to him the loss of their lands as father of the duchess of york
he had an obvious motive for wishing that there might be a barren queen and he was therefore suspected of having purposely recommended one the sale of dunkirk was justly imputed to him
for the war with holland he was with less justice held accountable his hot temper his arrogant deportment the indelicate eagerness with which he grasped at riches the ostentation with which he squandered them
his picture gallery filled with masterpieces of vandyke which had once been the property of ruined cavaliers his palace which reared its long and stately front right opposite to the humbler residence of our kings
drew on him much deserved and some undeserved censure
that the rage of the populace was chiefly directed his windows were broken the trees of his garden were cut down and a gibbet was set up before his door but nowhere was he more detested than in the house of commons
he was unable to perceive that the time was fast approaching when that house if it continued to exist at all must be supreme in the state when the management of that house would be the most important department of politics and when
disgusted and alarmed him nothing would have induced him to put the great seal to a writ for raising shipmoney or to give his voice in council for committing a member of parliament to the tower on account of words spoken in debate
but both in public and in the closet he on every occasion expressed his concern that gentlemen so sincerely attached to monarchy should unadvisedly encroach on the prerogative of the monarch
widely as they differed in spirit from the members of the long parliament they yet he said imitated that parliament in meddling with matters which lay beyond the sphere of the estates of the realm
and which were subject to the authority of the crown alone the country he maintained would never be well governed till the knights of shires and the burgesses were content to be what their predecessors had been in the days of elizabeth
inconsistent with the old polity of england towards the young orators who were rising to distinction and authority in the lower house his deportment was ungracious and he succeeded in making them with scarcely an exception
his deadly enemies indeed one of his most serious faults was an inordinate contempt for youth and this contempt was the more unjustifiable
for so great a part of his life had been passed abroad that he knew less of that world in which he found himself on his return than many who might have been his sons for these reasons he was disliked by the commons
for very different reasons he was equally disliked by the court
even when he was a young law student living much with men of wit and pleasure his natural gravity and his religious principles had to a great extent
in advanced years and in declining health to turn libertine on the vices of the young and gay he looked with an aversion almost as bitter and contemptuous as that which he felt for the theological errors of the sectaries
he missed no opportunity of showing his scorn of the mimics
the chancellor fell with a great ruin the seal was taken from him the commons impeached him his head was not safe he fled from the country an act was passed which doomed him to perpetual exile
and those who had assailed and undermined him began to struggle for the fragments of his power
took off the edge of the public appetite for revenge yet was the anger excited by the profusion and negligence of the government and by the miscarriages of the late war by no means extinguished the counsellors of charles
with the fate of the chancellor before their eyes were anxious for their own safety they accordingly advised their master to soothe the irritation which prevailed both in the parliament and throughout the country and for that end
to take a step which has no parallel in the history of the house of stuart
eight months passed during which the strange incident gradually faded from my mind the increased number of persons who were being sent from all parts of russia to siberia without trial
had become a subject of much comment in england
and the shocking brutality and inhuman treatment to which the oft times innocent convicts were subjected were continually reaching london from various sources and public feeling against russian autocracy
had risen to fever heat hence it was that one day when i entered my office i received instructions to proceed without delay to siberia in order to inspect the general condition of the prisoners and ascertain the truth
of the harrowing details the prospect of this mission delighted me for not only was it certain to be fraught with a good deal of exciting adventure but it would also enable me to complete the novel already half written
and which i had been compelled to put aside owing to lack of information regarding life in the asiatic penal settlements that evening after calling upon grigorovitch and informing him of my projected journey i returned home
and sat at my writing table far into the night finishing some work upon which i had been engaged the whole of the following day i spent in packing my traps and otherwise preparing for a long absence in the evening
while i was busy writing some letters the servant announced that a young lady who refused her name desired to see me i was not particularly clean and i confess
that just then i was too much engaged in making arrangements for my departure to think of anything else however my curiosity got the better of me and i told her to admit the stranger you i cried
we were compelled to leave hurriedly and as the secret police were watching both you and me it was unsafe for us to meet to night i have risked coming to you for a most important purpose
she added looking up into my face earnestly oh what's that i asked i want you to take me to siberia to siberia you i repeated in astonishment yes i hear you are going
any news affecting us travels rapidly i i have an intense desire to see what the country beyond the urals is like who told you i was going i'm not at liberty to say she replied all i ask
is that i may be allowed to accompany you i have here sufficient money to defray the cost of my journey and she drew from the breast of her dress a large packet of russian bank notes i shook my head replying
that siberia was no place for a delicately reared woman and pointed out the uninviting prospect of a winter journey of five thousand miles in a sleigh besides i added
your connection with the terrorists would render it unsafe for you to return to russia
she asked earnestly after a few moments silence scarcely of course i should not travel in this dress but would assume the disguise of a russian lad in order to act as your servant and interpreter
as for les convenances and shrugging her shoulders she pulled a little grimace and added bah we are not lovers i asked for news of her father but she informed me that he was in zurich
she refused to give me her address and all argument was useless the point she urged that she would be companion and interpreter combined impressed me and ere
i had finally promised she had given me instructions that i should in applying for my passport from the russian embassy also
four evenings later i was on the platform at charing cross station
and chatting to two old fleet street friends who had come to see the last of me when a rather short young man enveloped in a long heavy ulster approached and touching his cap respectfully said good evening sir
i hope i'm not late no plenty of time i said indifferently although i had a difficult task to keep my countenance turning to my friends i explained that's my interpreter ivanovitch meanwhile
as i for the first time regarded her critically her disguise was so complete that for the moment when she had greeted me i had been deceived laughing at her successful make up she removed her round fur cap
by cutting her hair shorter to make it appear like a man's underneath her overcoat she wore a suit of thick rough tweed and with great gusto she related how she had filled up her large boots with wool she produced
the inevitable cigarettes and we spent the two hours between london and queenborough in smoking and chatting to describe in detail our long railway journey across europe by way of berlin and moscow
would occupy too much space suffice it to say that i travelled through holy russia with a passport which bore the vise of the minister of the interior at petersburg and which ensured
myself and my servant civility and attention on the part of police officials at length we passed through the urals and alighted
and sheepskin boots we had bought took our seats the baggage and provisions having been packed in the bottom of the conveyance
soon we were out upon the great post road and as far as the eye could see there was no other object visible on the broad snow covered plain but the long straight line of black telegraph poles and striped verst posts
that marked our route day after day we continued our journey often passing through miles of gloomy pine forests and then out again upon the great barren steppes frequently we met convoys of convicts
pitiful despairing bands of men and women dragging their clanking chains with them wearily and trudging onward towards a life to which death would be preferable
no mercy was shown them by their mounted escorts for if a prisoner stumbled and fell from sheer exhaustion he was beaten back to his senses
with the terrible knout which each cossack carried on dark nights we halted at post houses but when the moon shone we continued our drive snatching sleep as best we could
we lived upon our tinned meats and biscuits the post houses which are usually about twenty to thirty miles apart supplying tea and other necessaries although the journey was terribly monotonous and uncomfortable with a biting wind
and the intense white of the snow affecting one's eyes painfully my fair fellow traveller uttered no word of complaint all day she would sit beside me chatting in english laughing smoking cigarettes and now and then
carrying on a conversation in russian with our black bearded fierce looking driver afterwards interpreting his observations indeed
the more light hearted she became arriving at last at tomsk we remained there three weeks during which time i visited the kameras of the forwarding prison
ispravniks or police officers during the repeated examination of our baggage at almost every small town we passed through since leaving england time had slipped rapidly away until one day after we had left tomsk
and were well on our way towards yeniseisk i chanced to take out my diary i discovered that it was the last day of the old year the journey had been most cheerless and wearisome it was now about four o'clock in the afternoon
and the sun which had struggled out for half an hour
you must be terribly tired i said recollecting that it was two days since we drove out of tomsk and that owing to the lack of accommodation at the post houses we had been unable to rest no i'm not very tired she replied
but i feel so cramped and cold never mind i said cheerfully placing my arm tenderly
around her waist and drawing her closer to me in a couple of hours we shall get something hot to eat she did not answer but in a few moments she again fell asleep with her head upon my shoulder and i too also dozed off
our lonely halting place was like all siberian post houses built of pine logs and little better than a large hut devoid of any vestige of comfort and horribly dirty
the sitting room was a bare uncarpeted place with a large brick stove in the centre a picture of the virgin upon the wall a wooden table and three or four rough chairs while the little dens
that served as sleeping apartments contained nothing beyond a chair and a straw mattress it was not long after our arrival that the great samovar was placed upon the table and together with the two sinister looking fellows who kept the place
we sat down to a rough uncivilised meal the evening we spent in smoking and drinking vodka prascovie and i being able to carry on a private conversation by speaking english i asked why she was so unusually thoughtful
but she replied that it was only because she was in need of rest i am sorry i am breaking down she said apologetically and laughing at the same time but i'm only a woman it was indeed very kind of you to have been bothered with me
don't mention it i said i'm sure i'm indebted to you for your knowledge of russian assists me in my work do you remember i added that it is a year to night since we first met was it
she asked in a strange tone of alarm ah i remember i i was happy then wasn't i are you not happy now i inquired yes very she replied smiling but i'm tired and must go to my room
or i shall be fit for nothing to morrow very well i replied i'll tell you to go in a few minutes then after joining the driver and post house keepers
i shall require you no longer gathering up her coat hat and gloves she bowed
after smoking for another hour i also sought my dirty little den in the heart of siberia one must expect to rough it therefore i took my revolver from my belt placed it under my pillow
strapped my fur rug around my neck and stretching myself upon the hard pallet soon dropped off to sleep next morning when i had dressed i knocked several times at prascovie's door but received no reply subsequently i pushed it open and entered
discovering to my surprise that the room was empty notwithstanding my limited knowledge of russian i managed to make the men understand that my servant was missing and they searched the premises but without avail they examined the road outside
but as it had been snowing heavily during the night no footprints were visible
while i remained in charge of the post house the three men mounted the horses and rode out in different directions thinking it possible
towards evening however they returned after a long and futile search anxious to solve the mystery and reluctant to leave without her i remained there several days as the nearest dwelling was twenty miles distant and her overcoat and hat still remained in her room
her disappearance was all the more puzzling i examined her box but found nothing in it except articles of male wearing apparel
with heavy heart and sorely puzzled over the mystery i continued my lonely journey towards the mines of yeniseisk having inspected them i journeyed south alone and dejected and investigated
of prascovie souvaroff who owes to you the safe return of his beloved wife sends this little gift as a slight recognition of the kindness she received at your hands there was neither name address nor date nothing to show who was the anonymous husband the mystery was solved in a most unexpected manner
some months after the results of my investigations had been published i chanced one night to attend the banquet of the association of foreign consuls held in the whitehall rooms of the hotel metropole
as usual a number of the corps diplomatique were present and among them
one of the attaches of the russian embassy an old friend of mine whom i had not seen since my return i congratulate you on your lucky escape old fellow he exclaimed after we had exchanged cordial greetings escape
for i imagined no one was aware that she had been my companion
by jove it was quite a romance travelling all that distance with a pretty companion and then losing her on the yeniseisk steppe it was lucky for you however that she left you in time otherwise you would in all probability
or some other place equally delightful by this time explain yourself i urged impatiently you're talking in enigmas
the man you knew as souvaroff
wealthy and popular at our court at petersburg but he was suspected of political intrigue and sentenced to lifelong exile and hard labour in siberia after his banishment prascovie
who was then living at moscow was detected by the police distributing some revolutionary pamphlets for which she also was sent to siberia
at the prison at irkutsk father and daughter met while there prince pavlovitch kostomaroff the governor of the yeniseisk province
discovered her and offered her marriage
the prince not being governor of the province in which his wife was imprisoned
controller of the prison was ignorant of the secret union but it so happened that he also became enamoured of his fair captive at length in return for her promise to marry him he allowed her and her father comparative freedom
as might be expected they were not long in taking advantage of this for within a fortnight aided by the prince and provided with a passport obtained by him they managed to escape and come to england and what of kobita
he quickly discovered the ruse and ascertained that the prince had connived at their escape our secret police tracked the fugitives to their hiding place in london still unaware that she was the prince's wife kobita obtained leave of absence
before his arrival however he wrote urging her to marry him declaring that if she refused he would expose the prince as aiding and abetting dangerous nihilists prascovie
and deprived of liberty was at her wits ends she was in desperation when two years ago kobita arrived in london
in the vicinity and offered to send his servant to direct him to the house in question to this prascovie's admirer had no objection and shaking souvaroff warmly by the hand wished him au revoir and started off accompanied by the servant
in search of the imaginary neighbour the hand shaking proved fatal for he had not walked far before he fell dead the whole thing had been carefully planned and the trusty servant
who had been instructed how to act extracted everything from the dead man's pockets that would lead to identification hence his burial in a nameless grave do you assert that he was murdered
and we lost sight of them until she called upon you and accompanied you in disguise to siberia once or twice you very narrowly escaped being apprehended indeed on one occasion orders were telegraphed
to tomsk for the arrest of your companion and yourself because the declaration on your passport regarding
was known to be false by the intervention of a high official however
and you were allowed to pass what has become of prascovie's father i asked in astonishment surely he was not kobita's murderer for the man died of heart disease you are mistaken he died of obeah poison
souvaroff who was once a consul in hayti knew of the secret poison which the natives extract from the gecko lizard and which cannot be detected so deadly is it that one drop is sufficient to produce a fatal result
and the manner in which he administered it was somewhat novel he prepared to receive his enemy by allowing the nail of the forefinger of his right hand to grow long afterwards thinning it to a point as fine as a needle
upon this point he placed the poison and kept a glove on until kobita's arrival then in wishing him adieu he pricked the skin of his victim while shaking hands with him producing an effect similar to syncope where is souvaroff now
dead he returned to petersburg as soon as his daughter had left with you but was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in the fortress while there he wrote a confession of the murder and afterwards committed suicide and will they arrest prascovie
i eventually won their confidence and ingratiated myself with them by advocating russian freedom in a series of articles in a certain london journal which had the effect of enlisting public sympathy with the exiles in such a manner
that the editor received a number of donations which he handed to me while i in turn conveyed the money to my friend paul grigorovitch
i was sitting at home reading and smoking in a very lazy mood one winter's evening when the servant girl entered and handed me a soiled crumpled letter which she said had been left by a strange looking foreign woman this did not surprise me
for i sometimes received mysterious unsigned notes from my friends the refugees when they desired to see me the exiles are continually under the observation of the okhrannoe otdelenie or secret police
attached to the russian embassy hence the cautiousness of their movements
the words written in a fine educated hand evidently a woman's were come to springfield lodge saint margaret's road regent's park to night at nine important i confess the communication puzzled me for i knew no one living at the address
and the handwriting was unfamiliar nevertheless i resolved to obey the summons with some little difficulty i found the house it stood back from the road concealed behind a high wall the thoroughfare was very quiet and eminently respectable
while the bare black branches of the great trees on either side of the road met overhead forming a long avenue i gave the summons used at grigorovitch's namely
and presently the heavy door was opened by a russian maid servant who are you she demanded in broken english i told her my name and showed her the note i had received
step this way sir if you please she exclaimed when she had examined the letter by the feeble light shed by a neighbouring street lamp then she closed the door
the french windows of which opened out upon a spacious tennis lawn around the walls were hung several choice paintings and i noticed that upon the table lay a number of pamphlets similar to those
and in accordance with russian etiquette taking one herself she struck a vesta and lit hers quite naturally then as she seated herself upon a low chair i recognised that she was very handsome
and feature was perfect her countenance had an expression of charming ingenuousness and blushing candour while her dark brilliant eyes had an intense and bewitching glance in her brown hair was a handsome crescent of diamonds
and her evening dress of soft black net disclosed her white chest and arms were you surprised at my curt note she asked suddenly blowing a cloud of smoke from her pursed up lips well to tell the truth i was i admitted
you see we are strangers ah i forgot i suppose i ought to introduce myself she said laughing i'm prascovie souvaroff i know your name
prascovie rose quickly and introduced him ivan souvaroff my father she exclaimed and when we had exchanged greetings she said now i'll go because you want to talk when you have finished your conversation ring the bell
and i will return and bore you and laughing gaily she tripped out of the room souvaroff took a cigarette lit it and seating himself thoughtfully looked into my face and said
sir but the matter about which i desired to see you is one of urgency i have heard from grigorovitch and others how you have assisted us in london and in petersburg and i thought it probable
you would render me a small personal service if it is in my power i shall be most happy i replied it is quite easy if you will only do it it is merely to insert a paragraph in the papers as news
i have it here ready written then taking a slip of paper from his pocket he read the following announcement prascovie only daughter of ivan souvaroff
who escaped from siberia after five years at the mines died in london yesterday died i repeated in surprise what do you mean your daughter was here alive and well a few moments ago
i'm aware of that he replied smiling mysteriously you are not one of us otherwise i could tell you the reason does she know no no he exclaimed quickly don't tell her promise to keep the matter strictly secret
if you publish the paragraph i will see she does not get hold of a copy of the paper very well i said i'll do as you wish it was a puzzling paragraph but i had already ceased to be astonished at any action on the part of these men
for the more i thought over their secrets the more complicated they always appeared as he handed me the piece of paper with an expression of earnest thanks i noticed that he wore a glove upon his right hand and commented mentally
that it was a rather unusual custom to wear one glove while in the house a few moments after he had rung the bell prascovie returned followed by the servant bearing a steaming samovar
you've not been very long over your business she remarked glancing at me with a smile now it's all over let's talk i was nothing loth to do this and she and i resumed our chat
then souvaroff related the story of his imprisonment his transportation to siberia his work in the kara silver mines and his subsequent escape and journey to england where he had been joined by his daughter some english people thought said he
that russia was not prepared for the freedom the narodnoe pravo would like to see it possess but he assured me that the time for autocracy was past that the tzar's empire had outgrown the period of benevolent despotism
and that the russian people were quite capable of governing themselves
seated herself at the piano and sang an old russian love song in a sweet contralto full of harmony and tenderness in the meantime her father had left us and when she had finished she turned upon the music stool and with few forewords
to satisfy her curiosity and at my request she returned to the instrument and commenced another song as she sang the second verse there mingled with the music sounds of loud talking boisterous laughter and greetings in russian
prascovie heard it and ceased playing for a moment she sat in an attentive attitude i noticed her face wore an expression of intense anxiety and that the colour had fled from her cheeks a few moments later
i distinguished the voice of the servant answering her master and after some further conversation a man exclaimed dobroi notsche souvaroff good night to this the man addressed replied in a cheery tone the front door slammed
and my host returned into the room as he entered he uttered some words in polish patois to his daughter it must have been some announcement of a startling character for uttering an ejaculation of alarm she reeled and almost fell in a moment however
she had recovered herself and sank into an armchair in a grave dejected attitude all the light had left her face and with her chin resting upon her breast she gazed down in thoughtful silence upon the rosettes
on her little morocco slippers souvaroff appeared to have aged ten years since he left the room half an hour before and although i endeavoured to resume our conversation he only replied in monosyllables
i marvelled at this sudden change even if an unwelcome visitor had called i could see no reason why such a strange effect should be produced i remained to supper after which prascovie threw a shawl about her shoulders and walked with me to the gate
i expressed a desire to call again and spend another evening in listening to the passionate caucausian songs but she appeared strangely indifferent she merely wished me prostchai very formally
then i turned away and the gate was locked behind me slowly i walked along the deserted road absorbed in thought the night was bright and frosty and there was no sound save the echo of my own footsteps
i had been strolling along for perhaps five minutes
the thoroughfare was very inadequately lit indeed so dark was it that i was unable to distinguish the nature of the obstacle bending down i passed my hands rapidly over it i found it was a man
he was evidently drunk therefore i resorted to the expedient of giving him a gentle but firm kick in the ribs at the same time urging him to wake up this however had no effect
therefore after repeated efforts to rouse him i struck a vesta and held it close to his head the moment i saw the yellow pallor of the face and look of unutterable horror in the glazing eyes
i knew the truth he was dead his age was not more than thirty five he had grey eyes fair hair and beard
and from his dress i judged that he belonged to the upper class the heavy overcoat he wore was unbuttoned and a silk muffler was wrapped lightly around his throat a glance sufficed to ascertain that he was
and a doctor residing in the neighbourhood having made an examination and pronounced life extinct the remains were conveyed to the mortuary owing to the lateness of the hour and the quietness of the neighbourhood
there was no crowd of curious onlookers nor was there anything to create horror for no marks of violence could be discovered on the body at the inquest duly held i attended and gave evidence
the medical testimony went to show that the unknown man had died suddenly owing to an affection of the heart and the jury returned a verdict of death from natural causes nothing was discovered in the pockets
which could lead to the unfortunate man's identification and although his description was circulated by the police the body was buried three days later in a nameless grave i had published the strange obituary notice souvaroff had given me
and on the day of the inquest i again called at springfield lodge
i had a pleasant tete a tete with the fair russian and as we sat together i commenced to relate my discovery on the night of my previous visit ah she exclaimed interrupting me you need not tell me i
i'm so anxious to know the verdict i told her and an exclamation of relief involuntarily escaped her this did not strike me as peculiar at the time
and was much puzzled at its significance do they know his name she asked eagerly no there was nothing to serve as a clue to his identity poor fellow she sighed sympathetically i wonder who he was
then our conversation turned upon other topics we smoked several cigarettes and after remaining an hour i bade her adieu and departed
saturday december sixteenth camp thirty eight
till after two hours we struck a peculiarly difficult surface old hard sastrugi underneath with pits and high soft
and thus made better progress but for the time with very excessive labour the crust brittle held for a pace or two
soon after starting we found ourselves in rather a mess
very soft snow lay in the hollows we had to cross the waves in places thirty feet from crest to hollow and we did it by sitting on the sledge and letting her go
then followed a fearfully tough drag to rise the next crest after two hours of this i saw a larger wave the crest of which continued hard ice up the glacier we reached this and got excellent travelling for two miles on it
then rose on a steep gradient and so topped the pressure ridge the smooth ice is again lost and we have patches of hard and soft
with good result we travelled on up the more or less rounded ridge
miles made good this has put mount hope in the background and shows us more of the upper reaches
except that more pressure is showing up ahead for once one can say sufficient for the day is the good thereof our luck may be on the turn i think we deserve it
feeling well fed and eager for more toil eyes are much better except poor wilson's he has caught a very bad attack remembering his trouble on our last southern journey i fear he is in for a very bad time we got fearfully hot this morning
and marched in singlets which became wringing wet thus uncovered the sun gets at one's skin and then the wind which makes it horribly uncomfortable our lips are very sore we cover them with the soft silk plaster which seems about the best thing for the purpose
even now one feels the cold strike directly one stops we get fearfully thirsty and chip up ice on the march as well as drinking a great deal of water on halting our fuel only just does it but that is all we want
and we have a bit in hand for the summit the pulling this afternoon was fairly pleasant at first over hard snow and then on to pretty rough ice with surface snowfield cracks
p o evans the inventor of both crampons and ski shoes is greatly pleased and certainly we owe him much the weather is beginning to look dirty again snow clouds rolling in from the east as usual i believe it will be overcast to morrow
camp forty lunch nearly four thousand feet above barrier overcast and snowing this morning as i expected
so though it was gloomy and depressing we could march and did
at first fairly good surface
we got on a slope which made matters worse i then pulled up to the left at first without much improvement but as we topped a rise the surface got much better and things look quite promising for the moment
the adams marshall and wild mountains and their very curious horizontal stratification wright has found amongst bits of wind blown debris an undoubted bit of sandstone and a bit of black basalt
we must get to know more of the geology before leaving the glacier finally this morning all our gear was fringed with ice crystals which looked very pretty afternoon
after lunch got on some very rough stuff within a few hundred yards of pressure ridge there seemed no alternative and we went through with it later the glacier opened out into a broad basin with irregular undulations
but later on again this improvement nearly vanished so that it has been hard going all day but we have done a good mileage over fourteen stat we are less than five days behind s now
there was a promise of a clearance about noon but later more snow clouds drifted over from the east and now it is snowing again
the western side has not been clear enough to photograph at the halts
when we can get our marches off still sweating horribly on the march and very thirsty at the halts tuesday december nineteenth lunch rise six hundred fifty
camp forty one things are looking up started on good surface soon came to very annoying criss cross cracks i fell into two and have bad bruises on knee and thigh but we got along all the time until we reached an admirable smooth ice surface excellent for travelling the last mile
we have risen into the upper basin of the glacier seemingly close about us are the various land masses which adjoin the summit it looks as though we might have difficulties in the last narrows we are having a long lunch hour for angles photographs and sketches
the slight south westerly wind came down the glacier as we started and the sky which was overcast has rapidly cleared in consequence night
to the good for the day it has not been a strain except perhaps for me with my wounds received early in the day the wind has kept us cool on the march which has in consequence been very much pleasanter
and have not suffered from the same overpowering thirst as on previous days
evans and bowers are busy taking angles as they have been all day we shall have material for an excellent chart days like this put heart in one
over twelve miles stat with an afternoon to follow we should do well to day the wind has been coming up the valley
and covered nineteen and a half geo miles nearly twenty three stat rising eight hundred feet this morning we came over a considerable extent of hard snow then got to hard ice with patches of snow a state of affairs which has continued all day
pulling the sledges in crampons is no difficulty at all at lunch wilson and bowers walked back two miles or so to try and find bowers broken sledgemeter without result during their absence a fog spread about us carried up the valleys by easterly wind
we started the afternoon march in this fog very unpleasantly but later it gradually lifted and to night it is very fine and warm as the fog lifted we saw a huge line of pressure ahead i steered for a place where the slope looked smoother
to night it is beautifully clear on mount darwin i have just told off the people to return to morrow night atkinson wright
all are disappointed poor wright rather bitterly i fear i dread this necessity of choosing nothing could be more heartrending
evans had rather a shake up the rotten ice surface continued for a long way
trying to get on better ground at twelve the wind came from the north bringing the inevitable mist up the valley
we camped for lunch and were obliged to wait two and a half hours for a clearance then the sun began to struggle through and we were off we soon got
the other team being some way astern i camped
so here we are practically on the summit and up to date in the provision line
then the slope got steeper and the surface much worse and we had to take off our ski the pulling after this was extraordinarily fatiguing we sank above our finnesko everywhere and in places nearly to our knees
all the time they were literally ploughing the snow we reached the top of the slope at five and started on after tea on the down grade on this we had to pull almost as hard as on the upward slope but could just manage to get along on ski
and wilson told me some very alarming news concerning it it appears that atkinson says that wright is getting played out and lashly is not so fit as he was owing to the heavy pulling since the blizzard i have not felt satisfied about this party
the finish of the march to day showed clearly that something was wrong they fell a long way behind had to take off ski
true the surface was awful and growing worse every moment
as for myself i never felt fitter
p o evans of course is a tower of strength but oates and wilson are doing splendidly also here where we are camped the snow is worse than i have ever seen it but we are in a hollow every step here one sinks to the knees
and the uneven surface is obviously insufficient to support the sledges perhaps this wind is a blessing in disguise
things are not so rosy as they might be but we keep our spirits up and say the luck must turn this is only to tell you that i find i can keep up with the rest as well as of old
a very good day from one point of view very bad from another we started straight out over the glacier and passed through a good deal of disturbance we pulled on ski and the dogs followed
and we must have passed over a good many crevasses undiscovered by us thanks to ski and by the dogs owing to the soft snow in one only seaman evans dropped a leg ski and all
old man hauling party made heavy weather at first but when relieved of a little weight and having cleaned their runners
starting about eleven by three o'clock we were clear of the pressure and i camped the dogs discharged our loads
every now and again the sledge sank in a soft patch which brought us up
we got sideways to the sledge and hauled it out evans p o
the great thing is to keep the sledge moving and for an hour or more there were dozens of critical moments when it all but stopped
the latter were very trying and tiring but suddenly the surface grew more uniform and we more accustomed to the game for after a long stop to let the other parties come up i started at six and ran on till seven
pulling easily without a halt at the rate of about two miles an hour i was very jubilant all difficulties seemed to be vanishing but unfortunately our history was not repeated with the other parties bowers came up about half an hour after us they also had done well at the last
and i'm pretty sure they will get on all right keohane is the only weak spot and he only i think because blind temporarily but evans party didn't get up till ten they started quite well but got into difficulties
did just the wrong thing by straining again and again and so tiring themselves went from bad to worse their ski shoes too are out of trim just as i thought we were in for making a great score this difficulty overtakes us
it is dreadfully trying the snow around us to night is terribly soft one sinks to the knee at every step it would be impossible to drag sledges on foot and very difficult for dogs ski are the thing and here are my
the dogs should get back quite easily there is food all along the line the glacier wind sprang up about seven the morning was very fine and warm to night there is some stratus cloud forming a hint no more bad weather in sight
a plentiful crop of snow blindness due to incaution the sufferers evans bowers keohane lashly oates in various degrees
it proved to be a very coarse granite with large crystals of quartz in it evidently the rock of which the pillars of the gateway and other neighbouring hills are formed
we got bogged again and again and do what we would the sledge dragged like lead the others were working hard
pretty well cooked and there was disclosed the secret of our trouble in a thin film with some hard knots of ice on the runners evans team had been sent off in advance and we didn't couldn't catch them but they saw us camp and break camp and followed suit
i really dreaded starting after lunch but after some trouble to break the sledge out we went ahead without a hitch and in a mile or two recovered our leading place with obvious ability to keep it at six i saw the other teams were flagging and so camped at seven
meaning to turn out earlier to morrow and start a better routine we have done about eight or perhaps nine miles stat
it is evident that what i expected has occurred the whole of the lower valley is filled with snow from the recent storm and if we had not had ski we should be hopelessly bogged
on foot one sinks to the knees and if pulling on a sledge to half way between knee and thigh it would therefore be absolutely impossible to advance on foot with our loads considering all things we are getting better on ski
a crust is forming over the soft snow in a week or so i have little doubt it will be strong enough to support sledges and men at present it carries neither properly the sledges get bogged every now and again sinking to the crossbars
needless to say the hauling is terrible when this occurs we steered for the commonwealth range during the forenoon till we reached about the middle of the glacier
observing this i altered course for the cloudmaker and later still farther to the west we must be getting a much better view of the southern side of the main glacier than shackleton got and consequently have observed a number of peaks which he did not notice
but on this surface our sledges could not be more heavily laden than they are in fact we have not nearly enough runner surface as it is moreover the sledges are packed too high and therefore capsize too easily
i do not think the glacier can be so broad as s shows it certainly the scenery is not nearly so impressive as that of the ferrar but there are interesting features showing up a distinct banded structure on mount elizabeth
which we think may well be a recurrence of the beacon sandstone more banding on the commonwealth range
a sort of nightly land breeze there is also a very remarkable difference in temperature between day and night
and without hard work we were literally soaked through with perspiration
evans party kept up much better to day
we started at eight the pulling terribly bad though the glide decidedly good a new crust in patches not sufficient to support the ski but without possibility of hold therefore as the pullers got on the hard patches they slipped back
the sledges plunged into the soft places and stopped dead evans party got away first we followed and for some time helped them forward at their stops but this proved altogether too much for us so i forged ahead and camped at one p m as the others were far astern
and we spent three hours in securing them there was no delay on account of the slow progress of the other parties evans passed us and for some time went forward fairly well up a decided slope the sun was shining on the surface by this time
bowers started after evans and it was easy to see the really terrible state of affairs with them
evidently the glide had vanished when we got away we soon discovered how awful the surface had become
we got our load along soon passing bowers but the toil was simply awful we were soaked with perspiration and thoroughly breathless with our efforts again and again the sledge got one runner on harder snow than the other canted on its side and refused to move
at the top of the rise i found evans reduced to relay work and bowers followed his example soon after we got our whole load through till seven p m camping time but only with repeated halts and labour which was altogether too strenuous
but we must try again to morrow i suppose we have advanced a bare four miles to day and the aspect of things is very little changed our height is now about one thousand five hundred feet
but it looks as though matters were getting worse instead of better
we can but toil on but it is woefully disheartening
i find our summit ration is even too filling for the present two skuas came round the camp at lunch no doubt attracted by our shambles camp
and the exceptional exercise gives bad attacks of cramp our lips are getting raw and blistered the eyes of the party are improving i am glad to say we are just starting our march with no very hopeful outlook
evening height about two thousand feet evans party started first this morning
we soon caught the others and offered to take on more weight but evans pride wouldn't allow such help later in the morning we exchanged sledges with bowers pulled theirs easily whilst they made quite heavy work with ours
are the weakness of that team though both put their utmost into the traces
we must have come eleven or twelve miles stat we got fearfully hot on the march sweated through everything and stripped off jerseys the result is we are pretty cold and clammy now
but escape from the soft snow and a good march compensate every discomfort at lunch the blue ice was about two feet beneath us
to night the sky is overcast and wind has been blowing up the glacier
there are crevasses about one about eighteen inches across outside bowers tent and a narrower one outside our own i think the soft snow trouble is at an end and i could wish nothing better than a continuance of the present surface
towards the end of the march we were pulling our loads with the greatest ease
the clouds ever coming lower and evans is now decidedly the slowest unit though bowers is not much faster we keep up and overhaul either without difficulty it was an enormous relief yesterday to get steady going without involuntary stops
but yesterday and this morning
the runners got temporarily stuck this afternoon for the first time we could start by giving one good heave together
or do any other desirable task this is a second relief for which we are most grateful at the lunch camp the snow covering was less than a foot and at this it is a bare nine inches
we could see nothing and the pulling grew very heavy
we should have done a good march to day as it is we have covered about eleven miles stat
pray heaven we are not going to have this wretched snow in the worst part of the glacier to come the lower part of this glacier is not very interesting except from an ice point of view except mount kyffen little bare rock is visible and its structure at this distance is impossible to determine
there are no moraines on the surface of the glacier either
though they do not enter at grade
but the southern steep faces are nearly bare evidently the sun gets a good hold on them there must be a good deal of melting and rock weathering
let us knock here said the shrewd bat i know the old fellow is not asleep this is his prowling hour and but that it is a stormy night he would be abroad hunting what ho master owl he squeaked
will you let in two storm tossed travelers for a night's lodging gruffly the selfish old owl bade them enter and grudgingly invited them to share his supper
the poor dove was so tired that she could scarcely eat but the greedy bat's spirits rose as soon as he saw the viands spread before him
and his generosity though every one knew that however wise old master owl might be he was neither brave nor gallant as for his generosity
the little fire bringer a feather to help cover his scorched and shivering body
all this flattery pleased the owl he puffed and ruffled himself trying to look as wise gallant and brave as possible he pressed the bat to help himself more generously to the viands which invitation the sly fellow was not slow to accept
suddenly the owl turned to her as for you miss pink eyes he said gruffly you keep careful silence you are a dull table companion
pray have you nothing to say for yourself yes exclaimed the mischievous bat have you no words of praise for our kind host
methinks he deserves some return for this wonderfully generous agreeable tasteful well appointed luxurious elegant and altogether acceptable banquet what have you to say o little dove
but the dove hung her head ashamed of her companion and said very simply o master owl i can only thank you with all my heart for the hospitality and shelter which you have given me this night
i was beaten by the storm and you took me in i was hungry and you gave me your best to eat i cannot flatter nor make pretty speeches like the bat i never learned such manners
but i thank you what cried the bat pretending to be shocked is that all you have to say to our obliging host
have you no praise for his noble character as well as for his goodness to us i am ashamed of you you do not deserve such hospitality you do not deserve this shelter
the dove remained silent like cordelia in the play she could not speak untruths even for her own happiness
you are an ungrateful bird miss and the bat is right you do not deserve this generous hospitality which i have offered this goodly shelter which you asked away with you
leave my dwelling pack off into the storm and see whether or not your silence will soothe the rain and the wind be off i say
her echoed the bat flapping his leathery wings and the two heartless creatures fell upon the poor little dove and drove her out into the dark and stormy night
all night she was tossed and beaten about shelterless in the storm because she had been too truthful to flatter the vain old owl but when the bright morning dawned draggled and weary as she was she flew to the court of king eagle
and told him all her trouble great was the indignation of that noble bird for his flattery and his cruelty let the bat never presume to fly abroad until the sun goes down he cried
as for the owl i have already doomed him to this punishment for his treatment of the wren but henceforth let no bird have anything to do with either of them the bat or the owl
let them be outcasts and night prowlers enemies to be attacked and punished if they appear among us to be avoided by all in their loneliness
flattery and inhospitality deceit and cruelty what are more hideous than these let them cover themselves in darkness and shun the happy light of day
on the top of a palm tree in an oasis of the arabian desert sat the phoenix glowering moodily upon the world below he was alone quite alone
in his old age as he had been alone in his youth and in his middle years for the phoenix has neither mate nor children and there is never but one of his kind upon the earth
once he had been proud of his solitariness and of his unusual beauty which caused such wonder when he went abroad but now he was old and weak and weary and he was lonely
oh so lonely he had lived too long he thought
for years and years and years afar and apart he had watched the coming and going of things in the world he had seen the other birds created and had watched them undergo strange changes in form and color
until they became as they are to day
he had seen the flaming heart of the volcano tamed and quieted until it became the flaming little humming bird he had seen the crow turn black and the goldfinch become a gaudy bird and he knew how and why all these things had come to pass
for centuries how many he knew not he had watched the birds hatch out of their little eggs
and finally die and disappear as birds do leaving no trace behind but the phoenix did not die he was of different clay from these ordinary feathered creatures
the gold and crimson one who when he went abroad filled all creatures with awe of his beauty and wisdom and mystery so that they dared not come near but followed him afar off hushing their song and adoring silently
the phoenix fed not on flowers or fruit or disgusting insect fry but on precious frankincense and myrrh and odoriferous gums and the sun himself loved to caress his plumage of gold and crimson
as for men they also had adored him in time past and had built temples in his honor
the phoenix had seen many generations of men grow up do good or evil deeds and die sometimes leaving grand monuments upon the earth sometimes disappearing from knowledge like the very birds leaving scarcely a trace behind
in his time great kings had lived and reigned and turned to dust
poets had sung and had died singing but the phoenix looking down from the palms of his desert saw it all and did not die all this had been his pride and honor how he had enjoyed his strength his beauty his wisdom
and the knowledge that he was honored and adored by thousands who had never even seen his glory but now now all was changed he was grown old and tired he felt his loneliness and he longed to die
his wings were feeble of late he had not dared to venture far from the desert he dreaded the curious gaze of the other birds who would find his beauty dimmed and would scorn perchance the faded glory which they had once held in awe
for years he had not ventured within sight of men and he knew that most of them had forgotten his existence nay even denied that he had ever lived he feared that there might not be a single heart in all the world that thrilled to his name
thinking thus mournfully the phoenix sat upon the top of the tallest palm his plumage of crimson and gold glowed in the last rays of the setting sun
the joy of life was gone slowly the sun sank towards the horizon a red eye fixed upon the phoenix steadily suddenly across the gray waste of sand dotted a beam of light intensely bright
a single ray from that watchful eye seemed to flame as it reached the palm tree and pierced to the very heart of the phoenix a thrill ran through his body
he drew himself together and his eye gleamed with new lustre as he fixed it steadily upon the dazzling disk just touching the horizon dark stood the palm against the desert
but the phoenix was bathed in sudden light it was the signal the signal for which he had been waiting though he knew it not the five hundred years were ended the mystery of his life was about to be solved
as the sun sank below the horizon eagerly the phoenix set about the task which was before him at last he might build the nest which till now he had never known
that it might receive from the blessed east the first beam of the morning sun marvelously strengthened for the task back and forth to the ends of the earth his wings of crimson and gold bore the phoenix that night
for this was to be no nest of sticks and straw of precious things must it be made and well he knew where such were to be found of silky leaves and grass interwoven with splinters of sandal wood were the walls
then on the bottom of the nest he laid bit by bit a pile of sweet smelling gums
ambergris and frankincense with no meaner choice all night he labored beak and talon until the nest was ready and as the first tints of dawn began to streak the east the phoenix rose once
high into the air gazing with wistful eyes over the world which he had loved then slowly sinking to the palm he poised his gorgeous body upon the fragrant nest
with wings spread wide and eyes fixed eagerly upon the spot where the sun was sure to rise he waited waited at last the golden eye appeared
as on the night before one radiant beam seemed to single out the lonely palm one shaft of flame pierced to the nest whereon the phoenix sat it was the final signal to the bird of the sun
immediately the great bird began to fan the sweet smelling mass with his wings the burning ray grew brighter a pungent wonderful aroma of mingled fragrances filled the air
gradually the sun rose great and glorious and as it advanced into the heaven a thin cloud of smoke floated from the palm tree and wound away across the desert towards the east
faster and faster fanned the great wings of the phoenix until when the sun shone full down through the palm tree top
in the midst of which the phoenix blended crimson and gold high in the air rose the fire diffusing abroad all the sweet odors of araby the blest
lower and lower until but a pile of ashes remained at the bottom of the nest but lo was the phoenix dead
a bird like the eagle in shape but nobler larger stronger more gracious even than the king of birds a brilliant vision of crimson and gold rose like a flame from the nest hung for a moment above the palm
looking eagerly at the sun which baptized him in its splendor a new phoenix lived in the world once more the ancient glory was renewed once more youth joy and hope sprang from the phoenix's ashes
and rejoiced in the centuries of sunshine before him death was indeed worth dying to make this life worth living slowly the young phoenix descended to the nest which had been at once a sepulchre and a cradle
with lusty beak and talon he tore the nest bodily from the branches and set out upon his pious journey he knew not where he went nor why but the sun drew him to the east
as he sped through the sky a flash of gold and crimson the lesser birds gathered to wonder and admire flocks of them followed at a distance a train of worshipers chorusing the glory of the new born wonder
he bore his head high with its burden and his heart was filled with pious joy it was good to be a phoenix good good at last he reached the place which unknowingly he sought the sun alone had been his guide
to the city of heliopolis in egypt he came to the great temple of the sun brightly adorned with crimson and gold the phoenix colors there upon the altar he laid the precious ashes and lo
there were folk waiting to receive them many little children and some elders of childlike heart who took the ashes and laid them reverently in the shrine the phoenix was not forgotten he was never to be forgotten so long as the world should last
for thrusting into the holes he makes the peculiar arrangement of toes two forward and two back and the stiff spiny tail feathers for supporting himself against the side of a tree as he works
but getting his living so means hard work and he has discovered for himself a much easier way one now frequently surprises him on the ground in old pastures and orchards floundering about rather awkwardly for his little feet were never intended for walking after the crickets and grasshoppers that abound there
still he finds the work of catching them much easier than boring into dry old trees and the insects themselves much larger and more satisfactory
a single glance will show how much this new way of living has changed him from the other woodpeckers the bill is no longer straight but has a decided curve like the thrushes and instead of the chisel shaped edge there is a rounded point the red tuft on the head which marks all the woodpecker family would be too conspicuous on the ground in its place we find a red crescent well down on the neck and partially hidden by the short gray feathers about it
the point of the tongue is less horny and from the stiff points of the tail feathers lamina are beginning to grow making them more like other birds
the habits of this bird are a curious compound of his old life in the woods and his new preference for the open fields and farms sometimes the nest is in the very heart of the woods where the bird glides in and out silent as a crow in nesting time his feeding place meanwhile may be an old pasture half a mile away where he calls loudly and frolics about as if he had never a care or a fear in the world
but the nest is now more frequently in a wild orchard where the bird finds an old knot hole and digs down through the soft wood making a deep nest with very little trouble when the knot hole is not well situated he finds a large decayed limb and drills through the outer hard shell then digs down a foot or more through the soft wood and makes a nest
in this nest the rain never troubles him for he very providently drills the entrance on the under side of the limb
like many other birds he has discovered that the farmer is his friend occasionally therefore he neglects to build a deep nest simply hollowing out an old knot hole and depending on the presence of man for protection from hawks and owls at such times the bird very soon learns to recognize those who belong in the orchard and loses the extreme shyness that characterizes him at all other times
once a farmer knowing my interest in birds invited me to come and see a golden winged woodpecker which in her confidence had built so shallow a nest that she could be seen sitting on the eggs like a robin she was so tame he said that in going to his work he sometimes passed under the tree without disturbing her the moment we crossed the wall within sight of the nest the bird slipped away out of the orchard
wishing to test her we withdrew and waited till she returned then the farmer passed within a few feet without disturbing her in the least ten minutes later i followed him and the bird flew away again as i crossed the wall
the notes of the golden wing much more varied and musical than those of other woodpeckers are probably the results of his new free life and the modified tongue and bill
a curious habit which the bird has adopted with advancing civilization is that of providing himself with a sheltered sleeping place from the storms and cold of winter late in the fall he finds a deserted building and after a great deal of shy inspection to satisfy himself that no one is within drills a hole through the side
when a building is used as a nesting place the bird very cunningly drills the entrance close up under the eaves where it is sheltered from storms and at the same time out of sight of all prying eyes
one day i drove the birds out then crawled in under a sill on the opposite side and hid in a corner of the loft without disturbing anything inside it was a long wait in the stuffy old place before one of the birds came back
with the same movement and without pausing an instant he dived through headlong aided by a spring from his tail much as a jumping jack goes over the head of his stick only much more rapidly hardly had he gone before another appeared to go through the same program
on a bracket against the wall was another bird a great hawk pitched forward on his perch with wings wide spread and fierce eyes glaring downward in the intense attitude a hawk takes as he strikes his prey from some lofty watch tree the golden wing by this time was ready to venture in
he had leaned forward with wings spread
what were his impressions i wonder as he sat on a limb of the old apple tree and thought it all over do birds have romances
how much greater wonders had he seen than those of any romance and do they have any means of communicating them as they sing their love songs what a wonderful story he could tell
of a giant all in white with only his head visible of an enchanted beauty stretching her wings in mute supplication for some brave knight to touch her and break the spell while on high a fierce dragon hawk kept watch ready to eat up any one who should dare enter
the american idea of government who was responsible for the war situation of virginia concentration of the enemy against richmond our difficulty
had persisted in agitation injurious to the welfare and tranquillity of the southern states
to check the current toward secession of the complaining states whose love for the union rendered them willing to accept less than justice should have readily accorded
or the severance of those ties consecrated by many memories and strengthened by those habits which render every people reluctant to sever long existing associations the authorities heretofore cited have i must believe
the american idea of government the hope and the wish of the people of the south were that the disagreeable necessity of separation would be peacefully met and be followed by such commercial regulations
as would least disturb the prosperity and future intercourse of the separated states every step taken by the confederate government was directed toward that end the separation of the states having been decided on
it was sought to effect it in such manner as would be just to the parties concerned and preserve as far as possible under separate governments the fraternal and mutually beneficial relations
which had existed between the states when united and which it was the object of their compact of union to secure to all the proofs heretofore offered i confidently refer for the establishment of the fact
that whatever of bloodshed of devastation or shock to republican government has resulted from the war is to be charged to the northern states the invasions of the southern states for purposes of coercion
were in violation of the written constitution and the attempt to subjugate sovereign states under the pretext of preserving the union was alike offensive to law to good morals
of free and independent states to subjugate any of them was to destroy constituent parts and necessarily therefore must be the destruction of the union itself
that the southern states were satisfied with a federal government such as their fathers had formed
was shown by their adoption of a constitution so little differing from the instrument of seventeen eighty seven it was against the violations of that instrument
and usurpations offensive to their pride and injurious to their interests that they remonstrated argued and finally appealed
to the inherent undelegated power of the states to judge of their wrongs and of the mode and measure of redress after many years of fruitless effort to secure from their northern associates
a faithful observance of the compact of union after its conditions had been deliberately and persistently broken and the signs of the times indicated further
and more ruthless violations of their rights as equals in the union
were persisted in when the aggrieved were hopeless and the aggressors reckless
in the peace congress which on her motion had been assembled sorrowing over the failure of this
to preserve the union of the constitution she was not permitted to mourn as a neutral but was required by the united states government to choose between furnishing troops to subjugate her southern sisters
the voice of henry called to her from the ground the spirits of washington and jefferson moved among her people there was but one course consistent with her stainless reputation and often declared tenets
as to the liberties of her people which she could have adopted as in seventeen seventy six reluctantly she bowed to the necessity of separation from the crown so in eighteen sixty one
the ordinance of secession was adopted having exhausted all other means she took the last resort and if for this she was selected as the first object of assault methinks the punishment exceedeth
the offense the large resources and full preparation of the united states government enabled it to girt virginia as with a wall of fire it has been shown that she was threatened from the east
from the north and from the west the capital of the state and of the confederacy richmond was the objective point and on this the march of three columns concentrated on the east the advance of the enemy was on several occasions feasible
when we consider the number of his forces at and about fortress monroe in comparison with the small means retained for the defense of the capital on the north the most formidable army of the enemy was assembled
to oppose it we had the comparatively small army of the potomac this being regarded as the line on which the greatest danger was apprehended our efforts were mostly directed toward giving it the requisite strength
troops as rapidly as they could be raised and armed were sent forward for that purpose from the beginning to the close of the war we mainly relied for the defense of the capital on its aged citizens boys too young for service
to resist an attack they answered with alacrity and always bore themselves gallantly more than once repelling the enemy in the open field
which caused me to write to general j e johnston at manassas virginia
as follows you have again been deceived as to the forces here we never have had anything near to twenty thousand men and have now but little over one fourth of that number
soon be fought or not your remark indicates a different opinion i wish i could send additional force to occupy loudon but my means are short of the wants of each division i am laboring to protect one ship load of small arms would enable me to answer all demands
then there and everywhere our difficulty was the want of arms and munitions of war lamentable cries came to us from the west for the supplies which would enable patriotic citizens
to defend their homes the resource upon which the people had so confidently relied the private arms in the hands of citizens proved a sad delusion
that motive no longer exists and to justify the faith of those who without a defense continued to uphold my hands i propose to set forth the facts by correspondence and otherwise
the fiction of my having prevented the pursuit of the enemy after the victory of manassas was exploded after it had acquired an authoritative and semi official form in the manner and for the reasons heretofore set forth
it only remains therefore to notice the other points indicated above first the organization of the army disease and discontent
are known to be the attendants of armies lying unemployed in camps especially as in our case when the troops were composed of citizens called from their homes under the idea of a pressing necessity
and with the hope of soon returning to them our citizen soldiers were a powerful political element and their correspondence finding its way to the people through the press and to the halls of congress by direct communication with the members was felt
contended that men should be allowed to go home and attend to their private affairs while there were no active operations and that there was no doubt but that they would return whenever there was to be a battle
the experience of war soon taught our people the absurdity of such ideas and before its close probably none would have uttered them there were very many men out of the army who were anxious to enter it but for whom we had not arms
this gave rise to the remark more humorous than profound that we stood around the camps with clubs to keep one set in and an other set out
had this been true it was certainly justifiable to refuse to exchange a trained man for a recruit all who have seen service know that one old soldier is in campaign equal to several who have everything of military life to learn
the most distinguished of our citizens were not the slowest to learn the lesson and perhaps no army ever more thoroughly knew it than did that which lee led into pennsylvania and none ever had a leader who in his own conduct
better illustrated the lesson our largest army in eighteen sixty one was that of the potomac it had been formed by the junction of the forces under general j e johnston with those under general p g t beauregard
with such additions as could be hurriedly sent forward to meet the enemy on the field of manassas they were combined into brigades and divisions as pressing exigencies required
the public service that the spirit of the law should be complied with by the assignment of brigadier generals of the same state from which the troops were drawn instructions to that end were therefore given
and again and again repeated but were for a long time only partially complied with until the delay formed the basis of the argument that those who had by association become thoroughly acquainted
would more advantageously be left united in the mean time frequent complaints came to me from the army of unjust discrimination the law being executed in regard to the troops of some states
but not of others and of serious discontent arising therefrom the duty to obey the law was imperative and neither the executive nor the officers of the army had any right to question its propriety
or companies of such state and to assign general and staff officers in the ratio of the troops thus received after my return to the capital the importance of the subject weighed so heavily upon me
as to lead to correspondence with the generals which will be best understood by the following extracts from my letters to them which are here appended
major general g w smith army of potomac how have you progressed in the solution of the problem i left the organization of the troops with reference to the states
and have answered by promising that the generals would give due attention and i hoped make satisfactory changes
and i must be able to assume responsibility of the action taken by whomsoever acts for me in that regard by reference to the law you will see that
in surrendering the sole power to appoint general officers it was nevertheless designed as far as should be
in either corps all of the regiments were sent to that corps commanded by a louisiana general
she has on duty with that army two brigadiers but one of them serves with other troops mississippi troops were scattered as if the state were unknown
these nine regiments should form two brigades brigadiers clark and as a native of mississippi whiting should be placed in command of them and the regiments for the war
put in the army man's brigade both brigades should be put in the division commanded by general van dorn of mississippi thus would the spirit and intent of the law be complied with
disagreeable complaint be spared me and more of content be assured under the trials to which you look forward it is needless to specify further i have been able in writing to you to speak freely
and you have no past associations to disturb the judgment to be passed upon the views presented i have made and am making inquiries as to the practicability of getting a corps of negroes for laborers
to aid in the construction of an intrenched line in rear of your present position your remarks on the want of efficient staff officers are realized in all their force
and if wounded is turned from an instrument of good to one of great power for evil richmond virginia october sixteenth eighteen sixty one
general beauregard manassas virginia i have thought often upon the questions of reorganization which were submitted to you and it has seemed to me that whether in view of disease
or the disappointment and suffering of a winter cantonment on a line of defense or of a battle to be fought in and near your position it was desirable to combine the troops by a new distribution
with as little delay as practicable they will be stimulated to extraordinary effort when so organized in that the fame of their state will be in their keeping and that each will feel that his immediate commander
will desire to exalt rather than diminish his services you pointed me to the fact that you had observed that rule in the case of
the louisiana and carolina troops and you will not fail to perceive that others find in the fact a reason for the like disposal of them in the hour of sickness and the tedium of waiting for spring
in the treatment of the men have already dulled the enthusiasm which filled our ranks with men who by birth fortune education and social position were the equals of any officer in the land
the spirit of our military law is manifested in the fact that the state organization was limited to the regiment
eighteen sixty one general beauregard manassas virginia my dear general two rules have been applied in the projected reorganization of the army of the potomac
one as far as practicable to keep regiments from the same state together two to assign generals to command the troops of their own state i have not overlooked the objections to each
but the advantages are believed to outweigh the disadvantages of that arrangement in distributing the regiments of the several states it would i think be better to place the regiments
for the war in the same brigade of the state and assign to those brigades the brigadiers whose services could least easily be dispensed with for this among other reasons i will mention but one
the commission of a brigadier expires upon the breaking up of his brigade see the law for their appointment of course i would not for slight cause change the relations of troops and commanders
all was subject to the discretion of the confederate authorities save the pregnant intimation in relation to the distribution of generals among the several states it was generous and confiding to surrender entirely to the confederacy
the appointment of generals and it is the more incumbent on me to carry out as well as may be the spirit of the volunteer system richmond may tenth eighteen sixty two
general j e johnston your attention has been heretofore called to the law in relation to the organization of brigades and divisions orders were long since given
to bring the practice and the law into conformity recently reports have been asked for from the commanders of separate armies as to the composition of their respective brigades and divisions
i have been much harassed and the public interest has certainly suffered by the delay to place the regiments of some of the states in brigades together it being deemed that
while some have expressed surprise at my patience when orders to you were not observed i have at least hoped that you would recognize the desire to aid and sustain you
and that it would produce the corresponding action on your part the reasons formerly offered have one after another disappeared and i hope you will
as you can proceed to organize your troops as heretofore instructed and that the returns will relieve us of the uncertainty now felt as to the number
and relations of the troops and the commands of the officers having brigades and divisions i will not dwell on the lost opportunity afforded along the line of northern virginia but must call your attention to the present condition of affairs
and probable action of the enemy if not driven from his purpose to advance on the fredericksburg route very truly yours jefferson davis on the twenty sixth of may general johnston's attention
was again called to the organization of the ten mississippi regiments into two brigades and was reminded that the proposition had been made to him in the previous autumn with an expression of my confidence that the regiments would be more effective in battle if thus associated
i will now proceed to notice the allegation that i was responsible for inaction by the army of the potomac in the latter part of eighteen sixty one and in the early part of eighteen sixty two
my assailants have sought to cover their exposure by a change of time and place locating their story at fairfax court house
and dating it in the autumn of eighteen sixty one when at that time and place i met general johnston for conference he called in the two generals next in rank to himself beauregard and g w smith
to my surprise and disappointment the effective strength was stated to be but little greater than when it fought the battle of the twenty first of the preceding july the frequent reenforcements
to my inquiry as to what force would be required for the contemplated advance into maryland the lowest estimate made by any of them was about twice the number there present for duty
very little knowledge of the condition and military resources of the country must have sufficed to show that i had no power to make such an addition to that army without a total disregard of the safety of other threatened positions
such a number of troops and unless the militia bearing their private arms should be relied on we could not possibly fulfill such a requisition until after the receipt of the small arms which we had early and constantly striven to procure from abroad and had for some time expected
after i had written the foregoing and all the succeeding chapters on kindred subjects a friend in october eighteen eighty furnished me with a copy of a paper relating to the conference at fairfax court house
which seems to require notice at my hands therefore i break the chain of events to insert here some remarks in regard to it the paper appears to have been written by general g w smith
and to have received the approval of generals beauregard and j e johnston and to bear date the thirty first of january eighteen sixty two
my correspondence of anterior date might have shown that i was fully aware of it and my suggestions in the interview certainly did not look as if it was necessary to impress me with the advantage of action
this if such a proposition had been made would have exposed its absurdity as well as the loophole it offered for escape by subsequently asserting that the troops furnished
were not up to the proposed standard
a call loan in those days the cattlemen were the anointed
they were the grandees of the grass kings of the kine lords of the lea barons of beef and bone they might have ridden in golden chariots had their tastes so inclined
the cattleman was caught in a stampede of dollars it seemed to him that he had more money than was decent but when he had bought a watch with precious stones set in the case so large that they hurt his ribs and a california saddle with silver nails and angora skin suaderos
and ordered everybody up to the bar for whisky what else was there for him to spend money for not so circumscribed in expedient for the reduction of surplus wealth were those lairds of the lariat who had womenfolk to their name
in the breast of the rib sprung sex the genius of purse lightening may slumber through years of inopportunity but never my brothers does it become extinct so
out of the chaparral came long bill longley from the bar circle branch on the frio a wife driven man to taste the urban joys of success
long bill was a graduate of the camp and trail luck and thrift a cool head and a telescopic eye for mavericks had raised him from cowboy to be a cowman then came the boom in cattle
in the little frontier city of chaparosa longley built a costly residence here he became a captive bound to the chariot of social existence he was doomed to become a leading citizen he struggled for a time like a mustang in his first corral and then he hung up his quirt and spurs time hung heavily on his hands he organised the first national bank of chaparosa and was elected its president
one day a dyspeptic man wearing double magnifying glasses inserted an official looking card between the bars of the cashier's window of the first national bank
five minutes later the bank force was dancing at the beck and call of a national bank examiner this examiner mister j edgar todd proved to be a thorough one
at the end of it all the examiner put on his hat and called the president mister william r longley into the private office well how do you find things asked longley in his slow deep tones
the bank checks up all right mister longley said todd
you don't know tom merwin said longley almost genially yes i know about that loan it hasn't any security except tom merwin's word somehow
mister todd's dyspepsia seemed to grow suddenly worse he looked at the chaparral banker through his double magnifying glasses in amazement you see said longley easily explaining the thing away
tom heard of two thousand head of two year olds down near rocky ford on the rio grande that could be had for eight dollars a head
those cattle are worth fifteen dollars on the hoof in kansas city tom knew it and i knew it he had six thousand dollars
his brother ed took em on to market three weeks ago he ought to be back most any day now with the money when he comes tom'll pay that note the bank examiner was shocked
i am going to hilldale's to night he told longley to examine a bank there i will pass through chaparosa on my way back at twelve o'clock to morrow i shall call at this bank
if this loan has been cleared out of the way by that time it will not be mentioned in my report if not i will have to do my duty with that the examiner bowed and departed
merwin a ranchman in brown duck with a contemplative eye sat with his feet upon a table plaiting a rawhide quirt tom said longley leaning against the table you heard anything from ed yet
not yet said merwin continuing his plaiting i guess ed'll be along back now in a few days there was a bank examiner said longley nosing around our place to day and he bucked a sight about that note of yours
but the son of a gun slipped in on us tom now i'm short of cash myself just now or i'd let you have the money to take it up with i've got till twelve o'clock to morrow and then i've got to show the cash in place of that note or
or what bill asked merwin as longley hesitated well i suppose it means be jumped on with both of uncle sam's feet i'll try to raise the money for you on time said merwin interested in his plaiting
a private one run by cooper and craig cooper he said to the partner by that name i've got to have ten thousand dollars to day or to morrow i've got a house and lot there that's worth about six thousand dollars and that's all the actual collateral but i've got a cattle deal on that's sure to bring me in more than that much profit within a few days
cooper began to cough now for god's sake don't say no said merwin i owe that much money on a call loan it's been called and the man that called it is a man i've laid on the same blanket with in cow camps and ranger camps for ten years he can call anything i've got he can call the blood out of my veins and it'll come he's got to have the money he's in a devil of a
well he needs the money and i've got to get it for him you know my word's good cooper no doubt of it assented cooper urbanely but i've a partner you know i'm not free in making loans
and even if you had the best security in your hands merwin we couldn't accommodate you in less than a week we're just making a shipment of fifteen thousand dollars to myer brothers in rockdell to buy cotton with it goes down on the narrow gauge to night
about four o'clock in the afternoon he went to the first national bank and leaned over the railing of longley's desk i'll try to get that money for you to night i mean to morrow bill all right tom said longley quietly
merwin wore two six shooters in a belt and a slouch hat
but before he had taken three steps two long strong arms clasped him from behind and he was lifted from his feet and thrown face downward upon the grass there was a heavy knee pressing against his back
and an iron hand grasping each of his wrists he was held thus like a child until the engine had taken water and until the train had moved with accelerating speed out of sight
they walked away together side by side twas the only chance i saw said merwin presently you called your loan and i tried to answer you now what'll you do bill if they sock it to you
what would you have done if they'd socked it to you was the answer longley made i never thought i'd lay in a bush to stick up a train remarked merwin but a call loan's different
we've got twelve hours yet bill before this spy jumps onto you we've got to raise them spondulicks somehow maybe we can great sam houston do you hear that
it's the only tune he knows shouted merwin as he ran
a sunburned firm jawed youth
the seventy young women of ages varying in the main from nineteen to one and twenty though several were older who at this date filled the species of nunnery known as the training school at melchester formed a very mixed community
which included the daughters of mechanics curates surgeons shopkeepers farmers dairy men soldiers sailors and villagers they sat in the large school room of the establishment on the evening previously described
and word was passed round that sue bridehead had not come in at closing time she went out with her young man said a second year's student who knew about young men and miss traceley saw her at the station with him she'll have it hot when she does come
she said he was her cousin observed a youthful new girl that excuse has been made a little too often in this school to be effectual in saving our souls said the head girl of the year drily the fact was that only twelve months before
who had made the same statement in order to gain meetings with her lover the affair had created a scandal and the management had consequently been rough on cousins ever since
at nine o'clock the names were called sue's being pronounced three times sonorously by miss traceley without eliciting an answer
and every girl's thought was where is sue bridehead
by such a kindly faced young man hardly one among them believed in the cousinship half an hour later they all lay in their cubicles their tender feminine faces upturned to the flaring gas jets which at intervals stretched down the long dormitories
every face bearing the legend the weaker upon it as the penalty of the sex wherein they were moulded which by no possible exertion of their willing hearts and abilities could be made strong while the inexorable laws of nature remain what they are they formed a pretty suggestive pathetic sight
and would not discover till amid the storms and strains of after years with their injustice loneliness child bearing and bereavement their minds would revert to this experience as to something which had been allowed to slip past them insufficiently regarded
one of the mistresses came in to turn out the lights and before doing so gave a final glance at sue's cot which remained empty
and at her little dressing table at the foot which like all the rest was ornamented with various girlish trifles framed photographs being not the least conspicuous among them sue's table had a moderate show
two men in their filigree and velvet frames standing together beside her looking glass who are these men did she ever say asked the mistress strictly speaking relations portraits only are allowed on these tables you know one
is the schoolmaster she served under mister phillotson and the other this undergraduate in cap and gown who is he
you are sure twas not the undergraduate quite he was a young man with a black beard the lights were promptly extinguished and till they fell asleep the girls indulged in conjectures about sue
and wondered what games she had carried on in london and at christminster before she came here some of the more restless ones getting out of bed and looking from the mullioned windows at the vast west front of the cathedral opposite and the spire rising behind it
when they awoke the next morning they glanced into sue's nook to find it still without a tenant after the early lessons by gas light in half toilet and when they had come up to dress for breakfast the bell of the entrance gate was heard to ring loudly
the mistress of the dormitory went away and presently came back to say that the principal's orders were that nobody was to speak to bridehead without permission
none of them coming out to greet her or to make inquiry when they had gone downstairs they found that she did not follow them into the dining hall to breakfast and they then learnt that she had been severely reprimanded and ordered to a solitary room for a week there to be confined and take her meals
and do all her reading at this the seventy murmured the sentence being they thought too severe a round robin was prepared and sent in to the principal asking for a remission of sue's punishment no notice was taken
towards evening when the geography mistress began dictating her subject the girls in the class sat with folded arms you mean that you are not going to work said the mistress at last
i may as well tell you that it has been ascertained that the young man bridehead stayed out with was not her cousin for the very good reason that she has no such relative we have written to christminster to ascertain we are willing to take her word said the head girl
this young man was discharged from his work at christminster for drunkenness and blasphemy in public houses and he has come here to live entirely to be near her however they remained stolid and motionless and the mistress left the room to inquire from her superiors what was to be done
presently towards dusk the pupils as they sat heard exclamations from the first year's girls in an adjoining classroom and one rushed in to say that sue bridehead had got out of the back window of the room in which she had been confined escaped in the dark across the lawn
the lawn was again searched with a lantern every bush and shrub being examined but she was nowhere hidden then the porter of the front gate was interrogated and on reflection he said that he remembered hearing a sort of splashing in the stream at the back but he had taken no notice
thinking some ducks had come down the river from above she must have walked through the river said a mistress or drownded herself said the porter the mind of the matron was horrified not so much at the possible death of sue
as at the possible half column detailing that event in all the newspapers which added to the scandal of the year before would give the college an unenviable notoriety for many months to come
more lanterns were procured and the river examined and then at last on the opposite shore which was open to the fields some little boot tracks were discerned in the mud which left no doubt that the too excitable girl had waded through a depth of water reaching nearly to her shoulders
for this was the chief river of the county and was mentioned in all the geography books with respect as sue had not brought disgrace upon the school by drowning herself the matron began to speak superciliously of her and to express gladness that she was gone
often at this hour after dusk he would enter the silent close and stand opposite the house that contained sue and watch the shadows of the girls heads passing to and fro upon the blinds
and wish he had nothing else to do but to sit reading and learning all day what many of the thoughtless inmates despised but to night having finished tea and brushed himself up he was deep in the perusal of the twenty ninth volume of pusey's library of the fathers
a set of books which he had purchased of a second hand dealer at a price that seemed to him to be one of miraculous cheapness for that invaluable work he fancied he heard something rattle lightly against his window
he rose and gently lifted the sash jude from below sue yes it is can i come up without being seen oh yes then don't come down shut the window jude waited
knowing that she could enter easily enough the front door being opened merely by a knob which anybody could turn as in most old country towns he palpitated at the thought that she had fled to him in her trouble as he had fled to her in his what counterparts they were
he unlatched the door of his room heard a stealthy rustle on the dark stairs and in a moment she appeared in the light of his lamp he went up to seize her hand and found she was clammy as a marine deity and that her clothes clung to her like the robes upon the figures in the parthenon frieze
i'm so cold she said through her chattering teeth
she crossed to his little grate and very little fire but as the water dripped from her as she moved the idea of drying herself was absurd whatever have you done darling he asked with alarm the tender epithet slipping out unawares
walked through the largest river in the county that's what i've done they locked me up for being out with you and it seemed so unjust that i couldn't bear it so i got out of the window and escaped across the stream
dear sue he said you must take off all your things and let me see
no no don't let her know for god's sake
then you must put on mine you don't mind oh no my sunday suit you know it is close here in fact everything was close and handy in jude's single chamber because there was not room for it to be otherwise he opened a drawer took out his best dark suit
and giving the garments a shake said now how long shall i give you ten minutes
a clock struck half past seven and he returned sitting in his only arm chair he saw a slim and fragile being masquerading as himself on a sunday so pathetic in her defencelessness that his heart felt big with the sense of it on two other chairs before the fire were her wet garments
she blushed as he sat down beside her but only for a moment i suppose jude it is odd that you should see me like this and all my things hanging there yet what nonsense they are only a woman's clothes sexless cloth and linen i wish i didn't feel so ill and sick
no you shan't if you are ill you must stay here dear dear sue what can i get for you i don't know i can't help shivering i wish i could get warm jude put on her his great coat in addition and then ran out to the nearest public house
whence he returned with a little bottle in his hand here's six of best brandy he said now you drink it dear all of it i can't out of the bottle can i jude fetched the glass from the dressing table and administered the spirit in some water
she gasped a little but gulped it down and lay back in the armchair
but in the middle of her story her voice faltered her head nodded and she ceased she was in a sound sleep jude dying of anxiety lest she should have caught a chill which might permanently injure her
he softly went nearer to her and observed that a warm flush now rosed her hitherto blue cheeks and felt that her hanging hand was no longer cold
by catching sight of the signature which was in her full name never used in her correspondence with him since her first note my dear jude i have something to tell you which perhaps you will not be surprised to hear though certainly it may strike you as being accelerated
as the railway companies say of their trains mister phillotson and i are to be married quite soon in three or four weeks we had intended as you know to wait till i had gone through my course of training and obtained my certificate so as to assist him if necessary in the teaching
but he generously says he does not see any object in waiting
it is so good of him because the awkwardness of my situation has really come about by my fault in getting expelled wish me joy remember i say you are to and you mustn't refuse your affectionate cousin
susanna florence mary bridehead jude staggered under the news could eat no breakfast and kept on drinking tea because his mouth was so dry
then presently he went back to his work and laughed the usual bitter laugh of a man so confronted everything seemed turning to satire and yet what could the poor girl do he asked himself and felt worse than shedding tears
o susanna florence mary he said as he worked you don't know what marriage means could it be possible that his announcement of his own marriage had pricked her on to this
but sue was not a very practical or calculating person and he was compelled to think that a pique at having his secret sprung upon her had moved her to give way to phillotson's probable representations that the best course to prove how unfounded were the suspicions of the school authorities would be to marry him off hand
as in fulfilment of an ordinary engagement sue had in fact been placed in an awkward corner poor sue he determined to play the spartan to make the best of it and support her but he could not write the requested good wishes for a day or two
meanwhile there came another note from his impatient little dear jude will you give me away i have nobody else who could do it so conveniently as you being the only married relation i have here on the spot even if my father were friendly enough to be willing which he isn't
according to the ceremony as there printed my bridegroom chooses me of his own will and pleasure but i don't choose him somebody gives me to him like a she ass or she goat or any other domestic animal bless your exalted views of woman o churchman
but i forget i am no longer privileged to tease you ever susanna florence mary bridehead jude screwed himself up to heroic key and replied my dear sue of course i wish you joy
and also of course i will give you away what i suggest is that as you have no house of your own you do not marry from your school friend's but from mine
i don't see why you sign your letter in such a new and terribly formal way surely you care a bit about me still ever your affectionate jude what had jarred on him even more than the signature was a little sting he had been silent on
the phrase married relation what an idiot it made him seem as her lover if sue had written that in satire he could hardly forgive her if in suffering ah that was another thing his offer of his lodging must have commended itself to phillotson at any rate
for the schoolmaster sent him a line of warm thanks accepting the convenience sue also thanked him jude immediately moved into more commodious quarters as much to escape the espionage of the suspicious landlady who had been one cause of sue's unpleasant experience
as for the sake of room then sue wrote to tell him the day fixed for the wedding and jude decided after inquiry that she should come into residence on the following saturday which would allow of a ten days stay in the city prior to the ceremony
sufficiently representing a nominal residence of fifteen she arrived by the ten o'clock train on the day aforesaid jude not going to meet her at the station by her special request that he should not lose a morning's work and pay she said if this were her true reason
but so well by this time did he know sue that the remembrance of their mutual sensitiveness at emotional crises might he thought have weighed with her in this when he came home to dinner she had taken possession of her apartment
she lived in the same house with him but on a different floor and they saw each other little an occasional supper being the only meal they took together when sue's manner was something like that of a scared child what she felt he did not know their conversation was mechanical
though she did not look pale or ill phillotson came frequently but mostly when jude was absent on the morning of the wedding when jude had given himself a holiday sue and her cousin had breakfast together for the first and last time during this curious interval
in his room the parlour which he had hired for the period of sue's residence seeing as women do how helpless he was in making the place comfortable she bustled about what's the matter jude she said suddenly
he was leaning with his elbows on the table and his chin on his hands looking into a futurity which seemed to be sketched out on the tablecloth oh nothing you are father you know that's what they call the man who gives you away
and had taken breakfast apart what oppressed jude was the thought that having done a wrong thing of this sort himself he was aiding and abetting the woman he loved in doing a like wrong thing instead of imploring and warning her against it it was on his tongue to say
after breakfast they went out on an errand together moved by a mutual thought that it was the last opportunity they would have of indulging in unceremonious companionship by the irony of fate
she took his arm as they walked through the muddy street a thing she had never done before in her life and on turning the corner they found themselves close to a grey perpendicular church with a low pitched roof the church of saint thomas that's the church said jude
where i am going to be married yes indeed she exclaimed with curiosity how i should like to go in and see what the spot is like where i am so soon to kneel and do it again he said to himself
she does not realize what marriage means he passively acquiesced in her wish to go in and they entered by the western door the only person inside the gloomy building was a charwoman cleaning
almost as if she loved him cruelly sweet indeed she had been to him that morning but his thoughts of a penance in store for her were tempered by an ache
nor prove too much for your womanhood they strolled undemonstratively up the nave towards the altar railing which they stood against in silence turning then and walking down the nave again her hand still on his arm precisely like a couple just married
the too suggestive incident entirely of her making nearly broke down jude i like to do things like this she said in the delicate voice of an epicure in emotions which left no doubt that she spoke the truth i know you do
said jude they are interesting because they have probably never been done before i shall walk down the church like this with my husband in about two hours shan't i no doubt you will was it like this when you were married
good god sue don't be so awfully merciless there dear one i didn't mean it ah you are vexed she said regretfully as she blinked away an access of eye moisture and i promised never to vex you
i suppose i ought not to have asked you to bring me in here oh i oughtn't i see it now my curiosity to hunt up a new sensation always leads me into these scrapes forgive me you will won't you jude
the appeal was so remorseful that jude's eyes were even wetter than hers as he pressed her hand for yes now we'll hurry away and i won't do it any more she continued humbly and they came out of the building
but the first person they encountered on entering the main street was the schoolmaster himself whose train had arrived sooner than sue expected there was nothing really to demur to in her leaning on jude's arm but she withdrew her hand and jude thought that phillotson had looked surprised
we have been doing such a funny thing said she smiling candidly we've been to the church rehearsing as it were haven't we jude how said phillotson curiously jude inwardly deplored what he thought to be unnecessary frankness
but she had gone too far not to explain all which she accordingly did telling him how they had marched up to the altar seeing how puzzled phillotson seemed jude said as cheerfully as he could i am going to buy her another little present
jude soon joined them at his rooms and shortly after they prepared for the ceremony phillotson's hair was brushed to a painful extent and his shirt collar appeared stiffer than it had been for the previous twenty years beyond this he looked dignified and thoughtful
and altogether a man of whom it was not unsafe to predict that he would make a kind and considerate husband that he adored sue was obvious and she could almost be seen to feel that she was undeserving his adoration
although the distance was so short he had hired a fly from the red lion and six or seven women and children had gathered by the door when they came out the schoolmaster and sue were unknown though jude was getting to be recognized as a citizen
and the couple were judged to be some relations of his from a distance nobody supposing sue to have been a recent pupil at the training school in the carriage jude took from his pocket his extra little wedding present which turned out to be two or three yards of white tulle
it looks so odd over a bonnet she said i'll take the bonnet off oh no let it stay said phillotson and she obeyed when they had passed up the church and were standing in their places
jude found that the antecedent visit had certainly taken off the edge of this performance but by the time they were half way on with the service he wished from his heart that he had not undertaken the business of giving her away how could sue have had the temerity to ask him to do it
a cruelty possibly to herself as well as to him women were different from men in such matters was it that they were instead of more sensitive as reputed more callous and less romantic or were they more heroic
or was sue simply so perverse that she wilfully gave herself and him pain for the odd and mournful luxury of practising long suffering in her own person and of being touched with tender pity for him at having made him practise it he could perceive that her face was nervously set
and when they reached the trying ordeal of jude giving her to phillotson she could hardly command herself rather however as it seemed from her knowledge of what her cousin must feel whom she need not have had there at all than from self consideration
and grieving for the sufferer again and again in all her colossal inconsistency phillotson seemed not to notice to be surrounded by a mist which prevented his seeing the emotions of others as soon as they had signed their names and come away
and the suspense was over jude felt relieved the meal at his lodging was a very simple affair and at two o'clock they went off in crossing the pavement to the fly she looked back and there was a frightened light in her eyes could it be
that sue had acted with such unusual foolishness as to plunge into she knew not what for the sake of asserting her independence of him of retaliating on him for his secrecy
perhaps sue was thus venturesome with men because she was childishly ignorant of that side of their natures which wore out women's hearts and lives
jude and the landlady offered to get it no she said running back it is my handkerchief i know where i left it jude followed her back she had found it and came holding it in her hand she looked into his eyes with her own tearful ones and her lips suddenly parted as if she were going to avow something
when he returned she was dressed as usual now could i get out without anybody seeing me she asked the town is not yet astir but you have had no breakfast oh i don't want any i fear i ought not to have run away from that school
things seem so different in the cold light of morning don't they what mister phillotson will say i don't know it was quite by his wish that i went there he is the only man in the world for whom i have any respect or fear i hope he'll forgive me but he'll scold me dreadfully i expect
began jude oh no you shan't i don't care for him he may think what he likes i shall do just as i choose but you just this moment said well if i did i shall do as i like for all him i have thought of what i shall do
in a portable apparatus he kept in his room for use on rising to go to his work every day before the household was astir now a dew bit to eat with it he said and off we go you can have a regular breakfast when you get there they went quietly out of the house jude accompanying her to the station
and to wish she had not rebelled telling him at parting that she would let him know as soon as she got re admitted to the training school they stood rather miserably together on the platform
i want to tell you something two things he said hurriedly as the train came up one is a warm one the other a cold one jude she said i know one of them and you mustn't what you mustn't love me
you are to like me that's all jude's face became so full of complicated glooms that hers was agitated in sympathy as she bade him adieu through the carriage window and then the train moved on and waving her pretty hand to him she vanished away
melchester was a dismal place enough for jude that sunday of her departure and the close so hateful that he did not go once to the cathedral services the next morning there came a letter from her
which with her usual promptitude she had written directly she had reached her friend's house she told him of her safe arrival and comfortable quarters and then added what i really write about dear jude is something i said to you at parting you had been so very good and kind to me
that when you were out of sight i felt what a cruel and ungrateful woman i was to say it and it has reproached me ever since if you want to love me jude you may i don't mind at all
now i won't write any more about that you do forgive your thoughtless friend for her cruelty and won't make her miserable by saying you don't ever sue it would be superfluous to say what his answer was
and how he thought what he would have done had he been free which should have rendered a long residence with a female friend quite unnecessary for sue he felt he might have been pretty sure of his own victory if it had come to a conflict between phillotson and himself for the possession of her
yet jude was in danger of attaching more meaning to sue's impulsive note than it really was intended to bear
but he received no further communication and in the intensity of his solicitude he sent another note suggesting that he should pay her a visit some sunday the distance being under eighteen miles he expected a reply on the second morning after despatching his missive but none came
the third morning arrived the postman did not stop this was saturday
for he felt sure something had happened his first and natural thought had been that she was ill from her immersion
conjectures were put an end to by his arrival at the village school house near shaston on the bright morning of sunday between eleven and twelve o'clock when the parish was as vacant as a desert most of the inhabitants having gathered inside the church whence their voices could occasionally be heard in unison
a little girl opened the door miss bridehead is up stairs she said and will you please walk up to her is she ill asked jude hastily only a little not very jude entered and ascended
on reaching the landing a voice told him which way to turn the voice of sue calling his name he passed the doorway and found her lying in a little bed in a room a dozen feet square oh sue he cried sitting down beside her and taking her hand how is this you couldn't write
no it wasn't that she answered i did catch a bad cold but i could have written only i wouldn't why not frightening me like this
they won't have me back at the school that's why i couldn't write not the fact but the reason well they not only won't have me but they gave me a parting piece of advice what she did not answer directly
is it about us yes but do tell me well somebody has sent them baseless reports about us and they say you and i ought to marry as soon as possible for the sake of my reputation there now i have told you and i wish i hadn't
oh poor sue i don't think of you like that means it did just occur to me to regard you in the way they think i do but i hadn't begun to i have recognized that the cousinship was merely nominal since we met as total strangers but my marrying you dear jude
and i never supposed you thought of such a thing as marrying me till the other evening when i began to fancy you did love me a little perhaps i ought not to have been so intimate with you it is all my fault everything is my fault always
the speech seemed a little forced and unreal and they regarded each other with a mutual distress i was so blind at first she went on i didn't see what you felt at all oh you have been unkind to me you have
to look upon me as a sweetheart without saying a word and leaving me to discover it myself your attitude to me has become known and naturally they think we've been doing wrong i'll never trust you again yes sue he said simply
i am to blame more than you think i was quite aware that you did not suspect till within the last meeting or two what i was feeling about you i admit that our meeting as strangers prevented a sense of relationship and that it was a sort of subterfuge to avail myself of it
but don't you think i deserve a little consideration for concealing my wrong very wrong sentiments since i couldn't help having them she turned her eyes doubtfully towards him and then looked away as if afraid she might forgive him
by every law of nature and sex a kiss was the only rejoinder that fitted the mood and the moment under the suasion of which sue's undemonstrative regard of him might not inconceivably have changed its temperature some men would have cast scruples to the winds and ventured it
and of the pair of autographs in the vestry chest of arabella's parish church jude did not
yet at the hour of this distress he could not disclose it he preferred to dwell upon the recognized barriers between them of course i know you don't
particular way he sorrowed you ought not and you are right you belong to mister phillotson i suppose he has been to see you yes she said shortly her face changing a little though i didn't ask him to come you are glad of course that he has been
it was very perplexing to her lover that she should be piqued at his honest acquiescence in his rival if jude's feelings of love were deprecated by her he went on to something else this will blow over dear sue he said
the training school authorities are not all the world you can get to be a student in some other no doubt i'll ask mister phillotson she said decisively sue's kind hostess now returned from church and there was no more intimate conversation
but he had seen her and sat with her such intercourse as that would have to content him for the remainder of his life the lesson of renunciation it was necessary and proper that he as a parish priest should learn
but the next morning when he awoke he felt rather vexed with her and decided that she was rather unreasonable not to say capricious
there came promptly a note which she must have written almost immediately he had gone from her forgive me for my petulance yesterday i was horrid to you i know it and i feel perfectly miserable at my horridness it was so dear of you not to be angry jude
please still keep me as your friend and associate with all my faults i'll try not to be like it again
i could walk with you for half an hour if you would like
chapter fifteen the musical banks on my return to the drawing room i found that the mahaina current had expended itself the ladies were just putting away their work and preparing to go out
i asked them where they were going they answered with a certain air of reserve that they were going to the bank to get some money
now i had already collected that the mercantile affairs of the erewhonians were conducted on a totally different system from our own i had however gathered little hitherto except that they had two distinct commercial systems
than anything to which we are accustomed in europe
were decorated in the most profuse fashion and all mercantile transactions were accompanied with music so that they were called musical banks though the music was hideous to a european ear
as for the system itself i never understood it neither can i do so now they have a code in connection with it which i have not the slightest doubt that they understand but no foreigner can hope to do so
one rule runs into and against another
or as in chinese pronunciation wherein i am told that the slightest change in accentuation or tone of voice alters the meaning of a whole sentence
so far however as i could collect anything certain i gathered that they have two distinct currencies each under the control of its own banks and mercantile codes one of these the one with the musical banks
was supposed to be the system and to give out the currency in which all monetary transactions should be carried on and as far as i could see all who wished to be considered respectable kept a larger or smaller balance at these banks on the other hand
it is that the amount so kept had no direct commercial value in the outside world i am sure that the managers and cashiers of the musical banks were not paid in their own currency
mister nosnibor used to go to these banks or rather to the great mother bank of the city sometimes but not very often he was a pillar of one of the other kind of banks
the ladies generally went alone as indeed was the case in most families except on state occasions i had long wanted to know more of this strange system
and had the greatest desire to accompany my hostess and her daughters i had seen them go out almost every morning since my arrival and had noticed that they carried their purses in their hands not exactly ostentatiously
i had never however yet been asked to go with them myself
it is not easy to convey a person's manner by words and i can hardly give any idea of the peculiar feeling that came upon me when i saw the ladies on the point of starting for the bank
there was a something of regret a something as though they would wish to take me with them but did not like to ask me and yet as though i were hardly to ask to be taken i was determined however
about my going with them and after a little parleying and many inquiries as to whether i was perfectly sure that i myself wished to go it was decided that i might do so
we passed through several streets of more or less considerable houses and at last turning round a corner we came upon a large piazza at the end of which was a magnificent building
of a strange but noble architecture and of great antiquity it did not open directly on to the piazza there being a screen through which was an archway between the piazza and the actual precincts of the bank
on passing under the archway we entered upon a green sward
while in front of us uprose the majestic towers of the bank and its venerable front
and adorned with all sorts of marbles and many sculptures on either side there were beautiful old trees wherein the birds were busy by the hundred and a number of quaint but substantial houses of singularly comfortable appearance
they were situated in the midst of orchards and gardens and gave me an impression of great peace and plenty indeed it had been no error to say that this building was one that appealed to the imagination
it did more it carried both imagination and judgement by storm it was an epic in stone and marble and so powerful was the effect it produced on me that as i beheld it i was charmed and melted
i felt more conscious of the existence of a remote past one knows of this always but the knowledge is never so living as in the actual presence of some witness to the life of bygone ages
i felt how short a space of human life was the period of our own existence
and much more inclinable to believe that the people whose sense of the fitness of things was equal to the upraising of so serene a handiwork were hardly likely to be wrong in the conclusions they might come to upon any subject
my feeling certainly was that the currency of this bank must be the right one
if the outside had been impressive the inside was even more so it was very lofty and divided into several parts by walls which rested upon massive pillars
the windows were filled with stained glass descriptive of the principal commercial incidents of the bank for many ages in a remote part of the building there were men and boys singing this was the only disturbing feature
for as the gamut was still unknown there was no music in the country which could be agreeable to a european ear
and the wailing of the wind which last they tried to imitate in melancholy cadences that at times degenerated into a howl to my thinking the noise was hideous but it produced a great effect upon my companions
who professed themselves much moved as soon as the singing was over the ladies requested me to stay where i was while they went inside the place from which it had seemed to come during their absence certain reflections forced themselves upon me
in the first place it struck me as strange that the building should be so nearly empty i was almost alone and the few besides myself had been led by curiosity and had no intention of doing business with the bank
but there might be more inside i stole up to the curtain and ventured to draw the extreme edge of it on one side no there was hardly any one there
i also saw my hostess and her daughters and two or three other ladies also three or four old women
but there was no one else this did not look as though the bank was doing a very large business and yet i had always been told that every one in the city dealt with this establishment
i cannot describe all that took place in these inner precincts for a sinister looking person in a black gown came and made unpleasant gestures at me for peeping i happened to have in my pocket one of the musical bank pieces which had been given me by missus nosnibor
so i tried to tip him with it but having seen what it was he became so angry that i had to give him a piece of the other kind of money to pacify him when i had done this he became civil directly as soon as he was gone i ventured to take a second look
and saw zulora in the very act of giving a piece of paper which looked like a cheque to one of the cashiers he did not examine it but putting his hand into an antique coffer hard by he pulled out a quantity of metal pieces apparently at random
and handed them over without counting them neither did zulora count them but put them into her purse and went back to her seat after dropping a few pieces of the other coinage into an alms box that stood by the cashier's side
missus nosnibor and arowhena then did likewise but a little later they gave all so far as i could see that they had received from the cashier back to a verger who i have no doubt
put it back into the coffer from which it had been taken they then began making towards the curtain whereon i let it drop and retreated to a reasonable distance
but at last i ventured to remark that the bank was not so busy to day as it probably often was
what little heed people paid to the most precious of all institutions i could say nothing in reply but i have ever been of opinion that the greater part of mankind do approximately know where they get that which does them good
the heart of the country was thoroughly devoted to these establishments and any sign of their being in danger would bring in support from the most unexpected quarters it was only because people knew them to be so very safe
moreover these institutions never departed from the safest and most approved banking principles thus
a thing now frequently done by certain bubble companies which by doing an illegitimate trade had drawn many customers away and even the shareholders were fewer than formerly owing to the innovations of these unscrupulous persons
and as it was now only two thousand years since there had been one of these distributions people felt that they could not hope for another in their own time and preferred investments whereby they got some more tangible return all which she said
was very melancholy to think of having made these last admissions she returned to her original statement namely that every one in the country really supported these banks as to the fewness of the people
and the absence of the able bodied she pointed out to me with some justice that this was exactly what we ought to expect
men of science doctors statesmen painters and the like were just those who were most likely to be misled by their own fancied accomplishments and to be made unduly suspicious by their licentious desire for greater present return
which was at the root of nine tenths of the opposition by their vanity which would prompt them to affect superiority to the prejudices of the vulgar and by the stings of their own conscience which was constantly upbraiding them in the most cruel manner on account of their bodies
which were generally diseased let a person's intellect she continued be never so sound unless his body is in absolute health he can form no judgement worth having on matters of this kind the body is everything
it need not perhaps be such a strong body she said this because she saw that i was thinking of the old and infirm looking folks whom i had seen in the bank but it must be in perfect health in this case the less active strength it had
the more free would be the working of the intellect and therefore the sounder the conclusion the people then whom i had seen at the bank were in reality the very ones whose opinions were most worth having
they declared its advantages to be incalculable and even professed to consider the immediate return to be far larger than they were entitled to and so she ran on
she might say what she pleased but her manner carried no conviction and later on i saw signs of general indifference to these banks that were not to be mistaken
but the denial was generally so couched as to add another proof of its existence in commercial panics and in times of general distress
a few might do so some from habit and early training some from the instinct that prompts us to catch at any straw when we think ourselves drowning but few from a genuine belief that the musical banks could save them from financial ruin
if they were unable to meet their engagements in the other kind of currency in conversation with one of the musical bank managers
and repaired the buildings and enlarged the organs the presidents moreover had taken to riding in omnibuses and talking nicely to people in the streets and to remembering the ages of their children and giving them things when they were naughty
so that all would henceforth go smoothly
it is not necessary he rejoined not in the least necessary i assure you and yet any one could see that the money given out at these banks was not that with which people bought their bread meat and clothing
toy money or the counters used for certain games at cards for notwithstanding the beauty of the designs the material on which they were stamped was as nearly valueless as possible some were covered with tin foil
but the greater part were frankly of a cheap base metal the exact nature of which i was not able to determine indeed they were made of a great variety of metals or perhaps more accurately alloys some of which were hard
of course every one knew that their commercial value was nil but all those who wished to be considered respectable thought it incumbent upon them to retain a few coins in their possession
and to let them be seen from time to time in their hands and purses not only this but they would stick to it that the current coin of the realm was dross in comparison with the musical bank coinage
perhaps however the strangest thing of all was that these very people would at times make fun in small ways of the whole system indeed there was hardly any insinuation against it
which they would not tolerate and even applaud in their daily newspapers if written anonymously while if the same thing were said without ambiguity to their faces
and doubt impossible they would consider themselves very seriously and justly outraged and accuse the speaker of being unwell
i never could understand neither can i quite do so now though i begin to see better what they mean why a single currency should not suffice them it would seem to me as though all their dealings would have been thus greatly simplified
even those who to my certain knowledge kept only just enough money at the musical banks to swear by would call the other banks where their securities really lay cold deadening paralysing and the like
i noticed another thing moreover which struck me greatly i was taken to the opening of one of these banks in a neighbouring town and saw a large assemblage of cashiers and managers i sat opposite them and scanned their faces attentively
they did not please me they lacked with few exceptions the true erewhonian frankness and an equal number from any other class would have looked happier and better men when i met them in the streets they did not seem like other people but had
as a general rule a cramped expression upon their faces which pained and depressed me those who came from the country were better they seemed to have lived less as a separate class and to be freer and healthier
but in spite of my seeing not a few whose looks were benign and noble i could not help asking myself concerning the greater number of those whom i met whether erewhon would be a better country if their expression were to be transferred to the people in general
i answered myself emphatically no the expression on the faces of the high ydgrunites was that which one would wish to diffuse and not that of the cashiers a man's expression is his sacrament
it is the outward and visible sign of his inward and spiritual grace or want of grace
that there must be a something in their lives which had stunted their natural development and that they would have been more healthily minded in any other profession i was always sorry for them for in nine cases out of ten
they were well meaning persons they were in the main very poorly paid their constitutions were as a rule above suspicion and there were recorded numberless instances of their self sacrifice and generosity
at an age for the most part when their judgement was not matured and after having been kept in studied ignorance of the real difficulties of the system but this did not make their position the less a false one
few people would speak quite openly and freely before them which struck me as a very bad sign
when they were in the room every one would talk as though all currency save that of the musical banks should be abolished and yet they knew perfectly well
it was expected of them that they should appear to do so but this was all the less thoughtful of them did not seem particularly unhappy but many were plainly sick at heart though perhaps they hardly knew it
some few were opponents of the whole system but these were liable to be dismissed from their employment at any moment and this rendered them very careful for a man who had once been cashier at a musical bank was out of the field for other employment
and was generally unfitted for it by reason of that course of treatment which was commonly called his education in fact it was a career from which retreat was virtually impossible
and into which young men were generally induced to enter before they could be reasonably expected considering their training to have formed any opinions of their own not unfrequently indeed they were induced by what we in england should call
undue influence concealment and fraud few indeed were those who had the courage to insist on seeing both sides of the question before they committed themselves to what was practically a leap in the dark
one of the first things that an honourable man would teach his boy to understand but in practice it was not so
that some one of their sons perhaps a mere child should fill it there was the lad himself growing up with every promise of becoming a good and honourable man but utterly without warning concerning the iron shoe which his natural protector was providing for him
who could say that the whole thing would not end in a life long lie and vain chafing to escape i confess that there were few things in erewhon which shocked me more than this
yet we do something not so very different from this even in england and as regards the dual commercial system all countries have and have had a law of the land and also another law which though professedly more sacred
it seems as though the need for some law over and above
indeed it is hard to think that man could ever have become man at all but for the gradual evolution of a perception that though this world looms so large when we are in it it may seem a little thing when we have got away from it
when man had grown to the perception that in the everlasting is and is not of nature the world and all that it contains including man is at the same time both seen and unseen
he felt the need of two rules of life one for the seen and the other for the unseen side of things for the laws affecting the seen world he claimed the sanction of seen powers for the unseen
of which he knows nothing save that it exists and is powerful he appealed to the unseen power of which again he knows nothing save that it exists and is powerful
some erewhonian opinions concerning the intelligence of the unborn embryo that i regret my space will not permit me to lay before the reader have led me to conclude
that the erewhonian musical banks and perhaps the religious systems of all countries are now more or less of an attempt
of millions of past generations against the comparatively shallow consciously reasoning and ephemeral conclusions drawn from that of the last thirty or forty the saving feature
of the erewhonian musical bank system
and on which i will touch later was that while it bore witness to the existence of a kingdom that is not of this world it made no attempt to pierce the veil that hides it from human eyes
it is here that almost all religions go wrong their priests try to make us believe that they know more about the unseen world than those whose eyes are still blinded by the seen can ever know
forgetting that while to deny the existence of an unseen kingdom is bad
that in spite of the saving feature of which i have just spoken i cannot help thinking that the erewhonians are on the eve of some great change in their religious opinions or at any rate
so far as i could see fully ninety per cent of the population of the metropolis looked upon these banks with something not far removed from contempt
chapter five when he was gone and yoletta had followed leaving some of the others still studying those wretched sovereigns i sat down again and rested my chin on my hand for i was now thinking deeply thinking on the terms of the agreement
i daresay i have succeeded in making a precious ass of myself was the mental reflection that occurred to me one i had not infrequently made and what is more been justified in making on former occasions then remembering that i had come to supper with an extravagant appetite
it struck me that my host quietly observant had when proposing terms taken into account the quantity of food necessary for my sustenance i regretted too late that i had not exercised more restraint but the hungry man does not and cannot consider consequences
else a certain hairy gentleman who figures in ancient history had never lent himself to that nefarious compact which gave so great an advantage to a younger but sleek and well nourished brother in spite of all this
occupied with these reflections i had failed to observe that the company had gradually been drifting away until but one person was left with me
on his invitation i now rose put by my money and followed him returning by the hall we went through a passage and entered a room of vast extent which in its form and great length and high arched roof was like the nave of a cathedral and yet how unlike
in that something ethereal in its aspect as of a nave in a cloud cathedral its far stretching shining floors and walls and columns pure white and pearl gray faintly touched with colors of exquisite delicacy
and over it all was the roof of white or pale gray glass tinged with golden red the roof which i had seen from the outside when it seemed to me like a cloud resting on the stony summit of a hill on coming in i had the impression of an empty silent place
yet the inmates of the house were all there they were sitting and reclining on low couches some lying at their ease on straw mats on the floor some were reading others were occupied with some work in their hands
and some were conversing the sound coming to me like a faint murmur from a distance at one side somewhere about the center of the room there was a broad raised place or dais with a couch on it on which the father was reclining at his ease
beside the couch stood a lectern on which a large volume rested and before him there was a brass box or cabinet and behind the couch seven polished brass globes were ranged suspended on axles resting on bronze frames these globes varied in size
the largest being not less than about twelve feet in circumference i noticed that there were books on a low stand near me they were all folios very much alike in form and thickness and seeing presently that the others were all following their own inclinations and considering that i had been left to my own resources
and that it is a good plan when at rome to do as the romans do i by and by ventured to help myself to a volume which i carried to one of the reading stands books are grand things sometimes thought i prepared to follow the advice i had received
and find out by reading all about the customs of this people especially their ideas concerning the house which appeared to be an object of almost religious regard with them this would make me quite independent
and teach me how to avoid blundering in the future or giving expression to any more extraordinary delusions on opening the volume i was greatly surprised to find that it was richly illuminated on every leaf
the middle only of each page being occupied with a rather narrow strip of writing but the minute letters resembling hebrew characters were incomprehensible to me i bore the disappointment very cheerfully i must say
and besides i could not have paid proper attention to the text surrounded with all that distracting beauty of graceful design and brilliant coloring
her fingers engaged with some kind of wool work as she walked and my heart beat fast when she paused by my side you are not reading she said looking curiously at me i have been watching you for some time have you indeed
said i not knowing whether to feel flattered or not no unfortunately i can't read this book as i do not understand the letters
quaritch for instance would be tempted to give for it oh i am forgetting
but what a beautiful book it is she said nothing in reply and only looked a little surprised disgusted i feared at my ignorance then walked away i had hoped that she was going to talk to me and with keen disappointment watched her moving across the floor
all the glory seemed now to have gone out of the leaves of the volume and i continued turning them over listlessly
wonderful to look at and hard to understand in a distant part of the room i saw her place some cushions on the floor and settle herself on them to do her work the sun had set by this time and the interior was growing darker by degrees
the fading light however seemed to make no difference to those who worked or read they appeared to be gifted with an owlish vision able to see with very little light the father alone did nothing but still rested on his couch perhaps indulging in a postprandial nap
at length he roused himself and looked around him there is no melody in our hearts this evening my children he said when another day has passed over us it will perhaps be different
to night the voice so recently stilled in death forever would be too painfully missed by all of us some one then rose and brought a tall wax taper and placed it near him the flame threw a little brightness on the volume
which he now proceeded to open and here and there further away it flashed and trembled in points of rainbow colored light on a tall column but the greater part of the room still remained in twilight obscurity he began to read aloud
and although he did not seem to raise his voice above its usual pitch
sweetly played in tune the words he read related to life and death and such solemn matters but to my mind his theology seemed somewhat fantastical although it is right to confess that i am no judge of such matters
there was also a great deal about the house which did not enlighten me much being too rhapsodical and when he spoke about our conduct and aims in life and things of that kind i understood him little better here is a part of his discourse
it is natural to grieve for those that die because light and knowledge and love and joy are no longer theirs but they grieve not any more being now asleep on the lap of the universal mother
the bride of the father who is with us sharing our sorrow which was his first but it dims not his everlasting brightness and his desire and our glory is that we should always and in all things resemble him
the end of every day is darkness but the father of life through our reason has taught us to mitigate the exceeding bitterness of our end
otherwise we that are above all other creatures in the earth should have been at the last more miserable than they for in the irrational world between the different kinds there reigns perpetual strife and bloodshed
the strong devouring the weak and the incapable and when failure of life clouds the brightness of that lower soul which is theirs the end is not long delayed thus the life that has lasted many days goes out with a brief pang
and in its going gives new vigor to the strong that have yet many days to live thus also does the ever living earth from the dust of dead generations of leaves re make a fresh foliage and for herself a new garment
we only of all things having life being like the father slay not nor are slain and are without enemies in the earth for even the lower kinds which have not reason know without reason that we are highest on the earth and
see in us alone of all his works the majesty of the father and lose all their rage in our presence therefore when the night is near when life is a burden and we remember our mortality we hasten the end
that those we love may cease to sorrow at the sight of our decline and we know that this is his will who called us into being and gave us life and joy on the earth for a season but not forever
it is better to lay down the life that is ours to leave all things the love of our kindred the beauty of the world and of the house the labor in which we take delight to go forth and be no more
we remember that our labor has borne fruit that the letters we have written perish not with us but remain as a testimony and a joy to succeeding generations and live in the house forever
for the house is the image of the world and we that live and labor in it are the image of our father who made the world and like him we labor to make for ourselves a worthy habitation which shall not shame our teacher
this is his desire for in all his works and that knowledge which is like pure water to one that thirsts and satisfies and leaves no taste of bitterness on the palate we learn the will of him that called us into life
all the knowledge we seek the invention and skill we possess and the labor of our hands has this purpose only for all knowledge and invention and labor having any other purpose whatsoever
is empty and vain in comparison and unworthy of those that are made in the image of the father of life for just as the bodily senses may become perverted and the taste lose its discrimination
so that the hungry man will devour acrid fruits and poisonous herbs for aliment
thus we know that in the past men sought after knowledge of various kinds asking not whether it was for good or for evil but every offense of the mind and the body has its appropriate reward
and while their knowledge grew apace that better knowledge and discrimination which the father gives to every living soul both in man and in beast was taken from them thus by increasing their riches they were made poorer
and like one who forgetting the limits that are set to his faculties gazes steadfastly on the sun by seeing much they become afflicted with blindness but they know not their poverty and blindness and were not satisfied
the ground here sloped rapidly to the banks and like that in the front was a wilderness with rock and patches of tall fern and thickets of thorn and bramble with a few trees of great size nor was wild life wanting in this natural park
some deer were feeding near the bank while on the water numbers of wild duck and other water fowl were disporting themselves splashing and flapping over the surface and uttering shrill cries the people of the house were already assembled
standing and sitting by the small tables there was a lively hum of conversation which ceased on my entrance then those who were sitting stood up and the whole company fixed its eyes on me which was rather disconcerting
the old gentleman standing in the midst of the people now bent on me a long scrutinizing gaze he appeared to be waiting for me to speak and finding that i remained silent he finally addressed me with solemnity smith he said and i did not like it
i little thought that an even stranger one awaited me that before you break bread in this house in which you have found shelter i should have to remind you that you are now in a house yes i know i am i said and then added
i'm sure sir i appreciate your kindness in bringing me here he had perhaps expected something more or something entirely different from me as he continued standing with his eyes fixed on me then with a sigh and looking round him he said in a dissatisfied tone
my children let us begin and for the present put out of our minds this matter which has been troubling us he then motioned me to a seat at his own table where i was pleased to have a place since the lovely yoletta was also there
as with me good digestion waits on appetite and so long as i get a bellyful to use a good old english word i am satisfied on this particular occasion with or without a pretty girl at the table
i was so desperately hungry it was therefore a disappointment when nothing more substantial than a plate of whitey green crisp looking stuff resembling
was placed before me by one of the picturesque handmaidens it was cold and somewhat bitter to the taste but hunger compelled me to eat it even to the last green leaf then when i began to wonder if it would be right to ask for more to my great relief
other more succulent dishes followed composed of various vegetables we also had some pleasant drinks made i suppose from the juices of fruits but the delicious alcoholic sting was not in them
and a confection of crushed nuts and honey we sat at table or tables a long time and the meal was enlivened with conversation for all now appeared in a cheerful frame of mind notwithstanding the melancholy event which had occupied them during the day
it was in fact a kind of supper and the one great meal of the day the only other meals being a breakfast and at noon a crust of brown bread a handful of dried fruit and drink of milk
at the conclusion of the repast during which i had been too much occupied to take notice of everything that passed i observed that a number of small birds had flown in and were briskly hopping over the floor and tables
i took them to be sparrows and things of that kind but they did not look altogether familiar to me one little fellow most lively in his motions was remarkably like my old friend the robin only the bosom was more vivid running almost into orange
and the wings and tail were tipped with the same hue giving it quite a distinguished appearance another small olive green bird which i at first took for a green linnet was even prettier the throat and bosom being of a most delicate buff
crossed with a belt of velvet black the bird that really seemed most like a common sparrow was chestnut with a white throat and mouse colored wings and tail these pretty little pensioners systematically avoided my neighborhood although i tempted them with crumbs and fruit
only one flew onto my table but had no sooner done so than it darted away again and out of the room as if greatly alarmed i caught the pretty girl's eye just then and having finished eating and being anxious to join the conversation for i hate to sit silent when others are talking
i remarked that it was strange the little birds so persistently avoided me oh no not at all strange she replied with surprising readiness showing that she too had noticed it they are frightened at your appearance i must indeed appear strange to them
said i with some bitterness and recalling the adventures of the morning it is to me a new and very painful experience to walk about the world frightening men cattle and birds yet i suppose it is entirely due to the clothes i am wearing and the boots
i wish some kind person would suggest a remedy for this state of things for just now my greatest desire is to be dressed in accordance with the fashion allow me to interrupt you for one moment smith said the old gentleman
we understood what you said so well on this occasion that it seems a pity you should suddenly again render yourself unintelligible can you explain to us what you mean by dressing in accordance with the fashion
my meaning is that i simply desire to dress like one of yourselves to see the last of these uncouth garments i could not help putting a little vicious emphasis on that hateful word he inclined his head and said yes
thus encouraged i dashed boldly into the middle of matter for now having dined albeit without wine i was inflamed with an intense craving to see myself arrayed in their rich mysterious dress this being so i continued
may i ask you if it is in your power to provide me with the necessary garments so that i may cease to be an object of aversion and offense to every living thing and person myself included a long and uncomfortable silence ensued
that i had blundered once more seemed likely enough from the general suspense and the somewhat alarmed expression of the old gentleman's countenance nevertheless my motives had been good
finding the silence intolerable i at length ventured to remark that i feared he had not understood me to the end perhaps not he answered gravely or rather let me say i hope not
may i explain my meaning said i greatly distressed assuredly you may he replied with dignity only before you speak let me put this plain question to you
to bestow them as a gift on you certainly not i exclaimed turning crimson with shame to think that they were all taking me for a beggar my wish is to obtain them somehow from somebody since i cannot make them for myself
and to give in return their full value i had no sooner spoken than i greatly feared that i had made matters worse for here was i a guest in the house
from my host who for all i knew might be one of the aristocracy of the country my fears however proved quite groundless i am glad to hear your explanation he answered
for it has completely removed the unpleasant impression caused by your former words what can you do in return for the garments you are anxious to possess and here let me remark i approve highly of your wish to escape
do you wish to confine yourself to the finishing of some work in a particular line as wood carving or stone metal clay or glass work or in making or using colors
or have you only that general knowledge of the various arts which would enable you to assist the more skilled in preparing materials no i am not an artist i replied surprised at his question all i
can do is to buy the clothes to pay for them in money what do you mean by that what is money surely i began but fortunately checked myself in time
for i had meant to suggest that he was pulling my leg but it was really hard to believe that a person of his years did not know what money was besides i could not answer the question having always abhorred the study of political economy which tells you all about it
so that i had never learned to define money but only how to spend it presently i thought the best way out of the muddle was to show him some
it had an ancient musty smell like everything else about me but seemed pretty heavy and well filled and i proceeded to open it and turn the contents on the table eleven bright sovereigns and three half crowns or florins i forget which
rolled out then unfolding the papers i discovered three five pound bank of england notes surely this is very little for me to have about me said i feeling greatly disappointed
before well before i was
or where little notice was taken of this somewhat incoherent speech for all were now gathering round the table examining the gold and notes with eager curiosity at length the old gentleman pointing to the gold pieces said what are these
sovereigns i answered not a little amused have you never seen any like them before never let me examine them again yes these eleven are of gold they are all marked alike
on one side with a roughly executed figure of a woman's head
there are also other things on them which i do not understand can you not read the letters i asked no the letters if these marks are letters are incomprehensible to me
but what have these small pieces of metal to do with the question of your garments you puzzle me why everything these pieces of metal as you call them are money and represent of course so much buying power
i don't know yet what your currency is and whether you have the dollar or the rupee here i paused seeing that he did not follow me my idea is this i resumed and coming down to very plain speaking
i can give one of these five pound notes or its equivalent in gold if you prefer that five of these sovereigns i mean for a suit of clothes such as you all wear so great was my desire to possess the clothes
that i was about to double the offer which struck me as poor and add that i would give
and stared fixedly at me assisted by all the others presently in the profound silence which ensued a low silvery gurgling became audible as of some merry mountain burn a sweet warbling sound
swelling louder by degrees until it ended in a long ringing peal of laughter this was from the girl yoletta i stared at her surprised at her unseasonable levity but the only effect of my doing so was a general explosion
men and women joining in such a tempest of merriment that one might have imagined they had just heard the most wonderful joke ever invented since man acquired the sense of the ludicrous the old gentleman was the first to recover a decent gravity
although it was plain to see that he struggled severely at intervals to prevent a relapse
of all the extraordinary delusions you appear to be suffering from
or for a few bits of this metal is the most astounding you cannot exchange these trifles for clothes because clothes are the fruit of much labor of many hands and yet sir
said i in an aggrieved tone you seemed even to approve of the offer i made how then am i to pay for them if all i possess is not considered of any value all you possess he replied surely i did not say that
surely you possess the strength and skill common to all men and can acquire anything you wish by the labor of your hands i began once more to see light although my skill i knew would not count for much ah yes i answered to go back to that subject
some work of a simpler kind there are trees to be felled land to be plowed and many other things to be done if you will do these things some one else will be released to perform works of skill
and as these are the most agreeable to the worker it would please us more to have you labor in the fields than in the workhouse i am strong i answered and will gladly undertake labor of the kind you speak of there is however one difficulty
my desire is to change these clothes for others which will be more pleasing to the eye at once but the work i shall have to do in return will not be finished in a day perhaps not in well several days no of course not said he
a year's labor will be necessary to pay for the garments you require this staggered me for if the clothes were given to me at the beginning then before the end of the year they would be worn to rags and i should make myself a slave for life
i was sorely perplexed in mind and pulled about this way and that by the fear of incurring a debt and the desire to see myself and to be seen by yoletta in those strangely fascinating garments
that i had a decent figure and was not a bad looking young fellow i was pretty sure and the hope that i should be able to create an impression favorable i mean on the heart of that supremely beautiful girl was very strong in me
at all events by closing with the offer i should have a year of happiness in her society and a year of healthy work in the fields could not hurt me or interfere much with my prospects besides i was not quite sure that my prospects were really worth thinking about just now
certainly i had always lived comfortably spending money eating and drinking of the best and dressing well that is according to the london standard and there was my dear old bachelor uncle jack john smith member of parliament for wormwood scrubbs
that is to say ex member for being a liberal when the great change came at the last general election he was ignominiously ousted from his seat the scrubbs proving at the finish a bitter place to him he was put out in more ways than one
and tried to comfort himself by saying that there would soon be another dissolution thinking of his own possibly being an old man i remembered that i had rather looked forward to such a contingency thinking how pleasant it would be to have all that money and cruise about the world in my own yacht
enjoying myself as i knew how and really i had some reason to hope i remember he used to wind up the talk of an evening when i dined with him and got a check by saying
where were those talents now certainly they had not made me shine much during the last few hours now all this seemed unsubstantial and i remembered these things dimly like a dream or a story told to me in childhood
and sometimes when recalling the past i seemed to be thinking about ancient history
and perhaps if i ever should succeed in getting back
or to be confronted with the statute of limitations anyhow a year could not make much difference
i looked up they were all once more studying the coins and notes and exchanging remarks about them if i bind myself to work one year said i
would settle the matter one way or the other no said he it is your wish and also ours that you should be differently clothed at once and the garments you require would be made for you immediately then said i taking the desperate plunge
i should like to have them as soon as possible and i am ready to commence work at once you shall commence to morrow morning he answered smiling at my impetuosity the daughters of the house whose province it is to make these things
shall also suspend other work until your garments are finished and now my son from this evening you are one of the house and one of us and the things which we possess you also possess in common with us i rose and thanked him
he too rose and after looking round on us with a fatherly smile
cariboo indian unrest was probably first among the causes which led the miners to organize themselves into leagues for protection
men on the gold bars were jostled and hustled and pegs marking limits were pulled up a danger lay in the rows of saloons along the water front the well known danger of liquor to the indian
so the miners at yale formed a vigilance committee and established self made laws the saloons should be abolished they decreed sale of liquor to any person whomsoever was forbidden
all liquor wherever found was ordered spilled
a standing committee of twelve was appointed to enforce the law till the regular government should be organized it was july fifty eighth when the miners on the river bars formed their committee and they formed it none too soon
for the indians were on the war path in washington and the unrest had spread to new caledonia young m'loughlin son of the famous john m'loughlin of oregon coming up the columbia overland from okanagan to kamloops with a hundred and sixty men
four hundred pack horses and a drove of oxen had three men sniped off by indians in ambush and many cattle stolen at big canyon on the fraser two frenchmen were found murdered
when word came of this murder the vigilance committee of yale formed a rifle company of forty which in august started up to the forks at lytton at spuzzum there was a fight indians barred the way
but they were routed and seven of them killed in a running fire and indian villages along the river were burned meanwhile a hundred and sixty volunteers at yale formed a company to go up the river under captain snyder
the rifles were handed over on condition that forty of the worst fire eaters in the band should remain behind snyder then led his men up the river and joined the first company at spuzzum at china bar five miners were found hiding in a hole in the bank
with a number of companions they had been driven down stream from the thompson by indians and had been sniped all the way for forty miles man after man had fallen and the five survivors in the bank were all wounded
when the indians saw the company of armed men under snyder they fled to the hills flags of truce were displayed on both sides and a peace was patched up till governor douglas could come up from the coast
not however before there occurred an unfortunate incident at long bar when an indian chief came with a flag of truce two of the white men snatched it from him and trampled it in the mud
on the instant the indians shot both the white men where they stood douglas had been up as far as yale in june but was now back in victoria where couriers brought him word of the open fight in august
and set out for the scene of the disorders royal engineers to the number of a hundred and fifty six and their families had come out from england for the boundary survey
now that the miners were forming vigilance committees of their own and the indians were on the war path he went up the river in a small cruiser and reached hope on the first of september salutes were fired as he landed
douglas knew how to use all the pomp of regimentals and formality to impress the indians he opened a solemn powwow with the chiefs of the fraser as usual the white man's fire water was found to be the chief cause of the trouble
without waiting for legislative authority douglas issued a royal proclamation against the sale of liquor and left a mining recorder to register claims
then he went on to yale at yale he considered the price of provisions too high and by arbitrarily reducing the price at the company's stores he broke the ring of the petty dealers this won him the friendship of the miners
within a week he had allayed all irritation between white man and indian in a quarrel over a claim
douglas appointed magistrates to try the case the trial was of course illegal for colonial government had not been formally inaugurated in new caledonia or british columbia as it was soon to be known
a judge in our colony of british columbia and a detachment of royal engineers under command of colonel moody at fort langley on november nineteenth eighteen fifty eight the colony of british columbia was proclaimed under the laws of england
came word of more riots at yale
the possibility of american occupation had become an obsession at victoria there were undoubtedly those among the american miners who made wild boasts douglas gathered up all his panoply of war and law
along went colonel moody with a company of his royal engineers lieutenant mayne of the imperial navy with a hundred bluejackets and judge matthew begbie to deal out justice to the offenders
and he remembered what had happened to his chief
when the american settlers there had set up vigilance committees he would take no chances the party carried along a small cannon lieutenant mayne could not take his cruiser the plumper higher than langley
and there the forces were transferred to tom wright's stern wheeler the enterprise but when they arrived at hope the whole affair looked like semi comic vaudeville
some miles down the river had beaten up a negro the yale magistrate had issued a warrant for the miner's arrest poor magistrate he had found little to do since his appointment in september the miner now sobered fled back to his bar
the warrant was sent after him to the local peace officer for execution but this officer had already issued a warrant for the arrest of the negro at yale so there it stood each fighter making complaint against the other
the man who tried to arrest the negro was insolent and was jailed by the yale magistrate ned m'gowan the californian down on the bar then came up to yale with a posse of twenty men to arrest the magistrate for arresting the man
who had been sent to arrest the negro bursting with rage the astonished dignitary at yale was bundled into a canoe he was fined fifty dollars for contempt of court
it was at this stage of the comedy of errors that moody begbie and mayne came on the scene at first m'gowan showed truculence and assailed moody
he apologized paid his fine for the assault and invited the officers to a champagne dinner on hill's bar both sides to the quarrel cooled down and the riots ended
the army stayed only to see the miners wash the gold and then put back to victoria the miners had learned that an english judge and a field force could be put on the ground in a week september had settled disorder among the indians
january settled disorder among the whites in the wild remote regions of the up country there was much claim jumping a man lost his claim if he stopped mining for seventy two hours
there were fights and there was killing and sometimes the river cast up its dead the marvel is that there were not more crimes in every camp is a species of human vulture living off other men's risk
and make what they could out of his discovery so by pack train and canoe
to quesnel to fort george towards spring when the prospectors had succeeded in packing in more provisions they began striking back east from the main river
late in fifty nine men reached quesnel lake and cariboo lake binding saplings together with withes the prospectors poled laboriously round these alpine lagoons
and where they found creeks pouring down from the upper peaks they followed these creeks up to their sources pockets of gravel in the banks of both lakes yielded as much as two hundred dollars a day on horse fly creek
chapter two the prospector by september when mountain rivers are at their lowest every bar on the fraser from yale to the forks of the thompson was occupied
the hudson's bay steamer otter made regular trips up the fraser to fort langley and from the fort an american steamer called the enterprise owned by captain tom wright breasted the waters as far as the swift current at yale
at yale was a city of tents and hungry men walter moberly tells how when he ascended the fraser with wright in the autumn of fifty eight
the generous yankee captain was mobbed by penniless and destitute men for return passage to the coast many a broken treasure seeker owed his life to tom wright's free passage fortunately there was always good fishing on the fraser
but salt was a dollar twenty five a pound butter a dollar twenty five a pound and flour rarer than nuggets
that one desperate fellow went to a log shack called a grocery store and after paying a dollar for the privilege of using a grindstone bought an empty butter vat at the pound price of butter twelve dollars for an empty butter tub
half a dollar was the smallest coin used and clothing was so scarce that when a chinaman's pig chewed up walter moberly's boots while the surveyor lay asleep in his shack mister moberly had to foot it twenty five miles before he could find another pair of boots
saloons occupied every second shack at yale and hope revolvers were in all belts and each man was his own sheriff yet there was little lawlessness with claims filed on all gold bearing bars
what were the ten thousand men to do camped for fifty miles beyond yale those who had no provisions and could not induce any storekeeper to grubstake them for a winter's prospecting quit the country in disgust
and the price of land dropped in the boom towns of the fraser as swiftly as it had been ballooned up prospecting during the winter in a country of heavy snowfall did not seem a sane project and yet the eternal question urged the miners on
gold had also been found in cracks in the rock along the river whence had it come the man farthest upstream in spring would be on the ground first for the great find that was bound to make some seeker's fortune so all stayed who could
the autumn late the snowfall light and the spring very early fate as usual favoured the dauntless in parties of twos and tens and twenties and even as many as five hundred
the miners began moving up the river prospecting those with horses had literally to cut the way with their axes over windfall over steep banks and round precipitous cliffs where rivers had to be crossed
the men built rude rafts and poled themselves over with their pack horses swimming behind those who had oxen killed the oxen and sold the beef others breasted the mill race of the fraser in canoes and dugouts
governor douglas estimated that before april of fifty nine as many as three hundred boats with five men in each had ascended the fraser sometimes the amazing spectacle was seen of canoes lashed together in the fashion of pontoon bridges
these travellers naturally did not attempt fraser canyon before christmas of fifty nine prospectors had spread into lillooet and up the river as high as chilcotin soda creek alexandria cottonwood canyon
quesnel and fort george it was safer to ascend such wild streams than to run with the current though countless canoes and their occupants were never heard of after leaving yale where the turbid yellow flood began to rise and collect'
a boatman's phrase the men would scramble ashore and by means of a long tump line tied not to the prow which would send her sidling to the middle of the first thwart would tow their craft slowly up stream
i have passed up and down fraser canyon too often to count the times and have canoed one wild rapid twice but never without wondering how those first gold seekers managed the ascent in that winter of fifty nine there was no cariboo road then
there was only the narrow footpath of the trapper and the fisherman close down to the water and when the rocks broke off in sheer precipice an unsteady bridge of poles and willows spanned the abyss
was one thing for the indian moccasin and quite another thing for the miner's hobnailed boot the men used to strip at these places and attempt the rock walls barefoot or else they cached their canoe in a tree or hid it under moss lashed what provisions they could to a dog's back
the trapper carries his pack with a strap round his forehead the miner ropes his round under his shoulders he wants hands and neck free for climbing usually the prospectors would appoint a rendezvous
there provisions would be slung in the trees above the reach of marauding beasts and the party would disperse at daybreak each to search in a different direction blazing trees as he went ahead so that he could find the way back at night to the camp
distress or a find was to be signalled by a gunshot or by heliograph of sunlight on a pocket mirror but many a man strayed beyond rescue of signal and never returned to his waiting pardners
some were caught in snowslides only to be dug out years later many signs guided the experienced prospector streams clear as crystal came he knew from upper snows
streams milky or blue or peacock green came from glaciers ice grinding over rock heavy mists often added to the dangers
i stood at the level of eight thousand feet in this region once with one of the oldest prospectors of the canyon he had been a great hunter in his day a cloud came through a defile of the peaks heavy as a blanket
though we were on a well cut bridle trail he bade us pause as one side of the trail had a sheer drop of four thousand feet in places before there were any trails
how did you make your way here to hunt the mountain goat when this kind of fog caught you i asked threw chips of stone ahead and listened he answered and let me tell you that only the greenest kind of tenderfoot ever takes risks on a precipice
when five thousand prospectors overran the wild canyons and precipices of the fraser two or three things the prospector always carried with him matches a knife a gun rice flour bacon
and a little mallet shaped hammer to test the float what was the float a sandy chunk of gravel
he wanted to know where that chunk rolled down from he knocked it open with his mallet if it had a shiny yellow pebble inside only the size of a pea the miner would stay on that bank and begin bench diggings into the dry bank
by the spring of fifty nine dry bench diggings had extended back fifty miles from the river if the chunk revealed only tiny yellow specks perhaps mixed with white quartz the miner would try to find where it rolled from
and would ascend the gully or mountain torrent or precipice queer stories are told of how during that winter almost bankrupt grocers grubstaked prospectors with bacon and flour
and received a half interest in a mine that yielded five or six hundred dollars a day in nuggets but for one who found a mine a thousand found nothing the sensations of the lucky one beggared description was it luck or was it perseverance
i asked the man who found one of the richest silver mines in the big bend of the columbia both and mostly dogged he answered take our party as a type of prospectors from fifty nine to eighty nine
from washington we had roughed it in east and west kootenay and were working south to leave the country dead broke we had found float in plenty and had followed it up ridges and over divides across three ranges of mountains
our horses were plumb played out we had camped on a ridge to let them fatten up enough to beat it out of british columbia for ever well we found some galena floats in a dry gully on the other side of the valley
some of the boys said they would go out and shoot enough deer to last us for meat till we could get out of the country old sandy and i thought we would try our luck for just one day we followed that float clear across the valley we found more
up the bed of a raging mountain torrent but the trouble was that the stream came over a rock sheer as the wall of a house i was afraid we'd lose the direction if we left the stream bed but i could see high up the precipice where it widened out in a bench
you couldn't reach it from below but you could from above so we blazed the trees below to keep our direction and started up round the hog's back to drop to the bank under
old sandy wanted to go back but i wouldn't let him he was trembling like an aspen leaf it is so often just the one pace more that wins or loses the race we laboured up that slope and reached the bench just at dark
we were so tired we had hauled ourselves up by trees brushwood branches anything i looked over the edge of the rock it dropped to that shelf we had seen from the gully below it was too dark to do anything more
how far i asked about twenty two miles we threw ourselves down to sleep it was terribly cold we were high up and the fall frosts were icy i tell you i woke aching at daybreak
old sandy was still sleeping i thought i would let myself down over the ledge and see what was below for there were no mineral signs where we were
to a soft grassy level i looked hung for a moment let go and lit on all fours then i looked up the sun had just come over that east ridge and hit the rocks
i went mad i laughed i cried i howled there wasn't an ache left in my bones i forgot that my knees knocked from weakness and that we had not had a bite for twenty four hours i yelled at old sandy to wake the dead
he came crawling over the ledge and peeked down what's the matter says he matter i yelled wake up you old son of a gun we are millionaires there sticking right out of the rock
was the ledge where float had been breaking and washing for hundreds of years so you see only eleven days from the time we were going to give up we made our find that mine paid from the first load of ore sent out by pack horses
other mines were found in a less spectacular way the float lost itself in a rounded knoll in the lap of a dozen peaks and the miners had to decide which of the benches to tunnel
they might have to bring the stream from miles distant to sluice out the gravel and the largest nuggets might not be found till hundreds of feet had been washed out but always the float the pebbles the specks that shone in the sun lured them with promise
even for those who found no mine the search was not without reward
there was the lure of hope edging every sunrise there was the fresh washed ozone fragrant with the resinous exudations of the great trees of the forest there was the healing regeneration to body and soul
amid the dance halls and saloons the miner with money becomes a sot out in the wilds he becomes a child of nature simple and clean and elemental as the trees around him or the stars above him
i think of one prospector whose range was at the headwaters of the athabaska in the dance halls he had married a cheap variety actress when the money of his first find had been dissipated she refused to live with him
and tried to extort high alimony by claiming their two year old son the penniless prospector knew that he was no equal for law courts and sheriffs and lawyers so he made him a raft got a local trader to outfit him
and plunged with his baby boy into the wilderness where no sheriff could track him i asked him why he did not use pack horses he said dogs could have tracked them but the water didn't leave no smell
in the heart of the wilderness west of mounts brown and hooker he built him a log cabin with a fireplace
he set his traps round the mountains and hunted till the snow cleared by the time he could go prospecting in spring he had seven hundred dollars worth of furs to sell
then he brought the boy down and sent him to school when the canadian pacific railway crossed the rockies that man became one of the famous guides he was the first guide i ever employed in the mountains
up stream then headed the prospectors on the fraser in that autumn of fifty eight the miner's train of pack horses is a study in nature there is always the wise old bell mare leading the way
there is always the lazy packer that has to be nipped by the horse behind him there are always the shanky colts who bolt to stampede where the trail widens but even shanky legged colts learn to keep in line in the wilds at every steep ascent the pack train halts
girths are tightened and sly old horses blow out their sides to deceive the driver at first colts try to rub packs off on every passing tree but a few tumbles heels over head down a bank cure them of that trick
river bank is followed where possible but where windfall or precipice drives back from the bed of the river over the mountain spurs the pathfinder takes his bearings from countless signs moss is on the north side of tree trunks
a steep slope compels a zigzag corkscrew ascent but the slope of the ground guides the climber as to the way to go for slope means valley and in valleys are streams and in the stream is the float
which is to the prospector the one shining signal to be followed timber line is passed till the forests below look like dank banks of moss cloud line is passed till the clouds lie underneath in grey lakes and pools
a fool hen or mountain grouse comes out and bobbles her head at the passing packtrain a whistling marmot pops up from the rocks and pierces the stillness
and thus gave the great gold area its name the population of yale that winter consisted of some eight hundred people housed in tents and log shacks roofed with canvas between yale and hope remained two thousand miners during the winter
meals cost a dollar served on tin plates to diners standing in long rows waiting turn at the counter the regular menu at all meals was bacon salmon bread and coffee of butter there was little
of milk none wherever a sand bar gave signs of mineral it was tested with the primitive frying pan if the pan showed a deposit the miner rigged up a rocker a contraption resembling a cradle with rockers below
about four feet from end to end two feet across and two deep the sides converged to bottom at the head was a perforated sheet iron bottom like a housewife's colander into this box the gravel was shovelled by one miner
the man's pardner poured in water and rocked the cradle cradled the sand
when streams were directed through wooden boxes the gold was sluiced on a still larger scale the process was hydraulic mining though the same in principle
the process is only a complex refinement of the bar washer cradling his gold fires had not yet cleared the giant hemlock forests as they have to day along the cariboo trail
and prospectors found their way through a chartless sea of windfall hemlocks criss crossed the height of a house with branches interlaced like wire cataracts fell over lofty ledges in wind blown spray spanish moss
grey green and feathery hung from branch to branch of the huge douglas firs sometimes the trail would lead for miles round the edge of some precipices beyond which could be glimpsed the eternal snows
sometimes an avalanche slid over a slope with the distant appearance of a great white waterfall and the echo of muffled thunder
for in an instant the snowslide might come over the edge of the upper valley to sweep down the slope carrying away forests rocks trail pack train and all the story is told of one slide seen by the guide at the head of a long pack train
he had judged it to be ten miles away but out from the upper valley it came coiling like a long white snake and before he could turn it had caught him in a slide death was almost certain
from suffocation if not from the crush of falling trees and rocks miners have been taken from their cabins dead in the trail of a snowslide that swept the shack to the bottom of the valley without so much as a hair of their heads being injured
though the logs were twisted and warped the dead bodies were not even bruised when a hushed whisper came through the trees travellers looked for some waterfall at midday when the thaw was at its full
all the mountain torrents became vocal with the glee of disimprisoned life running a race of gladness to the sea the sun sets early in the mountains with a gradual hushing of the voice of glad waters and a red glow as of wine on the encircling peaks
camp for the night was always near water for the horses
sunrise steals in silence among the mountain peaks there is none of that stir of song and vague rustling of animal life such as are heard at lower levels nor does the light gradually rise above the eastern horizon
the walled peaks cut off the skyline in mid heaven the stars pale trees and crags are mirrored in the lake so clearly that one can barely tell which is real and which is reflection then the water lines shorten
and the rocks emerge from the belts and wisps of mist and all the sunset colours of the night before repeat themselves across the changing scene as you look the clouds lift the cook shouts breakfast and it is another day
no more affectionate creature is to be found yet he possesses considerable determination and pluck and on occasion will defend himself in his own way too fragile in his anatomy for fighting in the ordinary sense of the word
when molested he will snap at his opponent with such celerity as to take even the most watchful by surprise while his strength of jaw combined with its comparatively great length enables him to inflict severe punishment at the first grab
it was probably owing to this habit which is common to all whippets that they were originally known as snap dogs the whippet existed as a separate breed long before dog shows were thought of
and at a time when records of pedigrees were not officially preserved but it is very certain that the greyhound had a share in his genealogical history for not only should his appearance be precisely that of a greyhound in miniature
but the purpose for which he was bred is very similar to that for which his larger prototype is still used the only difference being that rabbits were coursed by whippets and hares by greyhounds
this sport has been mainly confined to the working classes the colliers of lancashire yorkshire durham and northumberland being particularly devoted to it as a rule the contests are handicaps
the starting point of each competitor being regulated by its weight but the winners of previous important events are penalised in addition according to their presumed merit by having a certain number of yards deducted from the start
to which weight alone would otherwise have entitled them each dog is taken to its stipulated mark according to the handicap and there laid hold of by the nape of the neck and hind quarters the real starter stands behind the lot
and after warning all to be ready discharges a pistol upon which each attendant swings his dog as far forward as he can possibly throw him but always making sure that he alights on his feet
the distance covered in the race is generally two hundred yards minus the starts allotted and some idea of the speed at which these very active little animals can travel may be gleaned from the fact that the full distance has been covered
in rather under twelve seconds in order to induce each dog to do its best the owner or more probably the trainer stands beyond the winning post and frantically waves a towel or very stout rag accompanied by a babel of noise
the race is started and in less time than it takes to write it the competitors reach the goal one and all as they finish taking a flying leap at their trainer's towel to which they hold on with such tenacity that they are swung round in the air
the speed at which they are travelling makes this movement necessary in many cases to enable the dog to avoid accident particularly where the space beyond the winning mark is limited for racing purposes there is a wide margin of size allowed to the dogs
but in view of the handicap terms those dogs which possess speed
are considered to have the best chance probably there is no locality where the pastime has maintained such a firm hold as in and around oldham one of the most famous tracks in the world being at higginshaw
where not infrequently three hundred dogs are entered in one handicap the borough grounds at oldham and the wellington grounds at bury are also noted centres for races
it is a remarkable but well recognised fact that bitches are faster than dogs and in consequence the terms upon which they are handicapped are varied the general custom is to allow a dog
for every pound difference in weight
to allow a dog in training to gambol about either on the roads or in the fields indeed all dogs which are undergoing preparation for a race are practically deprived of their freedom in lieu of which they are walked along hard roads secured by a lead
and for fear of their picking up the least bit of refuse each is securely muzzled by a box like leather arrangement which completely envelops the jaws but which is freely perforated to permit proper breathing
any distance between six and a dozen miles a day according to the stamina and condition of the dog is supposed to be the proper amount of exercise and scales are brought into use every few days to gauge the effect which is being produced
in addition to this private trials are necessary in the presence of someone who is accustomed to timing races by the aid of a stop watch a by no means easy task considering that a slight particle of a second
means so many yards and the average speed working out at about sixteen yards per second nearly twice as fast as the fastest pedestrian sprinter and altogether beyond the power of the fleetest race horse
colour in the whippet is absolutely of no importance to a good judge though possibly what is known as the peach fawn is the favourite among amateur fanciers red fawns blue or slate coloured black brindled of various shades
are most to be met with however in some quarters the idea is prevalent that whippets are delicate in their constitution but this is a popular error probably their disinclination to go out of doors on their own initiative
when the weather is cold and wet may account for the opinion but given the opportunity to roam about a house the whippet will find a comfortable place and will rarely ail anything in scores of houses whippets go to bed with the children
and are so clean that even scrupulous housewives take no objection to their finding their way under the clothes to the foot of the bed thereby securing their own protection and serving as an excellent footwarmer in the winter months
probably in no other breed except the greyhound do judges attach so little importance to the shape of the head so long as the jaws are fairly long and the colour of the eyes somewhat in keeping with that of the body
very little else is looked for in front of the ears as in the case of racing competitors really good dogs for show purposes are much more difficult to find than bitches
the best of the males are not so classical in outline as the females though some of them are as good in legs and feet points which are of the greatest importance though it is not quite in accordance with the standard laid down by the club it will be found that most judges
without variation for sex being considered altogether too heavy appearances are sometimes deceptive but these dogs are rarely weighed for exhibition purposes
the trained eye of the judge being sufficient guide to the size of the competitors according to his partiality for middle size big or little animals the south durham and yorkshire show at darlington
has the credit for first introducing classes for whippets into the prize ring previous to this it had not long been generally recognised as a distinct breed
and it is within the last twenty years that the kennel club has placed the breed on its recognised list the following is the standard of points adopted by the whippet club head long and lean
rather wide between the eyes and flat on the top the jaw powerful yet cleanly cut the teeth level and white eyes bright and fiery ears small fine in texture and rose shape
neck long and muscular elegantly arched and free from throatiness shoulders oblique and muscular chest deep and capacious back
which should be strong and powerful fore legs rather long well set under the dog possessing a fair amount of bone hind quarters strong and broad across stifles well bent thighs broad and muscular
a scientific explanation of hypnotism doctor hart's theory in the introduction to this book the reader will find a summary of the theories of hypnotism
there is no doubt that hypnotism is a complex state which cannot be explained in an offhand way in a sentence or two there are however certain aspects of hypnotism which we may suppose sufficiently explained
by certain scientific writers on the subject first what is the character of the delusions apparently created in the mind of a person in the hypnotic condition by a simple word of mouth statement as when a physician says
now i am going to cut your leg off but it will not hurt you in the least and the patient suffers nothing in answer to this question professor william james of harvard college
reports the following experiments make a stroke on a paper or blackboard and tell the subject it is not there and he will see nothing but the clean paper or board next he not looking
surround the original stroke with other strokes exactly like it and ask him what he sees he will point out one by one the new strokes and omit the original one every time no matter how numerous the next strokes may be
or in what order they are arranged similarly if the original single line to which he is blind be doubled by a prism of sixteen degrees placed before one of his eyes both being kept open
he will say that he now sees one stroke and point in the direction in which lies the image seen through the prism another experiment proves that he must see it in order to ignore it make a red cross
invisible to the hypnotic subject on a sheet of white paper and yet cause him to look fixedly at a dot on the paper on or near the red cross he wills on transferring his eye to the blank sheet see a bluish green after image of the cross
this proves that it has impressed his sensibility he has felt but not perceived it he had actually ignored it refused to recognize it as it were doctor ernest hart an english writer
in an article in the british medical journal gives a general explanation of the phenomena of hypnotism which we may accept as true so far as it goes but which is evidently incomplete he seems to minimize personal influence too much
that personal influence which we all exert at various times and which he ignores not because he would deny it but because he fears lending countenance to the magnetic fluid and other similar theories says he
we have arrived at the point at which it will be plain that the condition produced in these cases and known under a varied jargon invented either to conceal ignorance to express hypotheses or to mask the design of impressing the imagination
and possibly prey upon the pockets of a credulous and wonder loving public such names as mesmeric condition magnetic sleep clairvoyance electro biology animal magnetism faith trance and many other aliases
such a condition i say is always subjective it is independent of passes or gestures it has no relation to any fluid emanating from the operator it has no relation to his will
or to any influence which he exercises upon inanimate objects distance does not affect it nor proximity nor the intervention of any conductors or non conductors whether silk or glass or stone or even a brick wall
we can transmit the order to sleep by telephone or by telegraph we can practically get the same results while eliminating even the operator if we can contrive to influence the imagination
or to affect the physical condition of the subject by any one of a great number of contrivances what does all this mean i will refer to one or two facts in relation to the structure and function of the brain and show one or two simple experiments
of very ancient parentage and date which will i think help to an explanation first let us recall something of what we know of the anatomy and localization of function in the brain and of the nature of ordinary sleep the brain as you know
is a complicated organ made up internally of nerve masses or ganglia of which the central and underlying masses are connected with the automatic functions and involuntary actions of the body such as the action of the heart lungs stomach bowels et cetera
while the investing surface shows a system of complicated convolutions rich in gray matter thickly sown with microscopic cells in which the nerve ends terminate at the base of the brain is a complete circle of arteries
from which spring great numbers of small arterial vessels carrying a profuse blood supply throughout the whole mass and capable of contraction in small tracts so that small areas of the brain may at any given moment become bloodless while other parts of the brain
may simultaneously become highly congested now if the brain or any part of it be deprived of the circulation of blood through it or be rendered partially bloodless or if it be excessively congested and overloaded with blood
or if it be subjected to local pressure the part of the brain so acted upon ceases to be capable of exercising its functions the regularity of the action of the brain and the sanity and completeness of the thought
which is one of the functions of its activity depend upon the healthy regularity of the quantity of blood passing through all its parts and upon the healthy quality of the blood so circulating if we press upon the carotid arteries which pass up through the neck
to form the arterial circle of willis at the base of the brain within the skull of which i have already spoken and which supplies the brain with blood we quickly as every one knows produce insensibility
such as the beating of the heart the breathing motions of the lungs which maintain life and are controlled by the lower brain centers of ganglia are quickly stopped and death ensues we know by observation in cases where portions of the skull have been removed
either in men or in animals that during natural sleep the upper part of the brain its convoluted surface which in health and in the waking state is faintly pink like a blushing cheek
becomes white and almost bloodless it is in these upper convolutions of the brain as we also know that the will and the directing power are resident so that in sleep the will is abolished and consciousness fades gradually away
as the blood is pressed out by the contraction of the arteries so also the consciousness and the directing will may be abolished by altering the quality of the blood passing through the convolutions of the brain
we may introduce a volatile substance such as chloroform and its first effect will be to abolish consciousness and induce profound slumber and a blessed insensibility to pain the like effects will follow more slowly upon the absorption of a drug
such as opium or we may induce hallucinations by introducing into the blood other toxic substances such as indian hemp or stramonium we are not conscious of the mechanism producing the arterial contraction
and the bloodlessness of those convolutions related to natural sleep but we are not altogether without control over them we can we know help to compose ourselves to sleep as we say in ordinary language
we free ourselves from the influence of noises of strong light of powerful colors or of tactile impressions we lie down and endeavor to soothe brain activity by driving away disturbing thoughts or as people sometimes say
try to think of nothing and happily we generally succeed more or less well some people possess an even more marked control over this mechanism of sleep i can generally succeed in putting myself to sleep at any hour of the day either in the library chair or in the brougham
this is so to speak a process of self hypnotization and i have often practiced it when going from house to house when in the midst of a busy practice and i sometimes have amused my friends and family by exercising this faculty
which i do not think it very difficult to acquire we also know that many persons can wake at a fixed hour in the morning by setting their minds upon it just before going to sleep now there is something here which deserves a little further examination
but which it would take too much time to develop fully at present most people know something of what is meant by reflex action the nerves which pass from the various organs to the brain
convey with great rapidity messages to its various parts which are answered by reflected waves of impulse if the soles of the feet be tickled contraction of the toes or involuntary laughter will be excited
or perhaps only a shuddering and skin contraction known as goose skin the irritation of the nerve end in the skin has carried a message to the involuntary or voluntary ganglia of the brain which has responded by reflecting back again nerve impulses
which have contracted the muscles of the feet or skin muscles or have given rise to associated ideas and explosion of laughter in the same way if during sleep heat be applied to the soles of the feet dreams of walking over hot surfaces
vesuvius or fusiyama or still hotter places may be produced or dreams of adventure on frozen surfaces or in arctic regions may be created by applying ice to the feet of the sleeper
here then it is seen that we have a mechanism in the body known to physiologists as the ideo motor or sensory motor system of nerves which can produce without the consciousness of the individual and automatically a series of muscular contractions
and remember that the coats of the arteries are muscular and contractile under the influence of external stimuli acting without the help of the consciousness or when the consciousness is in abeyance i will give another example of this which completes the chain of phenomena
in the natural brain and the natural body i wish to bring under notice in explanation of the true as distinguished from the false or falsely interpreted phenomena of hypnotism mesmerism and electro biology
i will take the excellent illustration quoted by doctor b w carpenter in his old time but valuable book on the physiology of the brain when a hungry man sees food or when let us say a hungry boy looks into a cookshop
he becomes aware of a watering of the mouth and a gnawing sensation at the stomach what does this mean it means that the mental impression made upon him by the welcome and appetizing spectacle has caused a secretion of saliva and of gastric juice
that is to say the brain has through the ideo motor set of nerves sent a message which has dilated the vessels around the salivary and gastric glands increased the flow of blood through them and quickened their secretion here we have then
a purely subjective mental activity acting through a mechanism of which the boy is quite ignorant and which he is unable to control and producing that action on the vessels of dilation or contraction which as we have seen
or abeyance of function in the will centers and upper convolutions of the brain as in its other centers of localization here then we have something like a clue to the phenomena phenomena which as i have pointed out
are similar to and have much in common with mesmeric sleep hypnotism or electro biology we have already i hope succeeded in eliminating from our minds the false theory the theory that is to say experimentally proved to be false
that the will or the gestures or the magnetic or vital fluid of the operator
are necessary for the abolition of the consciousness and the abeyance of the will of the subject we now see that ideas arising in the mind of the subject are sufficient to influence the circulation in the brain of the person operated on and such variations of the blood supply of the brain
as are adequate to produce sleep in the natural state or artificial slumber either by total deprivation or by excessive increase or local aberration in the quantity or quality of blood
in a like manner it is possible to produce coma and prolonged insensibility by pressure of the thumbs on the carotid or hallucination dreams and visions by drugs or by external stimulation of the nerves
here again the consciousness may be only partially affected and the person in whom sleep coma or hallucination is produced whether by physical means or by the influence of suggestion may remain subject to the will of others and incapable of exercising his own volition
in short doctor hart's theory is that hypnotism comes from controlling the blood supply of the brain cutting off the supply from parts or increasing it in other parts this theory is borne out by the well known fact that some persons can blush or turn pale at will
that some people always blush on the mention of certain things or calling up certain ideas certain other ideas will make them turn pale now if certain parts of the brain are made to blush or turn pale
the area outside of them is one of the notable places of the city long before david coveted zion there was a citadel there
defended by a tower much more imposing than the old one the location of the gate however was not disturbed for the reasons most likely that the roads which met and merged in front of it could not well be transferred to any other point
while the area outside had become a recognized market place in solomon's day there was great traffic at the locality shared in by traders from egypt and the rich dealers from tyre and sidon nearly three thousand years have passed
and yet a kind of commerce clings to the spot a pilgrim wanting a pin or a pistol a cucumber or a camel a house or a horse a loan or a lentil a date or a dragoman a melon or a man a dove or a donkey
has only to inquire for the article at the joppa gate sometimes the scene is quite animated and then it suggests what a place the old market must have been in the days of herod the builder and to that period and that market the reader is now to be transferred
following the hebrew system the meeting of the wise men described in the preceding chapters took place in the afternoon of the twenty fifth day of the third month of the year that is say
or the seven hundred forty seventh of rome the sixty seventh of herod the great and the thirty fifth of his reign the fourth before the beginning of the christian era the hours of the day by judean custom begin with the sun
the first hour being the first after sunrise so to be precise the market at the joppa gate during the first hour of the day stated was in full session and very lively the massive valves had been wide open since dawn
business always aggressive had pushed through the arched entrance into a narrow lane and court which passing by the walls of the great tower conducted on into the city as jerusalem is in the hill country the morning air on this occasion was not a little crisp
the rays of the sun with their promise of warmth lingered provokingly far up on the battlements and turrets of the great piles about down from which fell the crooning of pigeons and the whir of the flocks coming and going
as a passing acquaintance with the people of the holy city strangers as well as residents will be necessary to an understanding of some of the pages which follow it will be well to stop at the gate and pass the scene in review
better opportunity will not offer to get sight of the populace who will afterwhile go forward in a mood very different from that which now possesses them the scene is at first one of utter confusion confusion of action sounds colors and things
it is especially so in the lane and court the ground there is paved with broad unshaped flags from which each cry and jar and hoof stamp arises to swell the medley that rings and roars up between the solid impending walls
a little mixing with the throng however a little familiarity with the business going on will make analysis possible here stands a donkey dozing under panniers full of lentils beans onions and cucumbers
brought fresh from the gardens and terraces of galilee when not engaged in serving customers the master in a voice which only the initiated can understand cries his stock nothing can be simpler than his costume
sandals and an unbleached undyed blanket crossed over one shoulder and girt round the waist near by and far more imposing and grotesque though scarcely as patient as the donkey kneels a camel raw boned rough and gray
with long shaggy tufts of fox colored hair under its throat neck and body and a load of boxes and baskets curiously arranged upon an enormous saddle the owner is an egyptian small lithe and of a complexion
which has borrowed a good deal from the dust of the roads and the sands of the desert he wears a faded tarbooshe a loose gown sleeveless unbelted and dropping from the neck to the knee his feet are bare the camel restless under the load
groans and occasionally shows his teeth but the man paces indifferently to and fro holding the driving strap and all the time advertising his fruits fresh from the orchards of the kedron grapes dates figs apples and pomegranates
at the corner where the lane opens out into the court some women sit with their backs against the gray stones of the wall their dress is that common to the humbler classes of the country a linen frock extending the full length of the person
loosely gathered at the waist and a veil or wimple broad enough after covering the head to wrap the shoulders their merchandise is contained in a number of earthen jars such as are still used in the east for bringing water from the wells
and some leathern bottles among the jars and bottles rolling upon the stony floor regardless of the crowd and cold often in danger but never hurt play half a dozen half naked children their brown bodies jetty eyes
and thick black hair attesting the blood of israel sometimes from under the wimples the mothers look up and in the vernacular modestly bespeak their trade in the bottles honey of grapes in the jars strong drink
their entreaties are usually lost in the general uproar and they fare illy against the many competitors brawny fellows with bare legs dirty tunics and long beards going about with bottles lashed to their backs and shouting honey of wine
grapes of en gedi when a customer halts one of them round comes the bottle and upon lifting the thumb from the nozzle out into the ready cup gushes the deep red blood of the luscious berry scarcely less blatant are the dealers in birds
doves ducks and frequently the singing bulbul or nightingale most frequently pigeons and buyers receiving them from the nets seldom fail to think of the perilous life of the catchers bold climbers of the cliffs
now hanging with hand and foot to the face of the crag now swinging in a basket far down the mountain fissure blent with peddlers of jewelry sharp men cloaked in scarlet and blue top heavy under prodigious white turbans
and fully conscious of the power there is in the lustre of a ribbon and the incisive gleam of gold whether in bracelet or necklace or in rings for the finger or the nose and with peddlers of household utensils and with dealers in wearing apparel
and with hucksters of all articles fanciful as well as of need hither and thither tugging at halters and ropes now screaming now coaxing toil the venders of animals
bleating kids and awkward camels animals of every kind except the outlawed swine all these are there not singly as described but many times repeated not in one place but everywhere in the market turning from this scene in the lane and court
this glance at the sellers and their commodities the reader has need to give attention in the next place to visitors and buyers for which the best studies will be found outside the gates where the spectacle is quite as varied and animated indeed it may be more so
for there are superadded the effects of tent booth and sook greater space larger crowd
but colonel winchester and the commander of the ohio regiment were full of pride in their exploit as they had a right to be
the corps moved forward the next day and soon the whole army was united under rosecrans it was a powerful force about ninety thousand men the staunch fighters of the west veterans of great battles and victories and to the young officers it appeared invincible
their feeling that it was marching to another triumph was confirmed by the news that bragg was retreating yet the two armies were so close to each other that the northern vanguard skirmished with the southern rearguard as they passed through the mountains
at one point in a gap of the cumberland mountains the southerners made a sharp resistance
exultation among the troops increased we'll drive bragg away down into the south against grant said ohio to dick
that will finish everything in the west while dick was exultant too he had certain reservations he had seen a like confidence carried to disaster in the east although it did not seem possible that the result here could be similar
i don't think they'll keep on retreating forever ohio he said all our supplies are coming from nashville and we are getting farther away from our base every day but ohio laughed our chief task is to catch bragg he said
a little town of which dick had seldom heard before although he greatly admired its situation the country about it was bold and romantic it stood in a sharp curve of the great river the tennessee not far away was the lofty uplift of lookout mountain a half mile high
and there were long ridges between which creeks or little rivers flowed down to the tennessee one of these streams was the chickamauga which in the language of the cherokee indians who had once owned this region means the river of death why they called it so no one knew but the name was soon to have a terrible fitness
chattanooga itself meant in the cherokee tongue the hawk's nest and anybody could see the aptness of the term while lookout mountain was the loftiest summit some of the other ridges rose almost as high through the gaps of which the northern army must pass if it continued the pursuit of bragg
september had now come and the winds were growing crisper in the high country the feel of autumn was in the air and the coolness made the marching brisker the division to which dick belonged was advancing slowly he often saw thomas and his admiration for the grave silent man grew
it was said that thomas was slow but that he never made mistakes now the rumor was spreading that he had warned rosecrans to be cautious that bragg had a powerful army and when he reached favorable positions would certainly turn and fight not many were impressed by these reports
hadn't they driven bragg through the cumberland mountains and out of chattanooga and now they would soon be on his heels deep down in georgia but dick noticing colonel winchester's serious face surmised that he at least shared the opinion of his chief
and when the lad looked up at the great coils and ridges he felt that in truth they might go too far if the northern men were veterans so were the southern
when the best scouts rode in with reports that the southern retreat was now very slow there was news too that slade had a new band much larger than before and they formed a rear guard of skirmishers which made every moment of a northern scout's life a moment of danger
the winchester regiment itself was often fired upon from ambush and there were vacant places in the ranks
but much of his high exultation was abated he regarded the lofty ridges and the deep gaps with apprehension it was a difficult country and the southern leaders must know that the northern army was extended over a long line with thomas holding the left
his premonitions had ample cause bragg as he fell back slowly had gathered new forces rosecrans did not yet know it but the army before him was the most powerful that the south ever assembled in the west polk and cleburne and breckinridge and forrest and fighting joe wheeler
and a whole long roll of famous southern generals were there nor had the vigilant eyes of the confederacy in the east failed to note the situation just as the armies were coming into touch a division of the army of northern virginia was passing by train over the mountains
it was led by a thick bearded powerful man no less a general than the renowned longstreet sent to help bragg the veterans of the army of northern virginia would swell bragg's ranks and the great army turning a sanguine face northward was eager for rosecrans to come on
and the night had come heavy with omens and presages the least intelligent knew now that bragg had stopped but they did not know that longstreet was to be with him
in a way yes replied warner but my hills are not bristling with steel as these are no you new englanders are fortunate the war will never be carried on on your soil you shed your blood but after all the states that are trodden under foot by the armies suffer most
there are lights winking on the mountains again said pennington let em wink said dick their signals can't amount to much now
fellows i'm not so sure about the result come come dick said warner
nothing george but between you and me and the gate post i wish that our old pap thomas commanded all the army instead of the left merely i've learned a few things to day the enemy is spreading out trying to enfold us on both wings what of it
as they think we surely will be but their main force is not far from us now so a scout told me it's massed heavily along the right bank of the chickamauga and if there's a battle to morrow we're likely to receive the first attack could it come any better than at the place where thomas stands
they sat long by the fire and dick could not rest shiloh his capture and his knowledge of the secret southern advance of which he could give no warning came back to him with uncommon vividness he knew that no such surprise could occur here
but they seemed to be lost in the wilderness the mountains and forests oppressed him well dick said warner we're posted strongly we've rows of sentinels as thick as hedges and i've the colonel's permission to go to sleep i'll be slumbering in ten minutes and i'd advise you to do the same
he lay on a blanket and soon slept pennington followed him to slumberland but dick lingered he saw lights still flashing on the mountains and he heard now and then reports from the rifles of the skirmishers who yet sought each other despite the darkness
which should bring nearly two hundred thousand men face to face in mortal combat dick was awake early the september morning came crisp and clear the sun showing red gleams over the mountains
and through his glasses he saw far away faint puffs of smoke but it was a familiar sound in this mighty war and he found himself singularly calm he never knew how he was going to feel on the eve of battle
sometimes the constriction at his heart was painful and sometimes its beat was smooth and regular all the officers of the winchester regiment were dismounted owing to the rough nature of the country in which they were stationed they held the most uneven part of the center where thickets and ravines were many
hot food and coffee were served to them and new warmth and courage flowed through their bodies the distant fire increased and standing on a hillock dick looked long through his glasses a faint haze which had hung in the south was clearing away the rays of the sun were intensely bright
the brown of autumn glowed like gold and the red splashes here and there burned scarlet
he saw pink dots appearing on a long line and he knew that the skirmishers were active and wary there can be no doubt of the advance he said to warner a strong body of our cavalry disclosed their forward movement and there are the skirmishers signaling that bragg is near wonderful fellows those sharpshooters
we stand in mass and fight together but every one of them individually takes his life in his own hands the firing is coming nearer i think we'll be attacked first after a little pause warner said i'm sorry our line is extended so much
what if they should cut through and get behind us they'll never do it while general thomas is here
i'd rather have him commanding us just now than any other general in the world
general thomas rode slowly along his line inspecting the position of every regiment and making some changes
if grant was a bulldog thomas was another the men knew him they had seen him stand like a rock before and the thrill of confidence and courage which help so much to win ran through them all
all the men in the regiment were lying down but the officers walked back and forth in front of the line it was the especial pride of the younger ones to appear unconcerned and some were able to make a brave pretense
but all the while the battle was rolling nearer it was no longer an affair of scouting parties the skirmishers were driven in on either side and the mighty southern advance was coming forward in full battle array
shells began to shriek and fall among the northern masses and the fire of cannon and rifles mingled in a sinister crash but the union regiments although not yet replying remained steady although the shower of steel that was beginning to beat upon them found many a mark
vast columns of smoke pierced by fire rose in front it seemed to dick's vivid fancy that the earth was shaking with the tread of the advancing brigades and the thunder of their artillery but he was still able to preserve his air of indifference although his heart was now beating hard and fast
now and then when the smoke eddied or the banks of it broke apart he raised his glasses and with their powerful vision saw the long and deep southern columns advancing the field batteries in the intervals pouring a storm of death it was a sinister and terrible sight
the south presented here an army outnumbering its force at shiloh two to one and they were veterans now led by veteran commanders moreover they had longstreet and his matchless fighters from lee's army to bear them up
johnnies johnnies johnnies thousands and thousands of them and then many thousands more they're going to strike full upon us here let em come we're taking root growing deep into the ground and old pap thomas has grown deepest of us all
it'll be impossible to move us i hope so
he stopped short in amazed surprise and pennington in wonder asked what is it you see dick there's a heavy cavalry force on their flank and i caught a glimpse of a man on a great horse leading it i know him he's colonel george kenton father of harry kenton that cousin of mine
and here he comes charging you but it's happened hundreds and hundreds of times in this war that relatives have come face to face in battle
are they within rifle shot dick not yet but they soon will be
the eye alone was sufficient now to watch the charging columns all the artillery on both sides was coming into action and the ripping crash of so many cannon became so great that the officers could no longer hear one another unless they shouted
the gorges and hills caught up the sound and gave it back in increased volume dick heard a new note in the thunder it was made by the swift beat of hoofs thousands of them and the hair on his neck prickled at the roots
forrest and the wild cavalry of the south were charging on their flanks he felt a sudden horror lest he be trampled under the hoofs of horses
colonel winchester shouting imperiously ordered him and all the other young officers to step back now and lie down dick obeyed and he crouched by the side of warner and pennington
the great bank of fire and smoke was rolling nearer and yet nearer and the cannon were fighting one another with all the speed and power of the gunners off on the flank the ominous tread of southern horsemen was coming fast bullets began now to rain among them
the regiment would have been swept away bodily had the men not been lying down but their time to wait and hold their fire was at an end the colonel gave the word and a sheet of light leaped from the mouths of their rifles a vast gap appeared in the southern line before them but in a minute or two it closed up
and the southern masses came on again as menacing as ever again dick's regiment poured its shattering fire upon the southern columns and their front lines were blown away
dick looked around him and saw faces turning pale his own might be whiter than any of theirs for all he knew but he shouted with the other officers steady
it was well that most of the men in the regiment had become sharpshooters and that despite the thumping of their hearts they were able to stand firm their sleet of bullets emptied a hundred saddles and slipping in the cartridges they fired again at close range the cavalry charge seemed to stop dead in its tracks
wounded horses screaming in pain rushed wildly back upon their own comrades or through the ranks of the foe injured men shot from their saddles
whirling eddies of smoke alternately hid and disclosed enemies and from both left and right came the continuous and deafening crash of infantry in battle
but forrest's men paused only a moment or two a great mass of them galloped out of the smoke over the bodies of their dead comrades and directly into the winchester regiment shouting and slashing with their great sabers
it was well for the men that their leader had so wisely chosen ground rough and covered with bushes using every inch of protection they fired at horses and riders and thrust at them with their bayonets the battle became wild and confused a turmoil of mingled horse and foot
and bayonets a man on a huge horse made a great sweep at dick's head with a red saber the boy dropped to his knees and felt the broad blade whistle where his head had been
the swordsman was borne on by the impetus of his horse and dick caught one horrified glimpse of his face it was colonel kenton but dick knew that he did not know nor did he ever know
the charge of the cavalrymen carried them clear through the winchester regiment but a regiment coming up to the relief drove them back and the great mass turning aside a little attacked anew and elsewhere
although the mighty battle wheeled and thundered all about them but their regiment was a melancholy sight a third of its numbers were killed or wounded the ground was torn and trampled as if it had been swept by a hurricane of wind and red rain
dick seized him by the arm and shook him roughly stop it frank stop it he cried you're yourself and you're all right pennington shook his body brushed his hands over his eyes and said thanks dick old man you've brought me back to myself
i can hear their tread shaking the earth the broken regiment reloaded drew its lines together and faced the enemy anew
the southern generals skillful and daring were resolved to break through the northern left and the attack attained all the violence of a convulsion the great southern line blazing with fire and steel advanced never stopping for a moment
it was well for the northern army well for the union that here was the rock of chickamauga amid all the terrible uproar and the yet more terrible danger thomas never lost his courage and presence of mind for a moment
which that day and the next were to give him but the weight was so tremendous that they began to give ground they went back slowly but they went back dick felt as if the whole weight were pressing upon his own chest and when he tried to shout no words would come
back they went inch by inch leaving the ground covered with their dead
but he understood the immensity of the crisis by a huge victory in the west the confederacy would redress the loss of gettysburg in the east and now it seemed that they were gaining it for the first and only time in the war they had the larger numbers in a great battle and the ground was of their own choosing
elated over success gained and greater success hoped the southern leaders poured their troops continually upon thomas if they could break that wing cut it off in fact and rush in at the gap they would be between rosecrans and chattanooga
and the northern army would be doomed they made gigantic efforts the cavalry charged again and again huge masses of infantry hurled themselves upon the brigades of thomas and every gun that could be brought into action poured shot and shell into his lines
felt the terrible nature of the crisis dick knew despite the hideous turmoil that thomas was the chief target of the southern army he divined that the fortunes of the union were swinging in the balance there among those tennessee hills and valleys if thomas were shattered
the turn of grant farther south would come next vicksburg would have been won in vain and the union would be broken in the west order and cohesion were lost among many of the regiments but the men stood firm
the superb democratic soldier fought for himself and he too understood the crisis they re formed without orders and fought continuously against overwhelming might ground and guns were lost but they made their enemy pay high for everything and the slow retreat never became a panic
we're going back shouted warner in dick's ear yes we're going back but we'll come forward again they'll never crush the old man yet the pressure upon them never ceased bragg and his staff had the right idea had anyone but thomas stood before them
but his slow calm mind rose to its greatest heights in the greatest danger he understood everything and he was resolved that his wing should not be broken wherever the line seemed weakest he thrust in a veteran regiment
and he went quickly back and forth observing with a measuring eye every shift and change of the battle the winchester regiment in its new position was still among the gullies and bushes and they were thankful for such shelter although veterans now most were lads and they did not scorn to take cover whenever they could
by the very violence of the concussion
the southern attack was spreading along the whole front and it was made with unexampled vigor it even excelled the fiery rush at stone river and the generals on both sides were largely the same that had fought the earlier great battle polk the bishop general
buckner massed kentuckians who faced kentuckians on the other side and longstreet and hill were to play their great part for the south resolved to win a victory the veteran generals spared nothing and the little chickamauga so singularly named by the indians the river of death
was running red dick crouched lower as the storm of shells swept over him despite all his experience impulse made him bow his head while the whistling death passed by he felt a little shame that he an officer should seek protection
but when he stole a look he saw that all the others colonel winchester included were doing the same
pardon me for saying it to you an officer mister mason but it's our business not to get killed when it's not needed so we can save ourselves to be killed when it is needed i suppose you're right sergeant at any rate i'm glad enough to keep under cover
but do you see anything in those woods over there we're on the extreme left flank here and maybe they're trying to overlap us i think i do men with rifles are in there i'll speak to the colonel
but dick meanwhile saw increasing numbers of men there they were beyond the line of battle and were not obscured by the clouds of smoke
and although he could not discern the face at the distance he knew that it was slade come with a new and perhaps larger body of riflemen to burn away the extreme left flank of the union force
as the colonel and the sergeant crawled back dick told them what he had seen and they recognized at once the imminence of the danger colonel winchester looked at the great columns of fire and smoke in front of him he did not know when the main attack would sweep down upon them again
but he took his resolution at once he ordered his men to wheel about and using slade's own tactics to creep forward with their rifles most of his men were sharpshooters and he felt that they would be a match for those whom the guerrilla led sergeant whitley kept by his side
and out of a vast experience in border warfare advised him dick warner and pennington armed themselves with rifles of the fallen and they felt fierce thrills of joy as they crept forward
dick put all his soul in the man hunt he merely hoped that victor woodville was not there he would fire willingly at any of the rest
bullets pattered all about them clipping twigs and leaves and striking sparks from stones had the fire been unexpected
they felt as if an advantage had been taken of them while they were fighting a great battle in front a sly foe sought to ambush them they did not hate the southern army which charged directly upon them
but they did hate this band of sharpshooters which had come creeping through the woods to pick them off and they hated them collectively and individually
whom he would shoot without hesitation if the chance came he looked for him continually as he crept from bush to bush and he withheld his fire until fortune might bring into his view the flaps of that enormous hat the whole vast battle of chickamauga passed from his mind
but dick's finger did not yet press the trigger the great hat was still hidden from view but he heard slade's whistle calling to his men
and he knew that he was upon a quest a deadly one is it slade you're looking for mister mason he asked yes i want him well if we see him and you miss him i think i'll take a shot at him myself but slade crafty and cunning kept himself well hidden
the two bands fighting this indian combat while the great battle raged so near them were now very near to each other but as they had both thickets and a rocky outcrop for refuge they fought from hiding nevertheless many fell
sought everywhere for slade often he heard his silver whistle directing his troop but the man himself remained invisible in his eagerness the lad rose too high but the sergeant pulled him down in time a bullet whistling a second later through the air where his head had been
careful mister mason careful said sergeant whitley it won't do you much good for one of his men to get you while you are trying to get him dick became more cautious at last he caught a glimpse of the great hat that he could not mistake and
aiming very carefully he fired then he uttered an angry cry he had missed and when the sergeant was ready to pull the trigger also slade was gone now the colonel called to his men and rising they charged into the wood
it was evidently no part of slade's plan to risk destruction as he blew a long high call on his whistle and then he and all his men save the dead melted away like shadows the winchesters stood among the trees gasping and staunching their wounds but victorious
now they had only a few moments for rest bugles called and they rushed back to their old position just as the southern cavalry sabers circling aloft swept down upon them again
they went once more through that terrible turmoil of fire and flashing steel and a second time the winchesters were victorious but they could have stood no more and thomas watching everything hurried to their relief a regiment which formed up before them to give them breathing time
the young soldiers threw themselves panting upon the ground and were assailed by a burning thirst the canteens were soon emptied and still their lips and throats were parched exhausted by their tremendous exertions many of them sank into a stupor
although the battle was at its zenith and the earth shook with the crash of the heavy batteries general thomas has had news that we're driven in elsewhere said dick and we've yielded ground here too said warner but so slowly that it's been only a glacial movement
we've made em pay such a high price that i think old pap can boast he has held his ground dick did not know it then nor did the general himself but pap thomas could boast of far more than having held his ground his long and stubborn resistance
his coolness and judgment in weighing and measuring everything right in all the vast turmoil confusion and uncertainty of a great battle had saved the northern army from destruction now as the winchester men lay gasping behind the fresh regiment
thomas who continually passed along the line of battle came among them he was a soldier's soldier a soldier's general and he spoke encouraging words most of which they could not hear amid the roar of the battle but his calm face told their import
and fresh courage came into their hearts the news spread gradually that thomas only was holding fast but now his men instead of being discouraged were filled with pride it was they and they alone whom the southerners could not overwhelm
and thomas and his generals inspired them with the belief that they were invincible charge after charge broke against them
blazing with death thomas stood all day while the southern masses flushed by victory everywhere else pressed harder terrible reports of defeat and destruction came to him continually but he did not flinch
he turned the same calm face to everything and said to the generals that whatever happened they would keep their own front unbroken the day closed with the men of thomas still grim and defiant the dead lay in heaps along their front
but as the darkness settled down on the unfinished battle they meant to fight with equal valor and tenacity on the morrow the first day had favored the south had favored it largely but on the union left hope still flamed high darkness swept over the sanguinary field
a cold wind of autumn blew off the hills and mountains and the men shivered as they lay on the ground but thomas allowed no fires to be lighted food was brought in the darkness and those who could find them wrapped themselves in blankets between the two armies
lay the hecatombs of dead and the thousands of wounded
it was to be their position for the fighting next day thomas passing by had merely given them an approving look
how they blew off the top of a steeple with dynamite
was the congregational church in hartford that stood for years on pearl street and was famous alike for the burning words spoken beneath its roof and the tall straight spire that reached above it two hundred and thirty eight feet measured the drop from
cross to pavement but churches pass like other things and near the century end came the decision by landowners and lease interpreters that this graceful length of brownstone and the pile beneath it must move off the premises which meant of course
that the steeple must come down the time appointed for this demolition being august eighteen ninety nine
if you suggest pulling the steeple over all the neighbors cry out
are you sure it won't smash down on their housetops
how do you know you can besides how are you going to hitch fast the rope that will pull it over and who will climb with such a rope to the steeple top it must be said
that there is usually some young man at hand some dare devil character of the vicinity who is ready to try the thing and is positive he can succeed at it but luckily he seldom gets a chance to try
it's queer said merrill telling me the story how people ever built a steeple like this one without a window in it or an air passage or anything for ventilation
what a place for a man to work squeezed in the point of a stifling funnel
and the scorch of an august sun after fifteen minutes of it my wrists and temples would be pounding so i'd have to come down and rest of course the purpose of this hole that i knocked through the steeple top
was to make fast ropes and pulleys so my partner and i could hoist ourselves along the outside and not have to climb up the inside cross beams which i can tell you is a lively bit of athletics well we got our ropes fixed all right
about twenty five feet below the top and the bosun's saddle
and down in and then we made fast another set of ropes and pulleys about fifteen feet higher up
how did you get up that fifteen feet i inquired worked up on the stirrups that is two nooses around the steeple each ending in a loop one for the right foot one for the left
you stand in the right stirrup and work the left loop up then you stand in the left stirrup and work the right loop up sometimes in hard places you have to throw your nooses around the shaft as a cowboy casts a rope come down some day and watch us work
you see and by screwing up the jack we could make that part as solid as the keystone was we made this hole on the east side of the steeple
first a lot of half inch wire cable enough for four turns around the steeple then eight sixteen foot timbers two inches thick and a foot wide then a lot of maple wedges
then we lowered the timbers lengthwise inside the cable which we could do because the steeple was an octagon with ornamented corners
just opposite our hole where the jack was in other words we had the steeple shored in so that when we let her go no loose stones could fall on the west side everything must fall to the east last of all
in a half circular mouth about four feet high and in this mouth were two teeth one might say
the iron jack biting into the block of norway pine
with the result that it must topple over in that direction and fall to the ground
and it seemed sound enough the only question was how we were going to knock out that block of norway pine well the day of the test came and i guess five thousand people were there to see what would happen
everybody was discussing it and farmers had driven in for miles just as they do for a hanging
there was no telling how many people it would kill in the crowd without counting damage to houses however the contractor was boss and he stuck to it his way was right so we hitched the engine to the block and set her going
but the block never budged all that morning we tried one scheme after another to make that engine pull the block out but we might as well have hitched a rope to the church the steeple's weight was too much for us
and all the time the crowd was getting bigger and bigger until the police could hardly manage it finally the contractor being very mad and quite anxious
and do it quick for some men were
he didn't have to speak twice before i was on my way up that steeple carrying an inch auger a fifty foot fuse and a stick of dynamite
it's queer how people get wind of a thing the crowd seemed to know in a minute
and before i was twenty feet up the ladder a police officer was after me ordering me down i went right ahead pretending not to hear and when i got to the bell deck he was puffing along ten yards below me
i swung into my bosun's saddle and began pulling myself up outside the steeple and i guess the whole five thousand people around the church bent back their heads to watch me as soon as i began to rise in the saddle i knew i was all right
at a downward slant and in this i put some crumbs of dynamite not much only about half a teaspoonful and then i stuck in the fuse and tamped her solid with sand
he had pressing business on the ground by the time i got down you could see a little trail of bluish smoke drifting away from the hole and there was a hush over the crowd except for the police trying to make them stand back behind the ropes
i don't know as i ever saw a bigger crowd the street was jammed for blocks either way well sir that was a queer acting fuse it smoked and smoked for about ten minutes
he was sure i had made another failure i didn't know what to think i just waited we waited ten minutes twelve minutes it seemed like an hour but nobody dared go up to see what the matter was then suddenly the explosion came
no louder than a pistol crack for dynamite isn't noisy but it stirred me more than a cannon start your engine i shouted and the little dummy had just time to wind up half a turn of the hitch line when the old steeple top swayed and broke clean in two
right where the block was and the whole upper length fell like one piece fell to the east
and landed in the trench every stone of it there wasn't a piece as big as your fingernail sir outside that trench and while she was falling i don't know how many kodaks were snapped in the hope of getting a picture
there is something strange and solemn about an engine house at night like the stillness of a church or the hush of a drowsing menagerie you are filled with a sense of impending danger
which is symbolized everywhere in the boots ranged at bunk sides of sighing sleepers in the brass columns smooth as glass that reach up through manholes in the floor
and at which the fire crew leap half drunk with fatigue in the engine purring at the double doors steam always at twenty five in the boiler with tongues and harness lifted for the spring
in the big gong which watches under the clock and the clock watches too a tireless yellow eye that seems to be ever saying shall i strike shall i strike and the clock
ticks back wait wait or now now that is what you feel chiefly in an engine house at night the intense
it may be the driver of a chief as happened to me and see if he doesn't walk back home with a gladder heart and a better opinion of his fellows i fancy some of our reformers even
might visit an engine house with profit and learn to dwell occasionally on the good that is in our cities and learn something about fighting without bluster and without ever letting up
it was a tall loose jointed fellow i met at the elm street station a typical down easter
a daring man and famous in his dashes from fire to fire over the city in these days of idol breaking it is good to see such hero worship as one finds here for all men who deserve it whether in humble station or near the top
asleep now up stairs against the night's emergencies ask any fireman in new york to tell you about ahearn and you'll find there is one business where jealousy doesn't rule ahearn
why he's a wonder sir he's the dandiest man say did ye ever hear how he crawled under that blazing naphtha tank and got a man out who was in there unconscious they gave him the bennett medal for that
and d ye know about the rescue he made up in williamsbridge when that barrel of kerosene exploded
then each man will tell you a different thing the driver's favorite story
where nobody had any business to go sir the fire was that fierce it was fine to see his face light up as he told what his chief did on this occasion and the whole quiet engine house seemed to throb with pride
you see he went on
that her baby was in the building as a matter of fact the baby was all right some neighbors had it but the mother didn't know that and the chief didn't know it either
and went in he got to the room all right where the woman said her baby was and it was like a furnace so he did the only thing a man can do got down low on his hands and knees and worked along toward the bed with his mouth against the floor sucking in air
he went through fire sir that nearly burned his head off it did burn off the rims of his ears but he got to that bed somehow and then he found he'd done it all for nothing there wasn't any baby there to save
but there was a chief to save now he was about gone when he got back to the door
and he was a prisoner sir a prisoner in a stove he didn't have any strength left poor old chief he couldn't breathe let alone batter down doors and we'd had some choice mourning around here inside of a minute
tell ye another thing the chief did continued the driver
it was a mighty sad case we had three people to save if we could and two of em sick
about ten feet away along the same wall and by leaning out of our windows we could tell em what to do it was a case of ropes and swing across to us but it isn't every man can make a rope fast right when a fire is hurrying him
especially a sick man or mebbe it was a poor rope he had anyhow when the nurse came out of that window you might say tumbled out you see they made her go first
and when the rope tightened it snapped and down she went seven stories killed her bang the chief saw that would never do so we went up on the roof and threw over more rope
it was clothes line the only thing handy but i doubled it to make sure and with that we got the husband and wife across all safe for now you see we could lift em out easy without such a terrible jerk on the rope
that was the chief's idea yes said i but you helped what's your name
never mind me i'm nobody let the chief have it all and then he went on with the story which interested me mainly as showing the kind of loyalty one finds among these firemen each man will tell of another man's achievements not of his own
you could never find out what bill brown did from brown himself the clock ticked on some service calls rang on the telephone
counting the strokes of the gong no it wasn't for them they'd go though on the second call second calls usually came within twenty minutes of the first so we'd soon see meantime
he told me about a fireman known as crazy banta talk about daredevils said he this man banta beat the town
a house with a line of men where they had to cross the ridge of a slate roof you know where the two sides slant up to a point well the other men would straddle along careful one leg on each side but when banta came
he'd walk across straight up just like he was down on the street that's why we called him crazy' he'd do such crazy things and funny well sir he'd swaller quarters as fast as you'd give em to him
and let you punch him in the stomach and hear em rattle around then he'd light a match
and let you watch the quarters come up again had a double stomach or something he could swaller canes too same as a circus man said he'd learned all his tricks over in india but some of the boys thought he lied
they said he'd prob'ly traveled with some show
so one day a battalion chief called his bluff
and blamed if banta didn't chin away to the whole crowd of em you'd thought he was their long lost brother was he a foreigner no sir
some factory after that he might have told us he could fly or eat glass or any old thing and we'd have believed him tell ye what he did this factory all smashed in after she'd burned a while
and one of the boys dave soden got wedged under the second floor with all the other floors piled on top of him it was a great big criss cross of timbers with dave at the bottom
and we couldn't begin at the top and throw off the timbers for there wasn't any time we didn't know what to do but banta he did he grabbed up a saw and said he'd crawl in and get dave out
and by thunder he did he just wriggled in and out like a snake through those timbers and when he got to dave he sawed off the end of a beam that held him and then dragged him out he took big chances for you see if he'd sawed off the wrong beam
they gave him the medal for that and promoted him say you'd never guess how he ended up how i asked got hit by a cable car yes sir hurt so bad they retired him
how is it that men find themselves equipped and fortified with just the friends they need we have heard of men who asserted that they would like to have more money or more books or more pairs of pyjamas
but we have never heard of a man saying that he did not have enough friends
yet those one has are always enough they satisfy us completely one has never met a man who would say i wish i had a friend who would combine the good humour of a
the mystical enthusiasm of b the love of doughnuts which is such an endearing quality in c and who would also have the habit of giving sunday evening suppers like d and the well stocked cellar
which is so deplorably lacking in e no the curious thing is that at any time and in any settled way of life
and also in excess of his capacity to absorb their wisdom and affectionate attentions there is some pleasant secret behind this a secret that none is wise enough to fathom the infinite fund
that is adrift in the world is part of the riddle the insoluble riddle of life that is born in our blood and tissue it is agreeable to think that no man save by his own gross fault
one can sit at a lunch counter observing the moods and whims of the white coated pie passer
seen the quick edge and tang of his humour memorized the shrewdness of his worldly insight and been as truly stimulated
to read emerson's enigmatic and rather frigid essay it seems that emerson must have put his cronies to a severe test before admitting them to the high vaulted and rather draughty halls of his intellect
there are fine passages in his essay but it is intellectualized bloodless heedless of the trifling oddities of human intercourse that make friendship so satisfying
he seems to insist upon a sterile ceremony of mutual self improvement a kind of religious ritual a profound interchange of doctrines between soul and soul
his friends one gathers are to be antisepticated all the poisons and pestilence of their faulty humours
and icy operating table of his heart why insist he says on rash personal relations with your friend why go to his house or know his wife and family
and yet does not the botanist like to study the flower
polonius too is another ancient supposed to be an authority on friendship the polonius family must have been a thoroughly dreary one to live with we have often thought that poor ophelia
even if there had been no hamlet
a necessary one in his case it would need a hoop of steel to keep them near such a dismal old sawmonger friendships we think do not grow up in any
such carefully tended and contemplated fashion as messrs emerson and polonius suggest they begin haphazard as we look back on the first time we saw our friends
we find that generally our original impression was curiously astray we have worked along beside them have consorted with them drunk or sober have grown to cherish their delicious absurdities
we awoke to realize what had happened we had without knowing it gained a new friend in some curious way the unseen border line had been passed we had reached the final culmination
of anglo saxon regard when two men rarely look each other straight in the eyes because they are ashamed to show each other how fond they are we had reached the fine flower and the ultimate test of comradeship
that is when you get a letter from one of your best friends you know you don't need to answer it until you get ready to emerson is right in saying that friendship can't be hurried
and your companion's have really moved for some time in the same channel it needs interchange of books meals together discussion of one another's whims with mutual friends to gain a proper perspective
it is set in a rich haze of half remembered occasions sudden glimpses ludicrous pranks
that it has won a new friend knowing what a posset
our friends often love us even on account of our faults the highest level to which attachment can go and what an infinite appeal there is in their faces
how we grow to cherish those curious little fleshy cages so oddly sculptured which inclose the spirit within to see those faces bent unconsciously over their tasks each different each unique
each so richly and queerly expressive of the lively and perverse enigma of man is a full education in human tolerance privately one studies his own ill modeled visnomy to see if by any chance
have shown their willingness to take us as we are can we do less than hope to deserve their generous tenderness granted before it was earned
is two fold first to know then to utter every man knows what friendship means but few can utter
that complete frankness of communion based upon full comprehension of mutual weakness enlivened by a happy understanding of honourable intentions generously shared when we first met our friends
we met with bandaged eyes we did not know what journeys they had been on what winding roads their spirits had travelled what ingenious shifts they had devised to circumvent the walls and barriers of the world
every gesture and method of their daily movement have become part of our enjoyment of life not until a time comes for saying good bye will we ever know how much we would like to have said
at those times one has to fall back on shrewder tongues you remember hilaire belloc from quiet homes and first beginning out to the undiscovered ends
on one night stands with a theatrical company which mirthful experience has just been ours we went along in the very lowly capacity of co author
which placed us somewhat beneath the stage hands as far as dignity was concerned and we flatter ourself
where he gets off this was accomplished in our case by an argument concerning a speech in the play where one of the characters remarks i propose to send a mental message to eliza this sounds we contend
said the director he ought to say i purpose to send we balked mildly at this all right said our mentor the trouble with you is you don't know any english
i'll send you a copy of the century dictionary this gentleman carried purism to almost extravagant lengths he objected to the customary pronunciation of jew's harp insisting that the word should be juice harp
fortitude and high spirits with which the players face their task he gains a new respect for the profession it is with a sense of shame that the wincing author hears his lines repeated night after night
lines that seem to him to have grown so stale and disreputably stupid and which the ingenuity of the players contrives to instill with life
with a sense of shame indeed does he reflect that because one day long ago he was struck with a preposterous idea here are honest folk
on the central new england railway here are eight hundred people in saratoga springs filing into a theatre with naive expectation on their faces amusing things happen faster than he can stay to count them
a fire breaks out in a cigar store a few minutes before theatre time it is extinguished immediately
the cigar store is almost next door to the theatre and the crowd sees the lighted sign and drops in to give the show the once over thus giving one a capacity house
then there are the amusing accidents that happen on the stage due to the inevitable confusion of one night stands with long jumps each day when scenery and props arrive at the theatre
one of the characters has to take his trousers out of a handbag he opens the bag but by some error no garments are within heavens has the stage manager mixed up the bags he has only one hope
the girlish heroine's luggage is also on the stage and our comedian dashes over and finds his trousers in her bag this casts a most sinister imputation on the adorable heroine but our friend
blessings on him contrives it so delicately that the audience doesn't get wise then doors that are supposed to be locked have a habit of swinging open and the luckless heroine
ready to say furiously to the hero will you unlock the door finds herself facing an open doorway and has to invent a line to get herself off the stage
going on the road is a very humanizing experience and one gathers a considerable respect for the small towns one visits they are so brisk so proud in their local achievements so prosperous and so full of attractive shop windows when one finds
with almost as well assorted a stock as one would see here in philadelphia or in gloversville and newburgh public libraries
one realizes the great tide of public intelligence that has risen perceptibly in recent years at the hotel in gloversville
that an english duke had just left who told her that he preferred her hotel to the biltmore in new york we rather wondered about this english duke but we looked him up on the register
of fownes brothers the glove manufacturers who have a factory in gloversville but then being a glove manufacturer he may have been kidding her as the low comedian of our troupe observed
but the local pride of the small town is a genial thing it may always be noted in the barber shops the small town barber knows his customers
and when a strange face appears to be shaved on the afternoon when the bills are announcing a play he puts two and two together are you with that show he asks and being answered in the affirmative
one naturally would not admit that one is merely there in the frugal capacity of co author and hopes that he will imagine that such a face might conceivably belong
the favourite doctrine that this is a wise burg yes he says folks here are pretty cagy if your show can get by here
you needn't worry about new york believe me if you get a hand here you can go right down to broadway i always take in the shows
by a week of one night stands theatrical billboards for instance we had always thought in a vague kind of way that they were a defacement to a town and cluttered up blank spaces
in an unseemly way but when you are trouping the first thing you do after registering at the hotel is to go out and scout round the town yearning for billboards and complaining because there aren't enough of them
then you set out to see what opposition you are playing against
the million dollar doll in paris is also in town or harry bulger's girly show will be there the following evening or mack sennett's bathing beauties in person that's the kind of stuff they fall for
said the other author mournfully and you hustle around to the box office to see whether the ticket rack is still full of unsold pasteboard at this time of year when all the metropolitan theatres are crowded
and there are some thirty plays cruising round in the offing waiting for a chance to get into new york and praying that some show now there will flop one crosses the trail of many other wandering troupes that are
on the train to saratoga one rides on the same train with the million dollar doll and those who have seen her paper
and if the passerby
carousing over a flagon of virginia dare little does he suspect that long after the tranquil thespians have gone to their well earned hay the miserable authors of the trying out piece
may be vigiling together trying to dope out a new scene for the third act the saying is not new but it comes frequently to the lips of the one night stander it's a great life
the consequences of a deviation barbicane had now no fear of the issue of the journey at least as far as the projectile's impulsive force was concerned its own speed would carry it beyond the neutral line
it would certainly not return to earth it would certainly not remain motionless on the line of attraction one single hypothesis remained to be realized the arrival of the projectile at its destination by the action of the lunar attraction
it was in reality a fall of eight thousand two hundred ninety six leagues on an orb it is true where weight could only be reckoned at one sixth of terrestrial weight a formidable fall nevertheless
and one against which every precaution must be taken without delay these precautions were of two sorts some to deaden the shock when the projectile should touch the lunar soil others to delay the fall and consequently make it less violent
to deaden the shock it was a pity that barbicane was no longer able to employ the means which had so ably weakened the shock at departure that is to say by water used as springs and the partition breaks the partitions still existed
but water failed for they could not use their reserve which was precious in case during the first days the liquid element should be found wanting on lunar soil and indeed this reserve would have been quite insufficient for a spring
occupied no less than three feet in depth and spread over a surface of not less than fifty four square feet besides the cistern did not contain one fifth part of it they must therefore give up this efficient means of deadening the shock of arrival
happily barbicane not content with employing water had furnished the movable disc with strong spring plugs destined to lessen the shock against the base after the breaking of the horizontal partitions these plugs still existed
every piece easy to handle as their weight was now scarcely felt was quickly mounted the different pieces were fitted without trouble it being only a matter of bolts and screws
tools were not wanting and soon the reinstated disc lay on steel plugs like a table on its legs one inconvenience resulted from the replacing of the disc the lower window was blocked up
thus it was impossible for the travelers to observe the moon from that opening while they were being precipitated perpendicularly upon her but they were obliged to give it up even by the side openings they could still see vast lunar regions
as an aeronaut sees the earth from his car this replacing of the disc was at least an hour's work it was past twelve when all preparations were finished barbicane took fresh observations on the inclination of the projectile
but to his annoyance it had not turned over sufficiently for its fall it seemed to take a curve parallel to the lunar disc the orb of night shone splendidly into space while opposite the orb of day blazed with fire
their situation began to make them uneasy are we reaching our destination said nicholl let us act as if we were about reaching it replied barbicane you are sceptical
retorted michel ardan we shall arrive and that too quicker than we like this answer brought barbicane back to his preparations and he occupied himself with placing the contrivances intended to break their descent
we may remember the scene of the meeting held at tampa town in florida when captain nicholl came forward as barbicane's enemy and michel ardan's adversary to captain nicholl's maintaining that the projectile would smash like glass
michel replied that he would break their fall by means of rockets properly placed thus powerful fireworks taking their starting point from the base and bursting outside could by producing a recoil check to a certain degree the projectile's speed
these rockets were to burn in space it is true but oxygen would not fail them for they could supply themselves with it like the lunar volcanoes the burning of which has never yet been stopped by the want of atmosphere round the moon
barbicane had accordingly supplied himself with these fireworks enclosed in little steel guns which could be screwed on to the base of the projectile inside these guns were flush with the bottom outside they protruded about eighteen inches
there were twenty of them an opening left in the disc allowed them to light the match with which each was provided all the effect was felt outside the burning mixture had already been rammed into each gun
they had then nothing to do but raise the metallic buffers fixed in the base and replace them by the guns which fitted closely in their places this new work was finished about three o'clock and after taking all these precautions there remained but to wait
but the projectile was perceptibly nearing the moon and evidently succumbed to her influence to a certain degree
from these conflicting influences resulted a line which might become a tangent but it was certain that the projectile would not fall directly on the moon for its lower part by reason of its weight ought to be turned toward her
barbicane's uneasiness increased as he saw his projectile resist the influence of gravitation the unknown was opening before him the unknown in interplanetary space the man of science thought he had foreseen the only three hypotheses possible
the return to the earth the return to the moon or stagnation on the neutral line and here a fourth hypothesis big with all the terrors of the infinite surged up inopportunely to face it without flinching
one must be a resolute savant like barbicane a phlegmatic being like nicholl or an audacious adventurer like michel ardan conversation was started upon this subject
they would have asked themselves whither their projectile carriage was carrying them not so with these they sought for the cause which produced this effect so we have become diverted from our route said michel but why
i very much fear answered nicholl that in spite of all precautions taken the columbiad was not fairly pointed an error however small would be enough to throw us out of the moon's attraction
then they must have aimed badly asked michel i do not think so replied barbicane the perpendicularity of the gun was exact its direction to the zenith of the spot incontestible
and the moon passing to the zenith of the spot we ought to reach it at the full there is another reason but it escapes me are we not arriving too late asked nicholl too late said barbicane yes continued nicholl
the cambridge observatory's note says that the transit ought to be accomplished in ninety seven hours thirteen minutes and twenty seconds which means to say that sooner the moon will not be at the point indicated and later it will have passed it true
and we ought to arrive on the fifth at midnight at the exact moment when the moon would be full
it is now half past three in the evening half past eight ought to see us at the end of our journey why do we not arrive might it not be an excess of speed answered nicholl for we know now that its initial velocity was greater than they supposed
no a hundred times no replied barbicane an excess of speed if the direction of the projectile had been right would not have prevented us reaching the moon no
we have been turned out of our course by whom by what asked nicholl i cannot say replied barbicane very well then barbicane said michel
do you wish to know my opinion on the subject of finding out this deviation speak i would not give half a dollar to know it that we have deviated is a fact where we are going matters little we shall soon see
since we are being borne along in space we shall end by falling into some center of attraction or other michel ardan's indifference did not content barbicane not that he was uneasy about the future
but he wanted to know at any cost why his projectile had deviated but the projectile continued its course sideways to the moon and with it the mass of things thrown out barbicane could even prove by the elevations which served as landmarks upon the moon
which was only two thousand leagues distant that its speed was becoming uniform fresh proof that there was no fall its impulsive force still prevailed over the lunar attraction but the projectile's course was certainly bringing it nearer to the moon
and they might hope that at a nearer point the weight predominating would cause a decided fall the three friends having nothing better to do continued their observations but they could not yet determine the topographical position of the satellite
every relief was leveled under the reflection of the solar rays they watched thus through the side windows until eight o'clock at night the moon had grown so large in their eyes that it filled half of the firmament the sun on one side and the orb of night on the other
flooded the projectile with light at that moment barbicane thought he could estimate the distance which separated them from their aim at no more than seven hundred leagues the speed of the projectile seemed to him to be more than two hundred yards
or about one hundred seventy leagues a second under the centripetal force the base of the projectile tended toward the moon but the centrifugal still prevailed and it was probable that its rectilineal course would be changed to a curve of some sort
the nature of which they could not at present determine barbicane was still seeking the solution of his insoluble problem hours passed without any result the projectile was evidently nearing the moon
as to the nearest distance at which it would pass her that must be the result of two forces attraction and repulsion affecting its motion i ask but one thing said michel that we may pass near enough to penetrate her secrets
cried nicholl and as if a light had suddenly broken in upon his mind barbicane answered
what said michel ardan what do you mean exclaimed nicholl i mean
i mean that our deviation is owing solely to our meeting with this erring body but it did not even brush us as it passed said michel what does that matter its mass compared to that of our projectile was enormous
and its attraction was enough to influence our course so little cried nicholl
from time to time many travelers disappeared and were never heard of more and the old women round the charcoal braziers in the evenings and the girls washing the household rice at the wells in the mornings whispered dreadful stories
of how the missing folk had been lured to the goblin's cottage and devoured for the goblin lived only on human flesh no one dared to venture near the haunted spot after sunset and all those who could avoided it in the daytime
and travelers were warned of the dreaded place one day as the sun was setting a priest came to the plain he was a belated traveler and his robe showed that he was a buddhist pilgrim walking from shrine to shrine to pray for some blessing
or to crave for forgiveness of sins he had apparently lost his way and as it was late he met no one who could show him the road or warn him of the haunted spot he had walked the whole day and was now tired and hungry
and the evenings were chilly for it was late autumn and he began to be very anxious to find some house where he could obtain a night's lodging he found himself lost in the midst of the large plain and looked about in vain for some sign of human habitation
at last after wandering about for some hours he saw a clump of trees in the distance and through the trees he caught sight of the glimmer of a single ray of light he exclaimed with joy oh
surely that is some cottage where i can get a night's lodging keeping the light before his eyes he dragged his weary aching feet as quickly as he could towards the spot and soon came to a miserable looking little cottage
as he drew near he saw that it was in a tumble down condition the bamboo fence was broken and weeds and grass pushed their way through the gaps the paper screens which serve as windows and doors in japan were full of holes
and the posts of the house were bent with age and seemed scarcely able to support the old thatched roof the hut was open and by the light of an old lantern an old woman sat industriously spinning
the pilgrim called to her across the bamboo fence and said o baa san old woman good evening i am a traveler please excuse me but i have lost my way and do not know what to do
for i have nowhere to rest to night i beg you to be good enough to let me spend the night under your roof the old woman as soon as she heard herself spoken to stopped spinning rose from her seat and approached the intruder
i am very sorry for you you must indeed be distressed to have lost your way in such a lonely spot so late at night unfortunately i cannot put you up for i have no bed to offer you
and no accommodation whatsoever for a guest in this poor place oh that does not matter said the priest all i want is a shelter under some roof for the night and if you will be good enough just to let me lie on the kitchen floor i shall be grateful
i am too tired to walk further to night so i hope you will not refuse me otherwise i shall have to sleep out on the cold plain and in this way he pressed the old woman to let him stay she seemed very reluctant
but at last she said very well i will let you stay here i can offer you a very poor welcome only but come in now and i will make a fire for the night is cold
the pilgrim was only too glad to do as he was told he took off his sandals and entered the hut the old woman then brought some sticks of wood and lit the fire and bade her guest draw near and warm himself
said the old woman i will go and cook some supper for you she then went to the kitchen to cook some rice after the priest had finished his supper the old woman sat down by the fire place
and they talked together for a long time the pilgrim thought to himself that he had been very lucky to come across such a kind hospitable old woman at last the wood gave out and as the fire died slowly down he began to shiver with cold
just as he had done when he arrived i see you are cold said the old woman i will go out and gather some wood for we have used it all you must stay and take care of the house while i am gone
no no said the pilgrim let me go instead for you are old and i cannot think of letting you go out to get wood for me this cold night the old woman shook her head and said
you must stay quietly here for you are my guest then she left him and went out in a minute she came back and said
you must sit where you are and not move and whatever happens don't go near or look into the inner room now mind what i tell you if you tell me not to go near the back room of course i won't said the priest rather bewildered
the old woman then went out again and the priest was left alone the fire had died out and the only light in the hut was that of a dim lantern for the first time that night he began to feel that he was in a weird place
and the old woman's words whatever you do don't peep into the back room aroused his curiosity and his fear what hidden thing could be in that room that she did not wish him to see
for some time the remembrance of his promise to the old woman kept him still but at last he could no longer resist his curiosity to peep into the forbidden place he got up and began to move slowly towards the back room
then the thought that the old woman would be very angry with him if he disobeyed her made him come back to his place by the fireside as the minutes went slowly by and the old woman did not return
he began to feel more and more frightened and to wonder what dreadful secret was in the room behind him he must find out she will not know that i have looked unless i tell her i will just have a peep before she comes back
said the man to himself with these words he got up on his feet for he had been sitting all this time in japanese fashion with his feet under him and stealthily crept towards the forbidden spot
with trembling hands he pushed back the sliding door and looked in what he saw froze the blood in his veins the room was full of dead men's bones and the walls were splashed and the floor was covered with human blood
in one corner skull upon skull rose to the ceiling in another was a heap of arm bones in another a heap of leg bones the sickening smell made him faint he fell backwards with horror
and for some time lay in a heap with fright on the floor a pitiful sight he trembled all over and his teeth chattered and he could hardly crawl away from the dreadful spot how horrible he cried out
what awful den have i come to in my travels may buddha help me or i am lost is it possible that that kind old woman is really the cannibal goblin when she comes back she will show herself in her true character and eat me up at one mouthful
with these words his strength came back to him and snatching up his hat and staff he rushed out of the house as fast as his legs could carry him out into the night he ran his one thought to get as far as he could from the goblin's haunt
he had not gone far when he heard steps behind him and a voice crying stop stop he ran on redoubling his speed pretending not to hear as he ran he heard the steps behind him come nearer and nearer
and at last he recognized the old woman's voice which grew louder and louder as she came nearer stop stop you wicked man why did you look into the forbidden room the priest quite forgot how tired he was
and his feet flew over the ground faster than ever fear gave him strength for he knew that if the goblin caught him he would soon be one of her victims with all his heart he repeated the prayer to buddha namu amida butsu
namu amida butsu and after him rushed the dreadful old hag her hair flying in the wind and her face changing with rage into the demon that she was in her hand she carried a large blood stained knife
and she still shrieked after him stop stop at last when the priest felt he could run no more the dawn broke and with the darkness of night the goblin vanished and he was safe
the priest now knew that he had met the goblin of adachigahara the story of whom he had often heard but never believed to be true he felt that he owed his wonderful escape to the protection of buddha to whom he had prayed for help
so he took out his rosary and bowing his head as the sun rose he said his prayers and made his thanksgiving earnestly he then set forward for another part of the country
anecdote william penn education of youth subscription for an academy franklin overloaded with public offices member of the assembly treaty with the indians at carlisle public hospital
that he would offend the peace loving sect of quakers by his activity in these warlike preparations a young man who had some friends in the assembly and wished to succeed him as their clerk told him in a quiet way that it was intended to displace him
at the next election and that as a friend
i have heard or read of some public man who made it a rule never to ask for an office and never to refuse one when offered to him i approve of this rule and shall practise it with a small addition i shall never ask never refuse
nor ever resign an office if they will have my office of clerk to dispose of it to another
one of their number the learned and honorable mister logan wrote an address to them declaring his approbation of defensive war and supporting his opinion by very strong arguments this gentleman related an anecdote of his old master william penn
in respect to the subject of defence
as secretary to this distinguished quaker
supposed to be an enemy their captain prepared for defence but told william penn and his company of quakers that he did not expect their assistance and they might retire into the cabin they all retired except james logan
this reproof being before all the company
the first step he took was to associate in the design a number of his active friends the next was to write and publish a pamphlet entitled proposals relating to the education of youth in philadelphia
this he distributed among the principal inhabitants and in a short time opened a subscription for supporting an academy the subscribers were desirous of carrying the plan into immediate execution
the constitutions for the government of the academy were soon drawn up and signed a house was hired masters engaged and the school opened
the house was soon found too small when accident threw in their way a large house ready built which with a few alterations would exactly answer their purpose this was the building erected by the hearers of mister whitefield
some difficulty had been found by the trustees in paying the expenses of this church and they were prevailed upon to give it up for the academy it was soon made fit for that purpose and the scholars were removed into the building
during the rest of his life to pursue his philosophical studies and amusements he purchased all the instruments and apparatus of doctor spence who had come from england to lecture on philosophy in philadelphia
his intention was to proceed with diligence in his experiments in electricity but the public now considered him a man of leisure
the governor made him a justice of the peace the city corporation chose him a member of the common council and shortly after alderman the citizens elected him to represent them in the assembly
excusing himself by being obliged to attend his duties as member of the assembly to this office he was chosen for ten years in succession without ever asking any elector for his vote or signifying directly or indirectly any desire of the honor
when they complained of this they were told that on condition of their remaining perfectly sober during the treaty they should have plenty of rum when the business was over they accordingly promised this
in the evening there was a great noise among them and the commissioners walked out to see what was the matter they found a great bonfire built in the middle of the square and the men and women in a state of intoxication fighting and quarrelling around it the tumult could not be stilled
the next day they were sensible of their misbehavior and sent three of their old counsellors to make an excuse the orator acknowledged the fault but laid it upon the rum and then endeavored to excuse the rum by saying
the great spirit who made all things made every thing for some use and whatever use he designed any thing for that use it should always be put to now when he made rum he said let this be for the indians to get drunk with and it must be so
whether inhabitants of the province or strangers
for said he i am often asked
and being satisfied in respect to it not only subscribed himself but was active in procuring subscriptions from others some aid was obtained from the assembly of the province
came to franklin with a request that he would assist him in procuring subscriptions to erect a new meeting house it was to be devoted to the use of a congregation
he had gathered among the original disciples of mister whitefield franklin was too wise to make himself disagreeable to his fellow citizens by such frequent calls upon their generosity and absolutely refused
and show them the list of those who have given and lastly do not neglect those who you are sure will give nothing for in some of them you may be mistaken the clergyman laughed
and promised to take his advice he did so for he asked of every body and soon obtained money enough to erect a spacious
he was able to introduce great changes in these matters which were very important to the cleanliness and good appearance of the
mountjoy when he reached captain vignolles's rooms was received apparently with great indifference
i saw moody this morning and he said he would look in if he was passing this way now sit down and tell me what you have been doing since you disappeared in that remarkable manner this was not at all what mountjoy had expected
but he could only sit down and say that he had done nothing in particular
would be the worst with whom to play alone during the entire evening and mountjoy remembered now
simply as a piece of prey whom chance had thrown up on the shore and moody who would no doubt show himself before long was another bird of the same covey though less rapacious mountjoy put his hand up
to his breast pocket and knew that the fifty pounds was there but he knew also that it would soon be gone even to him it seemed to be expedient to get up and at once to go what delight would there be
to him in playing piquet with such a face opposite to him as that of captain vignolles
no pleasant hum of the voices of companions no sense of his own equality with others there would be none to sympathize with him when he cursed his ill luck there would be no chance of contending with an innocent
who would be as reckless as was he himself he looked round the room was gloomy and uncomfortable
and was afraid that his prey was about to escape won't you light a cigar mountjoy took the cigar and then felt that he could not go quite at once i suppose you went to monaco i was there for a short time
monaco isn't bad though there is of course the pull which the tables have against you but it's a grand thing to think that skill can be of no avail
yes i i don't deny that i'm the luckiest fellow going but i never can remember cards of course i know my trade every fellow knows his trade and i'm up pretty nearly in all that the books tell you that's a great deal
not when you come to play with men who know what play is look at grossengrannel i'd sooner bet on him than any man in london grossengrannel never forgets a card i'll bet a hundred pounds that he knows the best card
in every suit throughout the entire day's play that's his secret he gives his mind to it which i can't hang it i'm always thinking of something quite different of what i'm going to eat
in the teeth of all his longings in opposition to all his thirst mountjoy for a minute or two did think that he could rise and go his father was about to put him on his legs again if only he would abstain
and asked that it might be only ten shillings a game
oh hang it said vignolles still holding the pack in his hands when thus appealed to mountjoy relented and agreed
who played his cards with great attention and never spoke a word either then or at any other period of his life he was the most taciturn of men and was known not at all to any of his companions it was rumored of him
that he had a wife at home whom he kept in moderate comfort on his winnings it seemed to be the sole desire of his heart to play with reckless foolish young men who up to a certain point did not care what they lost
and at eleven he returned and remained as long as there were men to play with a tedious and unsatisfactory life he had and it would have been well for him could his friends have procured on his behoof the comparative ease
or cared to inquire he had been received as major moody for twenty years or more and twenty years is surely time enough to settle a man's claim to a majority without reference to the army list how are you major moody asked mountjoy
arranging the cards and the chairs not for me said mountjoy who seemed to have been enveloped by a most unusual prudence what are you afraid you who used to fear neither man nor devil
i'm host here and of course will give way to anything you may propose what's it to be scarborough pounds and fives i shan't play higher than that
as he stated the stakes for which he consented to play a remembrance that in the old days he had always been called captain scarborough by this man who now left out the captain of course he had fallen since that
fallen very low he ought to feel obliged to any man who had in the old days been a member of the same club with him who would now greet him with the familiarity of his unadorned name but the remembrance of the old sounds came back upon his ear
he had been known to the world at large as captain scarborough of tretton well well pounds and fives said vignolles
but where they alternate so quickly it amounts to nothing you've got the first dummy scarborough
i do believe that at whist everything depends upon the cards or else on the hinges i've known eleven rubbers running to follow the hinges people laugh at me because i believe in luck i speak as i find it that's all
you've turned up an honor already when a man begins with an honor he'll always go on with honors that's my observation i know you're pretty good at this game moody so i'll leave it to you to arrange the play and will follow up as well as i can
you lead up to the weak of course this was not said till the card was out of his partner's hand but when your adversary has got ace king queen in his own hand there is no weak well we've saved that
but even mountjoy was too prudent he did not take the cigar but he did win the rubber you're in for a good thing to night i feel as certain of it as though the money were in your pocket mountjoy though he would not smoke did drink
asked for barley water as there was none he contented himself with sipping apollinaris a close record of the events of that evening would make but a tedious tale for readers mountjoy of course lost his fifty pounds alas
the major pertinaciously refused to increase his stakes and worse again refused to play for anything but ready money it's a kind of thing i never do you may think me very odd but it's a kind of thing i never do
that he did in fact play on credit at the club the committee look to that
then vignolles offered again to take the dummy so that there should be no necessity for moody and scarborough to play against each other and offered to give one point every other rubber as the price to be paid for the advantage but moody
that'll be hard on scarborough i'll go on for money said the immovable major i suppose you won't have it out with me at double dummy said vignolles to his victim but double dummy is a terrible grind at this time of night
so as to show that the amusement for the night was over he too saw the difficulty which moody so pertinaciously avoided he had been told wondrous things of the old squire's intentions toward his eldest son but he had been told them
but he would more probably obtain payment of the two hundred and thirty pounds now due to him that or nearly that than of a larger sum he already had in his possession the other twenty pounds which poor mountjoy had brought with him
it was a written promise to pay to captain vignolles the exact sum of two hundred and twenty seven pounds on or before that day week you'll be punctual won't you of course i'll be punctual said mountjoy scowling well yes no doubt
but there have been mistakes i tell you you'll be paid why the devil did you win it of me if you doubt it i saw you just roaming about and i meant to be good natured you know as well as any man what chances you should run
and when to hold your hand if you tell me about mistakes i shall make it personal i didn't say anything scarborough that ought to be taken up in that way hang your scarborough
then he smashed down his hat upon his head and left the room
in which one glass was left and sat himself down with the document in his hand just the same fellow he said to himself overbearing reckless pig headed and a bully he'd lose the bank of england if he had it but then he don't pay
he hasn't a scruple about that if i lose i have to pay by jove yes never didn't pay a shilling i lost in my life it's deuced hard when a fellow is on the square like that to make two ends meet when he comes across defaulters those fellows should be hung
welcher is a thing you needn't have to do with if you're careful but when a fellow turns round upon you as a defaulter at cards there is no getting rid of him
as he sat there looking at the suspicious document which mountjoy had left in his hands to him it was a fact that he had been cruelly used in having such a bit of paper thrust upon him instead of being paid by a check
which on the morning would be honored and as he thought of his own career his ready money payments his obedience to certain rules of the game rules i mean against cheating
as he thought of his hands which in his own estimation were beautifully clean his diligence in his profession which to him was honorable his hard work his late hours his devotion to a task which was often tedious
his many periods of heart rending loss which when they occurred would drive him nearly mad his small customary gains
a materialized spirit that will not go back the first glimpse of what may yet cause very extensive trouble in this world the sun saturday december nineteenth eighteen seventy four
we are permitted to make extracts from a private letter which bears the signature of a gentleman well known in business circles and whose veracity we have never heard called in question his statements are startling and well nigh incredible but if true
they are susceptible of easy verification yet the thoughtful mind will hesitate about accepting them without the fullest proof for they spring upon the world a social problem of stupendous importance
the dangers apprehended by mister malthus and his followers become remote and commonplace by the side of this new and terrible issue the letter is dated at pocock island a small township in washington county maine
about seventeen miles from the mainland and nearly midway between mt desert and the grand menan the last state census accords to pocock island a population of three hundred eleven
mostly engaged in the porgy fisheries at the presidential election of eighteen seventy two the island gave grant a majority of three these two facts are all that we are able to learn of the locality
from sources outside of the letter already referred to the letter omitting certain passages which refer solely to private matters reads as follows but enough of the disagreeable business
that brought me here to this bleak island in the month of november i have a singular story to tell you after our experience together at chittenden i know you will not reject statements because they are startling my friend
there is upon pocock island a materialized spirit which
at this moment and within a quarter of a mile from me as i write a man who died and was buried four years ago and who has exploited the mysteries beyond the grave walks talks and holds interviews
in april eighteen seventy john newbegin died and was buried in the little cemetery on the landward side of the island newbegin was a man of about forty eight without family or near connections and eccentric to a degree
thirteen or fourteen thousand dollars newbegin was not without a certain kind of culture
and as a simple minded islander expressed it in my hearing knew more bookfuls than anybody on the island he was naturally an intelligent man
during eastern cruises will remember a long listless figure astonishingly attired in blue army pants rubber boots loose toga made of some bright chintz material and very bad hat staggering through
by the tail this was john newbegin his sudden death as i have already remarked he died four years ago last april
where he lived close down to the seaweed and almost within reach of the incoming tide they found him dead on the floor with an emptied demijohn hard by his head
and in the excitement of a large catch of porgies that summer soon forgot him and his friendless life his interest in the mary emmeline
recurred to john hodgeson and as nobody came forward to demand an administration of the estate it was never administered the forms of law are but loosely followed in some of these marginal localities his reappearance at pocock
well my dear four years and four months had brought their quota of varying seasons to pocock island when john newbegin reappeared under the following circumstances
as you may remember there was a heavy gale all along our atlantic coast during this storm the squadron of the naugatuck yacht club which was returning from a summer cruise as far as campobello was forced to take shelter in the harbor to the leeward
of pocock island the gentlemen of the club spent three days at the little settlement ashore among the party was mister r e by which name you will recognize a medium of celebrity
of an indian chief who announced himself as hock a mock and who retired after dancing a harvest moon pas seul and declaring himself in very emphatic terms as opposed to the present indian policy of the administration
hock a mock was succeeded by the aunt of one of the yachtsmen who identified herself beyond question by allusion to family matters and by displaying the scar of a burn upon her left arm received while making tomato catsup upon earth
reentered the cabinet and were seen no more it was some time before another spirit manifested itself and mister e gave directions that the lights be turned down still further then the door of the wood closet was slowly opened and a singular figure
in rubber boots and a species of dolly varden garment emerged bringing a dead fish in his right hand his determination to remain
it is john newbegin and then in not unnatural terror of the apparition they turned and fled from the schoolroom uttering dismal cries john newbegin came calmly forward
in the teacher's chair folded his arms and looked complacently about him you might as well untie the medium he finally remarked i propose to remain in the materialized condition and he did remain
when the party left the schoolhouse among them walked john newbegin
from that day to this he has been a living inhabitant of pocock island eating drinking water only and sleeping after the manner of men the yachtsmen who made sail for bar harbor the very next morning probably believe
that he was a fraud hired for the occasion by mister e but the people of pocock who laid him out dug his grave and put him into it four years ago know that john newbegin has come back to them from a land they know not of
a singular member of society the idea of having a ghost somewhat more condensed it is true than the traditional ghost as a member was not at first overpleasing to the three hundred eleven inhabitants of pocock island
this reluctance to advertise the skeleton in their closet superadded to the slowness of these obtuse fishy matter of fact people to recognize the transcendent importance of the case must be accepted
but the pocockians have at last come to see that a spirit is not necessarily a malevolent spirit and accepting his presence
unreasoning way they are quite neighborly and sociable with mister newbegin i know that your first question will be is there sufficient proof of his ever having been dead to this i answer unhesitatingly yes
he was too well known a character and too many people saw the corpse to admit of any mistake on this point i may add here that it was at one time proposed to disinter the original remains but that project was abandoned in deference to the wishes of mister newbegin
who feels a natural delicacy about having his first set of bones disturbed from motives of mere curiosity an interview with a dead man you will readily believe that i took occasion to see and converse with john newbegin
i found him affable and even communicative he is perfectly aware of his doubtful status as a being
it is to be presumed that the memory is not a pleasant one at least he never speaks of this period he candidly admits however that he is glad to get back to earth
that this regret is genuine he has discarded his eccentric costume and dresses like a reasonable spirit he has not touched liquor since his reappearance
by the way newbegin threatens to sue hodgeson for his individed quarter in each of these vessels and this interesting case therefore bids fair to be thoroughly investigated in the courts
as a business man he is generally esteemed on the island although there is a noticeable reluctance to discount his paper at long dates
and has announced his intention of running for the next legislature in conclusion and now my dear i have told you the substance of all i know respecting this strange strange case yet after all why so strange
we accepted materialization at chittenden is this any more than the logical issue of that admission if the spirit may return to earth clothed in flesh and blood and all the physical attributes of humanity why may it not remain on earth
as long as it sees fit thinking of it from whatever standpoint i cannot but regard john newbegin as the pioneer of a possibly large immigration from the spirit world the bars once down a whole flock will come trooping back to earth
death will lose its significance altogether and when i think of the disturbance which will result in our social relations of the overthrow of all accepted institutions and of the nullification of all principles of political economy law and religion
from being thoughtless or indifferent about religion it seemed as if all the world were growing religious so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street
and it being found inconvenient to assemble in the open air subject to its inclemencies the building of a house to meet in was no sooner proposed and persons appointed to receive contributions but sufficient sums
all the way through the colonies to georgia the settlement of that province had then been recently commenced
they were unable to endure hardships and perished in great numbers leaving many helpless children
inspired the benevolent heart of mister whitefield with the idea of building an orphan house there in which they might be supported and educated
for his eloquence had a wonderful power over the hearts and purses of his hearers
but as georgia was then destitute of materials and workmen and it was proposed to send them from philadelphia at a great expense i thought it would have been better to have built the house at philadelphia
and brought the children to it this i advised but he was resolute in his first project rejected my counsel and i
and determined me to give the silver and he finished so admirably that i emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's dish
being of my sentiments respecting the building in georgia and suspecting a collection might be intended had by precaution emptied his pockets before he came from home towards the conclusion of the discourse however he felt a strong inclination to give
and applied to a neighbor who stood near him to lend him some money for the purpose the request was fortunately made to perhaps the only man in the company
who had the firmness not to be affected by the preacher his answer was at any other time friend hopkinson i would lend to thee freely but not now
that he was in all his conduct a perfectly honest man and methinks my testimony in his favor ought to have the more weight as we had no religious connection ours was a mere civil friendship sincere on both sides and lasted
when he consulted me about his orphan house concern
that he might be heard and understood at a great distance especially as his auditories observed the most perfect silence he preached one evening from the top of the court house steps which are in the middle of market street and on the west side of second street
which crosses it at right angles both streets were filled with hearers to a considerable distance being among the hindmost in market street
i had the curiosity to learn how far he could be heard by retiring backwards down the street towards the river and i found his voice distinct till i came near front street when some noise in that street obscured it
i computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand this reconciled me to the newspaper accounts of his having preached to twenty five thousand people in the fields
and his newspaper had become very profitable he began to feel the truth of the old proverb that after getting the first hundred pounds it is more easy to get the second those of his workmen who behaved well he established in printing houses in different colonies on easy terms
and had neglected to take any suitable measures against the enemies to whom they might be exposed there was also no college in the state nor any proper provision for the complete education of youth franklin accordingly turned his attention
and had now been recently joined by france from the french possessions in canada pennsylvania was exposed to continual danger the governor of the province had been some time trying to prevail upon the quaker assembly to pass
a militia law and take other necessary steps for their security he tried however
to promote this plan he wrote and published a pamphlet called plain truth in this he stated their exposed and helpless situation and represented the necessity of union for their defence
had been printed and distributed about the room to be signed by those who approved them
the women made subscriptions among themselves and provided silk colors which they presented to the companies painted with different ornaments and mottoes
not considering himself fit for the office he declined and recommended that mister lawrence a man of influence and of a fine person should be chosen in his place
and of furnishing it with cannon the lottery was rapidly filled and the battery soon erected they brought some old cannon from boston and these not proving sufficient they sent to london for more the associates kept a nightly guard at the battery
and secured their favor they took him into their confidence and consulted him on all operations in respect to the military franklin took the opportunity to propose a public fast to promote reformation and implore the blessing of heaven on their undertaking
but as this was the first fast ever thought of in the province there was no form for the proclamation franklin drew it up in the style of the new england proclamation
whatever courage brigitte had shown she had drunk to the dregs the bitter cup of her sad love unless i wished to see her die i must give her repose
she had often addressed cruel reproaches to me and had perhaps on certain other occasions shown more anger than in this scene but what she had said this time was not dictated by offended pride it was the truth which hidden closely in her heart
this slumber even this deathlike sleep of one who could suffer no more was conclusive evidence this sudden silence the tenderness she had shown in the final moments that pale face and that kiss confirmed me in the belief that all was over
unwilling to call any one i lighted brigitte's lamp i watched its feeble flame and my thoughts seemed to flicker in the darkness like its uncertain rays whatever i had said or done the idea of losing brigitte had never occurred to me up to this time
i experienced a dull languor and could distinguish nothing clearly what my mind understood my soul recoiled from accepting come i said to myself i have desired it and i have done it there is not the slightest hope that we can live together
i am unwilling to kill this woman so i have no alternative but to leave her it is all over i shall go away to morrow and all the while i was thinking neither of my responsibility nor of the past nor future
i thought neither of smith nor his connection with the affair i could not say who had led me there or what i had done during the last hour
i remained for a long time in this strange calm just as the man who receives a thrust from a poignard feels at first only the cold steel when he has gone some distance on his way he becomes weak his eyes start from their sockets and he asks what has happened
but drop by drop the blood flows the ground under his feet becomes red death comes the man at his approach shudders with horror and falls as though struck by a thunderbolt thus apparently calm i awaited the coming of misfortune
i repeated in a low voice what brigitte had said and i placed near her all that i supposed she would need for the night i looked at her and then went to the window and pressed my forehead against the pane peering out at a somber and lowering sky then i returned to the bedside
i trembled at these words as though it had been another who had pronounced them they resounded through all my being as resounds the string of the harp that has been plucked to the point of breaking in an instant two years of suffering traversed my heart and after them
as their consequence and as their last expression the present seized me how shall i describe such woe by a single word perhaps for those who have loved i had taken brigitte's hand and in a dream doubtless she had pronounced my name
i arose and went to my room a torrent of tears flowed from my eyes i held out my arms as though to seize the past which was escaping me is it possible i repeated that i am going to lose you i can love no one but you what
you are going away and forever what you my life my adored mistress you flee from me i shall never see you again never never i said aloud and addressing myself to the sleeping brigitte as though she could hear me i added
and why so much pride are there no means of atoning for the offense i have committed i beg of you let us seek some expiation have you not pardoned me a thousand times but you love me you will not be able to go for courage will fail you what shall we do
a horrible madness seized me i began to run here and there in search of some instrument of death at last i fell on my knees and beat my head against the bed brigitte stirred and i remained quiet fearing i would waken her
let her sleep until to morrow i said to myself you have all night to watch her i resumed my place i was so frightened at the idea of waking brigitte that i scarcely dared breathe
gradually i became more calm and less bitter tears began to course gently down my cheeks tenderness succeeded fury i leaned over brigitte and looked at her as though for the last time my good angel was urging me to grave on my soul the lines of that dear face
how pale she was her large eyes surrounded by a bluish circle were moist with tears her form once so lithe was bent as though under a burden her cheek wasted and leaden rested on a hand that was spare and feeble
her brow seemed to bear the marks of that crown of thorns which is the diadem of resignation i thought of the cottage how young she was six months ago how cheerful how free how careless what had i done with all that
it seemed to me that a strange voice repeated an old romance that i had long since forgotten altra volta gieri biele blanch e rossa com un flore ma ora no
consumatis dal amore my sorrow was too great i sprang to my feet and once more began to walk the floor yes i continued look at her think of those who are consumed by a grief that is not shared with another
the evils you endure others have suffered and nothing is singular or peculiar to you think of those who have no mother no relatives no friends of those who seek and do not find of those who love in vain of those who die and are forgotten
before thee there on that bed lies a being that nature perchance formed for thee
that soul and that body are thy brothers for six months thy mouth has not spoken thy heart has not throbbed without a responsive word and heart beat from her and that woman whom god has sent thee as he sends the rose to the field
if thy sobs do not awaken her little by little my thoughts mounted and became more somber until i recoiled in terror to do evil such was the role imposed upon me by providence i to do evil
i to whom my conscience even in the midst of my wildest follies said that i was good i whom a pitiless destiny was dragging swiftly toward the abyss and whom a secret horror unceasingly warned of the awful fate to come
i do evil for six months i had been engaged in that task not a day had passed that i had not worked at that impious occupation and i had at that moment the proof before my eyes
who had offended her then insulted her then abandoned her only to take her back again trembling with fear beset with suspicion finally thrown on that bed of sorrow where she now lay extended was i
i beat my breast and although looking at her i could not believe it i touched her as though to assure myself that it was not a dream my face as i saw it in the glass regarded me with astonishment
who was that creature who appeared before me bearing my features who was that pitiless man who blasphemed with my mouth and tortured with my hands was it he whom my mother called octave was it he who at fifteen
leaning over the crystal waters of a fountain had a heart not less pure than they i closed my eyes and thought of my childhood days as a ray of light pierces a cloud a gleam from the past pierced my heart no i mused i did not do that
these things are but an absurd dream i recalled the time when i was ignorant of life when i was taking my first steps in experience i remembered an old beggar who used to sit on a stone bench before the farm gate to whom i was sometimes sent with the remains of our morning meal
holding out his feeble wrinkled hands he would bless me as he smiled upon me i felt the morning wind blowing on my brow and a freshness as of the rose descending from heaven into my soul then i opened my eyes and by the light of the lamp saw the reality before me
and you do not believe yourself guilty i demanded with horror o novice of yesterday how corrupt to day because you weep you fondly imagine yourself innocent what you consider the evidence of your conscience is only remorse and what murderer does not experience it
if your virtue cries out is it not because it feels the approach of death o wretch those far off voices that you hear groaning in your heart do you think they are sobs they are perhaps only the cry of the sea mew
whose presence portends shipwreck who has ever told the story of the childhood of those who have died stained with human blood they also have been good in their day they sometimes bury their faces in their hands and think of those happy days you do evil and you repent
nero did the same when he killed his mother who has told you that tears can wash away the stains of guilt and even if it were true that a part of your soul is not devoted to evil forever what will you do with the other part that is not yours
you will touch with your left hand the wounds that you inflict with your right you will make a shroud of your virtue in which to bury your crimes
into the heart of the being who opens her arms to you you will plunge that blood stained but repentant arm
you will speak of your youth and you will persuade yourself that heaven ought to pardon you that your misfortunes are involuntary and you will implore sleepless nights to grant you a little repose but who knows you are still young
the more you trust in your heart the farther astray you will be lead by your pride to day you stand before the first ruin you are going to leave on your route if brigitte dies to morrow you will weep on her tomb where will you go when you leave her
and you will say some beautiful morning sitting in your inn with your glasses before you that it is time to forget in order to live again you who weep too late take care lest you weep more than one day
who knows when the present which makes you shudder shall have become the past an old story a confused memory may it not happen some night of debauchery that you will overturn your chair and recount with a smile on your lips what you witnessed with tears in your eyes
it is thus that one drinks away shame you have begun by being good you will become weak and you will become a monster my poor friend said i from the bottom of my heart i have a word of advice for you and it is this i believe that you must die
while there is still some virtue left profit by it in order that you may not become altogether bad while a woman you love lies there dying on that bed and while you have a horror of yourself strike the decisive blow she still lives that is enough
do not attend her funeral obsequies for fear that on the morrow you will not be consoled turn the poignard against your own heart while that heart yet loves the god who made it is it your youth that makes you pause and would you spare those youthful locks
never allow them to whiten if they are not white to night and then what would you do in the world if you go away where will you go what can you hope for if you remain ah in looking at that woman you seem to have a treasure buried in your heart it is not merely that you lose her
it is less what has been than what might have been when the hands of the clock indicated such and such an hour you might have been happy if you suffer why do you not open your heart if you love why do you not say so why do you die of hunger clasping a priceless treasure in your hands
you have closed the door you miser you debate with yourself behind locks and bolts shake them for it was your hand that forged them o fool who have desired and have possessed your desire you have not thought of god
you treat it with disdain you smile at it and you continue to amuse yourself with it forgetting how many prayers it has cost your good angel to preserve for you that shadow of daylight ah if there is in heaven one who watches over you what is he doing at this moment
he is seated before an organ his wings are half folded his hands extended over the ivory keys he begins an eternal hymn the hymn of love and immortal rest but his wings droop his head falls over the keys the angel of death has touched him on the shoulder
you saw a better time shining in the future when your life consecrated to the object of your adoration gave promise of new strength at that moment the abyss yawns before you
you no longer experience vague desires but real regrets your heart is no longer hungry it is broken and you hesitate what do you expect since she no longer cares for your life it counts for nothing since she abandons you abandon yourself
let those who have loved you in your youth weep for you they are not many if you would live you must not only forget love
not only deny what there has been of good in you but kill all that may be good in the future for what will you do if you remember life for you would be one ceaseless regret no no you must choose between your soul and your body you must kill one or the other
the memory of the good drives you to the evil make a corpse of yourself unless you wish to become your own specter o child child die while you can may tears be shed over thy grave
i threw myself on the foot of the bed in such a frightful state of despair that my reason fled and i no longer knew where i was or what i was doing brigitte sighed my senses stirred within me was it grief or despair i do not know
suddenly a horrible idea occurred to me what i muttered leave that for another die descend into the ground while that bosom heaves with the air of heaven just god another hand than mine on that fine transparent skin
another mouth on those lips another love in that heart brigitte happy loving adored and i in a corner of the cemetery crumbling into dust in a ditch how long will it take her to forget me if i cease to exist to morrow how many tears will she shed
none perhaps not a friend who speaks to her but will say that my death was a good thing who will not hasten to console her who will not urge her to forget me if she weeps they will seek to distract her attention from her loss if memory haunts her they will take her away
if her love for me survives me they will seek to cure her as though she had been poisoned and she herself who will perhaps at first say that she desires to follow me will a month later turn aside to avoid the weeping willow planted over my grave how could it be otherwise
who as beautiful as she wastes life in idle regrets if she should think of dying of grief that beautiful bosom would urge her to live and her glass would persuade her and the day when her exhausted tears give place to the first smile
who will not congratulate her on her recovery when after eight days of silence she consents to hear my name pronounced in her presence then she will speak of it herself as though to say console me then little by little she will no longer refuse to think of the past
but will speak of it and she will open her window some beautiful spring morning when the birds are singing in the garden she will become pensive and say i have loved who will be there at her side who will dare to tell her that she must continue to love ah
then i will be no more you will listen to him faithless one you will blush as does the budding rose and the blood of youth will mount to your face while saying that your heart is sealed you will allow it to escape through that fresh aureole of beauty each ray of which allures a kiss
how much they desire to be loved who say they love no more and why should that astonish you you are a woman that body that spotless bosom you know what they are worth
how can the woman who has been praised resolve to be praised no more does she think she is living when she remains in the shadow and there is silence round about her beauty her beauty itself is the admiring glance of her lover
no no there can be no doubt of it who has loved can not live without love who has seen death clings to life brigitte loves me and will perhaps die of love i will kill myself and another will have her
another another i repeated bending over her until my head touched her shoulder is she not a widow has she not already seen death have not these little hands prepared the dead for burial
ah god forgive me while she sleeps why should i not kill her if i should awaken her now and tell her that her hour had come and that we were going to die with a last kiss she would consent what does it matter is it certain that all does not end with that
i found a knife on the table and i picked it up fear cowardice superstition what do they know about it who talk of something else beyond it is for the ignorant common people that a future life has been invented but who really believes in it
what watcher in the cemetery has seen death leave his tomb and hold consultation with a priest in olden times there were fantoms they are interdicted by the police in civilized cities and no cries are now heard issuing from the earth except from those buried in haste
god has established it man discusses it but over every door is written do what thou wilt thou shalt die what will be said if i kill brigitte neither of us will hear
in to morrow's journal would appear the intelligence that octave de t had killed his mistress and the day after no one would speak of it who would follow us to the grave no one who upon returning to his home could not enjoy a hearty dinner
and when we were extended side by side in our narrow bed the world could walk over our graves without disturbing us is it not true my well beloved is it not true that it would be well with us it is a soft bed that bed of earth no suffering can reach us there
the occupants of the neighboring tombs will not gossip about us our bones will embrace in peace and without pride for death is solace and that which binds does not also separate why should annihilation frighten thee poor body destined to corruption
every hour that strikes drags thee on to thy doom every step breaks the round on which thou hast just rested thou art nourished by the dead the air of heaven weighs upon and crushes thee the earth on which thou treadest attacks thee by the soles of thy feet
down with thee why art thou affrighted
merely say we will not live is not life a burden that we long to lay down why hesitate when it is merely a question of a little sooner or a little later matter is indestructible
and the physicists we are told grind to infinity the smallest speck of dust without being able to annihilate it if matter is the property of chance what harm can it do to change its form since it can not cease to be matter
why should god care what form i have received and with what livery i invest my grief suffering lives in my brain it belongs to me i kill it but my bones do not belong to me and i return them to him who lent them to me
may some poet make a cup of my skull from which to drink his new wine what reproach can i incur and what harm can that reproach do me what stern judge will tell me that i have done wrong what does he know about it was he such as i
if every creature has his task to perform and if it is a crime to shirk it what culprits are the babes who die on the nurse's breast why should they be spared who will be instructed by the lessons which are taught after death must heaven be a desert in order that man may be punished for having lived
who amuses himself and whiles away an idle hour watching this spectacle of creation always renewed and always dying seeing the work of man's hands rising the grass growing looking upon the planting of the seed and the fall of the thunderbolt
beholding man walking about upon his earth until he meets the beckoning finger of death counting tears and watching them dry upon the cheek of pain noting the pure profile of love and the wrinkled face of age seeing hands stretched up to him in supplication
bodies prostrate before him and not a blade of wheat more in the harvest who is it then who has made so much for the pleasure of knowing that it all amounts to nothing the earth is dying herschell says it is of cold
who holds in his hand the drop of condensed vapor and watches it as it dries up as an angler watches a grain of sand in his hand that mighty law of attraction that suspends the world in space torments it and consumes it in endless desire
the beings move about cross each other's paths clasp each other for an hour and then fall and others rise in their place where life fails life hastens to the spot where air is wanting air rushes
no disorder everything is regulated marked out written down in lines of gold and parables of fire everything keeps step with the celestial music along the pitiless paths of life and all for nothing
and we poor nameless dreams pale and sorrowful apparitions helpless ephemera we who are animated by the breath of a second in order that death may exist we exhaust ourselves with fatigue in order to prove that we are living for a purpose
and that something indefinable is stirring within us we hesitate to turn against our breasts a little piece of steel or blow out our brains with a little instrument no larger than our hand it seems to us that chaos would return again
we have written and revised the laws both human and divine and we are afraid of our catechisms we suffer thirty years without murmuring and imagine that we are struggling finally suffering becomes the stronger we send a pinch of powder into the sanctuary of intelligence
and a flower pierces the soil above our grave as i finished these words i directed the knife i held in my hand against brigitte's bosom i was no longer master of myself and in my delirious condition i know not what might have happened
i threw back the bedclothing to uncover the heart when i discovered on her white bosom a little ebony crucifix i recoiled seized with sudden fear my hand relaxed my weapon fell to the floor it was brigitte's aunt who had given her that little crucifix on her death bed
i did not remember ever having seen it before doubtless at the moment of setting out she had suspended it about her neck as a preserving charm against the dangers of the journey suddenly i joined my hands and knelt on the floor
o lord my god i said in trembling tones lord my god thou art there
i no longer disbelieved in him neither as a child nor at school nor as a man have i frequented churches my religion if i had any had neither rite nor symbol and i believed in a god without form without a cult and without revelation
the sterile milk of impiety human pride that god of the egoist closed my mouth against prayer while my affrighted soul took refuge in the hope of nothingness i was as though drunken or insensate when i saw that effigy of christ on brigitte's bosom
while not believing in him myself i recoiled knowing that she believed in him it was not vain terror that arrested my hand who saw me i was alone and it was night was it prejudice what prevented me from hurling out of my sight that little piece of black wood
although i had almost committed a crime when my hand was arrested i felt that my heart was innocent in an instant calm self possession reason returned i again approached the bed i leaned over my idol and kissed the crucifix
sleep in peace i said to her god watches over you while your lips were parting in a smile you were in greater danger than you have ever known before but the hand that threatened you will harm no one i swear by the faith you profess i will not kill either you or myself
i am a fool a madman a child who thinks himself a man god be praised you are young and beautiful you live and you will forget me
if you can forgive me sleep in peace until day brigitte and then decide our fate whatever sentence you pronounce i will submit without complaint and thou lord who hast saved me grant me pardon
i was born in an impious century and i have many crimes to expiate thou son of god whom men forget i have not been taught to love thee i have never worshiped in thy temples but i thank heaven that where i find thee i tremble and bow in reverence
i have at least kissed with my lips a heart that is full of thee protect that heart so long as life lasts dwell within it thou holy one a poor unfortunate has been brave enough to defy death at the sight of thy suffering and thy death
though impious thou hast saved him from evil if he had believed thou wouldst have consoled him pardon those who have made him incredulous since thou hast made him repentant pardon those who blaspheme
the happy of this world think they have no need of thee pardon them although their pride may outrage thee they will be sooner or later baptized in tears grant that they may cease to believe in any other shelter from the tempest than thy love
and spare them the severe lessons of unhappiness our wisdom and skepticism are in our hands but children's toys forgive us for dreaming that we can defy thee thou who smilest at golgotha the worst result of all our vain misery is that it tempts us to forget thee
thy father and it is sorrow that leads us to thee as it led thee to thy father we come to thee with our crown of thorns and kneel before thy mercy seat we touch thy bleeding feet with our bloodstained hands
and thou hast suffered martyrdom for being loved by the unfortunate the first rays of dawn began to appear
i picked it up it was a letter and i recognized brigitte's hand the envelope was not sealed i opened it and read as follows
on the morrow a clear december day a young man and a woman who rested on his arm passed through the garden of the palais royal they entered a jeweler's store where they chose two similar rings which they smilingly exchanged
after a short walk they took breakfast at the freres provencaux in one of those little rooms which are all things considered one of the most beautiful spots in the world there when the garcon had left them they sat near the windows hand in hand
his happiness was calm and subdued as true happiness always is the experienced would have recognized in him the youth who merges into manhood from time to time he looked up at the sky then at his companion and tears glittered in his eyes
but he heeded them not and smiled as he wept the woman was pale and thoughtful her eyes were fixed on the man on her face were traces of sorrow which she could not conceal although evidently touched by the exalted joy of her companion
when he smiled she smiled too but never alone when he spoke she replied and she ate what he served her but there was about her a silence which was only broken at his instance
in her languor could be clearly distinguished that gentleness of soul that lethargy of the weaker of two beings who love one of whom exists only in the other and responds to him as does the echo the young man was conscious of it and seemed proud of it and grateful for it
but it could be seen even by his pride that his happiness was new to him when the woman became sad and her eyes fell he cheered her with his glance but he could not always succeed and seemed troubled himself
that mingling of strength and weakness of joy and sorrow of anxiety and serenity could not have been understood by an indifferent spectator at times they appeared the most happy of living creatures and the next moment the most unhappy
but although ignorant of their secret one would have felt that they were suffering together and whatever their mysterious trouble it could be seen that they had placed on their sorrow a seal more powerful than love itself friendship
while their hands were clasped their glances were chaste although they were alone they spoke in low tones as though overcome by their feelings they sat face to face although their lips did not touch they looked at each other tenderly and solemnly
when the clock struck one the woman heaved a sigh and said octave are you sure of yourself yes my friend i am resolved i will suffer much a long time perhaps forever but we will cure ourselves you with time i with god
i do not believe we can forget each other but i believe that we can forgive and that is what i desire even at the price of separation why could we not meet again why not some day you are so young then she added with a smile we could see each other without danger
no my friend for you must know that i could never see you again without loving you may he to whom i bequeath you be worthy of you smith is brave good and honest but however much you may love him
you see very well that you still love me for if i should decide to remain or to take you away with me you would consent it is true replied the woman true true repeated the young man looking into her eyes with all his soul
is it true that if i wished it you would go with me then he continued softly that is the reason i must never see you again there are certain loves in life that overturn the head the senses the mind the heart
there is among them all but one that does not disturb that penetrates and that dies only with the being in which it has taken root but you will write to me yes at first for what i have to suffer is so keen that the absence of the habitual object of my love would kill me
when i was unknown to you i gradually approached closer and closer to you until but let us not go into the past little by little my letters will become less frequent until they cease altogether i will thus descend the hill that i have been climbing for the past year
at these words the woman threw herself on the couch and burst into tears the young man wept with her but he did not move and seemed anxious to appear unconscious of her emotion when her tears ceased to flow he approached her took her hand in his and kissed it
rest assured brigitte no one will ever understand you better than i another will love you more worthily no one will love you more truly another will be considerate of those feelings that i offend he will surround you with his love you will have a better lover you will not have a better brother
give me your hand and let the world laugh at a word that it does not understand let us be friends and adieu forever before we became such intimate friends there was something within that told us that we were destined to mingle our lives
let that part of us which is still joined in god's sight never know that we have parted upon earth let not the paltry chance of a moment undo the union of our eternal happiness he held the woman's hand
she cut from her head a long tress of hair then she looked at herself thus disfigured and deprived of a part of her beautiful crown and gave it to her lover the clock struck again it was time to go when they passed out they seemed as joyful as when they entered
what a glorious sun said the young man and a beautiful day said brigitte the memory of which shall never fade they hastened away and disappeared in the crowd
diamond paned windows and a profusion of dwelling rooms with smoke blackened ceilings and oaken wainscots
all gnarled and withered from the effects of the sea spray behind lay the scattered hamlet of branksome bere
to the west was the broad yellow beach and the irish sea
very bleak and lonely it was upon this wigtown coast a man might walk many a weary mile and never see a living thing except the white heavy flapping kittiwakes which screamed and cried to each other
with their shrill sad voices very lonely and very bleak
was no sign of the works of man save only where the high white tower of cloomber hall shot up like a headstone of some giant grave from amid the firs and larches which girt it round
this great house a mile or more from our dwelling had been built by a wealthy glasgow merchant of strange tastes and lonely habits but at the time of our arrival it had been untenanted for many years
and stood with weather blotched walls and vacant staring windows looking blankly out over the hill side empty and mildewed it served only as a landmark to the fishermen
above the troubled waters of the wind swept bay to this wild spot it was that fate had brought my father my sister and myself for us its loneliness had no terrors after the hubbub and bustle of a great city
and the weary task of upholding appearances upon a slender income there was a grand soul soothing serenity in the long sky line and the eager air here at least there was no neighbour to pry and chatter
the laird had left his phaeton and two ponies behind him with the aid of which my father and i would go the round of the estate doing such light duties as fall to an agent or factor as it was there called while our gentle esther
such was our simple uneventful existence until the summer night when an unlooked for incident occurred which proved to be the herald of those strange doings which i have taken up my pen to describe
it had been my habit to pull out of an evening in the laird's skiff and to catch a few whiting which might serve for our supper on this well remembered occasion my sister came with me sitting with her book in the stern sheets of the boat while i hung my lines over the bows
when my sister plucked at my sleeve with a little sharp cry of surprise see john she cried there is a light in cloomber tower i turned my head and stared back at the tall white turret which peeped out above the belt of trees
as i gazed i distinctly saw at one of the windows the glint of a light which suddenly vanished and then shone out once more from another higher up there it flickered for some time
it was clear that some one bearing a lamp or a candle had climbed up the tower stairs and had then returned into the body of the house
my sister shook her head there is not one of them would dare to set foot within the avenue gates she said besides john the keys are kept by the house agent at wigtown
the untimely visitor must either have used considerable violence in order to force his way in or he must have obtained possession of the keys piqued by the little mystery i pulled for the beach with the determination to see for myself who the intruder might be
and what were his intentions leaving my sister at branksome and summoning seth jamieson an old man o' war's man and one of the stoutest of the fishermen
were making a careful examination of the building
it's no canny tae meddle wi such things
stumbling across the moor together we made our way into the wigtown road at the point where the high stone pillars mark the entrance to the cloomber avenue
which skirted the road it's a richt said jamieson taking a close look at the deserted vehicle
it's all one nowadays you must excuse me mister
chapter nineteen plotting
the following monday miss edith hudson went to work for the international machine company as mister compton's stenographer nor could the most fastidious have discovered aught to criticize in the appearance or deportment of little eva
the same day the certified public accountants came mister harold bince appeared nervous and irritable and he would have been more nervous and more irritable had he known that jimmy had just learned the amount of the pay check from everett
and that he had discovered that although five men had been laid off and no new ones employed since the previous week the payroll check was practically the same as before approximately one thousand dollars more than his note book indicated it should be
that afternoon mister compton left the office earlier than usual complaining of a headache and the next morning his daughter telephoned that he was ill and would not come to the office that day
during the morning as bince was walking through the shop he stopped to talk with krovac pete krovac was a rat faced little foreigner looked upon among the men as a trouble maker
he nursed a perpetual grievance against his employer and his job and whenever the opportunity presented and sometimes when it did not present itself he endeavored to inoculate others with his dissatisfaction
and a troublemaker several times he had been upon the point of discharging him but now he was glad that he had not for he thought he saw in him a type that in the light of present conditions might be of use to him
in fact for the past couple of weeks he had been using the man in an endeavor to get some information concerning torrance and his methods that would permit him to go to compton with a valid argument for jimmy's discharge well krovac
he said as he came upon the man is torrance interfering with you any now
and men are not going to stand for that long
said krovac last week he asked every man in the place what his name was and what wages he was getting
bince's eyes narrowed
he asked yes replied krovac bince was very pale he stood in silence for some minutes apparently studying the man before him at last he spoke krovac he said
neither do i said bince i know his plans even better than you
but if we don't get rid of him it will have the longest hours and lowest pay of any shop in the city well questioned krovac i think said bince that there ought to be some way to prevent this man doing any further harm here
replied bince krovac thought for a moment i think i can arrange it he said but i would have to have fifty now
the following evening as jimmy alighted from the indiana avenue car at eighteenth street two men left the car behind him he did not notice them although as he made his way toward his boarding house
he heard footsteps directly in his rear and suddenly noting that they were approaching him rapidly he involuntarily cast a glance behind him just as one of the men raised an arm to strike at him with what appeared to be a short piece of pipe
jimmy dodged the blow and then both men sprang for him the first one jimmy caught on the point of the chin with a blow that put its recipient out of the fight before he got into it
inadvertently however he caught jimmy about the neck leaving both his intended victim's arms free with the result that the latter was able to seize his antagonist low down about the body and then pressing him close to him and hurling himself suddenly forward
he threw the fellow backward upon the cement sidewalk with his own body on top with a resounding whack the attacker's head came in contact with the concrete
his arms relaxed their hold upon jimmy's neck and as the latter arose he saw both his assailants temporarily at least out of the fighting jimmy glanced hastily in both directions there was no one in sight
his boardinghouse was but a few steps away and two minutes later he was safe in his room a year ago
to have called in the police but the lizard has evidently given me a new view point in regard to them
for the latter had impressed upon jimmy the fact that whatever knowledge a policeman might have regarding one was always acquired with the idea that eventually it might be used against the person to whom it pertained what a policeman don't know about you will never hurt you was one way that the lizard put it
when jimmy appeared in the shop the next morning he noted casually that krovac had a cut upon his chin but he did not give the matter a second thought bince had arrived late
his first question as he entered the small outer office where mister compton's stenographer and his worked was addressed to miss edith hudson is mister torrance down yet he asked yes replied the girl
nor could she help but notice after he had entered his office the vehement manner in which he slammed the door i wonder what's eating him
he asked look at my chin was krovac's reply and he damn near killed the other guy maybe you'll have better luck the next time growled bince
he said you might return the fifty then
come on said bince hand over the fifty nothin doin said krovac with an angry snarl
you damn scoundrel exclaimed bince don't go callin me names admonished krovac a fellow that hires another to croak a man for him for one hundred bucks ain't got no license to call nobody names
bince realized only too well that he was absolutely in the power of the fellow and immediately his manner changed come he said krovac there is no use in our quarreling you can help me and i can help you
there must be some other way to get around this
he added that i had a guy hid down there in the shop where he could watch you drop the envelope behind my machine
bince realized that he was compromised as hopelessly already as he could be if the man had even more information
there is something beside torrance's interference in the shop he's interfering with our accounting system and i don't want it interfered with just now
what do you want i want all the records of the certified public accountants who are working here said bince after a moment's pause i want them destroyed together with the pay roll records where are they
they will all be in the safe in mister compton's office
a sudden bright flash lighted up the camp throwing the little white tents into hold relief against the sombre background of the mountains it was followed after an interval by a low rumble of distant thunder that buffeted itself from peak to peak of the rockies
the pony riders stirred restlessly on their cots and tucked the blankets up under their chins close upon the first report followed another and louder one that sent a distinct tremor through the mountain
go to sleep yet instead of following his own advice tad lay with wide open eyes awaiting the moment when the storm should descend upon their camp in full force he had not long to wait
as he crawled further down under the blanket to shut out the glare of the lightning
each flash appeared to light up the mountains for miles around their crests lying dark and forbidding piled tier upon tier the blue menacing flashes hovering about them momentarily
then fading away in the impenetrable darkness the camp appeared to be wrapped in sleep and by the bright flashes tad observed that the burros of the pack train were stretched out sound asleep while off in the bushes he could hear the restless moving about of the ponies
in the city of pueblo they found that all preparations for the journey had been made by lige thomas the mountain guide whom mister perkins had engaged to accompany them besides the four ponies of the boys there were the professor's cob
thomas's pony and a pack train consisting of six burros the latter in charge of jose
a half breed mexican who was to cook for the party during their stay in the mountains it was a brave and joyous band that had set out from the colorado city in khaki trousers blue shirts and broad brimmed sombreros for an outing over the wildest of the rocky mountain ranges
by this time the boys had learned to pitch and strike camp in the briefest possible time in short to take very good care of themselves under most of the varying conditions which such a life as they were leading entailed
where he thought he had observed something that did not belong there humph i must be imagining things tonight he muttered when after three or four illuminations he had discovered nothing further tad was about to return to his cot when his attention was once more attracted to the spot
and what he saw this time thrilled him through and through a man was cautiously leading two of the ponies from camp just back of professor zepplin's tent the boy paused with one hand raised above his head prepared to pull the tent flap quickly back in place
in case the stranger chanced to glance that way all the while gazing at the man with unbelieving eyes was he dreaming tad wondered pinching himself to make sure that he really was awake once more impenetrable darkness settled over the scene
and when the next flash came the camp had resumed its former appearance tad butler hesitated only for the briefest instant ahoy the camp he shouted at the top of his voice springing out into the open wake up wake up
as if to accentuate his alarm a twisting gust of wind swooped down upon the white village accompanied by the sound of breaking ropes and ripping canvas the tent that had covered professor zepplin was wrenched loose it shot up into the air disappearing over a cliff
now the lightning flashes were incessant and the thunder had become one continuous deafening roar stoical as he was the professor thus rudely awakened uttered a yell and leaped from his cot while the boys of the party came tumbling from their blankets
rubbing their eyes and demanding in confused shouts to know what the row was about but lige experienced mountaineer that he was
instinctively divined the cause of the uproar when emerging from his tent he saw tad darting at top speed across the camp ground the ponies the ponies shouted the boy as he disappeared in the bushes regardless of the fact that he was clad only in his pajamas
was the startling announcement thrown back to them by the freckle faced boy by this time the entire camp with the exception of professor zepplin and stacy brown had set out on a swift run following on the trail of tad
ahead of him the boy could hear the ponies hoofs on the rocks and now and then a distant crash told him they were working up into the dense second growth that he had seen in his brief tour of inspection earlier in the evening he realized from the sound that he was slowly gaining on the missing animals
tad's blood was up his firm jaw assumed the set look that it had shown when he won the championship wrestling match at the high school the shouts of the others at his rear warning him of the danger and calling upon him to return fell upon unheeding ears
so intent was the boy upon the accomplishment of his purpose that he gave no heed to the fact that the sounds ahead had ceased and that only the soft patter of his own feet on the rocks broke the stillness between the loud claps of thunder
yet even if tad had sensed this its meaning
unused as he was to the methods of mountaineers so the boy ran blindly on in brave pursuit of the man who had stolen their mounts while the pony riders slept suddenly without the slightest warning tad felt himself encircled by a pair of powerful arms
all his faculties were instantly on the alert but he realized now that his only hope lay in attracting the attention of the others of his party
tad's shrill voice punctuated a momentary lull in the storm coming answered the voice of the guide its strident tones carrying clearly to tad
filling him with a feeling as near akin to joy as was possible under the circumstances with a snarl of rage the boy's captor suddenly released his hold around the waist and grasped tad quickly by the knees
so skilfully had the move been executed that tad butler found himself dangling head down before he really understood what had occurred his head was whirling dizzily he felt his body swaying from side to side
his head describing an arc of a circle as he was rapidly being swung to and fro
tad knew that they would have to hurry if they were to save him for as soon as the dizzy swinging of his body began he had understood the purpose of his captor at any second the boy might find himself flying through space
perhaps over a precipice it plainly was the intent of the man to hurl the boy far from him as soon as tad's body should have attained sufficient momentum to carry it however before the fellow was able to put his desperate plan fully into execution
as his body swung by that of his captor the boy threw out his hands clasping them about the left leg of the other and instantly locking his fingers it seemed as if the jolt would wrench his arms from their sockets yet tad held on desperately
and the result though wholly unexpected by the mountaineer was not entirely so to tad he had figured had hoped that a certain thing might occur and it did
the man's left leg was jerked free of the ground and before he was able to catch his balance the fellow fell heavily on his side tad with keen satisfaction
heard him utter a grunt as he struck but before the boy could release himself he was grabbed and pulled up over his adversary by the latter's left hand his right still being pinioned under his own body
yet the mountaineer's move had not been entirely without results favorable to his captive
tad groping for a wrestler's hold felt his hand close over the hilt of a knife in the man's belt and as the boy was hauled upward
the blade came away from its sheath clasped in tad's firm grip but not even with this deadly weapon in hand did tad butler for a second forget himself he flung the knife as far from him as his partly pinioned arms would permit
and with keen satisfaction heard it clatter on the rocks several feet away you'll do it without that cowardly weapon then
hoping thereby to free the pinioned arm now i've got you you young cub
on his adversary's stomach from the growl of rage that followed tad had the satisfaction of knowing that his tactics had not been without effect you you only think you have retorted the boy breathing heavily under the terrible strain
to do this however would have been giving tad an opportunity to escape of which he would have been quick to take advantage and so gulping quick short breaths and struggling with his slightly built adversary
tad's captor finally managed to throw the lad over on his back so heavily did tad strike that for the moment the breath was fairly knocked from his body recovering himself with an effort he raised a piercing call for help
that needn't worry you replied the lawyer you mean that your client is going to pay for my defense what's his name
very well
said the attorney this client of mine can well afford the expense
so i guess you can't help yourself
there is doubtless some reason for suspicion attaching to me because i was found alone with mister compton's body
she could have had absolutely nothing to do with it i will see what can be done replied the attorney although i had no instructions to defend her also i will make that one of the conditions under which i will accept your services
said jimmy the result was that within a few days edith was released
but she was disturbed nevertheless because she realized that it was going to make difficult a thing that she had been trying to find some means to accomplish ever since she had been arrested she went directly to her apartment and presently took down the telephone receiver
and after calling a public phone in a building down town she listened intently while the operator was getting her connection and before the connection was made she hung up the receiver with a smile for she had distinctly heard the sound of a man's breathing over the line
and she knew that in all probability o'donnell had tapped in immediately on learning that she had been released from jail that evening she attended a local motion picture theater which she often frequented it was one of those small affairs the width of a city block
with a narrow aisle running down either side and an emergency exit upon the alley at the far end of each aisle the theater was darkened when she entered and a quick glance apprizing her that no one followed her in immediately
she continued on down one of the side aisles and passed through the doorway into the alley five minutes later she was in a telephone booth in a drug store two blocks away is this feinheimer's she asked after she had got her connection i want to talk to carl
this is little eva oh hello said the man i thought you were over at the county jail i was released to day she explained well listen carl
he's layin pretty low all right said the girl i'll be there you tell him that he simply must come she hung up the receiver and then called a taxi she gave a number on a side street about a half block away
where she knew it would be reasonably dark and consequently less danger of detection three quarters of an hour later her taxi drew up beside mother kruger's but the girl did not alight
she had waited but a short time when another taxi swung in beside the road house turned around and backed up alongside hers a man stepped out and peered through the glass of her machine it was the lizard recognizing the girl he opened the door and took a seat beside her
well inquired the lizard what's on your mind jimmy replied the girl i thought so returned the lizard it looks pretty bad for him don't it i wish there was some way to help him
that he done it all right who asked edith murray i thought he knew a lot about it said the girl that's why i sent for you you haven't got any love for murray have you
i think murray knows a lot about that job
that will start something anyway
murray enclosed a threat signed i w w
and murray's so strong with the police that i wouldn't trust them so i haven't told any one what i want is for you to
the girl knew nothing of his connection with the job she did not know that he had entered compton's office and had been first to find his dead body in fact no one knew that
even murray did not know that the lizard had succeeded in entering the plant as the latter had told him that he was delayed and that when he reached there a patrol and ambulance were already backed up in front of the building
he felt that he had enough knowledge however to make the conviction of jimmy a very difficult proposition but if he divulged the knowledge he had and explained how he came by it he could readily see that suspicion would be at once transferred
from jimmy to himself the lizard therefore was in a quandary of course if murray's connection was ever discovered the lizard might then be drawn into it but if he could keep murray out the lizard would be reasonably safe from suspicion
and now the girl had shown him how he might remove a damaging piece of evidence against murray
and you will find the papers lying on the little wooden partition directly underneath the drawer
the lizard grunted and entered his own cab as he did so a man on a motorcycle drew up on the opposite side and peered through the window the driver had started his motor as the newcomer approached
from her cab the girl saw the lizard and the man on the motorcycle look into each other's face for a moment then she heard the lizard's quick admonition to his driver beat it bo a sharp halt came from the man on the motorcycle
as the lizard's taxi raced away the officer circled quickly and started in pursuit no chance thought the girl he'll get caught sure she could hear the staccato reports from the open exhaust of the motorcycle diminishing rapidly in the distance
indicating the speed of the pursued and the pursuer and then from the distance came a shot and then another and another she leaned forward and spoke to her own driver go on to elmhurst she said and then come back to the city on the saint charles road
it was after two o'clock in the morning when the lizard entered an apartment on ashland avenue which he had for several years used as a hiding place when the police were hot upon his trail
the people from whom he rented the room were eminently respectable jews who thought their occasional roomer what he represented himself to be
a special agent for one of the federal departments a vocation which naturally explained the lizard's long absences and unusual hours once within his room the lizard sank into a chair and wiped the perspiration from his forehead although it was by no means a warm night
he drew a folded paper from his inside pocket which when opened revealed a small piece of wrapping paper within they were murray's letter to bince and the enclosure
he sat for a long time looking at the papers in his hand but he did not see them
of o'donnell whom he knew to be working on the compton case and whose boast it had been that sooner or later he would get the lizard of what might naturally be expected were the papers in his hands to fall into the possession of torrance's attorney
it would mean that murray would be immediately placed in jeopardy and the lizard knew murray well enough to know that he would sacrifice his best friend to save himself and the lizard was by no means murray's best friend
but with the record of his past life against him would any one believe him in order to prove his assertion it would be necessary to make admissions that might incriminate himself and there would be murray and the compton millions against him
and as he pondered these things there ran always through his mind the words of the girl
it was a cold wet january day on which tom went back to school a day quite in keeping with this severe phase of his destiny if he had not carried in his pocket a parcel of sugar candy and a small dutch doll for little laura
he took out the parcel made a small hole in the paper and bit off a crystal or two which had so solacing an effect under the confined prospect and damp odors of the gig umbrella
that he repeated the process more than once on his way well tulliver we're glad to see you again said mister stelling heartily take off your wrappings and come into the study till dinner
you'll find a bright fire there and a new companion tom felt in an uncomfortable flutter as he took off his woollen comforter and other wrappings he had seen philip wakem at saint ogg's
but had always turned his eyes away from him as quickly as possible he would have disliked having a deformed boy for his companion even if philip had not been the son of a bad man and tom did not see how a bad man's son could be very good
his own father was a good man and he would readily have fought any one who said the contrary he was in a state of mingled embarrassment and defiance as he followed mister stelling to the study
here is a new companion for you to shake hands with tulliver said that gentleman on entering the study master philip wakem i shall leave you to make acquaintance by yourselves
and he was not prepared to say how do you do on so short a notice mister stelling wisely turned away and closed the door behind him boys shyness only wears off in the absence of their elders
philip was at once too proud and too timid to walk toward tom he thought or rather felt that tom had an aversion to looking at him every one almost disliked looking at him
and as he drew was thinking what he could say to tom and trying to overcome his own repugnance to making the first advances tom began to look oftener and longer at philip's face
for he could see it without noticing the hump and it was really not a disagreeable face very old looking tom thought he wondered how much older philip was than himself an anatomist even a mere physiognomist
would have seen that the deformity of philip's spine was not a congenital hump but the result of an accident in infancy but you do not expect from tom any acquaintance with such distinctions
to him philip was simply a humpback he had a vague notion that the deformity of wakem's son had some relation to the lawyer's rascality of which he had so often heard his father talk with hot emphasis
there was a humpbacked tailor in the neighborhood of mister jacobs's academy who was considered a very unamiable character and was much hooted after by public spirited boys
solely on the ground of his unsatisfactory moral qualities so that tom was not without a basis of fact to go upon still no face could be more unlike that ugly tailor's than this melancholy boy's face
but he handled his pencil in an enviable manner and was apparently making one thing after another without any trouble what was he drawing tom was quite warm now and wanted something new to be going forward it was certainly more agreeable
to have an ill natured humpback as a companion than to stand looking out of the study window at the rain and kicking his foot against the washboard in solitude something would happen every day a quarrel or something and tom thought he should rather like to show philip
he suddenly walked across the hearth and looked over philip's paper why that's a donkey with panniers and a spaniel and partridges in the corn he exclaimed his tongue being completely loosed by surprise and admiration
oh my buttons i wish i could draw like that i'm to learn drawing this half i wonder if i shall learn to make dogs and donkeys oh you can do them without learning said philip i never learned drawing
never learned said tom in amazement why when i make dogs and horses and those things the heads and the legs won't come right though i can see how they ought to be very well i can make houses and all sorts of chimneys
and windows in the roof and all that but i dare say i could do dogs and horses if i was to try more he added reflecting that philip might falsely suppose that he was going to knock under if he were too frank about the imperfection of his accomplishments
oh yes said philip it's very easy you've only to look well at things and draw them over and over again what you do wrong once you can alter the next time
said tom beginning to have a puzzled suspicion that philip's crooked back might be the source of remarkable faculties i thought you'd been to school a long while yes said philip smiling
i don't care much about it said philip ah but perhaps you haven't got into the propria quae maribus said tom nodding his head sideways as much as to say
active looking boy but made polite by his own extreme sensitiveness as well as by his desire to conciliate he checked his inclination to laugh and said quietly i've done with the grammar i don't learn that any more
then you won't have the same lessons as i shall said tom with a sense of disappointment no but i dare say i can help you i shall be very glad to help you if i can tom did not say thank you
for he was quite absorbed in the thought that wakem's son did not seem so spiteful a fellow as might have been expected i say he said presently do you love your father yes said philip coloring deeply don't you love yours
oh yes i only wanted to know said tom rather ashamed of himself now he saw philip coloring and looking uncomfortable
and it had occurred to him that if philip disliked his father that fact might go some way toward clearing up his perplexity shall you learn drawing now he said by way of changing the subject no said philip
my father wishes me to give all my time to other things now what latin and euclid and those things said tom yes said philip who had left off using his pencil and was resting his head on one hand while tom was learning forward on both elbows
and looking with increasing admiration at the dog and the donkey and you don't mind that said tom with strong curiosity no i like to know what everybody else knows i can study what i like by and by
i can't think why anybody should learn latin said tom it's no good it's part of the education of a gentleman said philip all gentlemen learn the same things what do you think sir john crake
who had often thought he should like to resemble sir john crake he learned it when he was a boy of course said philip but i dare say he's forgotten it oh well i can do that then said tom not with any epigrammatic intention
but with serious satisfaction at the idea that as far as latin was concerned there was no hindrance to his resembling sir john crake only you're obliged to remember it while you're at school else you've got to learn ever so many lines of speaker
mister stelling's very particular did you know
oh i don't mind said philip unable to choke a laugh i can remember things easily and there are some lessons i'm very fond of i'm very fond of greek history and everything about the greeks i should like to have been a greek
and fought the persians and then have come home and have written tragedies or else have been listened to by everybody for my wisdom like socrates and have died a grand death
who saw a vista in this direction is there anything like david and goliath and samson in the greek history those are the only bits i like in the history of the jews oh there are very fine stories of that sort about the greeks
and ulysses a little fellow but very wise and cunning got a red hot pine tree and stuck it into this one eye and made him roar like a thousand bulls oh what fun said tom
does every gentleman learn greek will mister stelling make me begin with it do you think no i should think not very likely not said philip but you may read those stories without knowing greek i've got them in english
and about william wallace and robert bruce and james douglas i know no end you're older than i am aren't you said tom why how old are you i'm fifteen
but i thrashed all the fellows at jacob's that's where i was before i came here and i beat em all at bandy and climbing and i wish mister stelling would let us go fishing i could show you how to fish you could fish couldn't you
it's only standing and sitting still you know tom in his turn wished to make the balance dip in his favor this hunchback must not suppose that his acquaintance with fighting stories put him on a par with an actual fighting hero like tom tulliver
fine old christmas with the snowy hair and ruddy face had done his duty that year in the noblest fashion and had set off his rich gifts of warmth and color with all the heightening contrast of frost and snow
it weighed heavily on the laurels and fir trees till it fell from them with a shuddering sound it clothed the rough turnip field with whiteness and made the sheep look like dark blotches
the gates were all blocked up with the sloping drifts and here and there a disregarded four footed beast stood as if petrified in unrecumbent sadness there was no gleam no shadow
for the heavens too were one still pale cloud no sound or motion in anything but the dark river that flowed and moaned like an unresting sorrow but old christmas smiled as he laid this cruel seeming spell on the outdoor world
for he meant to light up home with new brightness to deepen all the richness of indoor color and give a keener edge of delight to the warm fragrance of food he meant to prepare a sweet imprisonment that would strengthen the primitive fellowship of kindred
with ever unrelenting unrelenting purpose still hides that secret in his own mighty slow beating heart and yet this christmas day in spite of tom's fresh delight in home was not he thought somehow or other
quite so happy as it had always been before the red berries were just as abundant on the holly and he and maggie had dressed all the windows and mantlepieces and picture frames on christmas eve with as much taste as ever
when their carolling broke in upon her dreams and the image of men in fustian clothes was always thrust away by the vision of angels resting on the parted cloud the midnight chant
had helped as usual to lift the morning above the level of common days and then there were the smell
from the kitchen at the breakfast hour the favorite anthem the green boughs and the short sermon gave the appropriate festal character to the church going and aunt and uncle moss with all their seven children
as if it had been heroically snatched from the nether fires into which it had been thrown by dyspeptic puritans the dessert was as splendid as ever
with its golden oranges brown nuts and the crystalline light and dark of apple jelly and damson cheese in all these things christmas was as it had always been since tom could remember it was only distinguished if by anything
by superior sliding and snowballs christmas was cheery but not so mister tulliver he was irate and defiant and tom though he espoused his father's quarrels and shared his father's sense of injury
was not without some of the feeling that oppressed maggie when mister tulliver got louder and more angry in narration and assertion with the increased leisure of dessert the attention that tom might have concentrated on his nuts and wine was distracted
and that the business of grown up life could hardly be conducted without a good deal of quarrelling now tom was not fond of quarrelling unless it could soon be put an end to by a fair stand up fight with an adversary whom he had every chance of thrashing
and his father's irritable talk made him uncomfortable though he never accounted to himself for the feeling or conceived the notion that his father was faulty in this respect
an infringement on mister tulliver's legitimate share of water power dix who had a mill on the stream was a feeble auxiliary of old harry compared with pivart dix had been brought to his senses by arbitration
and wakem's advice had not carried him far no dix mister tulliver considered had been as good as nowhere in point of law and in the intensity of his indignation against pivart his contempt for a baffled adversary like dix
began to wear the air of a friendly attachment he had no male audience to day except mister moss who knew nothing as he said
and could only assent to mister tulliver's arguments on the a priori ground of family relationship and monetary obligation but mister tulliver did not talk with the futile intention of convincing his audience
he talked to relieve himself while good mister moss made strong efforts to keep his eyes wide open in spite of the sleepiness which an unusually good dinner produced in his hard worked frame missus moss more alive to the subject
and interested in everything that affected her brother listened and put in a word as often as maternal preoccupations allowed why pivart's a new name hereabout brother isn't it she said
he didn't own the land in father's time nor yours either before i was married new name yes i should think it is a new name said mister tulliver with angry emphasis dorlcote mill's been in our family a hundred year and better
i don't know what i shall be forced to but i know what i shall force him to with his dikes and erigations
he's got wakem to back him and egg him on i know wakem tells him the law can't touch him for it but there's folks can handle the law besides wakem it takes a big raskil to beat him but there's bigger to be found
if you look at it straight forrard for a river's a river and if you've got a mill you must have water to turn it
but if that's their engineering i'll put tom to it by and by and he shall see if he can't find a bit more sense
instantaneously expressed her sentiments in a piercing yell and was not to be appeased even by the restoration of the rattle feeling apparently that the original wrong of having it taken from her remained in all its force
missus moss hurried away with her into another room and expressed to missus tulliver who accompanied her the conviction that the dear child had good reasons for crying implying that if it was supposed to be the rattle that baby clamored for
she was a misunderstood baby the thoroughly justifiable yell being quieted missus moss looked at her sister in law and said i'm sorry to see brother so put out about this water work
it's your brother's way missus moss i'd never anything o that sort before i was married said missus tulliver with a half implied reproach she always spoke of her husband as your brother to missus moss
in any case when his line of conduct was not matter of pure admiration
a dodson and a woman being always on the defensive toward her own sisters it was natural that she should be keenly conscious of her superiority even as the weakest dodson over a husband's sister who
besides being poorly off and inclined to hang on her brother had the good natured submissiveness of a large easy tempered untidy prolific woman with affection enough in her not only for her own husband and abundant children
but for any number of collateral relations i hope and pray he won't go to law said missus moss for there's never any knowing where that'll end and the right doesn't allays win this mister pivart's a rich man by what i can make out
and the rich mostly get things their own way as to that said missus tulliver stroking her dress down i've seen what riches are in my own family for my sisters have got husbands as can afford to do pretty much what they like
but i think sometimes i shall be drove off my head
and my sisters lay all the fault to me for they don't know what it is to marry a man like your brother how should they sister pullet has her own way from morning till night well said missus moss
i don't think i should like my husband if he hadn't got any wits of his own and i had to find head piece for him it's a deal easier to do what pleases one's husband than to be puzzling what else one should do
if people come to talk o doing what pleases their husbands said missus tulliver with a faint imitation of her sister glegg i'm sure your brother might have waited a long while before he'd have found a wife that ud have let him have his say in everything as i do
it's nothing but law and erigation now from when we first get up in the morning till we go to bed at night and i never contradict him i only say well mister tulliver do as you like
which has the credit or discredit of breaking the camel's back though on a strictly impartial view the blame ought rather to lie with the previous weight of feathers which had already placed the back in such imminent peril
that an otherwise innocent feather could not settle on it without mischief not that missus tulliver's feeble beseeching could have had this feather's weight in virtue of her single personality but whenever she departed from entire assent to her husband
he saw in her the representative of the dodson family and it was a guiding principle with mister tulliver to let the dodsons know that they were not to domineer over him or more specifically that a male tulliver
was far more than equal to four female dodsons even though one of them was missus glegg but not even a direct argument from that typical dodson female herself against his going to law could have heightened his disposition
so much as the mere thought of wakem continually freshened by the sight of the too able attorney on market days
to his certain knowledge was metaphorically speaking at the bottom of pivart's irrigation wakem had tried to make dix stand out and go to law about the dam it was unquestionably wakem
all lawyers were more or less rascals but wakem's rascality was of that peculiarly aggravated kind which placed itself in opposition to that form of right embodied in mister tulliver's interests and opinions
and as an extra touch of bitterness the injured miller had recently in borrowing the five hundred pounds been obliged to carry a little business to wakem's office on his own account a hook nosed glib fellow
always looking so sure of his game and it was vexatious that lawyer gore was not more like him but was a bald round featured man with bland manners and fat hands a game cock
and confident as mister tulliver was in his principle that water was water
he had an uncomfortable suspicion that wakem had more law to show against this rationally irrefragable inference than gore could show for it but then
if they went to law there was a chance for mister tulliver to employ counsellor wylde on his side instead of having that admirable bully against him
made to perspire and become confounded as mister tulliver's witness had once been was alluring to the love of retributive justice
only to be reached through much hot argument and iteration in domestic and social life that initial stage of the dispute which consisted in the narration of the case and the enforcement of mister tulliver's views concerning it
throughout the entire circle of his connections would necessarily take time and at the beginning of february when tom was going to school again
or any more specific indication of the measures he was bent on taking against that rash contravener of the principle
iteration like friction is likely to generate heat instead of progress and mister tulliver's heat
if there had been no new evidence on any other point
was as thick as mud with wakem father said tom one evening near the end of the holidays uncle glegg says lawyer wakem is going to send his son to mister stelling it isn't true what they said about his going to be sent to france
you won't like me to go to school with wakem's son shall you it's no matter for that my boy said mister tulliver don't you learn anything bad of him that's all the lad's a poor deformed creatur and takes after his mother in the face
maggie's intentions as usual were on a larger scale than tom imagined the resolution that gathered in her mind after tom and lucy had walked away was not so simple as that of going home no
she would run away and go to the gypsies and tom should never see her any more that was by no means a new idea to maggie she had been so often told she was like a gypsy and half wild
that when she was miserable it seemed to her the only way of escaping opprobrium and being entirely in harmony with circumstances would be to live in a little brown tent on the commons the gypsies she considered would gladly receive her
and pay her much respect on account of her superior knowledge she had once mentioned her views on this point to tom and suggested that he should stain his face brown and they should run away together but tom rejected the scheme with contempt
observing that gypsies were thieves and hardly got anything to eat and had nothing to drive but a donkey to day however maggie thought her misery had reached a pitch at which gypsydom was her refuge
and she rose from her seat on the roots of the tree with the sense that this was a great crisis in her life she would run straight away till she came to dunlow common where there would certainly be gypsies and cruel tom
and the rest of her relations who found fault with her should never see her any more she thought of her father as she ran along but she reconciled herself to the idea of parting with him
by determining that she would secretly send him a letter by a small gypsy who would run away without telling where she was and just let him know that she was well and happy and always loved him very much
reflecting that running away was not a pleasant thing until one had got quite to the common where the gypsies were but her resolution had not abated she presently passed through the gate into the lane not knowing where it would lead her
for it was not this way that they came from dorlcote mill to garum firs and she felt all the safer for that because there was no chance of her being overtaken but she was soon aware not without trembling
that there were two men coming along the lane in front of her she had not thought of meeting strangers she had been too much occupied with the idea of her friends coming after her the formidable strangers were two shabby looking men with flushed faces
one of them carrying a bundle on a stick over his shoulder but to her surprise while she was dreading their disapprobation as a runaway the man with the bundle stopped and in a half whining half coaxing tone
asked her if she had a copper to give a poor man maggie had a sixpence in her pocket her uncle glegg's present which she immediately drew out and gave this poor man with a polite smile
that's the only money i've got she said apologetically thank you little miss said the man in a less respectful and grateful tone than maggie anticipated and she even observed that he smiled and winked at his companion
it was clear that she was not likely to make a favorable impression on passengers and she thought she would turn into the fields again but not on the same side of the lane as before lest they should still be uncle pullet's fields
sometimes she had to climb over high gates but that was a small evil she was getting out of reach very fast and she should probably soon come within sight of dunlow common or at least of some other common
for she had heard her father say that you couldn't go very far without coming to a common she hoped so for she was getting rather tired and hungry and until she reached the gypsies there was no definite prospect of bread and butter
and it was really surprising that the common did not come within sight hitherto she had been in the rich parish of garum where was a great deal of pasture land and she had only seen one laborer at a distance
that was fortunate in some respects as laborers might be too ignorant to understand the propriety of her wanting to go to dunlow common yet it would have been better if she could have met some one who would tell her the way without wanting to know anything
about her private business at last however the green fields came to an end and maggie found herself looking through the bars of a gate into a lane with a wide margin of grass on each side of it
she had never seen such a wide lane before and without her knowing why it gave her the impression that the common could not be far off perhaps it was because she saw a donkey with a log to his foot feeding on the grassy margin
and the daring that comes from overmastering impulse she had rushed into the adventure of seeking her unknown kindred the gypsies and now she was in this strange lane she hardly dared look on one side of her
lest she should see the diabolical blacksmith in his leathern apron grinning at her with arms akimbo it was not without a leaping of the heart that she caught sight of a small pair of bare legs sticking up feet uppermost by the side of a hillock
asleep and maggie trotted along faster and more lightly lest she should wake him it did not occur to her that he was one of her friends the gypsies who in all probability would have very genial manners but the fact was so
for at the next bend in the lane maggie actually saw the little semicircular black tent with the blue smoke rising before it which was to be her refuge from all the blighting obloquy that had pursued her in civilized life
doubtless the gypsy mother who provided the tea and other groceries it was astonishing to herself that she did not feel more delighted but it was startling to find the gypsies in a lane after all and not on a common indeed
it was delightful and just what maggie expected the gypsies saw at once that she was a little lady and were prepared to treat her accordingly not any farther said maggie feeling as if she were saying what she had rehearsed in a dream
taking her by the hand maggie thought her very agreeable but wished she had not been so dirty there was quite a group round the fire when she reached it an old gypsy woman was seated on the ground nursing her knees
who lying on her back was scratching his nose
the slanting sunlight fell kindly upon them and the scene was really very pretty and comfortable maggie thought only she hoped they would soon set out the tea cups everything would be quite charming
when she had taught the gypsies to use a washing basin and to feel an interest in books it was a little confusing though that the young woman began to speak to the old one in a language which maggie did not understand while the tall girl who was feeding the donkey
sat up and stared at her without offering any salutation at last the old woman said what my pretty lady are you come to stay with us sit ye down and tell us where you come from it was just like a story
maggie liked to be called pretty lady and treated in this way she sat down and said
seal islands and sealers am i my brother's keeper the islands in bass straits hogan's group kent's group the answers the judgment rocks and others
when these animals have not been disturbed in their resorts for some years they are comparatively tame and it is not difficult to approach them great numbers of the young ones are sometimes found on the rocks
but the old seals when frequently disturbed become shy and on the first alarm take to the water the flesh of the young seals is good to eat and seamen who have been cast away on the islands have been sometimes saved from starvation by eating it
i once made the acquaintance of an old sealer he had formerly been very sensitive on the point of honour would resent an insult as promptly as any knight errant
and had taken refuge for a while at the buck's head hotel then kept by a man named mc kenzie one evening after tea i was talking to a carpenter at the back door who was lamenting his want of timber
he had not brought a sufficient supply from geelong to complete his contract which was to construct some benches for a presbyterian church jack was standing near listening to the conversation
whose planks are they he asked
say the word and you can have them if you like the contractor made no reply at least in words to this generous offer it is not every man that has a friend like jack many men will steal from you but very few will steal for you
and when such a one is found he deserves his reward we adjourned to the bar parlour and jack had a glass of brandy for which he did not pay
a learned mineralogist who commenced a dissertation on the origin of gold he was most insufferable would talk about nothing but science
and it has been observed
so we argued about the origin of gold but we could get nowhere near it when the rest of the company had retired jack observed to me you put down that adelaide chap gradely he had not a leg to stand on
i was pleased to find that jack knew a good argument when he heard it so i rewarded his intelligence with another glass of brandy and asked him if he had been long in the colonies he said
my name's not jack that's what they call me but it doesn't matter what my name is
i used to work at the docks was living quite respectable was married and had a little son about five years old
you know it was one o them shows where they hev pictures behind a piece o calico paul pry with his umbrella
ducks swimming across a river a giantess who was a man shaved and dressed in women's clothes a dog wi five legs and a stuffed mermaid
when i went outside into the street there was little billy yates as used to play with bobby so i says come along billy and i'll tek thee to the show when we got there we set down on a bench
they thowt they were big swells and had on black coats white shirts stiff collars up to their ears
well you know i could not stand that i knew well enough what they were they were stewards on the liners running between new york and liverpool and they were going round trying to pass for swells in a penny peep show
i didn't want to make a row just then and spoil the show
next morning i was going along dale street towards the docks to work when who should i see but that varra same blackfellow
so i crossed over and met him and went close up to him and said
i said i was well then you'll remember melling the fish monger
i worked for him for about six months and then come back to liverpool thinking there'd be no more bother about the blackfellow
and ruined for ever just for nowt else but giving a chance lick to a blackfellow
it don't mend a man much to transport him nor a woman either for that matter they all grow worse than ever
and sometimes stripping bark at western port and portland bay before there was such a place as melbourne i was in a whaler for two years about wilson's promontory until the whales were all killed or driven away
i never saved any money until nine years back
at that time i went with a man from port albert to the seal islands in a boat i knew of a place where there was a cave a big hollow under the rocks
and he was drowned but mind you i didn't do it it was this way
and went head first into the boiling water and out of sight i took hold of the slack of a rope thinking i'd throw it to him he might get hold of it and then i could pull him out
i could see his face within four feet of me he threw up his hands for something to catch at and looked at me
i didn't throw him the rope something stopped me he might not have got hold of it you know anyhow
only when i am dreaming
and when he screams i wake up i can never get clear of him out of my head and yet mind you i didn't drown him he fell in of his self
i could have lived comfortably on it all my life but it never did me no good
the sole difference lay in the fact that he was more busily occupied than ever
deranged by the winter's work that every year grew heavier and just as always he returned in july and at once fell to work as usual with increased energy as usual too his wife had moved for the summer to a villa out of town
while he remained in petersburg from the date of their conversation
and that habitual tone of his bantering mimicry
he was a little colder to his wife he simply seemed to be slightly displeased with her for that first midnight conversation which she had repelled in his attitude to her there was a shade of vexation but nothing more
so much the worse for you now you may beg as you please but i won't be open with you so much the worse for you he said mentally like a man who after vainly attempting to extinguish a fire should fly in a rage with his vain efforts and say
he did not realize it because it was too terrible to him to realize his actual position
that is his wife and son he who had been such a careful father had from the end of that winter become peculiarly frigid to his son and adopted to him just the same bantering tone he used with his wife
alexey alexandrovitch
and his thoughts about them which became more terrible the longer they lay there
the mild and peaceable alexey alexandrovitch would have made no answer but he would have been greatly angered with any man who should question him on that subject for this reason there positively came into alexey alexandrovitch's face
a look of haughtiness and severity whenever anyone inquired after his wife's health alexey alexandrovitch did not want to think at all about his wife's behavior and he actually succeeded in not thinking about it at all
and constantly seeing her that year countess lidia ivanovna declined to settle in peterhof
and in conversation with alexey alexandrovitch hinted at the unsuitability of anna's close intimacy with betsy and vronsky alexey alexandrovitch sternly cut her short
roundly declaring his wife to be above suspicion and from that time began to avoid countess lidia
he did not want to see and did not see that many people in society cast dubious glances on his wife he did not want to understand and did not understand why his wife had so particularly insisted on staying at tsarskoe
where betsy was staying and not far from the camp of vronsky's regiment he did not allow himself to think about it and he did not think about it
but all the same though he never admitted it to himself and had no proofs not even suspicious evidence in the bottom of his heart he knew beyond all doubt that he was a deceived husband and he was profoundly miserable about it
since his return from abroad alexey alexandrovitch had twice been at their country villa once he dined there another time he spent the evening there with a party of friends
but he had not once stayed the night there as it had been his habit to do in previous years
but when mentally sketching out the day in the morning he made up his mind to go to their country house to see his wife immediately after dinner and from there to the races
he was going to see his wife because he had determined to see her once a week to keep up appearances and besides on that day as it was the fifteenth he had to give his wife some money for her expenses according to their usual arrangement
with his habitual control over his thoughts though he thought all this about his wife he did not let his thoughts stray further in regard to her
the evening before countess lidia ivanovna had sent him a pamphlet by a celebrated traveler in china who was staying in petersburg and with it she enclosed a note begging him to see the traveler himself
as he was an extremely interesting person from various points of view and likely to be useful
and finished it in the morning then people began arriving with petitions and there came the reports interviews appointments dismissals apportionment of rewards pensions grants notes the workaday round
as alexey alexandrovitch called it that always took up so much time then there was private business of his own a visit from the doctor and the steward who managed his property
the steward did not take up much time he simply gave alexey alexandrovitch the money he needed
which was not altogether satisfactory as it had happened that during that year owing to increased expenses more had been paid out than usual and there was a deficit
but the doctor a celebrated petersburg doctor who was an intimate acquaintance of alexey alexandrovitch took up a great deal of time alexey alexandrovitch had not expected him that day
and was surprised at his visit and still more so when the doctor questioned him very carefully about his health listened to his breathing and tapped at his liver alexey alexandrovitch did not know that his friend lidia ivanovna
i will do it for the sake of russia countess replied the doctor a priceless man said the countess lidia ivanovna the doctor was extremely dissatisfied with alexey alexandrovitch
he found the liver considerably enlarged and the digestive powers weakened while the course of mineral waters had been quite without effect he prescribed more physical exercise as far as possible
and as far as possible less mental strain and above all no worry in other words just what was as much out of alexey alexandrovitch's power as abstaining from breathing then he withdrew
leaving in alexey alexandrovitch an unpleasant sense that something was wrong with him and that there was no chance of curing it as he was coming away the doctor chanced to meet on the staircase an acquaintance of his sludin
they had been comrades at the university and though they rarely met they thought highly of each other and were excellent friends and so there was no one to whom the doctor would have given his opinion of a patient so freely as to sludin
well what do you think of him i'll tell you said the doctor beckoning over sludin's head to his coachman to bring the carriage round it's just this said the doctor taking a finger of his kid glove in his white hands and pulling it
if you don't strain the strings and then try to break them you'll find it a difficult job but strain a string to its very utmost and the mere weight of one finger on the strained string will snap it
he's strained to the utmost and there's some outside burden weighing on him and not a light one concluded the doctor raising his eyebrows significantly
yes yes to be sure it does waste a lot of time the doctor responded vaguely to some reply of sludin's he had not caught directly after the doctor who had taken up so much time came the celebrated traveler
and alexey alexandrovitch by means of the pamphlet he had only just finished reading and his previous acquaintance with the subject impressed the traveler by the depth of his knowledge of the subject and the breadth and enlightenment of his view of it
at the same time as the traveler there was announced a provincial marshal of nobility on a visit to petersburg with whom alexey alexandrovitch had to have some conversation
after his departure he had to finish the daily routine of business with his secretary and then he still had to drive round to call on a certain great personage on a matter of grave and serious import
and after dining with his secretary he invited him to drive with him to his country villa and to the races though he did not acknowledge it to himself alexey alexandrovitch always tried nowadays to secure the presence of a third person
the appearance of the company
wauwau arrives from the country of prester john and leads the whole assembly a wild goose chase to the top of plinlimmon and thence to virginia the baron meets a floating island in his voyage to america
pursues wauwau with his whole company through the deserts of north america his curious contrivance to seize wauwau in a morass
was productive of infinite litigation all the lawyers in the kingdom were employed to render the affair as complex and gloriously uncertain as possible and in fine the whole nation became interested
and were divided on both sides of the question colossus took the part of sphinx and the affair was at length submitted to the decision of a grand council in a great hall adorned with seats on every side in form of an amphitheatre
the assembly appeared the most magnificent and splendid in the world a court or jury of one hundred matrons occupied the principal and most honourable part of the amphitheatre
they were dressed in flowing robes of sky blue velvet adorned with festoons of brilliants and diamond stars grave and sedate looking matrons all in uniform with spectacles upon their noses
and opposite to these were placed one hundred judges with curly white wigs flowing down on each side of them to their very feet so that solomon in all his glory was not so wise in appearance
at the ardent request of the whole empire i condescended to be the president of the court and being arrayed accordingly i took my seat beneath a canopy erected in the centre
before every judge was placed a square inkstand containing a gallon of ink and pens of a proportionable size and also right before him an enormous folio
so large as to serve for table and book at the same time but they did not make much use of their pens and ink except to blot and daub the paper for that they should be the more impartial i had ordered
that none but the blind should be honoured with the employment so that when they attempted to write anything they uniformly dipped their pens into the machine containing sand and having scrawled over a page as they thought
would spill half a gallon of ink upon the paper and thereby daubing their fingers would transfer the ink to their face whenever thy leaned their cheek upon their hand for greater gravity
i found it absolutely necessary to sew up their mouths so that between the blind judges and the dumb matrons methought the trial had a chance of being terminated sooner than it otherwise would
the matrons instead of their tongues had other instruments to convey their ideas each of them had three quizzes one quiz pendent from the string that sewed up her mouth and another quiz in either hand
when she wished to express her negative
and when she desired to express her affirmative she nodding made the quiz pendent from her mouth flow down and recoil again the trial proceeded in this manner for a long time to the admiration of the whole empire
when at length i thought proper to send to my old friend and ally prester john
called a wauwau this creature was brought over the great bridge before mentioned from the interior of africa by a balloon the balloon was placed upon the bridge extending over the parapets on each side
with great wings or oars to assist its velocity and under the balloon was placed pendant a kind of boat in which were the persons to manage the steerage of the machine and protect wauwau this oracular bird
arriving in england instantly darted through one of the windows of the great hall and perched upon the canopy in the centre to the admiration of all present her cackling appeared quite prophetic and oracular
and the first question proposed to her by the unanimous consent of the matrons and judges was whether or not the moon was composed of green cheese
the solution of this question was deemed absolutely necessary before they could proceed farther on the trial wauwau seemed in figure not very much differing from a swan
except that the neck was not near so long and she stood after an admirable fashion like to vestris
for this purpose the whole house rose up to catch her
and the matrons quizzing as much as possible in every direction which very much startled wauwau who clapping her wings instantly flew out of the hall the assembly began to proceed after her in order and style of precedence
together with my whole train of gog and magog sphinx
thinking suddenly to catch this ferocious animal the judges and matrons would suddenly quicken their pace but the creature would as quickly outrun them
and then alight to take breath until we came within sight of her again our train journeyed over a most prodigious tract of country in a direct line over hills and dales to the summit of plinlimmon
where we thought to have seized wauwau but she instantly took flight
our company immediately embarked in the machines before described in which we had journeyed into africa and after a few days sail arrived in north america
the island being sometimes driven up as far as the north pole
fastened it to the rocks and mud at the bottom of the sea since which time the island has become stationary and is well known at present by the name of saint christopher's and there is not an island in the world more secure
arriving in north america we were received by the president of the united states with every honour and politeness he was pleased to give us all the information possible relative to the woods and immense regions of america
who we at length found had taken refuge in the centre of a morass the inhabitants of the country who loved hunting were much delighted to behold the manner in which we attempted to seize upon wauwau the chase was noble and uncommon
i determined to surround the animal on every side and for this purpose ordered the judges and matrons to surround the morass with nets extending a mile in height on various parts of which net the company disposed themselves
floating in the air like so many spiders upon their cobwebs
corselet of steel with gauntlets helmet and c so as nearly to resemble a mole he instantly plunged into the earth making way with his sharp steel head piece and tearing up the ground with his iron claws
and found not much difficulty therein as morass in general is of a soft and yielding texture thus he hoped to undermine wauwau and suddenly rising seize her by the foot while his brother gog ascended the air
in a balloon hoping to catch her if she could escape magog thus the animal was surrounded on every side and at first was very much terrified knowing not which way she had best to go
she flew to the right then to the left north east west and south but found on every side the company prepared upon their nets at length she flew right up soaring at a most astonishing rate towards the sun
while the company on every side set up one general acclamation but gog in his balloon soon stopped wauwau in the midst of her career and snared her in a net the cords of which he continued to hold in his hand
wauwau did not totally lose her presence of mind but after a little consideration made several violent darts against the volume of the balloon so fierce as at length to tear open a great space
on which the inflammable air rushing out the whole apparatus began to tumble to the earth with amazing rapidity gog himself was thrown out of the vehicle and letting go the reins of the net
just then rising from the depths he began to bleed violently
chapter fifteen george storefield's place for the old man was dead and all the place belonged to him and gracey quite stunned jim and me we'd been away more than a year and he'd pulled down the old fences and put up new ones
first rate work it was too he was always a dead hand at splitting then there was a big hay shed
all built of ironbark slabs as solid and reg'lar as a church jim said they'd a good six roomed cottage and a new garden fence ever so long
the first two don't look like coming off i said you're the likeliest man to marry and settle if jeanie sticks to you she'd better go down to the pier and drown herself comfortably said jim
poor little jeanie we'd no right to drag other people into our troubles i believe we're getting worse and worse the sooner we're shot or locked up the better you won't think so when it comes old man i said
don't bother your head it ain't the best part of you about things that can't be helped we're not the only horses that can't be kept on the course
that's our sort all to pieces well we'd better come in gracey ll think we're afraid to face her when we went away last grace storefield was a little over seventeen
now i almost began to think she must be she wasn't tall and aileen looked slight alongside of her
every look of her seemed to wish to do you good and make you think that nothing that wasn't square and right and honest and true could live in the same place with her she held out both hands to me and said well dick so you're back again
you must have been to the end of the world and jim too i'm very glad to see you both she looked into my face with that pleased look that put me in mind of her when she was a little child and used to come toddling up to me
staring and smiling all over her face the moment she saw me now she was a grown woman and a sweet looking one too i couldn't lift her up and kiss her as i used to do
she was the only creature in the whole world i think that liked me better than jim i'd been trying to drive all thoughts of her out of my heart seeing the tangle i'd got into in more ways than one
stronger than ever i was surprised at myself and looked queer i daresay then aileen laughed and jim comes to the rescue and says dick doesn't remember you gracey you've grown such a swell too
you can't be the little girl we used to carry on our backs dick remembers very well she says and her very voice was ever so much fuller and softer don't you dick and she looked into my face as innocent as a child
you tumble in and we'll try says jim first man to keep you for good eh gracey it's fine hot weather and aileen shall see fair play you're just as saucy as ever jim says she blushing and smiling
i see george coming so i must go and fetch in dinner
when george came in he began to talk to make up for lost time and told us where he had been a long way out in some new back country just taken up with sheep he had got a first rate paying price for his carriage out
i can breed and feed a good stamp of draught horse here i pay drivers for three waggons and drive the fourth myself it pays first rate so far and we had very fair feed all the way there and back
we shall have to carry forage of course
so you've ridden over to show them the way aileen he said as the girls came in very good of you it was
i never forget the way to a friend's place george she said
but you've been away yourself
that will be a good day for all of us she said you know gracey we can't do without george can we i felt quite deserted i can tell you
it's all your fault oh i couldn't interfere with mister storefield's business said aileen looking very grave what kind of a country was it you were out in
not a bad place for sheep and cattle and blacks said poor george looking rather glum and not a bad country to make money or do anything but live in
but that hot and dry and full of flies and mosquitoes that i'd sooner live on a pound a week down here than take a good station as a present there
it's right enough if she's made up her mind to take him no odds what happens but if there's any half and half feeling in her mind about him and she's uncertain and doubtful whether she likes him well enough all this down on your knees business works against you
i've found it out since worse luck and i really believe if george had had the savey to crack himself up a little and say he'd met a nice girl or two in the back country and hid his hand
aileen would have made it up with him that very christmas and been a happy woman all her life
where we'd been what we'd done what took us to melbourne how we liked it what kind of people they were and so on we had to tell her a good lot part of it truth of course but pretty mixed
were there any daughters in the family jim asked grace oh yes three were they good looking no rather homely particularly the youngest what did they do
i don't think i ever knew jim do so much lying before but after he'd begun he had to stick to it he told me afterwards he nearly broke down about the three daughters
says he that's why she made me tell all those crammers it's an awful pity we can't all square it and get spliced this christmas aileen would take george if she wasn't a fool as most women are
and how about kate
i wish you'd never dropped across her and that she wasn't jeanie's sister blurts out jim
i feel as sure as we're standing here it's all a toss up like our lives married or lagged bushwork or roadwork in irons free or bond we can't tell how it will be with us this day year
i've half a mind to shoot myself says jim and end it all i would too only for mother and aileen what's the use of life that isn't life but fear and misery from one day's end to another and we only just grown up
we didn't ride home till quite the evening grace would have us stay for tea it was a pretty hot day so there was no use riding in the sun george saddled his horse and he and grace rode part of the way home with us
he'd got regular sunburnt like us
he looked better outside of a horse than on his own legs being rather thick set and shortish but his heart was in the right place like his sister's and his head was screwed on right too i think more of old george now than i ever did before
and wish i'd had the sense to value his independent straight ahead nature and the track it led him as he deserved jim and i rode in front with gracey between us she had on a neat habit and a better hat and gloves than aileen
talking about the places i'd been to and she wanting to know everything jim drew off a bit when the road got narrow
i felt what a fool i'd been to let things slide and would have given my right hand to have been able to put them as they were three short years before at last we got to the gap it was the shortest halt from their home
george shook hands with aileen and turned back we'll come and see you next he said christmas eve said aileen christmas eve let it be says george
it may not be improper in this place to examine the influence of bodily endowments and of the goods of fortune over our sentiments of regard and esteem and to consider whether these phenomena fortify or weaken the present theory
it will naturally be expected that the beauty of the body as is supposed by all ancient moralists will be similar in some respects to that of the mind and that every kind of esteem which is paid to a man will have something similar in its origin
whether it arise from his mental endowments or from the situation of his exterior circumstances it is evident that one considerable source of beauty in all animals is the advantage which they reap from the particular structure of their limbs and members
ideas of utility and its contrary though they do not entirely determine what is handsome or deformed are evidently the source of a considerable part of approbation or dislike in ancient times
bodily strength and dexterity being of greater use and importance in war
in order to show the idea of perfect merit which prevailed in those ages in other illustrious men say he you will observe that each possessed some one shining quality which was the foundation of his fame in epaminondas all the virtues are found united
this instance is similar to what we observed above with regard to memory what derision and contempt with both sexes attend impotence
while the unhappy object is regarded as one deprived of so capital a pleasure in life and at the same time as disabled from communicating it to others barrenness in women
is a reproach but not in the same degree of which the reason is very obvious according to the present theory there is no rule in painting or statuary more indispensible than that of balancing the figures
and placing them with the greatest exactness on their proper centre of gravity a figure which is not justly balanced is ugly because it conveys the disagreeable ideas of fall harm and pain footenote
all men are equally liable to pain and disease and sickness and may again recover health and ease these circumstances as they make no distinction between one man and another are no source of pride or humility regard or contempt
but comparing our own species to superior ones it is a very mortifying consideration that we should all be so liable to diseases and infirmities and divines accordingly employ this topic in order to depress self conceit and vanity
they would have more success if the common bent of our thoughts were not perpetually turned to compare ourselves with others the infirmities of old age are mortifying because a comparison with the young may take place
the king's evil is industriously concealed because it affects others and is often transmitted to posterity the case is nearly the same with such diseases as convey any nauseous or frightful images
the epilepsy for instance ulcers sores
a disposition or turn of mind which qualifies a man to rise in the world and advance his fortune is entitled to esteem and regard as has already been explained it may therefore naturally be supposed
that the actual possession of riches and authority will have a considerable influence over these sentiments let us examine any hypothesis by which we can account for the regard paid to the rich and powerful we shall find none satisfactory
but that which derives it from the enjoyment communicated to the spectator by the images of prosperity happiness ease plenty authority and the gratification of every appetite
self love for instance which some affect so much to consider as the source of every sentiment is plainly insufficient for this purpose where no good will or friendship appears
though we naturally respect the rich
we are affected with the same sentiments when we lie so much out of the sphere of their activity that they cannot even be supposed to possess the power of serving us a prisoner of war in all civilized nations
and riches it is evident go far towards fixing the condition of any person if birth and quality enter for a share this still affords us an argument to our present purpose for what is it we call a man of birth
but one who is descended from a long succession of rich and powerful ancestors
but not to go so far as prisoners of war or the dead to find instances of this disinterested regard for riches we may only observe with a little attention those phenomena which occur in common life and conversation
a man who is himself we shall suppose of a competent fortune and of no profession being introduced to a company of strangers naturally treats them with different degrees of respect as he is informed of their different fortunes and conditions
though it is impossible that he can so suddenly propose and perhaps he would not accept of any pecuniary advantage from them a traveller is always admitted into company and meets with civility in proportion as his train and equipage
in short the different ranks of men are in a great measure regulated by riches
what remains therefore but to conclude that as riches are desired for ourselves only as the means of gratifying our appetites either at present or in some imaginary future period they beget esteem in others
merely from their having that influence this indeed is their very nature or offence they have a direct reference to the commodities conveniences and pleasures of life the bill of a banker who is broke
or gold in a desert island would otherwise be full as valuable when we approach a man who is as we say at his ease we are presented with the pleasing ideas of plenty satisfaction cleanliness warmth
a cheerful house elegant furniture ready service and whatever is desirable in meat drink or apparel on the contrary when a poor man appears the disagreeable images of want penury hard labour
dirty furniture coarse or ragged clothes nauseous meat and distasteful liquor immediately strike our fancy
the other poor and as regard or contempt is the natural consequence of those different situations in life
very often another's advancement and prosperity produces envy which has a strong mixture of hatred and arises chiefly from the comparison of ourselves with the person at the very same time
which has in it a strong mixture of good will this sentiment of pity is nearly allied to contempt which is a species of dislike with a mixture of pride i only point out these phenomena
as a subject of speculation to such as are curious with regard to moral enquiries it is sufficient for the present purpose to observe in general that power and riches commonly cause respect poverty and meanness contempt
though particular views and incidents may sometimes raise the passions of envy
such a one does not measure out degrees of esteem according to the rent rolls of his acquaintance he may indeed externally pay a superior deference to the great lord above the vassal
being the most fixed and determinate source of distinction but his internal sentiments are more regulated by the personal characters of men than by the accidental and capricious favours of fortune in most countries of europe family
that is hereditary riches marked with titles and symbols from the sovereign is the chief source of distinction in england more regard is paid to present opulence and plenty each practice has its advantages and disadvantages
where birth is respected unactive spiritless minds remain in haughty indolence and dream of nothing but pedigrees and genealogies
and reputation and favour where riches are the chief idol
arts manufactures commerce agriculture flourish the former prejudice being favourable to military virtue is more suited to monarchies the latter being the chief spur to industry agrees better with a republican government
what praise even of an inanimate form if the regularity and elegance of its parts destroy not its fitness for any useful purpose and how satisfactory an apology for any disproportion or seeming deformity
if we can show the necessity of that particular construction for the use intended a ship appears more beautiful to an artist or one moderately skilled in navigation where its prow is wide and swelling beyond its poop
than if it were framed with a precise geometrical regularity in contradiction to all the laws of mechanics a building whose doors and windows were exact squares
as ill adapted to the figure of a human creature for whose service the fabric was intended what wonder then that a man whose habits and conduct are hurtful to society and dangerous or pernicious to every one who has an intercourse with him should on that account
be an object of disapprobation and communicate to every spectator the strongest sentiment of disgust and hatred footnote we ought not to imagine because an inanimate object may be useful as well as a man
that therefore it ought also according to this system to merit he appellation of virtuous the sentiments excited by utility are in the two cases very different
in like manner an inanimate object may have good colour and proportions as well as a human figure but can we ever be in love with the former there are a numerous set of passions and sentiments of which thinking rational beings are
by the original constitution of nature the only proper objects and though the very same qualities be transferred to an insensible inanimate being they will not excite the same sentiments
that they ought not to be ranked under the same class or appellation a very small variation of the object even where the same qualities are preserved will destroy a sentiment
excites no amorous passion where nature is not extremely perverted
but perhaps the difficulty of accounting for these effects of usefulness or its contrary has kept philosophers from admitting them into their systems of ethics and has induced them rather to employ any other principle in explaining the origin of moral good and evil
but it is no just reason for rejecting any principle confirmed by experience that we cannot give a satisfactory account of its origin nor are able to resolve it into other more general principles
and if we would employ a little thought on the present subject we need be at no loss to account for the influence of utility and to deduce it from principles the most known and avowed in human nature
that it may frequently increase or diminish beyond their natural standard the sentiments of approbation or dislike and may even in particular instances create without any natural principle a new sentiment of this kind
as is evident in all superstitious practices and observances but that all moral affection or dislike arises from this origin will never surely be allowed by any judicious enquirer had nature made no such distinction
founded on the original constitution of the mind the words honourable and shameful lovely and odious noble and despicable had never had place in any language nor could politicians had they invented these terms
ever have been able to render them intelligible or make them convey any idea to the audience so that nothing can be more superficial than this paradox of the sceptics and it were well if in the abstruser studies of logic and metaphysics
we could as easily obviate the cavils of that sect as in the practical and more intelligible sciences of politics and morals the social virtues must therefore be allowed to have a natural beauty and amiableness
which at first antecedent to all precept or education recommends them to the esteem of uninstructed mankind and engages their affections and as the public utility of these virtues is the chief circumstance whence they derive their merit
it follows that the end which they have a tendency to promote must be some way agreeable to us and take hold of some natural affection it must please either from considerations of self interest or from more generous motives and regards
it has often been asserted that as every man has a strong connexion with society and perceives the impossibility of his solitary subsistence he becomes on that account favourable to all those habits or principles which promote order in society
and insure to him the quiet possession of so inestimable a blessing as much as we value our own happiness and welfare as much must we applaud the practice of justice and humanity by which alone the social confederacy can be maintained
and every man reap the fruits of mutual protection and assistance this deduction of morals from self love or a regard to private interest is an obvious thought
and the voice of nature and experience seems plainly to oppose the selfish theory we frequently bestow praise on virtuous actions performed in very distant ages and remote countries
where the utmost subtilty of imagination would not discover any appearance of self interest or find any connexion of our present happiness and security with events so widely separated from us a generous a brave
a noble deed performed by an adversary commands our approbation while in its consequences it may be acknowledged prejudicial to our particular interest where private advantage concurs with general affection for virtue
we readily perceive and avow the mixture of these distinct sentiments which have a very different feeling and influence on the mind we praise perhaps with more alacrity where the generous humane action contributes to our particular interest
but the topics of praise which we insist on are very wide of this circumstance and we may attempt to bring over others to our sentiments without endeavouring to convince them
frame the model of a praiseworthy character consisting of all the most amiable moral virtues give instances in which these display themselves after an eminent and extraordinary manner you readily engage the esteem and approbation of all your audience
or a concern for our own individual happiness once on a time a statesman in the shock and contest of parties prevailed so far as to procure by his eloquence the banishment of an able adversary whom he secretly followed
offering him money for his support during his exile and soothing him with topics of consolation in his misfortunes alas cries the banished statesman with what regret must i leave my friends in this city
where even enemies are so generous virtue though in an enemy here pleased him and we also give it the just tribute of praise and approbation nor do we retract these sentiments when we hear
and had it that universal infallible influence supposed it would turn into ridicule every composition and almost every conversation which contain any praise or censure of men and manners it is but a weak subterfuge
when pressed by these facts and arguments to say that we transport ourselves by the force of imagination into distant ages and countries and consider the advantage which we should have reaped from these characters had we been contemporaries and had any commerce with the persons
a man brought to the brink of a precipice cannot look down without trembling and the sentiment of imaginary danger actuates him in opposition to the opinion and belief of real safety but the imagination is here assisted by the presence of a striking object
and yet prevails not except it be also aided by novelty and the unusual appearance of the object custom soon reconciles us to heights and precipices and wears off these false and delusive terrors
the reverse is observable in the estimates which we form of characters and manners and the more we habituate ourselves to an accurate scrutiny of morals the more delicate feeling do we acquire of the most minute distinctions between vice and virtue
such frequent occasion indeed have we in common life to pronounce all kinds of moral determinations that no object of this kind can be new or unusual to us
it is impossible that any association could establish and support itself in direct opposition to that principle usefulness is agreeable and engages our approbation this is a matter of fact confirmed by daily observation
but useful for what for somebody's interest surely whose interest then not our own only for our approbation frequently extends farther it must therefore
be the interest of those who are served by the character or action approved of and these we may conclude however remote are not totally indifferent to us
chapter nine dead in earnest it is the live coal that kindles others not the dead what made demosthenes the greatest of all orators was that he appeared the most entirely possessed by the feelings he wished to inspire
was often compared to demosthenes seems to have arisen wholly from this earnestness
twelve poor men taken out of boats and creeks without any help of learning should conquer the world to the cross stephen carnock for his heart was in his work and the heart giveth grace unto every art
longfellow he did it with all his heart and prospered
the only conclusive evidence of a man's sincerity is that he gives himself for a principle words money all things else are comparatively easy to give away but when a man makes a gift of his daily life and practice
it is plain that the truth whatever it may be has taken possession of him lowell the emotions says whipple may all be included in the single word enthusiasm
is keen eager inquisitive intense audacious rapidly assimilating facts into faculties and knowledge into power and above all teeming with that joyous fullness of creative life
which radiates thoughts as inspirations and magnetizes as well as informs columbus my hero exclaims carlyle royalist sea king of all it is no friendly environment this of thine in the waste deep waters
around thee mutinous discouraged souls behind thee disgrace and ruin before thee the unpenetrated veil of night brother these wild water mountains
bounding from their deep bases ten miles deep i am told are not there on thy behalf meseems they have other work than floating thee forward and the huge winds that sweep from ursa major to the tropics and equator
dancing their giant waltz through the kingdoms of chaos and immensity they care little about filling rightly or filling wrongly the small shoulder of mutton sails in this cockle skiff of thine thou art not among articulate speaking friends my brother
thou art among immeasurable dumb monsters tumbling howling wide as the world here secret far off invisible to all hearts but thine there lies a help in them see how thou wilt get at that
patiently thou wilt wait till the mad southwester spend itself saving thyself by dexterous science of defence the while
mutiny of men thou wilt sternly repress weakness despondency thou wilt cheerily encourage thou wilt swallow down complaint unreason weariness weakness of others and thyself
thou shalt be a great man yes my world soldier thou of the world marine service thou wilt have to be greater than this tumultuous unmeasured world here round thee is
thou in thy strong soul as with wrestler's arms shall embrace it harness it down and make it bear thee on to new americas or whither god wills with what concentration of purpose
did washington put the whole weight of his character into the scales of our cause in the revolution with what earnest singleness of aim did lincoln in the cabinet grant in the field throw his whole soul into the contest of our civil war
the power of phillips brooks at which men wondered lay in his tremendous earnestness no matter what your work is says emerson let it be yours
but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace it is a deliverance which does not deliver in the attempt his genius deserts him no muse befriends no invention no hope
i lose all sense of personal identity of time or of surrounding objects i have been so busy for twenty years trying to save the souls of other people said livingstone
well i've worked hard enough for it said malibran when a critic expressed his admiration of her d in alt reached by running up three octaves from low d i've been chasing it for a month
i pursued it everywhere when i was dressing when i was doing my hair and at last i found it on the toe of a shoe that i was putting on people smile at the enthusiasm of youth said charles kingsley
perhaps unconscious that it is partly their own fault that they ever lost it should i die this minute said nelson at an important crisis want of frigates would be found written on my heart said doctor arnold the celebrated instructor
archimedes the greatest geometer of antiquity was consulted by the king in regard to a gold crown suspected of being fraudulently alloyed with silver while considering the best method of detecting any fraud
he plunged into a full bathing tub and with the thought that the water that overflowed must be equal in weight to his body he discovered the method of obtaining the bulk of the crown compared with an equally heavy mass of pure gold
excited by the discovery he ran through the streets undressed crying i have found it equally celebrated is his remark give me where to stand and i will move the world
his only remark to the roman soldier who entered his room while engaged in geometrical study was don't step on my circle refusing to follow the soldier to marcellus who had captured the city
my head but not my circle every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world says emerson is the triumph of some enthusiasm the victories of the arabs after mahomet who in a few years from a small and mean beginning
established a larger empire than that of rome is an example they did they knew not what
was found an overmatch for a troop of cavalry the women fought like men and conquered the roman men they were miserably equipped miserably fed they were temperance troops there was neither brandy nor flesh needed to feed them
he had himself lashed to the mast in a terrible gale on the mediterranean when all others on board were seized with terror and with great delight sketched the towering waves which threatened every minute to swallow the vessel
about to paint the crucifixion induced a poor man to let him bind him upon a cross in order that he might get a better idea of the terrible scene that he was about to put upon the canvas he promised faithfully that he would release his model in an hour but to the latter's horror
the painter seized a dagger and plunged it into his heart and while the blood was streaming from the ghastly wound painted his death agony
he had a weak memory and disliked study he shunned society and wanted to go to sea
built the fire in his little church in lawrenceburg indiana of only eighteen members cleaned the lamps swept the floor and washed the windows he built the fire baked washed when his wife was ill
the pent up enthusiasm of his ambitious life burst the barriers of his inhospitable surroundings until he blossomed out into america's greatest pulpit orator
when handel was a little boy he bought a clavichord hid it in the attic and went there at night to play upon it muffling the strings with small pieces of fine woolen cloth
michael angelo neglected school to copy drawings which he dared not carry home murillo filled the margin of his school book with drawings dryden read polybius before he was ten years old le brum when a boy
drew with a piece of charcoal on the walls of the house pope wrote excellent verses at fourteen blaise pascal the french mathematician composed at sixteen a tract on the conic sections
and that he did not even perceive that old age was coming on that boy tries to make himself useful said an employer of the errand boy george w childs
it is this trying to be useful and helpful that promotes us in life once when mister harvey an accomplished mathematician was in a bookseller's shop he saw a poor lad of mean appearance enter and write something on a slip of paper and give it to the proprietor
on inquiry he found this was a poor deaf boy kitto who afterward became one of the most noted biblical scholars in the world and who wrote his first book in the poor house he had come to borrow a book
the poor lad was so thirsty for books that he would borrow from booksellers who would loan them to him out of pity read them and return them the youth's companion says that mister edison in his new biography his life and inventions
describes the accidental method by which he discovered the principle of the phonograph
into the mouthpiece ran the paper back over the steel point and heard a faint halloo halloo in return i determined to make a machine that would work accurately and gave my assistants instructions telling them what i had discovered
they laughed at me that's the whole story the phonograph is the result of the pricking of a finger it is one thing to hit upon an idea however and another thing to carry it out to perfection the machine would talk
but like many young children it had difficulty with certain sounds in the present case with aspirants and sibilants mister edison's biographers say but the statement is somewhat exaggerated he has frequently spent from fifteen to twenty hours daily
for six or seven months on a stretch dinning the word spezia for example into the stubborn surface of the wax spezia roared the inventor
and so on through thousands of graded repetitions till the desired results were obtained the primary education of the phonograph was comical in the extreme to hear those grave and reverend signors rich in scientific honors patiently reiterating
milton when blind old and poor showed a royal cheerfulness and never bated one jot of heart or hope but steered right onward
charles knight determined to enlighten the masses by cheap literature he believed that a paper could be instructive and not be dull cheap without being wicked he started the penny magazine which acquired a circulation of two hundred thousand the first year
knight projected the penny cyclopedia the library of entertaining knowledge half hours with the best authors and other useful books at a low price his whole adult life was spent in the work of elevating the common people by cheap
yet wholesome publications he died in poverty but grateful people have erected a noble monument over his ashes demosthenes roused the torpid spirits of his countrymen to a vigorous effort
and philip had just reason to say he was more afraid of that man than of all the fleets and armies of the athenians horace greeley was a hampered genius who never had a chance to show himself until he started the tribune
into which he poured his whole individuality life and soul emerson lost the first years of his life trying to be somebody else he finally came to himself and said
if a single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts and there abide the whole world will come round to him in the end though we travel the world over to find the beautiful
the man that stands by himself the universe stands by him also take michael angelo's course to confide in one's self and be something of worth and value none of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding
if they would write about things they have seen that they have felt that they have known it is life thoughts that stir and convince that move and persuade that carry their very iron particles into the blood the real heaven
has never been outdone by the ideal neither poverty nor misfortune could keep linnaeus from his botany the english and austrian armies called napoleon the one hundred thousand man
second scene vange abbey
his head drooped his eyes half closed he looked like a weary man quietly falling asleep on leaving the steamboat i ventured to ask our charming fellow passenger if i could be of any service in reserving places in the london train
for her mother and herself she thanked me and said they were going to visit some friends at folkestone in making this reply she looked at romayne i am afraid he is very ill she said in gently lowered tones
he never returned it he was not even aware of it as i led him to the train he leaned more and more heavily on my arm seated in the carriage he sank at once into profound sleep
he said is more than i can bear alone for god's sake don't leave me i had received letters at boulogne which informed me that my wife and family had accepted an invitation to stay with some friends at the sea side
under these circumstances i was entirely at his service having quieted his anxiety on this point i reminded him of what had passed between us on board the steamboat he tried to change the subject my curiosity was too strongly aroused to permit this
the stain of another man's blood is on me i interrupted him in my turn i refuse to hear you speak of yourself in that way i said
the proper person to be with you is a doctor i really felt irritated with him and i saw no reason for concealing it another man in his place might have been offended with me
there was a native sweetness in romayne's disposition which asserted itself even in his worst moments of nervous irritability he took my hand don't be hard on me he pleaded i will try to think of it as you do
is it agreed it was agreed of course there was a door of communication between our bedrooms at his suggestion it was left open
three times in the night i woke and seeing the light burning in his room looked in at him he always carried some of his books with him when he traveled
i suppose i forestalled my night's sleep on the railway he said it doesn't matter i am content
i am used to wakeful nights go back to bed and don't be uneasy about me the next morning the deferred explanation was put off again
he asked not if you particularly wish it will you do me another favor you know that i don't like london the noise in the streets is distracting besides i may tell you i have a sort of distrust of noise since he stopped with an appearance of confusion
dull as the place is you can amuse yourself there is good shooting as you know
the ruins of the old monastery are visible from all points of the compass there are traditions of thriving villages clustering about the abbey in the days of the monks and of hostleries devoted to the reception of pilgrims from every part of the christian world
not a vestige of these buildings is left
to his faithful friend and courtier sir miles romayne in the next generation the son and heir of sir miles built the dwelling house helping himself liberally from the solid stone walls of the monastery with some unimportant alterations and repairs
the house stands defying time and weather to the present day
between nine and ten o'clock we reached the abbey years had passed since i had last been romayne's guest nothing out of the house or in the house seemed to have undergone any change in the interval
i began to hope that the familiar influences of his country home were beginning already to breathe
over the disturbed mind of romayne in the presence of his faithful old servants he seemed to be capable of controlling the morbid remorse that oppressed him he spoke to them composedly and kindly
when he suddenly turned pale and lifted his head like a man whose attention is unexpectedly roused
he reconsidered that brief answer and contradicted himself yes the library fire has burned low i suppose in my position at the table i had seen the fire the grate was heaped with blazing coals and wood i said nothing
his attitude and expression were plainly suggestive of the act of listening listening to what after an interval he abruptly addressed me
and left the room i hardly knew what to do
the house extending round three sides of a square was only two stories high the flat roof accessible through a species of hatchway and still surrounded by its sturdy stone parapet was called the belvidere in reference as usual to the fine view which it commanded
fearing i knew not what i mounted the ladder which led to the roof romayne received me with a harsh outburst of laughter that saddest false laughter which is true trouble in disguise here's something to amuse you he cried
he won't leave me up here by myself letting this strange assertion remain unanswered the butler withdrew
be careful of the master i tell you sir he has a bee in his bonnet this night although not of the north country myself i knew the meaning of the phrase
the moon was by this time low in the heavens but her mild mysterious light still streamed over the roof of the house and the high heathy ground round it i looked attentively at romayne he was deadly pale
his hand shook as it rested on my arm and that was all neither in look nor manner did he betray the faintest sign of mental derangement he had perhaps needlessly alarmed the faithful old servant by something that he had said or done
i determined to clear up that doubt immediately you left the table very suddenly i said did you feel ill not ill he replied i was frightened look at me i'm frightened still what do you mean
instead of answering he repeated the strange question which he had put to me downstairs do you call it a quiet night considering the time of year and the exposed situation of the house the night was almost preternaturally quiet
throughout the vast open country all round us not even a breath of air could be heard the night birds were away or were silent at the time but one sound was audible when we stood still and listened the cool quiet bubble of a little stream
lost to view in the valley ground to the south i have told you already i said so still a night i never remember on this yorkshire moor he laid one hand heavily on my shoulder
i won't encourage you to think of them i refuse to repeat the words he pointed over the northward parapet
i hear the boy as plainly as you hear me the voice screams at me through the clear moonlight as it screamed at me through the sea fog again and again it's all round the house that way now where the light just touches on the tops of the heather
tell the servants to have the horses ready the first thing in the morning we leave vange abbey to morrow these were wild words if he had spoken them wildly i might have shared the butler's conclusion that his mind was deranged
he seemed like a prisoner submitting to a sentence that he had deserved remembering the cases of men suffering from nervous disease who had been haunted by apparitions i asked if he saw any imaginary figure under the form of a boy i see nothing he said
on its eastward side the house wall was built against one of the towers of the old abbey on the westward side the ground sloped steeply down to a deep pool or tarn
the solitude was as void of any living creature as if we had been surrounded by the awful dead world of the moon was it the boy's voice that you heard on the voyage across the channel i asked yes i heard it for the first time
i was afraid that the noise of the traffic in the streets might bring it back to me as you know i passed a quiet night i had the hope that my imagination had deceived me that i was the victim of a delusion as people say it is no delusion
in the perfect tranquillity of this place the voice has come back to me while we were at table i heard it again behind me in the library i heard it still when the door was shut i ran up here to try if it would follow me into the open air it has followed me
what i felt and feared in this miserable state of things matters little the one chance i could see for romayne was to obtain the best medical advice
do you hear it continuously no at intervals sometimes longer sometimes shorter
yes do my questions annoy you i make no complaint he said sadly you can see for yourself i patiently suffer the punishment that i have deserved i contradicted him at once
it is nothing of the sort it's a nervous malady which medical science can control and cure
this expression of opinion produced no effect on him
i have closed the career of a young man who but for me might have lived long and happily and honorably
i am of the race of cain he had the mark set on his brow i have my ordeal delude yourself if you like with false hopes i can endure and hope for nothing
do come sir and look at the master
he slept until noon there was no return of the torment of the voice as he called it poor fellow
we had returned from a ride romayne had gone into the library to read
as well as many interesting relics of antiquity and the rooms were shown in romayne's absence to the very few travelers
mister romayne is not very well i said and i cannot venture to ask you into the house
and to look at the ruins of the abbey he thanked me and accepted the invitation i find no great difficulty in describing him generally he was elderly fat and cheerful buttoned up in a long black frockcoat and presenting that closely shaven face and that
which i have already mentioned and stood looking at it with an interest which was so incomprehensible to me that i own i watched him he ascended the slope of the moorland and entered the gate which led to the grounds all that the gardeners had done to make the place attractive
failed to claim his attention he walked past lawns shrubs and flower beds and only stopped at an old stone fountain which tradition declared to have been one of the ornaments of the garden in the time of the monks having carefully examined this relic of antiquity
he took a sheet of paper from his pocket and consulted it attentively it might have been a plan of the house and grounds or it might not i can only report that he took the path which led him by the shortest way to the ruined abbey church
as he entered the roofless inclosure he reverently removed his hat it was impossible for me to follow him any further without exposing myself to the risk of discovery i sat down on one of the fallen stones waiting to see him again
in the possession of this beautiful place he is a young man i think yes is he married no excuse my curiosity the owner of vange abbey is an interesting person to all good antiquaries like myself
many thanks again good day his pony chaise took him away his last look rested not on me
the boulogne postmark was on one of the envelopes at romayne's entreaty this was the letter that i opened first the surgeon's signature was at the end one motive for anxiety on my part was set at rest in the first lines
no jury hearing the evidence would find him guilty of the only charge that could be formally brought against him the charge of homicide by premeditation homicide by misadventure occurring in a duel was not a punishable offense by the french law
my correspondent cited many cases in proof of it strengthened by the publicly expressed opinion of the illustrious berryer himself in a word we had nothing to fear
it was suspected in the town that the general was more or less directly connected with certain disreputable circumstances discovered by the authorities
he and his wife and family had left boulogne
no investigation had thus far succeeded in discovering the place of their retreat reading this letter aloud to romayne i was interrupted by him at the last sentence
i will see to it myself what interest can you have in the inquiries i exclaimed the strongest possible interest he answered it has been my one hope to make some little atonement to the poor people whom i have so cruelly wronged
merely announcing that an unknown friend desires to be of service to the general's family this appeared to me to be a most imprudent thing to do i said so plainly and quite in vain
romayne was disposed to be equally unreasonable but in this case events declared themselves in my favor lady berrick's last reserves of strength had given way
romayne was summoned to his aunt's bedside on the third day of our residence at the hotel and was present at her death
as i have since been informed to very serious events in romayne's later life
lord loring well known in society as the head of an old english catholic family and the possessor of a magnificent gallery of pictures was distressed by the change for the worse which he perceived in romayne when he called at the hotel
i was present when they met and rose to leave the room feeling that the two friends might perhaps be embarrassed by the presence of a third person romayne called me back lord loring ought to know what has happened to me he said i have no heart to speak of it myself
with those words he left us together it is almost needless to say that lord loring did agree with me he was himself disposed to think that the moral remedy in romayne's case might prove to be the best remedy
why shouldn't he marry a woman's influence by merely giving a new turn to his thoughts might charm away that horrible voice which haunts him perhaps you think this a merely sentimental view of the case look at it practically if you like and you come to the same conclusion
with that fine estate and with the fortune which he has now inherited from his aunt it is his duty to marry don't you agree with me i agree most cordially but i see serious difficulties in your lordship's way
romayne dislikes society and as to marrying his coldness toward women seems so far as i can judge to be one of the incurable defects of his character lord loring smiled my dear sir
nothing of that sort is incurable if we can only find the right woman the tone in which he spoke suggested to me that he had got the right woman and i took the liberty of saying so he at once acknowledged that i had guessed right
at the right moment i shall send word upstairs she may well happen to look in at the gallery by the merest accident just at the time when romayne is looking at my new pictures the rest depends of course on the effect she produces
no one however could doubt lord loring's admirable devotion to his friend and with that i was fain to be content
when lord loring took his departure i accompanied him to the door of the hotel perceiving that he wished to say a word more to me in private he had it seemed decided on waiting for the result of the medical consultation before he tried the effect of the young lady's attractions
and he wished to caution me against speaking prematurely of visiting the picture gallery to our friend not feeling particularly interested in these details of the worthy nobleman's little plot i looked at his carriage and privately admired the two splendid horses that drew it
i recognized the elderly fat and cheerful priest who had shown such a knowledge of localities and such an extraordinary interest in vange abbey
and might have reckoned the circumstance among the wisely improved opportunities of my life to return to the serious interests of the present narrative i may now announce that my evidence as an eye witness of events has come to an end
and that it may be depended on throughout as an exact statement of the truth
a thin and dull mist gathered over the valleys and hollows of the broad campanian fields but yet it was remarked in surprise by the early fishermen that despite the exceeding stillness of the atmosphere the waves of the sea were agitated
and seemed as it were to run disturbedly back from the shore
there crept a hoarse and sullen murmur as it glided by the laughing plains and the gaudy villas of the wealthy citizens clear above the low mist rose the time worn towers of the immemorial town
the red tiled roofs of the bright streets the solemn columns of many temples and the statue crowned portals of the forum and the arch of triumph
had suddenly vanished and its rugged and haughty brow looked without a frown over the beautiful scenes below despite the earliness of the hour the gates of the city were already opened horsemen upon horsemen
and strangers from the populous neighborhood of pompeii and noisily fast confusedly swept the many streams of life towards the fatal show despite the vast size of the amphitheatre
so great on extraordinary occasions was the concourse of strangers from all parts of campania
to appointed and special seats and the intense curiosity which the trial and sentence of two criminals so remarkable had occasioned increased the crowd on this day to an extent wholly unprecedented
preserving as is now the wont with italians in such meetings a wonderful order and unquarrelsome good humor a strange visitor to arbaces was threading her way to his sequestered mansion
at the sight of her quaint and primaeval garb of her wild gait and gestures the passengers she encountered touched each other and smiled but as they caught a glimpse of her countenance the mirth was hushed at once
for the face was as the face of the dead and what with the ghastly features and obsolete robes of the stranger it seemed as if one long entombed had risen once more amongst the living in silence and awe
and she soon gained the broad porch of the egyptian's palace the black porter like the rest of the world astir at an unusual hour started as he opened the door to her summons
the sleep of the egyptian had been usually profound during the night but as the dawn approached it was disturbed by strange and unquiet dreams which impressed him the more
athwart whose eternal darkness no beam of day had ever glanced and in the space between these columns were huge wheels that whirled round and round unceasingly and with a rushing and roaring noise
only to the right and left extremities of the cavern the space between the pillars was left bare and the apertures stretched away into galleries not wholly dark but dimly lighted by wandering and erratic fires that meteor like
and now leaped fiercely to and fro darting across the vast gloom in wild gambols suddenly disappearing and as suddenly bursting into tenfold brilliancy and power
and while he gazed wonderingly upon the gallery to the left thin mist like aerial shapes passed slowly up and when they had gained the hall they seemed to rise aloft and to vanish as the smoke vanishes
in the measureless ascent he turned in fear towards the opposite extremity and behold there came swiftly from the gloom above similar shadows which swept hurriedly along the gallery to the right
as if borne involuntarily adown the sides of some invisible stream and the faces of these spectres were more distinct than those that emerged from the opposite passage and on some was joy and on others sorrow
some were vivid with expectation and hope some unutterably dejected by awe and horror and so they passed swift and constantly on till the eyes of the gazer grew dizzy and blinded
with the whirl of an ever varying succession of things impelled by a power apparently not their own arbaces turned away and in the recess of the hall he saw the mighty form of a giantess seated upon a pile of skulls
and he saw that the woof communicated with the numberless wheels as if it guided the machinery of their movements
till he stood before her face to face the countenance of the giantess was solemn and hushed and beautifully serene it was as the face of some colossal sculpture of his own ancestral sphinx no passion
no human emotion disturbed its brooding and unwrinkled brow there was neither sadness nor joy nor memory nor hope it was free from all with which the wild human heart can sympathize
the mystery of mysteries rested on its beauty it awed but terrified not it was the incarnation of the sublime and arbaces felt the voice leave his lips
grew into something like a shape a spectral outline of the wings and talons of an eagle with limbs floating far and indistinctly along the air and eyes that alone clearly and vividly seen
glared stonily and remorselessly on his own what art thou
then is my wisdom vain groaned the dreamer
he withered he gasped beneath the influence of the blighting breath he felt himself blasted
he collected himself he blessed the gods whom he disbelieved that he was in a dream he turned his eyes from side to side he saw the dawning light break through his small but lofty window
he was in the precincts of day he rejoiced he smiled his eyes fell and opposite to him he beheld the ghastly features the lifeless eye the livid lip
of the hag of vesuvius ha he cried placing his hands before his eyes as to shut out the grisly vision do i dream still am i with the dead
thou art with one death like but not dead recognize thy friend and slave there was a long silence
slowly the shudders that passed over the limbs of the egyptian chased each other away faintlier and faintlier dying till he was himself again it was a dream then said he well let me dream no more
or the day cannot compensate for the pangs of night
while it be time thou knowest that i hold my home on that mountain beneath which old tradition saith there yet burn the fires of the river
creep slowly slowly on and heard many and mighty sounds hissing and roaring through the gloom but last night as i looked thereon behold
the stream was no longer dull but intensely and fiercely luminous and while i gazed the beast that liveth with me and was cowering by my side
all the night the rock shake and tremble and though the air was heavy and still there were the hissing of pent winds and the grinding as of wheels beneath the ground
i looked again down the abyss
and the stream itself was broader fiercer redder than the night before then i went forth and ascended to the summit of the rock and in that summit
there appeared a sudden and vast hollow which i had never perceived before
faint smoke and the vapor was deathly and i gasped and sickened and nearly died
i took my gold and my drugs and left the habitation of many years for i remembered the dark etruscan prophecy which saith
there shall be woe and weeping in the hearths of the children of the sea dread master ere i leave these walls for some more distant dwelling
i dreamt not that there lived one out of the priesthood of isis who would have saved arbaces from destruction the signs thou hast seen in the bed of the extinct volcano continued the egyptian musingly
whither wendest thou i shall cross over to herculaneum this day and wandering thence along the coast shall seek out a new home i am friendless my two companions
thou hast promised me twenty additional years of life aye said the egyptian i have promised thee but woman he added lifting himself upon his arm and gazing curiously on her face
tell me i pray thee wherefore thou wishest to live what sweets dost thou discover in existence it is not life that is sweet but death that is awful
replied the hag in a sharp impressive tone that struck forcibly upon the heart of the vain star seer he winced at the truth of the reply and no longer anxious to retain so uninviting a companion he said
time wanes i must prepare for the solemn spectacle of this day sister farewell enjoy thyself as thou canst over the ashes of life the hag
who had placed the costly gift of arbaces in the loose folds of her vest now rose to depart when she had gained the door she paused turned back and said this may be the last time we meet on earth
but whither flieth the flame when it leaves the ashes wandering to and fro up and down as an exhalation on the morass the flame may be seen in the marshes of the lake below
and the witch and the magian the pupil and the master the great one and the accursed one may meet again farewell out croaker
muttered arbaces as the door closed on the hag's tattered robes and impatient of his own thoughts not yet recovered from the past dream he hastily summoned his slaves
it was the custom to attend the ceremonials of the amphitheatre in festive robes and arbaces arrayed himself that day with more than usual care his tunic was of the most dazzling white
over his tunic flowed a loose eastern robe half gown half mantle glowing in the richest hues of the tyrian dye
and the long family of arbaces were already arranged in order to attend the litter of their lord only to their great chagrin the slaves in attendance on ione
were condemned to remain at home callias said arbaces apart to his freedman who was buckling on his girdle i am weary of pompeii i propose to quit it in three days should the wind favor
thou knowest the vessel that lies in the harbor which belonged to narses of alexandria i have purchased it of him the day after tomorrow we shall begin to remove my stores so soon tis well arbaces shall be obeyed
and his ward ione accompanies me enough is the morning fair dim and oppressive it will probably be intensely hot in the forenoon the poor gladiators and more wretched criminals
descend and see that the slaves are marshalled
and thence upon the portico without he saw the dense masses of men pouring fast into the amphitheatre and heard the cry of the assistants and the cracking of the cordage
molested by no discomforting ray were to behold at luxurious ease the agonies of their fellow creatures suddenly a wild strange sound went forth and as suddenly died away it was the roar
of the lion there was a silence in the distant crowd but the silence was followed by joyous laughter they were making merry at the hungry impatience of the royal beast brutes
are ye less homicides than i am i slay but in self defence ye make murder pastime he turned with a restless and curious eye towards vesuvius beautifully glowed the green vineyards round its breast
and tranquil as eternity lay in the breathless skies the form of the mighty hill we have time yet if the earthquake be nursing thought arbaces and he turned from the spot
chapter twenty jonathan harker's journal
evening i found thomas snelling in his house at bethnal green but unhappily he was not in a condition to remember anything
the very prospect of beer which my expected coming had opened to him had proved too much
i learned however from his wife who seemed a decent poor soul that he was only the assistant to smollet who of the two mates was the responsible person so off i drove to walworth
and found mister joseph smollet at home and in his shirtsleeves taking a late tea out of a saucer he is a decent intelligent fellow distinctly a good reliable type of workman and with a headpiece of his own
he remembered all about the incident of the boxes and from a wonderful dog's eared notebook which he produced from some mysterious receptacle about the seat of his trousers and which had hieroglyphical entries in thick half obliterated pencil
he gave me the destinations of the boxes
and another six which he deposited at jamaica lane bermondsey if then the count meant to scatter these ghastly refuges of his over london these places were chosen as the first of delivery
so that later he might distribute more fully the systematic manner in which this was done made me think that he could not mean to confine himself to two sides of london he was now fixed on the far east of the northern shore on the east of the southern shore
and on the south the north and west were surely never meant to be left out of his diabolical scheme let alone the city itself and the very heart of fashionable london in the south west and west
there ain't a many such jobs as this ere an i'm thinkin that maybe sam bloxam could tell ye summut i asked if he could tell me where to find him i told him that if he could get me the address it would be worth another half sovereign to him
so he gulped down the rest of his tea and stood up saying that he was going to begin the search then and there at the door he stopped and said look ere guv'nor there ain't no sense in me a keepin you ere i may find sam soon or i mayn't
but anyhow he ain't like to be in a way to tell ye much to night sam is a rare one when he starts on the booze if you can give me a envelope with a stamp on it
when she came back i addressed the envelope and stamped it and when smollet had again faithfully promised to post the address when found i took my way to home we're on the track anyhow i am tired to night
mina is fast asleep and looks a little too pale her eyes look as though she had been crying poor dear i've no doubt it frets her to be kept in the dark and it may make her doubly anxious about me and the others
but it is best as it is it is better to be disappointed and worried in such a way now than to have her nerve broken the doctors were quite right to insist on her being kept out of this dreadful business
i must be firm for on me this particular burden of silence must rest i shall not ever enter on the subject with her under any circumstances indeed it may not be a hard task after all
for she herself has become reticent on the subject and has not spoken of the count or his doings ever since we told her of our decision
evening a long and trying and exciting day by the first post i got my directed envelope with a dirty scrap of paper enclosed on which was written with a carpenter's pencil in a sprawling hand sam bloxam
korkrans four poters cort bartel street walworth arsk for the depite i got the letter in bed and rose without waking mina she looked heavy and sleepy and pale and far from well
i determined not to wake her but that when i should return from this new search i would arrange for her going back to exeter i think she would be happier in our own home with her daily tasks to interest her
than in being here amongst us and in ignorance i only saw doctor seward for a moment and told him where i was off to promising to come back and tell the rest so soon as i should have found out anything
i drove to walworth and found with some difficulty potter's court mister smollet's spelling misled me as i asked for poter's court instead of potter's court however
when i had found the court i had no difficulty in discovering corcoran's lodging house when i asked the man who came to the door for the depite he shook his head and said i dunno im there ain't no such a person ere
i never eard of im in all my bloomin days don't believe there ain't nobody of that kind livin ere or anywheres i took out smollet's letter and as i read it it seemed to me that the lesson of the spelling of the name of the court might guide me what are you
i asked i'm the depity he answered i saw at once that i was on the right track phonetic spelling had again misled me a half crown tip put the deputy's knowledge at my disposal and i learned that mister bloxam
who had slept off the remains of his beer on the previous night at corcoran's had left for his work at poplar at five o'clock that morning he could not tell me where the place of work was situated but he had a vague idea that it was some kind of a new fangled ware'us
and with this slender clue i had to start for poplar it was twelve o'clock before i got any satisfactory hint of such a building and this i got at a coffee shop where some workmen were having their dinner
a new cold storage building and as this suited the condition of a new fangled ware'us i at once drove to it an interview with a surly gatekeeper and a surlier foreman
both of whom were appeased with the coin of the realm put me on the track of bloxam he was sent for on my suggesting that i was willing to pay his day's wages to his foreman for the privilege of asking him a few questions on a private matter
he was a smart enough fellow though rough of speech and bearing when i had promised to pay for his information and given him an earnest he told me that he had made two journeys between carfax and a house in piccadilly and had taken from this house to the latter
or somethink of the kind not long built it was a dusty old ouse too though nothin to the dustiness of the ouse we tooked the bloomin boxes from
there was the old party what engaged me a waitin in the ouse at purfleet he elped me to lift the boxes and put them in the dray curse me but he was the strongest chap i ever struck
how this phrase thrilled through me why e took up is end o the boxes like they was pounds of tea and me a puffin an a blowin afore i could up end mine anyhow an i'm no chicken neither
how did you get into the house in piccadilly i asked he was there too
the whole nine i asked
there was five in the first load an four in the second it was main dry work an i don't so well remember ow i got ome i interrupted him were the boxes left in the hall
i made one more attempt to further matters you didn't have any key never used no key nor nothink the old gent he opened the door isself an shut it again when i druv off i don't remember the last time but that was the beer
and you can't remember the number of the house no sir but ye needn't have no difficulty about that it's a igh un with a stone front with a bow on it an igh steps up to the door
the old gent give them shillin's an they seein they got so much they wanted more but e took one of them by the shoulder and was like to throw im down the steps till the lot of them went away cussin i thought that with this description i could find the house
i had gained a new painful experience the count could it was evident handle the earth boxes himself if so time was precious for now that he had achieved a certain amount of distribution he could by choosing his own time
complete the task unobserved at piccadilly circus i discharged my cab and walked westward beyond the junior constitutional i came across the house described and was satisfied that this was the next of the lairs arranged by dracula
the house looked as though it had been long untenanted the windows were encrusted with dust and the shutters were up all the framework was black with time and from the iron the paint had mostly scaled away
it was evident that up to lately there had been a large notice board in front of the balcony it had however been roughly torn away the uprights which had supported it still remaining
as it would perhaps have given some clue to the ownership of the house i remembered my experience of the investigation and purchase of carfax
and i could not but feel that if i could find the former owner there might be some means discovered of gaining access to the house there was at present nothing to be learned from the piccadilly side and nothing could be done
the mews were active the piccadilly houses being mostly in occupation i asked one or two of the grooms and helpers whom i saw around if they could tell me anything about the empty house one of them said that he heard it had lately been taken
but he couldn't say from whom he told me however that up to very lately there had been a notice board of for sale up and that perhaps mitchell sons and candy the house agents could tell me something
as he thought he remembered seeing the name of that firm on the board i did not wish to seem too eager or to let my informant know or guess too much so thanking him in the usual manner i strolled away it was now growing dusk
and the autumn night was closing in so i did not lose any time having learned the address of mitchell sons and candy from a directory at the berkeley i was soon at their office in sackville street the gentleman who saw me was particularly suave in manner
but uncommunicative in equal proportion having once told me that the piccadilly house which throughout our interview he called a mansion was sold he considered my business as concluded when i asked who had purchased it
he opened his eyes a thought wider and paused a few seconds before replying it is sold sir pardon me i said with equal politeness but i have a special reason for wishing to know who purchased it
again he paused longer and raised his eyebrows still more it is sold sir was again his laconic reply surely i said you do not mind letting me know so much
but i do mind he answered the affairs of their clients are absolutely safe in the hands of mitchell sons and candy this was manifestly a prig of the first water and there was no use arguing with him
i thought i had best meet him on his own ground so i said your clients sir are happy in having so resolute a guardian of their confidence i am myself a professional man here i handed him my card
in this instance i am not prompted by curiosity i act on the part of lord godalming who wishes to know something of the property which was he understood lately for sale these words put a different complexion on affairs
he said i would like to oblige you if i could mister harker and especially would i like to oblige his lordship we once carried out a small matter of renting some chambers for him when he was the honourable arthur holmwood
if you will let me have his lordship's address i will consult the house on the subject and will in any case communicate with his lordship by to night's post it will be a pleasure if we can so far deviate from our rules as to give the required information to his lordship
so i thanked him gave the address at doctor seward's and came away it was now dark and i was tired and hungry i got a cup of tea at the aerated bread company and came down to purfleet by the next train
i found all the others at home mina was looking tired and pale but she made a gallant effort to be bright and cheerful it wrung my heart to think that i had had to keep anything from her and so caused her inquietude
thank god this will be the last night of her looking on at our conferences and feeling the sting of our not showing our confidence it took all my courage to hold to the wise resolution of keeping her out of our grim task
she seems somehow more reconciled or else the very subject seems to have become repugnant to her for when any accidental allusion is made she actually shudders i am glad we made our resolution in time
as with such a feeling as this our growing knowledge would be torture to her i could not tell the others of the day's discovery till we were alone
so after dinner followed by a little music to save appearances even amongst ourselves i took mina to her room and left her to go to bed
thank god the ceasing of telling things has made no difference between us when i came down again i found the others all gathered round the fire in the study in the train i had written my diary so far
and simply read it off to them as the best means of letting them get abreast of my own information when i had finished van helsing said this has been a great day's work friend jonathan doubtless we are on the track of the missing boxes
if we find them all in that house then our work is near the end but if there be some missing we must search until we find them then shall we make our final coup and hunt the wretch to his real death
we all sat silent awhile and all at once mister morris spoke say how are we going to get into that house we got into the other answered lord godalming quickly but art this is different
quincey's head is level this burglary business is getting serious we got off once all right but we have now a rare job on hand unless we can find the count's key basket as nothing could well be done before morning
and as it would be at least advisable to wait till lord godalming should hear from mitchell's we decided not to take any active step before breakfast time for a good while we sat and smoked discussing the matter in its various lights and bearings
i took the opportunity of bringing this diary right up to the moment i am very sleepy and shall go to bed just a line mina sleeps soundly and her breathing is regular her forehead is puckered up into little wrinkles
as though she thinks even in her sleep she is still too pale but does not look so haggard as she did this morning to morrow will i hope mend all this she will be herself at home in exeter
oh but i am sleepy doctor seward's diary
i am puzzled afresh about renfield his moods change so rapidly that i find it difficult to keep touch of them and as they always mean something more than his own well being they form a more than interesting study
this morning when i went to see him after his repulse of van helsing his manner was that of a man commanding destiny he was in fact commanding destiny subjectively he did not really care for any of the things of mere earth
he was in the clouds and looked down on all the weaknesses and wants of us poor mortals i thought i would improve the occasion and learn something so i asked him what about the flies these times
as he answered me the fly my dear sir has one striking feature its wings are typical of the aerial powers of the psychic faculties the ancients did well when they typified the soul as a butterfly
i thought i would push his analogy to its utmost logically so i said quickly oh it is a soul you are after now is it his madness foiled his reason and a puzzled look spread over his face as
shaking his head with a decision which i had but seldom seen in him he said oh no oh no i want no souls life is all i want here he brightened up i am pretty indifferent about it at present
life is all right i have all i want you must get a new patient doctor
this puzzled me a little so i drew him on then you command life you are a god i suppose he smiled with an ineffably benign superiority oh no
far be it from me to arrogate to myself the attributes of the deity i am not even concerned in his especially spiritual doings if i may state my intellectual position i am so far as concerns things purely terrestrial
somewhat in the position which enoch occupied spiritually this was a poser to me i could not at the moment recall enoch's appositeness so i had to ask a simple question
though i felt that by so doing i was lowering myself in the eyes of the lunatic and why with enoch because he walked with god i could not see the analogy but did not like to admit it
so i harked back to what he had denied so you don't care about life and you don't want souls why not i put my question quickly and somewhat sternly on purpose to disconcert him the effort succeeded
for an instant he unconsciously relapsed into his old servile manner bent low before me and actually fawned upon me as he replied i don't want any souls indeed indeed i don't i couldn't use them if i had them they would be no manner of use to me
i couldn't eat them or he suddenly stopped and the old cunning look spread over his face like a wind sweep on the surface of the water and doctor as to life what is it after all when you've got all you require
and you know that you will never want that is all i have friends good friends like you doctor seward this was said with a leer of inexpressible cunning i know that i shall never lack the means of life
i think that through the cloudiness of his insanity he saw some antagonism in me for he at once fell back on the last refuge of such as he a dogged silence
he was sulky and so i came away later in the day he sent for me ordinarily i would not have come without special reason but just at present i am so interested in him that i would gladly make an effort
harker is out following up clues and so are lord godalming and quincey van helsing sits in my study poring over the record prepared by the harkers
he does not wish to be disturbed in the work without cause i would have taken him with me to see the patient only i thought that after his last repulse he might not care to go again there was also another reason
renfield might not speak so freely before a third person as when he and i were alone
a pose which is generally indicative of some mental energy on his part when i came in he said at once as though the question had been waiting on his lips what about souls
it was evident then that my surmise had been correct unconscious cerebration was doing its work even with the lunatic i determined to have the matter out what about them yourself i asked
he did not reply for a moment but looked all round him and up and down as though he expected to find some inspiration for an answer i don't want any souls he said in a feeble apologetic way
the matter seemed preying on his mind and so i determined to use it to be cruel only to be kind so i said you like life and you want life oh yes but that is all right you needn't worry about that
but i asked how are we to get the life without getting the soul also this seemed to puzzle him so i followed it up
you've got their lives you know and you must put up with their souls something seemed to affect his imagination for he put his fingers to his ears and shut his eyes screwing them up tightly just as a small boy does when his face is being soaped
there was something pathetic in it that touched me it also gave me a lesson for it seemed that before me was a child only a child though the features were worn and the stubble on the jaws was white
it was evident that he was undergoing some process of mental disturbance and knowing how his past moods had interpreted things seemingly foreign to himself i thought i would enter into his mind as well as i could and go with him
the first step was to restore confidence so i asked him speaking pretty loud so that he would hear me through his closed ears
with a laugh he replied not much flies are poor things after all after a pause he added but i don't want their souls buzzing round me all the same or spiders i went on blow spiders what's the use of spiders
there isn't anything in them to eat or he stopped suddenly as though reminded of a forbidden topic so so i thought to myself this is the second time he has suddenly stopped at the word drink what does it mean
renfield seemed himself aware of having made a lapse for he hurried on as though to distract my attention from it i don't take any stock at all in such matters rats and mice and such small deer as shakespeare has it
chicken feed of the larder they might be called i'm past all that sort of nonsense you might as well ask a man to eat molecules with a pair of chop sticks as to try to interest me about the lesser carnivora when i know of what is before me
i see i said you want big things that you can make your teeth meet in how would you like to breakfast on elephant what ridiculous nonsense you are talking he was getting too wide awake so i thought i would press him hard
i wonder i said reflectively what an elephant's soul is like the effect i desired was obtained for he at once fell from his high horse and became a child again i don't want an elephant's soul or any soul at all he said
for a few moments he sat despondently suddenly he jumped to his feet with his eyes blazing and all the signs of intense cerebral excitement to hell with you and your souls he shouted
he looked so hostile that i thought he was in for another homicidal fit so i blew my whistle the instant however that i did so he became calm and said apologetically forgive me doctor i forgot myself
you do not need any help i am so worried in my mind that i am apt to be irritable if you only knew the problem i have to face and that i am working out you would pity and tolerate and pardon me pray do not put me in a strait waistcoat
i want to think and i cannot think freely when my body is confined i am sure you will understand he had evidently self control so when the attendants came i told them not to mind and they withdrew
renfield watched them go when the door was closed he said with considerable dignity and sweetness doctor seward you have been very considerate towards me believe me that i am very very grateful to you
i thought it well to leave him in this mood and so i came away there is certainly something to ponder over in this man's state several points seem to make what the american interviewer calls a story
if one could only get them in proper order here they are will not mention drinking fears the thought of being burdened with the soul of anything has no dread of wanting life in the future
despises the meaner forms of life altogether though he dreads being haunted by their souls logically all these things point one way he has assurance of some kind that he will acquire some higher life
he dreads the consequence the burden of a soul then it is a human life he looks to and the assurance merciful god the count has been to him and there is some new scheme of terror afoot
later
he grew very grave and after thinking the matter over for a while asked me to take him to renfield i did so as we came to the door we heard the lunatic within singing gaily as he used to do in the time which now seems so long ago
when we entered we saw with amazement that he had spread out his sugar as of old the flies lethargic with the autumn were beginning to buzz into the room we tried to make him talk of the subject of our previous conversation
but he would not attend he went on with his singing just as though we had not been present he had got a scrap of paper and was folding it into a note book we had to come away as ignorant as we went in
his is a curious case indeed we must watch him to night letter mitchell sons and candy to lord godalming
my lord we are at all times only too happy to meet your wishes we beg with regard to the desire of your lordship expressed by mister harker on your behalf
the original vendors are the executors of the late mister archibald winter suffield the purchaser is a foreign nobleman count de ville who effected the purchase himself paying the purchase money in notes over the counter
if your lordship will pardon us using so vulgar an expression beyond this we know nothing whatever of him we are my lord your lordship's humble servants mitchell sons and candy doctor seward's diary
i placed a man in the corridor last night and told him to make an accurate note of any sound he might hear from renfield's room and gave him instructions that if there should be anything strange he was to call me
after dinner when we had all gathered round the fire in the study missus harker having gone to bed we discussed the attempts and discoveries of the day harker was the only one who had any result
and we are in great hopes that his clue may be an important one before going to bed i went round to the patient's room and looked in through the observation trap
this morning the man on duty reported to me that a little after midnight he was restless and kept saying his prayers somewhat loudly i asked him if that was all he replied that it was all he heard
there was something about his manner so suspicious that i asked him point blank if he had been asleep he denied sleep but admitted to having dozed for a while it is too bad that men cannot be trusted unless they are watched
to day harker is out following up his clue and art and quincey are looking after horses godalming thinks that it will be well to have horses always in readiness
for when we get the information which we seek there will be no time to lose we must sterilise all the imported earth between sunrise and sunset we shall thus catch the count at his weakest and without a refuge to fly to
van helsing is off to the british museum looking up some authorities on ancient medicine the old physicians took account of things which their followers do not accept and the professor is searching for witch and demon cures which may be useful to us later
i sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait waistcoats later we have met again we seem at last to be on the track and our work of to morrow may be the beginning of the end
i wonder if renfield's quiet has anything to do with this his moods have so followed the doings of the count
if we could only get some hint as to what passed in his mind between the time of my argument with him to day and his resumption of fly catching it might afford us a valuable clue he is now seemingly quiet for a spell is he
that wild yell seemed to come from his room the attendant came bursting into my room and told me that renfield had somehow met with some accident he had heard him yell and when he went to him found him lying on his face on the floor all covered with blood
chapter twenty seven major tifto and the duke i beg your pardon silverbridge said the major entering the room but i was looking for longstaff
he isn't here said silverbridge who did not wish to be interrupted by his racing friend your father i believe said tifto he was red in the face but was in other respects perhaps improved in appearance by his liquor
in his more sober moments he was not always able to assume that appearance of equality with his companions which it was the ambition of his soul to achieve but a second glass of whisky and water
would always enable him to cock his tail and bark before the company with all the courage of my lady's pug would you do me the great honour to introduce me to his grace
silverbridge was not prone to turn his back upon a friend because he was low in the world he had begun to understand that he had made a mistake by connecting himself with the major but at the club he always defended his partner
though he not unfrequently found himself obliged to snub the major himself he always countenanced the little master of hounds and was true to his own idea of standing to a fellow
nevertheless he did not wish to introduce his friend to his father the duke saw it all at a glance and felt that the introduction should be made perhaps said he getting up from his chair
this is major tifto yes my lord duke i am major tifto the duke bowed graciously my father and i were engaged about private matters said silverbridge i beg ten thousand pardons exclaimed the major
i did not intend to intrude i think we had done said the duke pray sit down major tifto the major sat down though now i bethink myself i have to beg your pardon that i a stranger
should ask you to sit down in your own club don't mention it my lord duke i am so unused to clubs that i forgot where i was quite so my lord duke i hope you think that silverbridge is looking well
yes yes i think so silverbridge bit his lips and turned his face away to the door we didn't make a very good thing of our derby nag the other day perhaps your grace has heard all that
i did hear that the horse in which you are both interested had failed to win the race yes he did the prime minister we call him your grace
out of compliment to a certain ministry which i wish it was going on to day instead of the seedy lot we've got in i think my lord duke that any one you may ask will tell you that i know what running is well i can assure you
your grace that is that since i've seen orses i've never seen a orse fitter than him when he got his canter that morning it was nearly even betting not that i or silverbridge were fools enough to put on anything at that rate
but i never saw a orse so bad ridden i don't mean to say anything my lord duke against the man but if that fellow hadn't been squared or else wasn't drunk or else wasn't off his head that orse must have won my lord duke
i do not know anything about racing major tifto i suppose not your grace but as i and silverbridge are together in this matter i thought i'd just let your grace know that we ought to have had a very good thing
i thought that perhaps your grace might like to know that tifto you are making an ass of yourself said silverbridge making an ass of myself exclaimed the major yes considerably
i think you are a little hard upon your friend said the duke with an attempt at a laugh
i thought my lord duke you might care about learning how silverbridge was going on this the poor little man said almost with a whine his partner's roughness had knocked out of him nearly all the courage which bacchus had given him
so i do anything that interests him interests me but perhaps of all his pursuits racing is the one to which i am least able to lend an attentive ear that every horse has a head
and that all did have tails till they were ill used is the extent of my stable knowledge very good indeed my lord duke very good indeed ha ha ha all horses have heads and all have tails heads and tails
upon my word that is the best thing i have heard for a long time i will do myself the honour of wishing your grace good night by bye silverbridge then he left the room
having been made supremely happy by what he considered to have been the duke's joke nevertheless he would remember the snubbing and would be even with silverbridge some day did lord silverbridge think that he was going to look after his lordship's orses
and do this always on the square and then be snubbed for doing it i am very sorry that he should have come in to trouble you said the son he has not troubled me much i do not know whether he has troubled you
if you are coming down to the house again i will walk with you silverbridge of course had to go down to the house again and they started together
that man did not trouble me silverbridge but the question is whether such an acquaintance must not be troublesome to you i'm not very proud of him sir but i think one ought to be proud of one's friends he isn't my friend in that way at all
in what way then he understands racing he is the partner of your pleasure then the man in whose society you love to enjoy the recreation of the race course
it is sir because he understands it i thought that a gentleman on the turf would have a trainer for that purpose not a companion you mean to imply that you can save money by leaguing yourself with major tifto no sir indeed
if you associate with him not for pleasure then it surely must be for profit that you should do the former would be to me so surprising that i must regard it as impossible that you should do the latter is i think a reproach
this he said with no tone of anger in his voice so gently that silverbridge at first hardly understood it but gradually all that was meant came in upon him and he felt himself to be ashamed of himself
he is bad he said at last whether he be bad i will not say but i am sure that you can gain nothing by his companionship i will get rid of him said silverbridge after a considerable pause
i cannot do so at once but i will do it it will be better i think tregear has been telling me the same thing is he objectionable to mister tregear asked the duke oh yes tregear cannot bear him
i do not deny that he is entitled to be treated well but so also is your groom let us say no more about him and so it is to be mabel grex i did not say so sir
how can i answer for her only it was so pleasant for me to know that you would approve if it should come off yes i will approve when she has accepted you but i don't think she will
if she should tell her that i will go to her at once it will be much to have a new daughter very much that you should have a wife where would she like to live
i dare say not i dare say not said the duke gatherum is always thought to be dull
have you asked her no sir but nobody ever did like gatherum i suppose not and yet silverbridge what a sum of money it cost i believe it did
all vanity and vexation of spirit the duke no doubt was thinking of certain scenes passed at the great house in question which scenes had not been delightful to him no i don't suppose she would wish to live at gatherum
the horns was given expressly by my uncle to your dear mother and i should like mary to have the place certainly you should live among your tenantry i don't care so very much for matching
it is the one place you do like sir however we can manage all that carlton terrace i do not particularly like but it is a good house
when it is settled let me know at once but if it should never be settled i will ask no questions but if it be settled tell me then in palace yard he was turning to go
but before he did so he said another word leaning on his son's shoulder i do not think that mabel grex and major tifto would do well together at all there shall be an end to that sir god bless you my boy said the duke
lord silverbridge sat in the house or to speak more accurately in the smoking room of the house for about an hour thinking over all that had passed between himself and his father
but on the spur of the moment it had all come out now at any rate it was decided for him that he must in set terms ask her to be his wife the scene which had just occurred had made him thoroughly sick of major tifto
he must get rid of the major and there could be no way of doing this at once so easy and so little open to observation as marriage if he were but once engaged to mabel grex the dismissal of tifto would be quite a matter of course
there were nine days of this work during which lord silverbridge became very popular and made many speeches tregear did not win half so many hearts or recommend himself so thoroughly to the political predilections of the borough
but nevertheless he was returned it would probably be unjust to attribute this success chiefly to the young lord's eloquence it certainly was not due to the strong religious feelings of the rector
it is to be feared that even the thoughtful political convictions of the candidate did not altogether produce the result it was that chief man among the candidate's guides and friends that leading philosopher
who would not allow anybody to go home from the rain and who kept his eyes so sharply open to the pecuniary doings of the carbottleites that mister carbottle's guides and friends had hardly dared to spend a shilling
it was he who had in truth been efficacious in every attempt they had made to spend their money they had been looked into and circumvented as mister carbottle had been brought down to polpenno on purpose that he might spend money
as he had nothing but his money to recommend him and as he had not spent it the free and independent electors of the borough had not seen their way to vote for him therefore the conservatives were very elate with their triumph
there was a great conservative reaction but the electioneering guide philosopher and friend in the humble retirement of his own home he was a tailor in the town
whose assistance at such periods had long been in requisition he knew very well how the seat had been secured ten shillings a head would have sent three hundred true liberals to the ballot boxes
the mode of distributing the money had been arranged but the conservative tailor had been too acute and not half a sovereign could be passed the tailor got twenty five pounds for his work and that was smuggled in among the bills for printing
mister williams however was sure that he had so opened out the iniquities of the dissenters as to have convinced the borough yes every salem and zion and ebenezer in his large parish would be closed
it is a great thing for the country said mister williams he'll make a capital member said silverbridge clapping his friend on the back i hope he'll never forget said mister williams
of this borough whom should they elect but a tregear said the mother feeling that her rector took too much of the praise to himself i think you have done more for us than any one else whispered miss tregear to the young lord
what you said was so reassuring the father before he went to bed expressed to his son with some trepidation a hope that all this would lead to no great permanent increase of expenditure
that evening before he went to bed lord silverbridge wrote to his father an account of what had taken place at polpenno polwenning fifteenth december my dear father
among us all we have managed to return tregear i am afraid you will not be quite pleased because it will be a vote lost to your party but i really think that he is just the fellow to be in parliament
if he were on your side i'm sure he's the kind of man you'd like to bring into office he is always thinking about those sort of things he says that if there were no conservatives such liberals as you and mister monk would be destroyed by the jacobins
there is something in that whether a man is a conservative or not himself i suppose there ought to be conservatives
the duke as he read this made a memorandum in his own mind that he would explain to his son that every carriage should have a drag to its wheels but that an ambitious soul would choose to be the coachman rather than the drag
it was beastly work the duke made another memorandum to instruct his son that no gentleman above the age of a schoolboy should allow himself to use such a word in such a sense
we had to go about in the rain up to our knees in mud for eight or nine days always saying the same thing and of course all that we said was bosh another memorandum or rather two
one as to the slang and another as to the expediency of teaching something to the poor voters on such occasions our only comfort was that the carbottle people were quite as badly off as us
another memorandum as to the grammar the absence of christian charity did not at the moment affect the duke i made ever so many speeches till at last it seemed to be quite easy
here there was a very grave memorandum speeches easy to young speakers are generally very difficult to old listeners but of course it was all bosh this required no separate memorandum
i have promised to go up to town with tregear for a day or two after that i will stick to my purpose of going to matching again i will be there about the twenty second and will then stay over christmas
after that i am going into the brake country for some hunting it is such a shame to have a lot of horses and never to ride them your most affectionate son silverbridge
the last sentence gave rise in the duke's mind to the necessity of a very elaborate memorandum on the subject of amusements generally by the same post another letter went from polpenno to matching
which also gave rise to some mental memoranda it was as follows my dear mabel i am a member of the british house of commons
i have sometimes regarded myself as being one of the most peculiarly unfortunate men in the world and yet now i have achieved that which all commoners in england think to be the greatest honour within their reach
and have done so at an age at which very few achieve it but the sons of the wealthy and the powerful i now come to my misfortunes i know that as a poor man i ought not to be a member of parliament
i ought to be earning my bread as a lawyer or a doctor i have no business to be what i am and when i am forty i shall find that i have eaten up all my good things instead of having them to eat i have one chance before me
you know very well what that is tell her that my pride in being a member of parliament is much more on her behalf than on my own the man who dares to love her ought at any rate to be something in the world if it might be
if ever it may be i should wish to be something for her sake i am sure you will be glad of my success yourself for my own sake your affectionate friend and cousin francis tregear
the first mental memorandum in regard to this came from the writer's assertion that he at forty would have eaten up all his good things no he being a man might make his way to good things though he was not born to them
he surely would win his good things for himself but what good things were in store for her what chance of success was there for her but the reflection
which was the most bitter to her of all came from her assurance that his love for that other girl was so genuine even when he was writing to her there was no spark left of the old romance some hint of a recollection of past feelings
some half concealed reference to the former passion might have been allowed to him she as a woman as a woman all whose fortune must depend on marriage could indulge in no such allusions but surely he need not have been so hard
but still there was another memorandum at the present moment she would do all that he desired as far as it was in her power she was anxious that he should marry lady mary palliser
though so anxious also that something of his love should remain with herself she was quite willing to convey that message if it might be done without offence to the duke she was there with the object of ingratiating herself with the duke
she must not impede her favour with the duke by making herself the medium of any secret communications between mary and her lover but how should she serve tregear without risk of offending the duke she read the letter again and again
and thinking it to be a good letter she determined to show it to the duke mister tregear has got in at polpenno she said on the day on which she and the duke had received their letters so i hear from silverbridge
it will be a good thing for him i suppose i do not know said the duke coldly he is my cousin and i have always been interested in his welfare that is natural
and a seat in parliament will give him something to do certainly it ought said the duke i do not think that he is an idle man to this the duke made no answer he did not wish to be made to talk about tregear
may i tell you why i say all this she asked softly pressing her hand on the duke's arm ever so gently to this the duke assented but still coldly because i want to know what i ought to do
would you mind reading that letter of course you will remember that frank and i have been brought up almost as brother and sister the duke took the letter in his hand and did read it very slowly
what he says about young men without means going into parliament is true enough this was not encouraging but as the duke went on reading mabel did not think it necessary to argue the matter
he had to read the last paragraph twice before he understood it he did read it twice and then folding the letter very slowly gave it back to his companion what ought i to do asked lady mabel
as you and i my dear are friends i think that any carrying of a message to mary would be breaking confidence i think that you should not speak to mary about mister tregear then he changed the subject
something that i classed for no particular reason with the dark and ignorant sort of words such as obi and hoodoo
i couldn't for the life of me have thought of him as being called anything else the first impression that you got of his head was that it was a patchwork of black and white black bushy hair and short white beard or else the other way about
so that if you saw him in the gloom a dim patch of white showed down one side of his head and dark tufts cropped up here and there in his beard his eyebrows alone were entirely black with a little sprouting of hair almost joining them and perhaps his skin helped to make me think of negroes
for it was very dark of the dark brown that always seems to have more than a hint of green behind it his forehead was low and scored across with deep horizontal furrows we never knew when he was going to turn up on a job
we might not have seen him for weeks but his face was always as likely as not to appear over the edge of a crane platform just when that marvellous mechanical intuition of his was badly needed he wasn't certificated
and laughed outright at logarithms and our laborious methods of getting out quantities
a hopeless looking smash myself i'm certificated twice or three times over but i can only assure you that i wanted to kick myself when after i'd spent a day and a sleepless night over the job
i saw the game of tit tat toe that rooum made of it in an hour or two certificated or not
and he was one of these fellows too who can find water tell you where water is and what amount of getting it is likely to take by just walking over the place we aren't certificated up to that yet
but he always shook his black and white piebald head he'd never be able to keep the bargain if he were to make it he told us quite fairly
so rooum came and went erratically showing up maybe in leeds or liverpool
got to know him i mean more than just to nod was that he tacked himself on to me one night down vauxhall way
we had knocked off for the day and i was walking in the direction of the bridge when he came up we walked along together and
know what a molecule was
so on the way across the bridge i gave it him more or less from the book molecular theory and all the rest of it
did the molecular theory allow things to pass through one another he wanted to know could things pass through one another and a lot of ridiculous things like that i gave it up you're a genius in your own way rooum i said finally
you know these things without the books we plodders have to depend on if i'd luck like that
but i had his acquaintance which was more than most of us had he asked me rather timidly if i'd lend him a book or two i did so but
now you'd expect a fellow to be specially sensitive one way or another who can tell when there's water a hundred feet beneath him and as you know the big men are squabbling yet about this water finding business
but somehow the water finding puzzled me less than it did that rooum should be extraordinarily sensitive to something far commoner and easier to understand ordinary echoes he couldn't stand echoes
and sometimes he'd loiter and listen very intently
then of course i pretended not to notice we're all cranky somewhere and for that matter i can't touch a spider myself for the remarkable thing that overtook rooum that by the way is an odd way to put it
for the remarkable thing that overtook rooum i don't think i can begin better than with the first time or very soon after the first time that i noticed this peculiarity about the echoes
it was early on a particularly dismal november evening
just beyond what they are pleased to call the building line you know these districts of wretched trees and grimy fields and market gardens that are about the same to real country that a slum is to a town it rained that night
but you've doubtless seen them you know how when they're laying out new roads they lay down the narrow strip of kerb first with neither setts on the one hand nor flagstones on the other
rooum had all at once stopped talking it was the echo of course that bothered him
and ramparts of grey road metal ready for use and save for the strip of kerb it was a broth of mud and stiff clay a red light or two showed where the road barriers were they were laying the mains a green railway light showed on an embankment
lamp standards were a little difficult to see and when i heard rooum stop suddenly and draw in his breath sharply i thought he had walked into one of them hurt yourself i said he walked on without replying
but half a dozen yards farther on he stopped again he was listening again he waited for me to come up i say he said in an odd sort of voice
i asked as i passed ahead he didn't answer
he was breathing very quick and short why what ails you i demanded stopping
i saw him pass his hand over his brow come get on i said shortly and we didn't speak again till we struck the pavement with the lighted lamps then i happened to glance at him here i said brusquely taking him by the sleeve
you're not well we'll call somewhere and get a drink yes
did you hear hear what
come you're shaking
i saw that he was shaking even worse than i had thought the shirt sleeved barman noticed it too and watched us curiously i made rooum sit down
i asked as i held the glass to his lips but i could get nothing out of him except that it was all right all right
he began to come round a little he wasn't the kind of man you'd press for explanations and presently we set out again he walked with me as far as my lodgings refused to come in but for all that lingered at the gate as if loath to leave
i watched him turn the corner in the rain we came home together again the next evening but by a different way quite half a mile longer
or some such thing for you can't put him off as you can the child somewhere or other he'd picked up the word osmosis
he dropped the molecules and began to ask me about osmosis
he demanded that liquids will work their way into one another through a bladder or something say a thick fluid and a thin you'll find some of the thick in the thin and the thin in the thick yes the thick into the thin is ex osmosis
and the other end osmosis
does it ever take place with solids
he disappeared for a good many weeks
it was february weather anyway and in an echoing enough place that i found him the subway of one of the metropolitan stations he'd probably forgotten the echoes when he'd taken the train but of course the
railway folk won't let a man who happens to dislike echoes go wandering across the metals where he likes
i ran along the subway after him it was very curious he'd been walking close to the white tiled wall and i saw him suddenly stop but he didn't turn he didn't even turn when i pulled up close behind him
but the moment i touched his shoulder he just dropped just dropped half on his knees against the white tiling the face he turned round and up to me was transfixed with fright there were half a hundred people about a train was just in
and it isn't a difficult matter in london to get a crowd for much less than a man crouching terrified against a wall
at another man almost as terrified i felt somebody's hand on my own arm evidently somebody thought i'd knocked rooum down the terror went slowly from his face he stumbled to his feet
i shook myself free of the man who held me and stepped up to rooum what the devil's all this about i demanded roughly enough it's all right it's all right he stammered
no no but for the love of god don't do it again we'll not explain here i said
and the small crowd melted away disappointed i dare say that it wasn't a fight
but there you didn't know you don't know do you i tell you d'you hear you're not to run at all when i'm about
and get your quantities somewhere near right
putting your hand on a man's shoulder like that just when
ah he cried don't you think i just fancy it my lad nothing so easy i thought you guessed that other time on the new road it's as plain as a pikestaff no no no
i shall be telling you something about molecules one of these days we walked for a time in silence suddenly he asked
i myself do you mean oh the firm
they call it alterations but it's one of these big shop rebuildings i'll come along
oh i said i don't know that i specially wanted him it's a little wearing the company of a chap like that you never know what he's going to let you in for next but
i didn't say anything
which was my own programme he was welcome
he turned up at euston a little after twelve we went down together
or anything of that kind our talk too was about work not molecules and osmosis the inn was only a roadside beerhouse
and all its sleeping accomodation was the one double bedded room over the head of my own bed the ceiling was cut away following the roof line and the wallpaper was perfectly shocking faded bouquets that made v's and a's
interlacing everywhere the other bed was made up
and that was when rooum took from his black hand bag a brush and a torn nightgown that's what you always carry about is it i remarked and rooum grunted something yes
no harm was it we tumbled into bed but for all the lateness of the hour i wasn't sleepy so from my own bag i took a book set the candle on the end of the mantel and began to read
mark you i don't say i was much better informed for the reading i did for i was watching the v's on the wallpaper mostly that and wondering what was wrong with the man in the other bed who had fallen down at a touch in the subway
i'm quite certain he was sound asleep so that it wasn't just the fact that he spoke even that is a little unpleasant i always think any sort of sleep talking
knowing nothing whatever about it in the morning perhaps i ought not to have put that question having put it i did the next best thing afterwards as you'll see in a moment but let me tell you
he'd been asleep perhaps an hour and i woolgathering about the wallpaper when suddenly in a far more clear and loud voice than he ever used when awake he said what the devil is it prevents me seeing him then
that startled me rather
from seeing whom i said sitting up in bed whom you're not attending the fellow i'm telling you about who runs after me he answered answered perfectly plainly
he made a slight movement with his arm but that did not wake him then it came to me with a sort of start what was happening i slipped half out of bed would he would he answer another question i risked it breathlessly
have you any idea who he is well that too he answered who he is the runner don't be silly
what happens then when he catches you this time i really don't know whether his words were an answer or not they were these to hear him catching you up and then padding away ahead again all right
what did you say his name was
rooum i remember remarked on the silly practice of reading in bed well it was a pretty
somebody running after him all the time and then running on ahead
such as that of the new road out lewisham way
whether the name of that runner was not conscience but conscience isn't a matter of molecules and osmosis one thing however was clear i'd got to tell rooum what i'd learned
for you can't get hold of a fellow's secrets in ways like that i lost no time about it i told him in fact soon after we'd left the inn the next morning told him how he'd answered in his sleep and
he grunted but good god man queer isn't it
he whispered it gets harder every time
like when you nod off to sleep in a chair and jerk up awake again and away he went but now it's getting grinding sluggish and the pain
when i'd just braced myself up stiff to meet it and you tapped me on the shoulder
he continued it's an agony each time
but i'd had enough i'd asked questions the night before but now well i knew quite as much as and more than i wanted stop please i said you're either off your head or worse let's
don't tell me any more please frightened what
i should see a doctor i'm only an engineer i replied doctors
he said and spat i hope you see how the matter stood with rooum what do you make of it could you have believed it do you believe it he'd made a nearish guess
only rule of thumb physics thinks everything's explained in the manual
you can call it force or what you like but it's a certainty that things solid things of wood and iron and stone would explode
that rooum said he felt in his own person
or had to struggle through obstinately you see now why i said that a queer thing overtook rooum more i saw it
there wasn't a shadow of doubt about it people were pressing and jostling about him and suddenly i saw him turn his head and listen as i'd seen him before i tell you an icy creeping ran all over my skin i fancied i felt it approaching too nearer and nearer
as if against a gust he stumbled and thrust thrust with his body he swayed physically as a tree sways in a wind
then after seconds minutes i don't know how long he was free again and for the colour of his face when by and by i glanced at it well i once saw a swarthy italian fall under a sunstroke and his face was much the same colour that rooum's negro face had gone
a cloudy whitish green well you've seen it
he gasped presently turning a ghastly grin on me
soon after that he disappeared again i wasn't sorry our big contract in the west end came on it was a time contract with all manner of penalty clauses if we didn't get through and i assure you that we were busy
and if you'd seen us there but perhaps you did see us
to look over the mud splashed hoarding into the great excavation we'd made it was a sight staging rose on staging tier on tier with interminable ladders all over the steel structure three or four squat otis lifts crouched like iron turtles on top
and a lattice crane on a towering three cornered platform rose a hundred and twenty feet into the air
showing flues and fireplaces and a score of thicknesses of old wallpaper and at night
a dozen great spluttering violet arc lights half blinded you down below were the watchmen's fires overhead the riveters had their fire baskets and in odd corners naphtha lights guttered and flared
and the steel rang with the riveters hammers and the crane chains rattled and clashed there's not much doubt in my mind it's the engineers who are the architects nowadays the chaps who think they're the architects are only a sort of paperhangers
who hang brick and terra cotta on our work and clap a pinnacle or two on top but never mind that
and i ought to say that fifty feet above our great gap
it happened that they had pitched in as one of the foremen some fellow or other
i did half his work and all my own
on this night that i'm telling about
at that i fairly lost my temper what ails the crane i cried it's doing its work isn't it isn't everybody doing their work except you
i don't know he said then i snapped
but he grabbed my arm look at it now
either hopkins or somebody was dangerously exceeding the speed limit the thing was flying along its thirty yards of rail as fast as a tram and the heavy fall blocks swung like a ponderous kite tail thirty feet below as i watched the engine brought up within a yard of the end of the way
and then the mechanism was reversed the crane set off at a tear back who in hell i began
again the crane tore past with the massive tackle sweeping behind it and again i heard the crash at the other end
his brow was ribbed like a gridiron
now you
get ready to board him when he reverses
just how we scrambled on i don't know i got one arm over the lifting gear which of course wasn't going and heard hopkins on the other footplate rooum put the brakes down and reversed again came the thud of the fall blocks and we were speeding back again over the gulf of misty orange light
the stagings were thronged with gaping men ready
hopkins hit rooum's wrist with a spanner then he seized the lever jammed the brake down and tripped rooum all as it seemed in one movement i fell on top of rooum the crane came to a standstill half way down the line i held rooum panting
but either rooum was stronger than i or else he took me very much unawares
he threw up one elbow and staggered to his feet as i made another clutch at him keep still you fool i bawled
running along that iron tightrope out over that well of light and watching men
horribly fascinated and then i saw the turn of his head he didn't meet it this time
even at the take off he missed
then from far below
the men above went a little way down and then they too stopped
two men drank the brandy off there and then getting on for a pint of brandy apiece then they went down drunk
when i asked him what i said he hesitated
then there came from the basement a single cracked stroke the head of a maid appeared in the whitewashed area below and the head was withdrawn as apparently the maid recognised him steps were heard along the hall the door was opened and the maid stood aside to let him enter
the apron with which she had slipped the latch still crumpled in her greasy hand
but i didn't want to bring her down all those stairs how is she
and trophies of spears and shields and assegais at the foot of the stairs was a rustling portiere of strung beads and beyond it the carpet was continued up the broad easy flight
where the stairs made a turn
shone on a cloudy green aquarium with sallow goldfish a number of cacti on a shabby console table and a large and dirty white sheepskin rug
this also was carpeted but with a carpet that had done duty in some dining or bed room before being cut up into strips of the width of the narrow space between the wall and the handrail then
beneath the cold gleam of the skylight above the well of the stairs come in a girl's voice called
making colder still the patch of eastern sky beyond the roofs and the cowls and hoods of chimneys framed by the square of the single window the glow on the ceiling was reflected dully in the old dark mirror over the mantelpiece an open door in the farther corner
hampered with skirts and blouses
and advanced to the girl who sat in an old wicker chair before the fire
hallo that's new isn't it bessie
but on the hearth was a magnificent leopard skin rug
it's much warmer for my feet very kind of missus hepburn well how are you feeling to day old girl better thanks ed that's the style you'll be yourself again soon daisy says you've been out to day
you're early aren't you he turned away to get a chair from which he had to move a mass of tissue paper patterns and buckram linings he brought it to the rug yes i stopped last night late to cash up for vedder
so he's staying to night turn and turn about well tell us all about it bess their faces were red in the firelight
the prettiness amazing in its quantity that one sees for a moment under the light of the street lamps when shops and offices close for the day
and only the rather remarkable smallness of the head on the splendid thick throat
he too might have been seen in his thousands at the close of any day
in a billiard room or else dining cheaply up west preparatory to smoking cigarettes from yellow packets in the upper circle of a music hall four inches of white up and down collar encased his neck
he removed them crumpled them up and threw them on the fire and the momentary addition to the light of the upper chamber showed how curd white was that superb neck of hers and how moody and tired her eyes
from his face only one would have guessed and guessed wrongly
and as if somebody had asserted that the pursuit of such studies was not compatible with a certain measure of physical development also he announced that he was not sure that he should not devote say half an evening a week on wednesdays to training in the gymnasium
bessie he said a sound mind in a sound body you know that's tremendously important especially when a fellow spends the day in a stuffy office
what they call the indo germanic languages you know
as far as europe that was the way it all began it was splendid the way the lecturer put it english is a germanic language you know then came the celts i wish i'd brought my notes i see you've been reading let's look
a book lay on her knees its back warped by the heat of the fire he took it and opened it ah keats glad you like keats bessie
but of course it's more from the historical standpoint that i'm studying these things let's have a look
monotonously and inelastically and as i sat over the light blue hills there came a noise of revellers the rills into the wide stream came of purple hue
twas bacchus and his crew the earnest trumpet spake and silver thrills from kissing cymbals made a merry din twas bacchus and his kin like to a moving vintage down they came
crowned with green leaves and faces all on flame all madly dancing through the pleasant valley
ed plucked for a moment at his lower lip
what's it all about bessie continued within his car aloft young bacchus stood trifling his ivy dart in dancing mood with sidelong laughing and little rills of crimson wine imbrued
his plump white arms and shoulders enough white
and near him rode silenus on his ass
i see mythology that's made up of tales and myths you know
but i think in a way things like that do harm you see
we ought always to show virtue and vice in their true colours and if you look at it from that point of view this is just drunkenness that's rotten destroys your body and intellect as i heard a chap say once it's an insult to the beasts to call it beastly
i joined the blue ribbon when i was fourteen and i haven't been sorry for it yet no now there's vedder he went off on a bend as he calls it last night and
again he read with unresilient movement i saw osirian egypt kneel adown before the vine wreath crown
old tartary the fierce great brahma from his mystic heaven groans
i can hardly see better light the lamp we'll have tea first then read no you sit still i'll get it ready i know where things are he rose crossed to a little cupboard with a sink in it filled the kettle at the tap and brought it to the fire then he struck a match and lighted the lamp
as he turned the regulator looked from the waist upwards as if he stood within that portion of a spectrum screen that deepens to the band of red
and the wintry eastern light beyond the chimney hoods seemed suddenly almost to die out bessie
at the upper part of the grate presently she spoke i was looking at some of those things this afternoon at the museum
numbers of myra's journal and the delineator
what things he asked those you were reading about greek aren't they oh the greek room
the friend of man when swords went out of fashion walking sticks i suppose came into fashion the present custom has its advantages even in his busiest day the hero's sword must have returned at times to its scabbard
and what would he do then with nothing in his right hand but our walking sticks have no scabbards we grasp them always ready at any moment to summon a cab to point out a view or to dig an enemy in the stomach meanwhile we slash the air in defiance of the world
my first stick was a malacca silver at the collar and polished horn as to the handle for weeks it looked beseechingly at me from a shop window until a lucky birthday tip sent me in after it we went back to school together that afternoon
of course it was too beautiful to live long yet its death became it i had left many a parental umbrella in the train unhonoured and unsung my malacca was mislaid in an hotel in norway
what time travellers tell to awestruck stay at homes tales of adventure in distant lands even now if by a lucky chance norway is mentioned i tap the logs carelessly with the poker and drawl i suppose you didn't happen to stay at vossvangen
i left a malacca cane there once rather a good one too
my last is of ebony ivory topped
i could not take this stick with me it is not a stick for the country its heart is in piccadilly perhaps it might thrive in paris if it could stand the sea voyage but no i cannot see it crossing the channel in a cap i am no companion for it
could i step on to the boat in a silk hat and then retire below but i am always unwell below and that would not suit its dignity it stands now in a corner of my room crying aloud to be taken to the opera i used to dislike men who took canes to covent garden
but i see now how it must have been with them an ebony stick topped with ivory has to be humoured already i am considering a silk lined cape and it is settled that my gloves are to have black stitchings such is my last stick
for it was given to me this very morning at my first sight of it i thought that it might replace the common one which i lost in an easter train that was silly of me i must have a stick of less gentle birth which is not afraid to be seen with a soft hat
one with which i can slash dandelions one for which when ultimately i leave it in a train conscience does not drag me to scotland yard in short a companionable stick for a day's journey a country stick
the ideal country stick will never be found it must be thick enough to stand much rough usage of a sort which i will explain presently and yet it must be thin so that it makes a pleasant whistling sound through the air
or pull up the luncheon basket which you want even more badly
it must be unadorned so that it shall lack ostentation and yet it must have a band so that when you throw stones at it you can count two if you hit the silver you begin to see how difficult it is to achieve the perfect stick well
each one of us must let go those properties which his own stick can do best without for myself i insist on this my stick must be good for hitting and good to hit with a stick we are agreed is something to have in the hand when walking
but there are times when we sit down and if our journey shall have taken us to the beach our stick must at once be propped in the sand while from a suitable distance we throw stones at it however beautiful the sea its beauty can only be appreciated properly in this fashion
we must absorb it unconsciously with the mind gently exercised as to whether we scored a two on the band or a one just below it and with the muscles of the arm at stretch we are in a state ideally receptive of beauty and for my other essential of a country stick
it must be possible to grasp it by the wrong end and hit a ball with it so it must have no ferrule and the handle must be heavy and straight
chiefly we want a stick for leaning on when we are talking to an acquaintance suddenly met after the initial hulloa and the discovery that we have nothing else of importance to say the situation is distinctly eased by the remembrance of our stick it gives us a support moral and physical
such as is supplied in a drawing room by a cigarette for this purpose size and shape are immaterial yet this much is essential it must not be too slippery or in our nervousness we may drop it altogether my ebony stick with the polished ivory top
this article consisted of contributions from experts in the various branches of industry including one from a meteorological expert who i need hardly tell you forecasted a wet summer and ended with a general summing up of the year by old moore or one of the minor prophets
old moore i am sorry to say left me cold i should like to believe in astrology but i cannot i should like to believe that the heavenly bodies sort themselves into certain positions in order that zadkiel may be kept in touch with the future
the idea of a star whizzing a million miles out of its path by way of indicating a sensational divorce case in high life is extraordinarily massive but candidly i do not believe the stars bother what the stars are for
what they are like when you get there i do not know but a starry night would not be so beautiful if it were simply meant as a warning to some unpleasant financier that kaffirs were going up the ordinary man looks at the heavens and thinks what an insignificant atom he is beneath them
the believer in astrology looks up and realizes afresh his overwhelming importance perhaps after all i am glad i do not believe life must be a very tricky thing for the superstitious
at dinner a night or two ago i happened to say that i had never been in danger of drowning i am not sure now that it was true but i still think that it was harmless however before i had time to elaborate my theme whatever it was i was peremptorily ordered to touch wood
i protested that both my feet were on the polished oak and both my elbows on the polished mahogany one always knew that some good instinct inspired the pleasant habit of elbows on the table and that anyhow i did not see the need however because one must not argue at dinner
i tapped the table two or three times and now i suppose i am immune at the same time i should like to know exactly whom i have appeased for this must be the idea of the wood touching superstition that a malignant spirit dogs one's conversational footsteps
listening eagerly for the complacent word i have never had the mumps you say airily ha ha says the spirit haven't you just you wait till next tuesday my boy unconsciously we are crediting fate with our own human weaknesses
if a man standing on the edge of a pond said aloud i have never fallen into a pond in my life and we happened to be just behind him the temptation to push him in would be irresistible irresistible that is by us
but it is charitable to assume that providence can control itself by now
that they like it stroked nobody i suppose not even the most superstitious really thinks that fate is especially touchy in the matter of salt and ladders equally of course many people who throw spilt salt over their left shoulders are not superstitious in the least
and are only concerned to display that readiness in the face of any social emergency which is said to be the mark of good manners
to bend before the forces which work for harm and they pay tribute to fate by means of these little customs in the hope that they will secure in return an immunity from evil the tribute is nominal but it is an acknowledgment all the same
a proper sense of proportion leaves no room for superstition a man says i have never been in a shipwreck and becoming nervous touches wood why is he nervous he has this paragraph before his eyes
a remarkable coincidence this gentleman had been saying only a few days before that he had never been in a shipwreck little did he think that his next voyage would falsify his words so tragically
perhaps he has certainly he has never read a paragraph like this among the deceased was mister by a
yet that paragraph could have been written truthfully thousands of times a sense of proportion would tell you that if only one side of a case is ever recorded that side acquires an undue importance the truth is that fate does not go out of its way to be dramatic
if you or i had the power of life and death in our hands we should no doubt arrange some remarkably bright and telling effects a man who spilt the salt callously would be drowned next week in the dead sea and a couple who married in may would expire simultaneously in the may following
it goes about its business solidly and unromantically and by the ordinary laws of chance it achieves every now and then something startling and romantic superstition thrives on the fact that only the accidental dramas are reported
but there are charms to secure happiness as well as charms to avert evil in these i am a firm believer i do not mean that i believe that a horseshoe hung up in the house will bring me good luck
the charm of golf when he reads of the notable doings of famous golfers the eighteen handicap man has no envy in his heart for by this time he has discovered the great secret of golf
before he began to play he wondered wherein lay the fascination of it now he knows golf is so popular simply because it is the best game in the world at which to be bad consider what it is to be bad at cricket
you have bought a new bat perfect in balance
gloves of the very latest design do they let you use them no after one ball in the negotiation of which neither your bat nor your pads nor your gloves came into play they send you back into the pavilion to spend the rest of the afternoon
listening to fatuous stories of some old gentleman who knew fuller pilch and when your side takes the field
probably at long leg both ends exposed to the public gaze as the worst fieldsman in london how devastating are your emotions remorse anger mortification fill your heart above all envy
envy of the lucky immortals who disport themselves on the green level of lord's consider what it is to be bad at lawn tennis true
how often does your partner cry
is there pleasure in playing football badly you may spend the full eighty minutes in your new boots
they do not give you a ball to yourself at football but how different a game is golf at golf it is the bad player who gets the most strokes however good his opponent the bad player has the right to play out each hole to the end
he will get more than his share of the game he need have no fears that his new driver will not be employed he will have as many swings with it as the scratch man more if he misses the ball altogether upon one or two tees if he buys a new niblick
and above all there is this to be said for golfing mediocrity the bad player can make the strokes of the good player the poor cricketer has perhaps never made fifty in his life as soon as he stands at the wickets
but the eighteen handicap man has some time or other played every hole on the course to perfection
he has made superb approaches he has run down the long putt any of these things may suddenly happen to him again
and listen to the wonderful deeds of others he can join in too he can say with perfect truth i once carried the ditch at the fourth with my second or i remember when i drove into the bunker guarding the eighth green or even
bogey being five but if the bad cricketer says i remember when i took a century in forty minutes off lockwood and richardson he is nothing but a liar for these and other reasons golf is the best game in the world for the bad player
the joy of driving a ball straight after a week of slicing the joy of putting a mashie shot dead the joy of even a moderate stroke with a brassie best of all the joy of the perfect cleek shot these things the good player will never know
every stroke we bad players make we make in hope
and if the next stroke is good what happiness fills our soul how eagerly we tell ourselves that in a little while all our strokes will be as good what does vardon know of this if he does a five hole in four he blames himself that he did not do it in three
if he does it in five he is miserable he will never experience that happy surprise with which we hail our best strokes only his bad strokes surprise him and then we may suppose that he is not happy his length and accuracy are mechanical
or some suddenly discovered innovation the only thing which can vary in his game is his putting and putting is not golf but croquet but of course we too are going to be as good as vardon one day
and it is part of the charm of being bad at golf that in a moment in a single night we may become good if the bad cricketer said to a good cricketer what am i doing wrong the only possible answer would be nothing particular except that you can't play cricket
but if you or i were to say to our scratch friend what am i doing wrong he would reply at once moving the head or dropping the right knee or not getting the wrists in soon enough and by to morrow we should be different players
upon such a little depends or seems to the eighteen handicap to depend excellence in golf and so perfectly happy in our present badness and perfectly confident of our future goodness we long handicap men remain
perhaps it would be pleasanter to be a little more certain of getting the ball safely off the first tee perhaps at the fourteenth hole where there is a right of way and the public encroach we should like to feel that we have done with topping perhaps
no doubt all these diaries now contain the entry
of such little things are diaries made i suppose this is the reason why diaries are so rarely kept nowadays that nothing ever happens to anybody
monday another exciting day shot a couple of hooligans on my way to business and was forced to give my card to the police on arriving at the office was surprised to find the building on fire
but was just in time to rescue the confidential treaty between england and switzerland had this been discovered by the public war would infallibly have resulted went out to lunch and saw a runaway elephant in the strand thought little of it at the time
but mentioned it to my wife in the evening she agreed that it was worth recording tuesday
was late at the office as i had to look in at the palace on the way in order to get knighted but managed to get a good deal of work done before i was interrupted by a madman with a razor
shot him after a desperate struggle tea at an a b c
fell into the thames on my way home but swam ashore without difficulty alas we cannot do this our diaries are very prosaic very dull indeed they read like this
monday felt inclined to stay in bed this morning and send an excuse to the office but was all right after a bath and breakfast
afterwards worked till five and had my hair cut on the way home after dinner read a man's passion by theodora popgood rotten went to bed at eleven tuesday had a letter from jane
did some good work in the morning and at lunch met henry who asked me to play golf with him on saturday told him i was playing with peter but said i would like a game with him on the saturday after however it turned out he was playing with william then so we couldn't fix anything up
wednesday played dominoes at lunch and won fivepence if this sort of diary is now falling into decay
to enter up their day's doings each evening and in years to come it may just possibly be of interest to the diarist to know that it was on monday
we should find in this diary proof that anyhow he was alive as late as tuesday twenty eighth april
but there is another sort of diary which can never be of any importance at all i make no apology for giving a third selection of extracts monday rose at nine and came down to find a letter from mary how little we know our true friends
beneath the mask of outward affection there may lurk unknown to us the serpent's tooth of jealousy mary writes that she can make nothing for my stall at the bazaar as she has her own stall to provide for ate my breakfast mechanically my thoughts being far away
what after all is life meditated deeply on the inner cosmos till lunch time afterwards i lay down for an hour and composed my mind i was angry this morning with mary ah how petty shall i never be free from the bonds of my own nature
is the better self within me never to rise to the sublime heights of selflessness of which it is capable rose at four and wrote to mary forgiving her this has been a wonderful day for the spirit yes
if they cannot say attacked by a lion in bond street to day they can at least say
most people will prefer in the absence of the lion to say nothing or nothing more important than attacked by the hairdresser with a hard brush but there are others who must get pen to paper somehow and who find that only in regard to their emotions have they anything unique to say
but of course there is ever within the breasts of all diarists the hope that their diaries may some day be revealed to the world they may be discovered by some future generation amazed at the simple doings of the twentieth century
or their publication may be demanded by the next generation eager to know the inner life of the great man just dead best of all they may be made public by the writers themselves in their autobiographies
chapter twenty three we await our fate i glanced from the blacks to the doctor to see that he was intently gazing up the gorge where the rushing water came seething down
and i read in his face that he could not see the slightest hope i looked at jack penny who was deeply intent upon a little blue anchor that some bush shepherd had tattooed upon his thin white arm then i turned to jimmy
can we do anything doctor i said at last in a low awe stricken voice he gazed at me tenderly and held out his hand to press mine when i laid it in his grasp
no my lad he said nothing
but i can see none unless the water sinks we are lost joe my lad you must act like a man i'll try doctor i said in a choking voice and as i spoke
once more there seemed to rise up before me our quiet peaceful home near sydney
in one of which sat my mother waiting for tidings of her husband and son i could not help it but clasped my hands together uttering a despairing cry for it seemed so hard to give up hope
when so young and full of health and strength even if it had been amidst the roar and turmoil of the storm it would not have seemed so bad or when the great flood wave came down but now
in these calm cool moments when there was nothing to excite nothing to stir the blood and above all just when the sky
with a few silvery clouds floating away in the rear of the storm while the sun shone down gloriously it seemed too hard to bear
and then i joined the doctor in searching
and clamber beyond the reach of the rushing torrent but no
where even a bird could climb and in despair i too began to strip off some of my clothes are you going to try to swim said the doctor gravely i nodded
that's right he said i shall do the same we might reach some ledge lower down he said that word might with a slow
for i knew he felt that it was hopeless but all the same he granted that it was our duty to try the doctor now bent down over the water and i could see that it was rising faster than ever
all at once jimmy seemed to rouse himself
no water go down he said mass joe mass jack doctor
no get wet top along get drown die and bunyip pull um down an eat um i'm afraid escape is impossible jimmy i said sadly
no know what um say cried the black impatiently can't get away i said no get way waitum waitum jimmy jimmy see
he went to the edge of the shelf and dipped one foot in the water then the other
after a contemptuous look at the blacks who were calmly awaiting their fate
abutment and reaching up as high as he could began to climb it did not seem to occur to him at first that if he were able to escape no one else would be and he tried twice
with a wonderful display of activity which resulted merely in his slipping back then he tried elsewhere in two places but with the same result and after a few more trials
he came to me and stood rubbing the back of his head as if puzzled
get much too much water mass joe he said what um going to do i shook my head sadly
cracks and points of rock that we had before noticed disappearing entirely till the flowing earth stained surface was but a few inches below the ledge
waiting for the time when we should be swept away in spite of the knowledge that at most in an hour the ledge would be covered
for many ages after every storm and
the scouring of the rocks must have been incessant then my thoughts came back to our horrible position
but only to be shamed out of any frantic display of grief by the stoical calmness with which all seemed to be preparing to meet their fate
still the water rose steadily higher and higher inch by inch
it would be over the ledge i was noting too that now
near the end my companions seemed averse to speaking to me or each other but were evidently moody and thoughtful all but jimmy who seemed to be getting excited
i had gone to the extreme edge of the ledge where the water nearly lapped my feet and gazing straight up the gorge at the sunlit waters kept backing slowly up the slope driven away
as the river rose when the black came to me and touched my shoulder
not die yet while jimmy not go die
but how are we to get away jimmy how are we to escape black fellow hab big tink he replied much big tink and find um way
great tupid go die when quite well tank you mass joe jimmy black fellow won't die yet mass joe hab big swim long o jimmy
swim much fass all down a water won't die oh no oh no there was so much hope and confidence in the black's manner and his broken english that i felt my heart
but a sight of the calm resignation of my companions damped me again till jimmy once more spoke mass joe take off closums put long gun up in corner come and fetch um
when no water big swim many had been the times when jimmy and i had dashed into the river and swum about by the hour together
my spirits rose then at these thoughts and i rapidly threw off part of my clothes
in a niche of the rock where their weight and the shelter might save them from being washed away
i saw the doctor look up sadly but only to lower his head again
while jack penny stared and drew his knees up to his chin embracing his legs
the only individual who made
and came to me wagging his tail and uttering a sharp bark or two
snuffed at it lapped a little and threw up his head again barking and splashing in it a little as he ran in breast high and came back as if intimating that he was
ready at any moment for a swim the doctor looked up now
for he rose from where he had been seated and took my hand quite right my lad he said one must never say despair there's a ledge
where we will place the ammunition let's keep that dry if we can it may not be touched by the water even if we have to swim for our lives the guns won't hurt that is if they are not washed away
it was as if he had prepared himself for the worst and was now going to make strenuous efforts to save himself and his friends
about our stores jimmy grinned and helped readily to place the various articles likely to be damaged by
as high as we could on ledges and blocks of stone
it was with the feeling that we were never likely to see the things again
of all times was the hour for that so we worked on with many a furtive glance at the water which kept on encroaching till it began to lap the feet of our black companions
but they did not stir they remained with their positions unaltered and still the water advanced
and gyp began whining and paddling about asking us as it were with his intelligent eyes whether we did not mean to start hi gyp gyp shouted jimmy just then
up along boy up along and he patted the top of one of the stones that we had used for a breastwork the dog leaped up directly placing himself three feet above the flood and stood
barking loudly yes we can stand up there for a while said the doctor and that will prolong the struggle a bit here come up higher he cried making signs to our black companions
who after a time came unwillingly from their lower position splashing mournfully through the water but evidently unwilling even then to disobey their white leader they grouped themselves
where we stood with the water rising still higher
for a fresh wave the result probably of some portion of the flood that had been dammed up higher on the river course
we must have been borne away as it was we were standing by it some on either side and all clinging together we withstood the heavy wrench that the water seemed to give and held on
and when this had gone by there was
then by degrees it crept on and on till i was standing with it reaching my hips a fearful silence now ensued and the thought came upon me
that when the final struggle was at hand we should be so clasped together that swimming would be impossible and we must all be drowned and now once more with the water rising steadily
the old stunned helpless feeling began to creep over me and i began to think of home in a dull heavy manner of the happy days when i had hardly a care
but somehow i did not feel as if i repented of coming save when i thought that my mother would have two sorrows now when she came
to be numbed my limbs began to feel helpless and my thoughts moved sluggishly
holding tightly by the doctor on one side by jimmy on the other and in another minute i knew that the rising water would be at my lips i remember giving a curious gasp as if my breath was going
and in imagination i recalled my sensations when during a bathing expedition i went down twice before jimmy swam to my help and held me up
there was the old pain
and i struggled to get my hands free to beat the water like a drowning dog
how tightly probably they never knew then i remember that my head suddenly seemed to grow clear
as if i could not breathe the next minute gyp was barking furiously as he stood upon his hind legs resting his paws upon his master's shoulders and jimmy gave a loud shout all a water run away
juss fass now and as he spoke
was taken off pound by pound and before we could realise the truth the water was at my knees ten minutes later it was at my feet and before half an hour had passed
drying fast while the river minute by minute was going down so that we felt sure if no storm came to renew the flood it
and warmth was rapidly restored to our limbs by rocks that soon grew heated in the torrid rays big bunyip got no more water all gone dis time said jimmy calmly
poor black fellows tink go die no die jimmy
all over big country water all gone jimmy cunning artful not mean die dis time bunyip not got nuff water give jimmy something eat
ready eat half sheep and damper give jimmy some eat
chapter twenty two how high the water came the coming of the storm checked the furious onslaught of our black enemies but it was only for the moment setting thunder lightning
and the deluging rain at defiance they came rushing on shouting and yelling furiously and we were about to draw trigger reluctantly enough but in sheer desperation when a volley of arrows checked them for a time
while resuming what seemed to be a favourite means of warring upon his enemies jimmy commenced hurling masses of stone at the coming foes checked as they were though it was only for a
with fresh assailants taking the places of those who fell the thunder pealed so that the reports of our pieces seemed feeble more like the crack of a cart whip and their flashes were as sparks compared with the blinding lightning
which darted and quivered in the gorge at times seeming to lick the walls at others plunging into the rushing seething stream into which the rain poured in very cataracts down the rocky sides
we should have ceased in very awe of the terrible battle of the elements but in self defence we were driven to fight hard and repel the continued attacks of the enemy who
growing more enraged at our resistance came on once more in a determined fashion as if meaning this time to sweep us before them into the rushing stream
but for the bravery of our black companions our efforts would have been useless and we should certainly have been driven back by the fierce savages who advanced up the path sprang upon the stone breastwork
and used their war clubs in the most gallant manner jimmy too seemed to be transformed into as brave a black warrior as ever fought and it was the gallant resistance offered
that checked the enemy and made them recoil the falling back of the foremost men who were beaten and stunned by the blows they had received drove their companions to make a temporary retreat and enabled us to reload
but ere we could seem to get breath one who appeared to be a chief rallied them and two abreast all that the path would allow they came charging up towards us once again
then there was a dead pause as the thunder crashed overhead once more and then seemed to be continued in a strange rushing sound which apparently paralysed the attacking party who hesitated
stopped short about a third of the way up the narrow slope that led to our little fort and then with a shriek of dismay turned and began to retreat i stared after them
that they should give way just at a time when a bold attack would probably have ended in our destruction but i could make out nothing
only that the noise of the thunder still seemed to continue and grow into a sound like a fierce rush but this was nothing new the thunder had been going on before and that
and the blinding lightning the enemy had braved our defence had had no effect upon them save to make them attack more fiercely and yet they were now in full retreat
falling over each other in their haste and we saw two thrust into the swift river
clapping me on the shoulder and turning sharply i saw the meaning of the prolongation of the thunder for a great wave at least ten feet high ruddy foaming and full of tossing branches came rushing down the gorge
as if in chase of our enemies and before i had more than time to realise the danger
to our place of refuge and where a minute before there had been a rocky shelf the path along which we had come
i turned aghast to the doctor and then made as if to run expecting that the next moment we should be swept away but he caught me by the arm with a grip like iron stand still he roared
with his lips to my ear the storm high up the mountains flood the gorge just then there was another crashing peal of thunder close upon a flash of lightning and the hissing rain ceased as if by magic
the dull boom of the tremendous wave had passed too but the river hissed and roared as it tore along beneath our feet and it was plain to see that it was rising higher still
the noise was not so great though now that we could not talk and after recovering from the appalling shock of the new danger we had time to look around our first thought was
of our enemies and we gazed excitedly down the gorge and then at each other jack penny shuddering and turning away his head
as i fully realised the fact that they had been completely swept away there could not be a moment's doubt of that
and dashed along at frightful speed we had only escaped a similar fate through being on the summit so to speak of the rocky path
we could not tell for how long while on taking a hasty glance at our position it was this overhead the shelving rock quite impassable
to left to right and in front the swollen rushing torrent the doctor stood looking down at the water for a few moments and then turned to me how high above the surface of the water were we do you think when we came here
i should say about twenty five feet why we ain't four foot above it now and look there
i say joe carstairs if i'd known we were going to be drowned i wouldn't have come are you sure it is rising said the doctor bending down to examine the level an example i followed
to see crack and crevice gradually fill and point after point covered by the seething water which crept up slowly and insidiously higher and higher even as we watched yes said the doctor
rising to his feet and gazing calmly round as if to see whether there was any loophole left for escape yes the water is rising fast there can be no doubt of that just then gyp
who had been fierce and angry snapping and barking furiously at the savages each time they charged suddenly threw up his head and uttered a dismal howl here you hold your noise cried jack penny
you don't hear us holler do you lie down the dog howled softly and crouched at his master's feet while jack began to take off his clothes in a very slow and leisurely way
first he pulled off his boots then his stockings which he tucked methodically along with his garters inside his boots this done he took off his jacket folded it carefully and his shirt followed
to be smoothed and folded and laid upon the jacket and now for the first time i thoroughly realised how excessively thin poor jack penny was and the reason why
it seemed a strange time after passing through such a series of dangers after escaping by so little from being swept away and while in terrible danger from the swiftly rising waters
but i could not help it jack's aspect as he sat there coolly very coolly clothed in his trousers alone was so ludicrous that i burst out laughing when jimmy joined in and began to dance with delight
do he said why swim for it you don't suppose i'm going to try in my clothes my mirth died out as swiftly as it came for the doctor laid his hand upon my arm
and pressed it silently to call my attention to our black followers who were laying their bows and arrows regularly in company with their waddies each man looking very stern and grave
they showed no fear they raised no wild cry they only seemed to be preparing for what was inevitable
and then rise up and look round at his companions saying a few words in their tongue the chill of horror came back once more
but she had no time to give way to regular crying the father and brother depended upon her while they were giving way to grief she must be working planning considering even the necessary arrangements for the funeral seemed to devolve upon her
when the fire was bright and crackling when everything was ready for breakfast and the tea kettle was singing away margaret gave a last look round the room before going to summon mister hale and frederick she wanted everything to look as cheerful as possible
and yet when it did so the contrast between it and her own thoughts forced her into sudden weeping she was kneeling by the sofa hiding her face in the cushions that no one might hear her cry when she was touched on the shoulder by dixon
come miss hale come my dear you must not give way or where shall we all be there is not another person in the house fit to give a direction of any kind and there is so much to be done
and all to be settled and master frederick's like one crazed with crying
and poor gentleman he goes about now as if he was lost it's bad enough my dear i know but death comes to us all
perhaps so but this seemed a loss by itself not to bear comparison with any other event in the world margaret did not take any comfort from what dixon said but the unusual tenderness of the prim old servant's manner
and more from a desire to show her gratitude for this than for any other reason she roused herself up
mister hale came as if in a dream or rather with the unconscious motion of a sleep walker whose eyes and mind perceive other things than what are present frederick came briskly in with a forced cheerfulness
grasped her hand looked into her eyes and burst into tears she had to try and think of little nothings to say all breakfast time in order to prevent the recurrence of her companions thoughts too strongly to the last meal they had taken together
when there had been a continual strained listening for some sound or signal from the sick room after breakfast
he shook his head and assented to all she proposed though many of her propositions absolutely contradicted one another margaret gained no real decision from him and was leaving the room languidly to have a consultation with dixon
when mister hale motioned her back to his side ask mister bell said he in a hollow voice mister bell said she a little surprised mister bell of oxford mister bell he repeated
yes he was my groom's man margaret understood the association i will write to day said she he sank again into listlessness all morning she toiled on longing for rest but in a continual whirl
of melancholy business towards evening dixon said to her i've done it miss i was really afraid for master that he'd have a stroke with grief he's been all this day with poor missus and when i've listened at the door i've heard him talking to her
and talking to her as if she was alive when i went in he would be quite quiet but all in a maze like
and i don't it was only on tuesday
i met a southampton man the first i've seen since i came to milton
it was young leonards old leonards the draper's son as great a scamp as ever lived who plagued his father almost to death and then ran off to sea i never could abide him
though i don't recollect if he was there at the mutiny did he know you said margaret eagerly why that's the worst of it
a nasty good for nothing fellow says he miss dixon who would ha thought of seeing you here but perhaps i mistake and you're miss dixon no longer so i told him he might still address me as an unmarried lady though if i hadn't been so particular
i'd had good chances of matrimony
and by way of being even i asked him after his father
as if they was the best friends as ever was
miss dixon we'll go partners in the reward i know you'd like to be my partner now wouldn't you
margaret was made very uncomfortable by this account of dixon's have you told frederick asked she no said dixon
i thought it might rouse him to have to think of master frederick's safety a bit so i told him all
and it has done master good and if we're to keep master frederick in hiding he would have to go poor fellow before mister bell came
and for all he said he'd got a confidential situation
it was evident that frederick must go go too when he had so completely vaulted into his place in the family and promised to be such a stay and staff to his father and sister go when his cares for the living mother
and sorrow for the dead seemed to make him one of those peculiar people who are bound to us by a fellow love for them that are taken away just as margaret was thinking all this sitting over the drawing room fire
her father restless and uneasy under the pressure of this newly aroused fear of which he had not as yet spoken frederick came in his brightness dimmed but the extreme violence of his grief passed away he came up to margaret
and kissed her forehead how wan you look margaret said he in a low voice you have been thinking of everybody and no one has thought of you lie on this sofa there is nothing for you to do
i should just like to have it out with that young fellow a
i declare margaret you know the circumstances of the whole affair yes mamma told me well
were indignant with our captain this fellow to curry favour pah and to think of his being here oh if he'd a notion i was within twenty miles of him he'd ferret me out to pay off old grudges i'd rather anybody had the hundred pounds they think i am worth than that rascal
what a pity poor old dixon could not be persuaded to give me up and make a provision for her old age oh frederick hush don't talk so mister hale came towards them eager and trembling he had overheard what they were saying
he took frederick's hand in both of his my boy you must go it is very bad but i see you must you have done all you could you have been a comfort to her
oh papa must he go said margaret pleading against her own conviction of necessity i declare i've a good mind to face it out and stand my trial if i could only pick up my evidence
i could almost have enjoyed
and off you went a robbing you have not changed your feelings much since then yes you must go
which she had asked some time ago his thoughts were fixed on one subject and it was an effort to him to follow the zig zag remarks of his children an effort which he did not make margaret and frederick looked at each other
that quick momentary sympathy would be theirs no longer if he went away so much was understood through eyes that could not be put into words both coursed the same thought till it was lost in sadness frederick shook it off first do you know margaret
i saw dixon coming downstairs and she frowned and kicked me into hiding again i kept the door open and heard a message given to some man that was in my father's study and that then went away who could it have been some of the shopmen
very likely said margaret indifferently
said mister hale they were glad to have drawn him into the conversation mister thornton said margaret a little surprised i thought well little one what did you think asked frederick as she did not finish her sentence
oh only said she reddening and looking straight at him i fancied you meant some one of a different class not a gentleman somebody come on an errand he looked like some one of that kind said frederick carelessly
margaret was silent she remembered how at first before she knew his character she had spoken and thought of him just as frederick was doing it was but a natural impression that was made upon him and yet she was a little annoyed by it
she was unwilling to speak she wanted to make frederick understand what kind of person mister thornton was but she was tongue tied mister hale went on he came to offer any assistance in his power i believe but i could not see him
i told dixon to ask him if he would like to see you i think i asked her to find you
he has been a very agreeable acquaintance has he not asked frederick throwing the question like a ball for any one to catch who chose a very kind friend
said margaret when her father did not answer frederick was silent for a time at last he spoke margaret it is painful to think i can never thank those who have shown you kindness
your acquaintances and mine must be separate unless indeed i run the chances of a court martial
you don't know how i wish you would i have a good position the chance of a better continued he reddening like a girl
i only wish you knew her i am sure you would like no love is the right word like is so poor you would love her father if you knew her she is not eighteen
but if she is in the same mind another year she is to be my wife mister barbour won't let us call it an engagement but if you would come you would find friends everywhere besides dolores think of it father margaret be on my side
no no more removals for me said mister hale one removal has cost me my wife
oh frederick said margaret tell us more about her i never thought of this but i am so glad you will have some one to love and care for you out there tell us all about it in the first place she is a roman catholic
but my father's change of opinion nay margaret don't sigh
frederick himself was roman catholic in fact though not in profession as yet this was then the reason why his sympathy in her extreme distress at her father's leaving the church had been so faintly expressed in his letters
of a sailor but the truth was that even then he was himself inclined to give up the form of religion into which he had been baptised
how much love had to do with this change not even frederick himself could have told margaret gave up talking about this branch of the subject at last and returning to the fact of the engagement she began to consider it in some fresh light
but for her sake fred
if there were to be a court martial and you could find your witnesses you might at any rate show how your disobedience to authority was because that authority was unworthily exercised
in the first place margaret who is to hunt up my witnesses all of them are sailors drafted off to other ships except those whose evidence would go for very little as they took part or sympathised in the affair in the next place
allow me to tell you you don't know what a court martial is and consider it as an assembly where justice is administered instead of what it really is a court
evidence itself can hardly escape being influenced by the prestige of authority but is it not worth trying to see how much evidence might be discovered and arrayed on your behalf at present
all those who knew you formerly believe you guilty without any shadow of excuse
and we have never known where to seek for proofs of your justification now for miss barbour's sake make your conduct as clear as you can in the eye of the world she may not care for it she has i am sure
you disobeyed authority that was bad but to have stood by without word or act while the authority was brutally used would have been infinitely worse
but not the motives that elevate it out of a crime into an heroic protection of the weak for dolores sake they ought to know but how must i make them know
who would be my judges to give myself up to a court martial even if i could bring a whole array of truth speaking witnesses
my heroism no one would read a pamphlet of self justification so long after the deed even if i put one out will you consult a lawyer as to your chances of exculpation asked margaret looking up and turning very red
before i make him into my confidant
a hundred pounds very easily by doing a good action
up to justice nonsense frederick because i know a lawyer on whose honour i can rely of whose cleverness in his profession people speak very highly and who would i think
aunt shaw's relations mister henry lennox papa
said mister hale but don't propose anything which will detain frederick in england don't for your mother's sake
he must go to morrow i'm afraid papa said she tenderly we fixed that because of mister bell and dixon's disagreeable acquaintance yes i must go to morrow said frederick decidedly
mister hale groaned i can't bear to part with you
well then said margaret listen to my plan he gets to london on friday morning i will you might no it would be better for me to give him a note to mister lennox you will find him at his chambers in the temple
i will write down a list of all the names i can remember on board the orion i could leave it with him to ferret them out he is edith's husband's brother isn't he i remember your naming him in your letters i have money in barbour's hands
money dear father that i had meant for a different purpose
don't do that said margaret you won't risk it if you do and it will be a risk only it is worth trying you can sail from london as well as from liverpool to be sure little goose
wherever i feel water heaving under a plank there i feel at home
away from you on the one hand
what on earth is the matter with you sandy you used to be a tolerably nice man in spots
but after each one we seemed to reach a solider basis of understanding
which i did not in the slightest degree mean and from then on you faded into the distance really i have felt terribly bad about it and have wanted to apologize but your manner has not been inviting of confidence
you know how foolish and silly i am on occasions
partly because i wanted to justify their judgment partly because i was really interested in giving the poor little kiddies their share of happiness but mostly i actually believe
won't you please expunge that unfortunate fifteen minutes at the porte cochere last june and remember instead the fifteen hours i spent reading the kallikak family
sallie mc bride the john grier home sunday dear doctor mac rae i am in receipt of your calling card with an eleven word answer to my letter on the back i didn't mean to annoy you by my attentions
what you think and how you behave are really matters of extreme indifference to me be just as impolite as you choose s mc b december fourteenth dear judy please pepper your letters with stamps inside and out
i have thirty collectors in the family since you have taken to travel every day about post time an eager group gathers at the gate waiting to snatch any letters of foreign design
my children are getting to be almost like real children
even tossed a pillow myself last saturday those two desirable friends of percy's spent the whole afternoon playing with my boys they brought up three rifles and each man took the lead of a camp of indians and passed the afternoon in a bottle shooting contest
with a prize for the winning camp they brought the prize with them an atrocious head of an indian painted on leather dreadful taste but the men thought it lovely so i admired it with all the ardor i could assume
they undoubtedly enjoyed it more than i did i couldn't help being in a feminine twitter all the time the firing was going on for fear somebody would shoot somebody else but i know that i can't keep twenty four indians tied to my apron strings
and i never could find in the whole wide world three nicer men to take an interest in them just think of all that healthy exuberant volunteer service going to waste under the asylum's nose i suppose the neighborhood is full of plenty more of it and i am going to make it my business to dig it out
what i want most are about eight nice pretty sensible young women to come up here one night a week and sit before the fire and tell stories while the chicks pop corn i do so want to contrive a little individual petting for my babies
the trustees meeting last week went beautifully the new women are most helpful and only the nice men came i am happy to announce that the hon cy wykoff is visiting his married daughter in scranton i wish she would invite father to live with her permanently
with the utmost callousness
evening do you realize that i am an authority on the care of dependent children tomorrow i and other authorities visit officially the hebrew sheltering guardian society's orphan asylum at pleasantville all that's its name
it's a terribly difficult and roundabout journey from this point involving a daybreak start and two trains and an automobile but if i'm to be an authority i must live up to the title i'm keen about looking over other institutions and gleaning as many ideas as possible against our own alterations next year
and this pleasantville asylum is an architectural model i acknowledge now upon sober reflection that we were wise to postpone extensive building operations until next summer of course i was disappointed
because it meant that i won't be the center of the ripping up and i do so love to be the center of ripping ups but anyway you'll take my advice
the two building details we did accomplish are very promising our new laundry grows better and better
hates to have children messing about they make her nervous and as for turnfelt himself though industrious and methodical and an excellent gardener still his mental processes are not quite what i had hoped for
when he first came i made him free of the library he began at the case nearest the door which contains thirty seven volumes of pansy's works
i suggested a change and sent him home with huckleberry finn but he brought it back in a few days and shook his head
but at least compared with sterry turnfelt is a scholard and speaking of sterry he paid us a social call a few days ago in quite a chastened frame of mind it seems that the rich city feller whose estate he has been managing no longer needs his services
and sterry has graciously consented to return to us and let the children have gardens if they wish i kindly but convincingly declined his offer friday i came back from pleasantville last night with a heart full of envy please mister president
i'm dividing my chicks into big and little sisters and brothers each big one to have a little one to love and help and fight for big sister sadie kate has to see that little sister gladiola always has her hair neatly combed
and knows her lessons and gets a touch of petting and her share of candy very pleasant for gladiola but especially developing for sadie kate
five of my children are ready to be shoved but i can't bring myself to do it i keep remembering my own irresponsible silly young self and wondering what would have happened to me had i been turned out to work at the age of sixteen
i must leave you now to write an interesting letter to my politician in washington and it's hard work
oh yes he would too i'm afraid i'm slandering him babies at least boy babies grow into voters good by sallie dearest judy if you expect a cheerful letter from me the day don't read this
and you can hear us whoop when you get off the train two miles away we don't know how we got it just one of the pleasures of institution life cook has left in the night what the scotch call a moonlight flitting
the kitchen fire went with her the pipes are frozen
has gone and married herself to a man and a couple of automobiles and a yacht
but the shacks were scarcely planned for winter quarters
with the return of the indians to civilized life percy's occupation was ended
as you discovered last summer this spacious chateau does not contain a superabundance of guest rooms
mercy
with christmas only a week away however shall we finish all our plans in a week the chicks are making presents for one another and something like a thousand secrets have been whispered in my ear snow last night
the boys have spent the morning in the woods gathering evergreens and drawing them home on sleds and twenty girls are spending the afternoon in the laundry
was sadie kate's skeptical question but santa claus is undoubtedly coming this time i asked the doctor out of politeness to play the chief role at our christmas tree and being certain ahead of time that he was going to refuse
i had already engaged percy as an understudy but there is no counting on a scotchman sandy accepted with unprecedented graciousness
this is apropos of a call i received today
sister in a sanatorium for tuberculosis
she intimated a desire to look about
and our yellow dining room with its frieze of bunnies in order that she might report as many cheerful details as possible to the poor mother after this as she seemed tired
doctor mac rae being at hand and in a hungry mood a rare state for him
came too and we had a little party the woman seemed to feel that the burden of entertainment rested upon her and by way of making conversation she told us that her husband had fallen in love with the girl who sold tickets at a moving picture show
and he spent all of his money on the girl and never came home except when he was drunk then he smashed the furniture something awful
but it didn't kill her it only made her sick and he came back and said he would choke her if she ever tried that on him again so she guessed he must still care something for her all this quite casually while she stirred her tea
and sent her away actually uplifted
part of a doctor's business to heal the spirit as well as the body most spirits appear to need it in this world my caller has left me needing it
i suppose judging from the theaters this winter
men are so good at talking good by and a merry christmas to jervis and both judies s mc b
pleasing visions were also being woven around patty's place there was a warm pleasant sense of home in the thought of it even though she had never lived there but the summer had been a very happy one too a time of glad living with summer suns and skies a time of keen delight in wholesome things
to work more patiently to play more heartily all life lessons are not learned at college she thought life teaches them everywhere but alas the final week of that pleasant vacation was spoiled for anne
by one of those impish happenings which are like a dream turned upside down been writing any more stories lately inquired mister harrison genially one evening when anne was taking tea with him and missus harrison
no answered anne rather crisply well no offense meant
had been dropped into the post office box a month ago
indeed no i saw the prize offer but i'd never dream of competing for it
it would be almost as bad as judson parker's patent medicine fence so spake anne loftily little dreaming of the valley of humiliation awaiting her that very evening diana popped into the porch gable bright eyed and rosy cheeked carrying a letter
anne puzzled opened the letter and glanced over the typewritten contents miss anne shirley green gables avonlea p e island dear madam
thanking you for the interest you have shown in our enterprise we remain yours very truly
i don't understand said anne blankly diana clapped her hands
i was sure of it i sent your story into the competition anne
but just at this moment it struck her that anne was not looking exactly overjoyed the surprise was there beyond doubt but where was the delight why anne you don't seem a bit pleased she exclaimed
anne instantly manufactured a smile and put it on of course i couldn't be anything but pleased over your unselfish wish to give me pleasure she said slowly but you know i'm so amazed i can't realize it
and i don't understand there wasn't a word in my story about about anne choked a little over the word baking powder oh i put that in said diana reassured
and that was why it turned out so well and then in the last paragraph where perceval clasps averil in his arms and says sweetheart the beautiful coming years will bring us the fulfilment of our home of dreams i added
in which we will never use any baking powder except rollings reliable oh gasped poor anne
why i heard priscilla say once that the canadian woman only pays five dollars for a story anne held out the hateful pink slip in shaking fingers i can't take it it's yours by right diana you sent the story in and made the alterations i
so you must take the check i'd like to see myself said diana scornfully why what i did wasn't any trouble the honor of being a friend of the prizewinner is enough for me well i must go
but i simply had to come and hear the news i'm so glad for your sake anne anne suddenly bent forward put her arms about diana and kissed her cheek i think you are the sweetest and truest friend in the world diana she said
with a little tremble in her voice and i assure you i appreciate the motive of what you've done diana pleased and embarrassed got herself away and poor anne after flinging the innocent check into her bureau drawer as if it were blood money
cast herself on her bed and wept tears of shame and outraged sensibility oh she could never live this down never gilbert arrived at dusk brimming over with congratulations
i thought you would understand can't you see how awful it is i must confess i can't what is wrong everything moaned anne i feel as if i were disgraced forever
i feel just the same i loved my poor little story and i wrote it out of the best that was in me and it is sacrilege to have it degraded to the level of a baking powder advertisement
he said we were never to write a word for a low or unworthy motive but always to cling to the very highest ideals
that you won't said gilbert wondering uneasily if it were that confounded junior's opinion in particular over which anne was worried the reds will think just as i thought that you being like nine out of ten of us not overburdened with worldly wealth
i don't see that there's anything low or unworthy about that or anything ridiculous either
but meanwhile board and tuition fees have to be paid
did you ever have such a thrill in the whole of your life barring one or two connected with jervis
nothing in my four trips to europe ever thrilled me like the queer sights and tastes and smells of those three warm weeks seven years ago and ever since i've panted to get back when i stop to think about it
isn't it funny you'd think i must have a dash of creole or spanish or some warm blood in me somewhere but i'm nothing on earth but a chilly mixture of english and irish and scotch
the palm dreams of the pine and the pine of the palm after seeing you off i turned back to new york with an awful wander thirst gnawing at my vitals i too wanted to be starting off on my travels in a new blue hat
i suppose you are thinking they are not entirely incompatible gordon and the wide world
a good sensible workaday institution but awfully curbing to one's liberty somehow after you're married forever life has lost its feeling of adventure there aren't any romantic possibilities waiting to surprise you around each corner
the disgraceful truth is that
it seems a terrible task to tell you my troubles in tones that will reach to the bottom of the continent
and i could see you and jervis plainly leaning on the rail i waved frantically but you never blinked an eyelash your gaze was fixed in homesick contemplation upon the top of the woolworth building
as i was entering through their revolving doors
i thought we should revolve eternally but we finally got together and shook hands and she obligingly helped me choose fifteen dozen pairs of stockings and fifty caps and sweaters and two hundred union suits and then we gossiped all the way up to fifty second street where we had luncheon at the women's university club
she's not spectacular but steady and dependable
fifteen minutes ago said i
has she a nice husband
never saw a happier marriage it struck me that helen looked a trifle bleak and i suddenly remembered all that gossip that marty keene told us last summer so i hastily changed the conversation to a perfectly safe subject like orphans
has had a baby and lost him divorced her husband quarreled with her family and come to the city to earn her own living she is reading manuscript for a publishing house
the marriage just simply didn't work they weren't friends
glad to see you how are you and gone on and yet they married isn't it dreadful how blind this sex business can make people she was brought up on the theory that a woman's only legitimate profession is homemaking when she finished college she was naturally eager to start on her career
and henry presented himself her family scanned him closely and found him perfect in every respect good family good morals good financial position good looking helen was in love with him
but as they began to get acquainted they didn't like the same books or jokes or people or amusements he was expansive and social and hilarious and she wasn't
her orderliness made him impatient and his disorderliness drove her wild she would spend a day getting closets and bureau drawers in order and in five minutes he would stir them into chaos
and he never scrubbed out the tub and she
she realized it fully she got to the point where she wouldn't laugh at his jokes i suppose most old fashioned orthodox people would think it awful to break up a marriage on such innocent grounds
but as she went on piling up detail on detail each trivial in itself but making a mountainous total i agreed with helen that it was awful to keep it going it wasn't really a marriage it was a mistake
and for the first time in months he agreed with her you can imagine the outraged feelings of her victorian family in all the seven generations of their sojourn in america they have never had anything like this to record in the family bible
no one could see any reason for a divorce the pathetic part of the whole business is that both she and henry were admirably fitted to make some one else happy they just simply didn't match each other and when two people don't match all the ceremonies in the world can't marry them
we've just had one of those miserable deceiving nights cold and frosty when you go to bed and warm and lifeless when you wake in the dark smothered under a mountain of blankets
i thought of those fourteen bundled up babies in the fresh air nursery their so called night nurse sleeps like a top the whole night through her name is next on the list to be expunged
but when i do i settle world problems
should change our minds about liking each other the fear grips my heart and wrings it dry but i am marrying him for no reason in the world except affection i'm not particularly ambitious neither his position nor his money ever tempted me in the least
and certainly i am not doing it to find my life work
i go about planning and planning their baby futures feeling that i'm constructing the nation whatever becomes of me in after life
and it is a tremendous experience the nearness to humanity that an asylum brings i am learning so many new things every day that when each saturday night comes i look back on the sallie of last saturday night amazed at her ignorance
my desk and closet and bureau drawers are organized to suit me
it isn't that i like him any the less but i am getting to like orphans the more i just met our medical adviser a few minutes ago as he was emerging from the nursery
he paused in passing to make a polite comment upon the sudden change in the weather and to express the hope that i would remember him to missus pendleton when i wrote
have a good time and don't forget the john grier home and sallie december eleventh dear judy your jamaica letter is here and i'm glad to learn that judy junior enjoys traveling
we are running along here very much as usual without anything exciting to chronicle you remember little maybelle fuller don't you the chorus girl's daughter whom our doctor doesn't like
i tried to make the woman take hattie heaphy instead the quiet little one who stole the communion cup but no indeed
all their seven lives they visited one of the big liners sandy knows the scotch engineer and were conducted from the bottom of the hold to the top of the crow's nest and then had luncheon on board
and after luncheon they visited the aquarium and the top of the singer building and took the subway uptown to spend an hour with the birds of america in their habitats sandy with great difficulty pried them away from the natural history museum in time to catch the six fifteen train
dinner in the dining car they inquired with great particularity how much it was costing and when they heard that it was the same no matter how much you ate they drew deep breaths and settled quietly and steadily to the task of not allowing their host to be cheated
i don't wish to boast
are they bound for a reformatory would have been the natural question after observing the table manners of her offspring my little band tumbled in toward ten o'clock excitedly babbling a mess of statistics about reciprocating compound engines and watertight bulkheads
devil fish and sky scrapers and birds of paradise
i do wish i could manage breaks in the routine oftener
he waved me aside in the middle of a sentence and growlingly asked miss snaith if she couldn't economize a little on carbolic acid the house smelt like a hospital i must tell you that punch is back with us again entirely renovated as to manners i am looking for a family to adopt him
i had hoped those two intelligent spinsters would see their way to keeping him forever
and they feel he's too consuming of their liberty i inclose a sketch in colored chalk of your steamer which he has just completed there is some doubt as to the direction in which it is going it looks as though it might progress backward and end in brooklyn
owing to the loss of my blue pencil our flag has had to adopt the italian colors the three figures on the bridge are you and jervis and the baby i am pained to note that you carry your daughter by the back of her neck as if she were a kitten
that is not the way we handle babies in the j g h nursery please also note that the artist has given jervis his full due in the matter of legs when i asked punch what had become of the captain
it had been a warm smoky summer afternoon the world was in a splendor of out flowering the idle valleys were full of hazes the woodways were pranked with shadows and the fields with the purple of the asters
she had so spent many evenings that summer although she often wondered what good it did any one and sometimes went home deciding that she could not go again ruby grew paler as the summer waned the white sands school was given up
her father thought it better that she shouldn't teach till new year's and the fancy work she loved oftener and oftener fell from hands grown too weary for it but she was always gay always hopeful
always chattering and whispering of her beaux and their rivalries and despairs it was this that made anne's visits hard for her what had once been silly or amusing was gruesome now it was death peering through a wilful mask of life
every time you go to see ruby you come home looking tired out she said it's so very sad and dreadful said anne in a low tone ruby doesn't seem to realize her condition in the least
all the time i'm with her i feel as if i were watching her struggle with an invisible foe trying to push it back with such feeble resistance as she has that is why i come home tired
ruby was strangely quiet she said not a word about parties and drives and dresses and fellows she lay in the hammock with her untouched work beside her and a white shawl wrapped about her thin shoulders her long yellow braids of hair
how anne had envied those beautiful braids in old schooldays lay on either side of her she had taken the pins out they made her head ache she said
leaving her pale and childlike the moon rose in the silvery sky empearling the clouds around her below the pond shimmered in its hazy radiance just beyond the gillis homestead was the church with the old graveyard beside it
the moonlight shone on the white stones bringing them out in clear cut relief against the dark trees behind how strange the graveyard looks by moonlight said ruby suddenly how ghostly she shuddered anne
it won't be long now before i'll be lying over there you and diana and all the rest will be going about full of life and i'll be there in the old graveyard dead the surprise of it bewildered anne for a few moments she could not speak you know it's so don't you
said ruby insistently yes i know
dear ruby i know everybody knows it said ruby bitterly
i don't want to die i'm afraid to die why should you be afraid ruby asked anne quietly because because oh i'm not afraid but that i'll go to heaven anne i'm a church member
and homesick heaven must be very beautiful of course the bible says so but anne it won't be what i've been used to
it was sad tragic and true heaven could not be what ruby had been used to there had been nothing in her gay frivolous life her shallow ideals and aspirations to fit her for that great change
for it was difficult for anne to speak to any one of the deepest thoughts of her heart or the new ideas that had
what it is and what it holds for us i don't think it can be so very different from life here as most people seem to think i believe we'll just go on living a good deal as we live here and be ourselves just the same
only it will be easier to be good and to follow the highest all the hindrances and perplexities will be taken away and we shall see clearly don't be afraid ruby i can't help it said ruby pitifully
and all that ruby said was so horribly true she was leaving everything she cared for she had laid up her treasures on earth only she had lived solely for the little things of life the things that pass forgetting the great things that go onward into eternity
but now it was no wonder her soul clung in blind helplessness to the only things she knew and loved
and have little children you know i always loved babies anne
anne pressed her hand in an agony of sympathy
for presently she grew calmer and her sobs ceased
i've wanted to all summer every time you came i wanted to talk it over with you but i couldn't
i wouldn't say it or even think it in the daytime when people were around me and everything was cheerful it wasn't so hard to keep from thinking of it but in the night when i couldn't sleep it was so dreadful anne i couldn't get away from it then
death just came and stared me in the face until i got so frightened
but you won't be frightened any more ruby will you
and you'll come up as often as you can won't you anne
and i'd rather have you than any one else i always liked you best of all the girls i went to school with you were never jealous or mean like some of them
we've never spoken to each other since
anything like that seems silly now but em and i made up the old quarrel yesterday
and you shouldn't be out in the damp you'll come up soon again yes very soon and if there's anything i can do to help you i'll be so glad i know you have helped me already
nothing seems quite so dreadful now good night anne good night dear
life held a different meaning a deeper purpose on the surface it would go on just the same but the deeps had been stirred it must not be with her as with poor butterfly ruby
something for which accustomed thought and ideal and aspiration had unfitted her the little things of life sweet and excellent in their place must not be the things lived for the highest must be sought and followed the life of heaven must be begun here on earth
that good night in the garden was for all time anne never saw ruby in life again the next night the a v i s gave a farewell party to jane andrews before her departure for the west and while light feet danced and bright eyes laughed and merry tongues chattered
there came a summons to a soul in avonlea that might not be disregarded or evaded the next morning the word went from house to house that ruby gillis was dead she had died in her sleep painlessly and calmly and on her face was a smile
as if after all death had come as a kindly friend to lead her over the threshold instead of the grisly phantom she had dreaded missus rachel lynde said emphatically after the funeral that ruby gillis was the handsomest corpse she ever laid eyes on her loveliness
as she lay white clad among the delicate flowers that anne had placed about her was remembered and talked of for years in avonlea ruby had always been beautiful but her beauty had been of the earth earthy
spirit had never shone through it intellect had never refined it but death had touched it and consecrated it bringing out delicate modelings and purity of outline never seen before doing what life and love and great sorrow
and deep womanhood joys might have done for ruby anne looking down through a mist of tears at her old playfellow thought she saw the face god had meant ruby to have and remembered it so always
i want you to have this she sobbed ruby would have liked you to have it it's the embroidered centerpiece she was working at it isn't quite finished the needle is sticking in it just where her poor little fingers put it the last time she laid it down the afternoon before she died
ruby is the first of our schoolmates to go one by one sooner or later all the rest of us must follow yes i suppose so said diana uncomfortably
the gillises must always make a splurge even at funerals quoth missus rachel lynde herb spencer's sad face
but anne would not talk of these things she seemed wrapped in a reverie in which diana felt lonesomely that she had neither lot nor part ruby gillis was a great girl to laugh said davy suddenly
i want to know yes i think she will said anne oh anne protested diana with a rather shocked smile well why not diana asked anne seriously do you think we'll never laugh in heaven oh i i don't know floundered diana
you know it's rather dreadful to laugh in church but heaven won't be like church all the time said anne i hope it ain't said davy emphatically
and consults the family bible in the way described
be under any circumstances justifiable i do not pretend to judge saint augustine in his one hundred nineteenth letter to januarius seems not to disapprove of this custom
gregory of tours tells us what was his practice he spent several days in fasting and prayer and in strict retirement after which he resorted to the tomb of saint martin and taking any book of scripture which he chose he opened it
and took as answer from god the first passage that met his eye should this passage prove inappropriate
which contains thirty one verses
the manner of consulting it is simple it is but to look for the verse answering to the day of the month on which the questioner was born the answer will be found in most cases to be exceedingly ambiguous the practice of consulting certain books for purposes
of augury is of high antiquity herodotus speaks of the custom and of the fraud of oxomacritus a celebrated diviner who made use of musoeus for reference and who was driven out of athens by hipparchus
because he had been detected inserting in the verses of musoeus an oracle predicting the disappearance in the waves of the islands near lemnos homer and afterwards virgil were the poets most frequently consulted
two hundred years after the death of virgil
heliogabalus who feared and hated him and the line of virgil he read told him that if he could surmount opposing fates he would be marcellus the emperor heraclius
when deliberating where to fix his winter quarters was determined by an oracle of this sort he purified his army during three days and then opened the gospels the passage he found was understood by him
this is illustrated in a curious ancient painting of the consecration of saint thomas
shown in the leeds fine art exhibition of eighteen sixty eight chroniclers and biographers have not failed to mention several prognostications given in this manner which were verified in the event
by constantine porphyrogenitus a patriarchate which he stained with his crimes caracalla bishop
says the historian pachymerus the congregation prepared to take note of the oracle
though this oracle is not infallibly true
prepared for the devil and his angels groaned in the depth of his heart and putting up his hand to hide the words turned over the leaves of the book and disclosed the other words the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches
words which seemed far removed from the ceremony which was being celebrated
but it was found impossible to conceal the truth it was said that they did not forbid
received episcopal unction in the church of saint ruffinus but it was of sad portent to him
after many crimes he was assassinated
the new prelate having presented himself for consecration people looked to see what the gospel would prognosticate but it was opened at a blank page as though god had said i have nothing to foretell of this man because he will be and will do nothing
to read my future at the moment when he was preparing to leave with the procession to meet me
towards this or that chapter now the book was written not in pages but in columns the monk's eyes rested on the middle of the second column where he read the following passage the light of the body is the eye
then he bade the deacon who was to present the gospel to me to take care after i had kissed the cross on the cover to hold his hand on the passage he indicated to him and then attentively to observe as soon as he had opened the book before me
the deacon accordingly opened the book after i had as custom required pressed my lips upon the cover whilst he observed with curious eyes the direction taken by my glance my eye and spirit together turned neither above nor below
but precisely towards the verse which had been indicated before the monk who had sought to form conjectures by this seeing that my action had accorded without premeditation with his intentions came to me a few days after
and told me what he had done and how wondrously my first movement had coincided with his own thomas cantipratensis
some members of which had lately entered the city he hesitated as to their having been legitimately constituted and questioned their value whereupon he betook himself to prayer and then going to the altar opened the missal at the words laudare
i have been told of another man in somewhat parallel circumstances having lately awakened to religious convictions after a life of great laxity who sought guidance in the same manner and read
go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee a story of the baleful effects of this practice among scotch presbyterians
appeared in a collection of legends of edinburgh by a recent writer the story related how a designing mother persuaded her reluctant daughter into a marriage with a wealthy but dissipated youth the son of their employer
take her and go and let her be thy master's son's wife as the lord hath spoken
to be a message from heaven gregory of tours mentions a couple of instances of omens taken from scripture
the prophets the acts and the evangelists in like manner according to gregory merovius flying from the wrath of his father chilperic and fredigunda
what was to happen to him he fasted three days and continued incessantly in prayer
and was so dismayed at the replies which he found that he wept bitterly beside the tomb and then sadly left the basilica in eleven fifteen differences having arisen touching the elevation of hugh de montaigu to the bishopric of
who decided in favour of his consecration and ordained him himself it was urged by his friends in his favour that on the opening of the book above his head during the ceremony these words stood out at the head of the page
and this was regarded as a token of his chastity humility and exemplary piety and of the favour in which he was held by the blessed virgin according to the use of the ancient church of terouanne on the reception of a new canon
it was customary to open at random the psalter after that the volume had been sprinkled by the dean with holy water and the paragraph at the head of the page was transcribed in the letters patent of the new canon
the bollandists relate that saint petrock of cornwall when in doubt whether to undertake a pilgrimage to the holy land or not was decided by opening his bible at the passage in isaiah et erit
ejus gloriosum a similar story is told of saint poppo a belgian saint of the eleventh century the anecdote is well known of king charles and lord falkland
the lines they met with and which were so singularly verified afterwards are marked with their initials in the book which is still preserved
virgilianae when he makes panurge consult them on the subject of his marriage gregory of tours sad at heart because of the desolation produced by the ravages of count
gregory relates another story akin to the subject clovis at the moment when he was marching against alaric king of the visigoths sent his deputies to the church of saint martin at tours
after having given them presents for the sacred place he added o lord god if thou art on my side if thou art determined to deliver into my hands this unbelieving nation hostile to thy name grant that i may see thy favour
or the entry of my servants into the basilica of saint martin that i may know if thou deignest to be favourable to thy suppliant the envoys having hastened to tours
the antiphon thou hast girded me with strength unto the battle
probably on account of the superstitious use made of it the sixteenth canon of the council
forbids clerks under pain of excommunication consulting the sortes sacrae
aliquanti
by that of enham
related to sortes sacrae are those messages which are supposed
and it is quite possible and indeed probable that certain texts accidentally met with may influence for good or bad
when at last day streamed in silver across the peaks the storm had spent itself but nod did not stir nor draw near to the fire to drink of the hot pepper water the travellers had brewed against the cold
thumb came at last and stooped over him get up now ummanodda little brother and do not mope and sulk any more i was angry because i was afraid
and his wonderstone come nearer to the fire and dry your sodden sheep's coat nod crept forlornly to the fire and sat there shivering he could not eat
they had come back bruised and bedraggled and torn with thorns one of them stumbling in the gloom on the green rocks had fallen headlong into the cataract and had not been seen again
while they were hobbling back in the torchless darkness towards the beacon above the cataract there was no way beyond the ravine all was dense low forest rocks and thorns and pouring waterways
and the travellers knew not what to be doing nod could not bear to look at them nor listen to their lisping mournful voices
weary of his brothers of the very daylight but weariest of himself after long palaver ghibba came shuffling over to him and sat down beside him is the mulla mulgar ill that he sits alone hiding his eyes he said
nod shook his head i am in my second sleep mountain mulgar a little frost has cankered my bones it is the harp nod hears
the mulla mulgars say there can be no turning back nizza neela and by the way i have come it is certain that there is no going onward then say they being mulgars of a race
we must float with the mountain water into the great cavern and trust our hearts to the fishes maybe it will carry us to where every shadow comes at last maybe these are the waters of the fountains of assasimmon
already my people are gathering branches said ghibba to make floating mats or rafts such as i saw one of the fishing mulgars squatting on while he dangled his tail for fish bait
tishnar who guards you tishnar whose prince you are tishnar
utts like me on fruits of sleeping time will not forsake us now nod turned cold and trembling as if to tell this solemn man of the mountains that his wonderstone was gone but he swallowed his spittle and was ashamed
the storm had snapped and stripped off many branches from the trees these the travellers dragged down to the water others they hauled down with cullum ropes and some smaller saplings they charred through with fire at the root
cullum and all kinds of greenery ghibba and thumb bound them clumsily one by one together letting them float out on to the water until the raft was large and buoyant enough to bear two or three mulgars with their bags for one great raft
besides being harder for these ignorant sailors to navigate the torrent flowed swiftly into the cavern and if but two or three sailed in together fortune might drown or lose many in the dark windings of the mountain water
but one or two at least might escape they toiled on till evening by which time four strong green rafts bobbed side by side at their mooring ropes on the water then tired out sore and blistered
with their day's labours the travellers heaped up a great watch fire once more and supped merrily together since it might be for many of them for the last time
cataract wishing to keep a brave heart for the dangers before them only nod sat gloomy and downcast waiting impatiently till all should be lying fast asleep one by one the outwearied travellers laid themselves down
with the palms of their feet towards the fire nod heard the calling of the beasts in the ravine and ever and again from far up the mountain side broke out the long hungry howl of the little wolves
only nod and the mountain mulgar whose turn it was to keep watch were now awake he was a queer old mulgar blind of one eye but he could stand wide awake for hours mumbling in his mouth a shaving of their blue cheese rind
and when he had turned his back for a moment on the fire nod wriggled softly away and hobbling off into the forest soon reached the water side he crept forward under the gigantic dragon tree
and down the steep bank to the little creek where he had first heard the singing of the water midden all was shadowy and still only the dark water murmured in its stony channel and the faint night wind rustled in the sedge
nod leaned on his belly over the water and gazing into it called as softly and clearly as his harsh voice could
no one answered he stooped lower and called again it is me the mulla mulgar child of tishnar who trusted to you his wonderstone beautiful midden nod who believed in you calls your friend the sorrowful nod
sing mulla mulgar croaked a scornful sedge bird the princess loves sweet music a lean fish of the changing colours of a cherry swam softly to the glimmering surface and stared at nod tell me
jacket of loveliness whispered nod where is thy mistress that she does not answer me
the fish leapt in the water and caught the little fruit in its thin curved teeth and nibbled greedily till all was gone whereupon staring solemnly at nod once more he let the leaves and stalk float onward with the stream
then with a flash and flicker of tail dived down down and was gone all again was silent only the blazing stars and the shadowy phantoms of the distant firelight moved on the water o tishnar
muttered the little mulgar to himself help once this wretched nod suddenly as he watched as if it were the amber or ivory beam of a lantern in the water he saw a pale brightness ascending
but he spoke gently for he could not look into her beautiful wild face and her eyes that were like the forest for darkness and the moonlit mountains of tishnar for loveliness and still be angry nor even sad tell me o water midden
where is my wonderstone he said the water midden smoothed slowly back her gold locks you told me false mulla mulgar she answered all day long have i been sitting rubbing rubbing with my small tired thumb but no magic has answered
it is but a common water pebble roughened into the beasts shapes it means nothing and i am weary and nod guessed she had been rubbing the wonderstone craft to cudgel and not as the magic went sama weeza
but the midden smiled with her red lips you did deceive me then mulla mulgar
and far above the other hoarse voiced travellers the beloved of tishnar you may deceive me again perhaps i think i will not give you back your stone perhaps too she said throwing back her tiny chin so that her face lay like a flower in leaves of gold
perhaps i rubbed not wisely you shall tell me how
and long no more for tishnar's fountains then the midden floated out into the middle of the stream and with one light hand kept herself in front of nod
into her palm the angry flaming wonderstone see mulla mulgar here is your wonderstone now in patience tell me how to make magic and nod said softly
and the water midden drew in a little still softly twirling oh but just a thumb nail nearer said nod laughing she floated in closer yet till her beautiful eyes were looking up into his bony and wrinkled face
then with a sudden spring he thrust his hand deep into the silken mesh of her hair and held tight she moved not a finger she still looked laughing up listen listen midden he said i will not harm you i could not harm you beautiful one
though you never gave me back my wonderstone again and i wandered forsaken till i died of hunger in the forest what use is the stone to you now tishnar is angry see how wildly it burns and sulks give it then into my hand and i promise
not a promise midden fading in one evening i will give you any one thing else whatsoever it is you ask and the water midden looked up at him unfrightened and saw the truth and kindness in his eyes be not angry with me little brother she answered
and she dropped the wonderstone into his outstretched hand tears sprang up into nod's tired aching eyes he smoothed softly with his hairy fingers the golden strands floating in the ice cold water till i die o beautiful one he said i will not forget you
this shall be my sorrowful wish little mulgar it is that when you and your brothers come at last to the kingdom of assasimmon and the valleys of tishnar you will not forget me o midden nod answered
for now we must plunge into the water cavern on our floating rafts and all is haste and danger but i mind no danger now midden that mulla mulgar my father seelem chose to wander and not to sit fat and idle with princes
so too would i tell me a harder wish ask anything water midden
and the water midden gazed sorrowfully into his face that is all i ask mulla mulgar she repeated softly that you will not forget me i fear the wonderstone all day it has been crickling and burning in my hair
and cut it through with the sharp edge of a little shell and she wound it seven times round nod's left wrist there she said that will bid you remember me when you come to the end have no fear of the waters nizza neela
and nod could not think what in his turn to give the water midden for a remembrance and a keepsake so he gave her battle's silver groat with the hole in it
and hung it upon a slender shred of cullum round her neck and he tore off also one of the five out of his nine ivory buttons that still clung to his coat and gave her that too
and he said good bye to her kneeling above the dark water but long after he had safely wrapped his wonderstone in the blood stained leaf from battle's little book again
and now the sun shone down so fiercely that the mulgars climbing hacking dragging at the branches and moiling to and fro betwixt forest and water teased by flies and stinging ants hardly knew what to do for the heat
thumb and thimble stripped off the few rags left of their red jackets
yet he is so hot he can scarcely breathe nod made no answer but worked stolidly on bunched up in his hot jacket because he feared if he went bare his brothers would see the thin strand of bright hair about his wrist and mock at the midden
when the sun was at noon the mulgars had finished the building of their rafts they lay merrily bobbing in a long string
they tied up bundles of nuts and old nanoes roots and pepper pods and scores of torches and bound these down securely to the smallest of the rafts then wearied out with sting swollen chops and bleeding hands
there were now seventeen travellers and they had built nine light rafts two mulgars for every raft except two
moona mulgars who weigh scarce more than meermuts at the best of times the other and least was for their bundles and torches
over and above what each mulgar carried for himself
one that undoubtedly holds in earthly economy a not dissimilar observation is made in the proverb possession is nine tenths of the law indeed some trifling acquisition often gives an animal
an initial advantage which may easily roll up and increase prodigiously becoming the basis of prolonged good fortune sometimes this initial advantage is a matter of natural structure like talent strength or goodness sometimes an accidental accretion like breeding
instruction or wealth such advantages grow by the opportunities they make and it is possible for a man launched into the world at the right moment with the right equipment to mount easily from eminence to eminence
and accomplish very great things without doing more than genially follow his instincts and respond with ardour like an alexander or a shakespeare to his opportunities a great endowment
it is no loss of liberty to subordinate ourselves to a natural leader on the contrary we thereby seize an opportunity to exercise our freedom availing ourselves of the best instrument obtainable to accomplish our ends
a man may be a natural either by his character or by his position the advantages a man draws from that peculiar structure of his brain which renders him for instance a ready speaker or an ingenious mathematician
are by common consent regarded as legitimate advantages the public will use and reward such ability without jealousy and with positive delight
in an unsophisticated age the same feeling prevails in regard to those advantages which a man may draw from more external circumstances if a traveller having been shipwrecked in some expedition
should learn the secrets of an unknown land its arts and resources his fellow citizens on his return would not hesitate to follow his direction in respect to those novel matters it would be senseless folly on their part to begrudge him his adventitious eminence
and refuse to esteem him of more consequence than their uninitiated selves yet when people ignoring the natural causes of all that is called artificial think that but for an unlucky chance they too might have enjoyed the advantages
which raise other men above them they sometimes affect not to recognise actual distinctions and abilities or study enviously the means of annulling them
some real competence accrues to anyone it is for the general interest that this competence should bear its natural fruits diversifying the face of society
variety in the world is an unmixed blessing so long as each distinct function can be exercised without hindrance to any other there is no greater stupidity or meanness than to take uniformity for an ideal as if it were not a benefit and a joy to a man being what he is
to know that many are have been and will be better than he grant that no one is positively degraded by the great man's greatness and it follows that everyone is exalted by it beauty genius holiness even power and extraordinary wealth
hence the insatiable vulgar curiosity about great people and the strange way in which the desire for fame by which the distinguished man sinks to the common level is met and satisfied by the universal interest in whatever is extraordinary this
avidity not to miss knowledge of things notable and to enact vicariously all singular roles shows the need men have of distinction and the advantage they find even in conceiving it
that recognises in what is yet attained a sad caricature of
a difference which renders agrippa's fable wholly misleading the hands and feet have no separate consciousness and if they are ill used it is the common self that feels the weariness and the bruises
but in the state the various members have a separate sensibility
and although their ultimate interests lie no doubt in co operation and justice their immediate instinct and passion may lead them to oppress one another perpetually at one time the brain forgetting the members may feast on opiates and unceasing music and again the members
thinking they could more economically shift for themselves may starve the brain and reduce the body politic to a colony of vegetating microbes in a word the consciousness inhabiting the brain
but in the state every cell has a separate brain and the greatest citizen by his existence realises only his own
since luxury and injustice we are told first necessitated war and the guiding idea of all the platonic regimen is military efficiency
on the other the finite values of all the created hierarchy according to theistic cosmology there was a metaphysical necessity if creatures were to exist at all that they should be in some measure inferior to godhead otherwise they would have been indistinguishable
from the godhead itself according to the principle called the identity of indiscernibles which declares that two beings exactly alike cannot exist without collapsing into an undivided unit the propagation of life involved then
declension from pure vitality and to diffuse being meant to dilute it with nothingness this declension might take place in infinite degrees each retaining some vestige of perfection mixed as it were
and inanimate creation each sphere as it receded contained a paler adumbration of the central perfection
but also no evil to the creature and no injustice for a modicum of good is not made evil simply because a greater good is elsewhere possible
dante has expressed this thought with great simplicity and beauty he asks a friend's spirit which he finds lodged in the lowest circle of paradise if a desire to mount higher does not sometimes visit him
and the spirit replies brother the force of charity quiets our will making us wish only for what we have and thirst for nothing more if we desired to be in a sublimer sphere our desires would be discordant with the will of him who here
allots us our divers stations something which you will see there is no room for in these circles if to dwell in charity be needful here and if you consider
that our own purposes may become one also thus the manner in which we are ranged from step to step in this kingdom pleases the whole kingdom as it does the king who gives us will to will with him and his will is our peace it is that sea toward which all things move
the only paradise such pious resignation has in it something pathetic and constrained
for a theism which like aristotle's and dante's has a platonic essence god is really nothing but the goal of human aspiration embodied imaginatively this fact makes these philosophers feel that whatever falls short of divinity has something imperfect about it
must yearn for ever like aristotle's cosmos making in his perpetual round a vain imitation of deity and an eternal prayer hence a latent minor strain in aristotle's philosophy the hopeless note of paganism and in dante an undertone of sorrow and sacrifice
inseparable from christian feeling in both virtue implies a certain sense of defeat a fatal unnatural limitation as if a pristine ideal had been
and what remained were at best a compromise accordingly we need not be surprised if aspiration in all these men finally takes a mystical turn and dante's ghostly friends after propounding their aristocratic philosophy to justify god in other men's eyes
are themselves on the point of quitting the lower sphere to which god had assigned them and plunging into the sea of his absolute ecstasy
heaven can consist only in apotheosis this the greeks knew very well they instinctively ignored or feared any immortality which fell short of deification and the christian mystics reached the same goal by less overt courses
they merged the popular idea of a personal god in their foretaste of peace and perfection
perfections differ too it is true that the theistic cosmology might hear a different interpretation if by deity we mean not man's ideal intellectual or sensuous but the total cosmic order
god or the highest being would then be simply the life of nature as a whole if nature has a conscious life or that of its noblest portion the supposed metaphysical evil involved in finitude would then be no evil at all
but the condition of every good in realising his own will in his own way each creature would be perfectly happy without yearning or pathetic regrets for other forms of being such forms of being would all be unpalatable to him
even if conventionally called higher because their body was larger and their soul more complex
under these circumstances inhabitants even of the lowest heaven
as happy in their way as those of the seventh heaven could be in theirs no pathetic note would any longer disquiet their finitude they would not have to renounce in sad conformity to an alien will
persons of one rank would not be improved by passing into the so called higher sphere any more than the ox would be improved by being
man in such a system could no more pine to be god than he could pine to be the law of gravity or spinoza's substance or hegel's dialectical idea
marie dispensing her soup as usual before she went to the table
and below her there were vacant seats
it had all been arranged by marie herself with the greatest care
and when marie came to the table bowed to her graciously she bowed in return
michel voss overdid his part a little by too much talking but his wife restored the balance by her prudence george told them how strong the french party was at colmar and explained that the germans had not a leg to stand upon as far as general opinion went
would arrange themselves comfortably after all when supper was done the father son and the discarded lover smoked their pipes together amicably in the billiard room there was not a word said then by either of them in connection with marie bromar
on the next morning the sun was bright and the air was as warm as it ever is in october the day perhaps might not have been selected for an out of doors party had there been no special reason for such an arrangement
but seeing how strong a reason existed even madame voss acknowledged that the morning was favourable while those pipes of peace were being smoked over night marie had been preparing the hampers on the next morning nobody except marie herself was very early
it was intended that the day should be got through at any rate with a pretence of pleasure
then what with unpacking climbing about the rocks and throwing stones down into the river they would get through the time till two at two they would eat their dinner with all their shawls and greatcoats around them
then smoke their cigars and come back when they found it impossible to drag out the day any longer marie was not to talk to george
the programme for the day did not seem to be very delightful but it appeared to michel voss that in this way better than in any other could some little halo be thrown over the parting hours
everything went as well as could have been anticipated they managed to delay their departure till nearly half past twelve
that there had hardly been any heaviness of time when they seated themselves on the rocks at half past two
said michel as standing up he plunged a knife and fork into a large pie which he had placed on a boulder before him marie has got no soup for us here
soon after that one cork might have been heard to fly and then another and no stranger looking on would have believed how dreadful had been the enmity existing on the previous day or indeed how great a cause for enmity there had been michel himself was very hilarious
george fill our friend urmand's glass not so quickly george not so quickly you give him nothing but the froth
so saying michel voss drained his own tumbler
indeed every comfort and luxury had been showered upon his head to compensate him for his lost bride this was the third time that he had been by name invited to drink his wine and three times he had obeyed
feeling also perhaps that that which might have made others drunk had made him bold he extricated himself from his niche and stood upon his legs among the rocks he stood upon his legs among the rocks and with a graceful movement of his arm
waved the glass above his head we are delighted to have you here among us my friend said michel voss who also perhaps had been made bold
my friend said he
then the innkeeper cheered his guest whereupon madame voss pulled her husband's sleeve harder than before i am indeed continued urmand the best thing will be said he to make a clean breast of it at once you all know why i came here
and you all know how i'm going back at this moment his voice faltered a little and he almost sobbed both the old ladies immediately put their handkerchiefs to their eyes marie blushed and turned away her face on to her uncle's shoulder
madame voss remained immovable she dreaded greatly any symptoms of that courage which follows the flying of corks in truth however
of course i feel it a little
i suppose it was a mistake but it has been rather trying to me but i am ready to forget and forgive and that is all i've got to say this speech which astonished them all exceedingly remained unanswered for some few moments
and george was aware that it would not be fitting for him the triumphant lover to make any reply he could hardly have spoken without showing his triumph during this short interval no one said a word
but at last michel voss got upon his legs his wife giving him various twitches on the sleeve as he did so i never was so much affected in my life said he and upon my word
as as any man ever did
for we all know what it was
don't uncle michel said marie in a whisper but michel was too bold to attend either to whisperings or pullings of the sleeve and went on with his speech
and i am quite sure that we all hope that he may get an excellent beautiful young wife with a good dowry and that before long then he too sat down and all the ladies drank to the health and future fortunes
he would know now how to get away from granpere without having to plan a surreptitious escape of course he had come out intending to be miserable to be known as an ill used man who had been treated with an amount of cruelty
surpassing all that had ever been told of in love histories to be depressed by the weight of the ill usage which he had borne was a part of the play which he had to act but the play when acted after this fashion had in it something of pleasing excitement
and he felt assured that he was exhibiting dignity in very adverse circumstances george voss was probably thinking ill of the young man all the while
after the banquet was over marie expressed herself so much touched as almost to incur the jealousy of her more fortunate lover when the speeches were finished the men made themselves happy with their cigars and wine
till madame voss declared that she was already half dead with the cold and damp and then they all returned to the inn in excellent spirits that which had made so bold both michel and his guest had not been allowed to have any more extended or more deleterious effect
taking the public conveyance as far as remiremont everybody was up to see him off and marie herself gave him his cup of coffee at parting it was pretty to see the mingled grace and shame with which the little ceremony was performed
she hardly said a word indeed what word she did say was heard by no one but she crossed her hands on her breast and the gravest smile came over her face and she turned her eyes down to the ground and if any one ever begged pardon without a word spoken
o yes of course he said it's all right it's all right then she gave him her hand and said good bye and ran away up into her room
than those with which the reader has been made acquainted and now said george as soon as the diligence had started out of the yard well and what now asked the father i must be off to colmar next not to day george
yes to day or this evening at least but i must settle something first
you know what i mean father o yes i know what you mean
he gave no farther permission than this but george thought that so much was sufficient george did return to colmar that evening being in all matters of business a man accurate and resolute
by marie bromar it was your fault said marie your fault from beginning to end it shall be if you say so answered george but i can't say that i see it
what is a person to think george
probably one night only but i won't make any promise george had said to madame faragon when she asked him how long he intended to stay at granpere as he took one of the horses belonging to the inn and drove himself
it seemed to be certain that he would not stay long he started all alone early in the morning and reached granpere about twelve o'clock his mind was full of painful thoughts as he went
and as the little animal ran quickly down the mountain road into the valley in which granpere lies he almost wished that his feet were not so fleet
and to whom was he to say it when he reached the angular court along two sides of which the house was built he did not at once enter the front door none of the family were then about the place
and he could therefore go into the stable and ask a question or two of the man who came to meet him his father the man told him had gone up early to the wood cutting and would not probably return till the afternoon
madame voss was no doubt inside as was also marie bromar then the man commenced an elaborate account of the betrothals there never had been at granpere any marriage that had been half so important as would be this marriage
no lover coming thither had ever been blessed with so beautiful and discreet a maiden and no maiden of granpere had ever before had at her feet a lover at the same time so good looking so wealthy so sagacious and so good tempered
the man declared that adrian was the luckiest fellow in the world in finding such a wife but his enthusiasm rose to the highest pitch when he spoke of marie's luck in finding such a husband there was no end to the good with which she would be endowed
george listened to it all and smiled and said a word or two was it worth his while to come all the way to granpere to throw his thunderbolt at a girl who had been captivated by promises of a chest full of house linen
george told the man that he would go up to the wood cutting after his father but before he was out of the court he changed his mind and slowly entered the house why should he go to his father what had he to say to his father about the marriage
that could not be better said down at the house after all he had but little ground of complaint against his father it was marie who had been untrue to him and it was on marie's head that his wrath must fall
but he need not tell his father the errand on which he had come so he changed his mind and went into the inn he entered the house almost dreading to see her whom he was seeking
in what way should he first express his wrath how should he show her the wreck which by her inconstancy she had made of his happiness his first words must if possible be spoken to her alone and yet alone he could hardly hope to find her
and he feared her though he was so resolved to speak his mind yet he feared her
yet he dreaded the effect of her words upon himself he knew how strong she could be and how steadfast though his passion told him every hour was telling him all day long that she was as false as hell yet there was something in him of judgment
which told him also that she was not bad that she was a firm hearted high spirited great minded girl who would have reasons to give for the thing that she was doing
he went through into the kitchen before he met any one and there he found madame voss with the cook and peter immediate explanations had of course to be made as to his unexpected arrival questions asked and suggestions offered
had he come because he had heard of the betrothals he admitted that it was so
i will congratulate her certainly said george then the cook and peter began with a copious flow of domestic eloquence
how pleasing to the master how creditable to the village how satisfactory to the friends how joyous to the bridegroom how triumphant to the bride no doubt she will have plenty to eat and drink and fine clothes to wear
said george in his bitterness and she will be married to one of the most respectable young men in all switzerland said madame voss in a tone of much anger
that george had not come over from colmar simply to express his joyous satisfaction at his cousin's good fortune he soon walked through into the little sitting room and his step mother followed him george she said
you will displease your father very much if you say anything unkind about marie i know very well said he that my father cares more for marie than he does for me that is not so george
i do not blame him for it she lives in the house with him while i live elsewhere it was natural that she should be more to him than i am
but he has no right to suppose that i can have the same feeling that he has about this marriage i cannot think it the finest thing in the world for all of us
he is a most industrious young man who thoroughly understands his business i have heard people say that there is no one comes to granpere who can buy better than he can very likely not
but never mind it is no use talking about it words won't mend it
because i want to see my father then he remembered how false was this excuse and remembered also how soon its falseness would appear besides though i do not like this match i wish to see marie once again before her marriage
i shall never see her after it that is the reason why i have come i suppose you can give me a bed o yes there are beds enough after that there was some pause and madame voss hardly knew how to treat her step son
at last she asked him whether he would have dinner
and george asked after the children and in this way the dreaded subject was for some minutes laid on one side in the mean time information of george's arrival had been taken upstairs to marie
she had often wondered what sign he would make when he should hear of her engagement would he send her a word of affection or such customary present as would be usual between two persons so nearly connected
and what would be his own feelings she too remembered well with absolute accuracy those warm delicious heavenly words of love which had passed between them she could feel now the pressure of his hand and the warmth of his kiss
when she swore to him that she would be his for ever and ever after that he had left her
then he had come again and had simply asked her whether she were engaged to another man had asked with a cruel indication that he at least intended that the old childish words should be forgotten now he was in the house again and she would have to hear his congratulations
she thought for some quarter of an hour what she had better do and then she determined to go down to him at once the sooner the first meeting was over the better were she to remain away from him till they should be brought together at the supper table
there would almost be a necessity for her to explain her conduct she would go down to him and treat him exactly as she might have done had there never been any special love between them she would do so as perfectly as her strength might enable her
than in the presence of her uncle when she had resolved she waited yet another minute or two and then she went down stairs as she entered her aunt's room george voss was sitting before the stove while madame voss was in her accustomed chair
and peter was preparing the table for his young master's dinner george arose from his seat at once and then came a look of pain across his face
she said i am so glad that you have come she had offered him her hand and of course he had taken it yes he said i thought it best just to run over we shall be very busy at the hotel before long
does that mean to say that you are not to be here for my marriage this she said with her sweetest smile making all the effort in her power to give a gracious tone to her voice it was better she knew to plunge at the subject at once no
said he i shall not be here then ah your father will miss you so much but if it cannot be it is very good of you to come now
and though colmar and basle are very near
there was a touch about her voice as she called him by his name that nearly killed him at that moment his hatred was strongest against adrian why had such an upstart as that a puny miserable creature
come between him and the only thing that he had ever seen in the guise of a woman that could touch his heart he turned round with his back to the table and his face to the stove and said nothing but he was able when he no longer saw her when her voice was not sounding in his ear
to swear that the thunderbolt should be hurled all the same his journey to granpere should not be made for nothing i must go now she said presently i shall see you at supper shall i not george when uncle will be with us
and you will tell us of the new doings at the hotel good bye for the present george then she was gone before he had spoken another word he eat his dinner and smoked a cigar about the yard
he did go out but did not take the road by which he knew that his father was to be found he strolled off to the ravine and came back only when it was dark
the last breakfast and that day was not long in coming indeed it came with terrible alacrity much too quickly for gertrude much too quickly for norman and much too quickly for alaric's lawyer
to alaric only did the time pass slowly for he found himself utterly without employment
the limehouse bridge was found to be worth nothing they were as the broker had said ticklish stock so ticklish that no one would have them at any price
went into the market about the same time to dispose of theirs they were equally unsuccessful how the agent looked and spoke and felt may be imagined for the agent had made large advances and had no other security
but undy had borne such looks and speeches before and merely said that it was very odd extremely odd he had been greatly deceived by mister piles mister piles also said it was very odd
and it was whispered that queer as things now looked messrs blocks piles and cofferdam had not made a bad thing of the bridge overture after overture was made to the lawyer employed by missus val's party
then when the shares were utterly rejected by the share buying world he offered to make himself personally responsible for the remainder of the debt and to bind himself by bond to pay it within six months
at first these propositions were listened to and alaric's friends were led to believe that the matter would be handled in such a way that the prosecution would fall to the ground but at last all composition was refused
the adverse attorney declared first that he was not able to accept any money payment short of the full amount with interest and then he averred that as criminal proceedings had been taken they could not now be stayed
whether or no alaric's night attack had anything to do with this whether undy had been the means of instigating this rigid adherence to justice we are not prepared to say
that day for which gertrude had prayed her mother's assistance came all too soon they had become at last aware that the trial must go on charley was with them on the last evening and completed their despair
by telling them that their attorney had resolved to make no further efforts at a compromise perhaps the most painful feeling to gertrude through the whole of the last fortnight had been the total prostration of her husband's energy
and almost of his intellect he seemed to have lost the power of judging for himself and of thinking and deciding what conduct would be best for him in his present condition he who had been so energetic so full of life
so ready for all emergencies so clever at devices so able to manage not only for himself but for his friends
he sat from morning to night looking at the empty fire grate and hardly ventured to speak of the ordeal that he had to undergo his lawyer was to call for him on the morning of the trial
and missus woodward was to be at the house soon after he had left it he had not yet seen her since the inquiry had commenced and it was very plain that he did not wish to do so missus woodward was to be there and to remain till his fate had been decided and then
but missus woodward was aware that he would probably be unable to do so and felt that if such should be the case she could not leave her daughter alone and so alaric and his wife sat down to breakfast on that last morning
she had brought their boy down but as she perceived that the child's presence did not please his father he had been sent back to the nursery and they were alone she poured out his tea for him put bread upon his plate
and then sat down close beside him endeavouring to persuade him to eat she had never yet found fault with him
but now she longed to entreat him to collect himself and take a man's part in the coming trial he sat in the seat prepared for him but instead of eating he thrust his hands after his accustomed manner into his pockets
and sat glowering at the teacups
won't you eat your breakfast said she no
do you take yours never mind me but dearest you will be faint if you do not eat think what you have to go through remember how many eyes will be on you to day he shuddered violently as she spoke
and motioned to her with his hand not to go on with what she was saying i know i know said she passionately dearest dearest love i know how dreadful it is would that i could bear it for you would that i could
he turned away his head for a tear was in his eye it was the first that had come to his assistance since this sorrow had come upon him don't turn from me dearest alaric do not turn from me now at our last moments
to me at least you are the same noble alaric that you ever were noble said he with all the self scorn which he so truly felt to me you are now as ever
but alaric i do so fear that you will want strength physical strength you know to go through all this i would have you bear yourself like a man before them all it will be but little matter said he
my darling darling husband rouse yourself and she knelt before his knees and prayed to him for my sake do it eat and drink that you may have the power of a man when all the world is looking at you
if god forgives us our sins surely we should so carry ourselves that men may not be ashamed to do so he did not answer her but he turned to the table and broke the bread and put his lips to the cup
and then she gave him food as she would give it to a child and he with a child's obedience ate and drank what was put before him as he did so every now and again a single tear forced itself beneath his eyelid
and trickled down his face and in some degree gertrude was comforted he had hardly finished his enforced breakfast when the cab and the lawyer came to the door
the learned gentleman had the good taste not to come in and so the servant told them that mister gitemthruet was there say that your master will be with him in a minute said gertrude quite coolly
and then the room door was again closed and the husband and wife had now to say adieu alaric rose from his chair and made a faint attempt to smile well gertrude said he it has come at last
she rushed into his embrace and throwing her arms around him buried her face upon his breast
my love my best my own my only love i cannot say much now gertrude but i know how good you are you will come and see me if they will let you won't you see you said she starting back
but still holding him and looking up earnestly into his face see you and then she poured out her love with all the passion of a ruth whither thou goest i will go and where thou lodgest i will lodge
and there will i be buried the lord do so to me and more also if aught but death part thee and me see you alaric oh it cannot be that they will hinder the wife from being with her husband but alaric she went on
do not droop now love will you i cannot brazen it out said he i know too well what it is that i have done no not that alaric i would not have that but remember all is not over whatever they may do
ah how little will really be over whatever they can do
i think so i hope so said alaric with his eyes upon the ground you have repented and are right before god do not fear then what man can do to you i would not have you brazen alaric but be manly
be collected be your own self the man that i have loved the man that i do now love so well better better than ever and she threw herself on him and kissed him and clung to him and stroked his hair
and put her hand upon his face and then holding him from her looked up to him as though he were a hero whom she all but worshipped gertrude gertrude
never mind said she we will win through it yet we will yet be happy together far far away from here remember that let that support you through all and now alaric you will come up for one moment and kiss him before you go
the man will be impatient never mind let him be impatient you shall not go away without blessing your boy
and she took him by the hand and led him like a child into the nursery where is the nurse bring him here papa is going away alley boy give papa a big kiss
alaric for the first time for the fortnight took the little fellow into his arms and kissed him god bless you my bairn said he and grant that all this may never be visited against you here or hereafter
and now go said gertrude as they descended the stairs together and may god in his mercy watch over and protect you and give you back to me
wherever you are i will be close to you remember that
now one kiss oh dearest dearest alaric there there now go and so he went
there was once upon a time a queen to whom god had given no children every morning she went into the garden and prayed to god in heaven to bestow on her a son or a daughter then an angel from heaven came to her and said
be at rest you shall have a son with the power of wishing so that whatsoever in the world he wishes for that shall he have then she went to the king and told him the joyful tidings
and when the time was come she gave birth to a son and the king was filled with gladness every morning she went with the child to the garden where the wild beasts were kept and washed herself there in a clear stream
it happened once when the child was a little older that it was lying in her arms and she fell asleep then came the old cook who knew that the child had the power of wishing and stole it away and he took a hen and cut it in pieces
and dropped some of its blood on the queen's apron and on her dress then he carried the child away to a secret place where a nurse was obliged to suckle it
and he ran to the king and accused the queen of having allowed her child to be taken from her by the wild beasts when the king saw the blood on her apron he believed this fell into such a passion that he ordered a high tower to be built
in which neither sun nor moon could be seen and had his wife put into it and walled up here she was to stay for seven years without meat or drink and die of hunger
but god sent two angels from heaven in the shape of white doves which flew to her twice a day and carried her food until the seven years were over the cook however thought to himself
if the child has the power of wishing and i am here he might very easily get me into trouble so he left the palace and went to the boy who was already big enough to speak and said to him
wish for a beautiful palace for yourself with a garden and all else that pertains to it scarcely were the words out of the boy's mouth when everything was there that he had wished for after a while the cook said to him
it is not well for you to be so alone wish for a pretty girl as a companion then the king's son wished for one and she immediately stood before him and was more beautiful than any painter could have painted her
the two played together and loved each other with all their hearts and the old cook went out hunting like a nobleman the thought occurred to him however that the king's son might some day wish to be with his father and thus bring him into great peril
so he went out and took the maiden aside and said tonight when the boy is asleep go to his bed and plunge this knife into his heart and bring me his heart and tongue and if you do not do it
thereupon he went away and when he returned next day she had not done it and said why should i shed the blood of an innocent boy who has never harmed anyone the cook once more said
if you do not do it it shall cost you your own life when he had gone away she had a little hind brought to her and ordered her to be killed and took her heart and tongue and laid them on a plate
and when she saw the old man coming she said to the boy
where are the boy's heart and tongue the girl reached the plate to him but the king's son threw off the quilt and said you old sinner why did you want to kill me
you shall become a black poodle and have a gold collar round your neck and shall eat burning coals till the flames burst forth from your throat and when he had spoken these words the old man was changed into a poodle dog
and had a gold collar round his neck
and these he ate until the flames broke forth from his throat the king's son remained there a short while longer and he thought of his mother and wondered if she were still alive at length he said to the maiden
i will go home to my own country if you will go with me i will provide for you ah she replied the way is so long and what shall i do in a strange land where i am unknown
as she did not seem quite willing and as they could not be parted from each other he wished that she might be changed into a beautiful pink and took her with him then he went away to his own country
and the poodle had to run after him he went to the tower in which his mother was confined and as it was so high he wished for a ladder which would reach up to the very top
then he mounted up and looked inside and cried beloved mother lady queen are you still alive or are you dead she answered i have just eaten and am still satisfied
for she thought the angels were there said he i am your dear son whom the wild beasts were said to have torn from your arms but i am alive still and will soon set you free
then he descended again and went to his father and caused himself to be announced as a strange huntsman and asked if he could offer him service the king said yes if he was skilful and could get game for him
he should come to him but that deer had never taken up their quarters in any part of the district or country then the huntsman promised to procure as much game for him as he could possibly use at the royal table so he summoned all the huntsmen together
and he went with them and made them form a great circle open at one end where he stationed himself and began to wish two hundred deer and more came running inside the circle at once and the huntsmen shot them
now the king felt great joy at this and commanded that his entire household should eat with him next day and made a great feast when they were all assembled together he said to the huntsman
as you are so clever you shall sit by me he replied lord king your majesty must excuse me i am a poor huntsman but the king insisted on it and said
until he did it whilst he was sitting there he thought of his dearest mother and wished that one of the king's principal servants would begin to speak of her and would ask how it was faring with the queen in the tower and if she were alive still
or had perished hardly had he formed the wish than the marshal began and said your majesty we live joyously here but how is the queen living in the tower is she still alive or has she died
but the king replied she let my dear son be torn to pieces by wild beasts i will not have her named then the huntsman arose and said gracious lord father
she is alive still and i am her son and i was not carried away by wild beasts but by that wretch the old cook who tore me from her arms when she was asleep and sprinkled her apron with the blood of a chicken
thereupon he took the dog with the golden collar and said
and these the dog was compelled to devour before the sight of all until flames burst forth from its throat on this the huntsman asked the king if he would like to see the dog in his true shape
and wished him back into the form of the cook in the which he stood immediately with his white apron and his knife by his side when the king saw him he fell into a passion
and ordered him to be cast into the deepest dungeon then the huntsman spoke further and said father will you see the maiden who brought me up so tenderly
but did not do it though her own life depended on it the king replied yes i would like to see her the son said most gracious father i will show her to you in the form of a beautiful flower
and he thrust his hand into his pocket and brought forth the pink and placed it on the royal table and it was so beautiful that the king had never seen one to equal it then the son said
now will i show her to you in her own form and wished that she might become a maiden
and she stood there looking so beautiful that no painter could have made her look more so and the king sent two waiting maids and two attendants into the tower to fetch the queen and bring her to the royal table
but when she was led in she ate nothing and said the gracious and merciful god who has supported me in the tower will soon set me free she lived three days more and then died happily
and when she was buried the two white doves which had brought her food to the tower and were angels of heaven followed her body and seated themselves on her grave the aged king ordered the cook to be torn in four pieces
visiting day the men's ward nekhludoff left home early a peasant from the country was still driving along the side street and calling out in a voice peculiar to his trade
the birch trees in the gardens looked as if they were strewn with green fluff
and renovated trousers and waistcoats which hung over their shoulders men in clean coats and shining boots liberated from the factories it being sunday
and women with bright silk kerchiefs on their heads and cloth jackets trimmed with jet were already thronging at the door of the traktir policemen with yellow cords to their uniforms and carrying pistols were on duty
on the paths of the boulevards and on the newly revived grass children and dogs ran about playing and the nurses sat merrily chattering on the benches along the streets still fresh and damp on the shady side
but dry in the middle heavy carts rumbled unceasingly cabs rattled and tramcars passed ringing by
and the people dressed in their sunday best were passing on their way to their different parish churches the isvostchik did not drive nekhludoff up to the prison itself but to the last turning that led to the prison
several persons men and women most of them carrying small bundles stood at this turning about one hundred steps from the prison to the right there were several low wooden buildings to the left
a two storeyed house with a signboard the huge brick building the prison proper was just in front and the visitors were not allowed to come up to it a sentinel was pacing up and down in front of it
and shouted at any one who tried to pass him at the gate of the wooden buildings to the right opposite the sentinel sat a warder on a bench dressed in uniform with gold cords a notebook in his hands
the visitors came up to him and named the persons they wanted to see and he put the names down nekhludoff also went up and named katerina maslova
when the mass is over you'll be admitted nekhludoff stepped aside from the waiting crowd a man in tattered clothes crumpled hat with bare feet and red stripes all over his face
detached himself from the crowd and turned towards the prison now then where are you going shouted the sentinel with the gun
not in the least abashed by the sentinel's words and turned back well if you'll not let me in i'll wait but no must needs shout as if he were a general the crowd laughed approvingly
the visitors were for the greater part badly dressed people some were ragged but there were also some respectable looking men and women
next to nekhludoff stood a clean shaven stout and red cheeked man holding a bundle apparently containing under garments this was the doorkeeper of a bank he had come to see his brother
who was arrested for forgery the good natured fellow told nekhludoff the whole story of his life and was going to question him in turn when their attention was aroused by a student and a veiled lady who drove up in a trap
with rubber tyres drawn by a large thoroughbred horse the student was holding a large bundle he came up to nekhludoff and asked if and how he could give the rolls he had brought in alms to the prisoners
his fiancee wished it this lady was his fiancee and her parents had advised them to take some rolls to the prisoners i myself am here for the first time said nekhludoff and don't know
but i think you had better ask this man and he pointed to the warder with the gold cords and the book sitting on the right as they were speaking the large iron door with a window in it opened and an officer in uniform
followed by another warder stepped out the warder with the notebook proclaimed that the admittance of visitors would now commence the sentinel stepped aside
some even ran at the door there stood a warder who counted the visitors as they came in saying aloud sixteen seventeen and so on
another warder stood inside the building and also counted the visitors as they entered a second door touching each one with his hand so that when they went away again not one visitor should be able to remain inside the prison
and not one prisoner might get out the warder without looking at whom he was touching slapped nekhludoff on the back and nekhludoff felt hurt by the touch of the warder's hand but remembering what he had come about
he felt ashamed of feeling dissatisfied and taking offence the first apartment behind the entrance doors was a large vaulted room with iron bars to the small windows in this room which was called the meeting room
nekhludoff was startled by the sight of a large picture of the crucifixion what's that for he thought his mind involuntarily connecting the subject of the picture with liberation and not with imprisonment he went on
slowly letting the hurrying visitors pass before and experiencing a mingled feeling of horror at the evil doers locked up in this building compassion for those who like katusha and the boy they tried the day before must be here though guiltless
and shyness and tender emotion at the thought of the interview before him the warder at the other end of the meeting room said something as they passed but nekhludoff absorbed by his own thoughts paid no attention to him
and continued to follow the majority of the visitors and so got into the men's part of the prison instead of the women's letting the hurrying visitors pass before him he was the last to get into the interviewing room
as soon as nekhludoff opened the door of this room he was struck by the deafening roar of a hundred voices shouting at once the reason of which he did not at once understand but when he came nearer to the people
he saw that they were all pressing against a net that divided the room in two like flies settling on sugar and he understood what it meant the two halves of the room the windows of which were opposite the door he had come in by
were separated not by one but by two nets reaching from the floor to the ceiling the wire nets were stretched seven feet apart and soldiers were walking up and down the space between them
on the further side of the nets were the prisoners on the nearer the visitors between them was a double row of nets and a space of seven feet wide so that they could not hand anything to one another
and any one whose sight was not very good could not even distinguish the face on the other side it was also difficult to talk one had to scream in order to be heard on both sides were faces pressed close to the nets
faces of wives husbands fathers mothers children trying to see each other's features and to say what was necessary in such a way as to be understood but as each one tried to be heard by the one he was talking to and his neighbour tried to do the same
they did their best to drown each other's voices and that was the cause of the din and shouting which struck nekhludoff when he first came in it was impossible to understand what was being said and what were the relations between the different people
an old woman with a kerchief on her head stood trembling her chin pressed close to the net and shouting something to a young fellow half of whose head was shaved who listened attentively with raised brows
by the side of the old woman was a young man in a peasant's coat who listened shaking his head to a boy very like himself
next to him a woman with a good woollen shawl on her shoulders sat on the floor holding a baby in her lap and crying bitterly this was apparently the first time she saw the greyheaded man on the other side in prison clothes
and with his head shaved beyond her was the doorkeeper who had spoken to nekhludoff outside he was shouting with all his might to a greyhaired convict on the other side
when nekhludoff found that he would have to speak in similar conditions a feeling of indignation against those who were able to make and enforce these conditions arose in him
he was surprised that placed in such a dreadful position no one seemed offended at this outrage on human feelings the soldiers the inspector the prisoners themselves acted as if acknowledging all this to be necessary
nekhludoff remained in this room for about five minutes feeling strangely depressed conscious of how powerless he was and at variance with all the world he was seized with a curious moral sensation
what a singular moment is the first one when you have hardly begun to recollect yourself after starting from midnight slumber by unclosing your eyes so suddenly
you seem to have surprised the personages of your dream in full convocation round your bed
or to vary the metaphor you find yourself for a single instant wide awake in that realm of illusions whither sleep has been the passport and behold its ghostly inhabitants and wondrous scenery with a perception of their strangeness
such as you never attain while the dream is undisturbed the distant sound of a church clock is borne faintly on the wind you question with yourself half seriously
whether it has stolen to your waking ear from some gray tower that stood within the precincts of your dream while yet in suspense another clock flings its heavy clang over the slumbering town with
so full and distinct a sound and such a long murmur in the neighboring air that you are certain it must proceed from the steeple at the nearest corner you count the strokes one two
and there they cease with a booming sound like the gathering of a third stroke within the bell if you could choose an hour of wakefulness out of the whole night it would be this since your sober bedtime at eleven
you have had rest enough to take off the pressure of yesterday's fatigue while before you till the sun comes from far cathay to brighten your window
and two in that strangest of enjoyments the forgetfulness alike of joy and woe the moment of rising belongs to another period of time and appears so distant that the plunge out of a warm bed into the frosty air
cannot yet be anticipated with dismay yesterday has already vanished among the shadows of the past to morrow has not yet emerged from the future you have found an intermediate space where the business of life does not intrude
where the passing moment lingers and becomes truly the present a spot where father time when he thinks nobody is watching him sits down by the wayside to take breath
because the slightest motion would dissipate the fragments of your slumber now being irrevocably awake you peep through the half drawn window curtain and observe that the glass is ornamented with fanciful devices in frost work
and that each pane presents something like a frozen dream there will be time enough to trace out the analogy while waiting the summons to breakfast
seen through the clear portion of the glass where the silvery mountain peaks of the frost scenery do not ascend the most conspicuous object is the steeple
you may almost distinguish the figures on the clock that has just told the hour such a frosty sky and the snow covered roofs and the long vista of the frozen street all white
and the distant water hardened into rock might make you shiver even under four blankets and a woollen comforter yet look at that one glorious star its beams are distinguishable from all the rest
it is too cold even for the thoughts to venture abroad you speculate on the luxury of wearing out a whole existence in bed like an oyster in its shell
content with the sluggish ecstasy of inaction and drowsily conscious of nothing but delicious warmth such as you now feel again ah that idea has brought a hideous one in its train
you think how the dead are lying in their cold shrouds and narrow coffins through the drear winter of the grave and cannot persuade your fancy that they neither shrink nor shiver
when the snow is drifting over their little hillocks and the bitter blast howls against the door of the tomb that gloomy thought will collect a gloomy multitude and throw its complexion over your wakeful hour
in the depths of every heart there is a tomb and a dungeon though the lights the music and revelry above may cause us to forget their existence and the buried ones or prisoners whom they hide
but sometimes and oftenest at midnight those dark receptacles are flung wide open in an hour like this when the mind has a passive sensibility but no active strength
when the imagination is a mirror imparting vividness to all ideas without the power of selecting or controlling them then pray that your griefs may slumber and the brotherhood of remorse not break their chain
it is too late a funeral train comes gliding by your bed in which passion and feeling assume bodily shape and things of the mind become dim spectres to the eye
there is your earliest sorrow a pale young mourner wearing a sister's likeness to first love sadly beautiful with a hallowed sweetness in her melancholy features and grace in the flow of her sable robe
next appears a shade of ruined loveliness with dust among her golden hair and her bright garments all faded and defaced stealing from your glance with drooping head as fearful of reproach
but a delusive one so call her disappointment now a sterner form succeeds with a brow of wrinkles a look and gesture of iron authority there is no name for him unless it be fatality
an emblem of the evil influence that rules your fortunes a demon to whom you subjected yourself by some error at the outset of life and were bound his slave for ever by once obeying him
see those fiendish lineaments graven on the darkness
the pointed finger touching the sore place in your heart do you remember any act of enormous folly at which you would blush even in the remotest cavern of the earth then recognize your shame
pass wretched band well for the wakeful one if riotously miserable a fiercer tribe do not surround him
what if remorse should assume the features of an injured friend what if the fiend should come in woman's garments with a pale beauty amid sin and desolation and lie down by your side
what if he should stand at your bed's foot in the likeness of a corpse with a bloody stain upon the shroud sufficient without such guilt is this nightmare of the soul this heavy heavy sinking of the spirits
this wintry gloom about the heart this indistinct horror of the mind blending itself with the darkness of the chamber
by a desperate effort you start upright breaking from a sort of conscious sleep and gazing wildly round the bed as if the fiends were anywhere but in your haunted mind
at the same moment the slumbering embers on the hearth send forth a gleam which palely illuminates the whole outer room and flickers through the door of the bedchamber but cannot quite dispel its obscurity
your eye searches for whatever may remind you of the living world
the book with an ivory knife between its leaves the unfolded letter
soon the flame vanishes and with it the whole scene is gone though its image remains an instant in your mind's eye when darkness has swallowed the reality
throughout the chamber there is the same obscurity as before but not the same gloom within your breast as your head falls back upon the pillow you think in a whisper be it spoken
how pleasant in these night solitudes would be the rise and fall of a softer breathing than your own the slight pressure of a tenderer bosom the quiet throb of a purer heart imparting its peacefulness to your troubled one
as if the fond sleeper were involving you in her dream her influence is over you though she have no existence but in that momentary image
you sink down in a flowery spot on the borders of sleep and wakefulness while your thoughts rise before you in pictures all disconnected yet all assimilated by a pervading gladsomeness and beauty
the wheeling of gorgeous squadrons that glitter in the sun is succeeded by the merriment of children round the door of a schoolhouse beneath the glimmering shadow of old trees at the corner of a rustic lane
you stand in the sunny rain of a summer shower and wander among the sunny trees of an autumnal wood and look upward at the brightest of all rainbows overarching the unbroken sheet of snow on the american side of niagara
and the twittering flight of birds in spring about their new made nest you feel the merry bounding of a ship before the breeze
and watch the tuneful feet of rosy girls as they twine their last and merriest dance in a splendid ball room and find yourself in the brilliant circle of a crowded theatre as the curtain falls over a light and airy scene
with an involuntary start you seize hold on consciousness and prove yourself but half awake by running a doubtful parallel between human life and the hour which has now elapsed
in both you emerge from mystery pass through a vicissitude that you can but imperfectly control and are borne onward to another mystery
now comes the peal of the distant clock with fainter and fainter strokes as you plunge farther into the wilderness of sleep it is the knell of a temporary death your spirit has departed
and strays like a free citizen among the people of a shadowy world beholding strange sights yet without wonder or dismay
the work did not appeal to him particularly and he is spoken of there as a thorough teacher but not popular he had not mingled enough with others to get their point of view a welcome change from this was a summons from headquarters to go to timbuctoo
and help suppress a native rebellion it was all the more welcome as here for the first time he was promised a chance to do some real fighting timbuctoo
they had massacred the european settlers and ended by killing two french officers
it was a wild and treacherous land and the relief expedition would scarcely have child's play of it
like many another soldier he was a firm believer in luck and here certainly the fates were propitious
commanding a force of thirty french and three hundred natives they crossed deadly swamps and dry trackless deserts there were some deaths by the wayside but joffre pushed on
his progress was slow as he stopped to make friends with native chiefs and enlist their aid where possible at last they reached timbuctoo only to find orders awaiting them to prepare for evacuation in the face of a threatening tuareg army
joffre for once disobeyed orders and decided instead to attack he did so and administered a crushing defeat to the brigands he followed this up so thoroughly that the whole district was restored to peace
then the soldier gave place to the engineer he cleaned up the town in another sense and returned home luck was on my side he said briefly after receiving official congratulations and the rank of lieutenant colonel
but those who knew him believed that it was something more than luck
is evinced by another incident of this march in soudan an insect's sting had poisoned his left eye so severely that the sight was threatened
i could not command my troops if i were blindfolded he said then it must be blue glasses said the doctor
and brought it to him it was a pair of blue glasses
however he narrowly escaped blindness and ever afterward a thin veil like film covered the injured eye
the story is a straightforward soldierly narrative one french critic recently said of it apropos of joffre's election to the french academy a rather unique honor
i defy anybody who knows the pleasure which words can give us in evoking things to deny that this report is a piece of most effective writing with joffre who has no idea or desire to give us fine writing the effect produced is that of reality itself
the names of the tribes he meets or describes take on a strange virtue as if we heard them on the spot even the french officers names scattered over a narrative from which all attempt at picturesqueness is banished produce picturesqueness
after the soudanese adventure came a trip to madagascar this time more fort constructing from which it seemed that he could never escape the problem down there was a vexatious one due to a do nothing policy of a predecessor
it is easy to suppose that men can restore the needed order
we never expected to see that job done reports one soldier the thing was so old that it had cobwebs over it
they concocted another saying about him down in that distant island which was there goes old man system at another time an officer remarked
and furthermore he knows why he wants it
his long delayed promotions began to arrive he was made brigadier general
one reason for his slow advancement was that he was no politician or time server he never pushed himself forward
we remember too that he had made no friends at school who would follow his career or speak a good word for him in official ears when he did at last receive recognition it was upon absolute merit
but when he reached the general staff the remark was frequently heard
it was not long however before he made his presence felt in paris official circles they came to depend more and more upon this stocky hard headed gascon and his opinions he never minced words and he went to the root of the matter
in nineteen eleven when the need was universally felt of a thorough reorganization of the french army a much needed house cleaning they cast about for some man big enough for the job in a conference general pau a warm adherent of joffre
shook his single good fist in the faces of the staff officers and exclaimed there is only one man who can do the job so they sent for joffre and made him chief of the general staff with full power to reorganize
he has limitless patience joined with a wonderful breadth of view his methods resemble the head of a great business in his intricate work of reconstructing the army he revealed another and surprising side to his nature
he showed a human sympathy for his men
wanted to take the whole french army into his heart
his clear eyes which observe you from beneath bushy eyebrows his firm and kindly mouth his bristling mustache the simplicity of his manners his clean cut reserved language
he is truly papa joffre the father and even the grandfather of the poilus it is the poilu himself beneath the white panache of this unique marshal of france
when in nineteen fourteen the germans struck they anticipated an easy march upon paris
your french soldiers are brave said one german officer contemptuously
our men may not have the machine like discipline that you affect was the french officer's reply
a love of country that will cause us to sacrifice the last drop of blood but your great generals where are they asked the other they will make themselves felt in due time
at their head stands one who is yet to fight his first great battle yet i advise you not to arouse him the world knows the rest of the story of that mighty invasion how the black invading line curved onward and inward until it threw its shadow upon paris
then when the final blow was about to be struck the coup de grace as the germans firmly believed
it had retreated and retreated until the moment for its counter blow now with the precision of a sledge hammer it struck and struck again until the surprised enemy turned and fell back paris was saved in the gallery of the world's great soldiers
the homely kindly figure of joffre may well find place he seems to occupy a niche quite by himself he is not spectacular nor a hero but a simple man among men whose results are built upon a lifetime of patient endeavor
he is rodin's statue of the thinker come to life important dates in joffre's life eighteen fifty two
eighteen sixty seven entered preparatory military school paris eighteen sixty nine entered polytechnic academy eighteen seventy volunteered in army to defend paris against prussians
eighteen seventy commissioned second lieutenant eighteen seventy six commissioned captain for work on fortifications
eighteen eighty five decorated legion of honor tonkin
eighteen ninety three sent to madagascar on construction work eighteen ninety four headed expedition to timbuctoo nineteen o one brigadier general
the cooper's son who remade the armies of france
so unusual a baby deserved better treatment she thought
that's a good sensible sounding name that sounds well she admitted but still it lacks something i'll tell you let's call him joseph jacques cesaire sounds like a soldier said the father
so the infant who lay quietly blinking on his natal day january twelfth eighteen fifty two was to be known as joseph to his friends but tucked away in his name for future reference was cesaire
as the french folk pronounced the name of the great roman conqueror truly there was nothing very auspicious in the start of joseph joffre his father was merely a cooper in a straggling hillside town
of the pyrenees in southern france rivesaltas but he was a good cooper his neighbors had a saying that is preserved to this day
the town itself had some six thousand inhabitants and was situated on the river agly about nine miles from the city
set alongside of the cooper shop and neither better nor worse than its neighbors but the well to do workman of today would turn up his nose at it nevertheless in this home were born eleven children the oldest of whom was the future marshal of france
and the father continued to live there for thirty years or more it is related of him that even as a baby joseph never cried
as one result of this trait little is reported concerning his childhood
the latter wanted him to stop and take part in some game
the other fellow came back with a taunt
he did not have any chums for the same reason lack of time and doubtless he missed a great deal out of boyhood from this fact
yet he didn't shine particularly as a student he was simply busy thinking it was not until he was sent to college at perpignan that he really began to take an interest in books and his favorites were the more solid studies algebra
descriptive geometry surveying and draftsmanship his bent even at this early day seemed to be civil engineering the ambition of every middle class french home in those days was to send a son to the army have him study to become an officer
and in a family conclave it was decided that he should be sent to paris to try for the entrance examinations in the ecole polytechnique
and left him in a private school like his son the cooper was a man of few words but what he must have done at parting was to clap the boy on the shoulder and say now go to it
when he returned to his boyhood's home only four years later he was wearing the shoulder straps of a lieutenant and had seen active service but this is getting ahead of our story
he was a big hulking lad of fifteen with a bullet head set upon a thick neck and broad shoulders an awkward figure dressed in ill fitting clothes
they tried to have fun at his expense but he withdrew into his shell more than ever and they soon learned to let him alone
but we have no direct evidence that he ever felt lonely his books and his day dreams seem always to have made up for a lack of human companionship
he did not indeed make a specially brilliant record in his entrance examinations to the polytechnique but his stumbling block was not mathematics or science it was german
he was made a second lieutenant attached to the engineering corps his first practical field work was in throwing up fortifications in defence of paris
that was reserved for a later day and another war the short but terrible conflict of eighteen seventy over
one of his classmates of this time was ferdinand foch but if the two future marshals there became acquainted no story of their meeting has come down to us joffre's first work at fort building had been so well done
that immediately upon graduation the government set him to work the memory of the stinging german defeat
they wanted defenses everywhere
versailles montpellier and even in faraway brittany until he was disposed to grumble at his fate this is all very fine he said
i want to command troops and see some real fighting it was the caesar cropping up in him again without question he was a born builder of fortifications
i congratulate you monsieur le capitaine he said by one sentence he had promoted the young lieutenant to a captaincy it was about this time that a fall from his horse very nearly cut short his military career
he was so severely injured that the doctors feared that his mind was affected and he was sent home for a complete rest at home he did not complain that was not his nature but he spent several days pacing back and forth in his little upper room
then came a day when he burst in to the downstairs room where sat his parents his face beaming showing the strain which he had overcome
i have solved it i will get well
it did so he solved it and thus had no more fears as to his own ultimate recovery another story told by his sister of these early army days shows further his power of mental abstraction
no matter what he did his thoughts never left him once they caused his arrest as a spy it seems that at vauban
they were constructing a fort
did my brother protest not he
his catalonian brogue was enough to convince anybody as to where he was born
one other anecdote of this time has come down to us and is worth repeating his father had bought a piece of farm land that was badly in need of ditching in order to drain it properly during the wet season and irrigate it during the dry
the son sketched out a scheme of cross trenches but his father demurred then joseph exploded trenches what the devil i know all about trenches trenches are my specialty
the great war of later years was to show whether or not this confidence in his own abilities was misplaced by the year eighteen eighty four his reputation as a builder of trenches and forts was firmly established although official promotion had come slowly
he spent nearly a year there and it was a year of the hardest kind of work he could get only indifferent help so he worked early and late to make up the deficit from there he was sent on similar work to the province of tonkin indo china
here he practically rebuilt the town of hanoi clearing and guttering the streets draining the neighboring marshes which had made the settlement a pest hole and building permanent roads the town of vietri was similarly cleaned up
for these important labors he received the first recognition in nearly ten years he was given official thanks and decorated with the cross of the legion of honor a fellow officer who knew him at this time says
was a solidly built pyrenean calm and clear headed with a firm walk and a hard blue eye he seldom smiled and he spoke still more rarely he never punished except in extreme cases and then hard
natives feared him for his silence but loved him for his justice
during this vast interval of time the cultural influences emanating from the tigro euphrates valley reached far distant shores along the intersecting avenues of trade
and in consequence of the periodic and widespread migrations of peoples who had acquired directly or indirectly
even at the present day traces survive in europe of the early cultural impress of the east our signs of the zodiac for instance
as in the nile valley however it is impossible to trace in mesopotamia the initiatory stages of prehistoric culture based on the agricultural mode of life
what is generally called the dawn of history is really the beginning of a later age of progress it is necessary to account for the degree of civilization attained at the earliest period of which we have knowledge by postulating
a remoter age of culture of much longer duration than that which separates the dawn from the age in which we now live
which justify the application of the term indigenous in the broad sense it is found like that of egypt to be possessed of certain elements which suggest exceedingly remote influences and connections at present obscure
of special interest in this regard is professor budge's mature and well deliberated conclusion
but exceedingly ancient source
and they resemble closely in turn those of the neolithic europeans the cumulative effect of such evidence forces us to regard as not wholly satisfactory and conclusive the hypothesis of cultural influence
a remote racial connection is possible and is certainly worthy of consideration when so high an authority as professor frazer author of the golden bough
is found prepared to admit that the widespread homogeneity of beliefs may have been due to homogeneity of race it is shown chapter one that certain ethnologists have accumulated data
which establish a racial kinship between the neolithic europeans
throughout this volume comparative notes have been compiled in dealing with mesopotamian beliefs
interesting parallels have been gleaned from various religious literatures in europe egypt india and elsewhere it will be found that certain relics of babylonian intellectual life which have a distinctive geographical significance
were shared by peoples in other cultural areas
modes of thought were the products of modes of life and were influenced in their development by human experiences the influence of environment on the growth of culture
has long been recognized but consideration must also be given to the choice of environment by peoples who had adopted distinctive habits of life racial units migrated from cultural areas to districts suitable for colonization
and carried with them a heritage of immemorial beliefs and customs
it is not surprising to find that the growth of religious myths was not so spontaneous in early civilizations of the highest order as has hitherto been assumed it seems clear that in each great local mythology
we have to deal in the first place not with symbolized ideas so much as symbolized folk beliefs
it may not be found possible to arrive at a conclusive solution of the most widespread and therefore the most ancient folk myths such as for instance the dragon myth or the myth of the culture hero
nor perhaps is it necessary that we should concern ourselves greatly regarding the origin of the idea of the dragon which in one country symbolized fiery drought and in another overwhelming river floods
the student will find footing on surer ground by following the process which exalts the dragon of the folk tale into the symbol of evil and primordial chaos the babylonian creation myth for instance
can be shown to be a localized and glorified legend in which the hero and his tribe are displaced by the war god and his fellow deities whose welfare depends on his prowess merodach kills the dragon tiamat
as the heroes of eur asian folk stories kill grisly hags by casting his weapon down her throat he severed her inward parts he pierced her heart he overcame her and cut off her life
he cast down her body and stood upon it and with merciless club he smashed her skull he cut through the channels of her blood and he made the north wind to bear it away into secret places
mister l w king from whose scholarly seven tablets of creation
is a word of uncertain meaning
his cunning plan is set forth in detail he cut up the dragon's body he split her up like a flat fish into two halves he formed the heavens with one half and the earth with the other
and then set the universe in order his power and wisdom as the demiurge were derived from the fierce and powerful great mother tiamat in other dragon stories the heroes devise their plans after eating the dragon's heart
his bravery in travelling among fierce robber tribes not then subject to rome
this accomplishment the arabs acquired philostratus explains by eating the hearts of dragons the animals who utter magic words are of course the fates siegfried of the nibelungenlied
after slaying the regin dragon makes himself invulnerable by bathing in its blood he obtains wisdom by eating the heart as soon as he tastes it
and the birds reveal to him that mimer is waiting to slay him sigurd similarly makes his plans after eating the heart of the fafner dragon in scottish legend
finn mac coul obtains the power to divine secrets by partaking of a small portion of the seventh salmon associated with the well dragon and michael scott
and other folk heroes become great physicians after tasting the juices of the middle part of the body of the white snake the hero of an egyptian folk tale slays a deathless snake
he then obtains from the box of which it is the guardian the book of spells when he reads a page of the spells he knows what the birds of the sky the fish of the deep and the beasts of the hill say the book gives him power to enchant the heaven and the earth
he was the great magician of the gods
he became endowed with her attributes and was able to proceed with the work of creation primitive peoples in our own day
whose experiences could never have given them origin in india where the dragon symbolizes drought and the western river deities are female the manu fish and flood legend resembles closely the babylonian and seems to throw light upon it
had apparently much in common as is shown throughout this volume special attention has been paid to the various peoples who were in immediate contact with
urartu ancient armenia mitanni
while the story of the rise and decline of the hebrew civilization as narrated in the bible and referred to in mesopotamian inscriptions
and the restoration during the age of the persian empire the struggles waged between the great powers for the control of trade routes and the periodic migrations of pastoral warrior folks
special chapters with comparative notes are devoted to the ishtar tammuz myths the semiramis legends ashur and his symbols
and the origin and growth of astrology and astronomy the ethnic disturbances which occurred at various well defined periods in the tigro euphrates valley
may have secured more settled conditions by welding together political units but seem to have exercised a retrogressive influence on the growth of local culture babylonian religion writes doctor langdon
from that period onward to the first century b c popular religion maintained with great difficulty the sacred standards of the past although it has been customary to characterize mesopotamian civilization as semitic
modern research tends to show that the indigenous inhabitants who were non semitic were its originators
book eighth enchantments and desolations chapter one full light
had begun by keeping the ruffians away from the rue plumet and had then conducted marius thither and that after many days spent in ecstasy before that gate marius drawn on by that force which draws the iron to the magnet
had finally entered cosette's garden as romeo entered the garden of juliet
romeo was obliged to scale a wall marius had only to use a little force on one of the bars of the decrepit gate which vacillated in its rusty recess after the fashion of old people's teeth marius was slender and readily passed through
as there was never any one in the street and as marius never entered the garden except at night he ran no risk of being seen beginning with that blessed and holy hour when a kiss betrothed these two souls marius was there every evening
if at that period of her existence cosette had fallen in love with a man in the least unscrupulous or debauched
for there are generous natures which yield themselves and cosette was one of them one of woman's magnanimities is to yield love at the height where it is absolute is complicated with some indescribably celestial blindness of modesty
but what dangers you run o noble souls
your heart remains with you you gaze upon it in the gloom with a shudder love has no middle course it either ruins or it saves all human destiny lies in this dilemma this dilemma
ruin or safety is set forth no more inexorably by any fatality than by love love is life if it is not death cradle also coffin the same sentiment says yes and no in the human heart
of all the things that god has made the human heart is the one which sheds the most light alas and the most darkness god willed that cosette's love should encounter one of the loves which save
throughout the whole of the month of may of that year eighteen thirty two there were there in every night in that poor neglected garden beneath that thicket which grew thicker and more fragrant day by day two beings composed of all chastity
all innocence overflowing with all the felicity of heaven nearer to the archangels than to mankind pure honest intoxicated radiant who shone for each other amid the shadows it seemed to cosette that marius had a crown
and to marius that cosette had a nimbus they touched each other they gazed at each other they clasped each other's hands they pressed close to each other but there was a distance which they did not pass not that they respected it
they did not know of its existence marius was conscious of a barrier cosette's innocence and cosette of a support marius loyalty the first kiss had also been the last marius since that time
for him cosette was a perfume and not a woman he inhaled her she refused nothing and he asked nothing cosette was happy and marius was satisfied
they lived in this ecstatic state which can be described as the dazzling of one soul by another soul it was the ineffable first embrace of two maiden souls in the ideal two swans meeting on the jungfrau at that hour of love
an hour when voluptuousness is absolutely mute beneath the omnipotence of ecstasy marius the pure and seraphic marius would rather have gone to a woman of the town than have raised cosette's robe to the height of her ankle once in the moonlight
cosette stooped to pick up something on the ground
marius turned away his eyes what took place between these two beings nothing they adored each other at night when they were there
all flowers unfolded around them and sent them incense and they opened their souls and scattered them over the flowers the wanton and vigorous vegetation quivered
and they uttered words of love which set the trees to trembling what words were these breaths
magic power which we should find it difficult to understand were we to read in a book these conversations which are made to be borne away and dispersed like smoke wreaths by the breeze beneath the leaves
and what remains is nothing more than a shade you say what
childish prattle repetitions laughter at nothing nonsense everything that is deepest and most sublime in the world the only things which are worth the trouble of saying and hearing the man who has never heard
monsieur you are handsome you are good looking you are witty you are not at all stupid
but i bid you defiance with this word i love you and marius in the very heavens thought he heard a strain sung by a star
i want you to be well because
once marius said to cosette just imagine i thought at one time that your name was ursule this made both of them laugh the whole evening in the middle of another conversation he chanced to exclaim oh
one day at the luxembourg i had a good mind to finish breaking up a veteran but he stopped short and went no further he would have been obliged to speak to cosette of her garter and that was impossible this bordered on a strange theme the flesh
before which that immense and innocent love recoiled with a sort of sacred fright marius pictured life with cosette to himself like this without anything else to come every evening to the rue plumet
to displace the old and accommodating bar of the chief justice's gate to sit elbow to elbow on that bench
to fit a fold of the knee of his trousers into the ample fall of cosette's gown to caress her thumb nail to call her thou to smell of the same flower one after the other forever indefinitely during this time
clouds passed above their heads every time that the wind blows it bears with it more of the dreams of men than of the clouds of heaven this chaste almost shy love was not devoid of gallantry by any means
to pay compliments to the woman whom a man loves is the first method of bestowing caresses and he is half audacious who tries it a compliment is something like a kiss through a veil voluptuousness mingles there with its sweet tiny point while it hides itself
the heart draws back before voluptuousness only to love the more
were so to speak of azure hue the birds when they fly up yonder in the direction of the angels must hear such words there were mingled with them nevertheless life humanity all the positiveness of which marius was capable
an ineffable twitter of heart to heart oh murmured marius how beautiful you are i dare not look at you
i know not what is the matter with me
study your feet with the microscope and your soul with the telescope
questions and replies took care of themselves in this dialogue
cosette's whole person was ingenuousness ingenuity transparency whiteness candor radiance it might have been said of cosette that she was clear
there was dew in her eyes cosette was a condensation of the auroral light in the form of a woman it was quite simple that marius should admire her since he adored her but the truth is that this little school girl fresh from the convent
talked with exquisite penetration and uttered at times all sorts of true and delicate sayings her prattle was conversation she never made a mistake about anything and she saw things justly
the man roach years went by and grim grew into a splendid fish her long flat forehead was now continued straight
a hollow in the middle enabled it as it were to project in canopies that hung down over her eyes which thus acquired an expression even more cruel and scowling
the cheeks stood perpendicularly on each side of the forehead and enclosed the cranium as between walls it was as though she had had a dent on both sides of her head the back of her neck swelled up like that of a bull
for here the muscles lay over the cranium in large thick curves until down by the neck they gave place each to its branchial cleft which was as large as a barn door and what a mouth
it opened up far past the eyes generally it only stood ajar but to look into it when it opened wide was like looking into a barrel studded with nails
the teeth stood thick as pins in a pincushion they were small and pointed and sloped backwards so that they served as barbs in along the sides came the long widely separated incisors
whose purpose was to enter into and hold fast the prey they were more than half an inch in length rounded and blunt and resembled the teeth of a rake
the upper jaw was provided with a far more terrible armature whole rows of harrow like teeth stood out making a diabolical grater of the palate they continued far down the throat
and even came forward over the tongue woe to the body that became jammed here it was only released as mince meat but the throat that swallowed the victim was by far the most horrible contrivance
it resembled the drawn up mouth of a sack down through it lay great rolls of swallowing muscles studded with grasping protuberances in the midst of them the oesophagus was discernible
with a suction that inexorably drew everything down with it and her external equipment corresponded to her internal the wonderful dark colours of the shallows drew a broad stripe along her great back
about the forehead and along the back of the neck the water grasses had laid a ground wash of their own deep green and her sides were veiled by the flickering streaks of the reed beds patches of gold
like the sunshine falling through the glassy surface of the water shone out between the transverse stripes on her sides and over the branchial arch and the belly lay the pure whiteness of the water lily yes
she was adorned in all her splendour her scales gleamed with the rays of the sun and moon and when with the rapidity of lightning she made a dart it seemed like the twinkling of stars in the dark night of the deep waters
from this time onwards her voracity knew no bounds the desire for food which she had possessed from her earliest days and which had lain like a germ in the very heart of her nature was given free play
by means of the terrible weapons that nature had placed at her disposal no one else should now get a bite she would be alone in clearing the waters of food
she now as readily seized her prey lengthwise as cross wise indeed she even preferred when hungry to make straight for the head
she wasted no time in turning it but could swallow it at once by nature she was very reserved and had no desire for companionship but her mental abilities were by no means small
and she was well able to make various observations and profit by their lessons nor was she deficient in memory as she distinctly showed every spring when going to spawn
she always found her way up the brook to the wide fen she was very sensitive to every movement in the water and in a way heard with ease the boats the big birds
they always splashed so much with their oar feet or whisked their tail round in the water she had often wondered at them she had discovered that like the grebe they carried their young on their back and
like all the other fish in the lake she supposed them to be a part of the unrest up on the surface long before they came near her she was distinctly aware of their approach if she were high in the water
and the bird suddenly rushed down towards her she darted to one side and hastened out of the way it was different when the boat came slowly gliding along then she only moved so as not to be run down
but it was many a day before she came to understand that it was they especially who wanted to harm her one evening the old angler was rowing home late from his fishing ground
the moon had risen and shed her silvery light around his oars they dipped down rhythmically and came up with the silver dripping from them suddenly he noticed that one of them struck something
and the shock passed through the oar up into his arm he was dragging something heavy and could not bring the oar forward and then he pulled the head of a pike up above the water at the same moment
the fish dropped and the oar was free but grim was wiser after that as the years passed she developed into a powerful ruler and increasingly felt herself to be the divinely favoured inmate of the lake
she was not one of the rabble she hunted large and small and lorded it over the inhabitants of the lake as far as she possibly could by more frequent and longer expeditions
she increased her knowledge of the lake and learned the routes to all the reefs creeks and banks and she ascertained that in certain directions her world was immense it was only the surface that she shunned
and the deepest depths for there were great crayfish to whom the creator had been so good
at the end of a pair of long jointed claws and there too lived oa the dreaded fish monster grim's territory lay half way between these
in the pure light of early dawn when the night flies and moths drowsy and intoxicated with their nocturnal visits to the flowers fell by hundreds into the water on their way home
when the swallows relieved the bats and the whirligigs in the sheltered nooks began their noiseless scurrying over the water beneath which the water plants were beginning to appear in green yellow
when the day dawned down where grim had her home and the wide surface above her was filled with light and radiance then she hunted most keenly and felt most voracious and then there was terror in her splash and snap
one morning early a breeze is ruffling the surface of the lake and winding white foamed currents are eating their way out among black shallows the terns are diving down after small fish
and along the rush bordered banks the rising sun is treading the water grim is abroad pushing herself forward like a shadow along the bottom her cunning crocodile eyes are turned up
so that they project from her head a number of roach are thronging about a clump of rushes examining leaves and stalks just as long tailed tits search tree tops and bark
they are inside it and outside it sucking up the water snails and insects grim stops with a jerk she scarcely moves her ventral fins and breathes very gently at each breath
she cautiously opens her mouth and draws back her tongue thus filling the spiked barrel with water then she carefully closes it again shoots her tongue forward and emits the water through her gills
the little fish gambol unwittingly close to her mouth her upturned eyes look still higher and see the gleam of their white scaled bellies now she is ready to spring
there is just a movement of the extreme tip of the tail only the shifting shadow lines that the reeds cast over her body indicate that she is moving forward she peers about continually peevishly
only one thing troubles her she can never decide which fish out of the swarming multitude she will take true she has made a special study of the way to direct her attack as the ardent hunter his aim
but the roach are nimble and she seldom gets more than one at a stroke slowly and imperceptibly she rises while all the fin tips wag and wave in lingering enjoyment
suddenly a little scarlet roach eye discovers her black back which up to the present had looked just like part of the bottom and they fly away from her in a panic of terror in one moment the rushy margin is empty
an accident that may happen even to the best of us and grim has to move on to fresh hunting grounds among the floating forests of green feather foil go big broad scaled bream
they follow close in one another's wake and lie on the surface letting the sunlight play upon their golden scales their fat bellies with the lobster red fins and their large cod like mouths give an impression of simpleness
yet they are cunning enough and very cautious in all their behaviour several of them are covered with cuts and wounds on the back and sides and it is evident they have already made acquaintance with a pike's mouth
the body of one of them is still bloody and threads of flesh and torn scales make it look quite woolly as it moves through the water they come from deep down at the bottom
and shine with mud and slime and water moss they whisk along with much movement and many strokes of the tail reeds and rushes swing and sway as they stop for a moment to rub themselves against them
as they pass through the open water between the masses of vegetation where the sun suddenly shines upon their amber scales grim hastily conceals herself in the forest of weed
the pliant water plants with their long stalks accommodate themselves to the current hanging westwards for an hour only to turn just as unresistingly the opposite way the next
stiff collars of leaves like life belts hold up the naked stalks and form a close flickering thicket about the lurking lynx without the slime on her body she would never get through
with a thick greenish juicy rim to the corners of their fat mouths her purpose strengthens her powers are doubled but she is able to restrain herself the moment has not yet come
not until the last water cow is straight in front of her does she reveal herself and the water flashes and bubbles as grim twists and turns in her efforts to come up with her prey
the flank attack however does not come altogether as a surprise to the cow it has been prepared for it in this narrow passage and therefore kept close to the bottom
as a stone bores its way into the ground so does it plunge into the mud stirring up the water and digging itself in so that grim gets only mud and grains of sand between her teeth
another accident which only sharpened her appetite and made her ungovernably fierce and just then a little roach swam past grim started
her embarrassment at her failure almost disappeared and she involuntarily stiffened as she stood she could see with half an eye that the little roach which was limping along without any frolicsome jumps and twists
would be an easy prey what luck roach were generally lively little fish and not easily got hold of
she had to use all her powers and unfold all her energy in order to catch two or three
it was only in may when they lay in bundles among the rushes amorously flicking their tails that she had her fill of them taking as many as a score in the day now only patience a little more time to wait
for this time she would make sure of her fish just then there is a movement in one of the clumps of weed the dusky hued perch with the high back forestalls her right before her nose
he darts like an arrow after the fugitive but hesitates at the very moment of striking stops and sniffs oh so he daren't he wants to have the whole company with him
and her stiff tongue quivers in her mouth as with widely opened jaws she springs upon her prey the roach is good enough
with slaps of its little tail and yet it has an inexplicable strength like that of a little pearly fish that she dimly remembers she grows angry
is an insignificant little fish like this going to resist her will the silly little thing is ready to go any way but the one she wants it to go she can hardly get from one thicket of weeds to the other
she becomes so angry that she feels the blood burning in the back of her neck and with a sudden vigorous effort she gives the roach a violent tug that helps the fish becomes manageable
its strength vanishes she is triumphant yes she knew of course how it would be grim had been fortunate in her misadventure true
it was a man roach that she had bitten into but she had fortunately broken the line and now went off with a long trace dragging after her she had swallowed the bait
was that in doing so she had got a long thorny water plant fixed to her upper lip they were the barbs of the triple hook that she took for thorns at that moment
she sees another little roach shining it is just as languid as the previous one and makes the same tempting impression instantly she makes a dash at it the same comedy was gone through
the same incomprehensible strength in a puny roach and the same work to get the refractory fish into her power well she managed it at last at last she had her mouthful
this one she swallowed too but once more she had to spit out something sharp and prickly that hung to her upper lip on the opposite side
it was a long time before grim managed to wear away the two triple hooks from the corners of her mouth and in the meantime she swam about with the rusty things like an extra set of monster eye teeth sticking out of her mouth
the pieces of line that trailed behind her often caught in things and chained her in an incomprehensible manner to reeds and rushes
and a little later the other and a hard gristly leather like skin formed where they had been she gained some experience from this incident henceforward she regarded solitary
sickly looking roach with keen suspicion she would still take with confident voracity large roach and small but she very reluctantly took a halting languid fish like those that had pricked her so horribly that morning
their drooping fins and heavy wriggling flight had fixed themselves clearly in her mind's eye her peaceful youth in which she had only had the heron and the crayfish and her own kind to fight with
had long since passed and henceforth she was to see more and more of the angler's implements but the old sportsman whose tackle was wearing out had to overhaul and renew his stock
it irritated him beyond endurance and for a long time he felt ashamed of himself from the resistance it had offered he felt quite convinced that the pike he had lost was at least worth a bronze medal
pullman the subject of this sketch we consider one of the greatest of philanthropists he is a modest man and for this reason disclaimed all desire to be known as a benefactor
but we cannot now think of any one who is more clearly identified with the great effort
being born in the western part of new york march third eighteen thirty one his father was a mechanic of some note but died before george was of age leaving him to help support his mother and younger brothers
he worked for a time in a furniture establishment but this kind of employment did not satisfy his active nature and he went to chicago where his enterprise could have sea room
he at first became identified with the work of raising and placing new foundations under several large buildings of that city
several feet high an enterprise which was accomplished without hardly a break discontinuing none of the business firms who occupied the building their business being carried on uninterrupted
george m pullman had a perceptive mind so have all truly successful men
yet they were far inferior to what he imagined they ought to be he at once applied to the chicago and alton railway management and laid his plan before them they furnished him with two old coaches with which to experiment
these he fitted up with bunks and while they were not to be compared with the elegant palaces which he has since constructed still one could lie down and sleep all night which was so far in advance of anything the people had seen
that they were very highly appreciated he now went to colorado and engaged in various mining schemes but here he was out of his sphere
returned to chicago his active imagination had thought out many improvements on the cars he had previously constructed and he had also secured capital with which to carry out his ideas fitting up a shop on the chicago and alton road
he constructed two coaches at the then fabulous cost of eighteen thousand dollars each the management of the various western roads looked upon such enterprise as visionary george m pullman however cared but little about their opinion
the union and pacific was then exciting much attention he knew that on the completion of such a road travelers would appreciate a car in which they could enjoy the comforts of home for the entire tedious trip
to say that his hopes were fully realized would be inadequate so popular did they become that his shops at chicago could not begin to fill the demands made upon it for his parlor dining and sleeping cars
branches were started at detroit saint louis philadelphia and various places in europe these establishments of necessity
therefore conceived the idea of concentrating his business into one vast establishment and gathered about him a force of skilled workmen he looked upon chicago and its locality as the coming center of population in the united states
but a site in that city would be far too expensive if indeed one could have been found sufficient for his purpose about twelve to fifteen miles from chicago was a swamp it was considered worthless
but it was as easy for this natural mechanic to conceive the idea of draining this tract of land as it was to conceive methods to raise buildings a very large force of men were put to work draining gas pipes were laid
streets were laid out and graded and an architect employed to draw the plans for the building of a whole city at once gigantic work shops were built and a water supply brought from lake michigan miles away besides all this
over fourteen hundred beautiful homes were built before any man was asked to come to pullman to enter the shops a bank was opened a library containing thousands of volumes was provided all these things were brought about by mister pullman
the buildings are not mushroom affairs but substantial brick edifices which give this place an appearance which will compare favorably with any city he built a fine hotel and erected a beautiful church
placing a rich toned organ in it which alone cost three thousand five hundred dollars every honest tradesman can come to pullman none but liquor dealers or men who desire to keep low groggeries are excluded
no property is sold but if a party desires to live there he applies to the superintendent and a lease is given which can be cancelled by either party at ten days notice nothing but liquor is forbidden
a man can squander his time can gamble possibly but he cannot obtain drink the result is there are no policemen no visible form of government save mister pullman
and yet this is a city of nearly eight thousand people the people are not muddled with drink they are promptly paid their personal rights are not interfered with save in respect to the selling of liquor they are contented and happy
mister pullman has been largely identified with the metropolitan railway and the eagleton wire works in new york city but the name of pullman is destined to long remain a synonym of philanthropy
he has practically demonstrated the benefit of legislation against the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage he claims to have done this as a business policy and disclaims all honor as a philanthropist we answer
chapter seventy the ball it was in the warmest days of july when in due course of time the saturday arrived upon which the ball was to take place
the branches of the great trees in the garden of the count's house stood out boldly against the azure canopy of heaven which was studded with golden stars but where the last fleeting clouds of a vanishing storm yet lingered from the apartments on the ground floor might be heard the sound of music
with the whirl of the waltz and galop while brilliant streams of light shone through the openings of the venetian blinds at this moment the garden was only occupied by about ten servants who had just received orders from their mistress to prepare the supper
the serenity of the weather continuing to increase until now it had been undecided whether the supper should take place in the dining room or under a long tent erected on the lawn but the beautiful blue sky studded with stars had settled the question in favor of the lawn
the gardens were illuminated with colored lanterns according to the italian custom and as is usual in countries where the luxuries of the table the rarest of all luxuries in their complete form are well understood
the supper table was loaded with wax lights and flowers at the time the countess of morcerf returned to the rooms after giving her orders many guests were arriving more attracted by the charming hospitality of the countess than by the distinguished position of the count
for owing to the good taste of mercedes one was sure of finding some devices at her entertainment worthy of describing or even copying in case of need
the latter made a sign and when the carriages had drawn close together said
no replied madame danglars i am too ill
it is important that you should be seen there do you think so asked the baroness i do in that case i will go and the two carriages passed on towards their different destinations madame danglars therefore came
not only beautiful in person but radiant with splendor she entered by one door at the time when mercedes appeared at the door the countess took albert to meet madame danglars he approached paid her some well merited compliments on her toilet
and offered his arm to conduct her to a seat albert looked around him you are looking for my daughter said the baroness smiling i confess it replied albert could you have been so cruel as not to bring her calm yourself she has met mademoiselle de villefort
and has taken her arm see they are following us both in white dresses one with a bouquet of camellias the other with one of myosotis but tell me
will not the count of monte cristo be here to night seventeen replied albert what do you mean i only mean that the count seems the rage replied the viscount smiling and that you are the seventeenth person that has asked me the same question
the count is in fashion i congratulate him upon it and have you replied to every one as you have to me ah to be sure i have not answered you be satisfied we shall have this lion we are among the privileged ones
were you at the opera yesterday no he was there ah indeed and did the eccentric person commit any new originality can he be seen without doing so
and threw it to the charming danseuse who in the third act to do honor to the gift reappeared with it on her finger and the greek princess will she be here no you will be deprived of that pleasure her position in the count's establishment is not sufficiently understood
who is trying to attract your attention albert bowed to madame danglars and advanced towards madame de villefort whose lips opened as he approached
well what is it if i guess rightly will you confess it yes on your honor on my honor you were going to ask me if the count of monte cristo had arrived or was expected
yes yesterday what did he tell you that he was leaving at the same time as his letter
the count will come of that you may be satisfied you know that he has another name besides monte cristo no i did not know it monte cristo is the name of an island and he has a family name i never heard it well then i am better informed than you
his name is zaccone it is possible he is a maltese that is also possible the son of a shipowner really you should relate all this aloud you would have the greatest success
he served in india discovered a mine in thessaly and comes to paris to establish a mineral water cure
well i'm sure said morcerf this is indeed news am i allowed to repeat it yes but cautiously
why so because it is a secret just discovered by whom the police then the news originated at the prefect's last night paris you can understand is astonished at the sight of such unusual splendor
well well nothing more is wanting than to arrest the count as a vagabond on the pretext of his being too rich indeed that doubtless would have happened if his credentials had not been so favorable poor count and is he aware of the danger he has been in
i think not then it will be but charitable to inform him when he arrives i will not fail to do so just then a handsome young man with bright eyes black hair and glossy mustache respectfully bowed to madame de villefort
albert extended his hand madame said albert
one of our best and above all of our bravest officers
this answer and especially the tone in which it was uttered chilled the heart of poor morrel but a recompense was in store for him turning around he saw near the door a beautiful fair face whose large blue eyes were without any marked expression
fixed upon him while the bouquet of myosotis was gently raised to her lips the salutation was so well understood that morrel with the same expression in his eyes placed his handkerchief to his mouth
and these two living statues whose hearts beat so violently under their marble aspect separated from each other by the whole length of the room forgot themselves for a moment or rather forgot the world in their mutual contemplation
they might have remained much longer lost in one another without any one noticing their abstraction the count of monte cristo had just entered
it was not the coat unexceptional in its cut though simple and unornamented it was not the plain white waistcoat it was not the trousers that displayed the foot so perfectly formed it was none of these things that attracted the attention
it was his pale complexion his waving black hair his calm and serene expression his dark and melancholy eye his mouth chiselled with such marvellous delicacy which so easily expressed such high disdain
these were what fixed the attention of all upon him many men might have been handsomer but certainly there could be none whose appearance was more significant
everything about the count seemed to have its meaning for the constant habit of thought which he had acquired had given an ease and vigor to the expression of his face and even to the most trifling gesture scarcely to be understood
yet the parisian world is so strange that even all this might not have won attention had there not been connected with it a mysterious story gilded by an immense fortune meanwhile he advanced through the assemblage of guests under a battery of curious glances towards madame de morcerf
who standing before a mantle piece ornamented with flowers
no doubt she fancied the count would speak to her while on his side the count thought she was about to address him but both remained silent and after a mere bow monte cristo directed his steps to albert who received him cordially have you seen my mother asked albert
i have just had the pleasure replied the count but i have not seen your father see he is down there talking politics with that little group of great geniuses indeed said monte cristo and so those gentlemen down there are men of great talent
i should not have guessed it and for what kind of talent are they celebrated you know there are different sorts that tall harsh looking man is very learned he discovered in the neighborhood of rome a kind of lizard with a vertebra more than lizards usually have
and he immediately laid his discovery before the institute the thing was discussed for a long time but finally decided in his favor i can assure you the vertebra made a great noise in the learned world and the gentleman who was only a knight of the legion of honor was made an officer
come said monte cristo this cross seems to me to be wisely awarded i suppose had he found another additional vertebra they would have made him a commander very likely said albert
i believe he thrusts pins through the heads of rabbits he makes fowls eat madder and punches the spinal marrow out of dogs with whalebone and he is made a member of the academy of sciences for this no of the french academy
but what has the french academy to do with all this i was going to tell you it seems that his experiments have very considerably advanced the cause of science doubtless no that his style of writing is very good
to the fowls whose bones he has dyed red
albert laughed and the other one demanded the count that one yes the third the one in the dark blue coat yes he is a colleague of the count and one of the most active opponents to the idea of providing the chamber of peers with a uniform
he was very successful upon that question he stood badly with the liberal papers but his noble opposition to the wishes of the court is now getting him into favor with the journalists they talk of making him an ambassador and what are his claims to the peerage
he has composed two or three comic operas written four or five articles in the siecle and voted five or six years on the ministerial side bravo viscount said monte cristo smiling
what is it do not introduce me to any of these gentlemen and should they wish it you will warn me just then the count felt his arm pressed he turned round it was danglars ah is it you baron said he
why do you call me baron said danglars you know that i care nothing for my title i am not like you viscount you like your title do you not certainly replied albert seeing that without my title i should be nothing while you sacrificing the baron
would still remain the millionaire which seems to me the finest title under the royalty of july replied danglars unfortunately said monte cristo one's title to a millionaire does not last for life like that of baron peer of france or academician
indeed said danglars becoming pale yes i received the news this evening by a courier i had about a million in their hands but warned in time i withdrew it a month ago
ah mon dieu exclaimed danglars they have drawn on me for two hundred thousand francs well you can throw out the draft their signature is worth five per cent yes but it is too late said danglars i have honored their bills then said monte cristo
hush do not mention these things said danglars then approaching monte cristo he added
after which he smiled and turned towards the young man in question albert had left the count to speak to his mother danglars to converse with young cavalcanti monte cristo was for an instant alone meanwhile the heat became excessive
the footmen were hastening through the rooms with waiters loaded with ices monte cristo wiped the perspiration from his forehead but drew back when the waiter was presented to him he took no refreshment madame de morcerf did not lose sight of monte cristo
she saw that he took nothing and even noticed his gesture of refusal albert she asked did you notice that what mother that the count has never been willing to partake of food
yes but then he breakfasted with me indeed he made his first appearance in the world on that occasion
well well he has taken nothing yet the count is very temperate mercedes smiled sadly approach him said she and when the next waiter passes insist upon his taking something but why mother just to please me albert said mercedes
albert kissed his mother's hand and drew near the count another salver passed loaded like the preceding ones she saw albert attempt to persuade the count but he obstinately refused albert rejoined his mother she was very pale well said she
you see he refuses yes but why need this annoy you you know albert women are singular creatures i should like to have seen the count take something in my house if only an ice perhaps he cannot reconcile himself to the french style of living and might prefer something else
oh no i have seen him eat of everything in italy no doubt he does not feel inclined this evening and besides said the countess accustomed as he is to burning climates possibly he does not feel the heat as we do i do not think that for he has complained of feeling almost suffocated
and asked why the venetian blinds were not opened as well as the windows in a word said mercedes it was a way of assuring me that his abstinence was intended and she left the room
a minute afterwards the blinds were thrown open and through the jessamine and clematis that overhung the window one could see the garden ornamented with lanterns and the supper laid under the tent dancers players talkers all uttered an exclamation of joy
every one inhaled with delight the breeze that floated in at the same time mercedes reappeared paler than before but with that imperturbable expression of countenance which she sometimes wore she went straight to the group of which her husband formed the centre
do not detain those gentlemen here count she said they would prefer i should think to breathe in the garden rather than suffocate here since they are not playing ah said a gallant old general who in eighteen o nine had sung partant pour la syrie
we will not go alone to the garden then said mercedes i will lead the way turning towards monte cristo she added count will you oblige me with your arm the count almost staggered at these simple words then he fixed his eyes on mercedes
so much was expressed in that one look
the palais de justice communicated with the prison a sombre edifice
the commissary took up an iron mallet and knocked thrice
and the door closed with a loud sound behind him the air he inhaled was no longer pure but thick and mephitic he was in prison he was conducted to a tolerably neat chamber but grated and barred
and its appearance therefore did not greatly alarm him
who seemed to interest himself so much resounded still in his ears like a promise of freedom it was four o'clock when dantes was placed in this chamber it was as we have said the first of march and the prisoner was soon buried in darkness
the obscurity augmented the acuteness of his hearing at the slightest sound he rose and hastened to the door convinced they were about to liberate him but the sound died away and dantes sank again into his seat at last about ten o'clock
and just as dantes began to despair steps were heard in the corridor a key turned in the lock
the massy oaken door flew open and a flood of light from two torches pervaded the apartment by the torchlight dantes saw the glittering sabres and carbines of four gendarmes he had advanced at first
by the orders of the deputy procureur i believe so
he advanced calmly and placed himself in the centre of the escort a carriage waited at the door the coachman was on the box and a police officer sat beside him
it is for you replied a gendarme
but feeling himself urged forward and having neither the power nor the intention to resist he mounted the steps and was in an instant seated inside between two gendarmes the two others took their places opposite and the carriage rolled heavily over the stones
the prisoner glanced at the windows they were grated he had changed his prison for another that was conveying him he knew not whither through the grating however dantes saw
and by the rue saint laurent and the rue taramis to the port
the carriage stopped the officer descended approached the guardhouse a dozen soldiers came out and formed themselves in order
can all this force be summoned on my account thought he the officer opened the door which was locked and without speaking a word
from the carriage to the port the two gendarmes who were opposite to him descended first then he was ordered to alight and the gendarmes on each side of him followed his example they advanced towards a boat which a custom house officer
the soldiers looked at dantes with an air of stupid curiosity in an instant he was placed in the stern sheets of the boat between the gendarmes while the officer stationed himself at the bow
at a shout from the boat the chain that closes the mouth of the port was lowered and in a second they were as dantes knew in the frioul and outside the inner harbor the prisoner's first feeling was of joy at again breathing the pure air for air is freedom
where he had that morning been so happy and now through the open windows came the laughter and revelry of a ball
the boat continued her voyage
whither are you taking me asked he you will soon know but still we are forbidden to give you any explanation dantes trained in discipline knew that nothing would be more absurd than to question subordinates who were forbidden to reply
and so he remained silent the most vague and wild thoughts passed through his mind the boat they were in could not make a long voyage there was no vessel at anchor outside the harbor he thought perhaps they were going to leave him on some distant point
he was not bound nor had they made any attempt to handcuff him this seemed a good augury besides had not the deputy who had been so kind to him told him that provided he did not pronounce the dreaded name of noirtier he had nothing to apprehend
the only proof against him he waited silently striving to pierce through the darkness they had left the ile ratonneau where the lighthouse stood
it seemed to the prisoner that he could distinguish a feminine form on the beach for it was there mercedes dwelt
mercedes was the only one awake in the whole settlement a loud cry could be heard by her but pride restrained him and he did not utter it what would his guards think if they heard him shout like a madman he remained silent his eyes fixed upon the light
the boat went on but the prisoner thought only of mercedes an intervening elevation of land hid the light dantes turned and perceived that they had got out to sea while he had been absorbed in thought they had shipped their oars and hoisted sail the boat was now moving with the wind
in spite of his repugnance to address the guards dantes turned to the nearest gendarme and taking his hand comrade said he
tell me where you are conducting me and i promise you on my honor i will submit to my fate the gendarme looked irresolutely at his companion who returned for answer a sign that said i see no great harm in telling him now and the gendarme replied
you are a native of marseilles and a sailor and yet you do not know where you are going on my honor i have no idea have you no idea whatever none at all that is impossible i swear to you it is true
tell me i entreat but my orders your orders do not forbid your telling me what i must know in ten minutes in half an hour or an hour you see i cannot escape even if i intended unless you are blind or have never been outside the harbor you must know
i do not look round you then dantes rose and looked forward
rock on which stands the chateau d'if this gloomy fortress which has for more than three hundred years furnished food for so many wild legends
the chateau d'if cried he what are we going there for the gendarme smiled i am not going there to be imprisoned said dantes it is only used for political prisoners i have committed no crime are there any magistrates or judges at the chateau d'if
there are only said the gendarme a governor a garrison turnkeys and good thick walls come come do not look so astonished or you will make me think you are laughing at me in return for my good nature dantes pressed the gendarme's hand as though he would crush it
you think then said he that i am taken to the chateau d'if to be imprisoned there it is probable but there is no occasion to squeeze so hard
all the formalities have been gone through the inquiry is already made
but i know we are taking you to the chateau d'if but what are you doing help comrades help
which the gendarme's practiced eye had perceived dantes sprang forward to precipitate himself into the sea but four vigorous arms seized him as his feet quitted the bottom of the boat he fell back cursing with rage good said the gendarme placing his knee on his chest
believe soft spoken gentlemen again harkye my friend i have disobeyed my first order but i will not disobey the second and if you move i will blow your brains out and he levelled his carbine at dantes who felt the muzzle against his temple
for a moment the idea of struggling crossed his mind and of so ending the unexpected evil that had overtaken him
and besides death in a boat from the hand of a gendarme seemed too terrible he remained motionless but gnashing his teeth and wringing his hands with fury at this moment the boat came to a landing with a violent shock
his guards taking him by the arms and coat collar forced him to rise and dragged him towards the steps that lead to the gate of the fortress while the police officer carrying a musket with fixed bayonet followed behind dantes made no resistance he was like a man in a dream
he saw soldiers drawn up on the embankment he knew vaguely that he was ascending a flight of steps he was conscious that he passed through a door and that the door closed behind him but all this indistinctly as through a mist he did not even see the ocean that terrible barrier against freedom
which the prisoners look upon with utter despair they halted for a minute during which he strove to collect his thoughts he looked around he was in a court surrounded by high walls
he saw the barrels of their muskets shine they waited upwards of ten minutes certain dantes could not escape the gendarmes released him they seemed awaiting orders the orders came where is the prisoner said a voice here replied the gendarmes
let him follow me i will take him to his cell go said the gendarmes thrusting dantes forward the prisoner followed his guide who led him into a room almost under ground whose bare and reeking walls seemed as though impregnated with tears
a lamp placed on a stool illumined the apartment faintly and showed dantes the features of his conductor an under jailer ill clothed and of sullen appearance here is your chamber for to night said he it is late and the governor is asleep
to morrow perhaps he may change you in the meantime there is bread water and fresh straw
goodnight and before dantes could open his mouth before he had noticed where the jailer placed his bread or the water before he had glanced towards the corner where the straw was the jailer disappeared taking with him the lamp and closing the door
leaving stamped upon the prisoner's mind the dim reflection of the dripping walls of his dungeon dantes was alone in darkness and in silence cold as the shadows that he felt breathe on his burning forehead
he found the prisoner in the same position as if fixed there his eyes swollen with weeping he had passed the night standing and without sleep the jailer advanced dantes appeared not to perceive him he touched him on the shoulder edmond started
have you not slept said the jailer
the jailer stared are you hungry continued he i do not know do you wish for anything i wish to see the governor the jailer shrugged his shoulders and left the chamber
dantes followed him with his eyes and stretched forth his hands towards the open door but the door closed all his emotion then burst forth
the day passed thus he scarcely tasted food but walked round and round the cell like a wild beast in its cage one thought in particular tormented him namely that during his journey hither he had sat so still
whereas he might a dozen times have plunged into the sea and thanks to his powers of swimming for which he was famous have gained the shore concealed himself until the arrival of a genoese or spanish vessel escaped to spain or italy where mercedes and his father could have joined him
he had no fears as to how he should live good seamen are welcome everywhere he spoke italian like a tuscan and spanish like a castilian he would have been free and happy with mercedes and his father whereas he was now confined in the chateau d'if
that impregnable fortress ignorant of the future destiny of his father and mercedes and all this because he had trusted to villefort's promise the thought was maddening and dantes threw himself furiously down on his straw
the next morning at the same hour the jailer came again well said the jailer are you more reasonable to day dantes made no reply come cheer up is there anything that i can do for you i wish to see the governor i have already told you it was impossible
why so because it is against prison rules and prisoners must not even ask for it what is allowed then better fare if you pay for it books and leave to walk about i do not want books i am satisfied with my food
and do not care to walk about but i wish to see the governor if you worry me by repeating the same thing i will not bring you any more to eat well then said edmond if you do not i shall die of hunger that is all
what you ask is impossible but if you are very well behaved you will be allowed to walk about and some day you will meet the governor and if he chooses to reply that is his affair
how long shall i have to wait ah a month six months a year it is too long a time i wish to see him at once ah said the jailer do not always brood over what is impossible or you will be mad in a fortnight you think so
yes we have an instance here
how long has he left it two years was he liberated then no he was put in a dungeon
i will make you another offer what is that i do not offer you a million because i have it not but i will give you a hundred crowns if the first time you go to marseilles you will seek out a young girl named mercedes at the catalans and give her two lines from me
if i took them and were detected i should lose my place
if you refuse at least to tell mercedes i am here i will some day hide myself behind the door and when you enter i will dash out your brains with this stool threats cried the jailer retreating and putting himself on the defensive you are certainly going mad
the abbe began like you and in three days you will be like him mad enough to tie up but fortunately there are dungeons here dantes whirled the stool round his head all right all right said the jailer all right since you will have it so i will send word to the governor
dropping the stool and sitting on it as if he were in reality mad the jailer went out and returned in an instant with a corporal and four soldiers by the governor's orders said he conduct the prisoner to the tier beneath to the dungeon then said the corporal
yes we must put the madman with the madmen
who followed passively he descended fifteen steps and the door of a dungeon was opened and he was thrust in the door closed and dantes advanced with outstretched hands until he touched the wall
midsummer night's dream mister thornton went straight and clear into all the interests of the following day there was a slight demand for finished goods and as it affected his branch of the trade he took advantage of it and drove hard bargains
he was sharp to the hour at the meeting of his brother magistrates giving them the best assistance of his strong sense and his power of seeing consequences at a glance and so coming to a rapid decision older men men of long standing in the town men of far greater wealth
realised and turned into land while his was all floating capital engaged in his trade looked to him for prompt ready wisdom he was the one deputed to see and arrange with the police to lead in all the requisite steps
and he cared for their unconscious deference no more than for the soft west wind that scarcely made the smoke from the great tall chimneys swerve in its straight upward course he was not aware of the silent respect paid to him if it had been otherwise
he would have felt it as an obstacle in his progress to the object he had in view as it was he looked to the speedy accomplishment of that alone it was his mother's greedy ears
that sucked in from the women kind of these magistrates and wealthy men how highly mister this or mister that thought of mister thornton that if he had not been there things would have gone on very differently very badly indeed he swept off his business right and left that day
it seemed as though his deep mortification of yesterday and the stunned purposeless course of the hours afterwards had cleared away all the mists from his intellect he felt his power and revelled in it he could almost defy his heart
if he had known it he could have sang the song of the miller who lived by the river dee i care for nobody nobody cares for me the evidence against boucher and other ringleaders of the riot was taken before him
that against the three others for conspiracy failed but he sternly charged the police to be on the watch for the swift right arm of the law should be in readiness to strike as soon as they could prove a fault
and then he left the hot reeking room in the borough court and went out into the fresher but still sultry street it seemed as though he gave way all at once he was so languid that he could not control his thoughts
they would wander to her they would bring back the scene not of his repulse and rejection the day before but the looks the actions of the day before that he went along the crowded streets mechanically
winding in and out among the people but never seeing them almost sick with longing for that one half hour that one brief space of time when she clung to him and her heart beat against his to come once again
why mister thornton you're cutting me very coolly i must say and how is missus thornton brave weather this we doctors don't like it i can tell you i beg your pardon doctor donaldson i really didn't see you my mother's quite well thank you
it is a fine day and good for the harvest i hope if the wheat is well got in we shall have a brisk trade next year whatever you doctors have ay ay each man for himself your bad weather and your bad times are my good ones
when trade is bad there's more undermining of health and preparation for death going on among you milton men than you're aware of not with me doctor i'm made of iron the news of the worst bad debt i ever had never made my pulse vary this strike
which affects me more than any one else in milton more than hamper never comes near my appetite you must go elsewhere for a patient doctor by the way you've recommended me a good patient poor lady not to go on talking in this heartless way
i seriously believe that missus hale that lady in crampton you know hasn't many weeks to live i never had any hope of cure as i think i told you but i've been seeing her to day and i think very badly of her mister thornton was silent
the vaunted steadiness of pulse failed him for an instant can i do anything doctor he asked in an altered voice you know you would see that money is not very plentiful are there any comforts or dainties she ought to have no
replied the doctor shaking his head she craves for fruit she has a constant fever on her but jargonelle pears will do as well as anything and there are quantities of them in the market you will tell me if there is anything i can do i'm sure replied mister thornton
i rely upon you oh never fear i'll not spare your purse i know it's deep enough i wish you'd give me carte blanche for all my patients and all their wants but mister thornton had no general benevolence no universal philanthropy
few even would have given him credit for strong affections but he went straight to the first fruit shop in milton and chose out the bunch of purple grapes with the most delicate bloom upon them the richest coloured peaches the freshest vine leaves
they were packed into a basket and the shopman awaited the answer to his inquiry where shall we send them to sir there was no reply to marlborough mills i suppose sir no mister thornton said
give the basket to me i'll take it it took up both his hands to carry it and he had to pass through the busiest part of the town for feminine shopping many a young lady of his acquaintance turned to look after him
and thought it strange to see him occupied just like a porter or an errand boy he was thinking i will not be daunted from doing as i choose by the thought of her i like to take this fruit to the poor mother and it is simply right that i should
she shall never scorn me out of doing what i please a pretty joke indeed if for fear of a haughty girl i failed in doing a kindness to a man i liked i do it for mister hale i do it in defiance of her he went at an unusual pace and was soon at crampton
he went upstairs two steps at a time and entered the drawing room before dixon could announce him his face flushed his eyes shining with kindly earnestness missus hale lay on the sofa heated with fever mister hale was reading aloud
margaret was working on a low stool by her mother's side her heart fluttered if his did not at this interview but he took no notice of her hardly of mister hale himself he went up straight with his basket to missus hale
and said in that subdued and gentle tone which is so touching when used by a robust man in full health speaking to a feeble invalid i met doctor donaldson ma'am and as he said fruit would be good for you i have taken the liberty
the great liberty of bringing you some that seemed to me fine missus hale was excessively surprised excessively pleased quite in a tremble of eagerness mister hale with fewer words expressed a deeper gratitude
fetch a plate margaret a basket anything margaret stood up by the table half afraid of moving or making any noise to arouse mister thornton into a consciousness of her being in the room she thought it would be awkward for both to be brought into conscious collision
and fancied that from her being on a low seat at first and now standing behind her father he had overlooked her in his haste as if he did not feel the consciousness of her presence all over though his eyes had never rested on her
i must go said he i cannot stay if you will forgive this liberty my rough ways too abrupt i fear but i will be more gentle next time you will allow me the pleasure of bringing you some fruit again if i should see any that is tempting
good afternoon mister hale good bye ma'am he was gone not one word not one look to margaret she believed that he had not seen her she went for a plate in silence
and lifted the fruit out tenderly with the points of her delicate taper fingers it was good of him to bring it and after yesterday too oh it is so delicious said missus hale in a feeble voice
margaret love only taste these grapes
yes said margaret quietly margaret said missus hale rather querulously you won't like anything mister thornton does i never saw
mister hale had been peeling a peach for his wife and cutting off a small piece for himself he said if i had any prejudices the gift of such delicious fruit as this would melt them all away
i have not tasted such fruit no not even in hampshire since i was a boy and to boys i fancy all fruit is good i remember eating sloes and crabs with a relish
did she not did she not remember every weather stain on the old stone wall the gray and yellow lichens that marked it like a map the little crane's bill that grew in the crevices she had been shaken by the events of the last two days
her whole life just now was a strain upon her fortitude and somehow these careless words of her father's touching on the remembrance of the sunny times of old made her start up and dropping her sewing on the ground she went hastily out of the room into her own little chamber
she had hardly given way to the first choking sob when she became aware of dixon standing at her drawers and evidently searching for something bless me miss how you startled me missus is not worse is she is anything the matter
no nothing only i'm silly dixon and want a glass of water what are you looking for i keep my muslins in that drawer dixon did not speak but went on rummaging the scent of lavender came out and perfumed the room
at last dixon found what she wanted what it was margaret could not see dixon faced round and spoke to her now i don't like telling you what i wanted because you've fretting enough to go through and i know you'll fret about this
i meant to have kept it from you till night may be or such times as that what is the matter pray tell me dixon at once that young woman you go to see higgins i mean well well she died this morning and her sister is here
come to beg a strange thing it seems the young woman who died had a fancy for being buried in something of yours and so the sister's come to ask for it and i was looking for a night cap that wasn't too good to give away oh let me find one said margaret in the midst of her tears
poor bessy i never thought i should not see her again why that's another thing this girl down stairs wanted me to ask you if you would like to see her but she's dead said margaret turning a little pale
i never saw a dead person no i would rather not i should never have asked you if you hadn't come in i told her you wouldn't i will go down and speak to her said margaret afraid lest dixon's harshness of manner might wound the poor girl
so taking the cap in her hand she went to the kitchen mary's face was all swollen with crying and she burst out afresh when she saw margaret
at last her sympathy and dixon's scolding forced out a few facts nicholas higgins had gone out in the morning leaving bessy as well as on the day before but in an hour she was taken worse some neighbour ran to the room where mary was working
they did not know where to find her father mary had only come in a few minutes before she died
she loved yo dearly her last words were give her my affectionate respects and keep father fro drink yo'll come and see her ma'am she would ha thought it a great compliment i know margaret shrank a little from answering
yes perhaps i may yes i will i'll come before tea but where's your father mary mary shook her head and stood up to be going miss hale said dixon in a low voice
i'd never say a word against it if it could do the girl any good and i wouldn't mind a bit going myself if that would satisfy her
here said she turning sharply round i'll come and see your sister miss hale is busy and she can't come or else she would the girl looked wistfully at margaret dixon's coming might be a compliment but it was not the same thing to the poor sister
who had had her little pangs of jealousy during bessy's lifetime at the intimacy between her and the young lady no dixon said margaret with decision i will go
she began to walk backwards and forwards in her old habitual way of showing agitation but then remembering that in that slightly built house every step was heard from one room to another she sate down until she heard missus thornton go safely out of the house
speech by speech she compelled her memory to go through with it at the end she rose up and said to herself in a melancholy tone at any rate her words do not touch me they fall off from me
for i am innocent of all the motives she attributes to me but still it is hard to think that any one any woman can believe all this of another so easily it is hard and sad where i have done wrong she does not accuse me she does not know
he never told her i might have known he would not she lifted up her head as if she took pride in any delicacy of feeling which mister thornton had shown then as a new thought came across her she pressed her hands tightly together
he too must take poor frederick for some lover she blushed as the word passed through her mind i see it now it is not merely that he knows of my falsehood but he believes that some one else cares for me and that i oh dear
oh dear what shall i do what do i mean why do i care what he thinks beyond the mere loss of his good opinion as regards my telling the truth or not i cannot tell but i am very miserable oh how unhappy this last year has been
i have passed out of childhood into old age i have had no youth no womanhood the hopes of womanhood have closed for me for i shall never marry and i anticipate cares and sorrows
just as if i were an old woman and with the same fearful spirit i am weary of this continual call upon me for strength i could bear up for papa because that is a natural pious duty and i think i could bear up against
at any rate i could have the energy to resent missus thornton's unjust impertinent suspicions but it is hard to feel how completely he must misunderstand me what has happened to make me so morbid to day i do not know
i only know i cannot help it i must give way sometimes no i will not though said she springing to her feet i will not i will not think of myself and my own position i won't examine into my own feelings
it would be of no use now some time if i live to be an old woman i may sit over the fire and looking into the embers see the life that might have been all this time she was hastily putting on her things to go out
only stopping from time to time to wipe her eyes with an impatience of gesture at the tears that would come in spite of all her bravery i dare say there's many a woman makes as sad a mistake as i have done and only finds it out too late
and how proudly and impertinently i spoke to him that day but i did not know then it has come upon me little by little and i don't know where it began now i won't give way
i shall find it difficult to behave in the same way to him with this miserable consciousness upon me but i will be very calm and very quiet and say very little but to be sure i may not see him he keeps out of our way evidently that would be worse than all
and yet no wonder that he avoids me believing what he must about me she went out going rapidly towards the country and trying to drown reflection by swiftness of motion as she stood on the door step at her return her father came up
good girl said he you've been to missus boucher's i was just meaning to go there if i had time before dinner no papa i have not said margaret reddening i never thought about her but i will go directly after dinner i will go while you are taking your nap
accordingly margaret went missus boucher was very ill really ill not merely ailing the kind and sensible neighbour who had come in the other day seemed to have taken charge of everything some of the children were gone to the neighbours
mary higgins had come for the three youngest at dinner time and since then nicholas had gone for the doctor he had not come as yet missus boucher was dying and there was nothing to do but to wait margaret thought that she should like to know his opinion
and that she could not do better than go and see the higginses in the meantime she might then possibly hear whether nicholas had been able to make his application to mister thornton she found nicholas busily engaged in making a penny spin on the dresser for the amusement of three little children
who were clinging to him in a fearless manner he as well as they was smiling at a good long spin and margaret thought that the happy look of interest in his occupation was a good sign when the penny stopped spinning lile johnnie began to cry
come to me said margaret taking him off the dresser and holding him in her arms she held her watch to his ear while she asked nicholas if he had seen mister thornton the look on his face changed instantly ay said he i've seen and heerd too much on him
he refused you then said margaret sorrowfully to be sure i knew he'd do it all long it's no good expecting marcy at the hands o them measters yo're a stranger and a foreigner and aren't likely to know their ways but i knowed it i am sorry i asked you
was he angry he did not speak to you as hamper did did he he weren't o'er civil said nicholas spinning the penny again as much for his own amusement as for that of the children never yo fret i'm only where i was i'll go on tramp to morrow
i gave him as good as i got i telled him i'd not that good opinion on him that i'd ha come a second time of mysel but yo'd advised me for to come and i were beholden to yo you told him i sent you i dunno if i ca'd yo by your name i dunnot think i did
i said a woman who knew no better had advised me for to come and see if there was a soft place in his heart and he asked margaret said i were to tell yo to mind yo'r own business that's the longest spin yet my lads and them's civil words to what he used to me but ne'er mind
margaret put the struggling johnnie out of her arms back into his former place on the dresser i am sorry i asked you to go to mister thornton's i am disappointed in him there was a slight noise behind her both she and nicholas turned round at the same moment
and there stood mister thornton with a look of displeased surprise upon his face obeying her swift impulse margaret passed out before him saying not a word only bowing low to hide the sudden paleness that she felt had come over her face
he bent equally low in return and then closed the door after her as she hurried to missus boucher's she heard the clang and it seemed to fill up the measure of her mortification he too was annoyed to find her there he had tenderness in his heart
soft place as nicholas higgins called it but he had some pride in concealing it he kept it very sacred and safe and was jealous of every circumstance that tried to gain admission but if he dreaded exposure of his tenderness he was equally desirous that all men should recognise his justice
and he felt that he had been unjust in giving so scornful a hearing to any one who had waited with humble patience for five hours to speak to him that the man had spoken saucily to him when he had the opportunity was nothing to mister thornton he rather liked him for it
and he was conscious of his own irritability of temper at the time which probably made them both quits it was the five hours of waiting that struck mister thornton he had not five hours to spare himself but one hour
two hours of his hard penetrating intellectual as well as bodily labour did he give up to going about collecting evidence as to the truth of higgins's story the nature of his character the tenor of his life he tried not to be but was convinced that all that higgins had said was true
and then the conviction went in as if by some spell and touched the latent tenderness of his heart the patience of the man the simple generosity of the motive for he had learnt about the quarrel between boucher and higgins made him forget entirely the mere reasonings of justice
and overleap them by a diviner instinct he came to tell higgins he would give him work and he was more annoyed to find margaret there than by hearing her last words for then he understood that she was the woman who had urged higgins to come to him
and he dreaded the admission of any thought of her as a motive to what he was doing solely because it was right so that was the lady you spoke of as a woman said he indignantly to higgins you might have told me who she was and then maybe yo'd ha spoken of her more civil than yo did
of course you told that to miss hale in coorse i did leastways i reckon i did i telled her she weren't to meddle again in aught that concerned yo
mister thornton had a pretty good notion whose they were from what he had heard but he felt awkward in turning the conversation round from this unpromising beginning they're not mine and they are mine they are the children you spoke of to me this morning
when yo said replied higgins turning round with ill smothered fierceness that my story might be true or might not
no more have i i remember what i said i spoke to you about those children in a way i had no business to do i did not believe you i could not have taken care of another man's children myself if he had acted towards me as i hear boucher did towards you but i know now that you spoke truth
i beg your pardon higgins did not turn round or immediately respond to this but when he did speak it was in a softened tone although the words were gruff enough yo've no business to go prying into what happened between boucher and me he's dead and i'm sorry
that's enough so it is will you take work with me that's what i came to ask higgins's obstinacy wavered recovered strength and stood firm he would not speak mister thornton would not ask again higgins's eye fell on the children
well said mister thornton half laughing it was not my proposal that we should go together but there's one comfort on your own showing we neither of us can think much worse of the other than we do now that's true said higgins reflectively
i've been thinking ever sin i saw you what a marcy it were yo did na take me on for that i ne'er saw a man whom i could less abide but that's maybe been a hasty judgment and work's work to such as me so measter i'll come and what's more i thank yo and that's a deal fro me said he more frankly
suddenly turning round and facing mister thornton fully for the first time and this is a deal from me said mister thornton giving higgins's hand a good grip
i'll have no laggards at my mill what fines we have we keep pretty sharply and the first time i catch you making mischief off you go
yo spoke of my wisdom this morning i reckon i may bring it wi me or would yo rayther have me bout my brains bout your brains if you use them for meddling with my business
i shall need a deal o brains to settle where my business ends and yo'rs begins
so good afternoon just before mister thornton came up to missus boucher's door margaret came out of it she did not see him and he followed her for several yards admiring her light and easy walk and her tall and graceful figure
but suddenly this simple emotion of pleasure was tainted poisoned by jealousy he wished to overtake her and speak to her to see how she would receive him now she must know he was aware of some other attachment he wished too but of this wish he was rather ashamed
that she should know that he had justified her wisdom in sending higgins to him to ask for work and had repented him of his morning's decision he came up to her she started allow me to say miss hale that you were rather premature in expressing your disappointment
i have taken higgins on i am glad of it said she coldly he tells me he repeated to you what i said this morning about mister thornton hesitated margaret took it up about women not meddling
you had a perfect right to express your opinion which was a very correct one i have no doubt but she went on a little more eagerly higgins did not quite tell you the exact truth the word truth reminded her of her own untruth and she stopped short feeling exceedingly uncomfortable
mister thornton at first was puzzled to account for her silence and then he remembered the lie she had told and all that was foregone the exact truth said he very few people do speak the exact truth i have given up hoping for it
miss hale have you no explanation to give me you must perceive what i cannot but think margaret was silent she was wondering whether an explanation of any kind would be consistent with her loyalty to frederick nay said he i will ask no farther
i may be putting temptation in your way at present believe me your secret is safe with me but you run great risks allow me to say in being so indiscreet i am now only speaking as a friend of your father's if i had any other thought or hope of course that is at an end
i am quite disinterested i am aware of that said margaret forcing herself to speak in an indifferent careless way i am aware of what i must appear to you but the secret is another person's and i cannot explain it without doing him harm
my own interest in you is simply that of a friend you may not believe me miss hale but it is in spite of the persecution i'm afraid i threatened you with at one time but that is all given up all passed away you believe me miss hale
yes said margaret quietly and sadly then really i don't see any occasion for us to go on walking together i thought perhaps you might have had something to say but i see we are nothing to each other if you're quite convinced that any foolish passion on my part is entirely over
i will wish you good afternoon he walked off very hastily
as if i were always thinking that he cared for me when i know he does not he cannot his mother will have said all those cruel things about me to him but i won't care for him
i surely am mistress enough of myself to control this wild strange miserable feeling which tempted me even to betray my own dear frederick so that i might but regain his good opinion the good opinion of a man who takes such pains to tell me that i am nothing to him come poor little heart
be cheery and brave we'll be a great deal to one another if we are thrown off and left desolate her father was almost startled by her merriment this afternoon she talked incessantly and forced her natural humour to an unusual pitch
and if there was a tinge of bitterness in much of what she said if her accounts of the old harley street set were a little sarcastic her father could not bear to check her as he would have done at another time for he was glad to see her shake off her cares
in the middle of the evening she was called down to speak to mary higgins and when she came back mister hale imagined that he saw traces of tears on her cheeks but that could not be for she brought good news that higgins had got work at mister thornton's mill
her spirits were damped at any rate and she found it very difficult to go on talking at all much more in the wild way that she had done for some days her spirits varied strangely and her father was beginning to be anxious about her when news arrived from one or two quarters
that promised some change and variety for her mister hale received a letter from mister bell in which that gentleman volunteered a visit to them and mister hale imagined that the promised society of his old oxford friend would give as agreeable a turn to margaret's ideas as it did to his own
margaret tried to take an interest in what pleased her father but she was too languid to care about any mister bell even though he were twenty times her godfather she was more roused by a letter from edith full of sympathy about her aunt's death full of details about herself her husband and child
and at the end saying that as the climate did not suit the baby and as missus shaw was talking of returning to england she thought it probable that captain lennox might sell out and that they might all go and live again in the old harley street house which however would seem very incomplete with out margaret
margaret yearned after that old house and the placid tranquillity of that old well ordered monotonous life she had found it occasionally tiresome while it lasted but since then she had been buffeted about and felt so exhausted by this recent struggle with herself
so she began to look towards a long visit to the lennoxes on their return to england as to a point no not of hope but of leisure in which she could regain her power and command over herself
at present it seemed to her as if all subjects tended towards mister thornton as if she could not forget him with all her endeavours if she went to see the higginses she heard of him there her father had resumed their readings together and quoted his opinions perpetually
i am right against my house seat of my ancestors yorkshire tragedy rookwood place was a fine old irregular pile of considerable size
presenting a rich picturesque outline with its innumerable gable ends its fantastical coigns and tall crest of twisted chimneys there was no uniformity of style about the building yet the general effect was pleasing and beautiful
its very irregularity constituted a charm nothing except convenience had been consulted in its construction additions had from time to time been made to it but everything dropped into its proper place and
and gladden us like the discovery of a hidden treasure some such ancestral hall we have occasionally encountered in unlooked for quarters in our native county of lancaster or in its smiling sister shire
and never without feelings of intense delight rejoicing to behold the freshness of its antiquity and the greenness of its old age for be it observed in passing a cheshire or lancashire hall time honored though it be
with its often renovated black and white squares fancifully filled up with trefoils and quatrefoils rosettes and other figures seems to bear its years so lightly that its age
only lends it a grace and the same mansion
may be seen in admirable preservation in the days of the youthful victoria such is bramall such moreton and many another we might instance the former of these houses may perhaps be instanced as the best specimen of its class
and its class in our opinion is the best to be met with in cheshire considered with reference either to the finished decoration of its exterior rich in the chequered coloring we have alluded to
and truly national beauty within doors as an illustration of old english hospitality that real hearty hospitality for which the squirearchy of this country was once so famous ah
why have they bartered it for other customs less substantially english it may be mentioned that a road conducted the passenger directly through the great hall of this house literally of entertainment where if he listed
strong ale and other refreshments awaited his acceptance and courted his stay well might old king the cheshire historian in the pride of his honest heart exclaim i know divers men who are but farmers
that in their housekeeping may compare with a lord or baron in some countries beyond the seas yea although i named a higher degree i were able to justify it we have no such
golden farmers in these degenerate days the mansion was originally built by sir ranulph de rookwood or as it was then written rokewode the first of the name
from his sovereign in reward for good service retiring thither in the decline of life at the close of the wars of the roses to sequestrate himself from scenes of strife and to consult his spiritual weal
in the erection and endowment of the neighboring church it was of mixed architecture and combined the peculiarities of each successive era retaining some of the sterner features of earlier days
the period ere yet the embattled manor house peculiar to the reigns of the later henrys had been merged into the graceful and peaceable hall the residence of the rookwoods had early anticipated the gentler characteristics of a later day though it could boast little
of that exuberance of external ornament luxuriance of design and prodigality of beauty which under the sway of the virgin queen distinguished the residence of the wealthier english landowner and rendered the hall of elizabeth
properly so called the pride and boast of our domestic architecture the site selected by sir ranulph for his habitation had been already occupied by a vast fabric of oak
which he in part removed though some vestiges might still be traced of that ancient pile a massive edifice succeeded with gate and tower court and moat complete substantial enough one would have thought
to have endured for centuries but even this ponderous structure grew into disuse and sir ranulph's successors remodelling repairing almost rebuilding the whole mansion in the end so metamorphosed its aspect
that at last little of its original and distinctive character remained still as we said before it was a fine old house though some changes had taken place for the worse which could not be readily pardoned by the eye of taste
as for instance the deep embayed windows had dwindled into modernized casements of lighter construction the wide porch with its flight of steps leading to the great hall of entrance had yielded to a narrow door
yet despite all these changes the house of the rookwoods for an old house and after all what is like an old house was no undesirable or uncongenial abode for any worshipful country gentleman who had a great estate
the hall was situated near the base of a gently declining hill terminating a noble avenue of limes and partially embosomed in an immemorial wood of the same timber
which had given its name to the family that dwelt amongst its rook haunted shades descending the avenue
the eye was first arrested by a singular octagonal turret of brick of more recent construction than the house and in all probability occupying the place where the gateway stood of yore
this tower rose to a height corresponding with the roof of the mansion and was embellished on the side facing the house with a flamingly gilt dial peering like an impudent observer at all that passed within doors two apartments
which it contained were appropriated to the house porter despoiled of its martial honors the gateway still displayed the achievements of the family the rook and the fatal branch carved in granite
which had resisted the storms of two centuries though stained green with moss and mapped over with lichens
appeared the hoary summit of a dovecot indicating the near neighborhood of an ancient barn contemporary with the earliest dwelling house and of a little world of offices and outbuildings buried in the thickness of the foliage to the right was the garden
the pleasaunce of the place formal precise old fashioned artificial yet exquisite for commend us to the bygone beautiful english garden really a garden
which since the days of the innovators kent and his bold associates capability brown and co has obtained so largely this was a garden
there might be seen the stately terraces such as watteau and our own wilson in his earlier works painted the trim alleys exhibiting all the triumphs of topiarian art the sidelong walls of shaven yew
the holly's prickly arms trimm'd into high arcades the tonsile box wove in mosaic mode of many a curl
and greenest of lawns with its admonitory sun dial its marble basin in the centre its fountain and conched water god the quaint summer house surmounted with its gilt vane the statue glimmering from out its covert of leaves
suggested and contrived by art to render nature most enjoyable and to enhance the recreative delights of home out of doors for such a garden should be with least sacrifice of indoor comfort and convenience
when epicurus to the world had taught that pleasure was the chiefest good
his life he to his doctrine brought
but at the time of which we write this fair garden was for the most part a waste ill kept and unregarded
grass grew on the gravel walk several of the urns were overthrown
the fountain was choked up and the smooth shaven lawn only rescued it would seem from the general fate that it might answer the purpose of a bowling green as the implements of that game scattered about plainly testified
diverging from the garden to the house we have before remarked that the more ancient and characteristic features of the place had been for the most part destroyed less by the hand of time than to suit the tastes of different proprietors
this however was not so observable in the eastern wing which overlooked the garden here might be discerned many indications of its antiquity the strength and solidity of the walls which had not been as elsewhere
masked with brickwork the low tudor arches the mullioned bars of the windows all attested its age
communicating with suites of chambers for the most part deserted excepting one or two which were used as dormitories and another little room on the ground floor with an oriel window opening upon the lawn
and commanding the prospect beyond a favorite resort of the late sir piers the interior was curious for his honeycomb ceiling deeply moulded in plaster with the arms and alliances of the rookwoods
in the centre was the royal blazon of elizabeth who had once honored the hall with a visit during a progress and whose cipher e r was also displayed upon the immense plate of iron which formed the fire grate
to return for a moment to the garden which we linger about as a bee around a flower below the lawn there was another terrace edged by a low balustrade of stone
well go thy ways old nick machiavel there will never be the peer of thee for wholesome policy and good counsel thou took'st pains to chalk men out the dark paths and hidden plots of murther and deceit and no man has the grace to follow thee
the age is unthankful thy principles are quite forsaken and worn out of memory shakerley marmion's antiquary
but she saw them not her soul seemed riveted by eleanor towards whom she rushed and while her eye wandered over her beauty she raised the braided hair from her brow revealing the clear polished forehead wonder
awe devotion pity
the fierce expression that had lit up her dark orbs was succeeded by tender commiseration she looked an imploring appeal at barbara ay ay returned the old gipsy
and kindle the fire within her eyes
the effect of the potion was almost instantaneous amply attesting barbara's skill in its concoction stifled respiration first proclaimed eleanor's recovery she opened her large and languid eyes
her bosom heaved almost to bursting
and as the stimulant operated the wild lustre of excitement blazed in her eyes sybil took her hand to chafe it the eyes of the two maidens met they gazed upon each other steadfastly and in silence
eleanor knew not whom she regarded but she could not mistake that look of sympathy she could not mistake the tremulous pressure of her hand she felt the silent trickling tears she returned the sympathizing glance
and gazed with equal wonder upon the ministering fairy for such she almost seemed that knelt before her as her looks wandered from the kindly glance of sybil to the withered and inauspicious aspect of the gipsy queen
and shifted thence to the dusky figures of her attendants filled with renewed apprehension she exclaimed who are these and where am i you are in safety replied luke this is the ruined priory of saint francis
and those strange personages are a horde of gipsies you need fear no injury from them my deliverer murmured eleanor when all at once the recollection that he had avowed himself a rookwood
gipsies did you not say these people were gipsies your own attire is the same as theirs you are not cannot be the brother of ranulph i do not boast the same mother returned luke proudly
but my father was sir piers rookwood and i am his elder born he turned away dark thoughts swept across his brain maddened by the beauty of eleanor stung by her slights
and insensible to the silent agony of sybil who sought in vain to catch his eye he thought of nothing but of revenge and the accomplishment of his purposes all within was a wild and fearful turmoil
his better principles were stifled by the promptings of evil methinks cried he half aloud if the tempter were near to offer the maiden to me
i could not resist it the tempter was at hand he is seldom absent on occasions like the present the sexton stood beside his grandson luke started
he eyed peter from head to foot almost expecting to find the cloven foot supposed to be proper to the fiend peter grinned in ghastly derision
and lo the devil is at your elbow well she is yours make good your words cried luke impatiently softly softly returned peter moderate yourself and your wishes shall be accomplished
your own desires chime with those of others nay with those of barbara she would wed you to miss mowbray you stare but it is so this is a cover for some deeper plot no matter it shall go hard despite her cunning
if i foil her not at her own weapons there is more mischief in that old woman's brain than was ever hatched within the crocodile's egg yet she shall find her match do not thwart her leave all to me she is about it now added he
noticing barbara and missus mowbray in conference together be patient i will watch her and he quitted his grandson for the purpose of scanning more closely
barbara meanwhile had not remained inactive you need fear no relapse in your daughter
said the old gipsy to missus mowbray sybil will tend her quit not the maiden's side continued she addressing her grandchild adding in a whisper be cautious alarm her not mine eye will be upon you
drop not a word so saying she shuffled to a little distance with missus mowbray keeping sybil in view and watching every motion as the panther watches the gambols of a fawn
know you who speaks to you said the old crone
have you forgotten the name of barbara lovel i have no distinct remembrance of it returned missus mowbray think again said barbara and though years are flown
you may perchance recall the black gipsy woman who when you were surrounded with gay gallants with dancing plumes perused your palm and whispered in your ear the favored suitor's name bide with me a moment madam said barbara
seeing that missus mowbray shrank from the recollection thus conjured up i am old very old i have survived the shows of flattery and being vested with a power over my people am apt perchance
to take too much upon myself with others the old gipsy paused here and then assuming a more familiar tone exclaimed the estates of rookwood are ample woman what mean you
they should have been yours lady and would have been but for that marriage you would have beseemed them bravely sir reginald was wilful and erased the daughter's name to substitute that of his son
pity it is that so fair a creature as miss mowbray should lack the dower her beauty and her birth entitle her to expect pity that ranulph rookwood should lose his title at the moment when he deemed it was dropping into his possession pity
that those broad lands should pass away from you and your children
if ranulph and eleanor are united
replied missus mowbray hastily twere indeed to wed your child to beggary said barbara missus mowbray sighed deeply there is a way continued the old crone in a deep whisper
by which the estates might still be hers and yours indeed said missus mowbray eagerly sir piers rookwood had two sons ha
the elder is here luke sir luke he brought us hither he loves your daughter i saw his gaze of passion just now i am old now
but i have some skill in lovers glances why not wed her to him i read hands read hearts you know they were born for each other now madam do you understand me
returned missus mowbray with hesitation though i might wish for though i might sanction this eleanor is betrothed to ranulph she loves him think not of her if you are satisfied
she cannot judge so well for herself as you can for her she is a child and knows not what she loves her affection will soon be luke's he is a noble youth the image of his grandfather your father sir reginald
and if your daughter be betrothed to any one twas to the heir of rookwood that was an essential part of the contract why should the marriage not take place at once and here here how were that possible
you are within sacred walls i will take you where an altar stands
your companion father ambrose as you call him will do the office fittingly he has essayed his clerkly skill already on others of your house to what do you allude mysterious woman
asked missus mowbray with anxiety to sir piers and susan bradley returned barbara that priest united them indeed he never told me this he dared not do so
he had an oath which bound him to concealment the time is coming when greater mysteries will be revealed tis strange i should not have heard of this before said missus mowbray musingly and yet
i might have guessed as much from his obscure hints respecting ranulph i see it all now i see the gulf into which i might have been plunged but i am warned in time father ambrose continued she to the priest
and who was so strangely moved when i spoke to him of alan rookwood is he here likewise alan rookwood echoed barbara upon whom a light seemed suddenly to break ha what said he of him ill boding raven
interposed peter fiercely be content with what thou knowest of the living and trouble not the repose of the dead let them rest in their infamy the dead echoed barbara with a chuckling laugh ha ha he is dead then
and what became of his fair wife his brother's minion twas a foul deed i grant and yet there was expiation blood flowed blood silence thou night hag thundered peter
beware added he in a deep tone i am thy friend barbara's withered countenance exhibited for an instant the deepest indignation at the sexton's threat the malediction trembled on her tongue
she raised her staff to smite him but she checked the action in the same tone and with a sharp suspicious look she replied my friend sayest thou
memoir william harrison ainsworth was born in king street manchester february fourth eighteen o five in a house that has long since been demolished
his father was a solicitor in good practice and the son had all the advantages that educational facilities could afford he was sent to the manchester grammar school
and in one of his early novels has left an interesting and accurate picture of its then condition which may be contrasted with that of an earlier period left by the english opium eater at sixteen a brilliant handsome youth
with more taste for romance and the drama than for the dry details of the law he was articled to a leading solicitor of manchester the closest friend of his youth was a mister james crossley who was some years older
but shared his intellectual taste and literary enthusiasm a drama written for private theatricals in his father's house was printed in arliss's magazine and he also contributed to the manchester iris the edinburgh magazine
and the london magazine he even started a periodical which received the name of the b oe otian and died at the sixth number many of the fugitive pieces of these early days were collected in volumes now exceedingly rare
december tales london eighteen twenty three which is not wholly from his pen the works of cheviot tichburn london eighteen twenty two manchester eighteen twenty five dedicated to charles lamb
and a summer evening tale london eighteen twenty five sir john chiverton appeared in eighteen twenty six and for forty years was regarded as one of his early works
in all probability both of these young men joined in the production of the novel which attracted the attention of sir walter scott on the death of his father in eighteen twenty four ainsworth went to london to finish his legal education
but whatever intentions he may have formed of humdrum study and determined attention to the details of a profession in which he had no interest were dissipated by contact with the literary world of the metropolis
he made the acquaintance of mister john ebers who at that time combined the duties of manager of the opera house with the business of a publisher he it was who issued sir john chiverton and the verses forming its dedication are understood to have been addressed to
whom ainsworth married october eleventh eighteen twenty six ainsworth had then to decide upon a career
he began business as a publisher but after an experience of about eighteen months he abandoned it in this brief interval he introduced the hon missus norton and ude the cook to the discerning though unequal admiration of the british public
he was introduced to sir walter scott who wrote the bonnets of bonnie dundee for an annual issued by him ainsworth gave him twenty guineas for it which sir walter accepted but laughingly handed over to the little daughter of lockhart
in whose london house they had met ainsworth's literary aspirations still burned with undiminished ardor and several plans were formed only to be abandoned and when in the summer of eighteen thirty
he visited switzerland and italy he was as far as ever from the fulfilment of his desires in eighteen thirty one he visited chesterfield and began the novel of rookwood
apparently in a glow of inspiration in less than a day and a half the feat he says for feat it was being the composition of a hundred novel pages in less than twenty four hours was achieved at the elms a house i then occupied at kilburn
the success of rookwood was marked and immediate ainsworth at a bound reached popularity this was in eighteen thirty four
which is a fine piece of historical romance the critics who had objected to the romantic glamor cast over the career of dick turpin were still further horrified at the manner in which that vulgar rascal jack sheppard
was elevated into a hero of romance the outcry was not entirely without justification nor was it without effect on the novelist who thenceforward avoided this perilous ground
jack sheppard appeared in bentley's miscellany of which ainsworth became editor in march eighteen forty
the story is powerfully written
old saint paul's and he in eighteen forty eight
in eighteen forty one
which came to an end in eighteen fifty three when he acquired the new monthly magazine which he edited for many years this was the heyday of ainsworth's reputation alike in literature and in society
his home at kensal manor house became famous for its hospitality and dickens thackeray landseer clarkson stanfield talfourd jerrold and cruikshank were among his guests
the list of his principal historical novels with their dates of issue may now be given rookwood eighteen thirty four
eighteen thirty seven jack sheppard eighteen thirty nine tower of london eighteen forty guy fawkes eighteen forty one
a tale of the plague and the fire of london eighteen forty one windsor castle eighteen forty three saint james or the court of queene anne eighteen forty four star chamber eighteen fifty four
constable of the tower eighteen sixty one the lord mayor of london eighteen sixty two cardinal pole eighteen sixty three john law the projector eighteen sixty four
eighteen sixty six talbot harland eighteen seventy boscobel eighteen seventy two the manchester rebels or the fatal forty five eighteen seventy three and
the goldsmith's wife eighteen seventy four these novels all met with a certain amount of success but those of later years did not attain the striking popularity of his earlier efforts
many have been translated into various modern languages and the editions of his various works are so numerous
the scenery and history of his native country had a perennial interest for him
may almost be said to form a novelist's history of lancashire from the pilgrimage of grace until the early part of the present century probably no more vivid account has been written of the great fire and plague of london
the charm of ainsworth's novels is not at all dependent upon the analysis of motives or subtle description of character of this he has little or nothing but he realizes vividly a scene or an incident
ainsworth came upon the reading world at a happy moment people were weary of the inanities of the fashionable novel and were ready to listen to one who had a power of vivacious narrative in eighteen eighty one
when he was in his seventy seventh year a pleasant tribute of respect and admiration was paid to him in his native town the mayor of manchester entertained him at a banquet in the town hall september fifteenth eighteen eighty one
as an expression of the high esteem in which he is held by his fellow townsmen and of his services to literature in proposing mister ainsworth's health the mayor gave a curious instance of the popularity of his writings
in our manchester public free libraries there are two hundred and fifty volumes of mister ainsworth's different works during the last twelve months these volumes have been read seven thousand six hundred and sixty times
mostly by the artisan class of readers and this means that twenty volumes of his works are being perused in manchester by readers of the free libraries
it was well that this pleasant recognition was not longer delayed the contrast was pathetically great between the tall handsome dandified figure presented in the portraits of him by pickersgill and maclise and the bent
and feeble old man who stood by and acknowledged the plaudits of those who had assembled to honor him his last published work was stanley brereton which he dedicated to his hospitable entertainer
he died at reigate january third eighteen eighty two leaving a widow and also three daughters by his first marriage
when sylvia had told estralla to come to her room that night she had determined to find a way to get the little negro to a place of safety sylvia did not know that a negro was in those far off days
the property of his master as much as a horse or a dog and that wherever the negro might go
his master could claim him and punish him for trying to escape any person aiding a slave to escape could also be punished by law all sylvia thought of was to have estralla protected
and she was quite sure that a united states fort could protect one little negro girl nevertheless she was troubled and worried as to how she could carry out her plan but she resolved not to tell grace
as usual flora was waiting at miss patten's gate for her friends she was wearing a pretty turban hat and pinned in front was a fine blue cockade to which flora pointed and said look girls
this is the secession cockade ralph gave it to me she explained all loyal carolinians ought to wear it ralph says
oh it means that you believe south carolina has a right to keep its slaves and sell them of course
and if the united states interferes why carolinians will teach them a lesson flora explained grandly repeating the explanation her father had given her that very morning
many of the other girls wore blue cockades and a palmetto flag was hung behind miss rosalie's desk young ladies said miss rosalie
i have hung south carolina's flag where you can all see it you all know that a flag is an emblem our flag means the glory of our past and the hope of the future
i will ask you all to rise and salute this flag the little girls all stood and each raised her right hand all but sylvia flushed and unhappy with downcast eyes she kept her seat
she knew that the palmetto flag stood for slavery sylvia did not know what miss rosalie would say to her and even worse than her teacher's disapproval she was sure that her schoolmates
perhaps even grace and flora would dislike and blame her for not saluting their flag but she was soon to realize just how serious was her failure to salute the palmetto flag
miss rosalie came down the aisle and laid a note on sylvia's desk it was very brief you may go home at recess take your books and go quietly without a word to any of the other pupils
you may tell your parents that i do not care to have you as a pupil for another day as sylvia read these words the tears sprang to her eyes it was all she could do not to sob aloud
she dared not look at the other girls she held a book before her face and only hoped that she could keep back the tears until recess time
but not for a moment did sylvia wish that she had saluted a flag which stood for the protection of slavery miss rosalie had said that a flag was an emblem and even in her unhappiness
sylvia knew that the emblem of the united states stood for justice and liberty when the hour of recess came sylvia had her books neatly strapped and as miss rosalie had directed
she left the room quietly without one word to any of the other girls she had nearly reached the gate when she heard steps close behind her
and grace's arm was about her it's a mean shame declared the warm hearted little southern girl
grace grace called miss rosalie and before sylvia could respond her loyal playmate had turned obediently back to the house sylvia stepped out on the street her eyes a little blurred by tears
but greatly comforted by grace's assuring words of friendship she did not want to go home and tell her mother what had happened and show her miss patten's note
suddenly she decided to go to her father's warehouse and tell him and go home with him at noon she was sure her father would think she had done right she turned and walked quickly down king street
and in a short time she was near the wharves and could see the long building where her father stored the cotton he purchased from the planters the wharves were piled high with boxes and bales and there were small boats coming in to the wharves
and others making ready to depart sylvia could see her father's boat close to the wharf near the warehouse i wish i could take that boat and carry estralla off to fort sumter she thought
a good natured negro led her to mister fulton's office and before her father could say a word sylvia was in the midst of her story she told of the blue cockades that the other girls wore
of the palmetto flag and of her failure to salute it and handed him miss patten's note mister fulton looked serious and troubled as he listened to his little girl's story then he lifted her to his knee
took off her pretty hat and said too bad dear child but you did right a little yankee girl must be loyal to the stars and stripes i am glad you came and told me for a moment
it seemed to sylvia that her father had forgotten all about her he was looking straight out of the window while he had not forgotten his little girl
he was thinking that charleston people must be quite ready to take the serious step of urging their state to declare her secession from the united states and her right to buy and sell human beings as slaves he wished that the united states officers at fort moultrie
could realize that at any time charleston men might seize fort sumter where there were but few soldiers and he said aloud i ought to warn them sylvia wondered for a moment what her father could mean but he said quickly
jump down and put on your hat i'm going to sail down to fort moultrie and have a talk with my good friends there and you can come with me at this good news sylvia forgot all her troubles a sail across the harbor with her father
was the most delightful thing that she could imagine and she held fast to his hand smiling happily as they walked down the wharf where the boat was fastened mister fulton was beginning to find his position as a northern man in charleston rather uncomfortable
many of his southern friends firmly believed that the northern men had no right to tell them that slavery was wrong and must cease he wished to protect his business interests or he would have returned to boston
for it was difficult for him not to declare his own patriotic feeling that abraham lincoln who had just been elected president of the united states would never permit slavery to continue
mister fulton sent a darky with a message to sylvia's mother that he was taking the little girl for a sail to the forts and in a short time they were on board the butterfly as sylvia had named the white sloop and were going swiftly down the harbor
asked sylvia and mister fulton smilingly agreed he was very proud of his little daughter's ability to sail a boat and although he watched her shape the boat's course and was ready to give her any needed assistance
he was sure that he could trust her as they sailed past fort sumter sylvia could see men at work repairing the fortifications over both forts waved the stars and stripes she made a skilful landing at fort moultrie
greatly to the admiration of the sentry on guard mister fulton and sylvia went directly to the officer's quarters which were in the rear of the fort and where missus carleton gave sylvia a warm welcome she asked the little girl about her school
and sylvia told her what had happened that morning i am not surprised said captain carleton
if major anderson had his way we would have a stronger force in fort sumter and that is greatly needed major anderson was the officer in command at fort moultrie
he was a southern man but a true and loyal officer of the united states when captain carleton and mister fulton went out missus carleton asked sylvia if she was sorry to leave the school and if she liked her schoolmates
sylvia was eager to tell her of all the good times she had enjoyed with grace and flora and declared that they were her true friends then she told missus carleton about estralla
and of her resolve that the little darky girl should not be separated from aunt connie your best plan then will be to go and see mister robert waite and ask him he is a kind hearted man
and perhaps he will promise you to let the child stay with her mother i hope it will not be long now before all the slaves will be set free said missus carleton before sylvia could respond captain carleton came hurrying into the room
he had a letter in his hand and asked sylvia to excuse missus carleton for a moment and they left the room together in a few moments missus carleton returned alone and sylvia heard captain carleton say it is worth trying
it is not really for me she added quickly it is for the united states something to help keep the flag flying over these forts oh can i do something like that sylvia asked eagerly yes my dear
now listen carefully here is a letter which major anderson wants delivered to a gentleman who will start for washington to morrow if anyone from this fort should be seen visiting that gentleman he would not be allowed to leave charleston as he plans
when i grow up asked sylvia missus fulton smiled sylvia grown up seemed a long way in the future
you could begin to morrow if you wished
why that will be better than going to school but we must not let your own studies be neglected her mother reminded her so after you have given estralla a morning lesson each day
you and i will study together and keep up with grace and flora by the way
she was very sorry not to see you and i have asked flora and grace to come to supper to morrow night sylvia began to think that a world without school was going to be a very pleasant world after all
she was sure that it would be great fun to teach estralla and to have lessons with her mother was even better than reciting to pretty miss rosalie
so she had many pleasant things to think of which was exactly what her mother had planned her father had said that she might ask grace to go sailing with them in the butterfly in a day or two
and now sylvia resolved to ask if she might not ask flora as well and perhaps estralla could go too so it was no wonder that she ran up stairs singing there's a good time coming it's almost here
greatly to the satisfaction of her father and mother who had feared that she would be very unhappy over the school affair they were sorry it had happened but they could not blame sylvia oh missy sylvia
estralla stood smiling before her oh exclaimed sylvia with such surprise that the little darky looked at her wonderingly yo tells me to come an here i is she repeated you tells me
for a moment sylvia was tempted to tell estralla that it couldn't be helped as long as south carolina believed in slavery but estralla's sad eyes and pleading look made her resolve again to protect this little slave girl against injustice
so she replied quickly that is my secret but don't you worry some day very soon i shall tell you all about it you know estralla that you need not be afraid
she was always quite ready to smile but she could not understand why sylvia had wanted her to come so mysteriously to her room and i am going to teach you to read and write sylvia added is you missy
estralla responded in a half frightened whisper
for very few slave owners allowed anyone to teach the slaves to read and write estralla knew this and it seemed a wonderful thing that missy sylvia proposed i'll tell you all about it to morrow morning said sylvia now run away
and with a chuckle of delight estralla closed the door softly behind her she had been quite ready to run away with missy sylvia when she had crept up the stairs earlier in the evening but to stay safely with her mammy
and learn to read seemed a much happier plan to the little darky if she could read and write why
now sylvia realized as she stood alone in her safe pleasant chamber that as soon as possible she must deliver the letter entrusted to her if it was to go to washington it must be some message that was of importance to the officers at fort moultrie and fort sumter she thought
perhaps it might even be something that would help carolinians to give up slavery and then estralla and aunt connie and all the black people she knew and liked could be safe and have homes of their own sylvia went to the window and peered out
the street and garden lay dark and shadowy now and then a dark figure went along the street the house seemed very quiet she tiptoed to the closet and took out a brown cape
then from one of the bureau drawers she drew out a long blue silk scarf and twisted it about her head i can pull the end over my face and they'll think i'm a darky she thought resolved if anyone spoke to her not to answer
she whispered over the name and address on the letter she knew that the street led from king street and she was sure that she could find it but it was some distance from home it would be late before she could get back she blew out her candle
she could not hear a sound and tiptoed cautiously along the hall to the stairs what if the door of her mother's room should open she thought terrified at such a possibility what could she say she had promised not to tell of the letter
and what reason could she give for creeping out of the house at that hour but she reached the lower floor safely and now came the danger of making a noise when opening the door sylvia grasped the big key and turned it slowly
then she pulled at the heavy door and it swung back easily
she left the door ajar so that she could slip in easily on her return keeping in the shadow of the trees she reached the street and now she felt sure that nothing could prevent her from delivering the letter she ran swiftly along
now and then meeting someone who glanced wonderingly at the flying little figure she had reached king street and was nearly at the street where she was to turn when suddenly a heavy hand grasped her arm and nearly swung her from her feet
running off are you and wearing your mistress's clothes at that i'll warrant said a gruff voice
sylvia pulled the silken scarf from her face and even in the glimmer of the dull street lamp under which the man had drawn her he could see the auburn hair and blue eyes but he still kept his grasp on her arm
the man released his grasp instantly no darky girl or slave would have spoken like that he vanished as suddenly as he had appeared more frightened now than sylvia herself for an instant sylvia stood quite still
she felt ready to cry and now walked more slowly for the first time she realized something of what it must be to be a colored girl if i had been estralla
oh i must get mister robert waite to let estralla stay safe with us she was now near her destination which proved to be a large house right on the street she knocked at the door several times before it was opened
then she found herself looking up at a tall man whose white hair and kindly smile gave her confidence well little girl whom do you wish to see he asked pleasantly i have a message
doane yes come in
sylvia drew the letter from its hiding place and handed it to him and mister doane slipped it into his pocket come in my child and rest a moment you are out of breath he said leading the way to a small room at the end of the narrow hall
sylvia was glad to sit down in a low chair near the table while mister doane opened the envelope she could see that there was another letter enclosed as well as the one which the tall man was reading with such interest when he had finished reading the letter
he tore it into a great many small pieces then he put the enclosed envelope carefully in an inner pocket so you brought me this letter from the fort well you have done what i hope may prove a great service to the stars and stripes
i thank you he said looking with smiling eyes at the tired little figure in the brown cape then he asked sylvia her name and she told him that no one not even her dear mother knew that she had brought the message
before they had finished their talk he had heard all about the blue cockades that the girls had worn at miss patten's school and of sylvia's refusal to salute the palmetto flag you see i couldn't do that
because it would mean that i believed that estralla ought to be a slave
and when he told her again that by her courage in bringing him the message from the fort and by her silence in regard to it that she had done him a great service
was that the state should free herself from slavery
wherein we meet sharks alligators and a very tough problem in wrecking timmans whom i used to call the student diver because of his keen observation and capacity for wonder
leaned against the step ladder that reached down from hatch to cabin on the dunderberg and remarked while the others listened i did a queer job of diving once down into the hold of a steamship a national liner
that lay in her dock blazing with electric lights and dry as a bone just the same i needed my suit when i got down into her
some queer cargo suggested atkinson that's it she was loaded with caustic soda or whatever they make bleaching powder of barrels and barrels of it with the heads broke in after a storm
and it wasn't good stuff to breathe i can tell you first they set men shoveling it out with sponges in their mouths against the dust and gases but one man coughed so hard he tore something in his lungs or head and died then they sent for a diver
that was me and i worked hours down there hoisting and shoveling like i was at the bottom of the bay only there was no water to carry the weight say but wasn't that suit heavy and when i looked out through my helmet glasses
it seemed as if i was digging through a snow field with such a terrible dazzle it made my eyes ache to look at
said i depends on what water it is answered timmans all rivers around new york are black as ink twenty feet down remarked atkinson i know they are said timmans but i've seen different rivers
when i was diving off the kennebec's mouth five miles southeast of the seguin light we were getting up the wreck of the mary lee then gentlemen
i looked through as beautiful clear water as you could find in a drug store filter why it reminded me of the west indies i could see plainly for well
certainly seventy five feet over swaying kelp weed eight feet high with blood red leaves as big as a barrel all dotted over with black spots there were acres and acres of it swarming with rock crabs and lobsters
and all kinds of fish any sharks said i hansen and atkinson smiled for this is a question always put to divers who usually have to admit that they never even saw a shark
not so timmans i had an experience with a shark he answered gravely but it wasn't up in maine it was while we were trying to save a three thousand ton steamer of the hamburg american packet company
wrecked on a bar in the magdalena river united states of colombia i'd been working for days patching her keel hung on a swinging shelf we'd lowered along her side
and every time i went down i saw swarms of red snappers and butterfish under my shelf darting after the refuse i'd scrape off her plates and there were big jewfish too and i used to harpoon em for the men to eat
well on one particular day i noticed a sudden shadow against the light
not such an enormous one but twelve feet long anyhow big enough to make me uneasy he swam slowly around me and then kept perfectly still
they rigged up a wire railway from wreck to shore and slid off a valuable cargo of alpaca silks and beer bit by bit along the wire to land
but presently this current sweeping down from the mountains grew too swift for the wrecking tug and she in turn was dragged down stream against all the strength of her engines and saw herself threatened with destruction on the bar
ordered the hawser cut and thirty nine men of the wrecking crew were left to their fate on the abandoned wreck their adventures alone would make a thrilling chapter but they were rescued finally from the half sinking steamer
then weeks passed while the wrecking crew worked at patching the steamer's holes so that she would float and every day timmans went down in his suit and did blacksmith work and carpenter work on her torn plates and beams
in constant danger of being crushed in the deep sand trough she rocked and slid in sometimes the whole iron hull beaten against by the ocean
and to be caught between her side and that wall
diving suit and man would have been crushed like an egg shell finally when she was ready they made fast a sixteen inch hawser and put on full steam to pull her off into deep water
off she came and all was going well with the towing when a fierce tropical storm came upon them and the steamer turned broadside to its fury and the great hawser snapped like a kite string and back she went on a coral reef
once more they began at the beginning and in time had another hawser ready and tried again this time the hawser parted by grinding on the beach as they dragged her then after long delay
had not a sawfish sent by the evil power that thwarted them thrust its jagged weapon through the hawser strands
am i then in contradiction with myself a general law which bears the name of justice has been made and sanctioned not only by a majority of this or that people but by a majority of mankind
the rights of every people are consequently confined within the limits of what is just a nation may be considered in the light of a jury which is empowered to represent society at large and to apply the great and general law of justice
ought such a jury which represents society to have more power than the society in which the laws it applies originate when i refuse to obey an unjust law i do not contest the right which the majority has of commanding
but i simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind
but this language is that of a slave a majority taken collectively may be regarded as a being whose opinions and most frequently whose interests are opposed to those of another being
if it be admitted that a man possessing absolute power may misuse that power by wronging his adversaries
and really to oppose them to one another the form of government which is usually termed mixed has always appeared to me to be a mere chimera accurately speaking there is no such thing as a mixed government
with the meaning usually given to that word because in all communities some one principle of action
was in point of fact an essentially aristocratic state
were such that the aristocracy could not but preponderate in the end and subject the direction of public affairs to its own will
without considering the probable issue of the contest which was in reality the important point when a community really has a mixed government that is to say when it is equally divided between two adverse principles it must either pass through a revolution
or fall into complete dissolution i am therefore of opinion that some one social power must always be made to predominate over the others but i think that liberty is endangered when this power is checked
by no obstacles which may retard its course and force it to moderate its own vehemence unlimited power is in itself a bad and dangerous thing
and god alone can be omnipotent because his wisdom and his justice are always equal to his power but no power upon earth is so worthy of honor for itself or of reverential obedience to the rights which it represents that i would consent
to admit its uncontrolled and all predominant authority
a monarchy or a republic i recognize the germ of tyranny and i journey onward to a land of more hopeful institutions
does not arise as is often asserted in europe from their weakness but from their overpowering strength and i am not so much alarmed at the excessive liberty which reigns in that country as at the very inadequate securities which exist against tyranny
to whom can he apply for redress if to public opinion public opinion constitutes the majority if to the legislature it represents the majority and implicitly obeys its injunctions if to the executive power it is appointed by the majority
how it happens that in a state founded by quakers and celebrated for its toleration freed blacks are not allowed to exercise civil rights
is it not fair that they should have a vote you insult us replied my informant if you imagine that our legislators
without the smallest doubt how comes it then that at the polling booth this morning i did not perceive a single negro in the whole meeting
the details of their office and the privileges which they are to enjoy are rarely defined beforehand but the majority treats them as a master does his servants
in general the american functionaries are far more independent than the french civil officers within the sphere which is prescribed to them
and often so inappreciable
are unable to prevent certain notions
from circulating in secret throughout their dominions and even in their courts such is not the case in america as long as the majority is still undecided discussion is carried on but as soon as its decision is irrevocably pronounced a submissive silence is observed
and the friends as well as the opponents of the measure unite in assenting to its propriety the reason of this is perfectly clear no monarch is so absolute
and to conquer all opposition with the energy of a majority
the authority of a king is purely physical and it controls the actions of the subject
it acts upon the will as well as upon the actions of men
as in america in any constitutional state in europe every sort of religious and political theory may be advocated and propagated abroad for there is no country in europe so subdued by any single authority
as not to contain citizens who are ready to protect the man who raises his voice in the cause of truth from the consequences of his hardihood
the people is upon his side if he inhabits a free country
the aristocratic part of society supports him in some countries and the democracy in others
organized like those of the united states
one single element of strength and of success with nothing beyond it in america
every sort of compensation even that of celebrity is refused to him before he published his opinions he imagined that he held them in common with many others but no sooner has he declared them openly than he is loudly censured by his overbearing opponents
whilst those who think without having the courage to speak like him abandon him in silence he yields at length oppressed by the daily efforts he has been making and he subsides into silence as if he was tormented by remorse for having spoken the truth
fetters and headsmen were the coarse instruments which tyranny formerly employed but the civilization of our age has refined the arts of despotism which seemed however
as that will which it is intended to coerce
there the body is left free and the soul is enslaved the sovereign can no longer say you shall think as i do on pain of death but he says you are free to think differently from me
but if such be your determination you are henceforth an alien among your people you may retain your civil rights but they will be useless to you for you will never be chosen by your fellow citizens if you solicit their suffrages and they will affect to scorn you if you solicit their esteem
your fellow creatures will shun you like an impure being and those who are most persuaded of your innocence
go in peace i have given you your life but it is an existence in comparably worse than death monarchical institutions have thrown an odium upon despotism let us beware lest democratic republics should restore oppression
and should render it less odious and less degrading in the eyes of the many by making it still more onerous to the few works have been published in the proudest nations of the old world expressly intended to censure the vices and deride the follies of the times
renders it indignant from the style of its language to the more solid virtues of its character everything must be made the subject of encomium
the majority lives in the perpetual practice of self applause
if great writers have not at present existed in america the reason is very simply given in these facts there can be no literary genius without freedom of opinion and freedom of opinion does not exist in america
the inquisition has never been able to prevent a vast number of anti religious books from circulating in spain
since it actually removes the wish of publishing them unbelievers are to be met with in america
attempts have been made by some governments to protect the morality of nations by prohibiting licentious books
not because all the citizens are immaculate in their manners but because the majority of the community is decent and orderly in these cases the advantages derived from the exercise of this power are unquestionable and i am simply discussing the nature of the power itself
this irresistible authority is a constant fact and its judicious exercise
when the american revolution broke out they arose in great numbers for public opinion then served
those celebrated men took a full part in the general agitation of mind common at that period and they attained a high degree of personal fame which was reflected back upon the nation but which was by no means borrowed from it
in absolute governments the great nobles who are nearest to the throne flatter the passions of the sovereign and voluntarily truckle to his caprices but the mass of the nation does not degrade itself by servitude it often submits from weakness from habit or from ignorance
and sometimes from loyalty some nations have been known to sacrifice their own desires to those of the sovereign with pleasure and with pride thus exhibiting a sort of independence in the very act of submission these peoples are miserable but they are not degraded
there is a great difference between doing what one does not approve and feigning to approve what one does the one is the necessary case of a weak person the other befits the temper of a lackey
more persons are to be met with who speculate upon its foibles and live at the cost of its passions than in absolute monarchies not because men are naturally worse in these states than elsewhere but the temptation is stronger
the result is a far more extensive debasement of the characters of citizens democratic republics extend the practice of currying favor with the many
this is one of the most serious reproaches that can be addressed to them in democratic states organized on the principles of the american republics
so accurately do they correspond in their manner of judging a stranger does indeed sometimes meet with americans who dissent from these rigorous formularies with men who deplore the defects of the laws the mutability and the ignorance of democracy
who even go so far as to observe the evil tendencies which impair the national character and to point out such remedies as it might be possible to apply but no one is there to hear these things besides yourself and you to whom these secret reflections are confided
are a stranger and a bird of passage they are very ready to communicate truths which are useless to you but they continue to hold a different language in public
this may be explained by analogy despotism debases the oppressed much more than the oppressor in absolute monarchies the king has often great virtues but the courtiers are invariably servile
it is true that the american courtiers do not say sire or your majesty a distinction without a difference
they do not debate the question as to which of the virtues of their master is pre eminently worthy of admiration for they assure him that he possesses all the virtues under heaven without having acquired them
they prostitute themselves moralists and philosophers in america are not obliged to conceal their opinions under the veil of allegory but before they venture upon a harsh truth they say we are aware that the people which we are addressing is too superior
to all the weaknesses of human nature to lose the command of its temper for an instant and we should not hold this language if we were not speaking to men
but i do not think that a democratic power is naturally without force or without resources
that a democratic government fails
for it often changes hands and assumes a new direction but whichever way it turns its force is almost irresistible
it is of great importance in a republic not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers but to guard one part of the society against the injustice of the other part
it ever has been and ever will be pursued until
or until liberty be lost in the pursuit in a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker
to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves
formerly enjoyed a magnificent reputation all who were afflicted with gout or gravel in germany repaired thither the savage aspect of the country did not deter them
they bathed in the cascade which fell in large sheets of foam from the summit of the rocks they drank one or two decanters of mineral water daily
and the doctor of the place daniel haselnoss who distributed his prescriptions clad in a great wig and chestnut coat
that the spring of spinbronn issues from a sort of cavern about five feet high and twelve or fifteen feet wide the water has a warmth of sixty seven degrees centigrade it is salt as for the cavern entirely covered without with moss
ivy and brushwood its depth is unknown because the hot exhalations prevent all entrance nevertheless strangely enough it was noticed early in the last century that birds of the neighborhood thrushes doves hawks
were engulfed in it in full flight and it was never known to what mysterious influence to attribute this particular in eighteen o one at the height of the season owing to some circumstance which is still unexplained
the spring became more abundant and the bathers walking below on the greensward saw a human skeleton as white as snow fall from the cascade you may judge master frantz of the general fright
it was thought naturally that a murder had been committed at spinbronn in a recent year and that the body of the victim had been thrown in the spring
to have become reduced to such a state of desiccation this very plausible reasoning did not prevent a crowd of patrons wild at the idea of having drunk the saline water from leaving before the end of the day
those worst afflicted with gout and gravel consoled themselves but the overflow continuing all the rubbish slime and detritus which the cavern contained was disgorged on the following days
a veritable bone yard came down from the mountain skeletons of animals of every kind of quadrupeds birds and reptiles in short all that one could conceive as most horrible
haselnoss issued a pamphlet demonstrating that all these bones were derived from an antediluvian world that they were fossil bones
accumulated there in a sort of funnel during the universal flood that is to say four thousand years before christ and that consequently one might consider them as nothing but stones and that it was needless to be disgusted
but his work had scarcely reassured the gouty when one fine morning the corpse of a fox then that of a hawk with all its feathers
fell from the cascade it was impossible to establish that these remains antedated the flood anyway the disgust was so great that everybody tied up his bundle and went to take the waters elsewhere
how infamous cried the beautiful ladies how horrible so that's what the virtue of these mineral waters came from oh twere better to die of gravel than continue such a remedy
at the end of a week there remained at spinbronn only a big englishman who had gout in his hands as well as in his feet who had himself addressed as sir thomas hawerburch commodore and he brought a large retinue
according to the usage of a british subject in a foreign land this personage big and fat with a florid complexion but with hands simply knotted with gout would have drunk skeleton soup if it would have cured his infirmity
he laughed heartily over the desertion of the other sufferers and installed himself in the prettiest chalet at half price announcing his design to pass the winter at spinbronn
here lawyer bremer slowly absorbed an ample pinch of snuff as if to quicken his reminiscences he shook his laced ruff with his finger tips and continued
a young doctor of pirmesens named christian weber had gone out to san domingo in the hope of making his fortune he had actually amassed some hundred thousand francs m the exercise of his profession when the negro revolt broke out
i need not recall to you the barbarous treatment to which our unfortunate fellow countrymen were subjected at haiti
and to save part of his fortune
in eighteen o one he returned to pirmesens and established himself at spinbronn where doctor haselnoss made over his house and defunct practice
a frightful creature with a flat nose and lips as large as your fist and her head tied up in three bandanas of razor edged colors this poor old woman adored red she had earrings which hung down to her shoulders
and the mountaineers of hundsrueck came from six leagues around to stare at her as for doctor weber he was a tall lean man invariably dressed in a sky blue coat with codfish tails and deerskin breeches
he wore a hat of flexible straw and boots with bright yellow tops on the front of which hung two silver tassels he talked little his laugh was like a nervous attack
and his gray eyes usually calm and meditative shone with singular brilliance at the least sign of contradiction every morning he fetched a turn round about the mountain letting his horse ramble at a venture
whistling forever the same tune some negro melody or other lastly this rum chap had brought from haiti a lot of bandboxes filled with queer insects some black and reddish brown big as eggs
others little and shimmering like sparks he seemed to set greater store by them than by his patients and from time to time on coming back from his rides he brought a quantity of butterflies pinned to his hat brim
scarcely was he settled in haselnoss's vast house when he peopled the back yard with outlandish birds barbary geese with scarlet cheeks guinea hens and a white peacock which perched habitually on the garden wall
and which divided with the negress the admiration of the mountaineers if i enter into these details master frantz it's because they recall my early youth
doctor christian found himself to be at the same time my cousin and my tutor and as early as on his return to germany he had come to take me and install me in his house at spinbronn
the black agatha at first sight inspired me with some fright and i only got seasoned to that fantastic visage with considerable difficulty but she was such a good woman
she knew so well how to make spiced patties she hummed such strange songs in a guttural voice snapping her fingers and keeping time with a heavy shuffle that i ended by taking her in fast friendship
as representing the only one of his clientele then in evidence and i was not slow in perceiving that these two eccentrics held long conventicles together they conversed on mysterious matters on the transmission of fluids
and indulged in certain odd signs which one or the other had picked up in his voyages sir thomas in the orient and my tutor in america this puzzled me greatly
as children will i was always lying in wait for what they seemed to want to conceal from me but despairing in the end of discovering anything i took the course of questioning agatha and the poor old woman
after making me promise to say nothing about it admitted that my tutor was a sorcerer for the rest
and this woman habitually so gay and forever ready to be amused by nothing trembled like a leaf when her master's gray eyes chanced to alight on her all this master frantz
seems to have no bearing on the springs of spinbronn but wait wait you shall see by what a singular concourse of circumstances my story is connected with it i told you that birds darted into the cavern
and even other and larger creatures after the final departure of the patrons some of the old inhabitants of the village recalled that a young girl named louise mueller who lived with her infirm old grandmother in a cottage on the pitch of the slope
had suddenly disappeared half a hundred years before she had gone out to look for herbs in the forest and there had never been any more news of her afterwards except that three or four days later
some woodcutters who were descending the mountain had found her sickle and her apron a few steps from the cavern from that moment it was evident to everyone that the skeleton which had fallen from the cascade
on the subject of which haselnoss had turned such fine phrases was no other than that of louise mueller the poor girl had doubtless been drawn into the gulf by the mysterious influence which almost daily overcame weaker beings
superstitious like all mountaineers maintained that the devil lived in the cavern and terror spread in the whole region now one afternoon in the middle of the month of july eighteen o two
my cousin undertook a new classification of the insects in his bandboxes he had secured several rather curious ones the preceding afternoon i was with him holding the lighted candle with one hand and with the other a needle which i heated red hot
sir thomas seated his chair tipped back against the sill of a window his feet on a stool watched us work and smoked his cigar with a dreamy air i stood in with sir thomas hawerburch
and i accompanied him every day to the woods in his carriage he enjoyed hearing me chatter in english and wished to make of me as he said a thorough gentleman the butterflies labeled
yesterday i secured a magnificent horn beetle the great lucanus cervus of the oaks of the hartz it has this peculiarity the right claw divides in five branches
it's a rare specimen at the same time i offered him the needle and as he pierced the insect before fixing it on the cork sir thomas until then impassive got up and
drawing near a bandbox he began to examine the spider crab of guiana with a feeling of horror which was strikingly portrayed on his fat vermilion face that is certainly he cried the most frightful work of the creation
the mere sight of it it makes me shudder in truth a sudden pallor overspread his face bah said my tutor
one hears his nurse cry out one is afraid and the impression sticks but if you should consider the spider with a strong microscope you would be astonished at the finish of his members
at their admirable arrangement and even at their elegance it disgusts me interrupted the commodore brusquely pouah it had turned over in his fingers oh i don't know why he declared
spiders have always frozen my blood doctor weber began to laugh and i who shared the feelings of sir thomas exclaimed yes cousin
it is disgusting it spoils all the rest little chump he said his eyes sparkling what makes you look at it if you don't like it go take yourself off somewhere evidently he had taken offense
and sir thomas who was then before the window contemplating the mountain turned suddenly took me by the hand and said to me in a manner full of good will your tutor frantz sets great store by his spider we like the trees better
the verdure come let's go for a walk yes go cried the doctor and come back for supper at six o'clock then raising his voice no hard feelings sir hawerburch
the commodore replied laughingly and we got into the carriage which was always waiting in front of the door of the house sir thomas wanted to drive himself and dismissed his servant he made me sit beside him on the same seat and we started off for rothalps
while the carriage was slowly ascending the sandy path an invincible sadness possessed itself of my spirit sir thomas on his part was grave he perceived my sadness and said
you don't like spiders frantz nor do i either but thank heaven there aren't any dangerous ones in this country the spider crab which your tutor has in his box comes from french guiana
it inhabits the great swampy forests filled with warm vapors with scalding exhalations this temperature is necessary to its life its web or rather its vast snare envelops an entire thicket
in it it takes birds as our spiders take flies but drive these disgusting images from your mind and drink a swallow of my old burgundy then turning he raised the cover of the rear seat
and drew from the straw a sort of gourd from which he poured me a full bumper in a leather goblet when i had drunk all my good humor returned and i began to laugh at my fright
thin and nervous as a goat which clambered up the nearly perpendicular path thousands of insects hummed in the bushes at our right at a hundred paces or more the somber outskirts of the rothalp forests extended below us
the profound shades of which choked with briers and foul brush showed here and there an opening filled with light on our left tumbled the stream of spinbronn
and the more we climbed the more did its silvered sheets floating in the abyss
and redouble their sound of cymbals i was captivated by this spectacle sir thomas leaning back in the seat his knees as high as his chin abandoned himself to his habitual reveries
while the horse laboring with his feet and hanging his head on his chest as a counter weight to the carriage held on as if suspended on the flank of the rock
the haunt of the roebuck surrounded by tremulous shadows i always lost my head and my eyes too in an immense perspective at the apparition of the shadows i
turned my head and saw the cavern of spinbronn close at hand the encompassing mists were a magnificent green and the stream which before falling extends over a bed of black sand and pebbles was so clear
that one would have thought it frozen if pale vapors did not follow its surface the horse had just stopped of his own accord to breathe sir thomas rising cast his eye over the countryside
how calm everything is said he then after an instant of silence if you weren't here frantz i should certainly bathe in the basin but commodore said i why not bathe
i would do well to stroll around in the neighborhood on the next hill is a great glade filled with wild strawberries i'll go and pick some i'll be back in an hour ha i should like to frantz it's a good idea
it's necessary to offset wine with mineral water this little bed of sand pleases me then having set both feet on the ground he hitched the horse to the trunk of a little birch and waved his hand as if to say
you may go i saw him sit down on the moss and draw off his boots as i moved away he turned and called out in an hour frantz they were his last words
an hour later i returned to the spring the horse the carriage and the clothes of sir thomas alone met my eyes the sun was setting the shadows were getting long not a bird's song under the foliage
not the hum of an insect in the tall grass a silence like death looked down on this solitude the silence frightened me i climbed up on the rock which overlooks the cavern
i looked to the right and to the left nobody i called no answer the sound of my voice repeated by the echoes filled me with fear
night settled down slowly a vague sense of horror oppressed me suddenly the story of the young girl who had disappeared occurred to me and i began to descend on the run
but arriving before the cavern i stopped seized with unaccountable terror in casting a glance in the deep shadows of the spring i had caught sight of two motionless red points
then i saw long lines wavering in a strange manner in the midst of the darkness and that at a depth where no human eye had ever penetrated
fear lent my sight and all my senses an unheard of subtlety of perception for several seconds i heard very distinctly the evening plaint of a cricket down at the edge of the wood a dog barking far away
very far in the valley then my heart compressed for an instant by emotion began to beat furiously and i no longer heard anything then uttering a horrible cry i fled abandoning the horse the carriage
in less than twenty minutes bounding over the rocks and brush i reached the threshold of our house and cried in a stifled voice run run sir hawerburch is dead sir hawerburch is in the cavern
of the old woman agatha and of two or three people invited in that evening by the doctor i fainted i have learned since that during a whole hour i raved deliriously the whole village had gone in search of the commodore
at ten o'clock in the evening all the crowd came back bringing the carriage and in the carriage the clothes of sir hawerburch they had discovered nothing it was
impossible to take ten steps in the cavern without being suffocated during their absence agatha and i waited sitting in the chimney corner i howling incoherent words of terror
she with hands crossed on her knees eyes wide open going from time to time to the window to see what was taking place for from the foot of the mountain one could see torches flitting in the woods one could hear hoarse voices in the distance
calling to each other in the night at the approach of her master agatha began to tremble the doctor entered brusquely pale his lips compressed despair written on his face
a score of woodcutters followed him tumultuously in great felt hats with wide brims swarthy visaged shaking the ash from their torches scarcely was he in the hall when my tutor's glittering eyes seemed to look for something
he caught sight of the negress and without a word having passed between them the poor woman began to cry no no i don't want to and i wish it
replied the doctor in a hard tone one would have said that the negress had been seized by an invincible power she shuddered from head to foot
she sat down with a corpse like stiffness all the bystanders witnesses of this shocking spectacle good folk with primitive and crude manners but full of pious sentiments made the sign of the cross
and i who knew not then even by name of the terrible magnetic power of the will began to tremble believing that agatha was dead christian weber approached the negress
and making a rapid pass over her forehead
said he yes master sir thomas hawerburch at these words she shuddered again
yes yes she gasped in a strangling voice i see him where is he up there in the back of the cavern dead
dead said the doctor how the spider
oh control your agitation said the doctor who was quite pale tell us plainly the spider crab holds him by the throat he is there at the back under the rock wound round by webs
crowding around with their eyes sticking out of their heads were listening intently
horrible then he resumed you see him i see him and the spider is it big oh master
not even on the banks of the mocaris nor in the lowlands of konanama it is as large as my head there was a long silence
all the assistants looked at each other their faces livid their hair standing up
having passed his hand several times over the negress's forehead he continued agatha tell us how death befell sir hawerburch he was bathing in the basin of the spring
with his bare back it was hungry it had fasted for a long time it saw him with his arms on the water
sir hawerburch sank down in the water and died then the spider returned and surrounded him with its web and he floated
it drew in on the web now he is all black the doctor turning to me who no longer felt the shock asked
is it true frantz that the commodore went in bathing yes cousin christian at what time at four o'clock at four o'clock it was very warm wasn't it
oh yes it's certainly so said he striking his forehead the monster could come out without fear he pronounced a few unintelligible words and then
looking toward the mountaineers my friends he cried that is where this mass of debris came from of skeletons which spread terror among the bathers that is what has ruined you all
it is the spider crab it is there hidden in its web awaiting its prey in the back of the cavern who can tell the number of its victims and full of fury he led the way shouting fagots
fagots the woodcutters followed him vociferating ten minutes later two large wagons laden with fagots were slowly mounting the slope a long file of woodcutters their backs bent double followed
enveloped in the somber night my tutor and i walked ahead leading the horses by their bridles and the melancholy moon vaguely lighted this funereal march from time to time the wheels grated
then the carts raised by the irregularities of the rocky road fell again in the track with a heavy jolt as we drew near the cavern on the playground of the roebucks our cortege halted
the torches were lit and the crowd advanced toward the gulf the limpid water running over the sand reflected the bluish flame of the resinous torches the rays of which revealed the tops of the black firs leaning over the rock
this is the place to unload the doctor then said it's necessary to block up the mouth of the cavern and it was not without a feeling of terror that each undertook the duty of executing his orders
the fagots fell from the top of the loads a few stakes driven down before the opening of the spring prevented the water from carrying them away toward midnight the mouth of the cavern was completely closed
the water running over spread to both sides on the moss the top fagots were perfectly dry then doctor weber supplying himself with a torch himself lit the fire the flames ran from twig to twig with an angry crackling
and soon leaped toward the sky chasing clouds of smoke before them it was a strange and savage spectacle
unceasingly renewed and disgorged all around stood the woodcutters somber motionless expectant their eyes fixed on the opening and i although trembling from head to foot in fear could not tear away my gaze
when a black object with long hooked claws appeared suddenly in the shadow and precipitated itself toward the opening a cry resounded about the pyre the spider driven back by the live coals reentered its cave
then smothered doubtless by the smoke it returned to the charge and leaped out into the midst of the flames its long legs curled up it was as large as my head and of a violet red
one of the woodcutters fearing lest it leap clear of the fire threw his hatchet at it and with such good aim that on the instant the fire around it was covered with blood
but soon the flames burst out more vigorously over it and consumed the horrible destroyer such master frantz was the strange event which destroyed the fine reputation
which the waters of spinbronn formerly enjoyed i can certify the scrupulous precision of my account but as for giving you an explanation that would be impossible for me to do
at the same time allow me to tell you that it does not seem to me absurd to admit that a spider under the influence of a temperature raised by thermal waters
which affords the same conditions of life and development as the scorching climates of africa and south america should attain a fabulous size
which explains the prodigious exuberance of the antediluvian creation however that may be my tutor
sold the house back to haselnoss
i was sent to board in strasbourg where i remained until eighteen o nine the great political events of the epoch then absorbing the attention of germany and france explain why the affair i have just told you about
the crystal coffin now let no one say that a poor tailor can't get on in the world and indeed even attain to very high honour nothing is required but to set the right way to work but of course the really important thing is to succeed
a very bright active young tailor once set off on his travels which led him into a wood and as he did not know the way he soon lost himself night came on and there seemed to be nothing for it but to seek out the best resting place he could find
he could have made himself quite comfortable with a bed of soft moss but the fear of wild beasts disturbed his mind and at last he determined to spend the night in a tree he sought out a tall oak tree climbed up to the top
and felt devoutly thankful that his big smoothing iron was in his pocket for the wind in the tree tops was so high that he might easily have been blown away altogether after passing some hours of the night not without considerable fear and trembling
he noticed a light shining at a little distance and hoping it might proceed from some house where he could find a better shelter than in the top of the tree he cautiously descended and went towards the light it led him to a little hut all woven together of reeds and rushes
he knocked bravely at the door which opened and by the light which shone from within he saw an old gray haired man dressed in a coat made of bright coloured patches who are you and what do you want asked the old man roughly
i am a poor tailor replied the youth i have been benighted in the forest and i entreat you to let me take shelter in your hut till morning go your way said the old man in a sulky tone i'll have nothing to do with tramps you must just go elsewhere
with these words he tried to slip back into his house but the tailor laid hold of his coat tails and begged so hard to be allowed to stay that the old fellow who was by no means as cross as he appeared was at length touched by his entreaties let him come in
and after giving him some food showed him quite a nice bed in one corner of the room the weary tailor required no rocking to rest but slept sound till early morning when he was roused from his slumbers by a tremendous noise
loud screams and shouts pierced the thin walls of the little hut the tailor with new born courage sprang up threw on his clothes with all speed and hurried out
there he saw a huge black bull engaged in a terrible fight with a fine large stag they rushed at each other with such fury that the ground seemed to tremble under them and the whole air to be filled with their cries
for some time it appeared quite uncertain which would be the victor but at length the stag drove his antlers with such force into his opponent's body that the bull fell to the ground with a terrific roar and a few more strokes finished him
the tailor who had been watching the fight with amazement was still standing motionless when the stag bounded up to him and before he had time to escape forked him up with its great antlers and set off at full gallop over hedges and ditches hill and dale
through wood and water the tailor could do nothing but hold on tight with both hands to the stag's horns and resign himself to his fate he felt as if he were flying along at length the stag paused before a steep rock and gently let the tailor down to the ground
feeling more dead than alive he paused for a while to collect his scattered senses but when he seemed somewhat restored the stag struck such a blow on a door in the rock that it flew open flames of fire rushed forth
and such clouds of steam followed that the stag had to avert its eyes the tailor could not think what to do or which way to turn to get away from this awful wilderness and to find his way back amongst human beings once more as he stood hesitating
a voice from the rock cried to him step in without fear no harm shall befall you he still lingered but some mysterious power seemed to impel him
and passing through the door he found himself in a spacious hall whose ceiling walls and floor were covered with polished tiles carved all over with unknown figures he gazed about full of wonder
tread on the stone in the middle of the hall and good luck will attend you by this time he had grown so courageous that he did not hesitate to obey the order and hardly had he stepped on the stone than it began to sink gently with him into the depths below
on reaching firm ground he found himself in a hall of much the same size as the upper one but with much more in it to wonder at and admire
on the floor stood two large crystal boxes opposite each other and these attracted his curiosity at once
stepping up to one of them he saw within it what looked like a model in miniature of a fine castle surrounded by farms barns stables and a number of other buildings everything was quite tiny
he would have continued gazing much longer at this remarkable curiosity had not the voice desired him to turn round and look at the crystal coffin which stood opposite what was his amazement at seeing a girl of surpassing loveliness lying in it
she lay as though sleeping and her long fair hair seemed to wrap her round like some costly mantle her eyes were closed but the bright colour in her face and the movement of a ribbon which rose and fell with her breath left no doubt as to her being alive
as the tailor stood gazing at her with a beating heart the maiden suddenly opened her eyes and started with delighted surprise great heavens she cried my deliverance approaches quick quick help me out of my prison
only push back the bolt of this coffin and i am free the tailor promptly obeyed when she quickly pushed back the crystal lid stepped out of the coffin and hurried to a corner of the hall when she proceeded to wrap herself in a large cloak
then she sat down on a stone desired the young man to come near and giving him an affectionate kiss she said my long hoped for deliverer kind heaven has led you to me and has at length put an end to all my sufferings
you are my destined husband and beloved by me and endowed with every kind of riches and power you shall spend the remainder of your life in peace and happiness now sit down and hear my story i am the daughter of a wealthy nobleman
my parents died when i was very young and they left me to the care of my eldest brother by whom i was carefully educated we loved each other so tenderly and our tastes and interests were so much alike that we determined never to marry but to spend our entire lives together
there was no lack of society at our home friends and neighbours paid us frequent visits and we kept open house for all thus it happened that one evening a stranger rode up to the castle and asked for hospitality as he could not reach the nearest town that night
we granted his request with ready courtesy and during supper he entertained us with most agreeable conversation mingled with amusing anecdotes my brother took such a fancy to him that he pressed him to spend a couple of days with us
which after a little hesitation the stranger consented to do we rose late from table and whilst my brother was showing our guest to his room i hurried to mine for i was very tired and longed to get to bed
i had hardly dropped off to sleep when i was roused by the sound of some soft and charming music wondering whence it could come i was about to call to my maid who slept in the room next mine
when to my surprise i felt as if some heavy weight on my chest had taken all power from me and i lay there unable to utter the slightest sound meantime by the light of the night lamp i saw the stranger enter my room though the double doors had been securely locked
he drew near and told me that through the power of his magic arts he had caused the soft music to waken me and had made his way through bolts and bars to offer me his hand and heart my repugnance to his magic was so great that i would not condescend to give any answer
he waited motionless for some time hoping no doubt for a favourable reply but as i continued silent he angrily declared that he would find means to punish my pride and therewith he left the room in a rage
i spent the night in the greatest agitation and only fell into a doze towards morning as soon as i awoke i jumped up and hurried to tell my brother all that had happened but he had left his room and his servant told me that he had gone out at daybreak to hunt with the stranger
my mind misgave me i dressed in all haste had my palfrey saddled and rode of at full gallop towards the forest attended by one servant only
i pushed on without pausing and ere long i saw the stranger coming towards me and leading a fine stag i asked him where he had left my brother and how he had got the stag whose great eyes were overflowing with tears instead of answering he began to laugh
and i flew into such a rage that i drew a pistol and fired at him but the bullet rebounded from his breast and struck my horse in the forehead i fell to the ground and the stranger muttered some words which robbed me of my senses when i came to myself
i was lying in a crystal coffin in this subterranean vault the magician appeared again and told me that he had transformed my brother into a stag had reduced our castle and all its defences to miniature and locked them up in a glass box
and after turning all our household into different vapours had banished them into glass phials if i would only yield to his wishes he could easily open these vessels and all would then resume their former shapes
i would not say a word more than i had done previously and he vanished leaving me in my prison where a deep sleep soon fell on me amongst the many dreams which floated through my brain was a cheering one of a young man who was to come and release me
and to day when i opened my eyes i recognised you and saw that my dream was fulfilled now help me to carry out the rest of my vision the first thing is to place the glass box which contains my castle on this large stone
as soon as this was done the stone gently rose through the air and transported them into the upper hall whence they easily carried the box into the outer air the lady then removed the lid
and it was marvellous to watch the castle houses and farmyards begin to grow and spread themselves till they had regained their proper size then the young couple returned by means of the movable stone and brought up all the glass vessels filled with smoke
no sooner were they uncorked than the blue vapours poured out and became transformed to living people in whom the lady joyfully recognised her many servants and attendants
once upon a time there lived a king who had an only son whom he loved dearly now one day the king sent for his son and said to him my dearest child my hair is grey and i am old and soon i shall feel no more the warmth of the sun
or look upon the trees and flowers but before i die i should like to see you with a good wife therefore marry my son as speedily as possible my father replied the prince now and always i ask nothing better than to do your bidding
but i know of no daughter in law that i could give you on hearing these words the old king drew from his pocket a key of gold and gave it to his son saying go up the staircase right up to the top of the tower look carefully round you
and then come and tell me which you like best of all that you see so the young man went up he had never before been in the tower and had no idea what it might contain
the staircase wound round and round and round till the prince was almost giddy and every now and then he caught sight of a large room that opened out from the side but he had been told to go to the top and to the top he went
then he found himself in a hall which had an iron door at one end this door he unlocked with his golden key and he passed through into a vast chamber which had a roof of blue sprinkled with golden stars
and a carpet of green silk soft as turf twelve windows framed in gold let in the light of the sun and on every window was painted the figure of a young girl each more beautiful than the last
while the prince gazed at them in surprise not knowing which he liked best the girls began to lift their eyes and smile at him he waited expecting them to speak but no sound came
suddenly he noticed that one of the windows was covered by a curtain of white silk he lifted it and saw before him the image of a maiden beautiful as the day and sad as the tomb clothed in a white robe
having a girdle of silver and a crown of pearls the prince stood and gazed at her as if he had been turned into stone but as he looked the sadness which was on her face seemed to pass into his heart and he cried out
this one shall be my wife this one and no other as he said the words the young girl blushed and hung her head and all the other figures vanished the young prince went quickly back to his father and told him all he had seen and which wife he had chosen
the old man listened to him full of sorrow and then he spoke you have done ill my son to search out that which was hidden and you are running to meet a great danger this young girl has fallen into the power of a wicked sorcerer who lives in an iron castle
many young men have tried to deliver her and none have ever come back but what is done is done
go dare your fate and return to me safe and sound so the prince embraced his father mounted his horse and set forth to seek his bride he rode on gaily for several hours till he found himself in a wood where he had never been before
and soon lost his way among its winding paths and deep valleys he tried in vain to see where he was the thick trees shut out the sun and he could not tell which was north and which was south so that he might know what direction to make for
he felt in despair and had quite given up all hope of getting out of this horrible place when he heard a voice calling to him hey hey stop a minute
who are you asked the prince and what can you do long is my name and i can lengthen my body at will do you see that nest up there on the top of that pine tree well i can get it for you without taking the trouble of climbing the tree
and long stretched himself up and up and up till he was very soon as tall as the pine itself he put the nest in his pocket and before you could wink your eyelid he had made himself small again and stood before the prince
yes you know your business said he but birds nests are no use to me i am too old for them now if you were only able to get me out of this wood you would indeed be good for something oh there's no difficulty about that replied long
and he stretched himself up and up and up till he was three times as tall as the tallest tree in the forest
and shortening himself again he took the prince's horse by the bridle and led him along very soon they got clear of the forest and saw before them a wide plain ending in a pile of high rocks covered here and there with trees and very much like the fortifications of a town
as they left the wood behind long turned to the prince and said my lord here comes my comrade you should take him into your service too as you will find him a great help well call him then so that i can see what sort of a man he is
he is a little too far off for that replied long he would hardly hear my voice and he couldn't be here for some time yet as he has so much to carry i think i had better go and bring him myself and this time he stretched himself to such a height that his head was lost in the clouds
he made two or three strides took his friend on his back and set him down before the prince the new comer was a very fat man and as round as a barrel who are you asked the prince and what can you do
your worship broad is my name and i can make myself as wide as i please let me see how you manage it run my lord as fast as you can and hide yourself in the wood cried broad and he began to swell himself out
the prince did not understand why he should run to the wood but when he saw long flying towards it he thought he had better follow his example he was only just in time for broad had so suddenly inflated himself that he very nearly knocked over the prince and his horse too
at length broad ceased to expand drew a deep breath that made the whole forest tremble and shrank into his usual size you have made me run away said the prince
but it is not every day one meets with a man of your sort i will take you into my service so the three companions continued their journey and when they were drawing near the rocks they met a man whose eyes were covered by a bandage your excellency said long
this is our third comrade you will do well to take him into your service and i assure you you will find him worth his salt who are you asked the prince and why are your eyes bandaged you can never see your way
it is just the contrary my lord it is because i see only too well that i am forced to bandage my eyes even so i see as well as people who have no bandage when i take it off my eyes pierce through everything
everything i look at catches fire or if it cannot catch fire it falls into a thousand pieces they call me quickeye and so saying he took off his bandage and turned towards the rock as he fixed his eyes upon it a crack was heard
and in a few moments it was nothing but a heap of sand in the sand something might be detected glittering brightly quickeye picked it up and brought it to the prince it turned out to be a lump of pure gold
you are a wonderful creature said the prince and i should be a fool not to take you into my service but since your eyes are so good tell me if i am very far from the iron castle and what is happening there just now
if you were travelling alone replied quickeye it would take you at least a year to get to it but as we are with you we shall arrive there to night just now they are preparing supper there is a princess in the castle do you see her
a wizard keeps her in a high tower guarded by iron bars ah help me to deliver her cried the prince and they promised they would then they all set out through the grey rocks by the breach made by the eyes of quickeye
and passed over great mountains and through deep woods and every time they met with any obstacle the three friends contrived somehow to put it aside as the sun was setting the prince beheld the towers of the iron castle
and before it sank beneath the horizon he was crossing the iron bridge which led to the gates he was only just in time for no sooner had the sun disappeared altogether than the bridge drew itself up and the gates shut themselves there was no turning back now
the prince put up his horse in the stable where everything looked as if a guest was expected and then the whole party marched straight up to the castle
in the court in the stables and all over the great halls they saw a number of men richly dressed but every one turned into stone they crossed an endless set of rooms all opening into each other till they reached the dining hall it was brilliantly lighted
the table was covered with wine and fruit and was laid for four they waited a few minutes expecting someone to come but as nobody did they sat down and began to eat and drink for they were very hungry when they had done their supper they looked about for some place to sleep
but suddenly the door burst open and the wizard entered the hall he was old and hump backed with a bald head and a grey beard that fell to his knees he wore a black robe and instead of a belt three iron circlets clasped his waist
he led by the hand a lady of wonderful beauty dressed in white with a girdle of silver and a crown of pearls but her face was pale and sad as death itself the prince knew her in an instant and moved eagerly forward but the wizard gave him no time to speak
and said i know why you are here very good you may have her if for three nights following you can prevent her making her escape if you fail in this you and your servants will all be turned into stone like those who have come before you
and offering the princess a chair he left the hall the prince could not take his eyes from the princess she was so lovely he began to talk to her but she neither answered nor smiled and sat as if she were made of marble
he seated himself by her and determined not to close his eyes that night for fear she should escape him and in order that she should be doubly guarded long stretched himself like a strap all round the room
broad took his stand by the door and puffed himself out so that not even a mouse could slip by and quickeye leant against a pillar which stood in the middle of the floor and supported the roof but in half a second they were all sound asleep and they slept sound the whole night long
in the morning at the first peep of dawn the prince awoke with a start but the princess was gone he aroused his servants and implored them to tell him what he must do calm yourself my lord said quickeye
i have found her already a hundred miles from here there is a forest in the middle of the forest an old oak and on the top of the oak an acorn this acorn is the princess if long will take me on his shoulders we shall soon bring her back
and sure enough in less time than it takes to walk round a cottage they had returned from the forest and long presented the acorn to the prince now your excellency throw it on the ground the prince obeyed and was enchanted to see the princess appear at his side
but when the sun peeped for the first time over the mountains the door burst open as before and the wizard entered with a loud laugh suddenly he caught sight of the princess his face darkened he uttered a low growl
and one of the iron circlets gave way with a crash he seized the young girl by the hand and bore her away with him all that day the prince wandered about the castle studying the curious treasures it contained
but everything looked as if life had suddenly come to a standstill in one place he saw a prince who had been turned into stone in the act of brandishing a sword round which his two hands were clasped in another the same doom had fallen upon a knight in the act of running away
in a third a serving man was standing eternally trying to convey a piece of beef to his mouth and all around them were others still preserving for evermore the attitudes they were in when the wizard had commanded from henceforth be turned into marble
in the castle and round the castle all was dismal and desolate trees there were but without leaves fields there were but no grass grew on them there was one river but it never flowed and no fish lived in it no flowers blossomed
and no birds sang three times during the day food appeared as if by magic for the prince and his servants and it was not until supper was ended that the wizard appeared as on the previous evening and delivered the princess into the care of the prince
all four determined that this time they would keep awake at any cost but it was no use off they went as they had done before and when the prince awoke the next morning the room was again empty with a pang of shame he rushed to find quickeye
awake awake quickeye do you know what has become of the princess quickeye rubbed his eyes and answered yes i see her two hundred miles from here there is a mountain in this mountain is a rock in the rock a precious stone
this stone is the princess long shall take me there and we will be back before you can turn round so long took him on his shoulders and they set out at every stride they covered twenty miles and as they drew near quickeye fixed his burning eyes on the mountain
in an instant it split into a thousand pieces and in one of these sparkled the precious stone they picked it up and brought it to the prince who flung it hastily down and as the stone touched the floor the princess stood before him
when the wizard came his eyes shot forth flames of fury cric crac was heard and another of his iron bands broke and fell he seized the princess by the hand and led her off growling louder than ever
all that day things went on exactly as they had done the day before after supper the wizard brought back the princess and looking him straight in the eyes he said we shall see which of us two will gain the prize after all
that night they struggled their very hardest to keep awake and even walked about instead of sitting down but it was quite useless one after another they had to give in and for the third time the princess slipped through their fingers
when morning came it was as usual the prince who awoke the first and as usual the princess being gone he rushed to quickeye get up get up quickeye and tell me where is the princess quickeye looked about for some time without answering
oh my lord she is far very far three hundred miles away there lies a black sea in the middle of this sea there is a little shell and in the middle of the shell is fixed a gold ring that gold ring is the princess
but do not vex your soul we will get her only to day long must take broad with him he will be wanted badly so long took quickeye on one shoulder and broad on the other and they set out at each stride they left thirty miles behind them
when they reached the black sea quickeye showed them the spot where they must seek the shell but though long stretched down his hand as far as it would go he could not find the shell for it lay at the bottom of the sea wait a moment comrades it will be all right i will help you
said broad then he swelled himself out so that you would have thought the world could hardly have held him and stooping down he drank he drank so much at every mouthful that only a minute or so passed before the water had sunk enough for long to put his hand to the bottom
he soon found the shell and pulled the ring out but time had been lost and long had a double burden to carry the dawn was breaking fast before they got back to the castle where the prince was waiting for them in an agony of fear
soon the first rays of the sun were seen peeping over the tops of the mountains the door burst open and finding the prince standing alone the wizard broke into peals of wicked laughter but as he laughed a loud crash was heard
the window fell into a thousand pieces a gold ring glittered in the air and the princess stood before the enchanter for quickeye who was watching from afar had told long of the terrible danger now threatening the prince and long summoning all his strength for one gigantic effort
had thrown the ring right through the window the wizard shrieked and howled with rage till the whole castle trembled to its foundations then a crash was heard the third band split in two and a crow flew out of the window
then the princess at length broke the enchanted silence and blushing like a rose gave the prince her thanks for her unlooked for deliverance but it was not only the princess who was restored to life by the flight of the wicked black crow
the marble figures became men once more and took up their occupations just as they had left them off the horses neighed in the stables the flowers blossomed in the garden the birds flew in the air the fish darted in the water everywhere you looked all was life
all was joy and the knights who had been turned into stone came in a body to offer their homage to the prince who had set them free do not thank me he said for i have done nothing without my faithful servants long broad and quickeye i should even have been as one of you
the old king who had long since given up all hope wept for joy at the sight of his son and insisted that the wedding should take place as soon as possible
chapter twenty seven from joy to death for ten days the hordes of thark and their wild allies were feasted and entertained and then loaded with costly presents
they started on the return journey to their own lands the jed of lesser helium with a small party of nobles accompanied them all the way to thark to cement more closely the new bonds of peace and friendship
sola also accompanied tars tarkas her father who before all his chieftains had acknowledged her as his daughter
returned upon a battleship that had been dispatched to thark to fetch them in time for the ceremony which made dejah
the people seemed never to tire of heaping honors upon me and no day passed that did not bring some new proof of their love for my princess the incomparable dejah thoris
lay a snow white egg for nearly five years ten soldiers of the jeddak's guard had constantly stood over it and not a day passed when i was in the city that dejah thoris and i did not stand hand in hand before our little shrine planning for the future
when the delicate shell should break vivid in my memory is the picture of the last night as we sat there talking in low tones of the strange romance which had woven our lives together and of this wonder which was coming to augment our happiness
and fulfill our hopes in the distance we saw the bright white light of an approaching airship but we attached no special significance to so common a sight like a bolt of lightning it raced toward helium until its very speed
bespoke the unusual flashing the signals which proclaimed it a dispatch bearer for the jeddak it circled impatiently awaiting the tardy patrol boat which must convoy it to the palace docks
a message called me to the council chamber which i found filling with the members of that body on the raised platform of the throne
pacing back and forth with tense drawn face when all were in their seats he turned toward us this morning he said
that the keeper of the atmosphere plant had made no wireless report for two days nor had almost ceaseless calls upon him from a score of capitals elicited a sign of response the ambassadors of the other nations asked us to take the matter in hand
and hasten the assistant keeper to the plant all day a thousand cruisers have been searching for him until just now one of them returns bearing his dead body which was found in the pits beneath his house horribly mutilated by some assassin
i do not need to tell you what this means to barsoom it would take months to penetrate those mighty walls in fact the work has already commenced and there would be little to fear were the engine of the pumping plant to run as it should
but the worst we fear has happened the instruments show a rapidly decreasing air pressure on all parts of barsoom the engine has stopped my gentlemen he concluded we have at best three days to live
there was absolute silence for several minutes and then a young noble arose
now is our opportunity to show them how they should die let us go about our duties as though a thousand useful years still lay before us the chamber rang with applause
we went our ways with smiles upon our faces and sorrow gnawing at our hearts
so i told her all that i had heard we have been very happy john carter she said and i thank whatever fate overtakes us that it permits us to die together
the next two days brought no noticeable change in the supply of air
the avenues and plazas of helium were filled with people all business had ceased for the most part the people looked bravely into the face of their unalterable doom here and there however men and women gave way to quiet grief
toward the middle of the day many of the weaker commenced to succumb and within an hour the people of barsoom were sinking by thousands into the unconsciousness which precedes death by asphyxiation
dejah thoris and i with the other members of the royal family had collected in a sunken garden within an inner courtyard of the palace we conversed in low tones when we conversed at all
as the awe of the grim shadow of death crept over us even woola seemed to feel the weight of the impending calamity for he pressed close to dejah thoris and to me whining pitifully
that now she would never know as it was becoming perceptibly difficult to breathe tardos mors arose saying let us bid each other farewell the days of the greatness of barsoom are over
which through all eternity must go swinging through the heavens peopled not even by memories it is the end
he stooped and kissed the women of his family and laid his strong hand upon the shoulders of the men as i turned sadly from him my eyes fell upon dejah thoris her head was drooping upon her breast to all appearances she was lifeless
her eyes opened and looked into mine kiss me john carter she murmured i love you i love you it is cruel that we must be torn apart who were just starting upon
as i pressed her dear lips to mine the old feeling of unconquerable power and authority rose in me the fighting blood of virginia sprang to life in my veins it shall not be my princess
i cried there is there must be some way and john carter who has fought his way through a strange world for love of you will find it and with my words there crept above the threshold of my conscious mind a series of
nine long forgotten sounds like a flash of lightning in the darkness their full purport dawned upon me
he did not wait to question but in an instant a guard was racing to the nearest dock and though the air was thin and almost gone at the rooftop they managed to launch the fastest one man air scout machine that the skill of barsoom had ever produced
kissing dejah thoris a dozen times and commanding woola who would have followed me to remain and guard her i bounded with my old agility and strength to the high ramparts of the palace and in another moment i was headed toward the goal of the hopes of
all barsoom i had to fly low to get sufficient air to breathe but i took a straight course across an old sea bottom and so had to rise only a few feet above the ground i traveled with awful velocity for my errand was a race against time with death
the face of dejah thoris hung always before me as i turned for a last look as i left the palace garden i had seen her stagger and sink upon the ground beside the little incubator that she had dropped into the last coma which would end in death
if the air supply remained unreplenished i well knew and so throwing caution to the winds i flung overboard everything but the engine and compass
pushing the speed lever to its last notch i split the thin air of dying mars with the speed of a meteor an hour before dark the great walls of the atmosphere plant loomed suddenly before me and with a sickening
which was withholding the spark of life from the inhabitants of an entire planet beside the door a great crew of men had been laboring to pierce the wall but they had scarcely scratched the flint like surface
conditions seemed much worse here than at helium and it was with difficulty that i breathed at all there were a few men still conscious and to one of these i spoke if i can open these doors is there a man who can start the engines i asked i can
he replied if you open quickly i can last but a few moments more but it is useless they are both dead and no one else upon barsoom knew the secret of these awful locks for three days
men crazed with fear have surged about this portal in vain attempts to solve its mystery i had no time to talk i was becoming very weak and it was with difficulty that i controlled my mind at all but with a final effort as i sank weakly to my knees i hurled
the nine thought waves at that awful thing before me the martian had crawled to my side and with staring eyes fixed on the single panel before us we waited in the silence of death slowly
i was too weak after it i cried to my companion and if you reach the pump room turn loose all the pumps it is the only chance barsoom has to exist tomorrow from where i lay i opened the second door
and then the third and as i saw the hope of barsoom crawling
i sank unconscious
poetry and prose for the next month anne lived in what for avonlea might be called a whirl of excitement the preparation of her own modest outfit for redmond was of secondary importance
miss lavendar was getting ready to be married and the stone house was the scene of endless consultations and plannings and discussions with charlotta the fourth hovering on the outskirts of things in agitated delight and wonder then the dressmaker came
and there was the rapture and wretchedness of choosing fashions and being fitted anne and diana spent half their time at echo lodge and there were nights when anne could not sleep for wondering whether she had done right in advising miss lavendar to select brown rather than navy blue for her traveling dress
everybody concerned in miss lavendar's story was very happy
i knew i could trust father to pick me out a nice little second mother he said proudly it's a fine thing to have a father you can depend on teacher i just love miss lavendar grandma is pleased too she says she's real glad father didn't pick out an american for his second wife because
missus lynde says she thoroughly approves of the match and thinks its likely miss lavendar will give up her queer notions and be like other people now that she's going to be married
you know teacher charlotta the fourth was another radiant person oh miss shirley ma'am it has all turned out so beautiful
ain't mister irving splendid he just worships the ground she treads on and it makes me feel so queer sometimes to see the look in his eyes when he's watching her it beggars description miss shirley ma'am i'm awful thankful they're so fond of each other it's the best way when all's said and done
and was happy with all three except at the times of the funerals but i think she took a resk miss shirley ma'am oh it's all so romantic breathed anne to marilla that night
she was and never asked anybody anything about her and now everything has come right and i had a hand in bringing it about perhaps as missus lynde says
but even so it's nice to think one was an instrument used by predestination yes indeed it's very romantic i can't see that it's so terribly romantic at all said marilla rather crisply
marilla thought anne was too worked up about it and had plenty to do with getting ready for college without traipsing to echo lodge two days out of three helping miss lavendar
now where is the romance in all that oh there isn't any when you put it that way gasped anne rather as if somebody had thrown cold water over her i suppose that's how it looks in prose
but it's very different if you look at it through poetry and i think it's nicer anne recovered herself and her eyes shone and her cheeks flushed
marilla glanced at the radiant young face and refrained from further sarcastic comments perhaps some realization came to her that after all it was better to have like anne the vision and the faculty divine that gift
which the world cannot bestow or take away of looking at life through some transfiguring or revealing medium
apparelled in celestial light wearing a glory and a freshness not visible to those who like herself and charlotta the fourth looked at things only through prose when's the wedding to be she asked after a pause the last wednesday in august
marilla that is romantic even in prose there's to be nobody there except missus irving and paul and gilbert and diana and i and miss lavendar's cousins
or far worse still with other people living in it
waiting happily for the summer to bring life and laughter back to it again there was more romance in the world than that which had fallen to the share of the middle aged lovers of the stone house
anne stumbled suddenly on it one evening when she went over to orchard slope by the wood cut and came out into the barry garden diana barry and fred wright were standing together under the big willow diana was leaning against the gray trunk her lashes cast down on very crimson cheeks
one hand was held by fred who stood with his face bent toward her stammering something in low earnest tones there were no other people in the world except their two selves at that magic moment so neither of them saw anne who after one
dazed glance of comprehension turned and sped noiselessly back through the spruce wood never stopping till she gained her own gable room where she sat breathlessly down by her window and tried to collect her scattered wits diana and fred are in love with each other
she gasped oh it does seem so so so hopelessly grown up anne of late had not been without her suspicions that diana was proving false to the melancholy byronic hero of her early dreams
but as things seen are mightier than things heard or suspected the realization that it was actually so came to her with almost the shock of perfect surprise this was succeeded by a queer little lonely feeling
as if somehow diana had gone forward into a new world shutting a gate behind her leaving anne on the outside things are changing so fast it almost frightens me anne thought a little sadly and i'm afraid
that this can't help making some difference between diana and me i'm sure i can't tell her all my secrets after this she might tell fred and
he's very nice and jolly but he's just fred wright it is always a very puzzling question what can somebody see in somebody else but how fortunate after all that it is so for if everybody saw alike well
in that case as the old indian said everybody would want my squaw it was plain that diana did see something in fred wright however anne's eyes might be holden diana came to green gables the next evening a pensive shy young lady
and told anne the whole story in the dusky seclusion of the east gable both girls cried and kissed and laughed i'm so happy said diana but it does seem ridiculous to think of me being engaged
that all depends on who you're engaged to answered diana with that
it's perfectly lovely to be engaged to fred
there's not much comfort for the rest of us in that seeing that there is only one fred laughed anne oh anne you don't understand said diana in vexation i didn't mean that it's so hard to explain
never mind you'll understand sometime when your own turn comes bless you dearest of dianas i understand now what is an imagination for if not to enable you to peep at life through other people's eyes
you must be my bridesmaid you know anne promise me that wherever you may be when i'm married
promised anne solemnly of course it won't be for ever so long yet said diana blushing three years at the very least for i'm only eighteen and mother says no daughter of hers shall be married before she's twenty one
besides fred's father is going to buy the abraham fletcher farm for him and he says he's got to have it two thirds paid for
but three years isn't any too much time to get ready for housekeeping for i haven't a speck of fancy work made yet but i'm going to begin crocheting doilies tomorrow
i suppose it would be perfectly impossible to keep house with only thirty six doilies conceded anne with a solemn face but dancing eyes diana looked hurt i didn't think you'd make fun of me anne she said reproachfully dearest i wasn't making fun of you
cried anne repentantly i was only teasing you a bit i think you'll make the sweetest little housekeeper in the world and i think it's perfectly lovely of you to be planning already for your home o'dreams
anne had no sooner uttered the phrase home o'dreams than it captivated her fancy and she immediately began the erection of one of her own it was of course tenanted by an ideal master dark proud and melancholy
helping her arrange pictures lay out gardens and accomplish sundry other tasks which a proud and melancholy hero evidently considered beneath his dignity anne tried to
banish gilbert's image from her castle in spain but somehow he went on being there so anne being in a hurry gave up the attempt and pursued her aerial architecture with such success that her home o'dreams was built and furnished before diana spoke again
the tall slender kind but somehow i wouldn't want fred to be tall and slender because don't you see he wouldn't be fred then of course added diana rather dolefully we will be a dreadfully pudgy couple
but after all that's better than one of us being short and fat and the other tall and lean like morgan sloane and his wife missus lynde says it always makes her think of the long and short of it when she sees them together well said anne to herself that night as she brushed her hair before her gilt framed mirror
i am glad diana is so happy and satisfied but when my turn comes if it ever does i do hope there'll be something a little more thrilling about it but then diana thought so too once
chapter twenty three the cause and bertram february came the operetta for which billy was working so hard was to be given the twentieth the art exhibition for which bertram was preparing his four pictures was to open the sixteenth
with a private view for specially invited friends the evening before on the eleventh day of february missus greggory and her daughter arrived at hillside for a ten days visit not until after a great deal of pleading and argument however had billy been able to bring this about
but my dears both of you billy had at last said to them just listen we shall have
and will have to stay all night several times probably you missus greggory
it had been the great good and pleasure which the visit would bring to missus greggory that had been the final straw to tip the scales on the eleventh of february therefore in the company of the once scorned peggy and mary jane alice greggory and her mother had arrived at hillside
ever since the first meeting of alice greggory and arkwright billy had been sorely troubled by the conduct of the two young people she had as she mournfully told herself
the two were civility itself to each other but very plainly they were not at ease in each other's company and billy much to her surprise had to admit that arkwright did not appear to appreciate the circumstances now that he had them the pair called each other ceremoniously
mister arkwright and miss greggory but then that of course did not signify billy declared to herself i suppose you don't ever call him mary jane she said to the girl a little mischievously one day mary jane mister arkwright no i don't
rejoined miss greggory with an odd smile then after a moment she added i believe his brothers and sisters used to however yes i know laughed billy we thought he was a real mary jane once and she told the story of his arrival
so you see she finished when alice greggory had done laughing over the tale
miss greggory looked up in surprise why it's she stopped short her eyes questioning why hasn't he ever told you she queried billy lifted her chin no
methuselah john but he says we haven't hit it yet methuselah john indeed laughed the other merrily
if it isn't methuselah john what is it then but alice greggory shook her head she too it seemed could be firm on occasion and though she smiled brightly all she would say was if he hasn't told you i sha'n't you'll have to go to him
oh well i can still call him mary jane retorted billy with airy disdain all this however so far as billy could see was not in the least helping along the cause that had become so dear to her
yes the quietly polite monosyllable was not very encouraging to be sure but billy secure in her conviction that her cause was a righteous one refused to be daunted i think it was so romantic
their running across each other like this missus greggory she murmured and there was a romance wasn't there i have just felt in my bones that there was a romance billy held her breath it was what she had meant to say but now that she had said it the words seemed
very fearsome indeed to say to missus greggory then billy remembered her cause and took heart billy was spelling it now with a capital c for a long minute missus greggory did not answer for so long a minute
that billy's breath dropped into a fluttering sigh and her cause became suddenly impertinence spelled in black capitals then missus greggory spoke slowly a little sadly i don't mind saying to you that i did hope
once that there would be a romance there they were the best of friends and they were well suited to each other in tastes and temperament i think indeed that the romance was well under way though there was never an engagement when missus greggory paused and wet her lips
her voice when she resumed carried the stern note so familiar to billy in her first acquaintance with this woman and her daughter as i presume mister arkwright has told you we have met with many changes in our life changes which necessitated a new home and a new mode of living
naturally under those circumstances old friends and old romances must change too but missus greggory stammered billy i'm sure mister arkwright would want an up lifted hand silenced her peremptorily
mister arkwright was very kind and a gentleman always interposed the lady coldly but judge greggory's daughter would not allow herself to be placed where apologies for her father would be necessary ever there please
dear miss neilson let us not talk of it any more begged missus greggory brokenly no indeed of course not cried billy but her heart rejoiced she understood it all now
arkwright and alice greggory had been almost lovers when the charges against the judge's honor had plunged the family into despairing humiliation then had come the time when according to arkwright's own story the two women had shut themselves indoors refused to see their friends and left town as soon as possible
thus had come the breaking of whatever tie there was between alice greggory and arkwright not to have broken it would have meant for alice the placing of herself in a position where sometime apologies must be made for her father
and again as billy thought of it billy's heart rejoiced
did she not have it in her power possibly even probably to bring happiness where only sadness was before as if it would not be a simple thing to rekindle the old flame to make these two estranged hearts beat as one again
not now was the cause an impertinence in tall black letters it was instead a shining beacon in letters of flame guiding straight to victory
billy went to sleep that night making plans for alice greggory and arkwright to be thrown together naturally just as a matter of course you know she said drowsily to herself all in the dark some three or four miles away down beacon street at that moment
bertram henshaw in the strata was as it happened not falling asleep he was lying broadly and unhappily awake bertram very frequently lay broadly and unhappily awake these days or rather nights he told himself on these occasions
with arkwright and his friends the greggorys so much there were the new songs and the operetta with its rehearsals as a cause for it all at the same time deep within his fearful soul was the consciousness that arkwright the greggorys and the operetta were but
music music the spectre that from the first had dogged his footsteps with billy's behavior toward himself bertram could find no fault she was always her sweet loyal lovable self eager to hear of his work
earnestly solicitous that it should be a success she even as he sometimes half irritably remembered had once told him that she realized he belonged to art before he did to himself and when he had indignantly denied this she had only laughed and thrown a kiss at him
as if he wanted kate's opinion on that or anything else that concerned him and billy once torn by jealousy and exasperated at the frequent interruptions of their quiet hours together he had complained openly actually billy it's worse than marie's wedding he declared
billy laughed but she frowned too i know dear i don't like that part i wish they would let me alone when i'm with you but as for the operetta it is really a good thing dear and you'll say so when you see it
i can say that because my part is only a small one you know we shall make lots of money for the home too i'm sure but you're wearing yourself all out with it dear scowled bertram
besides when i'm doing this i'm not telephoning you to come and amuse me
avowed bertram but the work may retorted billy showing all her dimples
this isn't an understudy like marie's wedding you know she finished demurely thank heaven for that bertram had breathed fervently but even as he said the words he grew sick with fear what if after all this were an understudy to what was to come later when music
his rival had really conquered bertram knew that however secure might seem billy's affection for himself there was still in his own mind a horrid fear lest underneath that security were an unconscious
some one that he was not a fondness that would one day cause billy to awake
the chance is wrote mister adams that before that time the whole negotiation will be at an end the banquet however did come off and a few more succeeded it
like alarms were of frequent occurrence even almost to the very day of agreement on september fifteenth at a dinner given by the american commissioners
lord gambier asked mister adams whether he would return immediately to saint petersburg yes replied mister adams that is if you send us away his lordship replied with assurances how deeply he lamented it
and with a hope that we should one day be friends again on the same occasion mister goulburn said that probably the last note of the americans would terminate the business and that they must fight it out
fighting it out was a much less painful prospect for great britain just at that juncture than for the united states as the americans realized with profound anxiety we so fondly cling to the vain hope of peace
that every new proof of its impossibility operates upon us as a disappointment wrote mister adams
that i was prepared to take on me the responsibility of trespassing upon their instructions thus far not only so but i would at this moment cheerfully give my life for a peace on this basis if peace was possible it would be on no other
i had indeed no hope that the proposal would be accepted mister clay thought that the british would laugh at this they would say ay ay pretty fellows you to think of getting out of the war as well as you got into it
but that mister adams correctly read the wishes of the government was proved within a very few days by the receipt of express authority from home to conclude the peace on the basis of the status ante bellum
three days afterwards on november twenty seventh three and a half months after the vexatious haggling had been begun we encounter in the diary the first real gleam of hope of a successful termination
all the difficulties to the conclusion of a peace appear to be now so nearly removed
i myself think it probable there were however some three weeks more of negotiation to be gone through before the consummation was actually achieved and the ill blood seemed to increase as the end was approached
the differences between the american commissioners waxed especially serious concerning the fisheries and the navigation of the mississippi mister adams insisted that if the treaty of peace had been so far abrogated by the war
as to render necessary a re affirmance of the british right of navigating the mississippi then a re affirmance of the american rights in the northeastern fisheries was equally necessary this the english commissioners denied
mister adams said it was only an exchange of privileges presumably equivalent mister clay however was firmly resolved to prevent all stipulations admitting such a right of navigation
and the better to do so he was quite willing to let the fisheries go the navigation privilege he considered much too important to be conceded for the mere liberty of drying fish upon a desert
as he was pleased to describe a right for which the united states has often been ready to go to war and may yet some time do so mister clay lost his temper writes mister adams a day or two later
he was utterly averse to admitting it as an equivalent for a stipulation securing the contested part of the fisheries he said the more he heard of this the right of fishing the more convinced he was that it was of little or no value
he should be glad to get it if he could but he was sure the british would not ultimately grant it that the navigation of the mississippi on the other hand was an object of immense importance and he could see no sort of reason for granting it as an equivalent for the fisheries
thus spoke the representative of the west the new englander the son of the man whose exertions had been chiefly instrumental in originally obtaining the grant of the northeastern fishery privileges
naturally went to the other extreme he thought the british right of navigating the mississippi to be as nothing considered as a grant from us it was secured to them by the peace of seventeen eighty three they had enjoyed it at the commencement of the war
mister adams regarded as one of the most inestimable and inalienable of american rights it is evident that the united states could ill have spared either mister adams or mister clay from the negotiation
and the joinder of the two however fraught with discomfort to themselves well served substantial american interests mister adams thought the british perfidious
and suspected them of not entertaining any honest intention of concluding a peace on december twelfth after an exceedingly quarrelsome conference he records his belief that the british have insidiously kept open two points
for the sake of finally breaking off the negotiations and making all their other concessions proofs of their extreme moderation to put upon us the blame of the rupture
on december eleventh we find mister clay ready for a war three years longer and anxious to begin to play at brag with the englishmen his colleagues more complaisant or having less confidence in their own skill in that game
but the question whether the british should restore possession of the island pending the arbitration aroused bitter discussion mister goulburn and doctor adams the englishman immediately took fire and goulburn lost all control of his temper
he has always in such cases says the diary a sort of convulsive agitation about him and the tone in which he speaks is more insulting than the language which he uses mister bayard referred to the case of the falkland islands
why in a transport of rage said goulburn in that case we sent a fleet and troops and drove the fellows off and that is what we ought to have done in this case
stated that as he remembered it
though the party was more than usually dull stiff and reserved it was certainly forcing the spirit of good fellowship the next day mister clay notified his colleagues that they were going to make a damned bad treaty and he did not know whether he would sign it or not
and mister adams also said that he saw that the rest had made up their minds at last to yield the fishery point in which case he also could not sign the treaty
wherein they made the substantial concession of omitting from the treaty all reference to the fisheries and the navigation of the mississippi but mister clay on reading the note manifested some chagrin and still talked of breaking off the negotiation
even asking mister adams to join him in so doing which request however mister adams very reasonably refused
mister clay had also been anxious to stand out for a distinct abandonment of the alleged right of impressment but upon this point he found none of his colleagues ready to back him
as had been brought together in ghent dissension seemed to have become the mother of amity and antipathies were mere preliminaries to a good understanding
in diplomacy as in marriage it had worked well to begin with a little aversion but in truth this consummation was largely due to what had been going on in the english cabinet
and his disposition had found expression in the original intolerable terms prepared by the british commissioners but lord liverpool had been equally solicitous on the other side and was said even to have tendered his resignation to the prince regent
if an accommodation should not be effected his endeavors were fortunately aided by events in europe pending the negotiations lord castlereagh went on a diplomatic errand to vienna
until that title should be settled by commissioners provision was made also for the determination of all the open questions of boundary by sundry boards of commissioners each party was to make peace with the indian allies of the other
such were in substance the only points touched upon by this document of the many subjects mooted between the negotiators scarcely any had survived the fierce contests which had been waged concerning them
the whole matter of the navigation of the mississippi access to that river
nor was any one of the many illegal rights exercised by england formally abandoned the americans satisfied themselves with the reflection that circumstances had rendered these points now only matters of abstract principle
since the pacification of europe had removed all opportunities and temptations for england to persist in her previous objectionable courses for the future it was hardly to be feared that she would again undertake to pursue a policy
against which it was evident that the united states were willing to conduct a serious war there was however no provision for indemnification
upon a fair consideration it must be admitted that though the treaty was silent upon all the points which the united states had made war for the purpose of enforcing
yet the country had every reason to be gratified with the result of the negotiation the five commissioners had done themselves ample credit they had succeeded in agreeing with each other
or that the negotiation had fallen a little later
who had for three months been enjoying the malicious pleasure of lending to the americans english newspapers containing accounts of american misfortunes but that fortunate battle was not fought until a few days after the eight commissioners had signed their compact
it is an interesting illustration of the slowness of communication which our forefathers had to endure that the treaty crossed the atlantic in a sailing ship in time to travel through much of the country
simultaneously with the report of this farewell victory two such good pieces of news coming together set the people wild with delight even on the dry pages of niles's weekly register
than in exalting the commissioners the value of their work however was well proved by the voice of great britain in the london times of december thirtieth appeared a most angry tirade against the treaty
with bitter sneers at those who called the peace an honorable one england it was said had attempted to force her principles on america and had failed foreign powers would say that the english had retired from the combat
with the stripes yet bleeding on their backs with the recent defeats at plattsburgh and on lake champlain unavenged
the most gloomy prognostications of further wars with america when her naval power should have waxed much greater were indulged the loss of prestige in europe the probable loss of our trans atlantic provinces
were among the results to be anticipated from this treaty into which the english commissioners had been beguiled by the americans these latter were reviled with an abuse which was really the highest compliment
thus having the good fortune to witness the return of napoleon and a great part of the events of the famous hundred days on may twenty sixth he arrived in london where there awaited him in the hands of the barings
his first duty was in connection with mister clay and mister gallatin to negotiate a treaty of commerce in which business he again met the same three british commissioners by whom the negotiations at ghent had been conducted
of whose abilities the government appeared to entertain a better opinion than the marquis of wellesley had expressed this negotiation had been brought so far towards conclusion by his colleagues before his own arrival that mister adams had little to do in assisting them to complete it
this little having been done they departed and left him as minister at the court of saint james thus he fulfilled washington's prophecy by reaching the highest rank in the american diplomatic service
but he succeeded in obtaining towards the close of his stay some slight remission of the severe restrictions placed by england upon our trade with her west indian colonies
his relations with a cabinet in which the principles of castlereagh and canning predominated could hardly be cordial yet he seems to have been treated with perfect civility
indeed he was not a man whom it was easy even for an englishman to insult he remarks of castlereagh after one of his first interviews with that nobleman his deportment is sufficiently graceful and his person is handsome
his manner was cold but not absolutely repulsive before he left he had the pleasure of having mister canning specially seek acquaintance with him he met of course many distinguished and many agreeable persons during his residence
and partook of many festivities especially of numerous civic banquets at which toasts were formally given in the dullest english fashion and he was obliged to display his capacity for table cloth oratory as he called it more than was agreeable to him
and lived there during the greater part of his stay in england one of the strongest reasons for my remaining out of town he writes is to escape the frequency of invitations at late hours which consume so much precious time
and with the perpetually mortifying consciousness of inability to return the civility in the same manner the republican simplicity not to say poverty forced upon american representatives abroad
was a very different matter in the censorious and unfriendly society of london from what it had been at the kindly disposed court of saint petersburg
especially at that juncture was such as to render social life intolerably trying to an under paid american minister mister adams remained in england until june fifteenth eighteen seventeen
when he sailed from cowes closing forever his long and honorable diplomatic career and bidding his last farewell to europe he returned home to take the post of secretary of state in the cabinet of james monroe
there would be no more deceit never again would she place herself in circumstances whence might arise any necessity for concealment she began much too soon alas to feel as if she were newborn
nothing worthy of being called a new birth can take place anywhere but in the will and poor letty's will was not yet old enough to give birth to anything it scarcely indeed existed the past was rapidly receding that was all
and had begun to look dead and as if it wanted only to be buried out of her sight for what is done is done
and as nothing can recall it or make it not be where can be the good in thinking about it a reasoning worse than dangerous before one has left off being capable of the same thing over again still
it is well that some shadow of peace should return else how should men remember the face of innocence or how should they live long enough to learn to repent but for such breaks would not some grow worse at full gallop
that the idea of tom's friendship was very pleasant to her who can blame her he had never said he loved her
was she therefore bound to persuade herself he meant nothing at all was it not as much as could be required of her that in her modesty she took him for no more than a true kind friend who would gladly be of service to her ah
if tom had but been that if he was not he did not know it which is something to say both for and against him it could not be other than pleasant to letty to have one in her eyes so superior who would talk to her as an equal
would have done far more than all his intellectual labor upon her to lift her feet above such snares as she was now walking amid she needed some play a thing far more important to life than a great deal of what is called business
and acquirement many a matter over which grown people look important long faced and consequential is folly compared with the merest child's frolic in relation to the true affairs of existence
all the time letty had not in the least neglected her houseduties and again her readings with her cousin godfrey since tom's apparent recession had begun to revive in interest he grew kinder and kinder to her
more and more fatherly but the mother once disquieted had lost no time in taking measures in every direction secretly through friends she was inquiring after some situation suitable for letty
she owed it to herself she said to find for the girl the right thing before sending her from the house in the true spirit of benevolent tyranny she said not a word to letty of her design she had the chronic distemper of concealment
where letty had but a feverish attack much false surmise might have been corrected and much evil avoided had she put it in letty's power to show how gladly she would leave thornwick
in the mean time the old lady kept her lynx eye upon the young people but godfrey having caught a certain expression in the said eye came to the resolution that thenceforth their schoolroom should be the common sitting room
this would aid him in carrying out his resolve of a cautious and staid demeanor toward his pupil to preserve his freedom he must keep himself thoroughly in hand experience had taught him that
were he once to give way and show his affection there would from that moment be an end of teaching and learning and yet so much was he drawn to the girl that at this very time he gave her the manuscript of his own verses to which i have referred
a volume exquisitely written and containing certainly the outcome of the best that was in him he did not tell her that he had copied them all with such care and neatness and had the book so lovelily bound expressly
and only for her eyes news of something that seemed likely to suit her ideas for letty at length came to missus wardour's ears whereupon she thought it time to prepare the girl for the impending change
one day therefore as she herself sat knitting one sock for godfrey and letty darning another she opened the matter i am getting old letty she said and you can't be here always
you are a thoughtless creature but i suppose you have the sense to see that
it is high time you should be thinking missus wardour went on how you are to earn your bread if you left it till i was gone you would find it very awkward for you would have to leave thornwick at once and i don't know
who would take you while you were looking out i must see you comfortably settled before i go yes aunt there are not many things you could do no aunt very few but i should make a better housemaid than most i do believe that
i am glad to find you willing to work but we shall be able i trust to do a little better for you than that a situation as housemaid would reflect little credit on my pains for you would hardly correspond to the education
you have had missus wardour referred to the fact that letty was for about a year a day boarder at a ladies school in testbridge where no immortal soul save that of a genius
which can provide its own sauce could have taken the least interest in the chaff and chopped straw that composed the provender it is true her aunt went on you might have made a good deal more of it if you had cared to do your best but
such as you are i trust we shall find you a very tolerable situation as governess at the word letty's heart ran half way up her throat a more dreadful proposal she could not have imagined
by nature from lack of variety of experience yet more from daily repression of her natural joyousness she was exceptionally apprehensive where anything was required of her what she understood she encountered willingly and bravely but
the simplest thing that seemed to involve any element of obscurity she dreaded like a dragon in his den you don't seem to relish the proposal letty said missus wardour
i hope you had not taken it in your head that i meant to leave you independent what i have done for you i have done purely for your father's sake i was under no obligation to take the least trouble about you but i have more regard to your welfare
than i fear you give me credit for o aunt it's only that i'm not fit for being a governess i shouldn't a bit mind being dairymaid or housemaid i would go to such a place to morrow if you liked letty your tastes may be vulgar
but you owe it to your family to look at least like a lady but i am not scholar enough for a governess aunt that is not my fault i sent you to a good school now i will find you a good situation and you must contrive to keep it
o aunt let me stay here just as i am call me your dairymaid or your housemaid it is all one i do the work now do you mean to reflect on me that i have required menial offices of you
i have been to you in the place of a mother and it is for me not for you to make choice of your path in life do you want me to go at once asked letty
with a pathos her aunt quite misunderstood as soon as i have secured for you a desirable situation not before answered missus wardour in a tone generously protective
her affection for the girl had never been deep and the moment she fancied she and her son were drawing toward each other she became to her the thawed adder she wished the adder well
but was she bound to harbor it after it had begun to bite there are who never learn to see anything except in its relation to themselves nor that relation except as fancied by themselves and this being a withering habit of mind
they keep growing drier and older and smaller and deader the longer they live thinking less of other people and more of themselves and their past experience all the time as they go on withering
but missus wardour was in some dread of what her son would say when he came to know what she had been doing for when we are not at ease with ourselves when conscience keeps moving as if about to speak
then we dread the disapproval of the lowliest and godfrey was the only one before whom his mother felt any kind of awe toward him therefore she kept silence for the present if she had spoken then things might have gone very differently
it might have brought godfrey to the point of righteous resolve or of passionate utterance he could not well have opposed his mother's design without going further and declaring that if letty would she should remain where she was the mistress of the house
if not the feeling of what was due to her the dread of the house without her might well have brought him to this letty for her part believed her cousin godfrey regarded her with pity and showed her kindness from a generous sense of duty
she was a poor dull creature for whom her cousin must do what he could one word of genuine love from him one word even of such love as was in him would have caused her nature to shoot heavenward and spread out earthward
with a rapidity that would have astonished him she would thereby have come into her spiritual property at once and heaven would have opened to her a little way at least probably to close again for a time
now she felt crushed the idea of undertaking that for which she knew herself so ill fitted was not merely odious but frightful to her she was ready enough to work but it must be real not sham work
only longed for her own room that she might have a cry to her comfort the clock struck ten and all that now lay between her and that refuge was the usual round of the house with missus wardour to see all safe for the night
chapter sixteen the first wedding in spite however of norman and his anger on a cold snowy morning in the month of february gertrude stood at the altar in hampton church a happy trusting bride
and linda stood smiling behind her the lovely leader of the nuptial train nor were linda's smiles false or forced much less treacherous she had taught herself to look on alaric as her sister's husband
and though in doing so she had suffered and did still suffer she now thought of her own lost lover in no other guise
to her mistress oh ma'am why susan what ails you oh ma'am well susan what is it why are you crying oh ma'am john
indeed ma'am he is then the worst of misbehaviour for he's gone and got hisself married and poor susan gave vent to a flood of tears her mistress tried to comfort her and not in vain
she told her that probably she might be better as she was that john seeing what he had done must be a false creature who would undoubtedly have used her ill and she ended her good counsel by trying to make susan understand that there were still as good fish in the sea
it's the looks on it ma'am it's that i mind how many of us are there women and men too who think most of the looks of it under such circumstances and who were we as honest as poor susan
ought to thank god as she did that we can love anyone anyone that is of the other sex we are not all of us susceptible of being torn to tatters by an unhappy passion not even all those of us who may be susceptible
of a true and honest love and it is well that it is so it is one of god's mercies and if we were as wise as susan we should thank god for it linda was perhaps one of those
she was good affectionate tender and true but she was made of that stuff which can bend to the north wind the world was not all over with her because a man had been untrue to her she had had her grief
and honestly wished them happiness and katie was there very pretty and bonny still childish with her short dress and long trousers but looking as though she too would soon feel the strength of her own wings and be able to fly away
from her mother's nest dear katie her story has yet to be told to her belongs neither the soft easiness of her sister linda nor the sterner dignity of gertrude but she has a character of her own which contains perhaps
higher qualities than those given to either of her sisters and there were other bridesmaids there how many it boots not now to say we must have the spaces round our altars greatly widened if this passion for bevies
of attendant nymphs be allowed to go on increasing and if crinolines increase also if every bride is to have twelve maidens and each maiden to stand on no less than a twelve yard circle what modest temple will ever suffice
for a sacrifice to hymen and missus woodward was there of course as pretty to my thinking as either of her daughters or any of the bridesmaids she was very pretty and smiling and quiet but when gertrude said
i will she was thinking of harry norman and grieving that he was not there and captain cuttwater was there radiant in a new blue coat made specially for the occasion and elastic with true joy he had been very generous
on gertrude payable of course after his death this indeed was the bulk of what he had to give and missus woodward had seen with regret his exuberant munificence to one of her children but gertrude was her child and of course
she could not complain and charley was there acting as best man it was just the place and just the work for charley he forgot all his difficulties all his duns and also all his town delights
without a sigh he left his lady in norfolk street to mix gin sling for other admirers and felt no regret though four brother navvies were going to make a stunning night of it at the salon de seville
at the bottom of holborn hill however he had his hopes that he might be back in time for some of that fun and undy scott was there
as a matter of course asked him to his wedding and missus woodward had of course expressed her delight at receiving alaric's friend
being no whit abashed in his attendance on them by the remembrance of his bosom's mistress whom he had left let us hope happy in her far domestic retirement undy scott was a good man at a wedding and made himself specially agreeable on this occasion
but the great glory of the day was the presence of sir gregory hardlines it was a high honour considering all that rested on sir gregory's shoulders for so great a man to come all the way down to hampton to see a clerk
in the weights and measures married cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus for we may call it solus sir warwick and mister jobbles being sources of more plague than profit
in carrying out your noble schemes while so many things are on your shoulders sir gregory while you are defending the civil service by your pen adorning it by your conduct perfecting it by new rules how could any man
have had the face to ask you to a wedding nevertheless sir gregory was there and did not lose the excellent opportunity which a speech at the breakfast table afforded him for expressing his opinion on the civil service of his country
and so gertrude woodward became gertrude tudor and she and alaric were whirled away by a post chaise and post boy done out with white bows to the hampton court station from thence they whisked up to london
and then down to dover and there we will leave them they were whisked away having first duly gone through the amount of badgering which the bride and bridegroom have to suffer at the wedding breakfast table
they drank their own health in champagne alaric made a speech in which he said he was quite unworthy of his present happiness and gertrude picked up all the bijoux gold pencil cases and silver cream jugs
which were thrown at her from all sides all the men made speeches and all the women laughed but the speech of the day was that celebrated one made by sir gregory in which he gave a sketch of alaric tudor
of a clerk in the civil service his heart said he energetically is at the weights and measures but gertrude looked at him as though she did not believe a word of it
and so alaric and gertrude were whisked away and the wedding guests were left to look sheepish at each other and take themselves off as best they might sir gregory of course had important public business which precluded him from having the gratification
of prolonging his stay at hampton charley got away in perfect time to enjoy whatever there might be to be enjoyed at the dancing saloon of seville and undy scott returned to his club then all was again quiet at surbiton cottage
captain cuttwater who had perhaps drunk the bride's health once too often went to sleep katie having taken off her fine clothes roamed about the house disconsolate and missus woodward and linda betook themselves to their needles
previous to this norman had been once and but once at hampton and when there he had failed in being comfortable himself or in making the woodwards so he could not revert to his old habits or sit or move or walk
as though nothing special had happened since he had been last there he could not talk about gertrude and he could not help talking of her by some closer packing among the ladies a room had now been prepared for him in the house
even this upset him and brought to his mind all those unpleasant thoughts which he should have endeavoured to avoid
and then for some time he was prevented from doing so by the movements of the woodwards themselves missus woodward paid a visit to her married daughter and when she returned linda did the same and so for a while norman was as it were
divided from his old friends whereas tudor as a matter of course was one of themselves it was only natural that missus woodward should forgive alaric and receive him to her bosom now that he was her son in law
after all such ties as these avail more than any predilections more than any effort of judgement in the choice of the objects of our affections
of our hero lord popenjoy it need only be said that when we last heard of him he was a very healthy and rather mischievous boy of five years old who tyrannised over his two little sisters the lady mary and the lady sarah
those however who look most closely to his character think that they can see the germs of that future success which his grandfather so earnestly desires for him his mother is quite sure that he will live to be prime minister
and has already begun to train him for that office the house in munster court has of course been left and the marchioness was on one occasion roused into avowing that the family mansion is preferable
but then the family mansion has been so changed that no germain of a former generation would know it the old dowager who still lives at manor cross has never seen the change but lady sarah who always spends a month or two in town
pretends to disbelieve that it is the same house one of the events in mary's life which astonishes her most is the perfect friendship which exists between her and her eldest sister in law
she corresponds regularly with lady sarah and is quite content to have her letters filled with the many ailments and scanty comforts of the poor people on the estate lady sarah is more than content to be able to love the mother of the heir
and she does love her and the boy too with all her heart now that there is a popenjoy a coming brotherton of whom she can be proud she finds nothing in her own life with which she ought to quarrel
the ladies susanna and amelia also come up to town every year very greatly to their satisfaction and are most devoted to the young marchioness
but the one guest who is honoured above all others in saint james square for whose comfort everything is made to give way whom not to treat with loving respect is to secure a banishment from the house
whom all the servants are made to regard as a second master is the dean his lines have certainly fallen to him in pleasant places no woman in london is more courted and more popular than the marchioness of brotherton
and consequently the dean spends his two months in london very comfortably but perhaps the happiest period of his life is the return visit which his daughter always makes to him for a fortnight during the winter
are alone together then he almost worships her up in london he allows himself to be worshipped with an exquisite grace to missus houghton the marchioness has never spoken and on that subject she is inexorable
friends have interceded but such intercession has only made matters worse of what nature must the woman be who could speak to any friend of such an offence as she had committed
the marchioness in refusing to be reconciled has never alluded to the cause of her anger but has shown her anger plainly and has persistently refused to abandon it
he is present at all their sittings and is indefatigably patient on committees but very rarely speaks in this way he is gradually gaining weight in the country and when his hair is quite grey and his step less firm than at present
he will be an authority in parliament he is also a pattern landlord listening to all complaints and endeavouring in everything to do justice between himself and those who are dependent on him
he is also a pattern father expecting great things from popenjoy and resolving that the child shall be subjected to proper discipline as soon as he is transferred from feminine to virile teaching
in the meantime the marchioness reigns supreme in the nursery as it is proper that she should do the husband now never feels himself called upon to remind his wife to support her dignity since the dancing of the kappa kappa she has never danced
except when on grand occasions she has walked through a quadrille with some selected partner of special rank and this she does simply as a duty nevertheless in society she is very gay and very joyous
but dancing has been a peril to her and she avoids it altogether pleading to such friends as missus jones that a woman with a lot of babies is out of place capering about a room
missus jones remembers the kappa kappa and says little or nothing on the subject but she heartily dissents from her friend and still hopes that there may be a good time coming
showing his gratitude every now and then by suggesting that captain and missus de baron may be asked to dinner he knows that there is much for which he has to be grateful though the name of missus houghton is never on his tongue he has not forgotten the way in which he went astray
in berkeley square nor the sweet reticence of his wife who has never thrown his fault in his teeth since that day on which at his bidding she took the letter from his pocket and read it
and perhaps no man in london has better cause to be satisfied yes captain de baron and his wife do occasionally dine together in saint james square whether it was that missus montacute jones was successful in her efforts
or that guss was enabled to found arguments on jack's wealth which jack was unable to oppose or that a sense of what was due to the lady prevailed with him at last he did marry her about a twelvemonth after the reading of the will
when the marchioness came to town before popenjoy was born he called and was allowed to see her nothing could be more respectful than was his demeanour then nor than it had been ever since
and when he announced to his friend as he did in person that he was about to be married to miss mildmay she congratulated him with warmth not saying a word as to past occurrences but she determined that she would ever be his friend
and for his sake she has become friendly also to his wife she never really liked poor guss nor perhaps does the captain
and jack has done his duty in a manner that rather surprised his old acquaintances but he is a much altered man and is growing fat and has taken to playing whist at his club before dinner for shilling points
i have always thought that in his heart of hearts he regrets the legacy whether to spite his son or at the urgent entreaty of his wife and doctors lord gossling has of late been so careful
that the gout has not had a chance of getting into his stomach lord giblet professes himself to be perfectly satisfied with things as they are he has already four children he lives in a small house in green street
and says that the family of de geese must be going to the dogs when the heir has nothing better to do than to attend to insects missus montacute jones gives as many parties as ever in grosvenor place
and is never so well pleased as when she can get the marchioness of brotherton to her house she is still engaged in matrimonial pursuits and is at the present moment full of an idea that the minister from saxony who is a fine old gentleman of sixty
but a bachelor may be got to marry lady amelia germain mary assures her that there isn't the least chance that amelia would certainly not accept him and that an old german of sixty used to diplomacy all his life
is the last man in the world to be led into difficulties but missus jones never gives way in such matters and has already made the plans for a campaign at killancodlem next august
i regret to state that messrs snape and cashett have persecuted the poor baroness most cruelly they have contrived to show that the lady has not only got into their debt but has also swindled them swindled them according to law
and consequently they have been able to set all the police of the continent on her track she had no sooner shown her face back in germany than they were upon her for a while she escaped rushing from one country to another
but at last she was arrested on a platform in oregon and is soon about to stand her trial in an english court as a good deal of sympathy has been expressed in her favour
it is confidently hoped in many quarters that no jury will convict her in the meantime doctor fleabody has i am told married a store keeper in new york and has settled down into a good mother of a family
at manor cross during the greater portion of the year things go on very much as they used the marchioness is still living and interests herself chiefly in the children of her daughter in law born and to be born
but the great days of her life are those in which popenjoy is brought to her the young scapegrace will never stay above five minutes with his grandmother but the old lady is sure that she is regarded by him with a love passing the love of children
and a month or two afterwards the house is full of company and bright with unaccustomed lights lady sarah puts on her newest silk and the marchioness allows herself to be brought into the drawing room after dinner
but at the end of february the young family flits to town and then the manor cross is as manor cross so long has been mister price still hunts and is as popular in the country as ever
the youngest of his three children is older than lady mary but when he does this at home his ears are always boxed for him of mister groschut it is only necessary to say that he is still at pugsty
vexing the souls of his parishioners by sabbatical denunciations
chapter twenty one the mine of lost souls that couldn't have been pinky why why the car he had was red cried claire
we'll chase him in my car don't you mind of course not i do not give up my objections to the roughing philosophy but you were right about these shoes oh don't leave me behind want to go along
these sentences she broke scattered and totally lost as she scrambled after him down the rocks he halted his lips trembled he picked her up
carried her down hesitated a second while his face curiously foreshortened as she looked up at it from his big arms twisted with emotion he set her down gently and she climbed into the gomez
he took curves and corners evenly his face was as empty of expression as unmelodramatic as that of a jitney driver then she looked at the speedometer he was making forty eight miles an hour down hill and forty to thirty on upgrades
they were in sight of the fleeing pinky in two miles
the demon driver milt merely sat more erect looked more bland and white browed and steady the bug fled before them on a winding shelf road it popped up a curve then slowed down
he took it too fast poor pink said milt they gained on that upslope but as the road dropped the bug started forward desperately another car was headed toward them was drawn to the side of the road in one of the occasional widenings
pinky passed it so carelessly that with crawling spine claire saw the outer wheels of the bug on the very edge of the road the edge of a fifty foot drop
milt went easily past the halted car even waved his hand to the waiting driver this did not seem to claire at all like the chase of a thief she looked casually ahead at pinky as he whirled round an s shaped curve on the downslope then
it was too quick to see what happened the bug headed directly toward the edge of the road shot out went down the embankment over and over it lay absurdly upside down its muffler and brake rods showing in place of the seat and hood
milt quite carefully stopped the gomez the day was still just a breathing of running water in the deep gully the topsy turvy car below them was equally still no sight of pinky no sound
the gauche boy gone from him milt took her hand pressed it to his cheek claire you're here you might have gone with him to make room oh i was bullying you because i was bullying myself trying to make myself tell you
but oh you know you know can you stand going down there i hate to have you but you may be needed yes i'll come she whispered their crawl down the rock rolling embankment seemed desperately slow wait here
bade milt at the bottom she looked away from the grotesque car she had seen that one side of it was crumpled like paper in an impatient hand milt was stooping looking under
when he came back he did not speak he wiped his forehead come we'll climb back up nothing to do now
you might not sleep well he gave her his hand up the embankment drove to the nearest house telephoned to doctor beach later she waited while milt and the doctor with two other men were raising the car
as she waited she thought of the teal bug as a human thing as her old friend to which she had often turned in need milt returned to her there is one thing for you to do before he died pinky asked me to go get his wife
dolores i think it is she's up in a side canyon few miles away she may want a woman around beach will take care of of him can you come of course oh milt i didn't
i didn't mean you were a caveman you're my big brother
they drove five miles along the highway then up a trail where the gomez brushed the undergrowth on each side as it desperately dug into moss rain gutted ruts loose rocks all on a vicious slant
which seemed to push the car down again beside them the mountain woods were sacredly quiet with fern and lily and green lit spaces they came out in a clearing before dusk beside the clearing was a brook with a crude cradle
sign of a not very successful gold miner before a log cabin in a sway sided rocker creaked a tall white flabby woman once nearly beautiful now rubbed at the edges
she rose huddling her wrapper about her bosom as they drove into the clearing and picked their way through stumps and briars where you folks think you're going she whimpered why why just
i guess they'd take it away from me i was brought up nice no rough house or
mine babbled milt course not
no more gold in that crick than there is in my eye or than there's flour or pork in the house the woman's voice was rising her gestures were furious claire and milt stood close their hands slipping together
lying hound worst talker in ten counties got a gambler's hand on him too i ought to seen it
claire thought of the still hand so still that she had seen under the edge of the upturned car she tried to speak while the woman raved on wrath feeding wrath thank god i ain't really his wife my husband is a fine man mister kloh
mister kloh's got a fine job with the mill at north yakima oh i was a fool
and i ups and leaves poor kloh and the kid and the nicest kid say please could you folks take me wherever you're going
and i ain't going to wait here any longer for that lying cheating mean talking
he's dead wailed claire dead pinky oh my god and i won't ever see him and he was so funny and she threw herself on the ground she kicked her heels
she tore at her loosely caught tarnished blonde hair claire knelt by her you mustn't you mustn't we'll damn you with your smug faced husband there and your fine auto and all butting into poor folks troubles shrieked dlorus
her shoulders were dejected milt pleaded let's hike out i don't mind decent honest grease but this place look in at table dirty dishes and gin bottles on the floor desert her when she needs me so
claire started forward but milt caught her sleeve and admired you were right you've got more nerve than i have no i wouldn't dare if i'm glad you're here with me
claire calmed the woman bound up her hair washed her face which needed it and sat on the log doorstep holding dlorus's head in her lap while dlorus sobbed pinky dead him that was so lively
and he was so sweet a lover oh so sweet he was a swell fellow my he could just make you laugh and cry the way he talked and he was so educated
oh let me alone i just want to be alone and think of him i was so bored with kloh and no nice dresses or nothin
just all the time and pinky come and he was so funny oh let me alone
dusk had sneaked up on them the clearing was full of swimming grayness and between the woman's screams the woods crackled each time dlorus spoke her screech was like that of an animal in the woods
and round about them crept such sinister echoes that milt kept wanting to look back over his shoulder yes sighed claire at last perhaps we'd better go if you go i'll kill myself
only he didn't understand a lady has to have her good times and pink danced so well dlorus sprang up flung into the cabin stood in the dimness of the doorway holding a butcher knife and clamoring
take me down to mister kloh at north yakima tonight milt sauntered toward her don't you get flip young man i mean it and i'll kill you
quite out of the picture of gray grief milt snapped
she dropped the knife sniveling oh gawd somebody's always bullying me and all i wanted was a good time claire herded her into the cabin we'll take you to your husband tonight come let's wash up and i'll help you put on your prettiest dress
honest will you cried the woman in high spirits all grief put aside i got a dandy china silk dress and some new white kid shoes my mister kloh he won't hardly know me he'll take me back i know how to handle him that'll be swell going back in an automobile
and i got a new hair comb with genuine peruvian diamonds say you aren't kidding me along in the light of the lantern milt had kindled claire looked questioningly at him both of them shrugged claire promised
chapter twelve the wonders of nature with all modern improvements hello said milt hel lo said claire how dee do said mister boltwood
this is so nice where's your car i hope nothing's happened glowed claire no it's back here from the road a piece camp there tonight reason i stopped struck me you've never done any mountain driving
and there's some pretty good climbs in the park slick road but we go up to almost nine thousand feet and cold mornings thought i'd tip you off to some driving tricks if you'd like me to
then i'll tag after you tomorrow and speak my piece so jolly you're going through the park yes thought might as well what the guide books call wonders of nature
well see you tomorrow not once had he smiled his tone had been impersonal he vaulted the fence and tramped away when they drove out of town in the morning they found milt waiting by the road and he followed them till noon
by urgent request he shared a lunch and lectured upon going down long grades in first or second speed to save brakes upon the use of the retarded spark and the slipped clutch in climbing
his bug was beside the gomez in the line up at the park gate when the united states army came to seal one's firearms and to inquire on which mountain one intended to be killed by defective brakes he was just behind her all the climb up to mammoth hot springs
when she paused for water to cool the boiling radiator the bug panted up and with the first grin she had seen on his face since dakota milt chuckled
the teal is a grand car for mountains aside from overheating bum lights thin upholstery faulty ignition tissue paper brake bands and this here special aviation engine specially built for a bumble bee it's what the catalogues call a powerful brute
claire and her father stayed at the chain of hotels through the park milt was always near them but not at the hotels he patronized one of the chains of permanent camps the boltwoods invited him to dinner at one hotel but he refused and
because he was afraid that claire would find him intrusive milt was grave in her presence he couldn't respond either to her enthusiasm about canyon and colored pool or to her rage about the tourists who she alleged
preferred freak museum pieces to plain beauty who never admired a view unless it was labeled by a signpost and megaphoned by a guide as something they ought to admire and tell the folks back home about
yes i guess there's something to that she was he pondered so darn particular
no thanks much obliged but guessed he'd better not accept her invitation to dinner
had promised a fellow down at the camp to have chow with him if in this milt was veracious he was rather fickle to his newly discovered friend for while claire was finishing dinner a solemn young man was watching her through a window
she was at a table for six she was listening to a man of thirty in riding breeches a stock and a pointed nose who bowed to her every time he spoke
which was so frequently that his dining gave the impression of a man eating grape fruit on a merry go round back in schoenstrom fortified by mac and the bunch at the old home lunch
get onto percy's beer bottle pants what's he got his neck bandaged for bet he's got a boil but now milt yearned he does look swell
wouldn't i look like a fool with my knees buttoned up though and there's two other fellows in dress suits wouldn't mind those so much gee it must be awful where you've got so many suits of trick clothes you don't know which one to wear that fellow and claire are talking pretty swift
he doesn't need any piston rings that lad wonder wonder what they're talking about music i guess and books and pictures and scenery he's saying that no tongue or pen can describe the glories of the park and then he's trying to describe em
and maybe they know the same folks in new york lord how i'd be out of it i wish milt made a toothpick out of a match decided that toothpicks were inelegant in his tragic mood and longed
never did see her among her own kind of folks till now i wish i could jabber about music and stuff i'll learn it i will i can i picked up autos in three months i milt you're a dub
i wonder can they be talking french maybe or wop or something i could get onto the sedan styles in highbrow talk as long as it was in american i could probably spring linen collar stuff about really a delightful book so full of delightful characters
if i stuck by the rhetoric books long enough but once they begin the parlez vous oui oui i'm a gone goose still by golly didn't i pick up dutch german like a mice back off son you did not
you got a nice character milt but you haven't got any parts of speech now look at percy taking a bath in a finger bowl i never could pull that finger bowl stuff
pinning your ears back and jiu jitsing the fried chicken and then doing a high dive into a little dish that ain't that isn't either a wash bowl or real good lemonade
lookit him bow and scrape asking her something
walks like a cat on a wet ash pile but oh thunder he's all right neat i never could mingle with that bunch i'd be web footed and butter fingered and he seems to know all that bunch
bows to every maiden aunt in the shop now if i was following her i'd never see anybody but her rest of the folks could all bob their heads silly and i'd never see one blame thing except that funny little soft spot at the back of her neck nope
this same meditative young man might have been discovered walking past the porch of the hotel his hands in his pockets his eyes presumably on the stars certainly he gave no signs of watching claire and the man in riding breeches as they leaned over the rail
breeches quoted ah tis far heaven my awed heart seeks when i behold those mighty peaks milt could hear him commenting doesn't that just get the feeling of the great open miss boltwood
milt did not catch her answer himself he grunted
oh mister daggett just a moment she left breeches ran down to milt he was frightened was he going to get what he deserved for eavesdropping she was almost whispering save me from our friend up on the porch she implored
he couldn't believe it but he took a chance won't you have a little walk he roared so nice of you just a little way perhaps she sang out they were silent till he got up the nerve to admire
but i didn't oh i thought your friend in the riding pants was chummy so did i she rather snorted well he's a nice looking lad i did admire those pants i never could wear anything like that i should hope not at dinner
the creepy jack ass i don't believe he's ever been on a horse in his life he thinks riding breeches are the oh that's it breeches not pants last word in smartness overdressing is just ten degrees worse than underdressing
oh i don't know take this sloppy old blue suit of mine it's perfectly nice and simple and quite well cut you probably had a clever tailor
really how did he come to schoenstrom never been there this tailor is a busy boy he fitted about eleventeen thousand people last year i see ready mades cheer up that's where henry b boltwood gets most of his clothes
i'll give up my trip to struggle for your soul he seemed to have soul in large chunks he seemed to talk pretty painlessly i had a hunch you and he were discussing sculpture anyway maybe rodin
articles in the magazines same place you learned about him but milt did not sound rude he said it chucklingly you're perfectly right and we've probably read the very same articles well our friend back there said to me at dinner
it must be dreadful for you to have to encounter so many common people along the road i said it is in the most insulting tone i could and he just rolled his eyes and hadn't an idea i meant him
then he slickered his hair at me and mooed is it not wonderful to see all these strange manifestations of the secrets of nature and i said is it and he went on
honest milt mister daggett i mean he did talk like that been reading books by optimistic lady authors
and i felt so weak in the presence of his conceit that i couldn't refuse then he insisted on introducing me to a woman from my own brooklyn who condoled with me for having to talk to western persons while motoring oh dear god that such people should live
that the sniffy little claire should once have been permitted to live and then i saw you through all her tirade they had stood close together her face visibly eager in the glow from the hotel and milt had grown taller
never a tawny beached ocean has the sweetness of the prairie slew rippling and blue with long grass up to its edge a spot of dancing light set in the miles of rustling wheat it retains even in july
on an afternoon of glare and brazen locusts the freshness of a spring morning a thousand slews a hundred lakes bordered with rippling barley or tinkling bells of the flax claire passed
she had left the occasional groves of oak and poplar and silver birch and come out on the treeless great plains she had learned to call the slews
and to watch for ducks at twilight she had learned that about the pugholes flutter choirs of crimson winged blackbirds that the ugly brown birds squatting on fence rails were the divine voiced meadow larks
that among the humble cowbird citizens of the pastures sometimes flaunted a scarlet tanager or an oriole and that no rose garden has the quaint and hardy beauty of the indian paint brushes
she had learned that what had seemed rudeness in garage men and hotel clerks was often a resentful reflection of her own eastern attitude that she was necessarily superior to a race she had been trained to call
common people if she spoke up frankly they made her one of their own and gave her companionable aid for two days of sunshine and drying mud
she followed a road flung straight across flat wheatlands then curving among low hills often there were no fences she was so intimately in among the grain that the fenders of the car brushed wheat stalks
and she became no stranger but a part of all this vast horizoned land she forgot that she was driving as she let the car creep on while she was transported by armadas of clouds
prairie clouds wisps of vapor like a ribbed beach or mounts of cumulus swelling to gold washed snowy peaks the friendliness of the bearing earth gave her a calm that took no heed of passing hours
even her father the abstracted man of affairs nodded to dusty people along the road to a jolly old man whose bulk rolled and shook in a tiny rhythmically creaking buggy
to women in the small abrupt towns with their huge red elevators and their long flat roofed stores claire had discovered america and she felt stronger and all her days were colored with the sun
she had discovered too that she could adventure no longer was she haunted by the apprehension that had whispered to her as she had left minneapolis she knew a thrill when she hailed as though it were a passing ship
an illinois car across whose dust caked back was a banner chicago to the yellowstone she experienced a new sensation of common humanness when on a railway paralleling the wagon road for miles
the engineer of a freight waved his hand to her and tooted the whistle in greeting her father was easily tired but he drowsed through the early afternoons when a none too digestible small town lunch was as lead within him
despite the beauty of the land and the joy of pushing on they both had things to endure after lunch it was sometimes an agony to claire to keep awake her eyes felt greasy from the food or smarted with the sun glare
the heat from the engine was a torment about her feet and if there was another car ahead the trail of dust sifted into her throat unless there was traffic to keep her awake she nodded at the wheel
she was merely a part of a machine that ran on without seeming to make any impression on the prairie's endlessness
slow for down hill careful of sand at the bottom
waving to a lonely farmwife in her small baked dooryard slow to pass a hay wagon
and repeat the round all over again but she was joyous till noon and with mid afternoon a new strength came which as rose crept above the golden haze of dust deepened into serene meditation
and she was finding the one secret of long distance driving namely driving keeping on thinking by fifty mile units not by the ten mile stretches of long island runs and not fretting over anything whatever
she seemed charmed if she had a puncture why she put on the spare if she ran out of gas why any passing driver would lend her a gallon
nothing it seemed could halt her level flight across the giant land she rarely lost her way she was guided by the friendly trail signs
magically telling the way from the mississippi to the pacific her father's occasional musing talk kept her from loneliness he was a good touring companion motoring is not the best occasion for epigrams satire
and the good one you got off at the lambs club last night such verbiage on motor trips invariably results in the mysterious finding of the corpse of a strange man well dressed hidden beside the road
claire and her father mumbled good farmhouse brick or nice view and smiled and were for miles as silent as the companionable sky she thought of the people she knew
especially of jeff saxton but she could not clearly remember his lean earnest face between her and jeff were sweeping sunny leagues but she was not lonely
no singer after a first concert has felt more triumphant than claire when she crossed her first state line rumbled over the bridge across the red river into north dakota
was like the sensation of street signs in a new language and when she found a good hotel in fargo and had a real bath she felt that by her own efforts she had earned the right to enjoy it
mister boltwood caught her enthusiasm dinner was a festival and in iced tea the peaceful conquistadores drank the toast of the new spanish main and afterward arm in arm went chattering to the movies
in front of the royal palace pictures four great acts vaudeville four was browsing a small beetle like tin covered car dad look i'm sure
yes of course there's his suitcase that's the car of that nice boy don't you remember the one that pulled us out of the mud at
apparently he's keeping going i remember he's headed for seattle too we'll look for him in the theater oh the darling there's his cat what was the funny name he gave her the marchioness montmorency or something
lady vere de vere afraid of fargo and movie crowds but trusting in her itinerant castle the bug was curled in milt daggett's ulster in the bottom of the car she twinkled her whiskers at claire
and purred to a stroking hand with the excitement of one trying to find the address of a friend in a strange land claire looked over the audience when the lights came on before the vaudeville
in the second row she saw milt's stiffish rope colored hair surprisingly smooth above an astoundingly clean new tan shirt of mercerized silk
he laughed furiously at the dialogue between pete rosenheim and larose bettina though it contained the cheese joke the mother in law joke and the joke about the wife rifling her husband's pockets
our young friend seems to have enviable youthful spirits commented mister boltwood now no superiority he's probably never seen a real vaudeville show
or the follies for the first time instead of being taken by jeff saxton and having the humor oh so articulately explained the pictures were resumed the film which
under ten or twelve different titles claire had already seen even though brooklyn heights does not devote saturday evening to the movies the badman the sheriff an aged party with whiskers and boots the holdup the sad eyes of the sheriff's daughter
also an aged party but with a sunbonnet and the most expensive rouge
she dragged her father back to the hotel sent him to bed and entered her room to find a telegram upon the bureau she had sent her friends a list of the places at which she would be likely to stop
the message was from jeff saxton in brooklyn it brought to her mind the steady shine of his glasses the most expensive glasses with the very best curved lenses as it demanded
received letter about trip surprised anxious will tire you out fatigue prairie roads bad for your father mountain roads dangerous strongly advise go only part way then take train geoffrey
she held the telegram flipping her fingers against one end of it as she debated she remembered how the wide world had flowed toward her over the hood of the gomez all day she wrote in answer
awful perils of road two punctures split infinitive eggs at lunch questionable but struggle on before she sent it she held council with her father she sat on the foot of his bed and tried to sound dutiful
i don't want to do anything that's bad for you daddy but isn't it taking your mind away from business ye es i think it is anyway we'll try it a few days more i fancy we can stand up under the strain and perils
i think we can persuade some of these big farmers to come to the rescue if we encounter any walruses or crocodiles among the wheat and i have a feeling that if we ever get stuck our friend of the teal bug will help us
sir lucan and sir bedivere
would to god i could find sir modred
he is yonder said sir lucan but remember your dream and go not near him whether i die or live said the king he shall not escape and seizing his spear
the robbers slew that they might take their jewels too
but sir lucan had been wounded in the battle and as he lifted the king he fell back and died
now the king felt so ill that he thought he would not live much longer
take excalibur my good sword he said
then come quickly and tell me what you see sir bedivere took the sword and went down to the lake but as he looked at the handle with its sparkling gems
i will hide it carefully here among the rushes thought the knight and when he had hidden it he went slowly to the king
as they broke on the beach
if you love me
as once more he hid it among the rushes then he went back more slowly and told the king that he had done his will what did you see asked the king
you have betrayed me twice
chapter twenty three the disappearance of margaret tom i tell you the best you can do is to make a clean breast of it and get uncle adam
to help you it was letty bernard who spoke
or of being overheard the conversation had lasted over two hours and in that time the girl had learned many of the young man's secrets and in return
had told him a few things which had astonished and disturbed him he was much downcast and with good reason for the past month many things had gone wrong with him
the one bright spot had been lefty's love for him pure and strong helping him to carry his burdens
that's an easy thing to say letty he answered but it is not such an easy thing to do poor dick is deep enough in the mud as it is
and it will not be to my credit to mention my connection with matlock styles yes but tom you you oh how can i explain
can't you trust me when i tell you that i am speaking for your own good i i know many things of which you are ignorant then why don't you tell me letty
is it fair for you to keep silent no but then you must remember that i am mister adams private clerk and he is working on this case in the interests of miss langmore
and i hope he clears her i always thought she was a pretty nice kind of a girl and
and she gazed at him earnestly as if to search his very soul he started me
should anybody imagine i was guilty it's it's out of all reason he drew a quick breath letty do you mean to insinuate that mister adams imagines
you mustn't ask me questions tom
of that letter your brother dick wrote asking for money
and the scene afterwards yes i know but and then think of the way by which mister langmore and your mother died killed by a curious poison
something that they inhaled which when the doctor got a whiff of it gave him cramps in the stomach a curious drug not generally known to medical science
a drug he caught her by the wrist and looked fearfully frightfully into her face
a short silence followed and she saw that he was thinking deeply swiftly the cold perspiration stood out on his forehead but he did not appear to notice it
he dropped her wrist and his hand fell as if made of stone now you understand tom i i am speaking for i i
want you to clear yourself then it has gone as far as this he gave a groan it was that drug letty
yes but do not say i said so
a chinese student told me so
but now i believe it the first time i carried it around with me i was wrecked in a railroad accident and had my arm hurt then two weeks later when i had it with me
i got caught in that hotel fire in buffalo after that a vial once broke on me and if i hadn't gotten away in a hurry i should have been smothered and now
have you carried any of it lately no not for a month
and so was the firm
meditatively and they think they suspect that that drug was used it may be cannot you trace where the drug went to tom
that might be possible although a good many people saw and heard of it while our firm handled it was any of it sold or used in the vicinity of sidham no but
the young commercial traveler stopped short i think but no it can't be and yet what tom she asked eagerly he shook his head
what's the use it would only drag me into the mud deeper i really can't see what's to do
i am certain the very best thing you can do is to go to uncle adam and tell him everything he will help you and clear up this great mystery but he is working for margaret
but i know he will work for you after he has heard your story but you must tell him everything where is he now somewhere around your mother's home or in sidham i think
i can find out for you very well i will go to him and ask him if he is willing to side with me as well as with margaret but watt
i think i'll go and see margaret first you can send word to mister adams that i want to see him tell him i will be at the beechwood hotel he can send me a message there
tell him i can clear up some points which may seem queer to him i will tom letty looked much relieved oh i am sure he will help you
he has never yet failed to accomplish anything he has undertaken an hour later saw tom ostrello on his way to sidham his face was careworn
and he looked to be ten years older than he had a week before he was in a thoughtful mood and scarcely looked out of the car window as the train
rushed onward to its destination arriving at the town he speedily learned that margaret had been taken to the home of martha sampson and was said to be in a serious
if not dangerous state this caused him to halt and he was half inclined to give up the idea of interviewing her it will only make her condition worse
he mused and poor girl she seems to have suffered more than her share already perhaps i had better wait until i hear from adam adams but then
he determined to learn exactly how she was anyway
which stood on a side street of the town backed up by a patch of woods leading to the river he was just in sight of the place when he heard a cry
and a man came running out of the cottage followed by a woman and a policeman where is she where is she cried the man and tom ostrello recognized raymond case hullo
queried the commercial traveler margaret she is gone cried raymond he ran back of the house i can't see anything of her he added with a groan
margaret gone i thought she was sick so she is
while the nurse went downstairs for some broth i was in the parlor writing a letter and i was on guard in the hallway put in the policeman she didn't pass me that i'll swear to
i was only gone a few minutes said the nurse and i am sure she did not go through the kitchen how long ago was this
only a few minutes ago oh we must find her answered raymond if she wanders off in her present state of mind there is no telling what will happen to her the four scattered
soon the news spread and the chief of police came hurrying to the scene collins
said he sternly to the policeman i did the best i could sir was the nervous answer she was that sick sir i didn't think she could get out of bed
much less walk off perhaps she is hiding in the house the building was searched from cellar to garret and so were several other buildings in that vicinity
but without avail then the gathering crowd scattered through the woods and along the river i don't believe she was as sick as they pretended said one of the number
this is only a bluff to let her get away i said all along she was a sly one perhaps she pulled the wool over the doctor's eyes came from another
and over the eyes of that young fellow who's in love with her too raymond heard some of these remarks and they made his face burn he longed to knock some of the speakers down
he realized that no argument he might advance would make an impression where opinions were so set tom ostrello joined in the search as diligently as the rest
and he and raymond ran through the woods from end to end several times then they procured a boat and rowed up and down the river and crossed over to the other side
she could not have gone far said raymond her strength was not equal to it it was dark by the time they came back to the river to cross to the town side
as they rowed along slowly and silently tom ostrello noticed something floating on the water he steered toward the object and picked it up it was a girl's
summer hat margaret's hat cried raymond he dropped his oar and his face turned as white as death i know the truth now
chapter thirty three missus romsey the one hotel in sandyseal was full from the topmost story to the ground floor
and by far the larger half of the landlord's guests were invalids sent to him by the doctors to persons of excitable temperament in search of amusement the place offered no attractions
situated at the innermost end of a dull little bay sandyseal so far as any view of the shipping in the channel was concerned might have been built on a remote island in the pacific ocean
vessels of any importance kept well out of the way of treacherous shoals and currents lurking at the entrance of the bay the anchorage ground was good
but the depth of water was suited to small vessels only to shabby old fishing smacks which seldom paid their expenses and to dirty little coasters carrying coals and potatoes
at the back of the hotel two slovenly rows of cottages took their crooked course inland sailing masters of yachts off duty sat and yawned at the windows lazy fishermen
looked wearily at the weather over their garden gates and superfluous coastguards gathered together in a wooden observatory and leveled useless telescopes at an empty sea the flat open country
with its few dwarf trees and its mangy hedges lay prostrate under the sky in all the desolation of solitary space and left the famous restorative air free to build up dilapidated nerves
without an object to hinder its passage at any point of the compass the lonely drab colored road that led to the nearest town offered to visitors taking airings
a view of a low brown object in the distance said to be the convent in which the nuns lived secluded from mortal eyes at one side of the hotel the windows looked on a little wooden pier sadly in want of repair
on the other side a walled inclosure accommodated yachts of light tonnage stripped of their rigging and sitting solitary on a bank of mud until their owners wanted them in this neighborhood
there was a small outlying colony of shops one that sold fruit and fish one that dealt in groceries and tobacco one shut up with a bill in the window inviting a tenant and one behind the methodist chapel
and a storehouse for ropes and coals beyond these objects there was nothing and this was the great charm of the place to distract the attention of invalids following the doctor's directions and from morning to night
taking care of their health the time was evening the scene was one of the private sitting rooms in the hotel and the purpose in view was a little tea party
rich missus romsey connected with commerce as wife of the chief partner in the firm of romsey and renshaw was staying at the hotel in the interests of her three children they were of delicate constitution
their complete recovery after severe illness which had passed from one to the other was less speedy than had been anticipated and the doctor had declared that the nervous system was in each case more or less in need of repair
to arrive at this conclusion and to recommend a visit to sandyseal were events which followed each other medically speaking as a matter of course the health of the children
had greatly improved the famous air had agreed with them and the discovery of new playfellows had agreed with them they had made acquaintance with lady myrie's well bred boys and with missus norman's charming little kitty
the most cordial good feeling had established itself among the mothers owing a return for hospitalities received from lady myrie and missus norman missus romsey had invited the two ladies to drink tea with her
in honor of an interesting domestic event her husband absent on the continent for some time past on business connected with his firm had returned to england and had that evening
lady myrie had arrived and mister romsey had been presented to her missus norman expected to follow was represented by a courteous note of apology
she was not well that evening and she begged to be excused this is a great disappointment missus romsey said to her husband you would have been charmed with missus norman highly bred
accomplished a perfect lady and she leaves us to morrow the departure will not be an early one and i shall find an opportunity my dear of introducing you to my friend and her sweet little kitty
mister romsey looked interested for a moment when he first heard missus norman's name after that he slowly stirred his tea and seemed to be thinking instead of listening to his wife
have you made the lady's acquaintance here he inquired yes and i hope i have made a friend for life missus romsey said with enthusiasm and so do i lady myrie added
mister romsey went on with his inquiries is she a handsome woman both the ladies answered the question together lady myrie described missus norman
in one dreadful word as classical by comparison with this missus romsey's reply was intelligible not even illness can spoil her beauty including the headache she has got to night
missus norman is here by the advice of one of the first physicians in london she has suffered under serious troubles poor thing mister romsey persisted in being ill natured
connected with her husband he asked lady myrie entered a protest she was a widow and it was notorious among her friends that the death of her husband
had been the happiest event in her married life but she understood her duty to herself as a respectable woman i think mister romsey you might have spared that cruel allusion
she said with dignity mister romsey apologized he had his reasons for wishing to know something more about missus norman he proposed to withdraw his last remark
and to put his inquiries under another form might he ask his wife if anybody had seen mister norman no or heard of him missus romsey answered in the negative once more
and added a question on her own account what did all this mean it means lady myrie interposed what we poor women are all exposed to scandal
she had not yet forgiven mister romsey's allusion and she looked at him pointedly as she spoke there are some impenetrable men on whom looks produce no impression
mister romsey was one of them he turned to his wife and said quietly what i mean is that i know more of missus norman than you do i have heard of her
never mind how or where she is a lady who has been celebrated in the newspapers don't be alarmed she is no less a person than the divorced missus linley
the two ladies looked at each other in blank dismay restrained by a sense of conjugal duty missus romsey only indulged in an exclamation lady myrie
independent of restraint expressed her opinion and said quite impossible the missus norman whom i mean mister romsey went on has as i have been told
a mother living the old lady has been twice married her name is missus presty this settled the question
missus presty was established in her own proper person with her daughter and grandchild at the hotel lady myrie yielded to the force of evidence she lifted her hands in horror
this is too dreadful missus romsey took a more compassionate view of the disclosure surely the poor lady is to be pitied she gently suggested
lady myrie looked at her friend in astonishment my dear you must have forgotten what the judge said about her surely you read the report of the case in the newspapers
no i heard of the trial and that's all what did the judge say say lady myrie repeated what did he not say
his lordship declared that he had a great mind not to grant the divorce at all he spoke of this dreadful woman who has deceived us in the severest terms he said
she had behaved in a most improper manner she had encouraged the abominable governess and if her husband had yielded to temptation it was her fault and more besides that i don't remember
mister romsey's wife appealed to him in despair what am i to do she asked helplessly do nothing was the wise reply
didn't you say she was going away to morrow that's the worst of it missus romsey declared her little girl kitty gives a farewell dinner to morrow to our children and i've promised to take them to say good by
lady myrie pronounced sentence without hesitation of course your girls mustn't go daughters think of their reputations when they grow up
are you in the same scrape with my wife mister romsey asked lady myrie corrected his language i have been deceived in the same way she said
though my children are boys which perhaps makes a difference i feel it is my duty as a mother not to let them get into bad company i do nothing myself in an underhand way
no excuses i shall send a note and tell missus norman why she doesn't see my boys to morrow isn't that a little hard on her said merciful missus romsey
mister romsey agreed with his wife on grounds of expediency never make a row if you can help it was the peaceable principle to which this gentleman committed himself
send word that the children have caught colds and get over it in that way missus romsey looked gratefully at her admirable husband just the thing
she said with an air of relief lady myrie's sense of duty expressed itself with the strictest adherence to the laws of courtesy she rose smiled resignedly
and said good night almost at the same moment innocent little kitty astonished her mother and her grandmother by appearing before them in her night gown after she had been put to bed nearly two hours since
what will this child do next missus presty exclaimed kitty told the truth i can't go to sleep grandmamma why not my darling her mother asked
i'm so excited mamma about what kitty about my dinner party to morrow oh said the child clasping her hands earnestly as she thought of her playfellows
he perceiv'd several young female syrians intent on searching for something very curious that lay conceal'd as they imagin'd in the grass he took the freedom to approach one of them and ask her
in the most courteous manner if he might have the honour to assist her in her researches have a care said she what we are hunting after sir is an animal that will not suffer itself to be touch'd by a man
tis somewhat surprizing said zadig may i be so bold pray as to ask you what you are in pursuit after that shuns the touch of any thing but the hands of the fair sex
tis sir said she the basilisk a basilisk madam said he and pray if you will be so good as to inform me with what view are you searching after a creature
for our lord and master ogul whose castle you see situate on the river side at the bottom of the meadow we are all his vassals
is in a very bad state of health and his first physician has order'd him as a specific to eat a basilisk boil'd in rose water and as that animal is very hard to be catch'd
and will suffer nothing to approach it but one of our sex our dying sovereign ogul has promis'd to honour her that shall be so happy as to catch it for him so far as to make her his consort
the case being thus circumstantiated sir i hope you will not interrupt me any longer lest my rivals here in the field should happen to circumvent me zadig withdrew
reclin'd on the grass and entirely disengag'd her stature seem'd majestic but her face was cover'd with a vail and her eyes were fixt as one at her looking glass on the river
every now and then a sigh burst out as if her heart were breaking in her hand she held a little wand or rod with which she was tracing out some characters on the dry sand that lay
between the flow'ry bank she sat on and the purling current zadig's curiosity induc'd him unperceiv'd to observe her operations at some distance
but approaching nearer and perceiving very distinctly
the next an a and the third a d he started
but when he saw the additional capitals of i and g his astonishment was too great for words to express he stood for some time
perfectly thunder struck and as motionless as a statue at last in a soft faultring tone he broke silence o generous lady said he
forgive a stranger one overwhelm'd with sorrows like yourself if he asks you by what amazing accident he finds the name of zadig delineated by so angelick a hand
twas the queen of babylon twas the very goddess whom zadig ador'd twas in short the very identical lady whose hard fate he had so long deplor'd
and for whose sake he had felt so many agonizing pains for a few minutes he stood speechless
whilst his eyes were fixt on his astarte who began to revive and cast a wishful glance at him attended with some confusion
o ye immortal powers cried he who preside over the destiny of us frail mortals
he threw himself prostrate on the ground and kiss'd the dust of her feet the queen of babylon rais'd him up and oblig'd him to sit by her on the flow'ry bank
as the tears trickl'd down afresh her lovely cheeks twenty times she endeavour'd to renew her discourse but was interrupted by her sighs she ask'd him over and over
since their parting and by what chance he came to traverse that solitary meadow but prevented him at the same time from returning any answer by repeating question upon question
at last she gave him a particular detail of her own misfortunes and again requested to know his both of them in short having in some measure
appeas'd the tumult of their souls zadig in a few words inform'd her of the motives that brought him thither but tell me o unfortunate tho ever venerable queen
how i came to find you out reclining on this verdant bank dress'd in this servile habit accompanied by other female slaves who i find have been all day long in quest after a basilisk
which as i understand is by order of a celebrated physician to be dissolv'd in rose water as a specific medicine for his dying patient
whilst they busy in their fruitless search said the beauteous astarte i'll tell you the whole series of sorrows which i have undergone since last we parted
that the jealous king my spouse was disgusted to find you the most amiable of all mortals and that for no other reason he determin'd to strangle you and poison me
you know very well too that indulgent heav'n inspir'd as it were my little dwarf with artful means to give me timely notice of the rash resolutions of the king my cruel husband no sooner
had the faithful cador oblig'd you to obey my orders and to fly the court but he ventur'd to enter my apartment in the dead of night thro a private door he snatch'd me up and convey'd me directly
where the holy magus who was his brother lock'd me up in that august and awful statue that stands erect upon the pavement of the temple and colossus like touches the lofty ceiling with his head
there i lay conceal'd or rather buried for some time tho taken all imaginable care of and furnish'd with all the necessaries of life by that venerable and loyal priest
in the mean time his apothecary
black hellebore aconite and other ingredients still more baneful whilst this mercenary officer of the king's vengeance was thus employ'd another
as inhuman as himself
very officious flew to the king in order the more artfully to blind him and in a feign'd passion rail'd at us both and charg'd us both as perfidious traitors
as for that villain zadig said he he has taken his flight towards india and your false ungrateful consort sire said he is fled to memphis
the guards were order'd that moment to pursue us both the couriers who flew after me knew nothing of me i had never expos'd my face unveil'd to any one but your self
and that too in the presence and by the express order of my royal master as they had no other marks to distinguish me from others but my stature as it had been describ'd
but after he had view'd the lady with an attentive eye he found she was extremely pretty and was soon pacify'd her name
i have been since inform'd that her name in the egyptian language signifies the fair coquet and in effect she was so
in short she had such an ascendancy over him that he didn't scruple in publick to own her as his wife when she had secur'd him thus far in her toils she never conceal'd her power
without fear of being brow beat in the first place she insisted that the chief magus who was old and gouty should dance a saraband before her and upon his modest refusal
to comply with so preposterous a request she persecuted him without mercy nothing would serve her turn in the next place but his majesty's grand master of the horse must make her
the gentleman took the liberty to let her know that he was no profess'd cook a tart however he must make for her and she got him turn'd out of his place for being so monstrously careless
as to burn one corner of the crust whereupon she gave his post to her favourite dwarf and made her fop of a page the keeper of his majesty's great seal and confidence
thus she reign'd arbitrary and was the female tyrant of babylon all the world deplor'd the loss of me their former queen the king who never acted the part of a tyrant
i saw him prostrate on the pavement before the statue wherein i was enclos'd imploring the gods to show'r down their choicest blessings on his beauteous missouf i
address'd my self thus like an oracle to the king of kings
that acts the tyrant o'er his subjects one who could think of murdering an innocent wife
and the tyrannical proceedings of his new spouse missouf were enough to deprive him of his senses in short in a few days he became a perfect mad man
that had so long indulg'd herself in indolence and ease became the seat or theatre of a bloody civil war whereupon i was taken from my magnificent prison
the bowels of his god and set up at the head of a very powerful party
return'd with a powerful army in order to form a third party among the babylonians he attack'd the king who fled with his fair but fickle egyptian before him
as for my own part i had the misfortune to be over power'd likewise and taken prisoner by an hyrcanian party who brought me into the presence of the young prince
you'll smile doubtless when i tell you the prince look'd upon me as the most amiable captive of the two but then i presume you will be sorry to hear
which would not he flatter'd himself be long unexecuted
judge the dreadful apprehensions i was under upon his making such a peremptory declaration
and unspotted virtue i had always heard say that heav'n bestow'd on persons of my rank such a peculiar mark of majesty and grandeur
they could bring down and abase the pride of those audacious creatures that durst to thwart their inclinations i talk'd as big as a queen but i was treated
like the most servile domestic the saucy hyrcanian without so much as vouchsafing me one single word turn'd to his black eunuch and told him that i was very impertinent
but yet he could not help thinking i was very pretty he gave him therefore particular orders to take care of me and put me under the same regimen with respect to my diet
as one of his favourites in order that i might recover my colour which was somewhat too languid in a word that i might become worthy in a little time of his royal favours
that young ladies like me seldom kill'd themselves and that they were made for enjoyment and then turn'd upon his heel
for the first queen of the universe nay i'll say more for a heart that was wholly devoted to her zadig at these endearing words zadig threw himself at her feet
and thus continu'd her narration i too plainly perceiv'd that i was subject to the tyranny of a barbarian and the rival of a coquet that was a slave like myself
she related to me all her past adventures in egypt from the description she gave of her gallant the time and place the dromedary he was mounted on
and from every other minute circumstance i imagin'd it was your self that play'd the hero in her favour as i made no doubt but that you resided somewhere in memphis
i determin'd to go thither my self but in disguise
you are of a much sprightlier disposition than i am you will be able to amuse the gay young prince of hyrcania a thousand times better than i shall find out some way therefore for my escape
by which you will be sole lady regent you will oblige me to the last degree by your friendly assistance and at the same time get rid of a rival
missouf cajol'd with the hint came into my measures directly she took care to send me packing forthwith with no other attendant than an old egyptian slave
no sooner had i reach'd the borders of arabia but a notorious free booter one arbogad by name pick'd me up as i was strolling along and sold me to some merchants
who convey'd me to yonder castle the magnificent residence of the emir ogul he purchas'd me at all adventures
he is a perfect debauchee his sole delight lies in good eating wine and women and is one who imagines that the almighty sent him into the world for no other purpose
but to gratify his unruly appetites he is excessively fat and puffs and blows every moment like one half choak'd
when he has gorg'd himself so unmercifully that he is ready to burst his chief physician can persuade him to take any thing for his relief tho he laughs at him and despises his advice when he's well and sober
he has intimated to him that at present his life's in danger and nothing will restore him but a basilisk boil'd in rose water
whereupon the grand ogul has promis'd his last favours to that slave whoever she be that shall be so fortunate as to catch a basilisk for him since it seems they are so seldom to be met with
you see i have others to struggle for the honour propos'd and i never had a less inclination to find out this basilisk than at present since i have once more
after this declaration
who preside over all the soft passions wafted their mutual vows of eternal constancy and truth to the sphere of venus
the whole train of slaves after a long fruitless search attended on ogul to inform him that all their strictest search was fruitless zadig desired
accordingly he was and his address was to this or the like effect may immortal health descend from heaven to preserve a life sir
so precious as yours is i am a physician by profession i flew to your palace on the first news of the dangerous situation you were in
and have brought a basilisk with me distill'd in rose water i can have no hopes of the honour of your bed in case i succeed in my application
all the favour i request is the release of one of your babylonish slaves who has been in your highness's retinue for some time and i
am willing to be your bond slave in her stead if i fail of restoring the most illustrious and magnificent ogul to his pristine state of health the proposition was readily embrac'd
and set out for babylon with a proper attendant according to zadig's direction assuring her
of his proceedings with his new patient the farewel which they took of each other was very affectionate and tender
the moments of meeting
the two most remarkable epochas of a lover's life zadig's repeated protestations of affection for the queen were perfectly sincere and the pure dictates of his heart
and the queen's love for zadig had made a deeper impression on hers than she thought proper to discover in the mean time zadig again addressing himself to ogul said
my basilisk sir as others are is not to be drest or eaten but all its virtues must penetrate your whole fabrick thro your pores i have inclos'd my never failing sudorific
in a bladder full blown and carefully cover'd with the softest leather you must kick this bladder sir once a day about your hall for a whole hour together
with all the vigour and activity you possibly can this medicine must be repeated every morning and i'll attend the operation upon your due observance of the regimen i shall put you under
was ready to expire for want of breath and thought he should die with the fatigue the second day did not prove altogether so irksome and he slept much better at night than he had done before
these eight days successively and you have liv'd all that time within the bounds of sobriety and moderation know sir that there is no such animal in nature as a basilisk
that health is to be secur'd by temperance and exercise and that the art of making health consistent with luxury
or any other reveries of the like airy and fantastic nature ogul's head physician apprehensive that this unexpected cure thus wrought by a stranger
through such an anti medicinal preparation might possibly not only render himself the object of contempt in the eye of his great master but cast a kind of slur in general
on his whole fraternity conven'd a set of petty doctors and apothecaries who were his vassals and entirely devoted to his interest to find out some sure ways and means
to cut off in private his dreadful rival
the priests of the stars were determin'd to punish him as all the costly jewels and other valuable decorations in which every young widow that sacrificed her self on her husband's funeral pile
were their customary fees tis no great wonder indeed that they were inclin'd to burn poor zadig for playing them such a scurvy trick zadig therefore
but they turn'd a deaf ear to all his remonstrances and oblig'd him to hold his tongue the young widow almona
who by this time was not only reconcil'd to living a little longer but had some taste for the pleasures of life and knew that she was entirely indebted to zadig for it
resolv'd if possible to free her benefactor from being burnt as he had before convinc'd her of the folly of it in her case she ponder'd upon this weighty affair very seriously
but said nothing to any one whomsoever zadig was to be executed the next day and she had only a few hours left to carry her project into execution
now the reader shall hear with how much benevolence and discretion this amiable widow behav'd on this emergent occasion in the first place
she made use of the most costly perfumes and drest herself to the utmost advantage to render her charms as conspicuous as possible
demanded a private audience of the high priest of the stars upon her first admittance into his august and venerable presence she address'd herself in the following terms
my conscience is my accuser and i am terribly afraid i have been guilty of a mortal sin by declining the stated custom of burning my self on my husband's funeral pile
what could tempt me in short to a prolongation of my life i can't imagine i who am grown a perfect skeleton all wrinkled and deform'd
she paus'd and pulling off with a negligent but artful air
she display'd a soft plump naked arm
that all my charms are blasted blasted madam said the luscious pontiff no your charms are still resistless
his eyes and his mouth with which he kiss'd her hand confirm'd their power such an arm madam
i never saw before alas said the widow with a modest blush my arm sir tis probable may have the advantage of any hidden part but see good father
what a neck is here as yellow as saffron an object not worth regarding then she display'd such a snowy panting bosom
that nature could not mend it a rose bud on an ivory apple would if set in competition with her spotless whiteness make no better appearance than common madder upon a shrub
her lips which were like two borders of coral inclosing two rows of the best pearls in the arabian sea such a combination i say of charms made the old pontiff
judge she was scarce twenty years of age and in a kind of flutter to make her a declaration of his tender regard for her almona perceiving him enamour'd
alas my dear charmer my interest alone when you request the favour
i'll take care his acquittance shall be signed by three more of my brother priests do you sign first however said almona with all my soul said the amorous pontiff
where you shall use your pleasure with your humble servant with that she made him a low courtesy took up zadig's general release as soon as duely sign'd
and left the old doatard all over love tho somewhat diffident of his own abilities the residue of the day he spent in his bagnio he drank large enlivening draughts
and the costly spices of tidor
and waited with the utmost impatience for the up rising
in the mean time almona went to the second pontiff he assur'd her that the sun moon and all the starry host of heav'n were but languid fires to her bright eyes
he put the question to her in short at once and agreed to sign upon her compliance she suffer'd herself to be over persuaded
at a certain place as soon as the star algenib should make its appearance from him she repair'd to the third and fourth pontiff taking care wherever she went
duely sign'd and made fresh appointments at the rising of star after star when she had carried her point thus far
they waited on her accordingly
duly sign'd by four several hands and told them the definitive treaty between all the contracting parties each of the pontifical gallants observ'd their summons to a moment
each was startled at the sight of his rival but perfectly thunderstruck to see the judges before whom the widow had laid open her case zadig procur'd an absolute pardon
that he married her the next day zadig went afterwards to throw himself at the feet of his fair benefactress
and vowing that an eternal mutual friendship should be preserv'd between them and in short should fortune at any time afterwards
to either party the other should partake of an equal share of his success zadig steer'd his course towards syria forever pondering on the hard fate
of the justly admir'd astarte and reflecting on his own stars that so obstinately darted down their malignant rays and continu'd daily to torment him what
for four witless verses in praise of the king to be strangled to death
chapter twenty nine henry dear was her greeting he had finished his breakfast and was beginning the times his sister in law was packing she knelt by him and took the paper from him feeling that it was unusually heavy and thick
then putting her face where it had been she looked up in his eyes henry dear look at me no i won't have you shirking look at me there that's all you're referring to last evening he said huskily
i have released you from your engagement i could find excuses but i won't no i won't a thousand times no i'm a bad lot and must be left at that expelled from his old fortress mister wilcox was building a new one
he could no longer appear respectable to her so he defended himself instead in a lurid past it was not true repentance leave it where you will boy it's not going to trouble us i know what i'm talking about and it will make no difference
he was annoyed with miss schlegel here he would have preferred her to be prostrated by the blow or even to rage
her eyes gazed too straight they had read books that are suitable for men only and though he had dreaded a scene and though she had determined against one there was a scene all the same it was somehow imperative
i am unworthy of you he began had i been worthy i should not have released you from your engagement i know what i am talking about i can't bear to talk of such things we had better leave it
she kissed his hand he jerked it from her and rising to his feet went on you with your sheltered life and refined pursuits and friends and books you and your sister and women like you
i say how can you guess the temptations that lie round a man it is difficult for us said margaret but if we are worth marrying we do guess
cut off from decent society and family ties what do you suppose happens to thousands of young fellows overseas isolated no one near i know by bitter experience and yet you say it makes no difference
not to me he laughed bitterly margaret went to the side board and helped herself to one of the breakfast dishes being the last down she turned out the spirit lamp that kept them warm she was tender but grave
and she did not desire to hear him on this point did helen come she asked he shook his head but that won't do at all at all we don't want her gossiping with missus bast
good god no he exclaimed suddenly natural
though i thank you for your unselfishness little as my thanks are worth didn't she send me a message or anything i heard of none
what to do why to inquire he swaggered up to it tragically and sounded a peal margaret poured herself out some coffee the butler came and said that miss schlegel had slept at the george so far as he had heard
should he go round to the george i'll go thank you said margaret and dismissed him it is no good said henry those things leak out you cannot stop a story once it has started i have known cases of other men
i despised them once i thought that i'm different i shall never be tempted oh margaret he came and sat down near her improvising emotion she could not bear to listen to him
will you believe that there are moments when the strongest man
that's true isn't it if you knew all you would excuse me i was far from good influences far even from england i was very very lonely and longed for a woman's voice that's enough
i have told you too much already for you to forgive me now yes that's enough dear i have he lowered his voice i have been through hell gravely she considered this claim had he
had he suffered tortures of remorse or had it been there that's over now for respectable life again the latter if she read him rightly
he is humble and hides it if indeed it still exists only in legend does the sinner come forth penitent but terrible to conquer pure woman by his resistless power henry was anxious to be terrible but had not got it in him
it was a very simple story ten years ago was the time a garrison town in cyprus the place now and then he asked her whether she could possibly forgive him and she answered i have already forgiven you henry
she played the girl until he could rebuild his fortress and hide his soul from the world when the butler came to clear away henry was in a very different mood asked the fellow what he was in such a hurry for complained of the noise last night in the servants hall
margaret looked intently at the butler he as a handsome young man was faintly attractive to her as a woman an attraction so faint as scarcely to be perceptible
on her return from the george the building operations were complete and the old henry fronted her competent cynical and kind he had made a clean breast had been forgiven and the great thing now was to forget his failure
and to send it the way of other unsuccessful investments jacky rejoined howards end and ducie street and the vermilion motor car and the argentine hard dollars
and all the things and people for whom he had never had much use and had less now their memory hampered him he could scarcely attend to margaret who brought back disquieting news from the george helen and her clients had gone
well let them go the man and his wife i mean for the more we see of your sister the better
what did you say in the
oh ah yes
margaret took his arm the beautiful weather soothed her but the wheels of evie's wedding were still at work tossing the guests outwards as deftly as they had drawn them in and she could not be with him long
and she back to london with the warringtons for a fraction of time she was happy then her brain recommenced
helen would not have left unless she had heard something i mismanaged that it is wretched i ought to have parted her from that woman at once
yes yes henry i am far from a saint in fact the reverse but you have
margaret a promise is a promise never mention that woman again except for some practical reason never practical you practical yes i'm practical
she murmured stooping over the mowing machine and playing with the grass which trickled through her fingers like sand he had silenced her but her fears made him uneasy
the basts knew that he was not and might find it profitable to hint as much at all events you mustn't worry he said this is a man's business he thought intently on no account mention it to anybody
margaret flushed at advice so elementary but he was really paving the way for a lie if necessary he would deny that he had ever known missus bast and prosecute her for libel perhaps he never had known her
here was margaret who behaved as if he had not there the house round them were half a dozen gardeners clearing up after his daughter's wedding all was so solid and spruce that the past flew up out of sight like a spring blind
leaving only the last five minutes unrolled glancing at these he saw that the car would be round during the next five and plunged into action gongs were tapped orders issued
margaret was sent to dress and the housemaid to sweep up the long trickle of grass that she had left across the hall as is man to the universe so was the mind of mister wilcox to the minds of some men
a concentrated light upon a tiny spot a little ten minutes moving self contained through its appointed years no pagan he who lives for the now and may be wiser than all philosophers
he lived for the five minutes that have past and the five to come he had the business mind
margaret had heard a certain rumour but was all right
charles and evie had not heard it and never must hear no more must paul over his children he felt great tenderness which he did not try to track to a cause missus wilcox was too far back in his life
he did not connect her with the sudden aching love that he felt for evie poor little evie he trusted that cahill would make her a decent husband and margaret how did she stand she had several minor worries
clearly her sister had heard something she dreaded meeting her in town and she was anxious about leonard
nor ought missus bast to starve but the main situation had not altered she still loved henry his actions not his disposition had disappointed her
she gazed back with deep emotion upon oniton besides the grange and the castle keep she could now pick out the church and the black and white gables of the george there was the bridge and the river nibbling its green peninsula
she could even see the bathing shed but while she was looking for charles's new springboard the forehead of the hill rose up and hid the whole scene she never saw it again day and night the river flows down into england
day after day the sun retreats into the welsh mountains and the tower chimes see the conquering hero but the wilcoxes have no part in the place nor in any place
it is not their names that recur in the parish register it is not their ghosts that sigh among the alders at evening
the news which one day reached gabriel that bathsheba everdene had left the neighbourhood had an influence upon him which might have surprised any who never suspected that the more emphatic the renunciation
the less absolute its character it may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out of love as there is for getting in some people look upon marriage as a short cut that way but it has been known to fail separation
which was the means that chance offered to gabriel oak by bathsheba's disappearance though effectual with people of certain humours is apt to idealize the removed object with others notably those whose affection placid and regular as it may be
flows deep and long oak belonged to the even tempered order of humanity and felt the secret fusion of himself in bathsheba to be burning with a finer flame now that she was gone that was all
his incipient friendship with her aunt had been nipped by the failure of his suit and all that oak learnt of bathsheba's movements was done indirectly it appeared that she had gone to a place called weatherbury
more than twenty miles off but in what capacity whether as a visitor or permanently he could not discover gabriel had two dogs george the elder exhibited an ebony tipped nose surrounded by a narrow margin of pink flesh
but the grey after years of sun and rain had been scorched and washed out of the more prominent locks
as if the blue component of the grey had faded
in substance it had originally been hair but long contact with sheep seemed to be turning it by degrees into wool of a poor quality and staple
this dog had originally belonged to a shepherd of inferior morals and dreadful temper and the result was that george knew the exact degrees of condemnation signified
and d ye come in that he knew to a hair's breadth the rate of trotting back from the ewes tails that each call involved if a staggerer with the sheep crook was to be escaped
though old he was clever and trustworthy still the young dog george's son might possibly have been the image of his mother for there was not much resemblance between him and george he was learning the sheep keeping business
so as to follow on at the flock when the other should die but had got no further than the rudiments as yet still finding an insuperable difficulty in distinguishing between doing a thing well enough and doing it too well
so earnest and yet so wrong headed was this young dog he had no name in particular and answered with perfect readiness to any pleasant interjection that if sent behind the flock to help them on
he did it so thoroughly that he would have chased them across the whole county with the greatest pleasure if not called off or reminded when to stop by the example of old george thus much for the dogs on the further side of norcombe hill was a chalk pit
from which chalk had been drawn for generations and spread over adjacent farms two hedges converged upon it in the form of a v but without quite meeting the narrow opening left which was immediately over the brow of the pit
was protected by a rough railing one night when farmer oak had returned to his house believing there would be no further necessity for his attendance on the down he called as usual to the dogs
only one responded old george the other could not be found either in the house lane or garden gabriel then remembered that he had left the two dogs on the hill eating a dead lamb
a kind of meat he usually kept from them except when other food ran short and concluding that the young one had not finished his meal he went indoors to the luxury of a bed which latterly he had only enjoyed on sundays
it was a still moist night just before dawn he was assisted in waking by the abnormal reverberation of familiar music to the shepherd the note of the sheep bell like the ticking of the clock to other people
is a chronic sound that only makes itself noticed by ceasing or altering in some unusual manner from the well known idle twinkle which signifies to the accustomed ear however distant that all is well in the fold
in the solemn calm of the awakening morn that note was heard by gabriel beating with unusual violence and rapidity this exceptional ringing may be caused in two ways
by the rapid feeding of the sheep bearing the bell as when the flock breaks into new pasture which gives it an intermittent rapidity or by the sheep starting off in a run when the sound has a regular palpitation
the experienced ear of oak knew the sound he now heard to be caused by the running of the flock with great velocity he jumped out of bed dressed tore down the lane through a foggy dawn and ascended the hill
the forward ewes were kept apart from those among which the fall of lambs would be later there being two hundred of the latter class in gabriel's flock these two hundred seemed to have absolutely vanished from the hill
forming the bulk of the flock were nowhere gabriel called at the top of his voice
he went to the hedge a gap had been broken through it and in the gap were the footprints of the sheep rather surprised to find them break fence at this season yet putting it down instantly to their great fondness for ivy in winter time of which a great
deal grew in the plantation he followed through the hedge they were not in the plantation he called again the valleys and farthest hills resounded as when the sailors invoked the lost
he passed through the trees and along the ridge of the hill on the extreme summit where the ends of the two converging hedges of which we have spoken were stopped short by meeting the brow of the chalk pit he saw the younger dog standing against the sky
dark and motionless as napoleon at saint helena a horrible conviction darted through oak with a sensation of bodily faintness he advanced at one point the rails were broken through and there he saw the footprints of his ewes
the dog came up licked his hand and made signs implying that he expected some great reward for signal services rendered oak looked over the precipice
a heap of two hundred mangled carcasses representing in their condition just now at least two hundred more oak was an intensely humane man indeed his humanity often tore in pieces any politic intentions of his which bordered on strategy
and carried him on as by gravitation a shadow in his life had always been that his flock ended in mutton that a day came and found every shepherd an arrant traitor to his defenseless sheep
his first feeling now was one of pity for the untimely fate of these gentle ewes and their unborn lambs it was a second to remember another phase of the matter the sheep were not insured all the savings of a frugal life had been dispersed at a blow
his hopes of being an independent farmer were laid low possibly for ever gabriel's energies patience and industry had been so severely taxed during the years of his life between eighteen and eight and twenty
to reach his present stage of progress that no more seemed to be left in him he leant down upon a rail and covered his face with his hands stupors however do not last for ever and farmer oak recovered from his
it was as remarkable as it was characteristic that the one sentence he uttered was in thankfulness thank god i am not married what would she have done in the poverty now coming upon me
oak raised his head and wondering what he could do listlessly surveyed the scene by the outer margin of the pit was an oval pond and over it hung the attenuated skeleton of a chrome yellow moon which had only a few days to last
the morning star dogging her on the left hand the pool glittered like a dead man's eye and as the world awoke a breeze blew shaking and elongating the reflection of the moon without breaking it
and turning the image of the star to a phosphoric streak upon the water all this oak saw and remembered as far as could be learnt it appeared that the poor young dog still under the impression that since he was
kept for running after sheep the more he ran after them the better had at the end of his meal off the dead lamb which may have given him additional energy and spirits
and by main force of worrying had given them momentum enough to break down a portion of the rotten railing and so hurled them over the edge george's son had done his work so thoroughly that he was considered too good a workman to live
and was in fact taken and tragically shot at twelve o'clock that same day another instance of the untoward fate which so often attends dogs and other philosophers who follow out a train of reasoning to its logical conclusion
and attempt perfectly consistent conduct in a world made up so largely of compromise gabriel's farm had been stocked by a dealer on the strength of oak's promising look and character
who was receiving a percentage from the farmer till such time as the advance should be cleared off
chapter forty two when charles left ducie street he had caught the first train home but had no inkling of the newest development until late at night then his father who had dined alone sent for him and in very grave tones
inquired for margaret i don't know where she is pater said charles dolly kept back dinner nearly an hour for her tell me when she comes in
another hour passed the servants went to bed and charles visited his father again to receive further instructions missus wilcox had still not returned i'll sit up for her as late as you like
but she can hardly be coming isn't she stopping with her sister at the hotel perhaps said mister wilcox thoughtfully perhaps can i do anything for you sir not tonight my boy
mister wilcox liked being called sir he raised his eyes and gave his son more open a look of tenderness than he usually ventured he saw charles as little boy and strong man in one though his wife had proved unstable
his children were left to him after midnight he tapped on charles's door i can't sleep he said i had better have a talk with you and get it over he complained of the heat
charles took him out into the garden and they paced up and down in their dressing gowns charles became very quiet as the story unrolled he had known all along that margaret was as bad as her sister
she will feel differently in the morning said mister wilcox who had of course said nothing about missus bast but i cannot let this kind of thing continue without comment i am morally certain that she is with her sister at howards end
the house is mine and charles it will be yours
i mean that no one is to live there i won't have it he looked angrily at the moon to my mind this question is connected with something far greater the rights of property itself
undoubtedly said charles mister wilcox linked his arm in his son's but somehow liked him less as he told him more
she was only over wrought as who would not be
that is a sine qua non then at eight tomorrow i may go up in the car eight or earlier say that you are acting as my representative and of course use no violence charles
on the morrow as charles returned leaving leonard dead upon the gravel it did not seem to him that he had used violence death was due to heart disease
his stepmother herself had said so and even miss avery had acknowledged that he only used the flat of the sword on his way through the village he informed the police who thanked him and said there must be an inquest he found his father in the garden shading his eyes from the sun
said charles gravely they were there and they had the man up there with them too
what man i told you last night his name was bast my god is it possible said mister wilcox in your mother's house charles in your mother's house i know pater
that was what i felt as a matter of fact there is no need to trouble about the man he was in the last stages of heart disease and just before i could show him what i thought of him he went off the police are seeing about it at this moment
mister wilcox listened attentively i got up there oh it couldn't have been more than half past seven the avery woman was lighting a fire for them they were still upstairs i waited in the drawing room
we were all moderately civil and collected though i had my suspicions i gave them your message and missus wilcox said oh yes i see yes in that way of hers nothing else
i promised to tell you with her love that she was going to germany with her sister this evening that was all we had time for mister wilcox seemed relieved
because by then i suppose the man got tired of hiding for suddenly missus wilcox screamed out his name i recognized it and i went for him in the hall
i thought things were going a little too far right my dear boy i don't know but you would have been no son of mine if you hadn't then did he just just crumple up as you said
he shrunk from the simple word he caught hold of the bookcase which came down over him so i merely put the sword down and carried him into the garden we all thought he was shamming however he's dead right enough
awful business sword cried his father with anxiety in his voice what sword whose sword a sword of theirs what were you doing with it
i had to snatch up the first thing handy i hadn't a riding whip or stick i caught him once or twice over the shoulders with the flat of their old german sword then what he pulled over the bookcase as i said and fell
said charles with a sigh it was no fun doing errands for his father who was never quite satisfied but the real cause was heart disease of that you're sure that or a fit
they went into breakfast
he was also anxious about the future reflecting that the police must detain helen and margaret for the inquest and ferret the whole thing out he saw himself obliged to leave hilton one could not afford to live near the scene of a scandal
it was not fair on one's wife his comfort was that the pater's eyes were opened at last there would be a horrible smash up and probably a separation from margaret
i think i'll go round to the police station said his father when breakfast was over what for cried dolly who had still not been told very well sir which car will you have i think i'll walk
it's a good half mile said charles stepping into the garden the sun's very hot for april
charles hardened his mouth you young fellows one idea is to get into a motor i tell you i want to walk i'm very fond of walking oh all right i'm about the house if you want me for anything
i thought of not going up to the office today if that is your wish it is indeed my boy said mister wilcox and laid a hand on his sleeve charles did not like it he was uneasy about his father who did not seem himself this morning
there was a petulant touch about him more like a woman could it be that he was growing old the wilcoxes were not lacking in affection they had it royally but they did not know how to use it it was the talent in the napkin and
for a warm hearted man charles had conveyed very little joy as he watched his father shuffling up the road
a wish though he did not express it thus that he had been taught to say i in his youth he meant to make up for margaret's defection but knew that his father had been very happy with her until yesterday
how had she done it by some dishonest trick no doubt but how mister wilcox reappeared at eleven looking very tired
there was to be an inquest on leonard's body tomorrow and the police required his son to attend i expected that said charles
he and his wife brunhilda journeyed forth to seek a new home and at last reached warwick where gordian was made the steward of lord rohand not long after brunhilda and gordian went to live in warwick their little son guy was born
as he grew older he became a great favorite and was often invited to the castle lord rohand heard of guy and asked him to a great dinner at warwick castle and afterwards to join in a tournament
and guy longed to show her how well he could fight never did guy fight so well he conquered every one of the knights and won the prize
after this phyllis and guy were much together and at last guy said suddenly phyllis i love thee i cannot help it in great anger she sent him away guy grew very sad and phyllis very lonely
and at length she sent for guy and said go away and make thyself famous
guy rode gaily away and sailed over to germany there he heard of a great tournament
besides marrying the princess the bravest knight was to receive a pure white horse two white hounds and a white falcon so it was called the white tournament when guy told the herald that he was the son of lord gordian he was admitted
all the lords and ladies looked at him scornfully because he wore plain black armor with nothing painted upon his shield as he had not worn spurs he was not yet a knight guy entered the lists and met and conquered prince philaner the emperor's son
duke otto duke ranier and duke louvain guy took the prize offered with the exception of the hand of blanche for my fair phyllis alone i keep my love he said
it was twelve feet high and eighteen feet long its horns were thicker than an elephant's tusks curled and twisted the king said that whoever would kill the dun cow should be made a knight and receive a great deal of land and money
guy went out to meet him and after a fearful encounter was able to deal a deathblow with his battle axe behind the beast's ear
in memory of guy's deed one rib of the dun cow was hung up at the gate of coventry and another in the castle of warwick two travels and deeds in many lands
guy next went to france where he was wounded at a tournament his enemy duke otto bribed fifteen villains to lie in wait take him and cast him into prison
sore beset by the emperor gathering his soldiers and knights together he set out to help his friend and was overjoyed to find heraud in the guise of a pilgrim sitting by the roadside heraud had been nursed back to health by a kind hermit
and the emperor yielded and forgave ledgwin while in greece guy went out hunting and came upon a most wonderful sight a conflict between a lion and a dragon just when the dragon was about to crush the lion
guy drew his sword and setting spurs to his horse sprang upon the dragon the fight was then between the dragon and guy
guy leaped from his horse and plunged his sword deep into the brute's side for a moment his speckled crest quivered then all was still guy thought he would have to kill the lion too but as it came near it licked guy's feet and fawned upon him
purring softly like a great pussy cat when guy rode back the lion trotted after him and lived with him every day guy had an enemy at court morgadour who hated the brave knight and said
i cannot kill thee guy of warwick but i will grieve thee i will kill thy lion this he did in secret the king was angry when the deed was discovered and told guy to meet him in combat which he did
and slew morgadour laden with riches guy reached home again this time to marry the beautiful phyllis there was a great and splendid wedding for fifteen days the feasting and merriment lasted
for some time guy and phyllis lived happily together then one sad day earl rohand died and guy became earl of warwick as the new earl was one day thinking of his past life it seemed to him that he had caused much bloodshed
phyllis begged him to stay but guy said i must go so dressed in pilgrim robes with staff in hand he set out on his long journey one day as he walked he came upon an old man who was sad
because the giant ameraunt was keeping his daughter and fifteen sons in a strong castle i am earl jonas of durras he said and i seek guy of warwick to help me guy said if the earl would give him meat and drink
weapons and armor he would see what he could do a splendid coat of mail was brought with shield and sword guy called to the giant to come forth that will i replied the giant
all day it lasted before guy with his sword cut the giant's head off taking the keys of the castle which lay on the ground he immediately released earl of jonas's children and other noble knights and brave ladies
putting off his armor he dressed himself once more in his pilgrim's robe and with his staff in his hand set out again upon his journey
how guy fought with the giant colbrand for some time after guy went away phyllis was very sorrowful she wept and mourned
at times she even thought of killing herself she would draw out guy's great sword which he had left behind and think how easy it would be to run it through her heart
but she remembered that the good fairies had promised to send her a little son and so she made up her mind to live until he came when the good fairies brought the baby she called him reinbroun and he was so pretty and so dear
that phyllis was comforted then because her lord was far away and could not attend to his great lands nor to the ruling of his many servants phyllis did so for him she ruled and ordered her household well
she made new roads and rebuilt bridges which had been broken down she journeyed through all the land seeing that wrong was made right and evildoers punished she fed the poor tended the sick and comforted those in sorrow
and besides all this she built great churches and abbeys
all day phyllis was busy and had no time for grief but when evening came she would go to pace up and down the path which to this day is called fair phyllis's walk
where she and guy had often walked together now as she wandered there alone the hot slow tears would come and she would feel miserable and forsaken at last after many years full of adventures and travel guy reached england once more
guy of warwick when guy landed in england he found the whole country in sore dread for a n l a f king of denmark had invaded england with a great army with fire and sword he had wasted the land
sparing neither tower nor town man woman nor child but destroying all that came in his path fight how they might the english could not drive out the danes now they were in deep despair
for the enemy lay before the king's city of winchester with them was a terrible giant called colbrand and anlaf had sent a message to king athelstane as the king who now reigned over all england was called demanding that he should either find a champion to fight with colbrand
or deliver over his kingdom so the king had sent messengers north south east and west but in all the land no knight could be found who was brave enough to face the awful giant and now within the great church of winchester
the king with his priests and people knelt praying god to send a champion where then is heraud asked guy of the man who told this tale where is heraud who never yet forsook man in need
alas he has gone far beyond the seas replied the man and so has guy of warwick we know not where they are then guy took his staff and turned his steps toward winchester
coming there he found the king sitting among his wise men i bid you he was saying to them give me some counsel how i may defend my country against the danes is there any knight among you who will fight this giant
half my kingdom he shall have and that gladly if he conquer but all the wise men knights and nobles stood silent and looked upon the ground
that i rule over such cowards
bold enough to do battle for his king and country oh that guy of warwick were here then through the bright crowd of steel clad nobles there came a tall old man dressed in a worn dark pilgrim's robe
with bare feet and head and a staff in his hand my lord king he said i will fight for thee
in the midst of the shoes stood a pair of red ones just like those the princess had worn how beautiful they were
said the old lady they shine so yes they shine said karen and they fitted and were bought but the old lady knew nothing about their being red
yet such was the case everybody looked at her feet and when she stepped through the chancel door on the church pavement it seemed to her as if the old figures on the tombs those portraits of old preachers and preachers wives
with stiff ruffs and long black dresses fixed their eyes on her red shoes and she thought only of them as the clergyman laid his hand upon her head and spoke of the holy baptism of the covenant with god and how she should be now a matured christian
and the organ pealed so solemnly the sweet children's voices sang and the old music directors sang but karen only thought of her red shoes in the afternoon the old lady heard from everyone that the shoes had been red
and she said that it was very wrong of karen that it was not at all becoming
even when she should be older the next sunday there was the sacrament and karen looked at the black shoes looked at the red ones looked at them again and put on the red shoes the sun shone gloriously
karen and the old lady walked along the path through the corn
at the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch and with a wonderfully long beard which was more red than white and he bowed to the ground and asked the old lady whether he might dust her shoes and karen stretched out her little foot
see what beautiful dancing shoes said the soldier sit firm when you dance and he put his hand out towards the soles and the old lady gave the old soldier alms and went into the church with karen
and all the people in the church looked at karen's red shoes and all the pictures and as karen knelt before the altar
and the old lady got into her carriage karen raised her foot to get in after her when the old soldier said look what beautiful dancing shoes and karen could not help dancing a step or two and when she began her feet continued to dance
it was just as though the shoes had power over them she danced round the church corner she could not leave off the coachman was obliged to run after and catch hold of her and he lifted her in the carriage but her feet continued to dance so that she trod on the old lady dreadfully
at length she took the shoes off and then her legs had peace the shoes were placed in a closet at home but karen could not avoid looking at them now the old lady was sick and it was said she could not recover she must be nursed and waited upon
and there was no one whose duty it was so much as karen's but there was a great ball in the city to which karen was invited she looked at the old lady who could not recover she looked at the red shoes and she thought there could be no sin in it
she put on the red shoes she might do that also she thought but then she went to the ball and began to dance when she wanted to dance to the right the shoes would dance to the left
down the steps into the street and out of the city gate
then it was suddenly light up among the trees and she fancied it must be the moon for there was a face but it was the old soldier with the red beard he sat there nodded his head and said look what beautiful dancing shoes then she was terrified
and wanted to fling off the red shoes but they clung fast
over fields and meadows in rain and sunshine by night and day but at night it was the most fearful she danced over the churchyard but the dead did not dance they had something better to do than to dance she wished to seat herself on a poor man's grave
where the bitter tansy grew but for her there was neither peace nor rest and when she danced towards the open church door she saw an angel standing there
he wore long white garments he had wings which reached from his shoulders to the earth his countenance was severe and grave and in his hand he held a sword broad and glittering dance shalt thou
till thy skin shrivels up and thou art a skeleton dance shalt thou from door to door and where proud vain children dwell thou shalt knock that they may hear thee and tremble
but she did not hear the angel's reply for the shoes carried her through the gate into the fields across roads and bridges and she must keep ever dancing
within sounded a psalm a coffin decked with flowers was borne forth then she knew that the old lady was dead and felt that she was abandoned by all and condemned by the angel of god she danced and she was forced to dance through the gloomy night
the shoes carried her over stack and stone she was torn till she bled she danced over the heath till she came to a little house here she knew dwelt the executioner and she tapped with her fingers at the window and said
thou dost not know who i am i fancy i strike bad people's heads off and i hear that my axe rings don't strike my head off
said karen then i can't repent of my sins but strike off my feet in the red shoes and then she confessed her entire sin and the executioner struck off her feet with the red shoes but the shoes danced away with the little feet across the field into the deep wood
and he carved out little wooden feet for her and crutches taught her the psalm criminals always sing and she kissed the hand which had wielded the axe and went over the heath now i have suffered enough for the red shoes said she
and she hastened towards the church door
the whole week she was unhappy and wept many bitter tears but when sunday returned she said well now i have suffered and struggled enough i really believe i am as good as many a one who sits in the church and holds her head so high
and away she went boldly
before she saw the red shoes dancing before her and she was frightened and turned back and repented of her sin from her heart
and would do everything she could she did not care about the wages only she wished to have a home and be with good people and the clergyman's wife was sorry for her and took her into service and she was industrious and thoughtful
she sat still and listened when the clergyman read the bible in the evenings all the children thought a great deal of her but when they spoke of dress and grandeur and beauty she shook her head the following sunday when the family was going to church
they asked her whether she would not go with them but she glanced sorrowfully with tears in her eyes at her crutches the family went to hear the word of god but she went alone into her little chamber there was only room for a bed and chair to stand in it
and here she sat down with her prayer book and whilst she read with a pious mind the wind bore the strains of the organ towards her and she raised her tearful countenance and said o god help me
but he no longer carried the sharp sword but in its stead a splendid green spray full of roses and he touched the ceiling with the spray and the ceiling rose so high and where he had touched it there gleamed a golden star and he touched the walls and they widened out
and she saw the organ which was playing she saw the old pictures of the preachers and the preachers wives the congregation sat in cushioned seats and sang out of their prayer books for the church itself had come to the poor girl in her narrow chamber or else she had come into the church
she sat in the pew with the clergyman's family and when they had ended the psalm and looked up they nodded and said it is right that thou art come
chapter seven now there came warming the frosty heart of december that delightful atmosphere of mystery and expectation which forms one pleasure of the great yule tide festival
the big brick house seemed particularly full of this happy spirit of the season there were many mysterious shopping excursions and much whispering in corners a thing not usual in this united family
jackie showed a sudden and severe self denial in the matter of sticks of pure chocolate and was soon therefore able to proudly flourish a purse containing he told his mother a dollar all but eighty five cents saved toward buying his presents for the family
he also spent much time at a little table in his own room cutting out pictures and pasting them into a scrap book for a little lame boy of his acquaintance
missus merrithew and kathie had each besides innumerable other matters a water colour painting on hand each picture strange to say was of a house missus merrithew's the big brick house itself
with its trees and vines was clearly intended for daddy but for whom the children wondered was aunt kathie's it was a spirited little view of the old stone house on saunder's island
not so pretty a subject as missus merrithew's but set in such a delicate atmosphere of early morning light that even the sombre gray of the stone seemed etherialized and made poetic while marjorie and dora wondered for whom it was meant jackie promptly inquired
but she his dear aunt kathie who had never refused to answer question of his before only laughed and shook her head and said that every one had secrets at christmas time marjorie and dora did not as was their wont spend all of their time together
for each was making a present for the other marjorie was working hard over a portfolio which she knew was one of the things dora wanted she had carefully constructed and joined the stiff cardboard covers and plentifully provided them with blotting paper
and now she was embroidering the linen cover with autumnal maple leaves in dora's favourite colour a rich vivid red as for dora though she had no love for needlework she was laboriously making a cushion of soft old blue felt for marjorie's cosey corner
working it with a griffin pattern in golden brown silks marjorie had a particular fancy for griffins partly perhaps because a griffin was the chief feature of the family crest as the long looked for day drew nearer there was other work to do
almost the pleasantest christmas work of all dora thought the making wreaths out of fir and hemlock and fragrant spruce they worked two or three hours of each day at the decorations for the beautiful little parish church which they all attended and which being very small
was much easier than the cathedral or the other large churches to transform into a sweet smelling tabernacle of green then they trimmed the big brick house almost from attic to cellar the drawing rooms were hung with heavy wreaths with bunches of red cranberries here and there
making a beautiful contrast to the green in the other rooms there were boughs over every picture and autumn leaves ferns and dried grasses here and there mister merrithew was sure to buy some holly and mistletoe at the florist's on christmas eve
so places of honour were reserved for these two plants which have become so closely entwined with all our thoughts of christmas and its festivities the holly would adorn the old oil painting of missus merrithew's great aunt lady loveday gostwycke
which hung over the mantelpiece in the front drawing room as for the pearly white berries of the mistletoe they were to hang from the chandelier in the hall where people might be expected forgetfully to pass beneath them jackie who was very useful in breaking twigs for the wreath making
these lengths of aromatic greenery gave the greatest pleasure to the invalid and scarcely less to his mother who spent the greater part of her time in that one room besides all these pleasant doings there were great things going on in the kitchen such baking and steaming and frying as debby revelled in
such spicy and savoury odours as pervaded the house when the kitchen door was opened marjorie and dora liked to help whenever debby would let them with these proceedings it was great fun to shred citron and turn the raisin stoner and help chop the mince meat in the big kitchen
with its shining tins and general air of comfort jackie liked to take a share in the cooking too and as he was deborah's pet he generally got the wherewithal to make a tiny cake or pudding of his own when it came to the making of the big plum pudding
all the family by turns had to stir it according to a time honoured institution then mister merrithew would make his expected contribution to its ingredients five shining five cent pieces
to be stirred through the mixture and left to form an element of special interest to the children at the christmas dinner besides this big pudding
without any silver plums but very rich and good for distribution among some of missus merrithew's proteges on christmas day all the old customs were faithfully observed it was the rule that whoever woke first in the morning should call the others
and on this occasion it was jackie who as the great clock in the hall struck six came running from room to room in his moccasin slippers and little blue dressing gown
every one tumbled out of bed as in duty bound and soon a wrappered and slippered group all exchanging christmas wishes met in missus merrithew's den here a fire glowed in the grate and here too mysterious and delightful
hung a long row of very fat white pillow cases these were hung by long cords from hooks on the curtain pole each pillow case bore a paper with the name of its owner written on it in large letters
and they were arranged in order of age from jackie up to mister merrithew this had been the invariable method of giving the christmas presents in this particular family for as long as any of them could remember armchairs and sofas were drawn near the fire
and the party grouped themselves comfortably then mister merrithew lifted down jackie's pillow case and laid it beside him as he sat with his mother in the largest of the chairs every one looked on with intensest interest while with shining eyes and cheeks red with excitement
he opened his parcels and exclaimed over their contents truly a fortunate little boy was jack there were books the very books he wanted games a top the dearest little snow shoes a great box of blocks
evidently santa claus knew what a tireless architect this small boy was a bugle drum and sword a dainty cup and saucer a picture for his room and too large for the pillow case but carefully propped beneath it a fine sled
all painted in blue and gold and crimson beautiful to behold when jackie had looked at every one of his presents it was marjorie's turn and she was just as fortunate as her brother
till they had all enjoyed their gifts to the very last of mister merrithew's and every box of candy had been sampled and still aunt kathie's picture of the little stone house had not appeared when at last a merry party they went down to breakfast
deborah and susan came forward with christmas greetings and thanks for the well filled pillow cases which they had found beside their beds the dining room in its festal array looked even cheerier than was its wont by every plate there lay a spray of holly
to be worn during the rest of the day the breakfast set was a wonderful one of blue and gold an heirloom which was only used on very special occasions in the centre of the table stood a large pot of white and purple hyacinths in full bloom
the fourth or fifth of mister merrithew's presents that morning to his wife at eleven o'clock there was the beautiful christmas service which all the family attended with the exception of jackie he was considered too young to be kept still for so long a time
so he stayed at home with susan trying all the new toys and having samples read aloud from each new book kitty grey decorated with a blue ribbon and a tiny gilt bell also kept him company
and seemed to take great pleasure in knocking his block castles down with her soft silvery paws when the churchgoers returned there was lunch then for the children a long cosey afternoon with their presents missus merrithew and katherine
early disappeared into the regions of the kitchen and dining room for the six o'clock dinner was to have several guests and there was much to be arranged and overseen but by half past five the whole family was assembled in the big drawing room and neither missus merrithew nor kathie
looked as if they had ever seen the inside of a kitchen missus merrithew wore her loveliest gown a shimmering silver gray silk with lace sleeves and fichu
jackie said she looked like a fairy lady
the little girls were in pure white with sashes of their favourite colours and the gold and coral necklaces which had been among their gifts while jackie in his red velvet suit and broad lace collar looked not unlike the picture of leonard in the story of a short life
presently the guests began to arrive first came miss bell a second cousin of mister merrithew's and the nearest relative he had in fredericton she was very tall very thin quite on the shady side of fifty and a little deaf
nevertheless she was decidedly handsome with her white hair bright dark eyes and beautifully arched brows she was a great favourite with the children and always carried some little surprise for them in her pocket a little later came a widowed aunt of missus merrithew's
fair fat and frivolous and a bachelor uncle who came next in the esteem of the children to cousin sophia bell two young normal school students sisters who were not able to go home for the holidays soon swelled the party
and last but not least came mister will graham looking very handsome in his evening clothes when they went out to dinner jackie escorted cousin sophia and marjorie overheard him saying in urgent tones i wish that you and uncle bob would come and live with us
but i don't want aunt fairley she is too funny all the time the christmas dinner was much like other christmas dinners except that debby's cooking was unsurpassable after every one had tasted everything and three of the five cent pieces had come to light
the chairs were pushed back a little and while nuts and raisins were being discussed they had also catches rounds and choruses
each person with any pretence to a voice was expected to give one solo at least jackie who had a very sweet little voice sang god save the king with great fervour
with the words of which they were all familiar presently jackie who had been promised that he should choose his own bedtime that night was found to be fast asleep with his head on his green leaf dessert plate and a bunch of raisins clasped tightly in one hand
he was tenderly carried away undressed and tucked into bed without once opening an eye as kathie turned to leave him she picked up one of his best beloved new books off to fairyland in blue and gold covers with daintily coloured pictures
down stairs she found the rest of the party gathered around the fire telling stories of auld lang syne as almost every one had been up early that morning no very lively games seemed to appeal to them but the children thought no game could be so interesting
as these sprightly anecdotes and rose leaf scented romances that were being recalled and recounted to night do you remember cousin sophia would say then would follow some entrancing memories to which mister and missus merrithew uncle bob and missus fairley
would contribute a running comment of yes yes she was a lovely girl he never held up his head after she died and so on then missus fairley would hum an old time waltz and branch off into reminiscences of balls and of one in particular at government house
where she had lost her satin slipper and the governor's son had brought it to her and called her cinderella
that may i do said the knight if i will and so will i if thou wilt succour and aid me that i may be christened and believe on god and thereof i require thee of thy manhood and it shall be great merit for thy soul i grant said gawaine so god help me to accomplish all thy desire
but first tell me what thou soughtest here thus alone and of what land and liegiance thou art of sir he said my name is priamus and a great prince is my father and he hath been rebel unto rome and overridden many of their lands
my father is lineally descended of alexander and of hector by right line and duke joshua and maccabaeus were of our lineage i am right inheritor of alexandria and africa and all the out isles yet will i believe on thy lord that thou believest on
and for thy labour i shall give thee treasure enough
nor to me semblable i was sent into this war with seven score knights
wherefore sir knight i pray thee to tell me what thou art i am no knight said gawaine i have been brought up in the guardrobe with the noble king arthur many years for to take heed to his armour and his other array and to point his paltocks that long to himself
and if fortune be my friend i doubt not but to be well advanced and holpen by my liege lord
now for the king's love of heaven whether thou be a knave or a knight tell thou me thy name
my name is sir gawaine and known i am in his court and in his chamber and one of the knights of the round table he dubbed me a duke with his own hand therefore grudge not if this grace is to me fortuned it is the goodness of god that lent to me my strength
now am i better pleased said priamus than thou hadst given to me all the provence and paris the rich
but take heed to my page that he no horn blow for if he do there be hoving here fast by an hundred knights awaiting on my person and if they take thee
anon as sir wisshard was ware of sir gawaine and saw that he was hurt he ran to him sorrowfully weeping and demanded of him who had so hurt him and gawaine told how he had foughten with that man and each of them had hurt other and how he had salves to heal them
then sir priamus and sir gawaine alighted and let their horses graze in the meadow and unarmed them and then the blood ran freshly from their wounds
and then with a trumpet were they all assembled to council and there priamus told unto them what lords and knights had sworn to rescue him and that without fail they should be assailed with many thousands wherefore he counselled them to withdraw them
then sir gawaine said it were great shame to them to avoid without any strokes wherefore i advise to take our arms and to make us ready to meet with these saracens and misbelieving men and with the help of god we shall overthrow them and have a fair day on them
and sir florence shall abide still in this field to keep the stale as a noble knight and we shall not forsake yonder fellows
and there was great fight and many slain and laid down to ground and sir florence with his hundred knights alway kept the stale and fought manly then when priamus the good knight perceived the great fight he went to sir gawaine and bade him that he should go and succour his fellowship
which were sore bestead with their enemies sir grieve you not said sir gawaine for their gree shall be theirs i shall not once move my horse to them ward but if i see more than there be for they be strong enough to match them
and with that he saw an earl called sir ethelwold and the duke of dutchmen came leaping out of a wood with many thousands and priamus knights and came straight unto the battle then sir gawaine comforted his knights and bade them not to be abashed for all shall be ours
then thrust in among them the knights of the table round and smote down to the earth all them that withstood them
then entered into the battle jubance a giant and fought and slew down right and distressed many of our knights among whom was slain sir gherard a knight of wales
had not he have been we should never have returned wherefore i pray you that he may be baptised for there liveth not a nobler man nor better knight of his hands
and then anon the king let do cry assault to the city and there was rearing of ladders breaking of walls and the ditch filled that men with little pain might enter into the city
then came out a duchess and clarisin the countess with many ladies and damosels and kneeling before king arthur required him for the love of god to receive the city and not to take it by assault for then should many guiltless be slain then the king avaled his visor with a meek and noble countenance and said madam
then anon the king commanded to leave the assault and anon the duke's oldest son brought out the keys and kneeling delivered them to the king and besought him of grace and the king seized the town by assent of his lords and took the duke and sent him to dover there for to abide prisoner term of his life
and assigned certain rents for the dower of the duchess and for her children
and rode to fore the town where anon issued out much people and skirmished with the fore riders
then came the king upon an hill and saw the city and his banner on the walls by which he knew that the city was won and anon he sent and commanded that none of his liege men should defoul nor lie by no lady wife nor maid and when he came into the city
he passed to the castle and comforted them that were in sorrow and ordained there a captain a knight of his own country and when they of milan heard that thilk city was won they sent to king arthur great sums of money and besought him as their lord to have pity on them promising to be his subjects for ever
and to give him yearly a million of gold all his lifetime
and wasted all in his way that to him will not obey
and from thence he sent to the senators to wit whether they would know him for their lord
i assent said the king like as ye have devised and at christmas there to be crowned and to hold my round table with my knights as me liketh and then the senators made ready for his enthronization
in such wise that none complained rich nor poor and he gave to sir priamus the duchy of lorraine and he thanked him and said he would serve him the days of his life and after made dukes and earls and made every man rich
then after this all his knights and lords assembled them afore him and said blessed be god your war is finished and your conquest achieved in so much that we know none so great nor mighty that dare make war against you
wherefore we beseech you to return homeward and give us licence to go home to our wives from whom we have been long and to rest us for your journey is finished with honour and worship then said the king ye say truth and for to tempt god it is no wisdom
and therefore make you ready and return we into england then there was trussing of harness and baggage and great carriage
chapter thirty two but plagues shall spread and funeral fires increase till the great king without a ransom paid to her own chrysa send the black eyed maid pope
during the time uncas was making this disposition of his forces the woods were as still and with the exception of those who had met in council apparently as much untenanted as when they came fresh from the hands of their almighty creator
the eye could range in every direction through the long and shadowed vistas of the trees but nowhere was any object to be seen that did not properly belong to the peaceful and slumbering scenery here and there a bird was heard fluttering among the branches of the beeches
but the instant the casual interruption ceased the passing air was heard murmuring above their heads along that verdant and undulating surface of forest which spread itself unbroken unless by stream or lake over such a vast region of country
across the tract of wilderness which lay between the delawares and the village of their enemies it seemed as if the foot of man had never trodden so breathing and deep was the silence in which it lay but hawkeye whose duty led him foremost in the adventure
knew the character of those with whom he was about to contend too well to trust the treacherous quiet when he saw his little band collected the scout threw killdeer into the hollow of his arm
here he halted and after waiting for the whole of his grave and attentive warriors to close about him he spoke in delaware demanding do any of my young men know whither this run will lead us a delaware stretched forth a hand with the two fingers separated
and indicating the manner in which they were joined at the root he answered
then he added pointing in the direction of the place he mentioned the two make enough for the beavers i thought as much returned the scout glancing his eye upward at the opening in the tree tops
men we will keep within the cover of its banks till we scent the hurons his companions gave the usual brief exclamation of assent but perceiving that their leader was about to lead the way in person one or two made signs that all was not as it should be
hawkeye who comprehended their meaning glances turned and perceived that his party had been followed thus far by the singing master do you know friend asked the scout gravely and perhaps with a little of the pride of conscious deserving in his manner
that this is a band of rangers chosen for the most desperate service and put under the command of one who though another might say it with a better face will not be apt to leave them idle it may not be five it cannot be thirty minutes before we tread on the body of a huron living or dead
though not admonished of your intentions in words returned david whose face was a little flushed and whose ordinarily quiet and unmeaning eyes glimmered with an expression of unusual fire
your men have reminded me of the children of jacob going out to battle against the shechemites for wickedly aspiring to wedlock with a woman of a race that was favored of the lord now i have journeyed far and sojourned much in good and evil with the maiden ye seek
and though not a man of war with my loins girded and my sword sharpened yet would i gladly strike a blow in her behalf the scout hesitated as if weighing the chances of such a strange enlistment in his mind before he answered
you know not the use of any we'pon you carry no rifle and believe me what the mingoes take they will freely give again though not a vaunting and bloodily disposed goliath returned david drawing a sling from beneath his parti colored and uncouth attire
i have not forgotten the example of the jewish boy with this ancient instrument of war have i practised much in my youth and peradventure the skill has not entirely departed from me ay said hawkeye considering the deer skin thong and apron with a cold and discouraging eye
however it seems to be your gift to go unharmed amid fire and as you have hitherto been favored major you have left your rifle at a cock a single shot before the time would be just twenty scalps lost to no purpose singer you can follow we may find use for you in the shoutings
i thank you friend returned david supplying himself like his royal namesake from among the pebbles of the brook though not given to the desire to kill had you sent me away my spirit would have been troubled
remember added the scout tapping his own head significantly on that spot where gamut was yet sore we come to fight and not to musickate until the general whoop is given nothing speaks but the rifle david nodded as much to signify his acquiescence with the terms
and then hawkeye casting another observant glance over his followers made the signal to proceed their route lay for the distance of a mile along the bed of the water course though protected from any great danger of observation by the precipitous banks
and the thick shrubbery which skirted the stream no precaution known to an indian attack was neglected a warrior rather crawled than walked on each flank so as to catch occasional glimpses into the forest
and every few minutes the band came to a halt and listened for hostile sounds with an acuteness of organs that would be scarcely conceivable to a man in a less natural state their march was however unmolested
we are likely to have a good day for a fight he said in english addressing heyward and glancing his eyes upward at the clouds which began to move in broad sheets across the firmament a bright sun and a glittering barrel are no friends to true sight everything is favorable
they have the wind which will bring down their noises and their smoke too no little matter in itself whereas with us it will be first a shot and then a clear view but here is an end to our cover the beavers have had the range of this stream for hundreds of years
and what atween their food and their dams there is as you see many a girdled stub but few living trees hawkeye had in truth in these few words given no bad description of the prospect that now lay in their front
the brook was irregular in its width sometimes shooting through narrow fissures in the rocks and at others spreading over acres of bottom land forming little areas that might be termed ponds
everywhere along its bands were the moldering relics of dead trees in all the stages of decay from those that groaned on their tottering trunks to such as had recently been robbed of those rugged coats that so mysteriously contain their principle of life
a few long low and moss covered piles were scattered among them like the memorials of a former and long departed generation all these minute particulars were noted by the scout with a gravity and interest that they probably had never before attracted
he knew that the huron encampment lay a short half mile up the brook and with the characteristic anxiety of one who dreaded a hidden danger
but his experience quickly admonished him of the danger of so useless an experiment then he listened intently and with painful uncertainty for the sounds of hostility in the quarter where uncas was left
but nothing was audible except the sighing of the wind that began to sweep over the bosom of the forest in gusts which threatened a tempest at length yielding rather to his unusual impatience than taking counsel from his knowledge
he determined to bring matters to an issue by unmasking his force and proceeding cautiously but steadily up the stream the scout had stood while making his observations sheltered by a brake and his companions still lay in the bed of the ravine through which the smaller stream debouched
but on hearing his low though intelligible signal the whole party stole up the bank like so many dark specters and silently arranged themselves around him pointing in the direction he wished to proceed hawkeye advanced the band breaking off in single files and following so accurately in his footsteps
as to leave it if we except heyward and david the trail of but a single man the party was however scarcely uncovered before a volley from a dozen rifles was heard in their rear and a delaware leaping high in to the air like a wounded deer fell at his whole length dead
ah i feared some deviltry like this exclaimed the scout in english adding with the quickness of thought in his adopted tongue to cover men and charge the band dispersed at the word and before heyward had well recovered from his surprise he found himself standing alone with david
luckily the hurons had already fallen back and he was safe from their fire but this state of things was evidently to be of short continuance for the scout set the example of pressing on their retreat by discharging his rifle and darting from tree to tree as his enemy slowly yielded ground
it would seem that the assault had been made by a very small party of the hurons which however continued to increase in numbers as it retired on its friends until the return fire was very nearly if not quite equal to that maintained by the advancing delawares
heyward threw himself among the combatants and imitating the necessary caution of his companions he made quick discharges with his own rifle the contest now grew warm and stationary few were injured as both parties kept their bodies as much protected as possible by the trees
but the chances were gradually growing unfavorable to hawkeye and his band the quick sighted scout perceived his danger without knowing how to remedy it he saw it was more dangerous to retreat than to maintain his ground while he found his enemy throwing out men on his flank
which rendered the task of keeping themselves covered so very difficult to the delawares as nearly to silence their fire at this embarrassing moment when they began to think the whole of the hostile tribe was gradually encircling them they heard the yell of combatants and the rattling of arms echoing under the arches of the wood at the place where uncas was posted
it would seem that while his own surprise had been anticipated and had consequently failed the enemy in their turn having been deceived in its object and in his numbers had left too small a force to resist the impetuous onset of the young mohican
this fact was doubly apparent by the rapid manner in which the battle in the forest rolled upward toward the village and by an instant falling off in the number of their assailants who rushed to assist in maintaining the front and as it now proved to be the principal point of defense
animating his followers by his voice and his own example hawkeye then gave the word to bear down upon their foes
here the struggle was protracted arduous and seemingly of doubtful issue the delawares though none of them fell beginning to bleed freely in consequence of the disadvantage at which they were held in this crisis hawkeye found means to get behind the same tree as that which served for a cover to heyward
most of his own combatants being within call a little on his right where they maintained rapid though fruitless discharges on their sheltered enemies
and it may be your gift to lead armies at some future day ag'in these imps the mingoes you may here see the philosophy of an indian fight
now if you had a company of the royal americans here in what manner would you set them to work in this business
i see no contradiction to the gifts of any man in passing his breathing spells in useful reflections the scout replied as to rush i little relish such a measure for a scalp or two must be thrown away in the attempt and yet he added bending his head aside to catch the sounds of the distant combat
then turning with a prompt and decided air he called aloud to his indians in their own language his words were answered by a shout and at a given signal each warrior made a swift movement around his particular tree
without stopping to breathe the delawares leaped in long bounds toward the wood like so many panthers springing upon their prey hawkeye was in front brandishing his terrible rifle and animating his followers by his example
now made a close and deadly discharge of their pieces and justified the apprehensions of the scout by felling three of his foremost warriors but the shock was insufficient to repel the impetus of the charge
the delawares broke into the cover with the ferocity of their natures and swept away every trace of resistance by the fury of the onset the combat endured only for an instant hand to hand and then the assailed yielded ground rapidly
at this critical moment when the success of the struggle was again becoming doubtful the crack of a rifle was heard behind the hurons and a bullet came whizzing from among some beaver lodges
there speaks the sagamore shouted hawkeye answering the cry with his own stentorian voice we have them now in face and back the effect on the hurons was instantaneous
discouraged by an assault from a quarter that left them no opportunity for cover the warriors uttered a common yell of disappointment and breaking off in a body they spread themselves across the opening heedless of every consideration but flight
we shall not pause to detail the meeting between the scout and chingachgook
chingachgook assumed the station to which his birth and experience gave him so distinguished a claim with the grave dignity that always gives force to the mandates of a native warrior following the footsteps of the scout he led the party back through the thicket his men scalping the fallen hurons and secreting the bodies of their own dead as they proceeded
until they gained a point where the former was content to make a halt the warriors who had breathed themselves freely in the preceding struggle were now posted on a bit of level ground sprinkled with trees in sufficient numbers to conceal them
few birds hovered over the leafy bosom of the valley frightened from their secluded nests and here and there a light vapory cloud which seemed already blending with the atmosphere arose above the trees and indicated some spot where the struggle had been fierce and stationary
the fight is coming up the ascent said duncan pointing in the direction of a new explosion of firearms we are too much in the center of their line to be effective
you know me mohican not a huron of them all shall cross the swell into your rear without the notice of killdeer the indian chief paused another moment to consider the signs of the contest which was now rolling rapidly up the ascent
a certain evidence that the delawares triumphed nor did he actually quit the place until admonished of the proximity of his friends as well as enemies by the bullets of the former which began to patter among the dried leaves on the ground like the bits of falling hail which precede the bursting of the tempest
hawkeye and his three companions withdrew a few paces to a shelter and awaited the issue with calmness that nothing but great practise could impart in such a scene it was not long before the reports of the rifles began to lose the echoes of the woods and to sound like weapons discharged in the open air
then a warrior appeared here and there driven to the skirts of the forest and rallying as he entered the clearing as at the place where the final stand was to be made these were soon joined by others until a long line of swarthy figures was to be seen clinging to the cover with the obstinacy of desperation
the chief was seated on a rock with nothing visible but his calm visage considering the spectacle with an eye as deliberate as if he were posted there merely to view the struggle the time has come for the delaware to strike said duncan not so not so returned the scout
when he scents his friends he will let them know that he is here
the hurons staggered deserting the center of their line and uncas issued from the forest through the opening they left at the head of a hundred warriors
the war now divided both wings of the broken hurons seeking protection in the woods again hotly pressed by the victorious warriors of the lenape a minute might have passed but the sounds were already receding in different directions and gradually losing their distinctness beneath the echoing arches of the woods
one little knot of hurons however had disdained to seek a cover and were retiring like lions at bay slowly and sullenly up the acclivity which chingachgook and his band had just deserted to mingle more closely in the fray magua was conspicuous in this party both by his fierce and savage mien
in his eagerness to expedite the pursuit uncas had left himself nearly alone but the moment his eye caught the figure of le subtil every other consideration was forgotten
raising his cry of battle which recalled some six or seven warriors and reckless of the disparity of their numbers he rushed upon his enemy
but at the moment when he thought the rashness of his impetuous young assailant had left him at his mercy another shout was given and la longue carabine was seen rushing to the rescue attended by all his white associates
continued the pursuit with the velocity of the wind in vain hawkeye called to him to respect the covers the young mohican braved the dangerous fire of his enemies and soon compelled them to a flight as swift as his own headlong speed
it was fortunate that the race was of short continuance and that the white men were much favored by their position or the delaware would soon have outstripped all his companions and fallen a victim to his own temerity but ere such a calamity could happen
the pursuers and pursued entered the wyandot village within striking distance of each other excited by the presence of their dwellings and tired of the chase the hurons now made a stand and fought around their council lodge with the fury of despair
the onset and the issue were like the passage and destruction of a whirlwind the tomahawk of uncas the blows of hawkeye and even the still nervous arm of munro were all busy for that passing moment
raising a yell that spoke volumes of anger and disappointment the subtle chief when he saw his comrades fallen darted away from the place attended by his two only surviving friends leaving the delawares engaged in stripping the dead of the bloody trophies of their victory
but uncas who had vainly sought him in the melee bounded forward in pursuit hawkeye heyward and david still pressing on his footsteps
the utmost that the scout could effect was to keep the muzzle of his rifle a little in advance of his friend to whom however it answered every purpose of a charmed shield once magua appeared disposed to make another and a final effort to revenge his losses but abandoning his intention as soon as demonstrated
he leaped into a thicket of bushes through which he was followed by his enemies and suddenly entered the mouth of the cave already known to the reader hawkeye who had only forborne to fire in tenderness to uncas raised a shout of success and proclaimed aloud that now they were certain of their game
the place seen by its dim and uncertain light appeared like the shades of the infernal regions across which unhappy ghosts and savage demons were flitting in multitudes still uncas kept his eye on magua as if life to him possessed but a single object
heyward and the scout still pressed on his rear actuated though possibly in a less degree by a common feeling but their way was becoming intricate in those dark and gloomy passages and the glimpses of the retiring warriors less distinct and frequent and for a moment the trace was believed to be lost
tis cora exclaimed heyward in a voice in which horror and delight were wildly mingled cora cora echoed uncas bounding forward like a deer tis the maiden shouted the scout courage lady we come we come
the chase was renewed with a diligence rendered tenfold encouraging by this glimpse of the captive but the way was rugged broken and in spots nearly impassable uncas abandoned his rifle and leaped forward with headlong precipitation
heyward rashly imitated his example though both were a moment afterward admonished of his madness by hearing the bellowing of a piece that the hurons found time to discharge down the passage in the rocks the bullet from which even gave the young mohican a slight wound
we must close said the scout passing his friends by a desperate leap the knaves will pick us all off at this distance and see they hold the maiden so as to shield themselves though his words were unheeded or rather unheard
his example was followed by his companions who by incredible exertions got near enough to the fugitives to perceive that cora was borne along between the two warriors while magua prescribed the direction and manner of their flight
nearly frantic with disappointment uncas and heyward increased efforts that already seemed superhuman and they issued from the cavern on the side of the mountain in time to note the route of the pursued the course lay up the ascent and still continued hazardous and laborious
encumbered by his rifle and perhaps not sustained by so deep an interest in the captive as his companions the scout suffered the latter to precede him a little uncas in his turn taking the lead of heyward in this manner rocks precipices and difficulties were surmounted in an incredibly short space
stay dog of the wyandots exclaimed uncas shaking his bright tomahawk at magua a delaware girl calls stay i will go no further
cried cora stopping unexpectedly on a ledge of rock that overhung a deep precipice at no great distance from the summit of the mountain kill me if thou wilt detestable huron i will go no further
drew his knife and turned to his captive with a look in which conflicting passions fiercely contended woman he said
the wigwam or the knife of le subtil cora regarded him not but dropping on her knees she raised her eyes and stretched her arms toward heaven saying in a meek and yet confiding voice i am thine do with me as thou seest best
woman repeated magua hoarsely and endeavoring in vain to catch a glance from her serene and beaming eye choose but cora neither heard nor heeded his demand
once more he struggled with himself and lifted the keen weapon again but just then a piercing cry was heard above them and uncas appeared leaping frantically from a fearful height upon the ledge magua recoiled a step and one of his assistants profiting by the chance
sheathed his own knife in the bosom of cora
but the falling form of uncas separated the unnatural combatants
magua buried his weapon in the back of the prostrate delaware uttering an unearthly shout as he committed the dastardly deed but uncas arose from the blow as the wounded panther turns upon his foe and struck the murderer of cora to his feet by an effort in which the last of his failing strength was expended
then with a stern and steady look he turned to le subtil and indicated by the expression of his eye all that he would do had not the power deserted him
before his victim still keeping his gaze riveted on his enemy with a look of inextinguishable scorn fell dead at his feet mercy mercy huron cried heyward from above in tones nearly choked by horror
give mercy and thou shalt receive from it whirling the bloody knife up at the imploring youth the victorious magua uttered a cry so fierce so wild and yet so joyous
that it conveyed the sounds of savage triumph to the ears of those who fought in the valley a thousand feet below he was answered by a burst from the lips of the scout
the ledge was tenanted only by the dead his keen eye took a single look at the victims and then shot its glances over the difficulties of the ascent in his front a form stood at the brow of the mountain on the very edge of the giddy height
without stopping to consider his person the rifle of hawkeye was raised but a rock which fell on the head of one of the fugitives below exposed the indignant and glowing countenance of the honest gamut
then magua issued from a crevice and stepping with calm indifference over the body of the last of his associates
a single bound would carry him to the brow of the precipice and assure his safety
and shaking his hand at the scout he shouted the pale faces are dogs the delawares women magua leaves them on the rocks for the crows
without exhausting himself with fruitless efforts the cunning magua suffered his body to drop to the length of his arms and found a fragment for his feet to rest on
the surrounding rocks themselves were not steadier than the piece became for the single instant that it poured out its contents
of the state of new york the effects of union upon the commercial prosperity of the states have been sufficiently delineated its tendency to promote the interests of revenue will be the subject of our present inquiry
is now perceived and acknowledged by all enlightened statesmen to be the most useful as well as the most productive source of national wealth and has accordingly become a primary object of their political cares
and invigorate the channels of industry and to make them flow with greater activity and copiousness the assiduous merchant the laborious husbandman the active mechanic and the industrious manufacturer
the often agitated question between agriculture and commerce has from indubitable experience received a decision which has silenced the rivalship that once subsisted between them and has proved
to the satisfaction of their friends that their interests are intimately blended and interwoven it has been found in various countries that in proportion as commerce has flourished land has risen in value
and how could it have happened otherwise could that which procures a freer vent for the products of the earth
which is the most powerful instrument in increasing the quantity of money in a state could that in fine which is the faithful handmaid of labor and industry in every shape fail to augment that article
the ability of a country to pay taxes must always be proportioned in a great degree to the quantity of money in circulation and to the celerity with which it circulates
commerce contributing to both these objects must of necessity render the payment of taxes easier and facilitate the requisite supplies to the treasury the hereditary dominions of the emperor of germany
contain a great extent of fertile cultivated and populous territory a large proportion of which is situated in mild and luxuriant climates in some parts of this territory
from the want of the fostering influence of commerce that monarch can boast but slender revenues he has several times been compelled to owe obligations to the pecuniary succors of other nations
for the preservation of his essential interests and is unable upon the strength of his own resources to sustain a long or continued war but it is not
it is evident from the state of the country from the habits of the people from the experience we have had on the point itself that it is impracticable to raise any very considerable sums by direct taxation
been multiplied new methods to enforce the collection have in vain been tried the public expectation has been uniformly disappointed and the treasuries of the states have remained empty
the popular system of administration inherent in the nature of popular government coinciding with the real scarcity of money incident to a languid and mutilated state of trade
has hitherto defeated every experiment for extensive collections and has at length taught the different legislatures the folly of attempting them no person acquainted
with what happens in other countries will be surprised at this circumstance in so opulent a nation as that of britain
much more practicable than in america
is derived from taxes
for the means of revenue chiefly on such duties in most parts of it excises must be confined within a narrow compass the genius of the people will ill brook the inquisitive and peremptory spirit of excise laws
the pockets of the farmers on the other hand will reluctantly yield but scanty supplies in the unwelcome shape
and personal property is too precarious and invisible a fund to be laid hold of in any other way than by the imperceptible agency of taxes on consumption if these remarks have any foundation
that state of things which will best enable us to improve and extend so valuable a resource must be best adapted to our political welfare and it cannot admit of a serious doubt
that this state of things must rest on the basis of a general union as far as this would be conducive to the interests of commerce so far it must tend to the extension of the revenue to be drawn from that source
as far as it would contribute to rendering regulations for the collection of the duties more simple and efficacious so far it must serve to answer the purposes of making the same rate of duties more productive
the relative situation of these states the number of rivers with which they are intersected and of bays that wash there shores the facility of communication in every direction the affinity of language and manners
the separate states or confederacies would be necessitated by mutual jealousy to avoid the temptations to that kind of trade by the lowness of their duties the temper of our governments for a long time to come
as well by land as by water and which even there are found insufficient obstacles to the adventurous stratagems of avarice in france there is an army of patrols
as they are called constantly employed to secure their fiscal regulations against the inroads of the dealers in contraband trade mister neckar computes the number of these patrols at upwards of twenty thousand
this shows the immense difficulty in preventing that species of traffic where there is an inland communication and places in a strong light the disadvantages with which the collection of duties in this country would be encumbered
if by disunion the states should be placed in a situation with respect to each other resembling that of france with respect to her neighbors the arbitrary and vexatious powers
as to the principal part of our commerce but one side to guard the atlantic coast vessels arriving directly from foreign countries laden with valuable cargoes
would rarely choose to hazard themselves to the complicated and critical perils which would attend attempts to unlade prior to their coming into port they would have to dread both the dangers of the coast and of detection
as well after as before their arrival at the places of their final destination
would be competent to the prevention of any material infractions upon the rights of the revenue a few armed vessels judiciously stationed
might at a small expense be made useful sentinels of the laws and the government having the same interest to provide against violations everywhere the co operation of its
measures in each state would have a powerful tendency to render
effectual here also we should preserve by union an advantage which nature holds out to us
and at a considerable distance from all other places with which they would have extensive connections of foreign trade the passage from them to us in a few hours or in a single night
and of other neighboring nations would be impracticable this is a prodigious security against a direct contraband with foreign countries but a circuitous contraband to one state
through the medium of another would be both easy and safe the difference between a direct importation from abroad and an indirect importation through the channel of a neighboring state in small parcels
according to time and opportunity with the additional facilities of inland communication must be palpable to every man of discernment it is therefore evident
that one national government would be able at much less expense to extend the duties on imports beyond comparison further than would be practicable to the states separately or to any partial confederacies
hitherto i believe it may safely be asserted that these duties have not upon an average exceeded in any state three per cent in france they are estimated to be about
fifteen per cent and in britain they exceed this proportion
treble their present amount the single article of ardent spirits under federal regulation might be made to furnish a considerable revenue upon a ratio to the importation into this state
would well bear this rate of duty and if it should tend to diminish the consumption of it
to the morals and to the health of the society there is perhaps nothing so much a subject of national extravagance as these spirits
revenue therefore must be had at all events in this country if the principal part be not drawn from commerce it must fall with oppressive weight upon land
in their true signification are too little in unison with the feelings of the people to admit of great use being made of that mode of taxation nor indeed in the states where almost the sole employment is agriculture
without much aggregate benefit to the state
escape the eye and the hand of the tax gatherer as the necessities of the state nevertheless must be satisfied in some mode or other
the defect of other resources must throw the principal weight of public burdens on the possessors of land
on the other hand the wants of the government can never obtain an adequate supply unless all the sources of revenue are open to its demands the finances of the community under such embarrassments cannot be put
into a situation consistent with its respectability or its security thus we shall not even have the consolations of a full treasury to atone for the oppression of that valuable class of the citizens
who are employed in the cultivation of the soil but public and private distress will keep pace with each other in gloomy concert and unite in deploring
for the independent journal saturday november twenty fourth seventeen eighty seven
commanded the most general assent of men who have any acquaintance with the subject this applies as well to our intercourse with foreign countries as with each other
there are appearances to authorize a supposition that the adventurous spirit which distinguishes the commercial character of america
has already excited uneasy sensations in several of the maritime powers of europe they seem to be apprehensive of our too great interference in that carrying trade
from the neighborhood of states which have all the dispositions and would possess all the means requisite to the creation of a powerful marine impressions of this kind
will naturally indicate the policy of fostering divisions among us and of depriving us as far as possible of an active commerce in our own bottoms this would answer the threefold purpose
of preventing our interference in their navigation of monopolizing the profits of our trade and of clipping the wings by which we might soar to a dangerous greatness
did not prudence forbid the detail it would not be difficult to trace by facts the workings of this policy to the cabinets of ministers if we continue united
we may counteract a policy so unfriendly to our prosperity in a variety of ways by prohibitory regulations extending at the same time throughout the states
our markets this assertion will not appear chimerical to those who are able to appreciate the importance of the markets of three millions of people
and the immense difference there would be to the trade and navigation of such a nation between a direct communication in its own ships and an indirect conveyance of its products and returns to and from america in the ships
from all our ports what would be the probable operation of this step upon her politics would it not enable us to negotiate with the fairest prospect of success
for commercial privileges of the most valuable and extensive kind in the dominions of that kingdom when these questions have been asked upon other occasions they have received a plausible
by the loss of the important advantage of being her own carrier in that trade would not the principal part of its profits be intercepted by the dutch as a compensation for their agency and risk
would not the mere circumstance of freight occasion a considerable deduction would not so circuitous an intercourse facilitate the competitions of other nations by enhancing the price of british commodities in our markets
and by transferring to other hands the management of this interesting branch of the british commerce a mature consideration of the objects suggested by these questions will justify a belief
that the real disadvantages to britain from such a state of things conspiring with the pre possessions of a great part of the nation in favor of the american trade and with the importunities of the west india islands
such a point gained from the british government and which could not be expected without an equivalent in exemptions and immunities in our markets
on the conduct of other nations who would not be inclined to see themselves altogether supplanted in our trade a further resource for influencing the conduct of european nations toward us in this respect
would arise from the establishment of a federal navy there can be no doubt that the continuance of the union under an efficient government would put it in our power
at a period not very distant to create a navy which if it could not vie with those of the great maritime powers would at least be of respectable weight if thrown into the scale of
this would be more peculiarly the case in relation to operations in the west indies a few ships of the line sent opportunely to the reinforcement of either side
would often be sufficient to decide the fate of a campaign on the event of which interests of the greatest magnitude were suspended our position is in this respect a most commanding one
would enable us to bargain with great advantage for commercial privileges a price would be set not only upon our friendship but upon our neutrality by a steady adherence to the union we may hope erelong
to become the arbiter of europe in america and to be able to incline the balance of
who having nothing to fear from us would with little scruple or remorse supply their wants
will only be respected when they are defended by an adequate power a nation despicable by its weakness forfeits even the privilege of being neutral under a vigorous national government
we might defy the little arts of the little politicians to control or vary the irresistible and unchangeable course of nature but in a state of disunion
these combinations might exist and might operate with success it would be in the power of the maritime nations availing themselves of our universal impotence
they would in all probability combine to embarrass our navigation in such a manner as would in effect destroy it and confine us to a passive commerce
would be stifled and lost and poverty and disgrace would overspread a country which with wisdom might make herself the admiration and envy of the world
there are rights of great moment to the trade of america which are rights of the union i allude to the fisheries to the navigation of the western lakes and to that of the mississippi
the dissolution of the confederacy would give room for delicate questions concerning the future existence of these rights which the interest of more powerful partners would hardly fail to solve to our disadvantage
they of course would hardly remain long indifferent to that decided mastery of which experience has shown us to be possessed in this valuable branch of traffic
and by which we are able to undersell those nations in their own markets what more natural than that they should be disposed to exclude from the lists such dangerous competitors this branch of trade
ought not to be considered as a partial benefit all the navigating states may in different degrees advantageously participate in it and under circumstances of a greater extension of mercantile capital
would not be unlikely to do it as a nursery of seamen it now is or when time shall have more nearly assimilated the principles of navigation in the several states will become
every institution will grow and flourish in proportion to the quantity and extent of the means concentred towards its formation and support a navy of the united states as it would embrace the resources of all
is an object far less remote than a navy of any single state
which would only embrace the resources of a single part it happens indeed that different portions of confederated america possess each some peculiar advantage for this essential establishment
the more southern states furnish in greater abundance certain kinds of naval stores tar pitch and turpentine their wood for the construction of ships is also of a more solid and lasting texture
the difference in the duration of the ships of which the navy might be composed if chiefly constructed of southern wood would be of signal importance either in the view of naval strength or of national economy
the necessity of naval protection to external or maritime commerce does not require a particular elucidation no more than the conduciveness of that species of commerce to the prosperity of a navy
commercial enterprise will have much greater scope from the diversity in the productions of different states when the staple of one fails from a bad harvest or unproductive crop
it can call to its aid the staple of another the variety not less than the value of products for exportation contributes to the activity of foreign commerce
it can be conducted upon much better terms with a large number of materials of a given value than with a small number of materials of the same value arising from the competitions of trade and from the fluctuations of markets
particular articles may be in great demand at certain periods and unsalable at others but if there be a variety of articles
that whether the states are united or disunited there would still be an intimate intercourse between them which would answer the same ends this intercourse would be fettered interrupted and narrowed
by a multiplicity of causes which in the course of these papers have been amply detailed a unity of commercial as well as political interests can only result from a unity of government
there are other points of view in which this subject might be placed of a striking and animating kind but they would lead us too far into the regions of futurity and would involve topics not proper for a newspaper discussion
i shall briefly observe that our situation invites and our interests prompt us to aim at an ascendant in the system of american affairs the world may politically as well as geographically
be divided into four parts each having a distinct set of interests unhappily for the other three europe by her arms and by her negotiations by force and by fraud
has in different degrees extended her dominion over them all africa asia and america have successively felt her domination
the superiority she has long maintained has tempted her to plume herself as
and to consider the rest of mankind as created for her benefit men admired as profound philosophers have
attributed to her inhabitants a physical superiority and have gravely asserted that all animals and with them the human species degenerate in america
let americans disdain to be the instruments of european greatness let the thirteen states bound together in a strict and indissoluble union
advantage of the union in respect to economy in government for the independent journal wednesday november twenty eighth
as connected with the subject of revenue we may with propriety consider that of economy the money saved from one object may be usefully applied to another
and there will be so much the less to be drawn from the pockets of the people if the states are united under one government there will be but one national civil list to support if they are divided into several confederacies
and each of them as to the principal departments
is a project too extravagant and too replete with danger to have many advocates the ideas of men who speculate upon the dismemberment of the empire seem generally turned toward three confederacies
one consisting of the four northern another of the four middle and a third of the five southern states there is little probability that there would be a greater number
according to this distribution each confederacy would comprise an extent of territory larger than that of the kingdom of great britain no well informed man
when the dimensions of a state attain to a certain magnitude it requires the same energy of government and the same forms of administration
which are requisite in one of much greater extent this idea admits not of precise demonstration because there is no rule by which we can measure the momentum of civil power necessary
to the public good we shall see no reason to doubt that the like portion of power would be sufficient to perform the same task in a society far more numerous civil power properly organized and exerted
is capable of diffusing its force to a very great extent and can in a manner reproduce itself in every part of a great empire by a judicious arrangement of subordinate
and commercial considerations in conjunction with the habits and prejudices of the different states we shall be led to conclude
they will most naturally league themselves under two governments the four eastern states from all the causes that form the links of national sympathy and connection may with certainty be expected to unite
new york situated as she is would never be unwise enough to oppose a feeble and unsupported flank to the weight of that confederacy there are other obvious reasons
that would facilitate her accession to it new jersey is too small a state to think of being a frontier in opposition to this still more powerful combination nor do there appear
even pennsylvania would have strong inducements to join the northern league an active foreign commerce on the basis of her own navigation is her true policy
and coincides with the opinions and dispositions of her citizens the more southern states from various circumstances may not think themselves much interested in the encouragement of navigation they may prefer a system
which would give unlimited scope to all nations to be the carriers as well as the purchasers of their commodities pennsylvania may not choose to confound her interests in a connection so adverse to her policy
as she must at all events be a frontier she may deem it most consistent with her safety to have her exposed side turned towards the weaker power of the southern rather
than towards the stronger power of the northern confederacy this would give her the fairest chance to avoid being the flanders of america
if the northern confederacy includes new jersey there is no likelihood of more than one confederacy to the south of that state nothing can be more evident than that
the thirteen states will be able to support a national government better than one half or one third or any number less than the whole this reflection must have great weight in obviating
we take into view the number of persons who must necessarily be employed to guard the inland communication between the different confederacies against illicit trade and who in time will infallibly spring up out of the necessities of revenue and if
we also take into view the military establishments which it has been shown would unavoidably result from the jealousies and conflicts of the several nations into which the states would be divided we shall clearly discover
that a separation would be not less injurious to the economy than to the tranquillity commerce revenue and liberty of every
the encounter with the carriages having sprung upon winterborne's mind the image of missus charmond his thoughts by a natural channel went from her to the fact that several cottages and other houses in the two hintocks now his own would fall into her possession in the event of south's death
he marvelled what people could have been thinking about in the past to invent such precarious tenures as these still more what could have induced his ancestors at hintock and other village people to exchange their old copyholds for life leases
but having naturally succeeded to these properties through his father
after breakfast still musing on the circumstances he went upstairs turned over his bed and drew out a flat canvas bag which lay between the mattress and the sacking in this he kept his leases which had remained there unopened ever since his father's death
it was the usual hiding place among rural lifeholders for such documents winterborne sat down on the bed and looked them over they were ordinary leases for three lives which a member of the south family some fifty years before this time
it was to the effect that at any time before the last of the stated lives should drop mister giles winterborne senior or his representative
the house had been pulled down years before
the likelihood was that death alone had hindered him in the execution of his project
man who took much pleasure in dealing with house property in his small way since one of the souths still survived there was not much doubt that giles could do what his father had left undone as far as his own life was concerned this possibility cheered him much
for by those houses hung many things melbury's doubt of the young man's fitness to be the husband of grace had been based not a little on the precariousness of his holdings in little and great hintock
the fine for renewal being a sum that he could easily muster his scheme however
and meanwhile he would run up to south's
marty met him at the door well marty he said
i am sorry for your labor she said it is all lost he says the tree seems taller than ever winterborne looked round at it taller the tree certainly did seem the gauntness of its now naked stem being more marked than before
it quite terrified him when he first saw what you had done to it this morning she added
like the sword of the lord and of gideon well can i do anything else asked he the doctor says the tree ought to be cut down oh
i didn't send for him missus charmond before she left heard that father was ill and told him to attend him at her expense that was very good of her and he says it ought to be cut down
unluckily the tree waved afresh by this time a wind having sprung up and blown the fog away and his eyes turned with its wavings they heard footsteps a man's but of a lighter type than usual there is doctor fitzpiers again she said and descended
presently his tread was heard on the naked stairs mister fitzpiers entered the sick chamber just as a doctor is more or less wont to do on such occasions and pre eminently when the room is that of a humble cottager looking round towards the patient with that preoccupied gaze
at his last exit from the same apartment he nodded to winterborne
recalled the case to his thoughts and went leisurely on to where south sat fitzpiers was on the whole a finely formed handsome man his eyes were dark and impressive and beamed with the light either of energy
that quick glittering practical eye sharp for the surface of things and for nothing beneath it he had not but whether his apparent depth of vision was real or only an artistic accident of his corporeal moulding nothing but his deeds could reveal
his face was rather soft than stern charming than grand pale than flushed his nose
and was hence devoid of those knotty irregularities which often mean power while the double cyma or classical curve of his mouth was not without a looseness in its close nevertheless either from his readily appreciative mien
strict people of the highly respectable class knowing a little about him by report might have said that he seemed likely to err rather in the possession of too many ideas than too few to be a dreamy ist of some sort or too deeply steeped in some false kind of ism
as from the clouds upon little hintock this is an extraordinary case he said at last to winterborne after examining south by conversation look and touch and learning that the craze about the elm was stronger than ever come down stairs and i'll tell you what i think
they accordingly descended and the doctor continued the tree must be cut down or i won't answer for his life tis missus charmond's tree and i suppose we must get permission said giles
if so as she is gone away i must speak to her agent oh never mind whose tree it is
tis timber rejoined giles more scrupulous than he would have been had not his own interests stood so closely involved
then we'll inaugurate a new era forthwith
weeks and weeks sir the shape of it seems to haunt him like an evil spirit
others have been like it afore in hintock they could hear south's voice up stairs oh he's rocking this way he must come
down with it then and hang missus charmond said mister fitzpiers
or early in the morning before he is awake so that he doesn't see it fall for that would terrify him worse than ever keep the blind down till i come and then i'll assure him and show him that his trouble is over the doctor then departed and they waited till the evening
when it was dusk and the curtains drawn winterborne directed a couple of woodmen to bring a crosscut saw and the tall threatening tree was soon nearly off at its base he would not fell it completely then on account of the possible crash but next morning before south was awake
they went and lowered it cautiously in a direction away from the cottage it was a business difficult to do quite silently but it was done at last and the elm of the same birth year as the woodman's lay stretched upon the ground the weakest idler that passed could now set foot on marks formerly made
they ascended the stairs and soon seated him
tis gone see said mister fitzpiers as soon as the old man saw the vacant patch of sky in place of the branched column so familiar to his gaze he sprang up speechless his eyes rose from their hollows till the whites showed all round he fell back and a bluish whiteness overspread him
as soon as he came a little out of his fit he gasped oh it is gone where where his whole system seemed paralyzed by amazement
grace heard them and guessed the means by which she had brought this visitation upon herself one day while she still lay there with her head throbbing wondering if she were really going to join him who had gone before grammer oliver came to her bedside
it was left by marty i think when she came this morning grace turned her hot eyes upon what grammer held up
if she wished to preserve herself from falling a victim to the malady which had pulled down winterborne she examined it as well as she could
hue and bore a label with an inscription in italian he had probably got it in his wanderings abroad she knew but little italian but could understand that the cordial was a febrifuge of some sort
her father her mother and all the household were anxious for her recovery and she resolved to obey her husband's directions whatever the risk if any she was prepared to run it a glass of water was brought and the drops dropped in
the effect though not miraculous was remarkable in less than an hour she felt calmer cooler better able to reflect less inclined to fret and chafe and wear herself away she took a few drops more
from that time the fever retreated and went out like a damped conflagration how clever he is she said regretfully
so as to turn his great talents to good account perhaps he has saved my useless life but he doesn't know it and doesn't care whether he has saved it or not and on that account will never be told by me
probably he only gave it to me in the arrogance of his skill to show the greatness of his resources beside mine as elijah drew down fire from heaven
from this foiled attack upon her life grace went to marty south's cottage the current of her being had again set towards the lost giles winterborne marty she said we both loved him we will go to his grave together
even if she had not taken possession of his house sometimes she succeeded in her attempt sometimes she did not they stood by the grave together and though the sun had gone down
he had been accustomed to descend every year with his portable mill and press
perhaps grace's first grief the discovery that if he had lived he could never have claimed her had some power in softening this the second on marty's part there was the same consideration never would she have been his
as no anticipation of gratified affection had been in existence while he was with them
grace was abased when by degrees she found that she had never understood giles as marty had done marty south alone of all the women in hintock
and the world had approximated to winterborne's level of intelligent intercourse with nature in that respect she had formed the complement to him in the other sex had lived as his counterpart had subjoined her thought to his as a corollary
the casual glimpses which the ordinary population bestowed upon that wondrous world of sap and leaves called the hintock woods had been with these two giles and marty a clear gaze they had been possessed of its finer mysteries
as of commonplace knowledge had been able to read its hieroglyphs as ordinary writing to them the sights and sounds of night winter wind storm amid those dense boughs which had to grace a touch of the uncanny and even the supernatural
were simple occurrences whose origin continuance and laws they foreknew they had planted together and together they had felled together they had with the run of the years mentally collected those remoter signs and symbols
which seen in few were of runic obscurity but all together made an alphabet
they could pronounce upon the species of the tree whence they stretched from the quality of the wind's murmur through a bough they could in like manner name its sort afar off they knew by a glance at a trunk if its heart were sound
or tainted with incipient decay and by the state of its upper twigs the stratum that had been reached by its roots the artifices of the seasons were seen by them from the conjuror's own point of view and not from that of the spectator's
nor i to him yet you and he could speak in a tongue that nobody else knew not even my father though he came nearest knowing
she could indulge in mournful fancies like this to marty
which marty's had not remained
it would have driven her well nigh to insanity but there was always that bare possibility that his exposure had only precipitated what was inevitable she longed to believe that it had not done even this
her husband was that man yet to ask him it would be necessary to detail the true conditions in which she and winterborne had lived during these three or four critical days that followed her flight
she never doubted that fitzpiers would believe her if she made a clean confession of the actual situation but to volunteer the correction would seem like signalling for a truce and that
was what she did not feel the need of it will probably not appear a surprising statement
that the man whom grace's fidelity could not keep faithful was stung into passionate throbs of interest concerning her by her avowal of the contrary
he passed a month or two of great misery at exbury the place to which he had retired quite as much misery indeed as grace
his wide experience of the sex had taught him that in many cases women who ventured on hazardous matters did so because they lacked an imagination sensuous enough to feel their full force
in this light grace's bold avowal might merely have denoted the desperation of one who was a child to the realities of obliquity fitzpiers's mental sufferings
and here he hovered for hours around the scene of the purest emotional experiences that he had ever known in his life he walked about the woods that surrounded melbury's house
it was a fine evening and on his way homeward he passed near marty south's cottage as usual she had lighted her candle without closing her shutters he saw her within as he had seen her many times before
she was polishing tools and though he had not wished to show himself he could not resist speaking in to her through the half open door what are you doing that for marty
he could see indeed that they were not hers for one was a spade large and heavy and another was a bill hook which she could only have used with both hands the spade
fitzpiers somehow divined that they were giles winterborne's and he put the question to her she replied in the affirmative i am going to keep em she said but i can't get his apple mill and press
it is going to be sold they say then i will buy it for you said fitzpiers that will be making you a return for a kindness you did me his glance fell upon the girl's rare colored hair which had grown again oh marty
those locks of yours and that letter but it was a kindness to send it nevertheless
she would travel with it in the autumn season as he had done she said she would be quite strong enough with old creedle as an assistant ah there was one nearer to him than you said fitzpiers referring to winterborne one who lived where he lived
and was with him when he died then marty suspecting that he did not know the true circumstances from the fact that missus fitzpiers and himself were living apart
of his own life when the surgeon heard it he almost envied giles his chivalrous character he expressed a wish to marty that his visit to her should be kept secret and went home thoughtful
chapter five disjointed sketches and grumbles it was my duty to rare the poddies
i did a great amount of thinking while feeding them for by the way i am afflicted with the power of thought which is a heavy curse
when dragging along through life the happier it is for him and doubly trebly so for her poor little calves slaves to the greed of man
and compelled to exist on milk from the separator often thick sour and icy cold besides the milking i did
i had to feed thirty calves and wash the breakfast dishes on returning from school in the afternoon
i had the same duties over again and in addition boots to clean and home lessons to prepare for the morrow i had to relinquish my piano practice for want of time ah those short short nights of rest and long long days of toil
it seems to me that dairying means slavery in the hands of poor people who cannot afford hired labour i am not writing of dairy farming the genteel and artistic profession as eulogized in leading articles of agricultural newspapers
and as taught in agricultural colleges i am depicting practical dairying as i have lived it and seen it lived by dozens of families around me
so it was much work and small pay
hard graft is a great leveller household drudgery woodcutting milking and gardening soon roughen the hands and dim the outside polish when the body is wearied with much toil the desire to cultivate the mind
australia's democracy is only a tradition of the past i say naught against the lower life the peasantry are the bulwarks of every nation
when times are good and when seasons smile a grand life it is honest clean and wholesome
i borrowed every book in the neighbourhood and stole hours from rest to read them this told upon me and made my physical burdens harder for me than for other children of my years around me that third was the strongest part of me in it i lived a dream life with writers artists and musicians
hope sweet cruel delusive hope whispered in my ear that life was long with much by and by and in that by and by my dream life would be real so on i went with that gleaming lake in the distance beckoning me to come and sail on its silver waters
the scorching furnace breath winds shrivelled every blade of grass dust and the moan of starving stock filled the air vegetables became a thing of the past the calves i had reared died one by one and the cows followed in their footsteps
when our strength proved inadequate
only a few of our more well to do neighbours had been able to send their stock away
this cow lifting became quite a trade the whole day being spent in it and in discussing the bad prospect ahead if the drought continued many an extra line of care furrowed the brows of the disheartened bushmen then
not only was their living taken from them by the drought but there is nothing more heartrending than to have poor beasts especially dairy cows so familiar valued and loved pleading for food day after day in their piteous dumb way when one has it not to give
we shore ourselves of all but the bare necessaries of life but even they for a family of ten are considerable and it was a mighty tussle to get both ends within cover of meeting we felt the full force of the heavy hand of poverty
the most stinging kind of poverty too that which still holds up its head and keeps an outside appearance far more grinding is this than the poverty inherited from generations which is not ashamed of itself
some there are who argue that poverty does not mean unhappiness let those try what it is to be destitute of even one companionable friend what it means to be forced to exist in an alien sphere of society
let them long as passionately as i have longed for reading and music and be unable to procure it because of poverty let poverty force them into doing work against which every fibre of their being revolts as it has forced me and then see if their lives will be happy
my school life had been dull and uneventful
stood up to the inspector the latter was a precise collar and cuffs sort of little man
and neatly labelled so that he might without fluster pounce upon any of them at a moment's warning he was gentlemanly and respectable and discharged his duties punctiliously in a manner reflecting credit on himself and his position
and was looking at our copy books he looked up from them ahemed and fastidiously straightened his waistcoat mister harris yes sir comparisons are odious but unfortunately i am forced to draw one now yes sir
it is very shaky and irregular also i notice that the children seem stupid and dull i don't like putting it so plainly but in fact
he understood and loved his pupils and would not have aspersions cast upon them
has to milk and work hard before and after school besides walk on an average two miles to and from school in this infernal heat most of the elder boys and girls milk on an average fourteen cows morning and evening
you try that treatment for a week or two my fine gentleman and then see if your fist doesn't ache and shake so that you can't write at all see if you won't look a trifle dozy
and dust and get precious little for it too i bet you wouldn't have much time to scrape your finger nails read science notes and look smart here he took off his coat and shaped up to his superior the inspector drew back in consternation
at this juncture they went outside together
that is all we heard of the matter except the numerous garbled accounts which were carried home that afternoon a drought idyll sybylla what are you doing where is your mother i'm ironing
it was my father who addressed me time two o'clock p m thermometer hung in the shade of the veranda registering one hundred five and a half degrees i see blackshaw coming across the flat call your mother you bring the leg ropes i've got the dog leg
come at once we'll give the cows another lift poor devils might as well knock em on the head at once but there might be rain next moon this drought can't last for ever i called mother
got the leg ropes and set off pulling my sun bonnet closely over my face to protect my eyes from the dust
strapped together so they could be stood up it was an arrangement father had devised to facilitate our labour in lifting the cows
new chum cows would sulk and we would have great work with them but those used to the performance would help themselves and up they'd go as nice as a daisy
on this afternoon we had six cows to lift we struggled manfully and got five on their feet and then proceeded to where the last one was lying back downwards on a shadeless stony spot on the side of a hill
the men slewed her round by the tail while mother and i fixed the dog leg and adjusted the ropes we got the cow up but the poor beast was so weak and knocked about that she immediately fell down again we resolved to let her have a few minutes spell before making another attempt at lifting
there was not a blade of grass to be seen and the ground was too dusty to sit on we were too overdone to make more than one worded utterances so waited silently in the blazing sun closing our eyes against the dust weariness weariness
a few light wind smitten clouds made wan streaks across the white sky haggard with the fierce relentless glare of the afternoon sun weariness was written across my mother's delicate careworn features and found expression in my father's knitted brows and dusty face
blackshaw was weary and said so as he wiped the dust made mud with perspiration off his cheeks i was weary my limbs ached with the heat and work the poor beast stretched at our feet was weary all nature was weary
all were weary all but the sun he seemed to glory in his power relentless and untiring as he swung boldly in the sky triumphantly leering down upon his helpless victims weariness weariness
my life my career my brilliant career i was fifteen fifteen a few fleeting hours and i would be old as those around me i looked at them as they stood there weary and turning down the other side of the hill of life
when young no doubt they had hoped for and dreamed of better things had even known them but here they were this had been their life this was their career it was and in all probability would be mine too
my life my career my brilliant career weariness weariness the summer sun danced on
what a great dull hard rock the world was
the poor beast moaned the lifting had strained her and there were patches of hide worn off her the size of breakfast plates
it takes great suffering to wring a moan from the patience of a cow i turned my head away and with the impatience and one sided reasoning common to fifteen asked god what he meant by this
at it we went again it is surprising what weight there is in the poorest cow
we marched her home and gave her a bran mash then we turned to our work in the house while the men sat and smoked and spat on the veranda discussing the drought for an hour at the end of which time they went to help someone else with their stock i made up the fire and we continued our ironing
which had been interrupted some hours before it was hot unpleasant work on such a day we were forced to keep the doors and windows closed on account of the wind and dust we were hot and tired and our feet ached so that we could scarcely stand on them weariness weariness
day after day the drought continued
taking with it the few clouds it had gathered up and for weeks and weeks at a stretch from horizon to horizon
weariness weariness
back to the passing of boone and the landing of columbus no man in that region had ever been hanged and as old judd said no tolliver had ever been sentenced and no jury
could be found who would convict a tolliver for there were no twelve men in the mountains who would dare
and rest easy but they did not count on the mettle and intelligence of the grim young furriners
straightway they gave up the practice of law and banking and trading and store keeping and cut port holes in the brick walls of the court house and guarded town and jail night and day they brought their own fearless judge their own fearless jury and their own fearless guard
the mountaineer finds a hard thing to understand it looked as though the motive of the guard was vindictive and personal and old judd was almost stifled by the volcanic rage that daily grew within him as the toils daily tightened about rufe tolliver
every happening the old man learned through the red fox who with his huge pistols was one of the men who escorted rufe to and from court house and jail a volunteer hale supposed because he hated rufe
he produced a witness the mountain lout whom hale remembered who admitted that he had blown the whistle given the yell and fired the pistol shot when asked his reason the witness who was stupid had none ready looked helplessly at rufe
and finally mumbled fer fun but it was plain from the questions that rufe had put to hale only a few minutes before the shooting and from the hesitation of the witness
to surrender had fired first carried no conviction and yet rufe had no trouble making it almost sure that he had never seen the dead man before so what was his motive
and that suited his dark purposes well that very night with his big rifle he slipped through the woods to a turn of the road over which old dave tolliver was to pass next morning
and built a blind behind some rocks and lay there smoking peacefully and dreaming his swedenborgian dreams
driven by a boy and with the gaunt frame of old dave tolliver lying on straw in the bed of it his big rifle thundered and the frightened horses dashed on with the red fox's last enemy lifeless coolly he slipped back to the woods
he was on guard again the little court room was crowded for the afternoon session inside the railing sat rufe tolliver white and defiant manacled leaning on the railing to one side was the red fox with his big pistols
the air was close and heavy with the smell of tobacco and the sweat of men here and there in the crowd was a red falin
and rufe tolliver sat alone
except that he asked god to save a commonwealth instead of a king and the prosecuting attorney rose next witness may it please your honour and as the clerk got to his feet with a slip of paper in his hand and bawled out a name
her gown was of purple home spun and her right hand was clenched tight about the chased silver handle of a riding whip
swear her june lifted her right hand put her lips to the soiled old black bible and faced the jury and hale and bad rufe tolliver whose black eyes never left her face what is your name
and before she answered she swiftly recalled that she had heard that voice speaking when she entered the door june tolliver your age eighteen you live in lonesome cove
unconsciously leaving his hand directly pointed at hale june hesitated and rufe leaned one elbow on the table and the light in his eyes beat with fierce intensity into the girl's eyes
frightened look that hale remembered the same look she had shown long ago when rufe's name was mentioned in the old miller's cabin and when going up the river road she had put her childish trust in him to see that her bad uncle bothered her no more
an anxious look had come into rufe's eyes would she lie for him never said june ah she would she was a tolliver and rufe took a breath of deep content
you never heard him express any enmity toward the police guard before that night i have answered that question said june with dignity and rufe's lawyer was on his feet your honour i object he said indignantly
i apologize
and come to the relentless man in front of her
there must be deliberation a malicious purpose proven to make the prisoner's crime a capital offence i admit that of course your honour very well we propose to prove that now and then she had heard her name called
the proof that was to send rufe tolliver to the scaffold
he said he was going over to the gap there was a commotion at the door again the crowd parted and in towered giant judd tolliver pushing people aside as though they were straws
foot with rage you went to my house he rumbled hoarsely glaring at hale an took my gal thar when i wasn't at home you order in the court said the judge sternly
but already at a signal from hale several guards were pushing through the crowd and old judd saw them coming and saw the falins about him and the winchesters at the port holes and he stopped with a hard gulp and stood looking at june
and she was a tolliver yet she had given her oath she had kissed the sacred book in which she believed from cover to cover with her whole heart
and to whom she had never stained her white soul with a word of untruth
not a soul in the room knew where the struggle lay not even the girl for it lay between the black eyes of rufe tolliver and the blue eyes of john hale yes repeated the deep voice again
again with her eyes on rufe she repeated
we couldn't bear to allow anybody to help in this service so we two stood watch and watch day in and day out ah
sandy what a right heart she had how simple and genuine and good she was she was a flawless wife and mother and yet i had married her for no other particular reasons
except that by the customs of chivalry she was my property until some knight should win her from me in the field she had hunted britain over for me had found me at the hanging bout outside of london
and had straightway resumed her old place at my side in the placidest way and as of right i was a new englander and in my opinion this sort of partnership would compromise her
i became her worshiper and ours was the dearest and perfectest comradeship that ever was people talk about beautiful friendships between two persons of the same sex what is the best of that sort
the one is earthly the other divine in my dreams along at first i still wandered thirteen centuries away
and my unsatisfied spirit went calling and harking all up and down the unreplying vacancies of a vanished world many a time sandy heard that imploring cry come from my lips in my sleep with a grand magnanimity
she saddled that cry of mine upon our child conceiving it to be the name of some lost darling of mine it touched me to tears
here made holy and the music of it will abide alway in our ears now thou'lt kiss me as knowing the name i have given the child but i didn't know it all the same i hadn't an idea in the world
but it would have been cruel to confess it and spoil her pretty game so i never let on but said yes i know sweetheart
how dear and good it is of you too but i want to hear these lips of yours which are also mine utter it first then its music will be perfect pleased to the marrow she murmured hello central i didn't laugh
and for weeks afterward i could hear my bones clack when i walked she never found out her mistake the first time she heard that form of salute used at the telephone she was surprised and not pleased
but i told her i had given order for it that henceforth and forever the telephone must always be invoked with that reverent formality
in perpetual honor and remembrance of my lost friend and her small namesake this was not true but it answered well
during two weeks and a half we watched by the crib and in our deep solicitude
the center of the universe turned the corner and began to mend grateful it isn't the term there isn't any term for it you know that yourself if you've watched your child through the valley of the shadow
and seen it come back to life and sweep night out of the earth with one all illuminating smile that you could cover with your hand why
we were back in this world in one instant then we looked the same startled thought into each other's eyes at the same moment more than two weeks gone and that ship not back yet in another minute i appeared in the presence of my train they had been steeped in troubled bodings all this time
their faces showed it i called an escort and we galloped five miles to a hilltop overlooking the sea where was my great commerce that
so lately had made these glistening expanses populous and beautiful with its white winged flocks vanished every one not a sail from verge to verge not a smoke bank
just a dead and empty solitude in place of all that brisk and breezy life i went swiftly back saying not a word to anybody i told sandy this ghastly news
we could imagine no explanation that would begin to explain had there been an invasion
an earthquake a pestilence had the nation been swept out of existence but guessing was profitless i must go at once i borrowed the king's navy
a ship no bigger than a steam launch and was soon ready the parting ah yes that was hard as i was devouring the child with last kisses it brisked up and jabbered out its vocabulary
the first time in more than two weeks and it made fools of us for joy the darling mispronunciations of childhood dear me there's no music that can touch it
and how one grieves when it wastes away and dissolves into correctness knowing it will never visit his bereaved ear again well
with the wide highway of salt water all to myself there were ships in the harbor at dover but they were naked as to sails and there was no sign of life about them it was sunday yet at canterbury the streets were empty strangest of all
i couldn't understand it at last in the further edge of that town i saw a small funeral procession just a family and a few friends following a coffin
no priest a funeral without bell book or candle there was a church there close at hand but they passed it by weeping and did not enter it i glanced up at the belfry
and there hung the bell shrouded in black
invasion invasion is a triviality to it
it was the interdict i asked no questions i didn't need to ask any the church had struck the thing for me to do was to get into a disguise and go warily one of my servants gave me a suit of clothes and
when we were safe beyond the town i put them on and from that time i traveled alone i could not risk the embarrassment of company a miserable journey a desolate silence everywhere
at his heart the tower showed recent war scars verily much had been happening of course i meant to take the train for camelot train why the station was as vacant as a cavern
from being the best electric lighted town in the kingdom and the most like a recumbent sun of anything you ever saw it was become simply a blot a blot upon darkness
that is to say it was darker and solider than the rest of the darkness and so you could see it a little better it made me feel as if maybe it was symbolical a sort of sign that the church was going to keep the upper hand now
and snuff out all my beautiful civilization just like that i found no life stirring in the somber streets i groped my way with a heavy heart
the vast castle loomed black upon the hilltop not a spark visible about it the drawbridge was down the great gate stood wide i entered without challenge my own heels making the only sound i heard
fair green valleys lying spread out below with streams winding through them and island groves of trees here and there and huge lonely oaks scattered about and casting black blots of shade
we crossed broad natural lawns sparkling with dew and we moved like spirits the cushioned turf giving out no sound of footfall we dreamed along through glades in a
mist of green light that got its tint from the sun drenched roof of leaves overhead
clearest and coldest of runlets went frisking and gossiping over its reefs and making a sort of whispering music comfortable to hear and at times we left the world behind and entered into the solemn great deeps and
rich gloom of the forest where
before you could even get your eye on the place where the noise was and where only the earliest birds were turning out and getting to business with a song here and a quarrel yonder and a mysterious
far off hammering and drumming for worms on a tree trunk away somewhere in the impenetrable remotenesses of the woods and by and by out we would swing again into the glare about the third or
fourth or fifth time that we swung out into the glare it was along there somewhere a couple of hours or so after sun up it wasn't as pleasant as it had been it was beginning to get hot this was quite noticeable
didn't mind at all at first i began to mind now and more and more too all the time the first ten or fifteen times i wanted my handkerchief i didn't seem to care i got along and
hang a man that would make a suit of armor without any pockets in it you see i had my handkerchief in my helmet and some other things
that hadn't occurred to me when i put it there and in fact i didn't know it i supposed it would be particularly convenient there and so now the thought of its being there so handy and close by and yet
every one has noticed that well it took my mind off from everything else took it clear off and centered it in my helmet and mile after mile there it stayed
imagining the handkerchief picturing the handkerchief and it was bitter and aggravating to have the salt sweat keep trickling down into my eyes and i couldn't get at it it seems like a little thing on paper
but it was not a little thing at all it was the most real kind of misery i would not say it if it was not so i made up my mind that i would carry along a reticule next time let it look how it might
and people say what they would of course these iron dudes of the round table would think it was scandalous and maybe raise sheol about it but as for me give me comfort first and style afterwards
i don't deny that i am not better than others we couldn't seem to meet anybody in this lonesome britain not even an ogre and in the mood i was in then it was well for the ogre that is an ogre with a handkerchief
but so i got his bandanna he could keep his hardware for all of me meantime
you see the sun was beating down and warming up the iron more and more all the time well when you are hot that way every little thing irritates you when i trotted i rattled like a crate of dishes and that annoyed me
and moreover i couldn't seem to stand that shield slatting and banging now about my breast
if i dropped into a walk my joints creaked and screeched in that wearisome way that a wheelbarrow does and as we didn't create any breeze at that gait i was like to get fried in that stove and besides the quieter you went
the heavier the iron settled down on you
and you had to be always changing hands and passing your spear over to the other foot it got so irksome for one hand to hold it long at a time well
you know when you perspire that way in rivers there comes a time when you when you well when you itch you are inside your hands are outside
so there you are nothing but iron between it is not a light thing let it sound as it may first it is one place then another then some more
and it goes on spreading and spreading and at last the territory is all occupied and nobody can imagine what you feel like nor how unpleasant it is and when it had got to the worst and it seemed to me that i could not stand anything more
a fly got in through the bars and settled on my nose and the bars were stuck and wouldn't work and i couldn't get the visor up and i could only shake my head which was
so i gave in
and relieve me of it then she emptied the conveniences out of it and fetched it full of water and i drank and then stood up and she poured the rest down inside the armor one cannot think how refreshing it was
she continued to fetch and pour until i was well soaked and thoroughly comfortable it was good to have a rest and peace
but nothing is quite perfect in this life at any time i had made a pipe a while back and also some pretty fair tobacco not the real thing but what some of the indians use the inside bark of the willow
that we were weather bound an armed novice cannot mount his horse without help and plenty of it sandy was not enough not enough for me anyway we had to wait until somebody should come along
waiting in silence would have been agreeable enough for i was full of matter for reflection and wanted to give it a chance to work i wanted to try and think out how it was that rational or even half rational men
considering its inconveniences and how they had managed to keep up such a fashion for generations when it was plain that what i had suffered to day they had had to suffer all the days of their lives
i wanted to think that out and moreover i wanted to think out some way to reform this evil and persuade the people to let the foolish fashion die out but thinking was out of the question in the circumstances
you couldn't think where sandy was she was a quite biddable creature and good hearted but she had a flow of talk that was as steady as a mill and made your head sore like the drays and wagons in a city
but you can't cork that kind they would die her clack was going all day and you would think something would surely happen to her works by and by but no they never got out of order and she never had to slack up for words
any more than a fog has she was a perfect blatherskite i mean for jaw jaw jaw talk talk talk jabber jabber jabber but just as good as she could be
then i should be ready all the chances were that at the end of that time
no valuable time would be lost by the postponement i should then have been in office six or seven years and i believed my system and machinery would be so well developed that i could take a holiday without its working any harm
the iron and steel missionaries of my future civilization in these were gathered together the brightest young minds i could find and i kept agents out raking the country for more all the time i was training a crowd of
for nobody was allowed to come into their precincts without a special permit for i was afraid of the church i had started a teacher factory
i now had an admirable system of graded schools in full blast in those places
permitting nothing of it in my other educational buildings i could have given my own sect the preference and made everybody a presbyterian without any trouble but that would have been to affront a law of human nature
spiritual wants and instincts are as various in the human family as are physical appetites
i was afraid of a united church it makes a mighty power the mightiest conceivable and then when it by and by gets into selfish hands as it is always bound to do it means death to human liberty
and paralysis to human thought all mines were royal property and there were a good many of them they had formerly been worked as savages always work mines
holes grubbed in the earth and the mineral brought up in sacks of hide by hand at the rate of a ton a day but i had begun to put the mining on a scientific basis as early as i could
yes i had made pretty handsome progress when sir sagramor's challenge struck me four years rolled by and then well
unlimited power is the ideal thing when it is in safe hands the despotism of heaven is the one absolutely perfect government
perfect earthly government if the conditions were the same namely the despot the perfectest individual of the human race and his lease of life perpetual but as a perishable perfect man must die
and leave his despotism in the hands of an imperfect successor an earthly despotism is not merely a bad form of government it is the worst form that is possible
my works showed what a despot could do with the resources of a kingdom at his command unsuspected by this dark land
it was fenced away from the public view but there it was a gigantic and unassailable fact and to be heard from yet if i lived and had luck there it was
as sure a fact and as substantial a fact as any serene volcano standing innocent with its smokeless summit in the blue sky and giving no sign of the rising hell in its bowels
it was not my policy the people could not have stood it and moreover i should have had the established roman catholic church on my back in a minute no
my military academy i kept that most jealously out of sight and i did the same with my naval academy which i had established at a remote seaport both were prospering to my satisfaction
clarence was twenty two now and was my head executive my right hand he was a darling he was equal to anything there wasn't anything he couldn't turn his hand to
of late i had been training him for journalism
he took to it like a duck there was an editor concealed in him sure already he had doubled himself in one way he talked sixth century and wrote nineteenth his journalistic style was climbing steadily
it was already up to the back settlement alabama mark and couldn't be told from the editorial output of that region either by matter or flavor we had another large departure on hand too
our first venture in this line these wires were for private service only as yet and must be kept private until a riper day should come we had a gang of men on the road working mainly by night
they were stringing ground wires we were afraid to put up poles for they would attract too much inquiry ground wires were good enough in both instances for my wires were protected by an insulation of my own invention which was perfect
nobody could tell you how to find any place in the kingdom for nobody ever went intentionally to any place but only struck it by accident in his wanderings and then generally left it without thinking to inquire what its name was
at one time and another we had sent out topographical expeditions to survey and map the kingdom but the priests had always interfered and raised trouble so we had given the thing up for the present
but they were necessarily slight and they were not noticeable thus far i had not even meddled with taxation outside of the taxes which provided the royal revenues i had systematized those and put the service on an effective and righteous basis
revenues were already quadrupled and yet the burden was so much more equably distributed than before that all the kingdom felt a sense of relief and the praises of my administration were hearty and general
personally i struck an interruption now but i did not mind it it could not have happened at a better time
but now everything was in good hands and swimming right along the king had reminded me several times of late that the postponement i had asked for four years before had about run out now
it was a hint that i ought to be starting out to seek adventures and get up a reputation of a size to make me worthy of the honor of breaking a lance with sir sagramor who was still out grailing but was being hunted for by
various relief expeditions and
drilling the king on the morning of the fourth day when it was just sunrise and we had been
tramping an hour in the chill dawn i came to a resolution the king must be drilled things could not go on so he must be taken in hand and deliberately and conscientiously drilled
the very cats would know this masquerader for a humbug and no peasant so i called a halt and said sire as between clothes and countenance you are all right there is no discrepancy
but as between your clothes and your bearing you are all wrong there is a most noticeable discrepancy your soldierly stride your lordly port these will not do you stand too straight
your looks are too high too confident the cares of a kingdom do not stoop the shoulders they do not droop the chin they do not depress the high level of the eye glance they do not put doubt and fear in the heart
and hang out the signs of them in slouching body and unsure step it is the sordid cares of the lowly born that do these things you must learn the trick you must imitate the trademarks of poverty misery
oppression insult and the other several and common inhumanities that sap the manliness out of a man and make him a loyal and proper and approved subject and a satisfaction to his masters
or the very infants will know you for better than your disguise and we shall go to pieces at the first hut we stop at pray try to walk like this the king took careful note
there very good eyes too high pray don't look at the horizon look at the ground ten steps in front of you ah that is better that is very good wait
please you betray too much vigor too much decision you want more of a shamble look at me please this is what i mean now you are getting it
please walk thirty yards so that i can get a perspective on the thing now then your head's right speed's right shoulders right eyes right chin right
gait carriage general style right everything's right and yet the fact remains the aggregate's wrong
please now i think i begin to see what it is yes i've struck it you see the genuine spiritlessness is wanting that's what's the trouble it's all amateur
in fact there isn't anything that can right the matter but practice this is a good place for it roots and stony ground to break up your stately gait a region not liable to interruption
only one field and one hut in sight and they so far away that nobody could see us from there it will be well to move a little off the road and put in the whole day drilling you sire after the
drill had gone on a little while i said now sire imagine that we are at the door of the hut yonder and the family are before us proceed please accost the head of the house the king
unconsciously straightened up like a monument and said with frozen austerity varlet bring a seat and serve to me what cheer ye have
ah your grace that is not well done in what lacketh it these people do not call each other
varlets nay is that true yes only those above them call them so then must i try again
no no for he may be a freeman ah so then peradventure i should call him goodman that would answer your grace
to dirt like that
brother bring a seat and
now tis right not quite
not the whole idea at once would you have a seat also and sit if i did not sit the man would perceive that we were only pretending to be equals and playing the deception pretty poorly too
except the man be of the serf class and finally
and no napkin whether he be serf or free please walk again my liege there it is better it is the best yet but not perfect the shoulders have known
and eaten up by relentless creditors you are out of work which is horse shoeing let us say and can get none
but lord it was only just words words they meant nothing in the world to him i might just as well have whistled words
realize nothing vivify nothing to you unless you have suffered in your own person the thing which the words try to describe there are wise people who talk ever so knowingly and complacently about
really think that you know because they know all about the one
just as near nothing as you can cipher it down and i will be satisfied too intellectual work is misnamed it is a pleasure a dissipation and
is its own highest reward the poorest paid architect engineer general author sculptor painter lecturer advocate legislator actor preacher singer is
constructively in heaven when he is at work and as for the musician with the fiddle bow in his hand who sits in the midst of a great orchestra with the ebbing and flowing tides of divine sound washing over him why
certainly he is at work if you wish to call it that but lord it's a sarcasm just the same the law of work does seem utterly unfair but there it is and nothing can change it
the wife was brought to bed and had a pretty girl but they were so poor they did not know how to get the babe christened for they had no money to pay the parson's fees so one day
the father went out to see if he could find any one who was willing to stand for the child and pay the fees but though he walked about the whole day from one house to another and though
all said they were willing enough to stand no one thought himself bound to pay the fees now when he was going home again a lovely lady met him
dressed so fine and who looked so thoroughly good and kind she offered to get the babe christened but after that she said she must keep it for her own the husband answered
he must first ask his wife what she wished to do but when he got home and told his story the wife said right out no
next day the man went out again but no one would stand if they had to pay the fees and though he begged and prayed he could get no help and again as he went home towards evening
the same lovely lady met him who looked so sweet and good and she made him the same offer so he told his wife again how he had fared and
they must just let the lady have her way since she seemed so kind and good
he gave his word she should have the babe if she would only get it christened at the font
two men to stand godfathers took the babe and carried it to church
after that she took it to her own house and there the little girl lived with her several years and her foster mother was always kind and friendly to her
right and wrong her foster mother got ready to go on a journey you have my
and when she had said that away she went but the lassie could not forbear just to open one of the doors a little bit when pop out flew a star
threatened to send her away but the child cried and begged so hard that she got leave to stay now after a while the foster mother had to go on another journey
and before she went she forbade the lassie to go into those two rooms into which she had never been she promised to beware but when she was left alone
and at last she could not help setting the door a little ajar just to peep in when pop
when her foster mother came home and found the moon let out she was very downcast and said to the lassie she must go away she could not stay with her any longer but
the lassie wept so bitterly and prayed so heartily for forgiveness that this time too she got leave to stay some time after the foster mother had to go away again
into or to peep into the third room but when her foster mother had been gone some time
walking about alone all at once she thought dear me what fun it would be just to peep a little into that third room
when the bad thought came the second time she could hold out no longer come what might she must and would look into the room so she just opened the door
bit when pop out flew the sun but when her foster mother came back and
there was no help for it the lassie must and should go away she couldn't hear of her staying any longer now the lassie cried her eyes out and begged and prayed so prettily
but it was all no good nay but i must punish you said her foster mother but you may have your choice either to be the loveliest woman in the world and not to be able to speak or to keep your
speech and be the ugliest of all women but away from me you must go and the lassie said i would sooner be lovely so she became all at once wondrous fair but from that day forth she was dumb so
but the farther she went the farther off the end seemed to be
she made herself up to sleep that night
so the maid looked down into the spring
and thought it was her own then she flung away the pitcher and ran home and when she got there she tossed up her head and said if i'm so pretty i'm far too good to go and fetch water so
another maid had to go for the water but the same thing happened to her she went back and said she was far too pretty and
then the prince went himself for he had a mind to see what all this could mean so when he reached the spring he too saw the image in the water
took her home and at last made up his mind to have her for his queen because she was so lovely but his mother who was still alive was against it she can't speak she said and maybe she's a wicked witch
but the prince could not be content till he got her so after they had lived together a while the lassie was to have a child and
when the child came to be born the prince set a strong watch round her but at the birth one and all fell into a deep sleep and her foster mother came cut the babe on its little finger and
but when those who were on the watch woke they thought the queen had eaten her own child and the old queen was all for burning her alive but the prince was so fond of her that at last he begged her off but
he had hard work to set her free
the same thing happened over again only this time her foster mother said now you shall be as grieved as i was when you let the moon out
and the queen begged and prayed and wept for when her foster mother was there she could speak but it was all no good and now the old queen said she must be burnt
just the same thing happened her foster mother came while the watch slept took the babe and cut its little finger
grieved as she had been
chapter fifteen on receiving command of the armies kutuzov remembered prince andrew and sent an order for him to report at headquarters prince andrew arrived at
and he sat down on the bench at the gate awaiting his serene highness
to the new commander in chief two orderlies a courier and a major domo stood near by
a short swarthy lieutenant colonel of hussars with thick mustaches and whiskers rode up to the gate and glancing at prince andrew inquired whether
his serene highness was putting up there and whether he would soon be back prince andrew replied that he was not on his serene highness staff but was himself a new arrival
i expect he'll be here soon what do you want
bolkonski made room for him on the bench and the lieutenant colonel sat down beside him you're also waiting for the commander in chief said he
it's awful with those sausage eaters
what was happening we kept wetweating and wetweating did you take part in the campaign he asked i had the pleasure replied prince andrew not only of taking part in the retreat but of losing in that retreat all i held dear
i belong to the province of smolensk
vewy glad to make your acquaintance i'm lieutenant colonel denisov better known as vaska said denisov pressing prince andrew's hand and looking into his face
with a particularly kindly attention yes i heard said he sympathetically and after a short pause added yes it's scythian warfare
so you are pwince andwew bolkonski
smiling sadly and he again pressed prince andrew's hand
this memory carried him sadly and sweetly back to those painful feelings of which he had not thought lately but which still found place in his soul
of late he had received so many new and very serious impressions such as the retreat from smolensk his visit to bald hills and the recent news of his father's death
and had experienced so many emotions that for a long time past those memories had not entered his mind and now that they did they did not act on him with nearly their former strength
for denisov too the memories awakened by the name of bolkonski belonged to a distant romantic past
when after supper and after natasha's singing he had proposed to a little girl of fifteen without realizing what he was doing
he smiled at the recollection of that time and of his love for natasha and passed at once to what now interested him passionately and exclusively
this was a plan of campaign he had devised while serving at the outposts during the retreat he had proposed that plan to barclay de tolly and now wished to propose it to kutuzov
the plan was based on the fact that the french line of operation was too extended
to bar the advance of the french we should attack their line of communication he began explaining his plan to prince andrew they can't hold all that line it's impossible i will undertake to bweak thwough
give me five hundwed men and i will bweak the line that's certain there's only one way guewilla warfare denisov rose and began gesticulating as he explained his plan to bolkonski
in the midst of his explanation shouts were heard from the army growing more incoherent and more diffused
he's coming he's coming shouted a cossack standing at the gate
mounted on a rather small sorrel horse a huge suite of generals rode behind him barclay was riding almost beside him and a crowd of officers ran after and around them shouting hurrah
his adjutants galloped into the yard before him
and he raised his hand to his white horse guard's cap with a red band and no peak nodding his head continually
suddenly his face assumed a subtle expression
and with such fine fellows to retreat and retreat well good by general he added and rode into the yard past prince andrew and denisov hurrah hurrah hurrah shouted those behind him
since prince andrew had last seen him kutuzov had grown still more corpulent flaccid and fat but the bleached eyeball the scar and the familiar weariness of his expression were still the same
he was wearing the white horse guard's cap and a military overcoat with a whip hanging over his shoulder by a thin strap he sat heavily and swayed limply on his brisk little horse whew
whew whew he whistled just audibly as he rode into the yard his face expressed the relief of relaxed strain felt by a man who means to rest after a ceremony
raised it with difficulty onto the saddle leaned on his knee groaned and slipped down into the arms of the cossacks and adjutants who stood ready to assist him
evidently not recognizing him moved with his waddling gait to the porch whew whew whew
as often occurs with old men it was only after some seconds that the impression produced by prince andrew's face linked itself up with kutuzov's remembrance of his personality ah how do you do my dear prince
he unbuttoned his coat and sat down on a bench in the porch
i received news of his death yesterday replied prince andrew abruptly kutuzov looked at him with eyes wide open with dismay and then took off his cap and crossed himself
he sighed deeply his whole chest heaving and was silent for a while i loved him and respected him and sympathize with you with all my heart he embraced prince andrew
pressing him to his fat breast and for some time did not let him go when he released him prince andrew saw that kutuzov's flabby lips were trembling and that tears were in his eyes
he sighed and pressed on the bench with both hands to raise himself come come with me we'll have a talk said he
but at that moment denisov no more intimidated by his superiors than by the enemy came with jingling spurs up the steps of the porch despite the angry whispers of the adjutants who tried to stop him
lifting his hands with a gesture of annoyance folded them across his stomach
well what is it speak denisov blushed like a girl
and boldly began to
denisov came from those parts and knew the country well his plan seemed decidedly a good one especially from the strength of conviction with which he spoke
and from that hut while denisov was speaking a general with a portfolio under his arm really did appear what said kutuzov in the midst of denisov's explanations are you ready so soon
ready your serene highness replied the general
and again listened to denisov
ah we were friends said kutuzov cheerfully all right all right friend stay here at the staff and tomorrow we'll have a talk with a nod to denisov he turned away and put out his
would not your serene highness like to come inside said the general on duty in a discontented voice the plans must be examined and several papers have to be signed
an adjutant came out and announced that everything was in readiness within but kutuzov evidently did not wish to enter that room till he was disengaged he made a grimace
no tell them to bring a small table out here my dear boy i'll look at them here said he
and listened to the general's report
rosy handsome woman in a pink dress with a lilac silk kerchief on her head holding a dish and evidently awaiting the entrance of the commander in chief
it was and that she intended to offer his serene highness bread and salt her husband has welcomed his serene highness with the cross at the church and she intends to welcome him in the house
she's very pretty added the adjutant with a smile
could not help hearing but it was evident that nothing the general could say would surprise or even interest him that he knew all that would be said beforehand and heard it all only because he had to
all that denisov had said was clever and to the point what the general was saying was even more clever and to the point
something independent of cleverness and knowledge prince andrew watched the commander in chief's face attentively and the only expression he could see there was one of boredom
curiosity as to the meaning of the feminine whispering behind the door and a desire to observe propriety it was evident that
but despised them not because of his own intellect feelings or knowledge he did not try to display any of these but because of something else he despised them because of his old age and experience of life
well are you satisfied now said he you've made me quarrel with my son satisfied
satisfied it hurts me it hurts i'm old and weak and this is what you wanted well then gloat over it gloat over it after that princess mary did not see her father
and did not leave his study princess mary noticed to her surprise that during this illness the old prince not only excluded her from his room but did not
admit mademoiselle bourienne either tikhon alone attended him at the end of the week the prince reappeared and resumed his former way of life devoting himself
with special activity to building operations and the arrangement of the gardens and completely breaking off
mademoiselle bourienne his looks and cold tone to his daughter seemed to say there you see
against me you lied to prince andrew about my relations with that frenchwoman and made me quarrel with him but you see i need neither her nor you
princess mary spent half of every day with little nicholas watching his lessons teaching him russian and music herself and
she spent over her books with her old nurse or with god's folk
of the war princess mary thought as women do think about wars she feared for her brother who was in it was horrified by and amazed
at the strange cruelty that impels men to kill one another but she did not understand the significance of this war which seemed to her like all previous wars
she did not realize the significance of this war though dessalles with whom she constantly conversed was passionately interested in its progress
and tried to explain his own conception of it to her and though the god's folk who came to see her reported in their own way the rumors current among the people
though julie now princess drubetskaya who had resumed correspondence with her wrote patriotic letters from moscow i write you in russian my good friend
wrote julie in her frenchified russian because i have a detestation
and the same for their language which i cannot support to hear spoken we in moscow are elated by enthusiasm for our adored emperor
my poor husband is enduring pains
which i have inspires me yet more you heard
raevski embracing his two sons and saying i will perish with them but we will not be shaken and truly
twice stronger than we we were unshakable we pass the time as we can but in war as in war
sit whole days with me and we unhappy widows of live men make beautiful conversations over our charpie
are missing and so on the chief reason princess mary did not realize the full significance of this war was that the old prince never spoke of it did not recognize it
and laughed at dessalles when he mentioned it at dinner the prince's tone was so calm and confident that princess mary unhesitatingly believed him
all that july the old prince was exceedingly active and even animated
domestic serfs the only thing that made princess mary anxious about him was that he slept very little and instead of sleeping in his study as usual changed his
sleeping place every day one day he would order his camp bed to be set up in the glass gallery another day
or on the lounge chair in the drawing room and dozed there without undressing while instead of mademoiselle bourienne a serf boy read to him
then again he would spend a night in the dining room on august first a second letter was received from prince andrew in his first letter which came soon after he had left home
prince andrew had dutifully asked his father's forgiveness for what he had allowed himself to say and begged to be
to his favor to this letter the old prince had replied affectionately and from that time had kept the frenchwoman at a distance prince andrew's second letter
written near vitebsk after the french had occupied that town gave a brief account of the whole campaign enclosed for them a plan he had drawn and
forecasts as to the further progress of the war in this letter prince andrew pointed out to his father the danger of staying at bald hills so near the theater of war
and on the army's direct line of march and advised him to move to moscow at dinner that day on dessalles mentioning that the french were said to have already
the old prince remembered his son's letter there was a letter from prince andrew today he said to princess mary haven't you read it no father she replied in a frightened voice
she could not have read the letter as she did not even know it had arrived he writes about this war said the prince
in speaking of the present war
oh very interesting said mademoiselle bourienne go and get it for me said the old prince to mademoiselle bourienne you know under the paperweight on the little table
mademoiselle bourienne jumped up eagerly
and went to the study but as soon as he had left the room the old prince looking uneasily round threw down his napkin and went himself they can't do anything
always make some muddle he muttered while he was away princess mary dessalles mademoiselle bourienne and even little nicholas exchanged looks in silence
the old prince returned with quick steps accompanied by michael
bringing the letter and a plan these he put down beside him not letting anyone read them at dinner on moving to the drawing room he handed the letter to princess mary and
spreading out before him the plan of the new building and fixing his eyes upon it told her to read the letter aloud when she had done so princess mary looked inquiringly
at her father he was examining the plan evidently engrossed in his own ideas what do you think of it prince
said the prince as if unpleasantly awakened
very possibly
ha ha ha the theater of war said the prince i have said and still say that
niemen dessalles looked in amazement at the prince who was talking of the niemen when the enemy was already at the
but princess mary forgetting
when the snow melts they'll sink in the polish swamps only they could fail to see it the prince continued evidently thinking of the campaign of eighteen o seven which
seemed to him so recent bennigsen should have advanced into prussia sooner then things would have taken a different turn but prince dessalles began timidly
the letter mentions vitebsk ah the letter yes replied the prince peevishly yes yes his face suddenly
took on a morose expression he paused yes he writes that the french were beaten at at what river is it
dessalles dropped his eyes the prince says nothing about that he remarked gently doesn't he but i didn't invent it myself no one spoke
for a long time yes yes well
he suddenly went on raising his head and pointing to the plan of the building tell me how you mean to alter it
and the prince after speaking to him about the building looked angrily at princess mary
and went to his own room princess mary
and astonished look fixed on her father noticed his silence and was struck by the fact that her father had forgotten his son's letter on the drawing room table
but she was not only afraid to speak of it
the reason of his confusion and silence but was afraid even to think about it in the evening
sent by the prince came to princess mary for prince andrew's letter which had been forgotten in the drawing room she gave it to him and unpleasant as it was to her to do so
ventured to ask him what her father was doing always busy replied michael ivanovich with a respectfully ironic smile which caused princess mary to turn pale
he's worrying very much about the new building he has been reading a little but now
lowering his voice now he's at his desk busy with his will i expect
one of the prince's favorite occupations of late had been the preparation of some papers he meant to leave at his death and which he called his will
smolensk asked princess mary
lovers of chamber music form an extremely refined and cultured class and like all highly refined and cultured people are very conservative they are the purists among music lovers
the last people who would care to see the classical forms abandoned and who would be disturbed not to say shocked by any great departure from the sonata form for the string quartet is to chamber music
what the symphony is to orchestra and the sonata to the pianoforte is in fact a sonata for two violins viola and violoncello just as the symphony is a sonata for orchestra
oddly enough a pianoforte solo is more effective in a large hall than a string quartet although the latter employs four times as many instruments
and the same is true of those pieces of chamber music in which the pianoforte is used such as sonatas for pianoforte and violin or violoncello pianoforte trios quartets
quintets and so on a fine soloist on the pianoforte will be more at home in a large auditorium like carnegie hall or even the metropolitan opera house than would a string quartet or any other combination
of chamber music players paderewski plays in carnegie hall and i am sure would be equally effective in the opera house but an organization of chamber music players would be lost in either place
plays in new york in mendelssohn hall a small auditorium which is just about correctly proportioned for music of this kind indeed compared with the opera the orchestra
and even with the pianoforte chamber music requires a setting like a jewel for just as its devotees are the purists among music lovers so chamber music itself is something very precious
it certainly is a most charming and intimate form of musical entertainment and the constituency of a well established string quartet inevitably consists of the musical elite
the same opinions that have been expressed regarding the sonatas and the symphonies of the great composers apply in a general way to their chamber music haydn's is naive
mozart's more emotional in expression beethoven's among that of classical composers the most dramatic in fact beethoven's last quartets in which the instruments are employed quite independently
and in which roles practically of equal importance are assigned to each are regarded by richard strauss as having given the cue to wagner for his polyphonic treatment of the orchestra
and wagner himself spoke of them as works through which music first raised herself to an equal height with the poetry and painting of the greatest periods of the past
nevertheless there are many who hold that in his last quartets beethoven sought to accomplish more than can be expressed with four stringed instruments and prefer his earlier works of this class
like the three rasumovski quartets opus fifty nine dedicated by the composer to count rasumovski who maintained a private string quartet in which he played second violin
the others being professionals schubert's most famous quartet is the one in d minor with the lovely slow movement a theme with variations the theme being his own song
death and the maiden one of the greatest works in the whole range of chamber music is his string quintet with two violoncellos his pianoforte trios also are noble contributions to this branch of musical art
one glance at this trio writes schumann of the schubert trio in b flat major and all the wretchedness of existence is put to flight and the world seems young again many and beautiful as are the things time brings forth
it will be long ere it produces another schubert mendelssohn's chamber music is as polished affable and gentlemanly as most of his other productions
and rapidly falling into the same state of unlamented desuetude schumann has given us his lovely pianoforte quintet in e flat brahms has contributed much that is noteworthy to chamber music
and as a rule it is less complex and more intelligently scored than his orchestral music
opus fifty one introduces as the second movement a dumka or bohemian elegy one of the most exquisite of his compositions fascinating in his national musical tints
he was genius enough for his music to be universal in its expression
was no less artistic in the results he accomplished when during his residence in new york he wrote his string quartet in f opus ninety six on negro themes tschaikowsky
and neo russians like arensky
with paderewski a modern pianist on tour liszt never was in this country but we can gain some idea of the success that would have been his
from the triumphs of ignace paderewski other famous pianists have come to this country thalberg in eighteen fifty six rubinstein in eighteen seventy two
who took up his residence here rosenthal josef hofmann but paderewski's success has been greater than any of these americans are said to be fickle
but although paderewski no longer is a novelty his name still is the one with which to fill a concert hall from floor to roof why this is so is no secret
hear him and you will understand the reason to a technique which does not hesitate at anything and an industry that flinches at nothing no one practices more assiduously than he
he adds the soul of a poet and the strength of an athlete
but if you watch him from near by you will be able to note the great physical power which he can bring into play when necessary and which he never brings into play unless it is necessary
therefore he combines poetry with force and back of both is thought intellectual capacity in a frame on the wall of a new york trust company is a check
it represents the net receipts of one virtuoso for one concert tour and is believed to be the largest actual amount ever earned in this country by an artist whether singer or player in a single season
this check is drawn to the order of ignace j paderewski an opinion regarding the piano by a man who by playing it can earn so large a sum
and earn it because he is the greatest living exponent of pianoforte playing would seem worth having paderewski believes that save in one respect the pianoforte has reached perfection
and is incapable of further improvement he does not think that anything more should be done to add to its volume of tone if anything he considers this too great and the instrument too loud already
instead of more power rather less would be satisfactory wherein however he considers the instrument still lacking notwithstanding its wonderful development during the last century
is in its capacity for sustained tone for holding a long drawn out tone with the facility of the violin for example he is convinced however
that the means of imparting this capacity for sustaining tone to the pianoforte will be discovered in due time and that the invention probably will be made in this country
that increased tone sustaining power for the instrument is a great desideratum doubtless is the opinion of many experts but that the greatest master of the pianoforte considers it perfect in other respects
is highly interesting and significant
because within the smallest compass and with the simplest means of control it has the range of an orchestra for this reason it is the most popular of instruments and in its manufacture
extends from the polished dry goods box with internal organs of iron wire and felt and with a glistening row of celluloid teeth ready to bite as soon as ever the lid is raised to the highest class concert grand
the piano doctor we who have our pianofortes in our own homes and are content with an occasional visit from the tuner little dream of the care bestowed upon the instrument
on which an artist like paderewski plays instrument i should have said instruments for when he is on tour he has a whole suite of them no less than four and each is coddled as if it were a prima donna
metal and ivory true these pianos do not have their throats sprayed on the slightest possible occasion but they are carefully protected against extremes of heat and cold and while the prima donna consults her physician only at intervals a piano doctor
is in constant attendance on these instruments paderewski's piano doctor has traveled with him for several seasons occupying the same private car and practically living with him during the entire tour
he was with him on the tour in fact at his table at breakfast with him when his special train was run on to an open siding near east syracuse and left the track
paderewski being thrown forward on his hands against the table and straining the muscles of one arm so severely that he was obliged to cancel his remaining engagements up to that time however his net receipts
from seventy four concerts
while before this american tour began he gave thirty six concerts in australia with average receipts of five thousand dollars his record concert was at dallas texas some years ago
when the receipts were nine thousand dollars it occurred during a confederate reunion while he was at the pianoforte the various posts marched up to the hall with bands and fife and drum corps playing
paderewski however kept right on through the blasts and shrilling but when one of the posts let out the famous rebel yell the pianist leaped from his seat as if he expected a tiger to spring at his throat
then he realized what had happened smiled and continued amid laughter and applause he had heard of the famous rebel yell but this was the first time he had heard it pianofortes on their travels
but to return to the pianofortes on tour when paderewski came to this country from australia his piano doctor met him at san francisco with four instruments
which had been selected with great care in new york and been shipped west in charge of the doctor one of these the virtuoso reserved for his private car
whenever there is a stop long enough to make it worth while he rarely plays when the car is in motion of the other three instruments the two he liked best were sent to his hotel
where during four days preceding his first concert he practiced from seven to eight hours a day notifying the doctor twenty four hours in advance
the others no two
the pianist's route took him from san francisco to oakland san jose and portland oregon to make certain that he always will have a fine instrument to play on
a method of shipping ahead the instruments not in use is adopted thus
of course none but an expert could detect the slightest difference in these pianofortes but a player like paderewski
one of his idiosyncrasies is that always before going on he asks the doctor which of the three instruments is on the stage because as he himself expresses it i don't want to meet a stranger
after each concert at supper this conversation invariably takes place paderewski well doctor it sounded all right to night didn't it
doctor yes sir paderewski well then please pass me the bread there never has been occasion to record what would happen if the doctor
were to say no sir for he always has been able to answer in the affirmative with the most scrupulous regard for veracity
paderewski is as careful to play his best in the least important place in which he gives a concert as he is in new york this high sense of duty toward his public
accounts in part for his supremacy among pianists paderewski is not a mere virtuoso he is a man of fine intellectual gifts who plays the piano like a poet
paul potter the playwright who lives in geneva switzerland and occasionally has dined there with paderewski tells me that he has conversed with the pianist on almost every conceivable subject except music
and always found him remarkably well informed his knowledge of the history of his native land poland and of its literature is said to be quite wonderful chopin also a pole
he idolizes and regards as far and away the greatest composer for the piano to the fund for the chopin memorial at warsaw he contributes by charging one dollar for his autograph
and two dollars for his signature and a few bars of music from the money received as the proceeds of one season's autographs he was able to remit about one thousand three hundred dollars to the fund
the pianoforte which the virtuoso has used at his concert already will be on the way to its next destination for it is part of the doctor's duty
the legs are removed and then a carefully fitted canvas is drawn over the body and held in place by straps the body is slid out of the hall and slowly let down onto a specially constructed eight wheel skid
swung low so as to be as nearly as possible on a level with the platform this skid is part of the outfit of the tour the record time for detaching the legs of the pianoforte
covering the body removing the instrument from the stage and having it on the skid ready to start for the station is seven minutes thawing out a pianoforte
the instruments never are set up except under the doctor's personal supervision before each concert the pianoforte on which paderewski is to play is carefully gone over
and put in perfect condition tuned and if necessary regulated and this no matter how recently he may have used it
defects so trifling that neither an ordinary player nor the public would notice them would jar on the sensitive ear and nerves of the virtuoso sometimes the instrument has been exposed to such a low temperature
but even on the iron plate inside in such cases the pianoforte is set up and after the film of frost has been scraped off is allowed to thaw out slowly and naturally
before it is touched for tuning or regulating there was an amusing incident in the handling of one of the paderewski instruments at columbus mississippi where paderewski played for seven hundred girls at the state college
although it was more exciting than diverting at the time it happened the doctor relies on local help for getting the pianoforte from the skid to the stage and back again
usually efficient helpers are obtainable but at columbus where the college hall is upstairs and reached only by a narrow flight of steps there was no aid to be had save from among the negroes lounging on the public square
the doctor went among them what are you doing he asked nawthin want a job naw too busy was the usual reply
at last however a band of twenty colored gentlemen was secured in the hope that muscle and quantity would make up for lack of quality but never before has a high grade pianoforte
been in such imminent peril it was got upstairs well enough in spite of the fact that the negroes walked all over each other but the descent the doctor emil c fischer stood at the top of the stairs directing
below around the latter fell a shower of fragments from the wall the rail the posts and at one time it seemed as if the whole banister would give way and the pianoforte crash in splinters on the floor
there were other moments of suspense for the pianoforte as well as for the two watchers who drew a long breath when the instrument safely was on the skid
fortunately such untoward incidents are forgotten in the general atmosphere of good humor which the pianist diffuses about him he enjoys his little joke
during the last tour he handed a photograph of himself to mister francke inscribed to the future governor of hoboken at the auditorium hotel chicago
millward adams brother about leaving on a trip asked for an autograph paderewski quick as a flash wrote for the brother of mister adams on the eve
of his departure from chicago paderewski travels on a special train with him usually are his wife his manager the treasurer of the tour the piano doctor
a secretary valet and maid his home is a villa on lake geneva where he has a beautiful garden and vinery his dogs his room for billiards a game of which he is very fond
and unlimited opportunity for swimming his favorite exercise apparently slender and surely most poet looking at the piano
the strange powder of the jou jou priests doctor watson carefully opened the little antique silver box which was about the size and shape of an ordinary watch and showed that it contained a gray powder
and a little gold measure resembling a miniature thimble
nearly effacing the peculiar hieroglyphics
i consider this he said
my star exhibit as it were the powder possesses such wonderful properties and is so unlike any known drug that i hesitate to describe its effects that it is a powerful poison there can be no doubt
what is its history asked doctor farrington i picked it up in london got it from burridge the explorer who had just returned from a year's trip in the interior of west africa
he went into benin city with the english when they cleaned out the town burridge says he took it from a dead jou jou priest and he made me pay a pretty stiff price for it it is a wonderful drug entirely unknown outside of africa
but its preparation is a secret of the priests of jou jou now i propose that we each take a small quantity of the powder to night and then dine together to morrow evening and compare notes i may as well tell you now it produces strange hallucinations
i tried it once myself and my experience on that occasion was to say the least peculiar therefore i am more than anxious to try it again and compare notes with you afterwards and i think i can promise you a new and novel experience
farrington and forster were perfectly willing to try the experiment which watson hinted promised such interesting results
and meet together the next evening promptly at the time appointed the three men met in watson's study and after cigars had been lighted watson asked farrington to be the first to relate his experience
whereupon the doctor drew from his pocket several pages of closely written manuscript and began as follows an aztec mummy
i was standing in a museum looking at a case of mummies
found in a cliff dwelling and it interested me very much in size it was that of a small man and was in a fine state of preservation with the exception that the bones of the legs were exposed and more or less disintegrated in some places
the hands even to the finger nails were perfect however and there was a silver ring on the index finger one hand grasped a large stone axe the handle being modern the right hand rested across the chest clasping a necklace of silver wire
interesting specimen is it not said a voice at my side quite so i replied
what makes you think that asked the voice sharply because i don't believe the aztecs buried their dead in cliff dwellings however it is an interesting mummy and in a wonderful state of preservation i was so interested in examining the mummy
now however i looked up and saw a tall gaunt figure of a man dressed in a suit of corduroy and wearing a broad brimmed hat or sombrero such as is generally worn on the western plains well he remarked
in my opinion it is a pretty good mummy i made it myself and ought to know excuse me what did you say i asked thinking i had not understood him aright i said that was one of my mummies
and during my time i furnished museums with a great many interesting and valuable specimens when trade was slow i occasionally helped nature a little
have you given up the business i asked had to but perhaps you do not know that i am dead
did you indeed i answered trying to appear interested that's what i did but let me tell you about that mummy there was a scientific chap who came to our place and wanted to buy aztec relics
two dollars each arrow heads ten cents each for stone matats and grinders one dollar each taking them as they came and whole pottery five dollars where did you find the mummy did you know of the cave i asked
we prepared a fine aztec mummy of course we used the body of an indian
my partner was a clever chap and he fixed up the axe and the silver necklace
we picked out a good sized cave
and covered him up with dry dust then we wet the clay over him leaving the floor hard and smooth as before we also buried about fifty axes and two or three hundred arrow heads and half a dozen nice specimens of indian pottery
which we burned up good and black after we had salted the cave to our satisfaction we partly sealed up the entrance and returned to flagstaff was that acting quite fair fair why
and gone to all the expense of his car fare and outfit
it was philanthropy my dear sir the height of philanthropy was he pleased with the mummy pleased why bless your dear innocent soul he screamed with joy like a child
he carried on so that my partner nearly gave us away he was a chump about some things if anything pleased him he would laugh and his laugh sounded like the bray of a jackass well sir when this scientific chap got down on his knees
and commenced to paw the earth away from the fake mummy my partner began to gurgle i knew what was coming and punched him in the ribs but it did no good
matter shouted my pard and then he roared and yelled and howled
but pard saved himself just in time look he yelled between his paroxysms of laughter look at that buzzard over there i'm damned if he ain't the funniest buzzard i ever saw in my life
and then he roared and yelled and jumped about look at him he laughed see him fly did you ever see anything so funny i am not sure but what the scientist thought he was crazy but anyhow he didn't catch on to what he was laughing at
and pretty soon went on with his digging we stayed there three days and dug the whole place up and took back with us a basket full of stone axes arrow heads three large prehistoric vases and the mummy
for fear something would get broken and when we got to flagstaff he spent two days packing the relics do you consider that sort of thing quite honorable i asked honorable what is that you say you squint eyed dude
now my boy don't get fresh with me just because i am dead and can't jump you i hastened to pacify him
i would have marked squares all over your body with a piece of chalk and then played hop scotch on you i meant no offence i said humbly maybe you didn't but just you make another break like that and i won't forget it
is your partner dead i asked no jim is not dead by a long shot i went down to see him last winter at his place in california
made a lot of money this year out of mermaids and sea devils there was a run on sea devils this winter he makes them out of fishes the mermaids he makes out of fishes tails and indian children robs the graveyards you know
i tell you he is an artist in his line
and made a stack of money last winter in navajo blankets and scalp trimmed indian arms and shields it is the scalp trimming which catches the tourist
from hospitals there but when he is short horse hair does pretty well especially for old indian scalps and then navajo blankets holy smoke a gold mine isn't in it
and sell to the tourist for various prices
oh i tell you he is shrewd some day he will be worth a million sometimes a chap goes into his shop and poses as an expert
the fine old style blankets are mighty hard to get now remarks jim i know they are remarks the wise tourist but still they are to be had sometimes are they not come now haven't you got something choice hidden away
then jim will look about as though fearful that somebody might see him and will steal softly into a back room and pull from beneath his bed a good cheap blanket worth about three dollars and spread it out lovingly in front of the tourist
there he whispers look at that that is not for sale i am keeping that for myself but i thought you would like to see it as it is very evident you know a good deal about blankets isn't it a beauty
and fine preservation of the native wool prepared in the manner of the old navajo speaks of its great rarity and at last ends by asking jim what he will take for it and usually carries it away with him having paid three or four times the value of a really good blanket
well he said i must be going
before their eyes were accustomed to the shadow pretty cold murmured the architect into the phone transmitter
while the receiver was placed beside his ear all three stopped short to adjust each other's electrical heating apparatus to do this they did not use their fingers directly
before they had finished the builder who had been puzzling over the extraordinary suddenness with which that cloud of dust had settled received an inspiration he was carrying note book and camera
with his pliers he tore out a sheet from the former and holding book in one hand and the leaf in the other
they reached the ground together see the architect repeated the experiment back home where there's air the paper would have floated down it would have taken three times as long for it to fall as the book
he had been thinking of something else he said gravely remember what i told you
if there's no air here
then i hope there's no flaw in our insulation we're walking in an electrical bath they looked around objects were pretty distinct now
laid out in orderly fashion here however as outside everything was coated with that fine cream colored dust it filled every nook and cranny
it stirred about their feet with every step the geologist led the way down a broad aisle on either side of which towered immense machinery smith was for stopping to examine them one by one but the others vetoed the engineer's passion
and strode on toward the end of the triangle more than anything else they looked for the absent population to show itself suddenly van emmon stopped short is it possible that they're all asleep
but smith stirred the dust with his foot and shook his head i've seen no tracks this dust has been lying here for weeks perhaps months
at the end of the aisle they reached a small railed in space
in the middle of it stood a low flat topped desk for all the world like that of a prosperous real estate agent
there was no chair for lack of a visible gate in the railing the explorers stepped over
there was nothing on top of the desk save the usual coat of dust below a very wide space had been left for the legs of whoever had used it and flanking this space were two pedestals
containing what looked to be a multitude of exceedingly small drawers
apparently they had no locks and he unhesitatingly reached out gripped the knob of one and pulled noiselessly instantaneously the whole desk crumbled to powder startled smith stumbled backwards
knocking against the railing next instant it lay on the floor
only a tiny cloud of dust arose and in half a second this had settled the three looked at each other significantly clearly the thing that had just happened argued a great lapse of time since the user of that desk officiated in that enclosure
it looked as though smith's guess of weeks perhaps months would have to be changed to years perhaps centuries feel all right asked the geologist jackson and smith made affirmative noises and again they stepped out
this time walking in the aisle along the outer wall they could see their sky car plainly through the ovals here the machinery could be examined more closely they resembled automatic testing scales said smith
moreover they seemed to be connected the one to the other with a series of endless belts which smith thought indicated automatic production to all appearances the dust covered apparatus stood just as it had been left when operations ceased
an unguessable length of time before
seeing this the geologist deliberately reached out and scraped the dust from the nearest machine
the dust fell straight to the floor exposing a brilliantly polished streak of greenish white metal
with the same result clean untarnished metal lay beneath all that dust clearly it was some non conducting alloy whatever it was it had successfully resisted the action of the elements all the while that such presumably wooden articles
as the desk and railing had been steadily rotting emboldened
he examined it closely as to its cams clutches gearing and other details significant enough to his mechanical training he noted their adjustments scrutinized the conveying apparatus
and came back carrying a cylindrical object which he had removed from an automatic chuck this is what they were making he remarked trying to conceal his excitement
instantly they identified it it was a cannon shell again van emmon led the way they took a reassuring glance out the window at the familiar cube then passed along the aisle toward the farther corner
within which stood a triangular elevator the men examined it as closely as possible noting especially the extremely low stool which stood upon its platform the same unerodable metal seemed to have been used throughout the whole affair
after a careful scrutiny of the two levers which appeared to control the thing
announced smith well knowing that the others would have to go with him if they kept the telephones intact they protested that the thing was not safe smith replied that they had seen no stairway or anything corresponding to one
if this lift is made of that alloy admiringly then it's safe but jackson managed to talk him out of it when they returned to the heap of powdered wood which had been the desk
smith spied a long work bench under a nearby window
but for the dust it might have been placed there ten minutes before on the bench lay several tools some familiar to the engineer and some entirely strange a set of screw drivers of various sizes caught his eye
he picked them up and again experienced the sensation of having wood turn to dust at his touch the blades were whole still searching the engineer found a square metal chest of drawers each of which he promptly opened
the contents were laden with dust but he brushed this off and disclosed a quantity of exceedingly delicate instruments they were more like dentists tools than machinists yet plainly were intended for mechanical use
one drawer held what appeared to be a roll of drawings smith did not want to touch them with infinite care he blew off the dust with the aid of his oxygen pipe after a moment or two the surface was clear
was the blank side of the paper there was no help for it smith grasped the roll firmly with his pliers and next second gazed upon dust in the bottom drawer lay something that aroused the curiosity of all three
these were small reels about two inches in diameter and a quarter of an inch thick each incased in a tight fitting box they resembled measuring tapes to some extent except that the ribbons were made of marvelously thin material
van emmon guessed that there were a hundred yards in a roll smith estimated it at three hundred
smith pocketed them all it was the builder who thought to look under the bench but it was smith who had brought a light by its aid they discovered a very small machine decidedly like a stock ticker
except that it had no glass dome but possessed at one end a curious metal disk about a foot in diameter apparently it had been undergoing repairs it was impossible to guess its purpose
smith's pride was instantly aroused he tucked it under his arm and was impatient to get back to the cube
it was when they were about to leave the building that they thought to inspect walls and ceiling not that anything worth while was to be seen the surfaces seemed perfectly plain and bare
even the uppermost corners ten feet above their heads
van emmon stopped and stared at the spot as though fascinated the others were ready to go
for a moment or two he seemed struggling for breath good heavens he gasped almost in a whisper
further disagreements recorded illustrating the amiability of the jew and the perversity of the scot in twelve seventy eight the jews to the number of two hundred and eighty were hanged for having in their possession clipped coins
whenever times were hard the jews were imprisoned and on one job lot alone twelve thousand pounds were realized in ransom and still the jews are not yet considered as among the redeemed in twelve ninety
philip then subpoenaed edward as duke of guienne to show cause why he should not pay damages for the loss of the navy which could not be replaced for less than twenty pounds and finally wheedled edward out of the duchy
philip maintained a secret understanding with baliol however and edward called a parliament founded upon the great principle that what concerns all should be approved by all
this was in twelve ninety five and on this declaration
hang all the law and the profits the following year edward marched into scotland
where he died in boundless obscurity in twelve ninety seven baliol was succeeded by the brave william wallace who won a great battle at stirling but was afterwards defeated entirely at falkirk
but the scotch called to their aid robert bruce the grandson of baliol's competitor and he was solemnly crowned at the abbey of scone during a successful campaign against these people edward fell sick
under the influence of an attractive trifler named gaveston dawdled away his days and frittered away his nights finally the nobles who disliked gaveston captured him and put him in warwick castle
and in thirteen twelve the royal favorite was horrified to find near him a large pool of blood and on a further search discovered his own head lying in the gutter of the court turning sick at the gory sight
and robert bruce was besieging the latter the english numbering one hundred thousand at bannockburn fought against thirty thousand scots
bruce surprised the cavalry with deep pits and before the english could recover from this
with banners and bagpipes and though they were really teamsters in disguise their hostile appearance and the depressing music of the bagpipes so shocked the english that they did not stop running until they reached berwick
the king came around to berwick from dunbar by steamer
so far as the steamer is concerned but the statement can do no harm
he must do something to support his family or he will become disliked author
edward found himself now on the verge of open war with ireland and wales
and another person whose name is not given
they organized a scheme to throw off the spencers and dethrone edward the thinkless
that it is no moonlight frolic edward fled to wales
and remain in jail there instead of causing a scandal by staying away and spending his money in wales he was confined in kenilworth castle while his son was ostensibly king though his wife and mortimer really managed the kingdom
after having been most inhumanly treated in berkeley castle whither he had been removed thus ends the sad history of a monarch who might have succeeded in a minor position on a hen farm but who made a beastly fluke in the king business
the awful german language
little learning makes the whole world kin proverbs
and one day i surprised the keeper of it with my german i spoke entirely in that language he was greatly interested
very rare possibly a unique and wanted to add it to his museum if he had known what it had cost me to acquire my art
he would also have known that it would break any collector to buy it harris and i had been hard at work on our german during several weeks at that time and although we had made good progress
it had been accomplished under great difficulty and annoyance for three of our teachers had died in the mean time a person who has not studied german can form no idea
of what a perplexing language it is surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless and so slippery and elusive to the grasp one is washed about in it
hither and thither in the most helpless way and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil
of the ten parts of speech he turns over the page and reads let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions he runs his eye down
and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it so overboard he goes again to hunt for another ararat and find another quicksand such has been
intrudes itself into my sentence clothed with an awful and unsuspected power and crumbles the ground from under me for instance my book inquires after a certain bird
it is always inquiring after things which are of no sort of consequence to anybody where is the bird now the answer to this question according to the book is
that the bird is waiting in the blacksmith shop on account of the rain of course no bird would do that but then you must stick to the book very well
i begin to cipher out the german for that answer i begin at the wrong end necessarily for that is the german idea i say to myself
according to which gender it may turn out to be when i look in the interest of science i will cipher it out on the hypothesis that it is masculine very well then the rain
in a kind of a general way on the ground it is then definitely located it is doing something that is resting which is one of the german grammar's ideas
this rain is not resting but is doing something actively it is falling to interfere with the bird likely and this indicates movement
which has the effect of sliding it into the accusative case
the grammatical horoscope of this matter i answer up confidently and state in german that the bird is staying in the blacksmith shop
the teacher lets me softly down with the remark that whenever the word
drops into a sentence it always throws that subject into the genitive case regardless of consequences and therefore this bird stayed in the blacksmith shop
n b i was informed later by a higher authority that there was an exception which permits one to say
but that this exception is not extended to anything but rain there are ten parts of speech and they are all troublesome an average sentence in a german newspaper
mainly of compound words constructed by the writer on the spot and not to be found in any dictionary six or seven words compacted into one without joint or seam that is
without hyphens it treats of fourteen or fifteen different subjects each enclosed in a parenthesis of its own with here and there extra parentheses
making pens within pens finally all the parentheses
are massed together between a couple of king parentheses one of which is placed in the first line of the majestic sentence and the other in the middle of the last line of it
or words to that effect and the monument is finished i suppose
not necessary but pretty german books are easy enough to read when you hold them before the looking glass or stand on your head so as to reverse the construction but i think
that to learn to read and understand a german newspaper is a thing which must always remain an impossibility to a foreigner yet even the german books are not entirely free
though they are usually so mild as to cover only a few lines and therefore when you at last get down to the verb it carries some meaning to your mind
because you are able to remember a good deal of what has gone before now here is a sentence
with a slight parenthesis in it i will make a perfectly literal translation and throw in the parenthesis marks and some hyphens for the assistance of the reader though in the original
there are no parenthesis marks or hyphens and the reader is left to flounder through to the remote verb the best way he can but when he upon the street the
in satin and silk covered now very unconstrained after the newest fashioned dressed
that is from the old mamselle's secret by missus marlitt and that sentence is constructed upon the most approved german model you observe
how far that verb is from the reader's base of operations well in a german newspaper they put their verb away over on the next page and i have heard that sometimes
they get in a hurry and have to go to press without getting to the verb at all of course then the reader is left in a very exhausted and ignorant state we have the parenthesis disease
in our literature too and one may see cases of it every day in our books and newspapers but with us it is the mark and sign of an unpracticed writer or a cloudy intellect whereas
with the germans it is doubtless the mark and sign of a practiced pen and of the presence of that sort of luminous intellectual fog which stands for clearness among these people for surely it is not
it necessarily can't be clearness even a jury would have penetration enough to discover that a writer's ideas must be a good deal confused a good deal out of line and sequence
when he starts out to say that a man met a counselor's wife in the street and then right in the midst of this so simple undertaking halts these approaching people and makes them stand still
until he jots down an inventory of the woman's dress that is manifestly absurd it reminds a person of those dentists who secure your instant and breathless interest in a tooth
with the forceps and then stand there and drawl through a tedious anecdote before they give the dreaded jerk
and dentistry are in bad taste the germans
conceive of anything more confusing than that these things are called separable verbs the german grammar is blistered all over with separable verbs and the wider
who dressed in simple white muslin with a single tuberose in the ample folds of her rich brown hair had tottered feebly down the stairs still pale from the terror and excitement of the past evening
but longing to lay her poor aching head yet once again upon the breast of him whom she loved more dearly than life itself parted however it is not well
to dwell too much on the separable verbs one is sure to lose his temper early and if he sticks to the subject and will not be warned it will at last either soften his brain
or petrify it personal pronouns and adjectives are a fruitful nuisance in this language and should have been left out for instance the same sound
sie means you and it means she and it means her and it means it and it means they and it means them
think of the ragged poverty of a language which has to make one word do the work of six and a poor little weak thing of only three letters at that but mainly
think of the exasperation of never knowing which of these meanings the speaker is trying to convey this explains why
says sie to me i generally try to kill him
but i warn you if you don't tell me that this means war if you still try to defend the infamies and horrors perpetrated by that antichrist i really believe he is antichrist i will have nothing more to do with you
and you are no longer my friend no longer my faithful slave as you call yourself but how do you do
sit down and tell me all the news it was in july eighteen o five and the speaker was the well known anna pavlovna scherer maid of honor and favorite of the empress marya fedorovna with these words she greeted prince vasili kuragin
she was as she said suffering from
and delivered by a scarlet liveried footman that morning ran as follows if you have nothing better to do count or prince and if the prospect of spending an evening with a poor invalid is not too terrible
i shall be very charmed to see you tonight between seven and ten annette scherer heavens what a virulent attack replied the prince not in the least disconcerted by this reception he had just entered
wearing an embroidered court uniform knee breeches and shoes and had stars on his breast and a serene expression on his flat face he spoke in that refined french in which our grandfathers not only spoke but thought
and with the gentle patronizing intonation natural to a man of importance who had grown old in society and at court he went up to anna pavlovna kissed her hand presenting to her his bald scented and shining head
and complacently seated himself on the sofa first of all dear friend tell me how you are set your friend's mind at rest
beneath the politeness and affected sympathy of which indifference and even irony could be discerned can one be well while suffering morally can one be calm in times like these if one has any feeling
said anna pavlovna you are staying the whole evening i hope
all these festivities and fireworks are becoming wearisome if they had known that you wished it the entertainment would have been put off said the prince who like a wound up clock
don't tease well and what has been decided about novosiltsev's dispatch you know everything what can one say about it replied the prince in a cold listless tone what has been decided
they have decided that buonaparte has burnt his boats and i believe that we are ready to burn ours prince vasili always spoke languidly like an actor repeating a stale part
despite her forty years overflowed with animation and impulsiveness to be an enthusiast had become her social vocation and sometimes even when she did not feel like it she became enthusiastic
the subdued smile which though it did not suit her faded features always played round her lips expressed as in a spoiled child a continual consciousness of her charming defect which she neither wished
nor could nor considered it necessary to correct in the midst of a conversation on political matters anna pavlovna burst out oh don't speak to me of austria perhaps i don't understand things
but austria never has wished and does not wish for war she is betraying us russia alone must save europe our gracious sovereign recognizes his high vocation and will be true to it that is the one thing i have faith in
has to perform the noblest role on earth
that god will not forsake him he will fulfill his vocation and crush the hydra of revolution which has become more terrible than ever in the person of this murderer and villain we alone must avenge the blood of the just one
england with her commercial spirit will not and cannot understand the emperor alexander's loftiness of soul she has refused to evacuate malta she wanted to find and still seeks some secret motive in our actions
what answer did novosiltsev get none the english have not understood and cannot understand the self abnegation of our emperor who wants nothing for himself but only desires the good of mankind
and what have they promised nothing and what little they have promised they will not perform prussia has always declared that buonaparte is invincible and that all europe is powerless before him
or haugwitz either this famous prussian neutrality is just a trap i have faith only in god and the lofty destiny of our adored monarch he will save europe
she suddenly paused smiling at her own impetuosity
that if you had been sent instead of our dear wintzingerode you would have captured the king of prussia's consent by assault you are so eloquent will you give me a cup of tea in a moment
a propos she added becoming calm again i am expecting two very interesting men tonight le vicomte de mortemart
i shall be delighted to meet them said the prince but tell me he added with studied carelessness as if it had only just occurred to him though the question he was about to ask was the chief motive of his visit
to be appointed first secretary at vienna the baron by all accounts is a poor creature prince vasili wished to obtain this post for his son
to secure it for the baron anna pavlovna almost closed her eyes to indicate that neither she nor anyone else had a right to criticize what the empress desired or was pleased with
by her sister was all she said in a dry and mournful tone as she named the empress anna pavlovna's face suddenly assumed an expression of profound and sincere devotion
and respect mingled with sadness and this occurred every time she mentioned her illustrious patroness
and at the same time to console him so she said now about your family do you know that since your daughter came out everyone has been enraptured by her
the prince bowed to signify his respect and gratitude i often think she continued after a short pause drawing nearer to the prince and smiling amiably at him as if to show that political and social topics
i don't speak of anatole your youngest i don't like him she added in a tone admitting of no rejoinder and raising her eyebrows two such charming children
and really you appreciate them less than anyone and so you don't deserve to have them and she smiled her ecstatic smile i can't help it said the prince
lavater would have said i lack the bump of paternity don't joke i mean to have a serious talk with you do you know i am dissatisfied with your younger son between ourselves
and her face assumed its melancholy expression he was mentioned at her majesty's and you were pitied the prince answered nothing but she looked at him significantly awaiting a reply
he frowned what would you have me do he said at last you know i did all a father could for their education and they have both turned out fools hippolyte is at least a quiet fool
but anatole is an active one that is the only difference between them he said this smiling in a way more natural and animated than usual so that the wrinkles round his mouth
and why are children born to such men as you if you were not a father there would be nothing i could reproach you with said anna pavlovna looking up pensively i am your faithful slave
and to you alone i can confess that my children are the bane of my life
that is how i explain it to myself it can't be helped he said no more but expressed his resignation to cruel fate by a gesture anna pavlovna meditated
have you never thought of marrying your prodigal son anatole she asked they say old maids have a mania for matchmaking and though i don't feel that weakness in myself as yet
i know a little person who is very unhappy with her father she is a relation of yours princess mary bolkonskaya prince vasili did not reply though with the quickness of memory
and perception befitting a man of the world he indicated by a movement of the head that he was considering this information do you know he said at last
he is the well known prince bolkonski who had to retire from the army under the late emperor and was nicknamed the king of prussia he is very clever but eccentric and a bore the poor girl is very unhappy
she has a brother i think you know him
listen dear annette said the prince suddenly taking anna pavlovna's hand and for some reason drawing it downwards arrange that affair for me and i shall always be your most devoted slave
slafe with an f as a village elder of mine writes in his reports she is rich and of good family and that's all i want and with the familiarity and easy grace peculiar to him
he raised the maid of honor's hand to his lips kissed it and swung it to and fro as he lay back in his armchair looking in another direction attendez said anna pavlovna reflecting
young bolkonski's wife this very evening and perhaps the thing can be arranged
by disproving that law it might have been possible to retain the old conception of the movements of the bodies but without disproving it it would seem impossible to continue studying the ptolemaic worlds
but even after the discovery of the law of copernicus
from the time the first person said and proved that the number of births or of crimes
is determined by certain geographical and economic conditions and that certain relations of population to soil produce migrations of peoples the foundations on which history had been built were destroyed in their essence
by refuting these new laws the former view of history might have been retained but without refuting them it would seem impossible to continue studying historic events as the results of man's free will
for if a certain mode of government was established or certain migrations of peoples took place in consequence of such and such geographic ethnographic or economic conditions
then the free will of those individuals who appear to us to have established that mode of government or occasioned the migrations can no longer be regarded as the cause and yet the former history continues to be studied
side by side with the laws of statistics geography political economy comparative philology and geology which directly contradict its assumptions the struggle between the old views and the new
was long and stubbornly fought out in physical philosophy theology stood on guard for the old views and accused the new of violating revelation but when truth conquered theology established itself just as firmly on the new foundation
just as prolonged and stubborn is the struggle now proceeding between the old and the new conception of history and theology in the same way stands on guard for the old view and accuses the new view of subverting revelation
in the one case as in the other on both sides the struggle provokes passion and stifles truth on the one hand there is fear and regret for the loss of the whole edifice constructed through the ages
on the other is the passion for destruction to the men who fought against the rising truths of physical philosophy it seemed that if they admitted that truth it would destroy faith in god in the creation of the firmament
and he utilized the law of gravitation as a weapon against religion just so it now seems as if we have only to admit the law of inevitability to destroy the conception of the soul
uninvited defenders of the law of inevitability today use that law as a weapon against religion though the law of inevitability in history like the law of copernicus in astronomy far from destroying
as in the question of astronomy then so in the question of history now the whole difference of opinion is based on the recognition or nonrecognition of something absolute
serving as the measure of visible phenomena in astronomy
in history it is the independence of personality free will as with astronomy the difficulty of recognizing the motion of the earth lay in abandoning the immediate sensation of the earth's fixity
and of the motion of the planets so in history the difficulty of recognizing the subjection of personality to the laws of space time and cause
but as in astronomy the new view said it is true that we do not feel the movement of the earth
in the first case it was necessary to renounce the consciousness of an unreal immobility in space and to recognize a motion we did not feel in the present case it is similarly necessary
to renounce a freedom that does not exist
the very next day sure enough the campaign opened in due course the speaker of the house reached that order of business which is termed notices of bills and then
jotted a line in their note books ran to the telegraphic desk in a room which communicated with their own writing parlor and then hurried back to their places in the gallery and by the time they had resumed their seats
the line which they had delivered to the operator had been read in telegraphic offices in towns and cities hundreds of miles away it was distinguished by frankness of language as well as by brevity the child is born
buckstone gives notice of the thieving knobs university job it is said the noses have been counted and enough votes have been bought to pass it for some time the correspondents had been posting their several journals upon the alleged
and furnishing daily reports of the washington gossip concerning it so the next morning nearly every newspaper of character in the land assailed the measure and hurled broadsides of invective at mister buckstone
and conciliatory also as usual they generally supported measures when it was possible but when they could not they deprecated violent expressions of opinion in other journalistic quarters
as he was popularly called for he had been a clergyman in his day
he was a power in the congressional prayer meeting
his paper supported the new bill with gushing affection it was a noble measure it was a just measure it was a generous measure it was a pure measure and that surely
the love feast would support it anyway and unhesitatingly for the fact that senator dilworthy was the originator of the measure was a guaranty that it contemplated a worthy and righteous work
senator dilworthy was so anxious to know what the new york papers would say about the bill that he had arranged to have synopses of their editorials
he could not wait for the papers themselves to crawl along down to washington by a mail train which has never run over a cow since the road was built for the reason that it has never been able to overtake one
it carries the usual cow catcher in front of the locomotive
that cows so frequently climb aboard that train and among the passengers the senator read his dispatches aloud at the breakfast table laura was troubled beyond measure at their tone and said that that sort of comment
would defeat the bill but the senator said
persecution is the one thing needful now all the other forces are secured give us newspaper persecution enough and we are safe vigorous persecution will alone carry a bill sometimes dear
and when you start with a strong vote in the first place
presently it changes the tide of public opinion the great public is weak minded the great public is sentimental the great public always turns around and weeps for an odious murderer and prays for him
and carries flowers to his prison and besieges the governor with appeals to his clemency as soon as the papers begin to howl for that man's blood in a word the great putty hearted public loves to gush
and there is no such darling opportunity to gush as a case of persecution affords well uncle dear if your theory is right let us go into raptures for nobody can ask a heartier persecution
than these editorials are furnishing
i don't entirely like the tone of some of these remarks
the ignorant will imagine it to be intended for a compliment but this other one the one i read last has the true ring this vile dirty effort to rob the public treasury
by the kites and vultures that now infest the filthy den called congress' that is admirable admirable
but it will come no fear of that
a week from now you'll see
his support doesn't hurt a bill nobody reads his editorials but himself but i wish the new york papers would talk a little plainer it is annoying to have to wait a week for them to warm up
and time is precious now at the proper hour according to his previous notice mister buckstone duly introduced his bill entitled an act to found and incorporate the knobs industrial university
moved its proper reference and sat down the speaker of the house rattled off this observation
the bill would take the customary course of a measure of its nature and be referred to the committee on benevolent appropriations and that it was accordingly so referred strangers merely supposed
that the speaker was taking a gargle for some affection of the throat the reporters immediately telegraphed the introduction of the bill and they added the assertion that the bill will pass was premature
negro university swindle became the one absorbing topic of conversation
individuals denounced it journals denounced it public meetings denounced it the pictorial papers caricatured its friends the whole nation seemed to be growing frantic over it meantime
the washington correspondents were sending such telegrams as these abroad in the land under date of saturday congressmen jex and fluke are wavering it is believed they will desert the execrable bill
monday jex and fluke have deserted thursday tubbs and huffy left the sinking ship last night later on three desertions the university thieves are getting scared
but it is now almost certain that they no longer have a majority after a day or two of reluctant and ambiguous telegrams
but only a trifle and still later
mister trollop has all along been the bravest and most efficient champion of virtue and the people against the bill and the report is without doubt a shameless invention next day with characteristic treachery
the truckling and pusillanimous reptile crippled speech trollop has gone over to the enemy it is contended now that he has been a friend to the bill in secret since the day it was introduced
jex and fluke have returned to their iniquitous allegiance with six or eight others of lesser calibre and it is reported and believed that tubbs and huffy are ready to go back
it is feared that the university swindle is stronger to day
later midnight it is said that the committee will report the bill back to morrow both sides are marshaling their forces and the fight on this bill is evidently going to be the hottest of the session
chapter twelve winter at rivermouth
one bleak december morning casting a peculiarly nautical glance skyward
somehow never turned out according to his prediction the vanes on the church steeples seemed to take fiendish pleasure in humiliating the dear old gentleman if he said it was going to be a clear day a dense sea fog was
pretty certain to set in before noon once he caused a protracted drought by assuring us every morning for six consecutive weeks
by this natural phenomenon my delight and surprise were as boundless as if the heavy gray sky had let down a shower of pond lilies and white roses instead of snow flakes
it happened to be a half holiday so i had nothing to do but watch the feathery crystals whirling hither and thither through the air i stood by the sitting room window gazing at the wonder
but this was a regular nor'easter several inches of snow had already fallen the rose bushes at the door drooped with the weight of their magical blossoms and the two posts that held the garden gate were
with white turbans guarding the entrance to the nutter house
continued with unabated violence through the night
the sun was shining brightly the cloudless heavens wore the tender azure of june and the whole earth lay muffled up to the eyes as it were in a thick mantle of milk white down
it was a very deep snow the oldest inhabitant
without its oldest inhabitant overhauled his almanacs and pronounced it the deepest snow we had had for twenty years
our street was a sight to be seen or rather it was a sight not to be seen for very little street was visible
half covered my bedroom window there was no school that day for all the thoroughfares were impassable by twelve o'clock however the great snowploughs each drawn by four yokes of oxen
broke a wagon path through the principal streets but the foot passengers had a hard time of it floundering in the arctic drifts the captain and i cut a tunnel three feet wide and six feet high
from our front door to the sidewalk opposite it was a beautiful cavern with its walls and roof inlaid with mother of pearl and diamonds i am sure the ice palace of the russian empress
shortly before sunset and we had the bitterest cold night i ever experienced this brought out the oldest inhabitant again the next day and what a gay old boy he was for deciding everything
our tunnel was turned into solid ice a crust thick enough to bear men and horses had formed over the snow everywhere and the air was alive with merry sleigh bells icy stalactites a yard long
bung from the eaves of the house and the turkish sentinels at the gate
so the winter set in cold and glittering everything out of doors was sheathed in silver mail to quote from charley marden it was cold enough to freeze the tail off a brass monkey
an observation which seemed to me extremely happy though i knew little or nothing concerning the endurance of brass monkeys having never seen one i had looked forward to the advent of the season with grave apprehensions
dreary nights and monotonous days
skating on the mill pond coasting by moonlight long rides behind gypsy in a brand new little sleigh built expressly for her were sports no less exhilarating
than those which belonged to the sunny months and then thanksgiving
why shouldn't memory have a nose dilates with pleasure over the rich perfume of miss abigail's forty mince pies
like the sultan's forty wives christmas was another red letter day though it was not so generally observed in new england as it is now
sleet tapped against the window panes
a dish of apples and a pitcher of chilly cider were always served during the evening the captain had a
sometimes i played dominos with him and sometimes miss abigail read aloud to us pronouncing to
in a former chapter i alluded to miss abigail's managing propensities she had affected many changes in the nutter house before i came there to live
she had long contended without being able to overcome
on first taking command of the household she prohibited smoking in the sitting room where it had been the old gentleman's custom
guilty creature in the barn or about the gardens
but in winter the captain was hard put to it when he couldn't stand it longer he retreated to his bedroom and barricaded the door such was the position of affairs at the time of which i write
one morning a few days after the great snow as miss abigail was dusting the chronometer in the ball she beheld captain nutter slowly descending the staircase with a long clay pipe in his mouth
heavily on the hat rack the tone of reproach with which this word was uttered failed to produce the slightest effect on the captain who merely removed the pipe from his lips for an instant and
blew a cloud into the chilly air the thermometer stood at two degrees below zero in our hall dan'el cried miss abigail hysterically dan'el don't come near me
whereupon she fainted away for the smell of tobacco smoke always made her deadly sick kitty collins rushed from the kitchen with a basin of water and set to work bathing miss abigail's temples and chafing her hands
i thought my grandfather rather cruel
complacently watching miss abigail's sufferings when she was brought to the captain sat down beside her and with a lovely twinkle in his eye said softly abigail my dear
there wasn't any tobacco in that pipe
crash towel stuffed into her mouth
partially removing the cloth and then
with mirth for many a day as to miss abigail i think she never wholly pardoned him after this captain nutter gradually gave up smoking which is an untidy injurious disgraceful and highly pleasant habit
a boy's life in a secluded new england town in winter does not afford many points for illustration of course he gets his ears or toes frost bitten of course he smashes his sled against another boy's of course
he's a lad of no enterprise whatever if he doesn't manage to skate into an eel hole
chapter four kenneth takes a bold step this man hopkins gets on my nerves said mister watson a week or two after the eventful meeting in the school house
he was at the breakfast table opposite kenneth and held up a big glaring post card which was in his mail what is it now asked the boy rousing himself from a fit of abstraction
an announcement offering himself for renomination at the primaries it's like a circus advertisement isn't it a shame to think that modern politics has descended to such a level
in our free and enlightened republic kenneth nodded stirring his coffee thoughtfully
since the meeting and was fast relapsing into his old state of apathy and boredom it grieved mister watson to note this
observed the old gentleman with sudden energy the boy looked at him who is hopkins he asked
and finally he ran last term for state representative from this district and was elected by a mighty small majority why small asked kenneth because he's a democrat and the
district is strongly republican but thompson ran against him on the republican ticket and couldn't win his party vote
the general store keeper he has a reputation for short weights and measures the boy sipped his coffee thoughtfully tell me sir how did you happen to know all this he asked
mister watson shifted uneasily in his chair i wonder if we have he said why not sir well kenneth
also i believe elmhurst to be the most important estate in the district
irritably oh do as you like my boy if you can shirk your duties with a clear conscience i've nothing to say for a time the young man was silent finally he asked why isn't hopkins a good representative
again the boy fell into a thoughtful mood mister watson am i a democrat or a republican
no sir i haven't asked myself before then i advise you to be a republican
why because hopkins is a democrat and we may then fight him openly
difference of importance all americans are loyal citizens whichever side they adopt in politics but the two parties are the positive and negative poles
and keep it going properly also they safeguard our interests by watching one another what is your preference sir i've always been a republican whenever i dabbled in politics which hasn't been often then i will be a republican
i am sorry to say that i know nothing about politics and have no convictions on the subject
and the republican candidates seem shy about coming forward didn't you say the district was republican yes but since hopkins defeated them last term
that feeling will probably elect mister hopkins declared kenneth with conviction unless unless what sir unless we come to the rescue of the republicans and take a hand in local politics ourselves my lad
he walked to the window and stood there whistling for a few moments and then left the room without a word for a time mister watson sat silently musing
perhaps i'm inviting trouble he murmured but i am sure i am doing right the boy needs a good shaking up and more knowledge of his fellow men if i can get kenneth interested this plan of mine will be of great benefit to him
then he too left the breakfast table and wandering into the garden saw kenneth busy at his easel in a shady corner for a day or so the subject was not resumed and then mister watson casually introduced it
a law could be passed in the state legislature forbidding the display of all advertising signs in public places in this county he suggested the boy looked at him eagerly are you sure he asked i am positive
it is merely a question of privilege and you think we might hire hopkins to pass such a law
then he walked away leaving kenneth much pleased with the idea he had advanced indeed he was so much interested in the suggestion that he himself referred to the subject at the first opportunity
once i've undertaken to do a thing he said
the old lawyer replied smiling
with enough influence to win the votes to carry such a unique measure through and who is that sir
the largest taxpayer in the county me sir you're the man
might not only beautify your district by having those objectionable signs prohibited but do many other things to better the condition of the farmers and that isn't all what's the rest mister watson
you owe something to yourself lad all your young life you've been too self contained and exclusive in your habits the noblest study of mankind is man it would broaden you to go into politics for a time and
do much to develop your character and relieve the monotony of your existence kenneth frowned
a hard one for hopkins won't give up his job if he can help it
if i thought if i believed i could fill the position with credit i might undertake it i'll answer for that retorted the old man highly pleased with his easy victory
you win the fight ken and i'll guarantee you'll outclass the majority of your fellow representatives it's a good state too
and interviewed the farmers and townsmen of the legislative district
had determined to enter politics and asked for the nomination of representative no other republican ventured to oppose him it was understood to mean a hard fight and even the most sturdy republican was inclined
to fear that the present incumbent of the office would be elected to succeed himself so the primaries were held and kenneth attended and made a speech and was warmly applauded
and he went home the unanimous choice of his party
ventured to risk defeat the hon erastus hopkins well knew this feeling and smiled in his pompous and most sardonic manner when he learned who was his opponent
mister hopkins confided to his cronies but he didn't intend to take chances so he began the campaign with his usual vigor it was now the middle of september
chapter fourteen against big odds what is it chunky there tad jerked his companion flat on the ground flattening himself beside stacy at the same instant
what had caused their sudden alarm was the sight of two indians sitting on their ponies without saddles some distance out on the open plain the redskins were wrapped in their brightly colored blankets which enveloped them from head to knees
even the hands were invisible beneath the folds of the blankets
indian eyes don't miss very much you ought to know that by this time i wish we could make that pony lie down why don't you he's too afraid of the ground thinks it's still hot and
the indians sat their mounts as motionless as statues the ponies headed directly toward where the two lads were lying
you can't trust an indian even while you are looking at him anybody'd think you'd been hunting indians all your life growled stacy they've been hunting me mostly grinned tad and usually caught you added chunky
i don't like this lying here as if we were scared of them
you're lucky to be alive growled tad i'm going to get out of this how listen and you'll know i'm going to get on the pony then as soon as i'm in the saddle you jump up behind me and we'll start back to camp
hardly dare do that and besides these may be friendly indians huh grunted stacy they look it tad got up boldly and without even looking toward the silent red men
cinching the girths and straightening the saddle his last act before mounting was to see that the coils of his lariat were in order all right announced the lad vaulting into the saddle stacy scrambled up behind him without loss of time
and they rode out into the open the fat boy peering
but don't let them see you doing it i won't look at them at all we don't want them to think we're afraid stacy fidgeted you bet i'll watch em wish i had my rifle
huh you have distinguished yourself quite enough with that rifle as it is we don't want any more of your fancy shooting there they go warned stacy i see them
tad had been cautiously observing the horsemen out of the corners of his eyes moving in the same direction we are i don't like the looks of it
it will tell us quickly whether they are trying to keep up with us he touched the pony lightly with his spurs the little animal switched its tail for its sides were tender and started off there they go tad jogging the same gait as ours
tad's face took on the stubborn look it always wore when he had determined upon a certain course of action i'll beat them yet even if there are only two of them i wish there weren't two of us on this nag
you know that sage hen we had yes what's that got to do with our present predicament i was wondering why there aren't any sage roosters you'll be a sage rooster with your head off first thing you know
snapped tad in disgust can't you be serious for a minute
one of the indians had shot away from his companion running obliquely toward the point to which tad was headed
tad dug in the spurs
pony leaped forward and stacy slid over its rump hitting the ground with a jolt that jarred him
tad instantly divining what had happened pulled up sharply wheeled and raced back to where his companion was still complaining loudly and rubbing his body get up roared tad leaning over and grasping stacy by the
hair of his head the fat boy was jerked sharply to his feet quick quick climb up here with the help of his companion the lad scrambled up behind tad again muttering and rubbing himself
by this time the leading horseman had wholly outdistanced them and his pony was now loping along easily while the second indian appeared to be riding directly toward them
all at once the two indians began riding about the boys in a circle
the circle was narrowing and the indians were gradually drawing in on them stacy's eyes were growing larger every minute
then too he could not but admire the riding of their pursuers even the blankets of the indians appeared not to be disturbed in the least by their rapid riding
the reins bunched loosely in their left bands they've got us tad they shan't get us retorted tad stubbornly if they don't use their guns and i don't believe they will we'll beat them yet
if they get close to us you be ready to let go of me when i give the word cautioned tad
i'm not going to let them have it all their own way while i've got a pony under me we may get help any minute too so the longer we can put off a clash the better it will be for us who you mean santa claus yes
they're closing in now said stacy take your hands away from my waist but i'll fall off tad slip one hand through under my belt and take hold of the cantle with the other sit as low as you can so as not to get in my way
stacy obeyed his companion's directions without further comment but he was all curiosity to know what was going to happen next the indians were drawing nearer every second now
they look as though they'd stuck their heads in a paint pail was chunky's muttered comment
and then slipped to the ground a rifle was reposing in each man's holster as tad observed instantly he was thankful to note that the guns were not in the hands of the indians the lad's right hand had dropped carelessly to the saddle horn
the fingers cautiously gathering in the coils of the lariat that hung there
lie low commanded tad scarcely above a whisper
one horseman shot directly across tad's course striking the lad's pony full in the face as he did so and causing the animal to brace himself so suddenly as to nearly unseat both boys tad's rope was in the air in a twinkling
a warning shout from the second indian who was just to the rear of them came too late the rope shot true to its mark and the first savage with back half turned had failed to observe it coming the great loop dropped over his head the pony braced itself and tad
took a quick turn of the rope about the pommel of his saddle
the indian was catapulted from his saddle
ye ow howled chunky unable to restrain his enthusiasm
look out here comes the other one warned the fat boy
the fellow was struggling on the ground fighting to free himself
take care of him chunky i can't gasped tad stacy's eyes took on a belligerent expression as the second savage bore down upon them with knees gripped tightly against the side of his pony half raising himself above the animal's back
reins dropped on the pony's neck
where he might grab the active tad
the other indian all at once at the opportune moment his pony forging ahead the indian's hand shot out the red bony fingers were closing upon tad butler's right shoulder when all at once something happened
the cringing fat boy rose
his body thrown forward at the same time lent the blow added force
he dug in the spurs clinging to the lariat for a few feet then suddenly releasing it as the pony leaped away under the
it was early morning stevie dusting various objects displayed in the front windows turned to gape at him with reverence and awe here said mister verloc giving a slight kick to the gladstone bag on the floor
and stevie flung himself upon it seized it bore it off with triumphant devotion he was so prompt that mister verloc was distinctly surprised already at the clatter of the shop bell missus neale
you'll want some breakfast she said from a distance mister verloc moved his hands slightly as if overcome by an impossible suggestion but once enticed into the parlour he did not reject the food set before him
he ate as if in a public place his hat pushed off his forehead the skirts of his heavy overcoat hanging in a triangle on each side of the chair
covered with brown oil cloth winnie his wife talked evenly at him the wifely talk as artfully adapted no doubt to the circumstances of this return as the talk of penelope to the return of the wandering odysseus missus verloc however
had done no weaving during her husband's absence
had sold some wares had seen mister michaelis several times he had told her the last time that he was going away to live in a cottage in the country somewhere on the london chatham and dover line karl yundt
whom she had received curtly entrenched behind the counter with a stony face and a faraway gaze she said nothing her mental reference to the robust anarchist being marked by a short pause with the faintest possible blush
and bringing in her brother stevie as soon as she could into the current of domestic events she mentioned that the boy had moped a good deal it's all along of mother leaving us like this mister verloc neither said damn
nor yet stevie be hanged and missus verloc not let into the secret of his thoughts failed to appreciate the generosity of this restraint it isn't that he doesn't work as well as ever she continued he's been making himself very useful
you'd think he couldn't do enough for us mister verloc directed a casual and somnolent glance at stevie who sat on his right delicate pale faced his rosy mouth open vacantly it was not a critical glance it had no intention
and if mister verloc thought for a moment that his wife's brother looked uncommonly useless it was only a dull and fleeting thought devoid of that force and durability which enables sometimes a thought to move the world leaning back
mister verloc uncovered his head before his extended arm could put down the hat stevie pounced upon it and bore it off reverently into the kitchen and again mister verloc was surprised
you could do anything with that boy adolf missus verloc said with her best air of inflexible calmness he would go through fire for you he she paused attentive her ear turned towards the door of the kitchen
the shilling his sister winnie presented him with from time to time on all fours amongst the puddles wet and begrimed like a sort of amphibious and domestic animal living in ash bins and dirty water she uttered the usual exordium
and she followed it with the everlasting plaint of the poor pathetically mendacious miserably authenticated by the horrible breath of cheap rum and soap suds she scrubbed hard snuffling all the time and talking volubly
and she was sincere and on each side of her thin red nose her bleared misty eyes swam in tears because she felt really the want of some sort of stimulant in the morning in the parlour
missus verloc observed with knowledge there's missus neale at it again with her harrowing tales about her little children
some of them must be big enough by now to try to do something for themselves it only makes stevie angry these words were confirmed by a thud as of a fist striking the kitchen table
in the normal evolution of his sympathy stevie had become angry on discovering that he had no shilling in his pocket in his inability to relieve at once missus neale's little uns privations he felt that somebody should be made to suffer for it
missus verloc rose and went into the kitchen to stop that nonsense and she did it firmly but gently she was well aware that directly missus neale received her money
she went round the corner to drink ardent spirits in a mean and musty public house the unavoidable station on the via dolorosa of her life missus verloc's comment upon this practice
had an unexpected profundity as coming from a person disinclined to look under the surface of things of course what is she to do to keep up if i were like missus neale i expect i wouldn't act any different
in the afternoon of the same day as mister verloc coming with a start out of the last of a long series of dozes before the parlour fire declared his intention of going out for a walk winnie said from the shop
for the third time that day mister verloc was surprised he stared stupidly at his wife she continued in her steady manner the boy whenever he was not doing anything moped in the house
it made her uneasy it made her nervous she confessed and that from the calm winnie sounded like exaggeration but in truth
and his head in his hands to come upon his pallid face with its big eyes gleaming in the dusk was discomposing to think of him up there was uncomfortable mister verloc got used to the startling novelty of the idea
he was fond of his wife as a man should be that is generously but a weighty objection presented itself to his mind and he formulated it he'll lose sight of me perhaps and get lost in the street he said
missus verloc shook her head competently he won't you don't know him that boy just worships you
you just go on and have your walk out don't worry
this optimism procured for mister verloc his fourth surprise of the day is he he grunted doubtfully but perhaps his brother in law was not such an idiot as he looked his wife would know best
he turned away his heavy eyes saying huskily well let him come along then and relapsed into the clutches of black care that perhaps prefers to sit behind a horseman but knows also how to tread close on the heels of people not sufficiently well off to keep horses
like mister verloc for instance winnie at the shop door did not see this fatal attendant upon mister verloc's walks she watched the two figures down the squalid street one tall and burly the other slight and short
with a thin neck and the peaked shoulders raised slightly under the large semi transparent ears the material of their overcoats was the same their hats were black and round in shape
inspired by the similarity of wearing apparel missus verloc gave rein to her fancy might be father and son she said to herself she thought also that mister verloc was as much of a father as poor stevie ever had in his life
and with peaceful pride she congratulated herself on a certain resolution she had taken a few years before
she congratulated herself still more on observing in the course of days that mister verloc seemed to be taking kindly to stevie's companionship now when ready to go out for his walk mister verloc called aloud to the boy
in the spirit no doubt in which a man invites the attendance of the household dog though of course in a different manner in the house mister verloc could be detected staring curiously at stevie a good deal his own demeanour had changed
taciturn still he was not so listless missus verloc thought that he was rather jumpy at times it might have been regarded as an improvement as to stevie he moped no longer at the foot of the clock but muttered to himself in corners instead
this was a change but it was no improvement missus verloc including all these vagaries under the general definition of excitement began to fear that stevie was hearing more than was good for him of her husband's conversations with his friends
during his walks mister verloc of course met and conversed with various persons it could hardly be otherwise his walks were an integral part of his outdoor activities which his wife had never looked deeply into
it only excited the poor boy because he could not help them being so
but he refrained from pointing out to his wife that the idea of making stevie the companion of his walks was her own and nobody else's at that moment to an impartial observer mister verloc would have appeared more than human in his magnanimity
he took down a small
peeped in to see that the contents were all right and put it down gently on the counter not till that was done did he break the silence to the effect that most likely stevie would profit greatly by being sent out of town for a while
only he supposed his wife could not get on without him could not get on without him repeated missus verloc slowly i couldn't get on without him if it were for his good
the idea of course i can get on without him but there's nowhere for him to go mister verloc got out some brown paper and a ball of string and meanwhile he muttered that michaelis was living in a little cottage in the country
michaelis wouldn't mind giving stevie a room to sleep in there were no visitors and no talk there michaelis was writing a book missus verloc declared her affection for michaelis mentioned her abhorrence of karl yundt
as to stevie he could be no other than very pleased mister michaelis was always so nice and kind to him he seemed to like the boy well the boy was a good boy you too seem to have grown
quite fond of him of late she added after a pause with her inflexible assurance mister verloc tying up the cardboard box into a parcel for the post broke the string by an injudicious jerk and muttered several swear words confidentially to himself
then raising his tone to the usual husky mutter he announced his willingness to take stevie into the country himself and leave him all safe with michaelis he carried out this scheme on the very next day
stevie offered no objection he seemed rather eager in a bewildered sort of way he turned his candid gaze inquisitively to mister verloc's heavy countenance at frequent intervals especially when his sister was not looking at him
his expression was proud apprehensive and concentrated like that of a small child entrusted for the first time with a box of matches
but missus verloc gratified by her brother's docility recommended him not to dirty his clothes unduly in the country at this stevie gave his sister guardian and protector a look
which for the first time in his life seemed to lack the quality of perfect childlike trustfulness it was haughtily gloomy missus verloc smiled goodness me you needn't be offended
you know you do get yourself very untidy when you get a chance stevie mister verloc was already gone some way down the street thus in consequence of her mother's heroic proceedings and of her brother's absence on this villegiature
missus verloc found herself oftener than usual all alone not only in the shop but in the house for mister verloc had to take his walks she was alone longer than usual on the day of the attempted bomb outrage in greenwich park
because mister verloc went out very early that morning and did not come back till nearly dusk she did not mind being alone she had no desire to go out
sitting behind the counter with some sewing she did not raise her eyes from her work when mister verloc entered in the aggressive clatter of the bell she had recognised his step on the pavement outside she did not raise her eyes but as mister verloc
silent and with his hat rammed down upon his forehead made straight for the parlour door she said serenely what a wretched day you've been perhaps to see stevie no i haven't said mister verloc softly
and slammed the glazed parlour door behind him with unexpected energy for some time missus verloc remained quiescent with her work dropped in her lap before she put it away under the counter and got up to light the gas this done
she went into the parlour on her way to the kitchen mister verloc would want his tea presently confident of the power of her charms winnie did not expect from her husband in the daily intercourse of their married life
a ceremonious amenity of address and courtliness of manner vain and antiquated forms at best probably never very exactly observed discarded nowadays even in the highest spheres and always foreign to the standards of her class
she did not look for courtesies from him but he was a good husband and she had a loyal respect for his rights missus verloc would have gone through the parlour and on to her domestic duties in the kitchen
grew upon her hearing bizarre and incomprehensible it arrested missus verloc's attention then as its character became plain to the ear she stopped short amazed and concerned
striking a match on the box she held in her hand she turned on and lighted above the parlour table one of the two gas burners which being defective first whistled as if astonished and then went on purring comfortably like a cat
mister verloc against his usual practice had thrown off his overcoat it was lying on the sofa his hat which he must also have thrown off rested overturned under the edge of the sofa
and his feet planted inside the fender his head held between his hands he was hanging low over the glowing grate his teeth rattled with an ungovernable violence causing his whole enormous back to tremble at the same rate
missus verloc was startled you've been getting wet she said not very mister verloc managed to falter out in a profound shudder by a great effort he suppressed the rattling of his teeth
i'll have you laid up on my hands she said with genuine uneasiness i don't think so remarked mister verloc snuffling huskily
he had certainly contrived somehow to catch an abominable cold between seven in the morning and five in the afternoon missus verloc looked at his bowed back where have you been to day she asked nowhere
answered mister verloc in a low choked nasal tone his attitude suggested aggrieved sulks or a severe headache the unsufficiency and uncandidness of his answer became painfully apparent in the dead silence of the room
he snuffled apologetically and added i've been to the bank missus verloc became attentive you have she said dispassionately what for mister verloc mumbled with his nose over the grate and with marked unwillingness
draw the money out what do you mean all of it yes all of it missus verloc spread out with care the scanty table cloth got two knives and two forks out of the table drawer and suddenly stopped in her methodical proceedings
what did you do that for may want it soon snuffled vaguely mister verloc who was coming to the end of his calculated indiscretions
she laid two plates got the bread the butter
on the point of taking out the jam she reflected practically he will be feeling hungry having been away all day and she returned to the cupboard once more to get the cold beef she set it under the purring gas jet and with a passing glance
at her motionless husband hugging the fire she went down two steps into the kitchen it was only when coming back carving knife and fork in hand
i wouldn't have married you bowed under the overmantel mister verloc holding his head in both hands seemed to have gone to sleep
mister verloc got up at once and staggered a little before he sat down at the table
and called his attention to the cold beef he remained insensible to the suggestion with his chin on his breast you should feed your cold missus verloc said dogmatically he looked up and shook his head
his eyes were bloodshot and his face red his fingers had ruffled his hair into a dissipated untidiness altogether he had a disreputable aspect expressive of the discomfort the irritation
but mister verloc was not a debauched man in his conduct he was respectable his appearance might have been the effect of a feverish cold he drank three cups of tea but abstained from food entirely he recoiled from it
with sombre aversion when urged by missus verloc who said at last aren't your feet wet you had better put on your slippers you aren't going out any more this evening mister verloc intimated by morose grunts and signs that his feet were not wet
and that anyhow he did not care the proposal as to slippers was disregarded as beneath his notice but the question of going out in the evening received an unexpected development
it was not of going out in the evening that mister verloc was thinking his thoughts embraced a vaster scheme from moody and incomplete phrases it became apparent that mister verloc had been considering the expediency of emigrating
france or california the utter unexpectedness improbability and inconceivableness of such an event robbed this vague declaration of all its effect
you've a bad cold it was indeed obvious that mister verloc was not in his usual state physically and even mentally a sombre irresolution held him silent for a while
then he murmured a few ominous generalities on the theme of necessity will have to
i should like to know who's to make you you ain't a slave no one need be a slave in this country and don't you make yourself one she paused and with invincible and steady candour the business isn't so bad she went on you've a comfortable home
it was in all essentials of domestic propriety and domestic comfort a respectable home her devoted affection missed out of it her brother stevie now enjoying a damp villegiature in the kentish lanes under the care of mister michaelis
she missed him poignantly with all the force of her protecting passion this was the boy's home too the roof the cupboard the stoked grate on this thought
missus verloc rose and walking to the other end of the table said in the fulness of her heart and you are not tired of me mister verloc made no sound
winnie leaned on his shoulder from behind and pressed her lips to his forehead thus she lingered not a whisper reached them from the outside world the sound of footsteps on the pavement died out in the discreet dimness of the shop
only the gas jet above the table went on purring equably in the brooding silence of the parlour during the contact of that unexpected and lingering kiss mister verloc gripping with both hands the edges of his chair
preserved a hieratic immobility when the pressure was removed he let go the chair rose and went to stand before the fireplace he turned no longer his back to the room with his features swollen and an air of being drugged
he followed his wife's movements with his eyes missus verloc went about serenely clearing up the table her tranquil voice commented the idea thrown out in a reasonable and domestic tone it wouldn't stand examination
she condemned it from every point of view but her only real concern was stevie's welfare he appeared to her thought in that connection as sufficiently peculiar not to be taken rashly abroad and that was all
but talking round that vital point she approached absolute vehemence in her delivery meanwhile with brusque movements she arrayed herself in an apron for the washing up of cups and as if excited by the sound of her uncontradicted voice
she went so far as to say in a tone almost tart if you go abroad you'll have to go without me you know i wouldn't said mister verloc huskily and the unresonant voice of his private life trembled with an enigmatical emotion
already missus verloc was regretting her words they had sounded more unkind than she meant them to be they had also the unwisdom of unnecessary things in fact she had not meant them at all
it was a sort of phrase that is suggested by the demon of perverse inspiration but she knew a way to make it as if it had not been
and gave that man planted heavily in front of the fireplace a glance half arch half cruel out of her large eyes a glance of which the winnie of the belgravian mansion days would have been incapable
because of her respectability and her ignorance but the man was her husband now and she was no longer ignorant she kept it on him for a whole second with her grave face motionless like a mask while she said playfully
you couldn't you would miss me too much mister verloc started forward exactly he said in a louder tone throwing his arms out and making a step towards her something wild and doubtful in his expression
made it appear uncertain whether he meant to strangle or to embrace his wife but missus verloc's attention was called away from that manifestation by the clatter of the shop bell shop adolf you go he stopped
his arms came down slowly you go repeated missus verloc i've got my apron on mister verloc obeyed woodenly stony eyed and like an automaton whose face had been painted red
and this resemblance to a mechanical figure went so far that he had an automaton's absurd air of being aware of the machinery inside of him he closed the parlour door and missus verloc moving briskly
carried the tray into the kitchen she washed the cups and some other things before she stopped in her work to listen no sound reached her the customer was a long time in the shop it was a customer
because if he had not been mister verloc would have taken him inside undoing the strings of her apron with a jerk she threw it on a chair and walked back to the parlour slowly at that precise moment mister verloc entered from the shop
he had gone in red he came out a strange papery white his face losing its drugged feverish stupor had in that short time acquired a bewildered and harassed expression
he walked straight to the sofa and stood looking down at his overcoat lying there as though he were afraid to touch it what's the matter asked missus verloc in a subdued voice
through the door left ajar she could see that the customer was not gone yet i find i'll have to go out this evening said mister verloc he did not attempt to pick up his outer garment
walked in behind the counter she did not look overtly at the customer till she had established herself comfortably on the chair but by that time she had noted that he was tall and thin and wore his moustaches twisted up
in fact he gave the sharp points a twist just then his long bony face rose out of a turned up collar he was a little splashed a little wet
a dark man with the ridge of the cheek bone well defined under the slightly hollow temple a complete stranger not a customer either missus verloc looked at him placidly you came over from the continent
she said after a time the long thin stranger without exactly looking at missus verloc answered only by a faint and peculiar smile missus verloc's steady incurious gaze rested on him
you understand english don't you oh yes i understand english there was nothing foreign in his accent except that he seemed in his slow enunciation to be taking pains with it
and missus verloc in her varied experience had come to the conclusion that some foreigners could speak better english than the natives she said looking at the door of the parlour fixedly you don't think perhaps of staying in england for good
the stranger gave her again a silent smile he had a kindly mouth and probing eyes and he shook his head a little sadly it seemed my husband will see you through all right meantime for a
few days you couldn't do better than take lodgings with mister giugliani continental hotel it's called private it's quiet my husband will take you there a good idea said the thin dark man whose glance had hardened suddenly
you knew mister verloc before didn't you perhaps in france i have heard of him admitted the visitor in his slow painstaking tone which yet had a certain curtness of intention
your husband has not gone out to wait for me in the street by chance in the street repeated missus verloc surprised he couldn't there's no other door to the house
then left her seat to go and peep through the glazed door suddenly she opened it and disappeared into the parlour mister verloc had done no more than put on his overcoat
propped up on his two arms as though he were feeling giddy or sick she could not understand adolf she called out half aloud and when he had raised himself do you know that man she asked rapidly i've heard of him
whispered uneasily mister verloc darting a wild glance at the door missus verloc's fine incurious eyes lighted up with a flash of abhorrence one of karl yundt's friends beastly old man no no protested mister verloc
busy fishing for his hat but when he got it from under the sofa he held it as if he did not know the use of a hat well he's waiting for you said missus verloc at last i say adolf
talked of the embassy to you mister verloc seemed scared and bewildered beyond measure his wife explained you've been talking a little in your sleep of late adolf what what did i say what do you know
nothing much it seemed mostly nonsense enough to let me guess that something worried you mister verloc rammed his hat on his head a crimson flood of anger ran over his face nonsense eh
the embassy people i would cut their hearts out one after another but let them look out i've got a tongue in my head he fumed pacing up and down between the table and the sofa his open overcoat catching against the angles
the red flood of anger ebbed out and left his face all white with quivering nostrils missus verloc for the purposes of practical existence put down these appearances to the cold well she said
get rid of the man whoever he is as soon as you can and come back home to me you want looking after for a day or two mister verloc calmed down and with resolution imprinted on his pale face had already opened the door when his wife called him back in a whisper
what about that money you drew out she asked you've got it in your pocket hadn't you better mister verloc gazed stupidly into the palm of his wife's extended hand for some time before he slapped his brow money
yes yes i didn't know what you meant he drew out of his breast pocket a new pigskin pocket book missus verloc received it without another word and stood still till the bell
only then she peeped in at the amount drawing the notes out for the purpose after this inspection she looked round thoughtfully with an air of mistrust in the silence and solitude of the house this abode of her married life appeared to her
as lonely and unsafe as though it had been situated in the midst of a forest no receptacle she could think of amongst the solid heavy furniture seemed other but flimsy and particularly tempting to her conception of a house breaker
i whispered for the curate several times and at last felt my way to the door of the kitchen it was still daylight and i perceived him across the room lying against the triangular hole that looked out upon the martians
through the aperture in the wall i could see the top of a tree touched with gold and the warm blue of a tranquil evening sky for a minute or so i remained watching the curate and then i advanced crouching and stepping with extreme care amid the broken crockery
that littered the floor i touched the curate's leg and he started so violently that a mass of plaster went sliding down outside and fell with a loud impact i gripped his arm fearing he might cry out and for a long time we crouched motionless
then i turned to see how much of our rampart remained the detachment of the plaster had left a vertical slit open in the debris and by raising myself cautiously across a beam i was able to see out of this gap into what had been overnight a quiet suburban roadway
the building had vanished completely smashed pulverised and dispersed by the blow the cylinder lay now far beneath the original foundations deep in a hole already vastly larger than the pit i had looked into at woking
the earth all round it had splashed under that tremendous impact splashed is the only word and lay in heaped piles that hid the masses of the adjacent houses it had behaved exactly like mud under the violent blow of a hammer our house had collapsed backward
the front portion even on the ground floor had been destroyed completely by a chance the kitchen and scullery had escaped and stood buried now under soil and ruins closed in by tons of earth on every side save towards the cylinder
over that aspect we hung now on the very edge of the great circular pit the martians were engaged in making the heavy beating sound was evidently just behind us and ever and again a bright green vapour drove up like a veil across our peephole
the cylinder was already opened in the centre of the pit and on the farther edge of the pit amid the smashed and gravel heaped shrubbery one of the great fighting machines deserted by its occupant stood stiff and tall against the evening sky
at first i scarcely noticed the pit and the cylinder
on account of the extraordinary glittering mechanism i saw busy in the excavation
and painfully across the heaped mould near it the mechanism it certainly was that held my attention first it was one of those complicated fabrics
and the study of which has already given such an enormous impetus to terrestrial invention as it dawned upon me first it presented a sort of metallic spider with five jointed agile legs
and with an extraordinary number of jointed levers bars and reaching and clutching tentacles about its body most of its arms were retracted but with three long tentacles it was fishing out a number of rods plates and bars which lined the covering and apparently strengthened the walls of the cylinder
its motion was so swift complex and perfect that at first i did not see it as a machine in spite of its metallic glitter the fighting machines were coordinated and animated to an extraordinary pitch but nothing to compare with this
people who have never seen these structures and have only the ill imagined efforts of artists or the imperfect descriptions of such eye witnesses as myself to go upon scarcely realise that living quality i recall particularly the illustration
of one of the first pamphlets to give a consecutive account of the war the artist had evidently made a hasty study of one of the fighting machines and there his knowledge ended he presented them as tilted stiff tripods without either flexibility or subtlety
and with an altogether misleading monotony of effect the pamphlet containing these renderings had a considerable vogue and i mention them here simply to warn the reader against the impression they may have created they were no more like the martians i saw in action than a dutch doll is like a human being
to my mind the pamphlet would have been much better without them at first i say the handling machine did not impress me as a machine but as a crablike creature with a glittering integument the controlling martian whose delicate tentacles actuated its movements
seeming to be simply the equivalent of the crab's cerebral portion but then i perceived the resemblance of its grey brown shiny leathery integument to that of the other sprawling bodies beyond and the true nature of this dexterous workman dawned upon me
with that realisation my interest shifted to those other creatures the real martians
and the first nausea no longer obscured my observation moreover i was concealed and motionless and under no urgency of action they were i now saw the most unearthly creatures it is possible to conceive they were huge round bodies
or rather heads about four feet in diameter each body having in front of it a face this face had no nostrils
but it had a pair of very large dark coloured eyes and just beneath this a kind of fleshy beak in the back of this head or body i scarcely know how to speak of it was the single tight tympanic surface
since known to be anatomically an ear though it must have been almost useless
in a group round the mouth were sixteen slender almost whiplike tentacles arranged in two bunches of eight each these bunches have since been named rather aptly by that distinguished anatomist professor howes the hands
even as i saw these martians for the first time they seemed to be endeavouring to raise themselves on these hands but of course with the increased weight of terrestrial conditions this was impossible there is reason to suppose that on mars they may have progressed upon them with some facility
the internal anatomy i may remark here as dissection has since shown was almost equally simple the greater part of the structure was the brain
besides this were the bulky lungs into which the mouth opened and the heart and its vessels the pulmonary distress caused by the denser atmosphere and greater gravitational attraction was only too evident in the convulsive movements of the outer skin
and this was the sum of the martian organs strange as it may seem to a human being all the complex apparatus of digestion which makes up the bulk of our bodies did not exist in the martians they were heads merely heads entrails they had none
they did not eat much less digest instead they took the fresh living blood of other creatures and injected it into their own veins i have myself seen this being done as i shall mention in its place but
squeamish as i may seem i cannot bring myself to describe what i could not endure even to continue watching let it suffice to say blood obtained from a still living animal in most cases from a human being was run directly by means of a little pipette
into the recipient canal the bare idea of this is no doubt horribly repulsive to us
to an intelligent rabbit the physiological advantages of the practice of injection are undeniable if one thinks of the tremendous waste of human time and energy occasioned by eating and the digestive process
our bodies are half made up of glands and tubes and organs occupied in turning heterogeneous food into blood the digestive processes and their reaction upon the nervous system sap our strength and colour our minds
men go happy or miserable as they have healthy or unhealthy livers or sound gastric glands but the martians were lifted above all these organic fluctuations of mood and emotion their undeniable preference for men as their source of nourishment
is partly explained by the nature of the remains of the victims they had brought with them as provisions from mars these creatures to judge from the shrivelled remains that have fallen into human hands were bipeds with flimsy silicious skeletons almost like those of the silicious sponges
and feeble musculature standing about six feet high and having round erect heads and large eyes in flinty sockets two or three of these seem to have been brought in each cylinder and all were killed before earth was reached it was just as well for them
for the mere attempt to stand upright upon our planet would have broken every bone in their bodies and while i am engaged in this description i may add in this place certain further details which although they were not all evident to us at the time
will enable the reader who is unacquainted with them to form a clearer picture of these offensive creatures in three other points their physiology differed strangely from ours their organisms did not sleep any more than the heart of man sleeps
since they had no extensive muscular mechanism to recuperate that periodical extinction was unknown to them they had little or no sense of fatigue it would seem on earth they could never have moved without effort yet even to the last they kept in action
in twenty four hours they did twenty four hours of work as even on earth is perhaps the case with the ants in the next place wonderful as it seems in a sexual world the martians were absolutely without sex
and therefore without any of the tumultuous emotions that arise from that difference among men a young martian there can now be no dispute was really born upon earth during the war and it was found attached to its parent partially budded off
just as young lilybulbs bud off or like the young animals in the fresh water polyp in man in all the higher terrestrial animals such a method of increase has disappeared but even on this earth it was certainly the primitive method
the tunicates the two processes occur side by side but finally the sexual method superseded its competitor altogether on mars however just the reverse has apparently been the case
writing long before the martian invasion did forecast for man a final structure not unlike the actual martian condition his prophecy i remember appeared in november or december eighteen ninety three
in a long defunct publication the pall mall budget and i recall a caricature of it in a pre martian periodical called punch he pointed out writing in a foolish facetious tone
that the perfection of mechanical appliances must ultimately supersede limbs the perfection of chemical devices digestion that such organs as hair external nose teeth ears and chin were no longer essential parts of the human being
and that the tendency of natural selection would lie in the direction of their steady diminution through the coming ages the brain alone remained a cardinal necessity only one other part of the body had a strong case for survival and that was the hand
teacher and agent of the brain while the rest of the body dwindled the hands would grow larger there is many a true word written in jest and here in the martians we have beyond dispute the actual accomplishment of such a suppression
of the animal side of the organism by the intelligence to me it is quite credible that the martians may be descended from beings
the latter giving rise to the two bunches of delicate tentacles at last at the expense of the rest of the body without the body the brain would of course
without any of the emotional substratum of the human being the last salient point in which the systems of these creatures differed from ours
micro organisms which cause so much disease and pain on earth have either never appeared upon mars or martian sanitary science eliminated them ages ago a hundred diseases all the fevers and contagions of human life consumption cancers tumours
and such morbidities never enter the scheme of their life and speaking of the differences between the life on mars and terrestrial life i may allude here to the curious suggestions of the red weed
is of a vivid blood red tint at any rate the seeds which the martians intentionally or accidentally brought with them gave rise in all cases to red coloured growths only that known popularly as the red weed however
the red creeper was quite a transitory growth and few people have seen it growing for a time however the red weed grew with astonishing vigour and luxuriance it spread up the sides of the pit by the third or fourth day of our imprisonment
and its cactus like branches formed a carmine fringe to the edges of our triangular window and afterwards i found it broadcast throughout the country and especially wherever there was a stream of water the martians had what appears to have been an auditory organ
a single round drum at the back of the head body and eyes with a visual range not very different from ours except that according to philips blue and violet were as black to them
it is commonly supposed that they communicated by sounds and tentacular gesticulations this is asserted for instance in the able but hastily compiled pamphlet written evidently by someone not an eye witness of martian actions
to which i have already alluded and which so far has been the chief source of information concerning them now no surviving human being saw so much of the martians in action as i did i take no credit to myself for an accident but the fact is so
and i assert that i watched them closely time after time and that i have seen four five and once six of them sluggishly performing the most elaborately complicated operations together without either sound or gesture their peculiar hooting
invariably preceded feeding it had no modulation and was i believe in no sense a signal but merely the expiration of air preparatory to the suctional operation i have a certain claim to at least an elementary knowledge of psychology
and in this matter i am convinced as firmly as i am convinced of anything that the martians interchanged thoughts without any physical intermediation and i have been convinced of this in spite of strong preconceptions before the martian invasion
as an occasional reader here or there may remember i had written with some little vehemence against the telepathic theory the martians wore no clothing their conceptions of ornament and decorum were necessarily different from ours
and not only were they evidently much less sensible of changes of temperature than we are but changes of pressure do not seem to have affected their health at all seriously yet though they wore no clothing
it was in the other artificial additions to their bodily resources that their great superiority over man lay we men with our bicycles and road skates our lilienthal soaring machines our guns and sticks and so forth are just in the beginning of the evolution that the martians have worked out
they have become practically mere brains wearing different bodies according to their needs just as men wear suits of clothes and take a bicycle in a hurry or an umbrella in the wet and of their appliances
perhaps nothing is more wonderful to a man than the curious fact that what is the dominant feature of almost all human devices in mechanism is absent the wheel is absent
among all the things they brought to earth there is no trace or suggestion of their use of wheels
or has preferred other expedients to its development and not only did the martians either not know of which is incredible or abstain from the wheel but in their apparatus singularly little use is made of the fixed pivot or relatively fixed pivot with circular motions thereabout confined
to one plane almost all the joints of the machinery present a complicated system of sliding parts moving over small but beautifully curved friction bearings and while upon this matter of detail it is remarkable that the long leverages of their machines
these disks become polarised and drawn closely and powerfully together when traversed by a current of electricity in this way the curious parallelism to animal motions which was so striking and disturbing to the human beholder was attained
such quasi muscles abounded in the crablike handling machine which on my first peeping out of the slit i watched unpacking the cylinder it seemed infinitely more alive than the actual martians lying beyond it in the sunset light panting stirring ineffectual tentacles
and moving feebly after their vast journey across space while i was still watching their sluggish motions in the sunlight and noting each strange detail of their form the curate reminded me of his presence by pulling violently at my arm i turned to a scowling face
and silent eloquent lips he wanted the slit which permitted only one of us to peep through and so i had to forego watching them for a time while he enjoyed that privilege when i looked again
into a shape having an unmistakable likeness to its own and down on the left a busy little digging mechanism had come into view emitting jets of green vapour and working its way round the pit excavating and embanking in a methodical and discriminating manner
that had kept our ruinous refuge quivering
instead of keeping close to me and trying to oust me from the slit the curate had gone back into the scullery i was struck by a sudden thought i went back quickly and quietly into the scullery in the darkness i heard the curate drinking
i snatched in the darkness and my fingers caught a bottle of burgundy for a few minutes there was a tussle the bottle struck the floor and broke
we stood panting and threatening each other in the end i planted myself between him and the food and told him of my determination to begin a discipline i divided the food in the pantry into rations to last us ten days i would not let him eat any more that day
i had been dozing but in an instant i was awake all day and all night we sat face to face i weary but resolute and he weeping and complaining of his immediate hunger
it seems now an interminable length of time and so our widened incompatibility ended at last in open conflict for two vast days we struggled in undertones and wrestling contests there were times when i beat and kicked him madly times when i cajoled and persuaded him
and once i tried to bribe him with the last bottle of burgundy for there was a rain water pump from which i could get water but neither force nor kindness availed he was indeed beyond reason he would neither desist from his attacks on the food nor from his noisy babbling to himself
the rudimentary precautions to keep our imprisonment endurable he would not observe slowly i began to realise the complete overthrow of his intelligence to perceive that my sole companion in this close and sickly darkness was a man insane
from certain vague memories i am inclined to think my own mind wandered at times i had strange and hideous dreams whenever i slept it sounds paradoxical but i am inclined to think that the weakness and insanity of the curate warned me braced me and kept me a sane man
and nothing i could do would moderate his speech it is just o god he would say over and over again it is just on me and mine be the punishment laid we have sinned we have fallen short there was poverty sorrow
and i held my peace i preached acceptable folly my god what folly when i should have stood up though i died for it and called upon them to repent repent oppressors of the poor and needy the wine press of god
then he would suddenly revert to the matter of the food i withheld from him praying begging weeping at last threatening he began to raise his voice i prayed him not to he perceived a hold on me
he threatened he would shout and bring the martians upon us for a time that scared me
i defied him although i felt no assurance that he might not do this thing but that day at any rate he did not he talked with his voice rising slowly through the greater part of the eighth and ninth days threats entreaties mingled with a torrent of half sane
and always frothy repentance for his vacant sham of god's service such as made me pity him then he slept awhile and began again with renewed strength so loudly that i must needs make him desist be still i implored
i have been still too long he said in a tone that must have reached the pit
woe woe to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet shut up i said rising to my feet and in a terror lest the martians should hear us for god's sake nay shouted the curate
at the top of his voice standing likewise and extending his arms speak the word of the lord is upon me in three strides he was at the door leading into the kitchen
i put out my hand and felt the meat chopper hanging to the wall in a flash i was after him i was fierce with fear
with one last touch of humanity i turned the blade back and struck him with the butt he went headlong forward and lay stretched on the ground i stumbled over him and stood panting he lay still suddenly i heard a noise without
the run and smash of slipping plaster and the triangular aperture in the wall was darkened i looked up and saw the lower surface of a handling machine coming slowly across the hole
another limb appeared feeling its way over the fallen beams i stood petrified staring then i saw through a sort of glass plate near the edge of the body the face as we may call it and the large dark eyes of a martian peering
and then a long metallic snake of tentacle came feeling slowly through the hole i turned by an effort stumbled over the curate and stopped at the scullery door the tentacle was now some way two yards or more in the room
and twisting and turning with queer sudden movements this way and that for a while i stood fascinated by that slow fitful advance then with a faint hoarse cry i forced myself across the scullery i trembled violently
i could scarcely stand upright i opened the door of the coal cellar and stood there in the darkness staring at the faintly lit doorway into the kitchen and listening had the martian seen me what was it doing now
something was moving to and fro there very quietly every now and then it tapped against the wall or started on its movements with a faint metallic ringing like the movements of keys on a split ring
then a heavy body i knew too well what was dragged across the floor of the kitchen towards the opening irresistibly attracted
in the triangle of bright outer sunlight i saw the martian in its briareus of a handling machine scrutinizing the curate's head
and as noiselessly as possible in the darkness among the firewood and coal therein every now and then i paused rigid to hear if the martian had thrust its tentacles through the opening again then the faint metallic jingle returned
i traced it slowly feeling over the kitchen presently i heard it nearer in the scullery as i judged i thought that its length might be insufficient to reach me i prayed copiously it passed scraping faintly across the cellar door
an age of almost intolerable suspense intervened then i heard it fumbling at the latch
the martians understood doors it worried at the catch for a minute perhaps and then the door opened in the darkness i could just see the thing like an elephant's trunk more than anything else
once even it touched the heel of my boot i was on the verge of screaming i bit my hand for a time the tentacle was silent i could have fancied it had been withdrawn presently with an abrupt click it gripped something i thought it had me
and seemed to go out of the cellar again for a minute i was not sure apparently it had taken a lump of coal to examine i seized the opportunity of slightly shifting my position which had become cramped and then listened
i whispered passionate prayers for safety then i heard the slow deliberate sound creeping towards me again slowly slowly it drew near scratching against the walls and tapping the furniture
while i was still doubtful it rapped smartly against the cellar door and closed it i heard it go into the pantry and the biscuit tins rattled and a bottle smashed and then came a heavy bump against the cellar door then silence that passed
into an infinity of suspense had it gone at last i decided that it had it came into the scullery no more but i lay all the tenth day in the close darkness
it is interesting to note that all france could be placed in the state of texas and there would be room enough left for belgium holland denmark and switzerland one in each corner even then delaware and the district of columbia could be put in for good measure
about half of the people of france depend wholly upon agriculture for their living instead of living on farms as we do they live in small villages their farms are very small generally running from two to fifteen acres
as a rule the soil is thin and unproductive but with their patient toil careful methods of farming and a very liberal use of fertilizer they raise abundant crops
the balance is in forests and streams highways canals and railways when the war broke out there were about four million french families who owned their homes and a thriftier and more industrious people could hardly be found in eighteen seventy one
besides the provinces of alsace and lorraine he thought he had the people of france throttled for a generation but to his very great amazement every dollar of this huge sum was paid in less than three years
this fact is but an indication that the french are a race of savers a silent revolution in the habits of the peasant people has been the outcome of the war ages ago an uprising took the land away from wealthy owners and gave it to the peasants
a few years later napoleon had enacted or rather established a code by which a man's property was equally divided between his children thus if a man died leaving four children and an eight acre farm it was divided into four strips of two acres each
then in the course of time one of these children died leaving four children his two acre farm was divided into four strips of a half acre each thus a great portion of the land is cut up into little strips and gardens
often miles from each other this often brought complications and made it impossible to introduce modern farm implements and do away with much of the drudgery of peasant life this is one advantage that grew out of the war in many places
in the devastated areas all landmarks were often obliterated and in many cases the government brought in tractors and plowed great fields which before the war were hundreds of little farms and gardens
no ordinary farmer ever became able to have modern farm implements himself and they never dreamed that several of them could go together and purchase a binder a thresher or tractor their one standby was the hoe
and not only the man but his wife and children often had to work from daylight until dark to keep the wolf from the door since the war a new day has dawned for the french peasantry it was very hard for some of them to give up their old notions and customs
but it meant a new order for all who were in the pathway of the war
they had no amusements no daily papers and in some places no songs the famous man with the hoe is a picture of the french farmer in many of the rebuilt villages now they have amusements and movies and in many cases public libraries have been started
it is said that in many of the farmhouses of the french peasantry may be seen hanging little colored prints representing the main professions at the top of a stairway stands a king with the motto i rule you all on a step below is a priest who says
i pray for you all still farther down stands the soldier who says i defend you all
i feed you all the french peasant seemed to take this for granted and never imagined that while doing it he might have advantages and pleasures that would help to make life worth living of course there are great industries and industrial centers in france the city of lille
was before the war the pittsburg of france this city was not only the center of the textile industry but had scores and hundreds of factories and machine shops of all kinds while the city itself was not totally destroyed the factories were almost completely ruined
in some cases railroad tracks were laid into the buildings and whole trainloads of costly machinery were shipped out of the country i saw the inside of many of these buildings where high explosives were used and all that was left was the shell of the building the inside being one mass
of twisted iron girders and broken concrete of course the idea of the enemy was to make it impossible for french factories to ever again compete with their own so they attempted to destroy all they left they especially looked after all patterns and plans and thought they were making a clean sweep
in one case a great factory that covered sixty acres of ground was destroyed but the owners had a branch factory in southern france and immediately began manufacturing duplicate machinery so that when the war closed
all that was needed was the transportation facilities to get the machinery to lille
there were coal mines in the district at all the writer went over these ruins after the war closed and it is simply beyond the imagination to picture the actual conditions at that time the course of small rivers and streams were changed so that the water could be run into these mines
one quite remarkable distinction is noticeable to a stranger going through france
the land may be farmed on all sides up to the factory buildings the men often work in these factories while the women and children and old men do the work on the farms portions of southern france are noted for the beautiful vineyards bordeaux and other brands of wine are famous the world around
some of our boys are laughing yet about the french methods of making wine the grapes are gathered and piled into a great vat when this receptacle is filled men women and children take off their shoes and most all of their clothes and climb in
here they walk and jump and tramp until the whole thing is a mass of pulp
after all the wine has been extracted by these various methods they use the pulp in the manufacture of a powerful intoxicant but this is not generally used as a beverage
of course all understand that in many places they have modern machinery and make wine along scientific lines but in many cases they use these old methods to this day
even in the darkest days their faith never wavered and they firmly believed they would be victorious as a monument of this faith there is in paris today the most wonderful painting perhaps that was ever put upon canvas it is called the pantheon de guerre
and is a marvelous cycloramic painting of the war it was opened up to the public soon after the armistice was signed and the writer saw it while attending the peace conference many remember the wonderful representation of the battle of gettysburg which used to be in chicago
this paris cyclorama is along the same line but ten times more wonderful it is three hundred and seventy four feet in circumference and forty five high the actual preparation of this began in october nineteen fourteen
and while the army of the invaders was within thirty miles of paris and the big guns were shaking the city more than twenty artists were working on the marvelous production the central figure is a woman mounted upon a high pedestal which stands in front of a huge temple
and she is holding aloft the laurel wreath of victory upon the first step of a giant stairway which leads to the temple is a group of french heroes
foch petain and many others while in front of them are guns and flags bearing marks of conflict the only allusion to germany in the whole painting is in the battle scarred flags and guns which were used in the first battle of the marne
upon this gigantic stairway are life size figures of more than five thousand people nearly everyone of which is a life sketch of some french hero of the war among them are many women whose heroic work and influence will live forever
at the base and on the steps is a woman dressed in mourning kneeling in the attitude of prayer while nearby is a wreath inscribed to the unknown dead back of the tomb in the distance
you can see the rays of the setting sun and in some indescribable way they are lighting up the faces of those on the temple stairway like a beautiful rainbow of promise while the tomb itself is left in the shadows of the declining day
in the group representing belgium it is only natural that edith cavil should have a prominent place to be sure king albert and his queen and others are there as in belgium the first casualties occurred
it is fitting that here alone is seen a wounded man and the red cross workers are caring for him as he lies upon a stretcher here too are seen the broken pieces of a cathedral tower with a chalice and altar and cardinal mercier in his priestly robes
while lying on the steps between him and the king is the torn scrap of paper but it would take pages of this book to give an adequate description of the entire panorama of course all the allies are represented
in a group representing the united states president wilson is one of the chief figures i am told that the picture of general pershing is a life sized painting which he was kind enough to sit for to be used in this production
here is also seen an american indian a cowboy a merchant and an artisan an american flag is borne aloft while four west point cadets suggest training and leadership women relief workers of all kinds are seen
then extending entirely around the room above and back of all these groups is a profile map of france from the channel to the swiss border here can be seen the principal towns and cities involved during the war here too can be seen all the modern implements of war
and everything is actual or life size as i stood gazing upon this wonderful production of artistic genius
pride beauty indignation mourning genius art science invention generalship statesmanship honor love tenderness devotion heroism and glory
are all intermingled in a most marvelous way the opportunity to behold
then to think of the faith and courage it must have taken to work on and on while the shells from the big guns were bursting at regular intervals during the day and the bombs dropping from the aeroplanes above at night
lesson eleventh on the church
question which are the means instituted by our lord to enable men at all times to share in the fruits of the redemption
the means instituted by our lord to enable men at all times to share in the fruits of his redemption are the church and the sacraments one hundred fifteen question what is the church
the church is the congregation of all those who profess the faith of christ partake of the same sacraments and are governed by their lawful pastors under one visible head one hundred sixteen question who is the invisible head of the church
jesus christ is the invisible head of the church one hundred seventeen question who is the visible head of the church
our holy father the pope the bishop of rome is the vicar of christ on earth and the visible head of the church one hundred eighteen question why is the pope the bishop of rome the visible head of the church
the pope the bishop of rome
whom christ made the chief of the apostles and the visible head of the church one hundred nineteen question who are the successors of the other apostles
the successors of the other apostles are the bishops of the holy catholic church one hundred twenty question why did christ found the church
christ founded the church to teach govern sanctify and save all men one hundred twenty one question are all bound to belong to the church
all are bound to belong to the church and he who knows the church to be the true church and remains out of it cannot be saved lesson twelfth on the attributes and marks of the church one hundred twenty two question
which are the attributes of the church
the attributes of the church are three authority infallibility and indefectibility one hundred twenty three question
by the authority of the church i mean the right and power which the pope and the bishops as the successors of the apostles have to teach and to govern the faithful one hundred twenty four question what do you mean by the infallibility of the church
by the infallibility of the church i mean that the church cannot err when it teaches a doctrine of faith or morals one hundred twenty five question
the church teaches infallibly when it speaks through the pope and the bishops united in general council or through the pope alone when he proclaims to all the faithful a doctrine of faith or morals one hundred twenty six question
by the indefectibility of the church i mean that the church as christ founded it will last till the end of time one hundred twenty seven question in whom are these attributes found in their fullness
these attributes are found in their fullness in the pope the visible head of the church whose infallible authority to teach bishops priests and people in matters of faith or morals will last till the end of the world one hundred twenty eight question
has the church any marks by which it may be known
the church has four marks by which it may be known it is one it is holy it is catholic it is apostolic one hundred twenty nine question
are all in one communion and are all under one head one hundred thirty question how is the church holy
the church is holy because its founder jesus christ is holy because it teaches a holy doctrine invites all to a holy life and because of the eminent holiness of so many thousands of its children one hundred thirty one question
how is the church catholic or universal
the church is catholic or universal because it subsists in all ages teaches all nations and maintains all truth one hundred thirty two question how is the church apostolic
the church is apostolic because it was founded by christ on his apostles and is governed by their lawful successors and because it has never ceased and never will cease to teach their doctrine one hundred thirty three question
in which church are these attributes and marks found
these attributes and marks are found in the holy roman catholic church alone one hundred thirty four question from whom does the church derive its undying life and infallible authority
the church derives its undying life and infallible authority from the holy ghost the spirit of truth who abides with it forever one hundred thirty five question by whom is the church made and kept one holy and catholic
the church is made and kept one holy and catholic by the holy ghost the spirit of love and holiness who unites and sanctifies its members throughout the world lesson thirteenth on the sacraments in general
one hundred thirty six question what is a sacrament
a a sacrament is an outward sign instituted by christ to give grace one hundred thirty seven question how many sacraments are there
there are seven sacraments baptism confirmation holy eucharist penance extreme unction holy orders and matrimony one hundred thirty eight question whence have the sacraments the power of giving grace
the sacraments have the power of giving grace from the merits of jesus christ
what grace do the sacraments give
some of the sacraments give sanctifying grace and others increase it in our souls one hundred forty question which are the sacraments that give sanctifying grace
the sacraments that give sanctifying grace are baptism and penance and they are called sacraments of the dead one hundred forty one question why are baptism and penance called sacraments of the dead
baptism and penance are called sacraments of the dead because they take away sin which is the death of the soul and give grace which is its life one hundred forty two question which are the sacraments that increase sanctifying grace in our soul
the sacraments that increase sanctifying grace in our soul are confirmation holy eucharist extreme unction holy orders and matrimony and they are called sacraments of the living one hundred forty three question
confirmation holy eucharist extreme unction holy orders and matrimony are called sacraments of the living because those who receive them worthily are already living the life of grace
he who receives the sacraments of the living in mortal sin commits a sacrilege which is a great sin because it is an abuse of a sacred thing one hundred forty five question
besides sanctifying grace the sacraments give another grace called sacramental one hundred forty six question what is sacramental grace
sacramental grace is a special help which god gives to attain the end for which he instituted each sacrament one hundred forty seven question do the sacraments always give grace
the sacraments always give grace if we receive them with the right dispositions
can we receive the sacraments more than once
we can receive the sacraments more than once except baptism confirmation and holy orders
why can we not receive baptism confirmation and holy orders more than once
we cannot receive baptism confirmation and holy orders more than once because they imprint a character in the soul
the character which these sacraments imprint in the soul is a spiritual mark which remains forever
does this character remain in the soul even after death
this character remains in the soul even after death for the honor and glory of those who are saved
lesson fourteenth on baptism
question what is baptism
baptism is a sacrament which cleanses us from original sin makes us christians children of god and heirs of heaven
are actual sins ever remitted by baptism
actual sins and all the punishment due to them are remitted by baptism if the person baptized be guilty of any
is baptism necessary to salvation
baptism is necessary to salvation because without it we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven
who can administer baptism
any one who has the use of reason may baptize
how is baptism given
whoever baptizes should pour water on the head of the person to be baptized and say while pouring the water i baptize thee in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost one hundred fifty seven question
how many kinds of baptism are there
there are three kinds of baptism baptism of water of desire and of blood
what is baptism of water
baptism of water is that which is given by pouring water on the head of the person to be baptized and saying at the same time i baptize thee in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost one hundred fifty nine question
question what is baptism of blood
baptism of blood is the shedding of one's blood for the faith of christ
is baptism of desire or of blood sufficient to produce the effects of baptism of water
baptism of desire or of blood is sufficient to produce the effects of the baptism of water if it is impossible to receive the baptism of water
why is the name of a saint given in baptism
the name of a saint is given in baptism in order that the person baptized may imitate his virtues and have him for a protector
why are godfathers and godmothers given in baptism
what the child itself would promise if it had the use of reason
what is the obligation of a godfather and a godmother
if the parents neglect to do so or die lesson fifteenth on confirmation
confirmation is a sacrament through which we receive the holy ghost to make us strong and perfect christians and soldiers of jesus christ
who administers confirmation
the bishop is the ordinary minister of confirmation
how does the bishop give confirmation
the bishop extends his hands over those who are to be confirmed
and anoints the forehead of each with holy chrism in the form of a cross
holy chrism is a mixture of olive oil and balm consecrated by the bishop one hundred seventy question what does the bishop say in anointing the person he confirms
i sign thee with the sign of the cross and i confirm thee with the chrism of salvation in the name of the father and of the son
what is meant by anointing the forehead with chrism in the form of a cross
by anointing the forehead with chrism in the form of a cross is meant that the christian who is confirmed must openly profess and practice his faith never be ashamed of it and rather die than deny it
why does the bishop give the person he confirms a slight blow on the cheek
the bishop gives the person he confirms a slight blow on the cheek to put him in mind that he must be ready to suffer everything even death for the sake of christ one hundred seventy three question to receive confirmation worthily is it necessary to be in the state of grace
to receive confirmation worthily it is necessary to be in the state of grace one hundred seventy four question what special preparation should be made to receive confirmation
persons of an age to learn should know the chief mysteries of faith and the duties of a christian and be instructed in the nature and effects of this sacrament
all de vorlt is at vor bert stared southward into the dawn it did not seem so all de vorlt is at vor they haf burn berlin they haf burn london
they haf burn hamburg and paris chapan hass burn san francisco we haf mate a camp at niagara dat is whad they are telling us
all de vorlt is at vor gaw said bert yess said the linguist drinking his cocoa
they don't say anything about a place called clapham or bun hill do they i haf heard noding said the linguist that was all bert could get for a time but the excitement of all the men about him was contagious
and presently he saw kurt standing alone hands behind him and looking at one of the distant waterfalls very steadfastly he went up and saluted soldier fashion beg pardon lieutenant he said kurt turned his face
it was unusually grave that morning i was just thinking i would like to see that waterfall closer he said it reminds me what do you want
would you mind telling me the news damn the news said kurt you'll get news enough before the day's out it's the end of the world they're sending the graf zeppelin for us she'll be here by the morning and we ought to be at niagara or eternal smash within eight
and forty hours i want to look at that waterfall you'd better come with me have you had your rations yessir very well come
and musing profoundly kurt led the way across the rocks towards the distant waterfall for a time bert walked behind him in the character of an escort then as they passed out of the atmosphere of the encampment kurt lagged for him to come alongside
we shall be back in it all in two days time he said and it's a devil of a war to go back to that's the news the world's gone mad our fleet beat the americans the night we got disabled that's clear
we lost eleven eleven airships certain and all their aeroplanes got smashed god knows how much we smashed or how many we killed but that was only the beginning our start's been like firing a magazine
they're fighting in the air all over europe all over the world the japanese and chinese have joined in that's the great fact that's the supreme fact they've pounced into our little quarrels the yellow peril was a peril after all they've got thousands of airships
it's the last confusion they're bombarding capitals smashing up dockyards and factories mines and fleets did they do much to london sir asked bert heaven knows he said no more for a time
this labrador seems a quiet place he resumed at last
i'm going to be killed i didn't know it before but this morning at dawn i knew it as though i'd been told ow i tell you i know but ow could you know i know like being told like being certain
i know he repeated and for a time they walked in silence towards the waterfall kurt wrapped in his thoughts walked heedlessly and at last broke out again i've always felt young before smallways but this morning i feel old
old so old nearer to death than old men feel and i've always thought life was a lark it isn't this sort of thing has always been happening i suppose these things wars and earthquakes that sweep across all the decency of life
it's just as though i had woke up to it all for the first time every night since we were at new york i've dreamt of it and it's always been so it's the way of life people are torn away from the people they care for homes are smashed creatures full of life
and memories and little peculiar gifts are scalded and smashed and torn to pieces and starved and spoilt
and the others go on again as though such things weren't possible as i went on
he said nothing for a long time and then he dropped out the prince is a lunatic they came to a place where they had to climb and then to a long peat level beside a rivulet there a quantity of delicate little pink flowers caught bert's eye
gaw he said and stooped to pick one in a place like this
at last they came to a rocky hummock from which the view of the waterfall opened out there kurt stopped and seated himself on a rock
it isn't very like but it's like enough like what another waterfall i knew he asked a question abruptly got a girl smallways funny thing said bert those flowers i suppose i was jes thinking of er
so was i what edna no i was thinking of my edna we've all got ednas i suppose for our imaginations to play about this was a girl but all that's past for ever it's hard to think i can't see her just for a minute
just let her know i'm thinking of her very likely said bert you'll see er all right no said kurt with decision i know
engstlen alp there's a waterfall rather like this one a broad waterfall
we slipped away and had half a day together beside it and we picked flowers just such flowers as you picked the same for all i know
i know said bert me and edna we done things like that flowers and all that seems years off now she was beautiful and daring and shy
i can hardly hold myself for the desire to see her and hear her voice again before i die where is she look here smallways i shall write a sort of letter and there's her portrait he touched his breast pocket
you'll see er again all right said bert no i shall never see her again i don't understand why people should meet just to be torn apart but i know she and i will never meet again
oh it's all foolishness and haste and violence and cruel folly stupidity and blundering hate and selfish ambition all the things that men have done all the things they will ever do gott smallways
what a muddle and confusion life has always been the battles and massacres and disasters the hates and harsh acts the murders and sweatings the lynchings and cheatings
as though i'd just found it out for the first time i have found it out
i've lost heart and death is over me death is close to me and i know i have got to end but think of all the hopes i had only a little time ago the sense of fine beginnings it was all a sham there were no beginnings
think of it smallways there's war everywhere
the japanese at port arthur the french at casablanca is going on everywhere everywhere down in south america even they are fighting among themselves no place is safe no place is at peace
there is no place where a woman and her daughter can hide and be at peace the war comes through the air bombs drop in the night quiet people go out in the morning and see air fleets passing overhead dripping death
chapter seventeen echoes of the russian revolution the residents of hull house have always seen many evidences of the russian revolution
a forlorn family of little children whose parents have been massacred at kishinev are received and supported by their relatives in our chicago neighborhood or a russian woman her face streaming with tears of indignation and pity
asks you to look at the scarred back of her sister a young girl who has escaped with her life from the whips of the cossack soldiers or a studious young woman suddenly disappears from the hull house classes because she has returned to kiev
to be near her brother while he is in prison
or we attend a protest meeting against the newest outrages of the russian government
and at our indifference to the waste of perhaps the noblest human material among our contemporaries certain it is as the distinguished russian revolutionists have come to chicago they have impressed me
as belonging to that noble company of martyrs who have ever and again poured forth blood that human progress might be advanced
and have filled to overflowing chicago's largest halls with american citizens deeply touched by this message of martyrdom one significant meeting was addressed by a member of the russian duma
and by one of russia's oldest and sanest revolutionists another by madame breshkovsky who later languished a prisoner in the fortress of saint peter and saint paul in this wonderful procession of revolutionists prince kropotkin
or as he prefers to be called peter kropotkin was doubtless the most distinguished when he came to america to lecture he was heard throughout the country with great interest and respect that he was a guest of hull house during his stay in chicago
attracted little attention at the time but two years later when the assassination of president mc kinley occurred the visit of this kindly scholar who had always called himself an anarchist and had certainly written fiery tracts in his younger manhood
was made the basis of an attack upon hull house by a daily newspaper
had addressed the chicago arts and crafts society at hull house
and before the leading literary and scientific societies of chicago these institutions and societies were not therefore called anarchistic
through an incident connected with the imprisonment of the editor on an anarchistic paper who was arrested in chicago immediately after the assassination of president mc kinley in the excitement following the national calamity
and the avowal by the assassin of the influence of the anarchistic lecture to which he had listened arrests were made in chicago of every one suspected of anarchy in the belief that a widespread plot would be uncovered
the editor's house was searched for incriminating literature his wife and daughter taken to a police station and his son and himself with several other suspected anarchists were placed in the disused cells in the basement of the city hall
it is impossible to overstate the public excitement of the moment and the unfathomable sense of horror
which compels an instinctive recoil from all law abiding citizens doubtless both the horror and recoil have their roots deep down in human experience the earliest forms of government implied a group which offered competent resistance to outsiders
but assuming no protection was necessary between any two of its own members promptly punished with death the traitor who had assaulted anyone within an anarchistic attack against an official thus furnishes an accredited basis
both for unreasoning hatred and for prompt punishment both the hatred and the determination to punish reached the highest pitch in chicago after the assassination of president mc kinley and the group of wretched men detained in the old fashioned scarcely habitable cells
had not the least idea of their ultimate fate they were not allowed to see an attorney and were kept in communicado as their excited friends called it i had seen the editor and his family only during prince kropotkin's stay at hull house
the editor had impressed me as a quiet scholarly man
somewhat startled by the radicalism of his fiery young son and much comforted by the german domesticity of his wife and daughter perhaps it was but my hysterical symptom of the universal excitement
but it certainly seemed to me more than i could bear when a group of his individualistic friends who had come to ask for help said you see what becomes of your boasted law the authorities won't even allow an attorney nor will they accept bail for these men
against whom nothing can be proved although the veriest criminals are not denied such a right challenged by an anarchist one is always sensitive for the honor of legally constituted society and i replied that of course the men could have an attorney
that the assassin himself would eventually be furnished with one that the fact that a man was an anarchist had nothing to do with his rights before the law
but that the fact still remained that these men had been absolutely isolated seeing no one but policemen who constantly frightened them with tales of public clamor and threatened lynching the conversation took place on saturday night
and as the final police authority rests in the mayor with a friend who was equally disturbed over the situation i repaired to his house on sunday morning to appeal to him in the interest of a law and order that should not yield to panic
we contended that to the anarchist above all men it must be demonstrated that law is impartial and stands the test of every strain
he insisted however that the men thus far had merely been properly protected against lynching
he would not yet however take the responsibility of permitting an attorney
he would write me a permit at once i promptly fell into the trap if trap it was and within half an hour was in a corridor in the city hall basement talking to the distracted editor and surrounded by a cordon of police
who assured me that it was not safe to permit him out of his cell the editor who had grown thin and haggard under his suspense
concerning whom he had heard not a word since he had seen them arrested gradually he became composed as he learned not that his testimony had been believed to the effect that he had never seen the assassin but once and had then considered him a foolish half witted creature
but that the most thoroughgoing dragnet investigations on the part of the united police of the country
the entire conversation was simple and did not seem to me unlike in motive or character interviews i had had with many another forlorn man who had fallen into prison i had scarce returned to hull house however before it was filled with reporters
a period of sharp public opprobrium followed traces of which i suppose will always remain and yet in the midst of the letters of protest and accusation which made my mail a horror every morning
came a few letters of another sort one from a federal judge whom i had never seen
although one or two ardent young people rushed into print to defend me from the charge of abetting anarchy
i had felt that the protection of the law itself extended to the most unpopular citizen was the only reply to the anarchistic argument to the effect that this moment of panic revealed the truth of their theory of government
that the custodians of law and order have become the government itself
through sheer possession of arms
at that moment i was firmly convinced that the public could only be convicted of the blindness of its course when a body of people with a hundred fold of the moral energy possessed by a settlement group
should make clear that there is no method by which any community can be guarded against sporadic efforts on the part of half crazed discouraged men save by a sense of mutual rights and securities which will include the veriest outcast
no one adequately urged that public spirited citizens set themselves the task of patiently discovering how these sporadic acts of violence against government may be understood and averted
we do not know whether they occur among the discouraged and unassimilated immigrants who might be cared for in such a way as enormously to lessen the probability of these acts or whether they are the result of anarchistic teaching
we make no attempt to heal and cure the situation failure to make a proper diagnosis may mean treatment of a disease which does not exist or it may furthermore mean that the dire malady from which the patient is suffering
be permitted to develop unchecked and yet as the details of the meager life of the president's assassin were disclosed
waverley or tis sixty years since
chapter thirty six an incident the dinner hour of scotland sixty years since was two o'clock
it was therefore about four o'clock of a delightful autumn afternoon that mister gilfillan commenced his march
he might be able by becoming a borrower of the night for an hour or two to reach it that evening he therefore put forth his strength and marched stoutly along at the head of his followers
as if he longed to enter into controversy with him at length unable to resist the temptation he slackened his pace till he was alongside of his prisoner's horse and after marching a few steps in silence abreast of him he suddenly asked
a presbyterian clergyman answered waverley
answered gilfillan contemptuously a wretched erastian
they tell ower a clash o terror and a clatter o comfort in their sermons
ye've been fed in siccan a fauld belike no i am of the church of england said waverley
built up by our fathers in sixteen forty two
to this lamentation which one or two of the assistants chorussed with a deep groan
resolving that he should be a hearer at least if not a disputant proceeded in his jeremiade
and indemnities and oaths and bonds and other corruptions
and employments and inheritances of this wicked world i could prove to you by the scripture
ay ye are deceived with her enchantments
how much longer this military theologist might have continued his invective
is absolutely uncertain his matter was copious his voice powerful and his memory strong so that there was little chance of his ending his exhortation till the party had reached stirling
had not his attention been attracted by a pedlar who had joined the march from a cross road
at all fitting pauses of his homily and what may ye be friend said the gifted gilfillan
ah your honour has a notable faculty in searching and explaining the secret
friend
nor do i delight to be called captain
on which subject he uttered much more sense than could have been expected from some other parts of his harangue and attracted even waverley's attention who had hitherto been lost in his own sad reflections
mister gilfillan then considered the lawfulness of a private man's standing forth as the avenger of public oppression
an incident occurred which interrupted his harangue
which led to the summit of a rising ground the country was uninclosed being part of a very extensive heath or common but it was far from level exhibiting in many places hollows filled with furze and broom
the foremost of the band being the stoutest and most active had pushed on and having surmounted the ascent were out of ken for the present gilfillan with the pedlar and the small party who were waverley's more immediate guard
were near the top of the ascent and the remainder straggled after them at a considerable interval such was the situation of matters when the pedlar missing as he said a little doggie which belonged to him
when behold the pedlar snatching a musket from the person who was next him bestowed the butt of it with such emphasis on the head of his late instructor
that he was forthwith levelled to the ground in the confusion which ensued the horse which bore our hero was shot by one of gilfillan's party as he discharged his firelock at random waverley fell with and indeed under the animal
and sustained some severe contusions but he was almost instantly extricated from the fallen steed by two highlanders who each seizing him by the arm hurried him away from the scuffle and from the highroad
who could however distinguish a few dropping shots fired about the spot which he had left this as he afterwards learned proceeded from gilfillan's party who had now assembled the stragglers in front and rear having joined the others
at their approach the highlanders drew off but not before they had rifled gilfillan and two of his people who remained on the spot grievously wounded a few shots were exchanged betwixt them and the westlanders
but the latter now without a commander and apprehensive of a second ambush did not make any serious effort to recover their prisoner
offers of hospitality had been made to him by the dozen lady hartletop's doors in shropshire were open to him if he chose to enter them
to join her suite at courcy castle his special friend montgomerie dobbs had a place in scotland and then there was a yachting party by which he was much wanted
having before him when he left london no other fixed engagement than that which took him to allington on the first of october we shall also find ourselves at allington in company with johnny eames and apollo crosbie will still be there
by no means to the comfort of our friend from the income tax office johnny eames cannot be called unlucky in that matter of his annual holiday seeing that he was allowed to leave london in october a month during which few chose to own that they remain in town
young eames though he lived in burton crescent and had as yet no connection with the west end had already learned his lesson in this respect those fellows in the big room want me to take may he had said to his friend cradell they must think i'm uncommon green
it's too bad said cradell a man shouldn't be asked to take his leave in may i never did and what's more i never will i'd go to the board first eames had escaped this evil without going to the board and had succeeded in obtaining for himself
which of all months is perhaps the most highly esteemed for holiday purposes
on the evening before his departure at that moment he was sitting alone with amelia in missus roper's back drawing room in the front room cradell was talking to missus lupex but as miss spruce was with them
it may be presumed that mister lupex need have had no cause for jealousy yes said amelia i know how great is your haste to get down to that fascinating spot
not handsome for her nose was thick and the lower part of her face was heavy but yet not without some feminine attractions her eyes were bright but then also they were mischievous she could talk fluently enough but then also she could scold
i am quite prepared to acknowledge that john eames should have kept himself clear of amelia roper but then young men so frequently do those things which they should not do after twelve months up here in london one is glad to get away to one's own friends
said johnny your own friends mister eames what sort of friends do you suppose i don't know well no i don't think you do know
said amelia showing that lily had been spoken of among people who should never have been allowed to hear her name but perhaps after all no more than those two initials were known in burton crescent from the tone which was now used in naming them
it was sufficiently manifest that amelia considered herself to be wronged by their very existence l s d said johnny attempting the line of a witty gay young spendthrift that's my love
pounds shillings and pence and a very coy mistress she is nonsense sir don't talk to me in that way as if i didn't know where your heart was what right had you to speak to me if you had an l d down in the country
but then he had written to her a fatal note of which we will speak further before long and that perhaps was quite as bad or worse ha ha ha laughed johnny but the laugh was assumed and not assumed with ease
yes sir it's a laughing matter to you i dare say it is very easy for a man to laugh under such circumstances that is to say if he is perfectly heartless if he's got a stone inside his bosom instead of flesh and blood
some men are made of stone i know and are troubled with no feelings what is it you want me to say you pretend to know all about it and it wouldn't be civil in me to contradict you
what is it i want you know very well what i want or rather i don't want anything what is it to me it is nothing to me about l d you can go down to allington and do what you like for me only
i hate such ways what ways amelia what ways now look here johnny i'm not going to make a fool of myself for any man when i came home here three months ago and i wish i never had
she paused here a moment waiting for a word of tenderness but as the word of tenderness did not come she went on
and then she brought out her handkerchief what am i to say when you keep on scolding me all the time scolding you
if it's to be all over between us say the word and i'll take myself away out of the house before you come back again i've had no secrets from you
though it is beneath my birth and not what i've been used to
only say the word l d was more to him than amelia roper ten times more to him l d would have been everything to him and amelia roper was worse than nothing he felt all this at the moment
and struggled hard to collect an amount of courage that would make him free say the word said she rising on her feet before him and all between you and me shall be over i have got your promise but i'd scorn to take advantage
if amelia hasn't got your heart she'd despise to take your hand only i must have an answer it would seem that an easy way of escape was offered to him
and then upon hearing these words amelia threw herself into his arms as the folding doors between the two rooms were not closed
it was probable that she saw what passed but miss spruce was a taciturn old lady
and as she had lived with missus roper for the last twelve years she was probably well acquainted with her daughter's ways you'll be true to me said amelia during the moment of that embrace true to me for ever
oh yes that's a matter of course said johnny eames and then she liberated him and the two strolled into the front sitting room i declare mister eames said missus lupex i'm glad you've come
here's mister cradell does say such queer things queer things said cradell now miss spruce i appeal to you have i said any queer things if you did sir i didn't notice them said miss spruce
i noticed them then said missus lupex an unmarried man like mister cradell has no business to know whether a married lady wears a cap or her own hair has he mister eames i don't think i ever know
said johnny not intending any sarcasm on missus lupex i dare say not sir said the lady we all know where your attention is riveted
wouldn't they miss spruce i dare say they would said miss spruce if i could look as nice in a cap as you do missus lupex i'd wear one to morrow said amelia who did not wish to quarrel with the married lady at the present moment
does lupex like caps
nor yet if i had got no head at all that's what comes of getting married if you'll take my advice miss roper you'll stay as you are even though somebody should break his heart about it wouldn't you miss spruce
oh as for me i'm an old woman you know said miss spruce which was certainly true i don't see what any woman gets by marrying continued missus lupex but a man gains everything
he don't know how to live unless he's got a woman to help him but is love to go for nothing said cradell oh love i don't believe in love
i was born so said johnny and there's miss roper one never ought to speak free about a lady but perhaps she's in love too speak for yourself missus lupex said amelia there's no harm in saying that is there
i'm sure if you ain't you're very hard hearted for if ever there was a true lover i believe you've got one of your own my if there's not lupex's step on the stair what can bring him home at this hour if he's been drinking he'll come home as cross as anything
then mister lupex entered the room and the pleasantness of the party was destroyed it may be said that neither missus cradell nor missus eames would have placed their sons in burton crescent if they had known the dangers into which the young men would fall
by george johnny you'll get yourself entangled with that girl one always has to go through that sort of thing said johnny yes but those who go through too much of it never get out again
where would you be if she got a written promise of marriage from you poor johnny did not answer this immediately for in very truth amelia roper had such a document in her possession
either that or else among the victims of matrimony
it's a matter of doubt what a man ought to do in such a case but there's been nothing of that kind yet oh dear no
where would you be now with such a girl as that for your wife such had been the caution given by cradell to his friend and now just as he was starting for allington eames returned the compliment
they had gone together to the great western station at paddington and johnny tendered his advice as they were walking together up and down the platform
but i shall take care of myself there's nothing so safe as a little nonsense with a married woman of course it means nothing you know between her and me i don't suppose it does mean anything
but she's always talking about lupex being jealous and if he was to cut up rough you wouldn't find it pleasant cradell however seemed to think that there was no danger his little affair with missus lupex was quite platonic and safe
as for doing any real harm his principles as he assured his friend were too high missus lupex was a woman of talent whom no one seemed to understand
it was merely a study of character and nothing more then the friends parted and eames was carried away by the night mail train down to guestwick
how her maternal heart was rejoicing at seeing the improvement in his gait and the manliness of appearance imparted to him by his whiskers i need not describe at length many of the attributes of a hobbledehoy had fallen from him
and even lily dale might now probably acknowledge that he was no longer a boy all which might be regarded as good if only in putting off childish things he had taken up things which were better than childish on the very first day of his arrival
he made his way over to allington he did not walk on this occasion as he had used to do in the old happy days
and the heat of the day on his brow so he borrowed a horse and rode over taking some pride in a pair of spurs which he had bought in piccadilly and in his kid gloves which were brought out new for the occasion alas alas
i fear that those two years in london have not improved john eames and yet i have to acknowledge that john eames is one of the heroes of my story on entering missus dale's drawing room he found missus dale and her eldest daughter
lily at the moment was not there and as he shook hands with the other two of course he asked for her she is only in the garden said bell she will be here directly she has walked across to the great house with mister crosbie said missus dale
but she is not going to remain she will be so glad to see you john we all expected you to day did you said johnny whose heart had been plunged into cold water at the mention of mister crosbie's name
he had been thinking of lilian dale ever since his friend had left him on the railway platform and as i beg to assure all ladies who may read my tale the truth of his love for lily
i fear that i shall be disbelieved in this but it was so his heart was and ever had been true to lilian although he had allowed himself to be talked into declarations of affection by such a creature as amelia roper
and now he heard that she was walking alone about the gardens with a strange gentleman that mister crosbie was very grand and very fashionable he had heard but he knew no more of him why should mister crosbie be allowed to walk with lily dale and why should missus dale mention the circumstance
such mystery as there was in this was solved very quickly
she is engaged to be married to mister crosbie the water into which johnny's heart had been plunged now closed over his head and left him speechless
that secret which it would now behove him to conceal from all the world but yet he could not speak
he won't know much about me said johnny and even in speaking these few senseless words words which he uttered because it was necessary that he should say something the tone of his voice was altered
there is lily coming across the lawn said missus dale then i'd better go said eames don't say anything about it pray don't
chapter fourteen count pateroff after an interval of some weeks during which harry had been down at clavering and had returned again to his work at the adelphi count pateroff called again in bloomsbury square but harry was at mister beilby's office
harry at once returned the count's visit at the address given in mount street madame was at home said the servant girl from which harry was led to suppose that the count was a married man but harry felt that he had no right to intrude upon madame so he simply left his card
wishing however really to have this interview and having been lately elected at a club of which he was rather proud he wrote to the count asking him to dine with him at the beaufort he explained that there was a stranger's room which pateroff knew very well having often dined at the beaufort
and said something as to a private little dinner for two thereby apologizing for proposing to the count to dine without other guests pateroff accepted the invitation and harry never having done such a thing before ordered his dinner with much nervousness
the count was punctual and the two men introduced themselves harry had expected to see a handsome foreigner with black hair polished whiskers and probably a hook nose forty years of age or thereabouts but so got up as to look not much more than thirty
but his guest was by no means a man of that stamp excepting that the count's age was altogether uncertain no correctness of guess on that matter being possible by means of his appearance harry's preconceived notion was wrong in every point
he was a fair man with a broad fair face and very light blue eyes his forehead was low but broad he wore no whiskers but bore on his lip a heavy moustache which was not gray but perfectly white white it was with years of course
but yet it gave no sign of age to his face he was well made active and somewhat broad in the shoulders though rather below the middle height
accompanied by something of restlessness in his eye
and his speech hardly betrayed that he was not english harry knowing that he was a foreigner noticed now and again some little acquired distinctness of speech which is hardly natural to a native but otherwise there was nothing in his tongue to betray him
shaking hands with harry clavering declared that he had incurred no trouble and declared also that he would be only too happy to have taken any trouble in obeying a behest from his friend lady ongar had he been a pole as was the count he would not have forgotten to add
but being simply a young englishman he was much too awkward for any such courtesy as that the count observed the omission smiled and bowed
and said that london was a magnificent city oh yes he knew london well had known it these twenty years had been for fifteen years a member of the travellers he liked everything english except hunting english hunting he had found to be dull work
but he liked shooting for an hour or two he could not rival he said the intense energy of an englishman who would work all day with his gun harder than ploughmen with their ploughs englishmen sported he said as though more than their bread as though their honor
their wives their souls depended on it it was very fine he often wished that he was an englishman then he shrugged his shoulders harry was very anxious to commence a conversation about lady ongar
but he did not know how at first to introduce her name count pateroff had come to him at lady ongar's request and therefore as he thought the count should have been the first to mention her but the count seemed to be enjoying his dinner without any thought
either of lady ongar or of her late husband at this time he had been down to ongar park on that mission which had been as we know futile but he said no word of that to harry he seemed to enjoy his dinner thoroughly and made himself very agreeable
when the wine was discussed he told harry that a certain vintage of moselle was very famous at the beaufort harry ordered the wine of course and was delighted to give his guest the best of everything but he was a little annoyed at finding that the stranger knew his club
better than he knew it himself slowly the count ate his dinner enjoying every morsel that he took with that thoughtful conscious pleasure which young men never attain in eating and drinking and which men as they grow older so often forget to acquire
but the count never forgot any of his own capacities for pleasure and in all things made the most of his own resources to be rich is not to have one or ten thousand a year but to be able to get out of that one or ten thousand
all that every pound and every shilling and every penny will give you after this fashion the count was a rich man you don't sit after dinner here i suppose said the count when he had completed an elaborate washing of his mouth and moustache
i like this club because we who are strangers have so charming a room for our smoking it is the best club in london for men who do not belong to it it occurred to harry that in the smoking room there could be no privacy
three or four men had already spoken to the count showing that he was well known giving notice as it were that pateroff would become a public man when once he was placed in a public circle to have given a dinner to the count
would be by no means satisfactory to harry's feelings though as it appeared it might be sufficiently satisfactory to the guest harry therefore suggested one bottle of claret the count agreed
expressing an opinion that the fifty one lafitte was unexceptional the fifty one lafitte was ordered and harry as he filled his glass considered the way in which his subject should be introduced you knew lord ongar i think abroad
lord ongar abroad oh yes very well and for many years here in london and at vienna and very early in life at saint petersburg i knew lord ongar first in russia when he was attached to the embassy as frederic courton
his father lord courton was then alive as was also his grandfather he was a nice good looking lad then as regards his being nice
this the count noticed by simply shrugging his shoulders and smiling as he sipped his wine by all that i can hear he became a horrid brute when he married said harry energetically he was not pleasant when he was ill at florence said the count
she must have had a terrible time with him said harry the count put up his hands again shrugged his shoulders and then shook his head she knew he was no longer an adonis when he married her an adonis no
she did not expect an adonis but she thought he would have something of the honor and feelings of a man she found it uncomfortable no doubt he did too much of this you know said the count raising his glass to his lips and he didn't do it with fifty one lafitte
that was ongar's fault all the world knew it for the last ten years no one knew it better than hugh clavering but said harry and then he stopped he hardly knew what it was that he wished to learn from the man though he certainly did wish to learn something
he had thought that the count would himself have talked about lady ongar and those florentine days but this he did not seem disposed to do shall we have our cigars now said count pateroff one moment if you don't mind certainly certainly there is no hurry
you will take no more wine no more wine i take my wine at dinner as you saw i want to ask you one special question about lady ongar
i will say anything in her favor that you please i am always ready to say anything in the favor of any lady and if needs be
harry was sharp enough to perceive that any assertion made under such a stipulation was worse than nothing it was as when a man in denying the truth of a statement does so with an assurance that on that subject
he should consider himself justified in telling any number of lies i did not write the book
and i should say that i had not even if i had pateroff was speaking of lady ongar in this way and harry hated him for doing so i don't want you to say any good of her said he or any evil i certainly shall say no evil of her
but i think you know that she has been most cruelly treated well there is about seven thousand pounds a year i think seven thousand a year not francs but pounds we poor foreigners lose ourselves in amazement when we hear about your english fortunes
seven thousand pounds a year for a lady all alone and a beautiful house a house so beautiful they tell me what has that to do with it said harry whereupon the count again shrugged his shoulders what has that to do with it
because the man was rich he was not justified in ill treating his wife did he not bring false accusations against her in order that he might rob her after his death of all that of which you think so much did he not hear false witness against her to his own dishonor
but her name has been covered with lies what can i do
i know nothing look here mister clavering if you want to make any inquiry you had better go to my sister i don't see what good it will do
let us smoke your sister yes my sister madame gordeloup is her name has not lady ongar mentioned my sister they are inseparables my sister lives in mount street with you no not with me
i do not live in mount street i have my address sometimes at her house madame gordeloup yes madame gordeloup she is lady ongar's friend she will talk to you will you introduce me count pateroff oh no it is not necessary
you can go to mount street and she will be delighted there is the card and now we will smoke harry felt that he could not with good breeding detain the count any longer and therefore rising from his chair led the way into the smoking room
when there the man of the world separated himself from his young friend of whose enthusiasm he had perhaps had enough and was soon engaged in conversation with sundry other men of his own standing harry soon perceived that his guest had no further need of his countenance
on the next day he dined in onslow crescent with the burtons and when there he said nothing about lady ongar or count pateroff he was not aware that he had any special reason for being silent on the subject
but he made up his mind that the burtons were people so far removed in their sphere of life from lady ongar that the subject would not be suitable in onslow crescent it was his lot in life to be concerned with people of the two classes he did not at all mean to say
even to himself that he liked the ongar class better but still as such was his lot he must take it as it came and entertain both subjects of interest without any commingling of them
of lady ongar and his early love he had spoken to florence at some length but he did not find it necessary in his letters
and his dinner at the beaufort nor did he mention the dinner to his dear friend cecilia
chapter nineteen dick takes his final leave
he was not altogether satisfied with it
but the lady seemed to hesitate and asked for a week to think about it this showed so much ingratitude on her part was so poor an acknowledgment of the position which he had offered her that he was inclined to be indignant
if she don't care about it she sha'n't have it it was thus that he expressed himself aloud in the hearing of dick ross but without however explaining who the she was or what the it was or indeed in any way asking dick's opinion on the matter
had she expressed her warm affection and at once accepted all that had been proffered the gentleman would probably have learnt at once to despise that which had been obtained so easily as it was he was simply cross and thought that he had determined to withdraw the proposal
but still the other letter was to come and miss altifiorla's chance was still open to her the immediate consequence of these doubts in the mind of sir francis was a postponement of the verdict of banishment which he had resolved to pronounce against dick
as soon as his marriage with miss altifiorla should have been settled he did not wish to leave himself altogether alone in the world and if this dick were dismissed it would be necessary that he should provide himself with another unless he were minded to provide himself with a wife instead
he became therefore gradually more gracious after the little speech which has been above given dick had understood perfectly who the she had been
as no question had been asked he had made no reply
he despised the baronet almost as thoroughly as did mister western but for certain purposes as to which he despised himself also the friendship of the baronet suited him just at present one morning for private reasons of his own
dick went into perth which was twenty miles distant from the baronet's shooting lodge and returned the same day bringing the postbag with him from a point in the road at which it was daily left by the postman sir francis with unusual haste read his letters
and among them was one from miss altifiorla but dick had a budget of news which he was anxious to reveal and which he did tell before sir francis had said anything as to his own letter there was another friend one captain fawkes at the lodge with them
and dick had at first been restrained by this man's presence as soon as he found himself alone with sir francis he began lady grant has gone off to dresden he said where did you hear that asked the baronet they told me so at the club
and why what business is it of theirs since you know so much about it why has she gone to persuade her brother to come home and take his wife once more it was an infernal shame that they should ever have been separated
in fact she has gone to undo what you did if she can only succeed in making the man know the whole truth about it free from all lies she'll do what she's gone to do what the devil do you mean by lies said sir francis rising in wrath from his chair
well lies mean lies as i haven't applied the word to anyone i suppose i may be allowed to use it and to stand by it i suppose you know what lies mean and i suppose you are aware that western has been made to believe lies about his wife who told them
i say nothing about that said dick lies are a sort of thing which are very commonly told and are ordinarily ascribed to the world at large the world never quarrels with the accusation the world has told most infernal lies to this man about his wife
i don't suppose the world means to call me out for saying as much as that then the two remained silent for some moments and dick proceeded with his eloquence
had a man or a woman it's all one gone to that poor creature with a pistol in his hand and blown her brains out he wouldn't have done a more dastardly action what the devil do you mean by that said the other i'm not talking about you specially
i say lies have been told but i do not say who has told them i rather suspect a woman to be at the bottom of it sir francis who had in his pocket a most tender and loving reply from miss altifiorla
that man has been made to believe certain things about his wife which are all lies lies from beginning to end he has been made to believe that she was engaged to me first is that a lie that depends on the way in which it was told he didn't send her home merely for that
but they were damnable lies you sometimes tell me that i ain't any better than another or generally a great deal worse but i'd rather have blown my brains out than have told such lies about a woman as have been told here by somebody you ask me what they were saying at the club in perth
now you know it pretty well all it must be supposed that what had passed at the club had induced dick to determine that it would no longer become him to remain with sir francis as his humble friend very evil things had in truth been said of sir francis
and they were more than dick could endure the natural indignation of the man was aroused so that by degrees it had come to pass that he hated the baronet he had before said very sharp words to him but had now gone home resolved in his righteous mind to bring things to a conclusion
but they were of a nature to fill his mind with righteous wrath and to produce from him the eloquence above described sir francis whose vanity had been charmed by the letter which he kept in his pocket had already made up his mind to part with dick
but dick's words as now spoken left him no alternative it was a question with him whether he could not so part with him as to inflict some further punishment why dick he said smiling you have broken out quite in a new place i know nothing about that
you must have been with the bishop and taken a lesson in preaching i never heard you come out so strong before i wish you'd heard what some of those men at perth said about you and how you answered them as my friend as far as i remember i didn't say much myself
what i did say certainly was not in your favour but i was hardest on that sweet young lady with the italian name you won't mind that because you and she are two now can you tell me ross
i suppose i could or how much you have drank of my wine i haven't made a calculation of that nature it isn't usual for shooting here how much have you ever contributed when i shoot i contribute nothing
all the world understands that how much money do you owe me i owe you nothing that i've ever promised to pay
which you have heard from me in confidence i don't i think it a very a very what sir francis i have not done as you allege but you were going to observe a very what was it
it must be here explained that dick ross was not a man who feared many things but that sir francis feared much dick had little to lose by a row whereas the baronet would be injured the baronet therefore declined to fill in the epithet which he had omitted
he knew from former experience what dick would and what he would not bear i don't choose to descend to billingsgate said sir francis
very gentlemanlike isn't it said dick with a smile meaning thereby to impute it to sir francis as cowardice that he was unwilling to say the reverse but under all the circumstances
you must feel that yourself oh quite so
perhaps to morrow will do just as you please then i shall be able to add a few drops to all those buckets of claret which you threw in my teeth just now i wonder whether any gentleman was ever before asked by another gentleman
when you asked me did you expect me to pay for my dinners and wine sir francis refused to make any reply to this question and when you delicately hinted at my poverty had you found my finances to be lower than you'd always known them
it is disagreeable to be a penniless younger brother i have found it so all my life and i admit that i ought to have earned my bread
people may declare that i am good for nothing and may hold me up as an example to be shunned but i flatter myself that nobody has called me a blackguard i have told no lies to injure men behind their backs much less have i done so to injure a woman
i have sacrificed no girl to my revenge simply because she has thrown me over in the little transactions i have had i have always run straight
and not add anything to the bucket of claret just as you please said sir francis then dick ross left the room and went away to make such arrangements for his departure as were possible to him and the readers of this story shall see him and hear him no more
sir francis when he was left alone took out miss altifiorla's letter and read it again he was a man who could assume grand manners in his personal intercourse with women
he loved to be flattered and was prone to believe anything good of himself that was said to him by one of them he therefore took the following letter for more than it was worth my dear sir francis i know that you will have been quite quick enough to have understood when you received my former little scrawl
what my answer would be when a woman attempts to deceive a man in such a matter she knows beforehand that the attempt will be vain and i certainly did not think that i could succeed with you but yet a feeling of shamefacedness what some ladies consider as modesty
forced me into temporary silence what could i wish better than to be loved by such a one as you in the first place there is the rank which goes for much with me then there is the money which i admit counts for something
then there are the manners and the peculiar station before the world which is quite separate from the rank to me these alone are irresistible shall i say too that personal appearance does count for much i can fancy myself marrying an ugly man
but i can fancy also that i could not do it without something of disgust miss altifiorla when she wrote this had understood well that vanity and love of flattery were conspicuous traits in the character of her admirer having owned so much
what is there more to say than that i am the happiest woman between the seas the reader must be here told that this letter had been copied out a second time because in the first copy she had allowed the word girl to pass in the above sentence something told her
that she had better write woman instead and she had written it what more is there for me to add to the above except to tell you that i love you with all my heart months ago it seems to be years now when cecilia holt had caught your fancy
i did regard her as the most fortunate girl but i did not regard you as the happiest of men
which would not suit there is an asperity rather than strictness about her which i knew your spirit would not brook she would have borne the battlings which would have arisen with an equal temper she can indeed bear all things with equanimity as she does her present position but you
would still have suffered i do not think that the wife you now desire is one with whom you will have to wage war shall i say that if you marry her whom you have now asked to join her lot with yours there will be no such fighting
but with you i shall only attempt to hold my own by making myself one with you in all your desires and aspirations i am yours with all my heart with all my body and soul francesca
but i hope it will please your highness to visit your most worthy clerical relations in this cathedral city before long i shall say nothing to any of your clerical relations as to my prospects in life until i shall have received your sanction for doing so but the sooner i do receive it
the better for my peace of mind sir francis was upon the whole delighted with the letter and the more delighted as he now read it for the third time
it was thus that he spoke to himself about the letter as he sucked in the flattery it was thus that miss altifiorla had intended that he should receive it she knew herself too well to suspect that her flattery should fail not a word of it failed
in nothing was he more gratified than in her allusions to his matrimonial efforts with miss holt she had assured him
but she had at the same time told him of the extreme tenderness of his heart he absolutely believed her when she whispered to him her secret that she had envied cecilia her lot when cecilia was supposed to be the happy bride
and her assurance that she would never interfere with him
david shivered and buttoned his light overcoat closer about him cold said the older man
i hope it will be the needed tonic for that little chap what were his s secrets david told him he's imaginative yes yes i really would rather hurt myself he may come on he may
i've known i've known curious but why hello
and shook hands with another old gentleman
but with a face as impassive as the doctor's was mobile and expressive mister stretton why why david mister stretton david thryng ah mister thryng i am most happy to find you here doctor thryng
over here on this side you know ah yes i had really forgotten but speaking of titles i must give this young man his correctly lord thryng allow me to congratulate you my lord
i fear you mistake me for my cousin sir said david smiling i hope you have no ill news from my good uncle but i am not the david who inherits i think he is in south africa
mister stretton did not reply directly but continued smiling as his manner was and turned toward david's companion shall we go to my hotel i have a great deal to talk over business which concerns
ahem ahem your lordship on behalf of your mother having come expressly he turned again to david ah now don't be at all alarmed i beg of you i see i have disturbed you she is quite well or was a week or more ago
doctor hoyle you'll accompany us at my request undoubtedly you are interested in your young friend mechanically david walked with the two older men filled with a strange sinking of the heart and at the same time with a vague elation
was he called home by his mother to help her sustain a new calamity had the impossible happened mister stretton's manner continued to be mysteriously deferential toward him and something in his air reminded david of england
had he ever seen the man before he really did not know they reached the hotel shortly and were conducted to mister stretton's private apartment where wine was ordered and promptly served for years thereafter
david never heard the clinking of glasses and bottles borne on a tray without an instant's sickening sinking of the heart and the foreboding that seemed to drench him with dismay as the glasses were placed on the stand at mister stretton's elbow
when that gentleman after seeing the waiter disappear and placing certain papers before him began speaking david sat dazedly listening what was it all what was it the glasses seemed to quiver and shake
throwing dancing flecks of light and the wine in them why did it make him think of blood were they dead then all three his two cousins and his brother dead shot
killed in a bloody and useless war he was confounded and bowing his head in his hands sat thus his elbows on his knees waiting hearing but not comprehending
he could think only of his mother he saw her face aged and grief stricken he knew how she loved the boy she had lost above all and now she must turn to himself
he sat thus while the lawyer read a lengthy document and at the end personally addressed him then he lifted his head what is this my uncle my uncle gone too
do you mean dead my uncle dead and i i his heir the lawyer replied formally you are now the head of a most ancient and honorable house
and occupy the home of your ancestors he took up one of the papers and adjusted his monocle for a time david did not speak at last he rose and with head erect extended his hand to the lawyer
i thank you sir for your trouble but now doctor shall we return to your house i must take a little time to adjust my mind to these terrible events
the lawyer began a few congratulatory remarks but david stopped him with uplifted hand it is calamitous it is too terrible he said sadly and what it brings may be far more of a burden than a joy
but the name my lord the ancient and honorable lineage that last was already mine and for the title i have never coveted it
i must think it over but my lord it is yours you can't help yourself you know a the the position is yours and you will a fill it with dignity and a
let me hope will follow the conservative policy of your honored uncle and i say i must think it over may i not have a day a single day in which to mourn the loss of my splendid brother
would god he had lived to fill this place he said desperately the lawyer bowed deferentially and doctor hoyle took david's arm and led him away as if he were his son not a word was spoken by either of them
until they were again in the doctor's office there lay the new silk hat as he had tossed it one side he took it up and turned it about in his hand you see david an old hat is like an old friend
and it takes some time to get wonted to a new one he gravely laid the old one within easy reach of his arm and restored the new one to its box then he sat himself near david and placed his hand kindly on his knee
you you have your work laid out for you my young friend it's the way in old england the stability of our society
i know you must go to your mother yes i must go to her of course of course and without delay well i'll take care of the little chap i know you will
better than i could david lifted his eyes to his old friend's then turned them away i feel him to be a sacred trust again he paused it would take a
long time to go to her first to her for the instant the old man had forgotten cassandra not so david my wife it will be desperately hard
for her yes yes but your uncle you know died of grief and your m mother i know so the lawyer said now at last we'll read mother's letter
he wondered i suppose that i didn't look at it when he gave it to me but i felt conscience stricken i've been so filled with my life down there the peace
that i have neglected her my own mother i couldn't open and read it with that man's eyes on me no no stay here i beg of you stay you are different i want you
he opened his mother's letter and slowly read it then passed it to his friend and rising walked to the window and stood gazing down into the square
like flocks of brown and yellow birds along the street the sky was overcast with thin hurrying clouds and the feeling of autumn was in the air but david's eyes were blurred and he saw nothing before him
the doctor's voice broke the silence with sudden impulse in this she speaks as if she knew nothing about your marriage i told you i had neglected her cried david contritely
cried the younger man desperately i could never in the world make them understand me or my motives i gave it up long ago i've not told my mother to save her from a needless sorrow that would be inflicted on her by her friends
they would all flock to her and pester her with their outcry of how very extraordinary i can hear them and see them now i tell you if a man steps out of the beaten track over there if he attempts to order his own life marry to please himself
or cut his coat after any pattern other than the ordinary conventional lines even the boys on the street will fling stones at him her patronizing friends would at the very least politely raise their eyebrows she is proud and sensitive
and any fling at her sons is a blow to her but what i say i couldn't tell her i tell you i have been drinking from the cup of happiness i have drained it to the last drop my wife is mine
she does not belong to those people over there to be talked over and dined over and all her beauty and fineness overlooked through their monocles brutes my mountain flower in her homespun dress
what were you going to do about it do about it i meant to keep her to myself until the right time came perhaps in another year bring her here and begin life in a modest way and let my mother visit us and see for herself
i was planning it out slowly but this you see doctor their ideas are all warped over there they accept all that custom decrees and have but the one point of view
the true values of life are lost sight of they have no hilltops like cassandra's only the poets have a quizzical smile played about the old man's mouth
he came and laid his arm across david's shoulders and the act softened the slight sting of his words and you call yourself a poet not that said the young man humbly
but i have been learning i would have scorned to be called a poet until i learned of this girl and her father i thought i had ideals
until i came down to the beginnings of things with them her her father why he's dead he
i have learned of him i believe he was a man who walked with god and at cassandra's side i have trod in his secret places that's right i'm satisfied now about her you're all right but
but your mother david turned and walked to the table and sat with his head bowed on his arms had he been alone he would have wept as it was he spoke brokenly of his old home
and the responsibilities now so ruthlessly thrust upon him of his mother's grief and his own
and therefore had never desired now given him by so cruel a blow he would not shrink from whatever duty
at last it was decided that he should sail for england without delay taking the passage already provisionally engaged for him by mister stretton i can write to cassandra she will understand more easily than my mother
she sees into the heart of things her thoughts go to the truth like arrows of light she will see that i must go but she must never know i must save her from it if i have to do so at the expense of my own soul
that the reason i cannot take her with me now is that our great friends over there are too small to understand her nature and might despise her i must go to my mother first and feel my way see what can be done
neither of them must be made to suffer that's right perfectly but don't wait too long just have it out with your mother all of them
chapter twenty three in which doctor hoyle speaks his mind doctor hoyle sat in his office staring straight before him not as if he were looking at david thryng who sat in range of his vision
but as if seeing beyond him into some other time and place david had been speaking but now they both were silent and the young man wondered if his old friend had really been paying attention to his words or not
well david you don't seem satisfied is it with my condition your condition no no no it's not your condition yes yes fine fine i never saw such a marvellous change in my life never
david smiled over the old doctor's stammer of enthusiasm it was as if his thoughts fertile and vehement and the feelings of his great warm heart welled up within him and trying to burst forth all at once tumbled over themselves
y young man i wasn't thinking anything about you just then and again david laughed
and walked rapidly and restlessly about the small apartment and laughed in sympathy it's not not i know david grew instantly sober again of course the little chap's case is serious
very or i would not have brought him to you oh no no i'm not thinking of adam bless you no the doctor always called his little namesake adam i'm thinking of her the little girl you left behind you
yes yes of her she's not so little now doctor she's tall tall enough to be beautiful i remember her slight slight little creature
all eyes and hair all soul and mind
what is she going to do with me rather i'll go back to her as soon as i dare leave the boy
it's to be life and work for you sir and what are you going to do with her i say i'll bring her here with me she'll come of course you'll bring her here with you and you you'll have plenty of friends
maybe they'll appreciate her and maybe they won't maybe they won't i say understand
oh yes she'll come she'll do whatever you say and presently she'll break her heart and die for you she'll never say a word but that's what she'll do why doctor cried david appalled i love her as my own life my very soul of
of course that goes without saying we all do we men but we damn it all do you suppose i've lived all these years and not seen why we think of ourselves first every time
d don't we though rather but selfish as we are we can love a man can if he sets himself to it honestly love a woman and make her happy even without the appreciation of others in spite of environment
everything it's the destiny of women to love us thank god she would have been doomed surely to die if she had married the one who wanted her first or to live a life for her worse than death oh lord bless you boy yes
it's a woman's destiny i'm an old fool there there's my own little girl she's m married and gone gone to live in england they will do it the women will come we'll go see adam the doctor sprang up
brushed his hand across his eyes and caught up a battered silk hat he turned it about and looked at it ruefully with a quizzical smile playing about the corners of his eyes remember that hat he asked well do i remember it
you've driven many a mile in many a rainstorm by my side under that hat when you're done with it leave it to me in your will i have a fancy for it will you here take it take it i'm done with it mary scolds me every day about it
no p peace in life because of it here's a new one i bought the other day good one good enough he lifted a box which had fallen from his cluttered office table and took from it a new hat
which had evidently not been unpacked before he tried it on his head turned it about and about took it off and gazed at it within and without then hastily tossed it aside and snatching his old one from david put it on his head and they started off
hoyle had been placed in a small ward where were only two other little beds both occupied with one nurse to attend on the three patients one of them had broken his leg and had to lie in a cast and the other
but both were well enough to be companionable with the lonely little southerner hoyle's face beamed upon david as he bent over him i kin make pi'chers whilst i'm a lyin here
david glanced at the young woman indicated she was pleasant faced and rosy and looked practical and good he's such an odd little chap she said what be that odd does hit mean this er lump on my back
he pulled david down and whispered the question in his ear no no she only means that you're a dear queer little chap
tell us what they mean this'n hit's the ocean an that thar
like you done tol me about an this'n hit's our house an here's whar ol pete bides at an this'n's ol pete kickin out like he hated somethin like he does when we give frale's colt his corn first the other small boys
from their beds laughed out merrily and strained their necks to see these're theirn i made this'n fer him an this'n fer him he tossed the pictures feebly toward them and they fluttered to the floor
david gathered them up and gave them to their respective owners the old doctor stood beside the cot and looked down on the little artist his lips twitched and his eyes twinkled
an' here i made this'n fer you he paused and selected carefully among the pile of papers under his hand
the doctor took the paper and regarded it gravely a moment then lifted his eyebrows and made grimaces of wonderment until the three patients in the three little beds were in gales of laughter at last he said
it's a pile of s sausages hit hain't no sausages hit's jest a straight
an hit's your house too whar brothah david lives at see thar's the winder
the doctor turned the paper over and regarded it a moment show me the window i i see no window on the other side again the three little invalids laughed uproariously at their visitor
david smilingly looked on how often had he seen the delightful old man amuse himself thus with the children he would contort his mobile face into all the varying expressions of wonder and dismay
of terror or stupefaction and his entrance to the children's ward was always greeted with outcries of delight when the little ones were well enough to allow of such freedom haven't you one to send to your sister
asked david stooping low to the child and speaking quietly the boy's face lighted with a radiant smile that caused the old man to stand regarding him more intently we'll sen her this'n of the sea you reckon hit looks like the ocean
he held it in his slender fingers and eyed it critically how did you come to try to make a picture of the sea when you never saw it do know
when i'm settin thar on the rock an them white big clouds go a sailin far far like they're goin to anothah world an hain't quite touchin this'n i wondered why you had your ship so high above the sea
i don't guess hit's a very good'n said the child ruefully clinging to the scrap of paper with reluctant grasp you reckon she'd keer fer this'n i reckon she'd care for anything you made
give it to me and i'll send it to her she tol me the sea hit war blue
that thar blue pencil hit's too slick
what are these mounds here on either side of the sea them's mountains but why did you put mountains in the sea the boy looked with wide eyes dreamily past the two men so attentively regarding him i
i reckon i jes
hit war on the world i don't guess the'd be no ocean nor no world thout the war mountains fer to hold everything whar hit belongs at i shall bring you a box of paints to morrow if the nurse will allow you to have them
i'll provide an oilcloth to spread around so he won't throw paint over your nice clean bed he said to the pleasant faced young woman that's all right doctor she said then you can make the blue stay on and you can make the ocean with real water
and real blue for the sky and the sea the child's eyes glowed he pulled david down and held him with his arm about his neck and whispered in his ear and what he said was
when they're a pullin on me to git my hade straight an my back right i jes think bout the far far away sea with the ships a sailin an how hit look an hit don't hurt so much
when you comin back brothah david does it hurt you very much hoyle i reckon hit have to hurt said the child with fatalistic resignation i don't guess he'd hurt me thout he had to
he released david slowly then pulled him down again don't tell him i lowed hit hurted me i reckon he'd ruthah hurt hisself if he could do me right that a way you guess i
that's what we're trying for my brave little brother
the stock ticker the letters and figures used in the language of the tape said a well known boston stock speculator are very few but they spell ruin in ninety nine million ways it is not to be inferred however
that the modern stock ticker has anything to do with the making or losing of fortunes there were regular daily stock market reports in london newspapers in eighteen twenty five and new york soon followed the example
as far back as sixteen ninety two houghton issued in london a weekly review of financial and commercial transactions upon which macaulay based the lively narrative of stock speculation
in the seventeenth century given in his famous history that which the ubiquitous stock ticker has done
so that at every minute thousands of miles apart brokers investors and gamblers may learn the exact conditions the existence of such facilities is to be admired rather than deplored
news is vital to wall street and there is no living man
as shown by the prices of government bonds and general securities has been told daily for forty years on these narrow strips of paper tape
through the tickers of new york alone it is true that the record of the chattering little machine made in cabalistic abbreviations on the tape can drive a man suddenly to the very verge of insanity with joy or despair
with his early stock printer which he tried unsuccessfully to sell he went back to boston and quite undismayed got up a duplex telegraph toward the end of my stay in boston he says
i obtained a loan of money amounting to eight hundred dollars to build a peculiar kind of duplex telegraph for sending two messages over a single wire simultaneously
the apparatus was built and i left the western union employ and went to rochester new york to test the apparatus on the lines of the atlantic and pacific telegraph between that city and new york
but the assistant at the other end could not be made to understand anything notwithstanding i had written out a very minute description of just what to do
thus he who has never speculated in a stock in his life was destined to make the beginnings of his own fortune by providing for others the apparatus that should bring to the eye all over a great city
he was in debt and his few belongings in books and instruments had to be left behind he was not far from starving mister w s mallory an associate of many years quotes directly from him on this point
to visit the city five or six times within a comparatively short period
on arrival in new york to get our lunch before keeping the appointments which were usually made for two o'clock
but one day while en route mister edison said i have been to lunch with you several times now to day i am going to take you to lunch with me and give you the finest lunch you ever had when we arrived in hoboken
we took the downtown ferry across the hudson
mister edison led the way to smith and mc nell's opposite washington market and well known to old new yorkers we went inside and as soon as the waiter appeared mister edison ordered apple dumplings and a cup of coffee for himself
he consumed his share of the lunch with the greatest possible pleasure
he had only money enough for the trip after leaving the boat his first thought was of breakfast but he was without money to obtain it however in passing a wholesale tea house he saw a man tasting tea
so he went in and asked the taster if he might have some of the tea this the man gave him and thus he obtained his first breakfast in new york
until such time as he should secure a position during the day he succeeded in locating this operator but found that he also was out of a job
edison said that as the result of the time consumed and the exercise in walking while he found his friend he was extremely hungry
and what particular kind of food would be most satisfying and filling the result was that at smith and mc nell's he decided on apple dumplings and a cup of coffee
it was not long before he was at work and was able to live in a normal manner during the civil war with its enormous increase in the national debt and the volume of paper money gold had gone to a high premium and as ever
this led to the creation of a gold room in wall street where the precious metal could be dealt in
and the long room devoted to one but the leading object of speculation the gold room was the very focus of all the financial and gambling activity of the time and its quotations governed trade and commerce
but seeing their inadequacy doctor s s laws vice president and actual presiding officer of the gold exchange devised and introduced
this exhibited merely the prevailing price of gold but as its quotations changed from instant to instant it was in a most literal sense the cynosure of neighboring eyes one indicator looked upon the gold room
the other opened toward the street within the exchange the face could easily be seen high up on the west wall of the room and the machine was operated
the official registrar of the gold board doctor laws who afterward became president of the state university of missouri was an inventor of unusual ability and attainments in his early youth he had earned his livelihood in a tool factory
and apparently with his savings he went to princeton where he studied electricity under no less a teacher than the famous joseph henry at the outbreak of the war in eighteen sixty one
whose buildings passed into the hands of the government
controlled at central by two circuit closing keys and was a prototype of all the later and modern step by step printing telegraphs upon which the distribution of financial news depends the fraction drum
of the indicator could be driven in either direction
and was divided and marked in eighths it geared into a unit drum
four electrical pulsations were required to move the drum the distance between the fractions the general operation was simple and in normally active times the mechanism and the registrar were equal to all emergencies but it is obvious
and the delay confusion and mistakes soon suggested to doctor laws the desirability of having a number of indicators at such scattered points operated by a master transmitter
and dispensing with the regiments of noisy boys he secured this privilege of distribution and resigning from the exchange devoted his exclusive attention to the gold reporting telegraph which he patented and for which at the end of eighteen sixty six
the dials or wheels being arranged in a row horizontally overlapping each other as in modern fare registers which are now seen on most trolley cars it was not long before there were three hundred subscribers
but the very success of this device brought competition and improvement mister e a callahan an ingenious printing telegraph operator
and his foresight and inventiveness made him the father of the ticker in connection with which he was thus like laws one of the first to grasp and exploit the underlying principle of the central station as a universal source of supply
the hustle made this doorway to me a most undesirable refuge from an april shower i was simply whirled into the street i naturally thought that much of this noise
which would not require the employment of skilled operators the conception of the stock ticker dates from this incident mister callahan's first idea was to distribute gold quotations and to this end he devised an indicator
it consisted of two dials mounted separately each revolved by an electromagnet so that the desired figures were brought to an aperture in the case enclosing the apparatus as in the laws system
each shaft with its dial was provided with two ratchet wheels one the reverse of the other one was used in connection with the propelling lever
to fit into the teeth of the reversed ratchet wheel
it was thus made impossible for either dial to go by momentum beyond its limit learning that doctor laws with the skilful aid of f l pope was already active in the same direction mister callahan with ready wit
transformed his indicator into a ticker that would make a printed record
to whom the noise was the most striking feature of the mechanism mister callahan removed the two dials and substituting type wheels turned the movements face to face so that each type wheel could imprint its characters upon a paper tape in two lines
of these one furnished the current for the alphabet wheel one for the figure wheel
callahan made the further innovation of insulating his circuit wires
it will be understood that electromagnets were the ticker's actuating agency the ticker apparatus was placed under a neat glass shade and mounted on a shelf twenty five instruments were energized from one circuit
at the southern tip of manhattan island
what happened next has been the basis of many inaccurate stories but is dramatic enough as told in mister edison's own version on the third day of my arrival and while sitting in the office
the complicated general instrument for sending on all the lines and which made a very great noise suddenly came to a stop with a crash within two minutes over three hundred boys a boy from every broker in the street
rushed up stairs and crowded the long aisle and office that hardly had room for one hundred all yelling that such and such a broker's wire was out of order and to fix it at once it was pandemonium
i went to the indicator and having studied it thoroughly knew where the trouble ought to be and found it
and stopped the instrument but it was not very noticeable as i went out to tell the man in charge what the matter was doctor laws appeared on the scene the most excited person i had seen he demanded of the man the cause of the trouble
but the man was speechless i ventured to say that i knew what the trouble was and he said fix it fix it be quick i removed the spring and set the contact wheels at zero and the line
battery and inspecting men all scattered through the financial district to set the instruments in about two hours things were working again doctor laws came in to ask my name and what i was doing i told him
his office was filled with stacks of books all relating to metaphysics and kindred matters he asked me a great many questions about the instruments and his system and i showed him how he could simplify things generally
he then requested that i should call next day on arrival he stated at once that he had decided to put me in charge of the whole plant and that my salary would be three hundred dollars per month
this was such a violent jump from anything i had ever seen before that it rather paralyzed me for a while i thought it was too much to be lasting
i kept this position made many improvements devised several stock tickers until the gold and stock telegraph company consolidated with the gold indicator company
than this which thus placed an ill clad unkempt half starved eager lad in a position of such responsibility in days
edison barely twenty one years old was a keen observer of the stirring events around him wall street is at any time an interesting study but it was never at a more agitated and sensational period of its history than at this time
be said to have provided him with occupation and was soon followed by the attempt of mister jay gould and his associates to
september twenty fourth eighteen sixty nine
and thus assisting to create an artificial stringency in the gold market the government had made it a practice to relieve the situation by selling a million of gold each month the metal was thus restored to circulation
in some manner president grant was persuaded that general conditions and the movement of the crops would be helped if the sale of gold were suspended for a time and this put into effect
he went to visit an old friend in pennsylvania remote from railroads and telegraphs the gould pool had acquired control of ten million dollars in gold and drove the price upward rapidly from one hundred forty four toward their goal of two hundred
on black friday they purchased another twenty eight million dollars at one hundred sixty and still the price went up the financial and commercial interests of the country were in panic but the pool persevered in its effort to corner gold
with a profit of many millions contingent on success yielding to frantic requests president grant who returned to washington caused secretary boutwell of the treasury to throw four million dollars of gold into the market
relief was instantaneous the corner was broken but the harm had been done edison's remarks shed a vivid side light on this extraordinary episode on black friday he says we had a very exciting time with the indicators
it worked in the same way as an ordinary counter one wheel made ten revolutions and at the tenth it advanced the adjacent wheel and this in its turn having gone ten revolutions advanced the next wheel and so on
on the morning of black friday the indicator was quoting one hundred fifty premium
for five millions or any part we had a paper weight at the transmitter to speed it up and by one o'clock reached the right quotation the excitement was prodigious
one man came to the booth grabbed a pencil and attempted to write a message to boston the first stroke went clear off the blank he was so excited that he had the operator write the message for him amid great excitement
speyer the banker went crazy and it took five men to hold him and everybody lost their head the western union operator came to me and said shake edison we are o k
i felt very happy because we were poor these occasions are very enjoyable to a poor man
there is a calm sense of detachment about this description that has been possessed by the narrator even in the most anxious moments of his career he was determined to see all that could be seen and quitting his perch on the telegraph booth
sought the more secluded headquarters of the pool forces a friend of mine was an operator who worked in the office of belden and company sixty broadway which were headquarters for fisk mister gould was up town in the erie offices in the grand opera house
was the other branch all were connected with wires gould seemed to be in charge fisk being the executive down town fisk wore a velvet corduroy coat and a very peculiar vest he was very chipper and seemed to be light hearted and happy
sitting around the room were about a dozen fine looking men all had the complexion of cadavers there was a basket of champagne hundreds of boys were rushing in paying checks all checks being payable to belden and company
when james brown of brown brothers and company broke the corner by selling five million gold all payments were repudiated by smith gould and martin but they continued to receive checks at belden and company's for some time
until the street got wind of the game there was some kind of conspiracy with the government people which i could not make out but i heard messages that opened my eyes as to the ramifications of wall street
there was an operator named jerry borst at the other end he was a first class receiver and rapid sender we made up a scheme to hold this wire so he changed one letter of the alphabet
if any operator tried to receive from borst he couldn't do it so borst and i always worked together borst did less talking than any operator i ever knew never having seen him
i did all the talking he would listen stroke his beard and say nothing in the evening i went over to an all night lunch house in printing house square in a basement oliver's night editors including horace greeley and henry raymond
of the new york times took their midnight lunch there when i went with borst and
the night was intensely hot and close after getting our lunch and upon reaching the sidewalk borst opened his mouth and said that's a great place a plate of cakes a cup of coffee and a russian bath for ten cents
this was about fifty per cent of his conversation for two days
eighteen sixty nine this was the first professional card
and is here reproduced it is probable that the advertisement one of the largest in the telegrapher and appearing frequently was not paid for at full rates as the publisher mister j n ashley became a partner in the firm
and not altogether a sleeping one when it came to a division of profits which at times were considerable in order to be nearer his new friend edison boarded with pope at elizabeth new jersey for some time
living the strenuous life in the performance of his duties associated with pope and ashley he followed up his work on telegraph printers with marked success while with them i devised a printer to print gold quotations instead of indicating them
the lines were started and the whole was sold out to the gold and stock telegraph company
located near the station of the pennsylvania railroad in jersey city every night i left for elizabeth on the one a m train then walked half a mile to mister pope's house and up at six a m for breakfast to catch the seven a m train
and many were the occasions when i was nearly frozen in the elizabeth walk this doctor bradley appears to have been the first in this country to make electrical measurements of precision with the galvanometer
he was also extremely irascible and when on one occasion the connecting wire would not come out of one of the binding posts of a new and costly galvanometer he jerked the instrument to the floor and then jumped on it
he must have been however a man of originality as evidenced by his attempt to age whiskey by electricity
the hobby he had at the time i was there says edison was the aging of raw whiskey by passing strong electric currents through it he had arranged twenty jars with platinum electrodes held in place by hard rubber
when all was ready he filled the cells with whiskey connected the battery
he then disappeared for three days on the second day we noticed a terrible smell in the shop as if from some dead animal the next day the doctor arrived and noticing the smell asked what was dead we all thought something had got into his whiskey room and died
he opened it and was nearly overcome the hard rubber he used was of course full of sulphur
had produced sulphuretted hydrogen gas in torrents
in the electrical world of march fourth eighteen ninety nine by mister ralph w pope
who had as a youth an active and intimate connection with that branch of electrical industry in the course of his article he mentions the curious fact that doctor laws at first in receiving quotations from the exchanges was so distrustful of the morse system
as to the relations of that time mister pope remarks the rivalry between the two concerns resulted in consolidation
while the laws stock printer was relegated to the scrap heap and the museum competition in the field did not however cease messrs pope and edison invented a one wire printer
and started a system of gold printers devoted to the recording of gold quotations and sterling exchange only
and stock telegraph company which was probably at this time at the height of its prosperity the financial organization of the company was peculiar and worthy of attention each subscriber for a machine paid in one hundred dollars
for the privilege of securing an instrument for the service he paid twenty five dollars weekly in case he retired or failed he could transfer his right and employees were constantly on the alert for purchasable rights which could be disposed of at a profit
a private line department was established and the business taken over from pope edison and ashley was rapidly enlarged at this juncture general lefferts as president of the gold and stock telegraph company requested edison to go to work on improving the stock ticker
furnishing the money and the well known universal ticker in wide spread use in its day was one result mister edison gives a graphic picture of the startling effect on his fortunes i made a great many inventions
this was made exceedingly simple as they did not have the experts we had in new york to handle anything complicated the same ticker was used on the london stock exchange
and much trouble to the broker he called me into his office and said now young man i want to close up the matter of your inventions how much do you think you should receive
i had made up my mind that taking into consideration the time and killing pace i was working at i should be entitled to five thousand dollars
i hadn't the nerve to name such a large sum so i said
then he said how would forty thousand dollars strike you this caused me to come as near fainting as i ever got i was afraid he would hear my heart beat i managed to say that i thought it was fair all right i will have a contract drawn
come around in three days and sign it and i will give you the money i arrived on time but had been doing some considerable thinking on the subject the sum seemed to be very large for the amount of work for at that time i determined the value
and not by what the invention was worth to others i thought there was something unreal about it however the contract was handed to me i signed without reading it
one for forty thousand dollars drawn on the bank of new york at the corner of william and wall streets
which in his deafness he did not understand the check was handed back to him and edison fancying for a moment that in some way he had been cheated went outside to the large steps to let the cold sweat evaporate
he then went back to the general who with his secretary had a good laugh over the matter told him the check must be endorsed
the ceremony of identification performed with the paying teller who was quite merry over the incident edison was given the amount in bundles of small bills until there certainly seemed
unaware that he was the victim of a practical joke edison proceeded gravely to stow away the money in his overcoat pockets and all his other pockets he then went to newark and sat up all night with the money for fear it might be stolen once more he sought help next morning
enabled him to deposit the currency in the bank and open an account thus in an inconceivably brief time had edison passed from poverty to independence made a deep impression as to his originality and ability on important people
one of the leaders and pioneers for whom the world is always looking and to use his own criticism of himself he had too sanguine a temperament
he seized his opportunity
numbers ten and twelve ward street newark new jersey he secured large orders from general lefferts to build stock tickers and employed fifty men as business increased he put on a night force and was his own foreman on both shifts
half an hour of sleep three or four times in the twenty four hours was all he needed in those days when one invention succeeded another with dazzling rapidity
great volcano throwing out new ideas incessantly with spectacular effect on the arts to which they related it has always been a theory with edison
but on the other hand he never until long past fifty
or in the use of strong coffee and black cigars he has moreover while of tender and kindly disposition never hesitated to use men up as freely as a napoleon or grant seeing only the goal of a complete invention
or perfected device to attain which all else must become subsidiary he gives a graphic picture of his first methods as a manufacturer nearly all my men were on piece work
and i allowed them to make good wages and never cut until the pay became absurdly high as they got more expert i kept no books i had two hooks
when some of the bills fell due and i couldn't deliver tickers to get a supply of money i gave a note when the notes were due a messenger came around from the bank with the note
then i would go to new york and get an advance or pay the note if i had the money
yet my credit was fine every store i traded with was always glad to furnish goods perhaps in amazed admiration of my system of doing business which was certainly new
he reported three thousand dollars i gave a supper to some of my men to celebrate this only to be told two days afterward
edison changed bookkeepers but never thereafter counted anything real profit until he had paid all his debts and had the profits in the bank the factory work at this time related chiefly to stock tickers principally the universal
in a review of the ticker art mister callahan stated with rather grudging praise that a ticker at the present time nineteen o one
and he goes on to remark the first unison on stock tickers was one used
it was a crude and unsatisfactory piece of mechanism and necessitated doubling of the battery in order to bring it into action it was short lived the edison unison comprised a lever with a free end travelling in a spiral
or worm on the type wheel shaft until it met a pin at the end of the worm thus obstructing the shaft and leaving the type wheels at the zero point until released by the printing lever
the stock ticker has enjoyed the devotion of many brilliant inventors g m phelps h van hoevenbergh a a knudson g b scott s d field john burry and remains in extensive use
in new york the two great stock exchanges have deemed it necessary to own and operate a stock ticker service for the sole benefit of their members and down to the present moment the process of improvement has gone on
impelled by the increasing volume of business to be reported it is significant of edison's work now dimmed and overlaid by later advances that at the very outset he recognized the vital importance of interchangeability in the construction of this delicate
and sensitive apparatus but the difficulties of these early days were almost insurmountable mister r w pope says of the universal machines that they were simple and substantial and generally satisfactory but adds
these instruments were supposed to have been made with interchangeable parts but as a matter of fact the instances in which these parts would fit were very few
the parts should not be tinkered nor bent as they are accurately made and interchangeable the difficulties encountered in fitting them properly
this was interpreted to mean first the parts will fit second they will almost fit third they do not fit and can't be made to fit footnote two this i invented as well t a e
this early shop affords an illustration of the manner in which edison has made a deep impression on the personnel of the electrical arts at a single bench there worked three men since rich or prominent
the next man adjacent was john kruesi afterward engineer of the great general electric works at schenectady a third was schuckert
stayed there and founded electrical factories which became the third largest in germany their proprietor dying very wealthy
says their quondam master
or organized under edison patents
that of the twenty one presidents of the national society the american institute of electrical engineers founded in eighteen eighty four eight have been intimately associated with edison namely norvin green and f l pope
as business colleagues of the days of which we now write
t c martin a e kennelly s s wheeler john w lieb
the remark was once made that if a famous american teacher sat at one end of a log and a student at the other end the elements of a successful university were present
of the girls violet priscilla and lydia those of the second wife as follows footy embrus caleb mitchell cuffee and jacob who is the author and the girls
catherine and retta as i have said old colonel dick singleton had two sons and two daughters and each had a plantation their names were john matt marianna and angelico they were very agreeable together
colonel m r singleton sent my two sisters violet and priscilla to his brother john and while they were there they married two of the men on his place by mutual consent master allowed them to remain on his brother's place but some time after this
john singleton had some of his property destroyed by water
what is known in the north as high tides one of these freshets swept away john singleton's slave houses his barns with horses mules and cows these caused his death by a broken heart
and since he owed a great deal of money his slaves had to be sold a mister manning bought a portion of them and charles login the rest these two men were known as the greatest slave traders in the south my sisters were among the number that mister manning bought
he was to take them into the state of louisiana for sale but some of the men did not want to go with him and he put those in prison until he was ready to start my sisters husbands were among the prisoners in the sumterville jail
came to master's place to visit us when the day came for them to leave some who seemed to have been willing to go at first refused and were handcuffed together and guarded on their way to the cars by white men
the women and children were driven to the depot in crowds like so many cattle and the sight of them caused great excitement among master's negroes imagine a mass of uneducated people shedding tears and yelling at the top of their voices in anguish
which was about four miles from master's place the excitement was so great that the overseer and driver could not control the relatives and friends of those that were going away as a large crowd of both old and young went down to the depot to see them off
louisiana was considered by the slaves a place of slaughter
while passing along many of the negroes left their masters fields and joined us as we marched to the cars some were yelling and wringing their hands while others were singing little hymns that they had been accustomed to for the consolation of those that were going away
such as when we all meet in heaven there is no parting there when we all meet in heaven there is parting no more we arrived at the depot and had to wait for the cars to bring the others from the sumterville jail
but they soon came in sight and when the noise of the cars had died away we heard wailing and shrieks from those in the cars while some were weeping others were fiddling picking banjo and dancing as they used to do in their cabins on the plantations
those who were so merry had very bad masters and even though they stood a chance of being sold to one as bad or even worse yet they were glad to be rid of the one they knew while the cars were at the depot a large crowd of white people gathered
laughing and talking about the prospect of negro traffic but when the cars began to start and the conductor cried out all who are going on this train must get on board without delay
we heard the weeping and wailing from the slaves as far as human voice could be heard and from that time to the present i have neither seen nor heard from my two sisters nor any of those who left clarkson depot on that memorable day
sometimes they got old boards and nailed them up stuffing the cracks with rags when they could not get boards they hung up old clothes when the family increased the children all slept together both boys and girls until one got married
then a part of another cabin was assigned to that one but the rest would have to remain with their mother and father as in childhood unless they could get with some of their relatives or friends who had small families or unless they were sold
but of course the rules of modesty were held in some degrees by the slaves while it could not be expected that they could entertain the highest degree of it on account of their condition a portion of the time the young men slept in the apartment known as the kitchen
and the young women slept in the room with their mother and father the two families had to use one fireplace one who was accustomed to the way in which the slaves lived in their cabins could tell as soon as they entered whether they were friendly or not for when they did not agree
the fires of the two families did not meet on the hearth but there was a vacancy between them that was a sign of disagreement in a case of this kind when either of the families stole a hog cow or sheep from the master
sometime afterward this man who had been betrayed thought he would get even with his enemy so about two months later he killed another hog and after eating a part of it stole into the apartment of the other family
and hid a portion of the meat among the old clothes then he told the overseer that he had seen the man go out late that night and that he had not come home until the next morning
he had called his wife to the window and she had taken something in he did not know what it was but if the overseer would go there right away he would find it the overseer went and searched and found the meat so the man was whipped
when it was too warm for them to sleep comfortably they all slept under trees until it grew too cool that is along in the month of october then they took up their beds and walked joe and the turkey
joe was a boy who was waiter to his master one mister king and he and his wife were very fond of company missus king always had chickens and turkey for dinner but at one time the company was so large that they did not leave anything for the servants
he put one of his shirts over them when missus king called joe he answered but did not go right away as he generally did and when he did go his mistress said joe what was the matter with you he answered noffing missis
then he went and opened the gate for the company soon after joe was back in the kitchen again and missus king went down to see what he was doing seeing the pot on she said joe what is in that pot he said noffing missis but my shirt
am gwine to wash it she did not believe him so she took a fork and stuck it in the pot taking out the shirt and she found the turkey she asked him how the turkey had got into the pot he said he did not know but reckoned the turkey got in himself
when the slaveholders had made a large crop they were pleased and gave the slaves from five to six days which were much enjoyed by the negroes especially by those who could dance christmas morning was held sacred both by master and slaves but in the afternoon
or in a part of the next day the slaves were required to devote themselves to the pleasure of their masters some of the masters would buy presents for the slaves such as hats and tobacco for the men handkerchiefs and little things for the women
these things were given after they had been pleased with them after either dancing or something for their amusement when the slaves came up to their masters and mistresses the latter would welcome them the men would take off their hats and bow and the women would make a low courtesy
and some who were born in africa would sing some of their songs or tell different stories of the customs in africa after this they would spend half a day in dancing in some large cotton house or on a scaffold the master providing fiddlers who came from other plantations
the devil's dream and black eyed susan no one can describe the intense emotion in the negro's soul on those occasions when they were trying to please their masters and mistresses after the dancing was over we had our presents master giving to the men
and mistress to the women then the slaves would go to their quarters and continue to dance the rest of the five or six days and would sometimes dance until eight o'clock sunday morning the cabins were mostly made of logs and there were large cracks in them
you would see them filling up the cracks with old rags the idea was that it would not be sunday inside if they kept the sun out and thus they would not desecrate the sabbath and these things continued until the freedom of the slaves
perhaps my readers would like to know if most of the negroes were inclined to violate the sabbath they were as the masters would make them do unnecessary work they got into the habit of disregarding the day as one for rest
i remember when a small boy i went into the woods one sunday morning with one of my fellow negroes whose name was munson
hid it under the leaves until night then took it home and dressed it that was the only time i killed a pig but i knew of thousands of cases like this in the time of slavery
there was a white man in richland county south carolina named mister black who made his living by hunting runaway slaves
which was the only horse he owned she was a thin raw boned creature and looked as though she could hardly walk but knew the business about as well as her master and in such troubles as above stated she used to carry him pretty fast out of danger
mister black caught several runaway slaves belonging to colonel singleton i have known him to chase runaway slaves out of the forest right through the colonel's plantation through a crowd of other negroes and his dogs would never mistake any among the crowd
for the ones they were after when these hound dogs chased the runaways through farms in that way many of them were killed and buried in the cotton or corn field by some among the crowd of negroes through which they passed
in general the slaves hated bloodhounds and would kill them any time they got a chance but especially on such occasions as above stated to keep them from capturing runaways once eight slaves ran away from colonel singleton's plantation
and mister black with twenty five hound dogs was hired to hunt them up the dogs struck trail of the runaways late one afternoon and chased them all that night during which time they got scattered next morning
while chasing the runaways some among the crowd killed six of the dogs including the two leading ones
though a mile or more off knew that something had happened from the irregular barking of the other dogs and also because he did not hear the yelling of the two leading dogs so he blew his horn called the rest of his dogs and gave up the chase until he had replaced his leading dogs by others
which he always had on hand at home slave hunters generally had one or two among the pack of hound dogs called trailers or leaders which the others fifty or more were trained to follow so if anything happened to the leaders while on chase
the rest would become confused and could not follow the runaway but if the leaders were hurt or killed after the runaways were captured the rest would surround and guard them until the hunter reached them as he was always a mile or more behind
mister black resumed the chase and caught some of the runaways but the rest came home themselves the last runaway slave mister black was hired to hunt belonged to colonel m r singleton and was named dick
but instead of dick he caught a slave belonging to a man in sumterville county who had been in the woods seven years this runaway slave had another name at home but while in the woods had assumed the name of champion
for his success in keeping slave hunters from capturing him up to that time mister black the hunter chased dick and champion two days and nights on the morning before the capture of the latter they swam across the water ree river
after they got across they were separated the dogs followed champion and ran him down that morning about eleven o'clock champion had a gun and pistol as the first dog ran up and opened his mouth to take hold of him
he discharged the contents of the pistol in his mouth and killed him instantly the rest of the dogs did not take hold of him but surrounded him and held him at bay until the hunter reached the spot when mister black rode up within gunshot champion aimed at him
with a loaded double barrel gun but the caps of both barrels snapped from being wet by running through the bushes mister black had a gun and pistol too he attempted to shoot the negro but william turner colonel singleton's overseer
mister turner the overseer struck him on the back of his head with the butt of a loaded whip this stunned him for a few moments and by the time he had regained his senses they had handcuffed him after the negro had been handcuffed
mister black wanted to abuse him because he had killed the dog and attempted to shoot him but mister turner the overseer would not let him champion was taken to colonel singleton's plantation locked up in the dungeon under the overseer's house
and his master was notified of his capture he was a mulatto negro and his master who was his father sent for him at colonel singleton's plantation but i never learned whether mister black the hunter was ever paid for capturing him
with eight or ten helpless children whom i knew as well as i did my fellow negroes on the colonel's plantation but as cruel as mister black was to runaway slaves his family was almost wholly supported by negroes i have known in some cases
that they stole from their masters to help this family the negroes were so kind to mister black's family that his wife turned against him for his cruelty to runaway slaves
while others in a mad fit of passion would say to them i want you to bring my runaway nigger home dead or alive all of the slave hunters used to practice cruelty upon the runaway slaves
more especially upon those whose masters would say to hunters bring them dead or alive
it was rumored that many of the runaway slaves that were never heard of afterward were captured and killed in the woods by mister black but no special clue to this could be found finally mister black was hired to capture a runaway slave in barnwell county south carolina
this slave was with another who was thought well of by his master but hated by the overseer
and gave messrs black and motley a hard fight after the negro had been captured they killed him cut him up and gave his remains to the living dogs the companion of the murdered slave was not caught a few days after the chase
while wandering around in the wood in a somewhat excited state he came to a spot where the bushes and leaves seemed to have been in a stirred up condition as though there had been tussling by two parties on looking around in this disordered spot
digging down in the spot he soon discovered pieces of the person of a dead man whom he could not identify but was satisfied that it was the remains of his companion from whom he had been compelled to separate a few days before
this sight frightened the runaway negro so that he left the woods went home to his master and told the story
the master of the murdered negro was still ignorant of his death he was in hopes that his slave would return but finding that his slave did not return as expected the master became uneasy and offered a reward to any one
in the meantime he discharged the overseer who had been the cause of his slave running away and he also kept the overseer's salary of four hundred dollars which was the annual pay for overseering his plantation
mister black's house was in richland county and as he was the last who had hunted runaway slaves in barnwell county before the murder suspicion rested on him still no one said anything to him
but he was very closely watched by men of his own county whose interest was not in the hatefulness of the crime committed but rather in the reward offered by the master
of his runaway slave sometime after the case had occurred another white man of richland county became quite a friend to mister black the slave hunter this apparent friendship soon led mister black to tell the secret
which speedily brought him to trial while he and his pretended friend were on a drinking spree in the midst of the merriment of course the conversation was how to control negroes as that was the principal topic of the poor white men south in the days of slavery
in the conversation this friend spoke of several plans which he said if properly carried out
after the friend had said so much to mister black the slave hunter
the way to show a nigger that would resist a white man his place is to put him among the missing not long since i went to barnwell county to hunt a runaway nigger and my dogs struck trail of another instead of the one i wanted to capture
and motley and i cut him up and gave the pieces to the remainder of my dogs that is the way i put a nigger in his place after the secret had been revealed mister black's friend excused himself
and the former saw him no more until he appeared as a witness against him the companion of the murdered negro was summoned to carry the investigating party including the murderer to the spot where his companion had been buried
after sentence had been passed he confessed the commission of that crime and also told that he had killed several runaway negroes previously in his own county so mister black and motley his companion were both hanged in barnwell county south carolina
the system of slavery outlived mister black the slave hunter just six years manning brown and aunt betty a man by the name of manning brown was nursed by an old colored woman he called mamma betty
she was naturally good natured and a devout christian and mister brown gained many of her good qualities when he was under her entire control at which time he was said to be a boy of very fine sense of feeling and quite promising but when approaching manhood
mister brown fell among a class of other white men who in the days of slavery were unbridled in their habits with this class of men he began to drink and step by step in this rapid stride he soon became a confirmed drunkard
this habit so over coated the good influence he had gained from the colored woman that it rendered him dangerous not only to his enemies but also to his friends manning brown was feared by most of the other white men in richland county south carolina
and strange to say although he was dangerous to white men yet he never lost the respect he had for colored people in his boyhood days he ate drank and slept among colored people after he was a grown man
and in many cases when other white men who were called patrols caught colored people away from home without tickets and were about to whip them mister brown would ride up and say the first man who raises a whip at one of those negroes i will blow his brains out
he was dangerous to many of the white people and feared by them a man by the name of peter gafney fought a duel with his brother in law
mister brown who acted as a second for mister gafney in the fight felt the loss of his old friend very deeply a short time after this he sent a challenge to doctor ray stating
on the spot where you killed p t gafney for a duel or i will shoot you on first sight wherever i meet you yours m brown
but doctor ray refused in the face of the threat to accept the challenge knowing the disposition of mister brown the people in that county were inflamed with excitement because the doctor was liable at any moment while riding in the road to be killed
the doctor gave up visiting the most of his sick patients and almost wholly confined himself to his large plantation at the same time mister brown was closely watched by his friends to keep him from waylaying the doctor
a short time after this threat mister brown commenced to drink harder than ever so that at times he did not know his own family but the providence of god was slowly leading mister brown through the unknown paths to a sudden change of life
as we shall soon see mister brown's family consisted of a wife one child and aunt betty the old colored woman who had brought him up she was the only mother he knew for his own mother had died when he was an infant
and her dying request had been that mamma betty the old woman should bring up this boy who was an only child
only what she chose to do and that he would take care of her the balance of her days and missus brown regarded aunt betty more as a mother in law than as a negress servant sometimes when mister brown would not listen to his wife he would to his mamma betty
he went into his bedroom and lay down across the bed talking to himself his wife went in to speak to him but as she entered he jumped up and got his loaded double barrelled gun and threatened to shoot her frightened at this she ran out of the room and screamed saying
for he threatened to shoot me with that old familiar confidence in one who had often listened to her advice aunt betty went into the house and to the room where she found mister brown lying across the bed with the gun by his side on entering the room
she dropped instantly to the floor mister brown lay across the bed as before with the gun by his side talking to himself and soon dropped to sleep missus brown fainted away several times under the excitement aunt betty lived about an hour
o my lord i wanted to see my child before i die and i know that he would want to see his mamma betty too before she leaves him
during the time she lived she prayed for mister brown and requested that he would change his course of life become a christian and meet her in heaven after singing one of her familiar hymns aunt betty said to some one who stood by her bedside
that she died before he reached there when mister brown awoke from his drunken state in the night and learned the sad news of aunt betty's death of which he had been the cause he clasped his hands and cried out what is it possible that my mamma betty
but that voice was hushed in death
that night mister brown took the train to columbia the capital of south carolina and gave himself up to the law next day he was told that it was all right that the old negress was his slave but mister brown was dissatisfied
he came back home and invited all the white neighbors and slaves to aunt betty's funeral in which he and his family took part after the excitement was over the message of aunt betty was delivered to mister brown
he was told that her last request had been that he would meet her in heaven he answered i will mister brown then and there took an oath that he would drink no more strong drinks he then disposed of his slaves
but how i did not learn soon after this he was converted and became one of the ablest preachers in richland county south carolina
punishments inflicted on different ones one of my fellow negroes who belonged to colonel m r singleton visited the plantation of the colonel sister the overseer of that plantation had forbidden strangers to go there
but this man whose name was harry would go the overseer heard of him but could not catch him but the overseer of master's place sent him to mister jackson the overseer of master's sister's place
mister jackson tied him and hit him three hundred lashes and then said to him harry if you were not such a good nigger
but as you are a good fellow and i like you so well i thought i would give you a light flogging now you must be a good nigger and behave yourself for if i ever have to take hold of you again i shall give you a good whipping
when mister jackson had loosed him from where he had tied him harry was so exhausted that he fell down so mister jackson sent him home in a cart
the punishment and sale of monday there was a man who belonged to master by the name of monday who was a good field hand in summer the tasks generally performed by the slaves were more than they could do
and in consequence they were severely whipped but monday would not wait to be whipped but would run away before the overseer or driver could get to him sometimes master would hire a white man who did nothing else but hunt runaway slaves for a living
but just as soon as he could he would run away again at one time when he had been brought home one of his arms was tied and he was put in care of a keeper who made him work with the other slaves days and put him in confinement nights
but for all this he got away from his keeper and went into the woods again the last time he ran away two white men were hired to hunt him they had about twenty five blood hounds but this time monday fell in with another slave who had ran away from his master
and had been in the woods seven years and they together were able to kill a greater portion of the hounds finally the white men caught his companion but did not catch monday though they chased him two or three days longer but he came home himself
they did not whip him and he went to work in the field things went on very nicely with him for two or three weeks until one day a white man was seen riding through the fields with the overseer of course the slaves did not mistrust his object as white men often visited master's plantation
handcuffed him and said you now belong to me most of the slaves found it out as monday was put in a cart and carried through the streets of the negro quarters and there was quite an excitement but monday was never heard from again
there was a slave named james hay who belonged to a neighbor of master's he was punished a great many times because he could not get his task done the other slaves pitied him because he seemed unable to perform his task
he answered yes ma'am he began his work very faithfully and continued until it was half done then he lay down under a tree the others not understanding his motive thought he was tired and was taking a rest
but he did not return to his task until the overseer called him and asked him why he did not have his work nearer done he said aunt patience told me dis morning that the lord would help me today
the overseer said you see that the lord did not come to help you and we shall not wait for him but we will help you so jim got a severe punishment sometime after this jim hay was called upon by some professors of religion
one sunday when the boys were at the overseer's mister usom's house as we generally were he said to one jack don't you think that hell is a very hot place if it is as they describe it jack said yes massa
well massa bob i will tell you what i tinks about it i tinks us niggers need not trouble usselves about hell as the white folks how is that jack jack answered
and if we go to hell it would not be so bad for us because us used to heat but it will be bad for white folks because they is not used to hot weather
he was called jim swine his right name was james but he was called jim swine because he loved hog meat and would often steal hogs from his master or from the neighbors he was a very able bodied man weighing about two hundred and twenty five pounds
and a very good field hand of course it is generally known that a great many of the slaves were poorly fed
he stole many from the neighbors and was punished a great many times for it sometimes he was punished when a hog was missing even though they did not find the meat with him jim was not in the habit of running away much
the last time jim stole hogs he was caught in the act of taking one from my master colonel singleton they tied him and mister clarkson's overseer was sent for who was his own son thomas clarkson jim was taken home whipped
and a cured middling of a hog was tied around his neck he was then made to work along with the other slaves in the day and was put in prison in the night for two weeks one morning when the overseer went to his place of confinement to take him into the field he found him dead
with a large piece of meat hanging to his neck the news of his death soon went abroad also the cause of it and when old mister clarkson found it out he was very angry at his son thomas and his punishment was
that he was driven from his plantation with orders never to return and that he should not have any of his property this seemed to grieve thomas very much and he made several attempts to regain his father's affections but failed finally one night
and willed him the portion of property that he had said he should keep from him but poor jim was not there to forgive him a man mistaken for a hog two negroes went to steal hogs from their masters
but they ran out so fast he could not hit them except the last as he thought which came just slow enough and he struck
custom of witches among slaves the witches among slaves were supposed to have been persons who worked with them every day
those both men and women who when they had grown old
were supposed to be witches sometimes after eating supper
the twelve hundred dollars with which i purchased the freedom of myself and son i consented to accept only as a loan i went to work in earnest and in a short time paid every cent
that was so kindly advanced by my lady patrons of saint louis all this time my husband was a source of trouble to me and a burden too close occupation with my needle had its effects upon my health
and feeling exhausted with work i determined to make a change i had a conversation with mister keckley informed him that since he persisted in dissipation we must separate
and that i should never live with him again at least until i had good evidence of his reform he was rapidly debasing himself and although i was willing to work for him i was not willing to share his degradation poor man he had his faults
but over these faults death has drawn a veil my husband is now sleeping in his grave and in the silent grave i would bury all unpleasant memories of him i left saint louis in the spring of eighteen sixty
taking the cars direct for baltimore where i stopped six weeks attempting to realize a sum of money by forming classes of young colored women and teaching them my system of cutting and fitting dresses the scheme was not successful
for after six weeks of labor and vexation i left baltimore with scarcely money enough to pay my fare to washington arriving in the capital i sought and obtained work at two dollars and a half per day however
as i was notified that i could only remain in the city ten days without obtaining a license to do so such being the law and as i did not know whom to apply to for assistance i was sorely troubled
my means were too scanty and my profession too precarious to warrant my purchasing a license in my perplexity i called on a lady for whom i was sewing miss ringold
i stated my case and she kindly volunteered to render me all the assistance in her power she called on mayor burritt with me and miss ringold succeeded in making an arrangement for me to remain in washington
without paying the sum required for a license moreover i was not to be molested i rented apartments in a good locality and soon had a good run of custom the summer passed winter came
missus davis wife of senator jefferson davis came from the south in november of eighteen sixty with her husband learning that missus davis wanted a modiste i presented myself
and was employed by her on the recommendation of one of my patrons and her intimate friend missus captain hetsill i went to the house to work
and as i had to fit many dresses on missus davis i told her that i should prefer giving half the day to her working the other in my own room for some of my other lady patrons missus d consented to the proposition
and as mister davis occupied a leading position his house was the resort of politicians and statesmen from the south almost every night as i learned from the servants and other members of the family
secret meetings were held at the house and some of these meetings were protracted to a very late hour the prospects of war were freely discussed in my presence
the holidays were approaching and missus davis kept me busy in manufacturing articles of dress for herself and children she desired to present mister davis on christmas
and for weeks the work had been under way christmas eve came and the gown had been laid aside so often that it was still unfinished i saw that missus d was anxious to have it completed so i volunteered to remain and work on it
wearily the hours dragged on but there was no rest for my busy fingers i persevered in my task notwithstanding my head was aching missus davis was busy in the adjoining room
arranging the christmas tree for the children i looked at the clock and the hands pointed to a quarter of twelve i was arranging the cords on the gown when the senator came in he looked somewhat careworn and his step seemed to be a little nervous
he leaned against the door and expressed his admiration of the christmas tree but there was no smile on his face turning round he saw me sitting in the adjoining room and quickly exclaimed that you lizzie
still at work i hope that missus davis is not too exacting no sir i answered missus davis was very anxious to have this gown finished to night and i volunteered to remain and complete it
well well the case must be urgent and he came slowly towards me took the gown in his hand and asked the color of the silk as he said the gas light was so deceptive to his old eyes
and might have added that it was rich and handsome but did not well knowing that he would make the discovery in the morning he smiled curiously but turned and walked from the room without another question he inferred that the gown was for him
that it was to be the christmas present from his wife and he did not wish to destroy the pleasure that she would experience
in this respect as in many others he always appeared to me as a thoughtful considerate man in the domestic circle as the clock struck twelve i finished the gown little dreaming of the future that was before it
it was worn i have not the shadow of a doubt by mister davis during the stormy years that he was the president of the confederate states the holidays passed and before the close of january the war was discussed in mister davis's family
as an event certain to happen in the future missus davis was warmly attached to washington and i often heard her say that she disliked the idea of breaking up old associations and going south to suffer from trouble and deprivation
one day while discussing the question in my presence with one of her intimate friends she exclaimed i would rather remain in washington and be kicked about than go south and be missus president
while dressing her one day she said to me lizzie you are so very handy that i should like to take you south with me when do you go south missus davis i inquired oh i cannot tell just now but it will be soon
no but i tell you yes who will go to war i asked the north and south was her ready reply the southern people will not submit to the humiliating demands of the abolition party they will fight first
the south is impulsive is in earnest and the southern soldiers will fight to conquer the north will yield when it sees the south is in earnest rather than engage in a long and bloody war but missus davis
certain i know it you had better go south with me i will take good care of you besides when the war breaks out the colored people will suffer in the north the northern people will look upon them as the cause of the war
and i fear in their exasperation will be inclined to treat you harshly then i may come back to washington in a few months and live in the white house the southern people talk of choosing mister davis for their president
in fact it may be considered settled that he will be their president
we will raise an army and march on washington and then i shall live in the white house i was bewildered with what i heard i had served missus davis faithfully and she had learned to place the greatest confidence in me
at first i was almost tempted to go south with her for her reasoning seemed plausible at the time the conversation was closed with my promise to consider the question i thought over the question much and the more i thought
the less inclined i felt to accept the proposition so kindly made by missus davis i knew the north to be strong and believed that the people would fight for the flag that they pretended to venerate so highly
the republican party had just emerged from a heated campaign flushed with victory and i could not think that the hosts composing the party would quietly yield all they had gained in the presidential canvass
a show of war from the south i felt would lead to actual war in the north and with the two sections bitterly arrayed against each other i preferred to cast my lot among the people of the north i parted with missus davis kindly
half promising to join her in the south if further deliberation should induce me to change my views a few weeks before she left washington i made two chintz wrappers for her she said that she must give up expensive dressing for a while
now that war was imminent must learn to practise lessons of economy she left some fine needle work in my hands which i finished and forwarded to her at montgomery alabama in the month of june through the assistance of missus emory
one of her oldest and best friends since bidding them good by at washington early in the year eighteen sixty i have never met any of the davis family years of excitement years of bloodshed
and hundreds of thousands of graves intervene between the months i spent in the family and now the years have brought many changes and in view of these terrible changes
who have been punished with the cruel lash who have experienced the heart and soul tortures of a slave's life can say to mister jefferson davis peace you have suffered go in peace
in the winter of eighteen sixty five i was in chicago and one day visited the great charity fair
held for the benefit of the families of those soldiers who were killed or wounded during the war in one part of the building was a wax figure of jefferson davis wearing over his other garments
there was always a great crowd around this figure and i was naturally attracted towards it i worked my way to the figure and in examining the dress made the pleasing discovery that it was one of the chintz wrappers that i had made for missus davis
a short time before she departed from washington for the south when it was announced that i recognized the dress as one that i had made for the wife of the late confederate president there was great cheering and excitement and i at once became the object of the deepest curiosity
great crowds followed me and in order to escape from the embarrassing situation i left the building i believe it now is pretty well established that mister davis had on a water proof cloak instead of a dress as first reported
when he was captured this does not invalidate any portion of my story the dress on the wax figure at the fair in chicago unquestionably was one of the chintz wrappers that i made for missus davis in january eighteen sixty in washington
and i infer since it was not found on the body of the fugitive president of the south it was taken from the trunks of missus davis captured at the same time
ever since arriving in washington i had a great desire to work for the ladies of the white house and to accomplish this end i was ready to make almost any sacrifice consistent with propriety work came in slowly
and i was beginning to feel very much embarrassed for i did not know how i was to meet the bills staring me in the face
while in this situation i called at the ringolds where i met missus captain lee missus l was in a state bordering on excitement as the great event of the season the dinner party given in honor of the prince of wales
was soon to come off and she must have a dress suitable for the occasion the silk had been purchased but a dress maker had not yet been found miss ringold recommended me and i received the order to make the dress
when i called on missus lee the next day her husband was in the room and handing me a roll of bank bills amounting to one hundred dollars he requested me to purchase the trimmings and to spare no expense in making a selection
with the money in my pocket i went out in the street entered the store of harper and mitchell and asked to look at their laces mister harper waited on me himself and was polite and kind
when i asked permission to carry the laces to missus lee in order to learn whether she could approve my selection or not he gave a ready assent when i reminded him that i was a stranger
he remarked that he was not afraid to trust me that he believed my face was the index to an honest heart it was pleasant to be spoken to thus and i shall never forget the kind words of mister harper i often recall them
for they are associated with the dawn of a brighter period in my dark life i purchased the trimmings and mister harper allowed me a commission of twenty five dollars on the purchase the dress was done in time and it gave complete satisfaction
missus lee attracted great attention at the dinner party and her elegant dress proved a good card for me i received numerous orders and was relieved from all pecuniary embarrassments
one day when i was very busy missus mc c drove up to my apartments came in where i was engaged with my needle and in her emphatic way said lizzie i am invited to dine at willard's on next sunday
and positively i have not a dress fit to wear on the occasion i have just purchased material and you must commence work on it right away
i have more work now promised than i can do it is impossible for me to make a dress for you to wear on sunday next pshaw nothing is impossible i must have the dress made by sunday and she spoke with some impatience
i am sorry i began but she interrupted me now don't say no again i tell you that you must make the dress i have often heard you say that you would like to work for the ladies of the white house well i have it in my power to obtain you this privilege
i know missus lincoln well and you shall make a dress for her provided you finish mine in time to wear at dinner on sunday the inducement was the best that could have been offered i would undertake the dress
if i should have to sit up all night every night to make my pledge good i sent out and employed assistants and after much worry and trouble
it appears that missus lincoln had upset a cup of coffee on the dress she designed wearing on the evening of the reception after the inauguration of abraham lincoln as president of the united states which rendered it necessary
that she should have a new one for the occasion on asking missus mc clean who her dress maker was that lady promptly informed her lizzie keckley lizzie keckley the name is familiar to me
she used to work for some of my lady friends in saint louis and they spoke well of her can you recommend her to me with confidence shall i send her to you if you please i shall feel under many obligations for your kindness the next sunday
missus mc clean sent me a message to call at her house at four o'clock p m that day as she did not state why i was to call i determined to wait till monday morning monday morning came and nine o'clock found me at missus mc c s house
the streets of the capital were thronged with people for this was inauguration day a new president a man of the people from the broad prairies of the west was to accept the solemn oath of office was to assume the responsibilities
attached to the high position of chief magistrate of the united states never was such deep interest felt in the inauguration proceedings as was felt today for threats of assassination had been made
and every breeze from the south came heavily laden with the rumors of war around willard's hotel swayed an excited crowd and it was with the utmost difficulty that i worked my way to the house on the opposite side of the street
occupied by the mc cleans missus mc clean was out but presently an aide on general mc clean's staff called and informed me that i was wanted at willard's i crossed the street
and on entering the hotel was met by missus mc clean who greeted me lizzie why did you not come yesterday as i requested missus lincoln wanted to see you but i fear that now you are too late i am sorry missus mc clean
you did not say what you wanted with me yesterday so i judged that this morning would do as well you should have come yesterday she insisted go up to missus lincoln's room giving me the number she may find use for you yet
with a nervous step i passed on and knocked at missus lincoln's door a cheery voice bade me come in and a lady inclined to stoutness about forty years of age stood before me you are lizzie keckley i believe
i bowed assent the dress maker that missus mc clean recommended yes madam very well i have not time to talk to you now but would like to have you call at the white house at eight o'clock to morrow morning where i shall then be
i bowed myself out of the room and returned to my apartments the day passed slowly for i could not help but speculate in relation to the appointed interview for the morrow my long cherished hope was about to be realized
and i could not rest tuesday morning at eight o'clock i crossed the threshold of the white house for the first time i was shown into a waiting room and informed that missus lincoln was at breakfast
in the waiting room i found no less than three mantua makers waiting for an interview with the wife of the new president it seems that missus lincoln had told several of her lady friends that she had urgent need for a dress maker
and that each of these friends had sent her mantua maker to the white house hope fell at once with so many rivals for the position sought after i regarded my chances for success as extremely doubtful
i was the last one summoned to missus lincoln's presence all the others had a hearing and were dismissed i went up stairs timidly and entering the room with nervous step discovered the wife of the president
standing by a window looking out and engaged in lively conversation with a lady missus grimsly as i afterwards learned missus l came forward and greeted me warmly you have come at last missus keckley
among others missus senator davis has been one of my best patrons was my reply
of course you gave satisfaction
can you do my work yes missus lincoln will you have much work for me to do that missus keckley will depend altogether upon your prices i trust that your terms are reasonable i cannot afford to be extravagant
we are just from the west and are poor if you do not charge too much i shall be able to give you all my work i do not think there will be any difficulty about charges missus lincoln my terms are reasonable well
if you will work cheap you shall have plenty to do i can't afford to pay big prices so i frankly tell you so in the beginning the terms were satisfactorily arranged and i measured missus lincoln took the dress with me
and returned the next day to fit it on her a number of ladies were in the room all making preparations for the levee to come off on friday night
missus edwards and missus kellogg her own sisters and elizabeth edwards and julia baker her nieces missus lincoln this morning was dressed in a cashmere wrapper quilted down the front and she wore a simple head dress
the other ladies wore morning robes
till tuesday night this of course gave me more time to complete my task missus lincoln sent for me and suggested some alteration in style
no i won't be dressed
mister lincoln can go down with the other ladies but there is plenty of time for you to dress mary joined in missus grimsly and missus edwards let missus keckley assist you and she will soon have you ready thus urged she consented
i dressed her hair and arranged the dress on her it fitted nicely and she was pleased mister lincoln came in threw himself on the sofa laughed with willie and little tad and then commenced pulling on his gloves
quoting poetry all the while you seem to be in a poetical mood to night said his wife yes mother these are poetical times was his pleasant reply i declare you look charming in that dress
missus keckley has met with great success and then he proceeded to compliment the other ladies missus lincoln looked elegant in her rose colored moire antique she wore a pearl necklace pearl ear rings pearl bracelets
and red roses in her hair missus baker was dressed in lemon colored silk missus kellogg in a drab silk ashes of rose missus edwards in a brown and black silk miss edwards in crimson
and missus grimsly in blue watered silk just before starting downstairs missus lincoln's lace handkerchief was the object of search it had been displaced by tad who was mischievous and hard to restrain the handkerchief found
all became serene missus lincoln took the president's arm and with smiling face led the train below
i had heard so much in current and malicious report of her low life of her ignorance and vulgarity that i expected to see her embarrassed on this occasion report i soon saw was wrong
no queen accustomed to the usages of royalty all her life could have comported herself with more calmness and dignity than did the wife of the president she was confident and self possessed
and confidence always gives grace this levee was a brilliant one and the only one of the season i became the regular modiste of missus lincoln
i made fifteen or sixteen dresses for her during the spring and early part of the summer when she left washington spending the hot weather at saratoga long branch and other places
one of the loveliest ladies that i ever met missus secretary wells missus secretary stanton and others
chapter twenty five as soon as the night was dark enough chris loudly complained of not feeling well of being hot and dizzy and in no time captain blizzard had as loudly told him he was to go to bed on a cot in the captain's cabin
captain blizzard closed the door behind him and in amos's and ned cilley's hearing
chris remained alone in the cabin from that time soon in the cool of the night the sailors of the mirabelle
taking with them casks and barrels to replenish the ship's water supply their deep voices swept back over the water to where chris stood by the open port of the captain's cabin he was forcing himself toward the moment when he must board the vulture
his resolve was held back by his mounting anxiety as to how best to carry out what would be necessary and a strong natural reluctance to leave the mirabelle leave it he must
and when he heard the cry of a belated night bird and saw it coast by on silent wings to vanish in the night he decided to take that shape it took all his courage and determination but this was the first step toward what he had trained for so long to do
and he knew he must do it and at once the boy looked a last time around the cabin then spoke the magic formula in his mind and with a sudden enjoyment in the sense of flight he soared away from the ship
rising higher as it went below the few lights of the ship had been carefully hooded away from the sea
she was riding at anchor close inshore farther down the coast and final boatfuls of men were returning from the merchantman carrying the last of the spoils sweeping by toward the beach chris saw that most of the bandit crew were already drunk
shouting and carousing around fires where they roasted wild creatures they had earlier killed he noticed that a few tahitians stood apart at the joining of the palm forests and the sand watching the coarse faces of the drunken men
the tahitians fitting so well into the beauty of their island gold of skin and crowned with flowers carrying themselves with dignity were as far removed as could be imagined from the idea of pagan men
they contrasted sharply at that moment with those from civilization
staggered about aimlessly gorging food and drinking the watching pagans glanced from the brawling pirates back a short distance down the beach where already a few bodies had been washed ashore from the fight their distaste and bewilderment were plain
chris soared high above the din and the smoke of the fires and then seeing osterbridge hawsey being rowed back to the vulture followed after osterbridge hawsey had two baskets at his feet
hastily changing himself into a green parakeet chris alighted on the rail of the vulture just as osterbridge hawsey reached the top of the ladder determined to make a good impression and perhaps catch osterbridge's fancy
chris in his bright parakeet plumage bobbed his head and sidled up and down the ship's rail eyeing osterbridge hawsey with his head on one side as he had seen parakeets do the maneuver succeeded
declared himself enchanted i must have that little bird he exclaimed and carefully taking off his fashionable hat even more out of place in the tropics than it had been on the georgetown docks he slapped it quickly over the parakeet
which allowed itself to be captured this osterbridge hawsey's own prize made him crow with delight clambering as gracefully as possible over the battle scarred side of the vulture he took the parakeet gently out from under his tricorne
my soul what a prize he rattled on entirely to himself as it turned out for the sailors were not at all interested in a pet exhausted from the battle or drunk from captured wine and all despising the fastidious ways of osterbridge hawsey
they paid not the slightest attention they obeyed occasional orders from him for they knew they would be whipped by claggett chew if they did not and so hauled up the baskets of fruits and flowers dumped them unceremoniously in the captain's cabin
and left as quickly as they could to rejoin their shipmates on shore holding the parakeet firmly osterbridge hawsey tied a long silk cord to its right leg fastening the other end to the arm of his chair so that he could closely observe his new pet
chris did not disappoint him as the parakeet he played the clown for all he was worth he strutted up and down and bobbed his head whenever osterbridge hawsey spoke so that it appeared that the brightly feathered bird was in constant agreement with his captor
or he would cock his head to one side as if weighing one of osterbridge's remarks in a truly comical manner looking about meanwhile with his black beady eyes chris saw that claggett chew was lying in a bunk against one wall
nursing his left leg which had been given a sword thrust in the fight he was obviously in pain and perhaps feverish and osterbridge hawsey's childish talk irritated and bored him so that he turned his face to the wall
light from the swinging lamp that chris remembered from many weeks before threw black hollows into claggett chew's eye sockets and deeply lined face now and again he could be heard grinding his teeth at the pain of his wound
but osterbridge hawsey throwing his fine coat and plumed hat to one side lightheartedly amused himself by trying to tempt his new pet with some fruit claggett he cried as if claggett chew could possibly be interested in a parakeet at that point
do look at what i captured this is my very own spoils of war he crowed claggett chew made an impolite noise and said nothing well osterbridge hawsey gave a shrug as answer to the noise you know how i detest fighting
now a good gentlemanly fight with a rapier is quite another thing he went on he smirked and made a face at the parakeet who did its best to smirk back that is a graceful and fine art
no sound from claggett chew osterbridge hawsey rattled on and chris pecking at the fruit proffered him thought that sometimes osterbridge hawsey might quite possibly talk just as gaily to himself as he did to the unresponsive claggett chew
claggett your men his voice rose really
exhibition of themselves on the beach
quite revolting how can you bear to associate with such types when you are so much above them yourself but there i must not pique you must i poor claggett i expect your wound smarts a trifle
claggett chew turned his face toward osterbridge hawsey his eyes blazing with rage and his mouth working with the fretful annoyance of an ill man but he only muttered and turned away again
his more delicate friend pursued stretching out a long finger for the parakeet to perch on which to his evident pleasure it instantly did
he paused admiring the vivid colors of the feathers which perhaps awoke a kindred feeling in osterbridge hawsey
my little feathered captive he said and pondered
something french undoubtedly he waved a hand and the lace at his wrist fell forward in a not overly clean frill louis after the dear king no that would be too great an honor for so small a bird gaudy though you are i think
to think that i once knew such a royal such a distinguished man he sighed reminiscently for the first time words came from claggett chew he bit them off as if the saying of them cost him very great effort more
ex tinguished than dis tinguished i would say
i am sure you would have liked him such charm
oh dear me yes a most unusual royal personage osterbridge hawsey said smiling happily at his parakeet most of them are so much alike he singled out several fresh fruits peeling some for claggett chew
silence fell over the cabin except for osterbridge hawsey's delicately smacking lips as he finished the fruit and licked his fingers one by one the increasingly heavy breathing of claggett chew who fell asleep and the distant sound of shouts and clamor from the shore
osterbridge hawsey made a pouting face at the sleeping figure of chew evidently osterbridge was bored he went to the door and clapped his hands but no one responded except for the two men and the parakeet the vulture was deserted
holding a bottle of wine which he uncorked and poured into a glass chris foreseeing what would follow hopped up to the back of his new master's chair where he hoped he would be forgotten and tucked his head under his wing in case osterbridge should look at him
witchcraft new york witches the witch mania how fast they burned them the mode of trial witches to day in europe
witchcraft is one of the most baseless absurd disgusting and silly of all the humbugs and it is not a dead humbug either it is alive busily exercised by knaves and believed by fools all over the world
witches and wizards operate and prosper among the hottentots and negroes and barbarous indians
they are if the belief and practice of witchcraft among them is any test for in all those countries there are witches i take up one of the new york city dailies of this very morning and find in it the advertisements of seven witches
in eighteen fifty eight there were in full blast in new york and brooklyn sixteen witches and two wizards one of these wizards was a black man a very proper style of person to deal with the black art witch means
before the christian era the jewish witch was a mere diviner or at most a raiser of the dead and the gentile witch was a poisoner a maker of philtres or love potions and a vulgar sort of magician
the devil part of the business did not begin until a good while after christ during the last century or so again while witchcraft has been extensively believed in the witch has degenerated into a very vulgar and poverty stricken sort of conjuring woman
take our new york city witches for instance they live in cheap and dirty streets that smell bad their houses are in the same style infected with a strong odor of cabbage onions washing day
old dinners and other merely sublunary smells their rooms are very ill furnished and often beset with wash tubs swill pails mops and soiled clothes their personal appearance is commonly unclean homely vulgar
coarse and ignorant and often rummy their fee is a quarter or half of a dollar sometimes a dollar their divination is worked by cutting and dealing cards or studying the palm of your hand
and the things which they tell you are the most silly and shallow babble in the world a mess of phrases worn out over and over again
anybody can do the like you face a misfortune i think it will come upon you within three weeks but it may not a dark complexioned man faces your life card
he is plotting against you and you must beware of him your marriage card faces two young women one fair and the other dark one you will have and the other you will not i think you will have the fair one
she favors the dark complexioned man which means trouble you face money but you must earn it there is a good deal but you may not get much of it et cetera et cetera
these words are exactly the sort of stuff that is sold by the witches of to day but the greatest witch humbug of all the witchcraft of history is that of christendom for about three hundred years beginning about the time of the discovery of america
to that period belonged the salem witchcraft of new england the witch finding of matthew hopkins in old england the scotch witch trials and the swedish and german and french witch mania
the peculiar traits of the witchcraft of this period are among the most mysterious of all humbugs the most usual points in a case of witchcraft were that the witch had sold herself to the devil for all eternity
in order to get the power during a few years of earthly life to inflict a few pains on the persons of those she disliked or to cause them to lose part of their property this was almost always the whole story
parodies on the ceremonies of the christian religion
how anybody could believe that to accomplish such very small results seldom equal even to the death of an enemy one would agree to accept eternal damnation in the next world almost certain poverty misery persecution and torment in this
besides having for an amusement performances more dirty obscene and vulgar than i can even hint at but such a belief was universal and hundreds of the witches themselves confessed as much as i have described and more
with numerous details and they were burnt alive for their trouble the extent of wholesale murdering perpetrated under forms of law on charges of witchcraft is astonishing a magistrate named remigius published a book
in which he told how much he thought of himself for having condemned and burned nine hundred witches in sixteen years in lorraine and the one thing that he blamed himself for was this that out of regard for the wishes of a colleague
at wurzburg nine hundred in two years sprenger a german inquisitor general and author of a celebrated book on detecting and punishing witchcraft called malleus maleficarum or the mallet of malefactors
burned more than five hundred in one year in geneva five hundred persons were burned during fifteen fifteen and fifteen sixteen
in the district of como in italy a thousand persons were burned as witches in the single year fifteen twenty four besides over a hundred a year for several years afterwards
seventeen thousand persons were executed for witchcraft in scotland during thirty nine years ending with sixteen o three forty thousand were executed in england from sixteen hundred to sixteen eighty
bodinus another of the witch killing judges gravely announced that there were undoubtedly not less than three hundred thousand witches in france the way in which the witch murderers reasoned and their modes of conducting trials and procuring confessions
were truly infernal the chief rule was that witchcraft being an exceptional crime no regard need be had to the ordinary forms of justice all manner of tortures were freely applied to force confessions
in scotland the boot was used being an iron case in which the legs are locked up to the knees and an iron wedge then driven in until sometimes the bones were crushed and the marrow spouted out pin sticking drowning
starving the rack were too common to need details sometimes the prisoner was hung up by the thumbs and whipped by one person
at arras while the prisoners were being torn on the rack the executioner stood by sword in hand promising to cut off at once the heads of those who did not confess
at offenburg when the prisoners had been tortured until beyond the power of speaking aloud they silently assented to abominable confessions read to them out of a book
many were cheated into confession by the promise of pardon and release and then burned a poor woman in germany was tricked by the hangman who dressed himself up as a devil and went into her cell overpowered by pain
fear and superstition she begged him to help her out her beseeching was taken for confession she was burned and a ballad which treated the trick as a jolly and comical device was long popular in the country
confessed whatever was required
all who dared to argue against the current of popular and judicial delusion were instantly refuted very effectively by being attacked for witchcraft themselves and once accused there was little hope of escape
the jesuit delrio in a book published in fifteen ninety nine states the witch killers side of the discussion very neatly indeed for in one and the same chapter he defies any opponents to disprove the existence of witchcraft
and then shows that a denial of witchcraft is the worst of all heresies and must be punished with death quite a number of excellent and sensible people were actually burnt on just this principle
this sketch of the way in which they operated is all i can make room for and sufficiently delineates this cruel and bloody humbug i have already referred to the fact that we have right here among us in this city a very fair supply of a vulgar
dowdy kind of witchcraft other countries are favored in like manner i have not just now the most recent information but in the year eighteen fifty seven and eighteen fifty eight for instance
mobbing and prosecutions growing out of a popular belief in witchcraft were quite plentiful enough in various parts of europe no less than eight cases of the kind in england alone were reported during those two years
among them was the actual murder of a woman as a witch by a mob in shropshire and an attack by another mob in essex upon a perfectly inoffensive person on suspicion of having bewitched a scolding ill conditioned girl
from which attack the mob was diverted with much difficulty and thinking itself very unjustly treated some others of those cases show a singular quantity of credulity among people of respectability
he thought that from the appearance of the house it might yield him a rich harvest so he entered and inquired to whom it belonged my good man where do you come from replied the servant can't you see for yourself that it can belong to nobody but a barmecide
for the barmecides were famed for their liberality and generosity my brother hearing this asked the porters of whom there were several if they would give him alms
my brother thanked them for their courtesy and entered the building which was so large that it took him some time to reach the apartments of the barmecide at last in a room richly decorated with paintings
he saw an old man with a long white beard sitting on a sofa who received him with such kindness that my brother was emboldened to make his petition my lord he said
before he could proceed further he was stopped by the astonishment shown by the barmecide
he cried that while i am in bagdad a man like you should be starving that is a state of things that must at once be put an end to never shall it be said that i have abandoned you and i am sure that you on your part will never abandon me
my lord answered my brother i swear that i have not broken my fast this whole day
exclaimed the barmecide here slave bring water that we may wash our hands before meat no slave appeared
then he said to my brother why don't you wash your hands too and schacabac supposing that it was a joke on the part of the barmecide though he could see none himself drew near and imitated his motion when the barmecide had done rubbing his hands
he raised his voice and cried set food before us at once we are very hungry no food was brought but the barmecide pretended to help himself from a dish and carry a morsel to his mouth saying as he did so eat my friend eat i entreat
help yourself as freely as if you were at home for a starving man you seem to have a very small appetite excuse me my lord replied schacabac imitating his gestures as before
i really am not losing time and i do full justice to the repast how do you like this bread
oh my lord answered my brother who beheld neither meat nor bread never have i tasted anything so delicious eat as much as you want said the barmecide i bought the woman who makes it for five hundred pieces of gold
so that i might never be without it after ordering a variety of dishes which never came to be placed on the table and discussing the merits of each one the barmecide declared that having dined so well they would now proceed to take their wine
to this my brother at first objected declaring that it was forbidden
he consented to take a little the barmecide however pretended to fill their glasses so often that my brother feigned that the wine had gone into his head and struck the barmecide such a blow on the head that he fell to the ground
indeed he raised his hand to strike him a second time when the barmecide cried out that he was mad upon which my brother controlled himself
at this the barmecide instead of being angry began to laugh and embraced him heartily i have long been seeking he exclaimed a man of your description and henceforth my house shall be yours
you have had the good grace to fall in with my humour and to pretend to eat and to drink when nothing was there
then he clapped his hands and all the dishes were brought that they had tasted in imagination before and during the repast slaves sang and played on various instruments all the while schacabac was treated by the barmecide as a familiar friend
and dressed in a garment out of his own wardrobe twenty years passed by and my brother was still living with the barmecide looking after his house and managing his affairs at the end of that time his generous benefactor died without heirs
so all his possessions went to the prince they even despoiled my brother of those that rightly belonged to him and he now as poor as he had ever been in his life decided to cast in his lot with a caravan of pilgrims who were on their way to mecca
unluckily the caravan was attacked and pillaged by the bedouins and the pilgrims were taken prisoners my brother became the slave of a man who beat him daily hoping to drive him to offer a ransom although
as schacabac pointed out it was quite useless trouble as his relations were as poor as himself at length the bedouin grew tired of tormenting and sent him on a camel to the top of a high barren mountain where he left him to take his chance
a passing caravan on its way to bagdad told me where he was to be found and i hurried to his rescue and brought him in a deplorable condition back to the town this continued the barber
who when i had finished burst into fits of laughter well were you called the silent said he no name was ever better deserved
i desire you to leave the town and never to come back i had of course no choice but to obey and travelled about for several years until i heard of the death of the caliph when i hastily returned to bagdad only to find that all my brothers were dead
it was at this time that i rendered to the young cripple the important service of which you have heard and for which as you know he showed such profound ingratitude that he preferred rather to leave bagdad than to run the risk of seeing me i sought him long from place to place
as much irritated with me as ever so saying the tailor went on to relate the story of the lame man and the barber which has already been told when the barber he continued had finished his tale we came to the conclusion that the young man had been right
when he had accused him of being a great chatter box however we wished to keep him with us and share our feast
it was during this interval that the little hunchback half drunk already presented himself before me singing and playing on his drum i took him home to amuse my wife and she invited him to supper while eating some fish a bone got into his throat and in spite of all we could do
we carried the body to the house of a jewish physician he placed it in the chamber of the purveyor and the purveyor propped it up in the street
this sire is the story which i was obliged to tell to satisfy your highness it is now for you to say if we deserve mercy or punishment life or death
the sultan of kashgar listened with an air of pleasure which filled the tailor and his friends with hope i must confess he exclaimed that i am much more interested in the stories of the barber and his brothers and of the lame man than in that of my own jester
and have the corpse of the hunchback properly buried i should like to see this barber who has earned your pardon and as he is in this town let an usher go with you at once in search of him the usher and the tailor soon returned
o silent one said the sultan i am told that you know many strange stories will you tell some of them to me never mind my stories for the present replied the barber
but will your highness graciously be pleased to explain why this jew this christian and this mussulman as well as this dead body are all here what business is that of yours asked the sultan with a smile but seeing that the barber had some reasons for his question
he commanded that the tale of the hunchback should be told him it is certainly most surprising cried he when he had heard it all but i should like to examine the body he then knelt down and took the head on his knees looking at it attentively
suddenly he burst into such loud laughter that he fell right backwards and when he had recovered himself enough to speak he turned to the sultan the man is no more dead than i am he said watch me as he spoke he drew a small case of medicines from his pocket
and rubbed the neck of the hunchback with some ointment made of balsam next he opened the dead man's mouth and by the help of a pair of pincers drew the bone from his throat at this the hunchback sneezed stretched himself and opened his eyes
the sultan and all those who saw this operation did not know which to admire most the constitution of the hunchback who had apparently been dead for a whole night and most of one day or the skill of the barber whom everyone now began to look upon as a great man
to be sure the magic umbrella was now in the blue country and the fairies that directed its flight might be with the umbrella instead of with them yet the old sailor had already experienced some strange adventures in trot's company
and knew she had managed to escape every danger that had threatened so he decided not to fight until the last moment and meekly hobbled along the street as he was commanded to do trot was also encouraged by the witch's suggestion
for she believed in fairies and trusted them but button bright could find no comfort in their situation and his face was very sad as he marched along by trot's side
if they had followed the corkscrew windings of the street it would have been a long journey to the outer edge of the pink country but tourmaline took a short cut leading them through private gardens and even through houses
so that they followed almost a bee line to their destination it rained all the way and the walking was very disagreeable but our friends were confronting an important crisis in their strange adventures and with possible death at their journey's end they were in no hurry to arrive there
once free of the city they traversed the open country and here they often stepped into sticky pink mud up to their ankles cap'n bill's wooden leg would often go down deep and stick fast in this mud
and at such times he would be helpless until two of the pinkies who were a strong people pulled him out again the parrot was getting its feathers sadly draggled in the rain and the poor bird soon presented a wet and woebegone appearance
soak us again drown us with rain it muttered in a resigned tone and then it would turn to trot and moan the rose is red the violet's blue the pinkies are a beastly crew the country was not so trim and neatly kept near the edge
there was a row of thick bushes which concealed the gulf below and as they approached these bushes the rain abruptly ceased and the clouds began to break and drift away in the sky
two of you seize the girl and throw her over said tourmaline in a calm matter of fact way and two others must throw the boy over it may take four perhaps to lift the huge and ancient man more'n that said cap'n bill grimly
i'm pretty sure it'll take all o you young lady an the chances are you won't do it then they had halted a short distance from the bushes and now there suddenly appeared through a rift in the clouds an immense rainbow
it was perfectly formed and glistened with a dozen or more superb tintings that were so vivid and brilliant and blended into one another so exquisitely that every one paused to gaze enraptured upon the sight
steadily yet with wonderful swiftness the end of the great bow descended until it rested upon the pink field almost at the feet of the little party of observers then they saw dancing gaily upon the arch
a score of beautiful maidens dressed in fleecy robes of rainbow tints which fluttered around them like clouds the daughters of the rainbow whispered tourmaline in an awed voice and the witch beside her nodded and said
fairies of the sky what did i tell you tourmaline just then one of the maidens tripped lightly down the span of the arch until near the very end leaning over to observe the group below
she was exquisitely fair dainty as a lily and graceful as a bough swaying in the breeze why it's polychrome exclaimed button bright in a voice of mingled wonder and delight hello polly don't you remember me
the last time i saw you was in the land of oz oh cried trot turning to stare at the boy with big wide open eyes were you ever in the land of oz yes he answered still looking at the rainbow's daughter and then he said appealingly
these people want to kill us polly can't you help us polly wants a cracker polly wants a cracker screeched the parrot
there is work for me to do here for one of my old friends is in trouble with this she sprang lightly from the rainbow and stood beside button bright and trot and scarcely had she left the splendid arch when it lifted and rose into the sky
the other end had been hidden in the clouds and now the rainbow began to fade gradually like mist and the sun broke through the clouds and shot its cheering rays over the pink country until presently the rainbow had vanished altogether
and the only reminder of it was the lovely polychrome standing among the wondering band of pinkies tell me she said gently to the boy why are you here and why do these people of the sky wish to destroy you in a few hurried words
button bright related their adventure with the magic umbrella and how the boolooroo had stolen it and they had been obliged to escape into the pink country polychrome listened and then turned to the queen why have you decreed death to these innocent strangers she asked
they do not harmonize with our color scheme replied tourmaline that is utter nonsense declared polychrome impatiently you're so dreadfully pink here that your color which in itself is beautiful has become tame and insipid
what you really need is some sharp contrast to enhance the charm of your country and to keep these three people with you would be a benefit rather than an injury to you at this the pinkies looked downcast and ashamed
while only rosalie the witch laughed and seemed to enjoy the rebuke but protested tourmaline the great book of laws says our country shall harbor none but the pinkies does it indeed asked the rainbow's daughter
come let us return at once to your city and examine your book of laws i am quite sure i can find in them absolute protection for these poor wanderers they dared not disobey polychrome's request so at once they all turned and walked back to the city
as it was still muddy underfoot the rainbow's daughter took a cloak from one of the women partly rolled it and threw it upon the ground then she stepped upon it and began walking forward the cloak unrolled as she advanced affording a constant carpet for her feet
and for those of the others who followed her so being protected from the mud and wet they speedily gained the city and in a short time were all gathered in the low room of tourmaline's palace where the great book of laws lay upon a table
polychrome began turning over the leaves while the others all watched her anxiously and in silence here she said presently is a law which reads as follows
everyone in the pink country is entitled to the protection of the ruler and to a house and a good living except only the blueskins if any of the natives of the blue country should ever break through the fog bank
they must be driven back with sharp sticks have you read this law tourmaline yes said the queen but how does that apply to these strangers why being in the pink country as they surely are and not being blueskins
they are by this law entitled to protection to a home and good living the law does not say pinkies it says any who are in the pink country true agreed coralie greatly pleased
and all the other pinkies nodded their heads and repeated true true the rose is red the violet's blue the law's the thing because it's true cried the parrot i am indeed relieved to have you interpret the law in this way declared tourmaline
i knew it was cruel to throw these poor people over the edge but that seemed to us the only thing to be done it was cruel and unjust answered polychrome as sternly as her sweet voice could speak
but here she added for she had still continued to turn the leaves of the great book is another law which you have also overlooked it says the person whether man or woman boy or girl living in the pink country who has the lightest skin
shall be the ruler king or queen as long as he or she lives unless some one of a lighter skin is found and this ruler's commands all the people must obey do you know this law oh yes replied tourmaline
that is why i am the queen you will notice my complexion is of a lighter pink than that of any other of my people yes remarked polychrome looking at her critically when you were made queen without doubt you had the lightest colored skin in all the pink country
but now you are no longer queen of the pinkies tourmaline those assembled were so startled by this statement that they gazed at the rainbow's daughter in astonishment for a time then tourmaline asked why not your highness
because here is one lighter in color than yourself pointing to trot this girl is by the law of the great book the rightful queen of the pinkies and as loyal citizens you are all obliged to obey her commands
give me that circlet from your brow tourmaline without hesitation tourmaline removed the rose gold circlet with its glittering jewel and handed it to polychrome who turned and placed it upon trot's brow then she called in a loud imperative voice
greet your new queen pinkies one by one they all advanced knelt before trot and pressed her hand to their lips long live queen mayre called out cap'n bill dancing around on his wooden leg in great delight vive la
vive la ah ah trot thank you polly said button bright gratefully this will fix us all right i'm sure why i have done nothing returned polychrome smiling upon him it is the law of the country
isn't it surprising how little most people know of their laws are you all contented pinkies she asked turning to the people
take that umbrella and carry it to my royal treasury see that it is safely locked up here's the key and if you don't return it to me within five minutes i'll have you patched the captain took the key and the magic umbrella
and hastened away to the palace button bright had already hooked the ropes to the elephant trunk handle so that when the captain carried away the umbrella he dragged after him first the double seat then cap'n bill's seat which was fastened to it
and finally the lunch basket which was attached to the lower seat at every few steps some of these would trip up the captain and cause him to take a tumble
he would scramble to his feet again and dash along the path until a board or the basket tripped him again
when the king turned to his men and said release the prisoners they are now quite safe and cannot escape me so the men unwound the long cords that were twined around the bodies of our three friends and set them free
these men seemed to be soldiers although they bore no arms except the cords each cord had a weight at the end and when the weight was skillfully thrown by a soldier it wound the cord around anything in the twinkling of an eye
and held fast until it was unwound again trot decided these blueskins must have stolen into the garden when summoned by the bells the boolooroo had rung but they had kept out of sight and crept up behind the bench on which our friends were seated
until a signal from the king aroused them to action the little girl was greatly surprised by the suddenness of her capture and so was button bright cap'n bill shook his head and said he was afeared they'd get into trouble our mistake he added
was in stoppin to eat our lunch but it's too late now to cry over spilt milk i don't mind not much anyhow asserted trot bravely
if they hadn't taken the umbrella i wouldn't care how long we stopped in this funny island do you think it's a fairy country trot can't say i'm sure she answered i haven't seen anything here yet that reminds me of fairies
but cap'n bill said a floating island in the sky was sure to be a fairyland i think so yet mate returned the sailor but there's all sorts o fairies i've heard some is good an some is bad
an if all the blueskins are like their boolooroo they can't be called fust class don't let me hear any more impudence prisoners called the boolooroo sternly
you are liable to be patched what's being patched inquired the girl the soldiers all laughed at this question but the king did not reply just then a door in the palace opened and out trooped a group of girls
there were six of them all gorgeously dressed in silken gowns with many puffs and tucks and ruffles and flounces and laces and ribbons everything being in some shade of blue
grading from light blue to deep blue their blue hair was elaborately dressed and came to a point at the top of their heads the girls approached in a line along the garden path all walking with mincing steps and holding their chins high
their skirts prevented their long legs from appearing as grotesque as did those of the men but their necks were so thin and long that the ruffles around them only made them seem the more absurd ah said the king with a frown
here come the six snubnosed princesses the most beautiful and aristocratic ladies in sky island they're snubnosed all right observed trot looking at the girls with much interest
but i should think it would make em mad to call em that why asked the boolooroo in surprise
is it asked the girl most certainly in this favored island which is the center of the universe
goodness me your majesty exclaimed the first what queer dreadful looking creatures are these where in all the sky did they come from
but that is impossible said another princess our scientists have proved that the earth is not inhabited your scientists'll have to guess again then said trot but how did they get to sky island
inquired the third snubnosed one by means of a magic umbrella which i have captured and put away in my treasure chamber replied the boolooroo
asked the fourth princess i haven't decided yet said the boolooroo they're curiosities you see and may serve to amuse us but as they're only half civilized i shall make them my slaves what are they good for
can they do anything useful asked the fifth we'll see returned the king impatiently i can't decide in a hurry give me time azure give me time if there's anything i hate it's a hurry
i've an idea your majesty announced the sixth snubnosed princess whose complexion was rather darker than that of her sisters and it has come to me quite deliberately without any hurry at all
to wait upon us and amuse us when we're dull
we can keep her for a living pincushion oh ah that will be fine cried all the other five and the boolooroo said very well indigo it shall be as you desire then he turned to trot and added
i present you to the six lovely snubnosed princesses to be their slave if you are good and obedient you won't get your ears boxed oftener than once an hour i won't be anybody's slave protested trot
i don't like these snubnosed fussy females an i won't have anything to do with em how impudent cried cerulia how vulgar cried turquoise how unladylike cried sapphire
how silly cried azure how absurd cried cobalt how wicked cried indigo and then all six held up their hands as if horrified the boolooroo laughed
you'll know how to bring her to time i imagine he remarked and if the girl isn't reasonable and obedient send her to me and i'll have her patched now then take her away but trot was obstinate and wouldn't budge a step
keep us together your majesty begged cap'n bill if we're to be slaves don't separate us but make us all the same kind o slaves i shall do what pleases me declared the boolooroo angrily don't try to dictate old moonface
one he tied around trot's waist
each of the six snubnosed princesses held the end of a ribbon
dragging the little girl after them don't worry trot cried button bright we'll get you out of this trouble pretty soon trust to us mate added cap'n bill we'll manage to take care o you
oh i'm all right answered trot with fine courage i'm not afraid of these gawkies but the princesses pulled her after them and soon they had all disappeared into one of the entrances to the blue palace now then said the boolooroo
i will instruct you two in your future duties i shall make old moonface my name's cap'n bill weedles interrupted the sailor i don't care what your name is
i shall call you old moonface replied the king for that suits you quite well i shall appoint you the royal nectar mixer to the court of sky island and if you don't mix our nectar properly i'll have you patched
how do you mix it asked cap'n bill i don't mix it it's not the boolooroo's place to mix nectar was the stern reply but you may inquire of the palace servants and perhaps the royal chef or the majordomo will condescend to tell you
and give him a suit of the royal livery so cap'n bill was led away by the chief of the soldiers and when he had gone the king said to button bright you slave shall be the royal bootblue
your duty will be to keep the boots and shoes of the royal family nicely polished with blue i don't know how answered button bright surlily you'll soon learn the royal steward will supply you with blue paste
do you understand no said button bright
the queen returned to her room in a great rage and on coming to see her in the evening the king noticed that something had disturbed her are you indisposed he said no but i am very much annoyed at the strange behavior of a fish
a woman brought me one to day and on my inquiring whether it was a male or female the fish laughed most rudely a fish laugh impossible you must be dreaming i am not a fool
i speak of what i have seen with my own eyes and have heard with my own ears passing strange be it so i will inquire concerning it on the morrow the king repeated to his vizier what his wife had told him
and bade him investigate the matter and be ready with a satisfactory answer within six months on pain of death the vizier promised to do his best though he felt almost certain of failure
for five months he labored indefatigably to find a reason for the laughter of the fish he sought everywhere and from every one
nobody however could explain the matter and so he returned broken hearted to his house and began to arrange his affairs in prospect of certain death for he had had sufficient experience of the king
to know that his majesty would not go back from his threat among other things he advised his son to travel for a time until the king's anger should have somewhat cooled the young fellow who was both clever and handsome
started off whithersoever fate might lead him he had been gone some days when he fell in with an old farmer who also was on a journey to a certain village finding the old man very pleasant he asked him if he might accompany him
professing to be on a visit to the same place the old farmer agreed and they walked along together the day was hot and the way was long and weary don't you think it would be pleasanter if you and i sometimes gave each other a lift said the youth
what a fool the man is thought the old farmer presently they passed through a field of corn ready for the sickle and looking like a sea of gold as it waved to and fro in the breeze is this eaten or not said the young man
not understanding his meaning the old man replied i don't know
take this friend and get two horses with it but mind and bring it back for it is very precious the old man looking half amused and half angry pushed back the knife muttering something to the effect that his friend was either a fool himself
or else trying to play the fool with him the young man pretended not to notice his reply and remained almost silent till they reached the city a short distance outside which was the old farmer's house
they walked about the bazaar and went to the mosque but nobody saluted them or invited them to come in and rest what a large cemetery exclaimed the young man what does the man mean thought the old farmer calling this largely populated city a cemetery
on leaving the city their way led through a graveyard where a few people were praying beside a tomb and distributing chapatis and kulchas to passers by in the name of their beloved dead they beckoned to the two travelers and gave them as much as they would
what a splendid city this is said the young man now the man must surely be demented thought the old farmer i wonder what he will do next he will be calling the land water and the water land
however he kept his thoughts to himself presently they had to wade through a stream that ran along the edge of the cemetery the water was rather deep so the old farmer took off his shoes and pajamas and crossed over but the young man waded through it with his shoes and pajamas on
said the old man to himself however he liked the fellow and thinking that he would amuse his wife and daughter he invited him to come and stay at his house as long as he had occasion to remain in the village thank you very much the young man replied
but let me first inquire if you please whether the beam of your house is strong the old farmer left him in despair and entered his house laughing there is a man in yonder field he said after returning their greetings
he has come the greater part of the way with me and i wanted him to put up here as long as he had to stay in this village but the fellow is such a fool that i cannot make anything out of him he wants to know if the beam of this house is all right
the man must be mad and saying this he burst into a fit of laughter father said the farmer's daughter who was a very sharp and wise girl
while we were walking together he asked whether he should carry me or i should carry him as he thought that would be a pleasanter mode of proceeding most assuredly said the girl he meant that one of you should tell a story to beguile the time
oh yes well
and didn't you know the meaning of this father he simply wished to know if the man was in debt or not because if the owner of the field was in debt then the produce of the field was as good as eaten to him
yes yes yes of course then on entering a certain village he bade me take his clasp knife and get two horses with it and bring back the knife to him
he only asked you to cut a couple of sticks and be careful not to lose his knife i see said the farmer
and not a soul gave us a scrap of anything to eat till we were passing the cemetery but there some people called to us and put into our hands some chapatis and kulchas so my companion called the city a cemetery and the cemetery a city
if one thinks of the city as the place where everything is to be obtained and of inhospitable people as worse than the dead the city though crowded with people was as if dead as far as you were concerned while in the cemetery which is crowded with the dead
you were saluted by kind friends and provided with bread true true said the astonished farmer
i have often thought how stupid people were to venture into that swiftly flowing stream and over those sharp stones with bare feet the slightest stumble and they would fall and be wetted from head to foot this friend of yours is a most wise man
i should like to see him and speak to him very well said the farmer i will go and find him and bring him in tell him father that our beams are strong enough and then he will come in
i'll send on ahead a present to the man to show him that we can afford to have him for our guest
and sent him to the young man with a present of a basin of ghee twelve chapatis and a jar of milk and the following message o friend the moon is full twelve months make a year and the sea is overflowing with water
half way the bearer of this present and message met his little son who seeing what was in the basket begged his father to give him some of the food his father foolishly complied presently he saw the young man and gave him the rest of the present and the message
give your mistress my salaam he replied and tell her that the moon is new and that i can find only eleven months in the year and the sea is by no means full
not understanding the meaning of these words the servant repeated them word for word as he had heard them to his mistress and thus his theft was discovered and he was severely punished after a little while the young man appeared with the old farmer
great attention was shown to him and he was treated in every way as if he were the son of a great man although his humble host knew nothing of his origin at length he told them everything about the laughing of the fish his father's threatened execution and his own banishment
which seems to have been the cause of all this trouble indicates that there is a man in the palace who is plotting against the king's life joy joy exclaimed the vizier's son
there is yet time for me to return and save my father from an ignominious and unjust death and the king from danger the following day he hastened back to his own country taking with him the farmer's daughter
immediately on arrival he ran to the palace and informed his father of what he had heard the poor vizier now almost dead from the expectation of death was at once carried to the king to whom he repeated the news that his son had just brought
never said the king but it must be so your majesty replied the vizier and in order to prove the truth of what i have heard i pray you to call together all the maids in your palace and order them to jump over a pit which must be dug
we'll soon find out whether there is any man there the king had the pit dug and commanded all the maids belonging to the palace to try to jump over it all of them tried but only one succeeded
by the expedition he had made against them with a great and warlike army he also reduced their cities into slavery and that not only by subduing them for the present which he did by force and violence
but by weakening them by subtlety and cunning that they might not be able afterward to get clear of the slavery they were under to him
or were taken by him in war and this he did that when their left eyes were covered by their shields they might be wholly useless in war now when the king of the ammonites had served those beyond jordan in this manner
he led his army against those that were called gileadites and having pitched his camp at the metropolis of his enemies which was the city of jabesh he sent ambassadors to them commanding them either to deliver themselves up
on condition to have their right eyes plucked out or to undergo a siege and to have their cities overthrown he gave them their choice whether they would cut off a small member of their body or universally perish
however the gileadites were so affrighted at these offers that they had not courage to say any thing to either of them neither that they would deliver themselves up nor that they would fight him
but they desired that he would give them seven days respite that they might send ambassadors to their countrymen and entreat their assistance and if they came to assist them they would fight but if that assistance were impossible to be obtained from them
allowed them a respite and gave them leave to send to whomsoever they pleased for assistance so they immediately sent to the israelites city by city and informed them what nabash had threatened to do to them
and what great distress they were in now the people fell into tears and grief at the hearing of what the ambassadors from jabesh said and the terror they were in permitted them to do nothing more
but when the messengers were come to the city of king saul and declared the dangers in which the inhabitants of jabesh were the people were in the same affliction as those in the other cities for they lamented the calamity of those related to them
and when saul was returned from his husbandry into the city he found his fellow citizens weeping and when upon inquiry he had learned the cause of the confusion and sadness they were in he was seized with a divine fury
and sent away the ambassadors from the inhabitants of jabesh and promised them to come to their assistance on the third day and to beat their enemies before sun rising that the sun upon its rising might see that they had already conquered
and were freed from the fears they were under but he bid some of them stay
being desirous to turn the people to this war against the ammonites by fear of the losses they should otherwise undergo and that they might the more suddenly be gathered together he cut the sinews of his oxen
and threatened to do the same to all such as did not come with their armor to jordan the next day and follow him and samuel the prophet whithersoever they should lead them so they came together out of fear of the losses they were threatened with
at the appointed time and the multitude were numbered at the city bezek and he found the number of those that were gathered together besides that of the tribe of judah to be seven hundred thousand while those of that tribe were seventy thousand
so he passed over jordan and proceeded in marching all that night thirty furlongs and came to jabesh before sun rising so he divided the army into three companies and fell upon their enemies on every side on the sudden
and when they expected no such thing and joining battle with them
this glorious action was done by saul and was related with great commendation of him to all the hebrews and he thence gained a wonderful reputation for his valor for although there were some of them that contemned him before
they now changed their minds and honored him and esteemed him as the best of men for he did not content himself with having saved the inhabitants of jabesh only but he made an expedition into the country of the ammonites
and laid it all waste and took a large prey and so returned to his own country most gloriously so the people were greatly pleased at these excellent performances of saul and rejoiced that they had constituted him their king
they also made a clamor against those that pretended he would be of no advantage to their affairs and they said where now are these men let them be brought to punishment with all the like things that
multitudes usually say when they are elevated with prosperity against those that lately had despised the authors of it but saul although he took the good will and the affection of these men very kindly
yet did he swear that he would not see any of his countrymen slain that day since it was absurd to mix this victory which god had given them with the blood and slaughter of those that were of the same lineage with themselves
and that it was more agreeable to be men of a friendly disposition
that he ought to confirm the kingdom to saul by a second ordination of him they all came together to the city of gilgal for thither did he command them to come so the prophet anointed saul with the holy oil in the sight of the multitude
and declared him to be king the second time and so the government of the hebrews was changed into a regal government for in the days of moses and his disciple joshua who was their general they continued under an aristocracy
but after the death of joshua for eighteen years in all the multitude had no settled form of government but were in an anarchy after which they returned to their former government
they then permitting themselves to be judged by him who appeared to be the best warrior and most courageous whence it was that they called this interval of their government
and said to them i solemnly adjure you by god almighty who brought those excellent brethren i mean moses and aaron into the world and delivered our fathers from the egyptians and from the slavery they endured under them
that you will not speak what you say to gratify me
but say what have i ever done that was cruel or unjust or what have i done out of lucre or covetousness
bear witness against me if i have taken an ox or a sheep or any such thing which yet when they are taken to support men it is esteemed blameless or have i taken an ass for mine own use of any one to his grief
lay some one such crime to my charge now we are in your king's presence but they cried out that no such thing had been done by him
such a testimony had been given him by them all said since you grant that you are not able to lay any ill thing to my charge hitherto come on now and do you hearken while i speak with great freedom to you
by reason of a famine with seventy souls only of our family and that their posterity multiplied there to many ten thousands whom the egyptians brought into slavery and hard oppression
that god himself upon the prayers of our fathers sent moses and aaron who were brethren and gave them power to deliver the multitude out of their distress and this without
a king these brought us into this very land which you now possess and when you enjoyed these advantages from god you betrayed his worship and religion nay moreover
when you were brought under the hands of your enemies he delivered you first by rendering you superior to the assyrians and their forces he then made you to overcome the ammonites and the moabites and last of all the philistines
and these things have been achieved under the conduct of jephtha and gideon what madness therefore possessed you to fly from god
yet have i ordained him for king whom he chose for you however that i may make it plain to you that god is angry and displeased at your choice of kingly government
for what none of you ever saw here before i mean a winter storm
and will make it visible to you now as soon as he had said this god gave such great signals by thunder and lightning and the descent of hail
as attested the truth of all that the prophet had said insomuch that they were amazed and terrified and confessed they had sinned and had fallen into that sin through ignorance and besought the prophet
as one that was a tender and gentle father to them to render god so merciful as to forgive this their sin which they had added to those other offenses whereby they had affronted him and transgressed against him
if they had any desire of being preserved and made happy with their king but he said that if they should grow careless of these things great judgments would come from god upon them and upon their king
and when samuel had thus prophesied to the hebrews he dismissed them to their own homes having confirmed the kingdom to saul the second time
how the philistines made another expedition against the hebrews
about three thousand men and he took two thousand of them to be the guards of his own body and abode in the city bethel but he gave the rest of them to jonathan his son to be the guards of his body and sent him to gibeah
where he besieged and took a certain garrison of the philistines not far from gilgal for the philistines of gibeah had beaten the jews and taken their weapons away and had put garrisons into the strongest places of the country
and had forbidden them to carry any instrument of iron or at all to make use of any iron in any case whatsoever and on account of this prohibition it was that the husbandmen if they had occasion to sharpen any of their tools
whether it were the coulter or the spade or any instrument of husbandry they came to the philistines to do it now as soon as the philistines heard of this slaughter of their garrison they were in a rage about it
and looking on this contempt as a terrible affront offered them they made war against the jews with three hundred thousand footmen and thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horses
when saul the king of the hebrews was informed of this he went down to the city gilgal and made proclamation over all the country that they should try to regain their liberty and called them to the war against the philistines
diminishing their forces and despising them as not very considerable and as not so great but they might hazard a battle with them but when the people about saul observed how numerous the philistines were
they were under a great consternation and some of them hid themselves in caves and in dens under ground but the greater part fled into the land beyond jordan
sent to the prophet and called him to consult with him about the war and the public affairs so he commanded him to stay there for him and to prepare sacrifices for he would come to him within seven days
that they might offer sacrifices on the seventh day and might then join battle with their enemies so
yet did not he however observe the command that was given him but when he saw that the prophet tarried longer than he expected and that he was deserted by the soldiers he took the sacrifices and offered them
and when he heard that samuel was come he went out to meet him but the prophet said he had not done well in disobeying the injunctions he had sent to him and had not staid till his coming which
being appointed according to the will of god he had prevented him in offering up those prayers and those sacrifices that he should have made for the multitude and that he therefore
had performed divine offices in an ill manner and had been rash in performing them hereupon saul made an apology for himself and said that he had waited as many days as samuel had appointed him
that he had been so quick in offering his sacrifices upon account of the necessity he was in and because his soldiers were departing from him
the report being gone abroad that they were coming down upon him of gilgal to which samuel replied
nor slighted the commands which god suggested to me concerning the present state of affairs and hadst not acted more hastily than the present circumstances required thou wouldst have been permitted to reign a long time and thy posterity after thee
so samuel being grieved at what happened returned home but saul came to the city gibeah with his son jonathan having only six hundred men with him and of these the greater part had no weapons
because of the scarcity of iron in that country as well as of those that could make such weapons
or such workmen now the philistines divided their army into three companies and took as many roads and laid waste the country of the hebrews while king saul and his son jonathan saw what was done but were not able to defend the land
having no more than six hundred men with them
who was of the posterity of eli the high priest were sitting upon a pretty high hill and seeing the land laid waste they were mightily disturbed at it now saul's son agreed with his armor bearer
that they would go privately to the enemy's camp and make a tumult and a disturbance among them and when the armor bearer had readily promised to follow him whithersoever he should lead him though he should be obliged to die in the attempt
jonathan made use of the young man's assistance and descended from the hill and went to their enemies now the enemy's camp was upon a precipice which had three tops
that ended in a small but sharp and long extremity while there was a rock that surrounded them like lines made to prevent the attacks of an enemy there it so happened that the out guards of the camp were neglected
because of the security that here arose from the situation of the place and because they thought it altogether impossible not only to ascend up to the camp on that quarter but so much as to come near it as soon therefore
as they came to the camp jonathan encouraged his armor bearer and said to him let us attack our enemies and if when they see us they bid us come up to them
but if they say nothing as not intending to invite us to come up let us return back again so when they were approaching to the enemy's camp just after break of day and the philistines saw them
the hebrews come out of their dens and caves and they said to jonathan and to his armor bearer come on ascend up to us that we may inflict a just punishment upon you for your rash attempt upon us
so saul's son accepted of that invitation as what signified to him victory and he immediately came out of the place whence they were seen by their enemies so he changed his place and came to the rock
which had none to guard it because of its own strength from thence they crept up with great labor and difficulty and so far overcame by force the nature of the place till they were able to fight with their enemies
so they fell upon them as they were asleep and slew about twenty of them and thereby filled them with disorder and surprise insomuch that some of them threw away their entire armor and fled but the greatest part
not knowing one another because they were of different nations suspected one another to be enemies
there were only two of the hebrews that came up and so they fought one against another and some of them died in the battle and some as they were flying away
then he inquired whether any body was gone away from the army and when he heard that his son and with him his armor bearer were absent he bade the high priest take the garments of his high priesthood
who said that they should get the victory and prevail against their enemies so he went out after the philistines and set upon them as they were slaying one another those also who had fled to dens and caves
upon hearing that saul was gaining a victory came running to him when therefore the number of the hebrews that came to saul amounted to about ten thousand he pursued the enemy who were scattered all over the country
but then he fell into an action which was a very unhappy one and liable to be very much blamed for whether out of ignorance or whether out of joy for a victory gained so strangely for it frequently happens that
persons so fortunate are not then able to use their reason consistently as he was desirous to avenge himself and to exact a due punishment of the philistines
that if any one put a stop to his slaughter of the enemy and fell on eating and left off the slaughter or the pursuit before the night came on and obliged them so to do
now after saul had denounced this curse
saul's son who did not hear his father denounce that curse nor hear of the approbation the multitude gave to it broke off a piece of a honey comb and ate part of it
but in the mean time he was informed with what a curse his father had forbidden them to taste any thing before sun setting so he left off eating and said his father had not done well in this prohibition
because had they taken some food they had pursued the enemy with greater rigor and alacrity and had both taken and slain
they had slain many ten thousands of the philistines they fell upon spoiling the camp of the philistines but not till late in the evening they also took a great deal of prey and cattle and killed them and ate them with their blood
this was told to the king by the scribes that the multitude were sinning against god as they sacrificed and were eating before the blood was well washed away and the flesh was made clean then did saul give order that a great stone should be rolled into the midst of them
and he made proclamation that they should kill their sacrifices upon it and not feed upon the flesh with the blood for that was not acceptable to god and when all the people did as the king commanded them saul erected an altar there
and when the soldiers were not unwilling to follow him but indeed showed great readiness to do as he commanded them the king called ahitub the high priest and enjoined him to know of god whether he would grant them the favor and permission
to go against the enemy's camp in order to destroy those that were in it and when the priest said that god did not give any answer saul replied and not without some cause does god refuse to answer what we inquire of him
while yet a little while ago he declared to us all that we desired beforehand and even prevented us in his answer to be sure there is some sin against him that is concealed from us
which is the occasion of his silence now i swear by him himself that though he that hath committed this sin should prove to be my own son jonathan i will slay him and by that means will appease the anger of god against us
and that in the very same manner as if i were to punish a stranger and one not at all related to me for the same offense so when the multitude cried out to him so to do he presently set all the rest on one side
and he and his son stood on the other side and he sought to discover the offender by lot now the lot appeared to fall upon jonathan himself so when he was asked by his father what sin he had been guilty of
and what he was conscious of in the course of his life that might be esteemed instances of guilt or profaneness his answer was this o father i have done nothing more than that yesterday without
knowing of the curse and oath thou hadst denounced while i was in pursuit of the enemy i tasted of a honey comb but saul sware that he would slay him and prefer the observation of his oath before all the ties of birth and of nature
and jonathan was not dismayed at this threatening of death but offering himself to it generously and undauntedly he said nor do i desire you father to spare me death will be to me very acceptable
when it proceeds from thy piety and after a glorious victory for it is the greatest consolation to me that i leave the hebrews victorious over the philistines
hereupon all the people were very sorry and greatly afflicted for jonathan
who was the author of their victory by which means they snatched him out of the danger he was in from his father's curse
having slain about sixty thousand of the enemy returned home to his own city and reigned happily and he also fought against the neighboring nations and subdued the ammonites and moabites and philistines and edomites and amalekites
as also the king of zobah he had three male children jonathan
his daughters he had also abner his uncle's son for the captain of his host that uncle's name was ner now ner and kish the father of saul were brothers saul had also a great many chariots and horsemen
and against whomsoever he made war he returned conqueror and advanced the affairs of the hebrews to a great degree of success and prosperity and made them superior to other nations
her little butterfly soul fluttered incessantly between memory and dubious expectation at last the minute hand of the old fashioned brazen faced timepiece was on the last quarter to eight and there was every reason for its being time to get ready for departure
even missus pomfret's preoccupied mind did not prevent her from noticing what looked like a new flush of beauty in the little thing as she tied on her hat before the looking glass that child gets prettier and prettier every day i do believe
was her inward comment the more's the pity she'll get neither a place nor a husband any the sooner for it sober well to do men don't like such pretty wives when i was a girl i was more admired than if i had been so very pretty
however she's reason to be grateful to me for teaching her something to get her bread with better than farm house work they always told me i was good natured and that's the truth and to my hurt too else there's them in this house that wouldn't be here now to lord it over me in the housekeeper's room
dreading to meet mister craig to whom she could hardly have spoken civilly how relieved she was when she had got safely under the oaks and among the fern of the chase even then she was as ready to be startled as the deer that leaped away at her approach
she thought nothing of the evening light that lay gently in the grassy alleys between the fern and made the beauty of their living green more visible than it had been in the overpowering flood of noon she thought of nothing that was present
she only saw something that was possible mister arthur donnithorne coming to meet her again along the fir tree grove that was the foreground of hetty's picture behind it lay a bright hazy something
it was as if she had been wooed by a river god who might any time take her to his wondrous halls below a watery heaven there was no knowing what would come since this strange entrancing delight had come if a chest full of lace and satin and jewels had been sent her from some unknown source
how could she but have thought that her whole lot was going to change and that to morrow some still more bewildering joy would befall her hetty had never read a novel if she had ever seen one i think the words would have been too hard for her
how then could she find a shape for her expectations they were as formless as the sweet languid odours of the garden at the chase which had floated past her as she walked by the gate she is at another gate now that leading into fir tree grove
she enters the wood where it is already twilight and at every step she takes the fear at her heart becomes colder if he should not come oh how dreary it was the thought of going out at the other end of the wood into the unsheltered road
without having seen him she reaches the first turning towards the hermitage walking slowly he is not there she hates the leveret that runs across the path she hates everything that is not what she longs for
for perhaps he is behind it no she is beginning to cry her heart has swelled so the tears stand in her eyes she gives one great sob while the corners of her mouth quiver and the tears roll down
she doesn't know that there is another turning to the hermitage that she is close against it and that arthur donnithorne is only a few yards from her full of one thought and a thought of which she only is the object he is going to see hetty again
that is the longing which has been growing through the last three hours to a feverish thirst not of course to speak in the caressing way into which he had unguardedly fallen before dinner but to set things right with her by a kindness which would have the air of friendly civility
and prevent her from running away with wrong notions about their mutual relation if hetty had known he was there she would not have cried and it would have been better for then arthur would perhaps have behaved as wisely as he had intended as it was
she started when he appeared at the end of the side alley and looked up at him with two great drops rolling down her cheeks what else could he do but speak to her in a soft soothing tone as if she were a bright eyed spaniel with a thorn in her foot
has something frightened you hetty have you seen anything in the wood don't be frightened i'll take care of you now hetty was blushing so she didn't know whether she was happy or miserable to be crying again what did gentlemen think of girls who cried in that way
she felt unable even to say no but could only look away from him and wipe the tears from her cheek not before a great drop had fallen on her rose coloured strings she knew that quite well come be cheerful again smile at me and tell me what's the matter
come tell me hetty turned her head towards him whispered i thought you wouldn't come and slowly got courage to lift her eyes to him that look was too much
little tearful rose silly pet you won't cry again now i'm with you will you
this is not what he meant to say his arm is stealing round the waist again it is tightening its clasp he is bending his face nearer and nearer to the round cheek his lips are meeting those pouting child lips and for a long moment time has vanished
he may be a shepherd in arcadia for aught he knows he may be the first youth kissing the first maiden he may be eros himself sipping the lips of psyche it is all one there was no speaking for minutes after
they walked along with beating hearts till they came within sight of the gate at the end of the wood then they looked at each other not quite as they had looked before for in their eyes there was the memory of a kiss but already something bitter had begun to mingle itself with the fountain of sweets
already arthur was uncomfortable he took his arm from hetty's waist and said here we are
pulling out his watch twenty minutes past eight but my watch is too fast however i'd better not go any further now trot along quickly with your little feet and get home safely good bye
he took her hand and looked at her half sadly half with a constrained smile hetty's eyes seemed to beseech him not to go away yet but he patted her cheek and said good bye again she was obliged to turn away from him and go on as for arthur
he rushed back through the wood as if he wanted to put a wide space between himself and hetty he would not go to the hermitage again he remembered how he had debated with himself there before dinner and it had all come to nothing worse than nothing he walked right on into the chase
glad to get out of the grove which surely was haunted by his evil genius those beeches and smooth limes there was something enervating in the very sight of them
the sight of them would give a man some energy arthur lost himself among the narrow openings in the fern winding about without seeking any issue till the twilight deepened almost to night under the great boughs and the hare looked black as it darted across his path
he was feeling much more strongly than he had done in the morning
he was dissatisfied with himself irritated mortified he no sooner fixed his mind on the probable consequences of giving way to the emotions which had stolen over him to day
of continuing to notice hetty of allowing himself any opportunity for such slight caresses as he had been betrayed into already than he refused to believe such a future possible for himself to flirt with hetty was a very different affair from flirting with a pretty girl of his own station
that was understood to be an amusement on both sides or if it became serious there was no obstacle to marriage but this little thing would be spoken ill of directly if she happened to be seen walking with him and then those excellent people the poysers
he should hate himself if he made a scandal of that sort on the estate that was to be his own some day and among tenants by whom he liked above all to be respected he could no more believe that he should so fall in his own esteem
than that he should break both his legs and go on crutches all the rest of his life
too unlike him and even if no one knew anything about it they might get too fond of each other and then there could be nothing but the misery of parting after all no gentleman out of a ballad could marry a farmer's niece
there must be an end to the whole thing at once it was too foolish and yet he had been so determined this morning before he went to gawaine's
and while he was there something had taken hold of him and made him gallop back it seemed he couldn't quite depend on his own resolution as he had thought he could he almost wished his arm would get painful again and then he should think of nothing but the comfort it would be to get rid of the pain
there was no knowing what impulse might seize him to morrow in this confounded place where there was nothing to occupy him imperiously through the livelong day what could he do to secure himself from any more of this folly
there was but one resource he would go and tell irwine tell him everything the mere act of telling it would make it seem trivial the temptation would vanish as the charm of fond words vanishes when one repeats them to the indifferent
in every way it would help him to tell irwine he would ride to broxton rectory the first thing after breakfast to morrow
many campaigns were fought for the contest was continued through several successive years the king of sweden made repeated attempts to destroy the new city of saint petersburg but without success on the contrary the town grew and prospered more and more
and the shelter and protection which the fortifications around it afforded to the mouth of the river and to the adjacent roadsteads enabled the czar to go on so rapidly in building new ships and in thus increasing and strengthening his fleet
that very soon he was much stronger than the king of sweden in all the neighboring waters so that he not only was able to keep the enemy very effectually at bay but he even made several successful descents upon the swedish territory along the adjoining coasts
but while the czar was thus rapidly increasing his power at sea the king of sweden proved himself the strongest on land he extended his conquests very rapidly in poland and in the adjoining provinces and at last in the summer of seventeen o eight
which was still peter's capital he accordingly pushed his forces forward until he approached the bank of the river he came up to it at a certain point as if he was intending to cross there
peter assembled all his troops on the opposite side of the river at that point in order to oppose him but the demonstration which the king made of an intention to cross at that point was only a pretense he left a sufficient number of men there to make a show
and secretly marched away the great body of his troops in the night to a point about three miles farther up the river where he succeeded in crossing with them before the emperor's forces had any suspicion of his real design
the russians who were not strong enough to oppose him in the open field were obliged immediately to retreat and leave him in full possession of the ground peter was now much alarmed he sent an officer to the camp of the king of sweden with a flag of truce to
ask on what terms the king would make peace with him but charles was too much elated with his success in crossing the river and placing himself in a position from which he could advance without encountering any farther obstruction
to the very gates of the capital to be willing then to propose any terms so he declined entering into any negotiation saying only in a haughty tone that he would treat with his brother peter at moscow on mature reflection however
he seems to have concluded that it would be more prudent for him not to march at once to moscow and so he turned his course for a time toward the southward in the direction of the crimea and the black sea
there was one secret reason which induced the king of sweden to move thus to the southward which peter did not for a time understand the country of the cossacks lay in that direction and the famous mazeppa
of whom some account has already been given in this volume was the chieftain of the cossacks and he as it happened
and had agreed that if the king would come into his part of the country he would desert the cause of the czar and would come over to his side with all the cossacks under his command the cause of mazeppa's quarrel with the czar was this he was one day paying a visit to his majesty
and while seated at table peter began to complain of the lawless and ungovernable character of the cossacks and to propose that mazeppa should introduce certain reforms in the organization and discipline of the tribe with a view of bringing them under more effectual control
it is probable that the reforms which he proposed were somewhat analogous to those which he had introduced so successfully into the armies under his own more immediate command mazeppa opposed this suggestion
he said that the attempt to adopt such measures with the cossacks would never succeed that the men were so wild and savage by nature and so fixed in the rude and irregular habits of warfare to which they and their fathers had been so long accustomed
and as was usual with him in such cases he broke out in the most rude and violent language imaginable he called mazeppa an enemy and a traitor and threatened to have him impaled alive it is true he did not really mean what he said
his words being only empty threats dictated by the brutal violence of his anger still mazeppa was very much offended he went away from the czar's tent muttering his displeasure and resolving secretly on revenge
soon after this mazeppa opened the communication above referred to with the king of sweden and at last an agreement was made between them by which it was stipulated that the king was to advance into the southern part of the country where of course the cossacks would be sent out to meet him
and then mazeppa was to revolt from the czar and go over with all his forces to the king of sweden's side by this means the czar's army was sure they thought to be defeated and in this case the king of sweden was to remain in possession of the russian territory
while the cossacks were to retire to their own fortresses and live thenceforth as an independent tribe the plot seemed to be very well laid but unfortunately for the contrivers of it it was not destined to succeed in the first place
and almost entirely defeated before the time arrived for putting it into execution peter had his secret agents every where and through them he received such information in respect to mazeppa's movements as led him to suspect his designs
he said nothing however but manoeuvred his forces so as to have a large body of troops that he could rely upon always near mazeppa and the cossacks and between them and the army of the swedes he ordered the officers of these troops to watch mazeppa's movements closely
and to be ready to act against him at a moment's notice should occasion require
for the troops thus stationed near him seemed to be placed there for the purpose of co operating with him against the enemy in the mean time mazeppa cautiously made known his plans to the leading men among the cossacks as fast as he thought it prudent to do so
he represented to them how much better it would be for them to be restored to their former liberty as an independent tribe
he also enumerated the various grievances which they suffered under russian rule and endeavored to excite the animosity of his hearers as much as possible against peter's government
he found that the chief officers of the cossacks seemed quite disposed to listen to what he said and to adopt his views some of them were really so and others pretended to be so for fear of displeasing him
at length he thought it time to take some measures for preparing the minds of the men generally for what was to come and in order to do this he determined on publicly sending a messenger to the czar with the complaints which he had to make in behalf of his men the men
knowing of this embassy and understanding the grounds of the complaint which mazeppa was to make by means of it would be placed he thought in such a position that in the event of an unfavorable answer being returned as he had no doubt would be the case they could be the more easily led into the revolt which he proposed
mazeppa accordingly made out a statement of his complaints and appointed his nephew a commissioner to proceed to head quarters and lay them before the czar the name of the nephew was warnarowski as soon as warnarowski arrived at the camp
peter instead of granting him an audience and listening to the statement which he had to make ordered him to be seized and sent to prison as if he were guilty of a species of treason in coming to trouble his sovereign with complaints and difficulties at such a time
when the country was suffering under an actual invasion from a foreign enemy as soon as mazeppa heard that his nephew was arrested he was convinced that his plots had been discovered and that he must not lose a moment in carrying them into execution
or all would be lost he accordingly immediately put his whole force in motion to march toward the place where the swedish army was then posted ostensibly for the purpose of attacking them
he crossed a certain river which lay between him and the swedes and then when safely over he stated to his men what he intended to do the men were filled with indignation at this proposal which being wholly unexpected came upon them by surprise
they refused to join in the revolt a scene of great excitement and confusion followed a portion of the cossacks those with whom mazeppa had come to an understanding beforehand were disposed to go with him but the rest were filled with vexation and rage
indeed it is highly probable that the two factions would have come soon to a bloody fight for the possession of the person of their chieftain in which case he would very likely have been torn to pieces in the struggle
if those who were disposed to revolt had not fled before the opposition to their movement had time to become organized mazeppa and those who adhered to him about two thousand men in all went over in a body to the camp of the swedes
marched at once to the nearest body of russian forces and put themselves under the command of the russian general there a council of war was soon after called in the russian camp for the purpose of bringing mazeppa to trial he was of course found guilty and sentence of death
with a great many indignities to accompany the execution was passed upon him the sentence however could not be executed upon mazeppa himself for he was out of the reach of his accusers being safe in the swedish camp so they made a wooden image or effigy to represent him
and inflicted the penalties upon the substitute instead in the first place they dressed the effigy to imitate the appearance of mazeppa and put upon it representations of the medals ribbons and other decorations which he was accustomed to wear
they brought this figure out before the camp in presence of the general and of all the leading officers the soldiers being also drawn up around the spot a herald appeared and read the sentence of condemnation and then proceeded to carry it into execution as follows
the hidden dread it was a busy time for adam
but a happy time nevertheless for it was taking him nearer and nearer to march when they were to be married and all the little preparations for their new housekeeping marked the progress towards the longed for day
two new rooms had been run up to the old house for his mother and seth were to live with them after all lisbeth had cried so piteously at the thought of leaving adam that he had gone to hetty and asked her if for the love of him she would put up with his mother's ways and consent to live with her
to his great delight hetty said yes i'd as soon she lived with us as not hetty's mind was oppressed at that moment with a worse difficulty than poor lisbeth's ways she could not care about them
so adam was consoled for the disappointment he had felt when seth had come back from his visit to snowfield and said it was no use dinah's heart wasna turned towards marrying
she said in a more contented tone
as she wonna like t do an then we needna part the platters an things as ha stood on the shelf together sin afore thee wast born there was only one cloud that now and then came across adam's sunshine hetty seemed unhappy sometimes
but to all his anxious tender questions she replied with an assurance that she was quite contented and wished nothing different and the next time he saw her she was more lively than usual
it might be that she was a little overdone with work and anxiety now for soon after christmas missus poyser had taken another cold which had brought on inflammation and this illness had confined her to her room all through january hetty had to manage everything downstairs
and half supply molly's place too while that good damsel waited on her mistress and she seemed to throw herself so entirely into her new functions working with a grave steadiness which was new in her that mister poyser often told adam she was wanting to show him what a good housekeeper he would have
but he doubted the lass was o'erdoing it
this desirable event of missus poyser's coming downstairs happened in the early part of february when some mild weather thawed the last patch of snow on the binton hills
on one of these days soon after her aunt came down hetty went to treddleston to buy some of the wedding things which were wanting and which missus poyser had scolded her for neglecting observing that she supposed
it was about ten o'clock when hetty set off and the slight hoar frost that had whitened the hedges in the early morning had disappeared as the sun mounted the cloudless sky bright february days have a stronger charm of hope about them than any other days in the year
one likes to pause in the mild rays of the sun and look over the gates at the patient plough horses turning at the end of the furrow and think that the beautiful year is all before one the birds seem to feel just the same their notes are as clear as the clear air
there are no leaves on the trees and hedgerows but how green all the grassy fields are and the dark purplish brown of the ploughed earth and of the bare branches is beautiful too what a glad world this looks like as one drives or rides along the valleys and over the hills
i have often thought so when in foreign countries where the fields and woods have looked to me like our english loamshire the rich land tilled with just as much care the woods rolling down the gentle slopes to the green meadows
i have come on something by the roadside which has reminded me that i am not in loamshire an image of a great agony the agony of the cross it has stood perhaps by the clustering apple blossoms or in the broad sunshine by the cornfield
or at a turning by the wood where a clear brook was gurgling below and surely if there came a traveller to this world who knew nothing of the story of man's life upon it
he would not know that hidden behind the apple blossoms or among the golden corn or under the shrouding boughs of the wood there might be a human heart beating heavily with anguish perhaps a young blooming girl not knowing where to turn for refuge from swift advancing shame
understanding no more of this life of ours than a foolish lost lamb wandering farther and farther in the nightfall on the lonely heath yet tasting the bitterest of life's bitterness such things are sometimes hidden among the sunny fields and behind the blossoming orchards
and the sound of the gurgling brook if you came close to one spot behind a small bush would be mingled for your ear with a despairing human sob no wonder man's religion has much sorrow in it no wonder he needs a suffering god
but not that she may have a more lingering enjoyment of the sunshine and think with hope of the long unfolding year she hardly knows that the sun is shining and for weeks now when she has hoped at all it has been for something at which she herself trembles and shudders
as she dwells on wretched thoughts and through this gate she can get into a field path behind the wide thick hedgerows
homeless unloved not the promised bride of a brave tender man but there are no tears in them her tears were all wept away in the weary night before she went to sleep at the next stile the pathway branches off there are two roads before her
one along by the hedgerow which will by and by lead her into the road again the other across the fields which will take her much farther out of the way into the scantlands low shrouded pastures where she will see nobody she chooses this and begins to walk a little faster
as if she had suddenly thought of an object towards which it was worth while to hasten soon she is in the scantlands where the grassy land slopes gradually downwards and she leaves the level ground to follow the slope farther on there is a clump of trees on the low ground
and she is making her way towards it no it is not a clump of trees but a dark shrouded pool
she sits down on the grassy bank against the stooping stem of the great oak that hangs over the dark pool she has thought of this pool often in the nights of the month that has just gone by and now at last she is come to see it
as if trying to guess what sort of bed it would make for her young round limbs no she has not courage to jump into that cold watery bed and if she had they might find her they might find out why she had drowned herself there is but one thing left to her
she must go away go where they can't find her after the first on coming of her great dread some weeks after her betrothal to adam she had waited and waited in the blind vague hope that something would happen to set her free from her terror but she could wait no longer
all the force of her nature had been concentrated on the one effort of concealment and she had shrunk with irresistible dread from every course that could tend towards a betrayal of her miserable secret whenever the thought of writing to arthur had occurred to her she had rejected it
he could do nothing for her that would shelter her from discovery and scorn among the relatives and neighbours who once more made all her world now her airy dream had vanished her imagination no longer saw happiness with arthur for he could do nothing that would satisfy or soothe her pride
no something else would happen something must happen to set her free from this dread in young childish ignorant souls there is constantly this blind trust in some unshapen chance
but now necessity was pressing hard upon her now the time of her marriage was close at hand she could no longer rest in this blind trust she must run away she must hide herself where no familiar eyes could detect her
and then the terror of wandering out into the world of which she knew nothing made the possibility of going to arthur a thought which brought some comfort with it she felt so helpless now so unable to fashion the future for herself that the prospect of throwing herself on him
had a relief in it which was stronger than her pride
was like a sense of lulling warmth that made her for the moment indifferent to everything else and she began now to think of nothing but the scheme by which she should get away she had had a letter from dinah lately full of kind words about the coming marriage
which she had heard of from seth and when hetty had read this letter aloud to her uncle he had said i wish dinah ud come again now for she'd be a comfort to your aunt when you're gone
hetty had not liked the thought of going to snowfield and felt no longing to see dinah so she only said it's so far off uncle but now she thought this proposed visit would serve as a pretext for going away she would tell her aunt when she got home again
and then when she got to stoniton where nobody knew her she would ask for the coach that would take her on the way to windsor arthur was at windsor and she would go to him
as soon as hetty had determined on this scheme she rose from the grassy bank of the pool took up her basket and went on her way to treddleston for she must buy the wedding things she had come out for
missus poyser was quite agreeably surprised that hetty wished to go and see dinah and try to bring her back to stay over the wedding the sooner she went the better since the weather was pleasant now and adam when he came in the evening said
if hetty could set off to morrow he would make time to go with her to treddleston and see her safe into the stoniton coach i wish i could go with you and take care of you hetty he said the next morning leaning in at the coach door
the time ull seem long he was looking at her fondly and his strong hand held hers in its grasp hetty felt a sense of protection in his presence she was used to it now if she could have had the past undone and known no other love than her quiet liking for adam
the tears rose as she gave him the last look god bless her for loving me said adam as he went on his way to work again with gyp at his heels but hetty's tears were not for adam not for the anguish that would come upon him when he found she was gone from him for ever
they were for the misery of her own lot which took her away from this brave tender man who offered up his whole life to her and threw her a poor helpless suppliant on the man who would think it a misfortune that she was obliged to cling to him
at three o'clock that day when hetty was on the coach that was to take her they said to leicester part of the long long way to windsor she felt dimly that she might be travelling all this weary journey towards the beginning of new misery
chapter two the shadow missus darling screamed and as if in answer to a bell the door opened and nana entered returned from her evening out she growled and sprang at the boy who leapt lightly through the window
again missus darling screamed this time in distress for him for she thought he was killed and she ran down into the street to look for his little body but it was not there and she looked up and in the black night she could see nothing but what she thought was a shooting star
she returned to the nursery and found nana with something in her mouth which proved to be the boy's shadow
and snapped it off you may be sure missus darling examined the shadow carefully
nana had no doubt of what was the best thing to do with this shadow she hung it out at the window meaning he is sure to come back for it
it looked so like the washing and lowered the whole tone of the house she thought of showing it to mister darling but he was totting up winter great coats for john and michael
and it seemed a shame to trouble him besides she knew exactly what he would say it all comes of having a dog for a nurse she decided to roll the shadow up and put it away carefully in a drawer until a fitting opportunity came for telling her husband
she used to say afterwards to her husband while perhaps nana was on the other side of her holding her hand no no mister darling always said i am responsible for it all i george darling did it
he had had a classical education they sat thus night after night recalling that fatal friday till every detail of it was stamped on their brains
like the faces on a bad coinage if only i had not accepted that invitation to dine at twenty seven missus darling said if only i had not poured my medicine into nana's bowl said mister darling if only i had pretended to like the medicine
was what nana's wet eyes said my liking for parties george my fatal gift of humour dearest my touchiness about trifles dear master and mistress
many a time it was mister darling who put the handkerchief to nana's eyes that fiend mister darling would cry and nana's bark was the echo of it but missus darling never upbraided peter there was something in the right hand corner of her mouth
that wanted her not to call peter names they would sit there in the empty nursery recalling fondly every smallest detail of that dreadful evening
with nana putting on the water for michael's bath and carrying him to it on her back i won't go to bed he had shouted
i won't i won't nana it isn't six o'clock yet oh dear oh dear i shan't love you any more nana i tell you i won't be bathed i won't i won't then missus darling had come in wearing her white evening gown she had dressed early because wendy so loved to see her in her evening gown
with the necklace george had given her
wendy loved to lend her bracelet to her mother
and john was saying i am happy to inform you missus darling that you are now a mother in just such a tone as mister darling himself may have used on the real occasion wendy had danced with joy just as the real missus darling must have done
then john was born with the extra pomp that he conceived due to the birth of a male and michael came from his bath to ask to be born also but john said brutally that they did not want any more michael had nearly cried nobody wants me
he said and of course the lady in the evening dress could not stand that i do she said i so want a third child boy or girl asked michael not too hopefully boy then he had leapt into her arms
but not so little if that was to be michael's last night in the nursery they go on with their recollections it was then that i rushed in like a tornado wasn't it mister darling would say scorning himself and indeed he had been like a tornado
perhaps there was some excuse for him he too had been dressing for the party and all had gone well with him
but this man though he knew about stocks and shares had no real mastery of his tie sometimes the thing yielded to him without a contest
and used a made up tie this was such an occasion he came rushing into the nursery with the crumpled little brute of a tie in his hand
matter he yelled he really yelled this tie it will not tie he became dangerously sarcastic
dear no begs to be excused he thought missus darling was not sufficiently impressed and he went on sternly i warn you of this mother that unless this tie is round my neck we don't go out to dinner to night and if i don't go out to dinner to night
i never go to the office again and if i don't go to the office again you and i starve and our children will be flung into the streets even then missus darling was placid let me try dear she said and indeed that was what he had come to ask her to do
while the children stood around to see their fate decided some men would have resented her being able to do it so easily but mister darling had far too fine a nature for that he thanked her carelessly at once forgot his rage and in another moment was dancing round the room
with michael on his back how wildly we romped says missus darling now recalling it our last romp mister darling groaned
i remember they were rather sweet don't you think george and they were ours ours and now they are gone the romp had ended with the appearance of nana and most unluckily mister darling collided against her covering his trousers with hairs
they were not only new trousers but they were the first he had ever had with braid on them
of course missus darling brushed him but he began to talk again about its being a mistake to have a dog for a nurse george nana is a treasure no doubt but i have an uneasy feeling at times that she looks upon the children as puppies oh no
dear one i feel sure she knows they have souls i wonder mister darling said thoughtfully
at first he pooh poohed the story but he became thoughtful when she showed him the shadow
he said examining it carefully but it does look a scoundrel we were still discussing it you remember says mister darling when nana came in with michael's medicine
and it is all my fault strong man though he was there is no doubt that he had behaved rather foolishly over the medicine if he had a weakness it was for thinking that all his life he had taken medicine boldly and so now
when michael dodged the spoon in nana's mouth he had said reprovingly
michael cried naughtily missus darling left the room to get a chocolate for him and mister darling thought this showed want of firmness mother don't pamper him he called after her michael when i was your age i took medicine without a murmur i said
thank you kind parents for giving me bottles to make me well he really thought this was true and wendy who was now in her night gown believed it also and she said to encourage michael that medicine you sometimes take father
is much nastier isn't it ever so much nastier mister darling said bravely and i would take it now as an example to you michael
he had climbed in the dead of night to the top of the wardrobe and hidden it there
and put it back on his wash stand
wendy cried always glad to be of service i'll bring it and she was off before he could stop her immediately his spirits sank in the strangest way john he said shuddering it's most beastly stuff it's that nasty sticky sweet kind
it will soon be over father john said cheerily and then in rushed wendy with the medicine in a glass i have been as quick as i could
with a vindictive politeness that was quite thrown away upon her michael first he said doggedly father first said michael who was of a suspicious nature i shall be sick you know mister darling said threateningly
come on father said john hold your tongue john his father rapped out wendy was quite puzzled i thought you took it quite easily father
his proud heart was nearly bursting and it isn't fair
it's all very well to say you are waiting so am i waiting father's a cowardly custard so are you a cowardly custard i'm not frightened neither am i frightened well then take it
well then you take it wendy had a splendid idea
certainly said mister darling are you ready michael wendy gave the words one two three and michael took his medicine but mister darling slipped his behind his back
mister darling demanded stop that row michael i meant to take mine but i i missed it it was dreadful the way all the three were looking at him just as if they did not admire him look here all of you he said entreatingly
as soon as nana had gone into the bathroom
i shall pour my medicine into nana's bowl and she will drink it thinking it is milk it was the colour of milk but the children did not have their father's sense of humour and they looked at him reproachfully as he poured the medicine into nana's bowl what fun
he said doubtfully and they did not dare expose him when missus darling and nana returned nana good dog he said patting her
nana wagged her tail ran to the medicine and began lapping it then she gave mister darling such a look not an angry look she showed him the great red tear that makes us so sorry for noble dogs and crept into her kennel
mister darling was frightfully ashamed of himself
in a horrid silence missus darling smelt the bowl o george she said it's your medicine
he roared while she comforted her boys and wendy hugged nana much good he said bitterly my wearing myself to the bone trying to be funny in this house and still wendy hugged nana
george missus darling entreated him not so loud the servants will hear you somehow they had got into the way
let them he answered recklessly bring in the whole world but i refuse to allow that dog to lord it in my nursery for an hour longer the children wept and nana ran to him beseechingly but he waved her back he felt he was a strong man again
in vain in vain he cried the proper place for you is the yard
george george missus darling whispered remember what i told you about that boy alas he would not listen he was determined to show who was master in that house and when commands would not draw nana from the kennel
he lured her out of it with honeyed words and seizing her roughly dragged her from the nursery
which craved for admiration when he had tied her up in the back yard the wretched father went and sat in the passage with his knuckles to his eyes in the meantime missus darling had put the children to bed in unwonted silence and lit their night lights
she said little guessing what was about to happen that is her bark when she smells danger danger are you sure wendy oh yes missus darling quivered and went to the window it was securely fastened
she looked out and the night was peppered with stars
but she did not notice this nor that one or two of the smaller ones winked at her yet a nameless fear clutched at her heart and made her cry
even michael already half asleep knew that she was perturbed and he asked can anything harm us mother after the night lights are lit nothing precious she said
she went from bed to bed singing enchantments over them and little michael flung his arms round her mother he cried i'm glad of you they were the last words she was to hear from him for a long time
and father and mother darling picked their way over it deftly not to soil their shoes they were already the only persons in the street and all the stars were watching them stars are beautiful but they may not take an active part in anything they must just look on for ever
so the older ones have become glassy eyed and seldom speak winking is the star language but the little ones still wonder they are not really friendly to peter
but they are so fond of fun that they were on his side to night and anxious to get the grown ups out of the way so
there was a commotion in the firmament
for a moment after mister and missus darling left the house the night lights by the beds of the three children continued to burn clearly
it made this light by flashing about so quickly
cut low and square through which her figure could be seen to the best advantage
and peter dropped in he had carried tinker bell part of the way and his hand was still messy with the fairy dust tinker bell he called softly after making sure that the children were asleep tink where are you she was in a jug for the moment and liking it extremely she had never been in a jug before
the loveliest tinkle as of golden bells answered him it is the fairy language you ordinary children can never hear it
tink said that the shadow was in the big box she meant the chest of drawers and peter jumped at the drawers scattering their contents to the floor with both hands as kings toss ha'pence to the crowd
a shudder passed through peter and he sat on the floor and cried his sobs woke wendy and she sat up in bed
boy she said courteously
she was much pleased and bowed beautifully to him from the bed what's your name he asked
peter pan she was already sure that he must be peter but it did seem a comparatively short name is that all yes he said rather sharply he felt for the first time that it was a shortish name i'm so sorry said wendy moira angela it doesn't matter peter gulped
second to the right said peter and then straight on till morning what a funny address peter had a sinking for the first time he felt that perhaps it was a funny address no it isn't he said i mean wendy said nicely remembering that she was hostess is that what they put on the letters
he wished she had not mentioned letters don't get any letters he said contemptuously but your mother gets letters don't have a mother he said not only had he no mother but he had not the slightest desire to have one he thought them very over rated persons
o peter no wonder you were crying she said and got out of bed and ran to him
it has come off yes then wendy saw the shadow on the floor
how exactly like a boy fortunately she knew at once what to do it must be sewn on she said just a little patronisingly what's sewn he asked
but she was exulting in his ignorance
and he was now jumping about in the wildest glee
he thought he had attached the shadow himself how clever i am he crowed rapturously oh the cleverness of me it is humiliating to have to confess that this conceit of peter was one of his most fascinating qualities
but for the moment wendy was shocked
of course i did nothing you did a little peter said carelessly and continued to dance
and she sprang in the most dignified way into bed and covered her face with the blankets
still she would not look up though she was listening eagerly wendy he continued in a voice that no woman has ever yet been able to resist wendy one girl is more use than twenty boys
do you really think so peter yes i do
and i'll get up again and she sat with him on the side of the bed
surely you know what a kiss is she asked aghast
now said he shall i give you a kiss and she replied with a slight primness if you please she made herself rather cheap by inclining her face toward him
for it was afterwards to save her life when people in our set are introduced it is customary for them to ask each other's age and so wendy who always liked to do the correct thing asked peter how old he was
it was like an examination paper that asks grammar when what you want to be asked is kings of england i don't know he replied uneasily but i am quite young
wendy i ran away the day i was born wendy was quite surprised but interested and she indicated in the charming drawing room manner
tedious talk this but being a stay at home she liked it and so he went on good naturedly there ought to be one fairy for every boy and girl ought to be isn't there no
wendy's heart went flutter with a sudden thrill peter she cried clutching him
she was here just now he said a little impatiently you don't hear her do you and they both listened the only sound i hear said wendy is like a tinkle of bells
the sound came from the chest of drawers and peter made a merry face
wendy he whispered gleefully i do believe i shut her up in the drawer
they hardly ever stand still he said but for one moment wendy saw the romantic figure come to rest on the cuckoo clock o the lovely she cried though tink's face was still distorted with passion tink said peter amiably
yes said cunning peter but we are rather lonely you see we have no female companionship are none of the others girls oh no girls you know are much too clever to fall out of their prams this flattered wendy immensely i think she said
john there just despises us for reply peter rose and kicked john out of bed blankets and all one kick
however john continued to sleep so placidly on the floor that she allowed him to remain there and i know you meant to be kind she said relenting
for the moment she had forgotten his ignorance about kisses i thought you would want it back he said a little bitterly
oh dear said the nice wendy i don't mean a kiss i mean a thimble what's that it's like this she kissed him funny said peter gravely now shall i give you a thimble if you wish to said wendy keeping her head erect this time
peter thimbled her and almost immediately she screeched
it was exactly as if someone were pulling my hair
why tink again tink replied you silly ass peter could not understand why but wendy understood
you see i don't know any stories none of the lost boys knows any stories how perfectly awful wendy said do you know peter asked why swallows build in the eaves of houses it is to listen to the stories o wendy your mother was telling you such a lovely story
which story was it about the prince who couldn't find the lady who wore the glass slipper peter said wendy excitedly that was cinderella and he found her and they lived happily ever after
where are you going she cried with misgiving to tell the other boys don't go peter she entreated i know such lots of stories
oh the stories i could tell to the boys she cried
wendy do come with me and tell the other boys of course she was very pleased to be asked but she said oh dear i can't think of mummy besides i can't fly i'll teach you oh how lovely to fly i'll teach you how to jump on the wind's back and then away we go
o o she exclaimed rapturously wendy wendy when you are sleeping in your silly bed you might be flying about with me saying funny things to the stars o o and wendy there are mermaids mermaids with tails such long tails oh cried wendy to see a mermaid
wendy he said how we should all respect you
but he had no pity for her wendy he said the sly one you could tuck us in at night o o none of us has ever been tucked in at night o o and her arms went out to him and you could darn our clothes and make pockets for us
how could she resist of course it's awfully fascinating she cried
if you like he said indifferently and she ran to john and michael and shook them wake up she cried peter pan has come and he is to teach us to fly john rubbed his eyes
hallo he said i am up michael was up by this time also looking as sharp as a knife with six blades and a saw but peter suddenly signed silence their faces assumed the awful craftiness of children listening for sounds from the grown up world all was as still as salt then everything was right
no stop everything was wrong nana who had been barking distressfully all the evening was quiet now it was her silence they had heard
there you suspicious brute she said not sorry that nana was in disgrace they are perfectly safe aren't they every one of the little angels sound asleep in bed listen to their gentle breathing here michael encouraged by his success breathed so loudly that they were nearly detected
nana knew that kind of breathing and she tried to drag herself out of liza's clutches but liza was dense no more of it nana she said sternly pulling her out of the room
unfortunately liza returned to her puddings and nana seeing that no help would come from her
we now return to the nursery it's all right john announced emerging from his hiding place i say peter can you really fly instead of troubling to answer him peter flew around the room taking the mantelpiece on the way
how sweet cried wendy yes i'm sweet oh i am sweet said peter forgetting his manners again it looked delightfully easy and they tried it first from the floor and then from the beds but they always went down instead of up i say how do you do it asked john rubbing his knee he was quite a practical boy
you just think lovely wonderful thoughts peter explained and they lift you up in the air he showed them again you're so nippy at it john said couldn't you do it very slowly once peter did it both slowly and quickly i've got it now wendy cried john but soon he found he had not
not one of them could fly an inch though even michael was in words of two syllables and peter did not know a from z
fortunately as we have mentioned one of his hands was messy with it and he blew some on each of them with the most superb results now just wiggle your shoulders this way he said and let go they were all on their beds and gallant michael let go first
i flewed he screamed while still in mid air john let go and met wendy near the bathroom
they could not help kicking a little but their heads were bobbing against the ceiling and there is almost nothing so delicious as that peter gave wendy a hand at first but had to desist tink was so indignant up and down they went and round and round heavenly was wendy's word
he was represented in popular lampoons as a man made to be duped as a man who had hitherto been the prey of gamesters and who might as well be the prey of friars a pasquinade
which about the time of rochester's retirement
but was soon dismissed for misconduct if any credit is due to a tradition which was long preserved in the green room haines had the impudence to affirm that the virgin mary had appeared to him and called him to repentance
after the revolution he attempted to make his peace with the town by a penance more scandalous than his offence one night before he acted in a farce he appeared on the stage in a white sheet with a torch in his hand
the name of a more illustrious renegade john dryden dryden was now approaching the decline of life after many successes and many failures he had at length attained by general consent
the first place among living english poets his claims on the gratitude of james were superior to those of any man of letters in the kingdom but james cared little for verses and much for money
from the day of his accession he set himself to make small economical reforms such as bring on a government the reproach of meanness
and impatient of poverty he knew little and cared little about religion if any sentiment was deeply fixed in him that sentiment was an aversion to priests of all persuasions levites augurs muftis roman catholic divines
he had during many years earned his daily bread by pandaring to the vicious taste of the pit and by grossly flattering rich and noble patrons selfrespect and a fine sense of the becoming
were not to be expected from one who had led a life of mendicancy and adulation
there will always be a strong presumption against the sincerity of a conversion by which the convert is directly a gainer in the case of dryden there is nothing to countervail this presumption his theological writings abundantly prove
that he had never sought with diligence and anxiety to learn the truth and that his knowledge both of the church which he quitted and of the church which he entered was of the most superficial kind nor was his subsequent conduct
that of a man whom a strong sense of duty had constrained to take a step of awful importance had he been such a man the same conviction which had led him to join the church of rome would surely have prevented him from violating grossly and habitually
rules which that church in common with every other christian society recognises as binding there would have been a marked distinction between his earlier and his later compositions
even when he professed to translate he constantly wandered from his originals in search of images which if he had found them in his originals he ought to have shunned what was bad became worse in his versions
what was innocent contracted a taint from passing through his mind he made the grossest satires of juvenal more gross interpolated loose descriptions in the tales of boccaccio and polluted the sweet and limpid poetry of the georgics
they could not disguise from themselves the fact that their style
the first service which he was required to perform in return for his pension was to defend his church in prose against stillingfleet but the art of saying things well is useless to a man who has nothing to say and this was dryden's case
he soon found himself unequally paired with an antagonist whose whole life had been one long training for controversy the veteran gladiator disarmed the novice inflicted a few contemptuous scratches
and turned away to encounter more formidable combatants dryden then betook himself to a weapon at which he was not likely to find his match he retired for a time from the bustle of coffeehouses and theatres
to a quiet retreat in huntingdonshire and there composed with unwonted care and labour his celebrated poem on the points in dispute between the churches of rome and england
ever in peril of death yet fated not to die the beasts of the field were bent on her destruction the quaking hare indeed observed a timorous neutrality but the socinian fox the presbyterian wolf the independent bear
the anabaptist boar glared fiercely at the spotless creature yet she could venture to drink with them at the common watering place under the protection of her friend the kingly lion the church of england was typified by the panther
and while wagging their tails and licking their jaws held a long dialogue touching the real presence the authority of popes and councils the penal laws the test act oates's perjuries butler's unrequited services to the cavalier party
stillingfleet's pamphlets and burnet's broad shoulders and fortunate matrimonial speculations the absurdity of this plan is obvious in truth the allegory could not be preserved unbroken through ten lines together
the poem appeared with every advantage which royal patronage could give a superb edition was printed for scotland at the roman catholic press established in holyrood house but men were in no humour to be charmed by the transparent style
and melodious numbers of the apostate the disgust excited by his venality the alarm excited by the policy of which he was the eulogist were not to be sung to sleep the just indignation of the public
sometimes poet squab he was reminded that in his youth he had paid to the house of cromwell
which he was now paying to the house of stuart one set of his assailants maliciously reprinted the sarcastic verses which he had written against popery in days when he could have got nothing by being a papist
of the many satirical pieces which appeared on this occasion the most successful was the joint work of two young men who had lately completed their studies at cambridge and had been welcomed as promising novices in the literary coffee houses of london
both had keen and vigorous minds both afterwards climbed high both united in a remarkable degree the love of letters with skill in those departments of business for which men of letters generally have a strong distaste
of the fifty poets whose lives johnson has written montague and prior were the only two who were distinguished by an intimate knowledge of trade and finance soon their paths diverged widely
their early friendship was dissolved one of them became the chief of the whig party and was impeached by the tories the other was entrusted with all the mysteries of tory diplomacy and was long kept close prisoner by the whigs
at length after many eventful years the associates so long parted were reunited in westminster abbey whoever has read the tale of the hind and panther with attention
must have perceived that while that work was in progress a great alteration took place in the views of those who used dryden as their interpreter at first the church of england is mentioned with tenderness and respect and is exhorted
to ally herself with the roman catholics against the puritan sects but at the close of the poem
with the roman catholics against the church of england this change in the language of the court poet was indicative of a great change in the policy of the court the original purpose of james had been to obtain for the church of which he was a member
not only complete immunity from all penalties and from all civil disabilities but also an ample share of ecclesiastical and academical endowments and at the same time to enforce with rigour the laws against the puritan sects
at the council board while massey held a deanery
while the host was publicly exposed in london under the protection of the pikes and muskets of the footguards while friars and monks walked the streets of london in their robes
puritan writers were compelled to resort to foreign or to secret presses puritan congregations could meet only by night or in waste places and puritan ministers were forced to preach in the garb of colliers or of sailors
in scotland the king while he spared no exertion to extort from the estates full relief for roman catholics had demanded and obtained new statutes of unprecedented severity against the presbyterians
he in violation of every law of hospitality and good faith required them to renounce the calvinistic ritual to which they were strongly attached and to conform to the church of england before he would dole out to them any portion of the alms
which had been entrusted to his care such had been his policy as long as he could cherish any hope that the church of england would consent to share ascendency with the church of rome that hope at one time amounted to confidence
the enthusiasm with which the tories had hailed his accession the elections the dutiful language and ample grants of his parliament
the suppression of the western insurrection the complete prostration of the party which had attempted to exclude him from the crown elated him beyond the bounds of reason he felt an assurance that every obstacle would give way before his power and his resolution
his parliament withstood him he tried the effects of frowns and menaces frowns and menaces failed he tried the effect of prorogation from the day of the prorogation the opposition to his designs had been growing stronger and stronger
he must effect it in defiance of that great party which had given such signal proofs of fidelity to his office to his family and to his person the whole anglican priesthood the whole cavalier gentry were against him
in vain had he by virtue of his ecclesiastical supremacy enjoined the clergy to abstain from discussing controverted points every parish in the nation
was warned every sunday against the errors of rome and these warnings were only the more effective because they were accompanied by professions of reverence for the sovereign
now expressed in no measured phrase their resolution to stand as manfully by the church dull as was the intellect of james despotic as was his temper he felt that he must change his course
he could not safely venture to outrage all his protestant subjects at once if he could bring himself to make concessions to the party which predominated in both houses if he could bring himself
emoluments and privileges unimpaired he might still break up presbyterian meetings
he could overpower the anglican church only by forming against her an extensive coalition including sects which though they differed in doctrine and government far more widely from each other than from her
might yet be induced by their common jealousy of her greatness and by their common dread of her intolerance to suspend their animosities till she was no longer able to oppress them this plan seemed to him to have one strong recommendation
if he could only succeed in conciliating the protestant nonconformists he might flatter himself that he was secure against all chance of rebellion according to the anglican divines no subject could by any provocation be justified
in withstanding the lord's anointed by force the theory of the puritan sectaries was very different those sectaries had no scruple about smiting tyrants with the sword of gideon many of them
they were probably even now meditating another western insurrection or another rye house plot james therefore conceived that he might safely persecute the church if he could only gain the dissenters
the party whose principles afforded him no guarantee would be attached to him by interest the party whose interests he attacked would be restrained from insurrection by principle
influenced by such considerations as these james from the time at which he parted in anger with his parliament began to meditate a general league of all nonconformists catholic and protestant against the established religion
with all that he most abhorred he had to overcome an animosity not slight or capricious not of recent origin or hasty growth
strengthened by great wrongs inflicted and suffered through a hundred and twenty eventful years and intertwined with all his feelings religious political domestic and personal four generations of stuarts
had waged a war to the death with four generations of puritans and through that long war there had been no stuart who had hated the puritans so much or who had been so much hated by them as himself
they had tried to blast his honour and to exclude him from his birthright they had called him incendiary cutthroat poisoner they had driven him from the admiralty and the privy council
they had repeatedly chased him into banishment they had plotted his assassination
he had avenged himself on them by havoc such as england had never before seen their heads and quarters were still rotting on poles in all the market places
aged women held in high honour among the sectaries for piety and charity had for offences which no good prince would have thought deserving even of a severe reprimand been beheaded and burned alive
don quixote and his squire passed under some tall shady trees and don quixote at sancho's persuasion ate a little from the store carried by dapple
senor what a fool i should have looked if i had chosen for my reward the spoils of the first adventure your worship achieved instead of the foals of the three mares after all a sparrow in the hand is better than a vulture on the wing
at the same time sancho replied don quixote if thou hadst let me attack them as i wanted at the very least the emperor's gold crown and cupid's painted wings
would have fallen to thee as spoils for i should have taken them by force and given them into thy hands the sceptres and crowns of those play actor emperors said sancho
were never yet pure gold but only brass foil or tin that is true said don quixote for it would not be right that the accessories of the drama should be real instead of being mere fictions and semblances
like the drama itself towards which sancho and as a necessary consequence towards those who represent and produce it
thou wert favourably disposed for they are all instruments of great good to the state
come tell me hast thou not seen a play acted in which kings emperors pontiffs knights ladies and divers other personages were introduced one plays the villain another the knave
this one the merchant that the soldier one the sharp witted fool another the foolish lover and when the play is over and they have put off the dresses they wore in it all the actors become equal
and in short all the characters that can be brought into a play but when it is over that is to say when life ends death strips them all
and all are equal in the grave
that i have heard it many and many a time as well as that other one of the game of chess how so long as the game lasts each piece has its own particular office and when the game is finished they are all mixed
what i mean is that your worship's conversation has been the dung that has fallen on the barren soil of my dry wit and the time i have been in your service and society has been the tillage and with the help of this
i hope to yield fruit in abundance that will not fall away or slide from those paths of good breeding that your worship has made in my parched understanding don quixote laughed at sancho's affected phraseology
and perceived that what he said about his improvement was true for now and then he spoke in a way that surprised him though always or mostly
no matter whether they had any bearing or not upon the subject in hand as may have been seen already and will be noticed in the course of this history in conversation of this kind they passed a good part of the night
as he used to say when he wanted to go to sleep and stripping dapple he left him at liberty to graze his fill
as his master's express orders were that so long as they were in the field or not sleeping under a roof
the ancient usage established and observed by knights errant being to take off the bridle and hang it on the saddle bow but to remove the saddle from the horse never sancho acted accordingly and gave him the same liberty he had given dapple
between whom and rocinante there was a friendship so unequalled and so strong that it is handed down by tradition from father to son that the author of this veracious history devoted some special chapters to it
which in order to preserve the propriety and decorum due to a history so heroic he did not insert therein although at times he forgets this resolution of his and describes how eagerly the two beasts
would scratch one another when they were together and how when they were tired or full
and if that be so it may be perceived to the admiration of mankind how firm the friendship must have been between these two peaceful animals shaming men who preserve friendships with one another so badly
this was why it was said for friend no longer is there friend the reeds turn lances now and some one else has sung friend to friend the bug et cetera
and let no one fancy that the author was at all astray when he compared the friendship of these animals to that of men for men have received many lessons from beasts and learned many important things
as for example the clyster from the stork vomit and gratitude from the dog watchfulness from the crane foresight from the ant modesty from the elephant and loyalty from the horse
sancho at last fell asleep at the foot of a cork tree while don quixote dozed at that of a sturdy oak but a short time only had elapsed when a noise he heard behind him awoke him and rising up
and take the bridles off the horses for so far as i can see this place will furnish grass for them and the solitude and silence my love sick thoughts need of as he said this he stretched himself upon the ground
and as he flung himself down the armour in which he was clad rattled whereby don quixote perceived that he must be a knight errant and going over to sancho who was asleep he shook him by the arm
brought him back to his senses and said in a low voice to him brother sancho we have got an adventure
and where may her ladyship the adventure be
turn thine eyes and look and thou wilt see stretched there a knight errant who it strikes me is not over and above happy for i saw him fling himself off his horse
and throw himself on the ground with a certain air of dejection and his armour rattled as he fell
he must be getting ready to sing something faith you are right said sancho
there is no knight errant that is not said don quixote but let us listen to him for if he sings by that thread we shall extract the ball of his thoughts because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh
but the knight of the grove's voice which was neither very bad nor very good stopped him and listening attentively the pair heard him sing this sonnet
your pleasure prithee lady mine unfold declare the terms that i am to obey my will to yours submissively i mould and from your law
my feet shall never stray would you i die to silent grief a prey then count me even now as dead and cold would you i tell my woes in some new way
then shall my tale by love itself be told the unison of opposites to prove of the soft wax and diamond hard am i but still obedient to the laws of love
whate'er you grave or stamp thereon shall rest indelible for all eternity with an ah me that seemed to be drawn from the inmost recesses of his heart
the knight of the grove brought his lay to an end and shortly afterwards
what can it be most serene casildea de vandalia that thou wilt suffer this thy captive knight to waste away and perish in ceaseless wanderings and rude and arduous toils
it is not enough that i have compelled all the knights of navarre all the leonese
and i have never confessed anything of the sort nor could i nor should i confess a thing so much to the prejudice of my lady's beauty thou seest how this knight is raving sancho but let us listen
perhaps he will tell us more about himself that he will returned sancho
for a month at a stretch but this was not the case for the knight of the grove hearing voices near him instead of continuing his lamentation stood up and exclaimed in a distinct but courteous tone
who goes there what are you do you belong to the number of the happy or of the miserable of the miserable answered don quixote then come to me said he of the grove and rest assured
that it is to woe itself and affliction itself you come
went over to him and so did sancho the doleful knight took don quixote by the arm saying sit down here sir knight for that you are one and of those that profess knight errantry
it is to me a sufficient proof to have found you in this place where solitude and night the natural couch and proper retreat of knights errant keep you company to which don made answer a knight i am of the profession you mention
and though sorrows misfortunes and calamities have made my heart their abode the compassion i feel for the misfortunes of others has not been thereby banished from it from what you have just now sung
they were not going to break one another's heads are you sir knight in love perchance asked he of the grove of don quixote by mischance i am replied don quixote
for if it be excessive it looks like revenge
certainly not said sancho who stood close by for my lady is as a lamb and softer than a roll of butter is this your squire asked he of the grove he is said don quixote
i never yet saw a squire said he of the grove who ventured to speak when his master was speaking at least there is mine who is as big as his father and it cannot be proved
by my faith then said sancho i have spoken and am fit to speak in the presence of one as much or even but never mind it only makes it worse to stir it
without having made an end of it
and i will tell your worship who i am that you may see whether i am to be reckoned among the number of the most talkative squires with this the two squires withdrew to one side and between them
together with the sensible original and tranquil colloquy that passed between the two squires the knights and the squires made two parties these telling the story of their lives
the others the story of their loves but the history relates first of all the conversation of the servants and afterwards takes up that of the masters and it says that withdrawing a little from the others
a hard life it is we lead and live senor we that are squires to knights errant verily we eat our bread in the sweat of our faces which is one of the curses
god laid on our first parents it may be said too
that we eat it in the chill of our bodies for who gets more heat and cold than the miserable squires of knight errantry even so it would not be so bad if we had something to eat
for woes are lighter if there's bread but sometimes we go a day or two without breaking our fast except with the wind that blows all that said he of the grove
may be endured and put up with when we have hopes of reward for unless the knight errant he serves
but to my mind designing people strove to persuade him to try and become an archbishop he however would not be anything but an emperor but i was trembling all the time
lest he should take a fancy to go into the church not finding myself fit to hold office in it for i may tell you though i seem a man i am no better than a beast for the church
well then you are wrong there said he of the grove for those island governments are not all satisfactory some are awkward some are poor some are dull and in short
the highest and choicest brings with it a heavy burden of cares and troubles which the unhappy wight to whose lot it has fallen bears upon his shoulders far better would it be for us
as not to have a hack and a couple of greyhounds and a fishingrod to amuse himself with in his own village
to be sure i have no hack but i have an ass that is worth my master's horse twice over god send me a bad easter and that the next one i am to see if i would swap
even if i got four bushels of barley to boot you will laugh at the value i put on my dapple
as to greyhounds
for there are enough and to spare in my town and moreover there is more pleasure in sport when it is at other people's expense in truth and earnest sir squire said he of the grove i have made up my mind and determined
like three oriental pearls i have two said sancho that might be presented before the pope himself especially a girl whom i am breeding up for a countess please god though in spite of her mother
and how old is this lady
asked he of the grove fifteen a couple of years more or less answered sancho but she is as tall as a lance and as fresh as an april morning
those are gifts to fit her to be not only a countess but a nymph of the greenwood said he of the grove whoreson strumpet
the water was icy telling as well as the turning leaves and cooler air that fall had come and winter was on the way hurrying forward chris and amos reached the mouth of the stream where it joined the river
there on the left bank of rock creek
they rose higher than the heads of the two boys and were too closely packed to allow for easy passage we'll have to skirt the very edge chris said glancing about barefoot would be the best
this soft ground would soon go over our shoes and maybe suck them down keep right against the rushes chris warned amos and if a boat shows up coming from the wharves we can't take any chances we'll have to dive into the rushes and hide
he chuckled the two went on making slow progress for the river was deep at that point with little foothold between the end of the jungle of reeds and deep water keep an eye out amos chris called back over his shoulder as he went ahead
there's a boat with four men in it just left the last wharf and they're headin this way get in those rushes quick
groping back until they could barely see the river through the stalks and it was just in time for barely were they hidden when they heard carried over the water the dip and splash of two pairs of oars and the creak of oarlocks then
and peering out they saw the boat shoot by osterbridge hawsey wrapped in a great cloak was admiring a bolt of muslin that he held but claggett chew his face shadowed by a hat was holding his whip upon his knees
and glowering at the water the boat passed and some time after the two boys heard from across the water the echo of wood against wood as the dinghy reached the venture's hull after a while as the boys were about to move along
a heavy dropping sound and the shuddering of the marshy ground made the two in hiding look at one another in concern
the sound accompanied by steps oaths and a rhythmical drop and shudder continued farther along the shore stealthily trying not to shake the rushes and so show where they might be
chris and amos pushed through the marsh the sun was setting as they came near the steps and voices pushing through the reeds towards the river chris found that they were nearly opposite where the venture floated below mister mason's island
and at a desolate part of the river chris gestured amos forward
in a pause of the thundering dropping sound they knew themselves to be near its origin and parted the reeds enough to see there within a few yards of them and at the edge of a hard beaten track from the main shore
lay a mass of cannon balls and shot for guns of various sizes such as are used on men of war the crew of the venture able to carry but one at a time
and this as they dropped the cannon balls from their shoulders was the sound and shaking of the ground the boys had heard and felt seeing the red caps and kerchiefed heads of men above the rushes the boys let the reeds fall back i'm
going to have a look at the ship through the glass chris whispered
parting the stalks he trained the glass on claggett chew's ship it was a fine rich vessel that was evident and swarming with activity at this hour of dusk other boats along the river had stopped their commerce for the day
chris and amos were the only watchers the cannon balls and ammunition were taken out in boats and hoisted up in nets chris observed everything closely
and saw still other crewmen disappearing with their burdens down the hold then something caught his eye and he examined the name along the side through the spyglass
seemed exact except the second and third among the other letters of carved and gilded wood the e and n were not quite as straight in line as the rest
putting the glass in his pocket he rejoined amos but as he did so the last two sailors put down their cannon balls and wiped the sweat off their foreheads with their arms in the ensuing silence the rustle of the rushes
is a spy there here take this club and beat about we'll catch em
that chris barely had time to whisper to amos hurry amos run i'll be all right i'll draw them off i'll meet you where we ford the stream amos safely out of sight the men came only on a stray dog foraging for rats
wagging its tail and letting out a yip or two as it followed a scent along the ground give it a kick there it's only a stray dog one said oh devil take it what do i care
the dog lay panting at the river's edge looking past the ship as it rested
becky boozer's huge frame blocked it behind them as she stood in the sun to see them off each boy had been given meat and bread some cakes and apples for their midday meal and chris stood looking up and down the street for a moment before starting
savoring the promise of new sights and new adventure
and must not know why chris might be surprised at certain places georgetown in the year seventeen ninety might be new for amos but not nearly as new as it would be for chris
chris had long ago decided
while looking about him chris glanced more than once at amos
his friend thought but when no one paid any attention
a ship had just come in the sailors browned and cheerful at being once more in their home port merchants in coats of fine but sober cloth were talking with the captain and mate while they kept an eye on the cargo being laboriously unloaded by stevedores
for some time chris and amos stood watching the men carrying out bales or kegs on their shoulders when one part of the cargo had been assembled on the dock an auction was held forthwith to sell it off at once to the highest bidder
listening and looking chris saw bolts of silk hardware china wines and liquors needles and pins all manner of things auctioned and sold the ship american owned had come from england
and chris overheard one man say to another see there the thin man that be mister mason's agent i heard he's here to buy the ballast bricks for his master's plantation on the island chris not understanding asked
the men astounded to be interrupted by a boy and looking down to see two each with an apple in his hands turned around and after a moment's scrutiny answered ballast bricks
why anyone knows that these are the bricks brought over in the hold my lad should there not be sufficient cargo both to make ballast for the vessel and to sell once here english bricks are cheaper than those we can make ourselves did you not know young man he said
frowning with disapproval that our bricks for building houses have all come from british kilns no sir thank you sir
not in the least abashed how i should have loved to have told him i didn't belong in this age anyway and that in my time we do make our own bricks he chuckled to himself further on a ship being painted a dazzling white caught their eyes the
running forward and sure enough black and gold letters along her bow pronounced that indeed it was the mirabelle i'd know those lines anywhere chris said to amos and the two boys stood gazing at mister wicker's ship
the mirabelle was a three masted schooner of more than usually trim lines
at the waterline a clear light green contrasted well with the white of her sides above decks the size of the masts and neatly furled sails showed at a glance that the mirabelle was hardy enough
looking about chris soon spied ned cilley on deck lounging against the side of the ship and smoking his pipe master cilley's eyes lit up as he saw his friends
as if he had not seen them for a month instead of just the night before when he had shared with them what becky termed a taste
ned cilley beamed on them and leaned back on his heels for a better view
the boys were agreeing enthusiastically when a remarkable couple came into sight pacing the decks of the mirabelle soon the watchers were given a better look for the two men came down the gangplank to examine cases that had been brought to the dock for loading
and chris and amos were hard put to it not to laugh out loud at the comical pair the first man was so round and so short he appeared to have no legs at all
below a tight round paunch two small feet looking rather like mice went in and out as he walked the roundness of his face was underlined by three folds of chin
that made chris feel the man was no fool he constantly burbled with laughter and was in a high good humor occasional remarks from his companion causing him now and again to chuckle with amusement
what the other man could be saying that was so entertaining chris could not imagine for he was the opposite of the fat good humored one this second person was twice again as tall as the plump little fellow beside him
and was as dour and thin as the other was cheery and fat he seemed in a state of perpetual depression and no amount of chuckles on the part of the plump gentleman
cilley looked scandalized at chris's impertinence in finding them in any way droll them
he is and mister elisha finney ned cilley told them
lowering his voice and bending down to be on a level with chris and amos but believe me there's no sounder captain afloat they all know it hereabouts for ezekial blizzard knows the chiny seas better than the sight of his own feet
make no mistake about it as to elisha finney he's glum
that's true of the two of them whatever they can do for mister wicker is law for ezekial blizzard and elisha finney they swear by mister wicker so they do ned said wagging his head with the certainty of it
he's tenderhearted as a bird under that gloom is finney could we go on board the ship chris asked when the captain and mister finney had moved off to the far end of the wharf no me lad cilley answered gravely
tis better not wait till the master do present you proper to the captain for the mirabelle is captain blizzard's castle like i would sooner ye were asked aboard by him then seeing chris's crestfallen face
he invited and taking chris and amos's arms drew them towards a group of seamen chris looked quickly around at the faces of the men for these he secretly knew were to be his companions on a long sea journey soon to start
with a deep sense of relief he found that he liked them all all perhaps but one
now boys he roared this good man here is bowie a short muscular bowlegged man with a friendly grin nodded his head at them and cut off a piece of black tobacco with his knife stuffing it into his mouth knife blade and all
and that one's abner cloud and that one pointed ned
but when they had reached zachary a tall young man of eighteen years or so zachary bent his handsome surly face and fumbled at his shoe chris stood there with his hand out feeling the red blood surging angrily up his cheeks
and then he wondered who zachary was looking at from the corner of his eye chris turned his head and did not have to hear the name muttered by cilley or by bowie at his back
chapter thirty in which phileas fogg simply does his duty three passengers including passepartout had disappeared had they been killed in the struggle
it was impossible to tell there were many wounded but none mortally colonel proctor was one of the most seriously hurt he had fought bravely and a ball had entered his groin he was carried into the station
with the other wounded passengers to receive such attention as could be of avail aouda was safe and phileas fogg who had been in the thickest of the fight had not received a scratch
fix was slightly wounded in the arm
all the passengers had got out of the train the wheels of which were stained with blood from the tyres and spokes hung ragged pieces of flesh as far as the eye could reach on the white plain behind
the last sioux were disappearing in the south along the banks of republican river mister fogg with folded arms remained motionless
aouda standing near him
if his servant was a prisoner ought he not to risk everything to rescue him from the indians i will find him living or dead said he quietly to aouda ah mister mister fogg cried she
clasping his hands and covering them with tears living added mister fogg if we do not lose a moment phileas fogg by this resolution inevitably sacrificed himself he pronounced his own doom
and his bet would be certainly lost but as he thought it is my duty he did not hesitate the commanding officer of fort kearney was there a hundred of his soldiers had placed themselves in a position
to defend the station should the sioux attack it sir said mister fogg to the captain three passengers have disappeared dead asked the captain
that's a serious thing to do sir returned the captain
the lives of three men are in question sir said phileas fogg doubtless but can i risk the lives of fifty men to save three
nobody here returned the other has a right to teach me my duty very well said mister fogg coldly i will go alone you sir
cried fix coming up you go alone in pursuit of the indians would you have me leave this poor fellow to perish him to whom every one present owes his life i shall go
no sir you shall not go alone cried the captain touched in spite of himself no you are a brave man thirty volunteers he added turning to the soldiers the whole company started forward at once
the captain had only to pick his men thirty were chosen and an old sergeant placed at their head thanks captain said mister fogg will you let me go with you asked fix
you will remain with aouda in case anything should happen to me a sudden pallor overspread the detective's face separate himself from the man whom he had so persistently followed step by step
which was going on within him he lowered his eyes before that calm and frank look i will stay said he a few moments after mister fogg pressed the young woman's hand
and having confided to her his precious carpet bag went off with the sergeant and his little squad
my friends i will divide five thousand dollars among you if we save the prisoners it was then a little past noon aouda retired to a waiting room and there she waited alone thinking of the simple and noble generosity
and was now risking his life all without hesitation from duty in silence fix did not have the same thoughts and could scarcely conceal his agitation he walked feverishly up and down the platform
what this man whom he had just followed around the world was permitted now to separate himself from him
administered to himself a sound lecture for his greenness i have been an idiot he thought and this man will see it
decidedly i am nothing but an ass so reasoned the detective while the hours crept by all too slowly he did not know what to do sometimes he was tempted to tell aouda all
but he could not doubt how the young woman would receive his confidences what course should he take
it did not seem impossible that he might overtake him footsteps were easily printed on the snow but soon under a new sheet every imprint would be effaced fix became discouraged
he felt a sort of insurmountable longing to abandon the game altogether he could now leave fort kearney station and pursue his journey homeward in peace towards two o'clock in the afternoon
long whistles were heard approaching from the east a great shadow preceded by a wild light slowly advanced appearing still larger through the mist which gave it a fantastic aspect no train was expected from the east
neither had there been time for the succour asked for by telegraph to arrive the train from omaha to san francisco was not due till the next day the mystery was soon explained
the locomotive which was slowly approaching with deafening whistles was that which having been detached from the train had continued its route with such terrific rapidity carrying off the unconscious engineer and stoker
for want of fuel the steam had slackened and it had finally stopped an hour after some twenty miles beyond fort kearney neither the engineer nor the stoker was dead and after remaining for some time in their swoon had come to themselves
and the locomotive without cars understood what had happened he could not imagine how the locomotive had become separated from the train but he did not doubt that the train left behind was in distress
he did not hesitate what to do it would be prudent to continue on to omaha for it would be dangerous to return to the train which the indians might still be engaged in pillaging
nevertheless he began to rebuild the fire in the furnace the pressure again mounted and the locomotive returned running backwards to fort kearney this it was which was whistling in the mist
the travellers were glad to see the locomotive resume its place at the head of the train they could now continue the journey so terribly interrupted aouda on seeing the locomotive come up
hurried out of the station and asked the conductor are you going to start at once madam but the prisoners our unfortunate fellow travellers i cannot interrupt the trip replied the conductor we are already three hours behind time
and when will another train pass here from san francisco to morrow evening madam to morrow evening but then it will be too late we must wait it is impossible responded the conductor if you wish to go please get in
i will not go said aouda fix had heard this conversation a little while before when there was no prospect of proceeding on the journey he had made up his mind to leave fort kearney
and he had only to take his seat in the car an irresistible influence held him back the station platform burned his feet and he could not stir the conflict in his mind again began anger and failure stifled him
he wished to struggle on to the end meanwhile the passengers and some of the wounded among them colonel proctor whose injuries were serious had taken their places in the train
the buzzing of the over heated boiler was heard and the steam was escaping from the valves the engineer whistled the train started and soon disappeared mingling its white smoke with the eddies of the densely falling snow
the detective had remained behind several hours passed the weather was dismal and it was very cold fix sat motionless on a bench in the station he might have been thought asleep
aouda despite the storm kept coming out of the waiting room going to the end of the platform and peering through the tempest of snow as if to pierce the mist which narrowed the horizon around her and to hear if possible some welcome sound
she heard and saw nothing then she would return chilled through to issue out again after the lapse of a few moments
evening came and the little band had not returned where could they be had they found the indians and were they having a conflict with them or were they still wandering amid the mist
the commander of the fort was anxious though he tried to conceal his apprehensions as night approached the snow fell less plentifully but it became intensely cold absolute silence rested on the plains
neither flight of bird nor passing of beast troubled the perfect calm throughout the night aouda full of sad forebodings
her imagination carried her far off and showed her innumerable dangers what she suffered through the long hours it would be impossible to describe fix remained stationary in the same place but did not sleep
once a man approached and spoke to him and the detective merely replied by shaking his head thus the night passed at dawn the half extinguished disc of the sun rose above a misty horizon
but it was now possible to recognise objects two miles off phileas fogg and the squad had gone southward in the south all was still vacancy it was then seven o'clock the captain who was really alarmed did not know what course to take
should he send another detachment to the rescue of the first should he sacrifice more men with so few chances of saving those already sacrificed his hesitation did not last long however calling one of his lieutenants he was on the
point of ordering a reconnaissance when gunshots were heard was it a signal the soldiers rushed out of the fort and half a mile off they perceived a little band returning in good order mister fogg was marching at their head and just behind him
were passepartout and the other two travellers rescued from the sioux they had met and fought the indians ten miles south of fort kearney shortly before the detachment arrived
with their captors three of whom the frenchman had felled with his fists when his master and the soldiers hastened up to their relief all were welcomed with joyful cries phileas fogg distributed the reward he had promised to the soldiers while passepartout not without reason
it must certainly be confessed that i cost my master dear fix without saying a word looked at mister fogg
chapter seventeen the following morning while chris was telling mister wicker of the ammunition being loaded on the venture becky boozer announced a visit from captain blizzard and elisha finney
show them in becky mister wicker told her to chris he said i wonder what brings them here so early it must be a matter of some importance stay with me christopher i shall present you to the captain
the extraordinary pair came in and chris was introduced to captain blizzard and mister finney the captain was all smiles except for his eyes chris noted that his eyes did not smile at all
mister finney true to form cast down his eyes sighed and let the corners of his wide thin lips droop almost to his chin when a chair large enough and solid enough had been found for captain blizzard
and becky had brought in a decanter of sherry and glasses to set before the visitors chris shut the study door and sat down on the floor where he could observe the three faces before him mister wicker spoke first
no trouble of any kind i trust captain blizzard set down his glass of sherry and cleared his throat now sir needs must i come with unpleasant news and sorry i am to bring it
i have heard that the venture plans to sail at any time and you well know she is a fast sailing ship he folded his plump hands over his paunch and twiddled his thumbs with agitation sir it has been noised about that the venture is headed for the west indies
he paused and glanced at mister finney who nodded forlornly his mouth drooping
mister wicker's face was grave but showed no surprise i knew some trouble was ahead he said slowly but did not know what form it was to take he paused
news of sailings and destinations get about so rapidly it is more than likely that someone overheard the destination of the mirabelle and sold his knowledge to captain chew although he added thoughtfully i think
claggett chew guessed it well and mister wicker looked alertly at the two men what advice do you give me captain blizzard wagged his head nay sir tis for orders that i came to you it is for you to say
how soon can the mirabelle put to sea mister wicker asked and chris's heart skipped a beat at any time sir the captain at once replied we have nearly water enough and quite sufficient stores the men are all assembled
the captain fell silent and no one spoke for several minutes mister wicker leaning his chin on his folded hands was lost in thought how move the tides he finally asked raising his head
the captain with surprising briskness for so large a man pulled some folded charts from his pocket
pushing aside the china bowl filled with flowers to spread the charts flat on the table top captain blizzard leaned his knuckles on the boards the tide will be high at midnight sir he informed them see he pointed a short forefinger at a spot on one chart
here is the sandbar that the tide covers for but a short time and should there be other ships crowding the river near this point we must slip through there then or not at all mister wicker examined the charts and nodded
and chris felt that his heartbeat would stifle him it pounded so fast and thickly in his throat all at once looking up at the thoughtful face of his master chris longed to be able to stay safe at home
the imminent journey so far and perhaps so perilous seemed suddenly too much for him mister wicker had taken the river charts and rolled them up and now turned to the captain and first mate
captain blizzard and you mister finney he said should water casks be seen going on board the whole of georgetown will know you mean to sail
in bales or boxes so that they seem to be anything but what they are he tapped the rolled charts thoughtfully on the palm of one hand our only chance to steal a march on the venture will be to sail at least a day before her the two men listening nodded in agreement
there is one other thing your orders for where you are to anchor once near china will be secret and carried on the person of this boy he laid one hand on chris's shoulder he has a task of utmost secrecy to carry out
and will require your help encouragement and silence captain blizzard and mister finney looked solemnly at chris
but his presence on the ship must not be known until the mirabelle is well to sea he glanced down meditatively at chris i shall arrange to bring him aboard somehow and give you your sailing orders later
he strode over to the window looking out to his gardens and the trees where the apples showed their russet cheeks leave me these charts for yet a little while and i shall ponder on our plans said mister wicker
the spaniards were naturally too indolent to be affected in any way by an incident that concerned themselves so remotely while the russians felt themselves simply reliant on their master and as long as they were with him
were careless as to where or how they spent their days everything went on with them in an accustomed routine and they lay down night after night and awoke to their avocations morning after morning
all night long ben zoof would not leave the professor's bedside he had constituted himself sick nurse and considered his reputation at stake if he failed to set his patient on his feet again he watched every movement
listened to every breath and never failed to administer the strongest cordials upon the slightest pretext
ever and again sometimes in a tone of uneasiness and sometimes with the expression of positive anger the name of gallia escaped his lips as though he were dreaming that his claim to the discovery of the comet was being contested or denied
but although his attendant was on the alert to gather all he could he was able to catch nothing in the incoherent sentences that served to throw any real light upon the problem that they were all eager to solve
and ben zoof who was especially anxious that the repose which promised to be so beneficial should not be disturbed felt considerable annoyance at hearing a loud knocking evidently of some blunt heavy instrument against a door that had been placed at the entrance of the gallery
more for the purpose of retaining internal warmth than for guarding against intrusion from without confound it said ben zoof i must put a stop to this and he made his way towards the door who's there he cried
in no very amiable tone i replied the quavering voice who are you isaac hakkabut let me in do please let me in oh
what do you want can't you get anybody to buy your stuffs nobody will pay me a proper price well old shimei you won't find a customer here you had better be off no but do please do please let me in supplicated the jew
the governor the governor is in bed and asleep
then wait where you are and with this inhospitable rejoinder
when servadac who had been roused by the sound of voices called out what's the matter ben zoof oh nothing sir only that hound of a hakkabut says he wants to speak to you let him in then
ben zoof hesitated let him in i say repeated the captain peremptorily however reluctantly ben zoof obeyed
and isaac hakkabut enveloped in an old overcoat shuffled into the gallery in a few moments servadac approached
without vouchsafing any reply the captain beckoned to the old man to follow him and leading the way to the central hall stopped and turning so as to look him steadily in the face said now is your opportunity tell me what you want
oh my lord my lord whined isaac you must have some news to tell me news what do you mean from my little tartan yonder i saw the yawl go out from the rock here on a journey
and i saw it come back and it brought a stranger and i thought i thought i thought well you thought what did you think why that perhaps the stranger had come from the northern shores of the mediterranean and that i might ask him
he paused again and gave a glance at the captain
hakkabut blurted out at last servadac shrugged his shoulders in contempt and turned away
and yet refusing to believe that his hope of making good bargains with european traders was at an end surely nothing thought the captain will convince the old rascal now and he moved off in disgust
the orderly however who had listened with much amusement was by no means disinclined for the conversation to be continued are you satisfied old ezekiel he asked isn't it so am i not right
didn't a stranger arrive here last night inquired the jew yes quite true where from from the balearic isles
yes fine quarters for trade hardly twenty leagues from spain he must have brought news from europe well old manasseh what if he has i should like to see him can't be
the jew sidled close up to ben zoof and laying his hand on his arm said in a low and insinuating tone i am poor you know but i would give you a few reals if you would let me talk to this stranger but as if he thought he was making too liberal an offer
he is too tired he is worn out he is fast asleep
but i would pay you to wake him
i shall have you turned outside that door immediately no offense my lord i hope stammered out the jew i only meant silence shouted servadac the old man hung his head abashed
i will tell you what said servadac after a brief interval i will give you leave to hear what this stranger has to tell as soon as he is able to tell us anything at present we have not heard a word from his lips
the jew looked perplexed yes said servadac when we hear his story you shall hear it too
added ben zoof in a voice of irony they had none of them long to wait for within a few minutes rosette's peevish voice was heard calling joseph joseph the professor did not open his eyes
and appeared to be slumbering on but very shortly afterwards called out again joseph confound the fellow where is he
where's my blackboard joseph quite safe sir answered ben zoof quickly rosette unclosed his eyes and fixed them full upon the orderly's face
he asked at your service sir replied ben zoof with imperturbable gravity then get me my coffee and be quick about it ben zoof left
to go into the kitchen and servadac approached the professor in order to assist him in rising to a sitting posture
it is twelve years or more since i saw you i hope you have improved quite a reformed character sir i assure you said servadac smiling well that's as it should be that's right said the astronomer with fussy importance
but let me have my coffee he added impatiently i cannot collect my thoughts without my coffee fortunately ben zoof appeared with a great cup hot and strong after draining it with much apparent relish the professor got out of bed
walked into the common hall round which he glanced with a pre occupied air and proceeded to seat himself in an armchair the most comfortable which the cabin of the dobryna had supplied then in a voice full of satisfaction
and that involuntarily recalled the exclamations of delight that had wound up the two first of the mysterious documents
had darted forward by the god
europe shouted the professor springing from his seat as if he were electrified what does the man want with europe i want to get there screeched the jew and in spite of every exertion to get him away he clung most tenaciously to the professor's chair
and again and again implored for news of europe rosette made no immediate reply after a moment or two's reflection he turned to servadac and asked him
then to day said the astronomer speaking with the greatest deliberation to day we are just three millions of leagues away from europe the jew was utterly crestfallen
to be very ignorant of the state of things
i cannot tell but i will tell you all that we do know and all that we have surmised and as briefly as he could he related all that had happened since the memorable night of the thirty first of december how they had experienced the shock
how the dobryna had made her voyage how they had discovered nothing except the fragments of the old continent at tunis sardinia gibraltar and now at formentera
and finally how the settlement at gourbi island had been abandoned for their present quarters at nina's hive
our supposition the captain replied is this we imagine that we are on a considerable fragment of the terrestrial globe that has been detached by collision with a planet to which you appear to have given the name of gallia
better than that cried rosette starting to his feet with excitement how why
there was a collision my comet grazed the earth and the bits of the earth which you have named were carried clean away they were all fairly bewildered where then cried servadac eagerly where are we
you are on my comet on gallia itself and the professor gazed around him
no longer then could there be any doubt as to the annihilation of a considerable portion of the colony not merely had there been a submersion of the land but the impression was more and more confirmed
very bowels of the earth must have yawned and closed again upon a large territory of the rocky substratum of the province it became more evident than ever that not a trace remained
as it altogether transcended the powers of those on board to elucidate the origin of this catastrophe it was felt to be incumbent on them at least to ascertain its extent after a long and somewhat wavering discussion
and proceed at first towards the east
until that coast had been lost in boundless sea not a vestige of it all remained
the maritime town of dellis built like algiers amphitheater wise had totally disappeared the highest points were quite invisible not a trace on the horizon was left of the jurjura chain the topmost point of which was known to have an altitude of more than seven thousand feet
unsparing of her fuel the dobryna made her way at full steam towards cape blanc neither cape negro nor cape serrat was to be seen the town of bizerta once charming in its oriental beauty had vanished utterly
its marabouts or temple tombs shaded by magnificent palms that fringed the gulf which by reason of its narrow mouth had the semblance of a lake all had disappeared giving place to a vast waste of sea
the transparent waves of which as still demonstrated by the sounding line had ever the same uniform and arid bottom in the course of the day the schooner rounded the point where five weeks previously cape blanc had been so conspicuous an object
the bay of tunis but bay there was none and the town from which it had derived its name with the arsenal the goletta and the two peaks of bou kournein had all vanished from the view cape bon too the most northern promontory of africa
and the point of the continent nearest to the island of sicily had been included in the general devastation before the occurrence of the recent prodigy the bottom of the mediterranean just at this point had formed a sudden ridge across the straits of libya
the sides of the ridge had shelved to so great an extent that while the depth of water on the summit had been little more than eleven fathoms that on either hand of the elevation
a formation such as this plainly indicated that at some remote epoch cape bon had been connected with cape furina the extremity of sicily in the same manner as ceuta has doubtless been connected with gibraltar
lieutenant procope was too well acquainted with the mediterranean to be unaware of this peculiarity and would not lose the opportunity of ascertaining whether the submarine ridge still existed or whether the sea bottom between sicily and africa had undergone any modification
both timascheff and servadac were much interested in watching the operations at a sign from the lieutenant a sailor who was stationed at the foot of the fore shrouds dropped the sounding lead into the water and in reply to procope's inquiries reported
five fathoms and a flat bottom the next aim was to determine the amount of depression on either side of the ridge and for this purpose the dobryna was shifted for a distance of half a mile both to the right and left and the soundings taken at each station
five fathoms and a flat bottom was the unvaried announcement after each operation
but it was equally clear that the convulsion had caused a general leveling of the sea bottom and that the soil degenerated as it has been said into a metallic dust of unrecognized composition
the dobryna now put about and resumed her explorations in a southerly direction it remained however as remarkable as ever how completely throughout the voyage the sea continued to be deserted
all expectations of hailing a vessel bearing news from europe were entirely falsified so that more and more each member of the crew began to be conscious of his isolation and to believe that the schooner like a second noah's ark
carried the sole survivors of a calamity that had overwhelmed the earth on the ninth of february
however which was now more completely destroyed than ever punic carthage had been destroyed by scipio africanus
in the evening as the sun was sinking below the eastern horizon captain servadac was lounging moodily against the taffrail
his eye wandered mechanically to the waters below
at first imagining that he was the victim of some spectral illusion he observed it with silent attention but when after some minutes he became convinced that what he saw was actually a distant light he appealed to one of the sailors by whom his impression was fully corroborated
the intelligence was immediately imparted to count timascheff and the lieutenant
i should be more inclined to think it is a light on board some ship replied the count
no captain interposed lieutenant procope we shall know nothing until to morrow what not bear down upon it at once asked the count in surprise no sir i should much rather lay to and wait till daylight if we are really near land
i should be afraid to approach it in the dark the count expressed his approval of the lieutenant's caution and thereupon all sail was shortened so as to keep the dobryna from making any considerable progress all through the hours of night
few as those hours were they seemed to those on board as if their end would never come fearful lest the faint glimmer should at any moment cease to be visible hector servadac did not quit his post upon the deck
but the light continued unchanged it shone with about the same degree of luster as a star of the second magnitude and from the fact of its remaining stationary
at sunrise every telescope was pointed with keenest interest towards the center of attraction the light of course had ceased to be visible
there was the distinct outline of a solitary island of very small extent rather as the count observed
whatever it was it was agreed that its true character must be ascertained not only to gratify their own curiosity but for the benefit of all future navigators the schooner accordingly was steered directly towards it
the little island proved to be nothing more than an arid rock rising abruptly about forty feet above the water it had no outlying reefs a circumstance that seemed to suggest the probability
without removing his eye from his telescope servadac exclaimed there is a habitation on the place i can see an erection of some kind quite distinctly who can tell whether we shall not come across a human being lieutenant procope looked doubtful
the island had all the appearance of being deserted nor did a cannon shot fired from the schooner have the effect of bringing any resident to the shore nevertheless it was undeniable
and that this building had much the character of an arabian mosque the boat was lowered and manned by the four sailors
and lost no time in commencing their ascent of the steep acclivity upon reaching the summit they found their progress arrested by a kind of wall or rampart of singular construction its materials consisting mainly of vases fragments of columns carved bas reliefs statues
and portions of broken stelae all piled promiscuously together without any pretense to artistic arrangement they made their way into the enclosure and finding an open door they passed through and soon came to a second door also open which admitted them
to the interior of the mosque consisting of a single chamber the walls of which were ornamented in the arabian style by sculptures of indifferent execution in the center was a tomb of the very simplest kind
and above the tomb was suspended a large silver lamp with a capacious reservoir of oil in which floated a long lighted wick the flame of which was evidently the light that had attracted servadac's attention on the previous night
must there not have been a custodian of the shrine they mutually asked but if such there had ever been he must they concluded either have fled or have perished on that eventful night not a soul was there in charge
and the sole living occupants were a flock of wild cormorants which startled at the entrance of the intruders rose on wing and took a rapid flight towards the south an old french prayer book was lying on the corner of the tomb
the volume was open and the page exposed to view was that which contained the office for the celebration of the twenty fifth of august a sudden revelation dashed across servadac's mind
the ritual of the ancient anniversary all combined to apprise him of the sanctity of the spot upon which he stood
obeisance to the venerated monument it was in truth the very spot on which tradition asserts that the canonized monarch came to die
the only beacon that threw a light across the waters of the mediterranean and even this ere long must itself expire there was nothing more to explore the three together quitted the mosque and descended the rock to the shore
whence their boat re conveyed them to the schooner which was soon again on her southward voyage
the landing a week's work whilst we were on shore campbell was taking the first steps towards landing our stores two of the motor sledges were soon hoisted out and day with others was quickly unpacking them
our luck stood again in spite of all the bad weather and the tons of sea water which had washed over them the sledges and all the accessories appeared as fresh and clean as if they had been packed on the previous day
much credit is due to the officers who protected them with tarpaulins and lashings after the sledges came the turn of the ponies there was a good deal of difficulty in getting some of them into the horse box but oates rose to the occasion
and got most in by persuasion whilst others were simply lifted in by the sailors though all are thin and some few looked pulled down i was agreeably surprised at the evident vitality which they still possessed
some were even skittish i cannot express the relief when the whole seventeen were safely picketed on the floe from the moment of getting on the snow they seemed to take a new lease of life
and i haven't a doubt they will pick up very rapidly it really is a triumph
and as well as they are poor brutes how they must have enjoyed their first roll and how glad they must be to have freedom to scratch themselves it is evident all have suffered from skin irritation
one can imagine the horror of suffering from such an ill for weeks without being able to get at the part that itched i note that now they are picketed together they administer kindly offices to each other
one sees them gnawing away at each other's flanks in most amicable and obliging manner meares and the dogs were out early and have been running to and fro most of the day with light loads
the great trouble with them has been due to the fatuous conduct of the penguins groups of these have been constantly leaping on to our floe
from the moment of landing on their feet their whole attitude expressed devouring curiosity and a pig headed disregard for their own safety they waddle forward poking their heads to and fro in their usually absurd way
in spite of a string of howling dogs straining to get at them hulloa they seem to say here's a game what do all you ridiculous things want and they come a few steps nearer
the dogs make a rush as far as their leashes or harness allow the penguins are not daunted in the least but their ruffs go up and they squawk with semblance of anger for all the world as though they were rebuking a rude stranger their attitude
well you've come to the wrong place we aren't going to be bluffed and bounced by you and then the final fatal steps forward are taken and they come within reach there is a spring a squawk
a horrid red patch on the snow and the incident is closed nothing can stop these silly birds members of our party rush to head them off only to be met with evasions the penguins squawk and duck as much as to say
what's it got to do with you you silly ass let us alone with the first spilling of blood the skua gulls assemble and soon for them at least there is a gruesome satisfaction to be reaped
oddly enough they don't seem to excite the dogs they simply alight within a few feet and wait for their turn in the drama clamouring and quarrelling amongst themselves when the spoils accrue such incidents were happening constantly to day
and seriously demoralising the dog teams meares was exasperated again and again the motor sledges were running by the afternoon day managing one and nelson the other in spite of a few minor breakdowns
they hauled good loads to the shore it is early to call them a success but they are certainly extremely promising the next thing to be got out of the ship was the hut and the large quantity of timber comprising it
was got out this afternoon and so to night with the sun still shining we look on a very different prospect from that of forty eight or even twenty four hours ago i have just come back from the shore
the site for the hut is levelled and the erecting party is living on shore in our large green tent with a supply of food for eight days
is on shore the remainder half way there the ponies are picketed in a line on a convenient snow slope so that they cannot eat sand oates and anton are sleeping ashore to watch over them
the dogs are tied to a long length of chain stretched on the sand they are coiled up after a long day looking fitter already meares and demetri are sleeping in the green tent to look after them
a supply of food for ponies and dogs as well as for the men has been landed two motor sledges in good working order are safely on the beach a fine record for our first day's work
all hands start again at six a m to morrow it's splendid to see at last the effect of all the months of preparation and organisation there is much snoring about me as i write two p m
from men tired after a hard day's work and preparing for such another to morrow i also must sleep for i have had none for forty eight hours but it should be to dream happily
all hands were up at five this morning and at work at six words cannot express the splendid way in which everyone works and gradually the work gets organised i was a little late on the scene this morning
and thereby witnessed a most extraordinary scene some six or seven killer whales old and young were skirting the fast floe edge ahead of the ship they seemed excited and dived rapidly almost touching the floe
as we watched they suddenly appeared astern raising their snouts out of water i had heard weird stories of these beasts but had never associated serious danger with them close to the water's edge
lay the wire stern rope of the ship and our two esquimaux dogs were tethered to this i did not think of connecting the movements of the whales with this fact and seeing them so close
i shouted to ponting who was standing abreast of the ship he seized his camera and ran towards the floe edge to get a close picture of the beasts which had momentarily disappeared the next moment the whole floe under him and the dogs heaved up
and split into fragments one could hear the booming noise as the whales rose under the ice and struck it with their backs whale after whale rose under the ice setting it rocking fiercely luckily
by an extraordinary chance also the splits had been made around and between the dogs so that neither of them fell into the water then it was clear that the whales shared our astonishment for one after another
their huge hideous heads shot vertically into the air through the cracks which they had made as they reared them to a height of six or eight feet it was possible to see their tawny head markings their small glistening eyes
and their terrible array of teeth by far the largest and most terrifying in the world there cannot be a doubt that they looked up to see what had happened to ponting and the dogs the latter
were horribly frightened and strained to their chains whining the head of one killer must certainly have been within five feet of one of the dogs after this
whether they thought the game insignificant or whether they missed ponting is uncertain but the terrifying creatures passed on to other hunting grounds and we were able to rescue the dogs and what was even more important our petrol
which was not split away from the main mass of course we have known well that killer whales continually skirt the edge of the floes and that they would undoubtedly snap up anyone who was unfortunate enough to fall into the water
but the facts that they could display such deliberate cunning that they were able to break ice of such thickness at least two and a half feet and that they could act in unison were a revelation to us it is clear
that they are endowed with singular intelligence and in future we shall treat that intelligence with every respect notes on the killer or grampus orca gladiator
one killed at greenwich thirty one feet teeth about two and a half inches above jaw
the fierceness and voracity of the killer in which it surpasses all other known cetaceans in stomach of a twenty one foot specimen were found remains of thirteen porpoises and fourteen seals
a herd of white whales has been seen driven into a bay and literally torn to pieces teeth large conical and slightly recurred eleven or twelve on each side of either jaw
distinguished from all their allies by great strength and ferocity combine in packs to hunt down and destroy full sized whales marine mammalia' scammon adult males
average twenty feet females fifteen feet strong sharp conical teeth which interlock combines great strength with agility spout low and bushy
habits exhibit a boldness and cunning peculiar to their carnivorous propensities three or four do not hesitate to grapple the largest baleen whales who become paralysed with terror frequently evince no efforts to escape
instances have occurred where a band of orcas laid siege to whales in tow and although frequently lanced and cut with boat spades made away with their prey inclined to believe it rarely attacks larger cetaceans
possessed of great swiftness sometimes seen peering above the surface with a seal in their bristling jaws shaking and crushing their victims
ponting has been ravished yesterday by a view of the ship seen from a big cave in an iceberg and wished to get pictures of it he succeeded in getting some splendid plates
this fore noon i went to the iceberg with him and agreed that i had rarely seen anything more beautiful than this cave it was really a sort of crevasse in a tilted berg parallel to the original surface
the strata on either side had bent outwards through the back the sky could be seen through a screen of beautiful icicles it looked a royal purple
or whether from optical illusion i do not know through the larger entrance could be seen also partly through icicles the ship the western mountains and a lilac sky a wonderfully beautiful picture
ponting is simply entranced with this view of mt erebus and with the two bergs in the foreground and some volunteers he works up foregrounds to complete his picture of it
i go to bed very satisfied with the day's work but hoping for better results with the improved organisation and familiarity with the work
to day we landed the remainder of the woodwork of the hut all the petrol paraffin and oil of all descriptions and a quantity of oats for the ponies besides odds and ends
the ponies are to begin work to morrow they did nothing to day but the motor sledges did well they are steadying down to their work and made nothing but non stop runs to day one begins to believe they will be reliable
day is very pleased and thinks he's going to do wonders and nelson shares his optimism the dogs find the day work terribly heavy and meares is going to put them on to night work the framework of the hut is nearly up the hands worked till one a m this morning
and were at it again at seven a m an instance of the spirit which actuates everyone the men teams formed of the after guard brought in good loads but they are not yet in condition the hut is about eleven or twelve feet above the water as far as i can judge
i don't think spray can get so high in such a sheltered spot even if we get a northerly gale when the sea is open in all other respects the situation is admirable this work makes one very tired for diary writing
we got to work at six again this morning wilson atkinson cherry garrard and i took each a pony returned to the ship and brought a load ashore we then changed ponies and repeated the process we each took three ponies in the morning and i took one in the afternoon
bruce after relief by rennick took one in the morning and one in the afternoon of the remaining five oates deemed two unfit for work and three requiring some breaking in before getting to serious business
i was astonished at the strength of the beasts i handled three out of the four pulled hard the whole time and gave me much exercise
we have done an excellent day of transporting another such day should practically finish all the stores and leave only fuel and fodder sixty tons to complete our landing so far it has been remarkably expeditious
the motor sledges are working well but not very well the small difficulties will be got over but i rather fear they will never draw the loads we expect of them still they promise to be a help and they are lively and attractive features of our present scene
as they drone along over the floe at a little distance without silencers they sound exactly like threshing machines the dogs are getting better but they only take very light loads still and get back from each journey pretty dead beat
in their present state they don't inspire confidence but the hot weather is much against them the men parties have done splendidly campbell and his eastern party made eight journeys in the day
everyone declares that the ski sticks greatly help pulling it is surprising that we never thought of using them before atkinson is very bad with snow blindness to night also bruce others have a touch of the same disease
it's well for people to get experience of the necessity of safeguarding their eyes the only thing which troubles me at present is the wear on our sledges owing to the hard ice no great harm has been done so far thanks to the excellent wood
of which the runners are made but we can't afford to have them worn wilson carried out a suggestion of his own to night by covering the runners of a nine foot sledge with strips from the skin of a seal which he killed and flensed for the purpose
i shouldn't wonder if this acted well and if it does we will cover more sledges in a similar manner we shall also try day's new under runners to morrow after forty eight hours of brilliant sunshine we have a haze over the sky
list of sledges twelve foot eleven in use fourteen spare ten foot ten not now used nine foot ten in use
to day i walked over our peninsula to see what the southern side was like hundreds of skuas were nesting and attacked in the usual manner as i passed they fly round shrieking wildly until they have gained some altitude
they then swoop down with great impetus directly at one's head lifting again when within a foot of it the bolder ones actually beat on one's head with their wings as they pass at first it is alarming but experience shows that they never strike except with their wings
a skua is nesting on a rock between the ponies and the dogs people pass every few minutes within a pace or two yet the old bird has not deserted its chick in fact it seems gradually to be getting confidence
to day ponting went within a few feet and by dint of patience managed to get some wonderful cinematograph pictures of its movements in feeding and tending its chick as well as some photographs of these events at critical times
the main channel for thaw water at cape evans is now quite a rushing stream evans pennell and rennick have got sight for meridian distance we ought to get a good longitude fix
the sun has returned to day it seemed better than ever and the glare was blinding there are quite a number of cases of snow blindness we have done splendidly to night
all the provisions except some in bottles are ashore and nearly all the working paraphernalia of the scientific people
there remains some hut furniture two and a half tons of carbide some bottled stuff and some odds and ends which should occupy only part of to morrow then we come to the two last and heaviest items coal
and horse fodder if we are not through in the week we shall be very near it meanwhile the ship is able to lay at the ice edge without steam a splendid saving
and transport arrangements are hourly improving two parties of four and three officers made ten journeys each covering over twenty five miles and dragging loads one way
the ponies are working well now but beginning to give some excitement on the whole they are fairly quiet beasts but they get restive with their loads mainly but indirectly owing to the smoothness of the ice
they know perfectly well that the swingle trees and traces are hanging about their hocks
i imagine it gives them the nervous feeling that they are going to be carried off their feet this makes it hard to start them and when going they seem to appreciate the fact that the sledges will overrun them should they hesitate or stop the result is
that they are constantly fretful and the more nervous ones tend to become refractory
blistered feet cuts and abrasions there are few without some troublesome ailment but of course such things are part of the business the soles of my feet are infernally sore
of course the elements are going to be troublesome but it is good to know them as the only adversary and to feel there is so small a chance of internal friction ponting
had an alarming adventure about this time bent on getting artistic photographs with striking objects such as hummocked floes or reflecting water in the foreground he used to depart with his own small sledge laden with cameras
and cinematograph to journey alone to the grounded icebergs one morning as he tramped along harnessed to his sledge his snow glasses clouded with the mist of perspiration he suddenly felt the ice giving under his feet
and one can well believe it there was no one near to have lent assistance had he gone through instinctively he plunged forward the ice giving at every step and the sledge dragging through water providentially
the weak area he had struck was very limited and in a minute or two he pulled out on a firm surface he remarked that he was perspiring very freely
the nutcrackers of nutcracker lodge
they were animals of a settled and serious turn of mind not disposed to run after vanities and novelties but filling their station in life with prudence and sobriety nutcracker lodge
was a hole in a sturdy old chestnut overhanging a shady dell and was held to be as respectably kept an establishment as there was in the whole forest even miss jenny wren the greatest gossip of the neighbourhood
never found anything to criticise in its arrangements and old parson too whit a venerable owl who inhabited a branch somewhat more exalted as became his profession
was in the habit of saving himself much trouble in his parochial exhortations by telling his parishioners in short to look at the nutcrackers if they wanted to see what it was to live a virtuous life
everything had gone on prosperously with them and they had reared many successive families of young nutcrackers who went forth to assume their places in the forest of life and to reflect credit on their bringing up
but at last it came along in the course of events
young featherhead was a squirrel of good parts and a lively disposition but he was sulky and contrary and unreasonable and always finding matter of complaint in everything his respectable papa and mamma did
instead of assisting in the cares of a family picking up nuts and learning other lessons proper to a young squirrel he seemed to settle himself from his earliest years into a sort of lofty contempt for the nutcrackers for nutcracker lodge
and for all the good old ways and institutions of the domestic hole which he declared to be stupid and unreasonable and entirely behind the times to be sure he was always on hand at meal times
and played a very lively tooth on the nuts which his mother had collected always selecting the very best for himself but he seasoned his nibbling with so much grumbling and discontent and so many severe remarks as to give the impression that
he considered himself a peculiarly ill used squirrel in having to eat their old grub as he very unceremoniously called it papa nutcracker on these occasions was often fiercely indignant
and poor little mamma nutcracker would shed tears and beg her darling to be a little more reasonable but the young gentleman seemed always to consider himself as the injured party
now nobody could tell why or wherefore master featherhead looked upon himself as injured or aggrieved since he was living in a good hole with plenty to eat and without the least care or labour of his own
but he seemed rather to value himself upon being gloomy and dissatisfied while his parents and brothers and sisters were cheerfully racing up and down the branches busy in their domestic toils and laying up stores for the winter
featherhead sat gloomily apart declaring himself weary of existence and feeling himself at liberty to quarrel with everybody and everything about him nobody understood him he said
he was a squirrel of a peculiar nature and needed peculiar treatment and nobody treated him in a way that did not grate on the finer nerves of his feelings he had
higher notions of existence than could be bounded by that old rotten hole in a hollow tree he had thoughts that soared far above the miserable petty details of every day life
and he could not and would not bring down these soaring aspirations to the contemptible toil of laying up a few chestnuts or hickory nuts for winter depend upon it my dear said missus nutcracker solemnly
that fellow must be a genius fiddlestick on his genius said old mister nutcracker what does he do oh nothing of course that's one of the first marks of genius
geniuses you know never can come down to common life he eats enough for any two remarked old nutcracker and he never helps to gather nuts my dear ask parson too whit he has conversed with him
when a fellow eats all the nuts that his mother gives him and then grumbles at her
why don't he set himself about something i'm going to tell my fine young gentleman that if he doesn't behave himself i'll tumble him out of the nest neck and crop and see if hunger won't do something towards bringing down his fine airs
but then missus nutcracker fell on her husband's neck with both paws and wept and besought him so piteously to have patience with her darling that old nutcracker who was himself a soft hearted old squirrel
was prevailed upon to put up with the airs and graces of his young scapegrace a little longer and secretly in his silly old heart he revolved the question whether possibly it might not be that a great genius was actually to come of his household
the nutcrackers belonged to the old established race of the grays but they were sociable friendly people and kept on the best of terms with all branches of the nutcracker family the chipmunks of chipmunk hollow
were a very lively cheerful sociable race and on the very best of terms with the nutcracker grays young tip chipmunk the oldest son was in all respects a perfect contrast to master featherhead
he was always lively and cheerful and so very alert in providing for the family that old mister and missus chipmunk had very little care but could sit sociably at the door of their hole and chat with neighbours
quite sure that tip would bring everything out right for them and have plenty laid up for winter now featherhead took it upon him for some reason or other to look down upon tip chipmunk and on
every occasion to disparage him in the social circle as a very common kind of squirrel with whom it would be best not to associate too freely my dear said missus nutcracker one day when he was expressing these ideas
it seems to me that you are too hard on poor tip he is a most excellent son and brother and i wish you would be civil to him oh i don't doubt that tip is good enough said featherhead carelessly
but then he is so very common he hasn't an idea in his skull above his nuts and his hole he is good natured enough to be sure these very ordinary people often are good natured but he wants manner
he has really no manner at all and as to the deeper feelings tip hasn't the remotest idea of them i mean always to be civil to tip when he comes in my way
but i think the less we see of that sort of people the better and i hope mother you won't invite the chipmunks at christmas these family dinners are such a bore
but my dear your father thinks a great deal of the chipmunks and it is an old family custom to have all the relatives here at christmas and an awful bore it is
why must people of refinement and elevation be forever tied down because of some distant relationship now there are our cousins the high flyers if we could get them there would be some sense in it
young whisk rather promised me for christmas
and if we are intimate with the chipmunks it isn't to be expected confound him for a puppy said old nutcracker when his wife repeated these sayings to him featherhead is a fool common forsooth
i wish good industrious painstaking sons like tip chipmunk were common for my part i find these uncommon people the most tiresome they are not content with letting us carry the whole load
but they sit on it and scold at us while we carry them
found that christmas dinners and other things were apt to go as his wife said and his wife was apt to go as young featherhead said and so when christmas came the chipmunks were not invited
and young tip looked in on christmas morning with the compliments of the season and a few beech nuts which he had secured as a great dainty the fact was that
that he never could be made to understand that any of his relations could want to cut him and therefore featherhead looked down on him with contempt
he had no tact and couldn't see when he was not wanted it was wonderful to see how by means of persisting in remarks like these young featherhead at last got all his family to look up to him as something uncommon
though he added nothing to the family and required more to be done for him than all the others put together though he showed not the smallest real perseverance or ability in anything useful
yet somehow all his brothers and sisters and his poor foolish old mother got into a way of regarding him as something wonderful and delighting in his sharp sayings as if they had been the wisest things in the world
but at last old papa declared that it was time for featherhead to settle himself to some business in life roundly declaring that he could not always have him as a hanger on in the paternal hole
we are driving now a thriving trade in hickory nuts and if you would like to join us
the fact was that featherhead had lately been forming alliances such as no reputable squirrel should even think of he had more than once been seen going out evenings with the rats of rat hollow
a race whose reputation for honesty was more than doubtful the fact was further that old longtooth rat an old sharper and money lender had long had his eye on featherhead as just about silly enough for their purposes
engaging him in what he called a speculation but which was neither more nor less than downright stealing near by the chestnut tree
was a large barn filled with corn and grain besides many bushels of hazel nuts chestnuts and walnuts now old longtooth proposed to young featherhead that he should nibble a passage into this loft
and there establish himself in the commission business passing the nuts and corn to him as he wanted them old longtooth knew what he was about in the proposal for he had heard talk of a brisk scotch terrier that was about to be bought
to keep the rats from the grain but you may be sure he kept his knowledge to himself so that featherhead was none the wiser for it the nonsense of fellows like tip chipmunk said featherhead to his admiring brothers and sisters
the perfectly stupid nonsense there he goes delving and poking picking up a nut here and a grain there when i step into property at once
but i hope my son you are careful to be honest in your dealings said old nutcracker who was a very moral squirrel with that young featherhead threw his tail saucily over one shoulder
winked knowingly at his brothers and said certainly sir if honesty consists in getting what you can while it is going i mean to be honest
very soon featherhead appeared to his admiring companions in the height of prosperity he had a splendid hole in the midst of a heap of chestnuts and he literally seemed to be rolling in wealth
he never came home without showering lavish gifts on his mother and sisters he wore his tail over his back with a buckish air and patronized tip chipmunk with a gracious nod whenever he met him
and thought that the world was going well with him but one luckless day as featherhead was lolling in his hole up came two boys with the friskiest wiriest scotch terrier you ever saw
his eyes blazed like torches and poor featherhead's heart died within him as he heard the boys say now we'll see if we can't catch the rascal that eats our grain
featherhead tried to slink out at the hole he had gnawed to come in by but found it stopped
well you don't get out and now for a chase and sure enough poor featherhead ran distracted with terror up and down through the bundles of hay between barrels and over casks
but with the barking terrier ever at his heels and the boys running shouting and cheering his pursuer on he was glad at last to escape through a crack though he left half of his fine brush behind him for master wasp the terrier
and they would have caught him after all if tip chipmunk's hole had not stood hospitably open to receive him tip took him in like a good natured fellow as he was and took the best of care of him
but the glory of featherhead's tail had departed for ever he had sprained his left paw and got a chronic rheumatism and the fright and fatigue which he had gone through had broken up his constitution
so that he never again could be what he had been but tip gave him a situation as under clerk in his establishment
and these prophecies are no doubt now as they were in the fenian days a political force i have heard of one man who would not give any money to the land league because the battle could not be until the close of the century but
as a rule periods of trouble bring prophecies of its near coming a few years before my time an old man who lived at lisadell in sligo
used to fall down in a fit and rave out descriptions of the battle and a man in sligo has told me that it will be so great a battle that the horses shall go up to their fetlocks in blood and
will rot from their bellies for lack of a hand to unbuckle them the battle is a mythological battle and the black pig is one with the bristleless boar that killed dearmod in november upon the western end of ben bulben
whose carving brought on so great a battle the croppy black sow and the cutty black sow of welsh november rhymes
the boar that killed adonis the boar that killed attis and the pig embodiment of typhon golden bough two pages twenty six thirty one
the pig seems to have been originally a genius of the corn and seemingly because the too great power of their divinity makes divine things dangerous to mortals its flesh was forbidden to many eastern nations
but as the meaning of the prohibition was forgotten abhorrence took the place of reverence pigs and boars grew into types of evil and were described as the enemies of the very gods they once typified golden bough two
fifty six fifty seven the pig would therefore become the black pig a type of cold and of winter that awake in november the old beginning of winter to do battle with the summer
and with the fruit and leaves and finally as i suggest and as i believe for the purposes of poetry of the darkness that will at last destroy the gods and the world
and a galway blacksmith and blacksmiths are thought to be especially protected says he would be afraid to meet a pig on the road at night and another galway man tells this story
there was a man coming the road from gort to garryland one night and he had a drop taken and before him on the road he saw a pig walking and having a drop in he gave a shout
and made a kick at it and bid it get out of that and by the time he got home his arm was swelled from the shoulder to be as big as a bag and he couldn't use his hand with the pain of it
and his wife brought him after a few days to a woman that used to do cures at rahasane and on the road all she could do would hardly keep him from lying down to sleep on the grass
and when they got to the woman she knew all that happened and says she it's well for you that your wife didn't let you fall asleep on the grass for if you had done that but even for one instant
you'd be a lost man it is possible that bristles were associated with fertility as the tail certainly was for a pig's tail is stuck into the ground in courland
and the tails of pigs and other animal embodiments of the corn genius are dragged over the ground to make it fertile in different countries professor rhys who considers the bristleless boar a symbol of darkness and cold
rather than of winter and cold thinks it was without bristles because the darkness is shorn away by the sun it may have had different meanings just as the scourging of the man god has had different though not contradictory meanings
in different epochs of the world the battle should i believe be compared with three other battles
a battle they are said to fight in november for the harvest the great battle the tribes of the goddess danu fought according to the gaelic chroniclers
or the towery plain i have heard of the battle over the dying both in county galway and in the isles of arann an old arann fisherman having told me that it was fought over two of his children
and when every man who died was carried thither have always accompanied death i suggest that the battle between the tribes of the goddess danu the powers of light and warmth and fruitfulness and goodness
the powers of darkness and cold and barrenness and badness upon the towery plain was the establishment of the habitable world the rout of the ancestral darkness
is the annual battle of summer and winter
is the battle of life and death and that the battle of the black pig is the battle between the manifest world and the ancestral darkness at the end of all things and that all these battles are one
the battle of all things with shadowy decay once a symbolism has possessed the imagination of large numbers of men
before returning to the state apartments henry took a turn on the ramparts on the north side of the castle between the curfew tower and the winchester tower
and having gazed for a moment at the placid stream flowing at the foot of the castle and tinged with the last rays of the setting sun he proceeded to the royal lodgings and entered the banquet chamber where supper was already served
wolsey sat on his right hand but he did not vouchsafe him a single word addressing the whole of his discourse to the duke of suffolk who was placed on his left
as soon as the repast was over he retired to his closet but the cardinal would not be so repulsed and sent one of his gentlemen to crave a moment's audience of the king
which with some reluctance was accorded well cardinal cried henry as wolsey presented himself and the usher withdrew you are playing a deep game with me as you think but take heed for
i see through it i pray you dismiss these suspicions from your mind my liege said wolsey no servant was ever more faithful to his master than i have been to you
no servant ever took better care of himself cried the king fiercely not alone have you wronged me to enrich yourself but you are ever intriguing with my enemies i have nourished in my breast a viper
but i will cast you off will crush you as i would the noxious reptile and he stamped upon the floor as if he could have trampled the cardinal beneath his foot
beseech you calm yourself my liege replied wolsey in the soft and deprecatory tone which he had seldom known to fail with the king i have never thought of my own aggrandisement but as it was likely to advance your power
for the countless benefits i have received at your hands my soul overflows with gratitude you have raised me from the meanest condition to the highest you have made me your confidant your adviser your treasurer
and with no improper boldness i say it your friend but i defy the enemies who have poisoned your ears against me to prove that i have ever abused the trust placed in me the sole fault that can be imputed to me is
it has been that i might be yet a more powerful friend to your majesty and render you what you are entitled to be the first prince in christendom
tut tut exclaimed the king who was nevertheless moved by the artful appeal the gifts i have received from foreign princes pursued wolsey seeing the effect he had produced
the wealth i have amassed have all been with a view of benefiting your majesty humph exclaimed the king to prove that i speak the truth sire continued the wily cardinal the palace at hampton court
if i had destined it for myself i should not have spent a tithe of what i have done rejoined wolsey your highness's unjust accusations force me to declare my intentions somewhat prematurely
deign he cried throwing at the king's feet deign to accept that palace and all within it you were pleased during your late residence there to express your approval of it
and i trust it will find equal favour in your eyes now that it is your own by holy mary a royal gift cried henry rise you are not the grasping selfish person you have been represented
declare as much to my enemies sire and i shall be more content you will find the palace better worth acceptance than at first sight might appear how so cried the king your highness will be pleased to take
this key said the cardinal it is the key of the cellar you have some choice wine there cried henry significantly given you by some religious house
or sent you by some foreign potentate ha it is wine that a king might prize replied the cardinal your majesty will find a hundred hogsheads in that cellar and each hogshead filled with gold you
amaze me cried the king feigning astonishment and all this you freely give me freely and fully sire replied wolsey nay i have saved it for you
men think i have cared for myself whereas i have cared only for your majesty oh my dear liege by the devotion i have just approved to you and which i would also approve if needful with my life
i beseech you to consider well before you raise anne boleyn to the throne in giving you this counsel i know i hazard the favour i have just regained but even at that hazard
i must offer it your infatuation blinds you to the terrible consequences of the step the union is odious to all your subjects but most of all to those not tainted with the new heresies and opinions
it will never be forgiven by the emperor charles the fifth who will seek to avenge the indignity offered to his illustrious relative while francis will gladly make it a pretext for breaking his truce with you
add to this the displeasure of the apostolic see and it must be apparent that powerful as you are your position will be one of infinite peril thus far advanced i cannot honourably abandon the divorce said henry
nor do i advise its abandonment sire replied wolsey but do not let it be a means of injuring you with all men do not let a mal alliance place your very throne in jeopardy
as with your own subjects and all foreign powers against you must necessarily be the case you speak warmly cardinal said henry my zeal prompts me to do so replied wolsey
anne boleyn is in no respect worthy of the honour you propose her and whom do you think more worthy demanded henry those whom i have already recommended to your majesty
replied wolsey by a union with either of whom you would secure the cordial co operation of francis and the interests of the see of rome which in the event of a war with spain you may need
no wolsey replied henry taking a hasty turn across the chamber no considerations of interests or security shall induce me to give up anne i love her too well for that
and the hydra headed clement launch forth his flames i will remain firm to my purpose i will not play the hypocrite with you whatever i may do with others i cast off catherine that i may wed anne
because i cannot otherwise obtain her and shall i now when i have dared so much and when the prize is within my grasp abandon it never threats expostulations entreaties are alike
unavailing i grieve to hear it my liege replied wolsey heaving a deep sigh it is an ill omened union and will bring woe to you woe to your realm and woe to the catholic church
and woe to you also false cardinal cried anne boleyn throwing aside the arras and stepping forward i have overheard what has passed and from my heart of hearts i thank you henry for the love you have displayed for me
but i here solemnly vow never to give my hand to you till wolsey is dismissed from your counsels anne exclaimed the king my own enmity i could forego pursued anne vehemently but i cannot forgive him
his jester had acquainted him with the discovery just made of the secret hoard and he was therefore compelled to have recourse to this desperate move but i was apprized of his intentions by will sommers and have come in time to foil him
i believe you are right sweetheart said the king go tell your allies francis and clement that the king's love for me outweighs his fear of them cried anne laughing spitefully as for you i regard you as nothing
i am your mortal enemy and will never rest till i have procured your downfall the king will have an amiable consort truly sneered wolsey he will have one who can love him and hate his foes replied anne
and not one who would side with them and thee
henry you know the sole terms on which you can procure my hand the king nodded a playful affirmative then dismiss him at once disgrace him said anne nay nay replied henry
the divorce is not yet passed
i shall never change my resolution she replied if my dismissal and disgrace can save my sovereign i pray him to sacrifice me without hesitation said wolsey but while i have liberty of speech with him
and aught of power remaining i will use it to his advantage i pray your majesty suffer me to retire and receiving a sign of acquiescence from the king he withdrew
squinty and the boy did you ever have a little brother or sister who ran away from home and was very glad to run back or be brought back again by a policeman perhaps
of course your little brother or sister may not have intended to run away
around the corner toward the candy store and could not find their way back again but when he or she did get home how glad you were to see them weren't you it was just like that at the pen where squinty the comical pig lived
when the farmer picked him up and dropped him down among his brothers and sisters in the clean straw wuff wuff squealer and curly tail and the others were so glad to see squinty
that they grunted and squealed and walked all over one another to be the first to get close to him
where did you go what did you do
did he bite you very hard these were some of the questions squinty's brothers and sisters asked of the little runaway pig
they pressed close up to him rubbing their funny wiggling rubber like noses against him and snuggling up against him for they liked squinty very much indeed
then after the young pigs had had their turn mister pig and missus pig began asking questions what made you run away asked squinty's papa oh i wanted to have an adventure said squinty
well did you have one asked his mamma oh yes lots of them answered the little pig but i didn't find very much to eat squinty was very hungry now oh dear exclaimed missus pig
squinty thought so himself for the smell of the sour milk that had been in the feeding trough made him more hungry than ever squinty walked over and tried to find a few drops in the bottom of the wooden trough these he licked up with his red tongue
but there was not nearly enough ha i guess that little pig must be hungry said the farmer looking down in the pen after he had put some more stones and a board over the hole where squinty had gotten out i guess i'll have to feed him
for the others have had their supper and how glad squinty was when the farmer went over to the barrel where the pigs feed was kept
here hold on come back cried mister pig that is squinty's supper you must not touch it you have had yours and he and missus pig would not let squinty's brothers and sisters shove him away from the trough
for sometimes pigs are so hungry that they do this you know being pigs they know no better so squinty had his supper after all though he did run away
perhaps he should have been punished by being sent to bed without having had anything to eat but you see the farmer wanted his pigs to be fat and healthy so he fed them well squinty was very glad of that now
all of you go to sleep said missus pig when it grew darker and darker in the pen so she made them all cuddle down in the straw pulling it over them with her nose and paws like a blanket to keep them warm
for only part of the pen had a roof over it and though it was summer still it was cool at night but squinty's brothers and sisters had no notion of going to sleep so soon they wanted to hear all about what had happened to him when he had run away
and they wanted him to tell them of his adventures so they grunted and whispered among themselves what happened to you squinty asked wuff wuff oh i had a fine swim in a brook said squinty
what else i found a nice field of corn went on squinty
that's too bad said wuff wuff did anything else happen yes i found some pig weed and ate that and some little potatoes oh how nice exclaimed twisty tail i wish that had happened to me
did you do anything else squinty yes said the comical little pig i saw something i thought was a potato and it jumped away from me it was a hoptoad
said squinty i thought i saw another potato but when i bit on it
that's too bad said wuff wuff i am glad that did not happen to me tell us what else you saw but just then missus pig grunted out
come now all you little pigs must keep quiet and go to sleep go to sleep at once so squinty and the others cuddled closer together snuggled down in the soft straw and soon were fast asleep
now and then they stirred or grunted during the night but they did not wake up until morning they were running around the pen before breakfast squealing as loudly as they could for the farmer to come and feed them
but the farmer had his cows and horses and chickens to feed as well as the pigs and he did not get to the pen until last and when he did all the pigs were so hungry even mister and missus pig that they were squealing as hard as they could
yes yes cried the farmer as though he were talking to the pigs i'm coming as fast as i can soon the farmer poured some sour milk and corn meal down into the trough and how eagerly squinty and the others did eat it
they were so anxious to get their share squinty had an especially good appetite from having run away so perhaps he got a little more than the others but finally the breakfast was all gone
and the pigs had nothing more to do until dinner time that is all they had to do was to lie down and rest or get up now and then to scratch a mosquito or a fly bite well i guess none of you will get out again said the farmer after a while
as he nailed a bigger board over the hole by which squinty had gotten out don watch these pigs the farmer went on if they get out grab them by the ear and bring them back
for several days after this nothing happened in the pigs pen except that they were washed off with the hose now and then to clean them of mud and make them cool once in a while the farmer would take a corn cob
and scratch the back of mister or missus pig and they liked this very much the other pigs were almost too little for the farmer to reach over the top of the pen one day the pigs heard merry shouts and laughter up at the farmhouse
there were the sounds of boys and girls voices then came the patter of many feet oh look at the pigs someone cried and squinty and his brothers and sisters looking up saw over the edge of the pen some boys and girls looking down on them
oh aren't they cute exclaimed a girl just lovely said another girl pigs are so nice i wonder if any of them can do any tricks asked a boy who stood looking down into the pen
these aren't trained circus pigs spoke one of the girls they can't do tricks the boy and the girls stayed for a little while watching the pigs then the boy said let's pull some weeds and feed them
oh yes let's cried the girls
the pigs ate them all up and wanted more after that for several days
but they could not see them because the boards around the pig pen were too high the boy and the girls seemed to be having a fine time
squinty could hear them talking about hunting the hens eggs and feeding the little calves and sheep and riding on the backs of horses then one day squinty looked up out of the pen and leaning over the top board he saw the farmer the boy
look let me have that one he is so pink and pretty and clean ha so you want that pig do you asked the farmer the boy and his father and sisters were paying a visit to the farm
yes i want a pig very much the boy said and i think i'd like that one and he pointed straight at squinty poor squinty ran and tried to hide under the straw for he knew the boy was talking about him
oh see him run cried the boy yes i think he is the nicest pig in the lot i want him has he any name well we call him squinty the farmer said he has a funny squinting eye
then i'll call him squinty too the boy went on please father may i have that little pig well i don't know said his father slowly scratching his head a pig is a queer pet
i suppose you might have him though you could keep him in the back yard yes i guess you could have him if mister jones will sell him and if the pig will behave do you think that little pig will be good mister jones asked the father of the farmer man
well yes i guess so answered the farmer he has run away out of the pen a couple of times but if you board up a place good and tight i guess he won't get out
oh i do hope he'll be good exclaimed the boy i do so want a little pet pig and i'll be so kind to him
aunt susanna's birthday celebration good afternoon nora may i'm real glad to see you
that's good i'm feeling so happy and delighted and i've been hankering for someone to tell it all to tell you about it well i guess i might as well it ain't any breach of confidence you didn't know anne douglas
she taught school here three years ago afore your folks moved over from talcott
for springdale has always been noted for getting good looking schoolmarms just as miller's road is noted for its humly ones
but when she smiled you would have to smile too if you'd been chief mourner at your own funeral she was a well spring of joy in the house and we all loved her gilbert martin began to drive her the very first week she was here
gilbert is my sister julia's son and a fine young fellow he is it ain't good manners to brag of your own relations but i'm always forgetting and doing it gil was a great pet of mine he was so bright and nice mannered everybody liked him
him and anne were a fine looking couple nora may not but what they had their shortcomings anne's nose was a mite too long and gil had a crooked mouth besides they was both pretty proud and sperrited and high strung
but they thought an awful lot of each other it made me feel young again to see em anne wasn't a mossel vain
but nights she expected gil she'd prink for hours afore her glass fixing her hair this way and that and trying on all her good clothes to see which become her most i used to love her for it
and i used to love to see the way gil's face would light up when she came into a room or place where he was amanda perkins she says to me once anne douglas and gil martin are most terrible struck on each other
and she said it in a tone that indicated that it was a dreadful disgraceful and unbecoming state of affairs amanda had a disappointment once and it soured her i immediately responded
yes they are most terrible struck on each other and i said it in a tone that indicated i thought it a most beautiful and lovely thing that they should be so and so it was
another nephew of mine james ebenezer lawson he calls himself james e back there in town and i don't blame him for i never could stand ebenezer for a name myself but that's neither here nor there well he said their love was idyllic
i ain't very sure what that means i looked it up in the dictionary after james ebenezer left i wouldn't display my ignorance afore him but i can't say that i was much the wiser for it anyway it meant something real nice
i was sure of that by the way james ebenezer spoke and the wistful look in his eyes james ebenezer isn't married he was to have been and she died a month afore the wedding day he was never the same man again well to get back to gilbert and anne
when anne's school year ended in june she resigned and went home to get ready to be married
anne thought that nobody could quilt like me
i don't know rightly how the trouble began other folks jealous folks made mischief anne was thirty miles away and gilbert couldn't see her every day to keep matters clear and fair besides as i've said
they were both proud and high sperrited the upshot of it was they had a terrible quarrel and the engagement was broken when two people don't care overly much for each other nora may a quarrel never amounts to much between them and it's soon made up
but when they love each other better than life it cuts so deep and hurts so much that nine times out of ten they won't ever forgive each other the more you love anybody nora may the more he can hurt you to be sure you're too young to be thinking of such things
because we hadn't ever suspected things were going wrong
and gilbert he went out to manitoba on a harvest excursion and stayed there it just about broke his parents hearts he was their only child and they just worshipped him
gil and anne both wrote to me off and on but never a word not so much as a name did they say of each other i'd a writ and asked em the rights of the fuss if i could in hopes of patching it up but i can't write now my hand is too shaky
and mebbe it was just as well for meddling is terribly risky work in a love trouble nora may ninety nine times out of a hundred the last state of a meddler and them she meddles with is worse than the first so i just set tight and said nothing
while everybody else in the clan was talking anne and gil sixty words to the minute well last birthday morning i was feeling terrible disperrited i had made up my mind that my birthday was always to be a good thing for other people
and there didn't seem one blessed thing i could do to make anybody glad emma matilda and george and the children were all well and happy and wanted for nothing that i could give them i begun to be afraid i'd lived long enough nora may
when a woman gets to the point where she can't give a gift of joy to anyone there ain't much use in her living i felt real old and worn out and useless i was sitting here under these very trees
they was just budding out in leaf then as young and cheerful as if they wasn't a hundred years old and i sighed right out loud and said oh grandpa holland it's time i was put away up on the hill there with you
and with that the gate banged and there was nancy jane whitmore's boy sam with two letters for me one was from anne up at saint mary's and the other was from gil out in manitoba i read anne's first
she just struck right into things in the first paragraph she said her year at saint mary's was nearly up and when it was she meant to quit teaching and go away to new york and learn to be a trained nurse she said she was just broken hearted about gilbert
and would always love him to the day of her death but she knew he didn't care anything more about her after the way he had acted and there was nothing left for her in life but to do something for other people and so on and so on for twelve mortal pages
anne is a fine writer and i just cried like a babe over that letter it was so touching although i was enjoying myself hugely all the time i was so delighted to find out that anne loved gilbert still i was getting skeered she didn't
and the new dresses she got new dresses when i read that letter of anne's i knew that all the purple and fine linen in the world was just like so much sackcloth and ashes to her as long as gilbert was sulking out on a prairie farm
well i wiped my eyes and polished up my specs
by the most curious coincidence he had opened his heart to me too being a man he wasn't so discursive as anne he said his say in four pages but i could read the heartache between the lines
he wrote that he was going to klondike and would start in a month's time he was sick of living now that he'd lost anne he said he loved her better than his life and always would and could never forget her but he knew she didn't care anything about him now after the way she'd acted
and he wanted to get as far away from her and the torturing thought of her as he could so he was going to klondike going to klondike nora may when his mother was writing to him to come home every week
and anne was breaking her heart for him at saint mary's well i folded up them letters and says i grandpa holland i guess my birthday celebration is here ready to hand i thought real hard
and i couldn't get anyone else to write because i couldn't let out what they'd told me in confidence so i did a mean dishonourable thing nora may i sent anne's letter to gilbert and gilbert's to anne i asked emma matilda to address them
and emma matilda did it and asked no questions i brought her up that way then i settled down to wait in less than a month gilbert's mother had a letter from him saying that he was coming home to settle down and marry anne
he arrived home yesterday and last night anne came to springdale on her way home from saint mary's they came to see me this morning and said things to me i ain't going to repeat because they would sound fearful vain
they said their new joy was my birthday gift to them the wedding is to be in september and i'm going to montrose in august to help anne with her quilts i don't think anything will happen to prevent this time no quarrelling anyhow those two young creatures have learned their lesson
and before he left home his mother prepared beautiful pancakes and a bottle of wine for him to take with him so that he might not suffer from hunger or thirst as he entered the forest he met a gray old man who bade him good morning
and said give me a little piece of cake out of your basket and a drop of wine out of your bottle for i am very hungry and thirsty but the clever son replied what give you my cake and my wine
why if i did i should have none for myself not i indeed so take yourself off and he left the man standing and went on the young man began cutting down a tree
but it was not long before he made a false stroke the axe slipped and cut his arm so badly that he was obliged to go home and have it bound up now this false stroke was caused by the little gray old man
next day the second son went into the forest to cut wood and his mother gave him a cake and a bottle of wine as he entered the wood the same little old man met him and begged for a piece of cake and a drop of wine
but the second son answered rudely what i might give to you i shall want myself so be off then he left the little old man standing in the road and walked on his punishment soon came
he had scarcely given two strokes on a tree with his axe when he hit his leg such a terrible blow that he was obliged to limp home in great pain then the stupid son said to his father
let me go for once and cut wood in the forest but his father said no your brothers have been hurt already and it would be worse for you who don't understand wood cutting the boy however begged so hard to be allowed to go that his father said
there get along with you you will buy your experience very dearly i expect his mother however gave him a cake which had been made with water and baked in the ashes and a bottle of sour beer
when he reached the wood the very same little old man met him and after greeting him kindly said give me a little of your cake and a drop from your bottle for i am very hungry and thirsty oh replied the simple youth
but you are welcome to a share of it let us sit down and eat and drink together so they seated themselves and lo and behold when the youth opened his basket the cake had been turned into a beautiful cake
and the sour beer into wine after they had eaten and drank enough the little old man said because you have been kind hearted and shared your dinner with me i will make you in future lucky in all you undertake
there stands an old tree cut it down and you will find something good at the root then the old man said farewell and left him the youth set to work and very soon succeeded in felling the tree
when he found sitting at the roots a goose whose feathers were of pure gold he took it up and instead of going home carried it with him to an inn at a little distance where he intended to pass the night
the landlord had three daughters who looked at the goose with envious eyes they had never seen such a wonderful bird and longed to have at least one of its feathers
i shall soon have an opportunity to pluck one of them and so it happened for not long after the young man left the room she instantly went up to the bird and took hold of its wing
but as she did so the finger and thumb remained and stuck fast in a short time after the second sister came in with the full expectation of gaining a golden feather but as she touched her sister to move her from the bird
her hand stuck fast to her sister's dress and neither of them could free herself at last in came the third sister with the same intention keep away keep away screamed the other two in heaven's name keep away
but she could not imagine why she should keep away if they were near the golden bird why should not she be there so she made a spring forward and touched her second sister and immediately she also was made a prisoner
and in this position they were obliged to remain by the goose all night in the morning the young man came in took the goose on his arm and went away without troubling himself about the three girls who were following close behind him
and as he walked quickly they were obliged to run one behind the other left or right of him just as he was inclined to go in the middle of a field they were met by the parson of the parish who looked with wonder at the procession as it came near him
shame on you he cried out what are you about you bold faced hussies running after a young man in that way through the fields go home all of you he placed his hand on the youngest to pull her back
but the moment he touched her he also became fixed and was obliged to follow and run like the rest in a few minutes the clerk met them and when he saw the parson runing after the girls he wondered greatly and cried out
halloa master parson where are you running in such haste have you forgotten that there is a christening to day and as the procession did not stop he ran after it and seized the parson's gown
in a moment he found that his hand was fixed and he also had to run like the rest and now there were five trotting along one behind the other presently two peasants came by with their sickles from the field
the parson called out to them and begged them to come and release him and the clerk hardly had they touched the clerk when they also stuck fast as the others and the simpleton with his golden goose travelled with the seven
after awhile they came to a city in which reigned a king who had a daughter of such a melancholy disposition that no one could make her laugh therefore he issued a decree that whoever would make the princess laugh should have her in marriage
now when the simple youth heard this he ran before her and the whole seven trotted after him the sight was so ridiculous that the moment the princess saw it she burst into a violent fit of laughter and they thought she would never leave off
after this the youth went to the king and demanded his daughter in marriage according to the king's decree but his majesty did not quite like to have the young man for a son in law so he said that before he could consent to the marriage
the youth must bring him a man who could drink all the wine in the king's cellar the simpleton went into the forest for he thought if anyone can help me it is the little gray man when he arrived at the spot where he had cut down the tree
there stood a man with a very miserable face the youth asked him why he looked so sorrowful oh he exclaimed i suffer such dreadful thirst that nothing seems able to quench it
and cold water i cannot endure i have emptied a cask of wine already but it was just like a drop of water on a hot stone i can help you cried the young man come with me and you shall have your fill i promise you
upon this he led the man into the king's cellar where he opened the casks one after another and drank and drank till his back ached and before the day closed he had quite emptied the king's cellar again the young man asked for his bride
but the king was annoyed at the thought of giving his daughter to such a common fellow and to get rid of him he made another condition he said that no man should have his daughter who could not find someone able to eat up a whole mountain of bread
and there in the same place sat a man binding himself round tightly with a belt and making the most horrible faces as the youth approached he cried i have eaten a whole ovenful of rolls
but it has not satisfied me a bit i am as hungry as ever and my stomach feels so empty that i am obliged to bind it round tightly or i should die of hunger
the simpleton could hardly contain himself for joy when he heard this get up he exclaimed and come with me and i will give you plenty to eat i'll warrant
so he led him to the king's court where his majesty had ordered all the flour in the kingdom to be made into bread and piled up in a huge mountain the hungry man placed himself before the bread and began to eat
and before evening the whole pile had disappeared then the simpleton went a third time to the king and asked for his bride but the king made several excuses and at last said that if he could bring him a ship that would travel as well by land as by water
then he should without any further conditions marry his daughter the youth went at once straight to the forest and saw the same old gray man to whom he had given his cake ah he said as the youth approached
it was i who sent the men to eat and drink and i will also give you a ship that can travel by land or by sea because when you thought i was poor you were kind hearted and gave me food and drink
to hold a council the king sent for them immediately messieurs said he as long as monsieur le cardinal lived i allowed him to govern my affairs but now i mean to govern them myself
you will give me your advice when i ask it you may go the ministers looked at each other with surprise if they concealed a smile it was with a great effort
for they knew that the prince brought up in absolute ignorance of business by this took upon himself a burden much too heavy
of his colleagues upon the stairs saying messieurs there will be so much the less labor for us and he gayly climbed into his carriage the others a little uneasy at the turn things had taken
went back to paris together towards ten o'clock the king repaired to the apartment of his mother with whom he had a long and private conversation after dinner he got into his carriage and went straight to the louvre
there he received much company and took a degree of pleasure in remarking the hesitation of each and the curiosity of all towards evening he ordered the doors of the louvre to be closed
with the exception of only one which opened
he placed on duty at this point two hundred swiss who did not speak a word of french with orders to admit all who carried packages but no others and by no means to allow any one to go out
at eleven o'clock precisely he heard the rolling of a heavy carriage under the arch then of another then of a third after which the gate grated upon its hinges to be closed soon after
somebody scratched with his nail at the door of the cabinet the king opened it himself and beheld colbert whose first word was this the money is in your majesty's cellar
the king then descended and went himself to see the barrels of specie in gold and silver which under the direction of colbert four men had just rolled into a cellar
of which the king had given colbert the key in the morning this review completed louis returned to his apartments followed by colbert who had not apparently warmed with one ray of personal satisfaction monsieur
said the king what do you wish that i should give you as a recompense for this devotedness and probity absolutely nothing sire how nothing not even an opportunity of serving me
if your majesty were not to furnish me with that opportunity i should not the less serve you it is impossible for me not to be the best servant of the king you shall be intendant of the finances
but there is already a superintendent sire i know that sire the superintendent of the finances is the most powerful man in the kingdom ah cried louis coloring
do you think so he will crush me in a week sire
you want support you do not reckon upon me
monsieur i agree to what you told me of all things up to to day but to morrow please to remember i shall no longer suffer it then i shall be of no use to your majesty you are already
since you fear to compromise yourself in serving me i only fear to be placed so that i cannot serve your majesty what do you wish then i wish your majesty
to allow me assistance in the labors of the office of intendant
would lose its value it would gain in security choose your colleagues
the ordonnance shall appear sire i thank you is that all you ask no sire one thing more what is that allow me to compose a chamber of justice
what would this chamber of justice do try the farmers general and contractors who during ten years have been robbing the state well but what would you do with them
and that would make the rest disgorge i cannot commence my reign with executions monsieur colbert on the contrary sire you had better in order not to have to end with them the king made no reply
does your majesty consent said colbert i will reflect upon it monsieur it will be too late when reflection may be made why
if they are warned compose that chamber of justice monsieur i will sire is that all no sire there is still another important affair what rights does your majesty attach to this office of intendant
well i do not know the customary ones sire i desire that this office be invested with the right of reading the correspondence with england impossible monsieur
for that correspondence is kept from the council monsieur le cardinal himself carried it on i thought your majesty had this morning declared that there should no longer be a council yes i said so
let your majesty then have the goodness to read all the letters yourself particularly those from england i hold strongly to this article monsieur you shall have that correspondence and render me an account of it now sire what shall i do with respect to the finances
that is all i ask of your majesty thanks sire i depart in peace
louis watched his departure colbert was not yet a hundred paces from the louvre when the king received a courier from england after having looked at and examined the envelope the king broke the seal precipitately
following is what the english prince wrote to his royal brother
but the excess of danger can only prove of service to you the cardinal is given over by his physician
the princess henrietta my sister and in a week the princess and her court will set out for paris it is gratifying to me to acknowledge the fraternal friendship you have evinced towards me and to call you more justly than ever my brother
in all that may please you you are wrong in having belle ile en mer secretly fortified that is wrong we shall never be at war against each other that measure does not make me uneasy it makes me sad
you are spending useless millions tell your ministers so and rest assured
render me the same service my brother if occasion offers the king rang his bell violently and his valet de chambre appeared
let him be called back exclaimed he the valet was about to execute the order when the king stopped him no said he no i see the whole scheme of that man
the discovery of that conspiracy is the ruin of the superintendent and that discovery is the result of the correspondence with england this is why colbert wished to have that correspondence oh
but i cannot place all my dependence upon that man he has a good head but i must have an arm louis all at once uttered a joyful cry
yes sire monsieur d'artagnan he quitted the service for a time yes sire let him be found and be here to morrow the first thing in the morning the valet de chambre bowed
and went out thirteen millions in my cellar
after elsie and i got spliced to use the old familiar language of my boyhood the expressive argot of the sea for which i shall always retain a passionate love
only second to that i bear towards my dear wife we set off for the continent having determined to spend the happy period of our honeymoon abroad
though there is little in common between us their ways otherwise not being our ways nor their thoughts ambitions hopes or desires in any respect akin to ours
where i had passed a couple of years of my school life studying french and teaching the young scions
for the time the exigencies of football as we play the game in lancashire varied by an occasional illustrative exhibition explanatory of the merits of la boxe anglaise
time passed swiftly with so sweet and sympathetic a companion our tastes were similar both taking the greatest delight in ancient buildings and lovely scenery
the weather too was charming and altogether we were as happy as two mortals can be on this earth elsie and i saw all that was to be seen in the old city we first visited
which in addition to its architectural beauties should have a special charm for all englishmen from the fact of the dauntless richard coeur
having such an affection for the town that he bequeathed it his lion heart and then we journeyed on through la belle normandie loitering here and there at those historic spots
woven into the life of our country spots where artists of all nations love to linger we stayed anon at slow sedate caen as still as the stone for which it is celebrated
and that furnished the building material of winchester cathedral bayeux boastful of its antique tapestry and dol and saint servan
in our own sea girt isle that it might have been chipped out of the same block by its grand handycraftsman to serve as a replica until entering brighter bretaigne in the sunny south of france
where the landmarks of the past seem to stand out in bolder relief we visited nantes and other places of interest and jogging on thence through angouleme and
halting a day at poictiers to fight our plantagenet
we finally ended our pilgrimage at bordeaux at this wonderfully picturesque port whose semi ancient quaintly modern aspect strangely attracted us both we anchored awhile
remaining many weeks in excess of the customary limit of the traditional honeymoon ours being an indefinite one and only to be completed we trust when elsie and i cease to breathe
late in the autumn when the leaves had begun to turn russet and brown and the air of a morning assumed a crisper and more bracing tone telling us plainly as these signs tell that summer had fled for good and aye
and winter was coming by and by we bade adieu to dear old bordeaux and taking a steamer there bound for the
having had enough of railways and land travel we started to voyage home by sea my native element
towards sunset we had weathered ushant and were shaping a course up channel north east
when i noticed a large ship close hauled on the starboard tack steaming inwards for the french coast as if heading for brest her nearest port at that moment the tired sun
which previously appeared to linger above the horizon uncertain whether to go or to stay dipped suddenly as we were looking at him a pale yellow radiance succeeding the dazzling beams
that had well nigh blinded us shining straight in our eyes while the afterglow mounting rapidly into the western sky became more and more vivid each moment two purple islands of cloud
which floated across this refulgent background having the lower edges dyed of a rich crimson that seemed to set the sea on fire and tipped the spars and sails of the passing ship with flame she was flying the french tricolor
and as our steamer went by saluting her with a couple of blasts from her steam whistle in friendly greeting the stranger vessel as a return in accordance with the time honoured rule of nautical etiquette always observed on such occasions
dipped her ensign this action coupled with the similarity of the scene and its surroundings the ship in the distance with her flag half on the hoist the sunset glow and the fact of my being on board a steamer
then as now brought back to my mind at once
more than seven years ago now the vraisemblance between the two being simply astounding elsie dearest elsie i cried with a start as the strange coincidence of the presentment struck me
the date being even identical
why of course dick i do she answered nestling up to my side as if for protection for we were sitting in a warm corner by the taffrail just abaft the wheel house and screened from the observation
of the rest of the passengers who were walking up and down the deck as usual after dinner why dick dear it's the seventh of november your birthday you know
surely you have not already forgotten the little present i gave you this morning my likeness in a locket for your watch chain a miniature done by that clever artist at orleans
and you told me you would always wear it for my sake dick my husband where is your memory no my little one
thinking she was going to cry at what she thought was forgetfulness on my part here it is next my heart like yourself said i laughingly but elsie alma mia
i was thinking of another anniversary and a friday evening too to make it all the more wonderful don't you recollect now oh dick my dear husband she whispered
at the ship all ablaze now from the reflection of the sky and nearly hull down to leeward i see i see what a strange coincidence it is really wonderful
it is my darling said i but it was more extraordinary still that you should have seen me that memorable evening now more than seven years ago
and more wonderful still when the captain and some of the crew even
she cried looking up into my face with the most charming expression of delight causing me to be foolish in bestowing another little kiss on her upturned face i don't know how it was
but whether the ships were as far apart as the captain and the others say or whether they were not
and you on her as i told my dear dear father at the time and he himself did not believe it dick dear
as the scotch people call it there was a nun at the convent who had it and could tell so she said when anything was about to happen to any of her family though she couldn't predict events concerning persons
who were not blood relations as she termed them don't be frightened dick
the same faculty well if that is the case sweetheart said i there must be some psychological affinity between us and we are both endowed with the same weird gift although the possession of the same
has never been brought to the knowledge of us except on that one memorable occasion that cannot be otherwise explained but the fact of the two ships meeting afterwards may very
readily be accounted for under the circumstances the winds and currents of the ocean drifted them together
and as our steamer speeded on her way the glow in the sky gradually faded and darkness crept over the face of the sea the flashing light of ushant whirling its luminous arms round in rapid rotation
like some spectral windmill away in the distance over our lee where the french ship had long since disappeared presently my elsie who had been looking down into the now gloomy depths alongside
musing over the bitter sweet memories of the past lifted her eyes to mine glancing heavenwards no dick my dearest said she speaking at last
a certain hesitation and catch in her throat and a tear in the broken intonation of her voice
but they had now all been removed even the greater number of the guanacos had decamped knowing well that if overtaken here by a snow storm they would be caught in a trap we had a fine view of a mass of mountains called tupungato the whole clothed with unbroken snow
a circumstance of rare occurrence in these mountains now commenced a heavy and long climb similar to that of the peuquenes bold conical hills of red granite rose on each hand in the valleys there were several broad fields of perpetual snow
these frozen masses during the process of thawing
but with its hind legs straight up in the air
when the snow was continuous and afterwards the surrounding parts must have been removed by the thaw when nearly on the crest of the portillo we were enveloped in a falling cloud of minute frozen spicula this was very unfortunate
as it continued the whole day and quite intercepted our view the pass takes its name of portillo from a narrow cleft or doorway on the highest ridge through which the road passes from this point on a clear day those vast plains which uninterruptedly extend to the atlantic ocean can be seen
we descended to the upper limit of vegetation and found good quarters for the night under the shelter of some large fragments of rock we met here some passengers who made anxious inquiries about the state of the road shortly after it was dark the clouds suddenly cleared away
the great mountains bright with the full moon seemed impending over us on all sides as over a deep crevice one morning very early i witnessed the same striking effect as soon as the clouds were dispersed it froze severely
but as there was no wind we slept very comfortably
owing to the perfect transparency of the atmosphere was very remarkable travelers having observed the difficulty of judging heights and distances amidst lofty mountains have generally attributed it to the absence of objects of comparison
it appears to me that it is fully as much owing to the transparency of the air confounding objects at different distances and likewise partly to the novelty of an unusual degree of fatigue arising from a little exertion habit being thus opposed to the evidence of the senses
i am sure that this extreme clearness of the air gives a peculiar character to the landscape all objects appearing to be brought nearly into one plane as in a drawing or panorama the transparency is i presume
owing to the equable and high state of atmospheric dryness this dryness was shown by the manner in which woodwork shrank
by articles of food such as bread and sugar becoming extremely hard and by the preservation of the skin and parts of the flesh of the beasts which had perished on the road
to the same cause we must attribute the singular facility with which electricity is excited my flannel waistcoat
every hair on a dog's back crackled even the linen sheets and leathern straps of the saddle when handled emitted sparks
in other words the mountains rise more abruptly from the plains than from the alpine country of chile a level and brilliantly white sea of clouds was stretched out beneath our feet shutting out the view of the equally level pampas
we soon entered the band of clouds and did not again emerge from it that day
we stopped for the night this was near the uppermost limit of bushes and the elevation i suppose was between seven and eight thousand feet i was much struck with the marked difference between the vegetation of these eastern valleys and those on the chilian side
and the difference of longitude very trifling the same remark holds good with the quadrupeds and in a lesser degree with the birds and insects
and not one of them is identical we must except all those species which habitually or occasionally frequent elevated mountains and certain birds which range as far south as the strait of magellan this fact is in perfect accordance with the geological history of the andes
we ought not to expect any closer similarity between the organic beings on the opposite sides of the andes than on the opposite shores of the ocean in both cases we must leave out of the question those kinds which have been able to cross the barrier
whether of solid rock or salt water five a
or most closely allied to those of patagonia
three species of armadillo the ostrich certain kinds of partridges and other birds none of which are ever seen in chile but are the characteristic animals of the desert plains of patagonia we have likewise many of the same
thorny stunted bushes withered grass and dwarf plants even the black slowly crawling beetles are closely similar and some i believe on rigorous examination absolutely identical
but i now feel sure that it would only have been following the plains of patagonia up a mountainous ascent
and enjoyed a far extended view over the pampas this was a spectacle to which i had always looked forward with interest but i was disappointed at the first glance it much resembled a distant view of the ocean but in the northern parts many irregularities were soon distinguishable
the most striking feature consisted in the rivers which facing the rising sun glittered like silver threads till lost in the immensity of the distance at midday we descended the valley and reached a hovel
one of these men was a thoroughbred pampas indian he was kept much for the same purpose as a bloodhound to track out any person who might pass by secretly either on foot or horseback some years ago a passenger endeavoured to escape detection
by making a long circuit over a neighbouring mountain but this indian having by chance crossed his track followed it for the whole day over dry and very stony hills till at last he came on his prey hidden in a gully
we here heard that the silvery clouds which we had admired from the bright region above had poured down torrents of rain the valley from this point gradually opened and the hills became mere water worn hillocks compared to the giants behind
it then expanded into a gently sloping plain of shingle covered with low trees and bushes this talus although appearing narrow must be nearly ten miles wide before it blends into the apparently dead level pampas we passed the only house in this neighbourhood
and at sunset we pulled up in the first snug corner and there bivouacked
intersected by an horizon level as that of the ocean during the night a heavy dew fell a circumstance which we did not experience within the cordillera the road proceeded for some distance due east across a low swamp then meeting the dry plain
it turned to the north towards mendoza the distance is two very long days journey our first day's journey was called fourteen leagues to estacado and the second seventeen to luxan near mendoza
the whole distance is over a level desert plain with not more than two or three houses the sun was exceedingly powerful and the ride devoid of all interest there is very little water in this traversia
and in our second day's journey we found only one little pool little water flows from the mountains and it soon becomes absorbed by the dry and porous soil so that although we travelled at the distance of only ten or fifteen miles from the outer range of the cordillera
we did not cross a single stream in many parts the ground was incrusted with a saline efflorescence hence we had the same salt loving plants which are common near bahia blanca the landscape has a uniform character from the strait of magellan
along the whole eastern coast of patagonia to the rio colorado and it appears that the same kind of country extends inland from this river
to the eastward of this curved line lies the basin of the comparatively damp and green plains of buenos ayres
valparaiso portillo pass sagacity of mules mountain torrents mines how discovered proofs of the gradual elevation of the cordillera
effect of snow on rocks geological structure of the two main ranges their distinct origin and upheaval great subsidence red snow winds pinnacles of snow
dry and clear atmosphere electricity pampas zoology of the opposite side of the andes locusts great bugs mendoza
uspallata pass silicified trees buried as they grew incas bridge badness of the passes exaggerated
casuchas valparaiso
we stayed three days at concepcion and then sailed for valparaiso the wind being northerly we only reached the mouth of the harbour of concepcion before it was dark
captain fitz roy hailed him in a loud clear voice to anchor where he then was
such a babel of cries issued at once from the ship every one hallooing out
if the ship's crew had been all captains and no men there could not have been a greater uproar of orders we afterwards found that the mate stuttered i suppose all hands were assisting him in giving his orders on the eleventh we anchored at valparaiso
and two days afterwards i set out to cross the cordillera i proceeded to santiago
in this part of chile there are two passes across the andes to mendoza the one most commonly used namely that of aconcagua or uspallata is situated some way to the north the other called the portillo is to the south and nearer but more lofty and dangerous
leaving santiago we crossed the wide burnt up plain on which that city stands and in the afternoon arrived at the maypu one of the principal rivers in chile the valley at the point where it enters the first cordillera
is bounded on each side by lofty barren mountains and although not broad it is very fertile numerous cottages were surrounded by vines and by orchards of apple nectarine and peach trees
the frontier of chile is better guarded by the cordillera than by the waters of the sea there are very few valleys which lead to the central ranges
which was perhaps partly owing to the passport which the president of the republic had given me but i must express my admiration at the natural politeness of almost every chileno in this instance the contrast with the same class of men in most other countries was strongly marked
we met near mendoza a little and very fat negress riding astride on a mule
but my two companions almost instantly by way of apology made the common salute of the country by taking off their hats where would one of the lower or higher classes in europe have shown such feeling politeness to a poor and miserable object of a degraded race
at night we slept at a cottage our manner of travelling was delightfully independent
hired pasture for the animals and bivouacked in the corner of the same field with them carrying an iron pot we cooked and ate our supper under a cloudless sky and knew no trouble my companions were mariano gonzales who had formerly accompanied me in chile
and an arriero with his ten mules and a madrina the madrina or godmother is a most important personage she is an old steady mare with a little bell round her neck and wherever she goes the mules like good children
follow her the affection of these animals for their madrinas saves infinite trouble if several large troops are turned into one field to graze in the morning the muleteers have only to lead the madrinas a little apart and tinkle their bells
although there may be two or three hundred together each mule immediately knows the bell of its own madrina and comes to her it is nearly impossible to lose an old mule for if detained for several hours by force she will by the power of smell like a dog track out her companions
or rather the madrina for according to the muleteer she is the chief object of affection the feeling however is not of an individual nature for i believe i am right in saying that any animal with a bell will serve as a madrina in a troop each animal carries on a level road
a cargo weighing four hundred sixteen pounds more than twenty nine stone but in a mountainous country one hundred pounds less yet with what delicate slim limbs without any proportional bulk of muscle these animals support so great a burden
the mule always appears to me a most surprising animal that a hybrid should possess more reason memory obstinacy social affection powers of muscular endurance and length of life than either of its parents
seems to indicate that art has here outdone nature of our ten animals six were intended for riding and four for carrying cargoes each taking turn about we carried a good deal of food in case we should be snowed up as the season was rather late for passing the portillo
the number of inhabitants became scanty but wherever water could be brought on the land it was very fertile all the main valleys in the cordillera are characterized by having on both sides a fringe or terrace of shingle and sand
rudely stratified and generally of considerable thickness these fringes evidently once extended across the valleys and were united and the bottoms of the valleys in northern chile where there are no streams are thus smoothly filled up
on these fringes the roads are generally carried for their surfaces are even and they rise with a very gentle slope up the valleys hence also they are easily cultivated by irrigation they may be traced up to a height of between seven thousand and nine thousand feet
where they become hidden by the irregular piles of debris at the lower end or mouths of the valleys they are continuously united to those land locked plains also formed of shingle at the foot of the main cordillera
and which were undoubtedly deposited when the sea penetrated chile as it now does the more southern coasts
they precisely resemble in composition the matter which the torrents in each valley would deposit if they were checked in their course by any cause such as entering a lake or arm of the sea but the torrents instead of depositing matter
are now steadily at work wearing away both the solid rock and these alluvial deposits along the whole line of every main valley and side valley it is impossible here to give the reasons
during the gradual elevation of the cordillera by the torrents delivering at successive levels their detritus on the beachheads of long narrow arms of the sea first high up the valleys then lower and lower down as the land slowly rose
if this be so and i cannot doubt it the grand and broken chain of the cordillera instead of having been suddenly thrown up
has been slowly upheaved in mass in the same gradual manner as the coasts of the atlantic and pacific have risen within the recent period a multitude of facts in the structure of the cordillera on this view receive a simple explanation
the rivers which flow in these valleys ought rather to be called mountain torrents their inclination is very great
the roar which the maypu made as it rushed over the great rounded fragments was like that of the sea amidst the din of rushing waters
was most distinctly audible even from a distance this rattling noise night and day may be heard along the whole course of the torrent the sound spoke eloquently to the geologist the thousands and thousands of stones which striking against each other
made the one dull uniform sound were all hurrying in one direction it was like thinking on time where the minute that now glides past is irrevocable
the ocean is their eternity and each note of that wild music told of one more step towards their destiny it is not possible for the mind to comprehend except by a slow process any effect which is produced by a cause repeated so often
that the multiplier itself conveys an idea not more definite than the savage implies when he points to the hairs of his head as often as i have seen beds of mud sand and shingle accumulated to the thickness of many thousand feet
could never have ground down and produced such masses
and calling to mind that whole races of animals have passed away from the face of the earth and that during this whole period night and day these stones have gone rattling onwards in their course
can any mountains any continent withstand such waste in this part of the valley the mountains on each side were from three thousand to six thousand or eight thousand feet high with rounded outlines and steep bare flanks
the general colour of the rock was dullish purple and the stratification very distinct if the scenery was not beautiful it was remarkable and grand we met during the day several herds of cattle which men were driving down from the higher valleys in the cordillera
this sign of the approaching winter hurried our steps more than was convenient for geologizing
sir f head marvels how mines have been discovered in such extraordinary situations
hence during the gradual wear of the hills they project above the surface of the ground
the vein occurred at no great distance standing up like a wedge of metal the miners also taking a crowbar with them often wander on sundays over the mountains in this south part of chile the men who drive cattle into the cordillera
and who frequent every ravine where there is a little pasture are the usual discoverers
with the exception of a few pretty alpine flowers became exceedingly scanty and of quadrupeds birds or insects scarcely one could be seen the lofty mountains their summits marked with a few patches of snow stood well separated from each other
the valleys being filled up with an immense thickness of stratified alluvium the features in the scenery of the andes which struck me most as contrasted with the other mountain chains with which i am acquainted were the flat fringes sometimes expanding into narrow plains on each side of the valleys
the bright colours chiefly red and purple of the utterly bare and precipitous hills of porphyry the grand and continuous wall like dykes the plainly divided strata which where nearly vertical formed the picturesque and wild central pinnacles
but where less inclined composed the great massive mountains on the outskirts of the range and lastly the smooth conical piles of fine and brightly coloured detritus which sloped up at a high angle from the base of the mountains sometimes to a height of more than two thousand feet
i frequently observed both in tierra del fuego and within the andes that where the rock was covered during the greater part of the year with snow it was shivered in a very extraordinary manner into small angular fragments
the case appears to me rather obscure for that part of the mountain which is protected by a mantle of snow must be less subject to repeated and great changes of temperature than any other part
and therefore that the appearance of a quicker disintegration of the solid rock under the snow was deceptive whatever
the quantity of crumbling stone on the cordillera is very great occasionally in the spring great masses of this detritus slide down the mountains and cover the snow drifts in the valleys thus forming natural ice houses
we rode over one the height of which was far below the limit of perpetual snow as the evening drew to a close we reached a singular basin like plain
it was covered by a little dry pasture and we had the pleasant sight of a herd of cattle amidst the surrounding rocky deserts the valley takes its name of yeso from a great bed i should think at least two thousand feet thick of white and in some parts quite pure gypsum
we slept with a party of men who were employed in loading mules with this substance which is used in the manufacture of wine we set out early in the morning twenty first and continued to follow the course of the river which had become very small
till we arrived at the foot of the ridge that separates the waters flowing into the pacific and atlantic oceans the road which as yet had been good with a steady but very gradual ascent now changed into a steep zigzag track up the great range
dividing the republics of chile and mendoza i will here give a very brief sketch of the geology of the several parallel lines forming the cordillera of these lines there are two considerably higher than the others namely
on the chilian side the peuquenes ridge which where the road crosses it is thirteen thousand two hundred ten feet above the sea and the portillo ridge on the mendoza side which is fourteen thousand three hundred five feet
the lower beds of the peuquenes ridge and of the several great lines to the westward of it are composed of a vast pile many thousand feet in thickness of porphyries which have flowed as submarine lavas
alternating with angular and rounded fragments of the same rocks thrown out of the submarine craters these alternating masses are covered in the central parts by a great thickness of red sandstone conglomerate
associated with and passing into prodigious beds of gypsum
and they belong to about the period of the lower chalk of europe it is an old story but not the less wonderful to hear of shells which were once crawling on the bottom of the sea now standing nearly fourteen thousand feet above its level the lower beds in this great pile of strata
have been dislocated baked crystallized and almost blended together through the agency of mountain masses of a peculiar white soda granitic rock the other main line namely that of the portillo is of a totally different formation
it consists chiefly of grand bare pinnacles of a red potash granite which low down on the western flank are covered by a sandstone converted by the former heat into a quartz rock
on the quartz there rest beds of a conglomerate several thousand feet in thickness which have been upheaved by the red granite
with their fossil shells of the peuquenes range and partly of red potash granite like that of the portillo hence we must conclude that both the peuquenes and portillo ranges were partially upheaved and exposed to wear and tear when the conglomerate was forming
by the red portillo granite with the underlying sandstone baked by it we may feel sure that the greater part of the injection and upheaval of the already partially formed portillo line took place after the accumulation of the conglomerate and long after the elevation of the peuquenes ridge
so that the portillo the loftiest line in this part of the cordillera
evidence derived from an inclined stream of lava at the eastern base of the portillo
looking to its earliest origin
in most parts perhaps in all parts of the cordillera it may be concluded that each line has been formed by repeated upheavals and injections
only thus can we gain time at all sufficient to explain the truly astonishing amount of denudation which these great though comparatively with most other ranges recent mountains have suffered finally
the shells in the peuquenes or oldest ridge prove as before remarked that it has been upraised fourteen thousand feet since a secondary period
but since these shells lived in a moderately deep sea it can be shown that the area now occupied by the cordillera must have subsided several thousand feet in northern chile as much as six thousand feet
so as to have allowed that amount of submarine strata to have been heaped on the bed on which the shells lived the proof is the same with that by which it was shown
daily it is forced home on the mind of the geologist that nothing not even the wind that blows is so unstable as the level of the crust of this earth i will make only one other geological remark
although the portillo chain is here higher than the peuquenes the waters draining the intermediate valleys have burst through it the same fact on a grander scale has been remarked in the eastern and loftiest line of the bolivian cordillera through which the rivers pass
analogous facts have also been observed in other quarters of the world on the supposition of the subsequent and gradual elevation of the portillo line this can be understood for a chain of islets would at first appear and as these were lifted up
the tides would be always wearing deeper and broader channels between them at the present day even in the most retired sounds on the coast of tierra del fuego the currents in the transverse breaks which connect the longitudinal channels are very strong
so that in one transverse channel even a small vessel under sail was whirled round and round about noon we began the tedious ascent of the peuquenes ridge and then for the first time experienced some little difficulty in our respiration
the mules would halt every fifty yards and after resting for a few seconds the poor willing animals started of their own accord again the short breathing from the rarefied atmosphere is called by the chilenos puna
some say all the waters here have puna others that where there is snow there is puna and this no doubt is true the only sensation i experienced was a slight tightness across the head and chest
like that felt on leaving a warm room and running quickly in frosty weather there was some imagination even in this for upon finding fossil shells on the highest ridge i entirely forgot the puna in my delight certainly the exertion of walking was extremely great
and the respiration became deep and laborious i am told that in potosi about thirteen thousand feet above the sea strangers do not become thoroughly accustomed to the atmosphere for an entire year the inhabitants all recommend onions for the puna
as this vegetable has sometimes been given in europe for pectoral complaints it may possibly be of real service for my part i found nothing so good as the fossil shells when about half way up we met a large party with seventy loaded mules
it was interesting to hear the wild cries of the muleteers and to watch the long descending string of the animals they appeared so diminutive there being nothing but the black mountains with which they could be compared when near the summit the wind as generally happens
was impetuous and extremely cold on each side of the ridge we had to pass over broad bands of perpetual snow which were now soon to be covered by a fresh layer when we reached the crest and looked backwards a glorious view was presented
the atmosphere resplendently clear the sky an intense blue the profound valleys the wild broken forms the heaps of ruins piled up during the lapse of ages the bright coloured rocks contrasted with the quiet mountains of snow
neither plant nor bird excepting a few condors wheeling around the higher pinnacles distracted my attention from the inanimate mass i felt glad that i was alone it was like watching a thunderstorm or hearing in full orchestra a chorus of the messiah
on several patches of the snow i found the protococcus nivalis or red snow so well known from the accounts of arctic navigators my attention was called to it by observing the footsteps of the mules stained a pale red
as if their hoofs had been slightly bloody i at first thought that it was owing to dust blown from the surrounding mountains of red porphyry for from the magnifying power of the crystals of snow the groups of these microscopical plants appeared like coarse particles
the snow was coloured only where it had thawed very rapidly or had been accidentally crushed a little rubbed on paper gave it a faint rose tinge mingled with a little brick red i afterwards scraped some off the paper and found that it consisted of groups of little spheres in colourless cases
each of the thousandth part of an inch in diameter the wind on the crest of the peuquenes as just remarked is generally impetuous and very cold
this wind must be an upper and return current
in like manner falls within an upper return stream at first it appears rather surprising that the trade wind along the northern parts of chile and on the coast of peru should blow in so very southerly a direction as it does
but when we reflect that the cordillera running in a north and south line intercepts like a great wall the entire depth of the lower atmospheric current we can easily see that the trade wind must be drawn northward following the line of mountains towards the equatorial regions
and thus lose part of that easterly movement which it otherwise would have gained from the earth's rotation at mendoza on the eastern foot of the andes
we may imagine that the wind which coming from the eastward is thus banked up by the line of mountains would become stagnant and irregular in its movements
and then took up our quarters for the night we were now in the republic of mendoza the elevation was probably not under eleven thousand feet and the vegetation in consequence exceedingly scanty the root of a small scrubby plant served as fuel
but it made a miserable fire and the wind was piercingly cold being quite tired with my days work i made up my bed as quickly as i could and went to sleep about midnight i observed the sky became suddenly clouded
i awakened the arriero to know if there was any danger of bad weather
the peril is imminent and the difficulty of subsequent escape great to any one overtaken by bad weather between the two ranges a certain cave offers the only place of refuge
was detained there for some time by a heavy fall of snow casuchas or houses of refuge have not been built in this pass as in that of uspallata and therefore during the autumn the portillo is little frequented
i may here remark that within the main cordillera rain never falls for during the summer the sky is cloudless and in winter snow storms alone occur at the place where we slept water necessarily boiled from the diminished pressure of the atmosphere
at a lower temperature than it does in a less lofty country the case being the converse of that of a papin's digester hence the potatoes after remaining for some hours in the boiling water were nearly as hard as ever the pot was left on the fire all night
and next morning it was boiled again but yet the potatoes were not cooked
the story was running in his head at breakfast and as he took his third cup of tea he said dreamily i wish there were red indians in england not big ones you know but little ones just about the right size for us to fight
they found out that they had done it again for the psammead which was very cross and sleepy said oh don't bother me you've had your wish i didn't know it said cyril
don't you remember yesterday said the sand fairy still more disagreeably you asked me to let you have your wishes wherever you happened to be and you wished this morning and you've got it oh have we said robert what is it
so you've forgotten said the psammead beginning to burrow never mind you'll know soon enough and i wish you joy of it a nice thing you've let yourselves in for we always do somehow said jane sadly
and now the odd thing was that no one could remember anyone's having wished for anything that morning the wish about the red indians had not stuck in anyone's head it was a most anxious morning everyone was trying to remember what had been wished for
and no one could and everyone kept expecting something awful to happen every minute it was most agitating they knew from what the psammead had said that they must have wished for something more than usually undesirable
and sat down flat on the carpet oh pussy how awful it was indians he wished for cyril at breakfast don't you remember he said i wish there were red indians in england and now there are
and they're going about scalping people all over the country like as not perhaps they're only in northumberland and durham said jane soothingly it was almost impossible to believe that it could really hurt people much to be scalped so far away as that
don't you believe it said anthea the sammyadd said we'd let ourselves in for a nice thing that means they'll come here and suppose they scalped the lamb perhaps the scalping would come right again at sunset said jane
but she did not speak so hopefully as usual not it said anthea the things that grow out of the wishes don't go look at the fifteen shillings pussy
i'm going to break something and you must let me have every penny of money you've got the indians will come here don't you see that spiteful psammead as good as said so you see what my plan is come on jane did not see at all
but she followed her sister meekly into their mother's bedroom anthea lifted down the heavy water jug
she carried it into the dressing room and carefully emptied the water out of it into the bath then she took the jug back into the bedroom and dropped it on the floor you know how a jug always breaks if you happen to drop it by accident
if you happen to drop it on purpose it is quite different anthea dropped that jug three times and it was as unbroken as ever so at last she had to take her father's boot tree and break the jug with that in cold blood
it was heartless work next she broke open the missionary box with the poker jane told her that it was wrong of course but anthea shut her lips very tight and then said don't be silly it's a matter of life and death
there was not very much in the missionary box
this made over eleven shillings as you will easily see anthea tied up the money in a corner of her pocket handkerchief come on jane she said and ran down to the farm she knew that the farmer was going into rochester that afternoon
in fact it had been arranged that he was to take the four children with him they had planned this in the happy hour when they believed that they were going to get that hundred pounds in two shilling pieces out of the psammead
they had arranged to pay the farmer two shillings each for the ride now anthea hastily explained to him that they could not go but would he take martha and the baby instead he agreed
but he was not pleased to get only half a crown instead of eight shillings then the girls ran home again anthea was agitated but not flurried when she came to think it over afterwards she could not help seeing that she had acted
with the most far seeing promptitude
she fetched a little box from her corner drawer and went to find martha who was laying the cloth and not in the best of tempers
just like you always up to some mischief said martha dumping down a salt cellar with a bang don't be cross martha dear said anthea i've got enough money to pay for a new one
and i would like you to get it to day in case mother comes home to morrow you know she said she might perhaps but you're all going into town yourselves said martha
we can't afford to if we get the new jug said anthea but we'll pay for you to go if you'll take the lamb and i say martha look here i'll give you my liberty box if you'll go
look it's most awfully pretty all inlaid with real silver and ivory and ebony like king solomon's temple i see said martha no i don't want your box miss what you want is to get the precious lamb off your hands for the afternoon
don't you go for to think i don't see through you this was so true that anthea longed to deny it at once martha had no business to know so much but she held her tongue martha set down the bread with a bang that made it jump off its trencher
i do want the jug got said anthea softly you will go won't you well just for this once i don't mind but mind you don't get into none of your outrageous mischief while i'm gone that's all
he's going earlier than he thought said anthea eagerly you'd better hurry and get dressed do put on that lovely purple frock martha and the hat with the pink cornflowers and the yellow lace collar
jane'll finish laying the cloth and i'll wash the lamb and get him ready as she washed the unwilling lamb and hurried him into his best clothes anthea peeped out of the window from time to time so far all was well she could see no red indians
had been got off anthea drew a deep breath he's safe she said and to jane's horror
jane did not understand at all how a person could be so brave and like a general and then suddenly give way and go flat like an air balloon when you prick it
it is better not to go flat of course but you will observe that anthea did not give way till her aim was accomplished she had got the dear lamb out of danger she felt certain the red indians would be round the white house or nowhere
the farmer's cart would not come back till after sunset so she could afford to cry a little it was partly with joy that she cried because she had done what she meant to do she cried for about three minutes
while jane hugged her miserably and said at five second intervals don't cry panther dear then she jumped up rubbed her eyes hard with the corner of her pinafore
so that they kept red for the rest of the day and started to tell the boys but just at that moment cook rang the dinner bell and nothing could be said till they had all been helped to minced beef then cook left the room and anthea told her tale
there seemed somehow to be something about the food that made the idea of red indians seem flat and unbelievable the boys actually laughed and called anthea a little silly why said cyril
it wasn't said jane briefly why if it was indians cyril went on salt please and mustard i must have something to make this mush go down if it was indians they'd have been infesting the place long before this you know they would
i believe it's the fine day then why did the sammyadd say we'd let ourselves in for a nice thing asked anthea she was feeling very cross she knew she had acted with nobility and discretion
and after that it was very hard to be called a little silly especially when she had the weight of a burglared missionary box and about seven and fourpence mostly in coppers lying like lead upon her conscience
there was a silence during which cook took away the mincy plates and brought in the treacle pudding as soon as she had retired cyril began again of course i don't mean to say he admitted that it wasn't a good thing to get martha and the lamb out of the light for the afternoon
but as for red indians why you know jolly well the wishes always come that very minute if there was going to be red indians they'd be here now i expect they are said anthea they're lurking amid the undergrowth for anything you know
i do think you're most beastly unkind indians almost always do lurk really though don't they put in jane anxious for peace no they don't said cyril tartly and i'm not unkind i'm only truthful
and i say it was utter rot breaking the water jug and as for the missionary box i believe it's a treason crime and i shouldn't wonder if you could be hanged for it if any of us was to split shut up can't you said robert but cyril couldn't
you see he felt in his heart that if there should be indians they would be entirely his own fault so he did not wish to believe in them and trying not to believe things when in your heart you are almost sure they are true is as bad for the temper as anything i know
and the face was painted in coloured patches it had long black hair and in the hair were feathers every child's mouth in the room opened and stayed open the treacle pudding was growing white and cold on their plates
no one could move suddenly the feathered head was cautiously withdrawn and the spell was broken i am sorry to say that anthea's first words were very like a girl there now she said i told you so
treacle pudding had now definitely ceased to charm hastily wrapping their portions in a spectator of the week before the week before last they hid them behind the crinkled paper stove ornament and fled upstairs to reconnoitre
and to hold a hurried council pax said cyril handsomely when they reached their mother's bedroom panther i'm sorry if i was a brute all right said anthea but you see now
no further trace of indians however could be discerned from the windows well said robert what are we to do the only thing i can think of said anthea who was now generally admitted to be the heroine of the day is
if we dressed up as like indians as we can and looked out of the windows or even went out they might think we were the powerful leaders of a large neighbouring tribe and and not do anything to us you know for fear of awful vengeance but eliza
and the cook said jane you forget they can't notice anything said robert they wouldn't notice anything out of the way even if they were scalped or roasted at a slow fire but would they come right at sunset of course
you can't be really scalped or burned to death without noticing it and you'd be sure to notice it next day even if it escaped your attention at the time said cyril i think anthea's right but we shall want a most awful lot of feathers i'll go down to the hen house said robert
there's one of the turkeys in there it's not very well i could cut its feathers without it minding much it's very bad doesn't seem to care what happens to it get me the cutting out scissors
earnest reconnoitring convinced them all that no indians were in the poultry yard robert went in five minutes he came back pale but with many feathers look here he said this is jolly serious
i cut off the feathers and when i turned to come out there was an indian squinting at me from under the old hen coop i just brandished the feathers and yelled and got away before he could get the coop off the top of himself panther
get the coloured blankets off our beds and look slippy can't you it is wonderful how like an indian you can make yourselves with blankets and feathers and coloured scarves
but there was a lot of black calico that had been got to cover school books with they cut strips of this into a sort of fine fringe and fastened it round their heads with the amber coloured ribbons off the girls sunday dresses
then they stuck turkeys feathers in the ribbons the calico looked very like long black hair especially when the strips began to curl up a bit but our faces said anthea they're not at all the right colour
we're all rather pale and i'm sure i don't know why but cyril is the colour of putty i'm not said cyril the real indians outside seem to be brownish said robert hastily i think we ought to be really red
it's sort of superior to have a red skin if you are one the red ochre cook used for the kitchen bricks seemed to be about the reddest thing in the house the children mixed some in a saucer with milk as they had seen cook do for the kitchen floor
then they carefully painted each other's faces and hands with it till they were quite as red as any red indian need be if not redder they knew at once that they must look very terrible when they met eliza in the passage and she screamed aloud
this unsolicited testimonial pleased them very much hastily telling her not to be a goose and that it was only a game the four blanketed feathered really and truly redskins went boldly out to meet the foe i say boldly
at any rate they went along the hedge dividing the wilderness from the garden was a row of dark heads all highly feathered it's our only chance whispered anthea
much better than to wait for their blood freezing attack we must pretend like mad like that game of cards where you pretend you've got aces when you haven't fluffing they call it i think now then whoop
with four wild war whoops or as near them as english children could be expected to go without any previous practice they rushed through the gate and struck four warlike attitudes in face of the line of red indians
these were all about the same height and that height was cyril's i hope to goodness they can talk english said cyril through his attitude anthea knew they could though she never knew how she came to know it
she had a white towel tied to a walking stick this was a flag of truce and she waved it in the hope that the indians would know what it was apparently they did for one who was browner than the others stepped forward
ye seek a pow wow he said in excellent english i am golden eagle of the mighty tribe of rock dwellers and i said anthea with a sudden inspiration am the black panther
the mazawattee tribe my brothers i don't mean yes i do the tribe i mean the mazawattees are in ambush below the brow of yonder hill and what mighty warriors be these asked golden eagle turning to the others
cyril said he was the great chief squirrel of the moning congo tribe and seeing that jane was sucking her thumb and could evidently think of no name for herself he added this great warrior is wild cat
pussy ferox we call it in this land leader of the vast phiteezi tribe and thou valorous redskin golden eagle inquired suddenly of robert who taken unawares could only reply that he was bobs leader of the cape mounted police
and now said black panther our tribes if we just whistle them up will far outnumber your puny forces so resistance is useless return therefore to your own land o brother
and smoke pipes of peace in your wampums with your squaws and your medicine men and dress yourselves in the gayest wigwams and eat happily of the juicy fresh caught moccasins you've got it all wrong murmured cyril angrily
but golden eagle only looked inquiringly at her thy customs are other than ours o black panther he said bring up thy tribe that we may hold pow wow in state before them as becomes great chiefs
we'll bring them up right enough said anthea with their bows and arrows and tomahawks and scalping knives and everything you can think of if you don't look sharp and go she spoke bravely enough
but the hearts of all the children were beating furiously and their breath came in shorter and shorter gasps for the little real red indians were closing up round them coming nearer and nearer with angry murmurs
so that they were the centre of a crowd of dark cruel faces it's no go whispered robert i knew it wouldn't be we must make a bolt for the psammead it might help us if it doesn't well
i wonder if scalping hurts as much as they say i'll wave the flag again said anthea if they stand back we'll run for it she waved the towel and the chief commanded his followers to stand back
the four children started to run their first rush knocked down some half dozen indians over whose blanketed bodies the children leaped and made straight for the sand pit this was no time for the safe easy way by which carts go down
right over the edge of the sand pit they went among the yellow and pale purple flowers and dried grasses past the little sand martins little front doors skipping clinging bounding stumbling sprawling and finally rolling
yellow eagle and his followers came up with them just at the very spot where they had seen the psammead that morning breathless and beaten the wretched children now awaited their fate
sharp knives and axes gleamed round them but worse than these was the cruel light in the eyes of golden eagle and his followers ye have lied to us o black panther of the mazawattees and thou too squirrel of the moning congos
these also pussy ferox of the phiteezi and bobs of the cape mounted police these also have lied to us if not with their tongue yet by their silence
ye have lied under the cover of the truce flag of the pale face ye have no followers your tribes are far away following the hunting trail what shall be their doom he concluded
turning with a bitter smile to the other red indians build we the fire shouted his followers and at once a dozen ready volunteers started to look for fuel
the four children each held between two strong little indians cast despairing glances round them oh if they could only see the psammead do you mean to scalp us first and then roast us asked anthea desperately
the indians had formed a ring round the children and now sat on the ground gazing at their captives there was a threatening silence then slowly by twos and threes the indians who had gone to look for firewood came back and they came back empty handed
no one ever can as a matter of fact in that part of kent the children drew a deep breath of relief but it ended in a moan of terror for bright knives were being brandished all about them next moment each child was seized by an indian
each closed its eyes and tried not to scream they waited for the sharp agony of the knife it did not come next moment they were released and fell in a trembling heap their heads did not hurt at all
they only felt strangely cool wild war whoops rang in their ears when they ventured to open their eyes they saw four of their foes dancing round them with wild leaps and screams and each of the four
brandished in his hand a scalp of long flowing black hair they put their hands to their heads their own scalps were safe the poor untutored savages had indeed scalped the children
but they had only so to speak scalped them of the black calico ringlets the children fell into each other's arms sobbing and laughing their scalps are ours chanted the chief ill rooted were their ill fated hairs
they came off in the hands of the victors without struggle without resistance they yielded their scalps to the conquering rock dwellers oh how little a thing is a scalp so lightly won
they'll take our real ones in a minute you see if they don't said robert trying to rub some of the red ochre off his face and hands on to his hair cheated of our just and fiery revenge are we the chant went on
but there are other torments than the scalping knife and the flames yet is the slow fire the correct thing o strange unnatural country wherein a man may find no wood to burn his enemy
ah for the boundless forests of my native land where the great trees for thousands of miles grow but to furnish firewood wherewithal to burn our foes ah would we were but in our native forest once more
suddenly like a flash of lightning the golden gravel shone all round the four children instead of the dusky figures for every single indian had vanished on the instant at their leader's word
the psammead must have been there all the time and it had given the indian chief his wish martha brought home a jug with a pattern of storks and long grasses on it also she brought back all anthea's money
my cousin she give me the jug for luck she said it was an odd one what the basin of had got smashed oh martha
yes giggled martha you'd better make the most of me while you've got me i shall give your ma notice directly minute she comes back oh martha we haven't been so very horrid to you have we asked anthea aghast
oh it ain't that miss martha giggled more than ever i'm a goin to be married it's beale the gamekeeper he's been a proposin to me off and on ever since you come home from the clergyman's where you got locked up on the church tower
and to day i said the word an made him a happy man
the story of the second old man and the two black dogs great prince of genies you must know that we are three brothers the two black dogs and myself our father when he died
left each of us one thousand sequins with that sum we all became merchants a little time after we had opened shop my eldest brother one of these two dogs resolved to travel and trade in foreign countries
with this view he sold his estate and bought goods suited to the trade intended to follow he went away and was absent a whole year at the expiration of this time a poor man
presented himself before me in my shop i said to him god help you he returned my salutation and continued is it possible you do not know me upon this i looked at him narrowly
and recognised him ah brother cried i embracing him how could i know you in this condition i made him come into my house and asked him concerning his health and the success of his travels
do not ask me that question said he when you see me you see all it would only renew my grief to relate to you the particulars of the misfortunes i have experienced since i left you
which have reduced me to my present condition i immediately shut up my shop and taking him to a bath gave him the best clothes i had finding on examining my books
that i had doubled my stock that is to say that i was worth two thousand sequins i gave him one half with that said i brother you may make up your loss he joyfully accepted the present
and having repaired his fortunes we lived together as before
some time after my second brother who is the other of these two dogs would also sell his estate his elder brother and myself did all we could to divert him from his purpose but without effect
he disposed of it and with the money bought such goods as were suitable to the trade which he designed to follow he joined a caravan and departed at the end of the year
he returned in the same condition as my other brother having myself by this time gained another thousand sequins i made him a present of them with this sum
and continued his trade some time after one of my brothers came to me to propose that i should join them in a trading voyage i immediately declined you have travelled
who can assure me that i shall be more successful than you have been it was in vain that they urged open me all the considerations they thought likely to gain me over to their design for i constantly refused
but after having resisted their solicitations five whole years they importuned me so much that at last they overcame my resolution when however
the time arrived that we were to make preparations for our voyage to buy the goods necessary to the undertaking i found they had spent all and had not one dirrim left of the thousand sequins i had given to each of them
i did not on this account upbraid them on the contrary my stock being still six thousand sequins i shared the half of it with them telling them my brothers
we must venture these three thousand sequins and hide the rest in some secure place that in case our voyage be not more successful than yours was formerly we may have wherewith to assist us and to enable us to follow our ancient way of living
i gave each of them a thousand sequins and keeping as much for myself i buried the other three thousand in a corner of my house we purchased goods and having embarked them on board a vessel
which we freighted betwixt us we put to sea with a favourable wind after two months sail we arrived happily at port where we landed and had a very good market for our goods
sold mine so well that i gained ten to one with the produce we bought commodities of that country to carry back with us for sale when we were ready to embark on our return
i met on the sea shore a lady handsome enough but poorly clad she walked up to me gracefully kissed my hand besought me with the greatest earnestness imaginable to marry her and take her along with me
i made some difficulty to agree to this proposal but she urged so many things to persuade me that i ought not to object to her on account of her poverty
and that i should have all the reason in the world to be satisfied with her conduct that at last i yielded i ordered proper apparel to be made for her and after having married her according to form
i took her on board and we set sail i found my wife possessed so many good qualities that my love to her every day increased in the mean time my two brothers
who had not managed their affairs as successfully as i had mine envied my prosperity and suffered their feelings to carry them so far that they conspired against my life and one night
when my wife and i were asleep threw us both into the sea my wife proved to be a fairy and by consequence a genie so that she could not be drowned but for me
it is certain i must have perished without her help i had scarcely fallen into the water when she took me up and carried me to an island when day appeared she said to me you see husband
that by saving your life i have not rewarded you ill for your kindness to me you must know that i am a fairy and being upon the sea shore when you were going to embark
and presented myself before you in disguise
and i am glad of an opportunity of returning my acknowledgment but i am incensed against your brothers
but their lives i listened to this discourse with admiration i thanked the fairy the best way i could for the great kindness she had done me but madam said i as for my brothers
i beg you to pardon them whatever cause of resentment they have given me i am not cruel enough to desire their death i then informed her what i had done for them but this increased her indignation and she exclaimed
i must immediately pursue those ungrateful traitors and take speedy vengeance on them i will destroy their vessel and sink them into the bottom of the sea my good lady replied i
for heaven's sake forbear moderate your anger consider that they are my brothers and that we ought to return good for evil i pacified her by these words
and as soon as i had concluded she transported me in a moment from the island to the roof of my own house which was terraced and instantly disappeared i descended opened the doors
and dug up the three thousand sequins i had formerly secreted i went afterwards to my shop which i also opened and was complimented by the merchants my neighbours upon my return
when i went back to my house i perceived there two black dogs which came up to me in a very submissive manner i could not divine the meaning of this circumstance which greatly astonished me
but the fairy who immediately appeared said husband be not surprised to see these dogs they are your brothers i was troubled at this declaration
and asked her by what power they were so transformed i did it said she or at least authorised one of my sisters to do it who at the same time sunk their ship
you have lost the goods you had on board but i will compensate you another way as to your two brothers i have condemned them to remain five years in that shape their perfidiousness too well deserves such a penance
having thus spoken and told me where i might hear of her she disappeared the five years being now nearly expired i am travelling in quest of her and as i passed this way
i met this merchant and the good old man who led the hind and sat down by them this is my history o prince of genies
i own it is replied the genie and on that account i remit the merchant the second third of the crime which he has committed against me as soon as the second old man had finished
the third began his story after repeating the request of the two former that the genie would pardon the merchant the other third of his crime
the genie made him the same promise as he had given the others the third old man related his story to the genie and it exceeded the two former stories so much in the variety of wonderful adventures
that the genie was astonished and no sooner heard the conclusion than he said to the old man i remit the other third of the merchant's crime on account of your story he is greatly obliged to all of you
for having delivered him out of his danger by what you have related
having spoken thus he disappeared to the great contentment of the company the merchant failed not to make due acknowledgment to his deliverers they rejoiced to see him out of danger
and bidding him adieu each of them proceeded on his way
asked rouletabille perfectly replied arthur rance i recognise you as the lad at the bar the face of rouletabille crimsoned at being called a lad i want to shake hands with you
you are a bright little fellow the american extended his hand and rouletabille relaxing his frown shook it and introduced mister arthur rance to me
he invited him to share our meal no thanks i breakfasted with monsieur stangerson arthur rance spoke french perfectly almost without an accent
i thought you were to have left france the day after the reception at the elysee rouletabille and i outwardly indifferent listened most intently
for every word the american would say the man's purplish red face
the nervous twitchings all spoke of his addiction to drink how came it that so sorry a specimen of a man should be so intimate with monsieur stangerson
some days later i learned from frederic larsan
like ourselves was surprised and mystified by his appearance and reception at the chateau that mister rance had been an inebriate for only about fifteen years that is to say
since the professor and his daughter left philadelphia during the time the stangersons lived in america they were very intimate with arthur rance
who was one of the most distinguished phrenologists of the new world owing to new experiments he had made enormous strides beyond the science of gall and lavater
the friendliness with which he was received at the glandier may be explained by the fact that he had once rendered mademoiselle stangerson a great service by stopping
at the peril of his own life the runaway horses of her carriage the immediate result of that could however have been no more than a mere friendly association with the stangersons
certainly not a love affair frederic larsan did not tell me where he had picked up this information but he appeared to be quite sure of what he said
had we known these facts at the time arthur rance met us at the donjon inn
but they could not have failed to increase our interest in the man himself
he spoke in a perfectly natural tone in reply to rouletabille's question i put off my return to america when i heard of the attack on mademoiselle stangerson
i wanted to be certain the lady had not been killed and i shall not go away until she is perfectly recovered arthur rance then took the lead in talk
paying no heed to some of rouletabille's questions he gave us without our inviting him his personal views on the subject of the tragedy views which
as well as i could make out were not far from those held by frederic larzan the american also thought that robert darzac had something to do with the matter
he did not mention him by name but there was no room to doubt whom he meant he told us he was aware of the efforts young rouletabille was making
he explained
that had taken place in the inexplicable gallery he several times expressed his regret at monsieur darzac's absence from the chateau on all these occasions and thought
that monsieur darzac had done cleverly in allying himself with monsieur joseph rouletabille who could not fail sooner or later to discover the murderer
he spoke the last sentence with unconcealed irony then he rose bowed to us and left
rouletabille watched him through the window an
fish that he said do you think he'll pass the night at the glandier i asked to my amazement the young reporter answered that it was a matter of entire indifference to him
that rouletabille led me to the grotto of sainte genevieve and all the time talked of every subject but the one in which we were most interested
i was surprised to find rouletabille making none of the preparations i had expected him to make i spoke to him about it when night had come on
and we were once more in his room he replied
the murderer would not get away from him i expressed some doubt on this reminding him of his disappearance in the gallery and suggested that the same phenomenon might occur again
he answered that he hoped it would he desired nothing more i did not insist knowing by experience how useless that would have been he told me that
the chateau had since early dawn been watched in such a way that nobody could approach it without his knowing it and that he had no concern for those who might have left it and remained without
it was then six o'clock by his watch rising he made a sign to me to follow him and without in the least tying to conceal his movements or the sound of his footsteps
he led me through the gallery we reached the right gallery and came to the landing place which we crossed we then continued our way in the gallery of the left wing
passing professor stangerson's apartment at the far end of the gallery before coming to the donjon is the room occupied by arthur rance we knew that
because we had seen him at the window looking on to the court the door of the room opens on to the end of the gallery exactly facing the east window at the extremity of the right gallery
and commands an uninterrupted view of the gallery from end to end of the chateau that off turning gallery said rouletabille i reserve for myself when i tell you
you'll come and take your place here
triangular closet built in a bend of the wall to the left of the door of arthur rance's room from this recess i could see all that occurred in the gallery
as well as if i had been standing in front of arthur rance's door and i could watch that door too the door of the closet which was to be my place of observation
was fitted with panels of transparent glass in the gallery where all the lamps had been lit it was quite light in the closet however it was quite dark
it was a splendid place from which to observe and remain unobserved i was soon to play the part of a spy a common policeman
i was not altogether pleased with my duties but i could not refuse rouletabille the assistance he had begged me to give him i took care not to make him see
that i in the least objected and for several reasons i wanted to oblige him i did not wish him to think me a coward i was filled with curiosity
and it was too late for me to draw back even had i determined to do so that i had not had these scruples sooner was because my curiosity had quite got the better of me
i might also urge that i was helping to save the life of a woman and even a lawyer
we returned along the gallery on reaching the door of mademoiselle stangerson's apartment it opened from a push given by the steward who was waiting at the dinner table
monsieur stangerson had for the last three days dined with his daughter in the drawing room on the first floor as the door remained open we distinctly saw mademoiselle stangerson
taking advantage of the steward's absence and while her father was stooping to pick up something he had let fall
it's time anne was in to do her sewing said marilla glancing at the clock and then out into the yellow august afternoon where everything drowsed in the heat
and now she's perched out there on the woodpile talking to matthew nineteen to the dozen when she knows perfectly well she ought to be at her work and of course he's listening to her like a perfect ninny i never saw such an infatuated man
the more he's delighted evidently anne shirley you come right in here this minute do you hear me a series of staccato taps on the west window brought anne flying in from the yard eyes shining cheeks faintly flushed with pink
unbraided hair streaming behind her in a torrent of brightness oh marilla she exclaimed breathlessly there's going to be a sunday school picnic next week
and missus superintendent bell and missus rachel lynde are going to make ice cream think of it marilla ice cream and oh marilla can i go to it just look at the clock if you please anne
what time did i tell you to come in two o'clock but isn't it splendid about the picnic marilla please can i go
i'd like to know why you didn't obey me anne why i meant to marilla as much as could be but you have no idea how fascinating idlewild is and then of course i had to tell matthew about the picnic
matthew is such a sympathetic listener please can i go you'll have to learn to resist the fascination of idle whatever you call it when i tell you to come in at a certain time
and you needn't stop to discourse with sympathetic listeners on your way either as for the picnic of course you can go you're a sunday school scholar and it's not likely i'd refuse to let you go when all the other little girls are going
but faltered anne diana says that everybody must take a basket of things to eat i can't cook as you know marilla and and
i don't mind going to a picnic without puffed sleeves so much but i'd feel terribly humiliated if i had to go without a basket it's been preying on my mind ever since diana told me well it needn't prey any longer i'll bake you a basket
getting through with her ohs anne cast herself into marilla's arms and rapturously kissed her sallow cheek it was the first time in her whole life that childish lips had voluntarily touched marilla's face
again that sudden sensation of startling sweetness thrilled her she was secretly vastly pleased at anne's impulsive caress which was probably the reason why she said brusquely there there never mind your kissing nonsense
i'd sooner see you doing strictly as you're told as for cooking i mean to begin giving you lessons in that some of these days but you're so featherbrained anne
and learn to be steady before i begin you've got to keep your wits about you in cooking and not stop in the middle of things to let your thoughts rove all over creation now get out your patchwork and have your square done before teatime
i do not like patchwork said anne dolefully
it's just one little seam after another and you never seem to be getting anywhere
i have to furnish most of the imagination but i'm well able to do that diana is simply perfect in every other way
i assure you it took me some time to think it out i stayed awake nearly a whole night before i invented it then just as i was dropping off to sleep it came like an inspiration diana was enraptured when she heard it
we have got our house fixed up elegantly you must come and see it marilla won't you we have great big stones
of course they're all broken but it's the easiest thing in the world to imagine that they are whole there's a piece of a plate with a spray of red and yellow ivy on it that is especially beautiful we keep it in the parlor and we have the fairy glass there too
the fairy glass is as lovely as a dream diana found it out in the woods behind their chicken house it's all full of rainbows just little young rainbows that haven't grown big yet and diana's mother told her it was broken off a hanging lamp they once had
but it's nice to imagine the fairies lost it one night when they had a ball so we call it the fairy glass matthew is going to make us a table oh we have named that little round pool over in mister barry's field willowmere
i got that name out of the book diana lent me that was a thrilling book marilla the heroine had five lovers i'd be satisfied with one wouldn't you she was very handsome and she
but i'm really very healthy for all i'm so thin i believe i'm getting fatter though don't you think i am i look at my elbows every morning when i get up to see if any dimples are coming diana is having
a new dress made with elbow sleeves she is going to wear it to the picnic
i suppose i'd live through it but i'm certain it would be a lifelong sorrow
they wouldn't make up for missing this one they're going to have boats on the lake of shining waters and ice cream as i told you i have never tasted ice cream diana tried to explain
what it was like but i guess ice cream is one of those things that are beyond imagination anne you have talked even on for ten minutes by the clock said marilla
anne held her tongue as desired but for the rest of the week she talked picnic and thought picnic and dreamed picnic on saturday it rained and she worked herself up into such a frantic state lest it should keep on raining until and over wednesday
that marilla made her sew an extra patchwork square by way of steadying her nerves on sunday anne confided to marilla on the way home from church
i couldn't help fearing i'd only imagined it but when a minister says a thing in the pulpit you just have to believe it
oh marilla looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them exclaimed anne you mayn't get the things themselves but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them missus lynde says
but i think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed marilla wore her amethyst brooch to church that day as usual marilla always wore her amethyst brooch to church
she would have thought it rather sacrilegious to leave it off as bad as forgetting her bible or her collection dime that amethyst brooch was marilla's most treasured possession a seafaring uncle had given it to her
mother who in turn had bequeathed it to marilla it was an old fashioned oval containing a braid of her mother's hair surrounded by a border of very fine amethysts
do you know said anne confidentially i've made up my mind to enjoy this drive
of course you must make it up firmly i am not going to think about going back to the asylum while we're having our drive i'm just going to think about the drive
isn't it lovely don't you think it must be glad to be a rose wouldn't it be nice if roses could talk i'm sure they could tell us such lovely things and isn't pink the most bewitching color in the world
i love it but i can't wear it redheaded people can't wear pink not even in imagination did you ever know of anybody whose hair was red when she was young but got to be another color when she grew up
no i don't know as i ever did said marilla mercilessly and i shouldn't think it likely to happen in your case either anne sighed well that is another hope gone my life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes
that's a sentence i read in a book once
i don't see where the comforting comes in myself said marilla why because it sounds so nice and romantic
i am so fond of romantic things and a graveyard full of buried hopes
isn't it i'm rather glad i have one are we going across the lake of shining waters today
shore road sounds nice said anne dreamily is it as nice as it sounds
but i don't like it as well as avonlea avonlea is a lovely name it just sounds like music how far is it to white sands it's five miles and as you're evidently bent on talking you might as well talk to some purpose by telling me
what you know about yourself oh what i know about myself isn't really worth telling said anne eagerly if you'll only let me tell you what i imagine about myself you'll think it ever so much more interesting no i don't want any of your imaginings
just you stick to bald facts begin at the beginning where were you born and how old are you i was eleven last march said anne resigning herself to bald facts with a little sigh and i was born in bolingbroke nova scotia
my father's name was walter shirley
my mother's name was bertha shirley aren't walter and bertha lovely names i'm so glad my parents had nice names it would be a real disgrace to have a father named well say
well i don't know anne looked thoughtful i read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet but i've never been able to believe it
i suppose my father could have been a good man even if he had been called jedediah
a husband was enough responsibility
muslin curtains give a house
i was born in that house missus thomas said i was the homeliest baby she ever saw i was so scrawny and tiny and nothing but eyes but that mother thought i was perfectly beautiful
i should think a mother would be a better judge than a poor woman who came in to scrub wouldn't you
she died of fever when i was just three months old i do wish she'd lived long enough for me to remember calling her mother i think it would be so sweet to say mother don't you and father died four days afterwards from fever too
that left me an orphan and folks were at their wits end so missus thomas said what to do with me you see nobody wanted me even then it seems to be my fate father and mother had both come from places far away
and it was well known they hadn't any relatives living finally missus thomas said she'd take me though she was poor and had a drunken husband she brought me up by hand do you know if there is anything in being brought up by hand that ought to make people who are brought up that way better than other people
then mister thomas was killed falling under a train and his mother offered to take missus thomas and the children but she didn't want me missus thomas was at her wits end so she said what to do with me
then missus hammond from up the river came down and said she'd take me seeing i was handy with children
mister hammond worked a little sawmill up there and missus hammond had eight children she had twins three times i like babies in moderation but twins three times in succession is too much i told missus hammond so firmly when the last pair came
i used to get so dreadfully tired carrying them about i lived up river with missus hammond over two years and then mister hammond died and missus hammond broke up housekeeping she divided her children among her relatives and went to the states
because nobody would take me they didn't want me at the asylum either they said they were over crowded as it was but they had to take me and i was there four months until missus spencer came anne finished up with another sigh of relief this time
evidently she did not like talking about her experiences in a world that had not wanted her did you ever go to school demanded marilla turning the sorrel mare down the shore road
when i went up river we were so far from a school that i couldn't walk it in winter and there was a vacation in summer
were those women missus thomas and missus hammond good to you
looking at anne out of the corner of her eye
her sensitive little face suddenly flushed scarlet and embarrassment sat on her brow oh they meant to be i know they meant to be just as good and kind as possible and when people mean to be good to you you don't mind very much when they're not quite always they had a good deal to worry them you know
twins three times in succession don't you think but i feel sure they meant to be good to me marilla asked no more questions anne gave herself up to a silent rapture over the shore road and marilla guided the sorrel abstractedly
while she pondered deeply pity was suddenly stirring in her heart for the child what a starved unloved life she had had a life of drudgery and poverty and neglect
he was set on it and the child seemed a nice teachable little thing she's got too much to say thought marilla
the shore road was woodsy and wild and lonesome on the right hand scrub firs their spirits quite unbroken by long years of tussle with the gulf winds grew thickly
beyond lay the sea shimmering and blue and over it soared the gulls their pinions flashing silvery in the sunlight isn't the sea wonderful said anne rousing from a long wide eyed silence once when i lived in marysville
i enjoyed every moment of that day even if i had to look after the children all the time
and what are your eyes popping out of your head about now asked marilla when anne had just come in from a run to the post office have you discovered another kindred spirit excitement hung around anne like a garment
kindled in every feature she had come dancing up the lane like a wind blown sprite through the mellow sunshine and lazy shadows of the august evening no marilla but oh what do you think
i am invited to tea at the manse tomorrow afternoon missus allan left the letter for me at the post office just look at it marilla miss anne shirley green gables that is the first time i was ever called miss
such a thrill as it gave me i shall cherish it forever among my choicest treasures missus allan told me she meant to have all the members of her sunday school class to tea in turn
said marilla regarding the wonderful event very coolly you needn't get in such a fever over it do learn to take things calmly child for anne to take things calmly
as she was the pleasures and pains of life came to her with trebled intensity marilla felt this and was vaguely troubled over it realizing that the ups and downs of existence would probably bear hardly
on this impulsive soul and not sufficiently understanding that the equally great capacity for delight might more than compensate therefore marilla conceived it to be her duty to drill anne
she did not make much headway as she sorrowfully admitted to herself the downfall of some dear hope or plan plunged anne into deeps of affliction the fulfillment
thereof exalted her to dizzy realms of delight marilla had almost begun to despair of ever fashioning this waif of the world into her model little girl of demure manners and prim deportment
neither would she have believed that she really liked anne much better as she was anne went to bed that night speechless with misery because matthew had said the wind was round northeast and he feared it would be a rainy day tomorrow
the rustle of the poplar leaves about the house worried her it sounded so like pattering raindrops and the full faraway roar of the gulf to which she listened delightedly
at other times loving its strange sonorous haunting rhythm now seemed like a prophecy of storm and disaster to a small maiden who particularly wanted a fine day
anne thought that the morning would never come but all things have an end even nights before the day on which you are invited to take tea at the manse the morning
in spite of matthew's predictions was fine and anne's spirits soared to their highest oh marilla there is something in me today that makes me just love everybody i see she exclaimed
as she washed the breakfast dishes you don't know how good i feel wouldn't it be nice if it could last i believe i could be a model child if i were just invited out to tea every day
but oh marilla it's a solemn occasion too i feel so anxious what if i shouldn't behave properly you know i never had tea at a manse before
and i'm not sure that i know all the rules of etiquette although i've been studying the rules given in the etiquette department of the family herald ever since i came here i'm so afraid i'll do something silly
is that you're thinking too much about yourself you should just think of missus allan and what would be nicest and most agreeable to her said marilla hitting for once in her life on a very sound and pithy piece of advice
anne instantly realized this you are right marilla
anne evidently got through her visit without any serious breach of etiquette for she came home through the twilight under a great high sprung sky gloried over with trails of saffron and rosy cloud
in a beatified state of mind and told marilla all about it happily sitting on the big red sandstone slab at the kitchen door with her tired curly head in marilla's gingham lap
a cool wind was blowing down over the long harvest fields from the rims of firry western hills and whistling through the poplars one clear star
in and out among the ferns and rustling boughs
as she talked and somehow felt that wind and stars and fireflies were all tangled up together into something unutterably sweet and enchanting oh marilla
i've had a most fascinating time i feel that i have not lived in vain and i shall always feel like that even if i should never be invited to tea at a manse again
when i got there missus allan met me at the door she was dressed in the sweetest dress of pale pink organdy with dozens of frills and elbow sleeves
and she looked just like a seraph i really think i'd like to be a minister's wife when i grow up marilla a minister mightn't mind my red hair because he wouldn't be thinking of such worldly things
but then of course one would have to be naturally good and i'll never be that so i suppose there's no use in thinking about it some people are naturally good you know and others are not
i'm one of the others missus lynde says i'm full of original sin no matter how hard i try to be good i can never make such a success of it as those who are naturally good it's a good deal like geometry i expect
ought to count for something missus allan is one of the naturally good people i love her passionately you know there are some people like matthew and missus allan that you can love right off without any trouble
and there are others like missus lynde that you have to try very hard to love you know you ought to love them
from the white sands sunday school her name was laurette bradley
after tea missus allan played and sang and she got lauretta and me to sing too missus allan says i have a good voice and she says i must sing in the sunday school choir after this you can't think
how i was thrilled at the mere thought i've longed so to sing in the sunday school choir as diana does but i feared it was an honor i could never aspire to lauretta had to go home early
because there is a big concert in the white sands hotel tonight and her sister is to recite at it
in aid of the charlottetown hospital
lauretta said she expected to be asked herself someday i
after she had gone missus allan and i had a heart to heart talk i told her everything about missus thomas and the twins
and coming to green gables and my troubles over geometry and would you believe it marilla missus allan told me she was a dunce at geometry too
the trustees have hired a new teacher and it's a lady her name is miss muriel stacy isn't that a romantic name missus lynde says they've never had a female teacher in avonlea before
but i think it will be splendid to have a lady teacher
chapter six marilla makes up her mind get there they did however in due season missus spencer lived in a big yellow house at white sands cove
and she came to the door with surprise and welcome mingled on her benevolent face dear dear she exclaimed you're the last folks i was looking for today but i'm real glad to see you you'll put your horse in and how are you anne
i'm as well as can be expected thank you said anne smilelessly a blight seemed to have descended on her
but i promised matthew i'd be home early the fact is missus spencer there's been a queer mistake somewhere and i've come over to see where it is we send word matthew and i for you to bring us a boy from the asylum
said missus spencer in distress why robert sent word down by his daughter nancy and she said you wanted a girl didn't she flora jane
appealing to her daughter who had come out to the steps she certainly did miss cuthbert corroborated flora jane earnestly
said missus spencer it's too bad but it certainly wasn't my fault you see miss cuthbert i did the best i could and i thought i was following your instructions nancy is a terrible flighty thing i've often had to scold her well for her heedlessness
it was our own fault said marilla resignedly
anyhow the mistake has been made
can we send the child back to the asylum i suppose they'll take her back won't they i suppose so said missus spencer thoughtfully but i don't think it will be necessary to send her back missus peter blewett was up here yesterday
and she finds it hard to get help anne will be the very girl for you i call it positively providential marilla did not look as if she thought providence had much to do with the matter
and she did not even feel grateful for it she knew missus peter blewett only by sight as a small shrewish faced woman
but she had heard of her a terrible worker and driver missus peter was said to be and discharged servant girls told fearsome tales of her temper and stinginess
and her family of pert quarrelsome children marilla felt a qualm of conscience at the thought of handing anne over to her tender mercies
exclaimed missus spencer bustling her guests through the hall into the parlor where a deadly chill struck on them
as if the air had been strained so long through dark green closely drawn blinds that it had lost every particle of warmth it had ever possessed
take the armchair miss cuthbert anne you sit here on the ottoman and don't wiggle
good afternoon missus blewett we were just saying how fortunate
with her hands clasped tightly in her lap stared at missus blewett as one fascinated was she to be given into the keeping of this sharp faced sharp eyed woman she felt a lump coming up in her throat
she was beginning to be afraid she couldn't keep the tears back when missus spencer returned flushed and beaming quite capable of taking any and every difficulty physical mental or spiritual into consideration and settling it out of hand
it seems there's been a mistake about this little girl missus blewett she said i was under the impression that mister and miss cuthbert wanted a little girl to adopt
missus blewett darted her eyes over anne from head to foot how old are you and what's your name she demanded anne shirley faltered the shrinking child not daring to make any
stipulations regarding the spelling thereof and i'm eleven years old humph
good and smart and respectful i'll expect you to earn your keep and no mistake about that yes i suppose i might as well take her off your hands miss cuthbert the baby's awful fractious
and i'm clean worn out attending to him
and softened at sight of the child's pale face with its look of mute misery the misery of a helpless little creature who finds itself once more
if she denied the appeal of that look it would haunt her to her dying day more over she did not fancy missus blewett to hand a sensitive highstrung child over to such a woman
no she could not take the responsibility of doing that well
i didn't say that matthew and i had absolutely decided that we wouldn't keep her in fact i may say that matthew is disposed to keep her i just came over to find out how the mistake had occurred i think i'd better take her home again and talk it over with matthew
if we make up our mind not to keep her we'll bring or send her over to you tomorrow night if we don't you may know that she is going to stay with us will that suit you missus blewett
ungraciously during marilla's speech a sunrise had been dawning on anne's face first the look of despair faded out then came a faint flush of hope her eyes grew deep and bright as morning stars the child was quite transfigured
went out in quest of a recipe the latter had come to borrow she sprang up and flew across the room to marilla
she said in a breathless whisper as if speaking aloud might shatter the glorious possibility did you really say it or did i only imagine that you did i think you'd better learn to control that imagination of yours anne
if you can't distinguish between what is real and what isn't said marilla crossly
said anne passionately she looks exactly like a like a gimlet marilla smothered a smile under the conviction that anne must be reproved for such a speech
a little girl like you should be ashamed of talking so about a lady and a stranger she said severely go back and sit down quietly and hold your tongue and behave as a good girl should
if you'll only keep me said anne returning meekly to her ottoman when they arrived back at green gables that evening matthew met them in the lane marilla from afar had noted him prowling along it and guessed his motive
she was prepared for the relief she read in his face
but she said nothing to him relative to the affair until they were both out in the yard behind the barn milking the cows then she briefly told him anne's history and the result of the interview with missus spencer i wouldn't give a dog i liked to that blewett woman
said matthew with unusual vim i don't fancy her style myself admitted marilla but it's that or keeping her ourselves matthew
i've been thinking over the idea
i've never brought up a child especially a girl and i dare say i'll make a terrible mess of it but i'll do my best so far as i'm concerned matthew she may stay matthew's shy face was a glow of delight
it'd be more to the point if you could say she was a useful little thing retorted marilla but i'll make it my business to see she's trained to be that and mind matthew you're not to go interfering with my methods
so you just leave me to manage her when i fail it'll be time enough to put your oar in
only be as good and kind to her as you can without spoiling her i kind of think she's one of the sort you can do anything with if you only get her to love you
and walked off to the dairy with the pails
she reflected as she strained the milk into the creamers
marilla cuthbert you're fairly in for it did you ever suppose you'd see the day when you'd be adopting an orphan girl it's surprising enough
chapter sixteen the battle of the stallions the trail grew hotter as they advanced see satan's running now the pursuers increased their speed
the wild horses trot had by this time become leaps as the followers could plainly see from the trail that had been left behind satan and his band were traveling in single file
no doubt of it at all but he didn't know it was just then he only knew it was a horse he knows now that the other bunch is ahead of him how do you know that queried tad
then the angel must be afraid is that it not much he wants to find a better place in which to fight this place is bad medicine for a horse battle they're all heading for the mesas just as i thought first the cowboy was leaning well forward in his saddle
eyes on the trail instead of looking ahead tad on the contrary was straining his eyes hoping to catch sight of the two bands of fleeing horses but not a sign of them did he see bud was the first to inform him that they were nearing the object of their chase
let up a little and don't talk in a loud tone we don't want to disturb them nor let either of the bands get an idea they are followed they might race off to some other part of the range we want to catch them all later if we can their ponies were slowed down to a trot
with bud stevens leading all at once he held up his hand for a halt tad pulled up shortly
bud shook his head not yet we're close to them though jump off and tether your nag we've got to go on afoot they'll smell our ponies if we ride any further
moving rapidly the man and the boy led their mounts in among the trees where they made them fast with the stake ropes then both started on a jog trot along the trail
don't know hope it's not far or we're liable to miss the show
hark hear that exclaimed bud yes what was it they're lining up for the battle that was a stallion's scream of defiance
there goes the other one that's the angel telling satan to come on and fight now satan's answering him it was all just so much noise to tad butler the meaning of the harsh sounds conveyed nothing to him but to bud stevens they were full of meaning
careful now we're getting near both men sped along as fast as their feet would carry them but without making a sound that might have been heard a dozen yards away hist warned bud crouching low grasping his companion by the arm
he crept to the right finally emerging from behind a rise of ground which had shielded their progress look there he whispered tad looked below him lay a broad open mesa its upper end within a stone's throw of where he stood
but that was not what attracted his attention a band of horses of many colors and sizes stood arrayed on each side of the little plain
pawing the earth and uttering shrill challenges on the other side of the field was the angel he was not pawing the earth instead he was standing proudly his curving neck beautifully arched his pink nostrils distended and held high
what a wonderful animal said tad under his breath and that black i can understand why he is called satan what are they going to do fight don't you understand they're getting ready to settle their old score
and a merry mix up it'll be replied the cowboy in a whisper yes yes breathed tad scarcely able to curb his excitement there they go
as they neared it each swerved to his right and dashed by avoiding his opponent act as if they were afraid of each other said tad they're not they're trying each other out sparring for an opening as it were
it was returned by one of triumph from his antagonist
they may you can't tell hope there won't be a knock out cause we want both of those fellows and we'll get them too i tell you we're in luck this trip
changing their method of attack the fighters began rushing whirling kicking and so timing their blows that their hind feet met with a crash that might have been heard a long distance away the shiny coat of the black did not show that he had been wounded
a vicious charge of satan's threw the angel from his feet he struck the hard ground with a mighty snort but was on his feet in an instant returning to the charge mouth open feet pawing the air
the two men could see the eyes of the desperate antagonists fairly blaze while their shrill cries thrilled tad through and through never in his life had he gazed upon such a scene two giants of the equine world engaged in mortal combat
it was a scene calculated to make the blood course more rapidly through the veins of the boy who himself possessed so much courage
there was no indication as to which this would be they seemed equally matched and thus far honors had been about even think the black can whip him he asked don't know kiddie i'll make a bet with you take your choice thank you i don't bet answered the lad
if i did i couldn't bring myself to lay a wager on those two beautiful creatures that are trying to kill each other ah there goes the black flat on his back before satan could rise the hoofs of the white one had been driven against him with unerring aim
yet the blow while it must have hurt served to assist satan to roll over
each animal fastened his teeth in the flanks of the other at the same instant and when they tore themselves apart each was limping on each side of the field
only to be recalled by a sharp whinny from its mother it's queer they do not take a hand marveled tad no they never do
what you'll see when the time comes now watch them go at it and they did it appeared as if each of the combatants was determined to put a quick end to the conflict
blow after blow resounded from their hoofs now one of the contestants would stagger and fall only to be up and at his adversary while their lithe supple bodies flashed in the bright sunlight till the watchers eyes were dizzy from following their rapid evolutions
i wish the boys might see this breathed tad fascinated by the sight in spite of himself so do i grinned bud did you ever see a battle of this kind asked the lad not like this
why not they seem as strong as when they began they are but they're getting careless they're taking longer chances every round first thing you know one of them will get kicked into the middle of next week whoop that was a dandy
the angel had planted both hind hoofs fairly on the side of satan's head satan had gone down but when the white stallion made a leap with the intention of springing upon his prostrate victim the black rolled to one side
and in a twinkling had fastened his teeth upon his adversary's leg only for a brief second did he cling there then throwing himself out of the way sprang to his feet the two animals met with a terrific crash head on
biting kicking screaming out their wild challenges of defiance the battle waxed hotter faster and more furious the mares in the herds showed signs of uneasiness
they might have been observed tossing their heads and shifting almost nervously on their feet but making no effort to move away or out into the field
which one i don't know but how can they tell that if we are unable to see either one of them weakening more ghost telegraphy i guess answered bud not for an instant removing his gaze from the fascinating scene before him
he too was becoming excited he could scarcely restrain himself all at once despite his caution bud stevens uttered a whoop the black's got him no the angel's got him shouted tad butler excitedly
no he hasn't it's the black i tell you see there he's kicked the angel halfway across the mesa now it was the angel's turn to do some kicking he did and with terrific effect both hind hoofs were planted in the black's abdomen not once but again and again
yet the black was not thus easily defeated with the sledge hammer blows raining all over him he struggled to his feet and with a desperate lunge fastened himself upon the neck of his adversary
the white with a mighty toss of his powerful neck threw satan off the fore feet of the angel smiting and knocking satan down then followed a series of gatling gun like reports as the angel's hind hoofs beat a tattoo on the head of his prostrate victim
the black was conquered
in another person in other circumstances
as one of inquiry and wonder but neither inquiry nor wonder described the present situation and i put myself upon my guard seeing me look her way she flushed and throwing wide the door remarked in the pleasantest of tones
this is your room missus packard says that if it is not large enough or does not seem pleasant to you she will find you another one to morrow
i could not be more comfortable she smiled a trifle broadly for the occasion i thought and patted a pillow here and twitched a curtain there as she remarked with a certain emphasis i'm sure you will be comfortable there's nobody else on this floor but letty and the baby
but you don't look as if you would be easily frightened astonished not so much by her words as by the furtive look she gave me i laughed as i repeated frightened what should frighten me oh nothing her back was to me now but i felt that i knew her very look
nothing of course if you're not timid you won't mind sleeping so far away from every one then we are always within call the attic door is just a few steps off we'll leave it unlocked and you can come up if if you feel like it at any time
we'll understand understand i eyed her as she again looked my way with some of her own curiosity if not wonder missus packard must have had some very timorous guests i observed
the house is so large and imposing for the quarter it is in i can readily imagine it to attract burglars burglars it would be a brave burglar who would try to get in here i guess you never heard about this house no i admitted
unpleasantly divided between a wish to draw her out and the fear of betraying mayor packard's trust in me by showing the extent of my interest well it's only gossip she laughingly assured me you needn't think of it miss
i'm sure you'll be all right we girls have been so far and missus packard here she doubtless heard a voice outside or some summons from below for she made a quick start toward the door
dinner at seven miss there'll be no extra company to night i'm coming this to some one in the hall as she hastily passed through the door dropping the bag i had lifted to unpack i stared at the door which had softly closed under her hand
then with an odd impulse turned to look at my own face in the glass before which i chanced to be standing did i expect to find there some evidence of the excitement which this strange conversation might naturally produce
in one already keyed up to an expectation of the mysterious and unusual if so i was not disappointed my features certainly betrayed the effect of this unexpected attack upon my professional equanimity what did the girl mean
what was she hinting at what underlay what could underlie her surprising remark i guess you never heard about this house something worth my knowing something which might explain mayor packard's fears and missus packard's there i stopped
it was where the girl had stopped she and not i must round out this uncompleted sentence meanwhile i occupied myself in unpacking my two bags and making acquaintance with the room which
i felt was destined to be the scene of many anxious thoughts its first effect had been a cheerful one owing to its two large windows one looking out on a stretch of clear sky above a mass of low huddled buildings
and the other on the wall of the adjacent house which though near enough to obstruct the view was not near enough to exclude all light another and closer scrutiny of the room did not alter the first impression
to the advantages of light were added those of dainty furnishing and an exceptionally pleasing color scheme there was no richness anywhere but an attractive harmony which gave one an instantaneous feeling of home
from the little brass bedstead curtained with cretonne to the tiny desk filled with everything needful for immediate use i saw evidences of the most careful housekeeping and was vainly asking myself what could have come into missus packard's life
to disturb so wholesome a nature when my attention was arrested by a picture hanging at the right of the window overlooking the next house it gave promise of being a most interesting sketch and i crossed over to examine it
but instead of doing so found my eyes drawn toward something more vital than any picture and twice as enchaining it was a face the face of an old woman staring down at me from a semicircular opening in the gable of the adjoining house
an ordinary circumstance in itself but made extraordinary by the fixity of her gaze which was leveled straight on mine and the uncommon expression of breathless eagerness which gave force to her otherwise commonplace features
so remarkable was this expression and so apparently was it directed against myself that i felt like throwing up my window and asking the poor old creature what i could do for her but her extreme immobility deterred me
for all the intentness of her look there was no invitation in it warranting such an advance on my part she simply stared down at me in unbroken anxiety nor though i watched her for some minutes with an intensity equal to her own
did i detect any change either in her attitude or expression odd thought i and tested her with a friendly bow the demonstration failed to produce the least impression
a most uncanny neighbor was my mental comment on finally turning away truly i was surrounded by mysteries but fortunately this was one with which i had no immediate concern
it did not take me long to put away my few belongings and prepare for dinner when quite ready i sat down to write a letter this completed i turned to go downstairs
the old woman was still there as our glances met i experienced a thrill which was hardly one of sympathy yet was not exactly one of fear my impulse was to pull down the shade between us but i had not the heart
she was so old so feeble and so evidently the prey of some strange and fixed idea what idea it was not for me to say but i found it impossible to make any move which would seem to shut her out so i left the shade up
but her image followed me and i forgot it only when confronted once again with missus packard that lady was awaiting me at the dining room door she had succeeded in throwing off her secret depression and smiled quite naturally as i approached
her easy courteous manners became her wonderfully i immediately recognized how much there was to admire in our mayor's wife and quite understood his relief when a few minutes later we sat at table and conversation began
missus packard when free and light hearted was a delightful companion and the meal passed off cheerily when we rose and the mayor left us for some necessary business it was with a look of satisfaction in my direction
which was the best possible preparation for my approaching tete a tete with his moody and incomprehensible wife but i was not destined to undergo the contemplated ordeal this evening guests were announced
whom missus packard kindly invited me to meet but i begged to be allowed to enjoy the library i had too much to consider just now to find any pleasure in society three questions filled my mind what was missus packard's secret trouble
why were people afraid to remain in this house why did the old woman next door show such interest in the new member of her neighbor's household would a single answer cover all was there but one cause for each and every one of these peculiarities
probably and it was my duty to ferret out this cause but how should i begin i remembered what i had read about detectives and their methods but the help i thus received was small subtler methods were demanded here
and subtler methods i must find meantime i would hope for another talk with mayor packard he might clear up some of this fog at least i should like to give him the opportunity but i saw no way of reaching him at present
even missus packard did not feel at liberty to disturb him in his study i must wait for his reappearance and in the meantime divert myself as best i could i caught up a magazine but speedily dropped it to cast a quick glance around the room had i heard anything
no the house was perfectly still save for the sound of conversation in the drawing room yet i found it hard to keep my eyes upon the page quite without my volition they flew first to one corner then to another the room was light
there were no shadowy nooks in it yet i felt an irresistible desire to peer into every place not directly under my eye i knew it to be folly and after succumbing to the temptation of taking a sly look behind a certain tall screen
i resolutely set myself to curb my restlessness and to peruse in good earnest the article i had begun to make sure of myself i articulated each word aloud and to my exceeding satisfaction had reached the second column
when i found my voice trailing off into silence and every sense alarmingly alert yet there was nothing absolutely nothing in this well lighted cozy family room to awaken fear i was sure of this the next minute
and felt correspondingly irritated with myself and deeply humiliated that my nerves should play me such a trick at the very outset of my business in this house that i could not be left alone with life in every part of the house
and the sound of the piano and cheerful talking just across the hall without the sense of the morbid and unearthly entering my matter of fact brain uttering an ejaculation of contempt i reseated myself the impulse came again to look behind me
i already knew every feature of the room its old fashioned mantel large round center table its couches and chairs and why should i waste my attention again upon them is there anything you wish miss
asked a voice directly over my shoulder i wheeled about with a start
it was not sound which had disturbed me the library bell rang continued the voice is it ice water you want then i saw that it was nixon the butler and shook my head in mingled anger and perplexity for not only had he advanced quite noiselessly
but he was looking at me with that curious concentrated gaze which i had met twice before since coming into this house i need nothing said i
the man had no business here i did not ring and i don't believe he thought i did he merely wanted to see what i was doing and whether i was enjoying myself why this curiosity i have never roused it anywhere else
but the cause and purpose of my presence under this roof i paused to wonder over the fact that the one member of the family who might be supposed to resent my intrusion most was the one who took it most kindly and with least token of surprise
missus packard she accepts me easily enough thought i to her i am a welcome companion what am i to these the answer
and seeing me alone came forward briskly missus packard has company and i am on my way to the drawing room but i am happy to have the opportunity of assuring you that already she looks better and that i begin to hope that your encouraging presence may stimulate her
to throw aside her gloom and needless apprehensions i shall be eternally grateful to you if it will
i failed to feel the same elation over this possibly temporary improvement in his wife's condition but i carefully refrained from betraying my doubts on the contrary i took advantage of the moment to clear my mind of one of the many perplexities disturbing it
and i am glad of this opportunity to ask you what may seem a foolish if not impertinent question the maid ellen in showing me my room was very careful to assure me
in a house full of people made the remark i guess you do not know about this house will you pardon me if i ask if there is anything i don't know and should know about the home your suffering wife inhabits a problem such as you have given me to solve
capable of creating disturbance in a sensitive mind the mayor's short laugh failed to hide his annoyance you will find nothing in this direction said he to account for the condition i have mentioned to you
missus packard is utterly devoid of superstition that i made sure of before signing the lease of this old house but i forgot you are doubtless ignorant of its reputation it has or rather has had the name of being haunted
ridiculous of course but a fact with which missus packard has had to contend in he gave me a quick glance in hiring servants it was now my turn to smile but somehow i did not
a vision had risen in my mind of that blank and staring face in the attic window next door and i felt well i don't know how i felt but i did not smile another short laugh escaped him
we have not been favored by any manifestations from the spiritual world this has proved a very matter of fact sort of home for us i had almost forgotten that it was burdened with such an uncanny reputation and i'm sure that missus packard would have shared my indifference
i judge that you rent it yes we rent it and we have been here two months it was the only house i could get in a locality convenient for me besides the old place suits me it would take more than an obsolete ghost or so to scare me away from what i like
but missus packard she may not be a superstitious woman yet don't be fanciful miss saunders you will have to look deeper than that for the spell which has been cast over my wife olympia afraid of creaks and groans olympia seeing sights
she's much too practical by nature miss saunders to say nothing of the fact that she would certainly have confided her trouble to me had her imagination been stirred in this way little things have invariably been discussed between us i repeat
that this possibility should not give you a moment's thought a burst of sweet singing came from the drawing room that's her voice he cried whatever her trouble may be she has forgotten it for the moment excuse me if i join her
it is such pleasure to have her at all like herself again i longed to detain him longed to put some of the numberless questions my awakened curiosity demanded but his impatience was too marked and i let him depart without another word
bud promises some excitement the horse hunter and his young companion
the trail rose slowly to pass between low buttes leading on under the great spreading joshua trees that capped the range itself off to the east and south of them plainly exposed to view
lay the yellow stretch of the ralston valley that went on and on until it eventually terminated in death valley the dry lake beds in the desert looked with the sun shining on them like great pearls set in the desert maze
it's a pretty bad time to cross the desert now
as they moved slowly along the cowboy horse hunter explained many of the secrets of the trail to his young companion
it's a peculiar thing kiddie but hosses wild or tame are like human beings in some ways they like to get back home
wild horses always will go back to the range where they were born sometimes they run away from the range ahead of a storm sometimes they are captured and taken away but if they ever get the chance back they go to the place where they were born angel was born in this range
and so were most of the mares and others that have come over with him when a halfbreed cherokee came into camp and told us the band of horses was seen stretched out on the mesa on the other side i knew they were getting ready to hike across the desert so we prepared to come here
tad was listening intently all this was new to him and much of it not entirely understandable
next time you see a lot of horses stretched out on the ground on their sides heads close to the ground all looking as if they were asleep you'll know there's a big storm coming why do they do that
before running away from the storm that they know is coming
bud stevens don't know nobody knows a fellow with whiskers and wearing spectacles one of of them scientific gents told me once that it was a kind of wireless telegraph that newfangled way of sending ghost messages said they got it in the air
mebby they do i don't know they get it sometimes you'll see the colts running up and down that's another sign of storm that's strange i never heard it before mused the lad
and speaking of colts did you ever know that sometimes a band of horses will take a great fancy to a frisky young colt no yes they'll follow the colt for days with their eyes big and full of admiration for the awkward critter and they'll fight for him too
but tisn't often necessary cause very few horses will bother a colt ever see a hoss fight
grinned the cowboy hope you don't lay it up against me laughed tad
i got what was coming to me coming on the run
yes i'm riding on their footprints now that's all right then don't want to let it get away from us
for the mesas up the range further there's plenty of grazing there and there must be water close by what we want to do to day is to locate them and find out just where they go for their water then when the schooner gets down to your camp
we'll haul our outfit up in the range and build a corral to drive them into do you always make a capture us no sometimes the leaders of the band are too smart for us they beat us proper why they're sharper than a goldfield real estate man
and those fellows would make you believe an alkali desert was a pine forest look there interrupted tad pointing what is it kiddie demanded the horse hunter pulling up sharply
stevens rode over to the other side of tad and gazed down his forehead wrinkling in a frown yes that's the angel don't know what he's side tracked himself here for
he's either seen or scented something hold my pony while i take a look the cowboy dismounted striding rapidly away with gaze fixed on the trail ahead of him a few moments later he returned find anything asked tad
the big one scented something or thought he did but where did he go turned just beyond here and followed along the same way the others were going
i'd like to know what he thought he smelled mused bud i didn't know horses could scent a person or thing like that what horses
there's the white stallion's trail again exclaimed the lad bud nodded
for the next hour they rode along without anything of incident occurring tad constantly adding to his store of knowledge regarding mountain and plain the lad was himself a natural plainsman and proved himself an apt pupil all at once
bud pulled up his pony sharply and studied the ground what is it questioned tad
cried the cowboy exultingly you
yes and more come this way and i'll show you see this trail tad nodded well it was made by another band of horses the announcement did not strike tad as especially significant they headed for the mesas too
looks that way grinned bud and they're headed for trouble at the same time
and you and i want to be on hand to hear the first tune tad gazed at him questioningly this second bunch of horses is led by a big black stallion known to the hunters as satan he's up to his name too he's one of the most vicious cayuses on the open range
don't you see what this trail means the lad confessed that he did not it means that satan is on the trail of the angel
will they fight will they fight scoffed bud stevens guess you never saw two wild stallions mix it up no there's bad blood between satan and the angel and there has been for a long time the black stallion has been on the white one's trail for more than a year
if they don't look out we'll bag the whole bunch i wish our outfit was here i suppose we ought to hustle back and get ready for the drive
come on we'll have to ride fast
chapter two when so much has been written about charles strickland it may seem unnecessary that i should write more a painter's monument is his work
and i saw him not infrequently during the difficult years he spent in paris but i do not suppose i should ever have set down my recollections if the hazards of the war had not taken me to tahiti
there as is notorious he spent the last years of his life and there i came across persons who were familiar with him i find myself in a position to throw light on just that part of his tragic career
which has remained most obscure if they who believe in strickland's greatness are right the personal narratives of such as knew him in the flesh
can hardly be superfluous what would we not give for the reminiscences of someone who had been as intimately acquainted with el greco as i was with strickland
but i seek refuge in no such excuses i forget who it was that recommended men for their soul's good to do each day two things they disliked
for every day i have got up and i have gone to bed
i have never failed to read the literary supplement of the times it is a salutary discipline to consider the vast number of books that are written the fair hopes with which their authors see them published and
the fate which awaits them what chance is there that any book will make its way among that multitude and the successful books are but the successes of a season heaven knows what pains the author has been at
or to while away the tedium of a journey and if i may judge from the reviews many of these books are well and carefully written
the moral i draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of his thought and indifferent to aught else care nothing for praise or censure
failure or success now the war has come
those who come after us will move the younger generation conscious of strength and tumultuous have done with knocking at the door they have burst in and seated themselves in our seats
the air is noisy with their shouts of their elders some by imitating the antics of youth strive to persuade themselves that their day is not yet over
the war cry sounds hollow in their mouth they are like poor wantons attempting with pencil paint and powder with shrill gaiety to recover the illusion of their spring
the wiser go their way with a decent grace in their chastened smile is an indulgent mockery they remember that they too trod down a sated generation with just such clamor and
with just such scorn and they foresee that these brave torch bearers will presently yield their place also there is no last word
the new evangel was old when nineveh reared her greatness to the sky
the pendulum swings backwards and forwards the circle is ever travelled anew sometimes a man survives a considerable time
from an era in which he had his place into one which is strange to him and then the curious are offered one of the most singular spectacles in the human comedy who now for example thinks of george crabbe
he was a famous poet in his day and the world recognised his genius with a unanimity which the greater complexity of modern life has rendered infrequent he had learnt his craft at the school of alexander pope and
he wrote moral stories in rhymed couplets then came the french revolution and the napoleonic wars and the poets sang new songs
mister crabbe continued to write moral stories in rhymed couplets i think he must have read the verse of these young men who were making so great a stir in the world and i fancy he found it poor stuff of course much of it was
but the odes of keats and of wordsworth a poem or two by coleridge a few more by shelley discovered vast realms of the spirit that none had explored before mister crabbe was as dead as mutton but
mister crabbe continued to write moral stories in rhymed couplets i have read desultorily the writings of the younger generation it may be that among them a more fervid keats a more ethereal shelley
has already published numbers the world will willingly remember i cannot tell i admire their polish their youth is already so accomplished that it seems absurd to speak of promise
i marvel at the felicity of their style but with all their copiousness their vocabulary suggests that they fingered roget's thesaurus in their cradles they say nothing to me
to my mind they know too much and feel too obviously i cannot stomach the heartiness with which they slap me on the back or the emotion with which they hurl themselves on my bosom
and their dreams a trifle dull i do not like them i am on the shelf i will continue to write moral stories in rhymed couplets but
i should be thrice a fool if i did it for aught but my own entertainment
but all this is by the way i was very young when i wrote my first book by a lucky chance it excited attention and various persons sought my acquaintance
it is not without melancholy that i wander among my recollections of the world of letters in london when first bashful but eager i was introduced to it it is long since i frequented it and
if the novels that describe its present singularities are accurate
the venue is different chelsea and bloomsbury have taken the place of hampstead notting hill gate and high street kensington
but now to be more than twenty five is absurd
the more obvious forms of pretentiousness
but i do not remember so crude a promiscuity as seems to be practised in the present day we did not think it hypocritical to draw over our vagaries the curtain of a decent silence
the spade was not invariably called a bloody shovel woman had not yet altogether come into her own
i lived near victoria station and i recall long excursions by bus to the hospitable houses of the literary in my timidity i wandered up and down the street while i screwed up my courage to ring the bell and then
sick with apprehension was ushered into an airless room full of people i was introduced to this celebrated person after that one and the kind words they said about my book made me excessively uncomfortable
i felt they expected me to say clever things and i never could think of any till after the party was over i tried to conceal my embarrassment by handing round cups of tea and rather ill cut bread and butter
i wanted no one to take notice of me so that i could observe these famous creatures at my ease and listen to the clever things they said
i have a recollection of large unbending women with great noses and rapacious eyes who wore their clothes as though they were armour and of little mouse like spinsters with soft voices and a shrewd glance
i never ceased to be fascinated by their persistence in eating buttered toast with their gloves on and i observed with admiration the unconcern with which they wiped their fingers on their chair when they thought no one was looking
it must have been bad for the furniture but i suppose the hostess took her revenge on the furniture of her friends when in turn she visited them some of them were dressed fashionably
never prevented an editor from taking your stuff
the men were seldom eccentric in appearance they tried to look as little like authors as possible
they ever seemed to me quite real i remember that i thought their conversation brilliant and i used to listen with astonishment to
the artist has this advantage over the rest of the world that his friends offer not only their appearance and their character to his satire but also their work
i despaired of ever expressing myself with such aptness or with such fluency in those days conversation was still cultivated as an art
the epigram not yet a mechanical appliance by which the dull may achieve a semblance of wit gave sprightliness to the small talk of the urbane it is sad that i can remember nothing of all this scintillation
but i think the conversation never settled down so comfortably as when it turned to the details of the trade which was the other side of the art we practised
when we had done discussing the merits of the latest book it was natural to wonder how many copies had been sold what advance the author had received and how much he was likely to make out of it
then we would speak of this publisher and of that comparing the generosity of one with the meanness of another we would argue whether it was better to go to one who gave handsome royalties
or to another who pushed a book for all it was worth some advertised badly and some well some were modern and some were old fashioned then we would talk of agents and the offers they had obtained for us
of editors and the sort of contributions they welcomed how much they paid a thousand and whether they paid promptly or otherwise
chapter four no one was kinder to me at that time than rose waterford she combined a masculine intelligence with a feminine perversity and the novels she wrote were original and disconcerting
it was at her house one day that i met charles strickland's wife miss waterford was giving a tea party and her small room was more than usually full everyone seemed to be talking and i sitting in silence felt awkward but
rose waterford cast down her eyes demurely to give greater effect to her reply she gives luncheon parties
rose waterford was a cynic she looked upon life as an opportunity for writing novels and the public as her raw material now and then she invited members of it to her house if they showed an appreciation of her talent
and entertained with proper lavishness she held their weakness for lions in good humoured contempt but played to them her part of the distinguished woman of letters with decorum
i was led up to missus strickland and for ten minutes we talked together i noticed nothing about her except that she had a pleasant voice she had a flat in westminster overlooking the unfinished cathedral and
because we lived in the same neighbourhood we felt friendly disposed to one another the army and navy stores are a bond of union between all who dwell between the river and saint james's park
missus strickland asked me for my address and a few days later i received an invitation to luncheon my engagements were few and i was glad to accept
when i arrived a little late because in my fear of being too early i had walked three times round the cathedral i found the party already complete miss waterford was there and missus jay richard twining and george road we were all writers
we talked about a hundred things miss waterford torn between the aestheticism of her early youth when she used to go to parties in sage green holding a daffodil and the flippancy of her maturer years
which tended to high heels and paris frocks wore a new hat
missus jay aware that impropriety is the soul of wit made observations in tones hardly above a whisper that
richard twining bubbled over with quaint absurdities and george road conscious that he need not exhibit a brilliancy which was almost a by word opened his mouth only to put food into it
missus strickland did not talk much but she had a pleasant gift for keeping the conversation general and when there was a pause
she was a woman of thirty seven rather tall and plump without being fat
her skin was rather sallow her dark hair was elaborately dressed she was the only woman of the three whose face was free of make up and by contrast with the others she seemed simple and unaffected
the dining room was in the good taste of the period it was very severe
the green curtains with their peacock design hung in straight lines and the green carpet
leafy trees suggested the influence of william morris there was blue delft on the chimney piece at that time there must have been five hundred dining rooms in london decorated in exactly the same manner it was chaste artistic
and dull when we left i walked away with miss waterford and the fine day and her new hat persuaded us to saunter through the park
did you think the food was good i told her that if she wanted writers she must feed them well admirable advice i answered but why does she want them miss waterford shrugged her shoulders she finds them amusing
she wants to be in the movement i fancy she's rather simple poor dear and she thinks we're all wonderful after all it pleases her to ask us to luncheon and it doesn't hurt us i like her for it
she had led a very quiet youth in the country and the books that came down from mudie's library brought with them not only their own romance but the romance of london she had a real passion for reading rare in her kind
who for the most part are more interested in the author than in his book in the painter than in his pictures and she invented a world of the imagination in which she lived with a freedom she never acquired in the world of every day
when she came to know writers it was like adventuring upon a stage which till then
she saw them dramatically and really seemed herself to live a larger life because she entertained them
never for a moment thought of regulating her own conduct in accordance with them their moral eccentricities like their oddities of dress their wild theories and paradoxes were an entertainment which amused her
but had not the slightest influence on her convictions is there a mister strickland i asked oh yes he's something in the city i believe he's a stockbroker he's very dull are they good friends
but she doesn't often have people to dinner he's very quiet he's not in the least interested in literature or the arts why do nice women marry dull men because intelligent men won't marry nice women
i could not think of any retort to this so i asked if missus strickland had children yes she has a boy and a girl they're both at school the subject was exhausted and we began to talk of other things
during the summer i met missus strickland not infrequently i went now and then to pleasant little luncheons at her flat and to rather more formidable tea parties we took a fancy to one another
i was very young and perhaps she liked the idea of guiding my virgin steps on the hard road of letters while for me it was pleasant to have someone i could go to with my small troubles certain of an attentive ear and reasonable counsel
missus strickland had the gift of sympathy it is a charming faculty but one often abused by those who are conscious of its possession for there is something ghoulish in the avidity with which they will pounce upon the misfortune of their friends
so that they may exercise their dexterity it gushes forth like an oil well and the sympathetic pour out their sympathy with an abandon that is sometimes embarrassing to their victims
missus strickland used her advantage with tact you felt that you obliged her by accepting her sympathy when in the enthusiasm of my youth i remarked on this to rose waterford she said
rose waterford had a blistering tongue no one could say such bitter things on the other hand no one could do more charming ones there was another thing i liked in missus strickland
she managed her surroundings with elegance her flat was always neat and cheerful gay with flowers and the chintzes in the drawing room notwithstanding their severe design were bright and pretty the meals in the artistic little dining room were pleasant
it was impossible not to see that missus strickland was an excellent housekeeper and you felt sure that she was an admirable mother there were photographs in the drawing room of her son and daughter the son his name was robert
was a boy of sixteen at rugby
he had his mother's candid brow and fine reflective eyes he looked clean healthy and normal i don't know that he's very clever she said one day when i was looking at the photograph but i know he's good he has a charming character
the daughter was fourteen her hair thick and dark like her mother's fell over her shoulders in fine profusion and she had the same kindly expression and sedate untroubled eyes
they're both of them the image of you i said yes i think they are more like me than their father why have you never let me meet him i asked would you like to
perhaps her naivete was her greatest charm you know he's not at all literary she said he's a perfect philistine
she wished to protect him from the aspersions of her friends he's on the stock exchange and he's a typical broker i think he'd bore you to death does he bore you i asked you see i happen to be his wife
i'm very fond of him she smiled to cover her shyness and i fancied she had a fear that i would make the sort of gibe that such a confession could hardly have failed to elicit from rose waterford
she hesitated a little her eyes grew tender he doesn't pretend to be a genius he doesn't even make much money on the stock exchange but he's awfully good and kind
i think i should like him very much i'll ask you to dine with us quietly some time but mind you come at your own risk don't blame me if you have a very dull evening
but when at last i met charles strickland it was under circumstances which allowed me to do no more than just make his acquaintance one morning missus strickland sent me round a note to say that she was giving a dinner party that evening
and one of her guests had failed her she asked me to stop the gap she wrote it's only decent to warn you that you will be bored to extinction it was a thoroughly dull party from the beginning but
if you will come i shall be uncommonly grateful and you and i can have a little chat by ourselves it was only neighbourly to accept when missus strickland introduced me to her husband he gave me a rather indifferent hand to shake
turning to him gaily she attempted a small jest i asked him to show him that i really had a husband i think he was beginning to doubt it
strickland gave the polite little laugh with which people acknowledge a facetiousness in which they see nothing funny but did not speak new arrivals claimed my host's attention and i was left to myself
when at last we were all assembled waiting for dinner to be announced i reflected while i chatted with the woman i had been asked to take in that civilised man practises a strange ingenuity
in wasting on tedious exercises the brief span of his life it was the kind of party which makes you wonder why the hostess has troubled to bid her guests and why the guests have troubled to come
there were ten people they met with indifference and would part with relief it was of course a purely social function the stricklands owed dinners to a number of persons whom they took no interest in and so had asked them
these persons had accepted why to avoid the tedium of dining tete a tete to give their servants a rest because there was no reason to refuse because they were owed a dinner
the dining room was inconveniently crowded there was a k c and his wife a government official and his wife missus strickland's sister and her husband colonel mac andrew and the wife of a member of parliament
it was because the member of parliament found that he could not leave the house that i had been invited the respectability of the party was portentous the women were too nice to be well dressed and too sure of their position to be amusing
the men were solid there was about all of them an air of well satisfied prosperity everyone talked a little louder than natural in an instinctive desire to make the party go and there was a great deal of noise in the room
but there was no general conversation each one talked to his neighbour to his neighbour on the right during the soup fish and entree to his neighbour on the left during the roast sweet and savoury
they talked of the political situation and of golf of their children and the latest play of the pictures at the royal academy of the weather and their plans for the holidays
perhaps he did not talk very much and i fancied there was towards the end a look of fatigue in the faces of the women on either side of him they were finding him heavy
once or twice missus strickland's eyes rested on him somewhat anxiously at last she rose and shepherded the ladies out of one room
strickland shut the door behind her and moving to the other end of the table took his place between the k c and the government official he passed round the port again and handed us cigars the k c remarked on the excellence of the wine and strickland told us where he got it
we began to chat about vintages and tobacco the k c told us of a case he was engaged in and the colonel talked about polo i had nothing to say and so sat silent trying politely to show interest in the conversation
and because i thought no one was in the least concerned with me examined strickland at my ease he was bigger than i expected i do not know why i had imagined him slender and of insignificant appearance
in point of fact he was broad and heavy with large hands and feet and he wore his evening clothes clumsily he gave you somewhat the idea of a coachman dressed up for the occasion he was a man of forty
not good looking and yet not ugly for his features were rather good
and the effect was ungainly he was clean shaven and his large face looked uncomfortably naked his hair was reddish cut very short and his eyes were small blue or grey he looked commonplace
i no longer wondered that missus strickland felt a certain embarrassment about him he was scarcely a credit to a woman who wanted to make herself a position in the world of art and letters it was obvious that he had no social gifts but
these a man can do without he had no eccentricity even
the bravery of prince jollikin there is no country so delightful but that it suffers some disadvantages and so it was with the valley of mo
at times the good people were obliged to leave their games and sports to defend themselves against a foe or some threatened disaster but there was one danger they never suspected which at last came upon them very suddenly
which were piled up in great masses reaching nearly to the foot of the mountains containing many caves and recesses the people seldom came here as there was nothing to tempt them the rock candy being very hard and difficult to walk on
in one of the great hollows formed by the rock candy lived a monstrous gigaboo completely shut in by the walls of its cavern it had been growing and growing for so many years that it had attained an enormous size
for fear you may not know what a gigaboo is i shall describe this one its body was round like that of a turtle and on its back was a thick shell
this head was round as a ball and had four mouths on the sides of it and seven eyes set in a circle and projecting several inches from the head
the gigaboo walked on ten short but thick legs and in front of its body were two long arms tipped with claws like those of a lobster so sharp and strong were these claws that the creature could pinch a tree in two easily
its eyes were remarkably bright and glittering one being red in color another green and the others yellow blue black purple and crimson it was a dreadful monster to see
only no one had yet seen it for it had grown up in the confinement of its cave
but one day the gigaboo became so big and strong that in turning around it broke down the walls of the cavern and finding itself at liberty the monster walked out into the lovely valley of mo to see how much evil it could do
the first thing the gigaboo came to was a large orchard of preserved apricots and after eating a great quantity of the preserves it wilfully cut off the trees with its sharp claws and utterly ruined them
why the gigaboo should have done this i can not tell but scientists say these creatures are by nature destructive and love to ruin everything they come across
whereupon he ran in great terror to tell the king that the gigaboo was on them and ready to destroy the entire valley although no one had ever before seen a gigaboo or even heard of one
the news was so serious that in a short time the king and many of his people came to the place where the monster was all having hastily armed themselves with swords and spears
but when they saw the gigaboo they were afraid and stood gazing at it in alarm without knowing what to do or how to attack it who among us can hope to conquer this great beast asked the king in dismay
yet something must be done or soon we shall not have a tree left standing in all the valley of mo the people looked at one another in a frightened way but no one volunteered his services or offered to advise the monarch what to do
at length prince jollikin who had been watching the monster earnestly stepped forward and offered to fight the gigaboo alone in a matter of this kind said he one man is as good as a dozen
is your sword sharp asked his father the king anxiously it was the sharpest on the tree replied the prince if i fail to kill the monster at least it can not kill me although it may cause me some annoyance
at any rate our trees must be saved so i will do the best i can with this manly speech he walked straight toward the gigaboo which when it saw him approaching raised and lowered its long neck and twirled its head around so that all the seven eyes might get a glimpse of its enemy
now you must remember when you read what follows that no inhabitant of the valley of mo can ever be killed by anything if one is cut to pieces the pieces still live and although this seems strange you will find if you ever go to this queer valley that it is true
perhaps it was the knowledge of this fact that made prince jollikin so courageous if i can but manage to cut off that horrible head with my sword thought he the beast will surely die
so the prince rushed forward and made a powerful stroke at its neck but the blow fell short and cut off instead one of the gigaboo's ten legs quick as lightning the monster put out a claw and nipped the prince's arm which held the sword cutting it from its body
as the sword fell the prince caught it in his other hand and struck again but the blow fell on the beast's shell and did no harm the gigaboo now very angry at once nipped off the prince's left arm with one of its claws and his head with the other
the arm fell on the ground and the head rolled down a little hill behind some bonbon bushes the prince having lost both arms and his head as well now abandoned the fight and turned to run knowing it would be folly to resist the monster further
but the gigaboo gave chase and so swiftly did its nine legs carry it that soon it overtook the prince and nipped off both his legs
then its seven eyes flashing with anger the gigaboo turned toward the rest of the people as if seeking a new enemy but the brave men of mo seeing the sad plight of their prince and being afraid of the awful nippers on the beast's claws decided to run away
which they did uttering as they went loud cries of terror but had they looked back they might not have gone so fast nor so far for when the gigaboo heard their cries it in turn became frightened having been accustomed all its life to silence
so that it rushed back to its cavern of rock candy and hid itself among the boulders when prince jollikin's head stopped rolling he opened his eyes and looked about him but could see no one for the people and the gigaboo had now gone
so being unable to move he decided to lie quiet for a time and this was not a pleasant thing for an active young man like the prince to do to be sure he could wiggle his ears a bit and wink his eyes but that was the extent of his powers
after a few minutes because he had a cheerful disposition and wished to keep himself amused he began to whistle a popular song and then becoming interested in the tune he whistled it over again with variations
the prince's left leg lying a short distance away heard his whistle and recognizing the variations at once ran up to the head well said the prince here is a part of me at any rate i wonder where the rest of me can be
just then hearing the sound of his voice the right leg ran up to the head where is my body asked the prince
then with my eyes and your feet we can hunt around until we find the rest of me obeying this command the legs took the head and started off and perhaps you can imagine how funny the prince's head looked perched on his legs with neither body nor arms
after a careful search they found the body lying upon the ground at the foot of a shrimp salad tree but nothing more could be done without the arms so they next searched for those and having discovered them the legs kicked them to where the body lay
then the right arm stuck the left arm in its place after which the left arm picked up the right arm and placed it also where it belonged then all that remained was for the prince to place his head on his shoulders and there he was as good as new
he picked up his sword and was feeling himself all over to see if he was put together right when he chanced to look up and saw the gigaboo again coming toward him the beast had recovered from its fright and tempted by its former success again ventured forth
but prince jollikin did not intend to be cut to pieces a second time he quickly climbed a tree and hid himself among the branches
presently the gigaboo came to the tree and reached its head up to eat a cranberry tart quick as a flash the prince swung his sword downward and so true was his stroke that he cut off the monster's head with ease
having vanquished his enemy prince jollikin climbed down from the tree and went to tell the people that the gigaboo was dead when they heard this joyful news they gave their prince three cheers and loved him better than ever for his bravery
the king was so pleased that he presented his son with a tin badge set with diamonds on the back of which was engraved the picture of a gigaboo although prince jollikin was glad to be the hero of his nation and enjoyed the triumph of having been able to conquer his ferocious enemy
he did not escape some inconvenience
the twelfth surprise the land of the civilized monkeys i must now tell you of a very strange adventure that befell prince zingle
which had it not turned out exactly as it did might have resulted in making him a captive for life in a remarkable country by consulting smith's history of prince zingle you will notice that from boyhood he had a great passion for flying kites
and unlike other boys he always undertook to make each kite larger than the last one therefore his kites grew in size and became larger and larger until at length the prince made one twice as tall as himself
when it was finished he was very proud of this great kite and took it out to a level place to see how well it would fly being accompanied by many of the people of mo who took considerable interest in the prince's amusement
zingle tied the string around his waist it flew beautifully at first but pulled so hard the prince could scarcely hold it at last when the string was all let out there came a sudden gust of wind
and in an instant poor zingle was drawn into the air as easily as an ordinary kite draws its tail up and up he soared and the kite followed the wind and carried him over many countries until the strength died out of the air
when the kite slowly settled toward the earth and landed the prince in the top of a tall tree he now untied the string from his waist and fastened it to a branch of the tree as he did not wish to lose the kite after all his bother in making it
then he began to climb down to the ground but on reaching the lower branches he was arrested by a most curious sight
standing on the ground and gazing up at him were a dozen monkeys all very neatly dressed and all evidently filled with surprise at the prince's sudden appearance in the tree what a very queer animal exclaimed an old monkey
who wore a tall silk hat and had white kid gloves on his hands gold spectacles rested on his nose and he pointed toward the prince with a gold headed cane
and when she saw zingle she clung to the old monkey's hand and seemed frightened
oh grandpapa she cried take me back to mamma i'm afraid the strange beast will bite me just then a big monkey wearing a blue coat with brass buttons and swinging a short club in his hand strutted up to them and said
don't be afraid little one the beast can't hurt you while i'm around and then he tipped his cap over his left ear and shook his club at the prince
as if he did not know what fear meant two monkeys who were dressed in red jackets and carried muskets in their hands now came running up and having looked at zingle with much interest they called for some one to bring them a strong rope
we will capture the brute and put him in the zoo said one of the soldier monkeys
i do not know but some of our college professors can doubtless tell and even if they can't they will give it some scientific name that will satisfy the people just as well all this time prince zingle remained clinging to the branches of the tree
he could not understand a word of the monkey language and therefore had no idea what they were talking about
when they brought a long and stout rope and prepared to throw one end of it over his head in order to capture him he became angry and called out to them stop i command you what is the meaning of this strange conduct i am prince zingle eldest son of the monarch of mo
but this speech had no meaning in the ears of the monkeys who said to each other hear him bark he jabbers away almost as if he could talk by this time a large crowd of monkeys had surrounded the tree
some being barefooted boy monkeys and some lady monkeys dressed in silken gowns and gorgeous raiment of the latest mode and others men monkeys of all sorts and conditions there were dandified monkeys and sober looking business monkeys
as well as several who appeared to be politicians and officials of high degree stand back all of you shouted one of the soldiers we're going to capture this remarkable beast for the royal menagerie and unless you stand out of the way he may show fight and bite some one
so they moved back to a safe distance and the soldier monkey prepared to throw a rope stop cried zingle again do you take me for a thief that you try to bind me i am a prince of the royal blood
and unless you treat me respectfully i shall have my father the king march his army on you and destroy your whole country
the next moment he threw the rope and caught poor zingle around his arms and body so that he was helpless then the soldier monkey pulled hard on the rope and prince zingle fell out of the tree to the ground
at first the monkeys all pressed backward as if frightened but their soldiers cried out we've got him he can't bite now then one of them approached the prince and punched him with a stick saying stand up
zingle did not understand the words but he resented being prodded with the stick so he sprang up and rushed on the soldier kicking the stick from his hands his own arms being bound by the rope
the monkeys screamed and rushed in every direction but the other soldier came behind the prince and knocked him down with the butt of his gun
then he tied his legs with another rope and seeing him thus bound the crowd of monkeys which had scattered and fallen over one another in their efforts to escape came creeping timidly back and looked on him with fear and trembling
we've subdued him at last remarked the soldier who had been kicked but he's a very fierce animal and i shall take him to the zoo and lock him in one of the strongest cages so they led poor zingle away to where the royal zoological gardens were located
and there they put him into a big cage with iron bars the door being fastened with two great padlocks before very long every monkey in the country learned that a strange beast had been captured and brought to the zoo
and soon a large crowd had gathered before zingle's cage to examine him isn't he sweet said a lady monkey who held a green parasol over her head and wore a purple veil on her face sweet
grunted a man monkey standing beside her he's the ugliest looking brute i ever saw scarcely has any hair on him at all and no tail and very little chin i wonder where on earth the creature came from
it may be one of those beings from whom our race is descended said another onlooker the professors say we evolved from some primitive creature of this sort heaven forbid
cried a dandy monkey whose collar was so high that it kept tipping his hat over his eyes if i thought such a creature as that was one of my forefathers i should commit suicide at once
zingle had been sitting on the floor of his cage and wondering what was to become of him in this strange country of monkeys and now to show his authority one of the keepers took a long stick and began to poke the prince to make him stand up
stop that shouted the angry captive
all the lady monkeys screamed at this and the men monkeys exclaimed
the children monkeys began to throw peanuts between the bars of the cage and zingle who had now become very hungry picked them up and ate them this act so pleased the little monkeys that they shouted with laughter
at last two solemn looking monkeys with gray hair and wearing long black coats and white neckties came up to the cage where they were greeted with much respect by the other monkeys
said one of the new comers putting on his spectacles and looking sharply at the captive do you recognize the species professor
not knowing what he said none of the monkeys paid any attention to this question
indeed there is a possibility that he may turn out to be the missing link
the monkeys threw several cocoanuts into the cage but the prisoner did not know what kind of fruit these were so after several attempts to bite the hard shell he decided they were not good to eat day after day now passed away
and although crowds of monkeys came to examine zingle in his cage the poor prince grew very pale and thin for lack of proper food while the continuance of his unhappy imprisonment made him sad and melancholy
could i but escape and find my way back to my father's valley he moaned wearily
and poked him with long sticks having sharp points so that the prince's life became one of great misery at the end of about two weeks a happy relief came to zingle for then a baby hippopotamus was captured and brought to the royal zoo
and after this the monkeys left the prince's cage and crowded around that of the new arrival finding himself thus deserted prince zingle began to seek a means of escape from his confinement his first attempt was to break the iron bars
then he shook the door with all his strength but the big padlocks held firm and could not be broken then the prisoner gave way to despair and threw himself on the floor of the cage weeping bitterly
suddenly he heard a great shout from the direction of the cage where the baby hippopotamus was confined and rising to his feet the prince walked to the bars and attempted to look out and discover what was causing the excitement
to his astonishment he found he was able to thrust his head between two of the iron bars having grown so thin through hunger and abuse that he was much smaller than when the monkeys had first captured him
he realized at once that if his head would pass between the bars his body could be made to do so likewise so he struggled bravely and at last succeeded in squeezing his body between the bars and leaping safely to the ground
finding himself at liberty the prince lost no time in running to the tree where he had left his kite but on the way some of the boy monkeys discovered him and raised a great cry which soon brought hundreds of his enemies in pursuit
zingle had a good start however and soon reached the tree quickly he climbed up the trunk and branches until he had gained the limb where the string of his kite was still fastened untying the cord he wound it around his waist several times
and then finding a strong north wind blowing he skilfully tossed the kite into the air at once it filled and mounted to the sky lifting zingle from the tree and carrying him with perfect ease
it was fortunate he got away at that moment for several of the monkeys had scrambled up the tree after him and were almost near enough to seize him by the legs when to their surprise he shot into the air
indeed so amazed were they by this remarkable escape of their prisoner that the monkeys remained staring into the air until prince zingle had become a little speck in the sky above them and finally disappeared
that was the last our prince ever saw of the strange country of the monkeys for the wind carried his kite straight back to the valley of mo when zingle found himself above his father's palace he took out his pocket knife and cut the string of the kite
and immediately fell head foremost into a pond of custard that lay in the back yard where he dived through a floating island of whipped cream and disappeared from view
and he ran to tell the king that a new meteor had fallen and ruined one of his floating islands thereupon the monarch and several of his courtiers rushed out and found prince zingle swimming ashore
and the king was so delighted at seeing his lost son again that he clasped him joyfully in his arms the next moment he regretted this act
and then there was much rejoicing throughout the land of course the first thing zingle asked for was something to eat and before long he was sitting at a table heaped with all sorts of good things plucked fresh from the trees
the people crowded around him demanding the tale of his adventures and their surprise was only equaled by their horror when they learned he had been captured by a band of monkeys and shut up in a cage because he was thought to be a dangerous wild beast
experience is said to be an excellent teacher although a very cruel one
chapter four native americans american cheddars the first american cheddar was made soon after sixteen twenty around plymouth by pilgrim fathers who brought along not only cheese from the homeland
but a live cow to continue the supply proof of our ability to manufacture cheddar of our own lies in the fact that by seventeen ninety we were exporting it back to england
it was called cheddar after the english original named for the village of cheddar near bristol more than a century ago it made a new name for itself herkimer county cheese
herkimer still equals its several distinguished competitors coon colorado blackie california jack pineapple sage vermont colby and wisconsin longhorn the english called our imitation yankee or american cheddar
while here at home it was popularly known as yellow or store cheese from its prominent position in every country store also apple pie cheese because of its affinity for the all american dessert
the first cheddar factory was founded by jesse williams in rome new york just over a century ago and with herkimer county cheddar already widely known this established new york as the preferred store boughten cheese
a yankee named silvanus ferris the most successful dairyman of herkimer county in the first decades of the eighteen hundred teamed up with robert nesbit the old quaker cheese buyer they bought from farmers in the region and sold in new york city
and according to the business ethics of the times nesbit went ahead to cheapen the cheese offered by deprecating its quality hinting at a bad market and departing without buying later when ferris arrived in a more optimistic mood offering a slightly better price
the seller unaware they were partners and ignorant of the market price snapped up the offer similar sharp trade tactics put too much green cheese on the market so those honestly aged from a minimum of eight months up to two years fetched higher prices
they were called old such as old herkimer old wisconsin longhorn and old california jack although the established cheddar ages are three fresh medium cured and cured or aged
commercially they are divided into two and described as mild and sharp the most popular are named for their states colorado illinois kentucky new york ohio vermont and wisconsin
two new york staters are called and named separately coon and herkimer county tillamook goes by its own name with no mention of oregon pineapple monterey jack and sage are seldom listed as cheddars at all although they are basically that
brick brick is the one and only cheese for which the whole world gives america credit runners up are liederkranz which rivals say is too close to limburger
and pineapple which is only a cheddar under its crisscrossed painted and flavored rind yet brick is no more distinguished than either of the hundred percent americans and in our opinion is less worth bragging about
its texture is elastic but not rubbery its taste sweetish and it is full of little round holes or eyes all this has inspired enthusiasts to liken it to emmentaler
to make up for the mildness caraway seed is sometimes added about civil war time john jossi a dairyman of dodge county wisconsin came up with this novelty a rennet cheese made of whole cow's milk
the curd is cut like cheddar heated stirred and cooked firm to put in a brick shaped box without a bottom and with slits in the sides to drain when this is set on the draining table a couple of bricks are also laid on the cooked curd for pressure
it is this double use of bricks for shaping and for pressing that has led to the confusion about which came first in originating the name the formed bricks of cheese are rubbed with salt for three days and they ripen slowly taking up to two months
we eat several million pounds a year and ninety five percent of that comes from wisconsin with a trickle from new york colorado blackie cheese a subtly different american cheddar is putting colorado on our cheese map
it is called blackie from the black waxed rind and it resembles vermont state cheese although it is flatter this is a proud new american product proving that although papa cheddar was born in england his american kinfolk have developed independent and valuable characters all on their own
coon cheese coon cheese is full of flavor from being aged on shelves at a higher temperature than cold storage its rind is darker from the growth of mold and this shade is sometimes painted on more ordinary cheddars to make them look like coon
which always brings a ten percent premium above the general run made at lowville new york it has received high praise from a host of admirers among them the french cook clementine in phineas beck's kitchen
she made baguettes of it by soaking sticks three eights inch square and one and a half inches long in lukewarm milk rolling them in flour beaten egg and bread crumbs and browning them instantaneously in boiling oil herkimer county cheese
the curd is cut and pressed to squeeze out all of the whey and then aged in cylindrical forms for a year or more herkimer leads the whole breed by being flaky brittle sharp and nutty with a crumb that will crumble and a soft mouth watering pale orange color when it is properly aged
isigny isigny is a native american cheese that came a cropper
not long after the civil war the attempt was made to perfect isigny the curd was carefully prepared according to an original formula washed and rubbed and set aside to come of age
and since good domestic limburger was then a dime a pound obviously it wouldn't pay off
jack california jack and monterey jack
then it was called jack for short and only now takes its full name after sixty years of popularity on the west coast because it is little known in the east and has to be shipped so far it commands the top cheddar price
monterey jack is a stirred curd cheddar without any annatto coloring it is sweeter than most and milder when young but it gets sharper with age and more expensive because of storage costs liederkranz
no native american cheese has been so widely ballyhooed and so deservedly as liederkranz which translates wreath of song
this was imperative because the imported german cheese didn't stand up during the long sea trip and emil's customers mostly members of the famous liederkranz singing society didn't feel like singing without it
but emil's attempts at imitation only added indigestion to their dejection until one day fabelhaft one of those cheese dream castles in spain came true
emil named it wreath of song for the liederkranz customers
borden's bought out frey in nineteen twenty nine and they enjoy telling the story of a g i who to celebrate v e day in paris sent to his family in indiana
a whole case of what he had learned was the finest cheese france could make and when the family opened it there was liederkranz another deserved distinction is that of being sandwiched in between two foreign immortals in the following recipe
schnitzelbank pot one ripe camembert cheese one liederkranz
one quarter pound butter one tablespoon flour
one quarter cup canned pimiento a sprinkling of cayenne
mash the soft creams together with the roquefort butter and flour using a silver fork put the mix into an enameled pan for anything with a metal surface will turn the cheese black in cooking stir in the cream and keep stirring until you have a smooth
creamy sauce strain through sieve or cheesecloth and mix in the olives and pimiento thoroughly sprinkle well with cayenne and put into a pot to mellow for a few days or much longer the name schnitzelbank comes from school bench a game
this snappy sweet pot is specially suited to a beer party and stein songs it is also the affinity spread with rye and pumpernickel and may be served in small sandwiches or on crackers celery and such to make appetizing tidbits for cocktails tea or cider
like the trinity of cheeses that make it the mixture is eaten best at room temperature when its flavor is fullest if kept in the refrigerator it should be taken out a couple of hours before serving since it is a natural cheese mixture which has gone through no process or doping with preservative
it will not keep more than two weeks this mellow sharp mix is the sort of ideal the factory processors shoot at with their olive pimiento abominations once you've potted your own you'll find it gives the same thrill as garnishing your own liptauer
minnesota blue the discovery of sandstone caves in the bluffs along the mississippi in and near the twin cities of minnesota has established a distinctive type of blue cheese named for the state
although the roquefort process of france is followed and the cheese is inoculated in the same way by mold from bread it can never equal the genuine imported marked with its red sheep brand
because the milk used in minnesota blue is cow's milk and the caves are sandstone instead of limestone yet this is an excellent blue cheese in its own right
and there was a good floor on which was arranged some furniture that was quite comfortable it is certain that jack pumpkinhead might have had a much finer house to live in had he wanted it for ozma loved the stupid fellow who had been her earliest companion
but jack preferred his pumpkin house as it matched himself very well and in this he was not so stupid after all the body of this remarkable person was made of wood
the neck was a sharpened stick on which the pumpkin head was set and the eyes ears nose and mouth were carved on the skin of the pumpkin very like a child's jack o' lantern
some of the pumpkins now ripening on the vines were almost as large as jack's house and he told dorothy he intended to add another pumpkin to his mansion
and invited to pass the night there which they had planned to do the patchwork girl was greatly interested in jack and examined him admiringly you are quite handsome she said but not as really beautiful as the scarecrow
jack turned at this to examine the scarecrow critically and his old friend slyly winked one painted eye at him there is no accounting for tastes remarked the pumpkinhead with a sigh
an old crow once told me i was very fascinating but of course the bird might have been mistaken yet i have noticed that the crows usually avoid the scarecrow
but stuffed i am not stuffed you will observe my body is good solid hickory i adore stuffing said the patchwork girl well as for that my head is stuffed with pumpkin seeds declared jack
i use them for brains and when they are fresh i am intellectual just now i regret to say my seeds are rattling a bit so i must soon get another head oh do you change your head asked ojo to be sure
pumpkins are not permanent more's the pity and in time they spoil that is why i grow such a great field of pumpkins that i may select a new head whenever necessary who carves the faces on them inquired the boy
i do that myself i lift off my old head
and use the face for a pattern to go by sometimes the faces i carve are better than others more expressive and cheerful you know but i think they average very well before she had started on the journey
dorothy had packed a knapsack with the things she might need and this knapsack the scarecrow carried strapped to his back the little girl wore a plain gingham dress and a checked sunbonnet as she knew they were best fitted for travel
ojo also had brought along his basket to which ozma had added a bottle of square meal tablets and some fruit but jack pumpkinhead grew a lot of things in his garden besides pumpkins
so he cooked for them a fine vegetable soup and gave dorothy ojo and toto the only ones who found it necessary to eat a pumpkin pie and some green cheese
for beds they must use the sweet dried grasses which jack had strewn along one side of the room but that satisfied dorothy and ojo very well toto of course slept beside his little mistress
the scarecrow scraps and the pumpkinhead were tireless and had no need to sleep so they sat up and talked together all night but they stayed outside the house under the bright stars and talked in low tones so as not to disturb the sleepers
during the conversation the scarecrow explained their quest for a dark well and asked jack's advice where to find it the pumpkinhead considered the matter gravely that is going to be a difficult task
i'd take any ordinary well and enclose it so as to make it dark i fear that wouldn't do replied the scarecrow
answered the scarecrow who did not wish to display his ignorance i know cried scraps jack and jill went up the hill to fetch no no that's wrong interrupted the scarecrow there are two kinds of gills i think
one is a girl and the other is a gillyflower said jack no a measure how big a measure well i'll ask dorothy so next morning they asked dorothy
and she said i don't just know how much a gill is but i've brought along a gold flask that holds a pint that's more than a gill i'm sure and the crooked magician may measure it to suit himself
so have i said dorothy
the quadling country is full of dangers declared jack i've never been there myself but i have said the scarecrow i've faced the dreadful hammerheads which have no arms and butt you like a goat
and i've faced the fighting trees which bend down their branches to pound and whip you and had many other adventures there it's a wild country remarked dorothy soberly and if we go there we're sure to have troubles of our own
but i guess we'll have to go if we want that gill of water from the dark well so they said good bye to the pumpkinhead and resumed their travels
heading now directly toward the south country where mountains and rocks and caverns and forests of great trees abounded this part of the land of oz while it belonged to ozma and owed her allegiance was so wild and secluded
that many queer peoples hid in its jungles and lived in their own way without even a knowledge that they had a ruler in the emerald city if they were left alone these creatures never troubled the inhabitants of the rest of oz
but those who invaded their domains encountered many dangers from them it was a two days journey from jack pumkinhead's house to the edge of the quadling country for neither dorothy nor ojo could walk very fast
toward evening of the second day they reached a sandy plain where walking was difficult but some distance before them they saw a group of palm trees with many curious black dots under them so they trudged bravely on
twilight had fallen by the time they came to the trees beneath which were the black circular objects they had marked from a distance dozens of them were scattered around and dorothy bent near to one
another and another popped out of the circular pot like dwelling while from all the other black objects came popping more creatures very like jumping jacks when their boxes are unhooked
until fully a hundred stood gathered around our little group of travelers by this time dorothy had discovered they were people tiny and curiously formed but still people their skins were dusky and their hair stood straight up
like wires and was brilliant scarlet in color their bodies were bare except for skins fastened around their waists and they wore bracelets on their ankles and wrists and necklaces and great pendant earrings
toto crouched beside his mistress and wailed as if he did not like these strange creatures a bit scraps began to mutter something about hoppity poppity jumpity dump but no one paid any attention to her
the words being as follows we're the jolly tottenhots we do not like the day but in the night tis our delight to gambol skip and play we hate the sun and from it run the moon is cool and clear so on this spot each tottenhot
waits for it to appear we're ev'ry one chock full of fun and full of mischief too but if you're gay and with us play we'll do no harm to you glad to meet you tottenhots said the scarecrow solemnly
astonished to find the straw man whirl around so easily so the tottenhot raised the scarecrow high in the air and tossed him over the heads of the crowd some one caught him and tossed him back and so with shouts of glee they continued throwing the scarecrow here and there
as if he had been a basket ball presently another imp seized scraps and began to throw her about in the same way they found her a little heavier than the scarecrow but still light enough to be tossed like a sofa cushion
and they were enjoying the sport immensely when dorothy angry and indignant at the treatment her friends were receiving rushed among the tottenhots and began slapping and pushing them until she had rescued the scarecrow and the patchwork girl
and held them close on either side of her perhaps she would not have accomplished this victory so easily had not toto helped her barking and snapping at the bare legs of the imps until they were glad to flee from his attack as for ojo
some of the creatures had attempted to toss him also but finding his body too heavy they threw him to the ground and a row of the imps sat on him and held him from assisting dorothy in her battle
and one or two who had been slapped hardest began to cry then suddenly they gave a shout all together and disappeared in a flash into their various houses the tops of which closed with a series of pops that sounded like a bunch of firecrackers being exploded
the adventurers now found themselves alone and dorothy asked anxiously is anybody hurt not me answered the scarecrow they have given my straw a good shaking up and taken all the lumps out of it
i am now in splendid condition and am really obliged to the tottenhots for their kind treatment i feel much the same way said scraps my cotton stuffing had sagged a good deal with the day's walking and they've loosened it up until i feel as plump as a sausage
but the play was a little rough and i'd had quite enough of it when you interfered six of them sat on me said ojo but as they are so little they didn't hurt me much just then the roof of the house in front of them opened
and a tottenhot stuck his head out very cautiously and looked at the strangers can't you take a joke he asked reproachfully haven't you any fun in you at all if i had such a quality replied the scarecrow
but i don't bear grudges i forgive you so do i added scraps that is if you behave yourselves after this it was just a little rough house that's all said the tottenhot
but if you will behave we can't be shut up here all night because this is our time to play
well you ended it so we won't argue the matter may we come out again or are you still cruel and slappy tell you what we'll do said dorothy we're all tired and want to sleep until morning
if you'll let us get into your house and stay there until daylight
cried the tottenhot eagerly and he gave a queer whistle that brought his people popping out of their houses on all sides when the house before them was vacant dorothy and ojo leaned over the hole and looked in but could see nothing because it was so dark
but if the tottenhots slept there all day the children thought they could sleep there at night so ojo lowered himself down and found it was not very deep there's a soft cushion all over
dorothy handed toto to the boy and then climbed in herself
they did not close the hole in the roof but left it open to admit air it also admitted the shouts and ceaseless laughter of the impish tottenhots as they played outside but dorothy and ojo being weary from their journey were soon fast asleep
when miss milner retired to her bed chamber miss woodley went with her nor would leave her the whole night but in vain did she persuade her to rest she absolutely refused and declared she would never from that hour indulge repose
the part i undertook to perform cried she is over i will now for my whole life appear in my own character and give a loose to the anguish i endure as daylight showed itself and yet i might see him once again said she
i might see him within these two hours if i pleased for mister sandford invited me if you think my dear miss milner said miss woodley that a second parting from lord elmwood would but give you a second agony
do not see him any more but if you hope your mind would be easier were you to bid each other adieu in a more direct manner than you did last night let us go down and breakfast with him i'll go before and prepare him for your reception you shall not surprise him
and i will let him know it is by mister sandford's invitation you are coming she listened with a smile to this proposal yet objected to the indelicacy of her wishing to see him after he had taken his leave
but as miss woodley perceived that she was inclined to infringe this delicacy of which she had so proper a sense she easily persuaded her it was impossible for the most suspicious person
to suppose that the paying him a visit at that period of time could be with the most distant idea of regaining his heart or of altering one resolution he had taken but though miss milner acquiesced in this opinion
yet said after all i dare not see him again you may do as you please said miss woodley but i will i that have lived for so many years under the same roof with him and on the most friendly terms and he going away perhaps for these ten years perhaps for ever
i should think it a disrespect not to see him to the last moment of his remaining in the house then do you go said miss milner eagerly and if he should ask for me i will gladly come you know but if he does not ask for me i will not and pray don't deceive me
miss woodley promised her not to deceive her and soon after as they heard the servants pass about the house and the clock had struck six miss woodley went to the breakfast room she found lord elmwood there in his travelling dress standing pensively by the fire place
i thank you he returned with a sigh the heaviest and most intelligent sigh she ever heard him condescend to give she imagined alas that he looked as if he wished to ask how miss milner did but would not allow himself the indulgence
and could not resist the strong impulse to say you have done just then my lord like miss milner for she has not been in bed the whole night miss woodley spoke this in a negligent manner and yet lord elmwood echoed back the words with solicitude has not miss milner been in bed the whole night
and she looked at lord elmwood while she spoke though she did not absolutely address him but he made no reply agreeable returned sandford angrily has she then a quarrel with any body here or does she suppose any body here bears enmity to her
is she not in peace and charity yes replied miss woodley that i am sure she is then bring her hither cried sandford directly would she have the wickedness to imagine we are not all friends with her miss woodley left the room and found miss milner almost in despair
lest she should hear lord elmwood's carriage drive off before her friend's return did he send for me were the words she uttered as soon as she saw her mister sandford did in his presence returned miss woodley and you may go with the utmost decorum or i would not tell you so
she required no protestations of this but readily followed her beloved adviser whose kindness never appeared in so amiable a light as at that moment on entering the room through all the dead white of her present complection she blushed to a crimson
lord elmwood rose from his seat and brought a chair for her to sit down sandford looked at her inquisitively sipped his tea and said he never made tea to his own liking miss milner took a cup but had scarce strength to hold it
it seemed but a very short time they were at breakfast when the carriage that was to take lord elmwood away drove to the door miss milner started at the sound so did he but she had nearly dropped her cup and saucer on which sandford took them out of her hand
saying perhaps you had rather have coffee her lips moved but he could not hear what she said a servant came in and told lord elmwood the carriage was at the door he replied very well but though he had breakfasted he did not attempt to move at last
rising briskly as if it was necessary to go in haste when he did go he took up his hat
lord elmwood after repeating to miss woodley his last night's farewell now went up to miss milner and taking one of her hands again held it between his but still without speaking while she unable to suppress her tears as heretofore suffered them to fall in torrents
made them both turn to him in amazement and as it were petrified with the sensation his words had caused he left them for a moment and going to a small bookcase in one corner of the room took out of it a book and returning with it in his hand said lord elmwood
do you love this woman more than my life he replied with the most heartfelt accents he then turned to miss milner can you say the same by him she spread her hands over her eyes and exclaimed oh heavens i believe you can say so returned sandford
and in the name of god and your own happiness since this is the state of you both let me put it out of your power to part lord elmwood gazed at him with wonder and yet as if enraptured by the sudden change this conduct gave to his prospects
and set forth your danger in the light it appeared to me but though old and a priest i can submit to think i have been in an error and i now firmly believe it is for the welfare of you both to become man and wife my lord take this woman's marriage vows
continued he addressing himself to her act but under the dominion of those vows to a husband of sense and virtue like him and you will be all that i himself or even heaven can desire now
then lord elmwood this moment give her up for ever or this moment constrain her by such ties from offending you as she shall not dare to violate lord elmwood struck his forehead in doubt and agitation but still holding her hand he cried i cannot part from her
then feeling this reply as equivocal he fell upon his knees and cried will you pardon my hesitation and will you in marriage show me that tender love you have not shown me yet will you in possessing all my affections bear with all my infirmities
and married them with voice and manners so serious so solemn and so fervent he performed these rites that every idea of jest or even of lightness was absent from the mind of all who were present miss milner covered with shame sunk
on the bosom of miss woodley when the ring was wanting lord elmwood supplied it with one from his own hand but throughout all the rest of the ceremony appeared lost in zealous devotion to heaven yet no sooner was it finished than his thoughts
descended to this world he embraced his bride with all the transport of the fondest happiest bridegroom and in raptures called her by the endearing name of wife but still my lord cried sandford
you are only married by your own church and conscience not by your wife's or by the law of the land and let me advise you not to defer that marriage long lest in the time you disagree and she should refuse to become your legal spouse
i think there is danger returned lord elmwood and therefore our second marriage must take place to morrow to this the ladies objected and sandford was to fix their second wedding day as he had done their first he after consideration gave them four days
miss woodley then recollected for every one else had forgot it that the carriage was still at the door to convey lord elmwood far away it was of course dismissed and one of those great incidents of delight which miss milner that morning tasted
unoccupied never was there a more rapid change from despair to happiness to happiness perfect and supreme than was that which miss milner and lord elmwood experienced in one single hour the few days that intervened between this and their lawful marriage
were passed in the delightful care of preparing for that happy day yet with all its delights inferior to the first when every unexpected joy was doubled by the once expected sorrow nevertheless on that first wedding day that joyful day
which restored her lost lover to her hopes again even on that very day after the sacred ceremony was over miss milner with all the fears the tremors the superstition of her sex felt an excruciating shock
chapter eighteen ojo is forgiven the next morning the soldier with the green whiskers went to the prison and took ojo away to the royal palace where he was summoned to appear before the girl ruler for judgment
again the soldier put upon the boy the jeweled handcuffs and white prisoner's robe with the peaked top and holes for the eyes ojo was so ashamed both of his disgrace and the fault he had committed that he was glad to be covered up in this way
so that people could not see him or know who he was he followed the soldier with the green whiskers very willingly anxious that his fate might be decided as soon as possible the inhabitants of the emerald city were polite people
and never jeered at the unfortunate but it was so long since they had seen a prisoner that they cast many curious looks toward the boy and many of them hurried away to the royal palace to be present during the trial when ojo was escorted into the great throne room of the palace
he found hundreds of people assembled there in the magnificent emerald throne which sparkled with countless jewels sat ozma of oz in her robe of state which was embroidered with emeralds and pearls
and on her left the scarecrow still lower but nearly in front of ozma sat the wonderful wizard of oz and on a small table beside him was the golden vase from dorothy's room into which scraps had dropped the stolen clover
at ozma's feet crouched two enormous beasts each the largest and most powerful of its kind although these beasts were quite free no one present was alarmed by them for the cowardly lion and the hungry tiger were well known and respected in the emerald city
and they always guarded the ruler when she held high court in the throne room there was still another beast present but this one dorothy held in her arms for it was her constant companion the little dog toto
seated on ivory chairs before ozma with a clear space between them and the throne were many of the nobility of the emerald city lords and ladies in beautiful costumes and officials of the kingdom in the royal uniforms of oz
behind these courtiers were others of less importance filling the great hall to the very doors at the same moment that the soldier with the green whiskers arrived with ojo the shaggy man entered from a side door escorting the patchwork girl the woozy and the glass cat
nothing could awe the patchwork girl and although the woozy was somewhat uneasy in these splendid surroundings the glass cat was delighted with the sumptuousness of the court and the impressiveness of the occasion pretty big words but quite expressive
ozma sat looking at the prisoner a long time then she said gently one of the laws of oz forbids anyone to pick a six leaved clover you are accused of having broken this law even after you had been warned not to do so
ojo hung his head and while he hesitated how to reply the patchwork girl stepped forward and spoke for him all this fuss is about nothing at all she said facing ozma unabashed
search him if you like but you won't find the clover look in his basket and you'll find it's not there he hasn't got it so i demand that you set this poor munchkin boy free the people of oz listened to this defiance in amazement
and wondered at the queer patchwork girl who dared talk so boldly to their ruler but ozma sat silent and motionless and it was the little wizard who answered scraps
he said i think it has i think the boy hid it in his basket and then gave the basket to you i also think you dropped the clover into this vase which stood in princess dorothy's room hoping to get rid of it so it would not prove the boy guilty
you're a stranger here miss patches and so you don't know that nothing can be hidden from our powerful ruler's magic picture nor from the watchful eyes of the humble wizard of oz look all of you
with these words he waved his hands toward the vase on the table which scraps now noticed for the first time from the mouth of the vase a plant sprouted slowly growing before their eyes until it became a beautiful bush
ozma turned to ojo did you pick the six leaved clover she asked yes he replied
what caused you to think that asked the ruler why it seemed to me a foolish law unjust and unreasonable even now i can see no harm in picking a six leaved clover and i i had not seen the emerald city then
ozma regarded him musingly her chin resting upon her hand but she was not angry on the contrary
i suppose a good many laws seem foolish to those people who do not understand them she said but no law is ever made without some purpose and that purpose is usually to protect all the people and guard their welfare
was a six leaved clover these witches and magicians caused so much trouble among my people often using their powers for evil rather than good that i decided to forbid anyone to practice magic or sorcery except glinda the good
and her assistant the wizard of oz both of whom i can trust to use their arts only to benefit my people and to make them happier since i issued that law the land of oz has been far more peaceful and quiet
but i learned that some of the witches and magicians were still practicing magic on the sly and using the six leaved clovers to make their potions and charms therefore i made another law forbidding anyone from plucking a six leaved clover
that has almost put an end to wicked sorcery in our land so you see the law was not a foolish one but wise and just and in any event it is wrong to disobey a law
ojo knew she was right and felt greatly mortified to realize he had acted and spoken so ridiculously but he raised his head and looked ozma in the face saying i am sorry i have acted wrongly and broken your law
you are forgiven she said for although you have committed a serious fault you are now penitent and i think you have been punished enough soldier release ojo the lucky and i beg your pardon i'm ojo the unlucky said the boy
as the royal audience was now over they began to leave the throne room and soon there were none remaining except ojo and his friends and ozma and her favorites the girl ruler now asked ojo to sit down and tell her all his story which he did
then she said the crooked magician was wrong to make the glass cat and the patchwork girl for it was against the law and if he had not unlawfully kept the bottle of liquid of petrifaction standing on his shelf
and to unc nunkie could not have occurred i can understand however that ojo who loves his uncle will be unhappy unless he can save him also i feel it is wrong to leave those two victims standing as marble statues when they ought to be alive
so i propose we allow doctor pipt to make the magic charm which will save them
that is perhaps the best thing to do replied the wizard but after the crooked magician has restored those poor people to life you must take away his magic powers i will promised ozma now tell me please what magic things must you find
the three hairs from the woozy's tail i have said the boy that is i have the woozy and the hairs are in his tail the six leaved clover i i you may take it and keep it said ozma
that will not be breaking the law for it is already picked and the crime of picking it is forgiven thank you cried ojo gratefully then he continued the next thing i must find is a gill of water from a dark well the wizard shook his head
if dorothy goes then i must go to take care of her said the scarecrow decidedly a dark well can only be discovered in some out of the way place and there may be dangers there you have my permission to accompany dorothy said ozma
and while you are gone i will take care of the patchwork girl i'll take care of myself announced scraps for i'm going with the scarecrow and dorothy i promised ojo to help him find the things he wants and i'll stick to my promise very well replied ozma
i prefer to remain here said the cat i've nearly been nicked half a dozen times already and if they're going into dangers it's best for me to keep away from them let jellia jamb keep her till ojo returns suggested dorothy
so they now separated to make preparations for the journey ozma gave the munchkin boy a room in the palace for that night
getting acquainted as she said and receiving advice from the shaggy man as to where they must go the shaggy man had wandered in many parts of oz and so had dorothy for that matter yet neither of them knew where a dark well was to be found
if such a thing is anywhere in the settled parts of oz said dorothy we'd prob'ly have heard of it long ago if it's in the wild parts of the country no one there would need a dark well p'raps there isn't such a thing oh there must be
as for finding it we must trust to luck don't do that begged ojo earnestly
and wallace trusting his vehement oaths of fidelity because he thought the versatile earl had now discovered his true interest granted him charge of the lothians
were not backward in offering their services to the regent and the rest of the discontented nobles following the base example with equal deceit bade him command their lives and fortunes
while asseverations of loyalty filled the walls of the council hall and the lauding rejoicings of the people still sounded from without all spoke of security and confidence to wallace
and never perhaps did he think himself so absolute in the heart of scotland as at the very moment when three fourths of its nobility were plotting his destruction lord loch awe
knew his own influence in the minds of the bravest chieftains from the extent of his territories and his tried valor
and been called king of woody morven but he was content with a patriarch's sway over so many valiant clans and previous to the regent's appearance in the council hall he opened his intentions to the assembled lords
the rest readily acquiesced in what they had laid so sure a plan to circumvent wallace soon after entered
stood forth before him and in a long and persuasive speech once more declared the wishes of the nation that he would strike the decisive blow on the pretensions of edward by himself accepting the crown
the bishop of dunkeld
and the most animated devotion to the interest of scotland seconded the petition mar and bothwell enforced it the disaffected lords thought proper to throw in their conjurations also
fervent entreaties that he their liberator would grant the supplication of the nation wallace rose and every tongue was mute my gratitude to scotland
increases with my life but my answer must still be the same i cannot be its king at these words the venerable loch awe threw himself on his knees before him
in my person cried he see scotland at your feet still bleeding with the effects of former struggles for empire she would throw off all claims but those of virtue and receive as her anointed sovereign
her father and deliverer she has no more arguments to utter these are her prayers and thus i offer them kneel not to me brave loch awe cried wallace
nor believe the might of these victories lies so thoroughly on this arm that i dare outrage its maker were i to comply with your wishes i should disobey him who has hitherto made me his happy agent
and how could i guard my kingdom from his vengeance your rightful king yet lives he is an alien from his country but heaven may return him to your prayers meanwhile as his representative
as your soldier and protector i shall be blessed in wearing out my life my ancestors were ever faithful to the blood of alexander and in the same fidelity i will die
the firmness with which he spoke and the determined expression of his noble countenance convinced loch awe that he was not to be shaken and rising from his knee he bowed in silence march
whispered to buchan behold the hypocrite but we shall unmask him he thinks to blind us to his towering ambition by this affected moderation he will not be called a king because
but he will be our regent that he may be our dictator and every day demand gratitude for voluntary services which performed as a king could only be considered as his duty when the council broke up
these sentiments were actively disseminated among the disaffected throng and each gloomy recess in the woods murmured with seditious meetings but every lip in the country at large breathed the name of wallace
while the land that he had blessed bloomed on every hill and valley like a garden stirling now exhibited a constant carnival peace was in every heart and joy its companion
as wallace had commanded in the field he decided in the judgment hall and while all his behests were obeyed with a promptitude which kept the machine of state constantly moving in the most beautiful order his bitterest enemies
could not but secretly acknowledge the perfection they were determined to destroy his munificent hand stretched itself far and near that all who had shared the sufferings of scotland might drink largely of her prosperity
the good abbot of scone was invited from his hermitage and when he heard from the embassadors sent to him that the brave young warrior whom he had entertained was the resistless wallace he no longer thought of the distant
and supine bruce but centered every wish for his country
a few days brought him to stirling and wishing to remain near the most constant residence of his noble friend he requested that instead of being restored to scone he might be installed
in the vacant monastery of cambus kenneth wallace gladly acquiesced and the venerable abbot being told that his late charge the lady helen was in the palace went to visit her
and as he communicated his exultation and happiness she rejoiced in the benedictions which his grateful spirit invoked on the head of her almost worshiped sovereign her heart gave him his title
which she believed the not to be repressed affection of the people would at last force him to accept the wives and families of the lanark veterans were brought from loch doine and again planted in their native valleys
thus naught in the kingdom appeared different from its most prosperous days but the widowed heart of the dispenser of all this good and yet so fully did he engage himself in the creation of these benefits
that no time seemed left to him for regrets but they haunted him like persecuting spirits invisible to all but himself during the performance of these things the countess of mar
was absorbed in the one great object of her passion eager to be rid of so dangerous a spy and adversary as she deemed edwin to be
she was laboring day and night to effect by clandestine schemes his banishment when an unforeseen circumstance carried him far away lord ruthven while on an embassy
to the hebrides fell ill as his disorder was attended with extreme danger he sent for his wife and edwin impelled by love for his father and anxiety to soothe the terrified suspense of his mother
readily left the side of his friend to accompany her to the isles lady mar had now no scrutinizing eye to fear her nephew murray was still on duty in clydesdale
the earl her husband trusted her too implicitly even to turn on her a suspicious look and helen she contrived should be as little in her presence as possible busy then as this lady was
the enemies of the regent were not less active in the prosecution of their plans the earl of march had arrived at dunbar and having dispatched his treasonable proposals to edward
accepting his services and promising every reward that could satisfy his ambition and the cupidity of those whom he could draw over to his cause the wary king then told the earl
that if he would send his wife and family to london as hostages for his faith he was ready to bring a mighty army to dunbar and by that gate once more enter scotland
these negotiations backward and forward from london to dunbar and from dunbar to the treacherous lords at stirling occupied much time and the more as great precaution was necessary
to escape the vigilant eyes of wallace which seemed to be present in every part of the kingdom at once so careful was he in overlooking by his well chosen officers civil and military every transaction
that the slightest dereliction from the straight order of things was immediately seen and examined into many of these trusty magistrates having been placed in the lothians before march took the government
and therefore as they remained great circumspection was used to elude their watchfulness from the time that edward had again entered into terms with the scottish chiefs lord march
sent regular tidings to lord soulis of the progress of their negotiations he knew that nobleman would gladly welcome the recall of the king of england
for ever since the revolution in favor of scotland he had remained obstinately shut up within his castle of hermitage
and the wounds he had received from the invisible hand which had released her having been given with all the might of the valiant arm which directed the blow were not even now healed his passions
kept them still inflamed and their smart made his vengeance burn the fiercer against wallace who he now learned was the mysterious agent of her rescue
while treason secretly prepared to spring its mine beneath the feet of the regent he unsuspicious that any could be discontented where all were free and prosperous
thought of no enemy to the tranquil fulfillment of his duties but the minor persecutions of lady mar
either to invite him to snawdoun or to lead her to the citadel where he resided in every one of these epistles
which impelled her to seek his society but the moderated regard of a friend and though perfectly aware of all that was behind these asseverations for she had deceived him once into a belief of this please
and had made him feel its falseness he found himself forced at times out of the civility due to her sex to comply with her invitations indeed
her conduct never gave him reason to hold her in any higher respect for whenever they happened to be left alone she made pretensions the frequency of these scenes at last made him never go to snawdoun unaccompanied
for she rarely allowed him to have even a glimpse of helen and by this precaution he avoided much of her solicitations but strange to say
by driving her to despair might have excited her to some desperate act her wayward heart threw the blame of his coldness upon her trammels with lord mar and flattering herself
that were he dead all would happen as she wished she panted for that hour with an impatience which often tempted her to precipitate the event things were in this situation when wallace one night
received a hasty summons from his pillow by a page of lord mar's requesting him to immediately repair to his chamber concluding that something alarming must have happened
he threw on his brigandine and plaid and entered the apartments of the governor mar met him with a countenance the herald of a dreadful matter what has happened inquired wallace
treason
but from what point i cannot guess my daughter has braved a dark and lonely walk from snawdoun to bring the proofs while speaking
he lead the chief into the room where helen sat like some fairy specter of the night her long hair disordered by the winds of a nocturnal storm mingling with the gray folds of the mantle which enveloped her
wallace hastened forward she now no longer flitted away scared from his approach by the frowning glances of her step mother he had once attempted
to express his grateful regrets for what she had suffered in her lovely person for his sake but the countess had then interrupted him and helen disappeared now he beheld her in a presence
where he could declare all his gratitude without subjecting its gentle object to one harsh word in consequence and almost forgetting his errand to the governor and the tidings he had just heard
he remembered only the manner in which she had shielded his life with her arms and he bent his knee respectfully before her as she rose to his approach blushing and silent she extended her hand to him
to rise he pressed it warmly sweet excellence said he i am happy in this opportunity however gained to again pour out my acknowledgments to you
and though i have been denied that pleasure until now yet the memory of your generous interest in the friend of your father is one of the most cherished sentiments of my heart
it is my happiness as well as my duty sit william wallace replied she to regard you and my country as one and that i hope will excuse the
perhaps rash action of this night as she spoke he rose and looked at lord mar for explanation the earl held a roll of vellum toward him
this writing said he was found this evening by my daughter she was enjoying with my wife and other ladies a moonlight walk on the shores of the forth behind the palace
when having strayed at some distance from her friends she saw this packet lying in the path before her as if it had just been dropped it bore no direction she therefore opened it
and part of the contents soon told her she must conceal the whole till she could reveal them to me not even to my wife did she intrust the dangerous secret nor would she run any risk
by sending it by a messenger as soon as the family were gone to rest she wrapped herself in her plaid and finding a passage through one of the low embrasures of snawdoun with a fleet step made her way to the citadel
and to me she gave me the packet read it my friend and judge if we do not owe ourselves to heaven for so critical a discovery wallace took the scroll
and read as follows our trusty fellows will bring you this and deliver copies of the same to the rest we shall be with you in four and twenty hours
after it arrives the army of our liege lord is now in the lothians passing through them under the appellation of succors for the regent from the hebrides keep all safe
and neither himself nor any of his adherents shall have a head on their shoulders by this day week neither superscription name nor date was to this letter
but wallace immediately knew the handwriting to be that of lord march
none but the most powerful chiefs would the proud cospatrick admit into his conspiracies and what are we to do for by to morrow evening the army this traitor has let into the heart of this country
will be at our gates no cried wallace thanks to god and this guardian angel fervently clasping helen's hand as he spoke we must not be intimidated by treachery
let us be faithful to ourselves my veteran friend and all will go well it matters not who the other traitors are they must soon discover themselves and shall find us prepared to counteract their machinations
sound your bugles my lord to summon the heads of our council at this command helen arose but replaced herself in her chair on wallace exclaiming
stay lady helen let the sight of such virgin delicacy braving the terrors of the night to warn betrayed scotland nerve every heart with redoubled courage to breast this insidious foe
helen did indeed feel her soul awake to all its ancient patriotic enthusiasm and thus with a countenance pale but resplendent with the light of her thoughts
she sat the angel of her heroic inspiration wallace often turned to look on her while her eyes unconscious of the adoring admiration which spoke in their beams
followed his godlike figure as it moved through the room with a step that declared the undisturbed determination of his soul the lords bothwell loch awe
were the first that obeyed the call they started at sight of helen but wallace in a few words related the cause of her appearance and the portentous letter was laid before them
all were acquainted with the handwriting of lord march and all agreed in attributing to its real motive his late solicitude to obtain the command of the lothians what cried bothwell
but to open his castle gates to the enemy and to repel him before he reaches ours my brave chiefs replied wallace i have summoned you edward
will not make this attempt without tremendous powers he knows what he risks his men his life and his honor we must therefore expect a resolution in him adequate to such an enterprise
even to night this instant and go out and bring in your followers i will call up mine from the banks of the clyde and be ready to meet him ere he crosses the carrou
while he gave these orders other nobles thronged in and helen being severally thanked by them all became so agitated that stretching out her hand to wallace who was nearest to her
she softly whispered take me hence he read in her blushing face the oppression her modesty sustained in such a scene
and with her faltering steps she leaned upon his arm as he conducted her to an interior chamber overcome by her former fears and the emotions of the last hour
she sunk into a chair and burst into tears wallace stood near her and as he looked on her he thought if aught on earth ever resembled the beloved of my soul
and all the tenderness which memory gave to his almost adored wife and all the grateful complacency with which he regarded helen beamed at once from his eyes
she raised her head she felt
it thrilled to her soul for a moment every former thought seemed lost in the one perception that he then gazed on her as he had never looked on any woman since his marion
was she then beloved the impression was evanescent
with her head bent down leave me sir william wallace forgive me but i am exhausted my frame is weaker than my mind she spoke this at intervals
and wallace respectfully touching the hand she extended pressed it to his breast i obey you dear lady helen and when next we meet it will i hope be to dispel every fear in that gentle bosom
she bowed her head without looking up
chapter fourteen i expect the assassin this evening i must take you said rouletabille so as to enable you to understand to the various scenes i myself believe that i have discovered what everybody else is searching for
namely how the murderer escaped from the yellow room without any accomplice and without mademoiselle stangerson having had anything to do with it but so long as i am not sure of the real murderer i cannot state the theory on which i am working
as to what happened in this place three nights ago
it passes all belief the theory i have formed from the incident is so absurd that i would rather matters remained as yet unexplained
the only sound to be heard was the crunching of the dead leaves beneath our feet the silence was so intense that one might have thought the chateau had been abandoned
the old stones the stagnant water of the ditch surrounding the donjon the bleak ground strewn with the dead leaves the dark skeleton like outlines of the trees all contributed to give to the desolate place now filled with its awful mystery
a most funereal aspect as we passed round the donjon we met the green man the forest keeper who did not greet us but walked by as if we had not existed he was looking just as i had formerly seen him through the window of the donjon inn
he had still his fowling piece slung at his back his pipe was in his mouth and his eye glasses on his nose an odd kind of fish rouletabille said to me in a low tone have you spoken to him i asked yes but
i could get nothing out of him his only answers are grunts and shrugs of the shoulders he generally lives on the first floor of the donjon a big room that once served for an oratory he lives like a bear never goes out without his gun and is only pleasant with the girls
the women for twelve miles round are all setting their caps for him for the present he is paying attention to madame mathieu whose husband is keeping a lynx eye upon her in consequence
after passing the donjon which is situated at the extreme end of the left wing we went to the back of the chateau rouletabille pointing to a window which i recognised as the only one belonging to mademoiselle stangerson's apartment said to me
about to enter the chateau by that window as i expressed some surprise at this piece of nocturnal gymnastics
this gallery high and wide extended along the whole length of the building and was lit from the front of the chateau facing the north the rooms the windows of which looked to the south opened out of the gallery
professor stangerson inhabited the left wing of the building mademoiselle stangerson had her apartment in the right wing we entered the gallery to the right a narrow carpet laid on the waxed oaken floor which shone like glass deadened the sound of our footsteps
he seized them eagerly his fingers caressing the glass then looking at me with an expression of terror on his face he murmured oh oh he repeated the exclamation again and again as if his thoughts had suddenly turned his brain
rouletabille opened it a figure entered
i was surprised thinking she was still under lock and key this woman said in a very low tone in the grove of the parquet rouletabille replied thanks the woman then left he again turned to me his look haggard
if the thing is mathematically possible why should it not be humanly and if it is humanly possible the matter is simply awful i interrupted him in his soliloquy
i asked yes he replied i had them liberated i needed people i could trust the woman is thoroughly devoted to me and her husband would lay down his life for me oho i said when will he have occasion to do it
this evening for this evening i expect the murderer you expect the murderer this evening then you know him i shall know him but i should be mad to affirm categorically at this moment that i do know him
the mathematical idea i have of the murderer gives results so frightful
i hope so with all my heart
because i know that he must come rouletabille very slowly filled his pipe and lit it that meant an interesting story at that moment we heard some one walking in the gallery and passing before our door rouletabille listened
is frederic larsan in his room i asked pointing to the partition no my friend answered he went to paris this morning still on the scent of darzac who also left for paris that matter will turn out badly
i expect that monsieur darzac will be arrested in the course of the next week
circumstances things people not an hour passes without bringing some new evidence against him the examining magistrate is overwhelmed by it and blind frederic larsan however is not a novice i said i thought so
said rouletabille with a slightly contemptuous turn of his lips i fancied he was a much abler man i had indeed a great admiration for him before i got to know his method of working it's deplorable he owes his reputation solely to his ability
but he lacks reasoning power the mathematics of his ideas are very poor i looked closely at rouletabille and could not help smiling on hearing this boy of eighteen talking of a man who had proved to the world that he was the finest police sleuth in europe you smile
but i must make haste about it for he has an enormous start on me given him by monsieur robert darzac who is this evening going to increase it still more
every time the murderer comes to the chateau monsieur darzac by a strange fatality absents himself and refuses to give any account of how he employs his time every time the assassin comes to the chateau i cried
has he returned then yes during that famous night when the strange phenomenon occurred
but i had learned never to press rouletabille in his narratives he spoke when the fancy took him and when he judged it to be right he was less concerned about my curiosity than he was for making a complete summing up for himself of any important matter in which he was interested
indeed the results of that still unknown science known as hypnotism for example were not more inexplicable than the disappearance of the matter of the murderer at the moment when four persons were within touch of him i speak of hypnotism as i would of electricity
for of the nature of both we are ignorant and we know little of their laws i cite these examples because at the time the case appeared to me to be only explicable by the inexplicable that is to say by an event outside of known natural laws
for the most curious thing about all the mysteries of the glandier case
i have among the papers that were sent me by the young man after the affair was over a note book of his in which a complete account is given of the phenomenon of the disappearance of the matter of the assassin and the thoughts to which it gave rise in the mind of my young friend
continues rouletabille's note book we were near her door in the gallery where this incredible phenomenon had taken place there are moments when one feels as if one's brain were about to burst a bullet in the head
a fracture of the skull the seat of reason shattered with only these can i compare the sensation which exhausted and left me void of sense happily mademoiselle stangerson appeared on the threshold of her ante room
i saw her and that helped to relieve my chaotic state of mind i breathed her i inhaled the perfume of the lady in black whom i should never see again
alas i no more meet her but from time to time and yet and yet how the memory of that perfume felt by me alone carries me back to the days of my childhood
it was this sharp reminder from my beloved perfume of the lady in black which made me go to her dressed wholly in white and so pale so pale and so beautiful on the threshold of the inexplicable gallery her beautiful golden hair
gathered into a knot on the back of her neck left visible the red star on her temple which had so nearly been the cause of her death when i first got on the right track of the mystery of this case i had imagined that on the night of the tragedy in the yellow room
mademoiselle stangerson had worn her hair in bands but then how could i have imagined otherwise when i had not been in the yellow room when i wrote these lines joseph rouletabille was eighteen years of age and he spoke of his youth
it is not my fault if in the document which i have cited rouletabille thought fit to refer to his childhood but now since the occurrence of the inexplicable gallery i did not reason at all i stood there
stupid before the apparition so pale and so beautiful of mademoiselle stangerson she was clad in a dressing gown of dreamy white one might have taken her to be a ghost a lovely phantom
her father took her in his arms and kissed her passionately as if he had recovered her after being long lost to him
the door of the boudoir was open the terrified faces of the two nurses craned towards us mademoiselle stangerson inquired the meaning of all the disturbance that she was not in her own room was quite easily explained quite easily
she had a fancy not to sleep that night in her chamber but in the boudoir with her nurses
since the night of the crime she had experienced feelings of terror and fears came over her that are easily to be comprehended but who could imagine that on that particular night when he was to come she would by a mere chance determine to shut herself in with her women
he who could understand all this would have to assume that mademoiselle stangerson knew that the murderer was coming she could not prevent his coming again unknown to her father unknown to all but to monsieur robert darzac for he must know it now perhaps he had known it before
did he remember that phrase in the elysee garden must i commit a crime then to win you against whom the crime if not against the obstacle against the murderer ah i would kill him with my own hand
and i replied you have not answered my question that was the very truth in truth in truth monsieur darzac knew the murderer so well that while wishing to kill him himself he was afraid i should find him
there could be but two reasons why he had assisted me in my investigation first because i forced him to do it and second because she would be the better protected i am in the chamber her room i look at her
she has possessed herself of it it was evidently intended for her evidently how she trembles trembles at the strange story her father is telling her of the presence of the murderer in her chamber and of the pursuit
by some incomprehensible means had been able to elude us then follows a silence what a silence we are all there looking at her her father larsan daddy jacques and i
what were we all thinking of in the silence after the events of that night of the mystery of the inexplicable gallery
for herself and from the other it brought the tears to my eyes she is there shedding about her the perfume of the lady in black at last i see her in the silence of her chamber
since the fatal hour of the mystery of the yellow room we have hung about this invisible and silent woman to learn what she knows our desires our wish to know must be a torment to her who can tell that should we learn the secret of her mystery
it would not precipitate a tragedy more terrible than that which had already been enacted here who can tell if it might not mean her death yet it had brought her close to death and we still knew nothing or rather
there are some of us who know nothing but i if i knew who i should know all who who not knowing who i must remain silent out of pity for her
and yet she keeps the secret when i know who i will speak to him to him she looked at us now with a far away look in her eyes as if we were not in the chamber monsieur stangerson broke the silence
he declared that henceforth he would no more absent himself from his daughter's apartments she tried to oppose him in vain he adhered firmly to his purpose he would install himself there this very night he said
then he suddenly began talking to her as if she were a little child he smiled at her and seemed not to know either what he said or what he did the illustrious professor had lost his head
and frederic larsan himself is obliged to turn away to hide his emotion for myself i am able neither to think or feel i felt an infinite contempt for myself
it was the first time that frederic larsan like myself
like me he had insisted on being allowed to question the unhappy lady
to him as to me the same answer had always been given mademoiselle stangerson was too weak to receive us the questionings of the examining magistrate had over fatigued her
it was evidently intended not to give us any assistance in our researches i was not surprised but frederic larsan had always resented this conduct it is true that he and i had a totally different theory of the crime
i still catch myself repeating from the depths of my heart save her save her without his speaking
take him and shut his mouth but monsieur darzac made it clear that in order to shut his mouth he must be killed have i the right to kill mademoiselle stangerson's murderer no i had not
but let him only give me the chance let me find out whether he is really a creature of flesh and blood let me see his dead body since it cannot be taken alive
if i could but make this woman who does not even look at us understand she is absorbed by her fears and by her father's distress of mind and i can do nothing to save her yes
i will go to work once more and accomplish wonders i move towards her
i would entreat her to have confidence in me i would in a word make her understand she alone that i know how the murderer escaped from the yellow room that i have guessed the motives for her secrecy and that i pity her with all my heart
but by her gestures she begged us to leave her alone expressing weariness and the need for immediate rest monsieur stangerson asked us to go back to our rooms and thanked us frederic larsan and i bowed to him and followed by daddy jacques we regained the gallery
i heard larsan murmur strange strange he made a sign to me to go with him into his room on the threshold he turned towards daddy jacques did you see him distinctly he asked who the man
i said and to me said larsan the great fred and i were alone in his chamber now to talk over this thing we talked for an hour turning the matter over and viewing it from every side
from the questions put by him from the explanation which he gives me it is clear to me that in spite of all our senses
known to him alone he knows the chateau he said to me he knows it well
i suggested he is as tall as he wants to be murmured fred i understand i said but how do you account for his red hair and beard too much beard too much hair false says fred
so much the better i hope so but everything condemns him did you notice the marks on the carpet come and look at them i have seen them they are the marks of the neat boots the same as those we saw on the border of the lake
can you deny that they belong to robert darzac of course one may be mistaken have you noticed that those footprints only go in one direction that there are no return marks when the man came from the chamber pursued by all of us
his footsteps left no traces behind them he had perhaps been in the chamber for hours
i suddenly put an end to this idle chatter void of any logic and made a sign to larsan to listen there below some one is shutting a door i rise larsan follows me we descend to the ground floor of the chateau
i lead him to the little semi circular room under the terrace beneath the window of the off turning gallery i point to the door now closed open a short time before under which a shaft of light is visible the forest keeper says fred
i go to the door and rap smartly on it
we could only have answered that the assassin had disappeared from the gallery in such a way that we thought he was no longer anywhere he had eluded us when we all had our hands stretched out ready to seize him when we were almost touching him
we had no longer any ground for hoping that we could clear up the mystery of that night as soon as i rapped at the door it was opened and the keeper asked us quietly what we wanted he was undressed and preparing to go to bed
we entered and i affected surprise not gone to bed yet no he replied roughly i have been making a round of the park and in the woods i am only just back and sleepy good night listen i said
an hour or so ago there was a ladder close by your window what ladder i did not see any ladder good night
when we were outside i looked at larsan his face was impenetrable well i said well he repeated
there was no mistaking larsan's bad temper on re entering the chateau i heard him mutter it would be strange
in search of peace and fortune
that they are not a pipe for fortune's finger to sound what stop she pleases give me that man that is not passion's slave and i will wear him in my heart's core ay in my heart of heart as i do thee
early on the morning of the ninth of september fifteen eighty six william and myself took our departure from the crown tavern the landlord tom gill gave us a bottle of his best gin and brandy to cheer us on our way to fame and fortune
we carried blackthorn cudgels to protect us from gamekeepers lords and dogs as we passed the modest cottage where william's parents resided
he impulsively broke away from my presence to bid a long farewell to his angelic mother and soon again he was at my side flushed with pride and tears exclaiming in undertone a mother's love and fervent hope are coined into our horoscope
and to our latest dying breath her heart and soul are ours to death
when no other friend could be so true and powerful gold gilds success here jack
and if i should ever be penniless and you have gold i know you will aid me in a pinch the wine nature of your soul needs no bush we still have slept together
rose at an instant learned played eat together and wherever we went like juno's swans still we went coupled and inseparable william said i memory with her indelible signet shall long imprint this generous act of yours upon my soul
and when hundreds of years have passed i shall tell of the undying friendship of two bohemians who day and night set their own fashion created a world of their own and lived ecstatically oscillating between the blunders of bacchus and the vanity of venus
farewell farewell a sad farewell to glowing scenes of boyhood ye rocks and rills and forests primeval list to my sighing soul
trembling on the tongue to vent its echoes in ambient air no more shall wild eyed deer fretful hares hawks and hounds entrance mine ear and vision
memory many hued maiden oft in midnight hours shall picture these eternal hills and purling streams rimmed by vernal meadows and pillowed even in the lap of misery
fantastic visions of thee shall lull deepest woe to repose and banqueting at yon alehouse nestling near blooming hedge and snowy hawthorn i shall live again in blissful dreams among the enchanting precincts of the silver serpentine avon
to thee i lift my hands in prayer disappearing and pinioned with hope daughter of love and sunrise go forth to multitudinous london
of mind illimitable with this apostrophe we took a last look at the glinting gables and sparkling spires of stratford disappearing over the hill
our steps and faces turned to london town that seething whirlpool of human woe and pleasure the air was cold and the country roads were rutty and muddy but the autumn landscape was beautiful
in its gray and purple garb while the notes of flitting wild birds chirped and sang from bush hedge field and forest
and then would rise over our heads in flitting flocks steering their course to the south and seemingly accompanying us on our wandering way to the great metropolis
woodstock eversham and oxford it was near sunset when the lofty towers and steeples of ancient oxford the great site of classic lore met our view
in our haste to enter the city before dark we jumped a hedge fence and stone wall making a short cross cut over the lordly domain of the earl of norfolk and just as we were again emerging into the great road a gamekeeper was seen approaching with a huge mastiff
who rushed upon us like a lion we were near a rough wall and it appeared to both of us that unless we stood for immediate fight the dog would tear us to pieces the gamekeeper urged the dog in his barking mad career but just as he made a grand leap at william's throat
his blackthorn cudgel came down with a whirl and broke the forelegs of the mastiff sending him to earth with a growl and roar that could be heard over the castle walls that loomed up in the evening gray the gamekeeper aimed a blunderbuss at the bard but ere he could fire the deadly weapon
i jumped on the petty tyrant whelp and cudgeled his face into a macerated beefsteak we then leaped the garden wall and rushed into the city crowd where the curtains of night screened us from dogs and licentious lords
we found our way to the crown tavern kept by richard devanant and his buxom black eyed wife the old boniface was jolly but was in his physical and spiritual dotage yet nell his second wife was the life of the place
being immensely popular with the oxford students who circled about the crown in midnight hours with hilarious independence that defied the raids of beadles watchmen and armed constabulary
those were gay and roystering days and nights when the greatest yeoman tradesman student or lord was the one who drank his comrade under the table
and soaring into the sky of beauty and action
we soon found that the senior class of oxonian students had conquered the senior class of cambridge at a great game of inter college football and the cheers and yells of oxford bloods permeated the atmosphere until midnight a round table spread in the tavern hall was loaded with food and liquors
while songs and speeches were given with a vim all boasting of the prowess and patriotism of oxford
a young lord named bob burleigh
while drowning our grief and loneliness in pewter pots of ale at a side table in a snug corner who should slap william on the shoulder but ned sadler
at the height of the college banquet mat monmouth announced that the president of the cambridge boxing club had just challenged the president of the oxford club to fight under the king's rule for a purse of twenty guineas
a wild cheer rent the room and instanter the chairs and tables were pushed aside when dick milton and jack norfolk stepped into the improvised prize ring made by the circling arms of the students
five rounds with gloves were to be fought and the champion who knocked out his opponent three times should be the victor dick milton the cambridge athlete when time was called rushed on jack norfolk the oxford man with a blow that sent him over the circling arms and into the chairs
score one for dick time was called and jack although a little dazed leaped at his opponent who dodged the rush and with a quick turn got in a left hander on jack's neck and pastured him again among the yelling bloods score two for dick
but with that bull dog courage that never deserts an englishman he threw himself on the cambridge man with great force and both went down with a crash
jack norfolk did not respond to the call score three for dick victory then the yell of the cambridge students could be heard among the turrets and gables of classic oxford a recompense for their defeat at the afternoon football game
there seemed to be no immediate response but i noticed a flush in the face of william who modestly rose in his six foot form and asked if the challenge included outside citizens dick immediately replied you or anybody in england
william said he did not know much about fighting with gloves but if the gentleman would consent to three rounds with bare knuckles he would be pleased to accommodate him at once all right
mat monmouth called time dick milton made a tiger leap at william and landed with his right eye on the right knuckles of the stratford citizen
the quickness and science of the bard was a great surprise to the cambridge athlete and when time was called he came up groggy with a funeral eye on the defense and not on the tiger attack
when time was called no response from the cambridge champion was heard and mat monmouth handed over the prize purse to william when the oxford lads cheered the stratford stranger to the echo
screw your courage to the sticking place and we will not fail at the second crow of the cock william and myself bid good bye to the jolly boniface and his fantastic spouse who made a deep impression on the bard
in fact he was easily impressed when youth beauty and pleasure reigned around and had he been born in kentucky no blue ribbon stallion in the commonwealth could match his form spirit or gait apollo with his rosy footsteps lit up hill meadow and lawn
and kissed away the sparkling dewdrops of bush and hedge cheering us on our way through the towns of thane over the chilton hills on to great marlow maidenhead and renowned windsor
passing numerous yeomen and tradespeople on their way to and from the royal domain of her majesty queen elizabeth in striding along with hearts light and airy
we put up for the night at the red lion tavern and you may be sure that william was the hero of the town
william was invited for breakfast the next morning at the stone lodge to receive hearty thanks and reward for his heroic action in risking his life for the salvation of others but the bard excused himself saying that he must start by daylight for his last stretch to london
and only asked from the young ladies a sprig of boxwood and lock of their golden hair at parting the father threw william a bag of gold and the girls presented him with the tokens desired in addition to impulsive bashful kisses
what would alone have set a division between that man and us if there had been no other dividing circumstance was his triumph in my story saving his troublesome sense of having been low on one occasion since his return
on which point he began to hold forth to herbert the moment my revelation was finished he had no perception of the possibility of my finding any fault with my good fortune his boast that he had made me a gentleman
and that he had come to see me support the character on his ample resources was made for me quite as much as for himself and that it was a highly agreeable boast to both of us and that we must both be very proud of it
was a conclusion quite established in his own mind though look'ee here pip's comrade he said to herbert after having discoursed for some time
i said to pip i knowed as i had been low but don't you fret yourself on that score
and pip's comrade you two may count upon me always having a gen teel muzzle on muzzled i have been since that half a minute when i was betrayed into lowness
but looked as if there were no specific consolation in this and remained perplexed and dismayed we were anxious for the time when he would go to his lodging and leave us together but he was evidently jealous of leaving us together and sat late
it was midnight before i took him round to essex street and saw him safely in at his own dark door when it closed upon him i experienced the first moment of relief i had known since the night of his arrival
and in bringing him back and i looked about me now difficult as it is in a large city to avoid the suspicion of being watched when the mind is conscious of danger in that regard i could not persuade myself that any of the people within sight cared about my movements
and the street was empty when i turned back into the temple nobody had come out at the gate with us nobody went in at the gate with me
garden court was as still and lifeless as the staircase was when i ascended it herbert received me with open arms and i had never felt before so blessedly what it is to have a friend
when he had spoken some sound words of sympathy and encouragement we sat down to consider the question what was to be done the chair that provis had occupied still remaining where it had stood for he had a barrack way with him of hanging about one spot
and what not as if it were all put down for him on a slate i say his chair remaining where it had stood herbert unconsciously took it but next moment started out of it pushed it away and took another
neither had i occasion to confess my own we interchanged that confidence without shaping a syllable
what is to be done my poor dear handel he replied holding his head i am too stunned to think so was i herbert when the blow first fell still something must be done he is intent upon various new expenses
horses and carriages and lavish appearances of all kinds he must be stopped somehow you mean that you can't accept how can i i interposed as herbert paused think of him look at him an involuntary shudder passed over both of us
yet i am afraid the dreadful truth is herbert that he is attached to me strongly attached to me was there ever such a fate my poor dear handel herbert repeated
then said i after all stopping short here never taking another penny from him think what i owe him already then again i am heavily in debt
well well well herbert remonstrated don't say fit for nothing
of course i broke down there and of course herbert beyond seizing a warm grip of my hand pretended not to know it
if you were to renounce this patronage and these favors i suppose you would do so with some faint hope
not very strong that hope if you went soldiering besides it's absurd you would be infinitely better in clarriker's house small as it is i am working up towards a partnership you know poor fellow he little suspected with whose money
but there is another question said herbert this is an ignorant determined man who has long had one fixed idea more than that he seems to me i may misjudge him to be a man of a desperate and fierce character
i know he is i returned let me tell you what evidence i have seen of it and i told him what i had not mentioned in my narrative of that encounter with the other convict see then said herbert think of this he comes here at the peril of his life
for the realization of his fixed idea in the moment of realization after all his toil and waiting you cut the ground from under his feet destroy his idea and make his gains worthless to him do you see nothing that he might do under the disappointment
i have seen it herbert and dreamed of it ever since the fatal night of his arrival nothing has been in my thoughts so distinctly as his putting himself in the way of being taken then you may rely upon it said herbert that there would be great danger of his doing it
that is his power over you as long as he remains in england and that would be his reckless course if you forsook him i was so struck by the horror of this idea which had weighed upon me from the first and the working out of which would make me regard myself
in some sort as his murderer that i could not rest in my chair but began pacing to and fro i said to herbert meanwhile that even if provis were recognized and taken in spite of himself i should be wretched as the cause however innocently
yes even though i was so wretched in having him at large and near me and even though i would far rather have worked at the forge all the days of my life than i would ever have come to this but there was no staving off the question what was to be done
you will have to go with him and then he may be induced to go but get him where i will could i prevent his coming back my good handel
and making him reckless here than elsewhere if a pretext to get him away could be made out of that other convict or out of anything else in his life now there again said i stopping before herbert with my open hands held out
as if they contained the desperation of the case i know nothing of his life it has almost made me mad to sit here of a night and see him before me so bound up with my fortunes and misfortunes
and yet so unknown to me except as the miserable wretch who terrified me two days in my childhood herbert got up and linked his arm in mine and we slowly walked to and fro together studying the carpet handel said herbert stopping
fully surely you would too if you were in my place
herbert can you ask me and you have and are bound to have that tenderness for the life he has risked on your account that you must save him if possible from throwing it away then you must get him out of england before you stir a finger to extricate yourself
that done extricate yourself in heaven's name and we'll see it out together dear old boy it was a comfort to shake hands upon it and walk up and down again with only that done
now herbert said i with reference to gaining some knowledge of his history there is but one way that i know of i must ask him point blank yes ask him said herbert when we sit at breakfast in the morning
for he had said on taking leave of herbert that he would come to breakfast with us with this project formed we went to bed i had the wildest dreams concerning him and woke unrefreshed i woke too to recover the fear which i had lost in the night
of his being found out as a returned transport waking i never lost that fear he came round at the appointed time took out his jackknife and sat down to his meal
he was full of plans for his gentleman's coming out strong and like a gentleman and urged me to begin speedily upon the pocket book which he had left in my possession he considered the chambers and his own lodging as temporary residences
and advised me to look out at once for a fashionable crib near hyde park in which he could have a shake down when he had made an end of his breakfast and was wiping his knife on his leg i said to him without a word of preface
after you were gone last night i told my friend of the struggle that the soldiers found you engaged in on the marshes when we came up you remember remember said he
we want to know something about that man and about you it is strange to know no more about either
is not this as good a time as another for our knowing more well he said after consideration you're on your oath you know pip's comrade assuredly replied herbert as to anything i say you know he insisted the oath applies to all
i understand it to do so
so be it he took out his black pipe and was going to fill it with negro head
he put it back again
from little britain i went with my check in my pocket to miss skiffins's brother the accountant and miss skiffins's brother the accountant going straight to clarriker's and bringing clarriker to me
i had the great satisfaction of concluding that arrangement it was the only good thing i had done and the only completed thing i had done
since i was first apprised of my great expectations clarriker informing me on that occasion that the affairs of the house were steadily progressing that he would now be able to establish a small branch house in the east
which was much wanted for the extension of the business and that herbert in his new partnership capacity would go out and take charge of it i found that i must have prepared for a separation from my friend even though my own affairs had been more settled
and now indeed i felt as if my last anchor were loosening its hold and i should soon be driving with the winds and waves but there was recompense in the joy with which herbert would come home of a night and tell me of these changes
little imagining that he told me no news and would sketch airy pictures of himself conducting clara barley to the land of the arabian nights and of me going out to join them with a caravan of camels i believe
and of our all going up the nile and seeing wonders without being sanguine as to my own part in those bright plans i felt that herbert's way was clearing fast and that old bill barley had but to stick to his pepper and rum
and his daughter would soon be happily provided for we had now got into the month of march my left arm though it presented no bad symptoms took in the natural course so long to heal
my right arm was tolerably restored disfigured but fairly serviceable on a monday morning when herbert and i were at breakfast i received the following letter from wemmick by the post walworth
burn this as soon as read early in the week or say wednesday you might do what you know of if you felt disposed to try it now burn when i had shown this to herbert and had put it in the fire
but not before we had both got it by heart we considered what to do for of course my being disabled could now be no longer kept out of view
take startop a good fellow a skilled hand fond of us and enthusiastic and honorable i had thought of him more than once but how much would you tell him herbert it is necessary to tell him very little
let him suppose it a mere freak but a secret one until the morning comes then let him know that there is urgent reason for your getting provis aboard and away you go with him no doubt where
it had seemed to me in the many anxious considerations i had given the point almost indifferent what port we made for hamburg rotterdam antwerp the place signified little so that he was out of england
and would take us up would do i had always proposed to myself to get him well down the river in the boat certainly well beyond gravesend which was a critical place for search or inquiry if suspicion were afoot
as foreign steamers would leave london at about the time of high water
by a previous ebb tide and lie by in some quiet spot until we could pull off to one
if we made inquiries beforehand herbert assented to all this
we found that a steamer for hamburg
but we noted down what other foreign steamers would leave london with the same tide and we satisfied ourselves that we knew the build and color of each we then separated for a few hours i to get at once such passports as were necessary
herbert to see startop at his lodgings we both did what we had to do without any hindrance and when we met again at one o'clock reported it done i for my part was prepared with passports herbert had seen startop
and he was more than ready to join those two should pull a pair of oars we settled and i would steer our charge would be sitter and keep quiet as speed was not our object we should make way enough
that he should not go there at all to morrow evening tuesday that he should prepare provis to come down to some stairs
and not sooner that all the arrangements with him should be concluded that monday night and that he should be communicated with no more in any way until we took him on board these precautions well understood by both of us i went home
on opening the outer door of our chambers with my key i found a letter in the box directed to me a very dirty letter though not ill written it had been delivered by hand of course since i left home and its contents were these
and to come to the little sluice house by the limekiln you had better come if you want information regarding your uncle provis you had much better come and tell no one and lose no time you must come alone bring this with you
what to do now i could not tell and the worst was that i must decide quickly or i should miss the afternoon coach which would take me down in time for to night to morrow night i could not think of going for it would be too close
upon the time of the flight and again for anything i knew the proffered information might have some important bearing on the flight itself
having hardly any time for consideration my watch showing me that the coach started within half an hour i resolved to go i should certainly not have gone but for the reference to my uncle provis that coming on wemmick's letter
and the morning's busy preparation turned the scale it is so difficult to become clearly possessed of the contents of almost any letter in a violent hurry that i had to read this mysterious epistle again twice
before its injunction to me to be secret got mechanically into my mind
i left a note in pencil for herbert
to ascertain for myself how miss havisham was faring i had then barely time to get my great coat lock up the chambers and make for the coach office by the short by ways if i had taken a hackney chariot and gone by the streets
i should have missed my aim going as i did i caught the coach just as it came out of the yard i was the only inside passenger
jolting away knee deep in straw when i came to myself for i really had not been myself since the receipt of the letter it had so bewildered me ensuing on the hurry of the morning the morning hurry and flutter had been great
for long and anxiously as i had waited for wemmick his hint had come like a surprise at last and now i began to wonder at myself for being in the coach and to doubt whether i had sufficient reason for being there
and to consider whether i should get out presently and go back and to argue against ever heeding an anonymous communication and in short to pass through all those phases of contradiction and indecision to which i suppose
very few hurried people are strangers still the reference to provis by name mastered everything i reasoned as i had reasoned already without knowing it if that be reasoning
in case any harm should befall him through my not going how could i ever forgive myself it was dark before we got down and the journey seemed long and dreary to me who could see little of it inside and who could not go outside in my disabled state
avoiding the blue boar i put up at an inn of minor reputation down the town and ordered some dinner while it was preparing i went to satis house and inquired for miss havisham she was still very ill though considered something better
my inn had once been a part of an ancient ecclesiastical house and i dined in a little octagonal common room like a font as i was not able to cut my dinner the old landlord with a shining bald head did it for me
this bringing us into conversation he was so good as to entertain me with my own story of course with the popular feature that pumblechook was my earliest benefactor and the founder of my fortunes do you know the young man said i
know him repeated the landlord ever since he was no height at all does he ever come back to this neighborhood ay he comes back said the landlord to his great friends now and again and gives the cold shoulder to the man that made him what man is that
him that i speak of said the landlord mister pumblechook is he ungrateful to no one else no doubt he would be if he could returned the landlord but he can't and why because pumblechook done everything for him does pumblechook say so
say so replied the landlord he han't no call to say so but does he say so it would turn a man's blood to white wine winegar to hear him tell of it sir said the landlord i thought yet joe dear joe you never tell of it
nor you sweet tempered biddy your appetite's been touched like by your accident said the landlord glancing at the bandaged arm under my coat try a tenderer bit no thank you i replied turning from the table to brood over the fire
i can eat no more please take it away
as through the brazen impostor pumblechook the falser he the truer joe the meaner he the nobler joe my heart was deeply and most deservedly humbled
as i mused over the fire for an hour or more the striking of the clock aroused me but not from my dejection or remorse and i got up and had my coat fastened round my neck and went out i had previously sought in my pockets for the letter
that i might refer to it again but i could not find it
with my head full of george barnwell i was at first disposed to believe that i must have had some hand in the attack upon my sister or at all events that as her near relation popularly known to be under obligations to her
i was a more legitimate object of suspicion than any one else but when in the clearer light of next morning i began to reconsider the matter and to hear it discussed around me on all sides
i took another view of the case which was more reasonable joe had been at the three jolly bargemen smoking his pipe from a quarter after eight o'clock to a quarter before ten
while he was there my sister had been seen standing at the kitchen door and had exchanged good night with a farm laborer going home
he got into dense confusion when he tried to be
when joe went home at five minutes before ten he found her struck down on the floor and promptly called in assistance the fire had not then burnt unusually low nor was the snuff of the candle very long
the candle however had been blown out nothing had been taken away from any part of the house neither beyond the blowing out of the candle
was there any disarrangement of the kitchen excepting such as she herself had made in falling and bleeding but there was one remarkable piece of evidence on the spot she had been struck with something blunt and heavy on the head and spine
after the blows were dealt something heavy had been thrown down at her with considerable violence as she lay on her face and on the ground beside her when joe picked her up was a convict's leg iron which had been filed asunder
now joe examining this iron with a smith's eye
the hue and cry going off to the hulks and people coming thence to examine the iron joe's opinion was corroborated they did not undertake to say when it had left the prison ships to which it undoubtedly had once belonged but they claimed to know for certain
further one of those two was already retaken and had not freed himself of his iron
i believed the iron to be my convict's iron the iron i had seen and heard him filing at on the marshes but my mind did not accuse him of having put it to its latest use for i believed one of two other persons to have become possessed of it
and to have turned it to this cruel account either orlick or the strange man who had shown me the file now as to orlick he had gone to town exactly as he told us when we picked him up at the turnpike
he had been seen about town all the evening he had been in divers companies in several public houses and he had come back with myself and mister wopsle there was nothing against him save the quarrel
ten thousand times as to the strange man
because my sister was fully prepared to restore them
the assailant had come in so silently and suddenly that she had been felled before she could look round
but i could hardly think otherwise i suffered unspeakable trouble while i considered and reconsidered whether i should at last dissolve that spell of my childhood and tell joe all the story
for months afterwards i every day settled the question finally in the negative and reopened and reargued it next morning the contention came after all to this the secret was such an old one now
had so grown into me and become a part of myself
to alienate joe from me if he believed it i had a further restraining dread that he would not believe it but would assort it with the fabulous dogs and veal cutlets as a monstrous invention however i temporized with myself of course
when the thing is always done and resolved to make a full disclosure if i should see any such new occasion as a new chance of helping in the discovery of the assailant the constables and the bow street men from london
for this happened in the days of the extinct red waistcoated police were about the house for a week or two and did pretty much what i have heard and read of like authorities doing in other such cases they took up several obviously wrong people
and they ran their heads very hard against wrong ideas and persisted in trying to fit the circumstances to the ideas instead of trying to extract ideas from the circumstances also they stood about the door of the jolly bargemen
with knowing and reserved looks that filled the whole neighborhood with admiration and they had a mysterious manner of taking their drink that was almost as good as taking the culprit
but not quite for they never did it long after these constitutional powers had dispersed my sister lay very ill in bed her sight was disturbed so that she saw objects multiplied
and grasped at visionary teacups and wineglasses instead of the realities her hearing was greatly impaired her memory also and her speech was unintelligible
when at last she came round so far as to be helped down stairs it was still necessary to keep my slate always by her that she might indicate in writing what she could not indicate in speech as she was very bad handwriting apart
a more than indifferent speller and as joe was a more than indifferent reader extraordinary complications arose between them which i was always called in to solve the administration of mutton instead of medicine
the substitution of tea for joe and the baker for bacon were among the mildest of my own mistakes however her temper was greatly improved and she was patient
soon became a part of her regular state and afterwards at intervals of two or three months she would often put her hands to her head and would then remain for about a week at a time in some gloomy aberration of mind
mister wopsle's great aunt conquered a confirmed habit of living into which she had fallen and biddy became a part of our establishment it may have been about a month after my sister's reappearance in the kitchen
when biddy came to us with a small speckled box containing the whole of her worldly effects and became a blessing to the household above all she was a blessing to joe for the dear old fellow was sadly cut up
by the constant contemplation of the wreck of his wife and had been accustomed while attending on her of an evening to turn to me every now and then and say with his blue eyes moistened such a fine figure of a woman as she once were pip
biddy instantly taking the cleverest charge of her as though she had studied her from infancy joe became able in some sort to appreciate the greater quiet of his life and to get down to the jolly bargemen now and then for a change that did him good
poor joe though he never knew it
in regarding him as one of the deepest spirits they had ever encountered biddy's first triumph in her new office was to solve a difficulty that had completely vanquished me i had tried hard at it but had made nothing of it thus it was
again and again and again my sister had traced upon the slate a character that looked like a curious t and then with the utmost eagerness had called our attention to it
i had in vain tried everything producible that began with a t from tar to toast and tub at length it had come into my head that the sign looked like a hammer and on my lustily calling that word in my sister's ear
and had expressed a qualified assent thereupon i had brought in all our hammers one after another but without avail then i bethought me of a crutch the shape being much the same and i borrowed one in the village
and displayed it to my sister with considerable confidence but she shook her head to that extent when she was shown it that we were terrified lest in her weak and shattered state she should dislocate her neck
when my sister found that biddy was very quick to understand her this mysterious sign reappeared on the slate biddy looked thoughtfully at it heard my explanation looked thoughtfully at my sister
looked thoughtfully at joe who was always represented on the slate
and ran into the forge followed by joe and me why of course cried biddy with an exultant face don't you see it's him orlick without a doubt she had lost his name and could only signify him by his hammer
we told him why we wanted him to come into the kitchen and he slowly laid down his hammer wiped his brow with his arm took another wipe at it with his apron and came slouching out with a curious loose vagabond bend in the knees that strongly distinguished him
i confess that i expected to see my sister denounce him and that i was disappointed by the different result she manifested the greatest anxiety to be on good terms with him was evidently much pleased by his being at length produced
she watched his countenance as if she were particularly wishful to be assured that he took kindly to his reception she showed every possible desire to conciliate him and there was an air of humble propitiation in all she did
but latterly said joan i haven't heard anything about your doings not since you wrote from castle gaverick after after mister willoughby maule's marriage the light died out of bridget's face ah i'll tell you
do you know rosamond saw them the willoughby maules before we all left she met them at shoolbred's buying furniture rosamond said she was dragging after him looking a bundle and cross and ill and that he seemed intensely bored
poor will there was silence bridget's thoughts seemed far away but about the socialism
oh well aunt eliza made up her mind suddenly to consult her new doctor aunt eliza's chief excitement is changing her doctors and she grows quite youthful in the process they say that love and religion are the chief emotional interests of unattached women
i should add on doctors when a woman is growing old don't you think joan that in that case all three come invariably to the same thing love religion and doctors as emotional interests do they come to the same thing for elderly women
as if she were propounding a syllogism no certainly not when the elderly woman happens to be a hard working journalist oh there you have the pull i suggested the idea to rosamond the other day and she gave a true rosamondian answer
because usually you have to pay your doctor and sometimes your lover pays you rather smart wasn't it yes but i think you'd better warn lady tallant that the leichardt'stonian ladies are a bit puritanical in their ideas of repartee
bridget sighed and paused but you are getting over it biddy the disappointment about mister maule you are growing not to care i don't want to grow not to care though of course now i should prefer to care about someone or something that isn't willoughby maule
i feel inside me that my salvation lies in caring in caring intensely but you wouldn't understand joan you weren't built that way no
but went on biddy brightly i think sometimes that if one could get to the pitch of feeling nothing matters it would be a way of reaching the letting go stage which one must arrive at before one can even begin to live in the eternal
there seemed something a little comic in the notion of bridget o'hara living in the eternal
which might perhaps form a base for the verities to rest upon beelzebub didn't teach you that she said no quite the contrary it all came out of my concentration studies and the higher thought centre where i met some most original dears
christian scientists and spiritualists and then these socialists not a bit on the lines of the old fabians and bernard shavians and the rest who used to believe only in matter specially landed property matter and in parcelling that out among themselves
my friends are for parcelling out what they call the divine intelligence which they say will bring them everything they need for the good of others
but they do contrive to get what they want for other people it was a soup kitchen this winter where they fed eleven thousand starving poor
lady bridget was so absorbed in her subject matter that she did not notice the entrance of the men
he halted behind bridget's chair biddy went on in reply to a question from her friend you see they argue this way we don't know they say the how of the simplest things in life
not even the how of the most ordinary fact in science we only know that there must be an intelligence who does know and who has forces at command and the power to set them in motion and how do we know that asked colin mc keith
bridget turned with a start and looked at him solemnly for a second or two you
please sit down he went to fetch a chair at the moment lady tallant came up biddy will you sing do for heaven's sake make a sensation help me out you know how
lady bridget had a funny inscrutable little smile and a gleam in her eyes which crinkled up when she was going to say or do something rather naughty i'll do my best rosamond but you don't think it would be a dangerous experiment do you
lady tallant laughed and told captain vereker wells to take her to the piano
colin mc keith still on the outskirts with his chair stood leaning upon it watching the performer the piano was in such a position that lady bridget faced him a vain man might have fancied that she was singing at him and that the by play of her song the sudden eye brightenings
the little twists of her mouth the head gestures were for his particular benefit she was singing one of the neapolitan folk songs which one hears along the shores of the mediterranean beyond marseilles a love song most people know that particular love song
lady bridget gave it with all the tricks and all the verve and whimsical audacity of a born italian singer well she was italian on one side at least and had inherited the tricks and a certain quality of voice irresistibly catching
and she looked captivating as she sang the small pointed face within its frame of reddish brown hair the strange eyes the expressive red lips alive with coquetry the men even the old politicians listened and stared quite fascinated
who in their early married days of struggle had toiled and cooked and sewed with no time to imagine an aspect of the eternal feminine of which they had never had any experience were perhaps a little shocked perhaps a little regretful
one or two others younger with budding aspirations but provincial in their ideals were filled with wonder and vague envy a few of them had made the usual trip home landing at naples and journeying to london via monte carlo and paris
and these felt they had missed something in that journey which lady bridget was now revealing to them joan gildea whose profession it was to realise vividly such modes of life as came within her purview felt herself once more in the blue lands girdling the sea of story
it all came back upon her moonlight nights in naples on the chiaja looking down from her windows on sunny gardens on the riviera and the strolling minstrels in front of the hotel as for colin mc keith who had never been in the blue land
not to the realm of visions such as he had seen in the smoke of his camp fire oh no he had never dreamed of this kind of enchantment a fresh impulse seized the singer she struck a few chords a familiar lilt sounded her face and manner changed
she burst into the famous song of carmen she was carmen one could almost see the swaying form the seductive flirt of fan there could be no doubt that had the voice been more powerful lady bridget might have done well on the operatic stage
yet it had a timbre a peculiar devil may care passion which produced a very thrilling effect upon her audience she got up when she had finished in a dead silence and was half way across the room before the applause burst out there was a little rush of men towards her
beats zelie de lussan and runs calve hard said the premier who had made more than one trip to england and considered himself an authority in the matter bridget skimmed through the groups of admirers stopping to murmur something to lady tallant who had met her half way
he almost the only man who had made no movement towards her bridget sank into her former seat the last time i sang that was at a factory girls entertainment at poplar she said you should have seen them joan they stood up and tried to sing in chorus
and some of them came on to the platform and danced mister mc keith you look at me as if i had been doing something desperately improper don't you like the music of carmen colin was staring at her dazedly it seemed to me a kind of witchcraft he said
i should think you might go on the stage and make a fortune like melba she laughed why my voice is a very poor thing and besides i could never depend upon it
you wouldn't care what you did if you had a mind to do it no she answered i shouldn't care in the least what i did if i had a mind to do it
a little husky with now and then unsuspected modulations she looked at him and the gleam in her eyes and her strange smile made him stare at her in a sort of fascination joan knew those tricks of hers and knew that they boded mischief
she got up at the moment saying that people were going and that she must bid lady tallant good night then the premier's wife came up shyly she wanted to thank lady bridget for her singing it had been as good as the opera they sometimes had good opera companies in leichardt's town
etcetera etcetera lady bridget made the prettiest curtsey which bewildered the premier's wife and gave her food for speculation as to the manners and customs of the british aristocracy she had always understood you only curtsied to royalty
but she took it as a great compliment and never said anything but kind words about bridget ever after
and as they waited in the vestibule obtained from her a few more particulars of lady bridget o'hara's parentage and conditions but he said not a word implying that he had discovered her identity with the author of the typed letter
i'll come along to morrow morning if i can manage it and tell you about alexandra city and the gas bore he said carelessly as she shut the fly door joan wondered whether he had caught lady biddy's parting words in the drawing room
the wagon had come to rest among the trees an hour or two before sunset it was a covered in dray and had been brought to in a little clearing of the scrubby undergrowth two horses had drawn it all the way from the coast
freed of their harness they stood in the lee of a great gum their flanks matted with the dust which had caked with the run of sweat on them
a red dappled cow and her calf were tethered to a wheel of the wagon and at a little distance from them were two battered crates of drooping and drowsy fowls
on a patch of earth scraped clear of grass and leaves the fire threw off wisps of smoke and the dry musky incense of burning eucalyptus and dogwood it had smouldered
and a woman stooping beside it was feeding it with branches of brushwood and sticks that she broke in her hands or across her knees a man was busy in the interior of the wagon moving heavy casks and pieces of furniture he lifted them out
piled them on the ground and spread a couple of sheepskins over them then he threw a sheepskin and a blanket of black and brown tweed on the floor for the night's resting it had been climbing the foothills for days this heavy old fashioned vehicle
and the man and the woman had climbed with it she driving the cow and calf he giving his attention to the horses and clearing the track so slowly had it toiled along that at a little distance it looked like some weary indefatigable insect creeping among the trees
the horses a sturdy young sandy grey mare and a raw weedy weather worn bay seemed as much part of it as its wooden frame ironshod wheels and awning of grimy sailcloth
they tugged at their load with dull dumb patience and obstinacy although the bay had stumbled rather badly the whole way the man had put his shoulder to the wheel helping the horses up the steep banks and long slippery sidings
he had stood trembling and sweating with them when heavy places in the road were past the veins knotted in his swarthy forehead the bare column of his throat gasping for the mountain air there was the same toiling faculty in him that there was in the horses
an instinct to overcome all difficulties by exertion of the muscles of his back the wagon had creaked garrulously on the long slopes and stuttered and groaned up the steep hill sides
it had forded creeks the horses splashing soberly through them and sending the spray into the air on either side it had crashed over the undergrowth that encroached on the track an ill blazed stock route among the trees
and again and again the man had been obliged to haul aside fallen timber or burn it where it lay and cut away saplings in order to make a new path the wagon was filled with boxes and bags of food stuffs and pieces of furniture
inside it smelt like a grocer's shop and it had trailed the mingled odour of meal corned meat hemp iron seed wheat crude oil and potatoes through the virgin purity of the forest air
beneath its floor in wrappings of torn bags straw and hessian were lashed a wooden plough a broad bladed shovel and half a dozen farming and carpentering tools the fowls a game rooster a buff hen and a speckled pullet
hung in wicker baskets from wooden pegs at the back they and the cow and her calf had wakened strange echoes in the forest the rooster heralding every morning at dawn this advance guard of civilisation
when the vehicle had reached the summit of the foothills the track fell wavering into the green depths of the forest behind it a wale of broken ferns slain saplings blue gums and myrtles mown down as with a scythe by its wheels
the timbered hills fell away wave upon wave into the mists of the distance and the plains stretched outward from them to the faintly glittering line the sea made on the dim horizon somewhere to the west on those grey plains against the shore of an inlet
was the township of port southern from which they had come donald cameron after studying a roughly made plan and the wall of the forest about him had taken the mare by her sandy forelock and turned the wagon in among the trees on the far side of a giant gum
it ran at the foot of the long low hillside and could be heard crooning and gurgling under the leafy murmur of the forest leaving the fire the woman went to a fallen trunk sat down and gazed into the shadows gathering among the trees
a rosy and saffron mist hung between their thronging boles the peace of the after glow held the hills the chirring of insects and the shrill sweet calling of birds had quivered into silence only a leafy whispering stirred the quiet
for a moment the fire of her clear spirit burnt low hope and courage were lost in dreams there was wistfulness in her grey eyes as they went out before her wistfulness and heartache
she seemed to be reading the scroll of the future seeing a dim mysterious unrolling of joys and sorrows with the eyes of her inner vision the sun had set when cameron returned he tethered the cow to the wheel of the wagon
and clamped rusty hobbles about the horses fetlocks then he looked towards the woman mary he called she did not hear and he walked towards her a man of few words cameron did not speak as he searched his wife's face
i i was dreaming she said looking up startled at the sight of him you're not grieving he asked there was a tremor in his voice though its roughness almost covered that no
not grieving she said but thinking what it will be to us and our children by and by in this place it is a new country and a new people we're making they said at home and i'm realising what they meant now aye but it's a fine country
cameron's eyes travelled the length of the clearing over the slope of the hill they took in the silent world of the trees the rosy mist that still glowed between their slender thronging stems there was pride and an expression of sated hunger in his glance
it's all ours this land about here he said yes her eyes wandered too i have worked all my days till now he said
reviving a bitter memory without so much as a plot of sour earth as big as y're handkerchief to call my own worked for other men sweated the body and soul out of me and now this is mine all this hundred acres and more when i'm ready for it
more and more and more he paused a moment all the emotion in him stirred and surging then with a short drawn breath that dismissed the past and dedicated thought and energy to the future he went on
i marked this place when i came through to the port with middleton's cattle last year i'll run cattle but i want to clear and cultivate too up there where there are trees now will be ploughed fields and an orchard soon
by and by we shall have a name and a place in the country his wife's eyes were on his face he had spoken as though he were taking an oath no doubt it will be as you say donald she said with a faint sigh
but it is a strange lonely land indeed without the sight of a roof in all the long miles we have come by never the sound of a human voice or the lowing of cattle donald cameron did not reply
he was envisaging his schemes for the future not a man given to dreams the thoughtful mood had taken him his breath came and went in steady draughts
there was determination in every line of it a gloomy face it was rough cast with deep set eyes his wife's words and the sigh that went with them were repeated in a remote brain cell
you should be giving thanks not complaining he said his gaze returning to her we must do that now give thanks for the journey accomplished and as if it were the last duty of a well spent day
he knelt on the grassy earth and mary knelt beside him donald cameron addressed his god as man speaks to man yet his voice had a vibrating note as he prayed o lord he said
we thank thee for having brought us in safety to our new home we thank thee for having brought us over the sea through the storms and the troubles on the ship when there was nothing to eat but weevily biscuits and the water stank
we we thank thee this woman and i she is a good woman for a man to have with him when he goes to the ends of the earth to carve out a name and a place for himself he paused thoughtfully for a moment and then went on
i have said all that before but i have been thinking that it would do no harm to say it again now that we are ready to begin the new life and will need all thy help and protection lord
we thank thee for having brought us all the miles from the coast and the beasts and the wagon in safety though the bay horse i bought of middleton's storekeeper is turning out badly he was a poor bargain at the best of it
weak in the knee and spring halted do thou have a care of him lord
with all the clearing and carting there will be to do soon he talked a little longer to the almighty
under the circumstances he might have been but he imputed no blame except to middleton's storekeeper and gave thanks again a man of middle height squarely built donald cameron had the loosely slung frame of a farm labourer
the woman beside him although her clothes were as poor and heavy as his was more finely and delicately made the hands clasped before her were long and slender the prayer ended they rose from the grass
cameron's eyes covered his wife a gust of tenderness swept him there was not what you might call much sentiment about our mating he said but i doubt not it has come mary yes donald
her clear eyes were lifted to his may i be a true and faithful wife to you y're not regretting at the long journey's end he asked it's not that a sigh went from her but that i'm not worthy of you
she attacked mc keith in a more tentative manner but colin was doggedly reticent he was taking the thing hardly his way of facing a serious situation was by setting his teeth and saying nothing
after these unsuccessful attempts joan made opportunity before leaving for a private word on the subject with lady tallant but rosamond tallant treated the matter at first very lightly
she must have some excitement to keep her going if it isn't one thing it's another in london i tried to interest her in society or politics and the opera and now luke is trying to interest her in colonial questions but she always drifts back to men
she can't help it and the funny thing is i don't believe that in her heart she is capable of a serious attachment i'm not so sure of that
but i wasn't ever afraid even of willoughby maule i was certain that would fizzle out before real harm could come of it and mercifully it did he's married a woman with a quarter of a million and the right to dispose of it absolutely as she pleases
i heard that she signed a will on her wedding day leaving it all to him in the event of her death too great a temptation wasn't it though i do think if biddy had chosen she might have kept him in spite of miss bagalay and her money
as it is colin mc keith or else the novelty of it all out here has driven him out of her head i felt sure of that when i asked her to come you needn't worry about her it's not so much about biddy that i'm worrying as about my old friend colin mc keith
it isn't fair that he should be made a victim oh well it isn't altogether biddy's fault that she attracts all types of men and then lady tallant made exactly the same remark as lady bridget i think mister mc keith is quite able to look after himself i don't pity him in the least
didn't somebody say of lady something or other that to love her was a liberal education steele said it of lady elizabeth hastings i call it a liberal education for colin mc keith to love lady bridget o'hara laughed lady tallant
a more insistent fear has it ever occurred to you that lady bridget o'hara might fall in love with colin mc keith why my dear she's wildly in love with him already
you've seen it i'm not blind and i know biddy but i've seen that she's taking this affair differently from the others and that's what makes me think it has gone deeper a very good thing for biddy you can't mean that it would be a good thing for biddy to marry colin mc keith
lady tallant's social manner was rather full of affectations underneath it however lay commonsense and sympathy she became suddenly simple and direct
let us look at the matter without prejudice you are fond of biddy and so am i but we know her drawbacks naturally it wouldn't be a good thing under ordinary conditions but is she likely to do much better she has had plenty of chances
and thrown them all away and though she looks so young she is close on thirty of course with her looks and her fascination she ought to have married well i'm sure her friends have tried hard enough for her but what can you do with a girl who throws herself at the heads of ineligibles
and when one trots out an unexceptionable parti and does one's best to bring them together goes off at a tangent and lets the whole thing drop through you know how it was with lady tallant enumerted names
lady tallant continued the truth is biddy has tired out the patience of her relatives and friends molly and chris gaverick got the hump over willoughby maule who would have done well enough if he had only had more money
so lady tallant irreverently styled the dowager countess of gaverick
i shouldn't wonder if she didn't leave her a penny and after all it was her own fortune and she has a horde of needy relatives she will consider that she has done her duty to the gavericks if she lets chris have the castle
when all's said and done i don't see that it would be such a bad thing for biddy to marry a rich australian squatter colin mc keith is not rich oh he will be sir luke has been hearing all about him he's not her equal
his father was just a land bailiff and his grandfather a crofter oh what does that matter in these days any of us would marry the roughest of rough diamonds provided he was decently well off biddy has always been mad after adventure and an open air life
lady tallant went on briskly she would enjoy living among the blacks provided they did not murder her and i suppose one could trust mister mc keith for that
and then she needn't be buried for ever in the bush luke tells me that colin mc keith is certain to come to the fore in politics i daresay he will be premier of leichardt's land before long biddy would like bossing the show and airing her philanthropic crazes
colin wouldn't agree with them besides she would be expatriated oh no the big men over here are always taking trips to england being feted and made much of in downing street imperialist policy and that sort of thing i can see biddy at it
she scarcely knew lady tallant in this downright mood there's no use blinking matters said that lady
she could not help feeling that lady tallant was right in the main and put forward no more objections but she explained her own plans and the necessity for her immediate departure from leichardt's land
how she had hoped too to take biddy with her and interest her once more in literary and artistic work biddy won't go she told me so and i don't mean to let her said lady tallant decidedly we're short handed till the new private secretary gets here
and she helps me with my notes and things generally and if it wasn't for biddy's singing our dinners would be too deadly dull for words joan gave up in despair she suspected that lady tallant's affectionate candour was not unadulterated with selfishness
finally rosamond promised that she would interest and amuse lady bridget to such an extent as would deter her from rash love making for want of counter excitement then joan reflected colin was pre eminently a prudent business man
and as he had told her some time before would have to go back to the upper leura before the strenuous work of the session came on this was always supposing that the present ministry kept in without going to the country upon certain labour measures
unacceptable to the large land owners in which case it was just possible mc keith might be thrown out of his seat events lay in the lap of the gods
where she was soon wholly occupied in describing the wonder of the jenolan caves and the wild gorges and primaeval gum forests in the blue mountains she was really too busy in the interests of the imperialist to worry over her friend's love affairs
in fact she gleaned most of her information as to the leichardt's town government house party from the newspapers she happened upon at bush hotels for lady bridget was evidently in a reactionary mood as regards letter writing
and colin mc keith never put pen to paper if he could avoid doing so except on business it was at mossvale that she read a florid paragraph in the ladies page of a sydney journal telling of the engagement of that intrepid pioneer and future empire builder mister colin mc keith
i do hope this may catch you before the newspapers which i find announced the engagement rather prematurely last week i am still of opinion that biddy might do much worse than marry colin mc keith though entre nous the settlements or rather want of them
for mister mc keith tells us that he needs all his capital for making wells and buying cattle and he won't injure his prospects and biddy's by tying it up does not at all please sir luke who before he would countenance the marriage
insisted upon a cablegram being sent to the dowager lady gaverick her answer not my business must do as she pleases only confirms what i said to you and i am afraid biddy's chances are worth nothing in that quarter the wedding is to be early in may
from government house of course and i need scarcely say how much we all hope you will come back for it always sincerely rosamond tallant p s no doubt biddy is giving you full details
but biddy did not indulge either in details or rhapsodies she began they say hanging and wiving go by destiny and clearly my destiny is to become the wife of collin mc keith
i've always felt that the only thing which could reconcile me to marriage would be marrying a man and at last i've found one i want to tell you joan that we've made an agreement to ask each other no questions about respective pasts the black fellows he has slain
the one jarring note between us are never to be resuscitated the men whose hearts i have broken and vice versa are dead and buried on the other side of the equator under a monument of inviolable silence such are the terms of the marriage contract
and you in especial must respect them i need say no more except this have no fears for the happiness of your biddy from colin in telegraphic conciseness
tremendously happy she's absolutely my ideal in everything but size all very satisfactory and conclusive but missus gildea could not escape from a vague misgiving she was not afraid of the ghost of mister willoughby maule
indeed she argued favourably from the baldness of bridget's letter in comparison with the reams of sentiment she had written upon the previous occasion nor did she feel uneasy on the score of any others of lady bridget's bygone passions
but had this complex fastidious physically refined creature the least comprehension of what life on the upper leura might mean and how about an ideal dethroned from her pedestal and plumped down amid the crude realities of the nethermost bush
she was ordered to report on the mines of western australia and was on the other side of the continent when the marriage took place in fact it seemed doubtful whether she would again meet lady bridget before her mission as special correspondent ended
but the mc keiths were to spend their honeymoon in travelling to his station on the upper leura a distance of some hundreds of miles from the nearest port and quite out of the imperialist programme she read however circumstantial accounts of the wedding
and there were portraits of the pair in which colin looked grumpy and lady bridget whimsically amused snap shots too of the wedding cortege in which sir luke tallant fathering the bride appeared a pompous figure in full uniform
and lady tallant in splendid panoply most stately and gracious
and he hurried every step of the way home to tell hildegarde and her mother they are on the king's business and will be at the church square to morrow morning at the hour of ten everybody in town will be there to see them
old grandmother grey is going to ask them to ride in search of her little lamb that has gone astray and the mayor will tell them of the wolves that come in the winter
little maid hildegarde knew all about the knights her father was never tired of telling or she of hearing how they fought and killed the fierce dragon that had troubled the people of the border and put out the forest fires in the time of the great drought
and fed the hungry when the famine was in the land and yet with all of their great deeds they were merry men not too proud to sing at a feast
it seemed almost too good to be true
she asked just as soon as the cows are taken to the pasture and the little chicks are fed said her mother and the little maid went to bed well satisfied but alas for hildegarde and her hopes
the morning sun had scarcely shone when her mother awoke with a terrible pain in her head and her father slipped on his way to the barn and sprained his foot so he could not walk and there was no one to take the child to the church square
no not even a neighbor for hildegarde and her mother and father lived apart from every one else and the wood that is called enchanted lay between them and the town there was no help for it
but for the disappointment of our little maid aye said the father i would bear my hurt and more too willingly if only she might see the gallant knights and when hildegarde heard what they said
she made haste to wipe away the tears that threatened to roll down her cheeks and went about her work with a pleasant face all day long she was busy for there were the cows to take to the pasture and the little chicks to feed
highest of all was the spire of the church that stood in the square where the knights had been and as hildegarde watched it change from grey to gold in the sunset glow she thought of them and wondered where they had gone when their business was done
some day they would come again and then she should surely see them her father said and already she had begun to look forward to that time perhaps they will come when the wolves do in the winter she said to herself
but scarcely had she spoken when through an opening in the wood she spied a horseman riding at a stately pace behind him came another and another till she had counted five
yes there they came with prancing steeds and shining shields and splendid clothes one bore a banner blue as the sky on a summer's day
and the next held a wee lamb close within his arms a dragon's head hung from another's saddle and two had bugles by their sides not a word was spoken
before she could move or call but just as the green of the last one's coat faded away into the green of the trees hildegarde thought she heard a strain of sweetest music now there were those
and hildegarde's mother and father were among them who believed that the little maid tired from her long busy day had fallen asleep and dreamed a beautiful dream
i include under this name everything relating to friendly attentions such as services loans presents advice and also things in relation to discretion such as respect in conversation letters
they express such feeling regret that they still inspire us with gratitude in short their conduct appears so perfectly natural that it really seems that the opportunity which is offered them of obliging us
is obliging themselves they refuse all our thanks without affectation or effort this amiable character a necessary attendant of perfect good breeding is not always found with all its charms
in the world there are besides some obliging persons who force us to extort their services who feel of great consequence who like to be supplicated and thanked to excess
do not imitate them they make us ungrateful in spite of ourselves they make gratitude a pain and a burden when one asks of you any favor reply kindly i am at your service
and shall be very happy to render you any assistance in my power or else with a sad manner
so great is their trifling in this respect that they can be justly compared to those false heroes who are always talking of fighting and who would be put to flight at the sight of a drawn sword these indications of zeal are suspicious
when they are employed every moment and without any reason a knowledge of the world teaches us to discern them and to give them that degree of confidence which they merit sometimes we can congratulate persons wish them well
which would infallibly be shown if we should manifest to them the coldness which they inspire it belongs to those persons who know the world not to confound this politeness
of whom we have spoken above in order that a service may be completed it is necessary that it should be done quickly nothing being more disobliging than tardiness
and the alternative which you place a person in either of addressing to you new solicitations or of suffering by your delay your tardy assistance may perhaps be prejudicial
and promise to make reparation for your neglect on his part the person who is under the obligation to you should be careful of using a single term of reproach and of accosting you with an air of dissatisfaction
when any one who is visiting you has need of a shawl a handkerchief a hat offer it with a complaisant zeal resist the refusal which is made and which propriety does not require
these things are returned the next day by a domestic who is charged to thank the person for them if the articles are linen they should not be returned before they are washed when a lady has borrowed ornaments of another
all this advice is minute but what kind will you have it concerns female self esteem one species of borrowing which is of daily occurrence and happens very often to the loss of the owners is the borrowing of books
persons are so wanting in delicacy on this subject that those who have a passion for books and who are very obliging in other respects are forced to refuse making these troublesome loans the case however is a very perplexing one
we cannot say i am not willing to lend you this work but if the borrower is a suspicious person we can say we have occasion to use it that we regret it very much but that we will lend it to him in a few days
however we do not lend it at all well bred persons do not make a bare request for a book they wait until it is offered and then they accept the offer hesitatingly they find out the length of time they can keep it
and return it punctually at the appointed day in order to prevent every accident they cover it with cloth or paper since the favor should render them more careful than the value of the book they also take care not to turn down the leaves
we must repair the loss immediately i shall not speak of more important loans which are out of the range of politeness section two of presents
and they occur under different circumstances on our arrival at a place from which we have been absent for a long time when our intimate friends leave the town in which we reside on our return from a journey particularly to the capital
in remarkable and remote countries on birth days or days of baptism or new year's day but this day is not the only occasion of exchanging presents in a family it is also an occasion for recollecting services and civilities
of making our respects to ladies to superiors whom we wish to honor it moreover offers us a delicate means of succoring the unfortunate secondly at harvest time if one owns land
in the hunting season if one is a hunter it is in good ton to send to our intimate friends fine fruits rare flowers or some choice articles of game the most delicate presents are the productions of our own industry
are not used on occasions of ceremony next to fitness of time for presents comes fitness in the selection of them generally
but this rule has numerous exceptions
to which certain incidents would give the appearance of charity still we should be in an error to suppose that a present is suitable which is brilliant alone it must by all means be adapted to the taste age and professions of persons and their connexions with us
have evinced a lively satisfaction say that the gift receives all its value from their opinion of it however slight charm a present may have
advice is a very good thing it is true it is however a thing which in society is the most displeasing a giver of advice who is incessantly repeating if i was in your place
i should do so and so repels every one by his pride and indiscretion such an impertinent person should know that he ought not to give advice without he is asked
and that the number of those who ask it is very limited we are not however speaking here of gratifications of vanity but of that advice the kindness and affection of which gives it a claim to our attention
it is necessary to use much reserve and care because otherwise you would seem to have a tone of superiority which would array the self esteem of your friend against your wisest counsels of the forms of modesty
no one in this place is superfluous we may say it is possible that i am mistaken i should be far from having the courage to enquire of you
do not say you do not understand me but i have not expressed myself properly
the duties of discretion are so sensibly felt by persons of good breeding that they do not violate them except through forgetfulness it will be enough then to make an enumeration of them
without intending to point out their necessity discretion requires in the first place respect with regard to conversation if when we enter the house of any one we hear persons talking in an earnest manner
we step more heavily in order to give notice to those who are engaged in the conversation if in an assembly two persons retire by themselves to speak of business we should be careful not to approach them
nor speak to them until they have separated people who have lived a little in the world know how essential it is not to mingle with curiosity in the business of persons whom we visit
nor are they ignorant what conduct is to be observed in case we surprise persons by an unexpected call but young persons may not know and i beg them to give their attention to it when we see a person occupied we retire
or at least make signs of it if they should detain us we step aside and appear to be examining a picture or looking out of the window in order to prove that we take no notice of what engages them
but the desire to find for ourselves some such occupation ought not to lead us to turn over the leaves of books placed upon the chimney piece or elsewhere to run over a pamphlet or to handle visiting cards or letters
even though it be only to read the superscription if the person visited should be opening a closet or drawers it would be rude curiosity to approach in order to see what was contained there if among a number of valuable things
they take one to show you be satisfied with looking at that alone without appearing to think of the others if before the person visited comes in we should see another visitor who to pass the time
should take a journal or a book from his pocket it would be extremely impolite to read over his shoulder and equally uncivil to read what a person is writing it is not allowable to take down the books from a library
but we may and we even ought to read the titles in order to praise the good taste which has been shown in the choice of the works
do not be in haste to ask for it or to take it by reaching out your hand wait modestly until it comes to you do not examine it too long when you have it
and if by chance any ill bred person requests it before you have seen it do not detain it it is better to suffer this small privation than to pass for a badly educated virtuoso
however insignificant the boasted object may be never criticise it if your opinion is asked
if the thing is really curious abstain from exaggerated compliments to violate the secresy of letters under any pretext whatever is so base and odious that i dare not say a word about it
i think i ought to say that it is also very reprehensible to endeavor to read any part of a letter folded in such a manner as to be partly open at the ends and when a certain passage in a letter concerning yourself is handed you to read
you should put your finger below it in order not to read anything more and if you are allowed to add anything in a letter have the discretion not to cast your eyes over the rest and be expeditious
if a person brings you a letter you should not be in a hurry to open it but see whether the letter concerns the bearer at all
once upon a time there lived two brothers who when they were children were so seldom apart that those who saw one always looked for the other at his heels but when they had grown to manhood
and the time had come when they must make their own fortunes the elder brother said to the younger choose as you will what you shall do and god bless your choice but as for me i shall make haste to the court of the king
for nothing will satisfy me but to serve him and my country good fortune and a blessing go with you said the younger brother i too should like to serve my country and the king but i have neither words nor wit for a king's court
to hammer a shoe from the glowing iron while the red fire roars and the anvil rings this is the work that i do best and i shall be a blacksmith even as my father was before me so when he had spoken
and worked there merrily from early morn till the stars shone at night he was called the mighty blacksmith because of his strength and the honest blacksmith because he charged no more than his work was worth and the master blacksmith
because no other smith in the countryside could shoe a horse so well and speedily as he and he was envious of nobody for always as he worked his hammer seemed to sing to him cling clang cling
cling clang cling he who does his very best is fit to serve the king now in those days news came to the king of the country where the two brothers lived that the duke of the next kingdom had made threats against him
and against his people and there was great excitement in the land some of the king's counselors wanted him to gather his armies and march at once into the duke's kingdom if we do not make war upon him
he will make war upon us they said but some of the king's counselors loved peace and among these was the elder brother in whom the king had great trust
let me i pray you ride to the duke's castle he said to the king that we may learn from his own lips if he is friend or foe for much is told that is not true
and it is easier to begin a fight than it is to end one the king was well pleased with all the elder brother said and bade him go but if by the peal of the noon bells on the day before christmas
you have neither brought nor sent a message of good will from the duke to me then shall those who want war have their way he said and with this the elder brother had to be content
day and night he rode to the duke's castle and day and night when his errand was done he hastened home again but the way was long and a strong wind had blown away the sign posts which guided travelers
the early hours of the day before christmas found him still far from the king's palace and to make matters worse in the loneliest part of the road the good horse that had carried him so well lost a shoe
alack and alas for the want of a nail the horseshoe is lost and my good horse will fail for the want of the shoe and i shall be late for want of a steed
and my message must wait for want of a bearer and woe is our plight
and he bowed his head upon his saddle and wept for where to turn for help he did not know the sun had not yet risen and no other traveler was on the road nor could he see through the dim light of dawn
smith if you love country and king shoe my horse and shoe him speedily it was not long before he spied the fire of a roadside smithy glaring out upon him like a great red eye and when he reached the door of the shop
he found the smith ready and waiting for his task cling clang cling how the iron rang beneath his mighty stroke and cling clang cling how the hammer sang as the shoe was pounded into shape
and he stood up straight and tall and looked the king's counselor in the eyes and lo and behold as the morning light fell on their faces each saw that the other was his brother god bless you brother
and god speed you brother was all that they had time to say but that was enough to show that love was still warm in their hearts then away and away and away through the sun and the dew rode the elder brother
those who wanted war said shall we not saddle our horses and call up our men the bells in the steeple have yet to ring for noon said the peace lovers and we see a dust on the king's highway
dust flies before wind said the warriors and it is likelier that our messenger lies in the duke's prison than rides on the king's highway but with the dust came the sound of flying hoofs faster
faster faster they came when the first stroke of the noon hour pealed from the church steeple the king's messenger was in sight and the last bell had not rung when he stood before the palace gate
and put a purse of gold in his hand for he was well pleased with what he had done but the elder brother would have none of these things for himself alone try as i would i must have failed had it not been for my brother
the blacksmith who shod my horse on the road to day he said and if it please your majesty half of all you give to me i will give to him two good servants are better than one said the king
and he sent for the younger brother that he might thank him also then the two brothers were clothed alike and feasted alike and each had a purse of gold and whenever one was praised so was the other
the apple dumpling there was once upon a time an old woman who wanted an apple dumpling for supper she had plenty of flour and plenty of butter plenty of sugar and plenty of spice for a dozen dumplings
but there was one thing she did not have and that was an apple she had plums a tree full of them the roundest and reddest that you can imagine but though you can make butter from cream and raisins of grapes
you cannot make an apple dumpling with plums and there is no use trying the more the old woman thought of the dumpling the more she wanted it and at last she dressed herself in her sunday best
and started out to seek an apple before she left home however she filled a basket with plums from her plum tree and covering it over with a white cloth hung it on her arm for she said to herself
there may be those in the world who have apples and need plums she had not gone very far when she came to a poultry yard filled with fine hens and geese and guineas
what a noise they made and in the midst of them stood a young woman who was feeding them with yellow corn she nodded pleasantly to the old woman and the old woman nodded to her and soon the two were talking as if they had known each other always
the young woman told the old woman about her fowls and the old woman told the young woman about the dumpling and the basket of plums for which she hoped to get apples
said the young woman when she heard this there is nothing my husband likes better than plum jelly with goose for his sunday dinner but unless you will take a bag of feathers for your plums he must do without for that is the best i can offer you
and presently she came to a garden of sweet flowers lilies lilacs violets roses oh never was there a lovelier garden the old woman stopped at the gate to look at the flowers
it is they cried and so it went between them till they spied the old woman at the gate here is one who will settle the matter said the woman then and she called to the old woman good mother
if you were making a cushion for your grandfather's chair would you not stuff it with cotton no said the old woman i told you so cried the man straw is the thing and no need to go farther than the barn for it
but the old woman shook her head i would not stuff the cushion with straw said she and it would have been hard to tell which one was the more cast down by her answers the man or the woman but the old woman made haste
the man and the woman had no apples but they were glad to exchange a nosegay from their garden for a bag of fine feathers you may be sure there is nothing nicer for a cushion than feathers said the woman
and as she walked there she met a young lord who was dressed in his finest clothes
he would have been as handsome a young man as ever the sun shone on had it not been that his forehead was wrinkled into a terrible frown and the corners of his mouth drawn down as if he had not a friend left in the whole world
a fair day and a good road said the old woman stopping to drop him a courtesy fair or foul good or bad tis all one to me said he
when the court jeweler has forgotten to send the ring he promised and i must go to my lady with empty hands empty hands are better than an empty heart said the old woman but then we are young only once
so you shall have a gift for your lady though i may never have an apple dumpling and she took the nosegay from her basket and gave it to the young lord which pleased him so much that the frown smoothed away from his forehead and his mouth spread itself in a smile
and then have something to spare she said to herself as she hurried away toward town as fast as her feet could carry her but she had gone no farther than the turn of the road when she came upon a mother and children standing in a doorway
whose faces were as sorrowful as her own was happy what is the matter she asked as soon as she reached them
when the last crust of bread is eaten and not a farthing in the house to buy more well a day cried the old woman when this was told her never shall it be said of me that i eat apple dumpling for supper while my neighbors lack bread
and she put the golden chain into the mother's hands and hurried on without waiting for thanks she was not out of sight of the house though when the mother and children every one of them laughing and talking as if it were christmas or candlemas day
overtook her little have we to give you said the mother who was the happiest of all for that you have done for us but here is a little dog whose barking will keep loneliness from your house and a blessing goes with it
and on the porch of the house sat a little old man a fine tree of apples called the old woman as soon as she was in speaking distance of him aye but apple trees and apples are poor company when a man is growing old said the old man
and i would give them all if i had even so much as a little dog to bark on my door step bow wow called the dog in the old woman's basket and in less time than it takes to read this story he was barking on the old man's door step
if you try long enough and hard enough you can always have an apple dumpling for supper said the old woman and she ate the dumpling to the very last crumb
the song that traveled one day when all the world was gay with spring a king stood at a window of his palace and looked far out over his kingdom and because his land was fair to see
and he was a young king and his heart was happy he made a song for himself and sang it loud and merrily the hawthorn's white the sun is bright
and she leaned on the fence that divided the two and sang with him for she was as happy a lass as ever lived in the king's country the farmer's wife had given her a goose for her very own that day and the goose had made a nest in the alder bushes
there was already one egg in it and soon there would be more then she would send them to market and when they were sold she would buy a ribbon for her hair it was no wonder that she felt like singing
because nothing had gone amiss and he was homeward bound he sang it too the hawthorn's white the sun is bright
and not a bird that sings in spring
on the sailor's ship there was a minstrel bound for the king's court to sing on may day and the minstrel learned the song from the sailor he was a young minstrel and very proud to sing at the king's festival
so when it was his turn and he stood before the throne he could think of no better song to sing than
now the king had been so busy about the affairs of his kingdom deciding this question and that sending messengers here and there and listening to one and another as all kings must do
that he had forgotten the song which he had made but when he heard the minstrel it all came back to him and then he was puzzled good minstrel said he ten golden guineas i will give you for your song and to the ten will add ten more
if you will tell me where you learned it an easy matter that said the minstrel the sailor who rides in yon white ship in your harbor taught it to me the soldier who even now stands guard at your majesty's gate gave me the song
said the sailor when he was asked i had it from the chapman who travels on the king's highway said the soldier i heard the little goose girl sing it said the chapman when they found him tis robin ploughboy's song
laughed the goose girl go ask him about it the king sang it first and i next said the ploughboy then the king knew that he had made a good song that everybody with a happy heart might sing
the night before the wedding the tale of a bride elect the next day we all hung about the garden except the youngster who disappeared on his wheel early in the day and only came back
hot and dusty at tea time he waved a hand at us as he ran through the garden crying i'll change and be with you in a moment and leapt up the outside staircase that led to the gallery on which his room opened and disappeared
i found an opportunity to go up the other staircase a little later the youngster was an old pet of mine and off and on i had mothered him i tapped at the door can't come in
wait there a minute and mum i'll tell you
until he came spick and span in white flannels
see here he whispered
don't let's talk of it in spite of myself i expect i went white for he exclaimed darn it i suppose i ought not to have told you
in fact he forbade my going again is it a real german victory i asked if it isn't
though such of the english as i saw were in gay enough spirits and there was not an atmosphere of defeat fact is i kept out of sight and only got stray impressions go on down now or they'll guess something i'm not going to say a word yet
awful sorry now i told you force of habit i went down i had hard work for a few minutes to throw the impression off but the garden was lovely and tea being over we all busied ourselves in rifling
the flowerbeds to dress the dinner table if we were going in two days where was the good of leaving the flowers to die alone
we talked of the old days of ourselves when we were boys and girls together of old papanti and our first cotillion of class days and i remembered afterward
when the coffee came out
the lawyer coughed tapped himself on his chest
the air was piercing there had been a slight fall of snow then a sudden drop in the thermometer preceded nightfall miss moreland wrapped in her furs was standing on a street corner
looking in vain for a cab and wondering after all why she had ventured out
and she was just conventional enough in spite of her pose to the exact contrary to hope that none of her friends would pass she knew her set well enough to know that it would cause something almost like a scandal if she were seen out alone on foot on the very eve of her wedding day
repenting their sins and praying for blessings on the future in theory but in reality fussing themselves ill over belated finery she had had for some years a number of poor protegees in the lower end of the city
which she had been accustomed to visit on work of a charitable nature begun when she was a school girl she had found work enough to do there ever since it was work of which her father a hard headed man of business strongly disapproved although he was ready enough to give his money
jack was of her father's mind she realized that when she returned from the three years trip round the world on which she was starting the day after her wedding she would have other duties and she knew it would be harder to oppose jack and more dangerous
than it had been to oppose her father in this realization there was a touch of self reproach she knew in her own heart that she would be glad to do no more work of that sort experience had made her hopeless
and she had none of the spiritual support that made women like saint catherine of sienna but if experience had robbed her of her illusions she knew too that it had set a seal of pain on all the future for her
she could never forget the misery she had seen so it had been a little in a desire to give one more sop to her conscience that she had dedicated her last afternoon to freedom
if her mother had remained at home
all the more reason for returning in good season and here it was dark worse still the trip had been in every way unsuccessful she had turned her face homeward simply asking herself as she had done so many times before if it were
worth while and answered the question once more with neither to me nor to them she had already learned though too young for the lesson that each individual works out his own salvation
are elected to the task by something more than the mere desire to serve in her case the gift of her youth and her illusions had done others no real good and had more or less
it would only be by giving up the world her world abandoning her life with its luxury its love everything she had been bred to and longed for she did not feel a call to do that so she chose the existence to which she had been born
the love of a man in her own set but the shadow of too much knowledge sat on her like a shadow of fear she was impatient with herself the world living
and there was no cab in sight she looked at her watch half past four
but she had felt it absurd always to go about this kind of work in a private carriage and to day she could not as she usually did take a street car for fear of meeting friends they thought her queer enough as it was
miserable specimen at first she was not quite sure whether it were boy or girl whimpering and mopping its nose with a very dirty hand
for a sick mother a dying mother and begged as if not accustomed to it all the time with an eye for that dread
miss moreland was so consciously irritated with life that she was unusually gentle she stooped down the child did not seem six years old the face was not so very cunning it was not ugly either
it was merely the epitome of all that miss moreland tried to forget the little one born without a chance in the world with a full appreciation of the child's fear of the police begging is a crime in many american towns she carefully questioned her
watching for the dreaded officer herself it was the old story a dying mother no father no one to do anything a child sent out to cunningly defy the law but it seemed to be only for bread
obviously the thing to do was to deliver the child up to the police it would be at once properly cared for and the mother also but miss moreland knew too much of official charity to be guilty of that the easiest thing
was to give her money but unluckily she belonged to a society pledged not to give alms in the streets and her sense of the power of a moral obligation was a strong notion of duty which had descended to her from her puritan ancestors
enclosed it and sealed the envelope then she went out to the side walk again with the child stooping over her she made sure that the little one really did know the street it isn't far from here she said give that to any one there
and somebody will go right home with you to see your mother to warm you you poor little mite and feed you and make you quite happy she did not explain and the child would not have understood
that she vouched for a special donation for the case as a sort of commemorative gift the sum was large it was a quixotic sort of salve to a sick conscience which told her that she ought to go herself the child still sobbing turned away
and drearily started up the hill she did not go far however miss moreland had her misgivings on that point and just as she was about to draw a breath of relief convinced that after all she would go the girl stopped
it obliges them to be looked over in all their misery it presumes a worthiness or its pretence which they resent almost as much as they do the intrusion of the visiting committee this disinclination is as old as poverty and is the rock ahead of
all organized charity its exemplification was very trying to miss moreland at that moment and the crouching figure was exasperating she pursued the child she pulled her rather roughly to her feet it was so provoking to have her sit down in the cold
to put out of her mind there seemed but one thing to do go with the child she knew that if she did not she would not sleep that night nor smile the next day
besides it was not yet so very late bidding the child hurry she followed her up the hill and down the other side to a part of the city with which she was not familiar the child cried quietly all the way miss moreland was too vaguely uncomfortable to talk to her
as they hurried along it was in front of a dark house that they finally stopped and went up the stone steps into a hall so dark that she was obliged to take the child's dirty cold hands in hers to be sure of the way
the doctor's story as one dreams the tale of an adolescent the next day was very peaceful we were becoming habituated to the situation it was a sunday and the weather was warm
but the spark flickered out and i imagine we settled down for the story with more eagerness than on the previous evening especially when the doctor thrust his hands into his pockets and lifted his chin into the air as if he were in the tribune
more than one of us smiled at his resemblance to pierre janet entering the tribune at the college de france and the youngster said under his breath a clinique i suppose the doctor's ears were sharp
not a bit he answered running his keen brown eyes over us to be sure we were listening before he began
there was in one of those squares a famous private school
it was in the days before boston had much of an immigrant quarter when some smart families still lived in the old colonial houses at the north end and ministers and lawyers and all professional men sent their sons and their daughters to the public schools at that time probably
the best in the world at this private school there was at the time of which i speak what one might almost call a principal girl she was the daughter of a rich banker his only daughter the gods all seemed to have been very good to her
one of the sort who seemed to do everything better than any one else and with a lack of self consciousness or pretension every one admired her some of her comrades would have loved her if she had given them the chance
but no one could ever get intimate with her she came
in the habit of the american girl of those days before the chaperon became the correct thing she was charming to every one but she kept every one a little at arm's length of course such a girl would be much talked over
by the other type of girl to whom confidences were necessary as always happens in any school there was a popular teacher she taught history and literature and i imagine girls get more intimate
with such a teacher than they ever do with the mathematics also as always happens there was a teacher's pet one of those girls that has to adore something and the literature teacher as she was smart and good looking was as convenient to adore as anything else
and more adjacent of course teacher's pet never has any secrets from the teacher and does not mean to be a sneak either just can't help turning herself inside out for her idol
she knew that he felt responsible for his pupils and this had an unpleasant look he took the pains to verify the two statements then there was but one thing to do to lay the matter before the parents of the girl
i imagine that there is no doubt that the adolescent finds it much easier to confide in some one other than the parents who would seem to be her proper confidants at any rate the banker and his wife were simply staggered
they dared not broach the subject to the principal girl and in their distress turned to the family lawyer as they were too cowardly to take his first advice
they sometimes do in the best regulated families it was decided to put a discreet person on the job and discover first of all what was really going on
the result of the investigation was at first consoling and then amazing
messenger boy who by her orders awaited her arrival as for the closed carriage that she also bespoke herself at a smart livery stable where she was known when she entered it
she was at once driven to the park street station where she bought a round trip ticket to waltham there she walked to the river hired a boat
sometimes reading and sometimes merely staring out at the river or up at the sky at sunset she rowed back to the town returned to the city and walked from the station to her home this all seemed simple enough but it puzzled the father
it made him unquiet in his mind why all this mystery why well why a great many things for of course the principal girl had to prepare for these absences and although the little fibs she told were harmless enough well
why the literature teacher who had been watching her carefully had her theory she knew a lot about girls wasn't she once one herself so it was by her advice that the family doctor was taken into the family confidence
chiefly because neither father nor mother had the pluck to tackle the matter they were ashamed to have their daughter know that she had been caught in even a small deception it seemed so like intruding into her intimate life there are parents like that you know
the doctor had known the girl since he ushered her into the world if there were any one with whom she had shown the slightest sign of intimacy it was with him like all doctors whose associations are so largely with women
and who are moderately intelligent and temperamental he knew a great deal about the dangers of the imagination no one ever heard just what passed between the two one thing is pretty sure he made no secrets regarding the affair and at the end of the interview
he advised the parents to take the girl out of school take her abroad keep her active present her at courts show her the world keep her occupied interest her keep her among people whether she liked it or not
the literature teacher counted for something in the affair and i imagine that it was never talked over between the parents and daughter who soon after left town for europe and for three years were not seen in boston
when they did return it was to announce the marriage of the principal girl to the son of the family lawyer a clever man and a rising politician relations between the literature teacher and the principal girl had never wholly broken off
so ten years after the school adventure it happened one beautiful day in early september that the teacher was a guest at the north shore summer home of the principal girl now the mother of two handsome boys that afternoon at tea sitting on the verandah
watching the white sails as the yachts made for marblehead harbor and the long line of surf beating against the rugged rocks beyond the wide pebbly beach on which the dragging stones made weird music
and then rolled over among the cushions of the hammock in which she was swinging and burst into a torrent of tears when the paroxysm had passed she sat up wiped her eyes in which however there was no laughter and said passionately
i suppose you think me the most ungrateful woman in the world i know only too well that to many women my position has always appeared enviable poor
of course my husband is a good man in all ways i do him perfect justice
only alas he is not the lover of my dreams my children are nice handsome boys
different and beside which the life i try to lead with all the strength i have is no more like the life i dreamed than my boys are like my dream children if you think it has not taken courage to play the part i have played
i am sorry for your lack of insight and she got up and walked away
when the wife came back to the hammock ten minutes later
and you may be sure that the literature teacher never did she always looked upon the incident as her worst moment of tactlessness bully bully exclaimed the lawyer
take off your laurels critic and crown the doctor for that little tale shouted the critic never that has not a bit of literary merit
the lawyer is a realist said the sculptor of course that appeals to him if you want my opinion i consider that there is just as much imagination in that story
you threw at us last night persisted the lawyer why declared the critic i call mine a healthy story compared with this one it is a shocking tale for the operating room
all right laughed the doctor then we had all better go inside the sanitarium walls at once do you presume said the journalist to pretend that this is a normal incident
i am not going into that i only claim that more people know the condition than dare to confess it it is after all only symbolic of the duality of the soul or call it what you like
it is the embodiment of a truth which no one thinks of denying that the spirit has its secrets imagination plays a great part in most of our lives
it is the glory that gilds our facts it is the brilliant barrier which separates us from the beasts and the only real thing that divides us into classes though of course
but like the lines of mean temperature the truth is said the lawyer if the principal girl had been obliged to struggle for her living the fact that her imagination did not run at any point into her world of realities
would not have been dangerous naturally not said the doctor for she would have been a great novelist or a poor one and all would have been well or not according to circumstances all the same persisted the critic
i think it a horrid story and i think interrupted the doctor that you have a vicious mind and here the doctor cast a quick look in the direction of the youngster who was stretched out in a steamer chair and had not said a word
all right said the trained nurse he is fast asleep and so he was just as well said the doctor though it does not speak so well for the story as it might
i reckon you get the laurels
there are some of us who have not spoken yet i am going to put some brilliant touches on mine before i give my star performance
by jove is the story of the principal girl all told that's a shame
you'll never know now said the doctor besides said the critic you would not understand you are too young well i like your cheek after all said the journalist it is only another phase of
the dear little josephine and i still think that is the banner story me too said the doctor as we went into the house and i thought to myself i can tell a third phase
the tragic when my turn comes
cosette's grief which had been so poignant and lively four or five months previously had without her being conscious of the fact entered upon its convalescence nature spring youth
love for her father the gayety of the birds and flowers caused something almost resembling forgetfulness to filter gradually drop by drop into that soul which was so virgin and so young
or was it merely that layers of ashes had formed the truth is that she hardly felt the painful and burning spot any longer one day she suddenly thought of marius
why said she i no longer think of him that same week she noticed a very handsome officer of lancers with a wasp like waist a delicious uniform the cheeks of a young girl
a sword under his arm waxed mustaches
passing the gate moreover he had light hair prominent blue eyes a round face was vain insolent and good looking quite the reverse of marius he had a cigar in his mouth
on the following day she saw him pass again she took note of the hour from that time forth was it chance she saw him pass nearly every day
the officer's comrades perceived that there was in that badly kept garden behind that malicious rococo fence a very pretty creature who was almost always there when the handsome lieutenant
passed by see here they said to him
to look at all the girls who look at me this was at the precise moment when marius was descending heavily towards agony and was saying
die had his wish been realized had he beheld cosette at that moment gazing at the lancer he would not have been able to utter a word and he would have expired with grief whose fault was it no one's
marius possessed one of those temperaments which bury themselves in sorrow and there abide cosette was one of those persons who plunge into sorrow and emerge from it again cosette was moreover passing through that dangerous period
the fatal phase of feminine revery abandoned to itself in which the isolated heart of a young girl resembles the tendrils of the vine which cling as chance directs to the capital of a marble column or to the post of a wine shop a rapid and decisive moment
critical for every orphan be she rich or poor for wealth does not prevent a bad choice misalliances are made in very high circles real misalliance is that of souls and as many an unknown young man without name without birth without fortune
so such and such a man of the world satisfied and opulent who has polished boots and varnished words if looked at not outside but inside a thing which is reserved for his wife
is nothing more than a block obscurely haunted by violent unclean and vinous passions the post of a drinking shop what did cosette's soul contain
something limpid brilliant
lower down the image of the handsome officer was reflected in the surface did a souvenir linger in the depths quite at the bottom possibly
cosette's apprehensions during the first fortnight in april jean valjean took a journey this as the reader knows happened from time to time at very long intervals he remained absent a day or two days at the utmost
where did he go no one knew not even cosette once only on the occasion of one of these departures she had accompanied him in a hackney coach as far as a little blind alley at the corner of which she read impasse de la planchette
there he alighted and the coach took cosette back to the rue de babylone it was usually when money was lacking in the house that jean valjean took these little trips so jean valjean was absent he had said
i shall return in three days that evening cosette was alone in the drawing room
she had opened her piano organ and had begun to sing accompanying herself the while the chorus from euryanthe hunters astray in the wood which is probably the most beautiful thing in all the sphere of music when she had finished she remained
wrapped in thought all at once it seemed to her
it could not be her father he was absent it could not be toussaint she was in bed and it was ten o'clock at night she stepped to the shutter of the drawing room which was closed and laid her ear against it it seemed to her that it was the tread of a man
and that he was walking very softly she mounted rapidly to the first floor to her own chamber opened a small wicket in her shutter and peeped into the garden the moon was at the full everything could be seen as plainly as by day
there was no one there she opened the window the garden was absolutely calm and all that was visible was that the street was deserted as usual cosette thought that she had been mistaken
which lays open before the mind terrified depths which trembles before the gaze like a dizzy forest
of whom one catches a glimpse through the twilight she thought no more about it moreover cosette was not very timid by nature there flowed in her veins some of the blood of the bohemian and the adventuress who runs barefoot
it will be remembered that she was more of a lark than a dove there was a foundation of wildness and bravery in her on the following day at an earlier hour towards nightfall she was strolling in the garden in the midst of the confused thoughts
which occupied her she fancied that she caught for an instant a sound similar to that of the preceding evening as though some one were walking beneath the trees in the dusk and not very far from her
but she told herself that nothing so closely resembles a step on the grass as the friction of two branches which have moved from side to side and she paid no heed to it besides she could see nothing she emerged from the thicket
she had still to cross a small lawn to regain the steps the moon which had just risen behind her cast cosette's shadow in front of her upon this lawn as she came out from the shrubbery cosette halted in alarm
a few paces in the rear of cosette she stood for a moment without the power to speak or cry or call or stir or turn her head then she summoned up all her courage and turned round resolutely
there was no one there she glanced on the ground the figure had disappeared she re entered the thicket searched the corners boldly went as far as the gate and found nothing she felt herself absolutely chilled with terror
was this another hallucination what two days in succession one hallucination might pass but two hallucinations the disquieting point about it was that the shadow had assuredly not been a phantom
phantoms do not wear round hats on the following day jean valjean returned cosette told him what she thought she had heard and seen she wanted to be reassured and to see her father shrug his shoulders and say to her
you are a little goose jean valjean grew anxious
he left her under some pretext and went into the garden and she saw him examining the gate with great attention during the night she woke up this time she was sure and she distinctly heard some one walking close to the flight of steps beneath her window
in point of fact there was a man in the garden with a large club in his hand just as she was about to scream
it was her father she returned to her bed saying to herself
jean valjean passed that night and the two succeeding nights in the garden cosette saw him through the hole in her shutter on the third night the moon was on the wane and had begun to rise later at one o'clock in the morning possibly
she jumped out of bed threw on her dressing gown and opened her window her father was standing on the grass plot below i have waked you for the purpose of reassuring you said he look there is your shadow with the round hat
and he pointed out to her on the turf a shadow cast by the moon and which did indeed bear considerable resemblance to the spectre of a man wearing a round hat it was the shadow produced by a chimney pipe of sheet iron with a hood
which rose above a neighboring roof cosette joined in his laughter all her lugubrious suppositions were allayed and the next morning as she was at breakfast with her father she made merry over the sinister garden
jean valjean became quite tranquil once more as for cosette she did not pay much attention to the question whether the chimney pot was really in the direction of the shadow which she had seen or thought she had seen and whether the moon had been in the same spot in the sky
she did not question herself as to the peculiarity of a chimney pot which is afraid of being caught in the act and which retires when some one looks at its shadow
when cosette had turned round and cosette had thought herself very sure of this cosette's serenity was fully restored the proof appeared to her to be complete and it quite vanished from her mind
as to how the canon of the old testament was formed that is how and when did the jews first begin to understand that the books of the old testament were inspired by god about the first five books
the books of the law there had never been any question from the very earliest times those books so wonderfully given to the people had been the strength and stay of the children of israel
but many books had been written in the days of the old jewish kings and also after the return of the people from babylon some of these were very beautiful and helpful
how were the sacred scriptures first divided from the other jewish writings we do not know some have thought that ezra the scribe with the assistance of a council of elders fixed the canon of hebrew scripture
others have supposed nehemiah to have undertaken the work but most likely it was a gradual process directed by god himself who inspired his servants to carry out his will the christian bible is composed of two parts
the old and the new testament but the jews divided their scriptures our old testament into three parts and they certainly looked upon some books as far more sacred than others the torah' that is the law
included as we have seen the first five books of the bible from the very earliest days the torah was reverenced as containing the commandments and promises of god the second division consisted of the prophets
these being subdivided into the former prophets four volumes joshua judges samuel kings and the latter prophets three volumes isaiah jeremiah
ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets which were included in one book next in order of sanctity came the third division the writings and these again were subdivided into three groups
the poetical books of the psalms proverbs and job the rolls or readings seven volumes solomon's song ruth lamentations
esther daniel and one volume containing ezra and nehemiah and lastly in a separate book chronicles thus the whole scriptures were contained in twenty four books
indeed not until the greek translation was made were the books grouped in the order in which we have them now and at the same time their number was increased to thirty nine by taking the writings of each of the prophets separately
and treating ezra and nehemiah as different books and now god who has spoken in times past by many different ways and voices spoke at last to the nations by his son
by whom also he made the worlds hebrews
let us think for a little while of what was being done with the scriptures in the days when the lord jesus learnt to read their words at his mother's knee words which from first to last told of himself
the care they took to keep the words exactly as they had been handed down to them was infinite and god who knows all things knew that a time would come when the pure hebrew words of the old bible would be eagerly sought for
and treasured by all who truly honour his book therefore although the eyes of the learned jewish scribes were so blinded that they did not recognize their king and saviour when he came
yet god blessed all that was true in their work and it is from the hebrew copies which they made of the books of the old testament and not from the septuagint or greek translation that the old testament of our bible
has come to us to day yet
while so careful to preserve the words of the scriptures the scribes and pharisees forgot its spirit the very purpose for which the bible had been given them
a man might know by memory every letter of the bible but unless the spirit of god were in his heart helping him to act out in his life the words he repeats with his lips
all his knowledge of the bible would only lie as a dead weight upon his soul the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life
so wrote the apostle paul who had as we know been educated by the scribes and pharisees and when he wrote those words he was recalling his own experience
thus as year by year the learned jews thought more of the letters of their bible they saw less of its spirit worse still they began to add
and he fearlessly rebuked the teachers of the law grieved beyond words that those to whom god had entrusted his book should make the word of god of none effect through your tradition mark
his own way of using the scriptures was very different from his mother he had first learned to repeat texts from the old testament and with her he had gone to the synagogue sabbath by sabbath
to hear the books of the law and the prophets read as he grew older he would have been sent to school and taught to read and recite the scriptures and long before he began himself to teach the people he had so absorbed the spirit of the old testament
that his very thoughts seem to have been given in scripture words perhaps you have wondered why the names of some of the prophets and heroes of the old testament are spelt so differently when mentioned in the new
instead of noah and so on this is because the writers of the new testament quoted from the greek translation of the bible instead of from the hebrew names change a little you know when translated into other languages
for instance our name of mary becomes marie in french and maria in italian and yet it is all the while the same name some people think that this the septuagint
or first greek translation was the special translation of the bible which the saviour used many of the quotations which he gave from the old testament appear to have been from this translation
although some seem taken directly from the hebrew and others again
christ himself no doubt
tongue which was a mixed language and came into use after the jews return from babylon
chaldee in the book of daniel but while our saviour constantly quoted from the old testament he never used its words without definite purpose
the sword of the spirit in his hands was either turned against the evil one or brought directly to bear with overwhelming force on some mistaken teaching
simple way in which he reached the point and once and for all swept away the difficulty amazed and confounded the learned jews an instance of this is found in his wonderful answer to the sadducees
who disbelieved in the resurrection as touching the resurrection of the dead he said have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by god saying i am the god of abraham and the god of isaac and the god of jacob
his hearers of course had heard these words quoted from childhood but not till the saviour explained their full significance god is not the god of the dead but of the living did they realize
that in the first recorded words spoken by god to moses lay a proof of the resurrection and of life after death let us take a look at the first time in which christ publicly read and explained the scriptures
the roll of the book of the prophet isaiah listen the spirit of the lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted
to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the lord luke
nineteen he closes the book and sits down from the dim ages of the past those words had been read in the long long ages to come they will yet be read until the world shall cease to exist
and time itself be known no more but never before and never again could there be so heart searching or sacred a reading as this when the son of god read from his father's book
in the simple village meeting in galilee and yet his listeners did not understand the reading even after his explanation of the words they fell upon deaf ears and raised only anger and surprise
it was then that the first attempt was made to destroy him verse twenty nine to his own apostles enlightened as they were the message of the old testament was sealed
until after the saviour's resurrection when he opened their understanding that they might understand
of the father the apostle had apparently finished his discourse on justification when this illustration of the youthful heir occurred to him he throws it in for good measure he knows that plain people are sooner impressed
by an apt illustration than by learned discussion i want to give you another illustration from everyday life he writes to the galatians as long as an heir is under age he is treated very much like a servant
he is not permitted to order his own affairs he is kept under constant surveillance such discipline is good for him otherwise he would waste his inheritance in no time this discipline however is not to last forever
it is to last only until the time appointed of the father verse three even so we when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world as children of the law
we were treated like servants and prisoners we were oppressed and condemned by the law but the tyranny of the law is not to last forever it is to last only until the time appointed of the father until christ came and redeemed us
verse three under the elements of the world by the elements of the world the apostle does not understand the physical elements as some have thought in calling the law the elements of the world
paul means to say that the law is something material mundane earthly it may restrain evil but it does not deliver from sin the law does not justify it does not bring a person to heaven
i do not obtain eternal life because i do not kill commit adultery steal et cetera such mere outward decency does not constitute christianity
the heathen observe the same restraints to avoid punishment or to secure the advantages of a good reputation in the last analysis such restraint is simple hypocrisy when the law exercises its higher function
it accuses and condemns the conscience all these effects of the law cannot be called divine or heavenly these effects are elements of the world in calling the law the elements of the world paul refers to the whole law
principally to the ceremonial law which dealt with external matters as meat drink dress places times feasts cleansings sacrifices et cetera
these are mundane matters which cannot save the sinner ceremonial laws are like the statutes of governments dealing with purely civil matters as commerce inheritance et cetera as for the pope's church laws forbidding marriage and meats
you would not call such laws elements of heaven
it holds the mirror to the evil which is in the world by revealing the evil that is in us it creates a longing in the heart for the better things of god the law forces us into the arms of christ
who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth romans one four christ relieves the conscience of the law in so far as the law impels us to christ it renders excellent service
because the law has nothing to do with justification if it thrusts its nose into the business of justification we must talk harshly to the law to keep it in its place the conscience ought not to be on speaking terms with the law
the conscience ought to know only christ to say this is easy but in times of trial
as such times we are to believe in christ as if there were no law or sin anywhere but only christ we ought to say to the law mister law i do not get you you stutter so much
i don't think that you have anything to say to me when it is not a question of salvation or justification with us we are to think highly of the law and call it holy just and good romans seven twelve
let us understand that the law and christ are impossible bedfellows the law must leave the bed of the conscience which is so narrow that it cannot hold two as isaiah says chapter twenty eight verse twenty only paul among the apostles
calls the law the elements of the world weak and beggarly elements the strength of sin the letter that killeth et cetera the other apostles do not speak so slightingly of the law those who want to be first class scholars in the school of christ
want to pick up the language of paul christ called him a chosen vessel and equipped with a facility of expression far above that of the other apostles that he as the chosen vessel should establish the doctrine of justification in clear cut words
but when the fullness of the time was come god sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law
the fullness of the time means when the time of the law was fulfilled and christ was revealed note how paul explains christ christ says he is the son of god and the son of a woman
he submitted himself under the law to redeem us who were under the law in these words the apostle explains the person and office of christ his person is divine and human god sent forth his son made of a woman
christ therefore is true god and true man christ's office the apostle describes in the words made under the law to redeem them that were under the law paul calls the virgin mary a woman
this has been frequently deplored even by some of the ancient fathers who felt that paul should have written virgin instead of woman but paul is now treating of faith and christian righteousness of the person and office of christ
not of the virginity of mary the inestimable mercy of god is sufficiently set forth by the fact that his son was born of a woman the more general term woman indicates that christ was born a true man
paul does not say that christ was born of man and woman but only of woman that he has a virgin in mind is obvious this passage furthermore declares that christ's purpose in coming was the abolition of the law
not with the intention of laying down new laws but to redeem them that were under the law christ himself declared i judge no man john eight fifteen again i came not to judge the world
but to save the world john twelve forty seven in other words i came not to bring more laws or to judge men according to the existing law i have a higher and better office i came to judge and to condemn the law
so that it may no more judge and condemn the world how did christ manage to redeem us he was made under the law when christ came he found us all in prison what did he do about it although he was the lord of the law
he voluntarily placed himself under the law and permitted it to exercise dominion over him indeed to accuse and to condemn him when the law takes us into judgment it has a perfect right to do so for we are by nature the children of wrath
three christ however did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth
twenty two hence the law had no jurisdiction over him yet the law treated this innocent just and blessed lamb of god as cruelly as it treated us it accused him of blasphemy and treason
it made him guilty of the sins of the whole world it overwhelmed him with such anguish of soul that his sweat was as blood the law condemned him to the shameful death on the cross
it is truly amazing that the law had the effrontery to turn upon its divine author and that without a show of right for its insolence the law in turn was arraigned before the judgment seat of god and condemned
christ might have overcome the law by an exercise of his omnipotent authority over the law instead he humbled himself under the law for and together with them that were under the law he gave the law license to accuse and condemn him
his present mastery over the law was obtained by virtue of his sonship and his substitutionary victory thus christ banished the law from the conscience it dare no longer banish us from god for that matter
the law continues to reveal sin it still raises its voice in condemnation but the conscience finds quick relief in the words of the apostle christ has redeemed us from the law the conscience
can now hold its head high and say to the law you are not so holy yourself you crucified the son of god that was an awful thing for you to do you have lost your influence forever the words
christ was made under the law are worth all the attention we can bestow on them they declare that the son of god did not only fulfill one or two easy requirements of the law but that he endured all the tortures of the law
the law brought all its fright to bear upon christ until he experienced anguish and terror such as nobody else ever experienced his bloody sweat his need of angelic comfort his tremulous prayer in the garden
his lamentation on the cross my god my god why hast thou forsaken me bear eloquent witness to the sting of the law he suffered to redeem them that were under the law
but a law taker true enough christ also taught and expounded the law but it was incidental it was a sideline with him he did not come into the world for the purpose of teaching the law
as little as it was the purpose of his coming to perform miracles teaching the law and performing miracles did not constitute his unique mission to the world the prophets also taught the law and performed miracles in fact
according to the promise of christ the apostles performed greater miracles than christ himself john fourteen twelve the true purpose of christ's coming was the abolition of the law of sin and of death
if we think of christ as paul here depicts him we shall never go wrong we shall never be in danger of misconstruing the meaning of the law we shall understand that the law does not justify we shall understand why a christian observes laws
for the peace of the world out of gratitude to god and for a good example that others may be attracted to the gospel verse five that we might receive the adoption of sons paul still has for his text genesis twenty two eighteen
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed in the course of his epistle he calls this promise of the blessing righteousness life deliverance from the law the testament et cetera now he also calls the promise of blessing
the adoption of sons the inheritance of everlasting life what ever induced god to adopt us for his children and heirs what claim can men who are subservient to sin subject to the curse of the law
and worthy of everlasting death have on god and eternal life that god adopted us is due to the merit of jesus christ the son of god who humbled himself under the law and redeemed us law ridden sinners
verse six and because ye are sons god hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts in the early church the holy spirit was sent forth in visible form he descended upon christ in the form of a dove
and in the likeness of fire upon the apostles and other believers acts two three this visible outpouring of the holy spirit was necessary to the establishment of the early church as were also the miracles that accompanied the gift of the holy ghost
tongues are for a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not once the church had been established and properly advertised by these miracles the visible appearance of the holy ghost ceased next
the holy ghost is sent forth into the hearts of the believers as here stated god sent the spirit of his son into your hearts this sending is accomplished by the preaching of the gospel through which the holy spirit inspires us with fervor and light
with new judgment new desires and new motives this happy innovation is not a derivative of reason or personal development but solely the gift and operation of the holy ghost this renewal by the holy spirit may not be conspicuous to the world
our improved speech and our unashamed confession of christ formerly we did not confess christ to be our only merit as we do now in the light of the gospel
why then should we feel bad if the world looks upon us as ravagers of religion and insurgents against constituted authority we confess christ and our conscience approves of it then too
outwardly there is no great difference between a christian and any honest man the activities of a christian are not sensational he performs his duty according to his vocation he takes good care of his family and is kind and helpful to others
such homely everyday performances are not much admired but the setting up exercises of the monks draw great applause holy works you know only the acts of a christian are truly good and acceptable to god
there is the devil we meet with such contempt for the word of god mostly among the common people they act as though the word of god does not concern them wherever you find a love for the word
excommunicated christ from the church and limited the operations of the holy ghost saint augustine observed that every man is certain of his faith if he has faith this the romanists deny god forbid they exclaim piously
that i should ever be so arrogant as to think that i stand in grace that i am holy or that i have the holy ghost we ought to feel sure that we stand in the grace of god not in view of our own worthiness
but through the good services of christ as certain as we are that christ pleases god so sure ought we to be that we also please god because christ is in us and although we daily offend god by our sins
yet as often as we sin god's mercy bends over us therefore sin cannot get us to doubt the grace of god our certainty is of christ that mighty hero who overcame the law sin death and all evils
so long as he sits at the right hand of god to intercede for us we have nothing to fear from the anger of god this inner assurance of the grace of god is accompanied by outward indications such as gladly to hear
preach praise and to confess christ to do one's duty in the station in which god has placed us to aid the needy and to comfort the sorrowing these are the affidavits of the holy spirit testifying to our favorable standing with god
if we could be fully persuaded that we are in the good grace of god that our sins are forgiven that we have the spirit of christ that we are the beloved children of god we would be ever so happy and grateful to god
but because we often feel fear and doubt we cannot come to that happy certainty train your conscience to believe that god approves of you fight it out with doubt gain assurance through the word of god say
i am all right with god i have the holy ghost christ in whom i do believe makes me worthy i gladly hear read sing and write of him
chapter two symbols of music defined twelve a staff is a collection of parallel lines together with the spaces belonging to them the modern staff has five lines and six spaces
these being ordinarily referred to as first line second line third line fourth line and fifth line beginning with the lowest and space below
space below the first line first space second space third space fourth space and space above the definition and discussion above refer more specifically to one of the portions of the great staff
and singing in the bass clef are still frequently heard but are preferably replaced by singing from the treble staff and singing from the bass staff
shows the permanent names of lines and spaces when the g and f clefs are used
our b is called by them h and our b flat is called b the scale of c therefore reads c d e f g
a h c the scale of f reads f g a b c d e f
the signatures are in all cases written exactly as we write them in france and italy where the fixed do system is in vogue pitches are usually referred to by the syllable names
cello viola et cetera of extended range in order to avoid having to use too many leger lines and two for indicating the tenor part in vocal music
this latter usage seems also to be disappearing however and the tenor part is commonly written on the treble staff it being understood
the fifth line and first space represent the pitch f but in fig ten b these same staff degrees represent an entirely different tone f sharp the student should note that the sharp does not then raise anything
there is just as much difference between f and f sharp as between b and c and yet one would never think of referring to c
a flat is a character that causes the degree of the staff with which it is associated to represent a tone one half step lower than it otherwise would
and apply the same discussion here twenty a double sharp causes the staff degree on which it is placed to represent a pitch one whole step higher than it would without any sharp
the prisoners were free and their joy found vent in the noisiest demonstrations they employed the rest of the day in repairing the house which had suffered greatly by the explosion they cleared away the blocks piled up by the animals
and filled up the rents in the walls working with might and main enlivened by the many songs of old johnson next morning there was a singular rise in the temperature
and symptoms of a thaw appeared the ice began to crack here and there and jets of salt water were thrown up like fountains in an english park
a few days later the rain fell in torrents thick vapour rose from the snow giving promise of the speedy disappearance of these immense masses the sun's pale disc became deeper in colour and remained longer above the horizon
the birds were returning in flocks and the air resounded with their deafening cries
that almost all these animals were beginning to lose their white winter dress and would soon put on summer attire while nature was already providing mosses and poppies
but with these inoffensive animals came back their natural enemies foxes and wolves arrived in search of their prey and dismal howls broke the silence of the short night arctic wolves closely resemble dogs
and their barking would deceive the most practised ears even the canine race themselves have been deceived by it indeed it seems as if the wily animals employed this ruse to attract the dogs and make them their prey
several navigators have mentioned the fact and the doctor's own experience confirmed it johnson took care not to let his greenlanders loose of duk there was little fear nothing could take him in for about a fortnight
hunting was the principal occupation there was an abundant supply of fresh meat to be had they shot partridges ptarmigans and snow ortolans which are delicious eating the hunters never went far from fort providence
for game was so plentiful that it seemed waiting their guns and the whole bay presented an animated appearance the thaw meanwhile was making rapid progress
and the water ran down the mountain sides in cataracts and dashed in torrents through the ravines the doctor lost no time in clearing about an acre of ground in which he sowed the seeds of anti scorbutic plants
when the cold returned in full force
everything was frozen birds quadrupeds amphibia disappeared as if by magic seal holes reclosed and the ice once more became hard as granite the change was most striking
it occurred on the eighteenth of may during the night the doctor was rather disappointed at having all his work to do again but hatteras bore the grievance most unphilosophically
no my friend i don't it is a last blow from the cold you see these are his dominions and he won't be driven out without making some resistance he can defend himself pretty well said bell rubbing his face yes but i ought to have waited
and not have wasted my seed like an ignoramus
but do you mean to say asked altamont that you might have anticipated the sudden change of course and without being a wizard
and the other two saints whose fete days fall this month absurd pray tell me what they have to do with it what influence can they possibly have on the temperature
an immense one if we are to believe horticulturists who call them the patron saints of the frost and for what reason because generally there is a periodical frost in the month of may and it is coldest from the eleventh to the thirteenth
that is the fact and how is it explained in two ways some say that a larger number of asteroids come between the earth and the sun at this time of year
and others that the mere melting of the snow necessarily absorbs a large amount of heat and accounts for the low temperature both theories are plausible enough but the fact remains whichever we accept
the doctor was right for the cold lasted till the end of the month and put an end to all their hunting expeditions
this was violent quinsy but under the doctor's skilful treatment it was soon cured ice was the only remedy he employed administered in small pieces
clawbonny determined to have a talk with the captain on an important subject the building of a sloop out of the planks of the porpoise the doctor hardly knew how to begin as hatteras had declared so vehemently that he would never consent to use a morsel of american wood
yet it was high time he were brought to reason as june was at hand the only season for distant expeditions and they could not start without a ship he thought over it a long while and at last drew the captain aside and said in the kindest gentlest way
most certainly i do replied the captain earnestly my best indeed my only friend and if i give you a piece of advice without your asking will you consider my motive is perfectly disinterested
yes for i know you have never been actuated by self interest but what are you driving at
do you look on me as a true hearted englishman like yourself anxious for his country's glory hatteras looked surprised but simply said i do
and i understand and share your ambition but to achieve your object you must employ the right means well and have i not sacrificed everything for it no hatteras you have not sacrificed your personal antipathies
ah it is the boat you want to talk about and that man hatteras let us discuss the question calmly and examine the case on all sides the coast on which we find ourselves at present may terminate abruptly
we have no proof that it stretches right away to the pole indeed if your present information prove correct we ought to come to an open sea during the summer months well supposing we reach this arctic ocean and find it free from ice and easy to navigate
what shall we do if we have no ship hatteras made no reply tell me now would you like to find yourself only a few miles from the pole and not be able to get to it hatteras still said nothing but buried his head in his hands
besides continued the doctor look at the question in its moral aspect here is an englishman who sacrifices his fortune and even his life to win fresh glory for his country
but because the boat which bears him across an unknown ocean or touches the new shore happens to be made of the planks of an american vessel a cast away wreck of no use to anyone will that lessen the honour of the discovery
and must not a sloop built by four englishmen and manned by four englishmen be english from keel to gunwale hatteras was still silent no continued clawbonny the real truth is it is not the sloop you care about it is the man
i hate him with a thorough english hatred fate has thrown him in my path to save you to ruin me he seems to defy me and speaks as if he were lord and master
he thinks he has my destiny in his hands and knows all my projects didn't we see the man in his true colours when we were giving names to the different coasts has he ever avowed his object in coming so far north
well hatteras suppose it is so does it follow that this expedition is to search for the north pole may it not be to find the north west passage but anyway
altamont is in complete ignorance of our object for neither johnson nor bell nor myself have ever breathed a word to him about it and i am sure you have not well let him always remain so he must be told in the end for we can't leave him here alone why not
can't he stay here in fort providence he would never consent to that hatteras and moreover to leave a man in that way and not know whether we might find him safe when we came back would be worse than imprudent it would be inhuman altamont will come with us
he must come but we need not disclose our projects let us tell him nothing but simply build a sloop for the ostensible purpose of making a survey of the coast hatteras could not bring himself to consent but said
and suppose the man won't allow his ship to be cut up in that case you must take the law in your own hands and build a vessel in spite of him i wish to goodness he would refuse then he must be asked before he can refuse
he kept his word for that very same night at supper he managed to turn the conversation towards the subject of making excursions during summer for hydrographical purposes you will join us i suppose altamont he said of course replied the american
we must know how far new america extends hatteras looked fixedly at his rival but said nothing
chapter five the seal and the bear you know doctor said hatteras as they returned to the hut the polar bears subsist almost entirely on seals they'll lie in wait for them beside the crevasses for whole days
ready to strangle them the moment their heads appear above the surface it is not likely then that a bear will be frightened of a seal i think i see what you are after but it is dangerous
yes but there is more chance of success than in trying any other plan so i mean to risk it i am going to dress myself in the seal's skin and creep along the ice come don't let us lose time load the gun and give it me
the doctor could not say anything for he would have done the same himself so he followed hatteras silently to the sledge taking with him a couple of hatchets for his own and johnson's use hatteras soon made his toilette and slipped into the skin
now then give me the gun he said
courage hatteras said the doctor handing him the weapon which he had carefully loaded meanwhile never fear but be sure you don't show yourselves till i fire the doctor soon joined the old boatswain behind the hummock and told him what they had been doing
the bear was still there but moving restlessly about as if he felt the approach of danger in a quarter of an hour or so the seal made his appearance on the ice he had gone a good way round so as to come on the bear by surprise
and every movement was so perfect an imitation of a seal that even the doctor would have been deceived if he had not known it was hatteras it is capital said johnson in a low voice the bear had instantly caught sight of the supposed seal for he gathered himself up
preparing to make a spring as the animal came nearer
bruin went to work with extreme prudence though his eyes glared with greedy desire to clutch the coveted prey for he had probably been fasting a month if not two he allowed his victim to get within ten paces of him and then sprang forward with a tremendous bound
but stopped short stupefied and frightened within three steps of hatteras who started up that moment and throwing off his disguise knelt on one knee and aimed straight at the bear's heart
hurrying towards hatteras for the bear had reared on his hind legs and was striking the air with one paw and tearing up the snow to stanch his wound with the other hatteras never moved but waited knife in hand
he had aimed well and fired with a sure and steady aim before either of his companions came up he had plunged the knife in the animal's throat and made an end of him for he fell down at once to rise no more
hurrah bravo shouted johnson and the doctor but hatteras was as cool and unexcited as possible and stood with folded arms gazing at his prostrate foe it is my turn now said johnson it is a good thing the bear is killed
he began forthwith to strip the skin off
it measured nearly nine feet long and four round and the great tusks in his jaws were three inches long on cutting the carcase open johnson found nothing but water in the stomach the beast had evidently had no food for a long time
yet it was very fat and weighed fifteen hundred pounds the hunters were so famished that they had hardly patience to carry home the flesh to be cooked and it needed all the doctor's persuasion to prevent them eating it raw on entering the hut
each man with a load on his back clawbonny was struck with the coldness that pervaded the atmosphere on going up to the stove he found the fire black out the exciting business of the morning had made johnson neglect his accustomed duty of replenishing the stove
the doctor tried to blow the embers into a flame but finding he could not even get a red spark he went out to the sledge to fetch tinder and get the steel from johnson the old sailor put his hand into his pocket but was surprised to find the steel missing
he felt in the other pockets but it was not there then he went into the hut again and shook the blanket he had slept in all night but his search was still unsuccessful he went back to his companions and said are you sure doctor you haven't the steel quite johnson and you haven't it either captain
well i have not got it now exclaimed johnson turning pale
look again johnson he said the boatswain hurried to the only remaining place he could think of the hummock where he had stood to watch the bear but the missing treasure was nowhere to be found and the old sailor returned in despair hatteras looked at him
but no word of reproach escaped his lips he only said this is a serious business doctor it is indeed said clawbonny we have not even an instrument some glass that we might take the lens out of and use like a burning glass
no and it is a great pity for the sun's rays are quite strong enough just now to light our tinder well said hatteras we must just appease our hunger with the raw meat and set off again as soon as we can to try to discover the ship yes replied clawbonny
speaking to himself absorbed in his own reflections yes that might do at a pinch why not we might try what are you dreaming about asked hatteras
an idea come into your head doctor exclaimed johnson then we are saved will it succeed that's the question what's your project said hatteras we want a lens well let us make one how asked johnson
with a piece of ice what do you think that would do why not all that is needed is to collect the sun's rays into one common focus and ice will serve that purpose as well as the finest crystal is it possible said johnson
yes only i should like fresh water ice it is harder and more transparent than the other there it is to your hand if i am not much mistaken said johnson
and the green tinge you are right bring your hatchet johnson a good sized piece was soon cut off about a foot in diameter and the doctor set to work he began by chopping it into rough shape with the hatchet then he operated upon it more carefully with his knife
making as smooth a surface as possible and finished the polishing process with his fingers rubbing away until he had obtained as transparent a lens as if it had been made of magnificent crystal the sun was shining brilliantly enough for the doctor's experiment
the tinder was fetched and held beneath the lens so as to catch the rays in full power in a few seconds it took fire to johnson's rapturous delight he danced about like an idiot almost beside himself with joy and shouted hurrah hurrah
while clawbonny hurried back into the hut and rekindled the fire the stove was soon roaring
what a feast this meal was to the poor starving men may be imagined the doctor however counselled moderation in eating and set the example himself this is a glad day for us he said and we have no fear of wanting food all the rest of our journey
still we must not forget we have further to go yet and i think the sooner we start the better we cannot be far off now said altamont who could almost articulate perfectly again we must be within forty eight hours march of the porpoise
my lens does well enough at present but it needs the sun
within less than four degrees of the pole less than four degrees repeated altamont with a sigh yes my ship went further than any other has ever ventured it is time we started said hatteras abruptly yes replied the doctor
glancing uneasily at the two captains
but the american made only evasive replies and clawbonny whispered in old johnson's ear two men we've got that need looking after you are right said johnson hatteras never says a word to this american
and i must say the man has not shown himself very grateful i am here fortunately mister clawbonny said johnson now this yankee has come back to life again i must confess i don't much like the expression of his face
i am much mistaken if he does not suspect the projects of hatteras do you think his own were similar who knows
then you think that altamont i think nothing about it but his ship is certainly on the road to the north pole but didn't altamont say that he had been caught among the ice and dragged there irresistibly he said so but i fancied there was a peculiar smile on his lips while he spoke
would be a bad job mister clawbonny if any feeling of rivalry came between two men of their stamp heaven forfend for it might involve the most serious consequences johnson i hope altamont will remember he owes his life to us
but do we not owe ours to him now i grant without us he would not be alive at this moment but without him and his ship what would become of us well mister clawbonny you are here to keep things straight anyhow and that is a blessing
i hope i may manage it johnson the journey proceeded without any fresh incident but on the saturday morning the travellers found themselves in a region of quite an altered character instead of the wide smooth plain of ice that had hitherto stretched before them
overturned icebergs and broken hummocks covered the horizon while the frequent blocks of fresh water ice showed that some coast was near next day after a hearty breakfast off the bear's paws the little party continued their route
but the road became toilsome and fatiguing altamont lay watching the horizon with feverish anxiety an anxiety shared by all his companions for according to the last reckoning made by hatteras
and the question of life or death would be decided before the day was over at last about two o'clock in the afternoon altamont started up with a shout that arrested the whole party
and pointing to a white mass that no eye but his could have distinguished from the surrounding icebergs exclaimed in a loud ringing voice
chapter eight an excursion to the north of victoria bay next morning clawbonny was out by dawn of day clambering up the steep rocky wall against which the doctor's house leaned
he succeeded though with considerable difficulty in reaching the top which he found terminated abruptly in a sort of truncated cone
from this elevation there was an extensive view over a vast tract of country which was all disordered and convulsed as if it had undergone some volcanic commotion
were covered with a sheet of ice a new project struck the doctor's mind which was soon matured and ripe for execution he lost no time in going back to the snow house and consulting over it with his companions i have got an idea he said
i think of constructing a lighthouse on the top of that cone above our heads a lighthouse they all exclaimed yes a lighthouse
and also serve to illumine our plateau in the long dreary winter months there is no doubt replied altamont of its utility but how would you contrive to make it
no seal oil would not give nearly sufficient light it would scarcely be visible through the fog are you going to try to make gas out of our coal then no not that either for gas would not be strong enough and worse still it would waste our combustibles
well replied altamont i'm at a loss to see how you oh i'm prepared for everything after the mercury bullet and the ice lens and fort providence i believe mister clawbonny can do anything exclaimed johnson
come clawbonny tell us what your light is to be then said altamont that's soon told replied clawbonny i mean to have an electric light an electric light yes why not haven't you a galvanic battery on board your ship yes
well there will be no difficulty then in producing an electric light and that will cost nothing and be far brighter first rate said johnson let us set to work at once by all means
there is plenty of material in an hour we can raise a pillar of ice ten feet high and that is quite enough away went the doctor followed by his companions and the column was soon erected and crowned with a ship lantern
the conducting wires were properly adjusted within it and the pile with which they communicated fixed up in the sitting room where the warmth of the stove would protect it from the action of the frost as soon as it grew dark the experiment was made and proved a complete success
an intense brilliant light streamed from the lantern and illumined the entire plateau and the plains beneath johnson could not help clapping his hands half beside himself with delight well i declare mister clawbonny he exclaimed you're our sun now
one must be a little of everything you know was clawbonny's modest reply
a regular course of life commenced now though uncertain weather and frequent changes of temperature made it sometimes impracticable to venture outside the hut at all
they started very early in the morning each armed with a double barrelled gun and plenty of powder and shot
and the bright rays of the electric light did duty for the glorious orb of day
for the light was equal to three thousand candles or three hundred gas burners it was intensely cold but dry and there was little or no wind the hunters set off in the direction of cape washington
and the hard snow so favoured their march that in three hours they had gone fifteen miles duk jumping and barking beside them all the way
but found no trace of human habitation and indeed scarcely a sign of animal life a few snow birds however darting to and fro announced the approach of spring and the return of the animal creation the sea was still entirely frozen over
but it was evident from the open breathing holes in the ice that the seals had been quite recently on the surface in one part the holes were so numerous that the doctor said to his companions that he had no doubt that when summer came they would be seen
there in hundreds and would be easily captured for on unfrequented shores they were not so difficult of approach but once frighten them and they all vanish as if by enchantment and never return to the spot again
inexperienced hunters he said have often lost a whole shoal by attacking them en masse with noisy shouts instead of singly and silently is it for the oil or skin that they are mostly hunted europeans hunt them for the skin
they live on seals and nothing is so delicious to them as a piece of the flesh dipped in the blood and oil
and i'll bet you something i could dress you cutlets you would not turn up your nose at unless for their black appearance we'll set you to work on it said bell and i'll eat as much as you like to please you my good bell
you mean to say to please yourself but your voracity would never equal the green landers for they devour from ten to fifteen pounds of meat a day fifteen pounds said bell what stomachs arctic stomachs replied the doctor are prodigious
they can expand at will and i may add contract at will so that they can endure starvation quite as well as abundance when an esquimaux sits down to dinner he is quite thin and by the time he has finished he is so corpulent you would hardly recognize him
but then we must remember that one meal sometimes has to last a whole day this voracity must be peculiar to the inhabitants of cold countries said altamont i think it is replied the doctor in the arctic regions people must eat enormously
it is not only one of the conditions of strength but of existence
invigorating regimen certainly said bell not so much as you imagine my friend an indian who guzzles like that can't do a whit better day's work than an englishman who has his pound of beef and pint of beer things are best as they are then mister clawbonny
no doubt of it and yet an esquimaux meal may well astonish us in sir john ross's narrative he states his surprise at the appetites of his guides he tells us that two of them just two mind
devoured a quarter of a buffalo in one morning they cut the meat in long narrow strips and the mode of eating was either for the one to bite off as much as his mouth could hold and then pass it on to the other
or to leave the long ribbons of meat dangling from the mouth and devour them gradually like boa constrictors
every man has his own fashion of dining remarked the philosophical american happily said the doctor well if eating is such an imperative necessity in these latitudes
it quite accounts for all the journals of arctic travellers being so full of eating and drinking you are right returned the doctor i have been struck by the same fact but i think it arises not only from the necessity of full diet but from the extreme difficulty
sometimes in procuring it the thought of food is always uppermost in the mind and naturally finds mention in the narrative and yet said altamont if my memory serves me right in the coldest parts of norway the peasants do not seem to need such substantial fare
milk diet is their staple food with eggs and bread made of the bark of the birch tree a little salmon occasionally but never meat and still they are fine hardy fellows it is an affair of organization out of my power to explain
replied clawbonny but i have no doubt that if these same norwegians were transplanted to greenland
even if we ourselves were to remain in this blessed country long we should be as bad as the esquimaux even if we escaped becoming regular gluttons i declare mister clawbonny you make me feel hungry with talking so much about eating exclaimed bell
not i said altamont it rather sickens me and makes me loathe the sight of a seal but stop i do believe we are going to have the chance of a dinner off one for i am much mistaken if that's not something alive lying on those lumps of ice yonder
it is a walrus exclaimed the doctor be quiet and let us get up to him clawbonny was right it was a walrus of huge dimensions disporting himself not more than two hundred yards away
the hunters separated going in different directions so as to surround the animal and cut off all retreat they crept along cautiously behind the hummocks
and soon lay dead reddening the ice field with his blood it was a fine animal measuring more than fifteen feet in length
but the hunters contented themselves with cutting off the most savoury parts and left the rest to the ravens which had just begun to make their appearance
the moon had not yet risen but the sky was serene and cloudless and already glittering with stars magnificent stars come said the doctor let us be off for it is getting late
let us go the shortest road however and get quickly home without losing our way the stars will guide us they resolved to try a more direct route back by going further inland and avoiding the windings of the coast
the question was raised whether to construct a hut and rest till morning or proceed but clawbonny insisted on going on as hatteras and johnson would be so uneasy duk will guide us he said he won't go wrong
his instinct can dispense with star and compass just let us keep close behind him
the lady rising up with such an air as venus rose with from the wave on them bent like an antelope a paphian pair of eyes which put out each surrounding gem
who first kiss'd the hem of her deep purple robe and speaking low pointed to juan who remain'd below her presence was as lofty as her state
her beauty of that overpowering kind whose force description only would abate i d rather leave it much to your own mind than lessen it by what i could relate of forms and features
it would strike you blind could i do justice to the full detail so luckily for both my phrases fail thus much however i may add her years were ripe
they might make six and twenty springs but there are forms which time to touch forbears and turns aside his scythe to vulgar things such as was mary's queen of scots
true tears and love destroy and sapping sorrow wrings charms from the charmer yet some never grow ugly for instance
i won't be bail for anything beyond they bow'd obeisance and withdrew
much fitted for inspiring marvel and praise for both or none things win and i must say i ne'er could see the very great happiness of the nil admirari not to admire is all the art i know
plain truth dear murray needs few flowers of speech to make men happy or to keep them so so take it in the very words of creech
thus horace wrote we all know long ago and thus pope quotes the precept to re teach from his translation but had none admired would pope have sung or horace been inspired baba
but he could not stoop to any shoe unless it shod the pope
he stood like atlas with a world of words about his ears and nathless would not bend the blood of all his line s castilian lords boil'd in his veins and rather than descend to stain his pedigree
a thousand swords a thousand times of him had made an end
baba proposed that he should kiss the hand here was an honourable compromise a half way house of diplomatic rest where they might meet in much more peaceful guise
adding that this was commonest and best for through the south the custom still commands the gentleman to kiss the lady's hands and he advanced though with but a bad grace
though on more thorough bred or fairer fingers no lips e'er left their transitory trace on such as these the lip too fondly lingers and for one kiss would fain imprint a brace
and sometimes even a fair stranger's an almost twelvemonth's constancy endangers
as if well used to the retreating trade and
and looking on him with a sort of smile took leave with such a face of satisfaction as good men wear who have done a virtuous action when he was gone there was a sudden change
and in her large eyes wrought a mixture of sensations might be scann'd of half voluptuousness and half command her form had all the softness of her sex
her features all the sweetness of the devil when he put on the cherub to perplex eve and paved god knows how the road to evil the sun himself was scarce more free from specks than she from aught at which the eye could cavil
yet somehow there was something somewhere wanting as if she rather order'd than was granting
and rapture's self will seem almost a pain with aught which looks like despotism in view our souls at least are free and t is in vain we would against them make the flesh obey
the spirit in the end will have its way her very smile was haughty though so sweet her very nod was not an inclination there was a self will even in her small feet as though they were
quite conscious of her station they trod as upon necks and to complete her state it is the custom of her nation a poniard deck'd her girdle as the sign she was a sultan's bride
thank heaven not mine to hear and to obey had been from birth the law of all around her to fulfill all phantasies which yielded joy or mirth had been her slaves chief pleasure as her will
her blood was high her beauty scarce of earth judge then if her caprices e'er stood still
there was no end unto the things she bought nor to the trouble which her fancies caused yet even her tyranny had such a grace
a gaudy taste for they are little skill'd in the arts of which these lands were once the font
or a pretty opera scene and nearer as they came
his friend too adding a new saving clause said in heaven's name let's get some supper now
some talk of an appeal unto some passion some to men's feelings others to their reason the last of these was never much the fashion for reason thinks all reasoning out of season
some speakers whine and others lay the lash on but more or less continue still to tease on with arguments according to their forte
but i digress of all appeals although i grant the power of pathos and of gold of beauty flattery threats a shilling
no method s more sure at moments to take hold of the best feelings of mankind
overpowering knell the tocsin of the soul the dinner bell turkey contains no bells and yet men dine
and gazed around them to the left and right with the prophetic eye of appetite
of ottoman parade i won't describe
description is my forte but every fool describes in these bright days his wondrous journey to some foreign court and spawns his quarto and demands your praise death to his publisher to him t is sport
others in monosyllable talk chatted and some seem'd much in love with their own dress and divers smoked superb pipes decorated with amber mouths of greater price or less and several strutted
others slept and some prepared for supper with a glass of rum as the black eunuch enter'd with his brace of purchased infidels some raised their eyes a moment without slackening from their pace
but those who sate ne'er stirr'd in anywise one or two stared the captives in the face just as one views a horse to guess his price some nodded to the negro from their station but
no one troubled him with conversation he leads them through the hall and without stopping on through a farther range of goodly rooms splendid but silent
save in one where dropping a marble fountain echoes through the glooms of night which robe the chamber or where popping some female head most curiously presumes to thrust its black eyes through the door or lattice
some faint lamps gleaming from the lofty walls gave light enough to hint their farther way but not enough to show the imperial halls in all the flashing of their full array
appals but saddens more by night as well as day than an enormous room without a soul to break the lifeless splendour of the whole two or three seem so little
one seems nothing in deserts forests crowds or by the shore there solitude we know has her full growth in the spots which were her realms for evermore but in a mighty hall or gallery
a neat snug study on a winter's night
i pass my evenings in long galleries solely and that s the reason i m so melancholy alas man makes that great which makes him little
but huge houses fit ill and huge tombs worse mankind since adam fell methinks the story of the tower of babel might teach them this much better than i m able babel was nimrod's hunting box
king of men reign'd till one summer's day he took to grazing and daniel tamed the lions in their den the people's awe and admiration raising
and the calumniated queen semiramis that injured queen by chroniclers so coarse has been accused i doubt not by conspiracy of an improper friendship for her horse
love like religion sometimes runs to heresy this monstrous tale had probably its source for such exaggerations here and there i see in writing courser by mistake for courier
i wish the case could come before a jury here but to resume should there be what may not be in these days some infidels who don't because they can't find out the very spot of that same babel
or because they won't though claudius rich esquire some bricks has got and written lately two memoirs upon't believe the jews
though they believe not you yet let them think that horace has exprest shortly and sweetly the masonic folly of those forgetting the great place of rest who give themselves to architecture wholly
we know where things and men must end at best a moral like all morals melancholy
at last they reach'd a quarter most retired where echo woke as if from a long slumber
though full of all things which could be desired one wonder'd what to do with such a number of articles which nobody required here wealth had done its utmost to encumber with furniture an exquisite apartment
which puzzled nature much to know what art meant it seem'd however but to open on a range or suite of further chambers which might lead to heaven knows where but in this one the movables were prodigally rich
the black however without hardly deigning a glance at that which wrapt the slaves in wonder trampled what they scarce trod for fear of staining as if the milky way their feet was under with all its stars
and with a stretch attaining a certain press or cupboard niched in yonder in that remote recess which you may see or if you don't the fault is not in me i wish to be perspicuous and the black i say unlocking the recess
pull'd forth a quantity of clothes fit for the back of any mussulman whate'er his worth and of variety there was no lack and yet though i have said there was no dearth
he chose himself to point out what he thought most proper for the christians he had bought the suit he thought most suitable to each was for the elder and the stouter first a candiote cloak
which to the knee might reach and trousers not so tight that they would burst but such as fit an asiatic breech a shawl whose folds in cashmire had been nurst slippers of saffron dagger rich and handy in short
all things which form a turkish dandy while he was dressing baba their black friend hinted the vast advantages which they might probably attain both in the end if they would but pursue the proper way which fortune plainly seem'd to recommend
if they would condescend to circumcision for his own part he really should rejoice to see them true believers but no less would leave his proposition to their choice
the other thanking him for this excess of goodness in thus leaving them a voice in such a trifle scarcely could express sufficiently he said his approbation of all the customs of this polish'd nation
for his own share he saw but small objection to so respectable an ancient rite and after swallowing down a slight refection for which he own'd a present appetite
he doubted not a few hours of reflection would reconcile him to the business quite will it
strike me dead but they as soon shall circumcise my head cut off a thousand heads before
provided always your great goodness still remits the matter to our own free will
be so good as dress yourself and pointed out a suit in which a princess with great pleasure would array her limbs
gave it a slight kick with his christian foot and when the old negro told him to get ready replied old gentleman i m not a lady
i neither know nor care said baba but pray do as i desire i have no more time nor many words to spare at least
i have no authority to tell the reason
rejoin'd the negro pray be not provoking
and you will find us not top fond of joking
but baba stroking the things down said
i offer you a handsome suit of clothes
though my soul loathes the effeminate garb
what the devil shall i do with all this gauze thus he profanely term'd the finest lace which e'er set off a marriage morning face
just now a black old neutral personage of the third sex stept up and peering over the captives seem'd to mark their looks and age and capabilities
as to discover if they were fitted for the purposed cage no lady e'er is ogled by a lover horse by a blackleg broadcloth by a tailor
as is a slave by his intended bidder t is pleasant purchasing our fellow creatures and all are to be sold if you consider their passions and are dext'rous
some by features are bought up others by a warlike leader
the most by ready cash but all have prices from crowns to kicks according to their vices the eunuch
first but for one and after for the pair they haggled wrangled swore too so they did
as though they were in a mere christian fair cheapening an ox an ass a lamb or kid so that their bargain sounded like a battle for this superior yoke of human cattle
and weighing others in their hand and by mistake sequins with paras jumbling until the sum was accurately scann'd and then the merchant giving change and signing receipts in full began to think of dining
i wonder if his appetite was good or if it were if also his digestion methinks at meals some odd thoughts might intrude
and conscience ask a curious sort of question about the right divine how far we should sell flesh and blood when dinner has opprest one i think it is perhaps the gloomiest hour which turns up out of the sad twenty four
voltaire says no
unless man were a pig indeed repletion rather adds to what he feels
of food i think with philip's son or rather ammon's ill pleased with one world and one father i think with alexander that the act of eating with another act or two
makes us feel our mortality in fact redoubled
whose use depends so much upon the gastric juice the other evening
this is a fact and no poetic fable just as my great coat was about me cast my hat and gloves still lying on the table i heard a shot
and running out as fast as i was able i found the military commandant stretch'd in the street
poor fellow for some reason surely bad they had slain him with five slugs and left him there to perish on the pavement
and stripp'd and look'd to but why should i ad more circumstances vain was every care the man was gone in some italian quarrel kill'd by five bullets from an old gun barrel
i gazed upon him for i knew him well and though i have seen many corpses never saw one whom such an accident befell so calm
though pierced through stomach heart and liver he seem'd to sleep for you could scarcely tell as he bled inwardly no hideous river of gore divulged the cause that he was dead so as i gazed on him
i thought or said can this be death then what is life or death speak but he spoke not wake but still he slept
but yesterday and who had mightier breath a thousand warriors by his word were kept in awe he said as the centurion saith go and he goeth come and forth he stepp'd
the trump and bugle till he spake were dumb
they with their rough faces throng'd about the bed to gaze once more on the commanding clay which for the last though not the first time bled and such an end
the foremost in the charge or in the sally should now be butcher'd in a civic alley the scars of his old wounds were near his new those honourable scars which brought him fame
and horrid was the contrast to the view but let me quit the theme as such things claim perhaps even more attention than is due from me
i gazed as oft i have gazed the same to try if i could wrench aught out of death which should confirm or shake or make a faith but it was all a mystery
here we are and there we go but where
and is this blood then form'd but to be shed can every element our elements march and air earth water fire live and we dead
we whose minds comprehend all things no more but let us to the story as before
embark'd himself and them
they look'd like persons being led to sentence wondering what next
flank'd by large groves which tower'd on either hand they almost lost their way and had to pick it for night was dosing ere they came to land the eunuch made a sign to those on board who row'd off leaving them without a word
as they were plodding on their winding way through orange bowers and jasmine and so forth of which i might have a good deal to say there being no such profusion in the north of oriental plants et cetera
but that of late your scribblers think it worth their while to rear whole hotbeds in their works because one poet travell'd mongst the turks
methinks said he it would be no great shame if we should strike a stroke to set us free let s knock that old black fellow on the head and march away
yes said the other and when done what then how get out how the devil got we in
besides i m hungry and just now would take like esau for my birthright a beef steak
a single cry would bring them all abroad t is therefore better looking before leaping
they little think what mischief is in hand the greater their success the worse it proves as ovid's verse may give to understand even petrarch's self if judged with due severity is the platonic pimp of all posterity
i therefore do denounce all amorous writing except in such a way as not to attract plain simple short and by no means inviting but with a moral to each error tack'd
form'd rather for instructing than delighting and with all passions in their turn attack'd now if my pegasus should not be shod ill this poem will become a moral model
the european with the asian shore sprinkled with palaces the ocean stream here and there studded with a seventy four sophia's cupola with golden gleam
the cypress groves olympus high and hoar
the charming mary montagu i have a passion for the name of mary for once it was a magic sound to me and still it half calls up the realms of fairy where i beheld what never was to be
all feelings changed but this was last to vary a spell from which even yet i am not quite free but i grow sad and let a tale grow cold which must not be pathetically told
a grand sight from off the giant's grave to watch the progress of those rolling seas between the bosphorus as they lash and lave europe and asia you being quite at ease
turns up more dangerous breakers than the euxine
because if drown'd they can't if spared they won't
each bevy with the merchant in his station poor creatures
all save the blacks seem'd jaded with vexation from friends and home and freedom far estranged the negroes more philosophy display'd used to it no doubt
as eels are to be flay'd
yet i must own he looked a little dull and now and then a tear stole down by stealth perhaps his recent loss of blood might pull his spirit down and then the loss of wealth a mistress
and such comfortable quarters to be put up for auction amongst tartars were things to shake a stoic ne'ertheless upon the whole his carriage was serene his figure
giving them to guess he was above the vulgar by his mien and then though pale he was so very handsome and then they calculated on his ransom
like a backgammon board the place was dotted with whites and blacks in groups on show for sale though rather more irregularly spotted some bought the jet while others chose the pale
it chanced amongst the other people lotted a man of thirty rather stout and hale with resolution in his dark
till some might choose to buy he had an english look that is was square in make of a complexion white and ruddy good teeth with curling rather dark brown hair
and it might be from thought or toil or study an open brow a little mark'd with care one arm had on a bandage rather bloody
and there he stood with such sang froid that greater could scarce be shown even by a mere spectator
he soon began to show a kind of blunt compassion for the sad lot of so young a partner in the woe which for himself he seem'd to deem no worse than any other scrape a thing of course
all ragamuffins differing but in hue with whom it is our luck to cast our lot
so let us be acquainted as we ought
pray what is your nation
he replied i thought in fact you could not be a greek those servile dogs are not so proudly eyed fortune has play'd you here a pretty freak
but never mind
she has served me also much the same as you except that i have found it nothing new
if i may presume what brought you here
six tartars and a drag chain
have you no friends
now i have answer'd all your questions without pressing and you an equal courtesy should show
a sad tale saddens doubly when t is long but droop not fortune at your time of life although a female moderately fickle will hardly leave you as she s not your wife for any length of days in such a pickle
to strive too with our fate were such a strife as if the corn sheaf should oppose the sickle men are the sport of circumstances when the circumstances seem the sport of men
but for the past i loved a maid he paused and his dark eye grew full of gloom a single tear upon his eyelash staid a moment and then dropp'd but to resume
but this last blow and here he stopp'd again and turn'd away his face ay quoth his friend
and these are things which ask a tender tear such as i too would shed if in your place i cried upon my first wife's dying day and also when my second ran away
turning round you scarcely can be thirty have you three
only two at present above ground
well then your third
what did she she did not run away too did she sir
why replied the other what can a man do there still are many rainbows in your sky but mine have vanish'd all when life is new commence with feelings warm and prospects high
but time strips our illusions of their hue and one by one in turn some grand mistake casts off its bright skin yearly like the snake
t is true it gets another bright and fresh or fresher brighter but the year gone through this skin must go the way too of all flesh or sometimes only wear a week or two
ambition avarice vengeance glory glue the glittering lime twigs of our latter days where still we flutter on for pence or praise
but i really don't see how it betters present times with me or you no quoth the other yet you will allow by setting things in their right point of view knowledge at least is gain'd for instance now
we know what slavery is and our disasters may teach us better to behave when masters would we were masters now if but to try their present lessons on our pagan friends here
swallowing a heart burning sigh heaven help the scholar whom his fortune sends here perhaps we shall be one day by and by rejoin'd the other when our bad luck mends here meantime yon
old black eunuch seems to eye us
t is bad and may be better all men's lot most men are slaves none more so than the great to their own whims and passions and what not
society itself which should create kindness destroys what little we had got
so gregg haljan you are not as loyal as you pretend
they had stripped the cloak from me and flung me back in my cubby
and anita was behind her i sat outwardly defiant and sullen on my bunk but i was tense and alert
not so loyal miko repeated and a fool how did he get out of here prince you came in here my heart was wildly thumping but anita retorted with a touch of spirit i came to tell him what you commanded
to check hahn's latest figures and to be ready to take the controls when we approached the asteroid well how did he get out how should i know she parried little actress her spirit helped to allay my fear she held her cloak close around her in the fashion
they had come to expect from the george prince who had just buried his sister how should i know miko i sealed his door but did you of course he did moa put in ask your lookouts anita said they saw me i waved to them just as i sealed the door
i ventured i have been taught to open doors i managed a sly lugubrious smile i shall not try it again miko nothing had been said about my killing of the steward i thanked my constellations now that he was dead i shall not try it again
i repeated a glance passed between miko and his sister miko said abruptly you seem to realize it is not my purpose to kill you and you presume upon it i shall not again i eyed moa
she was gazing at me steadily she said leave me with him miko she smiled gregg haljan we are no more than twenty thousand miles from the asteroid now the calculations for retarding are now in operation
that and trouble with the ventilating system which was soon rectified but the retarding of the ship's velocity when nearing a destination required accurate manipulation these brigands were fearful of their own skill that was obvious it gave me confidence i was really needed
they would not harm me except for miko's impulsive temper i was in no danger from them not now certainly moa was saying i think i may make you understand gregg we have tremendous riches within our grasp i know it i said
miko caught my intended implication
because he is a navigator moa said vehemently
there will be fighting with grantline my purpose was accomplished they seemed to see me a willing outlaw like themselves as though it were a bond between us
he proffered a heat ray cylinder but she refused it i am not afraid of him miko swung on me within an hour we will be nearing the atmosphere will you take the controls yes he set his heavy jaw his eyes bored into me
you're a strange fellow haljan i can't make you out
do you think when i am deadly serious that i mean what i say his calm words set a sudden chill over me i checked my smile yes i said well then i will tell you this
not for all of prince's well meaning interference or moa's liking for you or my own need of your skill will i tolerate more trouble from you the next time
believe me yes that is all i want to say you kill my men and my sister says i must not hurt you i am not a child to be ruled by a woman he held his huge fist before my face with these fingers
yes i did indeed he swung on his heel moa wants to try and put sense in your head i hope she does it bring him to the lounge when you have finished come prince hahn will need us he chuckled grimly hahn seems to fear
we will plunge into this asteroid like a wild comet gone suddenly tangent anita moved aside to let him through the door i caught a glimpse of her set white face as she followed him down the deck
blocked the doorway she faced me sit where you are gregg she turned and closed the door upon us i am not afraid of you should i be no she came and sat down beside me if you should attempt to leave this room
i have no intention of leaving this room i retorted i do not want to commit suicide i thought you did you seem minded in such a fashion
i said carefully this treasure you are many who will divide it you have all these men on the planetara and in ferrok shahn others i paused would she tell me could i make her talk of that other brigand ship which miko had said was waiting on mars
i wondered if he had been able to signal it the distance from here to mars was great yet upon other voyages snap's signals had gotten through my heart sank at the thought our situation here was desperate enough
there would be left only snap anita and myself we might recapture the ship but i doubted it now my thoughts were turning to our arrival on the moon
but with another brigand ship fully manned and armed coming from mars the condition would be immeasurably worse grantline had some twenty men and his camp i knew would be reasonably fortified i knew too
that johnny grantline would fight to his last man moa was saying i would like to tell you our plans gregg her gaze was on my face keen eyes but they were luminous now an emotion in them sweeping her but outwardly she was calm
well why don't you tell me i said if i am to help gregg i want you with us
my brother and i are guiding this affair with your help i would feel differently the ship at ferrok shahn my fears were realized she said i think our signals reached it dean tried and coniston was checking him you think the ship is coming yes where will it join us
at the moon we will be there in thirty hours your figures gave that did they not yes i said and the other ship how fast is it quite fast in eight days perhaps nine it will reach the moon she seemed willing enough to talk there was indeed no reason why she shouldn't
turn the knowledge to account certainly my position seemed desperately helpless manned i prompted about forty men and armed long range projectors you ask very avid questions gregg why should i not don't you suppose i'm interested
i touched her moa did it ever occur to you
i might show more interest in joining you the look on her face emboldened me
and some arrangement for my share of this treasure
gregg i will see that you get your share riches for you and me i was thinking moa when we land at the moon tomorrow where is our equipment the moon with its lack of atmosphere needed special equipment i had never heard captain carter mention
what apparatus the planetara was carrying moa laughed we have located air suits and helmets a variety of suitable apparatus gregg but we were not foolish enough to leave greater new york on this voyage without our own apparatus my brother and coniston and prince all of us
snipped crates of freight consigned to ferrok shahn and rankin had special baggage marked theatrical apparatus i understood it now these brigands had boarded the planetara with their own moon equipment disguised as freight and personal baggage
we are well equipped she bent toward me and suddenly her long lean fingers were gripping my shoulders gregg look at me i gazed into her eyes there was passion there and her voice was intense gregg i told you once a martian girl goes after what she wants
it is you i want not for me to play upon a woman's emotions moa you flatter me i love you she held me off gazing at me gregg i must have smiled abruptly she released me so you think it amusing no but
on earth we are not on earth nor am i of the earth she was gauging me keenly no note of pleading was in her voice a stern authority and the passion was swinging to anger i am like my brother i do not understand you gregg haljan perhaps
gregg i said i loved you have you no answer no
whatever she must have read in my eyes it stirred her to fury her fingers with the strength of a man in them dug into my shoulders her gaze searched me you think you love someone else is that it that was horribly startling
but she did not mean it just that way she amended with caustic venom that little anita prince
but i hardly deceived her sacred to her memory her ratlike little face soft voice like a purring sniveling cat is that what you're remembering gregg haljan i tried to laugh what nonsense is it
am i a girl descended from the martian flame workers impotent to awaken a man a woman scorned in all the universe there could be no more dangerous an enemy an incredible venom shot from her eyes that miserable mouselike creature
well for her that my brother killed her it struck me cold if anita were unmasked beyond all the menace of miko's wooing i knew that the venom of moa's jealousy was a greater danger
you forget that i am a man of earth and you a girl of mars is that reason why we should not love no but our instincts are different men of earth are born to the chase i was smiling with thought of anita's danger i could find it readily in my heart to dupe this amazon
give me time moa you
it must have hurt her but she gave no sign her gaze clung to me steadily i don't know what to think gregg haljan i held my grip think what you like men of earth have been known to kill the thing they love you want me to fear you perhaps
she smiled scornfully that is absurd i released her
that if you treat me fairly i can be of great advantage to this venture there will be fighting i am fearless her venomous expression was softening i think that is true gregg and you need my navigating skill even now i should be in the turret i stood up
i added shall we go she stood beside me her height brought her face level with mine i think you will cause no more trouble gregg of course not i am not wholly witless you have been
i hesitated then i added a man of earth does not yield to love while there is work to do this treasure i think that of everything i said this last most convinced her she interrupted that i understand her eyes were smoldering
when it is over when we are rich then i will claim you gregg she turned from me are you ready yes no i must get that sheet of hahn's last figures are they checked yes i picked the sheet up from my desk
a fool nevertheless an apprehensive fool
it was my purpose to establish it are we going to maroon doctor frank with the passengers i asked yes but he may be of use to us moa shook her head decisively my brother has decided not
she came i suppose it was no more than an hour it seemed an eternity of apprehension there was the slight hissing of the seal of my door the panel slid i had leaped from my bunk where in the darkness i was lying tense prince
i did not dare say anita gregg her voice my gaze swept the deck as the panel opened neither coniston nor anyone else was in sight save anita's dark robed figure which came into my room you got it
i asked in a low whisper i held her for an instant kissed her but she pushed me away with quick hands she was breathless yes i have it give us a little light we must hurry in the blue dimness i saw that she was holding one of the martian cylinders the smaller size
it would paralyze but not kill only one anita yes
we laid it on my grid and i adjusted its mechanism i donned it and drew its hood and threw on its current all right anita yes can you see me no
then she came forward put out her hand fumbled until she found me it was our plan to have me follow her out anyone observing us
and i would escape unnoticed the situation about the ship was almost unchanged anita had secured the weapon and the cloak and slipped away to my cubby without being observed you're sure of that i think so gregg i was careful
moa was now in the lounge guarding the passengers hahn was asleep in the chart room coniston was in the turret coniston would be off duty presently anita said with hahn taking his place
there were lookouts in the forward and stern watch towers and a guard upon snap in the radio room is he inside the room anita snap yes no the guard the guard was sitting on the spider bridge at the door this was unfortunate
that guard could see all the deck clearly
this cylinder i knew had an effective range of only some twenty feet coniston is the sharpest gregg he will be the hardest to get near
the brigand leader had gone below a few moments ago
anita had seized the opportunity to come to me we can attack hahn in the chart room first i whispered and get the other weapons are they still there yes but the forward deck is very bright gregg we were approaching the asteroid
already its light like a brilliant moon was brightening the forward deck space it made me realize how much haste was necessary
and hide him his nonappearance back on deck would very soon throw the others into confusion especially now with our impending landing upon the asteroid and under cover of this confusion we would try to release snap we were ready
anita slid my door open she stepped through with me soundlessly scurrying after her the empty silent deck was alternately dark with shadow patches and bright with blobs of starlight
came the radiance of the asteroid's mellow silver glow anita turned to seal my door within my faintly humming cloak i stood beside her was i invisible in this light almost directly over us close under the dome
the lookout sat in his little tower he gazed down at anita amidships high over the cabin superstructure the radio room hung dark and silent the guard on its bridge was visible he too looked down a tense instant
then i breathed again there was no alarm the two guards answered anita's gesture anita said aloud into my empty cubby
he told me that he wants you at the turret controls to land us on the asteroid she finished sealing my door and turned away started forward along the deck i followed my steps were soundless in my elastic bottomed shoes anita swaggered with a noisy tread
near the door of the smoking room a small incline passage led downward we went into it the passage was dimly blue lit we descended its length came to the main corridor which ran the length of the hull
a vaulted metal passage with doors to the control rooms opening from it dim lights showed at intervals the humming of the ship was more apparent here it drowned the light humming of my cloak i crept after anita my hand under the cloak
clutched the ray weapon a steward passed us i shrank aside to avoid him anita spoke to him
in the ventilator room miss prince there was difficulty with the air renewal anita nodded and moved on
how different things might have been but it seemed needless i let him go and he turned into a nearby door which led to the galley anita moved forward if we could come upon miko alone abruptly she turned and whispered gregg if other men are with him
i'll draw him away you watch your chance what little things can overthrow one's careful plans anita had not realized how close to her i was following and her turning so unexpectedly caused me to collide with her sharply oh she exclaimed it involuntarily
her outflung hand had unwittingly gripped my wrist caught the electrode there the touch burned her and short circuited my robe there was a hiss my current burned out the tiny fuses my invisibility was gone i stood a tall blackhooded figure
revealed to the gaze of anyone who might be near the futile plans of humans we had planned so carefully our calculations our hopes of what we could do came clattering now in a sudden wreckage around us anita run
if i were seen with her then her own disguise would probably be discovered that above everything would be disaster anita get away from me i must try it alone i could hide somewhere repair the cloak perhaps or since now i was armed
she was clinging to me in panic no you run get away from me don't you understand george prince has no business here with me they'll kill you gregg let's get back to the deck i pushed at her both of us in confusion from behind me there came a shout
he had returned to investigate perhaps what george prince was doing in this corridor he heard our voices his shout in the silence of the ship sounded horribly loud the white cloaked shape of him was in the nearby doorway he stood stricken with surprise at seeing me
and then turned to run i fired my paralyzing cylinder through my cloak got him he fell i shoved anita violently run tell miko to come tell him you heard a shout he won't suspect you but gregg you mustn't be found out
you're our only hope anita i'll hide fix the cloak or get back to my cubby we'll try again it decided her she scurried down the corridor i whirled the other way the steward's shout might not have been heard then realization flashed to me
that steward would be revived he was one of miko's men he would be revived and tell what he had seen and heard anita's disguise would be revealed a cold blooded killing i do protest went against me but it was necessary
i flung myself upon him i beat his skull with the metal of my cylinder i stood up my hood had fallen back from my head
haljan anita's voice a sharp note of horror and warning i became aware that in the corridor forty feet down its dim length
his bullet projector was leveled it spat at me
was sharply deafening in the confined space of the corridor with a spurt of flame the leaden pellet struck over my head against the vaulted ceiling
the turmoil brought members of the crew from the shadowed oval near me they came running i flung the useless cylinder at them but i was trapped in the narrow passage i might have fought my way out
anita would betray herself i backed against the wall don't kill me
i flung up my arms and the crew emboldened and courageous under miko's gaze leaped on me and bore me down
a huge thin crescent with the sun off to one side behind it a silver crescent tinged with red from this near vantage point all of the little globe's disc was visible the seas lay in gray patches the convexity of the disc was sharply defined
so small a world fair and beautiful shrouded with clouded areas
in the lounge gregg can we stop there moa turned into the lounge archway strange tense scene i saw anita at once her robed figure lurked in an inconspicuous corner her eyes were upon me as moa and i entered
but she did not move the thirty odd passengers were huddled in a group solemn white faced men frightened women some of them were sobbing one earth woman a young widow sat holding her little girl and wailing with uncontrolled hysteria
the child knew me as i appeared now with my gold laced white coat over my shoulders the little girl seemed to see in my uniform a mark of authority she left her mother and ran to me you please will you help us
i sent her gently back but there came upon me then a compassion for these innocent passengers fated to have embarked on this ill fated voyage herded here in this cabin with brigands like pirates of old guarding them
waiting now to be marooned on an uninhabited asteroid roaming in space a sense of responsibility swept me
lounging against the wall with a cylinder dangling in his hand he anticipated me and was the first to speak so haljan
no more trouble then get into the turret moa stay there with him send hahn here where is that ass coniston we will be in the atmosphere shortly i said
passengers what preparation are you making for them on the asteroid he stared in surprise then he laughed i am no murderer the crew is preparing food all we can spare and tools
doctor frank was here i caught his gaze but he did not speak on the lounge couches there still lay the five bodies rankin who had been killed by blackstone in the fight a man passenger killed a woman and a man wounded as well
miko added doctor frank will take his medical supplies and will care for the wounded there are other bodies among the crew
i have not buried them we will put them ashore easier that way
you have nothing to fear i will guarantee you the best equipment we can spare
you will give them apparatus with which to signal yes get to the turret i turned away with moa after me again the little girl ran forward come speak to my moms she is crying
wait i said to moa she is afraid of you this is humanity i pushed moa back i followed the child
this was a ruse to get a word with me i stood before the terrified woman while the child clung to my legs i said gently
doctor frank will take care of you there is no danger
i leaned down and touched her shoulder there is no danger i was between venza and the open cabin venza whispered swiftly
i want you to make a commotion anything just as the women go ashore why of course you will have food missus francis never mind details an instant just confusion go gregg don't speak now i raised the child you take care of mother i kissed her
from across the cabin miko's sardonic voice made me turn touching sentimentality haljan get to your post in the turret his rasping note of annoyance brooked no delay i set the child down i said
depend on it hahn was at the controls when moa and i reached the turret you will land us safely haljan he demanded anxiously i pushed him away miko wants you in the lounge you take command here yes
i am no more anxious for a crash than you are hahn he sighed with relief that is true of course i am no expert at atmospheric entry have no fear
i waved to the lookout in the forward watch tower and got his routine gesture i rang the corridor bells and the normal signals came promptly back i turned to hahn get along won't you
hahn's small dark figure lithe as a leopard in his tight fitting trousers and jacket with his robe now discarded went swiftly down the spider incline and across the deck moa where is snap by the infernal if he has been injured
up on the radio room bridge the brigand guard still sat then i saw that snap was out there sitting with him i waved from the turret window and snap's cheery gesture answered me his voice carried down through the silver moonlight land us safely gregg
these weird amateur navigators within the hour i had us dropping into the asteroid's atmosphere the ship heated steadily the pressure went up it kept me busy with the instruments and the calculations but my signals were always promptly answered from below
the brigand crew did its part efficiently at a hundred and fifty thousand feet i shifted the gravity plates to the landing combinations and started the electronic engines all safe gregg moa sat at my elbow her eyes
flowed out like a rocket tail behind us the planetara caught their impetus in the rarefied air our bow lifted slightly like a ship riding a gentle ground swell at a hundred thousand feet we sailed gently forward hull down to the asteroid's surface
cruising to seek a landing space a little sea was now beneath us a shadowed sea deep purple in the night down there occasional verdurous islands showed with the lines of white surf marking them beyond the sea a curving coastline was visible
rocky headlines behind which mountain foothills rose in serrated verdurous ranks the sunlight edged the distant mountains and presently this rapidly turning little world brought the sunlight forward it was day beneath us we slid
gently downward thirty thousand feet now above a sparkling blue ocean the coastline was just ahead green with a lush tropical vegetation giant trees huge leaved long dangling vines air plants
with giant pods and vivid orchidlike blossoms i sat at the turret window staring through my glasses a fair little world yet obviously uninhabited
this asteroid had whirled in from the cold of the interplanetary space
a few years ago as time might be measured astronomically it was no more than yesterday this fair landscape was congealed white and bleak with a sweep of glacial ice but the seeds of life miraculously were here the miracle of life
under the warming germinating sunlight the verdure had sprung can you find landing space gregg
i saw an upland glade a level spread of ferns with the forest banked around it a cliff height nearby frowning down at the sea yes i can land us there i showed her through the glasses
i rang the sirens and we spiraled descending further the mountain tops were now close beneath us clouds were overhead white masses with blue sky behind them a day of brilliant sunlight but soon with our forward cruising it was night
the sunlight dropped beneath the sharply convex horizon the sea and the land went purple a night of brilliant stars the earth was a blazing blue red point of light the heavens visibly were revolving in an hour or so
it would be daylight again on the forward deck now coniston had appeared commanding half a dozen of the crew they were carrying up caskets of food and the equipment
and making ready the disembarking incline loosening the seals of the side dome windows
and occasionally the roar of his voice at the passengers sounded
marooned upon some fair desert island of the tropic spanish main hahn came mounting our turret incline all is well gregg haljan get to your work moa told him sharply he retreated
joining the bustle and confusion which now was beginning on the deck it struck me could i turn that confusion to account would it be possible now at the last moment to attack these brigands snap still sat outside the radio room doorway
but his guard was alert with upraised projector and that guard i saw in his position commanded all the deck and i saw too
a clanking chain connected them they came like a line of convicts marching forward and stopped on the open deck near the base of the turret doctor frank's grim face gazed up at me
his words to them reached me you are in no danger when we land be careful you will find gravity very different this is a very small world i flung on the landing lights the deck glowed with the blue radiance
the searchbeams shot down beside our hull we hung now a thousand feet above the forest glade i cut off the electronic streams we poised with the gravity plates set at normal
venza's swift words back there in the lounge i was to create a commotion while the passengers were landing why had she and doctor frank some last minute desperate purposes i determined i would do what she said shout or mis order the lights that would be easy
but to what purpose these brigands were very alert there was nothing i could think of to do which would avail us anything more than a probable swift death under miko's anger
communion under one kind our savior gave communion under both forms of bread and wine to his apostles at the last supper officiating bishops and priests are always required except on good friday
to communicate under both kinds but even the clergy of every rank including the pope receive only of the consecrated bread unless when they celebrate mass the church teaches that christ is contained whole and entire
under each species so that whoever communicates under the form of bread or of wine receives not a mutilated sacrament or a divided savior but shares in the whole sacrament as fully as if he participated
in both forms hence the layman who receives the consecrated bread partakes as copiously of the body and blood of christ as the officiating priest who receives both consecrated elements our lord says
i am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live forever
that the protestant translators have perverted the text by rendering it whosoever shall eat this bread and drink the chalice substituting and for or in contradiction to the greek original
of which the catholic version is an exact translation it is also the received doctrine of the fathers that the eucharist is contained in all its integrity either in the consecrated bread or in the chalice
was so clearly convinced of this truth that he was an uncompromising advocate of communion under one kind if any council he says should decree or permit both species
drink ye all of this but it should be remembered that these words were addressed not to the people at large but only to the apostles who alone were also commanded on the same occasion to consecrate his body and blood
in remembrance of him now we have no more right to infer that the faithful are obliged to drink of the cup because the apostles were commanded to drink of it than we have to suppose that the laity are required or allowed
to consecrate the bread and wine because the power of doing so was at the last supper conferred on the apostles it is true also that our lord said to the people
unless ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood ye shall not have life in you but this command is literally fulfilled by the laity when they partake of the consecrated bread which as we have seen
contains christ the lord in all his integrity hence if our savior has said whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life he has also said
the bread which i will give is my flesh for the life of the world it seems to me that the charge of withholding the cup comes with very bad grace from protestant teachers
who destroy the whole intrinsic virtue of the sacrament by giving to their followers nothing but bread and wine the difference between them and us lies in this that under one form we give the substance
confessedly give only the shadow in examining the history of the church on the subject we find that up to the twelfth century communion was sometimes distributed in one form sometimes in another
the christians in time of persecution confessors of the faith confined in prison travellers on their journey soldiers before engaging in battle and hermits living in the desert
were permitted to keep with them and to fortify themselves with the consecrated bread
than permit them to partake of a mutilated sacrament second in the primitive days of the church the holy communion used to be imparted to infants but only in the form of wine the priest dipped his finger in the consecrated chalice
usually administered in the first ages under both forms the faithful however had the privilege of dispensing with the cup and of partaking only of the bread
in the fifth century when this general but hitherto optional practice of receiving under both kinds was enforced as a law for the following reason the manichean sect abstained from the cup on the erroneous assumption that the use of wine was sinful
left it no longer optional with the faithful to receive under one or both forms but ordained that all should communicate under both kinds this law continued in force for several ages but towards the thirteenth century
for various causes it had gradually grown into disuse with the tacit approval of the church the council of constance which convened in fourteen fourteen established a law requiring the faithful to communicate under the form of bread only
and in taking this step the council was actuated
such inconvenience is scarcely felt by protestant communicants whose numbers are limited and who ordinarily communicate only on certain sundays of each month the catholics of the world on the contrary number about three hundred millions
and as communion is administered to some of the faithful almost every day in most of our churches and chapels and as the annual communions in every parish church are generally at least twice as numerous
the sum total of annual communions throughout the globe may be estimated in round numbers at not less than five hundred millions what effort would be required to procure altar wine for such a multitude
in my missionary journeys through north carolina i have often found it no easy task to provide for the celebration of mass a sufficiency of pure wine
this embarrassment would be increased beyond measure
if the sacrament were administered in both forms in our larger churches where communion is distributed every sunday to hundreds there would be great danger of spilling a portion of the consecrated chalice
and of thus exposing it to profanation but above all as the church in the fifth century through her chief pastor
enforced the use of the cup to expose and reprobate the error of the manichees who imagined that the use of wine was sinful so in the fifteenth century she withdrew the cup to condemn the novelties of the calixtines
who taught that the consecrated wine was necessary for a valid communion
when it was the five hundred and sixty fourth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that sindbad the seaman continued but when i had bestridden the plank
for i have wealth galore then i returned to my senses and said
with a sincere repentance of my lust for gain and venture and never will i again name travel with tongue nor in thought
till i found on the further side a great river of sweet water running with a strong current whereupon i called to mind the boat raft i had made aforetime and said to myself needs must i make another
haply i may free me from this strait if i escape i have my desire and i vow to allah almighty to foreswear travel and if i perish i shall be at peace
with which i bound the billets together and so contrived a raft then saying an i be saved tis of god's grace
till i was weak and giddy as a chicken for stress of fatigue and famine and fear at the end of this time i came to a high mountain whereunder ran the river which when i saw
i feared for my life by reason of the straitness i had suffered in my former journey and i would fain have stayed the raft and landed on the mountain side but the current overpowered me
whereupon i gave myself up for lost and said
the glorious the great however after a little the raft glided into open air and i saw before me a wide valley whereinto the river fell with a noise like the rolling of thunder
nor turn it shorewards till it stopped with me at a great and goodly city grandly edified and containing much people and when the townsfolk saw me on the raft dropping down with the current
they threw me out ropes which i had not strength enough to hold then they tossed a net over the craft and drew it ashore with me whereupon i fell to the ground amidst them as i were a dead man
for stress of fear and hunger and lack of sleep after awhile there came up to me out of the crowd an old man of reverend aspect well stricken in years who welcomed me
wherewith i covered my nakedness then he carried me to the hammam bath and brought me cordial sherbets and delicious perfumes moreover when i came out he bore me to his house
where his people made much of me and seating me in a pleasant place set rich food before me whereof i ate my fill and returned thanks to god the most high for my deliverance thereupon his pages fetched me hot water
and i washed my hands and his handmaids brought me silken napkins with which i dried them and wiped my mouth also the shaykh set apart for me an apartment in a part of his house
and charged his pages and slave girls to wait upon me and do my will and supply my wants they were assiduous in my service and i abode with him in the guest chamber three days
and said thou cheerest us with thy company o my son and praised be allah for thy safety say
i was silent awhile and said to myself what mean these words and what goods have i then said he o my son be not troubled nor careful but come with me to the market
take it but an thou be not satisfied i will lay them up for thee in my warehouse against a fitting occasion for sale so i bethought me of my case and said to myself do his bidding
and see what are these goods and i said to him o my nuncle the shaykh i hear and i obey i may not gainsay thee in aught for allah's blessing is on all thou dost
accordingly he guided me to the market street where i found that he had taken in pieces the raft which carried me and which was of sandal wood and i heard the broker calling it for sale
then the merchants came and opened the gate of bidding for the wood and bid against one another till its price reached a thousand dinars when they left bidding and my host said to me hear o my son
this is the current price of thy goods in hard times like these wilt thou sell them for this or shall i lay them up for thee in my storehouses till such time as prices rise o my lord answered i
the business is in thy hands do as thou wilt then asked he wilt thou sell the wood to me o my son for an hundred gold pieces
and setting them in a privy place locked them up with an iron padlock and gave me its key some days after this the shaykh said to me o my son i have somewhat to propose to thee
wherein i trust thou wilt do my bidding quoth i what is it quoth he i am a very old man and have no son but i have a daughter who is young in years and fair of favour
and thou shalt stand in my stead i was silent for shame and made him no answer whereupon he continued do my desire in this o my son
or that cometh to me shall be thine
none shall hinder thee and thy property will be at thy sole disposal so do as thou wilt by allah o my uncle replied i thou art become to me even as my father
and i abode with her in solace and delight of life till her father was taken to the mercy of allah almighty so we shrouded him and buried him
moreover the merchants installed me in his office for he was their shaykh and their chief and none of them purchased aught but with his knowledge and by his leave and now his rank passed on to me
wherewith they flew unto the upper regions of the firmament and none remained in the city save the women and children and i said in my mind when the first of the month cometh i will ask one of them to carry me with them
whither they go so when the time came and their complexion changed and their forms altered i went in to one of the townsfolk and said to him allah upon thee carry me with thee
that i might divert myself with the rest and return with you this may not be answered he but i ceased not to solicit him and i importuned him till he consented
then i went out in his company without telling any of my family
and he took me on his back and flew up with me so high in air that i heard the angels glorifying god in the heavenly dome whereat i wondered and exclaimed praised be allah extolled be the perfection of allah
praised be allah when there came out a fire from heaven and all but consumed the company whereupon they fled from it and descended with curses upon me and casting me down on a high mountain went away
and there is no might save in allah the glorious the great no sooner am i delivered from one affliction than i fall into a worse and i continued in this case
knowing not whither i should go when lo there came up two young men as they were moons each using as a staff a rod of red gold so i approached them and saluted them
abiding in this mountain and giving me a rod of red gold they had with them went their ways and left me i walked on along the mountain ridge
staying my steps with the staff and pondering the case of the two youths when behold a serpent came forth from under the mountain
whom she had swallowed even to below his navel and he was crying out and saying whoso delivereth me allah will deliver him from all adversity so i went up to the serpent and smote her on the head with the golden staff
now that she was relieved from those fears by which she had so long been oppressed my dear daughter said she to helena have you at this instant any wish that i can gratify ask any thing you please
the fairy goodwill shall contrive to get it for you in a trice you have thought of a wish at this moment i know
nay do not hesitate do you doubt me because i do not appear before you in the shape of a little ugly woman like cinderella's godmother or do you despise me because you do not see a wand waving in my hand
know that i am in possession of a talisman that can command more than ever fairy granted behold my talisman continued she drawing out her purse and showing the gold through the net work
and lady delacour promised to wait upon this excellent old lady
in the meantime her ladyship's health rapidly improved under the skilful care of doctor x it had been terribly injured by the ignorance and villany of the wretch to whom she had so long and so rashly trusted
the nostrums which he persuaded her to take and the immoderate use of opium to which she accustomed herself would have ruined her constitution had it not been uncommonly strong
doctor x recommended it to her ladyship to abstain gradually from opium and this advice she had the resolution to follow with uninterrupted perseverance the change in lady delacour's manner of life in the hours and the company that she kept
to conceal the state of her health from the world she had no secret to keep no part to act her reconciliation with her husband and with his friends restored her mind to ease and self complacency
her little helena was a source of daily pleasure and no longer conscious of neglecting her daughter she no longer feared that the affections of her child should be alienated doctor x
thought it full as necessary in some cases to attend to the mind as to the pulse by conversing with lady delacour and by combining hints and circumstances he soon discovered what had lately been the course of her reading
and the terror with which she had been seized on the night of missus freke's adventure he was convinced that superstitious horrors hung upon his patient's spirits and affected her health
to argue on religious subjects was not his province much less his inclination but he was acquainted with a person qualified by his profession and his character to minister to a mind diseased
and he resolved on the first favourable opportunity to introduce this gentleman to her ladyship one morning lady delacour was complaining to belinda
but i wish he had half as many books twice as well arranged
oh because we had once a chaplain who gave me a surfeit of the whole tribe the meanest sycophant yet the most impertinent busy body always cringing yet always intriguing wanting to govern the whole family and at the same time
every creature's humble servant fawning to my lord the bishop insolent to the poor curate anathematizing all who differed from him in opinion yet without dignity to enforce the respect due to his faith or his profession
greedy for preferment yet without a thought of the duties of his office
to leap from his horse at the church door on a holiday
huddle on his surplice and gabble over the service with the most indecent mockery of religion do i speak with acrimony i have reason
it was he who first taught my lord to drink then he was a wit an insufferable wit his conversation after he had drank was such as no woman but harriot freke could understand and such as few gentlemen could hear
i have never alas been thought a prude but in the heyday of my youth and gaiety this man always disgusted me in one word he was a buck parson i hope you have as great a horror for this species of animal as i have
full as great replied doctor x but i consider them as monsters which belonging to no species can disgrace none they ought to be hunted by common consent out of civilized society said lady delacour
they are by public opinion banished from all rational society and your ladyship's just indignation proves that they have no chance of being tolerated by fashion but would it not allow such beings too much consequence
would it not extend their power to do mischief if we perceived that one such person could disgust lady delacour with the whole race of chaplains it is uncommon replied her ladyship to hear a physician
earnest in the defence of the clergy and a literary philosophic physician too shall we have an eulogium upon bishops as well as chaplains we have had that already replied doctor x
not even the most witty or brutal sceptic could ridicule you surprise me doctor said lady delacour for i assure you that you have the character of being very liberal in your opinions i hope i am liberal in my opinions replied the doctor
and that i give your ladyship a proof of it you would not then persecute a man or woman with ridicule for believing more than you do said lady delacour those who persecute to overturn religion can scarcely pretend to more philosophy
or more liberality than those who persecute to support it said doctor x perhaps doctor you are only speaking popularly i believe what i now say to be true said doctor x and i always endeavour to make truth popular
but possibly these are only truths for ladies doctor x may be such an ungallant philosopher as to think that some truths are not fit for ladies he may hold a different language with gentlemen
if i thought that truth was not the same for all the world who can understand it and who can doubt lady delacour's being of that number lady delacour who at the beginning of this conversation had spoken guardedly from the fear of lowering the doctor's opinion of her understanding
and that is what i would not say for a world of fees unless i were sure of my man what sort of a man is he not a buck parson and i hope not a pedant not a dogmatist for that would be almost as bad
before we domesticate another chaplain i wish to know all his qualities and to have a full and true description of him shall i then give you a full and true description of him in the words of chaucer in any words you please
but chaucer's chaplain must be a little old fashioned by this time i should think pardon me some people as well as some things never grow old fashioned i should not be ashamed to produce chaucer's parish priest at this day to the best company in england
i am not ashamed to produce him to your ladyship and if i can remember twenty lines in his favour i hope you will give me credit for being a sincere friend to the worthy part of the clergy observe you must take them as i can patch them together
i will not promise that i can recollect twenty lines de suite and without missing a word that is what i would not swear to do for his grace the archbishop of canterbury his grace will probably excuse you from swearing at least i will said lady delacour
on the present occasion so now for your twenty lines in whatever order you please doctor x with sundry intervals of recollection which may be spared the reader repeated the following lines yet has his aspect nothing of severe
but such a face as promised him sincere nothing reserved or sullen was to see but sweet regards and pleasing sanctity mild was his accent and his action free with eloquence innate his tongue was arm'd
though harsh the precept yet the preacher charm'd for letting down the golden chain from high he drew his audience upwards to the sky he taught the gospel rather than the law and forced himself to drive
and doctor x promised that he would the next day introduce to her his friend mister moreton mister moreton said belinda the gentleman of whom mister percival spoke missus freke's mister moreton yes said doctor x
the clergyman whom missus freke hanged in effigy and to whom clarence hervey has given a small living these circumstances even if he had not precisely resembled chaucer's character of a benevolent clergyman
would have strongly interested lady delacour in his favour she found him upon farther acquaintance a perfect contrast to her former chaplain and he gradually acquired such salutary influence over her mind that he relieved her from the terrors of methodism
and in their place substituted the consolations of mild and rational piety her conscience was now at peace her spirits were real and equable and never was her conversation so agreeable animated with the new feelings of returning health
and the new hopes of domestic happiness she seemed desirous to impart her felicity to all around her but chiefly to belinda who had the strongest claims upon her gratitude and the warmest place in her affections
belinda never made her friend feel the weight of any obligation and consequently lady delacour's gratitude was a voluntary pleasure not an expected duty nothing could be more delightful to miss portman than thus to feel herself the object at once of esteem
affection and respect to see that she had not only been the means of saving her friend's life but that the influence she had obtained over her mind was likely to be so permanently beneficial
and as lady delacour was now sufficiently re established in her health she announced her intention of returning immediately to oakly park according to her promise to lady anne percival and to mister vincent but my dear said lady delacour
one week more is all i ask from you may not friendship ask such a sacrifice from love you expect i know said miss portman ingenuously that before the end of that time mister hervey will be here true
by the statutes of oakly park nothing is forbidden said belinda but what reason reason oh i have done if you go to reason you are invulnerable to the light shafts of wit i know when you are cased in this heavy armour of reason
you cannot live in armour all your life lay it aside but for a moment and the little bold urchin will make it his prize remember
cupid creeping into the armour of the conqueror of the world i am sufficiently aware said belinda smiling of the power of cupid
i entreat you not to use your influence over my mind lest you should lessen my happiness though you cannot alter my determination moved by the earnest manner in which belinda uttered these words
may i remind you said miss portman though it is seldom either politic or polite to remind people of their promises but may i remind you of something like a promise you made to accompany me to mister percival's
and would you have me behave so brutally to poor lord delacour as to run away from him in this manner the moment i have strength to run lord delacour is included in this invitation said miss portman
putting the last letter that she had received from lady anne percival
how well this lady anne of yours has behaved to me about helena when i recollect that though you have been with her so long she has not supplanted me in your affections and that she did not attempt to detain you when i sent marriott to oakly park
prevail upon lord delacour to spend his christmas at oakly park instead of at studley manor rantipole thank heaven is out of the question and prevail upon yourself to stay a few days for me and you shall take us all with you in triumph
belinda was convinced that when lady delacour had once tasted the pleasures of domestic life she would not easily return to that dissipation which she had followed from habit and into which she had first been driven by a mixture of vanity and despair
was one of his chief inducements to that intemperance which injured almost equally his constitution and his understanding for some weeks past he had abstained from all excess and belinda was well aware that
he would probably return to his former habits if he continued to visit his former associates it was therefore of importance to break at once his connexion with lord studley and to place him in a situation where he might form new habits
by which she generally knew how to make the worse appear the better reason miss portman knew that mister percival possessed the happy talent of drawing out all the abilities of those with whom he conversed
and that he did not value men merely for their erudition science or literature he was capable of estimating the potential as well as the actual range of the mind of his generosity she could not doubt
in his lady's esteem and to make that union happy which was indissoluble
the story of halfman in a certain town there lived a judge who was married but had no children one day he was standing lost in thought before his house when an old man passed by
what is the matter sir said he you look troubled oh leave me alone my good man but what is it persisted the other
the judge thanked him joyfully as he took the apples and went to seek his wife eat these apples at once he cried and you will have twelve sons so she sat down and ate eleven of them but just as she was in the middle of the twelfth
her sister came in and she gave her the half that was left the eleven sons came into the world strong and handsome boys but when the twelfth was born there was only half of him by and by
they all grew into men and one day they told their father it was high time he found wives for them i have a brother he answered who lives away in the east and he has twelve daughters go and marry them
so the twelve sons saddled their horses and rode for twelve days till they met an old woman good greeting to you young men said she we have waited long for you your uncle and i
the girls have become women and are sought in marriage by many but i knew you would come one day and i have kept them for you follow me into my house and the twelve brothers followed her gladly and their father's brother stood at the door and gave them meat and drink
but at night when every one was asleep halfman crept softly to his brothers and said to them listen all of you this man is no uncle of ours but an ogre nonsense
well this very night you will see said halfman and he did not go to bed but hid himself and watched now in a little while he saw the wife of the ogre steal into the room on tiptoe and spread a red cloth over the brothers
and then go and cover her daughters with a white cloth after that she lay down and was soon snoring loudly when halfman was quite sure she was sound asleep he took the red cloth from his brothers and put it on the girls
and laid their white cloth over his brothers next he drew their scarlet caps from their heads and exchanged them for the veils which the ogre's daughters were wearing this was hardly done
when he heard steps coming along the floor so he hid himself quickly in the folds of a curtain there was only half of him the ogress came slowly and gently along stretching out her hands before her so that she might not fall against anything unawares
for she had only a tiny lantern slung at her waist which did not give much light and when she reached the place where the sisters were lying she stooped down and held a corner of the cloth up to the lantern yes it certainly was red still
to make sure that there was no mistake she passed her hands lightly over their heads and felt the caps that covered them then she was quite certain the brothers lay sleeping before her and began to kill them one by one
and halfman whispered to his brothers get up and run for your lives as the ogress is killing her daughters the brothers needed no second bidding and in a moment were out of the house
by this time the ogress had slain all her daughters but one who awoke suddenly and saw what had happened mother what are you doing cried she do you know that you have killed my sisters
halfman has outwitted me after all and she turned to wreak vengeance on him but he and his brothers were far away they rode all day till they got to the town where their real uncle lived and inquired the way to his house
why have you been so long in coming asked he when they had found him oh dear uncle we were very nearly not coming at all replied they we fell in with an ogress who took us home and would have killed us if it had not been for halfman
he knew what was in her mind and saved us and here we are now give us each a daughter to wife and let us return whence we came take them said the uncle the eldest for the eldest the second for the second and so on to the youngest
but the wife of halfman was the prettiest of them all and the other brothers were jealous and said to each other what is he who is only half a man to get the best let us put him to death and give his wife to our eldest brother
and they waited for a chance after they had all ridden in company with their brides for some distance they arrived at a brook and one of them asked now who will go and fetch water from the brook
when they had done drinking halfman who was standing in the middle of the stream called out throw me the rope and draw me up for i cannot get out alone and the brothers threw him a rope to draw him up the steep bank
but when he was half way up they cut the rope and he fell back into the stream then the brothers rode away as fast as they could with his bride halfman sank down under the water from the force of the fall but before he touched the bottom
a fish came and said to him fear nothing halfman i will help you and the fish guided him to a shallow place so that he scrambled out on the way it said to him
and went his way while the fish swam back to its home the country was strange to halfman and he wandered about without knowing where he was going till he suddenly found the ogress standing before him ah halfman
then he turned to his wife and said it is all ready let us put him on what is the hurry my good ogre asked halfman you have me in your power and i cannot escape i am so thin now
we will lock you into this room and here you shall stay till you are ready for eating so halfman was locked into the room and the ogre and his wife brought him his food
and an axe and then set out with her husband leaving halfman and her daughter busy in the house
he called to the girl come and help me or else i shan't have it all ready when your mother gets back all right said she and held a billet of wood for him to chop but he raised his axe and cut off her head and ran away like the wind
and they began to cry and sob saying this is halfman's work why did we listen to him but halfman was far away when he escaped from the house he ran on straight before him for some time
looking for a safe shelter as he knew that the ogre's legs were much longer than his and that it was his only chance at last he saw an iron tower which he climbed up soon the ogre appeared looking right and left
lest his prey should be sheltering behind a rock or tree but he did not know halfman was so near till he heard his voice calling come up come up you will find me here
a fish carried me on his back and what am i to do you must go and fetch all your relations and tell them to bring plenty of sticks then you must light a fire and let it burn till the tower becomes red hot
but when they flung themselves against it to overthrow it they caught themselves on fire and were burnt to death and overhead sat halfman laughing heartily but the ogre's wife was still alive for she had taken no part in kindling the fire
oh she shrieked with rage you have killed my daughters and my husband and all the men belonging to me how can i get at you to avenge myself oh that is easy enough said halfman
i will let down a rope and if you tie it tightly round you i will draw it up all right returned the ogress fastening the rope which halfman let down now pull me up
yes quite sure don't be afraid oh i am not afraid at all so halfman slowly drew her up and when she was near the top he let go the rope
and she fell down and broke her neck then halfman heaved a great sigh and said that was hard work the rope has hurt my hands badly but now i am rid of her for ever so halfman came down from the tower and went on
till he got to a desert place and as he was very tired he lay down to sleep while it was still dark an ogress passed by and she woke him and said halfman to morrow your brother is to marry your wife
oh how can i stop it asked he will you help me yes i will replied the ogress thank you thank you cried halfman kissing her on the forehead
my wife is dearer to me than anything else in the world and it is not my brother's fault that i am not dead long ago very well i will rid you of him said the ogress but only on one condition if a boy is born to you you must give him to me
as long as you deliver me from my brother and get me my wife mount on my back then and in a quarter of an hour we shall be there the ogress was as good as her word and in a few minutes they arrived at the outskirts of the town where halfman and his brothers lived
she stung him behind the ear so that he fell dead where he stood then she returned to halfman and told him to go and claim his bride he jumped up hastily from his seat and took the road to his father's house
as he drew near he heard sounds of weeping and lamentations and he said to a man he met what is the matter
and died suddenly before night well thought halfman my conscience is clear anyway for it is quite plain he coveted my wife and that is why he tried to drown me he went at once to his father's room and found him sitting in tears on the floor
dear father said halfman are you not glad to see me you weep for my brother but i am your son too and he stole my bride from me and tried to drown me in the brook if he is dead i at least am alive
no no he was better than you moaned the father why dear father he told me you had behaved very ill said he well
call my brothers answered halfman as i have a story to tell them so the father called them all into his presence then halfman began after we were twelve days journey from home we met an ogress who gave us greeting and said why have you been so long coming
the daughters of your uncle have waited for you in vain and she bade us follow her to the house saying now there need be no more delay you can marry your cousins as soon as you please and take them with you to your own home but i warned my brothers that the man was not our uncle but an ogre
whose bride was the youngest of all and also the prettiest and my brothers were filled with envy and left me to drown in a brook but i was saved by a fish who showed me how to get out now you are a judge who did well
and who did evil i or my brothers is this story true said the father turning to his sons it is true my father answered they it is even as halfman has said
and the girl belongs to him then the judge embraced halfman and said to him you have done well my son take your bride and may you both live long and happily together at the end of the year halfman's wife had a son
and not long after she came one day hastily into the room and found her husband weeping what is the matter she asked the matter said he yes why are you weeping because replied halfman
the baby is not really ours but belongs to an ogress are you mad cried the wife
i promised said halfman when she undertook to kill my brother and to give you to me that the first son we had should be hers and will she take him from us now said the poor woman
and one day as he was playing in the street with the other children the ogress came by go to your father she said and repeat this speech to him i want my forfeit when am i to have it all right replied the child
very well replied the boy and went home the next morning as he was at breakfast his mother said to him child where did you get that ring a woman gave it to me yesterday and she told me father to tell you
that she wanted her forfeit and when was she to have it then his father burst into tears and said if she comes again you must say to her that your parents bid her take her forfeit at once and depart
at this they both began to weep afresh and his mother kissed him and put on his new clothes and said if the woman bids you to follow her you must go but the boy did not heed her grief he was so pleased with his new clothes
and when he went out he said to his play fellows look how smart i am i am going away with my aunt to foreign lands at that moment the ogress came up and asked him
yes dear aunt i did and what did they say take it away at once so she took him but when dinner time came and the boy did not return his father and mother knew that he would never come back
and they sat down and wept all day at last halfman rose up and said to his wife be comforted
and how he is cared for yes that will be the best said she the year passed away then halfman saddled his horse and rode to the place where the ogress had found him sleeping she was not there
but not knowing what to do next he got off his horse and waited about midnight she suddenly stood before him halfman why did you come here said she i have a question i want to ask you well ask it
but i know quite well what it is your wife wishes you to ask whether i shall carry off your second son as i did the first yes that is it replied halfman then he seized her hand and said oh let me see my son
the ogress was silent but stuck her staff hard in the earth and the earth opened and the boy appeared and said dear father have you come too and his father clasped him in his arms
and began to cry but the boy struggled to be free saying dear father put me down i have got a new mother who is better than the old one and a new father who is better than you then his father sat him down and said
go in peace my boy but listen first to me tell your father the ogre and your mother the ogress that never more shall they have any children of mine all right replied the boy and called mother what is it
now that i have got you
then the boy turned to his father and said go in peace dear father and give my mother greeting and tell her not to be anxious any more for she can keep all her children and halfman mounted his horse and rode home
and told his wife all he had seen and the message sent by mohammed
the headless dwarfs there was once a minister who spent his whole time in trying to find a servant who would undertake to ring the church bells at midnight in addition to all his other duties
of course it was not everyone who cared to get up in the middle of the night when he had been working hard all day still a good many had agreed to do it but the strange thing was that no sooner had the servant set forth to perform his task than he disappeared
as if the earth had swallowed him up no bells were rung and no ringer ever came back the minister did his best to keep the matter secret but it leaked out for all that and the end of it was that no one would enter his service
indeed there were even those who whispered that the minister himself had murdered the missing men it was to no purpose that sunday after sunday the minister gave out from his pulpit that double wages would be paid to anyone that would fulfil the sacred duty of ringing the bells of the church
no one took the slightest notice of any offer he might make and the poor man was in despair when one day as he was standing at his house door a youth known in the village as clever hans came up to him
i am tired of living with a miser who will not give me enough to eat and drink said he and i am ready to do all you want very good my son replied the minister you shall have the chance of proving your courage this very night to morrow
we will settle what your wages are to be hans was quite content with this proposal and went straight into the kitchen to begin his work not knowing that his new master was quite as stingy as his old one
in the hope that his presence might be a restraint upon them the minister used to sit at the table during his servants meals and would exhort them to drink much and often thinking that they would not be able to eat as well
and beef was dearer than beer but in hans he had met his match and the minister soon found to his cost that in his case at any rate a full cup did not mean an empty plate about an hour before midnight
hans entered the church and locked the door behind him but what was his surprise when in place of the darkness and silence he expected he found the church brilliantly lighted and a crowd of people sitting round a table playing cards
if anybody has a right to put that question it is i and if i do not put it it will certainly be wiser for you not to do so then he picked up some cards and played with the unknown men as if he had known them all his life
the luck was on his side and soon the money of the other gamblers found its way from their pockets into his on the stroke of midnight the cock crew and in an instant lights table cards and people all had vanished
and hans was left alone he groped about for some time till he found the staircase in the tower and then began to feel his way up the steps on the first landing
a glimmer of light came through a slit in the wall and he saw a tiny man sitting there without a head ho ho my little fellow
and without waiting for an answer gave him a kick which sent him flying down the stairs then he climbed higher still and finding as he went dumb watchers sitting on every landing treated them as he had done the first
at last he reached the top and as he paused for a moment to look round him he saw another headless man cowering in the very bell itself waiting till hans should seize the bell pull
in order to strike him a blow with the clapper which would soon have made an end of him stop my little friend cried hans that is not part of the bargain perhaps you saw how your comrades walked down stairs and you are going after them
but as you are in the highest place you shall make a more dignified exit and follow them through the window with these words he began to climb the ladder in order to take the little man from the bell and carry out his threat at this the dwarf cried out imploringly
oh brother spare my life and i promise that neither i nor my comrades will ever trouble you any more i am small and weak but who knows whether some day i shall not be able to reward you you wretched little shrimp replied hans
the headless man thanked him humbly slid hastily down the bell rope and ran down the steps of the tower as if he had left a fire behind him then hans began to ring lustily when the minister heard the sound of the midnight bells he wondered greatly
but rejoiced that he had at last found some one to whom he could trust this duty hans rang the bells for some time then went to the hay loft and fell fast asleep now it was the custom of the minister to get up very early
and to go round to make sure that the men were all at their work this morning everyone was in his place except hans and no one knew anything about him nine o'clock came and no hans
but when eleven struck the minister began to fear that he had vanished like the ringers who had gone before him when however the servants all gathered round the table for dinner hans at last made his appearance stretching himself and yawning
if one works in the night one must sleep in the day just as if one works in the day one sleeps in the night if you can find somebody else to ring the bells at midnight i am ready to begin work at dawn
but if you want me to ring them i must go on sleeping till noon at the very earliest the minister tried to argue the point with him but at length the following agreement was come to hans was to give up the ringing
and was to work like the rest from sunrise to sunset with the exception of an hour after breakfast and an hour after dinner when he might go to sleep but of course added the minister carelessly it may happen now and then especially in winter
when the days are short that you will have to work a little longer to get something finished not at all answered hans
i will not do a stroke more than i have promised and that is from dawn to dark so you know what you have to expect a few weeks later the minister was asked to attend a christening in the neighbouring town he bade hans come with him
but as the town was only a few hours ride from where he lived the minister was much surprised to see hans come forth laden with a bag containing food
we shall be there before dark who knows replied hans many things may happen to delay our journey and i need not remind you of our contract that the moment the sun sets i cease to be your servant
if we don't reach the town while it is still daylight i shall leave you to shift for yourself the minister thought he was joking and made no further remark but when they had left the village behind them and had ridden a few miles
they found that snow had fallen during the night and had been blown by the wind into drifts this hindered their progress and by the time they had entered the thick wood which lay between them and their destination the sun was already touching the tops of the trees
the horses ploughed their way slowly through the deep soft snow and as they went hans kept turning to look at the sun which lay at their backs is there anything behind you asked the minister or what is it you are always turning round for
i turn round because i have no eyes in the back of my neck said hans cease talking nonsense replied the minister and give all your mind to getting us to the town before nightfall hans did not answer but rode on steadily
though every now and then he cast a glance over his shoulder when they arrived in the middle of the wood the sun sank altogether then hans reined up his horse took his knapsack and jumped out of the sledge what are you doing are you mad
asked the minister but hans answered quietly the sun is set and my work is over and i am going to camp here for the night in vain the master prayed and threatened and promised hans a large reward if he would only drive him on
the young man was not to be moved are you not ashamed to urge me to break my word said he if you want to reach the town to night you must go alone the hour of my freedom has struck and i cannot go with you
yonder as you see a gallows is set up and two evil doers are hanging on it you could not possibly sleep with such ghastly neighbours why not asked hans those gallows birds hang high in the air
and my camp will be on the ground we shall have nothing to do with each other as he spoke he turned his back on the minister and went his way there was no help for it and the minister had to push on by himself
his friends were much surprised to see him drive up without a coachman and thought some accident had happened but when he told them of his conversation with hans they did not know which was the most foolish master or man
it would have mattered little to hans had he known what they were saying or thinking of him he satisfied his hunger with the food he had in his knapsack lit his pipe pitched his tent under the boughs of a tree wrapped himself in his furs and went sound asleep
after some hours he was awakened by a sudden noise and sat up and looked about him the moon was shining brightly above his head and close by stood two headless dwarfs talking angrily
at the sight of hans the little dwarfs cried out it is he it is he and one of them stepping nearer exclaimed ah my old friend it is a lucky chance that has brought us here
my bones still ache from my fall down the steps of the tower i dare say you have not forgotten that night now it is the turn of your bones hi comrades make haste make haste
like a swarm of midges a host of tiny headless creatures seemed to spring straight out of the ground and every one was armed with a club although they were so small yet there were such numbers of them and they struck so hard
that even a strong man could do nothing against them hans thought his last hour was come when just as the fight was at the hottest another little dwarf arrived on the scene hold comrades he shouted turning to the attacking party
this man once did me a service and i am his debtor when i was in his power he granted me my life and even if he did throw you downstairs well a warm bath soon cured your bruises
so you must just forgive him and go quietly home the headless dwarfs listened to his words and disappeared as suddenly as they had come as soon as hans recovered himself a little he looked at his rescuer
and saw he was the dwarf he had found seated in the church bell ah said the dwarf seating himself quietly under the tree you laughed at me when i told you that some day i might do you a good turn now you see i was right
and perhaps you will learn for the future not to despise any creature however small i thank you from my heart answered hans my bones are still sore from their blows and had it not been for you i should indeed have fared badly i have almost paid my debt went on the little man
but as you have suffered already i will do more and give you a piece of information you need not remain any longer in the service of that stingy minister but when you get home to morrow go at once to the north corner of the church
and there you will find a large stone built into the wall but not cemented like the rest the day after to morrow the moon is full and at midnight you must go to the spot and get the stone out of the wall with a pickaxe under the stone lies a great treasure
which has been hidden there in time of war besides church plate you will find bags of money which have been lying in this place for over a hundred years and no one knows to whom it all belongs a third of this money you must give to the poor
the sun was high in the heavens when his master returned from the town hans said he what a fool you were not to come with me yesterday i was well feasted and entertained
and i have money in my pocket into the bargain he went on rattling some coins while he spoke to make hans understand how much he had lost ah sir replied hans calmly in order to have gained so much money
wise men take care to hide their crowns they drove home and hans neglected none of his duties but put up the horses and gave them their food before going to the church corner where he found the loose stone
exactly in the place described by the dwarf then he returned to his work the first night of the full moon when the whole village was asleep he stole out armed with a pickaxe and with much difficulty
succeeded in dislodging the stone from its place sure enough there was the hole and in the hole lay the treasure exactly as the little man had said the following sunday he handed over the third part to the village poor
and informed the minister that he wished to break his bond of service as however he did not claim any wages the minister made no objections but allowed him to do as he wished so hans went his way bought himself a large house and married a young wife
a young assistant informed us that mister harding would be absent until afternoon
holmes's face showed his disappointment and annoyance well well we can't expect to have it all our own way watson he said at last we must come back in the afternoon if mister harding will not be here until then i am as you have no doubt surmised
endeavouring to trace these busts to their source in order to find if there is not something peculiar which may account for their remarkable fate let us make for mister morse hudson of the kennington road and see if he can throw any light upon the problem
a drive of an hour brought us to the picture dealer's establishment he was a small stout man with a red face and a peppery manner yes sir on my very counter sir said he what we pay rates and taxes for i don't know when any ruffian can come in and break one's goods
yes sir it was i who sold doctor barnicot his two statues disgraceful sir a nihilist plot that's what i make it no one but an anarchist would go about breaking statues red republicans that's what i call em who did i get the statues from i don't see what that has to do with it
they are a well known house in the trade and have been this twenty years how many had i three two and one are three two of doctor barnicot's and one smashed in broad daylight on my own counter do i know that photograph no i don't yes i do though why it's beppo
he was a kind of italian piece work man who made himself useful in the shop he could carve a bit and gild and frame and do odd jobs the fellow left me last week and i've heard nothing of him since no i don't know where he came from nor where he went to
i had nothing against him while he was here he was gone two days before the bust was smashed well
said holmes as we emerged from the shop we have this beppo as a common factor both in kennington and in kensington so that is worth a ten mile drive now watson
of stepney the source and origin of the busts i shall be surprised if we don't get some help down there in rapid succession we passed through the fringe of fashionable london hotel london theatrical london literary london commercial london
and finally maritime london till we came to a riverside city of a hundred thousand souls where the tenement houses swelter and reek with the outcasts of europe here in a broad thoroughfare once the abode of wealthy city merchants
outside was a considerable yard full of monumental masonry inside was a large room in which fifty workers were carving or moulding the manager a big blond german received us civilly and gave a clear answer to all holmes's questions
a reference to his books showed that hundreds of casts had been taken from a marble copy of devine's head of napoleon but that the three which had been sent to morse hudson a year or so before had been half of a batch of six the other three being sent to harding brothers of kensington
he could suggest no possible cause why anyone should wish to destroy them in fact he laughed at the idea their wholesale price was six shillings
the cast was taken in two moulds from each side of the face and then these two profiles of plaster of paris were joined together to make the complete bust the work was usually done by italians in the room we were in when finished the busts were put on a table in the passage to dry
and afterwards stored that was all he could tell us but the production of the photograph had a remarkable effect upon the manager his face flushed with anger and his brows knotted over his blue teutonic eyes ah the rascal he cried
yes indeed i know him very well this has always been a respectable establishment and the only time that we have ever had the police in it was over this very fellow it was more than a year ago now he knifed another italian in the street
beppo was his name his second name i never knew serve me right for engaging a man with such a face but he was a good workman one of the best what did he get the man lived and he got off with a year
i have no doubt he is out now but he has not dared to show his nose here we have a cousin of his here and i daresay he could tell you where he is no no cried holmes
the matter is very important and the farther i go with it the more important it seems to grow when you referred in your ledger to the sale of those casts i observed that the date was june third of last year could you give me the date when beppo was arrested
i could tell you roughly by the pay list the manager answered yes he continued after some turning over of pages he was paid last on may twentieth thank you said holmes
i don't think that i need intrude upon your time and patience any more with a last word of caution that he should say nothing as to our researches we turned our faces westward once more
a news bill at the entrance announced kensington outrage murder by a madman and the contents of the paper showed that mister horace harker had got his account into print after all
two columns were occupied with a highly sensational and flowery rendering of the whole incident holmes propped it against the cruet stand and read it while he ate once or twice he chuckled this is all right watson said he listen to this
it is satisfactory to know that there can be no difference of opinion upon this case since mister lestrade one of the most experienced members of the official force and mister sherlock holmes the well known consulting expert
have each come to the conclusion that the grotesque series of incidents which have ended in so tragic a fashion arise from lunacy rather than from deliberate crime no explanation save mental aberration can cover the facts
the press watson is a most valuable institution if you only know how to use it and now if you have quite finished
the founder of that great emporium proved to be a brisk crisp little person very dapper and quick with a clear head and a ready tongue
mister horace harker is a customer of ours we supplied him with the bust some months ago
they are all sold now to whom oh i daresay by consulting our sales book we could very easily tell you yes we have the entries here one to mister harker you see and one to mister josiah brown of laburnum lodge laburnum vale
chiswick and one to mister sandeford of lower grove road reading no i have never seen this face which you show me in the photograph you would hardly forget it would you sir for i've seldom seen an uglier have we any italians on the staff
yes sir we have several among our workpeople and cleaners i daresay they might get a peep at that sales book if they wanted to there is no particular reason for keeping a watch upon that book
holmes had taken several notes during mister harding's evidence and i could see that he was thoroughly satisfied by the turn which affairs were taking he made no remark however save that unless we hurried we should be late for our appointment with lestrade
and we found him pacing up and down in a fever of impatience his look of importance showed that his day's work had not been in vain well he asked what luck mister holmes we have had a very busy day and not entirely a wasted one
my friend explained we have seen both the retailers and also the wholesale manufacturers i can trace each of the busts now from the beginning the
well well you have your own methods mister sherlock holmes and it is not for me to say a word against them but i think i have done a better day's work than you i have identified the dead man you don't say so
and found a cause for the crime splendid
well this dead man had some catholic emblem round his neck
made me think he was from the south inspector hill knew him the moment he caught sight of him his name is pietro venucci from naples and he is one of the greatest cut throats in london he is connected with the mafia which as you know
is a secret political society enforcing its decrees by murder now you see how the affair begins to clear up the other fellow is probably an italian also and a member of the mafia he has broken the rules in some fashion
pietro is set upon his track probably the photograph we found in his pocket is the man himself so that he may not knife the wrong person he dogs the fellow he sees him enter a house he waits outside for him
and in the scuffle he receives his own death wound how is that mister sherlock holmes holmes clapped his hands approvingly
after all that is nothing
and i tell you that i am gathering all the threads into my hands and the next stage is a very simple one i shall go down with hill to the italian quarter find the man whose photograph we have got and arrest him on the charge of murder
will you come with us i think not i fancy we can attain our end in a simpler way i can't say for certain because it all depends well it all depends upon a factor which is completely outside our control
but i have great hopes in fact the betting is exactly two to one
in the italian quarter no i fancy chiswick is an address which is more likely to find him if you will come with me to chiswick to night lestrade i'll promise to go to the italian quarter with you to morrow and no harm will be done by the delay
and now i think that a few hours sleep would do us all good for i do not propose to leave before eleven o'clock and it is unlikely that we shall be back before morning you'll dine with us lestrade and then you are welcome to the sofa until it is time for us to start
in return for the news which lestrade would bring holmes was always ready to listen with attention to the details of any case upon which the detective was engaged and was able occasionally without any active interference
to give some hint or suggestion drawn from his own vast knowledge and experience on this particular evening lestrade had spoken of the weather and the newspapers then he had fallen silent puffing thoughtfully at his cigar holmes looked keenly at him
anything remarkable on hand he asked oh no mister holmes nothing very particular then tell me about it lestrade laughed well mister holmes there is no use denying that there is something on my mind
and yet it is such an absurd business that i hesitated to bother you about it on the other hand although it is trivial it is undoubtedly queer and i know that you have a taste for all that is out of the common
but in my opinion it comes more in doctor watson's line than ours disease said i madness anyhow and a queer madness too you wouldn't think there was anyone living at this time of day who had such a hatred of napoleon the first
that he would break any image of him that he could see holmes sank back in his chair that's no business of mine said he exactly that's what i said but then when the man commits burglary in order to break images which are not his own
that brings it away from the doctor and on to the policeman holmes sat up again burglary this is more interesting let me hear the details lestrade took out his official notebook and refreshed his memory from its pages
it was at the shop of morse hudson who has a place for the sale of pictures and statues in the kennington road the assistant had left the front shop for an instant when he heard a crash and hurrying in he found a plaster bust of napoleon which stood with several other works of art upon the counter
lying shivered into fragments he rushed out into the road but although several passers by declared that they had noticed a man run out of the shop he could neither see anyone nor could he find any means of identifying the rascal
it seemed to be one of those senseless acts of hooliganism which occur from time to time and it was reported to the constable on the beat as such the plaster cast was not worth more than a few shillings and the whole affair appeared to be too childish for any particular investigation
the second case however was more serious and also more singular it occurred only last night in kennington road and within a few hundred yards of morse hudson's shop there lives a well known medical practitioner named doctor barnicot
who has one of the largest practices upon the south side of the thames his residence and principal consulting room is at kennington road but he has a branch surgery and dispensary at lower brixton road two miles away this doctor barnicot is an enthusiastic admirer of napoleon
and his house is full of books pictures and relics of the french emperor some little time ago he purchased from morse hudson two duplicate plaster casts of the famous head of napoleon by the french sculptor devine
one of these he placed in his hall in the house at kennington road and the other on the mantelpiece of the surgery at lower brixton well when doctor barnicot came down this morning he was astonished to find that his house had been burgled during the night
but that nothing had been taken save the plaster head from the hall it had been carried out and had been dashed savagely against the garden wall under which its splintered fragments were discovered holmes rubbed his hands
this is certainly very novel said he i thought it would please you but i have not got to the end yet doctor barnicot was due at his surgery at twelve o'clock and you can imagine his amazement when on arriving there
he found that the window had been opened in the night and that the broken pieces of his second bust were strewn all over the room it had been smashed to atoms where it stood in neither case were there any signs which could give us a clue as to the criminal or lunatic who had done the mischief
now mister holmes you have got the facts they are singular not to say grotesque said holmes may i ask whether the two busts smashed in doctor barnicot's rooms were the exact duplicates of the one which was destroyed in morse hudson's shop
they were taken from the same mould such a fact must tell against the theory that the man who breaks them is influenced by any general hatred of napoleon considering how many hundreds of statues of the great emperor must exist in london
it is too much to suppose such a coincidence as that a promiscuous iconoclast should chance to begin upon three specimens of the same bust
on the other hand this morse hudson is the purveyor of busts in that part of london and these three were the only ones which had been in his shop for years so although as you say there are many hundreds of statues in london
it is very probable that these three were the only ones in that district therefore a local fanatic would begin with them what do you think doctor watson there are no limits to the possibilities of monomania i answered
and accompanied by complete sanity in every other way a man who had read deeply about napoleon or who had possibly received some hereditary family injury through the great war
in doctor barnicot's hall where a sound might arouse the family the bust was taken outside before being broken whereas in the surgery where there was less danger of an alarm it was smashed where it stood the affair seems absurdly trifling
and yet i dare call nothing trivial when i reflect that some of my most classic cases have had the least promising commencement you will remember watson how the dreadful business of the abernetty family was first brought to my notice
by the depth which the parsley had sunk into the butter upon a hot day i can't afford therefore
the development for which my friend had asked came in a quicker and an infinitely more tragic form than he could have imagined i was still dressing in my bedroom next morning when there was a tap at the door and holmes entered a telegram in his hand he read it aloud
what is it then i asked don't know may be anything but i suspect it is the sequel of the story of the statues in that case our friend the image breaker has begun operations in another quarter of london
there's coffee on the table watson and i have a cab at the door in half an hour we had reached pitt street a quiet little backwater just beside one of the briskest currents of london life
all flat chested respectable and most unromantic dwellings as we drove up we found the railings in front of the house lined by a curious crowd holmes whistled by george it's attempted murder at the least
nothing less will hold the london message boy there's a deed of violence indicated in that fellow's round shoulders and outstretched neck what's this watson the top steps swilled down and the other ones dry footsteps enough anyhow
well well there's lestrade at the front window and we shall soon know all about it the official received us with a very grave face and showed us into a sitting room where an exceedingly unkempt and agitated elderly man clad in a flannel dressing gown
was pacing up and down he was introduced to us as the owner of the house mister horace harker of the central press syndicate it's the napoleon bust business again said lestrade you seemed interested last night mister holmes
so i thought perhaps you would be glad to be present now that the affair has taken a very much graver turn what has it turned to then to murder mister harker will you tell these gentlemen exactly what has occurred
that all my life i have been collecting other people's news
if i had come in here as a journalist i should have interviewed myself and had two columns in every evening paper as it is i am giving away valuable copy by telling my story over and over to a string of different people and i can make no use of it myself
however i've heard your name mister sherlock holmes and if you'll only explain this queer business i shall be paid for my trouble in telling you the story holmes sat down and listened
it all seems to centre round that bust of napoleon which i bought for this very room about four months ago i picked it up cheap from harding brothers two doors from the high street station a great deal of my journalistic work is done at night
and i often write until the early morning so it was to day i was sitting in my den which is at the back of the top of the house about three o'clock when i was convinced that i heard some sounds downstairs i listened but they were not repeated
and i concluded that they came from outside then suddenly about five minutes later there came a most horrible yell the most dreadful sound mister holmes that ever i heard it will ring in my ears as long as i live
i sat frozen with horror for a minute or two then i seized the poker and went downstairs when i entered this room i found the window wide open and i at once observed that the bust was gone from the mantelpiece
why any burglar should take such a thing passes my understanding for it was only a plaster cast and of no real value whatever
this was clearly what the burglar had done so i went round and opened the door stepping out into the dark i nearly fell over a dead man who was lying there i ran back for a light and there was the poor fellow a great
gash in his throat and the whole place swimming in blood he lay on his back his knees drawn up and his mouth horribly open i shall see him in my dreams
and then i must have fainted for i knew nothing more until i found the policeman standing over me in the hall well who was the murdered man asked holmes there's nothing to show who he was said lestrade
you shall see the body at the mortuary but we have made nothing of it up to now he is a tall man sunburned very powerful not more than thirty he is poorly dressed and yet does not appear to be a labourer a horn handled clasp knife was lying in a pool of blood beside him
whether it was the weapon which did the deed or whether it belonged to the dead man i do not know there was no name on his clothing and nothing in his pockets save an apple some string a shilling map of london and a photograph here it is
it represented an alert sharp featured simian man with thick eyebrows
and what became of the bust asked holmes
we had news of it just before you came it has been found in the front garden of an empty house in campden house road it was broken into fragments i am going round now to see it will you come certainly i must just take one look round
he examined the carpet and the window the fellow had either very long legs or was a most active man said he with an area beneath it was no mean feat to reach that window ledge and open that window getting back was comparatively simple
are you coming with us to see the remains of your bust mister harker the disconsolate journalist had seated himself at a writing table i must try and make something of it said he though i have no doubt that the first editions of the evening papers are out already with full details
it's like my luck you remember when the stand fell at doncaster well i was the only journalist in the stand and my journal the only one that had no account of it for i was too shaken to write it
and now i'll be too late with a murder done on my own doorstep as we left the room we heard his pen travelling shrilly over the foolscap the spot where the fragments of the bust had been found was only a few hundred yards away
which seemed to raise such frantic and destructive hatred in the mind of the unknown it lay scattered in splintered shards upon the grass holmes picked up several of them and examined them carefully
i was convinced from his intent face and his purposeful manner that at last he was upon a clue well asked lestrade holmes shrugged his shoulders we have a long way to go yet said he and yet and yet
well we have some suggestive facts to act upon the possession of this trifling bust was worth more in the eyes of this strange criminal than a human life that is one point then there is the singular fact that he did not break it in the house
or immediately outside the house if to break it was his sole object he was rattled and bustled by meeting this other fellow he hardly knew what he was doing
well that's likely enough but i wish to call your attention very particularly to the position of this house in the garden of which the bust was destroyed lestrade looked about him it was an empty house and so he knew that he would not be disturbed in the garden
yes but there is another empty house farther up the street which he must have passed before he came to this one why did he not break it there since it is evident that every yard that he carried it increased the risk of someone meeting him i give it up said lestrade
holmes pointed to the street lamp above our heads he could see what he was doing here and he could not there that was his reason by jove that's true said the detective
now that i come to think of it doctor barnicot's bust was broken not far from his red lamp well mister holmes what are we to do with that fact to remember it to docket it
what steps do you propose to take now lestrade the most practical way of getting at it in my opinion is to identify the dead man there should be no difficulty about that
we should have a good start in learning what he was doing in pitt street last night and who it was who met him and killed him on the doorstep of mister horace harker don't you think so no doubt and yet it is not quite the way in which i should approach the case
what would you do then oh you must not let me influence you in any way i suggest that you go on your line and i on mine we can compare notes afterwards and each will supplement the other very good said lestrade
if you are going back to pitt street you might see mister horace harker tell him for me that i have quite made up my mind and that it is certain that a dangerous homicidal lunatic with napoleonic delusions was in his house last night it will be useful for his article
you don't seriously believe that holmes smiled don't i well perhaps i don't but i am sure that it will interest mister horace harker and the subscribers of the central press syndicate now watson
i think that we shall find that we have a long and rather complex day's work before us i should be glad lestrade if you could make it convenient to meet us at baker street at six o'clock this evening until then i should like to keep this photograph found in the dead man's pocket
if my chain of reasoning should prove to be correct
more education with twenty five dollars in his hand henry felt like a millionaire as he edged through the crowd to the gate that's the boy he heard many a person say when he was forced to hold his silver cup in view out of harm's way
when doctor mc allister drove into his yard he found a boy washing the concrete drives as calmly as if nothing had happened he chuckled quietly for he had stopped at the fair grounds for a few minutes himself and held a little conversation with the score keeper
when henry faithfully repeated the list of winners however he said nothing about it what are you going to do with the prize queried doctor mc allister put it in the savings bank i guess replied henry have you an account asked his friend
i remember an old uncle of mine who put two hundred dollars in the savings bank and forgot all about it he left it in there till he died and it came to me it amounted to sixteen hundred dollars whew said henry
he left it alone for over forty years you see explained doctor mc allister when henry arrived at his little home in the woods with the twenty five dollars
and the moment they were done she had drained off the water in a remarkable drainer and heaped them on the biggest dish with melted butter on top
i said my name was henry james repeated henry that's all right so it is affirmed jess it's clever too you can use that name for your bank book so i can said henry delighted i'll put it in the bank this very afternoon
and by the way i brought something for dinner tonight jess looked in the bag there were a dozen smooth brown potatoes i know how to cook those said jess nodding her head wisely you just wait can't wait hardly
henry called back as he went to work when he had gone benny frolicked around noisily with the dog
no school now said benny hopefully no but i can teach you
let's make one suggested violet shaking her hair back we have saved all the wrapping paper off the bundles you know jess was staring off into space as she always did when she had a bright idea violet she cried at last remember those chips
we could whittle out letters like type make each letter backwards you know and stamp them on paper finished violet there would be only twenty six in all it wouldn't be awfully hard said jess we wouldn't bother with capitals
what could we use for ink violet wondered wrinkling her forehead
the two girls clapped their hands won't henry be surprised when he finds that benny can read now from this conversation benny gathered that this type business would take his sisters quite a while to prepare so he was not much worried about his part of the work in fact
he sorted out chips very cheerfully and watched his teachers with interest as they dug carefully around the letters with the two knives we'll teach him two words to begin with said jess then we won't have to make the whole alphabet at once let's begin to teach him see
so only three pieces of type in all violet jess cut the wiggly s because she had the better knife
and gathered a cupful of blackberries
as she sat by crushing the juice from the berries with a stick jess planned the ink pad we'll have to use a small piece of the wash cloth i'm afraid she said at last but finally they were obliged to cut off only the uneven bits of cloth which hung around the edges
when this was sewed firmly into place and put into a small saucer jess poured on the purple juice even benny came up on his hands and knees to watch her stamp the first s it came out beautifully on the first page of the primer
jess hand shook with pure pride as she stamped it evenly on the page at last the two words were completed in fact they were done long before benny had the slightest idea his sisters were ready for him he came willingly enough for his first lesson
but he could not tell the two words apart don't you see benny jess explained patiently this one with the wiggly s says see but benny did not see i'll tell you jess said violet at last let's print each word again on a separate card
that's the way they do at school and then let him point to see the girls did this using squares of stiff brown paper then they called benny very carefully jess explained again which word said see hissing like a huge snake
to show him how the s sounded then she mixed the cards and said encouragingly now benny
he sat with his finger on his lip but the children were nearly petrified with astonishment to see watch cock his head on one side and gravely put his paw on the center of the word now this was only an accident
watch did not really know one of the words from the other but benny thought he did
benny had learned both words perfectly good old watch said jess it isn't really hard at all said benny is it watch during all this experiment jess had not forgotten her dinner when you are living outdoors all the time you do not forget things like that
in fact both girls had learned to tell the time very accurately by the sun jess started up a beautiful little fire of cones as they turned into red hot ashes and began to topple over one by one into the glowing pile jess laughed delightedly
she had already scrubbed the smooth potatoes and dried them carefully she now poked them one by one into the glowing ashes with a stick from a birch tree whenever a potato lit up dangerously she gave it a poke into a new position
and when henry found her she was just rolling the charred balls out onto the flat stones burned em up queried henry burned nothing cried jess energetically you just wait can't wait hardly replied henry smiling
you said that a long time ago said benny well isn't it true demanded henry rolling his brother over on the pine needles come said violet breathlessly forgetting to ring the bell hold them with leaves directed jess because they're terribly hot
knock them on the side and scoop them out with a spoon and put butter on top the children did as the little cook requested sprinkled on a little salt from the salt shaker and took a taste ah said henry it's
it was about the most successful meal of all in fact when the children in later years recalled their different feasts they always came back to the baked potatoes roasted in the ashes of the pine cones henry said it was because they were poked with a black birch stick
benny said it was because jess nearly burned them up
which had to stand on its head always because there was no floor to it after supper the children still were not too sleepy to show henry the new primer
and allow benny to display his first reading lesson henry greatly taken with the idea sat up until it was almost dark chipping out the remaining letters of the alphabet if you should ever care to see this interesting primer which was finally ten pages in length
you might examine this faithful copy of its first page which required four days for its completion illustration page one see me see me
o o see me come come to me come to see me cat rat
he had rather hard lines around his mouth but softer ones around his eyes printed on the ground glass top of his door were these words in black and gold j h cordyce president private
once a year j h cordyce allowed himself a holiday if he had a weakness it was for healthy boys boys running without their hats boys jumping boys throwing rings boys swimming boys vaulting with a long pole
and in company with three other extremely rich men he arranged once a year a field day for the town of intervale
boys were in training for miles around getting ready for intervale's field day and not only boys but men also old and young and girls of all ages into the bargain
prizes were offered for tennis baseball rowing swimming running and every imaginable type of athletic feat but usually the interest of the day centered on a free for all race of one mile which everyone enjoyed and a great many people entered
mister cordyce smiled about his eyes as he closed his desk ordered his limousine and went out and locked the door of his office the mill had been closed down for the day
he heard the doctor call to him from the road so he promptly turned off the hose and ran out to see what was wanted hop in commanded the doctor not stopping his engine you ought to go to see the stunts at the athletic meet it's field day henry did not wish to delay the doctor
so he hopped in can't go myself said doctor mc allister i'll just drop you at the grounds there's no charge for admittance you just watch all the events and report to me who wins henry tried to explain to his friend that he ought to be working but there was actually no time
and when he found himself seated on the bleachers and the stunts began he forgot everything in the world except the exciting events before his eyes henry had no pencil but he had an excellent memory
he repeated over and over the name of each winner as it appeared on the huge signboard it was nearly eleven o'clock when the free for all running race was announced what do they mean free for all asked henry of a small boy at his side
why just anybody explained the boy curiously didn't you ever see one didn't you see the one last year no said henry the boy laughed that was a funny one he said there was a college runner in it and a couple of fat men and some girls lots of people
and the little colored boy over there won it you just ought to have seen that boy run he went so fast you couldn't see his legs beat the college runner you know henry gazed at the winner of last year's race he was smaller than henry but apparently older
he had gone in fact to the dressing room where boys of all sizes were putting on sandals and running trunks a man stepped up to him quickly
he liked the look of henry's face as he paused to ask in an undertone where did you train never trained replied henry i suppose you know these fellows have been training all the year observed the man you don't expect to win
but it's lots of fun to run you know he was dressed and ready by this time how light he felt he felt as if he could almost fly presently the contestants were all marshalled out to the running track henry was number four
now henry had never been trained to run but the boy possessed an unusual quantity of common sense
so it happened that this was the main thought in his mind when the starter's gong sounded and the racers shot away down the track
but strangely enough he did not seem to mind this greatly it's fun to run anyhow he thought it was fun certainly he felt as if his limbs were strung together on springs
he ran easily without effort each step bounding into the next like an elastic after a few minutes of this henry had a new thought now you've tried how easy you can run let's see how fast you can run
and then not only henry himself but the enormous crowd as well began to see how fast he could run slowly he gained on the fellow ahead of him and passed him with the next fellow as a goal he gradually crept alongside and passed him with a spurt the crowd shouted itself hoarse
the field all along the course was black with people henry could hear them cheering for number four as he pounded by six runners remained ahead of him here was the kind of race the crowd loved not an easily won affair between two runners
he began to spurt he passed numbers fourteen and three he passed twenty five six and one almost in a bunch number sixteen remained ahead then henry began to think of winning
how much the twenty five dollar prize would mean to jess and the rest number sixteen must be passed i'm going to win this race he said quietly in his own mind i'll bet you i am the thought lent him speed number four number four yelled the crowd
henry did not know that the fellow ahead had been ahead all the way and just because he henry
he bent double and put all his energy into the last elastic bound he passed number sixteen and shot under the wire then the crowd went wild it scrambled over and under the fence cheering and blowing its horns
the cold rain beat on his face and he saw the figures of the sentinels moving back and forth but black against the black wall he was confident that he could not be seen by them half way to the window his eyes now having gotten used to the darkness
he continued his search following the revealing foot prints he went nearly all the way around the house and then lost them among heavy shrubbery
had left the place passing between the sentinels in the rainy dark
but harry while keeping his own counsel held another opinion and he was equally positive about it
he looked back and recognized sherburne the young captain was holding himself erect in the saddle but his horse and his uniform were covered with red mud
sure that his mission was important harry went to him at once is general jackson inside asked sherburne
replied harry looking at the lighted windows then ask him if i can see him at once
sherburne slipped from his horse harry noticed that it was not his usual elastic spring he seemed almost to fall to the ground and the horse no hand on the reins still stood motionless his head drooping
and now that he came nearer his face showed great anxiety as well as weariness
then he helped him off with his wet and muddy overcoat pushed him into a chair and said i'll announce you to general jackson and he'll see you at once harry knew that jackson would not linger a second when a messenger of importance came
and he went into the library where the minister and the general stood talking general jackson held in one hand a large leather covered volume and with the forefinger of the other hand he was pointing to a paragraph in it the minister was saying something that harry did not catch
what force do you think banks has
a good guess the figures of my spies say thirty eight thousand and we can muster scarcely five thousand here we must move jackson spoke without emotion his words were cold and dry even formal
but it was kinship nevertheless and they had made the most of it it would have been easier for him were strangers instead of friends to see their retreat
it is obvious that you need rest said jackson mister kenton you will wait and take the orders that i am going to write
jackson turned to a shelf of the library on which lay pen ink and paper and standing before it rapidly wrote several notes it was his favorite attitude habit of his west point days to write or read standing
it took him less than five minutes to write the notes and he handed them to harry to deliver without delay to the brigade commanders his tones were incisive and charged with energy harry felt the electric thrill pass to himself and with a quick salute he was once more out in the rain
some of the brigadiers were asleep and grumbled when harry awoke them but the orders soon sent the last remnants of sleep flying the
boy did not linger but returned quickly to the manse where general jackson met him at the door other aides were coming or going but all save one or two windows of the house were dark now and the merrymaking was over you have delivered the orders asked jackson yes sir all of them
harry also told then of the face that he had seen at the window and his belief concerning its identity very likely said jackson but we cannot pursue him now now go to headquarters and sleep but i shall want you at dawn
the month they had spent at winchester after the great raid had been devoted mostly to drill the day of departure came and the army amid the good wishes of many friends in winchester filed out of the town the great rains which it had seemed would never cease had ceased at last
during all the days of preparation jackson had said nothing about his plan of retreat the virginians lining the streets and watching so anxiously did not know where he would seek refuge and suddenly as they watched a cheer tremendous and involuntary burst from them
but the burst of elation was short even the civilians in winchester knew that jackson was hugely outnumbered harry himself was astonished and he gazed at his leader what fathomless purpose lay beneath that stern bearded face jackson's eyes expressed nothing
he and he alone knew what was in his mind but the troops asked no word from their leaders the fact that their faces were turned toward the north was enough for them they knew too of the heavy odds that were against them
as harry watched the young soldiers many of whom sang as they marched his own enthusiasm rose
there were few glimpses of color in the columns but the men marched with a strong elastic step they had all been born upon the farms or in the little villages and they were familiar with the hills and forests
these uniforms had been spun for them and made for them by their own mothers and wives and sisters or sweethearts they were all supposed to be gray but there were many shades of gray sometimes verging to a light blue with butternut as the predominant color
they wore gray jackets short of waist and single breasted caps were giving way to soft felt hats and boots had already been supplanted by broad strong shoes called brogans many of the soldiers carried frying pans and skillets hung on the barrels of their rifles
simple kitchen utensils which constituted almost the whole of their cooking equipment their blankets and rubber sheets for sleeping were carried in light rolls on their backs a toothbrush was stuck in a buttonhole
on their flanks or in front rode the cavalry led by the redoubtable turner ashby and there was in all their number scarcely a single horseman who did not ride like the comanche indian as if he were born in the saddle
ashby was a host in himself he had often ridden as much as eighty miles a day to inspect his own pickets
the northern cavalry unused to the saddle compared very badly with those of the south in the early years of the war ashby's men moreover rode over country that they had known all their lives there was no forest footpath no train among the hills hidden from them
but the cannon of jackson's army was inferior here the mechanical genius of the north showed supreme such was the little army of jackson somber to see which marched forth upon a campaign unrivalled in the history of war
the men whom they were to meet were of staunch stock and spirit themselves banks their commander had worked in his youth as a common laborer in a cotton mill and had forced himself up by vigor and energy but shields was a veteran of the mexican war
harry's duties carried him back and forth with the marching columns but he lingered longest beside the invincibles only a regiment now and that regiment composed almost wholly of virginians saint clair was still in the smartest of uniforms a contrast to the others
and as he nodded to harry he told him that the troops expected to meet the enemy before night i don't know how they got that belief
said langdon but it might be worse than that it might be a hundred to one it's hardly as bad as ten to one tom said harry with a laugh
and they know it's all right then said langdon squaring his shoulders and looking ferocious ten to one would be a little rough on us
is it so harry i suppose so
harry rode on saluting colonel talbot and lieutenant colonel
the first flush of green was over everything the snows were gone the rains that followed were gone too and the earth was drying rapidly under the mild winds that blew from the mountains it was evident to all
the day was filled with excitement for harry the great federal army was now so near that the rival pickets were almost constantly in touch
night came and the southern army stopped for supper and rest
yet the men ate calmly and lay down under the trees jackson called a council in a little grove general garnett the commander of the stonewall brigade all the colonels of the regiments
a little fire of fallen wood lighted up the anxious and earnest faces jackson spoke rapidly harry had never before seen him show so much emotion and outward fire
but the other officers shook their heads sadly there had been a confusion of orders their own troops had been scattered and their supply trains were far away if they attacked they would surely fall jackson reluctantly gave up his plan and walked gloomily away
but he turned presently and beckoned to harry and others of his staff his eyes were shining some strange mood seemed to possess him mount at once gentlemen he said and ride with me i'm going to winchester
one or two of the officers opened their mouths to protest but checked the words when they saw jackson's stern face
it seemed that something the general had said to the minister the day before troubled him
harry was not at all surprised in fact as he came to know him thoroughly he was never surprised at anything this strange man and genius did
harry's surmise was right jackson was torn with emotion at being compelled to abandon winchester and he wanted to explain how it was to the friend whom he liked so well
looking the minister steadily in the face but not seeing him
i will
yet carry out this plan i will think it must be done the minister said nothing standing and staring at the general like one fascinated
he had never seen jackson that way before his face was lined with thought and his eyes burned like coals of fire his hand fiercely clinched the hilt of his sword he who showed emotion so rarely was overcome by it now
no no he said sadly
meantime the north was urging mc clellan with his mighty army to advance on richmond
there was full warrant for the belief of mc clellan
what could a few thousand men no matter how brave and hardy do against an army as large as that of banks
these daring horsemen skirmished continually with the enemy and harry as he passed back and forth with orders saw much of it
colonel said harry to colonel talbot
shall we ever make headway against such a force or shall we be compelled to retreat until we make a junction with the main army under general johnston colonel talbot glanced back at the puffs of white smoke
no harry i don't believe we'll keep on retreating he replied i was with general taylor when he fell back before the mexican forces under santa anna which outnumbered him five to one
the yankees are not mexicans far from it they are as brave as anybody but stonewall jackson is a far greater general than zachary taylor i'm hoping for the best said harry we'll all wait and see said the colonel
harry felt instinctively that they would fall back no more and his spirits began to rise again but the facts upon which his hopes were based were small jackson had less than five thousand men and in the north he was wiped off the map
it was no longer necessary for cabinet members and generals to take him into consideration jackson now out of the way the main portion of the army under banks was directed to march eastward to manassas
while a heavy detachment still more than double jackson's in numbers remained in the valley meanwhile mc clellan with his right flank clear was going by sea to richmond goaded to action at last by the incessant demands of a people
harry was with stonewall jackson when the news of these movements reached them
general banks is moving eastward to cover the eastern approaches to washington said the young captain while general shields with twelve thousand men is between us and winchester so said jackson sherburne looked at him earnestly but he gave no sign
ride back to your chief and tell him i thank him for his vigilance and to report to me promptly everything that he may discover said jackson
and return to me in an hour with such news as you may have harry went gladly sometimes he longed to be at the front with turner ashby there where the rifles were often crackling what will he do will he turn now
nobody knows his plans but i think he'll attack i feel quite sure of it captain they came soon to a field in which turner ashby was sitting on a horse examining points further down the valley with a pair of powerful glasses
sherburne reported briefly and ashby nodded but did not take the glasses from his eyes
despite his youth and the ardor of battle in his nostrils harry felt the tragedy of war in this pleasant country it was a noble landscape that of the valley between the blue mountains before him stretched low hills covered here and there with fine groups of oak or pine without undergrowth
houses of red brick with porticoes and green shutters stood in wide grounds
and on the west a low hill with a small grove growing on the crest dominating the whole were the lofty cliffs of north mountain on the west the main force of the north strengthened with cannon lay to the east of the turnpike
shields a veteran of the mexican war himself was not present at this moment but kimball commanding in his absence was alert and did not share the general belief that stonewall jackson might be considered non existent harry
things coming into better view the longer he looked saw much of the union position and turner ashby presently handed him the glasses then he plainly discerned the guns and a great mass of infantry with the colors waving above them in the gentle breeze
said turner ashby dryly
the bearded silent man showed no excitement
the cavalry led by ashby began to press the enemy hard in front of a little village called kernstown a regiment with two guns led the advance on the west of the turnpike and the heavier mass of infantry marched across the fields on the left harry as his duty bade him
kept beside his general who was riding near the head of the infantry
there was an end to retreats they saw the enemy and they were eager to rush upon him the pulses in harry's temples were beating hard he already considered himself a veteran of battle but he could not see it near without feeling excitement
the two batteries on the hill had opened at a range of a mile on jackson's infantry those men of the north were good gunners and harry heard the shells and solid shot screaming and hissing around
from the east and from a point near a church called the opequon came the thunder of their own guns advancing up the other side of the turnpike now the great marching qualities of jackson's men were shown not in vain had they learned to be foot cavalry
before them stretched the ridge and harry was in fear lest the enemy spring forward and seize it first but no foe appeared in front of them in the fields and then with a rush they were at the foot of the ridge another rush and they had climbed it
came dead on for the wildest part of our coast the fierce headland that lies back of the old castle rock the sound signal was fired and charlie and his brave comrades went out to her
she was reeling on the top of a tremendous sea and there was no coming near to her side it was an awful task to get the crew aboard the lifeboat but charlie saved every soul and lost not a hand of his own
when the traveller was rigged and the breeches were ready and the crew of the doomed ship were at the bulwarks waiting to leave her charlie sang out over the clamour of the sea
twenty four came back as answer then charlie cried
the other man is hurt he's dying no use saving him the norseman shouted you'll bring the dying man on deck before a soul of you leaves the ship cried charlie
there was a woman among them and when the carpenter came scudding down the rope he had a canvas bag on his back no tools here shouted charlie it's the child said the man
the captain came next he had left everything else behind him his money his instruments his clothes his ship
but to see it in all its splendour you must have a drop of our manx blood in you our forefathers were from norway our first norse king was named gorry he landed on this island not far from this spot
and on that day of the wreck of the saint george his children's children rescued from the sea the children's children of the kinsmen he had left at home most of our men had norse names one of them was a gorry
lineal descendant beyond doubt of the old sea king the norwegian government felt the touch of great things in this incident it was not merely that the bravery of the rescue fired their gratitude something called to them from that deep place
where blood answers to the cry of blood they sent medals for charlie and his crew and the governor of the island distributed them inside the roofless walls of the old castle of the black dog it was like grasping hands with the past across
the space of a thousand years the other day we had another great wind and another brave rescue the sun had gone down overnight in a sullen red very fierce and angry in his setting
and out of the black north east the storm had come up while we slept in the heavy grey of the dawn the sound signal fired its double shot over our little town a welsh schooner which had run in for shelter during the dark hours
was riding to an anchor in the bay and flying her ensign for help the sea was terrific a slaty grey streaked with white foam like quartz veins it was coming over the breakwater in sheets that hid it
the white sea fowl were like dark specks darting through it but no human ear could hear the cry of their thousand throats in the thunderous quake of the breakers on the cavernous rocks a crowd of men answered the call
and there was no shortness of hands to man the lifeboat
when the sea was calm were struggling chafing and quarrelling to go out on it now that it was in storm
the crew of the welshman were brought ashore then the abandoned schooner rode three hours longer in the gale and a hundred men stood and watched her talking of other winds and other wrecks and of peel boys who were out on the sea
at last the ship parted her cables and went rolling like a blinded porpoise dead on for the jagged coast seven men took an open fishing boat and went after her and we climbed the head to look at them the wind smote us there like an invisible wing
sometimes swirling us out of our course often bringing us to our knees and whipping our ears with our hair like rods sheets of spray were coming up to us from below and running along the cliffs like driven rain
the sun which had broken in fierce brilliance from a green rent in the sky made rainbows in the flying foam from the heights we watched the seven men and the open boat they rose and fell appeared and disappeared
but they overtook the welshman before she had drifted on to the coast boarded her with difficulty let go another anchor and made her tight there was nothing else to do for she was disabled and her sails were torn to shreds
the new anchor held the ship an hour longer and then there was no help left for her she was within a hundred feet of the rocks and she fell on them with the groan of a living creature the instant her head was down the white lions of the sea leapt over her
the water swirled through her bulwarks and plunged down her hatch her helm was unshipped her sails were torn from their gaskets and the floating home wherein men had sailed and sung and slept and laughed
and jested was a broken wreck in the heavy wallowings of the waves when it was over and we were coming back drenched through and green with the drift of the sea foam caked thick on our faces some of us began to think of charlie
he had not been there that day a year or more ago in the prime of a splendid manhood he was stricken by heart disease he kept a good heart nevertheless and by indomitable will held on for some time first a little work
then no work at all only a sail now and then if the sea was calm but of late hardly ever well enough to take the open air
he had not answered the signal for the lifeboat but he had heard it in the fierce light of morning and they could not keep him in bed the soul of the old sea dog leapt to the call but his ailing body held him down he wanted to go out
he could hear everything and see a good deal often he could hardly keep himself from crying and shouting aloud in spirit he was out on the boiling surf dipping rising stooping going over righting again
clambering back exulting glorying getting nearer the ship standing off her rigging the traveller and fetching men aboard in the breeches and then away from the rolling hulk and sing ho my lads
and haul through the white waves for home but his poor dying body was down on the bed and his face was sickly scarlet
he died later after the great wind there came a great calm the air was quiet and full of the odour of seaweed banks of seaweed were on the shore and the broken schooner was covered with brown wrack
like any rock of the coast the sky was round as the inside of a shell and pale pink like the shadow of flame the water was smooth and land and sea lay like a sleeping child in this broad and steady weather
our little town was startled by the double shot again we went to the windows in surprise and saw the red flag over the rocket house which is the signal for the lifeboat charlie was dead he had just breathed his last
but are poets nevertheless to the deepest grain of them had run up the flag mast high not half mast as signal to the great cox of all that here was a soul in the troubled waters of death waiting for the everlasting lifeboat
charlie it did not take not so sure is it that he who lives by the sword will perish by the sword as that he who baulks the sea the sea will surely have for its prey
but he has gone to sleep on the land we buried him to day in the little cemetery looking on to the grey water that was more than half his element the funeral was beautiful in its old simplicity
first a hymn at the door of the house in the little alley by the beach safe in the arms of jesus with the coffin on the ground and all standing round the sea quiet
hardly a breeze as soft as human breath moving its tranquil surface the deadly rival in its everlasting coming and going making no triumphant clamour now the sea warrior was down
then the companions of his dangers the crew of his boat a group of stalwart fellows who have never known what it is to be afraid carrying him up the hill shoulder high each in his red stocking cap and his life belt
emblems of how they had fought the sea and beaten it there were some of us whose eyes were wet but if these brave boys wept at all it was only for the helpless little ones left behind for charlie they did not weep
his spirit is not dead for them it cannot die when brave deeds have to be done they will see its light like a beacon that does not fail over the mountains of the fiercest storm
they will hear its voice above the thunder of the loudest waves a full moon is shining to night on the place of charlie's rest and if the old norse story is true that while the body lies in sight of the sea the spirit lives in the winds above it
which they attacked all the more greedily arriving as they did when the animals were perishing with hunger from the long winter they had torn open the covering of the sledge with their enormous paws the cases of pemmican were open and half empty
the biscuit bags pillaged the provisions of tea spilt over the snow a barrel of spirits of wine broken up and its precious contents run out the camping materials lying all about
the wild animals had done their work the devils have done for us said bell what shall we do now said simpson let us first see how much we've lost said the doctor we can talk after hatteras said nothing
but began picking up the scattered objects they picked up all the pemmican and biscuit that was still eatable the loss of so much spirits of wine was deplorable as without it it was impossible to get any hot drinks no tea nor coffee
the doctor made an inventory of the provisions that were left and found that the animals had eaten two hundred pounds of pemmican and a hundred and fifty pounds of biscuit if the travellers continued their journey
they would be obliged to put themselves on half rations they deliberated about what was to be done under the circumstances
but how could they resolve to lose the hundred and fifty miles already cleared and coming back without the fuel how would they be received by the crew and which of them would begin the excursion again it was evident that the best thing to do was to go on
even at the price of the worst privations the doctor hatteras and bell were for going on but simpson wanted to go back his health had severely suffered from the fatigues of the journey and he grew visibly weaker
but at last seeing he was alone in his opinion he took his place at the head of the sledge and the little caravan continued its route during the three following days from the fifteenth to the seventeenth of january
the monotonous incidents of the journey took place again they went on more slowly the travellers were soon tired their legs ached with fatigue and the dogs drew with difficulty their insufficient food told upon them
the weather changed with its usual quickness going suddenly from intense cold to damp and penetrating fogs on the eighteenth of january the aspect of the ice field changed all at once a great number of peaks like pyramids
ending in a sharp point at a great elevation showed themselves on the horizon the soil in certain places was seen through the layer of snow it seemed to consist of schist and quartz with some appearance of calcareous rock
at last the travellers had reached terra firma and according to their estimation the continent must be new cornwall the doctor was delighted to tread on solid ground once more the travellers had only a hundred more miles to go before reaching belcher cape
but the trouble of walking increased on this rocky soil full of inequalities crevices and precipices they were obliged to plunge into the interior of the land and climb the high cliffs on the coast across narrow gorges
in which the snow was piled up to a height of thirty or forty feet the travellers soon had cause to regret the levels they had left on which the sledge rolled so easily now they were obliged to drag it with all their strength
the dogs were worn out and had to be helped the men harnessed themselves along with them and wore themselves out too they were often obliged to unload the provisions in order to get over a steep hill whose frozen surface gave no hold
some passages ten feet long took hours to clear during the first day they only made about five miles on that land so well named cornwall the next day the sledge attained the upper part of the cliffs
the travellers were too exhausted to construct their snow house and were obliged to pass the night under the tent enveloped in their buffalo skins and drying their stockings by placing them on their chests
the consequences of such a state of things may be readily imagined during the night the thermometer went down to forty four degrees below zero and the mercury froze the health of simpson became alarming
an obstinate cold violent rheumatism and intolerable pain forced him to lie down on the sledge which he could no longer guide bell took his place he was not well but was obliged not to give in
the doctor also felt the influence of his terrible winter excursion but he did not utter a complaint he marched on in front leaning on his stick he lighted the way he helped in everything
hatteras impassive impenetrable insensible in as good health as the first day with his iron constitution followed the sledge in silence on the twentieth of january the weather was so bad
that the least effort caused immediate prostration but the difficulties of the ground became so great that hatteras and bell harnessed themselves along with the dogs the front of the sledge was broken by an unexpected shock
and they were forced to stop and mend it such delays occurred several times a day the travellers were journeying along a deep ravine up to their waists in snow and perspiring notwithstanding the violent cold no one spoke
all at once bell looked at the doctor in alarm picked up a handful of snow and began to rub his companion's face with all his might what the deuce bell said the doctor struggling but bell went on rubbing are you
mad you've filled my eyes nose and mouth with snow what is it why answered bell if you've got a nose left you owe it to me a nose said the doctor putting his hand to his face yes mister clawbonny
you were quite frostbitten your nose was quite white when i looked at you and without my bit of rubbing you would be minus nose thanks bell said the doctor i'll do the same for you in case of need i hope you will mister clawbonny
and i only wish we had nothing worse to look forward to you mean simpson poor fellow he is suffering dreadfully do you fear for him asked hatteras quickly yes captain answered the doctor what do you fear
a violent attack of scurvy his legs swell already and his gums are attacked the poor fellow is lying under his blankets on the sledge and every shock increases his pain
i pity him but i can't do anything for him poor simpson said bell perhaps we had better stop a day or two said the doctor stop cried hatteras when the lives of eighteen men depend upon our return
you know we have only enough provisions left for twenty days neither the doctor nor bell could answer that and the sledge went on its way in the evening they stopped at the foot of an ice hill
out of which bell soon cut a cavern the travellers took refuge in it and the doctor passed the night in nursing simpson he was a prey to the scurvy and constant groans issued from his terrified lips
i shall never get over it i wish i was dead already take courage my poor fellow answered the doctor with pity in his tone and he answered simpson's complaints by incessant attention
though half dead with fatigue he employed a part of the night in making the sick man a soothing draught and rubbed him with lime juice unfortunately it had little effect and did not prevent the terrible malady spreading
the next day they were obliged to lift the poor fellow on to the sledge although he begged and prayed them to leave him to die in peace and begin their painful march again the freezing mists wet the three men to the skin
the snow and sleet beat in their faces they did the work of beasts of burden and had not even sufficient food dick ran hither and thither discovering by instinct the best route to follow
during the morning of the twenty third of january when it was nearly dark for the new moon had not yet made her appearance dick ran on first he was lost to sight for several hours hatteras became anxious as there were many bear marks on the ground
he was considering what had better be done when a loud barking was heard in front the little procession moved on quicker and soon came upon the faithful animal in the depth of a ravine dick was set as if he had been petrified in front of a sort of cairn
made of limestone and covered with a cement of ice this time said the doctor disengaging himself from the traces it's really a cairn we can't be mistaken what does it matter to us said hatteras why
if it is a cairn it may inclose something that would be useful to us some provisions perhaps as if europeans had ever been here said hatteras shrugging his shoulders
but if not europeans it may be that the esquimaux have hidden some product of their hunting here they are accustomed to doing it i think well look if you like clawbonny but i don't think it is worth your while
clawbonny and bell armed with their pickaxes made for the cairn dick kept on barking furiously the cairn was soon demolished and the doctor took out a damp paper hatteras took the document and read
porpoise december thirteenth eighteen sixty twelve degrees long
lat the porpoise said the doctor i don't know any ship of that name frequenting these seas said hatteras
that some sailors or perhaps some shipwrecked fellows have passed here within the last two months that's certain said bell what shall we do asked the doctor
chapter twelve imprisoned in doctor's house the first business next day was to arrange for a hunt it was settled that altamont bell and hatteras should form the party
while clawbonny should go and explore as far as isle johnson and make some hydrographic notes and johnson should remain behind to keep house the three hunters soon completed their preparations
they armed themselves each with a double barrelled revolver and a rifle and took plenty of powder and shot each man also carried in his belt his indispensable snow knife and hatchet
and a small supply of pemmican in case night should surprise them before their return
who frisked and gambolled with delight they went up the hill to the east across the cone and down into the plain below the doctor next took his departure after agreeing with johnson on a signal of alarm in case of danger
he began by unfastening the greenland dogs and letting them out for a run after their long wearisome confinement then he attended to divers housekeeping matters he had to replenish the stock of combustibles and provisions
to arrange the store houses to mend several broken utensils to repair the rents in coverlets and get new shoes ready for summer excursions there was no lack of work
he thought with regret over the captain's obstinacy and yet he felt that there was something grand and even heroic in his determination that neither an american nor an american ship should first touch the pole
the hunters had been gone about an hour when johnson suddenly heard the report of a gun capital he exclaimed they have found something and pretty quickly too for me to hear their guns so distinctly the atmosphere must be very clear
followed by the five huge bears their six balls had evidently taken no effect and the terrible monsters were close on their heels hatteras who brought up the rear
could only manage to keep off his pursuers by flinging down one article after another first his cap then his hatchet and finally his gun
he knew that the inquisitive bears would stop and examine every object sniffing all round it and this gave him a little time otherwise he could not have escaped for these animals outstrip the fleetest horse
and one monster was so near that hatteras had to brandish his knife vigorously to ward off a tremendous blow of his paw at last though panting and out of breath the three men reached johnson safely
and slid down the rock with him into the snow house the bears stopped short on the upper plateau and hatteras and his companions lost no time in barring and barricading them out here we are at last exclaimed hatteras
we can defend ourselves better now it is five against five four said johnson in a frightened voice how the doctor replied johnson pointing to the empty sitting room well
he is in isle johnson a bad job for him said bell but we can't leave him to his fate in this fashion said altamont no
they are there he exclaimed all asked bell the whole pack altamont rushed to the windows and began to fill up the deep embrasure with blocks of ice which he broke off the walls of the house
his companions followed his example silently
to tell the simple truth however it was not their own danger that occupied their thoughts but their absent friend the doctor's it was for him they trembled not for themselves poor clawbonny
so good and devoted as he had been to every member of the little colony this was the first time they had been separated from him extreme peril and most likely a frightful death awaited him
for he might return unsuspectingly to fort providence
unless i am much mistaken he must be on guard your repeated shots cannot but have warned him he must surely be aware that something unusual has happened but suppose he was too far away to hear them replied altamont
or has not understood the cause of them it is ten chances to one but he'll come quickly back never imagining the danger the bears are screened from sight by the crag completely
we must get rid of them before he comes said hatteras
they had taken care to barricade the entrance passage but the bears could easily find a way in if they chose so it was thought advisable to keep a close watch on their movements outside by listening attentively in each room
so as to be able to resist all attempts at invasion they could hear them distinctly prowling about growling and scraping the walls with their enormous paws however some action must be taken speedily
for time was passing altamont resolved to try a port hole through which he might fire on his assailants he had soon scooped out a hole in the wall but his gun was hardly pushed through when it was seized with irresistible force
and wrested from his grasp before he could even fire confound it he exclaimed we're no match for them and he hastened to stop up the breach as fast as possible this state of things had lasted upwards of an hour
and there seemed no prospect of a termination the question of a sortie began now to be seriously discussed there was little chance of success as the bears could not be attacked separately
but hatteras and his companions had grown so impatient and it must be confessed were also so much ashamed of being kept in prison by beasts that they would even have dared the risk if the captain had not suddenly thought of a new mode of defence
he took johnson's furnace poker and thrust it into the stove while he made an opening in the snow wall or rather a partial opening for he left a thin sheet of ice on the outer side as soon as the poker was red hot
he said to his comrades who stood eagerly watching him wondering what he was going to do this red hot bar will keep off the bears when they try to get hold of it and we shall be able easily to fire across it without letting them snatch away our guns
a good idea said bell posting himself beside altamont hatteras withdrew the poker and instantly plunged it in the wall the melting snow made a loud hissing noise and two bears ran and made a snatch at the glowing bar
but they fell back with a terrible howl and at the same moment four shots resounded one after the other hit exclaimed altamont hit echoed bell let us repeat the dose said hatteras carefully stopping up the opening meantime
the poker was again thrust into the fire and in a few minutes was ready for hatteras to recommence operations altamont and bell reloaded their guns and took their places but this time the poker would not pass through
what's the matter asked johnson what's the matter why those plaguey animals are piling up block after block intending to bury us alive impossible look for yourself
the poker can't get through i declare it is getting absurd now it was worse than absurd it was alarming things grew worse it was evident that the bears meant to stifle their prey
for the sagacious animals were heaping up huge masses which would make escape impossible it is too bad said old johnson with a mortified look one might put up with men but
to go out was impossible and the thick walls excluded all sound altamont walked impatiently up and down full of exasperation and excitement at finding himself worsted for once hatteras could think of nothing but the doctor
what could he do asked altamont oh he'd manage to get us out somehow how pray said the american crossly if i knew that i should not need him however i know what his advice just now would be
what to take some food that can't hurt us
oh let's eat by all means if that will please you though we're in a ridiculous not to say humiliating plight i'll bet you we'll find a way out after dinner
tried to be brave and unconcerned about the danger but he could scarcely manage it his jokes stuck in his throat moreover the whole party began to feel uncomfortable the atmosphere was getting dense
for every opening was hermetically sealed the stoves would hardly draw and it was evident would soon go out altogether for want of oxygen hatteras was the first to see their fresh danger and he made no attempt to hide it from his companions
if that is the case said altamont we must get out at all risks yes replied hatteras but let us wait till night we will make a hole in the roof and let in a provision of air and then one of us can fire out of it on the bears
it is the only thing we can do i suppose said altamont so it was agreed but waiting was hard work and altamont could not refrain from giving vent to his impatience by thundering maledictions on the bears
and abusing the ill fate which had placed them in such an awkward and humbling predicament
robinson crusoe is shipwrecked by daniel defoe having lived almost four years in the brazils and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation i had not only learned the language
but had contracted acquaintance and friendship among my fellow planters
which was our port and in my discourses among them i had frequently given them an account of my two voyages to the coast of guinea the manner of trading with the negroes there
and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast for trifles such as beads toys knives scissors hatchets bits of glass and the like not only gold dust guinea grains elephants teeth et cetera
but negroes for the service of the brazils in great numbers they listened very attentively to my discourses on these heads but especially to that part which related to the buying of negroes which was a trade at that time not far entered into
and talking of things very earnestly three of them came to me next morning and told me they had been musing very much upon what i had discoursed with them of the last night and they came to make a secret proposal to me
they told me that they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to guinea that they had all plantations as well as i and for which they needed nothing so much as servants that as it was a trade that could not be carried on because they could not publicly sell the negroes when they came home
so they desired to make but one voyage to bring the negroes on shore privately and divide them among their own plantations and in a word the question was whether i would go to manage the trading part upon the coast of guinea
and they offered me that i should have my equal share of the negroes without providing any part of the stock this was a fair proposal it must be confessed had it been made to any one that had not had a settlement and a plantation of his own to look after
but for me that was thus entered and established and had nothing to do but to go on as i had begun for three or four years more and to have sent for the other hundred pounds from england and who in that time and with that little addition
making the captain of the ship that had saved my life as before my universal heir but obliging him to dispose of my effects as i had directed in my will one half of the produce being to himself and the other to be shipped to england
in short i took all possible caution to preserve my effects
had i used half as much prudence to have looked into my own interest and have made a judgment of what i ought to have done and ought not to have done i had certainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking and gone upon a voyage to sea attended with all its hazards
but i was hurried on and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy rather than my reason and accordingly
and all things done as by agreement by my partners in the voyage
being the same day eight years that i went from my father and mother at hull
carried six guns and fourteen men besides the master his boy and myself we had on board no large cargo of goods except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the negroes such as beads bits of glass shells and other trifles
especially little looking glasses knives scissors hatchets and the like the same day i went on board we set sail standing away to the northward upon our own coast
when a violent tornado or hurricane took us quite out of our knowledge it blew in such a terrible manner that for twelve days together we could do nothing but drive and scudding away before it
and during these twelve days i need not say that i expected every day to be swallowed up nor did any in the ship expect to save their lives in this distress we had besides the terror of the storm one of our men die of the calenture
west from cape saint augustino so that he found he was gotten upon the coast of guiana or the north part of brazil beyond the river amazon toward that of the river orinoco commonly called the great river and now he began to consult with me
what course he should take for the ship was leaky and very much disabled and he was for going directly back to the coast of brazil i was positively against that
we concluded there was no inhabited country for us to have recourse to till we came within the circle of the caribbee islands
whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to the coast of africa without some assistance both to our ship and to ourselves
in order to reach some of our english islands
but our voyage was otherwise determined for being in the latitude of twelve degrees eighteen minutes a second storm came upon us which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward and drove us so out of the way of all human commerce that
and in a moment her motion being so stopped the sea broke over her in such a manner that we expected we should all have perished immediately and we were even driven into our close quarters to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea it is not easy for any one
who has not been in the like condition to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances we knew nothing where we were or upon what land it was we were driven whether an island or the main whether inhabited or not inhabited
as the rage of the wind was still great though rather less than at first we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes without breaking in pieces unless the winds by a kind of miracle should turn immediately about in a word we sat looking one upon another
and expecting death every moment and every man acting accordingly as preparing for another world for there was little or nothing more for us to do in this that which was our present comfort and all the comfort we had was that contrary to our expectation
the ship did not break yet and that the master said the wind began to abate now though we thought the wind did a little abate yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand and sticking too fast for us to expect her getting off
and in the next place she broke away and either sunk or was driven off to sea so there was no hope from her we had another boat on board
however there was no room to debate for we fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute and some told us she was actually broken already in this distress the mate of our vessel
they got her flung over the ship's side and getting all into her we let go and committed ourselves being eleven in number to god's mercy and the wild sea for though the storm was abated considerably
yet the sea went dreadfully high upon the shore and might be well called
as to making sail we had none nor if we had could we have done anything with it so we worked at the oar toward the land though with heavy hearts like men going to execution for we all knew that when the boat came near the shore
she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the sea however we committed our souls to god in the most earnest manner and the wind driving us toward the shore we hastened our destruction with our own hands
pulling as well as we could toward land what the shore was whether rock or sand whether steep or shoal we knew not the only hope that could rationally give us the least shadow of expectation was if we might happen into some bay or gulf
or the mouth of some river where by great chance we might have run our boat in or got under the lee of the land and perhaps made smooth water but there was nothing of this appeared but as we made nearer and nearer the shore the land looked more frightful than the sea
after we had rowed or rather driven about a league and a half as we reckoned it a raging wave mountain like came rolling astern of us and plainly bade us
in a word it took us with such a fury that it overset the boat at once and separating us as well from the boat as from one another gave us not time hardly to say o god for we were all swallowed up in a moment
nothing can describe the confusion of thought which i felt when i sank into the water for though i swam very well yet i could not deliver myself from the waves so as to draw breath till that wave having driven me or rather carried me
went back and left me upon the land almost dry but half dead with the water i took in i had so much presence of mind as well as breath left that seeing myself nearer the mainland than i expected i got upon my feet
and endeavored to make on toward the land as fast as i could
and as furious as an enemy which i had no means or strength to contend with my business was to hold my breath and raise myself upon the water if i could and so by swimming to preserve my breathing and pilot myself toward the shore if possible
my greatest concern now being that the wave as it would carry me a great way toward the shore when it came on might not carry me back again with it when it gave back toward the sea
the wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body and i could feel myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness toward the shore a very great way but i held my breath
and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might i was ready to burst with holding my breath when as i felt myself rising up so to my immediate relief i found my head and hands shoot out above the surface of the water
gave me breath and new courage i was covered again with water a good while but not so long but i held it out and finding the water had spent itself
and till the waters went from me and then took to my heels and ran with what strength i had farther toward the shore but neither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea which came pouring in after me again
and twice more i was lifted up by the waves and carried forward as before
for the sea having hurried me along as before
against a piece of a rock and that with such force as it left me senseless and indeed helpless as to my own deliverance for the blow taking my side and breast beat the breath as it were quite out of my body and had it returned again immediately
but i recovered a little before the return of the waves and seeing i should be covered again with water
and so to hold my breath if possible till the wave went back now as the waves were not so high as at first being nearer land
that the next wave though it went over me
i got to the mainland where to my great comfort i clambered up the clifts and sat upon the grass free from danger and quite out of the reach of the water i was now landed and safe on shore and began to look up and thank god that my life was saved
in a case wherein there was some minutes before scarce any room to hope i believe it is impossible to express to the life what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are when it is so saved
as i may say out of the very grave and i do not wonder now at that custom when a malefactor who has the halter about his neck is tied up and just going to be turned off and has a reprieve brought to him
to let him bleed that very moment they tell him of it that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart and overwhelm him for sudden joys like griefs confound at first i walked about on the shore lifting up my hands
and my whole being as i may say
making a thousand gestures and motions which i cannot describe reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned and that there should not be one soul saved but myself for as for them i never saw them afterward or any sign of them
except three of their hats one cap and two shoes that were not fellows i cast my eyes to the stranded vessel when the breach and froth of the sea being so big i could hardly see it it lay so far off and considered lord
how was it possible i could get on shore after i had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my condition i began to look round me to see what kind of place i was in
and that in a word i had a dreadful deliverance for i was wet had no clothes to shift me nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me neither did i see any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger
or being devoured by wild beasts and that which was particularly afflicting to me was that i had no weapon
in a word i had nothing about me but a knife a tobacco pipe and a little tobacco in a box this was all my provision and this threw me into terrible agonies of mind that for a while i ran about like a madman
night coming upon me i began with a heavy heart to consider what would be my lot if there were any ravenous beasts in that country seeing at night they always come abroad for their prey all the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time
was to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir but thorny which grew near me and where i resolved to sit all night and consider the next day what death i should die
i went to the tree and getting up into it endeavored to place myself so that if i should sleep i might not fall and having cut me a short stick like a truncheon for my defence i took up my lodging and being excessively fatigued
i fell fast asleep and slept as comfortably as i believe few could have done in my condition
by daniel defoe when i waked it was broad day the weather clear and the storm abated so that the sea did not rage and swell as before
this being within about a mile from the shore where i was and the ship seeming to stand upright still i wished myself on board that at least i might save some necessary things for my use when i came down from my apartment in the tree
about two miles on my right hand i walked as far as i could upon the shore to have got to her but found a neck or inlet of water between me and the boat which was about half a mile broad so i came back for the present
being more intent upon getting at the ship where i hoped to find something for my present subsistence
and here i found a fresh renewing of my grief
we had been all safe that is to say we had all got safe on shore and i had not been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all comfort and company as i now was this forced tears to my eyes again
but as there was little relief in that i resolved if possible to get to the ship so i pulled off my clothes for the weather was hot to extremity and took the water but when i came to the ship my difficulty was still greater to know how to get on board
for as she lay aground and high out of the water there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of
and the second time i spied a small piece of rope which i wondered i did not see at first hung down by the fore chains so low as that with great difficulty i got hold of it and by the help of that rope
here i found that the ship was bulged
but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand or rather earth that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank and her head low almost to the water by this means all her quarter was free
and all that was in that part was dry for you may be sure my first work was to search and to see what was spoiled and what was free and first i found that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the water and being very well disposed to eat
i went to the bread room and filled my pockets with biscuit and ate it as i went about other things
i also found some rum in the great cabin of which i took a large dram and which i had indeed need enough of to spirit me
it was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had and this extremity roused my application we had several spare yards
i resolved to fall to work with these and i flung as many of them overboard as i could manage for their weight tying every one with a rope
in the form of a raft and laying two or three short pieces of plank upon them crossways
the pieces being too light
and with a carpenter's saw i cut a spare topmast into three lengths and added them to my raft with a great deal of labor and pains
my raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight my next care was what to load it with and how to preserve what i laid upon it from the surf of the sea but i was not long considering this i first laid all the planks or boards upon it that i could get
and having considered well what i most wanted i got three of the seamen's chests which i had broken open and emptied and lowered them down upon my raft the first of these i filled with provisions
bread rice three dutch cheeses five pieces of dried goat's flesh which we lived much upon and a little remainder of european corn which had been laid by for some fowls which we brought to sea with us but the fowls were killed
there had been some barley and wheat together but to my great disappointment i found afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled it all as for liquors i found several cases of bottles belonging to our skipper in which were some cordial waters
and in all about five or six gallons of rack these i stowed by themselves there being no need to put them into the chest nor any room for them while i was doing this i found the tide begin to flow though very calm
and i had the mortification to see my coat shirt and waistcoat which i had left on the shore upon the sand swim away as for my breeches which were only linen and open kneed i swam on board in them and my stockings
however this set me on rummaging for clothes of which i found enough but took no more than i wanted for present use for i had other things which my eye was more upon as first tools to work with on shore and it was after long searching
that i found out the carpenter's chest which was indeed a very useful prize to me
i got it down to my raft whole as it was without losing time to look into it for i knew in general what it contained
these i secured first with some powder horns and a small bag of shot and two old rusty swords i knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship
but with much search i found them two of them dry and good the third had taken water those two i got to my raft with the arms
and began to think how i should get to shore with them having neither sail oar nor rudder and the least capful of wind would have overset all my navigation i had three encouragements first a smooth calm sea
what little wind there was blew me towards the land and thus having found two or three broken oars belonging to the boat and besides the tools which were in the chest i found two saws an axe and a hammer with this cargo i put to sea
for a mile or thereabouts my raft went very well only that i found it drive a little distant from the place where i had landed before by which i perceived that there was some indraft of the water and consequently i hoped to find some creek or river there
which i might make use of as a port to get to land with my cargo as i imagined so it was there appeared before me a little opening of the land and i found a strong current of the tide set into it
to keep in the middle of the stream but here i had like to have suffered a second shipwreck which if i had
for knowing nothing of the coast my raft ran aground at one end of it upon a shoal and not being aground at the other end it wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off towards the end that was afloat and so fallen into the water
neither durst i stir from the posture i was in but holding up the chests with all my might i stood in that manner near half an hour in which time the rising of the water
with land on both sides and a strong current of tide running up i looked on both sides for a proper place to get to shore for i was not willing to be driven too high up the river hoping in time to see some ships at sea
and therefore resolved to place myself as near the coast as i could at length i spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek to which with great pain and difficulty i guided my raft and at last got so near that
reaching ground with my oar i could thrust her directly in
near a flat piece of ground which i expected the water would flow over and so it did as soon as i found water enough for my raft drew about a foot of water i thrust her upon that flat piece of ground and there fastened or moored her
by sticking my two broken oars into the ground one on one side near one end and one on the other side near the other end and thus i lay till the water ebbed away and left my raft and all my cargo safe on shore my next work was to view the country
and seek a proper place for my habitation and where to stow my goods to secure them from whatever might happen where i was i yet knew not whether on the continent or on an island whether inhabited or not inhabited
there was a hill not above a mile from me which rose up very steep and high and which seemed to overtop some other hills which lay as in a ridge from it northward
and a horn of powder and thus armed i travelled for discovery up to the top of that hill where after i had with great labor and difficulty got to the top i saw my fate to my great affliction
that i was in an island environed every way with the sea no land to be seen except some rocks which lay a great way off and two small islands less than this which lay about three leagues to the west
i found also that the island i was in was barren and as i saw good reason to believe uninhabited except by wild beasts of whom however i saw none yet i saw abundance of fowls but knew not their kinds
i had no sooner fired than from all parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls of many sorts making a confused screaming and crying and every one according to his usual note
but not one of them of any kind that i knew as for the creature i killed
its color and beak resembling it but it had no talons or claws more than common its flesh was carrion and fit for nothing contented with this discovery i came back to my raft and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore
which took me up the rest of that day what to do with myself at night i knew not nor indeed where to rest for i was afraid to lie down on the ground not knowing but some wild beast might devour me
however as well as i could i barricaded myself round with the chests and boards that i had brought on shore and made a kind of hut for that night's lodging as for food i yet saw not which way to supply myself
except that i had seen two or three creatures like hares run out of the wood where i shot the fowl i now began to consider that i might yet get a great many things out of the ship which would be useful to me and particularly some of the rigging and sails
and such other things as might come to land
i resolved to set all other things apart
then i called a council that is to say in my thoughts whether i should take back the raft but this appeared impracticable
when the tide was down and i did so only that i stripped before i went from my hut having nothing on but my chequered shirt
as first in the carpenter's stores i found two or three bags full of nails and spikes a great screwjack a dozen or two of hatchets and above all that most useful thing called a grindstone all these i secured
together with several things belonging to the gunner particularly two or three iron crows and two barrels of musket bullets seven muskets another fowling piece with some small quantity of powder more
and a great roll of sheet lead but this last was so heavy i could not hoist it up to get it over the ship's side besides these things i took all the men's clothes that i could find and a spare fore topsail a hammock and some bedding
and with this i loaded my second raft and brought them all safe on shore to my very great comfort i was under some apprehension during my absence from the land
which when i came towards it ran away a little distance and then stood still she sat very composed and unconcerned and looked full in my face as if she had a mind to be acquainted with me i presented my gun at her but
as she did not understand it she was perfectly unconcerned at it nor did she offer to stir away
for my store was not great however i spared her a bit i say and she went to it smelled at it and ate it and looked as if pleased for more but i thanked her and could spare no more so she marched off
having got my second cargo on shore though i was fain to open the barrels of powder and bring them by parcels for they were too heavy being large casks i went to work to make me a little tent with the sail and some poles which i cut for that purpose
and into this tent i brought everything that i knew would spoil either with rain or sun and i piled all the empty chests and casks up in a circle round the tent to fortify it from any sudden attempt either from man or beast
when i had done this i blocked up the door of the tent with some boards within and an empty chest set up on end without
laying my two pistols just at my head and my gun at length by me i went to bed for the first time and slept very quietly all night
and to get them on shore i had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever was laid up i believe for one man but i was not satisfied still for while the ship sat upright in that posture i thought i ought to get everything out of her that i could
so every day at low water i went on board and brought away something or other but particularly the third time i went i brought away as much of the rigging as i could as also all the small ropes and rope twines i could get with a piece of spare canvas
which was to mend the sails upon occasion and the barrel of wet gunpowder in a word i brought away all the sails first and last only that i was fain to cut them in pieces and bring as much at a time as i could
for they were no more useful to be sails but as mere canvas only but that which comforted me more still was that last of all after i had made five or six such voyages as these
i found a great hogshead of bread three large runlets of rum or spirits a box of sugar and a barrel of fine flour this was surprising to me because i had given over expecting any more provisions except what was spoiled by the water
i soon emptied the hogshead of the bread and wrapped it up parcel by parcel in pieces of the sails which i cut out and in a word i got all this safe on shore also the next day i made another voyage
and now having plundered the ship of what was portable and fit to hand out i began with the cables
but my good luck began now to leave me for this raft was so unwieldy and so overladen that after i had entered the little cove where i had landed the rest of my goods not being able to guide it so handily as i did the other it overset
and threw me and all my cargo into the water as for myself it was no great harm for i was near the shore
a work which fatigued me very much after this i went every day on board and brought away what i could get i had been now thirteen days on shore and had been eleven times on board the ship
in which time i had brought away all that one pair of hands could well be supposed capable to bring though i believe verily had the calm weather held i should have brought away the whole ship piece by piece but preparing the twelfth time to go on board
i found the wind began to rise however at low water i went on board and though i thought i had rummaged the cabin so effectually that nothing more could be found yet i discovered a locker with drawers in it in one of which i found two or three razors
with some ten or a dozen of good knives and forks in another i found about thirty six pounds value in money some european coin some brazil some pieces of eight some gold and some silver
o drug said i aloud
one of those knives is worth all this heap i have no manner of use for thee e'en remain where thou art and go to the bottom as a creature whose life is not worth saving however upon second thoughts i took it away
and wrapping all this in a piece of canvas i began to think of making another raft but while i was preparing this i found the sky overcast and the wind began to rise and in a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore
it presently occurred to me that it was in vain to pretend to make a raft with the wind off shore and that it was my business to be gone before the tide of flood began otherwise i might not be able to reach the shore at all accordingly i let myself down into the water
and swam across the channel which lay between the ship and the sands and even that with difficulty enough
and partly the roughness of the water for the wind rose very hastily
but i had got home to my little tent where i lay with all my wealth about me very secure it blew very hard all night and in the morning when i looked out behold no more ship was to be seen i was a little surprised
nor abated any diligence to get everything out of her that could be useful to me and that indeed there was little left in her that i was able to bring away
even by way of the plain and fully four hours had been occupied by lecoq and his colleague in collecting their elements of information
accessible to any chance visitor still when on his return the young police agent remembered this neglect of elementary precautions he did not feel alarmed considering all the circumstances
it was very difficult to believe that any serious harm could have resulted from this carelessness for who would have been likely to visit this drinking den after midnight its bad name served the purpose of a bulwark
the most daring vagrants did not drink there without some disquietude fearing that if the liquor caused them to lose consciousness they might be robbed or perhaps even murdered
hence if any one had been attracted to this notoriously dangerous drinking shop by the light that streamed through the open door it could only have been some very reckless person returning late at night from the ball at the rainbow
with a few sous left in his pocket but even then a single glance inside would have sufficed to put the bravest to flight in less than a second the young police agent had weighed all these possibilities
concerning which he did not breathe a word to father absinthe when little by little the excitement caused by his successive hopes and disappointments and by the accomplishment of the experiment with the footprints had died away
and he had regained his usual calm of mind he made a careful inspection of the abode and was by no means satisfied with himself he had experimented upon father absinthe with his new system of investigation
not before the cleverest he had certainly overwhelmed the old veteran by his superiority he had literally crushed him but what great merit what wonderful victory was this
why should he boast of having outwitted father absinthe one of the least sagacious men in the service
but after all what had he accomplished was the mystery solved was his success more than problematical when one thread is drawn out the skein is not untangled
this night would undoubtedly decide his future as a detective so he swore that if he could not conquer his vanity he would at least compel himself to conceal it hence it was in a very modest tone
that he said to his companion we have done all that we can do outside now would it not be wise to busy ourselves with the inside of the house everything looked exactly in the same state as when the two men left the room
a candle with a charred smoking wick cast its flickering light upon the same scene of disorder revealing to view the rigid features of the three victims without losing a moment
lecoq began to pick up and study the various objects scattered over the floor some of these still remained intact
judging the bare ground upon which the cabin was built quite good enough for the feet of her customers this ground which must originally have been well beaten down had by constant use and damp
become well nigh as muddy as the soil outside the first fruits of lecoq's search were a large salad bowl and a big iron spoon the latter so twisted and bent that it had evidently been used as a weapon during the conflict
on inspecting the bowl it became evident that when the quarrel began the victims were regaling themselves with the familiar mixture of water wine and sugar
after the salad bowl the two men picked up five of the weighty glasses ordinarily used in wine shops and which while looking as though they would contain half a bottle are in point of fact so thick at the bottom
that they hold next to nothing three of these glasses were broken two were whole all of them had contained wine
then he examined successively the surfaces of the three overturned tables upon one of these the one nearest the fireplace and the window the still wet marks of the five glasses of the salad bowl
and even of the spoons could be distinguished lecoq very properly regarded this circumstance as a matter of the greatest importance for it proved clearly enough that five persons had emptied the salad bowl in company
who were these five persons oh oh suddenly exclaimed lecoq in two entirely different tones then the two women could not have been with the murderer
a very simple mode of discovery had presented itself to his mind it was to ascertain if there were any other glasses and what they had contained after a fresh search on the floor a sixth glass was found
but much smaller its smell showed that it had contained brandy then these two women had not been with the murderer and therefore he could not have fought because the other men had insulted them
this discovery proved the inaccuracy of lecoq's original suppositions it was an unexpected check and he was mourning over it in silence when father absinthe who had not ceased ferreting about uttered a cry of surprise
the young man turned he saw that his companion had become very pale what is it he asked some one has been here in our absence impossible it was not impossible it was true
he had thrown it upon the steps of the stairs neither of the police agents had since touched it and yet the pockets of this apron were now turned inside out this was a proof this was evidence at this discovery
lecoq was overcome with consternation and the contraction of his features revealed the struggle going on in his mind who could have been here he murmured robbers that is improbable then
he added the person who came here who dared to penetrate into this abode and face the corpses of these murdered men this person could have been none other than the accomplice but it is not enough to suspect this
it is necessary to know it i must i will know it they searched for a long time and it was not until after an hour of earnest work that in front of the door forced open by the police they discovered in the mud
a footprint that bore a close resemblance to those left by the man who had entered the garden they compared the impressions and recognized the same designs formed by the nails upon the sole of the boot it must have been the accomplice
exclaimed lecoq he watched us he saw us go away and then he entered but why what pressing irresistible necessity made him decide to brave such imminent danger he seized his companion's hand
nearly crushing it in his excitement ah i know why continued he violently i understand only too well some article that would have served to throw light on this horrible affair had been left or forgotten or lost here
and to obtain it to find it he decided to run this terrible risk and to think that it was my fault my fault alone that this convincing proof escaped us and i thought myself so shrewd
the door should have been locked any fool would have thought of it here he checked himself and remained with open mouth and distended eyes pointing with his finger to one of the corners of the room what is the matter
asked his frightened companion lecoq made no reply but slowly and with the stiff movements of a somnambulist he approached the spot to which he had pointed stooped picked up something and said
my folly is not deserving of such luck the object he had found was an earring composed of a single large diamond the setting was of marvelous workmanship this diamond declared lecoq
must be worth at least five or six thousand francs
i think i could swear to it he would not have troubled about such a preamble as i think a few hours before but the blunder he had made was a lesson that would not be forgotten so long as he lived
perhaps it was that same diamond earring that the accomplice came to seek ventured father absinthe the supposition is scarcely admissible in that case he would not have sought for it in mother chupin's apron
no he must have been seeking for something else a letter for example the older man was not listening he had taken the earring and was examining it in his turn and to think
he murmured astonished by the brilliancy of the stone to think that a woman who had ten thousand francs worth of jewels in her ears would have come to the poivriere who would have believed it
lecoq shook his head thoughtfully yes it is very strange very improbable very absurd
some days later prince rameses was summoned before the face of his most worthy mother nikotris who was the second wife of the pharaoh but now the greatest lady in egypt the gods were not mistaken when they called her to be the mother of a pharaoh
she was a tall person of rather full habit and in spite of forty years was still beautiful there was in her eyes face and whole form such majesty that even when she went unattended in the modest garb of a priestess
people bowed their heads to her the worthy lady received rameses in her cabinet which was paved with porcelain tiles she sat on an inlaid armchair under a palm tree at her feet on a small stool
lay a little dog on the other side knelt a black slave woman with a fan the pharaoh's wife wore a muslin robe embroidered with gold and on her wig a circlet in the form of a lotus ornamented with jewels
when the prince had bowed low the little dog sniffed him then lay down again while the lady nodding her head made inquiry for what reason o rameses hast thou desired an interview two days ago mother
rameses dropped his head he was confused but dost thou need much money fifteen talents o gods cried the lady but a couple of days ago ten talents were paid thee from the treasury
go girl into the garden thou must be tired said she to the black slave and when alone with her son she asked but is thy jewess so demanding rameses blushed but raised his head
thou knowest mother that she is not but i promised a reward to the army and i am unable to pay it the queen looked at him with calm loftiness
said she after a while when a son makes decisions without consulting his mother just now i remembering thy age wished to give thee a phoenician slave maiden sent me by tyre with ten talents for dowry but thou hast preferred a jewess
she pleased me there is not such a beauty among thy serving maidens mother nor even among the wives of his holiness but she is a jewess be not prejudiced mother i beg of thee it is untrue that jews eat pork and kill cats
the worthy lady laughed thou art speaking like some boy from a primary school answered she shrugging her shoulders and hast forgotten the words of rameses the great the yellow people are more numerous than we and they are richer
let us act against them lest they grow too powerful but let us act carefully i do not think therefore that a girl of that people is the one to be first mistress of the heir to the throne
can the words of rameses the great apply to the daughter of a poor tenant asked the prince besides where are the jews three centuries ago they left egypt and to day they form a little state ridiculous and priest governed
i see answered the worthy lady frowning slightly that thy mistress is not losing time be careful rameses remember that their leader was messu moses that traitor priest whom we curse to this day in our temples
remember that the jews bore away out of egypt more treasures than the labor of their few generations was worth to us they took with them not only gold but the faith in one god and our sacred laws which they give out to day as their own faith and laws
last of all know this added she with great emphasis that the daughters of that people prefer death to the bed of a foreigner and if they give themselves even to hostile leaders
it is to use them for their policy or to kill them believe me mother that it is our priests who spread all these reports they will not admit to the footstool of the throne people of another faith
lest those people might serve the pharaoh in opposition to their order the queen rose from the armchair and crossing her arms on her breast gazed at her son with amazement what they tell me is true then
was a high priest and possessed extensive power in this country just because my grandfather was a pharaoh and my father is a pharaoh also i cannot endure the rule of herhor
i cannot recognize my own son i do not see in thee the future lord of egypt the dynasty in thy person will be like a nile boat without a rudder thou wilt drive the priests from the court but who will remain with thee
who will be thy eye in the lower and the upper country who in foreign lands but the pharaoh must see everything whatever it be on which fall the divine rays of osiris the priests will be my servants not my ministers
they are the most faithful servants thanks to their prayers thy father reigns thirty three years and avoids war which might be fatal to the priests to the pharaoh and the state interrupted the lady
knowest thou what takes place in our treasury from which in one day thou takest ten talents and desirest fifteen more knowest thou that were it not for the liberality of the priests who on behalf of the treasury even take real jewels from the gods and put false ones in their places
the property of the pharaoh would be now in the hands of phoenicians one fortunate war would overflow our treasury as the increase of the nile does our fields no thou rameses art such a child yet
that we may not even reckon thy godless words as sinful occupy thyself i beg with thy greek regiments get rid of the jew girl as quickly as may be and leave politics to us why must i put away sarah
complications might rise in the state which is troubled enough as matters now are thou mayst be angry with the priests added she if thou wilt not offend them in public they know that it is necessary to overlook much in an heir to the throne
especially when he has such a stormy character but time pacifies everything to the glory of the dynasty and the profit of egypt the prince meditated then he said suddenly i cannot count therefore on money from the treasury
thou canst not in any case
and what shall i do with the army asked the prince rubbing his forehead impatiently put away the jewess and beg the priests perhaps they will make a loan to thee never
the lady shook her head thou art erpatr act as may please thee but i say that thou must give great security and the phoenicians when once thy creditors will not let thee go they surpass the jews in treachery
a part of my income will suffice to cover such debts we shall see i wish sincerely to help thee but i have not the means said the lady sadly do then as thou art able
but remember that the phoenicians in our state are like rats in a granary when one pushes in through a crevice others follow rameses loitered in leave taking hast thou something more to tell me inquired the queen
i should like to ask my heart divines that thou mother hast some plans regarding me what are they she stroked his face not now not yet thou art free to day like every young noble in the country
then make use of thy freedom but rameses the time is coming when thou wilt have to take a wife whose children will be princes of the blood royal and whose son will be thy heir i am thinking of that time and what nothing defined yet
in every case political wisdom suggests to me that thy wife should be a priest's daughter
said the prince with a laugh what would there be blamable in that herhor will be high priest in thebes very soon and his daughter is only fourteen years of age and would she consent to occupy the place of the jewess asked rameses ironically
or the pyramids pass over to the eastern desert
gazing with fear at rameses
asked her son with a bitter smile men have witnessed the death of pharaohs who had reigned a few months only and the fall of dynasties which had governed nine nations yes for those pharaohs forgot the sword for the distaff
retorted rameses he bowed and went out in proportion as the sound of rameses steps grew less in the immense antechamber the face of the worthy lady changed the place of majesty was taken by pain and fear
while tears were glistening in her great eyes she ran to the statue of the goddess knelt and sprinkling incense from india on the coals began to pray
o isis who givest birth to serpents crocodiles and ostriches may thy name be thrice praised o isis who preservest grains of wheat from robber whirlwinds and the bodies of our fathers from the destructive toil of time o isis
take pity on my son and preserve him thrice be thy name repeated and here and there and beyond to day and forever and for the ages of ages as long as the temples of our gods shall gaze on themselves in the waters of the nile
the river introduces us i stood alone on the bank of the ugliest stream in england the moonlight pouring its unclouded radiance over open space
on those sluggish waters broad and muddy their stealthy current flowed onward to the sea without a rock to diversify without a bubble to break the sullen surface on the side from which i was looking at the river
the neglected trees grew so close together that they were undermining their own lives and poisoning each other on the opposite bank a rank growth of gigantic bulrushes hid the ground beyond except where it rose in hillocks
a repellent river in itself a repellent river in its surroundings a repellent river even in its name it was called the loke neither popular tradition nor antiquarian research could explain what the name meant
or could tell when the name had been given we call it the loke they do say no fish can live in it and it dirties the clean salt water when it runs into the sea such was the character of the river in the estimation of the people who knew it best
but i was pleased to see the loke again the ugly river like the woodland glade looked at me with the face of an old friend on my right hand side rose the venerable timbers of the water mill the wheel was motionless at that time of night
and the whole structure looked as remembered objects will look when we see them again after a long interval smaller than i had supposed it to be otherwise i could discover no change in the mill but the wooden cottage attached to it
had felt the devastating march of time a portion of the decrepit building still stood revealed in its wretched old age propped partly by beams which reached from the thatched roof to the ground and partly by the wall of a new cottage attached
presenting in yellow brick work a hideous modern contrast to all that was left of its ancient neighbor had the miller whom i remembered died and were these changes the work of his successor i thought of asking the question and tried the door
it was fastened the windows were all dark excepting one which i discovered in the upper storey at the farther side of the new building here there was a dim light burning it was impossible to disturb a person who for all i knew to the contrary
might be going to bed i turned back to the loke proposing to extend my walk by a mile or a little more to a village that i remembered on the bank of the river
pausing to listen i heard next the working of oars in their rowlocks after another interval a boat appeared turning a projection in the bank and rowed by a woman pulling steadily against the stream as the boat approached me in the moonlight
this person corrected my first impression and revealed herself as a young girl so far as i could perceive she was a stranger to me who could the girl be alone on the river at that time of night idly curious i followed the boat
instead of pursuing my way to the village to see whether she would stop at the mill or pass it she stopped at the mill secured the boat and stepped on shore taking a key from her pocket she was about to open the door of the cottage
when i advanced and spoke to her as far from recognizing her as ever i found myself nevertheless thinking of an odd outspoken child living at the mill in past years who had been one of my poor mother's favorites at our village school
i ran the risk of offending her by bluntly expressing the thought which was then in my mind is it possible that you are cristel toller i said the question seemed to amuse her why shouldn't i be cristel toller she asked
you were a little girl i explained when i saw you last you are so altered now and so improved that i should never have guessed you might be the daughter of giles toller of the mill if i had not seen you opening the cottage door she acknowledged my compliment by a curtsey
which reminded me again of the village school thank you young man she said smartly i wonder who you are try if you can recollect me i suggested may i take a long look at you as long as you like
she studied my face with a mental effort to remember me which gathered her pretty eyebrows together quaintly in a frown there's something in his eyes she remarked not speaking to me but to herself which doesn't seem to be quite strange
my dear i am only trying if you can remember gerard roylake while in charge of the boat the miller's daughter had been rowing with bared arms beautiful dusky arms at once delicate and strong thus far she had forgotten to cover them up
her verbal apologies followed you used to be such a sweet spoken pretty little boy she said how should i know you again with a big voice and all that hair on your face
half the county belongs to him she tried another apology and hit this time on the conventional form i beg your pardon sir
i wish you good night sir she attempted to escape into the cottage i followed her to the threshold of the door surely it's not time to go to bed yet i ventured to say she was still on her good behavior to her landlord not if you object to it sir
she answered this recognition of my authority was irresistible cristel had laid me under an obligation to her good influence for which i felt sincerely grateful she had made me laugh for the first time since my return to england
we needn't say good night just yet i suggested i want to hear a little more about you shall i come in she stepped out of the doorway even more rapidly than she had stepped into it i might have been mistaken
but i thought cristel seemed to be actually alarmed by my proposal we walked up and down the river bank on every occasion when we approached the cottage i detected her in stealing a look at the ugly modern part of it there could be no mistake this time
i saw doubt i saw anxiety in her face what was going on at the mill i made some domestic inquiries beginning with her father was the miller alive and well oh yes sir father gets thinner as he gets older that's all
did he send you out by yourself at this late hour in the boat
pointing in the direction of the river side village father isn't as quick as he used to be he's often late over his work now was there no one to give giles toller the help that he must need at his age
i said a change of expression appeared in her bright brown eyes which roused my curiosity i also observed that she evaded a direct reply what makes you doubt sir if father and i live alone she asked i pointed to the new cottage
that ugly building i answered seems to give you more room than you want unless there is somebody else living at the mill i had no intention of trying to force the reply from her which she had hitherto withheld but she appeared to put that interpretation on what i had said
if you will have it she burst out there is somebody else living with us a man who helps your father no a man who pays my father's rent i was quite unprepared for such a reply as this cristel had surprised me
to begin with her father was well connected as we say in england his younger brother had made a fortune in commerce and had vainly offered him the means of retiring from the mill with a sufficient income then again giles toller was known to have saved money
his domestic expenses made no heavy demand on his purse his german wife whose christian name was now borne by his daughter had died long since his sons were no burden on him they had never lived at the mill in my remembrance
with all these reasons against his taking a stranger into his house he had nevertheless if my interpretation of cristel's answer was the right one let his spare rooms to a lodger
i said the more money father has the more he wants that's the reason she added bitterly why he asked for plenty of room when the cottage was built and why we have got a lodger
i don't know is a man a gentleman if he keeps a servant oh don't trouble to think about it sir it isn't worth thinking about this was plain speaking at last you don't seem to like the lodger i said i hate him
why she turned on me with a look of angry amazement not undeserved i must own on my part which showed her dark beauty in the perfection of its luster and its power to my eyes she was at the moment irresistibly charming
i daresay i was blind to the defects in her face my good german tutor used to lament that there was too much of my boyhood still left in me honestly admiring her i let my favorable opinion express itself a little too plainly
what a splendid creature you are i burst out cristel did her duty to herself and to me she passed over my little explosion of nonsense without taking the smallest notice of it master gerard she began and checked herself
please to excuse me sir you have set my head running on old times what i want to say is
and don't say anything more about our lodger i hate him because i hate him there ignorant as i was of the natures of women i understood her at last cristel's opinion of the lodger was evidently the exact opposite of the lodger's opinion of cristel
when i add that this discovery did decidedly operate as a relief to my mind the impression produced on me by the miller's daughter is stated without exaggeration and without reserve good night she repeated for the last time
i held out my hand is it quite right sir she modestly objected for such as me to shake hands with such as you she did it nevertheless and dropping my hand cast a farewell look at the mysterious object of her interest
the new cottage her variable humor changed on the instant
what to think in order to sever all mental relations with disease you must enter into mental relations with health making the process positive not negative
one of assumption not of rejection you are to receive or appropriate health rather than to reject and deny disease denying disease accomplishes next to nothing
it does little good to cast out the devil and leave the house vacant for he will presently return with others worse than himself when you enter into full and constant mental relations with health you must of necessity cease
all relationship with disease the first step in the science of being well is then to enter into complete thought connection with health
or picture of yourself as being well imagining a perfectly strong and healthy body and to spend sufficient time in contemplating this image to make it your habitual thought of yourself
this is not so easy as it sounds it necessitates the taking of considerable time for meditation and not all persons have the imaging faculty well enough developed
to form a distinct mental picture of themselves in a perfect or idealized body it is much easier as in the science of getting rich to form a mental image of the things one wants to have
it is not necessary or essential however to have a clear mental image of yourself as you wish to be it is only essential to form a conception of perfect health and to relate yourself to it
this conception of health is not a mental picture of a particular thing it is an understanding of health and carries with it the idea of perfect functioning in every part and organ you may try to picture yourself
you can picture yourself as doing your day's work easily and with surplus vigor never tired or weak you can picture in your mind how all things would be done by a person full of health and power
and you can make yourself the central figure in the picture doing things in just that way never think of the ways in which weak or sickly people do things always think of the way strong people do things spend your leisure time in thinking about the strong way
man does not have to study anatomy or physiology so that he can form a mental image of each separate organ and address himself to it he does not have to treat his liver his kidneys his stomach or his heart there is one principle of health in man
which has control over all the involuntary functions of his life and the thought of perfect health impressed upon this principle will reach each part and organ man's liver is not controlled by a liver principle
his stomach by a digestive principle and so on the principle of health is one the less you go into the detailed study of physiology the better for you our knowledge of this science is very imperfect and leads to imperfect thought
until quite recently physiology fixed ten days as the extreme limit of man's endurance without food it was considered that only in exceptional cases could he survive a longer fast
so the impression became universally disseminated that one who was deprived of food must die in from five to ten days and numbers of people when cut off from food by shipwreck accident or famine did die within this period
but the performances of doctor tanner the forty day faster and the writings of doctor dewey and others on the fasting cure together with the experiments of numberless people
who have fasted from forty to sixty days have shown that man's ability to live without food is vastly greater than had been supposed any person properly educated can fast from twenty
to forty days with little loss in weight and often with no apparent loss of strength at all the people who starved to death in ten days or less did so because they believed that death was inevitable
an erroneous physiology had given them a wrong thought about themselves when a man is deprived of food he will die in from ten to fifty days according to the way he has been taught or in other words
according to the way he thinks about it so you see that an erroneous physiology can work very mischievous results no science of being well can be founded on current physiology it is not sufficiently exact in its knowledge
with all its pretensions comparatively little is really known as to the interior workings and processes of the body it is not known just how food is digested it is not known just what part food plays if any
in the generation of force it is not known exactly what the liver spleen and pancreas are for or what part their secretions play in the chemistry of assimilation on all these and most other points we theorize
but we do not really know when man begins to study physiology he enters the domain of theory and disputation he comes among conflicting opinions
and he is bound to form mistaken ideas concerning himself these mistaken ideas lead to the thinking of wrong thoughts and this leads to perverted functioning and disease all that the most perfect knowledge of physiology could do for man
breathe and sleep in a perfectly healthy way and this as we shall show he can do without studying physiology at all this for the most part is true of all hygiene
there are certain fundamental propositions which we should know and these will be explained in later chapters but aside from these propositions ignore physiology and hygiene
its causes or possible results and set yourself to the work of forming a conception of health think about health and the possibilities of health of the work that may be done
and the pleasures that may be enjoyed in a condition of perfect health then make this conception your guide in thinking of yourself refuse to entertain for an instant any thought of yourself which is not in harmony with it
cast it out instantly by calling up a thought which is in harmony with the conception of health think of yourself at all times as realizing conception as being a strong and perfectly healthy personage and do not harbor a contrary thought
know that as you think of yourself in unity with this conception the original substance which permeates and fills the tissues of your body is taking form according to the thought and know that this intelligent
substance or mind stuff will cause function to be performed in such a way that your body will be rebuilt with perfectly healthy cells the intelligent substance from which all things are made
permeates and penetrates all things and so it is in and through your body it moves according to its thoughts and so if you hold only the thoughts of perfectly healthy function
it will cause the movements of perfectly healthy function within you hold with persistence to the thought of perfect health in relation to yourself do not permit yourself to think in any other way
hold this thought with perfect faith that it is the fact the truth it is the truth so far as your mental body is concerned you have a mind body and a physical body
the mind body takes form just as you think of yourself and any thought which you hold continuously is made visible by the transformation of the physical body into its image implanting the thought of perfect functioning in the mind body will
in due time cause perfect functioning in the physical body the transformation of the physical body into the image of the ideal held by the mind body is not accomplished instantaneously
substance moves along the fixed lines of growth it has established and the impression upon it of the health thought causes the healthy body to be built cell by cell holding only thoughts of perfect health will ultimately cause perfect functioning
and perfect functioning will in due time produce a perfectly healthy body it may be as well to condense this chapter into a syllabus your physical body is permeated and fitted with an intelligent substance
which forms a body of mind stuff this mind stuff controls the functioning of your physical body a thought of disease or of imperfect function impressed upon the mind stuff causes disease or imperfect functioning in the physical body
have made impressions on this mind stuff these may have been either your own thoughts or those of your parents we begin life with many sub conscious impressions both right and wrong but the natural tendency
of all mind is toward health and if no thoughts are held in the conscious mind save those of health all internal functioning will come to be performed in a perfectly healthy manner the power of nature within you is sufficient
to overcome all hereditary impressions and if you will learn to control your thoughts so that you shall think only those of health
and fills the interspaces of the universe while all visible things are made from it yet this substance in its first formless condition is in and through all the visible forms that it has made
its life is in all and its intelligence is in all this substance creates by thought and its method is by taking the form of that which it thinks about the thought of a form held by this substance
of a motion causes it to institute that motion forms are created by this substance in moving itself into certain attitudes or positions
when original substance wishes to create a given form it thinks of the motions which will produce that form when it wishes to create a world it thinks of the motions perhaps extending through ages
which will result in its coming into the attitude and form of the world and these motions are made when it wishes to create an oak tree it thinks of the sequences of movement
perhaps extending through ages which will result in the form of an oak tree and these motions are made the particular sequences of motion by which differing forms should be produced
were established in the beginning they are changeless certain motions instituted in the formless substance will forever produce certain forms
man's body is formed from the original substance and is the result of certain motions which first existed as thoughts of original substance
and these functions are of two classes voluntary and involuntary
and are performed in a perfectly healthy manner so long as man thinks in a certain way the voluntary functions of life are eating drinking breathing and sleeping these
entirely or in part are under the direction of man's conscious mind and he can perform them in a perfectly healthy way if he will if he does not perform them in a healthy way
he cannot long be well so we see that if man thinks in a certain way and eats drinks breathes and sleeps in a corresponding way he will be well
the involuntary functions of man's life are under the direct control of the principle of health and so long as man thinks in a perfectly healthy way these functions are perfectly performed
for the action of the principle of health is largely directed by man's conscious thought affecting his sub conscious mind man is a thinking center capable
of originating thought and as he does not know everything he makes mistakes and thinks error not knowing everything he believes things to be true which are not true
man holds in his thought the idea of diseased and abnormal functioning and conditions and so perverts the action of the principle of health causing diseased and abnormal functioning
and conditions within his own body in the original substance there are held only the thoughts of perfect motion perfect and healthy function complete life god never thinks disease or imperfection
but for countless ages men have held thoughts of disease abnormality old age and death and the perverted functioning resulting from these thoughts has become a part of the inheritance of the race
our ancestors have for many generations held imperfect ideas concerning human form and functioning and we begin life with racial sub conscious impressions
of imperfection and disease this is not natural or a part of the plan of nature the purpose of nature can be nothing else than the perfection of life this we see from the very nature of life itself
it is the nature of life to continually advance toward more perfect living advancement is the inevitable result of the very act of living increase is always the result of active living
whatever lives must live more and more the seed lying in the granary has life but it is not living put it into the soil and it becomes active
and at once begins to gather to itself from the surrounding substance and to build a plant form it will so cause increase that a seed head will be produced containing thirty sixty or a hundred seeds
life by living increases life cannot live without increasing and the fundamental impulse of life is to live it is in response to this fundamental impulse
that original substance works and creates god must live and he cannot live except as he creates and increases in multiplying forms he is moving on to live more
the universe is a great advancing life and the purpose of nature is the advancement of life toward perfection toward perfect functioning the purpose of nature is perfect health
the purpose of nature so far as man is concerned is that he should be continuously advancing into more life and progressing toward perfect life
and that he should live the most complete life possible in his present sphere of action this must be so because that which lives in man is seeking more life give a little child a pencil and paper
and he begins to draw crude figures that which lives in him is trying to express itself in art give him a set of blocks and he will try to build something that which lives in him
is seeking expression in architecture seat him at a piano and he will try to draw harmony from the keys that which lives in him is trying to express itself in music
that which lives in man is always seeking to live more and since man lives most when he is well the principle of nature in him can seek only health the natural state of man is a state of perfect health
and everything in him and in nature tends toward health sickness can have no place in the thought of original substance for it is by its own nature continually impelled toward the fullest and most perfect life
therefore toward health man as he exists in the thought of the formless substance has perfect health disease which is abnormal or perverted function motion imperfectly made or made in the direction of imperfect life
has no place in the thought of the thinking stuff the supreme mind never thinks of disease disease was not created or ordained by god or sent forth from him it is wholly a product of separate consciousness
god the formless substance does not see disease think disease know disease or recognize disease disease is recognized only by the thought of man
but health from all the foregoing we see that health is a fact or truth in the original substance from which we are all formed
resulting from the imperfect thoughts of men past and present if man's thoughts of himself had always been those of perfect health man could not possibly now be otherwise than perfectly healthy
man in perfect health is the thought of original substance and man in imperfect health is the result of his own failure to think perfect health and to perform the voluntary functions of life in a healthy way
we will here arrange in a syllabus the basic truths of the science of being well there is a thinking substance from which all things are made and which in its original state permeates penetrates
and fills the interspaces of the universe it is the life of all the thought of a form in this substance causes the form the thought of a motion produces the motion in relation to man
the thoughts of this substance are always of perfect functioning and perfect health man is a thinking center capable of original thought and his thought has power over his own functioning by thinking imperfect thoughts
he has caused imperfect and perverted functioning and by performing the voluntary functions of life in a perverted manner he has assisted in causing disease if man will think only thoughts of perfect health
unless man performs the external or voluntary functions of living in a healthy manner man's first step must be to learn how to think perfect health
and his second step to learn how to eat drink breathe and sleep in a perfectly healthy way if man takes these two steps
chapter sixteen supplementary instructions in forming a conception of health it is necessary to think of the manner in which you would live and work if you were perfectly well
and very strong to imagine yourself doing things in the way of a perfectly well and very strong person until you have a fairly good conception of what you would be if you were well then take a mental and physical attitude
in harmony with this conception and do not depart from this attitude you must unify yourself in thought with the thing you desire and whatever state or condition you unify with yourself in thought
will soon become unified with you in body the scientific way is to sever relations with everything you do not want and to enter into relations with everything you do want form a conception of perfect health
and relate yourself to this conception in word act and attitude guard your speech make every word harmonize with the conception of perfect health never complain never say things like these
i did not sleep well last night i have a pain in my side i do not feel at all well to day and so on say i am looking forward to a good night's sleep to night
i can see that i progress rapidly and things of similar meaning
and in so far as everything which is connected with health is concerned your way is to unify yourself with it in thought and speech this is the whole thing in a nutshell make yourself one with health in thought word and action
and do not connect yourself with sickness either by thought word or action do not read doctor books or medical literature
nothing essential has been omitted and practically all the superfluous has been eliminated the science of being well is an exact science like arithmetic nothing can be added to the fundamental principles and if anything be taken from them
a failure will result if you follow strictly the way of living prescribed in this book you will be well and you certainly can follow this way both in thought and action relate not only yourself
but so far as possible all others in your thoughts to perfect health do not sympathize with people when they complain or even when they are sick and suffering turn their thoughts into a constructive channel if you can do all you can for their relief
but do it with the health thought in your mind do not let people tell their woes and catalogue their symptoms to you turn the conversation to some other subject or excuse yourself and go better be considered an unfeeling person than to have the disease
thought forced upon you when you are in company of people whose conversational stock in trade is sickness and kindred matters ignore what they say and fall to offering a mental prayer of gratitude
no matter what they think or say politeness does not require you to permit yourself to be poisoned by diseased or perverted thought
when you let people talk to you of sickness you assist them to increase and multiply sickness what shall i do when i am in pain can one be in actual physical suffering and still think only thoughts of health yes do not resist pain
recognize that it is a good thing pain is caused by an effort of the principle of health to overcome some unnatural condition this you must know and feel when you have a pain
mental harmony with the power which is causing the pain assist it help it along do not hesitate when necessary to use hot fomentations and similar means to further the good work which is going on
if the pain is severe lie down and give your mind to the work of quietly and easily co operating with the force which is at work for your good this is the time to exercise gratitude and faith be thankful for the power of health
which is causing the pain and be certain that the pain will cease as soon as the good work is done fix your thoughts with confidence on the principle of health which is making such conditions within you that pain will soon be unnecessary
you will be surprised to find how easily you can conquer pain and after you have lived for a time in this scientific way pains and aches will be things unknown to you what shall i do when i am too weak for my work
no better not when you begin to live in this way you will probably not be of normal strength and you will gradually pass from a low physical condition to a higher one if you relate yourself mentally with health and strength
and perform the voluntary functions of life in a perfectly healthy manner your strength will increase from day to day but for a time you may have days when your strength is insufficient for the work you would like to do at such times rest
and exercise gratitude recognize the fact that your strength is growing rapidly and feel a deep thankfulness to the living one
with full faith that great strength is at hand and then get up and go on again while you rest do not think of your present weakness think of the strength that is coming
fix your mind on the principle of health which is building you into complete strength what shall i do about that great bugaboo which scares millions of people to death every year constipation
do nothing read horace fletcher on the a b z or our own nutrition and get the full force of his explanation of the fact that when you live on this scientific plan you need not and indeed cannot
have an evacuation of the bowels every day and that an operation in from once in three days to once in two weeks is quite sufficient for perfect health
but if you live in the manner we have described it will be otherwise with you if you eat only when you have an earned hunger and chew every mouthful to a liquid
and if you stop eating the instant you begin to be conscious of an abatement of your hunger you will so perfectly prepare your food for digestion and assimilation that practically all of it will be taken up by the absorbents
and there will be little almost nothing
to entirely banish from your memory all that you have read in doctor books and patent medicine advertisements concerning constipation you need give the matter no further thought at all the principle of health will take care of it
there is not the least need of doing it except to make the process of your mental emancipation from fear a little easier it may be worth while for that and as soon as you see that you are making good progress
and that you have cut down your quantity of food and are really eating in the scientific way dismiss constipation from your mind forever you have nothing more to do with it put your trust in that principle within you which has the power to give you perfect health
relate it by your reverent gratitude to the principle of life which is all power and go on your way rejoicing what about exercise every one is the better for a little all round use of the muscles every day
get your exercise in the natural way as recreation not as a forced stunt for health's sake alone ride a horse or a bicycle play tennis or tenpins or toss a ball have some avocation like gardening
in which you can spend an hour every day with pleasure and profit there are a thousand ways in which you can get exercise enough to keep your body supple and your circulation good and yet not fall into the rut of exercising for your health
exercise for fun or profit exercise because you are too healthy to sit still
are long continued fasts necessary seldom if ever the principle of health does not often require twenty thirty or forty days to get ready for action under normal conditions
hunger will come in much less time in most long fasts the reason hunger does not come sooner
by the patient himself he begins the fast with the fear if not actually with the hope that it will be many days before hunger comes the literature he has read on the subject has prepared him to expect a long fast and he is grimly determined to go to a finish
let the time be as long as it will and the sub conscious mind under the influence of powerful and positive suggestion suspends hunger when for any reason nature takes away your hunger go cheerfully on with your usual work
and do not eat until she gives it back no matter if it is two three ten days or longer you may be perfectly sure that when it is time for you to eat you will be hungry and if you are cheerfully confident and keep your faith in health
you will suffer from no weakness or discomfort caused by abstinence when you are not hungry you will feel stronger happier and more comfortable if you do not eat than you will if you do eat no matter how long the fast
there are very few now of the monstrous neglect of education in england and the disregard of it by the state as a means of forming good or bad citizens and miserable or happy men private schools long afforded a notable example
although any man who had proved his unfitness for any other occupation in life was free without examination or qualification to open a school anywhere although preparation for the functions he undertook was required in the surgeon
who assisted to bring a boy into the world or might one day assist perhaps to send him out of it in the chemist the attorney the butcher the baker the candlestick maker the whole round of crafts and trades the schoolmaster excepted
traders in the avarice indifference or imbecility of parents and the helplessness of children ignorant sordid brutal men to whom few considerate persons would have entrusted the board and lodging of a horse or a dog
they formed the worthy cornerstone of a structure which for absurdity and a magnificent high minded laissez aller neglect has rarely been exceeded in the world we hear sometimes of an action for damages against the unqualified medical practitioner
who has deformed a broken limb in pretending to heal it but what of the hundreds of thousands of minds that have been deformed for ever by the incapable pettifoggers who have pretended to form them
i make mention of the race as of the yorkshire schoolmasters in the past tense though it has not yet finally disappeared it is dwindling daily a long day's work remains to be done about us in the way of education heaven knows
but great improvements and facilities towards the attainment of a good one have been furnished of late years i cannot call to mind now how i came to hear about yorkshire schools
with a head full of partridge strap tom pipes and sancho panza but i know that my first impressions of them were picked up at that time
fell long afterwards and at sundry times into the way of hearing more about them at last having an audience resolved to write about them with that intent i went down into yorkshire before i began this book
in very severe winter time which is pretty faithfully described herein as i wanted to see a schoolmaster or two and was forewarned that those gentlemen might in their modesty be shy of receiving a visit from the author of the pickwick papers
i consulted with a professional friend who had a yorkshire connexion and with whom i concerted a pious fraud he gave me some letters of introduction in the name i think of my travelling companion
i was the poor lady's friend travelling that way and if the recipient of the letter could inform me of a school in his neighbourhood the writer would be very much obliged i went to several places in that part of the country
where i understood the schools to be most plentifully sprinkled and had no occasion to deliver a letter until i came to a certain town which shall be nameless the person to whom it was addressed was not at home
but he came down at night through the snow to the inn where i was staying it was after dinner and he needed little persuasion to sit down by the fire in a warm corner
i recollect he was a jovial ruddy broad faced man that we got acquainted directly and that we talked on all kinds of subjects except the school which he showed a great anxiety to avoid
was there any large school near i asked him in reference to the letter oh yes he said there was a pratty big un was it a good one i asked
and fell to looking at the fire staring round the room and whistling a little on my reverting to some other topic that we had been discussing he recovered immediately but though i tried him again and again i never approached the question of the school
even if he were in the middle of a laugh without observing that his countenance fell and that he became uncomfortable
he suddenly took up his hat and leaning over the table and looking me full in the face said in a low voice weel misther we've been vara pleasant toogather
or a gootther to lie asleep in ar wouldn't mak ill words amang my neeburs and ar speak tiv'ee quiet loike
to keep the lattle boy from a sike scoondrels while there's a harse to hoold in a lunnun or a gootther to lie asleep in repeating these words with great heartiness and with a solemnity on his jolly face that made it look twice as large as before
he shook hands and went away i never saw him afterwards but i sometimes imagine that i descry a faint reflection of him in john browdie in reference to these gentry i may here quote a few words from the original preface to this book
that more than one yorkshire schoolmaster lays claim to being the original of mister squeers one worthy he has reason to believe has actually consulted authorities learned in the law
as to his having good grounds on which to rest an action for libel another has meditated a journey to london
a third perfectly remembers being waited on last january twelve month by two gentlemen one of whom held him in conversation while the other took his likeness and although mister squeers has but one eye and he has two
and the published sketch does not resemble him whoever he may be in any other respect still he and all his friends and neighbours know at once for whom it is meant because the character is so like him
while the author cannot but feel the full force of the compliment thus conveyed to him he ventures to suggest that these contentions may arise from the fact that mister squeers is the representative of a class and not of an individual
where imposture ignorance and brutal cupidity are the stock in trade of a small body of men and one is described by these characteristics all his fellows will recognise something belonging to themselves
and each will have a misgiving that the portrait is his own the author's object in calling public attention to the system would be very imperfectly fulfilled if he did not state now in his own person emphatically and earnestly
that mister squeers and his school are faint and feeble pictures of an existing reality purposely subdued and kept down lest they should be deemed impossible that there are upon record trials at law
as no writer of fiction would have the boldness to imagine and that since he has been engaged upon these adventures he has received from private quarters far beyond the reach of suspicion or distrust accounts of atrocities in the
perpetration of which upon neglected or repudiated children these schools have been the main instruments very far exceeding any that appear in these pages this comprises all i need say on the subject
to turn to a more pleasant subject it may be right to say that there are two characters in this book which are drawn from life it is remarkable that what we call the world which is so very credulous in what professes to be true
is most incredulous in what professes to be imaginary and that while every day in real life it will allow in one man no blemishes and in another no virtues
it will seldom admit a very strongly marked character either good or bad in a fictitious narrative to be within the limits of probability but those who take an interest in this tale will be glad to learn that the brothers cheeryble live
that their liberal charity their singleness of heart their noble nature and their unbounded benevolence are no creations of the author's brain but are prompting every day and oftenest by stealth
some munificent and generous deed in that town of which they are the pride and honour if i were to attempt to sum up the thousands of letters from all sorts of people in all sorts of latitudes and climates
which this unlucky paragraph brought down upon me i should get into an arithmetical difficulty from which i could not easily extricate myself suffice it to say that i believe the applications for loans gifts
and would have broken the rest of the bank of england the brothers are now dead there is only one other point on which i would desire to offer a remark if nicholas be not always found to be blameless or agreeable
he is not always intended to appear so he is a young man of an impetuous temper and of little or no experience
chapter eleven newman noggs inducts missus and miss nickleby into their new dwelling in the city miss nickleby's reflections as she wended her way homewards
were of that desponding nature which the occurrences of the morning had been sufficiently calculated to awaken her uncle's was not a manner likely to dispel any doubts or apprehensions she might have formed in the outset
neither was the glimpse she had had of madame mantalini's establishment by any means encouraging it was with many gloomy forebodings and misgivings therefore that she looked forward with a heavy heart to the opening of her new career
of milliners who had been possessed of considerable property though whether they had acquired it all in business or had had a capital to start with or had been lucky and married to advantage she could not exactly remember however
as she very logically remarked there must have been some young person in that way of business who had made a fortune without having anything to begin with and that being taken for granted why should not kate do the same miss la creevy
said miss la creevy i recollect getting three young milliners to sit to me when i first began to paint and i remember that they were all very pale and sickly
oh that's not a general rule by any means observed missus nickleby for i remember as well as if it was only yesterday employing one that i was particularly recommended to to make me a scarlet cloak at the time when scarlet cloaks were fashionable
and she had a very red face a very red face indeed perhaps she drank suggested miss la creevy i don't know how that may have been returned missus nickleby but i know she had a very red face
so your argument goes for nothing in this manner and with like powerful reasoning did the worthy matron meet every little objection that presented itself to the new scheme of the morning happy missus nickleby
a project had but to be new and it came home to her mind brightly varnished and gilded as a glittering toy this question disposed of kate communicated her uncle's desire about the empty house
characteristically remarking that on the fine evenings it would be a pleasant amusement for her to walk to the west end to fetch her daughter home and no less characteristically forgetting that there were such things as wet nights and bad weather to be encountered
in almost every week of the year i shall be sorry truly sorry to leave you my kind friend said kate on whom the good feeling of the poor miniature painter had made a deep impression
you shall not shake me off for all that replied miss la creevy with as much sprightliness as she could assume i shall see you very often and come and hear how you get on
or all the wide world besides there is no other heart that takes an interest in your welfare
sat down in a corner and had what she termed a real good cry but no crying or talking or hoping or fearing could keep off the dreaded saturday afternoon or newman noggs either who punctual to his time
limped up to the door and breathed a whiff of cordial gin through the keyhole exactly as such of the church clocks in the neighbourhood as agreed among themselves about the time struck five newman waited for the last stroke and then knocked
from mister ralph nickleby said newman announcing his errand when he got upstairs with all possible brevity we shall be ready directly said kate we have not much to carry but i fear we must have a coach i'll get one replied newman
indeed you shall not trouble yourself said missus nickleby i will said newman i can't suffer you to think of such a thing said missus nickleby you can't help it said newman not help it no i thought of it as i came along
but didn't get one thinking you mightn't be ready i think of a great many things nobody can prevent that oh yes i understand you mister noggs said missus nickleby our thoughts are free of course
newman darted a meaning glance at kate and replied with a strong emphasis on the last word of his answer that mister ralph nickleby was well and sent his love i am sure we are very much obliged to him observed missus nickleby
very said newman i'll tell him so it was no very easy matter to mistake newman noggs after having once seen him and as kate attracted by the singularity of his manner in which on this occasion however there was something respectful and even delicate
notwithstanding the abruptness of his speech looked at him more closely she recollected having caught a passing glimpse of that strange figure before excuse my curiosity she said but did i not see you in the coachyard on the morning my brother went away to yorkshire
i've had the gout newman was very very far from having the appearance of a gouty subject and so kate could not help thinking but the conference was cut short by missus nickleby's insisting on having the door shut lest mister noggs should take cold
and further persisting in sending the servant girl for a coach for fear he should bring on another attack of his disorder to both conditions newman was compelled to yield presently the coach came
and after many sorrowful farewells and a great deal of running backwards and forwards across the pavement on the part of miss la creevy in the course of which the yellow turban came into violent contact with sundry foot passengers it
that is to say the coach not the turban went away again with the two ladies and their luggage inside and newman despite all missus nickleby's assurances that it would be his death on the box beside the driver they went into the city
turning down by the river side and after a long and very slow drive the streets being crowded at that hour with vehicles of every kind stopped in front of a large old dingy house in thames street
the door and windows of which were so bespattered with mud that it would have appeared to have been uninhabited for years the door of this deserted mansion newman opened with a key which he took out of his hat
in which by the bye in consequence of the dilapidated state of his pockets he deposited everything and would most likely have carried his money if he had had any and the coach being discharged he led the way into the interior of the mansion
some bones of animals fragments of iron hoops and staves of old casks lay strewn about but no life was stirring there it was a picture of cold silent decay this house depresses and chills one said kate
and seems as if some blight had fallen on it if i were superstitious i should be almost inclined to believe that some dreadful crime had been perpetrated within these old walls and that the place had never prospered since how frowning and how dark it looks
lord my dear replied missus nickleby don't talk in that way or you'll frighten me to death it is only my foolish fancy mama said kate forcing a smile well then my love i wish you would keep your foolish fancy to yourself
and not wake up my foolish fancy to keep it company retorted missus nickleby why didn't you think of all this before you are so careless we might have asked miss la creevy to keep us company or borrowed a dog or a thousand things
but it always was the way and was just the same with your poor dear father unless i thought of everything this was missus nickleby's usual commencement of a general lamentation running through a dozen or so of complicated sentences addressed to nobody in particular
and into which she now launched until her breath was exhausted newman appeared not to hear these remarks but preceded them to a couple of rooms on the first floor which some kind of attempt had been made to render habitable
in one were a few chairs a table an old hearth rug and some faded baize and a fire was ready laid in the grate in the other stood an old tent bedstead and a few scanty articles of chamber furniture
very kind indeed replied kate looking round newman noggs did not say that he had hunted up the old furniture they saw from attic and cellar or that he had taken in the halfpennyworth of milk for tea that stood upon a shelf
or filled the rusty kettle on the hob or collected the woodchips from the wharf or begged the coals but the notion of ralph nickleby having directed it to be done tickled his fancy so much
that he could not refrain from cracking all his ten fingers in succession at which performance missus nickleby was rather startled at first but supposing it to be in some remote manner connected with the gout did not remark upon
we need detain you no longer i think said kate is there nothing i can do asked newman nothing thank you rejoined miss nickleby perhaps my dear
mister noggs would like to drink our healths said missus nickleby fumbling in her reticule for some small coin i think mama said kate hesitating and remarking newman's averted face you would hurt his feelings if you offered it
newman noggs bowing to the young lady more like a gentleman than the miserable wretch he seemed placed his hand upon his breast and pausing for a moment with the air of a man who struggles to speak but is uncertain what to say quitted the room
as the jarring echoes of the heavy house door closing on its latch reverberated dismally through the building kate felt half tempted to call him back and beg him to remain a little while but she was ashamed to own her fears
chapter one introduces all the rest there once lived in a sequestered part of the county of devonshire one mister godfrey nickleby a worthy gentleman
who taking it into his head rather late in life that he must get married and not being young enough or rich enough to aspire to the hand of a lady of fortune had wedded an old flame out of mere attachment who in her turn
had taken him for the same reason thus two people who cannot afford to play cards for money sometimes sit down to a quiet game for love some ill conditioned persons who sneer at the life matrimonial
may perhaps suggest in this place that the good couple would be better likened to two principals in a sparring match who when fortune is low and backers scarce will chivalrously set to for the mere pleasure of the buffeting
and in one respect indeed this comparison would hold good for as the adventurous pair of the fives court will afterwards send round a hat and trust to the bounty of the lookers on for the means of regaling themselves
so mister godfrey nickleby and his partner the honeymoon being over looked out wistfully into the world relying in no inconsiderable degree upon chance for the improvement of their means
mister nickleby's income at the period of his marriage fluctuated between sixty and eighty pounds per annum there are people enough in the world heaven knows and even in london where mister nickleby dwelt in those days
but few complaints prevail of the population being scanty it is extraordinary how long a man may look among the crowd without discovering the face of a friend but it is no less true mister nickleby looked and looked
till his eyes became sore as his heart but no friend appeared and when growing tired of the search he turned his eyes homeward he saw very little there to relieve his weary vision a painter who has gazed too long upon some glaring colour
refreshes his dazzled sight by looking upon a darker and more sombre tint but everything that met mister nickleby's gaze wore so black and gloomy a hue that he would have been beyond description refreshed by the very reverse of the contrast
at length after five years when missus nickleby had presented her husband with a couple of sons and that embarrassed gentleman impressed with the necessity of making some provision for his family
was seriously revolving in his mind a little commercial speculation of insuring his life next quarter day and then falling from the top of the monument by accident there came one morning by the general post
a black bordered letter to inform him how his uncle mister ralph nickleby was dead and had left him the bulk of his little property amounting in all to five thousand pounds sterling
as the deceased had taken no further notice of his nephew in his lifetime than sending to his eldest boy who had been christened after him on desperate speculation a silver spoon in a morocco case which
as he had not too much to eat with it seemed a kind of satire upon his having been born without that useful article of plate in his mouth mister godfrey nickleby could at first scarcely believe the tidings thus conveyed to him on examination however
the amiable old gentleman it seemed had intended to leave the whole to the royal humane society and had indeed executed a will to that effect but the institution
having been unfortunate enough a few months before to save the life of a poor relation to whom he paid a weekly allowance of three shillings and sixpence he had in a fit of very natural exasperation
and left it all to mister godfrey nickleby with a special mention of his indignation not only against the society for saving the poor relation's life but against the poor relation also for allowing himself to be saved
he was enabled to leave to his eldest son ralph three thousand pounds in cash and to his youngest son nicholas one thousand and the farm which was as small a landed estate as one would desire to see
and attach himself to the quiet routine of a country life ralph the elder deduced from the often repeated tale the two great morals that riches are the only true source of happiness and power
and that it is lawful and just to compass their acquisition by all means short of felony and reasoned ralph with himself if no good came of my uncle's money when he was alive
inasmuch as my father has got it now and is saving it up for me which is a highly virtuous purpose and going back to the old gentleman good did come of it to him too for he had the pleasure of thinking of it all his life long
and of being envied and courted by all his family besides and ralph always wound up these mental soliloquies by arriving at the conclusion that there was nothing like money not confining himself to theory
or permitting his faculties to rust even at that early age in mere abstract speculations this promising lad commenced usurer on a limited scale at school putting out at good interest a small capital of slate pencil and marbles
and gradually extending his operations until they aspired to the copper coinage of this realm in which he speculated to considerable advantage nor did he trouble his borrowers with abstract calculations of figures
or references to ready reckoners his simple rule of interest being all comprised in the one golden sentence two pence for every half penny which greatly simplified the accounts and which as a familiar precept
more easily acquired and retained in the memory than any known rule of arithmetic cannot be too strongly recommended to the notice of capitalists both large and small and more especially of money brokers and bill discounters indeed
which nobody who has worked sums in simple interest can fail to have found most embarrassing by establishing the one general rule that all sums of principal and interest should be paid on pocket money day that is to say on saturday
and that whether a loan were contracted on the monday or on the friday the amount of interest should be in both cases the same indeed he argued and with great show of reason that it ought to be rather more for one day than for five
inasmuch as the borrower might in the former case be very fairly presumed to be in great extremity otherwise he would not borrow at all with such odds against him this fact is interesting
as illustrating the secret connection and sympathy which always exist between great minds though master ralph nickleby was not at that time aware of it the class of gentlemen before alluded to proceed on just the same principle in all their transactions
from what we have said of this young gentleman and the natural admiration the reader will immediately conceive of his character it may perhaps be inferred that he is to be the hero of the work which we shall presently begin to set this point at rest
for once and for ever we hasten to undeceive them and stride to its commencement on the death of his father ralph nickleby who had been some time before placed in a mercantile house in london
applied himself passionately to his old pursuit of money getting in which he speedily became so buried and absorbed that he quite forgot his brother for many years and if at times a recollection of his old playfellow broke upon him through the haze in which he lived
for gold conjures up a mist about a man more destructive of all his old senses and lulling to his feelings than the fumes of charcoal it brought along with it a companion thought that if they were intimate he would want to borrow money of him
so mister ralph nickleby shrugged his shoulders and said things were better as they were as for nicholas he lived a single man on the patrimonial estate until he grew tired of living alone
this good lady bore him two children a son and a daughter and when the son was about nineteen and the daughter fourteen as near as we can guess impartial records of young ladies ages being before the passing of the new act
nowhere preserved in the registries of this country mister nickleby looked about him for the means of repairing his capital now sadly reduced by this increase in his family and the expenses of their education
who was a slow and time taking speaker if we should lose it we shall no longer be able to live my dear fiddle said missus nickleby i am not altogether sure of that my dear said mister nickleby
there's nicholas pursued the lady quite a young man it's time he was in the way of doing something for himself and kate too poor girl without a penny in the world think of your brother
would he be what he is if he hadn't speculated that's true replied mister nickleby very good my dear yes i will speculate my dear speculation is a round game
the players see little or nothing of their cards at first starting gains may be great and so may losses the run of luck went against mister nickleby a mania prevailed a bubble burst
four stock brokers took villa residences at florence four hundred nobodies were ruined and among them mister nickleby the very house i live in sighed the poor gentleman may be taken from me tomorrow
said the apothecary you mustn't let yourself be cast down sir said the nurse such things happen every day remarked the lawyer and it is very sinful to rebel against them whispered the clergyman
and what no man with a family ought to do added the neighbours mister nickleby shook his head and motioning them all out of the room embraced his wife and children and having pressed them by turns to his languidly beating heart
sunk exhausted on his pillow they were concerned to find that his reason went astray after this for he babbled for a long time about the generosity and goodness of his brother and the merry old times when they were at school together
this fit of wandering past he solemnly commended them to one who never deserted the widow or her fatherless children and smiling gently on them turned upon his face and observed
chapter eighty seven the challenge then continued beauchamp
i took advantage of the silence and the darkness to leave the house without being seen the usher who had introduced me was waiting for me at the door
i left with mingled feelings of sorrow and delight excuse me albert sorrow on your account and delight with that noble girl thus pursuing paternal vengeance yes albert from whatever source the blow may have proceeded
it may be from an enemy but that enemy is only the agent of providence albert held his head between his hands he raised his face red with shame and bathed in tears and seizing beauchamp's arm
my friend said he my life is ended i cannot calmly say with you providence has struck the blow but i must discover who pursues me with this hatred
or he will kill me i rely on your friendship to assist me beauchamp if contempt has not banished it from your heart contempt my friend how does this misfortune affect you
no happily that unjust prejudice is forgotten which made the son responsible for the father's actions review your life albert although it is only just beginning did a lovely summer's day ever dawn with greater purity
no albert take my advice you are young and rich leave paris all is soon forgotten in this great babylon of excitement and changing tastes you will return after three or four years with a russian princess for a bride
thank you my dear beauchamp thank you for the excellent feeling which prompts your advice but it cannot be i have told you my wish or rather my determination you understand that interested as i am in this affair
i cannot see it in the same light as you do what appears to you to emanate from a celestial source seems to me to proceed from one far less pure providence appears to me to have no share in this affair and happily so
for instead of the invisible impalpable agent of celestial rewards and punishments i shall find one both palpable and visible on whom i shall revenge myself i assure you for all i have suffered during the last month now i repeat beauchamp
i wish to return to human and material existence and if you are still the friend you profess to be help me to discover the hand that struck the blow be it so said beauchamp if you must have me descend to earth i submit
and if you will seek your enemy i will assist you and i will engage to find him my honor being almost as deeply interested as yours well then you understand beauchamp that we begin our search immediately each moment's delay is an eternity for me
but on my honor if he thinks so he deceives himself well listen morcerf ah beauchamp i see you know something already you will restore me to life i do not say there is any truth in what i am going to tell you
but it is at least a ray of light in a dark night by following it we may perhaps discover something more certain tell me satisfy my impatience well i will tell you what i did not like to mention on my return from yanina
say on i went of course to the chief banker of the town to make inquiries at the first word before i had even mentioned your father's name ah said he i guess what brings you here how and why
because a fortnight since i was questioned on the same subject
danglars he cried albert
he the man who would be popular cannot forgive the count of morcerf for being created a peer and this marriage broken off without a reason being assigned yes it is all from the same cause make inquiries albert but do not be angry without reason
make inquiries and if it be true oh yes if it be true cried the young man he shall pay me all i have suffered beware morcerf he is already an old man i will respect his age as he has respected the honor of my family
if my father had offended him why did he not attack him personally oh no he was afraid to encounter him face to face i do not condemn you albert i only restrain you act prudently oh do not fear
besides you will accompany me beauchamp
he shall cease to live or i shall die pardieu beauchamp mine shall be a splendid funeral when such resolutions are made albert they should be promptly executed
on entering the banker's mansion
and hearing the order given forced the door open and followed by beauchamp found himself in the banker's study sir cried the latter am i no longer at liberty to receive whom i choose in my house you appear to forget yourself sadly no sir said albert coldly
there are circumstances in which one cannot except through cowardice i offer you that refuge refuse to admit certain persons at least what is your errand then with me sir
who stood with his back towards the fireplace i mean to propose a meeting in some retired corner where no one will interrupt us for ten minutes that will be sufficient where two men having met one of them will remain on the ground
cavalcanti moved a step forward and albert turned towards him and you too said he come if you like monsieur
cavalcanti looked at danglars with a stupefied air and the latter making an effort arose and stepped between the two young men albert's attack on andrea had placed him on a different footing
i shall resign the case to the king's attorney you mistake sir said morcerf with a gloomy smile i am not referring in the least to matrimony
in one respect you are right for i am ready to quarrel with every one to day
sir replied danglars pale with anger and fear i warn you when i have the misfortune to meet with a mad dog i kill it and far from thinking myself guilty of a crime i believe i do society a kindness
now if you are mad and try to bite me i will kill you without pity
yes miserable wretch cried morcerf it is your fault danglars retreated a few steps my fault said he you must be mad what do i know of the grecian affair have i travelled in that country did i advise your father to sell the castle of yanina
to betray silence said albert with a thundering voice no it is not you who have directly made this exposure and brought this sorrow on us but you hypocritically provoked it i
yes you how came it known i suppose you read it in the paper in the account from yanina who wrote to yanina to yanina yes who wrote for particulars concerning my father i imagine any one may write to yanina
but one person only wrote one only yes and that was you i doubtless wrote it appears to me that when about to marry your daughter to a young man
you wrote sir knowing what answer you would receive i indeed i assure you cried danglars with a confidence and security proceeding less from fear than from the interest he really felt for the young man
did i know anything of ali pasha's misfortunes who then urged you to write tell me pardieu it was the most simple thing in the world i was speaking of your father's past history i said the origin of his fortune remained obscure
the person to whom i addressed my scruples asked me where your father had acquired his property i answered in greece
and who thus advised you no other than your friend monte cristo the count of monte cristo told you to write to yanina yes and i wrote and will show you my correspondence if you like albert and beauchamp looked at each other
sir said beauchamp who had not yet spoken you appear to accuse the count who is absent from paris at this moment and cannot justify himself i accuse no one sir said danglars i relate and i will repeat before the count what i have said to you
does the count know what answer you received yes i showed it to him did he know my father's christian name was fernand and his family name mondego yes i had told him that long since
when the day after the arrival of this answer your father came by the advice of monte cristo to ask my daughter's hand for you
in short why should i have any more to do with the affair
it neither increased nor decreased my income albert felt the blood mounting to his brow there was no doubt upon the subject
at least in part if not wholly not for conscience sake but through fear
and in addition to this everything forgotten or unperceived before presented itself now to his recollection monte cristo knew everything as he had bought the daughter of ali pasha
the answer known he had yielded to albert's wish to be introduced to haidee
in the few romaic words he spoke to her not to implicate morcerf's father besides had he not begged of morcerf not to mention his father's name before haidee lastly
he had taken albert to normandy when he knew the final blow was near there could be no doubt that all had been calculated and previously arranged monte cristo then was in league with his father's enemies
albert turned sir said he to danglars
the king of the golden mountain there was once a merchant who had two children a boy and a girl they were both small and not old enough to run about he had also two richly laden ships at sea
and just as he was expecting to make a great deal of money by the merchandise news came that they had both been lost
to turn his thoughts from his misfortune he went out into this field and as he was walking up and down a little black mannikin suddenly appeared before him and asked why he was so sad the merchant said
i would tell you at once if you could help me who knows answered the little mannikin perhaps i could help you then the merchant told him that all his wealth had been lost in a wreck
and that now he had nothing left but this field don't worry yourself said the mannikin if you will promise to bring me in twelve years time the first thing which rubs against your legs when you go home
you shall have as much gold as you want the merchant thought
he never thought of his boy but said yes and gave the mannikin his bond signed and sealed and went home when he reached the house his little son delighted to hold on to the benches and totter towards his father seized
him by the leg to steady himself the merchant was horror stricken for his vow came into his head and now he knew what he had promised to give away but as he still found no gold in his chests
a month later he went up into the loft to gather together some old tin to sell it
so he was soon up in the world again bought and sold became a richer merchant than ever and was altogether contented in the meantime the boy had grown up and he was both clever and wise
but the nearer the end of the twelve years came the more sorrowful the merchant grew you could even see his misery in his face one day his son asked him what was the matter but his father would not tell him
the boy however persisted so long that at last he told him that without knowing what he was doing he had promised to give him up at the end of twelve years to a little black mannikin in return for a quantity of gold
and the time was now near for him to go then his son said o father don't be frightened it will be all right the little black mannikin has no power over me when the time came the son asked a blessing of the priest
and the son made a circle within which they took their places when the little black mannikin appeared he said to the father have you brought what you promised me the man was silent but his son said
what do you want the mannikin said my business is with your father and not with you the son answered you deceived and cheated my father give me back his bond
said the little man i won't give up my rights they talked to each other for a long time and at last they decided that as the son no longer belonged to his father and declined to belong to his foe
he should get into a boat on a flowing stream and his father should push it off himself thus giving him up to the stream so the youth took leave of his father got into the boat and his father pushed it off then
thinking that his son was lost to him for ever he went home and sorrowed for him the little boat however did not sink it drifted quietly down the stream and the youth sat in it in perfect safety it drifted for a long time
till at last it stuck fast on an unknown shore the youth landed and seeing a beautiful castle near walked towards it
a spell fell upon him he went through all the rooms but found them empty till he came to the very last one where a serpent lay coiling and uncoiling itself the serpent was really an enchanted maiden
who was delighted when she saw the youth and said have you come at last my preserver i have been waiting twelve years for you this whole kingdom is bewitched and you must break the spell how am i to do that he asked she said
to night twelve black men hung with chains will appear
but do not speak a word whatever they do or say to you
but don't say a word at twelve o'clock they will have to go away on the second night twelve more will come and on the third twenty four these will cut off your head but at twelve o'clock their power goes and if you have borne it
and not spoken a word i shall be saved then i will come to you and bring a little flask containing the water of life with which i will sprinkle you
then he said i will gladly save you everything happened just as she had said the black men could not force a word out of him
who brought the water of life as she had promised and restored the youth to life then she fell on his neck and kissed him
i know it will be to my misfortune however he gave her no peace till she agreed to let him go on his departure she gave him a wishing ring and said take this ring and put it on your finger and you will at once be at the place where you wish to be
to be with you at your father's he made the promise and put the ring on his finger
and at the same moment found himself at the gate but the sentry would not let him in because his clothes though of rich material
where a shepherd lived and exchanging clothing with him put on his old smock and passed into the town unnoticed when he reached his father he began making himself known but his father never thinking that it was his son
said that it was true he had once had a son but he had long been dead but he added seeing that he was a poor shepherd he would give him a plate of food the supposed shepherd said to his parents i am indeed your son
is there no mark on my body by which you may know me his mother said yes our son has a strawberry mark under his right arm he pushed up his shirt sleeve and there was the strawberry mark so they no longer doubted that he was their son
he told them that he was the king of the golden mountain his wife was a princess and they had a little son seven years old that can't be true said his father you are a fine sort of king to come home in a tattered shepherd's smock
turned his ring round and wished his wife and son to appear in a moment they both stood before him but his wife did nothing but weep and lament and said that he had broken his promise
he said i have acted incautiously but from no bad motive and he tried to soothe her she appeared to be calmed but really she nourished evil intentions towards him in her heart
shortly after he took her outside the town to the field and showed her the stream down which he had drifted in the little boat then he said i am tired i want to rest a little
so she sat down and he rested his head upon her lap and soon fell fast asleep as soon as he was asleep she drew the ring from his finger and drew herself gently away from him leaving only her slipper behind
last of all taking her child in her arms she wished herself back in her own kingdom when he woke up he found himself quite deserted wife and child were gone
and only her slipper remained as a token i can certainly never go home to my parents he said they would say i was a sorcerer i must go away and walk till i reach my own kingdom again so he went away
and at last he came to a mountain where three giants were quarrelling about the division of their father's property when they saw him passing they called him up and said
and asked him to divide their inheritance for them it consisted first of a sword with which in one's hand if one said all heads off mine alone remain every head fell to the ground secondly
of a mantle which rendered any one putting it on invisible thirdly
he took his own shape again and said the mantle is good now give me the sword but they said
all our heads would fall and yours would be the only one left at last however they gave it to him on condition that he was to try it on a tree he did as they wished and the sword went through the tree trunk as if it had been a straw
then he wanted the boots but they said no we won't give them away
and wish yourself on the top of the mountain we should be left standing here without anything no said he i won't do that
but when he had all three he could think of nothing but his wife and child
and immediately he disappeared from the sight of the giants and there was an end of their inheritance when he approached his castle he heard sounds of music fiddles and flutes and shouts of joy
people told him that his wife was celebrating her marriage with another husband he was filled with rage and said the false creature she deceived me and deserted me when i was asleep
then he put on his mantle and went to the castle invisible to all when he went into the hall where a great feast was spread with the richest foods and the costliest wines the guests were joking and laughing while they ate and drank
the queen sat on her throne in their midst in gorgeous clothing with the crown on her head he placed himself behind her and no one saw him whenever the queen put a piece of meat on her plate he took it away and ate it
and when her glass was filled he took it away and drank it her plate and her glass were constantly refilled but she never had anything for it disappeared at once
but he followed her there too she said to herself am i still in the power of the demon did my preserver never come he struck her in the face and said did your preserver never come
he is with you now deceiver that you are did i deserve such treatment at your hands then he made himself visible and went into the hall and cried the wedding is stopped the real king has come
but he only said will you go or will you not they tried to seize him but he drew his sword and said all heads off mine alone remain
there was once a king who had a daughter she was more beautiful than words can tell but at the same time so proud and haughty that no man who came to woo her was good enough for her
she turned away one after another and even mocked them
they were all placed in a row according to their rank and position first came kings then princes then dukes earls and barons
the princess was led through the ranks but she had some fault to find with all of them one was too stout that barrel she said the next was too tall long and lean is no good
the third was too short short and stout can't turn about the fourth was too white pale as death the fifth was too red turkey cock the sixth was not straight
oven dried so there was something against each of them but she made specially merry over one good king who stood quite at the head of the row and whose chin was a little hooked why she cried
he has a chin like the beak of a thrush after that he was always called king thrushbeard when the old king saw that his daughter only made fun of them and despised all the suitors who were assembled he was very angry
a few days after a wandering musician began to sing at the window hoping to receive charity when the king heard him he said let him be brought in the musician came in dressed in dirty rags and sang to the king and his daughter
the princess was horror stricken but the king said i have sworn an oath to give you to the first beggar who came and i will keep my word no entreaties were of any avail
a parson was brought and she had to marry the musician there and then when the marriage was completed the king said now you are a beggar woman you can't stay in my castle any longer
the beggar took her by the hand and led her away
when they came to a big wood she asked ah who is the lord of this forest so fine it belongs to king thrushbeard it might have been thine if his queen you had been ah sad must i sing
i would i'd accepted the hand of the king
ah who is the lord of these meadows so fine they belong to king thrushbeard and would have been thine if his queen you had been ah sad must i sing i would i'd accepted the love of the king
ah who is the lord of this city so fine it belongs to king thrushbeard and it might have been thine if his queen you had been ah sad must i sing i would i'd accepted the heart of the king
it doesn't please me at all said the musician that you are always wishing for another husband am i not good enough for you at last they came to a miserable little hovel and she said
ah heavens what's this house so mean and small this wretched little hut's no house at all the musician answered this is my house and yours where we are to live together
the door was so low that she had to stoop to get in where are the servants asked the princess servants indeed answered the beggar whatever you want done you must do for yourself
light the fire and put the kettle on to make my supper i am very tired but the princess knew nothing about lighting fires or cooking and to get it done at all the beggar had to do it himself
but in the morning the man made her get up very early to do the housework
then the man said wife this won't do any longer we can't live here without working you shall make baskets
she began to weave them but the hard osiers bruised her tender hands i see that won't do said the beggar you had better spin perhaps you can manage that so she sat down and tried to spin
but the harsh yarn soon cut her delicate fingers and made them bleed now you see said the man what a good for nothing you are i have made a bad bargain in you but i will try to start a trade in earthenware
alas she thought if any of the people from my father's kingdom come and see me sitting in the market place offering goods for sale they will scoff at me but it was no good
she had to obey unless she meant to die of hunger all went well the first time the people willingly bought her wares because she was so handsome and they paid what she asked them
they lived on the gains as long as they lasted and then the man laid in a new stock of wares she took her seat in a corner of the market
and rode right in among the pots breaking them into thousands of bits she began to cry and was so frightened that she did not know what to do oh what will become of me she cried what will my husband say to me
she ran home and told him her misfortune who would ever think of sitting at the corner of the market with crockery he said stop that crying i see you are no manner of use for any decent kind of work
i have been to our king's palace and asked if they do not want a kitchen wench and they have promised to try you you will get your victuals free at any rate so the princess became a kitchen wench
and in them took home her share of the scraps and leavings and upon these they lived it so happened that the marriage of the eldest princess just then took place
and the poor woman went upstairs and stood behind the door to peep at all the splendour when the rooms were lighted up and she saw the guests streaming in one more beautiful than the other and the scene grew more and more brilliant
she thought with a heavy heart of her sad fate she cursed the pride and haughtiness which had been the cause of her humiliation and of her being brought to such depths
every now and then the servants would throw her bits from the savoury dishes they were carrying away from the feast and these she put into her pots to take home with her all at once the king's son came in he was dressed in silk and velvet
and he had a golden chain round his neck when he saw the beautiful woman standing at the door he seized her by the hand and wanted to dance with her but she shrank and refused because she saw that it was king thrushbeard
who had been one of the suitors for her hand and whom she had most scornfully driven away her resistance was no use and he dragged her into the hall the string by which her pockets were suspended broke
down fell the pots and the soup and savoury morsels were spilt all over the floor when the guests saw it they burst into shouts of mocking laughter
she rushed to the door and tried to escape but on the stairs a man stopped her and brought her back when she looked at him it was no other than king thrushbeard again he spoke kindly to her and said
do not be afraid i and the beggar man who lived in the poor little hovel with you
she wept bitterly and said i was very wicked and i am not worthy to be your wife but he said be happy those evil days are over now we will celebrate our true wedding
the waiting women came and put rich clothing upon her and her father with all his court came and wished her joy on her marriage with king thrushbeard then in truth her happiness began
but troubled times came again to jerusalem the great empires of babylon and assyria had passed away for ever exactly as the prophets of israel had foretold but new powers had arisen in the world
and the great nations fought together so constantly that all the smaller countries and with them the kingdom of judah changed hands very often at last alexander the great
managed to make himself master of all the countries of the then known world alexander was an even greater conqueror than nebuchadnezzar had been he did not treat the jews unkindly he neither
interfered with their religion nor took treasure from their temple yet while alexander did god's people no outward injury his influence and example led them astray for alexander was a greek and the greeks
although at this time the cleverest people in the whole world were a heathen nation and as such did many foolish and wicked things alexander himself offered sacrifice to venus jupiter and bacchus the
never again would god's chosen people willingly worship false gods their troubles had cured them once for all of that sin but although they knew the greek religion to be untrue
they began greatly to admire the greeks themselves and to take their opinion about many things who can build like these greeks they will have said who can carve such beautiful statues or paint such beautiful pictures
every one knows that their poetry is the finest in the world and that their books are the wisest and pleasantest to read and then how well they train their young people
the lads of greece are the strongest wrestlers and the swiftest runners in the world all this was quite true but the jews forgot that mere cleverness does not make a man or woman good
and that the fear of god is the beginning of all true wisdom many people forget this even to day so the jews began to give their children greek names and to send them to greek schools
and what was worse they put greek books into their hands instead of the bible slowly but surely this unholy leaven entered the people's life and influenced their thoughts
but in spite of all many jewish men and women remained faithful to god they kept his laws and read in his book daily looking always for the coming saviour the messiah who would rule and redeem his people
he set himself to destroy all other forms of faith i am king all my subjects shall think as i do he said he was told that the jews believed in only one god but
he cried with a scornful laugh yes but i will soon alter that before this there had been trouble between antiochus and the people of jerusalem and he thought to himself
i must break down their old ideas and force them to disobey the laws of moses as they call them above all i must utterly destroy their book the book of their law once gone
they will be easy enough to manage so he sent one of his generals to jerusalem and bade him take an army of soldiers and speak peaceable words unto them
the soldiers kept quiet until the sabbath day but while the jews were at prayer and unable to defend themselves the treacherous greeks fell suddenly upon the city
and smote it very sore and destroyed much people of israel then these wicked men built a strong castle on the hill of zion so overlooking the entrance to the temple that no one could come in or go out
without the knowledge and consent of the governor of the castle but this was only the beginning of sorrows soon the dreadful orders of the heathen king were cried through the streets of jerusalem
it is the will of antiochus the king that all the people throughout his whole empire shall worship the same gods as himself and shall declare that his religion alone is true death to all those who disobey
the jews looked at one another in utter dismay for they knew well that antiochus had power to keep his word no more burnt offerings may be made to the god of the jews in the temple i forbid the keeping of the sabbath
the jews law declares the flesh of swine to be unclean i command that on the altar of the jewish god in his temple at jerusalem a sow be offered in honour of my god jupiter
the priests themselves shall be forced to eat of it as for the books of their law destroy them utterly let not a word remain in the whole land publish this order against the book
let him be put to death horrible as it seems all these wicked commands were carried out a sow was slaughtered on the altar and an image of jupiter set up in god's holy temple more cruel than all
the book of the law was torn and trodden underfoot throughout jerusalem and all the cities of palestine bands of soldiers went everywhere searching for copies of the scriptures torn to fragments burnt with fire
often alas drenched with the life blood of those who loved them now indeed the books of the bible were in terrible danger for the most powerful king of the fierce heathen world was fighting directly against them o god
thy holy temple have they defiled they have laid jerusalem on heaps the blood of thy servants have they shed like water round about jerusalem and there was none to bury them
so the cry went up from those faithful hearts who still dared to serve the true god the altar the temple itself was now defiled made unclean
but his people could still cry to the lord and he heard
for they show us what those saints of old suffered rather than deny their god
they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy
it was of these times especially that the writer of hebrews was thinking when he penned those words seven young men the sons of one woman were with their mother brought before the king's officer or
as some say before the king himself for refusing to break the laws of god they were cruelly beaten but one of them cried what wouldst thou ask of us we are ready to die
rather than to transgress the laws of our fathers the torturers thereupon seized the brave fellow and so cruelly tormented him that he died his mother and brothers being forced to look on
but though their faces grew pale as death and they quivered with anguish to see their loved one suffer they gazed steadfastly at each other the lord looketh upon us the lord god hath comfort in us they said
then the second son was taken and before he died he cried with a loud voice
takest us out of this present life but the king of the world shall raise us up who have died for his laws unto life everlasting
but when it came to the turn of the youngest son even the heathen judge was anxious to spare him and he promised the lad honour and great riches if he would but turn from his faith
whom wait ye for he asked i will obey the commandments of the law that was given unto our fathers by moses but thou shalt not escape the hands of god we suffer for our sins but our pain is short
see i offer up my body and life for the laws of my fathers beseeching god to be merciful to my nation and that thou at last mayest confess that he alone is god
confessing their sins and pleading for pardon so the very fierceness of the trial proved a blessing and the days of torture were followed by a revival of faith in god and devotion to his service
had never listened to the cunning temptations of the heathen greeks
and had brought up his sons to follow in his steps when mattathias and his sons heard what was being done at jerusalem they clothed themselves in sackcloth and wept praying and fasting continually beseeching god to forgive his people
and to put away their sins in a little while the king's officers came to the heathen altar at modin the town where the old priest lived sacrifice to jupiter our master's god they said
sacrifice as all jews shall be forced to do or die but the old man looked the greek straight in the face
as he spoke a backsliding jew stepped up to the altar to sacrifice the old priest's eyes flashed fire and in an instant he had struck him down and the greek officer with him
quivering with indignation mattathias then turned to the startled people whosoever loves god let him follow me and he turned and fled swiftly through the streets of the city
many followed him at once others joined him later in the strong camp he formed in the mountains until at last he was at the head of an army wonderful it is to read how little by little
this army of god's people drove the heathen from the cities of judah how they overturned the heathen altars and cast down the images of the false gods
stains of heathen sacrifices then tenderly and reverently they gathered together all that was left of the copies of their scriptures weeping as they saw the poor fragments blackened with fire stained with blood and
scrawled all over with the horrible figures of heathen gods as to day we read in the clean white pages of our bible let us remember this scene and of the time when those torn and blood stained fragments were
all that remained to the world but thank god when all the pieces had been collected together there was plenty of material from which to make fresh copies and no sooner had peace been restored to the city
than the scribes set to work with eager loving care the book had become doubly precious now its written words were indeed sacred for the blood of martyrs had fallen upon them
true greatness is often unrecognized that is sure
i went out to write the life of general garfield and a neighbor
and as there was a great crowd around the front door took me around to general garfield's back door and shouted jim jim and very soon jim came to the door and let me in and
i wrote the biography of one of the grandest men of the nation and yet he was just the same old jim to his neighbor if you know a great man in philadelphia and you should meet him to morrow you would say
how are you sam or good morning jim of course you would that is just what you would do
i went into the waiting room and sat down with a lot of others on the benches and the secretary asked one after another to tell him what they wanted after the secretary had been through the line he went in and
then came back to the door and motioned for me i went up to that anteroom and the secretary said
i never was so taken aback friends in all my life never
there i was in the hallway
whatsoever he had to do at all he put his whole mind into it and held it all there until that was all done that makes men great almost anywhere
and did not look up at me and i sat there trembling finally when he had put the string around his papers he pushed them over to one side
then tad and i are going out to springfield illinois i have bought a farm out there and
then he asked me were you brought up on a farm i said yes in the berkshire hills of massachusetts he then threw his leg over the corner of the big chair and said i have heard
many a time ever since i was young that up there in those hills you have to sharpen the noses of
he was so familiar so
so farmer like that i felt right at home with him at once he then took hold of another roll of paper and looked up at me and said good morning i took the hint then and got up and went out
after i had gotten out i could not realize i had seen the president of the united states at all
by the coffin of abraham lincoln and when i looked at the upturned face of the murdered president i felt then
the greatest men that god ever raised up to lead a nation on to ultimate liberty yet he was only old abe to his neighbors
when they had the second funeral i was invited among others and went out to see that same coffin put back in the tomb at springfield around the tomb stood lincoln's old neighbors to whom he was just old abe
he is nothing but a puffed up balloon held down by his big feet there is no greatness there who are the great men and women
not a great inventor or genius
the safety pin and out of that safety pin made the fortune of one of the great aristocratic families of this nation
a poor man in massachusetts who had worked in the nail works was injured at thirty eight and he could earn but little money he was employed in the office to rub out the marks on the bills made by pencil memorandums
he then tied a piece of rubber on the end of a stick and worked it like a plane his little girl came and said why you have a patent haven't you the father said afterward
my daughter told me when i took that stick and put the rubber on the end that there was a patent and that was the first thought of that
he went to boston and applied for his patent and every one of you that has a rubber tipped pencil in your pocket is now paying tribute to the millionaire no capital not a penny did he invest in it
all was income all the way up into the millions but let me hasten to one other greater thought show me the great men and women who live in philadelphia a gentleman over there will get up and say
we don't have any great men in philadelphia they don't live here they live away off in rome or saint petersburg or london or manayunk or anywhere else but here in our town
i have come now to the apex of my thought i have come now to the heart of the whole matter and to the center of my struggle why isn't philadelphia a greater city in its greater wealth
why does new york excel philadelphia people say because of her harbor why do many other cities of the united states get ahead of philadelphia now
there is only one answer and that is because our own people talk down their own city if there ever was a community on earth that has to be forced ahead it is the city of philadelphia
if we are to have a boulevard talk it down if we are going to have better schools talk them down if you wish to have wise legislation talk it down talk all the proposed improvements down
that is the only great wrong that i can lay at the feet of the magnificent philadelphia that has been so universally kind to me
new york saint louis and san francisco do
trust in god and man and believe in the great opportunities that are right here not over in new york or boston but
greater let us talk up our own city but there are two other young men here to night
when are you going to be great
this nation where the people rule is governed by the people for the people and so long as it is then the office holder is but
the servant of the people and the bible says the servant cannot be greater than the master the bible says he that is sent
the people rule or should rule and if they do we do not need the greater men in office if the great men in america took our offices we would change to an empire in the next ten years
and i am getting out of the way anyhow i may want an office by and by myself but
i want to say right here what i say to the young men
that if you only get the privilege of casting one vote you don't get anything that is worth while unless you can control more than one vote you will be unknown and your influence so dissipated as practically not to be felt
it is governed by influence it is governed by the ambitions and the enterprises which control votes
there are going to be great men in this country and in philadelphia
when when there comes a great war when we get into difficulty through watchful waiting in mexico when we
japan or china or new jersey or some distant country then i will march up to the cannon's mouth i will sweep up among the glistening bayonets
i will come home with stars on my shoulder and hold every office in the gift of the nation and i will be great no you won't you think you are going to be made great
some of you saw the procession go up broad street i was away but the family wrote to me that the tally ho coach with lieutenant hobson upon it
hurrah for hobson and if i had been there i would have yelled too
but suppose i go into school and say who sunk the merrimac at santiago and if the boys answer me hobson they will tell me seven eighths of a lie
there were seven other heroes on that steamer and they by virtue of their position
while hobson as an officer might reasonably be behind the smoke stack you have gathered in this house your most intelligent people and yet perhaps not one here
can name the other seven men we ought not to so teach history we ought to teach that however humble a man's station may be
but we do not so teach we are now teaching everywhere that the generals do all the fighting i remember that after the war i went down to see general robert e lee that
magnificent christian gentleman of whom both north and south are now proud as one of our great americans the general told me about his servant rastus who was an enlisted colored soldier
he called him in one day to make fun of him and said rastus i hear that all the rest of your company are killed and why are you not killed rastus winked at him and said
i remember another illustration
for twenty five years i shut my eyes shut them close and lo i see the faces of my youth
your hair is not white you are working night and day without seeming ever to stop you can't be old but when i shut my eyes like any other man of my years
oh then come trooping back the faces of the loved and lost of long ago and i know whatever men may say it is evening time
i shut my eyes now and look back to my native town in massachusetts and i see the cattle show ground on the mountain top i can see the horse sheds there
see a great assembly of people turning out dressed resplendently and i can see flags flying and handkerchiefs waving and hear bands playing i can see that company of soldiers that had re enlisted marching up on that cattle show ground
i was but a boy but i was captain of that company and puffed out with pride a cambric needle would have burst me all to pieces then i thought it was the greatest event that ever came to man on earth
if you have ever thought you would like to be a king or queen you go and be received by the mayor
turned down into the town hall then they seated my soldiers down the center aisle and i sat down on the front seat a great assembly of people a hundred or two came in to fill the town hall so that they stood up all around
then the town officers came in and formed a half circle
he was a man who had never held office before but he was a good man and his friends have told me that i might use this without giving them offense he was a good man but he thought an office made a man great
adjusted his powerful spectacles and looked around when he suddenly spied me sitting there on the front seat he came right forward on the platform and invited me up to sit with the town officers
no town officer ever took any notice of me before i went to war except to advise the teacher to thrash me and now i was invited up on the stand with the town officers oh my
the town mayor was then the emperor the king of our day and our time
when i had got seated the chairman of the selectmen arose and came forward to the table and we all supposed he would introduce the congregational minister who was the only orator in town and that he would give the oration to the returning soldiers
he had never made a speech in his life but he fell into the same error that hundreds of other men have fallen into it seems so strange that a man won't learn he must speak his piece as a boy
if he in tends to be an orator when he is grown
walking up and down the pasture where he had frightened the cattle
he adjusted his spectacles and leaned over it for a moment and marched back on that platform and then came forward like this tramp tramp tramp
he must have studied the subject a great deal when you come to think of it because he assumed an elocutionary attitude he rested heavily upon his left heel
slightly advanced the right foot opened the organs of speech and advanced his right foot at an angle of forty five as he stood in that elocutionary attitude friends
don't you exaggerate that would be impossible but i am here for the lesson and not for the story and this is the way it went fellow citizens
and then he trembled all over
then he gathered himself up with clenched fists and came back
we are
we are we are very happy we are very happy we are very happy
and come back again to their native town we are especially we are especially
we are especially pleased to see with us to day this young hero that meant me this young hero who in imagination friends remember he said that if he had not said in imagination
this young hero who in imagination we have seen leading we have seen leading leading we have seen leading his troops on to the deadly breach we have seen his shining
his shining his shining sword flashing flashing in the sunlight as he shouted to his troops come on oh dear dear dear how little that good man knew about war
if he had known anything about war at all he ought to have known what any of my
ever in time of danger to go ahead of his men
shouting to my troops come on i never did it do you suppose i would get in front of my men to be shot in front by the enemy and in the back by my own men that is no place for an officer
the place for the officer in actual battle is behind the line
and the rebel yells were coming out of the woods and shouted officers to the rear officers to the rear then every officer gets behind the line of private soldiers and the higher the officer's rank the farther behind he goes
not because he is any the less brave but because the laws of war require that and yet he shouted i with my shining sword
in that house there sat the company of my soldiers who had carried that boy across the carolina rivers that he might not wet his feet some of them had gone far out to get a pig or a chicken
some of them had gone to death
yet in the good man's speech they were scarcely known he did refer to them but only incidentally the hero of the hour was this boy did the nation owe him anything no
why was he the hero simply because that man fell into that same human error that this boy was great because he was an officer and these were only private soldiers
oh i learned the lesson then that i will never forget so long as the tongue of the bell of time continues to swing for me greatness consists not in the holding of some future office
to be great at all one must be great here now in philadelphia he who can give to this city better streets and better sidewalks better schools and more colleges
more happiness and more civilization more of god he will be great anywhere
probably the chief barrier to the commission of crime is the feeling of right and wrong connected with the doing or not doing of particular acts all men have a more or less binding conscience this is the result of long teaching
and habit in matters of conduct most people are taught at home and in school that certain things are right and that others are wrong this constant instruction builds up habits and rules of conduct
and it is mainly upon these that society depends for the behavior of its citizens to most men conscience is the monitor rather than law it acts more automatically
and a shock to the conscience is far more effective than the knowledge that a law is broken for the most part the promptings of conscience follow pretty closely the inhibitions of the criminal code although they may or may not follow the spirit of the law
each person has his own idea of the relative values attached to human actions
no two ethical commands have the same importance to all people or to any two people often men do not hesitate to circumvent or violate one statute
to violate another ordinarily unless the response of conscience is quick and plain men are not bothered by the infraction of the law except perchance by the fear of discovery
this is quite apart from the teaching that it is the duty of all men to obey all laws a proposition so general that it has no effect even those who make the statement do not follow the precept
and the long list of penal laws that die from lack of enforcement instead of by repeal is too well known to warrant the belief that anyone pays serious attention to such a purely academic statement no one
believes in the enforcement of all laws or the duty to obey all laws and no one in fact does obey them all those who proclaim the loudest the duty of obedience to all laws never obey
for example the revenue laws these are clear and explicit and yet men take every means possible to have their property exempted from taxation in other words to defraud the state
this is done on the excuse that everyone else does it and the man who makes a strict return according to law would pay the taxes of the shirkers while this is true it simply shows that all men violate the law
when the justification seems sufficient to them the laws against blasphemy against sunday work and sunday play against buying and transporting intoxicating liquors and smuggling goods
are freely violated many laws are so recent that they have not grown to be folk ways or fixed new habits and their violation brings no moral shock in spite of the professions often made
most men have a poor opinion of congressmen and legislators and feel that their own conscience is a much higher guide for them than the law religions have always taught obedience to god or to what takes his place
religious commands and feelings are higher and more binding on man than human law the captains of industry are forever belittling and criticising all those laws made by legislatures and courts
which interfere with the unrestricted use of property none of this sort of legislation has their approval and the courts are regarded as meddlesome when they enforce it the anti trust laws the anti pooling laws
factory legislation of all kinds anything in short that interferes with the unrestricted use of property by its owner are roundly condemned and violated by evasion on the other hand
so much has been written and said in reference to the creation of the fundamental rights to own property and these rights depend so absolutely upon social arrangements and work out such manifest injustice and inequality
that there is always a deep seated feeling of protest against many of our so called property laws from those who advocate a new distribution of wealth and condemn the injustice of present property rights the step
is quite short to those who feel the injustice and put their ideas in force by taking property when and where they are able to get it for instance
a miner may believe that the corporation for which he works really has no right to the gold down in the mine as he is digging he strikes a particularly rich pocket of high grade ore
he feels that he does no wrong if he appropriates the ore elaborate means are taken to prevent this even compelling the absolute stripping of the workman and a complete change of clothes on going in and coming out of the mine
many laws are put on the books which are of a purely sumptuary nature these attempt to control what one shall do in his own personal affairs such laws are brought about by organizations with a purpose
the members are anxious to make everyone else conform to their ideas and habits such laws as sunday laws liquor laws and the like are examples
then too every state or nation carries a large list of laws that men have so long violated and ignored that they virtually are dead to violate these brings no feeling of wrong
but only serves to make men doubt the evil of violating any law it is never easy to get a legislature to repeal a law generally some organization or committee of people
is interested in keeping it alive and the members of the legislature fear losing their votes social ideas are always changing no laws or customs are eternal the ordinary man and especially the man under the normal
cannot keep up with all the shifting of a changing world there is always a fraction of a community agitating for something new and gradually forcing the legislature to put it into law even against the will of the majority
and against the sentiment of a large class of the community the organization that wants something done is always aggressive the man who wants to prevent it from being done is seldom unduly active or even alarmed
many organizations are eager to get statutes on the books one seldom hears of a society or club that is active in getting laws repealed the constant change of law
is necessary to social life this means putting new wine into old bottles and wine that is much too strong for the bottles everybody can see why some particular law might be violated
without a sense of guilt but they cannot see how a law they believe in can be violated without serious obliquity apart from this there have always been crimes that were not of the class that implied moral wrong
the acts of the revolutionist who saw or thought he saw visions of something better the man who is inspired by the love of his fellow man and who has no personal ends to gain
the man who in his devotion to an idea or a person risks his life or liberty or property or reputation has never been classed with those who violate the law for selfish ends the line of revolutionists
from the beginning of organized government down to the birth of the united states and even to the present time furnishes ample proof of this and still the unsuccessful revolutionist meets with the severest penalties to him
failure generally means death men who are fired with zeal for all new causes are forever running foul of the law social organization like biological organization is conservative all things that live
are imbued with the will to live and they take all means in their power to go on living the philosopher can neither quarrel with the idealist who makes the sacrifice nor the organization that preserves itself while it can
he only recognizes what is true men have always been obliged to fight to preserve liberty constitutions and laws do not safeguard liberty
it can be preserved only by a tolerant people and this means eternal conflict emerson said that the good citizen must not be over obedient to law freedom is always trampled on
in times of stress the united states suffered serious encroachments on liberty during the civil war during the last war these encroachments were greater than any american could have possibly dreamed
and so far there seems little immediate chance for change still the philosopher does not complain he sees human passion for what it is a great emotion that holds men in its grasp
a feeling that nothing can stand against opposition is destroyed by force and often blind cruel unreasoning force sometimes even worse this force is created for selfish ends
there are always those who will use the strongest and highest emotions of men to serve their private sordid ends changing social systems new political ideas the labor cause
all movements for religious social or political change have their zealots they are met by the force of convention and conservatism ready to defend itself and the clash is inevitable
it is easy to distinguish this sort of action from the things done by those who are known as criminals their acts are done to serve personal ends
it was night time and they were all workmen of the better class they had surrounded one of their number a pleasant faced man of thirty and were giving it to him rather heatedly but ow about this ere cheap immigration one of them demanded the jews of whitechapel say
a cutting our throats right along you can't blame them was the answer they're just like us and they've got to live don't blame the man who offers to work cheaper than you and gets your job but ow about the wife an kiddies his interlocutor demanded
there you are came the answer how about the wife and kiddies of the man who works cheaper than you and gets your job eh how about his wife and kiddies he's more interested in them than in yours and he can't see them starve so he cuts the price of labour and out you go
but you mustn't blame him poor devil he can't help it wages always come down when two men are after the same job that's the fault of competition not of the man who cuts the price but wyges don't come down where there's a union the objection was made
and there you are again right on the head the union cheeks competition among the labourers but makes it harder where there are no unions there's where your cheap labour of whitechapel comes in they're unskilled and have no unions
and cut each other's throats and ours in the bargain if we don't belong to a strong union without going further into the argument this man on the mile end waste pointed the moral that when two men were after the one job wages were bound to fall
had he gone deeper into the matter he would have found that even the union say twenty thousand strong could not hold up wages if twenty thousand idle men were trying to displace the union men this is admirably instanced just now
by the return and disbandment of the soldiers from south africa they find themselves by tens of thousands in desperate straits in the army of the unemployed
there is a general decline in wages throughout the land which giving rise to labour disputes and strikes is taken advantage of by the unemployed who gladly pick up the tools thrown down by the strikers sweating
starvation wages armies of unemployed and great numbers of the homeless and shelterless are inevitable when there are more men to do work than there is work for men to do the men and women i have met upon the streets and in the spikes and pegs
are not there because as a mode of life it may be considered a soft snap i have sufficiently outlined the hardships they undergo to demonstrate that their existence is anything but soft
it is a matter of sober calculation here in england that it is softer to work for twenty shillings a week and have regular food and a bed at night than it is to walk the streets the man who walks the streets suffers more and works harder
for far less return i have depicted the nights they spend and how driven in by physical exhaustion they go to the casual ward for a rest up nor is the casual ward a soft snap
to pick four pounds of oakum break twelve hundredweight of stones or perform the most revolting tasks in return for the miserable food and shelter they receive is an unqualified extravagance on the part of the men who are guilty of it
they give the men far less for their labour than do the capitalistic employers the wage for the same amount of labour performed for a private employer would buy them better beds better food more good cheer and above all greater freedom
as i say it is an extravagance for a man to patronise a casual ward and that they know it themselves is shown by the way these men shun it till driven in by physical exhaustion then why do they do it
not because they are discouraged workers the very opposite is true they are discouraged vagabonds in the united states the tramp is almost invariably a discouraged worker he finds tramping a softer mode of life than working
but this is not true in england here the powers that be do their utmost to discourage the tramp and vagabond and he is in all truth a mightily discouraged creature he knows that two shillings a day which is only fifty cents
will buy him three fair meals a bed at night and leave him a couple of pennies for pocket money he would rather work for those two shillings than for the charity of the casual ward for he knows that he would not have to work so hard and that he would not be so abominably treated
he does not do so however because there are more men to do work than there is work for men to do when there are more men than there is work to be done a sifting out process must obtain in every branch of industry the less efficient are crowded out
being crowded out because of inefficiency they cannot go up but must descend and continue to descend until they reach their proper level a place in the industrial fabric where they are efficient it follows therefore and it is inexorable
that the least efficient must descend to the very bottom which is the shambles wherein they perish miserably a glance at the confirmed inefficients at the bottom
and upon whom the wrecking process is just beginning to operate all the forces here it must be remembered are destructive the good body which is there because its brain is not quick and capable is speedily wrenched and twisted out of shape
the clean mind which is there because of its weak body is speedily fouled and contaminated the mortality is excessive but even then they die far too lingering deaths
here then we have the construction of the abyss and the shambles throughout the whole industrial fabric a constant elimination is going on the inefficient are weeded out and flung downward various things constitute inefficiency
the engineer who is irregular or irresponsible will sink down until he finds his place say as a casual labourer an occupation irregular in its very nature and in which there is little or no responsibility
those who are slow and clumsy who suffer from weakness of body or mind or who lack nervous mental and physical stamina must sink down sometimes rapidly sometimes step by step to the bottom
accident by disabling an efficient worker will make him inefficient and down he must go and the worker who becomes aged with failing energy and numbing brain must begin the frightful descent
which knows no stopping place short of the bottom and death in this last instance the statistics of london tell a terrible tale the population of london is one seventh of the total population of the united kingdom
and in london year in and year out one adult in every four dies on public charity either in the workhouse the hospital or the asylum
when the fact that the well to do do not end thus is taken into consideration it becomes manifest that it is the fate of at least one in every three adult workers to die on public charity
as an illustration of how a good worker may suddenly become inefficient and what then happens to him i am tempted to give the case of m'garry a man thirty two years of age and an inmate of the workhouse
the extracts are quoted from the annual report of the trade union i worked at sullivan's place in widnes better known as the british alkali chemical works i was working in a shed and i had to cross the yard it was ten o'clock at night and there was no light about
while crossing the yard i felt something take hold of my leg and screw it off i became unconscious
on the following sunday night i came to my senses and found myself in the hospital i asked the nurse what was to do with my legs and she told me both legs were off there was a stationary crank in the yard let into the ground
the hole was eighteen inches long fifteen inches deep and fifteen inches wide the crank revolved in the hole three revolutions a minute there was no fence or covering over the hole since my accident
and have covered the hole up with a piece of sheet iron they gave me twenty five pounds they didn't reckon that as compensation they said it was only for charity's sake out of that i paid nine pounds for a machine by which to wheel myself about
i was labouring at the time i got my legs off i got twenty four shillings a week rather better pay than the other men because i used to take shifts when there was heavy work to be done i used to be picked out to do it mister manton the manager visited me at the hospital several times
when i was getting better i asked him if he would be able to find me a job he told me not to trouble myself as the firm was not cold hearted i would be right enough in any case mister manton stopped coming to see me
and the last time he said he thought of asking the directors to give me a fifty pound note so i could go home to my friends in ireland poor m'garry he received rather better pay than the other men because he was ambitious and took shifts
and when heavy work was to be done he was the man picked out to do it and then the thing happened and he went into the workhouse the alternative to the workhouse is to go home to ireland and burden his friends for the rest of his life
comment is superfluous it must be understood that efficiency is not determined by the workers themselves but is determined by the demand for labour if three men seek one position the most efficient man will get it
the other two no matter how capable they may be will none the less be inefficients if germany japan and the united states should capture the entire world market for iron coal and textiles
at once the english workers would be thrown idle by hundreds of thousands some would emigrate but the rest would rush their labour into the remaining industries a general shaking up of the workers from top to bottom would result and when equilibrium had been restored
the number of the inefficients at the bottom of the abyss would have been increased by hundreds of thousands on the other hand conditions remaining constant and all the workers doubling their efficiency there would still be as many inefficients
though each inefficient were twice as capable as he had been and more capable than many of the efficients had previously been when there are more men to work than there is work for men to do just as many men as are in excess of work
will be inefficients and as inefficients they are doomed to lingering and painful destruction
from the shifting gloom of the stair case to the soft radiance cast through the open door of her bedroom was for poor zuleika an almost heartening transition she stood awhile on the threshold
already the main part of the packing seemed to have been accomplished the wardrobe was a yawning void the carpet was here and there visible many of the trunks were already brimming and foaming over once more on the road
somewhat as when beneath the stars the great tent had been struck and the lions were growling in their vans and the horses were pawing the stamped grass and whinnying and the elephants trumpeting
so now did the heart of that mother's child rise and flutter amidst the familiar bustle of being off weary she was of the world and angry she was at not being after all good enough for something better and yet
well at least good bye to oxford
when her betrothed had saved enough to start a little cafe of his own and make her his bride and dame de comptoir oh to have a purpose a prospect a stake in the world as this faithful soul had
she asked picking her way across the strewn floor
patting down a pile of chiffon seemed to be amused at such a notion
zuleika looked at the casket and then very gratefully at the maid her art how had she forgotten that here was solace purpose she would work as she had never worked yet
she knew that she had it in her to do better than she had ever done she confessed to herself that she had too often been slack in the matter of practice and rehearsal trusting her personal magnetism to carry her through
only last night she had badly fumbled more than once her bravura business with the demon egg cup had been simply vile the audience hadn't noticed it perhaps but she had now she would perfect herself
no she must not think of that but the thought insisted what if she essayed for paris that which again and again she had meant to graft on to her repertory the provoking thimble she flushed at the possibility
what if her whole present repertory were but a passing phase in her art a mere beginning an earlier manner she remembered how marvellously last night she had manipulated the ear rings and the studs then lo
the light died out of her eyes and her face grew rigid that memory had brought other memories in its wake for her when she fled the broad
now she saw again that higher window
he put them in with his own hands the words rang again in her ears making her cheeks tingle oh he had thought it a very clever thing to do no doubt a splendid little revenge something after his own heart
and he kissed me in the open street excellent excellent she ground her teeth
she drew his attention to them when her jewel box stood open to receive the jewels she wore to night she went very calmly to it there
saw them as things presently transmutable into
shiny black portfolios with weekly journals in them yellow staves with daily journals flapping from them
and certainly just then zuleika was looking very amiable indeed the look was transient nothing she reflected could undo what the duke had done that hateful impudent girl would take good care that every one should know
he put them in with his own hands her ear rings he kissed me in the public street he loved me
and so forth and so on she knew he had told any number of undergraduates he was going to die for her but they poor fellows could not bear witness and good heavens if there were a doubt as to the duke's motive
why not doubts as to theirs but many of them had called out zuleika too
and of course any really impartial person who knew anything at all about the matter at first hand would be sure in his own mind that it was perfectly absurd to pretend that the whole thing wasn't entirely and absolutely for her
who had made a will in her favour and wanted to read it aloud to her in the middle of luncheon oh there would be proof positive as to many of the men but of the others
there would be all sorts of silly far fetched theories and downright lies that couldn't be disproved
the maid hastened to her side and with quick light fingers began to undress her mademoiselle va bien dormir
i shan't said zuleika nevertheless it was soothing to be undressed and yet more soothing anon to sit merely night gowned before the mirror while slowly and gently strongly and strand by strand
after all it didn't so much matter what the world thought let the world whisper and insinuate what it would to slur and sully to belittle and drag down that was what the world always tried to do
but great things were still great and fair things still fair with no thought for the world's opinion had these men gone down to the water to day
it had sufficed them should it not suffice her it did oh it did she was a wretch to have repined at a gesture from her
and using no tissue paper this time did what was yet to be done among the trunks we know you and i zuleika whispered to the adorable creature in the mirror and the adorable creature gave back her nod and smile
they knew these two yet in their happiness rose and floated a shadow between them it was the ghost of that one man who they knew had died irrelevantly with a cold heart
came also the horrid little ghost of one who had died late and unseemly
the poor ghosts of them who had done what they could and could do no more no more was it not enough
were they not sisters relentingly then pityingly each of the two covered her face with her hands and there recurred as by stealth to the lady in the room a thought that had assailed her not long ago in judas street
a thought about the power of example and now with pent breath and fast beating heart she stood staring at the lady of the mirror without seeing her and now she wheeled round and swiftly glided to that little table
on which stood her two books she snatched bradshaw we always intervene between bradshaw and any one whom we see consulting him
be quiet said zuleika we always repulse at first any one who intervenes between us and bradshaw we always end by accepting the intervention see if it is possible to go direct from here to cambridge said zuleika handing the book on
we never have any confidence in the intervener nor is the intervener when it comes to the point sanguine with mistrust mounting to exasperation zuleika sat watching the faint and frantic researches of her maid stop
she said suddenly i have a much better idea go down very early to the station see the station master order me a special train for ten o'clock say rising she stretched her arms above her head
her lips parted in a yawn met in a smile with both hands she pushed back her hair from her shoulders and twisted it into a loose knot very lightly she slipped up into bed
for what happened a few moments later you must not blame him some measure of force was the only way out of an impossible situation it was in vain that he commanded the young lady to let go she did but cling the closer
it was in vain that he tried to disentangle himself of her
and veering sharply on his heel she did but sway as though hinged to him he had no choice but to grasp her by the wrists cast her aside and step clear of her into the room
proclaimed that she had come to stay nor did she rise propped on one elbow with heaving bosom and parted lips she seemed to be trying to realise what had been done to her through her undried tears her eyes shone up to him
he asked to what am i indebted for this visit
say that again she murmured your voice is music he repeated his question music she said dreamily and such is the force of habit that i don't she added
know anything about music really but i know what i like had you not better get up from the floor he said the door is open and any one who passed might see you
softly she stroked the carpet with the palms of her hands happy carpet she crooned aye happy the very women that wove the threads that are trod by the feet of my beloved master but hark
he bids his slave rise and stand before him just after she had risen a figure appeared in the doorway i beg pardon your grace mother wants to know will you be lunching in yes
said the duke i will ring when i am ready and it dawned on him that this girl who perhaps loved him was according to all known standards extraordinarily pretty
she hesitated will miss dobson be no he said i shall be alone
that which told him he was truly loved
you want to be rid of me asked zuleika when the girl was gone
then take me she cried throwing back her arms and throw me out of the window he smiled coldly you think i don't mean it you think i would struggle try me she let herself droop sideways
in an attitude limp and portable try me she repeated all this is very well conceived no doubt said he and well executed but it happens to be otiose what do you mean
i mean you may set your mind at rest i am not going to back out of my promise zuleika flushed you are cruel i would give the world and all not to have written you that hateful letter forget it forget it for pity's sake
the duke looked searchingly at her you mean that you now wish to release me from my promise release you as if you were ever bound don't torture me he wondered what deep game she was playing
very real though her anguish seemed and if real it was then he stared he gasped there could be but one explanation he put it to her you love me with all my soul
his heart leapt if she spoke truth then indeed vengeance was his but what proof have i he asked her proof have men absolutely no intuition if you need proof produce it
where are my ear rings your ear rings why impatiently she pointed to two white pearls that fastened the front of her blouse these are your studs
black and pink were they not when you took them of course
when i undressed they must have rolled on to the carpet
that was just after she came back from bringing you my first letter i was bewildered i doubted might not the pearls have gone back to their natural state simply through being yours no more that is why i wrote again to you my
own darling a frantic little questioning letter when i heard how you had torn it up i knew
i telescoped my toilet and came rushing round to you how many hours have i been waiting for you the duke had drawn her ear rings from his waistcoat pocket and was contemplating them in the palm of his hand blanched both of them
yes he laid them on the table take them he said no she shuddered i could never forget that once they were both black she flung them into the fender
oh john she cried turning to him and falling again to her knees i do so want to forget what i have been i want to atone you think you can drive me out of your life you cannot
since you won't kill me always i shall follow you on my knees thus
i am not going to back out of my promise he repeated she stopped her ears
took some papers from his breast pocket and selecting one of them handed it to her it was the telegram sent by his steward she read it with a stern joy he watched her reading it wild eyed she looked up from it to him
he had not foreseen this
he vaguely cried was she not a fellow creature and rushed blindly out to his bedroom whence he returned a moment later with the water jug he dipped his hand and sprinkled the upturned face dew drops on a white rose
but some other sharper analogy hovered to him he dipped and sprinkled the water beads broke mingled rivulets now he dipped and flung then caught the horrible analogy and rebounded
it was at this moment that zuleika opened her eyes where am i she weakly raised herself on one elbow
and the suspension of the duke's hatred would have been repealed simultaneously with that of her consciousness had it not already been repealed by the analogy she put a hand to her face then looked at the wet palm wonderingly looked at the duke
saw the water jug beside him she too it seemed had caught the analogy for with a wan smile she said we are quits now john aren't we her poor little jest drew to the duke's face no answering smile
did but make hotter the blush there the wave of her returning memory swept on swept up to her with a roar the instant past oh she cried staggering to her feet the owls the owls
vengeance was his and yes there he said is the ineluctable hard fact you wake to the owls have hooted the gods have spoken
this day your wish is to be fulfilled the owls have hooted the gods have spoken this day oh it must not be john heaven have mercy on me the unerring owls have hooted
the dispiteous and humorous gods have spoken miss dobson it has to be and let me remind you he added with a glance at his watch that you ought not to keep the mac quern waiting for luncheon
that is unworthy of you she said there was in her eyes a look that made the words sound as if they had been spoken by a dumb animal you have sent him an excuse no i have forgotten him
that is unworthy of you after all he is going to die for you like the rest of us i am but one of a number you know use your sense of proportion if i do that she said after a pause
you may not be pleased by the issue i may find that whereas yesterday i was great in my sinfulness and to day am great in my love you in your hate of me are small
i may find that what i had taken to be a great indifference is nothing but a very small hate ah i have wounded you forgive me a weak woman talking at random in her wretchedness
oh john john if i thought you small my love would but take on the crown of pity don't forbid me to call you john i looked you up in debrett while i was waiting for you that seemed to bring you nearer to me so many other names you have too
i remember you told me them all yesterday here in this room not twenty four hours ago hours years she laughed hysterically john don't you see why i won't stop talking it's because i dare not think
yonder in balliol he suavely said you will find the matter of my death easier to forget than here he took her hat and gloves from the arm chair and held them carefully out to her but she did not take them
i give you three minutes he told her two minutes that is in which to make yourself tidy before the mirror a third in which to say good bye and be outside the front door if i refuse you will not
if i do i shall send for a policeman she looked well at him yes she slowly said i think you would do that she took her things from him and laid them by the mirror
with a high hand she quelled the excesses of her hair some of the curls still agleam with water and knowingly poised and pinned her hat then after a few swift touches and passes at neck and waist she took her gloves and wheeling round to him
there she said i have been quick admirably he allowed quick in more than meets the eye john spiritually quick you saw me putting on my hat you did not see love taking on the crown of pity
and me bonneting her with it tripping her up and trampling the life out of her oh a most cold blooded business john had to be done though no other way out so i just used my sense of proportion as you rashly bade me
and then hardened my heart at sight of you as you are one of a number yes and a quite unlovable unit so i am all right again and now where is balliol far from here no
and having played it with flawless skill has yet damn it lost the odd trick balliol is quite near at the end of this street in fact i can show it to you from the front door yes he had controlled himself
but this he furiously felt did not make him look the less a fool what ought he to have said he prayed as he followed the victorious young woman downstairs that l'esprit de l'escalier might befall him alas it did not
by the way she said when he had shown her where balliol lay have you told anybody that you aren't dying just for me no he answered i have preferred not to
then all's well that ends well shall we say good bye here i shall be on the judas barge but i suppose there will be a crush as yesterday sure to be there always is on the last night of the eights you know good bye
good bye little john small john she cried across her shoulder
artistically there is a good deal to be said for that old greek friend of ours the messenger and i dare say you blame me for having as it were made you an eye witness of the death of the undergraduates
some one whom are you not begging the question i admit there were that evening in oxford many people who when they went home from the river gave vivid reports of what they had seen
but among them was none who had seen more than a small portion of the whole affair certainly i might have pieced together a dozen of the various accounts and put them all into the mouth of one person
but credibility is not enough for clio's servant i aim at truth and so as i by my zeus given incorporeity was the one person who had a good view of the scene at large
you must pardon me for having withheld the veil of indirect narration too late you will say if i offer you a messenger now but it was not thus that missus batch and katie greeted clarence when lamentably soaked with rain
that messenger appeared on the threshold of the kitchen katie was laying the table cloth for seven o'clock supper neither she nor her mother was clairvoyante neither of them knew what had been happening but as clarence had not come home since afternoon school
they had assumed that he was at the river and they now assumed from the look of him that something very unusual had been happening there as to what this was they were not quickly enlightened our old greek friend after a run of twenty miles
would always reel off a round hundred of graphic verses unimpeachable in scansion clarence was of degenerate mould he collapsed on to a chair and sat there gasping and his recovery was rather delayed than hastened by his mother
who in her solicitude patted him vigorously between the shoulders let him alone mother do cried katie wringing her hands the duke he's drowned himself presently gasped the messenger
blank verse yes so far as it went but delivered without the slightest regard for rhythm and composed in stark defiance of those laws which should regulate the breaking of bad news you please remember
were carefully prepared by me against the shock of the duke's death and yet i hear you still mumbling that i didn't let the actual fact be told you by a messenger come do you really think your grievance against me
is for a moment comparable with that of missus and miss batch against clarence did you feel faint at any moment in the foregoing chapter no but katie at clarence's first words fainted outright
and a little less about your own paltry discomfort missus batch herself did not faint but she was too much overwhelmed to notice that her daughter had done so no mercy on us speak boy can't you
threw himself in on purpose i was on the towing path saw him do it missus batch gave a low moan katie's fainted added the messenger not without a touch of personal pride
missus batch repeated dully katie she said in the same voice get up this instant but katie did not hear her the mother was loth to have been outdone in sensibility by the daughter
asked katie at length echoing the words used in this very house at a similar juncture on this very day by another lover of the duke ah you may well ask that said missus batch with more force than reason a mother's support indeed
well and as for you she cried turning on clarence sending her off like that with your she was face to face again with the tragic news katie remembering it simultaneously uttered a loud sob
missus batch capped this with a much louder one clarence stood before the fire slowly revolving on one heel his clothes steamed briskly it isn't true said katie she rose and came uncertainly towards her brother
half threatening half imploring all right said he strong in his advantage then i shan't tell either of you anything more missus batch through her tears called katie a bad girl and clarence a bad boy where did you get them
asked clarence pointing to the ear rings worn by his sister
clarence curbed the brotherly intention of telling her she looked a sight in them she stood staring into vacancy
she murmured that was all over
that miss dobson that's been here what's her other name
katie enunciated with bitterest abhorrence well then he jolly well did love her that's the name he called out just before he threw himself in
like that added the boy with a most infelicitous attempt to reproduce the duke's manner katie had shut her eyes and clenched her hands he hated her he told me so she said i was always a mother to him
sobbed missus batch rocking to and fro on a chair in a corner why didn't he come to me in his trouble he kissed me said katie as in a trance
no other man shall ever do that he did exclaimed clarence
wretched little whipper snapper flashed katie oh i am am i shouted clarence squaring up to his sister say that again will you there is no doubt that katie would have said it again
had not her mother closed the scene with a prolonged wail of censure
said missus batch katie went across and laid a gentle hand on her mother's shoulder this however did but evoke a fresh flood of tears missus batch had a keen sense of the deportment owed to tragedy
katie by bickering with clarence had thrown away the advantage she had gained by fainting missus batch was not going to let her retrieve it by shining as a consoler i hasten to add that this resolve was only sub conscious in the good woman
her grief was perfectly sincere and it was not the less so because with it was mingled a certain joy in the greatness of the calamity she came of good sound peasant stock abiding in her
with murders and all manner of grim things she had not had education enough to spoil her nerve she was able to take the rough with the smooth she was able to take all life for her province and death too the duke was dead
this was the stupendous outline she had grasped now let it be filled in she had been stricken now let her be racked soon after her daughter had moved away missus batch dried her eyes
and bade clarence tell just what had happened she did not flinch modern katie did such had ever been the duke's magic in the household that clarence had at first forgotten to mention that any one else was dead
of this omission he was glad it promised him a new lease of importance meanwhile he described in greater detail the duke's plunge missus batch's mind while she listened ran ahead dog like into the immediate future ranging around
the family would all be here to morrow the duke's own room must be put straight to night i was of speaking
to the tone of that voice to that hand which she had kissed to the touch of those lips on her brow to the door step she had made so white for him day by day the sound of the rain had long ceased there was the noise of a gathering wind
then in went a lot of others clarence was saying
and he told how by inquiries further down the river he had learned the extent of the disaster
as with a sulky salute to romance missus batch had risen from her chair the better to cope with such magnitude she stood with wide spread arms silent gaping
she seemed by sheer force of sympathy to be expanding to the dimensions of a crowd intensive katie recked little of all these other deaths i only know she said that he hated her hundreds and hundreds all
intoned missus batch then gave a sudden start as having remembered something mister noaks he too she staggered to the door leaving her actual offspring to their own devices
and went heavily up the stairs her mind scampering again before her if he was safe and sound dear young gentleman heaven be praised and she would break the awful news to him very gradually
if not there was another family to be solaced i'm a mother myself missus noaks the sitting room door was closed twice did missus batch tap on the panel receiving no answer she went in
gazed around in the dimness sighed deeply and struck a match conspicuous on the table lay a piece of paper she bent to examine it a piece of lined paper torn from an exercise book it was neatly inscribed with the words
what is life without love the final word and the note of interrogation were somewhat blurred as by a tear the match had burnt itself out the landlady lit another and read the legend a second time
that she might take in the full pathos of it then she sat down in the arm chair for some minutes she wept there then having no more tears she went out on tip toe closing the door very quietly
as she descended the last flight of stairs her daughter had just shut the front door and was coming along the hall poor mister noaks he's gone said the mother has he
chapter seventeen what is a strike there are briars besetting every path which call for patient care there is a cross in every lot
but the length of a street yes the air of a milton street cheered her young blood before she reached her first turning her step grew lighter her lip redder she began to take notice
instead of having her thoughts turned so exclusively inward she saw unusual loiterers in the streets men with their hands in their pockets sauntering along loud laughing and loud spoken girls clustered together apparently excited to high spirits
and a boisterous independence of temper and behaviour the more ill looking of the men the discreditable minority hung about on the steps of the beer houses and gin shops smoking and commenting pretty freely on every passer by
margaret disliked the prospect of the long walk through these streets before she came to the fields which she had planned to reach instead she would go and see bessy higgins it would not be so refreshing as a quiet country walk
but still it would perhaps be doing the kinder thing nicholas higgins was sitting by the fire smoking as she went in bessy was rocking herself on the other side
nicholas took the pipe out of his mouth and standing up pushed his chair towards margaret he leant against the chimney piece in a lounging attitude while she asked bessy how she was
hoo doesn't like this strike hoo's a deal too much set on peace and quietness at any price
as if that was answer and explanation enough well third time pays for all
see if they don't come and beg us to come back at our own price that's all
but this time we'n laid our plans desperate deep why do you strike asked margaret striking is leaving off work till you get your own rate of wages is it not you must not wonder at my ignorance where i come from
i never heard of a strike i wish i were there said bessy wearily but it's not for me to get sick and tired o strikes this is the last i'll see before it's ended i shall be in the great city the holy jerusalem
now i yo see am bound to do the best i can here
but said margaret if the people struck as you call it where i come from as they are mostly all field labourers the seed would not be sown the hay got in the corn reaped well said he
he had resumed his pipe and put his well in the form of an interrogation why she went on what would become of the farmers he puffed away i reckon they'd have either to give up their farms or to give fair rate of wage
suppose they could not or would not do the last they could not give up their farms all in a minute however much they might wish to do so but they would have no hay nor corn to sell that year and where would the money come from
to pay the labourers wages the next still puffing away at last he said i know nought of your ways down south i have heerd they're a pack of spiritless down trodden men welly clemmed to death
now it's not so here we known when we're put upon
yo may clem us but yo'll not put upon us my masters
they shan't this time i wish i lived down south said bessy there's a deal to bear there said margaret there are sorrows to bear everywhere there is very hard bodily labour to be gone through with very little food to give strength
but it's out of doors said bessy and away from the endless endless noise and sickening heat it's sometimes in heavy rain and sometimes in bitter cold a young person can stand it
but an old man gets racked with rheumatism and bent and withered before his time yet he must just work on the same or else go to the workhouse i thought yo were so taken wi the ways of the south country
so i am said margaret smiling a little as she found herself thus caught i only mean bessy there's good and bad in everything in this world and as you felt the bad up here
the bad down there and yo say they never strike down there asked nicholas abruptly no said margaret i think they have too much sense an i think replied he dashing the ashes out of his pipe with so much vehemence that it broke
o father said bessy what have ye gained by striking think of that first strike when mother died how we all had to clem you the worst of all and yet many a one went in every week at the same wage
ay said he that there strike was badly managed
as were either fools or not true men yo'll see it'll be different this time but all this time you've not told me what you're striking for said margaret again why yo see
there's five or six masters who have set themselves again paying the wages they've been paying these two years past and flourishing upon and getting richer upon
and say we're to take less and we won't we'll just clem them to death first and see who'll work for em then they'll have killed the goose that laid em the golden eggs i reckon
and so you plan dying in order to be revenged upon them no said he i dunnot i just look forward to the chance of dying at my post sooner than yield that's what folk call fine and honourable in a soldier
and why not in a poor weaver chap but said margaret a soldier dies in the cause of the nation in the cause of others he laughed grimly
but don't yo think i can keep three people that's bessy and mary and me on sixteen shilling a week
only m'appen the cause he dies for is just that of somebody he never clapt eyes on nor heerd on all his born days while i take up john boucher's cause as lives next door but one
none on em factory age and i don't take up his cause only though he's a poor good for nought as can only manage two looms at a time
why are we to have less wage now i ask than two year ago don't ask me said margaret i am very ignorant ask some of your masters surely they will give you a reason for it
it is not merely an arbitrary decision of theirs come to without reason yo're just a foreigner and nothing more said he contemptuously much yo know about it
they'd tell us to mind our own business and they'd mind theirs our business being
to take the bated wage and be thankful and their business to bate us down to clemming point to swell their profits that's what it is but said margaret determined not to give way although she saw she was irritating him
the state of trade may be such as not to enable them to give you the same remuneration state o trade that's just a piece o masters humbug it's rate o wages i was talking of
and just walk it forward like a black bug a boo to frighten naughty children with into being good
their cue as some folks call it to beat us down to swell their fortunes and it's ours to stand up and fight hard not for ourselves alone but for them round about us for justice and fair play
it's not that we want their brass so much this time as we've done many a time afore we'n getten money laid by and we're resolved to stand and fall together
so i say hooray for the strike and let thornton and slickson and hamper and their set look to it thornton said margaret mister thornton of marlborough street aye
thornton o marlborough mill as we call him he is one of the masters you are striving with is he not
did yo ever see a bulldog
nay said margaret laughing i deny that mister thornton is plain enough but he's not like a bulldog with its short broad nose and snarling upper lip no not in look i grant yo
as for slickson i take it some o these days he'll wheedle his men back wi fair promises that they'll just get cheated out of as soon as they're in his power again he'll work his fines well out on em i'll warrant he's as slippery as an eel he is
he's like a cat as sleek and cunning and fierce it'll never be an honest up and down fight wi him as it will be wi thornton thornton's as dour as a door nail an obstinate chap every inch on him
poor bessy said margaret turning round to her you sigh over it all you don't like struggling and fighting as your father does do you no said she heavily i'm sick on it
that has wearied a my life long about work and wages and masters and hands and knobsticks
beside i shall be a deal here to make it more lively for thee tobacco smoke chokes me said she querulously
but why didst thou not tell me afore thou foolish wench she did not speak for a while and then so low that only margaret heard her
her father went out of doors evidently to finish his pipe bessy said passionately now am not i a fool am i not miss there i knew i ought for to keep father at home
in time o strike to go drink
as often as he wants to smoke and nobody knows where it'll end i wish i'd letten myself be choked first but does your father drink asked margaret
no not to say drink replied she still in the same wild excited tone but what win ye have
just longing for a bit of a change a bit of a fillip as it were i know i ha gone and bought a four pounder
just because i sickened at the thought
and the same thought or no thought for that matter in my head day after day for ever i've longed for to be a man to go spreeing
and father all men have it stronger in em than me to get tired o sameness and work for ever and what is em to do
and more lively and see things they never see at no other time pictures and looking glass and such like but father never was a drunkard though maybe he's got worse for drink now and then only yo see
and now her voice took a mournful pleading tone
for all they start so hopefully
he'll get angry and mad they all do
come bessy said margaret i won't say you're exaggerating because i don't know enough about it but perhaps as you're not well you're only looking on one side and there is another
and a brighter to be looked to it's all well enough for yo to say so who have lived in pleasant green places all your life long and never known want or care or wickedness either for that matter
take care said margaret her cheek flushing and her eye lightening how you judge bessy i shall go home to my mother who is so ill so ill bessy
that there's no outlet but death for her out of the prison of her great suffering and yet i must speak cheerfully to my father who has no notion of her real state and to whom the knowledge must come gradually the only person
the only one who could sympathise with me and help me whose presence could comfort my mother more than any other earthly thing is falsely accused would run the risk of death if he came to see his dying mother
this i tell you only you bessy you must not mention it no other person in milton hardly any other person in england knows have i not care do i not know anxiety
though i go about well dressed and have food enough oh bessy god is just and our lots are well portioned out by him although none but he knows the bitterness of our souls
i ask your pardon replied bessy humbly sometimes when i've thought o my life and the little pleasure i've had in it i've believed that maybe i was one of those doomed to die by the falling of a star from heaven
and the third part of the waters became wormwood and men died of the waters because they were made bitter one can bear pain and sorrow better if one thinks it has been prophesied long before for one
somehow then it seems as if my pain was needed for the fulfilment otherways it seems all sent for nothing nay bessy think said margaret god does not willingly afflict
don't dwell so much on the prophecies but read the clearer parts of the bible i dare say it would be wiser
and this town above a as in revelations many's the time i've repeated the verses in the seventh chapter to myself just for the sound it's as good as an organ and as different from every day too no
i cannot give up revelations it gives me more comfort
ay said she greedily come father will maybe hear yo
he says it's all nought to do with the things o to day and that's his business where is your sister gone fustian cutting i were loth to let her go but somehow we must live
now i must go you have done me good bessy i done you good yes i came here very sad and rather too apt to think my own cause for grief was the only one in the world
and now i hear how you have had to bear for years and that makes me stronger bless yo
you won't do it if you think about it but you'll only puzzle yourself if you do that's one comfort
i dunno what to make of yo nor i of myself good bye bessy stilled her rocking to gaze after her i wonder if there are many folk like her down south
she's like a breath of country air somehow she freshens me up above a bit
as bright and as strong as the angel i dream of could have known the sorrow she speaks on i wonder how she'll sin all on us must sin i think a deal on her for sure
but father does the like i see and mary even
seemed to contradict the fact and he could by no means reconcile her absence with the presence on the fence of the fragment of gauze still less with the supposition that she must have climbed over a tolerably difficult obstacle to enter the yard let alone the necessity by no means easy to a woman
of descending into the disused cellar by means of a shaky and fragile ladder after all thought lucian when he was seated that same evening at his dinner
i am no more certain that the veil is the property of missus vrain than i am that she was the woman whose shadow i saw on the blind whosoever it was that gained entrance by passing over fence and through cellar must have come across the yard belonging to the house facing the other road
therefore the person must be known to the owner of that house and i must discover who the owner is miss greeb will know lucian made this last remark with the greatest confidence as he was satisfied from a long acquaintance with his landlady
that there was very little concerning her own neighbourhood of which she was ignorant the result verified his belief for when miss greeb came in to clear the table a duty she invariably undertook so as to have a chance of conversing with her admired lodger
she was able to afford him the fullest information on the subject the position of the house in question the name of its owner the character of its tenants she was thoroughly well posted up in every item and willingly imparted her knowledge with much detail and comment
no nine jersey street said she unhesitatingly that is the number of the house at the back of the haunted mansion mister denzil i know it as well as i know my ten fingers to whom does it belong asked lucian mister peacock
having bought up the land when the place was first built on he's seventy years of age you know mister denzil continued miss greeb conversationally and rich
building houses cheap and letting them dear he has made more out of that than in sanding his sugar and chicorying his coffee he what is the name of the tenant interrupted lucian cutting short this rapid sketch of peacock's life missus bensusan
one of the largest women hereabouts i don't quite understand fat mister denzil
what reputation has she miss greeb oh pretty good said the little woman shrugging her shoulders though they do say she overcharges and underfeeds her lodgers she keeps a boarding house then well she lets rooms
and those who live in them supply their own food and pay for service and kitchen fire who is with her now no one replied the landlady promptly
her last lodger left about christmas what is his name or her name oh it was a he said miss greeb smiling missus bensusan prefers gentlemen who are out of doors all day to ladies muddling and meddling all day about the house i must say i do too mister denzil
ended the lady with a fascinating glance what is his name miss greeb repeated lucian quite impervious to the hint let me see said miss greeb discomfited at the result of her failure
a queer name that had to do with payments bill as the short for william
quarterday no but it had something to do with quarter days rent finished miss greeb triumphantly rent with a w before it w r e n t spelled lucian yes wrent mister wrent
a strange name mister denzil a kind of charade as i may say he was with missus bensusan six months
very strange assented lucian to stop further comment what kind of a man was this mister wrent i don't know i never heard much about him replied miss greeb regretfully
lucian hesitated as he rather dreaded the chattering tongue of his landlady and did not wish his connection with the vrain case to become public property in geneva square still miss greeb was a valuable ally if only for her wide acquaintance with the neighbourhood
its inhabitants and their doings therefore after a moment's reflection he resolved to secure miss greeb as a coadjutor and risk her excessive garrulity can you keep a secret miss greeb he asked with impressive solemnity
with many a mysterious look and nod that secrets endangering the domestic happiness of every family in the square were known to her and appealed to the fact that such families still lived in harmony as a proof that she was to be trusted wild horses wouldn't drag out of me what i know
cried miss greeb earnestly you can confide in me as you would in a she was about to say mother but recollecting her juvenile looks substituted the word sister very good said lucian
explaining just as much as would serve his purpose then i may tell you miss greeb that i suspect the assassin of mister vrain entered through missus bensusan's house
cried miss greeb taken by surprise
no no replied lucian smiling at this highly coloured description do not jump to conclusions miss greeb so far as i am aware this mister wrent you speak of is innocent do you know missus bensusan and her house well
i've visited both several times mister denzil well then tell me continued the barrister is the house built with a full frontage like those in this square i mean to gain missus bensusan's back yard is it necessary to go through missus bensusan's house
no replied miss greeb shutting her eyes to conjure up the image of her friend's premises you can go round the back through the side passage which leads in from jersey road
said lucian in a dissatisfied tone that complicates matters how so sir demanded the curious landlady never mind just now miss greeb
and of no thirteen with the yards between i never could sketch said miss greeb regretfully and i am no artist mister denzil but i think i can do what you want here is a sheet of paper and a pencil will you sketch me the houses as clearly as you can
with much reflection and nibbling of the pencil and casting of her eyes up to the ceiling to aid her memory miss greeb in ten minutes produced the required sketch there you are mister denzil said miss greeb
placing this work of art before the barrister that's as good as i can draw it is excellent miss greeb replied lucian examining the plan i see that anyone can get into missus bensusan's yard through the side passage oh yes
but i don't think a person could without being seen by missus bensusan or rhoda who is rhoda the servant she's as sharp as a needle but an idle slut for all that mister denzil they say she's a gypsy of some kind is the gate of this passage locked at night
not that i know of then what is to prevent any one coming in under cover of darkness and climbing the fence he would escape then being seen by the landlady and her servant i daresay
not if he chose a dark night for the climbing
you know i've read the report of the case mister denzil
how the murdering assassin got in i may discover even that replied lucian not choosing to tell miss greeb that he had already discovered the entrance with time and inquiry and observation we can do much thank you miss greeb he continued
slipping the drawing of the plan into his breast coat pocket
of course you'll repeat our conversation to no one i swear to breathe no word said miss greeb dramatically and left the room greatly pleased with this secret understanding
which had quite the air of an innocent intrigue such as was detailed in journals designed for the use of the family circle for the next day or two lucian mused over the information he had obtained and made a fresh drawing of the plan for his own satisfaction
but he took no steps on this new evidence as he was anxious to submit his discoveries to miss vrain before doing so at the present time diana was at bath taking possession of her ancestral acres and consulting the family lawyer on various matters connected with the property
once she wrote to lucian advising him that she had heard several pieces of news likely to be useful in clearing up the mystery but these she refused to communicate save at a personal interview denzil was thus kept in suspense
and unable to rest until he knew precisely the value of miss vrain's newly acquired information therefore it was with a feeling of relief that he received a note from her asking him to call at three o'clock on sunday at the royal john hotel since her going and coming
a week had elapsed now that his divinity had returned and he was about to see her again the sun shone once more in the heavens for lucian and he arrayed himself for his visit with the utmost care
and he thought less of the case at the moment than of the joy in seeing miss vrain once more in hearing her speak and watching her lovely face on her part diana recollecting their last meeting or more particularly their parting blushed in her turn
and gave her hand to the barrister with a new born timidity she also was inclined to like lucian more than was reasonable for the peace of her heart so these two people each drawn to the other should have come together as lovers even at this second meeting but alas
for the prosaicness of this workaday world they had to assume the attitudes of lawyer and client and discourse of crime instead of love the situation was a trifle ironical and must have provoked the laughter of the gods well asked miss vrain
getting to business as soon as lucian was seated and what have you found out a great deal likely to be of service to us and you i replied miss vrain in a satisfied tone i have discovered that the stiletto with the ribbon is gone from the library who took it away
no one knows i can't find out although i asked all the servants but it has been missing from its place for some months
i can't say replied diana but i have made one discovery about missus vrain which implicates her still more in the crime she was not in berwin manor on christmas eve but in town really said lucian much amazed
but link was told that she spent christmas in the manor at bath so she did link asked generally and was answered generally missus vrain went up to town on christmas eve and returned on christmas day but said diana with emphasis she spent the night in town
and on that night the murder was committed lucian produced his pocketbook and took therefrom the fragment of gauze which he handed to diana
it is a veil a portion of a velvet spotted veil a velvet spotted veil cried diana looking at it then it belongs to lydia vrain she usually wears velvet spotted veils
for there were four points at least which could be proved past all doubt as incriminating her strongly in the matter in the first place the female shadow on the blind seen by lucian showed that a woman had been in the habit of entering the house by the secret way of the cellar
and during the absence of vrain secondly the finding of the parti coloured ribbon in the silent house which had been knotted round the handle of the stiletto by diana and the absence of the stiletto itself from its usual place on the wall of the berwin manor library
proved that the weapon had been removed therefrom to london and presumably used to commit the deed seeing that otherwise there was no necessity for its presence in the geneva square mansion thirdly diana had discovered that lydia had spent the night of the murder in town
and lastly she also declared that the fragment of gauze found by lucian on the dividing fence was the property of missus vrain this quartette of charges was recapitulated by diana in support of her accusation of her stepmother
i always suspected lydia as indirectly guilty she declared in concluding her speech for the prosecution
but did she said denzil by no means convinced
retorted diana indignantly she was in town on christmas eve she took the stiletto from the library and you can't prove that interrupted lucian decidedly then seeing the look of anger on diana's face he hastened to apologise
excuse me miss vrain he said nervously i am not the less your friend because i combat your arguments but in this case it is necessary to look on both sides of the question is it possible to prove that missus vrain removed this dagger nobody actually saw it in her possession
let us say count ferruci suggested denzil diana pointed to the fragment of the veil lying on the table on the evidence of that piece of gauze she said it was lydia who entered the house again you saw her shadow on the window blind
i saw two shadows corrected lucian hastily those of a man and a woman in plain english mister denzil those of missus vrain and count ferruci we cannot be certain of that but circumstantial evidence is not always conclusive miss vrain
if missus vrain killed her husband she must have had a strong motive to do so well said diana impatiently there is the assurance money i don't know if that motive is quite strong enough to justify this woman in risking her neck responded the barrister
as missus vrain of berwin manor she had an ample income for your father seems to have left all the rents to her and spent but little on himself
you can see her at once and diana rose to ring the bell one moment interposed lucian before she could touch the button tell me if miss tyler knows your reason for bringing her up i have not told her directly said diana with some bluntness
but as she is no fool i fancy she suspects
unless added lucian significantly you desire to take her into our confidence no said diana promptly i do not think it is wise to take her into our confidence she is rather well to put it plainly mister denzil rather a gossip
as such do you consider her evidence reliable we can pick the grains of wheat out of the chaff no doubt she exaggerates and garbles after the fashion of a scandal loving woman but her evidence is valuable especially as showing that lydia was not at bath on christmas eve
we will tell her nothing so she can suspect as much as she likes if we do speak freely she will spread the gossip and if we don't she will invent worse facts so in either case it doesn't matter
but fearful of giving offence to his companion he speedily composed his features with much explanation and an exhibition of miss greeb's plan he gave an account of his discoveries beginning with his visit to the cellar and ending with the important conversation with his landlady
diana listened attentively and when he concluded gave it as her opinion that lydia had entered the first yard by the side passage and had climbed over the fence into the second as is clearly proved by the veil she concluded decisively
expected her cried diana thunderstruck impossible i don't know so much about that replied lucian drily
but when i met your father the second time he was so anxious to prove by letting me examine the house
that i am certain he was well aware the shadows i saw were those of people he knew were in the room now if the woman was missus vrain she must have been in the habit of visiting your father by the back way and ferruci also
no more than i am certain the other was missus vrain but the veil lucian shrugged his shoulders in despair that seems to prove it was she he said dubiously but i can't explain your father's conduct in receiving her in so secretive a way
the whole thing is beyond me well what is to be done said diana after a pause during which they looked blankly at one another i must think my head is too confused just now with this conflicting evidence to plan any line of action
as a relief let us examine your friend and hear what she has to say diana assented and touched the bell shortly miss tyler appeared ushered in by a nervous waiter to whom it would seem she had addressed a sharp admonition on his want of deference
immediately on entering she pounced down on miss vrain like a hawk on a dove pecked her on both cheeks addressed her as my dearest di and finally permitted herself with downcast eyes and a modest demeanour to be introduced to lucian
it might be inferred from the foregoing description that miss tyler was a young and ardent damsel in her teens whereas she was considerably nearer forty than thirty and possessed an uncomely aspect unpleasing to male eyes her own were of a cold grey
her lips were thin her waist pinched in and as the natural consequence of tight lacing her nose was red her scanty hair was drawn off her high forehead very tightly
and she smiled occasionally in an acid manner with many teeth she wore a plainly made green dress with a toby frill and a large silver cross dangled on her flat bosom
altogether she was about as venomous a specimen of an unappropriated blessing as can well be imagined bella said miss vrain to this unattractive female for certain reasons which i may tell you hereafter
mister denzil wishes to know if missus vrain was at berwin manor on christmas eve of course she was not dearest di said bella drooping her elderly head on one scraggy shoulder with an acid smile didn't i tell you so i was asked by lydia
to spend christmas at berwin manor she invited me for my singing and playing you know and as we all have to make ourselves agreeable i came to see her on the day before christmas she received a letter by the early post which seemed to upset her a great deal
and told me she would have to run up to town on business she did and stayed all night and came down next morning to keep christmas
asked lucian oh she didn't tell me said bella tossing her head at least not directly but i gathered from what she said that something was wrong with poor dear mister clyne her father you know dearest di was the letter from him
oh i couldn't say that mister denzil
so much mischief is done in the world by people repeating idle tales of which they are not sure was count ferruci at berwin manor at the time oh dear me no di i told you that he was up in london the whole of christmas week i only hope
added miss tyler with a venomous smile that lydia did not go up to meet him why should she demanded lucian bluntly oh i'm not blind cried bella shrilly laughing no indeed
the count a most amiable man was very attentive to me at one time and lydia a married woman i regret to say did not like him being so
that missus vrain knows more about the death of her husband than she chooses to admit oh i've read all the papers i know all about the death miss tyler said lucian alarmed bella cried miss vrain i
oh i'm not blind dearest interrupted bella speaking very fast i know you ask me these questions to find out if lydia killed her husband well she did
he wasn't there no cried bella raising her head i'm sure missus vrain stole it and killed her husband and i don't care who hears me say so
it is astounding to view the smallest article through a magnifying glass how large and lustrous an atom of silver appears how fat and fair the withered finger seems
how monstrously mighty an orange how immeasurably great the football of youth but these are as nought when the naked eye beholds the boulder of barred strength a mountain of mystery
the usual hour for arousing the inmates of dunfern mansion was designated by the ringing of a bell constructed at the back part of the building and connected by means of a wire with the room of the footman
whose duty it was to ring fully three minutes every morning at the hour of seven o'clock in winter and six in summer on christmas morning only a short time after lady dunfern's escape was effected it rang somewhat later
arousing from sleep all the servants with the exception of marjory mason who failed entirely to put in an appearance even when called thrice by rachel however believing that she was still fast asleep rachel ceased to further call on her
until after serving her ladyship's breakfast on this festive day the breakfast served in the servants spacious hall was a sumptuous repast truly and required longer time to prepare than was customary this being so
evidently delayed the housekeeper a considerable time in attending to the wants of her mistress whose breakfast was always punctually served at nine o'clock this rule was violated to the extent of about half an hour on the memorable morning of lady dunfern's flight
sir john breakfasted at fifteen minutes after nine and looked both careworn and sad intimating to rachel his inability to sleep the previous night ordering her to prepare a dainty dish for lady dunfern
he proceeded to read the daily paper that had been so customary for years rachel hastily executing her master's orders and having all in readiness for her mistress hurried to her room for the key
as was her custom by strict orders of her master never allowing the maid further than the door depositing it upon the table she swiftly turned to the door and locking it from within began to gaze around for lady dunfern who sometimes breakfasted in bed
moving in its direction with tray in hand no lady dunfern appeared the bed remained unused since she settled it the previous day wildly shouting with momentary pain rachel let fall the tray smashing the china
in deep despair she cast one delirious stare around the room but all to no effect heaven help me has she fled oh what what shall i do thinking that she might have hidden under the couch of rest
she threw herself on the floor to try and catch only a glance of her hidden form but was disappointed once more running to the door and frantically opening it she ran to marjory's room failing to be admitted
she hurried down to acquaint some of the men who attempted to open marjory's door
what was there left to be done save to acquaint sir john of the matter agitated did rachel enter without signifying her approach to her master who sat in silence oh sir cried she drowned in tears
and uttered in broken accents the words your wife has escaped she is not in her room what gasped sir john it cannot be following rachel to the room of terror he found her information too true
how on earth has this happened asked the horrified husband had you the key he fiercely asked of rachel ever ready to substitute the truth with a lie where the former especially would convict her
she replied with a stamp of her foot that it never was out of her drawer of safe deposit thinking probably she may have trifled with the window sir john moved forward and the wrap never being removed he thought it had not in any way been tampered with
until rachel espied the corner pane ah said she this is the clue to her cursed craft this must have had something to do with her escape then the thought of marjory's room being still closed to view
she fancied might have something also to do with the mysterious and marvellous mark of ingenious intrigue both sir john and rachel tottered to marjory's door and demanding it to be broken open sir john entered to be further astonished at her absence to be sure
on her bed she cannot have lain the previous night which was proof positive that she was an announced accomplice but the mystery had yet to be solved as to the action of their flight guilt took strong hold on rachel
she knew the key was always kept in a drawer in her own room which drawer was constantly kept locked by her and the key hidden inside the little clock that ticked so gently on the mantel piece in her room but on second thought
she was so busily engaged during the christmas season that actually she forgot to lock the drawer the whole week never dreaming that this overlook on her part was so cleverly taken notice of by her who not alone committed the ruffianous act
but caused all the blame to be thrown on the party in charge the housekeeper who felt sadly and very much annoyed about the affair grasped the whole thing first she thought of marjory's professed illness the evening previous
then how she tried her door before going to bed and in this attempt to enter was unsuccessful and that very morning there was no answer and finally she was missing as well as lady dunfern
the well arranged plot pictured itself in a most vivid manner to her who in one respect regarding the key's safety was entirely to blame sir john summoning all his men
ordered them to go at once and intimate to the officers of the law the sudden flight of the miscreants and to try and find out their whereabouts but no trace of them was as yet nigh at hand the deceived husband appeared greatly crushed
under such a weight of sorrow and wondering whether or not they could be found or if oscar otwell he who so often wrote to his wife during her period of imprisonment had ought to do with her daring adventure aided by marjory mason
it is no longer an unsolved problem that oscar otwell was from first to last the chief irritating item of sir john dunfern's unhappiness and whose supposed underhand communications with lady dunfern
were the principal features depicted in this escape these letters of otwell's sir john still retained never reaching her for whom they were intended opening his large davenport that stood close by
he extracted therefrom all the letters of the vaguish tutor and coming to the one received lastly found it bore the address chitworth college hedley berks
this was so much information regarding the rascal who was the sole means of separating sir john dunfern and his wife the husband paralysed with sorrow
the president of the college who in youthful years was his most intimate acquaintance and whose name appeared so often in oscar's letters making the necessary inquiries relative to one of the teaching staff named oscar otwell this he sealed in an envelope
and walked to the village to post it himself after two days rending agony and suspense he received the following reply chitworth college berks dear sir john i am very sorry to inform you that
owing to a grave despondency which of late troubled oscar otwell one of my able and talented assistants i was compelled though reluctantly to allow him either one month's leave of absence or six weeks if he so desired in order to recruit him somewhat
i strongly advised him to seek a change of air which i believe he did i myself on receipt of your note visited his lodgings to ascertain from his landlady when he was likely to return she informs me she has never heard from him since he left
and cannot give the least clue as to his present quarters she adds that he took all his belongings with him trusting you enjoy good health believe me very sincerely yours d o'sullivan
merciful father exclaimed sir john as he finished reading the president's note which he laid on the table god strengthen me to bear this un christian like calamity oh my son my son
what disgrace shall this not bring upon you my child my all pacing the floor in profound agony sir john rang for his housekeeper to convey the tidings he had just received rachel suspected this beforehand
but dare not even hint at such a thing to him who had already enough to bear speaking in terms which shewed manifest symptoms of sorrow combined with rage and perplexity he ordered her for ever from his service you
said he are solely to blame of this i am positively convinced and through that door march as i never wish again to set eyes on such a worthless woman here rachel who was grievously affected
passed for ever from the presence of him who dared to be questioned next of all he ordered the footman tom hepworth into his room you said he are well aware of my present calamity
and might i ask of you how my wife and marjory mason effected their escape from below had you not the hall doors locked and likewise all the others replying in the affirmative the footman shook like a poplar
knowing well that instead of having in his room during the hours of repose all the keys of the various doors which led to the outside he allowed them to remain where they were during the day had you all those keys in your own room at night
according to my orders since lady dunfern was obliged to be dealt with in the manner already described demanded sir john angrily the honest hearted footman being trapped frankly acknowledged he had not go then
said his master and seek employment elsewhere you are no longer fit to be here you have neglected to carry out my orders therefore you must go so saying the sturdy footman bowed and retired
it no doubt caused sir john a vast amount of pain to part with two such helps as rachel hyde and tom hepworth but once he formed a resolution nothing save death itself would break it
terror seized every dependent in the mansion lest sir john would visit his anger on each and all in like manner however this was not so as rachel and tom being longer in his service than any of the others
in less than an hour after their master issued his words of censure and dismissal left the beautiful home of such lengthy shelter in which they had shared their help so willingly
chapter thirty six union not always strength the steps of the bearers heavy
the sobs of the mourners deep and low shelley at the time arranged the previous day they set out on their walk to see nicholas higgins and his daughter
by a strange kind of shyness in their new habiliments and in the fact that it was the first time for many weeks that they had deliberately gone out together they drew very close to each other in unspoken sympathy
nicholas was sitting by the fire side in his accustomed corner but he had not his accustomed pipe he was leaning his head upon his hand his arm resting on his knee he did not get up when he saw them
though margaret could read the welcome in his eye sit ye down sit ye down fire's welly out said he giving it a vigorous poke as if to turn attention away from himself he was rather disorderly to be sure
with a black unshaven beard of several days growth making his pale face look yet paler and a jacket which would have been all the better for patching we thought we should have a good chance of finding you just after dinner time
said margaret we have had our sorrow too since we saw you said mister hale ay ay sorrows is more plentiful than dinners just now i reckon my dinner hour stretches all o'er the day
are you out of work asked margaret ay he replied shortly
looking up for the first time i'm not wanting brass dunno yo think it
we owe mary some money said mister hale before margaret's sharp pressure on his arm could arrest the words if hoo takes it i'll turn her out o doors i'll bide inside these four walls and she'll bide out
is it because of the strike you're out of work asked margaret gently strike's ended it's o'er for this time i'm out o work because i ne'er asked for it and i ne'er asked for it because good words is scarce
and bad words is plentiful he was in a mood to take a surly pleasure in giving answers that were like riddles but margaret saw that he would like to be asked for the explanation and good words are asking for work
and i'll do it like a man them's good words and bad words are refusing you work when you ask for it ay bad words is saying aha my fine chap
that's yo'r way of being true to yo'r kind and i'll be true to mine yo've been a poor fool as knowed no better nor be a true faithful fool
i'm not a fool and if i was
i could mappen ha learnt if any one had tried to teach me would it not be worth while said mister hale to ask your old master if he would take you back again it might be a poor chance but it would be a chance
he looked up again with a sharp glance at the questioner and then tittered a low and bitter laugh
if it's no offence i'll ask yo a question or two in my turn you're quite welcome said mister hale i reckon yo'n some way of earning your bread
you are quite right i have some independent property but my intention in settling in milton was to become a private tutor to teach folk
replied mister hale smiling i teach in order to get paid and them that pays yo
in fair exchange like no to be sure not they dunnot say
but yo mun promise not give it to him
we'll just leave off dealing with yo they dunnot say that dun they no to be sure not
it would be some very hard pressure that would make me even think of submitting to such dictation there's not the pressure on all the broad earth that would make me said nicholas higgins now yo've got it
hamper's that's where i worked
or help on the right and just cause though it goes again the strong hand
i'm a member o the union and i think it's the only thing to do the workman any good and i've been a turn out and known what it were to clem so if i get a shilling sixpence shall go to them if they axe it from me
consequence is i dunnot see where i'm to get a shilling is that rule about not contributing to the union in force at all the mills asked margaret
and i reckon they'll find that they cannot stick to it but it's in force now by and by they'll find out tyrants makes liars there was a little pause margaret was hesitating whether she should say what was in her mind
she was unwilling to irritate one who was already gloomy and despondent enough at last out it came but in her soft tones and with her reluctant manner showing that she was unwilling to say anything unpleasant
it did not seem to annoy higgins only to perplex him do you remember poor boucher saying that the union was a tyrant i think he said it was the worst tyrant of all
and i remember at the time i agreed with him it was a long while before he spoke he was resting his head on his two hands and looking down into the fire so she could not read the expression on his face
i'll speak truth
it's the only way working men can get their rights by all joining together more the members more chance for each one separate man having justice done him government takes care o fools and madmen
we can't clap folk into prison
that he's obliged to come in and be wise and helpful in spite of himself boucher were a fool all along
he did you harm asked margaret
then would it not have been far better to have left him alone and not forced him to join the union he did you no good and you drove him mad margaret said her father in a low and warning tone
for he saw the cloud gathering on higgins's face i like her said higgins suddenly hoo speaks plain out what's in her mind
it's a great power it's our only power
but the chap ne'er stopped driving the plough i'se warrant
making ready the land for harvest time such as boucher
he's liker a weed lounging over the ground mun just make up their mind to be put out o the way i'm sore vexed wi him just now so mappen i dunnot speak him fair
why what has he been doing anything fresh ay to be sure he's ne'er out o mischief that man
but thornton having got his own purpose
so boucher slunk back again to his house
don't you see how you've made boucher what he is by driving him into the union against his will without his heart going with it you have made him what he is made him what he is what was he
now forcing itself on their attention many voices were hushed and low many steps were heard not moving onwards at least not with any rapidity or steadiness of motion but as if circling round one spot
yes there was one distinct slow tramp of feet which made itself a clear path through the air and reached their ears the measured laboured walk of men carrying a heavy burden
they were all drawn towards the house door by some irresistible impulse impelled thither not by a poor curiosity but as if by some solemn blast six men walked in the middle of the road
three of them being policemen they carried a door taken off its hinges upon their shoulders on which lay some dead human creature and from each side of the door there were constant droppings
all the street turned out to see and seeing to accompany the procession each one questioning the bearers who answered almost reluctantly at last so often had they told the tale
why there's not water enough to drown him he was a determined chap he lay with his face downwards he was sick enough o living choose what cause he had for it higgins crept up to margaret's side
and said in a weak piping kind of voice it's not john boucher he had na spunk enough sure it's not john boucher why they are a looking this way
listen i've a singing in my head and i cannot hear they put the door down carefully upon the stones and all might see the poor drowned wretch his glassy eyes one half open staring right upwards to the sky
his face was swollen and discoloured besides his skin was stained by the water in the brook which had been used for dyeing purposes the fore part of his head was bald but the hair grew thin and long behind
and every separate lock was a conduit for water through all these disfigurements margaret recognised john boucher it seemed to her so sacrilegious to be peering into that poor
distorted agonised face that by a flash of instinct she went forwards and softly covered the dead man's countenance with her handkerchief
and were thus led to the place where nicholas higgins stood like one rooted to the spot the men spoke together and then one of them came up to higgins who would have fain shrunk back into his house higgins
thou knowed him thou mun go tell the wife do it gently man but do it quick for we canna leave him here long i canna go said higgins
thou take thy share i canna do it said higgins i'm welly felled wi seeing him we wasn't friends and now he's dead well if thou wunnot thou wunnot some one mun though
nor a person going to make her let on by degrees as it were papa do you go said margaret in a low voice if i could if i had time to think of what i had better say but
all at once margaret saw that her father was indeed unable he was trembling from head to foot i will go said she bless yo miss it will be a kind act
for she's been but a sickly sort of body i hear and few hereabouts know much on her margaret knocked at the closed door
that she could hear no reply indeed she doubted if she was heard and as every moment of delay made her recoil from her task more and more she opened the door and went in shutting it after her
and even unseen to the woman fastening the bolt missus boucher was sitting in a rocking chair on the other side of the ill redd up fireplace it looked as if the house had been untouched for days by any effort at cleanliness
margaret said something she hardly knew what her throat and mouth were so dry and the children's noise completely prevented her from being heard she tried again how are you missus boucher but very poorly i'm afraid
i've no chance o being well said she querulously i'm left alone to manage these childer and nought for to give em for to keep em quiet
how long is it since he went away four days sin no one would give him work here and he'd to go on tramp toward greenfield
he might oh don't blame him said margaret he felt it deeply i'm sure
addressing herself in no very gentle voice
she apologetically continued to margaret
he's his father's darling he is said she with a sudden turn of mood and dragging the child up to her knee she began kissing it fondly
margaret laid her hand on the woman's arm to arrest her attention their eyes met poor little fellow said margaret slowly he was his father's darling
he is his father's darling said the woman rising hastily and standing face to face with margaret
margaret took up the child and put him into her arms he loved him said she ay said the woman shaking her head
he loved this babby mappen the best on us but he loved me and i loved him though i was calling him five minutes agone
said she trying to get up
i've been ailing this long time but he is dead he is drowned
she sate down in the rocking chair and held the woman upon her knees her head lying on margaret's shoulder the other children clustered together in affright began to understand the mystery of the scene
but the ideas came slowly for their brains were dull and languid of perception they set up such a cry of despair as they guessed the truth that margaret knew not how to bear it
johnny's cry was loudest of them all though he knew not why he cried poor little fellow the mother quivered as she lay in margaret's arms margaret heard a noise at the door open it
open it quick said she to the eldest child it's bolted make no noise be very still
let them go upstairs very softly and carefully and perhaps she will not hear them
it's as well for her poor creature said a woman following in the wake of the bearers of the dead
this helpful neighbour was a great relief to margaret she was evidently a stranger to the house a new comer in the district indeed but she was so kind and thoughtful that margaret felt she was no longer needed
and that it would be better perhaps to set an example of clearing the house which was filled with idle if sympathising gazers she looked round for nicholas higgins
he was not there so she spoke to the woman who had taken the lead in placing missus boucher on the floor can you give all these people a hint
so that when she comes round she should only find one or two that she knows about her papa will you speak to the men and get them to go away she cannot breathe poor thing with this crowd about her margaret was kneeling down by missus boucher
and bathing her face with vinegar but in a few minutes she was surprised at the gush of fresh air she looked round and saw a smile pass between her father and the woman what is it asked she
only our good friend here replied her father hit on a capital expedient for clearing the place
and to mind that they were orphans and their mother a widow it was who could do most and the childer are sure of a bellyful to day and of kindness too does hoo know how he died no said margaret i could not tell her all at once
see hoo's coming round shall you or i do it
no you you said margaret they awaited her perfect recovery in silence then the neighbour woman sat down on the floor and took missus boucher's head and shoulders on her lap
neighbour said she your man is dead
he were drowned said missus boucher feebly beginning to cry for the first time at this rough probing of her sorrows he were found drowned
mappen as tender as a mother
all i say is may neither me nor mine ever have his sore heart or we may do like things
moaned the widow less distressed at the manner of the death than margaret expected but it was of a piece with her helpless character to feel his loss as principally affecting herself and her children
not alone said mister hale solemnly who is with you who will take up your cause the widow opened her eyes wide
who has promised to be a father to the fatherless continued he but i've getten six children sir and the eldest not eight years of age i'm not meaning for to doubt his power sir
only it needs a deal o trust and she began to cry afresh hoo'll be better able to talk to morrow sir said the neighbour best comfort now would be the feel of a child at her heart
i'm sorry they took the babby i'll go for it said margaret and in a few minutes she returned carrying johnnie his face all smeared with eating and his hands loaded with treasures in the shape of shells
and bits of crystal and the head of a plaster figure she placed him in his mother's arms there said the woman now you go they'll cry together and comfort together better nor any one but a child can do
i'll stop with her as long as i'm needed
yo can have a deal o wise talk with her that she's not up to to day as margaret and her father went slowly up the street she paused at higgins's closed door shall we go in
asked her father i was thinking of him too they knocked there was no answer so they tried the door it was bolted but they thought they heard him moving within nicholas
said margaret there was no answer and they might have gone away believing the house to be empty if there had not been some accidental fall as of a book within nicholas said margaret again
won't you let us come in no said he
let me be this day mister hale would have urged their desire but margaret placed her finger on his lips i don't wonder at it said she i myself long to be alone
to hide her rank thoughts and deadly purposes has she not murdered me under the mask of the tenderest friendship and why because i have loved her with unutterable love and sought to make her my wife
i ask you first in candour whether the ambiguity of her behaviour with respect to me sitting and fondling a man circumstanced as i was sometimes for half a day together and then declaring she had no love for him beyond common regard
that character with which i fell in love and to which i made love
my unpardonable offence has been that i took her at her word and was willing to believe her the precise little puritanical person she set up for after exciting her wayward desires by the fondest embraces
with whatever violence to himself as a matter of life and death for i had every reason to distrust appearances her conduct has been of a piece from the beginning in the midst of her closest and falsest endearments she has always
and made a verbal reservation by which she might lead me on in a fool's paradise
who has as nice a sense of honour as any one can have and like lady bellaston in tom jones she cuts you immediately in a fit of abhorrence and alarm
yet she seemed to be of a different mind formerly when struggling from me in the height of our first intimacy she exclaimed however i might agree to my own ruin
that i should have spared the traitress
astonishes me when i look back upon it
i know i should act just the same part such is her power over me i cannot run the least risk of offending her i love her so when i look in her face i cannot doubt her truth
wretched being that i am
that might have been so happy had she been what i thought her
will soon follow either voluntarily
remorse and disappointment i cannot get rid of the reflection for an instant nor even seek relief from its galling pressure ah what a heart she has lost
all the love and affection of my whole life were centred in her who alone i thought of all women had found out my true character and knew how to value my tenderness alas alas that this the only hope
should turn to a mockery and hang like an ugly film over the remainder of my days
suspended smiling and graceful in the air as if they would linger out another century to please the curious beholder the green larch trees trembling between with the blue sky and white silver clouds the wild mountain plants
but keep up a sort of traditional remembrance of civilization in former ages present altogether a delightful and amiable subject for contemplation the exquisite beauty of the scene with the thought of what i should feel
the moonlight streams over the silver waters the bark is in the bay that might waft me to her almost with a wish the mountain breeze sighs out her name
and lay it at her feet and tell her my proud love of her that would not brook a rival in her dishonour
and gain her or lose myself for ever you see by this letter the way i am in and i hope you will excuse it as the picture of a half disordered mind
only brings the contrary reflection back upon me like a flood and by letting me see the happiness i have lost makes me feel by contrast more acutely what i am doomed to bear
but speaks a tale of sadness to this heart widowed of its last its dearest its only hope oh lovely bees inn here i composed a volume of law cases here i wrote my enamoured follies to her
thinking her human and that all below was not the fiend's here i got two cold sullen answers from the little witch and here i was and i was damned i thought the revisiting the old haunts
till i cannot endure the recollection i eye the heavens in dumb despair or vent my sorrows in the desart air to the winds to the waves to the rocks i complain
you may suppose with what effect i fear i shall be obliged to return i am tossed about
i can now understand how it is that mad people never remain in the same place they are moving on for ever from themselves do you know you would have been delighted with the effect of the northern twilight on this romantic country
the hills and groves and herds of cattle were seen reposing in the grey dawn of midnight as in a moonlight without shadow the whole wide canopy of heaven shed its reflex light upon them
crystal mirror no sharp points no petty details no hard contrasts every object was seen softened yet distinct
transparent with an inward light breathing its own mild lustre the landscape altogether was like an airy piece of mosaic work or like one of poussin's broad massy landscapes or titian's
lovely pastoral scenes is it not so that poets see nature veiled to the sight but revealed to the soul in visionary grace and grandeur i confess the sight touched me
and might have removed all sadness except mine so
the sense i have of beauty raises me for a moment above myself
how it is thrown away in vain admiration and that it only makes me more susceptible of pain from the mortifications i meet with would i had never seen her i might then not indeed have been happy
the weather beaten towers were stiff and formal the air was damp and chill the river winded its dull slimy way like a snake along the marshy grounds and the dim misty tops of ben leddi
while worms should taste her sweet body that i had never tasted there was a time when i could bear solitude but it is too much for me at present now i am no sooner left to myself
than i am lost in infinite space and look round me in vain for suppose or comfort she was my stay my hope without her hand to cling to
the universe without her is one wide hollow abyss in which my harassed thoughts can find no resting place i must break off here for the hysterica passio comes upon me and threatens to unhinge my reason
but this is probably the last to morrow or the next day decides my fate with respect to the divorce when i expect to be a free man in vain
that i consented to this step which has cost me infinite perplexity and now to be discarded for the first pretender that came in her way if so i hardly think i can survive it
the breeze does not cool me the blue sky does not cheer me i gaze only on her face averted from me alas
my gross familiarities as far as i might why can you not go on as we have done and say nothing about the word forever was it not plain from this that she even then meditated an escape from me
i said to her once as i was toying with her no not now was her answer that is because there was nobody else in the house to take freedoms with her i was very well as a stopgap but i was to be nothing more
blushed when his foot was heard watched for him in the passage and was sure to be in close conference with him when he went down again it was then my mad proceedings commenced
no wonder had i not reason to be jealous of every appearance of familiarity with others knowing how easy she had been with me at first and that she only grew shy when i did not take farther liberties
how indeed could i offer her the least insult when i worshipped her very footsteps and even now pay her divine honours from my inmost heart whenever i think of her
i thought at least we should always remain dear friends if nothing more did she not talk of coming to live with me only the day before i left her in the winter but she's gone i am abused
or unless she is willing to let me go back you must know i wrote to her to that purpose but it was a very quiet sober letter begging pardon and professing reform for the future and all that
i was forced to get out of the way of her answer till friday came ever yours to s l
evil to them that evil think is an old saying
your sweet friendship was the balm of my life and i have lost it i fear for ever by one fault and folly after another what would i give to be restored to the place in your esteem
well i'll think no more of them in a word
would be an additional favour to so many already received by your obliged friend and sincere well wisher
i'm mad i wish you to call on m in confidence to say i intend to make her an offer of my hand and that i will write to her father to that effect the instant i am free
and ask him whether he thinks it will be to any purpose and what he would advise me to do unaltered love
love is not love that alteration finds oh no it is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken
shall i not love her for herself alone in spite of fickleness and folly to love her for her regard to me is not to love her but myself
she has robbed me of herself shall she also rob me of my love of her did i not live on her smile is it less sweet because it is withdrawn from me
no i will have it lasting as it is pure and i will make a goddess of her and build a temple to her in my heart and worship her on indestructible altars and raise statues to her
as her unrivalled symmetry of form and when that fails the memory of it shall survive and my bosom shall be
as hers has been to pity and i will pursue her with an unrelenting love and sue to be her slave and tend her steps without notice and without reward and serve her living
and mourn for her when dead and thus my love will have shewn itself superior to her hate and i shall triumph and then die this is my idea
of the only true and heroic love such is mine for her perfect love perfect love has this advantage in it
that it leaves the possessor of it nothing farther to desire there is one object
addressed to j s k my dear k
if anything decisive happened but an impenetrable mystery hung over the affair till lately it is at last by the merest accident in the world dissipated and i keep my promise both for your satisfaction
and for the ease of my own mind you remember the morning when i said
and when from dumbarton bridge its giant shadow clad in air and sunshine appeared in view we had a pleasant day's walk we passed smollett's monument on the road
talked of old times you repeated logan's beautiful verses to the cuckoo
where there has been no return and we both agreed i think
of it a companion for life was the least evil of the two as there was a secret sweetness that took off the bitterness and the sting of regret and
it left behind it not cherished sighs but stifled pangs the galling sense of it did not bring moisture into the eyes
hard level rocky with low stone bridges constantly flung across it and fringed with birch trees just then budding into spring behind which as through a slight veil
you saw the huge shadowy form of ben lomond it lifts its enormous but graceful bulk direct from the edge of the water without any projecting lowlands and has in this respect
much the advantage of skiddaw loch lomond comes upon you by degrees as you advance unfolding and then withdrawing its conscious beauties like an accomplished coquet you are struck
with the point of a rock the arch of a bridge the highland huts like the first rude habitations of men dug out of the soil built of turf and covered with brown heather a sheep cote
or your eye is caught by nothing but water earth and sky ben lomond waves to the right
cloud capt or bare and descending to a point at the head of the lake shews the trossacs beyond tumbling about their blue ridges like woods waving to the left is the cobler
whose top is like a castle shattered in pieces and nodding to its ruin and at your side rise the shapes of round pastoral hills green fleeced with herds
and retiring into mountainous bays and upland valleys where solitude and peace might make their lasting home if peace were to be found in solitude that it was not always so
for there was one image that alone haunted me in the midst of all this sublimity and beauty
the snow on the mountain would not let us ascend and being weary of waiting
as the vessel sailed up the thames the air thickened with the consciousness of being near her and i heaved her name pantingly forth as i approached the house i could not help thinking of the lines
that earth exceeds not not another like it the treasures of the deep are not so precious as are the conceal'd comforts of a man lock'd up in woman's love i scent the air of blessings
when i come but near the house what a delicious breath true love sends forth the violet beds not sweeter now for a welcome able to draw men's envies upon man
and when at length she was persuaded by my repeated remonstrances to come and take my hand and i offered to touch her lips she turned her head and shrunk from my embraces as if quite alienated or mortally offended
i asked what it could mean what had i done in her absence to have incurred her displeasure why had she not written to me i could get only short sullen disconnected answers
as if there was something labouring in her mind which she either could not or would not impart
and so different from the one my sentiments towards her merited but i thought it possible it might be prudery as i had returned without having actually accomplished what i went about
or that she had taken offence at something in my letters she saw how much i was hurt i asked her if she was altered since i went away no
if there was any one else who had been so fortunate as to gain her favourable opinion no there was no one else what was it then was it any thing in my letters or had i displeased her
no not at all but she did not apprehend my last letter required any answer
but i could get no more from her and was obliged to let her go with a heavy foreboding heart i however found that c was gone and no one else had been there of whom i had cause to be jealous
should i see her on the morrow she believed so but she could not promise the next morning she did not appear with the breakfast as usual at this i grew somewhat uneasy
the little buonaparte however was placed in its old position on the mantelpiece
i saw her once or twice casually nothing particular happened till the next day which was sunday i took occasion to go into the parlour for the newspaper which she gave me with a gracious smile and seemed
tolerably frank and cordial this of course acted as a spell upon me i walked out
but i found that i still contrived to bend my steps towards her and i went back to take tea at home while we were out i talked to william about sarah saying that she too was unhappy
and asking him to make it up with her he said if she was unhappy he would not bear her malice any more
william has something to say to you i believe he wants to be friends on which he said in his abrupt hearty manner sarah i'm sorry if i've ever said anything to vex you so they shook hands
and she said smiling affably then i'll think no more of it i added i see you've brought me back my little buonaparte
but you can have no idea of the exquisite unstudied irresistible graces with which she accompanies them unless you can suppose a greek statue to smile move and speak those lines in tibullus
seem to have been written on purpose for her quicquid agit quoquo vestigil vertit componit furtim
decor or what do you think of those in a modern play which might actually have been composed with an eye to this little trifler see with what a waving air she goes along the corridor how like a fawn
yet statelier no sound however soft nor gentlest echo telleth when she treads but every motion of her shape doth seem hallowed by silence so
i was delighted with the alteration in her manner and said referring to the bust you know it is not mine but yours i gave it you nay i have given you all my heart
and whatever i possess is yours she seemed good humouredly to decline this carte blanche offer and waved like a thing of enchantment out of the room false calm deceitful smiles
not one five minutes conversation for the sake of old acquaintance well then for the sake of the little image
the charm was broken she remained immoveable well then i must come to you if you will not run away i went and sat down in a chair near the door
how different is this meeting from that delicious parting when you seemed never weary of repeating the proofs of your regard and tenderness and it was with difficulty we tore ourselves asunder at last
i am ten thousand times fonder of you than i was then and ten thousand times more unhappy you have no reason to be so my feelings towards you are the same as they ever were
i told her she was my all of hope or comfort my passion for her grew stronger every time i saw her she answered she was sorry for it
i said something about looking ill she said in her pretty mincing emphatic way i despise looks
it must be some strange air she gives herself in consequence of the approaching change in my circumstances she has been probably advised not to give up till all is fairly over and then she will be my own sweet girl again
all this time she was standing just outside the door my hand in hers would that they could have grown together she was dressed in a loose morning gown her hair curled beautifully
she stood with her profile to me and looked down the whole time no expression was ever more soft or perfect her whole attitude her whole form was dignity and bewitching grace
i said to her you look like a queen my love adorned with your own graces i grew idolatrous and would have kneeled to her she made a movement as if she was displeased i tried to draw her towards me
and offered to kiss her at parting i found she obstinately refused this stung me to the quick it was the first time in her life she had ever done so
there must be some new bar between us to produce these continued denials
i followed her half way down stairs but to no purpose and returned into my room confirmed in my most dreadful surmises
i gave way to all the fury of disappointed hope and jealous passion i was made the dupe of trick and cunning killed with cold sullen scorn
used to wear continually in my bosom as the precious token of her dear regard from my neck
as one of her instruments of mockery
i could not leave it my rage my despair were uncontrollable i shrieked curses on her name and on her false love and the scream i uttered
so pitiful and so piercing was it that the sound of it terrified me instantly brought the whole house father mother lodgers and all into the room they thought i was destroying her and myself
i had gone into the bedroom merely to hide away from myself and as i came out of it raging mad with the new sense of present shame and lasting misery missus f said she's in there
thinking the cries had proceeded from her and that i had been offering her violence oh no i said she's in no danger from me i am not the person and tried to burst from this scene of degradation
the mother endeavoured to stop me and said for god's sake don't go out mister for god's sake don't her father who was not i believe in the secret and was therefore justly scandalised at such outrageous conduct said angrily
she has destroyed me for ever she has doomed my soul to perdition i rushed out of the house thinking to quit it forever but i was no sooner in the street than the desolation and the darkness became greater more intolerable
and the eddying violence of my passion drove me back to the source from whence it sprung this unexpected explosion
it would give rise could not be very agreeable to the precieuse or her family and when i went back the father was waiting at the door as if anticipating this sudden turn of my feelings with no friendly aspect i said
i have to beg pardon sir but my mad fit is over and i wish to say a few words to you in private he seemed to hesitate but some uneasy forebodings on his own account
probably prevailed over his resentment or perhaps
and to ask for your advice and intercession he appeared satisfied and i went on i had no chance either of exculpating myself or of probing the question to the bottom
but by stating the naked truth and therefore i said at once sarah told me sir
and looking a thousand tender reproaches for the loss of that good opinion which she held dearer than all the world she told me sir that as you one day passed the door which stood a jar you saw her in an attitude which a good deal startled you
i mean sitting in my lap with her arms round my neck and mine twined round her in the fondest manner
well then sir i can only say that as you saw her sitting then so she had been sitting for the last year and a half almost every day of her life by the hour together and you may judge yourself
knowing what a nice modest looking girl she is
as i have been since my return
the old man answered very seriously and as i think sincerely what you now tell me sir mortifies and shocks me as much as it can do yourself i had no idea such a thing was possible
i was much pained at what i saw but i thought it an accident and that it would never happen again it was a constant habit it has happened a hundred times since and a thousand before
i lived on her caresses as my daily food nor can i live without them so i told him the whole story
to be anything but mine for life nothing could well exceed his astonishment and apparent mortification what i had said he owned
had left a weight upon his mind that he should not easily get rid of i told him for myself
i thought however for her own sake she ought to alter her present behaviour her marked neglect and dislike so far from justifying left her former intimacies without excuse for nothing
could reconcile them to propriety or even a pretence to common decency but either love or friendship so strong and pure that it could put on the guise of love she was certainly a singular girl
did she think it right and becoming to be free with strangers and strange to old friends i frankly declared
for any one who was not rendered callous to such familiarities by bestowing them indiscriminately on every one to grant the extreme and continued indulgences she had done to me
without either liking the man at first or coming to like him in the end in spite of herself when my addresses had nothing and could have nothing honourable in them she gave them every encouragement
when i wished to make them honourable she treated them with the utmost contempt the terms we had been all along on were such as if she had been to be my bride next day
a want both of common propriety and i might say of natural feeling yet with all her faults i loved her and ever should beyond any other human being i had drank
in the poison of her sweetness too long ever to be cured of it and though i might find it to be poison in the end it was still in my veins
and marry her to morrow if she would have me that was the question would she have me or would she not
i acquiesced and added that i had brought all this upon myself by acting contrary to the suggestions of my friend
who had desired me to take no notice whether she came near me or kept away whether she smiled or frowned was kind or contemptuous all you have to do is to wait patiently for a month
till you are your own man as you will be in all probability
there's an end of the matter mister l said well sir and i don't think you can follow a better advice
never did window open upon a scene of such enchantment never has the dawn risen over so fair a land meadows so fresh and grass so green rivers of such mystic silver and far mountains
yet strangely enough it was not upon this miracle that the eyes of the princess were gazing in fact she seemed entirely oblivious of it all oblivious of all that was passing in the sky
a stranger marvel
only care was to gaze all day at her own face and indeed it was a beautiful face that she saw there so beautiful that the princess might well be pardoned
i am more beautiful she had looked at the morning star and then she had looked in her mirror and said
she had looked at the rising moon and then she had looked in her mirror and still she said i am more beautiful whenever she heard of a beautiful face in her kingdom
she caused it to be brought before her and then she looked in her mirror and always she smiled to herself and said i am more beautiful
that she hated even to sleep but not even in sleep did she lose the beautiful face she loved for it was still there in the mirror of dreams yet often she would wake in the night to gaze at it and always
she arose at dawn that with the first rays of the sun she might look into her mirror
she would sit at her window and never take her eyes from those beautiful eyes that looked back at her and the longest day in the year was not long enough to return their gaze
this particular morning was a morning in may all bloom and song and crowding leaves and thickening grass the valley was a mist of blossom
and the air thrilled with the warbling of innumerable birds soft dewy scents floated hither and thither on the wandering breeze but the princess took no note of these things
lost in the dream of her face and saw the changes of the dawn only as they were reflected in her mirror and suffused her beauty with their rainbow tints
and broke into sudden song she was so startled that the mirror slipped from her hand now the princess's window was in the wall of an old castle built high above the valley
and beneath it the ground sloped precipitately covered with underbrush and thick grasses to a highroad winding far beneath as the mirror slipped from the hand of the princess it fell among this underbrush and rolled glittering
till the princess finally lost sight of it in a belt of wild flowers overhanging the highroad as it finally disappeared she screamed so loudly that the ladies in waiting ran to her in alarm
and servants were instantly sent forth to search for the lost mirror it was a very beautiful mirror the work of a goldsmith famous for his fantastic masterpieces in the precious metals
the fancy he had skilfully embodied was that of beauty as the candle attracting the moths the handle of the mirror which was of ivory represented the candle
wrought here and there on the golden back of the mirror were moths with wings of enamel and precious stones it was a marvel of the goldsmith's art and as such was beyond price
yet it was not merely for this as we know that the princess loved it but because it had been so long the intimate of her beauty for this reason it had become sacred in her eyes
and as she watched it roll down the hillside
and when the men returned from their searching without the mirror she gave orders to have them soundly flogged for their failure meanwhile the mirror rested peacefully among the wild flowers
and the humming of bees a short while after the serving men had been flogged and the tiring maids had been beaten there came along the white road at the foot of the castle a tired minstrel
he had even grown weary of his own songs he sat dejected amid the green grasses and looked up at the ancient heaven and thought to himself then suddenly
he played one of his old songs of which he was heartily weary and as he played the butterflies flitted about him and filled his old hair with blue wings he was forty years old and very weary
he was alone his last nightingale had ceased singing the time had come for him when one thinks and even dreams of the fireside the hearth and the beautiful old memories
he had in short arrived at that period of life when one begins to perceive the beauty of money as a boy he had never given a thought to gold or silver a butterfly had seemed more valuable to him than a gold piece
the daisies were all around him
the mirror of the princess as i have said was made of gold and ivory and wonderful crystal and many precious stones so when the minstrel took it in his hands out of the grass he thought
well that he might at least buy a breakfast at the next town for he was very hungry well he caught up the mirror and hid it in his faded doublet and took his way to a wood of living green
and when he was alone that is alone with a few flowers and a bird or two and a million leaves and the soft singing of a little river
he took out the mirror from his doublet shame upon him he a poet of the rainbow had only one thought as he took up the mirror the gold and ivory and the precious stones
he was merely thinking of them and his breakfast
he dropped the mirror have you ever seen the wild rose as it opens its heart to the morning sky have you ever seen the hawthorn holding in its fragrant arms its innumerable blooms have you seen the rising of the moon
the minstrel looked in the mirror and saw something far more wonderful than all these wonderful things he saw the face of the princess
that he could never bring himself to sell it and that he must go without his breakfast the moon had fallen into his hand out of the sky could he a poet exchange this celestial windfall for a meal and a new doublet
many kings and captains had vainly tried to buy from him his gift of courage but the minstrel had sold neither and now had fallen out of the sky one more precious thing to guard the most beautiful face in the world
the minstrel awoke from his dream at the sound of horsemen in the valley the princess was sending heralds into every corner of her dominions to proclaim the loss of the mirror and for its return a beautiful reward a lock of her strange hair
the minstrel hid himself with his treasure amid the fern and when the trumpets had faded in the distance found the highroad again and went upon his way now it chanced that a scullery maid of the castle
as she was polishing a copper saucepan had lifted her eyes from her work and looking down toward the highroad had seen
was a very well known minstrel all the scullery maids and all the princesses had his songs by heart even the birds were fabled to sing his songs as they flitted to and fro
jews with great money bags came to buy from him the beautiful face sometimes he had to climb up into trees to look at it in the sunrise the woods were so filled with the voices of his pursuers but neither hunger nor poverty
nor small ferocious enemies were able to take from him the beautiful face it never left his heart all night long and all the watching day it was pressed close to his side meanwhile the princess was in despair
more and more the fancy possessed her that with the lost mirror her beauty too was lost in her unhappiness like all sad people she took strange ways of escape she consulted the stars
and empirics from the four winds settled down upon her castle each of course had his own invaluable nostrum and all went their way for not one of these understood the heart of a poet however
of ninety years a famous seer deeply and gently and pitifully learned in the hearts of men
and his old wise heart went out to her and as i have said his heart understood the minstrel too therefore he said to the princess i know the hearts of poets
and the poet took the mirror from the old man and looked and as he looked the mirror of the princess fell neglected in the grass
do you let fall the princess's mirror but the poet made no answer
what do you see in the mirror said the old man that you gaze so earnestly in it i see answered the minstrel the infinite miracle of the universe i see the august and lonely elements
yet look again said the old man into this other mirror the mirror of the princess look again and the poet looked taking the two mirrors in his hands
and looking from one to the other at last he said gazing into the face he had fought so long to keep
a fluttering flower of a face just one beautiful flower in the innumerable meadows of the infinite but here
here is the eternal beauty the divine harmony the sacred unfathomable all would a man be content with one rose when all the roses of all the rose gardens of the world were his
you mean said the wise old man smiling to himself that i may take the mirror back to the princess are you really willing to exchange her face for the face of the sky i am answered the minstrel
the stolen dream the sun was setting and slanting long lanes of golden light through the trees as an old man
he was very old
his cheeks were furrowed like the bark of a tree and far down upon his breast fell a beard as white as snow but his deep set eyes were still bright and keen though sly and cruel
and his long nose was like the beak of a hawk his hands were like roots strong and knotted and his fingers ended in talon like nails in repose
he seemed as abjectly poor as he was abjectly old presently when he had rested awhile he turned to his pack and furtively glancing with his keen eyes up and down the wood
to make sure that he was alone he drew from it a sack of leather which was evidently of great weight its mouth was fastened by sliding thongs which he loosened with tremulous eager hands
a torrent of gold and silver coins and precious stones flashing like rainbows a king's treasure the setting sun flashed on the glittering heap turning it into a dazzle of many colored fire
the treasure seemed to light up the wood far and near and the gaudy summer flowers that a moment before had seemed so bright and splendid fell into shadow before its radiance the old man
it grows heavier and heavier he muttered i cannot carry it much longer i shall never be able to carry it with me to the grave as he disappeared among the bushes
a young man and a young woman with arms twined round each other came slowly up the glade and presently sat down at the foot of the tree where the old man had been resting a moment or two before
together it will buy you a new silk gown said the lover who ever heard of such luck and then he sighed ah dear heart he said if only we had more like that then we could fulfil our dream
but the white feet of the girl shone like ivory flowers in the grass and her hair was a sheaf of ruddy gold nor was there a jewel in all the old man's treasure as blue as her eyes and the young man
in his manly fashion was no less brave and fair to look upon in a little while they turned to a poor wallet at the young man's side let us eat our supper they said
but there was little more than a crust or two a few morsels of cheese and a mouthful or two of sour wine still they were accustomed to being hungry and the thought of the gold coin cheered their hearts
after the lovers had been silent for a long time he took courage to peer out from his hiding place
he would wait a little longer though till their sleep was sounder and then he might be able perhaps to creep away unheard so he waited on and the moon grew brighter and brighter and flooded the woods with its strange silver
something very strange and beautiful hovering over the sleeping lovers was a floating flickering shape that seemed made of moonbeams with two great shining stars for its eyes
it was the dream that came nightly to watch over the sleep of the lovers
a strange change came over his soul and he saw that all the treasure he had hoarded so long
after all is it to me but a weary burden my shoulders grow too old to carry he murmured and for the sake of which my life is in danger wherever i go and to guard which i must hide away from the eyes of men
and the longer he gazed on the fair shining vision the more the longing grew within him to possess it for himself they shall have my treasure in exchange he said to himself approaching nearer to the sleepers
treading softly lest he should awaken them but they slept on lost in the profound slumber of innocent youth as he drew near the dream shrank from him with fear in its starry eyes
but it seemed the more beautiful to the old man the closer he came to it and saw of what divine radiance it was made and with his desire his confidence grew greater so
softly placing his leather bag in the flowers by the side of the sleepers he thrust out his talon like fingers and snatched the dream by the hand
as the earliest birds chimed through the wood and the dawn glittered on the dewy flowers
cried the girl and her hands fell from the pretty task of coiling up the sunrise of her hair with a cry they both fell upon the leather bag lying there so mysteriously among the wood lilies in the grass
with eager fingers they drew apart the leather thongs and went half mad with wonder and joy as they poured out the glittering treasure
nor was the gold mere gold of faerie but coins bearing the image of the king of the land here were real jewels real gold and silver like children they dabbled their hands in the shining heap
and sent them down from heaven in the night he who sent them will see that we come to no harm and again they fell to pouring them through their fingers and babbling in their delight
if only we had more of them surely our good angel heard us and sent them in answer it is true said the young man they were sent to fulfil our dream
our poor starved and tattered dream said the girl how splendidly we can clothe and feed it now
and lawns like rainbows and glitter with jewels blue and yellow and ruby jewels like fire fountains and the depths of the sea but as they spoke
a sudden disquietude fell over them and they looked at each other with a new fear but where is our dream said the girl looking anxiously around and they realized
that their dream was nowhere to be seen i seemed to miss it once in the night answered the young man in alarm
be it cannot be far away said the girl perhaps it has wandered off among the flowers but they were now thoroughly alarmed
to and fro through the wood calling out aloud on their dream but no voice came back in reply nor though they sought high and low in covert and brake could they find a sign of it anywhere
forgetting it all in this new sorrow what shall we do
for a while they sat on inconsolable then a thought came to the girl some one must have stolen it from us it would never have left us of its own accord said she
and maybe we can buy it back again with this treasure let us start at once said the girl drying her tears at this ray of hope and so replacing the treasure in the bag the young man slung it at the end of his staff and together
sing to me said the old man to cheer my tired heart
you lie said the old man i saw the songs last night in the depths of your eyes i cannot sing them to you said the dream i can only sing them to the simple hearts i made them for
the hearts you stole me from
did i not leave my treasure in exchange your treasure will be nothing to them without me said the dream
with my treasure they can buy other dreams just as fair as you are do you think that you are the only dream in the world there is no dream that money cannot buy but i am their own dream
they will be happy with no other said the dream you shall sing to me all the same said the old man angrily but the dream shrank from him and covered its face
sing again cried the old man harshly sing i bid you i can never sing again said the dream i can only die
whimpering thing and he raved like a madman as he saw in fancy all the gold and silver and rainbow tinted jewels he had so foolishly thrown away take me back to them said the dream and they will give you back your treasure
you will see said the dream as there was nothing else to be done the old man took up his staff come along then said he and started off in the direction of the wood
and so they took their way but meanwhile the two lovers had gone from village to village and city to city vainly asking news of their dream and to every one they asked they showed their treasure and said
but nowhere could they learn any tidings
you must be mad said some to seek a dream when you have all that wealth in your pack of what use is a dream to any one and what more dream do you want than gold and precious stones
ah our dream said the lovers is worth all the gold and jewels in the world sometimes others would come bringing their own dreams take this they would say and give us your treasure
but the lovers would shake their heads sadly no your dreams are not so beautiful as ours
and indeed the dreams that were brought to them seemed poor pitiful make believe things often ignoble misbegotten sordid and cruel
and sat down once more under the great oak tree in the sunset perhaps our dream has been waiting for us here all the time they said but the wood was empty and echoing
and they sat and ate their supper as before but silently and in sorrow and as the sun set they fell asleep as before in each other's arms
and again the moon came flooding the spaces of the wood and nothing was heard but their breathing and the song of a distant nightingale but presently while they slept there was a sound of stealthy footsteps coming up the wood
but the old man's wolfish eyes saw but one thing there lay the leather bag of his treasure just as he had left it without a word he snatched it up and hastened off with it down the wood gurgling uncouthly to himself
oh my beauties he cried as he sat himself down afar off and poured out the gold and the silver and the gleaming stones into the moonlight oh my love my life and my delight
i seemed to hear singing each said
section i of balls i was going to say let us begin with private balls but i recollect that this denomination is no longer fashionable we do not say a ball at madam such a one's
but an evening party soiree nevertheless when we wish to give a dance we give the invitations a week beforehand
if it is to be a simple evening party
the soiree is to be in reality a ball the invitations are written or what is better printed and expressed in the third person a room appropriated for dresses and furnished with cloak pins to hang up the shawls and other garments of the ladies
married ladies are accompanied by their husbands unmarried ones by their mother or by a chaperon these last ladies place themselves behind the dancers the master of the house goes before one and another
procures seats for them and then mingles again among the gentlemen who are standing and who form groups or walk about the room the toilet of all the assembly should be made with great care
would pass for a person of bad ton
to dance with you if she answers that she is engaged invite her for the next dance
to any ladies next to her for these not being able to refuse you would feel hurt at being invited after another never wait until the signal is given to take a partner for nothing is more impolite than to invite a lady hastily
and when the dancers are already in their places it can be allowed only when the set is incomplete a lady cannot refuse the invitation of a gentleman to dance unless she has already accepted that of another
for she would be guilty of an incivility which might occasion trouble she would besides seem to show contempt for him whom she refused and would expose herself to receive an ill compliment from him
the former should be accompanied by one or two other married ladies and the latter by their mother or by a lady to represent her we should avoid talking too much it would occasion remarks and have a bad appearance
to whisper continually in the ear of our partner
and should see that they are invited to dance he must do this wholly unperceived in order not to wound the self esteem of the unfortunate ladies gentlemen whom the master of the house requests to dance with these ladies
and even appear pleased at dancing with a person thus recommended to their notice ladies who dance much ought to be very careful not to boast before those who dance but little or not at all
in giving the hand for ladies chain or any figures those dancing should wear a smile and accompany it with a polite inclination of the head in the manner of a salutation at the end of the dance
in these assemblies we ought to conduct ourselves with reserve and politeness towards all present although they may be unknown to us persons who have no ear for music that is to say a false one ought to refrain from dancing
if you are a novice or but little skilled
being once engaged to take part in the dance if the figures are not familiar be careful not to advance first
beware also of taking your place in a set of dancers more skilful than yourself when an unpractised dancer makes a mistake we may apprise him of his error but it would be very impolite
in a private ball or party it is proper to show still more reserve and not to manifest more preference for one lady than another we should dance with all indiscriminately but we may moreover
invite the same lady more than once in public balls a gentleman offers his partner refreshments which she very seldom accepts unless she is much acquainted with him but in private parties
the persons who receive the company send round cake and other refreshments of which each one helps himself as he pleases near the end of the evening
the waltz is a dance of quite too loose a character and unmarried ladies should refrain from it in public and private
may be allowed to waltz in private balls if it is very seldom and with persons of their acquaintance it is indispensable for them to acquit themselves with dignity and decency
i have spoken of public balls in contradistinction to private ones and i might also have mentioned balls by subscription
we have nothing to advise our readers but to shun them as to masked balls it is an amusement altogether to be condemned except those of the opera
we should make them during the week a visit of thanks at which we may converse of the pleasure of the ball and of the good selection of the company section two of concerts
the proprieties in deportment which concerts require are little different from those which are recognized in every other assembly or in public exhibitions for concerts partake of the one and the other
the ladies occupy the front seats and the gentlemen are generally in groups behind or at the side of them one should observe the most profound silence and refrain from beating time humming the airs applauding
should give notice of it to the persons invited when a lady is going to perform
where persons assemble together and at theatrical exhibitions there are some general attentions which we should manifest to those persons whom we meet there it would be impolite to jostle continually and in an importunate manner
those near whom we are placed to step upon the dress of a lady or run against those who are moving at a moderate pace if you go with a party to a theatrical entertainment
in older to avoid any embarrassment to ladies on entering and when the box is open they should place them in the front row according to their age or the consideration they deserve young persons should occupy the seats behind
and avoid leaning over too much
gentlemen should address themselves to the attendants at the boxes make them a compensation and place under their care their hats the cloaks and other articles of dress of the ladies but we must not hang them over the boxes
whether it is a pocket handkerchief a tippet or a shawl
which the heroes of the play suffer or has his sympathy touched by the virtues
chapter twenty six the story club is formed junior avonlea found it hard to settle down to humdrum existence again to anne in particular
at first as she told diana she did not really think she could i'm positively certain diana that life can never be quite the same again as it was in those olden days
she said mournfully as if referring to a period of at least fifty years back perhaps after a while i'll get used to it but i'm afraid concerts spoil people for everyday life
i suppose that is why marilla disapproves of them marilla is such a sensible woman it must be a great deal better to be sensible but still
i don't believe i'd really want to be a sensible person because they are so unromantic missus lynde says there is no danger of my ever being one but you can never tell i feel just now
that i may grow up to be sensible yet but perhaps that is only because i'm tired i simply couldn't sleep last night for ever so long i just lay awake and imagined the concert over and over again
that's one splendid thing about such affairs it's so lovely to look back to them eventually however avonlea school slipped back into its old groove and took up its old interests
to be sure the concert left traces ruby gillis and emma white who had quarreled over a point of precedence in their platform seats no longer sat at the same desk
and a promising friendship of three years was broken up josie pye and julia bell did not speak for three months because josie pye had told bessie wright that julia bell's bow when she got up to recite
made her think of a chicken jerking its head and bessie told julia none of the sloanes would have any dealings with the bells because the bells had declared that the sloanes had too much to do in the program
and the sloanes had retorted that the bells were not capable of doing the little they had to do properly finally charlie sloane fought moody spurgeon mac pherson because moody spurgeon had said that anne shirley put on airs
about her recitations and moody spurgeon was licked consequently moody spurgeon's sister
with the exception of these trifling frictions work in miss stacy's little kingdom went on with regularity and smoothness the winter weeks slipped by
it was an unusually mild winter with so little snow that anne and diana could go to school nearly every day by way of the birch path on anne's birthday
they were tripping lightly down it keeping eyes and ears alert amid all their chatter for miss stacy had told them that they must soon write a composition on a winter's walk in the woods
and it behooved them to be observant just think diana i'm thirteen years old today remarked anne in an awed voice i can scarcely realize that i'm in my teens
you've been thirteen for a month so i suppose it doesn't seem such a novelty to you as it does to me it makes life seem so much more interesting in two more years i'll be really grown up
it's a great comfort to think that i'll be able to use big words then without being laughed at ruby gillis says she means to have a beau as soon as she's fifteen said diana
ruby gillis thinks of nothing but beaus said anne disdainfully she's actually delighted when anyone writes her name up in a take notice for all she pretends to be so mad
but i'm afraid that is an uncharitable speech missus allan says we should never make uncharitable speeches but they do slip out so often before you think don't they i simply can't talk about josie pye
without making an uncharitable speech so i never mention her at all you may have noticed that i'm trying to be as much like missus allan as i possibly can for i think she's perfect
mister allan thinks so too missus lynde says he just worships the ground she treads on and she doesn't really think it right for a minister to set his affections so much on a mortal being but then diana
even ministers are human and have their besetting sins just like everybody else i had such an interesting talk with missus allan about besetting sins last sunday afternoon there are just a few things
it's proper to talk about on sundays and that is one of them my besetting sin is imagining too much and forgetting my duties i'm striving very hard to overcome it and now that i'm really thirteen
perhaps i'll get on better in four more years we'll be able to put our hair up said diana alice bell is only sixteen and she is wearing hers up but i think that's ridiculous
besides i was comparing it with my own nose and that's vanity i'm afraid i think too much about my nose ever since i heard that compliment about it long ago
it really is a great comfort to me oh diana look there's a rabbit that's something to remember for our woods composition i really think the woods are just as lovely in winter as in summer they're so white and still
as if they were asleep and dreaming pretty dreams i won't mind writing that composition when its time comes sighed diana i can manage to write about the woods but the one we're to hand in monday is terrible
the idea of miss stacy telling us to write a story out of our own heads why it's as easy as wink said anne it's easy for you because you have an imagination retorted diana
but what would you do if you had been born without one i suppose
anne nodded trying hard not to look virtuously complacent and failing miserably i wrote it last monday evening it's called the jealous rival or
in death not divided i read it to marilla and she said it was stuff and nonsense then i read it to matthew and he said it was fine that is the kind of critic i like
it's a sad sweet story i just cried like a child while i was writing it
who lived in the same village and were devotedly attached to each other cordelia was a regal brunette with a coronet of midnight hair and duskly flashing eyes geraldine
was a queenly blonde with hair like spun gold and velvety purple eyes
said diana dubiously neither did i i just imagined them i wanted something out of the common geraldine had an alabaster brow too i've found out what an alabaster brow is
that is one of the advantages of being thirteen you know so much more than you did when you were only twelve well what became of cordelia and geraldine asked diana
who was beginning to feel rather interested in their fate
then bertram de vere came to their native village and fell in love with the fair geraldine he saved her life when her horse ran away with her in a carriage and she fainted in his arms and he carried her home three miles
because you understand the carriage was all smashed up i found it rather hard to imagine the proposal because i had no experience to go by i asked ruby gillis if she knew anything about how men proposed
because i thought she'd likely be an authority on the subject having so many sisters married ruby told me she was hid in the hall pantry when malcolm andres proposed to her sister susan she said malcolm told susan that his dad
had given him the farm in his own name and then said what do you say darling pet if we get hitched this fall and susan said yes no i don't know let me s e e and there they were engaged as quick as that
but i didn't think that sort of a proposal was a very romantic one so in the end i had to imagine it out as well as i could
i made it very flowery and poetical and bertram went on his knees although ruby gillis says it isn't done nowadays geraldine accepted him in a speech a page long
i can tell you i took a lot of trouble with that speech i rewrote it five times and i look upon it as my masterpiece bertram gave her a diamond ring and a ruby necklace
and told her they would go to europe for a wedding tour for he was immensely wealthy but then alas shadows began to darken over their path
cordelia was secretly in love with bertram herself and when geraldine told her about the engagement she was simply furious especially when she saw the necklace and the diamond ring all her affection for geraldine
turned to bitter hate and she vowed that she should never marry bertram but she pretended to be geraldine's friend the same as ever one evening they were standing on the bridge over a rushing turbulent stream and cordelia
thinking they were alone pushed geraldine over the brink with a wild mocking ha ha ha but bertram saw it all and he at once plunged into the current exclaiming i will save thee my peerless geraldine but alas
he had forgotten he couldn't swim and they were both drowned clasped in each other's arms their bodies were washed ashore soon afterwards they were buried in the one grave
and their funeral was most imposing diana it's so much more romantic to end a story up with a funeral than a wedding as for cordelia she went insane with remorse and was shut up in a lunatic asylum
i thought that was a poetical retribution for her crime how perfectly lovely sighed diana who belonged to matthew's school of critics
i don't see how you can make up such thrilling things out of your own head anne i wish my imagination was as good as yours it would be if you'd only cultivate it said anne cheeringly
i've just thought of a plan diana let you and me have a story club all our own and write stories for practice i'll help you along until you can do them by yourself you ought to cultivate your imagination you know
miss stacy says so only we must take the right way i told her about the haunted wood but she said we went the wrong way about it in that this was how the story club came into existence
it was limited to diana and anne at first but soon it was extended to include jane andrews and ruby gillis and one or two others who felt that their imaginations needed cultivating no boys were allowed in it
although ruby gillis opined that their admission would make it more exciting and each member had to produce one story a week it's extremely interesting anne told marilla
and then we talk it over we are going to keep them all sacredly
then diana puts too many murders into hers she says most of the time she doesn't know what to do with the people so she kills them off to get rid of them i mostly always have to tell them what to write about but that isn't hard
for i've millions of ideas i think this story writing business is the foolishest yet scoffed marilla you'll get a pack of nonsense into your heads and waste time that should be put on your lessons
and all the bad ones are suitably punished i'm sure that must have a wholesome effect the moral is the great thing mister allan says so i read one of my stories to him
and missus allan and they both agreed that the moral was excellent only they laughed in the wrong places i like it better when people cry jane and ruby almost always cry when i come to the pathetic parts
diana wrote her aunt josephine about our club and her aunt josephine wrote back that we were to send her some of our stories so we copied out four of our very best and sent them miss josephine barry
wrote back that she had never read anything so amusing in her life that kind of puzzled us because the stories were all very pathetic
but i'm glad miss barry liked them it shows our club is doing some good in the world missus allan says that ought to be our object in everything
i hope i shall be a little like missus allan when i grow up do you think there is any prospect of it marilla i shouldn't say there was a great deal was marilla's encouraging answer i'm sure missus allan
was never such a silly forgetful little girl as you are no
she told me so herself that is
i felt so encouraged when i heard that is it very wicked of me marilla to feel encouraged when i hear that other people have been bad and mischievous missus lynde says it is missus lynde
says she always feels shocked when she hears of anyone ever having been naughty no matter how small they were
he stole a strawberry tart out of his aunt's pantry and she never had any respect for that minister again now i wouldn't have felt that way
and i'd have thought what an encouraging thing it would be for small boys nowadays who do naughty things and are sorry for them to know that perhaps they may grow up to be ministers in spite of it that's how i'd feel marilla
the way i feel at present anne said marilla
chapter twenty seven vanity and vexation of spirit marilla walking home one late april evening from an aid meeting realized that the winter was over
she probably imagined that she was thinking about the aids and their missionary box and the new carpet for the vestry room but under these reflections was a harmonious consciousness of red fields
smoking into pale purply mists in the declining sun of long sharp pointed fir shadows falling over the meadow beyond the brook of still crimson budded maples around a mirrorlike wood pool
of a wakening in the world and a stir of hidden pulses under the gray sod the spring was abroad in the land and marilla's sober middle aged step was lighter and swifter because of its deep
primal gladness her eyes dwelt affectionately on green gables peering through its network of trees and reflecting the sunlight back from its windows in several little coruscations of glory marilla
as she picked her steps along the damp lane thought that it was really a satisfaction to know that she was going home to a briskly snapping wood fire and a table nicely spread for tea instead of to the cold comfort
and have tea ready at five o'clock but now she must hurry to take off her second best dress and prepare the meal herself against matthew's return from plowing i'll settle miss anne when she comes home
said marilla grimly as she shaved up kindlings with a carving knife and with more vim than was strictly necessary
was waiting patiently for his tea in his corner she's gadding off somewhere with diana writing stories or practicing dialogues or some such tomfoolery and never thinking once about the time or her duties
she's just got to be pulled up short and sudden on this sort of thing i don't care if missus allan does say she's the brightest and sweetest child she ever knew she may be bright and sweet enough
but her head is full of nonsense and there's never any knowing what shape it'll break out in next just as soon as she grows out of one freak she takes up with another but there
anne's got plenty of faults goodness knows and far be it from me to deny it but i'm bringing her up and not rachel lynde who'd pick faults in the angel gabriel himself if he lived in avonlea
just the same anne has no business to leave the house like this when i told her she was to stay home this afternoon and look after things i must say
with all her faults i never found her disobedient or untrustworthy before and i'm real sorry to find her so now well now i dunno said matthew who being patient and wise
and above all hungry had deemed it best to let marilla talk her wrath out unhindered having learned by experience that she got through with whatever work was on hand much quicker
anne's a great hand at explaining she's not here when i told her to stay retorted marilla i reckon she'll find it hard to explain that to my satisfaction of course i knew you'd take her part matthew
but i'm bringing her up not you it was dark when supper was ready and still no sign of anne coming hurriedly over the log bridge or up lover's lane breathless and repentant with a sense of neglected duties
marilla washed and put away the dishes grimly then wanting a candle to light her way down the cellar she went up to the east gable for the one that generally stood on anne's table lighting it she turned around
demanded marilla anxiously going over to the bed anne cowered deeper into her pillows as if desirous of hiding herself forever from mortal eyes no but please marilla
go away and don't look at me i'm in the depths of despair and i don't care who gets head in class or writes the best composition or sings in the sunday school choir any more little things like that are of no importance now
because i don't suppose i'll ever be able to go anywhere again my career is closed please marilla go away and don't look at me did anyone ever hear the like the mystified marilla wanted to know
in despairing obedience look at my hair marilla she whispered accordingly marilla lifted her candle and looked scrutinizingly at anne's hair flowing in heavy masses down her back
it certainly had a very strange appearance anne shirley what have you done to your hair why it's green green it might be called if it were any earthly color
a queer dull bronzy green with streaks here and there of the original red to heighten the ghastly effect never in all her life had marilla seen anything so grotesque as anne's hair at that moment
yes it's green moaned anne i thought nothing could be as bad as red hair but now i know it's ten times worse to have green hair
oh marilla you little know how utterly wretched i am i little know how you got into this fix but i mean to find out said marilla come right down to the kitchen it's too cold up here
and tell me just what you've done i've been expecting something queer for some time you haven't got into any scrape for over two months and i was sure another one was due now then
what did you do to your hair i dyed it dyed it dyed your hair anne shirley didn't you know it was a wicked thing to do yes i knew it was a little wicked admitted anne
to get rid of red hair i counted the cost marilla besides i meant to be extra good in other ways to make up for it well said marilla sarcastically
if i'd decided it was worth while to dye my hair i'd have dyed it a decent color at least i wouldn't have dyed it green but i didn't mean to dye it green marilla protested anne dejectedly
if i was wicked i meant to be wicked to some purpose he said it would turn my hair a beautiful raven black he positively assured me that it would how could i doubt his word marilla
i know what it feels like to have your word doubted and missus allan says we should never suspect anyone of not telling us the truth unless we have proof that they're not i have proof now green hair is proof enough for anybody
but i hadn't then and i believed every word he said implicitly who said who are you talking about the peddler that was here this afternoon i bought the dye from him
anne shirley how often have i told you never to let one of those italians in the house i don't believe in encouraging them to come around at all oh i didn't let him in the house i remembered what you told me and i went out
carefully shut the door and looked at his things on the step besides he wasn't an italian he was a german jew he had a big box full of very interesting things
and he told me he was working hard to make enough money to bring his wife and children out from germany he spoke so feelingly about them that it touched my heart i wanted to buy something from him to help him in such a worthy object
the peddler said it was warranted to dye any hair a beautiful raven black and wouldn't wash off in a trice i saw myself with beautiful raven black hair and the temptation was irresistible
but the price of the bottle was seventy five cents and i had only fifty cents left out of my chicken money i think the peddler had a very kind heart for he said that seeing it was me he'd sell it for fifty cents
and that was just giving it away so i bought it and as soon as he had gone i came up here and applied it with an old hairbrush as the directions said i used up the whole bottle and oh marilla
i hope you'll repent to good purpose said marilla severely and that you've got your eyes opened to where your vanity has led you anne goodness knows what's to be done i suppose the first thing is to give your hair a good washing
and see if that will do any good accordingly anne washed her hair scrubbing it vigorously with soap and water but for all the difference it made she might as well have been scouring its original red
the peddler had certainly spoken the truth when he declared that the dye wouldn't wash off however his veracity might be impeached in other respects oh marilla what shall i do
questioned anne in tears i can never live this down people have pretty well forgotten my other mistakes the liniment cake and setting diana drunk and flying into a temper with missus lynde but they'll never forget this
they will think i am not respectable oh marilla what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive that is poetry but it is true and oh how josie pye will laugh
marilla i cannot face josie pye i am the unhappiest girl in prince edward island anne's unhappiness continued for a week during that time
she went nowhere and shampooed her hair every day diana alone of outsiders knew the fatal secret but she promised solemnly never to tell and it may be stated here and now that she kept her word
at the end of the week marilla said decidedly it's no use anne that is fast dye if ever there was any your hair must be cut off there is no other way you can't go out with it looking like that
anne's lips quivered but she realized the bitter truth of marilla's remarks with a dismal sigh she went for the scissors
oh i feel that my heart is broken this is such an unromantic affliction the girls in books lose their hair in fevers or sell it to get money for some good deed
and i'm sure i wouldn't mind losing my hair in some such fashion half so much but there is nothing comforting in having your hair cut off because you've dyed it a dreadful color is there i'm going to weep
all the time you're cutting it off if it won't interfere it seems such a tragic thing anne wept then but later on when she went upstairs and looked in the glass
she was calm with despair marilla had done her work thoroughly and it had been necessary to shingle the hair as closely as possible the result was not becoming
she suddenly righted the glass yes i will too i'd do penance for being wicked that way i'll look at myself every time i come to my room and see how ugly i am and i won't try to imagine it away either
made a sensation in school on the following monday but to her relief nobody guessed the real reason for it not even josie pye who however did not fail to inform anne that she looked like a perfect scarecrow
i didn't say anything when josie said that to me anne confided that evening to marilla who was lying on the sofa after one of her headaches because i thought it was part of my punishment and i ought to bear it patiently
it's hard to be told you look like a scarecrow and i wanted to say something back but i didn't i just swept her one scornful look and then i forgave her it makes you feel very virtuous when you forgive people doesn't it
i mean to devote all my energies to being good after this and i shall never try to be beautiful again of course it's better to be good i know it is but it's sometimes so hard to believe a thing even when you know it
i do really want to be good marilla like you and missus allan and miss stacy and grow up to be a credit to you diana says when my hair begins to grow to tie a black velvet ribbon around my head
she says she thinks it will be very becoming i will call it a snood that sounds so romantic but am i talking too much marilla does it hurt your head
my head is better now it was terrible bad this afternoon though these headaches of mine are getting worse and worse i'll have to see a doctor about them
that annabella had been singing and playing with arthur as usual at her side she had ended her song
and he stood leaning on the back of her chair conversing in scarcely audible tones with his face in very close proximity with hers i looked at lord lowborough
he was at the other end of the room talking with messrs hargrave and grimsby but i saw him dart towards his lady and his host a quick impatient glance
expressive of intense disquietude at which grimsby smiled
on seeing her seated there listening with what seemed an exultant smile on her flushed face to his soft murmurings with her hand quietly surrendered to his clasp
the blood rushed first to my heart and then to my head for there was more than this almost at the moment of my approach he cast a hurried glance over his shoulder
towards the other occupants of the room and then ardently pressed the unresisting hand to his lips on raising his eyes he beheld me and dropped them again
confounded and dismayed she saw me too and confronted me with a look of hard defiance i laid the music on the piano and retired i felt ill
but i did not leave the room happily it was getting late and could not be long before the company dispersed i went to the fire and
and saw mister hargrave standing beside me on the rug
and smiling in his face and arthur was at the table turning over a book of engravings i seated myself in the nearest chair and mister hargrave
finding his services were not desired judiciously withdrew shortly after the company broke up
arthur approached me smiling with the utmost assurance are you very angry helen murmured he this is no jest arthur said i seriously
what so bitter he exclaimed laughingly
but i snatched it away in indignation almost in disgust for he was obviously affected with wine then i must go down on my knees said he
and kneeling before me with clasped hands uplifted in mock humiliation he continued imploringly
forgive me and i'll never do it again and burying his face in his handkerchief he affected to sob aloud leaving him thus employed i took my candle
and slipping quietly from the room hastened up stairs as fast as i could but he soon discovered that i had left him and rushing up after me
and was about to shut the door in his face no no by heaven you sha'n't escape me so he cried then
he begged me not to put myself in such a passion telling me i was white in the face and should kill myself if i did so let me go then i murmured and immediately he released me
and it was well he did for i was really in a passion i sank into the easy chair and endeavoured to compose myself for i wanted to speak to him calmly
not in mock humility but to bring himself nearer my level and leaning his hand on the arm of the chair he began in a low voice it is all nonsense helen
a jest a mere nothing not worth a thought
he continued more boldly that you have nothing to fear from me that i love you wholly and entirely
he added with a lurking smile i ever give a thought to another you may well spare it for those fancies are here and gone like a flash of lightning
said i and listen to me and don't think i'm in a jealous fury i am perfectly calm feel my hand and i gravely extended it towards him
but closed it upon his with an energy that seemed to disprove the assertion and made him smile you needn't smile sir said i
still tightening my grasp and looking steadfastly on him till he almost quailed before me you may think it all very fine mister huntingdon to amuse yourself with rousing my jealousy
but take care you don't rouse my hate instead and when you have once extinguished my love you will find it no easy matter to kindle it again well helen
i won't repeat the offence but i meant nothing by it i assure you
and i was scarcely myself at the time you often take too much and that is another practice i detest he looked up astonished at my warmth yes i continued
as it will if you don't check it in time but the whole system of your conduct to lady lowborough
and this night you knew perfectly well what you were doing well i'm sorry for it replied he with more of sulkiness than contrition
you are sorry that i saw you no doubt i answered coldly
if you had not seen me he muttered fixing his eyes on the carpet it would have done no harm
and answered calmly you think not no replied he boldly after all what have i done it's nothing
throughout as you have to annabella i would blow his brains out well then arthur how can you call it nothing an offence for which
what it is more dishonest to take are the marriage vows a jest and is it nothing to make it your sport to break them and to tempt another to do the same
you promised to honour and obey me and now you attempt to hector over me and threaten and accuse me and call me worse than a highwayman if it were not for your situation helen
i would not submit to it so tamely i won't be dictated to by a woman though she be my wife what will you do then will you go on till i hate you
and then replied you never will hate me
he repeated more vehemently
as long as i love you but how can i believe that you love me if you continue to act in this way just imagine yourself in my place would you think i loved you if i did so
would you believe my protestations and honour and trust me under such circumstances the cases are different he replied it is a woman's nature to be constant to love one and one only
blindly tenderly and for ever bless them dear creatures and you above them all but you must have some commiseration for us helen you must give us a little more licence
for as shakespeare has it however we do praise ourselves our fancies are more giddy and unfirm more longing wavering sooner lost and won than women's are
and won by lady lowborough no heaven is my witness that i think her mere dust and ashes in comparison with you and shall continue to think so
unless you drive me from you by too much severity she is a daughter of earth you are an angel of heaven only be not too austere in your divinity
and remember that i am a poor fallible mortal come now helen won't you forgive me he said gently taking my hand and looking up with an innocent smile
you will repeat the offence i swear by don't swear i'll believe your word as well as your oath i wish i could have confidence in either try me then helen
only trust and pardon me this once and you shall see come i am in hell's torments till you speak the word i did not speak it but i put my hand on his shoulder
and well conducted towards lady lowborough the first day he held himself aloof from her as far as he could without any flagrant breach of hospitality since that he has been friendly and civil
and more cordial towards his host than before but i shall be glad when they are gone for i have so little love for annabella
i have a good mind to ask arthur's leave to invite the old lady to stay with us till our guests depart i think i will she will take it as a kind attention and
after that unhappy evening was an hour or two after breakfast on the following day when the gentlemen were gone out
in the writing of letters the reading of newspapers and desultory conversation we sat silent for two or three minutes she was busy with her work
and i was running over the columns of a paper from which i had extracted all the pith some twenty minutes before it was a moment of painful embarrassment to me
and i thought it must be infinitely more so to her but it seems i was mistaken she was the first to speak and smiling with the coolest assurance she began
your husband was merry last night helen is he often so my blood boiled in my face
than to anything else no replied i and never will be so again i trust you gave him a curtain lecture did you no
but i told him i disliked such conduct and he promised me not to repeat it i thought he looked rather subdued this morning she continued and you helen you've been weeping i see
that's our grand resource you know but doesn't it make your eyes smart and do you always find it to answer i never cry for effect nor can i conceive how any one can
i don't wonder at your being angry for i'm sure i'd give my husband a lesson he would not soon forget for a lighter offence than that but then
he never will do anything of the kind for i keep him in too good order for that are you sure you don't arrogate too much of the credit to yourself lord lowborough was quite as remarkable
for his abstemiousness for some time before you married him as he is now i have heard oh about the wine you mean yes
why as to that i can't say you know we're all fallible creatures helen we none of us deserve to be worshipped but are you sure your darling huntingdon
deserves all the love you give to him i knew not what to answer to this i was burning with anger
i don't know he said one day taking a trivial expenditure for meat as a text it seems to take an awful lot for us to live it doesn't seem to me said carrie
that we spend very much my money is nearly gone he said and i hardly know where it's gone to all that seven hundred dollars asked carrie all but a hundred
he looked so disconsolate that it scared her she began to see that she herself had been drifting she had felt it all the time well george she exclaimed
why don't you get out and look for something you could find something i have looked he said you can't make people give you a place she gazed weakly at him and said
well what do you think you will do a hundred dollars won't last long i don't know he said i can't do any more than look carrie became frightened over this announcement
she thought desperately upon the subject frequently she had considered the stage as a door through which she might enter that gilded state which she had so much craved now
as in chicago it came as a last resource in distress something must be done if he did not get work soon perhaps she would have to go out and battle again alone
she began to wonder how one would go about getting a place her experience in chicago proved that she had not tried the right way there must be people who would listen to and try you
they were talking at the breakfast table a morning or two later when she brought up the dramatic subject by saying that she saw that sarah bernhardt was coming to this country
hurstwood had seen it too how do people get on the stage george she finally asked innocently i don't know he said there must be dramatic agents
carrie was sipping coffee and did not look up regular people who get you a place yes i think so he answered
if she tried to get on the stage she would fall into the hands of some cheap manager and become like the rest of them he had a good idea of what he meant by them carrie was pretty
carrie felt this to contain in some way an aspersion upon her ability you said i did real well in chicago she rejoined you did he answered
seeing that he was arousing opposition but chicago isn't new york by a big jump carrie did not answer this at all it hurt her the stage he went on
is all right if you can be one of the big guns but there's nothing to the rest of it it takes a long while to get up
in a flash he thought he foresaw the result of this thing now when the worst of his situation was approaching she would get on the stage in some cheap way and forsake him
strangely he had not conceived well of her mental ability
the nature of emotional greatness he had never learned that a person might be emotionally
avery hall was too far away for him to look back and sharply remember he had lived with this woman too long well i do he answered
if i were you i wouldn't think of it it's not much of a profession for a woman it's better than going hungry said carrie if you don't want me to do that why don't you get work yourself
there was no answer ready for this he had got used to the suggestion oh let up he answered the result of this was that she secretly resolved to try
it didn't matter about him she was not going to be dragged into poverty and something worse to suit him
what would he say then she pictured herself already appearing in some fine performance on broadway of going every evening to her dressing room and making up
then she would come out at eleven o'clock and see the carriages ranged about waiting for the people
if she were only once in getting a decent salary wearing the kind of clothes she liked having the money to do with going here and there as she pleased
how delightful it would all be her mind ran over this picture all the day long hurstwood's dreary state
curiously this idea soon took hold of hurstwood his vanishing sum suggested that he would need sustenance why could not carrie assist him a little
until he could get something he came in one day with something of this idea in his mind
john b drake to day he said he's going to open a hotel here in the fall he says that he can make a place for me then who is he asked carrie he's the man that runs the grand pacific in chicago
i'd get about fourteen hundred a year out of that that would be good wouldn't it she said sympathetically if i can only get over this summer he added i think i'll be all right
i'm hearing from some of my friends again carrie swallowed this story in all its pristine beauty she sincerely wished he could get through the summer he looked so hopeless
how much money have you left only fifty dollars oh mercy she exclaimed what will we do it's only twenty days until the rent will be due again
hurstwood rested his head on his hands and looked blankly at the floor maybe you could get something in the stage line he blandly suggested maybe i could said carrie
glad that some one approved of the idea i'll lay my hand to whatever i can get he said now that he saw her brighten up i can get something she cleaned up the things one morning after he had gone
dressed as neatly as her wardrobe permitted and set out for broadway she did not know that thoroughfare very well to her it was a wonderful conglomeration of everything great and mighty
the theatres were there these agencies must be somewhere about she decided to stop in at the madison square theatre and ask how to find the theatrical agents
this seemed the sensible way accordingly when she reached that theatre she applied to the clerk at the box office
dramatic agents i don't know you'll find them in the clipper though they all advertise in that is that a paper said carrie yes said the clerk
marvelling at such ignorance of a common fact
seeing how pretty the inquirer was carrie proceeded to get the clipper and tried to find the agents by looking over it as she stood beside the stand this could not be done so easily
thirteenth street was a number of blocks off but she went back carrying the precious paper and regretting the waste of time hurstwood was already there sitting in his place
where were you he asked i've been trying to find some dramatic agents he felt a little diffident about
concerning her success the paper she began to scan attracted his attention
i could have told you why didn't you she asked without looking up you never asked me he returned she went hunting aimlessly through the crowded columns
her mind was distracted by this man's indifference the difficulty of the situation she was facing was only added to by all he did self commiseration brewed in her heart
but did not fall hurstwood noticed something let me look to recover herself she went into the front room while he searched presently she returned
he had a pencil and was writing upon an envelope
carrie took it and found that one was missus bermudez another marcus jenks a third percy weil she paused only a moment
and then moved toward the door i might as well go right away she said without looking back hurstwood saw her depart with some faint stirrings of shame which were the expression of a manhood
he sat a while and then it became too much he got up and put on his hat i guess i'll go out he said to himself and went strolling nowhere in particular
but feeling somehow that he must go carrie's first call was upon missus bermudez whose address was quite the nearest
it was an old fashioned residence turned into offices missus bermudez's offices consisted of what formerly had been a back chamber and a hall bedroom
marked private as carrie entered she noticed several persons lounging about men who said nothing and did nothing while she was waiting to be noticed
the door of the hall bedroom opened and from it issued two very mannish looking women very tightly dressed and wearing white collars and cuffs after them came a portly lady
of about forty five light haired sharp eyed and evidently good natured at least she was smiling
said one of the mannish women i won't said the portly woman let's see she added
pittsburg said the woman i'll write you there all right said the other and the two passed out instantly
hesitating how to begin do you get places for persons upon the stage yes could you get me one have you ever had any experience
a very little said carrie whom did you play with oh with no one said carrie it was just a show gotten oh i see said the woman interrupting her
no i don't know of anything now carrie's countenance fell you want to get some new york experience concluded the affable missus bermudez
carrie stood looking while the lady retired to her office
taking up the curtailed conversation missus george wheeler said carrie moving over to where she was writing the woman wrote her address in full and then allowed her to depart at her leisure
she encountered a very similar experience in the office of mister jenks only he varied it by saying at the close if you could play at some local house
i might do something
what sort of work do you want to do what do you mean said carrie well do you want to get in a comedy or on the vaudeville stage or in the chorus oh
oh she said the agent saw he was dealing with an inexperienced soul and continued accordingly you'd want to deposit fifty dollars any way
no agent would trouble about you for less than that carrie saw a light thank you she said i'll think about it
how soon would i get a place she asked
you might get one in a week or it might be a month you'd get the first thing that we thought you could do
i see said carrie and then half smiling to be agreeable she walked out the agent studied a moment and then said to himself
she had some jewelry a diamond ring and pin and several other pieces she could get fifty dollars for those if she went to a pawnbroker hurstwood was home before her
he had not thought she would be so long seeking well he said not venturing to ask what news i didn't find out anything to day said carrie taking off her gloves
they all want money to get you a place how much asked hurstwood fifty dollars they don't want anything do they oh they're like everybody else
you can't tell whether they'd ever get you anything after you did pay them well i wouldn't put up fifty on that basis said hurstwood as if he were deciding money in hand
i don't know said carrie i think i'll try some of the managers hurstwood heard this dead to the horror of it he rocked a little to and fro
it seemed all very natural in such extreme states
once or twice in the night a light northerly wind soon dying away
what is the meaning of this comparative warmth
it is delightful to contemplate the amount of work which is being done at the station no one is idle all hands are full
i do not think there can be any life quite so demonstrative of character as that which we had on these expeditions one sees a remarkable reassortment of values
under ordinary conditions it is so easy to carry a point with a little bounce self assertion is a mask which covers many a weakness as a rule we have neither the time nor the desire to look beneath it
and so it is that commonly we accept people on their own valuation here the outward show is nothing it is the inward purpose that counts so the gods dwindle and the humble supplant them pretence is useless
rapidly and steadily adding to his portfolio of charming sketches and at intervals filling the gaps in his zoological work of discovery times withal ready and willing to give advice and assistance to others at all times
his sound judgment appreciated and therefore a constant referee simpson master of his craft untiringly attentive to the working of his numerous self recording instruments
observing all changes with scientific acumen doing the work of two observers at least and yet ever seeking to correlate an expanded scope
so the current meteorological and magnetic observations are taken as never before by polar expeditions wright good hearted strong keen striving to saturate his mind with the ice problems of this wonderful region
which comes from the taking of pains therefrom we derive a singularly exact preservation of time an important consideration to all but especially necessary for the physical work
therefrom also and including more labour we have an accurate survey of our immediate surroundings and can trust to possess the correctly mapped results of all surveying data obtained he has gran for assistant
taylor's intellect is omnivorous and versatile his mind is unceasingly active his grasp wide whatever he writes will be of interest his pen flows well debenham's is clearer
here we have a well trained sturdy worker with a quiet meaning that carries conviction he realises the conceptions of thoroughness and conscientiousness
to bowers practical genius is owed much of the smooth working of our station he has a natural method in line with which all arrangements fall so that expenditure is easily and exactly adjusted to supply
and i have the inestimable advantage of knowing the length of time which each of our possessions will last us and the assurance that there can be no waste active mind and active body were never more happily blended
it is a restless activity admitting no idle moments and ever budding into new forms so we see the balloons ascending under his guidance and anon he is away over the floe tracking the silk thread which held it
the last typically self suggested because for the moment there is no one else to care for these animals now in a similar manner he is spreading thermometer screens to get comparative readings with the home station
he is for the open air seemingly incapable of realising any discomfort from it and yet his hours within doors spent with equal profit
adjacent to the physicist's corner of the hut atkinson is quietly pursuing the subject of parasites already he is in a new world
the laying out of the fish trap was his action and the catches are his field of labour constantly he comes to ask if i would like to see some new form
the fishes themselves are comparatively new to science
i would describe him as sustained by artistic enthusiasm this world of ours is a different one to him than it is to the rest of us he gauges it by its picturesqueness
his joy is to reproduce its pictures artistically his grief to fail to do so no attitude could be happier for the work which he has undertaken and one cannot doubt its productiveness
cherry garrard is another of the open air self effacing quiet workers his whole heart is in the life with profound eagerness to help everyone one has caught glimpses of him in tight places sound all through and pretty hard also
by being cut off from the home station
in this connection i have been studying our arctic library to get details concerning snow hut building and the implements used for it oates whole heart is in the ponies he is really devoted to their care
and i believe will produce them in the best possible form for the sledging season
is ever at work in the stables an excellent little man evans and crean are repairing sleeping bags covering felt boots and generally working on sledging kit
in fact there is no one idle and no one who has the least prospect of idleness
these modern physiographers set out to explain the forms of land erosion on broad common sense lines heedless of geological support they must in consequence have their special language
river courses they say are not temporary in the main they are archaic in conjunction with land elevations they have worked through geographical cycles perhaps many
the courses broaden and deepen the bank slopes reduce in angle as maturer stages are reached until the level of sea surface is more and more nearly approximated
so much for the simple case
taylor illustrated his explanations with examples the red river canada plain flat though elevated water lies in pools river flows in v infantile form the rhine valley
the gorgeous scenery from mainz down due to infantile form in recently elevated region the russian plains examples of senility
flows through an offshoot of a fold the valley being made as the fold was elevated curious valleys made by erosion of hard rock overlying soft
landslips have caused the isolation of lake george and altered the watershed of the whole country to the south later on taylor will deal with the effects of ice and lead us to the formation of the scenery of our own region
and so we shall have much to discuss
one wonders why the hut point party does not come bowers and cherry garrard have set up a thermometer screen containing maximum thermometers and thermographs on the sea floe
another smaller one is to go on top of the ramp they took the screen out on one of day's bicycle wheel carriages and found it ran very easily over the salty ice where the sledges give so much trouble
this vehicle is not easily turned but may be very useful before there is much snowfall
before the instrument disengaged the balloon went almost straight up and the silk fell in festoons over the rocky part of the cape affording a very difficult clue to follow
but whilst bowers was following it atkinson observed the instrument fall a few hundred yards out on the bay it was recovered and gives the first important record of upper air temperature
both yesterday morning and yesterday evening when the trap was raised it contained over forty fish whilst this morning and this evening the catches in the same spot have been from twenty to twenty five we had fish for breakfast this morning
but an even more satisfactory result of the catches has been revealed by atkinson's microscope he had discovered quite a number of new parasites and found work to last quite a long time
so that i shall be glad to have a good sleep to night yesterday we had a game of football it is pleasant to mess about but the light is failing clissold is still producing food novelties
everyone was interested naturally
with this sentiment the whole company appeared to be in sympathy everyone seems to distrust the dogs when it comes to glacier and summit i have asked everyone to give thought to the problem to freely discuss it and bring suggestions to my notice
it's going to be a tough job that is better realised the more one dives into it to day tuesday debenham has been showing me his photographs taken west with wright's and taylor's these will make an extremely interesting series
the strait has been frozen over a week i cannot understand why the hut point party doesn't return the weather continues wonderfully calm though now looking a little unsettled
cherry garrard is experimenting in stone huts and with blubber fires all with a view to prolonging the stay at cape crozier bowers has placed one thermometer screen on the floe about three quarters out
and another smaller one above the ramp
in calm weather to complete the records a thermometer is to be placed in south bay science the rock foundation of all effort
has been blowing from the south twelve to twenty miles per hour since last night the ice remains fast
the ice is nine inches thick not much for eight or nine days freezing but it is very solid the surface wet but very slippery i suppose meares waits for twelve inches in thickness
or fears the floe is too slippery for the ponies yet i wish he would come
the wind seemed less outside coming in under lee of island and bergs i was reminded of the difficulty of finding shelter in these regions the weather side of hills seems to afford better shelter
there was a good lee under one of the bergs in one corner the ice sloped out over me and on either side forming a sort of grotto here the air was absolutely still ponting gave us an interesting lecture on burmah
illustrated with fine slides his descriptive language is florid but shows the artistic temperament bowers and simpson were able to give personal reminiscences
and the discussion led to interesting statements on the religion art and education of its people
but a watery cirrus has been in evidence for some time
i have not been far from the hut but had a great fear on one occasion that the ice had gone out in the strait the wind is dropping this evening and i have been up to wind vane hill i now think the ice has remained fast
there has been astonishingly little drift with the wind probably due to the fact that there has been so very little snowfall of late atkinson is pretty certain that he has isolated a very motile bacterium in the snow it is probably air borne
and though no bacteria have been found in the air this may be carried in upper currents and brought down by the snow if correct it is an interesting discovery to night debenham gave a geological lecture it was elementary
he gave little more than the rough origin and classification of rocks with a view to making his further lectures better understood
the wind dropped about ten last night this morning it was calm and clear save for a light misty veil of ice crystals
echoes of the main source of light wilson has a charming sketch of the phenomenon i went to inaccessible island and climbing some way up the steep western face reassured myself concerning the ice
it was evident that there had been no movement in consequence of yesterday's blow
instead of this i came to an impossible overhanging cliff of lava and was forced to descend as i had come up it was no easy task and i was glad to get down with only one slip
after tea atkinson came in with the glad tidings that the dog team were returning from hut point we were soon on the floe to welcome the last remnant of our wintering party meares reported everything well and the ponies not far behind
the dogs were unharnessed and tied up to the chains they are all looking remarkably fit apparently they have given no trouble at all of late there have not even been any fights half an hour later day lashly nelson forde
and keohane arrived with the two ponies men and animals in good form it is a great comfort to have the men and dogs back and a greater to contemplate all the ten ponies comfortably stabled for the winter
everything seems to depend on these animals i have not seen the meteorological record brought back but it appears that the party had had very fine calm weather since we left them except during the last three days when wind has been very strong
and others have been killed since so that there is a plentiful supply of blubber and seal meat at the hut the rest of the supplies seem to have been pretty well run out some more forage had been fetched in from the depot
a young sea leopard had been killed on the sea ice near castle rock three days ago this being the second only found in the sound it is a strange fact that none of the returning party seem to greatly appreciate the food luxuries
they have had since their return it would have been the same with us had we not had a day or two in tents before our return it seems more and more certain that a very simple fare is all that is needed here plenty of seal meat
flour and fat with tea cocoa and sugar these are the only real requirements for comfortable existence the temperatures at hut point have not been as low as i expected
there seems to have been an extraordinary heat wave during the spell of calm recorded since we left the thermometer registering little below zero
the second on march twenty sixth the seventh on may twentieth
exercised the ponies and held the usual service this morning i gave wright some notes containing speculations on the amount of ice on the antarctic continent and on the effects of winter movements in the sea ice
i want to get into his head the larger bearing of the problems which our physical investigations involve he needs two years here to fully realise these things and with all his intelligence and energy will produce little
unless he has that extended experience the sky cleared at noon and this afternoon i walked over the north bay to the ice cliffs such a very beautiful afternoon and evening
the scene bathed in moonlight so bright and pure as to be almost golden a very wonderful scene at such times the bay seems strangely homely especially when the eye rests on our camp with the hut and lighted windows
i am very much impressed with the extraordinary and general cordiality of the relations which exist amongst our people i do not suppose that a statement of the real truth namely that there is no friction at all will be credited
it is so generally thought that the many rubs of such a life as this are quietly and purposely sunk in oblivion with me there is no need to draw a veil there is nothing to cover
there are no strained relations in this hut and nothing more emphatically evident than the universally amicable spirit which is shown on all occasions such a state of affairs would be delightfully surprising under any conditions
but it is much more so when one remembers the diverse assortment of our company
winter quarters the last day of the sun and a very glorious view of its golden light over the barne glacier
the fine ice cliffs of which were in deep shadow under the rosy rays impression the long mild twilight which like a silver clasp unites to day with yesterday
when morning and evening sit together hand in hand beneath the starless sky of midnight it blew hard last night and most of the young ice has gone as expected patches seem to be remaining south of the glacier tongue
and the island and off our own bay in this very queer season it appears as though the final freezing is to be reached by gradual increments to the firmly established ice had divine service
but it is good to see everyone in such excellent spirits so far not a rift in the social arrangements monday april twenty fourth a night watchman has been instituted mainly for the purpose of observing the aurora
of which the displays have been feeble so far
the cocoa can be made over an acetylene bunsen burner part of simpson's outfit
the remainder of the afterguard follow in rotation the long night hours give time to finish up a number of small tasks the hut remains quite warm though the fires are out
it is filled with hydrogen gas which is made in a special generator the generation is a simple process a vessel filled with water has an inverted vessel within it a pipe is led to the balloon from the latter
and a tube of india rubber is attached which contains calcium hydrate by tipping the tube the amount of calcium hydrate required can be poured into the generator
as the gas is made it passes into the balloon or is collected in the inner vessel which acts as a bell jar if the stop cock to the balloon is closed
which is cunningly wound on coned bobbins from which the balloon unwinds it without hitch or friction as it ascends in order to spare the silk any jerk as the balloon is released
two pieces of string united with a slow match carry the strain between the instrument and the balloon until the slow match is consumed the balloon takes about a quarter of an hour to inflate
theoretically if strain is put on the silk thread it should break between the instrument and the balloon
clissold p o evans and crean take animals besides anton and oates i have had to warn people that they will not necessarily lead the ponies which they now tend wilson is very busy making sketches
tuesday
it was comparatively calm all day yesterday and last night
as a result the strait has frozen over at last and it looks as though the hut point party should be with us before very long if the blizzards hold off for another three days the crossing should be perfectly safe
this was probably due to the continual interference of frost smoke since our return here and especially yesterday and to day the sky and sea have been glorious in the afternoon
ponting has taken some coloured pictures but the result is not very satisfactory and the plates are much spotted wilson is very busy with pencil and brush
atkinson is unpacking and setting up his sterilizers and incubators wright is wrestling with the electrical instruments evans is busy surveying the cape and its vicinity oates is reorganising the stable
in fact everyone is extraordinarily busy
but i'm rapidly altering my opinion we may miss the hill climbing here but in every direction there is abundance of interest
with the sunset lights deep shadows the black islands and white bergs it was all very beautiful simpson and bowers sent up a balloon to day with a double thread and instrument attached the line was checked at about three miles
and soon after the instrument was seen to disengage
then it turned to the south but did not travel rapidly when two miles of thread had gone it seemed to be going north again or rising straight upward in the afternoon simpson and bowers went to recover their treasure
but somewhere south of inaccessible island they found the thread broken and the light was not good enough to continue the search the sides of the galley fire have caved in there should have been cheeks to prevent this
we got some fire clay cement to day and plastered up the sides
calm went round cape evans remarkable effects of icicles on the ice foot formed by spray of southerly gales
the fourth day in succession without wind but overcast light snow has fallen during the day to night the wind comes from the north
and the ice should be getting thicker with rapidity went round the bergs off cape evans they are very beautiful especially one which is pierced to form a huge arch
it will be interesting to climb around these monsters as the winter proceeds to day i have organised a series of lectures for the winter the people seem keen and it ought to be exceedingly interesting to discuss so many diverse subjects with experts
these are really very wonderful ponting took some photographs with long exposure and wright got some very fine ice crystals
over blue ice the faults in the dust strata in these surfaces are very mysterious and should be instructive in the explanation of certain ice problems it looks as though the sea had frozen over for good
early twenty eighth ice over whole strait twenty ninth all ice gone thirtieth freezing over may fourth
by the time we started homeward it was upon us
there is an ominous black look to the westward
as i feared last night the morning light revealed the havoc made in the ice by yesterday's gale
but after church i went up the ramp with wilson and steadily climbed over the glacier ice to a height of about six hundred fifty feet
from this elevation one could see that a broad belt of sea ice had been pushed bodily to seaward and it was evident that last night the whole stretch of water from hut point to turtle island must have been open
and it does not appear that these would be serious for a good way farther the view is magnificent and on a clear day like this one still enjoys some hours of daylight or rather twilight
when it is possible to see everything clearly have had talks of the curious cones which are such a feature of the ramp
it was calm yesterday a balloon was sent up in the morning but only reached a mile in height before the instrument was detached by slow match in the afternoon went out with bowers and his pony to pick up instrument
went on past inaccessible island the ice outside the bergs has grown very thick fourteen inches or more but there were freshly frozen pools beyond the island
in the evening wilson opened the lecture series with a paper on antarctic flying birds considering the limits of the subject the discussion was interesting the most attractive point raised was that of pigmentation
does the absence of pigment suggest absence of reserve energy does it increase the insulating properties of the hair or feathers or does the animal clothed in white radiate less of his internal heat
amongst the giant petrels found in high latitudes to day have had our first game of football a harassing southerly wind sprang up which helped my own side to the extent of three goals
this same wind came with a clear sky and jumped up and down in force throughout the afternoon but has died away to night
in the afternoon i saw an ominous lead outside the island which appeared to extend a long way south i'm much afraid it may go across our pony track from hut point i am getting anxious to have the hut party back
and begin to wonder if the ice to the south will ever hold in permanently now that the glacier tongue has gone
another calm day very beautiful and clear
showing how tide and wind shift the thin sheets the newest leads held young ice of four inches
it should be much lower with such calm weather and clear skies a strange fact is now very commonly noticed
between the temperature at the hut and that on wind vane hill sixty four feet the latter being the higher this shows an inverted temperature as i returned from my walk the southern sky seemed to grow darker
and later stratus cloud was undoubtedly spreading up from that direction this at about five p m about seven a moderate north wind sprang up
has gone out again in places
in the evening simpson gave us his first meteorological lecture the subject coronas halos rainbows and auroras
and taught me more of these phenomena in the hour than i had learnt by all previous interested inquiries concerning them i note one or two points concerning each phenomenon corona
white to brown inside ring called aureola outside are sometimes seen two or three rings of prismatic light in addition caused by diffraction of light round drops of water or ice crystals
mixed sizes of ditto causes aureola without rings halos caused by refraction and reflection through and from ice crystals
in this connection the hexagonal tetrahedonal type of crystallisation is first to be noted
these forms falling through air assume definite position the plate falls horizontally swaying to and fro the needle turns rapidly about its longer axis which remains horizontal simpson showed excellent experiments to illustrate
consideration of these facts and refraction of light striking crystals clearly leads to explanation of various complicated halo phenomena such as recorded and such as seen by us on the great barrier
record of ice crystals seen on barrier surface rainbows
colours inner red outside outer red inside
wanted to see more rainbows on barrier
reports should note colours and relative width of bands of colour iridescent clouds not yet understood observations required
auroras clearly most frequent and intense in years of maximum sun spots this argues connection with the sun points noticed requiring confirmation arch centre of arch in magnetic meridian
shafts take direction of dipping needle bands and curtains with convolutions not understood corona shafts meeting to form notes required on movement and direction of movement colours seen
and vice versa in general significant signs of some connection possible common dependents on a third factor
and that of a heavy gas argon may be coincidence two theories enunciated arrhenius bombardments of minute charged particles from the sun gathered into the magnetic field of the earth
it is experimentally shown that minute drops of water are deflected by light it is experimentally shown that ions are given off by dried calcium which the sun contains
with lines of magnetic force
the sea was frozen but after twelve hours calm it would be in any case the dark appearance of the ice is noticeable but this has been the case of late since the light is poor
the very next case we find that jesus will not admit the cause of the man's condition blindness from his birth
or of his parents the probability seems to judge from their behaviour in the persecution that followed that both the man and his parents were people of character thought and honourable prudence
he was born blind jesus said that the works of god should be made manifest in him what works then the work of creation for one rather than the work of healing
god had made him only not so blessed as his fellows with the intent of giving him equal faculty and even greater enjoyment afterwards
in him jesus created sight before men's eyes for as at the first god said let there be light so the work of god is still to give light to the world
and be the light of the world light in all its degrees and kinds
arousing sleepy hearts and opening blind eyes jesus saw the man the disciples asked their question
why this mediating clay why the spittle and the touch because the man who could not see him must yet be brought into sensible contact with him must know that the healing came from the man who touched him
our lord took pains about it because the man was blind
having blinded him a second time as it were with clay
clay and blindness should depart together by the act of the man's faith it was as if the lord said i blinded thee now go and see
here then are the links of the chain by which the lord bound the man to himself the voice if heard by the man which defended him and his parents from the judgment of his disciples
the assertion that he was the light of the world a something which others had and the blind man only knew as not possessed by him the sound of the spitting on the ground the touch of the speaker's fingers
the clay on his eyes the command to wash the journey to the pool the laving water
but who can imagine save in a conception only less dim than the man's blindness the glory which burst upon him when as the restoring clay left his eyes the light of the world invaded his astonished soul
the very idea may well make one tremble blackness of darkness not an invading stranger but the home companion always there the negation never understood because the assertion was unknown
creation not erased and treasured in the memory but to his eyes uncreated blackness of darkness the glory of the celestial blue the towers of the great jerusalem dwelling in the awful space the room
the life the tenfold glorified being any wonder might follow on such a wonder and the whole vision was as fresh as if he had that moment been created the first of men
but the best remained behind a man had said i am the light of the world and lo here was the light of the world
the words had been vague as a dark form in darkness but now the thing itself had invaded his innermost soul but the face of the man who was this light of the world he had not seen the creator of his vision
but he believed in him for he defended him from the same charge of wickedness from which jesus had defended him give god the praise they said we know that this man is a sinner
god heareth not sinners he replied and this man hath opened my eyes it is no wonder that when jesus found him and asked him dost thou believe on the son of god he should reply who is he lord
that i might believe on him he was ready he had only to know which was he that he might worship him here at length was the light of the world before him the man who had said
i am the light of the world and straightway the world burst upon him in light would this man ever need further proof that there was indeed a god of men
i suspect he had a grander idea of the son of god than any of his disciples as yet the would be refutations of experience for since the world began
the objections of the religious authorities this man is not of god because he keepeth not the sabbath day endless possible perplexities of the understanding and questions of the how and the why
one thing i know that whereas i was blind now i see the man could not convince the jews that jesus must be a good man neither could he doubt it himself
whose very being body and soul and spirit had been enlightened and glorified by him
in the brain in the heart light permeating and unifying his physical and moral nature asserting itself in showing the man to himself one whole how could he doubt
the miracles were for the persons on whom they passed to the spectators they were something it is true but they were of unspeakable value to and of endless influence upon their subjects
was through the healed themselves and the testimony of their lives would go far beyond the testimony of their tongues their tongues could but witness to a fact their lives could witness to a truth
in this miracle as in all the rest jesus did in little the great work of the father for how many more are they to whom god has given the marvel of vision
than those blind whom the lord enlightened
he who uses his vision only for the care of his body or the indulgence of his mind how should he understand the gift of god in its marvel
will understand what a divine invention what a mighty gift of god is this very common thing these eyes to see with that light which enlightens the world this sight which is the result of both he will understand
yea how the mighty inburst of splendour might render him so capable of believing that nothing should be too grand and good for him to believe thereafter not even the doctrine hardest to commonplace humanity
though the most natural and reasonable to those who have beheld it that the god of the light is a faithful loving upright honest and self denying being yea utterly devoted to the uttermost good of those whom he has made
such is the father of lights who enlightens the world and every man that cometh into it every pulsation of light on every brain is from him every feeling of law and order is from him
every hint of right every desire after the true whatever we call aspiration all longing for the light every perception that this is true that that ought to be done is from the father of lights
his infinite and varied light gathered into one point for how shall we speak at all of these things if we do not speak in figures concentrated and embodied in jesus became the light of the world
for the light is no longer only diffused but in him man beholds the light and whence it flows not merely is our chamber enlightened but we see the lamp and so we turn again to god
the father of lights yea even of the light of the world henceforth we know that all the light wherever diffused has its centre in god as the light that enlightened the blind man flowed from its centre in jesus
in other words we have a glimmering faint human perception of the absolute glory we know what god is in recognizing him as our god jesus
did the works of the father the next miracle recorded by saint luke alone is the cure of the man with the dropsy wrought also upon the sabbath
but in the house of one of the chief of the pharisees thither our lord had gone to an entertainment apparently large for the following parable is spoken to those which were bidden
when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms footnote one not rooms but reclining places at the table hence the possibility at least is suggested that the man was one of the guests
no doubt their houses were more accessible than ours and it was not difficult for one uninvited to make his way in especially upon occasion of such a gathering but i think the word translated before him means opposite to him
at the table and that the man was not too ill to appear as a guest the took him and healed him and let him go of our translation is against the notion rather but merely
from its indefiniteness being capable of meaning that he sent him away but such is not the meaning of the original that merely implies that he took him went to him and laid his hands upon him thus connecting the cure with himself
and then released him set him free took his hands off him turning at once to the other guests and justifying himself by appealing to their own righteous conduct towards the ass and the ox
i think the man remained reclining at the table to enjoy the appetite of health at a good meal if indeed the gladness of the relieved breath the sense of lightness and strength
did not make him too happy to care about his dinner i come now to the last of the group exceptional in its nature
but the reparation of an injury or hurt at least inflicted by one of his own followers
the other evangelists relate the occasion of the miracle but not the miracle itself they record the blow but not the touch i shall not therefore compare their accounts which have considerable variety but no inconsistency
peter intending doubtless to cleave the head of a servant of the high priest who had come out to take jesus with unaccustomed hand probably trembling with rage and perhaps with fear
missed his well meant aim and only cut off the man's ear jesus said suffer ye thus far
is this the limit of your patience but i do not know with the words he touched his ear and healed him hardly had the wound reached the true sting of its pain
before the gentle hand of him whom the servant had come to drag to the torture dismissed the agony as if it had never been whether he restored the ear
or left the loss of it for a reminder to the man of the part he had taken against his lord and the return the lord had made him we do not know neither do we know whether he turned back ashamed and contrite now that in his own person
he had felt the life that dwelt in jesus or followed out the capture to the end possibly the blow of peter was the form which the favour of god took
but the lord would countenance no violence done in his defence they might do to him as they would if his father would not defend him neither would he defend himself
within sight of the fearful death that awaited him his heart was no whit hardened to the pain of another neither did it make any difference that it was the pain of an enemy
even an enemy who was taking him to the cross there was suffering here was healing he came to do the works of him that sent him
in the street up there was an old a very old house it was almost three hundred years old
for that might be known by reading the great beam on which the date of the year was carved together with tulips and hop binds there were whole verses spelled as in former times
the one story stood forward a great way over the other and directly under the eaves was a leaden spout with a dragon's head the rain water should have run out of the mouth but it ran out of the belly for there was a hole in the spout
with large window panes and smooth walls one could easily see that they would have nothing to do with the old house they certainly thought
and then the projecting windows stand so far out that no one can see from our windows what happens in that direction the steps are as broad as those of a palace and as high as to a church tower
the iron railings look just like the door to an old family vault
that's so stupid on the other side of the street were also new and neat houses and they thought just as the others did but at the window opposite the old house
there sat a little boy with fresh rosy cheeks and bright beaming eyes he certainly liked the old house best and that both in sunshine and moonshine
and when he looked across at the wall where the mortar had fallen out he could sit and find out there the strangest figures imaginable
with steps projecting windows and pointed gables he could see soldiers with halberds and spouts where the water ran like dragons and serpents
and there lived an old man who wore plush breeches and he had a coat with large brass buttons and a wig that one could see was a real wig every morning there came an old fellow to him who put his rooms in order
and went on errands otherwise the old man in the plush breeches was quite alone in the old house now and then he came to the window and looked out and the little boy nodded to him and the old man nodded again
and so they became acquaintances and then they were friends although they had never spoken to each other but that made no difference the little boy heard his parents say
the old man opposite is very well off but he is so very very lonely the sunday following the little boy took something and wrapped it up in a piece of paper
went downstairs and stood in the doorway and when the man who went on errands came past he said to him i say master will you give this to the old man over the way from me i have two pewter soldiers this is one of them
and he shall have it for i know he is so very very lonely and the old errand man looked quite pleased nodded and took the pewter soldier over to the old house afterwards there came a message
one would have thought they were polished on account of the visit and it was as if the carved out trumpeters for there were trumpeters who stood in tulips carved out on the door blew with all their might their cheeks appeared so much rounder than before
yes they blew trateratra the little boy comes trateratra and then the door opened the whole passage was hung with portraits of knights in armor and ladies in silken gowns
and the armor rattled and the silken gowns rustled and then there was a flight of stairs which went a good way upwards and a little way downwards and then one came on a balcony which was in a very dilapidated state
sure enough with large holes and long crevices but grass grew there
for the whole balcony outside the yard and the walls were overgrown with so much green stuff that it looked like a garden only a balcony here stood old flower pots with faces and asses ears
and the flowers grew just as they liked one of the pots was quite overrun on all sides with pinks that is to say with the green part shoot stood by shoot and it said quite distinctly the air has cherished me
the sun has kissed me and promised me a little flower on sunday a little flower on sunday and then they entered a chamber where the walls were covered with hog's leather and printed with gold flowers
the gilding decays but hog's leather stays said the walls and there stood easy chairs with such high backs and so carved out
and with arms on both sides sit down sit down said they ugh how i creak now i shall certainly get the gout
and then the little boy came into the room where the projecting windows were and where the old man sat i thank you for the pewter soldier my little friend said the old man
thankee thankee or cranky cranky sounded from all the furniture
that each article stood in the other's way to get a look at the little boy in the middle of the wall hung a picture representing a beautiful lady so young so glad
but dressed quite as in former times with clothes that stood quite stiff and with powder in her hair she neither said thankee thankee nor cranky cranky but looked with her mild eyes at the little boy
who directly asked the old man where did you get her yonder at the broker's said the old man where there are so many pictures hanging no one knows or cares about them
for they are all of them buried but i knew her in by gone days and now she has been dead and gone these fifty years under the picture in a glazed frame
there hung a bouquet of withered flowers they were almost fifty years old they looked so very old the pendulum of the great clock went to and fro and the hands turned
and everything in the room became still older but they did not observe it they say at home said the little boy
oh said he the old thoughts with what they may bring with them come and visit me and now you also come i am very well off
there were whole long processions and pageants with the strangest characters which one never sees now a days soldiers like the knave of clubs
the tailors had theirs with a pair of shears held by two lions and the shoemakers theirs without boots but with an eagle that had two heads for the shoemakers must have everything so that they can say it is a pair
yes that was a picture book the old man now went into the other room to fetch preserves apples and nuts yes it was delightful over there in the old house
i cannot bear it any longer said the pewter soldier who sat on the drawers it is so lonely and melancholy here but when one has been in a family circle one cannot accustom oneself to this life
i cannot bear it any longer the whole day is so long and the evenings are still longer here it is not at all as it is over the way at your home where your father and mother spoke so pleasantly
and where you and all your sweet children made such a delightful noise nay how lonely the old man is do you think that he gets kisses do you think he gets mild eyes
he will get nothing but a grave i can bear it no longer you must not let it grieve you so much said the little boy i find it so very delightful here and then all the old thoughts
with what they may bring with them they come and visit here yes it's all very well but i see nothing of them and i don't know them said the pewter soldier i cannot bear it but you must said the little boy
then in came the old man with the most pleased and happy face the most delicious preserves apples and nuts and so the little boy thought no more about the pewter soldier
the little boy returned home happy and pleased and weeks and days passed away and nods were made to the old house and from the old house
and then the little boy went over there again the carved trumpeters blew
and the silk gowns rustled the hog's leather spoke and the old chairs had the gout in their legs and rheumatism in their backs ugh it was exactly like the first time
i cannot bear it said the pewter soldier i have shed pewter tears it is too melancholy rather let me go to the wars and lose arms and legs it would at least be a change
i cannot bear it longer now i know what it is to have a visit from one's old thoughts with what they may bring with them i have had a visit from mine and you may be sure it is no pleasant thing in the end
i was at last about to jump down from the drawers i saw you all over there at home so distinctly as if you really were here it was again that sunday morning all you children stood before the table and sung your psalms
as you do every morning you stood devoutly with folded hands and father and mother were just as pious and then the door was opened and little sister mary who is not two years old yet
and who always dances when she hears music or singing of whatever kind it may be was put into the room though she ought not to have been there and then she began to dance but could not keep time because the tones were so long
and bent her head forwards and then on the other leg and bent her head forwards but all would not do you stood very seriously all together although it was difficult enough but i laughed to myself and then i fell off the table
and got a bump which i have still for it was not right of me to laugh but the whole now passes before me again in thought and everything that i have lived to see and these are the old thoughts with what they may bring with them
tell me if you still sing on sundays tell me something about little mary and how my comrade the other pewter soldier lives
yes he is happy enough that's sure i cannot bear it any longer you are given away as a present said the little boy you must remain can you not understand that
both tin boxes and balsam boxes old cards so large and so gilded such as one never sees them now and several drawers were opened and the piano was opened
it had landscapes on the inside of the lid and it was so hoarse when the old man played on it and then he hummed a song
she could sing that said he and nodded to the portrait which he had bought at the broker's
i will go to the wars i will go to the wars shouted the pewter soldier as loud as he could
what became of him the old man sought and the little boy sought
i shall find him said the old man but he never found him the floor was too open the pewter soldier had fallen through a crevice and there he lay as in an open tomb
that day passed and the little boy went home and that week passed and several weeks too the windows were quite frozen
it lay quite up over the steps just as if there was no one at home nor was there any one at home the old man was dead
in the evening there was a hearse seen before the door and he was borne into it in his coffin he was now to go out into the country to lie in his grave
he was driven out there but no one followed all his friends were dead and the little boy kissed his hand to the coffin as it was driven away
some days afterwards there was an auction at the old house and the little boy saw from his window
the flower pots with the long ears the old chairs and the old clothes presses something came here and something came there the portrait of her who had been found at the broker's came to the broker's again
and there it hung for no one knew her more no one cared about the old picture in the spring they pulled the house down for as people said it was a ruin
one could see from the street right into the room with the hog's leather hanging which was slashed and torn and the green grass and leaves about the balcony hung quite wild about the falling beams and then it was put to rights
that was a relief said the neighboring houses a fine house was built there with large windows and smooth white walls
but before it where the old house had in fact stood was a little garden laid out and a wild grapevine ran up the wall of the neighboring house before the garden
there was a large iron railing with an iron door it looked quite splendid and people stood still and peeped in and the sparrows hung by scores in the vine and chattered away at each other as well as they could
so many years had passed so many
yes a clever man and a pleasure to his parents and he had just been married and together with his little wife had come to live in the house here where the garden was
that she found so pretty she planted it with her little hand and pressed the earth around it with her fingers oh what was that she had stuck herself there sat something pointed straight out of the soft mould
it was yes guess it was the pewter soldier
and had tumbled and turned about amongst the timber and the rubbish and had at last laid for many years in the ground the young wife wiped the dirt off the soldier first with a green leaf and then with her fine handkerchief
it had such a delightful smell that it was to the pewter soldier
let me see him said the young man
and then he told his wife about the old house and the old man and about the pewter soldier that he sent over to him because he was so very very lonely and he told it as correctly as it had really been
so that the tears came into the eyes of his young wife on account of the old house and the old man it may possibly be however that it is the same pewter soldier said she i will take care of it
and remember all that you have told me but you must show me the old man's grave but i do not know it said he and no one knows it all his friends were dead
how very very lonely he must have been said she
but it is delightful not to be forgotten delightful shouted something close by but no one except the pewter soldier saw that it was a piece of the hog's leather hangings it had lost all its gilding
it looked like a piece of wet clay but it had an opinion and it gave it the gilding decays but hog's leather stays this
she looked shy and embarrassed when she saw the four girls bearing down upon her and seemed half inclined to run away grace greeted her cordially and introduced her to her chums whose simple and unaffected manners soon put her at her ease
i am so glad you waited said grace cordially i have told my three friends about you as i knew they would be as much interested in you as i am
you will be able to go to school until you graduate you are very good to take so much trouble for me said mabel the tears springing to her eyes but i'm afraid it won't do any good don't be down hearted said nora sympathetically
you don't know grace harlowe she always does whatever she sets out to do she's a regular fairy godmother said anne softly i know from experience such flattery is overwhelming murmured grace
i regret that i'm too busy to bow my thanks but to get down to the business of the hour tell me mabel dear did this miss brant legally adopt you when she took you from the orphanage
i don't know said the girl her eyes growing big with wonder i never thought about it i don't believe however that she has any legal claim upon me is there any way in which you can find out asked anne
why yes replied mabel i could write the woman at the orphanage who was good to me she is still there and several times she has written to me
her name is mary stevens and she would surely know
your whole future depends upon her answer grace thereupon related to her their conversation of the previous night as soon as you find out about miss brant's claim we shall take the matter to jessica's father who is a lawyer
he will help us grace concluded then when you are free we shall have something else to tell you just be patient for a few days and don't be afraid everything will come right how can i ever thank you all said mabel
taking one of grace's hands between hers and looking at her with a world of gratitude in her eyes i will write to night i must go now or i shall be home late forgive me for hurrying away but i daren't stay she added piteously you know that i should like to
good bye and thank you again good bye called grace i'll let you know as soon as i hear from mary stevens what a sweet little girl she is said jessica i should like to keep her with me all the time
she is a nice child said grace and she deserves something better than her present fate to change the subject said nora has any one seen eleanor to day she was not in english or geometry although she may have come in late
i don't believe she was in school at all said anne maybe the initiation was too much for her oh i don't know she didn't seem to mind it remarked jessica she will hear from miss thompson if she makes a practice of staying out of school
i suppose we ought to call on eleanor before long mused grace she has invited us and it's our duty to call on her first anne has already been there suppose we go over now that is unless you girls have something else to do
it was decided at once that they could go and soon the four chums were walking briskly down the street in the direction of heartsease
as school had closed at half past two it was not yet four o'clock they would have plenty of time for their call without hurrying themselves so they strolled along laughing and chatting in the care free manner that belongs alone to the school girl
as they neared the house one and all exclaimed at the beauty of the grounds the lawn looked like a great stretch of green velvet while the trees were gorgeous in their autumn glory of crimson and gold with here and there a patch of russet by way of contrast
and then again i like spring better what difference does the season make so long as we have a good time said nora blithely i haven't any preference they're all good eleanor will be surprised to see us remarked grace as she rang the bell
let's hope she will appreciate the honor of having four such distinguished persons descend upon her at one time said anne is miss savell in
yes miss replied the maid come in who shall i say is here say to miss savell that grace harlowe and her friends would like to see her the maid soon reappeared and led the girls down the wide old fashioned hall and
somewhat to their surprise ushered them into the dining room where they beheld eleanor arrayed in a dainty white house gown dining alone she arose as they entered and came forward with both hands outstretched how are the phi sigma taus to day
she asked it was awfully nice of you to come and see me we thought you might be ill said nora we missed you at school to day oh no replied eleanor serenely i am perfectly well
i really didn't feel like going to school to day so i stayed in bed until eleven o'clock i am just having lunch now won't you join me i am keeping house by myself this afternoon my aunt is dining with missus gray
thank you said grace speaking for the girls we all have supper at half past six and must save our appetites for that we usually dine about eight o'clock said eleanor we acquired the habit of dining late from living on the continent
but come now i have finished my lunch i want you to see where i live almost entirely when in the house the girls followed her up the broad staircase and down the hall every inch of the ground was familiar to grace
she had been there so often with missus gray oh you have the suite at the back she exclaimed i love those two rooms you will find them somewhat changed
remarked eleanor as she opened the door and ushered the girls into the most quietly luxurious apartment they had ever seen even miriam nesbit's room could not compare with it what a beautiful room exclaimed grace looking about her with delight
i don't wonder you like to spend your time in it i see you have your own piano yes replied eleanor my aunt sent to new york for it the one downstairs in the drawing room is all right
eleanor said grace solemnly you ought to be a very happy girl you have everything a heart can wish think of poor little mabel allison oh don't let's think about disagreeable things said eleanor lightly
sit down and be comfy and i'll play for you what shall i play do you know the peer gynt suite asked grace i love anitra's dance
without answering eleanor immediately began the peer gynt music and played the entire suite with remarkable expression how well you play exclaimed jessica with eager admiration in her voice as eleanor turned around on the stool after she had finished
i should love to hear you play on the violin anne heard you the other night and told us about it i love the violin better than the piano but it sounds better with a piano accompaniment don't you girls play jessica does
chorused her friends oh i never could play after hearing eleanor said jessica blushing come on said eleanor taking her by the arm and dragging her over to the piano you can accompany me what do you play
do you know raff's cavatina asked jessica a trifle shyly by heart answered eleanor i love it wait and i'll get the music for you after a moment's search she produced the music picked up her violin
and after tightening a string announced herself ready the girls listened spellbound it seemed as though eleanor's very soul had entered into the violin they could not believe that this was the capricious eleanor of half an hour before
thought grace as she listened to the last plaintive notes of the cavatina i'll forgive her for her music's sake one has to make allowances for people like her it is the claim of the artistic temperament please play once more
begged nora then we must go it's almost six o'clock eleanor chose nevin's venetian love song and jessica again accompanied her you play with considerable expression said eleanor as jessica rose from the piano stool
how could i help it replied jessica smiling you inspired me eleanor accompanied the four girls down the walk to the gate and repeatedly invited them to come again it's your turn to come and see us now said grace
do you think you will go to school to morrow eleanor miss thompson dislikes having the girls stay out i can't help what miss thompson dislikes returned eleanor laughing what i dislike is of more importance to me i dare say i shall go to morrow
providing i get up in time what an irresponsible girl eleanor is remarked anne as they walked along i am afraid we can't do much for her she doesn't seem much interested in school and i don't think she is particularly impressed with our sorority
only she has the saddest expression i ever saw on any one's face i should think she would look sad after seventeen years of eleanor's whims remarked nora bluntly it would wear me out to be with her continually she is so changeable
missus gray told me remarked anne
first her father then her step sister and now eleanor she was engaged to be married to a young english officer
so there is reason for her sad expression
that tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all humph said nora
you can't very well said grace slyly
mother carey's chickens
old and new the yellow house had not always belonged to the hamiltons but had been built by a governor of the state when he retired from public office he lived only a few years
he had simply built a large comfortable colonial house he desired no gardens no luxurious stables no fountains nor grottoes no bathroom for it was only the year eighteen ten
while the old oaken bucket left nothing to be desired as a means of dispensing water to the household he had one weakness however and that was a wish to make the front of the house as impressive as possible
the window over the front door was as beautiful a window as any in the county and the doorway itself was celebrated throughout the state it had a wonderful fan light and side lights green blind doors outside of the white painted one with its massive brass knocker
and still more unique and impressive it had for its approach semi circular stone steps instead of the usual oblong ones the large blocks of granite had been cut so that each of the four steps should be smaller than the one below it and when
after months of gossip and suspense they were finally laid in place their straight edges towards the house and their expensive curved sides to the road a procession of curious persons in wagons carryalls buggies and gigs wound their way past the premises
the governor's circ'lar steps brought many pilgrims down the main street of beulah first and last and the original hamiltons had been very proud of them pride of such simple things as stone steps had died out of the hamilton stock in the course of years
and the house had been so long vacant that no one but lemuel the consul remembered any of its charming features but ossian popham when he pried up and straightened the ancient landmarks had much to say of the wonderful steps
there's so much goin on now a days he complained as he puffed and pried and strained and rested in between that young ones won't amount to nothin fust thing you know my boy digby says to me this mornin
no pop i ain't goin he says it's the same old fair every year land sakes when i was a boy bout once a month in warm weather
that used to be the liveliest entertainment parents could think up for their young ones an it was a heap livelier than two sermons of a sunday each of em an hour and fifteen minutes long digby a lad of eighteen and master of only one trade instead of a dozen
and its old white chamber set repainted by the faithful and clever popham the chintz parlor once governor weatherby's study was finished too and the whole family looked in at the doors a dozen times a day with admiring exclamations
it had six doors opening into two entries one small bedroom one sitting room one cellar and one china closet a passion for entrances and exits having been the whim of that generation if the truth were known
nancy had once lighted her candle and slipped downstairs at midnight to sit on the parlor sofa and feast her eyes on the room's loveliness gilbert had painted the white matting the color of a ripe cherry
missus popham had washed and ironed and fluted the old white ruffled muslin curtains from the charlestown home and they adorned the four windows it was the north room on the left as you entered the house and would be closed during the cold winter months
the old fashioned square piano looked in its element placed across one corner with the four tall silver candlesticks and snuffer tray on the shining mahogany all the shabbiest furniture and the carey furniture was mostly shabby
was covered with a cheap gay chintz and crimson jacqueminot roses clambered all over the wall paper
on the other side of the hall were the double parlors of the governor's time made into a great living room here was gilbert's green painted floor smooth and glossy
here all the old fashioned gilbert furniture that the careys had kept during their many wanderings here all the quaint chairs that mister bill harmon could pick up at a small price here were two noble fireplaces one with a crane and iron pot filled with flowers
the other filled sometimes with sprays of green asparagus and sometimes with fragrant hemlock boughs the paper was one in which green rushes and cat o' nine tails grew on a fawn colored ground and anything that the careys did not possess for the family sitting room
ossian popham went straight home and made in his barn he could make a barrel chair or an hour glass table a box lounge and the mattress to put on top of it
he could polish the piano and then sit down to it and play those tassels on her boots or marching through georgia with great skill he could paint bunches of gold grapes and leaves on the old fashioned high backed rocker and as soon as it was dry
could sit down in it and entertain the whole family without charging them a penny the housewarming could not be until the later autumn missus carey had decided for although most of the living rooms could be finished
cousin ann's expensive improvements were not to be set in motion until bill harmon heard from mister hamilton that his tenants were not to be disturbed for at least three years the house which was daily growing into a home
was full of the busy hum of labor from top to bottom and from morning till night and there was hardly a moment when mother carey and the girls were not transporting articles of furniture through the rooms and up and down the staircases to see how they would look somewhere else
this indeed had been the diversion of their simple life for many years and was just as delightful in their opinion as buying new things any carey from mother down to peter
would spring from his chair at any moment and assist any other carey to move a sofa a bureau a piano a kitchen stove if necessary with the view of determining if it would add a new zest to life in a different position
not a word has been said thus far about the yellow house barn the barn that the fool hamilton boys according to bill harmon's theories
into something that would make a cat laugh but it really needs a chapter to itself you remember that doctor holmes says of certain majestic and dignified trees that they ought to have a christian name like other folks the barn in the same way
deserves more distinction than a paragraph but at this moment it was being used as a storeroom and was merely awaiting its splendid destiny quite unconscious of the future the hamilton boys were no doubt as extravagant and thriftless as they were insane
but the careys sympathized with their extravagance and thriftlessness and insanity so heartily in this particular that they could hardly conceal their real feelings from bill harmon nothing could so have accorded with their secret desires as the fool changes made by the
crazy hamilton boys light hearted irresponsible and frivolous changes that could never have been compassed by the careys slender income they had no money to purchase horse or cow or pig and no man in the family to take care of them if purchased
so the removal of stalls and all the necessary appurtenances for the care of cattle was no source of grief or loss to them a good floor had been laid over the old one and stained to a dark color the ceiling with its heavy hand hewn beams
was almost as fine as some old oak counterpart in an english hall not a new board met the eye old weathered lumber everywhere even to the quaint settle shaped benches that lined the room there was a place like an old fashioned tie up for musicians to play for a country dance
in fine there would be with the addition of carey ideas here and there provision for frolics and diversions of any sort you no sooner opened the door and peeped in though few of the beulah villagers had ever been invited to do so by the gay young hamiltons
than your tongue spontaneously exclaimed what a place for good times i shall come out here nancy announced as the three girls stood in the centre of the floor surrounded by bedsteads tables bureaus and stoves
but i shall come out here next summer
objected julia conventionally not in a drawing room perhaps but perfectly well in a barn even you and kitty youthful as you will still be can attend my coming out party in a barn
it doesn't seem proper to think of giving entertainments when everybody knows our circumstances how poor we are julia said rebukingly we are talking of next summer my child who can say how rich we shall be next summer
a party could be given in this barn with mother to play the piano and mister popham the fiddle the refreshments would be incredibly weak lemonade and i think we might solicit the cake as they do for church sociables
the very idea is horrible i'm coming out in the barn next summer muddy nancy called to her mother who just then entered the door if we are poorer than ever we can take up a collection to defray the expenses
julia and kitty would look so attractive going about with tambourines i want to do what i can quickly because i see plainly i shall have to marry young in order to help the family the heroine always does that in books she makes a worldly marriage with a rich nobleman
in order that her sister kitty and her cousin julia may have a good education i don't know where you get your ideas nancy said her mother smiling at her nonsense you certainly never read half a dozen novels in your life
digby popham is the only rich nobleman in sight for you nancy kitty said teasingly
interpolated julia he looks like an unbaked pie this from kitty nancy flushed he's shy and unhappy and pale and no wonder but he's as nice and interesting as he can be i can't see it
julia said but he never looks at anybody or talks to anybody but you so it's well you like him though you like all boys for that matter the boys return the compliment asserted kitty mischievously while poor you and i sit in corners
come come dears and missus carey joined in the conversation as she picked up a pillow before returning to the house it's a little early for you to be talking about rich noblemen isn't it nancy followed her out of the door saying as she thoughtfully chewed a straw
cousin ann mother carey not wishing to make any larger number of persons uncomfortable than necessary had asked julia not to come to them until after the house in beulah had been put to rights but the fergusons went abroad rather unexpectedly
and mister ferguson tore julia from the arms of gladys and put her on the train with very little formality her meeting cousin ann on the way was merely one of those unpleasant coincidences with which life is filled although it is hardly possible usually
for two such disagreeable persons to be on the same small spot at the same precise moment on the third morning after the careys arrival however matters assumed a more hopeful attitude for cousin ann became discontented with beulah
the weather had turned cold and the fireplaces so long unused were uniformly smoky cousin ann's stomach always delicate turned from tinned meats eggs three times a day and soda biscuits made by bill harmon's wife
on which the children thrived so she went to the so called hotel for her meals her remarks to the landlady after two dinners and one supper were of a character not to be endured by any outspoken
was the irate missus buck's ultimatum i'll feed you she continued passionately because it's my business to put up and take in anything that's respectable but i won't take none o your sass well cousin ann's temper was up too by this time
and she declined on her part to take any of the landlady's sass so they parted rather to missus carey's embarrassment as she did not wish to make enemies at the outset that night cousin ann
still smarting under the memory of missus buck's snapping eyes high color and unbridled tongue complained after supper that her bedstead rocked whenever she moved and asked gilbert if he could readjust it in some way so that it should be as stationary as beds usually are in a normal state
he took his tool basket and went upstairs obediently spending fifteen or twenty minutes with the much criticised article of furniture which he suspected of rocking merely because it couldn't bear cousin ann
this idea so delighted nancy that she was obliged to retire from gilbert's proximity lest the family should observe her mirth and gilbert's and impute undue importance to it i've done everything to the bedstead i can think of gilbert said on coming downstairs
you can see how it works to night cousin ann as a matter of fact it did work instead of remaining in perfect quiet as a well bred bedstead should when the family was sound asleep at midnight a loud crash was heard and cousin ann
throwing open the door of her room speedily informed everybody in the house that her bed had come down with her giving her nerves a shock from which they probably would never recover gilbert is far too young for the responsibilities you put upon him margaret cousin ann exclaimed
drawing her wrapper more closely over her tall spare figure and if he was as old as methuselah he would still be careless for he was born so all this talk about his being skilful with tools has only swollen his vanity a boy of his age should be able to make a bedstead stay together
the whole family including the crestfallen gilbert proposed various plans of relief all except nancy who did not wish to meet gilbert's glance for fear that she should have to suspect him of a new crime having embarked on a career of villainy under her direct instigation
she did not believe him guilty but she preferred not to look into the matter more closely mother carey's eyes searched gilbert's but found there no confirmation of her fears you needn't look at me like that mother said the boy
though i'd like her to have a little one every night just for the fun of it cousin ann refused to let gilbert try again on the bedstead and refused part of missus carey's bed preferring to sleep on two hair mattresses laid on her bedroom floor they may not be comfortable
she said tersely but at least they will not endanger my life the next morning's post brought business letters and cousin ann feared she would have to leave beulah although there was work for a fortnight to come right there and margaret had not strength enough to get through it alone
and didn't believe the kitchen stove would ever draw she was sure that there were dead toads and frogs in the well the house was inconvenient and always would be till water was brought into the kitchen sink
then she packed her small trunk and gilbert ran to the village on glad and winged feet to get some one to take his depressing relative to the noon train to boston as for nancy she stood in front of the parlor fireplace
and when she heard the hoot of the engine in the distance she removed the four mortuary vases from the mantelpiece and took them to the attic while gilbert from the upper hall was chanting a favorite old rhyme she called us names till she was tired she called us names till we perspired
she called us names we never could spell she called us names we never may tell she called us names that made us laugh she called us names for a day and a half she called us names till her memory failed but finally out of our sight she sailed
it must have been written about cousin ann in the first place said nancy joining kathleen in the kitchen well she's gone at last now every prospect pleases and only julia's vile she paraphrased from the old hymn into kathleen's private ear
you oughtn't to say such things nancy rebuked kathleen mother wouldn't like it i know it confessed nancy remorsefully i have been wicked since the moment i tried to get rid of you dirty boy i don't know what's the matter with me
my blood seems to be too red and it courses wildly through my veins as the books say i am going to turn over a new leaf now that cousin ann's gone and our only cross is julia oh but it is rather dreadful to think how one person can spoil the world
if only you could have seen the yellow house after cousin ana went if only you could have heard the hotel landlady exclaim as she drove past well good riddance to bad rubbish the weather grew warmer outside almost at once
and bill harmon's son planted the garden the fireplaces ceased to smoke and the kitchen stove drew colonel wheeler suggested a new chain pump instead of the old wooden one after which the water took a turn for the better and before the month was ended the yellow house began to look like home
notwithstanding julia as for beulah village after its sleep of months under deep snow drifts it had waked into the adorable beauty of an early new england summer it had no snow capped mountains in the distance
no amethyst foothills to enchain the eye no wonderful canyons and splendid rocky passes to make the tourist marvel no length of yellow sea sands nor plash of ocean surf no trade no amusements no summer visitors
it was just a quiet little sunny verdant leafy piece of heart's content that's what beulah was and julia couldn't spoil it indeed the odds were that it would sweeten julia
people fancy that i make things my little dear says mother carey to tom the water baby but i sit here and make them make themselves there was once a fairy so the tale goes who was so clever that she found out how to make butterflies
and she was so proud that she flew straight off to peacepool to boast to mother carey of her skill but mother carey laughed know silly child she said that any one can make things if he will take time and trouble enough
but it is not every one who can make things make themselves make things make themselves mother carey used to think in the twilight i suppose that is what mothers are for nancy was making herself busily these days
and the offending julia was directly responsible for such self control and gains in general virtue as poor impetuous nancy achieved kathleen was growing stronger and steadier and less self conscious gilbert was doing better at school
and his letters showed more consideration and thought for the family than they had done heretofore even the peter bird was a little sweeter and more self helpful just now thought mother carey fondly as she rocked him to sleep he was worn out with following natty harmon at the plough
and succumbed quickly to the music of her good night song and the comfort of her sheltering arms mother carey had arms to carry arms to enfold arms to comfort and caress she also had a fine handsome strong hand admirable for spanking
as she lifted peter into his crib nancy came softly in at the door with a slip of paper in her hand she drew her mother out to the window over the front door listen she said
her mother said isn't everything sweet to night with the soft air and the elms all feathered out and the new moon was it ever so green before nancy wondered leaning over the window sill by her mother's side
was any river ever so clear or any moon so yellow i am so sorry for the city people tonight sometimes i think it can't be so beautiful here as it looks mother sometimes i wonder if part of the beauty isn't inside of us said nancy
part of all beauty is in the eyes that look at it her mother answered and i've been reading missus harmon's new reference bible nancy continued and here is what it says about beulah she held the paper to the waning light and read
thou shalt no more be termed forsaken neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate but it shall be called beulah for the lord delighteth in thee i think father would be comforted if he could see us all in the yellow house at beulah
nancy went on softly as the two leaned out of the window together he was so loving so careful of us so afraid that anything should trouble us that for months i couldn't think of him even in heaven as anything but worried
an adequate remedy for the disease commensurate is the more precise and learned word signifying that which exactly measures the matter in question adapted fit suitable and qualified refer to the qualities which match or suit the occasion
a clergyman may have strength adequate to the work of a porter but that would not be a fit or suitable occupation for him work is satisfactory if it satisfies those for whom it is done though it may be very poor work judged by some higher standard
qualified refers to acquired abilities competent to both natural and acquired a qualified teacher may be no longer competent by reason of ill health able and capable suggest general ability and reserved power
the allies who overthrew napoleon were united only against him
thus we say the disciples rather than the adherents of christ partisan has the narrow and odious sense of adhesion to a party right or wrong one may be an adherent or supporter of a party and not a partisan
backer is a sporting and theatrical word personal in its application and not
that which is adhesive tends to join itself to the surface of any other body with which it is placed in contact cohesive expresses the tendency of particles of the same substance to hold together polished plate glass is not adhesive
but such plates packed together are intensely cohesive an adhesive plaster is in popular language a sticking plaster sticky expresses a more limited and generally annoying degree of the same quality
glutinous gummy viscid and viscous are applied to fluid or semi fluid substances as pitch or tar antonyms free inadhesive loose separable
preposition the stiff wet clay adhesive to the foot impeded progress adjacent synonyms
adjacent farms may not be connected if adjoining they meet at the boundary line conterminous would imply that their dimensions were exactly equal on the side where they adjoin contiguous may be used for either adjacent or adjoining
abutting refers rather to the end of one building or estate than to the neighborhood of another buildings may be adjacent or adjoining that are not attached near is a relative word places being called near upon the railroad
which would elsewhere be deemed remote neighboring always implies such proximity that the inhabitants may be neighbors next views some object as the nearest of several or many next neighbor implies a neighborhood
antonyms detached disconnected disjoined distant remote separate preposition the farm was adjacent to the village
we admire beauty in nature and art delight in the innocent happiness of children enjoy books or society a walk or a dinner we approve what is excellent applaud heroic deeds esteem the good love our friends
we honor and respect noble character wherever found we revere and venerate it in the aged we extol the goodness and adore the majesty and power of god antonyms abhor
to illustrate is to add something so far like in kind as to cast a side light upon the principal matter
an author embellishes his narrative with fine descriptions the artist illustrates it with beautiful engravings the binder gilds and decorates the volume garnish is on a lower plane as the feast was garnished with flowers
deck and bedeck are commonly said of apparel as a mother bedecks her daughter with silk and jewels to adorn and to ornament alike signify to add that which makes anything beautiful and attractive but ornament
is more exclusively on the material plane as the gateway was ornamented with delicate carving adorn is more lofty and spiritual referring to a beauty which is not material and can not be put on by ornaments or decorations
but seems in perfect harmony and unity with that to which it adds a grace if we say the gateway was adorned with beautiful carving we imply a unity and loftiness of design such as ornamented can not express
we say of some admirable scholar or statesman he touched nothing that he did not adorn at church with meek and unaffected grace his looks adorned the venerable place goldsmith
antonyms deface deform disfigure march spoil preposition adorn his temples with a coronet
affront synonyms
one may be annoyed by the well meaning awkwardness of a servant irritated by a tight shoe or a thoughtless remark vexed at some careless neglect or needless misfortune wounded by the ingratitude of child or friend
to tease is to give some slight and perhaps playful annoyance aggravate in the sense of offend is colloquial to provoke literally to call out or challenge is to begin a contest one provokes another to violence
it is somewhat less than to insult compare pique antonyms conciliate content
but in common usage especially in business an agent is not the prime actor but only an instrument or factor acting under orders or instructions compare cause antonyms chief inventor
originator principal prepositions an agent of the company for selling et cetera agree
agree is the
so as to be free from jar conflict or contradiction in a given relation to concur is to agree in general to coincide is to agree in every particular
whether in application to persons or things concur tends to expression in action more than coincide we may either concur or coincide in an opinion
views coincide causes concur one accepts another's terms complies with his wishes admits his statement approves his plan conforms to his views of doctrine or duty accedes or consents to his proposal
accede expresses the more formal agreement consent the more complete to assent is an act of the understanding to consent of the will we may concur or agree with others either in opinion or decision
one may silently acquiesce in that which does not meet his views but which he does not care to contest he admits the charge brought or the statement made by another
admit always carrying a suggestion of reluctance assent is sometimes used for a mild form of consent as if agreement in the opinion assured approval of the decision antonyms
refuse prepositions i agree in opinion with the speaker
rules et cetera we must agree among ourselves agriculture synonyms
including at once the science the art and the process of supplying human wants by raising the products of the soil and by the associated industries farming is the practise of agriculture as a business there may be theoretical agriculture
but not theoretical farming we speak of the science of agriculture the business of farming scientific agriculture may be wholly in books scientific farming is practised upon the land
we say an agricultural college rather than a college of farming
and the raising of the coarser crops gardening is the close cultivation of a small area for small fruits flowers vegetables et cetera and while it may be done upon a farm is yet a distinct industry
gardening in general kitchen gardening the cultivation of vegetables et cetera for the household market gardening the raising of the same for sale floriculture the culture of flowers and horticulture the culture of fruits flowers or vegetables
but not strictly nor ordinarily of farming farming is itself one department of agriculture husbandry is a general word for any form of practical agriculture but is now chiefly poetical
tillage refers directly to the work bestowed upon the land as plowing manuring et cetera cultivation refers especially to the processes that bring forward the crop we speak of the tillage of the soil the cultivation of corn
we also speak of land as in a state of cultivation under cultivation et cetera culture is now applied to the careful development of any product to a state of perfection especially by care through successive generations
the choice varieties of the strawberry have been produced by wise and patient culture
aim synonyms
the aim is the direction in which one shoots or sometimes that which is aimed at the mark is that at which one shoots the goal that toward which one runs all alike indicate the direction of endeavor
the end is the point at which one expects or hopes to close his labors the object that which he would grasp as the reward of his labors aspiration design endeavor purpose referring to the mental acts by which the aim is attained
are often used as interchangeable with aim aspiration applies to what are viewed as noble aims endeavor design intention purpose indifferently to the best or worst aspiration
has less of decision than the other terms one may aspire to an object and yet lack the fixedness of purpose by which alone it can be attained purpose is stronger than intention design especially denotes the adaptation of means to an end
attained one whose aims are worthy whose aspirations are high whose designs are wise and whose purposes are steadfast may hope to reach the goal of his ambition and will surely win some object worthy of a life's endeavor compare ambition
design antonyms
air synonyms
appearance refers more to the dress and other externals we might say of a travel soiled pedestrian he has the appearance of a tramp but the air of a gentleman
expression and look especially refer to the face expression is oftenest applied to that which is habitual as he has a pleasant expression of countenance look may be momentary
as a look of dismay passed over his face we may however speak of the look or looks as indicating all that we look at as he had the look of an adventurer i did not like his looks bearing is rather a lofty word
as he has a noble bearing port is practically identical in meaning with bearing but is more exclusively a literary word carriage too is generally used in a good sense as that lady has a good carriage
we say a rakish air rather than a rakish mien mien may be used to express some prevailing feeling
demeanor goes beyond appearance including conduct behavior
manner and style are in large part at least acquired compare behavior airy synonyms aerial
that which seems as if made of air we speak of airy shapes airy nothings where we could not well say aerial
but the undoubted antiquity of this dog is proved by the fact that representatives of a breed sufficiently similar to be considered his ancestors are found on some of the oldest egyptian monuments
when the germans claimed for it the title
ulmer dogge and rottweiler metzgerhund but contemporaneously with these there existed as in other countries in europe another very big breed but much nobler and more thoroughbred known as the great dane
when after the war of eighteen seventy national feeling was pulsating very strongly in the veins of reunited germany the german cynologists were on the lookout for a national dog and for that purpose the great dane was re christened
and elected as the champion of german dogdom for a long time all these breeds had no doubt been indiscriminately crossed the great dane was introduced into this country spasmodically some thirty five years ago
when he was commonly referred to as the boarhound or the german mastiff
in the foreign class at dog shows but it soon gained in public favour and in the early eighties a great dane club was formed and the breed has since become one of the most popular of the larger dogs the kennel club has classed the great dane amongst the non sporting dogs
probably because with us he cannot find a quarry worthy of his mettle but for all that
respecting the temperament of the great dane and his suitability as a companion writers have gone to extremes in praise and condemnation in his favour it must be said that in natural intelligence he is surpassed by very few other dogs
it is not sufficient to teach him in the haphazard way which might be successful in getting a small dog under control but even as a companion he ought to be trained systematically and considering his marked intelligence this is not difficult of accomplishment
and considering that puppies have to build up in that time a very big skeleton and straight limbs special attention must be given to the rearing of them the dam whelps frequently eight puppies and sometimes even a few more
not more than four or at the outside five should be left with the bitch the others should be put to a foster mother or if they are weaklings or foul marked it is best to destroy them after the puppies are weaned their food should be of bone making quality
another very important point is the graceful carriage of the tail when it is curled over the back it makes an otherwise handsome dog look mean
in former times faking was not infrequently resorted to to correct a faulty tail carriage but it is easily detected great danes sometimes injure the end of the tail by hitting it against a hard substance
and those with a good carriage of tail are most liable to this because in excitement they slash it about whereas the faulty position of the tail curled over the back insures immunity from harm
the english clubs however have now in this particular also adopted the german standard the orthodox colours are brindle fawn blue black and harlequin
which must be of irregular shape broken up as if they had been torn and not have rounded outlines
the following is the official description issued by the great dane club general appearance the great dane is not so heavy or massive as the mastiff nor should he too nearly approach the greyhound type
remarkable in size and very muscular strongly though elegantly built the head and neck should be carried high and the tail in line with the back or slightly upwards but not curled over the hind quarters
but there must be that alertness of expression and briskness of movement without which the dane character is lost he should have a look of dash and daring of being ready to go anywhere and do anything temperament
not demonstrative with strangers intelligent courageous and always alert his value as a guard is unrivalled he is easily controlled when well trained but he may grow savage if confined too much kept on chain or ill treated height
head taken altogether the head should give the idea of great length and strength of jaw the muzzle or foreface is broad and the skull proportionately narrow
when viewed from above and in front
length of head the entire length of head varies with the height of the dog
the occipital peak not prominent there should be a decided rise or brow over the eyes but no abrupt stop between them face the face should be chiselled well and foreface long of equal depth throughout
muscles of the cheek the muscles of the cheeks should be quite flat with no lumpiness or cheek bumps the angle of the jaw bone well defined lips
the lips should hang quite square in front forming a right angle with the upper line of foreface underline the underline of the head viewed in profile runs almost in a straight line from the corner of the lip to the corner of the jawbone
nose and nostrils the bridge of the nose should be very wide with a slight ridge where the cartilage joins the bone
the nostrils should be large wide and open giving a blunt look to the nose a butterfly or flesh coloured nose is not objected to in harlequins ears the ears should be small set high on the skull
and carried slightly erect with the tips falling forward neck
held well up snakelike in carriage
shoulders the shoulders should be muscular but not loaded and well sloped back with the elbows well under the body so that when viewed in front the dog does not stand too wide fore legs and feet
the fore legs should be perfectly straight with big flat bone the feet large and round the toes well arched and close
body the body is very deep
the latter slightly arched as in the greyhound
mona was situated on a plateau terminating rather abruptly at the river on the west and elevated well above its waters in the neighborhood of the station it was high and a long climb a mile farther down stream
where the mansion sat on the edge of the cliff the elevation was not so great perhaps a hundred feet or more above the railroad tracks by the river the mansion end of the plateau was lower therefore than the town
the land lay at the same elevation as mona the beautiful place itself was some distance back from the crest of the plateau and was approached from the river by the highway we had known so well that day this was intersected at right angles on the plain above
by river road which ran parallel to the waters below the junction of these two roads was known as the corners upon following river road for nearly a mile toward the south one would arrive at the mansion gate
never was place more hopeful until recently when the blackness and gloom of the unoccupied mansion with its tale of dread seemed to have extended to men's minds and laid its grasp of uncanniness and uneasiness on business and pleasure
and now to make the slough of despond deeper had come the sharp quick act of a murderer above all an unknown assassin and a crime similar to one scarce forgotten the mansion gate opened directly from river road
and a walk of about two hundred yards brought the visitor to the front door the back of the mansion faced the river directly to the west the balcony of the back parlor and dining room half circled the south and west sides of the house and had evidently been much used
the woodwork was old and the flooring quite worn the front of the place was pillared in old colonial style and was of stone hewn in the rough and built in a permanent fashion across river road right in front of the gate
to a little pond of considerable depth at the bottom of the depression on the farther side the ground rose more abruptly but not so high as on the mansion side the pond itself was about one hundred feet in width and one standing by the mansion exit
could see both the pond and the ascent beyond and over the crest of the billowy ground the distant woods and the country to the east
and at its foot a frail bridge crossed the pond for here the two shores were quite close either shore projected into a point and about fifty feet of bridge had been built with logs resting half way on a rude pillar of stones in the water
this bridge continued the path up the far slope and over the crest beyond it was a short cut to the country and the southern suburb of mona within the grounds of the mansion extending northward to the highway and the scene of the murder
and southward into the uninhabited country was a forest of oak and of elm interspersed with an occasional fir one could easily wander between the trunks of these trees but having entered a few rods
it afforded an excellent shelter for anyone desiring to escape detection
we found the care takers awaiting us and more than glad to again see mister clark as they knew oakes the events of the day before had crowded fast upon us and had left us well known in the town the name of clark was on every tongue
oakes remarked that morning before we started for the mansion that he hoped the people would not identify him if they do we cannot help it however he said we cannot control events like these then he suddenly asked me how about that negro
he was handsome you say yes rather black with remarkably clear cut features indeed then he may be traced through his good looks do you think he is the murderer
had the deed been done by a negro boy the victim would have remembered it they are uncommon here he would have said a negro good looking or something of that sort his color would have impressed the dying man
the race is very superstitious if i make no mistake continued oakes mona is going to see queer doings the people's minds are at a great tension
and the stairs leading to the upper floor was broad and well carpeted our rooms two in number were over the parlor and the dining room the latter the scene of the occurrences so frequently described oakes was given the back room looking on the river and over the balcony
moore and i occupied the front room over the parlor on the other side of the hall were two large rooms
they formed the roof of the dance or reception hall below to the right of the door as we entered and always kept locked as annie told us in fact the dance hall and the two large chambers overhead
formed the north side of the house and had not been used for many years according to tradition the hall had been a gay centre in the years gone by when the mansion was the leading house in the village it had now lost its prestige
to new and magnificent residences of the rich new york men of affairs who had recently come into the town to make it their home and to transform all its social conditions and to add life and new energy to the country around
during the forenoon we examined the downstairs rooms pretty thoroughly we did it in an unostentatious manner the rooms had several windows and the front one facing the road in the distance had a large fireplace
oakes examined this carefully and shook his head in a negative manner the back room facing the river on the west the lawn and the estate on the south was the dining room its four large windows two on each side
extended down in the old style to within a foot of the encircling porch again there was a large fireplace and i looked over it closely but it was solidly built and seemed to have been undisturbed for years
i was near the centre of the room leaning upon the table and moore was farther along on the other side of the fireplace near the eastern wall we were quite interested in the place and i am sure i felt anything but secure
doctor moore laughed in his careless way look out old fellow said he it will catch you again oakes and i stepped out on the balcony through the low silled window and looked across the river i heard a rustle i thought a half muffled tread
a swish a peculiar noise and oakes jumped to the centre of the balcony look out that's the noise cried the detective we both glanced toward moore and saw a terrible sight the strong man was unsteady on his feet his knees were bent and his head thrown forward
great drops of perspiration were rolling off his pale face he looked like a man about to fall help for god's sake help he cried and clutched at his neck that instant the physician came across the room hurled by terrific force i caught him as he fell
preceded by a slam at that instant our attention was called to the balcony a figure jumped on the porch from the west side and dashed past the windows leaving the balcony near its southern end and disappearing in the trees beyond
a man said oakes and he was hiding behind the porch yes but he did not do it how could he have run there so quickly i answered better take moore upstairs
he sprang to the west end of the hall near the dining room and opened a door i had not noticed where are you going said i into the cellar don't follow unless i shoot he was gone
as i worked he held his revolver in his hand and watched the door talking quickly and earnestly he told me about how he had wondered if oakes were insane then of the assault on himself how he had heard the noise and had certainly been attacked by some living being
and was satisfied that his suspicions could not be correct he had been thoroughly converted all this took some time and now we were wondering what had become of our friend the minutes passed and i decided to descend and see what the servants were doing and raise an alarm
just as i was setting off we heard two pistol cracks muffled but the noise from cartridges such as we carried nevertheless i grasped my weapon and started downstairs as i reached the top of the landing i heard the cellar door close with a bang on the floor below
and heard a slow tread ascending the stairs i retreated so as to aid my wounded companion the tread advanced along the hall it was that of a man limping the next instant we recognized oakes's voice where are you anyway
and his figure less erect less self reliant than usual he was bloody from a wound on his head and his clothes were torn in shreds he steadied himself with his left hand against the door frame
what the devil i exclaimed where have you been in the cellar said oakes
back came the answer in a feeble tone really i don't know having a little practice i guess
the underground city
mister james starr will be awaited for the whole day at the callander station by harry ford son of the old overman simon ford he is requested to keep this invitation secret
it never occurred to him to doubt whether this letter might not be a hoax for many years he had known simon ford one of the former foremen of the aberfoyle mines of which he james starr had for twenty years been the manager or
as much at cardiff and newcastle as in the southern counties of scotland however
there the greater part of his existence had been passed besides this james starr belonged to the scottish antiquarian society of which he had been made president he was also included amongst the most active members of the royal institution
he held a high rank in the old capital of scotland which not only from a physical but also from a moral point of view
we know that the english have given to their vast extent of coal mines a very significant name they very justly call them the black indies and these indies have contributed perhaps even more than the eastern indies to swell the surprising wealth of the united kingdom at this period
and there was no dread of scarcity
appropriated to so many different uses
were not likely to fail for want of the mineral fuel but the consumption had so increased during the last few years that certain beds had been exhausted even to their smallest veins now deserted
these mines perforated the ground with their useless shafts and forsaken galleries this was exactly the case with the pits of aberfoyle
frames to support the shaft pipes in short all that constituted the machinery of a mine had been brought up from its depths the exhausted mine was like the body of a huge fantastically shaped mastodon from which
and only the skeleton remains
the sheds formerly sheltering the outside works still marked the spot where the shaft of that pit had been sunk it being now abandoned as were the other pits of which the whole constituted the mines of aberfoyle
it was a sad day when for the last time the workmen quitted the mine in which they had lived for so many years
which composed the active and courageous population of the mine
outside and inside laborers women children and old men all were collected in the great yard of the dochart pit formerly heaped with coal from the mine
james starr stood upright at the door of the vast shed in which he had for so many years superintended the powerful machines of the shaft simon ford the foreman of the dochart pit then fifty five years of age
and other managers and overseers surrounded him james starr took off his hat the miners cap in hand kept a profound silence this farewell scene was of a touching character not wanting in grandeur my friends said the engineer
the time has come for us to separate the aberfoyle mines which for so many years have united us in a common work are now exhausted all our researches have not led to the discovery of a new vein
james starr pointed to a lump of coal which had been kept at the bottom of a basket this piece of coal my friends resumed james starr is like the last drop of blood which has flowed through the veins of the mine we shall keep it as the first fragment of coal is kept
which was extracted a hundred and fifty years ago from the bearings of aberfoyle between these two pieces how many generations of workmen have succeeded each other in our pits now it is over the last words which your engineer will address to you are a farewell
you have lived in this mine which your hands have emptied the work has been hard but not without profit for you our great family must disperse and it is not probable that the future will ever again unite the scattered members but do not forget that we have lived together for a long time
and that it will be the duty of the miners of aberfoyle to help each other your old masters will not forget you either when men have worked together they must never be stranger to each other again we shall keep our eye on you and wherever you go our recommendations shall follow you farewell then my friends
so saying james starr wrung the horny hand of the oldest miner whose eyes were dim with tears then the overmen of the different pits came forward to shake hands with him
resounded for the last time to the tread of miners feet and silence succeeded to the bustling life which had till then filled the aberfoyle mines one man alone remained by james starr this was the overman simon ford
near him stood a boy about fifteen years of age who for some years already had been employed down below james starr and simon ford knew and esteemed each other well good by simon said the engineer good by mister starr replied the overman
let me add till we meet again yes till we meet again ford answered james starr you know
ay a long way from the dochart pit a long way simon where do you mean to live even here mister starr we're not going to leave the mine our good old nurse just because her milk is dried up my wife my boy and myself we mean to remain faithful to her
good by then simon replied the engineer whose voice in spite of himself betrayed some emotion no i tell you it's till we meet again mister starr and not just good by returned the foreman
he patted harry's head again wrung the father's hand and left the mine all this had taken place ten years ago but notwithstanding the wish
a communication of an interesting nature what could it be dochart pit yarrow shaft
james starr had therefore abandoned the mine with the absolute conviction that it did not contain another bit of coal no he repeated no how is it possible that anything which could have escaped my researches should be revealed to those of simon ford
on the other hand the engineer knew ford to be a clever miner peculiarly endowed with the instinct of his trade
or where he was living with his wife and his son all that he now knew was that a rendezvous had been appointed him at the yarrow shaft and that harry simon ford's son was to wait for him during the whole of the next day
at the callander station i shall go i shall go said starr his excitement increasing as the time drew near our worthy engineer belonged to that class of men whose brain is always on the boil like a kettle on a hot fire
now on this day james starr's ideas were boiling fast but suddenly an unexpected incident occurred
which in a moment was to condense all the vapors of the brain about six in the evening by the third post starr's servant brought him a second letter this letter was enclosed in a coarse envelope and evidently directed by a hand
unaccustomed to the use of a pen
on this paper was written a single sentence thus worded
from the waggon on passing through it robert found that they were not really within the building but merely in a large bare ante chamber
which had aroused his curiosity and his father's speculations all mystery had gone from them now however for while some were still wrapped in their sackcloth coverings others had been undone and revealed themselves as great pigs of lead
i have to be very careful about the quality of the lead for of course every impurity is reproduced in the gold a heavy iron door led into the inner chamber haw unlocked it but only to disclose a second one about five feet further on
i have no doubt that there is a good deal of gossip in the servants' hall about this sealed chamber so i have to guard myself against some inquisitive ostler or too adventurous butler
a high bare whitewashed room with a glass roof at one end was the furnace and boiler the iron mouth of which was closed
on either side innumerable huge leyden jars stood ranged in rows tier topping tier while above them were columns of voltaic cells robert's eyes as he glanced around
lit on vast wheels complicated networks of wire stands test tubes coloured bottles graduated glasses bunsen burners porcelain insulators and all the varied debris
of a chemical and electrical workshop come across here said raffles haw picking his way among the heaps of metal the coke the packing cases and the carboys of acid yours is the first foot except my own
which has ever penetrated to this room since the workmen left it my servants carry the lead into the ante room but come no further the furnace can be cleaned and stoked from without i employ a fellow to do nothing else now take a look in here
he threw open a door on the further side and motioned to the young artist to enter the latter stood silent with one foot over the threshold staring in amazement around him the room which may have been some thirty feet square
the single electric lamp which lighted the windowless chamber struck a dull murky yellow light from the vast piles of precious metal and gleamed ruddily upon the golden floor this is my treasure house remarked the owner
you see that i have rather an accumulation just now my imports have been exceeding my exports you can understand that i have other and more important duties even than the making of gold just now this is where i store my output until i am ready to send it off
they say that it is the purest which comes into the market the popular theory is i believe that i am a middleman acting on behalf of some new south african mine which wishes to keep its whereabouts a secret
something fabulous i have no doubt said robert glancing round at the yellow barriers shall i say a hundred and fifty thousand pounds oh dear me it is surely worth very much more than that cried raffles haw laughing let me see
suppose that we put it at three ten an ounce which is nearly ten shillings under the mark that makes roughly fifty six pounds for a pound in weight now each of these ingots weighs thirty six pounds which brings their value to two thousand and a few odd pounds
but on the fourth there are only three hundred on account of the door but there cannot be less than two hundred on the floor which gives us a rough total of two thousand ingots so you see my dear boy that any broker who could get the contents of this chamber for four million pounds
would be doing a nice little stroke of business and a week's work gasped robert it makes my head swim
and were attached at the other end to the rows of dynamic machines beneath was a glass stand which was hollowed out in the centre into a succession of troughs you will soon understand all about it said raffles haw
throwing off his coat and pulling on a smoke stained and dirty linen jacket we must first stoke up a little he put his weight on a pair of great bellows and an answering roar came from the furnace that will do the more heat the more electric force and the quicker our task
now for the lead just give me a hand in carrying it they lifted a dozen of the pigs of lead from the floor on to the glass stand and having adjusted the plates on either side
it used in the early days to be a slow process he remarked but now that i have immense facilities for my work it takes a very short time i have now only to complete the connection in order to begin
he took hold of a long glass lever which projected from among the wires and drew it downwards a sharp click was heard followed by a loud sparkling crackling noise great spurts of flame sprang from the two electrodes
with his watch upon the palm of his hand it would reduce an organic substance to protyle instantly it is well to understand the mechanism thoroughly for any mistake
you are dealing with gigantic forces but you perceive that the lead is already beginning to turn silvery dew like drops had indeed begun to form upon the dull coloured mass
slowly the lead melted away like an icicle in the sun the electrodes ever closing upon it as it contracted until they came together in the centre and a row of pools of quicksilver had taken the place of the solid metal
two smaller electrodes were plunged into the mercury which gradually curdled and solidified until it had resumed the solid form with a yellowish brassy shimmer what lies in the moulds now is platinum remarked raffles haw
and there lay a dozen bricks of ruddy sparkling gold you see according to our calculations our morning's work has been worth twenty four thousand pounds
to the world it would seem an expensive demonstration which cost two thousand pounds but our standard you see is a different one now you will see me run through the whole gamut of metallic nature first of all men after the discoverer
with the strontium to purple with the potassium to yellow with the manganese then
and lay as a little mound of fluffy grey dust upon the glass table and this is protyle said haw passing his fingers through it the chemist of the future may resolve it into further constituents but to me it is the ultima thule
this secret it is the dearest wish of my heart to use for good
that if i thought it would tend to anything but good i would have done with it for ever no i would neither use it myself nor would any other man learn it from my lips i swear it by all that is holy and solemn
standing pale and lanky amid his electrodes and his retorts there was still something majestic about this man who amid all his stupendous good fortune could still keep his moral sense undazzled by the glitter of his gold
robert's weak nature had never before realised the strength which lay in those thin firm lips and earnest eyes surely in your hands mister haw nothing but good can come of it he said i hope not
i have done for you robert what i might not have done for my own brother had i one and i have done it because i believe and hope that you are a man who would not use this power should you inherit it for selfish ends but even now i have not told you all
there is one link which i have withheld from you and which shall be withheld from you while i live but look at this chest robert he led him to a great iron clamped chest which stood in the corner and throwing it open he took from it a small case of carved ivory
inside this he said i have left a paper which makes clear anything which is still hidden from you should anything happen to me you will always be able to inherit my powers and to continue my plans
chapter five jack and the bean stalk's farm it was quite an ordinary looking farm yard and quite an ordinary looking cow but she stared so earnestly up at davy
that he felt positively certain she had something to say to him every creature i meet does have something to say he thought as he felt about for the window fastening and i should really like to hear a cow
he looked anxiously at the cow expecting to see her laughing at his misfortune but she stood gazing at him with a very serious expression of countenance solemnly chewing
and slowly swishing her tail from side to side as davy really didn't know how to begin a conversation with a cow he waited for her to speak first and there was consequently a long pause
presently the cow said in a melancholy lowing tone of voice the old gray goose is dead i'm very sorry said davy not knowing what else to say
said the cow positively and we've buried her in the vegetable garden we thought gooseberries would come up but
they didn't nothing came up but feathers that's very curious said davy curious but comfortable replied the cow you see
it makes a feather bed in the garden the pig sleeps there and calls it his quill pen
porcupine quills
so do i said davy
nothing but the bean stalk said the cow you've heard of jack and the bean stalk haven't you oh yes indeed said davy beginning to be very much interested i should like to see the bean stalk
you can't see the beans talk said the cow gravely you might hear them talk that is if they had anything to say and you listened long enough
by the way that's the house that jack built pretty isn't it davy turned and looked up at the house it certainly was a very pretty house
then you must be the cow with a crumpled horn it's not crumpled said the cow with great dignity there's a slight crimp in it to be sure
but nothing that can properly be called a crump then the story was all wrong about my tossing the dog it was the cat that ate the malt he was a maltese cat and his name was flipmegilder
did you toss him inquired davy certainly not said the cow indignantly who ever heard of a cow tossing a cat
the fact is i've never had a fair chance to toss anything
mother hubbard never permitted any liberties to be taken with him i'd dearly love to see mother hubbard said davy eagerly well you can said the cow indifferently
mother hubbard was there sitting at the piano and evidently just preparing to sing the piano was very remarkable and davy could not remember ever having seen one like it before the top of it was arranged with shelves
on which stood all the kitchen crockery and in the under part of it at one end was an oven with glass doors through which he could see several pies baking mother hubbard was dressed
just as he expected in a very ornamental flowered gown with high heeled shoes and buckles and wore a tall pointed hat over her nightcap she was so like the pictures davy had seen of her
she sang in a high key with a very quavering voice and this was the song i had an educated pug his name was tommy jones
he lived upon the parlor rug exclusively on bones and if in a secluded room
to join him at his tea and when i went to pay a bill i think it was for
no said davy greatly surprised at the question so i supposed
but i couldn't help that said davy of course you couldn't said the cow yawning indolently it's precisely what i should expect of a person who hadn't any chewing gum
and with this the cow walked gravely away just as mother hubbard made her appearance at the window boy said mother hubbard beaming mildly upon davy through her spectacles
you shouldn't throw gravel i haven't thrown any said davy fie said mother hubbard shaking her head always speak the truth i am speaking the truth said davy
indignantly it was gobobbles so i supposed said mother hubbard gently shaking her head again it would have been far better if he had been cooked last christmas instead of being left over
stuffing him and then letting him go has made a very proud creature of him you should never be proud i'm not proud replied davy provoked at being mixed up with gobobbles in this way
you may define the word proud and give a few examples continued mother hubbard and by this time she had grown to be so surprisingly like miss peggs that davy immediately clasped his hands behind him
according to rule and prepared to recite proud means being set up i think he said respectfully but i don't think i know any examples you may take
she disappeared from the window and davy went cautiously around the corner of the house curious to see what gobobbles might be like as he approached the front of the house he heard a loud
thumping noise and presently he came in sight of gobobbles who proved to be a large and very bold mannered turkey with all his feathers taken off except
he was tied fast in a baby's high chair and was thumping his chest with his wings in such a violent and ill tempered manner that davy at once made up his mind not to aggravate him under any circumstances
as gobobbles caught sight of him he discontinued his thumping and after staring at him for a moment said sulkily
why not said davy
said gobobbles passionately they're so everlastingly hungry now don't deny that you're fond of turkey well i do like turkey said davy seeing no way out of the difficulty
of course you do said gobobbles tossing his head now you might as well know he continued resuming his thumping with increased energy that i'm as hollow as a drum and as tough as a hat box
just mention that fact to any one you meet will you i suppose christmas is coming of course of course it is replied davy it's always coming said gobobbles angrily
i never knew a time yet when it wasn't coming i don't mind having it come said davy stoutly oh don't you indeed said gobobbles well then
and here he began hopping his chair forward in such a threatening manner that davy turned and walked away with as much dignity as he could assume as he went around the corner of the house again
he found himself in a pleasant lane bordered on either side by a tall hedge and as he was now out of sight of gobobbles
before he had gone a dozen steps however he heard a thumping sound behind him and looking back he saw to his dismay that
gobobbles had in some way got loose from his high chair and was coming after him thumping himself in a perfect frenzy in fact his appearance was so formidable that davy did not pause for a second look
but started off at the top of his speed gobobbles however proved himself to be a capital runner and in spite of all davy's efforts he could hear the dreadful thumping sound coming nearer and nearer
until it seemed to be just at his heels at this instant something sprang upon his back but before he could cry out in his terror
that do they replied hearing and obeying so the omani chose out ten captains and asked them how many braves have ye under your hands and they answered
and leaden bullets which entered the beasts flanks whereat they roared out and turning upon their own ranks trod them down with their hoofs
whither the moslems followed hard upon them with the keen edged sword and but few of the giraffes and elephants escaped
and his folk returned rejoicing in their victory and on the morrow they divided the loot and rested five days after which king gharib sat down on the throne of his kingship and
sending for his brother ajib said to him o dog why hast thou assembled the kings against us but he who hath power over all things hath given us the victory over thee
so embrace the saving faith and thou shalt be saved and i will forbear to avenge my father and mother on thee therefor and i will make thee king again as thou west
placing myself under thy hand but ajib said i will not leave my faith so
bade lay him in irons and appointed an hundred stalwart slaves to guard him after which he turned to ra'ad shah and said to him
replied he o my lord i will enter thy faith for were it not a true faith and a goodly thou hadst not conquered us
put forth thy hand and i will testify that there is no god but the god and that abraham the friend is the apostle of god
is thy heart indeed stablished in the sweetness of this belief and he answered saying yes o my lord
i will go with thee and make thee king of the country and constrain the folk to obey thee by the help of allah the bountiful the beneficent and ra'ad shah kissed his hands and feet
who had caused the rout of the foe and gave him great wealth after which he turned to kaylajan and kurajan and said to them harkye chiefs of the jinn tis my will that ye carry me
together with ra'ad shah and jamrkan and sa'adan to the land of hind we hear and we obey
so kurajan took up jamrkan and sa'adan
and ra'ad shah and made for the land of hind and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say
it hath reached me o auspicious king
and ra'ad shah they flew on with them from sundown till the last of the night when they set them down on the terrace of king tarkanan's palace at cashmere now
news was brought to tarkanan by the remnants of his host of what had befallen his son whereat he slept not neither took delight in aught and he was troubled with sore trouble as he sat in his harim
pondering his case behold
and came in to him and when he saw his son and those who were with him he was confused
then ra'ad shah turned to him and said
and said to ra'ad shah do thou justice upon thy father so ra'ad shah turned to him and said o perverse old man become one of the saved
and thou shalt be saved from the fire and the wrath of the all powerful but tarkanan cried
and the other on the left and waited till day
and sit down on his father's throne with himself on his dexter hand
and he said to kaylajan and kurajan whoso entereth of the princes and officers seize him and bind him and let not a single captain escape you and they answered
hearkening and obedience presently the officers made for the palace
and the first to appear was the chief captain who seeing king tarkanan's dead body cut in half and hanging on either side of the gate was seized with terror and amazement
then kaylajan laid hold of him by the collar and threw him and intoned him after which he dragged him into the palace and before sunrise they had bound three hundred and fifty captains
and set them before gharib who said to them o folk have you seen your king hanging at the palace gate asked they who hath done this deed
and he answered i did it
and whoso opposeth me i will do with him likewise then quoth they what is thy will with us and quoth he
king of al irak he who slew your warriors and now ra'ad shah hath embraced the faith of salvation and is become a mighty king and ruler over you so do ye become true believers
and all shall be well with you but if ye refuse you shall repent it so they pronounced the profession of the faith and were enrolled among the people of felicity
and ceased to say her permitted say when it was the six hundred and sixty sixth night she continued it hath reached me o auspicious king
assembling the men under their command explained what had taken place and expounded al islam to them and they all professed except a few whom they put to death after which they returned
who blessed allah and glorified him saying praised be the almighty who hath made this thing easy to us without strife then he abode in cashmere of india forty days
till he had ordered the affairs of the country and cast down the shrines and temples of the fire and built in their stead mosques and cathedrals whilst ra'ad shah made ready for him rarities and treasures beyond count
and despatched them to al irak in ships
and jamrkan and sa'adan on that of kurajan after they had taken leave of ra'ad shah and journeyed through the night till break of day when they reached oman city where their troops met them
and saluted them and rejoiced in them
and commanded to hang him so sahim brought hooks of iron and driving them into the tendons of ajib's heels hung him over the gate
so they riddled him with arrows till he was like unto a porcupine
and sitting down on the throne of his kingship passed the day in ordering the affairs of the state at nightfall he went in to his harim where star o morn came to meet him and embraced him and gave him joy
she and her women of his safety he spent that day and lay that night with her and on the morrow
and two thousand oxen and a thousand he goats and five hundred camels and the like number of horses beside four thousand fowls and great store of geese
then they fared on till they reached the city of babel where he bestowed on sahim al layl a robe of honour and appointed him sultan of the city
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
which had belonged to barkan king of the jann and clapped heel to his sea horse
then he let drive at battash crying out god is most great he giveth aid and victory and he abaseth whoso reject the faith of abraham the friend and smote him with the mace
turning to the moslems saw his brother sahim and said to him pinion me this hound when sahim heard his brother's words he ran to battash and bound him hard and fast and bore him off
whilst the moslem braves wondered who this knight could be and the indians said one to other who is this horseman which came out from among them and hath taken our chief prisoner meanwhile
till he had taken prisoner two and fifty of the doughtiest captains of the army of hind then the day came to an end and the kettle drums beat the retreat
and rode towards the moslem camp the first to meet him was sahim who kissed his feet in the stirrups and said may thy hand never wither o champion of the age tell us who thou art among the braves
raised his vizor of mail and sahim knew him and cried out saying this is your king
they threw themselves off their horses backs and crowding about him kissed his feet in the stirrups and saluted him rejoicing in his safe return then they carried him into the city of oman
where he entered his palace and sat down on the throne of his kingship whilst his officers stood around him in the utmost joy food was set on and they ate after which
and they marvelled thereat with exceeding marvel and praised allah for his safety then he dismissed them to their sleeping places so they withdrew to their several lodgings
and when none abode with him but kaylajan and kurajan who never left him he said to them can ye carry me to cufa that i may take my pleasure in my harim and bring me back before the end of the night
they replied o our lord this thou askest is easy now the distance between cufa and oman is sixty days journey for a diligent horseman
and kaylajan said to kurajan i will carry him going and thou coming back
nor was an hour past before they set him down at the gate of his palace in cufa he went in to his uncle al damigh who rose to him and saluted him
they are both well and in good case then the eunuch went in and acquainted the women of the harim
whereat they rejoiced and raised the trill of joy and gave him the reward for good news
and they rose and saluting him conversed with him till al damigh entered
whereat they all marvelled
when he took leave of his wives and his uncle and mounted kurajan's back nor was the darkness dispelled
then he and his men armed and he bade open the gates when behold up came a horseman from the host of the indians with jamrkan and sa'adan and the rest of the captive captains whom he had delivered
the moslems rejoicing in their safety donned their mails and took horse while the kettle drums beat a point of war and the miscreants also drew up in line
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say when it was the six hundred and sixty second night she continued
drawing his sword al mahik drove his charger between the two ranks and cried out saying
and whoso unknoweth me to him i will make myself known
king of al irak and al yaman brother of ajib when ra'ad shah son of the king of hind heard this he shouted to his captains bring me ajib
so they brought him and ra'ad shah said to him thou wottest that this quarrel is thy quarrel and thou art the cause of all this slaughter
where sword and spear we shall wield go thou to him and bring him to me a prisoner that i may set him on a camel arsy versy and make a show of him and carry him to the land of hind
answered ajib o king send out to him other than i for i am in ill health this morning but ra'ad shah sparked and snorted and cried
unless thou fare forth to thy brother and bring him to me in haste i will cut off thy head and make an end of thee so ajib took heart
and urging his horse up to his brother in mid field said to him o dog of the arabs
wilt thou contend with kings
he said to him who art thou among the kings and ajib answered saying i am thy brother and this day is the last of thy worldly days now
when gharib was assured that he was indeed his brother ajib he cried out and said ho to avenge my father and mother then
and smote him with his mace a smashing blow and a swashing that went nigh to beat in his ribs and seizing him by the mail gorges tore him from the saddle and cast him to the ground
and binding him fast dragged him off dejected and abject
rejoiced in the capture of his enemy and repeated these couplets of the poet i have won my wish and my need have scored
and the thanks o our lord i grew up dejected and abject poor but allah vouchsafed me all boons implored i have conquered countries and mastered men
but for thee were i naught o thou lord adored when ra'ad shah
he called for his charger and donning his harness and habergeon mounted
and put elbows behind back and kiss my feet and set my warriors free and go with me
that i may pardon thee and make thee a shayth in our own land so mayst thou eat there a bittock of bread
he laughed till he fell backwards and answered saying o mad hound and mangy wolf soon shalt thou see against whom the shifts of fortune will turn
then he cried out to sahim saying bring me the prisoners so he brought them
whereupon ra'ad shah crave at him with the driving of a lordly champion and the onslaught of a fierce slaughterer and they falsed and feinted and fought till nightfall when the kettle drums beat the retreat
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the six hundred and sixty third night she resumed
it hath reached me o auspicious king that when the kettledrums beat the retreat the two kings parted and returned each to his own place
saw i a harder hitter than this one had i chosen to draw al mahik upon him i had mashed his bones and made an end of his days but i delayed with him thinking to take him prisoner
and give him part enjoyment in al islam
but as regards ra'ad shah he returned to his marquee and sat upon his throne when his chiefs came in to him and asked him of his adversary and he answered
by the truth of the sparkling fire never in my life saw i the like of yonder brave but to morrow i will take him prisoner and lead him away dejected and abject
then they slept till daybreak when the battle drums beat to fight and the swords in baldric were dight
and all mounted their horses of generous strain and drew out into the field filling every wide place and hill and plain
who crave his steed between the two hosts and wheeled and careered over the field crying who is for fray who is for fight let no sluggard come out to me this day nor dullard
before he had made an end of speaking out rushed ra'ad shah riding on an elephant as he were a vast tower
and between the elephant's ears at the driver bearing in hand a hook wherewith he goaded the beast
and casting the meshes over them draw the running noose and drag the rider off his horse and make him prisoner and thus had he conquered many cavaliers
he raised his hand and despreading the net over him pulled him on to the back of the elephant and cried out to the beast to return to the indian camp
and when they beheld what had befallen their lord they laid hold of the elephant
and bound him with a cord of palm fibre then the two armies drove each at other and met with a shock like two seas crashing or two mountains together dashing
whilst the dust rose to the confines of the sky and blinded was every eye the battle waxed fierce and fell the blood ran in rills
nor did they cease to wage war with lunge of lance and sway of sword in lustiest way till the day darkened and the night starkened
who commanded the hurt to be medicined and turning to his chief officers asked them what they counselled
we twain will unsheath our swords and fall on them and slay the most part of them but there came forward a man of oman who had been privy counsellor to jaland and said
o king i will be surety for the host an thou wilt but hearken to me and follow my counsel
turned to his captains and said to them whatsoever this wise man shall say to you that do and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
chapter nine how the irish scholars compiled their annals among the various classes of persons who devoted themselves to literature in ancient ireland there were special annalists who made it their business to record
with the utmost accuracy all remarkable events simply and briefly year by year the extreme care they took that their statements should be truthful is shown by the manner in which they compiled their books
as a general rule they admitted nothing into their records except either what occurred during their lifetime and which may be said to have come under their own personal knowledge or what they found recorded in the compilations of previous annalists
who had themselves followed the same plan these men took nothing on hearsay and in this manner successive annalists carried on a continued chronicle from age to age we have still preserved to us many books of native annals
they deal with the affairs of ireland generally but not exclusively many of them record events occurring in other parts of the world and it was a common practice to begin the work with a brief general history
there are many tests which prove the remarkable accuracy of the irish annals for instance their records of such occurrences as eclipses comets tides and so forth are invariably found to be correct
indeed they could not be otherwise for the good reason that the faithful chronicler noted down the events each at the very time of its occurrence if he waited for some future time
or noted down some event that had occurred years before taking hearsay evidence or calculating the time backwards as best he could the chances were that there would be an error in the date
at the present day astronomers can calculate to a minute the time of an eclipse occurring in that or any other year but it was otherwise twelve centuries ago
then the rules of calculation were not quite correct so that a person calculating backwards was pretty sure to be in error as to the exact time the great english historian and scholar the venerable bede
was aware of the year six hundred sixty four but had to calculate the day and the hour the rule then in vogue led him astray and accordingly his record of the date the third may is two days wrong
first may six hundred sixty fourth is given and even the very hour this shows quite clearly that the event had been recorded by some irish chronicler who actually saw it and noted it down on the spot
we find numbers of records of this kind in our annals which according to the accurate tests we are now able to apply are all found to be correct another remarkable instance of a similar kind deserves to be mentioned here
we have an old irish book called the war of the irish with the danes written early in the eleventh century soon after the battle of clontarf in which that great battle is very fully described in the course of his narrative
the writer makes these very specific statements that the battle was fought on good friday the twenty third april
that it commenced at sunrise when the tide was full in and that it lasted the whole day till the tide was again at flood about the same hour in the evening when the foreigners were routed moreover the old historian puts in the time of high water morning and afternoon
for on account of the full tide they were not able to reach their ships which lay some distance out in the bay whereas if it had been low water they might have waded out to them beyond that he was not in the least concerned about the time of high tide
the tide comes in at any particular point of the coast about every twelve hours twenty five minutes and accordingly the hour changes from day to day so that there might be a high tide at any hour of the twenty four but astronomers can now calculate
the exact time of high tide for any day of the month at a particular place in any year no matter how far back now the question is was the tide really at its height on the clontarf shore at sunrise
on that fatal morning forty years ago
in order to test the chronicler's accuracy
after a laborious calculation doctor haughton found that the tide was at its height that morning at half past five o'clock just as the sun was coming over the horizon and that the evening tide was in at fifty five minutes past five
a striking confirmation of the truth of this part of the narrative it shows too that the account was written by or taken down from an eye witness of the battle doctor haughton's calculation every figure
may now be seen in doctor todd's published book little did the old annalist think when penning his simple record that after lying by unnoticed and forgotten on some obscure bookshelf for eight centuries
it was destined to be at last brought out under the broad light of science and its accuracy fully tested and established there are several other ways of testing the truth of our annals
one is by comparing them with the testimony of foreign writers of good standing events occurring in ireland in those early ages are not often mentioned by british or continental writers indeed they knew very little about ireland
which was in those times especially as regards the continent a very remote place but whenever they do notice irish affairs it may be said that they are always in agreement with the native records
in our irish books we find accounts of events or customs which some people not knowing better would be inclined to pronounce fabulous but which we find recorded as sober history by certain great english and continental historians
the colonisation of scotland from ireland for instance which was formerly doubted by many is fully confirmed by the venerable bede
all the irish chronicles state that a general rout of the danes took place in the evening and that there was an awful slaughter of them for they were cut off from their fortress by the river liffey and from their ships by the high tide while the infuriated irish assailed them front flank and rear
the best possible authority in the case as he had good reason to know what happened there is a full confirmation of this his record is simple and plain then flight broke out throughout all the danish host
the more their truthfulness is made manifest their uniform agreement among themselves and their accuracy as tried by various tests have drawn forth the acknowledgments of the greatest irish scholars and archaeologists that ever lived
the existing books of irish annals will be found described in our histories of ireland and more fully in the two social histories of ancient ireland
here we must content ourselves with mentioning one the annals of the four masters the most important of all these were compiled in the franciscan monastery of donegal by three of the o'clerys
and by ferfesa o'mulconry who are now commonly known as the four masters they began in sixteen thirty two and completed the work in sixteen thirty six
the annals of the four masters was translated with most elaborate and learned annotations by doctor john o'donovan and it was published irish text translation and notes in seven large volumes
and before that time all books had of course to be written by hand according to our native records the art of writing was known to the pagan irish and the druids had books on law and other subjects long before the time of saint patrick
besides these home evidences which are so numerous and strong as hardly to admit of dispute we have the testimony of a learned foreigner which is quite decisive on the point
a christian philosopher of the fourth century of our era named ethicus of istria travelled over the three continents and has left a description of his wanderings in what he calls a cosmography of the world
he visited ireland more than a hundred years before the arrival of saint patrick and he states that he found there many books and that he remained for some time in the country examining them
so far then as ethicus records the existence of irish books in the fourth century he merely corroborates our own native accounts the pagan irish books were of course written in the irish language
but as to the nature or shapes of the letters or the form of the writing or how it reached ireland on these points we have no information for none of the old books remain
for these are too cumbrous for long passages
the letters of which were formed by combinations of short lines and points on and at both sides of a middle or stem line
great numbers of monumental stones are preserved with ogham inscriptions cut on them of which most have been deciphered either partially or completely they are in a very antique form of the irish language
and while many were engraved in far distant pagan ages others belong to christian times but whatever characters the irish may have used in times of paganism they learned the roman letters from the early roman missionaries
and adopted them in writing their own language during and after the time of saint patrick which are still retained in modern irish these same letters moreover were brought to great britain by the early irish missionaries already spoken of
from whom the anglo saxons learned them so that england received her first knowledge of the letters of the alphabet as she received most of her christianity from ireland formerly it was the fashion to call those letters anglo saxon
but now people know better our present printed characters the very characters now under the reader's eye were ultimately developed from those old irish roman letters
after the time of saint patrick as everything seems to have been written down that was considered worth preserving manuscripts accumulated in the course of time which were kept in monasteries and in the houses of professors of learning
many also in the libraries of private persons the most general material used for writing on was vellum or parchment made from the skins of sheep goats or calves to copy a book was justly considered a very meritorious work
and in the highest degree so if it was a part of the holy scriptures or of any other book on sacred or devotional subjects scribes or copyists were therefore much honoured the handwriting of these old documents is remarkable for its beauty
its plainness and its perfect uniformity each scribe however having his own characteristic form and style sometimes the scribes wrote down what had never been written before that is matters composed at the time
or preserved in memory but more commonly they copied from other volumes if an old book began to be worn ragged or dim with age so as to be hard to make out and read some scribe was sure to copy it
so as to have a new book easy to read and well bound up most of the books written out in this manner related to ireland as will be described presently and the language of these was almost always irish except in copies of the roman classics
or of the scriptures where latin was used books abounded in ireland when the danes first made their appearance about the beginning of the ninth century so that the old irish writers often speak with pride of the hosts of the books of erin
but with the first danish arrivals began the woeful destruction of manuscripts the records of ancient learning the animosity of the barbarians was specially directed against books monasteries and monuments of religion
next came the anglo norman invasion which was quite as destructive of native books learning and art as the danish inroads or more so and most of the old volumes that survived were scattered and lost
notwithstanding all this havoc and wreck
the ornamented and illuminated copies of the scriptures are described in the chapter on art we have also many volumes of miscellaneous literature in which are written compositions of all kinds both prose and poetry
copied from older books and written in one after another till the volume was filled of all these old books of mixed compositions the largest that remains to us is the book of leinster which is kept in trinity college dublin
it is an immense volume all in the irish language written more than seven hundred fifty years ago and many of the pages are now almost black with age and very hard to make out it contains a great number of pieces
some in prose and some in verse and nearly all of them about ireland histories accounts of battles and sieges lives and adventures of great men with many tales and stories of things that happened in this country in far distant ages
the book of the dun cow is preserved in the royal irish academy in dublin it is fifty years older than the book of leinster but not so large
and it contains also a great number of tales adventures and histories all relating to ireland and all in the irish language two other great irish books kept in dublin
and the book of ballymote these contain much the same kind of matter as the book of leinster with pieces mostly different however but they are not nearly so old the speckled book which is also in dublin
is nearly as large as the book of leinster but not so old it is mostly on religious matters and contains a great number of lives of saints hymns sermons portions of the scriptures and other such pieces
all these books are written with the greatest care and in most beautiful penmanship the five old books described above have been lately printed in such a way that the print resembles exactly the writing of the old books themselves
the printed volumes are now to be found in libraries in several parts of ireland as well as in england and on the continent so that those desirous of studying them need not come to dublin as people had to do formerly
another grand old book preserved in dublin is the book of lecan besides these there are vast numbers of irish manuscript books in dublin and elsewhere both vellum and paper having no special names
all containing important and interesting pieces there are also numerous books of law of medicine of science genealogies lives of saints sermons and so forth
which on account of limited space cannot be described here many people are now eagerly studying these books and men often come to ireland from france germany italy norway sweden russia
and other countries in order to learn the irish language so as to be able to read them but this requires much study
further letters to his brother
the city of paris does not pay it would break my heart to see seurat's pictures buried in a provincial museum or in a cellar they ought to remain in living hands if t were only willing
if the three permanent exhibitions are established an important work of seurat's will be required for each of the following places paris london
how kind it is of you to promise g and myself to make the realization of the projected union a possible thing i have just received a letter from b who for the last few days has been on a visit to g
in this letter which by the bye is very friendly in tone
nor is there any hint that they are expecting me there nevertheless the letter is a very friendly one i have not received a line from g himself for a month
i really believe that g prefers to come to an understanding with his friends in the north and if he have the good fortune to sell one or more pictures he will probably no longer wish to join me here whether g comes or not is his affair
for provided that we are ready to receive him and that his bed and his quarters are prepared we shall have kept our promise i insist upon this
my object is to release myself and a friend from the evil that thrives on our work and that is the necessity of living in expensive hotels without our deriving any advantage from the arrangement which is sheer madness
the hope of being able to live without money troubles and of one day escaping from these eternal straits what a foolish illusion this is i should consider myself lucky to be able to work even for an annuity
which would only just cover bare necessaries and to be at peace in my own studio for the rest of my life now it is definitely decided that i shall not go to pont aven
much ado about nothing this morning i was working at an orchard gay with plum blossom when suddenly there came a gust of wind and with it a peculiar effect which hitherto i had not observed in these parts
and which recurred from time to time now and again a shaft of sunlight would pierce the clouds and set all the little white blooms aglow it was too beautiful for words my friend the dane joined me
and at the risk of seeing all my paraphernalia fall to the ground at every gust of wind i continued to paint in this white light there is a good deal of yellow blue and mauve the sky is white and blue
but what will people say of the execution when one works in the open air in this way afterwards i thoroughly regretted not having ordered my colours at dear old tanguy's not that i should have gained anything
but he is such a comical little body i often think of him do not forget to remember me to him when you see him and tell him that if he would like some pictures for his shop window he can have some and of the best oh dear
and even if the feeling that one has no share in real life remains a melancholy one for it would surely be preferable to deal with living flesh and blood than with colour and clay and one would sooner beget children than work at art or at the commerce of art
one feels notwithstanding that one does at least live for among one's friends are there not numbers who also have no share in real life we should try to do the same with business matters as with the human heart that is to say
and as our victory is assured we should behave decently and settle everything with calmness
even though he be more powerful that woman with the embittered heart remains in spite of all a stirring figure you were right to order from the colourman's the geranium lake which i have just received
all the colours that impressionism has brought into fashion are rather prone to lose some of their strength that is why they should be laid on boldly and glaringly for time will be sure to deaden them more than necessary not one of the colours i have ordered
three chromes deep medium and pale prussian blue veridian
on the other hand they were on delacroix palette as he had a passion for the most prohibited colours lemon yellow and prussian blue and with very good reason for to my mind he created really magnificent things with this lemon yellow and blue
the pink peach tree gives me most trouble you observe from the four squares on the back that the three orchards are more or less related i am now painting an upright of a small pear tree
and i hope that there will be three more to come also related to each other in character i should like to paint this series of nine pictures together there is nothing to prevent us from regarding the nine pictures of this year
as the first rough plan of a final and much larger scheme of decoration which will have to be carried out at the same time next year
and hope the others will be better than the first two that is my method i had already tried it in holland but there i had not such good reeds as i have here do you remember just before my departure our speaking about the universal exhibition
and the fact that in connection with it bouguereau lefebvre
and to insist upon the firm b s the first in the world unflinchingly adhering to the principles of the highest and only desirable art naturally their own art and the upshot of it is that we must be very careful
for it would be more than sad if you were to quarrel with these gentlemen when one is released after having spent a long time in prison there are moments in which one yearns for the walls of one's cell again simply because
one is no longer quite at home in a state of freedom probably so called owing to the fact that the exhausting hunt after daily bread does not leave one a moment of liberty but you yourself know all this as well as i do
and you will have to forsake a good many things in order to attain to others
who is said to have drunk such great quantities of absinthe with his life work before one it seems to me impossible that a man enervated by drink could possibly have produced such work
in a day or two you will receive a call from the danish painter who has been staying here he wishes to see the salon and then to go back home perhaps with the view of coming south again next year
his three last studies were better and more full of colour than anything he has done hitherto i do not know whether he will ever do anything great but he is a nice fellow and i am sorry he is going i told him that a dutch painter is staying with you
i have told him a good deal about the impressionists all of whom he knew by name and he was also acquainted with some of their pictures the question interested him immensely he has a letter of introduction to r
he recovered his health here and now feels uncommonly well it will last for two years and then he will be wise to come back here for the same reasons of health what is the new book like about daumier the artist and his work
according to what you say i hope that i will shortly come to paris in the circumstances which you have mentioned it would be a real stroke of luck now that everything is going to the dogs and they are not doing well
possibly it would be easier to bring a few picture dealers and amateurs to an understanding with the object of buying impressionist pictures than to get the painters to divide among themselves the proceeds of the pictures sold
and yet the artists could not do better than to stick together hand their pictures over to the association and share the proceeds of the sales if only for the reason that the society guarantees the means of work and existence to its members
degas claude monet renoir sisley c pissaro should take the initiative and say each of us five will give ten pictures or better still each of us will contribute works to the value of ten thousand francs
which value must be decided by experts for instance by t and you whom the society would appoint and these experts would also have to invest in pictures
in addition to that we undertake to make a yearly contribution to the value of so much and we invite you all seurat gauguin and guillaumin to join us and the value of your pictures will be assessed by the same jury
by this means the great impressionists of the grand boulevard would preserve their prestige and the others would not be able to reproach them with enjoying alone the advantages of a reputation for which there can be no doubt they are indebted
in the first place to their personal efforts and their individual genius but which in the second place is also increased
who up to the present have been in constant straits for money it is only to be hoped that something will come of it all and that t and you will be chosen as experts together with portier perhaps you too must surely be of the opinion
that if t and you join together you could persuade both boussod and valadon to grant credit for the necessary purchases but the matter is pressing otherwise other dealers will cut the grass from under your feet
there are several themes here which have exactly the same character as in holland the only difference lies in the colour everywhere a cadmium yellow produced by the burning sun
and in addition a green and blue of such extraordinary intensity
give an excellent idea of it but it is a pity i have not seen more of them i think you are quite right to take the books to the independents also you ought to call this study paris novels
i should be so glad if you could succeed in convincing t but only have patience every day i think of this artists union and the plan has developed further in my mind but t ought really to belong to it
and much depends upon that for the moment the artists might possibly be convinced by us
without him we should have to listen to every one's complaint from morning till night and then every member would come singly
on the whole i live like a workman here and not like an effeminate foreigner who is travelling for pleasure and i should show no strength of will at all if i allowed myself to be taken advantage of as he does i am beginning to set up a studio
which will be able to serve the purpose of local painters or of friends who come this way
it is true that he has not yet done anything good but he is clever and his heart is in the right place and he has probably begun to paint only quite recently do please avail yourself of a sunday to make his acquaintance
that would make a fine degas head it cannot however be gainsaid for to spend one's whole day at mental work
my last special feat was turning out of bed at two after a hard day
and walking thirty miles into the country to breakfast the road was so lonely in the night that i fell asleep to the monotonous sound of my own feet doing their regular four miles an hour mile after mile i walked without the slightest sense of exertion
dozing heavily and dreaming constantly it was only when i made a stumble like a drunken man or struck out into the road to avoid a horseman close upon me on the path who had no existence that i came to myself and looked about the day broke mistily
it was autumn time and i could not disembarrass myself of the idea that i had to climb those heights and banks of cloud and that there was an alpine convent somewhere behind the sun where i was going to breakfast
this sleepy notion was so much stronger than such substantial objects as villages and haystacks that after the sun was up and bright
i still occasionally caught myself looking about for wooden arms to point the right track up the mountain
it is a curiosity of broken sleep that i made immense quantities of verses on that pedestrian occasion of course i never make any when i am in my right senses and that i spoke a certain language once pretty familiar to me but which i have nearly forgotten from disuse with fluency
that i sometimes argue with myself that i know i cannot be awake for if i were i should not be half so ready the readiness is not imaginary because i often recall long strings of the verses and many turns of the fluent speech after i am broad awake
my walking is of two kinds one straight on end to a definite goal at a round pace one objectless loitering and purely vagabond in the latter state no gipsy on earth is a greater vagabond than myself
it is so natural to me and strong with me that i think i must be the descendant at no great distance of some irreclaimable tramp one of the pleasantest things i have lately met with in a vagabond course of shy metropolitan neighbourhoods and small shops
is the fancy of a humble artist as exemplified in two portraits representing mister thomas sayers of great britain and mister john heenan of the united states of america these illustrious men are highly coloured in fighting trim and fighting attitude
to suggest the pastoral and meditative nature of their peaceful calling mister heenan is represented on emerald sward with primroses and other modest flowers springing up under the heels of his half boots while mister sayers is impelled to the administration of his favourite blow the auctioneer
by the silent eloquence of a village church the humble homes of england with their domestic virtues and honeysuckle porches urge both heroes to go in and win and the lark and other singing birds are observable in the upper air ecstatically carolling their thanks to heaven for a fight
for human notes we may return to such neighbourhoods when leisure and opportunity serve nothing in shy neighbourhoods perplexes my mind more than the bad company birds keep foreign birds often get into good society but british birds are inseparable from low associates
they seem to lead people into drinking and even the man who makes their cages usually gets into a chronic state of black eye why is this also they will do things for people in short skirted velveteen coats with bone buttons
or in sleeved waistcoats and fur caps which they cannot be persuaded by the respectable orders of society to undertake in a dirty court in spitalfields once i found a goldfinch drawing his own water
and drawing as much of it as if he were in a consuming fever that goldfinch lived at a bird shop and offered in writing to barter himself against old clothes empty bottles or even kitchen stuff surely a low thing and a depraved taste in any finch
i bought that goldfinch for money he was sent home and hung upon a nail over against my table he lived outside a counterfeit dwelling house supposed as i argued to be a dyer's
otherwise it would have been impossible to account for his perch sticking out of the garret window from the time of his appearance in my room either he left off being thirsty which was not in the bond or he could not make up his mind to hear his little bucket drop back into his well when he let it go
a shock which in the best of times had made him tremble he drew no water but by stealth and under the cloak of night after an interval of futile and at length hopeless expectation the merchant who had educated him was appealed to
the merchant was a bow legged character with a flat and cushiony nose like the last new strawberry he wore a fur cap and shorts and was of the velveteen race velveteeny he sent word that he would look round
appeared in the doorway of the room and slightly cocked up his evil eye at the goldfinch instantly a raging thirst beset that bird when it was appeased he still drew several unnecessary buckets of water and finally leaped about his perch and sharpened his bill
as if he had been to the nearest wine vaults and got drunk donkeys again i know shy neighbourhoods where the donkey goes in at the street door and appears to live up stairs for i have examined the back yard from over the palings and have been unable to make him out
gentility nobility royalty would appeal to that donkey in vain to do what he does for a costermonger feed him with oats at the highest price put an infant prince and princess in a pair of panniers on his back adjust his delicate trappings to a nicety
take him to the softest slopes at windsor and try what pace you can get out of him then starve him harness him anyhow to a truck with a flat tray on it and see him bowl from whitechapel to bayswater
there appears to be no particular private understanding between birds and donkeys in a state of nature but in the shy neighbourhood state you shall see them always in the same hands and always developing their very best energies for the very worst company
i have known a donkey by sight we were not on speaking terms who lived over on the surrey side of london bridge among the fastnesses of jacob's island and dockhead it was the habit of that animal when his services were not in immediate requisition
to go out alone idling i have met him a mile from his place of residence loitering about the streets and the expression of his countenance at such times was most degraded
and he used to stand on saturday nights with a cartful of those delicacies outside a gin shop pricking up his ears when a customer came to the cart and too evidently deriving satisfaction from the knowledge that they got bad measure his mistress was sometimes overtaken by inebriety
the last time i ever saw him about five years ago he was in circumstances of difficulty caused by this failing having been left alone with the cart of periwinkles and forgotten he went off idling
he prowled among his usual low haunts for some time gratifying his depraved tastes until not taking the cart into his calculations he endeavoured to turn up a narrow alley and became greatly involved
he was taken into custody by the police and the green yard of the district being near at hand was backed into that place of durance at that crisis i encountered him the stubborn sense he evinced of being not to compromise the expression
a blackguard i never saw exceeded in the human subject a flaring candle in a paper shade stuck in among his periwinkles showed him with his ragged harness broken and his cart extensively shattered twitching his mouth and shaking his hanging head a picture of disgrace and obduracy
i have seen boys being taken to station houses who were as like him as his own brother the dogs of shy neighbourhoods i observe to avoid play and to be conscious of poverty they avoid work too if they can of course that is in the nature of all animals
who has greatly distinguished himself in the minor drama and who takes his portrait with him when he makes an engagement for the illustration of the play bill
or essayed to tomahawk a british officer
and no such incident he is a dog of the newfoundland breed for whose honesty i would be bail to any amount but whose intellectual qualities in association with dramatic fiction i cannot rate high indeed he is too honest for the profession he has entered
and seeing him posted in the bill of the night i attended the performance his first scene was eminently successful but as it occupied a second in its representation and five lines in the bill it scarcely afforded ground for a cool and deliberate judgment of his powers
he had merely to bark run on and jump through an inn window after a comic fugitive the next scene of importance to the fable was a little marred in its interest by his over anxiety forasmuch as while his master a belated soldier in a den of robbers on a tempestuous night
and laying great stress on the fact that he was thirty leagues away the faithful dog was barking furiously in the prompter's box and clearly choking himself against his collar but it was in his greatest scene of all that his honesty got the better of him he had to enter a dense and trackless forest
on the trail of the murderer and there to fly at the murderer when he found him resting at the foot of a tree with his victim bound ready for slaughter it was a hot night and he came into the forest from an altogether unexpected direction in the sweetest temper
at a very deliberate trot not in the least excited trotted to the foot lights with his tongue out and there sat down panting and amiably surveying the audience with his tail beating on the boards like a dutch clock meanwhile the murderer
assailed him with the most injurious expressions it happened through these means that when he was in course of time persuaded to trot up and rend the murderer limb from limb he made it for dramatic purposes
a little too obvious that he worked out that awful retribution by licking butter off his blood stained hands in a shy street behind long acre two honest dogs live who perform in punch's shows i may venture to say that i am on terms of intimacy with both
and that i never saw either guilty of the falsehood of failing to look down at the man inside the show during the whole performance
from this covent garden window of mine i noticed a country dog only the other day who had come up to covent garden market under a cart and had broken his cord an end of which he still trailed along with him he loitered about the corners of the four streets commanded by my window
and bad london dogs came up and told him lies that he didn't believe and worse london dogs came up and made proposals to him to go and steal in the market which his principles rejected
and he crept aside and lay down in a doorway he had scarcely got a wink of sleep when up comes punch with toby he was darting to toby for consolation and advice when he saw the frill and stopped in the middle of the street appalled
the show was pitched toby retired behind the drapery the audience formed the drum and pipes struck up my country dog remained immovable intently staring at these strange appearances until toby opened the drama by appearing on his ledge
and to him entered punch who put a tobacco pipe into toby's mouth at this spectacle the country dog threw up his head gave one terrible howl and fled due west we talk of men keeping dogs
but we might often talk more expressively of dogs keeping men i know a bull dog in a shy corner of hammersmith who keeps a man he keeps him up a yard and makes him go to public houses and lay wagers on him and obliges him to lean against posts and look at him
and forces him to neglect work for him and keeps him under rigid coercion i once knew a fancy terrier who kept a gentleman
the dog kept the gentleman entirely for his glorification
this however was not in a shy neighbourhood
there are a great many dogs in shy neighbourhoods who keep boys i have my eye on a mongrel in somerstown who keeps three boys he feigns that he can bring down sparrows and unburrow rats he can do neither
and he takes the boys out on sporting pretences into all sorts of suburban fields he has likewise made them believe that he possesses some mysterious knowledge of the art of fishing and they consider themselves incompletely equipped for the hampstead ponds with a pickle jar and wide mouthed bottle
unless he is with them and barking tremendously
he may be seen most days in oxford street
and unintelligible to the man wholly of the dog's conception and execution contrariwise when the man has projects
apparently to visit a dog at harrow he was so intent on that direction the north wall of burlington house gardens between the arcade and the albany offers a shy spot for appointments among blind men at about two or three o'clock in the afternoon they sit very uncomfortably
on a sloping stone there and compare notes their dogs may always be observed at the same time openly disparaging the men they keep to one another and settling where they shall respectively take their men when they begin to move again at a small butcher's in a shy neighbourhood
there is no reason for suppressing the name it is by notting hill and gives upon the district called the potteries i know a shaggy black and white dog who keeps a drover he is a dog of an easy disposition and too frequently allows this drover to get drunk
on these occasions it is the dog's custom to sit outside the public house keeping his eye on a few sheep and thinking i have seen him with six sheep plainly casting up in his mind how many he began with when he left the market and at what places he has left the rest
a light has gradually broken on him he has remembered at what butcher's he left them and in a burst of grave satisfaction has caught a fly off his nose and shown himself much relieved if i could at any time have doubted the fact that it was he who kept the drover
and not the drover who kept him it would have been abundantly proved by his way of taking undivided charge of the six sheep when the drover came out besmeared with red ochre and beer and gave him wrong directions which he calmly disregarded
he has taken the sheep entirely into his own hands has merely remarked with respectful firmness that instruction would place them under an omnibus you had better confine your attention to yourself you will want it all and has driven his charge away with an intelligence of ears and tail
and a knowledge of business that has left his lout of a man very very far behind as the dogs of shy neighbourhoods usually betray a slinking consciousness of being in poor circumstances for the most part manifested in an aspect of anxiety an awkwardness in their play
and a misgiving that somebody is going to harness them to something to pick up a living so the cats of shy neighbourhoods exhibit a strong tendency to relapse into barbarism not only are they made selfishly ferocious by ruminating on the surplus population around them
and on the densely crowded state of all the avenues to cat's meat not only is there a moral and politico economical haggardness in them traceable to these reflections but they evince a physical deterioration
and also in the back settlements of drury lane in appearance they are very like the women among whom they live they seem to turn out of their unwholesome beds into the street without any preparation they leave their young families to stagger about the gutters
in particular i remark that when they are about to increase their families an event of frequent recurrence the resemblance is strongly expressed in a certain dusty dowdiness down at heel self neglect and general giving up of things
i cannot honestly report that i have ever seen a feline matron of this class washing her face when in an interesting condition not to prolong these notes of uncommercial travel among the lower animals of shy neighbourhoods by dwelling at length upon the exasperated moodiness of the tom cats
i will come to a close with a word on the fowls of the same localities that anything born of an egg and invested with wings should have got to the pass that it hops contentedly down a ladder into a cellar and calls that going home
is a circumstance so amazing as to leave one nothing more in this connexion to wonder at
have taken to grovelling in bricks and mortar and mud have forgotten all about live trees and make roosting places of shop boards barrows oyster tubs bulk heads and door scrapers i wonder at nothing concerning them and take them as they are
i accept as products of nature and things of course a reduced bantam family of my acquaintance in the hackney road who are incessantly at the pawnbroker's i cannot say that they enjoy themselves for they are of a melancholy temperament but what enjoyment they are capable of
they derive from crowding together in the pawnbroker's side entry here they are always to be found in a feeble flutter as if they were newly come down in the world and were afraid of being identified i know a low fellow originally of a good family from dorking
who takes his whole establishment of wives in single file
emerges with them at the bottle entrance and so passes his life seldom in the season going to bed before two in the morning over waterloo bridge there is a shabby old speckled couple they belong to the wooden french bedstead washing stand and towel horse making trade
has an idea of entrusting an egg to that particular denomination or merely understands that she has no business in the building and is consequently frantic to enter it i cannot determine but she is constantly endeavouring to undermine the principal door while her partner who is infirm upon his legs
walks up and down encouraging her and defying the universe but the family i have been best acquainted with
reside in the densest part of bethnal green their abstraction from the objects among which they live or rather their conviction that those objects have all come into existence in express subservience to fowls has so enchanted me that i have made them the subject of many journeys at divers hours
after careful observation of the two lords and the ten ladies of whom this family consists i have come to the conclusion that their opinions are represented by the leading lord and leading lady the latter as i judge an aged personage
afflicted with a paucity of feather and visibility of quill that gives her the appearance of a bundle of office pens when a railway goods van that would crush an elephant comes round the corner tearing over these fowls they emerge unharmed from under the horses
perfectly satisfied that the whole rush was a passing property in the air which may have left something to eat behind it they look upon old shoes wrecks of kettles and saucepans and fragments of bonnets as a kind of meteoric discharge for fowls to peck at
peg tops and hoops they account i think as a sort of hail shuttlecocks as rain or dew gaslight comes quite as natural to them as any other light and i have more than a suspicion that in the minds of the two lords
i have established it as a certain fact that they always begin to crow when the public house shutters begin to be taken down
chapter seventeen daylight a new day dawned for me on the twenty fifth of february i rose as usual a few minutes before six it was the morning of my release or in prison language my discharge
yet i felt no excitement i was as calm as my cell walls strange the reader will say yet not so strange after all every day had been filled with expectancy and anticipation had discounted the reality
instead of waiting till eight o'clock the usual breakfast hour
but when he came again a few minutes later to see if i had done i saw through the game the authorities wished to discharge me rapidly before the hour when my friends would assemble at the prison gates and so lessen the force of the demonstration
i slackened speed at once drank my tea in sips and munched my dry bread with great deliberation come said superintendent burchell you're very slow this morning oh i replied there's no hurry
after twelve months of it a few minutes make little difference burchell put the words and my smile together and gave the game up down in the bathroom at the foot of the debtors wing my clothes were set out
and some kind hand had spread a piece of bright carpet for my feet i dressed very leisurely with equal tardiness i went through the ceremony of receiving my effects carefully checking every article and counting the money coin by coin
the governor tendered me half a sovereign the highest sum a prisoner can earn thank you i said but i can't take their money we had to go through the farce in the little gate house i met mister bradlaugh missus besant and my wife
colonel milman wished us good bye the gate opened and a mighty shout broke from the huge crowd outside from all parts of london they had wended in the early morning to greet me and there they stood in their thousands
yet i felt rather sad than elated the world was so full of wrong
as our open carriage crawled through the dense crowd i saw men's lips twitching and women shedding tears they crowded round us eager for a shake of the hand a word a look at length we got free
and drove towards the hall of science followed by a procession of brakes and other vehicles over half a mile long there was a public breakfast at which hundreds sat down i took a cup of tea but ate nothing after a long imprisonment
i could not trust my stomach and i had to make a speech
secretary of the society for the repeal of the blasphemy laws had made speeches which i should blush to transcribe i rose to respond it was a ticklish moment but i found i had a voice still and the words came readily enough
concluding my address i said i thank you for your greeting i am not played out i am thinner the doctor told me i had lost two stone and i believe it but after all i do not think the ship's timbers are much injured
the rogues ran me aground but they never made me haul down the flag now i am floated again i mean to let the old flag stream out on the wind as of yore i mean to join the rest of our fleet in fighting the pirates and slavers
on the high seas of thought an hour afterwards my feet were on my own fender i was home again what a delicious sensation after twelve months in a prison cell friends prescribed a rest at the seaside for me
but i felt that the best tonic was work in less than three days i settled everything i resumed the editorship of the freethinker at once and began filling up my list of engagements on meeting the committee
who had managed our affairs in our absence i found everything in perfect order besides a considerable profit at the banker's messrs a hilditch r o smith j grout and g standring had given ungrudgingly of their time
mister c herbert acting as treasurer had kept the accounts with painstaking precision and missus besant had proved how a woman could take the lead of men nor must i forget mister robert forder
the secretary of the national secular society who acted as shopman at our publishing office and sustained the business by his assiduity i had also to thank doctor aveling for his interim editorship of the freethinker
and the admirable manner in which he had conducted progress the first number of the freethinker under my fresh editorship appeared on the following thursday in concluding my introductory address i said
i promise the readers of the freethinker that they shall so far as my powers avail find no diminution in the vigor and vivacity of its attacks on the shams and superstitions of our age not only the writer's pen
but the artist's pencil shall be busy in this good work and the absurdities of faith shall if possible be slain with laughter priests and fools are as goldsmith said the two classes who dread ridicule
and we are pledged to an implacable war with both
the artist's pencil yes i had resolved to repeat what i was punished for i left written instructions against the publication of comic bible sketches in the freethinker during my imprisonment but
although i would not impose the risk on others i was determined to face it myself a fortnight after my release the sketches were resumed and they have been continued ever since
on march twelfth i then said
mister bradlaugh has said that the freethought party which no one will dispute his right to speak for looks to me among others after my imprisonment to maintain with dignity whatever position i have won
i hope i shall not disappoint the expectation but i should like it to be clearly understood
after suffering a cruel and unjust sentence for no crime except that of thinking and speaking freely is to stand again for the same right he exercised before to pursue the very policy for which he was attacked
precisely because he was attacked and to flinch no hair's breadth from the line he pursued before at least until the opposition resorts to suasion instead of force and tries to win by criticism
it is my intention to morrow morning to drive to the west of london and to leave the first copy of this week's freethinker pulled from the press at judge north's house with my compliments and my card
prolonged applause greeted this announcement and i kept my word judge north had the first copy of the re illustrated freethinker and i hope he relished at any rate it showed him as john bright says
force is no remedy at the banquet i refer to i was presented with a purse of gold in common with mister ramsey and an illuminated address which ran as follows
to george william foote vice president of the national secular society
for the so called offence of blasphemy in offering you on your release this illuminated address and the accompanying purse of gold we do not seek to give you recompense for the sufferings and insults which have been heaped upon you
we bring them only as a symbol of our thanks to you thanks because on your trial you spoke nobly for the right of free speech on religious questions thanks because you bore without a sign of flinching a sentence at once cruel and unjust
faithful in the prison as on the platform signed on behalf of the national secular society
greatly also did i value the greeting i received with my two fellow prisoners from the working men of east london at a crowded meeting in the large hall of the haggerston road club attended by representatives of other associations
i was presented with the following address
the political council of the borough of hackney workmen's club present this testimonial to george william foote as a token of admiration of the courage displayed by him in the advocacy of free speech
and in sympathy for the sufferings endured during twelve months imprisonment for the same under barbarous laws unfitted for the spirit of a free people signed on behalf of the council alfred pike president chas knight secretary
the largest audience that ever assembled at the hall of science listened to my first lecture at which mister bradlaugh presided two days after my release seventeen hundred people crowded into a room that seats nine hundred
and as many were unable to gain admission similar welcomes awaited me in the provinces and ever since my audiences as well as the sale of my journal and writings have been far larger than before my imprisonment hundreds of people
as they have told me have been converted to freethought by my sufferings my lectures and my pamphlets i hope judge north is satisfied to prevent a break down in case of another prosecution
mister ramsey and i clubbed our resources and purchased printing plant and machinery so that the production of the freethinker and other blasphemous literature might be done under our own root the bigots had proved themselves unable to intimidate us
and as we were no longer at the mercy of printers they gave up the idea of molesting us
feeling there was no prospect of release and resigned to my fate i settled down to endure it with a resolution to avail myself of every possible mitigation colonel milman included us among the special exercise men
and we enjoyed the luxury of two outings every day our solitary confinement being thus reduced to twenty two hours instead of twenty three by finessing i also managed to get an old feather pillow from the store room
which proved a comfortable addition to the wooden bolster the alteration in our food i have already mentioned sir william harcourt did absolutely nothing for us but the secretary of the prison commissioners gave instructions that we were to be treated as kindly as possible
nothing might happen to us one of the upper officers whom i have seen since told me we were a source of great anxiety to the authorities and they were very glad to see our backs mister anderson called on me in my cell
and asked what he could do for me open the front door i answered with a pleasant smile he regretted his inability to do that well then i continued let me have something to read yes he said i can do that
there are many books in the prison library but not one i retorted fit for an educated man to read they are all selected by the chaplain well he answered i cannot give you what we haven't got
but why not let me have my own books to read i asked mister anderson replied that such a thing was unheard of but i persisted in my plea which colonel milman generously supported well said mister anderson i suppose we must
your own books may be sent in and the governor can let you have them two at a time but you know you mustn't have such writings as you are here for oh i replied you have the power to check that they will all pass through the governor's hands
and i will order in nothing but what colonel milman might read himself oh said mister anderson with a humorous smile which the governor and the inspector shared i can't say what colonel milman might like to read the interview ended and my books came
what a joy they were i read gibbon and mosheim right through again with carlyle's frederick french revolution and cromwell forster's statesmen of the commonwealth and a mass of literature on the rebellion and the protectorate
i dug deep into the literature of evolution i read over again all shakespeare shelley spenser swift and byron besides a number of more modern writers french books were not debarred so i read diderot voltaire
paul louis courier and the whole of flaubert
which i never attacked before but which i found after conquering the apparent dullness of the first half of the first volume to be one of the greatest of his triumphs mister gerald massey then on a visit to england was churlishly refused a visiting order from the home office
but he sent me his two magnificent volumes on natural genesis and a note to the interim editor of the freethinker requesting him to tell me that i had his sympathy i fight the same battle as himself said mister massey
although with a somewhat different weapon i was also favored with a presentation copy of verses by the one writer i most admire whose genius i reverenced long before the public and its critics discovered it it would gratify my vanity
rather than my prudence to reveal his name agreeably to the proverb that if you give some men an inch they will take an ell i induced the governor to let me pursue my study of italian first he allowed me a grammar then a conversation book
then a dictionary then a prose reading book and then a poetical anthology these volumes being an addition to the two ordinary ones gave my little domicile a civilised appearance cleaners sometimes when my door was opened
looked in from the corridor with an expression of awe why i heard one say he's got a cell like a bookshop with my books my italian and my colenso i managed to kill the time and although the snake like days were still long
they were less venomous yet the remainder of my sentence was a terrible ordeal i never lost heart but i lost strength my brain was miraculously clear but it grew weaker as the body languished
and before my release i could hardly read more than an hour or two a day the only break in the monotony of my life was when i received a visit missus besant doctor aveling mister wheeler and my wife saw me occasionally
either in the ordinary way at the end of every three months or by special order from the home office i saw my visitors in the prison cages only our faces being visible to each other through a narrow slit we stood about six feet apart
improper conversation i could not shake a friend's hand or kiss my wife the interviews lasted only half an hour in the middle of a sentence time was shouted the keys rattled
and the little oasis had to be left for another journey over the desert sand every three months i wrote a letter on a prison sheet two sides were printed on and the others ruled wide with a notice that nothing was to be written between the lines
no doubt the authorities were anxious to save the prisoners the pain of too much mental exertion i foiled them by writing small and abbreviating nearly every word my letters were of course read before they were sent out
and the answers read before they reached me no respect being shown for the privacies of affection i addressed my letters to doctor aveling for publication in the freethinker one of these documents lies before me as i write
it was the extra letter i sent to my wife before leaving and contains directions as to clothes and other domestic matters i venture to reproduce the advertisement which occupies the whole front page
a prisoner is permitted to write and receive a letter after three months of his sentence have expired provided his conduct and industry have been satisfactory during that time and the same privilege will be continued afterwards on the same conditions and at the same intervals
all letters of an improper or idle tendency either to or from prisoners
will be suppressed the permission to write and receive letters
with their respectable friends and not that they may hear the news of the day
and must be legibly written and not crossed neither clothes money nor any other articles are allowed to be received by any officers of the prison for the use of prisoners all parcels containing such articles intended for prisoners on discharge
must bear outside the name of the prisoner and be sent to the governor or they will not be received persons attempting otherwise to introduce any article to or for a prisoner are liable to a fine or imprisonment and the prisoner concerned may be severely punished
the authorities are not so careful about the letter being legible by its recipient they do not insert it in an envelope but just fold it up and fasten it with a little gum so that the letter is nearly sure to be torn in the opening
the address is written on the back by the prisoner himself before the sheet is folded lines are provided for the purpose and it is pretty easy to see what the letter is surely a little more consideration might be shown for a prisoner's friends
they are not criminals and as the prison authorities incur the expense of postage they might throw in a cheap envelope without ruining the nation mister kemp was released on may twenty fifth in a state of exhaustion
it is doubtful if he could have survived another three months torture what illness in the frightful solitude of a prison cell is i know i once caught a bad cold and for the first time in my life had the toothache
it came on about two o'clock in the afternoon and as applications for the doctor are only received before breakfast i had to wait until the next day before i could obtain relief it arrived of itself about one o'clock
the doctor had considerately left my case till last in order to give me proper attention mister ramsey was released on november twenty fourth he was welcomed at the prison gates by a crowd of sympathisers and entertained at a breakfast in the hall of science
where he made an interesting speech by a whimsical calculation i reckoned that i had still to swallow twenty one gallons of prison tea and twelve prison sermons christmas day was the only variation in the remainder of my term
being regarded as a sabbath it was a day of idleness the fibre was removed from my cell my apartment was clean and tidy a bit of dubbin gave an air of newness to my old shoes and after a good wash
and an energetic use of my three inch comb i was ready for the festivities of the season after a sumptuous breakfast on dry bread and sweet water misnamed tea i took a walk in the yard and on returning to my cell
i sat down and wondered how my poor wife was spending the auspicious day what a merry christmas for a woman whose husband was eating his heart out in g a o l the chapel bell roused me from phantasy
while the other half of the prison was engaged in devotion i did an hour's grinding at italian and read a chapter of gibbon after which i heard the miserable sinners return from the chapel to their cells
my christmas dinner consisted of the usual diet and after eating it i went for another brief tramp in the yard the officers seemed to relax their usual rigor and many of the prisoners exchanged greetings
did the beef stick in yer ribs such were the flowers of conversation from the talk i overheard i gathered that under the old management
all the inmates had a blow out on christmas day in the shape of beef vegetables plum pudding and a pint of beer some of the old hands who remembered those happy days bitterly bewailed the decay of prison hospitality
their lamentations were worthy of a conservative orator at a rural meeting the present was a poor thing compared with the past and they sighed for the tender grace of a day that is dead after exercise i went to chapel
parson plaford preached a seasonable sermon which would have been more heartily relished on a full stomach he told us what a blessed time christmas was and that people did well to be joyful on the anniversary of their savior's birth
before dismissing us with his blessing to our little rooms which was his habitual euphemism for our cells he remarked that he could not wish us a happy christmas in our unhappy condition but he would wish us a peaceful christmas
and he ventured to promise us that boon if after leaving chapel we fell on our knees and besought pardon for our sins most of the prisoners received this advice with a grin for their cell floors were black leaded
and genuflexions in their little rooms gave them too much knee cap to their trousers at six o'clock i had my third instalment of christmas fare the last mouthfuls being consumed to the accompaniment of church bells
the neighboring bethels were announcing their evening performance and the sound penetrated into my cell true believers were wending their way to church while the heretic who had dared to deride their creed and denounce their hypocrisy
was regaling himself on dry bread in one of their dungeons the bells rang out against each other with a wild glee as i paced my narrow floor they seemed mad with intoxication of victory
they mocked me with a bacchanalian frenzy of triumph yet i smiled grimly for their clamor was no more than the ancient fool's shout great is diana of the ephesians great christ has had his day since
but he in turn is dead dead in man's intellect dead in man's heart dead in man's life a mere phantom flitting about the aisles of churches where priestly mummers go through the rites of a phantom creed
i took my prison bible and read the story of christ's birth in matthew and luke mark and john having never heard of it or forgotten it what an incongruous jumble of absurdities a poor fairy tale of the world's childhood
utterly insignificant beside the stupendous revelations of science from the fanciful story of the magi following a star to shelley's world on worlds are rolling ever what an advance
and sylvia would open her eyes to see jennie unfastening the shutters and spreading out the fresh clothes so this morning she wondered what the tapping meant and called out come in the door opened very slowly and a little negro girl
with a round woolly head and big startled eyes stood peering in she was barefooted and wore a straight garment of faded blue cotton for a moment the two children stared at each other
then sylvia remembered that aunt connie's little girl was coming to live with her mother are you estralla she asked eagerly sitting up in bed yas missy replied the little darky lifting the big pitcher of water and bringing it into the room
where she stood holding it as if not knowing what to do next set the pitcher down said sylvia yas missy said estralla her big eyes fixed on the little white girl in the pretty bed who was smiling at her in so friendly a fashion
she took a step or two forward her eyes still fixed on sylvia and not noticing the little footstool directly in front of her over which she stumbled with a loud crash breaking the pitcher and sending the hot water over her bare feet oh mammy mammy
mammy she screamed lying face downward on the floor with the overturned footstool and broken pitcher while the steaming water soaked through the cotton dress in a moment sylvia was out of bed get up estralla she commanded
and stop screaming the little darky's wails ceased and she looked up at the slender white figure standing in front of her
i'se all scalded and cut she sobbed an if i does get up
and at the thought of new trouble in store for her she began to scream again get up this minute said sylvia i don't believe the water was hot enough to scald you it never is really hot here help me sop it up and grabbing her bath towel
sylvia began to mop up the little stream of water which was trickling across the floor estralla managed to get to her feet she was still holding fast to the handle of the broken pitcher the front of her cotton dress was soaked but she was not hurt
i'll get whipped yas'm i will fer breaking the pitcher you won't declared sylvia half angrily it's my mother's pitcher and i'll tell her you didn't mean to break it now you go and put on another dress and tell jennie to come up here and wipe up this floor
i ain't got no other dress an if i goes an tells i'll get whipped persisted the child sylvia began to wonder what she could do she thought estralla was stupid and clumsy to fall down and break the pitcher
and now she thought her silly to be so frightened i tells you missy i su'ly will be whipped she repeated so earnestly that sylvia began to believe it an when my mammy sees my dress all wet and estralla began to sob
but so quietly that sylvia realized the little darky was really frightened and unhappy don't cry estralla she said more gently patting her on the shoulder i'll tell you what to do you are just about my size and i'll give you one of my dresses
it's pink and it's faded a little but it's pretty and you take this towel and wipe up the floor as well as you can then you slip off your dress and put on mine while sylvia talked estralla stopped crying and began to look a little more cheerful
sylvia ran to the closet and was back in a moment with a pink checked gingham it had a number of tiny ruffles on the skirt and a little frill of lace around the neck landy you don't mean i kin keep that missy exclaimed estralla
her face radiant at the very thought yes quick somebody may come slip off your dress in a moment the old blue frock lay in a little heap on the floor and sylvia had slipped the pink dress over estralla's head and was fastening it
the little darky chuckled and laughed now as if she had not a trouble in the world listen estralla here pick up every bit of the pitcher and put the pieces on the chair nobody shall know that you broke it
you can tell your mammy i gave you the dress now run quick my mother may come estralla stood quite still looking at sylvia she had stopped laughing
she asked i don't know anyway nobody shall know that you broke it you won't be whipped run along urged sylvia but estralla did not move i don't keer if i is whipped she announced
sylvia sylvia sounded her mother's voice and both the little girls looked at each other with startled eyes run said sylvia giving estralla a little push run out on the balcony
estralla did not question the command and in a moment carrying dress and towel
why child what has happened exclaimed missus fulton coming into the room and looking at the overturned footstool the pieces of the broken pitcher and at sylvia standing in the middle of the floor with an anxious half frightened expression
don't look so frightened dear child a broken pitcher isn't worth it said missus fulton smilingly it's only hot water and won't hurt anything only father is waiting for breakfast so use cold water this morning here is your blue muslin i'll tie your sash when you come down
and giving sylvia a kiss her mother hurried away my landy whispered estralla peering in from the balcony window your mammy's a angel an so is you missy
landy i'd a sight ruther be whipped than have you scolded missy sylvia looked at her in astonishment estralla with round serious eyes stood gazing at her as if she was ready to do anything that sylvia could possibly ask run
it's all right said sylvia with a little smile and estralla with a backward look over her shoulder went slowly out of the room i'm gwine to recollect this jes as long as i live estralla whispered as she made her way back to the kitchen
nobuddy ever cared if i was whipped before or if i wasn't whipped an i'll do somethin fer missy sometime i will an she give me dis fine dress too she bent over and smoothed out one of the little ruffles and chuckled happily
her mammy was busy preparing breakfast when estralla slid quietly into the kitchen when she did look around and saw the child wearing the pink dress she nearly dropped the dish of hot bacon which jennie was waiting to take to the dining room
did missy give it to you well you step out to the cabin and take it off this minute put you blue frock right on like as not her mammy won't let you keep it and aunt connie hurried jennie off to the dining room with the breakfast tray
estralla did not know what to do her blue dress was hung over a syringa bush behind the cabin and at the dreadful thought that missus fulton might take away the pink dress she began to cry missy sylvia said twas faded she said to put it on
whimpered estralla aunt connie began to be more hopeful if the dress was faded and she turned and looked at it more closely well honey tis faded an i guess missy sylvia's mammy won take it back
an it's the sabbath day so you jes wear it she said patting the little woolly head mammy's glad to have you dressed up but you be mighty keerful yas mammy i jes love missy sylvia replied the little girl
now all smiles and forgetting how nearly she had come to serious trouble nothing more was said to sylvia about the broken pitcher but when jennie put the room in order and brought down the broken pieces aunt connie exclaimed good massy
it's a good thing my estralla didn't do that i'd a cuffed her well i su'ly would sylvia did not think to tell her mother about the gift of the pink dress to estralla she did not feel quite happy that she had not explained the broken pitcher to her mother
but she had promised estralla that she would not tell and sylvia knew that a promise was a very serious thing something not to be easily forgotten she did not see estralla again that day
and jennie brought the hot water as usual the next morning grace and mammy esther called for sylvia on monday morning and sylvia at once told her friend that she had been named from the song this seemed very wonderful to grace and she listened to sylvia's explanation of
excelling instead of spelling and said she didn't think it was of any consequence but when sylvia told her what captain carleton had said about the forts grace shook her head and looked very serious don't tell elinor mayhew sylvia
because really south carolina does own the forts my father said so he said that south carolina was a sovereign state she concluded what's that what's a sovereign questioned sylvia grace shook her head
it had sounded like a very fine thing when her father had spoken it so she had repeated it with great pride we can ask miss rosalie she suggested mammy esther left the girls at the gate of miss patten's garden as they went up the path
flora hayes came to meet them i was waiting for you she said
my mother is going to write and ask your mothers if they will give me the pleasure of your company i am sure i can come declared grace and i think it's lovely of you to ask me
yes indeed thank you very much for asking me replied sylvia she had visited the hayes plantation early in the summer and thought it a more wonderful place even than the big mansion on tradd street
where the hayes family lived in the winter months mister hayes owned hundreds of negroes and raised a great quantity of cotton the house at the plantation was large with many balconies and cool pleasant rooms
flora had a pair of white ponies and there were pigeons and a number of dogs sylvia was sure that it would be a beautiful visit especially as grace would be there as she went smilingly toward her seat in the schoolroom she passed elinor mayhew who was already seated
yankee whispered elinor sharply looking at her with scornful eyes but sylvia remembering that her father had said that all americans were yankees
chapter three sylvia in trouble the hayes plantation was about ten miles distant from charleston on the opposite side of the ashley river flora told sylvia and grace that the hayes coachman would drive them out
and that they would start early on saturday morning sylvia remembering her former visit knew well how delightful the drive would be and thinking of the pleasure in store quite forgot to be troubled by elinor mayhew's hostility
at recess the girls usually walked about in the garden or tossed a ball back and forth miss rosalie would sit on the broad piazza overlooking the garden her fingers busy with some piece of delicate embroidery to day
as they filed out and down the steps elinor whispered to several of her companions and suddenly sylvia realized that she was standing alone grace waite had lingered to speak to miss rosalie
flora had been excused just before recess as her black mammy had arrived with a note from missus hayes the other girls were gathered in a little group about elinor who was evidently telling them something of great interest
sylvia walked slowly along toward a little summer house where miss patten sometimes had little tea parties she hoped grace would not stay long with miss patten the other girls were between sylvia and the arbor and none of them moved to let her pass
nor did any of them speak to her as she paused with a word of greeting now girls she heard elinor say and the others half under their breath but only too distinctly for sylvia
elinor mayhew stood on the steps you are just as much a yankee as i am and you ought to be proud of it declared sylvia facing the older girl hear that girls called elinor to the group about her
there was a little angry murmur from the others don't you dare say that again miss boston called may bailey who stood next to elinor sylvia was now thoroughly angry
she knew of no reason why these girls should treat her in so unkind a fashion she felt very desolate and unhappy but she faced them bravely yankees yankees it's what all americans are she declared defiantly
in an instant the little girls were all about her elinor mayhew was holding her hands and the others were pushing her along the path to the shore the thick growing shrubs hid them from the house sylvia did not cry out or speak
she was not at all afraid nor did she resist we ought to make her take it back said may bailey as elinor stopped and they all stood in a close group about sylvia
she might as well learn that south carolinians will not be insulted and elinor lifted her head proudly i won't take it back retorted sylvia and you are the ones who will have to apologize yes
every one of you before i will ever speak to you again hear that girls
she means she will tell miss rosalie said one of the girls i don't either i can look after my own afffairs retorted sylvia bravely i'm not a tell tale
get down on your knees commanded elinor trying to push the little girl there's the bell and they all turned and scampered back to the house leaving sylvia on the path
for elinor had let go of her so suddenly that she had fallen forward her knees were hurt and one of her hands was bruised by the fall for a moment she lay sobbing quietly she was angry and miserable
she had been brave enough when the girls had seemed to threaten her but now her courage was gone she could not go back to the schoolroom and face all those enemies if miss rosalie came in search of her she might not be able to resist telling her what had happened
and miserable and unhappy as she was sylvia resolved that she would never tell but elinor mayhew and all the rest of them shall be sorry for this yes
they shall she sobbed as she got to her feet and turned toward the shore she knew she must either go straight back to the schoolroom or else find a hiding place until they had ceased to search for her there was a wall at the foot of the garden covered with fragrant jessamine and myrtle
if she could only get over that wall thought sylvia she would be safe she ran swiftly forward and began to scramble up grasping the sturdy vines and finding a foothold on some bit of rough brick
she reached the top just as she heard miss rosalie's servant calling her name sylvia looked down to the further side the vines drooped over and below the wall a high bank of sand sloped to the shore holding tight to the vines she slid down
hitting her bruised knees against the rough surface the vines cut her hands and when she tumbled into the sand her dress was torn and soiled her pretty hair ribbon was gone and her once white stockings were grimy beside these misfortunes her hands were bleeding
never in all her life had sylvia been so wretched she sat quite still in the warm sand and wondered what she could do if she went home her mother would insist upon an explanation of her untidy condition beside that
sylvia was not sure if she could find her way home unless she climbed back into the garden she looked along the shore at the landing place not far distant where several boats were bobbing up and down in the wash of the incoming tide
she could see boats coming and going between the forts and the city she could see grim fort sumter with its guns that seemed to look straight at her she watched a schooner coming across the bay and realized that it was coming to that very wharf
a number of men landed and several carts came down and boxes were unloaded and negroes carried them to the schooner sylvia got up and walked along the shore until she was near the wharf and stood watching the negroes as they lifted the heavy boxes
she wished she could ask one of them to tell her the way home then she noticed a tall figure in uniform coming up the wharf it's captain carleton she exclaimed joyfully quite forgetting for the moment her torn dress and scratched hands as she ran toward him
is it sylvia fulton exclaimed the surprised captain looking down at the untidy little figure why what has happened oh dear sobbed sylvia i guess i'm lost
well well it's lucky you came down to this wharf
and the good natured captain rested a kindly hand on the little girl's shoulder and walked down the wharf sylvia heard the men talking of the charleston arsenal and of the boxes of arms which were to be taken on the schooner to fort sumter
the captain bathed the little hurt hands and flushed face talking pleasantly to the little girl about the schooner and asking her if she did not think it a much finer craft than her father's small boat so in a little while she was comforted and quite at home
now sit here by the cabin window and i will come back and take you home as soon as i settle this trouble about my supplies and the captain hurried back to the wharf sylvia sat quite still and looked out of the round port hole
she felt very tired and leaned her head against the cushioned wall she could hear the monotonous chant of the negroes and feel the swaying motion of the vessel and soon was fast asleep
she did not know when the schooner was towed out into the channel nor when the sails were hoisted and they went sailing down the bay for captain carleton had entirely forgotten his little guest
when he hurried back to the wharf he discovered a little group of charleston citizens one of whom was elinor mayhew's father disputing the right of the united states officers to take guns from the charleston arsenal to fort sumter and when the matter was settled
not until they were ready to land at the fort did he remember his little friend he went down to the cabin and found sylvia fast asleep poor little yankee
i wonder what will happen to her if south carolina really leaves the union he thought and then his face grew troubled as he remembered that mister and missus fulton must be in great trouble and anxiety over the disappearance of their little daughter
but first of all he must see the schooner's cargo safely unloaded at fort sumter and send his men back to fort moultrie
an unexpected journey when sylvia did not come in with the other girls miss patten sent a maid in search of her but she did not search very carefully she called sylvia's name a few times sauntered about the garden
and then reported can't find missy sylvia she was then told to go straight to missus fulton's house on the east battery and see if miss sylvia had reached home miss patten did not feel anxious
she thought it probable that the little northern girl did not realize the rules of the school had become tired and so started for home did miss sylvia say anything to any of you young ladies about leaving the grounds
but they all declared that they knew nothing of her whereabouts she was on the path behind us when the bell rang volunteered may bailey elinor's face was unusually flushed and she kept her eyes on her book probably
the little yankee as she called sylvia even in her thoughts had run home to tell her mother of the trouble by the time miss patten's messenger had reached the fulton house sylvia was in the cabin of the little schooner
the girl gave her message to missus fulton in so indefinite a manner that at first sylvia's mother hardly understood whether sylvia was in the garden of the school or had started for home estralla was standing near the steps and began whimpering
nonsense estralla sylvia could not be lost in miss patten's garden said missus fulton but she decided to return to the school with the maid as they went down the street
who wandered about the paths and around the summer house estralla noticed two of the older girls talking together and heard the taller one say well wherever she is she needn't think we will ever take back one word she is a yankee
they'se done somethin to my missy decided estralla they'se scairt her she ran down the path toward the wall at the end of the garden and stopped suddenly for right in front of her caught on the jessamine vine which grew over the wall
she saw a fluttering blue ribbon dat's off'n missy sylvia's hair dat ribbon is she whispered reaching up for it holding it fast in her hands she looked closely at the mass of heavy vines and nodded her little woolly head
decided estralla and in an instant she was going up the wall in a much easier manner than had been possible for sylvia she dropped on the further side just as sylvia had done and traced sylvia's steps to near the landing place
then she stopped short men were loading boxes on a schooner at the end of the pier and she could see a tall officer in uniform standing on the deck of the vessel hullo here's another small girl
black one this time said one of the white sailors yas massa please
replied the little darky eagerly safe in the cabin nodded the good natured man estralla slipped behind a pile of boxes and watched for a chance to get on board the vessel without being seen she had heard many tales
told by the older colored people of little children yes and grown people too who had been enticed on board vessels in far off african ports and carried off to be sold into slavery estralla remembered that all those people in the stories were black
anyway she resolved that wherever missy sylvia went she would go with her in a few moments she saw a chance to run over the gangplank she went straight toward the cabin door and peered in
yes there was missy sylvia on the broad cushioned seat under the window very softly estralla tiptoed across the cabin just as she was about to speak sylvia's name the sound of approaching footsteps startled her and
sure that she would be sent on shore by whoever might discover her she looked about for a hiding place and the next instant she was curled up under the very seat on which sylvia was asleep it was not long before estralla followed her missy's example
but she was wide awake when captain carleton came into the cabin as soon as he returned to the deck estralla crawled out from her hiding place and looked about her wake up missy she whispered leaning over sylvia
and sylvia sat up quickly with a little cry of astonishment don't you be skeered said estralla softly
i knows jes how slaves are ketched yas'm i does my mammy tole me
there were tears in estralla's eyes she knew that her own brother had been sold the previous year and taken to a plantation in florida she had heard her mother say that she estralla might be sold any time she knew that slavery was a dreadful thing
for she realized that the vessel was moving swiftly through the water she wondered why captain carleton had gone away seeing estralla there gave her a dreadful certainty that what the little darky said might be true
perhaps the vessel might have others on board who were being taken off to be sold as estralla declared yas missy my mammy's tole me jes how white folks gets black folks fer slaves
yas and estralla's big eyes grew round with terror but i am a white girl estralla said sylvia estralla shook her head dolefully yas missy but i'se gwine to git you safe home
you do jes as i tell you an you'll be safe back with your mammy by ter morrow she declared you lay down and keep your eyes tight shut till i comes back she added and sylvia tired and frightened obeyed
the schooner was now coming to her landing at fort sumter estralla managed to get on deck without being noticed she did not know where they were but wherever it was she resolved to get sylvia out of the vessel and ran back to the cabin
jes keep right close to me she whispered and sylvia obeyed the two little girls crept up the cabin stairs and crouching close to the side of the cabin made their way toward the stern of the vessel
the crew and the soldiers and captain carleton were now all toward the bow a small boat swung at the stern of the schooner now missy we's got to git ourselves into that boat and row back home whispered estralla grasping the rope
at that moment sylvia turned to look back she could see a tall officer on the forward deck and without an instant's hesitation she ran toward him calling captain carleton captain carleton he turned smilingly toward her and sylvia clasped his hand
you are at fort sumter and it's all my fault he answered i forgot all about you until we were nearly here but one of my men is going to sail you safely home what's this he added as estralla appeared by sylvia's side
it's estralla her mammy is our cook said sylvia the captain looked a little puzzled he wondered how the little darky had got on board the vessel without being seen well she will be company for you
and you must ask your father and mother to forgive my carelessness in taking you so far from home said the captain it was sunset when sylvia and estralla escorted by one of the soldiers from fort sumter came walking up east battery
missus fulton was on the piazza and missus waite and grace were with her grace was the first to see and recognize sylvia and with a cry of delight ran to welcome her
the soldier had a note for missus fulton explaining that sylvia apparently on her way from school had wandered down to the landing and of captain carleton's forgetting her presence in the cabin
so that sylvia was not questioned that night in regard to her disappearance from miss patten's grace knew nothing of sylvia's encounter with elinor mayhew so no one could imagine why she had started for home without a word to miss patten
missus fulton was too rejoiced to have her little girl safely at home to question or blame her sylvia was not hungry the officer in charge of fort sumter had given the two children an excellent supper
but she was tired and very glad to have a warm bath and go straight to bed oh mother this has been the most horrid day in all my life she said as her mother brushed out the tangled yellow hair and helped her prepare for bed
it has been rather hard for your father and me missus fulton reminded her we began to fear some dreadful thing had happened to our little girl promise me sylvia never to run away from school again sylvia promised
that she was trying to escape the taunts and unfriendliness of her schoolmates but she remembered her promise she had declared proudly that she should not tell and hard as it was
she resolved that she would keep that promise but she wished with all her heart that she need not go to school another day do i have to go to miss patten's school mother she asked in so unhappy a voice that missus fulton realized something unpleasant had happened
cicero says
thirty one that to study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one's self to die the reason of which is
and employ it separately from the body which is a kind of apprenticeship and a resemblance of death or else because all the wisdom and reasoning in the world do in the end conclude in this point to teach us not to fear to die
and to say the truth either our reason mocks us or it ought to have no other aim but our contentment only nor to endeavour anything but in sum to make us live well and as the holy scripture says
at our ease all the opinions of the world agree in this that pleasure is our end though we make use of divers means to attain it they would otherwise be rejected at the first motion
for who would give ear to him that should propose affliction and misery for his end the controversies and disputes of the philosophical sects upon this point are merely verbal transcurramus solertissimas
nugas let us skip over those subtle trifles
there is more in them of opposition and obstinacy than is consistent with so sacred a profession but whatsoever personage a man takes upon himself to perform he ever mixes his own part with it
let the philosophers say what they will the thing at which we all aim even in virtue is pleasure it amuses me to rattle in ears this word which they so nauseate to and if it signify some supreme pleasure and contentment
it is more due to the assistance of virtue than to any other assistance whatever
is only the more seriously voluptuous
as that which is more favourable gentle and natural and not that from which we have denominated it the other and meaner pleasure if it could deserve this fair name it ought to be by way of competition and not of privilege
i find it less exempt from traverses and inconveniences than virtue itself and besides that the enjoyment is more momentary fluid and frail it has its watchings fasts and labours its sweat and its blood
and moreover has particular to itself so many several sorts of sharp and wounding passions and so dull a satiety attending it as equal it to the severest penance
as in nature one contrary is quickened by another or say when we come to virtue that like consequences and difficulties overwhelm and render it austere and inaccessible whereas
much more aptly than in voluptuousness they ennoble sharpen and heighten the perfect and divine pleasure they procure us he renders himself unworthy of it who will counterpoise its cost with its fruit
and neither understands the blessing nor how to use it those who preach to us that the quest of it is craggy difficult and painful but its fruition pleasant what do they mean by that but to tell us that it is always unpleasing
for what human means will ever attain its enjoyment the most perfect have been fain to content themselves to aspire unto it and to approach it only without ever possessing it but they are deceived
seeing that of all the pleasures we know the very pursuit is pleasant the attempt ever relishes of the quality of the thing to which it is directed for it is a good part of and consubstantial with the effect
the felicity and beatitude that glitters in virtue shines throughout all her appurtenances and avenues even to the first entry and utmost limits now
of all the benefits that virtue confers upon us the contempt of death is one of the greatest as the means that accommodates human life with a soft and easy tranquillity and gives us a pure and pleasant taste of living
without which all other pleasure would be extinct which is the reason why all the rules centre and concur in this one article and although they all in like manner with common accord teach us also to despise pain
the greater part of mankind passing over their whole lives without ever knowing what poverty is and some without sorrow or sickness as xenophilus the musician who lived a hundred and six years in a perfect and continual health
as also because at the worst death can whenever we please cut short and put an end to all other inconveniences but as to death it is inevitable omnes eodem cogimur
omnium versatur urna
we are all bound one voyage the lot of all sooner or later is to come out of the urn all must to eternal exile sail away
and consequently if it frights us tis a perpetual torment for which there is no sort of consolation there is no way by which it may not reach us we may continually turn our heads this way and that
as in a suspected country quae quasi saxum tantalo semper impendet ever
hangs over us cicero
eighteen our courts of justice often send back condemned criminals to be executed upon the place where the crime was committed but carry them to fine houses by the way prepare for them the best entertainment you can
somnum reducent sicilian dainties will not tickle their palates nor the melody of birds and harps bring back sleep
and torments himself by thinking of the blow to come claudianus in ruf ii one
the end of our race is death tis the necessary object of our aim which if it fright us
the remedy the vulgar use is not to think on't but from what brutish stupidity can they derive so gross a blindness they must bridle the ass by the tail
who in his folly seeks to advance backwards
tis no wonder if he be often trapped in the pitfall they affright people with the very mention of death and many cross themselves as it were the name of the devil and because the making a man's will is in reference to dying
not a man will be persuaded to take a pen in hand to that purpose till the physician has passed sentence upon and totally given him over and then betwixt and terror god knows in how fit a condition
of understanding he is to do it the romans by reason that this poor syllable death sounded so harshly to their ears and seemed so ominous
the late monsieur such and such a one
i was born betwixt eleven and twelve o'clock in the forenoon the last day of february fifteen thirty three according to our computation
previously the year commenced at easter
and it is now but just fifteen days since i was complete nine and thirty years old i make account to live at least as many more in the meantime to trouble a man's self with the thought of a thing so far off were folly
but what young and old die upon the same terms no one departs out of life otherwise than if he had but just before entered into it neither is any man so old and decrepit who
having heard of methuselah does not think he has yet twenty good years to come fool that thou art
rather consult effects and experience according to the common course of things tis long since that thou hast lived by extraordinary favour thou hast already outlived the ordinary term of life and that it is so
reckon up thy acquaintance how many more have died before they arrived at thy age than have attained unto it
how many several ways has death to surprise us
be as cautious as he may
whilst caius julius the physician was anointing the eyes of a patient death closed his own and if i may bring in an example of my own blood a brother of mine captain saint martin a young man
playing a match at tennis received a blow of a ball a little above his right ear which as it gave no manner of sign of wound or contusion he took no notice of it nor so much as sat down to repose himself but nevertheless
died within five or six hours after of an apoplexy occasioned by that blow these so frequent and common examples passing every day before our eyes
how is it possible a man should disengage himself from the thought of death or avoid fancying that it has us every moment by the throat what matter is it you will say which way it comes to pass
provided a man does not terrify himself with the expectation for my part i am of this mind and if a man could by any means avoid it though by creeping under a calf's skin i am one
but tis folly to think of doing anything that way they go they come they gallop and dance and not a word of death all this is very fine but withal when it comes either to themselves their wives their children or friends
surprising them at unawares and unprepared then what torment what outcries what madness and despair did you ever see anything so subdued so changed and so confounded a man must therefore make more early provision for it
and this brutish negligence could it possibly lodge in the brain of any man of sense
and to begin to deprive him of the greatest advantage he has over us let us take a way quite contrary to the common course let us disarm him of his novelty and strangeness let us converse and be familiar with him
and have nothing so frequent in our thoughts as death upon all occasions represent him to our imagination in his every shape at the stumbling of a horse at the falling of a tile at the least prick with a pin
let us presently consider and say to ourselves well and what if it had been death itself and thereupon let us encourage and fortify ourselves let us evermore amidst our jollity and feasting
set the remembrance of our frail condition before our eyes never suffering ourselves to be so far transported with our delights but that we have some intervals of reflecting upon and considering how many several ways this jollity of ours tends to death
and with how many dangers it threatens it the egyptians were wont to do after this manner who in the height of their feasting and mirth caused a dried skeleton of a man to be brought into the room to serve for a memento to their guests
grata superveniet quae
think each day when past is thy last the next day as unexpected
where death waits for us is uncertain let us look for him everywhere the premeditation of death is the premeditation of liberty he who has learned to die has unlearned to serve
there is nothing evil in life for him who rightly comprehends that the privation of life is no evil to know how to die delivers us from all subjection and constraint
surprised a few days before with a burning fever of which he died returning from an entertainment like this with his head full of idle fancies of love and jollity as mine was then and that for aught i knew the same destiny was attending me
presently the present will have gone never to be recalled lucretius iii
yet did not this thought wrinkle my forehead any more than any other it is impossible but we must feel a sting in such imaginations as these at first but with often turning and returning them in one's mind they at last
become so familiar as to be no trouble at all otherwise i for my part should be in a perpetual fright and frenzy for never man was so distrustful of his life never man so uncertain as to its duration
neither health which i have hitherto ever enjoyed very strong and vigorous and very seldom interrupted does prolong nor sickness contract my hopes every minute methinks i am escaping
and it eternally runs in my mind that what may be done to morrow may be done to day hazards and dangers do in truth little or nothing hasten our end and if we consider how many thousands more remain and hang over our heads
besides the accident that immediately threatens us we shall find that the sound and the sick those that are abroad at sea and those that sit by the fire those who are engaged in battle and those who sit idle at home are the one as near it as the other
no man is more fragile than another no man more certain than another of to morrow seneca
for anything i have to do before i die the longest leisure would appear too short were it but an hour's business i had to do a friend of mine the other day turning over my tablets found therein a memorandum of something i would have done after my decease
whereupon i told him as it was really true that though i was no more than a league's distance only from my own house and merry and well
because i was not certain to live till i came home as a man that am eternally brooding over my own thoughts and confine them to my own particular concerns i am at all hours as well prepared as i am ever like to be and death whenever he shall come
can bring nothing along with him i did not expect long before we should always as near as we can be booted and spurred and ready to go and above all things take care at that time to have no business with any one but one's self
why for so short a life tease ourselves with so many projects
for we shall there find work enough to do without any need of addition one man complains more than of death that he is thereby prevented of a glorious victory
for my part i am thanks be to god at this instant in such a condition that i am ready to dislodge whenever it shall please him without regret for anything whatsoever
i disengage myself throughout from all worldly relations my leave is soon taken of all but myself never did any one prepare to bid adieu to the world more absolutely and unreservedly
and to shake hands with all manner of interest in it than i expect to do the deadest deaths are the best
wretch that i am they cry one fatal day has deprived me of all joys of life
and the builder
a man must design nothing that will require so much time to the finishing or at least with no such passionate desire to see it brought to perfection we are born to action
let it be doing that i had designed
i would always have a man to be doing and as much as in him lies to extend and spin out the offices of life and then let death take me planting my cabbages indifferent to him and still less of my gardens not being finished
i saw one die who at his last gasp complained of nothing so much as that destiny was about to cut the thread of a chronicle he was then compiling when he was gone no farther than the fifteenth or sixteenth of our kings
in his rebus non addunt
una they do not add that dying we have no longer a desire to possess things
we are to discharge ourselves from these vulgar and hurtful humours to this purpose it was that men first appointed the places of sepulture adjoining the churches and in the most frequented places of the city
to accustom says lycurgus the common people women and children that they should not be startled at the sight of a corpse and to the end that the continual spectacle of bones graves and funeral obsequies should put us in mind of our frail condition
epulis spectacula dira
mensis it was formerly the custom to enliven banquets with slaughter and to combine with the repast the dire spectacle of men contending with the sword
silius italicus
fifty one and as the egyptians after their feasts were wont to present the company with a great image of death by one that cried out to them drink and be merry for such shalt thou be when thou art dead
so it is my custom to have death not only in my imagination but continually in my mouth neither is there anything of which i am so inquisitive and delight to inform myself as the manner of men's deaths their words looks and bearing
and it is manifest enough by my crowding in examples of this kind that i have a particular fancy for that subject if i were a writer of books i would compile a register with a comment of the various deaths of men he who should teach men to die
would at the same time teach them to live dicarchus made one to which he gave that title but it was designed for another and less profitable end peradventure some one may object that the pain and terror of dying
so infinitely exceed all manner of imagination
to premeditate is doubtless a very great advantage and besides is it nothing to go so far at least without disturbance or alteration moreover nature herself assists and encourages us
if the death be sudden and violent we have not leisure to fear if otherwise i perceive that as i engage further in my disease
i find i have much more ado to digest this resolution of dying when i am well in health than when languishing of a fever and by how much i have less to do with the commodities of life
by reason that i begin to lose the use and pleasure of them by so much i look upon death with less terror which makes me hope
i shall the more easily exchange the one for the other and as i have experienced in other occurrences that as caesar says
i have found that being well i have had maladies in much greater horror than when really afflicted with them
that by imagination i magnify those inconveniences by one half and apprehend them to be much more troublesome than i find them really to be when they lie the most heavy upon me i hope to find death the same
how nature deprives us of the light and sense of our bodily decay what remains to an old man of the vigour of his youth and better days
sixteen caesar to an old weather beaten soldier of his guards who came to ask him leave that he might kill himself taking notice of his withered body and decrepit motion pleasantly answered
thou fanciest then that thou art yet alive seneca
i do not think humanity capable of enduring such a change but nature leading us by the hand an easy and as it were an insensible pace step by step conducts us to that miserable state
and by that means makes it familiar to us so that we are insensible of the stroke when our youth dies in us though it be really a harder death than the final dissolution of a languishing body than the death of old age
forasmuch as the fall is not so great from an uneasy being to none at all
the body bent and bowed has less force to support a burden and it is the same with the soul and therefore it is that we are to raise her up firm and erect against the power of this adversary for
so if she once can assure herself she may boast which is a thing as it were surpassing human condition that it is impossible that disquiet
anxiety or fear or any other disturbance should inhabit or have any place in her non vulnus instants tyranni
not the menacing look of a tyrant shakes her well settled soul nor turbulent auster the prince of the stormy adriatic nor yet the strong hand of thundering jove such a temper moves
she is then become sovereign of all her lusts and passions
let us therefore as many of us as can get this advantage
for why should we fear to lose a thing which being lost cannot be lamented but also seeing we are threatened by so many sorts of death
than once to undergo one of them and what matters it
so in our death is the death of all things included and therefore to lament that we shall not be alive a hundred years hence is the same folly as to be sorry we were not alive a hundred years ago death is the beginning of another life
so did we weep and so much it cost us to enter into this and so did we put off our former veil in entering into it nothing can be a grievance that is but once
for there is no long nor short to things that are no more aristotle tells us that there are certain little beasts upon the banks of the river hypanis that never live above a day
they which die at eight of the clock in the morning die in their youth
shall i exchange for you this beautiful contexture of things tis the condition of your creation death is a part of you and whilst you endeavour to evade it you evade yourselves
this very being of yours that you now enjoy is equally divided betwixt life and death the day of your birth is one day's advance towards the grave prima
the first hour that gave us life took away also an hour
all the whole time you live you purloin from life and live at the expense of life itself the perpetual work of your life is but to lay the foundation of death you are in death whilst you are in life
because you still are after death when you are no more alive or if you had rather have it so you are dead after life but dying all the while you live and death handles the dying much more rudely than the dead
and more sensibly and essentially
you have had enough of it go your way satisfied
why not depart from life as a sated guest from a feast
if you have not known how to make the best use of it
life in itself is neither good nor evil it is the scene of good or evil as you make it and if you have lived a day you have seen all one day is equal and like to all other days
this very sun this moon these very stars this very order and disposition of things is the same your ancestors enjoyed and that shall also entertain your posterity
your grandsires saw no other thing nor will your posterity
and come the worst that can come the distribution and variety of all the acts of my comedy are performed in a year if you have observed the revolution of my four seasons they comprehend the infancy the youth
the virility and the old age of the world the year has played his part and knows no other art but to begin again it will always be the same thing
nor find anything else to please you tis the same thing over and over again
give place to others as others have given place to you equality is the soul of equity who can complain of being comprehended in the same destiny wherein all are involved besides live as long as you can
and yet i will place you in such a condition as you shall have no reason to be displeased
know you not that when dead there can be no other living self to lament you dead standing on your grave
nor shall you so much as wish for the life you are so concerned about
death is less to be feared than nothing if there could be anything less than nothing multo
neither can it any way concern you whether you are living or dead living by reason that you are still in being dead because you are no more moreover no one dies before his hour
the time you leave behind was no more yours than that was lapsed and gone before you came into the world nor does it any more concern you
wherever your life ends it is all there the utility of living consists not in the length of days but in the use of time a man may have lived long and yet lived but a little
make use of time while it is present with you it depends upon your will and not upon the number of days to have a sufficient length of life is it possible you can imagine never to arrive at the place towards which you are continually going
and yet there is no journey but hath its end and if company will make it more pleasant or more easy to you does not all the world go the self same way
does not all the world dance the same brawl that you do is there anything that does not grow old as well as you a thousand men a thousand animals a thousand other creatures die at the same moment that you die
no day has followed night in which there has not been heard sobs and sorrowing cries the companions of death and funerals
to what end should you endeavour to draw back if there be no possibility to evade it you have seen examples enough of those who have been well pleased to die as thereby delivered from heavy miseries
but have you ever found any who have been dissatisfied with dying it must therefore
why dost thou complain of me and of destiny do we do thee any wrong is it for thee to govern us or for us to govern thee though peradventure
thy age may not be accomplished yet thy life is a man of low stature is as much a man as a giant neither men nor their lives are measured by the ell
chiron refused to be immortal when he was acquainted with the conditions under which he was to enjoy it by the god of time itself and its duration his father saturn
do but seriously consider how much more insupportable and painful an immortal life would be to man than what i have already given him if you had not death you would eternally curse me for having deprived you of it
i have mixed a little bitterness with it
and that you might be so established in this moderation as neither to nauseate life nor have any antipathy for dying which i have decreed you shall once do i have tempered the one and the other betwixt pleasure and pain
which made him very wisely answer him
because said he it is indifferent
water earth air and fire and the other parts of this creation of mine are no more instruments of thy life than they are of thy death why dost thou fear thy last day
it contributes no more to thy dissolution than every one of the rest
it does not confess it every day travels towards death the last only arrives at it these are the good lessons our mother nature teaches
i have often considered with myself whence it should proceed that in war the image of death whether we look upon it in ourselves or in others should without comparison
for if it were not so it would be an army of doctors and whining milksops and that being still in all places the same there should be notwithstanding much more assurance in peasants and the meaner sort of people than in others of better quality
i believe in truth that it is those terrible ceremonies and preparations wherewith we set it out that more terrify us than the thing itself a new quite contrary way of living the cries of mothers wives and children
the visits of astounded and afflicted friends the attendance of pale and blubbering servants
our beds environed with physicians and divines in sum nothing but ghostliness and horror round about us we seem dead and buried already
children are afraid even of those they are best acquainted with when disguised in a visor and so tis with us the visor must be removed as well from things as from persons
that being taken away we shall find nothing underneath but the very same death that a mean servant or a poor chambermaid died a day or two ago without any manner of apprehension
chapter one the sorceress the plague raged in the city of london the destroying angel had gone forth and kindled with its fiery breath the awful pestilence
whole streets were shut up and almost every other house in the city bore the fatal red cross and the ominous inscription lord have mercy on us few people save the watchmen armed with halberts keeping guard over the stricken houses appeared in the streets
and those who ventured there shrank from each other and passed rapidly on with averted faces many even fell dead on the sidewalk and lay with their ghastly discolored faces upturned to the mocking sunlight until the dead cart came rattling along
and the drivers hoisted the body with their pitchforks on the top of their dreadful load few other vehicles besides those same dead carts appeared in the city now and they plied their trade busily day and night
and the cry of the drivers echoed dismally through the deserted streets bring out your dead bring out your dead all who could do so had long ago fled from the devoted city and london lay under the burning heat of the june sunshine
stricken for its sins by the hand of god the pest houses were full so were the plague pits where the dead were hurled in cartfuls and no one knew who rose up in health in the morning but that they might be lying stark and dead in a few hours
their pastors fled or lying in the plague pits and it was even resolved to convert the great cathedral of saint paul into a vast plague hospital cries and lamentations echoed from one end of the city to the other and death and charles
reigned over london together yet in the midst of all this many scenes of wild orgies and debauchery still went on within its gates as in our own day when the cholera ravaged paris the inhabitants of that facetious city made it a carnival
so now in london they were many who feeling they had but a few days to live at the most resolved to defy death and indulge in the revelry while they yet existed
and if in the midst of the frantic dance or debauched revel one of them dropped dead the others only shrieked with laughter hurled the livid body out to the street and the demoniac mirth grew twice as fast and furious as before
entered boldly closed and deserted houses and bore off with impunity whatever they pleased highwaymen infested hounslow heath and all the roads leading from the city levying a toll on all who passed and plundering fearlessly the flying citizens
in fact far famed london town in the year of grace sixteen sixty five
it was drawing to the close of an almost tropical june day that the crowd who had thronged the precincts of saint paul's since early morning began to disperse
was sinking from sight in clouds of crimson purple and gold yet paul's walk was crowded there were court gallants in ruffles and plumes ballad singers chanting the not over delicate ditties of the earl of rochester
usurers exchanging gold for bonds worth three times what they gave for them quack doctors reading in dolorous tones the bills of mortality of the preceding day and selling plague waters and anti pestilential abominations whose merit they loudly extolled
ladies too richly dressed and many of them masked
and even to this day patronize its precincts and flourish in the regions of paternoster row and ave maria lane court pages in rich liveries pert and flippant serving men out of place
and pickpockets with a keen eye to business all clashed and jostled together
and jaunty hat set slightly on one side of his head with its long black plume and diamond clasp proclaimed him to be somebody a profusion of snowy shirt frill rushed impetuously out of his doublet a black velvet cloak
lined with amber satin fell picturesquely from his shoulders a sword with a jeweled hilt clanked on the pavement as he walked one hand was covered with a gauntlet of canary colored kid perfumed to a degree that would shame any belle of to day
the other which rested lightly on his sword hilt flashed with a splendid opal splendidly set he was a handsome fellow too with fair waving hair for he had the good taste to discard the ugly wigs then in vogue
dark bright handsome eyes a thick blonde moustache a tall and remarkably graceful figure and an expression of countenance wherein easy good nature and fiery impetuosity had a hard struggle for mastery
that he was a courtier of rank was apparent from his rich attire and rather aristocratic bearing and a crowd of hangers on followed him as he went loudly demanding spur money a group of timbril girls singing shrilly the songs of the day
called boldly to him as he passed and one of them more free and easy than the rest danced up to him striking her timbrel and shouting rather than singing the chorus of the then popular ditty what care i for pest or plague
we can die but once god wot kiss me darling stay with me love me love me leave me not the darling in question turned his bright blue eyes on that dashing street singer with a cool glance of recognition
very sorry nell he said in a nonchalant tone but i'm afraid i must
a full hour by saint paul's and where has sir norman kingsley been may i ask i thought you were dead of the plague not exactly have you seen ah there he is the very man i want
and taking no notice of the busy scene around him until sir norman laid his ungloved and jeweled hand lightly on his shoulder good morning ormiston i had an idea i would find you here and but what's the matter with you man have you got the plague
and was about to quit this confounded babel this tumultuous den of thieves what has detained you i was on duty at whitehall are we not in time to keep our appointment oh certainly
nothing else could ever have made you look so dismally woebegone as you did when providence sent me to your relief i was thinking of her said the young man moodily and with a darkening brow
sir norman favored him with a half amused half contemptuous stare for a moment then stopped at a huckster's stall to purchase some cigarettes lit one and after smoking for a few minutes pleasantly remarked as if the fact had just struck him ormiston
you're a fool i know it said ormiston sententiously the idea said sir norman knocking the ashes daintily off the end of his cigar with the tip of his little finger the idea of falling in love with a woman whose face you have never seen
and out through the great door of the cathedral followed by his melancholy friend pausing for a moment to gaze at the gorgeous sunset with a look of languid admiration sir norman passed his arm through that of his friend
in the direction of old london bridge there were few people abroad except the watchmen walking slowly up and down before the plague stricken houses but in every street they passed through they noticed huge piles of wood and coal heaped down the centre
smoking zealously they had walked on for a season in silence when ormiston ceased puffing for a moment to inquire what are all these for this is a strange time i should imagine for bonfires
they're not bonfires said sir norman
so when saint paul's tolls the hour of midnight all these piles are to be fired it will be a glorious illumination no doubt but as to its stopping the progress of the plague i am afraid that it is altogether too good to be true
why should you doubt it the plague cannot last forever no but lilly the astrologer who predicted its coming also foretold that it would last for many months yet and since one prophecy has come true
i see no reason why the other should not except the simple one that there would be nobody left alive to take it all london will be lying in the plague pits by that time a pleasant prospect but a true one i have no doubt
and as i have no ambition to be hurled headlong into one of those horrible holes i shall leave town altogether in a few days and ormiston i would strongly recommend you to follow my example
so be it i don't fear the plague half as much as i do the thought of losing her again sir norman stared oh i see it's a hopeless case
faith i begin to feel curious to see this enchantress who has managed so effectually to turn your brain when did you see her last yesterday said ormiston with a deep sigh
and if she were made of granite she could not be harder to me than she is so she doesn't care about you then not she she has a little blenheim lapdog that she loves a thousand times more than she ever will me
then what an idiot you are to keep haunting her like her shadow why don't you be a man and tear out from your heart such a goddess ah that's easily said but if you were in my place you'd act exactly as i do
i don't believe it it's not in me to go mad about anything with a masked face and a marble heart if i loved any woman which thank fortune at this present time i do not and she had the bad taste not to return it
i should take my hat make her a bow and go directly and love somebody else made of flesh and blood instead of cast iron you know the old song ormiston if she be not fair for me what care i how fair she be
and flung his smoked out weed into a heap of fire wood are we near her house he asked yonder is the bridge and yonder is the house replied ormiston pointing to a large ancient building ancient even for those times
with three stories each projecting over the other see while the houses on either side are marked as pest stricken hers alone bears no cross so it is those who cling to life are stricken with death
and those who like me are desperate even death shuns why my dear ormiston you surely are not so far gone as that upon my honor i had no idea you were in such a bad way
i am nothing but a miserable wretch and i wish to heaven i was in yonder dead cart with the rest of them and she too if she never intends to love me ormiston spoke with such fierce earnestness that there was no doubting his sincerity
and sir norman became profoundly shocked so much so that he did not speak again until they were almost at the door then he opened his lips to ask in a subdued tone she has predicted the future for you what did she foretell
nothing good no fear of there being anything in store for such an unlucky dog as i am where did she learn this wonderful black art of hers
and now visits england for the first time she has chosen a sprightly season for her visit is she not afraid of the plague i wonder no she fears nothing said ormiston as he knocked loudly at the door
i begin to believe she is made of adamant instead of what other women are made of which is a rib i believe observed sir norman thoughtfully and that accounts i dare say for their being of such a crooked and cantankerous nature
they're a wonderful race women are and for what inscrutable reason it has pleased providence to create them the opening of the door brought to a sudden end this little touch of moralizing and a wrinkled old porter thrust out a very withered and unlovely face
la masque at home inquired ormiston stepping in without ceremony the old man nodded and pointed up stairs and with a this way kingsley ormiston sprang lightly up three at a time followed in the same style by sir norman
on which lay a pair of the old musical instruments called virginals two large curtainless windows with minute diamond shaped panes set in leaden casements admitted the golden and crimson light
for the reception room of a sorceress remarked sir norman with an air of disappointed criticism there is nothing very wonderful about all this how is it she spaes fortunes any way as lilly does by maps and charts
neither said ormiston
who show you your destiny in a well she has a sort of magic lake in her room and but you will see it all for yourself presently i have always heard said sir norman in the same meditative way that truth lies at the bottom of a well
he flung open a pair of shining folding doors at the end and ushered them at once into the majestic presence of the sorceress and her magic room both gentlemen doffed their plumed hats ormiston stepped forward at once but sir norman discreetly paused in the doorway
to contemplate the scene of action as he slowly did so a look of deep displeasure settled on his features on finding it not half so awful as he had supposed in some ways it was very like the room they had left being low large and square
but it had no windows a large bronze lamp suspended from the centre of the ceiling shed a flickering ghostly light there were no paintings some grim carvings of skulls skeletons and serpents pleasantly wreathed the room
neither were there seats nor tables nothing but a huge ebony caldron at the upper end of the apartment over which a grinning skeleton on wires with a scythe in one hand of bone and an hour glass in the other kept watch and ward
opposite this cheerful looking guardian was a tall figure in black
it was a female figure very tall and slight but as beautifully symmetrical as a venus celestis her dress was of black velvet that swept the polished floor spangled all over with stars of gold and rich rubies
a profusion of shining black hair fell in waves and curls almost to her feet but her face from forehead to chin was completely hidden by a black velvet mask in one hand exquisitely small and white
she held a gold casket blazing like her dress with rubies and with the other she toyed with a tame viper that had twined itself round her wrist this was doubtless la masque and becoming conscious of that fact sir norman made her a low and courtly bow
was the sweetest he had ever heard musical as a chime of silver bells soft as the tones of an aeolian harp through which the west wind plays madam i am aware my visits are undesired said ormiston with a flushing cheek and slightly tremulous voice
and i have come to see what dame destiny is going to do for me sir norman kingsley is welcome said the sweet voice and shall see what he desires there is but one condition that he will keep perfectly silent for if he speaks
the scene he beholds will vanish come forward sir norman compressed his lips as closely as if they were forever hermetically sealed and came forward accordingly leaning over the edge of the ebony caldron
he found that it contained nothing more dreadful than water for he labored under a vague and unpleasant idea that like the witches caldron in macbeth it might be filled with serpents blood and childrens brains
la masque opened her golden casket and took from it a portion of red powder with which it was filled casting it into the caldron she murmured an invocation in sanscrit or coptic or some other unknown tongue
and slowly there arose a dense cloud of dark red smoke that nearly filled the room had sir norman ever read the story of aladdin he would probably have thought of it then but the young courtier did not greatly affect literature of any kind
and thought of nothing now but of seeing something when the smoke cleared away it was rather long in doing so and when it did he saw nothing at first but his own handsome half serious half incredulous face but gradually a picture
distinct and clear formed itself at the bottom and sir norman gazed with bewildered eyes he saw a large room filled with a sparkling crowd many of them ladies splendidly arrayed and flashing in jewels
and foremost among them stood one whose beauty surpassed anything he had ever before dreamed of she wore the robes of a queen
diamonds blazed on the beautiful neck arms and fingers and a tiara of the same brilliants crowned her regal head in one hand she held a sceptre what seemed to be a throne was behind her
but something that surprised sir norton most of all was to find himself standing beside her
while he yet gazed in mingled astonishment and incredulity the scene faded away and another took its place this time a dungeon cell damp and dismal walls and floor and ceiling covered with green and hideous slime
a small lamp stood on the floor and by its sickly watery gleam he saw himself again standing pale and dejected near the wall but he was not alone the same glittering vision in purple and diamonds stood before him
and suddenly he drew his sword and plunged it up to the hilt in her heart the beautiful vision fell like a stone at his feet and the sword was drawn out reeking with her life blood this was a little too much for the real sir norman
and with an expression of indignant consternation he sprang upright instantly it all faded away and the reflection of his own excited face looked up at him from the caldron i told you not to speak said la masque quietly but you must look on still another scene
again she threw a portion of the contents of the casket into the caldron and spake aloud the words of power another cloud of smoke arose and filled the room and when it cleared away sir norman beheld a third and less startling sight
asked the lady i do said sir norman promptly it was ormiston and myself right and one of them was dead dead exclaimed sir norman with a perceptible start which one madam
if you cannot tell that neither can i if there is anything further you wish to see i am quite willing to show it to you i'm obliged to you said sir norman stepping back but no more at present thank you
do you mean to say madam that i'm some day to murder a lady especially one so beautiful as she i just now saw i have said nothing all you've seen will come to pass
and whether your destiny be for good or evil i have nothing to do with it except said the sweet voice earnestly that if la masque could strew sir norman kingsley's pathway with roses she would most assuredly do so
madam you are too kind said that young gentleman laying his hand on his heart while ormiston scowled darkly more especially as i've the misfortune to be a perfect stranger to you not so sir norman i have known you this many a day
and before long we shall be better acquainted permit me to wish you good evening at this gentle hint both gentlemen bowed themselves out and soon found themselves in the street with very different expressions of countenance
chapter fourteen the search of milburgh's cottage mister milburgh had a little house in one of the industrial streets of camden town it was a street made up for the most part of blank walls pierced at intervals with great gates
through which one could procure at times a view of gaunt factories and smoky looking chimney stacks mister milburgh's house was the only residence in the road if one excepted the quarters of caretakers and managers and it was agreed by all who saw his tiny demesne
canvey cottage as it was called stood back from the road behind a lawn innocent of flowers and the lawn itself was protected from intrusion by high iron railings which mister milburgh's landlord had had erected at considerable cost
locking and double locking the gate behind him he was alone and as was his wont he was whistling a sad little refrain which had neither beginning nor end he walked slowly up the stone pathway
and stood only a moment on the doorstep to survey the growing thickness of the night before he closed and bolted the door and switched on the electric light he was in a tiny hallway plainly but nicely furnished
the note of luxury was struck by the zohn etchings which hung on the wall and which mister milburgh stopped to regard approvingly he hung up his coat and hat slipped off the galoshes he was wearing for it was wet underfoot
and passing through a door which opened from the passage came to his living room the same simple note of furniture and decoration was observable here the furniture was good the carpet under his feet thick and luxurious
he snicked down another switch and an electric radiator glowed in the fireplace then he sat down at the big table
most of them encircled with rubber bands he did not attempt to touch or read them but sat looking moodily at his blotting pad preoccupied and absent
presently he rose with a little grunt and crossing the room unlocked a very commonplace and old fashioned cupboard the top of which served as a sideboard from the cupboard he took a dozen little books and carried them to the table
they were of uniform size and each bore the figures of a year they appeared to be and indeed were diaries but they were not mister milburgh's diaries one day he chanced to go into thornton lyne's room at the stores
and had seen these books arrayed on a steel shelf of lyne's private safe the proprietor's room overlooked the ground floor of the stores and thornton lyne at the time was visible to his manager and could not under any circumstances surprise him
which thornton lyne had kept he had only read a few pages on that occasion
had not thornton lyne met his untimely end at the hands of an unknown murderer on the day when thornton lyne's body was discovered in hyde park with a woman's night dress wrapped around the wound in his breast mister milburgh had for reasons of expediency
removed those diaries to a safer place they contained a great deal that was unpleasant for mister milburgh particularly the current diary for thornton lyne had set down not only his experiences but his daily happenings his thoughts poetical and otherwise
it was a page easy to find because he had thrust between the leaves a thin envelope of foreign make containing certain slips of paper
and he felt carefully in his pocket he did not discover the thing for which he was searching and with a smile he laid the envelope carefully on the table and went on at the point where his studies had been interrupted
lunched at the london hotel and dozed away the afternoon weather fearfully hot had arranged to make a call upon a distant cousin a man named tarling who is in the police force at shanghai but too much of a fag
spent evening at chu han's dancing hall got very friendly with a pretty little chinese girl who spoke pigeon english am seeing her to morrow at ling foo's she is called the little narcissus i called her my little daffodil'
he rose to his feet and stood listening and the bell rang again he switched off the light pulled aside the thick curtain which hid the window and peered out through the fog he could just distinguish in the light of the street lamp two or three men standing at the gate
he replaced the curtain turned up the light again took the books in his arms and disappeared with them into the corridor the room at the back was his bedroom and into this he went making no response to the repeated jingle of the bell for fully five minutes
at the end of that time he reappeared but now he was in his pyjamas over which he wore a heavy dressing gown he unlocked the door and shuffled in his slippers down the stone pathway to the gate who's that he asked
tarling you know me said a voice mister tarling said milburgh in surprise really this is an unexpected pleasure come in come in gentlemen open the gate said tarling briefly
excuse me while i go and get the key said milburgh i didn't expect visitors at this hour of the night he went into the house took a good look round his room and then reappeared taking the key from the pocket of his dressing gown
but mister milburgh was a cautious man and took few risks tarling was accompanied by inspector whiteside and another man whom milburgh rightly supposed was a detective only tarling and the inspector accepted his invitation to step inside
the third man remaining on guard at the gate milburgh led the way to his cosy sitting room i have been in bed some hours and i'm sorry to have kept you so long
that i forgot to turn the radiator off and it was only when i came down to answer the bell that i discovered i had left it switched on tarling stooped and picked the butt end of a cigar out of the hearth it was still alight
you've been smoking in your sleep mister milburgh he said dryly no no said the airy mister milburgh i was smoking that when i came downstairs to let you in i instinctively put a cigar in my mouth the moment i wake up in the morning
it is a disgraceful habit and really is one of my few vices he admitted i threw it down when i turned out the radiator tarling smiled won't you sit down said milburgh seating himself in the least comfortable of the chairs
getting things ready for the auditor do you ever take exercise asked tarling innocently little night walks in the fog for the benefit of your health a puzzled frown gathered on milburgh's face
exercise mister tarling he said with an air of mystification i don't quite understand you naturally i shouldn't walk out on a night like this what an extraordinary fog for this time of the year do you know paddington at all
no said mister milburgh except that there is a station there which i sometimes use
the meaning is said tarling shortly that i have been attacked to night by a man of your build and height who fired twice at me at close quarters i have a warrant
i have a warrant to search this house for what demanded milburgh boldly for a revolver or an automatic pistol and anything else i can find milburgh rose you're at liberty to search the house from end to end he said
happily it is a small one as my salary does not allow of an expensive establishment do you live here alone asked tarling
and certainly no trace of the little red slips
have you ever seen a piece of paper like this before
milburgh looked hard at the chinese characters on the crimson square and then nodded you have said tarling in surprise
i should be telling an untruth if i said i had not
that i can imagine said tarling i am sorry you are sarcastic mister tarling said the reproachful milburgh but i assure you that i hate and loathe an untruth where have you seen these papers
covered with chinese characters similar to this i do not understand chinese he said because i have never had occasion to go to china the characters may have been different one from the other but to my unsophisticated eye they all look alike
you've seen these slips on lyne's desk said tarling then why did you not tell the police before you know that the police attach a great deal of importance to the discovery of one of these things in the dead man's pocket mister milburgh nodded
it is perfectly true that i did not mention the fact to the police he said but you understand mister tarling that i was very much upset by the sad occurrence which drove everything else out of my mind
he smiled in the detective's face
he gave me that dagger you see hanging on the wall which he bought at some outlandish place in his travels he may have given me a sample of these slips i remember his telling me a story about them which i cannot for the moment recall
but tarling cut him short and with a curt good night withdrew
have you any idea why he should want to out you asked whiteside none in the world replied tarling evidently my assailant was a man who had watched my movements and had probably followed the girl and myself to the hotel in a cab
when i disappeared inside he dismissed his own and then took the course of dismissing my cab which he could easily do by paying the man his fare and sending him off a cabman would accept that dismissal without suspicion he then waited for me in the fog
and followed me until he got me into a quiet part of the road where he first attempted to sandbag and then to shoot me but why asked whiteside again suppose milburgh knew something about this murder which is very doubtful
what benefit would it be to him to have you put out of the way
her face was pale now her lips a little open her eyes set and staring as if they saw nothing of all that was round about her
that the hall sun would speak again and that great tidings were toward
a many and a many and divers deeds they win in the fashioning of stories for the kindreds of the earth a garland interwoven of sorrow and of mirth to the world a warrior cometh
from the world he passeth away and no man then may sunder his good from his evil day by the gods hath he been tormented and been smitten by the foe he hath seen his maiden perish
he hath seen his speech friend go his heart hath conceived a joyance and hath brought it unto birth but he hath not carried with him his sorrow or his mirth he hath lived
where earth last night was desert beholds a kindred born that to morrow and to morrow blossoms all gloriously
and fair the goth folk groweth and yet the story saith that the deeds that make the summer make too the winter's death that summer tides unceasing from out the grave may grow
twixt dusk and dark doth stand and narrow is the pathway with the deep on either hand on the left are the days forgotten on the right the days to come and another folk and their story
do the shadows darken about it is the even here at last or is this but a storm of the noon tide that the wind is driving past unscathed as yet it standeth
it bears the stormy drift nor bows to the lightening flashing adown from the cloudy lift i see the hail of battle and the onslaught of the strong and they go adown to the folk mote
that shall bide there over long i see the slain heaps rising and the alien folk prevail and the goths give back before them on the ridge o'er the treeless vale i see the ancient fallen
and yet i see the war duke shake throng plough o'er his head and stand unhelmed unbyrnied before the alien host and the hurt men rise around him to win back
battle lost and the wood yield up her warriors and the whole host rushing on and the swaying lines of battle until the lost is won then forth goes the cry of triumph
as they ring the captives round and cheat the crow of her portion and heap the warriors mound there are faces gone from our feast hall not the least beloved nor worst but the wane of the house of the wolfings
not yet the world hath cursed the sun shall rise to morrow on our cold and dewy roof for they that longed for slaughter were slaughtered far aloof she ceased for a little
but her countenance which had not changed during her song changed not at all now so they all kept silence although they were rejoicing in this new tale of victory for they deemed that she was not yet at the end of her speaking
and in good sooth she spake again presently and said i wot not
a captain of the foe and a man that is of the goth folk and as friend and friend they speak but i hear no word they are saying though for every word i seek and now the mist flows round me
and blind i come aback to the house roof of the wolfings and the hearth that hath no lack her voice grew weaker as she spake the last words and she sank backward on to her chair
her clenched hands opened the lids fell down over her bright eyes her breast heaved no more as it had done and presently she fell asleep
i have ventured to introduce to my readers as my devil mister undy scott m p for the tillietudlem district burghs and i also feel myself bound to dispose of him though of him
i regret i cannot make so decent an end as was done with sir richard varney and bill sykes he deserves however as severe a fate as either of those heroes with the former we will not attempt to compare him
they were both apparently born to prey on their own species they both resolutely adhered to a fixed rule
and to a rule equally fixed that though they would earn no bread they would consume much they were both of them blessed with a total absence of sensibility and an utter disregard to the pain of others and had
no other use for a heart than that of a machine for maintaining the circulation of the blood it is but little to say that neither of them ever acted on principle on a knowledge that is of right and wrong
and a selection of the right in their studies of the science of evil they had progressed much further than this and had taught themselves to believe that that which other men called virtue was on its own account to be regarded as mawkish insipid and useless
for such purposes as the acquisition of money or pleasure whereas vice was on its own account to be preferred as offering the only road to those things which they were desirous of possessing
so far there was a great resemblance between bill sykes and mister scott but then came the points of difference which must give to the latter a great pre eminence in the eyes of that master whom they had both so worthily served
bill could not boast the merit of selecting the course which he had run he had served the devil having had as it were no choice in the matter he was born and bred and educated an evil doer
to him had at any rate been explained the theory of meum and tuum and he had resolved that he liked tuum better than meum he had learnt that there is a god ruling over us and a devil hankering after us
that he would belong to the latter bread and water would have come to him naturally without any villany on his part aye and meat and milk and wine and oil the fat things of the world but he elected to be a villain
he liked to do the devil's bidding surely he was the better servant surely he shall have the richer reward and yet poor bill sykes for whom here i would willingly say a word or two
is always held as the more detestable scoundrel lady
whereas your blood would creep within you your hair would stand on end your voice would stick in your throat if you were suddenly told that bill sykes was in your presence poor bill i have a sort of love for him
as he walks about wretched with that dog of his though i know that it is necessary to hang him yes bill i your friend cannot gainsay that must acknowledge that hard as the case may be you must be hung
seeing that you make yourself so universally disagreeable it is your ordained nature to be disagreeable you plead silently i know it i admit the hardship of your case but still my bill
but with what a savage joy with what exultation of heart with what alacrity of eager soul with what aptitude of mind to the deed would i hang my friend undy scott the member of parliament for the tillietudlem burghs
in this there would be no regret no vacillation of purpose no doubt as to the propriety of the sacrifice no feeling that i was so treating him not for his own desert but for my advantage we hang men i believe
that we should deter others from crime but in hanging bill we shall hardly deter his brother bill sykes must look to crime for his bread seeing that he has been so educated seeing that we have not yet taught him another trade
but if i could hang undy scott i think i should deter some others the figure of undy swinging from a gibbet at the broad end of lombard street would have an effect
fate however and the laws are averse to gibbet him in one sense would have been my privilege had i drunk deeper from that castalian
but as in other sense i may not hang him i will tell how he was driven from his club
undy scott among his other good qualities possessed an enormous quantity of that which schoolboys in these days call cheek he was not easily browbeaten and was generally prepared to browbeat others
mister chaffanbrass certainly did get the better of him but then mister chaffanbrass was on his own dunghill could undy scott have had mister chaffanbrass down at the clubs there would have been perhaps another tale to tell
at any rate before his portion of the world he must perform some exploit uncommonly cheeky in order to cover his late discomfiture
to get the better of mister chaffanbrass at the old bailey had been beyond him but he might yet do something at the clubs to set aside the unanimous verdict which had been given against him in the city nay he must do something
he had now received a great blow he had stood before a crowd and been annihilated by the better cheek of mister chaffanbrass and therefore it behoved him at once to do something when the perfume of the rose grows stale
the flower is at once thrown aside and carried off as foul refuse it behoved undy to see that his perfume was maintained in its purity or he too would be carried off
the club to which undy more especially belonged was called the downing and of this alaric was also a member having been introduced into it by his friend
and there were sufficient club men remaining in london to create a daily gathering at the downing on the day following that on which the verdict was found undy convened a special committee of the club in order that he might submit to it a proposition
which he thought it indispensable should come from him so at least he declared the committee did assemble and when undy met it he saw among the faces before him not a few with whom he would willingly have dispensed however
i need not trouble my readers with the neat little speech in which it was made undy was true to himself and the speech was neat the proposition was this that as he had unfortunately been the means of introducing mister alaric tudor to the club
he considered it to be his duty to suggest that the name of that gentleman should be struck off the books he then expressed his unmitigated disgust at the crime of which tudor had been found guilty uttered some nice little platitudes
and expressed a hope that he might so far refer to a personal matter as to say that his father's family would take care that the lady whose fortune had been the subject of the trial should not lose one penny through the dishonesty of her trustee
no ten or twenty combined voices expressed by their clamorous negation of the last proposed process that their undy was above reproach the eyes around looked into him
undy undy more cheek still still more cheek or you are surely lost if said he in a well assumed indignant tone of injured innocence there be
but in such case i demand that the investigation be immediate oh undy undy
but yet it suffices thee not can there be positions in this modern west end world of mine thought undy to himself in which cheek unbounded cheek will not suffice oh undy they are rare
would undy have wished to see unconcerned with these matters
for removing mister tudor from amongst them he had watched this trial with some care and he pitied mister tudor from the bottom of his heart
but mister tudor had been convicted
one of these penalties must undoubtedly be his banishment from this club he therefore seconded mister scott's proposal he then stood silent for a moment having finished that task but yet he did not sit down
why oh why does he not sit down why o undy does he thus stand
and now he said he had another proposition to make
and having so spoken in a voice of unusual energy he then sat down and now undy you may as well pack up and be off without further fuss to boulogne ostend or some such idle
elysium with such money scrapings as you may be able to collect together no importunity will avail thee
than all that mister chaffanbrass could say come pack up and begone but he was still a member of parliament
it would be useless for him to stand again he like mister
and he recognized the necessity of vanishing he at first thought that his life as a legislator might be allowed to come to a natural end that he might die as it were in his bed without suffering the acute pain of applying for the
he applied at once for the now coveted sinecure and was refused her majesty could not consent to entrust to him the duties of the situation in question
and now indeed it was time for him to pack and begone he was now liable to the vulgarest persecution from the vulgar herd his very tailor and bootmaker would beleaguer him
and coarse unwashed bailiffs take him by the collar yes now indeed it was time to be off and off he was
at cauldkail castle collecting what little he might another to his honourable wife adding some slender increase to his little budget and then he was off whither it is needless to say to hamburg perhaps
or to ems or the richer tables of homburg how he flourished for a while with ambiguous success how he talked to the young english tourists of what he had done when in parliament especially for the rights of married women
how he poked his honourable card in every one's way and lugged lord gaberlunzie into all conversations
and trying to look as though he had in his pocket ample means to secure those hoards of money which men are so listlessly raking about from our view he has now vanished it was a bitter february morning
millbank it was hardly yet six o'clock and paradise row was dark as erebus that solitary gas light sticking out from the wall of the prison only made darkness visible
be relighted but at last the cabs were packed with luggage and into one got gertrude with her husband her baby and her mother and into the other charley handed linda then alley and lastly
and then having given due directions to the driver he not without difficulty squeezed himself into the remaining space such journeys as these are always made at a slow pace
cabmen know very well who must go fast and who may go slow women with children going on board an emigrant vessel at six o'clock on a february morning may be taken very slowly
and very slowly gertrude and her party were taken time had been nay it was but the other day when alaric's impatient soul would have spurned at such a pace as this but now he sat tranquil enough
and would on the morrow separate perhaps for ever a mother and a child who loved each other so dearly no one spoke to him of this perhaps no one thought of it he however
did so think of it that he could not hold his head up before them he was ill gertrude said his long confinement had prostrated him but the sea air would revive him in a day or two
linger linger till every shred of patience was clean worn out they got to the docks in time and got on board that fast sailing clipper built never beaten always healthy ship the flash of lightning
five thousand six hundred tons a one why
seeing that all ships are of that class where is the excellence seeing that all share it
the author has for years been looking out and has not yet found a ship advertised as a two or even as b one what is this catalogue of comparative excellence of which there is but one visible number
the world we think makes a great mistake on the subject of saying or acting farewell
but we all drawl through it at a snail's pace we are supposed to tear ourselves from our friends but tearing is a process which should be done quickly what is so wretched as lingering over a last kiss
giving the hand for the third time saying over and over again good bye john god bless you and mind you write who has not seen his dearest friends standing round the window of a railway carriage while the train would not start
and has not longed to say to them stand not upon the order of your going but go at once and of all such farewells the ship's farewell is the longest and the most dreary one sits on a damp bench
to coats and cloaks perhaps even to sandwiches and the sherry flask all effect is thus destroyed and a trespass is made even on the domain of feeling i remember a line of poetry
and i left vera vell now the whole business of a farewell is contained in that line when the moment comes let that be said let that be said and felt and then let the dear ones depart
missus woodward and gertrude god bless them had never studied the subject they knew no better than to sit in the nasty cabin surrounded by boxes stewards porters children and abominations of every kind
holding each other's hands and pressing damp handkerchiefs to their eyes the delay the lingering upset even gertrude and brought her for a moment down to the usual level of leave taking womanhood alaric the meanwhile
and now we had better get off you'll be better when we are gone alaric charley had some sense of the truth about
said linda clinging to her sister you'll have to go down to the nore if you stay that's all said charley and then again began the kissing and the crying yes
ye dear ones it is hard to part it is hard for the mother to see the child of her bosom torn from her for ever
that of such a separation as this these o ye loving hearts are the penalties of love those that are content to love
go mamma go said gertrude
i would be handled by thy nursing arms after thy will not my infant alarms hurt me thou wilt but then more loving still if more can be and less in love's perfect zone
my fancy shrinks from least of all thy harms but do thy will with me i am thine own
some things wilt thou not one day turn to dreams some dreams wilt thou not one day turn to fact the thing that painful more than should be seems shall not thy sliding years with them retract
shall fair realities not counteract the thing that was well dreamed of bliss and joy wilt thou not breathe thy life into the toy
i have had dreams of absolute delight
only of grass flowers wind a peak a limb of marble white they dwell with me like things half come to pass true prophecies when i with thee am right
for such a joy of sight thou with the gold wilt not refuse the brass
love will not backward sigh but forward strain on in the tale still telling never told
what has been shall not only be but is the hues of dreamland strange and sweet and tender are but hint shadows of full many a splendour
six now ere i sleep i wonder what i shall dream some sense of being utter new may come into my soul while i am blind and dumb with shapes and airs and scents
which dark hours teem of other sort than those that haunt the day hinting at precious things ages away in the long tale of us god to himself doth say seven
late in a dream an unknown lady i saw stand on a tomb
i talked with one that verily was dead eight
thou dost demand our love holy lord christ and batest nothing of thy modesty
the loving perfectly thou lovest perfectly that is thy bliss we must love like thee or our being miss so to love perfectly love perfect love love thee
ten might i but scatter interfering things questions and doubts distrusts and anxious pride and in thy garment as under gathering wings
nestle obedient to thy loving side easy it were to love thee but when thou send'st me to think and labour from thee wide love falls to asking many a why and how eleven
billows above my soul should rise in eager hungering leaps through thorny thicks through sands unstable press out of my dream to him who slumbers not nor sleeps
will be love awful in my sight and open to the eternal morning's might each human face will shine my window for thy light thirteen
make me all patience and all diligence patience that thou mayst have thy time with me diligence that i waste not thy expense in sending out to bring me home to thee
what though thy work in me transcends my sense too fine too high for me to understand i hope entirely on lord with thy labour grand fourteen
lest i be humbled at the last and told that my great labour was but for my peace that not for love or truth had i been bold but merely for a prisoned heart's release careful i humble me now before thy feet
whate'er i be i cry and will not cease let me not perish though favour be not meet fifteen for what i seek thou knowest i must find
or miserably die for lack of love i justify thee what is in thy mind if it be shame to me all shame above thou know'st i choose it know'st i would not shove the hand away that stripped me for the rod
if so it pleased my life my love made angry god sixteen i see a door a multitude near by in creed and quarrel sure disciples all
with much disputing hum seventeen still and anon a loud clear voice doth call make your feet clean and enter so the hall they hear they stoop
they gather each a crumb oh the deaf people would they were also dumb hear how they talk and lack of christ deplore stamping with muddy feet about the door and will not wipe them clean to walk upon his floor
that only is meet low sinks the threshold levelled with the ground the man leaps in to liberty he's bound the rest go talking walking picking round nineteen
rebuke my neighbour dull and talk and write and enter not the door than all the rest i wrong christ tenfold more making his gift of vision void and null help me this day to be thy humble sheep
eating thy grass and following thou before from wolfish lies my life o shepherd keep twenty god help me dull of heart to trust in thee thou art the father of me
not any mood can part me from the one
when life looks but a glimmering marshy clod no fire out flashing from the living god then then to rest in faith were worthy victory
to trust is gain and growth not mere sown seed faith heaves the world round to the heavenly dawn
itself high born its being derived and drawn from the eternal self existent fire then mazed with joy of its own heavenly breed exultant humble falls before its awful sire
art thou not jesus busy like to us
ordering all things in thy potent will silent and thinking ever to thy father whose thought through thee flows multitudinous or shall i think of thee as journeying rather
because thou everything dost fill
that all things thou dost fill i well may think thy power doth reach me in so many ways thou who in one the universe dost bind passest
through all the channels of my mind the sun of thought across the farthest brink of consciousness thou sendest me thy rays nor drawest them in when lost in sleep i sink twenty four
so common are thy paths thy coming seems only another phase oft of my me but nearer is my i o lord to thee than is my i to what itself it deems
except the meeting of thy will and mine the loves that love the wills that will the same
yea only there it burns with any flame
o god i would i have no mine that is not thine twenty six i look for thee and do not see thee come if i could see thee twere a commoner thing
in the looking eyes the looked for lord is here twenty seven
it is for lack of thee that i am bad how close how infinitely closer yet must i come to thee ere i can pay one debt which mere humanity has on me set how close to thee
no wonder soul thou art glad oneness with him is the eternal gladness
what can there be so close as making and made nought twinned can be so near thou art more nigh to me my god than is this thinking i to that i mean when i by me is said
thou art more near me than is my ready will near to my love though both one place do fill yet
ah me the long until
then shall my heart behold thee everywhere the vision rises of a speechless thing a perfectness of bliss beyond compare a time when i nor breathe nor think nor move but i do breathe and think and feel thy love
the soul of all the songs the saints do sing and life dies out in bliss to come again in prayer thirty in the great glow of that great love this death would melt away like a fantastic cloud
i should no more shrink from it than from the breath that makes in the frosty air a nimbus shroud thou love hast conquered death and i aloud should triumph over him
it was as if the tones came from a church in the still forest
a long time passed and people said to each other i wonder if there is a church out in the wood
and the rich people drove out and the poor walked but the way seemed strangely long to them
they sat down and looked up at the long branches and fancied they were now in the depth of the green wood the confectioner of the town came out and set up his booth there
and soon after came another confectioner who hung a bell over his stand as a sign or ornament but it had no clapper and it was tarred over to preserve it from the rain
when all the people returned home they said it had been very romantic and that it was quite a different sort of thing to a pic nic or tea party
there were three persons who asserted they had penetrated to the end of the forest and that they had always heard the wonderful sounds of the bell but it had seemed to them as if it had come from the town
one wrote a whole poem about it and said the bell sounded like the voice of a mother to a good dear child and that no melody was sweeter than the tones of the bell
whence the sounds proceeded should have the title of universal bell ringer
for nobody went far enough that one not further than the others however he said that the sound proceeded from a very large owl in a hollow tree
a sort of learned owl that continually knocked its head against the branches
it was the day of confirmation
the children that had been confirmed went out of the town and from the wood was borne towards them the sounds of the unknown bell with wonderful distinctness they all immediately felt a wish to go thither
one of them had to go home to try on a ball dress for it was just the dress and the ball which had caused her to be confirmed this time for otherwise she would not have come
the third said that he never went to a strange place if his parents were not with him that he had always been a good boy hitherto and would still be so now that he was confirmed
and that one ought not to laugh at him for it the others however did make fun of him after all
the others hastened on the sun shone the birds sang and the children sang too
of equal rank in the eye of god but two of the youngest soon grew tired and both returned to town two little girls sat down and twined garlands so they did not go either
at the same moment the bell sounded deep in the wood so clear and solemnly that five or six determined to penetrate somewhat further it was so
woodroof and anemonies grew almost too high blooming convolvuluses and blackberry bushes hung in long garlands from tree to tree where the nightingale sang
and the sunbeams were playing it was very beautiful but it was no place for girls to go their clothes would get so torn large blocks of stone lay there
overgrown with moss of every color the fresh spring bubbled forth and made a strange gurgling sound
lying down and listening this must be looked to so he remained and let the others go on without him
all its blessings on the roof where roses were blooming
who said that the bell was too small and too fine to be heard at so great a distance and besides it was very different tones to those that could move a human heart in such a manner
it was a king's son who spoke whereon the others said such people always want to be wiser than everybody else
they now let him go on alone and as he went his breast was filled more and more with the forest solitude but he still heard the little bell with which the others were so satisfied
and now and then when the wind blew he could also hear the people singing who were sitting at tea where the confectioner had his tent but the deep sound of the bell rose louder
and the tones came from the left hand the side where the heart is placed a rustling was heard in the bushes and a little boy stood before the king's son a boy
in wooden shoes and with so short a jacket that one could see what long wrists he had both knew each other the boy was that one among the children
who could not come because he had to go home and return his jacket and boots to the innkeeper's son
that proceed he must why then we can go together said the king's son but the poor child that had been confirmed was quite ashamed he looked at his wooden shoes
pulled at the short sleeves of his jacket and said that he was afraid he could not walk so fast besides he thought that the bell must be looked for to the right for
but there we shall not meet said the king's son nodding at the same time to the poor boy who went into the darkest thickest part of the wood where
for he was an excellent and resolute youth
the ugly apes sat upon the trees and grinned
shall we thrash him he is the son of a king but on he went without being disheartened deeper and deeper into the wood
there stood white lilies with blood red stamina skyblue tulips which shone as they waved in the winds and apple trees
the apples of which looked exactly like large soapbubbles so only think how the trees must have sparkled in the sunshine
and beat the air with their wings the king's son often stood still and listened
but then he remarked again that the tone proceeded not from there but farther off from out the depths of the forest the sun now set the atmosphere glowed like fire
it was still in the woods so very still and he fell on his knees sung his evening hymn and said i cannot find what i seek the sun is going down and night is coming
the great the glorious sea that dashed its long waves against the coast was stretched out before him
and the wood and the sea sang a song of rejoicing and his heart sang with the rest all nature was a vast holy church
in which the trees and the buoyant clouds were the pillars flowers and grass the velvet carpeting and heaven itself the large cupola
the red colors above faded away as the sun vanished but a million stars were lighted a million lamps shone and the king's son spread out his arms towards heaven
and wood and sea when at the same moment coming by a path to the right appeared in his wooden shoes and jacket the poor boy who had been confirmed with him he had followed his own path
they ran towards each other and stood together hand in hand in the vast church of nature and of poetry
and he had very many children he wandered about begging with his family and at last he reached a certain city and entered the service of a rich householder called sthuladatta
his sons became keepers of sthuladatta's cows and other property and his wife a servant to him and he himself lived near his house performing the duty of an attendant
one day there was a feast on account of the marriage of the daughter of sthuladatta largely attended by many friends of the bridegroom and merry makers
harisarman hoped that he would be able to fill himself up to the throat with oil and flesh and other dainties and get the same for his family in the house of his patron
while he was anxiously expecting to be fed no one thought of him then he was distressed at getting nothing to eat and he said to his wife at night
and after turning the matter over in his mind while people were asleep he took away from the house of sthuladatta a horse on which his master's son in law rode
he placed it in concealment at some distance and in the morning the friends of the bridegroom could not find the horse though they searched in every direction
while sthuladatta was distressed at the evil omen and searching for the thieves who had carried off the horse the wife of harisarman came and said to him
my husband is a wise man skilled in astrology and magical sciences he can get the horse back for you why do you not ask him when sthuladatta heard that
he called harisarman who said yesterday i was forgotten but to day now the horse is stolen i am called to mind
and sthuladatta then propitiated the brahman with these words
then harisarman drew all kinds of pretended diagrams and said the horse has been placed by thieves on the boundary line south from this place it is concealed there
and before it is carried off to a distance as it will be at close of day go quickly and bring it when they heard that many men ran and brought the horse quickly
praising the discernment of harisarman then harisarman was honored by all men as a sage and dwelt there in happiness honored by sthuladatta now
as days went on much treasure both of gold and jewels had been stolen by a thief from the palace of the king as the thief was not known
the king quickly summoned harisarman on account of his reputation for knowledge of magic and he when summoned tried to gain time and said i will tell you to morrow
and then he was placed in a chamber by the king and carefully guarded and he was sad because he had pretended to have knowledge now in that palace there was a maid named jihva
which means tongue who with the assistance of her brother had stolen that treasure from the interior of the palace she being alarmed at harisarman's knowledge
when jihva heard this she thought in her terror that she had been discovered by this wise man and she managed to get in where he was and falling at his feet
she said to the supposed wizard
that jihva whom you have discovered to be the thief of the treasure and after i took it i buried it in the earth in a garden behind the palace under a pomegranate tree so spare me
which is in my possession when harisarman heard that he said to her proudly
you must give back to me when he said this to the maid she consented and departed quickly but harisarman reflected in his astonishment
fate brings about as if in sport things impossible for when calamity was so near who would have thought chance would have brought us success
secret crimes manifest themselves by means of fear thus thinking he passed the night happily in the chamber and in the morning
into the garden and led him up to the treasure which was buried under the pomegranate tree and said the thief had escaped with a part of it then the king was pleased
and gave him the revenue of many villages but the minister named devajnanin whispered in the king's ear how can a man possess such knowledge
unattainable by men without having studied the books of magic
by having a secret intelligence with thieves it will be much better to test him by some new artifice then the king of his own accord
brought a covered pitcher into which he had thrown a frog and said to harisarman brahman if you can guess what there is in this pitcher i will do you great honor to day
and impelled by luck he called to himself by his pet name lamenting his hard fate and suddenly called out this is a fine pitcher for you froggie
raised a shout of applause because his speech chimed in so well with the object presented to him and murmured ah a great sage
he knows even about the frog then the king
and it is about one of these collars that we are now to hear a story it was so old
and it happened that it came to be washed in company with a garter nay said the collar i never did see anything so slender and so fine so soft and so neat may i not ask your name
said the garter where do you live asked the collar
and thought it was a strange question to answer you are certainly a girdle said the collar that is to say an inside girdle
i see well that you are both for use and ornament my dear young lady i will thank you not to speak to me said the garter
i think i have not given the least occasion for it yes when one is as handsome as you said the collar that is occasion enough
don't come so near me i beg of you said the garter you look so much like those men folks i am also a fine gentleman said the collar
i have a bootjack and a hair comb but that was not true for it was his master who had them but he boasted don't come so near me said the garter
i am not accustomed to it prude exclaimed the collar and then it was taken out of the washing tub it was starched hung over the back of a chair in the sunshine
and was then laid on the ironing blanket then came the warm box iron dear lady said the collar dear widow lady i feel quite hot
i am quite changed i begin to unfold myself you will burn a hole in me oh i offer you my hand rag
said the box iron the collar was a little jagged at the edge and so came the long scissors to cut off the jagged part
you are certainly the first opera dancer
it is the most graceful performance i have ever seen no one can imitate you i know it said the scissors you deserve to be a baroness said the collar
all that i have is a fine gentleman a boot jack and a hair comb if i only had the barony do you seek my hand said the scissors for she was angry
and without more ado she cut him and then he was condemned
have you never thought of being betrothed yes of course you may be sure of that said the hair comb i am betrothed to the boot jack betrothed exclaimed the collar
there was a large company of rags
but the collar the most for he was a real boaster i have had such an immense number of sweethearts said the collar i could not be in peace
i was always a fine starched up gentleman i had both a boot jack and a hair comb which i never used you should have seen me then
you should have seen me when i lay down i shall never forget my first love she was a girdle
so fine so soft and so charming she threw herself into a tub of water for my sake
who became glowing hot but i left her standing till she got black again there was also the first opera dancer
she gave me that cut which i now go with
but i am extremely sorry for the garter i mean the girdle that went into the water tub i have much on my conscience i want to become white paper
and it became so
but the collar came to be just this very piece of white paper we here see
and that was because it boasted so terribly afterwards of what had never happened to it
for we can never know if we may not in the course of time also come into the rag chest and be made into white paper and then have our whole life's history printed on it
chapter two the beginning of the believing voyage the first thought that came into davy's mind when he found himself
and delightfully balmy and soft the moon was shining brightly and as he looked back at the house he was surprised to see that the window through which they had come
and which he was quite sure had always been a straight up and down old fashioned window was now a round affair
and he seemed to be having a great deal of trouble in getting it through and his head kept coming into view and then disappearing again behind the flaps in so ridiculous a manner
that davy shouted with laughter and the goblin smiled harder than ever suddenly the poor little man made a desperate plunge and had almost made his way
out when the flaps shut to with a loud snap and caught him about the waist in his efforts to free himself he dropped his clock to the ground outside
the housemaid and solomon the cat however before he had time to make any inquiries of the goblin his grandmother came dropping down through the air in her rocking chair
she was quietly knitting and her chair was gently rocking as she went by next came missus frump with her apron quite full of kettles and pots and then mary farina
sitting on a step ladder with the coal scuttle in her lap solomon was nowhere to be seen davy looking over the side of the clock saw them disappear one
after the other in a large tree on the lawn and the goblin informed him that they had fallen into the kitchen of a witch hazel tree and would be well taken care of indeed
as the clock sailed over the tree davy saw that the trunk of it was hollow and that a bright light was shining far underground and to make the matter quite sure a smell of cooking was coming up through the hole
and he was much astonished at discovering
fast asleep with one of his mittens spread over them for a coverlet
don't be afraid cried the goblin she's only rolling a little and as he said this the clock steadied itself and sailed serenely away past the spire of the village church
as the goblin continued to smile complacently and seemed to be feeling quite comfortable he did not venture to ask any questions and went on with his thoughts
as if he were a stove
i think he must be as warm as a piece of toast and the little boy was laughing softly to himself over this conceit when the goblin who had been staring intently at the sky
suddenly ducked his head and cried
and brindle cats and at least a
into the clock among them to davy's dismay was solomon
as they clustered together at davy's end of the clock leaving solomon standing quite alone and complaining in a muffled
don't scold so much said the goblin impatiently now davy would never have teased solomon if he had had the slightest idea that cats could talk
and he was dreadfully mortified when solomon cried out excitedly
tabby cat screamed out barkers and all the cats sprang over the side of the clock and disappeared with solomon bringing up the rear like a little unicorn
said davy feeling that he was blushing violently
and as he said this
to davy's alarm they proved to be alive and immediately began scrambling about in all directions
bless me cried the goblin turning very pale they're sky terriers the dog star must have turned upside down what shall we do said davy
here jump into my hat so many wonderful things had happened already
and as the goblin had already seated himself upon the brim he took his place opposite to him without hesitation as they sailed away from the clock
it quietly rolled over once
and was then wafted off gently rocking from side to side as it went davy was much surprised at finding that the hat was as large as a clothes hamper
top as it sailed through the air until davy began to feel uncomfortably dizzy and the goblin himself seemed to be far from well he had stopped smiling
and the rosy light had all faded away as though the candles inside of him had gone out his clothes too had changed from bright scarlet to a
dull ashen color and he sat stupidly upon the brim of the hat as if he were going to sleep
thought davy and with a view to rousing the goblin he ventured to remark i had no idea your hat was so big i can make it any size i please
from a thimble to a sentry box said the goblin and speaking of sentry boxes here he stopped and looked more stupid than ever
as if davy had spoken aloud i'm absent bodied and with these words he fell out of the hat and
and then sailed away sadly bleating like sheep then a great creature with rumpled feathers
and flew heavily away all this was very sad and distressing and davy was mournfully wondering what would happen to him next when
it suddenly struck him that his legs were feeling very cold and looking down at them he discovered to his great alarm that the crown of the goblin's hat
had entirely disappeared leaving nothing but the brim upon which he was sitting he hurriedly examined this and found the hat was really nothing
indeed the brim was disappearing at such a rate
whisked away and he found himself falling through the air he was on the point of screaming out in his terror
when he discovered that he was falling very slowly and gently swaying from side to side like a toy balloon the next moment he struck something hard
chapter twenty two the cave of the bandits the top of the tree sprang up with such force when relieved of the weight of the fat boy that tad butler lost his hold
and was catapulted to the ground which he struck with a force that made his bones ache the two pony rider boys sat up rubbing themselves and looking into each others faces
jeered stacy brown i think we got a fine tumble replied tad grinning and i think something else too
a great discovery breathed stacy tensely i think so but that remains to be seen who would have thought it but get away from here we may have disturbed some one the lads quickly scrambled up
and skulking into the bushes crouched down watching the roots of the tree almost expecting them to rise into the air again nothing of the sort happened the birds were singing in the trees the sun was shining brightly the heat was intense
i'm going to investigate declared tad maybe we've discovered another gold mine or perhaps a german dugout suggested chunky perhaps but not in the way you think how do you mean
wait until we investigate there may be more to this than either of us think i wonder if we can weight that tree down so the roots will stay up in the air i saw some rocks there near the top
perhaps we can make them stay on so the top will be held down you get up on the tree again and i'll pass the rocks up to you place them so they won't slide off
neither do i want to get thrown off again i'm black and blue all over right this minute i think i must be by the feel of my skin hurry stacy ran back to the roots once more clambering to the trunk along which he ran clear to the outer end
tad was ready with a heavy flat rock which he carefully raised by main strength
i i won't let it d d rop un unless i i fall off the rock nearly got away from the fat boy butler leaped back out of the way but stacy recovered himself in time and after some effort succeeded in placing the rock in the limbs of the tree
fits as if it had been here before declared chunky perhaps it has we shall see are you ready yep here's another by the time the third stone had been put in place the top of the tree began to settle
the fourth rock brought the tree down to the ground exposing the opening in the rocks once more hurrah keep still don't move till i get enough up there to equalize your weight then you may come down
the remaining stones were quickly laid in place tad motioned for chunky to descend the fat boy leaped down the tree top remained on the ground leaving a wide opening in the rocks
what are you going to do i'm going in there i think perhaps it might be the wiser plan for you to remain out here and keep watch no sir i guess not i've helped discover that hole and i'm going to reap my reward by exploring the inside
then we would be in a fine fix shouldn't we i reckon we would we wouldn't be getting out of that hole right smart should we tad i guess not we should be buried alive still there may be some other opening to the place we will take a chance
got your matches yes then you light a match when we get inside i'll have my revolver ready in case there is anything in there taking a final glance about tad moved toward the opening in the rocks with brisk step
chunky was trotting along behind him the fat boy full of importance over the discovery they had made at the opening they paused glancing apprehensively at the great roots towering above them
were the butt of that giant tree to settle down now it would crush them the boys stepped inside they could see but a few feet ahead of them but saw that they were in a huge crevice in the rocks
a sort of cave formed by the splitting apart of the rocks themselves perhaps from some long past earthquake disturbance light a match stacy the fat boy did so there have been horses in here announced tad
yes i guess there have but there aren't any here now fortunately for us the air was cool though a little damp in the cave to this the boys gave no heed they had more important matters on hand than observing the atmosphere of the place
the cave they found was much larger than they had had any idea of in places the roof was all of ten feet high but as they penetrated further in moving cautiously lighting the way with every step
the walls sloped toward the back approaching nearer to the floor except for the light from the matches the boys were in darkness so that they were not able to observe that the opening to the cave had closed
a strong breeze swaying the upper limbs of the tree had dislodged the stones and allowed the roots to slip quietly into place again the boys without knowing it were prisoners you aren't throwing your matches on the floor are you
demanded tad turning sharply yes why not show me a light here commanded tad going down on his knees and gathering up all the burnt matches he could find that is a fine trail you are leaving why were any one to come in here
he would discover instantly that strangers had been here i i never thought of that stammered chunky we must think of everything our very lives may depend on our doing so wha what do you mean tad don't you understand yet
i i guess i begin to some somebody's been here yes it is my opinion that the very men captain mc kay is looking for have been here come we must be quick we are likely to be interrupted at any time
the boys were obliged to stoop in order to continue their explorations further after creeping under the low hanging rock they found that they were able to stand erect once more then they discovered something else there were bales piled on top of one another
guns rugs in fact a miscellaneous assortment of goods which the boys believed to be of great value in one corner stood a chest securely padlocked it was a rough chest
bound with iron bands that looked as if they might have been used on cotton bales well we have made a discovery stacy brown breathed tad we have agreed the fat boy his eyes growing large with wonder what do you suppose is in that chest
i don't know let's open it suggested stacy eagerly tad shook his head in the first place we have no business to do anything of the sort in the second place i don't want to stay here much longer we had better be getting back to camp as quickly as we can
of course we can't do anything until captain mc kay returns but the more quickly we get away from here the better it will be for us i i'm scared aren't you stammered the fat boy apprehensively no i am not scared
but i realize that we are in danger every minute we stay here those men wouldn't trifle with us were they to catch us do you know what they would do to us if they caught us here chunky nu nu no they would fill us full of lead that's what they would do
light another match while i look into this niche then we will be making tracks for the outside tad was back by stacy's side a moment later he motioned that they were to go back the boys started briskly for the opening
the instant they had crawled out into the outer chamber they realized that all was not as it should be at first they did not understand what had occurred tad was the first to make the discovery of what had occurred we're caught
now we are in a nice pickle stacy was speechless he held a burning match in his hand until the match burned up to his finger whereat chunky dropped the match with an exclamation i i'll tell you what let's do
let's dig through the roots we can do it come on tad laid a restraining hand on the fat boy's arm we won't do that just yet this may have been an accident those stones may have slipped off i am inclined to think that is what has happened
if so we don't want to leave any clues i'd rather leave clues than to leave my dead body in here wailed chunky buck up don't show a yellow streak chunky commanded tad sharply i'm not yellow but i know enough to know when i've got enough
i know i've got enough of this bandit chasing business i ought to have known better than to go out with you they think i can't keep out of trouble i can keep out of trouble all right if other folks don't lead me into it now see what a fix you've got me into tad butler
it strikes me that i am in the same fix but we're going to get out of it stacy yes but how i don't know but i'll find a way why we'll starve to death in here
i wish i had something to eat tighten your belt remember whatever occurs you are to leave your revolver in its holster
one little slip might be the death of us for once in your life be prudent i'll be prudent but i wish i had a sandwich have you looked to see if there's anything to eat in this hole no i have something of more importance than food to think about at present
tad struck a match taking a long careful look about the outer chamber of the cave he saw nothing to encourage him rocks everywhere with here and there a discolored spot where tiny streams had trickled through perhaps during a heavy rainstorm
tad was thinking with all his might trying to devise some plan by which they might protect themselves in case they were surprised by the return of the bandits which he did not think would occur before night even if then he reasoned that the bandits were far away
that meant that the bandits would not be likely to return until matters had quieted down and the rangers had left the locality i am afraid we are in here for a long stay old chap butler said finally another case of being buried alive eh questioned stacy
you can get into more trouble and faster than at least i don't try to shave the professor with my revolver retorted tad sharply hark what was that i i didn't hear anything
stacy repressed an ouch with some difficulty the two lads stood listening particles of dirt were rattling from the roots of the fallen tree sounding like hailstones as they fell to the rocks in the cave then a faint ray of light appeared under the bottom of the mass of roots
whispered tad stand perfectly still until i tell you to move they can't see us at once don't make a sound on your life
chapter seventeen old friends now aunt sarah pleaded nan the next morning
all meadow brook will be down and it will be so much pleasanter for you the train will be here by noon and leave at three o'clock but think of the hour that would bring us to meadow brook objected aunt sarah well
you will have lots of company and if uncle daniel shouldn't meet you you can ride up with the hopkinses or anybody along your road missus bobbsey and aunt emily
i'll be here all summer and think of the fruit that's waiting to be preserved hurrah shouted bert giving his aunt a good hug then harry and i can have a fine time with the meadow brook boys
and bert dashed out to take the good news to harry and hal bingham who were out at the donkey house come on fellows he called down to the beach we can have a swim before the crowd gets there
and with renewed interest the trio started off for the breakers i would like to live at the beach all summer remarked harry even in winter it must be fine here it is said hal
but the winds blow everything away regularly and they all have to be carted back again each spring this shore with all its trimmings now will look like a bald head by the first of december all three boys were fine swimmers
and they promptly struck off for the water that was straightened out as bert said beyond the tearing of the breakers at the edge there were few people in the surf
suddenly hal thought he heard a call then a man's arm appeared above the water's surface a few yards away cramps yelled hal to harry and bert while all three hurried to where the man's hand had been seen
but it did not come up again i'll dive down spluttered hal who had the reputation of being able to stay a long time under water it seemed quite a while to bert and harry before hal came up again
but when he did he was trying to pull with him a big fat man who was all but unconscious can't move gasped hal as the heavy burden was pulling him down bit by bit the man with cramps gained a little strength
there was not a life guard in sight and hal had to hurry off to the pier for some restoratives for the man was very weak on his way hal met a guard who of course ran to the spot where harry and bert were giving the man artificial respiration
you boys did well declared the guard promptly seeing how hard they worked with the sick man yes they saved my life gasped the half drowned man this little fellow pointing to hal brought me up almost from
the bottom and he caught his breath painfully the man was assisted to a room at the end of the pier and after a little while he became much better of course the boys did not stand around being satisfied they could be of no more use
i must get those lads names declared the man to the guard mine is and he gave the name of the famous millionaire who had a magnificent summer home in another colony three miles away and you swam from the cedars mister black
exclaimed the guard no wonder you got cramps an hour later the millionaire was walking the beach looking for the life savers he finally spied hal here there you boy he called and hal came in to the edge
but hardly recognized the man in street clothes i want your name demanded the stranger do you know there are medals given to young heroes like you
stammered hal quite confused now nothing why i was about dead and pulled on you with all my two hundred pounds you knew too you had hardly a chance to bring me up yes indeed i want your name and as he insisted
so the boys left the water and prepared to meet their old friends i hope jack hopkins comes said bert for jack was a great friend oh he will be along harry remarked nobody likes a good time better than jack here they come announced hal the next minute
as a crowd of children with many lunch boxes came running down to the ocean hello there hello there called everybody at once for of course all the children knew harry and many also knew bert there were tom mason jack hopkins august stout
and ned prentice in the first crowd while a number of girls friends of nan's were in another group nan nellie and dorothy had been detained by somebody further up on the road but were now coming down slowly such a delight as the ocean was to the country children
as each roller slipped out on the sands the children unconsciously followed it and so many unsuspected pairs of shoes were caught by the next wave that washed in well here comes uncle daniel called bert as sure enough
down to the edge came uncle daniel with dorothy holding on one arm nan clinging to the other while nellie carried his small satchel santa claus could hardly have been more welcome to the bobbseys at that moment than was uncle daniel
they simply overpowered him as the surprise of his coming made the treat so much better the girls had dragged him down to the ocean he said when he had intended first going to aunt emily's i must see the others he insisted freddie and flossie
aunt sarah too is coming all right then agreed uncle daniel i'll wait awhile well harry you look like an indian can you see through that coat of tan harry laughed and said he had been an indian in having a good time
presently somebody jumped up on uncle daniel's back as he was sitting on the sands the shock almost brought him down of course it was freddie who was so overjoyed he really treated the good natured uncle a little roughly freddie boy freddie boy
exclaimed uncle daniel giving his nephew a good long hug and you have turned indian too where's that sea serpent you were going to catch for me i'll get him yet declared the little fellow it hasn't rained hardly since we came down and they only come in to land out of the rain
this explanation made uncle daniel laugh heartily the whole family sat around on the sands and it was like being in the country and at the seashore at the one time flossie declared the boys of course were in the water
august stout had not learned much about swimming since he fell off the plank while fishing in meadow brook so that out in the waves the other boys had great fun with their fat friend and there is nettie prentice exclaimed nan suddenly
evidently searching for friends oh nan called nettie in delight i'm just as glad to see you as i am to see the ocean and i never saw that before and the two little girls exchanged greetings of genuine love for each other
won't we have a perfectly splendid time declared nan dorothy my cousin is so jolly and here's nellie you remember her of course nettie did remember her and now all the little girls went around hunting for fun
in every possible corner where fun might be hidden as soon as the boys were satisfied with their bath they went in search of the big sun umbrellas so that uncle william aunt emily missus bobbsey and aunt sarah might sit under the sunshades while eating lunch
then the boys got long boards and arranged them from bench to bench in picnic style so that all the meadow brook friends might have a pleasant time eating their box lunches let's make lemonade suggested hal
i know where i can get a pail of nice clean water i'll buy the lemons offered harry i'll look after sugar put in bert and i'll do the mixing declared august stout while all set to work to produce the wonderful picnic lemonade
teased uncle daniel as the caterers with sleeves rolled up worked hard over the lemonade what can we use for cups asked nan oh i know said harry over at the indian stand they have a lot of gourds
the kind of mock oranges that mexicans drink out of i can buy them for five cents each and after the picnic we can bring them home and hang them up for souvenirs just the thing declared hal
who had a great regard for things that hang up and look like curios i'll go along and help you make the bargain when the boys came back they had a dozen of the funny drinking cups the long crooked handles were so queer
that each person tried to get the cup to his or her mouth in a different way we stopped at the hydrant and washed the gourds thoroughly declared hal so you need not expect to find any mexican diamonds in them
or tarantulas put in uncle daniel what's them asked freddie with an ear for anything that sounded like a menagerie a very bad kind of spider that sometimes comes in fruit from other countries explained uncle daniel
then nan filled his gourd from the dipper that stood in the big pail of lemonade and he smacked his lips in appreciation there was so much to do and so much to see that the few hours allowed the excursionists slipped by all too quickly
dorothy ran away and soon returned with her donkey cart to take nettie prentice and a few of nettie's friends for a ride along the beach nan and nellie did not go preferring to give the treat to the little country girls
now don't go far directed aunt emily for aunt sarah and uncle daniel were already leaving the beach to make ready for the train of course harry and aunt sarah were all packed up
and had very little to do at aunt emily's before starting hal and bert were sorry indeed to have harry go for harry was such a good leader in outdoor sports his country training always standing by him in emergencies
finally dorothy came back with the girls from their ride and the people were beginning to crowd into the long line of cars that waited on a switch near the station now nettie be sure to write to me said nan bidding her little friend good by
and come down next year insisted dorothy i had such a lovely time declared nettie i'm sure i will come again if i can the meadow brook bobbseys had secured good seats in the middle car
aunt sarah thought that the safest and now the locomotive whistle was tooting calling the few stragglers who insisted on waiting at the beach until the very last minute
dared scarcely speak of some of their former good dinners he was the first to propose that they should all assemble around some well spread table and abandon themselves unreservedly to their own natural character and manners
a freedom which had formerly contributed so much to that good understanding between them which gave them the name of the inseparables for different reasons this was an agreeable proposition to them all
and it was therefore agreed that each should leave a very exact address and that upon the request of any of the associates
of the sign of the hermitage the first rendezvous was fixed for the following wednesday at eight o'clock in the evening precisely
each from his own abode or occupation porthos had been trying a new horse d'artagnan was on guard at the louvre aramis had been to visit one of his penitents in the neighborhood
the first words exchanged between the four friends on account of the ceremony which each of them mingled with their demonstration were somewhat forced and even the repast began with a kind of stiffness athos perceived this embarrassment
the face of the gascon relaxed and porthos's brow grew smooth
this astonishment was doubled when aramis saw athos fill a bumper and toss it off with all his former enthusiasm his companions followed his example in a very few minutes the four bottles were empty
that might have rested on their spirits now the four friends began to speak loud scarcely waiting till one had finished before another began and each assumed his favorite attitude
soon strange fact aramis undid two buttons of his doublet seeing which porthos unfastened his entirely battles long journeys blows given and received sufficed for the first themes of conversation
faith said aramis laughing we have praised the dead enough
was invited by him to send him a list of the conditions on which he would do him the honor to negotiate with him
with such an ill bred fellow made out a list against the grain and sent it in this list there were three conditions which displeased mazarin
at last their hilarity calmed down and faith exclaimed d'artagnan to the two friends you may well wish ill to mazarin for i assure you on his side he wishes you no good pooh really asked athos
if i thought the fellow knew me by my name
he is quite aware that there are two gentlemen who greatly aided the escape of monsieur de beaufort
and this morning he sent for me to ask me if i had obtained any information and what did you reply that i had none as yet
a broad smile spreading over his honest face bravo
now said aramis tell me a little what you do fear nothing for the present at least nothing in good earnest and with regard to the past asked porthos oh the past is another thing said athos sighing the past and the future
one is never killed in a first engagement nor in the second said aramis nor in the third returned porthos
the proof of which is that here we are
it is not raoul about whom i am anxious for i trust he will conduct himself like a gentleman and if he is killed well he will die bravely but hold should such a misfortune happen well athos passed his hand across his pale brow
the affair at armentieres whispered d'artagnan the affair at armentieres asked he again milady oh yes said porthos true i had forgotten it athos looked at him intently
you have forgotten it porthos said he faith yes it is so long ago answered porthos
and you d'artagnan i
yes yes murmured he i have often felt regret for the victim but never the very slightest remorse for the assassin
consider said aramis if you admit divine justice and its participation in the things of this world that woman was punished by the will of heaven we were but the instruments that is all but as to free will aramis
what does the executioner he is master of his arm yet he strikes without remorse the executioner muttered
i know that it is terrible said d'artagnan but when i reflect that we have killed english
with us and to be unable to ward off our blows i can on my honor find an excuse for my share in the murder of that woman as for me said porthos
i have the scene again before me as if i now were there milady was there as it were where you sit athos changed color
i wore a long sword which cut like a damascus you remember it aramis for you always called it balizarde well i swear to you all three that had the executioner of bethune was he not of bethune yes egad of bethune
i would have cut off the head of that infamous being without thinking of it or even after thinking of it she was a most atrocious woman and then said aramis with the tone of philosophical indifference which he had assumed since he had belonged to the church
matter said d'artagnan is that there remains no trace of it
oh yes i know that said d'artagnan
woe to de winter for the child had done no harm may the devil take me if the child be not dead said porthos there is so much fog in that detestable country at least so d'artagnan declares
now more or less clouded hasty footsteps were heard upon the stair and some one knocked at the door
to him who is called the comte de la fere it is i said athos and what is the name of the person grimaud ah exclaimed athos turning pale
the four friends waited in expectation grimaud's agitation his pallor the sweat which covered his face the dust which soiled his clothes all indicated that he was the messenger of some important and terrible news
glanced around at his friends with a melancholy smile porthos turned to look at his sword which was hanging on the wall aramis seized his knife d'artagnan arose what do you mean grimaud he exclaimed
that milady's son has left england that he is in france on his road to paris if he be not here already the devil he is said porthos are you sure of it certain replied grimaud
yes echoed porthos glancing affectionately at his sword
he gave him absolution by planting this dagger into his heart see it is on fire yet with his hot blood for it is not thirty hours since it was drawn from the wound and grimaud threw the dagger on the table d'artagnan porthos and aramis
rose and in one spontaneous motion rushed to their swords
calm and thoughtful and you say he is dressed as a monk
met in the rooms of the hall of nobility there was much discussion around the governor's table under the portrait of the tsar the nobles both in the larger and the smaller rooms grouped themselves in camps
and from their hostile and suspicious glances from the silence that fell upon them when outsiders approached a group and from the way that some whispering together retreated to the farther corridor it was evident that each side had secrets from the other
in appearance the noblemen were sharply divided into two classes the old and the new the old were for the most part either in old uniforms of the nobility
buttoned up closely with spurs and hats or in their own special naval cavalry infantry or official uniforms the uniforms of the older men were embroidered in the old fashioned way with epaulets on their shoulders
they were unmistakably tight and short in the waist as though their wearers had grown out of them the younger men wore the uniform of the nobility with long waists and broad shoulders unbuttoned over white waistcoats
or uniforms with black collars and with the embroidered badges of justices of the peace
belonged to the old party and some of the very oldest noblemen on the contrary were whispering with sviazhsky and were evidently ardent partisans of the new party levin stood in the smaller room
where they were smoking and taking light refreshments close to his own friends and listening to what they were saying
exerted all his intelligence trying to understand what was said sergey ivanovitch was the center round which the others grouped themselves he was listening at that moment to sviazhsky and hliustov
the marshal of another district who belonged to their party hliustov would not agree to go with his district to ask snetkov to stand while sviazhsky was persuading him to do so and sergey ivanovitch was approving of the plan
wiping his lips with a perfumed handkerchief of bordered batiste we are placing our forces he said pulling out his whiskers sergey ivanovitch and listening to the conversation he supported sviazhsky's contention
one district's enough and sviazhsky's obviously of the opposition he said words evidently intelligible to all except levin why kostya you here too
he added turning to levin and drawing his arm through his levin would have been glad indeed to be converted but could not make out what the point was
to stepan arkadyevitch his inability to understand why the marshal of the province should be asked to stand o sancta simplicitas said stepan arkadyevitch and briefly and clearly he explained it to levin
then he would be elected without a ballot that must not be now eight districts had agreed to call upon him if two refused to do so snetkov might decline to stand at all
they were even some of them going to vote for him and purposely to let him get a good many votes so that the enemy might be thrown off the scent and when a candidate of the other side was put up they too might give him some votes
levin understood to some extent but not fully and would have put a few more questions when suddenly everyone began talking and making a noise and they moved towards the big room what is it eh whom
no guarantee whose what they won't pass him no guarantee they won't let flerov in eh because of the charge against him why at this rate they won't admit anyone it's a swindle the law
and besides he considered it most expedient without exhibiting too much ill will to follow to the end his role as confessor the monk entered the chamber and approached the bed of the wounded man
the executioner searched his face with the quick glance peculiar to those who are about to die and have no time to lose he made a movement of surprise and said father you are very young
men who bear my robe have no age replied the monk dryly alas speak to me more gently father in my last moments i need a friend do you suffer much asked the monk yes
but in my soul much more than in my body we will save your soul said the young man but are you really the executioner of bethune as these people say that is to say eagerly replied the wounded man
that is to say i was but am no longer it is fifteen years since i gave up the office
no indeed you have then a repugnance to your profession so long as i struck in the name of the law and of justice my profession allowed me to sleep quietly sheltered as i was by justice and law
but since that terrible night when i became an instrument of private vengeance and when with personal hatred i raised the sword over one of god's creatures since that day the executioner paused and shook his head with an expression of despair
tell me about it said the monk who sitting on the foot of the bed
ah cried the dying man
and i have preserved lives in exchange for that i took away that is not all the money gained in the exercise of my profession i have distributed to the poor i have been assiduous in attending church and those who formerly fled from me
have become accustomed to seeing me all have forgiven me some have even loved me but i think that god has not pardoned me for the memory of that execution pursues me constantly and every night i see that woman's ghost rising before me
a woman you have assassinated a woman then cried the monk you also exclaimed the executioner
and not executed i am an assassin then and not an officer of justice and he closed his eyes with a groan the monk doubtless feared that he would die without saying more for he exclaimed eagerly go on i know nothing as yet
god and i will judge oh father continued the executioner without opening his eyes
it is especially when night comes on and when i have to cross a river that this terror which i have been unable to conquer comes upon me it then seems as if my hand grew heavy as if the cutlass was still in its grasp
as if the water had the color of blood and all the voices of nature the whispering of the trees the murmur of the wind the lapping of the wave united in a voice tearful despairing terrible crying to me
place for the justice of god delirium murmured the monk shaking his head the executioner opened his eyes turned toward the young man and grasped his arm delirium he repeated delirium do you say oh no
i remember too well it was evening i had thrown the body into the river and those words which my remorse repeats to me are those which i in my pride pronounced after being the instrument of human justice i aspired to be that of the justice of god
but let me see how was it done speak said the monk it was at night a man came to me and showed me an order and i followed him four other noblemen awaited me they led me away masked
i reserved the right of refusing if the office they required of me should seem unjust we traveled five or six leagues serious silent and almost without speaking at length through the window of a little hut
they showed me a woman sitting leaning on a table and said
father that woman was a monster it was said that she had poisoned her second husband she had tried to assassinate her brother in law she had just poisoned a young woman who was her rival and before leaving england she had it was believed
caused the favorite of the king to be murdered buckingham cried the monk yes buckingham the woman was english then no she was french but she had married in england the monk turned pale
wiped his brow and went and bolted the door the executioner thought that he had abandoned him and fell back groaning upon his bed no no i am here said the monk quickly coming back to him go on who were those men
one of them was a foreigner english i think
their names asked the monk i don't know them but the four other noblemen called the englishman my lord
oh yes especially beautiful
with her head thrown back she begged for life i have never understood how i could have laid low a head so beautiful with a face so pale the monk seemed agitated by a strange emotion he trembled all over he seemed eager to put a question
which yet he dared not ask at length with a violent effort at self control the name of that woman he said i don't know what it was
she was young you say twenty five years old beautiful ravishingly blond yes abundance of hair falling over her shoulders yes eyes of an admirable
and you killed her the monk exclaimed
you had no pity for that youthfulness that beauty that weakness you killed that woman alas i have already told you father that woman
when i recalled all the evil she had done to me to you what could she have done to you come tell me she had seduced and ruined my brother
with your brother yes my brother was her first lover and she caused his death oh father do not look in that way at me oh i am guilty then you will not pardon me the monk recovered his usual expression yes yes he said
oh cried the executioner all all all answer then if she seduced your brother you said she seduced him did you not yes if she caused his death you said that she caused his death
yes repeated the executioner
trembling and apparently about to die her name repeated the monk bending over him as if to tear from him the name if he would not utter it her name speak or no absolution the dying man collected all his forces
the monk's eyes glittered anne de bueil murmured the wounded man
i absolve you cried the priest with a laugh which made the dying man's hair stand on end i absolve you i am not a priest you are not a priest cried the executioner
i am about to tell you wretched man oh mon dieu i am john francis de winter i do not know you said the executioner
and that woman well that woman was my mother the executioner uttered the first cry that terrible cry which had been first heard oh pardon me pardon me he murmured if not in the name of god
at least in your own name if not as priest then as son pardon you cried the pretended monk pardon you perhaps god will pardon you but i never for pity's sake said the executioner extending his arms
no pity for him who had no pity
and drawing a poniard from beneath his robe he thrust it into the breast of the wounded man saying here is my absolution then was heard that second cry not so loud as the first and followed by a long groan
glided onward to the stable took out his mule went out by a back gate ran to a neighbouring thicket threw off his monkish garb took from his valise the complete habiliment of a cavalier
rebecca's intention was to complete the four years course in three as it was felt by all the parties concerned that when she had attained the ripe age of seventeen she must be ready to earn her own living and help in the education of the younger children
while she was wondering how this could be successfully accomplished some of the other girls were cogitating as to how they could meander through the four years
well nigh an impossible task but it can be achieved and has been at other seats of learning than modest little wareham
and then board in wareham during the three coldest months
three miles from riverboro would serve every purpose for their daughter and send her into the world with as fine an intellectual polish as she could well sustain
one book was as bad as another in her eyes and she could have seen the libraries of the world sinking into ocean depths and have eaten her dinner cheerfully the while but matters assumed a different complexion when she was sent to edgewood
sunday offered an opportunity to put the matter before her father who proved obdurate he didn't believe in education and thought she had full enough already
he never intended to keep up blacksmithing for good when he leased his farm and came into riverboro but proposed to go back to it presently and by that time emma jane would have finished school and would be ready to help her mother with the dairy work
that she'd always feared that emma jane's complexion was too beautiful to be healthy that some men would be proud of having an ambitious daughter
and mister perkins would have to hire a boy to drive emma jane and finally that when a girl had such a passion for learning as emma jane it seemed almost like wickedness to cross her will
mister perkins bore this for several days until his temper digestion and appetite were all sensibly affected then he bowed his head to the inevitable and emma jane flew like a captive set free to the loved one's bower
neither did her courage flag
she passed in only two subjects but went cheerfully into the preparatory department with her five conditions intending to let the stream of education play gently
but a dogged unswerving loyalty and the gift of devoted unselfish loving these after all are talents of a sort and may possibly be of as much value in the world as a sense of numbers or a faculty for languages
wareham was a pretty village with a broad main street shaded by great maples and elms it had an apothecary a blacksmith a plumber several shops of one sort and another
two churches and many boarding houses but all its interests gathered about its seminary and its academy these seats of learning were neither better nor worse than others of their kind
but differed much in efficiency according as the principal who chanced to be at the head was a man of power and inspiration or the reverse
but on the whole surprisingly little advantage was taken of it among the third and fourth year students there was a certain amount of going to and from the trains in couples some carrying of heavy books up the hill
by the sterner sex for their feminine schoolmates and occasional bursts of silliness on the part of heedless and precocious girls
but grew less and less intimate as time went on she was extremely pretty
as no one could possibly detect them without noting her porcelain skin and her curling lashes she had merry eyes a somewhat too plump figure for her years and was popularly supposed to have a fascinating way with her
riverboro being poorly furnished with beaux she intended to have as good a time during her four years at wareham as circumstances would permit
her idea of pleasure was an ever changing circle of admirers to fetch and carry for her the more publicly the better
so before long rebecca and emma jane sat in one end of the railway train in going to and from riverboro and huldah occupied the other with her court sometimes this was brilliant beyond words including a certain youthful monte cristo
rebecca was in the normally unconscious state that belonged to her years boys were good comrades but no more she liked reciting in the same class with them everything seemed to move better
she was protected by her ideals there was little in the lads she had met thus far to awaken her fancy for it habitually fed on better meat
were not the stuff her dreams were made of when dreams did flutter across the sensitive plate of her mind among the teachers at wareham was one who influenced rebecca profoundly miss emily maxwell with whom she studied english literature
and composition miss maxwell as the niece of one of maine's ex governors and the daughter of one of bowdoin's professors was the most remarkable personality in wareham and that her few years of teaching happened to be in rebecca's time was the happiest of all chances
rebecca's heart flew like an arrow to its mark and her mind meeting its superior settled at once into an abiding
it was rumored that miss maxwell wrote
was understood to mean not that a person had command of penmanship
where the faculty sat in an imposing row on the front seats she writes and i call her stuck up nobody seemed possessed of exact information with which to satisfy the hungry mind
an essay by miss maxwell in a magazine this height of achievement made rebecca somewhat shy of her but she looked her admiration something that most of the class
could never do with the unsatisfactory organs of vision given them by mother nature miss maxwell's glance was always meeting a pair of eager dark eyes when she said anything particularly good she looked for approval to the corner of the second bench
one day when the first essay of the class was under discussion
to bring her some composition written during the year before that she might judge the work and know precisely with what material she had to deal
i haven't any compositions here miss maxwell
they are packed away in a box in the attic carefully tied with pink and blue ribbons asked miss maxwell with a whimsical smile no answered rebecca shaking her head decidedly i wanted to use ribbons
miss dearborn thought we were not old enough to find good ones what were some of the others fireside reveries grant as a soldier reflections on the life of p t barnum buried cities i can't remember any more now
they were all bad and i can't bear to show them i can write poetry easier and better miss maxwell poetry she exclaimed did miss dearborn require you to do it oh no i always did it even at the farm
and flew in at the open window bearing the first compliments of the season miss maxwell came and sat by rebecca's side on the bench
not so very confessed rebecca but it's hard to tell all by yourself the perkinses and the cobbs always said they were wonderful
i was worried because i knew that couldn't be true this ingenuous remark confirmed miss maxwell's opinion of rebecca as a girl who could hear the truth and profit by it well my child she said smilingly
your friends were wrong and you were right judged by the proper tests they are pretty bad
and wondering if she could keep the tears back until the interview was over don't go so fast interrupted miss maxwell though they don't amount to anything as poetry
a sense of form poets would call it when you grow older
poetry needs knowledge and vision experience and imagination rebecca
must i never try any more poetry not even to amuse myself certainly you may it will only help you to write better prose
a letter from rebecca randall to her sister hannah at sunnybrook farm or to her aunt jane at the brick house riverboro is so dull and stupid if it is a real letter
and write to somebody who would be sure to understand everything i said i could make it nicer very well i think that's a delightful plan said miss maxwell
but interesting things are always happening to heiresses
she would be noble and generous she would give up a grand school in boston because she wanted to come here where her father lived when he was a boy
the best and kindest man in the world he is rather old of course and sometimes very quiet and grave but sometimes when he is happy he is full of fun and then evelyn is not afraid of him yes the girl shall be called evelyn abercrombie
yes he's my very best friend
you know and often comes here but if i let you suppose any more
what rebecca thought of miss maxwell we already know how the teacher regarded the pupil may be gathered from the following letter written two or three months later wareham december first my dear father
if my department were geography or mathematics i believe i should feel that i was accomplishing something for in those branches application and industry work wonders but in english literature and composition
one yearns for brains for appreciation for imagination month after month i toil on opening oyster after oyster but seldom finding a pearl fancy my joy this term
a black one but of satin skin and beautiful lustre her name is rebecca and she looks not unlike rebekah at the well in our family bible
a strain of italian or spanish blood she is nobody in particular man has done nothing for her she has no family to speak of no money no education worthy the name has had no advantages of any sort
but dame nature flung herself into the breach and said this child i to myself will take she shall be mine and i will make a lady of my own
how he makes us understand and the pearl never heard of him until now think of reading lucy to a class and when you finish seeing a fourteen year old pair of lips quivering with delight and a pair of eyes brimming with comprehending tears you poor darling
you too know the discouragement of sowing lovely seed in rocky earth in sand in water
knowing that if anything comes up at all
of dropping seed in a soil so warm so fertile that one knows there are sure to be foliage
i am not fit to be a teacher
and yet he did care something for the streets that environed that house and for the senseless stones that made their pavements many a night he vaguely and unhappily wandered there when wine had brought no transitory gladness to him
many a dreary daybreak revealed his solitary figure lingering there and still lingering there when the first beams of the sun brought into strong relief removed beauties of architecture in spires of churches and lofty buildings
as perhaps the quiet time brought some sense of better things else forgotten and unattainable into his mind of late the neglected bed in the temple court had known him more scantily than ever
and often when he had thrown himself upon it no longer than a few minutes he had got up again and haunted that neighbourhood
after notifying to his jackal that he had thought better of that marrying matter had carried his delicacy into devonshire and when the sight and scent of flowers in the city streets had some waifs of goodness in them for the worst
of health for the sickliest and of youth for the oldest sydney's feet still trod those stones from being irresolute and purposeless his feet became animated by an intention and in the working out of that intention
they took him to the doctor's door he was shown up stairs and found lucie at her work alone she had never been quite at her ease with him and received him with some little embarrassment as he seated himself near her table
but looking up at his face in the interchange of the first few common places she observed a change in it i fear you are not well mister carton no
but the life i lead miss manette is not conducive to health what is to be expected of or by such profligates is it not forgive me i have begun the question on my lips a pity to live no better life
god knows it is a shame then why not change it looking gently at him again she was surprised and saddened to see that there were tears in his eyes there were tears in his voice too as he answered
it is too late for that i shall never be better than i am i shall sink lower and be worse he leaned an elbow on her table and covered his eyes with his hand the table trembled in the silence that followed
she had never seen him softened and was much distressed he knew her to be so without looking at her and said pray forgive me miss manette
god bless you for your sweet compassion
don't be afraid to hear me don't shrink from anything i say
all my life might have been no mister carton i am sure that the best part of it might still be i am sure that you might be much much worthier of yourself
say of you miss manette and although i know better although in the mystery of my own wretched heart i know better i shall never forget it she was pale and trembling
he came to her relief with a fixed despair of himself which made the interview unlike any other that could have been holden if it had been possible miss manette
flung away wasted drunken poor creature of misuse as you know him to be he would have been conscious this day and hour in spite of his happiness that he would bring you to misery
bring you to sorrow and repentance blight you disgrace you pull you down with him i know very well that you can have no tenderness for me i ask for none i am even thankful that it cannot be
and in earnest tears i know you would say this to no one else can i turn it to no good account for yourself mister carton he shook his head to none no miss manette to none
if you will hear me through a very little more all you can ever do for me is done i wish you to know that you have been the last dream of my soul in my degradation
i have not been so degraded but that the sight of you with your father and of this home made such a home by you has stirred old shadows that i thought had died out of me since i knew you
i have been troubled by a remorse that i thought would never reproach me again and have heard whispers from old voices impelling me upward that i thought were silent for ever i have had unformed ideas of striving afresh
beginning anew shaking off sloth and sensuality and fighting out the abandoned fight a dream all a dream that ends in nothing and leaves the sleeper
but i wish you to know that you inspired it will nothing of it remain o mister carton think again try again no miss manette all through it i have known myself to be quite undeserving
and yet i have had the weakness and have still the weakness to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me heap of ashes that i am into fire a fire however inseparable in its nature from myself
lighting nothing doing no service idly burning away since it is my misfortune mister carton to have made you more unhappy than you were before you knew me
don't say that miss manette for you would have reclaimed me if anything could you will not be the cause of my becoming worse since the state of your mind that you describe is at all events attributable to some influence of mine
this is what i mean if i can make it plain can i use no influence to serve you have i no power for good with you at all the utmost good that i am capable of now miss manette i have come here to realise
let me carry through the rest of my misdirected life the remembrance that i opened my heart to you last of all the world and that there was something left in me at this time which you could deplore and pity
entreat me to believe it no more miss manette i have proved myself and i know better i distress you i draw fast to an end will you let me believe when i recall this day
not even by the dearest one ever to be known to you mister carton she answered after an agitated pause the secret is yours not mine and i promise to respect it thank you and again
god bless you he put her hand to his lips and moved towards the door be under no apprehension miss manette of my ever resuming this conversation by so much as a passing word i will never refer to it again
if i were dead that could not be surer than it is henceforth in the hour of my death i shall hold sacred the one good remembrance and shall thank and bless you for it that my last avowal of myself was made to you
and that my name and faults and miseries were gently carried in your heart
he was so unlike what he had ever shown himself to be and it was so sad to think how much he had thrown away and how much he every day kept down and perverted
that lucie manette wept mournfully for him as he stood looking back at her be comforted he said i am not worth such feeling miss manette an hour or two hence and the low companions and low habits that i scorn but yield to
will render me less worth such tears as those than any wretch who creeps along the streets be comforted but within myself i shall always be towards you what i am now though outwardly i shall be what you have heretofore seen me
the last supplication but one i make to you is that you will believe this of me i will mister carton my last supplication of all is this
i would do anything if my career were of that better kind that there was any opportunity or capacity of sacrifice in it i would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you
try to hold me in your mind at some quiet times as ardent and sincere in this one thing the time will come the time will not be long in coming when new ties will be formed about you ties that will bind you
yet more tenderly and strongly to the home you so adorn the dearest ties that will ever grace and gladden you
o miss manette when the little picture of a happy father's face looks up in yours when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet think now and then that there is a man who would give his life
to keep a life you love beside you he said farewell said a last god bless you
one of the first considerations which arose in the business mind of mister lorry when business hours came round was this that he had no right to imperil tellson's by sheltering the wife of an emigrant prisoner under the bank roof
his own possessions safety life he would have hazarded for lucie and her child without a moment's demur but the great trust he held was not his own and as to that business charge he was a strict man of business
at first his mind reverted to defarge and he thought of finding out the wine shop again and taking counsel with its master in reference to the safest dwelling place in the distracted state of the city
but the same consideration that suggested him repudiated him he lived in the most violent quarter and doubtless was influential there and deep in its dangerous workings
noon coming and the doctor not returning and every minute's delay tending to compromise tellson's mister lorry advised with lucie she said that her father had spoken of hiring a lodging for a short term in that quarter
near the banking house as there was no business objection to this and as he foresaw that even if it were all well with charles and he were to be released he could not hope to leave the city mister lorry went out in quest of such a lodging and found a suitable one
high up in a removed by street where the closed blinds in all the other windows of a high melancholy square of buildings marked deserted homes to this lodging he at once removed lucie and her child and miss pross
giving them what comfort he could and much more than he had himself he left jerry with them as a figure to fill a doorway that would bear considerable knocking on the head and retained to his own occupations
for answer he repeated without any change of emphasis the words do you know me i have seen you somewhere perhaps at my wine shop much interested and agitated mister lorry said
you come from doctor manette yes i come from doctor manette and what says he what does he send me defarge gave into his anxious hand an open scrap of paper it bore the words in the doctor's writing
charles is safe but i cannot safely leave this place yet i have obtained the favour that the bearer has a short note from charles to his wife let the bearer see his wife it was dated from la force within an hour
will you accompany me said mister lorry joyfully relieved after reading this note aloud to where his wife resides yes returned defarge
scarcely noticing as yet in what a curiously reserved and mechanical way defarge spoke mister lorry put on his hat and they went down into the courtyard there they found two women one knitting
madame defarge surely said mister lorry who had left her in exactly the same attitude some seventeen years ago it is she observed her husband
does madame go with us inquired mister lorry seeing that she moved as they moved yes that she may be able to recognise the faces and know the persons it is for their safety
beginning to be struck by defarge's manner mister lorry looked dubiously at him and led the way both the women followed the second woman being the vengeance
they passed through the intervening streets as quickly as they might ascended the staircase of the new domicile were admitted by jerry and found lucie weeping
alone she was thrown into a transport by the tidings mister lorry gave her of her husband and clasped the hand that delivered his note little thinking what it had been doing near him in the night and might but for a chance have done to him
dearest take courage i am well and your father has influence around me you cannot answer this kiss our child for me that was all the writing it was so much however to her who received it
that she turned from defarge to his wife and kissed one of the hands that knitted it was a passionate loving thankful womanly action but the hand made no response dropped cold and heavy and took to its knitting again
there was something in its touch that gave lucie a check she stopped in the act of putting the note in her bosom and with her hands yet at her neck looked terrified at madame defarge
madame defarge met the lifted eyebrows and forehead with a cold impassive stare my dear said mister lorry striking in to explain there are frequent risings in the streets
and although it is not likely they will ever trouble you madame defarge wishes to see those whom she has the power to protect at such times to the end that she may know them that she may identify them i believe said mister lorry
rather halting in his reassuring words as the stony manner of all the three impressed itself upon him more and more i state the case citizen defarge defarge looked gloomily at his wife and gave no other answer
than a gruff sound of acquiescence you had better lucie said mister lorry doing all he could to propitiate by tone and manner have the dear child here and our good pross our good pross
defarge is an english lady and knows no french the lady in question whose rooted conviction that she was more than a match for any foreigner was not to be shaken by distress and danger appeared with folded arms
and observed in english to the vengeance whom her eyes first encountered well i am sure boldface i hope you are pretty well she also bestowed a british cough on madame defarge but neither of the two took much heed of her
and pointing her knitting needle at little lucie as if it were the finger of fate
this is our poor prisoner's darling daughter and only child the shadow attendant on madame defarge and her party seemed to fall so threatening and dark on the child
that her mother instinctively kneeled on the ground beside her and held her to her breast the shadow attendant on madame defarge and her party seemed then to fall threatening and dark
on both the mother and the child it is enough my husband said madame defarge i have seen them we may go but the suppressed manner had enough of menace in it
not visible and presented but indistinct and withheld to alarm lucie into saying as she laid her appealing hand on madame defarge's dress you will be good to my poor husband you will do him no harm
you will help me to see him if you can your husband is not my business here returned madame defarge looking down at her with perfect composure it is the daughter of your father who is my business here
for my sake then be merciful to my husband for my child's sake she will put her hands together and pray you to be merciful we are more afraid of you than of these others
madame defarge received it as a compliment and looked at her husband defarge who had been uneasily biting his thumb nail and looking at her collected his face into a sterner expression
what is it that your husband says in that little letter asked madame defarge with a lowering smile influence he says something touching influence
that my father said lucie hurriedly taking the paper from her breast but with her alarmed eyes on her questioner and not on it has much influence around him
o sister woman think of me as a wife and mother madame defarge looked coldly as ever at the suppliant and said turning to her friend the vengeance
the wives and mothers we have been used to see since we were as little as this child and much less have not been greatly considered we have known their husbands and fathers laid in prison and kept from them often enough
all our lives we have seen our sister women suffer in themselves and in their children poverty
hunger thirst sickness misery oppression and neglect of all kinds we have seen nothing else returned the vengeance we have borne this a long time said madame defarge
turning her eyes again upon lucie judge you is it likely that the trouble of one wife and mother would be much to us now she resumed her knitting and went out
the vengeance followed defarge went last and closed the door courage my dear lucie said mister lorry as he raised her
courage courage so far all goes well with us much much better than it has of late gone with many poor souls cheer up and have a thankful heart i am not thankless i hope
but that dreadful woman seems to throw a shadow on me and on all my hopes tut tut said mister lorry what is this despondency in the brave little breast a shadow indeed no substance in it lucie
chapter thirty one making conversation effective
in conversation avoid the extremes of forwardness and reserve
emerson essays circles the father of w e gladstone considered conversation to be both an art and an accomplishment around the dinner table in his home some topic of local or national interest
or some debated question was constantly being discussed in this way a friendly rivalry for supremacy in conversation arose among the family and an incident observed in the street an idea gleaned from a book
a deduction from personal experience was carefully stored as material for the family exchange thus his early years of practise in elegant conversation prepared the younger gladstone for his career as a leader and speaker
there is a sense in which the ability to converse effectively is efficient public speaking for our conversation is often heard by many and occasionally decisions of great moment hinge upon the tone and quality
of what we say in private indeed conversation in the aggregate probably wields more power than press and platform combined socrates taught his great truths
not from public rostrums but in personal converse men made pilgrimages to goethe's library and coleridge's home to be charmed and instructed by their speech
and the culture of many nations was immeasurably influenced by the thoughts that streamed out from those rich well springs most of the world moving speeches are made in the course of conversation conferences of diplomats
business getting arguments decisions by boards of directors considerations of corporate policy all of which influence the political mercantile and economic maps of the world are usually the results of careful though informal conversation
and the man whose opinions weigh in such crises is he who has first carefully pondered the words of both antagonist and protagonist however important it may be to attain self control in light social converse
or about the family table it is undeniably vital to have oneself perfectly in hand while taking part in a momentous conference then the hints that we have given on poise alertness precision of word
clearness of statement and force of utterance with respect to public speech are equally applicable to conversation the form of nervous egotism for it is both
that suddenly ends in flusters just when the vital words need to be uttered is the sign of coming defeat for a conversation is often a contest if you feel this tendency embarrassing you be sure to listen to holmes's advice
and when you stick on conversational burs don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs
here bring your will into action for your trouble is a wandering attention you must force your mind to persist along the chosen line of conversation and resolutely refuse to be diverted by any subject or happening
that may unexpectedly pop up to distract you to fail here is to lose effectiveness utterly concentration is the keynote of conversational charm and efficiency the haphazard habit of expression that uses bird shot
when a bullet is needed insures missing the game for diplomacy of all sorts rests upon the precise application of precise words particularly if one may paraphrase tallyrand
a turn about exchange of ideas yet most people seem to regard it as a monologue bronson alcott used to say that many could argue but few converse the first thing to remember in conversation then
is that listening respectful sympathetic alert listening is not only due to our fellow converser but due to ourselves many a reply loses its point because the speaker is so much interested in what he is about to say
that it is really no reply at all but merely an irritating and humiliating irrelevancy self expression is exhilarating this explains the eternal impulse to decorate totem poles and paint pictures
write poetry and expound philosophy one of the chief delights of conversation is the opportunity it affords for self expression a good conversationalist who monopolizes all the conversation will be voted a bore
because he denies others the enjoyment of self expression while a mediocre talker who listens interestedly may be considered a good conversationalist because he permits his companions to please themselves through self expression
they are praised who please they please who listen well the first step in remedying habits of confusion in manner awkward bearing vagueness in thought and lack of precision in utterance
is to recognize your faults if you are serenely unconscious of them no one least of all yourself can help you but once diagnose your own weaknesses and you can overcome them by doing four things one
will to overcome them and keep on willing two hold yourself in hand by assuring yourself that you know precisely what you ought to say if you cannot do that be quiet until you are clear on this vital point
three having thus assured yourself cast out the fear of those who listen to you they are only human and will respect your words if you really have something to say and say it briefly simply and clearly
four have the courage to study the english language until you are master of at least its simpler forms
conversational hints choose some subject that will prove of general interest to the whole group do not explain the mechanism of a gas engine at an afternoon tea or the culture of hollyhocks at a stag party
it is not considered good taste for a man to bare his arm in public and show scars or deformities it is equally bad form for him to flaunt his own woes or the deformity of some one else's character
the public demands plays and stories that end happily all the world is seeking happiness they cannot long be interested in your ills and troubles george cohan made himself a millionaire before he was thirty
by writing cheerful plays one of his rules is generally applicable to conversation always leave them laughing when you say good bye dynamite the i out of your conversation
not one man in nine hundred and seven can talk about himself without being a bore the man who can perform that feat can achieve marvels without talking about himself so the eternal i is not permissible even in his talk
if you habitually build your conversation around your own interests it may prove very tiresome to your listener he may be thinking of bird dogs or dry fly fishing
the charming conversationalist is prepared to talk in terms of his listener's interest if his listener spends his spare time investigating guernsey cattle or agitating social reforms
the discriminating conversationalist shapes his remarks accordingly richard washburn child says he knows a man of mediocre ability who can charm men much abler than himself when he discusses electric lighting
this same man probably would bore and be bored if he were forced to converse about music or madagascar avoid platitudes and hackneyed phrases
on state street or on pike's peak it is not necessary to observe how small this world is after all this observation was doubtless made prior to the formation of pike's peak
this old world is getting better every day fanner's wives do not have to work as hard as formerly it is not so much the high cost of living as the cost of high living
such observations as these excite about the same degree of admiration as is drawn out by the appearance of a nineteen o three model touring car if you have nothing fresh or interesting you can always remain silent
how would you like to read a newspaper that flashed out in bold headlines nice weather we are having or daily gave columns to the same old material you had been reading week after week questions and exercises
one give a short speech describing the conversational bore two in a few words give your idea of a charming converser three what qualities of the orator should not be used in conversation
four give a short humorous delineation of the conversational oracle five give an account of your first day at observing conversation around you six
give an account of one day's effort to improve your own conversation seven give a list of subjects you heard discussed during any recent period you may select eight
ten what causes a phrase to become hackneyed eleven define the words a trite b solecism
d slang e vulgarism
she had put on her plainest dress and wound a closely patterned veil over her least vivid hat but even thus toned down to the situation she was conscious of blazing out from it inconveniently
the habit of meeting young men in sequestered spots was not unknown to her the novelty was in feeling any embarrassment about it even now she was disturbed
not so much by the unlikely chance of an accidental encounter with ralph marvell as by the remembrance of similar meetings far from accidental with the romantic aaronson
now adorned with ralph's engagement ring had once in this very spot surrendered itself to the riding master's pressure at the thought a wave of physical disgust passed over her blotting out another memory
as distasteful but more remote it was revived by the appearance of a ruddy middle sized young man his stoutish figure tightly buttoned into a square shouldered over coat
who presently approached along the path that led to the arbour silhouetted against the slope of the asphalt the newcomer revealed an outline thick yet compact
with a round head set on a neck in which at the first chance prosperity would be likely to develop a red crease his face with its rounded surfaces and the sanguine innocence of a complexion
belied by prematurely astute black eyes had a look of jovial cunning which undine had formerly thought smart but which now struck her as merely vulgar she felt that in the marvell set
elmer moffatt would have been stamped as not a gentleman nevertheless something in his look seemed to promise the capacity to develop into any character he might care to assume
that of a gentleman would be among them he had always had a brisk swaggering step and the faintly impudent tilt of the head that she had once thought dashing
but whereas this look had formerly denoted a somewhat desperate defiance of the world and its judgments
at the thought of what the change implied as he drew nearer the young man's air of assurance was replaced by an expression of mildly humorous surprise well this is white of you undine he said
taking her lifeless fingers into his dapperly gloved hand through her veil she formed the words i said i'd come he laughed that's so and you see i believed you
she interrupted nervously that's so too suppose we walk along a little ways it's rather chilly standing round he turned down the path that descended toward the ramble
and the girl moved on beside him with her long flowing steps when they had reached the comparative shelter of the interlacing trees moffatt paused again to say if we're going to talk
i'd like to see you undine and after a first moment of reluctance she submissively threw back her veil he let his eyes rest on her in silence then he said judicially
you've filled out some but you're paler
there's mighty few women as well worth looking at and i'm obliged to you for letting me have the chance again
but she softened her frown to a quivering smile i'm glad to see you too elmer i am really he returned her smile while his glance continued to study her humorously
you didn't betray the fact last night miss spragg i was so taken aback i thought you were out in alaska somewhere the young man shaped his lips into the mute whistle by which he habitually vented his surprise
tell you he'd seen me down town undine gave him a startled glance father why have you seen him
the girl hesitated i never felt toward you the way father did she hazarded at length and he gave her another long look in return
know anything his eyes had a twinkle of reminiscent pleasantry no
to a stiff like millard binch and that was about all that had happened to you before i came along undine flushed to the forehead oh elmer i was only a child
when i was engaged to millard that's a fact
the apex eagle always head lined you
i can't see what's the use now
rake up that's the idea is it
i oh elmer i didn't mean to only you see i'm engaged oh i saw that fast enough i'd have seen it even if i didn't read the papers he gave a short laugh
he was feeling pretty good sitting there alongside of you wasn't he i don't wonder he was i remember but i don't see that that was a reason for cold shouldering me
b driscoll's private secretaries he brought out the fact with mock solemnity but to undine though undoubtedly impressive the statement did not immediately present itself as a subject for pleasantry
elmer moffatt you are
she was following her own train of thought with a look of pale intensity you're living in new york then you're going to live here right along well it looks that way
and i gravitated here just as uncle harmon b was looking round for somebody who could give him an inside tip on the eubaw mine deal you know the driscolls are pretty deep in eubaw i happened to go out there
and it was just the time the deal went through so
funny to think of ain't it undine recovering herself held out her hand impulsively i'm real glad of it i mean i'm real glad
mention the fact to abner e spragg next time you run across him father'll be real glad too elmer she hesitated and then went on you must see now
was their making you feel so too
i wasn't a promising case in those days his glance played over her for a moment say undine it was good while it lasted though wasn't it
she shrank back with a burning face and eyes of misery
what you are here to talk about anyhow she cast a helpless glance down the windings of the wooded glen in which they had halted just to ask you
ever anything about you and me
one way or another she made no answer
into a fissure of the asphalt at length he went on in a tone that showed a first faint trace of irritation
if it's that you're scared of his tone seemed to increase her distress no no you don't understand all i want is that nothing shall be known yes but why
it was all straight enough if you come to that it doesn't matter whether it was straight or not he interpolated a whistle which made her add
this last strain on his credulity
it's all different their mothers go round with them this increased her companion's hilarity and he glanced about him with a pretense of compunction excuse me
bew fay you see i'm onto the new york style myself a sigh of discouragement escaped her elmer
he grew serious again and moved nearer to her
what i told you i don't want ralph marvell or any of them to know anything
they'd never let him marry me never
he'd be so horrified and it would kill me elmer it would just kill me she pressed close to him forgetful of her new reserves and repugnances and impelled by the passionate absorbing desire
to wring from him some definite pledge of safety oh elmer if you ever liked me help me now and i'll help you if i get the chance he had recovered his coolness as hers forsook her
though her entreating hands her glowing face were near enough to have shaken less sturdy nerves
to pass the sponge over elmer moffatt of apex city cut the gentleman when we meet that the size of it
she broke out sobbing nonsense child of course you shan't here look up undine why i never saw you cry before don't you be afraid of me
i ain't going to interrupt the wedding march he began to whistle a bar of lohengrin i only just want one little promise in return
she threw a startled look at him and he added reassuringly oh don't mistake me
not for social purposes anyhow
after you're married their eyes met and she remained silent for a tremulous moment or two then she held out her hand afterward yes i promise
swinging about to follow her as she hurriedly began to retrace her steps the march twilight had fallen
when undine regained its monumental threshold she slipped through the marble vestibule and soared skyward in the mirror lined lift hardly conscious of the direction she was taking
what she wanted was solitude and the time to put some order into her thoughts and she hoped to steal into her room without meeting her mother through her thick veil
in a yellow blur from which as she entered a figure detached itself and with a start of annoyance she saw ralph marvell rise from the perusal of the fiction number of a magazine which had replaced
the hound of the baskervilles on the onyx table yes you told me not to come and here i am he lifted her hand to his lips as his eyes tried to find hers through the veil
she drew back with a nervous gesture
trying to hide her vexation in a smile
i'll be off she was removing her long gloves and he took her hands and drew her close
and let me see you a quiver of resistance ran through her he felt it and dropped her hands please don't tease
she stammered drawing away
i can't bear to see you so done up
and escape all these ridiculous preparations i shall hate your fine clothes if they're going to make you so miserable she dropped her hands and swept about on him her face lit up by a new idea
he was extraordinarily handsome and appealing
dearest don't if you don't mean it the thought's too glorious undine lingered in his arms not with any intent of tenderness but as if too deeply lost in a new train of thought
to be conscious of his hold i suppose
if i said they must she brooded with a fixed gaze that travelled past him
third section transition from the metaphysic of morals to the critique of pure practical reason the concept of freedom is the key that explains the autonomy of the will the will is a kind of causality belonging to living beings in so far as they are rational
and freedom would be this property of such causality that it can be efficient independently of foreign causes determining it just as physical necessity is the property that the causality of all irrational beings has of being determined to activity by the influence of foreign causes
the preceding definition of freedom is negative and therefore unfruitful for the discovery of its essence but it leads to a positive conception which is so much the more full and fruitful
yet it is not for that reason lawless on the contrary it must be a causality acting according to immutable laws but of a peculiar kind otherwise a free will would be an absurdity physical necessity is a heteronomy of the efficient causes
for every effect is possible only according to this law that something else determines the efficient cause
what else then can freedom of the will be but autonomy that is the property of the will to be a law to itself but the proposition the will is in every action a law to itself only expresses the principle to act on no other maxim
than that which can also have as an object itself as a universal law
so that a free will and a will subject to moral laws are one and the same
morality together with its principle follows from it by mere analysis of the conception
can always include itself regarded as a universal law for this property of its maxim can never be discovered by analysing the conception of an absolutely good will now
the positive concept of freedom furnishes this third cognition which cannot as with physical causes be the nature of the sensible world in the concept of which we find conjoined the concept of something in relation as cause to something else as effect
we cannot now at once show what this third is to which freedom points us and of which we have an idea a priori nor can we make intelligible how the concept of freedom is shown to be legitimate from principles of pure practical reason and with it
the possibility of a categorical imperative but some further preparation is required
it is not enough to predicate freedom of our own will from whatever reason if we have not sufficient grounds
it is not enough then to prove it from certain supposed experiences of human nature
but we must show that it belongs to the activity of all rational beings endowed with a will now i say every being that cannot act except under the idea of freedom is just for that reason in a practical point of view really free
that is to say all laws which are inseparably connected with freedom have the same force for him as if his will had been shown to be free in itself by a proof theoretically conclusive now i affirm
that we must attribute to every rational being which has a will that it has also the idea of freedom and acts entirely under this idea for in such a being we conceive a reason that is practical that is has causality in reference to its objects
now we cannot possibly conceive a reason consciously receiving a bias from any other quarter with respect to its judgements
it must regard itself as the author of its principles independent of foreign influences consequently as practical reason
i adopt this method of assuming freedom merely as an idea which rational beings suppose in their actions in order to avoid the necessity of proving it in its theoretical aspect also
thus we can escape here from the onus which presses on the theory of the interest attaching to the ideas of morality
this latter however we could not prove to be actually a property of ourselves or of human nature
as endowed with a will and so we find that on just the same grounds we must ascribe to every being endowed with reason and will this attribute of determining itself to action under the idea of its freedom now it resulted also from the presupposition of these ideas that we became aware of a law
universal principles and so serve as universal laws of our own dictation but why then should i subject myself to this principle and that simply as a rational being thus also subjecting to it all other being endowed with reason i will allow that no interest urges me to this
for that would not give a categorical imperative but i must take an interest in it and discern how this comes to pass for this properly an i ought is properly an i would valid for every rational being provided only that reason determined his actions without any hindrance
but for beings that are in addition affected as we are by springs of a different kind namely sensibility and in whose case that is not always done which reason alone would do for these that necessity is expressed only as an ought and the subjective necessity is different from the objective
and as if we could not prove its reality and objective necessity independently in that case we should still have gained something considerable by at least determining the true principle more exactly than had previously been done but as regards its validity and the practical necessity of subjecting oneself to it
we should not have advanced a step
for if we were asked why the universal validity of our maxim as a law must be the condition restricting our actions and on what we ground the worth which we assign to this manner of acting a worth so great that there cannot be any higher interest and if we were asked further how it happens that it is by this alone a man believes he feels his own personal worth in comparison with which
to these questions we could give no satisfactory answer we find indeed sometimes that we can take an interest in a personal quality which does not involve any interest of external condition provided this quality makes us capable of participating in the condition in case
reason were to effect the allotment that is to say the mere being worthy of happiness can interest of itself
in other words whence the moral law derives its obligation it must be freely admitted that there is a sort of circle here from which it seems impossible to escape in the order of efficient causes we assume ourselves free
in order that in the order of ends we may conceive ourselves as subject to moral laws and we afterwards conceive ourselves as subject to these laws because we have attributed to ourselves freedom of will for freedom and self legislation of will are both autonomy and therefore
but at most only logical purposes to reduce apparently different notions of the same object to one single concept as we reduce different fractions of the same value to the lowest terms one resource remains to us namely
to inquire whether we do not occupy different points of view when by means of freedom we think ourselves as causes efficient a priori and when we form our conception of ourselves from our actions as effects which we see before our eyes
that all the ideas that come to us involuntarily as those of the senses do not enable us to know objects otherwise than as they affect us so that what they may be in themselves remains unknown to us
never to that of things in themselves as soon as this distinction has once been made perhaps merely in consequence of the difference observed between the ideas given us from without and in which we are passive
in which we show our own activity then it follows of itself that we must admit and assume behind the appearance something else that is not an appearance namely the things in themselves although we must admit that as they can never be known to us except as they affect us
we can come no nearer to them nor can we ever know what they are in themselves this must furnish a distinction however crude between a world of sense and the world of understanding
even as to himself a man cannot pretend to know what he is in himself from the knowledge he has by internal sensation for as he does not as it were
it naturally follows that he can obtain his knowledge even of himself only by the inner sense and consequently only through the appearances of his nature
made up of mere appearances he must necessarily suppose something else as their basis namely his ego whatever its characteristics in itself may be thus in respect to mere perception and receptivity of sensations he must reckon himself
as belonging to the world of sense but in respect of whatever there may be of pure activity in him that which reaches consciousness immediately and not through affecting the senses
something else invisible and acting of itself they spoil it however by presently sensualizing this invisible again that is to say wanting to make it an object of intuition so that they do not become a whit the wiser
now man really finds in himself a faculty by which he distinguishes himself from everything else even from himself as affected by objects and that is reason this being pure spontaneity is even elevated above the understanding
for although the latter is a spontaneity and does not like sense merely contain intuitions that arise when we are affected by things and are therefore passive
yet it cannot produce from its activity any other conceptions than those which merely serve to bring the intuitions of sense under rules and thereby to unite them in one consciousness and without this use of the sensibility it could not think at all whereas on the contrary reason shows so pure a spontaneity in the case of what i call ideas ideal conceptions that it thereby far transcends everything
that the sensibility can give it and exhibits its most important function in distinguishing the world of sense from that of understanding and thereby prescribing the limits of the understanding itself for this reason a rational being must regard himself qua intelligence
hence he has two points of view from which he can regard himself and recognise laws of the exercise of his faculties and consequently of all his actions first so far as he belongs to the world of sense he finds himself subject to laws of nature heteronomy secondly
as belonging to the intelligible world under laws which being independent of nature have their foundation not in experience but in reason alone as a rational being and consequently belonging to the intelligible world man can never conceive the causality of his own will
otherwise than on condition of the idea of freedom for independence of the determinate causes of the sensible world an independence which reason must always ascribe to itself is freedom now the idea of freedom is inseparably connected with the conception of autonomy and this again
with the universal principle of morality which is ideally the foundation of all actions of rational beings just as the law of nature is of all phenomena now the suspicion is removed which we raised above
that there was a latent circle involved in our reasoning from freedom to autonomy and from this to the moral law viz that we laid down the idea of freedom because of the moral law only that we might afterwards in turn infer the latter from freedom
and that consequently we could assign no reason at all for this law but could only present it as a petitio principii which well disposed minds would gladly concede to us but which we could never put forward as a provable proposition
the world of understanding how is a categorical imperative possible every rational being reckons himself qua intelligence as belonging to the world of understanding
and it is simply as an efficient cause belonging to that world that he calls his causality a will on the other side he is also conscious of himself as a part of the world of sense in which his actions which are mere appearances phenomena of that causality are displayed
we cannot however discern how they are possible from this causality which we do not know but instead of that these actions as belonging to the sensible world must be viewed as determined by other phenomena namely desires and inclinations if therefore
i were only a member of the world of understanding then all my actions would perfectly conform to the principle of autonomy of the pure will if i were only a part of the world of sense
the former would rest on morality as the supreme principle the latter on happiness since however the world of understanding contains the foundation of the world of sense and consequently of its laws also and accordingly gives the law to my will which belongs wholly to the world of understanding directly
and must be conceived as doing so it follows that
which contains this law in the idea of freedom and therefore as subject to the autonomy of the will consequently i must regard the laws of the world of understanding as imperatives for me and the actions which conform to them as duties and thus what makes categorical imperatives possible is this
there is added further the idea of the same will but as belonging to the world of the understanding pure and practical of itself which contains the supreme condition according to reason
but regular form in general and in this way synthetic a priori propositions become possible on which all knowledge of physical nature rests the practical use of common human reason confirms this reasoning
that he might also possess these qualities only on account of his inclinations and impulses he cannot attain this in himself
since he cannot expect to obtain by that wish any gratification of his desires nor any position which would satisfy any of his actual or supposable inclinations for this would destroy the pre eminence of the very idea which wrests that wish from him
he can only expect a greater intrinsic worth of his own person
to which he is involuntarily forced by the idea of freedom
of independence on determining causes of the world of sense and from this point of view he is conscious of a good will which by his own confession constitutes the law
and is conceived by him as an ought only inasmuch as he likewise considers himself as a member of the world of sense of the extreme limits of all practical philosophy all men attribute to themselves freedom of will
hence come all judgements upon actions
however this freedom is not a conception of experience nor can it be so since it still remains even though experience shows the contrary
of what on supposition of freedom are conceived as its necessary consequences on the other side it is equally necessary that everything that takes place should be fixedly determined according to laws of nature this necessity of nature is likewise not an empirical conception
just for this reason that it involves the motion of necessity and consequently
inevitably presupposed if experience itself is to be possible that is a connected knowledge of the objects of sense resting on general laws therefore freedom is only an idea of reason and its objective reality in itself is doubtful
while nature is a concept of the understanding which proves and must necessarily prove
there arises from this a dialectic of reason
since the freedom attributed to the will appears to contradict the necessity of nature and placed between these two ways reason for speculative purposes finds the road of physical necessity much more beaten and more appropriate than that of freedom
hence it is just as impossible for the subtlest philosophy as for the commonest reason of men to argue away freedom philosophy must then assume that no real contradiction will be found between freedom
and physical necessity of the same human actions for it cannot give up the conception of nature any more than that of freedom
for if the thought of freedom contradicts either itself or nature which is equally necessary it must in competition with physical necessity be entirely given up it would however be impossible to escape this contradiction if the thinking subject which seems to itself free
conceived itself in the same sense or in the very same relation when it calls itself free as when in respect of the same action it assumes itself
hence it is an indispensable problem of speculative philosophy to show
as being part and parcel of nature it must therefore show that not only can both these very well co exist but that both must be thought as necessarily united in the same subject since otherwise no reason could be given why we should burden reason with an idea which
that is sufficiently established yet entangles us in a perplexity which sorely embarrasses reason in its theoretic employment this duty however belongs only to speculative philosophy
into the possession of which the fatalist would have a right to enter and chase all morality out of its supposed domain as occupying it without title we cannot however as yet say that we are touching the bounds of practical philosophy for the settlement of that controversy does not belong to it
it only demands from speculative reason that it should put an end to the discord in which it entangles itself in theoretical questions so that practical reason may have rest and security from external attacks which might make the ground debatable on which it desires to build
the claims to freedom of will made even by common reason are founded on the consciousness and the admitted supposition that reason is independent of merely subjectively determined causes which together constitute what belongs to sensation only and which consequently
come under the general designation of sensibility man considering himself in this way as an intelligence places himself thereby in a different order of things and in a relation to determining grounds of a wholly different kind when on the one hand he thinks of himself as an intelligence endowed with a will
and consequently with causality and when on the other he perceives himself as a phenomenon in the world of sense as he really is also and affirms that his causality is subject to external determination according to laws of nature
hence it comes to pass that man claims the possession of a will which takes no account of anything that comes under the head of desires and inclinations and on the contrary conceives actions as possible to him nay
even as necessary which can only be done by disregarding all desires and sensible inclinations the causality of such actions lies in him as an intelligence and in the laws of effects and actions which depend on the principles of an intelligible world
of which indeed he knows nothing more than that in it pure reason alone independent of sensibility gives the law moreover since it is only in that world as an intelligence that he is his proper self
being as man only the appearance of himself those laws apply to him directly and categorically so that the incitements of inclinations and appetites
he only ascribes to his will any indulgence which he might yield them if he allowed them to influence his maxims to the prejudice of the rational laws of the will
when practical reason thinks itself into a world of understanding it does not thereby transcend its own limits as it would if it tried to enter it by intuition or sensation the former
is only a negative thought in respect of the world of sense which does not give any laws to reason in determining the will and is positive only in this single point that this freedom as a negative characteristic is at the same time conjoined with a positive faculty and even with a causality of reason
which we designate a will namely a faculty
but were it to borrow an object of will that is a motive from the world of understanding then it would overstep its bounds
the conception of a world of the understanding is then only a point of view which reason finds itself compelled to take outside the appearances in order to conceive itself as practical which would not be possible if the influences of the sensibility had a determining power on man
but which is necessary unless he is to be denied the consciousness of himself as an intelligence and consequently as a rational cause energizing by reason that is operating freely
this thought certainly involves the idea of an order and a system of laws different from that of the mechanism of nature which belongs to the sensible world and it makes the conception of an intelligible world necessary that is to say the whole system of rational beings as things in themselves
but it does not in the least authorize us to think of it further than as to its formal condition only that is the universality of the maxims of the will as laws and consequently the autonomy of the latter which alone is consistent with its freedom
whereas on the contrary all laws that refer to a definite object give heteronomy which only belongs to laws of nature and can only apply to the sensible world but reason would overstep all its bounds if it undertook to explain how pure reason can be practical which would be exactly the same problem
but that which we can reduce to laws the object of which can be given in some possible experience but freedom is a mere idea the objective reality of which can in no wise be shown according to laws of nature and consequently not in any possible experience and for this reason it can never be comprehended or understood
because we cannot support it by any sort of example or analogy it holds good only as a necessary hypothesis of reason in a being that believes itself conscious of a will that is of a faculty distinct from mere desire
we can only point out to them that the supposed contradiction that they have discovered in it arises only from this that in order to be able to apply the law of nature to human actions they must necessarily consider man as an appearance
then when we demand of them that they should also think of him qua intelligence as a thing in itself they still persist in considering him in this respect also as an appearance in this view it would no doubt be a contradiction to suppose
to be withdrawn from all the natural laws of the sensible world but this contradiction disappears if they would only bethink themselves and admit as is reasonable that behind the appearances there must also lie at their root although hidden the things in themselves
and that we cannot expect the laws of these to be the same as those that govern their appearances the subjective impossibility of explaining the freedom of the will is identical with the impossibility
nevertheless he does actually take an interest in it the basis of which in us we call the moral feeling which some have falsely assigned as the standard of our moral judgement whereas it must rather be viewed as the subjective effect that the law exercises on the will
the objective principle of which is furnished by reason alone interest is that by which reason becomes practical a cause determining the will
that they take an interest in a thing irrational beings only feel sensual appetites reason takes a direct interest in action then only when the universal validity of its maxims is alone sufficient to determine the will such an interest alone is pure
but if it can determine the will only by means of another object of desire or on the suggestion of a particular feeling of the subject then reason takes only an indirect interest in the action and as reason by itself without experience cannot discover either objects of the will
or a special feeling actuating it this latter interest would only be empirical and not a pure rational interest the logical interest of reason namely to extend its insight is never direct but presupposes purposes for which reason is employed
it is no doubt requisite that reason should have a power to infuse a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction in the fulfilment of duty that is to say that it should have a causality by which it determines
how a mere thought which itself contains nothing sensible can itself produce a sensation of pleasure or pain
whereas in this case although indeed the effect produced lies within experience yet the cause is supposed to be pure reason acting through mere ideas which offer no object to experience
it follows that for us men it is quite impossible to explain how and why the universality of the maxim as a law that is morality interests this only is certain that it is not because it interests us that it has validity for us for
that would be heteronomy and dependence of practical reason on sensibility namely on a feeling as its principle in which case it could never give moral laws but that it interests us because it is valid for us as men inasmuch as it had its source in our will as intelligences
the question then how a categorical imperative is possible can be answered to this extent that we can assign the only hypothesis on which it is possible namely the idea of freedom
and we can also discern the necessity of this hypothesis and this is sufficient for the practical exercise of reason that is for the conviction of the validity of this imperative and hence of the moral law but how this hypothesis itself is possible can never be discerned by any human reason
on the hypothesis however that the will of an intelligence is free its autonomy as the essential formal condition of its determination is a necessary consequence moreover this freedom of will is not merely quite possible as a hypothesis
not involving any contradiction to the principle of physical necessity in the connexion of the phenomena of the sensible world as speculative philosophy can show but further a rational being who is conscious of causality through reason that is to say of a will
distinct from desires must of necessity make it practically that is in idea
how the mere principle of the universal validity of all its maxims as laws which would certainly be the form of a pure practical reason can of itself supply a spring without any matter object of the will
in which one could antecedently take any interest and how it can produce an interest which would be called purely moral or in other words how pure reason can be practical
and all the labour and pains of seeking an explanation of it are lost it is just the same as if i sought to find out how freedom itself is possible as the causality of a will
i might indeed revel in the world of intelligences which still remains to me but although i have an idea of it which is well founded yet i have not the least knowledge of it nor an i ever attain to such knowledge with all the efforts of my natural faculty of reason
it signifies only a something that remains over when i have eliminated everything belonging to the world of sense
serving merely to keep in bounds the principle of motives taken from the field of sensibility fixing its limits and showing that it does not contain all in all within itself but that there is more beyond it but this something more i know no further of pure reason which frames this ideal there remains after the abstraction
nothing but the form namely the practical law of the universality of the maxims and in conformity with this conception of reason in reference to a pure world of understanding as a possible efficient cause that is a cause determining the will
there must here be a total absence of springs unless this idea of an intelligible world is itself the spring or that in which reason primarily takes an interest but to make this intelligible is precisely the problem that we cannot solve
here now is the extreme limit of all moral inquiry and it is of great importance to determine it even on this account
and an interest comprehensible but empirical and on the other hand that it may not impotently flap its wings without being able to move in the for it empty space of transcendent concepts which we call the intelligible world and so lose itself amidst chimeras for the rest
the idea of a pure world of understanding as a system of all intelligences and to which we ourselves as rational beings belong although we are likewise on the other side members of the sensible world this remains always a useful and legitimate idea for the purposes of rational belief
although all knowledge stops at its threshold useful namely to produce in us a lively interest in the moral law by means of the noble ideal of a universal kingdom of ends in themselves rational beings to which we can belong as members then
only when we carefully conduct ourselves according to the maxims of freedom as if they were laws of nature concluding remark
the speculative employment of reason with respect to nature leads to the absolute necessity of some supreme cause of the world the practical employment of reason with a view to freedom leads also to absolute necessity
but only of the laws of the actions of a rational being as such now it is an essential principle of reason however employed to push its knowledge to a consciousness of its necessity without which it would not be rational knowledge it is however an equally essential restriction of the same reason
or what happens nor of what ought to happen
by the constant inquiry for the condition the satisfaction of reason is only further and further postponed
but an objection that should be made to human reason in general that it cannot enable us to conceive the absolute necessity of an unconditional practical law such as the categorical imperative must be it cannot be blamed for refusing to explain this necessity by a condition
that is to say by means of some interest assumed as a basis since the law would then cease to be a supreme law of reason
and almost impossible to be at once didactic and delightful but lady bellairs manages very cleverly to steer a middle course between the charybdis of dulness and the scylla of flippancy
and almost everything that she says has both good sense and good humour to recommend it nor does she confine herself to those broad generalisations on morals
sudden exclamations of annoyance surprise or joy
yawning when listening to any one talking on family matters even to your bosom friends attempting any vocal or instrumental piece of music that you cannot execute with ease crossing your letters
making a short sharp nod with the head intended to do duty for a bow all nonsense in the shape of belief in dreams omens presentiments
and wild flights of the imagination are so extremely rare in the nineteenth century that they seem to me deserving rather of praise than of censure the exclamation bother also though certainly lacking in beauty
might i think be permitted under circumstances of extreme aggravation such as for instance the rejection of a manuscript by the editor of a magazine but in all other respects the list seems to be quite excellent as for what to cultivate nothing could be better than the following
the art of pleasing those around you and seeming pleased with them and all they may do for you the charm of making little sacrifices quite naturally as if of no account to yourself
the habit of making allowances for the opinions feelings or prejudices of others an erect carriage that is a sound body a good memory for faces and facts connected with them thus avoiding giving offence
through not recognising or bowing to people or saying to them what had best been left unsaid the art of listening without impatience to prosy talkers and smiling at the twice told tale or joke
i cannot help thinking that the last aphorism aims at too high a standard there is always a certain amount of danger in any attempt to cultivate impossible virtues
however it is only fair to add that lady bellairs recognises the importance of self development quite as much as the importance of self denial and there is a great deal of sound sense in everything that she says about the gradual growth and formation of character indeed
those who have not read aristotle upon this point might with advantage read lady bellairs miss constance naden's little volume a modern apostle and other poems shows both culture and courage
culture in its use of language courage in its selection of subject matter the modern apostle of whom miss naden sings is a young clergyman who preaches pantheistic socialism in the free church of some provincial manufacturing town converts everybody except the woman whom he loves
and is killed in a street riot the story is exceedingly powerful but seems more suitable for prose than for verse it is right that a poet should be full of the spirit of his age but the external forms of modern life are hardly as yet expressive of that spirit
they are truths of fact not truths of the imagination and though they may give the poet an opportunity for realism they often rob the poem of the reality that is so essential to it art however is a matter of result not of theory and if the fruit is pleasant
we should not quarrel about the tree miss naden's work is distinguished by rich imagery fine colour and sweet music and these are things for which we should be grateful wherever we find them in point of mere technical skill her longer poems are the best
but some of the shorter poems are very fascinating this for instance is pretty the copyist group was gathered round a time worn fresco world renowned whose central glory once had been the face of christ the nazarene
and every copyist of the crowd with his own soul that face endowed gentle severe majestic mean but which was christ the nazarene then one who watched them made complaint and marvelled saying
wherefore paint till ye be sure your eyes have seen the face of christ the nazarene and this sonnet is full of suggestion the wine flushed monarch slept but in his ear an angel breathed
in dread he woke but not in shame deep musing
wherefore he left his feasts and minions dear and justly ruled and died a saint in name but when his hasting spirit heavenward came a stern voice cried
love i forswore and wine and kept my vow to live a just and joyless life and now i crave reward the voice came like a knell fool dost thou hope to find again thy mirth and those foul joys thou didst renounce on earth yea enter in
my heaven shall be thy hell miss constance naden deserves a high place among our living poetesses and this as missus sharp has shown lately in her volume entitled women's voices is no mean distinction
phyllis browne's life of missus somerville forms part of a very interesting little series called the world's workers' a collection of short biographies catholic enough to include personalities
so widely different as turner and richard cobden handel and sir titus salt robert stephenson and florence nightingale and yet possessing a certain definite aim as a mathematician and a scientist the translator and populariser of la mecanique celeste
and the author of an important book on physical geography missus somerville is of course well known the scientific bodies of europe covered her with honours her bust stands in the hall of the royal society and one of the women's colleges at oxford bears her name
and those who consider that stupidity is the proper basis for the domestic virtues and that intellectual women must of necessity be helpless with their hands cannot do better than read phyllis browne's pleasant little book
in which they will find that the greatest woman mathematician of any age was a clever needlewoman a good housekeeper and a most skilful cook indeed missus somerville seems to have been quite renowned for her cookery
not as a tribute to the distinguished mathematician but as a recognition of the excellence of some orange marmalade which the distinguished mathematician had prepared with her own hands and presented to the ships before they left england
and to the fact that she was able to make currant jelly at a very critical moment she owed the affection of some of her husband's relatives who up to that time had been rather prejudiced against her on the ground that she was merely an unpractical blue stocking
nor did her scientific knowledge ever warp or dull the tenderness and humanity of her nature for birds and animals she had always a great love we hear of her as a little girl watching with eager eyes the swallows as they built their nests in summer
or prepared for their flight in the autumn and when snow was on the ground she used to open the windows to let the robins hop in and pick crumbs on the breakfast table on one occasion she went with her father on a tour in the highlands and found on her return that a pet goldfinch
had been neglected by them and had died of starvation she was almost heart broken at the event and in writing her recollections seventy years after
one day the sparrow fell into the water jug and was drowned to the great grief of its mistress who could hardly be consoled for its loss
and becoming missus somerville's constant companion she was also very energetic phyllis browne tells us in trying to get a law passed in the italian parliament for the protection of animals and said once with reference to this subject
we english cannot boast of humanity so long as our sportsmen find pleasure in shooting down tame pigeons as they fly terrified out of a cage' a remark with which i entirely agree mister herbert's bill for the protection of land birds gave her immense pleasure
though to quote her own words she was grieved to find that the lark which at heaven's gate sings is thought unworthy of man's protection and she took a great fancy to a gentleman who on being told of the number of singing birds that is eaten in italy
nightingales goldfinches and robins exclaimed in horror
indeed she believed to some extent in the immortality of animals on the ground that if animals have no future it would seem as if some were created for uncompensated misery an idea which does not seem to me to be either extravagant or fantastic
though it must be admitted that the optimism on which it is based receives absolutely no support from science on the whole phyllis browne's book is very pleasant reading its only fault is that it is far too short and this is a fault so rare in modern literature
that it almost amounts to a distinction however phyllis browne has managed to crowd into the narrow limits at her disposal a great many interesting anecdotes
the picture she gives of missus somerville working away at her translation of laplace in the same room with her children is very charming and reminds one of what is told of george sand there is an amusing account of missus somerville's visit to the widow of the young pretender
the countess of albany who after talking with her for some time exclaimed so you don't speak italian you must have had a very bad education
a very amusing circumstance in connection with missus somerville's acquaintance with sir walter arose out of the childish inquisitiveness of woronzow greig missus somerville's little boy during the time missus somerville was visiting abbotsford
the waverley novels were appearing and were creating a great sensation yet even scott's intimate friends did not know that he was the author he enjoyed keeping the affair a mystery but little woronzow discovered what he was about
and when he goes out charlie scott and i read the stories phyllis browne remarks that this incident shows that persons who want to keep a secret ought to be very careful when children are about
but the story seems to me to be far too charming to require any moral of the kind bound up in the same volume is a life of miss mary carpenter also written by phyllis browne miss carpenter does not seem to me to have the charm and fascination of missus somerville
there is always something about her that is formal limited and precise when she was about two years old she insisted on being called doctor carpenter in the nursery at the age of twelve she is described by a friend as a sedate little girl who always spoke like a book
and before she entered on her educational schemes she wrote down a solemn dedication of herself to the service of humanity
and it is no doubt quite right that the saints should take themselves very seriously it is only fair also to remember that her work of rescue and reformation was carried on under great difficulties
in spite of endless interruptions caused by such proceedings as shooting marbles at any object behind her whistling stamping fighting shrieking out amen in the middle of a prayer
down from the gallery round the great schoolroom and down the stairs and into the street these irrepressible outbreaks she bore with infinite good humour
was not always so barbarous i had taken to my class on the preceding week some specimens of ferns neatly gummed on white paper this time i took a piece of coal shale with impressions of ferns to show them
i told each to examine the specimen and tell me what he thought it was w gave so bright a smile that i saw he knew none of the others could tell he said they were ferns like what i showed them last week but he thought they were chiselled on the stone
their surprise and pleasure were great when i explained the matter to them the history of joseph they all found a difficulty in realising that this had actually occurred one asked if egypt existed now and if people lived in it
when i told them that buildings now stood which had been erected about the time of joseph one said that it was impossible as they must have fallen down ere this i showed them the form of a pyramid and they were satisfied one asked if all books were true
the story of macbeth impressed them very much they knew the name of shakespeare having seen his name over a public house a boy defined conscience as a thing a gentleman hasn't got who when a boy finds his purse and gives it back to him
doesn't give the boy sixpence another boy was asked after a sunday evening lecture on thankfulness what pleasure he enjoyed most in the course of a year he replied candidly cock fightin ma'am there's a pit up by the black boy as is worth anythink in brissel
and it is difficult to help feeling that miss carpenter rather overestimated the value of elementary education the poor are not to be fed upon facts
nor is there much use in giving them the results of culture unless we also give them those conditions under which culture can be realised in these cold crowded cities of the north
the proper basis for morals using the word in its wide hellenic signification is to be found in architecture
indeed she rather inclined to bacon's opinion that unmarried people do the best public work it is quite striking she says in one of her letters to observe how much the useful power and influence of woman has developed of late years
unattached ladies such as widows and unmarried women have quite ample work to do in the world for the good of others to absorb all their powers wives and mothers have a very noble work given them by god and want no more
the whole passage is extremely interesting and the phrase unattached ladies is quite delightful and reminds one of charles lamb ismay's children is by the clever authoress of that wonderful little story flitters tatters and the counsellor
a story which delighted the realists by its truth fascinated mister ruskin by its beauty and remains to the present day the most perfect picture of street arab life in all english prose fiction the scene of the novel is laid in the south of ireland
and the plot is extremely dramatic and ingenious godfrey mauleverer a reckless young irishman runs away with ismay d'arcy a pretty penniless governess and is privately married to her in scotland
some time after the birth of her third child ismay died and her husband who had never made his marriage public nor taken any pains to establish the legitimacy of his children is drowned while yachting off the coast of france
who brings them back to ireland to claim their inheritance for them but a sudden stroke of paralysis deprives her of her memory and she forgets the name of the little scotch village in which ismay's informal marriage took place
the boy who is called godfrey after his father is a fascinating study with his swarthy foreign beauty his fierce moods of love and hate his passionate pride and his passionate tenderness
the account of his midnight ride to warn his enemy of an impending attack of moonlighters is most powerful and spirited and it is pleasant to meet in modern fiction a character that has all the fine inconsistencies of life and is neither too fantastic an exception to be true
nor too ordinary a type to be common excellent also in its direct simplicity of rendering is the picture of miss juliet d'arcy and the scene in which at the moment of her death the old woman's memory returns to her is quite admirable
both in conception and in treatment to me however the chief interest of the book lies in the little lifelike sketches of irish character with which it abounds modern realistic art has not yet produced a hamlet
but at least it may claim to have studied guildenstern and rosencrantz very closely and for pure fidelity and truth to nature nothing could be better than the minor characters in ismay's children here we have the kindly old priest who arranges all the marriages in his parish
and has a strong objection to people who insist on making long confessions the important young curate fresh from maynooth who gives himself more airs than a bishop and has to be kept in order the professional beggars with their devout faith their grotesque humour
and their incorrigible laziness the shrewd shopkeeper who imports arms in flour barrels for the use of the moonlighters and as soon as he has got rid of them gives information of their whereabouts to the police
the young men who go out at night to be drilled by an irish american the farmers with their wild land hunger bidding secretly against each other for every vacant field the dispensary doctor who is always regretting that he has not got a trinity college degree
the plain girls who want to go into convents the pretty girls who want to get married and the shopkeepers daughters who want to be thought young ladies there is a whole pell mell of men and women a complete panorama of provincial life
this note of realism in dealing with national types of character has always been a distinguishing characteristic of irish fiction from the days of miss edgeworth down to our own days
and it is not difficult to see in ismay's children some traces of the influence of castle rack rent i fear however that few people read miss edgeworth nowadays though both scott and tourgenieff acknowledged their indebtedness to her novels
and her style is always admirable in its clearness and precision miss leffler arnim's statement in a lecture delivered recently at saint saviour's hospital that she had heard of instances where ladies were so determined not to exceed the fashionable measurement
that they had actually held on to a cross bar while their maids fastened the fifteen inch corset has excited a good deal of incredulity but there is nothing really improbable in it from the sixteenth century to our own day
there is hardly any form of torture that has not been inflicted on girls and endured by women in obedience to the dictates of an unreasonable and monstrous fashion in order to obtain a real spanish figure says montaigne
nay sometimes they even die thereof a few days after my arrival at school missus somerville tells us in her memoirs although perfectly straight and well made i was enclosed in stiff stays with a steel busk in front
while above my frock bands drew my shoulders back till the shoulder blades met then a steel rod with a semicircle which went under my chin was clasped to the steel busk in my stays
in this constrained state i and most of the younger girls had to prepare our lessons and in the life of miss edgeworth
she underwent all the usual tortures of back boards iron collars and dumbs and also because she was a very tiny person the unusual one of being hung by the neck to draw out the muscles and increase the growth a signal failure in her case
indeed instances of absolute mutilation and misery are so common in the past that it is unnecessary to multiply them but it is really sad to think that in our own day a civilised woman can hang on to a cross bar
while her maid laces her waist into a fifteen inch circle to begin with the waist is not a circle at all but an oval nor can there be any greater error than to imagine that an unnaturally small waist gives an air of grace or even of slightness to the whole figure
its effect as a rule is simply to exaggerate the width of the shoulders and the hips and those whose figures possess that stateliness which is called stoutness by the vulgar convert what is a quality into a defect by yielding to the silly edicts of fashion
on the subject of tight lacing the fashionable english waist also is not merely far too small and consequently quite out of proportion to the rest of the figure but it is worn far too low down i use the expression worn advisedly
for a waist nowadays seems to be regarded as an article of apparel to be put on when and where one likes a long waist always implies shortness of the lower limbs and from the artistic point of view has the effect of diminishing the height
i feel quite sure that all english women of culture and position will set their faces against such stupid and dangerous practices as are related by miss leffler arnim fashion's motto is
it is only right that i should state my exact position in the matter fashion is such an essential part of the mundus muliebris of our day that it seems to me absolutely necessary that its growth development and phases should be duly chronicled
and the historical and practical value of such a record depends entirely upon its perfect fidelity to fact besides it is quite easy for the children of light to adapt almost any fashionable form of dress to the requirements of utility and the demands of good taste
the sarah bernhardt tea gown for instance figured in the present issue has many good points about it and the gigantic dress improver does not appear to me to be really essential to the mode and though the postillion costume of the fancy dress ball
is absolutely detestable in its silliness and vulgarity the so called late georgian costume in the same plate is rather pleasing i must however protest against the idea that to chronicle the development of fashion
implies any approval of the particular forms that fashion may adopt missus craik's article on the condition of the english stage will i feel sure be read with great interest by all who are watching the development of dramatic art in this country
it was the last thing written by the author of john halifax gentleman and reached me only a few days before her lamented death that the state of things is such as missus craik describes
he was charged along with boileau with the task of revising the text of the constitution and rules of madame de maintenon's great college
not merely in france but also in england and an uncritical love of sonnets is preferable on the whole to coarseness vulgarity and ignorance
i am glad to see that miss ramsay's brilliant success at cambridge is not destined to remain an isolated instance of what women can do in intellectual competitions with men at the royal university in ireland
has been won by miss story the daughter of a north of ireland clergyman it is pleasant to be able to chronicle an item of irish news that has nothing to do with the violence of party politics or party feeling and that shows how worthy women are of that higher culture
and education which has been so tardily and in some instances so grudgingly granted to them the empress of japan has been ordering a whole wardrobe of fashionable dresses in paris for her own use and the use of her ladies in waiting
the chrysanthemum the imperial flower of japan has suggested the tints of most of the empress's own gowns and in accordance with the colour schemes of other flowers the rest of the costumes have been designed
also brings to the empress a letter of formal and respectful remonstrance from the english rational dress society i trust that even if the empress rejects the sensible arguments of this important society
her own artistic feeling may induce her to reconsider her resolution to abandon eastern for western costume i hope that some of my readers will interest themselves in the ministering children's league
for which mister walter crane has done the beautiful and suggestive design of the young knight the best way to make children good is to make them happy and happiness seems to me an essential part of lady meath's admirable scheme
one gossips with girls and maidens betrothed and free by lady bellairs blackwood and sons two a modern apostle and other poems by constance naden kegan paul three
which followed the coronation of charles the fifth at bologna an era to which mister symonds gives the name of the catholic reaction and they contain a most interesting and valuable account of the position of spain in the italian peninsula
the conduct of the tridentine council the specific organisation of the holy office and the company of jesus and the state of society upon which those forces were brought to bear in his previous volumes mister symonds had regarded the past rather as a picture to be painted
than as a problem to be solved in these two last volumes however he shows a clearer appreciation of the office of history the art of the picturesque chronicler is completed by something like the science of the true historian
the critical spirit begins to manifest itself and life is not treated as a mere spectacle but the laws of its evolution and progress are investigated also we admit that the desire to represent life at all costs under dramatic conditions
still accompanies mister symonds and that he hardly realises that what seems romance to us was harsh reality to those who were engaged in it like most dramatists also he is more interested in the psychological exceptions than in the general rule
he has something of shakespeare's sovereign contempt of the masses the people stir him very little but he is fascinated by great personalities yet it is only fair to remember that the age itself was one of exaggerated individualism
and that literature had not yet become a mouthpiece for the utterances of humanity men appreciated the aristocracy of intellect but with the democracy of suffering they had no sympathy the cry from the brickfields had still to be heard
mister symonds style too has much improved here and there it is true we come across traces of the old manner as in the apocalyptic vision of the seven devils that entered italy with the spaniard
a hideous idol whose face was blackened with soot from burning human flesh such a sentence also as
reminds us that rhetoric has not yet lost its charms for mister symonds still on the whole the style shows far more reserve balance and sobriety than can be found in the earlier volumes where violent antithesis forms the predominant characteristic
and accuracy is often sacrificed to an adjective amongst the most interesting chapters of the book are those on the inquisition on sarpi the great champion of the severance of church from state and on giordano bruno
his sojourn in paris and wanderings through germany down to his betrayal at venice and martyrdom at rome is most powerfully told and the estimate of the value of his philosophy and the relation he holds to modern science is at once just and appreciative
the account also of ignatius loyola and the rise of the society of jesus is extremely interesting though we cannot think that mister symonds is very happy in his comparison of the jesuits to fanatics laying stones upon a railway or
dynamiters blowing up an emperor or a corner of westminster hall such a judgment is harsh and crude in expression and more suitable to the clamour of the protestant union than to the dignity of the true historian mister symonds however is rarely deliberately unfair
on the poetry of the sixteenth century mister symonds has of course a great deal to say and on such subjects he always writes with ease grace and delicacy of perception
it seems to us that it would be more useful to emphasise the fact that each art has its separate method of expression the essay on tasso however is delightful reading and the position the poet holds towards modern music and modern sentiment
is analysed with much subtlety the essay on marino also is full of interest we have often wondered whether those who talk so glibly of euphuism and marinism in literature have ever read either euphues or the adone
to the latter they can have no better guide than mister symonds whose description of the poem is most fascinating marino like many greater men has suffered much from his disciples but he himself was a master of graceful fancy
not of course a great poet but certainly an artist in poetry and one to whom language is indebted even those conceits that mister symonds feels bound to censure have something charming about them
the continual use of periphrases is undoubtedly a grave fault in style yet who but a pedant would really quarrel with such periphrases as
from the poets mister symonds passes to the painters not those great artists of florence and venice of whom he has already written
this chapter is too polemical to be pleasant the one on music is much better and mister symonds gives us a most interesting description of the gradual steps by which the italian genius passed from poetry and painting to melody and song
till the whole of europe thrilled with the marvel and mystery of this new language of the soul some small details should perhaps be noticed it is hardly accurate for instance
was the first form of the recitative opera
and cavaliere's rappresentazione preceded it by some years and it is somewhat exaggerated to say that under the regime of the commonwealth the national growth of english music received a check from which it never afterwards recovered as it was with cromwell's auspices
that the first english opera was produced thirteen years before any opera was regularly established in paris the fact that england did not make such development in music as italy and germany did must be ascribed to other causes than the prevalence of puritan opinion
these however are minor points mister symonds is to be warmly congratulated on the completion of his history of the renaissance in italy it is a most wonderful monument of literary labour and its value to the student of humanism cannot be doubted
we have often had occasion to differ from mister symonds on questions of detail and we have more than once felt it our duty to protest against the rhetoric and over emphasis of his style but we fully recognise the importance of his work
and the impetus he has given to the study of one of the vital periods of the world's history mister symonds learning has not made him a pedant his culture has widened not narrowed his sympathies and though he can hardly be called a great historian
yet he will always occupy a place in english literature
renaissance in italy the catholic reaction in two parts by john addington symonds
so she decided that it was necessary to prepare the opinion of society she provoked the jealousy of the elderly magnate and told him what she had told her other suitor that is she put the matter so that the only way for him to obtain a right over her was to marry her
the elderly magnate was at first as much taken aback by this suggestion of marriage with a woman whose husband was alive as the younger man had been but helene's imperturbable conviction that it was as simple and natural as marrying a maiden had its effect on him too
had helene herself shown the least sign of hesitation shame or secrecy her cause would certainly have been lost but not only did she show no signs of secrecy or shame on the contrary with good natured naivete she told her intimate friends and these were all petersburg
that both the prince and the magnate had proposed to her and that she loved both and was afraid of grieving either a rumor immediately spread in petersburg not that helene wanted to be divorced from her husband had such a report spread many would have opposed so illegal an intention
but simply that the unfortunate and interesting helene was in doubt which of the two men she should marry the question was no longer whether this was possible but only which was the better match and how the matter would be regarded at court
who saw in the project a desecration of the sacrament of marriage but there were not many such and they remained silent while the majority were interested in helene's good fortune and in the question which match would be the more advantageous
whether it was right or wrong to remarry while one had a husband living they did not discuss for that question had evidently been settled by people wiser than you or me as they said and to doubt the correctness of that decision would be to risk exposing one's stupidity
and incapacity to live in society
allowed herself plainly to express an opinion contrary to the general one meeting helene at a ball she stopped her in the middle of the room and amid general silence said in her gruff voice
so wives of living men have started marrying again perhaps you think you have invented a novelty you have been forestalled my dear it was thought of long ago
all the brothels and with these words marya dmitrievna turning up her wide sleeves with her usual threatening gesture and glancing sternly round moved across the room though people were afraid of marya dmitrievna she was regarded in petersburg as a buffoon
and so of what she had said they only noticed and repeated in a whisper the one coarse word she had used supposing the whole sting of her remark to lie in that word prince vasili who of late very often forgot what he had said and repeated one and the same thing a hundred times
helene i have a word to say to you
have suffered so much but my dear child consult only your own heart that is all i have to say and concealing his unvarying emotion
he would press his cheek against his daughter's and move away bilibin who had not lost his reputation of an exceedingly clever man and who was one of the disinterested friends so brilliant a woman as helene always has men friends who can never change into lovers
once gave her his view of the matter at a small and intimate gathering listen bilibin said helene she always called friends of that sort by their surnames and she touched his coat sleeve with her white beringed fingers tell me as you would a sister
which of the two bilibin wrinkled up the skin over his eyebrows and pondered with a smile on his lips you are not taking me unawares you know said he as a true friend i have thought and thought again about your affair
you see if you marry the prince he meant the younger man and he crooked one finger you forever lose the chance of marrying the other and you will displease the court besides you know there is some kind of connection
and bilibin smoothed out his forehead that's a true friend
and again touching bilibin's sleeve but i love them you know and don't want to distress either of them i would give my life for the happiness of them both bilibin shrugged his shoulders as much as to say that not even he could help in that difficulty
une maitresse femme
that's what is called putting things squarely
bilibin asked his reputation being so well established that he did not fear to ask so naive a question will he agree oh he loves me so said helene who for some reason imagined that pierre too loved her he will do anything for me
bilibin puckered his skin in preparation for something witty even divorce you said he helene laughed among those who ventured to doubt the justifiability of the proposed marriage was helene's mother princess kuragina
she was continually tormented by jealousy of her daughter and now that jealousy concerned a subject near to her own heart she could not reconcile herself to the idea she consulted a russian priest as to the possibility of divorce and remarriage during a husband's lifetime
and the priest told her that it was impossible and to her delight showed her a text in the gospel which as it seemed to him plainly forbids remarriage while the husband is alive armed with these arguments which appeared to her unanswerable
came in to announce that his highness was in the ballroom and wished to see her non
no tell him i don't wish to see him i am furious with him for not keeping his word to me
said a fair haired young man with a long face and nose as he entered the room countess there is mercy for every sin the old princess rose respectfully and curtsied the young man who had entered took no notice of her
the princess nodded to her daughter and sidled out of the room yes she is right thought the old princess all her convictions dissipated by the appearance of his highness
she thought as she got into her carriage
who as she imagined loved her very much informing him of her intention to marry n n and of her having embraced the one true faith and asking him to carry out all the formalities necessary for a divorce which would be explained to him by the bearer of the letter
having run through different yards and side streets pierre got back with his little burden to the gruzinski garden at the corner of the povarskoy he did not at first recognize the place from which he had set out to look for the child so crowded was it now with people and goods
that had been dragged out of the houses besides russian families who had taken refuge here from the fire
pierre took no notice of them he hurried to find the family of that civil servant in order to restore the daughter to her mother and go to save someone else pierre felt that he had still much to do and to do quickly glowing with the heat and from running
he felt at that moment more strongly than ever the sense of youth animation and determination that had come on him when he ran to save the child she had now become quiet and clinging with her little hands to pierre's coat sat on his arm gazing about her like some little wild animal
he glanced at her occasionally with a slight smile he fancied he saw something pathetically innocent in that frightened sickly little face he did not find the civil servant or his wife where he had left them
he walked among the crowd with rapid steps scanning the various faces he met involuntarily he noticed a georgian or armenian family consisting of a very handsome old man of oriental type wearing a new
cloth covered sheepskin coat and new boots an old woman of similar type and a young woman that very young woman seemed to pierre the perfection of oriental beauty with her sharply outlined arched black eyebrows
of her long beautiful expressionless face amid the scattered property and the crowd on the open space she in her rich satin cloak with a bright lilac shawl on her head suggested a delicate exotic plant thrown out onto the snow
she was sitting on some bundles a little behind the old woman and looked from under her long lashes with motionless large almond shaped eyes at the ground before her evidently she was aware of her beauty and fearful because of it
her face struck pierre and hurrying along by the fence he turned several times to look at her when he had reached the fence still without finding those he sought he stopped and looked about him
with the child in his arms his figure was now more conspicuous than before and a group of russians both men and women gathered about him have you lost anyone my dear fellow you're of the gentry yourself aren't you whose child is it
they asked him pierre replied that the child belonged to a woman in a black coat who had been sitting there with her other children and he asked whether anyone knew where she had gone why that must be the anferovs said an old deacon
addressing a pockmarked peasant woman lord have mercy lord have mercy he added in his customary bass the anferovs no said the woman they left in the morning that must be either mary nikolievna's
he says a woman and mary nikolievna is a lady remarked a house serf do you know her she's thin with long teeth said pierre that's mary nikolievna
they went inside the garden when these wolves swooped down said the woman pointing to the french soldiers o lord have mercy added the deacon
she kept on lamenting and crying continued the woman it's she here this way but pierre was not listening to the woman he had for some seconds been intently watching what was going on a few steps away he was looking at the armenian family and at two french soldiers
who had gone up to them one of these a nimble little man was wearing a blue coat tied round the waist with a rope he had a nightcap on his head and his feet were bare the other whose appearance particularly struck pierre
was a long lank round shouldered fair haired man slow in his movements and with an idiotic expression of face he wore a woman's loose gown of frieze blue trousers and large torn hessian boots
the little barefooted frenchman in the blue coat went up to the armenians and saying something immediately seized the old man by his legs and the old man at once began pulling off his boots
motionless and silent here take the child said pierre peremptorily
handing the little girl to her give her back to them give her back he almost shouted putting the child who began screaming on the ground and again looking at the frenchman and the armenian family
the old man was already sitting barefoot the little frenchman had secured his second boot and was slapping one boot against the other the old man was saying something in a voice broken by sobs but pierre caught but a glimpse of this
who meanwhile swaying slowly from side to side had drawn nearer to the young woman and taking his hands from his pockets had seized her by the neck the beautiful armenian still sat motionless and in the same attitude
with her long lashes drooping as if she did not see or feel what the soldier was doing to her while pierre was running the few steps that separated him from the frenchman the tall marauder in the frieze gown was already tearing from her neck the necklace the young armenian was wearing
and the young woman clutching at her neck screamed piercingly
exclaimed pierre hoarsely in a furious voice seizing the soldier by his round shoulders and throwing him aside the soldier fell got up and ran away but his comrade throwing down the boots and drawing his sword moved threateningly toward pierre
look here no nonsense pierre was in such a transport of rage that he remembered nothing and his strength increased tenfold he rushed at the barefooted frenchman and before the latter had time to draw his sword
knocked him off his feet and hammered him with his fists shouts of approval were heard from the crowd around and at the same moment a mounted patrol of french uhlans appeared from round the corner the uhlans came up at a trot to pierre and the frenchman
and surrounded them pierre remembered nothing of what happened after that he only remembered beating someone and being beaten and finally feeling that his hands were bound and that a crowd of french soldiers stood around him and were searching him
lieutenant he has a dagger were the first words pierre understood ah a weapon said the officer and turned to the barefooted soldier who had been arrested with pierre all right you can tell all about it at the court martial
then he turned to pierre do you speak french pierre looked around him with bloodshot eyes and did not reply his face probably looked very terrible for the officer said something in a whisper
and four more uhlans left the ranks and placed themselves on both sides of pierre do you speak french the officer asked again keeping at a distance from pierre call the interpreter a little man in russian civilian clothes
rode out from the ranks and by his clothes and manner of speaking pierre at once knew him to be a french salesman from one of the moscow shops he does not look like a common man said the interpreter after a searching look at pierre
ah he looks very much like an incendiary remarked the officer and ask him who he is he added who are you asked the interpreter in poor russian you must answer the chief
i will not tell you who i am i am your prisoner take me pierre suddenly replied in french ah ah muttered the officer with a frown well then march a crowd had collected round the uhlans
nearest to pierre stood the pockmarked peasant woman with the little girl and when the patrol started she moved forward where are they taking you to you poor dear said she and the little girl the little girl
said the woman what does that woman want asked the officer pierre was as if intoxicated his elation increased at the sight of the little girl he had saved what does she want he murmured
she is bringing me my daughter whom i have just saved from the flames said he good bye and without knowing how this aimless lie had escaped him he went along with resolute and triumphant steps between the french soldiers
the french patrol was one of those sent out through the various streets of moscow by durosnel's order to put a stop to the pillage
according to the general opinion which had that day originated among the higher french officers were the cause of the conflagrations after marching through a number of streets the patrol arrested five more russian suspects a small shopkeeper two seminary students
a peasant and a house serf besides several looters but of all these various suspected characters pierre was considered to be the most suspicious of all
yes yes do that he replied to various proposals yes yes go dear boy and have a look he would say to one or another of those about him or no don't we'd better wait
he listened to the reports that were brought him and gave directions when his subordinates demanded that of him
but rather in something else in the expression of face and tone of voice of those who were reporting
and with the wisdom of age understood
and he knew that the result of a battle is decided not by the orders of a commander in chief nor the place where the troops are stationed nor by the number of cannon
and his face wore a strained look as if he found it difficult to master the fatigue of his old and feeble body at eleven o'clock they brought him news that the fleches captured
but that prince bagration was wounded kutuzov groaned and swayed his head ride over to prince peter ivanovich and find out about it exactly he said to one of his adjutants and then turned to the duke of wurttemberg who was standing behind him
will your highness please take command of the first army soon after the duke's departure before he could possibly have reached semenovsk his adjutant came back from him and told kutuzov that the duke asked for more troops kutuzov made a grimace
and sent an order to dokhturov to take over the command of the first army and a request to the duke whom he said he could not spare at such an important moment to return to him when they brought him news that murat had been taken prisoner
and the staff officers congratulated him kutuzov smiled wait a little gentlemen said he the battle is won and there is nothing extraordinary in the capture of murat still it is better to wait before we rejoice
but he sent an adjutant to take the news round the army when scherbinin came galloping from the left flank with news that the french had captured the fleches and the village of semenovsk kutuzov guessing by the sounds of the battle and by scherbinin's looks that the news was bad
the attack directed by napoleon against our left flank had been several times repulsed in the center the french had not got beyond borodino and on their left flank uvarov's cavalry had put the french to flight toward three o'clock the french attacks ceased
on the faces of all who came from the field of battle and of those who stood around him kutuzov noticed an expression of extreme tension he was satisfied with the day's success a success exceeding his expectations but the old man's strength was failing him
several times his head dropped low as if it were falling and he dozed off dinner was brought him adjutant general wolzogen the man who when riding past prince andrew had said the war should be extended widely
and whom bagration so detested rode up while kutuzov was at dinner
to report on the progress of affairs on the left flank the sagacious barclay de tolly seeing crowds of wounded men running back and the disordered rear of the army weighed all the circumstances concluded that the battle was lost and sent his favorite officer to the commander in chief
with that news kutuzov was chewing a piece of roast chicken with difficulty and glanced at wolzogen with eyes that brightened under their puckering lids wolzogen nonchalantly stretching his legs approached kutuzov with a half contemptuous smile on his lips
scarcely touching the peak of his cap he treated his serene highness with a somewhat affected nonchalance intended to show that as a highly trained military man
but that he knew whom he was dealing with der alte herr as in their own set the germans called kutuzov is making himself very comfortable thought wolzogen and looking severely at the dishes in front of kutuzov
the position of affairs on the left flank as barclay had ordered him to and as he himself had seen and understood it
the men are running away and it is impossible to stop them he reported kutuzov ceased chewing and fixed an astonished gaze on wolzogen as if not understanding what was said to him wolzogen noticing the old gentleman's agitation
said with a smile i have not considered it right to conceal from your serene highness what i have seen the troops are in complete disorder
you have seen kutuzov shouted frowning
he shouted choking and making a threatening gesture with his trembling arms how dare you sir say that to me you know nothing about it tell general barclay from me that his information is incorrect
and that the real course of the battle is better known to me the commander in chief than to him wolzogen was about to make a rejoinder but kutuzov interrupted him
to attack the enemy tomorrow said kutuzov sternly all were silent and the only sound audible was the heavy breathing of the panting old general they are repulsed everywhere for which i thank god
and our brave army the enemy is beaten and tomorrow we shall drive him from the sacred soil of russia said kutuzov crossing himself and he suddenly sobbed as his eyes filled with tears wolzogen
shrugging his shoulders and curling his lips stepped silently aside marveling at the old gentleman's conceited stupidity
said kutuzov to a portly handsome dark haired general who was just ascending the knoll
raevski reported that the troops were firmly holding their ground and that the french no longer ventured to attack after hearing him kutuzov said in french then you do not think like some others that we must retreat on the contrary your highness in indecisive actions
it is always the most stubborn who remain victors replied raevski and in my opinion kaysarov kutuzov called to his adjutant sit down and write out the order of the day for tomorrow and you he continued addressing another ride along the line
kutuzov without looking at wolzogen
kutuzov's words his order for a battle next day immediately became known from one end of the army to the other it was far from being the same words or the same order that reached the farthest links of that chain
the tales passing from mouth to mouth at different ends of the army did not even resemble what kutuzov had said but the sense of his words spread everywhere because what he said was not the outcome of cunning calculations but of a feeling that lay in the commander in chief's soul
as in that of every russian
the generals re formed them but their numbers constantly decreased in the middle of the day murat sent his adjutant to napoleon to demand reinforcements napoleon sat at the foot of the knoll drinking punch
when murat's adjutant galloped up with an assurance that the russians would be routed if his majesty would let him have another division reinforcements said napoleon in a tone of stern surprise looking at the adjutant
a handsome lad with long black curls arranged like murat's own as though he did not understand his words reinforcements thought napoleon to himself how can they need reinforcements when they already have half the army directed against a weak unentrenched russian wing
that it is not noon yet and i don't yet see my chessboard clearly go the handsome boy adjutant with the long hair sighed deeply without removing his hand from his hat and galloped back to where men were being slaughtered
napoleon rose and having summoned caulaincourt
began talking to them about matters unconnected with the battle in the midst of this conversation which was beginning to interest napoleon berthier's eyes turned to look at a general with a suite who was galloping toward the knoll on a lathering horse it was belliard
having dismounted he went up to the emperor with rapid strides and in a loud voice began boldly demonstrating the necessity of sending reinforcements he swore on his honor that the russians were lost if the emperor would give another division
napoleon shrugged his shoulders and continued to pace up and down without replying belliard began talking loudly and eagerly to the generals of the suite around him you are very fiery belliard said napoleon
in the heat of a battle it is easy to make a mistake go and have another look and then come back to me before belliard was out of sight a messenger from another part of the battlefield galloped up now then what do you want asked napoleon
in the tone of a man irritated at being continually disturbed sire the prince began the adjutant asks for reinforcements said napoleon with an angry gesture the adjutant bent his head affirmatively and began to report
but the emperor turned from him took a couple of steps stopped came back and called berthier we must give reserves he said moving his arms slightly apart who do you think should be sent there he asked of berthier whom he subsequently termed
that gosling i have made an eagle send claparede's division sire replied berthier who knew all the division's regiments and battalions by heart napoleon nodded assent
napoleon gazed silently in that direction no
the order was carried out exactly napoleon did not notice that in regard to his army he was playing the part of a doctor who hinders by his medicines a role he so justly understood and condemned
into the smoke of the battlefield from all sides adjutants continued to arrive at a gallop and as if by agreement all said the same thing they all asked for reinforcements and all said that the russians were holding their positions and maintaining a hellish fire under which the french army was melting away
napoleon sat on a campstool wrapped in thought
having fasted since morning came up to the emperor and ventured respectfully to suggest lunch to his majesty i hope i may now congratulate your majesty on a victory
assuming the negation to refer only to the victory and not to the lunch m de beausset ventured with respectful jocularity to remark that there is no reason for not having lunch when one can get it go away exclaimed napoleon suddenly and morosely
and he glided away to the other generals napoleon was experiencing a feeling of depression like that of an ever lucky gambler who after recklessly flinging money about and always winning suddenly
finds that the more he considers his play the more surely he loses his troops were the same his generals the same the same preparations had been made the same dispositions and the same proclamation
he himself was still the same he knew that and knew that he was now even more experienced and skillful than before even the enemy was the same as at austerlitz and friedland yet the terrible stroke of his arm had supernaturally become impotent
all the old methods that had been unfailingly crowned with success the concentration of batteries on one point an attack by reserves to break the enemy's line and a cavalry attack by the men of iron all these methods had already been employed
of reinforcements needed of the impossibility of driving back the russians and of disorganization among his own troops
marshals and adjutants had come galloping up with congratulations and happy faces announcing the trophies taken the corps of prisoners bundles of enemy eagles and standards cannon and stores and murat had only begged leave to loose the cavalry to gather in the baggage wagons
but now something strange was happening to his troops despite news of the capture of the fleches napoleon saw that this was not the same not at all the same as what had happened in his former battles
he saw that what he was feeling was felt by all the men about him experienced in the art of war all their faces looked dejected and they all shunned one another's eyes only a de beausset could fail to grasp the meaning of what was happening
but napoleon with his long experience of war well knew the meaning of a battle not gained by the attacking side in eight hours after all efforts had been expended he knew that it was a lost battle
and that the least accident might now with the fight balanced on such a strained center destroy him and his army when he ran his mind over the whole of this strange russian campaign in which not one battle had been won
or cannon or army corps had been captured in two months when he looked at the concealed depression on the faces around him and heard reports of the russians still holding their ground a terrible feeling like a nightmare took possession of him
and all the unlucky accidents that might destroy him occurred to his mind the russians might fall on his left wing might break through his center he himself might be killed by a stray cannon ball all this was possible
in former battles he had only considered the possibilities of success but now innumerable unlucky chances presented themselves and he expected them all yes it was like a dream in which a man fancies that a ruffian is coming to attack him
and raises his arm to strike that ruffian a terrible blow which he knows should annihilate him but then feels that his arm drops powerless and limp like a rag and the horror of unavoidable destruction seizes him in his helplessness
the news that the russians were attacking the left flank of the french army aroused that horror in napoleon he sat silently on a campstool below the knoll with head bowed and elbows on his knees
to ascertain the position of affairs what
asked napoleon yes tell them to bring me my horse he mounted and rode toward semenovsk amid the powder smoke slowly dispersing over the whole space through which napoleon rode horses and men were lying in pools of blood
singly or in heaps neither napoleon nor any of his generals had ever before seen such horrors or so many slain in such a small area the roar of guns that had not ceased for ten hours wearied the ear and gave a peculiar significance to the spectacle
napoleon rode up the high ground at semenovsk
they were russians the russians stood in serried ranks behind semenovsk village and its knoll and their guns boomed incessantly along their line and sent forth clouds of smoke it was no longer a battle it was a continuous slaughter
which could be of no avail either to the french or the russians napoleon stopped his horse and again fell into the reverie from which berthier had aroused him he could not stop what was going on before him and around him
and from its lack of success this affair for the first time seemed to him unnecessary and horrible one of the generals rode up to napoleon and ventured to offer to lead the old guard into action ney and berthier
standing near napoleon exchanged looks and smiled contemptuously at this general's senseless offer napoleon bowed his head and remained silent a long time at eight hundred leagues from france i will not have my guard destroyed
chapter twenty two an adventure in the wood ralph arrayed himself for departure next morning without more words and when he was ready the carline said to him
when thou wentest forth before i was troubled at thy going and feared for thy returning but now i fear not
though it may be leading a fair woman by the hand so go and all luck go with thee ralph smiled at her words and went his ways and came into the wood that lay due south from the castle and he went on and on and had no thought of turning back
he rested twice and still went on till the fashion of the thickets and the woods changed about him and at last when the sun was getting low he saw light gleaming through a great wood of pines which had long been dark before him against the tall boles
he came out of the pinewood on to the grass but there were thornbushes a few about so that moving warily from one to the other he might perchance see without being seen warily he went forsooth going along the green strand to the east and the head of that water
and saw how the bank sloped up gently from its ending toward the pine wood in front of whose close set trees stood three great boled tall oak trees on a smooth piece of green sward and now he saw that there were folk come before him on this green place
and keen sighted as he was could make out that three men were on the hither side of the oak trees and on the further side of them was a white horse thitherward then he made stealing from bush to bush since he deemed that he needed not be seen of men who might be foes
before he saw the westering sun shine brightly from a naked sword and then another sprang up to meet it and he heard faintly the clash of steel
and was a woman belike then he bettered his pace and in a minute or two came so near that he could see the men clearly that they were clad in knightly war gear and were laying on great strokes so that the still place rang with the clatter as for the woman
he could see but little of her because of the fighting men before her and the shadow of the oak boughs fell on her withal now as he went hidden by the bushes they hid the men also from him and when he was come to the last bush some fifty paces from them
rushed on his foe and smote so fiercely that he fell to the earth before him and the big man fell upon him as he fell and let knee and sword pommel and fist follow the stroke and there they wallowed on the earth together straightway
ralph came forth from the bushes with his drawn sword in his hand and even therewith what with the two knights being both low upon the earth what with the woman herself coming from out the shadow of the oak boughs and turning her toward ralph he saw her clearly
yet did he seem to see her body through that which covered it but now her attire was but simple a green gown thin and short and thereover a cote hardy of black cloth with orphreys of gold and colours but on her neck was a collar that seemed to him
thus they abode for about the space of one minute and meanwhile the big man rose up on one knee and steadied him with his sword for a moment of time and the blade was bloody from the point half way up to the hilt
scowling and his face white as chalk then he spake to her coldly and sternly stretching out his bloody sword before her i have done thy bidding and slain my very earthly friend of friends for thy sake
wherewith wilt thou reward me then once more ralph heard the voice which he remembered so sweet amidst peril and battle aforetime as she said as coldly as the knight i bade thee not
thine own heart bade thee to strive with him because thou deemedst that he loved me be content thou hast slain him who stood in thy way as thou deemedst
o no i grieve at it for all that i had such good cause to hate him he said my own heart my own heart half of my heart biddeth me slay thee who hast made me slay him what wilt thou give me
she knit her brow and spake angrily leave to depart she said then after a while and in a kinder voice and thus much of my love that i pray thee not to sorrow for me but to have a good heart
said he not uncompelled she said if thou biddest me go with threats of hewing and mangling the body which thou sayest thou lovest needs must i go then yet scarce wilt thou do this
he still had his back to ralph and was staring at the lady she turned her head a little and made a sign to ralph just as the knight of the sun said thou misdoubtest thee who shall help thee in the desert look over thy left shoulder she said
sword in hand smiling but somewhat pale he drew aback from the lady and spinning round on his heel faced ralph and cried out hah hast thou raised up a devil against me thou sorceress
and my life fair will the game be to fight with thy devil as i have fought with my friend
she spake not but stood quietly looking on him not unkindly while a wind came up from the water and played with a few light locks of hair that hung down from that ruddy crown and blew her raiment from her feet and wrapped it close round her limbs
and let this young man depart unhurt whether thou madest him or hast but led him away from country and friends and all then do thou come with me and make some semblance of loving me and suffer me to love thee
and therewithal she turned her face toward ralph as she might do on any chance met courteous man and he saw her smiling but she said nought to him and gave no token of knowing him then the knight of the sun sprang to his feet
so that the blood sprang and fell on fiercely enough smiting to right and left
drew himself up stark and stiff and pressing on through all ralph's strokes though they rent his mail here and there ran within his sword
on the side of the head so that the young man of upmeads could not stand up under the weight of the blow but fell to the earth swooning and the knight of the sun knelt on him and drew out an anlace short thick and sharp and cried out
now devil let see whether thou wilt bleed black therewith he raised up his hand but the weapon was stayed or ever it fell for the lady had glided up to them when she saw that ralph was overcome
and he laughed in the extremity of his wrath but she was pale and her lips quivered as she said softly and sweetly wilt thou verily slay this young man and why not said he
well since thou wilt not have this youngling slain i may deem at least that he is no devil of thy making else wouldst thou be glad of his slaying so that he might be out of the path of thee so a man he is
and he lifted his hand again but again she stayed him and said look thou i will buy him of thee and indeed i owe him a life how is that said he why wouldst thou know she said
wouldst keep me away from all men yea i know what thou wouldst say thou wouldst keep me from sinning again and she smiled but bitterly well the tale is no long one five days ago
who would else have been tormented to death by the burgers well said the knight perchance thou hast more mercy than i looked for of thee though i misdoubt thee that thou mayst yet pray me or some other to slay him for thee
thou art merciful my queen though not to me and a churl were i if i were less merciful than thou therefore
yet not to thee will i give him if i may help it lo you sweet he is just opening his eyes therewith he rose up from ralph who raised himself a little and sat up dazed and feeble
the knight of the sun stood up over him beside the lady
young man canst thou hear my words ralph smiled feebly and nodded a yea say dost thou love thy life then said the knight ralph found speech and said faintly yea
said the knight where dost thou come from where is thine home said ralph upmeads well then quoth the big knight go back to upmeads and live
ralph shook his head and knit his brows and said i will not yea said the knight thou wilt not live then must i shape me to thy humour stand on thy feet and fight it out
ralph staggered up to his feet but was so feeble still that he sank down again and muttered i may not i am sick and faint and therewith swooned away again but the knight stood a while leaning on his sword
and looking down on him not unkindly then he turned about to the lady but lo she had left his side she had glided away and got to her horse which was tethered on the other side of the oak tree and had loosed him and mounted him
the reins gathered in her hands she smiled on the knight as he stood astonished and cried to him now lord i warn thee draw not a single foot nigher to me for thou seest that i have silverfax between my knees and thou knowest how swift he is and if i see thee move
he shall spring away with me thou wottest how well i know all the ways of the woodland and i tell thee that the ways behind me to the dry tree be all safe and open and that beyond the gliding river i shall come on roger of the ropewalk and his men
and moreover he is many yards away from me and silverfax so before thou art in the saddle where shall i be yea for the knight was handling his anlace thou mayst cast it and peradventure mayst hit silverfax and not me
this is the bargain to be struck between us even now thou wouldst not refrain from slaying this young man unless perchance he should swear to depart from us and as for me i would not go back with thee to sunhome
where erst thou shamedst me now will i buy thy nay say with mine and if thou give the youngling his life and suffer him to come his ways with us
for then i will ride my ways to the dry tree and thou shalt slay the poor youth
so she spake and ralph yet lay on the grass and heard nought but the knight's face was dark and swollen with anger as he answered my sworn friend yea i understand thy gibe
yea he said grimly when thou art weary of him o art thou not shameless amongst women yet must i needs pay thy price though my honour and the welfare of my life go with it
yet how if he have no will to fare with us she laughed and said then shalt thou have him with thee as thy captive and thrall hast thou not conquered him in battle he stood silent a moment and then he said thou sayest it
he shall come with me will he nill he unarmed and as a prisoner and the spoil of my valiancy and he laughed not altogether in bitterness but as if some joy were rising in his heart now my queen said he
the bargain is struck betwixt us and thou mayest light down off silverfax as for me i will go fetch water from the lake that we may wake up this valiant and mighty youth this newfound jewel and bring him to his wits again
chapter twenty three the leechcraft of the lady meanwhile she went to ralph and stood by him who now began to stir again and she knelt down by him and kissed his face gently
and rose up hastily and stood a little aloof again now ralph sat up and looked about him and when he saw the lady he first blushed red and then turned very pale for the full life was in him again and he knew her and love drew strongly at his heart strings
but she looked on him kindly and said to him how fares it with thee i am sorry of thy hurt which thou hast had for me he said forsooth lady a chance knock or two is no great matter for a lad of upmeads but oh
i have seen thee before yea she said twice before fair knight how is that he said once i saw thee the fairest thing in the world and evil men would have led thee to slaughter but not twice
with my captain of war at the peril of our lives to deliver four faithful friends of mine who were else doomed to an evil death he said nought but gazed at her face wondering at her valiancy and goodness
then she said as she drew her hand away and spake in such a voice and so looking at him that every word was as a caress to him thy soul is coming back to thee my friend and thou art well at ease is it not so o yea
was but the very sooth but the knight spake young man thou hast fought with me thou knowest not wherefore and grim was my mood when thou madest thine onset
and still is so that never but once wilt thou be nigher thy death than thou hast been this hour but now i have given thee life because of the asking of this lady and therewith i give thee leave to come thy ways with us
for thou art my prisoner to be kept or ransomed or set free as i will but my will is that thou shalt not have thine armour and weapons and there is a cause for this which mayhappen i will tell thee hereafter
but now i bid thee drink of this water and then do off thine helm and hauberk and give me thy sword and dagger and go with us peaceably
and as to my going with thee and the lady thou hast heard me say under thy dagger that i would not forbear to follow her so i scarce need thy command thereto the knight scowled on him and said hold thy peace fool thou wert best not stir my wrath again
nay said ralph thou hast my sword and mayst slay me if thou wilt therefore be not word valiant with me said the knight of the sun well well thou hast the right of it there
but now must we set forth on our road and here is work for thee to do
and was the readier therein because the lady looked on him kindly and compassionately as he went by her he found the horses speedily a black horse that was of the black knight and a bay of the knight of the sun and he came back with them lightly
but when he came to the oak tree again lo the knight and the lady both kneeling over the body of the black knight and ralph saw that the knight of the sun was sobbing and weeping sorely so that he deemed that he was taking leave of his friend that lay dead there
but when ralph had tied up those other two steeds by silverfax and drawn rear to those twain the knight of the sun looked up at him and spake in a cheerful voice thou seemest to be no ill man though thou hast come across my lady
so now i bid thee rejoice that there is a good knight more in the world than we deemed e e n now for this my friend walter the black is alive still yea said the lady and belike he shall live a long while yet
so ralph looked and saw that they had stripped the knight of his hauberk and helm and bared his body and that the lady was dressing a great and sore wound in his side neither was he come to himself again he was a young man and very goodly to look on
he was no more grim and moody but smiling and joyous and he spake and said young man this shall stand thee in good stead that i have not slain my friend this bout sooth to say it might else have gone hard with thee on the way to my house
what wilt thou do wilt thou abide here by walter thyself alone and let me bring the imp of upmeads home to our house or wilt thou ride home and send folk with a litter to us or shall this youngling ride at all adventure
and seek to sunway through the blind woodland which shall it be the knight laughed outright and said yea fair one this is much like to the tale of the carle at the ferry with the fox and the goat and the cabbage
there was scarce a smile on her face as she said gently one thing is to be thought of that walter's soul is not yet so fast in his body that either thou or some rough handed leech may be sure of healing him it must be this hand
and she stretched out her arm over the wounded man with the fingers pointing down the water and reddened withal as if she felt the hearts greediness of the two men who were looking on her beauty the big knight sighed and said
to morrow is a new day and fair is the woodland hall of summer tide neither shall water fail us but as to victual i wot not save that we have none the lady laughed and said to ralph
and found the saddle bags on him and took from them bread and flesh and a flask of good wine and brought them to the lady who laughed and said thou art a good seeker and no ill finder then she gave the wounded man to drink of the wine
so that he stirred somewhat and the colour came into his face a little then she bade gather store of bracken for a bed for the black knight and ralph bestirred himself therein but the knight of the sun sat looking at the lady as she busied herself with his friend
and gloom seemed gathering on him again but when the bracken was enough the lady made a bed deftly and speedily and between the three they laid the wounded man thereon who seemed coming to himself somewhat and spake a few words
but those nothing to the point then the lady took her gay embroidered cloak which lay at the foot of the oak tree and cast it over him and as ralph deemed
till he had gotten the whole tale into his head
that it told not whence that lady came nor what she was nor aught else save that there she was in the wood by herself and was found therein by the king's son
and which long endured again he could not gather from that book why she had gone back to the lone place in the woods whereas she might have wedded one of those warring barons who sorely desired her nor why she had yielded herself to the witch of that place
and endured with patience her thralldom with stripes and torments of her body like the worst of the thralls of the ancient heathen men lastly he might not learn from the book where in the world was that lone place or aught of the road to the well at the world's end
but amidst all his thinking his heart came back to this when i meet her she will tell me of it all i need be no wiser than to learn how to meet her and to make her love me
then shall she show me the way to the well at the world's end and i shall drink thereof and never grow old even as she endureth in youth and she shall love me for ever and i her for ever so he thought
and he went and lay down in his bed and slept and dreamed of the days of upmead and things forgotten in his waking time came between him and any memories of his present longing and the days thereof he awoke and arose betimes in the morning
where should i be but here ah she said but who knows what may happen nevertheless she went and fetched his war gear and looked at him fondly as he did it on and went his ways from the hall
o for a draught of the well at the world's end that the love might last long and long so he went on a while betwixt the trees and the thickets till it was a little past noon but all on a sudden a panic fear took him
lest she should indeed come to the castle while he was away and not finding him depart again who knows whither and when this thought came upon him he cried aloud and hastened at his swiftest back again to the castle and came there breathless and wearied
and ran to the old woman and cried out to her is she come is she come the carline laughed and said nay she is not but thou art come praise be to the saints but what aileth thee nay fear not she shall come at last
then grew ralph shamefaced and turned away from her and miscalled himself for a fool and a dastard
so he wore through the remnant of the day howso he might without going out adoors again and the carline came and spake with him but whatever he asked her about the lady she would not tell aught of any import
so when dinner over they turned to their work again he went back to the castle and read in that book and looked at the pictures thereof and kept turning his wonder and hope and fear over and over again in his mind and making to himself stories of how he should meet the lady
and what she would say to him and how he should answer her till at last the night came and he went to his bed and slept for the very weariness of his longing when the new day came he arose and went into the hall and found the carline there who said to him
and all has gone well but the fourth time she will come and find me gone the carline laughed well she said
for i promise thee not to stir out of the house whiles thou art away said ralph nay i will abide here yea she said i see thou trustest me not well no matter
and to day it will be handy if thou abidest for i have an errand to my brother in the flesh who is one of the brethren of the thorn over yonder if thou wilt give me leave it will be to my pleasure and gain ralph was glad when he heard this deeming that if she left him alone there
besides he deemed that the lady might come that day when he was alone in the castle and that himseemed would make the meeting sweeter yet so he yea said the carline's asking joyously and in an hour's time she went her ways and left him alone there
ralph said to himself when he saw her depart that he would have the more joy in the castle of his lady if he were alone and would wear away the day in better patience therefor but in sooth the hours of that day were worse to wear than any day there had yet been
he went not without the house at all that day for he deemed that the folk abroad would note of him that he was so changed and restless whiles he read in that book or turned the leaves over not reading it whiles he went into the chamber of estate
but not much for he deemed that her goodwill to him was abundant which indeed it was now she looks on him and says truly it does my heart good to see thee but thou poor boy thou art wearing thyself with thy longing
and thy doubting and if thou wilt do after my rede thou wilt certainly go into the wood to morrow and see what may befall and indeed and in sooth thou wilt leave behind thee a trusty friend he looked on her kindly and smiled and said
in sooth mother i deem thou art but right though it be hard for me to leave this house to which in a way my lady hath bidden me yet i will do thy bidding herein
and still the carline came not to him and he thought she leaveth me alone that i may do her bidding
and girt his sword to his side and went forth a foot as before he crossed the river by a wide ford and stepping stones somewhat below the pool wherein he had bathed on that first day and already by then he had got so far
as others have done before thee well well
thereat ralph's heart fell again and he said sayest thou mother that there have been others abiding like me in the tower i know not what thy words mean the carline laughed
well deemest thou that i have had more men than one to love me i know not mother said ralph who could scarce hold himself patient there now quoth the carline look at my damsel she is not my daughter but my brother's
thou fair man and doth so with her raiment that thou mayst best see how shapely she is of limb and foot and toyeth her right hand with her left wrist and the like well as for me i have had more lovers than one or two
and even before i was old i was not young i am now foul of favour and even before i became foul i was not so fair well then yea what then said ralph this then fair young fool said she
it is her way here in the summer tide to bathe her in yonder pool up the water and it was the same pool wherein ralph had bathed and she hath me and my niece and two other women to hold up the silken cloth betwixt her body and the world so that i have seen her as god made her
that when he was about that work he was minded to be a craftsmaster for there is no blemish about her that she should hide her at all or anywhere
withal she is as strong as a knight and i warrant her hardier of heart than most knights a happy man shalt thou be for surely i deem thou hast not come hither to abide her without some token or warrant of her ralph held down his head
and he could not meet the old woman's eyes as she spake thus and the maiden took herself out of earshot at the first words of the carline hereof
ralph spake after a while and said tell me is she good and a good woman
and the guardian of all poor folk ask the carles else ralph held his peace and rose to be gone and turning saw the damsel wading the shallow ford and looking over her shoulder at him he gave the dame good day
amidst such thoughts he came into the wood and made his way by the paths and open places going south and east of the house whereas the last day he had gone west and north he went a soft pace but wandered on without any stay till it was noon
but at last he heard the tinkle of a little bell coming towards him so he stood still and got the hilt of his sword ready to his hand and the tinkle drew nearer and he heard withal the trample of some riding beast so he went toward the sound and presently in a clearer place of the wood
and asked him whither he would said the priest i am for the little plain and the land of abundance whence art thou my son and whither wilt thou from that very land i come said ralph and as to whither
i seek adventures but unless i see more than i have this forenoon or thou canst tell me of them back will i whence i came
for these woodland ways are some what blind said the priest
art thou one of my lady's lords ralph reddened as he sighed and said i am no captain of hers then smiled the priest and said
ralph said nought but waxed shamefaced as he deemed that the priest eyed him curiously at last he said i will ask thee a question in turn father yea said the priest said ralph
the gods of the gentiles then the priest crossed himself again and spake as solemnly as a judge on the bench son i pray that if thou art not in thy right mind thou will come thereinto anon
know this that whatever else she may be she is a right holy woman or hast thou perchance heard any evil tales concerning her now ralph was confused at his word and knew not what to say
but from whose mouth forsooth i will tell thee from a sort of idle jades young women who would be thought fairer than they be who are afraid of everything save a naked man and who can lie easier than they can say their paternoster
old and young weigh in thy mind beside the word i tell thee of what i have seen and know concerning this most excellent of ladies i trow not and for my part i tell thee that though she is verily as fair as venus god save us
and as humble and meek as dorothy she bestoweth her goods plentifully to the church
and so far as occasion may serve her she is constant at the holy office neither doth she spare to confess her sins and to do all penance which is bidden her yea and more for though i cannot say to my knowledge that she weareth a hair
saint anthony by night and cloud so that few might see her obedient to the scripture which sayeth let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth and she barefoot in her smock amidst the rugged wood
and so arrayed fairer than any queen in a golden gown yea as fair as the woodwives of the ancient heathen
for the words that he had heard he heeded not save as they made pictures for him of the ways of that woman of the forest so they went on soberly till the priest lifted up his head and looked about like one come out of slumber and said in a firm voice
i tell thee my son that thou mayest set thy love upon her without sin and therewith suddenly he fell a weeping and ralph was ill at ease of his weeping
till the priest plucked up heart again and said turning to ralph but not meeting his eye my son i weep because men and women are so evil and mis say each other so sorely even as they do by this holy woman as he spake his tears brake out again
the priest muttered somewhat as he passed which ralph caught not the meaning of and fell moody again and when he was a little past the ford he drew rein and said now son i must to my cell hard by the church yonder
but yet i will say one word to thee ere we sunder to wit that to my mind the holy lady will love no one but the saints of heaven save it be some man with whom all women are in love therewith he turned away suddenly
and rode smartly towards his church and ralph deemed that he was weeping once more as for ralph he went quietly home toward the castle for the sun was setting now
chapter fifteen hardly a coincidence the old lady's eyes met ours without purpose or intelligence it was plain that she did not see us
also plain that she was held back in her advance by some doubt in her beclouded brain we could see her hover as it were at her end of the dark passage while i held my breath and mister steele panted audibly
then gradually she drew back and disappeared behind the door which she forgot to shut as we could tell from the gradually receding light and the faint fall of her footsteps after the last dim flicker had faded away
when she was quite gone mister steele spoke you must be satisfied now he said do you still wish to go on or shall we return and explain this accident to the girls whose voices i certainly hear in the hall overhead
with the visits which had from time to time depopulated this house i shall leave you to make the necessary explanations said he i am really rushed with business and should be down town on the mayor's affairs at this very moment
i am quite ready said i then as i squeezed my way through between the corner of the cabinet and the foundation wall i could not help asking him how he thought it possible
for these old ladies to mount to the halls above from the bottom of the four foot hole in which we now stood
he replied lifting into view the object we had seen at one side of the passage and which now showed itself to be a pair of folding steps
with means of getting out of it shall i help you in a minute i said i am so curious how do you suppose they worked this trap from here they did not press the spring in the molding
he pointed to one side of the opening where part of the supporting mechanism was now visible they worked that it is all simple enough on this side of the trap the puzzle is about the other
how did they manage to have all this mechanism put in without rousing any one's attention and why so much trouble some time i will tell you i replied putting my foot on the step o girls i exclaimed
as two screams rang out above and two agitated faces peered down upon us i've had an accident and a great adventure but i've solved the mystery of the ghost it was just one of the two poor old ladies next door
they used to come up through this trap where is missus packard they were too speechless with wonder to answer me i had to reach up my arms twice before either of them would lend me a helping hand
and mister steele after me the questions they asked came so thick and fast that i almost choked in my endeavor to answer them and to get away nixon appeared in the middle of it and congratulating myself that mister steele
had been able to slip away to the study while i was talking to the girls i went over the whole story again for his benefit after which i stopped abruptly and asked again where missus packard was nixon
with a face as black as the passage from which i had just escaped muttered some words about queer doings for respectable people but said nothing about his mistress
unless the few words he added to his final lament about the cabinet contained some allusion to her fondness for the articles it held we could all see that they had suffered greatly from their fall annoyed at his manner
which was that of a man personally aggrieved i turned to ellen you have just been up stairs i said is missus packard still in the nursery she was but not more than five minutes ago she slipped down stairs and went out
it was just before the noise you made falling down into this hole out i was sorry i wanted to disburden myself at once well leave everything as it is i commanded despite the rebellion in nixon's eye
i will wait in the reception room till she returns and then tell her at once she can blame nobody but me if she is displeased at what she sees nixon grumbled something and moved off the girls full of talk
ran up stairs to have it out in the nursery with letty and i went toward the front how long i should have to stay there before missus packard's return i did not know she might stay away an hour and she might stay away all day
i could simply wait but it was a happy waiting i should see a renewal of joy in her and a bounding hope for the future when once i told any tale
when it came it was already lunch time but there was no evidence of hurry in her manner there was rather an almost painful hesitation as she drew nearer
she raised her eyes to the house front and i saw with what dread she approached it and what courage it took for her to enter it at all the sight of my face at the window altered her expression however and she came quite cheerfully up the steps
careful to forestall nixon in his duty i opened the front door and drawing her into the room where i had been waiting i blurted out my whole story before she could remove her hat o missus packard i cried
i have such good news for you the thing you feared hasn't any meaning the house was never haunted the shadows which have been seen here were the shadows of real beings there is a secret entrance to this house
and through it the old ladies next door have come from time to time in search of their missing bonds or else to frighten off all other people from the chance of finding them shall i show you where the place is
her face when i began had shown such changes i was startled but by the time i had finished a sort of apathy had fallen across it and her voice sounded hollow as she cried what are you telling me
a secret entrance we knew nothing about and the misses quinlan using it to hunt about these halls at night romantic to be sure yes let me see the place it is very interesting and very inconvenient
will you tell nixon please to have this passage closed i felt a chill if it was interest she felt it was a very forced one she even paused to take off her hat but when i had drawn her through the library into the side hall
and shown her the great gap where the cabinet had stood i thought she brightened a little and showed some of the curiosity i expected but it was very easily appeased and before i could have made the thing clear to her
she was back in the library fingering her hat and listening as it seemed to me to everything but my voice i did not understand it making one more effort i came up close to her and impetuously cried out
don't you see what this does to the phantasm you professed to have seen yourself once in this very spot it proves it a myth a product of your own imagination something which it must certainly be impossible for you ever to fear again
that is why i made the search which has ended in this discovery i wanted to rid you of your forebodings do assure me that i have it will be such a comfort to me and how much more to the mayor her lack luster eyes fell
her fingers closed on the hat whose feathers she had been trifling with and lifting it she moved softly into the reception room and from there into the hall and up the front stairs i stood aghast
she had not even heard what i had been saying by the time i had recovered my equanimity enough to follow she had disappeared into her own room it could not have been in a very comfortable condition
for there were evidences about the hall that it was being thoroughly swept as i endeavored to pass the door i inadvertently struck the edge of a little taboret standing in my way it toppled and a little book
lying on it slid to the floor as i stooped to pick it up my already greatly disconcerted mind was still further affected by the glimpse which was given me of its title it was this
suggesting something quite different from spiritual interference i allowed the book to open in my hand which it did at this evidently frequently conned passage a book was in my hand
and a strong light was shining on it and on me from a lamp on a near by table the story was interesting and i was following the adventures it was relating with eager interest when suddenly the character of the light changed
seemed to pass before my eyes and on my looking up i saw standing between me and the lamp the figure of a man which vanished as i looked leaving in my breast an unutterable dread
and in my memory the glare of two unearthly eyes whose menace could mean but one thing death the next day i received news of a fatal accident to my husband
i closed the little volume with very strange thoughts if mayor packard had believed himself to have received an explanation of his wife's strange condition in the confession she had made
chapter sixteen in the library
of the mysterious event which had thrown such a cloud over her life when moved by some unaccountable influence i glanced up and saw nixon standing in the open doorway gazing at me
with an uneasy curiosity i was sorry enough to have inspired missus packard wants you he declared with short ceremony she's in the library and turning on his heel he took his deliberate way down stairs
i followed hard after him and being brisk in my movements was at his back before he was half way to the bottom he seemed to resent this
for he turned a baleful look back at me and purposely delayed his steps without giving me the right of way is missus packard in a hurry i asked if so you had better let me pass he gave no appearance of having heard me
his attention had been caught by something going on at the rear of the hall we were now approaching following his anxious glance i saw the door of the mayor's study open and missus packard come out
as we reached the lower step she passed us on her way to the library wondering what errand had taken her to the study which she was supposed not to visit
i turned to join her and caught a glimpse of the old man's face it was more puckered scowling and malignant of aspect than usual i was surprised that missus packard had not noticed it
surely it was not the countenance of a mere disgruntled servant something not to be seen on the surface was disturbing this old man and moving in the shadows as i was
peculiar ways but the opportunity for doing this did not come that morning on entering the library i was met by missus packard with the remark have you any interest in politics
do you know anything about the subject i have an interest in mayor packard's election i smilingly assured her and i know that in this i represent a great number of people in this town if not in the state
you want to see him governor you desired this before you came to this house you believe him to be a good man the right man for the place i certainly do missus packard and you represent a large class who feel the same
i think so missus packard i am so glad her tone was almost hysterical my heart is set on this election she ardently explained it means so much this year
my husband is very ambitious so am i for him i would give there she paused caught back it would seem by some warning thought
i took advantage of her preoccupation to scrutinize her features more closely than i had dared to do while she was directly addressing me i found them set in the stern mold of profound feeling womanly feeling no doubt
but one actuated by causes far greater than the subject serious as it was apparently called for
i never knew for she never finished her sentence observing the breathless interest her manner evoked or possibly realizing how nearly she had come to an unnecessary if not unwise self betrayal
she suddenly smoothed her brow and catching up a piece of embroidery from the table sat down with it in her hand a wife is naturally heart and soul with her husband she observed
with an assumption of composure which restored some sort of naturalness to the conversation you are a thinking person i see and what is more a conscientious one there are many many such in town
many amongst the men as well as amongst the women do you think i am in earnest about this that mister packard's chances could be affected by by anything that might be said about me you saw
or heard us say at least that my name had been mentioned in the morning paper in a way not altogether agreeable to us it was false of course but she started and her work fell from her hands
the door bell had rung and we could hear nixon in the hall hastening to answer it miss saunders she hurriedly interposed with a great effort to speak naturally i have told nixon that i wish to see mister steele if he comes in this morning
i wish to speak to him about the commission intrusted to him by my husband i confess mister steele has not inspired me with the confidence that mister packard feels in him and i rather shrink from this interview will you be good enough
rather will you show me the great kindness of sitting on that low divan by the fireplace where you will not be visible see you may have my work to busy yourself with and if he may not you know
if he should show the slightest disposition to transgress in any way rise and show yourself i was conscious of flushing slightly but she was not looking my way and the betrayal cost me only a passing uneasiness
she had quite without realizing it offered me the one opportunity i most desired in my search for a new explanation of missus packard's rapidly changing moods i had returned to my first suspicion
the attraction and possibly the passion of the handsome secretary for herself i had very little reason for entertaining such a possibility i had seen nothing on his part to justify it
and but little on hers yet in the absence of every other convincing cause of trouble i allowed myself to dwell on this one and congratulated myself upon the chance she now offered me
of seeing and hearing how he would comport himself when he thought that he was alone with her assured by the sounds in the hall that mister steele was approaching i signified my acquiescence with her wishes and
taking the embroidery from her hand sat down in the place she had pointed out i heard the deep breath she drew forgot in an instant my purpose of questioning her concerning nixon and settled myself to listen
not only to such words as must inevitably pass between them but to their tones to the unconscious sigh to whatever might betray his feeling toward her or hers toward him convinced as i now was
that feeling of some kind lay back of an interview which she feared to hold without the support of another's secret presence the calm even tones of the gentleman himself modulated to an expression of utmost deference
were the first to break the silence you wish to see me missus packard yes the tremble in this ordinary monosyllable was slight but quite perceptible mister packard has given you a task
concerning the necessity of which i should be glad to learn your opinion do you think it wise to to probe into such matters not that i mean to deter you you are under mister packard's orders
if only to reconcile me to an effort which must lead to the indiscriminate use of my name in quarters where it hurts a woman to imagine it used at all this with her eyes on his face of this i felt sure
her tone was much too level for her not to be looking directly at him to any response he might give of the same nature i had no clue but his tone when he answered was as cool and deferentially polite
as was to be expected from a man chosen by mayor packard for his private secretary missus packard your fears are very natural a woman shrinks from such inquiries even when sustained by the consciousness
that nothing can rob her name of its deserved honor but if we let one innuendo pass how can we prevent a second the man who did this thing should be punished in this i agree with mayor packard
she stirred impulsively i could hear the rustle of her dress as she moved probably to lessen the distance between them you are honest with me she urged you do agree with mister packard in this
his answer was firm straightforward and as far as i could judge free from any objectionable feature i certainly do missus packard the hesitation i expressed when he first spoke
was caused by the one consideration mentioned my fear lest something might go amiss in c to night if i busied myself otherwise than with the necessities of the speech with which he is about to open his campaign
i see you are very desirous that mister packard should win in this election i am his secretary and was largely instrumental in securing his nomination for governor was the simple reply
there was a pause how filled i would have given half my expected salary to know then i heard her ask him the very question she had asked me
do you think that in the event of your not succeeding in forcing an apology from the man who inserted that objectionable paragraph against myself that that such hints of something being wrong with me
will in any way affect mister packard's chances lose him votes i mean will the husband suffer because of some imagined lack in his wife one can not say thus appealed to the man seemed to weigh his words carefully
out of consideration for her i thought no real admirer of the mayor's would go over to the enemy from any such cause as that only the doubtful the half hearted those who are ready to grasp at any excuse
for voting with the other party would allow a consideration of the mayor's domestic relations to interfere with their confidence in him as a public officer but these how i wish i could have seen her face
these half hearted voters their easily stifled convictions are what make majorities she stammered mister steele may have bowed he probably did for she went on confidently and with a certain authority
not observable in the tone of her previous remarks you are right the paragraph reflecting on me must be traced to its source the lie must be met and grappled with
i was not well last week and showed it but i am perfectly well to day and am resolved to show that too no skeleton hangs in the packard closet i am a happy wife and a happy mother
let them come here and see this morning i shall issue invitations for a dinner to be given the first night you can assure me mister packard will be at home do you know of any such night on friday week
he has no speech to make missus packard seemed to consider finally she said when you see him tell him to leave that evening free and mister steele if you will be so good
give me the names of some of those halfhearted ones critical people who have to see in order to believe i shall have them at my table i shall let them see that the shadow which enveloped me was ephemeral
that a woman can rise above all weakness in the support of a husband she loves and honors as i do mister packard she must have looked majestic her voice thrilling with anticipated triumph
rang through the room awaking echoes which surely must have touched the heart of this man if as i had sometimes thought he cherished an unwelcome admiration for her but when he answered
there was no hint in his finely modulated tones of any chord having been touched in his breast save the legitimate one of respectful appreciation of a woman who fulfilled the expectation of one alive
to what is admirable in her sex your idea is a happy one said he i can give you three names now those of judge whittaker mister dumont the lawyer and the two mowries
father and son thank you i am indebted to you mister steele for the patience with which you have met and answered my doubts he made some reply added something about not seeing her again
till he returned with the mayor then i heard the door open and quietly shut the interview was over without my having felt called upon to show myself an interval of silence and then i heard her voice
she had thrown herself down at the piano and was singing gaily ecstatically approaching her in undisguised wonder at this new mood i stood at her back and listened i do not suppose
she had what is called a great voice but the feeling back of it at this moment of reaction gave it a great quality the piece some operatic aria was sung in a way to thrill the soul
opening with a burst it ended with low notes of an intense sweetness like sobs not of grief but happiness in their midst and while the tones sank deepest a child's voice
rose in the hall and we heard uttered at the very door mama busy mama sing with a cry she sprang from the piano and bounding to the door flung it open and caught her child in her arms
darling darling my darling she exclaimed in a burst of mother rapture crushing the child to her breast and kissing it repeatedly then she began to dance holding the baby in her arms and humming a waltz
as i stood on one side in my own mood of excited sympathy i caught fleeting glimpses of their two faces as she went whirling about hers was beautiful in her new relief if it was a relief
the child's dimpled with delight at the rapid movement a lovely picture letty who stood waiting in the doorway showed a countenance full of surprise missus packard was the first to feel tired
stopping her dance she peered round at the baby's face and laughed was that good she asked are you glad to have mama merry again i am going to be merry all the time now with such a dear
dear dearie of a baby how can i help it and whirling about in my direction she held up the child for inspection crying isn't she a darling do you wonder at my happiness
indeed i did not the sweet baby face full of glee was irresistible so was the pat pat of the two dimpled hands on her mother's shoulders with a longing all women can understand
i held out my own arms i wonder if she will come to me said i but though i got a smile the little hands closed still more tightly round the mother's neck mama dear she cried
mama dear and the tender emphasis on the endearing word completed the charm tears sprang to missus packard's eyes and it was with difficulty that she passed the clinging child over to the nurse
waiting to take her out that was the happiest moment of my life fell unconsciously from missus packard's lips as the two disappeared but presently meeting my eyes she blushed and made haste to remark
i certainly did mister steele an arrant injustice he was very respectful i wonder how i ever got the idea he could be anything else anxious myself about this very fact i attempted to reply
i am doubtful whether i was at heart glad or sorry when my school days drew to an end and the time came for my leaving doctor strong's
i had a great attachment for the doctor and i was eminent and distinguished in that little world for these reasons i was sorry to go but for other reasons unsubstantial enough i was glad misty ideas of being a young man at my own disposal
of the importance attaching to a young man at his own disposal of the wonderful things to be seen and done by that magnificent animal and the wonderful effects he could not fail to make upon society lured me away
so powerful were these visionary considerations in my boyish mind that i seem according to my present way of thinking
the separation has not made the impression on me that other separations have i try in vain to recall how i felt about it and what its circumstances were but it is not momentous in my recollection i suppose the opening prospect confused me
i know that my juvenile experiences went for little or nothing then and that life was more like a great fairy story which i was just about to begin to read than anything else
for a year or more i had endeavoured to find a satisfactory answer to her often repeated question
but i had no particular liking that i could discover for anything
i think i might have considered myself completely suited but in the absence of any such miraculous provision my desire was to apply myself to some pursuit that would not lie too heavily upon her purse and to do my duty in it whatever it might be
mister dick had regularly assisted at our councils with a meditative and sage demeanour he never made a suggestion but once and on that occasion i don't know what put it in his head he suddenly proposed that i should be a brazier
my aunt received this proposal so very ungraciously that he never ventured on a second but ever afterwards confined himself to looking watchfully at her for her suggestions and rattling his money
trot i tell you what my dear said my aunt one morning in the christmas season when i left school as this knotty point is still unsettled and as we must not make a mistake in our decision if we can help it i think we had better take a little breathing time
in the meanwhile you must try to look at it from a new point of view and not as a schoolboy i will aunt it has occurred to me pursued my aunt that a little change and a glimpse of life out of doors may be useful in helping you to know your own mind and form a cooler judgement
suppose you were to go down into the old part of the country again for instance and see that that out of the way woman with the savagest of names said my aunt rubbing her nose for she could never thoroughly forgive peggotty for being so called
of all things in the world aunt i should like it best well said my aunt that's lucky for i should like it too but it's natural and rational that you should like it
i hope so aunt your sister betsey trotwood said my aunt would have been as natural and rational a girl as ever breathed you'll be worthy of her won't you i hope i shall be worthy of you aunt that will be enough for me
it's a mercy that poor dear baby of a mother of yours didn't live said my aunt looking at me approvingly or she'd have been so vain of her boy by this time that her soft little head would have been completely turned if there was anything of it left to turn
my aunt always excused any weakness of her own in my behalf by transferring it in this way to my poor mother bless me trotwood how you do remind me of her pleasantly i hope aunt said i he's as like her dick said my aunt emphatically
he's as like her as she was that afternoon before she began to fret bless my heart he's as like her as he can look at me out of his two eyes is he indeed said mister dick and he's like david too said my aunt decisively he is very like david said mister dick
but what i want you to be trot resumed my aunt i don't mean physically but morally you are very well physically
with resolution said my aunt shaking her cap at me and clenching her hand with determination with character trot with strength of character that is not to be influenced except on good reason by anybody or by anything that's what i want you to be that's what your father and mother might both have been
heaven knows and been the better for it i intimated that i hoped i should be what she described
i shall send you upon your trip alone i did think once of mister dick's going with you but on second thoughts i shall keep him to take care of me mister dick for a moment looked a little disappointed
until the honour and dignity of having to take care of the most wonderful woman in the world restored the sunshine to his face besides said my aunt there's the memorial oh certainly said mister dick in a hurry i intend trotwood to get that done immediately it really must be done immediately
and then it will go in you know and then said mister dick after checking himself and pausing a long time there'll be a pretty kettle of fish in pursuance of my aunt's kind scheme i was shortly afterwards fitted out with a handsome purse of money
and a portmanteau and tenderly dismissed upon my expedition at parting my aunt gave me some good advice and a good many kisses and said that as her object was that i should look about me and should think a little she would recommend me to stay a few days in london
in a word i was at liberty to do what i would for three weeks or a month and no other conditions were imposed upon my freedom than the before mentioned thinking and looking about me and a pledge to write three times a week and faithfully report myself
i went to canterbury first that i might take leave of agnes and mister wickfield my old room in whose house i had not yet relinquished and also of the good doctor agnes was very glad to see me and told me that the house had not been like itself since i had left it
i am sure i am not like myself when i am away said i i seem to want my right hand when i miss you though that's not saying much for there's no head in my right hand and no heart everyone who knows you consults with you and is guided by you agnes
everyone who knows me spoils me i believe she answered smiling no it's because you are like no one else you are so good and so sweet tempered you have such a gentle nature and you are always right
as if i were the late miss larkins come it's not fair to abuse my confidence i answered reddening at the recollection of my blue enslaver
even when i come to fall in love in earnest why you have always been in earnest said agnes laughing again oh that was as a child or a schoolboy said i laughing in my turn not without being a little shame faced
times are altering now and i suppose i shall be in a terrible state of earnestness one day or other my wonder is that you are not in earnest yourself by this time agnes agnes laughed again and shook her head
but there is no one that i know of who deserves to love you agnes someone of a nobler character and more worthy altogether than anyone i have ever seen here must rise up before i give my consent
in the time to come i shall have a wary eye on all admirers and shall exact a great deal from the successful one i assure you we had gone on so far in a mixture of confidential jest and earnest
but agnes now suddenly lifting up her eyes to mine and speaking in a different manner said trotwood there is something that i want to ask you and that i may not have another opportunity of asking for a long time perhaps something i would ask i think of no one else
have you observed any gradual alteration in papa
i must have shown as much now in my face for her eyes were in a moment cast down and i saw tears in them tell me what it is she said in a low voice i think shall i be quite plain agnes liking him so much yes she said
i think he does himself no good by the habit that has increased upon him since i first came here he is often very nervous or i fancy so it is not fancy said agnes shaking her head his hand trembles his speech is not plain and his eyes look wild
yes and the sense of being unfit for it or of not having understood it or of having shown his condition in spite of himself seems to make him so uneasy that next day he is worse and next day worse
do not be alarmed by what i say agnes but in this state i saw him only the other evening lay down his head upon his desk and shed tears like a child her hand passed softly before my lips while i was yet speaking
and in a moment she had met her father at the door of the room and was hanging on his shoulder the expression of her face as they both looked towards me i felt to be very touching
and there was such a fervent appeal to me to deal tenderly by him even in my inmost thoughts and to let no harsh construction find any place against him she was at once so proud of him and devoted to him yet so compassionate and sorry and so reliant upon me to be so too
that nothing she could have said would have expressed more to me or moved me more
the doctor who made as much of my going away as if i were going to china received me as an honoured guest and called for a log of wood to be thrown on the fire that he might see the face of his old pupil reddening in the blaze
i shall not see many more new faces in trotwood's stead wickfield said the doctor warming his hands i am getting lazy and want ease i shall relinquish all my young people in another six months and lead a quieter life
but now i mean to do it returned the doctor
and to take care said mister wickfield that you're not imposed on eh
well i am ready there are worse tasks than that in my calling i shall have nothing to think of then said the doctor with a smile but my dictionary and this other contract bargain annie
as mister wickfield glanced towards her sitting at the tea table by agnes she seemed to me to avoid his look with such unwonted hesitation and timidity that his attention became fixed upon her as if something were suggested to his thoughts
by the by and letters from mister jack maldon said the doctor indeed poor dear jack said missus markleham shaking her head that trying climate like living they tell me on a sand heap underneath a burning glass
from the time when my daughter and himself were children together and walking about arm in arm the livelong day
ill replied the old soldier my dear sir he's all sorts of things except well said mister wickfield except well indeed said the old soldier
as to his liver said the old soldier resignedly that of course he gave up altogether when he first went out does he say all this asked mister wickfield say my dear sir returned missus markleham shaking her head and her fan
you little know my poor jack maldon when you ask that question say not he you might drag him at the heels of four wild horses first mama said missus strong annie my dear returned her mother
you know as well as i do that your cousin maldon would be dragged at the heels of any number of wild horses
two and thirty rather than say anything calculated to overturn the doctor's plans wickfield's plans said the doctor stroking his face and looking penitently at his adviser that is to say our joint plans for him i said myself abroad or at home
and i said added mister wickfield gravely abroad i was the means of sending him abroad it's my responsibility oh responsibility said the old soldier everything was done for the best my dear mister wickfield everything was done for the kindest and best we know
but if the dear fellow can't live there he can't live there
and i know he'll die there sooner than he'll overturn the doctor's plans well well ma'am said the doctor cheerfully i am not bigoted to my plans and i can overturn them myself i can substitute some other plans
if mister jack maldon comes home on account of ill health he must not be allowed to go back
after which she gently chid her daughter annie for not being more demonstrative when such kindnesses were showered for her sake on her old playfellow and entertained us with some particulars concerning other deserving members of her family whom it was desirable to set on their deserving legs
all this time her daughter annie never once spoke or lifted up her eyes all this time mister wickfield had his glance upon her as she sat by his own daughter's side it appeared to me that he never thought of being observed by anyone
but was so intent upon her and upon his own thoughts in connexion with her as to be quite absorbed he now asked what mister jack maldon had actually written in reference to himself and to whom he had written why here said missus markleham taking a letter from the chimney piece above the doctor's head
the dear fellow says to the doctor himself where is it oh i am sorry to inform you that my health is suffering severely and that i fear i may be reduced to the necessity of returning home for a time as the only hope of restoration that's pretty plain poor fellow
his only hope of restoration but annie's letter is plainer still annie show me that letter again not now mama she pleaded in a low tone my dear you absolutely are on some subjects one of the most ridiculous persons in the world returned her mother
and perhaps the most unnatural to the claims of your own family we never should have heard of the letter at all i believe unless i had asked for it myself
i am surprised you ought to know better the letter was reluctantly produced and as i handed it to the old lady i saw how the unwilling hand from which i took it trembled now let us see said missus markleham putting her glass to her eye where the passage is
the remembrance of old times my dearest annie and so forth it's not there the amiable old proctor who's he dear me annie how illegibly your cousin maldon writes and how stupid i am doctor of course ah amiable indeed
here she left off to kiss her fan again and shake it at the doctor who was looking at us in a state of placid satisfaction now i have found it you may not be surprised to hear annie no to be sure knowing that he never was really strong what did i say just now
that i have undergone so much in this distant place as to have decided to leave it at all hazards on sick leave if i can on total resignation if that is not to be obtained what i have endured and do endure here is insupportable
and but for the promptitude of that best of creatures said missus markleham
it would be insupportable to me to think of mister wickfield said not one word though the old lady looked to him as if for his commentary on this intelligence but sat severely silent with his eyes fixed on the ground
he remained so seldom raising his eyes unless to rest them for a moment with a thoughtful frown upon the doctor or his wife or both the doctor was very fond of music agnes sang with great sweetness and expression and so did missus strong
but i remarked two things first that though annie soon recovered her composure and was quite herself there was a blank between her and mister wickfield which separated them wholly from each other secondly that mister wickfield seemed to dislike the intimacy between her and agnes
and to watch it with uneasiness and now i must confess
and to trouble me the innocent beauty of her face was not as innocent to me as it had been i mistrusted the natural grace and charm of her manner and when i looked at agnes by her side
and thought how good and true agnes was suspicions arose within me that it was an ill assorted friendship she was so happy in it herself however and the other was so happy too that they made the evening fly away as if it were but an hour
it closed in an incident which i well remember they were taking leave of each other and agnes was going to embrace her and kiss her when mister wickfield stepped between them as if by accident and drew agnes quickly away
i cannot say what an impression this made upon me or how impossible i found it when i thought of her afterwards to separate her from this look and remember her face in its innocent loveliness again it haunted me when i got home i seemed to have left the doctor's roof with a dark cloud lowering on it
the impending shadow of a great affliction and a great disgrace that had no distinct form in it yet fell like a stain upon the quiet place where i had worked and played as a boy
it was as if the tranquil sanctuary of my boyhood had been sacked before my face and its peace and honour given to the winds but morning brought with it my parting from the old house which agnes had filled with her influence and that occupied my mind sufficiently
i should be there again soon no doubt i might sleep again perhaps often in my old room
i was heavier at heart when i packed up such of my books and clothes as still remained there to be sent to dover
who was so officious to help me that i uncharitably thought him mighty glad that i was going i got away from agnes and her father somehow with an indifferent show of being very manly and took my seat upon the box of the london coach
that i had half a mind to nod to my old enemy the butcher and throw him five shillings to drink but he looked such a very obdurate butcher as he stood scraping the great block in the shop and moreover his appearance was so little improved by the loss of a front tooth which i had knocked out
that i thought it best to make no advances the main object on my mind i remember when we got fairly on the road was to appear as old as possible to the coachman and to speak extremely gruff
the latter point i achieved at great personal inconvenience but i stuck to it because i felt it was a grown up sort of thing you are going through sir said the coachman yes william i said condescendingly i knew him i am going to london i shall go down into suffolk afterwards
shooting sir said the coachman he knew as well as i did that it was just as likely at that time of year i was going down there whaling but i felt complimented too i don't know i said pretending to be undecided whether i shall take a shot or not birds is got wery shy i'm told said william
so i understand said i is suffolk your county sir asked william yes i said with some importance suffolk's my county i'm told the dumplings is uncommon fine down there said william i was not aware of it myself but i felt it necessary to uphold the institutions of my county
ain't i what said the gentleman behind bred them suffolk punches by wholesale
they're wittles and drink to me lodging wife and children reading writing and arithmetic snuff tobacker and sleep
i construed this remark into an indication of a wish that he should have my place so i blushingly offered to resign it well if you don't mind sir said william i think it would be more correct
i have always considered this as the first fall i had in life when i booked my place at the coach office i had had box seat written against the entry and had given the book keeper half a crown i was got up in a special great coat and shawl expressly to do honour to that distinguished eminence
and here in the very first stage i was supplanted by a shabby man with a squint who had no other merit than smelling like a livery stables and being able to walk across me more like a fly than a human being while the horses were at a canter
a distrust of myself which has often beset me in life on small occasions when it would have been better away was assuredly not stopped in its growth by this little incident outside the canterbury coach it was in vain to take refuge in gruffness of speech
i spoke from the pit of my stomach for the rest of the journey but i felt completely extinguished and dreadfully young it was curious and interesting nevertheless to be sitting up there behind four horses well educated well dressed and with plenty of money in my pocket
and to look out for the places where i had slept on my weary journey i had abundant occupation for my thoughts in every conspicuous landmark on the road when i looked down at the trampers whom we passed and saw that well remembered style of face turned up
when we clattered through the narrow street of chatham and i caught a glimpse in passing of the lane where the old monster lived who had bought my jacket i stretched my neck eagerly to look for the place where i had sat
we went to the golden cross at charing cross then a mouldy sort of establishment in a close neighbourhood a waiter showed me into the coffee room and a chambermaid introduced me to my small bedchamber which smelt like a hackney coach and was shut up like a family vault
i was still painfully conscious of my youth for nobody stood in any awe of me at all
well now said the waiter in a tone of confidence what would you like for dinner young gentlemen likes poultry in general have a fowl i told him as majestically as i could that i wasn't in the humour for a fowl ain't you said the waiter
young gentlemen is generally tired of beef and mutton have a weal cutlet
young gentlemen generally has been overdosed with taters i commanded him in my deepest voice
letters for trotwood copperfield esquire which i knew there were not and couldn't be but thought it manly to appear to expect he soon came back to say that there were none at which i was much surprised and began to lay the cloth for my dinner in a box by the fire
while he was so engaged he asked me what i would take with it and on my replying half a pint of sherry
i am of this opinion because while i was reading the newspaper i observed him behind a low wooden partition which was his private apartment very busy pouring out of a number of those vessels into one like a chemist and druggist making up a prescription
but i was bashful enough to drink it and say nothing being then in a pleasant frame of mind from which i infer that poisoning is not always disagreeable in some stages of the process i resolved to go to the play
it was covent garden theatre that i chose and there from the back of a centre box i saw julius caesar
was a most novel and delightful effect but the mingled reality and mystery of the whole show the influence upon me of the poetry the lights the music the company
were so dazzling and opened up such illimitable regions of delight that when i came out into the rainy street at twelve o'clock at night i felt as if i had come from the clouds where i had been leading a romantic life for ages to a bawling splashing link lighted umbrella struggling hackney coach jostling
patten clinking muddy miserable world i had emerged by another door and stood in the street for a little while as if i really were a stranger upon earth but the unceremonious pushing and hustling that i received soon recalled me to myself
and put me in the road back to the hotel whither i went revolving the glorious vision all the way and where after some porter and oysters i sat revolving it still at past one o'clock with my eyes on the coffee room fire
through which i saw my earlier life moving along that i don't know when the figure of a handsome well formed young man dressed with a tasteful easy negligence which i have reason to remember very well became a real presence to me
but i recollect being conscious of his company without having noticed his coming in and my still sitting musing over the coffee room fire at last i rose to go to bed much to the relief of the sleepy waiter who had got the fidgets
in his legs and was twisting them and hitting them and putting them through all kinds of contortions in his small pantry in going towards the door i passed the person who had come in and saw him plainly i turned directly came back and looked again
but in the then condition of my mind where the play was still running high his former protection of me appeared so deserving of my gratitude and my old love for him overflowed my breast so freshly and spontaneously that i went up to him at once with a fast beating heart and said steerforth won't you speak to me
he looked at me just as he used to look sometimes but i saw no recognition in his face you don't remember me i am afraid said i my god he suddenly exclaimed it's little copperfield i grasped him by both hands and could not let them go but for very shame
and the fear that it might displease him i could have held him round the neck and cried i never never never was so glad my dear steerforth i am so overjoyed to see you and i am rejoiced to see you too he said shaking my hands heartily why copperfield old boy don't be overpowered
and yet he was glad too i thought to see how the delight i had in meeting him affected me i brushed away the tears that my utmost resolution had not been able to keep back
why how do you come to be here said steerforth clapping me on the shoulder i came here by the canterbury coach today i have been adopted by an aunt down in that part of the country and have just finished my education there how do you come to be here steerforth
well i am what they call an oxford man he returned
and i am on my way now to my mother's you're a devilish amiable looking fellow copperfield
i knew you immediately i said but you are more easily remembered he laughed as he ran his hand through the clustering curls of his hair and said gaily yes i am on an expedition of duty my mother lives a little way out of town and the roads being in a beastly condition
and our house tedious enough i remained here tonight instead of going on
i have been at the play too said i at covent garden what a delightful and magnificent entertainment steerforth steerforth laughed heartily my dear young davy he said clapping me on the shoulder again you are a very daisy
the daisy of the field at sunrise is not fresher than you are i have been at covent garden too and there never was a more miserable business holloa you sir this was addressed to the waiter who had been very attentive to our recognition at a distance and now came forward deferentially
where have you put my friend mister copperfield said steerforth beg your pardon sir where does he sleep what's his number you know what i mean said steerforth well sir said the waiter with an apologetic air mister copperfield is at present in forty four sir
as mister copperfield was anyways particular
and do it at once the waiter immediately withdrew to make the exchange steerforth very much amused at my having been put into forty four laughed again and clapped me on the shoulder again and invited me to breakfast with him next morning at ten o'clock
an invitation i was only too proud and happy to accept it being now pretty late we took our candles and went upstairs where we parted with friendly heartiness at his door and where i found my new room a great improvement on my old one
said lucy she was kneeling on a footstool at maggie's feet after placing that dark lady in the large crimson velvet chair i feel sure you will like him i hope you will i shall be very difficult to please said maggie smiling
and holding up one of lucy's long curls that the sunlight might shine through it a gentleman who thinks he is good enough for lucy must expect to be sharply criticised indeed he's a great deal too good for me and sometimes when he is away
but i can never doubt it when he is with me though i couldn't bear any one but you to know that i feel in that way maggie oh then if i disapprove of him you can give him up
said maggie with playful gravity i would rather not be engaged when people are engaged they begin to think of being married soon said lucy too thoroughly preoccupied to notice maggie's joke
and i should like everything to go on for a long while just as it is
and from something that fell from papa the other day i feel sure he and mister guest are expecting that and stephen's sisters are very civil to me now
and that was natural it does seem out of keeping that i should ever live in a great place like the park house such a little insignificant thing as i am
but people are not expected to be large in proportion to the houses they live in like snails said maggie laughing pray are mister guest's sisters giantesses oh no
though you are unable to share that opinion
said lucy blushing pink over brow and neck it is a bad plan to raise expectation you will perhaps be disappointed but i have prepared a charming surprise for him i shall have a glorious laugh against him
i shall not tell you what it is though lucy rose from her knees and went to a little distance holding her pretty head on one side as if she had been arranging maggie for a portrait and wished to judge of the general effect stand up a moment maggie
what is your pleasure now said maggie smiling languidly as she rose from her chair and looked down on her slight aerial cousin whose figure was quite subordinate to her faultless drapery of silk and crape
lucy kept her contemplative attitude a moment or two in silence and then said i can't think what witchery it is in you maggie that makes you look best in shabby clothes though you really must have a new dress now but do you know
last night i was trying to fancy you in a handsome fashionable dress and do what i would that old limp merino would come back as the only right thing for you i wonder if marie antoinette looked all the grander when her gown was darned at the elbows
i should be a mere rag oh quite said maggie with mock gravity you would be liable to be swept out of the room with the cobwebs and carpet dust and to find yourself under the grate like cinderella mayn't i sit down now
yes now you may said lucy laughing then with an air of serious reflection unfastening her large jet brooch but you must change brooches maggie that little butterfly looks silly on you
but won't that mar the charming effect of my consistent shabbiness said maggie seating herself submissively while lucy knelt again and unfastened the contemptible butterfly i wish my mother were of your opinion
i've been saving my money to pay for some lessons i shall never get a better situation without more accomplishments maggie gave a little sigh now don't put on that sad look again said lucy
pinning the large brooch below maggie's fine throat you're forgetting that you've left that dreary schoolroom behind you and have no little girls clothes to mend yes said maggie
it is with me as i used to think it would be with the poor uneasy white bear i saw at the show i thought he must have got so stupid with the habit of turning backward and forward in that narrow space
that he would keep doing it if they set him free one gets a bad habit of being unhappy
said lucy sticking the black butterfly absently in her own collar while her eyes met maggie's affectionately
dear tiny thing said maggie in one of her bursts of loving admiration you enjoy other people's happiness so much i believe you would do without any of your own
i've never been tried in that way said lucy i've always been so happy i don't know whether i could bear much trouble i never had any but poor mamma's death you have been tried maggie
and i'm sure you feel for other people quite as much as i do no lucy said maggie shaking her head slowly i don't enjoy their happiness as you do else i should be more contented i do feel for them when they are in trouble
i don't think i could ever bear to make any one un happy and yet i often hate myself
i think i get worse as i get older more selfish
now maggie said lucy in a tone of remonstrance i don't believe a word of that it is all a gloomy fancy
well perhaps it is said maggie resolutely clearing away the clouds from her face with a bright smile and throwing herself backward in her chair perhaps it comes from the school diet
watery rice pudding spiced with pinnock let us hope it will give way before my mother's custards and this charming geoffrey crayon maggie took up the sketch book which lay by her on the table
do i look fit to be seen with this little brooch said lucy going to survey the effect in the chimney glass oh no mister guest will be obliged to go out of the room again if he sees you in it pray make haste and put another on
lucy hurried out of the room but maggie did not take the opportunity of opening her book she let it fall on her knees while her eyes wandered to the window where she could see the sunshine falling on the rich clumps of spring flowers and on the long hedge of laurels
and beyond the silvery breadth of the dear old floss that at this distance seemed to be sleeping in a morning holiday the sweet fresh garden scent came through the open window and the birds were busy flitting and alighting
gurgling and singing yet maggie's eyes began to fill with tears the sight of the old scenes had made the rush of memories so painful that even yesterday she had only been able to rejoice in her mother's restored comfort and tom's brotherly friendliness
as we rejoice in good news of friends at a distance rather than in the presence of a happiness which we share memory and imagination urged upon her a sense of privation too keen to let her taste what was offered in the transient present
her future she thought was likely to be worse than her past for after her years of contented renunciation she had slipped back into desire and longing she found joyless days of distasteful occupation harder and harder
she found the image of the intense and varied life she yearned for and despaired of becoming more and more importunate the sound of the opening door roused her and hastily wiping away her tears she began to turn over the leaves of her book
there is one pleasure i know maggie that your deepest dismalness will never resist said lucy beginning to speak as soon as she entered the room that is music
i mean you to get up your playing again which used to be so much better than mine when we were at laceham
when i took them to practise said maggie just for the sake of fingering the dear keys again but i don't know whether i could play anything more difficult now than begone dull care
i know what a wild state of joy you used to be in when the glee men came round said lucy taking up her embroidery and we might have all those old glees that you used to love so if i were certain that you
some things i should have thought there was nothing you might be more certain of said maggie smiling
one particular thing because if you feel just as he does about that we shall want our third voice saint ogg's is so miserably provided with musical gentlemen there are really only stephen
who have any knowledge of music so as to be able to sing a part lucy had looked up from her work as she uttered the last sentence and saw that there was a change in maggie's face does it hurt you to hear the name mentioned maggie
if it does i will not speak of him again i know tom will not see him if he can avoid it i don't feel at all as tom does on that subject said maggie rising and going to the window as if she wanted to see more of the landscape
i've always liked philip wakem ever since i was a little girl and saw him at lorton he was so good when tom hurt his foot oh i'm so glad said lucy then you won't mind his coming sometimes
and we can have much more music than we could without him i'm very fond of poor philip only i wish he were not so morbid about his deformity i suppose it is his deformity that makes him so sad and sometimes bitter
it is certainly very piteous to see his poor little crooked body and pale face among great strong people but
said maggie trying to arrest the prattling stream ah there is the door bell that must be stephen lucy went on not noticing maggie's faint effort to speak one of the things i most admire in stephen is that he makes a greater friend of philip than any one
this is mister stephen guest for one instant stephen could not conceal his astonishment at the sight of this tall dark eyed nymph with her jet black coronet of hair the next maggie felt herself
for the first time in her life receiving the tribute of a very deep blush and a very deep bow
this new experience was very agreeable to her so agreeable that it almost effaced her previous emotion about philip there was a new brightness in her eyes and a very becoming flush on her cheek as she seated herself
i hope you perceive what a striking likeness you drew the day before yesterday said lucy with a pretty laugh of triumph she enjoyed her lover's confusion the advantage was usually on his side
this designing cousin of yours quite deceived me miss tulliver said stephen seating himself by lucy and stooping to play with minny only looking at maggie furtively she said you had light hair and blue eyes
nay it was you who said so remonstrated lucy i only refrained from destroying your confidence in your own second sight i wish i could always err in the same way said stephen
and find reality so much more beautiful than my preconceptions now you have proved yourself equal to the occasion said maggie and said what it was incumbent on you to say under the circumstances
it was clear to her that he had been drawing a satirical portrait of her beforehand lucy had said he was inclined to be satirical and maggie had mentally supplied the addition and rather conceited an alarming amount of devil there
was stephen's first thought the second when she had bent over her work was i wish she would look at me again the next was to answer i suppose all phrases of mere compliment have their turn to be true
a man is occasionally grateful when he says thank you it's rather hard upon him that he must use the same words with which all the world declines a disagreeable invitation don't you think so miss tulliver no said maggie
looking at him with her direct glance if we use common words on a great occasion they are the more striking because they are felt at once to have a particular meaning like old banners or every day clothes hung up in a sacred place
then my compliment ought to be eloquent said stephen really not quite knowing what he said while maggie looked at him seeing that the words were so far beneath the occasion no compliment can be eloquent
except as an expression of indifference said maggie flushing a little lucy was rather alarmed she thought stephen and maggie were not going to like each other she had always feared lest maggie should appear
too old and clever to please that critical gentleman why dear maggie she interposed you have always pretended that you are too fond of being admired and now i think you are angry because some one ventures to admire you
not at all said maggie i like too well to feel that i am admired but compliments never make me feel that i will never pay you a compliment again miss tulliver said stephen thank you that will be a proof of respect
poor maggie she was so unused to society that she could take nothing as a matter of course
from the excessive feeling she was apt to throw into very trivial incidents but she was even conscious herself of a little absurdity in this instance
and had once said impatiently to philip that she didn't see why women were to be told with a simper that they were beautiful any more than old men were to be told that they were venerable still
and to care about his having spoken slightingly of her before he had seen her was certainly unreasonable and as soon as she was silent she began to be ashamed of herself it did not occur to her that her irritation
was due to the pleasanter emotion which preceded it just as when we are satisfied with a sense of glowing warmth
stephen was too well bred not to seem unaware that the previous conversation could have been felt embarrassing and at once began to talk of impersonal matters asking lucy if she knew when the bazaar was at length to take place
so that there might be some hope of seeing her rain the influence of her eyes
some day next month i believe said lucy
but they carry on their manufactures in their own sitting room where i don't intrude on them i see you are not addicted to the fashionable vice of fancy work miss tulliver said stephen looking at maggie's plain hemming no said maggie
i can do nothing more difficult or more elegant than shirt making and your plain sewing is so beautiful maggie said lucy that i think i shall beg a few specimens of you to show as fancy work your exquisite sewing
you used to dislike that sort of work so much in old days it is a mystery easily explained dear said maggie looking up quietly plain sewing was the only thing i could get money by so i was obliged to try and do it well
lucy good and simple as she was could not help blushing a little she did not quite like that stephen should know that maggie need not have mentioned it perhaps there was some pride in the confession the pride of poverty
that will not be ashamed of itself but if maggie had been the queen of coquettes she could hardly have invented a means of giving greater piquancy to her beauty in stephen's eyes
but assisted by the beauty they made maggie more unlike other women
but i can knit lucy maggie went on if that will be of any use for your bazaar oh yes of infinite use i shall set you to work with scarlet wool to morrow but your sister is the most enviable person
continued lucy turning to stephen to have the talent of modelling she is doing a wonderful bust of doctor kenn entirely from memory why if she can remember to put the eyes very near together and the corners of the mouth very far apart
now that is very wicked of you said lucy looking rather hurt i didn't think you would speak disrespectfully of doctor kenn i say anything disrespectful of doctor kenn heaven forbid
i don't care much about the tall candlesticks he has put on the communion table and i shouldn't like to spoil my temper by getting up to early prayers every morning but he's the only man i ever knew personally
who seems to me to have anything of the real apostle in him a man who has eight hundred a year and is contented with deal furniture and boiled beef
that was a very fine thing of him taking into his house that poor lad grattan who shot his mother by accident he sacrifices more time than a less busy man could spare
that is beautiful said maggie who had let her work fall and was listening with keen interest i never knew any one who did such things and one admires that sort of action in kenn all the more
said stephen because his manners in general are rather cold and severe there's nothing sugary and maudlin about him oh i think he's a perfect character said lucy with pretty enthusiasm no
there i can't agree with you said stephen shaking his head with sarcastic gravity
well those are the right views i think said lucy gravely that settles the question in the abstract said stephen
he has set the dissenters and the church people by the ears and a rising senator like myself of whose services the country is very much in need
do you really think of that said lucy her eyes brightening with a proud pleasure that made her neglect the argumentative interests of anglicanism decidedly
whenever old mister leyburn's public spirit and gout induce him to give way my father's heart is set on it and gifts like mine you know
and rubbed his large white hands over his hair with playful self admiration
don't you think so miss tulliver yes said maggie smiling but not looking up so much fluency and self possession should not be wasted entirely on private occasions ah i see how much penetration you have said stephen
now superficial people never discern that owing to my manner i suppose she doesn't look at me when i talk of myself he thought
i must try other subjects did lucy intend to be present at the meeting of the book club next week was the next question then followed the recommendation to choose southey's life of cowper unless she were inclined to be philosophical
and startle the ladies of saint ogg's by voting for one of the bridgewater treatises of course lucy wished to know what these alarmingly learned books were and as it is always pleasant to improve the minds of ladies
by talking to them at ease on subjects of which they know nothing stephen became quite brilliant in an account of buckland's treatise which he had just been reading
and gradually get so absorbed in his wonderful geological story that she sat looking at him
and she a downy lipped alumna he was so fascinated by the clear large gaze that at last he forgot to look away from it occasionally toward lucy but she sweet child was only rejoicing that stephen was proving to maggie how clever he was
and that they would certainly be good friends after all i will bring you the book shall i miss tulliver said stephen when he found the stream of his recollections running rather shallow there are many illustrations in it that you will like to see oh thank you said maggie
blushing with returning self consciousness at this direct address and taking up her work again no no lucy interposed i must forbid your plunging maggie in books i shall never get her away from them and i want her to have delicious do nothing days
filled with boating and chatting and riding and driving that is the holiday she needs apropos said stephen looking at his watch shall we go out for a row on the river now the tide will suit for us to the tofton way
for it was years since she had been on the river
lucy lingered to give an order to the servant and took the opportunity of telling stephen that maggie had no objection to seeing philip so that it was a pity she had sent that note the day before yesterday but she would write another to morrow and invite him
i'll call and beat him up to morrow said stephen and bring him with me in the evening shall i
i must leave the field clear for them in the morning oh yes pray bring him said lucy and you will like maggie sha'n't you she added in a beseeching tone isn't she a dear noble looking creature too tall
said stephen smiling down upon her and a little too fiery
gentlemen you are aware are apt to impart these imprudent confidences to ladies concerning their unfavorable opinion of sister fair ones that is why so many women
have the advantage of knowing that they are secretly repulsive to men who have self denyingly made ardent love to them
than that she both implicitly believed what stephen said and was determined that maggie should not know it but you who have a higher logic than the verbal to guide you have already foreseen as the direct sequence to that unfavorable opinion of stephen's
that he walked down to the boathouse calculating by the aid of a vivid imagination that maggie must give him her hand at least twice in consequence of this pleasant boating plan and that a gentleman who wishes ladies to look at him
is advantageously situated when he is rowing them in a boat what then had he fallen in love with this surprising daughter of missus tulliver at first sight certainly not such passions are never heard of in real life besides
he was in love already and half engaged to the dearest little creature in the world and he was not a man to make a fool of himself in any way but when one is five and twenty one has not chalk stones at one's finger ends
that the touch of a handsome girl should be entirely indifferent it was perfectly natural and safe
and there was really something very interesting about this girl with her poverty and troubles it was gratifying to see the friendship between the two cousins generally stephen admitted he was not fond of women who had any peculiarity of character
but here the peculiarity seemed really of a superior kind and provided one is not obliged to marry such women why they certainly make a variety in social intercourse maggie did not fulfil stephen's hope
by looking at him during the first quarter of an hour her eyes were too full of the old banks that she knew so well she felt lonely cut off from philip the only person who had ever seemed to love her devotedly
but presently the rhythmic movement of the oars attracted her
this roused her from her reverie and she asked if she might take an oar it appeared that she required much teaching and she became ambitious the exercise brought the warm blood into her cheeks and made her inclined to take her lesson merrily
i shall not be satisfied until i can manage both oars and row you and lucy she said looking very bright as she stepped out of the boat maggie we know
and she had chosen an inopportune moment for her remark her foot slipped but happily mister stephen guest held her hand and kept her up with a firm grasp you have not hurt yourself at all i hope he said bending to look in her face with anxiety
it was very charming to be taken care of in that kind graceful manner by some one taller and stronger than one's self maggie had never felt just in the same way before
when they reached home again they found uncle and aunt pullet seated with missus tulliver in the drawing room and stephen hurried away asking leave to come again in the evening and pray bring with you the volume of purcell that you took away said lucy
i want maggie to hear your best songs aunt pullet under the certainty that maggie would be invited to go out with lucy probably to park house was much shocked at the shabbiness of her clothes which when witnessed by the higher society of saint ogg's
that demanded a strong and prompt remedy and the consultation as to what would be most suitable to this end from among the superfluities of missus pullet's wardrobe was one that lucy as well as missus tulliver entered into with some zeal
maggie must really have an evening dress as soon as possible and she was about the same height as aunt pullet but she's so much broader across the shoulders than i am it's very ill convenient said missus pullet else she might wear that
without any alteration and her arms are beyond everything added missus pullet sorrowfully as she lifted maggie's large round arm
oh never mind that aunt send us the dress said lucy i don't mean maggie to have long sleeves
said missus tulliver they're like mine used to be only mine was never brown
nonsense aunty said lucy patting her aunt tulliver's shoulder you don't understand those things a painter would think maggie's complexion beautiful maybe my dear said missus tulliver submissively
you know better than i do only when i was young a brown skin wasn't thought well on among respectable folks
said uncle pullet who took intense interest in the ladies conversation as he sucked his lozenges though there was a song about the nut brown maid too
the loom shed was one of the log cabins connected with the main building by a roofed passage
giving the appearance of a small flock of cabins all nestling under the wings of the old building in the centre the shed was dark having but one small window with glass panes near the loom the other and larger opening being tightly closed by a wooden shutter
david slept late and awoke at last to find himself thousands of miles away from his dreams in this unique room all in the deepest shadow except for the one warm bar of sunlight which fell across his face
he drowsed off again and his mind began piecing together fragments and scenes from the previous day and evening and immediately he was surrounded by mystery moonlit fairylike and white a little crooked being at his side looking up at him like some gnome creature of the hills
revealed as a part of the enchantment then slowly resolving and melting away after the manner of dreams the wide spaces of the mystery drew closer and warmer and a great centre of blazing logs threw grotesque dancing lights among them
and an old face peered out with bright keen eyes now seen now lost in the fitful shadows now pale and appealing or cautiously withdrawn but always watching watching while the little crooked being came and watched also
then between him and the blazing light came a dark figure silhouetted blackly against it moving stooping rising going and coming a sweet girl's head with heavily coiled hair through which the firelight played with flashes of its own color
and a delicate profile cut in pure clean lines melting into throat and gently rounded breast like a spirit now here now gone again near and bending over him a ministering spirit bringing him food
until gradually this half wake dreaming reminiscence concentrated upon her and again he saw her standing holding the candle high and looking up at him a wondering questioning spirit then drooping wearily into the chair by the uncleared table
and again waiting with almost a smile on her parted lips as he said good night good night ah yes it was morning
again he heard the continuous rushing noise to which he had listened in the white mystery that had soothed him to slumber the night before rising and falling never ceasing he roused himself with sudden energy and bounded from his couch he would go out and investigate
when he threw open the shutter of the large unglazed window space and looked out on his strange surroundings he found himself in a new world sparkling fresh clear shining with sunlight and glistening with wetness
as though the whole earth had been newly washed and varnished
he had been too exhausted the previous evening to do more than fall into the bed which had been provided him and sleep his long uninterrupted sleep
the loom shed for between the two windows stood a cloth loom left just as it had been used the warp like a tightly stretched veil of white threads and the web of cloth begun in one corner were a few bundles of cotton
one of which had been torn open and the contents placed in a thick layer over the long bench on which he had slept and covered with a blue and white homespun counterpane the head had been built high with it and sheets spread over all
he noticed the blankets which had covered him and saw that they were evidently of home manufacture and that the white spread which covered them was also of coarse clean homespun ornamented in squares with rude primitive needlework he marvelled at the industry here represented
as for his toilet the preparation had been most simple a shelf placed on pegs driven between the logs supported a piece of looking glass
over which hung a dipper of gourd a white porcelain basin was placed on the chair over which a clean towel had been spread and to complete all a square cut from the end of a bar of yellow soap lay beside the basin
david smiled as he bent himself to the refreshing task of bathing in water so cold as to be really icy indeed ice had formed over still pools without during the night although now fast disappearing under the glowing morning sun
above his head laid upon cross beams were bundles of wool uncarded and carding boards hung from nails in the logs in one corner was a rudely constructed reel and from the loom dangled the idle shuttle filled with fine blue yarn of wool
thryng thought of the worn old hands which had so often thrown it
that he might go in and do what he could to help the patient it was small enough return for the kindness shown him he feared to offer money for his lodgment at least until he could find a way at last full of new vigor and very hungry
he issued from his sleeping room sadly in need of a shave but biding his time satisfied if only breakfast might be forthcoming he had no need to knock for the house door stood open flooding the place with sunlight and frosty air
the huge pile of logs was blazing on the hearth as if it had never ceased since the night before and the flames leaped hot and red up the great chimney old sally no longer presided at the cookery
with a large cup of black coffee before her she now sat at the table eating corn bread and bacon a drooping black sunbonnet on her head covered her unkempt grizzly hair and a cob pipe and bag of tobacco lay at her hand she was ready for departure
cassandra had returned and her gratuitous neighborly offices were at an end the girl was stooping before the fire arranging a cake of corn bread to cook in the ashes a crane swung over the flames on which a fat iron kettle was hung
and the large coffee pot stood on the hearth the odor of breakfast was savory and appetizing as david's tall form cast a shadow across the sunlit space on the floor the old mother's voice called to him from the corner
take a cheer and set your breakfast's ready i reckon how have you slept suh the girl at the fire rose and greeted him but he missed the boy where's the little chap he asked
cassandry sont him out to wash up
it's like i have to torment him some will you have breakfast now suh just take your chair to the table and i'll fetch it directly won't i though what air you have up here it makes me hungry merely to breathe is it this way all the time
that's so said the invalid i hev seen it so warm a heap o winters at the trees gits fooled into thinkin hit's spring an blossoms all out an then come along a late freez'n spell an gits their fruit all killed hit's quare how they does do that a way
then you must have been glad to have snow yesterday i was disappointed i was running away from that sort of thing you know thryng's breakfast was served to him as had been his supper of the evening before directly from the fire
as he ate he looked out upon the usual litter of corn fodder scattered about near the house and a few implements of the simplest character for cultivating the small pocket of rich soil below but beyond this and surrounding it was a scene of the wildest beauty
giant forest trees intertwined and almost overgrown by a tangle of wild grapevines hid the fall from sight and behind them the mountain rose abruptly a continuous stream of clearest water icy cold
fell from high above into a long trough made of a hollow log there at the running water stood little hoyle
in a moment he came in panting shivering and shining and still wet about the hair and ears
she took the towel from him and gave his head a vigorous rubbing
she turned to david likely you take milk in your coffee i never thought to ask you she left the room and returned with a cup of new milk warm and sweet he was glad to get it finding his black coffee sweetened only with molasses unpalatable
don't you take milk in your coffee how came you to think of it for me i knew a lady at the hotel last summer
hit's clar waste to my thinkin cassandra smiled that's because you never could abide milk mothah thinks it's only fit to make buttah and raise pigs on old sally's horse a thin wiry beast gray and speckled
his bridle hanging from his neck the bit dangling while he also made his repast when he had finished his corn and she had finished her elaborate farewells at the bedside and little hoyle had with much effort succeeded in bridling her steed
she stepped quickly out and gained her seat on the high narrow saddle with the ease of a young girl meagre as a willow withe in her scant black cotton gown perched on her bony gray beast
and only the bowl of her cob pipe projecting beyond the rim of her sunbonnet as indication that a face might be hidden in its depths with a meal sack containing in either end sundry gifts salt pork chicken corn bread and meal
slung over the horse's back behind her and with contentment in her heart
merely a mule track arched with hornbeam and dogwood and mulberry trees and towered over by giant chestnuts and oaks and great white pines and deep green hemlocks through myriad leafless branches the wind soughed pleasantly overhead
unfelt by her so completely was she protected by the thickly growing laurel and rhododendron on either side of her path the snow of the day before was gone leaving only the glistening wetness of it on stones and fallen leaves and twigs underfoot
while in open spaces the sun beat warmly down upon her the trail led by many steep scrambles and sharp descents more directly to her home than the road which wound and turned so frequently as to more than double the distance
then breaking off a bit of the root she chewed it while she thrust the rest in her bag and used the top for a switch with which to hasten the pace of her nag the small stones loosened when she tore the shrub from the bank rattled down where the soil had been washed away
leaving the steep shelving rock side of the mountain bare and she heard them leap the smooth space and fall softly on the moss among the ferns and lodged leaves below there crouched in the sun lay a man with a black felt hat covering his face
the stones falling about him caused him to raise himself stealthily and peer upward descrying only the lone woman and the gray horse he gave a low peculiar cry almost like that of an animal in distress she drew rein sharply and listened
the cry was repeated a little louder
he climbed rapidly up through the dense undergrowth and stood at her side breathing quickly for a moment they waited thus regarding each other neither speaking the boy he seemed little more than a youth
looked up at her with a singularly innocent and appealing expression but gradually as he saw her impassive and unrelenting face his own resumed a hard and sullen look which made him appear years older his forehead was damp and cold
and a lock of silken black hair slightly curling over it increased its whiteness dark heavy rings were under his eyes which gleamed blue as the sky between long dark lashes his arms dropped listlessly at his side
and he stood before her as before a dread judge bareheaded and silent he bore her look only for a minute then dropped his eyes and his hand clinched more tightly the rim of his old felt hat when he ceased looking at her her eyes softened
i reckon the corners of his mouth drooped and he did not look up he made as if to speak further but only swallowed and was silent ye reckon
he war mean an' an' he's dade i reckon he's dade
an they done had the buryin her voice was monotonous and plaintive
he knowed he hadn't ought to rile me like he done i be'n tryin to make his hoss go home
i done brung him down an lef him in your shed an i lowed p'rhaps uncle jerry'd take him ovah to his paw again he swallowed and turned his face away the critter'd starve up yander anyhow i ain't hoss stealin
ye war both on ye full o mean corn whiskey an ye war quarrellin bouts cass a faint red stole into the boy's cheeks and the blue gleam of his eyes between the dark lashes narrowed to a mere line as he looked an instant in her face and then off up the trail
hain't ye seed nobody he asked you knows i hain't seed nobody to hurt you uns thout i'd tell ye look a hyar son
he walked on a few steps at her side then stopped suddenly i low i better bide whar i be you uns hain't been yandah to the fall have ye i have you done a heap mo'n you reckoned on
she like to a perished lyin out thar pore little hoyle he run all the way to our place he war that skeered an
hit do make me clar plumb mad when i think how you hev acted jes like you paw ef he'd nevah a started that thar still you'd nevah a been what ye be now a drinkin yer own whiskey at that come on home with me i reckon i'm bettah hyar
i know you're hungerin i got suthin ye can eat but i lowed if you'd come i'd get you an the ol man a good chick'n fry she took from her stores slung over the nag a piece of corn bread and a large chunk of salt pork and gave them into his hand thar
he was suffering as she thought and reached eagerly for the food but before tasting it he looked up again into her face and the infantile appeal had returned to his eyes tell me more bouts maw he said
you eat an i'll talk she replied he broke a large piece from the corn cake and crowded the rest into his pocket then he drew forth a huge clasp knife and cut a thick slice from the raw salt pork
and pulling a red cotton handkerchief from his belt he wrapped it around the remainder and held it under his arm as he ate
she's that bad hurted paw an i we got her to bed
likely she done broke her hip is cass thar now
again the blood sought his cheeks
i wisht you'd a took aftah your maw
your paw he like to a died too that time an when he married marthy merlin i reckoned he war cured o his ways but hit did'n last long marthy she done well by him an she done well by you too
she be'n a good stepmaw to ye
hit's that a way with all the farwells they been that quarellin an bad makin mean whiskey an drinkin hit raw
her face remained impassive and her voice droned on monotonously but two tears stole down her wrinkled cheeks
his face settled into its harder lines as she talked but he made no reply and she continued querulously why'n't you pay heed to me long ago when i tol ye not to open that thar still again you are a heap too young to go that a way
my own kin like to be hung fer man killin when did cass come he interrupted sullenly las evenin
all i fetched up last week he done et he turned to walk away but stood with averted head as she began speaking again don't you do no such fool thing
you done so bad she won't look at ye no more i reckon
he started back his hands clinched his head lifted in his whole air an animal like ferocity thar now look at ye tain't you he's after tain't me i'm feared he's after how come he thar
he come with her las evenin' a sound of horses hoofs on the road far below arrested her they both waited listening intently thar they be git she whispered
she leaned down to him and held him by the coat an instant son leave whiskey alone hit's the only way you kin do to get her yas aunt sally he murmured his eyes thanked her with one look for the tone
or the hope her words held out again the laugh nearer this time and again the wild look of haunting fear in his face he dropped where he stood and slipped stealthily as a cat back to the place where he had lain
he crept beneath them and lay still
it was not that the money had been made in commerce he was neither a snob nor a cad although his own connections entitled him to honor what more could he expect than to marry wealth and be happy if if happiness could come to either of them in that way
no his heart did not lean toward her it was better that he should bend to his profession in a strange land but not this to live a hermit's life in a cabin on a wild hilltop how long must it be how long
brooding thus he gazed at the distance of ever paling blue and mechanically counted the ranges and peaks below him an inaccessible tangle of laurel and rhododendron clothed the rough and precipitous wall of the mountain side
which fell sheer down until lost in purple shadow with a mantle of green deep and rich varied by the gray of the lichen covered rocks the browns and reds of the bare branches of deciduous trees
and the paler tints of feathery pines here and there from damp springy places dark hemlocks rose out of the mass
giant sentinels of the wilderness gradually his mood of brooding retrospect changed and he knew himself to be glad to his heart's core he could understand why out of the turmoil of the middle ages
men chose to go to sequestered places and become hermits no tragedies could be in this primeval spot and here he would rest and build again for the future he was pleased to sit thus musing
for the climb had taken more strength than he could well spare his cabin was not yet habitable for the simple things doctor hoyle had accumulated to serve his needs were still locked in well built cupboards as he had left them
thryng meant soon to go to work to take out the bed covers and air them and to find the canvas and nail it over the framework beside the cabin which was to serve as a sleeping apartment all should be done in time
that was a good framework strongly built with the corner posts set deep in the ground to keep it firm on this windswept height and with a door in the side of the cabin opening into the canvas room ah yes
all that the old doctor did was well and thoroughly done his appetite sharpened by the climb and the bracing air david investigated the contents of one of those melon shaped baskets which cassandra had given him when he started for his new home that morning
with little hoyle as his guide ah what hospitable kindness they had shown to him a stranger here were delicate bits of fried chicken
and a bottle of milk nothing better need a man ask and what animals men are after all he thought taking delight in the mere acts of eating and breathing and sleeping utterly weary he would not trouble to open the cot which lay in the cabin
but rolled himself in his blanket on the wide flat rock at the verge of the mountain here warmed by the sun he lay with his face toward the blue distance and slept dreamlessly and soundly very soundly
for he was not awakened by a crackling of the brush and scrambling of feet struggling up the mountain wall below his hard resting place yet the sound kept on and soon a head appeared above the rock and two hands were placed upon it
only a few feet away from the sleeper it was frale his soft felt hat on the back of his head and the curl of dark hair falling upon his forehead for an instant as he gazed on the sleeping figure
the wild look of fear was in his eyes then as he bethought himself of the words of aunt sally they is a man thar the expression changed to one more malevolent and repulsive transforming and aging the boyish face
cautiously he crept nearer and peered into the face of the unconscious englishman his hands clinched and his lips tightened
he drew back in shame and looked down at his hands blood guilty hands as he knew them to be
he moved swiftly away he was a youth again hungry and sad stumbling along the untrodden way avoiding the beaten path yet unerringly taking his course toward the cleft rock at the head of the fall behind the great holly tree
it was not the food cassandra had promised him that he wanted now but to look into the eyes of one who would pity and love him heartsick and weary as he never had been in all his young life lonely beyond bearing he hurried along
as he forced a path through the undergrowth he heard the sound of a mountain stream and seeking it he followed along its rocky bed leaping from one huge block of stone to another and swinging himself across by great overhanging sycamore boughs
drawing by its many windings nearer and nearer to the spot
until at last making a slight detour he came upon the very edge of the descent where he could look down and see his home nestled in the cove at the foot of the fall the blue smoke curling upward from its great chimney
he seated himself upon a jutting rock well screened by laurel shrubs on all sides but the one toward the fall there his knees clasped about with his arms and his chin resting upon them he sat and watched
behind the leafage and tangle of bare stems and twigs
thus enabling him to see plainly what was transpiring about the house and sheds without himself being seen long and patiently he waited once a dog barked his own dog nig some one must be approaching
what if the little creature should seek him out and betray him he quivered with the thought the day before he had driven him down the mountain beating him off whenever he returned should the animal persist in tracking him he would kill him
he peered more eagerly down and saw little hoyle run out of the cow shed and twist himself this way and that to see up and down the road both the child and the dog seemed excited yes there they were three horsemen coming along the highway
now they were dismounting and questioning the boy now they disappeared in the house he did not move why were they so long within hours it seemed to frale but in reality it was only a short search they were making there they were longer looking about the sheds and yard
hoyle accompanied them everywhere his hands in his pockets standing about shivering with excitement all around they went peering and searching thrusting their arms as far as they could reach into the stacks of fodder looking into troughs and corn sacks
setting the fowls to cackling wildly even hauling out the long corn stalks from the wagon which had served to make thryng's ride the night before comfortable no spot was overlooked frequently they stood and parleyed then frale's heart would sink within him
what if they should set nig to track him ah he would strangle the beast and pitch him over the fall he would spring over after him before he would let himself be taken and hanged oh he could feel the strangling rope around his neck already he could not bear it
he could not thus cowering he waited starting at every sound from below as if to run then sinking back in fear breathless with the pounding of his heart in his breast now the voices came up to him painfully clear
they were talking to little hoyle angrily what they were saying he could not make out but he again cautiously lifted his head and looked below suddenly the child drew back and lifted his arm as if to ward off a blow but the blow came
frale saw one of the men turn as he mounted his horse to ride away and cut the boy cruelly across his face and arm with his rawhide whip the little one's shriek of fright and pain pierced his big brother to the heart and caused him to forget for the moment his own abject fear
he made as if he would leap the intervening space to punish the brute but a cry of anger died in his throat as he realized his situation the selfishness of his fear however was dispelled
and he no longer cringed as before but had the courage again to watch awake and alert to all that passed beneath him hoyle's cry brought cassandra out of the house flying
frale rose to his knees and strained eagerly forward if you are such a coward you must hit something small and weak you can strike a woman hit me she panted putting the child behind her muttering the man rode sullenly away
list'nin to all we say frale could not make out the words but his face burned red with rage had he been in hiding down below he would have wreaked vengeance on the man as it was
he stood up and boldly watched them ride away in the opposite direction from which they had come he sank back and waited and again the hours passed all was still but the rushing water and the gentle soughing of the wind in the tops of the towering pines
at last he heard a rustling and sniffing here and there his heart stood still then pounded again in terror they had they had set nig to track him of course the dog would seek for his old friend and comrade and they
they would wait until they heard his bark of joy and then they would seize him he crept close to the rock where the water rushed not a foot away and clinging to the tough laurel behind him leaned far over
to drop down there would mean instant death on the rocks below it would be terrible almost as horrible as the strangling rope he would wait until they were on him and then
which were drawn to a narrow blue gleam as he waited
he had him in the greatest honor and taught him the learning that became a free man and gave him leave to make use of a diet better than was allotted to slaves he intrusted also the care of his house to him so he enjoyed these advantages
yet did not he leave that virtue which he had before upon such a change of his condition
both on account of his beauty of body and his dexterous management of affairs and supposed that if she should make it known to him she could easily persuade him to come and lie with her and that he would look upon it as a piece of happy fortune that his mistress should entreat him as regarding that state of slavery he was in
which he thought might be conquered if she had no hope of succeeding and he said that as to himself he would endure any thing whatever before he would be persuaded to it for although it was fit for a slave as he was to do nothing contrary to his mistress
he might well be excused in a case where the contradiction was to such sort of commands only but this opposition of joseph when she did not expect it made her still more violent in her love to him and as she was sorely beset with this naughty passion
in which it was the custom for women to come to the public solemnity she pretended to her husband that she was sick as contriving an opportunity for solitude and leisure that she might entreat joseph again which opportunity being obtained she used more kind words to him than before
by which she was forced though she were his mistress to condescend beneath her dignity but that he may now by taking more prudent advice wipe off the imputation of his former folly for whether it were that he expected the repetition of her solicitations she had now made
and that with greater earnestness than before for that she had pretended sickness on this very account and had preferred his conversation before the festival and its solemnity or whether he opposed her former discourses as not believing she could be in earnest
and preferred the reputation of chastity before his mistress for that he would gain nothing by such procedure because she would then become his accuser and would falsely pretend to her husband that he had attempted her chastity and that potiphar would hearken to her words rather than to his
and even with tears in her eyes neither did pity dissuade joseph from his chastity nor did fear compel him to a compliance with her but he opposed her solicitations and did not yield to her threatenings and was afraid to do an ill thing
and chose to undergo the sharpest punishment rather than to enjoy his present advantages by doing what his own conscience knew would justly deserve that he should die for it he also put her in mind that she was a married woman and that she ought to cohabit with her husband only
he also suggested to her the fear she would be in lest they should be caught and that the advantage of concealment was uncertain and that only while the wickedness was not known would there be any quiet for them
but that she might have the enjoyment of her husband's company without any danger and he told her that in the company of her husband she might have great boldness from a good conscience both before god and before men nay that she would act better like his mistress
and to reduce her affections within the rules of reason but she grew more ungovernable and earnest in the matter and since she despaired of persuading him she laid her hands upon him and had a mind to force him but as soon as joseph had got away from her anger
and she thought it a wise thing in itself and also becoming a woman thus to prevent his accusation accordingly she sat sorrowful and in confusion framing herself so hypocritically and angrily that the sorrow which was really for her being disappointed of her lust
unless he in every respect carry himself in a manner agreeable to us this man i say laid a private design to abuse thy wife and this at the time of a festival observing when thou wouldst be absent
was only because of the restraint he was in out of fear of thee but that he was not really of a good disposition this has been occasioned by his being advanced to honor beyond what he deserved and what he hoped for
insomuch that he concluded that he who was deemed fit to be trusted with thy estate and the government of thy family and was preferred above thy eldest servants might be allowed to touch thy wife also thus when she had ended her discourse
she showed him his garment as if he then left it with her when he attempted to force her but potiphar not being able to disbelieve what his wife's tears showed and what his wife said and what he saw himself and being seduced by his love to his wife
and bare her witness that she was a woman of a becoming modesty and chastity chapter five
and the truth of the fact would be more powerful than those that inflicted the punishments upon him
he also permitted him to make use of a diet better than that of the rest of the prisoners now as his fellow prisoners when their hard labors were over fell to discoursing one among another as is usual in such as are equal sufferers
and to inquire one of another what were the occasions of their being condemned to a prison among them the king's cupbearer and one that had been respected by him was put in bonds upon the king's anger at him this man was under the same bonds with joseph
large already and ripe for gathering and that he squeezed them into a cup which the king held in his hand and when he had strained the wine he gave it to the king to drink and that he received it from him with a pleasant countenance this he said was what he saw
for he let him know that god bestows the fruit of the vine upon men for good which wine is poured out to him and is the pledge of fidelity and mutual confidence among men and puts an end to their quarrels takes away passion and grief out of the minds of them that use it and makes them cheerful
thou sayest that thou didst squeeze this wine from three clusters of grapes with thine hands and that the king received it know therefore that this vision is for thy good
and foretells a release from thy present distress within the same number of days as the branches had whence thou gatheredst thy grapes in thy sleep however remember what prosperity i have foretold thee when thou hast found it true by experience and when thou art in authority
do not overlook us in this prison wherein thou wilt leave us when thou art gone to the place we have foretold for we are not in prison for any crime but for the sake of our virtue and sobriety are we condemned to suffer the penalty of malefactors
and because we are not willing to injure him that has thus distressed us though it were for our own pleasure the cupbearer therefore as was natural to do rejoiced to hear such an interpretation of his dream
and he expected a prediction like to that of the cupbearer but joseph considering and reasoning about the dream said to him that he would willingly be an interpreter of good events to him and not of such as his dream denounced to him but he told him that he had only three days in all to live
for that the three baskets signify that on the third day he should be crucified and devoured by fowls while he was not able to help himself now both these dreams had the same several events that joseph foretold they should have and this to both the parties
for on the third day before mentioned when the king solemnized his birth day he crucified the chief baker but set the butler free from his bonds
after he had endured his bonds two years and had received no assistance from the cupbearer who did not remember what he had said to him formerly and god contrived this method of deliverance for him pharaoh the king had seen in his sleep the same evening two visions
and after them had the interpretations of them both given him he had forgotten the latter but retained the dreams themselves being therefore troubled at what he had seen for it seemed to him to be all of a melancholy nature
came into the mind of the king's cupbearer when he saw the confusion that pharaoh was in so he came and mentioned joseph to him as also the vision he had seen in prison and how the event proved as he had said as also that the chief baker was crucified on the very same day
and that this also happened to him according to the interpretation of joseph that joseph himself was laid in bonds by potiphar who was his head cook as a slave but he said he was one of the noblest of the stock of the hebrews and said further
his father lived in great splendor if therefore thou wilt send for him and not despise him on the score of his misfortunes thou wilt learn what thy dreams signify so the king commanded that they should bring joseph into his presence
and those who received the command came and brought him with them having taken care of his habit that it might be decent
and being in disorder and considering with myself what this appearance should be i fell asleep again and saw another dream much more wonderful than the foregoing which still did more affright and disturb me i saw seven ears of corn growing out of one root
having their heads borne down by the weight of the grains and bending down with the fruit which was now ripe and fit for reaping and near these i saw seven other ears of corn meager and weak for want of rain which fell to eating and consuming those that were fit for reaping
if thou therefore carefully dispose of the plentiful crops which will come in the former years
and asked him by what means he might so dispense the foregoing plentiful crops in the happy years as to make the miserable crops more tolerable joseph then added this his advice to spare the good crops and not permit the egyptians to spend them luxuriously
he also exhorted him to take the corn of the husbandmen and give them only so much as will be sufficient for their food accordingly pharaoh being surprised at joseph not only for his interpretation of the dream but for the counsel he had given him intrusted him with dispensing the corn
with power to do what he thought would be for the benefit of the people of egypt and for the benefit of the king
chapter eleven how david upon saul's laying snares for him did yet escape the dangers he was in by the affection and care of jonathan
he was afraid and being not able to conceal his fear as concerning great things his kingdom and his life to be deprived of either of which was a very great calamity he resolved to have david slain
and commanded his son jonathan and his most faithful servants to kill him but jonathan wondered at his father's change with relation to david that it should be made to so great a degree from showing him no small good will to contrive how to have him killed
and if he met with a favorable opportunity he would discourse with him about him and learn the cause of his disgust and show how little ground there was for it and that for it he ought not to kill a man that had done so many good things to the multitude
as soon as he saw him in a cheerful and joyful disposition and began to introduce a discourse about david what unjust action o father either little or great hast thou found so exceptionable in david as to induce thee to order us to slay a man who hath been of great advantage to thy own preservation
and after that brought as many heads of our enemies as he was appointed to bring and had as a reward for the same my sister in marriage insomuch that his death would be very sorrowful to us not only on account of his virtue but on account of the nearness of our relation
for thy daughter must be injured at the same time that he is slain and must be obliged to experience widowhood before she can come to enjoy any advantage from their mutual conversation consider these things and change your mind to a more merciful temper and do no mischief to a man who in the first place
saul sent david with an army to fight with them and joining battle with them he slew many of them and after his victory he returned to the king but his reception by saul was not as he expected upon such success for he was grieved at his prosperity
because he thought he would be more dangerous to him by having acted so gloriously but when the demoniacal spirit came upon him and put him into disorder and disturbed him he called for david into his bed chamber wherein he lay and having a spear in his hand
he ordered him to charm him with playing on his harp and with singing hymns which when david did at his command he with great force threw the spear at him but david was aware of it before it came and avoided it and fled to his own house
that he might come into the judgment hall and so might be delivered up and condemned and slain
as having small hopes of his deliverance and as greatly concerned about her own life also for she could not bear to live in case she were deprived of him and she said let not the sun find thee here when it rises for if it do that will be the last time it will see thee
so when those that were sent told saul that david had not been well in the night he ordered him to be brought in that condition for he intended to kill him now when they came and uncovered the bed and found out the woman's contrivance they told it to the king and when her father complained of her that she had saved his enemy
and when they came to samuel and found there a congregation of prophets they became partakers of the divine spirit and began to prophesy which when saul heard of he sent others to david who prophesying in like manner as did the first he again sent others
which third sort prophesying also at last he was angry and went thither in great haste himself and when he was just by the place samuel before he saw him made him prophesy also
nor to the calumnies of those that raised those reports if there were any that did so but to depend on him and take courage for that his father had no such intention since he would have acquainted him with that matter and have taken his advice had it been so
he asked him what he would have him do for him to which david replied i am sensible that thou art willing to gratify me in every thing and procure me what i desire now tomorrow is the new moon and i was accustomed to sit down then with the king at supper
that thou gavest me leave so to do and if he say as is usually said in the case of friends that are gone abroad it is well that he went then assure thyself that no latent mischief or enmity may be feared at his hand but if he answer otherwise
that will be a sure sign that he hath some designs against me accordingly thou shalt inform me of thy father's inclinations and that out of pity to my case and out of thy friendship for me as instances of which friendship thou hast vouchsafed to accept of the assurances of my love to thee
and promised to do what he desired of him and to inform him if his father's answers implied any thing of a melancholy nature and any enmity against him and that he might the more firmly depend upon him he took him out into the open field into the pure air
and sware that he would neglect nothing that might tend to the preservation of david and he said i appeal to that god who as thou seest is diffused every where and knoweth this intention of mine before i explain it in words
as the witness of this my covenant with thee that i will not leave off to make frequent trims of the purpose of my father till i learn whether there be any lurking distemper in the most secret parts of his soul and when i have learnt it i will not conceal it from thee but will discover it to thee
whether he be gently or peevishly disposed for this god himself knows that i pray he may always be with thee for he is with thee now and will not forsake thee and will make thee superior to thine enemies whether my father be one of them
or whether i myself be such do thou only remember what we now do and if it fall out that i die preserve my children alive and requite what kindness thou hast now received to them when he had thus sworn he dismissed david
and then bid my servant to carry these three darts away for they are before him know thou that there is no mischief to be feared from my father but if thou hearest me say the contrary expect the contrary from the king
however thou shalt gain security by my means and shalt by no means suffer any harm but see thou dost not forget what i have desired of thee in the time of thy prosperity and be serviceable to my children now david
supposing that he had not purified himself since he had accompanied with his wife and so could not be present but when he saw that he was not there the second day of the month neither he inquired of his son jonathan why the son of jesse did not come to the supper and the feast
neither the day before nor that day so jonathan said that he was gone according to the agreement between them to his own city where his tribe kept a festival and that by his permission that he also invited him to come to their sacrifice and says jonathan
if thou wilt give me leave i will go thither for thou knowest the good will that i bear him and then it was that jonathan understood his father's hatred to david and plainly saw his entire disposition for saul could not restrain his anger but reproached jonathan
their kingdom was not secure to them yet did he bid him send for him that he might be punished and when jonathan said in answer what hath he done that thou wilt punish him saul no longer contented himself to express his anger in bare words but snatched up his spear
and leaped upon him and was desirous to kill him he did not indeed do what he intended because he was hindered by his friends but it appeared plainly to his son that he hated david and greatly desired to despatch him
and being unable to admit any thing into his mouth for grief he wept all night both because he had himself been near destruction and because the death of david was determined but as soon as it was day he went out into the plain that was before the city
as going to perform his exercises but in reality to inform his friend what disposition his father was in towards him as he had agreed with him to do and when jonathan had done what had been thus agreed he dismissed his servant that followed him to return to the city
but he himself went into the desert and came into his presence and communed with him so david appeared and fell at jonathan's feet and bowed down to him and called him the preserver of his soul but he lifted him up from the earth
and they mutually embraced one another and made a long greeting and that not without tears they also lamented their age and that familiarity which envy would deprive them of and that separation which must now be expected
nor did they retain what they had before but esau departed from the city of hebron and left it to his brother and dwelt in seir and ruled over idumea he called the country by that name from himself
which appellation he got on the following occasion one day returning from the toil of hunting very hungry it was when he was a child in age he lighted on his brother when he was getting ready lentile pottage for his dinner which was of a very red color
on which account he the more earnestly longed for it and desired him to give him some of it to eat but he made advantage of his brother's hunger and forced him to resign up to him his birthright and he being pinched with famine
were by one wife whose name was alibama but of the rest aliphaz was born to him by ada
these dwelt in that part of idumea which is called gebalitis and that denominated from amalek amalekitis for idumea was a large country and did then preserve the name of the whole
while in its several parts it kept the names of its peculiar inhabitants chapter two how joseph the youngest of jacob's sons was envied by his brethren
and shrewd also in understanding and god exercised such a providence over him and such a care of his happiness as to bring him the greatest blessings even out of what appeared to be the most sorrowful condition
both because of the beauty of his body and the virtues of his mind for he excelled the rest in prudence this affection of his father excited the envy and the hatred of his brethren
as did also his dreams which he saw and related to his father and to them which foretold his future happiness it being usual with mankind to envy their very nearest relations such their prosperity
he saw a vision in a dream but greatly exceeding the customary appearances that come when we are asleep which when he was got up he told his brethren that they might judge what it portended he said he saw the last night
that his wheat sheaf stood still in the place where he set it but that their sheaves ran to bow down to it as servants bow down to their masters but as soon as they perceived the vision foretold that he should obtain power and great wealth
which was much more wonderful than the former for it seemed to him that the sun took with him the moon and the rest of the stars and came down to the earth and bowed down to him he told the vision to his father and that as suspecting nothing of ill will from his brethren
when they were there also and desired him to interpret what it should signify now jacob was pleased with the dream for considering the prediction in his mind and shrewdly and wisely guessing at its meaning
as guessing that the moon and sun were like his mother and father the former as she that gave increase and nourishment to all things and the latter he that gave form and other powers to them and that the stars were like his brethren since they were eleven in number
that was to those good things which were signified by the dreams and not as one that was a brother with whom it was probable they should be joint partakers and as they had been partners in the same parentage
and for pasturage there they fed their flocks without acquainting their father with their removal thither whereupon he had melancholy suspicions about them as being ignorant of his sons condition
and receiving no messenger from the flocks that could inform him of the true state they were in so because he was in great fear about them he sent joseph to the flocks to learn the circumstances his brethren were in and to bring him word how they did
chapter three
by reason of their hatred to him
by which act the father must be treated unjustly in the son's slaughter
and this not in a natural way neither so he entreated them to have a regard to their own consciences and wisely to consider what mischief would betide them upon the death of so good a child and their youngest brother
and yielded to repentance and amendment but in case they proceeded to do the fact all sorts of punishments would overtake them from god for this murder of their brother since they polluted his providence which was every where present and which
which they can never avoid whether it be a good conscience or whether it be such a one as they will have within them when once they have killed their brother he also added this besides to what he had before said that it was not a righteous thing to kill a brother
though he had injured them that it is a good thing to forget the actions of such near friends even in things wherein they might seem to have offended but that they were going to kill joseph who had been guilty of nothing that was ill towards them
in whose case the infirmity of his small age should rather procure him mercy and move them to unite together in the care of his preservation
if they slew him who was judged by god to be worthy of that prosperity which was to be hoped for
and used entreaties to them and thereby endeavored to divert them from the murder of their brother but when he saw that his discourse had not mollified them at all and that they made haste to do the fact
he advised them to alleviate the wickedness they were going about in the manner of taking joseph off for as he had exhorted them first when they were going to revenge themselves to be dissuaded from doing it
after rubel was gone advised his brethren to draw joseph out of the pit and sell him to the arabians for if he should die among strangers a great way off
but reubel coming in the night time to the pit resolved to save joseph without the privity of his brethren and when upon his calling to him he made no answer he was afraid that they had destroyed him after he was gone of which he complained to his brethren
but when they had told him what they had done
they considered what they should do to escape the suspicions of their father
so they thought proper to tear that coat to pieces and to dip it into goats blood and then to carry it and show it to their father that he might believe he was destroyed by wild beasts and when they had so done they came to the old man
but this not till what had happened to his son had already come to his knowledge then they said that they had not seen joseph nor knew what mishap had befallen him but that they had found his coat bloody and torn to pieces whence they had a suspicion that he had fallen among wild beasts
and so perished if that was the coat he had on when he came from home now jacob had before some better hopes that his son was only made a captive but now he laid aside that notion
and supposed that this coat was an evident argument that he was dead for he well remembered that this was the coat he had on when he sent him to his brethren so he hereafter lamented the lad as now dead and as if he had been the father of no more than one
without taking any comfort in the rest and so he was also affected with his misfortune before he met with joseph's brethren when he also conjectured that joseph was destroyed by wild beasts
chapter twelve how david fled to ahimelech and afterwards to the kings of the philistines and of the moabites
and came to the city nob to ahimelech the priest who when he saw him coming all alone and neither a friend nor a servant with him he wondered at it and desired to learn of him the cause why there was nobody with him to which david answered
that the king had commanded him to do a certain thing that was to be kept secret to which if he had a mind to know so much he had no occasion for any one to accompany him however i have ordered my servants to meet me at such and such a place so he desired him to let him have somewhat to eat
he fled out of the country of the hebrews into that of the philistines over which achish reigned and when the king's servants knew him and he was made known to the king himself the servants informing him that he was that david who had killed many ten thousands of the philistines
which might make him believe that they proceeded from such a distemper accordingly the king was very angry at his servants that they had brought him a madman
he came to the tribe of judah and abode in a cave by the city of adullam then it was that he sent to his brethren and informed them where he was who then came to him with all their kindred and as many others as were either in want or in fear of king saul
came and made a body together and told him they were ready to obey his orders they were in all about four hundred whereupon he took courage now such a force and assistance was come to him so he removed thence and came to the king of the moabites
upon the prophet's commanding him to leave the desert
you that are men of my own tribe i conclude that you remember the benefits that i have bestowed upon you and that i have made some of you owners of land and made you commanders and bestowed posts of honor upon you
and set some of you over the common people and others over the soldiers i ask you therefore whether you expect greater and more donations from the son of jesse for i know that you are all inclinable to him
even my own son jonathan himself is of that opinion and persuades you to be of the same for i am not unacquainted with the oaths and the covenants that are between him and david and that jonathan is a counselor and an assistant to those that conspire against me
and none of you are concerned about these things but you keep silence and watch to see what will be the upshot of these things when the king had made this speech not one of the rest of those that were present made any answer but doeg the syrian who fed his mules
and for all his kindred and said to them what terrible or ungrateful tiring hast thou suffered from me that thou hast received the son of jesse and hast bestowed on him both food and weapons when he was contriving to get the kingdom and further
and what is more than these thy son in law and kinsman men do not choose to confer such favors on their adversaries but on those who are esteemed to bear the highest good will and respect to them nor is this the first time that i prophesied for him
wherefore do not thou entertain any ill opinion of me nor do thou have a suspicion of what i then thought an act of humanity from what is now told thee of david's attempts against thee for i did then to him as to thy friend and son in law and captain of a thousand
his fear was so prevalent that he could not give credit to an apology that was very just so he commanded his armed men that stood about him to kill him and all his kindred but as they durst not touch the high priest but were more afraid of disobeying god than the king
he ordered doeg the syrian to kill them accordingly he took to his assistance such wicked men as were like himself and slew ahimelech and all his family who were in all three hundred and eighty five
and slew all that were there without sparing either women or children or any other age and burnt it only there was one son of ahimelech
however these things came to pass as god had foretold to eli the high priest when he said that his posterity should be destroyed
by perpetrating so barbarous a crime and murdering the whole family of the high priestly dignity by having no pity of the infants nor reverence for the aged and by overthrowing the city which god had chosen for the property
and for the support of the priests and prophets which were there and had ordained as the only city allotted for the education of such men gives all to understand and consider the disposition of men that while they are private persons and in a low condition
because it is not in their power to indulge nature nor to venture upon what they wish for they are equitable and moderate and pursue nothing but what is just and bend their whole minds and labors that way then it is that they have this belief about god
and firm and true and pleasing both to men and to god but as to what will come hereafter they have not the least regard to it they raise those to honor indeed who have been at a great deal of pains for them and after that honor they envy them
they also punish men for their actions not such as deserve condemnation but from calumnies and accusations without examination and this extends not only to such as deserve to be punished but to as many as they are able to kill
this conversation set me thinking
for a good many years and the hans were just finding it out for centuries they had not regarded us as any sort of a menace
somewhere in nu yok or bah flo or possibly in lo tan itself the record of this traitorous transaction would be more or less openly filed if we could only get at it
i wondered if a raid might not be possible bill hearn and i talked it over with our han affairs boss and his experts
there ensued several days of research in which the han records of the entire decade were scanned and analyzed in the end they picked out a mass of detail
and fitted it together into a very definite picture of the great central filing office of the hans in nu yok where the entire mass of official records was kept constantly available for instant projectoscoping to any of the city's offices
and of the system by which the information was filed the attempt began to look feasible though hart instantly turned the idea down when i first presented it to him it was unthinkable he said sheer suicide
but in the end i persuaded him i will need i said blash who is thoroughly familiar with the han library system bert gaunt who for years has specialized on their military offices bill barker the ray specialist
and the best swooper pilot we have swoopers are one man and two man ships developed by the americans with skeleton backbones of inertron during the war painted green for invisibility against the green forests below
and bellies of clear ultron that will be mort gibbons said hart we've only got three swoopers left tony but i'll risk one of them if you and the others will voluntarily risk your existences but mind
i won't urge or order one of you to go i'll spread the word to every plant boss at once to give you anything and everything you need in the way of equipment when i told wilma of the plan i expected her to raise violent and tearful objections
but she didn't she was made of far sterner stuff than the women of the twentieth century not that she couldn't weep as copiously or be just as whimsical on occasion but she wouldn't weep for the same reasons she just gave me an unfathomable look
i confess i was somewhat disappointed that she could so courageously risk my loss even though i was amazed at her fortitude but later i was to learn how little i knew her then we were ready to slide off at dawn the next morning
i had kissed wilma good bye at our camp and after a final conference over our plans we boarded our craft and gently glided away over the tree tops on a course which after crossing three routes of the han ships would take us out over the atlantic off the jersey coast
twice we had to nose down and lie motionless on the ground near a route while han ships passed those were tense moments had the green back of our ship been observed we would have been disintegrated in a second
but it wasn't once over the water however we climbed in a great spiral ten miles in diameter until our altimeter registered ten miles here gibbons shut off his rocket motor and we floated far above the level of the atlantic liners
whose course was well to the north of us anyhow and waited for nightfall then gibbons turned from his control long enough to grin at me i have a surprise for you tony
he said throwing back the lid of what i had supposed was a big supply case and with a sigh of relief wilma stepped out of the case if you go into zero a common expression of the day for being annihilated by the disintegrator ray
you don't think i'm going to let you go alone do you tony i couldn't believe my ears last night when you spoke of going without me
don't you know dear heart that you offered me the greatest insult a husband could give a wife you didn't of course the others it seemed had all been in on the secret and now they would have kidded me unmercifully
except that wilma's eyes blazed dangerously
this took some time and calculation on the part of bill barker
the slightest resort to an electronic instrument he feared might be detected by our enemies locators in fact we did not dare bring our swooper any lower than five miles for fear that its capacity might be reflected in their instruments
finally however he succeeded in locating above the central tower of the city if my calculations are as much as ten feet off he remarked with confidence i'll eat the tower now the rest is up to you mort
see what you can do to hold her steady no here watch this indicator the red beam not the green one see if you keep it exactly centered on the needle you're o k the width of the beam represents seventeen feet
for several moments we watched as gibbons bent over his levers constantly adjusting them with deft touches of his fingers after a bit of wavering the beam remained centered on the needle now i said let's drop
i opened the trap and looked down but quickly shut it again when i felt the air rushing out of the ship into the rarefied atmosphere in a torrent gibbons literally yelled a protest from his instrument board i forgot i mumbled
silly of me of course we'll have to drop out of compartment the compartment to which i referred was similar to those in some of the twentieth century submarines
with some struggles we got into our special air helmets and adjusted the pressure at our signal gibbons exhausted the air in the compartment pumping it into the body of the ship and as the little signal light flashed wilma threw open the hatch
setting the ultron wire reel i climbed through and began to slide down gently we all had our belts on of course adjusted to a weight balance of but a few ounces and the five mile reel of ultron wire that was to be our guide
was of gossamer fineness though anyway i believe it would have lifted the full weight of the five of us so strong and tough was this invisible metal as an extra precaution since the wire was of the purest metal and therefore totally invisible even in daylight
we all had our belts hooked on small rings that slid down the wire i went down with the end of the wire wilma followed a few feet above me then barker gaunt and blash gibbons of course stayed behind to hold the ship in position
and control the paying out of the line we all had our ultrophones in place inside our air helmets and so could converse with one another and with gibbons but at wilma's suggestion
we kept them adjusted to short range work for fear that those who had been clearing with the hans and against whom we were on a raid for evidence might also pick up our conversation we had no fear that the hans would hear us
in fact we had the added advantage that even after we landed we could converse freely without danger of their hearing our voices through our air helmets for a while i could see nothing below but utter darkness then i realized from the feel of the air
as much as from anything that we were sinking through a cloud layer we passed through two more cloud layers before anything was visible to us then there came under my gaze about two miles below one of the most beautiful sights i have ever seen
the soft yet brilliant radiance of the great han city of nu yok
tower piled up on tower and all built on the vast base mass of the city
the city i noticed with some surprise did not cover anything like the same area as the new york of the twentieth century it occupied as a matter of fact only the lower half of manhattan island
to provide berths for the great liners and other air craft straight beneath my feet was a tiny dark patch it seemed the only spot in the entire city that was not aflame with radiance this was the central tower
in the top floors of which were housed the vast library of record files and the main projectoscope plant you can shoot the wire now i ultrophoned gibbons and let go the little weighted knob it dropped like a plummet
on which a faint light glowed as a signal for ourselves might be observed by any han guard or night prowler apparently it was not
and fortunately for our plan in darkness
or from which there was any need to observe it the hans had neglected to light the tower roof or indeed to occupy it at all this was the reason we had selected it as our landing place as soon as gibbons had our word he extinguished the knob light
and the knob as well as the wire became totally invisible at our ultrophoned word he would light it again no gun play now i warned swords only and then only if absolutely necessary
closely bunched and treading as lightly as only inertron belted people could
where gaunt and blash assured us the military offices were located twice barker cautioned us to stop as we were about to pass in front of mirror like windows in the passage wall and flattening ourselves to the floor we crawled past them
projectoscopes he said probably on automatic record only at this time of night still we don't want to leave any records for them to study after we're gone
were you ever here before i asked no he replied but i haven't been studying their electrophone communications for seven years without being able to recognize these machines when i run across
at the entrance of the voskressensky mine stood a group of miners all were quite silent it was still dark for the autumn days begin late
heavy grey clouds glided slowly over the sky in which the first streaks of dawn were hardly visible these clouds glided so low that they seemed to wish to lie on the earth in order to hide this black hole
this well like orifice which was about to swallow up the miners one by one the air was saturated with a cloud of damp dust particles of which fell on the men's hair and faces
the miners wore leather jerkins and small lamps whose light flickered fitfully hung at their belts an imaginative person might have thought that they trembled with fear
at having to descend into the heavy dense darkness of the mine listen old man you can never go down alone
as though the damp air of this dark morning found as much difficulty in entering as in leaving it the features of the old miner's face were strongly marked
and his two black eyes burned in the depths of their sockets with a brilliant almost fantastic light this death's head seemed almost buried from sight between two very high shoulders
when he walked his back was arched and his whole long body leaned forward so that he seemed to be looking for something he had lost or to be picking his steps very carefully
his feeble arms hung languidly by his side and his legs tottered and gave way every moment under the weight of his body slight as it was you will never be able to descend the ladders
the overseer called to the rest here we are father ivan they cried
fancy his wishing to go down the ladders with us the old miner turned towards them
which had been subsequently closed his mother who had lost her husband by the falling in of one of the mine galleries
ivan had been born in the eternal darkness his first cry had been drowned by the noise of blasting rocks his first glance met nothing but the gloom of the subterranean gallery
all the first impressions of his sad childhood were intimately connected with the mine where his mother who was obliged to earn her living always worked as she had no one to whom to entrust the child
she took him with her and he remained lying beside her fixing his wide open eyes on his mother's flickering lamp while he sucked at his milk bottle
it was this black hole which echoed to his laughter and his crying especially to the latter his mother who was naturally taciturn had scarcely time to caress her child
when she heard the little one's sobs she redoubled the blows of her pickaxe against the dark mass of coal as though she wished by the noise they made to drown the feeble wailing of the infant
it was in this mine that he grew and made his first experiments in walking later on he began to explore first the narrow passage where his mother worked at her daily task
then venturing into the other galleries of this subterranean kingdom
all these masses of black earth with their blocks of metal which had slumbered for centuries in the depths seemed to him living beings
sounded in his ears like the groans of victims imprisoned by evil genii in gloomy caves for him the water which filtered through the walls of the mine was a shower of tears
and that which trickled yellow of tint across the ore resembled flowing blood the darkness was constantly traversed by vague and ever new apparitions vanishing as soon as they appeared
which nevertheless left a trace of their passage on the child's impressionable mind when a miner's song reached him deadened by distance
by dint of practice his sense of hearing had acquired a fine subtlety and sometimes putting his ear to the rugged walls he listened with so much attention
that he could catch the faintest unknown and inexplicable sounds it was perhaps only the wrathful murmur of some imprisoned spring but for ivan it was the groan of a human being struggling in his dungeon
all the objects round him the ore the rocks the water were animated with a life visible and comprehensible to him alone these things were not for him simple parts of inanimate nature
but creatures with souls full of life similar to himself watching and listening to him as he watched and listened to them later on he made friends with an old man
he was a miner of a somewhat sombre disposition but his eyes always grew moist when the child ran towards him he would lay his wrinkled hand hard as iron tenderly on the head of the little one
and as he rested tell him how one day our lord jesus christ had descended to the depths of this subterranean kingdom and since then remained there with the miners jesus is in the midst of us i tell you
the old man would say dreamily peering intently into the darkness as though his half blind eyes could really distinguish the divine saviour there as long as he was a child
because he knew that jesus does not love evil deeds and dark thoughts jesus is everywhere at once he has thousands of eyes at his disposal he sees and knows the slightest movements of men's hearts
they heard far off in the direction where ivan's mother was working a dull shock a noise like a sigh escaping from the breast of mother earth herself the shock re echoed in all the mine shafts
and smallest recesses of all the galleries
save us lord cried the old man rising quickly pray to god little one a child's prayer avails much with him little ivan knelt down and prayed without knowing why or for what
all his prayer consisted in repeating kind jesus good jesus dear old jesus since for him goodness was personified in the old miner and as on the other hand jesus was the very incarnation of goodness
it followed that jesus must be old very old it was thus that the child imagined him
the subterranean shocks re echoed to a great distance and did not cease till they passed beyond the boundaries of the mine then only a vague vibration remained in the air like the presentiment of a great calamity
the old miner turned in the direction where ivan's mother had been working he walked with uncertain steps and then returned hesitatingly towards the child when they reached the gallery they found it narrower
and contracted above where the earth had sunk
the old man and the child crawled through it with difficulty soon fortunately they could stand upright a few steps more and the old man abruptly fell on his knees
the place where ivan's mother had been working no longer existed
its dampness was constantly increasing for it was traversed by a thread of water from a spring which had suddenly been liberated one knew not how from its long imprisonment
from underneath this damp mass projected the feet of ivan's mother the child rushed forward seized the coarse boots which she wore and tugged at them but in vain
the earth which lay on his mother guarded its prey well maria maria cried the old miner in a despairing voice there was no reply
the feet in their coarse boots feebly lighted by the little lamp remained motionless when ivan grew up and became a miner in his turn his surroundings changed their aspect in his eyes
and became inanimate the springs and the metals
the dark rocks when his pickaxe laid their sides open
jesus also whom he saw so clearly in his childhood had disappeared from the time that they had abandoned the old mine for another one but the impressions made on him in childhood
remained hidden and shut up in the profoundest depth of ivan's heart
later on under the inexorable pressure of time when ivan had become old these impressions rose again to the surface and he found himself once more surrounded by vague apparitions and mysterious murmurs
at last he came across traces of human existence
neither cottage roofs nor smoke though it was such a clear day that the streamlets which ran between the hillocks shone brightly and dazzled his eyes
which were accustomed to the darkness of the forest but yet the district seemed to be inhabited a firm yellow road wound in a broad semicircle round the moor
the ruts left by the cart wheels of the previous year crossed each other distinctly but no new wheels had ground the dry clods of earth into dust probably the road was seldom used
at any rate the fugitive sat for hours in his tree without hearing in the distance the creaking of the ungreased axle of a peasant's cart from the road there branched off a path which seemed to lead to a distant village
and began to consider whether he could venture into a village to buy bread in the pocket of the murdered huntsman he had found a rouble note and some silver coins it was true that his hair had not grown again the normal length
but he could tie a piece of cloth round his half shorn skull and need not take it off when he entered a shop
he said to re assure himself for he felt a nervous antipathy to meeting any one just as a wolf fears every yelping cur as soon as he wanders by mistake into a village
at last he determined to go on quite slowly so as to reach the village under cover of the approaching darkness with this idea he turned into the path which wound in an eccentric fashion through the moor
sometimes diving into ravines and sometimes emerging into clear sunshine here and there stumps of trees bearing the fresh marks of an axe and black abandoned fire places whose ashes had not yet been quite blown away
showed that men had worked and rested here the wanderer also thought he often heard human voices but when he held his breath to listen he always found it had been the deceptive cry of a bird
the day came to an end the golden radiance of the sun setting behind the distant hills grew pale and the first stars glimmered in the dusky sky
ivan strode valiantly forwards through the white rising mists out of which single branches of trees projecting beckoned to him like long lean arms till he reached a copse with dry mossy ground
which seemed admirably adapted to furnish him with a sleeping place for the night he collected a bundle of twigs together and struck a light but in the act of raising his hand he stopped what was that
was there not a sound from the wood like a child's crying for a moment a cold thrill passed through him half forgotten ghost stories occurred to him but he was too intimately familiar with the life of the forest to be seriously alarmed
hullo who is there is there any one ivan shouted as loud as he could his voice aroused the sleeping wood squirrels rustled among the branches and startled birds flapped their wings
then everything was again perfectly silent nor could the sound of crying be heard any more ivan again turned into the path it must be a woman or a child he thought and quite close too
he peered with keen eyes through the darkness and moved noiselessly forward in order not to frighten the weeper now he heard the sound of sobbing more distinctly it was a child but how had a child got here
the moon had risen and threw an uncertain light on the path in a ditch by the side of it lay something white it was the skeleton of a horse which had been devoured by wolves near it was rustling some creature which moved off at the convict's approach
who is there a low sob was the only answer oh i am frightened mother mother the moon now showed distinctly a little clearing in the wood at the edge of it lay a woman's figure stretched out at full length
the wide open eyes stared fixedly at the sky no breath moved the rags which covered her breast from under her wretched dress projected the lean way worn feet near her lay a wallet
asked the old man in a hoarse voice oh i am so frightened so frightened sobbed the child a little ragged girl lifted her pale face to the convict and then seized with alarm tried to hide herself again in her mother's clothing
ivan touched the woman's ice cold forehead
whispered the child without letting go of the body have you been here long i do not know oh i am so frightened was the sun still high when your mother fell down yes grandfather
ivan stepped to one side and piled up a heap of dry twigs which he set on fire the merry flames licked with red tongues at the branches
said the old man speaking as abruptly as before to the child do it quickly and mother let mother rest she is asleep the fire light played on the face of the dead woman and lent it a ghostly semblance of life
perhaps the rapidly increasing darkness alarmed her for she came nearer without his observing it suddenly with her little hand she seized his finger and held it fast well little thing what do you want
he growled involuntarily laying his free hand on her head
your mother is dead she won't come back how can she be dead have you never seen any one die oh yes uncle andron whom god took to himself well god has taken your mother to himself perhaps he wanted her
there was also the grey horse said the child god took him too when will he take me the old man looked long at the child and something like pity stirred him for you it is still too early he said gloomily
but what shall i do without mother she again held his finger with her little hand don't be afraid i will stay with you no one will touch you i have a gun the old man picked up two slender sticks
and tied them together with a strip of birch bark so as to make a rude cross now your mother's grave is finished make a prayer anjuta then we will go i don't know how to pray mother never taught me i can only say give me a piece of bread for jesus sake
have you never been in church no mother and i we always stood before the church door when people came out and cried good people give us bread for jesus sake we have eaten nothing for two days well then god can ask nothing more of you poor thing
said ivan in a more friendly tone and stroked her he will be tolerant cross yourself and kiss this cross that's right and now say lord have mercy on her poor soul lord have mercy on her poor soul the child repeated
as though they scented a thief in him the dogs raised an ear splitting noise
started with fright and began to cry he told her harshly to be quiet and approached the last cottage in the village which stood near the wood
asked a woman's voice will you give me a bed for the night i am tired with carrying her he pointed to the child whose little head had again sunk on his shoulder the woman would hardly have admitted him alone come in
but don't take it ill that there is nothing to eat we have nothing ourselves
is the child yours how tired it is poor little thing no she is not mine what should a hunter do with children she came in my way that is all her mother died in the forest and i found her before the wolves ate her perhaps some one will adopt her
who can adopt her we ourselves have barely enough to live upon you must report your finding her at the police office in the nearest town or go with her to the bailiff of the village but ivan was not at all disposed to go either to the town or to the village bailiff
since god has sent me the poor orphan she can remain with me he said we will not come to grief we two in the forest will you promise not to be afraid when you hear howlings and moanings in the wood
if you are with me grandfather i won't be afraid you have a gun and can shoot all the wolves dead
mister van emmon and i stated billie coolly as they put on their bracelets have been trying to decide upon the best way of telling them how to obtain fire neither smith nor the doctor showed that he noticed her mister van emmon
evidently the two were still unreconciled i argue remarked the geologist that the simplest method will be a chemical one there's lots of ways to produce fire spontaneously with chemicals and this woman rolla could do it easily
billie indulged in a small superior smile he forgets that all these chemical methods require pure chemicals
what's your proposition then from the doctor optics enthusiastically
he's something of a mineralogist how to grind and polish a piece of crystal into this shape van emmon groaned marvelous
missus van emmon smith also shook his head neither of you has the right idea the easiest way under the circumstances would be an electrical one he paused frowning hard then vetoed his own plan
thunder i'm always speaking first and thinking afterward i never used to do it accusingly until i got in with you folks anyhow electricity won't do you've got to have practically pure elements for that too
guess it's up to you doc said billie and they all looked respectfully toward their host he laughed you three will never learn anything you'll continue to think that i'm a regular wonder about these things
all i have to do is select the one idea remaining after you've disproved the rest nothing to it he paused i'm afraid we're reduced to the spark method it would take too long to procure materials pure enough for any other plan
friction is out of the question for such people they haven't the patience suppose we go ahead on the flint and spark basis they went at once into the familiar trance state nightfall was approaching on the part of sanus in which they were interested
smith and van emmon came upon dulnop and corrus as they were talking together the herdsman was saying lad my heart is heavy this night much of his usual vigor was absent when i were passing cunora's field this day
some of the masters came and drove me over to her side i tried to get away and one threatened to kill i fear me lad they intend to force us to marry what fiercely from the younger corrus laid a hand upon his arm nay dulnop
fear not i have no feeling for thy cunora i may marry her but as for fathering her children no suppose through set teeth suppose they should threaten to kill thee i should rather die dulnop than be untrue to rolla
and i tell thee neither shall i have aught to do with rolla rather death than dishonor next moment silence fell between them
for sitting apart in the growing darkness each was plainly in terror of the morrow
i he paused abashed
i fear i am afraid i might give in at this dulnop broke down and fell to sobbing nothing could have told the investigators so well just how childlike the sanusians really were corrus had all he could do to hold in himself
mownoth he exclaimed his eyes raised fervently if it be thy will to deliver us give us the secret this night meanwhile in rolla's hut a similar scene was going on under the doctor's projected eye
cunora lost her nerve and rolla came near to doing the same in her efforts to comfort the other they are heartless things rolla exclaimed with such bitterness as her nature would permit they know not what love is
they with their drones and their egg babes what is family life to them nothing somehow i feel that their reign is nearly at an end cunora perhaps the great secret shall be given us to night
why say ye that rolla because the time be ripe for it are not all our kind looking forward to it are we not all expecting and longing for it know we not that we shall must have what we all so earnestly desire
it was striking to hear this bit of modern psychology uttered by this primitive woman let me hear no more of thy weeping ye shall not be made to wed corrus nevertheless at the speaking of her lover's name
the older woman's lips trembled despite themselves and she said nothing further beyond a brief sleep well after which the two women turned in and shortly reached the drowsy point thus it happened that rolla after a minute or two
once more aroused cunora in great excitement
proceeded to relate what she had seen she finished the seed of the flower can be grown in the heart of rotting wood and for hours afterward the two whispered excitedly in the darkness it was hard to have to wait till dawn
as for corrus and dulnop they even went so far as to search the heaps of stone in the mineral yards although neither really expected to find what they sought but the four on the earth not being able to do anything further until morning
proceeded to make themselves at home in the doctor's house smith and the doctor slept together likewise billie and missus kinney van emmon occupied the guest room in lonely grandeur
again in the trance state the four found that rolla and cunora after reaching an understanding with corrus and dulnop
five bees accompanied them within a few minutes however
and shortly the guards were withdrawn this meant that the holiday was officially sanctioned so long as the two couples kept apart but if they were to join forces afterward and be caught in the act they would be severely punished such was bee efficiency
and sentiment the doctor had impressed rolla with the fact that she would find the desired stone in a mountainous country cunora however was for examining every rock she came to
rolla was continually passing judgment upon some specimen nay said she for the hundredth time tis a very bright stone we seek very small and very shiny like sunlight on the water i shall know it when i see it
and i shall see it not until we reach the mountains soon cunora's impatience wore off and the two concentrated upon making time by midday they were well into the hills following the course of a very dry creek
and now they kept a sharp lookout at every step van emmon and smith had similarly impressed corrus and dulnop with the result that there was no loss of time in the beginning
the two men reached the hills on their side of the valley an hour before the women reached theirs and thus the search began the strangest search beyond a doubt within the history of the universe
it was not like the work of some of earth's prehistoric men who already knew fire and were merely looking up fresh materials it was a quest in which an idea an idea given in a vision was the sole driving force
the most curious part of the matter was that these people were mentally incapable of conceiving that there was intelligence at work upon them from another world or even that there was another world ye saw the stars last night corrus spoke to dulnop well
just such stars as shall awaken the seed of the flower ye shall see both knew exactly what to look for the brassy regularly cut crystals with the black stripings such as has led countless men to go through untold hardships in the belief that they had found gold
in fact iron pyrites is often called fool gold so deceptive is its glitter yet it was just the thing for the purpose flint they already had large quantities of it practically all their tools such as axes and knives were made of it
struck against iron pyrites a larger fatter hotter spark could be obtained than with any other natural combination it was dulnop's luck to see the outcropping
he found the mineral exposed to plain view a few feet above the bottom of the ravine the two were ascending with a shout of triumph he leaped upon the rock here corrus he yelled dancing like mad here is the gift of the gods
the older man didn't attempt to hide his delight he grabbed his companion and hugged him until his ribs began to crack then with a single blow from his huge club the herdsman knocked the specimen clear of the slate in which it was set
such was their excitement neither dreamed of marking the place in any way first satisfying themselves that the pyrites really could produce stars from the flint the two hurried down stream in search of the right kind of wood
in half an hour corrus came across a dead worm eaten tree from which he nonchalantly broke off a limb as big as his leg the interior was filled with a dry stringy rot just the right thing for making a spark live then came a real difficulty
it will be better appreciated when the men's childish nature is borne in mind their patience was terribly strained in their attempts to make the sparks fly into the tinder again and again one of them would throw the rocks angrily to the ground
fairly snarling with exasperation however the other would immediately take them up and try again neither man had a tenth the deftness that is common to adults on the earth in size and strength alone they were men
they were mere children all told it was over two hours before the punk began to smolder by mownoth swore the herdsman staring reverently at the smoke we have done a miracle dulnop ye and i
be ye sure this is no dream quite in human fashion dulnop seriously reached out and pinched the herdsman's tremendous arm corrus winced but was too well pleased with the result to take revenge
it be no dream he declared still awestruck nay agreed dulnop and now to make the flower grow it was corrus's lungs which really did the work
his prodigious chest was better than a small pair of bellows and he blew just as he had been told in the vision presently a small flame appeared in the tinder and leaped eagerly upward
both men jumped back and for lack of enough air the flame went out never mind exclaimed dulnop at corrus's crestfallen look i remember that we must be ready with leaves and the like as soon as the blossom appears
blow ye great wind maker and i shall feed the flower and thus it came about that two men of sanus for the first time in the history of the planet looked upon fire itself and when they had got it to burning well each of them stared at his hands
when it was the six hundred and thirty fifth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that mardas coming into the presence of ajib said to him i come to place myself under thy protection quoth ajib
tell me who hath wronged thee that i may protect thee against him though it were sabur king of the persians and turcomans and daylamites quoth mardas o king of the age he who hath wronged me is none other than a youth whom i reared in my bosom
and he sought her of me so i required of him the head of the ghul of the mountain wherefore he went to him and after engaging him in singular combat
wherein are the treasures of the ancients and the hoards of the moderns moreover i hear that become a moslem he goeth about summoning the folk to his faith
and will not return but with the treasures of the persians when ajib heard the story of mardas he changed colour to yellow and was in ill case and made sure of his own destruction then he said o mardas is the youth's mother with thee or with him and mardas replied
she is with me in my tents quoth ajib what is her name quoth mardas her name is nusrah tis very she rejoined ajib and sent for her to the presence now when she came before him he looked on her and knew her and asked her
where are the two slaves i sent with thee and she answered they slew each other on my account whereupon ajib bared his blade and smote her and cut her in twain then they dragged her away and cast her out
but trouble and suspicion entered ajib's heart and he cried o mardas give me thy daughter to wife he rejoined she is one of thine handmaids i give her to thee to wife and i am thy slave said ajib
i desire to look upon this son of an adulteress gharib that i may destroy him and cause him taste all manner of torments then he bade give mardas to his daughter's dowry
and told him what was come upon them so he looked forth from the battlements of the palace and seeing a conquering host all of them persians encamped before the city said to the citizens o folk what do yonder ajams want and they replied we know not
the desert lion keen of wit and penetrating as he were a flame of fire so he called him and said to him go to this stranger host and find out who they be and what they want and return quickly
accordingly he sped like the wind to the persian tents where a company of arabs rose up and met him saying who art thou and what dost thou require he replied i am a messenger and an envoy from the lord of the city to your chief
so they took him and carried him through the lines of tents pavilions and standards till they came to gharib's shahmiynah and told him of the mission he bade them bring him in and they did so whereupon he kissed ground before gharib and wished him honour and length of days
quoth gharib what is thine errand and quoth saba al kifar i am an envoy from the lord of the city of al jazirah al damigh brother of king kundamir lord of the city of cufa and the land of irak when gharib heard his father's name
the tears railed from his eyes in rills and he looked at the messenger and said what is thy name and he replied my name is saba al kifar said gharib return to thy lord and tell him that the commander of this host is called gharib
son of kundamir king of cufa whom his son ajib slew and he is come to take blood revenge for his sire on ajib the perfidious hound so saba al kifar returned to the city
what is going on there o saba al kifar he replied o my master the leader of yon host is thy nephew thy brother's son and told him all the king deemed himself in a dream and asked the messenger
o saba al kifar is this thou tellest me true and the desert lion answered
and all rode out to the camp whence gharib came forth and met him and they embraced and saluted each other after which gharib carried him to his tents and they sat down on beds of estate
but could not avail against the dog thy brother for that his troops are many and my troops are few replied gharib o uncle here am i come to avenge my sire and blot out our shame and rid the realm of ajib
o son of my brother thou hast two blood wreaks to take that of thy father and that of thy mother asked gharib and what aileth my mother
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say
so he led in the messenger who kissing the ground before the king gave him the letter and jamak opened it and read its contents as follows praise be to allah lord of the three worlds lord of all things
who giveth to all creatures their daily bread and who over all things is omnipotent these from gharib son of king kundamir lord of irak and cufa to jamak immediately this letter reacheth thee
let not thy reply be other than to break thine idols and confess the unity of the all knowing king creator of light and darkness creator of all things the all powerful and except thou do as i bid thee
i will make this day the blackest of thy days peace be on those who follow in the way of salvation fearing the issues of fornication and obey the hest of the most high king lord of this world and the next him who saith to a thing be
and it becometh now when jamak read this letter his eyes paled and his colour failed and he cried out to the messenger go to thy lord and say to him to morrow at daybreak there shall be fight and conflict and it shall appear who is the conquering hero
so he returned and told gharib who bade his men make ready for battle
and his troops poured forth like the surging sea and passed the night with intention of slaughter as soon as dawned the day
and they filled the whole earthly plain and the champions to come out were fain now the first who sallied forth a championing to the field was the ghul of the mountain bearing on shoulder a terrible tree and he cried out between the two hosts saying
i am sa'adan the ghul who is for fighting who is for jousting let no sluggard come forth to me nor weakling and he called out to his sons saying woe to you bring me fuel and fire for i am an hungered
so they cried upon their slaves who brought firewood and kindled a fire in the heart of the plain
and drove at sa'adan the ghul saying woe to thee o sa'adan when the giant heard this he waxed furious beyond measure and raising his tree club aimed at the infidel a blow that hummed through the air the amalekite met the stroke with his mace
but the tree beat down his guard and descending with its own weight together with the weight of the mace upon his head beat in his brain pan and he fell like a long stemmed palm tree thereupon sa'adan cried to his slaves saying
and turned to fly making for the town but gharib cried out to his troops saying up and after the runaways so the persians and the arabs crave after the king of babel and his host and caused sword to smite them till they slew of them twenty thousand or more
then the fugitives crowded together in the city gate and they killed of them much people and they could not avail to shut the gate so the arabs and the persians entered with them fighting and sa'adan snatching a mace from one of the slain
wielded it in the enemy's face and gained the city race course thence he fought his way through the foe and broke into the king's palace where he met with jamak and so smote him with the mace that he toppled senseless to the ground
then he fell upon those who were in the palace and pounded them into pieces till all that were left cried out quarter quarter and sa'adan said to them pinion your king and shahrazad saw the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say
the party at rudham park had hardly been a success nor was it much improved in wit or gaiety when missus montacute jones lord giblet and jack de baron had gone away
had come in their places this black influx as lord brotherton called it had all been due to consideration for his lordship mister de baron thought that his guest would like to see at any rate one of his own family
as to mister groschut he was the dean's bitterest enemy and would therefore it was thought be welcome the bishop had been asked as mister de baron was one who found it expedient to make sacrifices to respectability
but as was well known the bishop never went anywhere except to clerical houses mister groschut who was a younger man knew that it behoved him to be all things to all men and that he could not be efficacious among sinners unless he would allow himself to be seen in their paths
care was of course taken that lady alice should find herself alone with her brother it was probably expected that the marquis would be regarded as less of an ogre in the country if it were known that he had had communication with one of the family without quarrelling with her
so you're come here he said i didn't know that people so pious would enter de baron's doors mister de baron is a very old friend of the canon's i hope he isn't very wicked and i'm afraid we are not very pious if you don't object of course i don't
so they've all gone back to the old house mamma is there and george he asked in a sharp tone and george at present george is i think the biggest fool i ever came across in my life
he is so cowed by that man whose daughter he has married that he doesn't know how to call his soul his own i don't think that brotherton he never goes to the deanery to stay there then what makes him quarrel with me he ought to know which side his bread is buttered
if he thinks his bread is buttered on that side let him stick to that side and say so i will regard none of my family as on friendly terms with me who associate with the dean of brotherton or his daughter after what took place up in london
lady alice felt this to be a distinct threat to herself but she allowed it to pass by without notice she was quite sure that the canon would not quarrel with the dean out of deference to his brother in law
the fact is they should all have gone away as i told them and especially when george had married the girl and got her money it don't make much difference to me but it will make a deal to him how is popenjoy brotherton asked lady alice anxious to change the conversation
i don't know anything about him what he has gone back to italy with his mother how can i tell ask the dean i don't doubt that he knows all about him he has people following them about and watching every mouthful they eat
i think he has given all that up not he he'll have to unless he means to spend more money than i think he has got george is quite satisfied about popenjoy now said lady alice i fancy george didn't like the expense
but he began it and i'll never forgive him i fancy it was he and sarah between them
why couldn't they wait is it so bad as that brotherton they tell me he is not a young hercules oh yes you can give my love to my mother tell her that if i don't see her it is all george's fault i am not going to the house while he's there
to the canon he hardly spoke a word nor was the canon very anxious to talk to him but it became known throughout the country that the marquis had met his sister at rudham park and the general effect was supposed to be good
i shall go back to morrow de baron he said to his host that same afternoon this was the day on which jack had gone to brotherton we shall be sorry to lose you i'm afraid it has been rather dull not more dull than usual
everything is dull after a certain time of life unless a man has made some fixed line for himself
some men play cards but i didn't begin early enough to win money and i don't like losing it the sort of things that a man does care for die away from him and of course it becomes dull i wonder you don't have a few horses in training i hate horses and i hate being cheated
they don't cheat me said mister de baron ah very likely they would me i think i made a mistake de baron in not staying at home and looking after the property it's not too late now yes it is i could not do it
i could not remember the tenants names and i don't care about game i can't throw myself into a litter of young foxes or get into a fury of passion about pheasants eggs it's all beastly nonsense but if a fellow could only bring himself to care about it that wouldn't matter
i don't care about anything you read no i don't i pretend to read a little if they had left me alone i think i should have had myself bled to death in a warm bath but i won't now that man's daughter shan't be lady brotherton if i can help it
he's the deputy bishop of the diocese but why have the bishop himself unless he happen to be a friend does your daughter like her marriage i hope so she does not complain he's an awful ass and always was
i remember when you used always to finish up your books by making him bet as you pleased he always won and now you've made him marry your daughter perhaps he has won there i like her
if my wife would die and he would die we might get up another match and cut out lord george after all this speculation was too deep even for mister de baron who laughed and shuffled himself about and got out of the room wouldn't you have liked to be a marchioness he said some hours afterwards to missus houghton
and had become accustomed to hear odd things from him he liked her because he could say what he pleased to her and she would laugh and listen and show no offence but this last question was very odd
but in that case had she married lord george she could only have been made a marchioness by his own death by that and by the death of the little popenjoy of whom she had heard so much
i don't mean that you should have murdered anybody suppose you had married me you never asked me my lord you were only eight or nine years old when i saw you last isn't it a pity you didn't get yourself engaged to me then such things have been done
if the coast were clear i wonder whether you'd take me now the coast isn't clear lord brotherton no by george i wish it were and so do you too if you'd dare to say so you think i should be sure to take you
i'm not so old by ten years as houghton your age would not be the stumbling block what then i didn't say there would be any i don't say that there would not it's a kind of thing that a woman doesn't think of it's just the kind of thing that women do think of
then they don't talk about it lord brotherton your brother you know did want me to marry him what george before houghton certainly before i had thought of mister houghton why the deuce did you refuse him
why did you let him take that little he did not fill up the blank but missus houghton quite understood that she was to suppose everything that was bad i never heard of this before it wasn't for me to tell you what an ass you were perhaps so
what should we have lived upon papa would not have given us an income i could but you wouldn't you didn't know me then
and so george wanted to marry you was he very much in love i was bound to suppose so my lord and you didn't care for him i didn't say that but i certainly did not care to set up housekeeping without a house or without the money to get one
was i wrong i suppose a fellow ought to have money when he wants to marry
won't it be odd if after all you should be marchioness of brotherton some day after that won't you give me a kiss before you say good night i would have done if you had been my brother in law or perhaps if the people were not all moving about in the next room
good night marquis good night perhaps you'll regret some day that you haven't done what i asked i might regret it more if i did then she took herself off enquiring in her own mind whether it might still be possible that she should ever preside in the drawing room at manor cross
had he not been very much in love with her surely he would not have talked to her like that i think i'll say good bye to you de baron the marquis said to his host that night you won't be going early no i never do anything early
but i don't like a fuss just as i am going i'll get down and drive away to catch some train my man will manage it all you go to london i shall be in italy within a week i hate italy but i think i hate england worse
what a hurry i should be in to die let us know how popenjoy is you'll be sure to know whether he is dead or alive there's nothing else to tell i never write letters except to knox and very few to him good night
when the marquis was in his room his courier or the man so called came to undress him have you heard anything to day he asked in italian the man said that he had heard a letter had reached him that afternoon from london
the letter had declared that little popenjoy was sinking that will do bonni he said i will get into bed by myself
leaving the unsuspecting heyward and his confiding companions to penetrate still deeper into a forest that contained such treacherous inmates we must use an author's privilege
and shift the scene a few miles to the westward of the place where we have last seen them on that day two men were lingering on the banks of a small but rapid stream within an hour's journey of the encampment of webb
like those who awaited the appearance of an absent person or the approach of some expected event the vast canopy of woods spread itself to the margin of the river overhanging the water
and shadowing its dark current with a deeper hue the rays of the sun were beginning to grow less fierce and the intense heat of the day was lessened as the cooler vapors of the springs and fountains rose above their leafy beds
and rested in the atmosphere still that breathing silence which marks the drowsy sultriness of an american landscape in july pervaded the secluded spot interrupted only by the low voices of the men
the occasional and lazy tap of a woodpecker the discordant cry of some gaudy jay
while one of these loiterers showed the red skin and wild accouterments of a native of the woods the other exhibited through the mask of his rude and nearly savage equipments
the brighter though sun burned and long faced complexion of one who might claim descent from a european parentage
his body which was nearly naked presented a terrific emblem of death drawn in intermingled colors of white and black
was without ornament of any kind with the exception of a solitary eagle's plume that crossed his crown and depended over the left shoulder a tomahawk and scalping knife of english manufacture were in his girdle
lay carelessly across his bare and sinewy knee
but every nerve and muscle appeared strung and indurated by unremitted exposure and toil he wore a hunting shirt of forest green fringed with faded yellow and a summer cap of skins which had been shorn of their fur
he also bore a knife in a girdle of wampum like that which confined the scanty garments of the indian but no tomahawk his moccasins were ornamented after the gay fashion of the natives
and which were gartered above the knees with the sinews of a deer a pouch and horn completed his personal accouterments though a rifle of great length which the theory of the more ingenious whites had taught them was the most dangerous of all firearms
leaned against a neighboring sapling the eye of the hunter or scout whichever he might be was small quick keen and restless roving while he spoke on every side of him as if in quest of game
endeavoring at the same time
your fathers came from the setting sun crossed the big river fought the people of the country and took the land
for a moment he appeared to be conscious of having the worst of the argument then rallying again
i am no scholar and i care not who knows it but judging from what i have seen at deer chases and squirrel hunts of the sparks below
i should think a rifle in the hands of their grandfathers was not so dangerous as a hickory bow and a good flint head might be if drawn with indian judgment and sent by an indian eye
you have the story told by your fathers returned the other coldly waving his hand what say your old men
do they tell the young warriors that the pale faces met the red men painted for war and armed with the stone hatchet and wooden gun i am not a prejudiced man nor one who vaunts himself on his natural privileges
though the worst enemy i have on earth and he is an iroquois daren't deny that i am genuine white the scout replied surveying with secret satisfaction the faded color of his bony and sinewy hand
and i am willing to own that my people have many ways of which as an honest man i can't approve it is one of their customs to write in books what they have done and seen instead of telling them in their villages
where the lie can be given to the face of a cowardly boaster
in consequence of this bad fashion a man who is too conscientious to misspend his days among the women in learning the names of black marks may never hear of the deeds of his fathers
nor feel a pride in striving to outdo them for myself i conclude the bumppos could shoot for i have a natural turn with a rifle which must have been handed down from generation to generation
as our holy commandments tell us all good and evil gifts are bestowed though i should be loath to answer for other people in such a matter but every story has its two sides
so i ask you chingachgook what passed according to the traditions of the red men when our fathers first met a silence of a minute succeeded during which the indian sat mute
listen hawkeye and your ear shall drink no lie tis what my fathers have said and what the mohicans have done he hesitated a single instant
and bending a cautious glance toward his companion he continued in a manner that was divided between interrogation and assertion
does not this stream at our feet run toward the summer until its waters grow salt and the current flows upward
for i have been there and have seen them though why water which is so sweet in the shade should become bitter in the sun is an alteration for which i have never been able to account
and the current demanded the indian who expected his reply with that sort of interest that a man feels in the confirmation of testimony at which he marvels even while he respects it
the fathers of chingachgook have not lied the holy bible is not more true and that is the truest thing in nature they call this up stream current the tide which is a thing soon explained and clear enough
when there is higher water in the sea than in the river
the waters in the woods and on the great lakes run downward until they lie like my hand said the indian stretching the limb horizontally before him and then they run no more
no honest man will deny it said the scout a little nettled at the implied distrust of his explanation of the mystery of the tides and i grant that it is true on the small scale and where the land is level
but everything depends on what scale you look at things now on the small scale the arth is level but on the large scale it is round
in this manner pools and ponds and even the great fresh water lakes may be stagnant as you and i both know they are having seen them
but when you come to spread water over a great tract like the sea where the earth is round how in reason can the water be quiet
the necessary expense of preparing a work of such magnitude for the press must have been a considerable deduction from the price stipulated to be paid for the copy right
brought out his preceptor one of the most valuable books for the improvement of young minds that has appeared in any language and to this meritorious work johnson furnished the preface containing a general sketch of the book
with a short and perspicuous recommendation of each article as also the vision of theodore the hermit found in his cell
which he could when he pleased embody and render permanent without much labour some of them however he observed were too gross for imitation the profits of a single poem however excellent
appear to have been very small in the last reign compared with what a publication of the same size has since been known to yield i have mentioned upon johnson's own authority
than with the profound reflection of
he wrote his london which is lively and easy when he became more retired he gave us his vanity of human wishes
that happiness may be attained
where then shall hope and fear their objects find shall dull suspense corrupt the stagnant mind
must helpless man in ignorance sedate roll darkling down the torrent of his fate shall no dislike alarm no wishes rise
the secret ambush of a specious pray'r implore his aid in his decisions rest
yet when the sense of sacred presence fires and strong devotion to the skies aspires pour forth thy fervours for a healthful mind obedient passions and a will resign'd
for patience sovereign o'er transmuted ill for faith which panting for a happier seat counts death kind nature's signal for retreat
these goods for man the laws of heaven ordain these goods he grants
garrick applied to the reverend doctor taylor to interpose
the soil of the world he was withering away out of it ere long symptoms appeared which no one could well mistake and lingard himself knew that he was dying
wingfold had dreaded that his discovery of the fact might reveal
and that when he found it denied him he would fall into despair
and his bearing left no ground for anxiety a gleam of gladness from below the horizon of his spirit shot up like the aurora of a heavenly morning over the sky of his countenance
he glanced at his friend smiled and said it has killed me too and that is a comfort the curate only looked his reply they say resumed leopold after a while
i had not the slightest idea they were fooling me i know it now but what can i do i am so weak i should only die on the way he tried to rise but fell back in the chair
oh he sighed isn't it good of god to let me die who knows what he may do for me on the other side
mitigating the harshness of his judgment of himself wingfold's business was to start him well in the world whither he was going
that her darling must die yet was there no small consolation mingled with the shock fear vanished and love returned with grief in twofold strength she flew to him and she
who had been so self contained so composed so unsubmissive to any sway of feeling broke into such a storm of passionate affection that the vexilla mortis answered from his bosom
flaunting themselves in crimson before her eyes in vain for leopold's sake the curate had sought to quiet her she had resented his interference
but this result of her impetuosity speedily brought her to her senses and set her to subdue herself the same evening leopold insisted on dictating to the curate his confession
which done he signed it making him and helen attest the signature this document wingfold took charge of promising to make the right use of it whatever he should on reflection conclude that to be
seemed at ease his sufferings from cough and weakness and fever now augmented with greater rapidity but it was plain from the kind of light in his eye
and the far look which was not yet retrospective that hope and expectation were high in him he had his times of gloom when the dragon of the past crept out of its cave and tore him afresh
but the prospect of coming deliverance strengthened him do you really think he said once to the curate that i shall ever see emmeline again truly i hope so
and could argue upon the point but i think the best way when doubt comes as to anything you would like to be true is just to hide yourself in god
as the child would hide from the dark in the folds of his mother's mantle but aunt would say if she knew that dying as she did emmeline could not be saved
may have to be a good deal astonished
returned the curate but never mind what people say
his father to be a faithful creator needs a might of truth and loving kindness of which our narrow hearts can ill conceive ask much of god my boy
and be very humble and very hoping
leopold would look his thanks and hold his peace i wish it was over he said once so do i returned the curate but be of good courage i think nothing will be given you to bear
you will not be able to bear
i don't think i shall ever complain that would be to take myself out of his hands and i have no hope anywhere else are you any surer about him sir than you used to be
i would not be out of a doubt or difficulty an hour sooner than he would take me
and insist on their becoming something worth being but that they were immortal notwithstanding that death was only the passage of another birth into a condition of enlarged capacity
for such bliss as they enjoyed here but more exalted in degree perhaps in kind and altogether preferable i know one to whom the thought would not have been a new one
said polwarth have you not come upon a passage in my brother's manuscript involving the very idea not yet i read very slowly
i wish we had had the book here
the gate keeper rose and went to his cabinet the wish is easily gratified he said i made a copy of it partly for security partly that i might thoroughly enter into my brother's thoughts
he was turning over the leaves as he spoke the passage he went on besides for its own worth is precious to me as showing how
ah here it is about this time i had another strange vision whether in the body or out of the body i cannot tell i thought as oftener than once before
and it seemed to me that i did die and awake to the consciousness of a blessed freedom from the coarser and more ponderous outer dress
being now clad only in what had been up to this time an inner garment
and the coolness was that of perfect well being of the health that cometh after fever when a sound sleep hath divided it away and built a rampart between
the coolness of undoubted truth and of love that has surmounted passion and is tenfold love he goes on to give further and fuller account of his sensations
ventures even on the anticipated futility of an attempt to convey a notion of one of his new senses i leave all that for your own reading mister wingfold but where was i
that i could not tell i am here
yet gracious to describe which i find no words in the halting tongues of earth and i know something of them all most of them well
i see them coarse and crude as a boy's first attempt at landscape yet
first filled my eyes with heavenly delight the inhabitants were many but nowhere were they crowded there was room in abundance and wild places
i am only picking up a sentence here and there as i hasten to the particular point said polwarth looking down the page but the flowers and the birds and above all
the beauty of the people and they dwelt in harmony yet on their foreheads lay as it seemed a faint mist or
and i prayed him tell me sir whither shall i go to find god and say unto him lo here i am and he answered and said to me sir
but dimly know what thou meanest say further and i stood for an hour
then said i all my long life on the world whence i came i did look to find god when death should take me but lo now and with that my heart smote me
for in my former life i had oftentimes fallen into unbelief and denied god was this now my punishment that i should never find him and my heart grew cold in my body
then the man answered and said
men did believe in one above them and in them who had wrought them to that they were and was working them to better still but whether it be that we have now gained that better and there is nothing higher
unto which we may look therefore no need of the high one i know not but truly we have long ceased so to believe and have learned that as things are
and cry aloud as i go
and if i find him not with that my soul would have fainted in me had i not spread forth my wings
for the more lovely anything i saw
me to dwell therein the soul of its beauty and all the excellence thereof was but a delusion of my own heart greedy after a phantom perfection no god no love no loveliness
save a ghastly semblance thereof and the more ghastly that it was so like loveliness and yet
for my very being knew in itself that if it would dwell in peace the very atmosphere in which it lived and moved and breathed must be love living love a one divine presence
truth to itself and love to me and to all them that needed love down to the poorest that can but need it and knoweth it not when it cometh i knew that if love
and again i spread wings no longer as it seemed of hope but wings of despair yet mighty and flew and i learned thereafter
that despair is but the hidden side of hope here follow pages of his wanderings in quest of god
as earnestly as into the far and vast watching at the very pores of being and sitting in the gates of the mighty halls of assembly but all in vain
so was i now doomed to be the wanderer of heaven on earth
and through years i also sank and sank and alighted at length upon the place appointed for my habitation that namely wherein i found myself first after death and alighting there
and when i awoke i turned upon my side in the despair of a life that was neither in my own power nor in that of one who was the father of me
never since my death had i seen such and my heart awoke within me
bitter tears that nothing should be true
a shower as from a watering pot falling upon the lily and i looked yet again and i saw the watering pot and the hand that held it and he whose hand held the pot stood by me
and there i fell down upon my face and with my hands i lifted one of his feet and did place it upon my head and then i found voice to cry o master
and therewith the life departed from me and when i came to myself the master sat under the tree and i lay by his side and he had lifted my head upon his knees
and behold the world was jubilant around me for love was love and lord of all the sea roared and the fulness thereof was love and the purple and the gold
and the blue and the green came straight from the hidden red heart of the lord jesus
and kneeled down before him and said o lord
know not now what they do come and i will bring thee to the woman who died for thee in the burning fire and i said o lord leave me not
i would now in my turn right gladly die for her yet would i not look upon that woman again if the love of her would make me love thee one hair the less thou knowest and the lord smiled upon me and said
my love infolds and is the nest of all love i fear not fear thou not either and i arose and followed him and every tree and flower yea every stone and cloud
the gate keeper was silent and so were they all at length rachel rose softly wiping the tears from her eyes and left the room but she found no one in the closet
helen was already hastening across
they made him feel like a rabbit that was too far from its hole he said and he was never tempted to try it again regularly too every day about one o'clock
the gnome like form of the gate keeper would issue from the little door in the park fence and come marching across the grass towards leopold's chair which was set near the small clump of trees already mentioned
not talking much to the invalid
sometimes he would take refuge from the heat which the indian never felt too great amongst the trees and there would generally be thinking out what he wanted to say to his people the next sunday
one thing he found strange and could not satisfy himself concerning namely that although his mind was so much occupied
but the thing that did carry him through
his faith in god was all the time growing
through what seemed at the time only a succession of interruptions
as satisfaction with apparent achievement that ever sounds a halt but wingfold's experience was that no sooner
did he set his foot on the lowest hillock of self congratulation than some fresh difficulty came that threw him prostrate and he rose again only in the strength of the necessity
that his faith must be an absolute one claiming from god everything the love of a perfect father could give or the needs he had created in his child could desire
that he must not look to himself first for help or imagine that the divine was only the supplement to the weakness and failure of the human that the highest effort of the human
was to lay hold of the divine he learned that he could keep no simplest law in its loveliness until he was possessed of the same spirit whence that law sprung
that he could not love helen aright simply perfectly unselfishly except through the presence of the originating love that the one thing wherein he might imitate the free creative
that made him strong in the midst of weakness when the son of man in him cried out let this cup pass the son of god in him
he could inhabit trembling and yet be brave
generally came to the meadow to see how the invalid was after he was settled but she seldom staid she was not fond of nursing neither was there any need of her assistance
gently and modestly almost shyly she came up to helen made her a courtesy like a village school girl and said while she glanced at leopold now and then
and he said no i am not exactly praying for him but i am thinking of god and him together the tears rose in leopold's eyes rachel lifted her baby hand
and stroked the dusky long fingered one that lay upon the arm of the chair dear mister lingard she said helen stopped in the middle of an embroidery stitch
do you suffer then he said just look at me she answered with a smile that was very pitiful though she did not mean it for such shut up all my life in this epitome of deformity
but i ain't grumbling that would be a fine thing my house is not so small but god can get into it only you can't think how tired i often am of it
mister wingfold was telling me yesterday that some people fancy saint paul was little and misshapen and that that was his thorn in the flesh i don't think that can be true
something not quite so far off your sister's there mister lingard but i'm ashamed of talking like this it came of wanting to tell you i can't be sorry you are going when i should so dearly like
but when i am gone the world will be the cleaner for it do you know about god the same way your uncle does miss polwarth i hope i do a little
but god knows about us all the same and he don't limit his goodness to us by our knowledge of him it's so wonderful
that is his godness you know we can't be all to any one person
we are all in bits and spots but i fancy it's a sign that we come of god that we don't like it how gladly i would help you mister lingard and i can do nothing for you
i'm afraid your beautiful sister thinks me very forward but she don't know what it is to lie awake all night sometimes think thinking about my beautiful brothers and sisters
that i can't get near to do anything for what an odd creature thought helen to whom her talk conveyed next to nothing but i daresay
i beg your pardon again for talking so much concluded rachel
the most shadowy conception it had been a season of great trouble but the gain had been infinitely greater for now were the bonds of the finite broken he had burst the shell of the mortal
and was of those over whom the second death hath no power the agony of the second birth was past and he was a child again only a child he knew but a child of the kingdom and the world
lay open to him in the boundless free giving of the original thought all things are yours and ye are christ's and christ is god's he understood the words even as he who said them understood them
and as the wise of this world never will understand them until first they become fools that they may be wise at the same time a great sorrow threatened him
from the no less mysterious region of his relations to humanity but if that region and its most inexplicable cares were beyond the rule of the life that dwelt in him then
when it threatened to overwhelm him was unable to uphold him under it this thing also belonged to the god of his being a poor god must he be for men or women
at the thought of never gaining her love he had never yet indeed consciously regarded the winning of her as a possibility but at those times
when he saw her so capable of the noblest submitting her mind to the entrance of the poorest meanest shabbiest theories of life and taking for her guide
when he saw her adopting a system of things whose influence would shrivel up instead of developing her faculties crush her imagination with such a mountain weight as was never piled above titan
and god loves her better than ever i could love her if she should set out with her blind guide it will be but a first day's journey she will go through marshy places and dry sands
the blue mountains that shelter the high vales of sweetness and peace and with this he not only tried to comfort himself but succeeded i do not say to contentment
but to quiet contentment which whatever its immediate shape to be contentment at all must be the will of god lay beyond alas that men cannot believe there is such a thing as
and perfect will of god to those that do believe it
the bishop had heard nothing of the matter and if anything had reached the rector he had not spoken not one of the congregation not even missus ramshorn had hinted to him that he ought to resign
it had been left altogether with himself and now he would tell them the decision to which the thought he had taken had conducted him
enough to show us how he showed the congregation the state of his mind in reference to the grand question and the position he took in relation to his hearers
it is time my hearers he said because it is now possible to bring to a close that uncertainty with regard to the continuance of our relation to each other
compelled by mental circumstance to occasion i then forced myself for very dread of the honesty of an all knowing god to break through every convention of the church and the pulpit
and speak to you of my most private affairs i told you that i was sure of not one of those things concerning which it is taken for granted that a clergyman must be satisfied
or proffered instruction you my hearers have granted me the leisure of which i stood in need meantime i have endeavoured to show you the best i saw while yet i dared not say
i was sure of anything i have thus kept you those at least who cared to follow my path acquainted with my mental history and now i come to tell you the practical result at which i have arrived
i say that i will not forsake my curacy still less my right and duty to teach whatever i seem to know i must not therein convey the impression that i have attained that conviction
and assurance the discovery of the absence of which was the cause of the whole uncertain proceeding
i have beheld such grandeur to me apparently altogether beyond the reach of human invention such a radiation of divine loveliness and truth such hope for man
such a deepening of moral strength such an enhancement of ideal such an increase of faith hope and charity towards all men that i now declare with the consent of my whole man
i cast in my lot with the servants of the crucified i am content even to share their delusion if delusion it be
i will stand or fall with the story of my lord
can set a man free from in burrowing slavery and if any man yet say that because of my lack of absolute assurance i have no right to the sacred post let him i answer
who has been assailed by such doubts as mine and from the citadel of his faith sees no more one lingering shadow of a foe let him cast at me the first stone vain challenge
for such a one will never cast a stone at man or woman but let not him whose belief is but the absence of doubt who has never loved enough that which he thinks he believes to have felt a single fear lest it should not be true
let not that man i say
or cloven rock from the mount of the law for either
i have for the last time spoken of myself in this place ye have borne with me in my trials and i thank you those who have not only borne but suffered and do now rejoice with me
i thank tenfold i have done save for one word to the christians of this congregation
they are as they were it is the christians who are to blame i do not mean those who are called christians but those who call and count themselves christians i tell you and i speak to each one of whom it is true
that you hold and present such a withered starved miserable death's head idea of christianity that you are yourselves such poverty stricken believers if believers you are at all
and rides not forth on the white horse conquering and to conquer you dull its lustre in the eyes of men you deform its fair proportions
yet call yourselves by its name you are not the salt of the earth but a salt that has lost its savour for ye seek all things else first and to that seeking the kingdom of god and his righteousness
shall never be added until you repent and believe afresh believe in a nobler christ namely the christ revealed by himself and not the muffled form of something vaguely human
which the false interpretations of men have substituted for him you will be as i repeat you are the main reason why faith is so scanty in the earth and the enemy comes in like a flood
for the sake of the progress of the truth and that into nobler minds than yours it were better you joined the ranks of the enemy and declared what i fear with many of you is the fact that you believe not at all
but whether in some sense you believe or not the fact remains that while you are not of those christians who obey the word of the master doing the things he says to them you are of those christians
if you will be called by the name
from the merrimack to the mississippi the years between eighteen thirty five and eighteen forty five which nearly cover the time i lived at lowell seem to me as i look back at them singularly interesting years
we were only beginning to get accustomed to steamboats and railroads to travel by either was scarcely less an adventure to us younger ones than going up in a balloon phrenology was much talked about and numerous professors of it came around lecturing and examining heads
and making charts of cranial bumps this was profitable business to them for a while as almost everybody who invested in a character received a good one while many very commonplace people were flattered into the belief that they were geniuses or might be if they chose
mesmerism followed close upon phrenology and this too had its lecturers who entertained the stronger portion of their audiences by showing them how easily the weaker ones could be brought under an uncanny influence
the most widespread delusion of the time was millerism a great many persons and yet not so many that i knew even one of them believed that the end of the world was coming in the year eighteen forty two though the date was postponed from year to year as the prophesy failed of fulfillment
the idea in itself was almost too serious to be jested about and yet its advocates made it so literal a matter that it did look very ridiculous to unbelievers an irreverent little workmate of mine in the spinning room made a string of jingling couplets about it like this
oh dear oh dear what shall we do in eighteen hundred and forty two oh dear oh dear where shall we be in eighteen hundred and forty three oh dear oh dear we shall be no more in eighteen hundred and forty four
oh dear oh dear we sha'n't be alive in eighteen hundred and forty five
in some way for every one of us i said to myself that i could not have made up those rhymes nevertheless we all laughed at them together a comet appeared at about the time of the miller excitement and also a very unusual illumination of sky and earth by the aurora borealis
this latter occurred in midwinter the whole heavens were of a deep rose color almost crimson reddest at the zenith and paling as it radiated towards the horizon the snow was fresh on the ground and that too was of a brilliant red
cold as it was windows were thrown up all around us for people to look out at the wonderful sight i was gazing with the rest and listening to exclamations of wonder from surrounding unseen beholders when somebody shouted from far down the opposite block of buildings with startling effect
you can't stand the fire in that great day it was the refrain of a millerite hymn the millerites believed that these signs in the sky were omens of the approaching catastrophe
and assemble somewhere to wait for the expected hour when daguerreotypes were first made when we heard that the sun was going to take everybody's portrait it seemed almost too great a marvel to be believed
these were the opening lines oh what if thus our evil deeds are mirrored on the sky and every line of our wild lives daguerreotyped on high
the photograph was still an undeveloped mystery things that looked miraculous then are commonplace now it almost seems as if the children of to day could not have so good a time as we did science has left them so little to wonder about
our attitude the attitude of the time was that of children climbing their dooryard fence to watch an approaching show and to conjecture what more remarkable spectacle could be following behind
new england had kept to the quiet old fashioned ways of living for the first fifty years of the republic now all was expectancy changes were coming things were going to happen nobody could guess what
things have happened and changes have come the new england that has grown up with the last fifty years is not at all the new england that our fathers knew we speak of having been reared under puritanic influences
but the traditionary sternness of these was much modified even in the childhood of the generation to which i belong
a nestorian bishop walking through the factory yard in his oriental robes with more than a child's wonder on his face at the stir and rush of everything he came from boston by railroad and was present at the wedding at the clergyman's house where he visited the rapidity of the simple congregational service
what marry on railroad too he asked
we did not leave work even to gaze at distinguished strangers so i missed seeing him
conveying to the people the results of study and thought through the best minds at lowell it was more patronized by the mill people than any mere entertainment we had john quincy adams
edward everett john pierpont and ralph waldo emerson among our lecturers with numerous distinguished clergymen of the day daniel webster was once in the city trying a law case some of my girl friends went to the court room and had a glimpse of his face
but i just missed seeing him sometimes an englishman who was studying our national institutions would call and have a friendly talk with us at work sometimes it was a traveler from the south who was interested in some way
i remember one an editor and author from georgia who visited our improvement circle and who sent some of us offering contributors copies of his book after he had returned home
a school teacher who came to see for herself how the lowell girls lived of whom she had heard so much a deep quiet friendship grew up between us two i wrote some verses for her when we parted and she sent me one cordial charmingly written letter
in a few weeks i answered it but the response was from another person a near relative she was dead
i often recall her features and the tone of her voice it was as if a beautiful spirit from an invisible world had slipped in among us and quickly gone back again
it was an event to me and to my immediate friends among the mill girls when the poet whittier came to lowell to stay awhile
but one evening when we assembled at the improvement circle he was there the offering editor miss harriet farley had lived in the same town with him and they were old acquaintances it was a warm summer evening
i recall the circumstance that a number of us wore white dresses also that i shrank back into myself and felt much abashed when some verses of mine were read by the editor with others so much better however that mine received little attention
i felt relieved for i was not fond of having my productions spoken of for good or ill he commended quite highly a poem by another member of the circle on pentucket the indian name of his native place haverhill my subject was sabbath bells
as the friends do not believe in steeple houses i was at liberty to imagine that it was my theme and not my verses that failed to interest him various other papers were read stories sketches et cetera and after the reading there was a little conversation
when he came and spoke to me i let the friend who had accompanied me do my part of the talking for i was too much overawed by the presence of one whose poetry i had so long admired to say a great deal but from that evening we knew each other as friends and of course
the day has a white mark among memories of my lowell life mister whittier's visit to lowell had some political bearing upon the antislavery cause
our country our own free nation but antislavery sentiments were then regarded by many as traitorous heresies and those who held them did not expect to win popularity if the vote of the mill girls had been taken it would doubtless have been unanimous on the antislavery side
but those were also the days when a woman was not expected to give or even to have an opinion on subjects of public interest occasionally a young girl was attracted to the lowell mills through her own idealization of the life there
as it had been reported to her margaret foley who afterwards became distinguished as a sculptor was one of these she did not remain many months at her occupation which i think was weaving soon changing it for that of teaching and studying art
those who came as she did were usually disappointed instead of an arcadia they found a place of matter of fact toil filled with a company of industrious wide awake girls who were faithfully improving their opportunities
while looking through them into avenues toward profit and usefulness more desirable yet it has always been the way of the steady minded new englander to accept the present situation but to accept it without boundaries taking in also the larger prospects
all the heavens above and the earth beneath towards which it opens the movement of new england girls toward lowell was only an impulse of a larger movement which about that time sent so many people from the eastern states into the west
there was something almost pathetic in the readiness with which this was done by young girls who were longing to fit themselves for teachers but had not the means many a girl at lowell was working to send her brother to college who had far more talent and character than he
but a man could preach and it was not orthodox to think that a woman could and in her devotion to him and her zeal for the spread of christian truth she was hardly conscious of her own sacrifice
yet our ministers appreciated the intelligence and piety of their feminine parishioners an agent who came from the west for school teachers was told by our own pastor that five hundred could easily be furnished from among lowell mill girls
it was more airy and fewer girls were in the room
it had to be watched in a dozen directions every minute and even then it was always getting itself and me into trouble i felt as if the half live creature with its great groaning joints and whizzing fan was aware of my incapacity to manage it and had a fiendish spite against me
i contracted an unconquerable dislike to it indeed i had never liked and never could learn to like any kind of machinery and this machine finally conquered me it was humiliating but i had to acknowledge that there were some things i could not do
and i retired from the field vanquished the two things i had enjoyed in this room were that my sister was with me and that our windows looked toward the west when the work was running smoothly we looked out together and quoted to each other all the sunset poetry we could remember
our tastes did not quite agree her favorite description of the clouds was from pollok they seemed like chariots of saints by fiery coursers drawn as brightly hued as if the glorious bushy golden locks of thousand cherubim had been shorn off
and on the temples hung of morn and even i liked better a translation from the german beginning methinks it were no pain to die on such an eve while such a sky o'ercanopies the west
though the especial verse that i contrasted with hers was there's peace and welcome in yon sea of endless blue tranquillity those clouds are living things i trace their veins of liquid gold and see them silently unfold their soft and fleecy wings
then she would tell me that my nature inclined to quietness and harmony while hers asked for motion and splendor i wondered whether it really were so
but that huge creaking framework beside us would continually intrude upon our meditations and break up our discussions and silence all poetry for us with its dull prose emilie found more profitable work elsewhere and i found some that was less so
but far more satisfactory as it would give me the openings of leisure which i craved the paymaster asked when i left going where on can earn more money no i answered i am going where i can have more time
time is money but that was not my thought about it time is education i said to myself for that was what i meant it should be to me perhaps i never gave the wage earning element in work its due weight
it always seemed to me that the apostle's idea about worldly possessions was the only sensible one having food and raiment let us be therewith content if i could earn enough to furnish that and have time to study besides
of course we always gave away a little however little we had it seemed to me a
at this time i was receiving two dollars a week besides my board those who were earning much more and were carefully laying it up did not appear to be any happier than i was i never thought that the possession of money would make me feel rich
it often does seem to have an opposite effect but then
it is something to have been spared the responsibility of taking charge of the lord's silver and gold let us be thankful for what we have not as well as for what we have
freedom to live one's life truly is surely more desirable than any earthly acquisition or possession and at my new work i had hours of freedom every day i never went back again to the bondage of machinery and a working day thirteen hours long
the daughter of one of our neighbors who also went to the same church with us told me of a vacant place in the cloth room where she was which i gladly secured this was a low brick building next the counting room and a little apart from the mills
where the cloth was folded stamped and baled for the market there were only half a dozen girls of us who measured the cloth and kept an account of the pieces baled and their length in yards
the only machinery in the room was a hydraulic arrangement for pressing the cloth into bales managed by two or three men one of whom was quite a poet and a fine singer also his hymns were frequently in request on public occasions
he lent me the first volume of whittier's poems that i ever saw it was a small book containing mostly antislavery pieces the yankee girl was one of them fully to appreciate the spirit of which it is necessary to have been a working girl in slave labor times
new england womanhood crowned whittier as her laureate from the day of his heroine's spirited response to the slaveholder o could ye have seen her that pride of our girls arise and cast back the dark wealth of her curls
with a scorn in her eye that the gazer could feel and a glance like the sunshine that flashes on steel go back haughty southron go back for thy gold is red with the blood of the hearts thou hast sold
there was in this volume another poem which is not in any of the later editions the impression of which as it remains to me in broken snatches is very beautiful it began with the lines bind up thy tresses thou beautiful one
of brown in the shadow and gold in the sun it was a refreshment and an inspiration to look into this book between my long rows of figures and read such poems as the angel of patience follen
and that wonderfully rendered hymn from lamartine that used to whisper itself through me after i had read it like the echo of a spirit's voice
when the breath divine is flowing zephyr like o'er all things going and as the touch of viewless fingers softly on my soul it lingers open to a breath the lightest conscious of a touch the slightest
then o father thou alone from the shadow of thy throne to the sighing of my breast and its rapture answerest i grew so familiar with this volume that i felt acquainted with the poet long before i met him it remained in my desk drawer for months
i thought it belonged to my poetic friend the baler of cloth but one day he informed me that it was a borrowed book he thought however he should claim it for his own now that he had kept it so long
one day towards the last of my stay at lowell i never changed my work room again this same friendly fellow toiler handed me a poem to read which some one had sent in to us from the counting room with the penciled comment singularly beautiful
it was poe's raven which had just made its first appearance in some magazine it seemed like an apparition in literature indeed the sensation it created among the staid measured lyrics of that day
was very noticeable poe came to lowell to live awhile but it was after i had gone away our national poetry was at this time just beginning to be well known and appreciated
bryant had published two volumes and every school child was familiar with his death of the flowers and god's first temples some one lent me the voices of the night the only collection of longfellow's verse then issued i think
the footsteps of angels glided at once into my memory and took possession of a permanent place there with its tender melody the last leaf and old ironsides were favorites with everybody who read poetry at all
but i do not think we lowell girls had a volume of doctor holmes's poems at that time the lady's book and graham's magazine were then the popular periodicals and the mill girls took them i remember that the nuggets
it was the first humorous book as well as the first history that i ever cared about and i was pleased enough for i was a little girl when my fondness for it began
we were allowed to have books in the cloth room the absence of machinery permitted that privilege our superintendent who was a man of culture and a christian gentleman of the puritan school
one day it was mather's magnalia which i had brought from the public library with a desire to know something of the early history of new england he looked a little surprised at the archaeological turn my mind had taken but his only comment was
a valuable old book that
made him a tower of strength in the church and in the community he kept a silent kindly rigid watch over the corporation life of which he was the head and only those of us who were incidentally admitted to his confidence knew how carefully we were guarded
we had occasional glimpses into his own well ordered home life at social gatherings
and we had our frolics among the heaps of cloth as if we were both children
not as a task but because of her delight in them one of my
when i came back she was a grown up young woman my friend anna who had procured for me the place and work beside her which i liked so much was not at all a bookish person but we had perhaps a better time together than if she had been
she was one who found the happiness of her life in doing kindnesses for others and in helping them bear their burdens family reverses had brought her with her mother and sisters to lowell and this was one strong point of sympathy between my own family and hers
it was indeed a bond of neighborly union between a great many households in the young manufacturing city
a living loving growing spirit can never be old emerson says spring still makes spring in the mind when sixty years are told
the few others who measured cloth with us were nice bright girls and some of them remarkably pretty our work and the room itself were so clean that in summer we could wear fresh muslin dresses sometimes white ones
and we occasionally heard ourselves spoken of as the cloth room aristocracy but that was only in fun most of us had served an apprenticeship in the mills and many of our best friends were still there preferring their work because it brought them more money than we could earn
for myself no amount of money would have been a temptation compared with my precious daytime freedom whole hours of sunshine for reading for walking for studying for writing for anything that i wanted to do
the days were so lovely and so long and yet how fast they slipped away i had not given up my dream of a better education and as i could not go to school i began to study by myself
i had received a pretty thorough drill in the common english branches at the grammar school and at my employment i only needed a little simple arithmetic a few of my friends were studying algebra in an evening class but i had no fancy for mathematics
my first wish was to learn about english literature to go back to its very beginnings it was not then studied even in the higher schools and i knew no one who could give me any assistance in it as a teacher percy's reliques and
chambers cyclopoedia of english literature were in the city library and i used them making extracts from chaucer and spenser to fix their peculiarities in my memory though there was only a taste of them to be had from the cyclopaedia
in a fragmentary way the tempest and midsummer night's dream and king lear i had swallowed among my fairy tales now i discovered that the historical plays notably julius caesar and coriolanus had no less attraction for me though of a different kind
although i did pity the miserable jew
it was pleasure rather than toil
but what i learned remained with me nevertheless with milton i was more familiar than with any other poet and from thirteen years of age to eighteen he was my preference my friend angeline and i another of my cloth room associates
made the paradise lost a language study in an evening class under one of the grammar school masters and i never open to the majestic lines high on a throne of royal
or where the gorgeous east with richest hand showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold without seeing angeline's kindly homely face
by merit raised to that bad eminence she too was much older than i
i wonder if she remembers how hard we tried to get beelzebub than whom
i copied passages from jeremy taylor and the old theologians into my note books and have found them useful even recently in preparing compilations dryden and the eighteenth century poets generally did not interest me though i tried to read them from a sense of duty
pope was an exception however aphorisms from the essay on man
some of my choicest extracts were in the first volume of collected poetry i ever owned a little red morocco book called the young man's book of poetry it was given me by one of my sisters when i was about a dozen years old
and indeed no young man could have valued it more than i did it contained selections from standard poets and choice ones from less familiar sources one of the extracts was wordsworth's sunset among the mountains from the excursion
to read which however often always lifted me into an ecstasy that red morocco book was my treasure it traveled with me to the west and i meant to keep it as long as i lived but alas
who never brought it back i do not know that i have ever quite forgiven her i have wished i could look into it again often and often through the years but perhaps i ought to be grateful to that little girl for teaching me to be careful about returning borrowed books myself
only a lover of them can appreciate the loss of one which has been a possession from childhood young and cowper were considered religious reading and as such i had always known something of them the songs of burns were in the air
through him i best learned to know poetry as song i think that i heard the cotter's saturday night and a man's a man for a that more frequently quoted than any other poems familiar to my girlhood
some of my work folk acquaintances were regular subscribers to blackwood's magazine and the westminster and edinburgh reviews and they lent them to me these and macaulay's essays were a great help and delight
i had also the reading of the bibliotheca sacra and the new englander and sometimes of the north american review by the time i had come down to wordsworth and coleridge in my readings of english poetry
i was enjoying it all so much that i could not any longer call it study a gift from a friend of griswold's poets and poetry of england gave me my first knowledge of tennyson it was a great experience to read locksley hall
for the first time while it was yet a new poem and while one's own young life was stirred by the prophetic spirit of the age that gave it birth
i had a friend about my own age and between us there was something very much like what is called a school girl friendship a kind of intimacy supposed to be superficial but often as deep and permanent as it is pleasant
we exchanged confidences laughed and cried together read wrote walked visited and studied together her dress always had an airy touch which i admired although i was rather indifferent as to what i wore myself but she would endeavor to fix me up tastefully
while i would help her to put her compositions for the offering into proper style she had not begun to go to school at two years old
when a child i should have thought it almost as much of a disgrace to spell a word wrong
but she knew her deficiencies and earned money enough to leave her work and attend a day school part of the year
a native professor had formed a class among young women connected with the mills and we joined it
a factory boarding house in a neat little parlor which contained a piano the professor was a music teacher also
he sang the erl king in his own tongue admirably we went through follen's german grammar and reader what a choice collection of extracts that reader was we conquered the difficult gutturals like those in the numeral acht und achtzig
the test of our pronouncing abilities so completely that the professor told us a native really would understand us at his request i put some little german songs into english which he published as sheet music with my name
the professor had his own distinctive name for each of his pupils eliza was naivete from her artless manners and me he called etheria probably on account of my star gazing and verse writing habits certainly there was never anything ethereal in my visible presence
and eliza and i joined that also the most i recall about that is the delightful flower hunting rambles we took together
and that was the opening to us of another door towards the beautiful
and my sister emilie and myself were among his pupils we came to regard wayland's moral science our text book
hero worship brought us a startling and keen enjoyment it was lent me by a dartmouth college student the brother of one of my room mates soon after it was first published in this country
my room mate the student's sister was the possessor of an electrifying new poem festus that we sat up nights to read it does not seem as if it could be more than forty years since sarah and i looked up into each other's face from the page as the lamplight grew dim and said
quoting from the poem who can mistake great thoughts she gave me the volume afterwards when we went west together
the fascination of festus was that of wonder doubt and dissent with great outbursts of an overmastering faith sweeping over our minds as we read some of our friends thought it not quite safe reading but we remember it as one of the inspirations of our workaday youth
we read books also that bore directly upon the condition of humanity in our time the glory and shame of england was one of them and it stirred us with a wonderful and painful interest we followed travelers and explorers layard to nineveh
and stephens to yucatan and we were as fond of good story books as any girls that live in these days of overflowing libraries one book a character picture from history had a wide popularity in those days
it is a pity that it should be unfamiliar to modern girlhood ware's zenobia the queen of palmyra walked among us and held a lofty place among our ideals of heroic womanhood never yet obliterated from admiring remembrance
we had the delight of reading frederika bremer's home and neighbors when they were fresh from the fountains of her own heart and some of us must not be blamed for feeling as if no tales of domestic life half so charming have been written since
perhaps it is partly because the home life of sweden is in itself so delightfully unique we read george borrow's bible in spain and wandered with him among the gypsies to whom he seemed to belong
i'll joyfully labor both
as a laundress tans her own face in the ray to cleanse the garments of others it suggested a somewhat similar verse to my own mind why should not our washerwoman's work have its touch of poetry also
by like a ray of light that brightened my homely labor the water is making my own hands white while i wash the robes of my neighbor and how delighted we were with missus kirkland's a new home who'll follow the first real western book i ever read
its genuine pioneer flavor was delicious and moreover it was a prophecy to sarah emilie and myself who were one day thankful enough to find an aunty parshall's dish kettle in a cabin on an illinois prairie
so the pleasantly occupied years slipped on i still nursing my purpose of a more systematic course of study though i saw no near possibility of its fulfillment it came in an unexpected way as almost everything worth having does come
i could never have dreamed that i was going to meet my opportunity nearly or quite a thousand miles away on the banks of the mississippi and yet with that strange delightful consciousness of growth into a comprehension of one's self
and of one's life that most young persons must occasionally have experienced i often vaguely felt heavens opening for my half fledged wings to try themselves in things about me were good and enjoyable but i could not quite rest in them
i felt almost surer of the future than of the present
out of the very roughnesses of the intervening road light had been kindled which made the end of the second ten years glow with enthusiastic hope i had early been saved from a great mistake for it is
the greatest of mistakes to begin life with the expectation that it is going to be easy or with the wish to have it so what a world it would be if there were no hills to climb our powers were given us that we might conquer obstacles and clear obstructions from the overgrown human path
and grow strong by striving led onward always by an invisible guide life to me as i looked forward was a bright blank of mystery like the broad western tracts of our continent which in the atlases of those days bore the title of unexplored regions
the iliad of homer rendered into english blank verse by edward earl of derby preface in the spring of eighteen sixty two i was induced
in which was included the first book
source of interest and it is not without a feeling of regret at the completion of my task and a sincere diffidence as to its success that i venture to submit the result of my labour to the ordeal
of public criticism various causes irrespective of any demerits of the work itself forbid me to anticipate for this translation any extensive popularity
first i fear that the taste for and appreciation of classical literature are greatly on the decline next those who have kept up their classical studies
and are able to read and enjoy the original will hardly take an interest in a mere translation while the english reader unacquainted with greek
of pope's translation with which as a happy adaptation of the homeric story to the spirit of english poetry i have not the presumption to enter into competition but admirable as it is
pope's iliad can hardly be said to be homer's iliad
have recalled to their minds a faint echo of the strains which delighted their earlier days and may recognize some slight trace of the original perfume numerous as have been the translators of the iliad
or of parts of it the metres which have been selected have been almost as various the ordinary couplet in rhyme the spenserian stanza the trochaic or ballad metre
all have had their partisans even to that
of the so called english hexameter a metre wholly repugnant to the genius of our language which can only be pressed into the service by a violation of every rule of prosody
and of which notwithstanding my respect for the eminent men who have attempted to naturalize it i could never read ten lines without being irresistibly reminded of canning's
dactylics call'st thou them god help thee silly one
but in the progress of this work i have been more and more confirmed in the opinion which i expressed at its commencement that whatever may be the extent of my own individual failure
if justice is ever to be done to the easy flow and majestic simplicity of the grand old poet it can only be in the heroic blank verse
and there are many instances in which a translation line for line and couplet for couplet naturally suggests itself and in which it is sometimes difficult to avoid an involuntary rhyme
but the blank verse appears to me the only metre capable of adapting itself to all the gradations if i may use the term of the homeric style
from the finished poetry of the numerous similes in which every touch is nature and nothing is overcoloured or exaggerated down to the simple almost homely style of some portions of the narrative
least of all can any other metre do full justice to the spirit and freedom of the various speeches in which the old warriors give utterance without disguise or restraint to all their strong and genuine emotions
to subject these to the trammels of couplet and rhyme would be as destructive of their chief characteristics as the application of a similar process to the paradise lost of milton
or the tragedies of shakespeare the effect indeed may be seen by comparing with some of the noblest speeches of the latter the few couplets which he seems to have considered himself bound by
custom to tack on to their close at the end of a scene or an act i have adopted not without hesitation the latin rather than the greek nomenclature for the heathen deities
i have been induced to do so from the manifest incongruity of confounding the two and from the fact that though english readers may be familiar with the names of zeus or aphrodite or even poseidon
would hardly convey to them a definite signification it has been my aim throughout to produce a translation and not a paraphrase
with regard to each word the rigid requirements of accurate scholarship but such as would fairly and honestly give the sense and spirit of every passage and of every line omitting nothing
and expanding nothing and adhering as closely as our language will allow ever to every epithet which is capable of being translated and which has in the particular passage
anything of a special and distinctive character of the many deficiencies in my execution of this intention i am but too conscious whether i have been in any degree successful
must be left to the impartial decision of such of the public as may honour this work with their perusal d knowsley october eighteen sixty four
note to the fifth edition the favourable reception which has been given to the first editions of this work far exceeding my most sanguine hopes
affords a gratifying proof how far in my preface i had overrated the extent to which the taste for and appreciation of classical literature had declined it will not i hope
be thought extraordinary that some errors and inaccuracies should have found their way into a translation executed i must admit somewhat hastily
than i should have bestowed upon it had i ventured to anticipate for it so extensive a circulation my thanks therefore are due to those critics who either publicly or privately
have called my attention to passages in which the sense of the author has been either incorrectly or imperfectly rendered all of these i have examined and have availed myself
of several of the suggestions offered for their correction and a careful revision of the whole work and renewed comparison with the original have enabled me to discover other defects
the removal of which will i hope render the present edition especially in the eyes of classical scholars somewhat more worthy of the favour which has been accorded to its predecessors d
amory writes a poem the weeks tore by amory wandered occasionally to new york on the chance of finding a new shining green auto bus that its stick of candy glamour might penetrate his disposition
one day he ventured into a stock company revival of a play whose name was faintly familiar the curtain rose he watched casually as a girl entered a few phrases rang in his ear and touched a faint chord of memory where
when then he seemed to hear a voice whispering beside him a very soft vibrant voice oh i'm such a poor little fool do tell me when i do wrong the solution came in a flash and he had a
quick glad memory of isabelle he found a blank space on his programme and began to scribble rapidly here in the figured dark i watch once more there with the curtain roll the years away
there was an idle day of ours when happy endings didn't bore our unfermented souls i could adore your eager face beside me wide eyed gay
smiling a repertoire while the poor play reached me as a faint ripple reaches shore yawning and wondering an evening through i watch alone and chatterings of course spoil the one scene which
somehow did have charms you wept a bit and i grew sad for you right here where mister x defends divorce and what's her name falls fainting in his arms still calm
ghosts are such dumb things said alec they're slow witted i can always outguess a ghost how asked tom well it depends where take a bedroom for example if you use any discretion
a ghost can never get you in a bedroom go on s'pose you think there's maybe a ghost in your bedroom what measures do you take on getting home at night demanded amory interested
take a stick answered alec with ponderous reverence one about the length of a broom handle
to do this you rush with your eyes closed into your study and turn on the lights next approaching the closet carefully run the stick in the door three or four times then if nothing happens you can look in
always always run the stick in viciously first
that's the ancient celtic school said tom gravely yes but they usually pray first
and also for behind all doors and the bed amory suggested oh amory no cried alec in horror that isn't the way
the bed requires different tactics let the bed alone as you value your reason if there is a ghost in the room and that's only about a third of the time it is almost always under the bed well
amory began alec waved him into silence of course you never look you stand in the middle of the floor and before he knows what you're going to do make a sudden leap for the bed never walk near the bed
once in bed you're safe he may lie around under the bed all night but you're safe as daylight if you still have doubts pull the blanket over your head all that's very interesting tom
isn't it alec beamed proudly all my own too the sir oliver lodge of the new world amory was enjoying college immensely again the sense of going forward in a direct determined line had come back
youth was stirring and shaking out a few new feathers he had even stored enough surplus energy to sally into a new pose what's the idea of all this distracted stuff amory asked alec one day
oh don't try to act burne the mystic to me amory looked up innocently what what mimicked alec are you trying to read yourself into a rhapsody with let's see the book
he snatched it regarded it derisively well said amory a little stiffly the life of saint teresa read alec aloud
say alec what does it bother you does what bother me my acting dazed and all that why
well then don't spoil it if i enjoy going around telling people guilelessly that i think i'm a genius let me do it you're getting a reputation for being eccentric said alec laughing if that's what you mean
amory finally prevailed and alec agreed to accept his face value in the presence of others if he was allowed rest periods when they were alone so amory ran it out at a great rate bringing the most eccentric characters to dinner
wild eyed grad students preceptors with strange theories of god and government to the cynical amazement of the supercilious cottage club as february became slashed by sun and moved cheerfully into march
amory went several times to spend week ends with monsignor once he took burne with great success for he took equal pride and delight in displaying them to each other monsignor took him several times to see thornton hancock
and once or twice to the house of a missus lawrence a type of rome haunting american whom amory liked immediately then one day came a letter from monsignor which appended an interesting p s
do you know it ran that your third cousin clara page widowed six months and very poor is living in philadelphia i don't think you've ever met her but i wish as a favor to me you'd go to see her
amory sighed and decided to go as a favor clara she was immemorial
apart from the dull literature of female virtue sorrow lay lightly around her and when amory found her in philadelphia he thought her steely blue eyes held only happiness a latent strength
a realism was brought to its fullest development by the facts that she was compelled to face she was alone in the world with two small children little money and worst of all a host of friends
he saw her that winter in philadelphia entertaining a houseful of men for an evening when he knew she had not a servant in the house except the little colored girl guarding the babies overhead he saw one of the greatest libertines in that city
a man who was habitually drunk and notorious at home and abroad sitting opposite her for an evening discussing girls boarding schools with a sort of innocent excitement
what a twist clara had to her mind she could make fascinating and almost brilliant conversation out of the thinnest air that ever floated through a drawing room
he arrived in philadelphia expecting to be told that
was in a miserable lane of hovels
been in her husband's family for years an elderly aunt who objected to having it sold had put ten years taxes with a lawyer and pranced off to honolulu leaving clara to struggle with the heating problem as best she could
and a sad amelia like look greeted him instead amory would have thought from his reception that she had not a care in the world a calm virility and a dreamy humor
though she was wise enough never to stultify herself with such household arts as knitting and embroidery yet immediately afterward pick up a book and let her imagination rove as a formless cloud with the wind
deepest of all in her personality was the golden radiance that she diffused around her
into the quiet faces at its edge so she cast her lights and shadows around the rooms that held her
quaint and meditative charm metamorphosed the stray telegraph boy into a puck like creature of delightful originality at first this quality of hers somehow irritated amory he considered his own uniqueness sufficient and it
rather embarrassed him when she tried to read new interests into him for the benefit of what other adorers were present he felt as if a polite but insistent stage manager were attempting to make him give a new interpretation of a part he had conned for years
but clara talking clara telling a slender tale of a hatpin and an inebriated man and herself
but for the life of them they could make them sound like nothing whatever they gave her a sort of innocent attention and the best smiles many of them had smiled for long there were few tears in clara but people smiled misty eyed at her
very occasionally amory stayed for little half hours after the rest of the court had gone and they would have bread and jam and tea late in the afternoon or maple sugar lunches as she called them at night
you are remarkable aren't you
one six o'clock not a bit she answered
tell that to somebody else scoffed amory you know you're perfectly effulgent he asked her the one thing that he knew might embarrass her it was the remark
tell me about yourself and she gave the answer that adam must have given there's nothing to tell but eventually
adam probably told the bore all the things he thought about at night when the locusts sang in the sandy grass and he must have remarked patronizingly
forgetting how different she was from him at any rate clara told amory much about herself that evening she had had a harried life from sixteen on and her education had stopped sharply with her leisure
browsing in her library amory found a tattered gray book out of which fell a yellow sheet
gray convent wall on a gray day and a girl with her cloak blown by the wind sitting atop of it and thinking about the many colored world as a rule such sentiment bored him
that it brought a picture of clara to his mind of clara on such a cool gray day with her keen blue eyes staring out trying to see her tragedies come marching over the gardens outside he envied that poem
and talked nonsense or romance to her
and rest their tired minds as at an absorbing play nobody seems to bore you he objected about half the world do she admitted
and she turned to find something in browning that bore on the subject
and yet not be irritating to distraction she did it constantly with such a serious enthusiasm that he grew fond of watching her golden hair bent over a book brow wrinkled ever so little at hunting her sentence
through early march he took to going to philadelphia for week ends almost always there was some one else there and she seemed not anxious to see him alone
another delicious half hour of adoration but he fell gradually in love and began to speculate wildly on marriage though this design flowed through his brain even to his lips still he knew afterward that the desire had not been deeply rooted
for in his dream she had been a silly flaxen clara
and one of the few good people who ever interested him she made her goodness such an asset amory had decided that most good people either dragged theirs after them as a liability or else distorted it to
artificial geniality and of course there were the ever present prig and pharisee but amory never included them as being among the saved saint cecilia
over her gray and velvet dress under her molten beaten hair color of rose in mock distress flushes and fades and makes her fair fills the air from her to him
with light and languor and little sighs just so subtly he scarcely knows laughing lightning color of rose do you like me
why well we have some qualities in common things that are spontaneous in each of us or were originally
you're implying that i haven't used myself very well clara hesitated well i can't judge a man of course has to go through a lot more and i've been sheltered
oh don't stall please clara amory interrupted but do talk about me a little won't you surely i'd adore to she didn't smile that's sweet of you
first answer some questions am i painfully conceited well no you have tremendous vanity but it'll amuse the people who notice its preponderance i see
you're really humble at heart you sink to the third hell of depression when you think you've been slighted in fact you haven't much self respect centre of target twice clara how do you do it
you never let me say a word of course not i can never judge a man while he's talking but i'm not through the reason you have so little real self confidence even though you gravely announce to the occasional philistine
and are trying to live up to them for instance you're always saying that you are a slave to high balls but i am potentially
not a bit of will i'm a slave to my emotions to my likes to my hatred of boredom to most of my desires you are not she brought one little fist down onto the other
you're a slave a bound helpless slave to one thing in the world your imagination you certainly interest me if this isn't boring you go on
you never decide at first while the merits of going or staying are fairly clear in your mind
thinks up a million reasons why you should stay so your decision when it comes isn't true it's biassed yes objected amory but isn't it lack of will power to let my imagination shinny on the wrong side
my dear boy there's your big mistake this has nothing to do with will power
you lack judgment the judgment to decide at once when you know your imagination will play you false given half a chance well i'll be darned exclaimed amory in surprise that's the last thing i expected
clara didn't gloat she changed the subject immediately but she had started him thinking and he believed she was partly right he felt like a factory owner who after accusing a clerk of dishonesty
his poor mistreated will that he had been holding up to the scorn of himself and his friends stood before him innocent and his judgment walked off to prison with the unconfinable imp imagination
dancing in mocking glee beside him clara's was the only advice he ever asked without dictating the answer himself except perhaps in his talks with monsignor darcy
how he loved to do any sort of thing with clara shopping with her was a rare epicurean dream in every store where she had ever traded she was whispered about as the beautiful missus page
ain't she beautiful enter a floor walker silence till he moves forward smirking society person ain't she yeah but poor now i guess so they say
gee girls ain't she some kid and clara beamed on all alike amory believed that tradespeople gave her discounts sometimes to her knowledge and sometimes without it he knew she dressed very well
had always the best of everything in the house and was inevitably waited upon by the head floor walker at the very least sometimes they would go to church together on sunday and he would walk beside her and revel in her cheeks moist from the soft water in the new air
she was very devout always had been and god knows what heights she attained and what strength she drew down to herself when she knelt and bent her golden hair into the stained glass light
quite involuntarily and the people turned and peered and the priest paused in his sermon and clara and amory turned to fiery red that was the last sunday they had for he spoiled it all that night
and the joy of youth filled his soul so that he felt he must speak i think he said and his voice trembled that if i lost faith in you i'd
she looked at him with such a startled face that he asked her the matter nothing she said slowly only this five men have said that to me before and it frightens me
oh clara is that your fate she did not answer i suppose love to you is he began she turned like a flash i have never been in love
they walked along and he realized slowly how much she had told him never in love she seemed suddenly a daughter of light alone
his entity dropped out of her plane and he longed only to touch her dress with almost the realization that joseph must have had of mary's eternal significance but quite mechanically he heard himself saying
and i love you any latent greatness that i've got is oh i can't talk but clara if i come back in two years in a position to marry you she shook her head no she said i'd never marry again
i've got my two children and i want myself for them i like you i like all clever men you more than any but you know me well enough to know that i'd never marry a clever man she broke off suddenly amory
what you're not in love with me you never wanted to marry me did you
i didn't feel as though i were speaking aloud but i love you or adore you or worship you there you go running through your catalogue of emotions in five seconds he smiled unwillingly
don't make me out such a light weight clara you are depressing sometimes you're not a light weight of all things she said intently taking his arm and opening wide her eyes
a light weight is an eternal nay there's so much spring in the air there's so much lazy sweetness in your heart she dropped his arm you're all fine now and i feel glorious
give me a cigarette you've never seen me smoke have you well i do about once a month and then that wonderful girl and amory raced to the corner like two mad children gone wild with pale blue twilight
i'm going to the country for to morrow she announced as she stood panting safe beyond the flare of the corner lamp post
oh clara amory said
maybe she answered but i think not i'm never really wild and never have been that little outburst was pure spring and you are too said he
they were walking along now no you're wrong again how can a person of your own self reputed brains be so constantly wrong about me i'm the opposite of everything spring ever stood for
it's unfortunate if i happen to look like what pleased some soppy old greek sculptor but i assure you that if it weren't for my face i'd be a quiet nun in the convent without
then she broke into a run and her raised voice floated back to him as he followed my precious babies which i must go back and see she was the only girl he ever knew with whom he could understand how another man might be preferred
often amory met wives whom he had known as debutantes and looking intently at them imagined that he found something in their faces which said oh if i could only have gotten you oh the enormous conceit of the man
but that night seemed a night of stars and singing and clara's bright soul still gleamed on the ways they had trod golden golden is the air he chanted to the little pools of water
golden is the air golden notes from golden mandolins golden frets of golden violins fair oh wearily fair skeins from braided basket mortals may not hold
oh what young extravagant god who would know or ask it
chapter twenty eight escape though busily engaged in translating the extracts given in the last five chapters i was also laying matters in train for my escape with arowhena and indeed it was high time
for i received an intimation from one of the cashiers of the musical banks
but really for having owned a watch and attempted the reintroduction of machinery i asked why measles and was told that there was a fear lest extenuating circumstances should prevent a jury from convicting me if i were indicted for typhus or small pox
but that a verdict would probably be obtained for measles a disease which could be sufficiently punished in a person of my age i was given to understand that unless some unexpected change should come over the mind of his majesty i might expect the blow to be struck within a very few days
my plan was this that arowhena and i should escape in a balloon together i fear that the reader will disbelieve this part of my story yet in no other have i endeavoured to adhere more conscientiously to facts and can only throw myself upon his charity
i had already gained the ear of the queen and had so worked upon her curiosity that she promised to get leave for me to have a balloon made and inflated i pointed out to her that no complicated machinery would be wanted nothing in fact
but a large quantity of oiled silk a car
could easily instruct her workmen how to provide her eagerness to see so strange a sight as the ascent of a human being into the sky overcame any scruples of conscience that she might have otherwise felt
and she set the antiquarians about showing her workmen how to make the gas and sent her maids to buy and oil a very large quantity of silk for i was determined that the balloon should be a big one even before she began to try and gain the king's permission
this however she now set herself to do for i had sent her word that my prosecution was imminent as for myself i need hardly say that i knew nothing about balloons nor did i see my way to smuggling arowhena into the car
nevertheless knowing that we had no other chance of getting away from erewhon i drew inspiration from the extremity in which we were placed and made a pattern from which the queen's workmen were able to work successfully meanwhile the queen's carriage builders set about making the car
i doubt indeed whether i should have succeeded here but for the great intelligence of a foreman who threw himself heart and soul into the matter and often both foresaw requirements the necessity for which had escaped me and suggested the means of providing for them
it happened that there had been a long drought during the latter part of which prayers had been vainly offered up in all the temples of the air god when i first told her majesty that i wanted a balloon
i said my intention was to go up into the sky and prevail upon the air god by means of a personal interview i own that this proposition bordered on the idolatrous but i have long since repented of it and am little likely ever to repeat the offence
moreover the deceit serious though it was will probably lead to the conversion of the whole country when the queen told his majesty of my proposal he at first not only ridiculed it but was inclined to veto it
being however a very uxorious husband he at length consented as he eventually always did to everything on which the queen had set her heart he yielded all the more readily now because he did not believe in the possibility of my ascent
he was convinced that even though the balloon should mount a few feet into the air it would collapse immediately whereon i should fall and break my neck and he should be rid of me he demonstrated this to her so convincingly that she was alarmed and tried to talk me into giving up the idea
but on finding that i persisted in my wish to have the balloon made she produced an order from the king to the effect that all facilities i might require should be afforded me at the same time her majesty told me
that my attempted ascent would be made an article of impeachment against me in case i did not succeed in prevailing on the air god to stop the drought neither king nor queen had any idea that i meant going right away if i could get the wind to take me
nor had he any conception of the existence of a certain steady upper current of air which was always setting in one direction as could be seen by the shape of the higher clouds which pointed invariably from south east to north west
i had myself long noticed this peculiarity in the climate and attributed it i believe justly to a trade wind which was constant at a few thousand feet above the earth but was disturbed by local influences at lower elevations
my next business was to break the plan to arowhena and to devise the means for getting her into the car i felt sure that she would come with me but had made up my mind that if her courage failed her the whole thing should come to nothing
arowhena and i had been in constant communication through her maid but i had thought it best not to tell her the details of my scheme till everything was settled
into mister nosnibor's garden at about dusk on the following evening i came at the appointed time
it was now early summer and the leaves were so thick upon the trees that even though some one else had entered the garden i could have easily hidden myself the night was one of extreme beauty the sun had long set
but there was still a rosy gleam in the sky over the ruins of the railway station below me was the city already twinkling with lights while beyond it stretched the plains for many a league until they blended with the sky i just noted these things but i could not heed them
i could heed nothing till as i peered into the darkness of the alley i perceived a white figure gliding swiftly towards me i bounded towards it and ere thought could either prompt or check
i had caught arowhena to my heart and covered her unresisting cheek with kisses so overjoyed were we that we knew not how to speak indeed i do not know when we should have found words and come to our senses
if the maid had not gone off into a fit of hysterics and awakened us to the necessity of self control then briefly and plainly i unfolded what i proposed i showed her the darkest side
for i felt sure that the darker the prospect the more likely she was to come i told her that my plan would probably end in death for both of us and that i dared not press it that at a word from her it should be abandoned
where there would be no bar to our getting married and that i could see no other hope she made no resistance not a sign or hint of doubt or hesitation she would do all i told her and come whenever i was ready so i bade her send her maid to meet me nightly
told her that she must put a good face on look as bright and happy as she could so as to make her father and mother and zulora think that she was forgetting me and be ready at a moment's notice to come to the queen's workshops
and so we parted i hurried my preparations forward
and also that the king might change his mind but the weather continued dry and in another week the queen's workmen had finished the balloon and car while the gas was ready to be turned on into the balloon at any moment all being now prepared i was to ascend on the following morning
i had stipulated for being allowed to take abundance of rugs and wrappings as protection from the cold of the upper atmosphere and also ten or a dozen good sized bags of ballast
i had nearly a quarter's pension in hand and with this i fee'd arowhena's maid and bribed the queen's foreman who would i believe have given me assistance even without a bribe he helped me to secrete food and wine in the bags of ballast
she came with early dawn muffled up and in her maid's dress she was supposed to be gone to an early performance at one of the musical banks
i arranged the ballast about her so that it should conceal her as she lay at the bottom of the car and covered her with wrappings although it still wanted some hours of the time fixed for my ascent i could not trust myself one moment from the car
and watched the gradual inflation of the balloon luggage i had none save the provisions hidden in the ballast bags the books of mythology and the treatises on the machines with my own manuscript diaries and translations i sat quietly and awaited the hour fixed for my departure
who were to witness my ascent they were not due yet for another two hours and during this time a hundred things might happen any one of which would undo me at last the balloon was full
nothing remained to hinder the balloon from ascending but the hands and weight of those who were holding on to it with ropes i strained my eyes for the coming of the king and queen but could see no sign of their approach i looked in the direction of mister nosnibor's house
there was nothing to indicate disturbance but it was not yet breakfast time the crowd began to gather they were aware that i was under the displeasure of the court but i could detect no signs of my being unpopular on the contrary
i received many kindly expressions of regard and encouragement with good wishes as to the result of my journey
and telling him the substance of what i intended to do when i had got into the presence of the air god what he thought of me i cannot guess for i am sure that he did not believe in the objective existence of the air god nor that i myself believed in it
when i became aware of a small crowd of people running as fast as they could from mister nosnibor's house towards the queen's workshops for the moment my pulse ceased beating and then knowing that the time had come when i must either do or die
i called vehemently to those who were holding the ropes some thirty men to let go at once and made gestures signifying danger and that there would be mischief if they held on longer many obeyed the rest were too weak to hold on to the ropes and were forced to let them go
on this the balloon bounded suddenly upwards but my own feeling was that the earth had dropped off from me
this happened at the very moment that the attention of the crowd was divided the one half paying heed to the eager gestures of those coming from mister nosnibor's house and the other to the exclamations from myself
but before that minute was over i was at such a height above the city that nothing could harm me and every second both the town and the crowd became smaller and more confused in an incredibly short time
i could see little but a vast wall of blue plains rising up against me towards whichever side i looked at first the balloon mounted vertically upwards but after about five minutes when we had already attained a very great elevation
i fancied that the objects on the plain beneath began to move from under me i did not feel so much as a breath of wind and could not suppose that the balloon itself was travelling i was therefore wondering what this strange movement of fixed objects could mean
when it struck me that people in a balloon do not feel the wind inasmuch as they travel with it and offer it no resistance then i was happy in thinking that i must now have reached the invariable trade wind of the upper air and that i should be very possibly wafted for hundreds
or even thousands of miles far from erewhon and the erewhonians already i had removed the wrappings and freed arowhena but i soon covered her up with them again for it was already very cold and she was half stupefied with the strangeness of her position
and now began a time dream like and delirious of which i do not suppose that i shall ever recover a distinct recollection some things i can recall as that we were ere long enveloped in vapour which froze upon my moustache and whiskers
then comes a memory of sitting for hours and hours in a thick fog hearing no sound but my own breathing and arowhena's for we hardly spoke and seeing no sight but the car beneath us and beside us and the dark balloon above
perhaps the most painful feeling when the earth was hidden was that the balloon was motionless though our only hope lay in our going forward with an extreme of speed from time to time through a rift in the clouds i caught a glimpse of earth
and was thankful to perceive that we must be flying forward faster than in an express train but no sooner was the rift closed than the old conviction of our being stationary returned in full force and was not to be reasoned with
there was another feeling also which was nearly as bad for as a child that fears it has gone blind in a long tunnel if there is no light so ere the earth had been many minutes hidden i became half frightened lest we might not have broken away from it clean and for ever
now and again i ate and gave food to arowhena but by guess work as regards time then came darkness a dreadful dreary time without even the moon to cheer us with dawn the scene was changed the clouds were gone and morning stars were shining
as the most glorious that i have ever seen beneath us there was an embossed chain of mountains with snow fresh fallen upon them but we were far above them we both of us felt our breathing seriously affected
but i would not allow the balloon to descend a single inch not knowing for how long we might not need all the buoyancy which we could command indeed i was thankful to find that after nearly four and twenty hours we were still at so great a height above the earth
in a couple of hours we had passed the ranges which must have been some hundred and fifty miles across and again i saw a tract of level plain extending far away to the horizon i knew not where we were and dared not descend lest i should waste the power of the balloon
but i was half hopeful that we might be above the country from which i had originally started i looked anxiously for any sign by which i could recognise it but could see nothing and feared that we might be above some distant part of erewhon or a country inhabited by savages
while i was still in doubt the balloon was again wrapped in clouds and we were left to blank space and to conjectures the weary time dragged on how i longed for my unhappy watch i felt as though not even time was moving
so dumb and spell bound were our surroundings sometimes i would feel my pulse and count its beats for half an hour together anything to mark the time to prove that it was there
and not gone adrift into the timelessness of eternity i had been doing this for the twentieth or thirtieth time and had fallen into a light sleep i dreamed wildly of a journey in an express train and of arriving at a railway station
where the air was full of the sound of locomotive engines blowing off steam with a horrible and tremendous hissing i woke frightened and uneasy but the hissing and crashing noises pursued me now that i was awake and forced me to own that they were real
what they were i knew not but they grew gradually fainter and fainter and after a time were lost in a few hours the clouds broke
i saw the sea and nothing but the sea in the main black but flecked with white heads of storm tossed angry waves arowhena was sleeping quietly at the bottom of the car and as i looked at her sweet and saintly beauty i groaned
and cursed myself for the misery into which i had brought her but there was nothing for it now i sat and waited for the worst and presently i saw signs as though that worst were soon to be at hand for the balloon had begun to sink
but now there could be no mistake we were sinking and that fast i threw out a bag of ballast and for a time we rose again but in the course of a few hours the sinking recommenced and i threw out another bag
then the battle commenced in earnest it lasted all that afternoon and through the night until the following evening i had seen never a sail nor a sign of a sail though i had half blinded myself with straining my eyes incessantly in every direction
we had parted with everything but the clothes which we had upon our backs food and water were gone all thrown out to the wheeling albatrosses in order to save us a few hours or even minutes from the sea
i did not throw away the books till we were within a few feet of the water and clung to my manuscripts to the very last hope there seemed none whatever yet strangely enough we were neither of us utterly hopeless
and even when the evil that we dreaded was upon us and that which we greatly feared had come we sat in the car of the balloon with the waters up to our middle and still smiled with a ghastly hopefulness to one another
he who has crossed the saint gothard will remember that below andermatt there is one of those alpine gorges which reach the very utmost limits of the sublime and terrible
the feelings of the traveller have become more and more highly wrought at every step until at last the naked and overhanging precipices seem to close above his head as he crosses a bridge hung in mid air over a roaring waterfall
and enters on the darkness of a tunnel hewn out of the rock what can be in store for him on emerging surely something even wilder and more desolate than that which he has seen already yet his imagination is paralysed
awed and breathless he advances when lo the light of the afternoon sun welcomes him as he leaves the tunnel and behold a smiling valley a babbling brook a village with tall belfries and meadows of brilliant green
these are the things which greet him and he smiles to himself as the terror passes away and in another moment is forgotten so fared it now with ourselves we had been in the water some two or three hours
and the night had come upon us we had said farewell for the hundredth time and had resigned ourselves to meet the end indeed i was myself battling with a drowsiness from which it was only too probable that i should never wake
considering everything the most remarkable thing in russell conwell's remarkable life is his lecture acres of diamonds that is the lecture itself the number of times he has delivered it what a source of inspiration it has been to myriads
in the circumstances surrounding acres of diamonds in its tremendous success in the attitude of mind revealed by the lecture itself and by what doctor conwell does with it it is illuminative of his character his aims his ability
the lecture is vibrant with his energy it flashes with his hopefulness
it is packed full of his intensity it stands for the possibilities of success in every one he has delivered it over five thousand times the demand for it never diminishes the success grows never less
there is a time in russell conwell's youth of which
he told me of it one evening and his voice sank lower and lower as he went far back into the past it was of his days at yale that he spoke for they were days of suffering for he had not money for yale and in working
for more he endured bitter humiliation it was not that the work was hard for russell conwell has always been ready for hard work it was not that there were privations and difficulties for he has always found difficulties only things to overcome
and endured privations with cheerful fortitude but it was the humiliations that he met the personal humiliations that after more than half a century make him suffer in remembering them
yet out of those humiliations came a marvelous result i determined he says that whatever i could do to make the way easier at college for other young men working their way i would do and so many years ago he began to
to this definite purpose he has what may be termed a waiting list on that list are very few cases he has looked into personally infinitely busy man that he is he cannot do extensive personal investigation
a large proportion of his names come to him from college presidents who know of students in their own colleges in need of such a helping hand every night he said when i asked him to tell me about it when my lecture is over
and the check is in my hand i sit down in my room in the hotel what a lonely picture tool i sit down in my room in the hotel and subtract from the total sum received my actual expenses for that place
and make out a check for the difference and send it to some young man on my list and i always send with the check a letter of advice and helpfulness expressing my hope
and i tell them that i am hoping to leave behind me men who will do more work than i have done don't think that i put in too much advice he added with a smile for i only try to let them know that a friend is trying to help them
his face lighted as he spoke there is such a fascination in it he exclaimed
but i want to save him from bitterness and each check will help and too
he told me that he made it clear that he did not wish to get returns or reports from this branch of his life work for it would take a great deal of time in watching and thinking
as one gets on in years there is satisfaction in doing a thing for the sake of doing it the bread returns in the sense of effort made on a recent trip through minnesota he was positively upset so his secretary told me
and who finding that this was really doctor conwell eagerly brought his wife to join him in most fervent thanks for his assistance
the lecture to quote the noble words of doctor conwell himself is designed to help every person of either sex who cherishes the high resolve of sustaining a career of usefulness and honor it is a lecture of helpfulness
it is packed full of inspiration of suggestion of aid he alters it to meet the local circumstances of the thousands of different places in which he delivers it but the base remains the same
it amuses him to say that he knows individuals who have listened to it twenty times it begins with a story told to conwell by an old arab
the lecturer's voice is so easy so effortless it seems so ordinary and matter of fact yet the entire scene is instantly vital and alive
he has the faculty of control
and that is the kind of tribute that conwell likes i recently heard him deliver it in his own church where it would naturally be thought to be an old story and where presumably only a few of the faithful would go but it was quite clear that all of his church are the faithful
for it was a large audience that came to listen to him hardly a seat in the great auditorium was vacant and it should be added that although it was in his own church it was not a free lecture where a throng might be expected
without any of the alterations that have come with time and changing localities and as he went on with the audience rippling and bubbling with laughter as usual he never doubted
and yet so up to date and alive must he necessarily be in spite of a definitive effort to set himself back
from such distinctly recent things as the automobile
for the lecture doesn't it seem incredible five thousand one hundred twenty four times i noticed that he was to deliver it at a little out of the way place difficult for any considerable number to get to
over and over one realizes what a power such a man wields and what an unselfishness
he sees that the people are fascinated and inspired and he forgets pain ignores time forgets that the night is late and that he has a long journey to go to get home
always he talks with ease and sympathy
simple and homely jests yet never does the audience forget that he is every moment in tremendous earnest they bubble with responsive laughter or are silent in riveted attention
the people feel that he is himself a fervidly earnest man
a genial appreciation of the fun of it
myriad successes in life have come through the direct inspiration of this single lecture one hears of so many that there must be vastly more that are never told a few of the most recent were told me by doctor conwell himself
so the boy now a man has written him he thought over and over of what he could do to advance himself and before he reached home he learned that a teacher was wanted at a certain country school
and something in his earnestness made him win a temporary appointment thereupon he worked and studied so hard and so devotedly while he daily taught that within a few months he was regularly employed there and now says conwell abruptly
with his characteristic skim ming over of the intermediate details between the important beginning of a thing and the satisfactory end and now that young man is one of our college presidents
and very recently a lady came to doctor conwell the wife of an exceptionally prominent man who was earning a large salary and she told him that her husband was so unselfishly generous with money
and she also sells pure ice from the pool
and one can neither think nor write with moderation when it is further realized that far more good than can be done directly with money he does by uplifting and inspiring with this lecture always his heart is with the weary and the heavy laden
always he stands for self betterment last year nineteen fourteen he and his work were given unique recognition for it was known by his friends that this particular lecture was approaching its five thousandth delivery
and they planned a celebration of such an event in the history of the most popular lecture in the world doctor conwell agreed to deliver it in the academy of music in philadelphia and the building was packed and the streets outside were thronged
and respect of his home city was seen not only in the thousands who strove to hear him but in the prominent men who served on the local committee in charge of the celebration there was a national committee too
and the nation wide love that he has won the nation wide appreciation of what he has done and is still doing
mister alden p ricks known in pacific coast wholesale lumber and shipping circles as cappy ricks had more troubles than a hen with ducklings
he remarked as much to mister skinner president and general manager of the ricks logging and lumbering company the corporate entity which represented cappy's vast lumber interests and he fairly
barked the information at captain matt peasley his son in law and also president and manager of the blue star navigation company another corporate entity which represented the ricks interest
you argued me into taking on the management of twenty five of those infernal shipping board freighters and no sooner do we have them allocated to us than a near panic hits the country
freight rates go to glory marine engineers go on strike and every infernal young whelp we send out to take charge of one of our offices in the orient promptly gets the swelled head and thinks
he's divinely ordained to drink up all the synthetic scotch whiskey manufactured in japan for the benefit of thirsty americans in my old age you two have forced
why because we're breaking into a game that can't be played on the home grounds a lot of our business is so far away we can't control it matt peasley leveled an accusing finger at cappy ricks
all the troubles in the marine end of this shop belong on my capable shoulders old settler theoretically yes actually no
and you also skinner if matt makes a mistake it's your job to remind him of it before the results manifest themselves is it not and vice versa have you two boobs lost your ability to judge men or did you ever have such ability
which is coast wise shipping and had left the trans pacific field with its general cargoes to others we wouldn't have any shanghai office at this moment
and he had gone through every job in this office from office boy to sales manager in the lumber department and from freight clerk to passenger agent in the navigation company matt peasley supplemented i admit all of that
henderson was a good man a crackerjack man when he had a better man over him but i've been twenty years reducing a tendency on the part of that fellow's head to bust his hat band
and now he's gone south with a hundred and thirty thousand taels of our shanghai bank account permit me to remind you mister ricks
well i must admit your far sightedness in that instance will keep the shanghai office out of the red ink this year matt peasley replied however we face this situation cappy
he hasn't attended to business and he's capped his inefficiency by absconding with our bank account we couldn't foresee that when we send a man out to the orient to be our manager there we have to trust him
all the way or not at all so there is no use weeping over spilled milk cappy our job is to select a successor to henderson and send him out to shanghai on the next boat oh very well matt cappy replied
magnanimously i'll not rub it into you i suppose i'm far from generous bawling you out like this perhaps
and draw blood as often as they've drawn it on me you'll be a better judge than i of men worthy of the weight of responsibility skinner have you got a candidate for this job i regret to say sir i have not
all of the men in my department are quite young too young for the responsibility what do you mean young cappy
well the only man i would consider for the job is andrews and he is too young about thirty i should say about thirty eh
yes sir but then andrews has never been tested skinner
voice it's a constant source of amazement to me why i refrain from firing you you say andrews has never been tested why hasn't he been tested
not a peep out of you sir if you had done your christian duty you would have taken a year's vacation when lumber was selling itself in nineteen nineteen and nineteen twenty and you would have left andrews
because the market broke like that and if you don't think
industry and throttled it with absurd theories that a man's back must be bent like an ox bow and his locks snowy white before he can be entrusted with responsibility and a living wage have caused all of our wars and strikes
this is a young man's world skinner and don't you ever forget it the go getters of this world are under thirty years of age matt he concluded turning to his son in law what do you think of andrews for that shanghai job i think he'll do why do you think he'll do
i know he has a pleasing personality
rising i wash my hands of the job of selecting henderson's successor you've butted in so i suggest you name the lucky man yes indeed skinner agreed i'm sure it's quite beyond my poor abilities to uncover
i suggest sir mister skinner replied with chill politeness that you conduct the examination i accept the nomination skinner by the holy pink toed prophet
an autobiography what an absurd request if all the conditions were favorable the story of my public life could not be made interesting it does not seem possible that any will care to read so plain and uneventful a tale
not a newspaper notice or account not a magazine article
than i ever planned or hoped that a biography written truthfully would be mostly an account of what men and women have done for me i have lived to see accomplished far more than my highest ambition included
the realities are like dreams to me blessings on the loving hearts and noble minds who have been so willing to sacrifice for others good and to think only of what they could do and never of what they should get
i had from childhood felt that i was called to the ministry the earliest event of memory is the prayer of my father at family prayers in the little old cottage in the hampshire highlands of the berkshire hills
calling on god with a sobbing voice to lead me into some special service for the saviour it filled me with awe dread and fear and i recoiled from the thought until i determined to fight against it with all my power
for my suppressed sense of duty and my first lecture was on the lessons of history as applied to the campaigns against the confederacy that matchless temperance orator and loving friend john b gough introduced me
to the little audience in westfield massachusetts in eighteen sixty two
the way to public oratory would not be so hard as i had feared from that time i acted on mister gough's advice and sought practice by accepting almost every invitation i received to speak
there were many sad failures and tears but it was a restful compromise with my conscience concerning the ministry and it pleased my friends i addressed picnics sunday schools patriotic meetings funerals anniversaries
commencements debates cattle shows and sewing circles without partiality and without price for the first five years the income was all experience then voluntary gifts
began to come occasionally in the shape of a jack knife a ham a book and the first cash remuneration was from a farmers club of seventy five cents toward the horse hire
it was a curious fact that one member of that club afterward moved to salt lake city and was a member
which when i was a correspondent on a journey around the world employed me to lecture on men of the mountains in the mormon tabernacle at a fee of five hundred dollars while i was gaining practice in the first years of platform work
i had the good fortune to have profitable employment as a soldier or as a correspondent or lawyer or as an editor or as a preacher which enabled me to pay my own expenses
in the fifty years that i have ever taken a fee for my personal use in the last thirty six years
at an average income of about one hundred and fifty dollars for each lecture it was a remarkable good fortune which came to me as a lecturer when mister james redpath organized the first lecture bureau ever established
while a student on vacation in selling that life of john brown that acquaintance with mister redpath was maintained until mister redpath's death
to general charles h taylor with whom i was employed for a time as reporter for the boston daily traveler i was indebted
for many acts of self sacrificing friendship which soften my soul as i recall them he did me the greatest kindness when he suggested my name to mister redpath as one who could fill in the vacancies in the smaller towns
theodore tilton wendell phillips missus mary a livermore bayard taylor ralph waldo emerson
era even doctor holmes john whittier henry w longfellow john lothrop motley george william curtis and general burnside were persuaded to appear one or more times
i cannot forget how ashamed i felt when my name ap peared in the shadow of such names
general benjamin f butler however advised me to stick to the last and be a good lawyer the work of lecturing was always a task and a duty i do not feel now that i ever sought to be an entertainer
but for the feeling that i must preach some gospel truth in my lectures
the way is not always smooth but the hard roads the poor hotels the late trains the cold halls
if i did not in fifty years of travel in all sorts of conveyances meet with accidents
yet i did not miss a single engagement sometimes i had to hire a special train but i reached the town on time with only a rare exception and then i was but a few minutes late accidents have preceded
and followed me on trains and boats and were sometimes in sight but i was preserved without injury through all the years in the johnstown flood region i saw a bridge go out behind our train i was once on a derelict steamer
for twenty six days at another time a man was killed in the berth of a sleeper
robbers have several times threatened my life
has been after all a side issue the temple and its church in philadelphia which when its membership was less than three thousand members for so many years contributed through its membership over sixty thousand dollars a year
for the uplift of humanity has made life a continual surprise while the samaritan hospital's amazing growth
dispensaries have been so continually ministering to the sick and poor and have done such skilful work for the tens of thousands who ask for their help each year that i have been made happy
while away lecturing by the feeling that each hour and minute
nearly a hundred thousand young men and women
the faithful self sacrificing faculty now numbering
and i mention the university here only to show that my fifty years on the lecture platform has necessarily been a side line of work my best known lecture acres of diamonds
comrades of the forty sixth massachusetts regiment which served in the civil war
i had no thought of giving the address again and even after it began to be called for
footnote one this is the most recent and complete form of the lecture it happened to be delivered in philadelphia doctor conwell's home city
of every reader of this book just as he would use the name of it
footnote two doctor conwell was living and actively at work when these pages were written it is therefore a much truer picture of his personality than anything written in the past tense footnote three this interview took place
for his speeches were so persuasive so powerful so full of homely and patriotic feeling that the men who heard them thronged into the ranks and as a preacher he uses persuasion power simple and homely eloquence
to draw men to the ranks of christianity he is an orator born and has developed this inborn power by the hardest of study and thought and practice he is one of those rare men who always seize and hold the attention
when he speaks men listen it is quality temperament control the word is immaterial but the fact is very material indeed
some quarter of a century ago conwell published a little book for students on the study and practice of oratory that clear cut articulation is the charm of eloquence is one of his insisted upon statements
he avoids elocution his voice is soft pitched and never breaks even now when he is over seventy
there is never a straining after effect a speaker must possess a large hearted regard for the welfare of his audience he writes and here again we see conwell explaining conwellism
with every sermon and every lecture that he delivers it is easy to raise a laugh but dangerous for it is the greatest test of an orator's control of his audience to be able to land them
i have known him at the very end of a sermon
he has every individual under his control listening soberly to his words he never fears to use humor and it is always very simple and obvious and effective with him even a very simple pun may be used
not only with out taking away from the strength of what he is saying but with a vivid increase of impressiveness
he met last month or last year or ten years ago in ohio in california in london in paris in new york in bombay and each memory each illustration is a hammer with which he drives home a truth
the vast number of places he has visited and people he has met the infinite variety of things his observant eyes have seen give him his ceaseless flow of illustrations and his memory and his skill make admirable use of them
that has figured in the illustration when he illustrates with the story of the discovery of california gold at sutter's he almost parenthetically remarks i delivered this lecture on that very spot a few years ago
that is in the town that arose on that very spot and when he illustrates by the story of the invention of the sewing machine he adds i suppose that if any of you were asked who was the inventor of the sewing machine you would say that it was elias howe
but that would be a mistake i was with elias howe in the civil war and he often used to tell me
listening to him you begin to feel in touch with everybody and everything and in a friendly and intimate way always whether in the pulpit or on the platform as in private conversation there is an absolute simplicity about the man and his words
a simplicity an earnestness a complete honesty and when he sets down in his book on oratory a man has no right to use words carelessly he stands for that respect for word craftsmanship that every successful
speaker or writer must feel be intensely in earnest he writes and in writing this he sets down a prime principle not only of his oratory but of his life a young minister told me that doctor conwell once said to him with deep feeling
i feel whenever i preach that there is always one person in the congregation to whom in all probability i shall never preach again and therefore i feel that i must exert my utmost power in that last chance
and in this even if this were all one sees
not a moment not an opportunity must be lost
he has the attention of every one in the building and this attention he closely holds till he is through yet it is never by a striking effort that attention is gained except in so far
homely kindly friendly words promised and how effectively
but to the reading of the bible whose descriptions he not only visualizes to himself but makes vividly clear to his hearers
thou shalt meet a company of singers coming down from the high place whereupon he again interrupts himself
the desired picture in the mind of every one he says that means from the little old church on the hill you know and how plain and clear and real and interesting most of all interesting it is from this moment
usually so indeed at the prayer meetings and often in effect at the church services i remember at one church service that the choir leader was standing in front of the massed choir
was just as unconsciously the real leader for it was he
for he possesses a mysterious faculty
not only singers but the modern equivalent of psaltery and tabret and cymbals
for there may be a piano and there may even be a trombone
and at times there are chiming bells his musical taste seems to tend toward the thunderous or perhaps
and how the choir themselves like it they occupy a great curving space behind the pulpit
sometimes they are still singing and some of them continue to sing as they go slowly out toward the doors
just as howells was so long ago told that he did in lexington and there is something more than happiness there is a sense of ease of comfort of general joy that is quite unmistakable there is nothing of stiffness or constraint
and with it all there is full reverence it is no wonder that he is accustomed to fill every seat of the great building his gestures are usually very simple now and then when he works up to emphasis he strikes one fist in the palm of the other hand
when he is through you do not remember that he has made any gestures at all but the sound of his voice remains with you and the look of his wonderful eyes and though he is past the threescore years and ten
he looks out over his people with eyes that still have the veritable look of youth like all great men he not only does big things but keeps in touch with myriad details
breaks quietly in with such a number giving it dauphin street quietly and in a low tone yet every one in the church hears distinctly every syllable of that low voice
his fund of personal anecdote or personal reminiscence is constant and illustrative
just as it is when he lectures and the reminiscences sweep through many years and at times are really startling in the vivid and homelike pictures they present of the famous folk of the past that he knew one sunday evening
i asked major mc kinley whom i had met in washington and whose home was in northern ohio as was that of mister garfield to go with me to mister garfield's home and introduce me when we got there a neighbor had to find him jim jim he called
and those two great men
the old time religion garfield especially loved it so he told us because the good old man who brought him up as a boy and to whom he owed such gratitude used to sing it
at the pasture bars outside of the boy's window every morning and young jim knew
he said that he had heard
i forget what reason there was for mc kinley's especially liking it but
monotone music it was good enough for mother
thus it went on with never wearying
the old time religion the old time religion the old time religion it's good enough for me
with two of the vanished great ones of the earth stood before his people leading them singing with them his eyes aglow with an inward light his magic had suddenly
the days of pioneering and hardship when religion meant so much to everybody and even those who knew nothing of such things felt them even if but vaguely every heart was moved and touched
will sing in the memory of all
chapter three the more haste the worse speed learn to win a lady's faith nobly as the thing is high bravely as for life and death with a loyal gravity
lead her from the festive boards point her to the starry skies guard her by your truthful words pure from courtship's flatteries missus browning mister henry lennox
i am so much obliged to you for coming
asked he in a lower tone than that in which she had spoken
our young couple were playing such foolish pranks running all sorts of risks climbing this mountain sailing on that lake that i really thought they needed a mentor to take care of them and indeed they did they were quite beyond my uncle's management
indeed when i once saw how unfit they were to be trusted alone i thought it my duty not to leave them till i had seen them safely embarked at plymouth have you been at plymouth oh edith never named that to be sure
she has written in such a hurry lately did they really sail on tuesday really sailed and relieved me from many responsibilities edith gave me all sorts of messages for you i believe i have a little diminutive note somewhere yes
here it is oh thank you exclaimed margaret and then half wishing to read it alone and unwatched she made the excuse of going to tell her mother again sarah surely had made some mistake that mister lennox was there
when she had left the room he began in his scrutinising way to look about him
the middle window in the bow was opened and clustering roses and the scarlet honeysuckle came peeping round the corner the small lawn was gorgeous with verbenas and geraniums of all bright colours but the very brightness outside
made the colours within seem poor and faded the carpet was far from new the chintz had been often washed the whole apartment was smaller and shabbier than he had expected as back ground and frame work for margaret herself so queenly
he took up one of the books lying on the table it was the paradiso of dante in the proper old italian binding of white vellum and gold by it lay a dictionary and some words copied out in margaret's hand writing they were a dull list of words
but somehow he liked looking at them he put them down with a sigh the living is evidently as small as she said it seems strange for the beresfords belong to a good family margaret meanwhile
had found her mother it was one of missus hale's fitful days when everything was a difficulty and a hardship and mister lennox's appearance took this shape although secretly she felt complimented by his thinking it worth while to call it is most unfortunate
and yet of course we must ask him to dinner edith's brother in law and all
i told him i was sure helstone air did not agree with him any more than with me and he suddenly lifted up his head and begged me not to speak a word more against helstone he could not bear it if there was one place he loved on earth it was helstone
it is the damp and relaxing air margaret felt as if a thin cold cloud had come between her and the sun she had listened patiently in hopes that it might be some relief to her mother to unburden herself
but now it was time to draw her back to mister lennox papa likes mister lennox
i dare say his coming will do papa good and never mind the dinner dear mamma cold meat will do capitally for a lunch which is the light in which mister lennox will most likely look upon a two o'clock dinner
i'll ask him to go out sketching with me i know he draws and that will take him out of your way mamma only do come in now he will think it so strange if you don't missus hale took off her black silk apron and smoothed her face
she looked a very pretty lady like woman as she greeted mister lennox with the cordiality due to one who was almost a relation he evidently expected to be asked to spend the day
and accepted the invitation with a glad readiness that made missus hale wish she could add something to the cold beef he was pleased with everything delighted with margaret's idea of going out sketching together would not have mister hale disturbed for the world with the prospect of so soon meeting him at dinner
margaret brought out her drawing materials for him to choose from and after the paper and brushes had been duly selected the two set out in the merriest spirits in the world now please
just stop here for a minute or two said margaret these are the cottages that haunted me so during the rainy fortnight reproaching me for not having sketched them
we had better not put it off till next year but where shall we sit
look at this beautiful trunk of a tree which the wood cutters have left just in the right place for the light i will put my plaid over it and it will be a regular forest throne with your feet in that puddle for a regal footstool
stay i will move and then you can come nearer this way who lives in these cottages they were built by squatters fifty or sixty years ago one is uninhabited the foresters are going to take it down as soon as the old man who lives in the other is dead
poor old fellow look there he is i must go and speak to him he is so deaf you will hear all our secrets the old man stood bareheaded in the sun leaning on his stick at the front of his cottage
his stiff features relaxed into a slow smile as margaret went up and spoke to him mister lennox hastily introduced the two figures into his sketch and finished up the landscape with a subordinate reference to them as margaret perceived when the time came for getting up
putting away water and scraps of paper and exhibiting to each other their sketches she laughed and blushed mister lennox watched her countenance now i call that treacherous said she i little thought you were making old isaac and me into subjects
she came back rather flushed but looking perfectly innocent and unconscious he was glad of it for the speech had slipped from him unawares a rare thing in the case of a man who premeditated his actions so much as henry lennox
mister hale had returned from his morning's round and was awaiting his visitor just outside the wicket gate that led into the garden he looked a complete gentleman in his rather threadbare coat and well worn hat margaret was proud of her father
mister hale asked to look at their sketches i think you have made the tints on the thatch too dark have you not as he returned margaret's to her and held out his hand for mister lennox's which was withheld from him one moment no more
no papa i don't think i have the house leek and stone crop have grown so much darker in the rain is it not like papa said she peeping over his shoulder as he looked at the figures in mister lennox's drawing yes very like
i should say that a likeness you very much wish to take you would always succeed in said mister lennox i have great faith in the power of will i think myself i have succeeded pretty well in yours
mister hale had preceded them into the house while margaret was lingering to pluck some roses with which to adorn her morning gown for dinner a regular london girl would understand the implied meaning of that speech thought mister lennox
but i don't believe margaret stay exclaimed he let me help you and he gathered for her some velvety cramoisy roses that were above her reach and then dividing the spoil he placed two in his button hole
and sent her in pleased and happy to arrange her flowers the conversation at dinner flowed on quietly and agreeably there were plenty of questions to be asked on both sides
the latest intelligence which each could give of missus shaw's movements in italy to be exchanged and in the interest of what was said the unpretending simplicity of the parsonage ways above all in the neighbourhood of margaret
that she had spoken but the simple truth when she had described her father's living as very small margaret my child you might have gathered us some pears for our dessert said mister hale
as the hospitable luxury of a freshly decanted bottle of wine was placed on the table missus hale was hurried it seemed as if desserts were impromptu and unusual things at the parsonage
i propose that we adjourn into the garden and eat them there said mister lennox nothing is so delicious as to set one's teeth into the crisp juicy fruit warm and scented by the sun
the worst is the wasps are impudent enough to dispute it with one even at the very crisis and summit of enjoyment he rose as if to follow margaret who had disappeared through the window he only awaited missus hale's permission
she would rather have wound up the dinner in the proper way and with all the ceremonies which had gone on so smoothly hitherto especially as she and dixon had got out the finger glasses from the store room on purpose to be as correct as became general shaw's widow's sister but
as mister hale got up directly and prepared to accompany his guest she could only submit i shall arm myself with a knife said mister hale the days of eating fruit so primitively as you describe are over with me
i must pare it and quarter it before i can enjoy it margaret made a plate for the pears out of a beetroot leaf
mister lennox looked more at her than at the pears but her father inclined to cull fastidiously the very zest and perfection of the hour he had stolen from his anxiety chose daintily the ripest fruit
and sat down on the garden bench to enjoy it at his leisure margaret and mister lennox strolled along the little terrace walk under the south wall where the bees still hummed and worked busily in their hives what a perfect life you seem to live here
i have always felt rather contemptuously towards the poets before with their wishes mine be a cot beside a hill
just now i feel as if twenty years hard study of law would be amply rewarded by one year of such an exquisite serene life as this such skies looking up
crimson and amber foliage so perfectly motionless as that pointing to some of the great forest trees which shut in the garden as if it were a nest you must
though i think helstone is about as perfect a place as any in the world recollect how you rather scorned my description of it one evening in harley street a village in a tale scorned margaret
and you what must i call it then spoke disrespectfully of helstone as a mere village in a tale i will never do so again said he warmly they turned the corner of the walk
i could almost wish margaret he stopped and hesitated it was so unusual for the fluent lawyer to hesitate that margaret looked up at him in a little state of questioning wonder
but in an instant from what about him she could not tell she wished herself back with her mother her father anywhere away from him for she was sure he was going to say something to which she should not know what to reply
in another moment the strong pride that was in her came to conquer her sudden agitation which she hoped he had not perceived of course she could answer and answer the right thing and it was poor and despicable of her to shrink from hearing any speech
as if she had not power to put an end to it with her high maidenly dignity margaret said he taking her by surprise and getting sudden possession of her hand so that she was forced to stand still and listen
despising herself for the fluttering at her heart all the time margaret
did not seem so perfectly calm and happy here i have been hoping for these three months past to find you regretting london and london friends a little enough to make you listen more kindly
for she was quietly but firmly striving to extricate her hand from his grasp to one who has not much to offer it is true nothing but prospects in the future but
who does love you margaret almost in spite of himself margaret have i startled you too much speak for he saw her lips quivering almost as if she were going to cry
she made a strong effort to be calm she would not speak till she had succeeded in mastering her voice and then she said i was startled i did not know that you cared for me in that way
i have always thought of you as a friend and please i would rather go on thinking of you so i don't like to be spoken to as you have been doing i cannot answer you as you want me to do and yet
i should feel so sorry if i vexed you margaret said he looking into her eyes which met his with their open straight look expressive of the utmost good faith and reluctance to give pain
but it seemed as if this question would be an insult to the pure serenity of those eyes forgive me i have been too abrupt i am punished only let me hope
again a pause he could not end his sentence margaret reproached herself acutely as the cause of his distress
it was such a pleasure to think of you as a friend but i may hope may i not margaret that some time you will think of me as a lover not yet i see there is no hurry but some time
she was silent for a minute or two trying to discover the truth as it was in her own heart before replying then she said i have never thought of you but as a friend
i like to think of you so but i am sure i could never think of you as anything else
all this disagreeable she was going to say but stopped short conversation has taken place he paused before he replied then in his habitual coldness of tone he answered
of course as your feelings are so decided and as this conversation has been so evidently unpleasant to you it had better not be remembered that is all very fine in theory that plan of forgetting whatever is painful but it
will be somewhat difficult for me at least to carry it into execution you are vexed said she sadly yet how can i help it she looked so truly grieved as she said this that he struggled for a moment with his real disappointment
you should make allowances for the mortification not only of a lover margaret but of a man not given to romance in general prudent worldly as some people call me who has been carried out of his usual habits by the force of a
passion well we will say no more of that but in the one outlet which he has formed for the deeper and better feelings of his nature he meets with rejection and repulse
i shall have to console myself with scorning my own folly a struggling barrister to think of matrimony margaret could not answer this
he was the pleasantest man the most sympathising friend the person of all others who understood her best in harley street she felt a tinge of contempt mingle itself with her pain at having refused him her beautiful lip
curled in a slight disdain it was well that having made the round of the garden they came suddenly upon mister hale whose whereabouts had been quite forgotten by them he had not yet finished the pear which he had delicately peeled in one long strip of silver paper thinness
and which he was enjoying in a deliberate manner it was like the story of the eastern king who dipped his head into a basin of water at the magician's command and ere he instantly took it out went through the experience of a lifetime margaret felt stunned
she was grave and little disposed to speak full of wonder when mister lennox would go and allow her to relax into thought on the events of the last quarter of an hour he was almost as anxious to take his departure as she was for him to leave
but a few minutes light and careless talking carried on at whatever effort was a sacrifice which he owed to his mortified vanity or his self respect he glanced from time to time at her sad and pensive face
i am not so indifferent to her as she believes thought he to himself i do not give up hope
speaking of life in london and life in the country as if he were conscious of his second mocking self
and at dinner to day a lighter cleverer more worldly man and as such dissonant to mister hale it was a relief to all three
they proceeded to the house to find missus hale and wish her good bye at the last moment henry lennox's real self broke through the crust margaret don't despise me i have a heart notwithstanding all this
good for nothing way of talking as a proof of it i believe i love you more than ever if i do not hate you for the disdain with which you have listened to me during this last half hour good bye margaret
your beauty was the first that won the place
which captive now pines in a caitive case unkindly met with rigour for desert yet not the less your servant shall abide in spite of rude repulse or silent pride william fowler
the next morning margaret dragged herself up thankful that the night was over unrefreshed yet rested all had gone well through the house her mother had only wakened once
a little breeze was stirring in the hot air and though there were no trees to show the playful tossing movement caused by the wind among the leaves margaret knew how somewhere or another by way side in copses or in thick green woods
there was a pleasant murmuring dancing sound a rushing and falling noise the very thought of which was an echo of distant gladness in her heart she sat at her work in missus hale's room
she would help her mother to dress after dinner she would go and see bessy higgins she would banish all recollection of the thornton family no need to think of them till they absolutely stood before her in flesh and blood but of course
the effort not to think of them brought them only the more strongly before her and from time to time the hot flush came over her pale face sweeping it into colour as a sunbeam from between watery clouds comes swiftly moving over the sea
dixon opened the door very softly and stole on tiptoe up to margaret sitting by the shaded window mister thornton miss margaret he is in the drawing room margaret dropped her sewing
did he ask for me isn't papa come in
said margaret quietly but she lingered strangely mister thornton stood by one of the windows with his back to the door apparently absorbed in watching something in the street but in truth he was afraid of himself
his heart beat thick at the thought of her coming he could not forget the touch of her arms around his neck impatiently felt as it had been at the time but now the recollection of her clinging defence of him seemed to thrill him through and through
to melt away every resolution all power of self control as if it were wax before a fire he dreaded lest he should go forwards to meet her with his arms held out in mute entreaty that she would come and nestle there as she had done
all unheeded the day before but never unheeded again his heart throbbed loud and quick strong man as he was he trembled at the anticipation of what he had to say and how it might be received
she might droop and flush and flutter to his arms as to her natural home and resting place one moment he glowed with impatience at the thought that she might do this the next he feared a passionate rejection
the very idea of which withered up his future with so deadly a blight that he refused to think of it he was startled by the sense of the presence of some one else in the room he turned round she had come in so gently that he had never heard her
the street noises had been more distinct to his inattentive ear than her slow movements in her soft muslin gown she stood by the table not offering to sit down her eyelids were dropped half over her eyes
her teeth were shut not compressed her lips were just parted over them allowing the white line to be seen between their curve her slow deep breathings dilated her thin and beautiful nostrils it was the only motion visible
on her countenance the fine grained skin the oval cheek the rich outline of her mouth its corners deep set in dimples were all wan and pale to day the loss of their usual natural healthy colour being made more evident
by the heavy shadow of the dark hair brought down upon the temples to hide all sign of the blow she had received her head for all its drooping eyes was thrown a little back in the old proud attitude
her long arms hung motion less by her sides altogether she looked like some prisoner falsely accused of a crime that she loathed and despised and from which she was too indignant to justify herself mister thornton made a hasty step or two forwards
recovered himself and went with quiet firmness to the door which she had left open and shut it then he came back and stood opposite to her for a moment receiving the general impression of her beautiful presence
by what he had to say miss hale i was very ungrateful yesterday you had nothing to be grateful for said she raising her eyes and looking full and straight at him you mean i suppose
that you believe you ought to thank me for what i did in spite of herself in defiance of her anger the thick blushes came all over her face and burnt into her very eyes which fell not nevertheless from their grave and steady look
it was only a natural instinct any woman would have done just the same we all feel the sanctity of our sex as a high privilege when we see danger
to apologise to you for having said thoughtless words which sent you down into the danger it was not your words it was the truth they conveyed pungently as it was expressed
but you shall not drive me off upon that and so escape the expression of my deep gratitude my he was on the verge now he would not speak in the haste of his hot passion he would weigh each word he would
and his will was triumphant he stopped in mid career i do not try to escape from anything said she i simply say that you owe me no gratitude and i may add
that any expression of it will be painful to me because i do not feel that i deserve it still if it will relieve you from even a fancied obligation speak on i do not want to be relieved from any obligation said he goaded by her calm manner
fancied or not fancied i question not myself to know which i choose to believe that i owe my very life to you ay smile and think it an exaggeration if you will i believe it because
it adds a value to that life to think oh miss hale continued he lowering his voice to such a tender intensity of passion that she shivered and trembled before him to think circumstance so wrought
that whenever i exult in existence henceforward i may say to myself all this gladness in life all honest pride in doing my work in the world all this keen sense of being i owe to her and it doubles the gladness
it makes the pride glow it sharpens the sense of existence till i hardly know if it is pain or pleasure to think that i owe it to one nay you must you shall hear' said he stepping forwards with stern determination
as he heard her icy tone for icy it was though the words came faltering out as if she knew not where to find them your way of speaking shocks me it is blasphemous
i cannot help it if that is my first feeling it might not
i do not want to vex you and besides we must speak gently for mamma is asleep but your whole manner
i am indeed most unfortunate yes said she with recovered dignity i do feel offended and i think justly you seem to fancy that my conduct of yesterday' again the deep carnation blush
but this time with eyes kindling with indignation rather than shame
and that you may come and thank me for it instead of perceiving as a gentleman would yes a gentleman she repeated in allusion to their former conversation about that word that any woman worthy of the name of woman
would come forward to shield with her reverenced helplessness a man in danger from the violence of numbers and the gentleman thus rescued is forbidden the relief of thanks he broke in contemptuously i am a man
i claim the right of expressing my feelings and i yielded to the right simply saying that you gave me pain by insisting upon it she replied proudly but you seem to have imagined that i was not merely guided by womanly instinct but'
and here the passionate tears kept down for long struggled with vehemently came up into her eyes and choked her voice that i was prompted by some particular feeling for you you
not a poor desperate man in all that crowd for whom i had not more sympathy for whom i should not have done what little i could more heartily you may speak on miss hale i am aware of all these misplaced sympathies of yours
i now believe that it was only your innate sense of oppression yes i though a master may be oppressed that made you act so nobly as you did i know you despise me allow me to say it is because you do not understand me
i do not care to understand she replied taking hold of the table to steady herself for she thought him cruel as indeed he was and she was weak with her indignation no i see you do not
you are unfair and unjust margaret compressed her lips she would not speak in answer to such accusations but for all that for all his savage words he could have thrown himself at her feet and kissed the hem of her garment
she did not speak she did not move the tears of wounded pride fell hot and fast he waited awhile longing for her to say something even a taunt to which he might reply
but she was silent he took up his hat
you look as if you thought it tainted you to be loved by me you cannot avoid it nay i if i would cannot cleanse you from it but i would not if i could i have never loved any woman before
my life has been too busy my thoughts too much absorbed with other things now i love and will love but do not be afraid of too much expression on my part i am not afraid
she replied lifting herself straight up no one yet has ever dared to be impertinent to me and no one ever shall but mister thornton you have been very kind to my father said she
changing her whole tone and bearing to a most womanly softness don't let us go on making each other angry pray don't he took no notice of her words he occupied himself in smoothing the nap of his hat with his coat sleeve for half a minute or so
and then rejecting her offered hand and making as if he did not see her grave look of regret he turned abruptly away and left the room margaret caught one glance at his face before he went when he was gone
but how could i help it asked she of herself i never liked him i was civil but i took no trouble to conceal my indifference indeed i never thought about myself or him
so my manners must have shown the truth all that yesterday he might mistake but
the noise startled madame de villefort who shuddered and dropped the curtain immediately afterwards the light expired and the room was plunged in frightful obscurity while the clock at that minute struck half past four
then by degrees a cold light crept through the venetian blinds until at length it revealed the objects in the room about this time the nurse's cough was heard on the stairs and the woman entered the room
the first glance would have sufficed to reveal valentine's condition but to this hireling valentine only appeared to sleep good she exclaimed approaching the table
she has taken part of her draught the glass is three quarters empty then she went to the fireplace and lit the fire and
to snatch a little more rest the clock striking eight awoke her
she advanced towards valentine and for the first time noticed the white lips she tried to replace the arm but it moved with a frightful rigidity which could not deceive a sick nurse she screamed aloud then
running to the door exclaimed help help
at the foot of the stairs it being the hour he usually visited her
doctor do you hear them call for help
it was in valentine's room but before the doctor and the father could reach the room the servants
and stood transfixed as though struck by lightening call madame de villefort wake madame de villefort cried the procureur from the door of his chamber which apparently he scarcely dared to leave but instead of obeying him
who ran to valentine and raised her in his arms
raising his hands to heaven i say that valentine is dead
in a voice terrible in its solemn calm
on the exclamation of the doctor
the servants all fled with muttered imprecations they were heard running down the stairs and through the long passages then there was a rush in the court afterwards all was still they had
of slipping on her dressing gown threw aside the drapery and for a moment stood motionless as though interrogating the occupants of the room while she endeavored
on a sudden she stepped or rather bounded with outstretched arms towards the table
curiously examining the glass
it was now a third full just as it was when she threw the contents into the ashes the spectre of valentine rising before the poisoner
and which valentine had drunk it was indeed the poison
which he now examined so closely
some proof remaining to reveal the crime
remained rooted to the spot like a statue of terror and villefort with his head hidden in the bedclothes saw nothing around him
ah he exclaimed it is no longer brucine that is used let me see what it is
the nurse was engaged in watching the chemical analysis
he lifted up the drapery over the entrance to edward's room
he beheld her extended lifeless on the floor
dead repeated a third voice who said valentine was dead the two men turned round and saw morrel standing at the door pale and terror stricken this is what had happened
at the usual time morrel had presented himself at the little door leading to noirtier's room
the door was open and having no occasion to ring he entered
the servants having as we know deserted the house morrel had no particular reason for uneasiness monte cristo had promised him that valentine should live and so far he had always fulfilled his word every night
still no answer then he determined to go up noirtier's room was opened like all the rest
but his eyes expressed alarm which was confirmed by the pallor
how are you sir
by closing his eyes but his appearance manifested increasing uneasiness you are thoughtful sir continued morrel you want something shall i call one of the servants yes replied noirtier
morrel pulled the bell
no one answered he turned towards noirtier
morrel why do they not come is any one ill in the house the eyes of noirtier seemed as though they would start from their sockets
you alarm me valentine valentine yes yes signed noirtier maximilian tried to speak but he could articulate nothing
then he pointed to the door yes yes yes
repeating and repeating wake up wake up it's six o'clock already when she was sure the three boys in the bed were awake and miserable she crossed the room with a hurried heavy tread and clumped clumped down the stairs into the kitchen
and shut his eyes again just for a minute the night had been a cold one and the other two boys in the bed because they were older and stronger had managed to keep most of the bedding wrapped tightly around them while little eric shivered on the very edge
that is when they have a bed to themselves and their mother has left a kiss with them
and without thought of a bath was into his clothes in a minute the two older boys followed him more slowly yawning growling and quarreling breakfast was served in the kitchen by missus freg the room was bare and ugly like the rest of the house
while mister and missus freg laughed at them and praised them for fine hearty boys who knew what they wanted and would get it
said missus freg with mother pride gleaming in her eyes when they had managed to seize and divide between them little eric's steaming cup of coffee
success too asked eric in a faint but hopeful voice you said the harsh woman you young man had better be thankful to work on at the canning instead of starving in the streets that's the fate of most orphans
success indeed now hurry along all of you it's quarter to seven
eric did not hurry along he threw down his spoon and cried i'd just as soon starve in the streets and wade in its icy puddles too as live here with you and your nasty boys and work in that old canning factory
the hating tears in his eyes and on his face but no one laughed at him
even the other children for he was not crying in the usual way with little boys he was walking along with his head up so people did not bother him
and was almost in the shadow of the big cruel factory when the magic began to work
it was only waiting for eric to see it before it would take hold of him and carry him away into happiness it had waited for him at the door of the dull bare little house that had never been home to him
and he did feel just in time to let the magic work
strangely warm he wiped the tears from his eyes away to the side of his face with his sleeve and looked about the sun was very bright but in a mild pleasant way
was showering softly softly softly yellow autumn leaves until they covered the cobblestones all around eric did not think about being late the magic was pulling him now he went across and stood under the tree
and felt the leaves showering on his head and shoulders and caught a few in his hands all the people passed and soon the last one was hidden behind the heavy factory door eric gave the door a glance or two but did not go
over the roof of the factory he saw the tops of tall trees waving he had never looked so high above the factory before
a wood he had always been too tired to think of exploring even on holidays now he saw the tops of the tall trees beckoning him in a golden mist
that was why the golden leaves were showering in a mist and why the sun was so warm eric dropped his ragged coat and cap on the edge of the wood it was so warm and went in
a little girl had been watching him from her place at one of the factory windows where she was sorting cans
had they sent him perhaps to do a different kind of work that could only be done in the woods but as he walked away in under the trees farther and farther
and although she leaned far forward over the cans at a great risk of knocking over dozens and setting them rolling
a sprightly tailor was employed by the great macdonald in his castle at saddell
and trews being the vest and breeches united in one piece and ornamented with fringes were very comfortable and suitable to be worn in walking or dancing
and that fearsome things were to be seen there at night the tailor was well aware of this but he was a sprightly man and when the laird dared him to make the trews
but took it in hand to gain the prize so when night came away he went up the glen about half a mile distance from the castle till he came to the old church then he chose him a nice grave stone for a seat
and put on his thimble and set to work at the trews plying his needle nimbly
do you see this great head of mine i see that but i'll sew this replied the sprightly tailor and he stitched away at the trews then the head rose higher up through the pavement until its neck appeared and when its neck was shown
the thundering voice came again and said do you see this great neck of mine i see that but i'll sew this said the sprightly tailor
then the head and neck rose higher still until the great shoulders and chest were shown above the ground and again the mighty voice thundered do you see this great chest of mine and again the sprightly tailor replied
i see that but i'll sew this and stitched away at his trews and still it kept rising through the pavement until it shook a great pair of arms in the tailor's face and said do you see these great arms of mine
no time to lose the sprightly tailor was taking the long stitches when he saw it gradually rising and rising through the floor
and stamping with it upon the pavement
do you see this great leg of mine aye aye i see that but i'll sew this cried the tailor and his fingers flew with the needle and he took such long stitches that he was just come to the end of the trews when
it was taking up its other leg but before it could pull it out of the pavement the sprightly tailor had finished his task and
and out of the church he went after the sprightly tailor down the glen they ran faster than the stream
but the tailor had got the start and a nimble pair of legs and he did not choose to lose the laird's reward and though the thing roared to him to stop
so he held his trews tight and let no darkness grow under his feet
he had no sooner got inside the gate and shut it than the monster came up to it and enraged at losing his prize struck the wall above the gate and left there the mark of his five great fingers
you may see them plainly to this day if you'll only peer close enough
between the hill and the valley it was one of the moist pleasantly odorous nights of early spring there was a chill in the evening air but the grass was growing green in sheltered spots
and jeffrey miller had found purple petalled violets and pink arbutus on the hill that day across a valley filled with beech and fir there was a sunset afterglow creamy yellow and pale red with a new moon swung above it
it was a night for a man to walk alone and dream of his love which was perhaps why jeffrey miller came so loiteringly across the springy hill pasture with his hands full of the mayflowers he was a tall broad shouldered man of forty
and looking no younger with dark grey eyes and a tanned clean cut face clean shaven save for a drooping moustache jeffrey miller was considered a handsome man
and bayside people had periodical fits of wondering why he had never married they pitied him for the lonely life he must lead alone there at the valley farm with only a deaf old housekeeper as a companion
for it did not occur to the bayside people in general that a couple of shaggy dogs could be called companions and they did not know that books make very excellent comrades for people who know how to treat them one of jeffrey's dogs was with him now
the oldest one with white breast and paws and a tawny coat he was so old that he was half blind and rather deaf but with one exception he was the dearest of living creatures to jeffrey miller
for sara stuart had given him the sprawly chubby little pup years ago they came down the hill together a group of men were standing on the bridge in the hollow discussing colonel stuart's funeral of the day before
jeffrey caught sara's name and paused on the outskirts of the group to listen sometimes he thought that if he were lying dead under six feet of turf and sara stuart's name were pronounced above him his heart would give a bound of life
yes the old kunnel's gone at last christopher jackson was saying he took his time dyin that's sartain must be a kind of relief for sara she's had to wait on him hand and foot for years but no doubt she'll feel pretty lonesome
wonder what she'll do is there any particular reason for her to do anything asked alec churchill
there were exclamations of surprise from the other men on hearing this jeffrey drew nearer absently patting his dog's head he had not known it either oh yes
said christopher enjoying all the importance of exclusive information i thought everybody knew that pinehurst goes to the oldest male heir the old kunnel felt it keen that he hadn't a son of course there's plenty of money and sara'll get that
but i guess she'll feel pretty bad at leaving her old home sara ain't as young as she used to be neither let me see she must be thirty eight well she's left pretty lonesome
maybe she'll stay on at pinehurst said job crowe it'd only be right for her cousin to give her a home there christopher shook his head no i understand they're not on very good terms
sara don't like charles stuart or his wife and i don't blame her she won't stay there not likely probably she'll go and live in town strange she never married she was reckoned handsome and had plenty of beaus at one time
jeffrey swung out of the group and started homeward with his dog to stand by and hear sara stuart discussed after this fashion was more than he could endure the men idly watched his tall erect figure as he went along the valley
queer chap jeff said alec churchill reflectively jeff's all right said christopher in a patronizing way there ain't a better man or neighbour alive
but he's queer sartainly not like other people kind of unsociable he don't care for a thing cept dogs and reading and mooning round woods and fields that ain't natural you know but i must say he's a good farmer
he's got the best farm in bayside and that's a real nice house he put up on it ain't it an odd thing he never married never seemed to have no notion of it i can't recollect of jeff miller's ever courting anybody that's another unnatural thing about him
i've always thought that jeff thought himself a cut or two above the rest of us said tom scovel with a sneer maybe he thinks the bayside girls ain't good enough for him
there ain't no such dirty pride about jeff pronounced christopher conclusively and the millers are the best family hereabouts leaving the kunnel's out and jeff's well off
nobody knows how well i reckon but i can guess being his land neighbour jeff ain't no fool nor loafer if he is a bit queer meanwhile the object of these remarks was striding homeward and thinking not of the men behind him
but of sara stuart he must go to her at once he had not intruded on her since her father's death thinking her sorrow too great for him to meddle with but this was different perhaps she needed the advice or assistance only he could give
to whom else in bayside could she turn for it but to him her old friend was it possible that she must leave pinehurst the thought struck cold dismay to his soul how could he bear his life if she went away
he had loved sara stuart from childhood he remembered vividly the day he had first seen her a spring day much like this one had been he a boy of eight had gone with his father to the big sunshiny hill field
and he had searched for birds nests in the little fir copses along the crest while his father plowed he had so come upon her sitting on the fence under the pines at the back of pinehurst a child of six in a dress of purple cloth
her long light brown curls fell over her shoulders and rippled sleekly back from her calm little brow her eyes were large and greyish blue straight gazing and steadfast
to the end of his life the boy was to carry in his heart the picture she made there under the pines little boy she had said with a friendly smile
and they set out together for the barrens beyond the field where the arbutus trailed its stars of sweetness under the dusty dead grasses and withered leaves of the old year the boy was thrilled with delight she was a fairy queen who thus graciously smiled on him
and chattered blithely as they searched for mayflowers in the fresh spring sunshine he thought it a wonderful thing that it had so chanced it overjoyed him to give the choicest dusters he found into her slim waxen little fingers
and watch her eyes grow round with pleasure in them when the sun began to lower over the beeches she had gone home with her arms full of arbutus but she had turned at the edge of the pineland and waved her hand at him that night
when he told his mother of the little girl he had met on the hill she had hoped anxiously that he had been very polite for the little girl was a daughter of colonel stuart newly come to pinehurst jeffrey reflecting
had not been certain that he had been polite but i am sure she liked me he said gravely a few days later a message came from missus stuart on the hill to missus miller in the valley
would she let her little boy go up now and then to play with sara sara was very lonely because she had no playmates so jeff overjoyed had gone to his divinity's very home where the two children played together many a day
all through their childhood they had been fast friends sara's parents placed no bar to their intimacy they had soon concluded that little jeff miller was a very good playmate for sara he was gentle well behaved and manly
sara never went to the district school which jeff attended she had her governess at home with no other boy or girl in bayside did she form any friendship but her loyalty to jeff never wavered as for jeff
he worshipped her and would have done anything she commanded he belonged to her from the day they had hunted arbutus on the hill when sara was fifteen she had gone away to school jeff had missed her sorely
for four years he saw her only in the summers and each year she had seemed taller statelier further from him when she graduated her father took her abroad for two years then she came home a lovely high bred girl
and jeffrey miller was face to face with two bitter facts one was that he loved her not with the boy and girl love of long ago but with the love of a man for the one woman in the world
and the other was that she was as far beyond his reach as one of those sunset stars of which she had always reminded him in her pure clear shining loveliness he looked these facts unflinchingly in the face until he had grown used to them
and then he laid down his course for himself he loved sara and he did not wish to conquer his love even if it had been possible it were better to love her whom he could never win than to love and be loved by any other woman
his great office in life was to be her friend humble and unexpectant to be at hand if she should need him for ever so trifling a service never to presume always to be faithful
sara had not forgotten her old friend but their former comradeship was now impossible they could be friends but never again companions sara's life was full and gay
she had interests in which he had no share her social world was utterly apart from his she was of the hill and its traditions he was of the valley and its people the democracy of childhood past
there was no common ground on which they might meet only one thing jeffrey had found it impossible to contemplate calmly some day sara would marry a man who was her equal who sat at her father's table as a guest
in spite of himself jeffrey's heart filled with hot rebellion at the thought
his hands were clasped behind him and his thin face wore a thoughtful puzzled look the door behind him opened jerkingly and a scowling woman came out with a pan of dishwater in her hand ain't you gone yet bert she said sharply
what in the world are you hanging round for it's early yet said bertie cheerfully i thought maybe george fraser'd be along and i'd get a lift as far as the store
he hasn't got any mittens and he would catch his death of cold again her voice seemed to imply that william john had died of cold several times already bertie looked soberly down at his old well darned mittens it was very cold and he would have a great many errands to run
he shivered and looked up at his aunt's hard face as she stood wiping her dish pan with a grim frown which boded no good to the discontented william john then he suddenly pulled off his mittens and held them out here he can have mine i'll get on without them well enough
nonsense said missus ross but less unkindly the fingers would freeze off you don't be a goose it's all right persisted bertie i don't need them much and william john doesn't hardly ever get out
he had to stop a great many times that day to breathe on his purple hands still he did not regret having lent his mittens to william john poor pale sickly little william john who had so few pleasures
it was sunset when bertie laid an armful of parcels down on the steps of doctor forbes's handsome house
his back was turned towards the big bay window at one side and he was busy trying to warm his hands so he did not see the two small faces looking at him through the frosty panes just look at that poor little boy amy said the taller of the two
there she goes now said amy edie couldn't we coax her to let him come in and get warm he looks so cold and she drew her sister out into the hall where the housekeeper was taking bertie's parcels caroline whispered edith timidly
please tell that poor little fellow to come in and get warm he looks very cold he's used to the cold i warrant you said the housekeeper rather impatiently it won't hurt him but it is christmas week said edith gravely
and you know caroline when mamma was here she used to say that we ought to be particularly thoughtful of others who were not so happy or well off as we were at this time perhaps edith's reference to her mother softened caroline for she turned to bertie and said cordially enough
come in and warm yourself before you go it's a cold day bertie shyly followed her to the kitchen sit up to the fire said caroline placing a chair for him while edith and amy came round to the other side of the stove and watched him with friendly interest
robert ross ma'am oh you're missus ross's nephew then said caroline breaking eggs into her cake bowl and whisking them deftly round
i lent them to william john he hadn't any faltered bertie he did not know but that the lady might consider it a grave crime to be mittenless no mittens exclaimed amy in dismay why i have three pairs
and who is william john he is my cousin said bertie
he wanted to go out to play and he hadn't any mittens so i lent him mine i didn't miss them much
we didn't have any no christmas said amy quite overcome oh well i suppose you are going to have a good time on new year's instead bertie shook his head n o m i guess not
we never have it different from other times amy was silent from sheer amazement edith understood better and she changed the subject have you any brothers or sisters bertie n o m returned bertie cheerfully i guess there's enough of us without that
i must be going now i'm very much obliged to you edith slipped from the room as he spoke and met him again at the door she held out a pair of warm looking mittens these are for william john she said simply so that you can have your own
they are a pair of mine which are too big for me i know papa will say it is all right goodbye bertie goodbye and thank you stammered bertie as the door closed then he hastened home to william john
that evening doctor forbes noticed a peculiarly thoughtful look on edith's face as she sat gazing into the glowing coal fire after dinner he laid his hand on her dark curls inquiringly what are you musing over
there was a little boy here today began edith oh such a dear little boy broke in amy eagerly from the corner where she was playing with her kitten his name was bertie ross he brought up the parcels and we asked him in to get warm
he had no mittens and his hands were almost frozen and oh papa just think he said he never had any christmas or new year at all poor little fellow said the doctor i've heard of him a pretty hard time he has of it i think
he was so pretty papa and edie gave him her blue mittens for william john the plot deepens who is william john oh a cousin or something didn't he say edie anyway he is sick and he wanted to go coasting and bertie gave him his mittens
and i suppose he never had any christmas either there are plenty who haven't said the doctor taking up his paper with a sigh well girlies you seem interested in this little fellow
oh papa said edith her eyes shining like stars the doctor laughed write him a nice little note of invitation you are the lady of the house you know and i'll see that he gets it tomorrow
and this was how it came to pass that bertie received the next day his first invitation to dine out he read the little note through three times in order fully to take in its contents
it was with the same expression that he opened the door at home in the evening
she spoke sharply she always spoke sharply even when not intending it it had grown to be a habit yes'm said bertie meekly as he hung up his cap i s'pose you've only got one day more at the store said missus ross
sampson didn't say anything about keeping you longer did he no he said he couldn't i asked him well i didn't expect he would you'll have a holiday on new year's anyhow whether you'll have anything to eat or not is a different question
me and william john it's from doctor forbes's little girls the ones that gave me the mittens he handed her the little note and missus ross stooped down and read it by the fitful gleam of light which came from the cracked stove
well you can please yourself she said as she handed it back but william john couldn't go if he had ten invitations he caught cold coasting yesterday i told him he would but he was bound to go and now he's laid up for a week
listen to him barking in the bedroom there well then i won't go either said bertie with a sigh it might be of relief or it might be of disappointment i wouldn't go there all alone
you're a goose said his aunt they wouldn't eat you but as i said please yourself anyhow hold your tongue about it to william john or you'll have him crying and bawling to go too the caution came too late william john had already heard it
and when his mother went in to rub his chest with liniment she found him with the ragged quilt over his head crying come william john i want to rub you i don't want to be rubbed
i heard you out there you needn't think i didn't bertie's going to doctor forbes's to dinner and i can't go well you've only yourself to thank for it returned his mother if you hadn't persisted in going out coasting yesterday when i wanted you to stay in you'd have been able to go to doctor forbes's
little boys who won't do as they're told always get into trouble stop crying now i dare say if bertie goes they'll send you some candy or something but william john refused to be comforted he cried himself to sleep that night and when bertie went in to see him next morning
he found him sitting up in bed with his eyes red and swollen and the faded quilt drawn up around his pinched face well william john how are you i ain't any better replied william john mournfully
oh i'm not going since you can't said bertie cheerily he thought this would comfort william john but it had exactly the opposite effect william john had cried until he could cry no more but he turned around and sobbed
there now he said in tearless despair that's just what i expected i did s'pose if i couldn't go you would and tell me about it
i thought you'd rather have me home but i'll go if you want me to
i must be off to the store now goodbye thus committed bertie took his courage in both hands and went the next evening at dusk found him standing at doctor forbes's door with a very violently beating heart
he was carefully dressed in his well worn best suit and a neat white collar the frosty air had crimsoned his cheeks and his hair was curling round his face
caroline opened the door and showed him into the parlour where edith and amy were eagerly awaiting him happy new year bertie cried amy and but why where is william john he couldn't come answered bertie anxiously
he was afraid he might not be welcome without william john he's real sick he caught cold and has to stay in bed but he wanted to come awful bad oh dear me poor william john said amy in a disappointed tone
but all further remarks were cut short by the entrance of doctor forbes how do you do he said giving bertie's hand a hearty shake but where is the other little fellow my girls were expecting bertie patiently reaccounted for william john's non appearance
it's a bad time for colds said the doctor sitting down and attacking the fire i dare say though you have to run so fast these days that a cold couldn't catch you i suppose you'll soon be leaving sampson's he told me he didn't need you after the holiday season was over
bertie shook his head sorrowfully no sir but he added more cheerfully i guess i'll find something if i hunt around lively i almost always do he forgot his shyness
his face flushed hopefully and he looked straight at the doctor with his bright earnest eyes the doctor poked the fire energetically and looked very wise but just then the girls came up and carried bertie off to display their holiday gifts
and there was a fur cap and a pair of mittens for him he wondered whether he was dreaming and here's a picture book for william john said amy and there is a sled out in the kitchen for him oh there's the dinner bell i'm awfully hungry
papa says that is my normal condition but i don't know what that means as for that dinner bertie might sometimes have seen such a repast in delightful dreams but certainly never out of them it was a feast to be dated from
when the plum pudding came on the doctor who had been notably silent leaned back in his chair placed his finger tips together and looked critically at bertie so mister sampson can't keep you bertie's face sobered at once
he had almost forgotten his responsibilities no sir he says i'm too small for the heavy work well you are rather small but no doubt you will grow boys have a queer habit of doing that
if you like i'll try you you can live here and go to school i sometimes hear of places for boys in my rounds and the first good one that will suit you i'll bespeak for you how will that do oh sir you are too good said bertie with a choke in his voice
well that is settled said the doctor genially come on monday then and perhaps we can do something for that other little chap william or john or whatever his name is will you have some more pudding bertie no thank you said bertie pudding indeed
he could not have eaten another mouthful after such wonderful and unexpected good fortune after dinner they played games and cracked nuts and roasted apples until the clock struck nine then bertie got up to go off are you said the doctor looking up from his paper
well i'll expect you on monday remember yes sir said bertie happily he was not likely to forget as he went out amy came through the hall with a red sled here is william john's present i've tied all the other things on so that they can't fall off
edith was at the door with a parcel here are some nuts and candies for william john she said and tell him we all wish him a happy new year thank you said bertie i've had a splendid time i'll tell william john goodnight he stepped out
it was frostier than ever the snow crackled and snapped the stars were keen and bright but to bertie running down the street with william john's sled thumping merrily behind him the world was aglow with rosy hope and promise
the fairy there was once upon a time a widow who had two daughters the eldest was so much like her in the face and humour that whoever looked upon the daughter saw the mother
they were both so disagreeable and so proud that there was no living with them
was withal one of the most beautiful girls ever seen as people naturally love their own likeness this mother even doated on her eldest daughter and at the same time had a horrible aversion for the youngest she made her eat in the kitchen and work continually
among other things this poor child was forced twice a day to draw water above a mile and a half off the house and bring home a pitcher full of it one day as she was at this fountain there came to her a poor woman who begged of her to let her drink
o ay with all my heart goody said this pretty maid and rinsing immediately the pitcher she took up some water from the clearest place of the fountain and gave it to her holding up the pitcher all the while that she might drink the easier
the good woman having drank said to her you are so very pretty my dear so good and so mannerly that i cannot help giving you a gift for this was a fairy who had taken the form of a poor country woman
to see how far the civility and good manners of this pretty girl would go i will give you for gift continued the fairy that at every word you speak there shall come out of your mouth either a flower or a jewel when this pretty girl came home
her mother scolded at her for staying so long at the fountain i beg your pardon mamma said the poor girl for not making more haste and in speaking these words there came out of her mouth two roses two pearls and two diamonds
what is this i see said her mother quite astonished i think i see pearls and diamonds come out of the girl's mouth how happens this child this was the first time she ever called her child
the poor creature told her frankly all the matter not without dropping out infinite numbers of diamonds in good faith cried the mother i must send my child thither come hither fanny
look what comes out of thy sister's mouth when she speaks would'st not thou be glad my dear to have the same gift given to thee thou hast nothing else to do but go and draw water out of the fountain
a lady most gloriously dressed who came up to her and asked to drink this was you must know the very fairy who appeared to her sister but had now taken the air and dress of a princess to see how far this girl's rudeness would go
to serve you with water pray i suppose the silver tankard was brought purely for your ladyship was it however you may drink out of it if you have a fancy
without putting herself in a passion well then since you have so little breeding and are so disobliging i give you for gift that at every word you speak there shall come out of your mouth a snake or a toad
so soon as her mother saw her coming she cried out well daughter well mother answered the pert hussey throwing out of her mouth two vipers and two toads o mercy cried the mother
o it is that wretch her sister who has occasioned all this but she shall pay for it and immediately she ran to beat her the poor child fled away from her and went to hide herself in the forest not far from thence
the king's son then on his return from hunting met her and seeing her so very pretty asked her what she did there alone and why she cried alas sir my mamma has turned me out of doors
the king's son who saw five or six pearls and as many diamonds come out of her mouth desired her to tell him how that happened she thereupon told him the whole story and so the king's son fell in love with her
and considering with himself that such a gift was worth more than any marriage portion whatsoever in another conducted her to the palace of the king his father and there married her as for her sister
she made herself so much hated that her own mother turned her off and the miserable wretch having wandered about a good while without finding anybody to take her in went to a corner in the wood
money and jewels still we find stamp strong impressions on the mind but sweet discourse more potent riches yields of higher value is the pow'r it wields another
chapter seven from home to the street as the shadows of the gloomy march evening deepened alida lighted the lamp and was then a little surprised to hear a knock at the door no presentiment of trouble crossed her mind
she merely thought that one of her neighbors on the lower floors had stepped up to borrow something come in she cried as she adjusted the shade of the lamp a tall thin pale woman entered
carrying a child that was partly hidden by a thin shawl their only outer protection against the chill winds which had been blustering all day alida looked at the stranger inquiringly and kindly expecting an appeal for charity
the woman sank into a chair as if exhausted and fixed her dark hollow eyes on missus ostrom she appeared consumed by a terrible curiosity alida wondered at the strange chill of apprehension
with which she encountered this gaze it was so intent so searching yet so utterly devoid of a trace of good will she began gently can i do anything for you for a moment or two longer
there was no response other than the same cold questioning scrutiny as if instead of a sweet faced woman something monstrously unnatural was present at last in slow icy utterance came the words
so you are her is this woman insane thought alida why else does she look at me so oh that wilson would come
i'm sorry for you my good woman she began kindly you are laboring under some mistake my husband your husband exclaimed the stranger with an indescribable accent of scorn and reproach yes
replied alida with quiet dignity my husband will be home soon and he will protect me you have no right to enter my rooms and act as you do if you are sick and in trouble
your husband by lawful marriage by my pastor we'll soon see how lawful it was replied the woman with a bitter laugh i'd like you to tell me how often a man can be married lawfully
what do you mean cried alida with a sudden flash in her blue eyes then as if reproaching herself she added kindly pardon me i see you are not well
you do not realize what you are saying or where you are take a seat nearer the fire and when mister ostrom comes from his work he'll take you to your friends all the while she was speaking
coldly and decisively you are wrong miss how that title grated on alida's ears i am neither insane nor drunk i do know what i am saying and where i am you are playing a bold game
or else you have been deceived and very easily deceived too they say some women are so eager to be married that they ask no questions but jump at the first chance whether deceived or deceiving it doesn't matter now
but you and he shall learn that there is a law in the land which will protect an honest woman in her sacred rights you needn't look so shocked and bewildered you are not a young giddy girl if i may judge from your face
what else could you expect when you took up with a stranger you knew nothing about do you know that likeness and she drew from her bosom a daguerreotype alida waved it away as she said indignantly
i won't believe ill of my husband i no miss interrupted the woman sternly you are right for once you won't indeed believe ill of your husband but you'll have to believe ill of mine there's no use of your putting on such airs any longer
no matter how rash and silly you may have been if you have a spark of honesty you'll be open to proof if you and he try to brazen it out the law will open both your eyes look at that likeness
the name of the man you are living with is not wilson ostrom his name is henry ferguson i am missus ferguson and i have my marriage certificate and what are you going to faint
well i can wait till you recover and till he comes and she coolly sat down again alida had glanced at the proofs which the woman had thrust into her hands then staggered back to a lounge that stood near
she might have fainted but at that awful moment she heard a familiar step on the stairs she was facing the door the terrible stranger sat at one side with her back toward it when ostrom entered
he first saw alida looking pale and ill he hastened toward her exclaiming why lida dear what is the matter you are sick instinctively she sprang to his arms crying oh thank god you've come
take away this awful woman yes henry ferguson it's very proper you should take me away from a place like this as the man who had called himself wilson ostrom heard that voice he trembled like an aspen
his clasp of alida relaxed his arms dropped to his side and as he sank into a chair and covered his face with his hands he groaned lost found out you mean was the woman's reply
step by step with horror stricken eyes alida retreated from the man to whose protection and embrace she had flown then it's true she said in a hoarse whisper
he was speechless you are willfully blind now miss if you don't see it's true was the stranger's biting comment paying no heed to her
alida's eyes rested on the man whom she had believed to be her husband she took an irresolute step toward him speak wilson she cried i gave you my whole faith and no one shall destroy it but yourself speak
explain show me that there's some horrible mistake lida said the man lifting his bloodless face if you knew all the circumstances she shall know them half shrieked the woman
as if at last stung to fury i see that you both hope to get through this affair with a little high tragedy then escape and come together again in some other hiding place as for this creature she can go where she pleases after hearing the truth
but you henry ferguson have got to do your duty by me and your child or go to prison let me tell you miss that this man was also married to me by a minister i have my certificate and can produce witnesses
there's one little point you'll do well to consider she continued in bitter sarcasm he married me first i suppose you are not so young and innocent as not to know where this fact places you
he courted and won me as other girls are courted and married he promised me all that he ever promised you then when i lost my rosy cheeks when i became sick and feeble from child bearing he deserted and left me almost penniless
you needn't think you will have to take my word for this i have proof enough and now henry ferguson i've a few words for you
you can't escape i and my brother have tracked you here you can't leave these rooms without going to prison you'd be taken at the very door but i give you one more chance if you will promise before god to do your duty by me and your child
i'll forgive as far as a wronged woman can forgive
what this woman will do i don't know if she prosecutes you and you are true to me i'll stand by you but i won't stand another false step or a false word from you ferguson had again sunk into his chair
buried his face in his hands and sat trembling and speechless never for an instant had alida taken her eyes from him and now with a long wailing cry she exclaimed thank god
thank god mother's dead this was now her best consolation she rushed into her bedchamber and a moment later came out wearing her hat and cloak ferguson started up and was about to speak
and her tones were sad and stern as she said mister ferguson from your manner more truly than from this woman i learn the truth you took advantage of my misfortunes my sorrow and friendlessness
to deceive me you know how false are your wife's words about my eagerness to be deceived and married but you have nothing to fear from me i shall not prosecute you as she suggests
and i charge you before god to do your duty by your wife and child and never to speak to me again turning she hastened toward the door where are you going ferguson exclaimed seeking to intercept her she waved him off
i don't know she replied i've no right to be here and she fled down the stairway and out into the darkness the child had not wakened
to see grettel answered hans behave well hans all right mother good bye good bye hans hans comes to grettel good morning grettel
good morning hans what have you brought me i've not brought you anything i want a present grettel gives him a needle hans takes the needle and sticks it in a load of hay
and walks home behind the cart good evening mother good evening hans where have you been i've been to grettel's what did you give her i gave her nothing
but she made me a present what did she give you she gave me a needle what did you do with it stuck it in the hay cart that was stupid hans
never mind mother i'll do better next time where are you going hans to see grettel mother behave well all right mother good bye good bye hans
hans comes to grettel good morning grettel good morning hans what have you brought me i've brought nothing but i want something grettel gives him a knife
good bye grettel good bye hans hans takes the knife and sticks it in his sleeve and goes home good evening mother good evening hans where have you been
been to see grettel what did you give her i gave her nothing but she gave me something what did she give you she gave me a knife where is the knife hans
i stuck it in my sleeve that's a stupid place hans you should have put it in your pocket never mind mother i'll do better next time where are you going hans to see grettel mother
behave well then all right mother good bye good bye hans hans comes to grettel good morning grettel good morning hans
have you brought me anything nice i've brought nothing what have you got for me grettel gives him a young kid good bye grettel good bye hans hans takes the kid
ties its legs together and puts it in his pocket when he got home it was suffocated good evening mother good evening hans where have you been been to see grettel mother
what did you give her i gave her nothing but i brought away something what did grettel give you she gave me a young kid what did you do with the kid
put it in my pocket mother that was very stupid you should have led it by a rope never mind mother i'll manage better next time where are you going hans
to see grettel mother manage well then all right mother good bye good bye hans hans comes to grettel good morning grettel good morning hans
what have you brought me i've brought you nothing what have you got for me grettel gives him a piece of bacon good bye grettel good bye hans
hans takes the bacon ties a rope round it and drags it along behind him the dogs come after him and eat it up when he got home he had the rope in his hand but there was nothing at the end of it
good evening mother good evening hans where have you been to see grettel mother what did you take her i took nothing but i brought something away
what did she give you she gave me a piece of bacon what did you do with the bacon hans i tied it to a rope and dragged it home but the dogs ate it
you should have carried it on your head never mind mother i'll do better next time where are you going hans to see grettel mother behave properly then all right mother
good bye good bye hans hans comes to grettel good morning grettel good morning hans what have you brought me i've brought nothing what have you got for me
grettel gives hans a calf good bye grettel good bye hans hans takes the calf and puts it on his head it kicks his face good evening mother
good evening hans where have you been been to see grettel mother what did you take her i took her nothing mother she gave me something
she gave me a calf mother what did you do with the calf put it on my head mother and it kicked my face that was very stupid hans you should have led it by a rope and put it in the cow stall
never mind mother i'll do better next time where are you going hans to see grettel mother mind how you behave hans all right mother good bye
hans goes to grettel
when he got home he had the rope in his hand but there was nothing at the end of it good morning grettel good morning hans what have you brought me i've brought you nothing i want to take away something
i'll go with you myself hans hans ties grettel to a rope and leads her home where he puts her in a stall and ties her up then he goes into the house to his mother
good evening mother good evening hans where have you been to see grettel mother what did you take her i took nothing what did grettel give you
she gave me nothing she came with me where did you leave grettel tied up in the stable with a rope that was stupid you should have cast sheep's eyes at her
never mind i'll do better next time hans went into the stable plucked the eyes out of the cows and calves and threw them in grettel's face grettel got angry broke the rope and ran away
chapter thirty three shrink from you holcroft soon came driving slowly up the lane as if nothing unusual was on his mind having tied his horses
he brought in an armful of bundles and said kindly well alida here i am again and i guess i've brought enough to last well through haying time yes she replied with averted face this did not trouble him any now
but her extreme pallor did and he added you don't look well i wouldn't mind getting much supper tonight let jane do the work i'd rather do it she replied oh well laughing pleasantly
you shall have your own way who has a better right than you i'd like to know don't speak that way she said almost harshly under the tension of her feelings i i can't stand it
speak and look as you did before you went away jane
go and gather the eggs as soon as they were alone he began gently alida please don't speak so to me today i've endured all i can i can't keep up another minute unless you let things go on as they were
tomorrow i'll try to tell you all it's your right i didn't mean to say anything myself till after supper and perhaps not till tomorrow but i think i'd better it will be better for us both
and our minds will be more at rest come with me into the parlor alida well perhaps the sooner it's over the better
she sunk on the lounge and looked at him with such despairing eyes that tears came into his own alida he began hesitatingly
no no she cried with an imploring gesture if it must be said let me say it i couldn't endure to hear it from you before you went away i understood it all and this afternoon the truth has been burned into my soul
that horrible man has been here the man i thought my husband
as if i were a leper i feel as if i were one i shrink from you he exclaimed yes can you think i haven't seen the repugnance growing in spite of yourself when i thought of that man
especially when he came today i understood why too well i cannot stay here any longer you'd try to be kind and considerate but i'd know how you felt all the time it would not be safe for you and it would not be right for me to stay either
and that settles it be be as kind to me as you can a few a few hours longer and then let me go quietly her self control gave way and burying her face in her hands she sobbed convulsively
in a moment he was on his knees beside her with his arm about her waist alida dear alida he cried we've both been in the dark about each other what i resolved to do when i started for town
was to tell you that i had learned to love you and to throw myself on your mercy
that was all that was in my mind so help me god but but he's been here she faltered you don't realize i don't believe i do or can yet alida dear
but that blessed jane's spying trait has served me the best turn in the world she heard every brave word you said and i shed tears of joy when she told me and tears are slow coming to my eyes
see he cried i kneel to you in gratitude for all you've been to me and are to me oh james please rise it's too much no
not till you promise to go with me to a minister and hear me promise to love cherish yes in your case i'll promise to obey she bowed her head upon his shoulder in answer springing up he clasped her close and kissed away her tears
as he exclaimed no more business marriage for me if you please there never was a man so in love with his wife suddenly she looked up and said fearfully james he threatened you
he said you'd never be safe a moment as long as i stayed here his answer was a peal of laughter i've done more than threaten him i've whipped him within an inch of his life
i'll tell you all i'm going to tell you everything now how much trouble i might have saved if i had told you my thoughts what was there alida in an old fellow like me that led you to care so looking up shyly she replied
i think it was the man in you and then you stood up for me so well love is blind i suppose but it don't seem to me that mine is
there never was a man so taken in at his marriage you were so different from what i expected that i began loving you before i knew it but i thought you were good to me just as you were to jane from a sense of duty
and that you couldn't abide me personally so i tried to keep out of your way and alida dear i thought at first that i was taken by your good traits and your education and all that but i found out at last that i had fallen in love with you
now you know all you feel better now don't you yes she breathed softly you've had enough to wear a saint out he continued kindly lie down on the lounge and i'll bring your supper to you
no please it will do me more good to go on and act as if nothing had happened well have your own way little wife you're boss now sure enough she drew him to the porch
and together they looked upon the june landscape which she had regarded with such despairing eyes an hour before happiness never kills after all she said shouldn't be alive if it did he replied
the birds seem to sing as if they knew jane emerged from the barn door with a basket of eggs and alida sped away to meet her the first thing the child knew the arms of her mistress were about her neck and she was kissed again and again
what did you do that for she asked you'll understand some day say said jane in an impulse of good will if you're only half married to mister holcroft
if you'd a seen him a thrashin that scamp you'd know he's the man to take care of you yes jane i know he'll take care of me always
the next morning holcroft and alida drove to town and went to the church which she and her mother used to attend after the service they followed the clergyman home where alida again told him her story though not without much help from the farmer
after some kindly reproach that she had not brought her troubles to him at first the minister performed a ceremony which found deep echoes in both their hearts time and right sensible living soon remove prejudice from the hearts of the good
and stop the mouths of the cynical and scandal loving alida's influence and the farmer's broadening and more unselfish views gradually bought him into a better understanding of his faith and into a kinder sympathy and charity for his neighbors than he had ever known
which does not admit of a consecutive history and the results of which if real will be best found in my writings i shall therefore greatly abridge the chronicle of my subsequent years
the first use i made of the leisure which i gained by disconnecting myself from the review was to finish the logic in july and august eighteen thirty eight
i had found an interval in which to execute what was still undone of the original draft of the third book in working out the logical theory of those laws of nature
which are not laws of causation nor corollaries from such laws i was led to recognize kinds as realities in nature and not mere distinctions for convenience
a light which i had not obtained when the first book was written and which made it necessary for me to modify and enlarge several chapters of that book the book on language and classification
and the chapter on the classification of fallacies were drafted in the autumn of the same year the remainder of the work in the summer and autumn of eighteen forty from april following to the end of eighteen forty one
my spare time was devoted to a complete rewriting of the book from its commencement it is in this way that all my books have been composed they were always written at least twice over
which appeared as suitable to my purpose as anything which i could write in lieu of them i have found great advantages in this system of double redaction it combines better than any other mode of composition
and the substance of all that i find to say has in some manner however imperfect been got upon paper
is the arrangement if that is bad the whole thread on which the ideas string themselves becomes twisted thoughts placed in a wrong connection are not expounded in a manner that suits the right
and a first draft with this original vice is next to useless as a foundation for the final treatment during the re writing of the logic doctor whewell's philosophy of the inductive sciences made its appearance
or confronting them distinctly with an opposite theory the controversies with doctor whewell as well as much matter derived from comte were first introduced into the book in the course of the re writing
for reasons which could just as well have been given at first
by whom it was published in the spring of eighteen forty three my original expectations of success were extremely limited archbishop whately had
in the other part of my subject the theory of induction a treatise however on a matter so abstract could not be expected to be popular
but addicted chiefly to the opposite school of metaphysics the ontological and innate principles school i therefore did not expect that the book would have many readers or approvers
and looked for little practical effect from it save that of keeping the tradition unbroken of what i thought a better philosophy what hopes i had of exciting any immediate attention
eighteen fifty just in time for me to answer him in the third edition how the book came to have for a work of the kind
i will not venture to say read it i have never thoroughly understood
or any possible canons of evidence can do by themselves towards
combined with other requisites i certainly do think them of great use but whatever may be the practical value of a true philosophy of these matters it is hardly possible to exaggerate the mischiefs of a false one
is enabled to dispense with the obligation of justifying itself by reason and is erected into its own all sufficient voucher and justification
there never was such an instrument devised for consecrating all deep seated prejudices and the chief strength of this false philosophy in morals politics and religion lies in the appeal
on the whole the best of the argument in attempting to clear up the real nature of the evidence of mathematical and physical truths
on ground on which they had previously been deemed unassailable and gave its own explanation from experience and association
of that peculiar character of what are called necessary truths which is adduced as proof that their evidence must come from a deeper source than experience
whether this has been done effectually is still sub judice and even then to deprive a mode of thought so strongly rooted in human prejudices and partialities of its mere speculative support
and from any literary occupation involving personal communication with contributors and others i was enabled to indulge the inclination
for limiting my own society to a very few persons general society as now carried on in england is so insipid an affair even to the persons who make it what it is
that it is kept up for any reason rather than the pleasure it affords all serious discussion on matters on which opinions differ
being considered ill bred and the national deficiency in liveliness and sociability having prevented the cultivation of the art of talking agreeably on trifles
to a person of any but a very common order in thought or feeling such society unless he has personal objects to serve by it must be supremely unattractive and most people in the present day
of any really high class of intellect make their contact with it so slight and at such long intervals as to be almost considered as retiring from it altogether
they become less in earnest about those of their opinions respecting which they must remain silent in the society they frequent they come to look upon their most elevated objects as unpractical
or at least too remote from realization to be more than a vision or a theory and if more fortunate than most they retain their higher principles unimpaired
yet with respect to the persons and affairs of their own day
yet he is the only person with high objects who can safely enter it at all persons even of intellectual aspirations had much better if they can
make their habitual associates of at least their equals and as far as possible their superiors in knowledge intellect and elevation of sentiment moreover if the character is formed
and the mind made up on the few cardinal points of human opinion agreement of conviction and feeling on these has been felt in all times to be an essential requisite of anything worthy the name of friendship
in a really earnest mind all these circumstances united made the number very small of those whose society and still more whose intimacy i now voluntarily sought
among these by far the principal was the incomparable friend of whom i have already spoken at this period she lived mostly with one young daughter in a quiet part of the country
liable to be put on the frequency of my visits to her while living generally apart from mister taylor and on our occasionally travelling together
though in all other respects our conduct during those years gave not the slightest ground for any other supposition than the true one that our relation to each other at that time
was one of strong affection and confidential intimacy only for though we did not consider the ordinances of society binding on a subject so entirely personal
we did feel bound that our conduct should be such as in no degree to bring discredit on her husband nor therefore on herself
of my mental progress which now went hand in hand with hers my opinions gained equally in breadth and depth i understood more things and those which i had understood before
i had now completely turned back from what there had been of excess in my reaction against benthamism i had at the height of that reaction
certainly become much more indulgent to the common opinions of society and the world and more willing to be content with seconding the superficial improvement
the assertion of which tends in any way to regenerate society but in addition to this our opinions were far more heretical than mine had been in the days of my most extreme benthamism
in those days i had seen little further than the old school of political economists into the possibilities of fundamental improvement in social arrangements private property as now understood
the notion that it was possible to go further than this in removing the injustice for injustice it is
whether admitting of a complete remedy or not involved in the fact that some are born to riches and the vast majority to poverty i then reckoned chimerical
but not the least of a socialist we were now much less democrats than i had been because so long as education continues to be so wretchedly imperfect
we dreaded the ignorance and especially the selfishness and brutality of the mass but our ideal of ultimate improvement went far beyond democracy
instead of depending as in so great a degree it now does on the accident of birth will be made by concert on an acknowledged principle of justice
and when it will no longer either be or be thought to be impossible for human beings to exert themselves strenuously in procuring benefits which are not to be exclusively their own
but to be shared with the society they belong to the social problem of the future we considered to be how to unite the greatest individual liberty of action with a common ownership in the raw material of the globe
we saw clearly that to render any such social transformation either possible or desirable an equivalent change of character must take place both in the uncultivated herd
who now compose the labouring masses and in the immense majority of their employers both these classes must learn by practice to labour and combine for generous
or at all events for public and social purposes and not as hitherto solely for narrowly interested ones but the capacity to do this has always existed in mankind and is not nor
is ever likely to be extinct education habit and the cultivation of the sentiments will make a common man dig or weave for his country as readily as fight for his country
but the hindrance is not in the essential constitution of human nature interest in the common good is at present so weak a motive in the generality not because it can never be otherwise
as only self interest now is by the daily course of life and spurred from behind by the love of distinction and the fear of shame it is capable of producing even in common men
the most strenuous exertions as well as the most heroic sacrifices the deep rooted selfishness which forms the general character of the existing state of society is so deeply rooted
only because the whole course of existing institutions tends to foster it and modern institutions in some respects more than ancient
are far less frequent in modern life than the smaller commonwealths of antiquity these considerations did not make us overlook the folly of
premature attempts to dispense with the inducements of private interest in social affairs while no substitute for them has been or can be provided
but we regarded all existing institutions and social arrangements as being in a phrase i once heard from austin merely provisional and we welcomed with the greatest pleasure
and interest all socialistic experiments by select individuals such as the co operative societies which whether they succeeded or failed could not but operate as a most useful education
in the principles of political economy these opinions were promulgated less clearly and fully in the first edition rather more so in the second
on the whole range of topics involved in the controversy and the result was that most of what had been written on the subject in the first edition was cancelled and replaced by arguments and reflections
to immediate destitution with permanent improvement of the social and economical condition of the irish people but the idea was new and strange
there was no english precedent for such a proceeding and the profound ignorance of english politicians and the english public concerning all social phenomena not generally met with in england
however common elsewhere made my endeavours an entire failure instead of a great operation on the waste lands and the conversion of cottiers into proprietors
parliament passed a poor law for maintaining them as paupers and if the nation has not since found itself in inextricable difficulties from the joint operation of the old evils and the quack remedy
it is indebted for its deliverance to that most unexpected and surprising fact the depopulation of ireland commenced by famine
which not only gave me much new experience but enabled me to scatter my political opinions rather widely and by making me known in many quarters where i had never before been heard of
increased the number of my readers and the presumable influence of my writings these latter effects were of course produced in a still greater degree when
i was returned to parliament by a majority of some hundreds over my conservative competitor i was a member of the house during the three sessions of the parliament which passed the reform bill
during which time parliament was necessarily my main occupation except during the recess i was a tolerably frequent speaker sometimes of prepared speeches
sometimes extemporaneously but my choice of occasions was not such as i should have made if my leading object had been parliamentary influence when i had gained the ear of the house
or sufficiently well done by other people there was no necessity for me to meddle with it as i therefore in general
reserved myself for work which no others were likely to do a great proportion of my appearances were on points on which the bulk of the liberal party even the advanced portion of it
regarded as the advanced liberal opinion my advocacy of women's suffrage and of personal representation
looked upon by many as whims of my own but the great progress since made by those opinions
fully justified the timeliness of those movements and have made what was undertaken as a moral and social duty a personal success another duty which was particularly incumbent on me
as one of the metropolitan members was the attempt to obtain a municipal government for the metropolis but on that subject the indifference of the house of commons
my part was to bring in bills already prepared and to sustain the discussion of them
after having taken an active part in the work of a committee
may justly be attributed to the preparation which went on during those years and which produced but little visible effect at the time but all questions on which there are strong private interests
on one side and only the public good on the other have a similar period of incubation to go through the same idea that the use of my being in parliament was to do work which others were not able
or not willing to do made me think it my duty to come to the front in defence of advanced liberalism on occasions when the obloquy to be encountered was such as
and for which only five english and scotch votes were given including my own the other four were mister bright mister mc laren mister t b potter and mister hadfield
in denouncing on this occasion the english mode of governing ireland i did no more than the general opinion of england now admits to have been just but the anger against fenianism
was then in all its freshness any attack on what fenians attacked was looked upon as an apology for them and i was so unfavourably received by the house
have helped to make my speech on the reform bill the success it was my position in the house was further improved by a speech in which i insisted on the duty
of paying off the national debt before our coal supplies are exhausted and by an ironical reply to some of the tory leaders who had quoted against me certain passages of my writings
and called me to account for others especially for one in my considerations on representative government which said that the conservative party was by the law of its composition
the stupidest party they gained nothing by drawing attention to the passage which up to that time had not excited any notice
much satisfaction in looking back to the part i took on the two classes of subjects just mentioned with regard to the working classes the chief topic of my speech on mister gladstone's reform bill
came the attempt of the working classes to hold a meeting in hyde park their exclusion by the police and the breaking down of the park railing by the crowd
they showed a determination to make another attempt at a meeting in the park to which many of them would probably have come armed the government made military preparations to resist the attempt
and the task fell chiefly upon myself of persuading them to give up the hyde park project and hold their meeting elsewhere it was not mister beales
it was the working men who held out and so bent were they on their original scheme that i was obliged to have recourse to les grands moyens
told them that a proceeding which would certainly produce a collision with the military could only be justifiable on two conditions if the position of affairs had become such that a revolution was desirable
and i could not consent to hoist the flag of manhood suffrage even on the assurance that the exclusion of women was not intended to be implied since if one goes beyond what can be immediately carried
and professes to take one's stand on a principle one should go the whole length of the principle i have entered thus particularly into this matter because my conduct on this occasion
gave great displeasure to the tory and tory liberal press who have charged me ever since with having shown myself in the trials of public life intemperate and passionate
aided by the very late period of the session succeeded in defeating the bill by what is called talking it out it has not since been renewed
the church question was so vigorously handled by the leaders of the party in the session of eighteen sixty eight as to require no more from me than an emphatic adhesion
and the backward state of the question so far as concerned the parliamentary mind
which nevertheless could not be carried on that bill i delivered one of my most careful speeches in which i attempted to lay down some of the principles of the subject
in a manner calculated less to stimulate friends than to conciliate and convince opponents the engrossing subject of parliamentary reform
from being carried through they never got beyond the second reading meanwhile the signs of irish disaffection had become much more decided
it could only be by the adoption of much more thorough reforms in the territorial and social relations of the country
which was written in the winter of eighteen sixty seven and published shortly before the commencement of the session of eighteen sixty eight the leading features of the pamphlet were
a proposal for settling the land question by giving to the existing tenants a permanent tenure at a fixed rent to be assessed after due inquiry by the state the pamphlet was not popular
the duty of proposing it was imperative while if on the other hand there was any intermediate course which had a claim to a trial
that to propose something which would be called extreme was the true way not to impede but to facilitate a more moderate experiment it is most improbable
tenantry as mister gladstone's irish land bill would have been proposed by a government or could have been carried through parliament unless the british public had been led to perceive that a case might be made
and perhaps a party formed for a measure considerably stronger it is the character of the british people or at least of the higher and middle classes who pass muster for the british people that to
going still farther upon which their antipathy to extreme views may discharge itself so it proved in the present instance my proposal was condemned
if he liked better to sell his estate than to retain it on the new conditions and i fully anticipated that most landlords would continue to prefer the position of landowners to that of government annuitants
together with my speech on mister fortescue's bill
in ireland another public duty of a most serious kind it was my lot to have to perform both in and out of parliament during these years a disturbance in jamaica
provoked in the first instance by injustice and exaggerated by rage and panic
when perpetrated by the instruments of other governments englishmen can hardly find terms sufficient to express their abhorrence after a short time however an indignant feeling was roused
take such deliberation and action as the case might admit of and adhesions poured in from all parts of the country i was abroad at the time but i sent in my name to the committee as soon as i heard of it
and took an active part in the proceedings from the time of my return there was much more at stake than only justice to the negroes imperative as was that consideration
whether the lives and persons of british subjects are at the mercy of any two or three officers however raw and inexperienced or reckless and brutal whom a panic stricken governor
and such an appeal the committee determined to make their determination led to a change in the chairmanship of the committee as the chairman mister charles buxton thought it not unjust indeed
and his principal subordinates in a criminal court but a numerously attended general meeting of the association having decided this point against him mister buxton withdrew from the committee
my duty to represent the committee in the house of commons sometimes by putting questions to the government
more or less provocative addressed by individual members to myself but especially as speaker in the important debate originated in the session of eighteen sixty six by mister buxton
trying every avenue legally open to us to the courts of criminal justice a bench of magistrates in one of the most tory counties in england dismissed our case
we were more successful before the magistrates at bow street which gave an opportunity to the lord chief justice of the queen's bench sir alexander cockburn for delivering his celebrated charge
which settled the law of the question in favour of liberty as far as it is in the power of a judge's charge to settle it there however our success ended for the old bailey grand jury
we had elicited from the highest criminal judge in the nation an authoritative declaration that the law was what we maintained it to be
as next morning's sun rises over llangorren court it shows a mansion without either master or mistress not long to remain so if the old servants of the establishment had short notice of dismissal
still more brief is that given to its latest retinue about meridian of that day after the departure of their mistress while yet in wonder where she has gone they receive another shock of surprise
and a more unpleasant one at seeing a hackney carriage drive up to the hall door
for one of the men is captain ryecroft the other a police superintendent who after the shortest possible parley directs the butler to parade the complete staff of his fellow domestics male and female
this with an air and in a tone of authority which precludes supposition that the thing is a jest summoned from all quarters cellar to garret
their names with other particulars are taken down and they are told that their services will be no longer required at llangorren in short they are one and all dismissed without a word about the month's wages or warning
if they get either twill be only as a grace then they receive orders to pack up and be off while joseph preece ex charon who has crossed the river in his boat
with appointment to meet the hackney there is authorised to take temporary charge of the place jack wingate similarly bespoke having come down in his skiff to stand by him in case of any opposition
the outgoing domestics seem not so greatly surprised at it from what they have observed for some time going on as also something whispered about they had no great reliance on their places being permanent
so in silence all submit though somewhat sulkily and prepare to vacate quarters they had found fairly snug
the head gamekeeper richard dempsey
some of which repeated to the police super tell him his proper place at that precise moment is by the bedside of the sick man
without a second's delay he starts off towards the lodge in which coracle has been of late domiciled under the guidance of its former occupant joseph preece accompanied by captain ryecroft and jack wingate
the house being but a few hundred yards distant from the court they are soon inside it and standing over the bed on which lies the fevered patient not at rest but tossing to and fro at intervals in such violent manner
as to need restraint the superintendent at once sees it would be idle putting questions to him if asked his own name he could not declare it for he knows not himself
but no there is another throe yet one horrible as any that has preceded looking up he sees the superintendent's uniform and silver buttons
and with his fingers clutching at his throat as if to undo a noose he gasps out in husky voice gone by god at this he drops over dead his last word an oath
his last thought a fancy that there is a rope around his neck what he has said in his unconscious confessions lays open many seeming mysteries of this romance hitherto unrevealed
soon after going over to llangorren and seizing the young lady as she stood in the summer house having stifled her cries by chloroform then how they carried her across to dempsey's
and substituted the corpse for the living body the grave clothes changed for the silken dress with all its adornments this the part assigned to missus murdock who had met them at coracle's cottage
then dick himself hiding away the shroud hindered by superstitious fear from committing it to the flames in fine how gwendoline wynn drugged and still kept in a state of coma was taken down in a boat to chepstow
and there put aboard the french schooner la chouette carried across to boulogne to be shut up in a convent for life all these delicate matters managed by father rogier backed by
one after another the astounding facts come forth as the raving man continues his involuntary admissions supplemented by others already known to ryecroft and the rest with the deductions drawn
they complete the unities of a drama iniquitous as ever enacted
its motives declare themselves all wicked save one this a spark of humanity that had still lingered in the breast of lewin murdock but for which gwendoline wynn would never have seen the inside of a nunnery
instead while under the influence of the narcotic her body would have been dropped into the wye just as was that wearing her ball dress and that same body is now wearing another dress supposed to have been prepared for her
another shroud reposing in the tomb where all believed gwen wynn to have been laid this last fact is brought to light on the following day when the family vault of the wynns is re opened and missus morgan
impossible to depict the expression on vivian ryecroft's face as the words of the waterman fall upon his ear it is more than surprise more than astonishment intensely interrogative
and almost upsetting the table alive he mechanically repeats what do you mean wingate and who my poor girl captain you know his girl not mine mary morgan not gwendoline wynn
controlling it the other asks with diminished interest still earnestly what leads you to think that way wingate have you a reason yes have i more'n one
you've come to astonish me but proceed well sir as i ha sayed it'll take a good bit o tellin and a lot o explanation beside but since ye've signified i'm free to your time
don't curtail it in any way i wish to hear all the waterman thus allowed latitude launches forth into a full account of his own life
those chapters of it relating to his courtship of and betrothal to mary morgan he tells of the opposition made by her mother the rivalry of coracle dick and the sinister interference of father rogier
what he now hears new to him is the account of a scene in the farm house of abergann while mary morgan lay in the chamber of death with a series of incidents that came under the observation of her sorrowing lover
the first his seeing a shroud being made by the girl's mother white with a red cross and the initial letters of her name braided over the breast the same soon afterwards appearing upon the corpse
the look with which he stood regarding the girl's face as she lay in her coffin his abrupt exit out of the room as afterwards his hurried departure from the side of the grave before it was finally closed up
a haste noticed by others as well as jack wingate but what do you make of all that asks ryecroft the narrator having paused to gather himself for other and still stranger revelations
how can it give you a belief in the girl being still alive quite its contrary i should say stay captain there be more to come
the captain does stay listening on to hear the story of the planted and plucked up flower of another and later visit made by wingate to the cemetery in daylight
then seeing what led him to suspect that not only had the plant been destroyed but all the turf on the grave disturbed he speaks of his astonishment at this with his perplexity
then goes on to give account of the evening spent with joseph preece in his new home of the waifs and strays there shown him the counterfeit coins burglars tools and finally the shroud
that grim remembrancer which he recognised at sight his narrative concludes with his action taken after assisted by the old boatman
last night he says proceeding with the relation or i ought to say this same mornin' for twar after midnight hour
where we opened her grave an foun the coffin empty
on my word
mystery seems the measure of the time this you tell me of is strange if not stranger than any what are your own thoughts about it jack well as i've already sayed my thoughts be
i hope she is the tone of ryecroft's rejoinder tells of his incredulity further manifested by his questions following but you saw her in her coffin waked for two days as i understood you then laid in her grave
how could she have lived throughout all that surely she was dead
but don't now my good fellow i fear you are deceiving yourself i'm sorry having to think so why the body has been taken up again is of itself a sufficient puzzle but alive that seems physically impossible
thinkin ye'd be acquainted wi the article itself what article the new medicine it as go by the name o chloryform
an so kep asleep to be waked up when they wanted her i've heerd say they can do such things but then she was drowned also fell from a foot plank you told me
it be true enough she got somehow into the water an wor took out insensible or rather drifted out o herself on the bank just below at the mouth o the brook but that wor short after an she might still a ben alive
you seem to forget that her mother father all of them must have been cognisant of these facts if facts i don't forget it captain stead i believe they all wor cognisant o them leastways the mother
but why should she assist in such a dangerous deception at risk of her daughter's life
they all knowed the girl loved me and wor sure to be my wife whatever they might say or do against it wi her willing i could a defied the whole lot o them
bein aware o that their only chance wor to get her out o my way by some trick
ye may think it strange their takin all that trouble but if ye'd seen her ye wouldn't there worn't on all wyeside so good lookin a girl
ryecroft again looks incredulous not smilingly but with a sad cast of countenance despite its improbability however
he begins to think there may be some truth in what the waterman says jack's earnest convictions sympathetically impressing him and supposing her to be alive he asks where do you think she is now
have you any idea i have leastways a notion where over the water in france the town o bolone
exclaims the captain with a start what makes you suppose she is there something sir
my tellin ye i had an engagement the next day to take the young powells down the river i remember it perfectly well i took them as agreed an that day we went down's fur's chepstow
but they wor bound for the severn side a duck shootin and next mornin we started early afore daybreak as we were passin the wharf below chepstow bridge
i noticed one sloop rigged ridin at anchor a bit out from the rest as if about clearin to put to sea by the light o a lamp as hung over the
taffrail i read the name on her starn showin she wor french an belonged to bolone i shouldn't ha thought that anythin odd as there be many foreign craft o the smaller kind puts in at chepstow
but what did appear odd an gied me a start too wor my seein a boat by the sloop's side wi a man in it
but it is not now scattered nor are people rushing excitedly about instead they stand thickly packed in a close clump which covers all the carriage sweep in front of the house for the search is over
the lost one has at length been found found when the flood subsided and the drag could do its work found drowned not far away nor yet in the main river but that narrow channel
in a little angular embayment at the cliff's base almost directly under the summer house was the body discovered it came to the surface soon as touched by the grappling iron
which caught in the loose drapery around it left alone for another day it would have risen of itself taken out of the water and borne away to the house it is now lying in the entrance hall upon a long table
with those whose duty requires them to be there officially there is again a council in deliberation but not as on days preceding
and whether she were still alive to day it is an inquest being held over her dead body there lies it just as it came out of the water but oh
how unlike what it was before being submerged those gossamer things silks and laces the dress worn by her at the ball no more floating and feather like but saturated mud stained
and grown darker in hue while the rich rose red is gone from her cheeks already swollen and discoloured so soon had the ruthless water commenced its ravages no one would know
gwen wynn now seeing that form prostrate and pulseless
which but a few nights before was there moving about erect lissome and majestic or in that face dark and disfigured
of llangorren's young heiress sad to contemplate those mute motionless lips
and speaking pleasant words and those eyes dulled with muddy impurity that so short while ago shone bright and gladsome
and the glory of beauty sparkling flashing conquering all is different now her hair dishevelled her dress disordered and dripping
the only things upon her person unchanged being the rings on her fingers the wrist bracelets the locket still pendant to her neck all gemmed and gleaming as ever
the impure water affecting not their costly purity and their presence has a significance proclaiming an important fact soon to be considered
the first point to be established is the identification of the body there is little difficulty in this and it is solely through routine and for form's sake that the aunt of the deceased lady
her cousin the lady's maid and one or two other domestics are submitted to examination all testify to their belief that the body before them is that of gwendoline wynn miss linton
while eleanor lees is led away weeping then succeeds inquiry as to how the death has been brought about whether it be a case of suicide
or assassination if murder the motive cannot have been robbery the jewellery of grand value forbids the supposition of this checking all conjecture and if suicide why
that miss wynn should have taken her own life made away with herself is equally impossible of belief some time is occupied in the investigation of facts and drawing deductions
witnesses of all classes and kinds thought worth the calling are called and questioned everything already known or rumoured is gone over again till at length they arrive at the relations of captain ryecroft with the drowned lady
they are brought out in various ways and by different witnesses but only assume a sinister aspect in the eyes of the jury on their hearing the tale of the french
by the incident of that ring found on the floor of the summer house the finder is not there to tell how but miss linton miss lees and mister musgrave vouch for the fact at second hand
the one most wanted is vivian ryecroft himself and next to him the waterman wingate neither has yet made appearance at llangorren nor has either been heard of the policeman sent after the last
no word of the boatman at chepstow nor anywhere else down the river and no wonder there is not since young powell and his friends have taken jack's boat beyond the river's mouth
duck shooting along the shores of the severn sea there camping out and sleeping in places far from towns or stations of the rural constabulary and the first is not yet expected
cannot be from london george shenstone had telegraphed captain ryecroft gone to paris where he shenstone would follow him there has been no telegram later to know whether the followed has been found
even if he have there has not been time for return from the french metropolis
his jury the justices
to the surprise of those on the sweep without george shenstone presents himself in their midst their excited movement with the murmur of voices proclaiming his advent still greater their astonishment when shortly after
within a few seconds captain ryecroft steps upon the same ground as though the two had come thither in companionship and so might it have been believed but for two hotel hackneys seen drawn up
on the drive outside the skirts of the crowd where they delivered their respective fares after having brought them separately from the railway station
fellow travellers they have been but whether friends or not the people are surprised at the manner of their arrival or rather at seeing captain ryecroft so present himself
but doubts thrown out that ryecroft is his real name and denial of his being an officer of the army or ever having been with bold positive asseveration
that he is a swindler and adventurer all that while gwen wynn was but missing now that her body is found since its discovery still harsher have been the terms applied to him
at length to culminate in calling him a murderer instead of voluntarily presenting himself at llangorren alone arms and limbs free they expected to see him
if seen at all with a policeman by his side and manacles on his wrists astonished also are those within the hall though in a milder degree and from different causes
they did not look for the man to be brought before them handcuffed but no more did they anticipate seeing him enter almost simultaneously and side by side with george shenstone
they not having the hackney carriages in sight taking it for granted that the two have been travelling together however strange or incongruous the companionship
captain ryecroft has taken him down the river it is on this nocturnal exploration when the cliff at llangorren is inspected by lamplight
but she knows neither the purpose nor the place any more than did jack himself at starting a little before sunset the captain came to the house afoot and unexpectedly
called her son out spoke a few words to him when they started away in the skiff she saw they went down stream that is all she was some little surprised though not at the direction taken
but the time of setting out
she knows the captain cannot be bound thither and therefore wonders whither surely not a pleasure excursion at such an unreasonable hour night just drawing down
she would have asked but had no opportunity her son summoned out of the house did not re enter his oars were in the boat having just come off a job and the captain appeared to be in haste
and never seeks to pry into his secrets she knows his sterling integrity and can trust him besides she is aware that he is of a nature somewhat uncommunicative
especially upon matters that concern himself and above all when he has a trouble on his mind in short one who keeps his sorrows locked up in his breast as though preferring to suffer in silence
and just this it is she is now bemoaning
and has been ever since that hour when a farm labourer
of mary morgan's fatal mishap of course she his mother expected him to grieve wildly and deeply as he did but not deeply so long
many days have passed since that dark one but since she has not seen him smile not once she begins to fear his sorrow may never know an end she has heard of broken hearts
his may be one not strange her solicitude what make it worse she says continuing her soliloquy
partways to blame for the poor girl's death by makin her come out to meet him jack has told his mother of the interview under the big elm all about it from beginning to end
i wor althegither convinced
wi a flood lippin full up to the banks
as a native of pembrokeshire in whose treeless valleys
and on its dangerous coast cliffs in times past too oft the lanthorn of the smuggler with the stalking horse of the inhuman wrecker missus wingate's dream
a legendary reflection from tales told her in childhood and wild songs chaunted over her cradle
but her waking vision of a light borne up the river bottom was a phenomenon yet more natural since in truth was it a real light that of a lamp carried in the hands of a man with a coracle on his back
accustomed to take a lamp along had it with him on that night having lit it before entering the coracle but with the difficulty of balancing himself in the crank little craft
he had set it down under the thwart and at landing forgotten all about it thence the poacher detained beyond time in reference to an appointment he meant being present at had taken the shortest cut up the river bottom
to rugg's ferry this carried him twice across the stream where it bends by the waterman's cottage his coracle easily launched and lifted out enabling him to pass straight over and on
in his haste not staying to extinguish the lamp nor even thinking of it not so much wonder then in missus wingate believing she saw the
but less in view of what has since come to pass as she supposes
though right in the premises for mary morgan was a good girl missus wingate is unfortunately wrong in her deductions but fortunately for her peace of mind she is so
it is some consolation to her to think that she whom her son loved and for whom he so sorrows was worthy of his love as his sorrow it is wearing late
the sun having long since set and still wondering why they went down the river
from the cottage but little can be seen of the stream by reason of its tortuous course only a short reach on either side above and below
placing herself to command a view of the latter she stands gazing down it
she feels anxiety of another and less emotional nature her tea caddy is empty the sugar all expended and other household things deficient
jack was just about starting off for the ferry to replace them when the captain came now it is a question whether he will be home in time to reach rugg's before the shop closes if not
there will be a scant supper for him and he must grope his way lightless to bed for among the spent commodities were candles the last one having been burnt out
in the widow wingate's life candles seem to play an important part however from all anxieties on this score she is at length and ere long relieved
her mind set at rest by a sound heard on the tranquil air of the night the dip of a boat's oars distant but recognisable often before listening for the same
she instinctively knows them to be in the hands of her son for jack rows with a stroke no waterman on the wye has but he
and regularity his mother can tell it as a hen the chirp of her own chick or a ewe the bleat of its lamb
that it is his stroke she has soon other evidence than her ears in a few seconds after hearing the oars she sees them their wet blades glistening in the moonlight the boat between
and now she only waits for it to be pulled up and into the wash its docking place when jack will tell her where they have been and what for perhaps too the captain will come inside the cottage
and speak a friendly word with her as he has frequently done while thus pleasantly anticipating she has a disappointment the skiff is passing onward proceeding up the river
but she is comforted by seeing a hat held aloft the salute telling her she is herself seen and that jack has some good reason for the prolongation of the voyage it will no doubt terminate at the ferry
where he will get the candles and comestibles saving him a second journey thither and so killing two birds with one stone contenting herself with this construction of it
she returns inside the house touches up the faggots on the fire
chapter twenty two margaret greeted her lord with peculiar tenderness on the morrow mature as he was
with the passion without it we are meaningless fragments half monks half beasts unconnected arches that have never joined into a man with it love is born
and alights on the highest curve glowing against the grey sober against the fire happy the man who sees from either aspect the glory of these outspread wings
the roads of his soul lie clear and he and his friends shall find easy going it was hard going in the roads of mister wilcox's soul from boyhood he had neglected them
outwardly he was cheerful reliable and brave but within all had reverted to chaos ruled so far as it was ruled at all by an incomplete asceticism
whether as boy husband or widower he had always the sneaking belief that bodily passion is bad
religion had confirmed him
and saint francis into a white hot hatred of the carnal he could not be as the saints and love the infinite with a seraphic ardour but he could be a little ashamed of loving a wife
hoped to help him it did not seem so difficult she need trouble him with no gift of her own she would only point out the salvation
only connect that was the whole of her sermon only connect the prose and the passion and both will be exalted and human love will be seen at its height
live in fragments no longer only connect and the beast and the monk robbed of the isolation that is life to either will die
by quiet indications the bridge would be built and span their lives with beauty but
for which she was never prepared however much she reminded herself of it his obtuseness he simply did not notice things and there was no more to be said he never noticed that helen and frieda were hostile
or that tibby was not interested in currant plantations he never noticed the lights and shades that exist in the grayest conversation the finger posts the milestones the collisions the illimitable views
once on another occasion she scolded him about it he was puzzled but replied with a laugh my motto is concentrate i've no intention of frittering away my strength on that sort of thing
it isn't frittering away the strength she protested it's enlarging the space in which you may be strong he answered you're a clever little woman but my motto's concentrate
and this morning he concentrated with a vengeance
in the daylight the bushes were inconsiderable and the path was bright in the morning sun she was with helen who had been ominously quiet since the affair was settled here we all are she cried and took him by one hand
retaining her sister's in the other
good morning helen helen replied good morning mister wilcox henry
he had a sad moustache but the back of his head was young i have had a letter too not a nice one i want to talk it over with you for leonard bast was nothing to him now that she had given him her word
the triangle of sex was broken for ever thanks to your hint
not a bad business that porphyrion he said absently as he took his own letter out of his pocket not a bad she exclaimed dropping his hand surely on chelsea embankment here's our hostess good morning missus munt
fine rhododendrons good morning frau liesecke
no my letter's about howards end
i am far from sure that i shall give him permission there was no clause in the agreement in my opinion subletting is a mistake if he can find me another tenant whom i consider suitable i may cancel the agreement
morning schlegel don't you think that's better than subletting
beneath them was the bourgeois little bay
the waves were colourless and the bournemouth steamer gave a further touch of insipidity drawn up against the pier and hooting wildly for excursionists
do excuse me but about the porphyrion i don't feel easy might i just bother you henry her manner was so serious that he stopped
you said on chelsea embankment surely that it was a bad concern so we advised this clerk to clear out he writes this morning that he's taken our advice and now you say it's not a bad concern
a clerk who clears out of any concern good or bad without securing a berth somewhere else first is a fool and i've no pity for him he has not done that he's going into a bank in camden town he says
the salary's much lower but he hopes to manage a branch of dempster's bank is that all right dempster my goodness me yes more right than the porphyrion
yes yes yes safe as houses safer very many thanks i'm sorry if you sublet if he sublets i shan't have the same control
in practice there will be things may be done for which no money can compensate
it hangs margaret
it's pretty in its way we'll motor down and have lunch with charles i should enjoy that said margaret bravely
wednesday no i couldn't well do that aunt juley expects us to stop here another week at least but you can give that up now er no said margaret after a moment's thought
oh that'll be all right i'll speak to her this visit is a high solemnity my aunt counts on it year after year she turns the house upside down for us she invites our special friends she scarcely knows frieda and we can't leave her on her hands
but i'll say a word to her don't you bother henry i won't go don't bully me
very much i've heard so much about it one way or the other
pigs teeth and you chew the bark for toothache what a rum notion of course not
there are still a great number of sacred trees in england it seems but he left her to intercept missus munt whose voice could be heard in the distance to be intercepted himself by helen
oh mister wilcox about the porphyrion she began and went scarlet all over her face
dempster's bank's better but i think you told us the porphyrion was bad and would smash before christmas did i it was still outside the tariff ring and had to take rotten policies lately it came in
safe as houses now in other words mister bast need never have left it
and needn't have started life elsewhere at a greatly reduced salary he only says reduced corrected margaret seeing trouble ahead with a man so poor every reduction must be great i consider it a deplorable misfortune
you're ridiculous helen you seem to think he looked at his watch let me explain the point to you it is like this you seem to assume when a business concern is conducting a delicate negotiation
it ought to keep the public informed stage by stage the porphyrion according to you was bound to say i am trying all i can to get into the tariff ring
and i am trying my dear helen is that your point a man who had little money has less that's mine i am grieved for your clerk
a man who had little money she repeated has less owing to us under these circumstances i do not consider the battle of life a happy expression oh come come he protested pleasantly
you're not to blame no one's to blame is no one to blame for anything i wouldn't say that but you're taking it far too seriously who is this fellow
you have even met the fellow he is very poor and his wife is an extravagant imbecile he is capable of better things we we the upper classes thought we would help him from the height of our superior knowledge
and here's the result he raised his finger now a word of advice i require no more advice a word of advice don't take up that sentimental attitude over the poor
see that she doesn't margaret the poor are poor and one's sorry for them but there it is as civilization moves forward the shoe is bound to pinch in places and it's absurd to pretend that anyone is responsible personally
neither you nor i nor my informant nor the man who informed him nor the directors of the porphyrion are to blame for this clerk's loss of salary it's just the shoe pinching no one can help it
helen quivered with indignation by all means subscribe to charities subscribe to them largely but don't get carried away by absurd schemes of social reform i see a good deal behind the scenes and you can take it from me
that there is no social question except for a few journalists who try to get a living out of the phrase there are just rich and poor as there always have been and always will be point me out a time when men have been equal
i didn't say point me out a time when desire for equality has made them happier no no you can't
i'm no fatalist heaven forbid but our civilization is moulded by great impersonal forces his voice grew complacent it always did when he eliminated the personal
deny it and now it was a respectful voice and you can't deny that in spite of all the tendency of civilization has on the whole been upward owing to god i suppose flashed helen
he stared at her you grab the dollars god does the rest
he thought she rather reminds me of dolly helen looked out at the sea don't even discuss political economy with henry advised her sister it'll only end in a cry
but he must be one of those men
i don't like those men they are scientific themselves
but yet they believe that somehow good and it is always that sloppy somehow'
the mister basts of the future will benefit because the mister basts of today are in pain he is such a man in theory but oh helen in theory but oh meg what a theory
why should you put things so bitterly dearie because i'm an old maid said helen biting her lip i can't think why i go on like this myself
she shook off her sister's hand and went into the house margaret distressed at the day's beginning followed the bournemouth steamer with her eyes
henry must be removed margaret her aunt called magsy it isn't true surely what mister wilcox says that you want to go away early next week not want was margaret's prompt reply but there is so much to be settled
but going away without taking the weymouth trip or even the lulworth said missus munt coming nearer without going once more up nine barrows down i'm afraid so
she put a hand on either shoulder
what was behind their competent stare
three days passed on the fourth marcella returned late in the afternoon from a round of parish visits with mary harden as she opened the oak doors which shut off the central hall of mellor from the outer vestibule
she saw something white lying on the old cut and disused billiard table which still occupied the middle of the floor till richard boyce in the course of his economies and improvements could replace it by a new one she ran forward and took up a sheaf of cards
turning them over in a smiling excitement
mister raeburn miss raeburn lady winterbourne
trying with shortsighted eyes to distinguish her daughter among the shadows of the great bare place a dark day was drawing to its close
bringing out the obstinate mouth and the white hand holding a jewelled glove
any letters she asked no but there are some cards oh yes there is a note and she pounced upon an envelope she had overlooked it is for you mother
from the court missus boyce came up and took note and cards from her daughter's hand marcella watched her with quick breath her mother looked through the cards slowly putting them down one by one without remark oh mother do read the note
marcella could not help entreating missus boyce drew herself together with a quick movement as though her daughter jarred upon her and opened the note marcella dared not look over her
there was a dignity about her mother's lightest action about every movement of her slender fingers and fine fair head which had always held the daughter in check even while she rebelled missus boyce read it and then handed it to marcella
i must go and make the tea she said in a light cold tone and turning she went back to the drawing room whither afternoon tea had just been carried marcella followed reading the note was from miss raeburn
and it contained an invitation to missus boyce and her daughter to take luncheon at the court on the following friday the note was courteously and kindly worded we should be so glad said the writer
to show you and miss boyce our beautiful woods while they are still at their best in the way of autumn colour how will mamma take it thought marcella anxiously there is not a word of papa when she entered the drawing room
she caught her mother standing absently at the tea table the little silver caddy was still in her hand as though she had forgotten to put it down and her eyes which evidently saw nothing were turned to the window the brows frowning
the look of suffering for an instant was unmistakable then she started at the sound of marcella's step and put down the caddy amid the delicate china crowded on the tray with all the quiet precision of her ordinary manner
you will have to wait for your tea she said the water doesn't nearly boil marcella went up to the fire and kneeling before it put the logs with which it was piled together but she could not contain herself for long
within two miles of her and it has never occurred to her to call now she calls and asks us to luncheon in the same afternoon either she took too little notice of us before
don't you think so marcella was silent a moment should she confess it began to occur to her for the first time that in her wild independence she had been taking liberties with her mother mamma yes
i asked mister aldous raeburn the other day whether everybody here was going to cut us papa told me that lord maxwell had written him an uncivil letter and you asked mister raeburn said missus boyce quickly what do you mean
marcella turned round and met the flash of her mother's eyes i couldn't help it she said in a low hurried voice it seemed so horrid to feel everybody standing aloof we were walking together
marcella felt an instant's fear fear of the ironic power in the sparkling look so keenly fixed on her offending self she shrank before the proud reserve expressed in every line of her mother's fragile imperious beauty
then a cry of nature broke from the girl you have got used to it mamma
shut off from everybody joining with nobody with no friendly feelings or society it was bad enough in the old lodging house days but here why should we missus boyce had certainly grown pale
but the question with me has always been shall i accept pity i have always been able to meet it with a no you are very different from me but for you also i believe it would be the happiest answer
there are so many things i want to do here and one can do nothing if every one is against you people would be friends with you and me and with papa too through us some of them wish to be kind
thinking of aldous raeburn's words and expression as he bent to her at the gate i know they do and if we can't hold our heads high because because of things in the past ought we to be so proud
that we won't take their hands when they stretch them out when they write so kindly and nicely as this and she laid her fingers almost piteously on the note upon her knee missus boyce tilted the silver urn
and replenished the tea pot then with a delicate handkerchief she rubbed away a spot from the handle of a spoon near her you shall go she said presently you wish it then go go by all means
i will write to miss raeburn and send you over in the carriage one can put a great deal on health mine is quite serviceable in the way of excuses
if you have chosen your line and wish to make friends here very well i will do what i can for you so long as you do not expect me to change my life for which my dear i am grown too crotchety and too old marcella looked at her with dismay
and a yearning she had never felt before and you will never go out with me mamma there was something childlike and touching in the voice something which for once suggested the normal filial relation but missus boyce did not waver
in your interests as well as mine you will make all the greater impression my dear for i have really forgotten how to behave those cards shall be properly returned of course for the rest let no one disturb themselves till they must
and if i were you marcella i would hardly discuss the family affairs any more with mister raeburn or anybody else and again her keen glance disconcerted the tall handsome girl whose power over the world about her had never extended to her mother
marcella flushed and played with the fire you see mamma she said after a moment still looking at the logs and the shower of sparks they made as she moved them about you never let me discuss them with you heaven forbid
said missus boyce quickly then after a pause
and you will see if you so choose it that there will be nothing unsurmountable in your way one piece of advice let me give you don't be too grateful to miss raeburn or anybody else
you take great interest in your boyce belongings i perceive you may remember too perhaps that there is other blood in you and that no merritt has ever submitted quietly to either patronage or pity marcella started
but no one of them had crossed the boyces threshold since the old london days wherein marcella could still dimly remember the tall forms of certain merritt uncles and even a stately lady in a white cap whom she knew to have been her mother's mother
the stately lady had died while she was still a child at her first school she could recollect her own mourning frock but that was almost the last personal remembrance she had connected with the merritts
and now this note of intense personal and family pride under which missus boyce's voice had for the first time quivered a little marcella had never heard it before and it thrilled her
the fire sank and missus hurd made no haste to light her lamp soon the old people were dim chattering shapes in a red darkness missus hurd still plaited silent and upright lifting her head every now and then
at each sound upon the road at last there was a knock at the door missus hurd ran to open it mother i'm going your way said a strident voice i'll help you home if you've a mind
on the threshold stood missus jellison's daughter missus westall with her little boy beside her the woman's broad shoulders and harsh striking head standing out against the pale sky behind
marcella noticed that she greeted none of the old people nor they her and as for missus hurd as soon as she saw the keeper's wife she turned her back abruptly on her visitor and walked to the other end of the kitchen are you comin mother repeated isabella
missus jellison grumbled gibed at her and made long leave takings while the daughter stood silent waiting and every now and then peering at marcella who had never seen her before i don know where yur manners is
said missus jellison sharply to her as though she had been a child of ten that you don't say good evenin to the young lady missus westall curtsied low and hoped she might be excused as it had grown so dark
and marcella disliked her as she shook hands with her
oh thank you thank you kindly miss said missus hurd raising her apron to her eyes to staunch some irrepressible tears as marcella showed her the advertisement which it might possibly be worth hurd's while to answer
he'll try you may be sure but i can't think as how anythink ull come ov it and then suddenly as though something unexplained had upset her self control the poor patient creature utterly broke down
leaning against the bare shelves which held their few pots and pans she threw her apron over her head and burst into the forlornest weeping i wish i was dead i wish i was dead an the chillen too
marcella hung over her one flame of passionate pity comforting soothing promising help missus hurd presently recovered enough to tell her that hurd had gone off that morning
but he'll not find it miss he'll not find it she said twisting her hands in a sort of restless misery
there was a sound outside missus hurd flew to the door and a short deformed man with a large head and red hair stumbled in blindly splashed with mud up to his waist and evidently spent with long walking
he stopped on the threshold straining his eyes to see through the fire lit gloom it's miss boyce jim said his wife did you hear of anythink they're turnin off hands instead of takin ov em on he said briefly
and fell into a chair by the grate he had hardly greeted marcella who had certainly looked to be greeted ever since her arrival in august as she had told aldous raeburn she had taken a warm interest in this man
and his family there was something about them which marked them out a bit from their fellows whether it was the husband's strange but not repulsive deformity contrasted with the touch of plaintive grace in the wife
or the charm of the elfish children with their tiny stick like arms and legs and the glancing wildness of their blue eyes under the frizzle of red hair which shone round their little sickly faces very soon she had begun to haunt them
in her eager way to try and penetrate their peasant lives which were so full of enigma and attraction to her mainly because of their very defectiveness their closeness to an animal simplicity never to be reached by any one of her sort
she soon discovered or imagined that hurd had more education than his neighbours at any rate he would sit listening to her and smoking as she made him do while she talked politics and socialism to him
and though he said little in return she made the most of it and was sure anyway that he was glad to see her come in and must some time read the labour newspapers and venturist leaflets she brought him
for they were always well thumbed before they came back to her but to night his sullen weariness would make no effort and the hunted restless glances he threw from side to side as he sat crouching over the fire the large mouth tight shut
the nostrils working showed her that he would be glad when she went away her young exacting temper was piqued she had been for some time trying to arrange their lives for them so in spite of his dumb resistance she lingered on
questioning and suggesting as to the advertisement she had brought down he put it aside almost without looking at it there ud be a hun'erd men after it before ever he could get there was all he would say to it
for work he did not answer but missus hurd said timidly
for the sake of giving employment but their own men on the estate would come first and there were plenty of them out of work well but there is the game persisted marcella
i might go and inquire of westall i know him a little the wife made a startled movement and hurd raised his misshapen form with a jerk thank yer miss but i'll not trouble yer i don't want nothing to do with westall
and taking up a bit of half burnt wood which lay on the hearth he threw it violently back into the grate marcella looked from one to the other with surprise missus hurd's expression was one of miserable discomfort
and she kept twisting her apron in her gnarled hands yes i shall
she broke out i shall i know miss boyce is one as ull understand hurd turned round and looked at his wife full but she persisted you see miss they don't speak
that was in mister robert's days you understand miss when master harold was alive and they took a deal o trouble about the game an george westall he was allays leading the others a life tale bearing an spyin
an settin his father against any of em as didn't give in to him
and went out of the cottage by the back door into the garden the wife sat in some agitation a moment then she resumed he can't bear no talk about westall it seems to drive him silly but i say as how people should know
her wavering eye seemed to interrogate her companion marcella was puzzled by her manner it was so far from simple but that was long ago surely she said yes it wor long ago but you don't forget them things miss
an westall he's just the same sort as he was then so folks say she added hurriedly you see jim miss how he's made his back was twisted that way when he was a little un his father was a good old man everybody spoke well of im
but his mother she was a queer mad body with red hair just like jim and the children and a temper my word they do say she was an irish girl out of a gang as used to work near here an she let him drop one day when she was in liquor
an never took no trouble about him afterwards he was a poor sickly lad he was you'd wonder how he grew up at all
he treated him cruel he'd kick and swear at him then he'd dare him to fight an thrash him till the others came in an got him away then he'd carry tales to his father and one day old westall beat jim within an inch of is life with a strap end
because of a lie george told im the poor chap lay in a ditch under disley wood all day because he was that knocked about he couldn't walk and at night he crawled home on his hands and knees he's shown me the place many a time
then he told his father and next morning he told me as he couldn't stand it no longer an he never went back no more and he told no one else he never complained asked marcella indignantly
missus hurd said wondering
he used to walk out with me of a sunday just as civil as could be
as couldn't pay him back that made him as cross as vinegar an when jim began to be about with me ov a sunday sometimes instead of him he got madder and madder an jim asked me to marry him he begged of me
an i didn't know what to say for westall had asked me twice
an the low wages he'd get an of not bein strong myself but one day i was going up a lane into tudley end woods an i heard george westall on tother side of the hedge with a young dog he was training
can't you as jim don't want to have nothing to do with westall thank you kindly all the same she added breaking off her narrative with the same uncertainty of manner the same timid scrutiny of her visitor that marcella had noticed before
against her will she reddened a little but she had not been able to help throwing out the promise
you'll trust me i could always do something she took missus hurd's hand with a sweet look and gesture standing there in her tall vigorous youth her furs wrapped about her
she had the air of protecting and guiding this poverty that could not help itself the mother and wife felt herself shy intimidated the tears came back to her brown eyes when miss boyce had gone
minta hurd went to the fire and put it together sighing all the time her face still red and miserable the door opened and her husband came in he carried some potatoes in his great earth stained hands
you're goin to put that bit of hare on well mak eeaste do for i'm starvin what did she want to stay all that time for you go and get it i'll blow the fire up damn these sticks
nevertheless as she sadly came and went preparing the supper she saw that he was appeased in a better temper than before what did you tell er he asked abruptly
i acted for the best i'm always thinkin for you she said as though with a little cry or we'd soon be in trouble worse trouble than we are she added miserably he stopped working the old bellows for a moment
with his deformity his earth stains his blue eyes his brown wrinkled skin and his shock of red hair he had the look of some strange gnome crouching there i don't know what you're at i'll swear he said after a pause
i ain't in any pertickler trouble just now if yer wouldn't send a fellow stumpin the country for nothink if you'll just let me alone i'll get a livin for you and the chillen right enough don't you trouble yourself an hold your tongue
she threw down her apron with a gesture of despair as she stood beside him in front of the fire watching the pan what am i to do jim an them chillen when you're took to prison she asked him vehemently i shan't get took to prison i tell yer
i thought praps you'd better know her exclamation of terror her wild look at him were exactly what he had expected nevertheless he flinched before them his brutality was mostly assumed
but he caught me lookin at a snare this mornin' it wor misty and i didn't see no one comin it wor close to the footpath and it worn't my snare jim my chap says he mockin i'm sorry for it but i'm going to search yer
so take it quietly says he he had young dynes with him so i didn't say nought i kep as still as a mouse
what she said breathlessly nothink he laughed out nary an end o string nor a kink o wire nothink
i'd hidden the two rabbits i got las night and all my bits o things in a ditch far enough out o his way i just laughed at the look ov im i'll have the law on yer for assault an battery yer damned miscalculatin brute
an off i walked don't you be afeared
but minta was sore afraid and went on talking and lamenting while she made the tea he took little heed of her he sat by the fire quivering and thinking
in a public house two nights before this one overtures had been made to him on behalf of a well known gang of poachers with head quarters in a neighbouring county town who had their eyes on the pheasant preserves in westall's particular beat the tudley end beat
and wanted a local watcher and accomplice he had thought the matter at first too dangerous to touch moreover he was at that moment in a period of transition pestered by minta to give up the poachin and yet drawn back to it after his spring and summer of field work
by instincts only recently revived after long dormancy but now hard to resist presently he turned with anger upon one of minta's wails which happened to reach him look ere said he to her
where ud you an the chillen be this night if i adn't done it adn't we got rid of every stick o stuff we iver ad ere's a well furnished place for a chap to sit in he glanced bitterly round the bare kitchen which had none of the little properties of the country poor
wouldn't we jes answer me that didn't we sit here an starve till the bones was comin through the chillen's skin didn't we that he could still argue the point with her showed the inner vulnerableness the inner need of her affection
and of peace with her which he still felt far as certain new habits were beginning to sweep him from her it's westall or jenkins jenkins was the village policeman havin the law on yer jim she said with emphasis
putting down a cup and looking at him it's the thought of that makes me cold in my back
none o my people was ever in prison an if it appened to you i should just die of shame then yer'd better take and read them papers there as she brought he said impatiently first jerking his finger over his shoulder in the direction of mellor to indicate miss boyce
not o breakin ov em but i'm sick o this where's them chillen why do yer let that boy out so late and opening the door he stood on the threshold looking up and down the village street while minta once more gave up the struggle dried her eyes
and told herself to be cheerful but it was hard she was far better born and better educated than her husband her father had been a small master chair maker in wycombe and her mother
a lackadaisical silly woman had given her her fine name by way of additional proof that she and her children were something out of the common moreover she had the conforming law abiding instincts of the well treated domestic servant
who has lived on kindly terms with the gentry and shared their standards and for years after their marriage hurd had allowed her to govern him he had been so patient so hard working
such a kind husband and father so full of a dumb wish to show her he was grateful to her for marrying such a fellow as he the quarrel with westall seemed to have sunk out of his mind he never spoke to or of him low wages
the burden of quick coming children the bad sanitary conditions of their wretched cottage and poor health had made their lives one long and sordid struggle but for years he had borne his load with extraordinary patience he and his could just exist
and the man who had been in youth the lonely victim of his neighbours scorn had found a woman to give him all herself and children to love hence years of submission a hidden flowering time for both of them till that last awful winter
and half the able bodied men of mellor had tramped up into the smoke as the village put it in search of london work then out of actual sheer starvation that very rare excuse of the poacher hurd had gone one night and snared a hare
on the mellor land would the wife and mother ever forget the pure animal satisfaction of that meal or the fearful joy of the next night when he got three shillings from a local publican for a hare and two rabbits
but after the first relief minta had gone in fear and trembling for the old woodcraft revived in hurd and the old passion for the fields and their chances
which he had felt as a lad before his watcher's place had been made intolerable to him by george westall's bullying he became excited unmanageable
very soon he was no longer content with mellor where since the death of young harold the heir the keepers had been dismissed and what remained of a once numerous head of game lay open to the wiles of all the bold spirits of the neighbourhood
he must needs go on to those woods of lord maxwell's which girdled the mellor estate on three sides and here he came once more across his enemy for george westall was now in the far better paid service of the court and a very clever keeper
with designs on the head keeper's post whenever it might be vacant in the case of a poacher he had the scent of one of his own hares it was known to him in an incredibly short time that that low caselty fellow hurd
was attacking his game hurd notwithstanding was cunning itself and westall lay in wait for him in vain meanwhile all the old hatred between the two men revived
hurd drank this winter more than he had ever drunk yet it was necessary to keep on good terms with one or two publicans who acted as receivers of the poached game of the neighbourhood and it seemed to him that westall pursued him into these low dens
the keeper big burly prosperous would speak to him with insolent patronage watching him all the time or with the old brutality which hurd dared not resent only in his excitable dwarf's sense
hate grew and throve very soon to monstrous proportions westall's menacing figure darkened all his sky for him his poaching besides a means of livelihood became more and more a silent duel between him and his boyhood's tyrant
and now after seven months of regular field work and respectable living it was all to begin again with the new winter the same shudders and terrors the same shames before the gentry and mister harden the soft timid woman with her conscience
she knew that he was glad to fail there was a certain ease and jauntiness in his air to night
will you come in at once daisy nellie two little figures came pattering up the street in the moist october dusk a third panted behind the girls ran in to their mother chattering and laughing
hurd lifted the boy in his arm where you bin will what were yo out for in this nasty damp
he carried him in to the fire and sat him on his knees the little emaciated creature flushed with the pleasure of his father's company played contentedly in the intervals of coughing with the shining chestnuts or ate his slice of the fine pear
which proved to be the summat else of promise the curtains were close drawn the paraffin lamp flared on the table and as the savoury smell of the hare and onions on the fire filled the kitchen
the whole family gathered round watching for the moment of eating the fire played on the thin legs and pinched faces of the children on the baby's cradle in the further corner on the mother red eyed still but able to smile and talk again
on the strange celtic face and matted hair of the dwarf family affection and the satisfaction of the simpler physical needs these things make the happiness of the poor for this hour to night
meanwhile in the lane outside marcella as she walked home passed a tall broad shouldered man in a velveteen suit and gaiters his gun over his shoulder and two dogs behind him
his pockets bulging on either side he walked with a kind of military air and touched his cap to her as he passed marcella barely nodded tyrant and bully she thought to herself with missus hurd's story in her mind
yet no doubt he is a valuable keeper lord maxwell would be sorry to lose him it is the system makes such men and must have them the clatter of a pony carriage disturbed her thoughts
a small elderly lady in a very large mushroom hat drove past her in the dusk and bowed stiffly marcella was so taken by surprise that she barely returned the bow then she looked after the carriage that was miss raeburn
the governor told me you and jim had made back dreadful bore isn't it just when we'd all rubbed off the rust of our bush life and were getting civilised i feel very seriously ill treated i assure you i have a great mind to apply to the government for compensation
that's the worst of these new inspectors they are so infernally zealous you were too many for them it seems i half thought you might have been nailed how the deuce did you get the office in time the faithful warrigal as usual gave me timely warning and brought a horse of course
he will appear on the judgment day leading rainbow i firmly believe why he should be so confoundedly anxious about my welfare i can't make out i can't really it's his peculiar form of mania i suppose we all suffer from some madness or other
i didn't know myself that your kate had come the double on you i might have known she would though well
partly to see me and partly about another matter that your father laid him on about he was standing about near the prospectors arms late on friday night doing nothing and seeing everything as usual when he noticed missus mullockson run out of the house like a bedlamite
my word that missis big one coolah was his expression and made straight for the camp now warrigal had seen you come out just before he doesn't like you and jim over much bad taste i tell him on his part but i suppose he looks upon you as belonging to the family
so he stalked the fair and furious kate that was how it was then yes much in that way i must say dick that if you are so extremely fond of well studying the female character you should carry on the pursuit more discreetly
confound her she's a heartless wretch and i hope she'll die in a ditch exactly well she knocked and a constable opened the outer door i want to see sir ferdinand she says he's in bed and can't be disturbed says the bobby any message i can deliver
i have important information says she rouse him up or you'll be sorry for it won't it do to morrow morning says he no it won't says she stamping her foot
she waited a bit then warrigal says out came sir ferdinand very polite what can i do for you says he missus mullockson should you like to know where the marstons are sir ferdinand says she dick and jim
know would i not says he no end of warrants out for them since that ballabri bank robbery they seem to have disappeared under ground and that fellow starlight too most remarkable man of his day i'd give my eyes to put the bracelets upon him she whispered something into his ear guard
turn out he roars out first then dropping his voice says out my dear missus mullockson you should hear warrigal imitate him you have made my fortune officially i mean of course i shall never forget your kindness thanks a thousand times
warrigal had heard quite enough he rips over to daly's mob borrows a horse saddle and bridle and leads him straight down to our camp he roused me up about one o'clock and i could hardly make any explanation to my mates such stunning good fellows they were too
i wonder whether i shall ever associate with gentlemen again the chances are against it i had all kinds of trouble to tell them i was going away with warrigal and yet not to tell too much what the dickens says clifford can you want going away with this familiar of yours at this hour of the night you're like the fellow in scott's novel
that i was reading over again yesterday the mysterious stranger that's called for at midnight by the avenger of blood departs with him and is never seen more in case you never see me afterwards i said we'd better say good bye we've been good mates and true friends haven't we
never better he said i don't know what we shall do without you
good bye in case i said anyhow i'll write you a line and as i shook hands with them two regular trumps if ever there were any in the world i had a kind of notion i'd never see them again hardly think i shall either
sir ferdinand surrounded the hut about an hour later and made them come out one by one both of them and the wages man i daresay they were surprised where's the fourth man clifford says sir ferdinand just ask him to come out will you what frank haughton says he
i heard most of this from that young devil billy the boy he saw sir ferdinand ride up so he hid close by just for the fun of hearing how he got on he'd seen warrigal and me ride away frank devil bangs out sir ferdinand who'd begun to get his monkey up
how should i know his infernal purser's name no man it seems to me has his right name on this confounded goldfield i mean starlight starlight the cattle stealer the mail robber the bush ranger whose name is notorious over the three colonies and new zealand to boot
your intimate friend and partner for the last nine months you perfectly amaze me says clifford but can't you be mistaken is your information to be depended upon mine came from a jealous woman says sir ferdinand they may generally be depended upon for a straight tip
but we're losing time when did he leave the claim and which way did he go i have no idea which way he went says clifford he did not say but he left about an hour since on foot or on horseback on horseback any one with him yes another horseman
what was he like slight dark man youngish good looking warrigal the half caste by george warrants out for him also says sir ferdinand on a good horse of course with an hour's start we may give up the idea of catching him this time
good bye clifford you'll hear news of your friend before long or i'm much mistaken stop sir ferdinand you must pardon me but i don't exactly understand your tone the man that we knew by the name of frank haughton may be as you say an escaped criminal
all i know is that he lived with us since we came here and that no fellow could have behaved more truly like a man and a gentleman
do you mean to hint for one moment that we were aware of his previous history or in any way mixed up with his acts if i do what then says sir ferdinand laughing the affair is in no way ludicrous says clifford very stiff and dignified
do you know that i could arrest you and hastings now and lock you up on suspicion of being concerned with him in the ballabri bank robbery says sir ferdinand in a stern voice don't look so indignant i only say i could i am not going to do so of course
as to fighting you my dear fellow i am perfectly at your service at all times and seasons whenever i resign my appointment as inspector of police for the colony of new south wales
the civil service regulations do not permit of duelling at present and i found it so deuced hard to work up to the billet that i am not going to imperil my continuance therein after all i had no intention of hurting your feelings and apologise if i did as for that rascal starlight he would deceive the very devil himself
and so sir ferdinand rode off how did you come by jonathan's we called nowhere warrigal as usual made a short cut of his own across the bush scrubs gullies mountains all manner of desert paths
we dropped in to breakfast here at daylight and i felt sleepy enough for another snooze we're all here again it seems i said sour enough
they must take the consequences d n them ha very true says starlight in his dreamy kind of way most true richard society should make a truce occasionally or proclaim an amnesty with offenders of our stamp it would pay better than driving us to desperation
how is jim he's worse off than either of us poor fellow jim's very bad he can't get over being away from jeanie i never saw him so down in the mouth this years poor old jim he's a deal too good for the place sad mistake this getting married
but soft as they say in the play where am i i thought i was a virtuous miner again here we are at this devil discovered demon haunted old hollow again
we didn't do much for a few days you may be sure
and we hadn't made up our mind what our line was to be one thing was certain there would be more row made about us than ever
living at the diggings under the nose of the police without their having the least suspicion who we were was bad enough but the rescue of jim and the shooting of a policeman in charge of him was more serious
there would be the devil to pay if they couldn't find a track of us no doubt money would be spent like water in bribing any one who might give information about us every one would be tried that we had ever been known to be friendly with
we had long talks and barneys over the whole thing sometimes by ourselves with starlight sometimes with father a long time it was before we settled upon any regular put up bit of work to do sooner or later we began to see the secret of the hollow would be found out
there was no great chance in the old times with only a few shepherds and stock riders wandering through the bush once in a way straggling over the country but now the whole colony swarmed with miners who were always prospecting as they called it that is looking out for fresh patches of gold
now small parties of these men bold hardy experienced chaps would take a pick and shovel a bucket and a tin dish with a few weeks rations and scour the whole countryside
if they found the colour of gold the least trace of it in a dish of wash dirt they would at once settle down themselves if it went rich the news would soon spread and a thousand men might be gathered in one spot the bank of a small creek the side of a steep range within a fortnight
with ten thousand more sure to follow within a month that might happen at any time on one of the spurs of nulla mountain and the finding out of the track down to the hollow by some one of the dozens of rambling shooting fishing diggers would be as certain to happen as the sun to rise
well the country had changed and we were bound to change with it we couldn't stop boxed up in the hollow day after day and month after month shooting and horse breaking doing nothing and earning nothing if we went outside there were ten times more men looking out for us than ever
ten times more chance of our being tracked or run down than ever that we knew from the newspapers how did we see them oh the old way we sent out our scout warrigal
from a sure hand as starlight said the old people in the english wars used to say the papers were something to see first he brought us in a handbill that was posted in bargo like this five hundred pounds reward
but who can be identified chiefly by the appellation of starlight pleasing way of drawing attention to a gentleman's private residence says starlight smiling first and looking rather grim afterwards never mind boys they'll increase that reward yet by jove it will have to be a thousand a piece if they don't look a little sharper
we laughed and dad growled out don't seem to have the pluck any on ye to tackle a big touch again i expect they'll send a summons for us next and get old bill barkis the bailiff at bargo to serve it come come governor says starlight none of that
turon star what a godsend to it bush rangers starlight and the marstons again
that these celebrated desperadoes for whose apprehension such large sums have been offered for whom the police in all the colonies have made such unremitting search should have been discovered in our midst yet such is the case on this very morning from information received
our respected and efficient inspector of police sir ferdinand morringer proceeded soon after midnight to the camp of messrs clifford and hastings he had every reason to believe that he would have had no difficulty in arresting the famous starlight who under the cognomen of the honourable frank haughton
has been for months a partner in this claim
it being rumoured that both mister clifford and mister hastings were entitled to that prefix if not to a more exalted one with characteristic celerity however
the famous outlaw had shortly before quitted the place having received warning and been provided with a fast horse by his singular retainer warrigal a half caste native of the colony who is said to be devotedly attached to him and who has been seen from time to time on the turon
of the marston brothers the elder one richard would seem to have been similarly apprised but james marston was arrested in his cottage in specimen gully having been lately married he was apparently unwilling to leave his home and lingered too long for prudence
while rejoicing as must all good citizens at the discovery of evil doers and the capture of one member of a band of notorious criminals we must state in fairness and candour that their conduct has been while on the field as miners free from reproach in every way
for james marston who was married but a short while since to a melbourne young lady of high personal attractions and the most winning amiability great sympathy has been expressed by all classes so much for the star
i shouldn't wonder if they'd make you a beak if you'd stayed there long enough i'm afraid dick's dropping the policeman won't add to our popularity though he's all right i said hurrah look here i'm glad i didn't finish the poor beggar listen to this from the turon banner
bush ranging revived the good old days have apparently not passed away for ever when mail robberies and hand to hand conflicts with armed robbers were matters of weekly occurrence
the comparative lull observable in such exciting occurrences of late has been proved to be but the ominous hush of the elements that precedes the tempest within the last few days the mining community has been startled by the discovery of the notorious gang of bush rangers starlight and the marstons
domiciled in the very heart of the diggings attired as ordinary miners and for their own purposes possibly leading the laborious lives proper to the avocation
james marston had recently married a young person of most respectable family and prepossessing appearance as far as may be inferred from this step and his subsequent conduct he had cut loose from his former habitudes
worked an adjoining claim to the arizona sluicing company with the respected shareholders of which they were on terms of intimacy the well known starlight as mister frank haughton
became partner and tent mate with the hon mister clifford and mister hastings an aristocratic society in which the manners and bearing of this extraordinary man permitted him to mingle without suspicion of detection suddenly information was furnished to the police respecting all three men
suffice it to say that sir ferdinand morringer promptly arranged for the simultaneous action of three parties of police with the hope of capturing all three outlaws but in two cases the birds were flown starlight's
a half caste named warrigal had been observed on the field the day before by him he was doubtless furnished with a warning and the horse upon which he left his abode shortly before the arrival of sir ferdinand
the elder marston had also eluded the police but james marston hindered possibly by domestic ties was captured at his cottage at specimen gully for him sympathy has been universally expressed
he is regarded rather as a victim than as an active agent in the many criminal offences chargeable to the account of starlight's gang
has been brought in badly wounded the other trooper reports that he was shot down and the party attacked by persons concealed in the thick timber near wild horse creek at the edge of bargo brush in the confusion that ensued the prisoner escaped it was at first thought that walsh was fatally injured
but our latest report gives good hope of his recovery
and went straight up to the hut where the man lived that looked after it most of the diggers that cared about their horses paid for their grass in farmers and squatters paddocks though the price was pretty high old bates who had a bit of a good grassed flat
made a pretty fair thing out of it by taking in horses at half a crown a week apiece as luck would have it the man in charge knew me he'd seen me out with the yankees one day and saw i was a friend with them
and when i said i'd come for bill's sorrel he thought it likely enough and got out the saddle and bridle i tipped him well and went off telling him i was going to wattle flat to look at a quartz crushing plant that was for sale i accounted for coming up so early by saying i'd lost my road
and that i wanted to get to wattle flat sharp as another chap wished to buy the plant i cut across the range kept the sun on my right hand and pushed on for jonathan's
i rode the sorrel hard but i knew he was pretty tough and i was able to pay for him if i killed him i trusted to leaving him at jonathan's and getting a fresh horse there what with the walk over the bluff and the forest having no sleep the night before
and the bother and trouble of it all i was pretty well used up i was real glad to see jonathan's paddock fence and the old house we'd thought so little of lately it's wonderful how soon people rise grand notions and begin to get too big for their boots hello dick what's up says jonathan
looks a bit fishy don't it i can't stop barneying i said have you a decent horse to give me the game's up i must ride night and day till i get home heard anything no but billy the boy's just rode up i hear him a talkin to the gals he knows if anybody does
i'll take the old moke and put him in the paddock i can let you have a stunner all right i'll go in and have some breakfast it's as much as i dare stop at all now why dick marston is that you no it can't be said both girls together
why you look like a ghost he doesn't he looks as if he'd been at a ball all night plenty of partners dick never mind dick says maddie go and make yourself comfortable in that room and i'll have breakfast for you while you'd let a cow out of the bail we don't forget our friends
we're only indebted to somebody's laying the traps on a woman of course for your honour's company never mind old man i won't hit you when you're down but i say you go and have a yarn with billy the boy he's in the kitchen i believe the young imp knows something but he won't let on to bell and i
while the steaks were frying and they smelt very good bad as i felt i called out master billy and had a talk with him i handed him a note to begin with it was money well spent and you mark my words a shilling spent in grog often buys a man twenty times the worth of it in information
billy had grown a squarish set middle sized chap his hair wasn't so long and his clothes were better his eye was as bright and bold looking
my colonial oath dick you're quite the gentleman free with your money just the same as ever you takes after the old governor
i remember him giving me a hidin when i was a kiddy for saying something i wasn't sure of my word i was that sore for a week after i couldn't button my shirt but ain't it a pity about jim
what about jim why the p'leece grabbed him of course you fellers don't think you're going on for ever and ever keepin the country in a state of terrorism as the papers say no dick it's wrong and wicked and sinful you'll have to knock under and give us young uns a chance
here the impudent young rascal looked in my face as bold as brass and burst out laughing he certainly was the cheekiest young scoundrel i ever came across but in his own line you couldn't lick him jim's took he said and he looked curiously over at me
i seen the p'leece a takin him across the country to bargo early this morning there was poor old jim a lookin as if he was goin to be hanged with a chap leading the screw he was on and jim's long legs tied underneath i was gatherin cattle i was
how many men were with him only two and they're to pass through bargo brush about sundown to night or a bit earlier
see here billy i said here's another pound for you and there'll be a fiver after if you stick well to me to day i won't let jim be walked off to berrima without a flutter to save him it'll be the death of him he's not like me and he's got a young wife besides
more fool he dick what does a cross cove want with a wife he can't never expect to do any good with a wife follerin of him about
leastways as long as a chap's sound on his pins but i'll stick to you dick and what's more i can take you a short cut to the brush and we can wait in a gully and see the traps come up you have a snack and lie down for a bit i seen you were done when you came up
i'll have the horses ready saddled up how about the police suppose they come this way
i didn't see em but i cut their tracks five shod horses they might be here to morrow
they're not all as good as billy the boy but the worst of em like a bad sheep dog is a deal better than none a bush telegraph you see is mostly worked about the neighbourhood he was born in
he's at sea but within twenty or thirty miles of where he was born and bred he knows every track every range every hill every creek as well as all the short cuts and by roads he can bring you miles shorter than any one that only follows the road
he can mostly track like a blackfellow and tell you whether the cattle or horses which he sees the tracks of are belonging to his country or are strangers he can get you a fresh horse on a pinch
night or day for he knows everybody's paddocks and yards as well as the number looks pace and pluck of everybody's riding horses of many of which he has taken a turn out of that is ridden them hard and far and returned them during the night
of course he can be fined even imprisoned for this when he is caught in the act herein lies the difficulty i felt like another man after a wash a nip and a real good meal with the two girls sitting close by and chattering away as usual
it half serves you right not that that port phillip woman was right to peach
let alone go open mouthed at it but mightn't you have come down here from the turon on sundays and holidays now and then and had a yarn with us all of course we ought and we deserve to be kicked the lot of us but there were good reasons why we didn't like to
we were regularly boxed up with the diggers nobody knew who we were or where we came from and only for this jezebel never would have known if we'd come here they'd have all dropped that we were old friends
you won't have to be so particular now and you can come as often as sir ferdinand will let you good bye billy's waving his hat it wasn't long before i was in the saddle and off again
i'd made a bit of a bargain with jonathan who sold me a pair of riding boots butcher's and a big tweed poncho the boots were easier to take a long rough ride in than trousers and i wanted the poncho to keep the ballard rifle under it wouldn't do to have it in your hand all the time
as we rode along i settled upon the way i'd try and set poor jim free bad off as i was myself i couldn't bear to see him chained up
after riding twenty miles the sun was getting low when billy pointed to a trail which came broad ways across the road and which then followed it here they are p'leece and no mistake
here's the prisoner's horse see how he stumbled and this road they're bound to go till they cross the stony point and get into bargo brush near a creek
and i made ready to rescue jim if it could be managed anyhow how was it to be done i could depend on the rifle carrying true at short ranges but i didn't like the notion of firing at a man behind his back like
one man was a bit in front riding a fine horse too
rode poor old jim looking as if he was going to be hanged that day as billy said though i knew well he wasn't thinking about himself i don't believe jim ever looked miserable for so long since he was born whatever happened to him before
but now his poor old face looked that wretched and miserable as if he'd never smile again as long as he lived he didn't seem to care where they took him and when the old horse stumbled and close upon fell down he didn't take notice when i saw that my mind was made up
i couldn't let them take him away to his death i could see he wouldn't live a month he'd go fretting his life about jeanie
so i took aim and waited till they were just crossing the creek into the forest the leading man was just riding up the bank and the one that led jim's horse was on the bit of a sand bed that the water had brought down he was the least bit ahead of jim when i pulled trigger
and sent a ball into him just under the collar bone i fired high on purpose he drops off his saddle like a dead man
he emptied four chambers of his revolver at the leading trooper right away and i fired at his horse the constable never doubted the attack was so sudden and savage like
billy's shots had whistled round him and mine had nearly dropped his horse so he thought it no shame to make a bolt and leave his mate as seemed very bad hit in our hands his horse's hand gallop growed fainter and fainter in the distance and then we unbound poor jim set his feet at liberty
and managed to dispose of the handcuffs jim's face began to look more cheerful but he was down in the mouth again when he saw the wounded man he began at once to do all he could for him we stopped a short distance behind the brush which had already helped us well
i must take your horse mate he says but you know it's only the fortune of war a man must look after himself some one'll come along the road soon he mounted the trooper's horse and we slipped through the trees it was getting dark now
till we came to our horses then we all rode off together
we could make our own way from there and so we sent off our scout
the sooner he was seen to the better chance he'd have jim brightened up considerably after this he told me how he'd gone back to say good bye to jeanie how the poor girl went into fits and he couldn't leave her by the time she got better the cottage was surrounded by police
there was no use being shot down without a chance so he gave himself up my word dick he said i wished for a bare backed horse and a deep gully then but it wasn't to be
there was no horse handy and i'd only have been carried into my own place a dead man and frightened the life out of poor jeanie as well you're worth a dozen dead men yet
and there we'll be safe anyhow they can't touch jeanie you know and you're not short of what cash she'll want to keep her till this blows over a bit and what am i to do all the time he says so pitiful like
where i've never seen anything yet but love and kindness too good for me she always was
if that old horse they put you on had bobbed forward level with him you'd have got plugged instead but it's no use giving in jim we must stand up to our fight now or throw up the sponge there's no two ways about it
where we knew we were pretty safe not to be followed up we took it easier then and stopped to eat a bit of bread and meat the girls had put up for me at jonathan's i'd never thought of it before when i took the parcel out of the pocket of my poncho i thought it felt deuced heavy
was one of those shilling flasks of brandy they sell for chaps to go on the road with brandy ain't a good thing at all times and seasons and i've seen more than one man or a dozen either that might just as well have sawed away at their throats with a blunt knife as put the first glass to their lips
though we hadn't had time to think about it
i never forgot it nor poor maddie barnes for thinking of it for me and i did live to do her a good turn back
it was a long way into the night and not far from daylight either when we stumbled up to the cave dead beat horses and men both we'd two minds to camp on the mountain but we might have been followed up hard as we'd ridden and we didn't like to throw a chance away
not now anyhow we'd been living too gay and free a life to begin with the jug all over again so we thought we'd make one job of it and get right through if we had to sleep for a week after it it would be slow enough but anything was better than what we'd gone through lately
after we'd got down the mountain and on the flat land of the valley it rested our feet a bit that was pretty nigh cut to pieces with the rocks our horses were that done we dursn't ride em for hours before
as we came close out walks old crib and smells at us he knew us in a minute and jumped up and began to try and lick jim's hand the old story
oh it's you is it then he actually gave a kind of half bark i don't believe he'd barked for years such a queer noise it was
as soon as he saw the old dog walking alongside of us he knew it was right and begins to feel for his pipe first thing father always did as soon as any work or fighting or talking was over was to get out his pipe and light it he didn't seem the same man without it
so you've found your way back again have ye he says why i thought you was all on your way to californy by this time ain't this christmas week why i was expecting to come over to ameriky myself one of these days when all the derry was over why what's up with the boy
jim was standing by sayin nothing while i was taking off the saddles and bridles and letting the horses go when all of a sudden he gives a lurch forward and if the old man hadn't laid hold of him in his strong arms and propped him up he'd have gone down face foremost like a girl in a dead faint
what's up with him dick says father rather quick almost as if he was fond of him and had some natural feeling sometimes i raly think he had any shooting yes not at him though tell you all about it in the morning
he's eaten nothing and we've been travelling best part of twenty four hours right off the reel hold him up while i fetch out the pannikin there's plenty of grub inside he'll be all right after a sleep a drop of rum and water brought him to and after that we made ourselves a cup of tea and turned in
the sun was pretty high when i woke when i looked out there was the old man sitting on the log by the fire smoking what was a deal more curious i saw the half caste warrigal coming up from the flat leading a horse and carrying a pair of hobbles
something made me look over to a particular corner where starlight always slept when he was at the hollow
and what will be the end of it i cannot calmly reflect upon it i cannot sleep i must have recourse to my diary again i will commit it to paper to night
and see what i shall think of it to morrow i went down to dinner resolving to be cheerful and well conducted and kept my resolution very creditably considering how my head ached
and how internally wretched i felt i don't know what is come over me of late my very energies both mental and physical must be strangely impaired or i should not have acted so weakly
in many respects as i have done but i have not been well this last day or two i suppose it is with sleeping and eating so little and thinking so much and being so continually out of humour
but to return i was exerting myself to sing and play for the amusement and at the request of my aunt and milicent before the gentlemen came into the drawing room
miss wilmot never likes to waste her musical efforts on ladies ears alone milicent had asked for a little scotch song and i was just in the middle of it when they entered
when i tell you that i have been hungering and thirsting all day for the sound of your voice come the piano's vacant it was for i had quitted it immediately upon hearing his petition
had i been endowed with a proper degree of self possession i should have turned to the lady myself and cheerfully joined my entreaties to his whereby i should have disappointed his expectations if the affront had been purposely given
or made him sensible of the wrong if it had only arisen from thoughtlessness but i felt it too deeply to do anything but rise from the music stool and throw myself back on the sofa suppressing with difficulty
the audible expression of the bitterness i felt within i knew annabella's musical talents were superior to mine but that was no reason why i should be treated as a perfect nonentity the time
and favoured him with two of his favourite songs in such superior style that even i soon lost my anger in admiration and listened with a sort of gloomy pleasure to the skilful modulations of her full toned
and derived an equal or superior delight from the contemplation of his speaking countenance as he stood beside her that eye and brow lighted up with keen enthusiasm
there now said she playfully running her fingers over the keys when she had concluded the second song what shall i give you next but in saying this
she looked back at lord lowborough who was standing a little behind leaning against the back of a chair an attentive listener too experiencing to judge by his countenance
much the same feelings of mingled pleasure and sadness as i did but the look she gave him plainly said do you choose for me now i have done enough for him and will gladly exert myself to gratify you
and thus encouraged his lordship came forward and turning over the music presently set before her a little song that i had noticed before and read more than once
of my connecting it in my mind with the reigning tyrant of my thoughts and now with my nerves already excited and half unstrung i could not hear those words so sweetly warbled forth
the air was simple sweet and sad it is still running in my head and so are the words farewell to thee but not farewell to all my fondest thoughts of thee
if i may ne'er behold again that form and face so dear to me nor hear thy voice still would i fain preserve for aye their memory that voice
the magic of whose tone can wake an echo in my breast creating feelings that alone
that laughing eye whose sunny beam my memory would not cherish less
but still it lingers in my heart and who can tell but heaven at last may answer all my thousand prayers and bid the future pay the past with joy for anguish
smiles for tears when it ceased i longed for nothing so much as to be out of the room the sofa was not far from the door but i did not dare to raise my head
for i knew mister huntingdon was standing near me and i knew by the sound of his voice as he spoke in answer to some remark of lord lowborough's that his face was turned towards me perhaps
and when i thought he had turned away again rose and instantly left the apartment taking refuge in my favourite resort the library there was no light there
but the faint red glow of the neglected fire but i did not want a light i only wanted to indulge my thoughts unnoticed and undisturbed and sitting down on a low stool before the easy chair
i sunk my head upon its cushioned seat and thought and thought until the tears gushed out again and i wept like any child presently however the door was gently opened
and someone entered the room i trusted it was only a servant and did not stir the door was closed again but i was not alone a hand gently touched my shoulder and a voice said softly
what is the matter i could not answer at the moment you must and shall tell me was added more vehemently and the speaker threw himself on his knees beside me on the rug
because if you were i have something to say to you and if not i'll go go then i cried but fearing he would obey too well and never come again i hastily added
but which said he
if you really were thinking of me so tell me helen you're excessively impertinent mister huntingdon not at all too pertinent you mean so you won't tell me well i'll spare your woman's pride
and construing your silence into yes i'll take it for granted that i was the subject of your thoughts and the cause of your affliction indeed sir if you deny it i won't tell you my secret threatened he
and i did not interrupt him again or even attempt to repulse him though he had taken my hand once more and half embraced me with his other arm i was scarcely conscious of it at the time
it is this resumed he that annabella wilmot in comparison with you is like a flaunting peony compared with a sweet wild rosebud gemmed with dew and i love you
to distraction now tell me if that intelligence gives you any pleasure silence again that means yes then let me add that i cannot live without you
you will drive me mad will you bestow yourself upon me you will he cried nearly squeezing me to death in his arms no no i exclaimed struggling to free myself from him
they won't refuse me if you don't i'm not so sure of that my aunt dislikes you but you don't helen say you love me and i'll go i wish you would go i replied
i will this instant if you'll only say you love me you know i do i answered and again he caught me in his arms and smothered me with kisses at that moment
my aunt opened wide the door and stood before us candle in hand in shocked and horrified amazement gazing alternately at mister huntingdon and me for we had both started up
and now stood wide enough asunder but his confusion was only for a moment rallying in an instant with the most enviable assurance he began
let me commend my cause to your most indulgent no indulgence for you mister huntingdon must come between me and the consideration of my niece's happiness ah true i know she is an angel
and i am a presumptuous dog to dream of possessing such a treasure but nevertheless i would sooner die than relinquish her in favour of the best man that ever went to heaven and as for her happiness
i would sacrifice my body and soul body and soul mister huntingdon sacrifice your soul well i would lay down life you would not be required to lay it down
to judge more favourably of your pretensions if you too had chosen another time and place and let me add another manner for your declaration why you see missus maxwell he began
pardon me sir said she with dignity company are inquiring for you in the other room and she turned to me then you must plead for me helen said he and at length withdrew
you had better retire to your room helen said my aunt gravely i will discuss this matter with you too to morrow don't be angry aunt said i my dear
i am not angry she replied i am surprised if it is true that you told him you could not accept his offer without our consent it is true interrupted i then how could you permit
tumultuous excitement of my feelings but my good aunt was touched at my agitation in a softer tone she repeated her recommendation to retire and gently kissing my forehead
bade me good night and put her candle in my hand and i went but my brain worked so i could not think of sleeping i feel calmer now that i have written all this and i will go to bed
and he possessed a weir upon the strand between dyvi and aberystwyth near to his own castle and the value of an hundred pounds was taken in that weir every may eve and gwyddno
had an only son named elphin the most hapless of youths and the most needy and it grieved his father sore for he thought that he was born in an evil hour by the advice of his council
to see if good luck would ever befall him and to give him something wherewith to begin the world and this was on the twenty ninth of april the next day when elphin went to look there was nothing in the weir
but a leathern bag upon a pole of the weir then said the weir ward unto elphin all thy ill luck aforetime was nothing to this and now thou hast destroyed the virtues of the weir
which always yielded the value of an hundred pounds every may eve and to night there is nothing but this leathern skin within it how now said elphin there may be therein the value of a hundred pounds well
taliesin be he called said elphin and he lifted the bag in his arms and lamenting his bad luck placed the boy sorrowfully behind him and he made his horse amble gently that before had been trotting
and he carried him as softly as if he had been sitting in the easiest chair in the world and presently the boy made a consolation and praise to elphin and the consolation was as you may here see fair elphin
cease to lament never in gwyddno's weir was there such good luck as this night being sad will not avail better to trust in god than to forbode ill weak and small as i am on the foaming beach of the ocean
of more service to thee than three hundred salmon this was the first poem that taliesin ever sung being to console elphin in his grief for that the produce of the weir was lost
and what was worse that all the world would consider that it was through his fault and ill luck then elphin asked him what he was whether man or spirit and he sung thus
i have been formed a comely person although i am but little i am highly gifted into a dark leathern bag i was thrown and on a boundless sea i was sent adrift from seas and from mountains
god brings wealth to the fortunate man then came elphin to the house of gwyddno his father and taliesin with him gwyddno asked him
and he told him that he had got that which was better than fish what was that said gwyddno a bard said elphin then said gwyddno alas what will he profit thee and taliesin himself replied and said
he will profit him more than the weir ever profited thee asked gwyddno art thou able to speak and thou so little and taliesin answered him i am better able to speak than thou to question me
let me hear what thou canst say quoth gwyddno then taliesin sang three times have i been born i know by meditation all the sciences of the world are collected in my breast for i know what has been
and what hereafter will occur elphin gave his haul to his wife and she nursed him tenderly and lovingly thenceforward elphin increased in riches more and more day after day and in love and favor with the king
and there abode taliesin until he was thirteen years old when elphin son of gwyddno went by a christmas invitation to his uncle maelgan gwynedd who held open court at christmas tide in the castle of dyganwy
for all the number of his lords of both degrees both spiritual and temporal with a vast and thronged host of knights and squires and one arose and said is there in the whole world a king so great as maelgan
or one on whom heaven has bestowed so many gifts as upon him form and beauty and meekness and strength besides all the powers of the soul and together with these they said that heaven had given one gift that exceeded all the others
and modesty of his queen whose virtues surpassed those of all the ladies and noble maidens throughout the whole kingdom
who had braver men who had fairer or swifter horses or greyhounds who had more skilful or wiser bards than maelgan
until he might show the truth as to the virtues of his wife and the wisdom of his bard now when elphin had been put in a tower of the castle with a thick chain about his feet
it is said that it was a silver chain because he was of royal blood the king as the story relates
to inquire into the demeanor of elphin's wife
being fully minded to bring disgrace upon his wife taliesin told his mistress how that the king had placed his master in durance in prison and how that rhun was coming in haste to strive to bring disgrace upon her
wherefore he caused his mistress
in her apparel which the noble lady gladly did and she loaded her hands with the best rings that she and her husband possessed in this guise taliesin caused his mistress to put the maiden to sit at the board in her room at supper
and he made her to seem as her mistress and the mistress to seem as the maid and when they were in due time seated at their supper in the manner that has been said
and was received with joy for the servants knew him and they brought him to the room of their mistress in the semblance of whom the maid rose up from supper and welcomed him gladly and afterwards she sat down to supper again and rhun with her
who still kept the semblance of her mistress and verily this story shows that the maiden became so intoxicated that she fell asleep and the story relates that it was a powder that rhun put into the drink that made her sleep so soundly
that she never felt it when he cut off from her hand her little finger whereon was the signet ring of elphin which he had sent to his wife as a token a short time before
and the ring as a proof
without her awaking from her sleep of intemperance the king rejoiced greatly at these tidings and he sent for his councillors to whom he told the whole story from the beginning and he caused elphin to be brought out of prison
and he chided him because of his boast and he spake on this wise elphin be it known to thee beyond a doubt that it is but folly for a man to trust in the virtues of his wife further than he can see her
and that thou mayest be certain of thy wife's vileness behold her finger with thy signet ring upon it which was cut from her hand last night while she slept the sleep of intoxication then thus spake elphin
with thy leave mighty king i cannot deny my ring for it is known of many but verily i assert that the finger around which it is was never attached to the hand of my wife for in truth and certainty
whence this was cut the second thing is that my wife has never let pass one saturday since i have known her without paring her nails before going to bed and you can see fully that the nail of this little finger has not been pared for a month
the third is truly that the hand whence this finger came was kneading rye dough within three days before the finger was cut therefrom and i can assure your highness that my wife has never kneaded rye dough since my wife she has been
but he bade her be glad for that he would go to maelgan's court to free his master so he took leave of his mistress and came to the court of maelgan
at the moment when they passed by the corner wherein he was crouching taliesin pouted out his lips after them and played blerwm blerwm with his finger upon his lips neither took they much notice of him as they went by
as they had seen the boy do this sight caused the king to wonder and to deem within himself that they were drunk with many liquors wherefore he commanded one of his lords who served at the board to go to them
and desire them to collect their wits and to consider where they stood and what it was fitting for them to do and this lord did so gladly but they ceased not from their folly any more than before
whereupon he sent to them a second time and a third desiring them to go forth from the hall at the last the king ordered one of his squires to give a blow to the chief of them named heinin vardd and the squire took a broom
and struck him on the head so that he fell back in his seat then he arose and went on his knees and besought leave of the king's grace to show that this their fault was not through want of knowledge neither through drunkenness
but by the influence of some spirit that was in the hall and he spoke on this wise o honorable king
that not from the strength of drink or of too much liquor are we dumb
in the form of a child forthwith the king commanded the squire to fetch him and he went to the nook where taliesin sat and brought him before the king who asked him what he was and whence he came and he answered the king in verse
primary chief bard am i to elphin and my native country is the region of the summer stars i have been in asia with noah in the ark i have seen the destruction of sodom and gomorrah
i was in india when rome was built i have now come here to the remnant of troia when the king and his nobles had heard the song they wondered much for they had never heard the like from a boy so young as he
and when the king knew that he was the bard of elphin
his first and wisest bard to answer taliesin and to strive with him but when he came he could do no other than play blerwm on his lips and when he sent for the others of the four and twenty bards they all did likewise and could do no other
and maelgan asked the boy taliesin what was his errand and he answered him in song elphin the son of gwyddno is in the land of artro secured by thirteen locks for praising his instructor
therefore i taliesin chief of the bards of the west will loosen elphin out of a golden fetter then he sang to them a riddle discover thou what is the strong creature from before the flood
without flesh without bone without vein without blood without head without feet it will neither be older nor younger than at the beginning behold how the sea whitens when first it comes when it comes from the south
when it strikes on coasts it is in the field it is in the wood but the eye cannot perceive it one being has prepared it by a tremendous blast to wreak vengeance on
while he was thus singing his verse there arose a mighty storm of wind so that the king and all his nobles thought that the castle would fall upon their heads and the king caused them to fetch elphin in haste from his dungeon and placed him before taliesin
and it is said that immediately he sung a verse so that the chains opened from about his feet after that taliesin brought elphin's wife before them and showed that she had not one finger wanting and in this manner
the hamadryads were wood nymphs pomona was of this class and no one excelled her in love of the garden and the culture of fruit she cared not for forests and rivers but loved the cultivated country
and trees that bear delicious apples her right hand bore for its weapon not a javelin but a pruning knife armed with this she busied herself at one time to repress the too luxuriant growths
and led streams of water by them that the thirsty roots might drink this occupation was her pursuit her passion and she was free from that which venus inspires she was not without fear of the country people
and kept her orchard locked and allowed not men to enter the fauns and satyrs would have given all they possessed to win her and so would old sylvanus who looks young for his years and pan who wears a garland of pine leaves around his head
but vertumnus loved her best of all yet he sped no better than the rest o how often in the disguise of a reaper did he bring her corn in a basket and looked the very image of a reaper with a hay band tied round him
one would think he had just come from turning over the grass sometimes he would have an ox goad in his hand and you would have said he had just unyoked his weary oxen now he bore a pruning hook and personated a vine dresser and again with a ladder on his shoulder
and fed his passion with the sight of her one day he came in the guise of an old woman her gray hair surmounted with a cap and a staff in her hand she entered the garden and admired the fruit it does you credit my dear
she praised the tree and its associated vine equally but said she if the tree stood alone and had no vine clinging to it it would have nothing to attract or offer us but its useless leaves
and want to make a good alliance and will let an old woman advise you who loves you better than you have any idea of dismiss all the rest and accept vertumnus on my recommendation
i know him as well as he knows himself he is not a wandering deity but belongs to these mountains nor is he like too many of the lovers nowadays who love any one they happen to see he loves you and you only
remember that the gods punish cruelty and that venus hates a hard heart and will visit such offences sooner or later to prove this let me tell you a story which is well known in cyprus to be a fact
and i hope it will have the effect to make you more merciful iphis was a young man of humble parentage who saw and loved anaxarete a
he struggled long with his passion but when he found he could not subdue it he came a suppliant to her mansion first he told his passion to her nurse and begged her as she loved her foster child to favor his suit
and then he tried to win her domestics to his side sometimes he committed his vows to written tablets and often hung at her door garlands which he had moistened with his tears he stretched himself on her threshold
she mocked and laughed at him adding cruel words to her ungentle treatment and gave not the slightest gleam of hope iphis could not any longer endure the torments of hopeless love and standing before her doors he spake these last words
this at least i can do to gratify you and force you to praise me and thus shall i prove that the love of you left me but with life nor will i leave it to rumor to tell you of my death i will come myself and you shall see me die
and feast your eyes on the spectacle yet o ye gods who look down on mortal woes observe my fate i ask but this let me be remembered in coming ages
and add those years to my fame which you have reft from my life thus he said and turning his pale face and weeping eyes towards her mansion
and the sound was as the sound of a groan the servants opened the door and found him dead and with exclamations of pity raised him and carried him home to his mother for his father was not living
she received the dead body of her son and folded the cold form to her bosom while she poured forth the sad words which bereaved mothers utter the mournful funeral passed through the town and the pale corpse was borne on a bier
met the ears of her whom the avenging deity had already marked for punishment let us see this sad procession said she and mounted to a turret whence through an open window she looked upon the funeral
she tried in vain and by degrees all her limbs became stony like her heart that you may not doubt the fact the statue still remains and stands in the temple of venus at salamis in the exact form of the lady
now think of these things my dear and lay aside your scorn and your delays and accept a lover so may neither the vernal frosts blight your young fruits nor furious winds scatter your blossoms
she was invoked by phillips the author of a poem on cider in blank verse thomson in the seasons alludes to him phillips pomona's bard the second thou
who nobly durst in rhyme unfettered verse with british freedom sing the british song
and as such is invoked by thomson bear me pomona to thy citron groves to where the lemon and the piercing lime with the deep orange glowing through the green their lighter glories blend
lay me reclined beneath the spreading tamarind that shakes
and murchison the engineer re embarked on board the tampico for new orleans his object was to enlist an army of workmen and to collect together the greater part of the materials
by the aid of the people of the country eight days after its departure the tampico returned into the bay of espiritu santo with a whole flotilla of steamboats murchison had succeeded in assembling together fifteen hundred artisans
attracted by the high pay and considerable bounties offered by the gun club he had enlisted a choice legion of stokers iron founders lime burners miners brickmakers and artisans of every trade without distinction of color
as many of these people brought their families with them
and one may imagine the activity which pervaded that little town whose population was thus doubled in a single day during the first few days they were busy discharging the cargo brought by the flotilla the machines and the rations
separately pieced and numbered at the same period barbicane laid the first sleepers of a railway fifteen miles in length intended to unite stones hill with tampa town on the first of november barbicane quitted tampa town with a detachment of workmen
and on the following day the whole town of huts was erected round stones hill this they enclosed with palisades and in respect of energy and activity it might have been mistaken for one of the great cities of the union
and the works were commenced in most perfect order the nature of the soil having been carefully examined by means of repeated borings the work of excavation was fixed for the fourth of november
on that day barbicane called together his foremen and addressed them as follows you are well aware my friends of the object with which i have assembled you together in this wild part of florida
our business is to construct a cannon measuring nine feet in its interior diameter six feet thick and with a stone revetment of nineteen and a half feet in thickness
we have therefore a well of sixty feet in diameter to dig down to a depth of nine hundred feet
that is to say in round numbers two thousand cubic feet per day that which would present no difficulty to a thousand navvies working in open country will be of course more troublesome in a comparatively confined space
however the thing must be done and i reckon for its accomplishment upon your courage as much as upon your skill at eight o'clock the next morning the first stroke of the pickaxe was struck upon the soil of florida and from that moment
that prince of tools was never inactive for one moment in the hands of the excavators the gangs relieved each other every three hours on the fourth of november fifty workmen commenced digging in the very center of the enclosed space on the summit of stones hill
a circular hole sixty feet in diameter the pickaxe first struck upon a kind of black earth six inches in thickness which was speedily disposed of to this earth succeeded two feet of fine sand
which was carefully laid aside as being valuable for serving the casting of the inner mould after the sand appeared some compact white clay resembling the chalk of great britain which extended down to a depth of four feet
then the iron of the picks struck upon the hard bed of the soil a kind of rock formed of petrified shells very dry very solid and which the picks could with difficulty penetrate
at this point the excavation exhibited a depth of six and a half feet
a kind of circle strongly bolted together and of immense strength the center of this wooden disc was hollowed out to a diameter equal to the exterior diameter of the columbiad upon this wheel rested the first layers of the masonry
the stones of which were bound together by hydraulic cement with irresistible tenacity
when this work was accomplished the miners resumed their picks and cut away the rock from underneath the wheel itself taking care to support it as they advanced upon blocks of great thickness at every two feet which the hole gained in depth they successively withdrew the blocks
the wheel then sank little by little and with it the massive ring of masonry on the upper bed of which the masons labored incessantly always reserving some vent holes to permit the escape of gas during the operation of the casting
this kind of work required on the part of the workmen extreme nicety and minute attention more than one in digging underneath the wheel was dangerously injured by the splinters of stone but their ardor never relaxed night or day
by day they worked under the rays of the scorching sun by night under the gleam of the electric light the sounds of the picks against the rock the bursting of mines the grinding of the machines
the wreaths of smoke scattered through the air traced around stones hill a circle of terror which the herds of buffaloes and the war parties of the seminoles never ventured to pass nevertheless the works advanced regularly
of unexpected obstacles there was little account
this depth was doubled in december and trebled in january during the month of february the workmen had to contend with a sheet of water which made its way right across the outer soil
it became necessary to employ very powerful pumps and compressed air engines to drain it off so as to close up the orifice from whence it issued just as one stops a leak on board ship
the wheel partly gave way and a slight partial settlement ensued this accident cost the life of several workmen no fresh occurrence thenceforward arrested the progress of the operation
and on the tenth of june twenty days before the expiration of the period fixed by barbicane the well lined throughout with its facing of stone had attained the depth of nine hundred feet
at the bottom the masonry rested upon a massive block measuring thirty feet in thickness while on the upper portion it was level with the surrounding soil president barbicane and the members of the gun club warmly congratulated their engineer murchison
the cyclopean work had been accomplished with extraordinary rapidity during these eight months barbicane never quitted stones hill for a single instant
he busied himself incessantly with the welfare and health of his workpeople and was singularly fortunate in warding off the epidemics common to large communities of men and so disastrous in those regions of the globe which are exposed to the influences of tropical climates
many workmen it is true paid with their lives for the rashness inherent in these dangerous labors but these mishaps are impossible to be avoided and they are classed among the details with which the americans trouble themselves but little
they have in fact more regard for human nature in general than for the individual in particular nevertheless barbicane professed opposite principles to these and put them in force at every opportunity so
thanks to his care his intelligence his useful intervention in all difficulties his prodigious and humane sagacity the average of accidents did not exceed that of transatlantic countries noted for their excessive precautions
france for instance among others
at six hundred yards from the well
they produced a most singular effect
and in particular the white description this metal in fact is the most tenacious
cast iron however if subjected to only one single fusion is rarely sufficiently homogeneous and it requires a second fusion completely to refine it by dispossessing it of its last earthly deposits
so long before being forwarded to tampa town the iron ore molten in the great furnaces of coldspring
heated to a high temperature was carburized and transformed into cast iron after this first operation the metal was sent on to stones hill they had however
a quantity far too costly to send by railway the cost of transport would have been double that of material it appeared preferable to freight vessels at new york and to load them with the iron in bars
this however required not less than sixty eight vessels of one thousand tons a veritable fleet which quitting new york on the third of may on the tenth of the same month ascended the bay of espiritu santo and discharged their cargoes
without dues in the port at tampa town thence the iron was transported by rail to stones hill and about the middle of january this enormous mass of metal was delivered at its destination
they were all built after the model of those which served for the casting of the rodman gun they were trapezoidal in shape with a high elliptical arch these furnaces constructed of fireproof brick
this bottom inclined at an angle of twenty five degrees allowed the metal to flow into the receiving troughs
carried the molten metal down to the central well the day following that on which the works of the masonry and boring had been completed barbicane set to work upon the central mould
his object now was to raise within the center of the well and with a coincident axis a cylinder nine hundred feet high and nine feet in diameter which should exactly fill up the space reserved for the bore of the columbiad
this cylinder was composed of a mixture of clay and sand with the addition of a little hay and straw the space left between the mould and the masonry was intended to be filled up by the molten metal
which would thus form the walls six feet in thickness this cylinder in order to maintain its equilibrium had to be bound by iron bands and firmly fixed at certain intervals by cross clamps fastened into the stone lining
after the castings these would be buried in the block of metal leaving no external projection this operation was completed on the eighth of july and the run of the metal was fixed for the following day
this fete of the casting will be a grand ceremony said j t maston to his friend barbicane undoubtedly said barbicane but it will not be a public fete what
will you not open the gates of the enclosure to all comers i must be very careful maston the casting of the columbiad is an extremely delicate not to say a dangerous operation
and i should prefer its being done privately at the discharge of the projectile a fete if you like till then no the president was right the operation involved unforeseen dangers
which a great influx of spectators would have hindered him from averting it was necessary to preserve complete freedom of movement no one was admitted within the enclosure except a delegation of members of the gun club who had made the voyage to tampa town
among these was the brisk bilsby tom hunter colonel blomsberry major elphinstone general morgan and the rest of the lot to whom the casting of the columbiad
j t maston became their cicerone he omitted no point of detail he conducted them throughout the magazines workshops through the midst of the engines
one after the other at the end of the twelve hundredth visit they were pretty well knocked up the casting was to take place at twelve o'clock precisely the previous evening each furnace had been charged
so as to allow the hot air to circulate freely between them
as many pounds of metal as there were to cast so many pounds of coal were there to burn thus there were sixty eight thousand tons of coal which projected in the face of the sun a thick curtain of smoke
the rumbling of which resembled the rolling of thunder the powerful ventilators added their continuous blasts and saturated with oxygen the glowing plates the operation to be successful
required to be conducted with great rapidity on a signal given by a cannon shot each furnace was to give vent to the molten iron and completely to empty itself these arrangements made
foremen and workmen waited the preconcerted moment with an impatience mingled with a certain amount of emotion not a soul remained within the enclosure each superintendent took his post by the aperture of the run
perched on a neighboring eminence assisted at the operation in front of them was a piece of artillery ready to give fire on the signal from the engineer some minutes before midday the first driblets of metal began to flow
the reservoirs filled little by little and
twelve o'clock struck a gunshot suddenly pealed forth and shot its flame into the air twelve hundred melting troughs were simultaneously opened and twelve hundred fiery serpents crept toward the central well
unrolling their incandescent curves there down they plunged with a terrific noise into a depth of nine hundred feet it was an exciting and a magnificent spectacle the ground trembled
while these molten waves launching into the sky their wreaths of smoke evaporated the moisture of the mould and hurled it upward through the vent holes of the stone lining in the form of dense vapor clouds
although there was neither any eruption nor typhoon nor storm nor struggle of the elements nor any of those terrible phenomena which nature is capable of producing no it was man alone who had produced these reddish vapors
these gigantic flames worthy of a volcano itself
these reverberations rivaling those of hurricanes and storms
chapter twenty two hostilities
spacious enough to have given moorings to all the ships of all the navies of the world the arabella rode at anchor almost she had the air of a prisoner for a quarter of a mile ahead to starboard rose the lofty massive
single round tower of the fort whilst a couple of cables' length astern and to larboard rode the six men of war that composed the jamaica squadron abeam with the arabella across the harbour
were the flat fronted white buildings of that imposing city that came down to the very water's edge behind these the red roofs rose like terraces marking the gentle slope upon which the city was built dominated here by a turret
lounged peter blood a calf bound well thumbed copy of horace's odes neglected in his hands from immediately below him came the swish of mops and the gurgle of water in the scuppers
and under the directions of hayton the bo'sun the swabbers were at work in the waist and forecastle despite the heat and the stagnant air one of the toilers found breath to croak a ribald buccaneering ditty
so it's heigh ho and heave a ho who'll sail for the main with me blood fetched a sigh and the ghost of a smile played over his lean sun tanned face
then the black brows came together above the vivid blue eyes and thought swiftly closed the door upon his immediate surroundings things had not sped at all well with him in the past fortnight since his acceptance of the king's commission
there had been trouble with bishop from the moment of landing as blood and lord julian had stepped ashore together they had been met by a man who took no pains to dissemble his chagrin at the turn of events and his determination to change it
he awaited them on the mole supported by a group of officers you are lord julian wade i understand was his truculent greeting for blood at the moment he had nothing beyond a malignant glance
and belatedly bowed removing his broad hat then he plunged on you have granted i am told the king's commission to this man his very tone betrayed the bitterness of his rancour
your motives were no doubt worthy your gratitude to him for delivering you from the spaniards but the thing itself is unthinkable my lord the commission must be cancelled i
don't think i understand said lord julian distantly to be sure you don't
the fellow's bubbled you why he's first a rebel then an escaped slave and lastly a bloody pirate i've been hunting him this year past
i assure you sir that i was fully informed of all i do not grant the king's commission lightly don't you by god
blood would have intervened at that
and with a full knowledge of all the facts his lordship expressly designated captain blood for this commission if captain blood could be persuaded to accept it colonel bishop's mouth fell open in surprise and dismay
lord sunderland designated him he asked amazed expressly his lordship waited a moment for a reply none coming from the speechless deputy governor
he asked a question would you still venture to describe the matter as a mistake sir and dare you take the risk of correcting it i i had not dreamed
i understand sir let me present captain blood perforce bishop must put on the best face he could command but that it was no more than a mask for his fury
and his venom was plain to all from that unpromising beginning matters had not improved
blood's thoughts were upon this and other things as he lounged there on the day bed he had been a fortnight in port royal his ship virtually a unit now in the jamaica squadron and when the news of it reached tortuga and the buccaneers who awaited his return
for what would be accounted a treacherous defection and for what had he placed himself in this position for the sake of a girl who avoided him so persistently and intentionally
that he must assume that she still regarded him with aversion he had scarcely been vouchsafed a glimpse of her in all this fortnight although with that in view for his main object he had daily haunted her uncle's residence and daily braved the unmasked hostility
and baffled rancour in which colonel bishop held him nor was that the worst of it he was allowed plainly to perceive that it was the graceful elegant young trifler from saint james's lord julian wade
to whom her every moment was devoted and what chance had he a desperate adventurer with a record of outlawry against such a rival as that a man of parts moreover as he was bound to admit
you conceive the bitterness of his soul he beheld himself to be as the dog in the fable that had dropped the substance to snatch at a delusive shadow
he sought comfort in a line on the open page before him levius fit patientia
sought it but hardly found it a boat that had approached unnoticed from the shore came scraping and bumping against the great red hull of the arabella
and a raucous voice sent up a hailing shout from the ship's belfry two silvery notes rang clear and sharp
the sounds disturbed captain blood from his disgruntled musings he rose tall active and arrestingly elegant in a scarlet gold laced coat that advertised his new position and slipping the slender volume into his pocket
pitt loosely clad in shirt and breeches leaned against the rail the while and watched him unmistakable concern imprinted on his fair frank countenance
it is a very peremptory summons he said and passed the note to his friend the young master's grey eyes skimmed it thoughtfully he stroked his golden beard you'll not go
he said between question and assertion why not haven't i been a daily visitor at the fort but it'll be about the old wolf that he wants to see you it gives him a grievance at last you know peter
that it is lord julian alone has stood between bishop and his hate of you if now he can show that what if he can blood interrupted carelessly shall i be in greater danger ashore than aboard now that we've but fifty men left
and they lukewarm rogues who would as soon serve the king as me jeremy dear lad the arabella's a prisoner here bedad twixt the fort there and the fleet yonder don't be forgetting that
jeremy clenched his hands why did ye let wolverstone and the others go he cried with a touch of bitterness you should have seen the danger
how could i in honesty have detained them it was in the bargain
ye see he said and shrugged i'll be getting my hat and cane and sword and go ashore in the cock boat see it manned for me ye're going to deliver yourself into bishop's hands pitt warned him
well well maybe he'll not find me quite so easy to grasp as he imagines there's a thorn or two left on me and with a laugh blood departed to his cabin
then slowly reluctance dragging at his feet he went down the companion to give the order for the cock boat if anything should happen to you peter he said
colonel bishop had better look to himself these fifty lads may be lukewarm at present as you say but sink me they'll be anything but lukewarm if there's a breach of faith and what should be happening to me jeremy
sure now i'll be back for dinner so i will blood climbed down into the waiting boat but laugh though he might he knew as well as pitt that in going ashore that morning he carried his life in his hands
because of this it may have been that when he stepped on to the narrow mole
through whose crenels were thrust the black noses of its heavy guns he gave order that the boat should stay for him at that spot he realized that he might have to retreat in a hurry
walking leisurely he skirted the embattled wall and passed through the great gates into the courtyard half a dozen soldiers lounged there
that was fringed with palm and sandalwood he had caught sight of miss bishop alone he crossed the courtyard with suddenly lengthened stride good morning to ye ma'am was his greeting as he overtook her and hat in hand now
sure it's nothing less than uncharitable to make me run in this heat why do you run then she asked him coolly standing slim and straight before him
all in white and very maidenly save in her unnatural composure i am pressed she informed him so you will forgive me if i do not stay you were none so pressed until i came he protested
and if his thin lips smiled his blue eyes were oddly hard since you perceive it sir i wonder that you trouble to be so insistent that crossed the swords between them
faith you explain yourself after a fashion said he but since it was more or less in your service that i donned the king's coat you should suffer it to cover the thief and pirate she shrugged and turned aside
in some resentment and some regret fearing to betray the latter she took refuge in the former i do my best said she so that ye can be charitable in some ways he laughed softly
glory be now i should be thankful for so much maybe i'm presumptuous but i can't forget that when i was no better than a slave in your uncle's household in barbados ye used me with a certain kindness why not
in those days you had some claim upon my kindness you were just an unfortunate gentleman then and what else would you be calling me now hardly unfortunate we have heard of your good fortune on the seas
how your luck has passed into a byword and we have heard other things of your good fortune in other directions she spoke hastily
but peter blood swept them lightly aside reading into them none of her meaning as she feared he would aye a deal of lies devil a doubt
so that ye may think less badly of me than you do what i think of you can be a very little matter to you sir this was a disarming stroke
he abandoned combat for expostulation can ye say that now can ye say that beholding me in this livery of a service i despise didn't ye tell me that i might redeem the past
it's little enough i am concerned to redeem the past save only in your eyes in my own i've done nothing at all that i am ashamed of considering the provocation i received her glance faltered and fell away before his own that was so intent
i i can't think why you should speak to me like this she said with less than her earlier assurance
now can't ye indeed he cried sure then i'll be telling ye oh please there was real alarm in her voice i realize fully what you did and i realize that partly at least
you may have been urged by consideration for myself believe me i am very grateful i shall always be grateful
she stifled her resentment she realized that perhaps she had herself provoked his anger she honestly desired to make amends you are mistaken she began
jealousy that troubler of reason had been over busy with his wits as it had with hers what is it then quoth he and added the question lord julian she started
and stared at him blankly indignant now och be frank with me he urged her unpardonably twill be a kindness so it will for a moment she stood before him with quickened breathing
then she looked past him and tilted her chin forward you you are quite insufferable she said i beg that you will let me pass he stepped aside
and with the broad feathered hat which he still held in his hand he waved her on towards the house i'll not be detaining you any longer ma'am after all the cursed thing i did for nothing can be undone
ye'll remember afterwards that it was your hardness drove me she moved to depart then checked and faced him again it was she now who was on her defence her voice quivering with indignation
you take that tone you dare to take that tone she cried astounding him by her sudden vehemence you have the effrontery to upbraid me because i will not take your hands
when i know how they are stained when i know you for a murderer and worse he stared at her open mouthed a murderer i he said at last must i name your victims
did you not murder levasseur levasseur he smiled a little so they've told you about that do you deny it i killed him it is true
i can remember killing another man in circumstances that were very similar that was in bridgetown on the night of the spanish raid mary traill would tell you of it she was present
the colt's legs remained sound and three days of sunshine would make all the difference in their sum of happiness in the kitchen missus latch and esther had been busy for some time with chickens and pies and jellies
and in the passage there were cases packed with fruit and wine the dressmaker had come from worthing and for several days the young ladies had not left her and one fine morning very early about eight o'clock the wheelers were backed into the drag that had come from brighton
and the yard resounded with the blaring of the horn ginger was practising under his sister's window you'll be late you'll be late with the exception of two young gentlemen who had come at the invitation of the young ladies it was quite a family party
miss mary sat beside her father on the box and looked very charming in white and blue peggy's black hair seemed blacker than ever under a white silk parasol which she waved negligently above her as she stood up calling and talking to everyone
until the gaffer told her angrily to sit down as he was going to start then william and the coachman let go the leaders heads and running side by side swung themselves into their seats at the same moment a glimpse was caught of mister leopold's sallow profile
amid the boxes and the mackintoshes that filled the inside of the coach oh william did look that handsome in those beautiful new clothes everyone said so sarah and margaret and miss grover i'm sorry you did not come out to see him
missus latch made no answer and esther remembered how she hated her son to wear livery and thought that she had perhaps made a mistake in saying that missus latch should have come out to see him perhaps this will make her dislike me again
thought the girl missus latch moved about rapidly and she opened and closed the oven then raising her eyes to the window
oh how should i know missus latch but the horse is certain to win certain to win i have heard that tale before
so they have won you round to their way of thinking have they said missus latch straightening her back i know very well indeed that it is not right to bet but what can i do a poor girl like me if it hadn't been for william
he has been very kind to me he was kind when yes i know when i was unkind
you don't know all i was much troubled at that time and somehow i did not but there is no ill feeling i'll make it up to you i'll teach you how to be a cook oh missus latch
i am sure never mind that when you went out to walk with him the other night did he tell you that he had many bets on the race he talked about the race like everyone else but he did not tell me what bets he had on no
they never do do that but you'll not tell him that i asked you no missus latch i promise it would do no good he'd only be angry it would only set him against me i am afraid that nothing will stop him now
is like drink i wish he was married that might get him out of it
some strong minded woman i thought once that you were strong minded at that moment sarah and grover entered the kitchen talking loudly they asked missus latch how soon they could have dinner the sooner the better
for the saint had told them that they were free to go out for the day
that was all ah the saint was a first rate sort she had said that she did not want anyone to attend on her she would get herself a bit of lunch in the dining room missus latch allowed esther to hurry on the dinner
and by one o'clock they had all finished sarah and margaret were going into brighton to do some shopping grover was going to worthing to spend the afternoon with the wife of one of the guards of the brighton and south coast railway
missus latch went upstairs to lie down
esther's sewing fell out of her hands
and soon after she put on her hat and stood thinking remembering that she had not been by the sea that she had not seen the sea since she was a little girl but she remembered the tall ships that came into the harbour sail falling over sail
and the tall ships that floated out of the harbour sail rising over sail catching the breeze as they went aloft she remembered them a suspension bridge ornamented with straight tailed lions
and having crossed some pieces of rough grass she climbed the shingle bank the heat rippled the blue air and the sea like an exhausted caged beast licked the shingle sea poppies bloomed under the wheels of a decaying bathing machine
and esther wondered but the sea here was lonely as a prison and seeing the treeless coast with its chain of towns her thoughts suddenly reverted to william she wished he were with her and for pleasant contemplation
she thought of that happy evening when she saw him coming through the hunting gate when his arm about her
that if the horse won she would take seven shillings out of the sweepstakes she knew now that william did not care about sarah and that he cared for her had given a sudden and unexpected meaning to her existence she lay on the shingle
her day dream becoming softer and more delicate as it rounded into summer sleep and when the light awoke her she saw flights of white clouds white up above rose coloured as they approached the west and when she turned
good evening missus randal said esther glad to find someone to speak to i've been asleep good evening miss you're from woodview i think yes i'm the kitchen maid
they've gone to the races there was nothing to do so i came down here
but she did not speak soon after she rose to her feet i think that it must be getting near tea time i must be going you might come in and have a cup of tea with me
if you're not in a hurry back to woodview esther was surprised at so much condescension and in silence the two women crossed the meadows
trains were passing all the while scattering it seemed in their noisy passage over the spider legged bridge the news from goodwood
missus randal said as she unlocked the cottage door it is all over now the people in those trains know well enough which has won yes i suppose they know and somehow i feel as if i knew too i feel as if silver braid had won
missus randal's home was gaunt as herself everything looked as if it had been scraped and the spare furniture expressed a meagre lonely life she dropped a plate as she laid the table and stood pathetically looking at the pieces
she gave way utterly i haven't one to give you i had forgotten that they were gone i should have remembered and not asked you to tea
i can stir up my tea with anything a knitting needle will do very well i should have remembered and not asked you back to tea but i was so miserable and it is so lonely sitting in this house that i could stand it no longer
talking to you saved me from thinking and i did not want to think until this race was over if silver braid is beaten we are ruined indeed i don't know what will become of us
for fifteen years i have borne up i have lived on little at the best of times and very often have gone without but that is nothing compared to the anxiety to see him come in with a white face
beaten a head on the post
otherwise he would have won in a canter i have always tried to be a good wife and tried to console him and to do the best when he said i have lost half a year's wages i don't know how we shall pull through
i have borne with ten thousand times more than i can tell you the sufferings of a gambler's wife cannot be told tell me what do you think my feelings must have been when one night i heard him calling me out of my sleep
i can't die annie without bidding you good bye
and i know that the gaffer will do all he can for you but he has been hit awful hard too you mustn't think too badly of me annie but i have had such a bad time that i couldn't put up with it any longer
and i thought the best thing i could do would be to go
there was no time to send for the doctor so i jumped out of bed put the kettle on and made him drink glass after glass of salt and water at last he brought up the laudanum
esther listened to the melancholy woman and remembered the little man whom she saw every day so orderly so precise so sedate so methodical so unemotional into whose life she thought
no faintest emotion had ever entered and this was the truth so long as i only had myself to think of i didn't mind but now there are the children growing up he should think of them
heaven only knows what will become of them john is as kind a husband as ever was if it weren't for that one fault but he cannot resist having something on any more than a drunkard can resist the bar room
the women started to their feet when they got into the street the boy was far away besides neither had a penny to pay for the paper
so nervous were they at last esther proposed to ask at the red lion who had won missus randal begged her to refrain urging that she was unable to bear the tidings should it be evil
silver braid the barman answered the girl rushed through the doors it is all right it is all right he has won soon after the little children in the lane were calling forth silver braid won
and overcome by the excitement esther walked along the sea road to meet the drag she walked on and on until the sound of the horn came through the crimson evening
and she had to put up with betting and drinking and dancing and never a thought of the lord there was no standing out against it they call you creeping jesus if you say your prayers and you can't say them with a girl laughing or singing behind your back
so you think you'll say them to yourself in bed but sleep comes sooner than you expect and so you slips out of the habit then the drinking we was brought up teetotal but they're always pressing it upon you
and to please him i said i would drink the orse's ealth that's how it began you don't know what it is mother you only knew god fearing men until you married him
but i thought no harm indeed i didn't a girl can't know what a man is thinking of and we takes the worst for the best i don't say that i was altogether blameless but
esther hesitated i knew he was like other men but he told me he promised me he'd marry me missus saunders did not answer and esther said you don't believe i'm speaking the truth yes i do dearie
i was only thinking you're my daughter no mother had a better daughter there never was a better girl in this world i was telling you mother
that my esther ain't a bad girl missus saunders sat nodding her head a sweet uncritical mother and esther understood how unselfishly her mother loved her and how simply she thought of how
neither spoke and esther continued dressing you aven't told me what you think of your room it looks pretty don't you think i keeps it as nice as i can jenny hung up them pictures
they livens it up a bit she said pointing to the coloured supplements from the illustrated papers on the wall the china shepherd and shepherdess you know they was at barnstaple
when esther was dressed she and missus saunders knelt down and said a prayer together
and when that was done she insisted on helping her mother with the housework in the afternoon she sat with her sisters helping them with their dogs folding the paper into the moulds pasting it down or cutting the skins into the requisite sizes about five
when the children had had their tea she and her mother went for a short walk very often they strolled through victoria station amused by the bustle of the traffic or maybe they wandered down the buckingham palace road attracted by the shops
and there was a sad pleasure in these walks the elder woman had borne years of exceeding trouble and felt her strength failing under her burdens which instead of lightening
were increasing the younger woman was full of nervous apprehension for the future and grief for the past but they loved each other deeply esther threw herself in the way to protect her mother whether at a dangerous crossing
or from the heedlessness of the crowd at a corner and often a passer by turned his head and looked after them attracted by the solicitude which the younger woman showed for the elder in those walks very little was said
they walked in silence slipping now and then into occasional speech and here and there a casual allusion or a broken sentence would indicate what was passing in their minds
one day some flannel and shirts in a window caught missus saunder's eye and she said it is time esther you thought about your baby clothes one must be prepared
the words came upon esther with something of a shock helping her to realise the imminence of her trouble you must have something by you dear one never knows how it is going to turn out even i who have been through it
do feel that nervous i looks round the kitchen when i'm taken with the pains and i says i may never see this room again the words were said in an undertone to esther
and the shop woman turned to get down the ready made things which missus saunders had asked to see here said the shopwoman is the gown longcloth one and sixpence here is the flannel
one and sixpence and here is the little shirt sixpence you must have these to go on with dear and if the baby lives you'll want another set oh mother of course he'll live why shouldn't he
even the shopwoman smiled and missus saunders addressing the shopwoman said them that knows nothing about it is allus full of ope
and inquired sympathetically if this was the young lady's first confinement missus saunders nodded and sighed and then the shopwoman asked missus saunders if she required any baby clothes
missus saunders said she had all she required the parcel was made up and they were preparing to leave when esther said i may as well buy the material and make another set it will give me something to do in the afternoons
i think i should like to make them we have some first rate longcloth at sixpence half penny a yard you might take three yards esther
it will always come in useful and you had better take three yards of flannel how much is yer flannel we have some excellent flannel said the woman lifting down a long heavy package in dull yellow paper this is ten pence a yard
you will want a finer longcloth for the little shirts and every afternoon esther sat in the parlour by the window seeing
the low brick street full of children and hearing the working women calling from the open doors or windows and as she worked at the baby clothes never perhaps to be worn her heart sank at the long prospect that awaited her
the end of which she could not see for it seemed to reach to the very end of her life in these hours she realised in some measure the duties that life held in store and it seemed to her that they exceeded her strength
never would she be able to bring him up he would have no one to look to but her she never imagined other than that her child would be a boy the task was clearly more than she could perform
and in despair she thought it would be better for it to die what would happen if she remained out of a situation her father would not have her at home that she knew well enough what should she do
and the life of another depending on her she would never see william again that was certain he had married a lady and were they to meet he would not look at her her temper grew hot and the memory of the injustice
of which she had been a victim pressed upon her but when vain anger passed away she thought of her baby anticipating the joy she would experience when he held out tiny hands to her and that too which she would feel
when he laid an innocent cheek to hers and her dream persisting she saw him learning a trade going to work in the morning
proud in the accomplishment of something done of good money honestly earned
and whose condition was rendered worse by her nervous fears that she would not get through this confinement for the doctor had told missus saunders that the next time it might go hard with her and in this house
her husband growing more reckless and drunken it was altogether a bad look out and she might die for want of a little nourishment or a little care unfortunately they would both be down at the same time and it was almost impossible that esther
that brute it was wrong to think of her father so but he seemed to be without mercy for any of them he had come in yesterday half boozed having kept back part of his money he had come in tramping and hiccuping
now then old girl out with it i must have a few halfpence my chaps is waiting for me and i can't be looking down their mouths with nothing in my pockets i only have a few halfpence to get the children a bit of dinner
if i give them to you they'll have nothing to eat oh the children can eat anything i want beer
make it missus saunders said that if he had any spare clothes she would take them round the corner he only answered well if i aven't a spare waistcoat left
i tell yer i want beer and i mean to have some then with his fist raised he came at his poor wife
and make money and would have struck her if esther had not come between them and with her hand in her pocket said be quiet father
she had done the same before and if needs be she would do so again she could not see her mother struck perhaps killed by that brute her first duty was to save her mother but these constant demands on her little savings filled her with terror
she would want every penny
might be the very sum required to put her on her feet again and send her in search of a situation
but if this extortion continued she did not know what she would do
when esther entered miss mary had given her a white muslin dress a square cut bodice with sleeves reaching to the elbows and a blue sash tied round the waist the remarks as she passed were a nice pretty girl
william was waiting and she went away with him on the hop of a vigorous polka many of the dancers had gone to get cool in the gardens but a few couples had begun to whirl the women borne along by force
the men poising their legs into curious geometrical positions mister leopold was very busy dragging men away from the circular buffet they must dance whether they knew how or not
the gaffer has told me partic'lar to see that the gals all had partners and just look down that ere room alf of that lot aven't been on their legs yet ere's a partner for you and the butler pulled a young gamekeeper towards a young girl
and the strangeness of the spectacle caused mister leopold to pause it was whispered that she had never worn a low dress before and grover came to the rescue of her modesty with a pocket handkerchief but it had been found impossible to restrict the ball
to those who possessed or could obtain an evening suit and plenty of check trousers and red neckties were hopping about among the villagers many a touch suggested costume
and a young man wore a canary coloured waistcoat and a blue coastguardsman's coat of old time these touches of fancy and personal taste divided the villagers from the household servants the butlers seemed on the watch for side dishes
and the valets suggested hair brushes and hot water cooks trailed black silk dresses adorned with wide collars and fastened with gold brooches containing portraits of their late husbands
the lavender gloved hands the delicate faces expressive of ease and leisure made ginger's two friends
noticeable among this menial work a day crowd ginger loved the upper circles and now he romped the polka in the most approved london fashion his elbows advanced like a yacht's bowsprit and his coat tails flying
she had danced with young mister preston and seeing her sitting alone grover called her and asked her why she was not dancing
come the next polka
half a dozen times william repeated his demand at last she said you've spoilt all my pleasure in the dancing i'm sorry if i've done that esther i was jealous that's all jealous
what was you jealous for what do it matter what people think so long as i know i haven't done no wrong and in silence they walked into the garden the night was warm even oppressive and the moon hung like a balloon above the trees
and often the straying revellers stopped to consider the markings now so plain upon its disc there were arbours artificial ruins darkling pathways and the breathless garden was noisy in the illusive light
william showed esther the theatre and explained its purpose she listened though she did not understand nor could she believe that she was not dreaming when they suddenly stood on the borders of a beautiful lake full of the shadows of tall trees
how still the water is and the stars they are lovely you should see the gardens about three o'clock on saturday afternoons when the excursion comes in from brighton they walked on a little further and esther said
what's these places ain't they dark these are arbours where we as shrimps and tea i'll take you next saturday if you'll come a noisy band of young men followed by three or four girls ran across the bridge
some chose the left some the right those who went to the right sent up a yell of triumph and paddled into the middle of the water they first addressed remarks to their companions and then they admired the moon and stars
a song was demanded and at the end of the second verse william threw his arm round esther oh esther i do love you she looked at him her grey eyes fixed in a long interrogation
what is there to love in me he squeezed her tightly and continued his protestations i do i do i do love you esther she did not answer and they walked slowly on
a holly bush threw a black shadow on the gravel path and a moment after the ornamental tin roof of the dancing room appeared between the trees even in their short absence a change had come upon the ball about the circular buffet
numbers of men called for drink and talked loudly of horse racing many were away at supper and those that remained were amusing themselves in a desultory fashion a tall lean woman dressed like sarah in white muslin wearing amber beads round her neck
was dancing the lancers with the demon and everyone shook with laughter when she whirled the little fellow round or took him in her arms and carried him across william wanted to dance but esther was hungry and led him away to an adjoining building
chicken and beer might be had by the strong and adventurous as they struggled through the crowd
now tell me if they ask me the young gents yonder to dance am i to look them straight in the face and say no william considered a moment and then he said
i think you had better dance with them if they asks you if you refuse sarah will say it was i who put you up to it let's have another bottle cried ginger come
mister thomas coughed smiled and said that mister arthur wished to see him in the hands of the police however he promised to drink his share two more bottles were sent for and stimulated by the wine
the weights that would probably be assigned to certain horses in the autumn handicap were discussed william was very proud of being admitted into such company
a cigar which he did not like between his teeth and a glass of champagne in his hand suddenly the conversation was interrupted by the cornet sounding the first phrase of a favourite waltz and the tipsy and the sober hastened away
neither esther nor william knew how to waltz but they tumbled round the room enjoying themselves immensely in the polka and mazurka they got on better
and all were gay and pleasant even sarah's usually sour face glowed with cordiality when they joined hands and raced round the men standing in the middle in the chain they lost themselves as in a labyrinth
and found their partners unexpectedly but the dance of the evening was sir roger de coverley and esther's usually sober little brain evaporated in the folly of running up the room then turning and running backwards
getting into her place as best she could and then starting again it always appeared to be her turn and it was so sweet to see her dear william and such a strange excitement to run forward to meet young mister preston to curtsey to him and then run away
there's the dawn esther looked and in the whitening doorways she saw the little jockey staggering about helplessly drunk the smile died out of her eyes she returned to her true self to missus barfield and the brethren
she felt that all this dancing drinking and kissing in the arbours was wicked but miss mary had sent for her and had told her that she would give her one of her dresses
then if she had not gone william
esther ran out to see what was happening and there she witnessed a disgraceful scene the lean woman in the muslin dress and the amber beads accused young mister preston of something which he denied and she heard william tell someone that he was mistaken
didn't want no rowing at this ere ball and what was more they didn't mean to have none and her heart filled with love for her big william what a fine fellow he was how handsome were his shoulders beside that round shouldered little man
whom he so easily pulled aside and having crushed out the quarrel he helped her on with her jacket and hanging on his arm
sarah was with her faithful admirer a man with a red beard whom she had picked up at the ball grover waddled in the rear embarrassed with the green silk which she held high out of the dust of the road when they reached the station
the sky was stained with rose and the barren downs more tin like than ever in the shadow less light of dawn stretched across the sunrise from lancing to brighton the little birds sat ruffling their feathers and awaking to the responsibilities of the day
the night had been close and sultry and even at this hour there was hardly any freshness in the air esther looked at the hills examining the landscape intently she was thinking of the first time she saw it
some vague association of ideas the likeness that the morning landscape bore to the evening landscape or the wish to prolong the sweetness of these the last moments of her happiness impelled her to linger
were not beautiful the too familiar landscape awoke in william neither idea nor sensation esther interested him more and while she gazed dreamily on the hills
which showed beneath the unbuttoned jacket
and by twelve o'clock were out of the canal and off point conception
this is the largest point on the coast and is uninhabited headland stretching out into the pacific and has the reputation of being very windy
any vessel does well which gets by it without a gale especially in the winter season we were going along with studding sails set on both sides when as we came round the point
we had to haul our wind and take in the lee studding sails as the brig came more upon the wind she felt it more and we doused the sky sails but kept the weather studding sails on her
bracing the yards forward so that the swinging boom nearly touched the sprit sail yard she now lay over to it the wind was freshening
said something to him but he only answered that he knew the vessel and what she would carry
then it was haul down and clew up royals flying jib and studding sails all at once there was what the sailors call a mess everything let go nothing hauled in and everything flying
which had blown over the sprit sail yard arm and round the guys while the topmast studding sail boom after buckling up and springing out again like a piece of whalebone broke off at the boom iron
but before i got into the top the tack parted and away went the sail swinging forward of the top gallant sail and tearing and slatting itself to pieces the halyards were at this moment let go by the run
after great exertions i got it or the remains of it into the top and was making it fast when the captain looking up called out to me
leaving the studding sail i went up to the cross trees and here it looked rather squally the foot of the top gallant mast was working between the cross and trussel trees
while everything was working and cracking strained to the utmost there's nothing for jack to do but to obey orders and i went up upon the yard
and there was a worse mess if possible than i had left below the braces had been let go and the yard was swinging about like a turnpike gate and the whole sail
fortunately it was noon and broad daylight
soon saw my difficulty and after numberless signs and gestures got some one to haul the necessary ropes taut during this interval i took a look below everything was in confusion on deck
which was blowing from him as fast as he could gather it in the top gallant sail below me was soon clewed up which relieved the mast and in a short time i got my sail furled and went below but i lost overboard a new tarpaulin hat
which troubled me more than anything else we worked for about half an hour with might and main and in an hour from the time the squall struck us from having all our flying kites abroad
the wind had hauled ahead during the squall and we were standing directly in for the point so as soon as we had got all snug we wore round and stood off again
a distance of an hundred miles against a violent head wind before night it began to rain and we had five days of rainy stormy weather under close sail all the time and were blown several hundred miles off the coast
in the midst of this we discovered that our fore topmast was sprung which no doubt happened in the squall and were obliged to send down the fore top gallant mast and carry as little sail as possible forward
so that we saw little or nothing of them during the five days on the sixth day it cleared off and the sun came out bright but the wind and sea were still very high
no land for hundreds of miles and the captain taking the sun every day at noon our passengers now made their appearance and i had for the first time the opportunity of seeing
what a miserable and forlorn creature a sea sick passenger is
the third day from boston i had seen nothing but hale hearty men with their sea legs on and able to go anywhere
staggering and shuffling about decks or holding on and looking up with giddy heads to see us climbing to the mast heads
as we drew in and ran down the shore we could distinguish well the face of the country and found it better wooded than that to the southward of point conception in fact as i afterwards discovered
point conception may be made the dividing line between two different faces of the country as you go to the northward of the point the country becomes more wooded has a richer appearance and is better supplied with water
this is the case with monterey and still more so with san francisco
san pedro and particularly san diego there is very little wood and the country has a naked level appearance
ano nuevo at the north and pinos at the south but narrows gradually as you approach the town which is situated in a bend or large cove at the south eastern extremity
the shores are extremely well wooded the pine abounding upon them and as it was now the rainy season everything was as green as nature could make it the grass the leaves and all the birds were singing in the woods
here we could lie safe from the south easters we came to anchor within two cable lengths of the shore and the town lay directly before us making a very pretty appearance
which gives a much better effect than those of santa barbara
upon which the houses about an hundred in number were dotted about here and there irregularly
no streets or fences
so that the houses are placed at random upon the green
gives them a pretty effect when seen from a little distance it was a fine saturday afternoon when we came to anchor the sun about an hour high and everything looking pleasantly
the mexican flag was flying from the little square presidio and the drums and trumpets of the soldiers who were out on parade sounded over the water and gave great life to the scene every one was delighted with the appearance of things
which in the sailor's vocabulary means civilized country
the open roadstead of santa barbara anchoring three miles from the shore running out to sea before every south easter landing in a high surf with a little dark looking town a mile from the beach and not a sound to be heard or anything to be seen
add to this the gale off point conception and no one can be at a loss to account for our agreeable disappointment in monterey
which was of no small importance to us that there was little or no surf here
we landed the agent and passengers and found several persons waiting for them on the beach among whom were some who though dressed in the costume of the country spoke english and who we afterwards learned
which more nearly concerns myself
my first act of what the sailors will allow to be seamanship sending down a royal yard i had seen it done once or twice at sea and an old sailor whose favor i had taken some pains to gain
had taught me carefully everything which was necessary to be done and in its proper order and advised me to take the first opportunity when we were in port and try it i told the second mate with whom i had been pretty thick when he was before the mast
for the slightest mistake spoils the whole
as we saw neither land nor sail from the time of leaving juan fernandez until our arrival in california
we caught the south east trades and run before them for nearly three weeks without so much as altering a sail or bracing a yard the captain took advantage of this fine weather to get the vessel in order for coming upon the coast
the carpenter was employed in fitting up a part of the steerage into a trade room for our cargo we now learned was not to be landed
and this trade room was built for the samples and the lighter goods to be kept in and as a place for the general business in the mean time we were employed in working upon the rigging everything was set up taut the lower rigging rattled down
or rather rattled up according to the modern fashion an abundance of spun yarn and seizing stuff made and finally the whole standing rigging fore and aft was tarred down
this is an important operation and is usually done about once in six months in vessels upon a long voyage it was done in our vessel several times afterwards but by the whole crew at once and finished off in a day
the ties runners et cetera and go out to the yard arms and come in tarring as they come the lifts and foot ropes tarring the stays is more difficult and is done by an operation which the sailors call riding down
and rove through a block for a girt line or as the sailors usually call it a gant line
and the other end being fast on deck with some one to tend it
there he sings aloft twixt heaven and earth and if the rope slips breaks or is let go or if the bowline slips he falls overboard or breaks his neck this however is a thing which never enters into a sailor's calculation
places not tarred for in case he should he would have to go over the whole again
for then there would be a soft word in his ear from the mate in this manner i tarred down all the head stays but found the rigging about the jib booms martingale and spritsail yard upon which i was afterwards put the hardest
this dirty work could not last forever and on saturday night we finished it scraped all the spots from the deck and rails and what was of more importance to us cleaned ourselves thoroughly rolled up our tarry frocks and trowsers and laid them away for the next occasion
and put on our clean duck clothes and had a good comfortable sailor's saturday night the next day was pleasant and indeed we had but one unpleasant sunday during the whole voyage and that was off cape horn where we could expect nothing better
this work too is done by the crew and every sailor who has been long voyages is a little of a painter in addition to his other accomplishments we painted her both inside and out from the truck to the water's edge
the outside is painted by lowering stages over the side by ropes and on those we sat with our brushes and paint pots by us and our feet half the time in the water
this must be done of course on a smooth day when the vessel does not roll much i remember very well being over the side painting in this way one fine afternoon our vessel going quietly along at the rate of four or five knots
and a pilot fish the sure precursor of the shark swimming alongside of us the captain was leaning over the rail watching him
in the midst of our painting on friday december nineteenth we crossed the equator for the second time
such are the trifles which produce quarrels on shipboard in fact we had been too long from port
our fresh provisions were of course gone and the captain had stopped our rice so that we had nothing but salt beef and salt pork throughout the week with the exception of a very small duff on sunday
daily and almost hourly occurring which no one who has not himself been on a long and tedious voyage can conceive of or properly appreciate little wars and rumors of wars reports of things said in the cabin
misunderstanding of words and looks apparent abuses
every encroachment upon the time allowed for rest appeared unnecessary
where we had previously lived into the forecastle this to our delight was granted and we turned in to bunk and mess with the crew forward we now began to feel like sailors which we never fully did when we were in the steerage
while there however useful and active you may be you are but a mongrel and sort of afterguard and ship's cousin you are immediately under the eye of the officers cannot dance sing play smoke
and you live with the steward who is usually a go between and the crew never feel as though you were one of them but if you live in the forecastle you are as independent as a wood sawyer's clerk nautice
and are a sailor you hear sailor's talk
and moreover pick up a great deal of curious and useful information in seamanship ship's customs foreign countries et cetera
and this is indispensable to sailors
which stood me in so good stead afterwards but to return to the state of the crew upon our coming into the forecastle there was some difficulty about the uniting of the allowances of bread by which we thought we were to lose a few pounds
this set us into a ferment the captain would not condescend to explain and we went aft in a body
the oldest and best sailor of the crew for spokesman
and seeing us coming aft stopped short in his walk and with a voice and look intended to annihilate us called out
whereupon we stated our grievances as respectfully as we could but he broke in upon us saying that we were getting fat and lazy didn't have enough to do
this provoked us and we began to give word for word
in which of course the whole blame of the misunderstanding was thrown upon us
but it wouldn't do we were driven back discomforted thus the affair blew over but the irritation caused by it remained and we never had peace or a good understanding again
so long as the captain and crew remained together we continued sailing along in the beautiful temperate climate of the pacific the pacific well deserves its name for except in the southern part at cape horn
and in the western parts near the china and indian oceans it has few storms and is never either extremely hot or cold
like a thin gauze drawn over the sun which without obstructing or obscuring the light tempers the heat which comes down with perpendicular fierceness in the atlantic and indian tropics
we sailed well to the westward to have the full advantage of the north east trades and when we had reached the latitude of point conception where it is usual to make the land we were several hundred miles to the westward of it
we immediately changed our course due east and sailed in that direction for a number of days at length we began to heave to after dark for fear of making the land at night on a coast
where there are no light houses and but indifferent charts
lying about sixty miles to the southward of this point we continued sailing down the coast during the day and following night
and he had called the captain and as he threw himself down on his chest with all his clothes on i knew that he expected to be called i felt the vessel pitching at her anchor
with her raking masts and sharp bows running up like the head of a greyhound it was a beautiful sight she was like a bird which had been frightened and had spread her wings in flight
and all ready forward for slipping we went aft and manned the slip rope which came through the stern port with a turn round the timber heads all ready forward asked the captain aye aye sir all ready answered the mate
and the little vessel's head swinging off from the wind under the force of her backed head sails brought the strain upon the slip rope let go aft instantly all was gone and we were under weigh
as soon as she was well off from the wind we filled away the head yards braced all up sharp set the foresail and trysail and left our anchorage well astern giving the point a good berth nye's off too
said the captain to the mate and looking astern we could just see the little hermaphrodite brig under sail standing after us it now began to blow fresh
but the captain would not take in sail until we were well clear of the point as soon as we left this on our quarter and were standing out to sea
double reefed each topsail furled the foresail and double reefed the trysail and were soon under easy sail
but to lie to under easy sail and wait for the gale to be over which seldom lasts more than two days
go below the watch said the mate
saying that we should have our turn the next time we got under weigh we remained on deck till the expiration of the watch the wind blowing very fresh and the rain coming down in torrents
when the watch came up we wore ship and stood on the other tack in towards land when we came up again which was at four in the morning it was very dark and there was not much wind
but it was raining as i thought i had never seen it rain before we had on oil cloth suits and south wester caps and had nothing to do but to stand bolt upright and let it pour down upon us there are no umbrellas and no sheds to go under at sea
while we were standing about on deck we saw the little brig drifting by us hove to under her fore topsail double reefed and she glided by like a phantom not a word was spoken and we saw no one on deck but the man at the wheel
who commanded our watch to look out for a change of wind
which came in a few minutes with a vengeance from the north west the opposite point of the compass owing to our precautions we were not taken aback but ran before the wind with square yards
and in two hours the wind moderated into the light steady breeze which blows down the coast the greater part of the year and from its regularity might be called a trade wind
the sun came up bright and we set royals skysails and studding sails and were under fair way for santa barbara the little loriotte was astern of us nearly out of sight
in a short time she appeared standing out from santa rosa island under the lee of which she had been hove to all night
which had been called the best sailer in the north pacific
we had an advantage over her in light winds from our royals and skysails which we carried both at the fore and main
for captain wilson carried nothing above top gallant sails and always unbent his studding sails when on the coast as the wind was light and fair we held our own for some time
as you would haul in a line he afterwards said that we sailed well enough with the wind free but that give him a taut bowline and he would beat us if we had all the canvas of the royal george
captain wilson was remarkable among the sailors on the coast for his skill in doing this and our captain never let go a second anchor during all the time that i was with him coming a little to windward of our buoy
we clewed up the light sails backed our main topsail and lowered a boat which pulled off and made fast a spare hawser to the buoy on the end of the slip rope
we brought the other end to the captain and hove in upon it until we came to the slip rope which we took to the windlass and walked her up to her chain
the chain is then passed through the hawse hole and round the windlass
and found the loriotte's boat waiting on the beach the sandwich islander who could speak english told us that he had been up to the town
and some other passengers were going to monterey with us and that we were to sail the same night
and we got ready to go off they had a good deal of baggage which we put into the bows of the boat and then two of us took the senora in our arms and waded with her through the water and put her down safely in the stern
and her husband was perfectly satisfied
i pulled the after oar so that i heard the conversation and learned that one of the men who as well as i could see in the darkness was a young looking man in the european dress and covered up in a large cloak
was the agent of the firm to which our vessel belonged and the other who was dressed in the spanish dress of the country was a brother of our captain who had been many years a trader on the coast
i also found that we were to sail the same night as soon as we got on board the boats were hoisted up the sails loosed the windlass manned the slip ropes and gear cast off
and after about twenty minutes of heaving at the windlass making sail and bracing yards
and going with a fair wind up the coast to monterey the loriotte got under weigh at the same time and was also bound up to monterey but as she took a different course from us keeping the land aboard while we kept well out to sea
we soon lost sight of her we had a fair wind
as the prevailing wind is the north which blows directly down the coast
this was a black day in our calendar at seven o'clock in the morning
and had the strap and block a coil of halyards and a marline spike about his neck he fell from the starboard futtock shrouds and not knowing how to swim and being heavily dressed
he probably sank immediately we pulled astern in the direction in which he fell and though we knew that there was no hope of saving him yet no one wished to speak of returning
but unwilling to acknowledge to ourselves that we must give him up at length we turned the boat's head
a man dies on shore his body remains with his friends and the mourners go about the streets but when a man falls overboard at sea and is lost there is a suddenness in the event and a difficulty in realizing it
which give to it an air of awful mystery a man dies on shore you follow his body to the grave and a stone marks the spot you are often prepared for the event
there is always something which helps you to realize it when it happens and to recall it when it has passed a man is shot down by your side in battle and the mangled body remains an object and a real evidence but at sea the man is near you at your side
and nothing but a vacancy shows his loss then too at sea to use a homely but expressive phrase you miss a man so much a dozen men are shut up together in a little bark upon the wide wide sea
and for months and months see no forms and hear no voices but their own and one is taken suddenly from among them and they miss him at every turn it is like losing a limb
there are no new faces or new scenes to fill up the gap there is always an empty berth in the forecastle
there is one less to take the wheel and one less to lay out with you upon the yard you miss his form and the sound of his voice for habit had made them almost necessary to you and each of your senses feels the loss
all these things make such a death peculiarly solemn and the effect of it remains upon the crew for some time there is more kindness shown by the officers to the crew and by the crew to one another there is more quietness and seriousness
the oath and the loud laugh are gone the officers are more watchful and the crew go more carefully aloft
the lost man is seldom mentioned or is dismissed with a sailor's rude eulogy well poor george is gone his cruise is up soon he knew his work and did his duty and was a good shipmate
then usually follows some allusion to another world
they say god won't be hard upon the poor fellow and seldom get beyond the common phrase which seems to imply that their sufferings and hard treatment here
would be hard indeed our cook a simple hearted old african who had been through a good deal in his day and was rather seriously inclined always going to church twice a day when on shore and reading his bible on a sunday in the galley
and told them that they might go as suddenly as george had and be as little prepared yet a sailor's life is at best but a mixture of a little good with much evil and a little pleasure with much pain
the beautiful is linked with the revolting the sublime with the commonplace and the solemn with the ludicrous
the captain had first however called all hands aft and asked them if they were satisfied that everything had been done to save the man and if they thought there was any use in remaining there longer
for the man did not know how to swim and was very heavily dressed
the laws regulating navigation make the captain answerable for the effects of a sailor who dies during the voyage
in which they are bid off by the sailors and the sums which they give are deducted from their wages at the end of the voyage in this way the trouble and risk of keeping his things through the voyage are avoided
and used as a store chest so that there was nothing left which could be called his sailors have an unwillingness to wear a dead man's clothes during the same voyage and they seldom do so unless they are in absolute want
as is usual after a death many stories were told about george some had heard him say that he repented never having learned to swim and that he knew that he should meet his death by drowning
and the deceased man shipped and spent his advance and was afterwards very unwilling to go but not being able to refund was obliged to sail with us a boy too who had become quite attached to him
said that george talked to him during most of the watch on the night before about his mother and family at home and this was the first time that he had mentioned the subject during the voyage the night after this event when i went to the galley to get a light
i found the cook inclined to be talkative
i was the more inclined to do so
and which the recent death had waked up in his mind he talked about george's having spoken of his friends and said he believed few men died without having a warning of it which he supported by a great many stories of dreams and the unusual behavior of men before death
from this he went on to other superstitions the flying dutchman et cetera and talked rather mysteriously having something evidently on his mind at length he put his head out of the galley and looked carefully about to see if any one was within hearing
i say you know what countryman e carpenter be
what kind of a german said the cook he belongs to bremen said i are you sure o dat
i'm plaguy glad o dat said the cook i was mighty fraid he was a fin
and especially have power over winds and storms i tried to reason with him about it but he had the best of all arguments that from experience at hand and was not to be moved
and could do anything he was of a mind to this sail maker kept a junk bottle in his berth
though he got drunk upon it nearly every day he had seen him sit for hours together talking to this bottle
the same man cut his throat in his berth and everybody said he was possessed he had heard of ships too beating up the gulf of finland against a head wind and having a ship heave in sight astern overhaul and pass them
with as fair a wind as could blow and all studding sails out and find she was from finland
i've seen too much of them men to want to see em
if they can't have their own way they'll play the d l with you as i still doubted he said he would leave it to john who was the oldest seaman aboard and would know if anybody did
john to be sure was the oldest and at the same time the most ignorant man in the ship but i consented to have him called the cook stated the matter to him and john as i anticipated sided with the cook and said that he himself had been in a ship
and immediately told him if he didn't stop the head wind he would shut him down in the fore peak
when he could not stand it any longer and did something or other which brought the wind round again and they let him up there said the cook
oh says he go way
on the coast of egypt lies alexandria a busy and prosperous city of to day you remember the great conqueror alexander
and how nation after nation had been forced to submit to him until all the then known world owned him for its emperor he built this city and called it after his own name about a hundred years before the days of antiochus
of whom we read in our last chapter a company of jews were living in alexandria then a rich and beautiful city with its stately palaces and temples of white marble its beautiful gardens and groves of graceful palm trees
after the death of alexander the greek kings of egypt delighted to live in the new city
but as good subjects and citizens by the greek rulers of egypt and therefore as the years passed they grew rich and honoured in their beautiful home their children however seldom if ever heard hebrew spoken for all the jews of alexandria
for convenience sake spoke greek like their neighbours but although these jews lived in a heathen city where they read nothing but greek books and heard greek spoken all day long they did not forget their god
they longed as earnestly as ever to hear about him and to read in his book but what was to be done
this was impossible
so said these jewish parents this was a wonderful proof of the bible's living power the jews had changed their language and their country thousands of the cleverest books ever written were within their reach for alexandria had at this time the largest library in the world
however it is believed that the jews of alexandria did the work entirely themselves
south east and west
seeking the messiah and saying where is he that is born king of the jews
the bible had indeed taken a strong leap forward now for long centuries it had been like a tiny stream flowing through a dry land and reaching only a few people
ever growing deeper and wider guided by god in all its wanderings across the earth the bible was now no longer locked up in a language which was already half forgotten with this greek translation its world wide work had begun
but while the greek translation of the hebrew scriptures was becoming an open door through which the people of many lands could draw nearer to god
the samaritans had their own copies of the books of the law
the world had rediscovered the samaritan bible at nablous in samaria known in old testament times as shechem a traveller was allowed to look at the oldest samaritan copy of the altered books of the law its queer letter signs are traced on parchment rolls
they are kept in a silver cylinder covered with crimson satin heavily embroidered with gold
and therefore more correct than the jewish scriptures
true the discovery was of great importance for these documents proved beyond all doubt that the book of the law dated back to a time when the ancient form of letters were still in use and so they bore a strong witness to the great age of the first five books of our bible
a hundred years ago for instance books with long s's were printed in england but the old form of letter was tiresome to read and is now entirely out of date
they had rejected as well all the fresh light and inspiration which god was continually giving to his people through the holy prophets
moses was the only true prophet thus they cut themselves adrift from further light and little by little the nations had dwindled away
and kept alive in their hearts the hope of a coming messiah god made for them a wonderful way of escape every bible reader knows and loves that beautiful scene by the well of sychar
where the saviour began by asking a woman for water to drink and ended by explaining to her some of the deepest truths of god's kingdom
and why the jews would have no dealings with the samaritans as we have seen a great barrier divided her from all ordinary jewish teachers she had been taught to believe in an altered bible not merely a different translation remember
for the bible should be the same in every language but a book of the law in which some of the words had been changed and the original meaning destroyed so the woman said to our lord
till the last words sounded faint but clear as if shouted on a calm day from a very great distance he moved not he stared fixedly past the motionless head of hollis who faced him
as still as himself jackson had turned sideways and with elbow on the table shaded his eyes with the palm of his hand and i looked on surprised and moved i looked at that man
loyal to a vision betrayed by his dream spurned by his illusion and coming to us unbelievers for help against a thought the silence was profound but it seemed full of noiseless phantoms
of things sorrowful shadowy and mute in whose invisible presence the firm pulsating beat of the two ship's chronometers ticking off steadily the seconds of greenwich time seemed to me a protection
and a relief karain stared stonily and looking at his rigid figure i thought of his wanderings of that obscure odyssey of revenge of all the men that wander
amongst illusions faithful faithless of the illusions that give joy that give sorrow that give pain that give peace of the invincible illusions that can make life and death appear serene inspiring
tormented or ignoble a murmur was heard that voice from outside seemed to flow out of a dreaming world into the lamp light of the cabin karain was speaking
i lived in the forest she came no more never never once i lived alone she had forgotten it was well i did not want her
i wanted no one i found an abandoned house in an old clearing nobody came near sometimes i heard in the distance the voices of people going along a path i slept i rested there was wild rice
water from a running stream and peace every night i sat alone by my small fire before the hut many nights passed over my head then one evening as i sat by my fire after having eaten
i looked down on the ground and began to remember my wanderings i lifted my head i had heard no sound no rustle no footsteps but i lifted my head
a man was coming towards me across the small clearing i waited he came up without a greeting and squatted down into the firelight then he turned his face to me it was matara
he stared at me fiercely with his big sunken eyes the night was cold the heat died suddenly out of the fire and he stared at me i rose and went away from there leaving him by the fire that had no heat
i heard him in the bushes here and there whispering whispering i understood at last i had heard the words before you are my friend kill with a sure shot
i bore it as long as i could then leaped away as on this very night i leaped from my stockade and swam to you i ran i ran crying like a child left alone and far from the houses he ran by my side without footsteps
whispering whispering invisible and heard i sought people i wanted men around me men who had not died and again we two wandered i sought danger violence and death
and a brave people wondered at the valiance of a stranger but we were two he warded off the blows why i wanted peace not life and no one could see him no one knew
i met an old man you all knew him people here called him my sorcerer my servant and sword bearer but to me he was father mother protection refuge and peace
when i met him he was returning from a pilgrimage and i heard him intoning the prayer of sunset he had gone to the holy place with his son his son's wife and a little child
and on their return by the favour of the most high they all died the strong man the young mother the little child they died and the old man reached his country alone
he said over me words of compassion of wisdom of prayer he warded from me the shade of the dead
for a long time he refused but at last with a sigh and a smile he gave me one doubtless he could command a spirit stronger than the unrest of my dead friend and again i had peace
but i had become restless and a lover of turmoil and danger the old man never left me we travelled together we were welcomed by the great his wisdom and my courage are remembered
where your strength o white men is forgotten we served the sultan of sula we fought the spaniards there were victories hopes defeats sorrow blood women's tears what for we fled
and i am again the slave of the dead he is not here now to drive away the reproachful shade to silence the lifeless voice the power of his charm has died with him and i know fear and i hear the whisper kill
kill kill have i not killed enough for the first time that night a sudden convulsion of madness and rage passed over his face his wavering glances darted here and there like scared birds in a thunderstorm
i swear some day i will strike into every heart i meet i he looked so dangerous that we all three leaped to our feet and hollis with the back of his hand
and holding his chin in his hand scrutinized him in pensive silence i said you must abide with your people they need you and there is forgetfulness in life even the dead cease to speak in time
to forget long years before an eyelid has had the time to beat twice he exclaimed with bitter resentment he startled me it was amazing to him his life that cruel mirage of love and peace
seemed as real as undeniable as theirs would be to any saint philosopher or fool of us all hollis muttered you won't soothe him with your platitudes karain spoke to me
you know us you have lived with us why we cannot know but you understand our sorrows and our thoughts you have lived with my people and you understand our desires and our fears
with you i will go to your land to your people to your people who live in unbelief to whom day is day and night is night nothing more
murmured hollis with the flicker of a smile karain hung his head i can toil and fight and be faithful he whispered in a weary tone but i cannot go back to him who waits for me on the shore
as if debating with himself that would be one way the ghosts there are in society and talk affably to ladies and gentlemen but would scorn a naked human being like our princely friend naked
flayed i should say i am sorry for him impossible of course the end of all this shall be he went on looking up at us the end of this shall be that some day he will run amuck amongst his faithful subjects
before they make up their minds to the disloyalty of knocking him on the head i nodded i thought it more than probable that such would be the end of karain
it was evident that he had been hunted by his thought along the very limit of human endurance and very little more pressing was needed to make him swerve over into the form of madness peculiar to his race
that much was clear he lifted his head suddenly we had imagined for a moment that he had been dozing give me your protection or your strength he cried a charm a weapon
again his chin fell on his breast we looked at him then looked at one another with suspicious awe in our eyes like men who come unexpectedly
he had given himself up to us he had thrust into our hands his errors and his torment his life and his peace and we did not know what to do with that problem from the outer darkness
looking at the malay could not find one word to the purpose amongst us if indeed there existed a word that could solve that problem we pondered and our hearts sank
we felt as though we three had been called to the very gate of infernal regions to judge to decide the fate of a wanderer coming suddenly from a world of sunshine and illusions by jove he seems to have a great idea of our power
whispered hollis hopelessly and then again there was a silence the feeble plash of water the steady tick of chronometers jackson with bare arms crossed leaned his shoulders against the bulkhead of the cabin
he was bending his head under the deck beam his fair beard spread out magnificently over his chest he looked colossal ineffectual and mild
the air in it seemed to become slowly charged with the cruel chill of helplessness with the pitiless anger of egoism against the incomprehensible form of an intruding pain we had no idea what to do
we began to resent bitterly the hard necessity to get rid of him hollis mused muttered suddenly with a short laugh strength protection charm
then hollis reappeared holding in both hands a small leather box he put it down gently on the table and looked at us with a queer gasp we thought as though he had from some cause become speechless for a moment
or were ethically uncertain about producing that box but in an instant the insolent and unerring wisdom of his youth gave him the needed courage he said as he unlocked the box with a very small key
look as solemn as you can you fellows probably we looked only surprised and stupid for he glanced over his shoulder and said angrily this is no play
look serious confound it can't you lie a little for a friend karain seemed to take no notice of us but when hollis threw open the lid of the box his eyes flew to it
and so did ours the quilted crimson satin of the inside
it was something positive to look at
the chief disputants in the discussion were captain g a graham of dursley mister g w hickman mister f adcock
and the main point as issue was whether the dog then imperfectly known as the irish wolfdog was a true descendant of the ancient canis graius hibernicus or whether it was a mere manufactured mongrel
and the dog of the pyrenees modified and brought to type by a cross with the highland deerhound
indeed history and tradition clearly attested that there had existed in early times in ireland a very large and rugged hound of greyhound form whose vocation it was to hunt the wolf the red deer and the fox
captain graham had been actively interesting himself for something like a score of years in the resuscitation of the breed and his patience had been well rewarded by the year eighteen eighty one the irish wolfhound had been practically restored
to produce the magnificent champions cotswold and cotswold patricia those brilliant examples of the modern breed a brace of wolfhounds who bear testimony to the vast amount of energy and perseverance which captain graham
and his enthusiastic colleague major garnier displayed in evolving from rough material the majestic breed that holds so prominent a position to day
exaggerated figures are given as to height and weight but all authorities agree that they were impressively large and imposing dogs and that they were regarded as the giants of the canine race it seems extraordinary
more than one theory is advanced by some authorities it is suggested that it was the dog which we now know as the great dane others hold that as there were rough coated greyhounds in ireland it is this dog under another name which is now accepted
but probably the late captain graham was nearer the truth when he gave the opinion that the irish hound that was kept to hunt wolves has never become extinct at all but is now represented in the scottish deerhound
only altered a little in size and strength to suit the easier work required of it that of hunting the deer this is the more probable as the fact remains that the chief factor in the resuscitation of the irish wolfhound has been
the scottish deerhound the result of captain graham's investigations when seeking for animals bearing some relationship to the original irish wolfe dogge
but none of the representatives at that time was anything like so large as those mentioned in early writings
mister baker of ballytobin for another and mister mahoney of dromore for the remaining strain from bitches obtained from two of these kennels captain graham by crossing them with the great dane and scottish deerhound
the intermixture of these canine giants however was not at first very satisfactory as although plenty of bone was obtained many were most ungainly in appearance and ill shaped animals that had very little about them to attract attention
banshee and fintragh were others but probably the best of captain graham's kennel was the bitch sheelah it was not however until towards the end of the last century that the most perfect dogs were bred
these included o'leary the property of mister crisp of playford hall o'leary is responsible for many of the best dogs of the present day and was the sire of missus
who is undoubtedly the grandest irish wolfhound ever bred in height
under captain graham this was the year the irish wolfhound club presented the hound rajah of kidnal as a regimental pet to the newly formed irish guards
rajah of kidnal who was bred and exhibited by missus a gerard of malpas was the selection of captain graham and two other judges this dog which has been renamed brian boru is still hearty and well
and amongst her many good dogs and bitches was cheevra who was a wonderful brood bitch and included amongst her stock were several that worked their way up to championship honours she was the dam of rajah of kidnal besides ballyhooley
finn was a very heavy dog
she is one of the tallest of her race her height being thirty three inches
mister everett of felixstowe is now one of the most successful breeders he exhibited at the nineteen o eight kennel club show a most promising young dog in felixstowe kilronan
mister t hamilton adams mister g h thurston mister bailey missus f marshall mister j l t dobbin and miss ethel mc cheane the following is the description of the variety as drawn up by the club
general appearance the irish wolfhound should not be quite so heavy or massive as the great dane but more so than the deerhound which in general type he should otherwise resemble
of great size and commanding appearance very muscular strongly though gracefully built movements easy and active head and neck carried high the tail carried with an upward sweep with a slight curve towards the extremity
of bitches twenty eight inches and ninety pounds anything below this should be debarred from competition great size including height at shoulder and proportionate length of body is the desideratum to be aimed at
showing the requisite power activity courage and symmetry head long the frontal bones of the forehead very slightly raised and very little indentation between the eyes skull not too broad
muzzle long and moderately pointed ears small and greyhound like in carriage neck rather long very strong and muscular well arched without dewlap and loose skin about the throat chest
well drawn up fore quarters shoulders muscular giving breadth of chest set sloping elbows well under neither turned inwards nor outwards leg
forearm muscular and the whole leg strong and quite straight hind quarters muscular thighs and second thigh long and strong as in the greyhound and hocks well let down and turning neither in nor out
feet moderately large and round neither turned inwards nor outwards toes well arched and closed nails very strong and curved hair rough and hard on body legs and head
karain a memory
we knew him in those unprotected days when we were content to hold in our hands our lives and our property none of us i believe has any property now and i hear that many negligently
have lost their lives but i am sure that the few who survive are not yet so dim eyed as to miss in the befogged respectability of their newspapers the intelligence of various native risings in the eastern archipelago
sunshine gleams between the lines of those short paragraphs sunshine and the glitter of the sea a strange name wakes up memories
the printed words scent the smoky atmosphere of to day faintly with the subtle and penetrating perfume as of land breezes breathing through the starlight of bygone nights
a signal fire gleams like a jewel on the high brow of a sombre cliff great trees the advanced sentries of immense forests stand watchful and still over sleeping stretches of open water
like a handful of emeralds on a buckler of steel there are faces too faces dark truculent and smiling the frank audacious faces
they had an independent bearing resolute eyes a restrained manner and we seem yet to hear their soft voices speaking of battles travels and escapes boasting with composure
joking quietly sometimes in well bred murmurs extolling their own valour our generosity or celebrating with loyal enthusiasm the virtues of their ruler we remember the faces
the eyes the voices we see again the gleam of silk and metal the murmuring stir of that crowd brilliant festive and martial and we seem to feel the touch of friendly brown hands that
after one short grasp return to rest on a chased hilt they were karain's people a devoted following their movements hung on his lips they read their thoughts in his eyes
on his passage voices died out as though he had walked guarded by silence awed whispers followed him they called him their war chief
he was the ruler of three villages on a narrow plain the master of an insignificant foothold on the earth of a conquered foothold that shaped like a young moon lay ignored
the whole of his domain and the ample movement seemed to drive back its limits augmenting it suddenly into something so immense and vague that for a moment
it appeared to be bounded only by the sky and really looking at that place landlocked from the sea and shut off from the land by the precipitous slopes of mountains
it was difficult to believe in the existence of any neighbourhood it was still complete unknown and full of a life that went on stealthily with a troubling effect of solitude
regrets and hopes a land where nothing could survive the coming of the night and where each sunrise like a dazzling act of special creation was disconnected from the eve
and the morrow karain swept his hand over it all mine he struck the deck with his long staff the gold head flashed like a falling star
very close behind him a silent old fellow in a richly embroidered black jacket alone of all the malays around did not follow the masterful gesture with a look he did not even lift his eyelids
he bowed his head behind his master and without stirring held hilt up over his right shoulder a long blade in a silver scabbard he was there on duty
but without curiosity and seemed weary not with age but with the possession of a burdensome secret of existence karain heavy and proud had a lofty pose and breathed calmly
it was our first visit and we looked about curiously the bay was like a bottomless pit of intense light the circular sheet of water reflected a luminous sky
yellow sands a torrent wound about like a dropped thread clumps of fruit trees marked the villages slim palms put their nodding heads together above the low houses
the smoke of fires stood upright above the masses of flowering bushes bamboo fences glittered running away in broken lines between the fields
touched our faces and became forgotten nothing moved the sun blazed down into a shadowless hollow
and stillness it was the stage where dressed splendidly for his part he strutted incomparably dignified made important by the power he had
to awaken an absurd expectation of something heroic going to take place a burst of action or song upon the vibrating tone of a wonderful sunshine
he was ornate and disturbing for one could not imagine what depth of horrible void such an elaborate front could be worthy to hide he was not masked there was too much life in him
it was almost impossible to remember who he was only a petty chief of a conveniently isolated corner of mindanao where we could in comparative safety
break the law against the traffic in firearms and ammunition with the natives what would happen should one of the moribund spanish gun boats be suddenly galvanized into a flicker of active life did not trouble us
once we were inside the bay so completely did it appear out of the reach of a meddling world and besides in those days we were imaginative enough to look with a kind of joyous equanimity
but his quality was to appear clothed in the illusion of unavoidable success he seemed too effective too necessary there too much of an essential condition for the existence of his land and his people
to be destroyed by anything short of an earthquake he summed up his race his country the elemental force of ardent life of tropical nature he had its luxuriant strength
the purple semicircle of hills the slim trees leaning over houses the yellow sands the streaming green of ravines all that had the crude and blended colouring
the appropriateness almost excessive the suspicious immobility of a painted scene and it enclosed so perfectly the accomplished acting of his amazing pretences that the rest of the world
seemed shut out forever from the gorgeous spectacle there could be nothing outside it was as if the earth had gone on spinning and had left that crumb of its surface alone in space
he appeared utterly cut off from everything but the sunshine and that even seemed to be made for him alone once when asked what was on the other side of the hills he said with a meaning smile
friends and enemies many enemies else why should i buy your rifles and powder he was always like this word perfect in his part
playing up faithfully to the mysteries and certitudes of his surroundings friends and enemies nothing else it was impalpable and vast the earth had indeed
friends and enemies he might have added and memories at least as far as he himself was concerned but he neglected to make that point then
it made itself later on though but it was after the daily performance in the wings so to speak and with the lights out meantime he filled the stage with barbarous dignity
and had lost all concern for the future he gave them wisdom advice reward punishment life or death with the same serenity of attitude and voice he understood irrigation
and the art of war the qualities of weapons and the craft of boat building he could conceal his heart had more endurance he could swim longer and steer a canoe better than any of his people
and negotiate more tortuously than any man of his race i knew he was an adventurer of the sea an outcast a ruler and my very good friend i wish him a quick death
in a stand up fight a death in sunshine for he had known remorse and power and no man can demand more from life day after day he appeared before us
became black shadows towering high upon a clear sky above them the glittering confusion of stars resembled a mad turmoil stilled by a gesture sounds ceased men slept
chapter one the camp in the desert it is afternoon but the sun's rays still pour down with great power upon rock and sand
how great the heat has been at midday may be seen by the quivering of the air as it rises from the ground and blurs all distant objects it is seen too in the attitudes and appearance of a large body of soldiers encamped in a grove
their arms are thrown aside the greater portion of their clothing has been dispensed with some lie stretched on the ground in slumber their faces protected from any chance rays which may find their way through the foliage above
by little shelters composed of their clothing hung on two bows or javelins some lately awakened are sitting up or leaning against the trunks of the trees but scarce
the day has indeed been a hot one even for the southern edge of the libyan desert the cream coloured oxen stand with their heads down
the horses standing near suffer more the lather stands on their sides their flanks heave and from time to time they stretch out their extended nostrils in the direction from which when the sun sinks a little lower
the breeze will begin to blow the occupants of the grove are men of varied races and although there is no attempt at military order it is clear at once that they are divided into three parties one
they are lithe and active in figure inured to hardship accustomed to the burning sun light shields hang against the trees with bows and gaily painted quivers full of arrows and near each man
are three or four light short javelins they wear round caps of metal with a band of the skin of the lion or other wild animal
they are naked to the waist save for a light breastplate of brass a cloth of bright colours is wound round their waist and drops to the knees and they wear belts of leather embossed with brass plates on their feet
are sandals they are the light armed numidian horse near them
taller and stouter in stature their garb is more irregular their arms are bare but they wear a sort of shirt open at the neck and reaching to the knees
from which hangs a pouch of the same material
are dyed a colour which was originally a deep purple but which has faded under the heat of the sun to lilac they are a company of iberian slingers enlisted among the tribes conquered in spain by the carthaginians
by them lie the heavy swords which they use in close quarters the third body of men are more heavily armed on the ground near the sleepers lie helmets and massive shields they have tightly fitting jerkins of well tanned leather
their arms are spears and battleaxes they are the heavy infantry of carthage very various is their nationality fair skinned greeks lie side by side with swarthy negroes from nubia
sardinia the islands of the aegean crete and egypt libya and phoenicia are all represented there they are recruited alike from the lower orders of the great city and from the tribes and people who own her sway
near the large grove in which the troops are encamped is a smaller one a space in the centre has been cleared of trees and in this a large tent has been erected around this numerous slaves are moving to and fro
a roman cook captured in a sea fight in which his master a wealthy tribune was killed is watching three greeks who are under his superintendence preparing a repast
some libyan grooms are rubbing down the coats of four horses of the purest breed of the desert while two nubians are feeding with large flat cakes three elephants who chained by the leg to trees
stand rocking themselves from side to side the exterior of the tent is made of coarse white canvas this is thickly lined by fold after fold of a thin material dyed a dark blue to keep out the heat of the sun
while the interior is hung with silk purple and white the curtains at each end are looped back with gold cord to allow a free passage of the air a carpet from the looms of syria covers the ground
and on it are spread four couches on which in a position half sitting half reclining repose the principal personages of the party
of commanding figure and features which express energy and resolution his body is bare to the waist save for a light short sleeved tunic of the finest muslin embroidered round the neck and sleeves with gold
a gold belt encircles his waist below it hangs a garment resembling the modern kilt but reaching halfway between the knee and the ankle it is dyed a rich purple
and three bands of gold embroidery run round the lower edge on his feet he wears sandals with broad leather lacings covered with gold his toga also of purple heavily embroidered with gold lies on the couch beside him
from one of the poles of the tent hang his arms a short heavy sword with a handle of solid gold in a scabbard incrusted with the same metal and a baldrick covered with plates of gold beautifully worked and lined with the softest leather
by which it is suspended over his shoulder two of his companions are young men of three or four and twenty both fair like himself with features of almost greek regularity of outline their dress is similar to his in fashion
but the colours are gayer the fourth member of the party is a lad of some fifteen years old his figure which is naked to the waist is of a pure grecian model the muscles showing up clearly beneath the skin
testify to hard exercise and a life of activity powerful as carthage was the events of the last few years had shown that a life and death struggle with her great rival in italy was approaching for many years she had been a conquering nation
her aristocracy were soldiers as well as traders ready at once to embark on the most distant and adventurous voyages to lead the troops of carthage on toilsome expeditions against insurgent tribes of numidia and libya
or to launch their triremes to engage the fleets of rome the severe checks which they had lately suffered at the hands of the newly formed roman navy and the certainty that ere long a tremendous struggle between the two powers must take place
had redoubled the military ardour of the nobles their training to arms began from their very childhood and the sons of the noblest houses were taught at the earliest age the use of arms and the endurance of fatigue and hardship
malchus the son of hamilcar the leader of the expedition in the desert had been from his early childhood trained by his father in the use of arms when he was ten years old hamilcar had taken him with him on a campaign in spain
he had learned to endure cold and hardships in the depth of winter his father had made him pass the nights uncovered and almost without clothing in the cold he had bathed in the icy water of the torrents from the snow clad hills
in pursuit of the iberians he was taught to endure long abstinence from food and to bear pain without flinching to be cheerful under the greatest hardships to wear a smiling face when even veteran soldiers were worn out and disheartened
it is incumbent upon us the rulers and aristocracy of this great city my son to show ourselves superior to the common herd they must recognize that we are not only richer and of better blood but that we are stronger
wiser and more courageous than they so only can we expect them to obey us and to make the sacrifices which war entails upon them it is not enough that we are of pure phoenician blood
that we come of the most enterprising race the world has ever seen while they are but a mixed breed of many people who have either submitted to our rule or have been enslaved by us this was well enough in the early days of the colony
when it was phoenician arms alone that won our battles and subdued our rivals in our days we are few and the populace are many our armies are composed not of phoenicians but of the races conquered by us libya and numidia
sicily sardinia and spain all in turn conquered by us now furnish us with troops carthage is a mighty city but it is no longer a city of phoenicians we form but a small proportion of the population
it is true that all power rests in our hands that from our ranks the senate is chosen the army officered and the laws administered but the expenses of the state are vast the conquered people fret under the heavy tributes which they have to pay
in italy rome looms greater and more powerful year by year her people are hardy and trained to arms and some day the struggle between us and her will have to be fought out to the death therefore my son
it behooves us to use every effort to make ourselves worthy of our position set before yourself the example of your cousin hannibal who young as he is is already viewed as the greatest man in carthage
grudge no hardship or suffering to harden your frame and strengthen your arms some day you too may lead armies in the field and believe me they will follow you all the better and more cheerfully
if they know that in strength and endurance as well as in position their commander is the foremost man in his army malchus had been an apt pupil and had done justice to the pains which his father had bestowed upon him and to the training he had undergone
he could wield the arms of a man could swim the coldest river endure hardship and want of food traverse long distances at the top of his speed could throw a javelin with unerring aim
the lad said the shadows are lengthening and the heat is declining we have only your word for the decline of the heat malchus one of the younger men laughed i feel hotter than ever
your restlessness is enough to give one the fever
there was a king and queen who were dotingly fond of their only son notwithstanding that he was equally deformed in mind and person
in her excessive fondness saw no fault whatever in her dear furibon as he was named the surest way to win her favour was to praise furibon for charms he did not possess when he came of age to have a governor
the king made choice of a prince who had an ancient right to the crown but was not able to support it this prince had a son named leander handsome accomplished amiable in every respect the opposite of prince furibon
the two were frequently together which only made the deformed prince more repulsive one day certain ambassadors having arrived from a far country the princes stood in a gallery to see them
when taking leander for the king's son they made their obeisance to him treating furibon as a mere dwarf at which the latter was so offended that he drew his sword and would have done them a mischief had not the king just then appeared
as it was the affair produced a quarrel which ended in leander's being sent to a far away castle belonging to his father there however he was quite happy for he was a great lover of hunting fishing and walking
he understood painting read much and played upon several instruments so that he was glad to be freed from the fantastic humours of furibon one day as he was walking in the garden finding the heat increase
as he played he felt something wind about his leg
he took his handkerchief and catching it by the head was going to kill it but the adder looking steadfastly in his face seemed to beg his pardon at this instant one of the gardeners happened to come to the place where leander was
and spying the snake cried out to his master hold him fast sir it is but an hour since we ran after him to kill
leander casting his eyes a second time upon the snake which was speckled with a thousand extraordinary colours perceived the poor creature still looked upon him with an aspect that seemed to implore compassion and never tried in the least to defend itself
though thou hast such a mind to kill it said he to the gardener yet
and when it has cast its beautiful skin i will let it go
for its delight and sustenance so that never was snake so happy leander went sometimes to see it and when it perceived him it made haste to meet him showing him all the little marks of love and gratitude of which a poor snake was capable
which did not a little surprise him though however he took no further notice of it in the meantime all the court ladies were extremely troubled at his absence and he was the subject of all their discourse alas cried they
there is no pleasure at court since leander is gone of whose absence the wicked furibon is the cause furibon also had his parasites for his power over the queen made him feared they told him what the ladies said
which enraged him to such a degree that in his passion he flew to the queen's chamber
replied that she had long looked upon him as a traitor and therefore would willingly consent to his death to which purpose she advised furibon to go a hunting with some of his confidants and contrive it so that leander should make one of the party then
said she you may find some way to punish him for pleasing everybody furibon understood her and accordingly went a hunting
but he was surprised to meet the prince so unexpectedly he alighted immediately and saluted him with respect and furibon received him more graciously than usual and bade him follow him
all of a sudden he turned his horse and rode another way making a sign to the ruffians to take the first opportunity to kill him but before he had got quite out of sight a lion of prodigious size coming out of his den leaped upon furibon
all his followers fled and only leander remained who attacking the animal sword in hand
when he recovered leander presented him his horse to remount
that he laid them all dead at his feet furibon believing him by this time slain rode eagerly up to the spot when leander saw him he advanced to meet him sir
said he if it was by your order that these assassins came to kill me i am sorry i made any defence
replied furibon and if ever you come into my presence again you shall surely die leander made no answer but retired sad and pensive to his own home
where he spent the night in pondering what was best for him to do for there was no likelihood he should be able to defend himself against the power of the king's son therefore he at length concluded he would travel abroad and see the world
he recollected his snake and calling for some milk and fruits carried them to the poor creature for the last time but on opening the door he perceived an extraordinary lustre in one corner of the room and casting his eye on the place
he was surprised to see a lady whose noble and majestic air made him immediately conclude she was a princess of royal birth her habit was of purple satin embroidered with pearls and diamonds and advancing towards him
with a gracious smile young prince said she
ready to requite your generosity for know that we fairies live a hundred years in flourishing youth without diseases without trouble or pain and this term being expired we become snakes for eight days
during that time it is not in our power to prevent any misfortune that may befall us and if we happen to be killed we never revive again but these eight days being expired we resume our usual form and recover our beauty our power
and our riches now you know how much i am obliged to your goodness and it is but just that i should repay my debt of gratitude think how i can serve you and depend on me the young prince
that it was a long time before he could speak but at length making a profound reverence madam said he since i have had the honour to serve you i know not any other happiness that i can wish for i should be sorry
replied she not to be of service to you in something consider it is in my power to bestow on you long life kingdoms riches to give you mines of diamonds and houses full of gold
i can make you an excellent orator poet musician and painter or if you desire it a spirit of the air the water or the earth here leander interrupted her
to be a spirit much replied the fairy you would be invisible when you pleased and might in an instant traverse the whole earth you would be able to fly without wings to descend into the abyss of the earth without dying
and walk at the bottom of the sea without being drowned nor doors nor windows though fast shut and locked could hinder you from entering anywhere and whenever you had a mind you might resume your natural form oh madam
cried leander then let me be a spirit
gentilla thereupon stroking his face three times be a spirit said she and then embracing him she gave him a little red cap with a plume of feathers when you put on this cap you shall be invisible
but when you take it off you shall again
for that one of them would supply him with money whenever he wanted it that if he put the other into his mistress's bosom
then without staying to receive his thanks she wished him success in his travels and disappeared leander infinitely pleased settled his affairs mounted the finest horse in the stable called gris de line
and attended by some of his servants in livery made his return to court now you must know furibon had given out that had it not been for his courage leander would have murdered him when they were a hunting so the king
being importuned by the queen gave orders that leander should be apprehended but when he came
and prayed her to order him to be seized the queen
furibon being impatient to know what would be resolved followed her but stopped at the door and laid his ear to the keyhole putting his hair aside that he might the better hear what was said
half out of her wits she set him in her lap took up his ear kissed it and clapped it again upon its place but the invisible leander seizing upon a handful of twigs with which they corrected the king's little dogs
gave the queen several lashes upon her hands and her son as many on the nose upon which the queen cried out murder murder and the king looked about and the people came running in but nothing was to be seen
some cried that the queen was mad and that her madness proceeded from her grief to see that her son had lost one ear and the king was as ready as any to believe it so that when she came near him he avoided her which made a very ridiculous scene
leander then leaving the chamber went into the garden and there assuming his own shape
she set such a high value on them that it was as much as a man's life was worth to touch one the gardeners all amazed came and told their majesties that prince leander was making havoc of all the fruits and flowers in the queen's garden
what insolence said the queen then turning to furibon my pretty child
and fetch that vile wretch hither take our guards both horse and foot seize him and punish him as he deserves furibon encouraged by his mother and attended by a great number of armed soldiers entered the garden
and saw leander who taking refuge under a tree
he was not to be seen he had slipped behind furibon who was in a bad condition already but leander played him one trick more for he pushed him down upon the gravel walk and frightened him so that the soldiers had to take him up carry him away
and put him to bed satisfied with this revenge
as yet he had not determined whither to go however he mounted his fine horse gris de line and laying the reins upon his neck let him take his own road at length he arrived in a forest where he stopped to shelter himself from the heat
he had not been above a minute there before he heard a lamentable noise of sighing and sobbing and looking about him beheld a man who ran stopped then ran again sometimes crying sometimes silent
then tearing his hair then thumping his breast like some unfortunate madman yet he seemed to be both handsome and young his garments had been magnificent but he had torn them all to tatters the prince moved with compassion made towards him
and mildly accosted him sir said he your condition appears so deplorable that i must ask the cause of your sorrow assuring you of every assistance in my power oh sir answered the young man nothing can cure my grief
this day my dear mistress is to be sacrificed to a rich old ruffian of a husband who will make her miserable does she love you then asked leander i flatter myself so answered the young man where is she continued leander
in a castle at the end of this forest replied the lover very well said leander stay you here till i come again and in a little while i will bring you good news he then put on his little red cap
he had hardly got thither before he heard all sorts of music
no one could look more amiable than she but the paleness of her complexion the melancholy that appeared in her countenance and the tears that now and then dropped as it were by stealth from her eyes betrayed the trouble of her mind
he soon perceived the father and mother of the bride and coming behind the mother's chair whispered in her ear if you marry your daughter to that old dotard before eight days are over you shall certainly die the woman
not know from whence it came gave a loud shriek and dropped upon the floor her husband asked what ailed her she cried that she was a dead woman if the marriage of her daughter went forward and therefore she would not consent to it for all the world
her husband laughed at her and called her a fool but the invisible leander accosting the man threatened him in the same way which frightened him so terribly that he also insisted on the marriage being broken off when the lover complained leander trod hard upon his gouty toes
and rang such an alarum in his ears that not being able any longer to hear himself speak away he limped glad enough to go the real lover soon appeared and he and his fair mistress fell joyfully into one another's arms the parents consenting to their union
leander assuming his own shape appeared at the hall door as if he were a stranger drawn thither by the report of this extraordinary wedding from hence he travelled on and came to a great city where upon his arrival he understood there was a great and solemn procession
in order to shut up a young woman against her will among the vestal nuns the prince was touched with compassion and thinking the best use he could make of his cap was to redress public wrongs and relieve the oppressed he flew to the temple where he saw the young woman
two of her brothers led her by each hand and her mother followed her with a great crowd of men and women leander being invisible cried out stop stop wicked brethren stop rash and inconsiderate mother if you proceed any further
you shall be squeezed to death like so many frogs they looked about but could not conceive from whence these terrible menaces came the brothers said it was only their sister's lover who had hid himself in some hole at which leander in wrath took a long cudgel
and they had no reason to say the blows were not well laid on the multitude fled the vestals ran away and leander was left alone with the victim immediately he pulled off his red cap and asked her wherein he might serve her
she answered him that there was a certain gentleman whom she would be glad to marry but that he wanted an estate leander then shook his rose so long that he supplied them with ten millions
but his last adventure was the most agreeable entering into a wide forest he heard lamentable cries
at length he spied four men well armed who were carrying away by force a young lady thirteen or fourteen years of age upon which
what harm has that girl done said he ha ha my little master cried he who seemed to be the ringleader of the rest who bade you inquire let her alone said leander and go about your business oh yes to be sure cried they
who seemed strong enough to fight a dozen one of them stayed to take care of the young lady while the three others went after gris de line who gave them a great deal of unwelcome exercise meantime the young lady continued her cries and complaints
oh my dear princess said she how happy was i in your palace did you but know my sad misfortune you would send your amazons to rescue poor abricotina leander having listened to what she said without delay
seized the ruffian that held her and bound him fast to a tree before he had time or strength to defend himself he then went to the second and taking him by both arms bound him in the same manner to another tree in the meantime
abricotina made the best of her good fortune and betook herself to her heels not knowing which way she went but leander missing her called out to his horse gris de line who by two kicks with his hoof rid himself of the two ruffians who had pursued him one of them had his head broken
and now leander only wanted to overtake abricotina for he had thought her so handsome that he wished to see her again he found her leaning against a tree when she saw gris de line coming towards her how lucky am i cried she
this pretty little horse will carry me to the palace of pleasure leander heard her though she saw him not he rode up to her gris de line stopped and when abricotina mounted him leander clasped her in his arms and placed her gently before him
oh how great was abricotina's fear to feel herself fast embraced and yet see nobody she durst not stir and shut her eyes for fear of seeing a spirit but leander took off his little cap
how comes it fair abricotina said he that you are afraid of me who delivered you out of the hands of the ruffians with that she opened her eyes and knowing him again oh sir said she
i am infinitely obliged to you but i was afraid for i felt myself held fast and could see no one surely replied leander the danger you have been in has disturbed you and cast a mist before your eyes abricotina would not seem to doubt him
though she was otherwise extremely sensible and after they had talked for some time of indifferent things leander requested her to tell him her age her country and by what accident she fell into the hands of the ruffians know then sir said she
there was a certain very great fairy married to a prince who wearied of her she therefore banished him from her presence and established herself and daughter in the island of calm delights the princess who is my mistress
being very fair has many lovers among others one named furibon whom she detests he it was whose ruffians seized me to day when i was wandering in search of a stray parrot accept noble prince
my best thanks for your valour which i shall never forget leander said how happy he was to have served her and asked if he could not obtain admission into the island abricotina assured him this was impossible and therefore he had better forget all about it
abricotina alighting with a nimble jump from the horse farewell sir said she to the prince making a profound reverence i wish you every happiness and i said leander
wish that i may now and then have a small share in your remembrance so saying he galloped away and soon entered into the thickest part of a wood near a river
the moral basis of co operation
is that some months ago i attended with mister ewbank a meeting of mill hands to whom he wanted to explain the principles of co operation the chawl in which they were living was as filthy as it well could be
recent rains had made matters worse and i must frankly confess that had it not been for mister ewbank's great zeal for the cause he has made his own i should have shirked the task but there we were
seated on a fairly worn out charpai surrounded by men women and children mister ewbank opened fire on a man who had put himself forward and who wore not a particularly innocent countenance after he had engaged him
and the other people about him in gujrati conversation he wanted me to speak to the people owing to the suspicious looks of the man who was first spoken to i naturally pressed home the moralities of co operation
i fancy that mister ewbank rather liked the manner in which i handled the subject hence i believe his kind invitation to me to tax your patience for a few moments upon a consideration of co operation from a moral standpoint
my knowledge of the technicality of co operation is next to nothing my brother devadhar has made the subject his own whatever he does naturally attracts me
and predisposes me to think that there must be something good in it and the handling of it must be fairly difficult mister ewbank very kindly placed at my disposal some literature too on the subject
in champaran i have gone through mister ewbank's ten main points which are like the commandments
which remind me of the law of the twelve tables there are so called agricultural banks in champaran they were to me disappointing efforts if they were meant to be demonstrations of the success of co operation
on the other hand there is quiet work in the same direction being done by mister hodge a missionary whose efforts are leaving their impress on those who come in contact with him mister hodge is a co operative enthusiast
and probably considers that the result which he sees flowing from his efforts are due to the working of co operation i who was able to watch the efforts had no hesitation in inferring that the personal equation counted for success in the one
and failure in the other instance i am an enthusiast myself but twenty five years of experimenting and experience
workers in a cause necessarily though quite unconsciously exaggerate its merits and often succeed in turning its very defects into advantages in spite of my caution
a home where men and women may have scope for free and unfettered development of character in keeping with the national genius and if its controllers do not take care the discipline that is the foundation of character may frustrate the very end in view
i would venture therefore to warn enthusiasts in co operation against entertaining false hopes with sir daniel hamilton it has become a religion on the thirteenth january last
he addressed the students of the scottish churches college and in order to point a moral he instanced scotland's poverty of two hundred years ago and showed how that great country was raised from a condition of poverty to plenty
which is the beginning of wisdom and in the parish schools of the church the children learned that the chief end of man's life was to glorify god and to enjoy him for ever men were trained to believe in god and in themselves
and on the trustworthy character so created the scottish banking system was built sir daniel then shows that it was possible to build up the marvellous scottish banking system only on the character so built
so far there can only be perfect agreement with sir daniel for that without character there is no co operation is a sound maxim but he would have us go much further he thus waxes eloquent on co operation
whatever may be your daydreams of india's future never forget this that it is to weld india into one and so enable her to take her rightful place in the world that the british government is here
and the welding hammer in the hand of the government is the co operative movement in his opinion it is the panacea of all the evils that afflict india at the present moment in its extended sense
it can justify the claim on one condition which need not be mentioned here in the limited sense in which sir daniel has used it i venture to think it is an enthusiast's exaggeration mark his peroration
credit which is only trust and faith is becoming more and more the money power of the world and in the parchment bullet into which is impressed the faith which removes mountains india will find victory and peace
they are satisfied that he meets his overdrafts and promissory notes punctually the credit system has encircled this beautiful globe of ours like a serpent's coil and if we do not mind
it bids fair to crush us out of breath i have witnessed the ruin of many a home through the system and it has made no difference whether the credit was labelled co operative or otherwise
the deadly coil has made possible the devastating spectacle in europe which we are helplessly looking on it was perhaps never so true as it is today that as in law so in war
that it is a moral movement strictly directed by men fired with religious fervour it follows therefore that co operation should be confined to men wishing to be morally right but failing to do so
facility for obtaining loans at fair rates will not make immoral men moral but the wisdom of the estate or philanthropists demands that they should help on the onward path men struggling to be good
too often do we believe that material prosperity means moral growth it is necessary that a movement which is fraught with so much good to india should not degenerate into one for merely advancing cheap loans
i was therefore delighted to read the recommendation in the report of the committee on co operation in india that they wish clearly to express their opinion that it is to true co operation alone that is
to a co operation which recognises the moral aspect of the question that government must look for the amelioration of the masses and not to a pseudo co operative edifice however imposing which is built in ignorance of co operative principles
with this standard before us we will not measure the success of the movement by the number of co operative societies formed but by the moral condition of the co operators the registrars will in that event
ensure the moral growth of existing societies before multiplying them and the government will make their promotion conditional not upon the number of societies they have registered but the moral success of the existing institutions
this will mean tracing the course of every pie lent to the members those responsible for the proper conduct of co operative societies will see to it that the money advanced does not find its way into the toddy seller's bill
i would excuse the rapacity of the mahajan if it has succeeded in keeping the gambling die or toddy from the ryot's home a word perhaps about the mahajan will not be out of place co operation is not a new device
the ryots co operate to drum out monkeys or birds that destroy their crops they co operate to use a common thrashing floor i have found them co operate to protect their cattle to the extent of their devoting the best land for the grazing of their cattle
doubts have been expressed as to the success of co operation because of the tightness of the mahajan's hold on the ryots i do not share the fears the mightiest mahajan must if he represent an evil force
bend before co operation conceived as an essentially moral movement
and even comes to their rescue in the hour of their distress my observation is so limited that i dare not draw any conclusions from it but i respectfully enquire whether it is not possible to make a serious effort
i note that the movement takes note of all indigenous industries i beg publicly to express my gratitude to government for helping me in my humble effort to improve the lot of the weaver
as doctor mann has stated this industry used to supply the peasant with an additional source of livelihood and an insurance against famine every registrar who will nurse back to life this important and graceful industry
will earn the gratitude of india my humble effort consists firstly in making researches as to the possibilities of simple reforms in the orthodox hand looms secondly
in weaning the educated youth from the craving for government or other services and the feeling that education renders him unfit for independent occupation and inducing him to take to weaving
on the first two parts of the experiment the third may be allowed a few sentences as it has a direct bearing upon the subject before us i was able to enter upon it only six months ago five families
that had left off the calling have reverted to it and they are doing a prosperous business the ashram supplies them at their door with the yarn they need its volunteers take delivery of the cloth woven paying them cash at the market rate
i would like the audience to note its purely moral character from start to finish the ashram depends for its existence on such help as friends render it we therefore can have no warrant for charging interest
the weavers could not be saddled with it whole families that were breaking to pieces are put together again the use of the loan is pre determined and we the middlemen being volunteers obtain the privilege of entering into the lives of these families
and not rest satisfied till we have touched them at every point this is not too ambitious a dream god willing it will be a reality some day i have ventured to dilate upon the small experiment
to illustrate what i mean by co operation to present it to others for imitation let us be sure of our ideal we shall ever fail to realise it but we should never cease to strive for it
chapter seven one sometimes runs aground when one fancies that one is disembarking he set out on his way once more however although he had not left his life in the fontis
he seemed to have left his strength behind him there that supreme effort had exhausted him his lassitude was now such that he was obliged to pause for breath every three or four steps and lean against the wall
once he was forced to seat himself on the banquette in order to alter marius position and he thought that he should have to remain there but if his vigor was dead his energy was not he rose again
he walked on desperately almost fast proceeded thus for a hundred paces almost without drawing breath and suddenly came in contact with the wall he had reached an elbow of the sewer and
it was a pointed arch lower than the vault which gradually narrowed and narrower than the gallery which closed in as the vault grew lower the tunnel ended like the interior of a funnel a faulty construction
imitated from the wickets of penitentiaries logical in a prison illogical in a sewer and which has since been corrected jean valjean reached the outlet there he halted it certainly was the outlet
but he could not get out the arch was closed by a heavy grating and the grating which to all appearance rarely swung on its rusty hinges was clamped to its stone jamb by a thick lock
paris that gulf in which one so easily hides oneself the broad horizon liberty on the right down stream the bridge of jena was discernible on the left upstream the bridge of the invalides
the place would have been a propitious one in which to await the night and to escape it was one of the most solitary points in paris
it might have been half past eight o'clock in the evening the day was declining jean valjean laid marius down along the wall on the dry portion of the vaulting then he went to the grating and clenched both fists round the bars
the shock which he gave it was frenzied but it did not move the grating did not stir jean valjean seized the bars one after the other in the hope that he might be able to tear away the least solid and to make of it a lever
whence he had only extricated himself as by a miracle and after the quagmire was there not the police patrol which assuredly could not be twice avoided and then whither was he to go what direction should he pursue
to follow the incline would not conduct him to his goal if he were to reach another outlet he would find it obstructed by a plug or a grating every outlet was undoubtedly closed in that manner
chance had unsealed the grating through which he had entered but it was evident that all the other sewer mouths were barred he had only succeeded in escaping into a prison all was over everything that jean valjean had done
was useless exhaustion had ended in failure they were both caught in the immense and gloomy web of death and jean valjean felt the terrible spider running along those black strands and quivering in the shadows
he turned his back to the grating and fell upon the pavement hurled to earth rather than seated close to marius who still made no movement and with his head bent between his knees this was the last drop of anguish
a hand was laid on his shoulder and a low voice said to him half shares some person in that gloom nothing so closely resembles a dream as despair jean valjean thought that he was dreaming
he had heard no footsteps was it possible he raised his eyes a man stood before him this man was clad in a blouse his feet were bare he held his shoes in his left hand he had evidently removed them
in order to reach jean valjean without allowing his steps to be heard jean valjean did not hesitate for an instant unexpected as was this encounter this man was known to him the man was thenardier
although awakened so to speak with a start jean valjean accustomed to alarms and steeled to unforeseen shocks that must be promptly parried instantly regained possession of his presence of mind moreover
the situation could not be made worse a certain degree of distress is no longer capable of a crescendo and thenardier himself could add nothing to this blackness of this night a momentary pause ensued
formed with it a shade then he brought his eyelashes together by screwing up his eyes a motion which in connection with a slight contraction of the mouth characterizes the sagacious attention of a man
who is endeavoring to recognize another man he did not succeed
as we have just stated had his back turned to the light and he was moreover so disfigured so bemired so bleeding that he would have been unrecognizable in full noonday on the contrary
this inequality of conditions sufficed to assure some advantage to jean valjean in that mysterious duel which was on the point of beginning between the two situations
jean valjean immediately perceived that thenardier did not recognize him they surveyed each other for a moment in that half gloom as though taking each other's measure thenardier was the first to break the silence
how are you going to manage to get out jean valjean made no reply thenardier continued it's impossible to pick the lock of that gate but still you must get out of this that is true said jean valjean
well half shares then what do you mean by that you have killed that man that's all right i have the key thenardier pointed to marius he went on i don't know you but i want to help you you must be a friend
i'll open the door for you and half drawing from beneath his tattered blouse a huge key he added do you want to see how a key to liberty is made look here
thenardier thrust his fist into a large pocket concealed under his blouse drew out a rope and offered it to jean valjean hold on said he
what is the rope for you will need a stone also but you can find one outside there's a heap of rubbish what am i to do with a stone idiot
otherwise it would float on the water jean valjean took the rope there is no one who does not occasionally accept in this mechanical way
as though an idea had suddenly occurred to him ah see here comrade
i haven't dared to risk myself in it phew you don't smell good after a pause he added i'm asking you questions but you're perfectly right not to answer it's an apprenticeship against that cursed quarter of an hour before the examining magistrate
and then when you don't talk at all you run no risk of talking too loud that's no matter as i can't see your face and as i don't know your name you are wrong in supposing that i don't know who you are and what you want i twig
you've broken up that gentleman a bit now you want to tuck him away somewhere the river that great hider of folly is what you want i'll get you out of your scrape helping a good fellow in a pinch is what suits me to a hair
apropos of that quagmire you're a hearty animal why didn't you toss the man in there jean valjean preserved silence thenardier resumed pushing the rag which served him as a cravat
a gesture which completes the capable air of a serious man after all you acted wisely the workmen when they come to morrow to stop up that hole would certainly have found the stiff abandoned there and it might have been possible
well what does one care for that it's carrion who killed that man paris and justice makes no inquiries you have done well the more loquacious thenardier became the more mute was jean valjean
again thenardier shook him by the shoulder now let's settle this business let's go shares you have seen my key show me your money thenardier was haggard fierce suspicious rather menacing
thenardier's manners were not simple he had not the air of being wholly at his ease while affecting an air of mystery he spoke low from time to time he laid his finger on his mouth and muttered hush it was difficult to divine why
there was no one there except themselves
not very far off and that thenardier did not care to share with them thenardier resumed
how much did the stiff have in his bags jean valjean searched his pockets it was his habit as the reader will remember to always have some money about him the mournful life of expedients to which he had been condemned
to take his pocket book he had only some small change in his fob he turned out his pocket all soaked with ooze and spread out on the banquette of the vault one louis d'or two five franc pieces and five or six large sous
thenardier thrust out his lower lip with a significant twist of the neck you knocked him over cheap said he he set to feeling the pockets of jean valjean and marius with the greatest familiarity jean valjean
he found no more than the thirty francs that's true said he both of you together have no more than that and forgetting his motto half shares he took all he hesitated a little over the large sous
after due reflection he took them also muttering never mind you cut folks throats too cheap altogether that done he once more drew the big key from under his blouse now my friend you must leave
the pure and disinterested intention of rescuing an assassin we may be permitted to doubt this thenardier helped jean valjean to replace marius on his shoulders
then he betook himself to the grating on tiptoe and barefooted making jean valjean a sign to follow him looked out laid his finger on his mouth and remained for several seconds as though in suspense
his inspection finished he placed the key in the lock the bolt slipped back and the gate swung open it neither grated nor squeaked it moved very softly it was obvious that this gate and those hinges
carefully oiled were in the habit of opening more frequently than was supposed this softness was suspicious
opened the gate a little way allowing just sufficient space for jean valjean to pass out closed the grating again gave the key a double turn in the lock and plunged back into the darkness without making any more noise than a breath
he seemed to walk with the velvet paws of a tiger a moment later that hideous providence had retreated into the invisibility
i do not know how far the charge of unmanliness can be made good against the jains i hold no brief for them by birth i am a vaishnavite and was taught ahimsa in my childhood
i have derived much religious benefit from jain religious works as i have from scriptures of the other great faiths of the world i owe much to the living company of the deceased philosopher rajachand kavi who was a jain by birth
thus though my views on ahimsa are a result of my study of most of the faiths of the world they are now no longer dependent upon the authority of these works they are a part of my life and
if i suddenly discovered that the religious books read by me bore a different interpretation from the one i had learnt to give them i should still hold to the view of ahimsa
our shastras seem to teach that a man who really practises ahimsa in its fulness has the world at his feet he so affects his surroundings
that even the snakes and other venomous reptiles do him no harm this is said to have been the experience of saint francis of assisi in its negative form
whether by body or mind it may not therefore hurt the person of any wrong doer or bear any ill will to him and so cause him mental suffering this statement does not cover suffering caused to the wrong doer
by natural acts of mine which do not proceed from ill will it therefore does not prevent me from withdrawing from his presence a child whom he we shall imagine is about to strike indeed the proper practice of ahimsa
requires me to withdraw the intended victim from the wrong doer if i am in any way whatsoever the guardian of such a child it was therefore most proper for the passive resisters of south africa
they bore no ill will to it they showed this by helping the government whenever it needed their help their resistance consisted of disobedience of the orders of the government
even to the extent of suffering death at their hands ahimsa requires deliberate self suffering not a deliberate injuring of the supposed wrong doer in its positive form ahimsa means
the largest love the greatest charity if i am a follower of ahimsa i must love my enemy i must apply the same rules to the wrong doer who is my enemy or a stranger to me
as i would to my wrong doing father or son this active ahimsa necessarily includes truth and fearlessness as man cannot deceive the loved one he does not fear or frighten him or her
gift of life is the greatest of all gifts a man who gives it in reality disarms all hostility he has paved the way for an honourable understanding
and none who is himself subject to fear can bestow that gift he must therefore be himself fearless a man cannot then practice ahimsa and be a coward at the same time
the practice of ahimsa calls forth the greatest courage it is the most soldierly of a soldier's virtues general gordon has been represented in a famous statue as bearing only a stick
this takes us far on the road to ahimsa but a soldier who needs the protection of even a stick is to that extent so much the less a soldier he is the true soldier who knows how to die
and stand his ground in the midst of a hail of bullets such a one was ambarisha who stood his ground without lifting a finger
the moors who were being pounded by the french gunners and who rushed to the guns mouths with allah on their lips showed much the same type of courage only theirs was the courage of desperation ambarisha's was due to love
yet the moorish valour readiness to die conquered the gunners they frantically waved their hats ceased firing and greeted their erstwhile enemies as comrades and so the south african passive resisters
in their thousands were ready to die rather than sell their honour for a little personal ease this was ahimsa in its active form it never barters away honour a helpless girl
in the hands of a follower of ahimsa finds better and surer protection than in the hands of one who is prepared to defend her only to the point to which his weapons would carry him the tyrant in the first instance
will have to walk to his victim over the dead body of her defender in the second he has but to overpower the defender for it is assumed that the cannon of propriety in the second instance will be satisfied
we are so not because we do not know how to strike but because we fear to die he is no follower of mahavira the apostle of jainism or of buddha or of the vedas
who being afraid to die takes flight before any danger real or imaginary all the while wishing that somebody else would remove the danger by destroying the person causing it he is no follower of ahimsa
who does not care a straw if he kills a man by inches by deceiving him in trade or who would protect by force of arms a few cows and make away with the butcher or who
does not mind killing off a few officials all these are actuated by hatred cowardice and fear here the love of the cow or the country is a vague thing intended to satisfy one's vanity
or soothe a stinging conscience ahimsa truly understood is in my humble opinion a panacea for all evils mundane and extra mundane we can never overdo it
mahavira and buddha were soldiers and so was tolstoy only they saw deeper and truer into their profession and found the secret of a true happy honourable and godly life
every one there being wrapped in profound sleep raoul had desired to be awakened should grimaud arrive but grimaud did not arrive doubtless too the horses on their part
appreciated the eight hours of repose and the abundant stabling which was granted them the count de guiche was awakened at five o'clock in the morning by raoul who came to wish him good day
they breakfasted in haste and at six o'clock had already gone ten miles the young count's conversation was most interesting to raoul therefore he listened much
whilst the count talked well and long brought up in paris where raoul had been but once at the court which raoul had never seen his follies as page
two duels which he had already found the means of fighting in spite of the edicts against them and more especially in spite of his tutor's vigilance these things excited the greatest curiosity in raoul
he named to guiche the people whom he had seen there guiche knew everybody madame de neuillan mademoiselle d'aubigne
mademoiselle paulet madame de chevreuse he criticised everybody humorously raoul trembled
then came the question of gallantry and love affairs under this head also bragelonne had much more to hear than to tell he listened attentively and fancied that he discovered through
three or four rather frivolous adventures that the count like himself had a secret to hide in the depths of his heart de guiche as we have said before had been educated at the court
and the intrigues of this court were not unknown to him it was the same court of which raoul had so often heard the comte de la fere speak
therefore everything which the count de guiche related was new to his traveling companion the young count witty and caustic passed all the world in review the queen herself was not spared
they were approaching the scene of war and as bands of spaniards sometimes took advantage of the night to make expeditions even as far as the neighborhood of arras they determined to remain in the town until the morrow
the french army held all between pont a marc as far as valenciennes
the prince was said to be in person at bethune the enemy's army extended from cassel to courtray and as there was no species of violence or pillage it did not commit
the poor people on the frontier quitted their isolated dwellings and fled for refuge into the strong cities which held out a shelter to them arras was encumbered with fugitives an approaching battle was much spoken of
only in order to await a reinforcement that had just reached him the young men congratulated themselves on having arrived so opportunely the evening was employed in discussing the war
the grooms polished their arms the young men loaded the pistols in case of a skirmish and they awoke in despair having both dreamed that they had arrived too late to participate in the battle in the morning it was rumored
and fallen back on carvin leaving however a strong garrison in the former city but as there was nothing positively certain in this report the young warriors decided to continue their way toward bethune
the count's tutor was well acquainted with the country he consequently proposed to take a crossroad
and a statement of their route was left for grimaud about seven o'clock in the morning they set out de guiche who was young and impulsive said to raoul here we are three masters and three servants
our valets are well armed and yours seems to be tough enough
yes yes resumed de guiche i am sure he can fire a musket when required on my side i have two sure men who have been in action with my father we therefore represent six fighting men
holloa young people stop there said the tutor joining in the conversation
you seem to forget the orders i received to conduct you safe and sound to his highness the prince once with the army you may be killed at your good pleasure but until that time i warn you that in my capacity of general of the army
i shall order a retreat and turn my back on the first red coat we come across de guiche and raoul glanced at each other smiling they arrived at ablain without accident
there they inquired and learned that the prince had in reality quitted bethune and stationed himself between cambria and la venthie therefore leaving directions at every place for grimaud
they took a crossroad which conducted the little troop by the bank of a small stream
intersected by valleys as green as the emerald here and there they passed little copses crossing the path which they were following
in each of these little woods the tutor placed his two servants at the head of the band thus forming the advance guard himself and the two young men represented the body of the army whilst olivain with his rifle upon his knee
and his eyes upon the watch protected the rear
a rather thick wood and when they had arrived at a distance of a hundred steps from it monsieur d'arminges took his usual precautions and sent on in advance the count's two grooms
the servants had just disappeared under the trees followed by the tutor and the young men were laughing and talking about a hundred yards off olivain was at the same distance in the rear when suddenly there resounded five or six musket shots
the tutor followed them were you stopped eagerly inquired the two youths no replied the servants it is even probable that we have not been seen the shots were fired about a hundred paces in advance of us in the thickest part of the wood
and we returned to ask your advice my advice is this said monsieur d'arminges and if needs be my will that we beat a retreat
did you see nothing there asked the count i thought i saw said one of the servants horsemen dressed in yellow creeping along the bed of the stream that's it said the tutor
we have fallen in with a party of spaniards come back sirs back the two youths looked at each other and at this moment a pistol shot and cries for help were heard another glance between the young men
convinced them both that neither had any wish to go back and as the tutor had already turned his horse's head they both spurred forward raoul crying follow me olivain and the count de guiche
and before the tutor could recover from his surprise they had both disappeared into the forest whilst they spurred their steeds they held their pistols ready also
in five minutes they arrived at the spot whence the noise had proceeded and then restraining their horses they advanced cautiously hush whispered de guiche these are cavaliers yes three on horseback
and three who have dismounted can you see what they are doing yes they appear to be searching a wounded or dead man it is some cowardly assassination said de guiche they are soldiers though resumed de bragelonne
yes skirmishers that is to say highway robbers at them cried raoul at them echoed de guiche oh gentlemen gentlemen in the name of heaven cried the poor tutor
but he was not listened to and his cries only served to arouse the attention of the spaniards the men on horseback at once rushed at the two youths leaving the three others to complete the plunder of the dead or wounded travelers
for on approaching nearer instead of one extended figure the young men discovered two de guiche fired the first shot at ten paces and missed his man and the spaniard who had advanced to meet raoul aimed in his turn
and raoul felt a pain in the left arm similar to that of a blow from a whip he let off his fire at but four paces struck in the breast and extending his arms the spaniard fell back on the crupper
and the terrified horse turning around carried him off raoul at this moment perceived the muzzle of a gun pointed at him and remembering the recommendation of athos he with the rapidity of lightning
made his horse rear as the shot was fired his horse bounded to one side losing its footing and fell entangling raoul's leg under its body the spaniard sprang forward and seized the gun by its muzzle
in order to strike raoul on the head with the butt in the position in which raoul lay unfortunately he could neither draw his sword from the scabbard nor his pistols from their holsters the butt end of the musket hovered over his head
and he could scarcely restrain himself from closing his eyes when with one bound guiche reached the spaniard and placed a pistol at his throat yield he cried or you are a dead man
the musket fell from the soldier's hands who yielded on the instant guiche summoned one of his grooms and delivering the prisoner into his charge with orders to shoot him through the head if he attempted to escape he leaped from his horse and approached raoul
faith sir said raoul smiling although his pallor betrayed the excitement consequent on a first affair you are in a great hurry to pay your debts and have not been long under any obligation to me without your aid continued he
repeating the count's words i should have been a dead man thrice dead my antagonist took flight replied de guiche and left me at liberty to come to your assistance but are you seriously wounded i see you are covered with blood
i hope nothing need prevent us continuing our journey monsieur d'arminges and olivain had already dismounted and were attempting to raise the struggling horse at last raoul succeeded in drawing his foot from the stirrup
and his leg from under the animal and in a second he was on his feet again nothing broken asked de guiche faith no thank heaven replied raoul
or if they can still be helped suggested raoul olivain we have come into possession of two horses but i have lost my own take for yourself the better of the two and give me yours
the monk two men lay prone upon the ground one bathed in blood and motionless with his face toward the earth this one was dead the other leaned against a tree
supported there by the two valets and was praying fervently with clasped hands and eyes raised to heaven he had received a ball in his thigh which had broken the bone the young men first approached the dead man
he is a priest said bragelonne he has worn the tonsure oh the scoundrels to lift their hands against a minister of god come here sir said urban an old soldier
who had served under the cardinal duke in all his campaigns
whilst we may perhaps be able to save the other the wounded man smiled sadly save me oh no said he but help me to die if you can are you a priest asked raoul
no sir i ask as your unfortunate companion appeared to me to belong to the church he is the curate of bethune sir and was carrying the holy vessels belonging to his church
and the treasure of the chapter to a safe place
and as it was known that bands of the enemy were prowling about the country no one dared to accompany the good man so i offered to do so and sir continued the wounded man i suffer much
and would like if possible to be carried to some house where you can be relieved asked de guiche no where i can confess but perhaps you are not so dangerously wounded as you think said raoul
sir replied the wounded man believe me there is no time to lose the ball has broken the thigh bone and entered the intestines are you a surgeon asked de guiche no
but i know a little about wounds and mine i know is mortal try therefore either to carry me to some place where i may see a priest or take the trouble to send one to me here
it is my soul that must be saved as for my body it is lost to die whilst doing a good deed it is impossible god will help you gentlemen in the name of heaven
said the wounded man collecting all his forces as if to get up let us not lose time in useless words either help me to gain the nearest village or swear to me on your salvation that you will send me the first monk
the first priest you may meet but he added in a despairing tone perhaps no one will dare to come for it is known that the spaniards are ranging through the country and i shall die without absolution
my god my god good god good god added the wounded man in an accent of terror which made the young men shudder you will not allow that that would be too terrible
calm yourself sir replied de guiche i swear to you you shall receive the consolation that you ask only tell us where we shall find a house at which we can demand aid and a village from which we can fetch a priest
thank you and god reward you about half a mile from this on the same road there is an inn and about a mile further on after leaving the inn you will reach the village of greney
there you must find the curate or if he is not at home go to the convent of the augustines which is the last house on the right and bring me one of the brothers monk or priest it matters not
provided only that he has received from holy church the power of absolving
monsieur d'arminges said de guiche remain beside this unfortunate man and see that he is removed as gently as possible the vicomte and myself will go and find a priest go sir replied the tutor
but in heaven's name do not expose yourself to danger do not fear besides we are safe for to day you know the axiom non bis in idem courage sir said raoul to the wounded man
we are going to execute your wishes may heaven prosper you replied the dying man with an accent of gratitude impossible to describe the two young men galloped off in the direction mentioned and in ten minutes reached the inn
raoul without dismounting called to the host and announced that a wounded man was about to be brought to his house and begged him in the meantime to prepare everything needful he desired him also should he know in the neighborhood
to fetch him taking on himself the payment of the messenger the host who saw two young noblemen richly clad promised everything they required and our two cavaliers
the red tiled roofs of which stood out from the green trees which surrounded them when coming toward them mounted on a mule they perceived a poor monk
made them take him for an augustine brother chance for once seemed to favor them in sending what they were so assiduously seeking he was a man about twenty two or twenty three years old
but who appeared much older from ascetic exercises his complexion was pale not of that deadly pallor which is a kind of neutral beauty but of a bilious yellow hue his colorless hair was short
why do you ask me that replied the stranger with a coolness which was barely civil because we want to know said de guiche haughtily the stranger touched his mule with his heel and continued his way
in a second de guiche had sprung before him and barred his passage answer sir exclaimed he
i suppose i am free to say or not to say who i am to two strangers who take a fancy to ask me it was with difficulty that de guiche restrained the intense desire he had of breaking the monk's bones
in the first place he said making an effort to control himself we are not people who may be treated anyhow
and i am the count de guiche nor was it from caprice we asked the question for there is a wounded and dying man who demands the succor of the church if you be a priest i conjure you in the name of humanity to follow me to aid this man
felt as if this smile had struck to his heart like an insult
a glance threatening and transient as lightning replied to raoul well sir said de guiche are you going to reply i am a priest said the young man then father said raoul
forcing himself to convey a respect by speech that did not come from his heart if you are a priest you have an opportunity as my friend has told you of exercising your vocation at the next inn you will find a wounded man
now being attended by our servants who has asked the assistance of a minister of god i will go said the monk and he touched his mule if you do not go sir said de guiche
remember that we have two steeds able to catch your mule and the power of having you seized wherever you may be and then i swear your trial will be summary one can always find a tree and a cord
the monk's eye again flashed but that was all he merely repeated his phrase i will go and he went let us follow him said de guiche it will be the surest plan
i was about to propose so doing answered de bragelonne in the space of five minutes the monk turned around to ascertain whether he was followed or not you see said raoul we have done wisely
what a horrible face that monk has said de guiche horrible replied raoul especially in expression yes yes said de guiche a strange face but these monks are subject to such degrading practices
their fasts make them pale the blows of the discipline make them hypocrites and their eyes become inflamed through weeping for the good things of this life we common folk enjoy but they have lost well said raoul
the poor man will get his priest but by heaven the penitent appears to me to have a better conscience than the confessor i confess i am accustomed to priests of a very different appearance ah exclaimed de guiche you must understand
that this is one of those wandering brothers who go begging on the high road until some day a benefice falls down from heaven on them they are mostly foreigners scotch irish or danish
as ugly no but reasonably hideous what a misfortune for the wounded man to die under the hands of such a friar pshaw said de guiche absolution comes not from him who administers it but from god
and i see you playing with the pommel of your sword as if you had a great inclination to break the holy father's head
but i feel an indescribable horror at the sight of yonder man have you ever seen a snake rise up on your path never answered de guiche well it has happened to me to do so in our blaisois forests
and i remember that the first time i encountered one with its eyes fixed upon me curled up swinging its head and pointing its tongue i remained fixed pale and as though fascinated until the moment when the comte de la fere
your father asked de guiche no my guardian replied raoul blushing very well until the moment when the comte de la fere resumed raoul said come bragelonne draw your sword
then only i rushed upon the reptile and cut it in two just at the moment when it was rising on its tail and hissing ere it sprang upon me well i vow i felt exactly the same sensation at sight of that man when he said
the procession bearing the wounded man and guided by monsieur d'arminges the youths spurred on there is the wounded man said de guiche passing close to the augustine brother be good enough to hurry yourself a little monsieur monk
by the whole width of the road and passed him turning his head away in repulsion the young men rode up to the wounded man to announce that they were followed by the priest he raised himself to glance in the direction which they pointed out
saw the monk and fell back upon the litter his face illumined by joy and now said the youths we have done all we can for you and as we are in haste to rejoin the prince's army we must continue our journey
you will excuse us sir but we are told that a battle is expected and we do not wish to arrive the day after it go my young sirs said the sick man and may
for your piety you have done for me as you promised all that you could do as for me i can only repeat may god protect you and all dear to you sir said de guiche to his tutor we will precede you
the host was at his door and everything was prepared bed bandages and lint and a groom had gone to lens the nearest village for a doctor everything said he to raoul shall be done as you desire
it will be time to think about it when we next halt only have the goodness should you see a cavalier who makes inquiries about a young man on a chestnut horse followed by a servant to tell him in fact that you have seen me
but that i have continued my journey and intend to dine at mazingarbe
this cavalier is my attendant would it not be safer and more certain
and he is called grimaud at this moment the wounded man arrived from one direction and the monk from the other the latter dismounting from his mule and desiring that it should be taken to the stables without being unharnessed
sir monk said de guiche confess well that brave man and be not concerned for your expenses or for those of your mule all is paid
said the monk with one of those smiles that made bragelonne shudder come count said raoul who seemed instinctively to dislike the vicinity of the augustine come i feel ill here and the two young men spurred on
now entered the house the host and his wife were standing on the steps whilst the unhappy man seemed to suffer dreadful pain and yet to be concerned only to know if he was followed by the monk at sight of this pale bleeding man
the wife grasped her husband's arm well what's the matter asked the latter are you going to be ill just now no but look replied the hostess pointing to the wounded man i ask you if you recognize him that man
wait a bit ah i see you know him exclaimed the wife for you have become pale in your turn truly cried the host misfortune is coming on our house it is the former executioner of bethune
the former executioner of bethune murmured the young monk shrinking back and showing on his countenance the feeling of repugnance which his penitent inspired monsieur d'arminges
who was at the door perceived his hesitation sir monk said he whether he is now or has been an executioner this unfortunate being is none the less a man render to him then the last service he can
by any possibility ask of you and your work will be all the more meritorious the monk made no reply but silently wended his way to the room where the two valets had deposited the dying man on a bed
and the two grooms then mounted their horses and all four started off at a quick trot to rejoin raoul and his companion just as the tutor and his escort disappeared in their turn a new traveler stopped on the threshold of the inn
what does your worship want demanded the host pale and trembling from the discovery he had just made the traveler made a sign as if he wished to drink and then pointed to his horse and gesticulated like a man
who is brushing something ah diable said the host to himself this man seems dumb and where will your worship drink there answered the traveler pointing to the table i was mistaken said the host
to know if you have seen a young man pass fifteen years of age mounted on a chestnut horse and followed by a groom
just so then you are called monsieur grimaud the traveler made a sign of assent well then said the host
how far is mazingarbe
grimaud was drinking his wine silently and had just placed his glass on the table to be filled a second time when a terrific scream resounded from the room occupied by the monk and the dying man grimaud sprang up
what is that said he whence comes that cry from the wounded man's room replied the host what wounded man the former executioner of bethune who has just been brought in here
assassinated by spaniards and who is now being confessed by an augustine friar the old executioner of bethune muttered grimaud a man between fifty five and sixty tall strong swarthy black hair and beard
asked the host i have seen him once replied grimaud a cloud darkening his countenance at the picture so suddenly summoned to the bar of recollection at this instant a second cry less piercing than the first
but followed by prolonged groaning was heard the three listeners looked at one another in alarm we must see what it is said grimaud it sounds like the cry of one who is being murdered murmured the host
mon dieu said the woman crossing herself if grimaud was slow in speaking we know that he was quick to act he sprang to the door and shook it violently but it was bolted on the other side open the door cried the host
and forced the bolt the room was inundated with blood dripping from the mattresses upon which lay the wounded man speechless the monk had disappeared the monk cried the host where is the monk
grimaud sprang toward an open window which looked into the courtyard he has escaped by this means exclaimed he do you think so said the host bewildered boy
there is no mule cried he to whom this question was addressed the host clasped his hands and looked around him suspiciously whilst grimaud knit his brows and approached the wounded man
whose worn hard features awoke in his mind such awful recollections of the past
but that it is himself said he does he still live inquired the innkeeper making no reply grimaud opened the poor man's jacket to feel if the heart beat whilst the host approached in his turn
cried grimaud and i will remain beside him here the host quitted the room in agitation and as for his wife
your voice and mien celestial birth betray if
long in tempests toss'd what earth we tread and who commands the coast then on your name shall wretched mortals call and offer'd victims at your altars fall i dare not
she replied assume the name of goddess or celestial honors claim
know gentle youth in libyan lands you are a people rude in peace and rough in war the rising city which from far you see is carthage
and a tyrian colony phoenician dido rules the growing state who fled from tyre
great were her wrongs her story full of fate which i will sum in short
and either heart at once was wounded with an equal dart her father gave her yet a spotless maid pygmalion then the tyrian scepter sway'd
one who condemn'd divine and human laws then strife ensued
wealth with steel invades his brother's life by stealth before the sacred altar made him bleed and long from her conceal'd the cruel deed
some tale some new pretense he daily coin'd to soothe his sister and delude her mind
the specter stares and with erected eyes his bloody bosom bares the cruel altars and his fate he tells
and the dire secret of his house reveals then warns the widow with her household gods to seek a refuge in remote abodes last
to support her in so long a way he shows her where his hidden treasure lay admonish'd thus and seiz'd with mortal fright the queen provides companions of her flight
they meet and all combine to leave the state who hate the tyrant or who fear his hate they seize a fleet which ready rigg'd they find
nor is pygmalion's treasure left behind the vessels heavy laden put to sea with prosp'rous winds a woman leads the way
at last they landed where from far your eyes may view the turrets of new carthage rise there bought a space of ground which byrsa call'd from the bull's hide
they first inclos'd and wall'd but whence are you what country claims your birth what seek you strangers on our libyan earth
the tedious annals of our fate thro such a train of woes if i should run the day would sooner than the tale be done from ancient troy by force expell'd we came if you by chance have heard the trojan name
on various seas by various tempests toss'd at length we landed on your libyan coast
and from the king of heav'n is my descent
fate and my mother goddess led my way
storms preserv'd within your harbor meet myself distress'd an exile and unknown debarr'd from europe and from asia thrown
in libyan desarts wander thus alone his tender parent could no longer bear but interposing sought to soothe his care whoe'er you are not unbelov'd by heav'n
since on our friendly shore your ships are driv'n have courage to the gods permit the rest and to the queen expose your just request
now take this earnest of success for more your scatter'd fleet is join'd upon the shore the winds are chang'd your friends from danger free or i renounce my skill in augury
twelve swans behold in beauteous order move and stoop with closing pinions from above whom late the bird of jove had driv'n along
now all united in a goodly team they skim the ground and seek the quiet stream as they with joy returning clap their wings and ride the circuit of the skies in rings
not otherwise your ships and ev'ry friend already hold the port or with swift sails descend no more advice is needful
but pursue the path before you and the town in view thus having said she turn'd
in length of train descends her sweeping gown and by her graceful walk
deity with words like these ah whither do you fly unkind and cruel to deceive your son in borrow'd shapes and his embrace to shun never to bless my sight but thus unknown
but took the path and her commands obey'd they march obscure for venus kindly shrouds with mists their persons and involves in clouds that
thus unseen their passage none might stay or force to tell the causes of their way this part perform'd the goddess flies sublime to visit paphos and her native clime
a hundred altars in her temple smoke
the prince with wonder sees the stately tow'rs which late were huts and shepherds homely bow'rs the gates and streets and hears from ev'ry part the noise and busy concourse of the mart
on each other call to ply their labor
or dig or push unwieldly stones along some for their dwellings choose a spot of ground which first design'd with ditches they surround some laws ordain
and some attend the choice of holy senates and elect by voice here some design a mole while others there lay deep foundations for a theater
from marble quarries mighty columns hew for ornaments of scenes and future view such is their toil and such their busy pains as exercise the bees in flow'ry plains
when winter past and summer scarce begun invites them forth to labor in the sun some lead their youth abroad while some condense their liquid store and some in cells dispense
some at the gate stand ready to receive the golden burthen and their friends relieve all with united force combine to drive the lazy drones from the laborious hive
with envy stung they view each other's deeds the fragrant work with diligence proceeds
and view'd with lifted eyes their lofty tow'rs then entiring at the gate conceal'd in clouds prodigious to relate he mix'd unmark'd among the busy throng borne by the tide
and pass'd unseen along full in the center of the town there stood thick set with trees a venerable wood
from under earth a courser's head they drew
this fated sign their foundress juno gave of a soil fruitful and a people brave
meantime the trojan cuts his wat'ry way fix'd on his voyage thro the curling sea then casting back his eyes with dire amaze
sees on the punic shore the mounting blaze the cause unknown yet his presaging mind
he knew the stormy souls of womankind what secret springs their eager passions move how capable of death for injur'd love
dire auguries from hence the trojans draw till neither fires nor shining shores they saw now
seas and skies their prospect only bound an empty space above a floating field around
livid it look'd the threat'ning of a storm then night and horror ocean's face deform the pilot palinurus
and stretch your oars contract your swelling sails and luff to wind
much less against the tempest force their way t is fate diverts our course and fate we must obey not far from hence if i observ'd aright the southing of the stars and polar light
sicilia lies whose hospitable shores in safety we may reach with struggling oars aeneas then replied
too sure i find we strive in vain against the seas and wind now shift your sails what place can please me more than what you promise the sicilian shore
whose hallow'd earth anchises bones contains and where a prince of trojan lineage reigns the course resolv'd before the western wind
and not unmindful of his ancient race down from the cliff he ran with eager pace and held the hero in a strict embrace
his mother was a dame of dardan blood his sire crinisus a sicilian flood he welcomes his returning friends ashore
with plenteous country cates and homely store
offspring of heav'n divine dardanian race
the shining circle of the year has fill'd since first this isle my father's ashes held and now the rising day renews the year a day for ever sad for ever dear
this would i celebrate with annual games
tho banish'd to gaetulia's barren sands caught on the grecian seas or hostile lands but since this happy storm our fleet has driv'n not as i deem
without the will of heav'n upon these friendly shores and flow'ry plains which hide anchises and his blest remains let us with joy perform his honors due
and pray for prosp'rous winds our voyage to renew pray that in towns and temples of our own the name of great anchises may be known and yearly games may spread the gods renown
two steers on ev'ry ship the king bestows
besides if nine days hence the rosy morn shall with unclouded light the skies adorn that day with solemn sports i mean to grace
light galleys on the seas shall run a wat'ry race some shall in swiftness for the goal contend and others try the twanging bow to bend
let all be present at the games prepar'd and joyful victors wait the just reward but now assist the rites with garlands crown'd he said and first his brows with myrtle bound then
thus young ascanius with a sprightly grace his temples tied and all the trojan race
which when he found he pour'd to bacchus on the hallow'd ground two bowls of sparkling wine of milk two more and two from offer'd bulls of purple gore
should reach the promis'd shores of italy or tiber's flood what flood soe'er it be scarce had he finish'd when with speckled pride a serpent from the tomb began to glide
blue was his breadth of back but streak'd
thus riding on his curls he seem'd to pass a rolling fire along and singe the grass more various colors thro his body run than iris when her bow imbibes the sun
thus fed with holy food the wondrous guest within the hollow tomb retir'd to rest the pious prince
the glad attendants in long order come off'ring their gifts at great anchises tomb some add more oxen some divide the spoil some place the chargers on the grassy soil
some blow the fires and offered entrails broil now came the day desir'd the skies were bright with rosy luster of the rising light
the crowded shore with acclamations fill part to behold and part to prove their skill and first the gifts in public view they place green laurel wreaths and palm the victors grace
the trumpet's clangor then the feast proclaims and all prepare for their appointed games four galleys first which equal rowers bear advancing in the wat'ry lists appear
by turns with fear depress'd the clangor of the trumpet gives the sign at once they start advancing in a line with shouts the sailors
rend the starry skies lash'd with their oars the smoky billows rise
exact in time with equal strokes they row at once the brushing oars and brazen prow dash up the sandy waves and ope the depths below
not fiery coursers in a chariot race invade the field with half so swift a pace
the partial crowd their hopes and fears divide and aid with eager shouts the favor'd side cries murmurs clamors with a mixing sound from woods to woods
from hills to hills rebound
the centaur and the dolphin brush the brine with equal oars advancing in a line and now the mighty centaur seems to lead and now the speedy dolphin gets ahead
now board to board the rival vessels row the billows lave the skies and ocean groans below they reach'd the mark
but steering round he charg'd his pilot stand more close to shore and skim along the sand let others bear to sea
but secret shelves too cautiously he fear'd and fearing sought the deep and still aloof he steer'd with louder cries the captain call'd again
bold cloanthus near the shelvings draw betwixt the mark and him the scylla stood and in a closer compass plow'd the flood he pass'd the mark and wheeling got before
gods devoutly swore cried out for anger and his hair he tore mindless of others lives so high was grown his rising rage and careless of his own the trembling dotard to the deck he drew then hoisted up and overboard he threw
this done he seiz'd the helm his fellows cheer'd turn'd short upon the shelfs and madly steer'd hardly his head the plunging pilot rears
the crowd that saw him fall and float again shout from the distant shore and loudly laugh'd to see his heaving breast disgorge the briny draught the following centaur and the dolphin's crew their vanish'd hopes of victory renew
mnestheus pursues and while around they wind comes up not half his galley's length behind then on the deck amidst his mates appear'd and thus their drooping courage he cheer'd
my friends and hector's followers heretofore exert your vigor tug the lab'ring oar stretch to your strokes my still unconquer'd crew
but ah that haughty wish is vain let those enjoy it whom the gods ordain but
and shake the brazen prow the sea beneath em sinks their lab'ring sides are swell'd and sweat runs gutt'ring down in tides
the vessel struck and with the dreadful shock her oars she shiver'd and her head she broke the trembling rowers from their banks arise and anxious for themselves renounce the prize
then ply their oars and cut their liquid way in larger compass on the roomy sea as when the dove her rocky hold forsakes rous'd in a fright her sounding wings she shakes
the cavern rings with clatt'ring out she flies and leaves her callow care and cleaves the skies
at first she flutters but at length she springs to smoother flight and shoots upon her wings so mnestheus in the dolphin cuts the sea and flying with a force that force assists his way
in vain the victor he with cries implores and practices to row with shatter'd oars
the ship without a pilot yields the prize unvanquish'd scylla now alone remains her he pursues and all his vigor strains shouts from the fav'ring multitude arise
applauding echo to the shouts replies shouts wishes and applause run rattling thro the skies these clamors with disdain the scylla heard much grudg'd the praise
but more the robb'd reward resolv'd to hold their own they mend their pace all obstinate to die or gain the race rais'd with success the dolphin swiftly ran
for they can conquer who believe they can both urge their oars and fortune both supplies and both perhaps had shar'd an equal prize when
to the seas cloanthus holds his hands and succor from the wat'ry pow'rs demands gods of the liquid realms on which i row if
assist to make me guilty of my vow a snow white bull shall on your shore be slain his offer'd entrails cast into the main
and ruddy wine from golden goblets thrown your grateful gift and my return shall own
with virgin panopea heard his vow and old portunus
and darting to the port obtains the prize the herald summons all and then proclaims cloanthus conqu'ror of the naval games
the prince with laurel crowns the victor's head and three fat steers are to his vessel led the ship's reward with gen'rous wine beside and sums of silver which the crew divide
the leaders are distinguish'd from the rest the victor honor'd with a nobler vest where gold and purple strive in equal rows and needlework its happy cost bestows there ganymede is wrought with living art
chasing thro ida's groves the trembling hart breathless he seems yet eager to pursue when from aloft descends in open view the bird of jove
and sousing on his prey with crooked talons bears the boy away in vain with lifted hands and gazing eyes his guards behold him soaring thro the skies
in war for his defense for ornament in peace rich was the gift and glorious to behold but yet so pond'rous with its plates of gold that scarce two servants could the weight sustain yet
loaded thus demoleus o'er the plain pursued and lightly seiz'd the trojan train
glares with her eyes and bristles with her scales but groveling in the dust her parts unsound she trails so
but what she wants in oars with sails amends
pholoe the cretan slave rewards his care beauteous herself with lovely twins as fair
from thence his way the trojan hero bent into the neighb'ring plain with mountains pent whose sides were shaded with surrounding wood full in the midst of this fair valley stood
a native theater which rising slow by just degrees o'erlook'd the ground below high on a sylvan throne the leader sate a num'rous train attend in solemn state
here those that in the rapid course delight desire of honor and the prize invite the rival runners without order stand the trojans mix'd with the sicilian band first nisus
with euryalus appears euryalus a boy of blooming years with sprightly grace and equal beauty crown'd
then salius joined with patron took their place but patron in arcadia had his birth and salius his from
whom time has not deliver'd o'er to fame to these the hero thus his thoughts explain'd in words which gen'ral approbation gain'd one common largess is for all design'd the vanquish'd and the victor shall be join'd
two darts of polish'd steel and gnosian wood a silver studded ax alike bestow'd the foremost three have olive wreaths decreed the first of these obtains a stately steed
adorn'd with trappings and the next in fame the quiver of an amazonian dame
with feather'd thracian arrows well supplied a golden belt shall gird his manly side which with a sparkling diamond shall be tied the third this grecian helmet shall content he said
the barrier leave spread out as on the winged winds they flew and seiz'd the distant goal with greedy view shot from the crowd swift nisus all o'erpass'd
nor storms nor thunder equal half his haste the next but tho the next yet far disjoin'd came salius and euryalus behind then helymus
whom young diores plied step after step and almost side by side his shoulders pressing
or left at least a dubious race now spent the goal they almost reach at last when eager nisus hapless in his haste
slipp'd first and slipping fell upon the plain soak'd with the blood of oxen newly slain the careless victor had not mark'd his way but treading where the treach'rous puddle lay
his heels flew up and on the grassy floor he fell besmear'd with filth and holy gore not mindless then euryalus of thee
and caught the foot of salius as he rose so salius lay extended on the plain
who vanquish'd by his friend
by two misfortunes made the third in fame but salius enters and exclaiming loud for justice deafens and disturbs the crowd
urges his cause may in the court be heard and pleads the prize is wrongfully conferr'd but favor for euryalus appears his blooming beauty with his tender tears had brib'd the judges for the promis'd prize
besides diores fills the court with cries who vainly reaches at the last reward if the first palm on salius be conferr'd then thus the prince
i award the prize but fortune's errors give me leave to mend at least to pity my deserving friend he said and from among the spoils he draws pond'rous with shaggy mane and golden paws
a lion's hide to salius this he gives nisus with envy sees the gift and grieves if such rewards to vanquish'd men are due he said and falling is to rise by you
and equal justice in his gifts express'd
his opposite sustain in open view stand forth the champion and the games renew
two prizes i propose and thus divide a bull with gilded horns and fillets tied shall be the portion of the conqu'ring chief a sword and helm shall cheer the loser's grief
stalking he strides his head erected bears his nervous arms the weighty gauntlet wield and loud applauses echo thro the field
and by the stroke of his resistless hand stretch'd the vast bulk upon the yellow sand such dares was and such he strode along and drew the wonder of the gazing throng
his brawny back and ample breast he shows his lifted arms around his head he throws and deals in whistling air his empty blows
his match is sought but thro the trembling band not one dares answer to the proud demand presuming of his force with sparkling eyes already he devours the promis'd prize
he claims the bull with awless insolence and having seiz'd his horns
accosts the prince if none my matchless valor dares oppose how long shall dares wait his dastard foes
only she but she he repeats grasping the bottle by the neck and pouring more brandy into the tumbler
and not supposing himself overheard he is nevertheless by a woman who coming forth from the house has stepped silently behind him there pausing odd looking apparition she seen upon the wyeside altogether unlike a native of it
but altogether like one born upon the banks of the seine and brought up to tread the boulevards of paris like the latter from the crown of her head to the soles of her high heeled boots on whose toes she stands poised and balancing in front of that ancient english manor house
she seems grotesquely out of place
among the pyramids or smoking a pickwick by the side of the sphinx for all there is nothing mysterious or even strange in her presence there she is lewin murdoch's wife if he has left his fortune in foreign lands with the better part of his life and health
he has thence brought her his better half physically a fine looking woman despite some ravages due to time and possibly more to crime tall and dark as the daughters of the latinic race with features beautiful in the past
even still attractive to those not repelled by the beguiling glances of sin such were hers first given to him in a cafe chantant of the tuileries
till at length she gave him her hand in the eglise la madeleine busied with his brandy and again gazing at llangorren he has not yet seen her nor is he aware of her proximity till hearing an exclamation eh bien
you think too loud monsieur
and you might seeing that it's a love secret may i ask who is this she you're soliloquising about some of your old english bonnes amies i suppose this with an air of affected jealousy she is far from feeling
in the heart of the ex cocotte there is no place for such a sentiment got nothing to do with bonnes amies young or old he gruffly replies just now i've got something else to think of than sweethearts enough occupation for my thoughts in the how i'm to support a wife
yourself madame it wasn't me you meant no indeed some other in whom you appear to feel a very profound interest there you're right it was one other in whom i feel all that
merci monsieur ma foi your candour deserves all thanks perhaps you'll extend it and favour me with the lady's name a lady i presume
ignorance pretended she knows or surmises to whom he has been giving them for she has been watching him from a window and observed the direction of his glances and she has more than a suspicion as to the nature of his reflections
since she is well aware as he of that something besides a river separating them from llangorren her name she again asks in tone of more demand
avoiding her glance he still pulls away at his pipe without making answer it is a love secret then i thought so it's cruel of you lewin this is the return for giving you all i had to give she may well speak hesitatingly
and hint at a limited sacrifice only her hand and it more than tenderly pressed by scores ay hundreds of others before being bestowed upon him no false pretence however on her part he knew all that or should have known it
how could he help olympe the belle of the jardin mabille was no obscurity in the demi monde of paris even in its days of glory under napoleon le petite her reproach is also a pretence though possibly with some sting felt
she is drawing on to that term of life termed passe and begins to feel conscious of it he may be the same not that for his opinion she cares a straw save in a certain sense and for reasons altogether independent of slighted affection
the very purpose she is now working upon and for which she needs to hold over him the power she has hitherto had and well knows she how to retain it rekindling love's fire when it seems in danger of dying out either through appeal to his pity or exciting his jealousy
which she can adroitly do by her artful french ways and dark flashing eyes as he looks in them now the old flame flickers up and he feels almost as much her slave as when he first became her husband for all he does not show it
this day he is out of sorts with himself and her and all the world besides so instead of reciprocating her sham tenderness as if knowing it such he takes another swallow of brandy and smokes on in silence now really incensed or seeming so
adding with a disdainful toss of the head
keep your secret what care i then changing tone mon dieu france dear france why did i ever leave you because your dear france became too dear to live in clever double entendre
no doubt you think it witty dear or not better a garret there
i'd rather serve in a cigar shop
than lead such a triste life as we're now doing living in this wretched kennel of a house that threatens to tumble on our heads how would you like to live in that over yonder he nods towards llangorren court you are merry monsieur
but your jests are out of place in presence of the misery around us you may some day he goes on without heeding her observation yes when the sky falls we may catch larks you seem to forget that mademoiselle wynn
and by the natural laws of life will outlive both must unless she break her neck in the hunting field get drowned out of a boat or meet some other mischance she pronounces the last three words slowly and with marked emphasis
pausing after she has spoken them and looking fixedly in his face as if to note their effect taking the meerschaum from his mouth he returns her look almost shuddering as his eyes meet hers
and he reads in them a glance such as might have been given by messalina or the murderess of duncan hardened as his conscience has become through a long career of sin it is yet tender in comparison with hers and he knows it
knowing her history or enough of it her nature as well to make him think her capable of anything even the crime her speech seems to point to neither more nor less than he dares not think let alone pronounce the word he is not yet up to that
though day by day as his desperate fortunes press upon him his thoughts are being familiarised with something akin to it a dread dark design still vague but needing not much to assume shape and tempt to execution
and that the tempter is by his side he is more than half conscious it is not the first time for him to listen to fell speech from those fair lips to day he would rather shun allusion to a subject so grave yet so delicate
he has spent part of the preceding night at the welsh harp the tavern spoken of by wingate and his nerves are unstrung yet not recovered from the revelry instead of asking her what she means by some other mischance
he but remarks with an air of careless indifference true olympe unless something of that sort were to happen there seems no help for us but to resign ourselves to patience and live on expectations starve on them you mean this in a tone and with a shrug
which seem to convey reproach for its weakness well cherie he rejoins we can at least feast our eyes on the source whence our fine fortunes are to come
as also she and for some time both are silent attractive at any time the court is unusually so on this same summer's day for the sun lighting up the verdant lawn also shines upon a large white tent there erected a marquee
from whose ribbed roof projects a signal staff with flag floating at its peak
since to lewin murdock and his wife the society of herefordshire is tabooed but they can guess from the symbols that it is to be a garden party or something of the sort there often given while they are still gazing its special kind is declared
by figures appearing upon the lawn and taking stand in groups before the tent there are ladies gaily attired in the distance looking like bright butterflies some dressed a la diane with bows in hand and quivers slung by their sides
the feathered shafts showing over their shoulders a proportionate number of gentlemen attendant while liveried servants stride to and fro erecting the ringed targets murdock himself cares little for such things he has had his surfeit of fashionable life not only sipped its sweets
but drank its dregs of bitterness he regards llangorren with something in his mind more substantial than its sports and pastimes with different thoughts looks the parisian upon them in her heart a chagrin only known to those whose zest for the world's pleasure is of keenest edge
yet checked and baffled from indulgence ambitions uncontrollable but never to be attained as satan gazed back when hurled out of the garden of eden so she at that scene upon the lawn of llangorren no jardin of paris not the bois itself
ever seemed to her so attractive as those grounds with that aristocratic gathering a heaven none of her kind can enter and but few of her country after long regarding it with envy in her eyes and spleen in her soul
tantalised almost to torture she faces towards her husband saying and you've told me between all that and us there's but one life two interrupts a voice not his
the invited to the archery meeting have nearly all arrived and the shooting has commenced half a dozen arrows in the air at a time making for as many targets only a limited number of ladies compete for the first score
each having a little coterie of acquaintances at her back gwen wynn herself is in this opening contest good with the bow as at the oar indeed with county celebrity as an archer carrying the champion badge of her club
it is almost a foregone conclusion she will come off victorious soon however those who are backing her begin to anticipate disappointment she is not shooting with her usual skill nor yet earnestness
instead negligently and to all appearance with thoughts abstracted her eyes every now and then straying over the ground scanning the various groups as if in search of a particular individual the gathering is large nearly a hundred people present
and one might come or go without attracting observation she evidently expects one to come who is not yet there and oftener than elsewhere her glances go towards the boat dock as if the personage expected should appear in that direction
there is a nervous restlessness in her manner and after each reconnaissance of this kind an expression of disappointment on her countenance it is not unobserved a gentleman by her side notes it and with some suspicion of its cause
a suspicion that pains him it is george shenstone who is attending on her handing the arrows in short acting as her aide de camp neither is he adroit in the exercise of his duty instead performs it bunglingly
his thoughts preoccupied and eyes wandering about his glances however are sent in the opposite direction to the gate entrance of the park visible from the place where the targets are set up
but with very different ideas one eagerly anticipating his arrival the other as earnestly hoping he may not come for the expected one is a gentleman no other than vivian ryecroft
shenstone knows the hussar officer has been invited and however hoping or wishing it has but little faith he will fail were it himself no ordinary obstacle could prevent his being present at that archery meeting
any more than would five barred gate or bullfinch hinder him from keeping up with hounds as time passes without any further arrivals and the tardy guest has not yet put in appearance shenstone begins to think he will this day have miss wynn to himself
there are others present who seek her smiles some aspiring to her hand but none he fears so much as the one still absent just as he is becoming calm and confident he is saluted by a gentleman of the genus swell who approaching
who is that fella shenstone what fellow
indian affair topee i bewieve they call it where asks shenstone starting and staring to all sides yondaw appwoaching from the diwection of the rivaw looks a fwesh awival
i take it he must have come by bawt
george shenstone strong man though he be visibly trembles were gwen wynn at that moment to face about and aim one of her arrows at his breast it would not bring more pallor upon his cheeks nor pain to his heart
for he wearing the peculya head gear is the man he most fears and whom he had hoped not to see this day so much is he affected he does not answer the question put to him
nor indeed has he opportunity as just then miss wynn sighting the topee too suddenly turning says to him george be good enough to take charge of these things she holds her bow with an arrow she had been affixing to the string
in his eyes anything but a pleased expression indeed sullen almost angry as watching her every movement he notes the manner of her reception greeting the new comer with a warmth and cordiality he shenstone thinks uncalled for
however much stranger the man may be little irksome to her seems the discharge of that so called duty but so exasperating to the baronet's son he feels like crushing the bow stick between his fingers or snapping it in twain across his knee
as he stands with eyes glaring upon them he is again accosted by his inquisitive acquaintance who asks what's the matter jawge yaw haven't answered my intewogatowy what was it i forget
just what i'd like to know myself all i can tell you is that he's an army fellow in the cavalry i believe by name ryecroft
but yaw don't think he's an adventuwer can't say whether he is or not who's his endawser how came he intwoduced at llangowen that i can't tell you he could though
for miss wynn true to her promise has made him acquainted with the circumstances of the river adventure though not those leading to it and he true to his has kept them a secret in a sense therefore he could not tell and the subterfuge is excusable
like a queen of the tawnament times
instead very modern in my opinion disgustingly so why d'y aw say that jawge why because in either olden or mediaeval times such a thing couldn't have occurred here in herefordshire
now a days any one may be so claim acquaintance with a lady and force his company upon her simply from having had the chance to pick up a dropped pocket handkerchief or offer his umbrella in a skiff of a shower
but shawly that isn't how the gentleman yondaw made acquaintance with the fair gwendoline oh i don't say that rejoins shenstone with forced attempt at a smile more natural as he sees miss wynn separate from the group they are gazing at and come back to reclaim her bow
better satisfied now he is rather worried by his importunate friend and to get rid of him adds if you are really desirous to know how miss wynn became acquainted with him you can ask the lady herself not for all the world would the swell put that question to gwen wynn
it would not be safe and thus snubbed he saunters away before she is up to the spot ryecroft left with miss linton remains in conversation with her it is not his first interview
introduced by the young ladies as the gentleman who when the pleasure boat was caught in a dangerous whirl out of which old joseph was unable to extricate it came to their rescue possibly to the saving of their lives thus the version of the adventure
vouchsafed to the aunt sufficient to sanction his being received at the court and the ancient toast of cheltenham has been charmed with him in the handsome hussar officer she beholds the typical hero of her romance reading
so much like it that lord lutestring has long ago gone out of her thoughts passed from her memory as though he had been but a musical sound of all who bend before her this day the worship of none is so welcome as that of the martial stranger
resuming her bow gwen shoots no better than before her thoughts instead of being concentrated on the painted circles as her eyes are half the time straying over her shoulders to him behind still in a tete a tete with the aunt
her arrows fly wild and wide scarce one sticking in the straw in fine among all the competitors she counts lowest score the poorest she has herself ever made but what matters it she is only too pleased when her quiver is empty
and she can have excuse to return to miss linton on some question connected with the hospitalities of the house observing all this and much more besides george shenstone feels aggrieved indeed exasperated
so terribly it takes all his best breeding to withhold him from an exhibition of bad behaviour he might not succeed were he to remain much longer on the ground which he does not as if misdoubting his power of restraint
and fearing to make a fool of himself he too frames excuse and leaves llangorren long before the sports come to a close not rudely or with any show of spleen he is a gentleman even in his anger
and bidding a polite and formal adieu to miss linton with one equally ceremonious but more distant to miss wynn he slips round to the stables orders his horse leaps into the saddle and rides off
many the day he has entered the gates of llangorren with a light and happy heart this day he goes out of them with one heavy and sad if missed from the archery meeting it is not by miss wynn
instead she is glad of his being gone notwithstanding the love passion for another now occupying her heart almost filling it there is still room there for the gentler sentiment of pity she knows how shenstone suffers how could she help knowing
and pities him never more than at this same moment despite that distant half disdainful adieu vouchsafed to her at parting by him intended to conceal his thoughts as his sufferings while but the better revealing them
how men underrate the perception of women in matters of this kind a very intuition none keener than that of gwen wynn she knows why he has gone so short away well as if he had told her
and with the compassionate thought still lingering she heaves a sigh sad as she sees him ride out through the gate going in reckless gallop but succeeded by one of relief soon as he is out of sight
in an instant after she is gay and gladsome as ever once more bending the bow and making the catgut twang but now shooting straight hitting the target every time and not unfrequently lodging a shaft in the gold
not only inspires confidence but excites her to the display of skill
while mister musgrave is boring the elderly spinster about new scarlet cloaks for the girls of the church choir and other parish matters george shenstone is standing on the topmost step of the boat stair
in a mood of mind even less enviable than hers for he has looked down into the dock and there sees no gwendoline neither boat nor lady nor is there sign of either upon the water far as he can command a view of it
no sounds such as he would wish and might expect to hear no dipping of oars nor what would be still more agreeable to his ear the soft voices of women instead only the note of a cuckoo in monotonous repetition
the bird balancing itself on a branch near by and farther off the hiccol laughing as if in mockery and at him mocking his impatience ay something more almost his misery that it is so his soliloquy tells
she promised me to go riding to day very odd indeed gwen isn't the same she was acting strange altogether for the last three or four days wonder what it means by jove i can't comprehend it
his noncomprehension does not hinder a dark shadow from stealing over his brow and there staying it is not unobserved through the leaves of the evergreen joseph notes the pained expression
and interprets it in his own shrewd way not far from the right one the old servant soliloquising in less conjectural strain says or rather thinks master george be mad sweet on miss gwen
the country folk are all talkin o't thinkin she's same on him as if they knew anything about it i knows better an he ain't no ways confident else there wouldn't be that queery look on's face it's the token o jealousy for sure
ah it don't need that wi sich a grand beauty as she be he as love her might be jealous o the sun kissing her cheeks or the wind tossin her hair joseph is a welshman of bardic ancestry and thinks poetry he continues
i know what's took her on the river if he don't yes yes my young lady ye thought yerself wonderful clever leavin old joe behind tellin him to hide hisself and bribin him to stay hid
sly but for all that hot as streaks o fire
oh no i noticed nothin o all that not i twarn't meant for me not for joe ha ha with a suppressed giggle at the popular catch coming in so apropos he once more fixes his eyes on the face of the impatient watcher
proceeding with his soliloquy though in changed strain poor young gentleman
he are a good sort an everybody likes him so do she but not the way he want her to well things o that kind allers do go contrary wise never seem to run smooth like i'd help him myself if twar in my power but it ain't
in such cases help can only come frae the place where they say matches be made that's heaven ha he's lookin a bit brighter what's cheerin him the boat coming back
the change he notes in george shenstone's manner is not caused by the returning pleasure craft simply a reflection which crossing his mind for the moment tranquillises him what a stupid i am he mutters self accusingly
now i remember there was nothing said about the hour we were to go riding and i suppose she understood in the afternoon it was so the last time we went out together by jove yes it's all right i take it she'll be back in good time yet
thus reassured he remains listening still more satisfied when a dull thumping sound in regular repetition tells him of oars working in their rowlocks were he learned in boating tactics he would know there are two pairs of them
and think this strange too since the gwendoline carries only one but he is not so skilled instead rather averse to aquatics his chosen home the hunting field his favourite seat in a saddle not on a boat's thwart
it is only when the plashing of the oars in the tranquil water of the bye way is borne clear along the cliff that he perceives there are two pairs at work while at the same time he observes two boats approaching the little dock where but one belongs
alone at that leading boat does he look with eyes in which as he continues to gaze surprise becomes wonderment dashed with something like displeasure the boat he has recognised at the first glance the gwendoline
as also the two ladies in the stern but there is also a man on the mid thwart plying the oars who the deuce is he thus to himself george shenstone puts it not old joe not the least like him
nor is it the family charon who sits solitary on the thwarts of that following instead joseph is now by mister shenstone's side passing him in haste making to go down the boat stairs what's the meaning of all this joe
asks the young man in stark astonishment meanin o what sir returns the old boatman with an air of assumed innocence be there anythin amiss
stammers shenstone only i supposed you were out with the young ladies how is it you haven't gone well sir miss gwen didn't wish it the day bein fine an nothing o flood in the river she sayed she'd do the rowin herself she hasn't been doing it for all that mutters shenstone to himself
as joseph glides past and on down the stair then repeating who the deuce is he the interrogation as before referring to him who rows the pleasure boat by this it has been brought bow in to the dock its stern touching the bottom of the stair
and as the ladies step out of it george shenstone overhears a dialogue which instead of quieting his perturbed spirit but excites him still more almost to madness it is miss wynn who has commenced it saying
this to the gentleman who has been pulling her boat and has just abandoned the oars soon as seeing its painter in the hands of the servant oh thank you he returns i would with pleasure but as you see i'm not quite presentable just now
anything but fit for a drawing room so i beg you'll excuse me to day his saturated shirt front with other garments dripping tells why the apology but does not explain either that or aught else to him on the top of the stair
who hearkening further hears other speeches which while perplexing him do nought to allay the wild tempest now surging through his soul unseen himself for he has stepped behind the tree lately screening joseph he sees gwen wynn
hold out her hand to be pressed in parting salute hears her address the stranger in words of gratitude warm as though she were under some great obligation to him then the latter leaps out of the pleasure boat into the other brought alongside
all this george shenstone observes drawing deductions which send the blood in chill creep through his veins though still puzzled by the wet garments the presence of the gentleman wearing them seems to solve that other enigma
unexplained as painful the strangeness he has of late observed in the ways of miss wynn nor is he far out in his fancy
not until the two ladies have reached the stair head do they become aware of his being there and not then till gwen has made some observations to the companion which as those addressed to the stranger unfortunately for himself
george shenstone overhears we'll be in time for luncheon yet and aunt needn't know anything of what's delayed us at least not just now true if the like had happened to herself say some thirty or forty years ago she'd want all the world to hear of it
particularly that portion of the world yclept cheltenham the dear old lady ha ha after a laugh continuing but speaking seriously nell
i don't wish any one to be the wiser about our bit of an escapade least of all a certain young gentleman whose christian name begins with a g and surname with an s those initials answer for mine says george shenstone coming forward and confronting her
if your observation was meant for me miss wynn i can only express regret for my bad luck in being within earshot of it at his appearance so unexpected and abrupt gwen wynn had given a start feeling guilty and looking it
soon however reflecting whence he has come and hearing what said she feels less self condemned than indignant as evinced by her rejoinder ah you've been overhearing us mister shenstone bad luck you call it
bad or good i don't think you are justified in attributing it to chance when a gentleman deliberately stations himself behind a shady bush like that laurustinus for instance and there stands listening intentionally
suddenly she interrupts herself and stands silent too this on observing the effect of her words and that they have struck terribly home with bowed head the baronet's son is stooping towards her the cloud on his brow telling of sadness not anger
seeing it the old tenderness returns to her with its familiarity and she exclaims come george there must be no quarrel between you and me what you've just seen and heard will be all explained by something you have yet to hear
miss lees and i have had a little bit of an adventure and if you'll promise it shan't go further we'll make you acquainted with it addressed in this style he readily gives the promise gladly too the confidence so offered seems favourable to himself
but looking for explanation on the instant he is disappointed asking for it it is denied him with reason assigned thus you forget we've been full four hours on the river and are as hungry as a pair of kingfishers
hawks i suppose you'd say being a game preserver never mind about the simile let us in to luncheon if not too late she steps hurriedly off towards the house the companion following shenstone behind both however hungry they
for the next half hour lady clavering sat alone listening with eager ear for the sound of her husband's wheels and at last she had almost told herself that the hour for his coming had gone by
when she heard the rapid grating on the gravel as the dog cart was driven up to the door
but her heart sank within her as she did so and she took tightly hold of the balustrade to support herself for a moment she had thought of running down to meet him of trusting to the sadness of the moment to produce in him if it were but for a minute
something of tender solicitude but she remembered that the servants would be there and knew that he would not be soft before them she remembered also that the housekeeper had received her instructions and she feared to disarrange the settled programme
so she went back to the open door of the room that her retreating step might not be heard by him as he should come up to her and standing there she still listened the house was silent and her ears were acute with sorrow
she could hear the movement of the old woman as she gently tremblingly as lady clavering knew made her way down the hall to meet her master sir hugh of course had learned his child's fate already from the servant who had met him
but it was well that the ceremony of such telling should be performed she felt the cold air come in from the opened front door and she heard her husband's heavy quick step as he entered then she heard the murmur of hannah's voice
but the first word she heard was in her husband's tones where is lady clavering then the answer was given and the wife knowing that he was coming retreated to her chair but still he did not come quite at once
he was pulling off his coat and laying aside his hat and gloves then came upon her a feeling that at such a time any other husband and wife would have been at once in each other's arms and at the moment she thought of all that they had lost
to her her child had been all and everything to him he had been his heir and the prop of his house the boy had been the only link that had still bound them together now he was gone and there was no longer any link between them
he was gone and she had nothing left to her he was gone and the father was so alone in the world without any heir and with no prop to his house she thought of all this as she heard his step coming slowly up the stairs
slowly he came along the passage and though she dreaded his coming it almost seemed as though he would never be there when he had entered the room she was the first to speak oh hugh she exclaimed oh hugh
there were candles near to him and she could see that his countenance also was altered he had indeed been stricken hard and his half stunned face showed the violence of the blow the harsh cruel selfish man had at last been made to suffer
although he had spoken of it and had expected it the death of his heir hit him hard as the rector had said when did he die asked the father it was past four i think then there was again silence
and lady clavering went up to her husband and stood close by his shoulder at last she ventured to put her hand upon him with all her own misery heavy upon her she was chiefly thinking at this moment how she might soothe him
she laid her hand upon his shoulder and by degrees she moved it softly to his breast then he raised his own hand and with it moved hers from his person he did it gently but what was the use of such nonsense as that
the lord giveth said the wife and the lord taketh away hearing this sir hugh made with his head a gesture of impatience
her voice was low and almost trembling and she repeated the words as though they were a task which she had set herself that's all very well in its way said he but what's the special use of it now
i hate twaddle one must bear one's misfortune as one best can i don't believe that kind of thing ever makes it lighter they say it does hugh ah they say have they ever tried
that is as well at one time as another but it won't give me back my boy no hugh he will never come back again but we may think that he's in heaven if that is enough for you let it be so
but don't talk to me of it i don't like it it doesn't suit me i had only one and he has gone it is always the way he spoke of the child as having been his not his and hers
she felt this and understood the want of affection which it conveyed but she said nothing of it oh hugh what could we do it was not our fault who is talking of any fault i have said nothing as to fault
he was always poor and sickly the claverings generally have been so strong look at myself and archie and my sisters well it cannot be helped thinking of it will not bring him back again you had better tell some one to get me something to eat
i came away of course without any dinner she herself had eaten nothing since the morning but she neither spoke nor thought of that she rang the bell and going out into the passage
gave the servant the order on the stairs it is no good my staying here he said i will go and dress it is the best not to think of such things much the best people call that heartless of course but then people are fools
if i were to sit still and think of it for a week together what good could i do but how not to think of it that is the thing women are different i suppose i will dress and then go down to the breakfast room
tell saunders to get me a bottle of champagne you will be better also if you will take a glass of wine it was the first word he had spoken which showed any care for her and she was grateful for it as he arose to go
she came close to him again and put her hand very gently on his arm hugh she said will you not see him what good will that do i think you would regret it if you were to let them take him away without looking at him
he is so pretty as he lies in his little bed i thought you would come with me to see him he was more gentle with her than she had expected and she led him away to the room which had been their own and in which the child had died
why here he said almost angrily as he entered i have had him here with me since you went he should not be here now he said shuddering i wish he had been moved before i came
i will not have this room any more remember that she led him up to the foot of the little cot which stood close by the head of her own bed and then she removed a handkerchief which lay upon the child's face
oh hugh oh hugh she said and throwing her arms round his neck she wept violently upon his breast for a few moments he did not disturb her but stood looking at his boy's face hugh
hugh she repeated will you not be kind to me do be kind to me it is not my fault that we are childless still he endured her for a few moments longer he spoke no word to her but he let her remain there with her head upon his breast
dear hugh i love you so truly this is nonsense said he sheer nonsense his voice was low and very hoarse why do you talk of kindness now
i do not mean that but if you will be gentle with me it will comfort me do not leave me here all alone how my darling has been taken from me then he shook her from him
not violently but with a persistent action do you mean that you want to go up to town he said oh no not that then what is it you want where would you live if not here
only that you should stay with me all that is nonsense i wonder that you should talk of such things now come away from this and let me go to my room all this is trash and nonsense and i hate it
she put back with careful hands the piece of cambric which she had moved and then seating herself on a chair wept violently with her hands closed upon her face
that comes of bringing me here he said get up hermione i will not have you so foolish get up i say i will have the room closed till the men come oh no get up i say and come away
then she rose and followed him out of the chamber and when he went to change his clothes she returned to the room in which he had found her there she sat and wept while he went down and dined and drank alone
saying that her master desired that she would take it i will not leave you my lady till you have done so said hannah to fast so long must be bad always then she eat the food
and drank a drop of wine and allowed the old woman to take her away to the bed that had been prepared for her of her husband she saw no more for four days on the next morning a note was brought to her in which sir hugh told her
that he had returned to london it was necessary he said that he should see his lawyer and his brother he and archie would return for the funeral with reference to that he had already given orders
during the next three days and till her husband's return lady clavering remained at the rectory and in the comfort of missus clavering's presence
but she knew the hour at which her husband would return and she took care to be at home when he arrived you will come and see him she said to the rector as she left the parsonage you will come at once in an hour or two
mister clavering remembered the circumstances of his last visit to the house and the declaration he had then made that he would not return there but all that could not now be considered yes he said
i will come across this evening
and you will not remember that he ever offended you missus clavering had written both to julia and to harry and the day of the funeral had been settled harry had already communicated his intention of coming down and lady ongar
had replied to missus clavering's letter saying that she could not now offer to go to clavering park but that if her sister would go elsewhere with her
to some place perhaps on the sea side she would be glad to accompany her and she used many arguments in her letter to show that such an arrangement as this had better be made you will be with my sister she had said
and she will understand why i do not write to her myself and will not think that it comes from coldness this had been written before lady ongar saw harry clavering mister clavering when he got to the great house
was immediately shown into the room in which the baronet and his younger brother were sitting they had some time since finished dinner but the decanters were still on the table before them hugh said the rector walking up to his elder nephew briskly
i grieve for you i grieve for you from the bottom of my heart yes said hugh it has been a heavy blow sit down uncle there is a clean glass there or archie will fetch you one
then archie looked out a clean glass and passed the decanter but of this the rector took no direct notice it has been a blow my poor boy a heavy blow said the rector
none heavier could have fallen but our sorrows come from heaven as do our blessings and must be accepted we are all like grass said archie and must be cut down in our turns
archie in saying this intended to put on his best behavior he was as sincere as he knew how to be come archie none of that said his brother it is my uncle's trade hugh said the rector
unless you can think of it so you will find no comfort and i expect none so there is an end of that different people think of these things differently you know and it is of no more use for me to bother you
than it is for you to bother me my boy has gone and i know that he will not come back to me i shall never have another and it is hard to bear but meaning no offence to you i would sooner be left to bear it in my own way
it would be a humbug and i hate humbug no offence to you take some wine uncle but the rector could not drink wine in that presence and therefore he escaped as soon as he could
some words uttered by her majesty the queen of the belgians
the prussian monarchy will one day be the source of infinite calamity not only to germany but likewise to the whole of europe the empress maria theresa
far away far away and out of the world seems this place where the persecuted queen has taken refuge i do not know how long my motor car its windows lashed by rain has rolled along in the dim light caused by showers and approaching night
when at last the belgian non commissioned officer who guided my chauffeur along these unfamiliar roads announces that we have arrived her majesty queen elizabeth of the belgians has deigned to grant me an audience at half past six
and i trembled lest i should be late for the way seemed interminable through a countryside which it was too dark to see but we were in time punctual to a moment
at half past six on an evening in march under an overcast sky it is already dark as night the car stops and i jump out on to the sands of the seashore i recognise the sound of the ocean close at hand
and the boundless expanse of the north sea less dark than the sky is vaguely perceptible to the sight rain and cold winds rage around us on the dunes two or three houses without lights in the windows are visible as greyish outlines
however someone carrying a little shining glass lamp is hurrying to receive me he is an officer in her majesty's service carrying one of those electric torches which the wind does not blow out and which in france we call an apache's lantern
on entering the first house to which the aide de camp conducts me
this first villa shelters only ladies in waiting and officers of that court now so shorn of ceremony and every evening it is plunged purposely in darkness as a precaution against shrapnel fire a moment later
i am summoned to her majesty's presence escorted by the same pleasant officer with his lantern i hurry across to the next house the rain is mingled with white butterflies which are flakes of snow
very indistinctly i see a desert like landscape of dunes and sands almost white stretching out into infinity would you not imagine it a site in the sahara says my guide
when your arab cavalry came here the illusion was complete it is true for even in africa the sands turn pale in the darkness but this is a sahara transported under the gloomy sky of a northern night
and it has assumed there too deep a melancholy in the villa we enter a warm well lighted room which with its red furnishings
battered by wintry squalls and there is a pleasure which at first transcends everything else the physical pleasure of approaching a fireplace with a good blazing fire
while waiting for the queen i notice a long packing case lying on two chairs it is made of that fine unequalled white carpentry which immediately reminds me of nagasaki and on it are painted japanese letters in columns
the officer's glance followed mine that he says is a magnificent ancient sabre which the japanese have just sent to our king i personally had forgotten them those distant allies of ours in the farthest east
yet it is true that they are on our side how strange a thing and even over there the woes of these two gracious sovereigns are universally known and the japanese desired to show their special sympathy by sending them a valuable present
but a lady in waiting appears announcing her majesty and he withdraws at once her majesty is coming says the lady in waiting the queen whom i have never yet seen consecrated as it were by suffering
with what infinite reverence i await her coming standing there in front of the fire while wind and snow continue to rage in the black night outside through which door will she enter doubtless by that door over there at the end of the room
on which my attention is involuntarily concentrated but no a soft rustling sound makes me turn my head towards the opposite side of the room and from behind a screen of red silk which concealed another door
the young queen appears so near to me that i have not room to make my court bow my first impression necessarily furtive as a flash of lightning a mere visual impression i might say a colourist's impression
is a dazzling little vision of blue the blue of her gown but more especially the blue of her eyes which shine like two luminous stars and then she has such an air of youth she seems this evening twenty four
and scarcely that from the different portraits i had seen of her majesty portraits so little faithful to life i had gathered that she was very tall with a profile almost too long but on the contrary she is of medium height
and her face is small with exquisitely refined features a face almost ethereal so delicate that it almost vanishes eclipsed by those marvellous limpid eyes like two pure turquoises
transparent to reveal the light within even a man unaware of her rank and of everything concerning her her devotion to duty the superlative dignity of her actions her serene resignation
her admirable simple charity would say to himself at first sight the woman with those eyes who may she be assuredly one who soars very high and will never falter who without even a tremor of her eyelids
can look in the face not only temptations but likewise danger and death with what reverent sympathy free from vulgar curiosity
when she contemplates the drama of her destiny but a conversation with a queen is not directed by one's own fancy and at the beginning of the audience her majesty touches upon different subjects lightly and gracefully
as if there were nothing unusual happening in the world we talk of the east where we have both travelled we talk of books she has read it seems as if we were oblivious of the great tragedy which is being enacted
strewn with ruins and the dead soon however perhaps because a little bond of confidence has established itself between us
furnes towns from which i have just come then the two blue stars gazing at me seem to me to grow a little misty in spite of an effort to keep them clear but madam i say
there still remains standing enough of the walls to enable all the outlines to be traced again and almost everything to be practically reconstructed in the better times that are in store ah she answers rebuild
certainly it will be possible to rebuild but it will never be more than an imitation and for me something essential will always be lacking i shall miss the soul which has passed away then i see
how dearly her majesty had already loved those marvels now ruined and all the past of her adopted country which survived there in the old stone tracery of flanders
and gradually we at last come to talk of germany one of the sentiments predominant it seems in her bruised heart is that of amazement the most painful as well as the most complete amazement at so many crimes
there has been some change in them she says in hesitating words they used not to be like this the crown prince
whom i knew very well in my childhood was gentle
think of it as i may day and night i cannot understand no in the old days they were not like this of that i am sure
but i know very well that they were ever thus as indeed all of us know they were always the same from the beginning under their inscrutable hypocrisy but how could i venture to contradict this queen
born among them like a beautiful rare flower among stinging nettles and brambles to be sure the unleashing of their latent barbarism which we are now witnessing is the work of that king of prussia
who is the faithful successor of him whom formerly the great empress maria theresa stigmatised it is he indeed who to use the bitter yet very just american expression has given them swelled heads
but their character was ever the same in all ages and in order to form a judgment of their souls steeped in lies murders and rapine it is sufficient to read their writers their thinkers whose cynicism leaves us aghast
after a moment's pause in which nothing is heard but the noise of the wind outside remembering that the young martyred queen was a bavarian princess i venture to recall the fact that the bavarians in the germany army
were troubled at the persecutions endured by the queen of the belgians who had sprung from their own race and indignant when the monster who leads this witches sabbath even tried to single out her children
but the queen raising her little hand from where it rested on the silken texture of her gown outlines a gesture which signifies something inexorably final and in a grave low voice
she utters this phrase which falls upon the silence with the solemnity of a sentence whence there is no appeal it is at an end between them and me has fallen a curtain of iron which will never again be lifted
at the same time at the remembrance of her childhood doubtless and of those whom she loved over there
a chaparral prince nine o'clock at last and the drudging toil of the day was ended lena climbed to her room in the third half story of the quarrymen's hotel since daylight she had slaved
scrubbing the floors washing the heavy ironstone plates and cups making the beds and supplying the insatiate demands for wood and water in that turbulent and depressing hostelry the din of the day's quarrying was over the blasting and drilling
the creaking of the great cranes the shouts of the foremen the backing and shifting of the flat cars hauling the heavy blocks of limestone down in the hotel office three or four of the labourers were growling and swearing over a belated game of checkers
heavy odours of stewed meat hot grease and cheap coffee hung like a depressing fog about the house lena lit the stump of a candle and sat limply upon her wooden chair she was eleven years old thin
and ill nourished her back and limbs were sore and aching but the ache in her heart made the biggest trouble the last straw had been added to the burden upon her small shoulders they had taken away grimm
always at night however tired she might be she had turned to grimm for comfort and hope each time had grimm whispered to her that the prince or the fairy would come and deliver her out of the wicked enchantment
every night she had taken fresh courage and strength from grimm to whatever tale she read she found an analogy in her own condition the woodcutter's lost child the unhappy goose girl
the persecuted stepdaughter the little maiden imprisoned in the witch's hut all these were but transparent disguises for lena the overworked kitchenmaid in the quarrymen's hotel
and always when the extremity was direst came the good fairy or the gallant prince to the rescue so here in the ogre's castle enslaved by a wicked spell lena had leaned upon grimm and waited
longing for the powers of goodness to prevail but on the day before missus maloney had found the book in her room and had carried it away
they lost sleep and did not work briskly the next day can one only eleven years old living away from one's mamma
live entirely deprived of grimm just try it once and you will see what a difficult thing it is lena's home was in texas
in a little town called fredericksburg they are all german people who live in fredericksburg of evenings they sit at little tables along the sidewalk and drink beer and play pinochle and scat they are very thrifty people
thriftiest among them was peter hildesmuller lena's father and that is why lena was sent to work in the hotel at the quarries thirty miles away she earned three dollars every week there and peter added her wages to his well guarded store
peter had an ambition to become as rich as his neighbour hugo heffelbauer who smoked a meerschaum pipe three feet long and had wiener schnitzel and hassenpfeffer for dinner every day in the week
but conjecture if you can what it means to be sentenced at eleven years of age from a home in the pleasant little rhine village to hard labour in the ogre's castle where you must fly to serve the ogres
while they devour cattle and sheep growling fiercely as they stamp white limestone dust from their great shoes for you to sweep and scour with your weak aching fingers and then to have grimm
taken away from you lena raised the lid of an old empty case that had once contained canned corn and got out a sheet of paper and a piece of pencil she was going to write a letter to her mamma tommy ryan was going to post it for her at ballinger's
tommy was seventeen worked in the quarries went home to ballinger's every night and was now waiting in the shadows under lena's window for her to throw the letter out to him that was the only way she could send a letter to fredericksburg
missus maloney did not like for her to write letters the stump of the candle was burning low so lena hastily bit the wood from around the lead of her pencil and began this is the letter she wrote dearest mamma
i want so much to see you and gretel and claus and heinrich and little adolf i am so tired i want to see you to day i was slapped by missus maloney and had no supper i could not bring in enough wood for my hand hurt
she took my book yesterday i mean grimm's fairy tales which uncle leo gave me
i try to work as well as i can but there is so much to do i read only a little bit every night dear mamma i shall tell you what i am going to do unless you send for me to morrow to bring me home
i shall go to a deep place i know in the river and drown it is wicked to drown i suppose but i wanted to see you and there is no one else i am very tired
and tommy is waiting for the letter you will excuse me mamma if i do it your respectful and loving daughter lena
tommy was still waiting faithfully when the letter was concluded and when lena dropped it out she saw him pick it up and start up the steep hillside without undressing she blew out the candle and curled herself upon the mattress on the floor
at ten thirty o'clock old man ballinger came out of his house in his stocking feet and leaned over the gate smoking his pipe he looked down the big road white in the moonshine and rubbed one ankle with the toe of his other foot
it was time for the fredericksburg mail to come pattering up the road old man ballinger had waited only a few minutes when he heard the lively hoofbeats of fritz's team of little black mules
and very soon afterward his covered spring wagon stood in front of the gate fritz's big spectacles flashed in the moonlight and his tremendous voice shouted a greeting to the postmaster of ballinger's the mail carrier jumped out and took the bridles from the mules
for he always fed them oats at ballinger's while the mules were eating from their feed bags old man ballinger brought out the mail sack and threw it into the wagon fritz bergmann was a man of three sentiments or to be more accurate four
the pair of mules deserving to be reckoned individually those mules were the chief interest and joy of his existence next came the emperor of germany and lena hildesmuller tell me said fritz when he was ready to start
from the little lena at the quarries
her mamma is very anxious to hear again yes said old man ballinger thar's a letter for missus helterskelter or some sich name tommy ryan brung it over when he come her little gal workin over thar you say
in the hotel shouted fritz as he gathered up the lines eleven years old and not bigger as a frankfurter the close fist of a peter hildesmuller some day i shall with a big club pound that man's dummkopf
all in and out the town perhaps in this letter lena will say that she is yet feeling better so her mamma will be glad auf wiedersehen herr ballinger
so long fritzy said old man ballinger
up the road went the little black mules at their steady trot while fritz thundered at them occasional words of endearment and cheer these fancies occupied the mind of the mail carrier until he reached the big post oak forest eight miles from ballinger's
here his ruminations were scattered by the sudden flash and report of pistols and a whooping as if from a whole tribe of indians a band of galloping centaurs closed in around the mail wagon one of them leaned over the front wheel
covered the driver with his revolver and ordered him to stop others caught at the bridles of donder and blitzen donnerwetter shouted fritz with all his tremendous voice wass ist release your hands from dose mules
ve vas der united states mail hurry up dutch drawled a melancholy voice don't you know when you're in a stick up reverse your mules and climb out of the cart it is due to the breadth of hondo bill's demerit
and the largeness of his achievements to state that the holding up of the fredericksburg mail was not perpetrated by way of an exploit as the lion while in the pursuit of prey commensurate to his prowess might set a frivolous foot upon a casual rabbit in his path
so hondo bill and his gang had swooped sportively upon the pacific transport of meinherr fritz the real work of their sinister night ride was over fritz and his mail bag and his mules came as gentle relaxation
grateful after the arduous duties of their profession twenty miles to the southeast stood a train with a killed engine hysterical passengers and a looted express and mail car
that represented the serious occupation of hondo bill and his gang with a fairly rich prize of currency and silver the robbers were making a wide detour to the west through the less populous country intending to seek safety in mexico
by means of some fordable spot on the rio grande the booty from the train had melted the desperate bushrangers to jovial and happy skylarkers trembling with outraged dignity and no little personal apprehension
fritz climbed out to the road after replacing his suddenly removed spectacles the band had dismounted and were singing capering and whooping thus expressing their satisfied delight in the life of a jolly outlaw
rattlesnake rogers who stood at the heads of the mules jerked a little too vigorously at the rein of the tender mouthed donder who reared and emitted a loud protesting snort of pain instantly fritz with a scream of anger flew at the bulky rogers
and began to assiduously pummel that surprised freebooter with his fists villain shouted fritz dog bigstiff
i vill knock off your shoulders mit your head robbermans
and the woods rang with rattlesnake's vociferous comments the dog goned little wienerwurst he yelled amiably he's not so much of a skunk for a dutchman took up for his animile
the dad blamed little limburger he went for me didn't he whoa now muley
perhaps the mail would not have been tampered with had not ben moody the lieutenant possessed certain wisdom that seemed to promise more spoils say cap he said addressing hondo bill
there's big money goes through the mails to that town them dutch risk a thousand dollars sent wrapped in a piece of paper before they'd pay the banks to handle the money hondo bill six feet two gentle of voice and impulsive in action
was dragging the sacks from the rear of the wagon before moody had finished his speech a knife shone in his hand and they heard the ripping sound as it bit through the tough canvas the outlaws crowded around and began tearing open letters and packages
enlivening their labours by swearing affably at the writers who seemed to have conspired to confute the prediction of ben moody not a dollar was found in the fredericksburg mail you ought to be ashamed of yourself
what d'you mean by it anyhow where do you dutchers keep your money at the ballinger mail sack opened like a cocoon under hondo's knife it contained but a handful of mail fritz had been fuming with terror and excitement until this sack was reached
he now remembered lena's letter he addressed the leader of the band asking that that particular missive be spared much obliged dutch he said to the disturbed carrier i guess that's the letter we want got spondulicks in it ain't it
here she is make a light boys hondo found and tore open the letter to missus hildesmuller the others stood about lighting twisted up letters one from another hondo gazed with mute disapproval at the single sheet of paper covered with the angular german script
you call this here a valuable letter that's a mighty low down trick to play on your friends what come along to help you distribute your mail that's chiny writin said sandy grundy peering over hondo's shoulder
you're off your kazip declared another of the gang an effective youth covered with silk handkerchiefs and nickel plating that's shorthand i see em do it once in court ach no no no dot is german said fritz
it is no more as a little girl writing a letter to her mamma one poor little girl
good mister robberman you vill please let me have dot letter what the devil do you take us for old pretzels said hondo with sudden and surprising severity you ain't presumin to insinuate that we gents ain't possessed
of sufficient politeness for to take an interest in the miss's health are you now you go on and you read that scratchin out loud and in plain united states language to this here company of educated society
hondo twirled his six shooter by its trigger guard and stood towering above the little german who at once began to read the letter translating the simple words into english the gang of rovers stood in absolute silence listening intently
how old is that kid asked hondo when the letter was done eleven said fritz and where is she at at dose rock quarries working
little lena she speak of drowning
but if she shall i schwear i vill dot peter hildesmuller shoot mit a gun
make me plenty tired hirin out your kids to work when they ought to be playin dolls in the sand you're a hell of a sect of people i reckon we'll fix your clock for a while just to show what we think of your old cheesy nation
here boys hondo bill parleyed aside briefly with his band
here they bound him fast to a tree with a couple of lariats his team they tied to another tree near by
twon't hurt you to be tied up for a while we will now pass you the time of day as it is up to us to depart ausgespielt nixcumrous dutchy don't get any more impatience fritz heard a great squeaking of saddles as the men mounted their horses
then a loud yell and a great clatter of hoofs as they galloped pell mell back along the fredericksburg road for more than two hours fritz sat against his tree tightly but not painfully bound then from the reaction after his exciting adventure he sank into slumber
how long he slept he knew not but he was at last awakened by a rough shake hands were untying his ropes he was lifted to his feet dazed confused in mind and weary of body rubbing his eyes
he looked and saw that he was again in the midst of the same band of terrible bandits they shoved him up to the seat of his wagon and placed the lines in his hands hit it out for home dutch said hondo bill's voice commandingly you've given us lots of trouble
spiel zwei bier vamoose hondo reached out and gave blitzen a smart cut with his quirt the little mules sprang ahead glad to be moving again fritz urged them along himself dizzy and muddled over his fearful adventure
as it was he drove down the long street of the town at eleven o'clock a m he had to pass peter hildesmuller's house on his way to the post office he stopped his team at the gate and called but frau hildesmuller was watching for him
out rushed the whole family of hildesmullers frau hildesmuller fat and flushed inquired if he had a letter from lena and then fritz raised his voice and told the tale of his adventure he told the contents of that letter that the robber had made him read
and then frau hildesmuller broke into wild weeping her little lena drown herself why had they sent her from home what could be done perhaps it would be too late by the time they could send for her now
peter hildesmuller dropped his meerschaum on the walk and it shivered into pieces woman he roared at his wife why did you let that child go away it is your fault if she comes home to us no more
every one knew that it was peter hildesmuller's fault so they paid no attention to his words a moment afterward a strange faint voice was heard to call mamma
and then she rushed to the rear of fritz's covered wagon and with a loud shriek of joy caught up lena herself covering her pale little face with kisses and smothering her with hugs lena's eyes were heavy with the deep slumber of exhaustion
but she smiled and lay close to the one she had longed to see there among the mail sacks covered in a nest of strange blankets and comforters she had lain asleep until wakened by the voices around her
fritz stared at her with eyes that bulged behind his spectacles gott in himmel he shouted how did you get in that wagon am i going crazy as well as to be murdered and hanged by robbers this day
you brought her to us fritz cried frau hildesmuller how can we ever thank you enough tell mamma how you came in fritz's wagon said frau hildesmuller
but i know how i got away from the hotel the prince brought me by the emperor's crown shouted fritz we are all going crazy i always knew he would come said lena sitting down on her bundle of bedclothes on the sidewalk
last night he came with his armed knights and captured the ogre's castle they broke the dishes and kicked down the doors they pitched mister maloney into a barrel of rain water and threw flour all over missus maloney
the workmen in the hotel jumped out of the windows and ran into the woods when the knights began firing their guns they wakened me up and i peeped down the stair and then the prince came up
and wrapped me in the bedclothes and carried me out he was so tall and strong and fine his face was as rough as a scrubbing brush and he talked soft and kind and smelled of schnapps he took me on his horse before him
and we rode away among the knights he held me close and i went to sleep that way and didn't wake up till i got home
the prince brought me said lena confidently and to this day the good people of fredericksburg
description of farmer oak an incident when farmer oak smiled the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears his eyes were reduced to chinks
and diverging wrinkles appeared round them extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun his christian name was gabriel
and on working days he was a young man of sound judgment easy motions proper dress and general good character on sundays he was a man of misty views rather given to postponing and hampered by his best clothes and umbrella
which lay between the communion people of the parish and the drunken section
and thought of what there would be for dinner when he meant to be listening to the sermon or to state his character as it stood in the scale of public opinion when his friends and critics were in tantrums he was considered rather a bad man when they were pleased he was rather a good man
when they were neither he was a man whose moral colour was a kind of pepper and salt mixture
was most peculiarly his own the mental picture formed by his neighbours in imagining him being always dressed in that way he wore a low crowned felt hat spread out at the base by tight jamming upon the head for security in high winds
and a coat like doctor johnson's his lower extremities being encased in ordinary leather leggings and boots emphatically large affording to each foot a roomy apartment so constructed that any wearer might stand in a river all day long and know nothing of damp
their maker being a conscientious man who endeavoured to compensate for any weakness in his cut by unstinted dimension and solidity mister oak carried about him by way of watch what may be called a small silver clock
in other words it was a watch as to shape and intention and a small clock as to size this instrument being several years older than oak's grandfather had the peculiarity of going either too fast or not at all
the smaller of its hands too occasionally slipped round on the pivot and thus though the minutes were told with precision nobody could be quite certain of the hour they belonged to the stopping peculiarity of his watch oak remedied by thumps and shakes
and he escaped any evil consequences from the other two defects by constant comparisons with and observations of the sun and stars and by pressing his face close to the glass of his neighbours windows
till he could discern the hour marked by the green faced timekeepers within it may be mentioned that oak's fob being difficult of access by reason of its somewhat high situation in the waistband of his trousers which also lay at a remote height under his waistcoat
the watch was as a necessity pulled out by throwing the body to one side compressing the mouth and face to a mere mass of ruddy flesh on account of the exertion required and drawing up the watch by its chain like a bucket from a well
but some thoughtful persons who had seen him walking across one of his fields on a certain december morning sunny and exceedingly mild might have regarded gabriel oak in other aspects than these
in his face one might notice that many of the hues and curves of youth had tarried on to manhood there even remained in his remoter crannies some relics of the boy his height and breadth would have been sufficient to make his presence imposing
had they been exhibited with due consideration but there is a way some men have rural and urban alike for which the mind is more responsible than flesh and sinew it is a way of curtailing their dimensions by their manner of showing them
and from a quiet modesty that would have become a vestal which seemed continually to impress upon him that he had no great claim on the world's room oak walked unassumingly and with a faintly perceptible bend yet distinct from a bowing of the shoulders
this may be said to be a defect in an individual if he depends for his valuation more upon his appearance than upon his capacity to wear well which oak did not
he had just reached the time of life at which young is ceasing to be the prefix of man in speaking of one he was at the brightest period of masculine growth for his intellect and his emotions were clearly separated
he had passed the time during which the influence of youth indiscriminately mingles them in the character of impulse and he had not yet arrived at the stage wherein they become united again in the character of prejudice by the influence of a wife and family
the field he was in this morning sloped to a ridge called norcombe hill through a spur of this hill ran the highway between emminster and chalk newton
painted yellow and gaily marked drawn by two horses a waggoner walking alongside bearing a whip perpendicularly the waggon was laden with household goods and window plants and on the apex of the whole sat a woman young and attractive
gabriel had not beheld the sight for more than half a minute
said the waggoner then i heard it fall said the girl in a soft though not particularly low voice i heard a noise i could not account for when we were coming up the hill
do she answered the sensible horses stood perfectly still and the waggoner's steps sank fainter and fainter in the distance the girl on the summit of the load sat motionless
surrounded by tables and chairs with their legs upwards backed by an oak settle and ornamented in front by pots of geraniums myrtles and cactuses together with a caged canary
in a willow basket from the partly opened lid of which she gazed with half closed eyes and affectionately surveyed the small birds around
the handsome girl waited for some time idly in her place and the only sound heard in the stillness was the hopping of the canary up and down the perches of its prison then she looked attentively downwards
it was at an oblong package tied in paper and lying between them she turned her head to learn if the waggoner were coming
at length she drew the article into her lap and untied the paper covering a small swing looking glass was disclosed in which she proceeded to survey herself attentively she parted her lips and smiled
it was a fine morning and the sun lighted up to a scarlet glow the crimson jacket she wore and painted a soft lustre upon her bright face and dark hair the myrtles geraniums and cactuses packed around her were fresh and green
and at such a leafless season they invested the whole concern of horses waggon furniture and girl with a peculiar vernal charm what possessed her to indulge in such a performance in the sight of the sparrows blackbirds and unperceived farmer
who were alone its spectators whether the smile began as a factitious one to test her capacity in that art nobody knows it ended certainly in a real smile she blushed at herself and seeing her reflection blush blushed the more
the change from the customary spot and necessary occasion of such an act from the dressing hour in a bedroom to a time of travelling out of doors lent to the idle deed a novelty it did not intrinsically possess
the picture was a delicate one woman's prescriptive infirmity had stalked into the sunlight which had clothed it in the freshness of an originality a cynical inference was irresistible by gabriel oak as he regarded the scene
or press a dimple into shape or do one thing to signify that any such intention had been her motive in taking up the glass she simply observed herself as a fair product of nature in the feminine kind her thoughts seeming to glide into far off though likely dramas
in which men would play a part vistas of probable triumphs the smiles being of a phase suggesting that hearts were imagined as lost and won still this was but conjecture
and the whole series of actions was so idly put forth as to make it rash to assert that intention had any part in them at all the waggoner's steps were heard returning
and descending into the road followed the vehicle to the turnpike gate some way beyond the bottom of the hill where the object of his contemplation now halted for the payment of toll about twenty steps still remained between him and the gate when he heard a dispute
you great miser and she won't pay any more these were the waggoner's words
said the turnpike keeper closing the gate oak looked from one to the other of the disputants and fell into a reverie
but twopence here he said stepping forward and handing twopence to the gatekeeper let the young woman pass he looked up at her then she heard his words and looked down
gabriel's features adhered throughout their form so exactly to the middle line between the beauty of saint john and the ugliness of judas iscariot as represented in a window of the church he attended that not a single lineament could be selected and called worthy
either of distinction or notoriety the red jacketed and dark haired maiden seemed to think so too for she carelessly glanced over him and told her man to drive on
more probably she felt none for in gaining her a passage he had lost her her point and we know how women take a favour of that kind the gatekeeper surveyed the retreating vehicle that's a handsome maid he said to oak
but she has her faults said gabriel true farmer
what it is always beating people down ay tis so o no what then
gabriel perhaps a little piqued by the comely traveller's indifference glanced back to where he had witnessed her performance over the hedge and said
miss melbury went out for a morning walk and her ever regardful father having an hour's leisure offered to walk with her the breeze was fresh and quite steady filtering itself through the denuded mass of twigs without swaying them
but making the point of each ivy leaf on the trunks scratch its underlying neighbor restlessly grace's lips sucked in this native air of hers like milk they soon reached a place where the wood ran down into a corner
and went outside it towards comparatively open ground having looked round about they were intending to re enter the copse when a fox quietly emerged with a dragging brush trotted past them tamely as a domestic cat and disappeared amid some dead fern
they walked on her father merely observing after watching the animal they are hunting somewhere near farther up they saw in the mid distance the hounds running hither and thither as if there were little or no scent that day
as to the whereabouts of the intended victim in a minute
and grace being a few steps in advance he addressed her asking if she had seen the fox
did you cry halloo
or get the old buffer to do it for you said the man as he cantered away she looked rather disconcerted at this reply and observing her father's face saw that it was quite red he ought not to have spoken to ye like that said the old man in the tone of one whose heart was bruised
and he wouldn't if he had been a gentleman
you so well read and cultivated
joking with the rough work folk and all that i could have stood it
grace shall i tell you the secret of it
if a black coated squire or pa'son had been walking with you instead of me
i tell you it is that i've noticed and i've noticed it many times that a woman takes her color from the man she's walking with the woman who looks an unquestionable lady when she's with a polished up fellow looks a mere tawdry imitation article when she's hobbing and nobbing with a homely blade
you shall have somebody to walk with you who looks more of a dandy than i please god you shall but my dear father she said much distressed i don't mind at all i don't wish for more honor than i already have
according to menander or some old greek poet and to nobody was one ever more so than to melbury by reason of her very dearness to him as for grace she began to feel troubled
she did not perhaps wish there and then to unambitiously devote her life to giles winterborne
despite her feeling she assented to this his reasoning had not been without its weight upon her grace he said just before they had reached the house if it costs me my life you shall marry well
to day has shown me that whatever a young woman's niceness she stands for nothing alone you shall marry well he breathed heavily and his breathing was caught up by the breeze which seemed to sigh a soft remonstrance she looked calmly at him
i mention it father not as a matter of sentiment but as a question of keeping faith the timber merchant's eyes fell for a moment i don't know i don't know he said tis a trying strait well
well there's no hurry we'll wait and see how he gets on
it had at one time been part of the bakehouse with the ordinary oval brick oven in the wall but mister melbury in turning it into an office had built into the cavity an iron safe which he used for holding his private papers
the door of the safe was now open and his keys were hanging from it sit down grace and keep me company he said you may amuse yourself by looking over these he threw out a heap of papers before her what are they she asked
securities of various sorts he unfolded them one by one papers worth so much money each now
no indeed if you didn't say so tis so then now here are papers of another sort they are for different sums in the three per cents now these are port breedy harbor bonds we have a great stake in that harbor you know because i send off timber there
nonsense open them now you ought to learn a little of such matters a young lady of education should not be ignorant of money affairs altogether suppose you should be left a widow some day with your husband's title deeds and investments thrown upon your hands
it does not come to that i have title deeds myself there that piece of parchment represents houses in sherton abbas yes but she hesitated looked at the fire and went on in a low voice
if what has been arranged about me should come to anything my sphere will be quite a middling one your sphere ought not to be middling he exclaimed not in passion but in earnest conviction
when she showed you her house and all her knick knacks and made you stay to tea so nicely in her drawing room surely you did yes i did say so admitted grace was it true yes i felt so at the time
the feeling is less strong now perhaps ah now though you don't see it your feeling at the time was the right one because your mind and body were just in full and fresh cultivation so that going there with her was like meeting like
and so you don't feel your place so strongly
perhaps when your education is backed up by what these papers represent
though in direct antagonism to a better feeling which had hitherto prevailed with him and had indeed only succumbed that morning during the ramble she wished that she was not his worldly hope the responsibility of such a position was too great
she had made it for herself mainly by her appearance and attractive behavior to him since her return if i had only come home in a shabby dress and tried to speak roughly this might not have happened she thought
she deplored less the fact than the sad possibilities that might lie hidden therein her father then insisted upon her looking over his checkbook and reading the counterfoils this also she obediently did and at last came to two or three
which had been drawn to defray some of the late expenses of her clothes board and education i too cost a good deal like the horses and wagons and corn
you'll yield a better return don't think of me like that she begged a mere chattel
even if it tells against me he said good humoredly and he looked her proudly up and down
and in giving the information she added incidentally so we shall soon lose the mistress of hintock house for some time i hear
yes she's going off to foreign parts to morrow for the rest of the winter months
when the old woman had left the room melbury turned to his daughter and said so grace you've lost your new friend
grace said nothing now
tis winterborne's affair has done this oh yes tis so let me say one word
i never do meet him father
so much the better i don't like the look of this at all and i say it not out of harshness to him poor fellow but out of tenderness to you
bear the roughness of a life with him she sighed
at that same hour and almost at that same minute there was a conversation about winterborne in progress in the village street
it is upon john south's life that all mister winterborne's houses hang
thereupon the law is that the houses fall without the least chance of absolution into her hands at the house
chapter fourteen fresh mortifications
the journey of my daughters to town was now resolved upon mister thornhill having kindly promised to inspect their conduct himself and inform us by letter of their behaviour
which could not be done without expence
the deliberation was soon finished it was found that our remaining horse was utterly useless for the plow without his companion and equally unfit for the road as wanting an eye
it was therefore determined that we should dispose of him for the purposes above mentioned at the neighbouring fair and to prevent imposition that i should go with him myself though this was one of the first mercantile transactions of my life
yet i had no doubt about acquitting myself with reputation the opinion a man forms of his own prudence is measured by that of the company he keeps
my wife however next morning at parting after i had got some paces from the door called me back to advise me in a whisper to have all my eyes about me i had in the usual forms when i came to the fair put my horse through all his paces
but for some time had no bidders at last a chapman approached and after he had for a good while examined the horse round finding him blind of one eye he would have nothing to say to him a second came up but observing he had a spavin
declared he would not take him for the driving home
a fourth knew by his eye that he had the botts a fifth wondered what a plague i could do at the fair with a blind spavined galled hack that was only fit to be cut up for a dog kennel by this time i began to have a most hearty contempt for the poor animal myself
and was almost ashamed at the approach of every customer for though i did not entirely believe all the fellows told me yet i reflected that the number of witnesses was a strong presumption they were right and saint gregory upon good works professes himself to be of the same opinion
i was in this mortifying situation when a brother clergyman an old acquaintance who had also business to the fair came up and shaking me by the hand proposed adjourning to a public house and taking a glass of whatever we could get
i readily closed with the offer and entering an ale house we were shewn into a little back room where there was only a venerable old man who sat wholly intent over a large book which he was reading i never in my life saw a figure that prepossessed me more favourably
his locks of silver grey venerably shaded his temples and his green old age seemed to be the result of health and benevolence however his presence did not interrupt our conversation my friend and i discoursed on the various turns of fortune we had met
the whistonean controversy my last pamphlet the archdeacon's reply and the hard measure that was dealt me but our attention was in a short time taken off by the appearance of a youth who entering the room respectfully said something softly to the old stranger
make no apologies my child said the old man to do good is a duty we owe to all our fellow creatures take this i wish it were more but five pounds will relieve your distress and you are welcome the modest youth shed tears of gratitude
and yet his gratitude was scarce equal to mine i could have hugged the good old man in my arms his benevolence pleased me so he continued to read and we resumed our conversation until my companion after some time recollecting that he had business to transact in the fair
adding that he always desired to have as much of doctor primrose's company as possible the old gentleman hearing my name mentioned seemed to look at me with attention for some time and when my friend was gone most respectfully demanded if i was any way related to the great primrose
that courageous monogamist who had been the bulwark of the church never did my heart feel sincerer rapture than at that moment sir cried i the applause of so good a man as i am sure you are
adds to that happiness in my breast which your benevolence has already excited you behold before you sir that doctor primrose the monogamist whom you have been pleased to call great you here see that unfortunate divine who has so long
sir cried the stranger struck with awe i fear i have been too familiar but you'll forgive my curiosity sir i beg pardon sir cried i grasping his hand you are so far from displeasing me by your familiarity that i must beg you'll accept my friendship
as you already have my esteem
cried he squeezing me by the hand thou glorious pillar of unshaken orthodoxy and do i behold i here interrupted what he was going to say for tho as an author i could digest no small share of flattery yet now my modesty would permit no more
however no lovers in romance ever cemented a more instantaneous friendship we talked upon several subjects at first i thought he seemed rather devout than learned and began to think he despised all human doctrines as dross
yet this no way lessened him in my esteem for i had for some time begun privately to harbour such an opinion myself i therefore took occasion to observe that the world in general began to be blameably indifferent as to doctrinal matters and followed human speculations too much
ay sir the world is in its dotage and yet the cosmogony or creation of the world has puzzled philosophers of all ages what a medly of opinions have they not broached upon the creation of the world
have all attempted it in vain the latter has these words
which imply that all things have neither beginning nor end
asser being a syriac word usually applied as a sirname to the kings of that country
which implies that books will never teach the world so he attempted to investigate but sir i ask pardon i am straying from the question that he actually was
any thing to do with the business i was talking of
and i now reverenced him the more i was resolved therefore to bring him to the touch stone but he was too mild and too gentle to contend for victory
he would smile shake his head and say nothing by which i understood he could say much if he thought proper the subject therefore insensibly changed from the business of antiquity
mine i told him was to sell an horse and very luckily indeed his was to buy one for one of his tenants my horse was soon produced and in fine we struck a bargain nothing now remained but to pay me
and he accordingly pulled out a thirty pound note and bid me change it not being in a capacity of complying with his demand he ordered his footman to be called up who made his appearance in a very genteel livery here abraham cried he
go and get gold for this you'll do it at neighbour jackson's or any where while the fellow was gone he entertained me with a pathetic harangue on the great scarcity of silver which i undertook to improve by deploring also the great scarcity of gold
so that by the time abraham returned we had both agreed that money was never so hard to be come at as now abraham returned to inform us that he had been over the whole fair and could not get change tho he had offered half a crown for doing it
this was a very great disappointment to us all but the old gentleman having paused a little asked me if i knew one solomon flamborough in my part of the country upon replying that he was my next door neighbour
if that be the case then returned he i believe we shall deal you shall have a draught upon him payable at sight and let me tell you he is as warm a man as any within five miles round him honest solomon and i have been acquainted for many years together
a draught upon my neighbour was to me the same as money for i was sufficiently convinced of his ability the draught was signed and put into my hands and mister jenkinson the old gentleman his man abraham and my horse old blackberry
trotted off very well pleased with each other after a short interval being left to reflection i began to recollect that i had done wrong in taking a draught from a stranger and so prudently resolved upon following the purchaser and having back my horse
but this was now too late i therefore made directly homewards resolving to get the draught changed into money at my friend's as fast as possible i found my honest neighbour smoking his pipe at his own door
he read it twice over you can read the name i suppose cried i ephraim jenkinson
the name is written plain enough and i know the gentleman too the greatest rascal under the canopy of heaven this is the very same rogue who sold us the spectacles was he not a venerable looking man with grey hair and no flaps to his pocket holes
to this i replied with a groan aye
but i know the rogue and will catch him yet though i was already sufficiently mortified my greatest struggle was to come in facing my wife and daughters no truant was ever more afraid of returning to school there to behold the master's visage
than i was of going home i was determined however to anticipate their fury by first falling into a passion myself but alas upon entering i found the family no way disposed for battle my wife and girls were all in tears
mister thornhill having been there that day to inform them that their journey to town was entirely over the two ladies having heard reports of us from some malicious person about us were that day set out for london he could neither discover the tendency nor the author of these
but whatever they might be or whoever might have broached them he continued to assure our family of his friendship and protection
but behind sorrow there is always sorrow pain unlike pleasure wears no mask truth in art is not any correspondence between the essential idea and the accidental existence it is not the resemblance of shape to shadow
or of the form mirrored in the crystal to the form itself it is no echo coming from a hollow hill any more than it is a silver well of water in the valley that shows the moon to the moon and narcissus to narcissus
truth in art is the unity of a thing with itself
the body instinct with spirit for this reason there is no truth comparable to sorrow there are times when sorrow seems to me to be the only truth other things may be illusions of the eye or the appetite
reality i have said of myself
there is not a single wretched man in this wretched place along with me who does not stand in symbolic relation to the very secret of life
it is what is hidden behind everything when we begin to live what is sweet is so sweet to us and what is bitter so bitter that we inevitably direct all our desires towards pleasures and seek not merely for
a month or twain to feed on honeycomb but for all our years to taste no other food ignorant all the while that we may really be starving the soul i remember talking once on this subject to one of the most beautiful personalities i have ever known
a woman whose sympathy and noble kindness to me both before and since the tragedy of my imprisonment have been beyond power and description one who has really assisted me though she does not know it to bear the burden of my troubles
and all through the mere fact of her existence
partly an ideal and partly an influence a suggestion of what one might become as well as a real help towards becoming it a soul that renders the common air sweet and makes what is spiritual seem as simple and natural as sunlight or the sea
one for whom beauty and sorrow walk hand in hand and have the same message
the whole face of creation was completely marred i was entirely wrong
now it seems to me that love of some kind is the only possible explanation of the extraordinary amount of suffering that there is in the world i cannot conceive of any other explanation
it has been built by the hands of love because in no other way could the soul of man for whom the world was made reach the full stature of its perfection
when i say that i am convinced of these things i speak with too much pride far off like a perfect pearl one can see the city of god it is so wonderful that it seems as if a child could reach it in a summer's day
and so a child could but with me and such as me it is different one can realise a thing in a single moment but one loses it in the long hours that follow with leaden feet
we think in eternity but we move slowly through time and how slowly time goes with us who lie in prison i need not tell again nor of the weariness and despair that creep back into one's cell
to garnish and sweep one's house for their coming as for an unwelcome guest or a bitter master or a slave whose slave it is one's chance or choice to be and though at present my friends may find it a hard thing to believe
it is true none the less that for them
it is more easy to learn the lessons of humility than it is for me who begin the day by going down on my knees and washing the floor of my cell
hearts are made to be broken but that it turns one's heart to stone
at all and he who is in a state of rebellion cannot receive grace to use the phrase of which the church is so fond so rightly fond i dare say for in life as in art the mood of rebellion closes up the channels of the soul
and shuts out the airs of heaven yet i must learn these lessons here if i am to learn them anywhere and must be filled with joy if my feet are on the right road
though i may fall many times in the mire and often in the mist go astray
the sun lit side of the garden and shunned the other side for its shadow and its gloom failure disgrace poverty sorrow despair suffering tears even the broken words that come from lips in pain
remorse that makes one walk on thorns conscience that condemns self abasement that punishes the misery that puts ashes on its head the anguish that chooses sack cloth for its raiment and into its own drink puts gall
of which i was afraid and as i had determined to know nothing of them i was forced to taste each of them in turn to feed on them to have for a season indeed no other food at all
i did it to the full as one should do everything that one does there was no pleasure i did not experience i threw the pearl of my soul into a cup of wine
i lived on honeycomb but to have continued the same life would have been wrong because it would have been limiting i had to pass on the other half of the garden had its secrets for me also of course all this is foreshadowed and prefigured in my books
some of it is in the happy prince some of it in the young king notably in the passage where the bishop says to the kneeling boy is not he who made misery wiser than thou art a phrase which when i wrote it seemed to me little more than a phrase
a great deal of it is hidden away in the note of doom
in the prose poem of the man who from the bronze of the image of the pleasure that liveth for a moment has to make the image of the sorrow that abideth for ever it is incarnate it could not have been otherwise
at every single moment of one's life one is what one is going to be no less than what one has been art is a symbol because man is a symbol it is
humility in the artist is his frank acceptance of all experiences just as love in the artist is simply the sense of beauty that reveals to the world its body and its soul in marius the epicurean
pater seeks to reconcile the artistic life with the life of religion in the deep sweet and austere sense of the word but marius is little more than a spectator an ideal spectator indeed and one to whom it is given
to contemplate the spectacle of life with appropriate emotions which wordsworth defines as the poet's true aim yet a spectator merely
i see a far more intimate and immediate connection between the true life of christ and the true life of the artist and i take a keen pleasure in the reflection that long before sorrow had made my days her own and bound me to her wheel
i had written in the soul of man that he who would lead a christ like life must be entirely and absolutely himself and had taken as my types not merely the shepherd on the hillside and the prisoner in his cell
and romantic movement in life but the very basis of his nature was the same as that of the nature of the artist an intense and flamelike imagination he realised in the entire sphere of human relations that imaginative sympathy
when you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting how remote was the writer from what matthew arnold calls the secret of jesus either would have taught him that whatever happens to another happens to oneself
and if you want an inscription to read at dawn and at night time and for pleasure or for pain write up on the walls of your house in letters for the sun to gild and the moon to silver
christ's place indeed is with the poets his whole conception of humanity sprang right out of the imagination and can only be realised by it what god was to the pantheist man was to him
the divided races as a unity before his time there had been gods and men and feeling through the mysticism of sympathy that in himself each had been made incarnate
imagining that he could bear on his own shoulders the burden of the entire world
and all that was yet to be done and suffered the sins of nero of caesar borgia
and priest of the sun the sufferings of those whose names are legion and whose dwelling is among the tombs oppressed nationalities factory children thieves people in prison outcasts those who are dumb under oppression
and whose silence is heard only of god and not merely imagining this but actually achieving it so that at the present moment all who come in contact with his personality even though they may neither bow to his altar nor kneel before his priest
and the beauty of their sorrow revealed to them
that is true shelley and sophocles are of his company but his entire life also is the most wonderful of poems for pity and terror there is nothing in the entire cycle of greek tragedy to touch it
and pelops line are by their very horror excluded and shows how wrong aristotle was when he said in his treatise on the drama that it would be impossible to bear the spectacle of one blameless in pain
those stern masters of tenderness in shakespeare the most purely human of all the great artists in the whole of celtic myth and legend
and the life of a man is no more than the life of a flower
can be said to equal or even approach the last act of christ's passion the little supper with his companions one of whom has already sold him for a price the anguish in the quiet moon lit garden the false friend coming close to him
so as to betray him with a kiss the friend who still believed in him
denying him as the bird cried to the dawn his own utter loneliness his submission his acceptance of everything and along with it all such scenes as the high priest of orthodoxy rending his raiment in wrath
and the magistrate of civil justice calling for water in the vain hope of cleansing himself of that stain of innocent blood that makes him the scarlet figure of history the coronation ceremony of sorrow one of the most wonderful things in the whole of recorded time
the crucifixion of the innocent one before the eyes of his mother and of the disciple whom he loved the soldiers gambling and throwing dice for his clothes the terrible death by which he gave the world its most eternal symbol and his final burial
in the tomb of the rich man his body swathed in egyptian linen with costly spices and perfumes as though he had been a king's son
lost elsewhere to art is to be found
answering the priest at mass yet the whole life of christ so entirely may sorrow and beauty be made one in their meaning and manifestation is really an idyll though it ends with the veil of the temple being rent
and the darkness coming over the face of the earth and the stone rolled to the door of the sepulchre one always thinks of him as a young bridegroom with his companions as indeed he somewhere describes himself
as a shepherd straying through a valley with his sheep in search of green meadow or cool stream as a singer trying to build out of the music the walls of the city of god or as a lover for whose love the whole world was too small
his miracles seem to me to be as exquisite as the coming of spring and quite as natural i see no difficulty at all in believing that such was the charm of his personality that his mere presence could bring peace to souls in anguish
that when he taught on the hillside the multitude forgot their hunger and thirst and the cares of this world and that to his friends who listened to him as he sat at meat the coarse food seemed delicate and the water had the taste of good wine and the whole house became full
of the odour and sweetness of nard renan
that gracious fifth gospel
says somewhere that christ's great achievement was that he made himself as much loved after his death as he had been during his lifetime and certainly if his place is among the poets he is the leader of all the lovers he saw that love was the first secret of the world
for which the wise men had been looking and that it was only through love that one could approach either the heart of the leper or the feet of god and above all
is merely a mode of manifestation it is man's soul that christ is always looking for he calls it god's kingdom and finds it in every one he compares it to little things to a tiny seed to a handful of leaven to a pearl
that is because one realises one's soul only by getting rid of all alien passions all acquired culture and all external possessions be they good or evil i bore up against everything with some stubbornness of will
and much rebellion of nature till i had absolutely nothing left in the world but one thing i had lost my name my position my happiness my freedom my wealth i was a prisoner and a pauper but i still had my children left
suddenly they were taken away from me by the law it was a blow so appalling that i did not know what to do so i flung myself on my knees and bowed my head and wept and said the body of a child is as the body of the lord i am not worthy of either
in many ways i had been its enemy but i found it waiting for me as a friend when one comes in contact with the soul it makes one simple as a child as christ said one should be it is tragic how few people ever possess their souls before they die
nothing is more rare in any man says emerson than an act of his own it is quite true most people are other people their thoughts are some one else's opinions their lives a mimicry their passions a quotation
christ was not merely the supreme individualist but he was the first individualist in history people have tried to make him out an ordinary philanthropist or ranked him as an altruist with the scientific and sentimental
but he was really neither one nor the other pity he has of course for the poor for those who are shut up in prisons for the lowly for the wretched but he has far more pity for the rich
for those who wear soft raiment and live in kings houses riches and pleasure
who knew better than he that it is vocation not volition that determines us
to live for others as a definite self conscious aim was not his creed it was not the basis of his creed when he says forgive your enemies it is not for the sake of the enemy
and because love is more beautiful than hate in his own entreaty to the young man sell all that thou hast and give to the poor it is not of the state of the poor that he is thinking but of the soul of the young man the soul that wealth was marring
in his view of life he is one with the artist who knows that by the inevitable law of self perfection the poet must sing and the sculptor think in bronze and the painter make the world a mirror for his moods as surely and as certainly as the hawthorn must blossom in spring
he pointed out that there was no difference at all between the lives of others and one's own life by this means he gave to man an extended a titan personality since his coming the history of each separate individual is or can be made the history of the world
art has made us myriad minded those who have the artistic temperament go into exile with dante and learn how salt is the bread of others and how steep their stairs
donnez moi la force et le courage de contempler mon corps et mon coeur sans degout out of shakespeare's sonnets they draw to their own hurt it may be
in words or in colours in music or in marble
or through some sicilian shepherds pierced and jointed reeds the man and his message must have been revealed
to him what is dumb is dead but to christ it was not so with a width and wonder of imagination that fills one almost with awe he took the entire world of the inarticulate the voiceless world of pain as his kingdom and made of himself its eternal mouthpiece
those of whom i have spoken who are dumb under oppression and whose silence is heard only of god he chose as his brothers he sought to become eyes to the blind ears to the deaf and a cry in the lips of those whose tongues had been tied
who had found no utterance a very trumpet through which they might call to heaven and feeling with the artistic nature of one
he made of himself the image of the man of sorrows and as such has fascinated and dominated art as no greek god ever succeeded in doing
were not really what they appeared to be the curved brow of apollo
and his feet were as the wings of the morning but he himself had been cruel
the two most deeply suggestive figures of greek mythology were for religion demeter an earth goddess not one of the olympians and for art dionysus the son of a mortal woman to whom the moment of his birth had proved also the moment of her death
but life itself from its lowliest and most humble sphere produced one far more marvellous than the mother of proserpina or the son of semele out of the carpenter's shop at nazareth had come a personality infinitely greater
than any made by myth and legend and one strangely enough destined to reveal to the world the mystical meaning of wine and the real beauties of the lilies of the field as none
or at enna had ever done the song of isaiah he is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him
had seemed to him to prefigure himself and in him the prophecy was fulfilled we must not be afraid of such a phrase every single work of art is the fulfilment of a prophecy for every work of art is the conversion of an idea into an image
became in the long progress of the centuries incarnate in him for whom the world was waiting to me one of the things in history the most to be regretted
the arthurian cycle of legends the life of saint francis of assisi the art of giotto and dante's divine comedy
and raphael's frescoes and palladian architecture and formal french tragedy and saint paul's cathedral and pope's poetry and everything that is made from without and by dead rules and does not spring from within
and under some form is christ or the soul of christ he is in romeo and juliet in the winter's tale
and in chatterton's ballad of charity we owe to him the most diverse things and people
the note of pity in russian novels verlaine and verlaine's poems the stained glass and tapestries and the quattro cento work of burne jones and morris belong to him no less than the tower of giotto
tannhauser the troubled romantic marbles of michael angelo
there was but little place hardly enough for them to grow or play in
under various modes and at various times coming fitfully and wilfully as children as flowers are apt to do spring always seeming to one as if the flowers had been in hiding
i write this account of the mode of my being transferred here simply that it should be realised how hard it has been for me to get anything out of my punishment but bitterness and despair i have however to do it
and now and then i have moments of submission and acceptance all the spring may be hidden in the single bud and the low ground nest of the lark may hold the joy that is to herald the feet of many rose red dawns
so perhaps whatever beauty of life still remains to me is contained in some moment of surrender abasement and humiliation i can at any rate merely proceed on the lines of my own development
and accepting all that has happened to me make myself worthy of it people used to say of me that i was too individualistic i must be far more of an individualist than ever i was
i must get far more out of myself than ever i got and ask far less of the world than ever i asked indeed my ruin came not from too great individualism of life but from too little the one disgraceful
unpardonable and to all time contemptible action of my life was to allow myself to appeal to society for help and protection to have made such an appeal would have been from the individualist point of view bad enough
but what excuse can there ever be put forward for having made it of course once i had put into motion the forces of society society turned on me and said have you been living all this time in defiance of my laws
and do you now appeal to those laws for protection you shall have those laws exercised to the full you shall abide by what you have appealed to
know nothing about art and are the very salt of the earth he is the philistine who upholds and aids the heavy cumbrous blind mechanical forces of society and who does not recognise dynamic force when he meets it
either in a man or a movement people thought it dreadful of me to have entertained at dinner the evil things of life and to have found pleasure in their company but then from the point of view through which i as an artist in life approach them
they were delightfully suggestive and stimulating the danger was half the excitement my business as an artist was with ariel i set myself to wrestle with caliban a great friend of mine
a friend of ten years standing came to see me some time ago and told me that he did not believe a single word of what was said against me and wished me to know that he considered me quite innocent and the victim of a hideous plot
still that my life had been full of perverse pleasures and that unless he accepted that as a fact about me and realised it to the full i could not possibly be friends with him any more or ever be in his company it was a terrible shock to him
but we are friends and i have not got his friendship on false pretences emotional forces as i say somewhere in intentions are as limited in extent and duration as the forces of physical energy
the little cup that is made to hold so much can hold so much and no more though all the purple vats of burgundy be filled with wine to the brim and the treaders stand knee deep in the gathered grapes of the stony vineyards of spain
there is no error more common than that of thinking that those who are the causes or occasions of great tragedies share in the feelings suitable to the tragic mood no error more fatal than expecting it of them
or the felling of a tree to the charcoal burner in the forest or the fall of a flower to one who is mowing down the grass with a scythe great passions are for the great of soul and great events
can be seen only by those who are on a level with them i know of nothing in all drama more incomparable from the point of view of art nothing more suggestive in its subtlety of observation
he is staggering under the weight of a burden intolerable to one of his temperament the dead have come armed out of the grave to impose on him a mission at once too great and too mean for him he is a dreamer
with life in its practical realisation of which he knows nothing not with life in its ideal essence of which he knows so much he has no conception of what to do and his folly is to feign folly
brutus used madness as a cloak to conceal the sword of his purpose the dagger of his will but the hamlet madness is a mere mask for the hiding of weakness in the making of fancies and jests he sees a chance of delay
he keeps playing with action as an artist plays with a theory he makes himself the spy of his proper actions and listening to his own words knows them to be but words words words instead of trying to be the hero of his own history
he seeks to be the spectator of his own tragedy he disbelieves in everything including himself and yet his doubt helps him not as it comes not from scepticism but from a divided will
and the puppets in their dalliance hamlet catches the conscience of the king and drives the wretched man in terror from his throne guildenstern and rosencrantz see no more in his conduct than a rather painful breach of court etiquette
that is as far as they can attain to in the contemplation of the spectacle of life with appropriate emotions they are close to his very secret and know nothing of it nor would there be any use in telling them
but a tragic ending of this kind though touched by hamlet's humour with something of the surprise and justice of comedy is really not for such as they they never die horatio
who in order to report hamlet and his cause aright to the unsatisfied absents him from felicity a while and in this harsh world draws his breath in pain dies
but guildenstern and rosencrantz are as immortal as angelo and tartuffe and should rank with them they are what modern life has contributed to the antique ideal of friendship he who writes a new
must find a niche for them and praise them in tusculan prose they are types fixed for all time to censure them would show a lack of appreciation they are merely out of their sphere that is all
in sublimity of soul there is no contagion high thoughts and high emotions are by their very existence isolated i am to be released if all goes well with me towards the end of may
and hope to go at once to some little sea side village abroad with r and m
washes away the stains and wounds of the world i hope to be at least a month with my friends and to gain peace and balance and a less troubled heart and a sweeter mood
i have a strange longing for the great simple primeval things such as the sea to me no less of a mother than the earth it seems to me that we all look at nature too much and live with her too little
i discern great sanity in the greek attitude they never chattered about sunsets or discussed whether the shadows on the grass were really mauve or not but they saw that the sea was for the swimmer and the sand for the feet of the runner
they loved the trees for the shadow that they cast and the forest for its silence at noon the vineyard dresser wreathed his hair with ivy that he might keep off the rays of the sun as he stooped over the young shoots
they plaited with garlands the leaves of the bitter laurel and of the wild parsley which else had been of no service to men
and we do not know the uses of any single thing we have forgotten that water can cleanse and fire purify and that the earth is mother to us all as a consequence our art is of the moon and plays with shadows while greek art is of the sun
and deals directly with things i feel sure that in elemental forces there is purification and i want to go back to them
of course to one so modern as i am
will be always lovely i tremble with pleasure when i think that on the very day of my leaving prison both the laburnum and the lilac will be blooming in the gardens and that i shall see the wind stir into restless beauty the swaying gold of the one
and make the other toss the pale purple of its plumes so that all the air shall be arabia for me linnaeus fell on his knees and wept for joy when he saw for the first time the long heath of some english upland
made yellow with the tawny aromatic brooms of the common furze
satisfying though it may be there is some spirit hidden of which the painted forms and shapes are but modes of manifestation and it is with this spirit that i desire to become in harmony
i have grown tired of the articulate utterances of men and things the mystical in art the mystical in life the mystical in nature this is what i am looking for it is absolutely necessary for me to find it somewhere
all trials are trials for one's life just as all sentences are sentences of death and three times have i been tried the first time i left the box to be arrested
the second time to be led back to the house of detention the third time to pass into a prison for two years society as we have constituted it will have no place for me has none to offer
but nature whose sweet rains fall on unjust and just alike will have clefts in the rocks where i may hide and secret valleys in whose silence i may weep undisturbed she will hang the night with stars
so that i may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling and send the wind over my footprints
she will cleanse me in great waters
it is but a glimpse of the world of fashion
it is not so unlike the court of chancery but that we may pass from the one scene to the other as the crow flies both the world of fashion and the court of chancery
are things of precedent and usage oversleeping rip van winkles who have played at strange games through a deal of thundery weather sleeping beauties whom the knight will wake one day
when all the stopped spits in the kitchen shall begin to turn prodigiously it is not a large world relatively even to this world of ours which has its limits too
and are come to the brink of the void beyond it is a very little speck there is much good in it there are many good and true people in it it has its appointed place but the evil of it is
that it is a world wrapped up in too much jeweller's cotton and fine wool and cannot hear the rushing of the larger worlds and cannot see them as they circle round the sun
it is a deadened world and its growth is sometimes unhealthy for want of air my lady dedlock has returned to her house in town for a few days previous to her departure for paris
where her ladyship intends to stay some weeks after which her movements are uncertain the fashionable intelligence says so
and it knows all fashionable things to know things otherwise were to be unfashionable my lady dedlock has been down at what she calls in familiar conversation
her place in lincolnshire the waters are out in lincolnshire an arch of the bridge in the park has been sapped and sopped away the adjacent low lying ground
for half a mile in breadth is a stagnant river with melancholy trees for islands in it and a surface punctured all over all day long with falling rain
my lady dedlock's place has been extremely dreary the weather for many a day and night has been so wet that the trees seem wet through
and the soft loppings and prunings of the woodman's axe can make no crash or crackle as they fall the deer looking soaked leave quagmires where they pass
and its smoke moves in a tardy little cloud towards the green rise coppice topped that makes a background for the falling rain the view from my lady dedlock's own windows
is alternately a lead coloured view and a view in indian ink the vases on the stone terrace in the foreground catch the rain all day and the heavy drops fall drip drip drip
upon the broad flagged pavement called from old time the ghost's walk all night on sundays the little church in the park is mouldy
and there is a general smell and taste as of the ancient dedlocks in their graves my lady dedlock who is childless looking out in the early twilight from her boudoir
at a keeper's lodge and seeing the light of a fire upon the latticed panes and smoke rising from the chimney and a child chased by a woman running out into the rain
to meet the shining figure of a wrapped up man coming through the gate has been put quite out of temper my lady dedlock says she has been bored to death
as the housekeeper has passed along the old rooms shutting up the shutters and when they will next come forth again the fashionable intelligence which like the fiend
is omniscient of the past and present but not the future cannot yet undertake to say sir leicester dedlock is only a baronet
his family is as old as the hills and infinitely more respectable he has a general opinion that the world might get on without hills but would be done up without dedlocks
he would on the whole admit nature to be a good idea a little low perhaps when not enclosed with a park fence but an idea dependent for its execution
on your great county families he is a gentleman of strict conscience disdainful of all littleness and meanness and ready on the shortest notice to die any death you may please to mention
rather than give occasion for the least impeachment of his integrity he is an honourable obstinate truthful high spirited intensely prejudiced perfectly unreasonable man
sir leicester is twenty years full measure older than my lady he will never see sixty five again nor perhaps sixty six nor yet sixty seven
he has a twist of the gout now and then and walks a little stiffly he is of a worthy presence with his light grey hair and whiskers his fine shirt frill
and holds her personal attractions in the highest estimation his gallantry to my lady which has never changed since he courted her
in him indeed he married her for love a whisper still goes about that she had not even family
with any more but she had beauty pride ambition insolent resolve and sense enough to portion out a legion of fine ladies wealth and station added to these soon floated her upward
and for years now my lady dedlock has been at the centre of the fashionable intelligence and at the top of the fashionable tree how alexander wept when he had no more worlds to conquer
everybody knows or has some reason to know by this time the matter having been rather frequently mentioned my lady dedlock having conquered her world fell not into the melting but rather
into the freezing mood an exhausted composure a worn out placidity an equanimity of fatigue not to be ruffled by interest or satisfaction are the trophies of her victory
she is perfectly well bred if she could be translated to heaven to morrow she might be expected to ascend without any rapture she has beauty still
and if it be not in its heyday it is not yet in its autumn she has a fine face originally of a character that would be rather called very pretty than handsome
but improved into classicality by the acquired expression of her fashionable state her figure is elegant and has the effect of being tall not that she is so but that
the most is made as the honourable bob stables has frequently asserted upon oath of all her points the same authority observes that she is perfectly got up
and remarks in commendation of her hair especially that she is the best groomed woman in the whole stud with all her perfections on her head my lady dedlock has come up from her place in lincolnshire
hotly pursued by the fashionable intelligence to pass a few days at her house in town previous to her departure for paris where her ladyship intends to stay some weeks after which
and at her house in town upon this muddy murky afternoon presents himself an old fashioned old gentleman attorney at law and eke solicitor of the high court of chancery
who has the honour of acting as legal adviser of the dedlocks and has as many cast iron boxes in his office with that name outside as if the present baronet were the coin of the conjuror's trick
and were constantly being juggled through the whole set across the hall and up the stairs and along the passages and through the rooms which are very brilliant in the season and very dismal out of it
fairy land to visit but a desert to live in the old gentleman is conducted by a mercury in powder to my lady's presence
the old gentleman is rusty to look at but is reputed to have made good thrift out of aristocratic marriage settlements and aristocratic wills and to be very rich
he is surrounded by a mysterious halo of family confidences of which he is known to be the silent depository
as one of a company of some hundred and fifty men and women not labouring under any suspicions of lunacy that the court of chancery though the shining subject of much popular prejudice
at which point i thought the judge's eye had a cast in my direction was almost immaculate there had been he admitted a trivial blemish or so in its rate of progress
but this was exaggerated and had been entirely owing to the parsimony of the public which guilty public it appeared had been until lately bent in the most determined manner
on by no means enlarging the number of chancery judges appointed i believe by richard the second but any other king will do as well this seemed to me too profound a joke to be inserted in the body of this book
or i should have restored it
with one or other of whom i think it must have originated in such mouths i might have coupled it with an apt quotation from one of shakespeare's sonnets my nature is subdued
to what it works in like the dyer's hand pity me then and wish i were renewed but as it is wholesome that the parsimonious public should know
what has been doing and still is doing in this connexion i mention here that everything set forth in these pages concerning the court of chancery is substantially true
than when it was begun
not yet decided which was commenced before the close of the last century and in which more than double the amount of seventy thousand pounds has been swallowed up in costs if i wanted other authorities for jarndyce and jarndyce
i could rain them on these pages to the shame of a parsimonious public there is only one other point on which i offer a word of remark
the possibility of what is called spontaneous combustion has been denied since the death of mister krook and my good friend mister lewes
to have been abandoned by all authorities published some ingenious letters to me at the time when that event was chronicled arguing that spontaneous combustion could not possibly be
i have no need to observe that i do not wilfully or negligently mislead my readers and that before i wrote that description i took pains to investigate the subject
by giuseppe bianchini a prebendary of verona otherwise distinguished in letters who published an account of it at verona in seventeen thirty one which he afterwards republished at rome
the appearances beyond all rational doubt observed in that case are the appearances observed in mister krook's case the next most famous
six years earlier and the historian in that case is le cat
the subject was a woman whose husband was ignorantly convicted of having murdered her but on solemn appeal to a higher court he was acquitted because it was shown upon the evidence
of spontaneous combustion is given i do not think it necessary to add to these notable facts and that general reference to the authorities which will be found at page
french english and scotch in more modern days contenting myself with observing that i shall not abandon the facts until there shall have been a considerable spontaneous combustion of the testimony on which human occurrences
michaelmas term lately over and the lord chancellor sitting in lincoln's inn hall implacable november weather as much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth
and it would not be wonderful to meet a megalosaurus forty feet long or so
smoke lowering down from chimney pots making a soft black drizzle with flakes of soot in it as big as full grown snowflakes gone into mourning one might imagine for the death of the sun
dogs undistinguishable in mire horses scarcely better splashed to their very blinkers foot passengers jostling one another's umbrellas in a general infection of ill temper
and losing their foot hold at street corners where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke if this day ever broke adding new deposits to the crust
upon crust of mud sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement and accumulating at compound interest fog everywhere fog up the river where it flows among green
aits and meadows fog down the river where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great and dirty city fog on the essex marshes fog on the kentish heights
fog creeping into the cabooses of collier brigs fog lying out on the yards and hovering in the rigging of great ships fog drooping on the gunwales of barges and small boats
fog in the eyes and throats of ancient greenwich pensioners wheezing by the firesides of their wards fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper
down in his close cabin fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little prentice boy on deck
gas looming through the fog in divers places in the streets much as the sun may from the spongey fields be seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy
near that leaden headed old obstruction appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden headed old corporation temple bar and hard by temple bar in lincoln's inn hall
at the very heart of the fog sits the lord high chancellor in his high court of chancery never can there come fog too thick never can there come mud and mire too deep
to assort with the groping and floundering condition which this high court of chancery most pestilent of hoary sinners holds this day in the sight of heaven and earth on such an afternoon if ever
the lord high chancellor ought to be sitting here as here he is with a foggy glory round his head softly fenced in with crimson cloth and curtains addressed
by a large advocate with great whiskers a little voice and an interminable brief and outwardly directing his contemplation to the lantern in the roof where he can see nothing but fog
on such an afternoon some score of members of the high court of chancery bar ought to be as here they are mistily engaged in one of the ten thousand stages of an endless cause
tripping one another up on slippery precedents groping knee deep in technicalities running their goat hair and horsehair warded heads against walls of words and making a pretence of equity
with serious faces as players might on such an afternoon the various solicitors in the cause some two or three of whom have inherited it from their fathers
ought to be as are they not ranged in a line in a long matted well but you might look in vain for truth at the bottom of it
well may the court be dim with wasting candles here and there well may the fog hang heavy in it as if it would never get out well may the stained glass windows
and admit no light of day into the place well may the uninitiated from the streets who peep in through the glass panes in the door be deterred from entrance by its owlish aspect
and by the drawl languidly echoing to the roof from the padded dais where the lord high chancellor looks into the lantern that has no light in it and where the attendant wigs are all stuck in a fog bank
this is the court of chancery which has its decaying houses and its blighted lands in every shire which has its worn out lunatic in every madhouse and its dead in every churchyard
which has its ruined suitor with his slipshod heels and threadbare dress borrowing and begging through the round of every man's acquaintance which gives to monied might the means abundantly of wearying out the right
which so exhausts finances patience courage hope so overthrows the brain and breaks the heart that there is not an honourable man among its practitioners who would not give who does not often give the warning
suffer any wrong that can be done you rather than come here who happen to be in the lord chancellor's court this murky afternoon besides the lord chancellor the counsel in the cause two or three counsel
who are never in any cause and the well of solicitors before mentioned there is the registrar below the judge in wig and gown and there are two or three maces or petty bags or privy purses
or whatever they may be in legal court suits these are all yawning for no crumb of amusement ever falls from jarndyce and jarndyce the cause in hand
the short hand writers the reporters of the court and the reporters of the newspapers invariably decamp with the rest of the regulars when jarndyce and jarndyce comes on their places are a blank
standing on a seat at the side of the hall the better to peer into the curtained sanctuary is a little mad old woman in a squeezed bonnet who is always in court from its sitting to its rising
and always expecting some incomprehensible judgment to be given in her favour
but no one knows for certain because no one cares she carries some small litter in a reticule which she calls her documents principally consisting of paper matches and dry lavender
a sallow prisoner has come up in custody
to make a personal application to purge himself of his contempt which being a solitary surviving executor who has fallen into a state of conglomeration about accounts of which it is not pretended that he had ever any knowledge
he is not at all likely ever to do in the meantime his prospects in life are ended another ruined suitor who periodically appears from shropshire and breaks out into efforts
to address the chancellor at the close of the day's business and who can by no means be made to understand that the chancellor is legally ignorant of his existence after making it desolate
for a quarter of a century plants himself in a good place and keeps an eye on the judge ready to call out my lord in a voice of sonorous complaint on the instant of his rising
a few lawyers clerks and others who know this suitor by sight linger on the chance of his furnishing some fun and enlivening the dismal weather a little jarndyce and jarndyce drones on
this scarecrow of a suit has in course of time become so complicated that no man alive knows what it means the parties to it understand it least but it has been observed that no two chancery lawyers
can talk about it for five minutes without coming to a total disagreement as to all the premises innumerable children have been born into the cause innumerable young people have married into it innumerable old people have died out of it
scores of persons have deliriously found themselves made parties in jarndyce and jarndyce without knowing how or why whole families have inherited legendary hatreds with the suit
fair wards of court have faded into mothers and grandmothers a long procession of chancellors has come in and gone out the legion of bills in the suit have been transformed into mere bills of mortality
since old tom jarndyce in despair blew his brains out at a coffee house in chancery lane but jarndyce and jarndyce still drags its dreary length before the court perennially hopeless
jarndyce and jarndyce has passed into a joke
it has been death to many but it is a joke in the profession every master in chancery has had a reference out of it every chancellor was in it for somebody or other when he was counsel at the bar
good things have been said about it by blue nosed bulbous shoed old benchers in select port wine committee after dinner in hall
articled clerks have been in the habit of fleshing their legal wit upon it the last lord chancellor handled it neatly
who said that such a thing might happen when the sky rained potatoes he observed or when we get through jarndyce and jarndyce mister blowers a pleasantry that particularly tickled the maces bags and purses
how many people out of the suit jarndyce and jarndyce has stretched forth its unwholesome hand to spoil and corrupt would be a very wide question from the master
upon whose impaling files reams of dusty warrants
has been made better by it in trickery evasion procrastination spoliation botheration under false pretences of all sorts there are influences that can never come to good
may have got an extra moral twist and shuffle into themselves out of jarndyce and jarndyce the receiver in the cause has acquired a goodly sum of money by it but has acquired too a distrust of his own mother
chizzle mizzle and otherwise have lapsed into a habit of vaguely promising themselves that they will look into that outstanding little matter and see what can be done for drizzle who was not well used
its history from the outermost circle of such evil have been insensibly tempted into a loose way of letting bad things alone to take their own bad course and a loose belief that if the world go wrong
it was in some off hand manner never meant to go right thus in the midst of the mud and at the heart of the fog sits the lord high chancellor in his high court of chancery
mister tangle says the lord high chancellor latterly something restless under the eloquence of that learned gentleman mlud says mister tangle mister tangle knows more of jarndyce and jarndyce than anybody
ludship is the reply that slides out of mister tangle several members of the bar are still to be heard i believe says the chancellor with a slight smile
eighteen of mister tangle's learned friends each armed with a little summary of eighteen hundred sheets
make eighteen bows and drop into their eighteen places of obscurity we will proceed with the hearing on wednesday fortnight says the chancellor for the question at issue is only a question of costs
a mere bud on the forest tree of the parent suit and really will come to a settlement one of these days the chancellor rises the bar rises the prisoner is brought
the man from shropshire cries my lord maces bags and purses indignantly proclaim silence and frown at the man from shropshire in reference proceeds the chancellor
still on jarndyce and jarndyce to the young girl begludship's pardon boy says mister tangle prematurely
to the young girl and boy the two young people mister tangle crushed whom i directed to be in attendance to day and who are now in my private room
i will see them and satisfy myself as to the expediency of making the order for their residing with their uncle mister tangle on his legs again begludship's pardon dead with their
fully inflated in the back settlements of the fog and says will your lordship allow me i appear for him he is a cousin several times removed i am not at the moment prepared to inform the court
in what exact remove he is a cousin but he is a cousin leaving this address
ringing in the rafters of the roof the very little counsel drops and the fog knows him no more everybody looks for him nobody can see him i will speak with both the young people
says the chancellor anew and satisfy myself on the subject of their residing with their cousin
the chancellor is about to bow to the bar when the prisoner is presented nothing can possibly come of the prisoner's conglomeration but his being sent back to prison which is soon done
my lord but the chancellor being aware of him has dexterously vanished everybody else quickly vanishes too
this eventful day it was unanimously agreed should be observed as a strict holiday no work except what was absolutely necessary beyond the launch being permissible
every preparation had been completed the day before all of us having worked like galley slaves to achieve this result as soon as it became apparent that launching on this day might be possible
the morning dawned fair and serene the sky was without a cloud each quivering leaf and blade of grass glittered with diamond like dew drops and the air was laden with the perfume of numberless flowers
nature appeared in fact to have arrayed herself in gala attire in honour of the occasion bob and winter were up by daybreak to dress the schooner out with the flags of the old amazon
and the name ada after my sister in white letters which floated gallantly in the breeze from the main topmast head and which i need scarcely inform the sagacious reader
was the work of ella's skilful fingers the cutter's flags were equally divided between her and the tube boat both craft being moored a short distance apart in the little bay our gun
which had never been dismounted from the time of the fight with the pirate's boats was loaded with a blank cartridge well rammed down and the muzzle plentifully greased to create a louder report
so that the schooner might be honoured with a salute as she took the water and one of the blacks was stationed on board the water lily with instructions to pull the trigger line directly he saw the schooner fairly in motion on the ways
a bottle of wine was also slung from the schooner's stem that the ceremony of christening might not be shorn of its usual rite this occupied the two mates until breakfast was ready
when we all sat down to the meal in most exuberant spirits as soon as it was over we all proceeded to the beach and bob climbed on board the craft and took his station forward
in readiness to let go the anchor as soon as she had slid far enough off from the land ella took up a position under the bows supported by my father
who instructed her how to perform the ceremony of christening after the most approved fashion whilst winter and i stood by to knock away the spur shores and the second native launched and jumped into a canoe
to go alongside and fetch bob ashore as soon as his share of the duty was performed when we had all taken our stations is everybody ready inquired my father a general
ay ay was the response ella took the bottle of wine in her hand and winter and i poised our hammers then knock away with a will lads exclaimed the skipper
a few lusty strokes brought the shores down the schooner began to move and ella dashed the bottle against the craft's bows exclaiming in a clear silvery voice
god bless the ada and send her success and prosperity we all took off our hats and cheered lustily as the schooner rushed down the ways and plunged stern foremost into the sparkling sea
the gun went off with a sharp bang and the native gunner instantly with a terrific yell sprang over the side of the cutter and struck out for the shore with all the vigour and activity that fear could impart to his movements
as soon as her speed was sufficiently reduced bob let go his anchor and we had the satisfaction of seeing that she floated lightly and on a perfectly even keel
as soon as bob came on shore he of course joined us and lent his aid in admiring and praising our own handiwork as is pretty generally the custom with all mortals
in the exhibition of their actual feelings as we were and i think we had very good reason for our admiration for the craft was more than sightly she was decidedly handsome
and we who had put her together were after all it must be remembered only unskilled amateurs and though i think i may without undue vanity say that we were all prime seamen
and knew perfectly well what constituted a handsome and wholesome craft it is one thing to know this and quite another to make your work correspond accurately with your ideas
when we had admired the schooner to our hearts content my father wished to know whether any one had any proposal to make as to the manner in which the remainder of the day should be spent
it appeared from the general silence which ensued that no one had but on glancing at ella who remained beside him i noticed an eager look in her face as though she would like to speak
but was restrained by a feeling of timidity what is it ella inquired i if no one has anything better to propose she replied i
think a picnic would be very nice and i would suggest that the natives be sent on by land with everything necessary to the northern end of the island opposite the poor old amazon
of which we are so soon to see the last and that the rest of us take harry's tube boat and sail in her quite round the island which we new comers have not seen very much of as yet
and stop at the point i have named this of course we all cordially agreed to though i could scarcely help smiling furtively at the idea of a picnic
when our lives had been a sort of continuous picnic affair ever since we had been on the island though it is true our pastime had consisted principally of pretty hard work however
i made no remark and we all returned to the house and proceeded to pack up the necessary viands etcetera and to start the niggers as bob invariably termed our black aids in the proposed direction
when everything was ready however it was found that there was more than we had the conscience to ask the poor fellows to carry willing as they were
as to send them by water in a canoe instead of by land and as soon as they were fairly away we shoved off in the cutter's canoe got on board the tube boat hauled up her grapnel
and made sail to the southward here another departure from the programme took place for my father was curious to see how so singular a craft behaved in open water
so as there was a nice fresh breeze blowing and sufficient sea on outside to give him a fair idea of her qualities we worked out through the channel as soon as we reached it
and sailed round the island outside of everything first of all resuming the original plan as soon as we came inside again both my father and winter
were much struck with the smooth and easy motion with which she took the seas especially when going close hauled to windward the short choppy head sea which the breeze had knocked up
having not the slightest perceptible retarding effect upon the sharp gently swelling tubes which pierced the combing seas absolutely without any shock whatever whereas a boat of the usual mould
would have pitched and jerked into them and half blinded us and wholly wet us through with spray and they were quite as much surprised at her stiffness for her amount of heel was barely perceptible
though we were driving her through it under whole canvas whilst had we been in the water lily with a proportionate amount of sail set
have been lying down gunwale under so rapidly did she skim along over the water too
we were in ample time for the meal luncheon or dinner whichever we chose to call it which it was arranged we should partake of picnic fashion in the open air
that either of them had been outside the reef and that they were now fairly at sea and with a staunch and good sea boat under their feet
than the fact that the vessel in which that escape was planned to be made was now actually in the water having made the tour of the island both outside and inside the reef
and admired its many beauties we at length sat down to our meal in high spirits and with appetites which enabled us to do the most ample justice to ella's bounteous provision which it now appeared
had been in progress the whole of the previous day in anticipation of some such arrangement as that which she had proposed i had noticed an unusual flutter in the dear little girl's manner
more than once during the morning as well as considerable imperfectly repressed excitement but i had said nothing to her about it
we four men proceeded to regale ourselves and assist digestion with the fragrant weed the chief topic of conversation was of course
the arrangements to be made for a speedy departure from the island it was decided that on the following day all hands should employ themselves in getting the schooner ballasted provisioned and watered
and it was thought that by hard work all might be done in readiness for a departure at daybreak on the succeeding morning my father winter and the two blacks were to man the schooner
whilst ella bob and myself were to continue in the cutter and it was of course a settled thing that we were to keep company as long as it was possible we also decided upon certain rendezvous
in case of being compelled by bad weather to part company at any particular part of the voyage
were melbourne cape town saint helena saint antonio in the cape de verde group and madeira when this topic seemed pretty well exhausted
ella remarked nervously it seems then harry that you have quite given up the idea of making any further search for the treasure island i have not heard it mentioned once for oh ever so long
i fear we must think no more of that i replied when the story was first told to me it seemed an easy matter to sail direct to the spot
but the fact that some mistake has occurred somewhere with regard to its position has quite thrown us out and to look for it among the numerous islands which constitute this archipelago
if i only held a sufficient clue to warrant the slightest hope of success i would willingly prosecute a search but i do not are you quite sure that you do not
she returned still very nervously tell us the story all over again perhaps some useful idea may suggest itself to one or other of us if it is all gone carefully over once more
certainly i will said i
i anticipate no further result you must know then ella and gentlemen that the spaniard who told me this story was on his death bed when he confided it to me
he asserted that a treasure ship lay buried in the sandy beach of a certain island here in the pacific and he not only gave me the latitude and longitude of the island
so that i might recognise it at once and he also described certain marks whereby i might be able to fix upon the exact spot in the beach where the buried treasure ship lay
and i suppose you have fixed upon your mind a kind of mental picture of this island drawn from the description given you said ella and i presume you are of opinion that
i answered i can see it before me at this moment shutting my eyes as distinctly as possible there it lies about three miles away with the surf beating all round it
and there in bold relief against the clear blue sky stands the isolated clump of seven cocoa nut trees on the extreme northernmost point of the island
at this moment interrupted ella excitedly
if now any two of them were marked in any way somewhat like this again interrupted ella
as she started to her feet and placed her hand upon a very perceptible scar in the trunk of the central tree we sprang to our feet as one man
infinitely more excited even than ella was and walked up to the tree and carefully examined the mark there was no mistake about it the bark had been deeply cut away with a knife and i cannot for the life of me
say how it was that it had never attracted my attention unless it be that the wound was now weather stained and by no means so conspicuous as i had pictured it in my mind perhaps it was in a great measure due
i exclaimed it is on one or other of the remaining six trees if this really be here it is again exclaimed ella darting to a tree which stood on the edge of the clump
and again pointing out a mark very similar to the first of the nature of this mark too there could be no possible doubt i seized a half consumed stick from the embers of the expiring fire
and getting the two marked trees in line i walked away from them keeping them in one until i saw just clear of the trees and bushes on the southern extremity of the island
a small pinnacle of uncovered rock peering blackly out from among the snowy glittering surf i then drove the stick i held in my hand deep into the sandy beach exclaiming
here lies the buried treasure ship if there be any truth in the story we'll soon set that question at rest exclaimed bob
jump into this here canoe and paddle me down to the cutter as quick as you knows how
he explained turning to me
whilst he was gone i sought and obtained an explanation from ella of the manner in which she had made this most important discovery
it seemed that she had amused herself by wandering pretty nearly all over the island whilst we were hard at work upon the schooner and in one of her rambles her attention had been attracted to this very clump of trees
their number had impressed itself upon her and endeavouring to remember what it was she had heard or dreamed connected with seven cocoa nut trees the story of the treasure had suddenly flashed across her mind
this led of course to an examination of the trees and the discovery of the marks upon them on the day but one preceding the launch of the schooner
she decided to keep her own counsel until the arrival of the day itself and to let the revelation of the discovery be made at such a time as still further to increase our reasons for rejoicing
and upon this resolution had been based her plot for the picnic i am so delighted harry dear she added in conclusion
i was deeply affected by this and frequent other evidences of the warmth and strength of ella's attachment to me and of the confiding frankness with which she revealed it
arose from a knowledge of the extended power it would bestow upon me to contribute to her happiness bob soon returned with a couple of shovels and springing ashore from the canoe he handed one to winter
and began at once to ply the other most vigorously himself exclaiming as he did so
now fire away as hard as you like there's only a few feet of sand between us and gold enough to make all our fortin's a dozen times over so let's rouse it up and have a look at it without any more words
the two men worked with a will and soon stood in a good sized hole about three feet deep whilst the rest of us looked on at their labours with the keenest interest
at length winter's shovel struck upon something hard and he announced the fact with a joyous shout bob however still continued working away without meeting with any resistance
a few more strokes of winter's shovel laid bare a small patch of damp discoloured planking a further proof if we needed one of the truth of the story bob was still digging away as hard as ever
presently he ceased digging and began shovelling the loose sand off a piece of the deck
this was soon uncovered and we then saw that it was a piece of loose plank which he and winter succeeded between them in raising and underneath it lay a dark hollow cavity to work they both went once more
this accomplished it was found that we had been so fortunate as to hit at the first trial upon the hole through which the spaniard had penetrated to the innermost recesses of the ship
a great deal of sand still remained to be cleared away however before we could get at the gold and my father and i were on the point of relieving the two mates
when the natives who had looked on at the operations with a great deal of interest and intelligence stepped forward and said no no
and though they had probably never seen shovels in their lives before and were a little awkward at first in the handling of them they soon got into the swing of it and did their work as well as either of the others and so they kept on
spell and spell the mates and the niggers neither party seeming willing that my father or i should share in the hard work and in about an hour and a half bob's shovel suddenly struck sharply upon something
harder than wood he and winter were both working under the influence of powerful excitement so it was not long before they had cleared away the sand sufficiently to enable them to lay hold of and drag forth
an ingot black and discoloured almost as rusty iron but heavy enough to prove most satisfactorily that it was not that metal it was handed up
and i at once proceeded to scrape away with my strong clasp knife upon its surface quickly establishing the fact that it was indeed the precious metal this i considered sufficient for one day
especially as it had been agreed that it should be a holiday so with considerable difficulty i at length persuaded the two mates to come out of their hole and rest after their violent exertions
and shortly afterwards our goods and chattels were packed up and put on board one of the canoes in charge of the two natives and the remainder of the party embarked in the tube boat with the gold
thirteen ingots in all that had been brought to light the sails were hoisted and we ran down to the anchorage in the bay with both canoes in tow
it would be difficult to express the satisfaction which all felt at this important discovery but to bob and me the satisfaction was peculiarly great
for we had now accomplished all that our most sanguine expectations had led us to hope for in projecting this adventurous voyage more indeed for as the reader is aware
when the subject was first mooted we had no hope of finding my father having quite given him up as dead the next day saw us hard at work again
and not to dwell too long upon matters which may be passed over briefly
and as much gold as we considered we could take
twenty tons and the precious metal was also substituted for the lead ballast of the cutter
the sand shovelled back into its place and to time and the winds were left the work of completely eradicating all remaining traces of our labours both craft were then fully provisioned and watered
abundant preparation having already been made and on the morning following the completion of our final arrangements both craft made sail from the island the ada leading out through the channel
and stood away to the southward and westward under every stitch of canvas that would draw
the water lily could sail round and round the ada and we had to take in our topsail
in our mainsail to avoid running away from her altogether it was only when it came to double reefed canvas that her superior power told sufficiently to produce an equality in our speeds
it seemed as though everything which we were to meet with in the shape of adventure had befallen us on the first half of our voyage
and after a quick and pleasant run
with all the circumstances connected with the destruction of the pirate brig and of the crew being imprisoned on the island and i afterwards learned that a cruiser had been despatched to the spot
and that the entire band were captured tried condemned upon a mass of evidence which was soon collected against them and hanged
here also i had the happiness of being united to the dear girl who had in so many ways proved herself worthy of my best and strongest love and as our story
excepting that part of it which related to the finding of the treasure had got wind the sympathy and kind feeling shown towards us by the warm hearted colonists was such as to convert our wedding day
almost into a day of public rejoicing all the ships without exception were dressed with flags and there was a long article in one of the local papers headed thrilling romance of the sea
in which the story of ella's rescue from the wreck told with great effect we remained at melbourne about a week and then made sail once more still with favourable winds and fine weather
until we reached the cape of good hope which we did in little more than a month when we encountered a very strong breeze from the southward and eastward from which we were glad enough to take shelter behind the fine breakwater in the bay
here we again filled up provisions and water and once more despatched letters home by the time that we had done what we wanted the gale was over and we lost no time in making a fresh start
we soon got into the south east trades and as they happened to be blowing strong we made the best of them and did not attempt to stop at saint helena
getting a little slant of wind which carried us handsomely across the usually calm belt which so tries the patience of the homeward bound seaman at that spot and
after a remarkably fine passage of thirty nine days from table bay we found ourselves at anchor in funchal roads
letters from my sister in answer to ours from melbourne my poor father was completely unmanned by the warmth of affection breathed forth in my sister's letter to him
and i was scarcely less so at the delight she manifested at our safety and success and the warm sympathy with which she responded to the timid message my letter had conveyed to her from her unknown sister
we hurriedly got in a stock of wine and once more made sail and after a baffling passage of a fortnight against head winds and light airs and calms reached weymouth bay
on a most lovely evening in the last week of june having accomplished our voyage round the world with all its delays in somewhat under eleven months the moment that we were at anchor
one of the canoes was got into the water and my father ella and i were paddled ashore by the two natives who could now speak english tolerably well and had accustomed themselves to the use of civilised clothing
listening to the strains of the regimental band and had recognised the water lily as we drew in towards the anchorage i will pass over in silence the rapturous meeting which ensued
for the feelings of all were of too deep and sacred a character for so inexperienced a pen as mine to deal with suffice it to say that we all enjoyed on that evening one of those short seasons of perfect
unalloyed happiness which are occasionally permitted even here on earth little now remains to be told we succeeded after a vast amount of hard work and difficulty
in turning our gold into cash and the proceeds were equally divided among us five whites the result being as i suppose i need hardly say
winter like the honest fellow that he was immediately married the girl who had consented to share his uncertain fortune as a seaman and the two blacks attached themselves as a matter of course
to my father's establishment as for bob he asserted roundly that his gold would be of no use or value to him if i
i need scarcely say with my hearty good will a fixture in my establishment and his whole thoughts are now set on being made sailing master of a fine schooner yacht which is building for me
i found out ella's relations and communicated the fact of her rescue from the wreck and of her having become my wife but i said nothing respecting our immense wealth
merely stating that i was possessed of a comfortable independency as i wished to ascertain whether they were willing to receive her as a relative on her own and her mother's account i regret
for the sake of human nature to say that the interview was eminently unsatisfactory and i left their house with a mental resolve that my wife should never with my consent enter the doors of such unnatural relatives
that this would be a difficult thing to do doris was soon to realise mister challoner continued to pass the house twice a day and the time finally came when he ventured up the walk
she slipped softly out and intercepted him before he had stepped upon the porch she had caught up her hat as she passed through the hall and was fitting it to her head as he looked up and saw her miss scott he asked
yes mister challoner you know me he went on one foot on the step and one still on the walk before replying she closed the door behind her then as she noted his surprise
she carefully explained mister brotherson our boarder is just recovering from typhoid he is still weak and acutely susceptible to the least noise i was afraid that our voices might disturb him
do you mind walking a little way up the road that is if your visit was intended for me her flush the beauty which must have struck even him but more than all else her youth
seemed to reconcile him to this unconventional request bowing he took his foot from the step saying as she joined him yes you are the one i wanted to see that is to day
later i hope to have the privilege of a conversation with mister brotherson she gave him one quick look trembling so that he offered her his arm with a fatherly air
i see that you understand my errand here he proceeded with a grave smile meant as she knew for her encouragement i am glad because we can go at once to the point
miss scott he continued in a voice from which he no longer strove to keep back the evidences of deep feeling i have the strongest interest in your patient that one man can have in another where there is no personal acquaintanceship
you who have every reason to understand my reasons for this will accept the statement i hope as frankly as it is made she nodded her eyes were full of tears but she did not hesitate to raise them
she had the greatest desire to see the face of the man who could speak like this to day and yet of whose pride and sense of superiority his daughter had stood in such awe that she had laid a seal upon the impulses of her heart
and imposed such tasks and weary waiting upon her lover doris forgot in meeting his softened glance and tender almost wistful expression the changes which can be made by a great grief
and thus possibly averted the doom which doris felt had in some way grown out of this secrecy why should she have feared the disapproval of this man she inwardly queried
as she cast him a confiding look which pleased him greatly as his tone now showed when i lost my daughter i lost everything he declared as they walked slowly up the road
nothing excites my interest save that which once excited hers i am told that the deepest interest of her life lay here i am also told that it was an interest quite worthy of her
i expect to find it so i hope with all my heart to find it so
i hope that this will be agreeable to him i hope that i am not presuming too much in cherishing these expectations doris turned her candid eyes upon him i cannot tell i do not know
said she nobody knows not even the doctor what effect the news we so dread to give him will have upon mister brotherson you will have to wait
it cannot be kept from him much longer when i return i shall shrink from his first look in the fear of seeing it betray this dreadful knowledge yet i have a faithful woman there to keep every one out of his room
you have had much to carry for one so young was mister challoner's sympathetic remark you must let me help you when that awful moment comes i am at the hotel and shall stay there till mister brotherson is pronounced quite well
i have no other duty now in life but to sustain him through his trouble and then with what aid he can give search out and find the cause of my daughter's death which i will never admit without the fullest proof
to have been one of suicide doris trembled it was not suicide she declared vehemently i have always felt sure that it was not but to day i know
her hand fell clenched on her breast and her eyes gleamed strangely mister challoner was himself greatly startled what had happened what could have happened since yesterday that she should emphasise that now
i've not told any one she went on as he stopped short in the road in his anxiety to understand her but i will tell you
only not here not with all these people driving past most of whom know me come to the house later
would you object to doing that am i asking too much of you no not at all
will that be too early no no oh how those people stared let us hasten back or they may connect your name with what we want kept secret he smiled at her fears but gave in to her humour
he would see her soon again and possibly learn something which would amply repay him both for his trouble and his patience but when evening came and she turned to face him in that little sitting room where he had quietly followed her
she had been thinking in the hours which had passed and had lost the confidence of that one impetuous moment her greeting betrayed embarrassment and she hesitated painfully before she spoke
i don't know what you will think of me she ventured at last motioning to a chair but not sitting herself you have had time to think over what i said and probably expect something real
something you could tell people but it isn't like that it's a feeling a belief i'm so sure sure of what miss scott she gave a glance at the door before stepping up nearer
a dream miss scott he tried to hide his disappointment yes i knew that it would sound foolish to you it sounds foolish to me but listen sir
listen to what i have to tell and then you can judge i was very much agitated yesterday i had to write a letter at mister brotherson's dictation a letter to her you can understand my horror
and the effort i made to hide my emotion i was quite unnerved i could not sleep till morning
i saw i hope i can describe it grasping at a near by chair she leaned on it for support closing her eyes to all but that inner vision a breathless moment followed
then she murmured in strained monotonous tones i see it again just as i saw it in the early morning but even more plainly if that is possible a hall i should call it a hall though i don't remember seeing any place like it before
drawing out something which i cannot describe but which he handles as if it were a pistol i feel a horrible fear and
the child was staggering and the hand which was free had sought her heart where it lay clenched the knuckles showing white in the dim light mister challoner watched her with dilated eyes
the spell under which she spoke falling in some degree upon him had she finished was this all
but very low almost in a whisper there is music a crash but i plainly see his other hand approach the object he is holding he takes something from the end the object is pointed my way
i am looking into into what i do not know
yet it was not i who had been shot she added softly mister challoner shuddered this was like the reopening of his daughter's grave
but he had entered upon the scene with a full appreciation of the ordeal awaiting him and he did not lose his calmness or the control of his judgment be seated miss scott he entreated taking a chair himself
you have described the spot and some of the circumstances of my daughter's death as accurately as if you had been there but you have doubtless read a full account of those details in the papers
possibly seen pictures which would make the place quite real to you the mind is a strange storehouse we do not always know what lies hidden within it that's true she admitted but the man
i had never seen the man or any picture of him and his face was clearest of all i should know it if i saw it anywhere it is imprinted on my memory as plainly as yours oh i hope never to see that man
mister challoner sighed he had really anticipated something from the interview the disappointment was keen a moment of expectation the thrill which comes to us all under the shadow of the supernatural
and then this a young and imaginative girl's dream convincing to herself but supplying nothing which had not already been supplied both by the facts and his own imagination
a man had stood at the staircase and this man had raised his arm she said that she had seen something like a pistol in his hand but his daughter had not been shot this he thought it well to point out to her
leaning toward her that he might get her full attention he waited till her eyes met his then quietly asked have you ever named this man to yourself
said she why because i've read in the papers that the man who stood there had the same name as tell me miss scott as mister brotherson's brother
i do not know you've never seen his brother never nor his picture no mister brotherson has none aren't they friends
does he never mention orlando very very rarely but i've no reason to think they are not on good terms i know they correspond miss scott yes mister challoner
you must not rely too much upon your dream her eyes flashed to his and then fell again dreams are not revelations
i can prove that your dream is such how she looked startled you speak of seeing something being leveled at you which made you think of a pistol yes i was looking directly into it
but my daughter was not shot she died from a stab
took on a strange look of conviction which deepened rather than melted under his indulgent but penetrating gaze i know that you think so but my dream says no i saw this object
it was pointed directly towards me above all i saw his face it was the face of one whose finger is on the trigger and who means death
well it was useless to reason further gentle in all else she was immovable so far as this idea was concerned and seeing this he let the matter go and prepared to take his leave
she seemed to be quite ready for this anxiety about her patient had regained its place in her mind and her glance sped constantly toward the door taking her hand in his he said some kind words
then crossed to the door and opened it instantly her finger flew to her lips and obedient to its silent injunction he took up his hat in silence and was proceeding down the hall when the bell rang
startling them both and causing him to step quickly back who is it she asked father's in and visitors seldom come so late shall i see
she nodded looking strangely troubled as the door swung open revealing the tall strong figure of a man facing them from the porch a stranger formed itself upon her lips
and she was moving forward when the man suddenly stepped into the glare of the light and she stopped with a murmur of dismay which pierced mister challoner's heart and prepared him for the words which now fell shudderingly from her lips it is he
chaos it is not difficult to understand mister challoner's feelings or even those of doris at the moment of mister brotherson's departure but why this change in brotherson himself
why this sense of something new and terrible rising between him and the suddenly beclouded future let us follow him to his lonely hotel room and see if we can solve the puzzle but first
does he understand his own trouble he does not seem to for when his hat thrown aside he stops erect and frowning under the flaring gas jet he had no recollection of lighting
his first act was to lift his hand to his head in a gesture of surprising helplessness for him while snatches of broken sentences fell from his lips among which could be heard what has come to me
undone in an hour doubly undone first by a face and then by this thought which surely the devils have whispered to me mister challoner and oswald what is the link between them great
flinging himself into a chair he buried his face in his hands there were two demons to fight the first in the guise of an angel doris
unknown yesterday unknown an hour ago but now had there ever been a day an hour when she had not been as the very throb of his heart the light of his eyes
and the crown of all imaginable blisses he was startled at his own emotion as he contemplated her image in his fancy and listened for the lost echo of the few words she had spoken
words so full of music when they referred to his brother so hard and cold when she simply addressed himself this was no passing admiration of youth for a captivating woman
this was not even the love he had given to edith challoner this was something springing full born out of nothing a force which for the first time in his life made him complaisant to the natural weaknesses of man
a dream and yet a reality strong enough to blot out the past remake the present change the aspect of all his hopes and outline a new fate he did not know himself
there was nothing in his whole history to give him an understanding of such feelings as these can a man be seized as it were by the hair and swung up on the slopes of paradise or down the steeps of hell without a forewarning
without the chance even to say whether he wished such a cataclysm in his life or no
science had been his mistress ambition his lode star such feeling as he had acknowledged to had been for men struggling men men who were down trodden and gasping in the narrow bounds of poverty and helplessness
miss challoner had roused well his pride he could see that now the might of this new emotion made plain many things he had passed by as useless puerile
unworthy of a man of mental calibre and might he had never loved edith challoner at any moment of their acquaintanceship though he had been sincere in thinking that he did
oswald the cleverest man doris the most beautiful girl in western pennsylvania he had accepted the gossip then he had not seen her and it all seemed very natural hardly worth a moment's thought
but now and here the other demon sprang erect and grappled with him before the first one had let go his hold oswald and challoner the secret
unknown something which had softened that hard man's eye when his brother's name was mentioned he had noted it and realised the mystery a mystery before which sleep and rest must fly a mystery to which he must now give his thought
whatever the cost whatever the loss to those heavenly dreams the magic of which was so new it seemed to envelope him in the balm of paradise away then image of light let the faculties thou hast dazed act again
there is more than fate's caprice in challoner's interest in a man he never saw ghosts of old memories rise and demand a hearing facts trivial and commonplace enough to have been lost in oblivion with the day which gave them birth
throng again from the past proving that nought dies without a possibility of resurrection their power over this brooding man is shown by the force with which his fingers crush against his bowed forehead oswald and challoner
had he found the connecting link had it been could it have been edith the preposterous is sometimes true could it be true in this case
the effusions of her mind the breathings of her heart directed to an actual o b and that o b his brother they had not been meant for him he had read enough of the mawkish lines to be sure of that
none of the allusions fitted in with the facts of their mutual intercourse but they might with those of another man they might with the possible acts and affections of oswald whose temperament was wholly different from his and who might have loved her
should it ever be shown that they had met and known each other and this was not an impossibility oswald had been east
oswald why it was oswald who had suggested that he should go there go where she still was why this second coincidence if there were no tie if the challoners and oswald were as far apart as they seemed
and as conventionalities would naturally place them oswald was a sentimentalist but very reserved about his sentimentalities if these suppositions were true he had had a sentimentalist's motive for what he did
as orlando realised this he rose from his seat aghast at the possibilities confronting him from this line of thought should he contemplate them risk his reason by dwelling on a supposition which might have no foundation in fact
no his brain was too full his purposes too important for any unnecessary strain to be put upon his faculties no thinking investigation first
mister challoner should be able to settle this question he would see him even at this late hour he ought to be able to find him in one of the rooms below
and around it was grouped a number of men with their papers and pipes mister brotherson entering naturally looked that way for the man he was in search of and was disappointed not to find him there
but on casting his glances elsewhere he was relieved to see him standing in one of the windows overlooking the street his back was to the room and he seemed to be lost in a fit of abstraction as orlando crossed to him
he had time to observe how much whiter was this man's head than in the last interview he had held with him in the coroner's office in new york but this evidence of grief in one with whom he had little if anything in common
neither touched his feelings nor deterred his step the awakening of his heart to new and profound emotions had not softened him towards the sufferings of others
if those others stood without the pale he had previously raised as the legitimate boundary of a just man's sympathies he was as i have said an extraordinary specimen of manly vigour in body and in mind
and his presence in any company always attracted attention and roused if it never satisfied curiosity conversation accordingly ceased as he strode up to mister challoner's side
you see me again mister challoner may i beg of you a few minutes further conversation i will not detain you long the grey head turned and the many eyes watching showed surprise at the expression of dislike and repulsion
but his answer was courteous enough if mister brotherson knew a place where they would be left undisturbed he would listen to him if he would be very brief
was mister challoner's immediate inquiry this i make no apologies and expect in answer nothing more than an unequivocal yes or no you tell me that you have never met my brother can that be said
of the other members of your family of your deceased daughter in fact no she was acquainted with oswald brotherson she was without your knowledge
entirely so corresponded with him not exactly how not exactly he wrote to her occasionally she wrote to him frequently
went down in indistinguishable chaos mister challoner realised a sense of havoc though the eyes bent upon his countenance had not wavered
i have read some of those letters the inventor finally acknowledged the police took great pains to place them under my eye supposing them to have been meant for me because of the initials written on the wrapper
but they were meant for oswald you believe that now i know it and that is why i found you in the same house with him it is providence has robbed me of my daughter
if this brother of yours should prove to be the man i am led to expect i shall ask him to take that place in my heart and life which was once hers a quick recoil a smothered exclamation on the part of the man he addressed
a barb had been hidden in this simple statement which had reached some deeply hidden but vulnerable spot in brotherson's breast which had never been pierced before his eye which alone seemed alive
still rested piercingly upon that of mister challoner but its light was fast fading and speedily became lost in a dimness in which the other seemed to see extinguished the last upflaring embers of those inner fires which feed the aspiring soul
it was a sight no man could see unmoved mister challoner turned sharply away in dread of the abyss which the next word he uttered might open between them but orlando brotherson possessed resources of strength
of which possibly he was not aware himself when mister challoner still more affected by the silence than by the dread i have mentioned turned to confront him again it was to find his features composed and his glance clear
you will not find your confidence misplaced oswald is a straightforward fellow of few faults i believe it no man can be so universally beloved without some very substantial claims to regard
i am glad to see that your opinion though given somewhat coldly coincides with that of his friends i am not given to exaggeration was the even reply
the flush which had come into mister challoner's cheek under the effort he had made to sustain with unflinching heroism this interview with the man he looked upon as his mortal enemy slowly faded out
till he looked the wraith of himself even to the unsympathetic eyes of orlando brotherson a duty lay before him which would tax to its utmost extent his already greatly weakened self control
nothing which had yet passed showed that this man realised the fact that oswald had been kept in ignorance of miss challoner's death if these brothers were to meet on the morrow
it must be with the full understanding that this especial topic was to be completely avoided but in what words could he urge such a request upon this man none suggested themselves
yet he had promised miss scott that he would ensure his silence in this regard and it was with this difficulty and no other he had been struggling when mister brotherson came upon him in the other room
suggested the latter as an oppressive silence swallowed up that icy sentence i have already recorded i have returned mister challoner regaining his courage under the exigencies of the moment
miss scott is very anxious to have your promise that you will avoid all disagreeable topics with your brother till the doctor pronounces him strong enough to meet the trouble which awaits him you mean
he is not as unhappy as we he knows nothing of the affliction which has befallen him he was taken ill the rest was almost inaudible
do you think i should be apt to broach this subject with any one let alone with him whose connection with it i shall need days to realise i'm not so given to gossip besides he and i have other topics of interest
without a word he wheeled about towards the door without a word brotherson stood watching him go till he saw his hand fall on the knob when he quietly prevented his exit by saying
unhappy truths cannot be long concealed how soon does the doctor think my brother can bear these inevitable revelations he said this morning that if his patient were as well to morrow as his present condition gives promise of
he might be told in another week orlando bowed his appreciation of this fact but added quickly who is to do the telling doris nobody else could be trusted with so delicate a task
mister challoner looked up surprised at the feeling with which this request was charged as his brother his only remaining relative i have that right do you think that dor
that miss scott can be trusted not to forestall that moment by any previous hint of what awaits him if she so promises but will you exact this from her
it surely cannot be necessary for me to say that your presence will add infinitely to the difficulty of her task yet it is a duty i cannot shirk i will consult the doctor about it
i will make him see that i both understand and shall insist upon my rights in this matter but you may tell miss doris that i will sit out of sight and that i shall not obtrude myself
unless my name is brought up in an undesirable way the hand on the door knob made a sudden movement mister brotherson i can bear no more to night with your permission
i will leave this question to be settled by others and with a repetition of his former bow the bereaved father withdrew orlando watched him till the door closed then he too dropped his mask
but it was on again when in a little while he passed through the sitting room on his way upstairs no other day in his whole life had been like this to the hardy inventor
the first he had allowed himself since his marriage three years ago it was a house in de crespigny park unattached double fronted with half sunk basement and a flight of steps to the stucco pillars at the entrance
de crespigny park a thoroughfare connecting grove lane camberwell with denmark hill presents a double row of similar dwellings its clean breadth with foliage of trees and shrubs in front gardens
makes it pleasant to the eye that finds pleasure in suburban london in point of respectability it has claims only to be appreciated by the ambitious middle class of camberwell each house seems to remind its neighbour
with all the complacence expressible in buff brick that in this locality lodgings are not to let for an hour after peachey's departure the silence of the house was unbroken
then a bedroom door opened and a lady in a morning gown of the fashionable heliotrope came downstairs she had acute features eyes which seemed to indicate the concentration of her thoughts upon a difficult problem
and cheeks of singular bloom her name was beatrice french her years numbered six and twenty she entered the dining room and drew up the blind
though the furniture was less than a year old and by no means of the cheapest description slovenly housekeeping had dulled the brightness of every surface on a chair lay a broken toy one of those elaborate and costly playthings
which serve no purpose but to stunt a child's imagination though the time was midsummer not a flower appeared among the pretentious ornaments the pictures were a strange medley
autotypes of some artistic value hanging side by side with hideous oleographs framed in ponderous
then get breakfast yourself and look sharp about it beatrice spoke with vehemence her cheeks showed a circle of richer hue around the unchanging rose the domestic made insolent reply and
there began a war of words at this moment another step sounded on the stairs and as it drew near a female voice was raised in song and a penny in his pocket la de da la de da
and a penny in his pocket la de da a younger girl this of much slighter build with a frisky gait a jaunty pose of the head pretty but thin featured and shallow eyed a long neck
no chin to speak of a low forehead with the hair of washed out flaxen fluffed all over it her dress was showy
fanny french her name what's up
she asked entering the room as the servant went out i've known a good many fools said beatrice
is she well i shouldn't wonder fanny admitted impartially and with a skip she took up her song again a penny paper collar round his neck la de da
asked her sister yes are you come for a walk instead
won't it do afterwards i've got an appointment with lord fanny laughed and nodded interrupted by the reappearance of the servant who brought a tray and began to lay the table
they crossed the hall to the drawing room in half an hour's time a sluttish meal was prepared for them and whilst they were satisfying their hunger the door opened to admit missus peachey
would have been inconveniently cool beneath a loose thin dressing gown her feet in felt slippers showed stockingless her neck was bare almost to the bosom and the tresses of pale yellow
upon which she especially prided herself lay raggedly pinned together on the top of her flat head she was about twenty eight years old but at present looked more than thirty
her features resembled fanny's but had a much less amiable expression and betokened if the thing were possible an inferior intellect fresh from the morning basin her cheeks displayed that peculiar colourlessness
which results from the habitual use of paints and powders her pale pink lips thin and sullen were curiously wrinkled she had eyes of slate colour with lids so elevated that she always seemed to be staring in silly wonder
so you've got breakfast have you were her first words in a thin and rather nasal voice you may think yourselves lucky you have a cheek of your own replied beatrice whose place is it to see that we get meals
retorted the married sister it's your own fault you should get better and when you've got them you should manage them but that's just what you can't do
they squabbled for some minutes fanny looking on with ingenuous amusement and putting in a word now for this side now for that
demanded missus peachey at length surveying the table you've taken jolly good care of yourselves it seems to me she jumped up and rang the bell when a minute's interval brought no reply she rang again
till all was blue we'll see about that answered her sister and forthwith invaded the lower parts of the house thence presently her voice became audible rising gradually to shrillness
with it there blended the rougher accents of the housemaid now in reckless revolt beatrice listened for a minute or two in the hall then passed on into the drawing room with a contemptuous laugh
cut herself a slice of bread and butter
dirty cat beast swine the mistress of the house fairly beaten away by superior force of vocabulary reappeared with these and other exclamations her face livid
her foolish eyes starting from their sockets fanny a sort of mother cary's chicken
and screamed her merriment it was long before the domestic uproar wholly subsided but towards eleven o'clock the sisters found themselves together in the drawing room
beatrice sat with legs crossed in the most comfortable chair and fanny twirled about on a music stool the only books in the room were a few show volumes which belonged to arthur peachey and half a dozen novels of the meaner kind
but on tables and chairs lay scattered a multitude of papers illustrated weeklies journals of society cheap miscellanies penny novelettes and the like at the end of the week when new numbers came in
reading instalments of a dozen serial stories paragraphs relating to fashion sport the theatre answers to correspondents wherein she especially delighted columns of facetiae
and gossip about notorious people through a great deal of this matter beatrice followed her and
she studied a daily newspaper with special note of law suits police intelligence wills bankruptcies and any concern great or small wherein money played a part
she understood the nature of investments and liked to talk about stocks and shares with her male acquaintances they were the daughters of a camberwell builder lately deceased to each of them had fallen a patrimony
just sufficient for their support in elegant leisure
united with a small capital in her husband's possession went to purchase a share in the business of messrs
manufacturers of disinfectants arthur peachey previously a clerk to the firm became a junior partner with the result that most of the hard work was thrown upon his shoulders at their marriage
the happy pair first of all established themselves in a modest house near camberwell road two years later growing prosperity brought about their removal to de crespigny park where they had now resided for some twelve months
unlike their elder sister beatrice and fanny had learnt to support themselves beatrice in the postal service and fanny sweet blossom by mingling her fragrance with that of a florist's shop in brixton
but on their father's death both forsook their employment and came to live with missus peachey between them these two were the owners of house property
they disbursed together
chapter six as luck would have it ricardo was lounging alone on the veranda of the former counting house he scented some new development at once and ran down to meet the trotting bear like figure
the deep growling noises it made though they had only a very remote resemblance to the spanish language or indeed to any sort of human speech were from long practice quite intelligible to mister jones's secretary
ricardo was rather surprised he had imagined that the girl would continue to keep out of sight that line apparently was given up he did not mistrust her how could he indeed
he could not think of her existence calmly he tried to keep her image out of his mind
both for his own sake and as the faithful follower of plain mister jones gentleman he collected his wits and thought this was a change of policy probably on the part of heyst if so
what could it mean a deep fellow unless it was her doing in which case
before him pedro lifting his feet alternately swayed to and fro sideways his usual attitude of expectation his little red eyes lost in the mass of hair were motionless
ricardo stared into them with calculated contempt and said in a rough angry voice woman of course there is we know that without you he gave the tame monster a push git
vamos waddle get back and cook the dinner
pedro extended a huge hairy forearm to show the direction and went off on his bandy legs advancing a few steps ricardo was just in time to see above some bushes
two white helmets moving side by side in the clearing they disappeared
that there was a woman on the island he could indulge in speculation as to the movements of these people his attitude towards mister jones had undergone a spiritual change of which he himself was not yet fully aware
that morning before tiffin
the heyst bungalow completed in such an inspiring way by the recovery of the slipper
reeling as he ran his head in a whirl he was wildly excited by visions of inconceivable promise he waited to compose himself before he dared to meet the governor on entering the room he found mister jones
sitting on the camp bedstead like a tailor on his board cross legged
i say sir you aren't going to tell me you are bored bored no where the devil have you been all this time observing watching nosing around what else
i knew you had company have you talked freely sir yes i have muttered mister jones not downright plain sir no i wished you had been here
you loaf all the morning and now you come in out of breath what's the matter
said ricardo nothing's the matter
he was in truth still panting only it was not with running but with the tumult of thoughts and sensations long repressed
he was almost distracted by them now he forgot himself in the maze of possibilities threatening and inspiring and so you had a long talk he said to gain time confound you
the sun hasn't affected your head has it
beg pardon sir wasn't aware i stared ricardo apologized good humouredly the sun might well affect a thicker skull than mine
a salamander you ought to have been here observed mister jones did the beast give any signs of wanting to prance asked ricardo quickly with absolutely genuine anxiety it wouldn't do sir
you must play him easy for at least a couple of days sir i have a plan i have a notion that i can find out a lot in a couple of days
in what way why by watching ricardo answered slowly mister jones grunted nothing new that
why not pray a little too ha ha ha that's a good one burst out the secretary fixing mister jones with mirthless eyes the latter dropped the subject indolently oh
you may be certain of at least two days he said ricardo recovered himself his eyes gleamed voluptuously we'll pull this off yet clean whole right through
i am trusting you right enough said mister jones it's your interest too and indeed ricardo was truthful enough in his statement he did absolutely believe in success now
but he couldn't tell his governor that he had intelligences in the enemy's camp it wouldn't do to tell him of the girl devil only knew what he would do if he learned there was a woman about
we'll pull it off sir he said with perfectly acted cheerfulness he experienced gusts of awful joy expanding in his heart and hot like a fanned flame we must
pronounced mister jones this thing martin is not like our other tries
it's a different thing it's a sort of test ricardo was impressed by the governor's manner for the first time a hint of passion could be detected in him
the word test had struck him as particularly significant somehow it was the last word uttered during that morning's conversation immediately afterwards ricardo went out of the room
it was impossible for him to keep still an elation in which an extraordinary softness mingled with savage triumph would not allow it it prevented his thinking also
he walked up and down the veranda far into the afternoon eyeing the other bungalow at every turn it gave no sign of being inhabited once or twice he stopped dead short and looked down at his left slipper
each time he chuckled audibly his restlessness kept on increasing till at last it frightened him he caught hold of the balustrade of the veranda and stood still
but at the strong sense of life within him he abandoned himself to it carelessly even recklessly he cared for no one friend or enemy at that moment mister jones called him by name from within
a shadow fell on the secretary's face here sir he answered but it was a moment before he could make up his mind to go in he found the governor on his feet mister jones was tired of lying down
when there was no necessity for it his slender form gliding about the room came to a standstill i've been thinking martin of something you suggested at the time it did not strike me as practical
but on reflection it seems to me that to propose a game is as good a way as any to let him understand that the time has come to disgorge it's less how should i say vulgar
he will know what it means it's not a bad form to give to the business which in itself is crude martin crude want to spare his feelings jeered the secretary in such a bitter tone that
mister jones was really surprised why it was your own notion confound you who says it wasn't retorted ricardo sulkily but i am fairly sick of this crawling no no
get the exact bearings of his swag and then a rip up that's plenty good enough for him his passions being thoroughly aroused a thirst for blood was allied in him with a thirst for tenderness yes tenderness
a sort of anxious melting sensation pervaded and softened his heart when he thought of that girl one of his own sort and at the same time jealousy started gnawing at his breast as the image of heyst
intruded itself on his fierce anticipation of bliss the crudeness of your ferocity is positively gross martin mister jones said disdainfully you don't even understand my purpose
i mean to have some sport out of him just try to imagine the atmosphere of the game the fellow handling the cards the agonizing mockery of it oh i shall appreciate this greatly yes
let him lose his money instead of being forced to hand it over you of course would shoot him at once but i shall enjoy the refinement and the jest of it he's a man of the best society
i've been hounded out of my sphere by people very much like that fellow how enraged and humiliated he will be i promise myself some exquisite moments while watching his play ay and
suppose he suddenly starts prancing he may not appreciate the fun
as i am free to plug him or rip him up whenever i think the time has come you are welcome to your bit of sport sir
there give us a cigarette victor old man when are you going home not for another hour it's fine this afternoon and i'm getting into decent shape look out get off the track
damned elegant the way she manages her sleigh i'm cold all through that's the worst of this place the mists it's a damp cold here forman look after this sleigh
without looking through a hundred and fifty others to morrow morning they sat down at a small round table near the stove and ordered coffee victor sprawled in his chair patting his little brown dog bobo and looking
half laughingly at max what's the matter my dear isn't the world being nice and pretty i want my coffee and i want to put my feet into my pocket they're like stones
thanks the cake is like underdone india rubber here
max half turned his back and stretched his feet out to the oven the three other men all began talking at once of the weather of the record slide
suddenly fuchs looked at max raised his eyebrows and nodded across to victor who shook his head baby doesn't feel well he said feeding the brown dog with broken lumps of sugar
i'm nurse that's the first time i've ever known him off colour said wistuba i've always imagined he had the better part of this world that could not be taken away from him
i think he says his prayers to the dear lord for having spared him being taken home in seven basketsful to night it's a fool's game to risk your all that way and leave the nation desolate dry up said max
you ought to be wheeled about on the snow in a perambulator oh no offence i hope don't get nasty how's your wife victor
she hurt her head coming down the slide with max on sunday i told her to stay at home all day i'm sorry
if you're going right back my dear i wish you'd look elsa up and
and feed with us to night at limpold will you and take some hot grog when you get in thanks old fellow i'm all right going back now he rose stretched himself buttoned on his heavy coat and
lighted another cigarette from the door victor watched him plunging through the heavy snow head bent hands thrust in his pockets he almost appeared to be running through the heavy snow towards the town
someone came stamping up the stairs paused at the door of her sitting room and knocked is that you victor she called no it is i
why what a santa claus
had a good time the room was full of light and warmth elsa in a white velvet tea gown lay curled up on the sofa a book of fashions on her lap a box of creams beside her
and the white boughs of the trees sprayed across a woman's room full of flowers and photographs and silk pillows the floor smothered in rugs an immense tiger skin under the piano
just the head protruding sleepily savage it was good enough said max victor can't be in till late he told me to come up and tell you he started walking up and down
tore off his gloves and flung them on the table don't do that max said elsa you get on my nerves and i've got a headache to day i'm feverish and quite flushed don't i look flushed
no he said i didn't notice it oh you haven't looked at me properly and i've got a new tea gown on too she pulled her skirts together and patted a little place on the couch
come along and sit by me and tell me why you're being naughty but standing by the window
i can't i'm done i'm spent i'm smashed silence in the room the fashion book fell to the floor with a quick rustle of leaves elsa sat forward
her hands clasped in her lap a strange light shone in her eyes a red colour stained her mouth then she spoke very quietly
i don't know what on earth you are talking about you do know you know far better than i you've simply played with victor in my presence that i may feel worse you've tormented me you've led me on
and i've never for one moment been able to withstand it he turned round deliberately
when you asked me to pin your flowers into your evening gown when you let me
when you pretended to be a baby and let me feed you with grapes when you have run to me and searched in all my pockets for a cigarette knowing perfectly well where they were kept going through every pocket just the same
i knowing too i keeping up the farce
you are going to find it a peaceful and pleasant thing you are going to prevent the whole house from burning
don't talk to me like that
i am another man's wife hum he sneered throwing back his head that's rather late in the game and that's been your trump card all along you only love victor on the cat and cream principle
you a poor little starved kitten that he's given everything to that he's carried in his breast never dreaming that those little pink claws could tear out a man's heart she stirred
looking at him with almost fear in her eyes after all unsteadily this is my room i'll have to ask you to go but he stumbled towards her knelt down by the couch
burying his head in her lap clasping his arms round her waist and i love you i love you the humiliation of it i adore you don't don't just a minute let me stay here
elsa she leant back and pressed her head into the pillows then his muffled voice i feel like a savage i want your whole body i want to carry you away to a cave
and love you until i kill you you can't understand how a man feels i kill myself when i see you i'm sick of my own strength that turns in upon itself and dies and rises new born like a phoenix
out of the ashes of that horrible death love me just this once tell me a lie say that you do you are always lying instead she pushed him away frightened
get up she said suppose the servant came in with the tea oh ye gods he stumbled to his feet and stood staring down at her
stood there striking one note her brows drawn together then she shrugged her shoulders and smiled i'll make a confession every word you have said is true i can't help it
i can't help seeking admiration any more than a cat can help going to people to be stroked it's my nature i'm born out of my time and yet you know i'm not a common woman
i like men to adore me to flatter me even to make love to me but
even it's immeasurably worse you've no legitimate excuse why even a prostitute has a greater sense of generosity i know she said
i know perfectly well but i can't help the way i'm built are you going he put on his gloves well he said what's going to happen to us now again she shrugged her shoulders
i haven't the slightest idea i never have just let things occur all alone cried victor has max been here he only stayed a moment and
i sent him home to change his clothes he was frightfully boring you poor darling your hair's coming down i'll fix it stand still a moment so you were bored um m frightfully
oh you've run a hairpin right into your wife's head you naughty boy she flung her arms round his neck and looked up at him half laughing like a beautiful loving child god what a woman you are said the man
you make me so infernally proud dearest that i
mister bowman intended to do the boy no harm when he seized hold of him and poor griff thought he intended to kill him that's just what i thought replied the octoroon who had entirely cooled off
but i didn't seize hold of him as the gentleman says interposed ben bowman
i lay down there and went to sleep
i lay in a hard position and i suppose it was that which made me dream that somebody had struck me on the head and was trying to murder me griffin explained in the most humble tones
i woke and seeing a man bending over me i thought the dream was a reality were you dreaming when you drew the knife at least five minutes after you were pinned to the deck by mister bowman i asked sternly
your story is too thin i was mad crazy with excitement i didn't know what i was doing pleaded poor griff don't give me over to the police
forgive me this time dear captain i was afraid i might do so if he talked to me long in this strain take him down to the boat obey your order mister washburn i said with energy
take the knife with you and deliver it to the police captain garningham i beg you to consider that you are doing a very great injustice to this boy who
i don't believe in the harmless intentions of a man who can draw a bowie knife on another i replied and i had no more doubt of the octoroon's guilt than i had of my own existence
i am very sorry indeed that you should take so serious a view of what has proved a harmless affray added cornwood if you deliver him over to the police which as the captain of the vessel you have a right to do
i must ask leave of absence to act as his counsel i supposed this was said to remind me of the excursion of the next day the news of which had been circulated from the steward's department but the excursion made no difference to me
i felt that i had a duty to perform and i was resolved to perform it even if the excursion had to be postponed to another day griffin leeds was carried into the boat and the mate departed for the city with him
now mister cornwood i should like to see you in regard to the up river trip i said as soon as the boat had left the steamer we leave on monday
that need not detain us a single day i replied decidedly we have twice as many hands as we need for this river navigation and we can spare all that may be needed as witnesses but
i am persuaded is a victim of circumstances said cornwood who evidently intended to make it plain i was to reap the bitter fruits of my folly in the dissatisfaction of my passengers as they might not be inclined to stay
after they had made up their minds to go then i shall be obliged to make the trip with a river pilot i added promptly for i did not intend that the floridian should get ahead of me in this business the guide bit his lips
as though he did not quite like the situation
i can hardly desert the poor fellow in his trouble sighed mister cornwood that is a question you must decide for yourself i replied with as much indifference as i could assume
it seems to me you make a light matter of a serious assault and your sympathy is all with the man who committed it
i have a great regard for that boy for he saved my life once when i fell overboard and was injured so that i could not swim and there were three large sharks near the vessel i should be inhuman to desert him
even if he were as guilty as you seem to think he is continued the guide but i was inclined to believe that his explanation was more than half an invention in what court will this man be brought up i asked
he will be brought before the mayor as magistrate and if he considers it a simple assault he will fine the boy or send him to prison if an assault with intent to kill he will bind him over to a higher court for trial
if he is bound over we can appear such of us as are required as witnesses at the proper time i replied as off hand as though i had been a lawyer all my days now we will leave that question and turn to others of more importance
i wouldn't say anything more about it it was no misunderstanding when griffin leaped to his feet at least five minutes after the struggle with the engineer and rushed upon him with a knife
as it seems to be very uncertain whether i go with you or not i prefer to say nothing about the trip for the present replied the floridian sulkily
my sudden decision did not seem to suit the guide any better than my position in regard to griffin leeds i had risen from my chair at the desk as though the business was finished when i gave my decision and by this time he could believe that i meant all i said
but my passengers wish to know at once what the plan is and i desire to procure a pilot for the excursion to morrow i replied
no you will not i have no time to fool with you i shall engage a pilot to night for the up river trip if you cannot go with me i added indignantly i think i can go with you in other words i will go with you
said cornwood suddenly changing front somewhat to my regret
the guide became as communicative as ever in a little while and seemed to have forgotten the little difference which had threatened a serious rupture in our relations he was as pleasant as though no cloud had passed between us
we discussed the up river trip and i made memoranda of what he said till ten o'clock when we retired if what he said about his obligations to griffin leeds was true i could not blame him for wishing to stand by the waiter
but a fair statement of his relations without any of the bullying he had attempted would have accomplished his wishes better when i turned out in the morning i found the mate had gone ashore at half past eight as requested by the chief of police
to whom i related all the events of the preceding evening including my interview with the floridian
washburn was on hand in season and the mayor listened to the testimony cornwood had his opportunity to badger the witnesses and he made the most of it the magistrate in spite of the eloquence of the counsel for the defence
chose to regard the offence as a serious assault and bound the prisoner over for his appearance at a higher court three weeks hence
and i saw that the colonel's friend had managed the case well without saying a word out loud cornwood found bail for the culprit
no sir i would not tolerate such a man on board any more than i would a rattlesnake i replied i paid him his wages and something more on the spot and when he left the court
his look and his manner indicated that he was more intent upon revenge than anything else
and we hastened to the wharf and on board i had engaged a large barge at the boat wharf to put the passengers on board
in a few minutes our bow and stern lines were fast to the wharf where the shepards were waiting for their steam yacht owen leaped ashore before the vessel was fairly alongside though he had not yet come to a full comprehension of what had happened
he knew something was the matter but he could not tell what it was as soon as the sylvania was made fast i went on shore colonel shepard seemed to be bewildered for owen had just told him the islander had gone down the river
the rest of the family were quite as much astonished as the husband and father chloe the colored servant was actually wringing her hands as though she feared another conspiracy was about to be developed
where is the islander captain alick asked the colonel as i presented myself before him she has gone down the river and the last i saw of her she was shaking out her fore topsail i replied
but what does that mean added colonel shepard with a frown i'm sure i don't know sir she got under way about half past six
it is now quarter past seven and the islander is still making her way down the river you can see her across the land though only her spars are in sight i pointed out the tapering masts of our consort
i don't understand it at all said the perplexed owner of the stray yacht what does captain blastblow mean by treating me in this manner when i ordered him to be at this wharf precisely at seven
i can't explain it sir i replied there is clearly some misunderstanding about the matter you saw me write the card at the post office last night captain alick and i sent it off by the young man who was with you
yes sir nick boomsby took the card and i have no doubt he delivered it for he came on board of the sylvania towards night i think captain blastblow intends to return soon i added for i could not think of any explanation of his singular conduct
i certainly could not reason out any plausible occasion for such a violation of his orders as that in which he seemed to be engaged perhaps he has run off with the yacht
and intends to become a pirate or something of that sort suggested gus shepard nonsense my son the islander is not an armed vessel and captain blastblow is not a pirate replied colonel shepard
do you suppose anything was out of order on board of the steamer captain alick
if the islander had needed any more repairs captain blastblow would have remained in jacksonville and attended to them perhaps he wishes to become better acquainted with the vessel before he takes her to sea added the colonel
he might have done that yesterday he would not have waited until you were ready to sail and then gone off on an experimental cruise i answered an experimental cruise exclaimed owen what a terrible expression
i hope captain blastblow don't use such expressions if he does he has gone out to sea where he can have room enough to unsnarl his tongue
captain blastblow is an american and he is used to such little trials i replied what shall be done asked colonel shepard
and we will stand down the river i replied promptly for i had kept this idea in my mind for some time we can at least follow the islander and when we come up with her you can go on board of her
are you sure you can overtake her captain alick asked colonel shepard with a smile as though he had some doubts in regard to the relative speed of the two steam yachts captain blastblow
is confident that he can outsail the sylvania i don't say that he cannot but if he does he has learned a new trick in handling her i answered with energy
her new captain claims to be a very skilful man in handling steamers added the colonel if you and your family will come on board sir i will do the best i can to overtake the islander and ascertain what the conduct of her captain means
if we have anything like fair play we shall overhaul the islander sometime to day i continued confidently we are both well down in the water with our coal bunkers and water tanks full
owen was delighted with the decision of colonel shepard when he accepted my invitation he had regained his divinity
owen escorted miss edith to the pilot house and her mother went down into the cabin for the morning was rather raw and chilly margie took her dear friend to her heart and hoped the sylvania would never overtake the islander
you must let the other steamer keep ahead captain alick said margie as i took my place at the wheel when the baggage had been put on board
that would be treason to the sylvania and treason to colonel shepard i replied as i rang the bell to start the steamer i knew the river well enough to go ahead confidently and i had given the chief engineer a hint as to what i expected of him
in a few minutes the little steamer was buzzing along at the rate of eleven miles an hour the only thing i feared was fog and there seemed to be great banks of it off in the direction of the mouth of the river
mister washburn i called through the windows in front of me on deck sir replied the mate call all hands and set the fore topsail
all hands usually consisted of the two deck hands but ben bowman the second fireman and the cabin waiter were available when there was any extra work to be done buck lingley and hop tossford the deck hands were sent aloft by the mate
to loose sails while the others manned the halyard and the braces in a very short time the topsail was drawing full and the speed of the vessel was sensibly increased
set the foresail the crew made quick work of it now the mainsail mister washburn i continued the wind was quite fresh
and the fore and aft sails caused the steamer to heel over considerably when the puffs came as they generally do in a south westerly breeze you will tip us over captain alick
i won't do anything of the kind miss tiffany i replied with a laugh i shall not drown myself for the sake of drowning you i am very sure mister washburn on deck sir set the fore to'gallant sail
ay ay sir chuckled the mate who understood that i meant business by this time pray which is the fore top gallant sail captain alick asked miss margie
mister washburn on deck sir now give us the fore squaresail and run up the jib the last order was to set the main gaff topsail
i was confident we were making twelve knots an hour
she had at least ten miles the start of us and it was likely to be a long chase if she continued on her course i wanted very much to get a sight of her when we reached the bar at the mouth of the saint johns
so as to determine what course she took no progress whatever had been made in solving the problem of the islander's sudden departure without her owner and passengers we could not imagine any motive on the part of her captain for his singular conduct
my father and colonel shepard talked about the matter all the time but in the absence of any data they could not get ahead a particle in an hour and a half by the watch we were in sight of the bar
the weather looked thick and nasty outside and there was not the slightest sign of the islander but we were still in the river and our view to the north and south was obstructed by the trees and shrubs on the shores
it was plain enough to me by this time that captain blastblow had no intention of returning to jacksonville for his passengers i kept the sylvania on her course over the bar
i had no fear of taking the bottom we kept on our course till we had made a good offing though the fog had not settled down near the bar vast piles of it were floating in the air
the question now was whether the islander had gone to the north or the south i had given the wheel to hop tossford and i was using the glass very industriously in all quarters of the horizon
sail ho shouted buck lingley who had taken his station on the cap of the foremast
replied buck as the fog lifted a minute later i got a glimpse of the sail it is the islander i shouted not a little excited she is going to the southward
i can't understand it said colonel shepard shaking his head does captain blastblow mean to run away with the vessel
chapter sixteen griffin leeds at a discount
i did not expect that mister cornwood would come on shore after what had passed between him and me and i did not hurry on board when i left the house of colonel shepard
i passed from saint james square down laura street into forsyth on which the saint johns house was situated i passed the house several times looking for washburn
i saw nothing of the mate and i went into bay street only a square from forsyth i looked in every direction for washburn but i could not find him and i was obliged to give up the search i found my boat's crew on the wharf
watching some negroes opening oysters it was done in a very clumsy manner compared with the work of a providence opener i had seen in new york and my men were not at all satisfied with the manner it was done
though they had no interest in the job have you seen mister washburn ben i asked as we walked down the wharf yes sir we put him on board half an hour ago replied the assistant engineer who preferred to pull a boat rather than be idle
that was why i could not find him in the streets of jacksonville i added has any one come off from the steamer since i came ashore no sir not a soul answered ben decidedly
i was glad to hear this for it assured me that cornwood had not left the steamer the sylvania was anchored on the other side of the main channel which was near the line of wharves
in a few minutes i was on board the mate was at supper and as i had dined within a couple of hours i did not disturb him i went to the steward and gave him directions in regard to the lunch and dinner for the next day
cornwood was smoking his cigar on the forecastle i took the precaution to tell him that i wanted to see him in about half an hour or less that he might not come into my room while i was engaged with washburn
i had done some thinking over the matter of eavesdroppers on board i came to the conclusion that i would have nothing of the kind on board i had entire confidence in the two engineers one of whom was the son of my guardian in montomercy
and the other had sailed with me since the sylvania had come into my possession moses brickland the chief was lying on a sofa in the engine room i called ben and told them both enough to enable them to understand the situation
and that some of the later additions to our ship's company might be eavesdroppers
and let me know if there were any skulking or loitering near them moses seated himself at one door of the engine room and ben at the other they were on deck next to the rail where they could see the windows of my room
there was a skylight in the hurricane deck overhead which was always open in this climate when it did not rain i said nothing about this opening because i could hear any person's footsteps on the deck over me
for one had something to say and the other wanted to hear it
he replied that he had thought of doing something of the kind himself but he did not care to throw suspicion even upon griffin leeds by telling others the true story well washburn did you find your man i asked
i am sorry to say i did not he replied but i found where he boarded and was told he was out and would not return before nine or ten in the evening i shall try again early in the morning before he goes out for the day
for he takes only his breakfast at the house where he lodges where does he lodge i inquired washburn gave me the street and number
it was not in the best part of the city by any means and the mate inferred that he was not connected with the first families but he was none the worse for this his landlord knew nothing about him
and had made him pay a week's board in advance we continued to talk about cobbington for some time but we were none the wiser when we got through than when we began suddenly we heard a tremendous scuffling overhead
it sounded as though two men or more were engaged in a severe conflict after the first onslaught was over the voices of two angry men were heard and one of them was that of ben bowman both washburn and i rushed out of the state room he at one door and i at the other
which i had forbidden any one on board to do at the beginning of the voyage to prevent injury to the paint i concluded that griffin had come up in the same way
the occasion of the strife was plain enough to me as soon as i discovered who were engaged in it i felt a little cheap after all the precautions i had taken to prevent being overheard let him up ben i said when i thought he had done enough
the engineer at once relinquished his hold on the octoroon and stood up but griffin did not appear to be able to get up yet
and neither of them was able to speak for some minutes as the waiter lay on the deck i noticed that he wore no shoes
it is plain enough what this affair means i said to the mate while we were waiting for ben to get his breath and to be able to explain what the occasion of the conflict was it don't need a very long headed man to explain it replied the mate
griffin has been at the old trick again what is the old trick mister mate demanded cornwood rather offensively if you are a sailor you will call me by my name replied washburn with dignity
excuse me mister washburn but i am somewhat interested in one of the parties to this row added cornwood as he glanced at me i meant no offence but i was a little excited by the circumstances
and he was evidently struggling to be calm will you be kind enough to tell me mister washburn what the old trick was eavesdropping listening to conversation not intended for him
which was going on in the captain's room replied the mate rather warmly it is very strange to me for i have known the boy for years
added cornwood i don't believe there is a better behaved boy in the state than griffin leeds excuse me for saying so much which i should not have said if i had not brought the boy on board and recommended him to you
i had no fault to find with his statement as long as it was respectful by this time ben had got his wind again and appeared to be ready to explain the reason for the conflict which had created such a sensation on board
all hands were on deck gathered around the combatants i was satisfied from the beginning that ben had not begun the fight
except when he had been ordered to do so by the mate in two instances both of them being the expulsion from the vessel of captain boomsby well how was it mister bowman i asked calling him by his last name with a handle to it
a few minutes before i came upon the hurricane deck sir i thought there was something like motion forward of the foremast i stood up but i could not see anything or anybody but i could not get it out of my head that something was going on there
i spoke to mister brickland about it and he told me to go up and see what it was
mister bowman is answering my question mister cornwood and you will not interfere i interposed for the floridian appeared to have taken upon himself the duty of counsel for the octoroon i beg your pardon captain replied cornwood with a deferential bow
as soon as i was satisfied that he was listening to the conversation between you and mister washburn which i could hear though i could not tell what you said i just touched him on the shoulder i meant to beckon him to come away from the skylight
but he did not give me time to do that he sprang to his feet and
you lie yelled the octoroon with a savage oath you did try to murder me griffin leaped from his recumbent position and
foaming with rage drew a bowie knife from his pocket the long blade of which he threw open with a jerk of his hand with the knife gleaming in the air he rushed upon ben bowman
the deckhand was the stoutest person on board and he bore the octoroon to the deck in an instant and wrenched the knife from his grasp hold on to him a moment buck
get some line and tie him hand and foot
arms of the waiter behind him he secured them in this position with the assistance of the mate
and the prisoner was carefully secured
meanwhile the count had arrived at his house it had taken him six minutes to perform the distance but these six minutes were sufficient to induce twenty young men who knew the price of the equipage they had been unable to purchase themselves
to put their horses in a gallop in order to see the rich foreigner who could afford to give twenty thousand francs apiece for his horses the house ali had chosen and which was to serve as a town residence to monte cristo
and masked a portion of the front around this shrubbery two alleys like two arms extended right and left and formed a carriage drive from the iron gates to a double portico on every step of which stood a porcelain vase filled with flowers
this house isolated from the rest had besides the main entrance another in the rue ponthieu even before the coachman had hailed the concierge the massy gates rolled on their hinges they had seen the count coming
the coachman entered and traversed the half circle without slackening his speed and the gates were closed ere the wheels had ceased to sound on the gravel the carriage stopped at the left side of the portico two men presented themselves at the carriage window
the one was ali who smiling with an expression of the most sincere joy seemed amply repaid by a mere look from monte cristo the other bowed respectfully and offered his arm to assist the count in descending
springing lightly up the three steps of the portico and the notary he is in the small salon excellency returned bertuccio and the cards i ordered to be engraved as soon as you knew the number of the house
your excellency it is done already i have been myself to the best engraver of the palais royal who did the plate in my presence
the others are on the mantle piece of your excellency's bedroom good what o'clock is it four o'clock monte cristo gave his hat cane and gloves to the same french footman
who had called his carriage at the count of morcerf's and then he passed into the small salon preceded by bertuccio who showed him the way these are but indifferent marbles in this ante chamber said monte cristo
i trust all this will soon be taken away bertuccio bowed as the steward had said the notary awaited him in the small salon he was a simple looking lawyer's clerk
elevated to the extraordinary dignity of a provincial scrivener you are the notary empowered to sell the country house that i wish to purchase monsieur asked monte cristo yes count returned the notary is the deed of sale ready
yes count have you brought it here it is very well and where is this house that i purchase asked the count carelessly addressing himself half to bertuccio half to the notary
the steward made a gesture that signified i do not know the notary looked at the count with astonishment what said he does not the count know where the house he purchases is situated no returned the count
the count does not know how should i know i have arrived from cadiz this morning i have never before been at paris and it is the first time i have ever even set my foot in france ah that is different
at these words bertuccio turned pale
close by here monsieur replied the notary a little beyond passy a charming situation in the heart of the bois de boulogne so near as that said the count but that is not in the country
cried the steward with a strange expression his excellency did not charge me to purchase this house if his excellency will recollect if he will think ah true observed monte cristo i recollect now
i read the advertisement in one of the papers and was tempted by the false title a country house it is not yet too late cried bertuccio eagerly and if your excellency will intrust me with the commission i will find you a better
or at bellevue oh no returned monte cristo negligently since i have this i will keep it and you are quite right said the notary who feared to lose his fee it is a charming place
well supplied with spring water and fine trees a comfortable habitation although abandoned for a long time without reckoning the furniture which although old is yet valuable now that old things are so much sought after
i suppose the count has the tastes of the day to be sure returned monte cristo it is very convenient then it is more it is magnificent
peste let us not lose such an opportunity returned monte cristo the deed if you please mister notary and he signed it rapidly after having first run his eye over that part of the deed
bertuccio said he give fifty five thousand francs to monsieur the steward left the room with a faltering step and returned with a bundle of bank notes
which the notary counted like a man who never gives a receipt for money until after he is sure it is all there and now demanded the count are all the forms complied with all sir have you the keys
they are in the hands of the concierge who takes care of the house but here is the order i have given him to install the count in his new possessions very well and monte cristo made a sign with his hand to the notary which said
i have no further need of you you may go but observed the honest notary the count is i think mistaken it is only fifty thousand francs everything included and your fee is included in this sum
yes certainly well then it is but fair that you should be paid for your loss of time and trouble said the count and he made a gesture of polite dismissal the notary left the room backwards and bowing down to the ground
it was the first time he had ever met a similar client see this gentleman out said the count to bertuccio and the steward followed the notary out of the room scarcely was the count alone when he drew from his pocket a book closed with a lock
and opened it with a key which he wore round his neck and which never left him after having sought for a few minutes he stopped at a leaf which had several notes and compared them with the deed of sale which lay on the table
it is indeed the same said he and now am i to rely upon an avowal extorted by religious or physical terror however in an hour i shall know all
bertuccio cried he striking a light hammer with a pliant handle on a small gong bertuccio the steward appeared at the door monsieur bertuccio said the count did you never tell me that you had travelled in france
in some parts of france yes excellency you know the environs of paris then no excellency no returned the steward with a sort of nervous trembling
which monte cristo a connoisseur in all emotions rightly attributed to great disquietude
you could have given me some useful information
cried bertuccio whose copper complexion became livid
bertuccio hung down his head before the imperious look of his master and remained motionless without making any answer
going to make me ring a second time for the carriage asked monte cristo
i have been almost obliged to wait bertuccio made but one bound to the ante chamber and cried in a hoarse voice his excellency's horses
monte cristo wrote two or three notes and as he sealed the last the steward appeared your excellency's carriage is at the door said he well take your hat and gloves returned monte cristo
am i to accompany you your excellency cried bertuccio certainly you must give the orders for i intend residing at the house
the captain's attention was first attracted by the visitor whom he found in the room he bowed to the stranger but the first impression produced on him did not appear to have been of the favorable kind
when he turned next to missus presty observing that she was agitated he made the customary apologies expressing his regret if he had been so unfortunate as to commit an intrusion
trusting in the good sense and good breeding which distinguished him on other occasions missus presty anticipated that he would see the propriety of leaving her alone again with the person whom he had found in her company
to her dismay he remained in the room and worse still he noticed her daughter's absence and asked if there was any serious cause for it for the moment
missus presty was unable to reply her presence of mind or to put it more correctly her ready audacity deserted her when she saw catherine's husband that had been and catherine's husband that was to be
meeting as strangers and but too likely to discover each other in all her experience she had never been placed in such a position of embarrassment
as the position in which she found herself now the sense of honor which had prompted catherine's resolution to make bennydeck acquainted with the catastrophe of married life might plead her excuse
in the estimation of a man devotedly attached to her but if the captain was first informed that he had been deceived by a person who was a perfect stranger to him what hope could be entertained
of his still holding himself bound by his marriage engagement it was even possible
he must certainly have heard a man's voice raised in anger when he approached the door and he was now observing that man with an air of curiosity which was already assuming the appearance of distrust
that herbert on his side resented the captain's critical examination of him was plainly visible in his face after a glance at bennydeck he asked missus presty
who that gentleman was i may be mistaken he added but i thought your friend looked at me just now as if he knew me i have met you sir before this
the captain made the reply with a courteous composure of tone and manner which apparently reminded herbert of the claims of politeness may i ask where i had the honor of seeing you he inquired
we passed each other in the hall of the hotel at sandyseal you had a young woman with you your memory is a better one than mine sir i fail to remember the circumstance to which you refer
bennydeck let the matter rest there struck by the remarkable appearance of embarrassment in missus presty's manner and feeling in spite of herbert's politeness of language
increased distrust of the man whom he had found visiting her he thought it might not be amiss to hint that she could rely on him in case of necessity i am afraid
i have interrupted a confidential interview he began and i ought perhaps to explain missus presty listened absently preoccupied by the fear that herbert would provoke a dangerous disclosure
and by the difficulty of discovering a means of preventing it she interrupted the captain excuse me for one moment i have a word to say to this gentleman bennydeck immediately drew back
and missus presty lowered her voice if you wish to see kitty she resumed attacking herbert on his weak side it depends entirely on your discretion
what do you mean by discretion be careful not to speak of our family troubles and i promise you shall see kitty that is what i mean
herbert declined to say whether he would be careful or not he was determined to find out first with what purpose bennydeck had entered the room
he said to missus presty why don't you give him the opportunity she had no choice but to submit in appearance at least never had she hated herbert
as she hated him at that moment the captain went on with his explanation he had his reasons he said for hesitating in the first instance to present himself uninvited
and he accordingly retired on second thoughts however he had returned in the hope in the hope herbert interposed of seeing missus presty's daughter that was one of my motives
bennydeck answered is it indiscreet to inquire what the other motive was not at all i heard a stranger's voice speaking in a tone which to say the least of it
is not customary in a lady's room and i thought herbert interrupted him again and you thought your interference might be welcome to the lady am i right quite right
am i making another lucky guess if i suppose myself to be speaking to captain bennydeck i shall be glad to hear sir how you have arrived at the knowledge of my name
shall we say captain that i have arrived at it by instinct his face as he made that reply alarmed missus presty
she cast a look at him partly of entreaty partly of warning no effect was produced by the look he continued in a tone of ironical compliment
you must pay the penalty of being a public character your marriage is announced in the newspapers i seldom read the newspapers ah indeed
perhaps the report is not true as you don't read the newspapers allow me to repeat it you are engaged to marry the beautiful widow missus norman
i think i quote those last words correctly missus presty suddenly got up with an inscrutable face that told no tales she advanced to the door
herbert's insane jealousy of the man who was about to become catherine's husband had led him into a serious error he had driven catherine's mother to desperation in that state of mind
she recovered her lost audacity as a matter of course opening the door she turned round to the two men with a magnificent impudence of manner which in her happiest moments she had never surpassed
i am sorry to interrupt this interesting conversation she said but i have stupidly forgotten one of my domestic duties you will allow me to return and listen with renewed pleasure
when my household business is off my mind i shall hope to find you both more polite to each other than ever when i come back she was in such a frenzy of suppressed rage
that she actually kissed her hand to them as she left the room bennydeck looked after her convinced that some sinister purpose was concealed under missus presty's false excuses
and wholly unable to imagine what that purpose might be herbert still persisted in trying to force a quarrel on the captain as i remarked just now
he proceeded newspaper reports are not always to be trusted do you seriously mean my dear sir to marry missus norman i look forward to that honor and that happiness
but i am at a loss to know how it interests you in that case allow me to enlighten you my name is herbert linley he had held his name in reserve
feeling certain of the effect which he would produce when he pronounced it the result took him completely by surprise not the slightest appearance of agitation showed itself in bennydeck's manner
on the contrary he looked as if there was something that interested him in the discovery of the name you are probably related to a friend of mine he said quietly
who is your friend mister randal linley herbert was entirely unprepared for this discovery once more the captain had got the best of it
are you and randal linley intimate friends he inquired as soon as he had recovered himself most intimate it's strange that he should never have mentioned me
on any occasion when you and he were together it does indeed seem strange herbert paused his brother's keen sense of the disgrace
that he had inflicted on the family recurred to his memory he began to understand randal's otherwise unaccountable silence are you nearly related to mister randal linley the captain asked
i am his elder brother ignorant on his part of the family disgrace bennydeck heard that reply with amazement from his point of view
it was impossible to account for randal's silence will you think me very inquisitive herbert resumed if i ask whether my brother approves of your marriage
there was a change in his tone as he put that question which warned bennydeck to be on his guard i have not yet consulted my friend's opinion he answered shortly
herbert threw off the mask in the meantime you shall have my opinion he said your marriage is a crime and i mean to prevent it
the captain left his chair and sternly faced the man who had spoken those insolent words are you mad he asked
herbert was on the point of declaring himself to have been catherine's husband until the law dissolved their marriage when a waiter came in and approached him with a message
you are wanted immediately sir who wants me a person outside sir it's a serious matter there is not a moment to lose
herbert turned to the captain i must have your promise to wait for me he said or i don't leave the room make your mind easy
i shall not stir from this place till you have explained yourself was the firm reply the servant led the way out he crossed the passage and opened the door of a waiting room
the narrative george germaine writes and tells his own love story chapter one greenwater broad look back my memory
through the dim labyrinth of the past through the mingling joys and sorrows of twenty years rise again my boyhood's days by the winding green shores of the little lake
come to me once more my child love in the innocent beauty of your first ten years of life let us live again my angel as we lived in our first paradise before sin and sorrow
lifted their flaming swords and drove us out into the world the month was march the last wild fowl of the season were floating on the waters of the lake
which in our suffolk tongue we called greenwater broad wind where it might the grassy banks and the overhanging trees tinged the lake with the soft green reflections from which it took its name
in a creek at the south end the boats were kept my own pretty sailing boat having a tiny natural harbor all to itself in a creek at the north end
used for snaring the wild fowl which flocked every winter by thousands and thousands to greenwater broad my little mary and i went out together hand in hand to see the last birds of the season
the outer part of the strange bird trap rose from the waters of the lake in a series of circular arches formed of elastic branches bent to the needed shape and covered with folds of fine network making the roof
little by little diminishing in size the arches and their net work followed the secret windings of the creek inland to its end built back round the arches on their landward side
ran a wooden paling high enough to hide a man kneeling behind it from the view of the birds on the lake at certain intervals a hole was broken in the paling
just large enough to allow of the passage through it of a dog of the terrier or the spaniel breed and there began and ended the simple
in those days i was thirteen and mary was ten years old walking on our way to the lake we had mary's father with us for guide and companion
the good man served as bailiff on my father's estate he was besides a skilled master in the art of decoying ducks the dog that helped him
we used no tame ducks as decoys in suffolk was a little black terrier a skilled master also in his way a creature who possessed in equal proportions
the enviable advantages of perfect good humor and perfect common sense the dog followed the bailiff and we followed the dog
the dog sat down to wait until he was wanted the bailiff and the children crouched behind the paling and peeped through the outermost dog hole which commanded a full view of the lake it was a day without wind
not a ripple stirred the surface of the water
and hid the sun from view we peeped through the hole in the paling there were the wild ducks
placidly dressing their feathers on the placid surface of the lake the bailiff looked at the dog and made a sign the dog looked at the bailiff and stepping forward quietly passed through the hole
so as to show himself on the narrow strip of ground shelving down from the outer side of the paling to the lake first one duck then another then half a dozen together discovered the dog
a new object showing itself on the solitary scene instantly became an object of all devouring curiosity to the ducks the outermost of them began to swim slowly toward the strange four footed creature
planted motionless on the bank by twos and threes the main body of the waterfowl gradually followed the advanced guard swimming nearer and nearer to the dog the wary ducks suddenly came to a halt and
poised on the water viewed from a safe distance the phenomenon on the land the bailiff kneeling behind the paling whispered trim hearing his name the terrier turned about
and retiring through the hole became lost to the view of the ducks motionless on the water the wild fowl wondered and waited in a minute more the dog had trotted round
and had shown himself through the next hole in the paling pierced further inward where the lake ran up into the outermost of the windings of the creek the second appearance of the terrier
instantly produced a second fit of curiosity among the ducks with one accord they swam forward again to get another and a nearer view of the dog then judging their safe distance once more they stopped for the second time
under the outermost arch of the decoy again the dog vanished and the puzzled ducks waited an interval passed and the third appearance of trim took place through a third hole in the paling
pierced further inland up the creek for the third time irresistible curiosity urged the ducks to advance further and further inward
a fourth and a fifth time the game went on until the dog had lured the water fowl from point to point into the inner recesses of the decoy there
a last appearance of trim took place a last advance a last cautious pause was made by the ducks the bailiff touched the strings the weighed net work fell vertically into the water
caught by means of their own curiosity with nothing but a little dog for a bait in a few hours afterward they were all dead ducks on their way to the london market
little mary laid her hand on my shoulder and raising herself on tiptoe whispered in my ear george come home with me i have got something to show you that is better worth seeing than the ducks what is it
it's a surprise i won't tell you will you give me a kiss the charming little creature put her slim sun burned arms round my neck and answered as many kisses as you like george
it was innocently said on her side it was innocently done on mine the good easy bailiff looking aside at the moment from his ducks discovered us pursuing our boy and girl courtship
in each other's arms he shook his big forefinger at us with something of a sad and doubting smile ah master george master george
he said when your father comes home do you think he will approve of his son and heir kissing his bailiff's daughter when my father comes home i answered with great dignity
i shall tell him the truth i shall say i am going to marry your daughter the bailiff burst out laughing and looked back again at his ducks well well
we heard him say to himself they're only children there's no call poor things to part them yet awhile mary and i had a great dislike to be called children
properly understood one of us was a lady aged ten and the other was a gentleman aged thirteen
by jove i like that fellow's coolness said lorry to harry anguish after the meeting he's after my own heart why he treats us as though we were the suppliants he the alms giver he is playing a game i'll admit but he does it with an assurance that delights me
he is right about that darned old fort said anguish his knowledge of such things proves conclusively that he is no ordinary person yetive had a bit of a talk with him just now said lorry with a reflective smile she asked him point blank if he knew who she was he did not hesitate a second
i remember seeing you in the audience chamber recently that was a facer for yetive i assure you that it was no fault of mine that you saw me she replied then it must have been your friend who rustled the curtains said the confounded bluffer yetive couldn't keep a straight face she laughed and then he laughed
some day you may learn more about me she said to him i sincerely trust that i may madam said he and i'll bet my hat he was enjoying it better than either of us of course he knows yetive is the princess it's his intention to serve beverly calhoun and he couldn't do it if he were to confess that he knows the truth
he's no fool baldos was not long in preparing plans for the changes in the fortress they embodied a temporary readjustment of the armament and alterations in the ammunition house the gate leading to the river was closed and the refuse from the fort was taken to the barges by way of the main entrance
there were other changes suggested for immediate consideration and then there was a general plan for the modernizing of the fortress at some more convenient time baldos laconically observed that the equipment was years behind the times to the amazement of the officials he was able to talk intelligently of forts in all parts of the world
revealing a wide and thorough knowledge and extensive inspection he had seen american as well as european fortifications the graustark engineers went to work at once to perfect the simple changes he advised leaving no stone unturned to strengthen the place before an attack could be made
two three weeks went by and the new guard was becoming an old story to the castle and army folk he rode with beverly every fair day and he looked at her window by night from afar off in the sombre barracks she could not dissipate the feeling that he knew her to be other than the princess
although he betrayed himself by no word or sign she was enjoying the fun of it too intensely to expose it to the risk of destruction by revealing her true identity to him logically that would mean the end of everything no doubt he felt the same and kept his counsel
but the game could not last forever that was certain a month or two more and beverly would have to think of the return to washington his courage his cool impudence his subtle wit charmed her more than she could express now she was beginning to study him from a standpoint peculiarly and selfishly her own
where recently she had sung his praises to yetive and others she now was strangely reticent
and even from dangloss she was proud vastly proud of him in these days the iron count alone discredited the ability and the conscientiousness of the mountebank as he named the man who had put his nose out of joint beverly seeing much of marlanx made the mistake of chiding him frankly and gaily about this aversion
she even argued the guard's case before the head of the army imprudently pointing out many of his superior qualities in advocating his cause the count was learning forbearance in his old age he saw the wisdom of procrastination baldos was in favor but someday there would come a time for his undoing
in the barracks he was acquiring fame reports went forth with unbiased freedom he established himself as the best swordsman in the service as well as the most efficient marksman with the foils and sabers he easily vanquished the foremost fencers in high and low circles
he could ride like a cossack or like an american cowboy of them all his warmest admirer was haddan the man set to watch him for the secret service it may be timely to state that haddan watched in vain the princess humoring her own fancy as well as beverly's foibles
took to riding with her high spirited young guest on many a little jaunt to the hills she usually rode with lorry or anguish cheerfully assuming the subdued position befitting a lady in waiting apparently restored to favor on probation she enjoyed beverly's unique position
how can you expect the paragon to make love to you dear if he thinks you are another man's wife yetive asked her blue eyes beaming with the fun of it all pooh sniffed beverly you have only to consult history to find the excuse it's the dear old habit of men to make love to queens and get beheaded for it
besides he is not expected to make love to me
on a day soon after the return of lorry and anguish from a trip to the frontier beverly expressed a desire to visit the monastery of saint valentine high on the mountain top it was a long ride over the circuitous route by which the steep incline was avoided
and it was necessary for the party to make an early start yetive rode with harry anguish and his wife the countess while beverly's companion was the gallant colonel quinnox baldos relegated to the background brought up the rear with haddan
for a week or more beverly had been behaving toward baldos in the most cavalier fashion her friends had been teasing her and to her own intense amazement she resented it the fact that she felt the sting of their sly taunts was sufficient to arouse in her the distressing conviction
that he had become important enough to prove embarrassing while confessing to herself that it was a bit treacherous and weak she proceeded to ignore baldos with astonishing persistency apart from the teasing it seemed to her of late that he was growing a shade too confident
a touch of the old jauntiness cropped out here and there a tinge of the old irony marred his otherwise perfect mien as a soldier his laugh was freer his eyes less under subjugation his entire personality more arrogant
it was time thought she resentfully that his temerity should meet some sort of check and moreover she had dreamed of him two nights in succession how well her plan succeeded may best be illustrated by saying that she now was in a most uncomfortable frame of mind
baldos refused to be properly depressed by his misfortune he retired to the oblivion she provided and seemed disagreeably content apparently it made very little difference to him whether he was in or out of favor beverly was in high dudgeon and low spirits
the party rode forth at an early hour in the morning it was hot in the city but it looked cold and bleak on the heights comfortable wraps were taken along and provision was made for luncheon at an inn half way up the slope quinnox regaled beverly with stories in which grenfall lorry was the hero and yetive the heroine
charged with the assassination of prince lorenz then betrothed to the princess lay hidden in the monastery while yetive's own soldiers hunted high and low for him the narrator dwelt glowingly upon the trip from the monastery to the city walls one dark night
when lorry came down to surrender himself in order to shield the woman he loved and quinnox himself piloted him through the underground passage into the very heart of the castle then came the exciting scene in which lorry presented himself as a prisoner
with the denouement that saved the princess and won for the gallant american the desire of his heart what a brave fellow he was cried beverly who never tired of hearing the romantic story
i fought him to keep him from surrendering he beat me and i was virtually his prisoner when we appeared before the tribunal it's no wonder she loved him and married him he deserved the best that life could give miss calhoun
i am a highness once in a while don't you know i implore your highness's pardon said he gaily the riders ahead had come to a standstill and were pointing off into the pass to their right they were eight or ten miles from the city gates and more than half way up the winding road that ended at the monastery gates
beverly and quinnox came up with them and found all eyes centered on a small company of men
it needed but a glance to tell her who comprised the unusual company the very raggedness of their garments the unforgetable disregard for consequences the impudent ease with which they faced poverty and wealth alike belonged to but one set of men the vagabonds of the hawk and raven
beverly went a shade whiter her interest in everything else flagged and she was lost in bewilderment what freak of fortune had sent these men out of the fastnesses into this dangerously open place she recognized the ascetic ravone with his student's face and beggar's garb
the tall leader with the red feather the rakish hat and the black patch alone was missing from the picture it's the strangest looking crew i've ever seen said anguish they look like pirates or gypsies suggested yetive who are they colonel quinnox what are they doing here
quinnox was surveying the vagabonds with a critical suspicious eye they are not robbers or they would be off like rabbits he said reflectively your highness there are many roving bands in the hills but i confess that these men are unlike any i have heard about with your permission i will ride down and question them
do quinnox i am most curious beverly sat very still and tense
calling to the escort to follow the keen eyes of the guard caught the situation at once miss calhoun shot a quick glance at him as he rode up beside her his face was impassive but she could see his hand clench the bridle rein and there was an air of restraint in his whole bearing
remember your promise he whispered hoarsely no harm must come to them
rode recklessly after quinnox was questioning the laconic ravone when she drew rein the vagabonds seemed to evince but little interest in the proceedings they stood away in disdainful aloofness no sign of recognition passed between them and baldos
in broken jerky sentences ravone explained to the colonel that they were a party of actors on their way to edelweiss but that they had been advised to give the place a wide berth now they were making the best of a hard journey to serros where they expected but little better success
he produced certain papers of identification which quinnox examined and approved much to beverly's secret amazement the princess and the colonel exchanged glances and afterwards a few words in subdued tones
yetive looked furtively at beverly and then at baldos as if to enquire whether these men were the goat hunters she had come to know by word of mouth the two faces were hopelessly non committal suddenly baldos's horse reared and began to plunge as if in terror
so that the rider kept his seat only by means of adept horsemanship ravone leaped forward and at the risk of injury clutched the plunging steed by the bit together they partially subdued the animal and baldos swung to the ground at ravone's side
miss calhoun's horse in the meantime had caught the fever he pranced off to the roadside before she could get him under control she was thus in a position to observe the two men on the ground shielded from view by the body of the horse they were able to put the finishing touches to the trick baldos had cleverly worked
beverly distinctly saw the guard and the beggar exchange bits of paper with glances that meant more than the words they were unable to utter baldos pressed into ravone's hand a note of some bulk and received in exchange a mere slip of paper
he came at last wonder and a little alarm in his face as he was brought into the room where the superintendent and green sat there are many rules the infringement of which will imperil a licence
foyle motioned for the door to be shut so you're the cab driver we're looking for are you he said you're william white
all right white there's nothing to be alarmed about you picked up a lady outside the metropolitan and provincial bank this morning just sit down and tell us where you took her
yes sir i did pick up a lady there i took her along to the general post office and waited while she went in then wait a minute interrupted foyle how long was she in there ten minutes as near as a touch according to the way the taximeter jumped while i was waiting
when she came out she asked me if i could take her to kingston i said yes and she told me to stop on the surrey side of putney bridge because she expected to pick up a friend sir well he was waiting there for us what kind of a looking man was he a tough sort of customer dressed like a labouring chap
i thought it was a queer go but it wasn't none of my business and ladies take queer fancies at times she didn't say nothing to him that i could hear but just leaned out of the window and beckoned he jumped in and off we went we stopped at a tailor's shop in kingston and the man went in while the lady stayed in the cab what was the name of the shop
very well go on said foyle curtly well in a matter of a couple of minutes out comes the chap again and spoke to the lady she got out and paid me off he went back into the shop and she walked away down the street and that's the last you saw of them i suppose asked the superintendent
with his left hand rubbing vigorously at his chin white shook his head no sir i went away and had a bit of grub before coming back as i passed kingston railway station i saw the lady standing by a big motor car talking to the man seated at the wheel
i thought at first it was the chap i had driven down but i could see it wasn't when i got a closer look at him he was better dressed and held himself straighter ah could you describe him did you notice the number of the car the driver scratched his head a sort of ordinary looking man sir i didn't take much stock of him
a big brown thing with an open body right you are white said foyle with a nod of dismissal that will do for now you go down and wait in the yard with your cab and we'll get some one to go with you to kingston and keep your mouth shut about what you've told us when the door closed behind the man his eyes met those of the chief detective inspector
you'll have to go to kingston green it's a hot scent there you've got the numbers of the notes that maxwell got from the bank find out if any of them were changed at the tailor's they've taken precautions to blind the trail what i think happened is that she telephoned from the general post office to some motor car firm
to send a car from london to kingston railway station under the impression that it would be less risky he went into the tailor's place to arrange for a change of clothes and she dismissed the taxi as a measure of precaution it was a piece of luck that the man noticed the motor car but we can't be absolutely certain of the number he gave
anyway i'll send it out to the county police and ask them to keep their eyes open
and get the number verified if you phone me when you get down there i'll let you know how things stand green had his hand on the handle of the door but suddenly something occurred to him do you think she's gone with him sir heldon foyle made a little gesture of dissent
i don't think it likely it would double the danger of identification but we can soon find if she's gone back to her home i told taylor who is watching in berkeley square to report when she returned he touched a bell and put a question to the man who entered yes sir was the reply he rang up half an hour ago
you told me i wasn't to disturb you he reported lady eileen meredith had just gone in there you are then green said foyle that point's settled you get along i wish i could come with you but it won't do for me to leave london just now and goodness knows where you may have to finish up good bye and good luck
when green had gone foyle gave a few instructions to cover the points that had arisen and walked to sir hilary thornton's room the assistant commissioner looked up and proffered a cigar think of the angels he said i was just wondering how things were going
and puffing a ring of smoke into the air he told in bare unadorned fashion the events of the day it has been a narrow thing for grell he concluded even now i fancy we shall get him green's as tenacious as a bull dog when he's got something to take hold of
with his hands thrust deep in his trousers pockets sir hilary strode to and fro across the room it's time we got a bit forward he said
there's a week yet answered foyle i don't think it will much matter what is revealed then the assistant commissioner came to a halt you're not a man to be over confident foyle he explained do you feel pretty certain of having grell under arrest by that time i've not interfered with you hitherto but for heaven's sake be careful
it won't do to make a mistake especially with a man of grell's standing heldon foyle lifted his shoulders deprecatingly it all depends upon an idea i have sir i am willing to take all responsibility you're still convinced that grell is guilty
with the help of pinkerton's i've traced his history back for the last twenty five years he's had his hands in some queer episodes in his time before he became a millionaire there are gaps which we can't fill up of course but we're pretty complete there was one thing in his favour although he's known toughs in all corners of the world
he's never been mixed up in any dirty business and as he's carried out one or two political missions for the united states i suppose he's had to know some of these people to morrow or the next day i expect to have the records of both ivan abramovitch and condit it will all help though the bearing on the murder is perhaps indirect
you're talking in parables like a detective out of a book said thornton with a peevishness that his covering smile could not entirely conceal but i know you'll have your own way when you don't want to be too precise how do you regard the burnt paper is it important
it would have been if i could have saved it said the detective regretfully as it is it's of no use as evidence in a court for it only rests on my word
but you never know your luck in our trade i remember a case of forgery once
the cashier was confident that his initials in blue pencil on the counterfoil were genuine yet he was equally certain that he had not received the money the tradesman was certain that he had sent the money there it was i was at a dead end one day i noticed a little stationer's store near the tradesman's office
oh schoolboys buy em said the old woman who served me
well off i went to the grammar school that the boy was attending and had a talk with one of the masters
i was beginning to see my way so had the boy called out of his class into a private room now tell me my boy i said what did you do with the money you stole from your father on such and such a date the bluff worked he turned pale and then admitted that he had forged the initials
taken the money and gone on a joy jaunt for a week while he was supposed to be staying with an aunt there was the luck of the idea coming in my head through looking at those pencils have you been looking at blue pencils to day asked thornton with interest
something of the kind admitted foyle with a smile and before he could be questioned further had vanished he had said nothing of the blotting paper incident for there were times when he wished to keep his own counsel even within the precincts of scotland yard itself he did not wish to pin himself down until he was sure
in his own room he unlocked the big safe that stood between the two windows and taking out the roll he had abstracted from lady eileen's desk surveyed it with a whimsical smile playing about the corners of his mouth once he held it to the mirror and the word burghley was plainly reflected
and replacing it in the safe swung the heavy door to the jig saw puzzle to which he had likened criminal investigations was not so jumbled as it had been one or two bits of the picture were beginning to stick together though there were others that did not seem to have any points of junction
foyle pulled out the dossier of the case and again went over the evidence that had been collected he knew it practically by heart but one could never be too certain that nothing had been overlooked he was so engaged when mister fred trevelyan was announced
fred trevelyan who is he he asked mechanically his brain still striving with the problem he wished to elucidate
i should call him dutch fred oh i was wandering send him in there was nothing of the popular conception of the criminal about freddy as he swaggered into the room bearing a glossy silk hat of the latest fashionable shape on one arm his morning coat was of faultless cut his trousers were creased with precision
grey spats covered his well shone boots foyle shook hands with him and his blue eyes twinkled humorously on the war path i see freddy sit down what's the game going to the big fight the last remark was made with an object professional boxing attracts perhaps a larger number of the criminal fraternity than any other sport
except possibly horse racing in many cases it is purely and simply love of the game that attracts there is no ulterior motive but in the case of freddy and men in his line there was always the chance of combining pleasure with profit the hint was not lost on the pick pocket
a hurt expression crossed his face no mister foyle he declared earnestly i don't take any interest in boxing i just called in to put you wise to something as i was passing that's very nice of you freddy what was it the pick pocket dropped his voice it's about harry goldenburg he said
i saw him to day foyle beat a tattoo on his desk with his fingers that so he said listlessly out on the portsmouth road i suppose dutch fred sat up with a start yes he agreed just outside kingston how did you know just a guess laughed the superintendent
well what about it did you speak to him i didn't have a chance retorted freddy i was in a little run about with a pal when he came scooting by hell for leather we only got a glimpse of him and if he noticed us he made no sign i thought you'd like to know that's all it was an open car brown colour
i couldn't see the number for dust it was a something well we know all that said foyle all the same freddy i am glad you dropped in i won't forget it right oh mister foyle good evening and the pick pocket swaggered out while foyle thoughtfully stowed away his papers
he had promised to call on lady eileen about six o'clock and his mind dwelt on the potentialities of the interview as he lingered over his frugal meal he had just poured out his second cup when the telephone buzzer behind him jarred a call from liverpool sir said the man in the private exchange mister blake wants you
shall i put him through a few minutes elapsed before foyle heard the voice of the man who had been outwitted by the princess petrovska is that mister foyle this is blake speaking we've got on the track of the lady again she'd been staying at a boarding house pretending she was a member of a theatrical company
a local man spotted her and came back to fetch me to make certain of her identity
we're after her now she's only got half an hour's start and we've wired to have the main roads watched i expect we'll have her in an hour or two the superintendent coughed get along then blake and don't smoke when you're on the job this time good bye
grace was still where she had fallen cooling a large red lump on her forehead by applying her handkerchief first to the ice and then to the swollen place when she suddenly felt herself to be entirely alone in the world everybody has gone home to dinner she exclaimed as she glanced over her shoulder at the other end of the pond
now denuded of skaters then she shifted her position looking for tom and julia she had never dreamed when she saw her friend go whizzing across the ice that he had not caught the reckless girl in time to warn her of her danger
tom tom gray she called where are you run for help came the answer in another moment she saw them clinging to a broken ledge of ice tom supporting julia crosby as for the junior captain she was weeping bitterly and making no attempt to help herself
grace anxiously scanned the expanse of the ice it was nearly a mile to the other end of the pond and the last group of skaters had disappeared over the brow of the hill
nothing but the great ice house that stood like a lonely sentinel on the bank yet something seemed to tell her that help lay in that direction once before in a moment of danger grace had obeyed this same impulse and had never regretted it
once again she was following the instinct that might have seemed to another person anything but wise skating as she had never skated before grace harlowe reached the shore in a moment here dropping to the bank she quickly removed her skates
then ran toward the ice house feeling strangely unaccustomed to walking on the ground after her long morning on skates
suppose there is no one there she paused for an instant and then ran on faster than before i shall find help over there i know i shall she thought as she hurried over the frozen ground and made straight for the ice house there was no time to be lost
tom and julia were liable to be sucked under and drowned while she was looking for help grace pushed resolutely on in the meantime hardly four minutes had really elapsed since the skaters had tumbled into the water
on the other side of the ice house she came abruptly upon a man engaged in loading a child's wagon with chips of wood help cried grace help some people have broken through the ice have you a rope the man made no answer whatever he did not even look up until grace shook him by the shoulder
there is no time to lose she cried they may drown at any moment come come quickly and help me save them the man looked at her with a strange far away expression in his eyes
are you deaf he shook his head stupidly touching his ears and mouth deaf and dumb she exclaimed in despair holding up two fingers grace pointed toward the water then she made a swimming motion
perhaps he had understood she could not tell but her quick eye had caught sight of a long thin plank on the shore pulling off one of her mittens she showed him a little pearl and turquoise ring her mother had given her for a birthday present
indicating that she would give it to him if he would help her then she seized one end of the plank and made a sign for him to take the other but the stubborn creature began to unload the chips from the wagon grace ran blindly ahead dragging the plank alone he's feeble minded she quivered
i suppose i shall have to work this thing by myself when she had reached the bank grace heard him trotting behind her with his little wagon in another moment there was a tug at the board she turned and shook her fist angrily at him but without regarding her in the least
he lifted the plank and rested it on the wagon then motioning her to hold up the back end he started on a run down the bank the poor soul thinks he's a horse i suppose she said to herself but what difference does it make if we can only get the plank to tom and julia
grace soon saw however that the idea was not entirely idiotic later she was to offer up a prayer of thanks for that same child's wagon the deaf and dumb man was wearing heavy arctic rubbers which kept him from slipping while grace whose soles were as smooth as glass
kept her balance admirably by means of the other end of the plank tom and julia crosby had now been nearly ten minutes in the water twice the ice had broken under tom's grasp while julia who seemed unable to help herself had thrown all her weight on the poor boy
while she called wildly for help and heaped grace with reproaches for running away if it were not for the fact that it would be the act of a coward exclaimed tom at last his teeth chattering with cold i would let go of your arm and give up the job of supporting you in this ice water for talking about grace like that
of course she has gone for help haven't you found out long ago that she is the right sort well why did she go in the wrong direction sobbed julia everybody is over on the other bank there is nothing but an ice house over here you may trust to her to have had some good sensible reason retorted tom loyally
i don't think i can keep up much longer exclaimed julia beginning to cry again keep on crying replied tom exasperated it will warm you and remember that i am doing the keeping up i don't see that you are making any special effort in that direction
once tom had endeavored to lift julia out of the hole and he believed and always insisted in telling the story afterwards that if she had been willing to help herself it could have been accomplished but julia crosby triumphant leader of her class and julia crosby cold and wet as a result of her own recklessness
and still shivering violently knelt beside grace on the plank but it was too short when tom gray seized one end of it he nearly upset both the girls into the water oh what shall we do cried grace in despair when suddenly there came the thought of the little wagon
quickly untwisting a long muffler of red silk from about her neck grace tied it securely in the middle around the cross piece of the tongue of the stout little vehicle then she pushed it gently until it stood on the edge of the hole giving one end of the muffler to julia grace took the other herself
catch hold of the tail piece tom she cried fortunately the ice was very rough where the girls were standing or they would certainly have slipped and fallen
with tom's additional weight on it instead of breaking began to sink but tom gray was out of the hole now helped by the wagon he slipped easily along the half submerged ice
who had certainly been brave and patient during the ordeal although he had uttered the most fearful sounds as soon as his feet touched the solid ice he seized his wagon and made for the bank
hurried after him but she was chilled to the bone and could not run by the time she reached the bank he had rounded the corner of the ice house and was out of sight
we had better get home as soon as possible or we'll all be laid up with colds the three half frozen young people made their way home as best they could their clothes had frozen stiff making it impossible for them to hurry
julia crosby said not a word during the walk but when she left them at the corner where she turned into her own street she said huskily thank you both for what you did for me to day i owe my life to you that was a whole lot for her to say said grace
pointing to his wet clothes i believe she will be said grace softly after all it's an ill wind that blows no one good
grace's mother was justly horrified when grace in her bedraggled condition walked into the living room she insisted on putting her to bed wrapping her in blankets and giving her hot drinks grace fell into a sound sleep from which she did not awaken until evening
then she rose dressed and appeared at the supper table apparently none the worse for her wetting meanwhile tom gray had gone to his aunt's given himself a brisk rubbing down
and changed his wet clothing for another suit he fortunately happened to have with him thanks to his strong constitution and vigorous health he felt no bad effects he then went down to the kitchen asked the cook for a cup of hot coffee and after hastily swallowing it
rushed off to find david hippy and reddy and tell them the news he was filled with admiration for grace she is the finest most resolute girl i ever knew he exclaimed as he finished his story hurrah for grace harlowe shouted reddy let's go down to night and see if she's all right suggested david
before seven o'clock the four boys were on their way to the harlowe's they crept quietly up to the living room window grace sat by the fire reading very softly they began a popular song that was a favorite of hers grace's quick ears caught the sound of the music
the deaf and dumb man who helped you out is quite a character said hippy i know him well he used to work for my father he isn't half so foolish as he looks either
i am proud to say that it was once mine it must have been made especially strong observed reddy it was hickory and iron were the materials used i believe
and also smashed three before my father had this one made to order
at last it was about six weeks after this that one day clover and elsie were busy down stairs they were startled by the sound of katy's bell ringing in a sudden and agitated manner both ran up two steps at a time to see what was wanted
katy sat in her chair looking very much flushed and excited oh girls she exclaimed what do you think
so katy went on explaining it was all at once you see suddenly i had the feeling that if i tried i could and almost before i thought i did try and there i was up and out of the chair
oh girls and katy buried her face in her hands do you think i shall ever be able to do it again she asked looking up with wet eyes
while elsie danced about crying out anxiously be careful do be careful katy tried but the spring was gone she could not move out of the chair at all she began to wonder if she had dreamed the whole thing but next day
when clover happened to be in the room she heard a sudden exclamation and turning there stood katy
but all the rest crowded up at once this time katy found no trouble in doing it again it seemed as if her will had been asleep and now that it had waked up the limbs recognized its orders and obeyed them
when papa came in he was as much excited as any of the children he walked round and round the chair questioning katy and making her stand up and sit down am i really going to get well she asked almost in a whisper
yes my love i think you are replied doctor carr seizing phil and giving him a toss into the air none of the children had ever before seen papa behave so like a boy but pretty soon
noticing katy's burning cheeks and excited eyes he calmed himself sent the others all away and sat down to soothe and quiet her with gentle words
remember any imprudence will put you back you must be content to gain a very little at a time there is no royal road to walking any more than there is to learning every baby finds that out oh papa said katy
how happy she was that night too happy to sleep
katy knew papa was right and she was careful though it was by no means easy to be so with that new life tingling in every limb her progress was slow as doctor carr had predicted
at first she only stood on her feet a few seconds then a minute then five minutes holding tightly all the while by the chair next she ventured to let go the chair and stand alone after that she began to walk a step at a time
pushing a chair before her as children do when they are learning the use of their feet clover and elsie hovered about her as she moved like anxious mammas it was droll and a little pitiful to see tall katy with her feeble unsteady progress
and the active figures of the little sisters following her protectingly but katy did not consider it either droll or pitiful to her it was simply delightful the most delightful thing possible
no baby of a year old was ever prouder of his first steps than she gradually she grew adventurous and ventured on a bolder flight clover running up stairs one day to her own room stood transfixed at the sight of katy sitting there flushed panting
but enjoying the surprise she caused you see she explained in an apologizing tone i was seized with a desire to explore it is such a time since i saw any room but my own but oh dear how long that hall is
i shall have to take a good rest before i go back katy did take a good rest but she was very tired next day the experiment however did no harm in the course of two or three weeks she was able to walk all over the second story
this was a great enjoyment it was like reading an interesting book to see all the new things and the little changes she was forever wondering over something why dorry she would say what a pretty book shelf when did you get it
had it two years didn't i ever tell you about it perhaps you did katy would reply but you see i never saw it before so it made no impression by the end of august she was grown so strong that she began to talk about going down stairs
but papa said wait it will tire you much more than walking about on a level he explained you had better put it off a little while till you are quite sure of your feet i think so too said clover and beside
missus housekeeper oh i'll tell you such a beautiful idea has come into my head you shall fix a day to come down katy and we'll be all ready for you and have a celebration among ourselves that would be just lovely how soon may she papa
ten days i should say it might be safe ten days
then papa if i may i'll come down stairs the first time on the eighth it was mamma's birthday you know she added in a lower voice so it was settled how delicious cried clover
skipping about and clapping her hands i never never never did hear of anything so perfectly lovely papa when are you coming down stairs
right away rather than have my coat tails pulled off answered doctor carr laughing and they went away together katy sat looking out of the window in a peaceful happy mood oh she thought can it really be
is school going to let out just as cousin helen's hymn said am i going to bid a sweet good bye to pain but there was love in the pain i see it now how good the dear teacher has been to me
clover seemed to be very busy all the rest of that week she was having windows washed she said
not to mention certain sounds of hammering and sawing which came from down stairs the other children had evidently been warned to say nothing for once or twice philly broke out with oh katy and then hushed himself up saying i most forgot
katy grew very curious but she saw that the secret whatever it was gave immense satisfaction to everybody except herself so though she longed to know she concluded not to spoil the fun by asking any questions
at last it wanted but one day of the important occasion see said katy as clover came into the room a little before tea time miss petingill has brought home my new dress
which was a soft dove colored cashmere trimmed with ribbon of the same shade but katy i came up to shut your door bridget's going to sweep the hall and i don't want the dust to fly in
why don't you make her wait till morning oh she can't there are she has i mean there will be other things for her to do to morrow it's a great deal more convenient that she should do it now don't worry katy darling but just keep your door shut
you will won't you promise me very well said katy more and more amazed but yielding to clover's eagerness i'll keep it shut her curiosity was excited she took a book and tried to read
but the letters danced up and down before her eyes and she couldn't help listening bridget was making a most ostentatious noise with her broom but through it all katy seemed to hear other sounds feet on the stairs doors opening and shutting
once a stifled giggle how queer it all was never mind she said resolutely stopping her ears i shall know all about it to morrow to morrow dawned fresh and fair the very ideal of a september day
that dress of yours is sweet you never looked so nice before in your life and she stuck a beautiful carnation pink under katy's breast pin and fastened another in her hair there she said now you're adorned
just then elsie and johnnie came in they had on their best frocks
cecy followed invited over for the special purpose of seeing katy walk down stairs she too had on a new frock how fine we are said clover as she remarked this magnificence turn round cecy
a panier i do declare and a sash you are getting awfully grown up miss hall none of us will ever be so grown up as katy said cecy laughing and now papa appeared very slowly they all went down stairs
katy leaning on papa with dorry on her other side and the girls behind while philly clattered ahead and there were debby and bridget and alexander
and dear old mary with her apron at her eyes crying for joy oh the front door is open said katy in a delighted tone how nice and what a pretty oil cloth that's new since i was here
don't stop to look at that cried philly who seemed in a great hurry about something it isn't new it's been there ever and ever so long come into the parlor instead yes said papa dinner isn't quite ready yet
you have borne it admirably katy
bit replied katy cheerfully i could do it alone i think oh the bookcase door has been mended how nice it looks don't wait oh don't wait repeated phil in an agony of impatience
so they moved on papa opened the parlor door katy took one step into the room then stopped
and she held by the door knob to support herself what was it that she saw not merely the room itself with its fresh muslin curtains and vases of flowers nor even the wide beautiful window which had been cut toward the sun
or the inviting little couch and table which stood there evidently for her no there was something else the sofa was pulled out and there upon it supported by pillows her bright eyes turned to the door lay cousin helen
when she saw katy she held out her arms clover and cecy agreed afterward that they never were so frightened in their lives as at this moment for katy forgetting her weakness let go of papa's arm and absolutely ran toward the sofa oh cousin helen
dear dear cousin helen she cried then she tumbled down by the sofa somehow the two pairs of arms and the two faces met and for a moment or two not a word more was heard from anybody
while john and dorry executed a sort of war dance round the sofa phil's voice seemed to break the spell of silence and a perfect hubbub of questions and exclamations began it appeared that this happy thought of getting cousin helen to the celebration was clover's
she it was who had proposed it to papa and made all the arrangements and artful puss she had set bridget to sweep the hall on purpose that katy might not hear the noise of the arrival
isn't that nice asked elsie while clover anxiously questioned are you sure that you didn't suspect not one bit not the least tiny weeny mite no indeed not the least how could i suspect anything so perfectly delightful
and katy gave cousin helen another rapturous kiss such a short day as that seemed there was so much to see to ask about to talk over that the hours flew and evening dropped upon them all like another great surprise
cousin helen was perhaps the happiest of the party beside the pleasure of knowing katy to be almost well again she had the additional enjoyment of seeing for herself how many changes for the better had taken place during the four years among the little cousins she loved so much
it was very interesting to watch them all elsie and dorry seemed to her the most improved of the family elsie had quite lost her plaintive look and little injured tone and was as bright and beaming a maiden of twelve as any one could wish to see
he was still a sober boy and not specially quick in catching an idea but he promised to turn out a valuable man and to him as to all the other children katy was evidently the centre and the sun
cousin helen looked on as phil came in crying after a hard tumble and was consoled as johnnie whispered an important secret and elsie begged for help in her work she saw katy meet them all pleasantly and sweetly without a bit of the dictatorial elder sister in her manner
and with none of her old impetuous tone and best of all she saw the change in katy's own face the gentle expression of her eyes the womanly look the pleasant voice the politeness
the tact in advising the others without seeming to advise dear katy she said a day or two after her arrival
when you were so sick and everybody so sad do you remember indeed i do and how good you were and how you helped me i shall never forget that i'm glad but what i could do was very little
you have been learning by yourself all this time and katy darling i want to tell you how pleased i am to see how bravely you have worked your way up i can perceive it in everything
in papa in the children in yourself you have won the place which you recollect i once told you an invalid should try to gain of being to everybody the heart of the house oh cousin helen don't
said katy her eyes filling with sudden tears i haven't been brave you can't think how badly i sometimes have behaved how cross and ungrateful i am and how stupid and slow every day i see things which ought to be done
and i don't do them it's too delightful to have you praise me but you mustn't i don't deserve it but although she said she didn't deserve it
as tik tok has to do everything in his slow mechanical way do you suppose they are likely to fail asked the rose princess i do indeed replied shaggy
this nome king is really a powerful fellow and has a legion of nomes to assist him whereas our bold queen commands a clockwork man and a band of faint hearted officers
she ought to have let quox do the conquering said polychrome dancing lightly upon a point of rock and fluttering her beautiful draperies but perhaps the dragon was wise to let her go first for when she fails to conquer ruggedo
she may become more modest in her ambitions where is the dragon now inquired ozga up there on the rocks replied files
and he added that after we had gotten into trouble he would wake up and conquer the nome king in a jiffy as his master the jinjin has ordered him to do quox means well said shaggy but i do not think we shall need his services
for just as soon as i am satisfied that queen ann and her army have failed to conquer ruggedo i shall enter the caverns and show the king my love magnet that he cannot resist therefore the conquest will be made with ease
this speech of shaggy man's was overheard by the long eared hearer
had recovered from hank's kick and had picked themselves up their first act was to turn tik tok on his back and put a heavy diamond on top of him so that he could not get up again then they carefully put his gun in a corner of the cavern
but he acknowledged the nome king to be his master and was ready to obey his commands therefore he repeated shaggy's speech to the king who at once realized that his kingdom was in grave danger
and turn all the hatred in his heart into love ruggedo was proud of his hatred and abhorred love of any sort really said he
kaliko returned to the cavern in time to overhear this question and being a loyal nome and eager to serve his king he answered by saying if we can manage to bind the shaggy man's arms tight to his body
he could not get the love magnet out of his pocket true cried the king in delight at this easy solution of the problem get at once a dozen nomes with ropes and place them in the passage where they can seize and bind shaggy as soon as he enters
this kaliko did and meanwhile the watchers outside the entrance were growing more and more uneasy about their friends i don't worry so much about the oogaboo people said polychrome who had grown sober with waiting
and perhaps a little nervous for they could not be killed even though ruggedo might cause them much suffering and perhaps destroy them utterly but we should not have allowed betsy and hank to go alone into the caverns the little girl is mortal
and possesses no magic powers whatever
that is indeed true replied shaggy
so i believe i'll go in right away and put an end to all this worry
you can soon bring the nome king to reason so it was decided to wait no longer shaggy walked through the entrance first and after him came the others they had no thought of danger to themselves
was much surprised when a rope shot out from the darkness and twined around his body
but files and the princess followed on after shaggy determined not to desert their friend and hoping that an opportunity might arise to rescue him as for polychrome
as soon as she saw that trouble had overtaken shaggy she turned and ran lightly back through the passage and out of the entrance
wake up quox she cried it is time for you to act but quox did not wake up he lay as one in a trance absolutely motionless with his enormous eyes tight closed
the eyelids had big silver scales on them like all the rest of his body polychrome might have thought quox was dead had she not known that dragons do not die easily
she picked up a piece of rock and pounded against his eyelids with it saying wake up quox wake up but he would not waken dear me how unfortunate sighed the lovely rainbow's daughter
i wonder what is the best and surest way to waken a dragon
she walked around quox two or three times trying to discover some tender place on his body where a thump or a punch might be felt but he lay extended along the rocks with his chin flat upon the ground and his legs drawn underneath his body
and his silver scales then despairing at last of wakening the beast and worried over the fate of her friends polychrome again ran down to the entrance and hurried along the passage into the nome king's cavern here she found ruggedo
and ranged before the king were the rose princess files and the shaggy man tik tok still lay upon the floor weighted down by the big diamond ruggedo was now in a more contented frame of mind
one by one he had met the invaders and easily captured them the dreaded love magnet was indeed in shaggy's pocket only a few feet away from the king but shaggy was powerless to show it
and unless ruggedo's eyes beheld the talisman it could not affect him as for betsy bobbin and her mule he believed kaliko had placed them in the slimy cave while ann and her officers he thought safely imprisoned in the pit
ruggedo had no fear of files or ozga but to be on the safe side he had ordered golden handcuffs placed upon their wrists these did not cause them any great annoyance but prevented them from making an attack had they been inclined to do so
the nome king thinking himself wholly master of the situation was laughing and jeering at his prisoners when polychrome exquisitely beautiful and dancing like a ray of light entered the cavern oho cried the king a
and arranged his whiskers on my word said he you are a very captivating creature moreover i perceive you are a fairy i am polychrome the rainbow's daughter she said proudly
well replied ruggedo i like you the others i hate i hate everybody but you wouldn't you like to live always in this beautiful cavern polychrome see the jewels that stud the walls have every tint and color of your rainbow
and they are not so elusive i'll have fresh dewdrops gathered for your feasting every day
no thank you laughed polychrome my home is in the sky and i'm only on a visit to this solid sordid earth but tell me ruggedo why my friends have been wound with cords and bound with chains
then since they are now helpless why not release them and send them back to the earth's surface because i hate em and mean to make em suffer for their invasion but i'll make a bargain with you sweet polly remain here and live with me
and i'll set all these people free you shall be my daughter or my wife or my aunt or grandmother whichever you like only stay here to brighten my gloomy kingdom and make me happy polychrome looked at him wonderingly
then she turned to shaggy and asked are you sure he hasn't seen the love magnet i'm positive answered shaggy but you seem to be something of a love magnet yourself polychrome she laughed again and said to ruggedo
not even to rescue my friends would i live in your kingdom
the society of such a wicked monster as you you forget retorted the king scowling darkly that you also are in my power not so ruggedo
the rainbow's daughter is beyond the reach of your spite or malice
her his hands met in air and now the rainbow's daughter was in another part of the room as smiling and composed as before
and ruggedo even came down from his throne to assist his general but never could they lay hands upon the lovely sky fairy who flitted here and there with the swiftness of light and constantly defied them with her merry laughter as she evaded their efforts
so after a time they abandoned the chase and ruggedo returned to his throne and wiped the perspiration from his face with a finely woven handkerchief of cloth of gold well said polychrome what do you intend to do now
i'm going to have some fun to repay me for all my bother replied the nome king then he said to kaliko summon the executioners kaliko at once withdrew and presently returned with a score of nomes
all of whom were nearly as evil looking as their hated master they bore great golden pincers and prods of silver and clamps and chains and various wicked looking instruments
all made of precious metals and set with diamonds and rubies now pang said ruggedo addressing the leader of the executioners fetch the army of oogaboo and their queen from the pit and torture them here in my presence
as well as in the presence of their friends it will be great sport i hear your majesty and i obey your majesty answered pang and went with his nomes into the passage in a few minutes he returned
and bowed to ruggedo they're all gone said he
gone where they left no address your majesty but they are not in the pit
no one said pang the cover was there but the prisoners were not under it in that case snarled the king
and fetch hither the girl and the donkey
kaliko went away looking sad and disturbed for he knew the king was cruel and unjust enough to carry out this threat
nor was hank there is no one in the slimy cave your majesty
there is but one slimy cave and there is no one in it returned pang positively ruggedo was beginning to be alarmed as well as angry however these disappointments but made him the more vindictive
and he cast an evil look at the other prisoners and said never mind the girl and the donkey here are four at least who cannot escape my vengeance let me see i believe i'll change my mind about tik tok
have the gold crucible heated to a white seething heat and then we'll dump the copper man into it and melt him up but your majesty protested kaliko who had returned to the room after sending a hundred nomes to search for the oogaboo people
it would be a shame to deprive the world of such a clever contrivance
roared the king i'm getting tired of you kaliko and the first thing you know i'll turn you into a potato and make saratoga chips of you the next to consider he added more mildly is the shaggy man
as he owns the love magnet i think i'll transform him into a dove and then we can practice shooting at him with tik tok's gun
he came out of his throne to stand before the shaggy man and then he waved his hands palms downward in seven semicircles over his victim's head saying in a low but clear tone of voice the magic wugwa
the effect of this well known sorcery was instantaneous instead of the shaggy man a pretty dove lay fluttering upon the floor its wings confined by tiny cords wound around them
with a pair of scissors being freed the dove quickly flew upward
rubbing his hands gleefully together one enemy is out of my way and now for the others perhaps my readers should be warned not to attempt the above transformation for
although the exact magical formula has been described it is unlawful in all civilized countries for anyone to transform a person into a dove by muttering the words ruggedo used there were no laws to prevent the nome king from performing this transformation
but if it should be attempted in any other country and the magic worked the magician would be severely punished when polychrome saw shaggy man transformed into a dove
and that tik tok would soon be melted in a crucible
it was a sound very like distant thunder it began slowly at first and then went faster and faster boom boom boom
i certainly must go over and pay him a call and find out where missus grouse is my how strutter can drum peter promptly headed towards that distant thunder
as he drew nearer to it it sounded louder and louder presently peter stopped to try to locate exactly the place where that sound which now was more than ever like thunder was coming from
suddenly peter remembered something i know just where he is said he to himself there's a big mossy hollow log over yonder
and i remember that missus grouse once told me that that is strutter's thunder log very very carefully peter stole forward making no sound at all
at last he reached a place where he could peep out and see that big mossy hollow log sure enough there was strutter the ruffed grouse when peter first saw him he was crouched on one end of the log
of reddish brown black and gray feathers he was resting suddenly he straightened up to his full height
and spread it until it was like an open fan above his back the outer edge was gray then came a broad band of black followed by bands of gray brown and black
his reddish brown wings
nearly touched the log his full breast rounded out and was buff color with black markings he was of about the size of the little bantam hens peter had seen in farmer brown's
henyard in the most stately way you can imagine strutter walked the length of that mossy log
gobbler the big turkey cock
stretched himself to his full height and his wings began to beat first slowly then faster and faster until they were just a blur they seemed to touch above his back but when they came down they didn't quite strike his sides
it was those fast moving wings that made the thunder it was so loud that peter almost wanted to stop his ears when it ended
strutter settled down to rest and once more appeared like a ball of fluffy feathers his ruff was laid flat peter watched him thunder several times and then ventured to show himself
cried peter and he meant just what he said strutter threw out his chest proudly that is just what missus grouse says he replied i don't know of any better thunderer
if i do say it myself
asked peter eagerly attending to her household affairs as a good housewife should retorted strutter promptly do you mean she has a nest and eggs asked peter
strutter nodded she has twelve eggs he added proudly i suppose said peter artfully her nest is somewhere near here on the ground
it may or it may not be near here do you want to hear me thunder again of course peter said he did and that was sufficient excuse for strutter to show off peter stayed a while longer
to gossip but finding strutter more interested in thundering than in talking he once more started for home
on his way he passed a certain big tree all around the ground was carpeted with brown dead leaves there were no bushes or young trees there
it was the last place in the world he would expect to find one when he was well past the big tree there was a soft chuckle and from among the brown leaves right at the foot of that big tree
a head with a pair of the brightest eyes was raised a little
he didn't see me at all chuckled missus grouse as she settled down once more that is what comes of having a cloak so like the color of these nice brown leaves
he isn't the first one who has passed me without seeing me at all it is better than trying to hide a nest and i certainly am thankful to old mother nature for the cloak she gave me
if they do i certainly will have a family to be proud of meanwhile peter hurried on in his usual happy go lucky fashion until he came to the edge of the green forest
out on the green meadows just beyond he caught sight of a black form walking about in a stately way and now and then picking up something it reminded him of blacky the
he knew right away that it wasn't blacky because it was so much smaller being not more than half as big it's creaker the grackle
and i'm ashamed of myself for not having called on him thought peter as he hopped out and started across the green meadows towards creaker what a splendid long tail he has i believe jenny wren
he looks so much like blacky the crow that i suppose this is why they call him crow blackbird
why why ee exclaimed peter rubbing his eyes with astonishment he isn't just black he's beautiful simply beautiful and i've always supposed he was just plain homely black
it was true creaker the grackle with the sun shining on him was truly beautiful his head and neck his throat and upper breast were a shining blue black while his back was a rich shining brassy green
his wings and tail were much like his head and neck
this changing of colors is called iridescence one other thing peter noticed and this was that creaker's eyes were yellow just at the moment peter couldn't remember any other bird with yellow eyes
i'm glad you think so replied creaker
birds i would change coats with
peter rather timidly creaker shook his head not quite said he she likes plain black better
in the sun and to take care of fine feathers where is she now asked peter over home replied creaker pulling a white grub out of the roots of the grass we've got a nest over there
in one of those pine trees on the edge of the green forest and i expect any day now we will have four hungry babies to feed i shall have to get busy then you know i am one of those who believe that every father
should do his full share in taking care of his family i'm glad to hear you say it declared peter nodding his head with approval
may i ask you a very personal question creaker ask as many questions as you like i don't have to answer them unless i want to retorted creaker
creaker's yellow eyes began to twinkle that is a very personal question said he i won't go so far as to say i steal eggs
i sometimes help myself to the eggs you see the owner might not come back and then those eggs would spoil and that would be a pity that's no excuse at all declared peter i believe
you're no better than sammy jay and blacky the crow creaker chuckled but he did not seem to be at all offended just then he heard missus creaker calling him and with a hasty
jimmy might have managed to escape perhaps his black skin would make him be looked upon as a friend but the old captain what about him he would return
and be seized and knocked on the head for certain the fierce resistance he would make certainly would cause his death and i shuddered at the thought
then i began to think of my mother and father how i should have failed in helping them and i remember thinking what a good job it was that my mother would never know exactly what had happened to me
better the long anxiety i thought of watching and waiting for my return than to know i had been killed like this but i'm not killed yet i thought as the blood flushed to my face
if i can i had not much time given me to think for i was dragged to my feet and out into a large open place where there were huts and trees and there before me
lay the sea with our schooner but the other was gone
i knew that she must have been burned to the water's edge and then sunk i began wondering about what must have been the fate of the other schooner's crew
and somehow it seemed that they deserved it then i began thinking of my own friends and then very selfishly no doubt about myself but i had little time for thought
being hurried along and placed in the middle of a crowd of the savages all of whom seemed to be rolling their eyes and looking at me as if enjoying my position well i thought to myself
it is enough to scare anybody but i'll try and let them see that i belong to a superior race and will not show what i feel my eyes kept wandering about eagerly first to look where my companions
were placed but as i saw no sign of them i began to hope that they might have escaped secondly to see which would be the best course to take if i ran for my life for i could run
and pretty swiftly then the hardy life i had led out in the bush with jimmy for my companion had made me light of foot and tolerably enduring
but for some little time i saw not the slightest chance of escape there were too many savages close about me and they must have divined my ideas for they kept a watchful eye upon
every act at first i had felt numbed and cold my legs and arms ached and when the blacks took off the rope that they had bound about my limbs
and to my great joy i felt more myself at last after a great deal of incomprehensible chatter it seemed that a decision had been come to about me
and a tall black armed with a war club came dancing up to me swinging his weapon about chattering wildly and after a few feints he made a blow
at my head if that blow had taken effect i should not have been able to tell
but i had been too much with my friend jimmy not to be well upon the alert we had often played together he like a big boy in mimic fight when he had pretended
and taught me how to catch the spear on a shield and to avoid blows made with waddies jimmy's lessons were not thrown away i could avoid a thrown spear though helpless
like the black against bullets which he said came too much faster faster to top and as the savage made the blow at me i followed out jimmy's tactics threw myself forward
striking the wretch right in the chest with my head driving him backward and leaping over him i ran for my life
that my pursuers were as swift of foot and that though i was close upon
that they would be able to see me easily and once caught i knew now what was to be my fate i began thinking of the hunted hare as i ran on
casting glances behind me from time to time and seeing that
there were four who were pretty close upon my heels one of whom hurled
i was panting heavily and a choking sensation came upon me but i raced on since it was for life how long the pursuit lasted i cannot tell perhaps a minute
durrance meanwhile walked to his lodging alone remembering a day now two years since
he had been fetched against his will to the house by the lennon river in donegal
for she surprised all who had first held speech with the father durrance had stayed for a night in the house and through that evening she had played upon her violin seated with her back toward her audience as was her custom when she played
the melodies which she had played rang in his ears now for the girl possessed the gift of music and the strings of her violin spoke to the questions of her bow there was in particular an overture the melusine overture
which had the very sob of the waves durrance had listened wondering for the violin had spoken to him of many things of which the girl who played it could know nothing it had spoken of long perilous journeys
and the faces of strange countries of the silver way across moonlit seas of the beckoning voices from the under edges of the desert it had taken a deeper a more mysterious tone
quite unattainable and of great griefs too eternal and with a sort of nobility by reason of their greatness
so it seemed to him now when he knew that her face was still to be turned away for all his days he had drawn a thought from her playing which he was at some pains to keep definite in his mind the true music cannot complain
therefore it was that as he rode the next morning into the row his blue eyes looked out upon the world from his bronzed face with not a jot less of his usual friendliness
he waited at half past nine by the clump of lilacs and laburnums at the end of the sand
nor indeed for the next three weeks ever since the two men had graduated from oxford it had been their custom to meet at this spot and hour when both chanced to be in town and durrance was puzzled
it seemed to him that he had lost his friend as well
and when at last feversham kept the tryst durrance had news
i go out to egypt on general graham's staff
it seemed strange to durrance even at that moment of his good luck
that your regiment has to stay behind feversham rode by his friend's side in silence then as they came to the chairs beneath the trees he said that was expected the day you dined with me i sent in my papers
that night said durrance turning in his saddle after we had gone yes said feversham accepting the correction he wondered whether it had been intended but durrance rode silently forward
again harry feversham was conscious of a reproach in his friend's silence and again he was wrong for durrance suddenly spoke heartily and with a laugh i remember you gave us your reasons that night
but for the life of me i can't help wishing that we had been going out together
to night so soon they turned their horses and rode westward again down the alley of trees the morning was still fresh the limes and chestnuts had lost nothing of their early green
and since the may was late that year its blossoms still hung delicately white like snow upon the branches and shone red against the dark rhododendrons
the park shimmered in a haze of sunlight and the distant roar of the streets was as the tumbling of river water it is a long time since we bathed in sandford lasher said durrance
or froze in the easter vacations in the big snow gully on great end returned feversham both men had the feeling that on this morning a volume in their book of life was ended and since the volume had been a pleasant one to read
and they did not know whether its successors would sustain its promise they were looking backward through the leaves before they put it finally away you must stay with us jack when you come back said feversham durrance had schooled himself not to wince
and he did not even at that anticipatory us if his left hand tightened upon the thongs of his reins the sign could not be detected by his friend if i come back said durrance you know my creed
i could never pity a man who died on active service i would very much like to come by that end myself it was a quite simple creed consistent with the simplicity of the man who uttered it it amounted to no more than this
so that he uttered it without melancholy or any sign of foreboding even so however he had a fear that perhaps his friend might place another interpretation upon the words and he looked quickly into his face
he only saw again however that puzzling look of envy in feversham's eyes you see there are worse things which can happen he continued disablement for instance clever men could make a shift perhaps to put up with it
but what in the world should i do if i had to sit in a chair all my days it makes me shiver to think of it and he shook his broad shoulders to unsaddle that fear well this is the last ride let us gallop and he let out his horse
feversham followed his example and side by side they went racing down the sand
durrance turned back and walked his horse up toward the seats beneath the trees even as a boy in his home at southpool in devonshire upon a wooded creek of the salcombe estuary he had always been conscious of a certain restlessness
a desire to sail down that creek and out over the levels of the sea a dream of queer outlandish countries and peoples beyond the dark familiar woods and the restlessness had grown upon him
so that guessens even when he had inherited it with its farms and lands had remained always in his thoughts as a place to come home to rather than an estate to occupy a life he purposely exaggerated that restlessness now
and purposely set against it words which feversham had spoken and which he knew to be true ethne eustace would hardly be happy outside her county of donegal therefore even had things fallen out differently as he phrased it
there might have been a clash perhaps it was as well that harry feversham was to marry ethne and not another than feversham thus at all events he argued as he rode until the riders vanished from before his eyes
and the ladies in their coloured frocks beneath the cool of the trees the trees themselves dwindled to ragged mimosas
and took the bright colour of honey and upon the empty sand black stones began to heap themselves shapelessly like coal and to flash in the sun like mirrors he was deep in his anticipations of the soudan when he heard his name called out softly in a woman's voice
and looking up found himself close by the rails how do you do missus adair said he and he stopped his horse missus adair gave him her hand across the rails she was durrance's neighbour at southpool
and the peculiar pallor on her face but at this moment the face had brightened there was a hint of colour in the cheeks i have news for you said durrance two special items one harry feversham is to be married to whom asked the lady eagerly
and i introduced him he has been improving the acquaintance in dublin but missus adair already understood and it was plain that the news was welcome
there is nothing to prevent it i am glad and the lady sighed as though with relief what is your second item as good as the first i go out on general graham's staff missus adair was silent
there came a look of anxiety into her eyes and the colour died out of her face you are very glad i suppose she said slowly durrance's voice left her in no doubt
i should think i was i go soon too and the sooner the better i will come and dine some night if i may before i go my husband will be pleased to see you said missus adair rather coldly durrance did not notice the coldness however
he had his own reasons for making the most of the opportunity which had come his way and he urged his enthusiasm and laid it bare in words more for his own benefit than with any thought of missus adair indeed he had always rather a vague impression of the lady
moreover she was friendly and at that point durrance's knowledge of her came to an end perhaps her chief merit in his eyes was that she had made friends with ethne eustace but he was to become better acquainted with missus adair
he rode away from the park with the old regret in his mind that the fortunes of himself and his friend were this morning finally severed as a fact he had that morning set the strands of a new rope a weaving
which was to bring them together again in a strange and terrible relationship missus adair followed him out of the park and walked home very thoughtfully durrance had just one week wherein to provide his equipment and arrange his estate in devonshire
it passed in a continuous hurry of preparation so that his newspaper lay each day unfolded in his rooms the general was to travel overland to brindisi and so on an evening of wind and rain toward the end of july
durrance stepped from the dover pier into the mail boat for calais in spite of the rain and the gloomy night a small crowd had gathered to give the general a send off as the ropes were cast off a feeble cheer was raised and before the cheer had ended
durrance found himself beset by a strange illusion he was leaning upon the bulwarks idly wondering whether this was his last view of england and with a wish that some one of his friends had come down to see him go
when it seemed to him suddenly that his wish was answered for he caught a glimpse of a man standing beneath a gas lamp and that man was of the stature and wore the likeness of harry feversham
durrance rubbed his eyes and looked again but the wind made the tongue of light flicker uncertainly within the glass the rain too
he could only vaguely distinguish beneath the lamp the whiteness of a face it was an illusion he said to himself
under a clear sky in a high garden of donegal but even as he was turning from the bulwarks there came a lull of the wind the lights burned bright and steady on the pier and the face leaped from the shadows distinct in feature and expression
durrance leaned out over the side of the boat harry he shouted
but the figure beneath the lamp never stirred
the incredible words were spoken that evening
she felt cold that summer evening and had the fire lighted she sat gazing into the bright coals with that stillness of attitude which was a sure sign with her of tense emotion the moment so eagerly looked for had come and it was over
she was alone now in her remote little village out of the world in the hills and more alone than she had been since willoughby sailed on that august morning down the salcombe estuary
from the time of willoughby's coming she had looked forward night and day to the one half hour during which harry feversham would be with her the half hour had come and passed she knew now how she had counted upon its coming how she had lived for it
she felt lonely in a rather empty world but it was part of her nature that she had foreseen this sense of loneliness she had known that there would be a bad hour for her after she had sent harry feversham away
that all her heart and soul would clamour to her to call him back and she forced herself as she sat shivering by the fire to remember that she had always foreseen and had always looked beyond it
to morrow she would know again that they had not parted forever to morrow she would compare the parting of to day with the parting on the night of the ball at lennon house and recognise what a small thing this was to that
she fell to wondering what harry feversham would do now that he had returned and while she was building up for him a future of great distinction she felt dermod's old collie dog nuzzling at her hand with his sure instinct that his mistress was in distress
he was very old she thought he would die soon and leave her and then there would be years and years perhaps before she lay down in her bed and knew the great moment was at hand there came a knock upon the door and a servant told her that colonel durrance was waiting
yes she said and as he entered the room she went forward to meet him she did not shirk the part which she had allotted to herself she stepped out from the secret chamber of her grief as soon as she was summoned
she talked with her visitor as though no unusual thing had happened an hour before she even talked of their marriage and the rebuilding of lennon house it was difficult but she had grown used to difficulties
only that night durrance made her path a little harder to tread he asked her after the maid had brought in the tea to play to him the musoline overture upon her violin not to night said ethne i
and she had hardly spoken before she changed her mind
the small things with their daily happenings were just those about which she must be most careful still i think that i can play the overture she said with a smile and she took down her violin she played the overture through from the beginning to the end
durrance stood at the window with his back towards her until she had ended then he walked to her side i was rather a brute he said quietly to ask you to play that overture to night i wasn't anxious to play she answered as she laid the violin aside i know
but i was anxious to find out something and i knew no other way of finding it out
she asked in a voice of suspense you are so seldom off your guard only indeed at rare times when you play once before when you played that overture you were off your guard
i thought that if i could get you to play it again to night the overture which was once strummed out in a dingy cafe at wadi halfa to night again i should find you off your guard
his words took her breath away and the colour from her cheeks she got up slowly from her chair and stared at him wide eyed he could not know it was impossible he did not know but durrance went quietly on well did you take back your feather the fourth one
durrance spoke them with a smile upon his face it took her a long time to understand that he had actually spoken them she was not sure at the first that her overstrained senses were not playing her tricks but he repeated his question
and she could no longer disbelieve or misunderstand who told you of any fourth feather she asked trench he answered i met him at dover but he only told me of the fourth feather said durrance i knew of the three before
trench would never have told me of the fourth had i not known of the three for i should not have met him as he landed from the steamer at dover i should not have asked him where is harry feversham and for me to know of the three was enough
how do you know she cried in a kind of despair and coming close to her he took gently hold of her arm but since i know he protested what does it matter how i know
i have known a long while ever since captain willoughby came to the pool with the first feather i waited to tell you that i knew until harry feversham came back and he came to day
she was stunned by durrance's unexpected disclosure she had so carefully guarded her secret that to realise that for a year it had been no secret came as a shock to her but even in the midst of her confusion she understood that she must have time
to gather up her faculties again under command so she spoke of the unimportant thing to gain the time you were in the church then or you heard us upon the steps or you met him as he rode away not one of the conjectures is right said durrance with a smile
durrance had his vanities like others and in particular one vanity which had sprung up within him since he had become blind he prided himself upon the quickness of his perception
it was a delight to him to make discoveries which no one expected a man who had lost his sight to make and to announce them unexpectedly it was an additional pleasure to relate to his puzzled audience the steps by which he had reached his discovery not one of your conjectures is right
then how did you find out she asked i knew from trench that harry feversham would come some day and soon i passed the church this afternoon your collie dog barked at me so i knew you were inside but a saddled horse was tied up beside the gate
so some one else was with you and not any one from the village then i got you to play and that told me who it was who rode the horse yes
she had barely listened to his words yes i see then in a definite voice which showed that she had regained all her self control she said
you went away just after captain willoughby came was that the reason why you went away i went because neither you nor i could have kept up the game of pretences we were playing you were pretending that you had no thought for harry feversham
that you hardly cared whether he was alive or dead i was pretending not to have found out that beyond everything in the world you cared for him some day or other we should have failed each one in turn i dared not fail nor dared you
i could not let you who had said two lives must not be spoilt because of me live through a year thinking that two lives had been spoilt you on your side dared not let me who had said marriage between a blind man and a woman is only possible
when there is more than friendship on both sides know that upon one side there was only friendship and we were so near to failing so i went away
it was only i who failed she blamed herself most bitterly she had set herself as the one thing worth doing and incumbent on her to do to guard this man from knowledge which would set the crown on his calamities and she had failed
he had set himself to protect her from the comprehension that she had failed and he had succeeded it was not any mere sense of humiliation
which troubled her but she felt that she ought to have succeeded since by failure she had robbed him of his last chance of happiness there lay the sting for her but it was not your fault he said once or twice as i said you were off your guard
but the convincing facts were not revealed to me in that way when you played the musoline overture before on the night of the day when willoughby brought you such good news i took to myself that happiness of yours which inspired your playing you must not blame yourself
on the contrary you should be glad that i have found out glad she exclaimed yes for my sake glad and as she looked at him in wonderment he went on two lives should not be spoilt because of you had you had your way had i not found out
because of your loyalty three yours yes yes yours feversham's and mine it was hard enough to keep the pretence during the few weeks we were in devonshire
when i went to london to see my oculist it was a relief it gave you a pause a rest wherein to drop pretence and be yourself
but what when we came to live under the same roof and there were no visits to the oculist when we saw each other every hour of every day sooner or later the truth must have come to me
it might have come gradually a suspicion added to a suspicion and another to that until no doubt was left or it might have flashed out in one terrible moment
you aimed at a compensation
the army the special service in the strange quarters of the world a fine compensation to sit in front of you knowing you had married a cripple out of pity
and that in so doing you had crippled yourself and foregone the happiness which is yours by right whereas now whereas now she repeated i remain your friend
you sent harry away this afternoon said durrance you said good bye to him twice
but before she could speak durrance explained once in the church again upon your violin and he took up the instrument from the chair on which she had laid it
i stood at the window while you played it
and yet it was nobly sad it was true music it did not complain he laid the violin down upon the chair again i am going to send a messenger to rathmullen harry cannot cross lough swilly to night the messenger will bring him back to morrow
as durrance bent down towards her he became aware that she was crying silently for once tears had their way with her he took his cap and walked noiselessly to the door of the room
don't go for a moment she said and she left the fireplace and came to the centre of the room the oculist at wiesbaden she asked he gave you a hope durrance stood meditating whether he should lie or speak the truth no he said at length there is no hope
i can get about can't i perhaps one of these days i shall go on a journey one of the long journeys amongst the strange people in the east
chapter thirty two in the church at glenalla
and feversham took his stand beside her it was very quiet and peaceful within that tiny church the afternoon sun shone through the upper windows and made a golden haze about the roof the natural murmurs of the summer floated pleasantly through the open door
i am glad that you remembered our drive and what we said she continued it is rather important to me that you should remember
you will be one of the absent friends whom i shall not lose because you are absent she spoke slowly looking straight in front of her without faltering it was a difficult speech for her to deliver
and the words were ready to her lips at the first sight of harry feversham recovered to her after so many years so much suspense so much suffering it had seemed to her that she never would be able to speak them
however necessary it was that they should be spoken but as they stood over against one another she had forced herself to remember that necessity until she actually recognised and felt it then she had gone back into the church and taken a seat and gathered up her strength
it would be easier for both of them she thought if she should give no sign of what so quick a separation cost her he would know surely enough and she wished him to know she wished him to understand that not one moment of his six years
but that could be understood without the signs of emotion so she spoke her speech looking steadily straight forward and speaking in an even voice i know that you will mind very much just as i do but there is no help for it she resumed
at all events you are at home again with the right to be at home
but there are other much greater reasons from which we can both take comfort colonel trench told me enough of your captivity to convince me that we both see with the same eyes we both understand that this second parting hard as it is is still a very slight small thing
compared with the other our first parting over at the house six years ago i felt very lonely after that as i shall not feel lonely now there was a great barrier between us then separating us forever we should never have met again here or afterwards
i am quite sure of that but you have broken the barrier down by all your pain and bravery during these last years i am no less sure of that i am absolutely confident about it and i believe you are too
so that although we shall not see one another here and as long as we live the afterwards is quite sure for us both and we can wait for that you can you have waited with so much strength all these years since we parted and i can too for i get strength from your victory
she stopped and for a while there was silence in that church to feversham her words were gracious as rain upon dry land to hear her speak them uplifted him so that those six years of trial of slinking into corners out of the sight of his fellows of lonely endurance
of many heart sinkings and much bodily pain dwindled away into insignificance they had indeed borne their fruit to him
in the nile villages in the dim wide spaces of the desert
still hearing her voice though the voice had ceased long ago there were certain bitter words which she had spoken and he had told sutch so closely had they clung and stung that he believed in his dying moments he would hear them again
and so go to his grave with her reproaches ringing in his ears he remembered that prediction of his now and knew that it was false the words he would hear would be those which she had just uttered for ethne's proposal that they should separate he was not unprepared
he had heard already that she was engaged and he did not argue against her wish but he understood that she had more to say to him and she had but she was slow to speak it this was the last time she was to see harry feversham she meant resolutely to send him away
when once he had passed through that church door through which the sunlight and the summer murmurs came and his shadow gone from the threshold she would never talk with him or set her eyes on him until her life was ended
so she deferred the moment of his going by silences and slow speech it might be so very long before that end came she had she thought the right to protract this one interview she rather hoped that he would speak of his travels his dangers
she was prepared to discuss at length with him even the politics of the soudan but he waited for her i am going to be married she said at length and immediately i am to marry a friend of yours colonel durrance there was hardly a pause before feversham answered he has cared for you a long while
i was not aware of it until i went away but thinking over everything i thought it likely and in a very little time i became sure he is blind blind exclaimed feversham he of all men blind
his blindness explains everything
it was not right i had forgotten the words oh a long time since until colonel trench reminded me i should never have spoken them when i did i was not thinking they would live so in your thoughts i am sorry that i spoke them oh they were just enough
i never blamed you for them said feversham with a laugh
it did not occur to him to talk of his travels or adventures the occasion seemed too serious too vital they were together to decide the most solemn issue in their lives once the decision was made as now it had been made he felt that they could hardly talk on other topics
still kept him at her side though she sat so calmly and still though her face was quiet in its look of gravity her heart ached with longing just for a little longer she pleaded to herself the sunlight was withdrawing from the walls of the church
she measured out a space upon the walls where it still glowed bright when all that space was cold grey stone she would send harry feversham away i am glad that you escaped from omdurman without the help of lieutenant sutch or colonel durrance
i wanted so much that everything should be done by you alone without anybody's help or interference she said and after she had spoken there followed a silence once or twice she looked towards the wall and each time she saw the space of golden light narrowed
and knew that her minutes were running out you suffered horribly at dongola she said in a low voice colonel trench told me what does it matter now feversham answered that time seems rather far away to me had you anything of mine with you i had your white feather
but anything else any little thing which i had given you in the other days nothing i had your photograph she said i kept it feversham suddenly leaned down towards her you did ethne nodded her head
yes the moment i went upstairs that night i packed up your presents and addressed them to your rooms yes i got them in london but i put your photograph aside first of all to keep
but i had already put your photograph aside i have it now i shall keep it and the feathers together she added after a moment
i had no right to anything said feversham there was still a narrow slip of gold upon the grey space of stone what will you do now she asked i shall go home first and see my father it will depend upon the way we meet you will let colonel durrance know
i would like to hear about it yes i will write to durrance the slip of gold was gone the clear light of a summer evening filled the church a light without radiance or any colour
chapter eighteen a second trip to the moon a second visit but an accidental one to the moon the ship driven by a whirlwind a thousand leagues above the surface of the water where a new atmosphere meets them and carries them into a capacious harbour in the moon
a description of the inhabitants and their manner of coming into the lunarian world
i have already informed you of one trip i made to the moon in search of my silver hatchet i afterwards made another in a much pleasanter manner and stayed in it long enough to take notice of several things
which i will endeavour to describe as accurately as my memory will permit i went on a voyage of discovery at the request of a distant relation who had a strange notion that there were people to be found equal in magnitude to those described by gulliver
in the empire of brobdignag for my part i always treated that account as fabulous however to oblige him for he had made me his heir i undertook it and sailed for the south seas where we arrived without meeting with anything remarkable
except some flying men and women who were playing at leap frog and dancing minuets in the air on the eighteenth day after we had passed the island of otaheite mentioned by captain cook as the place from whence they brought omai
a hurricane blew our ship at least one thousand leagues above the surface of the water and kept it at the height till a fresh gale arising filled the sails in every part and onwards we travelled at a prodigious rate
thus we proceeded above the clouds for six weeks at last we discovered a great land in the sky like a shining island round and bright where coming into a convenient harbour we went on shore and soon found it was inhabited
here we saw huge figures riding upon vultures of a prodigious size and each of them having three heads to form some idea of the magnitude of these birds
i must inform you that each of their wings is as wide and six times the length of the main sheet of our vessel which was about six hundred tons burthen thus instead of riding upon horses as we do in this world
the inhabitants of the moon for we now found we were in madam luna fly about on these birds the king we found was engaged in a war with the sun and he offered me a commission but i declined the honour his majesty intended me
in making war their principal weapons are radishes which are used as darts those who are wounded by them die immediately their shields are made of mushrooms and their darts when radishes are out of season of the tops of asparagus
some of the natives of the dog star are to be seen here
they have no eyelids but cover their eyes with the end of their tongues when they go to sleep they are generally twenty feet high as to the natives of the moon none of them are less in stature than thirty six feet they are not called the human species
but the cooking animals for they all dress their food by fire as we do but lose not time at their meals as they open their left side and place the whole quantity at once in their stomach then shut it again till the same day in the next month
for they never indulge themselves with food more than twelve times a year or once a month all but gluttons and epicures must prefer this method to ours there is but one sex either of the cooking or any other animals in the moon
they are all produced from trees of various sizes and foliage that which produces the cooking animal or human species is much more beautiful than any of the others
it has large straight boughs and flesh coloured leaves and the fruit it produces are nuts or pods with hard shells at least two yards long when they become ripe which is known from their changing colour they are gathered with great care and laid by as long as they think proper
when they choose to animate the seed of these nuts they throw them into a large cauldron of boiling water which opens the shells in a few hours and out jumps the creature nature forms their minds for different pursuits before they come into the world from one shell comes forth a warrior
when they grow old they do not die but turn into air and dissolve like smoke as for their drink they need none
they have but one finger upon each hand with which they perform everything in as perfect a manner as we do who have four besides the thumb their heads are placed under their right arm and when are going to travel or about any violent exercise they generally leave them at home
for they can consult them at any distance this is a very common practice and when those of rank or quality among the lunarians have an inclination to see what's going forward among the common people
incog and return at pleasure with an account of what has passed the stones of their grapes are exactly like hail and i am perfectly satisfied that when a storm or high wind in the moon shakes their vines and breaks the grapes from the stalks
the stones fall down and form our hail showers
it is a common beverage at saint luke's some material circumstances i had nearly omitted they put their bellies to the same use as we do a sack and throw whatever they have occasion for into it
for they can shut and open it again when they please as they do their stomachs they are not troubled with bowels liver heart or any other intestines neither are they encumbered with clothes nor is there any part of their bodies unseemly or indecent to exhibit
their eyes they can take in and out of their places when they please and can see as well with them in their hand as in their head and if by any accident they lose or damage one they can borrow or purchase another and see as clearly with it as their own
dealers in eyes are on that account very numerous in most parts of the moon and in this article alone all the inhabitants are whimsical sometimes green and sometimes yellow eyes are the fashion
preparations for the baron's expedition into africa description of his chariot the beauties of its interior decorations the animals that drew it and the mechanism of the wheels
everything being concluded and having received my instructions for the voyage
and a prodigious crowd of nobility and placed sitting upon the summit of the whale's bones at the palace and having remained in this situation for three days and three nights as a trial ordeal
and a specimen of my perseverance and resolution the third hour after midnight they seated me in the chariot of queen mab it was a prodigious dimension large enough to contain more stowage than the tun of heidelberg
and globular like a hazel nut in fact it seemed to be really a hazel nut grown to a most extravagant dimension and that a great worm of proportionable enormity had bored a hole in the shell through this same entrance i was ushered
it was as large as a coach door and i took my seat in the centre a kind of chair self balanced without touching anything like the fancied tomb of mahomet
the whole interior surface of the nutshell appeared a luminous representation of all the stars of heaven the fixed stars the planets and a comet the stars were as large as those worn by our first nobility
and the comet excessively brilliant seemed as if you had assembled all the eyes of the beautiful girls in the kingdom and combined them like a peacock's plumage into the form of a comet that is a globe and a bearded tail to it diminishing gradually to a point
this beautiful constellation seemed very sportive and delightful it was much in the form of a tadpole and without ceasing went full of playful giddiness up and down all over the heaven on the concave surface of the nutshell
one time it would be at that part of the heavens under my feet and in the next minute would be over my head it was never at rest but for ever going east west north or south and paid no more respect to the different worlds than if they were so many lanterns without reflectors
others he would burn up and consume to ashes and others again he would split into fritters and their fragments would instantly take a globular form like spilled quicksilver and become satellites to whatever other worlds they should happen to meet with in their career
in short the whole seemed an epitome of the creation past present and future and all that passes among the stars during one thousand years was here generally performed in as many seconds i surveyed all the beauties of the chariot with wonder and delight
certainly cried i this is heaven in miniature in short i took the reins in my hand but before i proceed on my adventures i shall mention the rest of my attendant furniture the chariot was drawn by a team of nine bulls harnessed to it
three after three in the first rank was a most tremendous bull named john mowmowsky the rest were called jacks in general but not dignified by any particular denomination
they were all shod for the journey not indeed like horses with iron or as bullocks commonly are to drag on a cart but were shod with men's skulls each of their feet was hoof and all crammed into a man's head cut off for the purpose
and fastened therein with a kind of cement or paste
with these skull shoes the creatures could perform astonishing journeys and slide upon the water or upon the ocean with great velocity the harnesses were fastened with golden buckles and decked with studs in a superb style
and the creatures were ridden by nine postillions crickets of a great size as large as monkeys
and were continually chirping at a most infernal rate loud in proportion to their bodies the wheels of the chariot consisted of upwards of ten thousand springs formed so as to give the greater impetuosity to the vehicle
and were more complex than a dozen clocks like that of strasburgh
the baron makes a speech to the national assembly and drives out all the members routs the fishwomen and the national guards pursues the whole rout into a church
passing through switzerland on my return from india i was informed that several of the german nobility had been deprived of the honours and immunities of their french estates i heard of the sufferings of the amiable marie antoinette
and swore to avenge every look that had threatened her with insult
and gracefully putting the hilt of my sword to my lips i swear cried i by the sacred cross of my sword that if you do not instantly reinstate your king and his nobility and your injured queen
i will cut the one half of you to pieces on which the president taking up a leaden inkstand flung it at my head i stooped to avoid the blow and rushing to the tribunal seized the speaker
who was fulminating against the aristocrats and taking the creature by one leg flung him at the president i laid about me most nobly drove them all out of the house and locking the doors put the key in my pocket
i then went to the poor king and making my obeisance to him sire said i your enemies have all fled i alone am the national assembly at present
and i shall register your edicts to recall the princes and the nobility and in future if your majesty pleases i will be your parliament and council
he thanked me and the amiable marie antoinette smiling gave me her hand to kiss at that moment i perceived a party of the national assembly who had rallied with the national guards
and a vast procession of fishwomen advancing against me i deposited their majesties in a place of safety and with my drawn sword advanced against my foes three hundred fishwomen with bushes dressed with ribbons in their hands
came hallooing and roaring against me like so many furies i scorned to defile my sword with their blood but seized the first that came up and making her kneel down i knighted her with my sword
which so terrified the rest that they all set up a frightful yell and ran away as fast as they could for fear of being aristocrated by knighthood as to the national guards and the rest of the assembly i soon put them to flight
and having made prisoners of some of them compelled them to take down their national and put the old royal cockade in its place i then pursued the enemy to the top of a hill where a most noble edifice dazzled my sight
monument de grands hommes a christian church that these saracens had perverted into abomination i burst open the doors and entered sword in hand
here i observed all the national assembly marching round a great altar erected to voltaire there was his statue in triumph
the members of the assembly and the fishwomen continued to invoke their great voltaire and all their masters in this monument de grands hommes imploring them to come down and succour them against the aristocrats and the sword of munchausen
their cries were horrible like the shrieks of witches and enchanters versed in magic and the black art while the thunder growled and storms shook the battlements and rousseau voltaire and beelzebub appeared three horrible spectres
one all meagre mere skin and bone and cadaverous seemed death that hideous skeleton it was voltaire and in his hand were a lyre and a dagger on the other side was rousseau with a chalice of sweet poison in his hand
and between them was their father beelzebub i shuddered at the sight and with all the enthusiasm of rage horror and piety rushed in among them
and soon compelled him to renounce all the errors he had advanced and while he spoke the words as if by magic charm the whole assembly shrieked and the pandemonium began to tumble in hideous ruin on their heads
i returned in triumph to the palace where the queen rushed into my arms weeping tenderly
i bade the lovely creature dry her eyes
as not an instant was to be lost they took my advice and drove away
thanking me for my assistance hoped i would not trouble myself any farther as he was then he presumed out of danger
and presented the dauphin for my blessing in short i left the king eating a mutton chop i advised him not to delay or he would certainly be taken and setting spurs to my horse wished them a good evening and returned to england
chapter thirty the baron arrives in england the colossus of rhodes comes to congratulate him great rejoicings on the baron's return and a tremendous concert the baron's discourse with fragrantia and her opinion of the tour to the hebrides
having arrived in england once more the greatest rejoicings were made for my return the whole city seemed one general blaze of illumination and the colossus of rhodes hearing of my astonishing feats
came on purpose to england to congratulate me on such unparalleled achievements but above all other rejoicings on my return the musical oratorio and song of triumph were magnificent in the extreme
gog and magog were ordered to take the maiden tower of windsor and make a tambourine or great drum of it for this purpose they extended an elephant's hide tanned and prepared for the design
across the summit of the tower from parapet to parapet so that in proportion this extended elephant's hide was to the whole of the castle what the parchment is to a drum
in such a manner that the whole became one great instrument of war to correspond with this colossus took guildhall and westminster abbey and turning the foundations towards the heavens
so that the roofs of the edifices were upon the ground he strung them across with brass and steel wire from side to side and thus when strung they had the appearance of most noble dulcimers he then took the great dome of saint paul's
raising it off the earth with as much facility as you would a decanter of claret and when once risen up it had the appearance of a quart bottle colossus instantly with his teeth cracked off the superior part of the cupola
and then applying his lips to the instrument began to sound it like a trumpet twas martial beyond description
during the concert i walked in the park with lady fragrantia
i like said she the dew of the morning tis delicate and ethereal and by thus bespangling me i think it will more approximate me to the nature of the rose for her looks were like aurora and to confirm the vermilion i shall go to spa
and drink the podhon spring added i gazing at her from top to toe yes replied the lovely fragrantia with all my heart tis the drink of sweetness and delicacy never were there any creatures like the water drinkers at spa
they seem like so many thirsty blossoms on a peach tree that suck up the shower in the scorching heat there is a certain something in the waters that gives vigour to the whole frame and expands every heart with rapture and benevolence
and then how they sleep pray my dear baron were you ever at the falls of niagara yes my lady replied i surprised at such a strange association of ideas
at that moment she dropped her nosegay ah
there is no great variety in these polyanthuses i do assure you my dear baron that there is taste in the selection of flowers as well as everything else and were i a girl of sixteen i should wear some rosebuds in my bosom
quite ripe and ready to drop off the stalk for want of being pulled heigh ho but pray my lady said i how do you like the concert alas said she languishingly while she laid her hand upon my shoulder
what are these bodiless sounds and vibration to me and yet what an exquisite sweetness in the songs of the northern part of our island
how pathetic and divine the little airs of scotland and the hebrides
but i have an idea of a great brown full bottomed wig and a hogshead of porter oh twas base to be treated everywhere with politeness and hospitality and in return invidiously to smellfungus them all over
to go to the country of kate of aberdeen of auld robin gray midst rural innocence and sweetness take up their plaids and dance oh doctor doctor
peace to the heroes replied she in a delicate and theatrical tone
the sons of the wave and the chiefs of the dark brown shield the tear of the sympathising stranger is scattered by the wind over the hoary stones as she meditates sorrowfully on the times of old
the baron slips through the world after paying a visit to mount etna he finds himself in the south sea visits vulcan in his passage gets on board a dutchman
describes some very extraordinary objects lose their compass their ship slips between the teeth of a fish unknown in this part of the world their difficulty in escaping from thence arrive in the caspian sea starves a bear to death a few waistcoat anecdotes
in this chapter which is the longest the baron moralises upon the virtue of veracity
induced me to pay a visit to mount etna my voyage to this place was not attended with any circumstances worth relating one morning early three or four days after my arrival i set out from a cottage where i had slept within six miles of the foot of the mountain
determined to explore the internal parts if i perished in the attempt after three hours hard labour i found myself at the top it was then and had been for upwards of three weeks raging
its appearance in this state has been so frequently noticed by different travellers that i will not tire you with descriptions of objects you are already acquainted with i walked round the edge of the crater which appeared to be fifty times at least as capacious as the devil's punch bowl near
petersfield on the portsmouth road but not so broad at the bottom as in that part it resembles the contracted part of a funnel more than a punch bowl at last having made up my mind in i sprang feet foremost
i soon found myself in a warm berth and my body bruised and burnt in various parts by the red hot cinders which by their violent ascent opposed my descent
however my weight soon brought me to the bottom where i found myself in the midst of noise and clamour mixed with the most horrid imprecations after recovering my senses and feeling a reduction of my pain
guess gentlemen my astonishment when i found myself in the company of vulcan and his cyclops who had been quarrelling for the three weeks before mentioned about the observation of good order and due subordination
and which had occasioned such alarms for that space of time in the world above however my arrival restored peace to the whole society and vulcan himself did me the honour of applying plasters to my wounds which healed them immediately
he also placed refreshments before me particularly nectar and other rich wines such as the gods and goddesses only aspire to after this repast was over vulcan ordered venus to show me every indulgence which my situation required
to describe the apartment and the couch on which i reposed is totally impossible therefore i will not attempt it let it suffice to say it exceeds the power of language to do it justice
or speak of that kind hearted goddess in any terms equal to her merit vulcan gave me a very concise account of mount etna
in his passion he made it a practice to throw red hot coals at home which they often parried with great dexterity and then threw them up into the world to place them out of his reach for they never attempted to assault him in return by throwing them back again our quarrels
added he last sometimes three or four months and these appearances of coals or cinders in the world are what i find you mortals call eruptions mount vesuvius he assured me was another of his shops to which he had a passage three hundred and fifty leagues under the bed of the sea
where similar quarrels produced similar eruptions i should have continued here as an humble attendant upon madam venus but some busy tattlers who delight in mischief whispered a tale in vulcan's ear which roused in him a fit of jealousy not to be appeased
without the least previous notice he took me one morning under his arm as i was waiting upon venus agreeable to custom and carried me to an apartment i had never before seen in which there was to all appearance a well with a wide mouth
over this he held me at arm's length and saying ungrateful mortal return to the world from whence you came without giving me the least opportunity of reply dropped me in the centre
i found myself descending with an increasing rapidity till the horror of my mind deprived me of all reflection i suppose i fell into a trance from which i was suddenly aroused by plunging into a large body of water
illuminated by the rays of the sun i could from my infancy swim well and play tricks in the water i now found myself in paradise considering the horrors of mind i had just been released from
after looking about me some time i could discover nothing but an expanse of sea extending beyond the eye in every direction i also found it very cold a different climate from master vulcan's shop
at last i observed at some distance a body of amazing magnitude like a huge rock approaching me i soon discovered it to be a piece of floating ice i swam round it till i found a place where i could ascend to the top which i did but not without some difficulty
still i was out of sight of land and despair returned with double force however before night came on i saw a sail which we approached very fast when it was within a very small distance i hailed them in german they answered in dutch
i then flung myself into the sea and they threw out a rope by which i was taken on board i now inquired where we were and was informed in the great southern ocean this opened a discovery which removed all my doubts and difficulties
it was now evident that i had passed from mount etna through the centre of the earth to the south seas this gentlemen was a much shorter cut than going round the world and which no man has accomplished or ever attempted but myself
i took some refreshment and went to rest the dutch are a very rude sort of people i related the etna passage to the officers exactly as i have done to you and some of them particularly the captain seemed by his grimace and half sentence to doubt my veracity
however as he had kindly taken me on board his vessel and was then in the very act of administering to my necessities i pocketed the affront i now in my turn began to inquire where they were bound to which they answered they were in search of new discoveries
we were now exactly in captain cook's first track and arrived the next morning in botany bay this place i would by no means recommend to the english government as a receptacle for felons or place of punishment
it should rather be the reward of merit nature having most bountifully bestowed her best gifts upon it we stayed here but three days the fourth after our departure a most dreadful storm arose which in a few hours destroyed all our sails splintered our bowsprit
and brought down our topmast it fell directly upon the box that enclosed our compass which with the compass was broken to pieces every one who has been at sea knows the consequences of such a misfortune
at a loss where to steer at length the storm abated which was followed by a steady brisk gale that carried us at least forty knots an hour for six months we should suppose the baron has made a little mistake and substituted months for days
when we began to observe an amazing change in everything about us our spirits became light our noses were regaled with the most aromatic effluvia imaginable the sea had also changed its complexion and from green became white
soon after these wonderful alterations we saw land
and found it wide and deep flowing with milk of the most delicious taste here we landed and soon found it was an island consisting of one large cheese we discovered this by one of the company fainting away as soon as we landed
this man always had an aversion to cheese when he recovered he desired the cheese to be taken from under his feet upon examination we found him perfectly right for the whole island as before observed was nothing but a cheese of immense magnitude
upon this the inhabitants who are amazingly numerous principally sustain themselves
which upon being pressed yielded nothing but milk we saw the inhabitants running races upon the surface of the milk they were upright comely figures nine feet high have three legs and but one arm upon the whole their form was graceful
they did not sink at all but ran and walked upon the surface of the milk as we do upon a bowling green upon this island of cheese grows great plenty of corn the ears of which produce loaves of bread ready made of a round form like mushrooms
we discovered in our rambles over this cheese seventeen other rivers of milk and ten of wine
here we found some blue mould as cheese eaters call it from whence spring all kinds of rich fruit instead of breeding mites it produced peaches nectarines apricots and a thousand delicious fruits which we are not acquainted with
in these trees which are of an amazing size were plenty of birds nests
it was at least twice the circumference of the dome of saint paul's church in london upon inspection this nest was made of huge trees curiously joined together there were let me see for i make it a rule always to speak within compass
there were upwards of five hundred eggs in the nest and each of them was as large as four common hogsheads or eight barrels and we could not only see but hear the young ones chirping within having with great fatigue cut open one of these eggs
we let out a young one unfeathered considerably larger than twenty full grown vultures just as we had given this youngster his liberty the old kingfisher lighted and seizing our captain who had been active in breaking the egg in one of her claws
flew with him above a mile high and then let him drop into the sea but not till she had beaten all his teeth out of his mouth with her wings dutchmen generally swim well he soon joined us and we retreated to our ship
on our return we took a different route and observed many strange objects we shot two wild oxen each with one horn also like the inhabitants except that it sprouted from between the eyes of these animals
we were afterwards concerned at having destroyed them as we found by inquiry they tamed these creatures and used them as we do horses to ride upon and draw their carriages
but useless where people live upon cheese and milk when we had reached within two days journey of the ship we observed three men hanging to a tall tree by their heels
idella stirred stretched herself with a long sigh and then sat up and stared round the strange place as if she were still in a dream would you like to come in here with me annie suggested from her bed
the child pushed back her hair with her little hands and after waiting to realise the situation to the limit of her small experience she said with a smile that showed her pretty teeth yes then come
idella tumbled out of bed pulling up the nightgown which was too long for her and softly thumped across the carpet annie leaned over and lifted her up and pressed the little face to her own
would you like to stay with me live with me idella she asked the child turned her face away and hid a roguish smile in the pillow i don't know
no no why not because because she seemed to search her mind because your night gowns are too long oh is that all that's no reason think of something else
idella rubbed her face hard on the pillow you dress up cats she lifted her face and looked with eyes of laughing malice into annie's and annie pushed her face against idella's neck and cried you're a rogue
the little one screamed with laughter and gurgled oh you tickle you tickle they had a childish romp prolonged through the details of idella's washing and dressing and annie tried to lose in her frolic with the child the anxieties that had beset her waking
she succeeded in confusing them with one another in one dull indefinite pain she wondered when mister peck would come for idella but they were still at their belated breakfast when missus bolton came in to say that bolton had met the minister on his way up
and had asked him if idella might not stay the week out with them i don know but he done more'n he'd ought but she can be with us the rest part when you've got done with her i haven't begun to get done with her said annie i'm glad mister bolton asked
after breakfast bolton himself appeared to ask if idella might go up to the orchard with him idella ran out of the room and came back with her hat on and tugging to get into her shabby little sack annie helped her with it
and idella tucked her hand into bolton's loose hard fist and gave it a pull toward the door well i don't see but what she's goin he said yes you'd better ask her the next time if i can go said annie
i guess you'd enjoy it about as well as any we're just goin for a basket of wind falls for pies i guess we ain't a goin to be gone a great while annie watched them up the lane from the library window with a queer grudge at heart
bolton stiffly lumbering forward at an angle of forty five degrees
at the sound of wheels on the gravel before the front door annie turned away with such an imperative need of its being doctor morrell's buggy that it was almost an intolerable disappointment to find it missus munger's phaeton
missus munger burst in upon her in an excitement which somehow had an effect of premeditation
and mister peck's in my own house last night they are friends of yours and i wish to know if you approve of it i come to you as their friend and i am sure you will feel as i do that my hospitality has been abused
it was an outrage for mister putney to get intoxicated in my house and for mister peck to attack me as he did before everybody because mister putney had taken advantage of his privileges was abominable
he would have had no right to speak so to me annie felt the blood fly to her head and she waited a moment to regain her coolness i wonder you came to ask me missus munger
i'm certainly mister and missus putney's friend and so far as admiring mister peck's sincerity and goodness is concerned i'm his friend but i'm obliged to say that you're mistaken about the rest
she folded her hands at her waist and stood up very straight looking firmly at missus munger who made a show of taking a new grip of her senses as she sank unbidden into a chair why what do you mean miss kilburn
why but you must you must you know i can't be left so i must know where i stand i must be sure of my ground i can't go on without understanding just how much you mean by my being mistaken
she looked annie in the face with eyes superficially expressive of indignant surprise and annie perceived that she wished to restore herself in her own esteem by browbeating some one else into the affirmation of her innocence
well if you must know missus munger i mean that you ought to have remembered mister putney's infirmity and that it was cruel to put temptation in his way everybody knows that he can't resist it and that he is making such a hard fight to keep out of it
and then if you press me for an opinion i must say that you were not justifiable in asking mister peck to take part in a social entertainment when we had explicitly dropped that part of the affair
missus munger had not pressed annie for an opinion on this point at all but in their interest in it they both ignored the fact missus munger tacitly admitted her position in retorting he needn't have stayed
you made him stay you remember how and he couldn't have got away without being rude and you think he wasn't rude to scold me before my guests he told you the truth
he didn't wish to say anything but you forced him to speak just as you have forced me forced you miss kilburn yes i don't at all agree with mister peck in many things but he is a good man and last night he spoke the truth
i shouldn't be speaking it if i didn't tell you i thought so very well then said missus munger rising after this you can't expect me to have anything to do with the social union you couldn't wish me to if that's your opinion of my character
i haven't expressed any opinion of your character missus munger if you'll remember please and as for the social union i shall have nothing further to do with it myself annie drew herself up a little higher and silently waited for her visitor to go
but missus munger remained i don't believe missus putney herself would say what you have said she remarked after an embarrassing moment if it were really so i should be willing to make any reparation to acknowledge it
will you go with me to missus putney's i have my phaeton here and i shouldn't dream of going to missus putney's with you missus munger urged with the effect of invincible argument i've been down in the village and i've talked to a good many about it
some of them hadn't heard of it before and i must say miss kilburn that people generally take a very different view of it from what you do they think that my hospitality has been shamefully abused mister gates said he should think i would have mister putney arrested
but i don't care for all that what i wish is to prove to you that i am right and if i can go with you to call on missus putney i shall not care what any one else says will you come certainly not cried annie
they both stood a moment and in this moment doctor morrell drove up and dropped his hitching weight beyond missus munger's phaeton as he entered she said we will let doctor morrell decide
i've been asking miss kilburn to go with me to missus putney's i think it would be a graceful and proper thing for me to do to express my sympathy and interest and to hear what missus putney really has to say
the doctor laughed i can't prescribe in matters of social duty
what for why doctor on account of mister putney what took place last night yes what was that what was that why his strange behaviour his his intoxication
was he intoxicated did you think so
annie looked at him with as much astonishment as missus munger the doctor laughed again you can't always tell when putney's joking he's a great joker perhaps he was hoaxing oh doctor do you think he could have been said missus munger with clasped hands
it would make me the happiest woman in the world i'd forgive him all he's made me suffer but you're joking now doctor you can't tell when people are joking if i'm not does it follow that i'm really intoxicated
that's mere what do you call it chop logic but i don't mind it i grasp at a straw missus munger grasped at a straw of the mind to show how but what do you mean
well missus putney wasn't intoxicated last night but she's not well this morning i'm afraid she couldn't see you just as you say doctor cried missus munger with mounting cheerfulness i wish i knew just how much you meant and how little
she moved closer to the doctor and bent a look of candid fondness upon him but i know you're trying to mystify me she pursued him with questions which he easily parried smiling and laughing at the end she left him to annie
with adieux that were almost radiant anyhow i shall take the benefit of the doubt and if mister putney was hoaxing i shall not give myself away do find out what he means miss kilburn won't you she took hold of annie's unoffered hand
putney stopped with his wife and boy and waited for annie at the corner of the street where their ways parted she had eluded lyra wilmington in coming down the aisle
and she had hurried to escape the sensation which broke into eager talk among the people before they got out of church and which began with question whether one of the gerrish children was sick and ended in the more satisfactory conviction that mister gerrish was offended at something in the sermon
well annie said putney with a satirical smile oh ralph ellen what does it mean it means that brother gerrish thought mister peck was hitting at him in that talk about the large commerce and it means business said putney
brother gerrish has made a beginning and i guess it's the beginning of the end unless we're all ready to take hold against him what are you going to do do anything everything it was abominable it was atrocious she shuddered out with disgust
how could he imagine that mister peck would do such a thing well he's imagined it but he doesn't mean to stay out of church he means to put brother peck out we mustn't let him that would be outrageous that's the way ellen and i feel about it said putney
but we don't know how much of a party there is with us but everybody everybody must feel the same way about mister gerrish's behaviour i don't see how you can be so quiet about it you and ellen annie looked from one to another indignantly and putney laughed
we're not feeling quietly about it said missus putney putney took out a piece of tobacco and bit off a large corner and began to chew vehemently upon it hello idella he said to the little girl holding by annie's hand and looking up intently at him
with childish interest in what he was eating what a pretty dress you've got on it's mine said the child to keep is that so well it's a beauty i'm going to wear it all the time is that so
well now you and winthrop step on ahead a little i want to see how you look in it splendid he said as she took the boy's hand and looked back over her shoulder for putney's applause lyra tells us you've adopted her for the time being annie
i guess you'll have your hands full but as i was going to say about feeling differently my experience is that there's always a good sized party for the perverse simply because it seems to answer a need in human nature there's a fascination in it
a man feels as if there must be something in it besides the perversity and because it's so obviously wrong it must be right don't you believe but what a good half of the people in church to day are pretty sure that gerrish had a good reason for behaving indecently
the very fact that he did so carries conviction to some minds and those are the minds we have got to deal with when he gets up in the next society meeting there's a mighty great danger that he'll have a strong party to back him
i can't believe it annie broke out but she was greatly troubled what do you think ellen
there's a great deal of dissatisfaction with mister peck already you know and i guess ralph's right about the rest of it well i'm glad i've taken a pew i'm with you for mister peck ralph heart and soul as brother brandreth says about the social union
well that's right i shall count upon you and speaking of the social union i haven't seen you annie since that night at missus munger's i suppose you don't expect me to say anything in self defence
i've defended you sufficiently justified you that won't do said putney ellen and i have thought that all out and we find that i or something that stood for me was to blame whoever else was to blame too
we won't mention the hospitable missus munger when doctor morrell had to go away brother peck took hold with me and he suggested good resolutions i told him i'd tried em and they never did me the least good
i don't know whether they would work again ellen thinks they would i think we sha'n't ever need anything again but that's what i always think when i come out of it like a man with chills and fever
and it turned out for the best ralph got well quicker than he ever did before of course annie she explained it must seem strange to you hearing us talk of it as if it were a disease but that's just like what it is a raging disease
and i can't feel differently about anything that happens in it though i do blame people for it annie followed with tender interest the loving pride that exonerated and idealised putney in the words of the woman who had suffered so much with him and must suffer
i couldn't help speaking as i did to missus munger she deserved it every word said annie i wonder you didn't say more oh hold on putney interposed we'll allow that the local influences were malarial
but i guess we can't excuse the invalid altogether that's brother peck's view and i must say i found it decidedly tonic it helped to brace me up i think he was too severe with you altogether said his wife
putney laughed it was all i could do to keep ellen from getting up and going out of church too when brother gerrish set the example she's a gerrishite at heart well remember ralph said annie that i'm with you in whatever you do to defeat that man it's a good cause
a righteous cause the cause of justice and we must do everything for it she said fervently yes any enormity is justifiable against injustice he suggested or the unjust it's the same thing
you know i don't mean that i can trust you i shall keep within the law at any rate said putney well missus bolton annie called out when she entered her house and she pushed on into the kitchen
she had not the patience to wait for her to bring in the dinner before speaking about the exciting event at church but missus bolton would not be led up to the subject by a tacit invitation
annie demanded what do you think of mister gerrish's scandalous behaviour missus bolton gave herself time to put a stick of wood into the stove and to punch it with the stove lid handle before answering i don't know as it's anything more than i expected
annie went on it was shameful
mister peck was bound to roil the brook for mister gerrish's drinkin wherever he stood up stream or down yes he is a wolf a wolf in sheep's clothing said annie excitedly
he's got his good points i presume annie was astounded why missus bolton you're surely not going to justify him missus bolton erected herself from cutting a loaf of her best bread into slices
well i guess you no need to ask me a question like that miss kilburn i hain't obliged to make up to mister peck though for what i done in the beginnin by condemnin everybuddy else without mercy now missus bolton's eyes did not flash fire
but they sent out an icy gleam that went as sharply to annie's heart bolton came in from feeding the horse and cow in the barn with a mealy tin pan in his hand from which came a mild subdued radiance like that of his countenance
he was not sensible of arriving upon a dramatic moment and he said without noticing the attitude of either lady i see you walkin home with mister putney miss kilburn what'd he say you mean about mister gerrish he thinks as we all do
that it was a challenge to mister peck's friends and that we must take it up a light of melancholy satisfaction shone from bolton's deeply shaded eyes well he ain't one to lose time not a great deal
at once said annie
and we must be ready to meet him and out talk him and out vote him she reported these phrases from putney's lips well i guess if it was out talkin mister putney wouldn't have much trouble about it and as far forth as votin goes i don't believe but what we can carry the day
we couldn't said missus bolton from the pantry
if it was left to the church she accented the last word with the click of the jar lid and came out well it ain't a church question it's a society question missus bolton replied on her passage to the dining room with the plate of sliced bread
i can't make it seem right to have the minister a society question seems to me that the church members'd ought have the say well you can't make the discipline over to suit everybody said bolton i presume it was ordered for a wise purpose
the statute provisions and rules of the society wa'n't ordered by providence
but i presume the hearts of them that made them was moved missus bolton could not combat a position of such unimpregnable piety in words but she permitted herself a contemptuous sniff and went on getting the things into the dining room
and i guess it's all goin to work together for good i ain't afraid any but what it's goin to come out all right but we got to be up and doin as they say about lection times the lord helps them that helps themselves said bolton
and then as if he felt the weakness of this position as compared with that of entire trust in providence he winked his mild eyes and added if they're on the right side and put their faith in his promises
as annie started toward the dining room she got before her and whispered vehemently what asked annie bending down she laughed in lifting her head i promised idella you'd let us have some preserves to day missus bolton missus bolton smiled with grim pleasure
the people beyond the rope had nearly all gone away and mister savor was coming back across the court with mister peck the players appeared from the grove at the other end of the court in their vivid costumes chatting and laughing with their friends
who went down from the piazzas and terraces to congratulate them missus munger hurried about among them saying something to each group she caught sight of mister peck and mister savor and she ran after them arriving with them where annie sat
i hope you were not anxious about idella annie said laughing
and then i thought she had merely gone off with some of the other children who were playing about you shall talk all that over later said missus munger now miss kilburn
they must be frightfully exhausted just go right out to them i'll be with you in one moment oh yes the child well bring her into the house missus savor i'll find a place for her and then you can go out with me
i guess you won't get maria away from her very easy said mister savor laughing his wife stood with the child's cheek pressed tight against hers oh i'll manage that said missus munger i'm counting on missus savor she added in a hurried undertone to annie
i've asked a number of the workpeople to stay representative workpeople the foremen in the different shops and their families and you'll find your friends of all classes together it's a great day for the social union she said aloud i'm sure you must feel that mister peck
miss kilburn and i have to thank you for saving us from a great mistake at the outset and now your staying she continued will give it just the appearance we want i'm going to keep your little girl as a hostage and you shall not go till i let you come missus savor
she bustled away with missus savor and mister peck reluctantly accompanied annie down over the lawn he was silent but mister savor was hilarious well mister putney he said when he joined the group of which putney was the centre you done that in apple pie order
i never see anything much better than the way you carried on with missus wilmington thank you mister savor said putney i'm glad you liked it you couldn't say i was trying to flatter her up much anyway no no mister savor assented with delight in the joke
well annie said putney he shook hands with her and missus putney who was there with doctor morrell asked her where she had sat we kept looking all round for you yes said putney with his hand on his boy's shoulder we wanted to know how you liked the mercutio
ralph it was incomparable well that will do for a beginning it's a little cold but it's in the right spirit you mean that the mercutio wasn't comparable to the nurse oh lyra was wonderful said annie don't you think so ellen
she was lyra said missus putney definitely no she wasn't lyra at all retorted annie that was the marvel of it she was juliet's nurse perhaps she was a little of both suggested putney
what did you think of the performance mister peck i don't want a personal tribute but if you offer it i shall not be ungrateful i have been very much interested said the minister it was all very new to me
i realised for the first time in my life the great power that the theatre must be i felt how much the drama could do how much good well that's what we're after said putney we had no personal motive
nobody wanted to outshine anybody else i kept my mercutio down all through so's not to get ahead of romeo or tybalt in the public esteem did our friends outside the rope catch on to my idea mister peck smiled at the banter
but he seemed not to know just what to say and putney went on that's why i made it so bad i didn't want anybody to go home feeling sorry that mercutio was killed
you won't sleep yourself to night i'm afraid said his wife oh missus munger has promised me a particularly weak cup of coffee she has got us all in it seems for a sort of supper in spite of everything
i understand it includes representatives of all the stations and conditions present except the outcasts beyond the rope i don't see what you're doing here mister peck was mister peck really outside the rope annie asked doctor morrell as they dropped apart from the others a little
i believe he gave his chair to one of the women from the outside said the doctor annie moved with him toward lyra who was joking with some of the hands with all her good nature she had the effect of patronising them as she stood talking about the play with them in her drawl
which she had got back to again they were admiring her in her dress of the querulous old nurse and told her how they never would have known her but there was an insincerity in the effusion of some of the more nervous women
she met annie and morrell with eager relief well annie perfect well now that's very nice you can't go beyond perfect you know i did do it pretty well didn't i
poor mister brandreth have you seen him you must say something comforting to him
you know he wanted miss chapley she would have made a lovely juliet of course she blames him for it she thinks he wanted to make up to miss northwick when miss northwick was just flinging herself at jack look at her
jack wilmington and miss sue northwick were standing together near her father and a party of her friends and she was smiling and talking at him eyes lips gestures attitude expressed in the proud girl a fawning eagerness to please the man
who received her homage rather as if it bored him his indifferent manner may have been one secret of his power over her and perhaps she was not capable of all the suffering she was capable of inflicting
lyra turned to walk toward the house deflecting a little in the direction of her nephew and miss northwick
jack she drawled over the shoulder next them as she passed
they're going to fetch the refreshments out here yes but i'm tired ralph and i can't sit on the grass at my age she moved on with her sweeping lounging pace and jack wilmington after a moment's hesitation bowed to miss northwick
and went after her the girl remained apart from her friends as if expecting his return silhouetted against the bright windows lyra waited till jack wilmington reappeared with a shawl and laid it on her shoulders then she sank into a chair
the young man stood beside her talking down upon her something restive and insistent expressed itself in their respective attitudes he sat down at her side miss northwick joined her friends carelessly
i'm glad to find you i've just run home with mother she feels the night air and i was afraid you would slip through our fingers before i got back this little business of the refreshments was an afterthought of missus munger's and we meant it for a surprise
we knew you'd approve of it in the form it took he looked round at the straggling workpeople who represented the harmonisation of classes keeping to themselves as if they had been there alone yes annie was obliged to say it's very pleasant
she added you must all be rather hungry mister brandreth if the social union ever gets on its feet it will have you to thank more than any one oh don't speak of me miss kilburn do you know we've netted about two hundred dollars isn't that pretty good doctor
very said the doctor hadn't we better follow missus wilmington's example and get up under the piazza roof i'm afraid you'll be the worse for the night air miss kilburn
all right i guess that's a good idea the doctor called to the different knots and groups telling them to come up to the house some of the workpeople slipped away through the grounds and did not come the northwicks and their friends moved toward the house
missus munger came down the lawn to meet her guests ah that's right it's much better indoors i was just coming for you she addressed herself more particularly to the northwicks coffee will be ready in a few moments we've met with a little delay
i'm afraid we must say good night at once said mister northwick we had arranged to have our friends and some other guests with us at home and we're quite late now missus munger protested take our juliet from us
oh miss northwick how can i thank you enough the whole play turned upon you it's just as well she said to annie as the northwicks and their friends walked across the lawn to the gate where they had carriages waiting they'd have been difficult to manage
and everybody else will feel a little more at home without them poor mister brandreth i'm sure you will i did pity you so with such a juliet on your hands in doors the representatives of the lower classes were less at ease than they were without
some of the ministers mingled with them and tried to form a bond between them and the other villagers mister peck took no part in this work he stood holding his elbows with his hands and talking with a perfunctory air to an old lady of his congregation
the young ladies of south hatboro as missus munger's assistants went about impartially to high and low with trays of refreshments annie saw putney
and she watched him anxiously when the claret cup came he waved his hand over it and said no i'll take some of the lemonade as he lifted a glass of it toward his lips he stopped and made as if to put it down again and his hand shook so that he spilled some of it
then he dashed it off and reached for another glass i want some more he said with a laugh i'm thirsty he drank a second glass and when he saw a tray coming toward annie where doctor morrell had joined her he came over and exchanged his empty glass for a full one
not much to brag of as lemonade he said but first rate rum punch look here putney whispered the doctor laying his hand on his arm
his wife many years younger than himself he had married for love lady dedlock was not noble by birth no one indeed knew who she had been before her marriage but she was very beautiful
she was as proud and haughty too as she was lovely and was much sought after but with all her popularity she had few close friends and no one in whom she confided even her housekeeper
missus rouncewell a fine handsome old woman who had been sir leicester's servant for fifty years thought her cold and reserved missus rouncewell herself had had a son george who many years before had gone off to be a soldier and had never come back
and looking at her mistress's face
however that may have been the old baronet loved his wife and was very proud of her sir leicester's family lawyer was named tulkinghorn he was a dull dignified man who always dressed in black and seldom spoke unless he had to
his one passion was the discovery of other people's secrets he knew more family secrets than any one else in london and to discover a new one he would have risked all his fortune now
which seemed destined never to end was sir leicester dedlock and one day the chancery court having actually made a little progress mister tulkinghorn brought the baronet some legal papers to read to him as the lawyer held one in his hand
lady dedlock seeing the handwriting asked in an agitated voice who had written it he answered that it was the work of one of his copyists a moment later as he went on reading they found that lady dedlock had fainted away
her husband did not connect her faintness with the paper but mister tulkinghorn did and that instant he determined that lady dedlock had a secret
and that what this secret was he tulkinghorn would discover
and who lived above krook's rag and bottle shop a neighbor to crazy little miss flite of the chancery court and the many bird cages krook himself was an ignorant spectacled old rascal whose sole occupations seemed to be to sleep and to drink gin
his only intimate was a big gray evil tempered cat called lady jane
people in the neighborhood called his dirty shop the court of chancery because like that other court it had so many old things in it and whatever its owner once got into it never got out again
krook told him all he knew about his lodger nemo it seemed was surly and dissipated and did what legal copying he could get to do in order to buy opium with which he drugged himself daily so far as was known he had but one friend
joe a wretched crossing sweeper to whom when he had it he often gave a coin thus much the lawyer learned but from the strange lodger himself he learned nothing
they found the latter stretched on his couch dead whether by accident or design no one could tell of an overdose of opium curious to see how lady dedlock would receive this news
mister tulkinghorn called on her and told her of the unknown man's death she pretended to listen with little interest but his trained eye saw that she was deeply moved by it
and he became more anxious than ever to find out what connection there could be between this proud and titled woman and the miserable copyist who had lived and died in squalor chance favored mister tulkinghorn's object
one night he saw joe the ragged crossing sweeper pointing out to a woman whose face was hidden by a veil and whose form was closely wrapped in a french shawl
later at sir leicester's
a black haired jealous french woman with wolf like ways wearing the same shawl he cunningly entrapped the maid into coming to his house one night wearing both veil and shawl and there brought her unexpectedly face to face with joe
by the boy's actions mister tulkinghorn decided at once that joe had never seen hortense before and that instant he guessed the truth that the veiled woman who had gone to the cemetery was really lady dedlock herself
and that she had worn her maid's clothes to mislead any observer this was a clever trick in the lawyer but it proved too clever for his own good for finding she had been enticed there for some deeper purpose hortense flew into a passion with him
he sneered at her and turned her out into the street threatening if she troubled him to have her put into prison because of this she began to hate him with a fierceness which he did not guess
but mister tulkinghorn found out nothing from krook for one day a strange thing happened
now it is a curious fact that when a great mass of inflammable material is heaped together sometimes it will suddenly burst into flame and burn up all in a minute without anything or anybody setting fire to it
this is just what happened to krook as he stood in the middle of the dirty shop without any warning all in a twinkling he blazed up and burned clothes and all and in less time than it takes to tell it there was nothing left but a little pile of ashes
a burnt mark in the floor and a sticky smoke that stuck to the window panes and hung in the air like soot and this was all the neighbors found when they came to search for him this was the end of krook
and the rag and bottle shop was taken possession of by grandfather smallweed a hideous crippled money lender who had been his brother in law and who at once went to work ransacking all the papers he could find on the premises
grandfather smallweed was a thin toothless wheezy green eyed old miser who was so nearly dead from age and asthma that he had to be wheeled about by his granddaughter judy he had a wife who was out of her mind
everything said in her hearing she connected with the idea of money if one said for example it's twenty minutes past noon missus smallweed would at once begin to gabble twenty pence twenty pounds twenty thousand millions of bank notes locked up in a black box
and she would not stop till her husband threw a cushion at her which he kept beside him for that very purpose and knocked her mouth shut grandfather smallweed soon discovered the bundle of letters hidden back of the shelf where lady jane
krook's big cat slept the name they bore captain hawdon was familiar enough to the money lender long ago when hawdon was living a dissipated life in london he had borrowed money from grandfather smallweed
and this money was still unpaid when he had disappeared it was said that he had fallen overboard from a vessel and had been drowned to think now that the captain had been living as a copyist all these years in london free from arrest for the debt
filled the wizened soul of the old man with rage he was ready enough to talk when mister tulkinghorn questioned him and finally sold him the bundle of letters the lawyer saw that they were in lady dedlock's penmanship
mister tulkinghorn of course had many specimens of the copyist's hand and after much search he found a man who had once been a fellow soldier of the captain's he was called mister george and kept a shooting gallery
mister george had among his papers a letter once written him by captain hawdon and not knowing the purpose for which it was to be used loaned it to the lawyer the handwriting was the same and thus mister tulkinghorn knew that the copyist had really been captain hawdon
and that the letters in the bundle had once been written to him by the woman who was now the haughty lady dedlock it was a strange sad story that the letters disclosed as mister tulkinghorn gloating over his success read them line by line
the man who had fallen so low as to drag out a wretched existence by copying law papers whom until she saw the handwriting in the lawyer's hands she had believed to be dead was a man lady dedlock had once loved
many years before when a young woman she had run away from home with him a little child was born to them whom she named esther when she and hawdon had separated her sister to hide from the world the knowledge of the elopement
had told her the baby esther was dead had taken the child to another part of the country given her the name of summerson and calling herself her godmother instead of her aunt brought her up in ignorance of the truth years had gone by and captain hawdon was reported drowned
at length the little esther's mother had met and married sir leicester dedlock and in his love and protection had thought her dark past buried from view for ever all this the pitiless lawyer read in the letters
his face took on the look of a cat's when it plays with a mouse it has caught meanwhile lady dedlock had suffered much the knowledge that hawdon had not been drowned as she had supposed had come to her like a thunderclap
and the news of his death following so soon after this discovery had unnerved her she felt mister tulkinghorn's suspicious eyes watching her always and began to tremble in dread of what he might know
in the midst of these fears she accidentally discovered one day that the baby name of esther summerson of bleak house had been not summerson but hawdon this made lady dedlock guess the whole truth that esther was in reality her own daughter
oh my child my child not dead in the first hours of her life as my cruel sister told me but sternly nurtured by her after she had renounced me and my name
how strange this mass of ancient treasures mementos of past pains and pleasures these volumes clasped with costly stone with print all faded gilding gone
these fans of leaves from indian trees these crimson shells from indian seas these tiny portraits set in rings once doubtless deemed such precious things keepsakes bestowed by love on faith
and worn till the receiver's death now stored with cameos china shells in this old closet's dusty cells i scarcely think for ten long years a hand has touched these relics old
and coating each slow formed appears the growth of green and antique mould all in this house is mossing over all is unused and dim and damp nor light nor warmth the rooms discover
bereft for years of fire and lamp the sun sometimes in summer enters the casements with reviving ray but the long rains of many winters moulder the very walls away
and outside all is ivy clinging to chimney lattice gable grey scarcely one little red rose springing through the green moss can force its way
unscared the daw and starling nestle where the tall turret rises high and winds alone come near to rustle the thick leaves where their cradles lie
i sometimes think when late at even i climb the stair reluctantly some shape that should be well in heaven or ill elsewhere will pass by me
i fear to see the very faces familiar thirty years ago even in the old accustomed places which look so cold and gloomy now
i've come to close the window hither at twilight when the sun was down and fear my very soul would wither lest something should be dimly shown too much the buried form resembling of her who once was mistress here
lest doubtful shade or moonbeam trembling might take her aspect once so dear hers was this chamber in her time it seemed to me a pleasant room
for then no cloud of grief or crime had cursed it with a settled gloom i had not seen death's image laid in shroud and sheet on yonder bed before she married she was blest blest in her youth
blest in her worth her mind was calm its sunny rest shone in her eyes more clear than mirth and when attired in rich array light lustrous hair about her brow she yonder sat
a kind of day lit up what seems so gloomy now these grim oak walls even then were grim that old carved chair was then antique
her neck and arms of hue so fair eyes of unclouded smiling light her soft and curled and floating hair gems and attire as rainbow bright
watching the sun she seemed to bless with happy glance the glorious sky she loved such scenes and as she gazed her face evinced her spirit's mood beauty or grandeur ever raised in her a deep felt gratitude
but of all lovely things she loved a cloudless moon on summer night full oft have i impatience proved to see how long her still delight would find a theme in reverie out on the lawn
or where the trees let in the lustre fitfully as their boughs parted momently to the soft languid summer breeze
deceived by false and guileful tongue she gave her hand then suffered wrong oppressed ill used she faded young and died of grief by slow decay open that casket
look how bright those jewels flash upon the sight the brilliants have not lost a ray of lustre since her wedding day but see upon that pearly chain how dim lies time's discolouring stain
i've seen that by her daughter worn for ere she died a child was born a child that ne'er its mother knew that lone and almost friendless grew
for ever when its step drew nigh averted was the father's eye and then a life impure and wild made him a stranger to his child absorbed in vice he little cared on what she did or how she fared
the love withheld she never sought she grew uncherished learnt untaught to her the inward life of thought full soon was open laid
i know not if her friendlessness did sometimes on her spirit press but plaint she never made the book shelves were her darling treasure she rarely seemed the time to measure while she could read alone
and she too loved the twilight wood and often in her mother's mood away to yonder hill would hie like her to watch the setting sun or see the stars born one by one out of the darkening sky
nor would she leave that hill till night trembled from pole to pole with light even then upon her homeward way long long her wandering steps delayed
to quit the sombre forest shade through which her eerie pathway lay you ask if she had beauty's grace i know not but a nobler face my eyes have seldom seen
a keen and fine intelligence and better still the truest sense were in her speaking mien but bloom or lustre was there none only at moments fitful shone an ardour in her eye
that kindled on her cheek a flush warm as a red sky's passing blush and quick with energy her speech too was not common speech no wish to shine or aim to teach was in her words displayed
she still began with quiet sense but oft the force of eloquence came to her lips in aid language and voice unconscious changed and thoughts in other words arranged
her fervid soul transfused into the hearts of those who heard and transient strength and ardour stirred in minds to strength unused yet in gay crowd or festal glare grave and retiring was her air
twas seldom save with me alone that fire of feeling freely shone she loved not awe's nor wonder's gaze nor even exaggerated praise
nor even notice if too keen the curious gazer searched her mien nature's own green expanse revealed the world the pleasures she could prize on free hill side in sunny field
in quiet spots by woods concealed grew wild and fresh her chosen joys yet nature's feelings deeply lay in that endowed and youthful frame shrined in her heart and hid from day
they burned unseen with silent flame in youth's first search for mental light she lived but to reflect and learn but soon her mind's maturer might for stronger task did pant and yearn
sustained with courage mute yet high the wounds at which she bled revealing only by altered cheek and eye she bore in silence
the storm at last brought desolation and drove her exiled from her home and silent still she straight assembled the wrecks of strength her soul retained
for though the wasted body trembled the unconquered mind to quail disdained she crossed the sea now lone she wanders by seine's or rhine's or arno's flow
fain would i know if distance renders relief or comfort to her woe fain would i know if henceforth ever these eyes shall read in hers again that light of love which faded never
though dimmed so long with secret pain she will return but cold and altered like all whose hopes too soon depart like all on whom have beat unsheltered
the bitter blasts that blight the heart no more shall i behold her lying calm on a pillow smoothed by me no more that spirit worn with sighing will know the rest of infancy
if still the paths of lore she follow twill be with tired and goaded will she'll only toil the aching hollow the joyless blank of life to fill
and oh full oft quite spent and weary her hand will pause her head decline that labour seems so hard and dreary on which no ray of hope may shine thus
the pale blight of time and sorrow will shade with grey her soft dark hair then comes the day that knows no morrow and death succeeds to long despair
so speaks experience sage and hoary i see it plainly know it well like one who having read a story each incident therein can tell touch not that ring
the sire of that forsaken child and nought his relics can inspire save memories sin defiled i who sat by his wife's death bed i who his daughter loved
could almost curse the guilty dead for woes the guiltless proved and heaven did curse they found him laid when crime for wrath was rife cold with the suicidal blade
you know the spot where three black trees lift up their branches fell and moaning ceaseless as the seas still seem in every passing breeze the deed of blood to tell
they named him mad and laid his bones where holier ashes lie yet doubt not that his spirit groans in hell's eternity but lo
night closing o'er the earth infects our thoughts with gloom
and on the pavement spread before the long front of the mansion grey her steps imprint the night frost hoar which pale on grass and granite lay
not long she stayed where misty moon and shimmering stars could on her look but through the garden archway soon her strange and gloomy path she took
some firs coeval with the tower their straight black boughs stretched o'er her head unseen beneath this sable bower rustled her dress and rapid tread
there was an alcove in that shade screening a rustic seat and stand weary she sat her down and laid her hot brow on her burning hand
to solitude and to the night some words she now in murmurs said and trickling through her fingers white some tears of misery she shed god help me in my grievous need
god help me in my inward pain which cannot ask for pity's meed which has no licence to complain which must be borne yet who can bear hours long days long a constant weight the yoke of absolute despair
she waited as for some reply the still and cloudy night gave none ere long with deep drawn trembling sigh her heavy plaint again begun unloved i love unwept i weep
vain is this anguish fixed and deep vainer desires and dreams of bliss
my tears collect and fall unfelt my sorrow touches none with pain my humble hopes to nothing melt for me the universe is dumb stone deaf and blank and wholly blind
life i must bound existence sum in the strait limits of one mind that mind my own oh narrow cell dark imageless a living tomb there must i sleep
there wake and dwell content with palsy pain and gloom again she paused a moan of pain a stifled sob alone was heard
long silence followed then again her voice the stagnant midnight stirred must it be so is this my fate
and when it falls and when i die what follows vacant nothingness the blank of lost identity
i've heard of heaven i would believe for if this earth indeed be all who longest lives may deepest grieve
oh leaving disappointment here will man find hope on yonder coast hope which on earth shines never clear and oft in clouds is wholly lost
will he hope's source of light behold fruition's spring where doubts expire and drink in waves of living gold contentment full for long desire will he find bliss which here he dreamed
rest which was weariness on earth knowledge which if o'er life it beamed served but to prove it void of worth will he find love without lust's leaven love fearless tearless perfect pure
to all with equal bounty given in all unfeigned unfailing sure
all calm and glorious rise and see creation's sire existence god then glancing back on time's brief woes will he behold them fading fly
swept from eternity's repose like sullying cloud from pure blue sky if so endure my weary frame and when thy anguish strikes too deep and when all troubled burns life's flame
think of the quiet final sleep think of the glorious waking hour which will not dawn on grief and tears but on a ransomed spirit's power certain and free from mortal fears
seek now thy couch and lie till morn then from thy chamber calm descend with mind nor tossed nor anguish torn but tranquil fixed to wait the end
and when thy opening eyes shall see mementos on the chamber wall of one who has forgotten thee shed not the tear of acrid gall the tear which welling from the heart burns where its drop corrosive falls
and makes each nerve in torture start at feelings it too well recalls when the sweet hope of being loved threw eden sunshine on life's way
when every sense and feeling proved expectancy of brightest day when the hand trembled to receive a thrilling clasp which seemed so near
when words half love all tenderness were hourly heard as hourly spoken when the long sunny days of bliss only by moonlight nights were broken till drop by drop the cup of joy filled full with purple light was glowing
sparkling still and redly flashing drained drop by drop the generous juice i saw it sink and strove to taste it my eager lips approached the brim the movement only seemed to waste it
it sank to dregs all harsh and dim these i have drunk and they for ever have poisoned life and love for me a draught from sodom's lake could never more fiery salt and bitter be
oh love was all a thin illusion joy but the desert's flying stream and glancing back on long delusion my memory grasps a hollow dream
nor why my lover's eye congealing grew cold and clouded proud and stern nor wherefore friendship's forms forgetting he careless left and cool withdrew nor spoke of grief nor fond regretting
and neither word nor token sending of kindness since the parting day his course for distant regions bending went self contained and calm away oh bitter blighting keen sensation
which will not weaken cannot die hasten thy work of desolation and let my tortured spirit fly vain as the passing gale my crying though lightning struck i must live on
i know at heart there is no dying of love and ruined hope alone still strong and young and warm with vigour though scathed i long shall greenly grow
and many a storm of wildest rigour shall yet break o'er my shivered bough rebellious now to blank inertion my unused strength demands a task
i see a nearer beacon gleaming over dejection's sea of gloom the very wildness of my sorrow tells me i yet have innate force my track of life has been too narrow
effort shall trace a broader course the world is not in yonder tower earth is not prisoned in that room mid whose dark panels hour by hour i've sat the slave and prey of gloom
when lorn and loveless life will languish but courage can revive the flame he when he left me went a roving to sunny climes beyond the sea
and i the weight of woe removing am free and fetterless as he new scenes new language skies less clouded may once more wake the wish to live
strange foreign towns astir and crowded new pictures to the mind may give new forms and faces passing ever may hide the one i still retain defined and fixed and fading never
stamped deep on vision heart and brain and we might meet time may have changed him chance may reveal the mystery the secret influence which estranged him love may restore him yet to me
false thought false hope in scorn be banished i am not loved nor loved have been recall not then the dreams scarce vanished traitors mislead me not again
to words like yours i bid defiance tis such my mental wreck have made of god alone and self reliance i ask for solace hope for aid morn comes
and of thy for bearance towards my mother but there is no might and there is no majesty save in allah the glorious the great
o thou to whom sad trembling wights in fear complain o ever ready whatso cometh to sustain the sole resource for me is at thy door to knock
whose gifts and favours have nor count nor bound no stroke of all fate's strokes e'er fell on me but thee to take me by the hand i found
slay me before my brother as'ad so haply shall the fire be quencht in my heart's core and in this life burn no more but as'ad wept and exclaimed not so i will die first
it were best that i embrace thee and thou embrace me so the sword may fall upon us and slay us both at a single stroke thereupon they embraced face to face and clung to each other straitly whilst the treasurer tied up the twain and bound them fast with cords weeping the while
it is indeed hard to me to slay you
replied amjad we have no wish and my only charge to thee is that thou set my brother below and me above him that the blow may fall on me first and when thou hast killed us and returnest to the king and he asketh thee
do thou answer verily thy sons salute thee and say to thee thou knewest not if we were innocent or guilty yet hast thou put us to death and hast not certified thyself of our sin nor looked into our case
then do thou repeat to him these two couplets women are satans made for woe o men i fly to allah from their devilish scathe source of whatever bale befel our kind in wordly matters and in things of faith
we desire of thee naught but that thou repeat to our sire these two couplets
and ceased to say her permitted say
speaking to the treasurer we desire of thee naught but that thou repeat to our sire these two couplets which thou hast just now heard
whilst i cite to my brother this other pair of couplets then he wept with sore weeping and began the kings who fared before us showed of instances full many a show of great and small and high and low
how many this one road have trod
my sin anent the world which i abhor
and meet thou more than thou hast met and cut all chains of world love and desire and save thy soul and rise to secrets higher
till they twain were one body and the treasurer drawing his sword was about to strike them when behold his steed took fright at the wind of his upraised hand and breaking its tether fled into the desert
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the two hundred and twenty third night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king
that when his horse ran away the treasurer ran after it in huge concern and ceased not running to catch the runaway till it entered a thicket
and snorting and puffing and neighing and waxing fierce and furious now there happened to be in this thicket a lion of terrible might hideous to sight with eyes sparkling light his look was grim and his aspect struck fright into man's sprite
presentry the treasurer turned and saw the lion making towards him but found no way of escape nor had he his sword with him so he said in himself there is no majesty and there is no might save in allah the glorious the great
would to heaven we had been slain and were at peace from this pain but we know not whither the horse hath fled that the treasurer is gone and hath left us thus pinioned
o my brother be patient and the relief of allah extolled and exalted be he shall assuredly come to us for the horse started not away save of his favour towards us and naught irketh us but this thirst
upon this he stretched and shook himself and strained right and left till he burst his pinion bonds then he rose and unbound his brother and catching up the emir's sword said by allah we will not go hence till we look after him and learn what is become of him
then they took to following on the trail till it led them to the thicket and they said to each other of a surety the horse and the treasurer have not passed out of this wood
stay thou here whilst i enter the thicket and search it and amjad replied i will not let thee go in alone nor will we enter it but together so if we escape we shall escape together and if we perish we shall perish together
accordingly both entered and found that the lion had sprang upon the treasurer
the emir sprang up marvelling at this escape
cast himself at their feet and exclaimed
may the man never be who would kill you indeed with my very life i will ransom you
and ceased to say her permitted say when it was the two hundred and twenty fourth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king
then he hastily rose and at once embracing them enquired how they had loosed their bonds and come thither whereupon they told him how the bonds of one of them had fallen loose and he had unbound the other whereto they were helped by the purity of their intentions
and how they had tracked his trail till they came upon him so he thanked them for their deed and went with them forth of the thicket and when they were in the open country they said to him o uncle do our father's bidding
he replied allah forbid that i should draw near to you with hurt but know ye that i mean to take your clothes and clothe you with mine
presently he took leave of them and making his way to the city ceased not faring till he went in to king kamar al zaman and kissed the ground between his hands the king saw him changed in face and troubled which arose from his adventure with the lion
hast thou done the work yes o our lord replied the treasurer and gave him the two parcels of clothes and the two vials full of blood asked the king what didst thou observe in them and did they give thee any charge answered the treasurer
and they said to me verily our father is excusable bear him our salutation and say to him thou art quit of our killing but we charge thee repeat to him these couplets verily women are devils created for us
we seek refuge with god from the artifice of the devils they are the source of all the misfortunes that have appeared among mankind in the affairs of the world
and knew his sons words to mean that they had been wrongfully put to death then he bethought himself of the perfidy of women and the calamities brought about by them and he took the two parcels and opened them and fell to turning over his sons clothes and weeping
and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the two hundred and twenty fifth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king
it so came to pass that he found in the pocket of his son as'ad's raiment a letter in the hand of his wife enclosing her hair strings
and understanding the contents knew that the prince had been falsely accused and wrongously
whereupon he beat hand upon hand and exclaimed
i have slain my sons unjustly and he buffeted his face crying out alas my sons alas my long grief then he bade them build two tombs in one house
which he styled house of lamentations and had graved thereon his sons names
weeping and groaning and lamenting and improvised these couplets o moon for ever set this earth below whose loss bewail the stars which stud the sky o wand which broken
ne'er with bend and wave shall fascinate the ravisht gazer's eye
nor shall they till next life thy sight descry
such was his case
and ceased to say her permitted say when it was the two hundred and twenty sixth night she said
and took that which ran along the midway heights and walked through all that day till nightfall
o my brother i can walk no farther
when they washed and bathed in the spring and eating of the pomegranates slept again till the time of mid afternoon prayer then they thought to continue their journey
for both his feet were swollen so they abode there three days till they were rested
tortured by and like to die of thirst till they sighted a city gleaming afar off at which they rejoiced and made towards it when they drew near it they thanked allah be his name exalted
that we may know through what lands we have passed in crossing this mountain whose skirts had we followed we had not reached this city in a whole year so praised be allah for safety
by allah o my brother none shall go down into that city save myself and may i be thy ransom if thou leave me alone be it only for an hour
for i cannot brook shine absence from me
o my son meseemeth thou art a stranger as'ad rejoined yes i am a stranger
whereat he rejoiced with great joy then he went out and seating himself upon his chair of estate assembled all the wazirs emirs chamberlains and grandees to whom he related the whole story of kamar al zaman and his wife queen budur from first to last
we are all content to have him to sultan over us and we will be his servants nor will we swerve from his allegiance so armanus rejoiced hereat and summoning kazis and witnesses and the chief officers of state
bade draw up the contract of marriage between kamar al zaman and his daughter the princess hayat al nufus
moreover he distributed alms to the poor and needy and set free all the prisoners the whole world rejoiced in the coming of kamar al zaman to the throne blessing him and wishing him endurance of glory and prosperity renown and felicity
thus he abode a long while ordering himself worthily towards his lieges and he lived with his two wives in peace happiness constancy and content lying the night with each of them in turn he ceased not after this fashion during many years
for indeed all his troubles and afflictions were blotted out from him and he forgot his father king shahriman and his former estate of honour and favour with him
in respectful bearing and in the perfection of training and they were instructed in penmanship and science and the arts of government and horsemanship till they attained the extreme accomplishments and the utmost limit of beauty and loveliness
both men and women being ravished by their charms they grew up side by side till they reached the age of seventeen eating and drinking together and sleeping in one bed nor ever parting at any time or tide
when it was the two hundred and eighteenth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that the king fared forth to sport and hunt bidding his two sons sit to do justice in his stead each one day by turn as was their wont
bidding and forbidding appointing and deposing giving and refusing
wrote to him a letter suing for his favour and discovering to him her passion and devotion altogether put tiny off the mask and giving him to know that she desired to enjoy him so she took a scroll and thereon indited these cadences
from the love deranged the sorrowful and estranged whose torment is prolonged for the longing of thee were i to recount to thee the extent of my care and what of sadness i bear the passion which my heart cloth tear
no letter could contain it nor calculation could compass it indeed earth and heaven upon me are strait and i have no hope and no trust but what from thee i await upon death i am come nigh
burning upon me is sore with parting pangs and estrangement galore were i to set forth the yearnings that possess me more and more no scrolls would suffice to hold such store and of the excess of my pain and pine
i have made the following lines were i to dwell on heart consuming heat unease and transports in my spins meet nothing were left of ink and reeden pen nor aught of paper no
it hath reached me o auspicious king that she gave her missive to the eunuch in waiting and bade him bear it to prince amjad and that eunuch went forth ignoring what the future hid for him for the omniscient ordereth events even as he willeth and going in to the prince
on receiving the kerchief he opened it and reading the epistle and recognizing its gist he was ware that his father's wife was essentially an adulteress
and went in to his own mother and told her what had passed reviling and reproaching her and saying each one of you is viler than the other
judging and administering justice appointing and deposing bidding and forbidding giving and bestowing and he ceased not thus till near the time of afternoon prayer
and discovering to her what was in her heart
from her who perisheth for passion and love forlorn to him who in nature and culture is goodliest born to him who is conceited of his own loveliness and glories in his amorous grace
who from those that seek to enjoy him averteth his face and refuseth to show favour unto the self abasing and base him who is cruel and of disdainful mood from the lover despairing of good
and of excelling grace proud of the face moon bright and the brow flower white and dazzling splendid light this is my letter to him whose love melteth my body and rendeth my skin and bones
know that my patience faileth me quite and i am perplexed in my plight
but mourning and watching stick fast to me and desire and passion torment me and the extremes of languor and sickness have sheet me yet may my life be a ransom for thee albeit thy pleasure be to slay her who loveth thee
and allah prolong the life of thee and preserve thee from all infirmity and after these cadences she wrote these couplets fate hath commanded i become thy fere
o shining like full moon when clearest clear all beauty dost embrace all eloquence brighter than aught within our worldly sphere content am i my torturer thou be
haply shalt alms me with one lovely leer happy her death who dieth for thy love no good in her who holdeth thee unclear and also the following couplets
unto thee as'ad i of passion pangs complain have ruth on slave of love so burnt with flaming pain how long i ask shall hands of love disport with me
anon i plain of sea in heart anon of fire in vitals o strange case dear wish my fairest fain o blamer cease thy blame and seek thyself to fly from love
how oft i cry for absence and desire ah grief but all my crying naught of gain for me shall gain
when as'ad had read the paper and knew its purport he wrapped it up again in the ribbons and put it in his bosom pocket
for he was wrath beyond all measure of wrath he cursed false women and sprang up and drawing his sword smote the old trot on the neck and cut off her pate thereupon he went in to his mother queen hayat al nufus whom he found lying on her bed in feeble case
and railed at her and cursed her after which he left her and fore gathered with his brother
adding by allah o my brother but that i was ashamed before thee i had gone in to her forthright and had smitten her head off her shoulders
by allah o my brother yesterday when i was sitting upon the seat of judgement
who sent me a letter of similar purport and he told him all that had passed adding by allah o my brother naught but respect for thee withheld me from going in to her and dealing with her even as i dealt with the eunuch they passed the rest of the night conversing and cursing womankind
and agreed to keep the matter secret lest their father should hear of it and kill the two women yet they ceased not to suffer trouble and foresee affliction and when the morrow dawned the king returned with his suite from hunting and sat awhile in his chair of estate
and both exceeding sick and weak
for that they had exposed themselves before them and feared to be at their mercy and dependent upon their forbearance when kamar al zaman saw them on this wise he said to them what aileth you
perverting the case and saying know o king that thy two sons who have been reared in thy bounty have played thee false and have dishonoured thee in the persons of thy wives
and he raged with such wrath that his reason fled
explain me this matter replied queen budur o king of the age know that these many days past thy son as'ad hath been in the persistent habit of sending me letters and messages to solicit me to lewdness and adultery while i still forbade him from this
but he would not be forbidden and when thou wentest forth to hunt he rushed in on me drunk and with a drawn sword in his hand and smiting my eunuch slew him
then he mounted on my breast still holding the sword and i feared lest he should slay me if i gainsaid him even as he had slain my eunuch so he took his wicked will of me by force and now if thou do me not justice on him o king
i will slay myself with my own hand for i have no need of life in the world after this foul deed and queen hayat al nufus choking with tears
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say when it was the two hundred and twentieth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that queen hayat al nufus told her husband king kamar al zaman
after which she took to weeping and wailing and said except thou do me justice on him i will tell my father king armanus then both women wept with sore weeping before king kamar al zaman who
when he saw their tears and heard their words concluded that their story was true and waxing wroth beyond measure of wrath went forth thinking to fall upon his two sons and put them to death
on his way he met his father in law king armanus who hearing of his return from the chase had come to salute him at that very hour and seeing him with naked brand in hand and blood dripping from his nostrils for excess of rage asked what ailed him
and here i am now going in to them to slay them in the foulest way and make of them the most shameful of examples quoth king armanus and indeed he too was wroth with them
thou dost well o my son and may allah not bless them nor any sons that do such deed against their father's honour but o my son the sayer of the old saw saith whoso looketh not to the end hath not fortune to friend
in any case they are thy sons and it befitteth not that thou kill them with shine own hand
whenas repentance availeth thee naught rather do thou send them with one of thy mamelukes into the desert and let him kill them there out of thy sight
where do thou kill them both and fill two vials with their blood and bring the same to me in haste replied the treasurer i hear and i obey and he rose up hurriedly and went out forthright to seek the princes
and on his road he met them coming out of the palace vestibule for they had donned their best clothes and their richest
now when he saw them he laid hands on them saying omy sons know ye that i am but a slave commanded and that your father hath laid a commandment on me will ye obey his commandment they said yes
when he halted in a waste and desolate place and dismounting from his mare let down the two chests from the mule's back
and when he looked upon them he wept sore for their beauty and loveliness then drawing his sword he said to them
but i am to be excused in this matter being but a slave commanded for that your father king kamar al zaman hath bidden me strike off your heads they replied o emir do the king's bidding for we bear with patience that which allah to whom be honour might and glory
hath decreed to us and thou art quit of our blood then they embraced and bade each other farewell and as'ad said to the treasurer allah upon thee o uncle spare me the sight of my brother's death agony and make me not drink of his anguish
my brother is younger than i so make me not taste of his anguish and they both wept bitter tears whilst the treasurer wept for their weeping
the princess rejoined in very sooth a youth lay with me last night one of the fairest faced of men exclaimed the duenna heaven preserve thy reason indeed no one lay with thee last night
thereupon the princess looked at her hand and finding kamar al zaman's seal ring on her finger in stead of her own said to her
thou traitress wilt thou lie to me and tell me that none lay with me last night and swear to me a falsehood in the name of the lord
whoso healeth my daughter of what ill she hath i will marry him to her and give him half of my kingdom but whoso cometh to her and cureth her not i will strike off his head and hang it over her palace gate
till he had beheaded on her account forty doctors and crucified forty astrologers wherefor the general held aloof from her all the physicians having failed to medicine her malady
and her case was a puzzle to the men of science and the adepts in cabalistic characters and as her longing and passion redoubled and love and distraction were sore upon her she poured forth tears and repeated these couplets
in gloom i bide with fire that flames below my ribs whose lowe i make comparison with heat of hell i'm plagued with sorest stress of pine and ecstasy
nor clearest noon tide can that horrid pain dispel then she sighed and repeated these also salams fro me to friends in every stead
when marzawan heard these words he said i must needs go in to her peradventure i may discover what she hath and be able to medicine her
made him a present and said to him i have a daughter who was brought up with thy mistress and since then i married her and when that befel the princess which befel her she became troubled and sore concerned
and i desire of thy favour that my daughter may go in to her for an hour and look on her and then return whence she came so shall none know of it
this may not be except by night after the king hath visited his child and gone away then come thou and thy daughter so she kissed the eunuch's hand and returning home waited till the morrow at nightfall
and when it was time she arose and sought her son marzawan and attired him in woman's apparel then taking his hand in hers led him towards the palace
enter but do not prolong thy stay so they went in and when marzawan beheld the lady budur in the aforesaid plight he saluted her after his mother had doffed his woman's garb then he took out of their satchel books he had brought with him
and lighting a wax candle he began to recite certain conjurations thereupon the princess looked at him and recognising him said o my brother thou hast been absent on thy travels and thy news have been cut off from us he replied
nor hath aught delayed me but the news i hear of thee wherefore my heart burned for thee and i came to thee so haply i may free thee of thy malady she rejoined
not so by allah tis even as saith the poet quoth they
love never maketh time his friend befriend only the jinn struck wight such boon can gain
blame restrain then she let marzawan know that she was love daft and he said tell me concerning thy tale and what befel thee haply there may be in my hand something which shall be a means of deliverance for thee
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of da and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the one hundred and ninety fourth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king
and i had refused it was this though withheld me from arousing him for i feared that if i did aught of embraced him
and for the violence of my passion and longing i have never savoured the taste of sleep and have no occupation save weeping alway and repeating verses night and day and this o my brother is my story
and the cause of my madness then she poured forth tears and repeated these couplets now love hast banished all that bred delight with that heart nibbling fawn my joys took flight
lightest of trifles lover's blood to him who wastes the vitals of the hapless wight for him i'm jealous of my sight and thought my heart acts spy upon my thought and sight
those long lashed eyelids rain on me their shafts guileful destroying hearts where'er they light now while my portion in the world endures shall i behold him ere i quit world site what bear i for his sake i'd hide
so marzawan bowed his head ground wards awhile wondering and not knowing what to do then he raised it and said to her all thou hast spoken to me i hold to be true though the case of the young man pass my understanding
but i will go round about all lands and will seek for what may heal thee haply allah shall appoint thy healing to be at my hand meanwhile take patience and be not disquieted
thereupon marzawan farewelled her praying that she might be constant and left her repeating these couplets thine image ever companies my sprite
it is on the islands of khalidan
but by land it is six months march so he went down to the sea in a ship which was bound for the khalidan isles and she sailed with a favouring breeze for a whole month till they came in sight of the capital
there came out on them a tempestuous wind which carried away the masts and rent the canvas so that the sails fell into the sea and the ship capsized with all on board and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say
when it was the one hundred and ninety fifth night she said
so he drew near to the king and moving his head towards him said i crave thy leave o king to go down to the court of the pavilion and open the water gate that i may rescue a man who is at the point of drowning in the sea and bring him forth of danger into deliverance
the king replied o thou wazir
haply if thou rescue this drowning man he will come to know our affairs
but i swear by allah
and then fare forth and speak of our secrets to any i will assuredly strike off thy head before his for thou o my minister art the cause of all that hath betided us first and last now do as thou wilt
thereupon the wazir sprang up and opening the private pastern which gave upon the sea descended to the causeway then walked on twenty steps and came to the water where he saw marzawan nigh unto death
so he put out his hand to him and catching him by his hair drew him ashore in a state of insensibility with belly full of water and eyes half out of his head the wazir waited till he came to himself
when he pulled off his wet clothes and clad him in a fresh suit covering his head with one of his servants turbands after which he said to him know that i have been the means of saving thee from drowning do not thou requite me by causing my death
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the one hundred and ninety sixth night she said
it hath reached me o auspicious king that when the wazir did to marzawan what he did he thus addressed him know that i have been the cause of saving thee from drowning so requite me not by causing my death and shine own asked marzawan
and how so and the wazir answered
the son of the sultan now when marzawan heard the name of kamar al zaman he knew that this was he whom he had heard spoken of in sundry cities
eating not nor drinking
indeed he is nigh upon death and we have lost hope of his living and are certain that he is dying beware lest thou look too long on him or thou look on any other than that where thou settest thy feet else thou art a lost man
and i also he replied allah upon thee o wazir i implore thee of thy favour acquaint me touching this youth thou describest what is the cause of the condition in which he is the wazir replied
i know none save that three years ago his father required him to wed but he refused whereat the king was wroth and imprisoned him
and when he awoke on the morrow he fancied that during the night he had been roused from sleep and had seen by his side a young lady of passing loveliness whose charms tongue can never express
and he assured us that he had plucked off her seal ring from her finger and had put it on his own and that she had done likewise but we know not the secret of all this business so by allah o my son when thou comest up with me into the palace look not on the prince
because the trees and bushes grew so closely that you could not see just where it ended in winter the ground was damp and boggy so that nobody went there
who don't mind getting their feet wet but in summer the water dried away and then it was all fresh and green and full of delightful things wild roses and sassafras and birds nests
narrow winding paths ran here and there made by the cattle as they wandered to and fro this place the children called paradise and to them
as any forest of fairy land the way to paradise was through some wooden bars katy and cecy climbed these with a hop skip and jump while the smaller ones scrambled underneath once past the bars
they were fairly in the field and with one consent they all began to run till they reached the entrance of the wood then they halted with a queer look of hesitation on their faces
for the first time after the long winter who knew what the fairies might not have done since any of them had been there to see which path shall we go in by asked clover at last suppose we vote said katy
i say by the pilgrim's path and the hill of difficulty so do i chimed in clover who always agreed with katy the path of peace is nice suggested cecy no no
we want to go by sassafras path cried john and dorry however katy as usual had her way it was agreed that they should first try pilgrim's path and afterward make a thorough exploration of the whole of their little kingdom
so in they marched katy and cecy heading the procession
bringing up the rear oh there is the dear rosary all safe cried the children as they reached the top of the hill of difficulty and came upon a tall stump
waved a wild rose bush budded over with fresh green eaves this rosary was a fascinating thing to their minds they were always inventing stories about it and were in constant terror
lest some hungry cow should take a fancy to the rose bush and eat it up yes said katy stroking a leaf with her finger it was in great danger one night last winter but it escaped
it was christmas eve continued katy in a mysterious tone the fairy of the rosary was quite sick she had taken a dreadful cold in her head and the poplar tree fairy just over there
there was a noise in the forest and a dreadful black bull with fiery eyes galloped up
and opening his big mouth
a little fat man with a wand in his hand popped out from behind the stump it was santa claus of course he gave the bull such a rap with his wand that he moo ed dreadfully and then put up his fore paw to see if his nose was on or not
then santa claus waked up the fairy and told her that if she didn't take better care of rosy posy he should put some other fairy into her place and set her to keep guard over a prickly scratchy blackberry bush
pa said so the path of peace got its name because of its darkness and coolness high bushes almost met over it and trees kept it shady even in the middle of the day a sort of white flower grew there
which the children called pollypods because they didn't know the real name they staid a long while picking bunches of these flowers and then john and dorry had to grub up an armful of sassafras roots so that before they had fairly gone through toadstool avenue
rabbit hollow and the rest the sun was just over their heads and it was noon i'm getting hungry said dorry oh no dorry you mustn't be hungry till the bower is ready cried the little girls alarmed for dorry was apt to be disconsolate
so they made haste to build the bower it did not take long
which were tied to the very poplar tree
when it was done they all cuddled in underneath it was a very small bower just big enough to hold them and the baskets and the kitten i don't think there would have been room for anybody else not even another kitten katy
aunt izzie had put up lunches for paradise before you see and knew pretty well what to expect in the way of appetite oh how good everything tasted in that bower with the fresh wind rustling the poplar leaves sunshine and sweet wood smells about them
were seven little pies molasses pies baked in saucers each with a brown top and crisp candified edge
there was a general shout even demure cecy was pleased and dorry and john kicked their heels on the ground in a tumult of joy seven pairs of hands were held out at once toward the basket
and a blissful stickiness pervaded the party
as if to make sure there was nothing left that could possibly be eaten i don't know replied katy dreamily she had left her seat
which hung almost over the children's heads let's play we're grown up said cecy and tell what we mean to do well said clover you begin what do you mean to do
i mean to have a black silk dress and pink roses in my bonnet and a white muslin long shawl said cecy and i mean to look exactly like minerva clark i shall be very good too
only a great deal prettier all the young gentlemen will want me to go and ride but i shan't notice them at all because you know i shall always be teaching in sunday school and visiting the poor and some day
all i'm going to be a beautiful lady the most beautiful lady in the world and i'm going to live in a yellow castle with yellow pillars to the portico and a square thing on top like mister sawyer's my children are going to have a play house up there
i shall wear gold dresses and silver dresses every day and diamond rings and have white satin aprons to tie on when i'm dusting or doing anything dirty in the middle of my back yard
like cecy because i don't want to but every sunday i'll go and stand by the gate and when her scholars go by on their way home
i mean to have just the same cried elsie whose imagination was fired by this gorgeous vision only my pond will be the biggest i shall be a great deal beautifuller too she added you can't said katy from overhead
clover is going to be the most beautiful lady in the world but i'll be more beautiful than the most beautiful
and never run away and hide and there won't be any post offices or anything disagreeable what'll you be johnnie asked clover anxious to change the subject for elsie's voice was growing plaintive
but johnnie had no clear ideas as to her future she laughed a great deal and squeezed dorry's arm very tight but that was all dorry was more explicit i mean to have turkey every day he declared
and batter puddings not boiled ones you know but little baked ones with brown shiny tops and a great deal of pudding sauce to eat on them
three helps is quite enough for a little boy oh dorry you pig cried katy while the others screamed with laughter dorry was much affronted i shall just go and tell aunt izzie what you called me he said
getting up in a great pet but clover who was a born peacemaker caught hold of his arm
that he finally said he would stay especially as the others were quite grave now and promised that they wouldn't laugh any more
said cecy tell us what you're going to be when you grow up i'm not sure about what i'll be replied katy from overhead beautiful of course and good if i can only not so good as you cecy
and then you could all come and live with me and we would play in the garden and dorry should have turkey five times a day if he liked and we'd have a machine to darn the stockings and another machine to put the bureau drawers in order
and we'd never sew or knit garters or do anything we didn't want to that's what i'd like to be
i'll tell you what i mean to do isn't it the same thing asked cecy oh no replied katy quite different for you see i mean to do something grand
poor katy always said when i'm grown up forgetting how very much she had grown already perhaps she went on it will be rowing out in boats and saving peoples lives like that girl in the book
or perhaps i shall go and nurse in the hospital like miss nightingale or else i'll head a crusade and ride on a white horse with armor and a helmet on my head and carry a sacred flag or if i don't do that i'll paint pictures
or sing or scalp sculp what is it you know make figures in marble
it shall be something and when aunt izzie sees it and reads about me in the newspapers she will say the dear child
people very often say afterward that they always knew concluded katy sagaciously oh katy how beautiful it will be said clover clasping her hands clover believed in katy as she did in the bible
i don't believe the newspapers would be so silly as to print things about you katy carr put in elsie vindictively yes they will said clover and gave elsie a push
by and by john and dorry trotted away on mysterious errands of their own wasn't dorry funny with his turkey remarked cecy and they all laughed again if you won't tell said katy i'll let you see dorry's journal
he kept it once for almost two weeks and then gave it up i found the book this morning in the nursery closet all of them promised and katy produced it from her pocket it began thus
had rost befe for diner and cabage and potato and appel sawse and rice puding i do not like rice puding when it is like ours
forgit what did gridel cakes for brekfast debby didn't fry enuff
here ended the extracts and it seemed as if only a minute had passed since they stopped laughing over them before the long shadows began to fall and mary came to say that all of them must come in to get ready for tea
it was dreadful to have to pick up the empty baskets and go home feeling that the long delightful saturday was over and that there wouldn't be another for a week but it was comforting to remember that paradise was always there and that at any moment
when kate and aunt izzie were willing they had only to climb a pair of bars very easy ones and without any fear of an angel with flaming sword to stop the way
yet his cruelty was not more odious than his mercy or perhaps it may be more correct to say that his mercy and his cruelty were such that each reflects infamy on the other our horror at the fate of the simple clowns the young lads
the delicate women to whom he was inexorably severe
to be guided in selecting rebels for punishment is perfectly obvious the ringleaders the men of rank fortune and education whose power and whose artifices have led the multitude into error are the proper objects of severity the deluded populace
when once the slaughter on the field of battle is over can scarcely be treated too leniently this rule so evidently agreeable to justice and humanity was not only not observed it was inverted
it may be distinctly traced in every case either to a sordid or to a malignant motive either to thirst for money or to thirst for blood in the case of grey there was no mitigating circumstance his parts and knowledge
the rank which he had inherited in the state and the high command which he had borne in the rebel army
than alice lisle than william hewling than any of the hundreds of ignorant peasants whose skulls and quarters were exposed in somersetshire but grey's estate was large and was strictly entailed he had only a life interest in his property
and he could forfeit no more interest than he had if he died his lands at once devolved on the next heir if he were pardoned
he had written that declaration which for insolence malignity and mendacity
he had instigated monmouth first to invade the kingdom and then to usurp the crown it was reasonable to expect that a strict search would be made for the archtraitor as he was often called
was that he was safe on the continent it was strongly suspected that he had been in constant communication with the government against which he was constantly plotting that he had
and raged fiercely against his innocent progeny
james had watched the circuit with interest and delight in his drawingroom and at his table
to daunt our bright unfearing lives can you we quarrelled often but made peace as quickly shed many tears but laughed the while they fell had our small woes our childish bumps and bruises
but mother always kissed and made them well is it long since it seems a moment only yet here we are in bonnets and tail coats grave men of business members of committees our play time ended
even baby votes and star eyed children in whose innocent faces kindles the gladness which was once our own crowd round our knees with sweet and coaxing voices asking for stories of that old time home
they say astonished did you too play
almost we start forgetful for a moment almost we answer
so darlings take this little childish story
and as with careless hands you turn the pages
it was a hot day the sky was very blue
like great swans went floating over it to and fro just opposite me was a clump of green rushes with dark velvety spikes and among them one single tall red cardinal flower which was bending over the brook
as if to see its own beautiful face in the water but the cardinal did not seem to be vain the picture was so pretty that i sat a long time enjoying it suddenly close to me two small voices began to talk
or to sing for i couldn't tell exactly which it was one voice was shrill the other which was a little deeper sounded very positive and cross they were evidently disputing about something
for they said the same words over and over again these were the words katy did katy didn't she did she didn't she did she didn't did didn't
i think they must have repeated them at least a hundred times i got up from my seat to see if i could find the speakers and sure enough there on one of the cat tail bulrushes i spied two tiny pale green creatures
their eyes seemed to be weak for they both wore black goggles they had six legs apiece two short ones two not so short and two very long
they began walking up the rush and then i saw that they moved exactly like an old fashioned gig in fact if i hadn't been too big i think i should have heard them creak as they went along
they didn't say anything so long as i was there but the moment my back was turned they began to quarrel again and in the same old words katy did katy didn't she did she didn't
as i walked home i fell to thinking about another katy a katy i once knew
this little story grew in my head and i resolved to write it down for you i have done it and in memory of my two little friends on the bulrush i give it their name here it is the story of what katy did
katy's name was katy carr she lived in the town of burnet which wasn't a very big town
on the other side were wood piles and barns and an ice house behind was a kitchen garden sloping to the south and behind that a pasture with a brook in it
two red ones a yellow one with sharp horns tipped with tin and a dear little white one named daisy there were six of the carr children four girls and two boys katy the oldest was twelve years old
little phil the youngest was four and the rest fitted in between doctor carr their papa was a dear kind busy man who was away from home all day and sometimes all night too
the children hadn't any mamma she had died when phil was a baby four years before my story began katy could remember her pretty well to the rest she was but a sad sweet name
spoken on sunday and at prayer times
in place of this mamma whom they recollected so dimly there was aunt izzie papa's sister who came to take care of them when mamma went away on that long journey from which for so many months
the little ones kept hoping she might return aunt izzie was a small woman sharp faced and thin rather old looking and very neat and particular about everything she meant to be kind to the children but they puzzled her much
because they were not a bit like herself when she was a child aunt izzie had been a gentle tidy little thing who loved to sit as curly locks did sewing long seams in the parlor and to have her head patted by older people and be told that she was a good girl
whereas katy tore her dress every day hated sewing and didn't care a button about being called good while clover and elsie shied off like restless ponies when any one tried to pat their heads it was very perplexing to aunt izzie
and encouraged climbing and rough plays in spite of the bumps and ragged clothes which resulted in fact there was just one half hour of the day when aunt izzie was really satisfied about her charges and that was the half hour before breakfast
at this time she looked at them with pleased eyes they were all so spick and span with such nicely brushed jackets and such neatly combed hair but the moment the bell rang her comfort was over from that time on
they were what she called not fit to be seen the neighbors pitied her very much
and say to each other what a sight of washing those children made
always never aunty boys and girls will know what that meant i want to show you the little carrs and i don't know that i could ever have a better chance
than one day when five out of the six were perched on top of the ice house like chickens on a roost
it was only a low roof set over a hole in the ground and as it stood in the middle of the side yard it always seemed to the children that the shortest road to every place was up one of its slopes and down the other
and then still keeping the sitting position to let go
shoes and trousers and clothes generally were aunt izzie's affair theirs was to slide and enjoy themselves clover next in age to katy
she was a fair sweet dumpling of a girl with thick pig tails of light brown hair and short sighted blue eyes which seemed to hold tears just ready to fall from under the blue really clover was the jolliest little thing in the world
clover held fast and would not let go doctor carr who wasn't attending particularly heard nothing but the pathetic tone of clover's voice as she said
me want dolly and without stopping to inquire he called out sharply for shame katy give your sister her doll at once which katy much surprised did while clover purred in triumph
like a satisfied kitten clover was sunny and sweet tempered a little indolent and very modest about herself though in fact she was particularly clever in all sorts of games
everybody loved her and she loved everybody especially katy whom she looked up to as one of the wisest people in the world pretty little phil sat next on the roof to clover and she held him tight with her arm
then came elsie a thin brown child of eight with beautiful dark eyes and crisp short curls covering the whole of her small head poor little elsie was the odd one among the carrs
she didn't seem to belong exactly to either the older or the younger children the great desire and ambition of her heart
they were forever establishing in all sorts of hidden places but they didn't want elsie and used to tell her to run away and play with the children which hurt her feelings very much when she wouldn't run away
i am sorry to say they ran away from her which as their legs were longest it was easy to do
left behind would cry bitter tears and as she was too proud to play much with dorry and john her principal comfort was tracking the older ones about and discovering their mysteries especially the post offices
which were her greatest grievance her eyes were bright and quick as a bird's she would peep and peer and follow and watch till at last in some odd unlikely place the crotch of a tree
or perhaps on the very top step of the scuttle ladder she spied the little paper box with its load of notes all ending with be sure and not let elsie know then she would seize the box and marching up to wherever the others were
there's your old post office but feeling all the time just like crying poor little elsie in almost every big family there is one of these unmated left out children katy
and of use never saw as she drifted on her heedless way that here in this lonely little sister was the very chance she wanted for being a comfort to somebody who needed comfort very much she never saw it
and elsie's heavy heart went uncheered dorry and joanna sat on the two ends of the ridge pole dorry was six years old a pale pudgy boy with rather a solemn face
which always looked ready to laugh these two were great friends though dorry seemed like a girl who had got into boy's clothes by mistake and johnnie like a boy who in a fit of fun had borrowed his sister's frock
the window above opened a glad shriek was heard and katy's head appeared
which she waved triumphantly hurray she cried all done and aunt izzie says we may go are you tired out waiting
hurry up clover and get the things cecy and i will be down in a minute the children jumped up gladly and slid down the roof clover fetched a couple of baskets from the wood shed elsie ran for her kitten
just as they were ready the side door banged and katy and cecy hall came into the yard i must tell you about cecy she was a great friend of the children's and lived in a house next door
the yards of the houses were only separated by a green hedge with no gate so that cecy spent two thirds of her time at doctor carr's
she was a neat dapper pink and white girl modest and prim in manner with light shiny hair which always kept smooth and slim hands which never looked dirty
she was as heedless and innocent as a child of six
what she did to make herself grow so nobody could tell but there she was up above papa's ear and half a head taller than poor aunt izzie whenever she stopped to think about her height she became very awkward
and felt as if she were all legs and elbows and angles and joints happily her head was so full of other things of plans and schemes and fancies of all sorts that she didn't often take time to remember how tall she was
she was a dear loving child for all her careless habits and made bushels of good resolutions every week of her life only unluckily she never kept any of them she had fits of responsibility about the other children
and longed to set them a good example but when the chance came she generally forgot to do so katy's days flew like the wind for when she wasn't studying lessons or sewing and darning with aunt izzie which she hated extremely
there were always so many delightful schemes rioting in her brains
these same active brains got her into perpetual scrapes she was fond of building castles in the air
he had watery grey eyes oddly void of expression then just overhead
and the low angry growling of some large animal at the same time the man spoke he repeated his question
i think i said i felt all right
he must have seen the question in my face for my voice was inaccessible to me you were picked up in a boat starving the name on the boat was the lady vain
and there were spots of blood on the gunwale at the same time my eye caught my hand so thin that it looked like a dirty skin purse full of loose bones and all the business of the boat came back to me
have some of this said he and gave me a dose of some scarlet stuff iced it tasted like blood and made me feel stronger you were in luck said he
he spoke with a slobbering articulation with the ghost of a lisp what ship is this i said slowly hoarse from my long silence it's a little trader from arica and callao
i'm a passenger myself from arica
he's captain too named davies
you know the kind of man calls the thing the
though when there's much of a sea without any wind
then the noise overhead began again
and the voice of a human being together then another voice telling some heaven forsaken idiot to desist you were nearly dead said my interlocutor
it was a very near thing indeed
notice your arm's sore injections you've been insensible for nearly thirty hours i thought slowly
am i eligible for solid food i asked thanks to me he said
yes i said with assurance i could eat some mutton but said he with a momentary hesitation you know i'm dying to hear of how you came to be alone in that boat damn that howling
the matter sounded as though it ended in blows but in that i thought my ears were mistaken then he shouted at the dogs and returned to the cabin well said he in the doorway you were just beginning to tell me
i told him my name edward prendick and how i had taken to natural history as a relief from the dulness of my comfortable independence he seemed interested in this i've done some science myself
which i told in concise sentences enough for i felt horribly weak and when it was finished he reverted at once to the topic of natural history and his own biological studies he began to question me closely about tottenham court road and gower street
left it all he said ten years ago how jolly it all used to be but i made a young ass of myself
i daresay it's all different now but i must look up that ass of a cook and see what he's done to your mutton the growling overhead was renewed so suddenly and with so much savage anger that it startled me what's that
i called after him but the door had closed he came back again with the boiled mutton and i was so excited by the appetising smell of it that i forgot the noise of the beast that had troubled me after a day of alternate sleep and feeding
came in again as i stood there and i asked him for some clothes he lent me some duck things of his own for those i had worn in the boat had been thrown overboard they were rather loose for me for he was large and long in his limbs
he told me casually that the captain was three parts drunk in his own cabin as i assumed the clothes
where said i it's an island where i live so far as i know it hasn't got a name he stared at me with his nether lip dropping and looked so wilfully stupid of a sudden
captain steve strong didn't answer right away he returned the salute of a space cadet passing on the opposite slidewalk and then faced commander walters who stood beside him eyeing him quizzically things are shaping up pretty well commander he replied finally with an air of unconcern
yes i'd say so sir speaking generally of course
and speaking specifically steve
let's stop fencing with each other steve
are those boys learning to work together or not and i want facts not hopes
strong finally broke the silence
why insisted walters well nothing's really happened answered steve
oh strong flushed you know about that commander walters smiled black eyes and faces that looked like raw beef don't go unnoticed steve uhh no sir was strong's lame reply what i want to know is pursued walters
did the fight prove anything did the boys get it out of their systems and are they concentrating on becoming a unit
they realize that they have to work together to get through this series of tests why doctor dale told me the other day that she's sure tom's been giving roger a few pointers on control deck operation
walters nodded sounds hopeful but still not conclusive after all they have to help each other in the manuals if one member of the unit fails it will reflect on the marks of the other two
and they might be washed out too even the deadliest enemies will unite to save their lives perhaps sir replied strong but we're not dealing with deadly enemies now these are three boys with three distinct personalities who've been lumped together in strange surroundings
it takes time and patience to make a team that will last for years
commander walters was suddenly curt when does unit forty two d take its manuals this afternoon sir replied strong i'm on my way over to the examination hall right now very well i won't take any action yet i'll wait for the results of the tests
perhaps they will solve both our problems see you later steve
and rapidly disappeared from view left alone strong pondered the commander's parting statement
or even worse one or more of the boys would be dismissed from the academy a few minutes later strong arrived in the examination hall
cadet corbett reporting for manual examination sir stand easy corbett replied strong returning the salute
are you fully prepared i believe so sir tom's voice wasn't too steady a fleeting smile passed over strong's lips then he continued you'll take the control deck examination first
very well follow me strong walked quickly to the small door in the left wall
all right corbett inside strong nodded toward the interior of the room the boy stepped in quickly then stopped in amazement all around him was a maze of instruments and controls and in the center twin pilot's chairs captain strong
it's it's a real control deck strong smiled
he gestured toward the pilot's chairs take your place and strap in yes sir his eyes still wide with wonder tom stepped over to the indicated chair and strong followed him leaning casually against the other he watched the young cadet nervously adjust his seat strap and put a comforting hand on his shoulder
tom could only repeat it over and over thank you sir thank you dazed he saluted his superior and turned to the door
but he was happy five minutes later he slammed back the sliding door and entered the quarters of forty two d with a lusty shout meet space cadet corbett an earthworm who's just passed his control deck manual operations exam
congratulations tom he said and turned back to his book
you're sunk say what's going on here asked tom where's roger didn't he help you with them
just don't mix what's the trouble ah i can get the easy ones about astrogation they're simple
well i mean what specifically asked tom softly
yeah i know answered astro
then what tom hesitated astro was right
and if one of them failed tom saw why the ground manuals were so important now look offered tom suppose we go over the whole thing again together maybe you're fouled up on the basic concept tom grabbed a chair hitched it close to the desk and pulled astro down beside him
he opened the book and began studying the problem now look you have twenty two tons of fuel and considering the position of your ship in space
began reviewing the table of ratios
and faced captain strong cadet manning reporting for manual examination sir
a workable mock up cadet
you will take your manuals here yes sir
your problems are purely mathematical there are no decisions to make just use your head strong handed roger several sheets of paper containing written problems
i'm ready now sir replied roger calmly he turned to the swivel chair located between the huge communications board the adjustable chart table and the astrogation prism directly in front of him was the huge radar scanner
roger concentrated on the first problem
without hesitation he adjusted a dial that brought the radar scanner into focus
they were dressed in many different styles of clothes
the knee length shorts and high stockings of the boys from the venusian jungles the vari colored jacket and trouser combinations of the boys from the magnificent earth cities but they all had one thing in common a dream
they were all the same all right now let's get squared away his voice was a little more friendly now my name's mc kenny mike mc kenny warrant officer solar guard see these hash marks
v shaped stripes each one of these marks represents four years in space he continued there's ten marks here
and looked squarely into the eyes of each boy in turn
i handle you until you either wash out and go home or you finally blast off and become spacemen if you stub your toe or cut your finger come to me if you get homesick come to me
asked mike pushing his jaw out another inch yes sir been studying long hard hours in primary school eh
yes sir replied tom wondering how this man he didn't even know could know so much about him well you won't make it if i ever catch you disobeying orders again mc kenny turned quickly to see what effect he had created on the others
the lines of bewildered faces satisfied him that his old trick of using one of the cadets as an example was a success
the ranks were quiet and motionless and as he made his call mc kenny smiled finally when the tension seemed unbearable he roared at ease
the ranks melted immediately and the boys fell into chattering clusters their voices low and they occasionally peered over their shoulders at corbett as if he had suddenly been stricken with a horrible plague
but he didn't expect the stern discipline to begin so soon
for some of the more enthusiastic cadets someone laughed
he was lounging idly against a pillar luggage piled high around his feet tom recognized him immediately as roger manning and his pleasant features twisted into a scowl about what i'd expect from that character he thought after the trick he pulled on astro that big fellow from venus
manning as tom remembered it had taken advantage of the huge venusian by tricking him into carrying his luggage
he convinced astro that he needed the extra weight to maintain his balance
tom had wanted to but refrained when he saw that astro didn't mind
all right he bawled they're all set for you at the academy pick up your gear and follow me with a quick light step
going to carry my bags the venusian a full head taller hesitated and looked doubtfully at the four suitcases at roger's feet
the gravity around here is the same as in atom city
fly away he snickered and looked around winking broadly astro still hesitated i don't know manning
by the rings of saturn what's going on here
i have a strained wrist sir began roger smoothly and this cadet candidate he nodded casually toward astro
did you agree to carry this man's luggage
fumbled astro well did you or didn't you i guess i sorta did sir replied astro his face turning a slow red i don't hold with anyone doing another man's work
mc kenny shook a finger in astro's face reaching up to do it is that clear yes sir was the embarrassed reply mc kenny turned to manning who stood listening a faint smile playing on his lips what's your name mister manning roger manning
he answered easily so you've got a strained wrist have you asked mike mockingly
yes sir can't carry your own luggage eh yes answered roger evenly i could carry my own luggage i thought the candidate from venus might give me a helping hand nothing more
he glanced past mc kenny toward the other boys and added softly and comradeship is the spirit of space academy isn't it sir his face suddenly crimson mc kenny spluttered searching for a ready answer then turned away abruptly what are you all standing around for he roared
blast he turned once again to the rolling platform
and be careful with that small case astro he called as he drifted away
never mind replied astro grimly
tom bent over then suddenly straightened by the way we haven't introduced ourselves my name's corbett tom corbett he stuck out his hand astro hesitated sizing up the curly headed boy in front of him who stood smiling and offering friendship
finally he pushed out his own hand and smiled back at tom astro but you know that by now that sure was a dirty deal manning gave you
both having felt the sharpness of manning's tongue and both having been dressed down by warrant officer mc kenny they seemed to be linked by a bond of trouble and they stood close together for mutual comfort
ever since jon builker the space explorer
for no reason at all a lump rose in his throat as the slidewalk rounded a curve and he saw for the first time the gleaming white magnificence of the tower of galileo he recognized it immediately from the hundreds of books he had read about the academy and stared wordlessly
sure is pretty isn't it asked astro his voice strangely husky yeah breathed tom in reply it sure is
just get out there and be free
you say that as if you've already been up there astro grinned yup
tom's eyes glowed with renewed admiration for his new friend i've been out four or five times but only in jet boats five hundred miles out nothing like a jump to luna city or venusport
haul off you blasted polliwogs as the boys jumped off the slidewalk a cadet dressed in the vivid blue that tom recognized as the official dress of the senior cadet corps walked up to mc kenny and spoke to him quietly the warrant officer turned back to the waiting group and gave rapid orders
be ready to take the academy oath at
fifteen hundred hours that's three o'clock all clear blast off just as the boys began to move there was a sudden blasting roar in the distance the noise expanded and rolled across the hills surrounding space academy
mouths open eyes popping the cadet candidates stood rooted in their tracks and stared as in the distance a long thin needlelike ship seemed to balance delicately on a column of flame then suddenly shoot skyward and disappear
quickly the double line of boys followed did you see that astro asked tom excitedly that was a solar guard patrol ship yeah i know replied astro the big candidate from venus scratched his chin and eyed tom bashfully say tom
speaking into an audioscriber
he repeated the names of the candidates as they passed cadet candidate tom corbett announced tom and herbert repeated it into the audioscriber cadet candidate astro the big venusian stepped forward
that's all just astro no other names no sir replied astro you see you don't say sir to a senior cadet mister and we're not interested in why you have only one name herbert snapped
astro flushed and joined tom cadet candidate philip morgan
herbert repeated the name into the machine then announced cadet candidates tom corbett astro and philip morgan assigned to section forty two d
take your luggage with you misters snapped herbert
read the inscription on the bronze tablet earth to luna and return seventh march
only to perish on return to earth
i wanna know just one thing who stepped off that slidestairs first the boys all hesitated i
his choice of words were to be long remembered by the group and repeated to succeeding classes storming against the huge venusian like a pygmy attacking an elephant mc kenny roared berated and blasted later
when astro finally reached his quarters and changed into the green coveralls of the cadet candidates tom and phil crowded around him it was roger blast him said tom angrily he was getting back at you because cadet herbert made him carry his own gear i asked for it grumbled astro
ah i should've known better but i just couldn't wait to see the queen he balled his huge hands into tight knots and stared at the floor
that is why it is taken in your quarters
phil morgan thought a moment and faced toward the wall with the inlaid star chart of the sky thinking of sun bathed georgia tom corbett stared straight at a blank wall each boy did not see what was in front of him yet he saw further perhaps than he had ever seen before
chapter three i just can't understand it joan said captain steve strong tossing the paper on his circular desk the psychographs of corbett manning and astro fit together like gears and yet
the solar guard officer suddenly rose and walked over to a huge window that filled the entire north wall of his office a solid sheet of glass that extended from the high domed ceiling to the translucent flooring
and yet continued strong every morning for the last three weeks i've got a report from mc kenny about some sort of friction between them
what's happened this time manning he paused it seems to be all manning
strong flashed a white smile that contrasted with his deep space tan i don't think he could make a manual mistake on the power deck if he tried you know i actually saw him put an auxiliary rocket motor together blindfolded the pretty scientist smiled
and on the others astrogation and control deck he just skimmed by but even where the problem involved fuel power supply of energy
she smiled astro is as much an artist on that power deck as liddy tamal doing juliet in the stereos yes mused strong
good instinctive intelligence that boy soaks up knowledge like a sponge facile mind quick to grasp the essentials she smiled again
strong grinned sheepishly a routine flight to titan had misfired into open rebellion by the crew using a trick picked up in ancient history books of sea roving pirates in the seventeenth century
and now as dawn rose from her couch beside tithonus harbinger of light alike to mortals and immortals the gods met in council and with them jove the lord of thunder who is their king
thereon minerva began to tell them of the many sufferings of ulysses for she pitied him away there in the house of the nymph calypso father jove said she
and all you other gods that live in everlasting bliss i hope there may never be such a thing as a kind and well disposed ruler any more nor one who will govern equitably i hope
for there is not one of his subjects but has forgotten ulysses who ruled them as though he were their father there he is lying in great pain in an island where dwells the nymph calypso
who will not let him go and he cannot get back to his own country for he can find neither ships nor sailors to take him over the sea furthermore
wicked people are now trying to murder his only son telemachus who is coming home from pylos and lacedaemon
of his father what my dear are you talking about replied her father did you not send him there yourself because you thought it would help ulysses to get home and punish the suitors
besides you are perfectly able to protect telemachus and to see him safely home again while the suitors have to come hurry skurrying back without having killed him
when he had thus spoken he said to his son mercury mercury you are our messenger go therefore and tell calypso we have decreed that poor ulysses is to return home
he is to be convoyed neither by gods nor men but after a perilous voyage of twenty days upon a raft
who are near of kin to the gods and will honour him as though he were one of ourselves they will send him in a ship to his own country and will give him more bronze and gold and raiment than he would have brought back from troy
all his prize money and had got home without disaster this is how we have settled that he shall return to his country and his friends thus he spoke and mercury guide and guardian slayer of argus
did as he was told forthwith he bound on his glittering golden sandals with which he could fly like the wind over land and sea he took the wand with which he seals men's eyes in sleep
or wakes them just as he pleases
whose waves he skimmed like a cormorant that flies fishing every hole and corner of the ocean and drenching its thick plumage in the spray he flew and flew over many a weary wave but when at last
he got to the island which was his journey's end he left the sea and went on by land till he came to the cave where the nymph calypso lived he found her at home there was a large fire burning on the hearth
and one could smell from far the fragrant reek of burning cedar and sandal wood as for herself she was busy at her loom shooting her golden shuttle through the warp and singing beautifully round her cave there was a thick wood of alder
poplar and sweet smelling cypress trees wherein all kinds of great birds had built their nests owls hawks and chattering sea crows that occupy their business in the waters
a vine loaded with grapes was trained and grew luxuriantly about the mouth of the cave
and turned hither and thither
so mercury stood still and looked at it but when he had admired it sufficiently he went inside the cave calypso knew him at once for the gods all know each other no matter how far they live from one another
but ulysses was not within he was on the sea shore as usual looking out upon the barren ocean with tears in his eyes groaning and breaking his heart for sorrow calypso gave mercury a seat and said
why have you come to see me mercury honoured and ever welcome for you do not visit me often say what you want i will do it for you at once if i can and if it can be done at all but come inside
and let me set refreshment before you as she spoke she drew a table loaded with ambrosia beside him and mixed him some red nectar so mercury ate and drank till he had had enough
and then said we are speaking god and goddess to one another and you ask me why i have come here and i will tell you truly as you would have me do jove sent me it was no doing of mine
who could possibly want to come all this way over the sea where there are no cities full of people to offer me sacrifices or choice hecatombs
his orders he says that you have here the most ill starred of all those who fought nine years before the city of king priam and sailed home in the tenth year after having sacked it
so that all his brave companions perished and he alone was carried hither by wind and tide jove says that you are to let this man go at once for it is decreed that he shall not perish here far from his own people
but shall return to his house and country and see his friends again calypso trembled with rage when she heard this you gods she exclaimed ought to be ashamed of yourselves
you are always jealous and hate seeing a goddess take a fancy to a mortal man and live with him in open matrimony so when rosy fingered dawn made love to orion
so again when ceres fell in love with iasion and yielded to him in a thrice ploughed fallow field
and now you are angry with me too because i have a man here i found the poor creature sitting all alone astride of a keel for jove had struck his ship with lightning and sunk it in mid ocean
so that all his crew were drowned while he himself was driven by wind and waves on to my island i got fond of him and cherished him and had set my heart on making him immortal so that he should never grow old all his days
still i cannot cross jove nor bring his counsels to nothing therefore if he insists upon it let the man go beyond the seas again but i cannot send him anywhere myself for i have neither ships nor men who can take him
nevertheless i will readily give him such advice in all good faith as will be likely to bring him safely to his own country then send him away said mercury or jove will be angry with you and punish you on this he took his leave
and calypso went out to look for ulysses for she had heard jove's message she found him sitting upon the beach with his eyes ever filled with tears and dying of sheer home sickness
that would have it so as for the day time he spent it on the rocks and on the sea shore weeping crying aloud for his despair and always looking out upon the sea
so go cut some beams of wood and make yourself a large raft with an upper deck that it may carry you safely over the sea i will put bread wine and water on board to save you from starving i will also give you clothes
and will send you a fair wind to take you home if the gods in heaven so will it for they know more about these things and can settle them better than i can ulysses shuddered as he heard her now goddess he answered
not even a well found ship with a fair wind could venture on such a distant voyage nothing that you can say or do shall make me go on board a raft unless you first solemnly swear
calypso smiled at this and caressed him with her hand you know a great deal said she but you are quite wrong here may heaven above and earth below be my witnesses with the waters of the river styx
that i mean you no sort of harm and am only advising you to do exactly what i should do myself in your place i am dealing with you quite straightforwardly
and i am very sorry for you when she had thus spoken she led the way rapidly before him and ulysses followed in her steps so the pair goddess and man went on and on till they came to calypso's cave
calypso set meat and drink before him of the food that mortals eat but her maids brought ambrosia and nectar for herself and they laid their hands on the good things that were before them
when they had satisfied themselves with meat and drink calypso spoke saying
he cut down twenty trees in all and adzed them smooth squaring them by rule in good workmanlike fashion meanwhile calypso came back with some augers so he bored holes with them and fitted the timbers together with bolts and rivets
he made the raft as broad as a skilled shipwright
he also made a mast with a yard arm and a rudder to steer with he fenced the raft all round with wicker hurdles as a protection against the waves and then he threw on a quantity of wood by and by
calypso brought him some linen to make the sails and he made these too excellently making them fast with braces and sheets last of all with the help of levers he drew the raft down into the water in four days
he had completed the whole work and on the fifth calypso sent him from the island after washing him and giving him some clean clothes she gave him a goat skin full of black wine and another larger one of water
moreover she made the wind fair and warm for him and gladly did ulysses spread his sail before it while he sat and guided the raft skilfully by means of the rudder
on late setting bootes and on the bear which men also call the wain and which turns round and round where it is facing orion and alone never dipping into the stream of oceanus for calypso had told him to keep this to his left
days seven and ten did he sail over the sea and on the eighteenth the dim outlines of the mountains on the nearest part of the phaeacian coast appeared rising like a shield on the horizon
but king neptune who was returning from the ethiopians caught sight of ulysses a long way off from the mountains of the solymi he could see him sailing upon the sea and it made him very angry
and now he is close to the land of the phaeacians where it is decreed that he shall escape from the calamities that have befallen him still he shall have plenty of hardship yet before he has done with it
thereon he gathered his clouds together grasped his trident stirred it round in the sea and roused the rage of every wind that blows till earth sea and sky were hidden in cloud and night sprang forth out of the heavens
winds from east south north and west fell upon him all at the same time and a tremendous sea got up so that ulysses heart began to fail him alas he said to himself in his dismay what ever will become of me
i am afraid calypso was right when she said i should have trouble by sea before i got back home it is all coming true how black is jove making heaven with his clouds and what a sea the winds are raising from every quarter at once
i am now safe to perish blest and thrice blest were those danaans who fell before troy in the cause of the sons of atreus would that i had been killed on the day when the trojans were pressing me so sorely about the dead body of achilles
as he spoke a sea broke over him with such terrific fury that the raft reeled again and he was carried overboard a long way off
that it broke the mast half way up and both sail and yard went over into the sea for a long time ulysses was under water
but at last he got his head above water and spat out the bitter brine that was running down his face in streams in spite of all this however
he did not lose sight of his raft but swam as fast as he could towards it got hold of it and climbed on board again so as to escape drowning the sea took the raft and tossed it about as autumn winds whirl thistledown round and round upon a road
it was as though the south north east and west winds were all playing battledore and shuttlecock with it at once
when he was in this plight ino daughter of cadmus also called leucothea saw him she had formerly been a mere mortal but had been since raised to the rank of a marine goddess
seeing in what great distress ulysses now was she had compassion upon him and rising like a sea gull from the waves took her seat upon the raft my poor good man said she
why is neptune so furiously angry with you he is giving you a great deal of trouble but for all his bluster he will not kill you you seem to be a sensible person do then as i bid you strip
leave your raft to drive before the wind and swim to the phaeacian coast where better luck awaits you and here take my veil and put it round your chest it is enchanted and you can come to no harm so long as you wear it
as soon as you touch land take it off throw it back as far as you can into the sea and then go away again with these words
then she dived down again like a sea gull and vanished beneath the dark blue waters but ulysses did not know what to think alas he said to himself in his dismay
this is only some one or other of the gods who is luring me to ruin by advising me to quit my raft at any rate i will not do so at present for the land where she said i should be quit of all troubles
seemed to be still a good way off i know what i will do i am sure it will be best no matter what happens i will stick to the raft as long as her timbers hold together but when the sea breaks her up i will swim for it
i do not see how i can do any better than this while he was thus in two minds neptune sent a terrible great wave that seemed to rear itself above his head till it broke right over the raft
which then went to pieces as though it were a heap of dry chaff tossed about by a whirlwind ulysses got astride of one plank and rode upon it as if he were on horseback he then took off the clothes calypso had given him
bound ino's veil under his arms and plunged into the sea meaning to swim on shore king neptune watched him as he did so and wagged his head muttering to himself and saying there now swim up and down as you best can
i do not think you will be able to say that i have let you off too lightly on this he lashed his horses
but minerva resolved to help ulysses so she bound the ways of all the winds except one and made them lie quite still but she roused a good stiff breeze from the north that should lay the waters till ulysses reached the land of the phaeacians where he would be safe
thereon he floated about for two nights and two days in the water with a heavy swell on the sea and death staring him in the face but when the third day broke the wind fell and there was a dead calm without so much as a breath of air stirring
as he rose on the swell he looked eagerly ahead and could see land quite near then as children rejoice when their dear father begins to get better after having for a long time borne sore affliction sent him by some angry spirit
but the gods deliver him from evil so was ulysses thankful when he again saw land and trees and swam on with all his strength that he might once more set foot upon dry ground
for the swell still broke against them with a terrific roar everything was enveloped in spray there were no harbours where a ship might ride nor shelter of any kind but only headlands
low lying rocks and mountain tops ulysses heart now began to fail him and he said despairingly to himself alas jove has let me see land after swimming so far that i had given up all hope
but i can find no landing place for the coast is rocky and surf beaten the rocks are smooth and rise sheer from the sea with deep water close under them so that i cannot climb out for want of foot hold
i am afraid some great wave will lift me off my legs and dash me against the rocks as i leave the water which would give me a sorry landing if on the other hand i swim further in search of some shelving beach or harbour
a hurricane may carry me out to sea again sorely against my will or heaven may send some great monster of the deep to attack me for amphitrite
breeds many such and i know that neptune is very angry with me while he was thus in two minds a wave caught him and took him with such force
against the rocks that he would have been smashed and torn to pieces if minerva had not shown him what to do he caught hold of the rock with both hands and clung to it groaning with pain till the wave retired so he was saved that time
but presently the wave came on again and carried him back with it far into the sea tearing his hands as the suckers of a polypus are torn when some one plucks it from its bed
and the stones come up along with it even so did the rocks tear the skin from his strong hands and then the wave drew him deep down under the water here
poor ulysses would have certainly perished even in spite of his own destiny if minerva had not helped him to keep his wits about him he swam seaward again beyond reach of the surf that was beating against the land
and at the same time he kept looking towards the shore to see if he could find some haven or a spit that should take the waves aslant by and by as he swam on he came to the mouth of a river
and here he thought would be the best place for there were no rocks and it afforded shelter from the wind he felt that there was a current so he prayed inwardly and said hear me o king whoever you may be
and save me from the anger of the sea god neptune for i approach you prayerfully any one who has lost his way has at all times a claim even upon the gods
have mercy upon me o king for i declare myself your suppliant then the god staid his stream and stilled the waves making all calm before him and bringing him safely into the mouth of the river here
at last ulysses knees and strong hands failed him for the sea had completely broken him his body was all swollen
so that he could neither breathe
whereon ino received it into her hands from the wave that bore it towards her then he left the river laid himself down among the rushes and kissed
the bounteous earth alas he cried to himself in his dismay what ever will become of me and how is it all to end if i stay here upon the river bed through the long watches of the night
i am so exhausted that the bitter cold and damp may make an end of me for towards sunrise there will be a keen wind blowing from off the river if on the other hand i climb the hill side find shelter in the woods and sleep in some thicket
i may escape the cold and have a good night's rest but some savage beast may take advantage of me and devour me
there he crept beneath two shoots of olive that grew from a single stock the one an ungrafted sucker while the other had been grafted no wind however squally
for there was a great litter of dead leaves lying about enough to make a covering for two or three men even in hard winter weather he was glad enough to see this so he laid himself down and heaped the leaves all round him
then as one who lives alone in the country far from any neighbor hides a brand as fire seed in the ashes to save himself from having to get a light elsewhere
thus did he speak and they all held their peace throughout the covered cloister enthralled by the charm of his story till presently alcinous began to speak ulysses said he
now that you have reached my house i doubt not you will get home without further misadventure no matter how much you have suffered in the past to you others however who come here night after night
to drink my choicest wine and listen to my bard i would insist as follows
let us now therefore present him further each one of us with a large tripod and a cauldron we will recoup ourselves by the levy of a general rate
for private individuals cannot be expected to bear the burden of such a handsome present every one approved of this and then they went home to bed each in his own abode when the child of morning rosy fingered dawn appeared
they hurried down to the ship and brought their cauldrons with them alcinous went on board and saw everything so securely stowed under the ship's benches that nothing could break adrift and injure the rowers
then they went to the house of alcinous to get dinner and he sacrificed a bull for them in honour of jove who is the lord of all they set the steaks to grill and made an excellent dinner
after which the inspired bard demodocus who was a favourite with every one sang to them but ulysses kept on turning his eyes towards the sun as though to hasten his setting for he was longing to be on his way
as one who has been all day ploughing a fallow field with a couple of oxen keeps thinking about his supper and is glad when night comes that he may go and get it for it is all his legs can do to carry him
even so did ulysses rejoice when the sun went down and he at once said to the phaeacians addressing himself more particularly to king alcinous sir and all of you farewell
and making me presents which heaven grant that i may turn to good account
inasmuch as he had spoken reasonably alcinous therefore said to his servant pontonous mix some wine and hand it round to everybody that we may offer a prayer to father jove and speed our guest upon his way
the others each from his own seat made a drink offering to the blessed gods that live in heaven
farewell queen said he henceforward and for ever till age and death the common lot of mankind lay their hands upon you i now take my leave
your people and with king alcinous as he spoke he crossed the threshold and alcinous sent a man to conduct him to his ship and to the sea shore
when they got to the water side the crew took these things and put them on board with all the meat and drink but for ulysses they spread a rug and a linen sheet on deck that he might sleep soundly in the stern of the ship
then he too went on board and lay down without a word but the crew took every man his place and loosed the hawser from the pierced stone to which it had been bound thereon when they began rowing out to sea ulysses fell into a deep
bounded forward on her way as a four in hand chariot flies over the course when the horses feel the whip her prow curvetted as it were the neck of a stallion and a great wave of dark blue water seethed in her wake
forgetful of all that he had suffered both on the field of battle and by the waves of the weary sea when the bright star that heralds the approach of dawn began to show
which lies between two points that break the line of the sea and shut the harbour in
so that when once within it a ship may lie without being even moored at the head of this harbour there is a large olive tree
moreover there are great looms of stone on which the nymphs weave their robes of sea purple very curious to see and at all times there is water within it
it has two entrances one facing north by which mortals can go down into the cave while the other comes from the south and is more mysterious mortals cannot possibly get in by it it is the way taken by the gods into this harbour
the first thing they did was to lift ulysses with his rug and linen sheet out of the ship and lay him down upon the sand still fast asleep
then they took out the presents which minerva had persuaded the phaeacians to give him when he was setting out on his voyage homewards they put these all together by the root of the olive tree away from the road
and then they made the best of their way home again but neptune did not forget the threats with which he had already threatened ulysses so he took counsel with jove father jove said he
i shall no longer be held in any sort of respect among you gods if mortals like the phaeacians who are my own flesh and blood show such small regard for me
when he had suffered sufficiently i did not say that he should never get home at all for i knew you had already nodded your head about it and promised that he should do so
but now they have brought him in a ship fast asleep and have landed him in ithaca after loading him with more magnificent presents of bronze gold and raiment than he would ever have brought back from troy
if he had had his share of the spoil and got home without misadventure and jove answered what o lord of the earthquake are you talking about
as regards mortals however if any of them is indulging in insolence and treating you disrespectfully it will always rest with yourself to deal with him as you may think proper so do just as you please
i should have done so at once replied neptune if i were not anxious to avoid anything that might displease you now therefore i should like to wreck the phaeacian ship as it is returning from its escort
this will stop them from escorting people in future and i should also like to bury their city under a huge mountain my good friend answered jove i should recommend you at the very moment when the people from the city are watching the ship on her way
this will astonish everybody and you can then bury their city under the mountain when earth encircling neptune heard this he went to scheria where the phaeacians live and stayed there till the ship which was making rapid way had got close in
turned it into stone and drove it down with the flat of his hand so as to root it in the ground after this he went away the phaeacians then began talking among themselves and one would turn towards his neighbour
saying bless my heart who is it that can have rooted the ship in the sea just as she was getting into port we could see the whole of her
but they knew nothing about it and alcinous said i remember now the old prophecy of my father he said that neptune would be angry with us for taking every one so safely over the sea and would one day wreck a phaeacian ship
as it was returning from an escort and bury our city under a high mountain
in the first place we must leave off giving people escorts when they come here and in the next let us sacrifice twelve picked bulls to neptune that he may have mercy upon us and not bury our city under the high mountain
when the people heard this they were afraid and got ready the bulls
upon his own soil he had been so long away that he did not know it again moreover
the precipices and the goodly trees appeared all changed as he started up and looked upon his native land so he smote his thighs with the flat of his hands and cried aloud despairingly alas
he exclaimed among what manner of people am i fallen are they savage and uncivilised or hospitable and humane where shall i put all this treasure and which way shall i go
we're still fumbling in the dark he replied there's the towel
well i was determined to draw him out my own impressions i must confess were gloriously muddled manton heads the list i suggested everyone says she was mixed up with him
manton may have philandered with her undoubtedly he takes a personal interest in all his stars kennedy i saw remembered the promoter's close attentions to enid faye
nevertheless walter he is first and foremost and all the time the man of business his heart is in his dollars and millard even suggests that he is none too scrupulous
if he had an affair with stella i rejoined and she became up stage the note you found suggested trouble you know then manton in a burst of passion no kennedy stopped me
don't forget that this was a cold blooded calculated crime i'm not eliminating manton yet but until we find some tangible evidence of trouble between stella and himself we can hardly assume he would kill the girl
we're fishing in the dark absolutely so far we haven't a single basic fact on which to build any structure of hypothesis we must go on fishing i expect you to dig up all the facts about these people
every odd bit of gossip or rumor or anything else i'll bring my science to play but there's nothing i can do except analyze stella's stomach contents and the spots on the towel that is
until we've got a much more tangible lead than any which have developed so far is there anything i can do to night
he looked at his watch there are two men who were very close to miss lamar jack gordon was engaged to her
both belong to the goats club probably try that as a start
you think they are the most likely suspects no but they were intimately associated with miss lamar in her daily life and they are the two we have learned the least about oh i was disappointed
then i rallied to the attack for a final time who is the most likely one just satisfy my curiosity craig he took a folded note from his pocket opening it it was the memorandum from manton's desk which i had mentioned
they said he was mixed up with her too
the most nervous of all and and finally he had a motive he wanted to get enid faye with manton pictures as this note shows very good walter kennedy's eyes were dancing in amusement
it is true that werner had the best motive so far as we know now but it's a fantastic one men don't commit cold blooded murder just to create a vacancy for a movie star
if werner was going to kill miss lamar he never would have written this note about miss faye unless to divert suspicion i suggested
the whole thing's too bizarre
it's too bad everyone wasn't searched at that kennedy admitted
and i watched him very closely and made him go through every movement just so i could study him i believe he's innocent at least as far as i've gone in the case i determined to stick to my opinion i believe it's werner i insisted
by the time you've dug up all the gossip about gordon and shirley you won't be so sure walter i was however
i had heard of too many actual happenings more strange and bizarre and wildly fantastic than anything conceivable in other walks of life
people in the film game as they call it live highly seasoned lives in which everything is exaggerated the mere desire to make a place for enid might not have actuated werner granting he was the guilty man
nevertheless it could easily have contributed and it struck me suddenly an additional argument that werner of all of them was the most familiar with the script he had been able to cast himself for the part of old remsen
there was not a detail which he could not have arranged very skillfully at the goats club i was lucky to discover a member whom i knew well enough to take into my confidence by stating my errand
he was one of the star's former special writers and an older classman of the college which had graduated kennedy and myself merle shirley is not a member here he said as a matter of fact i've only just heard the name
in real life and a disgrace to us
to give you an example he was in here just about a week ago i was sitting in the grill eating an after theater supper when i heard the most terrible racket he and emery phelps the banker you know
were having an honest to goodness fight right out in the lobby it took three of the men to separate them what was it all about well gordon owes money right and left not a few hundred or some little personal debts like that but thousands and thousands of dollars
then probably he began to borrow from phelps who's manton's backer now until the banker shut down on him also at any rate phelps had begun to dun him and it led to the fight that's all you know about gordon lord isn't it enough
reflecting upon this information could gordon's debts have any bearing upon the case all at once one possibility struck me he had been borrowing from phelps perhaps he had borrowed from stella also perhaps
that was the cause of their quarrel perhaps she had threatened to make trouble
my immediate problem however was to obtain some information about merle shirley at first i thought i would make the rounds of some of the better known cafes but that seemed a hopeless task suddenly i remembered
belle balcom formerly with the star i recollected a previous case of kennedy's where she and i had been great rivals in the quest of news i recalled a trip we had made to greenwich village together
belle knew more people about town than any other newspaper woman now for some months she had been connected with screenings a leading cinema fan magazine and would unquestionably be posted upon the photoplayers luckily
i caught her at home bless your soul she told me over the phone in delight i've just been aching for some one to take me out to night we'll go to the midnight fads and if shirley isn't there the head waiter will tell you all i don't remember
she wouldn't say any more over the phone but i was hugely curious
gordon first had come up himself quietly pleading with stella
then he had become insulting at that shirley knocked him down the head waiter a witness of the affair ordered gordon put out but did not request shirley or stella to leave because the other man had been the aggressor without any question
after more than an hour gordon returned quietly and unobtrusively with another girl from belle's description i knew it was marilyn loring taking another table marilyn had stared at shirley reproachfully
while gordon had glared at stella
as belle described it his face gradually became more and more red
he refused she threatened to leave him he paid no attention all at once he boiled over and with great strides walked over to gordon and mauled him all over the place the leading man had no chance whatever in the hands of the irate westerner
several waiters attempting to intervene were flung aside only when shirley began to cool off were they able to eject the two men both stella and marilyn had left separately before that
it's getting more and more complicated walter he exclaimed
miss lamar's home here in the city
and were holding her colored maid i hurried down to headquarters and questioned the girl yes to me it sounded promising the negress didn't know a thing so far as the crime is concerned kennedy went on but i gained quite an insight into the private life of the star
although beyond the fact of her receiving them i can tell nothing for she sent the maid home at night there were no maid's quarters
of course we can only draw conclusions who were the various callers jack gordon her fiance merle shirley shirley admitted it when you questioned him manton
werner a side glance at me i said nothing my expression spoke for me and emery phelps at that i did show surprise
as usual he seemed calm and unconcerned i could regard the case only with increasing amazement the bitter conflicting emotions of manton and phelps of daring shirley and millard with them all stella had been the
kennedy pondered a moment then replied a moment's reflection ought to give you one answer i think walter they were either under contract or they had their money in the company they couldn't break
i think our evidence is safest in plain sight walter we'll carry it about with us lloyd manton seemed to be a genuinely unhappy individual
immediately i faced kennedy and mackay manton's the only one who knew just where we put the bag i remarked when he left us in the basement he had plenty of time to run up and steal the towel and return how about the itching salve
i don't believe anyone guilty of the crime could have that towel in his possession after the hints i have thrown out without examining it so as to see what telltale mark or stain would be apt to betray his identity
then first of all we must keep an eye out for any person showing signs of the itching concoction we must observe anyone with noticeably clean hands principally however another thing worries me
walter and i found a cigarette case belonging to jack gordon in the basement
and left directly in the negative room the fire doors between the different film vaults which are arranged like the safety compartments in a ship were all open i want to know why gordon was down there and well
i had no answer and as we re entered the studio i devoted my attention to the various people we had tabulated as possible suspects noticing that kennedy and mackay did likewise jack gordon was in the ballroom scene in make up kauf
i looked at her hands and saw that she had crushed a tube of grease paint in her nervousness not only her fingers were soiled but there were streaks on her arms where she had smeared herself unconsciously
as we watched she left the studio hurrying out the door without a backward glance marilyn at least showed no indications of the salve
manton at the heels of his new director was doing all he could to help phelps following manton about seemed to be urging haste upon the promoter the result was far from advantageous to picture making it was concentrated distraction
millard was poring over the manuscript perched upon a chair the wrong way so that its back would serve as a desk
like any author it was never too late for minor improvements and suggestions i don't doubt but that if manton had permitted it millard would have been quite apt to interrupt a scene in the taking in order to add some little touch occurring to him as his action sprang to life
in the interpretation of players and director at any rate his hands seemed more clean than those of either manton or phelps proving nothing because he was at a task not so apt to bring him into contact with dirt
shirley is missing observed the district attorney in an undertone kennedy faced me
while he keeps an eye on the people up here we'll pay a visit to shirley's dressing room and after that go down to the basement again i can't account for it intuition perhaps but i'm sure something's wrong
in each case kennedy made a quick visual search for the towel without result we did not dare linger and run the risk of giving away our trick then too kennedy was nervously anxious to look through the basement once more
why should jack gordon the leading man be down there he countered that that really is a cause for suspicion isn't it now walter think a bit
granting that gordon actually had been down there
manton explained that no negative or positive can be given out except upon order there is nothing down there but film and so no other errand to bring the leading man to the vault except to get some scenes or pieces showing his own work and that isn't likely
unless i interrupted gordon is the guilty man and wanted to get the snake film before we did how could that be when we asked manton about the doctor nagoya subject we went right down with him and procured it
and when you questioned manton we were passing right by all of them any one could have heard the mention of the snake film kennedy frowned i believe you're right walter
revealed something and so would have to be stolen or destroyed
a gleam came into kennedy's eyes
that the mind smart enough to reason out the damaging nature of the chemical analyses i was making and clever enough to utilize an explosive bullet in an effort to destroy the fruits of my work would also have the foresight to anticipate me
and to realize that i might guess the existence of a film showing snakes and suggesting the use of venom it's damning to gordon all right i said on the contrary walter
that man or woman never would drop a cigarette case with his or her initials and leave without it nor smoke a cigarette in a place he or she was not supposed to be what then it's a plant
his money troubles and so becomes the logical man to throw the guilt upon
why should the finding of that cigarette case be a cause for suspicion at all that's what i didn't understand before ordinarily it wouldn't be but those open inner doors the absence of the man in charge
isn't it possible that we interrupted an attempt not only to search for the particular damaging pieces of film but perhaps to destroy the whole if some one acted between the time i asked manton about the snake film and the moment we arrived in the basement to get it
that some one had to move very fast in which case it might have been gordon after all the cigarette stub may have been thrown in lighted to start a fire
kennedy shrugged his shoulders it all shows the futility of trying to arrive at a conclusion without definite facts that is where science is superior to deduction it's all a maze to me just now i agreed
in silence and to our surprise found that they were closed and that even the boy was gone now the cellar as a whole probably for the purpose of fire protection on a larger scale was divided into sections corresponding to the units of the buildings above
and this time i noticed that the door through which we had arrived before was closed also had manton taken fright in earnest at the possibility of fire or had he given his employees a genuine scare
we retraced our steps to the yard and there the alert eye of kennedy detected a slinking figure just as a man darted into the protection of a doorway it was shirley had he been watching us
was he connected in some way with the vague mystery kennedy seemed to sense in connection with the basement and the film vaults kennedy led the way to the entrance where shirley had disappeared here
there was no sign of him only steps leading up and down and the open door to a huge developing room returning to the yard we caught a gesture from the chauffeur of a car standing near by and recognized mc groarty
excuse me mister kennedy he apologized as we approached i should have come to you instead of making you two walk over to me but it's less suspicious this way what do you mean you recognize me mc groarty the chauffeur as found the little bottle
kennedy nodded well i says to myself i ought to tell you but i don't like to because it might be nothing you know it might prove very valuable mc groarty kennedy wanted to encourage him well i've been sitting here for an hour i guess
kennedy glanced at me significantly then he extended his hand to the chauffeur again i thank you mc groarty as i said before i won't forget you now what i asked as we drew away
as we rather expected the heavy man's quarters were deserted
but he seemed anxious to compare notes with the district attorney
i looked about the moment we arrived under the big glass roof marilyn loring i inquired she's been missing too
you know either there's no efficiency in making moving pictures at all
of handling the action and he's over in the thick of it it's worse than bedlam and better than a chaplin comedy i was compelled to smile although i knew that this was not uncommon in picture studios
manton phelps millard and kauf were in the center of the group all talking at once clustered about i saw enid and gordon both camera men and a miniature mob of extra people but as i looked little kauf seemed to come to the end of his patience
in an instant or two he demonstrated real generalship shutting up manton and the banker and millard with a grin but with sharp words and a quick gesture which showed that he meant it
he called to the others gathered about clearing the set of all but enid and gordon he sent the camera men to their places then confronted phelps and manton and the scenario writer once more we could not hear his words but could see that he was asserting himself
this seemed uninteresting to me
listen kennedy i suggested suppose i go out by myself and see if i can locate shirley or marilyn everyone else is right here where you can at that instant a deafening explosion shook the studio and every building about the quadrangle
persisting for a matter of ten to fifteen seconds with every detonation the floor beneath our feet trembled and rocked several flats of scenery stacked against a wall at our rear
one entire side of the banquet set luckily unoccupied fell inward and i caught the sound as the dainty gold chairs and fragile tables snapped and were crushed as so much kindling wood
then a fitting climax of destruction withheld until this moment there followed the terrifying snap of steel from above an entire section of roof literally was popped from place
the result of false stresses in the beams created by the explosion upon the heads of the unlucky group in the center of the ballroom set came a perfect hailstorm of broken and shattered bits of heavy ground glass for an instant an exceedingly brief instant
there was the illusion of silence the next moment the factory siren rose to a shrill shriek with a full head of steam behind it the fire call kennedy dashed over to the scene where those beneath the shower of glass lay dazed and uncertain of the extent of their own injuries
where are the first aid kits he shouted bring cotton and bandages and and telephone for a doctor an ambulance it seemed to me that kennedy had never been so excited
no one had been hurt seriously already a property boy was at kennedy's side with a huge box marked prominently with the red cross inside was everything necessary and kennedy started to bind up the wounds with all the skill of a professional physician
mackay he whispered hurry and get me some envelopes or some sheets of paper anything quick and to me before i could grasp the reason for that puzzling request don't let anyone slip away walter no matter what happens i must bind up these wounds myself
a few moments later i understood what kennedy was up to as he finished with each victim he took some bit of cotton or gauze with which he had wiped their cuts enough blood to serve him in chemical analysis and handed it to mackay
the district attorney very unobtrusively slipped each sample into a separate envelope sealing it and marking it with a hieroglyph which he would be able to identify later in this fashion kennedy secured blood smears of manton and phelps
millard and kauf and enid gordon the two camera men and a scene shifter
the vaults he called to the men who seemed disposed to linger about for god's sake get busy the next instant he was gone himself
be unable to act before the camera any more he reassured her in the case of millard who had several bad scalp wounds he advised a trip to a doctor but the scenario writer laughed phelps was yellow
it seemed to me that he whimpered a bit gordon was disposed to swear cheerfully although a point of glass had penetrated deep in his shoulder and another piece had gashed him across the forehead finally kennedy was through he packed the little envelopes in the bag
then for the first time he locked it as he straightened his eyes narrowed
for once i rose with kennedy he preceded me to the laboratory after breakfast however leaving me to wait for mackay when the little district attorney arrived i noticed that he carried a package which looked as though it might contain a one reel film can
the negative we took from the cameras at tarrytown he explained also a print from each roll ready to run i've been holding this as evidence mister kennedy wanted me to bring it with me to day he's waiting for us at the laboratory i remarked he'll straighten everything up in a hurry won't he
if he sees a chance of getting his man then i became enthusiastic often i've seen him gather a group of people in a room perhaps without the faintest shred of legal right to do so and there make the guilty person confess simply by marshaling the evidence
or maybe betray himself by some scientific device
i led the way to the door after what happened last night i know that kennedy will resort to almost anything the district attorney fingered the package under his arm
we shall get up to the studio and start well i guess you could call it fishing for the guilty man he fingered the folds then jerked the towel down and flung it to me
here walter it's dry enough now i want you to rub the contents of that tiny can of grease open before you there into the cloth he hurried over to wash his hands
then absently i touched the back of one hand with the greasy fingers of the other and immediately an itching set up so annoying that i had to abandon my task kennedy chuckled that's itching salve walter
the cuticle pads at your finger tips are too thick but touch yourself anywhere else he shrugged his shoulders you'd better use soap and water if you want any relief then you can start over again
mackay suggested and watch to see who came after it because our criminal's too clever kennedy rejoined our only chance to get it stolen is to make it very plain that it is not being watched whoever steals it however possibly will reveal himself on account of the itching salve
will you be able to help me to stay with jameson and myself all day kennedy asked the district attorney after perhaps a mile of silence surely it's what i was hoping you'd allow me to do i have no authority down here though i understand but the police or
an outsider might allow some of my plans to become known he paused a moment in thought
it may or may not include the action where she scratched herself now i want the scenes up to thirteen put together in proper order first as photographed by one camera
of course i want to do anything i can upon arrival at the studio we detected this time all the signs of a complete demoralization the death of werner
had served to bring the tragedy home to the people more
had taken form and found its way under the big blackened glass roofs and around and through the corridors
uneasiness as we drove through the archway into the yard in that inclosure there were only two cars manton's and one we later learned belonged to phelps the sole human being to enter our range of vision was an office boy
he skirted the side of the building as though the menace of death were in the air or likely to strike out of the very heavens without warning we found kauf in the large studio obviously unhappy in the shoes of the unfortunate werner
probably from half reasoned out motives of efficiency in psychology the new director
exactly kauf beamed mister manton gave me orders to assist you in every way i could or to put any of my people at your disposal more than that mister kennedy he anticipated you
fix you up very quickly good
now walter he exclaimed sobering i picked up the traveling bag and together we strolled toward the ballroom set there most of the players were gathered already in make up and evening clothes of a fancier sort even than those demanded for the banquet
i saw that kennedy singled out marilyn good morning she said cheerfully but with effort it was obvious she had spent a nervous night there were circles under her eyes ill concealed by the small quantity of cosmetic she used her hands shifting constantly
in that bag in walter's hand is one of the studio towels it contains a hint of the poison used to kill miss lamar and of utmost consequence
it has provided me with an infallible clue to the identity of the murderer himself or herself it seemed to me that marilyn blanched where
she demanded in a very awed voice in one of the studio washrooms it has been it
no not that jameson discovered it the same day but the very slight pause was perceptible to me kennedy hated to lie
enid faye seeing us from a distance conquered her dislike of marilyn sufficiently to join us she was very erect and tense
softening as she came close to me laying a hand on my shoulder and allowing her skirt to brush my trousers tell me jamie she whispered her warm breath thrilling me through and through has the wonderful craig kennedy discovered something
it was not sarcasm but assumed
masking a throbbing curiosity i found a towel in one of the studio washrooms i answered
enid gasped
i cannot tell you that just yet he paused deliberately you see he lied i have yet to make my analysis but you know it's a clue to the that towel he raised his voice as though in elation
if you can prove who the murderer is mister kennedy he exploded why don't you apprehend him before some one else meets the fate of werner i can do nothing until i return to my laboratory this afternoon
i will not know the identity of the guilty person until i complete a chemical analysis one by one the various people possibly concerned in the two crimes joined the group this morning all the faces were serious
most of them showed the marks of sleeplessness following the second murder kennedy walked away but i saw that jack gordon hastened to question both the girls ignoring their evident dislike for him
the evident relationship between them had drawn the employees of manton pictures to the studio as a crowd of baseball fans collects before a public bulletin board not one of them but was afraid of missing some development in the case
in no instance could the interest of a particular individual be taken as an indication of guilt phelps entered the studio from the door to the dressing rooms disdaining to join the other group he approached us to ask the cause for the excitement
kennedy explained patiently and i saw that phelps looked at the black bag uneasily
he muttered why kennedy's mouth tightened the financier grew red because this picture has been crippled enough first a new star now a new director
then he turned and hurried away out of the studio gordon and millard detached themselves from the others coming over in which washroom was the towel found mister kennedy gordon put the question as though he felt himself specially delegated to obtain this information
the one on the second floor of the office building
millard still smiling turned to say something to us
i just learned you were here is is there some new development is there something i can do i see you are not allowing anything to interfere with the making of the picture kennedy remarked all the people seem to be here bright and early a shadow crept into manton's face it
as war he admitted but i can't help myself mister kennedy the company has no money and if we don't meet this release we're busted all at once he lowered his voice eagerly tell me have you discovered something is there some clue to the guilty man
he's found a towel millard put in an expression of half amusement on his face as he faced the promoter
he says he found it in the washroom by our offices
sure of course manton glanced about and saw the little knot of people still gathered in the set
he's losing time then he turned to us again come on mister kennedy we have some steel lockers out by the property room
paris the french capital the indifference and harsh oppression of the court and the nobles toward the poor
day by day and day by day the latter had grown more sullen and resentful all the while the downtrodden people of paris were plotting secretly to rise in rebellion kill the king and queen and all the nobles
seize their riches and govern france themselves
the very room where mister lorry and lucie had found her father making shoes they kept a record of all acts of cruelty toward the poor committed by the nobility determining that when they themselves should be strong enough
those thus guilty should be killed their fine houses burned and all their descendants put to death so that not even their names should remain in france this was a wicked and awful determination
but these poor wretched people had been made to suffer all their lives and their parents before them and centuries of oppression had killed all their pity and made them as fierce as wild beasts that only wait
for their cages to be opened to destroy all in their path they were afraid of course to keep any written list of persons whom they had thus condemned so madame defarge the wife of the wine seller
used to knit the names in fine stitches into a long piece of knitting that she seemed always at work on madame defarge was a stout woman with big coarse hands and eyes that never seemed to look at any one yet saw everything that happened
she was as strong as a man and every one was somewhat afraid of her she was even crueler and more resolute than her husband she would sit knitting all day long in the dirty wine shop watching and listening and knitting in the
names of people whom she hoped soon to see killed one of the hated names that she knitted over and over again was evremonde the laborer who in the madness of his grief for his dead child
darnay's hard hearted uncle
and because of this defarge and his wife and the other plotters had condemned all of the name of evremonde to death meanwhile the king
the bitter taxes still went on the wine shop of defarge looked as peaceful as ever but the men who drank there now were dreaming of murder and revenge and the half starved women
were sullenly waiting watching madame defarge as she silently knitted knitted into her work names of those whom the people had condemned to death without mercy one day
this frightful human storm which for so many years had been gathering in france burst over paris the poor people rose by thousands seized whatever weapons they could get guns axes or even stones of the street and
led by defarge and his tigerish wife set out to avenge their wrongs their rage turned first of all against the bastille the old stone prison in which so many of their kind had died
and released the prisoners and wherever they saw one of the king's uniforms they hanged the wearer to the nearest lamp post
it was the beginning of a time when paris's streets were to run with blood when all the worst passions of the people were loosed and when they went mad with the joy of revenge the storm spread over france
to the village where stood the great chateau of the evremonde family and the peasants set fire to it and burned it to the ground and gabelle the servant who had been left in charge by darnay the new
marquis de saint evremonde whom they had never seen but yet hated they seized and put in prison
threw all who bore noble names or titles into dungeons and as they had planned set up a government of their own darnay safe in london with lucie knew little and thought less of all this
till he received a pitiful letter from gabelle who expected each morning to be dragged out to be killed telling of the plight into which his faithfulness had brought him and beseeching his master's aid this letter
made darnay most uneasy he blamed himself because he knew it was his fault that gabelle had been left so long in such a dangerous post he did not forget that his own family the evremondes had been greatly hated
but he thought the fact that he himself had refused to be one of them and had given his sympathy rather to the people they oppressed would make it possible for him to obtain gabelle's release
to go himself to paris he knew the very thought of his going now that france was mad with violence would frighten lucie so he determined not to tell her he packed some clothing hurriedly
and left secretly sending a letter back telling her where and why he was going and by the time she read this he was well on his way from england darnay had expected to find no trouble in his errand and little personal risk in his journey
but as soon as he landed on the shores of france he discovered his mistake he had only to give his real name the marquis de saint evremonde which he was obliged to do if he would help gabelle
and the title was the signal for rude threats and ill treatment once in he could not go back and he felt as if a monstrous net were closing around him as indeed it was from which there was no escape
he was sent on to paris under a guard of soldiers and there he was at once put into prison to be tried and in all probability condemned to death as one of the hated noble class whom the people were now killing as fast as they could
the great room of the prison to which he was taken darnay found full of ladies and gentlemen most of them rich and titled the men chatting the women reading or doing embroidery all courteous and polite as if they sat in their own splendid homes
instead of in a prison from which most of them
then he was taken to an empty cell and left alone it happened that the bank of which mister lorry was agent had an office also in paris and the old gentleman had come there on business the day before darnay arrived
mister lorry was an englishman born and for him there was no danger he knew nothing of the arrest of darnay until a day or two later when
doctor manette and lucie entered just arrived from london deeply agitated and in great fear for darnay's safety as soon as lucie had read her husband's letter she had followed at once with her father and miss pross doctor manette
knowing darnay's real name and title for before he married lucie he had told her father everything concerning himself feared danger for him but he had reasoned that his own long imprisonment in the bastille
the building the people had first destroyed would make him a favorite and render him able to aid darnay if danger came on the way they had heard the sad news of his arrest and had come at once to mister lorry to consider what might best be done
while they talked through the window they saw a great crowd of people come rushing into the courtyard of the building to sharpen weapons at a huge
fearful that he would be too late to save darnay doctor manette rushed to the yard his white hair streaming in the wind and told the leaders of the mob who he was how he had been imprisoned for eighteen years in the bastille
and that now one of his kindred by some unknown error had been seized they cheered him lifted him on their shoulders and rushed away to demand for him the release of darnay
waited all night for tidings but none came that night the rescue had not proved easy next day defarge the wine shop keeper brought a short note to lucie from darnay at the prison
he had indeed by the story of his own sufferings saved darnay's life for the time being but the prisoner he had been told could not be released without trial for this trial they waited day after day
the time passed slowly and terribly prisoners were no longer murdered without trial but few escaped the death penalty the king and queen were beheaded
thousands were put to death merely on suspicion and thousands more were thrown into prison to await their turn this was that dreadful period which has always since been called the reign of terror when no one felt sure of his safety
there was a certain window in the prison through which darnay sometimes found a chance to look and from which he could see one dingy street corner on this corner every afternoon lucie took her station for hours
rain or shine she never missed a day and thus at long intervals her husband got a view of her
all the while doctor manette
and at length his turn came to be tried and he was brought before the drunken ignorant men who called themselves judge and jury
he told how he had years before renounced his family and title left france and supported himself rather than be a burden on the peasantry he told how he had married a woman of french birth the only daughter of the good doctor manette
whom all paris knew and had come to paris now of his own accord to help a poor servant who was in danger through his fault the story caught the fancy of the changeable crowd in the room they cheered and applauded it
and put him in a great chair and carried him home in triumph to lucie there was only one there perhaps who did not rejoice at the result and that was the cold cruel wife of the wine seller madame defarge
that same night of his release all the happiness of darnay and lucie was suddenly broken soldiers came and again arrested him defarge and his wife were the accusers this time and he was to be retried
the first one to bring this fresh piece of bad news to mister lorry was sydney carton the reckless and dissipated young lawyer probably he had heard in london of lucie's trouble and out of his love for her
which he always carried hidden in his heart had come to paris to try to aid her husband he had arrived only to hear at the same time of the acquittal and the rearrest
as carton walked along the street thinking sadly of lucie's new grief he saw a man whose face and figure seemed familiar following he soon recognized him as the english spy barsad
barsad who as it happened was now a turnkey in the very prison where darnay was confined had left london to become a spy in france first on the side of the king and then on the side of the people
at the time of this story england was so hated by france that if the people had known of barsad's career in london
came to worst and darnay were condemned he would admit carton to the cell to see him once before he was taken to execution
to save himself he had to promise next day darnay was tried for the second time when the judge asked for the accusation defarge laid a paper before him
it was a letter that had been found when the bastille fell in the cell that had been occupied for eighteen years by doctor manette
and hidden it behind a loosened stone in the wall and in it he had told the story of his own
defarge read it aloud to the jury and this was the terrible tale it told the marquis de saint evremonde the cruel uncle of darnay when he was a young man
as the brother lay dying from the sword wound doctor manette
had been called to attend him and so by accident had learned the whole horrified at the wicked wrong he wrote of it in a letter to the minister of justice the marquis whom it accused learned of this and
to put doctor manette out of the way had him arrested secretly taken from his wife and baby daughter
of the bastille where he had lived those eighteen years not knowing whether his wife and child lived or died he waited ten years for release and when none came at last feeling his mind giving way he wrote the account
which he concealed in the cell wall denouncing the family of evremonde and all their descendants the reading of this paper by defarge as may be guessed aroused all the murderous passions of the people in the court room
there was a further reason for madame defarge's hatred for the poor woman whom darnay's uncle had so wronged had been her own sister in vain old doctor manette pleaded
that his own daughter was now darnay's wife made no difference in their eyes the jury at once found darnay guilty and sentenced him to die by the guillotine the next morning lucie fainted when the sentence was pronounced sydney carton who had witnessed the trial
lifted her and bore her to a carriage when they reached home he carried her up the stairs and laid her on a couch before he went he bent down and touched her cheek with his lips and they heard him whisper for a life you love
day what he meant carton had in fact formed a desperate plan to rescue lucie's husband whom he so much resembled in face and figure even though it meant his own death
he went to mister lorry and made him promise to have ready next morning passports and a coach and swift horses to leave paris for england with doctor manette lucie and himself telling him that if they delayed longer lucie's life and her father's also would be lost
next carton bought a quantity of a drug whose fumes would render a man insensible and with this in his pocket early next morning he went to the spy barsad and bade him redeem his promise and take him to the cell where darnay waited for the signal of death
darnay was seated writing a last letter to lucie when carton entered pretending that he wished him to write something that he dictated carton stood over him and held
of the drug to his face in a moment the other was unconscious then carton changed clothes with him and called in the spy
directing him to take the unconscious man who now seemed to be sydney carton instead of charles darnay to mister lorry's house he himself was to take the prisoner's place and suffer the penalty the plan worked well darnay who would not have allowed
this sacrifice if he had known was carried safely and without discovery past the guards mister lorry guessing what had happened when he saw the unconscious figure took coach at once with him doctor manette
and lucie and started for england that very hour miss pross was left to follow them in another carriage while miss pross sat waiting in the empty house who should come in but the terrible madame defarge
the latter had made up her mind as carton had suspected to denounce lucie also it was against the law to mourn for any one who had been condemned as an enemy to france and the woman was sure of course that lucie would be mourning for her husband
who was to die within the hour so she stopped on her way to the execution to see lucie and thus have evidence against her
the grim old nurse knew if it were known that lucie had gone the coach would be pursued and brought back so she planted herself in front of the door of lucie's room and would not let madame defarge open it
the savage frenchwoman tried to tear her away but miss pross seized her around the waist and held her back the other drew a loaded pistol from her breast to shoot her but in the struggle it went off and killed madame defarge herself
then miss pross all of a tremble locked the door threw the key into the river took a carriage and followed after the coach not long after the unconscious darnay with lucie and doctor manette
passed the gates of paris the jailer came to the cell where sydney carton sat and called him it was the summons to die and with his thoughts on lucie whom he had always hopelessly loved and on her husband
whom he had thus saved to her he went almost gladly a poor little seamstress rode in the death cart beside him she was so small and weak that she feared to die and carton held her cold hand
all the way and comforted her to the end cruel women of the people sat about the guillotine knitting and counting with their stitches as each poor victim died and when carton's turn came thinking he was darnay
the hated marquis de saint evremonde they cursed him and laughed men said of him about the city that night that it was the peacefullest man's face ever beheld there
i see the lives for which i lay down mine peaceful and happy in that england i shall see no more i see lucie and darnay with a child that bears my name
i see her weeping for me on the anniversary of this day i see the blot i threw upon my name faded away and i know that till they die neither shall be more honored in the soul of the other
than i am honored in the souls of both it is a far far better thing that i do than i have ever done
among the ice packs for the next forty five days our time was employed in dodging icebergs and hunting channels indeed
had we not been favored with a strong south wind and a small boat i doubt if this story could have ever been given to the world at last there came a morning when my father said my son i think we are to see home
we are almost through the ice see the open water lies before us however there were a few icebergs that had floated far northward
into the open water still ahead of us on either side stretching away for many miles directly in front of us and by the compass which had now righted itself due north there was an open sea
what a wonderful story we have to tell to the people of stockholm continued my father
lighted up his honest face and think of the gold nuggets stowed away in the hold i spoke kind words of praise to my father not alone for his fortitude and endurance
i was grateful too that he had gathered the wealth of gold we were carrying home
while congratulating ourselves on the goodly supply of provisions and water we still had on hand and on the dangers we had escaped we were startled by hearing a most terrific explosion caused by the tearing apart of a huge mountain of ice
it was a deafening roar like the firing of a thousand cannon we were sailing at the time with great speed and happened to be near a monstrous iceberg which to all appearances was as immovable as a rockbound island
it seemed however that the iceberg had split and was breaking apart whereupon the balance of the monster along which we were sailing was destroyed and it began dipping from us
my father quickly anticipated the danger before i realized its awful possibilities the iceberg extended down into the water many hundreds of feet and as it tipped over the portion
and threw it into the air as if it had been a foot ball our boat fell back on the iceberg that by this time had changed the side next to us for the top my father was still in the boat having become entangled in the rigging while i was thrown some twenty feet away
i quickly scrambled to my feet and shouted to my father who answered all is well just then a realization dawned upon me horror upon horror the blood froze in my veins
i fully realized what a sucking maelstrom it would produce amid the worlds of water on every side they would rush into the depression in all their fury like white fanged wolves eager for human prey
in this supreme moment of mental anguish i remember glancing at our boat which was lying on its side and wondering if it could possibly right itself and if my father could escape was this the end of our struggles and adventures
was this death all these questions flashed through my mind in the fraction of a second and a moment later i was engaged in a life and death struggle
the ponderous monolith of ice sank below the surface and the frigid waters gurgled around me in frenzied anger i was in a saucer with the waters pouring in on every side a moment more and i lost consciousness
when i partially recovered my senses
i found myself wet stiff and almost frozen lying on the iceberg but there was no sign of my father or of our little fishing sloop the monster berg had recovered itself and with its new balance
lifted its head perhaps fifty feet above the waves the top of this island of ice was a plateau perhaps half an acre in extent i loved my father well and was grief stricken at the awfulness of his death
that i too had not been permitted to sleep with him in the depths of the ocean finally
the purple domed sky above the shoreless green ocean beneath and only an occasional iceberg discernible my heart sank in hopeless despair
i cautiously picked my way across the berg toward the other side hoping that our fishing craft had righted itself dared i think it possible that my father still lived
like some rare stimulant through every fiber of my body i crept close to the precipitous side of the iceberg and peered far down hoping still hoping then i made a circle of the berg
scanning every foot of the way and thus i kept going around and around one part of my brain was certainly becoming maniacal while the other part i believe and do
aberration bewitched and compelled me still to beguile myself with expectation the other part of my brain seemed to tell me that while there was no possibility of my father being alive
i felt that i should go mad thus hour after hour i walked around and around afraid to stop and rest yet physically powerless to continue much longer
oh horror of horrors to be cast away in this wide expanse of waters without food or drink and only a treacherous iceberg for an abiding place my heart sank within me
and all semblance of hope was fading into black despair then the hand of the deliverer was extended and the death like stillness of a solitude rapidly becoming unbearable was suddenly broken by the firing of a signal gun
i looked up in startled amazement when i saw less than a half mile away a whaling vessel bearing down toward me with her sail full set evidently my continued activity on the iceberg had attracted their attention
on drawing near they put out a boat and descending cautiously to the water's edge i was rescued and a little later lifted on board the whaling ship i found it was a scotch whaler the arlington
the captain angus mac pherson
as i soon learned possessed of an iron will when i attempted to tell him that i had come from the inside of the earth the captain and mate looked at each other shook their heads and insisted on my being put in a bunk under strict surveillance of the ship's physician
i was very weak for want of food and had not slept for many hours however after a few days rest i got up one morning and dressed myself without asking permission of the physician or anyone else and told them that i was as sane as anyone
the captain sent for me and again questioned me concerning where i had come from and how i came to be alone on an iceberg in the far off antarctic ocean i replied that i had
and come out by way of the south pole country whereupon i was put in irons i afterward heard the captain tell the mate that i was as crazy as a march hare and that i must remain in confinement until i was rational enough to give a truthful account of myself
finally after much pleading and many promises i was released from irons i then and there decided to invent some story that would satisfy the captain
within a fortnight i was permitted to go about and take my place as one of the seamen a little later the captain asked me for an explanation i told him that my experience had been so horrible that i was fearful of my memory
and begged him to permit me to leave the question unanswered until some time in the future i think you are recovering considerably he said but you are not sane yet by a good deal
permit me to do such work as you may assign i replied and if it does not compensate you sufficiently i will pay you immediately after i reach stockholm to the last penny thus the matter rested
on finally reaching stockholm as i have already related i found that my good mother had gone to her reward more than a year before i have also told how later the treachery of a relative
landed me in a madhouse where i remained for twenty eight years
still later after my release how i returned to the life of a fisherman following it sedulously for twenty seven years then how i came to america and
finally to los angeles california but all this can be of little interest to the reader
something utterly unexpected and amazing to mitya followed he could never even a minute before have conceived that any one could behave like that to him
what was worst of all there was something humiliating in it and on their side something supercilious and scornful it was nothing to take off his coat but he was asked to undress further or rather not asked but commanded he quite understood that
from pride and contempt he submitted without a word several peasants accompanied the lawyers and remained on the same side of the curtain to be ready if force is required thought mitya and perhaps for some other reason too well
must i take off my shirt too he asked sharply but nikolay parfenovitch did not answer he was busily engaged with the prosecutor in examining the coat the trousers the waistcoat and the cap and it was evident that they were both much interested in the scrutiny
they make no bones about it thought mitya they don't keep up the most elementary politeness i ask you for the second time need i take off my shirt or not he said still more sharply and irritably don't trouble yourself
we will tell you what to do nikolay parfenovitch said and his voice was positively peremptory or so it seemed to mitya
there turned out to be on the coat especially on the left side at the back a huge patch of blood dry and still stiff there were bloodstains on the trousers too nikolay parfenovitch moreover in the presence of the peasant witnesses
passed his fingers along the collar the cuffs and all the seams of the coat and trousers obviously looking for something money of course he didn't even hide from mitya his suspicion that he was capable of sewing money up in his clothes
he treats me not as an officer but as a thief mitya muttered to himself they communicated their ideas to one another with amazing frankness the secretary for instance who was also behind the curtain fussing about and listening called nikolay parfenovitch's attention to the cap
which they were also fingering you remember gridyenko the copying clerk observed the secretary last summer he received the wages of the whole office and pretended to have lost the money when he was drunk and where was it found
the hundred rouble notes were screwed up in little rolls and sewed in the piping both the lawyers remembered gridyenko's case perfectly and so laid aside mitya's cap and decided that all his clothes must be more thoroughly examined later excuse me
cried nikolay parfenovitch suddenly noticing that the right cuff of mitya's shirt was turned in and covered with blood excuse me what's that blood yes mitya jerked out that is what blood and why is the cuff turned in
and had turned it inside when he was washing his hands at perhotin's you must take off your shirt too that's very important as material evidence mitya flushed red and flew into a rage what am i to stay naked he shouted
don't disturb yourself we will arrange something and meanwhile take off your socks you're not joking is that really necessary mitya's eyes flashed we are in no mood for joking answered nikolay parfenovitch sternly well if i must
muttered mitya and sitting down on the bed he took off his socks he felt unbearably awkward all were clothed while he was naked and strange to say when he was undressed he felt somehow guilty in their presence and was almost ready to believe himself
that he was inferior to them and that now they had a perfect right to despise him when all are undressed one is somehow not ashamed but when one's the only one undressed and everybody is looking it's degrading he kept repeating to himself again and again it's like a dream
i've sometimes dreamed of being in such degrading positions it was a misery to him to take off his socks they were very dirty and so were his underclothes
and what was worse he disliked his feet all his life he had thought both his big toes hideous
crooked nail on the right one and now they would all see it feeling intolerably ashamed made him at once and intentionally rougher he pulled off his shirt himself would you like to look anywhere else if you're not ashamed to no there's no need to at present
well am i to stay naked like this he added savagely yes that can't be helped for the time
and i i'll see to all this all the things were shown to the witnesses the report of the search was drawn up and at last nikolay parfenovitch went out and the clothes were carried out after him
went out too mitya was left alone with the peasants who stood in silence never taking their eyes off him mitya wrapped himself up in the quilt he felt cold his bare feet stuck out and he couldn't pull the quilt over so as to cover them
nikolay parfenovitch seemed to be gone a long time an insufferable time he thinks of me as a puppy thought mitya gnashing his teeth
contemptuous no doubt it disgusts him to see me naked mitya imagined however that his clothes would be examined and returned to him but what was his indignation when nikolay parfenovitch came back with quite different clothes brought in behind him by a peasant
here are clothes for you he observed airily seeming well satisfied with the success of his mission mister kalganov has kindly provided these for this unusual emergency as well as a clean shirt
you can keep your own socks and underclothes mitya flew into a passion i won't have other people's clothes he shouted menacingly give me my own it's impossible give me my own damn kalganov and his clothes too it was a long time before they could persuade him
but they succeeded somehow in quieting him down they impressed upon him that his clothes being stained with blood must be included with the other material evidence and that they had not even the right to let him have them now taking into consideration the possible outcome of the case
mitya at last understood this he subsided into gloomy silence and hurriedly dressed himself he merely observed as he put them on that the clothes were much better than his old ones
am i to be dressed up like a fool for your amusement they urged upon him again that he was exaggerating that kalganov was only a little taller so that only the trousers might be a little too long but the coat turned out to be really tight in the shoulders damn it all i can hardly button it
mitya grumbled be so good as to tell mister kalganov from me that i didn't ask for his clothes and it's not my doing that they've dressed me up like a clown
and is sorry i mean not sorry to lend you his clothes but sorry about all this business mumbled nikolay parfenovitch confound his sorrow well
he was asked to go back to the other room mitya went in scowling with anger and trying to avoid looking at any one dressed in another man's clothes he felt himself disgraced even in the eyes of the peasants and of trifon borissovitch
whose face appeared for some reason in the doorway and vanished immediately he's come to look at me dressed up thought mitya he sat down on the same chair as before he had an absurd nightmarish feeling as though he were out of his mind well what now
are you going to flog me that's all that's left for you he said clenching his teeth and addressing the prosecutor he would not turn to nikolay parfenovitch as though he disdained to speak to him he looked too closely at my socks and turned them inside out on purpose to show every one how dirty they were
the scoundrel well now we must proceed to the examination of witnesses observed nikolay parfenovitch as though in reply to mitya's question yes said the prosecutor thoughtfully as though reflecting on something we've done what we could in your interest dmitri fyodorovitch
nikolay parfenovitch went on but having received from you such an uncompromising refusal to explain to us the source from which you obtained the money found upon you we are at the present moment what is the stone in your ring mitya interrupted
ring repeated nikolay parfenovitch with surprise yes that one on your middle finger with the little veins in it what stone is that mitya persisted like a peevish child that's a smoky topaz said nikolay parfenovitch smiling would you like to look at it i'll take it off
don't take it off there's no need damn it gentlemen you've sullied my heart can you suppose that i would conceal it from you
that i would shuffle lie and hide myself
and if i were guilty i swear i shouldn't have waited for your coming or for the sunrise as i meant at first
without waiting for the dawn i know that about myself now
could i have talked like this could i have moved like this could i have looked at you and at the world like this if i had really been the murderer of my father when the very thought of having accidentally killed grigory gave me no peace all night not from fear
oh not simply from fear of your punishment the disgrace of it and you expect me to be open with such scoffers as you who see nothing and believe in nothing blind moles and scoffers and to tell you another nasty thing i've done another disgrace
no better siberia the man who opened the door to my father and went in at that door he killed him he robbed him who was he i'm racking my brains and can't think who
and that's all i can tell you and that's enough enough leave me alone exile me punish me but don't bother me any more i'll say no more call your witnesses mitya uttered his sudden monologue as though he were determined to be absolutely silent for the future
the prosecutor watched him the whole time and only when he had ceased speaking observed as though it were the most ordinary thing with the most frigid and composed air
we may as well inform you by the way now of a very interesting piece of evidence of the greatest importance
on his recovery he clearly and emphatically stated in reply to our questions that when on coming out to the steps and hearing a noise in the garden he made up his mind to go into it through the little gate which stood open before he noticed you running
as you have told us already in the dark from the open window where you saw your father he grigory glanced to the left and while noticing the open window observed at the same time much nearer to him the door standing wide open
that door which you have stated to have been shut the whole time you were in the garden i will not conceal from you that grigory himself confidently affirms and bears witness that you must have run from that door though of course he did not see you do so with his own eyes
since he only noticed you first some distance away in the garden running towards the fence mitya had leapt up from his chair half way through this speech nonsense he yelled in a sudden frenzy
he couldn't have seen the door open because it was shut he's lying i consider it my duty to repeat that he is firm in his statement he does not waver he adheres to it we've cross examined him several times precisely
it's false false it's either an attempt to slander me or the hallucination of a madman mitya still shouted he's simply raving from loss of blood from the wound he must have fancied it when he came to he's raving
yes but he noticed the open door not when he came to after his injuries but before that as soon as he went into the garden from the lodge but it's false it's false it can't be so
he couldn't have seen it i didn't come from the door gasped mitya the prosecutor turned to nikolay parfenovitch and said to him impressively confront him with it do you recognize this object nikolay parfenovitch laid upon the table
a large and thick official envelope on which three seals still remained intact the envelope was empty and slit open at one end mitya stared at it with open eyes it it must be that envelope
of my father's the envelope that contained the three thousand roubles and if there's inscribed on it allow me for my little chicken yes three thousand he shouted do you see three thousand do you see of course we see
it was empty and lying on the floor by the bed behind the screen for some seconds mitya stood as though thunderstruck gentlemen it's smerdyakov he shouted suddenly at the top of his voice it's he who's murdered him he's robbed him
no one else knew where the old man hid the envelope it's smerdyakov that's clear now but you too knew of the envelope and that it was under the pillow i never knew it i've never seen it this is the first time i've looked at it
i'd only heard of it from smerdyakov he was the only one who knew where the old man kept it hidden i didn't know mitya was completely breathless but you told us yourself that the envelope was under your deceased father's pillow
you especially stated that it was under the pillow so you must have known it we've got it written down confirmed nikolay parfenovitch nonsense it's absurd i'd no idea it was under the pillow and perhaps it wasn't under the pillow at all
it was just a chance guess that it was under the pillow what does smerdyakov say have you asked him where it was what does smerdyakov say that's the chief point and i went out of my way to tell lies against myself i told you without thinking
that it was under the pillow and now you oh you know how one says the wrong thing without meaning it no one knew but smerdyakov only smerdyakov and no one else he didn't even tell me where it was but it's his doing his doing
there's no doubt about it he murdered him that's as clear as daylight now mitya exclaimed more and more frantically repeating himself incoherently and growing more and more exasperated and excited you must understand that and arrest him at once
he must have killed him while i was running away and while grigory was unconscious that's clear now he gave the signal and father opened to him for no one but he knew the signal and without the signal father would never have opened the door
though with a note of triumph that there was no need to give the signal if the door already stood open when you were there while you were in the garden the door the door muttered mitya and he stared speechless at the prosecutor he sank back helpless in his chair
all were silent yes the door it's a nightmare god is against me he exclaimed staring before him in complete stupefaction come you see the prosecutor went on with dignity and you can judge for yourself dmitri fyodorovitch
on the one hand we have the evidence of the open door from which you ran out a fact which overwhelms you and us on the other side your incomprehensible persistent and so to speak obdurate silence with regard to the source from which you obtained the money
which was so suddenly seen in your hands when only three hours earlier on your own showing you pledged your pistols for the sake of ten roubles
and don't accuse us of being frigid cynical scoffing people who are incapable of believing in the generous impulses of your heart try to enter into our position mitya was indescribably agitated he turned pale very well
he exclaimed suddenly i will tell you my secret i'll tell you where i got the money i'll reveal my shame that i may not have to blame myself or you hereafter
and believe me dmitri fyodorovitch put in nikolay parfenovitch in a voice of almost pathetic delight that every sincere and complete confession on your part at this moment may later on have an immense influence in your favor
the lawyers faces lengthened that was not at all what they expected how do you mean faltered nikolay parfenovitch when at five o'clock on the same day from your own confession damn five o'clock on the same day and my own confession that's nothing to do with it now
that money was my own my own that is stolen by me not mine i mean but stolen by me and it was fifteen hundred roubles and i had it on me all the time all the time but where did you get it i took it off my neck gentlemen off this very neck
it was here round my neck sewn up in a rag and i'd had it round my neck a long time it's a month since i put it round my neck to my shame and disgrace and from whom did you appropriate it you mean steal it speak out plainly now
yes i consider that i practically stole it but if you prefer i appropriated it i consider i stole it and last night i stole it finally last night but you said that it's a month since you obtained it yes but not from my father
not from my father don't be uneasy i didn't steal it from my father but from her let me tell you without interrupting it's hard to do you know you see a month ago i was sent for by katerina ivanovna formerly my betrothed do you know her yes of course
good reason katerina ivanovna nikolay parfenovitch exclaimed with wonder the prosecutor too stared oh don't take her name in vain i'm a scoundrel to bring her into it yes i've seen that she hated me a long while from the very first
even that evening at my lodging but enough enough you're unworthy even to know of that
i need only tell you that she sent for me a month ago
as though she couldn't have sent it off herself and i it was just at that fatal moment in my life when i well in fact when i'd just come to love another her she's sitting down below now grushenka
and wasted here in two days half that damned three thousand but the other half i kept on me well i've kept that other half that fifteen hundred like a locket round my neck but yesterday i undid it and spent it what's left of it eight hundred roubles is in your hands now
nikolay parfenovitch that's the change out of the fifteen hundred i had yesterday excuse me how's that why when you were here a month ago you spent three thousand not fifteen hundred everybody knows that who knows it who counted the money
did i let any one count it why you told every one yourself that you'd spent exactly three thousand it's true i did i told the whole town so and the whole town said so and here at mokroe too every one reckoned it was three thousand
yet i didn't spend three thousand but fifteen hundred and the other fifteen hundred i sewed into a little bag that's how it was gentlemen that's where i got that money yesterday this is almost miraculous murmured nikolay parfenovitch allow me to inquire observed the prosecutor at last
have you informed any one whatever of this circumstance before i mean that you had fifteen hundred left about you a month ago i told no one that's strange do you mean absolutely no one absolutely no one no one and nobody what was your reason for this reticence
what was your motive for making such a secret of it to be more precise you have told us at last your secret in your words so disgraceful though in reality that is of course comparatively speaking this action that is the appropriation of three thousand roubles belonging to some one else
and of course only for a time is in my view at least only an act of the greatest recklessness and not so disgraceful when one takes into consideration your character even admitting that it was an action in the highest degree discreditable
still discreditable is not disgraceful many people have already guessed during this last month about the three thousand of katerina ivanovna's that you have spent and i heard the legend myself apart from your confession
so that indeed it was scarcely a legend but the gossip of the whole town there are indications too if i am not mistaken that you confessed this yourself to some one i mean that the money was katerina ivanovna's and so it's extremely surprising to me
that hitherto that is up to the present moment you have made such an extraordinary secret of the fifteen hundred you say you put by apparently connecting a feeling of positive horror with that secret it's not easy to believe that it could cost you such distress to confess such a secret
you cried out just now that siberia would be better than confessing it the prosecutor ceased speaking he was provoked he did not conceal his vexation which was almost anger
it's not the fifteen hundred that's the disgrace but that i put it apart from the rest of the three thousand said mitya firmly why smiled the prosecutor irritably what is there disgraceful to your thinking in your having set aside half of the three thousand you had discreditably
if you prefer disgracefully appropriated your taking the three thousand is more important than what you did with it and by the way why did you do that why did you set apart that half for what purpose for what object did you do it can you explain that to us
oh gentlemen the purpose is the whole point cried mitya i put it aside because i was vile that is because i was calculating and to be calculating in such a case is vile and that vileness has been going on a whole month it's incomprehensible
i wonder at you but i'll make it clearer perhaps it really is incomprehensible you see attend to what i say i appropriate three thousand entrusted to my honor i spend it on a spree say i spend it all and next morning i go to her and say katya
i've done wrong i've squandered your three thousand well is that right no it's not right it's dishonest and cowardly i'm a beast with no more self control than a beast that's so isn't it but still i'm not a thief not a downright thief you'll admit
i squandered it but i didn't steal it now a second rather more favorable alternative follow me carefully or i may get confused again my head's going round and so for the second alternative i spend here only fifteen hundred out of the three thousand that is only half
next day i go and take that half to her katya take this fifteen hundred from me i'm a low beast and an untrustworthy scoundrel for i've wasted half the money and i shall waste this too so keep me from temptation well what of that alternative
i should be a beast and a scoundrel and whatever you like but not a thief not altogether a thief or i should not have brought back what was left but have kept that too she would see at once that since i brought back half i should pay back what i'd spent
that i should never give up trying to that i should work to get it and pay it back so in that case i should be a scoundrel but not a thief you may say what you like not a thief
but it's strange that you see such a vital difference yes i see a vital difference every man may be a scoundrel and perhaps every man is a scoundrel but not every one can be a thief it takes an arch scoundrel to be that oh of course i don't know how to make these fine distinctions
but a thief is lower than a scoundrel that's my conviction listen i carry the money about me a whole month i may make up my mind to give it back to morrow and i'm a scoundrel no longer but i cannot make up my mind you see though i'm making up my mind every day
and every day spurring myself on to do it and yet for a whole month i can't bring myself to it you see
certainly that's not right that i can quite understand and that i don't dispute answered the prosecutor with reserve
if you will be so kind get back to the point and the point is that you have still not told us
in the first place you halved the money squandering one half and hiding the other for what purpose exactly did you hide it what did you mean to do with that fifteen hundred i insist upon that question dmitri fyodorovitch yes of course cried mitya striking himself on the forehead
forgive me i'm worrying you and am not explaining the chief point or you'd understand in a minute for it's just the motive of it that's the disgrace you see it was all to do with the old man my dead father he was always pestering agrafena alexandrovna and i was jealous
so i kept thinking every day suppose she were to make up her mind all of a sudden suppose she were to leave off tormenting me and were suddenly to say to me i love you not him take me to the other end of the world and i'd only forty copecks how could i take her away what could i do
why i'd be lost you see i didn't know her then i didn't understand her i thought she wanted money and that she wouldn't forgive my poverty and so i fiendishly counted out the half of that three thousand sewed it up calculating on it sewed it up before i was drunk
i went off to get drunk on the rest yes that was base do you understand now both the lawyers laughed aloud i should have called it sensible and moral on your part not to have squandered it all chuckled nikolay parfenovitch for after all what does it amount to
why that i stole it that's what it amounts to oh god you horrify me by not understanding every day that i had that fifteen hundred sewn up round my neck every day and every hour i said to myself you're a thief
yes that's why i've been so savage all this month that's why i fought in the tavern that's why i attacked my father it was because i felt i was a thief i couldn't make up my mind i didn't dare even to tell alyosha my brother about that fifteen hundred i felt i was such a scoundrel and such a pickpocket
why because i might go next day and pay back that fifteen hundred to katya and only yesterday i made up my mind to tear my amulet off my neck on my way from fenya's to perhotin i hadn't been able till that moment to bring myself to it and it was only when i tore it off
that i became a downright thief a thief and a dishonest man for the rest of my life why because with that i destroyed too my dream of going to katya and saying i'm a scoundrel but not a thief
what was it made you decide to do it yesterday nikolay parfenovitch interrupted
chapter twenty nine the baron's retinue is opposed in a heroic style by don quixote who in his turn is attacked by gog and magog lord whittington with the lord mayor's show comes to the assistance of don quixote
gog and magog assail his lordship lord whittington makes a speech and deludes gog and magog to his party a general scene of uproar and battle among the company until the baron with great presence of mind
appeases the tumult what art thou exclaimed don quixote on his potent steed who art thou speak or by the eternal vengeance of mine arm
thy whole machinery shall perish at sound of this my trumpet astonished at so rude a salutation the great sphinx stopped short and bridling up herself drew in her head like a snail
when it touches something that it does not like the bulls set up a horrid bellowing the crickets sounded an alarm and gog and magog advanced before the rest one of these powerful brothers had in his hand a great pole
to the extremity of which was fastened a cord of about two feet in length and to the end of the cord was fastened a ball of iron with spikes shooting from it like the rays of a star with this weapon he prepared to encounter and advancing thus he spoke
audacious wight that thus in complete steel arrayed doth dare to venture cross my way to stop the great munchausen know then proud knight that thou shalt instant perish neath my potent arm
responded firm gigantic monster leader of witches crickets and chimeras dire know thou that here before yon azure heaven the cause of truth of valour
and of faith right pure shall ordeal counter try it thus he spoke and brandishing his mighty spear would instant prodigies sublime perform had not some wight
at which quadrupedanting plunged the steed and instant on the earth the knight roared credo for his life at that same moment ten thousand frogs started from the morions of gog and magog
and furiously assailed the knight on every side in vain he roared and invoked fair dulcinea del toboso for frogs wild croaking seemed more loud more sonorous than all his invocations
and thus in battle vile the knight was overcome and spawn all swarmed upon his glittering helmet detested miscreants roared the knight avaunt
enchanters dire and goblins could alone this arduous task perform to rout the knight of mancha foul defeat and war even such as ne'er was known before
then hear o del toboso hear my vows that thus in anguish of my soul i urge midst frogs gridalbin hecaton kai talon
for such the names and definitions of their qualities their separate powers for merlin plumed their airy flight and then in watery moonbeam dyed his rod eccentric at the touch ten thousand frogs
strange metamorphosed croaked even thus
to vilify the knight that erst defended famed virginity and matrons all bewronged and pilgrims hoar and courteous guise of all
and the glory of europe is extinguished for ever he spake and sudden good lord whittington at head of all his raree show
and helmets old and troops all streamers flags and banners glittering gay red gold and purple and in every hand a square of gingerbread all gilded nice was brandished awful at a word
crackers buns and flannel cakes and hats of gingerbread encountered in mid air in glorious exaltation like some huge storm of mill stones or when it rains whole clouds of dogs and cats the frogs
astonished thunderstruck forgot their notes and music that before had seemed so terrible and drowned the cries of knight renown and mute in wonder heard the words of whittington pronouncing solemn
goblins chimeras dire or frogs or whatsoe'er enchantment thus presents in antique shape attend and hear the words of peace and thou good herald read aloud the riot act
he ceased and dismal was the tone that softly breathed from all the frogs in chorus who quick had petrified with fright unless redoubted gog and magog both with poles
high topped with airy bladders by a string dependent had not stormed against his lordship
proclaimed their fury against all potent law coercive mayoralty when he submissive
gog magog renowned and famous what my sons shall you assail your father friend and chief confessed shall you thus armed with bladders vile attack my title
eminence and pomp sublime subside vile discord and again return to your true legiance think my friends how oft your gorgeous pouch i've crammed all calapash green fat and calapee
remember how you've feasted stood inert for ages until size immense you've gained and think how different is the service of munchausen
eternal toiling like to slaves of algiers and tripoli and ev'n on high balloon like through the heavens have journeyed late upon a rainbow or some awful bridge stretched eminent
as if on earth he had not work sufficient to distress your potent servitudes but he should also seek in heaven dire cause of labour recollect my friends
or why desert his livery or for what or wherefore serve this german lord munchausen who for all your labour shall alone bestow some fudge and heroic blows in war then cease and thus in amity return
to friendship aldermanic bungy brown and sober ceased he then right worshipful when both the warring champions instant stemmed their battle and in sign of peace and unity returning
neath their feet reclined their weapons sudden at a signal either stamped his foot sinistrine and the loud report of bursten bladder
like the roar of thunder from on high convulsing heaven and earth twas now upon the saddle once again the knight of mancha rose and in his hand far balancing his lance
crillitrilkril than whom no cricket e'er on hob of rural cottage or chimney black more gladsome turned his merry note e e n thou didst perish shrieking gave the ghost in empty air the sport of every wind
for e'en that heart so jocund and so gay was pierced harsh spitted by the lance of mancha while undaunted thou didst sit between the horns that crowned mowmowsky and now whittington advanced
midst armour antique and the powers magog and gog and with his rod enchanting touched the head of every frog long mute and thunderstruck at which in universal chorus and salute they sung blithe jocund
while sphinx though great gigantic seemed instinctive base and cowardly and at the sight of storming gingerbread and powers magog and gog and quixote all against her
started fierce o'erturning boat balloons and all loud roared the bulls hideous and the crash of wheels and chaos of confusion drear resounded far from earth to heaven
and still more fierce in charge the great lord whittington from poke of ermine his famed grimalkin took she screamed and harsh attacked my bulls confounded lightning like she darted
and from half the troop their eyes devouring tore nor could the riders crickets throned sublime escape from rage from fury less averse than cannons murder o'er the stormy sea
and plunged in anguish shunning every dart of fire eyed fierce grimalkin dire the rage of warfare and contending crickets quixote and great magog when whittington advancing
good my friends and warriors headlong on the foe bear down impetuous he spoke and waving high the mighty rod tipped wonderful each bull at which more fierce the creatures bellowed
while enchantment drear devoured their vitals and all had gone to wreck in more than mortal strife unless like neptune orient from the stormy deep i rose
serene and calm i stood and gazed around undaunted
but sudden from chariot purses plentiful of fudge poured forth
o'er all the crowd contending
chapter twenty eight the baron sets all the people of the empire to work to build a bridge from their country to great britain his contrivance to render the arch secure
returns with all his company chariot et cetera to england surveys the kingdoms and nations under him from the middle of the bridge and now most noble baron
said the illustrious hilaro frosticos now is the time to make this people proceed in any business that we find convenient take them at this present ferment of the mind
in short the whole nation went heartily to the business to build an edifice such as was never seen in any other country i took care to supply them with their favourite kava and fudge and they worked like horses the tower of babylon which
according to hermogastricus was seven miles high or the chinese wall was a mere trifle in comparison to this stupendous edifice which was completed in a very short space of time it was of an immense height
and of such gentle ascent that a regiment of cavalry with a train of cannon could ascend with perfect ease and facility it seemed like a rainbow in the heavens the base of which appeared to rise in the centre of africa
and the other extremity seemed to stoop into great britain a most noble bridge indeed and a piece of masonry that has outdone sir christopher wren wonderful must it have been to form so tremendous an arch especially as the artists had certain
difficulties to labour against which they could not have in the formation of any other arch in the world i mean the attraction of the moon and planets because the arch was of so great a height and in some parts so elongated from the earth
as in a great measure to diminish in its gravitation to the centre of our globe or rather seemed more easily operated upon by the attraction of the planets so that the stones of the arch one would think at certain times
were ready to fall up to the moon and at other times to fall down to the earth but as the former was more to be dreaded i secured stability to the fabric by a very curious contrivance i ordered the architects to get the heads of some
hundred numbskulls and blockheads and fix them to the interior surface of the arch at certain intervals all the whole length
and its inclination to the earth eternally established because of all the things in the world the skulls of these kind of animals have a strange facility of tending to the centre of the earth the building being completed
in letters so great and luminous that all vessels sailing to the east or west indies might read them distinct in the heavens like the motto of constantine
pashrol vatineac
that is to say as long as this arch and bond of union shall exist so long shall the people be happy nor can all the power of the world affect them unless the moon advancing from her usual sphere
an easy intercourse being thus established between great britain and the centre of africa numbers travelled continually to and from both countries and at my request mail coaches were ordered to run on the bridge between both empires
after some time having settled the government to my satisfaction i requested permission to resign as a great cabal had been excited against me in england i therefore received my letters of recall and prepared to return to old england
in fine i set out upon my journey covered with applause and general admiration i proceeded with the same retinue that i had before
and advanced along the bridge lined on each side with rows of trees adorned with festoons of various flowers and illuminated with coloured lights
we advanced at a great rate along the bridge which was so very extensive that we could scarcely perceive the ascent but proceeded insensibly until we arrived on the centre of the arch the view from thence was glorious beyond conception
africa seemed in general of a tawny brownish colour burned up by the sun spain seemed more inclining to a yellow on account of some fields of corn scattered over the kingdom france appeared more inclining to a bright straw colour
intermixed with green and england appeared covered with the most beautiful verdure i admired the appearance of the baltic sea
by the sudden splitting of the land and that originally sweden was united to the western coast of denmark in short the whole interstice of the gulf of finland had no being until these countries by mutual consent separated from one another
such were my philosophical meditations as i advanced when i observed a man in armour with a tremendous spear or lance and mounted upon a steed advancing against me
a proclamation by the baron excessive curiosity of the people to know what fudge was the people in a general ferment about it they break open all the granaries in the empire
the affections of the people conciliated an ode performed in honour of the baron his discourse with fragrantia on the excellence of the music
some time after i ordered the following proclamation to be published in the court gazette and in all the other papers of the empire
by the most mighty and puissant lord his excellency the lord baron munchausen whereas a quantity of fudge has been distributed through all the granaries of the empire for particular uses
and as the natives have ever expressed their aversion to all manner of european eatables it is hereby strictly forbidden under pain of the severest penalties for any of the officers charged with the keeping of the said fudge to give
sell or suffer to be sold any part or quantity whatever of the said material until it be agreeable unto our good will and pleasure dated in our castle of gristariska
this triskill of the month of griskish in the year moulikasra navas kashna vildash this proclamation excited the most ardent curiosity all over the empire
said lady mooshilgarousti to lord darnarlaganl
the enormous quantity of fudge that has been distributed under guards in all the strong places in the empire and which is strictly forbidden to be sold or given to any of the natives under the severest penalties
what in the name of wonder can it be forbidden why it must but pray do you lady fashashash do you know what this fudge is do you lord trastillauex
or you miss gristilarkask what
it engrossed for several days the chit chat of the whole empire fudge fudge fudge resounded in all companies and in all places from the rising until the setting of the sun
and even at night when gentle sleep refreshed the rest of mortals the ladies of all that country were dreaming of fudge upon my honour said kitty as she was adjusting her modesty piece before the glass just after getting out of bed
la my dear replied miss killnariska
i thought my lover kissed my hand and pressed it to his bosom while i frowning endeavoured to wrest it from him that he kneeled at my feet no never never will i look at you cried i
till you tell me what this fudge can be or get me some of it begone cried i with all the dignity of offended beauty majesty and a tragic queen begone
or bring me this delicious fudge he swore on the honour of a knight that he would wander o'er the world encounter every danger perish in the attempt or satisfy the angel of his soul
the chiefs and nobility of the nation when they met together to drink their kava spoke of nothing but fudge men women and children all all talked of nothing but fudge twas a fury of curiosity
one general ferment and universal fever nothing but fudge could allay it but in one respect they all agreed
in giving such positive orders to preserve it and keep it from the natives of the country petitions were addressed to me from all quarters from every corporation and body of men in the whole empire the majority of the people instructed their constituents
and the parliament presented a petition praying that i would be pleased to take the state of the nation under consideration and give orders to satisfy the people or the most dreadful consequences were to be apprehended to these requests
at the entreaty of my council i made no reply or at best but unsatisfactory answers curiosity was on the rack they forgot to lampoon the government so engaged were they about the fudge
the great assembly of the states could think of nothing else instead of enacting laws for the regulation of the people instead of consulting what should seem most wise most excellent they could think talk and harangue of nothing but fudge
in vain did the speaker call to order the more checks they got the more extravagant and inquisitive they were in short the populace in many places
rose in the most outrageous and tumultuous manner forced open the granaries in all places in one day and triumphantly distributed the fudge
whether on account of the longing the great curiosity imagination or the disposition of the people i cannot say but they found it infinitely to their taste twas intoxication of joy satisfaction
and applause finding how much they liked this fudge i procured another quantity from england much greater than the former and cautiously bestowed it over all the kingdom thus were the affections of the people regained
and they from hence began to venerate applaud and admire my government more than ever the following ode was performed at the castle in the most superb style
and trump'ts high chiming anthrophog
caralog basilog fog and bog great and superb appears thy cap sublime admired and worshipp'd as the rising sun solemn majestic wise like hoary time
and fam'd alike for virtue sense and fun then swell the noble strain with song and elegance divine while goddesses around shall throng and all the muses nine
and bulls and crickets and gog magog
shall sing blithe choral
caralog basilog fog
the summit of the most exquisite wit the keenest praise the most excellent music upon my honour and the faith i owe my love said i music may be talked of in england
but to possess the very soul of harmony the world should come to the performance of this ode lady fragrantia was at that moment
thinking she was playing upon was it a forte piano no my dear fragrantia said i tenderly taking her in my arms while she melted into tears never never will i play upon any other
expedicao scientifica roosevelt rondon
it was to make an expedition primarily concerned with mammalogy and ornithology for the american museum of natural history of new york this was undertaken under the auspices of messrs osborn and chapman
in the body of this work i describe how the scope of the expedition was enlarged and how it was given a geographic as well as a zoological character in consequence of the kind proposal of the brazilian secretary of state for foreign affairs general lauro muller
in its altered and enlarged form the expedition was rendered possible only by the generous assistance of the brazilian government throughout the body of the work will be found reference after reference to my colleagues and companions of the expedition
whose services to science i have endeavored to set forth and for whom i shall always feel the most cordial friendship and regard theodore roosevelt sagamore hill september first nineteen fourteen
father zahm a priest whom i knew came in to call on me father zahm and i had been cronies for some time because we were both of us fond of dante and of history and of science i had always commended to theologians his book
evolution and dogma he was an ohio boy and his early schooling had been obtained in old time american fashion in a little log school where by the way one of the other boys was januarius
afterward the famous war correspondent and friend of skobeloff father zahm told me that mac gahan even at that time added an utter fearlessness to chivalric tenderness for the weak
and was the defender of any small boy who was oppressed by a larger one later father zahm was at notre dame university in indiana with maurice egan whom when i was president i appointed minister to denmark
on the occasion in question father zahm had just returned from a trip across the andes and down the amazon and came in to propose that after i left the presidency he and i should go up the paraguay into the interior of south america
at the time i wished to go to africa and so the subject was dropped but from time to time afterward we talked it over five years later in the spring of nineteen thirteen i accepted invitations conveyed through the governments of argentina and brazil
to address certain learned bodies in these countries then it occurred to me that instead of making the conventional tourist trip purely by sea round south america after i had finished my lectures i would come north through the middle of the continent
into the valley of the amazon and i decided to write father zahm and tell him my intentions before doing so however i desired to see the authorities of the american museum of natural history
to find out whether they cared to have me take a couple of naturalists with me into brazil and make a collecting trip for the museum accordingly i wrote to frank chapman
the curator of ornithology of the museum and accepted his invitation to lunch at the museum one day early in june at the lunch in addition to various naturalists to my astonishment i also found father zahm
and as soon as i saw him i told him i was now intending to make the south american trip it appeared that he had made up his mind that he would take it himself
because much of the ground over which we were to pass had not been covered by collectors he saw henry fairfield osborn the president of the museum who wrote me that the museum would be pleased to send under me a couple of naturalists
whom with my approval chapman would choose the men whom chapman recommended were messrs george k cherrie and leo e miller i gladly accepted both the former was to attend chiefly to the ornithology
and the latter to the mammalogy of the expedition but each was to help out the other no two better men for such a trip could have been found both were veterans of the tropical american forests miller was a young man born in indiana
an enthusiastic with good literary as well as scientific training he was at the time in the guiana forests and joined us at barbados cherrie was an older man born in iowa but now a farmer in vermont he had a wife and six children
missus cherrie had accompanied him during two or three years of their early married life in his collecting trips along the orinoco their second child was born when they were in camp a couple of hundred miles from any white man or woman
one night a few weeks later they were obliged to leave a camping place where they had intended to spend the night because the baby was fretful and its cries attracted a jaguar which prowled nearer and nearer in the twilight until they thought it safest
and willy nilly he had been forced at times to vary his career by taking part in insurrections twice he had been behind the bars in consequence on one occasion spending three months in a prison of a certain south american state
expecting each day to be taken out and shot in another state he had as an interlude to his ornithological pursuits followed the career of a gun runner acting as such off and on for two and a half years
the particular revolutionary chief whose fortunes he was following finally came into power
ornithology and gun running in anthony fiala a former arctic explorer
during the spanish war and through his service in the squadron had been brought into contact with his little tennessee wife she came down with her four children to say good by to him when the steamer left my secretary mister frank harper went with us
and was both a hospital nurse and a cook as well as having a natural taste for adventure went as the personal attendant of father zahm in southern brazil my son kermit joined me
he had been bridge building and a couple of months previously while on top of a long steel span something went wrong with the derrick he and the steel span coming down together on the rocky bed beneath
he escaped with two broken ribs two teeth knocked out and a knee partially dislocated
in its composition ours was a typical american expedition kermit and i were of the old revolutionary stock
cherrie's father was born in ireland and his mother in scotland they came here when very young and his father served throughout the civil war in an iowa cavalry regiment his wife was of old revolutionary stock
a descendant of a niece of general braddock
harper was born in england and sigg in switzerland we were as varied in religious creed as in ethnic origin father zahm and miller were catholics kermit and harper episcopalians cherrie a presbyterian
fiala a baptist sigg a lutheran
for arms the naturalists took sixteen bore shotguns one of cherrie's having a rifle barrel underneath
including my springfield rifle kermit's two winchesters
the fox twelve gauge shotgun and another sixteen gauge gun and a couple of revolvers a colt and a smith and wesson
tents mosquito bars
each equipped himself with the clothing he fancied mine consisted of khaki such as i wore in africa with a couple of united states army flannel shirts and a couple of silk shirts
one pair of hob nailed shoes with leggings and one pair of laced leather boots coming nearly to the knee
made up by fiala the trip i proposed to take can be understood only if there is a slight knowledge of south american topography the great mountain chain of the andes extends down the entire length of the western coast
southernmost south america including over half of the territory of the argentine republic consists chiefly of a cool open plains country northward of this country and eastward of the andes
lies the great bulk of the south american continent which is included in the tropical and the subtropical regions most of this territory is brazilian aside from certain relatively small stretches drained by coast rivers
this immense region of tropical and subtropical america east of the andes is drained by the three great river systems of the plate the amazon and the orinoco
at their headwaters the amazon and the orinoco systems are actually connected by a sluggish natural canal the headwaters of the northern affluents of the paraguay and the southern affluents of the amazon
are sundered by a stretch of high land which toward the east broadens out into the central plateau of brazil geologically this is a very ancient region having appeared above the waters before the dawning of the age of reptiles
or indeed of any true land vertebrates on the globe this plateau is a region partly of healthy rather dry and sandy open prairie partly of forest the great and low lying basin of the paraguay
which borders it on the south is one of the largest and the still greater basin of the amazon which borders it on the north is the very largest of all the river basins of the earth in these basins but especially in the basin of the amazon
lie the most extensive stretches of tropical forest to be found anywhere the forests of tropical west africa and of portions of the farther indian region are the only ones that can be compared with them
much difficulty has been experienced in exploring these forests because under the torrential rains and steaming heat the rank growth of vegetation becomes almost impenetrable and the streams difficult of navigation
while white men suffer much from the terrible insect scourges and the deadly diseases which modern science has discovered to be due very largely to insect bites the fauna and flora however are of great interest
our purpose was to ascend the paraguay as nearly as possible to the head of navigation thence cross to the sources of one of the affluents of the amazon and if possible descend it in canoes built on the spot
the paraguay is regularly navigated as high as boats can go
in the state of paraguay my exact plan of operations was necessarily a little indefinite
who had been kind enough to take great personal interest in my trip informed me that he had arranged that on the headwaters of the paraguay at the town of caceres i would be met by a brazilian army colonel himself chiefly indian by blood
colonel rondon colonel rondon has been for a quarter of a century the foremost explorer of the brazilian hinterland
if i cared to undertake the leadership of a serious expedition into the unexplored portion of western matto grosso
and to attempt the descent of a river which flowed nobody knew whither but which the best informed men believed would prove to be a very big river utterly unknown to geographers i eagerly and gladly accepted for i felt
that with such help the trip could be made of much scientific value
accordingly it was arranged that colonel rondon and some assistants and scientists should meet me at or below corumba and that we should attempt the descent of the river
episode nine the false nun chapter twenty one supper at my casino with m m and m de bernis the french ambassador a proposal from m m i accept it consequences
c c is unfaithful to me and i cannot complain i felt highly pleased with the supper party i had arranged with m m and i ought to have been happy yet i was not so but whence came the anxiety which was a torment to me
whence from my fatal habit of gambling
and as i could not hold the bank i would go and punt at the ridotto where i lost my money morning and night that state of things made me miserable perhaps someone will say to me why did you play when there was no need of it
that would be a troublesome question if i had not made it a law to tell the truth well then dear inquisitive reader if i played with almost the certainty of losing although no one
perhaps was more sensible than i was to the losses made in gambling it is because i had in me the evil spirit of avarice it is because i loved prodigality
and because my heart bled when i found myself compelled to spend any money that i had not won at the gaming table it is an ugly vice dear reader i do not deny it however all i can say is that
i had an ardent wish sir said m de bernis to me to renew acquaintance with you since i heard from madame that we had known each other in paris with these words he looked at me attentively
i had the honour i added to dine with your excellency at m de mocenigo's house but you talked all the time with marshal keith the prussian ambassador and i was not fortunate enough to attract your attention
as you were on the point of leaving paris to return to venice you went away almost immediately after dinner and i have never had the honour of seeing you since that time now i recollect you he answered
and i remember asking whether you were not the secretary of the embassy but from this day we shall not forget each other again for the mysteries which unite us are of a nature likely to establish a lasting intimacy between us
found mine excellent and was delighted to hear that i had them from count algarotti who was reputed as having the best cellar in venice my supper was delicate and abundant and my manners towards my handsome guests
and with my conversation which evidently interested the ambassador highly the serious character of a first meeting did not prevent the utterance of witty jests for in that respect m de bernis was a true frenchman
i have travelled much i have deeply studied men individually and in a body but i have never met with true sociability except in frenchmen they alone know how to jest and it is rare delicate
refined jesting which animates conversation and makes society charming during our delightful supper wit was never wanting
led the conversation to the romantic combination which had given her occasion to know me naturally she proceeded to speak of my passion for c c and she gave such an interesting description of that young girl
that the ambassador listened with as much attention as if he had never seen the object of it but that was his part for he was not aware that i had been informed of his having witnessed from his hiding place my silly interview with c c
he told m m that he would have been delighted if she had brought her young friend to sup with us that would be running too great a risk answered the cunning nun but if you approve of it she added looking at me
i can make you sup with her at my casino for we sleep in the same room that offer surprised me much but it was not the moment to shew it so i replied it is impossible madam to add anything to the pleasure of your society
yet i confess i should be pleased if you could contrive to do us that great favour well i will think of it but observed the ambassador if i am to be one of the party i think it would be right to apprize the young lady of it
i will do so to morrow i begged the ambassador to prepare himself with a good stock of indulgence for a girl of fifteen who had no experience of the world in the course of the evening i related the history of o morphi
which greatly amused him he entreated me to let him see her portrait he informed me that she was still an inmate of the parc aux cerfs
my guests left me after midnight highly pleased and i remained alone the next morning faithful to the promise i had made to my beautiful nun i wrote to c c without informing her that there would be a fourth person
at the projected supper and having given my note to laura i repaired to muran where i found the following letter from m m i could not sleep soundly my love if i did not ease my conscience
perhaps you did not approve of the partie carree with our young friend and you may not have objected out of mere politeness tell me the truth dearest for should you not look forward to that meeting with pleasure i can contrive to undo it
without implicating you in any way trust me for that if however you have no objection to the party it will take place as agreed believe me i love your soul more than your heart i mean than your person adieu
i expected your letter my best beloved and you cannot doubt it because as you know me thoroughly you must be aware that i know you as well yes i know your mind
i do penance for it dearest when i think that having raised your suspicions your tenderness for me must have been weakened forget my visions i beg and be quite certain that for the future my soul will be in unison with yours
the supper must take place it will be a pleasure for me but let me confess that in accepting it i have shewn myself more grateful than polite c c is a novice and i am not sorry to give her an opportunity of seeing the world
in what school could she learn better than yours therefore i recommend her to you and you will please me much by continuing to shew your care and friendship towards her
and by increasing if possible the sum of your goodness i fear that you may entice her to take the veil and if she did i would never console myself your friend has quite captivated me he is a superior man and truly charming
thus did i wittingly deprive myself of the power of drawing back but i was able to realize the full force of the situation
who not being in a position to object to it was compelled to shew herself compliant and to assist him in everything that could render his passion successful
she could certainly not do anything without my consent and she had evidently considered the affair too delicate to venture upon proposing the party point blank to me they had no doubt put their heads together
so that by bringing the conversation on that subject i should find myself compelled for the sake of politeness and perhaps of my inward feelings to fall into the snare the ambassador whose profession it was to carry on intrigues skilfully
and i had taken the bait as he wished there was nothing left for me but to put a good face on the matter not only so as not to shew myself a very silly being but also in order not to prove myself shamefully ungrateful towards a man
who had granted me unheard of privileges nevertheless the consequence of it all was likely to be some coolness in my feelings towards both my mistresses m m had become conscious of this after she had returned to the convent
and wishing to screen herself from all responsibility she had lost no time in writing to me that she would cause the projected supper to be abandoned in case i should disapprove of it but she knew very well that i would not accept her offer
particularly towards a person who is not tainted by that base passion and has proved it the next day having gone early to the casino i found the ambassador already there and he welcomed me in the most friendly manner
where i should certainly have made my fortune now when i think of that i say to myself that might have been the case but of what good would it have been to me perhaps i should have fallen a victim of the revolution like so many others
i do not wish to make m m unhappy we were conversing in all confidence when m m arrived with her young friend who showed her surprise at seeing another man with me but i encouraged her by the most tender welcome
and she recovered all her composure when she saw the delight of the stranger at being answered by her in good french it gave us both an opportunity of paying the warmest compliments to the mistress who had taught her so well c c was truly charming
her looks bright and modest at the same time seemed to say to me you must belong to me
yet i trembled lest he should fall in love with her what an enigma i was intent myself upon a work which would have caused me to murder any man who dared to undertake it during the supper which was worthy of a king
the ambassador treated c c with the most delicate attentions wit cheerfulness decent manners attended our delightful party
with which a frenchman knows how to season every conversation an observing critic who without being acquainted with us wished to guess whether love was present at our happy party might have suspected perhaps but he certainly could not have affirmed
that it was there m m treated the ambassador as a friend
and she behaved to c c with the tender affection of a sister m de bernis was kind polite and amiable with m m but he never ceased to take the greatest interest in every word uttered by c c
who played her part to perfection because she had only to follow her own nature and that nature being beautiful c c could not fail to be most charming we had passed five delightful hours
and the ambassador seemed more pleased even than any of us m m had the air of a person satisfied with her own work and i was playing the part of an approving spectator
c c looked highly pleased at having secured the general approbation and there was perhaps a slight feeling of vanity in her arising from the special attention which the ambassador had bestowed on her
she looked at me smiling and i could easily understand the language of her soul by which she wished to tell me that she felt perfectly well the difference between the society in which she was then
after midnight it was time to think of our departure and m de bernis undertook all the complimentary part
he contrived to make her offer a repetition of it for two days afterwards and he asked me for the sake of appearance whether i should not find as much delight in that second meeting as himself could he have any doubt of my answering affirmatively i believe not
all being agreed we parted company the next day when i thought of that exemplary supper i had no difficulty in guessing what the ultimate result would be the ambassador owed his great fortune entirely to the fair sex
because he possessed to the highest degree the art of coddling love and as his nature was eminently voluptuous he found his advantage in it because he knew how to call desires into existence
and this procured him enjoyments worthy of his delicate taste i saw that he was deeply in love with c c and i was far from supposing him the man to be satisfied with looking at her lovely eyes he certainly had some plan arranged
in spite of all her honesty was the prime manager of it i knew that she would carry it on with such delicate skill that i should not see any evidence of it although i did not feel disposed to shew more compliance than was strictly just
i foresaw that in the end i should be the dupe and my poor c c the victim of a cunningly contrived trick i could not make up my mind either to consent with a good grace
or to throw obstacles in the way and believing my dear little wife incapable of abandoning herself to anything likely to displease me i allowed myself to be taken off my guard and to rely upon the difficulty of seducing her
stupid calculation self love and shamefacedness prevented me from using my common sense at all events that intrigue kept me in a state of fever because i was afraid of its consequences
and yet curiosity mastered me to such an extent that i was longing for the result i knew very well that a second edition of the supper did not imply that the same play would be performed a second time
i could not lead the intrigue but i believed myself sufficiently skilful to baffle all their manoeuvrings after all those considerations however considerations which enabled me to assume the countenance of false bravery
the inexperience of c c who in spite of all the knowledge she had lately acquired was only a novice caused me great anxiety it was easy to abuse her natural wish to be polite
m m would never be guilty of such base treason all these thoughts worthy only of a weak and bashful jealousy brought no conclusive decision i had to follow the current and watch events
at the appointed time i repaired to the casino where i found my two lovely friends sitting by the fire good evening my two divinities where is our charming frenchman he has not arrived yet answered m m
but he will doubtless soon be here i took off my mask and sitting between them i gave them a thousand kisses taking good care not to shew any preference and although i knew that they were aware of the unquestionable right i had upon both of them
i congratulated them upon the mutual inclination they felt for each other and i saw that they were pleased not to have to blush on that account more than one hour was spent in gallant and friendly conversation
without my giving any satisfaction to my burning desires m m attracted me more than c c but i would not for the world have offended the charming girl m m was beginning to shew some anxiety about the absence of m de bernis
a courier he wrote who arrived two hours ago prevents my being happy to night for i am compelled to pass it in answering the dispatches i have received
may i hope that you will kindly grant me on friday the pleasure of which i am so unfortunately deprived to day let me know your answer by to morrow i wish ardently in that case to find you with the same guests
well said m m it is not his fault we will sup without him will you come on friday yes
very well dear i am glad he has rendered you so sensible
could anyone be insensible to his merit better still but i agree with you only tell me if you love him well even if i loved him do you think i would go and tell him besides i am certain that he loves my friend
which made me laugh heartily far from troubling their sport i excited them in order to enjoy a spectacle with which i had long been acquainted
you would oblige me for the bed being large we can all three sleep comfortably in it
and she wished to destroy that suspicion by her proposal the table having been laid in front of the alcove supper was served and we all did honour to it we were all blessed with a devouring appetite
while m m was teaching her friend how to mix punch i was admiring with delight the progress made in beauty by c c your bosom i said to her
would you like to see for yourself of course i did not refuse m m unlaced her friend who made no resistance and performing afterwards the same office upon herself in less than two minutes i was admiring four rivals contending for the golden apple
like the three goddesses and which would have set at defiance the handsome paris himself to adjudge the prize without injustice need i say what an ardent fire that ravishing sight sent coursing through my veins
i placed immediately an the table the academie des dames and pointed out a certain position to m m who understanding my wishes said to c c will you darling represent that group with me
she was not yet inured to amorous pleasures as much as her lovely teacher while i was laughing with delight the two friends were getting ready
and in a state of nature at first satisfied with enjoying the sight of the barren contest of my two bacchanalians i was amused by their efforts and by the contrast of colours for one was dark and the other fair
i threw myself upon them and i made them one after the other almost faint away from the excess of love and enjoyment
chapter twelve the future latent in the people as for the parisian populace even when a man grown it is always the street arab to paint the child is to paint the city
and it is for that reason that we have studied this eagle
that the parisian race appears there is the pure blood there is the true physiognomy there this people toils and suffers and suffering and toil are the two faces of man
there exist there immense numbers of unknown beings among whom swarm types of the strangest
to the knacker of montfaucon fex urbis exclaims cicero mob adds burke indignantly rabble multitude populace these are words and quickly uttered but so be it
what does it matter what is it to me if they do go barefoot they do not know how to read so much the worse would you abandon them for that would you turn their distress into a malediction cannot the light penetrate these masses
let us return to that cry light and let us obstinately persist therein light light who knows whether these opacities will not become transparent are not revolutions transfigurations
teach enlighten light up think aloud speak aloud hasten joyously to the great sun fraternize with the public place announce the good news spend your alphabets lavishly proclaim rights
sing the marseillaises sow enthusiasms tear green boughs from the oaks make a whirlwind of the idea this crowd may be rendered sublime
let us learn how to make use of that vast conflagration of principles and virtues which sparkles bursts forth and quivers at certain hours
these bare arms these rags these ignorances these abjectnesses these darknesses may be employed in the conquest of the ideal gaze past the people
and you will perceive truth let that vile sand which you trample under foot be cast into the furnace let it melt and seethe there it will become a splendid crystal
that galileo and newton
but he did not get them from his father
some people or other had clothed him in rags out of charity
he was one of those children most deserving of pity among all one of those who have father and mother and who are orphans nevertheless this child never felt so well as when he was in the street
the pavements were less hard to him than his mother's heart his parents had despatched him into life with a kick he simply took flight he was a boisterous pallid nimble wide awake jeering lad
he went and came sang played at hopscotch scraped the gutters stole a little but like cats and sparrows gayly laughed when he was called a rogue and got angry when called a thief he had no shelter no bread
no fire no love but he was merry because he was free when these poor creatures grow to be men the millstones of the social order meet them and crush them but so long as they are children
they escape because of their smallness the tiniest hole saves them nevertheless abandoned as this child was it sometimes happened every two or three months that he said come i'll go and see mamma
then he quitted the boulevard the cirque the porte saint martin descended to the quays crossed the bridges reached the suburbs arrived at the salpetriere and came to a halt where
precisely at that double number fifty fifty two with which the reader is acquainted at the gorbeau hovel at that epoch the hovel fifty fifty two generally deserted and eternally decorated with the placard
chambers to let chanced to be a rare thing inhabited by numerous individuals who however as is always the case in paris had no connection with each other
and which extends from misery to misery into the lowest depths of society down to those two beings in whom all the material things of civilization end the sewer man who sweeps up the mud and the ragpicker
who collects scraps the principal lodger of jean valjean's day was dead
i know not what philosopher has said old women are never lacking this new old woman was named madame bourgon and had nothing remarkable about her life except a dynasty of three paroquets who had reigned in succession over her soul
the most miserable of those who inhabited the hovel were a family of four persons consisting of father mother and two daughters already well grown all four of whom were lodged in the same attic one of the cells which we have already mentioned
the father when he hired the chamber had stated that his name was jondrette some time after his moving in which had borne a singular resemblance to the entrance of nothing at all to borrow the memorable expression of the principal tenant
who like her predecessor was at the same time portress and stair sweeper mother so and so if any one should chance to come and inquire for a pole or an italian or even a spaniard perchance it is i
this family was that of the merry barefoot boy he arrived there and found distress and what is still sadder no smile a cold hearth and cold hearts
when he entered he was asked whence come you he replied from the street when he went away they asked him whither are you going he replied into the streets
his mother said to him what did you come here for this child lived in this absence of affection like the pale plants which spring up in cellars
he did not know exactly how a father and mother should be nevertheless his mother loved his sisters
that on the boulevard du temple this child was called
why was he called little gavroche probably because his father's name was jondrette it seems to be the instinct of certain wretched families to break the thread the chamber which the jondrettes inhabited
in the gorbeau hovel was the last at the end of the corridor the cell next to it was occupied by a very poor young man who was called
idea of the roman jurisprudence
the laws of the kings
the laws of the people the decrees of the senate
the civil jurisprudence was digested in the immortal works of the code
wise or fortunate is the prince who connects his own reputation with the honor or interest of a perpetual order of men the defence of their founder is the first cause which in every age has exercised the zeal
and industry of the civilians they piously commemorate his virtues dissemble or deny his failings and fiercely chastise the guilt or folly of the rebels who presume to sully the majesty of the purple
the idolatry of love has provoked as it usually happens the rancor of opposition the character of justinian has been exposed to the blind vehemence of flattery and invective and the injustice of a sect the anti tribonians
interested only for the truth and candor of history
and clothed the walls of such spacious libraries in a single if possible in a short chapter
and a general assembly of the people war and religion were administered by the supreme magistrate and he alone proposed the laws which were debated in the senate and finally ratified or rejected by a majority of votes
or parishes of the city romulus numa and servius tullius are celebrated as the most ancient legislators and each of them claims his peculiar part
and the authority of parents which may seem to draw their origin from nature itself are ascribed to the untutored wisdom of romulus the law of nations and of religious worship which numa introduced
was derived from his nocturnal converse with the nymph egeria the civil law is attributed to the experience of servius
and guarded by fifty new regulations the observance of contracts and the punishment of crimes the state which he had inclined towards a democracy was changed by the last tarquin into a lawless despotism
and when the kingly office was abolished the patricians engrossed the benefits of freedom the royal laws became odious or obsolete
the citizens of rome still complained that they were ruled by the arbitrary sentence of the magistrates
he imparted his knowledge to the legislators of rome
the sole coin of the infant state
relieved the wants of a people whose agriculture was often interrupted by war and faction
might return from the same harbors with a more precious cargo of political wisdom the colonies of great greece had transported and improved the arts of their mother country
crotona and tarentum agrigentum and syracuse were in the rank of the most flourishing cities the disciples of pythagoras applied philosophy to the use of government
both livy and dionysius are willing to believe that the deputies of rome visited athens under the wise and splendid administration of pericles and the laws of solon were transfused into the twelve tables
if such an embassy had indeed been received from the barbarians of hesperia
but the athenian monuments are silent
that the patricians should undertake a long and perilous navigation to copy the purest model of democracy in the comparison of the tables of solon with those of the decemvirs
some casual resemblance may be found some rules which nature and reason have revealed to every society
the frailty of the sexes was assimilated to poison or assassination to sorcery or parricide the same penalties were inflicted on the passive and active guilt of paederasty
and all criminals of free or servile condition were either drowned or beheaded or cast alive into the avenging flames the adulterers were spared by the common sympathy of mankind
but the lovers of their own sex were pursued by general and pious indignation the impure manners of greece still prevailed in the cities of asia and every vice was fomented by the celibacy of the monks and clergy
justinian relaxed the punishment at least of female infidelity the guilty spouse was only condemned to solitude and penance
but the same emperor declared himself the implacable enemy of unmanly lust and the cruelty of his persecution
he stretched to past as well as future offences the operations of his edicts
a painful death was inflicted by the amputation of the sinful instrument
and justinian defended the propriety of the execution
in this state of disgrace and agony two bishops isaiah of rhodes and alexander of diospolis were dragged through the streets of constantinople
to observe this awful lesson and not to pollute the sanctity of their character perhaps these prelates were innocent a sentence of death and infamy was often founded on the slight and suspicious evidence of a child or a servant
the guilt of the green faction of the rich and of the enemies of theodora
but the sacred right of appeal soon abolished the jurisdiction of the magistrates and all public causes were decided by the supreme tribunal of the people but a wild democracy superior to the forms
too often disdains the essential principles of justice the pride of despotism
and the heroes of athens might sometimes applaud the happiness of the persian whose fate depended on the caprice of a single tyrant some salutary restraints imposed by the people or their own passions
the right of accusation was confined to the magistrates a vote of the thirty five tribes could inflict a fine but the cognizance of all capital crimes was reserved by a fundamental law to the assembly of the centuries in which the weight of influence and property
was sure to preponderate repeated proclamations and adjournments were interposed to allow time for prejudice and resentment to subside the whole proceeding might be annulled by a seasonable omen or the opposition of a tribune
and such popular trials were commonly less formidable to innocence than they were favorable to guilt but this union of the judicial and legislative powers left it doubtful whether the accused party was pardoned or acquitted
the orators of rome and athens address their arguments to the policy and benevolence
as the citizens and the offenders continually multiplied
or to extraordinary inquisitors in the first ages these questions were rare and occasional in the beginning of the seventh century of rome they were made perpetual
four praetors were annually empowered to sit in judgment on the state offences of treason extortion peculation and bribery and sylla added new praetors and new questions for those crimes which more directly injure the safety of individuals
by these inquisitors the trial was prepared and directed but they could only pronounce the sentence of the majority of judges who with some truth and more prejudice
an annual list of ancient and respectable citizens was formed by the praetor
and the people four hundred and fifty were appointed for single questions and the various rolls or decuries of judges
in each particular cause a sufficient number was drawn from the urn their integrity was guarded by an oath the mode of ballot secured their independence
he often referred to a delegate the determination of the fact with the increase of legal proceedings the tribunal of the centumvirs in which he presided
or with the advice of his council the most absolute powers might be trusted to a magistrate who was annually chosen by the votes of the people the rules and precautions of freedom have required some explanation the order of despotism
is simple and inanimate before the age of justinian or perhaps of diocletian
at least to his children by this civil death and he might still be happy in every rational and sensual enjoyment
could support the uniformity and silence of rhodes or athens
and the legal encouragements of suicide the bodies of condemned criminals were exposed to public ignominy and their children a more serious evil were reduced to poverty by the confiscation of their fortunes
but if the victims of tiberius and nero anticipated the decree of the prince or senate their courage and despatch were recompensed by the applause of the public the decent honors of burial
appear to have deprived the unfortunate of this last consolation
a voluntary death
intervened between the accusation and the sentence
was never revived or imitated by succeeding tyrants
and his arm can only be restrained by the religious apprehension of a future state suicides are enumerated by virgil among the unfortunate
the life or death of a citizen is determined with less caution or delay than the most ordinary question of covenant or inheritance this singular distinction
is derived from the nature of criminal and civil jurisprudence our duties to the state are simple and uniform the law by which he is condemned is inscribed not only on brass or marble but on the conscience of the offender
and his guilt is commonly proved by the testimony of a single fact but our relations to each other are various and infinite our obligations are created annulled and modified by injuries benefits and promises
and the interpretation of voluntary contracts and testaments which are often dictated by fraud or ignorance affords a long and laborious exercise to the sagacity of the judge the business of life is multiplied by the extent of commerce and dominion
and the residence of the parties in the distant provinces of an empire is productive of doubt delay and inevitable appeals from the local to the supreme magistrate justinian the greek emperor of constantinople and the east
was the legal successor of the latin shepherd who had planted a colony on the banks of the tyber in a period of thirteen hundred years the laws had reluctantly followed the changes of government and manners and the laudable desire of conciliating ancient names with recent institutions
destroyed the harmony and swelled the magnitude of the obscure and irregular system the laws which excuse on any occasions the ignorance of their subjects confess their own imperfections the civil jurisprudence
still continued a mysterious science and a profitable trade and the innate perplexity of the study was involved in tenfold darkness by the private industry of the practitioners the expense of the pursuit sometimes exceeded the value of the prize
and the fairest rights were abandoned by the poverty or prudence of the claimants such costly justice might tend to abate the spirit of litigation but the unequal pressure serves only to increase the influence of the rich
and to aggravate the misery of the poor by these dilatory and expensive proceedings the wealthy pleader obtains a more certain advantage than he could hope from the accidental corruption of his judge the experience of an abuse
from which our own age and country are not perfectly exempt may sometimes provoke a generous indignation and extort the hasty wish of exchanging our elaborate jurisprudence
our calmer reflection will suggest that such forms and delays are necessary to guard the person and property of the citizen that the discretion of the judge is the first engine of tyranny and that the laws of a free people
should foresee and determine every question that may probably arise in the exercise of power
but the government of justinian united the evils of liberty and servitude
they inculcate the soundest principles of government and morals and i am not afraid to affirm
the libraries of grecian philosophy how admirable
with honest or affected prejudice
is the wisdom of our ancestors we alone are the masters of civil prudence and our superiority is the more conspicuous if we deign to cast our eyes on the rude and almost ridiculous jurisprudence of draco of solon
the twelve tables were committed to the memory of the young and the meditation of the old they were transcribed and illustrated with learned diligence they had escaped the flames of the gauls they subsisted in the age of justinian
and variety of new laws which at the end of five centuries
thousand brass plates the acts of the senate of the people
as the julian law against extortion
and only ninety five were left for the six inferior classes distributed according to their substance by the artful policy of servius but the tribunes soon established a more specious and popular maxim
that every citizen has an equal right to enact the laws which he is bound to obey instead of the centuries they convened the tribes
after an impotent struggle submitted to the decrees of an assembly in which their votes were confounded with those of the meanest plebeians yet
the general was followed by his veterans and the aspect of a grave magistrate was a living lesson to the multitude a new method of secret ballot
and the abuse of freedom accelerated the progress of anarchy
they were levelled by the equality of servitude and the dictates of augustus were patiently ratified by the formal consent of the tribes or centuries once and once only
he experienced a sincere and strenuous opposition his subjects had resigned all political liberty they defended the freedom of domestic life a law which enforced the obligation and strengthened the bonds of marriage
was clamorously rejected propertius in the arms of delia applauded the victory of licentious love and the project of reform was suspended till a new and more tractable generation had arisen in the world
of the mischief of popular assemblies and their abolition which augustus had silently prepared was accomplished without resistance and almost without notice
and poverty secure were supplanted by six hundred senators who held their honors their fortunes and their lives by the clemency of the emperor the loss of executive power
was alleviated by the gift of legislative authority
the cornelian pompeian and julian laws were adapted by a single hand to the prevailing disorders
and the proconsuls at rome and in the provinces
were proclaimed and the civil jurisprudence was reformed by the annual edicts of the supreme judge
he announced by the voice of the crier and afterwards inscribed on a white wall
and the relief which his equity would afford from the precise rigor of ancient statutes a principle of discretion more congenial to monarchy was introduced into the republic the art of respecting the name and eluding the efficacy of the laws
was improved by successive praetors subtleties and fictions were invented to defeat the plainest meaning of the decemvirs and where the end was salutary the means were frequently absurd
accepted with equal pleasure from an indulgent praetor the possession of the goods of his late kinsman or benefactor in the redress of private wrongs compensations and fines were substituted to the obsolete rigor of the twelve tables
time and space were annihilated by fanciful suppositions and the plea of youth or fraud or violence
of an inconvenient contract a jurisdiction thus vague and arbitrary was exposed to the most dangerous abuse the substance as well as the form of justice were often sacrificed to the prejudices of virtue
the bias of laudable affection and the grosser seductions of interest or resentment but the errors or vices of each praetor expired with his annual office
such maxims alone as had been approved by reason and practice were copied by succeeding judges the rule of proceeding was defined by the solution of new cases
which compelled the praetor of the year
to accomplish the design which had been conceived by the genius of caesar and the praetorship of salvius julian an eminent lawyer was immortalized by the composition
without disguise the plenitude of legislative power and this innovation so agreeable to his active mind was countenanced by the patience of the times and his long absence from the seat of government
the same policy was embraced by succeeding monarchs and according to the harsh metaphor of tertullian
the gloomy and intricate forest of ancient laws was cleared away by the axe of royal mandates and constitutions
were permitted to stand on their former basis the origin of imperial legislation was concealed by the darkness of ages and the terrors of armed despotism
by the servility or perhaps the ignorance of the civilians
the people or the senate had sometimes granted a personal exemption from the obligation and penalty of particular statutes and each indulgence was an act of jurisdiction exercised by the republic over the first of her citizens his humble privilege
was at length transformed into the prerogative of a tyrant and the latin expression of
above all human restraints and to leave his conscience and reason
was implied in the decrees of the senate which in every reign defined the titles and powers of an elective magistrate
and even the language of the romans had been corrupted
though false in fact and slavish in its consequence was supported on a principle of freedom and justice
the pleasure of the emperor has the vigor and effect of law since the roman people by the royal law
of a child perhaps was allowed to prevail over the wisdom of ages and the inclinations of millions and the degenerate greeks were proud to declare
that in his hands alone the arbitrary exercise of legislation could be safely deposited
can reach the calm and sublime elevation of the monarch he is already master of the lives and fortunes of his subjects
are already numbered with the dead
the historian may confess that in questions of private jurisprudence the absolute sovereign of a great empire can seldom be influenced by any personal considerations virtue or even reason
will suggest to his impartial mind that he is the guardian of peace and equity and that the interest of society is inseparably connected with his own under the weakest and most vicious reign
a dagger terminated the crimes of domitian but the prudence of nerva confirmed his acts which in the joy of their deliverance had been rescinded
the wisest of princes might be deceived by a partial exposition of the case and this abuse which placed their hasty decisions on the same level with mature and deliberate acts of legislation
the rescripts of the emperor his grants and decrees his edicts and pragmatic sanctions
but as their number continually multiplied the rule of obedience became each day more doubtful and obscure till the will of the sovereign was fixed and ascertained in the gregorian the hermogenian
were framed by two private lawyers to preserve the constitutions of the pagan emperors from adrian to constantine the third which is still extant
the meanest thing to which we bid adieu loses its meanness in the parting hour elliott
it was noisy and smoky and the poor people whom she saw in the streets were dirty and the rich ladies over dressed and not a man that she saw high or low had his clothes made to fit him
she was sure margaret would never regain her lost strength while she stayed in milton and she herself was afraid of one of her old attacks of the nerves margaret must return with her and that quickly
till the latter weak weary and broken spirited yielded a reluctant promise that as soon as wednesday was over she would prepare to accompany her aunt back to town
leaving dixon in charge of all the arrangements for paying bills disposing of furniture and shutting up the house before that wednesday that mournful wednesday when mister hale was to be interred
far away from either of the homes he had known in life and far away from the wife who lay lonely among strangers and this last was margaret's great trouble for she thought
that if she had not given way to that overwhelming stupor during the first sad days she could have arranged things otherwise before that wednesday margaret received a letter from mister bell
my dear margaret i did mean to have returned to milton on thursday but unluckily it turns out to be one of the rare occasions when we plymouth fellows are called upon to perform any kind of duty
and i must not be absent from my post captain lennox and mister thornton are here the former seems a smart well meaning man and has proposed to go over to milton and assist you in any search for the will
of course there is none or you would have found it by this time if you followed my directions then the captain declares he must take you and his mother in law home and
however that dixon of yours is trusty and can hold her or your own till i come i will put matters into the hands of my milton attorney if there is no will for i doubt this smart captain is no great man of business
there will have to be a sale so select what things you wish reserved or you can send a list afterwards now two things more and i have done you know or if you don't your poor father did
that you are to have my money and goods when i die
and perhaps may continue to be perhaps not so it is best to start with a formal agreement namely that you are to pay them two hundred and fifty pounds a year as long as you and they find it pleasant to live together
this of course includes dixon mind you don't be cajoled into paying any more for her then you won't be thrown adrift if some day the captain wishes to have his house to himself
but you can carry yourself and your two hundred and fifty pounds off somewhere else if indeed i have not claimed you to come and keep house for me first then as to dress
and dixon and personal expenses and confectionery all young ladies eat confectionery till wisdom comes by age i shall consult some lady of my acquaintance and see how much you will have from your father before fixing this
now margaret have you flown out before you have read this far and wondered what right the old man has to settle your affairs for you so cavalierly i make no doubt you have yet the old man has a right
he stood beside him on his wedding day he closed his eyes in death moreover he is your godfather and as he cannot do you much good spiritually having a hidden consciousness of your superiority in such things
he would fain do you the poor good of endowing you materially and the old man has not a known relation on earth who is there to mourn for adam bell and his whole heart is set and bent upon this one thing
and margaret hale is not the girl to say him nay write by return if only two lines to tell me your answer but no thanks
margaret took up a pen and scrawled with trembling hand margaret hale is not the girl to say him nay in her weak state she could not think of any other words
that if she could have thought of another form of acceptance
she was obliged to lie down again and try not to think my dearest child has that letter vexed or troubled you no said margaret feebly i shall be better when to morrow is over
i feel sure darling you won't be better till i get you out of this horrid air
where could i go to i could not leave papa and mamma well don't distress yourself my dear i dare say it was all for the best only i had no conception of how you were living
our butler's wife lives in a better house than this it is sometimes very pretty in summer you can't judge by what it is now i have been very happy here
and margaret closed her eyes by way of stopping the conversation the house teemed with comfort now compared to what it had done the evenings were chilly and by missus shaw's directions fires were lighted in every bedroom
she petted margaret in every possible way and bought every delicacy or soft luxury in which she herself would have burrowed and sought comfort but margaret was indifferent to all these things or
if they forced themselves upon her attention it was simply as causes for gratitude to her aunt who was putting herself so much out of her way to think of her she was restless though so weak
all the day long she kept herself from thinking of the ceremony which was going on at oxford
and languidly setting aside such articles as she wished to retain dixon followed her by missus shaw's desire ostensibly to receive instructions
these books dixon i will keep all the rest will you send to mister bell they are of a kind that he will value for themselves as well as for papa's sake this
and she sate down hastily as if afraid of thinking and wrote dear sir the accompanying book i am sure will be valued by you for the sake of my father to whom it belonged yours sincerely
margaret hale she set out again upon her travels through the house turning over articles known to her from her childhood
old fashioned worn and shabby as they might be but she hardly spoke again and dixon's report to missus shaw was that
though she talked the whole time in order to divert her attention the consequence of being on her feet all day was excessive bodily weariness in the evening
at breakfast time the next day she expressed her wish to go and bid one or two friends good bye missus shaw objected
i am sure my dear you can have no friends here with whom you are sufficiently intimate to justify you in calling upon them so soon before you have been at church
but to day is my only day if captain lennox comes this afternoon and if we must if i must really go to morrow oh yes we shall go to morrow
besides edith expects us and she may be waiting me and you cannot be left alone my dear at your age no if you must pay these calls i will go with you dixon can get us a coach i suppose
so missus shaw went to take care of margaret and took her maid with her to take care of the shawls and air cushions margaret's face was too sad to lighten up into a smile at all this preparation
for paying two visits that she had often made by herself at all hours of the day she was half afraid of owning that one place to which she was going was nicholas higgins
all she could do was to hope her aunt would be indisposed to get out of the coach
hanging out to dry on ropes stretched from house to house there was a little battle in missus shaw's
but the former gained the day and with many an injunction to margaret to be careful of herself and not to catch any fever such as was always lurking in such places her aunt permitted her to go where she had often been before
without taking any precaution or requiring any permission
she began to cry and sob with so little restraint
which had suggested themselves to her as she was coming along in the coach
at some possible time in some possible place and bid her tell her father how much she wished if he could manage it that he should come to see her when he had done his work in the evening
as she was leaving the place she stopped and looked round then hesitated a little before she said i should like to have some little thing to remind me of bessy
instantly mary's generosity was keenly alive
which she remembered as the one always standing by bessy's side with drink for her feverish lips mary said oh take summut better that only cost fourpence
that will do thank you said margaret and she went quickly away while the light caused by the pleasure of having something to give yet lingered on mary's face
now to missus thornton's thought she to herself it must be done
who missus thornton was and why she should go to bid her farewell they for missus shaw alighted here were shown into the drawing room
missus shaw huddled herself up in her shawl and shivered what an icy room she said they had to wait for some time before missus thornton entered
now that she was going away out of her sight
even more than the patience with which she had endured long and wearing cares her countenance was blander than usual as she greeted her there was even a shade of tenderness in her manner as she noticed the white
tear swollen face and the quiver in the voice which margaret tried to make so steady allow me to introduce my aunt missus shaw i am going away from milton to morrow
but i wanted to see you once again missus thornton to to apologise for my manner the last time i saw you and to say that i am sure you meant kindly however much we may have misunderstood each other
thanks for kindness and apologies for failure in good manners but missus thornton replied miss hale i am glad you do me justice
i did no more than i believed to be my duty in remonstrating with you as i did i have always desired to act the part of a friend to you i am glad you do me justice and
said margaret blushing excessively as she spoke will you do me justice and believe that though i cannot i do not choose to give explanations of my conduct
margaret's voice was so soft and her eyes so pleading
yes i do believe you let us say no more about it where are you going to reside miss hale i understood from mister bell that you were going to leave milton you never liked milton you know
said missus thornton with a sort of grim smile but for all that you must not expect me to congratulate you on quitting it where shall you live with my aunt
replied margaret turning towards missus shaw my niece will reside with me in harley street
said missus shaw looking fondly at margaret and i am glad to acknowledge my own obligation for any kindness that has been shown to her if you and your husband ever come to town my son and daughter
captain and missus lennox will i am sure join with me in wishing to do anything in our power to show you attention missus thornton thought in her own mind that margaret had not taken much care to enlighten her aunt
as to the relationship between the mister and missus thornton towards whom the fine lady aunt was extending her soft patronage so she answered shortly my husband is dead mister thornton is my son
i never go to london so i am not likely to be able to avail myself of your polite offers at this instant mister thornton entered the room he had only just returned from oxford
his mourning suit spoke of the reason that had called him there john said his mother this lady is missus shaw miss hale's aunt i am sorry to say that miss hale's call is to wish us good bye
you are going then said he in a low voice yes said margaret we leave to morrow my son in law comes this evening to escort us said missus shaw
mister thornton turned away he had not sat down and now he seemed to be examining something on the table almost as if he had discovered an unopened letter which had made him forget the present company
he did not even seem to be aware when they got up to take leave he started forwards however to hand missus shaw down to the carriage as it drove up he and margaret stood close together on the door step
and it was impossible but that the recollection of the day of the riot should force itself into both their minds into his it came associated with the speeches of the following day
her passionate declaration that there was not a man in all that violent and desperate crowd for whom she did not care as much as for him and at the remembrance of her taunting words his brow grew stern
though his heart beat thick with longing love no said he i put it to the touch once and i lost it all let her go with her stony heart and her beauty
how set and terrible her look is now for all her loveliness of feature
let her go beauty and heiress as she may be she will find it hard to meet with a truer heart than mine
and there was no tone of regret or emotion of any kind in the voice with which he said good bye and the offered hand was taken with a resolute calmness
but none in his household saw mister thornton again that day he was busily engaged or so he said margaret's strength was so utterly exhausted by these visits
that she had to submit to much watching and petting and sighing i told you so's from her aunt dixon said she was quite as bad as she had been on the first day she heard of her father's death
and she and missus shaw consulted as to the desirableness of delaying the morrow's journey but when her aunt reluctantly proposed a few days delay to margaret
her body as if in acute suffering and said oh let us go i cannot be patient here i shall not get well here i want to forget so the arrangements went on
and captain lennox came and with him news of edith and the little boy and margaret found that the indifferent careless conversation of one who however kind was not too warm and anxious a sympathiser
did her good she roused up and by the time that she knew she might expect higgins she was able to leave the room quietly and await in her own chamber the expected summons
mister hale said i
then said i there's as good a man gone as ever lived on this earth let who will be t other and i came to see yo and tell yo how grieved i were
they said yo were ill and butter me
and yo're going to be a grand lady up lunnon aren't yo not a grand lady said margaret half smiling well thornton said says he a day or two ago
higgins have yo seen miss hale no says i there's a pack o women who won't let me at her but i can bide my time if she's ill
just because i can't get at her and tell her so and says he yo'll not have much time for to try and see her my fine chap she's not for staying with us a day longer nor she can help
she's got grand relations and they're carrying her off and we sha'n't see her no more
if i dunnot see her afore hoo goes i'll strive to get up to lunnun next whissuntide that i will i'll not be baulked of saying her good bye by any relations whatsomdever
but bless yo i knowed yo'd come
you're quite right said margaret you only do me justice and you'll not forget me i'm sure if no one else in milton remembers me i'm certain you will and papa too
you know how good and how tender he was
i have kept it for you i can ill spare it but i know he would have liked you to have it
and study what is in it for his sake yo may say that
i'd do it whatten's this wench
so dunnot think it we've been great friends bout the sound o money passing between us for the children for boucher's children said margaret hurriedly they may need it you've no right to refuse it for them
in the early summer of sixteen seventy two when william resolved to concentrate all his available forces for the defence of holland covered by its water line the military situation was apparently hopeless
had turenne and luxemburg made a united effort to force this line at the opening of the campaign the probability is that they would have succeeded instead of doing so they expended their energies in the capture of a number of fortified places in gelderland overyssel
and north brabant and in the meantime the stadholder was week by week strengthening the weak points in his defences encouraging his men personally supervising every detail and setting an example of unshaken courage and of ceaseless industry
he had at his side as his field marshal george frederick count of waldeck an officer of experience and skill who had entered the republic's service
after a siege lasting from july ninth to august twenty eighth had to retire from groningen the french armies were all this time being constantly weakened
by having to place garrisons in the conquered provinces and neither turenne nor luxemburg felt strong enough to attack the strongly protected dutch frontiers behind the water line the prince however was not content with inaction
assuming the offensive he ventured on a series of attacks on naarden and on woerden raised the siege of maestricht and finally made an attempt to cut the french communications by a march upon charleroi all these raids
a hard frost in december enabled luxemburg to penetrate into holland but a rapid thaw compelled a hasty withdrawal the only road open to him was blocked by a fortified post at nieuwerbrug
the colonel was tried on the charge of deserting his post and shot
alarm at the rapid growth of the french power brought at last both spanish and austrian assistance to the hard pressed netherlands and the courage and skill of de ruyter held successfully at bay the united fleets of england and france and effectually prevented the landing of an army on the dutch coast
never did de ruyter exhibit higher qualities of leadership than in the naval campaign of sixteen seventy three his fleet was greatly inferior in numbers to the combined anglo french fleet under prince rupert and d'estrees
a stubborn action took place near the mouth of the scheldt on june seventh in which the english had little assistance from the french squadron and finally retired to the estuary of the thames
all attempts however to pass the water line and enter holland met with failure and as the summer drew to its close the advance of imperial and spanish forces began to render the position of the french precarious
william seized his opportunity in september to capture naarden before luxemburg could advance to its relief he then took a bolder step in october at the head of an army of twenty five thousand men of whom fifteen thousand were spanish he marched to cologne and
after effecting a junction with the imperial army laid siege to bonn which surrendered on november fifteenth this brilliant stroke had great results the french fearing that their communications might be cut
withdrew from the dutch frontier and at the same time the muenster cologne forces hastily evacuated the eastern provinces
the stadholder before the end of the year entirely freed the country from its invaders once more a prince of orange had saved the dutch republic in its extremity the effect of this was to place almost supreme power in his hands
had the prince at this moment set his heart upon obtaining the title of sovereign he would have had but little difficulty in gratifying his ambition
the most influential man in amsterdam would have supported him
large tracts on the borders of holland utrecht and friesland submerged by the sea waters through the cutting of the dams had been rendered valueless for some years to come
while those parts of holland and zeeland on which the enemy had not set foot had been crushed beneath heavy taxes and the loss of commerce the position of the three provinces utrecht gelderland and overyssel which had been overrun by the french at the opening of hostilities and held by them ever since
had to be re settled they had during this period paid no taxes and had no representation in the states general holland was in favour of reducing them to the status of generality lands until they had paid their arrears
the prince was opposed to any harshness of treatment and his will prevailed the three provinces were re admitted into the union but with shorn privileges and william was elected stadholder by each of them with largely increased powers
the nomination or the choice out of a certain number of nominees of the members of the town corporations of the courts of justice and of the delegates to the states general was granted to him the dutch republic was full of anomalies
in utrecht gelderland and overyssel we have the curious spectacle in the days of william the third of the stadholder who was nominally a servant of the sovereign estates himself appointing his masters as a matter of fact the voice of these provinces was his voice and
as he likewise controlled the estates in zeeland he could always count upon a majority vote in the states general in support of his foreign policy nor was this all holland itself in gratitude for its deliverance had become enthusiastically orangist
it declared the stadholdership hereditary in the male line and its example was followed by zeeland utrecht
gelderland and overyssel while the states general in their turn made the captain and admiral generalship of the union hereditary offices nor was gratitude confined to the conferring of powers and dignities which gave the prince in all but name monarchical authority
with a grant of one thirty third of its dividends
the first step was to conclude peace this was not a difficult task the english parliament and still more the english people had throughout been averse from fighting on the side of the french against the dutch
charles himself had a strong affection for his nephew and began to turn a favourable ear to his proposals for negotiations more especially as his heroic efforts to stem the tide of french invasion had met with so much success
in these circumstances everything was favourable to an understanding and peace was concluded at westminster on february nineteenth sixteen seventy four the terms differed little from those of breda except that the republic
the striking of the flag was conceded surinam remained in dutch hands new york which had been retaken by a squadron under cornelis evertsen august sixteen seventy three was given back to the english crown negotiations were likewise opened with muenster and cologne
and with cologne may eleventh on the basis of the evacuation of all conquered territory france was isolated and opposed now by a strong coalition the republic having secured the help of austria spain brandenburg
and denmark the campaign of the summer of sixteen seventy four thus opened under favouring circumstances but nothing of importance occurred until august eleventh
in hainault the battle was fought out with great obstinacy and there were heavy losses on both sides the french however though inferior in numbers had the advantage in being a more compact force than that of the allies and william poorly supported
by the imperialist contingents had to retire from the field he was never a great strategist but he now conducted a retreat which extracted admiration from his opponents
his talents for command always showed themselves most conspicuously in adverse circumstances his coolness and courage in moments of peril and difficulty never deserted him and though a strict disciplinarian he always retained the confidence and affection of his soldiers
in the hands of the french the war on land dragged on without any decisive results during sixteen seventy five the stadholder was badly supported by his allies and reduced to the defensive
but though tentative efforts were made by the english government to set on foot negotiations for peace and a growing party in holland were beginning to clamour for the cessation of a war which was crippling their trade and draining the resources of the country
the prince was resolutely opposed to the english offer of mediation which he regarded as insincere and premature
he was well aware that there was in england a very strong and widespread opposition to the succession of james duke of york who made no secret of his devoted attachment to the roman catholic faith so strong was the feeling that he had been compelled to resign his post of lord high admiral
the dislike and distrust he aroused had been accentuated by his second marriage to mary of modena a zealous catholic william was the son of the eldest daughter
and to him the eyes of a large party in england were turning
he kept himself well informed of the intrigues of the court and of the state of public opinion by secret agents and entered into clandestine correspondence with prominent statesmen
he was preoccupied with other things and the age of mary she was only twelve rendered it easy for him to postpone his final decision events were to force his hand in sixteen seventy six the french king fearing the power of the coalition that was growing in strength
endeavoured to detach the republic by offering to make a separate peace on generous terms
in sixteen seventy seven however the capture of valenciennes
april eleventh made it more difficult for him to resist the growing impatience of the burgher class in holland and especially of the merchants of amsterdam at his opposition to peace
he was accused of wishing to continue the war from motives of personal ambition and the desire of military glory in february of this year however
it no sooner met than it showed its strong sympathy with the netherlands and the king speedily saw that he could no longer pursue a policy opposed to the wishes of his people when therefore william sent over his most trusted friend and counsellor bentinck
to london on a secret mission in the summer he met with a most favourable reception
william accordingly arrived in london on october nineteenth and the assent of the king and the duke of york being obtained the wedding was celebrated with almost indecent haste it was a purely political union and when early in december the prince and princess of orange set sail for holland
the young girl wept bitterly at having to leave her home for a strange land at the side of a cold unsympathetic husband the weeks he spent in england had been utilised by the prince to good purpose
he persuaded charles to promise his support by land and sea to the netherlands in case the terms of peace offered by the allies were rejected by the french a treaty between the states and great britain giving effect to this promise was actually signed on january twenty ninth sixteen seventy eight
the results however did not answer william's expectations the english parliament and the states alike had no trust in king charles nor was the english match at first popular in holland a strong opposition arose against the prince's war policy
the commercial classes had been hard hit by the french invasion and they were now suffering heavy losses at sea through the dunkirk privateers led by the daring jean bart
the peace party included such tried and trusted statesmen as van beverningh van beuningen and the council pensionary fagel all of them loyal counsellors of the stadholder so resolute was the attitude of amsterdam that the leaders of both municipal parties
valckenier and hooft were agreed in demanding that the french offers of a separate peace should be accepted on the same side was found henry casimir stadholder of friesland who was jealous of his cousin's autocratic exercise of authority
was not slow to take advantage of the situation
william despite the arrival of an english auxiliary force under monmouth could do little to check the enemy's superior forces meanwhile french diplomacy was busy at amsterdam and elsewhere in the states working against the war parties
and by the offer of favourable terms the states general were induced to ask for a truce of six weeks
speedily agreed to conclude peace on the following terms the french to restore maestricht and to evacuate all occupied dutch territory and to make a commercial treaty spain to surrender an important slice of southern flanders
but to be left in possession of a belt of fortresses to cover their netherland possessions against further french attack
the french raised various pretexts to delay the signature of the treaty hoping that meanwhile mons which was closely beleaguered by luxemburg might fall into their hands and thus become an asset which they could exchange for some other possession
the states and the spanish government were both anxious to avoid this and the prince of orange who steadily opposed the treaty returned towards the end of july to his camp to watch the siege of mons and prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy
at the same time july twenty sixth king charles who had been working through sir william temple for the conclusion of peace now declared that unless the treaty was signed before august eleventh he would assist the allies to enforce it
the french diplomatists at nijmwegen had hitherto declared that their troops would not evacuate maestricht and the other places which they had agreed to restore to the states until brandenburg and denmark had evacuated the territory they had conquered from sweden
on august tenth just before time for resuming hostilities had been reached they tactfully conceded this point and promised immediate evacuation if the treaty were at once concluded van beverningh and his colleagues accordingly acting on their instructions
affixed their signatures just before midnight they fell into the trap laid for them for the treaty between france and spain was not yet signed and it was the intention of the french to make further pretexts for delay in the hope that mons meanwhile would fall
the report of the conclusion of peace reached the stadholder in his camp on august thirteenth but unofficially
and he felt that honour compelled him to accept the challenge
a short distance from mons william exposed his life freely and though the result was nominally a drawn battle he achieved his purpose
the treaty was signed on september seventeenth sixteen seventy eight the peace of nijmwegen thus brought hostilities to an end leaving the united provinces in possession of all their territory it lasted ten years but it was only an armed truce
and his tireless opponent the prince of orange henceforth made it the one object of his life to form a grand alliance to curb french ambition and uphold in europe what was henceforth known as the balance of power in setting about this task william was confronted with almost insuperable difficulties
the dutch people generally had suffered terribly in the late invasions and were heartily sick of war the interest of the hollanders and especially of the amsterdammers was absorbed in the peaceful pursuits of commerce
had no attraction for them even had they understood their purpose and motive
they held that it was the business of the republic to attend to its own affairs and to leave louis to pursue his aggressive policy at the expense of other countries so long as he left them alone the ideal which william the third had set before him was the exact reverse of this and
unfortunately for his own country throughout his life he often subordinated its particular interests to the wider european interests which occupied his attention the work of building up afresh a coalition to withstand the ever growing menace of the formidable french power
could scarcely have been more unpromising than it now appeared spain was utterly exhausted and feeble
the attention of the emperor was fully occupied in defending hungary and vienna itself against the turks
a visit made by william to london convinced him that nothing was at present to be hoped for from that quarter at the same time the very able french ambassador at the hague d'avaux did his utmost to foment the divisions and factions in the provinces
he always insisted that he was accredited to the states general
and carried on correspondence and intrigues with the party in amsterdam opposed to the stadholder's anti french policy the cumbrous and complicated system of government enabled him thus to do much to thwart the prince and to throw obstacles in his way
the curious thing is that william was so intent on his larger projects that he was content to use the powers he had without making any serious attempt as he might have done to make the machine of government more workable by reforms in the direction of centralisation
immersed in foreign affairs he left the internal administration in the hands of subordinates chosen rather for their subservience than for their ability and probity
had a large patronage and he shamelessly enriched himself by his venal traffic in the disposal of offices without a word of rebuke from william in whose name he acted on the contrary he continued to enjoy his favour corruption was scarcely less rife in holland
he had waldeck at his side not merely as a military adviser but as a skilful diplomatist well versed in the intricate politics of the smaller german states
proved worthy successors of van beverningh and van beuningen
despite the strong opposition he encountered at amsterdam and some other towns where the interests of commerce reigned supreme
most of them always ready to hire out their armed forces for a subsidy sweden also offered assistance but both england and brandenburg were in secret collusion with france and the emperor would not move owing to the turkish menace
in these circumstances spain was compelled sixteen eighty four by the entry of the armies of louis into the southern netherlands to declare war upon france and called upon the states for their military aid of eight thousand men in accordance with the terms of the treaty of nijmwegen
orange at once referred the matter to the council of state and himself proposed that sixteen thousand should be sent as this however could only mean a renewal of the war with france the proposal met with strong opposition in many quarters
and especially in amsterdam prosperity was just beginning to revive and a remembrance of past experiences filled the hearts of many with dread at the thought of the french armies once more invading their land
the amsterdam regents even went so far as to enter into secret negotiations with d'avaux and they were supported by henry casimir who was always ready to thwart his cousin's policy william was checkmated and at first in his anger
inclined to follow his father's example and crush the opposition of amsterdam by force
the support of a majority in the estates of holland he used this with effect
an intercepted cipher letter from d'avaux being skilfully used to discredit the amsterdam leaders who were accused of traitorous correspondence with a foreign power nevertheless the prince although he was able to override any active opposition at home did not venture
so long as england and brandenburg were on friendly relations with france to put pressure upon the states general the french troops to the prince's chagrin overran flanders and he had no alternative but to concur in the truce for twenty years concluded at ratisbon
august fifteenth sixteen eighty four which left the french king in possession of all his conquests no more conclusive proof of the inflexible resolve of william the third can be found than the patience he now exhibited his faith in himself was never shaken
and his patience in awaiting the favourable moment was inexhaustible to him far more appropriately than to his great grandfather might the name of william the silent have been given he had no confidants except waldeck and william bentinck
and few could even guess at the hidden workings of that scheming mind or at the burning fires of energy and will power beneath the proud and frigid reserve of a man so frail in body and always ailing
very rarely could a born leader of men have been more unamiable or less anxious to win popular applause but his whole demeanour inspired confidence and ignoring the many difficulties and oppositions which thwarted him
he steadfastly bided his time and opportunity it now came quickly for the year sixteen eighty five was marked by two events
and the revocation of the edict of nantes which were to have far reaching consequences the new king of england was not merely a strong but a bigoted roman catholic
wrong headed and fanatical and from the first he aimed at the impossible his attempts to establish absolute rule to bring back the english nation to the fold of the catholic church and as a means to that end
to make himself independent of parliament by accepting subsidies from the french king were bound to end in catastrophe
accession after having for a number of years persecuted the huguenots in defiance of the edict of nantes taken the step of revoking that great instrument of religious toleration on november seventeenth sixteen eighty five
the exile of numerous families who had already been driven out by the dragonnades was now followed by the expulsion of the entire huguenot body of all at least who refused to conform to the catholic faith
how many hundreds of thousands left their homes to find refuge in foreign lands it is impossible to say but amongst them were great numbers of industrious and skilled artisans and handicraftsmen who sought asylum in the dutch republic and there found a ready and sympathetic welcome
the arrival of these unhappy immigrants had the effect of arousing a strong feeling of indignation in holland
but was a crusade against protestantism the governing classes in holland zeeland friesland and groningen
were stirred up by the preachers to enforce more strictly the laws against the catholics in those provinces for genuine alarm was felt at the french menace to the religion for which their fathers had fought and suffered
had the effect of influencing public opinion powerfully in the states in favour of their stadholder's warlike policy
the elector of brandenburg as head of the principal protestant state in germany had also offered an asylum to the french exiles and now reverted once more to his natural alliance with the united provinces he sent his trusted councillor
paul fuchs in may sixteen eighty five to offer to his nephew the prince of orange his friendly co operation in the formation of a powerful coalition against france fuchs was a skilled diplomatist
and by his mediation an understanding was arrived at between the stadholder and his opponents in amsterdam at the same time strong family influence was brought to bear upon henry casimir of friesland and a reconciliation between the two stadholders was effected
william thus found himself before the year sixteen eighty five came to an end able to pursue his policy without serious let or hindrance he was quite ready to seize his opportunity
the naval power and financial resources of england were needed to enable the coalition
william watched keenly all that was going on and kept himself in close correspondence with several of the principal malcontents he was well aware that all eyes were turning to him and he accepted the position as the natural defender should the need arise
of england's civil and religious liberties the need arose and the call came in the summer of sixteen eighty eight and it found william prepared
speedily followed on june tenth by the birth of a prince of wales the report was spread that the child was supposititious and it was accepted as true by large numbers of persons including the princess anne and also on the strength of her testimony
by the prince and princess of orange
several englishmen of note signed an invitation to the prince to land in england with an armed force in defence of the religion and liberties of the country and it was brought to him by admiral russell one of the signatories
after some hesitation william with the consent and approval of the princess decided to accept it no man ever had a more loyal and devoted wife than william the third of orange and he did not deserve it for some years after his marriage he treated mary with coldness and neglect
he confessed on one occasion to bishop burnet that his churlishness was partly due to jealousy he could not bear the thought that mary might succeed to the english throne and he would in that country be inferior in rank to his wife
the bishop informed the princess who at once warmly declared that she would never accept the crown unless her husband received not merely the title of king but the prerogatives of a reigning sovereign from that time forward a complete reconciliation took place between them
mary's character as it is revealed in her private diaries which have been preserved deserves those epithets profoundly religious and a convinced protestant mary with prayers for guidance and not without many tears felt
that the resolve of her husband to hazard all on armed intervention in england was fully justified and at this critical juncture she had no hesitation in allowing her sense of duty to her husband and her country to override that of a daughter to her father
already in july vigorous preparations in all secrecy began to be made for the expedition the naval yards were working at full pressure with the ostensible object of sending out a fleet to suppress piracy in the mediterranean
the stadholder felt that he was able to rely upon the willing co operation of the states in his project his difficulty now as always was to secure the assent of amsterdam but the opposition of that city proved less formidable than was anticipated
and scarcely less the security of the commerce on which amsterdam depended for its prosperity the support of amsterdam secured that of the estates of holland and finally after thus surmounting successfully the elements of opposition in the town and the province
where the anti orange party was most strongly represented the prince had little difficulty in obtaining on october eighth the unanimous approval of the states general assembled in secret session to the proposed expedition
by that time an army of fourteen thousand men had been gathered together and was encamped at mook of these the six english and scottish regiments who now as throughout the war of independence were maintained in the dutch service formed the nucleus
the force also comprised the prince's dutch guards and other picked dutch troops and also some german levies
the pretext assigned was the necessity of protecting the eastern frontier of the republic against an attack from cologne where cardinal fuerstenberg
had been elected to the archiepiscopal throne meanwhile diplomacy was active
james however was obdurate and took no heed
and by invading the palatinate instead of the republic for william had been doing his utmost to win over to his side by the agency of waldeck and bentinck the protestant princes of germany with the result that brandenburg hanover saxony
brunswick and hesse had undertaken to give him active support against a french attack while the constant threat against her possessions in the belgic netherlands compelled spain to join the anti french league which the stadholder had so long been striving to bring into existence
to these were now added the emperor and the pope who being actually at war with france were ready to look favourably upon an expedition which would weaken the common enemy
the grand alliance of william's dreams had thus should his expedition to england prove successful come within the range of practical politics and with his base secured orange now determined to delay no longer but to stake everything upon the issue of the english venture
the prince bade farewell to the states general on october twenty sixth and four days later he set sail from helvoetsluis but was driven back by a heavy storm which severely damaged the fleet
admiral herbert was in command of the naval force which convoyed safely through the channel without opposition the long lines of transports over the prince's vessel floated his flag with the words
pro religione et libertate inscribed above the motto of the house of orange
and a rapid march was made to exeter
it was dark night when he alighted at the khan so he spread out his prayer carpet and took down the saddle bags from the back of his mule and gave her with her furniture in charge of the door keeper that he might walk her about
the man took her and did as he was bid now it so happened that the wazir of bassorah a man shot in years was sitting at the lattice window of his palace opposite the khan and
he saw the porter walking the mule up and down he was struck by her trappings of price and
till at last he said to one of his pages bring hither yon door keeper the page went and returned to the wazir with the porter who kissed the ground between his hands and the minister asked him who is the owner of yonder mule
and dis mounting embraced him and made him sit down by his side and said o my son
o my lord nur al din replied
but he hath been removed to the grace of allah and he informed him of all that had befallen him from beginning to end adding i am resolved never to return home before i have seen all the cities and countries of the world
when the wazir heard this he said to him o my son hearken not to the voice of passion lest it cast thee into the pit for
and i fear for thee the turns of time then he let load the saddle bags
and carried nur al din to his own house
he lodged him in a pleasant place and entreated him honourably and made much of him
he said to him o my son here am i left a man in years and have no male children but allah hath blessed me with a daughter
and i have rejected all her many suitors men of rank and substance but affection for thee hath entered into my heart say me then wilt thou be to her a husband if thou accept this
thou art my nephew the son of my brother and bring thee to be appointed wazir in my place that i may keep the house for by allah o my son i am stricken in years and aweary when nur al din heard the wazir's words
the daughter of the wazir of bassorah this being in accordance with the will of almighty allah that he might deal the decrees of destiny to his creatures furthermore it was as the two brothers had said
for their two wives became pregnant by them on the same night and both were brought to bed on the same day
wazir of egypt of a daughter never in cairo was seen a fairer and
none more beautiful was ever seen in his time
that jetty hair that glossy brow my slender waisted youth of thine can darkness round creation throw or make it brightly shine the dusky mole that faintly shows upon his cheek ah blame it not
his scent was musk and his cheek was rose
his form is a brand and his hips a hill his hair is night and his face moon shine they named the boy badr al din hasan and his grandfather the wazir of bassorah rejoiced in him and
on the seventh day after his birth made entertainments and spread banquets
then he took nur al din and went up with him to the sultan and his son in law when he came before the presence of the king kissed the ground between his hands and repeated these verses for he was ready of speech
and good in heart as he was goodly in form the world's best joys long be thy lot my lord
this is my brother's son and related his tale from first to last quoth the sultan and how comes
quoth the minister o our lord the sultan i had a brother
for he is my brother's son and my daughter's husband and he is fit for the wazirate being a man of good counsel and ready contrivance the sultan looked at nur al din and liked him so
he stablished him in office as the wazir had requested and formally appointed him presenting him with a splendid dress of honour and a she mule from his private stud and assigning to him solde stipends and supplies
nur al din kissed the sultan's hand and went home he and his father in law joying with exceeding joy and saying
next day he presented himself before the king and kissing the ground began repeating
and thy luck prevail o'er the envier's spite and
and thy foeman's day to be black as night
so he sat down and applied himself to the business of his office
as is the wont of ministers while the sultan watched him and wondered at his wit and good sense judgement and insight wherefor he loved him and took him into intimacy when the divan was dismissed
and related what had passed to his father in law who rejoiced and thenceforward nur al din ceased not so to administer the wazirate that the sultan would not be parted from him night or day and
increased his stipend and supplies until his means were ample and he became the owner of ships
as well as of mamelukes and blackamoor slaves and he laid out
and he made for his father in law a sumptuous funeral ceremony ere he was laid in the dust then he occupied himself with the education of this son and
in his face sky shines the fullest moon in his cheeks anemone glows the sun he so conquered beauty that he hath won all charms of humanity one by one the professor brought him up in his father's palace
teaching him reading writing and cyphering theology and belles lettres his grandfather the old wazir had bequeathed to him the whole of his property when he was but four years of age now
during all the time of his earliest youth he had never left the house till on a certain day his father the wazir nur al din clad him in his best clothes and mounting him on a she mule of the finest went up with him to the sultan
and marvelled at his comeliness and loved him as for the city folk when he first passed before them with his father they marvelled at his exceeding beauty
and symmetry and perfect grace even as the poet said in these verses
those jetty locks canopus o'er him threw
mars dyed his ruddy cheek and from his eyes the archer star his glittering arrow flies his wit from hermes came and soha's care
that the world of the present is but a house of mortality
that of the future is a house of eternity i wish before i die to bequeath thee certain charges and do thou take heed of what i say and incline thy heart to my words
and the due management of his affairs
he called to mind his brother and his home and his native land and wept over his separation from those he had first loved then
and turning to his son said to him before i proceed o my son to my last charges and injunctions know that i have a brother and thou hast an uncle shams al din hight the wazir of cairo which whom i parted
leaving him against his will now take thee a sheet of paper and write upon it whatso i say to thee badr al din took a fair leaf and set about doing his father's bidding and he wrote thereon
a full account of what had happened to his sire first and last the dates of his arrival at bassorah and of his foregathering with the wazir
of his going in to the minister's daughter and of the birth of his son brief his life of forty years from the date of his dispute with his brother adding the words and this is written at my dictation
and may almighty allah be with him when i am gone then he folded the paper and sealed it and said
keep this paper with all care for
and if anything contrary befal thee set out for cairo and ask for thine uncle and show him this paper and say to him that i died a stranger far from mine own people and
the forerunner of death but presently recovering himself he said o hasan o my son
so live for thyself nursing hope of none such counsel i give thee enow take heed the second behest is o my son deal harshly with none lest fortune with thee deal hardly for the fortune of this world
and another day against thee and all worldly goods are but a loan to be repaid and i have heard a poet say take thought nor hast to win the thing thou wilt have ruth on man
no tyrant but shall rue worse tyrant's ire the third behest is learn to be silent in society and let thine own faults distract thine attention from the faults of other men for
and waste not thy substance lest haply thou come to want and must fare a begging from the meanest of mankind save thy dirhams and deem them the sovereignest salve for the wounds of the world and here again
when fails my wealth no friend will deign befriend
but friends to lack of wealth no friendship render on this wise nur al din ceased not to counsel his son badr al din hasan till his hour came and sighing one sobbing sigh his life went forth
then the voice of mourning and keening rose high in his house and the sultan and all the grandees grieved for him and buried him but his son ceased not lamenting his loss for two months during which
he never mounted horse nor attended the divan
what may be the matter and the man answered the sultan is angered with thee and hath issued a warrant against thee and evil cometh hard upon my track so flee with thy life at these words
and his rose red cheek turned pale and he said to the mameluke o my brother is there time for me to go in and get me some worldly gear which may stand me in stead during my strangerhood but the slave replied
o my lord up at once and save thyself and leave this house while it is yet time and he quoted these lines escape with thy life if oppression betide thee and let the house of its builder's fate
country for country thou'lt find if thou seek it life for life never early or late it is strange men should dwell in the house of abjection when the plain of god's earth is so wide
badr al din covered his head with the skirt of his garment and went forth on foot till he stood outside of the city where he heard folk saying the sultan hath sent his new wazir to the house of the old wazir now no more to seal his property and seize his son badr al din hasan
and take him before the presence that he may put him to death and all cried alas for his beauty and his loveliness when he heard this he fled forth at hazard knowing not whither he was going and gave not over hurrying onwards till
destiny drove him to his father's tomb so he entered the cemetery and threading his way through the graves
tis late in the day and thou art clad but lightly and
is friend and even luna's self displayeth lunacy you left and by your going left the world a waste a wolf and lies a gloomy murk upon the face of hill and lea
o may the raven bird whose cry our hapless parting croaked find ne'er a nesty home and eke shed all his plumery at length my patience fails me and this absence wastes my flesh
see ah shall i ever sight again our fair past nights of your and shall a single house become a home for me once more then he wept with exceeding weeping and night came upon him
so he leant his head against his father's grave and sleep overcame him glory to him who sleepeth not he ceased not slumbering till the moon rose
and he lay on his back with limbs outstretched his face shining bright in the moonlight now the cemetery was haunted day and night by jinns who were of the true believers
who saluted her and she said to him whence comest thou from cairo he replied
she asked and he answered i will so they flew till they lighted at the tomb and she showed him the youth and said now diddest thou ever in thy born days see aught like this
the ifrit looked upon him and exclaimed praise be to him that hath no equal but o my sister shall i tell thee what i have seen this day asked she what is that
deign accept my excuses and take compassion on my sorrows for thou knowest that my brother who was partner with me in the wazirate disappeared from amongst us many years ago
now the cause of his departure was that one night as we were sitting together and talking of wives and children to come we had words on the matter
but i swore that i would marry my daughter to none save to the son of my brother on the day her mother gave her birth which was nigh upon nineteen years ago i have lately heard that my brother died at bassorah where
he married the daughter of the wazir and that she bare him a son and
where i left the hunchback at the door of the hammam bath amidst the sultan's white slaves
about him as for the minister's daughter she sitteth among her nurses and tirewomen
for they have forbidden her father
and which may in part be the result of this pyrrhonism or excessive scepticism when its undistinguished doubts are in some measure corrected by common sense and reflection
and suspends their action they are therefore impatient till they escape from a state which to them is so uneasy and they think that they could never remove themselves far enough from it by the violence of their affirmations and obstinacy of their belief
but could such dogmatical reasoners become sensible of the strange infirmities of human understanding even in its most perfect state and when most accurate and cautious in its determinations such a reflection
would naturally inspire them with more modesty and reserve and diminish their fond opinion of themselves and their prejudice against antagonists the illiterate may reflect on the disposition of the learned who
that the few advantages which they may have attained over their fellows are but inconsiderable if compared with the universal perplexity and confusion which is inherent in human nature in general there is a degree of doubt
and caution and modesty which in all kinds of scrutiny and decision
and which may be the natural result of the pyrrhonian doubts and scruples is the limitation of our enquiries to such subjects as are best adapted to the narrow capacity of human understanding
the imagination of man is naturally sublime delighted with whatever is remote and extraordinary
and running without control into the most distant parts of space and time in order to avoid the objects which custom has rendered too familiar to it a correct judgement observes a contrary method
and avoiding all distant and high enquiries confines itself to common life and to such subjects as fall under daily practice and experience leaving the more sublime topics to the embellishment of poets and orators
or to the arts of priests and politicians to bring us to so salutary a determination nothing can be more serviceable than to be once thoroughly convinced of the force of the pyrrhonian doubt
and of the impossibility that anything but the strong power of natural instinct could free us from it those who have a propensity to philosophy will still continue their researches
because they reflect that besides the immediate pleasure attending such an occupation philosophical decisions are nothing but the reflections of common life methodized and corrected
but they will never be tempted to go beyond common life so long as they consider the imperfection of those faculties which they employ their narrow reach and their inaccurate operations
this narrow limitation indeed of our enquiries is in every respect so reasonable
pronounce one thing not to be another or if there be any difficulty in these decisions it proceeds entirely from the undeterminate meaning of words which is corrected by juster definitions that
the square of the hypothenuse is equal to the squares of the other two sides cannot be known let the terms be ever so exactly defined without a train of reasoning and enquiry but to convince us of this proposition
that where there is no property there can be no injustice it is only necessary to define the terms and explain injustice to be a violation of property
no negation of a fact can involve a contradiction the non existence of any being without exception is as clear and distinct an idea as its existence the proposition which affirms it not to be however false
that the cube root of sixty four is equal to the half of ten is a false proposition and can never be distinctly conceived but that caesar or the angel gabriel or any being never existed may be a false
perfectly conceivable and implies no contradiction the existence therefore of any being can only be proved by arguments from its cause or its effect and these arguments are founded entirely on experience
if we reason a priori anything may appear able to produce anything the falling of a pebble may for aught we know extinguish the sun
by which the creation of matter was excluded ceases to be a maxim according to this philosophy not only the will of the supreme being may create matter but for aught we know a priori
the will of any other being might create it or any other cause that the most whimsical imagination can assign
or general facts all deliberations in life regard the former as also all disquisitions in history chronology geography and astronomy the sciences which treat of general facts are politics natural philosophy physic
divinity or theology as it proves the existence of a deity and the immortality of souls is composed partly of reasonings concerning particular partly concerning general facts
it has a foundation in reason so far as it is supported by experience but its best and most solid foundation is faith and divine revelation
does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence no commit it then to the flames for it can contain nothing but sophistry
i thought he was in the throes of an election remarked her husband exactly the poll is on wednesday and the poor man will have worked himself to a shadow by that time imagine what electioneering must be like in this awful soaking rain
going along slushy country roads and speaking to damp audiences in draughty schoolrooms day after day for a fortnight hell have to put in an appearance at some place of worship on sunday morning and he can come to us immediately afterwards
and have a thorough respite from everything connected with politics i wont let him even think of them ive had the picture of cromwell dissolving the long parliament taken down from the staircase and even the portrait
and emerald green or orange would be almost as bad with this home rule business to the fore on state occasions i always wear a black ribbon in my hair said vera with crushing dignity
latimer springfield was a rather cheerless oldish young man who went into politics somewhat in the spirit in which other people might go into half mourning
and missus durmot had been reasonably near the mark in asserting that he was working at high pressure over this election the restful lull which his hostess enforced on him was decidedly welcome and yet
the nervous excitement of the contest had too great a hold on him to be totally banished i know hes going to sit up half the night working up points for his final speeches said missus durmot regretfully however
weve kept politics at arms length all the afternoon and evening more than that we cannot do that remains to be seen said vera but she said it to herself
latimer had scarcely shut his bedroom door before he was immersed in a sheaf of notes and pamphlets
before he had time to answer a much encumbered vera burst into the room with the question i say can i leave these here these were a small black pig and a lusty specimen of black red gamecock
latimer was moderately fond of animals and particularly interested in small livestock rearing from the economic point of view in fact one of the pamphlets on which he was at that moment engaged warmly
tactfully expressing his own preference in the matter in an apparent solicitude for theirs there is no outside said vera impressively nothing but a waste of dark swirling waters the reservoir at brinkley has burst
i didnt know there was a reservoir at brinkley said latimer well there isnt now its jolly well all over the place and as we stand particularly low were the centre of an inland sea just at present you see the river has overflowed its banks as well
good gracious have any lives been lost heaps i should say
i hadnt thought of that but
said latimer with the instinct of a parliamentary candidate for getting into the local limelight we cant said vera decidedly we havent any boats and were cut off by a raging torrent from any human habitation
my aunt particularly hoped you would keep to your room and not add to the confusion but she thought it would be so kind of you if you would take in hartlepools wonder the gamecock you know for the night you see there are eight other gamecocks and they fight like furies if they get together so were putting one in each bedroom
what he really wants is a mans firm hand to keep him in order id try and grapple with him myself only ive got my chow in my room you know and he goes for pigs wherever he finds them couldnt the pig go
in the bathroom asked latimer faintly wishing that he had taken up as determined a stand on the subject of bedroom swine as the chow had the bathroom vera laughed shrilly itll be full of boy scouts till morning if the hot water holds out
boy scouts yes thirty of them came to rescue us while the water was only waist high
bit of coast scenery by tuke two of the boys are wearing your melton overcoat i hope you dont mind its a new overcoat said latimer with every indication of minding dreadfully youll take
every care of hartlepools wonder wont you said vera his mother took three firsts at birmingham
hell probably roost on the rail at the bottom of your bed
the hens are all in the pantry and i think i could pick out hartlepool helen shes his favourite latimer showed a belated firmness on the subject of hartlepool helen and vera withdrew without pressing the point
having first settled the gamecock on his extemporised perch and taken an affectionate farewell of the pigling latimer undressed and got into bed with all due speed judging that the pig would abate its inquisitorial restlessness once the light was turned out
in which the most luxuriously contrived piggeries were notably deficient the sharp edge of the underneath part of the bed was pitched at exactly the right elevation to permit the pigling to scrape himself ecstatically backwards and forwards
with an artistic humping of the back at the crucial moment and an accompanying gurgle of long drawn delight the gamecock who may have fancied that he was being rocked in the branches of a pine tree bore the motion
with greater fortitude than latimer was able to command a series of slaps directed at the pigs body were accepted more as an additional and pleasing irritant than as a criticism of conduct or a hint to desist
evidently something more than a mans firm hand was needed to deal with the case latimer slipped out of bed in search of a weapon of dissuasion
resumed its massage operations with renewed zeal during the long wakeful hours which ensued latimer tried to distract his mind from his own immediate troubles by dwelling with decent sympathy on the second housemaids bereavement
but he found himself more often wondering how many boy scouts were sharing his melton overcoat
clattered down to the floor and forthwith commenced a spirited combat with his reflection in the wardrobe mirror remembering that the bird was more or less under his care latimer performed hague tribunal offices by draping a bath towel over the provocative mirror but
the ensuing peace was local and short lived the deflected energies of the gamecock found new outlet in a sudden and sustained attack on the sleeping and temporarily inoffensive pigling and the duel which followed was desperate and embittered beyond any possibility of effective intervention
the feathered combatant had the advantage of being able when hard pressed to take refuge on the bed and freely availed himself of this circumstance the pigling never quite succeeded in hurling himself on to the same eminence but it was not from want of trying
lor sir she exclaimed in undisguised astonishment do you want those animals in your room want the pigling
if miss veras dog sees that pig exclaimed the maid and hurried off to avert such a catastrophe a cold suspicion was stealing over latimers mind he went to the window and drew up the blind
a light drizzling rain was falling but there was not the faintest trace of any inundation some half hour later he met vera on the way to the breakfast room
i should not like to think of you as a deliberate liar he observed coldly but one occasionally has to do things one does not like at any rate
said vera which was of course
a cattle painter by force of environment
milking stool and branding iron his home was in a park like villa dotted district that only just escaped the reproach of being suburban on one side of his garden there abutted a small picturesque meadow
in which an enterprising neighbour pastured some small picturesque cows of the channel island persuasion at noonday in summertime the cows stood knee deep in tall meadow grass under the shade of a group of walnut trees
with the sunlight falling in dappled patches on their mouse sleek coats eshley had conceived and executed a dainty picture of two reposeful milch cows
in a setting of walnut tree and meadow grass and filtered sunbeam and the royal academy had duly exposed the same on the walls of its summer exhibition the royal academy encourages orderly
methodical habits in its children eshley had painted a successful and acceptable picture of cattle drowsing picturesquely under walnut trees and as he had begun so of necessity he went on his
noontide peace a study of two dun cows under a walnut tree was followed by a mid day sanctuary a study of a walnut tree with two dun cows under it
in due succession there came where the gad flies cease from troubling the haven of the herd and a dream in dairyland
walnut trees and dun cows his two attempts to break away from his own tradition were signal failures turtle doves alarmed by sparrow hawk and wolves on the roman campagna came back to his studio
and eshley climbed back into grace and the public gaze with a shaded nook where drowsy milkers dream
when his neighbour adela pingsford assailed the outer door of his studio with loud peremptory knockings there is an ox in my garden she announced in explanation of the tempestuous intrusion an ox
said eshley blankly and rather fatuously what kind of ox oh i dont know what kind snapped the lady a common or garden ox to use the slang expression it is the garden part of it that i object to my garden has just been put straight for the winter
besides there are the chrysanthemums just coming into flower how did it get into the garden asked eshley i imagine it came in by the gate said the lady impatiently
bovril advertisement the immediately important question is not how it got in but how to get it out wont it go said eshley if it was anxious to go said adela pingsford rather angrily
seems to have escaped from my memory now all i could think of was that you were a near neighbour and a cattle painter presumably more or less familiar with the subjects that you painted
possibly i was mistaken i
admitted eshley but i cannot claim to have had any experience in rounding up stray oxen ive seen it done on a cinema film of course but there were always horses and lots of other accessories besides
one never knows how much of those pictures are faked adela pingsford said nothing but led the way to her garden
in comparison with the ox a huge mottled brute dull red about the head and shoulders passing to dirty white on the flanks and hind quarters with shaggy ears and large blood shot eyes
as the chief of a kurdish nomad clan would to a japanese tea shop girl eshley stood very near the gate while he studied the animals appearance and demeanour adela pingsford continued to say nothing
its eating a chrysanthemum said eshley at last when the silence had become unbearable how observant you are said adela bitterly you seem to notice everything as a matter of fact
it has got six chrysanthemums in its mouth at the present moment the necessity for doing something was becoming imperative
shoo variety if the ox heard them it gave no outward indication of the fact
i should certainly send for you to frighten them out you shoo beautifully meanwhile do you mind trying to drive that ox away that
she added in icy calm as a glowing orange head was crushed into the huge munching mouth since you have been so frank about the variety of the chrysanthemum said eshley
adela pingsford used language that sent the artist instinctively a few feet nearer to the ox he picked up a pea stick and flung it with some determination against the animals mottled flanks
into a petal salad was suspended for a long moment while the ox gazed with concentrated inquiry at the stick thrower adela gazed with equal concentration and more obvious hostility at the same focus
eshley ventured on another javelin exercise with another pea stick the ox seemed to realise at once that it was to go
and strode swiftly up the garden eshley ran to head it towards the gate but only succeeded in quickening its pace from a walk to a lumbering trot
that the charitable called the croquet lawn and pushed its way through the open french window into the morning room
all the same eshley fancied that the beginnings of a hunted look had come into its eyes a look that counselled respect he discontinued his attempt to interfere with its choice of surroundings mister eshley said adela
in a shaking voice i asked you to drive that beast out of my garden but i did not ask you to drive it into my house if i must have it anywhere on the premises i prefer the garden to the morning room
cattle drives are not in my line said eshley if i remember i told you so at the outset i quite agree retorted the lady painting pretty pictures of pretty little cows is what youre suited for
this time it seemed as if the worm had turned eshley began striding away
to fetch implements was the answer implements i wont have you use a lasso the room will be wrecked if theres a struggle but the artist marched out of the garden in a couple of minutes he returned laden with easel
sketching stool and painting materials do you mean to say that youre going to sit quietly down and paint that brute while its destroying my morning room gasped adela
said eshley setting his canvas in position i forbid it i absolutely forbid it stormed adela
she may be just dozing off into a merciful sleep and your outcry will waken her consideration for others should be the guiding principle of people in our station of life
the ox had finished the vase flowers and the cover of israel kalisch and appeared to be thinking of leaving its rather restricted quarters eshley noticed its restlessness and promptly flung it some bunches of virginia creeper leaves
as an inducement to continue the sitting i forget how the proverb runs he observed of something about better a dinner of herbs than a stalled ox where hate is
i shall go to the public library and get them to telephone for the police announced adela and
stepped with much precaution out of the morning room stared with grave inquiry at the no longer obtrusive and pea stick throwing human and then lumbered heavily but swiftly out of the garden
his remarkable picture ox in a morning room late autumn was one of the sensations and successes of the next paris salon and when it was subsequently exhibited at munich it was bought by the bavarian government
in the teeth of the spirited bidding of three meat extract firms from that moment his success was continuous and assured and the royal academy was thankful two years later to give a conspicuous position on its walls to his large canvas
barbary apes wrecking a boudoir eshley presented adela pingsford with a new copy of israel kalisch and a couple of finely flowering plants of
sir lulworth quayne was making a leisurely progress through the zoological societys gardens in company with his nephew recently returned from mexico
the latter was interested in comparing and contrasting allied types of animals occurring in the north american and old world fauna
he observed is the sudden impulse to trek and migrate that breaks out now and again for no apparent reason in communities of hitherto stay at home animals in human affairs the same phenomenon is occasionally noticeable said sir lulworth
to the banks of the seine and the heights of montmartre the migration was a brief one but it heralded an era of restlessness in the press world which lent quite a new meaning to the phrase newspaper circulation
nurnberg seville and salonica became more favoured as planting out grounds for the personnel of not only weekly but daily papers as well the localities were perhaps not always well chosen
the fact of a leading organ of evangelical thought being edited for two successive fortnights from trouville and monte carlo was generally admitted to have been a mistake and even when
enterprising and adventurous editors took themselves and their staffs further afield there were some unavoidable clashings
sporting bluff and the damsels own paper all pitched on khartoum for the same week it was perhaps a desire to out distance all possible competition that influenced the management
of the daily intelligencer one of the most solid and respected organs of liberal opinion in its decision to transfer its offices for three or four weeks from fleet street to eastern turkestan allowing of course a necessary margin of time
for the journey there and back this was in many respects the most remarkable of all the press stampedes that were experienced at this time there was no make believe about the undertaking proprietor manager
editor sub editors leader writers principal reporters and so forth all took part in what was popularly alluded to as the drang nach osten
an intelligent and efficient office boy was all that was left in the deserted hive of editorial industry that was doing things rather thoroughly wasnt it said the nephew
lisbon or innsbruck if you chanced to see the principal leader writer or the art editor lunching as usual at their accustomed restaurants the daily intelligencer was determined to give no loophole
for cavil at the genuineness of its pilgrimage and it must be admitted that to a certain extent the arrangements made for transmitting copy and carrying on the usual features of the paper during the long outward journey worked smoothly and well
what cobdenism might do for the camel industry ranks among the best of the recent contributions to free trade literature while the views on foreign policy enunciated from a roof in yarkand
showed at least as much grasp of the international situation as those that had germinated within half a mile of downing street quite in keeping too with the older and better traditions of british journalism was the manner of the home coming
no bombast no personal advertisement no flamboyant interviews even a complimentary luncheon at the voyagers club was courteously declined indeed it began to be felt that
the self effacement of the returned pressmen was being carried to a pedantic length foreman compositors advertisement clerks and other members of the non editorial staff who had of course taken no part in the great trek
found it as impossible to get into direct communication with the editor and his satellites now that they had returned as when they had been excusably inaccessible in central asia the sulky
overworked office boy who was the one connecting link between the editorial brain and the business departments of the paper sardonically explained the new aloofness as the yarkand manner most of the reporters
and the same experience was encountered by those who made social overtures to the returned wanderers the most brilliant hostess of twentieth century london flung the pearl of her hospitality
people began to talk unkindly of the effect of high altitudes and eastern atmosphere on minds and temperaments unused to such luxuries the yarkand manner
what had been a fairly arduous journey the aforetime standard of excellence was scarcely maintained but at any rate the general lines of policy and outlook were not departed from
it was in the realm of foreign affairs that a startling change took place blunt forcible outspoken articles appeared
the men in downing street took a different view the foreign secretary hitherto accounted a rather reticent man became positively garrulous in the course of perpetually disavowing the sentiments expressed in the daily intelligencers leaders and then
definite and drastic must be done a deputation consisting of the prime minister the foreign secretary four leading financiers and a well known nonconformist divine made its way to the offices of the paper
at the door leading to the editorial department the way was barred by a nervous but defiant office boy you cant see the editor nor any of the staff he announced
we insist on seeing the editor or some responsible person said the prime minister and the deputation forced its way in the boy had spoken truly there was no one to be seen in the whole suite of rooms
there was no sign of human life where is the editor or the foreign editor or the chief leader writer or anybody in answer to the shower of questions
entire party captured by brigand tribe on homeward journey quarter of million demanded as ransom but would probably take less inform government relations and friends
the letter had been directed to the office boy in charge who had quietly suppressed it no one is a hero to ones own office boy and he evidently considered that a quarter of a million was an unwarrantable outlay for such
ransomed and brought home in twos and threes to escape notice and gradually things were put back on their old footing the articles on foreign affairs reverted to the wonted traditions of the paper but interposed the nephew
how on earth did the boy account to the relatives all those months for the non appearance
was unable to tear himself away from the wild liberty and allurements of eastern life and was going to spend several months roaming in some selected region many of the wives started off immediately in pursuit of their errant husbands
and it took the government a considerable time and much trouble to reclaim them from their fruitless quests along the banks of the oxus the gobi desert the orenburg steppe and other outlandish places
one of them i believe is still lost somewhere in the tigris valley
only the happer house took the full sun and all day long faced the dusty road street with a tolerant kindly patience this was the city of tarleton in southernmost georgia september afternoon
up in her bedroom window sally carrol happer rested her nineteen year old chin on a fifty two year old sill and watched clark darrow's ancient ford turn the corner the car was hot
being partly metallic it retained all the heat it absorbed or evolved and clark darrow sitting bolt upright at the wheel wore a pained strained expression as though he considered himself a spare part
he laboriously crossed two dust ruts the wheels squeaking indignantly at the encounter and then with a terrifying expression
final wrench and deposited self and car approximately in front of the happer steps there was a heaving sound a death rattle followed by a short silence and then the air was rent by a startling whistle
sally carrol gazed down sleepily she started to yawn but finding this quite impossible unless she raised her chin from the window sill changed her mind and continued silently to regard the car
whose owner sat brilliantly if perfunctorily at attention as he waited for an answer to his signal after a moment the whistle once more split the dusty air good mawnin
with difficulty clark twisted his tall body round and bent a distorted glance on the window tain't mawnin sally carrol
what you doin eatin n apple come on go swimmin' want to reckon so how bout hurryin up sure enough sally carrol sighed voluminously
where she had been occupied in alternately destroyed parts of a green apple and painting paper dolls for her younger sister she approached a mirror regarded her expression with a pleased and pleasant languor
dabbed two spots of rouge on her lips and a grain of powder on her nose and covered her bobbed corn colored hair with a rose littered sunbonnet then she kicked over the painting water said oh damn
but let it lay and left the room how you clark she inquired a minute later as she slipped nimbly over the side of the car
out to walley's pool told marylyn we'd call by an get her an joe ewing clark was dark and lean and when on foot was rather inclined to stoop his eyes were ominous
and his expression somewhat petulant except when startlingly illuminated by one of his frequent smiles clark had a income just enough to keep himself in ease and his car in gasolene
and he had spent the two years since he graduated from georgia tech in dozing round the lazy streets of his home town discussing how he could best invest his capital for an immediate fortune
hanging round he found not at all difficult a crowd of little girls had grown up beautifully the amazing sally carrol foremost among them and they enjoyed being swum with and danced with
and made love to in the flower filled summery evenings and they all liked clark immensely when feminine company palled there were half a dozen other youths who were always just about to do something
and meanwhile were quite willing to join him in a few holes of golf or a game of billiards or the consumption of a quart of hard yella licker every once in a while
one of these contemporaries made a farewell round of calls before going up to new york or philadelphia or pittsburgh to go into business but mostly they just stayed round in this languid paradise of dreamy skies and firefly evenings
and noisy nigger street fairs and especially of gracious soft voiced girls who were brought up on memories instead of money the ford having been excited into a sort of restless resentful life
clark and sally carrol rolled and rattled down valley avenue into jefferson street where the dust road became a pavement along opiate millicent place where there were half a dozen prosperous substantial mansions
and on into the down town section driving was perilous here for it was shopping time the population idled casually across the streets and a drove of low moaning oxen were being urged along
in front of a placid street car even the shops seemed only yawning their doors and blinking their windows in the sunshine before retiring into a state of utter and finite coma sally carrol said clark suddenly
at's a nice question girl told me you were engaged to a yankee you met up in asheville last summer
sally carrol sighed never saw such an old town for rumors don't marry a yankee sally carrol we need you round here
sally carrol was silent a moment clark she demanded suddenly who on earth shall i marry i offer my services honey you couldn't support a wife
she answered cheerfully anyway i know you too well to fall in love with you
he persisted s'pose i love him he shook his head you couldn't he'd be a lot different from us every way
marylyn wade and joe ewing appeared in the doorway lo sally carrol hi how you all sally carrol demanded marylyn as they started of again you engaged
at a bolt on the clattering wind shield sally carrol he said with a curious intensity don't you like us what us down here why clark
you know i do i adore all you boys then why you gettin engaged to a yankee clark i don't know i'm not sure what i'll do but well i want to go places and see people
i want my mind to grow i want to live where things happen on a big scale what you mean oh clark i love you and i love joe here and ben arrot and you all but you'll you'll
we'll all be failures yes i don't mean only money failures but just sort of of ineffectual and sad and oh how can i tell you you mean because we stay here in tarleton
yes clark and because you like it and never want to change things or think or go ahead he nodded and she reached over and pressed his hand clark she said softly i wouldn't change you for the world
you're sweet the way you are the things that'll make you fail i'll love always the living in the past the lazy days and nights you have and all your carelessness and generosity
yes because i couldn't ever marry you you've a place in my heart no one else ever could have but tied down here i'd get restless i'd feel i was wastin myself
there's the sleepy old side you love an there's a sort of energy the feeling that makes me do wild things that's the part of me that may be useful somewhere that'll last when i'm not beautiful any more
she broke of with characteristic suddenness and sighed oh sweet cooky as her mood changed half closing her eyes and tipping back her head till it rested on the seat back she let the savory breeze
fan her eyes and ripple the fluffy curls of her bobbed hair they were in the country now hurrying between tangled growths of bright green coppice and grass and tall trees that sent sprays of foliage
to hang a cool welcome over the road here and there they passed a battered negro cabin its oldest white haired inhabitant smoking a corncob pipe beside the door
parading tattered dolls on the wild grown grass in front farther out were lazy cotton fields where even the workers seemed intangible shadows lent by the sun to the earth not for toil
but to while away some age old tradition in the golden september fields and round the drowsy picturesqueness over the trees and shacks and muddy rivers flowed the heat never hostile only comforting
like a great warm nourishing bosom for the infant earth sally carrol we're here
honey you dead at last outa sheer laziness water sally carrol cool water waitin for you
the owner of this splendid property was born in new england and is a typical yankee who early emigrated west and has spent most of his life on the frontier he went to arizona at the close of the civil war
and engaged in contracting for the government and furnishing supplies to the army it was before the days of railroads when all merchandise was hauled overland in wagons and cattle were driven through on foot
he outfitted at points in texas and on the rio grande and drove his cattle and wagons over hundreds of miles of desert road through a country that was infested by hostile indians
such a wild life was naturally full of adventures and involved much hardship and danger
and proved a financial success notwithstanding some losses in men killed wagons pillaged and cattle driven off and lost by bands of marauding apaches
in his travels he saw the advantages that arizona offered as a grazing country which decided him to locate a ranch and engage in the range cattle business the ranch derives its name from the graham or pinaleno mountains
which the indians called the sierra bonita because of the many beautiful wild flowers that grow there it is twenty miles north of willcox a thriving village on the southern pacific railroad
that nestles in a grove of cotton trees at the foot of mt graham the noblest mountain in southern arizona the sierra bonita ranch is situated in the famous sulphur spring valley in cochise county arizona
which is perhaps the only all grass valley in the territory the valley is about twenty miles wide and more than one hundred miles long and extends into mexico its waters drain in opposite directions
part flowing south into the yaqui river and part running north through the aravaipa canon into the gila and colorado rivers all to meet and mingle again in the gulf of california
fine gramma grass covers the entire valley and an underground river furnishes an inexhaustible supply of good water in the early days of overland travel before the country was protected
or any of its resources were known immigrants who were bound for california by the southern route and ignorant of the near presence of water nearly perished from thirst while crossing the valley
the water rises to within a few feet of the surface and since its discovery numerous wells have been dug and windmills and ranch houses dot the landscape in all directions
while thousands of cattle feed and fatten on the nutritious gramma grass its altitude is about four thousand feet above the sea and the climate is exceptionally fine
of moist land that has been considerably enlarged by artificial means in an average year the natural water supply of the ranch is sufficient for all purposes but to guard against any possible shortage in a dry year
water is brought from the mountains in ditches that have been constructed at great labor and expense and is stored in reservoirs to be used as needed for watering the cattle and irrigating the fields the effect of water upon the desert soil is
and the earth be parched
the fields of waving grass and grain are perennially green the owner has acquired by location and purchase title to several thousand acres of land that is all fenced and much of it highly cultivated
it consists of a strip of land one mile wide and ten miles long which is doubly valuable because of its productiveness and as the key that controls a fine open range
the original herd of cattle that pastured on the sierra bonita ranch thirty years ago was composed of native scrub stock from texas and sonora this undesirable stock was sold at the first opportunity
and the range re stocked by an improved grade of durham cattle the change was a long stride in the direction of improvement
but later on another change was made to herefords and during recent years only whitefaces have been bred upon the ranch colonel hooker has a strong personality
holds decided opinions and believes in progress and improvement he has spent much time and money in experimental work and his success has demonstrated the wisdom of his course
just such men are needed in every new country to develop its resources and prove its worth he saw that the primitive methods of ranching then in vogue must be improved and began to prepare for the change which was coming
what he predicted came to pass and the days of large herds on the open range are numbered many of them have already been sold or divided up
and it is a question of only a short time when the rest will meet the same fate when this is done there may be no fewer cattle than there are now but they will be bunched in smaller herds and better cared for
scrubs of any kind are always undesirable since it has been proved that quality is more profitable than quantity a small herd is more easily handled and there is less danger of loss from straying or stealing
the common method of running cattle on the open range is reckless and wasteful in the extreme and entirely inexcusable the cattle are simply turned loose to rustle for themselves no provision whatever is made for their welfare
except that they are given the freedom of the range to find water if they can and grass that often affords them only scant picking under the new regime the cattle are carefully fed and watered
if need be in a fenced enclosure that not only gives the cattle humane treatment but also makes money for the owner the men are instructed to bring in every sick or weak animal found on the range and put it into a corral or pasture
where it is nursed back to life if an orphan calf is found that is in danger of starving it is picked up carried home and fed on the average ranch foundlings and weaklings get no attention whatever
but are left in their misery to pine away and perish from neglect the profit of caring for the weak and sick animals on the sierra bonita ranch amounts to a large sum every year which the owner thinks is worth saving
another peculiarity of ranch life is that where there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of cows in a herd not a single cow is milked
nor is a cup of milk or pound of butter ever seen upon the ranch table it is altogether different on hooker's ranch there is a separate herd of milch cows in charge of a man whose duty it is to keep the table supplied
with plenty of fresh milk and butter no milk ever goes to waste if there is a surplus it is fed to the calves pigs and poultry during the branding season the work of the round up is all done in corrals instead of
as formerly out upon the open range each calf after it is branded if it is old and strong enough to wean is taken from the cow and turned into a separate pasture it prevents the weak mother cow
from being dragged to death by a strong sucking calf and saves the pampered calf from dying of blackleg by a timely change of diet instead of classing the cattle out on the open range as is the usual custom
by an original system of corrals gates and chutes the cattle are much more easily and quickly classified without any cruelty or injury inflicted upon either man or beast classing cattle at a round up by the old method
is a hard and often cruel process that requires a small army of both men and horses and is always rough and severe on the men horses and cattle besides the herds of sleek cattle there are also horses galore
enough to do all of the work on the ranch as well as for pleasure riding and driving there is likewise a kennel of fine greyhounds that are the colonel's special pride his cattle horses and dogs are all of the best
as he believes in thoroughbreds and has no use whatever for scrubs of either the human or brute kind the dogs are fond of their master and lavish their caresses on him with almost human affection
in the morning when they meet him at the door ketchum pokes his nose into one of his master's half open hands and killum performs the same act with the other hand blackie nips him playfully on the leg while dash and the rest of the pack
race about like mad trying to express the exuberance of their joy in the bunch is little bob the fox terrier who tries hard but is not always able to keep up with the hounds in a race
he is active and gets over the ground lively for a small dog but in a long chase is completely distanced and outclassed to his apparent disgust aside from the fine sport that the dogs afford
they are useful in keeping the place clear of all kinds of varmints such as coyotes skunks and wild cats how much colonel hooker appreciates his dogs is best illustrated by an incident one morning after greeting the dogs at the door
well if everybody on the ranch is cross my dogs always greet me with a smile there appears to be much in the dog as well as in the horse that is human and the trio are capable of forming attachments for each other that only death can part
built in the spanish style of a rectangle with all the doors opening upon a central court
peter rabbit and johnny chuck were playing tag on the green meadows of course peter can run so much faster than johnny chuck that he would never have been it if he had tried his best to keep out of the way but he didn't
no sir peter rabbit didn't do anything of the kind he pretended that one of his long hind legs was lame so that he had to run on three legs while johnny chuck could use all four
it was great fun they raced and dodged and twisted and turned sometimes peter was so excited that he would forget and use all four legs then johnny chuck would shout no fair
peter would say that he didn't mean to and to make up for it would be it and try to catch johnny now it happened that curled up on a little grassy tussock
taking an early morning sun bath lay little mister greensnake of course peter rabbit and johnny chuck were not afraid of him if it had been mister rattlesnake
it would have been different but from little mister greensnake there was nothing to fear and sometimes just for fun peter would jump right over him when he did that peter always winked good naturedly
but mister greensnake never winked back instead he would raise his head run his tongue out at peter and hiss in what he tried to make a very fierce and angry manner then peter would laugh
let's go ask mister greensnake said peter up they hopped and raced over to the grassy tussock where mister greensnake lay but to all their questions he would make no reply
save to run out his tongue at them finally they gave up asking him i tell you what let's go over to the smiling pool and ask grandfather frog he'll be sure to know and perhaps if he is feeling good
he'll tell us a story said peter so off they scampered to the smiling pool there they found grandfather frog sitting on his big green lily pad just as usual and peter knew by the look in his great goggly eyes
that grandfather frog had a good breakfast of foolish green flies tucked away inside his white and yellow waistcoat his eyes twinkled as peter and johnny very politely wished him good morning good morning
said he gruffly but peter had seen that twinkle in his eyes
if you please grandfather frog why doesn't mister greensnake wink at us when we wink at him he asked chug a rum because he can't replied grandfather frog
can't cried peter rabbit and johnny chuck together that's what i said can't replied grandfather frog and no more can mister blacksnake or mister rattlesnake
or any other member of the snake family why not cried peter and johnny all in the same breath chug a rum said grandfather frog folding his hands across his white and yellow waistcoat
if you will sit still until i finish i'll tell you but if you move or ask any foolish questions i'll stop right where i am
for no one else knows it of course peter and johnny promised to sit perfectly still and not say a word after they had made themselves comfortable grandfather frog
cleared his throat as if to begin but for a long time he didn't say a word once peter opened his mouth to ask why but remembered in time and closed it again without making a sound at last
grandfather frog cleared his throat once more and with a far away look in his great goggly eyes began once upon a time long long ago when the world was young lived old mister snake
the grandfather a thousand times removed of little mister greensnake and all the other snakes whom you know of course he wasn't old then he was young and spry and smart was mister snake now there is such a thing as being
too smart that was the trouble with mister snake yes sir that was the trouble with mister snake he was so smart that he soon found out that he was the smartest of all the meadow and forest people and that was a bad thing
it certainly was a very bad thing grandfather frog shook his head gravely you see he continued as soon as he found that out he began to take advantage of his neighbors and cheat them
that they never once suspected that they were being cheated mister snake would go about all day cheating everybody he met at night he would go home and chuckle over his smartness
for being so honest that they didn't suspect other people of being dishonest and for being so easily cheated now one bad habit almost always leads to another from cheating mister snake just naturally slipped to stealing
yes sir he became a thief of course that made trouble right away but still no one suspected mister snake he was always very polite to every one and always offering to do favors for his neighbors
in fact mister snake was very well liked and much respected when any one had been robbed he was always the first to offer sympathy and join in the hunt for the thief
he was so spry and slim and could slip through the tall grass so fast that he could go almost where he pleased without being seen and this made him very bold if he did happen to be found near the scene of trouble
he always had a story ready to account for his presence and it sounded so true and he told it in such an honest manner that no one thought of doubting it so mister snake found that lying
helped him to cheat and steal and all the time he kept thinking how smart he was but even mister snake had a little bit of conscience and once in a while it would trouble him so what do you think he did
why cheating had become such a habit with him that he actually tried to cheat himself to cheat his conscience when he was telling a lie he would wink one eye that
means that it isn't true and if these folks are not smart enough to see me wink and know what it means it is their own fault if they believe what i am telling them but always he took care to wink the eye that was turned away from the one
he was talking to dear me dear me such terrible times as there were on the green meadows and in the green forest they grew worse and worse
and when at last old mother nature came to see how all the little people were getting along she heard so many complaints that she hardly knew where to begin to straighten matters out she had all the little people come before her in turn and tell their troubles
when it came mister snake's turn he had no complaint to make he seemed to be the only one who had no troubles she asked him a great many questions and for each one he had a ready reply
of course a great many of these replies were lies and every time he told one of these he winked without knowing it you see it had become a habit now with all his smartness
mister snake had forgotten one thing one very important thing it was this you can't fool old mother nature and it is of no use to try
he hadn't been talking three minutes before she knew who was at the bottom of all the trouble she let him finish then called all the others about her and told them who had made all the trouble
just as all the snake family do at you and me to day when she had finished telling them how cheating and stealing and lying isn't smart at all but very very dreadful
for you and your children and your children's children forever will have no eyelids that all the world may know that those who make a wrong use of the things given them shall have them taken away
and now you know why little mister greensnake cannot wink at you he hasn't any eyelids to wink with finished grandfather frog
ere long they reached another island where dwelt a great enchantress
whose palace eurylochus discovered
so they called to her and she came forth and bade them enter heedlessly they followed her all but eurylochus
and they were turned into swine when odysseus heard what had befallen his men he was very angry and would have slain her with his sword
sheathe thy sword i pray thee odysseus and let us be at peace then said odysseus
and to let him return in safety to his home then she opened the doors of the sty and waved her wand and the swine became men again even handsomer and stronger than before for a whole year odysseus and his men stayed in the palace
feasting and resting when they at last set sail again the sorceress told odysseus of many dangers he would meet on his homeward voyage and warned him how to escape from them in an island in the blue sea
through which the ship of odysseus would sail toward home lived some beautiful mermaids called sirens even more beautiful than the sirens faces were their lovely voices by which they lured men to go on shore and there slew them
in the flowery meadows were the bones of the foolish sailors who had seen only the lovely faces and long golden hair of the sirens and had lost their hearts to them
following her advice he filled the ears of the men with wax and bade them bind him hand and foot to the mast past the island drove the ship and the sirens seeing it began their sweet song
come hither come hither brave odysseus they sang then odysseus tried to make his men unbind him but eurylochus and another bound him yet more tightly to the mast when the island was left behind
the men took the wax from their ears and unbound their captain after passing the wandering rocks with their terrible sights and sounds the ship came to a place of great peril beyond them were yet two huge rocks between which the sea swept
one of these ran up to the sky and in this cliff was a dark cave in which lived scylla a horrible monster who as the ship passed seized six of the men with her six dreadful heads
but odysseus escaped on a broken piece of wreckage to the shores of an island on this island lived calypso of the braided tresses a goddess feared by all men but to odysseus she was very kind and he soon became as strong as ever
some day thou wilt marry nausicaa she said
to morrow thou must ask the king thy father for mules and for a wagon and drive from the city to a place where all the rich clothing may be washed and dried when morning came nausicaa remembered her dream
and went to tell her father her mother was sitting spinning yarn of sea purple stain and her father was just going to a council meeting father dear said the princess couldst thou lend me a high wagon with strong wheels
all yours too i shall take so that thou shalt go to the council in linen that is snowy clean and i know that my five brothers will also be glad if i wash their fine clothing for them
this she said for she felt too shy to tell her father what athene had said about her getting married but the king knew well why she asked i do not grudge thee mules nor anything else my child he said
go bid the servants prepare a wagon the servants quickly got ready the finest wagon that the king had and harnessed the best of the mules and nausicaa's mother filled a basket with all the dainties that she knew her daughter liked best
so that nausicaa and her maidens might feast together the fine clothes were piled into the wagon the basket of food was placed carefully beside them and nausicaa climbed in took the whip and shining reins and touched the mules
then with clatter of hoofs they started when they were come to the beautiful clear river amongst whose reeds odysseus had knelt the day before
they unharnessed the mules and drove them along the banks of the river to graze where the clover grew rich and fragrant then they washed the clothes working hard and well and spread them out to dry on the clean pebbles down by the seashore
then they bathed and when they had bathed they took their midday meal by the bank of the rippling river when they had finished the sun had not yet dried the clothes so nausicaa and her maidens began to play ball
as they played they sang a song that the girls of that land would always sing as they threw the ball to one another all the maidens were fair but nausicaa of the white arms was the fairest of all from hand to hand
growing always the merrier until when it was nearly time for them to gather the clothes together and go home nausicaa threw it very hard to one of the others the girl missed the catch
the ball flew into the river and as it was swept away to the sea the princess and all her maidens screamed aloud their cries awoke odysseus as he lay asleep in his bed of leaves i must be near the houses of men he said
those are the cries of girls at play with that he crept out from the shelter of the olive trees he had no clothes for he had thrown them all into the sea before he began his terrible swim for life
but he broke off some leafy branches and held them round him and walked down to where nausicaa and her maidens were like a wild man of the woods he looked and when they saw him coming the girls shrieked and ran away
but although his face was marred with the sea foam that had crusted on it and he looked a terrible fierce great creature nausicaa was too brave to run away
shaking she stood there and watched him as he came forward and stood still a little way off then odysseus spoke to her gently and kindly that he might take away her fear
he told her of his shipwreck and begged her to show him the way to the town and give him some old garment or any old wrap in which she had brought the linen so that he might have something besides leaves with which to cover himself
i have never seen any maiden half so beautiful as thou art he said have pity on me and may the gods grant thee all thy heart's desire then said nausicaa
thou seemest no evil man stranger and i will gladly give thee clothing and show thee the way to town
and my father is the king to her maidens then she called why do ye run away at the sight of a man dost thou take him for an enemy he is only a poor shipwrecked man come give him food and drink and fetch him clothing
the maidens came back from their hiding places and fetched some of the garments of nausicaa's brothers which they had brought to wash and laid them beside odysseus odysseus gratefully took the clothes away and went off to the river
there he plunged into the clear water and washed the salt crust from off his face and limbs and body and the crusted foam from his hair then he put on the beautiful garments that belonged to one of the princes and walked down to the shore where nausicaa and her maidens were waiting
so tall and handsome and strong did odysseus look with his hair curling like hyacinth flowers around his head that nausicaa said to her maidens this man who seemed to us so dreadful so short a time ago now looks like a god
i would that my husband if ever i have one should be as he then she and her maidens brought him food and wine and he ate hungrily for it was many days since he had eaten
when he had finished they packed the linen into the wagon and yoked the mules and nausicaa climbed into her place so long as we are passing through the fields she said to odysseus follow behind with my maidens and i will lead the way
but when we come near the town with its high walls and towers and harbors full of ships the rough sailors will stare and say hath nausicaa gone to find herself a husband
who would wed her hath she picked up a shipwrecked stranger or is this one of the gods who has come to make her his wife therefore come not with us i pray thee for the sailors to jest at
there is a fair poplar grove near the city with a meadow lying round it sit there until thou thinkest that we have had time to reach the palace then seek the palace any child can show thee the way
where my mother sits thou wilt find her weaving yarn of sea purple stain by the light of the fire she will be leaning her head back against a pillar and her maidens will be standing round her my father's throne is close to hers
but pass him by and cast thyself
then my father is sure to help thee to get safely back to thine own land then nausicaa smote her mules with the whip and they trotted quickly off
with its whispering reeds and the beach with its yellow sand odysseus and the maidens followed the wagon and just as the sun was setting they reached the poplar grove in the meadow
there odysseus stayed until nausicaa should have had time to reach the palace when she got there she stopped at the gateway and her brothers came out and lifted down the linen and unharnessed the mules nausicaa went up to her room
and her old nurse kindled a fire for her and got ready her supper when odysseus thought it was time to follow he went to the city he marveled at the great walls and at the many gallant ships in the harbors
but when he reached the king's palace he wondered still more its walls were of brass so that from without when the doors stood open it looked as if the sun or moon were shining within a frieze of blue ran round the walls
all the doors were made of gold the doorposts were of silver the thresholds of brass and the hook of the door was of gold in the halls were golden figures of animals
and of men who held in their hands lighted torches outside the courtyard was a great garden filled with blossoming pear trees and pomegranates and apple trees with shining fruit and figs and olives
all the year round there was fruit in that garden there were grapes in blossom and grapes purple and ready to eat
and golden ripe pears and rosy apples at all of those wonders odysseus stood and gazed but it was not for long for he hastened through the halls to where the queen sat in the firelight spinning her purple yarn
he fell at her knees and silence came on all those in the room when they looked at him so brave and so handsome did he seem
my parting right quickly that i may come to mine own country too long have i suffered great sorrows far away from my own friends then he sat down amongst the ashes by the fire and for a little space no one spoke
bid him arise and give him meat and drink
he made one of his sons give up his silver inlaid chair and bade his servants fetch a silver basin and a golden ewer
and the lords and the courtiers who were there feasted along with odysseus until it was time for them to go to their own homes before they went the king promised odysseus a safe convoy back to his own land
when he was left alone with the king and queen the latter said to him tell us who thou art i myself made the clothing that thou wearest from whence didst thou get it then odysseus told her of his imprisonment in the island of calypso
of his escape of the terrible storm that shattered his raft and of how at length he reached the shore and met with nausicaa it was wrong of my daughter not to bring thee to the palace when she came with her maids said the king
but odysseus told him why it was that nausicaa had bade him stay behind be not vexed with this blameless maiden he said truly she is the sweetest and the fairest maiden i ever saw
then odysseus went to the bed that the servants had prepared for him they had spread fair purple blankets over it and when it was ready they stood beside it with their torches blazing golden and red
sleep was very sweet to odysseus that night as he lay in the soft bed with warm blankets over him he was no longer tossed and beaten by angry seas no longer wet and cold and hungry
the roar of furious waves did not beat in his ears for all was still in the great halls where the flickering firelight played on the frieze of blue and turned the brass walls into gold
next day the king gave a great entertainment for odysseus there were boxing and wrestling and leaping and running and in all of these the brothers of nausicaa were better than all others who tried but when they came to throw the weight
and begged odysseus to try he cast a stone heavier than all others far beyond where the phaeacians had thrown that night
and odysseus listened until his heart could bear no more and tears trickled down his cheeks only the king saw him weep he wondered much why odysseus wept and at last he asked him so odysseus told the king his name
and the whole story of his adventures since he had sailed away from troyland then the king and queen and their courtiers gave rich gifts to odysseus a beautiful silver studded sword was the king's gift to him
nausicaa gave him nothing but she stood and gazed at him in his purple robes and felt more sure than ever that he was the handsomest and the greatest hero she had ever seen farewell stranger she said to him
when the hour came for her to go to bed for she knew she would not see him on the morrow farewell stranger
then said odysseus all the days of my life i shall remember thee nausicaa for thou hast given me my life next day a company of the phaeacians went down to a ship that lay by the seashore
and with them went odysseus they carried the treasures that had been given to him and put them on board and spread a rug on the deck for him there odysseus lay down and as soon as the splash of the oars in the water
and the rush and gush of the water from the bow of the boat told him that the ship was sailing speedily to his dear land of ithaca he fell into a sound sleep onward went the ship
so swiftly that not even a hawk flying after its prey could have kept pace with her when the bright morning stars arose they were close to ithaca
and gently carried the sleeping odysseus wrapped round in his rug of bright purple to where a great olive tree bent its gray leaves over the sand they laid him under the tree put his treasures beside him and left him still heavy with slumber
in the days of long ago there reigned over ithaca a rugged little island in the sea to the west of greece a king whose name was odysseus odysseus feared no man stronger and braver than other men was he
wiser and more full of clever devices far and wide he was known as odysseus of the many counsels
while their only child a boy named telemachus was still a baby there was a very great war in troyland a country far across the sea the brother of the overlord of all greece beseiged troy
and the kings and princes of his land came to help him many came from afar but none from a more distant kingdom than odysseus wife and child and old father he left behind him
and sailed away with his black prowed ships to fight in troyland for ten years the siege of troy went on
and of the heroes who fought there none was braver than odysseus clad as a beggar he went into the city and found out much to help the greek armies
with his long sword he fought his way out again and left many of the men of troy lying dead behind him and many other brave feats did odysseus do after long years of fighting troy at last was taken
with much rich plunder the besiegers sailed homewards and odysseus set sail for his rocky island with its great mountain and its forests of trembling leaves of gladness and of longing his heart was full
with a great love he loved his fair wife and little son and old father and his little kingdom by the sea was very dear to him i can see nought beside sweeter than a man's own country he said
very soon he hoped to see his dear land again but many a long and weary day was to pass ere odysseus came home odysseus was a warrior and always he would choose to fight rather than to be at peace
as he sailed on his homeward way winds drove his ships near the shore he and his company landed sacked the nearest city and slew the people much rich plunder they took but ere they could return to their ships
a host of people came from inland in the early morning thick as leaves and flowers in the spring they came and fell upon odysseus and his men all day they fought but as the sun went down the people of the land won the fight
back to their ships went odysseus and his men out of each ship were six men slain while they were yet sad at heart and weary from the fight a terrible tempest arose land and sea were blotted out the ships were driven headlong
and their sails were torn to shreds by the might of the storm
at dawn on the third day the storm passed away and odysseus and his men set up their masts and hoisted their white sails and drove homeward before the wind so he would have come safely to his own country
but a strong current and a fierce north wind swept the ships from their course for nine days were they driven far from their homeland across the deep sea on the tenth day they reached the land of the lotus eaters
the dwellers in that land fed on the honey sweet fruit of the lotus flower those who ate the lotus ceased to remember that there was a past or a future
all day long they would sit and dream and dream idle happy dreams that never ended here odysseus and his men landed and drew water three of his warriors odysseus sent into the country to see what
manner of men dwelt there to them the lotus eaters gave their honey sweet food and no sooner had each man eaten than he had no wish ever to return to the ships he longed for ever to stay in that pleasant land eating the lotus fruit
and dreaming the happy hours away back to the ships odysseus dragged the unwilling men weeping that they must leave so much joy behind
beneath the benches of his ship he tightly bound them and swiftly he made his ships sail from the shore lest yet others of his company might eat of the lotus and forget their homes and their kindred
soon they had all embarked and with heavy hearts the men of ithaca smote the gray sea water with their long oars and sped away from the land of forgetfulness and of sweet day dreams
on and on across the waves sailed the dark prowed ships of odysseus until again they came to land it was the land of the cyclopes a savage and lawless people who never planted nor plowed nor sowed
and whose fields yet gave them rich harvests of wheat and of barley and vines with heavy clusters of grapes in deep caves high up on the hills these people dwelt and each man ruled his own wife and children
but himself knew no ruler outside the harbor of the land of the cyclopes lay a thickly wooded island no hunters went there for the cyclopes owned neither ships nor boats
so that many goats roamed unharmed through the woods and cropped the fresh green grass it was a green and pleasant land rich meadows stretched down to the sea the vines grew strong and fruitful
and there was a fair harbor where ships might be run right on to the beach at the head of the harbor was a well of clear water flowing out of a cave and with poplars growing around it thither odysseus directed his ships
it was dark night with no moon to guide and mist lay deep on either side yet they passed the breakers and rolling surf without knowing it and anchored safely on the beach all night they slept and when rosy dawn came
all the livelong day odysseus and his men sat and feasted as they ate and drank they looked across the water at the land of the cyclopes where the smoke of wood fires curled up to the sky
and from whence they could hear the sound of men's voices and the bleating of sheep and goats when darkness fell they lay down to sleep on the sea beach and when morning dawned odysseus called his men together and said to them
stay here all the rest of you my dear companions but i will go with my own ship and my ship's company and see what kind of men are those who dwell in this land across the harbor
so saying he climbed into his ship and his men rowed him across to the land of the cyclopes when they were near the shore they saw a great cave by the sea
sheep and goats round about it a high outer wall was firmly built with stones and with tall and leafy pines and oak trees in this cave all alone with his flocks and herds
dwelt a huge and hideous one eyed giant polyphemus was his name and his father was poseidon god of the sea
with him he carried a goat skin full of precious wine dark red and sweet and strong and a large sack of corn soon they came to the cave but polyphemus was not there he had taken off his flocks to graze in the green meadows
leaving behind him in the cave folds full of lambs and kids the walls of the cave were lined with cheeses and there were great pans full of whey and giant bowls full of milk
and carry them to the ships then let us return and drive all the kids and lambs from their folds down to the shore and sail with them in our swift ships homeward over the sea but odysseus would not listen to what they said
he was too great hearted to steal into the cave like a thief and take away the giant's goods without first seeing whether polyphemus might not treat him as a friend receiving from him the corn and wine he had brought and giving him gifts in return
so they kindled a fire and dined on some of the cheeses and sat waiting for the giant to return towards evening he came driving his flocks before him and carrying on his back a huge load of firewood
fled in fear and hid themselves in the darkest corners of the cave when he had driven his sheep inside polyphemus lifted from the ground a rock so huge that two and twenty four wheeled wagons could not have borne it
and with it blocked the doorway then sitting down he milked the ewes and bleating goats
half of the milk he curdled and placed in wicker baskets to make into cheeses
but odysseus made answer
one of those melancholy gardens which seem made to be looked at in winter and at night this garden was oblong in shape with an alley of large poplars at the further end tolerably tall forest trees in the corners
where could be seen a very large solitary tree then several fruit trees gnarled and bristling like bushes beds of vegetables a melon patch whose glass frames sparkled in the moonlight and an old well
here and there stood stone benches which seemed black with moss the alleys were bordered with gloomy and very erect little shrubs the grass had half taken possession of them and a green mould covered the rest
jean valjean had beside him the building whose roof had served him as a means of descent a pile of fagots and behind the fagots directly against the wall a stone statue
whose mutilated face was no longer anything more than a shapeless mask which loomed vaguely through the gloom the building was a sort of ruin where dismantled chambers were distinguishable one of which much encumbered seemed to serve as a shed
turned two facades at right angles
these interior facades were even more tragic than the exterior all the windows were grated not a gleam of light was visible at any one of them the upper story had scuttles like prisons one of those facades cast its shadow on the other
which fell over the garden like an immense black pall no other house was visible the bottom of the garden was lost in mist and darkness nevertheless walls could be confusedly made out which intersected as though there were more cultivated land beyond
and the low roofs of the rue polonceau nothing more wild and solitary than this garden could be imagined there was no one in it which was quite natural in view of the hour
even in broad daylight jean valjean's first care had been to get hold of his shoes and put them on again then to step under the shed with cosette a man who is fleeing never thinks himself sufficiently hidden
the child whose thoughts were still on the thenardier shared his instinct for withdrawing from sight as much as possible cosette trembled and pressed close to him
they heard the tumultuous noise of the patrol searching the blind alley and the streets the blows of their gun stocks against the stones javert's appeals to the police spies whom he had posted and his imprecations mingled with words
which could not be distinguished at the expiration of a quarter of an hour it seemed as though that species of stormy roar were becoming more distant jean valjean held his breath
however the solitude in which he stood was so strangely calm that this frightful uproar close and furious as it was did not disturb him by so much as the shadow of a misgiving it seemed as though those walls had been built of the deaf stones of which the scriptures speak
a fresh sound arose a sound as celestial divine ineffable ravishing as the other had been horrible it was a hymn which issued from the gloom
a dazzling burst of prayer and harmony in the obscure and alarming silence of the night women's voices but voices composed at one and the same time of the pure accents of virgins and the innocent accents of children
voices which are not of the earth and which resemble those that the newborn infant still hears and which the dying man hears already this song proceeded from the gloomy edifice which towered above the garden
at the moment when the hubbub of demons retreated one would have said that a choir of angels was approaching through the gloom cosette and jean valjean fell on their knees they knew not what it was they knew not where they were
but both of them the man and the child the penitent and the innocent felt that they must kneel these voices had this strange characteristic that they did not prevent the building from seeming to be deserted
it was a supernatural chant in an uninhabited house
he no longer beheld the night he beheld a blue sky it seemed to him that he felt those wings which we all have within us unfolding the song died away it may have lasted a long time jean valjean could not have told
hours of ecstasy are never more than a moment all fell silent again there was no longer anything in the street there was nothing in the garden that which had menaced that which had reassured him all had vanished
in a few strides jean valjean stood beside
one hundred francs the man gave a start and raised his eyes you can earn a hundred francs went on jean valjean if you will grant me shelter for this night the moon shone full upon jean valjean's terrified countenance
what so it is you father madeleine said the man that name thus pronounced at that obscure hour in that unknown spot by that strange man made jean valjean start back
the person who thus addressed him was a bent and lame old man dressed almost like a peasant who wore on his left knee a leather knee cap whence hung a moderately large bell his face which was in the shadow was not distinguishable
however the goodman had removed his cap and exclaimed trembling all over ah good god how come you here father madeleine where did you enter dieu jesus did you fall from heaven
there is no trouble about that if ever you do fall it will be from there and what a state you are in you have no cravat you have no hat you have no coat do you know you would have frightened any one who did not know you no coat
lord god are the saints going mad nowadays but how did you get in here his words tumbled over each other the goodman talked with a rustic volubility in which there was nothing alarming
all this was uttered with a mixture of stupefaction and naive kindliness who are you and what house is this
ah pardieu this is too much exclaimed the old man
what you don't recognize me no said jean valjean and how happens it that you know me you saved my life said the man he turned a ray of moonlight outlined his profile
and jean valjean recognized old fauchelevent ah said jean valjean so it is you yes i recollect you that is very lucky said the old man in a reproachful tone
and what are you doing here resumed jean valjean why i am covering my melons of course in fact at the moment when jean valjean accosted him old fauchelevent held in his hand the end of a straw mat
which he was occupied in spreading over the melon bed during the hour or thereabouts that he had been in the garden he had already spread out a number of them it was this operation which had caused him to execute the peculiar movements observed from the shed by jean valjean
he continued i said to myself the moon is bright it is going to freeze what if i were to put my melons into their greatcoats and he added looking at jean valjean with a broad smile pardieu
you ought to have done the same but how do you come here jean valjean finding himself known to this man at least only under the name of madeleine thenceforth advanced only with caution he multiplied his questions
strange to say their roles seemed to be reversed it was he the intruder who interrogated and what is this bell which you wear on your knee this replied fauchelevent is so that i may be avoided what
so that you may be avoided old fauchelevent winked with an indescribable air ah goodness there are only women in this house many young girls it appears that i should be a dangerous person to meet the bell gives them warning
when i come they go what house is this come you know well enough but i do not not when you got me the place here as gardener answer me as though i knew nothing
memories recurred to jean valjean chance that is to say providence had cast him into precisely that convent in the quartier saint antoine where old fauchelevent crippled by the fall from his cart
he repeated as though talking to himself
but to come to the point how the deuce did you manage to get in here you father madeleine no matter if you are a saint you are a man as well and no man enters here you certainly are here
there is no one but me still said jean valjean i must stay here ah good god cried fauchelevent jean valjean drew near to the old man and said to him in a grave voice
father fauchelevent i saved your life i was the first to recall it returned fauchelevent well you can do to day for me
fauchelevent took in his aged trembling and wrinkled hands jean valjean's two robust hands and stood for several minutes as though incapable of speaking at length he exclaimed oh that would be a blessing from the good god
if i could make you some little return for that save your life monsieur le maire dispose of the old man a wonderful joy had transfigured this old man his countenance seemed to emit a ray of light what do you wish me to do
he resumed that i will explain to you you have a chamber i have an isolated hovel yonder behind the ruins of the old convent in a corner which no one ever looks into there are three rooms in it
the hut was in fact so well hidden behind the ruins and so cleverly arranged to prevent it being seen that jean valjean had not perceived it good said jean valjean now i am going to ask two things of you
what are they mister mayor in the first place you are not to tell any one what you know about me in the second you are not to try to find out anything more as you please i know that you can do nothing that is not honest
and then moreover you it was who placed me here that concerns you i am at your service that is settled then
ah said fauchelevent so there is a child he added not a word further and followed jean valjean as a dog follows his master less than half an hour afterwards cosette
who had grown rosy again before the flame of a good fire was lying asleep in the old gardener's bed
his hat which he had flung over the wall had been found and picked up while jean valjean was putting on his coat
which now hung on a nail beside a vintage basket that adorned the wall the two men were warming themselves with their elbows resting on a table
black bread a bottle of wine and two glasses and the old man was saying to jean valjean as he laid his hand on the latter's knee ah father madeleine you did not recognize me immediately
you save people's lives and then you forget them that is bad
the remarks of the principal tenant jean valjean was prudent enough never to go out by day every evening at twilight he walked for an hour or two sometimes alone often with cosette
seeking the most deserted side alleys of the boulevard and entering churches at nightfall
which is the nearest church when he did not take cosette with him she remained with the old woman but the child's delight was to go out with the good man she preferred an hour with him to all her rapturous tete a tetes with catherine
he held her hand as they walked and said sweet things to her it turned out that cosette was a very gay little person
they lived soberly always having a little fire but like people in very moderate circumstances jean valjean had made no alterations in the furniture as it was the first day
he had merely had the glass door leading to cosette's dressing room replaced by a solid door he still wore his yellow coat his black breeches and his old hat in the street he was taken for a poor man
it sometimes happened that kind hearted women turned back to bestow a sou on him
it also happened occasionally that he encountered some poor wretch asking alms then he looked behind him to make sure that no one was observing him stealthily approached the unfortunate man put a piece of money into his hand
often a silver coin and walked rapidly away this had its disadvantages he began to be known in the neighborhood under the name of the beggar who gives alms the old principal lodger a cross looking creature
who was thoroughly permeated so far as her neighbors were concerned with the inquisitiveness peculiar to envious persons scrutinized jean valjean a great deal without his suspecting the fact she was a little deaf which rendered her talkative
there remained to her from her past two teeth one above the other below which she was continually knocking against each other she had questioned cosette
except that she had come from montfermeil one morning this spy saw jean valjean with an air which struck the old gossip as peculiar entering one of the uninhabited compartments of the hovel she followed him with the step of an old cat
and was able to observe him without being seen through a crack in the door which was directly opposite him jean valjean had his back turned towards this door by way of greater security no doubt the old woman saw him fumble in his pocket and draw thence a case
scissors and thread then he began to rip the lining of one of the skirts of his coat and from the opening he took a bit of yellowish paper which he unfolded the old woman recognized with terror the fact that it was a bank bill for a thousand francs
it was the second or third only that she had seen in the course of her existence she fled in alarm a moment later jean valjean accosted her and asked her to go and get this thousand franc bill changed for him
adding that it was his quarterly income which he had received the day before where thought the old woman he did not go out until six o'clock in the evening and the government bank certainly is not open at that hour
the old woman went to get the bill changed and mentioned her surmises that thousand franc note commented on and multiplied produced a vast amount of terrified discussion
a few days later it chanced that jean valjean was sawing some wood in his shirt sleeves in the corridor the old woman was in the chamber putting things in order she was alone cosette was occupied in admiring the wood as it was sawed
the old woman caught sight of the coat hanging on a nail and examined it the lining had been sewed up again the good woman felt of it carefully and thought she observed in the skirts and revers thicknesses of paper
more thousand franc bank bills no doubt she also noticed that there were all sorts of things in the pockets not only the needles thread and scissors which she had seen but a big pocket book a very large knife and a suspicious circumstance
several wigs of various colors each pocket of this coat had the air of being in a manner provided against unexpected accidents
sometimes he spoke to him those who envied this mendicant said that he belonged to the police he was an ex beadle of seventy five who was constantly mumbling his prayers one evening as jean valjean was passing by
when he had not cosette with him he saw the beggar in his usual place beneath the lantern which had just been lighted the man seemed engaged in prayer according to his custom and was much bent over jean valjean stepped up to him
and placed his customary alms in his hand the mendicant raised his eyes suddenly stared intently at jean valjean then dropped his head quickly this movement was like a flash of lightning jean valjean was seized with a shudder
it seemed to him that he had just caught sight by the light of the street lantern not of the placid and beaming visage of the old beadle but of a well known and startling face he experienced the same impression that one would have
on finding one's self all of a sudden face to face in the dark with a tiger he recoiled terrified petrified daring neither to breathe to speak to remain nor to flee staring at the beggar who had dropped his head
which was enveloped in a rag and no longer appeared to know that he was there at this strange moment an instinct possibly the mysterious instinct of self preservation restrained jean valjean from uttering a word
the beggar had the same figure the same rags the same appearance as he had every day bah said jean valjean i am mad i am dreaming impossible and he returned profoundly troubled
he hardly dared to confess even to himself that the face which he thought he had seen
that night on thinking the matter over he regretted not having questioned the man in order to force him to raise his head a second time on the following day at nightfall he went back the beggar was at his post
good day my good man said jean valjean resolutely handing him a sou the beggar raised his head and replied in a whining voice thanks my good sir it was unmistakably the ex beadle
how the deuce could i have thought that i saw javert there he thought am i going to lose my eyesight now and he thought no more about it a few days afterwards it might have been at eight o'clock in the evening he was in his room
and engaged in making cosette spell aloud when he heard the house door open and then shut again this struck him as singular
always went to bed at nightfall so that she might not burn out her candles jean valjean made a sign to cosette to be quiet he heard some one ascending the stairs
jean valjean listened the step was heavy and sounded like that of a man but the old woman wore stout shoes and there is nothing which so strongly resembles the step of a man as that of an old woman
nevertheless jean valjean blew out his candle he had sent cosette to bed saying to her in a low voice get into bed very softly and as he kissed her brow the steps paused jean valjean remained silent
motionless with his back towards the door seated on the chair from which he had not stirred and holding his breath in the dark after the expiration of a rather long interval he turned round
as he heard nothing more and as he raised his eyes towards the door of his chamber he saw a light through the keyhole this light formed a sort of sinister star in the blackness of the door and the wall
several minutes elapsed thus and the light retreated
that the person who had been listening at the door had removed his shoes jean valjean threw himself all dressed as he was on his bed and could not close his eyes all night at daybreak just as he was falling into a doze through fatigue
he was awakened by the creaking of a door which opened on some attic at the end of the corridor then he heard the same masculine footstep which had ascended the stairs on the preceding evening the step was approaching he sprang off the bed and applied his eye to the keyhole
which was tolerably large hoping to see the person who had made his way by night into the house and had listened at his door as he passed it was a man in fact who passed this time without pausing in front of jean valjean's chamber
and jean valjean had a complete view of his back the man was of lofty stature clad in a long frock coat with a cudgel under his arm the formidable neck and shoulders belonged to javert
jean valjean might have attempted to catch another glimpse of him through his window opening on the boulevard
he dared not it was evident that this man had entered with a key and like himself who had given him that key what was the meaning of this
jean valjean cast a penetrating glance on her but he did not question her the good woman appeared as usual as she swept up she remarked to him possibly monsieur may have heard some one come in last night
at that age and on that boulevard eight o'clock in the evening was the dead of the night that is true by the way he replied in the most natural tone possible who was it
i don't know exactly dumont or daumont or some name of that sort and who is this monsieur dumont the old woman gazed at him with her little polecat eyes and answered
a gentleman of property like yourself perhaps she had no ulterior meaning jean valjean thought he perceived one when the old woman had taken her departure he did up a hundred francs which he had in a cupboard into a roll
and put it in his pocket in spite of all the precautions which he took in this operation so that he might not be heard rattling silver a hundred sou piece escaped from his hands and rolled noisily on the floor
when darkness came on he descended and carefully scrutinized both sides of the boulevard he saw no one the boulevard appeared to be absolutely deserted it is true that a person can conceal himself behind trees
beautiful beautiful and with a long breath of delight marcella boyce threw herself on her knees
and propping her face upon her hands devoured the scene
flanked on either side by groups of old trees
some beeches a cedar or two groups where the slow selective hand of time had been at work for generations
the delightful roundness of quiet mass and shade and there
standing black against the sky beyond the lawn stretched a green descent indefinitely long
ending at last in a far distant gap where a gate and a gate of some importance clearly should have been
the size of the trees the wide uplands of the falling valley to the left of the avenue
the green breadth of the vast lawn the unbroken peace of wood and cultivated ground all carried with them a confused general impression of well being and of dignity
in this impression with avidity yet at the same moment she noticed involuntarily the gateless gap at the end of the avenue the choked condition of the garden paths on either side of the lawn
and the unsightly tufts of grass spotting the broad gravel terrace beneath her window it is a heavenly place all said and done
and as her eyes steeped themselves
the frown disappeared again in the former look of glowing content that content of youth which is never merely passive nay rather contains an invariable element of
covetous eagerness it was but three months or so since marcella's father mister richard boyce had succeeded to the ownership of mellor park
the boyces and it was little more than six weeks since marcella had received her summons home from the students boarding house in kensington where she had been lately living
she had ardently wished to assist in the june settling in having not been able to apply her mind to the music or painting she was
nor indeed to any other subject whatever since the news of their inheritance had reached her
marcella had better go on with her studies as long as possible
and as she looked
dilapidated furniture and then out again to woods and lawns
and that her childhood with its squalors and miseries was blotted out atoned for by this last kind sudden stroke of fate which might have been delayed so deplorably
since no one could have reasonably expected that an apparently sound man of sixty would have succumbed in three days
a hunter and sportsman must have resisted successfully a score of times before
behind her altogether its
relatively to their present position at least she was no longer the self conscious schoolgirl
companions stinted in dress pocket money and education and fiercely
fancied slur she was no longer even the half
past two years enjoying herself in london so far as the iron necessity of keeping her boarding house expenses down to the lowest possible figure would allow
she was marcella boyce a finished and grown up young woman of twenty one
mister boyce of mellor park
midland england and just entering on a life which
promised the highest possible degree of interest and novelty yet
in this quiet of the autumn morning
setting her past self against her present more consciously
recalling scene after scene
sarcasm or amusement
in the fine plastic face turned to the september woods
nine years old there was the dominant fact in these motley uncomfortable years behind her
seemly and pleasant things of a house in london of a large and bright nursery of a smiling mother who took
of games little friends and birthday parties
this earliest set to use a theatrical phrase from the scenery of her childhood marcella did not yet adequately know
in the background of her mind but
succeeded by another precise as the first was
cliff rising in terraces behind it and alongside it
nine to fourteen and where
now at twenty one
tall for her age and endowed
abundance of curly unmanageable hair whereof the brushing and tending soon became to a nervous clumsy child
one of the worst plagues of her existence
she had been an average child of the quick and clever type
ugly rooms the discipline the teaching the companionship of miss
young ladies transformed little marcella boyce for the time being into a demon
she hated getting up in the wintry dark and her cold
dozen others in the comfortless lavatory she hated the meals in the long schoolroom where because twice meat was forbidden and twice pudding allowed
invariably hungered fiercely for more mutton and scorned her second course
she was not a favourite with her companions and she was a perpetual difficulty
the whole of her first year was one continual series of sulks quarrels and revolts
perpetual colds to try the effects of a day's seclusion and solitary confinement
and might she hoped do her good for i do believe a great part of it's liver or nerves
for some fourteen hours therefore on these days of
marcella was left almost wholly alone nothing but a wild
roving defiant eyes in a pale
in truth of rather
for though she had her movements of fierce revolt
throwing the senna tea in martha's face and rushing downstairs in her nightgown
something generally interposed
it is to be feared or any wish to be good but only an aching inmost sense of childish loneliness and helplessness
and that these days in bed represented crises which must be borne with
so she submitted and presently learnt under dire stress of boredom to amuse herself a good deal by developing a natural capacity for dreaming awake
figuring generally as the
of that beautiful alexandra the top and model of english society whose portrait in the window of the little
the small country town near cliff house had
on a dreary walk and had ever since
dreams marcella had no fairy tales
who came to seem to her before long
either by some look or
or by throwing herself in front of the
imaginative child well aware in spite of appearances
aristocratic relations then when the princess had held out a gracious hand and smiled all was delight marcella grew up on the instant
generally of white muslin with cherry coloured ribbons she went here and there with the princess laughing and talking quite calmly with the greatest people in the land
her romantic friendship with the adored of england making her all the time the observed of all observers bringing her a thousand
floating in the softest summer sea of fancy some little noise would startle her into
complete the transformation of the princess's maid of honour into marcie boyce the plain naughty child whom nobody cared about
who in contrast to every other girl in the school had not a single party frock
to choose next morning between another dumb day of senna tea and gruel
ince's outlines of english history
marcie of cliff house the marcella of the present saw with a mixture of amusement and self pity that one great
irritable sense of social difference between herself and her companions
of two or three neighbouring towns their tradesmen papas were sometimes ready to deal on favourable terms with miss frederick
the young ladies concerned evidently felt themselves very much at home
alternately mystified and
she was one of the boyces of brookshire
great uncle had been a famous speaker of the house of commons the portrait of this great uncle had hung in the dining room of that pretty london house
which now seemed so far away her father had again and again pointed it out to the child and taught her to be proud of it and more than once her childish eye had been caught
who occasionally came to see them
through one influence and another
there they were now the glory and the dignity
driving her perpetually into the most crude and ridiculous outbreaks
to nothing but humiliation i wish my great uncle were here
you great you great big bully you
and the big girl the stout and
had been successfully asserting herself the big girl opened her eyes wide and laughed your great uncle upon my word
he be miss
he's almost as strong as father though he is so old you get along with you and behave yourself and don't talk stuff to me whereupon marcella
she rushed up to the top terrace
lavished her tiny weekly allowance the mad games of tig which she led and organised in the top playground and the kindnesses of
in the first place a taste for reading had rooted itself reading of the adventurous and poetical kind there were two or three books which marcella had absorbed in a way it now made her
envious to remember for at twenty one people who take interest in many things and are in a hurry to have opinions
books rather than read them must use indeed as best they may a scattered and distracted mind
as pretenders but at thirteen what concentration what devotion what joy one of these
aunt had given her she probably never read any of them through she had not a particle of industry or method in her composition but she lived in them the parts which it
but the scenes and passages
and an adoration to take the adoration first
marmion to the kind offices of the
who happened to be known to some of the boyce family he and his wife they had no children did their duty
they asked her to tea once or twice they invited her to the school treat
pastoral talk with miss frederick as to the difficulties of her pupil's character for a long time little came of it marcella was hard to tame
stormy breast an overmastering absorbing passion for these two persons
but for herself it raised her to another plane of existence gave her new objects and new standards
now counted time entirely by sundays to see the
rector was a calamity hardly to be borne if the exit of the school party were delayed by any accident so that mister and missus ellerton overtook them in the churchyard
dreary afternoon of the school sunday
in the natural course of things
have taken no interest in such things at all but whatever had been spoken by him had grace
meaning nor was the week quite barren of similar delights she was generally sent to practise on an old square piano in one of the top rooms
missus ellerton's pony carriage might be expected to pass along that road
alive with expectation
would go the music stool and the child leapt to the window remaining fixed there
missus ellerton then her moment of paradise was over
it also left deep mark a tall consumptive girl among the cliff house pupils
miss frederick's had for some time taken notice of marcella and at length won her by nothing else in the first instance than a remarkable gift for story telling
she was not held strictly to lesson hours
there was a bedroom an intermediate dressing room and then a little sitting room built out upon the terrace with a window door
racking cough but miss frederick was deaf to the latter
with memories of the feud which had long embroiled the whole county not that everybody took part in it but on the matter everybody as an old woman told him had feelin's it had begun so he learned just after the war
two boys were playing marbles in the road along the cumberland river and one had a patch on the seat of his trousers the other boy made fun of it and the boy with the patch went home and told his father as a result there had already been thirty years of local war
in the last race for legislature political issues were submerged and the feud was the sole issue and a tolliver had carried that boy's trouser patch like a flag to victory and was sitting in the lower house at that time helping to make laws for the rest of the state now bad rufe tolliver
was in the hills again and the end was not yet already people were pouring in men women and children the men slouch hatted and stalking through the mud in the rain or filing in on horseback riding double sometimes two men or two women
or a woman with a baby in her lap and two more children behind all dressed in homespun or store clothes and the paint from artificial flowers on her hat streaking the face of every girl who had unwisely scanned the heavens that morning
soon the square was filled with hitched horses and an auctioneer was bidding off cattle sheep hogs and horses to the crowd of mountaineers about him while the women sold eggs and butter and bought things for use at home
now and then an open feudsman with a winchester passed and many a man was belted with cartridges for the big pistol dangling at his hip when court opened the rain ceased the sun came out and hale made his way through the crowd to the battered temple of justice
on one corner of the square he could see the chief store of the town marked buck falin general merchandise and the big man in the door with the bushy redhead he guessed was the leader of the falin clan outside the door stood a smaller replica of the same figure
whom he recognized as the leader of the band that had nearly ridden him down at the gap when they were looking for young dave tolliver the autumn before that doubtless was young buck
and the grizzled judge was speaking angrily this is the third time you've had this trial postponed because you hain't got no lawyer i ain't goin to put it off have you got you a lawyer now yes jedge said the defendant
he'll do you more good thar than any whar else hale laughed aloud the judge glared at him and he turned quickly upstairs to his work in the deed room till noon he worked and yet there was no trouble after dinner he went back and in two hours his work was done
an atmospheric difference he felt as soon as he reached the door the crowd had melted from the square there were no women in sight but eight armed men were in front of the door and two of them a red falin and a black tolliver bad rufe it was were quarrelling
in every doorway stood a man cautiously looking on and in a hotel window he saw a woman's frightened face it was so still that it seemed impossible that a tragedy could be imminent and yet while he was trying to take the conditions in one of the quarrelling men
bad rufe tolliver whipped out his revolver and before he could level it a falin struck the muzzle of a pistol into his back another tolliver flashed his weapon on the falin this tolliver was covered by another falin and in so many flashes of lightning
the eight men in front of him were covering each other every man afraid to be the first to shoot since he knew that the flash of his own pistol meant instantaneous death for him as hale shrank back he pushed against somebody who thrust him aside it was the judge
why don't somebody shoot he asked sarcastically you're a purty set o fools ain't you
now when i give the word i want you jim falin and rufe tolliver thar to drap yer guns already rufe was grinning like a devil over the absurdity of the situation now said the judge and the two guns were dropped put em in yo pockets they did drap
all dropped and with those two all put up their guns each man however watching now the man who had just been covering him it is not wise for the stranger to show too much interest in the personal affairs of mountain men
and hale left the judge berating them and went to the hotel to get ready for the gap little dreaming how fixed the faces of some of those men were in his brain and how later they were to rise in his memory again his horse was lame but he must go on
from the landlord and when the beast was brought around he overheard two men talking at the end of the porch
the home going people were helping each other across it and as hale approached the ford of a creek half a mile beyond the river a black haired girl was standing on a boulder looking helplessly at the yellow water and two boys were on the ground below her one of them looked up at hale
i wish ye'd help this lady cross certainly said hale and the girl giggled when he laboriously turned his old mule up to the boulder not accustomed to have ladies ride behind him hale had turned the wrong side
the old beast stumbling over the stones whereat the girl unafraid made sounds of much merriment across hale stopped and said courteously if you are going up this way you are quite welcome to ride on
well i wasn't crossin that crick jes exactly fer fun said the girl demurely and then she murmured something about her cousins and looked back they had gone down to a shallower ford and when they too had waded across they said nothing and the girl said nothing
so hale started on the two boys following the mule was slow and being in a hurry hale urged him with his whip every time he struck the beast would kick up and once the girl came near going off you must watch out when i hit him said hale
i don't know when you're goin to hit him she drawled unconcernedly well i'll let you know said hale laughing now and as he whacked the beast again the girl laughed and they were better acquainted presently they passed two boys hale was wearing riding boots and tight breeches
and one of the boys ran his eyes up boot and leg and if they were lifted higher hale could not tell whar'd you git him he squeaked the girl turned her head as the mule broke into a trot ain't got time to tell they are my cousins explained the girl
what is your name asked hale loretty tolliver hale turned in his saddle are you the daughter of dave tolliver yes then you've got a brother named dave yes this then was the sister of the black haired boy he had seen in the lonesome cove
haven't you got some kinfolks over the mountain yes i got an uncle livin over thar devil judd folks calls him said the girl simply this girl was cousin to little june in lonesome cove
every now and then she would look behind them and when hale turned again inquiringly she explained i'm worried about my cousins back thar i'm afeered somethin mought happen to em shall we wait for them oh no i reckon not
soon they overtook two men on horseback and after they passed and were fifty yards ahead of them one of the men lifted his voice jestingly is that your woman stranger or have you just borrowed her hale shouted back no i'm sorry to say i've just borrowed her
she was looking down shyly and she did not seem much pleased they are kinfolks o mine too she said
you must be kin to everybody around here most everybody she said simply by and by they came to a creek
so do i she said smiling now directly at him good he said and they went on hale asking more questions she was going to school at the county seat the coming winter and she was fifteen years old
that's right the trouble in the mountains is that you girls marry so early that you don't have time to get an education she wasn't going to marry early she said but hale learned now that she had a sweetheart who had been in town that day and apparently the two had had a quarrel who it was she would not tell
and hale would have been amazed had he known the sweetheart was none other than young buck falin and that the quarrel between the lovers had sprung from the opening quarrel that day between the clans once again she came near going off the mule
and hale observed that she was holding to the cantel of his saddle look here he said suddenly hadn't you better catch hold of me she shook her head vigorously and made two not to be rendered sounds that meant no indeed well if this were your sweetheart
you'd take hold of him wouldn't you again she gave a vigorous shake of the head well if he saw you riding behind me he wouldn't like it would he she didn't keer she said but hale did and when he heard the galloping of horses behind him saw two men coming and heard one of them shouting
he shifted his revolver pulled in and waited with some uneasiness they came up reeling in their saddles neither one the girl's sweetheart as he saw at once from her face and began to ask what the girl characterized afterward as unnecessary questions who he was
hale answered so shortly that the girl thought there was going to be a fight
sit still said hale quietly there's not going to be a fight so long as you are here thar hain't said one of the men well then he looked sharply at the girl and turned his horse come on bill that's ole dave tolliver's gal the girl's face was on fire them mean falins
she said contemptuously and somehow the mere fact that hale had been even for the moment antagonistic to the other faction seemed to put him in the girl's mind at once on her side and straightway she talked freely of the feud
except to keep it down especially since he and her father had had a fallin out and the two families did not visit much though she and her cousin june sometimes spent the night with each other
and she caught her breath so suddenly and so sharply that hale turned to see what the matter was she searched his face with her black eyes which were like june's without the depths of june's i was just a wonderin if mebbe you wasn't the same feller that was over in lonesome last fall
maybe i am my name's hale the girl laughed well if this ain't the beatenest i've heerd june talk about you
i reckon we'll see dave purty soon if this ain't the beatenest she repeated and she laughed again as she always did laugh it seemed to hale when there was any prospect of getting him into trouble
is there any place on the way where i can get to stay all night you can stay all night with the red fox on top of the mountain the red fox repeated hale yes he lives right on top of the mountain you can't miss his house oh yes i remember him
i saw him talking to one of the falins in town to day behind the barn when i went to get my horse you seed him a talkin' to a falin afore the trouble come up
he knew how foolish it was for the stranger to show sympathy with or interest in one faction or another in a mountain feud but to give any kind of information of one to the other that was unwise indeed ahead of them now a little stream ran from a ravine across the road
beyond was a cabin in the doorway were several faces and sitting on a horse at the gate was young dave tolliver well i git down here said the girl and before his mule stopped she slid from behind him and made for the gate without a word of thanks or good by
howdye said hale taking in the group with his glance but leaving his eyes on young dave the rest nodded but the boy was too surprised for speech and the spirit of deviltry took the girl when she saw her brother's face and at the gate she turned much obleeged she said
tell june i'm a comin over to see her next sunday i will said hale and he rode on to his surprise when he had gone a hundred yards he heard the boy spurring after him and he looked around inquiringly as young dave drew alongside but the boy said nothing and hale
amused kept still wondering when the lad would open speech at the mouth of another little creek the boy stopped his horse as though he was to turn up that way you've come back agin he said searching hale's face with his black eyes yes said hale
yes the boy hesitated and a sudden change of mind was plain to hale in his face
certainly did you tell the red fox that day you seed him when you was goin over to the gap last fall that you seed me at uncle judd's no said hale but how did you know that i saw the red fox that day the boy laughed unpleasantly
so long he said see you agin some day the way was steep and the sun was down and darkness gathering before hale reached the top of the mountain so he hallooed at the yard fence of the red fox who peered cautiously out of the door
and there with a grin on his curious mismatched face he repeated young dave's words you've come back agin
yes said hale impatiently i'm going over to lonesome cove can i stay here all night shore said the old man hospitably that's a fine hoss you got thar he added with a chuckle been swappin
hale had to laugh as he climbed down from the bony ear flopping beast i left my horse in town he's lame yes i seed you thar hale could not resist yes and i seed you the old man almost turned
whar again the temptation was too great talking to the falin who started the row this time the red fox wheeled sharply and his pale blue eyes filled with suspicion i keeps friends with both sides he said ain't many folks can do that i reckon not
said hale calmly but in the pale eyes he still saw suspicion when they entered the cabin a little old woman in black dumb and noiseless was cooking supper the children of the two he learned had scattered and they lived there alone
on the mantel were two pistols and in one corner was the big winchester he remembered and behind it was the big brass telescope on the table was a bible and a volume of swedenborg and among the usual strings of pepper pods and beans and twisted long green tobacco
were drying herbs and roots of all kinds and about the fireplace were bottles of liquids that had been stewed from them the little old woman served and opened her lips not at all supper was eaten with no further reference to the doings in town that day
and no word was said about their meeting when hale first went to lonesome cove until they were smoking on the porch i heerd you found some mighty fine coal over in lonesome cove yes young dave tolliver thinks you found somethin else thar too chuckled the red fox
i did said hale coolly and the old man chuckled again she's a purty leetle gal shore who is asked hale looking calmly at his questioner and the red fox lapsed into baffled silence
suddenly the red fox cocked his ear like a hound and without a word slipped swiftly within the cabin a moment later hale heard the galloping of a horse and from out the dark woods loped a horseman with a winchester across his saddle bow
he pulled in at the gate but before he could shout hello the red fox had stepped from the porch into the moonlight and was going to meet him hale had never seen a more easy graceful daring figure on horseback
soon's he comes back things git frolicksome agin
wirt falin agreed and that's how they made peace to day now rufe says he won't go at all truce or no truce my wife in thar is a tolliver
keep peace or mischief with or against anybody with that face of his that was a common type of the bad man that horseman who had galloped away from the gate but this old man with his dual face who preached the word on sundays and on other days was a walking arsenal
who dreamed dreams and had visions and slipped through the hills in his mysterious moccasins on errands of mercy or chasing men from vanity personal enmity or for fun and still appeared so sane he was a type that confounded no wonder
he was known far and wide as the red fox of the mountains
want to lay down asked the old man quickly i think i do said hale and they went inside
thar's yo bed again hale's eyes fell on the big winchester
what's the calibre biggest made was the answer
centre fire rim said the red fox
man cannot live by bread alone in these mountains said the red fox grimly when hale lay down he could hear the old man quavering out a hymn or two on the porch outside and when worn out with the day he went to sleep the red fox was reading his bible by the light of a tallow dip
it is fatefully strange when people whose lives tragically intersect look back to their first meetings with one another and hale never forgot that night in the cabin of the red fox for had bad rufe tolliver while he whispered at the gate known the part
the quiet young man silently seated in the porch would play in his life
was an evil which nothing could counterbalance her whole happiness seemed at stake while the affair was in suspense
what this additional fortnight
made but a small part of catherine's speculation once or twice indeed since james's engagement had taught her what could be done she had got so far as to indulge in a secret perhaps
in the course of the morning which saw this business arranged she visited miss tilney and poured forth her joyful feelings it was doomed to be a day of trial no sooner had she expressed her delight in mister allen's lengthened stay
than miss tilney told her of her father's having just determined upon quitting bath by the end of another week here was a blow the past suspense of the morning had been ease and quiet to the present disappointment
catherine's countenance fell and in a voice of most sincere concern she echoed miss tilney's concluding words by the end of another week
perhaps said miss tilney in an embarrassed manner you would be so good it would make me very happy if the entrance of her father put a stop to the civility
which catherine was beginning to hope might introduce a desire of their corresponding after addressing her with his usual politeness he turned to his daughter and said well eleanor
may i congratulate you on being successful in your application to your fair friend i was just beginning to make the request sir as you came in well proceed by all means i know how much your heart is in it
my daughter miss morland he continued without leaving his daughter time to speak has been forming a very bold wish we leave bath as she has perhaps told you on saturday
a letter from my steward tells me that my presence is wanted at home and being disappointed in my hope of seeing the marquis of longtown and general courteney here some of my very old friends there is nothing to detain me longer in bath
and could we carry our selfish point with you we should leave it without a single regret can you in short be prevailed on to quit this scene of public triumph and oblige your friend eleanor with your company in gloucestershire
i am almost ashamed to make the request though
than yourself modesty such as yours but not for the world would i pain it by open praise if you can be induced to honour us with a visit you will make us happy beyond expression tis true
we can offer you nothing like the gaieties of this lively place we can tempt you neither by amusement nor splendour for our mode of living as you see is plain and unpretending
yet no endeavours shall be wanting on our side to make northanger abbey not wholly disagreeable northanger abbey these were thrilling words and wound up catherine's feelings to the highest point of ecstasy
her grateful and gratified heart could hardly restrain its expressions within the language of tolerable calmness to receive so flattering an invitation to have her company so warmly solicited
everything honourable and soothing every present enjoyment and every future hope was contained in it
and mamma's approbation was eagerly given
general tilney was not less sanguine having already waited on her excellent friends in pulteney street and obtained their sanction of his wishes since they can consent to part with you said he
we may expect philosophy from all the world miss tilney was earnest though gentle in her secondary civilities and the affair became in a few minutes as nearly settled as this necessary reference to fullerton would allow
the circumstances of the morning had led catherine's feelings through the varieties of suspense security and disappointment but they were now safely lodged in perfect bliss and with spirits elated to rapture with henry at her heart
in friends and fortune circumstance and chance everything seemed to cooperate for her advantage by the kindness of her first friends the allens she had been introduced into scenes where pleasures of every kind had met her
her feelings her preferences had each known the happiness of a return wherever she felt attachment she had been able to create it the affection of isabella was to be secured to her in a sister the tilneys
they by whom above all she desired to be favourably thought of outstripped even her wishes in the flattering measures by which their intimacy was to be continued she was to be their chosen visitor
and in addition to all the rest this roof was to be the roof of an abbey her passion for ancient edifices was next in degree to her passion for henry tilney
and castles and abbeys made usually the charm of those reveries which his image did not fill to see and explore either the ramparts and keep of the one or the cloisters of the other had been for many weeks a darling wish
with all the chances against her of house hall place park court and cottage northanger turned up an abbey and she was to be its inhabitant its long damp passages its narrow cells
that the consciousness of it should be so meekly borne the power of early habit only could account for it a distinction to which they had been born gave no pride their superiority of abode was no more to them than their superiority of person
many were the inquiries she was eager to make of miss tilney but so active were her thoughts that when these inquiries were answered she was hardly more assured than before
of northanger abbey having been a richly endowed convent at the time of the reformation of its having fallen into the hands of an ancestor of the tilneys on its dissolution
his departure gave catherine the first experimental conviction that a loss may be sometimes a gain the happiness with which their time now passed every employment voluntary every laugh indulged
restraint which the general's presence had imposed and most thankfully feel their present release from it such ease and such delights made her love the place and the people more and more every day
and an apprehension of not being equally beloved by the other she would at each moment of each day have been perfectly happy but she was now in the fourth week of her visit before the general came home
the fourth week would be turned and perhaps it might seem an intrusion if she stayed much longer this was a painful consideration whenever it occurred and eager to get rid of such a weight on her mind she very soon resolved to speak to eleanor about it at once
propose going away and be guided in her conduct by the manner in which her proposal might be taken aware that if she gave herself much time she might feel it difficult to bring forward so unpleasant a subject
to start forth her obligation of going away very soon eleanor looked and declared herself much concerned she had hoped for the pleasure of her company for a much longer time had been misled perhaps by her wishes
and could not but think that if mister and missus morland were aware of the pleasure it was to her to have her there they would be too generous to hasten her return catherine explained oh as to that
papa and mamma were in no hurry at all as long as she was happy they would always be satisfied then why might she ask
oh because she had been there so long nay if you can use such a word i can urge you no farther if you think it long oh no i do not indeed
till she had her leaving them was not even to be thought of in having this cause of uneasiness so pleasantly removed the force of the other was likewise weakened the kindness the earnestness of eleanor's manner in pressing her to stay
and henry's gratified look on being told that her stay was determined
as left her only just so much solicitude as the human mind can never do comfortably without she did almost always
and believing so far her doubts and anxieties were merely sportive irritations henry was not able to obey his father's injunction of remaining wholly at northanger in attendance on the ladies during his absence in london
the engagements of his curate at woodston obliging him to leave them on saturday
his loss was not now what it had been while the general was at home
but did not ruin their comfort
found themselves so well sufficient for the time to themselves that it was eleven o'clock rather a late hour at the abbey before they quitted the supper room on the day of henry's departure they had just reached the head of the stairs when it seemed
as far as the thickness of the walls would allow them to judge that a carriage was driving up to the door and the next moment confirmed the idea by the loud noise of the house bell after the first perturbation of surprise had passed away
in a good heaven what can be the matter it was quickly decided by eleanor to be her eldest brother whose arrival was often as sudden if not quite so unseasonable and accordingly she hurried down to welcome him
catherine walked on to her chamber making up her mind as well as she could to a further acquaintance with captain tilney and comforting herself under the unpleasant impression his conduct had given her
to approve of her that at least they should not meet under such circumstances as would make their meeting materially painful she trusted he would never speak of miss thorpe and indeed as he must by this time be ashamed of the part he had acted
there could be no danger of it and as long as all mention of bath scenes were avoided she thought she could behave to him very civilly in such considerations time passed away
at that moment catherine thought she heard her step in the gallery and listened for its continuance but all was silent scarcely however had she convicted her fancy of error when the noise of something moving close to her door made her start
it seemed as if someone was touching the very doorway and in another moment a slight motion of the lock proved that some hand must be on it she trembled a little at the idea of anyone's approaching so cautiously
but resolving not to be again overcome by trivial appearances of alarm or misled by a raised imagination she stepped quietly forward and opened the door eleanor and only eleanor stood there
catherine's spirits however were tranquillized but for an instant
though evidently intending to come in
and a still greater to speak when there catherine supposing some uneasiness on captain tilney's account could only express her concern by silent attention obliged her to be seated rubbed her temples with lavender water
and hung over her with affectionate solicitude my dear catherine you must not you must not indeed were eleanor's first connected words i am quite well this kindness distracts me
i cannot bear it i come to you on such an errand errand to me how shall i tell you oh how shall i tell you a new idea now darted into catherine's mind
and turning as pale as her friend she exclaimed tis a messenger from woodston you are mistaken indeed returned eleanor looking at her most compassionately it is no one from woodston it is my father himself
her voice faltered and her eyes were turned to the ground as she mentioned his name his unlooked for return was enough in itself to make catherine's heart sink
worse to be told she said nothing and eleanor endeavouring to collect herself and speak with firmness but with eyes still cast down soon went on you are too good i am sure
to think the worse of me for the part i am obliged to perform i am indeed a most unwilling messenger after what has so lately passed so lately been settled between us how joyfully how thankfully on my side
as to your continuing here as i hoped for many many weeks longer how can i tell you that your kindness is not to be accepted and that the happiness your company has hitherto given us is to be repaid by
but i must not trust myself with words my dear catherine we are to part my father has recollected an engagement that takes our whole family away on monday we are going to lord longtown's near hereford for a fortnight
my dear eleanor cried catherine suppressing her feelings as well as she could do not be so distressed a second engagement must give way to a first
so soon and so suddenly too but i am not offended indeed i am not i can finish my visit here you know at any time or i hope you will come to me can you when you return from this lord's come to fullerton
so soon as monday and you all go well i am certain of i shall be able to take leave however i need not go till just before you do you know
the general will send a servant with me i dare say half the way and then i shall soon be at salisbury and then i am only nine miles from home ah catherine were it settled so it would be somewhat less intolerable
but how can i tell you tomorrow morning is fixed for your leaving us
the very carriage is ordered and will be here at seven o'clock and no servant will be offered you catherine sat down breathless and speechless i could hardly believe my senses when i heard it
even of decent civility dear dear catherine in being the bearer of such a message i seem guilty myself of all its insult yet
i trust you will acquit me for you must have been long enough in this house to see that i am but a nominal mistress of it that my real power is nothing have i offended the general said catherine in a faltering voice
all that i know all that i answer for is that you can have given him no just cause of offence he certainly is greatly very greatly discomposed i have seldom seen him more so his temper is not happy
i am very sorry if i have offended him it was the last thing i would willingly have done but do not be unhappy eleanor an engagement you know must be kept i am only sorry it was not recollected sooner that i might have written home
but it is of very little consequence i hope i earnestly hope that to your real safety it will be of none but to everything else it is of the greatest consequence to comfort appearance propriety
to your family to the world were your friends the allens still in bath you might go to them with comparative ease a few hours would take you there but a journey of seventy miles to be taken post by you at your age alone unattended
you know makes no difference i can be ready by seven let me be called in time
now left her with i shall see you in the morning catherine's swelling heart needed relief in eleanor's presence friendship and pride had equally restrained her tears but no sooner was she gone than they burst forth in torrents
turned from the house and in such a way
who could say when they might meet again and all this by such a man as general tilney so polite so well bred and heretofore so particularly fond of her it was as incomprehensible as it was mortifying and grievous
from what it could arise and where it would end were considerations of equal perplexity and alarm the manner in which it was done so grossly uncivil hurrying her away without any reference to her own convenience
or allowing her even the appearance of choice as to the time or mode of her travelling of two days the earliest fixed on and of that almost the earliest hour as if resolved to have her gone before he was stirring in the morning
that he might not be obliged even to see her what could all this mean but an intentional affront by some means or other she must have had the misfortune to offend him eleanor had wished to spare her from so painful a notion
but catherine could not believe it possible that any injury or any misfortune could provoke such ill will against a person not connected or at least
heavily passed the night sleep or repose that deserved the name of sleep was out of the question that room in which her disturbed imagination had tormented her on her first arrival
her anxiety had foundation in fact her fears in probability and with a mind so occupied in the contemplation of actual and natural evil the solitude of her situation the darkness of her chamber the antiquity of the building
were felt and considered without the smallest emotion and though the wind was high and often produced strange and sudden noises throughout the house she heard it all as she lay awake hour after hour without curiosity or terror
soon after six eleanor entered her room eager to show attention or give assistance where it was possible but very little remained to be done
the possibility of some conciliatory message from the general occurred to her as his daughter appeared
and she only wanted to know how far after what had passed an apology might properly be received by her but the knowledge would have been useless here it was not called for
eleanor brought no message very little passed between them on meeting
and few and trivial were the sentences exchanged while they remained upstairs catherine in busy agitation completing her dress and eleanor with more goodwill than experience intent upon filling the trunk when everything was done they left the room
catherine lingering only half a minute behind her friend to throw a parting glance on every well known cherished object and went down to the breakfast parlour where breakfast was prepared
she tried to eat as well to save herself from the pain of being urged as to make her friend comfortable but she had no appetite and could not swallow many mouthfuls the contrast between this and her last breakfast in that room gave her fresh misery
and strengthened her distaste for everything before her
striking at that instant on her mind with peculiar force
eleanor seemed now impelled into resolution and speech you must write to me catherine she cried you must let me hear from you as soon as possible till i know you to be safe at home i shall not have an hour's comfort
for one letter at all risks all hazards i must entreat
and then till i can ask for your correspondence as i ought to do i will not expect more direct to me at lord longtown's and i must ask it under cover to alice no eleanor
i will trust to your own kindness of heart when i am at a distance from you but this with the look of sorrow accompanying it was enough to melt catherine's pride in a moment and she instantly said oh eleanor i will write to you indeed
though somewhat embarrassed in speaking of it had occurred to her that after so long an absence from home catherine might not be provided with money enough for the expenses of her journey and upon suggesting it to her with most affectionate offers of accommodation
it proved to be exactly the case catherine had never thought on the subject till that moment but upon examining her purse was convinced that but for this kindness of her friend she might have been turned from the house without even the means of getting home
and the distress in which she must have been thereby involved filling the minds of both scarcely another word was said by either during the time of their remaining together short however was that time the carriage was soon announced to be ready
and catherine instantly rising a long and affectionate embrace supplied the place of language in bidding each other adieu and as they entered the hall unable to leave the house without some mention of one whose name had not yet been spoken by either
she paused a moment and with quivering lips just made it intelligible that she left her kind remembrance for her absent friend
with a mind thus full of happiness catherine was hardly aware that two or three days had passed away without her seeing isabella for more than a few minutes together she began first to be sensible of this and to sigh for her conversation
as she walked along the pump room one morning by missus allen's side without anything to say or to hear and scarcely had she felt a five minutes longing of friendship before the object of it appeared
which commanded a tolerable view of everybody entering at either it is so out of the way catherine observing that isabella's eyes were continually bent towards one door or the other as in eager expectation and remembering how often
she had been falsely accused of being arch thought the present a fine opportunity for being really so and therefore gaily said do not be uneasy isabella james will soon be here psha my dear creature she replied do not think
me such a simpleton as to be always wanting to confine him to my elbow it would be hideous to be always together we should be the jest of the place and so you are going to northanger i am amazingly glad of it
it is one of the finest old places in england i understand i shall depend upon a most particular description of it you shall certainly have the best in my power to give but who are you looking for are your sisters coming
tilney says it is always the case with minds of a certain stamp but i thought isabella you had something in particular to tell me oh yes and so i have but here is a proof of what i was saying
my poor head i had quite forgot it well the thing is this i have just had a letter from john you can guess the contents no indeed i cannot my sweet love
what can he write about but yourself you know he is over head and ears in love with you with me dear isabella nay my sweetest catherine this is being quite absurd
modesty and all that is very well in its way but really a little common honesty is sometimes quite as becoming i have no idea of being so overstrained it is fishing for compliments his attentions were such as a child must have noticed
and it was but half an hour before he left bath that you gave him the most positive encouragement he says so in this letter says that he as good as made you an offer
so it is in vain to affect ignorance
protesting her innocence of every thought of mister thorpe's being in love with her and the consequent impossibility of her having ever intended to encourage him
as to any attentions on his side i do declare upon my honour i never was sensible of them for a moment except just his asking me to dance the first day of his coming
i could not have misunderstood a thing of that kind you know
well if you say it it was so i dare say but for the life of me i cannot recollect it i do remember now being with you and seeing him as well as the rest but that we were
however it is not worth arguing about for whatever might pass on his side you must be convinced by my having no recollection of it that i never thought nor expected nor wished for anything of the kind from him
i am excessively concerned that he should have any regard for me but indeed it has been quite unintentional on my side i never had the smallest idea of it pray undeceive him as soon as you can and tell him i beg his pardon that is
i do not know what i ought to say but make him understand what i mean in the properest way i would not speak disrespectfully of a brother of yours isabella i am sure but you know very well that if i could think of one man more than another
isabella was silent my dear friend you must not be angry with me i cannot suppose your brother cares so very much about me and you know we shall still be sisters
well my dear catherine the case seems to be that you are determined against poor john is not it so
since that is the case i am sure i shall not tease you any further
but i confess as soon as i read his letter i thought it a very foolish imprudent business and not likely to promote the good of either for what were you to live upon supposing you came together you have both of you something to be sure
but it is not a trifle that will support a family nowadays and after all that romancers may say there is no doing without money i only wonder john could think of it he could not have received my last you do acquit me then of anything wrong
you are convinced that i never meant to deceive your brother never suspected him of liking me till this moment oh as to that answered isabella laughingly
more encouragement than one wishes to stand by but you may be assured that i am the last person in the world to judge you severely all those things should be allowed for in youth and high spirits what one means one day you know one may not mean the next
circumstances change opinions alter but my opinion of your brother never did alter it was always the same you are describing what never happened my dearest catherine continued the other without at all listening to her
i would not for all the world be the means of hurrying you into an engagement before you knew what you were about i do not think anything would justify me in wishing you to sacrifice all your happiness merely to oblige my brother
because he is my brother and who perhaps after all you know might be just as happy without you for people seldom know what they would be at young men especially they are so amazingly changeable and inconstant
what i say is why should a brother's happiness be dearer to me than a friend's you know i carry my notions of friendship pretty high
take my word for it that if you are in too great a hurry you will certainly live to repent it
ah here he comes never mind he will not see us i am sure catherine looking up perceived captain tilney and isabella earnestly fixing her eye on him as she spoke soon caught his notice
he approached immediately and took the seat to which her movements invited him his first address made catherine start though spoken low she could distinguish what
psha nonsense was isabella's answer in the same half whisper why do you put such things into my head if i could believe it my spirit you know is pretty independent
that would be enough for me my heart indeed what can you have to do with hearts you men have none of you any hearts if we have not hearts we have eyes and they give us torment enough
she rose up and saying she should join missus allen proposed their walking but for this isabella showed no inclination she was so amazingly tired and it was so odious to parade about the pump room and if she moved from her seat she should miss her sisters
she was expecting her sisters every moment so that her dearest catherine must excuse her and must sit quietly down again but catherine could be stubborn too and missus allen just then coming up to propose their returning home
with much uneasiness did she thus leave them it seemed to her that captain tilney was falling in love with isabella and isabella unconsciously encouraging him
she wished isabella had talked more like her usual self and not so much about money and had not looked so well pleased at the sight of captain tilney how strange that she should not perceive his admiration
the compliment of john thorpe's affection did not make amends for this thoughtlessness in his sister she was almost as far from believing as from wishing it to be sincere for she had not forgotten that he could mistake
and his assertion of the offer and of her encouragement convinced her that his mistakes could sometimes be very egregious in vanity therefore
her chief profit was in wonder that he should think it worth his while to fancy himself in love with her was a matter of lively astonishment
her satisfaction was as evident as every other person's
either to exhort her to her duty or to warn her against her folly she was even in perfect good humour with miss fenton and added friendship to hospitality
mister sandford who came with lord elmwood to the neighbouring seat
at her's was so scrupulously exact in the observance of his word never to enter a house of miss milner's that he would not even call upon his friend dorriforth there but in their walks and at lord elmwood's
the two parties would occasionally join and of course sandford and she at those times met yet so distant
miss milner did not like mister sandford
she frequently felt concerned that he did not speak to her although it had been to find fault as usual
drawing towards her house where lord elmwood was invited to dine
but though she had the generosity to forgive an affront she had not the humility to make a concession and she foresaw that nothing less than some very humble atonement on her part would prevail upon the haughty priest to be reconciled
dorriforth saw her concern upon this last trifling occasion with a secret pleasure and an admiration that she had never before excited she once insinuated to him to be a mediator between them
but before any accommodation could take place the peace and composure of their abode
at a dinner given by lord elmwood sir edward was announced as an unexpected visitor miss milner did not suppose him such
dorriforth fixed his eyes upon her with some tokens of compassion while sandford seemed to exult and by his repeated welcomes to the baronet gave proofs how much he was rejoiced to see him
all the declining enmity of miss milner was renewed at this behaviour and suspecting sandford as the instigator of the visit she could not overcome her displeasure
sir edward in the course of conversation enquired
named lord frederick lawnly as being hourly expected at his uncle's the colour spread over sir edward's face dorriforth was confounded and mister sandford looked enraged did lord frederick tell you he should be down
sandford asked of dorriforth to which he replied no but i hope mister sandford you will permit me to know said miss milner for as she now meant to torment him by what she said
he had no longer any objection to make a reply and therefore answered no madam if it depended upon my permission you should not know
i would from a self interested motive mister sandford that i might have a greater respect for you some of the company laughed missus horton coughed miss woodley blushed lord elmwood sneered dorriforth frowned
where she had been taking off some part of her dress when dorriforth's servant came to acquaint her that his master was alone in his study and begged to speak with her
she immediately experienced a consciousness that she had not acted properly at lord elmwood's
a presentiment that her guardian was going to upbraid her
miss woodley just then entered her apartment and she found herself so much a coward
excuse what you my dear returned miss woodley
three hours ago had the courage to vindicate your own cause before a whole company of whom many were your adversaries do you want an advocate before your guardian alone who has ever treated you with tenderness
it is that very tenderness which frightens me which intimidates and strikes me dumb
and as i am debarred from that resource what can i do but stand before him like a guilty creature acknowledging my faults she again entreated her friend to go with her but on a positive refusal from the impropriety of such an intrusion
she was obliged at length to go by herself how much does the difference of exterior circumstances influence not only the manners but even the persons of some people miss milner in lord elmwood's drawing room
guardian and friend are two different beings
when she arrived at the door of the study she opened it with a trepidation she could hardly account for
and his face had assumed
instead of the anger with which he was prepared to begin his voice involuntarily softened and without knowing what he said he began
she expected he was angry
she imagined that what he said might be censure and she continued to tremble though he repeatedly assured her that he meant only to advise not upbraid her for as to all those little disputes between mister sandford and you said he
i should be partial if i blamed you more than him indeed when you take the liberty to condemn him his character makes the freedom appear in a more serious light than when he complains of you
but i have a question to ask you and to which i require a serious and unequivocal answer do you expect lord frederick in the country without hesitation she replied i do one more question i have to ask madam
is lord frederick the man you approve for your husband upon this close interrogation she discovered an embarrassment beyond any she had ever yet betrayed and faintly replied no he is not
which am i to believe which you please was her answer while she discovered an insulted dignity
but then why encourage him to follow you hither miss milner why commit a thousand follies she replied in tears every hour of my life you then promote the hopes of lord frederick without one serious intention of completing them
this is a conduct against which it is my duty to guard you and you shall no longer deceive either him or yourself
or consent to become his wife in answer to the alternative thus offered she appeared averse to both propositions and yet came to no explanation why but left her guardian at the end of the conference
as much at a loss to decide upon her true sentiments as he was before
when it was the one hundred and fiftieth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king
he bit his forehand for repentance
but this availed naught and he was at his wits end for what to do so he said to him in soft low accents verily you tribe of foxes
and the subtlest in jest
but all times are not good for funning and jesting the fox replied o ignoramus in good sooth jesting hath a limit which the jester must not overpass
and deem not that allah will again give thee possession of me
and do thee all manner of kindness
incited thereto by lust for the recompense and eager to find favour with heaven and set her in his breastpocket
behold i have saved thee from that thou fearedest and soughtest to fly replied she
with my fangs for thou knowest we exceed not that recompense so saying she gave him a bite whereof he died and i liken thee o dullard to the serpent in her dealings with that man hast thou not heard what the poet saith
misween smooth feels the viper to the touch and glides with grace yet hides she deadliest venene
ignore not my case and men's fear of me
and uproot the vines from base
and stand before me even as the thrall standeth before his lord quoth the fox o stupid dullard who seekest a vain thing i marvel at thy folly and thy front of brass in that
thou biddest me serve thee and stand up before thee as i were a slave bought with thy silver but soon shalt thou see what is in store for thee in the way of cracking
overlooking the vineyard and standing there
nor did he give over shouting till he woke them and they seeing him all came up to him in haste
so the folk looked into the cleft and spying the wolf set to pelting him with heavy stones and they stinted not smiting him with stones and sticks and stabbing him with spears
standing over the spot where his foe had been slain saw the wolf dead so he wagged his head for very joyance and began to recite these couplets
knew that she was on the watch for her and said in her mind verily this affair is like to end blameably and sore i fear me this woman is on the look out for me and fortune is no friend
so there is no help for it but that i do a fair deed whereby i may manifest my innocence and wash out all the ill doings i have done
out of her hole and carry it forth and lay it back upon the rest the woman stood by and seeing the ichneumon do thus said to herself
and of a truth she hath done us
but i will not cease my watching till he fall into my hands and i find out who is the thief the ichneumon guess what was in her mind so she went to the mouse and said to her o
and who showeth no constancy in friendship the mouse replied even so o my friend and i delight in thee and in they neighborhood but what be the motive of this speech
and hath eaten his fill of it he and his family and hath left much every living being hath eaten of it and if thou take of it in they turn thou art worthier thereof than any other
shining with whiteness and the woman sitting at watch and ward
for the woman had armed herself with a cudgel and unable to contain herself ran up to the sesame and began turning it over and eating of it whereupon the woman smote her with that club and cleft her head
were her greed and heedlessness of consequences then said the sultan o shahrazad by
the crow at once flew up to the tree top but the cat abode confounded and said to the crow o my friend hast thou no device to save me even as all my hope is in thee replied the crow
of very truth it behoveth brethren in case of need to cast about for a device
and how well saith the poet
a friend in need is he who ever true
cawing and crying out furthermore he went up to one of the dogs and flapped his wings in his face
and saw the bird flying near the ground and lighting
and yet tempting them to follow
in a cave of a certain mountain and as often as a cub was born to him and grew stout
left the cub alive and bred it by his side
and the fox said to himself i have a mind to set up a friendship with this crow and make a comrade of him
for he can do in such matters what i cannot so he drew near the crow's home
the right of neighbourliness and the right of al islam
and know o my friend that thou art my neighbour
also there be implanted in my breast a store of love to thee
and indeed i should love to wone near thee and i have sued for thine intimacy to the end that we may help each other to our several objects and success shall surely wait upon our amity
of the goodliness of true friendship
answered the crow thou hast my leave to let me hear thy communication
intent thereby rejoined the fox hear then o my friend
told of a flea and a mouse and which beareth out what i have said to thee asked the crow how so and the fox answered
once upon a time a mouse dwelt in the house of a merchant who owned much merchandise and great stories of monies one night
and finding his body soft and being thirsty drank of his blood
but as soon as the bloodsucker was aware of the search he turned to flee and coming
entered it when the mouse saw him she said to him what bringeth thee in to me thou who art not of my nature nor of my kind and who canst not be assured of safety from violence or of not
of a truth i took refuge in thy dwelling to save me from slaughter and i have come to thee seeking thy protection and on nowise coveting thy house nor shall any mischief betide thee from me to make thee leave thy home
with all good and then shalt thou see and praise the issue of my words and when the mouse heard the speech of the flea and shahrazad
mister sandford finding his friend dorriforth frequently perplexed in the management of his ward and he himself thinking her incorrigible
and the care of so dangerous a person given into other hands dorriforth acknowledged the propriety of this advice but lamented the difficulty of pleasing his ward as to the quality of her lover
for she had refused besides sir edward ashton many others of equal pretensions depend upon it then cried sandford
dorriforth thought he did know and mentioned lord frederick but said that he had no farther authority for the supposition than what his observation had given him for that every explanation both upon his and her side had been evaded take her then cried sandford into the country
and if lord frederick should not follow there is an end of your suspicions i shall not easily prevail upon miss milner to leave town replied he while it is in the highest fashion
at least fix the time you mean to go during the autumn and be firm to your determination but in the autumn replied dorriforth
he will not then so evidently follow
it was agreed the attempt should be made instead of receiving this abrupt proposal with uneasiness miss milner to the surprise of all present immediately consented
a token of approbation from you mister dorriforth returned she i always considered with high estimation but your commendations are now become infinitely superior in value by their scarcity
for i do not believe that since miss fenton and mister sandford came to town i have received one testimony of your esteem had these words been uttered with pleasantry they might have passed without observation
but at the conclusion of the period resentment flew to miss milner's face and she darted a piercing look at mister sandford which more pointedly expressed that she was angry with him than if she had spoken volumes in her usual strain of raillery
dorriforth was confused
in which mister sandford was treated and miss woodley turned to him with a benevolent smile upon her face hoping to set him an example of the manner in which he should receive the reproach her good wishes did not succeed
the air of the country has affected the lady already but it is a comfortable thing continued he that in the variety of humours to which some women are exposed they cannot be uniform even in deceit deceit cried miss milner
except when the country has been proposed and you thought it politeness to appear satisfied and i was satisfied till i recollected that you might probably be of the party then every grove was changed into a wilderness
every rivulet into a stagnated pool and every singing bird into a croaking raven
for i understand the seat to which your guardian means to go
that i shall never enter a house in which you are the mistress nor any house i am certain mister sandford but in which you are yourself the master
am i the master here your servants replied she looking at the company will not tell you so but i do you condescend mister sandford cried missus horton
but i know you do it for her good well miss milner cried dorriforth and the most cutting thing he could say since i find my proposal of the country has put you out of humour i shall mention it no more
directed immediately to him and a severe word of his instead of exasperating was sure to subdue her this was the case at present his words wounded her to the heart
and she burst into tears dorriforth instead of being concerned as he usually was at seeing her uneasy appeared on the present occasion provoked he thought her weeping was a new reproach to his friend mister sandford
and that to suffer himself to be moved by it would be a tacit condemnation of his friend's conduct she understood his thoughts and getting the better of her tears apologised for her weakness adding she could never bear with indifference an unjust accusation
in a few days she bowed assent the necessary preparations were agreed upon
she secretly triumphed in the mortification she hoped that mister sandford would receive from her obedient behaviour the news of this intended journey was of course soon made public there is a secret charm in being pitied
when the misfortune is but ideal and miss milner found infinite gratification in being told
while london was filled with her admirers who like her would languish in consequence of her solitude these things and a thousand such
those involuntary sighs however that miss woodley had long ago observed
yet though miss milner at those times was softened into melancholy she by no means appeared unhappy
yet she was confirmed from these increased symptoms
and accomplishments of lord frederick said miss woodley to herself but her understanding compels her to see his faults
and oh cried she could her guardian and mister sandford know of this conflict how much would they have to admire how little to condemn with such friendly thoughts and with the purest intentions
miss woodley did not fail to give both gentlemen reason to believe a contention of this nature was the actual state of miss milner's mind
in a few days they departed missus horton
elmwood house or rather castle the seat of lord elmwood was only a few miles distant from this residence
an estate belonging to an uncle of lord frederick's
it was hardly more than a bubbly trickle but lower down it grew wider and wider and ran between the reeds at the edges of the meadows
it ran for almost a quarter of a mile through the middle of a sort of wood it was under the roots of some of these trees
that the biggest of the trout had their nests where fishermen with flies couldn't reach them but there were some big trout too that lived under the meadow banks and used to put up their noses in the summer evenings
and suck down the flies that fell on the water when they were tired of dancing in the air cuthbert and marian and doris and gwendolen were all very fond of this river
they used to lie on the bank and keep very still and watch the trout having their evening meal they
or a blue fly or a fly with pale wings like a distant rain cloud floating down on the top of the water and probably wondering where it had got to and then they would hear a little noise like grown up people make with the tips of their tongues against the roofs of their mouths
and growing bigger and bigger that meant that a trout had been lying in wait with his eye cocked on the surface of the stream and had seen the fly and liked the look of him and suddenly decided to swallow him up
sometimes a fisherman would come quietly along and kneel down on one knee and after he had seen a trout rise would open a little box and take out a fly like the one that the trout had eaten but this would be a sham fly
made of feathers and silk cunningly tied round a sharp hook and he would thread it on to a piece of gut so thin that they could hardly see it then he would tie the gut to a sort of string that was hanging down from the point of his fishing rod
and then he would swish his rod until the fly flew out straight and fell upon the stream just as the real one had done sometimes they could see a trout come up and look at this fly and shake his head and go down again
then the trout had found himself caught and they had seen the fisherman's rod bent almost double as the trout dashed to and fro and at last they had seen the fisherman slip a net into the water
but very often there would be no fishermen at all and they would see nobody for hours and hours and hear nothing but the cries of the river birds and the suck suck of the feeding trout
the man that they saw most often was a man called beardy ned because though he was only a youngish man he had a sandy coloured beard and they were always very sorry for him
she had left him with a little girl only ten months old and that was why ned had let his beard grow he hadn't time he said to look after the little girl and shave his face every day as well
and he had wandered about ever since doing all sorts of odd jobs sometimes he helped the farmers get their hay in or the gamekeepers trap stoats and sometimes he would chop wood
and sometimes he would go far away and not come back for weeks and weeks
because that was where he had first met his dead wife he had lived so much in the open air that his skin was as dark as a red indian's and when he laughed his teeth were like snow and his eyes like the sea on a sunny day
people like clergymen and large employers often used to tell him that he ought to settle down but why should he settle down he asked so long as there was only liz and she could sleep in his arms as snug as snug
liz was four years old now and as brown as her father and her hair was short and curly like a boy's
for beardy ned in spite of his great trouble was always full of a secret happiness and he had made this little song out of his own head that he used to sing every two or three hours the wickedest girl there was the wickedest girl there is
is my young daughter liz he only meant it in fun of course and when liz was running about he would shout it at the top of his voice but when she was sleepy he would only croon it until her eyelids began to drop
of course cuthbert couldn't always be bothered to go up the river with the girls
it was still only may so that the water was cold but the air above it was warm and still and he was lying on the bank without anything on when he suddenly heard a splash and a gurgling cry
he sat bolt upright and then looking across the pool he saw a little form struggling in the deep water and rolling over in it head downward and then beginning to slip out of sight it was liz with all her clothes on she had evidently slipped down the steep bank
she would be sure to drown because beardy ned was nowhere in sight
cuthbert couldn't move but a moment later he was in the water and swimming across the pool as fast as he could and faster than he had ever swum before he prayed to god that he might be in time the pool had never looked so wide
but at last he had swum across it and made a grab at a piece of liz's frock just under the surface he pulled this hard and tried to go on swimming with his other arm and both legs
and he was able to stand up and lift her out of the pool she was quite pale and the water was pouring from her mouth and her eyes were staring as if they couldn't see anything he scrambled up the bank grazing his knees
and then she began to choke and take deep breaths just then too beardy ned came crashing through the reeds with great strides for cuthbert had shouted as loud as he could just before he plunged into the pool ned's face had turned grey
and there was a look in his eyes that made cuthbert feel almost frightened but when he saw liz sitting up and crying he gave a shout and caught her in his arms then he gripped cuthbert by the wrist and cuthbert could feel that he was shaking all over and then beardy ned began to cry too
but next moment both he and liz were laughing and cuthbert swam back again to put on his clothes and then he crossed the river upon a plank lower down where he found beardy ned and liz waiting for him
beardy ned took him by the shoulder come along he said and have supper with us he was carrying liz and sticking out of one of his pockets cuthbert could see the tails of a brace of trout and presently they came to a bend of the stream
where the bank was high and there was a little beach from the top of the bank a great tree had fallen with its roots sticking up in the air
he had put a couple of blankets there and an old waterproof and standing on the beach were a cup and kettle
and was showing cuthbert how to cook trout it was beginning to get dark now and the stars were shining and the flames of the fire made the river look like ink but they were so sheltered under the high bank that they might almost have been at home
and drank tea and liz who was almost asleep had a cup of milk and then they ate biscuits and jam out of a pot and beardy ned filled his pipe he had made liz take off her wet clothes of course
and these were hanging from sticks on either side of the fire and he had wrapped her in a blanket and soon she was fast asleep lying on his knees as he sat and smoked he seemed to be thinking a lot but at last he looked at cuthbert
and i can never pay you back but i'll show you a secret that no one else in the whole world knows cuthbert liked secrets so he was rather pleased but beardy ned changed the subject
that i first saw my liz i mean her mother perhaps in a manner of speaking it was where i first saw this one too
she was just nineteen she'd been paddling in the stream i called out to her and she turned and looked at me she was in an old frock but she looked quite the lady her eyes was dark and she was smiling he moved his head a little
there goes a fox he said he sucked his pipe for a moment in silence the sound of the fire was like somebody talking to them
then beardy ned felt in his pocket and pulled out the end of a candle it looked like an ordinary candle
james parkins that was his name and there's not another like it in the whole world and there never won't be again
while he looked at cuthbert have you ever wondered he said where candles goes to where they goes to when they goes out no i don't think so said cuthbert where do they go to
they goes into the in between land the place as is in between everything you can see how do i know because i've been there because james parkins showed me how that's very interesting said cuthbert politely but beardy ned didn't seem to hear
the trouble is you see beardy ned continued that candles when they goes out can't take people with them but james parkins he'd found a candle that could take a person with it and this is the candle when he first gave it me two year ago it was about eight inches long
but i've used it a lot and after you've blowed it out and it's taken you with it it goes on burning when you come back it's an inch shorter an inch shorter every time and this here bit is the last bit as'll ever take anyone to in between land
he gave it to cuthbert do you want to go there he said you've saved my little girl's life and you've only to say the word
that's the chief thing is it quite safe asked cuthbert it seems rather queer i'll tell you what it's like said beardy ned it's like a dream or rather it's not like a dream so much as waking up from a dream you sees the trees and things all kind of misty
and you sees em quarrelling and the like and grieving
they're just going to wake up that's what it seems like in in between land liz stirred again and he shifted her on his knees a little
there ain't no time there not as we reckons time but once you've been there
yes i'd like to he said it would be rather exciting beardy ned bent forward and took a stick from the fire he lit the end of the candle between cuthbert's fingers now blow it out he said and you'll go out with it it'll be all right you'll be back in a tick
cuthbert's hand was shaking a little but he blew out the candle and then for a moment he saw nothing at all but he felt something he felt as if he'd been asleep for ever and ever and had suddenly opened his eyes he felt as if he could do anything he was so strong
he felt as if he could jump over the highest star
and taking medicine they all seemed too stupid even to bother about he felt like a prisoner just set free he knew that he was really free and that nothing could ever hurt him then he began to see things
and the dusky meadows but they looked just like dream sticks and a dream fire
for beside beardy ned stood a girl of nineteen who had been paddling in the stream
chapter twenty two weeds and pests weeding is a delightful occupation especially after summer rain when the roots come up clear and clean
one gets to know how many and various are the ways of weeds as many almost as the moods of human creatures how easy and pleasant to pull up are the soft annuals like chickweed and groundsel and how one looks with respect
that make one go and fetch a spade comfrey is another thing with a terrible root and every bit must be got out as it will grow again from the smallest scrap and hard to get up are the two bryonies the green and the black
with such deep reaching roots that if not weeded up within their first year will have to be seriously dug out later the white convolvulus one of the loveliest of native plants has a most persistently running root
of which every joint will quickly form a new plant some of the worst weeds to get out are goutweed and coltsfoot though i live on a light soil comparatively easy to clean i have done some gardening in clay
and well know what a despairing job it is to get the bits of either of these roots out of the stiff clods the most persistent weed in my soil is the small running sheep's sorrel first it makes a patch
and then sends out thready running roots all round a foot or more long these if not checked establish new bases of operation and so it goes on always spreading farther and farther
when this happens in soft ground that can be hoed and weeded it matters less but in the lawn it is a more serious matter
of rather a sour quality goutweed is a pest in nearly all gardens and very difficult to get out when it runs into the root of some patch of hardy plant if the plant can be spared
i find it best to send it at once to the burn heap or if it is too precious there is nothing for it but to cut it all up and wash it out to be sure that not the smallest particle of the enemy remains some weeds are deceiving
sow thistle for instance which has the look of promising firm hand hold and easy extraction but has a disappointing way of almost always breaking short off at the collar
but of all the garden weeds that are native plants i know none so persistent or so insidious as the rampion bell flower campanula rapunculus it grows from the smallest thread of root and it is almost impossible to see every little bit
for though the main roots are thick and white and fleshy the fine side roots that run far abroad are very small and of a reddish colour and easily hidden in the brown earth
but some of the worst garden weeds are exotics run wild the common grape hyacinth sometimes overruns a garden and cannot be got rid of sambucus ebulis is a plant to beware of
its long thong like roots spreading far and wide and coming up again far away from the parent stock for this reason it is valuable for planting in such places as newly made pond heads helping to tie the bank together
the winter heliotrope
is almost impossible to get out when once it has taken hold growing in the same way as its near relative the native coltsfoot but by far the most difficult plant to abolish or even keep in check that i know
is ornithogalum nutans beautiful as it is and valuable as a cut flower i will not have it in the garden i think i may venture to say that in this soil when once established it cannot be eradicated
each mature bulb makes a host of offsets and the seed quickly ripens when it is once in a garden it will suddenly appear in all sorts of different places it is no use trying to dig it out
i have dug out the whole space of soil containing the patch a barrow load at a time and sent it to the middle of the burn heap and put in fresh soil and there it is again next year nearly as thick as ever
i have dug up individual small patches with the greatest care and got out every bulb and offset and every bit of the whitish leaf stem
and i passed it all several times through my fingers but all in vain i confess that it beats me entirely coronilla varia is a little plant that appears in catalogues among desirable alpines
but is a very rooty and troublesome thing and scarcely good enough for garden use though pretty in a grassy bank where its rambling ways would not be objectionable i once brought home from brittany some roots of linaria repens
that looked charming by a roadside and planted them in a bit of alpine garden a planting that i never afterwards ceased to regret i learnt from an old farmer a good way of getting rid of a bed of nettles
to thrash them down with a stick every time they grow up if this is done about three times during the year the root becomes so much weakened that it is easily forked out or if the treatment is gone on with the second year the nettles die
thrashing with a stick is better than cutting as it makes the plant bleed more any mutilation of bruise or ragged tearing of fibre is more harmful to plant or tree than clean cutting of bird
beast and insect pests we have plenty first and worst are rabbits they will gnaw and nibble anything and everything that is newly planted even native things like juniper scotch fir and gorse
the necessity of wiring everything newly planted adds greatly to the labour and expense of the garden and the unsightly grey wire netting is an unpleasant eyesore when plants or bushes are well established the rabbits leave them alone
though some families of plants are always irresistible pinks and carnations for instance
and will eat rose bushes quite high up plants eaten by a hare look as if they had been cut with a sharp knife there is no appearance of gnawing or nibbling no ragged edges of wood or frayed bark
but just a straight clean cut field mice are very troublesome some years they will nibble off the flower buds of the lent hellebores when they do this they have a curious way of collecting them and laying them in heaps
i have no idea why they do this as they neither carry them away nor eat them afterwards there the heaps of buds lie till they rot or dry up they once stole all my auricula seed in the same way
i had marked some good plants for seed cutting off all the other flowers as soon as they went out of bloom the seed was ripening and i watched it daily awaiting the moment for harvesting but a few days before it was ready
i went round and found the seed was all gone it had been cut off at the top of the stalk so that the umbel shaped heads had been taken away whole i looked about and luckily found three slightly hollow places under the bank at the back of the border
where the seed heads had been piled in heaps in this case it looked as if it had been stored for food luckily it was near enough to ripeness for me to save my crop the mice are also troublesome with newly sown peas
eating some underground while sparrows nibble off others when just sprouted and when outdoor grapes are ripening mice run up the walls and eat them even when the grapes are tied in oiled canvas bags they will eat through the bags to get at them
and that ripen the grapes as well i am not sure whether it is mice or birds that pick off the flowers of the big bunch primroses but am inclined to think it is mice because the stalks are cut low down
pheasants are very bad gardeners what they seem to enjoy most are crocuses in fact it is no use planting them i had once a nice collection of crocus species they were in separate patches
in a sheltered part of the garden where pheasants did not often come one day when i came to see my crocuses i found where each patch had been a basin shaped excavation and a few fragments of stalk or some part of the plant
they had begun at one end and worked steadily along clearing them right out they also destroyed a long bed of anemone fulgens first they took the flowers and then the leaves
and lastly pecked up and ate the roots but we have one grand consolation in having no slugs at least hardly any that are truly indigenous they do not like our dry sandy heaths
friends are very generous in sending them with plants so that we have a moderate number that hang about frames and pot plants though nothing much to boast of but they never trouble seedlings in the open ground and for this i can never be too thankful
alas that the beautiful bullfinch should be so dire an enemy to fruit trees and also the pretty little tits but so it is and it is a sad sight to see a well grown fruit tree
with all its fruit buds pecked out and lying under it on the ground in a thin green carpet we had some fine young cherry trees in a small orchard that we cut down in despair after they had been growing twelve years
chapter twenty three the bedding fashion and its influence it is curious to look back at the old days of bedding out when that and that only meant gardening to most people and to remember how the fashion
beginning in the larger gardens made its way like a great inundating wave submerging the lesser ones and almost drowning out the beauties of the many little flowery cottage plots of our english waysides and one wonders how it all came about
and why the bedding system admirable for its own purpose should have thus outstepped its bounds and have been allowed to run riot among gardens great and small throughout the land but so it was and for many years the fashion
reigned supreme it was well for all real lovers of flowers when some quarter of a century ago a strong champion of the good old flowers arose and fought strenuously to stay the devastating tide
and to restore the healthy liking for the good old garden flowers many soon followed and now one may say that all england has flocked to the standard bedding as an all prevailing fashion is now dead
one can look at it more quietly and fairly and see what its uses really are for in its own place and way it is undoubtedly useful and desirable many great country houses are only inhabited in winter
then perhaps for a week or two at easter and in the late summer there is probably a house party at easter and a succession of visitors in the late summer a brilliant garden visible from the house
dressed for spring and dressed for early autumn is exactly what is wanted not necessarily from any special love of flowers but as a kind of bright and well kept furnishing of the immediate environment of the house the gardener delights in it
it is all routine work so many hundreds or thousands of scarlet geranium of yellow calceolaria of blue lobelia of golden feverfew or of other coloured material it wants no imagination
the comprehension of it is within the range of the most limited understanding indeed its prevalence for some twenty years or more must have had a deteriorating influence on the whole class of private gardeners
presenting to them an ideal so easy of attainment and so cheap of mental effort but bedding though it is gardening of the least poetical or imaginative kind can be done badly or beautifully
in the parterre of the formal garden it is absolutely in place and brilliantly beautiful pictures can be made by a wise choice of colouring i once saw and can never forget
a bedded garden that was a perfectly satisfying example of colour harmony but then it was planned by the master a man of the most refined taste and not by the gardener
it was a parterre that formed part of the garden in one of the fine old places in the midland counties i have no distinct recollection of the design except that there was some principle of fan shaped radiation
of which each extreme angle formed one centre the whole garden was treated in one harmonious colouring of full yellow orange and orange brown half hardy annuals such as french and african marigolds
zinnias and nasturtiums being freely used it was the most noble treatment of one limited range of colouring i have ever seen in a garden brilliant without being garish and sumptuously gorgeous without the reproach of gaudiness
a precious lesson in temperance and restraint in the use of the one colour and an admirable exposition of its powerful effect in the hands of a true artist i think that in many smaller gardens a certain amount of bedding may be actually desirable
for where the owner of a garden has a special liking for certain classes or mixtures of plants or wishes to grow them thoroughly well and enjoy them individually to the full he will naturally grow them in separate beds or may intentionally combine the beds if he will
into some form of good garden effect but the great fault of the bedding system when at its height was that it swept over the country as a tyrannical fashion that demanded and for the time being succeeded in effecting
the exclusion of better and more thoughtful kinds of gardening for i believe i am right in saying that it spread like an epidemic disease and raged far and wide for nearly a quarter of a century its worst form of all was the ribbon border
generally a line of scarlet geranium at the back then a line of calceolaria then a line of blue lobelia and lastly a line of the inevitable golden feather feverfew or what our gardener used to call featherfew
could anything be more tedious or more stupid and the ribbon border was at its worst when its lines were not straight but waved about in weak and silly sinuations and when bedding as a fashion was dead
when this false god had been toppled off his pedestal and his worshippers had been converted to better beliefs in turning and rending him they often went too far and did injustice to the innocent by professing a dislike to many a good plant
and renouncing its use it was not the fault of the geranium or of the calceolaria that they had been grievously misused and made to usurp too large a share of our garden spaces
not once but many a time my visitors have expressed unbounded surprise when they saw these plants in my garden saying i should have thought that you would have despised geraniums on the contrary i love geraniums
there are no plants to come near them for pot or box or stone basket or for massing in any sheltered place in hottest sunshine and i love their strangely pleasant smell and their beautiful modern colourings of soft scarlet and salmon scarlet and salmon pink
when the bedding fashion was going out reading some rather heated discussions in the gardening papers about methods of planting out and arranging various tender but indispensable plants
some one who had been writing about the errors of the bedding system wrote about planting some of these in isolated masses he was pounced upon by another who asked what is this but bedding the second writer was so far justified
in that it cannot be denied that any planting in beds is bedding but then there is bedding and bedding a right and a wrong way of applying the treatment
another matter that roused the combative spirit of the captious critic was the filling up of bare spaces in mixed borders with geraniums calceolarias and other such plants again he said what is this but bedding
these are bedding plants when i read this it seemed to me that his argument was these plants may be very good plants in themselves but because they have for some years been used wrongly therefore they must not now be used rightly
in the case of my own visitors when they have expressed surprise at my having those horrid old bedding plants in my garden it seemed quite a new view when i pointed out that bedding plants were only passive agents in their own misuse
and that a geranium was a geranium long before it was a bedding plant but the discussion raised in my mind a wish to come to some conclusion about the difference between bedding in the better and worse sense in relation to the cases quoted
and it appeared to me to be merely in the choice between right and wrong placing placing monotonously or stupidly so as merely to fill the space
and because it is understood to mean the planting of exotics in wild places unthinking people rush to the conclusion that they can put any garden plants into any wild places and that that is wild gardening
and heathy hillsides already sufficiently and beautifully clothed with native vegetation made to look lamentably silly by the planting of a nurseryman's mixed lot of exotic conifers
in my own case i have always devoted the most careful consideration to any bit of wild gardening i thought of doing never allowing myself to decide upon it till i felt thoroughly assured that the place seemed to ask for the planting in contemplation
and that it would be distinctly a gain in pictorial value so there are stretches of daffodils in one part of the copse while another is carpeted with lily of the valley a cool bank is covered with gaultheria and just where i thought they would look well as little jewels of beauty
are spreading patches of trillium and the great yellow dog tooth violet besides these there are only some groups of the giant lily many other exotic plants could have been made to grow in the wooded ground but they did not seem to be wanted
i thought where the copse looked well and complete in itself it was better left alone but where the wood joins the garden some bold groups of flowering plants are allowed as of mullein in one part and foxglove in another
that we call it water and then it is heavier than the atmospheric air and therefore seeks the low places upon the earth's surface the lowest of which is the bed of the ocean wherever there is water or moisture on the face of the globe
there is a process going on at the surface called evaporation this process is much more rapid under the action of heat than when it is colder in other words as the heat increases
we will speak of it only in its relation to aqueous moisture the heat that is imparted to the earth's surface by the rays of the sun is able to separate water into minute particles which when so separated
form what is called vapor which is transparent as well as much lighter than the air at the surface of the earth being lighter than the air it rises when disengaged and floats to the upper regions of the atmosphere
the atmosphere will contain a certain amount of these transparent globules of moisture in the spaces between its own molecules if the air is warm
the process of evaporation is one of the most important in the catalogue of nature's dynamics without it there would be no verdure on the hills no trees on the plains no fields of waving grain
and no animal life upon the land surface of the globe evaporation is nature's method of irrigation and the system is inaugurated on a grand scale so that there are but few neglected spots upon the face of the earth which moisture
carried up from the great reservoirs of water does not reach the rate of evaporation other things being equal depends upon the extent of surface therefore a smooth surface like that of the lake or ocean
will not send up as much vapor from a given area in square miles as an equal area of land will do when it is saturated with moisture for the reason that there is a much larger evaporating surface on a square mile of land
owing to its inequalities than upon an equal area of smooth water of course if the earth is dry there can be but little evaporation one of the effects of evaporation is to withdraw heat
and so to produce cold in the substance from which the evaporation takes place if we put water into a vial and drop regularly upon it some fluid that evaporates readily it will extract the heat from the vial and the water in it
to such an extent that in a short time the water will be frozen in hot countries ice is manufactured on a large scale upon the principle that we have just described water is put into shallow basins
excavated in the earth over which is placed some substance like straw that readily radiates heat and on the straw are placed porous bricks that are kept wet thus furnishing a very large evaporating surface
in this way the process of evaporation is carried on very rapidly and the heat is extracted from the water to such an extent that it freezes often forming ice in one night over an inch in thickness and this in the hottest climates on the globe
evaporation cannot go on in places where the air is already saturated with moisture when the air is dry evaporation is very rapid but as it becomes more and more filled with moisture the evaporation is checked to the same degree
this fact accounts for the difference of bodily comfort that we experience at different times in the year when the temperature is the same sometimes we are very uncomfortable although the temperature is not above seventy five degrees fahrenheit
more so even than we are at other times when the temperature is ten or fifteen degrees higher if the air is saturated with moisture even though the temperature is not above seventy or seventy five degrees
the perspiration is not readily evaporated from the surface of the body if the air is dry the temperature may be much higher and we be much more comfortable because evaporation goes on rapidly which keeps the body not only dry but cool
i remember passing through a desert in arizona where there was scarcely a green thing in sight in any direction
i did not suffer as much as i often have done in the east with the thermometer at eighty or ninety degrees and there was very little show of sensible perspiration it was going on rapidly however but was being absorbed by the dry air
evaporation is carried on much more rapidly when the wind blows than at other times for the reason that the moisture is carried off laterally as fast as it is formed all resistance to its escape into the upper air being removed
if the air is charged to saturation with moisture at a certain temperature it will remain so and evaporation stops so long as the temperature remains unchanged if its temperature rises the process of evaporation can start up
so that we are able to see through it as we do through a pane of glass if however the body of air that is saturated with this invisible moisture becomes suddenly chilled the moisture condenses into cloud or mist
if we watch a passing railroad train we shall notice a mass of fleecy white mist floating away from the smokestack assuming the billowy forms of some of the clouds in summer this cloud is produced by the sudden condensation of steam
which was transparent before it came in contact with the cold outside air the effect being much more pronounced in cold than in warm weather we may liken these floating globules of mist to the dust of the earth which floats in the air
and it has not been inaptly called water dust anyone who has seen an atomizer used or has stood at the foot of a great waterfall like niagara has seen the fluid so finely divided that it will float in the air instead of falling to the ground
what takes place is that a number of these transparent atoms of moisture that are released in the process of evaporation coalesce into one small drop or particle of water and they will continue to float in the air as mist or cloud
until a sufficient number have combined into one solid mass to render that mass heavier than the air when it falls in the form of rain if we live in a region and there are such on the face of the earth
and the clouds precede the rain hence all the artificial attempts to produce rain in these arid regions have been futile if a body of warm air when saturated with invisible moisture
is suddenly chilled by coming in contact with a cold wave it is squeezed like a sponge so to speak and the invisible particles become visible because a number of them have coalesced as one particle the particles gather in a large mass
and we have the phenomenon of cloud formation clouds more generally form in the upper regions of the atmosphere because it is normally colder in the higher regions in some cases clouds float very high in the air
and in others very low this is due to two causes if we should send up a balloon containing air rarefied to a certain extent it would continue to ascend only until it reached a point where the outside air
and that contained in the balloon are of the same density if we should send up this same balloon on different days with the same rarefaction of internal air we should find that on some days it would float higher than others because the density of the air is constantly fluctuating
as is indicated by the rise and fall of the barometer now let us consider the balloon as a globule of moisture of a definite weight and this globule only one of an aggregation of globules sufficient to form a cloud
we can readily see from what has gone before that a cloud thus formed having a definite density and weight would float higher some days than others assuming again that the density of the air remains the same from day to day
the clouds will still float high or low in the atmosphere from another cause let us go back to our illustration of the balloon if we have a fixed condition of atmosphere external to the balloon and vary the conditions internally
which means varying its weight the balloon will float higher or lower as the internal conditions are varied now apply this principle to the moisture globules of which a cloud is formed
and we can understand why a cloud will float high or low from the two causes that we have described clouds are of different color and density and this is due to the differences of the make up of the moisture globules of which the clouds are formed
if these globules are in an advanced stage of condensation the cloud is darker and more opaque in earlier conditions of condensation the cloud will have a bright look which shows that it reflects most of the light
whereas in the case of the dark cloud the light is largely absorbed there is a sort of notion prevailing that clouds come up from the horizon and in many cases they do but they may form directly over our heads
there always has to be a beginning and that occurs wherever the conditions are most favorable for condensation of vapor if the earth is wet and the sun is hot the evaporation may be very rapid as well as the ascent of the invisible moisture
which carries with it the air which in turn expands the higher it rises thus producing cold this taken with the normal cold that exists in the higher regions may be sufficient to produce a sudden condensation of this ascending vapor
which is all that is necessary to form a cloud the inquiry may arise why is the moisture condensed almost always in the upper regions of the air where it is rare because the more rare and therefore expanded it is
the more moisture it will hold this taken with the fact that cold currents are encountered high up sufficiently answers the question it is interesting to know that the processes of nature are interdependent
it is not enough that we have the evaporation of moisture that will ascend into the higher regions of the air and there be condensed into cloud and possibly rain but we must have the means for distributing these conditions over a large area
chapter sixteen tad whips a mountain boy shame shame on you cried tad butler indignantly the lad leaped from his pony which he quickly tethered to the hitching bar in front of the store this done he ran to his fallen companion
who still lay where the lariat had thrown him he was half stunned and covered with dust after jerking him from his pony however the cowboys though continuing their shouts of glee had made no further effort to molest philip tad quickly released him
the cowboys i know are gentlemen
the fellow who roped that boy is a loafer answered tad bravely
you wouldn't dare do that to a man
why didn't you try it on luke lame when he was over here oh go back to yer mammy jeered one i want to know who threw that rope if he isn't too big a coward he'll tell me i guess mister simms will settle with him
addressing the angry faced mountain boy who was one of their number the latter rose with what was intended to appear as offended dignity ye mean me he demanded glaring yes if you are the one who did it answered tad looking him squarely in the eyes
announced the mountain boy tad held the other with a gaze so steady and unflinching as to cause the mountain boy to pause hesitatingly phil jump on your pony and get out of here directed the lad in a low tone
he stays where he is commanded one of the cowboys do as i tell you retorted tad sharply be quick about it too a cowboy aimed a gun at phil simms
bob sail into the fresh kid he added nodding his head toward tad butler i'm not looking for a fight i don't want to fight but if that loafer comes near me i'll have to do the best i can answered tad bravely i don't expect to get fair play i'll
bob lowered his head sticking out his chin and assuming a belligerent attitude with eyes fixed on the slender figure of his opponent tad was observing the mountain boy keenly measuring him mentally while young simms pale faced and frightened
was leaning against his pony which he had caught and was preparing to mount when he was stopped by the gun of the cowboy
he'll be running in a minute come away tad begged philip keep quiet don't speak to me answered the lad without turning his head toward his companion tad butler's whole being was centered on the work that he knew was ahead of him he was angry
he felt that he had never been more so in his life but not a trace of his emotion showed in his face or actions if he ever had need of coolness it was at this very moment he did not know whether he would be able to master the raw boned mountaineer or not
the lad's training in athletics had been thorough and his title of champion wrestler of the high school in chillicothe had been earned by hard work and persistent effort to make himself physically fit
i've got to try some tricks that he doesn't know about if i hope to make any kind of showing bob was now approaching him with an ugly grin on his face tad's arms hung easily by his side come on what are you waiting for tad smiled with a bellow of rage bob rushed him
tad laughed and stepping quickly to one side thrust a foot between the bully's legs as he passed bob landed flat on his face in the dust of the street the cowboys set up a roar of delight it was sport no matter who got the worst of it
give them room shouted some one as the men closed quickly about the combatants let the kids fight it out these tactics were so new to bob
and when he had scrambled to his feet he met the laughing face of tad butler which enraged him past all control this was exactly what tad wanted bob with a bellow again charged him tad made a pass and missed
but covered his failure by neatly ducking under the upraised arm of the cowboy whose surprised look when he found that he had been punching the empty air brought forth yells of delight from his companions tad had cast away his hat that it might not interfere with his movements
the great danger was that his adversary with his superior strength might beat down the lad's defense and land a blow that would put a sudden end to the fray tad was watching for an opening that would enable him to put in practice a plan that had formed in his brain
look out for the cayuse bob he ain't so big a tenderfoot as he looks warned a cowboy but bob had already discovered this fact though his fists were beating a tattoo in the air he seemed unable to land a blow on the body of his elusive adversary and this only served to anger him the more
yelled the cowboys as a short arm blow delivered through the mountaineer's windmill movements reached his jaw and sent him sprawling tad had not been able to put the force into it that he wanted to else the battle might have ended then and there bob came back
this time he uttered no taunts the blow hurt him his head felt dizzy and his fists did not work with the same speed that they had done before all at once tad's right hand shot out his fist open instead of being closed
it closed over the left wrist of the cowboy with an audible slap tad's left hand joined his right in closing over his adversary's wrist he whirled sharply bringing bob's left arm over his adversary's shoulder then something happened
that made the cowmen gasp with astonishment the slender lad lifted the big mountain boy clear of the ground hurled him over his head and still clinging to the wrist brought him down with a smashing jolt flat on his back in the middle of the village street
phil simms narrowly escaped being struck by the heels of the mountain boy's boots as they described a half circle in the air bob lay perfectly still and for a moment the cowboys stood speechless with amazement whoopee yelled one
who o o p e e chorused the others dancing about tad butler and his fallen victim in wild delight i'm sorry i had to do it muttered the boy they helped bob to his feet pounded him on the back making jeering remarks about his being whipped by a kid
until his courage gradually was urged back as his strength returned suddenly bob turned on his assailant
the move was so unexpected that the lad had no opportunity to side step out of the way the weight of the mountaineer was so great that tad found himself unable to squirm from under bob with a growl of rage raised his fist
bringing it down with the same movement that he would wield a meat axe tad never flinched as he saw it coming his eyes were fixed upon the descending fist his every nerve centered on the task of watching it just at the instant when fist and face seemed to be meeting
the lad by a mighty effort jerked his head ever so little to the right oh yelled bob something snapped the pressure released from his body ever so little tad by a supreme muscular effort threw his opponent slightly to one side
and quickly wormed himself from under he was on his feet in an instant the cowboys did not know what had happened but they knew that the boy from the simms ranch had done something to their companion
tad had been only partly responsible for bob's present condition however by jerking his head to one side he had caused the mountain boy's fist
bob struggled to his feet holding the right wrist with the left hand and moaning with pain the right hung limp tad knew what had happened he's broken his wrist i'm glad i didn't have to do it for him said the lad
at first glowering glances were cast in tad's direction they were of half a mind to punish him in their own way you said it was to be a fair fight spoke up the lad has it been there was a momentary silence
the kid's right exclaimed a cowman he cleaned up bob fair and square i reckon you kin go now thank you hold on a minute not so fast young fellow i'm kinder curious like to know how ye put bob over yer head like that
asked another it was a simple little japanese wrestling trick laughed the boy kin ye do that to me i don't know
if i succeed in doing it though you must agree not to get mad i can't fight you you know you are too big for me the cowman grinned significantly and strode over to the place indicated by tad butler
yer see i'm willing strike at me if you wish i don't care how you go about it replied tad here goes the cowman launched a terrific blow with his right tad sprang back laughing
while the cowboys laughed uproariously at the fellow's surprise when he found that his fist had not landed guess the kid ain't no slouch eh jim jeered one jim let go another then a third one the third blow proved his undoing
the next instant jim's boots were describing a half circle in the air over tad butler's head his revolvers slipping from their holsters in transit dropped to the ground and jim landed flat on his back with a mighty grunt he was up with a roar
his right hand dropping instinctively to his empty holster wh o o o e warned the fellow's companions no fair jim no fair he said as he'd do it and he did kid you'd clean out the whole outfit give you time i reckon
jim pulled himself together restored his weapons to their places and walked over to tad extending his hand that was a dizzy wallop ye give me pardner he said with a sheepish grin if ye'll show me how it's did i'll call it square tad laughingly did so
i guess i couldn't get even with them any easier than by showing them the trick he grinned mounting his pony and accompanied by philip rode away they'll try that trick till the whole bunch of them get into a battle royal
i think we'd better take a little coffee now and then if you like we'll just stroll into the redoute continued baron de konigstein in a brilliantly illuminated saloon adorned with corinthian columns
assembled between nine and ten o'clock in the evening many of the visitors at ems on each side of the room was placed a long narrow table one of which was covered with green baize and unattended while the variously colored leather surface of the other
was very closely surrounded by an interested crowd behind this table stood two individuals of very different appearance the first was a short thick man whose only business was dealing certain portions of playing cards
with quick succession one after the other and as the fate of the table was decided by this process did his companion an extremely tall thin man throw various pieces of money upon certain stakes which were deposited by the bystanders
on different parts of the table or which was more often the case with a silver rake with a long ebony handle sweep into a large inclosure near him the scattered sums this inclosure was called the bank
in which these persons were assisting was the celebrated game of rouge et noir a deep silence was strictly observed by those who immediately surrounded the table no voice was heard save that of the little short stout dealer when
without an expression of the least interest he seemed mechanically to announce the fate of the different colors no other sound was heard save the jingle of the dollars and napoleons and the ominous rake of the tall thin banker the countenances of those
who were hazarding their money were grave and gloomy their eyes were fixed their brows contracted and their lips projected and yet
to show that they were both easy and unconcerned each player held in his hand a small piece of pasteboard on which with a steel pricker he marked the run of the cards in order from his observations to regulate his own play
the rouge et noir player imagines that chance is not capricious those who were not interested in the game promenaded in two lines within the tables or seated in recesses between the pillars formed small parties for conversation
as vivian and the baron entered lady madeleine trevor
left the room but as she was in earnest conversation she did not observe them i suppose we must throw away a dollar or two grey said the baron as he walked up to the table my dear de konigstein one pinch one pinch
ah marquis what fortune to night bad bad i have lost my napoleon i never risk further there's that cursed crusty old de trumpetson persisting as usual in his run of bad luck because he will never give in
trust me my dear de konigstein it'll end in his ruin and then if there's a sale of his effects
shall i throw down a couple of napoleons on joint account i don't care much for play myself but i suppose at ems we must make up our minds to lose a few louis here now for the red joint account mind done there's the archduke
let us go and make our bow we needn't stick at the table as if our whole soul were staked with our crown pieces we'll make our bow and then return in time to know our fate so saying the gentlemen walked up to the top of the room why grey surely no
it cannot be and yet it is de boeffleurs how d'ye do said the baron with a face beaming with joy and a hearty shake of the hand my dear dear fellow how the devil did you manage to get off so soon i thought you were not to be here for a fortnight
we only arrived ourselves to day yes but i've made an arrangement which i did not anticipate
whom do you think i have brought with me who salvinski ah and the count follows immediately i expect him to morrow or next day salvinski is talking to the archduke and see he beckons to me i suppose i am going to be presented
the chevalier moved forward followed by the baron and vivian any friend of prince salvinski i shall always have great pleasure in having presented to me chevalier i feel great pleasure in having you presented to me chevalier
chevalier the french are a grand nation chevalier i have the highest respect for the french nation the most subtle diplomatist thought vivian as he recalled to mind his own introduction would be puzzled to decide
to which interest his imperial highness leans the archduke now entered into conversation with the prince and most of the circle who surrounded him as his highness was addressing vivian the baron let slip our hero's arm
and seizing hold of the chevalier de boeffleurs began walking up and down the room with him and was soon engaged in very animated conversation in a few minutes the archduke bowing to his circle made a move and regained the side of a saxon lady
from whose interesting company he had been disturbed by the arrival of prince salvinski an individual of whose long stories and dull romances the archduke had from experience a particular dread but his highness was always very courteous to the poles
grey i've dispatched de boeffleurs to the house to instruct the servant and ernstorff to do the impossible
you'll be delighted with de boeffleurs when you know him and i expect you to be great friends oh by the by his unexpected arrival has quite made us forget our venture at rouge et noir of course we're too late now for anything even if we had been fortunate our doubled stake
remaining on the table is of course lost we may as well however walk up so saying the baron reached the table
exclaimed many voices as he came up what's the matter my friends what's the matter asked the baron very calmly there's been a run on the red there's been a run on the red
pointing at the same time to his unparalleled line of punctures this was one of those officious noisy little men who are always ready to give you unasked information on every possible subject
as when they are watching over the interest of some stranger who never thanks them for their unnecessary solicitude vivian in spite of his philosophy felt the excitement and wonder of the moment he looked very earnestly at the baron
whose countenance however remained perfectly unmoved grey said he very coolly it seems we're in luck the stake's then not all your own very eagerly asked the little man in spectacles no part of it is yours sir answered the baron very dryly
i'm going to deal said the short thick man behind is the board cleared your excellency then allows the stake to remain inquired the tall thin banker with affected nonchalance oh certainly said the baron with real nonchalance
three eight fourteen twenty four thirty four rouge thirty four all crowded nearer the table was surrounded five or six deep for the wonderful run of luck had got wind and nearly the whole room were round the table indeed
the archduke and saxon lady and of course the silent suite were left alone at the upper part of the room the tall banker did not conceal his agitation even the short stout dealer ceased to be a machine all looked anxious except the baron
vivian looked at the table his excellency watched with a keen eye the little dealer no one even breathed as the cards descended ten twenty here the countenance of the banker brightened twenty two twenty five twenty eight thirty one'
noir thirty one the bank's broke no more play to night the roulette table opens immediately in spite of the great interest which had been excited nearly the whole crowd without waiting to congratulate the baron rushed to the opposite side of the room
with regard to the other half mister hermann what bills have you got two on gogel's house of frankfort accepted of course for two hundred and fifty each and these twelve napoleons will make it right said the tall banker as he opened a large black pocket book from which he took out two small bits of paper
samuel j tilden in eighteen fourteen there was born at new lebanon new york
his father being a personal and political friend of mister van buren and other members of the celebrated albany regency his home was made a kind of headquarters for various members of that council
to whose conversation the precocious child enjoyed to listen mister tilden declared of himself that he had no youth as a boy he was diffident and was studying and investigating when others were playing and enjoying the pleasures of society
from the beginning he was a calculator martin van buren to whom he was greatly attached often spoke of him as the sagacious sammy thrown into contact with such men at his parent's home
he early evinced a fondness for politics which first revealed itself in an essay on the political aspect displaying ability far beyond one of his years
at that time the leader of the albany regency at twenty he entered yale college but ill health compelled his return home he however afterward resumed his studies at the university of new york
graduating from that institution he began the practice of law at the bar he became known as a sound but not especially brilliant pleader in eighteen sixty six he was chosen chairman of the state committee of his party
was elected the reform governor of the great empire state although in political discord with mister tilden it is in no disparaging sense that we speak of him it is in the sense of a historian bound and obligated to truth that we view him
we regard him as the mysterious statesman of american history his personal character was to a great extent shrouded from the public in a veil of mystery which had both its voluntary and involuntary elements
than would have been necessary to thicken the veil to impenetrability his habit was to weigh both sides of every question and therein he resembled though in other particulars entirely different the late henry j raymond the founder of the new york times
and the effect was to some extent similar for each of these men saw both sides of every question so fully as to be under the power of both sides which sometimes produced an equilibrium causing hesitation when the crisis required action
mister tilden had intellectual qualities of the very highest order he could sit down before a mass of incoherent statements and figures that would drive most men insane and elucidate them by the most painstaking investigation
and feel a pleasure in the work indeed an intimate friend of his assures us that his eye would gleam with delight when a task was set before him from which most men would pay large sums to be relieved hence his abilities were of a kind that made him a most dangerous opponent
some persons supposed that mister tilden was a poor speaker because when he was brought before the people as a candidate for president of the united states he was physically unable to speak with much force but twenty years ago for clearness of statement
and for an easy and straightforward method of speech he had few superiors his language was excellent his manner that of a man who had something to say and was intent upon saying it he was at no time a tricky orator nor did he aim at rousing the feelings
but in the clearest possible manner he would make his points and no amount of prejudice was sufficient to resist his conclusions he was a great reader and reflected on all that he read no more extraordinary episode ever occurred than his break with william m tweed
and his devoting himself to the overthrow of that gigantic ring it is not our purpose to treat the whole subject yet the manner of the break was so tragic that it should be detailed william m tweed had gone on buying men and legislatures and enriching himself
until he had reached the state of mind in which he said to the public what are you going to do about it he had gone further he had applied it to the leading men of the democratic party the time came when he sat in his gorgeously furnished apartment in albany as chairman of a certain committee of the senate
on that occasion mister tweed who was either intoxicated with liquor or intoxicated with pride and vanity grossly insulted mister tilden
and closed by saying you are an old humbug
mister tilden turned pale and then red and finally livid
informed the writer that as he gazed upon mister tilden he was terrified not a word did he utter he folded up his books and papers and departed
this man means murder there will never be any accommodation of this difficulty back to the city of new york went mister tilden he sat down with the patience and with the keen scent of a sleuth hound and unravelled all the mystery of the iniquity
which had cursed the city of new york and of which william m tweed was the master spirit judge noah davis said to an acquaintance that mister tilden's preparation of the cases against tweed and his confederates
was one of the most remarkable things of which he had ever seen or heard he said that tilden would take the mutilated stubbs of check books and construct a story from them he had restored the case of the city against the purloiners as an anatomist
by the means of two or three bones would draw you a picture of the animal which had inhabited them in the palaeontological age it will be remembered that judge noah davis tried the cases and sentenced tweed it is not necessary for us to conjecture
whether mister tilden would have appeared as the reformer if he had not been grossly insulted by tweed that he had not so appeared until the occasion referred to and that immediately afterward he began the investigation and movements
which ended in the total overthrow of the ring and its leader are beyond question there came a time when tweed trembling in his very soul sent a communication to mister tilden offering anything if he would relax but no bronze statue was ever more silent and immovable
than samuel j tilden at that time it is remarkable that a man so silent and mysterious not to say repellent in his intercourse with his fellow men could exert such a mighty influence as he unquestionably did he did it by controlling master minds
and by an apprehension rarely or never surpassed of the details to be wrought out by other men mister tilden was capable of covering his face with a mask which none could penetrate the following scene occurred upon a train on the hudson river road
mister tilden was engaged in a most animated conversation with a leading member of the republican party with whom he entertained personal confidential relations the conversation was one that brought all mister tilden's learning and logical forces into play it was semi literary
and not more political than was sufficient to give piquancy to the interview a committee of the lower class of ward politicians approaching
his eye lost every particle of lustre and seemed to sink back and down the chairman of the committee stated the point he had in view mister tilden asked him to restate it once or twice made curious and inconsequential remarks
appeared like a man just going to sleep and finally said i will see you on the subject on a future occasion the committee withdrew in one moment he resumed the conversation with the brilliancy and vivacity of a boy subsequently the chairman of the committee said to the leading republican
whom he also knew did you ever see the old man so nearly gone as he was to day does he often get so had he been taking a drop too much he was at no time in his career embarrassed in his intellectual operations by his emotional nature
every faculty was under his control until his health failed he knew no such other source of joy as work craft had a very important place in his composition
it was a species of craft which at its worst was above mere pettifogging and at its best was unquestionably a high type of diplomacy those mistake who considered him only as a cunning man a person opposed to him in politics
but who made a study of his career observed that in power of intellect he had no superior at the bar of new york nor among the statesmen of the whole country the supreme crisis of his life
the political aspect we will not revive except to say that mister tilden consented to the peculiar method of determining the case the departure of david davis from the supreme bench in all human probability determined the result
david dudley field and eminent democratic leaders hewitt being chairman of the national democratic committee at the time did all in their power to induce mister tilden to issue a letter to the american people saying that he believed himself to be the president elect
and that on the fourth day of march eighteen seventy seven he would come to washington to be inaugurated had that been done
in all probability a coup d'etat on one side or the other followed by civil war or practical change in the character of the relations of the people to the federal government
why he would not do so is still in existence of this we know nothing but that he had reasons and assigned them is certain why he consented to the method of arbitration is one of the mysteries of his career taking all the possibilities into account
the fact that the issue passed without civil war is an occasion of devout thankfulness to almighty god but the method of determining the question is one which the good sense of the american people will never repeat mister tilden must have had considerable humor in his composition
for a certain church in pennsylvania which had been grievously embarrassed he stayed at the house of one of the ministers in brooklyn one evening he said to his host i am going to call on samuel j tilden and see if i can't get something out of him for our church he has a barrel
and i understand it is pretty full the next morning he went and on returning said to his host well i called on mister tilden and i said mister tilden i am from such a place in pennsylvania my name is i am pastor of a church there
we have met with great misfortunes and are likely to lose our church there are more than sixty members of my church that voted for you for president and they are ready to vote for you again
and ask you to give them a little help well what did mister tilden say
but told me to come the next morning at nine o'clock he went and on his return reported when the question what did mister tilden say was asked he said to me your name is you are from in pennsylvania
you said that you had more than sixty members who voted for me for president and who are ready to do it again yes and they wanted you to tell me of their misfortune yes then pulling out of his pocket book he counted what money he had which amounted to fifteen dollars
you tell them that samuel j tilden gave you all the money he had except one dollar which he kept for himself in all probability he was satirizing an appeal under those circumstances
for his service in breaking up the tweed ring and for his career as governor of the state of new york apart from purely party aspects he is entitled to the thanks of the people his own party will say to the end of time
that he was elected president of the united states and defrauded out of the office but neither they nor anyone else can say after the plan was agreed upon and adopted for determining the result
after the acceptance by the house of representatives of the conclusion mister tilden will never be considered inferior in intellect and learning to the many great men of whom new york can proudly boast
consequently not knowing what had happened
chaffing him because he had missed the bird presently the merchant went to ask his wife about something and found her lying to all appearance
within half a yard of her head supposing that she was dead he rushed to the window and shrieked thieves thieves they have killed my wife the neighbours quickly gathered
and the servants came running upstairs to see what was the matter it happened that the woman had fainted and that there was only a very slight wound in her breast where the arrow had grazed
as soon as the woman recovered her senses she told them that two young men had passed by the place with their bows and arrows and that one of them had most deliberately aimed at her
as she stood by the window on hearing this the merchant went to the king and told him what had taken place his majesty was much enraged at such audacious wickedness
and swore that most terrible punishment should be visited on the offender if he could be discovered he ordered the merchant to go back and ascertain whether his wife could recognise the young men
i will cause all the male inhabitants of this city to pass before your house and your wife will stand at the window and watch for the man who did this wanton deed
a royal proclamation was issued to this effect so the next day all the men and boys of the city from the age of ten years upwards
assembled and marched by the house of the merchant by chance for they both had been excused from obeying this order the king's son
were also in the company and passed by in the crowd they came to see the tamasha as soon as these two appeared in front of the merchant's window they were recognised
by the merchant's wife and at once reported to the king
exclaimed the king who had been present from the commencement what examples for the people let them both be executed not so your majesty
let the facts of the case be thoroughly investigated how is it
why have you done this cruel thing i shot an arrow at a bird that was sitting on the sill of an open window in yonder house and missed answered the prince
i suppose the arrow struck the merchant's wife had i known that she or anybody had been near
we will speak of this later on said the king on hearing this answer dismiss the people their presence is no longer needed in the evening
the king wished both of them to be executed
the prince should be banished from the country this was finally agreed to accordingly on the following morning a little company of soldiers escorted the prince out of the city
when they reached the last custom house the vizier's son overtook them he had come with all haste bringing with him four bags of muhrs on four horses i am come he said
throwing his arms round the prince's neck because i cannot let you go alone we have lived together we will be exiled together and we will die together turn me not back if you love me consider
what you are doing all kinds of trial may be before me why should you leave your home and country to be with me because i love you
and shall never be happy without you so the two friends walked along hand in hand as fast as they could to get out of the country and behind them marched the soldiers and the horses
with their valuable burdens on reaching a place on the borders of the king's dominions the prince gave the soldiers some gold and ordered them to return the soldiers took the money and left
they did not however go very far but hid themselves behind rocks and stones and waited till they were quite sure that the prince did not intend to come back on and on the exiles walked
till they arrived at a certain village where they determined to spend the night under one of the big trees of the place the prince made preparations for a fire and arranged the few articles of bedding that they had with them
went to the baniya and the baker and the butcher to get something for their dinner for some reason he was delayed perhaps the tsut was not quite ready or the baniya
had not got all the spices prepared after waiting
impatient and rose up and walked about he saw a pretty clear little brook running along not far from their resting place and hearing that its source was not far distant he started off to find it
the source was a beautiful lake which at that time was covered with the magnificent lotus flower and other water plants the prince sat down on the bank and being thirsty
took up some of the water in his hand fortunately he looked into his hand before drinking and there to his great astonishment he saw reflected whole and clear the image of a beautiful
fairy he looked round hoping to see the reality but seeing no person he drank the water and put out his hand to take some more again he saw the reflection in the water which was in his palm
he looked around as before and this time discovered a fairy sitting by the bank on the opposite side of the lake on seeing her he fell so madly in love with her that he dropped down in a swoon
returned and found the fire lighted the horses securely fastened
but no prince he did not know what to think he waited a little while and then shouted
there he came across the footmarks of his friend seeing these he went back at once for the money and the horses and bringing them with him he tracked the prince to the lake
where he found him lying to all appearance dead alas alas he cried and lifting up the prince he poured some water over his head and face alas
my brother what is this oh do not die and leave me thus speak speak i cannot bear this in a few minutes the prince revived by the water
opened his eyes and looked about wildly thank god exclaimed
but what is the matter brother go away replied the prince
go away come come let us leave this place look i have brought some food for you and horses and everything let us eat and depart go alone replied the prince
never said the vizier's son what has happened to suddenly estrange you from me a little while ago
you detest the sight of me i have looked upon a fairy the prince said but a moment i saw her face for when she noticed that i was looking at her she covered her face with lotus petals
and while i gazed she took
then i fainted oh if you can get me that fairy for my wife i will go anywhere with you oh brother
when the prince heard these encouraging words he felt much comforted rose up and ate and then went away gladly with his friend on the way they met two men
these two men belonged to a family of robbers there were eleven of them altogether one an elder sister stayed at home and cooked the food and the other ten all brothers
went out two and two and walked about the four different ways that ran through that part of the country robbing those travellers who could not resist them and inviting others who were too powerful for two of them
to manage to come and rest at their house where the whole family attacked them and stole their goods these thieves lived in a kind of tower which had several strong rooms in it and under it
was a great pit wherein they threw the corpses of the poor unfortunates who chanced to fall into their power the two men came forward and politely accosting them
begged them to come and stay at their house for the night it is late they said and there is not another village within several miles shall we accept this good man's invitation brother asked the prince
but the prince was tired and thinking that it was only a whim of his friend's he said to the men very well it is very kind of you to ask us so they all four went to the robbers tower
seated in a room with the door fastened on the outside the two travellers bemoaned their fate it is no good groaning
i will climb to the window and see whether there are any means of escape yes yes he whispered when he had reached the window hole
i will jump down and reconnoitre you stay here and wait till i return presently he came back and told the prince that he had seen a most ugly woman
whom he supposed was the robbers housekeeper she had agreed to release them on the promise of her marriage with the prince
by a secret door but where are the horses and the goods
you cannot bring them the woman said to go out by any other way would be to thrust oneself into the grave all right then
they also shall go out by this door i have a charm whereby i can make them thin or fat so the vizier's son fetched the horses without any person knowing it
and repeating the charm he made them pass through the narrow doorway like pieces of cloth and when they were all outside restored them
he at once mounted his horse and laid hold of the halter of one of the other horses and then beckoning to the prince to do likewise he rode off the prince
saw his opportunity and in a moment was riding after him having the woman behind him now the robbers heard the galloping of the horses and ran out and shot their arrows
at the prince and his companions and one of the arrows killed the woman so they had to leave her behind on on they rode until they reached a village where they stayed the night
the following morning they were off again
that belonged to an old woman from whom they feared no harm and with whom therefore they could abide in peace and comfort at first the old woman did not like the idea of these travellers
staying in her house but the sight of a muhr which the prince dropped in the bottom of a cup in which she had given him water and a present of another muhr
quickly made her change her mind she agreed to let them stay there for a few days as soon as her work was over the old woman came and sat down with her lodgers
pretended to be utterly ignorant of the place and people has this city a name he asked the old woman of course it has you stupid every little village much more a city
and such a city as this has a name what is the name of this city ivory city don't you know that i thought the name was known all over the world on the mention of the name ivory city
the prince gave a deep sigh the vizier's son looked as much as to say keep quiet or you'll discover the secret is there a king of this country
of course there is and a queen and a princess what are their names
and the name of the queen the vizier's son interrupted the old woman by turning to look at the prince who was staring like a madman yes he said to him afterwards we are in the right country
we shall see the beautiful princess one morning the two travellers noticed the old woman's most careful toilette how careful she was in the arrangement of her hair and the set of her
kasabah and puts who is coming
nobody the old woman replied
i am going to see my daughter
i see her and the princess every day i should have gone yesterday if you had not been here and taken up all my time
about us in the hearing of the princess
not to speak about them at the palace hoping that because she had been told not to do so she would mention their arrival and thus the princess would be informed of their coming on seeing her mother
the girl pretended to be very angry why have you not been for two days she asked because my dear the old woman answered two young travellers
a prince and the son
have taken up their abode in my hut and demand so much of my attention it is nothing but cooking and cleaning and cleaning and cooking all day long i can't understand the men she added
one of them especially appears very stupid he asked me the name of this country and the name of the king now where can these men have come from that they do not know these things however
they are very great and very rich
after this the old woman went and repeated almost the same words to the princess on the hearing of which the princess beat her severely and threatened her with a severer punishment
if she ever again spoke of the strangers before her in the evening when the old woman had returned to her hut she told the vizier's son how sorry she was that she could not help breaking her promise
and how the princess had struck her because she mentioned their coming and all about them
said the prince who had eagerly listened to every word what then will be her anger at the sight of a man anger said the vizier's son
she would be exceedingly glad to see one man i know this in this treatment of the old woman i see her request that you will go and see her during the coming dark fortnight
heaven be praised the prince exclaimed the next time the old woman went to the palace
and ordered her to rush into the room while she was conversing with the old woman and if the old woman asked what was the matter
fearing lest the elephants should go and push down her hut and kill the prince and his friend begged the princess to let her depart
had obtained a charmed swing that landed whoever sat on it at the place wherever they wished to be get the swing she said to one of the servants standing by when it was brought she bade the old woman
step into it and desire to be at home the old woman did so and was at once carried through the air quickly and safely to her hut where she found her two lodgers safe and sound
oh she cried i thought that both of you would be killed by this time the royal elephants have got loose and are running about wildly when i heard this i was anxious about you
so the princess gave me this charmed swing to return in but come let us get outside before the elephants arrive and batter down the place don't believe this said the vizier's son it is a mere hoax
they have been playing tricks with you you will soon have your heart's desire
these things are signs
my husband a thousand thanks to heaven for bringing me to you said the prince then the prince and gulizar betrothed themselves to one another and parted the one for the hut
ever been before henceforth the prince visited
and returned to the hut every night one morning gulizar begged him to stay with her always she was constantly afraid of some evil happening to him perhaps robbers would slay him
or sickness attack him and then she would be deprived of him she could not live without seeing him the prince showed her that there was no real cause for fear and said that he felt he ought to return to his friend at night
because he had left his home and country and risked his life for him and moreover if it had not been for his friend's help he would never have met with her
as soon as possible a few days after this conversation she ordered one of her maids to make a pilaw
that a certain poison was to be mixed into it while cooking and as soon as it was ready the cover was to be placed on the saucepan so that the poisonous steam might not escape
when the pilaw was ready she sent it at once
sends you an offering in the name of her dead uncle on receiving the present
thought that the prince had spoken gratefully of him to the princess
remembered him accordingly he sent back his salam and expressions of thankfulness when it was dinner time he took the saucepan of pilaw
the green grass under the cover of the saucepan turned quite yellow he was astonished and suspecting that there was poison in the pilaw he took a little and threw it to some crows that were hopping about
the moment the crows ate what was thrown to them they fell down dead heaven be praised exclaimed the vizier's son who has preserved me from death at this time on the return of the prince that evening
and depressed the prince noticed this change in him and asked what was the reason is it because i am away so much at the palace
saw that the prince had nothing to do with the sending of the pilaw and therefore told him everything look here he said in this handkerchief is some pilaw that the princess sent me this morning
in the name of her deceased uncle it is saturated with poison thank heaven i discovered it in time oh brother who could have done this thing who is there that entertains enmity against you
listen the next time you go to see her i entreat you to take some snow with you and just before seeing the princess put a little of it into both your eyes it will provoke tears
why you are crying tell her that you weep for the loss of your friend who died suddenly this morning look take too this wine and this shovel and when you have feigned intense grief at the death of your friend
bid the princess to drink a little of the wine it is strong and will immediately send her into a deep sleep then while she is asleep heat the shovel and mark her back with it
remember to bring back the shovel again
this done return now fear not to execute these instructions because on the fulfilment of them depends your fortune and happiness i will arrange that your marriage with the princess
shall be accepted by the king her father and all the court the prince promised that he would do everything as the vizier's son had advised him and he kept his promise the following night on the return of the prince
taking the horses and bags of muhrs went to a graveyard about a mile or so distant it was arranged that the vizier's son
disciple and servant in the morning
she felt a smarting pain in her back and noticed that her pearl necklace was gone she went at once and informed the king of the loss of her necklace but said nothing to him about the pain in her back
the king was very angry when he heard of the theft and caused proclamation concerning it to be made throughout all the city and surrounding country it is well said the vizier's son when he heard of this proclamation
fear not my brother but go and take this necklace and try to sell it in the bazaar the prince took it to a goldsmith and asked him to buy it how much do you want for it asked the man
fifty thousand rupees the prince replied all right said the man wait here while i go and fetch the money the prince waited and waited
and with him the kotwal who at once took the prince into custody on the charge of stealing the princess's necklace how did you get the necklace the kotwal asked a fakir
whose servant i am gave it to me to sell in the bazaar the prince replied permit me and i will show you where he is the prince directed the kotwal and the policeman to the place where he
and there they found the fakir with his eyes shut and engaged in prayer presently when he had finished his devotions the kotwal asked him
call the king hither he replied and then i will tell his majesty face to face on this some men went to the king and told him
his majesty came and seeing the fakir so solemn and earnest in his devotions he was afraid to rouse his anger lest peradventure the displeasure of heaven should descend on him and so he placed his hands together
in the attitude of a supplicant and asked how did you get my daughter's necklace last night replied the fakir we were sitting here by this tomb worshipping khuda
dressed as a princess
that had been buried a few days ago and began to eat it on seeing this
and beat her back with a shovel which lay on the fire at the time while running away from me her necklace got loose and dropped you wonder at these words but they are not difficult to prove
examine your daughter
burn on her back go and if it is as i say send the princess to me and i will punish her
and at once ordered the princess's back to be examined it is so said the maid servant the burn is there then let the girl be slain immediately the king shouted no no your majesty they replied
let us send her to the fakir who discovered this thing that he may do whatever he wishes with her the king agreed and so the princess was taken to the graveyard let her be shut up in a cage
and be kept near the grave whence she took out the corpse said the fakir this was done and in a little while the fakir and his disciple and the princess
night had not long cast its dark mantle over the scene when the fakir and his disciple threw off their disguise and taking their horses and luggage appeared before the cage they released the princess
rubbed some ointment over the scars on her back and then sat her upon one of their horses behind the prince away they rode fast and far and by the morning
showed the princess some of the poisoned pilaw that she had sent him
the princess wept and acknowledged that he was her greatest helper and friend a letter was sent to the chief vizier telling him of all that had happened to the prince
since they had left their country when the vizier read the letter he went and informed the king the king caused a reply to be sent to the two exiles in which he ordered them not to return
and inform him of everything accordingly they did this the prince wrote the letter
dictation on reading the letter
of these illustrious visitors as he was especially anxious to ingratiate himself in the favour of the prince
he ordered the execution of some of the viziers on a certain date come he wrote back to the vizier's son and stay at the palace
most gladly accepted the invitation and received a right noble welcome from the king
the king gave them presents of horses and elephants and jewels and rich cloths and bade them start for their own land for he was sure that the king would now receive them
the night before they left the viziers and others whom the king intended to have executed as soon as his visitors had left
and promised that they each would give him a daughter in marriage he agreed to do so and succeeded in obtaining their pardon then the prince
and the vizier's son attended by a troop of soldiers and a large number of camels and horses bearing very much treasure left for their own land
they razed it to the ground slew all its inmates and seized the treasure which they had been amassing there for several years at length they reached their own country and when the king saw his son's beautiful wife
and his magnificent retinue he was at once reconciled and ordered him to enter the city and take up his abode there henceforth all was sunshine on the path of the prince
chapter seven wrestling with an author having disposed so far as is possible and necessary of that formidable question of style
let us now return to charles lamb whose essay on dream children was the originating cause of our inquiry into style as we have made a beginning of lamb it will be well to make an end of him
in the preliminary stages of literary culture nothing is more helpful in the way of kindling an interest and keeping it well alight
and particularly on an author so frankly and curiously human as lamb is i do not mean that you should imprison yourself with lamb's complete works for three months and read nothing else
i mean that you should regularly devote a proportion of your learned leisure to the study of lamb until you are acquainted with all that is important in his work and about his work
unsurpassed expert mister thomas hutchison and published by the oxford university press in two volumes for four shillings the pair there is no reason why you should not become a modest specialist in lamb he is the very man for you
neither voluminous nor difficult nor uncomfortably lofty always either amusing or touching and most important himself passionately addicted to literature you cannot like lamb without liking literature in general and you cannot read lamb
without learning about literature in general for books were his hobby and he was a critic of the first rank his letters are full of literariness you will naturally read his letters you should not only be infinitely diverted by them
work perhaps you did not bargain for work when you joined me but i do not think that the literary taste can be satisfactorily formed unless one is prepared to put one's back into the affair
in addition to the advantages of familiarity with masterpieces of increased literary knowledge and of a wide introduction to the true bookish atmosphere and feel of things
which you will derive from a comprehensive study of charles lamb you will also be conscious of a moral advantage the very important and very inspiring advantage
you will have achieved a definite step you will be proudly aware that you have put yourself in a position to judge as an expert whatever you may hear or read in the future concerning charles lamb
this legitimate pride and sense of accomplishment will stimulate you to go on further it will generate steam
the direct literary advantages now i shall not shut my eyes to a possible result of your diligent intercourse with charles lamb it is possible that you may be disappointed with him it is shall i say
almost probable that you will be disappointed with him at any rate partially you will have expected more joy in him than you have received i have referred in a previous chapter to the feeling of disappointment which
often comes from first contacts with the classics the neophyte is apt to find them
less interesting than you hoped you may have had to whip yourself up again and again to the effort of reading him in brief lamb has not for you justified his terrific reputation
if a classic is a classic because it gives pleasure to succeeding generations of the people who are most keenly interested in literature and if lamb frequently strikes you as dull then evidently there is something wrong
the difficulty must be fairly fronted and the fronting of it brings us to the very core of the business of actually forming the taste if your taste were classical you would discover in lamb a continual fascination
whereas what you in fact do discover in lamb is a not unpleasant flatness enlivened by a vague humour and an occasional pathos you ought according to theory to be enthusiastic
but you are apathetic or at best half hearted there is a gulf how to cross it to cross it needs time and needs trouble the following considerations may aid
in the first place we have to remember that in coming into the society of the classics in general and of charles lamb in particular we are coming into the society of a mental superior
we can judge by recalling what happens when we are in the society of a mental inferior we say things of which he misses the import we joke and he does not smile what makes him laugh loudly seems to us horseplay or childish
he is blind to beauties which ravish us he is ecstatic over what strikes us as crude and his profound truths are for us trite commonplaces his perceptions are relatively coarse
our perceptions are relatively subtle we try to make him understand to make him see and if he is aware of his inferiority we may have some success
leave him alone in his self satisfaction
every one of us has been through this experience with a mental inferior for there is always a mental inferior handy just as there is always a being more unhappy than we are in approaching a classic the true wisdom is to place ourselves
in the position of the mental inferior aware of mental inferiority humbly stripping off all conceit anxious to rise out of that inferiority
recollect that we always regard as quite hopeless the mental inferior who does not suspect his own inferiority our attitude towards lamb must be charles lamb was a greater man than i am cleverer
sharper subtler finer intellectually more powerful and with keener eyes for beauty i must brace myself to follow his lead
our attitude must resemble that of one who cocks his ear and listens with all his soul for a distant sound to catch the sound we really must listen
that is to say we must read carefully with our faculties on the watch we must read slowly and perseveringly a classic has to be wooed and is worth the wooing
further we must disdain no assistance i am not in favour of studying criticism of classics before the classics themselves my notion is to study the work and the biography of a classical writer together and then to read criticism afterwards
the classic should be allowed to make his own impression however faint on the virginal mind of the reader but afterwards let explanatory criticism be read as much as you please explanatory criticism is very useful
nearly as useful as pondering for oneself on what one has read
that lights up the entire subject my second consideration in aid of crossing the gulf
it is never a violent pleasure it is subtle and it will wax in intensity but the idea of violence is foreign to it
they proceed from exaggeration in treatment from a lack of balance from attaching too great an importance to one aspect usually superficial
now if there is one point common to all classics it is the absence of exaggeration the balanced sanity of a great mind makes impossible exaggeration and therefore distortion
it will steal over you rather many serious students are i am convinced discouraged in the early stages because they are expecting a wrong kind of pleasure
they have abandoned worcester sauce and they miss it they miss the coarse tang they must realise that indulgence in the tang means the sure and total loss of sensitiveness sensitiveness
even to the tang itself they cannot have crudeness and fineness together they must choose remembering that while crudeness kills pleasure
chapter five how to read a classic let us begin experimental reading with charles lamb i choose lamb for various reasons he is a great writer
wide in his appeal of a highly sympathetic temperament and his finest achievements are simple and very short moreover he may usefully lead to other and more complex matters as will appear later
now your natural tendency will be to think of charles lamb as a book because he has arrived at the stage of being a classic charles lamb was a man
should always form an idea of the man behind the book the book is nothing but the expression of the man the book is nothing but the man trying to talk to you trying to impart to you some of his feelings
an experienced student will divine the man from the book will understand the man by the book as is of course logically proper but the beginner will do well to aid himself in understanding the book
by means of independent information about the man he will thus at once relate the book to something human and strengthen in his mind the essential notion of the connection between literature and life
the earliest literature was delivered orally direct by the artist to the recipient in some respects this arrangement was ideal changes in the constitution of society have rendered it impossible
nevertheless we can still by the exercise of the imagination hear mentally the accents of the artist speaking to us we must so exercise our imagination as to feel the man behind the book
some biographical information about lamb should be acquired there are excellent short biographies of him by canon ainger in the dictionary of national biography in chambers's encyclopaedia
and in chambers's cyclopaedia of english literature if you have none of these but you ought to have the last there are mister e v lucas's exhaustive life
and cheaper mister walter jerrold's lamb
human being are prodigious when you have made for yourself such a picture read
the light of it i will choose one of the most celebrated dream children a reverie at this point kindly put my book down and read dream children
do not say to yourself that you will read it later but read it now when you have read it you may proceed to my next paragraph you are to consider dream children as a human document
lamb was nearing fifty when he wrote it you can see especially from the last line that the death of his elder brother john lamb was fresh and heavy on his mind
ann simmons who afterwards married a man named bartrum you will know that one of the influences of his childhood was his grandmother field housekeeper of blakesware house in hertfordshire
at which mansion he sometimes spent his holidays you will know that he was a bachelor living with his sister mary who was subject to homicidal mania and you will see in this essay primarily
a supreme expression of the increasing loneliness of his life he constructed all that preliminary tableau of paternal pleasure in order to bring home to you in the most poignant way
his feeling of the solitude of his existence his sense of all that he had missed and lost in the world the key of the essay is one of profound sadness
but note that he makes his sadness beautiful or rather he shows the beauty that resides in sadness you watch him sitting there in his bachelor arm chair and you say to yourself
yes it was sad but it was somehow beautiful when you have said that to yourself charles lamb so far as you are concerned has accomplished his chief aim in writing the essay
how exactly he produces his effect can never be fully explained but one reason of his success is certainly his regard for truth he does not falsely idealise his brother nor the relations between them
not the slightest cloud ever darkened our relations nor does he exaggerate his solitude being a sane man he has too much common sense to assemble all his woes at once
what he does tell you is that she was faithful another reason of his success is his continual regard for beautiful things and fine actions as illustrated in the major characteristics of his grandmother and his brother
and in the detailed description of blakesware house and the gardens thereof then subordinate to the main purpose part of the machinery of the main purpose is the picture of the children real children until
the moment when they fade away the traits of childhood are accurately and humorously put in again and again
that would be foolish indeed here little alice spread her hands here alice's little right foot played an involuntary movement till upon my looking grave it desisted
here john expanded all his eyebrows and tried to look courageous here john slily deposited back upon the plate a bunch of grapes here the children fell a crying and prayed me to tell them some stories about their pretty dead mother
and the exquisite here alice put out one of her dear mother's looks too tender to be upbraiding incidentally while preparing his ultimate solemn effect
lamb has inspired you with a new intensified vision of the wistful beauty of children
their facile and generous emotions their anxiety to be correct their ingenuous haste to escape from grief into joy you can see these children almost as clearly and as tenderly as lamb saw them for days afterwards
you will not be able to look upon a child without recalling lamb's portrayal of the grace of childhood he will have shared with you his perception of beauty if you possess children
custom does very decidedly stale
picturing the children is the measure of his success in his main effect the more real they seem the more touching is the revelation of the fact that they do not exist and never have existed and if you were moved by the reference to their pretty dead mother
you will be still more moved when you learn that the girl
and is not lamb's as having read the essay you reflect upon it you will see how its emotional power over you has sprung from the sincere and unexaggerated expression of
actual emotions exactly remembered by someone who had an eye always open for beauty who was indeed obsessed by beauty the beauty of old houses and gardens and aged virtuous characters
the beauty of companionships the softening beauty of dreams in an arm chair
and regret which were the origin of the mood
as to generations before you distinguished emotion because it makes you respond to the throb of life more intensely
a very sensitive and a very honest mind his emotions were noble he felt so keenly that he was obliged to find relief in imparting his emotions and his mental processes were so sincere
that he could neither exaggerate nor diminish the truth if he had lacked any one of these three qualities his appeal would have been narrowed and weakened
either his feelings would have been deficient in supreme beauty and therefore less worthy to be imparted or he would not have had sufficient force to impart them or his honesty would not have been equal to the strain of imparting them accurately in any case
and which is super eminently caused by vitalising participation in high emotion as lamb sat in his bachelor arm chair with his brother in the grave and the faithful homicidal maniac by his side
he really did think to himself this is beautiful sorrow is beautiful disappointment is beautiful life is beautiful i must tell them i must make them understand
because he still makes you understand he is a classic
as we should expect there are a number of instances of warning apparitions in antiquity and it is interesting to note that the majority of these are gigantic women endowed with a gift of prophecy
who was on the staff of the governor of africa was walking one day in a colonnade after sunset when a gigantic woman appeared before him she announced that she was africa and was able to predict the future and told him that he would go to rome
hold office there return to the province with the highest authority and there die her prophecy was fulfilled to the letter
the same figure is reported to have met him so again at the time of the conspiracy of callippus dion was meditating one evening before the porch of his house when he turned round and saw a gigantic female figure in the form of a fury
insatiate drusus whither wilt thou go thou art not fated to see all things depart hence for the end of thy life and of thy deeds is at hand drusus was much troubled by this warning and
instantly obeyed the words of the apparition but he died before reaching the rhine we meet with the same phenomenon again in dio cassius among the prodigies preceding the death of macrinus when
a dreadful gigantic woman seen of several declared that all that had happened was as nothing compared with what they were soon to endure a prophecy which was amply fulfilled by the reign of heliogabalus
but the most gigantic of all these gigantic women was as we should only expect from his marvellous power of seeing ghosts
though at first he found them rather upsetting but he had been given a ring and a charm by an arab which enabled him to deal with anything supernatural that came in his way the ring was made from the iron of a cross on which a criminal had been executed
with which a man has been hung possesses in the eyes of a gambler to day on this particular occasion he had left his men at work in the vineyard and was resting quietly at midday when his dog began to bark
at first he thought it was only a favourite boy of his indulging in a little hunting with some friends but on looking up he saw in front of him a woman at least three hundred feet high with a sword thirty feet long
her lower extremities were like those of a dragon and snakes were coiling round her neck and shoulders
when a vast chasm opened in the earth into which she disappeared this seems rather to have astonished eucrates but he plucked up courage caught hold of a tree that stood near the edge and looked over
including the mead of asphodel where the shades of the blessed were reclining at ease with their friends and relations arranged according to clans and tribes among these he recognized his own father dressed in the clothes in which he was buried
and it must have been comforting to the son to have such good evidence that his parent was safely installed in the elysian fields in a few moments the chasm closed
nearly the whole of antioch by a phantom which appeared to him suddenly and warned him to leave his house by the window
who was warned by a spectre that his house was going to fall and thus enabled to make his escape in time i will include here a couple of stories which if they cannot exactly be classed as stories of warning apparitions are interesting in themselves
and may at least be considered as ghost stories
imagined that he saw someone cutting his hair during the night when he awoke
for his hair lay all round him soon afterwards the same thing happened again his brother who slept with him saw nothing but marcus declared that two people came in by the windows dressed in white and after cutting his hair disappeared
nothing astonishing happened adds pliny except that i was not prosecuted as i undoubtedly should have been had domitian lived for this happened during his principate perhaps the cutting of my slave's hair was a sign of my approaching doom
for accused people cut their hair as a sign of mourning one may be allowed to wonder whether after all a fondness for practical joking is not even older than the age of the younger pliny
this story like nearly every other that we have come across has a parallel in the philopseudus indeed lucian seems to have covered almost the whole field of the marvellous as understood at that time in his determination to turn it into ridicule in that amusing dialogue
in this case we are told of a little statue of a esculapius which stood in the house of the narrator of the story and at the feet of which a number of pence had been placed as offerings while other coins some of them silver were fastened to the thighs with wax
there were also silver plates which had been vowed or offered by those who had been cured of fever by the god the offerings and tablets are just such as might be found in a catholic church in the south of europe to day but the coins in our more practical modern world
would have found their way into the coffers of the church one would like to know what was the ultimate destination of these particular coins whether they were to be sent as contributions to one of the temples of a esculapius which were the centre of the medical world at this period
and had elaborate hospitals attached to them about which we learn so much from aristides in this case they were merely a source of temptation to an unfortunate libyan groom who stole them one night intending to make his escape
but he had not studied the habits of the statue which we are told habitually got down from its pedestal every night and in this case such was the power of the god that he kept the man wandering about all night unable to leave the court
the god however considered that he had been let off much too easily and he was mysteriously flogged every night as the weals upon him showed till he ultimately died of the punishment
he was still apparently in the full vigour of his powers when he had a vision of nine maidens
and bidding him farewell when he awoke
with which he was then busy after completing it to his satisfaction
his slave came in and thinking he was asleep went to wake him when he found that he was dead a elian challenges the unbelieving epicureans to deny that the nine maidens were the nine muses
many stories naturally gather round the great struggle for the final mastery of the roman world which ended in the overthrow of the republic shakespeare has made us familiar with the fate of the poet cinna
who was actually mistaken for one of the conspirators against caesar and murdered by the crowd he dreamt on the night before he met his death that caesar invited him to supper and when he refused the invitation took him by the hand
and forced him down into a deep dark abyss which he entered with the utmost horror but there is a story connected with the crossing of the rubicon by caesar
fraught with such momentous consequences should have a supernatural setting of some kind and suetonius relates that while caesar was still hesitating whether he should declare himself an enemy of his country by
crossing the little river that bounded his province at the head of an army a man of heroic size and beauty suddenly appeared playing upon a reed pipe some of the troops several trumpeters among them ran up to listen
when the man seized a trumpet blew a loud blast upon it and began to cross the rubicon
and the men followed him with redoubled enthusiasm after what they had just seen it is to plutarch that we owe the famous story of the apparition that visited brutus in his tent
and again during the battle shakespeare represents it to be caesar's ghost but has otherwise strictly followed plutarch
how ill this taper burns ha who comes here
brutus well then i shall see thee again ghost ay
brutus why
now i have taken heart thou vanishest ill spirit
aches round you like a strong disease and new what hope what help
missus browning the shock had been great margaret fell into a state of prostration which did not show itself in sobs and tears or even find the relief of words
she lay on the sofa with her eyes shut never speaking but when spoken to and then replying in whispers mister bell was perplexed he dared not leave her
he dared not ask her to accompany him back to oxford which had been one of the plans he had formed on the journey to milton her physical exhaustion was evidently too complete for her to undertake any such fatigue
putting the sight that she would have to encounter out of the question mister bell sate over the fire considering what he had better do margaret lay motionless
and almost breathless by him he would not leave her even for the dinner which dixon had prepared for him down stairs and with sobbing hospitality would fain have tempted him to eat
he had a plateful of something brought up to him in general he was particular and dainty enough and knew well each shade of flavour in his food but now the devilled chicken tasted like sawdust
he minced up some of the fowl for margaret and peppered and salted it well but when dixon following his directions tried to feed her the languid shake of head
proved that in such a state as margaret was in food would only choke not nourish her mister bell gave a great sigh lifted up his stout old limbs stiff with travelling from their easy position
and followed dixon out of the room i can't leave her i must write to them at oxford to see that the preparations are made they can be getting on with these till i arrive can't missus lennox come to her
i'll write and tell her she must the girl must have some woman friend about her if only to talk her into a good fit of crying dixon was crying enough for two
but after wiping her eyes and steadying her voice she managed to tell mister bell that missus lennox was too near her confinement to be able to undertake any journey at present well i suppose we must have missus shaw
she's come back to england isn't she yes sir she's come back but i don't think she will like to leave missus lennox at such an interesting time said dixon who did not much approve of a stranger entering the household to share with her in her ruling care of margaret
interesting time be mister bell restricted himself to coughing over the end of his sentence she could be content to be at venice or naples or some of those popish places at the last interesting time
in comparison with that poor creature there that helpless homeless friendless margaret lying as still on that sofa as if it were an altar tomb and she the stone statue on it i tell you
missus shaw shall come see that a room or whatever she wants is got ready for her by to morrow night i'll take care she comes accordingly mister bell wrote a letter which missus shaw declared with many tears
to be so like one of the dear general's when he was going to have a fit of the gout that she should always value and preserve it
she might not have come true and sincere as was her sympathy with margaret
and allow herself to be packed by her maid
you are to bring back margaret edith re entered the drawing room mister henry lennox was there cutting open the pages of a new review without lifting his head he said
if you don't like sholto to be so long absent from you edith i hope you will let me go down to milton and give what assistance i can
it should be just now when we are come home and settled in the old house and quite ready to receive margaret poor thing what a change it will be to her from milton i'll have new chintz for her bedroom
and make it look new and bright and cheer her up a little in the same spirit of kindness missus shaw journeyed to milton occasionally dreading the first meeting and wondering how it would be got over
but more frequently planning how soon she could get margaret away from that horrid place and back into the pleasant comforts of harley street oh dear she said to her maid look at those chimneys
my poor sister hale
and to herself she acknowledged that she had always thought her brother in law rather a weak man but never so weak as now when she saw for what a place he had exchanged the lovely helstone home
margaret had remained in the same state white motionless speechless tearless they had told her that her aunt shaw was coming
but she had not expressed either surprise or pleasure or dislike to the idea mister bell whose appetite had returned and who appreciated dixon's endeavours to gratify it
in vain urged upon her to taste some sweetbreads stewed with oysters she shook her head with the same quiet obstinacy as on the previous day
but margaret was the first to hear the stopping of the cab that brought her aunt from the railway station her eyelids quivered her lips coloured and trembled mister bell went down to meet missus shaw
and when they came up margaret was standing trying to steady her dizzy self and when she saw her aunt she went forward to the arms open to receive her
and first found the passionate relief of tears on her aunt's shoulder all thoughts of quiet habitual love of tenderness for years of relationship to the dead
all that inexplicable likeness in look tone and gesture that seem to belong to one family and which reminded margaret so forcibly at this moment of her mother came in to melt and soften her numbed heart
into the overflow of warm tears mister bell stole out of the room and went down into the study where he ordered a fire and tried to divert his thoughts by taking down and examining the different books
each volume brought a remembrance or a suggestion of his dead friend it might be a change of employment from his two days work of watching margaret but it was no change of thought
he was glad to catch the sound of mister thornton's voice making enquiry at the door dixon was rather cavalierly dismissing him for with the appearance of missus shaw's maid came visions of former grandeur
of the beresford blood of the station so she was pleased to term it from which her young lady had been ousted and to which she was now please god to be restored
these visions which she had been dwelling on with complacency in her conversation with missus shaw's maid skilfully eliciting meanwhile all the circumstances of state and consequence connected with the harley street establishment
for the edification of the listening martha made dixon rather inclined to be supercilious in her treatment of any inhabitant of milton so though she always stood rather in awe of mister thornton
she was as curt as she durst be in telling him that he could see none of the inmates of the house that night it was rather uncomfortable to be contradicted in her statement by mister bell's opening the study door and calling out thornton
is that you come in for a minute or two i want to speak to you so mister thornton went into the study and dixon had to retreat into the kitchen and reinstate herself in her own esteem
by a prodigious story of sir john beresford's coach and six
you must not go to the clarendon we have five or six empty bed rooms at home well aired i think you may trust my mother for that then i'll only run up stairs and wish that wan girl good night
and make my bow to her aunt and go off with you straight
mister thornton began to think it long for he was full of business and had hardly been able to spare the time for running up to crampton and enquiring how miss hale was
i was kept by those women in the drawing room missus shaw is anxious to get home on account of her daughter she says
besides she says and very justly that she has friends she must see that she must wish good bye to several people and then her aunt worried her about old claims and was she forgetful of old friends
and she said with a great burst of crying she should be glad enough to go from a place where she had suffered so much now i must return to oxford to morrow
he paused as if asking a question but he received no answer from his companion the echo of whose thoughts kept repeating where she had suffered so much
alas and that was the way in which this eighteen months in milton to him so unspeakably precious down to its very bitterness which was worth all the rest of life's sweetness would be remembered
neither loss of father nor loss of mother dear as she was to mister thornton could have poisoned the remembrance of the weeks the days the hours when a walk of two miles every step of which was pleasant
took him to her sweet presence every step of which was rich as each recurring moment that bore him away from her made him recall some fresh grace in her demeanour or pleasant pungency in her character yes
whatever had happened to him external to his relation to her he could never have spoken of that time when he could have seen her every day when he had her within his grasp as it were as a time of suffering
it had been a royal time of luxury to him with all its stings and contumelies compared to the poverty that crept round and clipped the anticipation of the future down to sordid fact
and life without an atmosphere of either hope or fear missus thornton and fanny were in the dining room the latter in a flutter of small exultation as the maid held up one glossy material after another
her mother really tried to sympathise with her but could not neither taste nor dress were in her line of subjects and she heartily wished that fanny had accepted her brother's offer
of having the wedding clothes provided by some first rate london dressmaker without the endless troublesome discussions and unsettled wavering that arose out of fanny's desire to choose and superintend everything herself
mister thornton was only too glad to mark his grateful approbation of any sensible man who could be captivated by fanny's second rate airs and graces by giving her ample means for providing herself with the finery which certainly rivalled
if it did not exceed the lover in her estimation when her brother and mister bell came in fanny blushed and simpered and fluttered over the signs of her employment in a way which could not have failed to draw attention from any one else but mister bell
if he thought about her and her silks and satins at all it was to compare her and them with the pale sorrow he had left behind him sitting motionless
with bent head and folded hands in a room where the stillness was so great that you might almost fancy the rush in your straining ears was occasioned by the spirits of the dead yet hovering round their beloved
for when mister bell had first gone up stairs missus shaw lay asleep on the sofa and no sound broke the silence missus thornton gave mister bell her formal hospitable welcome
she was never so gracious as when receiving her son's friends in her son's house and the more unexpected they were
she asked about as broken down by this last stroke as she can be
i wish i were her only friend madam i daresay it sounds very brutal but here have i been displaced and turned out of my post of comforter and adviser by a fine lady aunt
and there are cousins and what not claiming her in london as if she were a lap dog belonging to them and she is too weak and miserable to have a will of her own she must indeed be weak said missus thornton
with an implied meaning which her son understood well
that miss hale has appeared almost friendless and has certainly had a good deal of anxiety to bear but she did not feel interest enough in the answer to her question to wait for it she left the room to make her household arrangements
they have been living abroad
the aunt brought her up and she and the cousin have been like sisters the thing vexing me you see is that i wanted to take her for a child of my own and i am jealous of these people
who don't seem to value the privilege of their right now it would be different if frederick claimed her
what right he stopped short in his vehement question frederick said mister bell in surprise why don't you know he's her brother have you not heard i never heard his name before where is he who is he
surely i told you about him when the family first came to milton the son who was concerned in that mutiny i never heard of him till this moment where does he live in spain
he's liable to be arrested the moment he sets foot on english ground poor fellow he will grieve at not being able to attend his father's funeral we must be content with captain lennox for i don't know of any other relation to summon
i hope i may be allowed to go certainly thankfully you're a good fellow after all thornton hale liked you he spoke to me only the other day about you at oxford
he regretted he had seen so little of you lately i am obliged to you for wishing to show him respect but about frederick does he never come to england never
he was not over here about the time of missus hale's death no why i was here then i hadn't seen hale for years and years and if you remember i came no it was some time after that that i came
i saw a young man walking with miss hale one day replied mister thornton and i think it was about that time oh that would be this young lennox the captain's brother he's a lawyer
and they were in pretty constant correspondence with him
said mister bell wheeling round and shutting one eye the better to bring the forces of the other to bear with keen scrutiny on mister thornton's face that i once fancied you had a little tenderness for margaret no answer
not at first and not till i had put it into his head i admired miss hale every one must do so she is a beautiful creature said mister thornton driven to bay by mister bell's pertinacious questioning
is that all
i did hope you had had nobleness enough in you to make you pay her the homage of the heart
closely up with the most precious things of his heart yet he would not be forced into any expression of what he felt towards margaret he was no mocking bird of praise
to try because another extolled what he reverenced and passionately loved to outdo him in laudation
as landlord and tenant what is that heap of brick and mortar we came against in the yard any repairs wanted no none thank you are you building on your own account
if you are i'm very much obliged to you i'm building a dining room for the men i mean the hands i thought you were hard to please if this room wasn't good enough to satisfy you a bachelor
i've got acquainted with a strange kind of chap and i put one or two children in whom he is interested to school so as i happened to be passing near his house one day i just went there about some trifling payment to be made
and i saw such a miserable black frizzle of a dinner a greasy cinder of meat as first set me a thinking but it was not till provisions grew so high this winter that i bethought me how by buying things wholesale
and cooking a good quantity of provisions together much money might be saved and much comfort gained so i spoke to my friend or my enemy the man i told you of and he found fault with every detail of my plan
and in consequence i laid it aside both as impracticable and also because if i forced it into operation i should be interfering with the independence of my men when suddenly this higgins came to me
and graciously signified his approval of a scheme so nearly the same as mine that i might fairly have claimed it and moreover the approval of several of his fellow workmen to whom he had spoken i was a little riled i confess by his manner
and thought of throwing the whole thing overboard to sink or swim but it seemed childish to relinquish a plan which i had once thought wise and well laid just because i myself did not receive all the honour and consequence due to the originator
so i coolly took the part assigned to me which is something like that of steward to a club i buy in the provisions wholesale and provide a fitting matron or cook i hope you give satisfaction in your new capacity
but i suppose missus thornton assists you in your marketing not a bit replied mister thornton she disapproves of the whole plan and now we never mention it to each other but i manage pretty well getting in great stocks from liverpool
and being served in butcher's meat by our own family butcher i can assure you the hot dinners the matron turns out are by no means to be despised do you taste each dish as it goes in in virtue of your office
i hope you have a white wand i was very scrupulous at first in confining myself to the mere purchasing part
than went by my own judgment at one time the beef was too large at another the mutton was not fat enough
and not to intrude my own ideas upon them so one day two or three of the men my friend higgins among them asked me if i would not come in and take a snack it was a very busy day
but i saw that the men would be hurt if after making the advance i didn't meet them half way so i went in and i never made a better dinner in my life i told them my next neighbours i mean for i'm no speech maker
how much i'd enjoyed it and for some time whenever that especial dinner recurred in their dietary i was sure to be met by these men with a master there's hot pot for dinner to day
if they had not asked me i would no more have intruded on them than i'd have gone to the mess at the barracks without invitation i should think you were rather a restraint on your hosts conversation they can't abuse the masters while you're there
i suspect they take it out on non hot pot days
but you are hardly acquainted with our darkshire fellows for all you're a darkshire man yourself they have such a sense of humour and such a racy mode of expression
nothing like the act of eating for equalising men dying is nothing to it the philosopher dies sententiously the pharisee ostentatiously the simple hearted humbly
the poor idiot blindly as the sparrow falls to the ground the philosopher and idiot publican and pharisee all eat after the same fashion given an equally good digestion there's theory for theory for you
indeed i have no theory i hate theories i beg your pardon to show my penitence will you accept a ten pound note towards your marketing and give the poor fellows a feast thank you but i'd rather not
they pay me rent for the oven and cooking places at the back of the mill and will have to pay more for the new dining room i don't want it to fall into a charity i don't want donations once let in the principle
and i should have people going and talking and spoiling the simplicity of the whole thing people will talk about any new plan you can't help that my enemies if i have any may make a philanthropic fuss about this dinner scheme
but you are a friend and i expect you will pay my experiment the respect of silence it is but a new broom at present and sweeps clean enough
we next consider the will under this head there are five points of inquiry one whether the will desires something of necessity two
three whether it is a higher power than the intellect four whether the will moves the intellect five whether the will is divided into irascible and concupiscible first article
whether the will desires something of necessity objection one it would seem that the will desires nothing of necessity for augustine says
that it anything is necessary it is not voluntary but whatever the will desires is voluntary therefore nothing that the will desires is desired of necessity
further the rational powers according to the philosopher
extend to opposite things but the will is a rational power because as he says
the will is in the reason therefore the will extends to opposite things and therefore it is determined to nothing of necessity
that all desire happiness with one will now if this were not necessary but contingent there would at least be a few exceptions therefore the will desires something of necessity i answer that
the word necessity is employed in many ways for that which must be is necessary now that a thing must be may belong to it by an intrinsic principle either material as when we say that everything composed of contraries is of necessity corruptible
or formal as when we say that it is necessary for the three angles of a triangle to be equal to two right angles and this is natural
food is said to be necessary for life and a horse is necessary for a journey this is called necessity of end and sometimes also utility on the part of the agent a thing must be when someone is forced by some agent so that he is not able to do the contrary
this is called necessity of coercion now this necessity of coercion is altogether repugnant to the will for we call that violent which is against the inclination of a thing but the very movement of the will is an inclination to something
so it is impossible for a thing to be absolutely coerced or violent and voluntary but necessity of end is not repugnant to the will when the end cannot be attained except in one way
thus from the will to cross the sea arises in the will the necessity to wish for a ship in like manner neither is natural necessity repugnant to the will
the will must of necessity adhere to the last end which is happiness since the end is in practical matters what the principle is in speculative matters
since the nature of a thing is the first in everything
we are masters of our own actions by reason of our being able to choose this or that but choice regards not the end but the means to the end as the philosopher says
second article
whether the will desires of necessity whatever it desires objection one it would seem that the will desires all things of necessity whatever it desires for dionysius says
evil is outside the scope of the will therefore the will tends of necessity to the good which is proposed to it
further the object of the will is compared to the will as the mover to the thing movable but the movement of the movable necessarily follows the mover therefore it seems that the will's object moves it of necessity
further as the thing apprehended by sense is the object of the sensitive appetite so the thing apprehended by the intellect is the object of the intellectual appetite which is called the will but what is apprehended by the sense moves the sensitive appetite of necessity for augustine says
it is the will by which we sin and live well and so the will extends to opposite things therefore it does not desire of necessity all things whatsoever it desires i answer that the will does not desire of necessity whatsoever it desires
now there are some things intelligible which have not a necessary connection with the first principles such as contingent propositions the denial of which does not involve a denial of the first principles and to such the intellect does not assent of necessity
but there are some propositions which have a necessary connection with the first principles such as demonstrable conclusions a denial of which involves a denial of the first principles
but it does not assent of necessity until through the demonstration it recognizes the necessity of such connection it is the same with the will for there are certain individual goods which have not a necessary connection with happiness because without them a man can be happy and to such the will does not adhere of necessity
nevertheless until through the certitude of the divine vision the necessity of such connection be shown the will does not adhere to god of necessity nor to those things which are of god but the will of the man who sees god in his essence of necessity adheres to god
just as now we desire of necessity to be happy it is therefore clear that the will does not desire of necessity whatever it desires
the mover then of necessity causes movement in the thing movable when the power of the mover exceeds the thing movable
but as the capacity of the will regards the universal and perfect good its capacity is not subjected to any individual good
the sensitive power does not compare different things with each other as reason does but it simply apprehends some one thing therefore according to that one thing it moves the sensitive appetite in a determinate way but the reason is a power that compares several things together
therefore from several things the intellectual appetite that is the will may be moved but not of necessity from one thing third article
whether the will is a higher power than the intellect objection one it would seem that the will is a higher power than the intellect for the object of the will is good and the end but the end is the first and highest cause
therefore the will is the first and highest power
now the act of the will in the natural order follows the act of the intellect
further habits are proportioned to their powers as perfections to what they make perfect but the habit which perfects the will namely charity is more noble than the habits which perfect the intellect for it is written
if i should know all mysteries and if i should have all faith and have not charity i am nothing therefore the will is a higher power than the intellect
the superiority of one thing over another can be considered in two ways absolutely and relatively now
but relatively as it is such with regard to something else if therefore the intellect and will be considered with regard to themselves then the intellect is the higher power and this is clear if we compare their respective objects to one another
since the object of the intellect is the very idea of appetible good and the appetible good the idea of which is in the intellect is the object of the will now the more simple and the more abstract a thing is the nobler and higher it is in itself
and therefore the object of the intellect is higher than the object of the will therefore since the proper nature of a power is in its order to its object it follows that the intellect in itself and absolutely is higher and nobler than the will
but relatively and by comparison with something else we find that the will is sometimes higher than the intellect from the fact that the object of the will occurs in something higher than that in which occurs the object of the intellect
thus for instance i might say that hearing is relatively nobler than sight inasmuch as something in which there is sound is nobler than something in which there is color though color is nobler and simpler than sound for as we have said above
when therefore the thing in which there is good is nobler than the soul itself in which is the idea understood by comparison with such a thing the will is higher than the intellect but when the thing which is good is less noble than the soul then even in comparison with that thing the intellect is higher than the will
wherefore the love of god is better than the knowledge of god but on the contrary the knowledge of corporeal things is better than the love thereof absolutely however the intellect is nobler than the will
the aspect of causality is perceived by comparing one thing to another
what precedes in order of generation and time is less perfect for in one and in the same thing potentiality precedes act and imperfection precedes perfection
and in this way the intellect precedes the will as the motive power precedes the thing movable and as the active precedes the passive for good which is understood moves the will
this reason is verified of the will as compared with what is above the soul for charity is the virtue by which we love god fourth article
because the good apprehended by the intellect moves without being moved whereas the appetite moves and is moved therefore the intellect is not moved by the will
further we can will nothing but what we understand if therefore in order to understand the will moves by willing to understand
and so on indefinitely which is impossible therefore the will does not move the intellect on the contrary damascene says
it is in our power to learn an art or not as we list but a thing is in our power by the will and we learn art by the intellect therefore the will moves the intellect i answer that a thing is said to move in two ways first as an end
secondly a thing is said to move as an agent as what alters moves what is altered and what impels moves what is impelled in this way the will moves the intellect and all the powers of the soul as anselm says
that power which regards the universal end moves the powers which regard particular ends and we may observe this both in nature and in things politic for the heaven which aims at the universal preservation of things subject to generation and corruption moves all inferior bodies
each of which aims at the preservation of its own species or of the individual the king also who aims at the common good of the whole kingdom by his rule moves all the governors of cities each of whom rules over his own particular city
and the intellect to the knowledge of truth
as appetitive of universal good and as a determinate power of the soul having a determinate act if therefore the intellect and the will be compared with one another
is contained both the will itself and its act and its object wherefore the intellect understands the will and its act and its object just as it understands other species of things as stone or wood which are contained in the common notion of being and truth
from this we can easily understand why these powers include one another in their acts because the intellect understands that the will wills and the will wills the intellect to understand in the same way good is contained in truth inasmuch as it is an understood truth and truth in good
inasmuch as it is a desired good
for every movement of the will must be preceded by apprehension whereas every apprehension is not preceded by an act of the will but the principle of counselling and understanding is an intellectual principle higher than our intellect namely god
and in this way he explains that there is no need to proceed indefinitely fifth article
objection one it would seem that we ought to distinguish irascible and concupiscible parts in the superior appetite which is the will for the concupiscible power is so called from
to be angry but there is a concupiscence which cannot belong to the sensitive appetite but only to the intellectual which is the will as the concupiscence of wisdom of which it is said
six twenty one the concupiscence of wisdom bringeth to the eternal kingdom there is also a certain anger which cannot belong to the sensitive appetite but only to the intellectual as when our anger is directed against vice
to have the hatred of vice in the irascible part therefore we should distinguish irascible and concupiscible parts of the intellectual soul as well as in the sensitive
further as is commonly said charity is in the concupiscible and hope in the irascible part but they cannot be in the sensitive appetite because their objects are not sensible but intellectual therefore we must assign an irascible and concupiscible power to the intellectual part
namely the irascible concupiscible and rational before it is united to the body
eight therefore the irascible and concupiscible powers are in the will which is the intellectual appetite
i answer that the irascible and concupiscible are not parts of the intellectual appetite which is called the will because as was said above
the visual power is not multiplied according to the different kinds of color but if there were a power regarding white as white and not as something colored it would be distinct from a power regarding black as black
now the sensitive appetite does not consider the common notion of good because neither do the senses apprehend the universal
for the concupiscible regards as proper to it the notion of good as something pleasant to the senses and suitable to nature whereas the irascible regards the notion of good as something that wards off and repels what is hurtful but the will regards good according to the common notion of good and therefore in the will
which is the intellectual appetite there is no differentiation of appetitive powers so that there be in the intellectual appetite an irascible power distinct from a concupiscible power just as neither on the part of the intellect are the apprehensive powers multiplied although they are on the part of the senses
love concupiscence and the like can be understood in two ways sometimes they are taken as passions arising that is with a certain commotion of the soul and thus they are commonly understood and in this sense they are only in the sensitive appetite they may however be taken in another way
and thus in the irascible and concupiscible are charity and hope that is in the will as ordered to such acts and in this way too we may understand the words quoted
flask bottle and demijohn note this chapter in its first shape was given some currency under the title of the evil beast i have however so revised and added to that lecture
it is essentially a new presentation of the dreadful abomination of rum and it is in this present shape that i wish the public to receive it as a full expression of my views thereon t d w t
the romans at their feasts fell off their seats with intoxication
india turkey and china have groaned with the desolation and by it have been quenched such lights as haller and de quincey one hundred millions are the victims of the betel nut which has specially accursed the east indies three hundred millions chew hashish
and persia brazil and africa suffer the delirium the tartars employ murowa the mexicans the agave the people of guarapo an intoxicating quality taken from sugar cane while a great multitude that no man can number are the disciples of alcohol
to it they bow in its trenches they fall in its awful prison they are incarcerated on its ghastly holocaust they burn could the muster roll of this great army be called and they could come up from the dead
does it not wave the incendiary's torch has it not sent the physician reeling into the sick room and the minister with his tongue thick into the pulpit did not an exquisite poet from the very height of reputation fall a gibbering sot into the gutter
on his way to be married to one of the fairest daughters of new england and at the very hour when the bride was decking herself for the altar and did he not die of delirium tremens almost unattended in a new york hotel
but if the bones of all those who have fallen as a prey to dissipation could be piled up it would make a monster pyramid talk not of waterloo and austerlitz for they were not fields of blood compared with this great golgotha who will gird himself for the journey and try with me to scale this mountain of the dead
going up miles high on human carcasses to find still other peaks far above mountain above mountain white with the bleached bones of drunkards hang not your head or shut your eyes until we have seen it we must get a sight at the monster before we can shoot him
catharine of russia drags down a whole empire with her nefarious behavior no christian man can be indifferent to what every hour of every day goes on at washington
while the presidential impeachment trial advanced some of the men who were to render their solemn verdict on the subject were reeling in and out of the senate chamber the intoxicated representatives of a free christian people it was a great question whether several members of that high court could be got sober in time to vote
that he is led into the anteroom he was a good republican one of the middle states has a representative who very rarely appears in his seat for the reason that he is so great an inebriate that he can neither walk nor ride he is a good democrat
as god looks down on our state and national legislatures he holds us responsible we cast the votes we lift up the legislators will the time never come when this nation shall rise up higher than partisanship and cast its suffrage for sober men
the fact is that the two millions of dollars which the liquor dealers raised for the purpose of swaying state and national legislation has done its work and the nation is debauched higher than legislatures or the congress of the united states is the whiskey ring
the sabbath has been sacrificed to the rum traffic to many of our people the best day of the week is the worst bakers must keep their shops closed on the sabbath it is dangerous to have loaves of bread going out on sunday the shoe store is closed severe penalty will attack the man who sells boots on the sabbath
but down with the window shutters of the grog shops our laws shall confer particular honors upon the rum traffickers all other traders must stand aside for these
take off their hats to the rum seller elected to particular honor it is unsafe for any other class of men to be allowed license for sunday work but swing out your signs oh ye traffickers in the peace of families
we have more law now than we execute
there is no advantage in having the law higher than public opinion
in order that our people amazed and indignant may rise up and demand the extermination of this municipal crime there is a way of driving down the hoops of a barrel until the hoops break we are in this country at this time trying to regulate this evil by a tax on whiskey
you might as well try to regulate the asiatic cholera or the small pox by taxation the men who distil liquors are for the most part unscrupulous and the higher the tax the more inducement to illicit distillation
rum is victor some time when you have leisure just go down any of our streets and count the number of drinking places here they are first class hotels marble floors counter polished fine picture hanging over the decanters
cut glass silver water coolers pictured punch bowls high priced liquors customers pull off their gloves and take up the glasses and click them
for they feel richer now and able to get almost anything towards bed time they take out their watch and say they must go home they start but cannot stand straight with a gentleman at each arm they start up the street
hat falls off hair gets over his eyes door bell of fine house rings
quick shut the front door for i do not want to look in god help them here it is a wine cellar
men with rings in their ears instead of their nose and blotches of breast pin pictures on the wall cut out of the police gazette a slush of beer on floor and counter
by the gas light a knife flashes low songs they banter and jeer and howl and vomit
all these different styles of drinking places are multiplying they smite a young man's vision at every turn they pour the stench of their abomination on every wave of air i sketch two houses in this street the first is bright as home can be
luxuriant evening meal gratulation and sympathy and laughter music in the parlor fine pictures on the wall costly books on the stand well clad household plenty of everything to make home happy house the second piano sold yesterday by the sheriff
deep shadow of wretchedness falling in every room doorbell rings little children hide daughters turn pale wife holds her breath blundering steps in the hall door opens
no it is the same house rum transformed it rum imbruted the man rum sold the shawl rum tore up the carpets rum shook its fist rum desolated the hearth rum changed that paradise into a hell i sketch two men that you know very well
the first graduated from one of our literary institutions his father mother brothers and sisters were present to see him graduate they heard the applauding thunders that greeted his speech they saw the bouquets tossed to his feet they saw the degree conferred and the diploma given he never looked so well
everybody said what a noble brow what a fine eye what graceful manners what brilliant prospects all the world opens before him and cries hurrah hurrah man the second lies in the station house to night
the doctor has just been sent for to bind up the gashes received in a fight his hair is matted and makes him look like a wild beast his lip is bloody and cut who is the battered and bruised wretch that was picked up by the police and carried in drunk and foul and bleeding
did i call him man the second he is man the first rum transformed him rum destroyed his prospects rum disappointed parental expectation rum withered those garlands of commencement day rum cut his lip rum dashed out his manhood
this foul thing gives one swing to its scythe and our best merchants fall their stores are sold and they slink into dishonored graves again it swings its scythe and some of our best physicians fall into sufferings that their wisest prescriptions cannot cure
spiced wines and fruits and rare meats the guests white robed anointed and perfumed take their places music the jests evoke roars of laughter riddles are propounded repartees indulged toasts drunk the brain befogged
wit gives place to uproar and blasphemy and yet they are not satisfied turn on more light give us more music sound the trumpet clear the floor for the dance bring in salome the graceful and accomplished princess the doors are opened and in bounds the dancer
stand back and give plenty of room for the gyrations the lords are enchanted they never saw such poetry of motion
herod forgets crown and throne
he sways with every motion of the enchantress he thrills with the quick pulsations of her feet and is bewitched with the posturing and attitudes that he never saw before in a moment exchanged for others just as amazing he sits in silence before the whirling bounding leaping flashing wonder
whatsoever thou shalt ask of me i will give it to thee to the half of my kingdom now there was in prison a minister by the name of john the baptist who had made much trouble by his honest preaching he had denounced the sins of the king
and brought down upon himself the wrath of the females in the royal family at the instigation of her mother salome takes advantage of the king's extravagant promise and demands the head of john the baptist on a dinner plate there is a sound of heavy feet
swing back the door the executioners are returning from their awful errand they hand a platter to salome what is that on the platter
no it is redder than wine and costlier it is the ghastly bleeding head of john the baptist its locks dabbled in gore its eyes set in the death stare the distress of the last agony in the features that fascinating form
that just now swayed so gracefully in the dance bends over the horrid burden without a shudder she gloats over the blood and just as the maid of your household goes bearing out on a tray the empty glasses of the evening's entertainment so she carried out on a platter the dissevered head of that good man
and who seem to think that everything decent and immortal depends upon the style in which people carry their feet on the other hand i can see nothing but ruin moral and physical in the dissipations of the ball room which have despoiled thousands of young men and women of all that gives dignity to character or usefulness to life
dancing has been styled the graceful movement of the body adjusted by art to the measures or tune of instruments or of the voice
in other days there were festal dances and funeral dances and military dances and mediatorial dances and bacchanalian dances queens and lords have swayed to and fro in their gardens and the rough men of the backwoods in this way have roused up the echo of the forest
it is therefore no abstract question that you ask me is it right to dance the ancient fathers aroused by the indecent dances of those days gave emphatic evidence against any participation in the dance saint chrysostom says
the feet were not given for dancing but to walk modestly not to leap impudently like camels one of the dogmas of the ancient church reads a dance is the devil's possession and he that entereth into a dance entereth into his possession
the devil is the gate to the middle and to the end of the dance as many passes as a man makes in dancing so many passes doth he make to hell elsewhere these old dogmas declare the woman that singeth in the dance is the princess of the devil
so the devil calleth one woman to sing in the dance or to play on some instrument and presently all the dancers gather together this wholesale and indiscriminate denunciation grew out of the utter dissoluteness of those ancient plays
so great at one time was the offence to all decency that the roman senate decreed the expulsion of all dancers and dancing masters from rome yet we are not to discuss the customs of that day but the customs of the present we cannot let the fathers decide the question for us
our reason enlightened by the bible shall be the standard i am not ready to excommunicate all those who lift their feet beyond a certain height i would not visit our youth with a rigor of criticism that would put out all their ardor of soul
went down to ruin i would give to all of our youth the right to romp and play god meant it or he would not have surcharged our natures with such exuberance
i see no harm i for a long while tried to see in it a harm
i would to god men kept young for a greater length of time never since my school boy days have i loved so well as now the hilarities of life what if we have felt heavy burdens and suffered a multitude of hard knocks
let me tell you that you will be treated a great deal better than you deserve let us not grudge to the young their joy as we go further on in life let us go with the remembrance that we have had our gleeful days when old age frosts our locks and stiffens our limbs
then let our children come on and we'll have it their way for thirty forty or fifty years we have been drinking from the cup of life
they swing an awful scythe of death
the defiler of the soul the avenue of lust and the curse of the town the tread of this wild intoxicating heated midnight dance jars all the moral hearthstones of the city the physical ruin is evident what will become of those who work all day and dance all night
a few years will turn them out nervous exhausted imbeciles those who have given up their midnights to spiced wines and hot suppers and ride home through winter's cold unwrapped from the elements will at last be recorded suicides
there are consumptions and fierce neuralgias close on the track amid that glittering maze of ball room splendors diseases stand right and left and balance and chain a sepulchral breath
many of our brightest homes are being sacrificed there are families that have actually quit keeping house and gone to boarding that they may give themselves more exclusively to the higher duties of the ball room
the son will be tossed about in society a nonentity the daughter will elope with a french dancing master the mother still trying to stay in the glitter and by every art attempting to keep the color in her cheek and the wrinkles off her brow attempting without any success all the arts of the belle
an old flirt a poor miserable butterfly without any wings if anything on the earth is beautiful to my eye it is an aged woman
her voice tender with past memories and her face a benediction
when she goes away from us there is a shadow on the table a shadow on the hearth and a shadow in the dwelling but if anything on earth is distressful to look at it is an old woman ashamed of being old
i laugh even in church when i see her coming one of the worst looking birds i know of is a peacock after it has lost its feathers i would not give one lock of my mother's gray hair for fifty thousand such caricatures of old age
these creatures have no home their children unwashed their furniture undusted their china closets disordered the house a scene of confusion misrule cheerlessness and dirt
one would think you might discover even amid the witcheries of the ball room the sickening odors of the unswept unventilated and unclean domestic apartments these dissipations extinguish all love of usefulness
how could you expect one to be interested in the alleviations of the world's misery while there is a question to be decided about the size of a glove or the shade of a pongee how many of these men and women of the ball room visit the poor
when did the world ever see a perpetual dancer distributing tracts such persons are turned in upon themselves and it is very poor pasture this gilded sphere is utterly bedwarfing to intellect and soul this constant study of little things
this harassing anxiety about dress this talk of fashionable infinitesimals this shoe pinched hair frizzled fringe spattered group that simper and look askance at the mirrors and wonder with infinity of interest how that one geranium leaf does look
this shrivelling up of man's moral dignity until it is no more observable with the naked eye this taking of a woman's heart that god meant should be filled with all amenities and compressing it until all the fragrance and simplicity and artlessness are squeezed out of it this inquisition of a small shoe
this agony of tight lacing this wrapping up of mind and heart in a ruffle this tumbling down of a soul that god meant for great upliftings
have the white polished glistening boards ever been the road to heaven who at the flash of those chandeliers hath kindled a torch for eternity from the table spread at the close of that excited and besweated scene who went home to say his prayers to many alas this life is a masquerade ball
as at such entertainments gentlemen and ladies appear in the dress of kings or queens mountain bandits or clowns and at the close of the dance throw off their disguises so in this dissipated life all unclean passions move in mask across the floor they trip merrily
gleaming brow bends low to gleaming brow on with the dance flash and rustle and laughter and immeasurable merry making but the languor of death comes over the limbs and blurs the sight lights lower
music saddens into a wail lights lower
lights lower mists fill the room glasses rattle as though shaken by sullen thunder sighs seem caught among the curtains scarf falls from the shoulder of beauty a shroud lights lower
over the slippery boards in dance of death glide jealousies disappointments lust despair torn leaves and withered garlands only half hide the ulcered feet the stench of smoking lamp wicks almost quenched choking damps chilliness feet still
hands folded eyes shut voices hushed
all things being full of flaw all things being full of holes the strength of all things is in shortness if sir ensor doone had dwelled for half an hour upon himself
and an hour perhaps upon lorna and me we must both have wearied of him and required change of air but now i longed to see and know a great deal more about him and hoped that he might not go to heaven for at least a week or more however
he was too good for this world as we say of all people who leave it and i verily believe his heart was not a bad one after all
yet how many have done evil while receiving only good
settled for ever without our votes let us own that he was at least
and his loss aroused great lamentation not among the doones alone and the women they had carried off
and this not only from fear lest one more wicked might succeed him as appeared indeed too probable but from true admiration of his strong will and sympathy with his misfortunes
a lawyer perhaps might have argued it not but what he may have meant to bestow on us his blessing only that he died next day without taking the trouble to do it he called indeed for his box of snuff
which was a very high thing to take and which he never took without being in very good humour at least for him and though it would not go up his nostrils through the failure of his breath he was pleased to have it there and not to think of dying
i asked him very softly for the brown appearance of it spoiled to my idea his white mostacchio but he seemed to shake his head and i thought it kept his spirits up i had never before seen any one do what all of us have to do some day
and it greatly kept my spirits down although it did not so very much frighten me for it takes a man but a little while his instinct being of death perhaps
at least as much as of life which accounts for his slaying his fellow men so and every other creature it does not take a man very long to enter into another man's death and bring his own mood to suit it
he knows that his own is sure to come and nature is fond of the practice hence it came to pass that i after easing my mother's fears and seeing a little to business returned as if drawn by a polar needle
to the death bed of sir ensor there was some little confusion people wanting to get away and people trying to come in from downright curiosity of all things the most hateful
he for his part never asked for any one to come near him not even a priest nor a monk or friar but seemed to be going his own way peaceful and well contented
when only we two were with him he looked at us both very dimly and softly as if he wished to do something for us but had left it now too late lorna hoped that he wanted to bless us
i followed the bent of his poor shrunken hand and sought among the pilings and there i felt something hard and sharp and drew it forth and gave it to him
it flashed like the spray of a fountain upon us in the dark winter of the room he could not take it in his hand but let it hang as daisies do only making lorna see that he meant her to have it
and from which you have got the ring john but grandfather kept it because the children wanted to pull it from my neck may i have it now dear grandfather not unless you wish dear darling lorna wept again because the old man could not tell her
except by one very feeble nod that she was doing what he wished then she gave to me the trinket for the sake of safety and i stowed it in my breast he seemed to me to follow this and to be well content with it
before sir ensor doone was buried the greatest frost of the century had set in with its iron hand and step of stone on everything how it came is not my business nor can i explain it
as people now begin to do when the ground is not to their liking though of all this i know nothing and less than nothing i may say because i ought to know something i can hear what people tell me and i can see before my eyes
the strong men broke three good pickaxes ere they got through the hard brown sod streaked with little maps of gray where old sir ensor was to lie upon his back awaiting the darkness of the judgment day
it was in the little chapel yard i will not tell the name of it because we are now such protestants that i might do it an evil turn only it was the little place where lorna's aunt sabina lay
here was i remaining long with a little curiosity because some people told me plainly that i must be damned for ever by a papist funeral and here came lorna scarcely breathing through the thick of stuff around her
yet with all her little breath steaming on the air like frost i stood apart from the ceremony in which of course i was not entitled either by birth or religion to bear any portion
and indeed it would have been wiser in me to have kept away altogether for now there was no one to protect me among those wild and lawless men and both carver and the counsellor had vowed a fearful vengeance on me as i heard from gwenny
they had not dared to meddle with me while the chief lay dying nor was it in their policy for a short time after that to endanger their succession by an open breach with lorna whose tender age and beauty held so many of the youths in thrall
the ancient outlaw's funeral was a grand and moving sight more perhaps from the sense of contrast than from that of fitness to see those dark and mighty men inured to all of sin and crime reckless both of man and god
yet now with heads devoutly bent clasped hands and downcast eyes following the long black coffin of their common ancestor to the place where they must join him when their sum of ill was done and to see the feeble priest chanting over the dead form
words the living would have laughed at sprinkling with his little broom drops that could not purify while the children robed in white swung their smoking censers slowly over the cold and twilight grave
and after seeing all to ask with a shudder unexpressed is this the end that god intended for a man so proud and strong not a tear was shed upon him except from the sweetest of all sweet eyes
not a sigh pursued him home except in hot anger his life had been cold and bitter and distant and now a week had exhausted all the sorrow of those around him a grief flowing less from affection than fear
aged men will show his tombstone mothers haste with their infants by it children shrink from the name upon it until in time his history shall lapse and be forgotten by all except the great judge and god
trying to keep the cold away by virtue of quick movement not a flake of snow had fallen yet all the earth was caked and hard with a dry brown crust upon it
all the sky was banked with darkness hard austere and frowning the fog of the last three weeks was gone neither did any rime remain but all things had a look of sameness and a kind of furzy colour
it was freezing hard and sharp with a piercing wind to back it and i had observed that the holy water froze upon sir ensor's coffin
with a strong determination to heave an ash tree up the chimney place and that was how the birds were going rather than flying as they used to fly all the birds were set in one direction steadily journeying westward
not with any heat of speed neither flying far at once but all as if on business bound partly running partly flying partly fluttering along
this movement of the birds went on even for a week or more every kind of thrushes passed us every kind of wild fowl even plovers went away and crows and snipes and wood cocks
partridges that came to hand with a dry noise in their crops heath poults making cups of snow and a few poor hopping redwings flipping in and out the hedge having lost the power to fly
and all the time their great black eyes set with gold around them seemed to look at any man for mercy and for comfort annie took a many of them all that she could find herself and all the boys would bring her
and all the seed she could think of and lumps of rotten apples
some got on and some died off
but i do assure you it was a pretty thing to see when she went to them in the morning there was not a bird but knew her well after one day of comforting and some would come to her hand and sit and shut one eye and look at her
then she used to stroke their heads and feel their breasts and talk to them and not a bird of them all was there but liked to have it done to him and i do believe they would eat from her hand things unnatural to them
of very fine bright plumage and larger than a missel thrush he was the hardest of all to please and yet he tried to do his best i have heard since then from a man who knows all about birds and beasts and fishes
that he must have been a norwegian bird called in this country a roller who never comes to england but in the most tremendous winters another little bird there was whom i longed to welcome home and protect from enemies
a little bird no native to us but than any native dearer but lo in the very night which followed old sir ensor's funeral such a storm of snow began as never have i heard nor read of neither could have dreamed it
at what time of night it first began is more than i can say at least from my own knowledge for we all went to bed soon after supper being cold and not inclined to talk at that time the wind was moaning sadly and the sky as dark as a wood
with their chins upon one another but we being blinder than they i suppose and not having had a great snow for years made no preparation against the storm except that the lambing ewes were in shelter
it struck me as i lay in bed that we were acting foolishly for an ancient shepherd had dropped in and taken supper with us and foretold a heavy fall and great disaster to live stock
he said that he had known a frost beginning just as this had done with a black east wind after days of raw cold fog and then on the third night of the frost at this very time of year
to wit on the fifteenth of december such a snow set in as killed half of the sheep and many even of the red deer and the forest ponies
and even the poultry should be brought in snug and with plenty to eat and fodder enough to roast them
when they come a day too late even if they may avail a little when they are most punctual in the bitter morning i arose to follow out my purpose knowing the time from the force of habit although the room was so dark and gray
while all the length of the room was grisly like the heart of a mouldy oat rick i went to the window at once of course
and there got hold of a fine ash stake cut by myself not long ago with this i ploughed along pretty well and thundered so hard at john fry's door that he thought it was the doones at least and cocked his blunderbuss out of the window
unless he came in five minutes not that he could do much good but because the other men would be sure to skulk if he set them the example
this is no mortal business nor no sound that the earth owes shakespeare we now return to the mention of montoni whose rage and disappointment
were soon lost in nearer interests than any which the unhappy emily had awakened his depredations having exceeded their usual limits and reached an extent at which neither the timidity of the then commercial senate of venice
while a corps of considerable strength was upon the point of receiving orders to march for udolpho a young officer prompted partly by resentment for some injury received from montoni and partly by the hope of distinction
solicited an interview with the minister who directed the enterprise to him he represented that the situation of udolpho rendered it too strong to be taken by open force except after some tedious operations
that montoni had lately shewn how capable he was of adding to its strength all the advantages which could be derived from the skill of a commander that so considerable a body of troops as that allotted to the expedition could not approach udolpho without his knowledge
and that it was not for the honour of the republic to have a large part of its regular force employed for such a time as the siege of udolpho would require upon the attack of a handful of banditti
the object of the expedition he thought might be accomplished much more safely and speedily by mingling contrivance with force it was possible to meet montoni and his party without their walls and to attack them then
or by approaching the fortress with the secrecy consistent with the march of smaller bodies of troops to take advantage either of the treachery or negligence of some of his party and to rush unexpectedly upon the whole
this advice was seriously attended to and the officer who gave it received the command of the troops demanded for his purpose his first efforts were accordingly those of contrivance alone
of whom he found none that he addressed unwilling to punish their imperious master and to secure their own pardon from the senate he learned also the number of montoni's troops and that it had been much increased since his late successes
the conclusion of his plan was soon effected having returned with his party who received the watch word and other assistance from their friends within montoni and his officers were surprised by one division who had been directed to their apartment
while the other maintained the slight combat which preceded the surrender of the whole garrison among the persons seized with montoni was orsino the assassin who had joined him on his first arrival at udolpho
and whose concealment had been made known to the senate by count morano after the unsuccessful attempt of the latter to carry off emily it was indeed partly for the purpose of capturing this man by whom one of the senate had been murdered
that the expedition was undertaken and its success was so acceptable to them that morano was instantly released notwithstanding the political suspicions which montoni by his secret accusation had excited against him the celerity and ease
with which this whole transaction was completed prevented it from attracting curiosity or even from obtaining a place in any of the published records of that time so that emily
was ignorant of the defeat and signal humiliation of her late persecutor her mind was now occupied with sufferings which no effort of reason had yet been able to controul
who sincerely attempted whatever benevolence could suggest for softening them sometimes allowed her the solitude she wished for sometimes led her into friendly parties and constantly protected her as much as possible
from the shrewd enquiries and critical conversation of the countess he often invited her to make excursions with him and his daughter during which he conversed entirely on questions suitable to her taste without appearing to consult it
and thus endeavoured gradually to withdraw her from the subject of her grief and to awake other interests in her mind emily to whom he appeared as the enlightened friend and protector of her youth soon felt for him the tender affection of a daughter
and her heart expanded to her young friend blanche as to a sister
it was long before she could sufficiently abstract her mind from valancourt to listen to the story promised by old dorothee
but dorothee at length reminded her of it
still her thoughts were employed by considerations which weakened her curiosity and dorothee's tap at the door soon after twelve surprised her almost as much as if it had not been appointed i am come at last lady
that i almost fancied i saw her as she appeared upon her death bed emily now drew her chair near to dorothee who went on it is about twenty years since my lady marchioness came a bride to the chateau
o i well remember how she looked when she came into the great hall where we servants were all assembled to welcome her and how happy my lord the marquis seemed ah who would have thought then but
my lady marchioness was then about your age and as i have often thought very like you
i was younger ma'amselle then than i am now and was as gay at the best of them
it was very becoming truly my lord the marquis noticed me
you was telling me of her o yes my lady marchioness i thought she did not seem happy at heart and once soon after the marriage i caught her crying in her chamber but when she saw me she dried her eyes and pretended to smile
i did not dare then to ask what was the matter
and she seemed displeased so i said no more i found out some time after how it was her father it seems had commanded her to marry my lord the marquis for his money and there was another nobleman or else a chevalier that she liked better
and that was very fond of her and she fretted for the loss of him i fancy but she never told me so my lady always tried to conceal her tears from the marquis for i have often seen her after she has been so sorrowful look so calm and sweet when he came into the room
but my lord all of a sudden grew gloomy and fretful and very unkind sometimes to my lady this afflicted her very much as i saw for she never complained and she used to try so sweetly to oblige him and to bring him into a good humour
that my heart has often ached to see it but he used to be stubborn and give her harsh answers
poor dear lady but i seldom ventured to go to her i used sometimes to think my lord was jealous to be sure my lady was greatly admired but she was too good to deserve suspicion
there was one that i always thought seemed just suited for my lady
and there was such a grace as it were in all he did or said
and my lady more thoughtful and it came into my head that this was the chevalier she ought to have married but i never could learn for certain what was the chevalier's name dorothee said emily
why that i will not tell even to you ma'amselle for evil may come of it i once heard from a person who is since dead that the marchioness was not in law the wife of the marquis for that she had before been privately married to the gentleman
she was so much attached to and was afterwards afraid to own it to her father who was a very stern man but this seems very unlikely and i never gave much faith to it
as i was saying the marquis was most out of humour as i thought when the chevalier i spoke of had been at the chateau and at last his ill treatment of my lady made her quite miserable he would see hardly any visitors at the castle and made her live almost by herself
i was her constant attendant and saw all she suffered but still she never complained after matters had gone on thus for near a year my lady was taken ill and i thought her long fretting had made her so but alas i fear it was worse than that
worse dorothee said emily can that be possible i fear it was so madam there were strange appearances but i will only tell what happened my lord the marquis hush dorothee what sounds were those said emily
dorothee changed countenance and while they both listened they heard on the stillness of the night music of uncommon sweetness
or that she was struck with superstitious awe
i think i once told you madam said dorothee that i first heard this music soon after my lady's death
i was saying ma'amselle that i well remember when first i heard that music it was one night soon after my lady's death that i had sat up later than usual and i don't know how it was
but i had been thinking a great deal about my poor mistress and of the sad scene i had lately witnessed the chateau was quite still and i was in the chamber at a good distance from the rest of the servants
and this with the mournful things i had been thinking of i suppose made me low spirited for i felt very lonely and forlorn as it were and listened often
one does not so much mind about one's fears but all the servants were gone to bed and i sat thinking and thinking till i was almost afraid to look round the room and my poor lady's countenance often came to my mind
such as i had seen her when she was dying and once or twice i almost thought i saw her before me when suddenly i heard such sweet music it seemed just at my window and i shall never forget what i felt
it had made me cry to hear her many a time when she has sat in her oriel of an evening playing upon her lute such sad songs and singing so o it went to one's heart
i have listened in the anti chamber for the hour together and she would sometimes sit playing with the window open when it was summer time till it was quite dark and when i have gone in to shut it she has hardly seemed to know what hour it was
but as i said madam continued dorothee when first i heard the music that came just now i thought it was my late lady's and i have often thought so again when i have heard it as i have done at intervals ever since
sometimes many months have gone by but still it has returned it is extraordinary observed emily that no person has yet discovered the musician
aye ma'amselle if it had been any thing earthly it would have been discovered long ago but who could have courage to follow a spirit and if they had what good could it do for spirits you know ma'am can take any shape or no shape and they will be here one minute
pray resume your story of the marchioness said emily and acquaint me with the manner of her death i will ma'am said dorothee but shall we leave the window this cool air refreshes me replied emily and i love to hear it creep along the woods
and to look upon this dusky landscape you was speaking of my lord the marquis when the music interrupted us yes madam my lord the marquis became more and more gloomy and my lady grew worse and worse till one night she was taken very ill indeed
she looked piteously up at me and desired i would call the marquis again for he was not yet come and tell him she had something particular to say to him at last he came and he did to be sure seem very sorry to see her
but he said very little my lady told him she felt herself to be dying and wished to speak with him alone and then i left the room but i shall never forget his look as i went when i returned i ventured to remind my lord about sending for a doctor
for i supposed he had forgot to do so in his grief but my lady said it was then too late but my lord so far from thinking so seemed to think light of her disorder
till she was seized with such terrible pains o i never shall forget her shriek my lord then sent off a man and horse for the doctor and walked about the room and all over the chateau in the greatest distress
and i staid by my dear lady and did what i could to ease her sufferings she had intervals of ease and in one of these she sent for my lord again when he came i was going
i can hardly bear to think of it now
and to be sure he did seem to be overwhelmed with the thought of his treatment of her and this affected her so much that she fainted away we then got my lord out of the room
he went into his library and threw himself on the floor and there he staid and would hear no reason that was talked to him when my lady recovered she enquired for him but afterwards said she could not bear to see his grief and desired we would let her die quietly
she died in my arms ma'amselle and she went off as peacefully as a child for all the violence of her disorder was passed
for she was much affected by the goodness of the late marchioness and by the meek patience with which she had suffered when the doctor came resumed dorothee alas he came too late
when he had sent the attendants out of the room he asked me several odd questions about the marchioness particularly concerning the manner in which she had been seized and he often shook his head at my answers and seemed to mean more than he chose to say
but i understood him too well however i kept my remarks to myself and only told them to my husband who bade me hold my tongue some of the other servants however suspected what i did and strange reports were whispered about the neighbourhood
but nobody dared to make any stir about them when my lord heard that my lady was dead he shut himself up and would see nobody but the doctor who used to be with him alone sometimes for an hour together
all my lord's vassals followed the funeral and there was not a dry eye among them for she had done a deal of good among the poor my lord the marquis i never saw any body so melancholy as he was afterwards
and sometimes he would be in such fits of violence that we almost thought he had lost his senses he did not stay long at the chateau but joined his regiment and soon after all the servants except my husband and i
received notice to go for my lord went to the wars i never saw him after for he would not return to the chateau though it is such a fine place and never finished those fine rooms he was building on the west side of it
and it has in a manner been shut up ever since till my lord the count came here the death of the marchioness appears extraordinary said emily who was anxious to know more than she dared to ask yes madam replied dorothee it was extraordinary
i have told you all i saw and you may easily guess what i think i cannot say more because i would not spread reports that might offend my lord the count you are very right said emily
and now lady i have told you all this sad history and all my thoughts and you have promised you know never to give the least hint about
what you have told has interested me more than you can imagine
dorothee however steadily refused to do this and then returned to the notice of emily's likeness to the late marchioness there is another picture of her added she hanging in a room of the suite which was shut up
but emily reminded her that the count had talked the other day of ordering them to be opened of which dorothee seemed to consider much and then she owned
than otherwise and at length promised to shew the picture the night was too far advanced and emily was too much affected by the narrative of the scenes which had passed in those apartments to wish to visit them at this hour
but she requested that dorothee would return on the following night when they were not likely to be observed and conduct her thither besides her wish to examine the portrait she felt a thrilling curiosity to see the chamber in which the marchioness had died
and which dorothee had said remained with the bed and furniture just as when the corpse was removed for interment the solemn emotions which the expectation of viewing such a scene had awakened were in unison with the present tone of her mind
depressed by severe disappointment cheerful objects rather added to than removed this depression but perhaps she yielded too much to her melancholy inclination and imprudently lamented the misfortune
which no virtue of her own could have taught her to avoid though no effort of reason could make her look unmoved upon the self degradation of him whom she had once esteemed and loved dorothee promised to return on the following night
but the stillness of the night remained long unbroken except by the murmuring sounds of the woods as they waved in the breeze and then by the distant bell of the convent striking one she now withdrew from the window and as she sat at her bed side
indulging melancholy reveries which the loneliness of the hour assisted the stillness was suddenly interrupted not by music but by very uncommon sounds that seemed to come either from the room adjoining her own or from one below
the terrible catastrophe that had been related to her together with the mysterious circumstances said to have since occurred in the chateau had so much shocked her spirits that she now sunk for a moment under the weakness of superstition
general remarks although in the teeth of every precaution fires constantly break out yet when a traveller wants a light and does not happen to have any of his ingenious fire making contrivances at hand
it is very difficult for him to obtain it and further though sparks of their own accord and in the most unlikely places too often give rise to conflagrations yet it requires much skill and practice to succeed without fail
in coaxing a small spark into a serviceable camp fire therefore
the means of procuring a light under ordinary circumstances of wind and weather that is to say he should have in his pocket a light handy steel
and amadou or other tinder i also strongly recommend that he should carry a bundle of half a dozen fine splinters of wood like miniature tooth picks thinner and shorter than lucifer matches
also a small spare lump of sulphur of the size of a pea or bean in reserve the cook should have a regular tinder box
and an abundance of wax lucifers paper fusees are not worth taking in travel as wet entirely spoils them
each of which may be varied in many ways and requires separate description one the spark or other light to start with two the tinder that is some easily ignited and smouldering substance three fuel
judiciously applied to the burning tinder
so as to develop it into a serviceable fire to obtain fire from the sun burning glasses
the object lenses of an opera glass are very efficient the larger the glass and the shorter its focus the greater is its heating power convex spectacle glasses and eye glasses are too small and of too long a focus to be used with effect
except when the sun is very hot
doctor kane and other arctic travellers have made burning glasses of ice reflectors the inside of the polished metal cover of a hunting watch will sometimes converge a sufficiency of rays to burn
the vestal fire of rome and the sacred fire of the mexicans were obtained by means of reflectors if i understand aright they consisted of a stone with a conical hollow carefully polished
see tylor's early history of mankind black tinder tinder that is black by previous charring or from any other cause ignites in the sun far sooner than light coloured tinder
fire by conversion of motion into heat general remarks when a moving body is arrested heat is given out the quantity of heat being in exact proportion to the mass multiplied into the square of its velocity
thus if a cannon ball be fired at an iron target both it and the ball become exceedingly hot there is even a flash of light when the velocity of the ball is very high when bullets are fired with heavy charges at a target
and it splashes to use a common phrase it is obvious from these two examples that no velocity which the hand of man is able to give to a steel when striking a flint or to one stick rubbing against another stick
will be competent to afford a red hot temperature
or unless great care be taken to avoid the wasteful dissipation of heat the spark made by a flint and steel consists of a thin shaving of steel scraped off by the flint and heated by the arrested motion
when well struck the spark is white hot and at that temperature it burns with bright scintillations in the air just as iron that is merely red hot burns in pure oxygen this is the theory now for the practice
flints if we may rely on a well known passage in virgil concerning a eneas and his comrades fire was sometimes made in ancient days by striking together two flints
or at least hardened iron a flint and ordinary iron will not give an available spark
agate is preferred to flint for it gives a hotter spark it is sold by tobacconists
such as granite will answer in default of one that is wholly siliceous i have been surprised at finding that crockery and porcelain of all kinds will make a spark and sometimes a very good one
there are cases where a broken teacup might be the salvation of many lives in a shipwrecked party on coral reefs and other coasts destitute of flinty stones search should be made for drift wood and drifted sea weed
in the roots of these the pebbles of other shores are not unfrequently entangled and flint may be found among them the joints of bamboos occasionally contain enough silex to give a spark steels
the possession of a really good steel is a matter of great comfort in rough travel for as i have just said common iron is incompetent to afford a useful spark and hardened iron or soft steel is barely sufficient to do so
any blacksmith will make a good steel out of an old file if he has nothing more appropriate at hand
even by an ordinary traveller out of common iron by means of
or the heel of a boot or a broken horse shoe is of a convenient shape for the purpose pyrites are and have been widely used for striking sparks two pieces struck together
or one piece struck with a steel gives a good spark but it is a very friable mineral and therefore not nearly so convenient as flint guns
if you wish to get a light by means of a flint and steel gun the touch hole may be stuffed up and a piece of tinder put among the priming powder a light can be obtained in that way without firing the gun with a percussion cap gun
a light may be obtained by putting powder and tinder outside the nipple and round the cap it will though not with certainty catch fire on exploding the cap
and above it quite loosely a quantity of rag or tinder on firing the gun straight up in the air the rag will be shot out lighted
with percussion caps gunpowder and tinder and without a gun a light may sometimes be had on an emergency by scratching and boring with a knife awl or nail at the fulminating composition in the cap till it explodes
but a cap is a somewhat dangerous thing to meddle with as it often flies with violence and wounds crushing gunpowder with hard stones may possibly make it explode lucifers
an inexperienced hand will waste an entire boxful of them and yet will fail in lighting a fire in the open air on a windy day the convenience of lucifers in obtaining a light is very great
they require that the air should be perfectly still while the burning sulphur is struggling to ignite the stick and again when the match is thrust among the wood the sticks upon which is has to act have not been previously warmed and consequently
though one or two of them may become lighted the further progress of the fire is liable to cease
in methods where the traveller begins with tinder and blows its spark into a flame the adjacent wood becomes thoroughly heated by the process and the flame once started is almost certain to maintain itself consequently in lighting a fire with lucifers
be careful to shield the match from the wind by throwing a cloak or saddle cloth or something else over the head whilst you operate and secondly to have abundance of twigs of the smaller sizes that there may be no uncertainty of the lucifer match being able to light them
and set the fire a going in a steady downfall of rain you may light a match for a pipe under your horse's belly
it is a good plan to twist it into a hollow cone to turn the cone with its apex to the wind and immediately after rubbing the match to hold it inside the cone the paper will become quickly heated by the struggling flame and will burst into a miniature conflagration
too strong to be puffed out by a single blast of air wax lucifers are undoubtedly better than wooden ones for in damp weather wooden ones will hardly burn but wax is waterproof and independent of wet or dry
when there is nothing dry at hand to rub the lucifer match against scratch the composition on its head with the edge of a knife or with the finger nail
and with care there is no need of burning the fingers fire sticks in every country without exception where inquiry has been made the method of obtaining fire by rubbing one stick against another has been employed
in savage countries the method still remains in present use in nearly all the more civilised ones
is in the quotation below from pliny
by reflecting the sun from a hollow surface but this method required costly apparatus and could never have been in common use hence although so far as i am aware the bible and homer and other records of great antiquity
are absolutely silent on the contemporary methods of procuring fire
i think we are justified in believing that the plan of rubbing sticks together was absolutely universal in the barbaric infancy of the human race
there is heat in the mulberry in the bay laurel in ivy and in all plants whence fire sticks are made the experience of soldiers reconnoitring for encamping grounds and that of shepherds
for a stone is not always at hand whence a spark might be struck one piece of wood therefore is rubbed by another and it catches fire through the friction while a dry tindery substance fungus and leaves are the most easilyattainable
is used to perpetuate the fire nothing is better than ivy used as the stick to be rubbed and bay laurel as the stick to rub with wild vine not the labrusca' is also found good
i have made a great many experiments with different kinds of wood
i find what i have heard from savages to be quite true viz that it is much more difficult to procure good wood for the fire block than for the drill stick
but the fire block must be of wood with little grain of a middle degree of softness readily inflammable and i presume a good
but i do not know if there be much difference in this latter respect between woods of the same quality if it be too hard the action of the drill stick will merely dent and polish it
ivy is excellent i find it not at all difficult to produce smoke it is much more difficult to produce fire with a broken fishing rod or ramrod as a drill stick and a common wooden pill box or tooth powder box as a fire block walnut also
and the stock of a gun is of walnut deal and mahogany are both worthless for fire sticks it is well so to notch the fire block that the wood dust as it is formed by the rubbing should all run into one place it will then glow with a smouldering heat
ready to burst out into an available flame with a very little fanning
tinder is a great convenience in ensuring that the fire once obtained shall not be lost again but it is not essential to have it there are many ways of rubbing the sticks together in use among different nations those curious in the matter should consult tylor's
early history of mankind but the traveller will not obtain much assistance from these descriptions
which in australia is found on the bark of almost every tree from the constant passage of grass fires over the ground
another is roundly pointed at one end the black fellow being seated on the ground
twirls it rapidly and forcibly between the palms of his hands in doing this his hands gradually slip down the stick
which loses time but two people seated opposite can alternately take up the rubbing and more easily produce fire
in a very few minutes red hot powdery ashes commence to work up out of the notch which falling on a small heap of tow
or lint or cotton stuff is quickly blown into a flame the africans carry the drill stick which in shape and size is like an arrow in a quiver with their arrows and the fire block
a stick three inches long and one in diameter of a different wood as a pendant to their necklace a plan more practicable to an unpractised hand is that in use among some of the north american indians
one person works the drill stick with a rude bow
both to steady it and to give the requisite pressure gentle at first and increasing judiciously up to the critical moment when the fire is on the point of bursting out another man puts his hands on the lower piece of wood the fire block to steady it
if a serious emergency should occur it is by no means hopeless to obtain fire after this method a large party have considerable advantages over only one or two men because as the work is fatiguing the men can undertake it in turns
that one man out of many should succeed than that only one man taken at hazard should do so but the best plan of all for a party of three or more men
another to hold the lower block and the tinder should there be any and the third man to cause the drill stick to rotate he will effect this best by dispensing with the bow
or four feet long he makes one or two turns with the string round the drill stick and then holding one end of the string in either hand he saws away with all his force i believe that a party of three men furnished with dry wood of an appropriate quality and plenty of string
would surely produce smoke on the first few trials but that they would fail in producing fire if however they had a couple of hours leisure to master the knack of working these sticks i think they would succeed in producing fire before the end of that time
the period of time necessary for a successful operation is from one to three minutes it is of little use fatiguing yourself with sustaining the exertion for a longer period at a time unless the wood becomes continuously hotter
as soon as the temperature remains uniform
it is then the best economy of effort to desist at once to rest to take breath
it is not in the province of this book to describe the various matches that take fire by dipping them into compositions and i have already spoken of lucifer matches in the last section only one source of fire remains to be noticed
it is spontaneous combustion it is conceivable that the property which masses of greasy rags and such like matter possess of igniting when left to themselves
might under some circumstances be the only means available to procure fire it is at all events well that this property should be borne in mind when warehousing stores in order to avoid the risk of their taking fire
heaped together will become very hot in one two or more days and will ultimately burst into flame the rapidity of the process is increased by warmth tinder
general remarks there are two divisions of tinder those that are of a sufficiently strong texture to admit of being grasped in the hand and those that are so friable
in the first division a are the following amadon a roll of rag
tinder of burnt rags tinder of any kind with grains of gunpowder strewed over it and touch wood all these require tinder boxes as explained below there are also many other substances belonging to both divisions of tinder
in use a traveller should inform himself about those peculiar to the country that he visits a amacou punk or german tinder is made from a kind of fungus or mushroom that grows on the trunks of old oaks ashes beeches et cetera
many other kinds of fungus and i believe all kinds of puff balls will also make tinder it should be gathered in august or september and is prepared by removing the outer bark with a knife
and separating carefully the spongy yellowish mass that lies within it this is cut into thin slices and beaten with a mallet to soften it
a roll of rag cotton rag will easily take fire from the spark from a flint in a very dry climate if well struck it must be rolled up moderately tight so as to have the end of the roll fluffy
the rag having been torn not cut a rag rolled in this way is not bad tinder if the sparks are strong
if its fluffy end be rubbed into a little dry gunpowder its property as tinder is greatly improved
unsized paper like that out of a blotting book is the best suited for making into touch paper
in all cases the presence of saltpetre makes tinder burn more hotly and more fiercely
as tobacco dill maize sunflower that these can be used just as they are in the place of it thus if the ashes of a cigar be well rubbed into a bit of paper they convert it into touch paper so will gunpowder
for out of four parts of it three are saltpetre
this solution may be made by pouring a little water on a charge of gunpowder or on the ashes above mentioned which will dissolve the saltpetre out of them boiling water makes a solution forty fold stronger than ice cold water
hair of plants the silky down of a particular willow s lanata was used by the esquimaux
that was simply the hair of a tree fern the gomuti tinder of the eastern archipelago is the hair of a palm pith many kinds of pith are remarkable as tinders
that whence the well known pith hats are made is used as tinder in india pieces of pith are often sewn round with thin cotton or silk
that fall into our second division namely those that are too friable to bear handling rags charred linen rags make the tinder that catches fire most easily that burns most hotly when blown upon
and smoulders most slowly when left to itself of any kind of tinder
in making it the rags are lighted
the flame is stifled out it is usual to make this kind of tinder in the box intended to hold it but it can easily be made on the ground in the open air by setting light to the rag
the sand is afterwards brushed away and the tinder gently extricated touch wood is an inferior sort of tinder but is always to be met with in woody countries
dry dung dry and powdered cattle dung especially horse dung will take a spark
the best way of keeping a tinder box dry is to put it into a small pocket hung close under the armpit fuel firewood there is a knack in finding firewood
it should be looked for under bushes the stump of a tree that is rotted nearly to the ground has often a magnificent root fit to blaze throughout the night dry cattle dung
the dry dung of cattle and other animals as found on the ground is very generally used throughout the world in default of better fuel
the canadians call it by the apt name of
in north and south africa it is frequently used throughout a large part of armenia and of thibet the natives rely entirely upon it there is a great convenience in this sort of fuel because as it is only in camps that fuel is wanted
so it is precisely at old encamping places that cattle dung is abundantly found bones another remarkable substitute for firewood is bones a fact which mister darwin was i believe the first to mention
the bones of an animal when freshly killed make good fuel and even those of cooked meat and such as have been exposed to the air for some days will greatly increase the heat of a scanty fire their smell is not disagreeable
in the falkland islands where firewood is scarce it is not unusual to cook part of the meat of a slaughtered bull with its own bones when the fire is once started with a few sticks it burns well and hotly
the flame of course depends on the fat within the bones and therefore the fatter the animal the better the fire during the russian campaign in eighteen twenty nine
it is largely used the vraic or sea weed gatherers of the channel islands are represented in many picturesque sketches the weed is carted home spread out and dried peat
travellers must bear in mind that peat will burn especially as the countries in which it is found are commonly destitute of firewood and besides that are marshy cold
they use a prepared charcoal in the east which is made in the form of very large buttons that are carried strung together on a string
or thereabouts rolling the mass into balls and drying them in the sun a single ball is called a gul they are used for igniting hookhas they are also burnt inside the smoothing iron used by washermen in order to heat it
the juice or sap of many plants would probably answer the purpose of molasses in their preparation small fuel for lighting the fire shreds and fibres
the live spark has to be received and partly enclosed in a loose heap or nest of finely shredded fuel the substances for making such a nest are one or other of the following list
dry grass of the finest kinds leaves moss lichen and wild cotton stalks or bark broken up and rubbed small between the fingers peat or cattle dung pulverised
or what is the same thing oakum made by unravelling rope or string and scrapings and fine shavings from a log of wood
the outside of the nest may be of coarser but still of somewhat delicate material cook should collect them
to get down from his horse and to pick up as he walks along a sufficiency of dry grass little bits of wood and the like to start a fire which he should begin to make as soon as ever the caravan stops the fire ought to be burning
and the kettle standing by its side by the time that the animals are caught and are ready to be off packed small sticks there should be abundance of small sticks
the traveller should split up his larger firewood with his knife in order to make them it is a wise economy of time and patience to prepare plenty of these otherwise it will occasionally happen that the whole stock will be consumed and no fire made
then the traveller must recommence the work from the very beginning under the disadvantage of increasing darkness
to ensure success the traveller should be provided with small bundles of sticks of each of the following sizes first size of lucifer match second of lead pencil third smaller than little finger
fourth size of fore finger fifth stout stakes in wet weather the most likely places to find wherewithal to light a fire are under large stones and other shelter
but in soaking wet weather little chips of dry wood can hardly be procured except by cutting them with an axe out of the middle of a log the fire may then be begun
in the frying pan itself for want of a dry piece of ground to kindle a spark into a flame by whirling first arrange the fuel into logs into small fuel assorted as described above
and into shreds and fibres second make a loose nest of the fibre just like a sparrow's nest in shape and size and let the finer part of the fibres be inwards third drop the lighted tinder in the next fourth
drop it and pile small twigs round it and nurse the young fire carefully bearing in mind the proverb that small sticks kindle a flame but large ones put it out
by blowing savages usually kindle the flame by blowing at the live spark and feeding it with little bits of stick just so much as is necessary
and i decidedly recommend the plan i have described in the foregoing paragraph in preference to it when the wind blowssteadily and freshly it suffices to hold up the nest against the wind
if the traveller will only take the trouble of carrying a small lump of sulphur in his baggage that they always ought to be at hand the sulphur is melted on a heated stone or in an old spoon bit of crockery bit of tin with a dent made in it or even a piece of paper
and the points of the pieces of wood dipped in the molten mass a small chip of sulphur pushed into the cleft end of a splinter of wood
with the burning ends to the windward then they continue burning together in the pine forests of the north at winter time it is usual to fell a large tree and cutting a piece six or eight feet long off the large end
to lay the thick short piece upon the long one which is left lying on the ground having previously cut flat with the axe the sides that come in contact and notched them so as to make the upper log lie steady the chips are then heaped in between the logs
and are set fire to the flame runs in between them and the heat of each log helps the other to burn it is the work of nearly an hour to prepare such a fire
in all cases one or two great logs are far better than many small ones as these burn fast away and require constant looking after many serious accidents occur from a large log burning away
and toppling over with a crash sending a volley of blazing cinders among the sleeping party savages are always getting burnt
sometimes they find a single scathed tree without branches
the tree tumbles down upon them indeed savages are seldom free from scars or severe burns
collect sticks each man his own faggot and when they stop each takes eight or nine stones as large as bricks or larger and sets them in a circle and within these he lights up his little fire
now the party make their fireplaces close together in two or more parallel lines and sleep in between them the stones prevent the embers from flying about and doing mischief and also after the fires have quite burnt out
they continue to radiate heat charcoal if charcoal be carried
together with a set of tin cooking utensils fireplaces in boats in boating excursions daub a lump of clay on the bottom of the boat beneath the fireplace
it will secure the timbers from fire our primitive kitchen was a square wooden box lined with clay and filled with sand upon which three or four large stones were placed to form a hearth
fireplaces on snow on very deep snow a hearth has to be made of a number of green logs
fires in the early morning should your stock of fuel consist of large logs and but little brushwood keep all you can spare of the latter to make a blaze when you get up to catch and pack the cattle in the dark and early morning
as you travel on if it be bitter cold carry a firebrand in your hand near your mouth as a respirator it is very comforting then when the fire of it burns dull
thrust the brand for a few moments in any tuft of dry grass you may happen to pass by
love her friends more than ever and do any thing great good or glorious she had known such moods before but they had never lasted long and were not so intense as this
thought high and happy thoughts among the pots and kettles and when she sat sewing smiled unconsciously as if some deep satisfaction made sunshine from within
and rejoice as naturally and beautifully as flowers in the spring a soft brightness shone in her eyes a fuller tone sounded in her voice and her face grew young and blooming
with the happiness that transfigures all it touches christie s growing handsome david would say to his mother as if she was a flower in which he took pride
thee is a good gardener davy the old lady would reply and when he was busy would watch him with a tender sort of anxiety as if to discover a like change in him
but no alteration appeared except more cheerfulness and less silence for now there was no need to hide his real self and all the social virtues in him came out delightfully
in her present uplifted state christie could no more help regarding david as a martyr and admiring him for it than she could help mixing sentiment with her sympathy by the light of the late confessions
his life and character looked very different to her now his apparent contentment was resignation his cheerfulness a manly contempt for complaint his reserve the modest reticence
desires no praise for it like all enthusiastic persons christie had a hearty admiration for self sacrifice and self control and while she learned to see david's virtues
she also exaggerated them and could not do enough to show the daily increasing esteem and respect she felt for him and to atone for the injustice she once did him she grubbed in the garden and green house
and learned hard botanical names that she might be able to talk intelligently upon subjects that interested her comrade then as autumn ended out of door work she tried to make home more comfortable and attractive than ever
david's room was her especial care for now to her there was something pathetic in the place and its poor furnishing he had fought many a silent battle there won many a secret victory
and tried to cheer his solitude with the best thoughts the minds of the bravest wisest men could give him she did not smile at the dilapidated idols now but touched them tenderly
and let no dust obscure their well beloved faces she set the books in order daily taking many a sip of refreshment from them by the way and respectfully regarded those in unknown tongues
full of admiration for david's learning she covered the irruptive sofa neatly saw that the little vase was always clear and freshly filled cared for the nursery in the gable window
and preserved an exquisite neatness everywhere which delighted the soul of the room's order loving occupant she also alas for romance cooked the dishes david loved
and liked to see him enjoy them with the appetite which once had shocked her so she watched over his buttons with a vigilance that would have softened the heart of the crustiest bachelor she even gave herself the complexion of a lemon by wearing blue
because david liked the pretty contrast with his mother's drabs after recording that last fact it is unnecessary to explain what was the matter with christie
she honestly thought she had got religion but it was piety's twin sister who produced this wonderful revival in her soul and though she began in all good faith
not the first maiden who came but for friendship and took away love after the birthnight confessions david found it easier to go on with the humdrum life he had chosen from a sense of duty
for now he felt as if he had not only a fellow worker but a comrade and friend who understood sympathized with and encouraged him by an interest and good will inexpressibly comfortable
and inspiring nothing disturbed the charm of the new league in those early days for christie was thoroughly simple and sincere and did her womanly work with no thought of reward or love or admiration
david saw this and felt it more attractive than any gift of beauty or fascination of manner would have been he had no desire to be a lover having forbidden himself that hope
but he found it so easy and pleasant to be a friend that he reproached himself for not trying it before and explained his neglect by the fact that christie was not an ordinary woman
since none of all the many he had known and helped had ever been any thing to him but objects of pity and protection missus sterling saw these changes with her wise motherly eyes but said nothing
for she influenced others by the silent power of character speaking little and unusually gifted with the meditative habits of age she seemed to live in a more peaceful world than this
as george mac donald somewhere says her soul seemed to sit apart in a sunny little room safe from dust and noise serenely regarding passers by through the clear muslin curtains of her window
yet she was neither cold nor careless stern nor selfish but ready to share all the joys and sorrows of those about her and when advice was asked she gave it gladly
christie had won her heart long ago and now was as devoted as a daughter to her lightening her cares so skilfully that many of them slipped naturally on to the young shoulders and left the old lady much time for rest
or the lighter tasks fitted for feeble hands christie often called her mother and felt herself rewarded for the hardest humblest job she ever did when the sweet old voice said gratefully
i thank thee daughter things were in this prosperous not to say paradisiacal state when one member of the family began to make discoveries of an alarming nature
the first was that the sunday pilgrimages to church were seasons of great refreshment to soul and body when david went also and utter failures if he did not next
that the restless ambitions of all sorts were quite gone for now christie's mission seemed to be sitting in a quiet corner and making shirts in the most exquisite manner while thinking about well say botany
or any kindred subject thirdly that home was woman's sphere after all and the perfect roasting of beef brewing of tea and concocting of delectable puddings an end worth living for
if masculine commendation rewarded the labor fourthly and worst of all she discovered that she was not satisfied with half confidences and quite pined to know all about david's trouble
the little needle book with the faded letty on it haunted her
she heard him pace his room for hours or play melancholy airs upon the flute she was jealous of that unknown woman who had such power to disturb his peace and felt a strong desire to smash the musical confidante
into whose responsive breast he poured his woe at this point christie paused and after evading any explanation of these phenomena in the most skilful manner for a time
suddenly faced the fact saying to herself with great candor and decision i know what all this means i'm beginning to like david more than is good for me
i see this clearly and won't dodge any longer but put a stop to it at once of course i can if i choose and now is the time to do it for i understand myself perfectly
that point i will not reach david's heart is in that letty's grave and he only cares for me as a friend i promised to be one to him and i'll keep my word like an honest woman
it may not be easy but all the sacrifices shall not be his and i won't be a fool with praiseworthy resolution christie set about the reformation without delay
not an easy task
for all her sundays were bad weather and mister power seemed to hit on unusually uninteresting texts she talked while she sewed instead of indulging in dangerous thoughts
and missus sterling was surprised and entertained by this new loquacity in the evening she read and studied with a diligence that amazed and rather disgusted david since she kept all her lively chat for his mother
as she called the new revelation was stopped externally it continued with redoubled vigor internally each night she said this must be conquered yet each morning
because she had already reached the point where it was all over with her just at this critical moment an event occurred which completed christie's defeat and made her feel that her only safety lay in flight
one evening she sat studying ferns and heroically saying over and over andiantum aspidium and asplenium
polypodium aureum a native of florida is all very interesting in its place but it doesn't help me to gain self control a bit
and i shall disgrace myself if something doesn't happen very soon something did happen almost instantly for as she shut the cover sharply on the poor polypods a knock was heard
i ve run away again why kitty what's the matter now asked david putting back her hood and looking down at her
with the paternal expression christie had not seen for a long time and missed very much father found me and took me home and wanted me to marry a dreadful man and i wouldn't so i ran away to you he didn't know i came here before
cried kitty still clinging and imploring of course i will and glad to see you back again answered david adding pitifully as he put her in his easy chair
took her cloak and hood off and stood stroking her curly hair poor little girl it is hard to have to run away so much isn't it not if i come here it's so pleasant i'd like to stay all my life
and kitty took a long breath as if her troubles were over now who's that she asked suddenly as her eye fell on christie who sat watching her with interest that is our good friend miss devon she came to take your place
and we got so fond of her we could not let her go answered david with a gesture of introduction quite unconscious that his position just then was about as safe and pleasant as that of a man between a lighted candle and an open powder barrel
the two young women nodded to each other took a swift survey and made up their minds before david had poked the fire christie saw a pretty face with rosy cheeks blue eyes
and brown rings of hair lying on the smooth low forehead a young face but not childlike for it was conscious of its own prettiness and betrayed the fact by little airs and graces that reminded one of a coquettish kitten
short and slender she looked more youthful than she was while a gay dress with gilt ear rings locket at the throat and a cherry ribbon in her hair
as she eyed the new comer who leaned back in the great chair talking to david who stood on the rug evidently finding it pleasanter to look at the vivacious face before him than at the fire
just the pretty lively sort of girl sensible men often marry and then discover how silly they are thought christie taking up her work and assuming an indifferent air she's a lady and nice looking
but i know i shan't like her was kitty's decision as she turned away and devoted herself to david hoping he would perceive how much she had improved and admire her accordingly
you'd better think again before you make up your mind he is respectable well off and fond of you it seems why not try it kitty you need some one to take care of you sadly
david said when her story had been told if father plagues me much i may take the man but i'd rather have the other one if he wasn't poor answered kitty with a side long glance of the blue eyes
and a conscious smile on the red lips oh there's another lover is there lots of em david laughed and looked at christie as if inviting her to be amused with the freaks and prattle of a child
but christie sewed away without a sign of interest that won't do kitty you are too young for much of such nonsense
and see if we can't settle matters both wisely and pleasantly he said shaking his head as sagely as a grandfather
i love to stay here
and you won't make me will you kitty rose as she spoke and stood before him with a beseeching little gesture and a confiding air quite captivating to behold
christie was suddenly seized with a strong desire to shake the girl and call her an artful little hussy but crushed this unaccountable impulse and hemmed a pocket handkerchief with reckless rapidity
while she stole covert glances at the tableau by the fire david put his finger under kitty's round chin and lifting her face looked into it trying to discover if she really cared for this suitor
who seemed so providentially provided for her kitty smiled and blushed and dimpled under that grave look so prettily that it soon changed and david let her go saying indulgently you shall not be troubled
for you are only a child after all let the lovers go and stay and play with me for i've been rather lonely lately that's a reproach for me thought christie longing to cry out
send the girl away and let me be all in all to you but she only turned up the lamp and pretended to be looking for a spool while her heart ached and her eyes were too dim for seeing i'm too old to play but i'll stay and tease you as i used to
if miles don't come and carry me off as he said he would answered kitty with a toss of the head which showed she was not so childlike as david fancied but the next minute she was sitting on a stool at his feet petting the cat
as she shut the door christie heard kitty say softly now we'll be comfortable as we used to be won't we what david answered christie did not stay to hear but went into the kitchen and had her first pang of jealousy out alone
while she beat up the buckwheats for breakfast with an energy that made them miracles of lightness on the morrow when she told missus sterling of the new arrival the placid little lady gave a cluck of regret and said with unusual emphasis
i'm sorry for it why asked christie feeling as if she could embrace the speaker for the words she is a giddy little thing and much care to whoever befriends her missus sterling would say no more
but as christie bade her good night she held her hand saying with a kiss no one will take thy place with me my daughter
despising herself all the time and trying to be friendly with the disturber of her peace as if prompted by an evil spirit kitty unconsciously tried and tormented her from morning to night
and no one saw or guessed it unless missus sterling's motherly heart divined the truth david seemed to enjoy the girl's lively chat her openly expressed affection
and the fresh young face that always brightened when he came presently however christie saw a change in him and suspected that he had discovered that kitty was a child no longer
but a young girl with her head full of love and lovers the blue eyes grew shy the pretty face grew eloquent with blushes now and then as he looked at it and the lively tongue faltered sometimes in speaking to him
a thousand little coquetries were played off for his benefit and frequent appeals for advice in her heart affairs kept tender subjects uppermost in their conversations
by many indescribable but significant signs he showed that he considered kitty a woman now and treated her as such being all the more scrupulous in the respect he paid her because she was so unprotected
and so wanting in the natural dignity and refinement which are a woman's best protection christie admired him for this but saw in it the beginning of a tenderer feeling than pity and felt each day that she was one too many now
kitty was puzzled and piqued by these changes and being a born flirt tried all her powers on david veiled under guileless girlishness
but it was evident to all that her early acquaintance with the hard and sordid side of life had brushed the bloom from her nature and filled her mind with thoughts and feelings unfitted to her years missus sterling was very kind to her
but never treated her as she did christie and though not a word was spoken between them the elder women knew that they quite agreed in their opinion of kitty she evidently was rather afraid of the old lady
and when alone with her put on airs that half amused half irritated the other david is my friend and i don't care for any one else her manner said as plainly as words
and to him she devoted herself so entirely and apparently so successfully that christie made up her mind he had at last begun to forget his letty and think of filling the void her loss had left
a few words which she accidentally overheard confirmed this idea and showed her what she must do as she came quietly in one evening from a stroll in the lane and stood taking off cloak and hood
she caught a glimpse through the half open parlor door of david pacing to and fro with a curiously excited expression on his face and heard missus sterling say with unusual warmth
thee is too hard upon thyself davy forget the past and be happy as other men are thee has atoned for thy fault long ago so let me see thee at peace before i die my son
here kitty came running in from the green house with her hands full of flowers and passing christie who was fumbling among the cloaks in the passage she went to show david some new blossom
he had no time to alter the expression of his face for its usual grave serenity kitty saw the change at once and spoke of it with her accustomed want of tact how
she said gazing up at him with her own eyes bright with wonder and her cheeks glowing with the delicate carmine of the frosty air i am thinking that you look more like a rose than ever answered david
turning her attention from himself by a compliment and beginning to admire the flowers still with that flushed and kindled look on his own face christie crept upstairs and sitting in the dark
decided with the firmness of despair to go away lest she should betray the secret that possessed her a dead hope now but still too dear to be concealed
mister power told me to come to him when i got tired of this i'll say i am tired and try something else no matter what i can bear any thing
but to stand quietly by and see david marry that empty hearted girl who dares to show that she desires to win him out of sight of all this i can conquer my love at least hide it
armed with this resolution christie went the next day to mister power and simply said i am not needed at the sterlings any more can you give me other work to do mister power's keen eye searched her face for a moment
as if to discover the real motive for her wish but christie had nerved herself to bear that look and showed no sign of her real trouble
unless the set expression of her lips and the unnatural steadiness of her eyes betrayed it to that experienced reader of human hearts whatever he suspected or saw mister power kept to himself
and answered in his cordial way well i've been expecting you would tire of that quiet life and have plenty of work ready for you one of my good dorcases is tired out and must rest
so you shall take her place and visit my poor report their needs and supply them as fast as we can does that suit you entirely sir where shall i live asked christie
with an expression of relief that said much here for the present i want a secretary to put my papers in order write some of my letters and do a thousand things to help a busy man my old housekeeper likes you
and will let you take a duster now and then if you don't find enough other work to do when can you come christie answered with a long breath of satisfaction to morrow if you like i do
can you be spared so soon oh yes they don't want me now at all or i would not leave them kitty can take my place she needs protection more than i and there is not room for two
she checked herself there conscious that a tone of bitterness had crept into her voice then quite steadily she added
no she is used to parting with those whom she has helped and is always glad to set them on their way toward better things i will write to morrow and you can come whenever you will sure of a welcome my child
something in the tone of those last words and the pressure of the strong kind hand
and made it impossible for her to hide the truth entirely she only said thank you sir i shall be very glad to come but her eyes were full and she held his hand an instant
as if she clung to it sure of succor and support then she went home so pale and quiet so helpful patient and affectionate that missus sterling watched her anxiously
david looked amazed and even self absorbed kitty saw the change and was touched by it on the morrow mister power's note came and christie fled upstairs while it was read and discussed
if i get through this parting without disgracing myself i don't care what happens to me afterward she said and in order that she might do so she assumed a cheerful air
and determined to depart with all the honors of war if she died in the attempt so when missus sterling called her down she went humming into the parlor smiled as she read the note silently given her
and then said with an effort greater than any she had ever made in her most arduous part on the stage yes i did say to mister power that i thought i'd better be moving on i'm a restless creature as you know
and now that you don't need me i've a fancy to see more of the world if you want me back again in the spring i'll come i shall want thee my dear but will not say a word to keep thee now for thee does need a change
and mister power can give thee work better suited to thy taste than any here we shall see thee sometimes and spring will make thee long for the flowers i hope was missus sterling's answer
as christie gave back the note at the end of her difficult speech don't think me ungrateful i have been very happy here
you will believe this and love me still though i go away and leave you for a little while prayed christie with a face full of treacherous emotion missus sterling laid her hand on christie's head as she knelt down impulsively before her
and with a soft solemnity that made the words both an assurance and a blessing she said i believe and love and honor thee my child my heart warmed to thee from the first
it has taken thee to itself now and nothing can ever come between us unless thee wills it remember that and go in peace with an old friend's thanks
and good wishes in return for faithful service which no money can repay christie laid her cheek against that wrinkled one and for a moment was held close to that peaceful old heart
and strengthened her by the mute eloquence of sympathy this made the hardest task of all easier to perform
feeling that missus sterling would help her if need be but david took it very quietly
though he lamented it and hoped it would not be a very long absence this wounded christie terribly for all of a sudden a barrier seemed to rise between them and the old friendliness grew chilled
he thinks i am ungrateful and is offended she said to herself well i can bear coldness better than kindness now and it will make it easier to go kitty was pleased at the prospect of reigning alone
and did not disguise her satisfaction so christie's last day was any thing but pleasant mister power would send for her on the morrow and she busied herself in packing her own possessions setting every thing in order
and making various little arrangements for missus sterling's comfort as kitty was a heedless creature willing enough but very forgetful in the evening some neighbors came in so that dangerous time was safely passed
we won't have any sentimental demonstrations no wailing or tender adieux if i'm weak enough to break my heart no one need know it least of all that little fool
thought christie grimly as she burnt up several long cherished relics of her love she was up early and went about her usual work with the sad pleasure with which one performs a task for the last time
lazy little kitty never appeared till the bell rang
i want to see your patient mister renfield do let me see him what you have said of him in your diary interests me so much she looked so appealing and so pretty that i could not refuse her and there was no possible reason why i should so i took her with me
when i went into the room i told the man that a lady would like to see him to which he simply answered why she is going through the house
oh very well he said let her come in by all means but just wait a minute till i tidy up the place his method of tidying was peculiar he simply swallowed all the flies and spiders in the boxes before i could stop him it was quite evident that he feared
or was jealous of some interference
he said cheerfully let the lady come in and sat down on the edge of his bed with his head down
and i took care to stand where i could seize him at once if he attempted to make a spring at her she came into the room with an easy gracefulness which would at once command the respect of any lunatic for easiness is one of the qualities mad people most respect
she walked over to him smiling pleasantly and held out her hand good evening mister renfield said she you see i know you for doctor seward has told me of you he made no immediate reply but eyed her all over intently with a set frown on his face
this look gave way to one of wonder which merged in doubt then to my intense astonishment he said you're not the girl the doctor wanted to marry are you you can't be you know for she's dead
oh no i have a husband of my own
or he me i am missus harker
my husband and i are staying on a visit with doctor seward then don't stay but why not i thought that this style of conversation might not be pleasant to missus harker any more than it was to me so i joined in how did you know i wanted to marry any one
his reply was simply contemptuous given in a pause in which he turned his eyes from missus harker to me instantly turning them back again what an asinine question i don't see that at all mister renfield said missus harker at once championing me
you will of course understand missus harker that when a man is so loved and honoured as our host is everything regarding him is of interest in our little community
but even by his patients who being some of them hardly in mental equilibrium
since i myself have been an inmate of a lunatic asylum i cannot but notice that the sophistic tendencies of some of its inmates lean towards the errors of non causa and ignoratio elenchi i positively opened my eyes at this new development
here was my own pet lunatic the most pronounced of his type that i had ever met with talking elemental philosophy and with the manner of a polished gentleman i wonder if it was missus harker's presence which had touched some chord in his memory if this new phase was spontaneous
or in any way due to her unconscious influence she must have some rare gift or power we continued to talk for some time and seeing that he was seemingly quite reasonable she ventured
for he addressed himself to the question with the impartiality of the completest sanity he even took himself as an example when he mentioned certain things why i myself am an instance of a man who had a strange belief
indeed it was no wonder that my friends were alarmed and insisted on my being put under control i used to fancy that life was a positive and perpetual entity
no matter how low in the scale of creation one might indefinitely prolong life
the doctor here will bear me out that on one occasion i tried to kill him for the purpose of strengthening my vital powers by the assimilation with my own body of his life through the medium of his blood relying of course upon the scriptural phrase for the blood is the life though indeed the vendor of a certain nostrum
has vulgarised the truism to the very point of contempt isn't that true doctor i nodded assent for i was so amazed that i hardly knew what to either think or say it was hard to imagine that i had seen him eat up his spiders and flies not five minutes before
she came at once after saying pleasantly to mister renfield good bye
under auspices pleasanter to yourself to which to my astonishment he replied good bye my dear i pray god i may never see your sweet face again may he bless and keep you
i left the boys behind me poor art seemed more cheerful than he has been since lucy first took ill and quincey is more like his own bright self than he has been for many a long day
he saw me at once and rushed up to me saying ah friend john how goes all well so i have been busy for i come here to stay if need be all affairs are settled with me and i have much to tell madam mina is with you yes
and her so fine husband and arthur and my friend quincey they are with you too good as i drove to the house i told him of what had passed and of how my own diary had come to be of some use through missus harker's suggestion at which the professor interrupted me
ah that wonderful madam mina
a brain that a man should have were he much gifted and a woman's heart
when he made that so good combination friend john up to now fortune has made that woman of help to us after to night she must not have to do with this so terrible affair it is not good that she run a risk so great we men are determined nay
are we not pledged to destroy this monster
even if she be not harmed her heart may fail her in so much and so many horrors and hereafter she may suffer
and in sleep from her dreams and besides she is young woman and not so long married there may be other things to think of some time if not now you tell me she has wrote all then she must consult with us
and we go alone i agreed heartily with him
that the house which dracula had bought was the very next one to my own he was amazed and a great concern seemed to come on him oh that we had known it before he said for then we might have reached him in time to save poor lucy however
the milk that is spilt cries not out afterwards as you say we shall not think of that but go on our way to the end
he said to missus harker i am told madam mina by my friend john that you and your husband have put up in exact order all things that have been up to this moment not up to this moment professor she said impulsively but up to this morning but why not up to now
we have told our secrets and yet no one who has told is the worse for it missus harker began to blush
doctor van helsing will you read this and tell me if it must go in it is my record of to day i too have seen the need of putting down at present everything however trivial but there is little in this except what is personal must it go in
the professor read it over gravely and handed it back saying it need not go in if you do not wish it
it can but make your husband love you the more and all us your friends more honour you as well as more esteem and love she took it back with another blush and a bright smile and so now up to this very hour all the records we have are complete and in order
the professor took away one copy to study after dinner and before our meeting which is fixed for nine o'clock the rest of us have already read everything so when we meet in the study we shall all be informed as to facts and can arrange our plan of battle
with this terrible and mysterious enemy mina harker's journal thirty september
which had been at six o'clock we unconsciously formed a sort of board or committee professor van helsing took the head of the table to which doctor seward motioned him as he came into the room he made me sit next to him on his right and asked me to act as secretary jonathan sat next to me
opposite us were lord godalming doctor seward and mister morris lord godalming being next the professor and doctor seward in the centre the professor said i may i suppose take it that we are all acquainted with the facts that are in these papers
we all expressed assent and he went on then it were i think good that i tell you something of the kind of enemy with which we have to deal i shall then make known to you something of the history of this man which has been ascertained for me
and can take our measure according there are such beings as vampires some of us have evidence that they exist even had we not the proof of our own unhappy experience the teachings and the records of the past give proof enough for sane peoples i admit
that at the first i was sceptic were it not that through long years i have train myself to keep an open mind i could not have believe until such time as that fact thunder on my ear see see i prove i prove alas
nay had i even guess at him one so precious life had been spared to many of us who did love her but that is gone and we must so work that other poor souls perish not whilst we can save the nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once
he is only stronger and being stronger have yet more power to work evil
which is as his etymology imply
and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command he is brute and more than brute
he must surely win and then where end we life is nothings i heed him not but to fail here is not mere life or death it is that we become as him that we henceforward become foul things of the night like him
without heart or conscience preying on the bodies and the souls of those we love best to us for ever are the gates of heaven shut for who shall open them to us again we go on for all time abhorred by all a blot on the face of god's sunshine
an arrow in the side of him who died for man but we are face to face with duty
and life with his sunshine his fair places
his music and his love lie far behind you others are young some have seen sorrow
what say you whilst he was speaking jonathan had taken my hand i feared oh so much that the appalling nature of our danger was overcoming him
but it was life to me to feel its touch so strong so self reliant so resolute a brave man's hand can speak for itself it does not even need a woman's love to hear its music when the professor had done speaking
and i in his there was no need for speaking between us i answer for mina and myself he said count me in professor said mister quincey morris laconically as usual i am with you said lord godalming for lucy's sake if for no other reason
the professor stood up and after laying his golden crucifix on the table held out his hand on either side i took his right hand and lord godalming his left jonathan held my right with his left and stretched across to mister morris
so as we all took hands our solemn compact was made i felt my heart icy cold
we resumed our places and doctor van helsing went on with a sort of cheerfulness which showed that the serious work had begun it was to be taken as gravely and in as businesslike a way as any other transaction of life well
you know what we have to contend against but we too are not without strength
a power denied to the vampire kind we have sources of science we are free to act and think and the hours of the day and the night are ours equally in fact so far as our powers extend they are unfettered and we are free to use them we have self devotion in a cause
and an end to achieve which is not a selfish one these things are much now let us see how far the general powers arrayed against us are restrict and how the individual cannot in fine let us consider the limitations of the vampire in general
all we have to go upon are traditions and superstitions these do not at the first appear much when the matter is one of life and death
yet must we be satisfied in the first place because we have to be no other means is at our control and secondly because after all these things tradition and superstition
does not the belief in vampires rest for others though not alas for us on them a year ago which of us would have received such a possibility in the midst of our scientific sceptical
we even scouted a belief that we saw justified under our very eyes take it then that the vampire
for let me tell you he is known everywhere that men have been in old greece in old rome he flourish in germany all over in france in india even in the chernosese and in china
so far from us in all ways there even is he and the peoples fear him at this day he have follow the wake of the berserker icelander the devil begotten hun the slav the saxon the magyar so far then
we have all we may act upon and let me tell you that very much of the beliefs are justified by what we have seen in our own so unhappy experience the vampire live on and cannot die by mere passing of the time
he can flourish when that he can fatten on the blood of the living even more
that his vital faculties grow strenuous and seem as though they refresh themselves when his special pabulum is plenty but he cannot flourish without this diet he eat not as others even friend jonathan who lived with him for weeks
never he throws no shadow he make in the mirror no reflect as again jonathan observe he has the strength of many of his hand witness again jonathan when he shut the door against the wolfs and when he help him from the diligence too
he can transform himself to wolf as we gather from the ship arrival in whitby when he tear open the dog
as madam mina saw him on the window at whitby and as friend john saw him fly from this so near house and as my friend quincey saw him
he can come in mist which he create that noble ship's captain proved him of this but from what we know the distance he can make this mist is limited and it can only be round himself he come on moonlight rays as elemental dust
as again jonathan saw those sisters in the castle of dracula he become so small we ourselves saw miss lucy ere she was at peace slip through a hairbreadth space at the tomb door he can when once he find his way
come out from anything or into anything no matter how close it be bound or even fused up with fire solder you call it he can see in the dark no small power this in a world which is one half shut from the light ah
he can do all these things yet he is not free nay he is even more prisoner than the slave of the galley than the madman in his cell he cannot go where he lists he who is not of nature
why we know not he may not enter anywhere at the first unless there be some one of the household who bid him to come though afterwards he can come as he please his power ceases as does that of all evil things at the coming of the day
only at certain times can he have limited freedom if he be not at the place whither he is bound he can only change himself at noon
we have proof by inference thus whereas he can do as he will within his limit when he have his earth home his coffin home his hell home the place unhallowed as we saw when he went to the grave of the suicide at whitby still
at other time he can only change when the time come it is said too that he can only pass running water at the slack or the flood of the tide then there are things which so afflict him that he has no power as the garlic that we know of and as for things sacred as this symbol my crucifix
to them he is nothing but in their presence he take his place far off and silent with respect there are others too which i shall tell you of lest in our seeking we may need them the branch of wild rose on his coffin keep him
a sacred bullet fired into the coffin kill him so that he be true dead and as for the stake through him we know already of its peace or the cut off head that giveth rest we have seen it
thus when we find the habitation of this man that was we can confine him to his coffin and destroy him if we obey what we know but he is clever i have asked my friend arminius of buda pesth university to make his record
and from all the means that are he tell me of what he has been
who won his name against the turk over the great river on the very frontier of turkey land if it be so then was he no common man for in that time and for centuries after he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning
as well as the bravest of the sons of the land beyond the forest that mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to his grave and are even now arrayed against us the draculas were says arminius a great and noble race
though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the evil one
amongst the mountains over lake hermanstadt where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due in the records are such words as
witch ordog and pokol' satan and hell and in one manuscript this very dracula is spoken of as
which we all understand too well there have been from the loins of this very one great men and good women and their graves make sacred the earth where alone this foulness can dwell
that this evil thing is rooted deep in all good in soil barren of holy memories it cannot rest
mister morris was looking steadily at the window and he now got up quietly and went out of the room there was a little pause and then the professor went on and now we must settle what we do we have here much data and we must proceed to lay out our campaign
we know from the inquiry of jonathan that from the castle to whitby came fifty boxes of earth all of which were delivered at carfax we also know
it seems to me that our first step should be to ascertain whether all the rest remain in the house beyond that wall where we look to day or whether any more have been removed if the latter we must trace here
we were interrupted in a very startling way outside the house came the sound of a pistol shot the glass of the window was shattered with a bullet which ricochetting from the top of the embrasure struck the far wall of the room i am afraid i am at heart a coward for i shrieked out
the men all jumped to their feet lord godalming flew over to the window and threw up the sash as he did so we heard mister morris's voice without sorry
a minute later he came in and said it was an idiotic thing of me to do and i ask your pardon missus harker most sincerely
but the fact is that whilst the professor was talking there came a big bat and sat on the window sill i have got such a horror of the damned brutes from recent events that i cannot stand them and i went out to have a shot
did you hit it asked doctor van helsing i don't know i fancy not for it flew away into the wood without saying any more he took his seat and the professor
strength being the best safety through care of me but their minds were made up and though it was a bitter pill for me to swallow i could say nothing save to accept their chivalrous care of me mister morris resumed the discussion as there is no time to lose
i vote we have a look at his house right now time is everything with him and swift action on our part may save another victim i own that my heart began to fail me when the time for action came so close but i did not say anything
for i had a greater fear that if i appeared as a drag or a hindrance to their work they might even leave me out of their counsels altogether they have now gone off to carfax with means to get into the house manlike they had told me to go to bed and sleep
as if a woman can sleep when those she loves are in danger i shall lie down and pretend to sleep lest jonathan have added anxiety about me when he returns doctor seward's diary
to know if i would see him at once as he had something of the utmost importance to say to me i told the messenger to say that i would attend to his wishes in the morning i was busy just at the moment the attendant added he seems very importunate sir i have never seen him so eager
i don't know but what if you don't see him soon he will have one of his violent fits
all right i'll go now and i asked the others to wait a few minutes for me as i had to go and see my patient take me with you friend john said the professor his case in your diary interest me much and it had bearing too now and again on our case
and especial when his mind is disturbed
asked lord godalming me too said quincey morris may i come said harker i nodded
but none of the others at first said anything his request was that i would at once release him from the asylum and send him home this he backed up with arguments regarding his complete recovery
i appeal to your friends he said they will perhaps not mind sitting in judgment on my case by the way you have not introduced me i was so much astonished that the oddness of introducing a madman in an asylum did not strike me at the moment and besides
there was a certain dignity in the man's manner so much of the habit of equality that i at once made the introduction lord godalming professor van helsing mister quincey morris of texas
he shook hands with each of them saying in turn lord godalming i had the honour of seconding your father at the windham i grieve to know by your holding the title that he is no more he was a man loved and honoured by all who knew him
mister morris you should be proud of your great state its reception into the union was a precedent which may have far reaching effects hereafter when the pole and the tropics may hold alliance to the stars and stripes the power of treaty may yet prove a vast engine of enlargement
sir i make no apology for dropping all forms of conventional prefix when an individual has revolutionised therapeutics by his discovery of the continuous evolution of brain matter conventional forms are unfitting since they would seem to limit him to one of a class
you gentlemen who by nationality by heredity
as at least the majority of men who are in full possession of their liberties
humanitarian and medico jurist as well as scientist will deem it a moral duty to deal with me as one to be considered as under exceptional circumstances he made this last appeal with a courtly air of conviction which was not without its own charm
i think we were all staggered for my own part i was under the conviction despite my knowledge of the man's character and history that his reason had been restored
and would see about the necessary formalities for his release in the morning i thought it better to wait however before making so grave a statement for of old i knew the sudden changes to which this particular patient was liable so i contented myself with making a general statement
that he appeared to be improving very rapidly that i would have a longer chat with him in the morning
this did not at all satisfy him for he said quickly
that you hardly apprehend my wish i desire to go at once here now this very hour this very moment if i may time presses
i am sure it is only necessary to put before so admirable a practitioner
yet so momentous a wish to ensure its fulfilment he looked at me keenly and seeing the negative in my face turned to the others and scrutinised them closely not meeting any sufficient response he went on
you have i said frankly but at the same time as i felt brutally there was a considerable pause and then he said slowly then i suppose i must only shift my ground of request let me ask for this concession boon
i am content to implore in such a case not on personal grounds
and unselfish and spring from the highest sense of duty could you look sir into my heart you would approve to the full the sentiments which animate me nay more you would count me amongst the best and truest of your friends
again he looked at us all keenly i had a growing conviction that this sudden change of his entire intellectual method
and so determined to let him go on a little longer knowing from experience that he would like all lunatics give himself away in the end van helsing was gazing at him with a look of utmost intensity his bushy eyebrows almost meeting with the fixed concentration of his look
but only when i thought of it afterwards for it was as of one addressing an equal can you not tell frankly your real reason for wishing to be free to night i will undertake that if you will satisfy even me a stranger without prejudice and with the habit of keeping an open mind doctor seward will give you
the privilege you seek he shook his head sadly and with a look of poignant regret on his face the professor went on come sir bethink yourself you claim the privilege of reason in the highest degree
since you seek to impress us with your complete reasonableness you do this whose sanity we have reason to doubt
which you yourself put upon us be wise and help us and if we can we shall aid you to achieve your wish he still shook his head as he said doctor van helsing i have nothing to say your argument is complete and if i were free to speak i should not hesitate a moment
i thought it was now time to end the scene which was becoming too comically grave so i went towards the door simply saying come my friends we have work to do good night as however i got near the door a new change came over the patient
my fears however were groundless for he held up his two hands imploringly
he became still more demonstrative i glanced at van helsing and saw my conviction reflected in his eyes
if not more stern and motioned to him that his efforts were unavailing i had previously seen something of the same constantly growing excitement in him when he had to make some request of which at the time
such for instance as when he wanted a cat
on this occasion my expectation was not realised for when he found that his appeal would not be successful he got into quite a frantic condition
and held up his hands wringing them in plaintive supplication and poured forth a torrent of entreaty
oh let me implore you to let me out of this house at once send me away how you will and where you will send keepers with me with whips and chains
you don't know whom you wrong or how and i may not tell woe is me i may not tell by all you hold sacred by all you hold dear by your love that is lost by your hope that lives
for the sake of the almighty take me out of this and save my soul from guilt can't you hear me man can't you understand will you never learn don't you know that i am sane and earnest now that i am no lunatic in a mad fit but a sane man fighting for his soul
oh hear me hear me let me go let me go let me go i thought that the longer this went on the wilder he would get and so would bring on a fit
come i said sternly no more of this we have had quite enough already
and try to behave more discreetly he suddenly stopped and looked at me intently for several moments then without a word he rose and moving over sat down on the side of the bed the collapse had come
just as i had expected when i was leaving the room last of our party he said to me in a quiet well bred voice
jasper she led them to the north gallery and pausing at the door said merrily the ghost or ghosts rather for there were two which frightened patty
were sir jasper and myself meeting to discuss certain important matters which concerned mister treherne if you want to see spirits we will play phantom for you and convince you of our power
good let us go and have a ghostly dance as a proper finale of our revel answered rose as they flocked into the long hall at that moment the great clock struck twelve and all paused to bid the old year adieu sir jasper was the first to speak
for angry with missus snowdon yet thankful to her for making a jest to others of what had been earnest to him he desired to hide his chagrin under a gay manner and taking rose around the waist was about to waltz away as she proposed saying cheerily
come one and all and dance the new year in when a cry from octavia arrested him and turning he saw her stand pale and trembling pointing to the far end of the hall eight narrow gothic windows pierced either wall of the north gallery
a full moon sent her silvery light strongly in upon the eastern side making broad bars of brightness across the floor no fires burned there now and wherever the moonlight did not fall deep shadows lay
as octavia cried out all looked and all distinctly saw a tall dark figure moving noiselessly across the second bar of light far down the hall
no answer but a faint cold breath of air seemed to sigh along the arched roof
a strange awe fell upon them all
nearer and nearer it came with soundless steps and as it reached the sixth window its outlines were distinctly visible a tall wasted figure all in black with a rosary hanging from the girdle and a dark beard half concealing the face
the abbot's ghost and very well got up said annon trying to laugh but failing decidedly for again the cold breath swept over them causing a general shudder hush whispered treherne drawing octavia to his side with a protecting gesture
as if to confront the apparition alone out of the darkness it came and in the full radiance of the light it paused missus snowdon being nearest saw the face first and uttering a faint cry dropped down upon the stone floor covering up her eyes
nothing human ever wore a look like that of the ghastly hollow eyed pale lipped countenance below the hood all saw it and held their breath as it slowly raised a shadowy arm and pointed a shriveled finger at sir jasper
speak whatever you are or i'll quickly prove whether you are man or spirit cried jasper fiercely stepping forward as if to grasp the extended arm that seemed to menace him alone an icy gust swept through the hall and the phantom slowly
and to return looking very strangely blanche had fainted away and annon was bearing her out of the hall rose was clinging to missus snowdon and octavia leaned against her cousin saying in a fervent whisper
am i then dearer than your brother he whispered back there was no audible reply but one little hand involuntarily pressed his though the other was outstretched toward jasper who came up white and startled but firm and quiet
affecting to make light of it he said forcing a smile as he raised missus snowdon it is some stupid joke of the servants let us think no more of it come edith this is not like your usual self it was nothing human jasper you know it as well as i
nay if my time is near the spirit would have found me out wherever i might be i have no faith in that absurd superstition i laugh at and defy it come down and drink my health in wine from the abbot's own cellar
but no one had heart for further gaiety and finding lady treherne already alarmed by annon they were forced to tell her all
at her command the house was searched the servants cross questioned and every effort made to discover the identity of the apparition all in vain the house was as usual
and not a man or maid but turned pale at the idea of entering the gallery at midnight at my lady's request all promised to say no more upon the mystery and separated at last to such sleep as they could enjoy
very grave were the faces gathered about the breakfast table next morning and very anxious the glances cast on sir jasper as he came in late as usual looking uncommonly blithe and well nothing serious ever made a deep impression
much to that young gentleman's annoyance for both his mother and sister hung about him with faces of ill dissembled anxiety
so i'm off for a brisk gallop before i lose my temper and spirits altogether come with me in the pony carriage jasper
missus snowdon looks as if she needed air to revive her roses and the pony carriage is just the thing for her so i will cheerfully resign my seat to her he answered laughing as he forced himself from his mother's hand take the girls in the clarence we all want a breath of air
as a man and a brother i beg you'll do so and let me ride as i like suppose you ask annon to join you began treherne with well assumed indifference but sir jasper frowned and turned sharply on him saying half petulantly
upon my life i should think i was a boy or a baby by the manner in which you mount guard over me today if you think i'm going to live in daily fear of some mishap you are all much mistaken
ghost or no ghost i shall make merry while i can a short life and a jolly one has always been my motto you know so fare you well till dinnertime they watched him gallop down the avenue
and then went their different ways still burdened with a nameless foreboding octavia strolled into the conservatory thinking to refresh herself with the balmy silence which pervaded the place but annon soon joined her full of a lover's hopes and fears
he asked eagerly forgive me if i give you an unwelcome reply but i must be true and so regretfully refuse the honor you do me she said sorrowfully may i ask why because i do not love you
and you do love your cousin he cried angrily pausing to watch her half averted face
then with a manful effort to be just and generous he added heartily say no more he deserves you i want no sacrifice to duty i yield and go away praying heaven to bless you now and always he kissed her hand and left her to seek my lady
for no persuasion could keep him leaving a note for sir jasper he hurried away to the great relief of treherne and the deep regret of blanche who however lived in hopes of another trial later in the season
here comes jasper mamma safe and well cried octavia an hour or two later as she joined her mother on the terrace where my lady had been pacing restlessly to and fro nearly ever since her son rode away with a smile of intense relief she waved her handkerchief
for he was a fine horseman and missus snowdon was looking from her window as he approached the peacocks fled screaming and one flew up
never did those who heard it forget the cry that left lady treherne's lips as she saw the fall it brought out both guests and servants to find octavia recklessly struggling with the frightened horse
they bore in the senseless shattered body and for hours tried everything that skill and sciences could devise to save the young man's life but every effort was in vain and as the sun set sir jasper lay dying conscious at last and able to speak
of the half drawn curtains always near when i need you many a scrape have you helped me out of but this is beyond your power and a faint smile passed over jasper's lips as the
let me tell it before it is too late maurice never will but bear the shame all his life that my dead name may be untarnished bring edith she must hear the truth
she was soon there and lying in his mother's arms one hand in his cousin's and one on his sister's bent head
i did it i forged my uncle's name when i had lost so heavily at play that i dared not tell my mother or squander more of my own fortune i deceived maurice and let him think the check a genuine one
and when all went well i fancied i was safe but my uncle discovered it secretly said nothing and believing maurice the forger disinherited him i never knew this till the old man died and then it was too late i confessed to maurice and he forgave me he said
i am helpless now shut out from the world with nothing to lose or gain and soon to be forgotten by those who once knew me so let the suspicion of shame if any such there be still cling to me and do you go your way
god knows you have but now my life ends and i cannot die till you are cleared edith i told you half the truth and you would have used it against him had not some angel sent this girl to touch your heart
you have done your part to atone for the past now let me do mine mother tavie loves him he has risked life and honor for me repay him generously and give him this
a joyful smile shone on the dying man's face one more confession and then i am ready he said looking up into the face of the woman whom he had loved with all the power of a shallow nature it was a jest to you edith
but it was bitter earnest to me for i loved you sinful as it was ask your husband to forgive me and tell him it was better i should die than live to mar a good man's peace kiss me once and make him happy for my sake
now father abbot lead on i'll follow you a year later three weddings were celebrated on the same day and in the same church maurice treherne a well man led up his cousin frank annon rewarded blanche's patient siege
the premature burial there are certain themes of which the interest is all absorbing but which are too entirely horrible for the purposes of legitimate fiction
if he do not wish to offend or to disgust they are with propriety handled only when the severity and majesty of truth sanctify and sustain them we thrill for example with the most intense of pleasurable pain over the accounts of the passage of the beresina
of the earthquake at lisbon of the plague at london of the massacre of saint bartholomew
as inventions we should regard them with simple abhorrence i have mentioned
i need not remind the reader that from the long and weird catalogue of human miseries i might have selected many individual instances more replete with essential suffering than any of these vast generalities of disaster the true wretchedness indeed the ultimate woe
are at best shadowy and vague who shall say where the one ends and where the other begins we know that there are diseases in which occur total cessations of all the apparent functions of vitality
and yet in which these cessations are merely suspensions properly so called they are only temporary pauses in the incomprehensible mechanism a certain period elapses
have actually taken place i might refer at once if necessary to a hundred well authenticated instances one of very remarkable character
occurred not very long ago in the neighboring city of baltimore where it occasioned a painful intense and widely extended excitement the wife of
which completely baffled the skill of her physicians after much suffering she died
no one suspected indeed or had reason to suspect that she was not actually dead
pulsation had ceased for three days the body was preserved unburied during which it had acquired a stony rigidity the funeral in short was hastened on account of the rapid advance of what was supposed to be decomposition the lady was deposited in her family vault
from the lethargy which had been mistaken for death he bore her frantically to his lodgings in the village he employed certain powerful restoratives suggested by no little medical learning
she remained with him until by slow degrees she fully recovered her original health her woman's heart was not adamant and this last lesson of love sufficed to soften it
she returned no more to her husband but concealing from him her resurrection
a very distressing event of the character in question
gradually however he fell into a more and more hopeless state of stupor and finally it was thought that he died the weather was warm and he was buried with indecent haste in one of the public cemeteries his funeral took place on thursday on the sunday following the grounds
of the cemetery were as usual much thronged with visiters and about noon an intense excitement was created by the declaration of a peasant that while sitting upon the grave of the officer he had distinctly felt a commotion of the earth as if occasioned by some one struggling beneath
with which he persisted in his story had at length their natural effect upon the crowd spades were hurriedly procured and the grave which was shamefully shallow was in a few minutes so far thrown open that the head of its occupant appeared
from what he related it was clear that he must have been conscious of life for more than an hour while inhumed before lapsing into insensibility
the grave was carelessly and loosely filled with an exceedingly porous soil and thus some air was necessarily admitted he heard the footsteps of the crowd overhead and endeavored to make himself heard in turn it was the tumult within the grounds of the cemetery he said
which appeared to awaken him from a deep sleep but no sooner was he awake than he became fully aware of the awful horrors of his position this patient it is recorded was doing well and seemed to be in a fair way of ultimate recovery but fell a victim to
it superinduces the mention of the galvanic battery nevertheless recalls to my memory a well known and very extraordinary case in point where its action proved the means of restoring to animation a young attorney of london
this occurred in eighteen thirty one and created at the time a very profound sensation wherever it was made the subject of converse
disinter the body and dissect it at leisure in private arrangements were easily effected with some of the numerous corps of body snatchers with which london abounds and upon the third night after the funeral
supervened with nothing to characterize them in any respect except upon one or two occasions a more than ordinary degree of life
once to the dissection a student however was especially desirous of testing a theory of his own and insisted upon applying the battery to one of the pectoral muscles
their wonder their rapturous astonishment may be conceived the most thrilling peculiarity of this incident nevertheless is involved in what mister s himself asserts he declares that at no period was he altogether insensible that dully and confusedly he was aware of everything
to that in which he fell swooning to the floor of the hospital i am alive were the uncomprehended words which upon recognizing the locality
we have it in our power to detect them we must admit that they may frequently occur without our cognizance scarcely in truth is a graveyard ever encroached upon for any purpose to any great extent that skeletons are not found in postures which suggest
the most fearful of suspicions fearful indeed the suspicion but more fearful the doom it may be asserted without hesitation that no event is so terribly well adapted to inspire the supremeness of bodily and of mental distress as is burial before death
the blackness of the absolute night the silence like a sea that overwhelms the unseen but palpable presence of the conqueror worm
and with consciousness that of this fate they can never be informed that our hopeless portion is that of the really dead these considerations i say carry into the heart which still
we know of nothing so agonizing upon earth we can dream of nothing half so hideous in the realms of the nethermost hell
to term catalepsy in default of a more definitive title although both the immediate and the predisposing causes and even the actual diagnosis of this disease are still mysterious its obvious
we can detect a torpid unequal and vacillating action of the lungs then again the duration of the trance is for weeks even for months while the closest scrutiny and the most rigorous medical tests fail to establish any
material distinction between the state of the sufferer and what we conceive of absolute death very usually he is saved from premature interment solely by the knowledge of his friends that he has been previously subject to catalepsy
by the consequent suspicion excited and above all by the non appearance of decay the advances of the malady are luckily gradual the first manifestations although marked are unequivocal
the fits grow successively more and more distinctive and endure each for a longer term than the preceding in this lies the principal security from inhumation
my own case differed in no important particular from those mentioned in medical books sometimes without any apparent cause i sank little by little into a condition of hemi syncope
suddenly to perfect sensation at other times i was quickly and impetuously smitten i grew sick and numb and chilly and dizzy and so fell prostrate at once then for weeks all was void and black and silent and nothing became the universe
total annihilation could be no more from these latter attacks i awoke however with a gradation slow in proportion to the suddenness of the seizure just as the day dawns to the friendless and houseless beggar who roams the streets throughout the long desolate winter night
just so tardily just so wearily just so cheerily came back the light of the soul to me apart from the tendency to trance however my general health appeared to be good nor could i perceive that it was
at all affected by the one prevalent malady unless indeed an idiosyncrasy in my ordinary sleep may be looked upon as superinduced upon awaking from slumber
in all that i endured there was no physical suffering but of moral distress an infinitude my fancy grew charnel i talked of worms of tombs and epitaphs i was lost in reveries of death
when nature could endure wakefulness no longer
it was only to rush at once into a world of phantasms above which with vast sable overshadowing wing
from the innumerable images of gloom which thus oppressed me in dreams i select for record but a solitary vision
while the gibbering voice said again arise did i not bid thee arise and who i demanded art thou i have no name in the regions which i inhabit replied the voice mournfully i was mortal but am fiend i was merciless but am pitiful
thou dost feel that i shudder my teeth chatter as i speak
how canst thou tranquilly sleep i cannot rest for the cry of these great agonies these sights are more than i can bear get thee up
is not this a spectacle of woe behold i looked and the unseen figure which still grasped me by the wrist had caused to be thrown open the graves of all mankind and from each issued the faint phosphoric radiance of decay
so that i could see into the innermost recesses and there view the shrouded bodies in their sad and solemn slumbers
and there was a feeble struggling and there was a general sad unrest and from out the depths of the countless pits there came a melancholy rustling from the garments of the buried and of those who seemed tranquilly to repose i saw that a vast number had changed
said to me as i gazed is it not oh is it not a pitiful sight but before i could find words to reply the figure had ceased to grasp my wrist the phosphoric lights expired and the graves were closed with a sudden violence while from out
them arose a tumult of despairing cries saying again is it not o god is it not a very pitiful sight phantasies such as these presenting themselves at night extended their terrific influence far into my waking hours
my nerves became thoroughly unstrung and i fell a prey to perpetual horror i hesitated to ride or to walk or to indulge in any exercise that would carry me from home in fact i no longer dared trust myself out of the immediate presence of those
who were aware of my proneness to catalepsy lest falling into one of my usual fits i should be buried before my real condition could be ascertained i doubted the care the fidelity of my dearest friends i dreaded that in some trance
of more than customary duration they might be prevailed upon to regard me as irrecoverable i even went so far as to fear that as i occasioned much trouble they might be glad to consider any very protracted attack as sufficient excuse for getting rid of me altogether
i exacted the most sacred oaths that under no circumstances they would bury me until decomposition had so materially advanced
iron portal to fly back there were arrangements also for the free admission of air and light and convenient receptacles for food and water within immediate reach of the coffin intended for my reception this coffin was warmly and softly padded and was provided with a lid
fashioned upon the principle of the vault door
there arrived an epoch as often before
slowly with a tortoise gradation approached the faint gray dawn of the psychal day a torpid uneasiness an apathetic endurance of dull pain no care no hope no effort then after a long interval a ringing in the ears
and immediately thereupon an electric shock of a terror deadly and indefinite which sends the blood in torrents from the temples to the heart and now the first positive effort to think and now the first endeavor to remember
it was sure despair such as no other species of wretchedness ever calls into being despair alone urged me
all dark i knew that the fit was over i knew that the crisis of my disorder had long passed
visual faculties and yet it was dark all dark the intense and utter raylessness of the night that endureth for evermore i endeavored to shriek and my lips and my parched tongue moved convulsively
together in the attempt but no voice issued from the cavernous lungs which oppressed as if by the weight of some incumbent mountain gasped and palpitated with the heart at every elaborate and struggling inspiration the movement of the jaws in this effort to cry aloud showed
and made spasmodic exertions to force open the lid it would not move i felt my wrists for the bell rope it was not to be found and now the comforter fled for ever
forced itself thus into the innermost chambers of my soul i once again struggled to cry aloud
what the devil's the matter now said a second get out o that said a third what do you mean by yowling in that ere kind of style like a cattymount said a fourth and hereupon i was seized and shaken without ceremony
only two berths in the vessel and the berths of a sloop of sixty or twenty tons need scarcely be described that which i occupied had no bedding of any kind its extreme width was eighteen inches the distance of its bottom
from my ordinary bias of thought and from the difficulty to which i have alluded of collecting my senses and especially of regaining my memory for a long time after awaking from slumber the men who shook me
were the crew of the sloop and some laborers engaged to unload it from the load itself came the earthly smell the bandage about the jaws was a silk handkerchief in which i had bound up my head in default of my customary nightcap
the tortures endured however were indubitably quite equal for the time to those of actual sepulture
my soul acquired tone acquired temper i went abroad i took vigorous exercise i breathed the free air of heaven i thought upon other subjects than death i discarded my medical books
i read no night thoughts no fustian about churchyards no bugaboo tales such as this in short i became a new man and lived a man's life from that memorable night i dismissed forever my
charnel apprehensions and with them vanished the cataleptic disorder of which perhaps they had been less the consequence than the cause there are moments when even to the sober eye of reason the world of our sad humanity
but the imagination of man is no carathis to explore with impunity its every cavern alas the grim legion of sepulchral terrors cannot be regarded as altogether fanciful but like the demons in whose company afrasiab made his voyage down the oxus
they must sleep or they will devour us they must be suffered to slumber
on the afternoon of that same christmas day eighteen twenty three a man had walked for rather a long time in the most deserted part
saint marceau we shall see further on that this man had in fact hired a chamber in that isolated quarter this man in his attire as in all his person realized the type of what may be called the well bred mendicant
black breeches worn gray at the knee stockings of black worsted and thick shoes with copper buckles he would have been pronounced a preceptor in some good family returned from the emigration
he would have been taken for more than sixty years of age from his perfectly white hair his wrinkled brow his livid lips and his countenance where everything breathed depression and weariness of life judging from his firm tread
from the singular vigor which stamped all his movements he would have hardly been thought fifty the wrinkles on his brow were well placed and would have disposed in his favor any one who observed him attentively his lip contracted with a strange fold which seemed severe and which was humble
handkerchief in his right he leaned on a sort of a cudgel cut from some hedge
and some rushed forward and others drew up in line for a passing king always creates a tumult
it was rapid but majestic this impotent king had a taste for a fast gallop as he was not able to walk he wished to run that cripple would gladly have
there was hardly time to cast a glance upon it in the rear angle on the right there was visible on tufted cushions of white satin a large firm and ruddy face a brow freshly powdered a l'oiseau royal
a proud hard crafty eye the smile of an educated man
bourgeois coat the golden fleece the cross of saint louis
a huge belly and a wide blue ribbon it was the king outside of paris he held his hat decked with white ostrich plumes on his knees enwrapped in high english gaiters
of the faubourg to his comrade that big fellow yonder is the government
after having made the turn of the salpetriere he appeared surprised and almost alarmed there was no one but himself in this cross lane he drew up hastily behind the corner of the wall of an enclosure
as captain of the guard on duty that day was seated in the carriage opposite the king he said to his majesty yonder is an evil looking man
and as twilight was beginning to fall the agent lost trace of him
minister of state prefect of police
not without turning round many a time to assure himself that he was not being followed at a quarter past four that is to say when night was fully come he passed in front of the theatre of the porte saint martin where the two convicts was being played that day
was then situated this coach set out
the man inquired have you a place only one beside me on the box said the coachman i will take it climb up nevertheless before setting out the coachman cast a glance at the traveller's shabby dress at the diminutive size of his bundle
and made him pay his fare are you going as far as lagny demanded the coachman
the coachman wrapped himself up in his cloak it was cold the man did not appear to be thinking of that thus they passed gournay and neuilly sur marne
it did not encounter him in the principal street of chelles the coachman turned to the inside travellers there said he is a man who does not belong here for i do not know him
it is night all the houses are shut he does not enter the inn and he is not to be found so he has dived through the earth the man had not plunged into the earth but he had gone with great strides through the dark down the principal street of chelles
like a person who was acquainted with the country and had been there before he followed this road rapidly
not more than two or three stars were visible in the sky it is at this point that the ascent of the hill begins the man did not return to the road to montfermeil he struck across the fields to the right and entered the forest with long strides
there came a moment when he appeared to lose himself and he paused in indecision at last he arrived by dint of feeling his way inch by inch at a clearing
through the mists of night as though he were passing them in review
which are the warts of vegetation stood a few paces distant from the pile of stones he went up to this tree and passed his hand over the bark of the trunk as though seeking to recognize and count all the warts opposite this tree which was an ash there was a chestnut tree
suffering from a peeling of the bark to which a band of zinc had been nailed by way of dressing
that the soil has not recently been disturbed
illnesses like armand's have one fortunate thing about them they either kill outright or are very soon overcome a fortnight after the events which i have just related armand was convalescent and we had already become great friends
during the whole course of his illness i had hardly left his side spring was profuse in its flowers its leaves its birds its songs and my friend's window opened gaily upon his garden from which a reviving breath of health seemed to come to him
the doctor had allowed him to get up and we often sat talking at the open window at the hour when the sun is at its height from twelve to two i was careful not to refer to marguerite fearing lest the name should awaken sad recollections
hidden under the apparent calm of the invalid but armand on the contrary seemed to delight in speaking of her not as formerly with tears in his eyes but with a sweet smile which reassured me as to the state of his mind
i had noticed that ever since his last visit to the cemetery and the sight which had brought on so violent a crisis sorrow seemed to have been overcome by sickness and marguerite's death no longer appeared to him under its former aspect
a kind of consolation had sprung from the certainty of which he was now fully persuaded and in order to banish the sombre picture which often presented itself to him he returned upon the happy recollections of his liaison with marguerite and seemed resolved to think of nothing else
the body was too much weakened by the attack of fever and even by the process of its cure to permit him any violent emotions and the universal joy of spring which wrapped him round carried his thoughts instinctively to images of joy
he had always obstinately refused to tell his family of the danger which he had been in and when he was well again his father did not even know that he had been ill one evening we had sat at the window later than usual
the weather had been superb and the sun sank to sleep in a twilight dazzling with gold and azure though we were in paris the verdure which surrounded us seemed to shut us off from the world and our conversation was only now and again disturbed by the sound of a passing vehicle
as if he were listening to his own thoughts rather than to what i was saying i did not answer then turning toward me he said i must tell you the whole story
you will tell me all about it later on my friend i said to him you are not strong enough yet it is a warm evening i have eaten my ration of chicken he said to me smiling
since you really wish it i will listen this is what he told me and i have scarcely changed a word of the touching story yes armand went on letting his head sink back on the chair
whom are you bowing to i asked marguerite gautier he said she seems much changed for i did not recognise her i said with an emotion that you will soon understand she has been ill the poor girl won't last long i remember the words as if they had been spoken to me yesterday
i must tell you my friend that for two years the sight of this girl had made a strange impression on me whenever i came across her without knowing why i turned pale and my heart beat violently i have a friend who studies the occult sciences and he would call what i experienced the affinity of fluids
it is certainly the fact that she made a very definite impression upon me that many of my friends had noticed it and that they had been much amused when they saw who it was that made this impression upon me
outside susse's an open carriage was stationed there and a woman dressed in white got down from it a murmur of admiration greeted her as she entered the shop as for me i was rivetted to the spot from the moment she went in till the moment when she came out again
i could see her through the shop windows selecting what she had come to buy i might have gone in but i dared not i did not know who she was and i was afraid lest she should guess why i had come in and be offended nevertheless i did not think i should ever see her again
she was elegantly dressed she wore a muslin dress with many flounces an indian shawl embroidered at the corners with gold and silk flowers
such as was just then beginning to be the fashion
mademoiselle marguerite gautier he replied i dared not ask him for her address and went on my way the recollection of this vision for it was really a vision would not leave my mind like so many visions i had seen
and i looked everywhere for this royally beautiful woman in white a few days later there was a great performance at the opera comique the first person i saw in one of the boxes was marguerite gautier the young man whom i was with recognised her immediately for he said to me mentioning her name
look at that pretty girl at that moment marguerite turned her opera glass in our direction and seeing my friend smiled and beckoned to him to come to her i will go and say how do you do to her he said
i could not help saying happy man why to go and see that woman are you in love with her no i said flushing for i really did not know what to say but i should very much like to know her come with me i will introduce you
ask her if you may really there is no need to be particular with her come what he said troubled me i feared to discover that marguerite was not worthy of the sentiment which i felt for her in a book of alphonse karr entitles
with whom he had fallen in love with at first sight on account of her beauty only to kiss her hand he felt that he had the strength to undertake anything the will to conquer anything the courage to achieve anything
and asks if he will come home with her
i recalled the story and having longed to suffer for this woman i was afraid that she would accept me too promptly and give me at once what i fain would have purchased by long waiting or some great sacrifice we men are built like that and it is very fortunate
that the imagination lends so much poetry to the senses and that the desires of the body make thus such concession to the dreams of the soul if any one had said to me you shall have this woman to night and be killed tomorrow i would have accepted
if any one had said to me you can be her lover for ten pounds i would have refused i would have cried like a child who sees the castle he has been dreaming about vanish away as he awakens from sleep all the same i wished to know her it was my only means of making up my mind about her
i therefore said to my friend that i insisted on having her permission to be introduced to her and i wandered to and fro in the corridors saying to myself that in a moment's time she was going to see me and that i should not know which way to look
i tried sublime childishness of love to string together the words i should say to her a moment after my friend returned she is expecting us he said is she alone i asked with another woman there are no men no come then
that is not the way i said we must go and get some sweets she asked me for some we went into a confectioner's in the passage de l'opera i would have bought the whole shop and i was looking about to see what sweets to choose when my friend asked for a pound of raisins glaces
do you know if she likes them she eats no other kind of sweets everybody knows it ah he went on when we had left the shop do you know what kind of woman it is that i am going to introduce you to don't imagine it is a duchess it is simply a kept woman
very much kept my dear fellow don't be shy say anything that comes into your head yes yes i stammered and i followed him saying to myself
when i entered the box marguerite was in fits of laughter i would rather that she had been sad my friend introduced me marguerite gave me a little nod and said and my sweets here they are she looked at me as she took them i dropped my eyes and blushed
evidently i was the cause of their mirth and my embarrassment increased
whose sentiment and whose melancholy letters amused me greatly
marguerite ate her raisins glaces without taking any more notice of me the friend who had introduced me did not wish to let me remain in so ridiculous a position marguerite he said you must not be surprised if
i should say on the contrary that he has only come with you because it would have bored you to come here by yourself if that were true i said i should not have begged ernest to ask your permission to introduce me perhaps that was only in order to put off the fatal moment
however little one may have known women like marguerite one can not but know the delight they take in pretending to be witty and in teasing the people whom they meet for the first time it is no doubt a return for the humiliations which they often have to submit to on
the part of those whom they see every day to answer them properly one requires a certain knack and i had not had the opportunity of acquiring it
nothing that dame from her was indifferent to me i rose to my feet saying in an altered voice which i could not entirely control if that is what you think of me madame i have only to ask your pardon for my indiscretion
thereupon i bowed and quitted the box i had scarcely closed the door when i heard a third peal of laughter it would not have been well for anybody who had elbowed me at that moment i returned to my seat the signal for raising the curtain was given
she laughed and said she had never seen any one so funny but don't look upon it as a lost chance only do not do these women the honour of taking them seriously they do not know what politeness and ceremony are
after all what does it matter to me i said affecting to speak in a nonchalant way i shall never see this woman again and if i liked her before meeting her it is quite different now that i know her bah
i don't despair of seeing you one day at the back of her box and of bearing that you are ruining yourself for her however you are right she hasn't been well brought up but she would be a charming mistress to have happily the curtain rose and my friend was silent
i could not possibly tell you what they were acting all that i remember is that from time to time i raised my eyes to the box i had quitted so abruptly and that the faces of fresh visitors succeeded one another all the time i was far from having given up thinking about marguerite
another feeling had taken possession of me it seemed to me that i had her insult and my absurdity to wipe out i said to myself that if i spent every penny i had i would win her and win my right to the place i had abandoned so quickly
before the performance was over marguerite and her friend left the box i rose from my seat are you going said ernest yes why at that moment he saw that the box was empty
go go he said and good luck or rather better luck i went out i heard the rustle of dresses the sound of voices on the staircase i stood aside and without being seen saw the two women pass me accompanied by two young men
said marguerite we will walk there a few minutes afterward i saw marguerite from the street at a window of one of the large rooms of the restaurant pulling the camellias of her bouquet to pieces one by one one of the two men was leaning over her shoulder and whispering in her ear
i took up my position at the maison d'or in one of the first floor rooms and did not lose sight of the window for an instant at one in the morning marguerite got into her carriage with her three friends i took a cab and followed them
it was no doubt a mere chance but the chance filled me with delight from that time forward i often met marguerite at the theatre or
at last a fortnight passed without my meeting her i met gaston and asked after her poor girl she is very ill he answered what is the matter
and the sort of life she leads isn't exactly the thing to cure her she has taken to her bed
the heart is a strange thing i was almost glad at hearing it every day i went to ask after her without leaving my name or my card
time went by the impression if not the memory faded gradually from my mind i travelled love affairs habits work took the place of other thoughts and when i recalled this adventure i looked upon it as one of those passions which one has
when one is very young and laughs at soon afterward for the rest it was no credit to me to have got the better of this recollection for i had completely lost sight of marguerite and as i told you
i did not recognise her she was veiled it is true but veiled though she might have been two years earlier i should not have needed to see her in order to recognise her i should have known her intuitively
i can not help wanting to explain all my conduct to you and i have written you a letter but written by a girl like me such a letter might seem to be a lie unless death had sanctified it by its authority and instead of a letter it were a confession to day i am ill
my mother died of consumption and the way i have always lived could but increase the only heritage she ever left me but i do not want to die without clearing up for you everything about me that is if when you come back you will still trouble yourself about the poor girl whom you loved before you went away
this is what the letter contained i shall like writing it over again so as to give myself another proof of my own justification
which you told me of in the evening next day when you were at paris waiting for your father and he did not return
his letter which i inclose with this begged me in the most serious terms to keep you away on the following day on some excuse or other and to see your father who wished to speak to me and asked me particularly not to say anything to you about it
you had only been gone an hour when your father presented himself
those who set her in motion your father had written me a very polite letter in order that i might consent to see him he did not present himself quite as he had written his manner at first was so stiff insolent and even threatening
that i had to make him understand that i was in my own house and that i had no need to render him an account of my life except because of the sincere affection which i had for his son
it was true but however beautiful i might be i ought not to make use of my beauty to spoil the future of a young man by such expenditure as i was causing at that there was only one thing to do
i showed him the pawn tickets the receipts of the people to whom i had sold what i could not pawn
and live with you without being a too heavy expense i told him of our happiness of how you had shown me the possibility of a quieter and happier life and he ended by giving in to the evidence offering me his hand and asking pardon for the way in which he had at first approached me
then he said to me so madame it is not by remonstrances or by threats but by entreaties that i must endeavour to obtain from you a greater sacrifice than you have yet made for my son i trembled at this beginning your father came over to me
took both my hands and continued in an affectionate voice my child do not take what i have to say to you amiss only remember that there are sometimes in life cruel necessities for the heart but that they must be submitted to you are good
your soul has generosity unknown to many women who perhaps despise you and are less worthy than you but remember that there is not only the mistress but the family that besides love there are duties
that to the age of passion succeeds the age when man if he is to be respected must plant himself solidly in a serious position my son has no fortune
and yet he is ready to abandon to you the legacy of his mother if he accepted from you the sacrifice which you are on the point of making his honour and dignity would require him to give you in exchange for it this income which would always put you out of danger of adversity
but he can not accept this sacrifice because the world which does not know you would give a wrong interpretation to this acceptance and such an interpretation must not tarnish the name which we bear no one would consider whether armand loves you whether you love him
whether this mutual love means happiness to him and redemption to you
to sell all she had for him then the day of reproaches and regrets would arrive
only one of my children the recompense that i look for from both you are young beautiful life will console you you are noble
would you not suffer on seeing the hindrances set by your love to your lover's life hindrances for which you would be powerless to console him if with age thoughts of ambition should succeed to dreams of love think over all that madame you love armand
by sacrificing your love to his future no misfortune has yet arrived but one will arrive and perhaps a greater one than those which i foresee
she loves and she too has made this love the dream of her life
well my daughter is about to marry
the family of the man who is to become my son in law has learned what manner of life armand is leading in paris and has declared to me that the marriage must be broken off if armand continues this life the future of a child who has done nothing against you and who has the right of looking forward to a happy future
is in your hands have you the right have you the strength to shatter it in the name of your love and of your repentance marguerite grant me the happiness of my child
i said to myself all that your father dared not say to me though it had come to his lips twenty times that i was after all only a kept woman and that whatever excuse i gave for our liaison it would always look like calculation on my part
that my past life left me no right to dream of such a future and that i was accepting responsibilities for which my habits and reputation were far from giving any guarantee
when i thought that one day this old man who was now imploring me for the future of his son would bid his daughter mingle my name with her prayers
do you believe that i love your son
with a disinterested love yes do you believe that i had made this love the hope the dream the forgiveness of my life implicitly
that kiss the only chaste kiss i have ever had will make me strong against my love and that within a week your son will be once more at your side perhaps unhappy for a time but cured forever
for which god will reward you but i greatly fear that you will have no influence upon my son oh be at rest sir he will hate me i had to set up between us as much for me as for you an insurmountable barrier
i wrote to prudence to say that i accepted the proposition of the comte de n and that she was to tell him that i would sup with her and him i sealed the letter and without telling him what it contained asked your father to have it forwarded to its address on reaching paris he inquired of me what it contained
you are witness of what i felt as the hour of our separation approached
chapter thirteen the following morning
he had slept well the cold air entering by the open window whipped his sluggish blood he had no clear recollection of the scenes of the previous day and had it not been for the burning sensation at his neck
he might have thought that he had retired to rest after a calm evening but the bite camille had given him stung as if his skin had been branded with a red hot iron when his thoughts settled on the pain this gash caused him
he suffered cruelly it seemed as though a dozen needles were penetrating little by little into his flesh he turned down the collar of his shirt and examined the wound in a wretched fifteen sous looking glass hanging against the wall
it formed a red hole as big as a penny piece the skin had been torn away displaying the rosy flesh studded with dark specks
streaks of blood had run as far as the shoulder in thin threads that had dried up the bite looked a deep dull brown colour against the white skin and was situated under the right ear
laurent scrutinised it with curved back and craned neck and the greenish mirror gave his face an atrocious grimace satisfied with his examination he had a thorough good wash
saying to himself that the wound would be healed in a few days then he dressed and quietly repaired to his office where he related the accident in an affected tone of voice
when his colleagues had read the account in the newspapers he became quite a hero during a whole week the clerks at the orleans railway had no other subject of conversation they were all proud that one of their staff should have been drowned
of adventuring into the middle of the seine when it was so easy to watch the running water from the bridges
the decease of camille had not been formally proved
but the murderer would have liked to have found his body so as to obtain a certificate of death the day following the accident a fruitless search had been made for the corpse of the drowned man
it was thought that it had probably gone to the bottom of some hole near the banks of the islands and men were actively dragging the seine to get the reward
he had made up his mind to attend to the business himself notwithstanding that his heart rose with repugnance notwithstanding the shudders that sometimes ran through his frame
for over a week he went and examined the countenance of all the drowned persons extended on the slabs when he entered the place an unsavoury odour
an odour of freshly washed flesh disgusted him and a chill ran over his skin the dampness of the walls seemed to add weight to his clothing which hung more heavily on his shoulders
he went straight to the glass separating the spectators from the corpses and with his pale face against it looked facing him appeared rows of grey slabs and upon them
here and there the naked bodies formed green and yellow white and red patches while some retained their natural condition in the rigidity of death others seemed like lumps of bleeding and decaying meat
at the back against the wall hung some lamentable rags petticoats and trousers puckered against the bare plaster
spotted with dabs of russet and black formed by the clothes and corpses a melodious sound of running water broke the silence little by little he distinguished the bodies and went from one to the other
it was only the drowned that interested him when several human forms were there swollen and blued by the water he looked at them eagerly
frequently the flesh on the faces had gone away by strips the bones had burst through the mellow skins the visages were like lumps of boned boiled beef laurent hesitated he looked at the corpses
endeavouring to discover the lean body of his victim but all the drowned were stout he saw enormous stomachs puffy thighs and strong round arms he did not know what to do
which seemed like mocking him with their horrible wrinkles one morning he was seized with real terror
that was small in build and atrociously disfigured the flesh of this drowned person was so soft and broken up that the running water washing it carried it away bit by bit the jet falling on the face
bored a hole to the left of the nose and abruptly the nose became flat the lips were detached showing the white teeth the head of the drowned man burst out laughing
each time laurent fancied he recognised camille he felt a burning sensation in the heart he ardently desired to find the body of his victim
his visits to the morgue filled him with nightmare with shudders that set him panting for breath but he shook off his fear taxing himself with being childish when he wished to be strong still
in spite of himself his frame revolted
he breathed at ease his repugnance was not so great he then became a simple spectator who took strange pleasure in looking death by violence in the face in its lugubriously fantastic and grotesque attitudes
this sight amused him particularly when there were women there displaying their bare bosoms these nudities brutally exposed bloodstained and in places bored with holes attracted and detained him
once he saw a young woman of twenty there a child of the people broad and strong who seemed asleep on the stone her fresh plump white form displayed the most delicate softness of tint
she was half smiling with her head slightly inclined on one side around her neck she had a black band which gave her a sort of necklet of shadow she was a girl
who had hanged herself in a fit of love madness each morning while laurent was there he heard behind him the coming and going of the public who entered and left the morgue is a sight within reach of everybody and one to which passers by
rich and poor alike treat themselves the door stands open and all are free to enter there are admirers of the scene who go out of their way so as not to miss one of these performances of death if the slabs have nothing on them
feeling as if they had been cheated and murmuring between their teeth but when they are fairly well occupied people crowd in front of them and treat themselves to cheap emotions they express horror they joke they applaud or whistle
as at the theatre and withdraw satisfied declaring the morgue a success on that particular day laurent soon got to know the public frequenting the place that mixed and dissimilar public
who pity and sneer in common workmen looked in on their way to their work with a loaf of bread and tools under their arms they considered death droll among them
who elicited a smile from the onlookers by making witty remarks about the faces of each corpse
coalmen the hanged the murdered the drowned the bodies that had been stabbed or crushed excited their jeering vivacity and their voices which slightly trembled
stammered out comical sentences amid the shuddering silence of the hall there came persons of small independent means old men who were thin and shrivelled up idlers who entered because they had nothing to do
and who looked at the bodies in a silly manner with the pouts of peaceful delicate minded men women were there in great numbers
all rosy with white linen and clean petticoats who tripped along briskly from one end of the glazed partition to the other opening great attentive eyes as if they were before the dressed shop window of a linendraper
there were also women of the lower orders looking stupefied and giving themselves lamentable airs and well dressed ladies carelessly dragging their silk gowns along the floor on a certain occasion
and pressing her cambric handkerchief to her nostrils she wore a delicious grey silk skirt with a large black lace mantle her face was covered by a veil and her gloved hands seemed quite small and delicate
around her hung a gentle perfume of violet she stood scrutinising a corpse on a slab a few paces away was stretched the body of a great big fellow
a mason who had recently killed himself on the spot by falling from a scaffolding he had a broad chest large short muscles and a white well nourished body death had made a marble statue of him
the lady examined him turned him round and weighed him so to say with her eyes for a time she seemed quite absorbed in the contemplation of this man she raised a corner of her veil for one last look
then she withdrew at moments bands of lads arrived young people between twelve and fifteen who leant with their hands against the glass
nudging one another with their elbows and making brutal observations at the end of a week laurent became disheartened at night he dreamt of the corpses he had seen in the morning
ended by troubling him to such a point that he resolved to pay only two more visits to the place the next day on entering the morgue he received a violent shock in the chest opposite him on a slab
camille lay looking at him extended on his back his head raised his eyes half open the murderer slowly approached the glass as if attracted there
unable to detach his eyes from his victim he did not suffer he merely experienced a great inner chill accompanied by slight pricks on his skin he would have thought that he would have trembled more violently
for fully five minutes he stood motionless lost in unconscious contemplation engraving in spite of himself in his memory all the horrible lines all the dirty colours of the picture he had before his eyes
camille was hideous he had been a fortnight in the water his face still appeared firm and rigid the features were preserved but the skin had taken a yellowish muddy tint
it had suffered horribly you could feel that the arms no longer held to their sockets and the clavicles were piercing the skin of the shoulders the ribs formed black bands on the greenish chest the left side ripped open
was gaping amidst dark red shreds
the feet dangled down
gazed at camille he had never yet seen the body of a drowned person presenting such a dreadful aspect the corpse moreover looked pinched it had a thin poor appearance
it had shrunk up in its decay and the heap it formed was quite small anyone might have guessed that it belonged to a clerk at one thousand two hundred francs a year who was stupid and sickly
and who had been brought up by his mother on infusions this miserable frame which had grown to maturity between warm blankets was now shivering on a cold slab
when laurent could at last tear himself from the poignant curiosity that kept him motionless and gaping before his victim he went out and begun walking rapidly along the quay and as he stepped out he repeated
that is what i have done he is hideous a smell seemed to be following him the smell that the putrefying body must be giving off he went to find old michaud
and told him he had just recognized camille lying on one of the slabs in the morgue the formalities were performed the drowned man was buried and a certificate of death delivered
he was almost certain of impunity and he felt heavy anxious joy the joy of having got over the crime on reaching the gate at clichy he hailed a cab and drove to the residence of old michaud in the rue de seine
it was nine o'clock at night when he arrived he found the former commissary of police at table in the company of olivier and suzanne the motive of his visit was to seek protection
in case he should be suspected and also to escape breaking the frightful news to madame raquin himself such an errand was strangely repugnant to him he anticipated encountering such terrible despair
that he feared he would be unable to play his part with sufficient tears then the grief of this mother weighed upon him although at the bottom of his heart he cared but little about it
he questioned him with his eyes and laurent gave an account of the accident in a broken voice as if exhausted with grief and fatigue i have come to you
because i do not know what to do about the two poor women so cruelly afflicted i dare not go to the bereaved mother alone and want you to accompany me as he spoke olivier looked at him fixedly
and with so straight a glance that he terrified him the murderer had flung himself head down among these people belonging to the police with an audacity calculated to save him but he could not repress a shudder
as he felt their eyes examining him he saw distrust where there was naught but stupor and pity suzanne weaker and paled than usual seemed ready to faint
olivier who was alarmed at the idea of death but whose heart remained absolutely cold made a grimace expressing painful surprise while by habit he scrutinised the countenance of laurent without having the least suspicion of the sinister truth
as to old michaud he uttered exclamations of fright commiseration and astonishment he fidgeted on his chair joined his hands together and cast up his eyes to the ceiling
said he in a broken voice ah good heavens what a frightful thing
and that poor madame raquin his mother
rising from his seat he walked hither and thither about the apartment stamping with his feet in search of his hat and walking stick and as he bustled from corner to corner he made laurent repeat the details of the catastrophe
giving utterance to fresh exclamations at the end of each sentence at last all four went downstairs on reaching the entrance to the arcade
do not accompany us any further said he your presence would be a sort of brutal avowal which must be avoided the wretched mother would suspect a misfortune and this would force us to confess the truth
sooner than we ought to tell it to her wait for us here this arrangement relieved the murderer who shuddered at the thought of entering the shop in the arcade he recovered his calm
and began walking up and down the pavement going and coming in perfect peace of mind at moments
he looked at the shops whistled between his teeth turned round to ogle the women who brushed past him he remained thus for a full half hour in the street recovering his composure more and more
he had not eaten since the morning and feeling hungry
a heartrending scene was passing at the shop in the arcade notwithstanding precautions notwithstanding the soft friendly sentences of old michaud there came a moment when madame raquin
understood that her son had met with misfortune from that moment she insisted on knowing the truth with such a passionate outburst of despair with such a violent flow of tears and shrieks
that her old friend could not avoid giving way to her and when she learnt the truth her grief was tragic she gave hollow sobs she received shocks that threw her backward
in a distracting attack of terror and anguish she remained there choking uttering from time to time a piercing scream amidst the profound roar of her affliction she would have dragged herself along the ground
had not suzanne taken her round the waist weeping on her knees and raising her pale countenance towards her olivier and his father on their feet unnerved and mute turned aside their heads
the poor mother saw her son rolling along in the thick waters of the seine a rigid and horribly swollen corpse while at the same time
in his cradle when she drove away death bending over him she had brought him back into the world on more than ten occasions she loved him for all the love she had bestowed on him during thirty years
and now he had met his death far away from her all at once in the cold and dirty water like a dog then she remembered the warm blankets in which she had enveloped him
what care she had taken of her boy what a tepid temperature he had been reared in how she had coaxed and fondled him and all this to see him one day miserably drown himself
at these thoughts madame raquin felt a tightening at the throat and she hoped she was going to die strangled by despair old michaud hastened to withdraw
leaving suzanne behind to look after the mercer he and olivier went to find laurent so that they might hurry to saint ouen with all speed during the journey they barely exchanged a few words
each of them buried himself in a corner of the cab which jolted along over the stones there they remained motionless and mute in the obscurity that prevailed within the vehicle ever and anon
a rapid flash from a gas lamp cast a bright gleam on their faces the sinister event that had brought them together threw a sort of dismal dejection upon them when they at length arrived at the restaurant beside the river
they found therese in bed with burning head and hands the landlord told them in an undertone that the young woman had a violent fever the truth was that therese feeling herself weak in character and wanting in courage
feared she might confess the crime in one of her nervous attacks and had decided to feign illness maintaining sullen silence she kept her lips and eyes closed unwilling to see anyone lest she should speak
with the bedclothes to her chin her face half concealed by the pillow she made herself quite small anxiously listening to all that was said around her and amidst the reddish gleam that passed beneath her closed lids
she perceived her husband livid horrible increased in height rearing up straight above the turbid water and this implacable vision heightened the feverish heat of her blood old michaud
endeavoured to speak to her and console her but she made a movement of impatience and turning round broke out into a fresh fit of sobbing leave her alone sir said the restaurant keeper she shudders at the slightest sound
you see she wants rest below in the general room was a policeman drawing up a statement of the accident
everything was over in ten minutes
gave an account of the drowning in its smallest details describing how the three holiday makers had fallen into the water as if they themselves had witnessed the misfortune had olivier and his father the least suspicion it would have been dispelled at once by this testimony
and they were careful to see inserted in the report that the young man had plunged into the water to save camille raquin the following day the newspapers related the accident with a great display of detail the unfortunate mother
the inconsolable widow the noble and courageous friend nothing was missing from this event of the day
and then found an echo in the provinces when the report was completed laurent experienced lively joy which penetrated his being like new life from the moment his victim had buried his teeth in his neck
he had been as if stiffened acting mechanically according to a plan arranged long in advance the instinct of self preservation alone impelled him dictating to him his words
affording him advice as to his gestures at this hour in the face of the certainty of impunity the blood resumed flowing in his veins with delicious gentleness
the police had passed beside his crime and had seen nothing they had been duped for they had just acquitted him he was saved this thought caused him to experience a feeling of delightful moisture all along his body
a warmth that restored flexibility to his limbs and to his intelligence he continued to act his part of a weeping friend with incomparable science and assurance at the bottom of his heart he felt brutal satisfaction
who was in bed in the room above we cannot leave this unhappy woman here
she is perhaps threatened with grave illness we must positively take her back to paris come let us persuade her to accompany us upstairs
and allow herself to be conducted to the arcade
when the young woman heard the sound of his voice she started and stared at him with eyes wide open she seemed as if crazy and was shuddering painfully she raised herself into a sitting posture without answering
the men quitted the room leaving her alone with the wife of the restaurant keeper when ready to start she came downstairs staggering and was assisted into the cab by olivier the journey was a silent one
he was seated opposite her in a floating shadow and could not see her face which she kept bowed down on her breast as soon as he had grasped her hand he pressed it vigorously
he felt the hand tremble but it was not withdrawn on the contrary it ever and anon gave a sudden caress these two hands one in the other were burning the moist palms adhered
and the fingers tightly held together were hurt at each pressure it seemed to laurent and therese that the blood from one penetrated the chest of the other passing through their joined fists
these fists became a live fire whereon their lives were boiling amidst the night amidst the heartrending silence that prevailed the furious grips they exchanged were like a crushing weight
cast on the head of camille to keep him under water when the cab stopped
gently murmured be strong therese we have a long time to wait recollect then the young woman opened her lips for the first time since the death of her husband oh i shall recollect
and in a voice light as a puff of breath olivier extended his hand inviting her to get down on this occasion
madame raquin was abed a prey to violent delirium therese dragged herself to her room where suzanne had barely time to undress her before she gave way tranquillised
perceiving that everything was proceeding as well as he could wish laurent withdrew and slowly gained his wretched den in the rue saint victor it was past midnight fresh air circulated in the deserted silent streets
the young man could hear naught but his own footsteps resounding on the pavement the nocturnal coolness of the atmosphere cheered him up the silence the darkness gave him sharp sensations of delight
and he loitered on his way at last he was rid of his crime he had killed camille it was a matter that was settled and would be spoken of no more he was now going to lead a tranquil existence
the thought of the murder had at times half choked him
he felt a weight removed from his chest and breathed at ease cured of the suffering that hesitation and fear had given him at the bottom of his heart he was a trifle hebetated
fatigue had rendered his limbs and thoughts heavy he went in to bed and slept soundly
he meant it for charles and it is all well enough if one does but know it he had now to take care of his little sister augusta who was much younger than himself and he was besides to learn his lesson at the same time
but these two things would not do together at all there sat the poor little fellow
and he sang to her all the songs he knew and he glanced the while from time to time into the geography book that lay open before him by the next morning he was to have learnt all the towns in zealand by heart
and to know about them all that is possible to be known his mother now came home for she had been out and took little augusta on her arm
and read so eagerly that he pretty nearly read his eyes out for it got darker and darker
there goes the old washerwoman over the way
the poor woman can hardly drag herself along and she must now drag the pail home from the fountain be a good boy tukey and run across and help the old woman won't you so tuk ran over quickly and helped her but when he came back again into the room it was quite dark
and as to a light there was no thought of such a thing he was now to go to bed that was an old turn up bedstead in it he lay and thought about his geography lesson and of zealand and of all that his master had told him he ought to be sure
to have read over his lesson again but that you know he could not do he therefore put his geography book under his pillow because he had heard that was a very good thing to do when one wants to learn one's lesson
but one cannot however rely upon it entirely well there he lay
all at once it was just as if someone kissed his eyes and mouth he slept and yet he did not sleep it was as though the old washerwoman gazed on him with her mild eyes and said it were a great sin if you were not to know your lesson tomorrow morning
you have aided me i therefore will now help you
an encounter of a no very glorious nature took place between the british troops and the undisciplined danish militia
kribledy krabledy plump down fell somebody
and where he called many of his immortal works into existence
on he went at full gallop still galloping on and on a knight with a gleaming plume and most magnificently dressed held him before him on the horse and thus they rode through the wood to the old town of bordingborg and that was a large and very lively town
high towers rose from the castle of the king and the brightness of many candles streamed from all the windows within was dance and song and king waldemar and the young richly attired maids of honor danced together
cried someone near it was a seaman quite a little personage
so that there was a continual splashing and close beside them sat an old king with a golden crown upon his white head
near the fountains close to the town of roeskilde as it is now called
little tuk saw all heard all do not forget the diet said king hroar
roeskilde once the capital of denmark the town takes its name from king hroar and the many fountains in the neighborhood in the beautiful cathedral the greater number of the kings and queens of denmark are interred in roeskilde too the members of the danish diet assemble
it seemed to him just as if one turned over a leaf in a book and now stood there an old peasant woman who came from soroe
yes that it has said she and she now related many pretty things out of holberg's comedies and about waldemar and absalon
croak croak said she it is wet it is wet there is such a pleasant deathlike stillness in sorbe she was now suddenly a frog croak and now she was an old woman
one must dress according to the weather said she it is wet it is wet my town is just like a bottle and one gets in by the neck
which by the bye could not do him any harm but even in this sleep there came a dream or whatever else it was his little sister augusta
was suddenly a tall beautiful girl and without having wings was yet able to fly and she now flew over zealand
do you hear the cock crow tukey cock a doodle doo
you will have a farm yard so large oh so very large you will suffer neither hunger nor thirst you will get on in the world you will be a rich and happy man
your house will exalt itself like king waldemar's tower and will be richly decorated with marble statues like that at prastoe you understand what i mean
and in roeskilde do not forget the diet said king hroar then you will speak well and wisely little tukey and when at last you sink into your grave you shall sleep as quietly as if i lay in soroe
it was bright day and he was now quite unable to call to mind his dream that however was not at all necessary for one may not know what the future will bring
and now all at once he knew his whole lesson and the old washerwoman popped her head in at the door nodded to him friendly and said thanks many thanks my good child for your help may the good ever loving god fulfil your loveliest dream
once upon a time our friend blackbird who comes first of the feathered brothers in the spring was not black at all no indeed he was white white as feather snow new fallen in the meadow
there are very few birds who have been thought worthy to dress all in beautiful white for that is the greatest honor which a bird can have so like the swan and the dove
was very proud of his spotless coat
but you see he did not really deserve this honor because he was at heart a greedy bird and therefore a great shame came upon him and after that he was never proud nor happy any more
i shall tell you the story of how the whitebird grew grimy and gloomy as we know him almost as black and solemn as old daddy crow once upon a time then master whitebird was teetering on a rose bush ruffling his beautiful white feathers
and singing little bits of poetry about himself to any one who would listen ho ho ho hee just look at me he piped and cocked his little eyes about in every direction to see who might be admiring his wondrous whiteness
and his eyes fixed themselves upon a tree close by it was a dead old tree and there was a hole in the trunk halfway up to the lowest limb a round little hole about as big as your two fists
whitebird had seen something black pop into that hole in a sly and secret way and he began to wonder for he was inquisitive as most birds are he sat quite still on his rose bush and watched and watched
presently out of the hole popped a black head bigger than whitebird's with two wise little twinkling eyes oho said whitebird to himself it is mother magpie up to her old tricks hiding hiding
i will watch and perhaps i shall find out something worth knowing mother magpie was the wisest and the slyest of all the birds and it was always worth while as whitebird knew to take lessons of her
so he sat perfectly still until she came cautiously back carrying something in her beak it was round and white and glinted like moonlight whitebird's eyes stuck out greedily it is a piece of silver he thought
but he sat perfectly still until the magpie had stowed the coin safely in the hollow tree and had hopped away as if upon an unfinished errand aha there is more then i will watch to see what comes next said whitebird and he waited
sure enough in a little while the magpie returned this time bringing something which glowed yellow like sunlight it is a piece of gold gasped whitebird
and then hastily depart as before toward the mountain what comes next muttered whitebird to himself i am dying to peep into that hole i cannot wait much longer then after a while
a third time came back the magpie to the dead tree and lo what she carried in her beak twinkled and trembled and shone in many colors
when whitebird saw this sight he nearly tumbled off his perch with excitement
oh it is a real diamond at this sudden noise from the rose bush mother magpie's nerves were so shocked that she dropped the diamond helter skelter into the hole and in a moment she fell in after it out of sight
he hopped after her and perching on the edge of the hole peered down into the hollow tree and there he saw a great heap of silver and gold and precious stones which mother magpie was trying to cover with her wings oh what a treasure what a treasure
he piped greedily mother magpie you must tell me where you found it that i may go and get some for myself but mother magpie refused to tell oho chirped whitebird angrily we shall see about that
then i will call in the fierce birds robber hawk and fighting falcon and the bloody butcher bird and they will take your treasure from you and kill you too into the bargain what do you think of that mother magpie then she was afraid
for she knew those bad birds and she saw that she must trust her secret with whitebird since he had already discovered half the truth well if you will promise me not to let any one else know not even king eagle i will tell you she said
so whitebird promised listen said the magpie you must find the cave which is near the tallest oak on the mountain under the flat stone in a corner there is a tiny hole just big enough for you or me to pass
which leads down into the cellars of the earth and when you have gone down and down farther than any one except myself ever went before you will come to the palace of the king of riches it is full of gold and silver and precious stones
like these you see here each chamber is more beautiful and more tempting than the last
for first you must offer yourself to be his servant and then he will be generous then he will let you carry away as much treasure as your beak will hold that is all there is to it
or great evil will befall you
and then away he flew to the blue mountain and its tallest oak close by the great oak in a lonely spot he found the flat rock and under it was the cave where once a bear had lived
whitebird hopped in eagerly and away back in one corner of the cave he found a little round hole as the magpie had said a hole not much bigger than an apple it must have been a tight squeeze for fat mother magpie whitebird hopped through the hole
for he was not like master owl who can see better in the dark than anywhere else blindly he hopped on and on till he came into a great cavern bright with a white radiance as if the moonlight filtered in from somewhere
it was the first room of the king's palace of treasure and it was all of silver paved with silver heaped with silver shining with silver whitebird's eyes glittered and he wanted to stop and take some for himself
but just in time he remembered the wise warning of mother magpie and so he hopped on over the silver pebbles through a silver door into a second room and this was flooded with yellow light as of sunshine so dazzling that for a moment
whitebird's yellow eyes could see nothing at all when he could see the place seemed full of yellow eyes like his own
and when he became used to this he looked again and saw that these were golden coins and that this was a cavern all of gold oh such a wonderful sight oh such a golden dream
the floor on which he stood was deep with gold dust which squished between his toes like yellow sand on a sea beach and then whitebird lost his head and went quite mad forgetting the words of wise mother magpie
gold dust gold dust a treasure for me he sang hopping up and down on one leg i can carry away a great beakful of the yellow seeds and each one will blossom into a golden flower
for me he was wholly crazy as you see he thrust his bill deep into the gold dust of the floor and greedily filled it more than full
and splashed his coat so that he was no longer a white bird but a yellow bird oh the silly greedy thing but there are worse fates than being a yellow bird just at this moment a dreadful roar echoed through the caverns till they rumbled like an earthquake
and into the golden chamber crashed a horrible dragon creature the guardian of the king's treasure
his eyes blazed red like coals and from his mouth came smoke and flame so that the gold melted before his breath he rushed straight upon poor little whitebird to gobble him up and as he came he roared thief thief
feeling the dragon's hot breath close behind frizzling his feathers and blinding his eyes with smoke he seemed like to be roasted alive in this horrible underground oven but oh there was the hole close before him pouf
with a terrible roar the dragon snapped at him as whitebird popped through the hole
whitebird was safe safe in the narrow passage where the dragon could not follow up and up and up and up he feebly fluttered into the light of the dear outside world
but oh how tired and frightened he was mother magpie was sitting on a bush waiting for him for she had guessed what would happen to the greedy bird and when she saw him she gave a squawk of laughter
o whitebird she chuckled what a sight what a sight your lovely coat your spotless feathers oh you greedy greedy blackbird then he who had been whitebird looked down at himself and saw what a dreadful thing had happened
for the smoke and flame of the dragon's breath had smirched and scorched him from top to toe so that he was no longer white but thenceforth and forever blackbird
chuckling over the greedy fellow's failure
this is a very good story to read at night just before going to sleep and if you ask why i must only tell you that you will find out before you reach the end of the tale there was once a heron
a pretty long legged slender lady heron who lived in the mushy squshy wady shady swamp the lady heron lived in her swamp all alone earning her living by catching little fish
and she was very happy never dreaming that she was lonesome for no one had told her what lonesome was she loved to go wading in the cool waters she loved to catch the little fish who swam by unsuspectingly while she stood still upon one leg
pretending to think about something a thousand miles away and she loved to look at her slender long legged blue reflection in the water for the lady heron was just a little bit vain
now one day mister stork came flying over the mushy squshy wady shady swamp where the heron lived and he too saw the reflection in the water
my how pretty she is i wonder i never noticed her before and how lonesome she must be there all by herself in such a nasty moist mushy squshy old swamp
i will invite her to come and share my nice warm dry nest on the chimney top for to tell the truth i am growing lonely up there all by myself why should we not make a match of it we two long legged creatures mister stork went home to his house
which he set prettily in order for he never dreamed but that the lady heron would accept his offer at the very first croak he preened his feathers and made himself as lovely as he could and forthwith off he flew with his long legs dangling
straight to the wady shady swamp where miss heron was standing on one leg waiting for her supper to get itself caught ahem croaked mister stork waving his wing politely good evening miss heron
but how horribly moist it is down here i should think that your nice straight legs would grow crooked with rheumatism now i have a comfortable dry house on the roof pouf grunted miss heron disdainfully
but mister stork pretended not to hear and went on with his remarks a nice dry house which i should be glad to have you share with me come miss heron here i am a lonely old bachelor and here are you a lonely old maid
i don't know what it is to be lonely go along with you and she splashed water on him with her wings she was so indignant poor mister stork felt very crestfallen at this reception of his well meaning invitation
he turned about and stalked away towards his nest upon the roof without so much as saying good by to the lady but no sooner was he out of sight than miss heron began to think he had said that she was lonely was she lonely
well perhaps he ought to know better than she
perhaps she was lonely now that she came to think of it however there was no reason why she should go to live in that stupid dry old nest on the house top why could he not come to dwell in her lovely mushy squshy wady shady swamp
that would be very pleasant for he was a good sort of fellow with nice long legs and there were fish enough in the water for two besides he could then do the fishing for the family and moreover
yes her mind was made up she would invite him she glanced down at her reflection and settled some of the feathers which her fit of temper had ruffled out of order then off she started in pursuit of mister stork mister stork had not gone very far
for a sad rejected lover is a dawdling creature and so she came up with him long before he was in sight of his nest good evening mister stork said the lady nervously i i have been thinking over what you said to me just now
and i have concluded that perhaps i was a bit hasty to tell you the truth sir i am a trifle lonely now that you suggest the thought to me and it would be very agreeable to have pleasant company
i am ready sir to agree to your proposal but of course i cannot think of changing my abode my swamp is the most beautiful home that a maiden ever knew and i could not give it up for any one
as for your ugly old nest on the chimney top bah i cannot endure the idea with patience mister stork was gradually stiffening into an angry attitude but she did not notice
miss heron went on warmly and you will be very welcome to catch fish for me and to look in my mirror it will be very nice indeed nice croaked the stork i should say as much what can you be thinking of miss
i to give up my comfortable home on the house top close by the warm chimney and go to live in that disgusting mushy squshy bog of yours ha ha that is really too ridiculous i bid you good morning
and with an elaborate bow he turned his back and flew away miss heron flounced back to her swamp mortified because she had left it to propose terms to so ungallant a fellow
but hardly had she begun her tardy supper when once more mister stork's shadow darkened the mirror before her and once more she heard his apologetic croak ahem
i hope i find you well miss heron i have been ha hum considering your last most condescending words
and i find that i have been hasty you are so good as to express a belief that i should make a pleasant companion so i should so i should and as for you he bowed gallantly
one can readily imagine the charm of your society come then miss heron why should we not make a happy couple if we can only arrange this one little foolish matter be my wife come live with me in my lovely nest
and she waved her wings so fiercely that once more mister stork took to his and flapped away to his home now when he had gone miss heron found that she had been bad tempered
and she thought how pleasantly they might have arranged the matter if only she had been more moderate so she spread her beautiful blue wings and flew to the housetop where mister stork lived and perching on the chimney she said oh mister stork
leave this hot old stupid house top and come live in my cool moist wady shady swamp
but the stork arose in his nest flapping his wings crossly and cried be off you baggage don't come here to insult my beautiful house be off i say to your mushy squshy rheumaticky bog i want no more of you
so the heron flew back disconsolately to the watery swamp
and the stork too began to feel very lonely indeed and he was sorry that he had been rude to a lady
oh dear miss heron he cried
and we will live happily ever after on the chimney top far above the other birds and i will never be cross again but the heron answered away with you i want to go to sleep i am tired of your croaking voice leave me alone
so the stork flew away in a huff but the heron could not sleep she was so lonely so she rose and flying through the still night air came again to the stork's high built nest come storkie dear
and i will be good but the stork pretended to be asleep and only snored in reply so the heron flew home in a huff but the stork could not truly sleep he was so lonely
so he rose and flying through the still night air came again to the heron's home in the marsh come my dear he said come home to your dear husband's house and i will be good but the heron made no answer pretending to be asleep
so the stork flew home in a huff but the heron could not truly sleep she was so lonely so she rose at break of day and flying through the cool morning air came again to the stork's nest
come storkie dear she said come home to your dear wife's house and i will be good but the stork did not answer he was so angry so the heron flew home in a huff and if you are not asleep when you get as far as this
you may go on with the story by yourself perfectly well you may go on just as long as you can keep awake for the tale has no end no end at all it is still going on to this very day the stork still lives lonely on his house top
and the heron still lives lonely in her marsh growing lonelier and lonelier both of them but because they have no tact they are never able to agree to the same thing at the same time
a slave mother loses her speech at the sale of her child bob escapes from his master a trader
mary fled from petersburg and the robinsons from richmond
and would bring any kind of freight that would pay the most was the conductor in this instance
availed themselves of his accommodations and thus succeeded in reaching canada his risk was very great on this account he claimed as did certain others that it was no more than fair to charge for his services
indeed he did not profess to bring persons for nothing except in rare instances
further than to suggest that whatever understanding was agreed upon by the parties themselves should be faithfully adhered to many slaves in cities could raise by hook or by crook fifty or one hundred dollars to pay for a passage
thus while the vigilance committee of philadelphia especially neither charged nor accepted anything for their services it was not to be expected that any of the southern agents could afford to do likewise
the husband of mary had for a long time wanted his own freedom but did not feel that he could go without his wife in fact he resolved to get her off first then to try and escape himself if possible
the first essential step towards success he considered was to save his money and make it an object to the captain to help him so when he had managed to lay by one hundred dollars he willingly offered this sum to captain b
the captain agreed to the terms and fulfilled his engagement to the letter about the first of march eighteen fifty five mary was presented to the vigilance committee she was of agreeable manners about forty five years of age
dark complexion round built and intelligent she had been the mother of fifteen children four of whom had been sold away from her one was still held in slavery in petersburg the others were all dead
at the sale of one of her children she was so affected with grief that she was thrown into violent convulsions
but this little episode was not a matter to excite sympathy in the breasts of the highly refined and tender hearted christian mothers of petersburg in the mercy of providence however her reason and strength returned
she had formerly belonged to the late littleton reeves whom she represented as having been kind to her much more so than her mistress missus reeves said mary she being of a jealous disposition
caused me to be hired out with a hard family where i was much abused frequently flogged and stinted for food et cetera but the sweets of freedom in the care of the vigilance committee now delighted her mind
and the hope that her husband would soon follow her to canada inspired her with expectations that she would one day sit under her own vine and fig tree where none dared to molest or make her afraid
the committee rendered her the usual assistance and in due time forwarded her on to queen victoria's free land in canada on her arrival she wrote back as follows toronto march fourteenth eighteen fifty five
i take this opportunity of addressing you with these few lines to inform you that i arrived here to day and hope that this may find yourself and missus still well as this leaves me at the present i will also say to you
that i had no difficulty in getting along the two young men that was with me left me at suspension bridge they went another way i cannot say much about the place as i have ben here but a short time but so far as i have seen i like very well
you will give my respect to your lady and mister and missus brown if you have not written to petersburg you will please to write as soon as can i have nothing more to write at present but yours respectfully emma brown
old name mary epps now joseph and robert mary's associate passengers from richmond must here be noticed joseph was of a dark orange color medium size very active and intelligent
and doubtless well understood the art of behaving himself he was well acquainted with the auction block having been sold three times and had had the misfortune to fall into the hands of a cruel master each time
under these circumstances he had had but few privileges sundays and week days alike he was kept pretty severely bent down to duty he had been beaten and knocked around shamefully he had a wife
and spoke of her in most endearing language although on leaving he did not feel at liberty to apprise her of his movements fearing that it would not be safe so to do his four little children to whom he appeared warmly attached
he left as he did his wife in slavery he declared that he stuck to them as long as he could george e sadler the keeper of an oyster house held the deed for joe
and a most heartless wretch he was in joe's estimation the truth was joe could not stand the burdens and abuses which sadler was inclined to heap upon him so he concluded to join his brother
robert his younger brother
a regular negro trader eight years this slave's duties had been at the slave prison and among other daily offices he had to attend to was to lock up the prison
robert was a very intelligent young man and from long and daily experience with the customs and usages of the slave prison he was as familiar with the business as a pennsylvania farmer with his barn yard stock
his account of things was too harrowing for detail here except in the briefest manner and that only with reference to a few particulars in order to prepare slaves for the market
it was usual to have them greased and rubbed to make them look bright and shining and he went on further to state that females as well as males were not uncommonly stripped naked lashed flat to a bench and then held by two men sometimes four
while the brutal trader would strap them with a broad leather strap the strap being preferred to the cow hide as it would not break the skin and damage the sale one hundred lashes would only be a common flogging
the separation of families was thought nothing of often i have been flogged for refusing to flog others while not yet twenty three years of age robert expressed himself
as having become so daily sick of the brutality and suffering he could not help witnessing that he felt he could not possibly stand it any longer let the cost be what it might in this state of mind he met with captain b
only one obstacle stood in his way material aid it occurred to robert that he had frequent access to the money drawer and often it contained the proceeds of fresh sales of flesh and blood
and he reasoned that if some of that would help him and his brother to freedom there could be no harm in helping himself the first opportunity the captain was all ready and provided he could get three passengers at one hundred dollars each
he would set sail without much other freight of course he was too shrewd to get out papers for philadelphia that would betray him at once washington or baltimore
were names which stood fair in the eyes of virginia consequently being able to pack the fugitives away in a very private hole of his boat and being only bound for a southern port the captain was willing to risk his share of the danger
very well said robert to day i will please my master so well that i will catch him at an unguarded moment
and will ask him for a pass to go to a ball to night slave holders love to see their slaves fiddling and dancing of nights and as i shall be leaving in a hurry i will take a grab from the day's sale and when slater hears of me again i will be in canada
so after having attended to all his disagreeable duties he made his grab and got a hand full he did not know however how it would hold out that evening instead of participating with the gay dancers
with several hundred dollars in his pocket after paying the worthy captain one hundred each for himself and his brother besides making the captain an additional present of nearly one hundred wind and tide were now
until they might reach the depot at philadelphia the richmond dispatch an enterprising paper in the interest of slaveholders which came daily to the committee was received in advance of the passengers
when lo and behold in turning to the interesting column containing the elegant illustrations of runaway negroes it was seen that the unfortunate slater
in north carolina money and also his dark orange colored intelligent and good looking turnkey bob served him right it is no stealing for one piece of property to go off with another piece reasoned a member of the committee
in a couple of days after the dispatch brought the news
were safely landed at the usual place and so accurate were the descriptions in the paper that on first seeing them the committee recognized them instantly and without any previous ceremonies
and put the question to them direct are you the ones we are they owned up without hesitation the committee did not see a dollar of their money but understood they had about nine hundred dollars after paying the captain while bob considered
he made a very good grab he did not admit that the amount advertised was correct after a reasonable time for recruiting having been so long in the hole of the vessel they took their departure for canada from joseph the elder brother
is appended a short letter announcing their arrival and condition under the british lion saint catharine april sixteenth eighteen fifty five
your letter of date april seventh i have just got it had been opened before it came to me i have not received any other letter from you and can get no account of them in the post office in this place
i am well and have got a good situation in this city and intend staying here
my brother is also at work with me and doing well there is nothing here that would interest you in the way of news there is a masonic lodge of our people and two churches and societys here and some other institutions for our benefit
be kind enough to send a few lines to the lady spoken of for that mocking bird and much oblige me write me soon and believe me your obedient serv't love and respects to lady and daughter joseph robinson
as well as writing to a member of the committee joe and bob had the assurance to write back to the trader and oyster house keeper in their letter they stated that they had arrived safely in canada and were having good times
in the eating line had an abundance of the best also had very choice wines and brandies which they supposed that they trader and oyster house keeper would give a great deal to have a smack at and then they gave them a very cordial invitation to make them a visit
and without first greasing themselves and then hanging on very fast the journey might not prove altogether advantageous to them this was wormwood and gall to the trader and oyster house man a most remarkable coincidence was that
the captain who brought away the three passengers made it his business for some reason or other to call at the oyster house kept by the owner of joe and while there this letter was read and commented on in torrents of billingsgate phrases
and the trader told the captain that he would give him two thousand dollars if he would get them finally he told him he would give every cent they would bring which would be much over two thousand dollars as they were so very likely
how far the captain talked approvingly he did not exactly tell the committee but they guessed he talked strong democratic doctrine to them under the frightful circumstances
pussy's patience and cleanliness next to a cat's love for children if there is one thing more than another that ought to make one love her and respect her as a pet it is the extreme patience
which she evinces under sufferings sometimes the most acute we talk about dogs being game and taking their death easy and so they mostly do under excitement
but in long lingering illnesses pussy is a much better patient pussy moreover is blessed with extreme good nature and will pardon almost any injury from one she loves
i have no patience with people who say that cats are unforgiving or that a friendship of years may be cancelled in a moment by an accidental tread on its tail or feet look the same parties will tell you
how patiently a dog will bear a like accident ay but say i you must bear in mind three things first a dog is generally larger than a cat and a tread is consequently a mere trifle to him
secondly a cat is ten times more sensitive to pain than a dog and thirdly a cat has so many enemies of all sorts that she must be for ever on the alert to avert danger not knowing
when a foe may pounce upon her she has to sleep even with open ears is it any wonder then that when roused from slumber by a cruel and painful tread on her tail she should start up
and show fight or run off growling perhaps indeed only half awake but malice she never harbours in her heart and in half an hour when she has thought the matter over
she will creep from under the sofa or bed to fondly caress the very one who hurt her no animal appreciates kindness more than a cat witness the gratitude even a poor stray will evince
to any one who may have fed it when hungry not long ago writes a lady to me a cat one of the kind kept as a machine used to frequent our garden starved enough poor thing as its knotty fur betokened
so having a trap set in our house to catch mice and being always more or less successful in catching the vermin i one day took the trap with a mouse in it to the garden and by dint
of very little persuasion managed to get near this cat waif and give it the mouse that was quite enough it got them ever after so long as it was in life
and invariably from that date whenever it saw me in the garden it would come bounding to me and i am sure by its dumb delight it well repaid me showing that it fully appreciated both the voice
that makes our domestic cat such an excellent hunter and vermin killer we all know how patiently she will sit in a corner and watch for a mouse or rat she knows very well it will come sooner or later
and she is always rewarded with success she is the same in the hunting field waiting for hours at the door of a rabbit burrow till poor bunny or some one of her children peeps out
then i'll have you says puss and forthwith walks it off or hidden under a heather hillock or a turnip leaf she will wait and wait and never weary until she can secure
a beautiful grouse or plump little partridge witness their patience and long suffering with children this i have already spoken about and need not repeat having proved
a certain amount of rough treatment at baby hands tucker was about the best natured lump of a cat i ever knew you might have done anything with him flung him over the church for instance
if you had i dare be sworn tucker would have alighted on his feet at the other side
or scotch cheese he was once sent a distance of thirty yards trussed up in this fashion to a shopkeeper's place to be weighed tucker went through the operation so patiently that the grocer never suspected
till the very last a good solid hare he said feeling the bundle but bless me isn't he warm do you think he is really dead
said tucker popping out his head at a corner as much as to say not just yet friend and the laugh was all against the grocer how patiently a cat will wait for her dinner until every one else is served
reminding you only then by her loud singing and demonstrative kindness that there is still a little hole in her stomach that wants filling and how patiently sit and wait
and watch for the return of her master or mistress be they never so long absent she knows their footsteps and jumps up at their knock and runs to the door to meet them i know of a poor cat
that was for a whole fortnight in a trap the cruel keepers had left him for all that time without either food or drink he was afterwards discovered by his owner
and taken home although a beautiful large tom tabby when he left home he was reduced to a perfect skeleton his leg had to be amputated but he bore the operation without flinching
struggling a little at first only but giving vent to no expression of pain he made a very good recovery but being one of the mighty hunter persuasion as soon as he was perfectly recovered
he hopped off to the woods again he did not return however and for two years was not seen again but one dark night his master on passing through a wood had his attention attracted by the cries of a cat
the animal was in a tree and on the gentleman's approach it sprang down and commenced rubbing round his legs with every expression of affection and kindness on bending down to caress it
the gentleman was surprised to find it had only three legs it followed him home and he then made certain it was none other than his long lost pet it stopped at home for many a day after this
and seemed in no way inconvenienced from the loss of its hind leg but travellers never can settle and puss took to the woods again
was in like manner caught in a trap and had to endure amputation of the leg although in much suffering and pain
whether inflicted by traps or stones you mean to do them good cats even strange cats often lick my hands when i am probing a wound and inflicting the most severe pain on them
cats always show gratitude by licking your hand it is the greatest compliment a cat can pay you for they are not so ready as dogs to sow their kisses and caresses broad cast i was amused the other day
at seeing the care and attention a little girl was bestowing on a pet cat tom had been out all night and came in next day on three legs the one he carried was wounded bruised and much swollen
and tom himself looked generally seedy and out of sorts now had it been a boy instead of a girl he would in all probability have done nothing useful but females are always practical
and this embryo miss nightingale after having a good cry set about at once to put matters straight for poor tom
with a large poultice then she rolled him in an old shawl and put him to bed in a basket tom kept his bed for ten days during which time she fed him from a plate not allowing him to get up
and every time the poultice was changed the cat licked her hand in evident gratitude in fact tom made the best of patients being more like a sincere christian than anything else
and his little nurse was finally rewarded by having her pet gambolling around her as usual a cat some time ago received a charge of ragged shot in his shoulder
he fainted from loss of blood and afterwards had high fever just as a human being would have done under like circumstances the greater portion of the shot was extracted or worked out in the process of healing
one portion however pussy carried to his grave with him during the painful process of having his wounds probed for shot
that pussy's patience is best exemplified a poor cat many years ago took a severe illness jaundice he was a fine large tom cat of the name of tacket
and a very great pet but in a short time he got reduced to a mere bag of bones
so pitiful an object looked he that his master and mistress had the sin of keeping him alive forcibly pointed out to them by their friends indeed he was now so weak as to be unable to move
from his bed by the kitchen fire on the tenth day when he was at his very worst a little raw meat was given him and his head being supported he managed to swallow it
this was the turning point of his illness he began to rally and soon got well and plump and sleek and the other day died at the age of twelve but it was a treat to see how
patiently poor tacket bore his illness every morning when his master went to see him although he could not rise he tried to sing but the power of purring left him as he got weaker
on the ninth day he could just sing one bar and on the tenth day only one note this cat had a great dislike for months afterwards to milk in any shape or form
that of all our domestic pets pussy undoubtedly bears the bell for personal cleanliness nature has adorned her with a most beautiful coat of the softest silkiest fur and loveliest of colours
and she spares no pains to keep it clean and smart i firmly believe that the cat is very proud of her appearance and likes to cut a dash here again by the bye
she resembles the female of the human family pussy is for ever cleaning and washing at herself if a well bred parlour cat she will never allow a speck of dirt to sully her fur
i can always tell whether a cat is properly cared for and has sufficient food by the appearance of her coat if she is allowed to be hungry or is badly housed she soon loses all taste in herself
and doesn't care a rat's tail how she looks when a cat's coat begins to appear rough and stare it is the first indication of approaching illness and this symptom
as he neared petersburg alexey alexandrovitch not only adhered entirely to his decision but was even composing in his head the letter he would write to his wife going into the porter's room
alexey alexandrovitch glanced at the letters and papers brought from his office and directed that they should be brought to him in his study the horses can be taken out and i will see no one he said in answer to the porter with a certain pleasure
indicative of his agreeable frame of mind emphasizing the words see no one in his study alexey alexandrovitch walked up and down twice and stopped at an immense writing table
on which six candles had already been lighted by the valet who had preceded him he cracked his knuckles and sat down sorting out his writing appurtenances putting his elbows on the table he bent his head on one side
thought a minute and began to write without pausing for a second he wrote without using any form of address to her and wrote in french making use of the plural vous which has not the same note of coldness as the corresponding russian form
at our last conversation i notified you of my intention to communicate to you my decision in regard to the subject of that conversation having carefully considered everything
i am writing now with the object of fulfilling that promise my decision is as follows whatever your conduct may have been i do not consider myself justified in breaking the ties in which we are bound by a higher power
for you and for our son i am fully persuaded that you have repented and do repent of what has called forth the present letter and that you will cooperate with me in eradicating the cause of our estrangement and forgetting the past
in the contrary event you can conjecture what awaits you and your son all this i hope to discuss more in detail in a personal interview as the season is drawing to a close
i would beg you to return to petersburg as quickly as possible not later than tuesday all necessary preparations shall be made for your arrival here i beg you to note that i attach particular significance to compliance with this request
a karenin p s i enclose the money which may be needed for your expenses he read the letter through and felt pleased with it and especially that he had remembered to enclose money
there was not a harsh word not a reproach in it nor was there undue indulgence most of all it was a golden bridge for return folding the letter and smoothing it with a massive ivory knife
he rang the bell with the gratification it always afforded him to use the well arranged appointments of his writing table give this to the courier to be delivered to anna arkadyevna tomorrow at the summer villa he said getting up certainly your excellency
tea to be served in the study alexey alexandrovitch ordered tea to be brought to the study and playing with the massive paper knife he moved to his easy chair near which there had been placed ready for him a lamp
and the french work on egyptian hieroglyphics that he had begun over the easy chair there hung in a gold frame an oval portrait of anna a fine painting by a celebrated artist alexey alexandrovitch glanced at it
the unfathomable eyes gazed ironically and insolently at him insufferably insolent and challenging was the effect in alexey alexandrovitch's eyes of the black lace about the head admirably touched in by the painter
the black hair and handsome white hand with one finger lifted covered with rings after looking at the portrait for a minute alexey alexandrovitch shuddered so that his lips quivered
he made haste to sit down in his easy chair and opened the book he tried to read but he could not revive the very vivid interest he had felt before in egyptian hieroglyphics he looked at the book and thought of something else
he thought not of his wife but of a complication that had arisen in his official life which at the time constituted the chief interest of it he felt that he had penetrated more deeply than ever before into this intricate affair
and that he had originated a leading idea he could say it without self flattery calculated to clear up the whole business to strengthen him in his official career to discomfit his enemies
and thereby to be of the greatest benefit to the government directly the servant had set the tea and left the room alexey alexandrovitch got up and went to the writing table
moving into the middle of the table a portfolio of papers with a scarcely perceptible smile of self satisfaction he took a pencil from a rack and plunged into the perusal of a complex report relating to the present complication
the complication was of this nature alexey alexandrovitch's characteristic quality as a politician that special individual qualification that every rising functionary possesses
the qualification that with his unflagging ambition his reserve his honesty and with his self confidence had made his career was his contempt for red tape his cutting down of correspondence
his direct contact wherever possible with the living fact and his economy it happened that the famous commission of the second of june had set on foot an inquiry into the irrigation of lands in the zaraisky province
which fell under alexey alexandrovitch's department and was a glaring example of fruitless expenditure and paper reforms alexey alexandrovitch was aware of the truth of this the irrigation of these lands in the zaraisky province
had been initiated by the predecessor of alexey alexandrovitch's predecessor and vast sums of money had actually been spent and were still being spent on this business and utterly unproductively
and the whole business could obviously lead to nothing whatever alexey alexandrovitch had perceived this at once on entering office and would have liked to lay hands on the board of irrigation but at first when he did not yet feel secure in his position
he knew it would affect too many interests and would be injudicious later on he had been engrossed in other questions and had simply forgotten the board of irrigation it went of itself like all such boards
by the mere force of inertia many people gained their livelihood by the board of irrigation especially one highly conscientious and musical family all the daughters played on stringed instruments and alexey alexandrovitch knew the family
and had stood godfather to one of the elder daughters the raising of this question by a hostile department was in alexey alexandrovitch's opinion a dishonorable proceeding seeing that in every department there were things similar and worse
which no one inquired into for well known reasons of official etiquette however now that the glove had been thrown down to him he had boldly picked it up and demanded the appointment of a special commission to investigate
and verify the working of the board of irrigation of the lands in the zaraisky province but in compensation he gave no quarter to the enemy either he demanded the appointment of another special commission
to inquire into the question of the native tribes organization committee the question of the native tribes had been brought up incidentally in the commission of the second of june and had been pressed forward actively by alexey alexandrovitch
as one admitting of no delay on account of the deplorable condition of the native tribes in the commission this question had been a ground of contention between several departments the department hostile to alexey alexandrovitch
proved that the condition of the native tribes was exceedingly flourishing that the proposed reconstruction might be the ruin of their prosperity and that if there were anything wrong it arose mainly from the failure on the part of alexey alexandrovitch's department
to carry out the measures prescribed by law now alexey alexandrovitch intended to demand first that a new commission should be formed which should be empowered to investigate the condition of the native tribes on the spot
secondly if it should appear that the condition of the native tribes actually was such as it appeared to be from the official documents in the hands of the committee that another new scientific commission should be appointed
to investigate the deplorable condition of the native tribes from the one political two administrative
four ethnographical five material and six religious points of view thirdly that evidence should be required from the rival department
of the measures that had been taken during the last ten years by that department for averting the disastrous conditions in which the native tribes were now placed and fourthly and finally that that department explain
why it had as appeared from the evidence before the committee
from december fifth eighteen sixty three and june seventh eighteen sixty four
a flash of eagerness suffused the face of alexey alexandrovitch as he rapidly wrote out a synopsis of these ideas for his own benefit having filled a sheet of paper he got up
rang and sent a note to the chief secretary of his department to look up certain necessary facts for him getting up and walking about the room he glanced again at the portrait frowned and smiled contemptuously
after reading a little more of the book on egyptian hieroglyphics and renewing his interest in it alexey alexandrovitch went to bed at eleven o'clock
the deacon got up dressed took his thick gnarled stick and slipped quietly out of the house it was dark and for the first minute when he went into the street
he could not even see his white stick there was not a single star in the sky and it looked as though there would be rain again there was a smell of wet sand and sea it's to be hoped that the mountaineers won't attack us
thought the deacon hearing the tap of the stick on the pavement and noticing how loud and lonely the taps sounded in the stillness of the night when he got out of town he began to see both the road and his stick
here and there in the black sky there were dark cloudy patches and soon a star peeped out and timidly blinked its one eye the deacon walked along the high rocky coast
and did not see the sea it was slumbering below and its unseen waves broke languidly and heavily on the shore as though sighing ouf and how slowly
one wave broke the deacon had time to count eight steps then another broke and six steps later a third as before nothing could be seen
and in the darkness one could hear the languid drowsy drone of the sea one could hear the infinitely faraway inconceivable time when god moved above chaos
the deacon felt uncanny he hoped god would not punish him for keeping company with infidels and even going to look at their duels the duel would be nonsensical
bloodless absurd but however that might be it was a heathen spectacle and it was altogether unseemly for an ecclesiastical person to be present at it he stopped and wondered
should he go back but an intense restless curiosity triumphed over his doubts and he went on though they are infidels they are good people and will be saved he assured himself
they are sure to be saved he said aloud lighting a cigarette by what standard must one measure men's qualities to judge rightly of them
who believed in god lived in chastity and did not fight duels but he used to feed the deacon on bread with sand in it and on one occasion almost pulled off the deacon's ear
if human life was so artlessly constructed that every one respected this cruel and dishonest inspector who stole the government flour and his health and salvation were prayed for in the schools
was it just to shun such men as von koren and laevsky simply because they were unbelievers the deacon was weighing this question but he recalled how absurd samoylenko had looked yesterday
and that broke the thread of his ideas what fun they would have next day the deacon imagined how he would sit under a bush and look on and when von koren began boasting next day at dinner
he the deacon would begin laughing and telling him all the details of the duel how do you know all about it the zoologist would ask well there you are
i stayed at home but i know all about it it would be nice to write a comic description of the duel his father in law would read it and laugh a good story told or written
was more than meat and drink to his father in law the valley of the yellow river opened before him the stream was broader and fiercer for the rain and instead of murmuring as before it was raging
it began to get light the grey dingy morning and the clouds racing towards the west to overtake the storm clouds the mountains girt with mist and the wet trees
all struck the deacon as ugly and sinister he washed at the brook repeated his morning prayer and felt a longing for tea and hot rolls with sour cream
which were served every morning at his father in law's he remembered his wife and the days past recall which she played on the piano what sort of woman was she
his wife had been introduced betrothed and married to him all in one week he had lived with her less than a month when he was ordered here so that he had not had time to find out what she was like
all the same he rather missed her i must write her a nice letter he thought the flag on the duhan hung limp soaked by the rain and the duhan itself
with its wet roof seemed darker and lower than it had been before near the door was standing a cart kerbalay with two mountaineers and a young tatar woman in trousers
no doubt kerbalay's wife or daughter were bringing sacks of something out of the duhan and putting them on maize straw in the cart near the cart stood a pair of asses hanging their heads
began covering them over with straw while kerbalay began hurriedly harnessing the asses smuggling perhaps thought the deacon here was the fallen tree with the dried pine needles
here was the blackened patch from the fire he remembered the picnic and all its incidents the fire the singing of the mountaineers his sweet dreams of becoming a bishop and of the church procession
the black river had grown blacker and broader with the rain the deacon walked cautiously over the narrow bridge which by now was reached by the topmost crests of the dirty water
and went up through the little copse to the drying shed a splendid head he thought stretching himself on the straw and thinking of von koren a fine head god grant him health
only there is cruelty in him why did he hate laevsky and laevsky hate him why were they going to fight a duel
if from their childhood they had known poverty as the deacon had if they had been brought up among ignorant hard hearted grasping coarse and ill mannered people
who grudged you a crust of bread who spat on the floor and hiccoughed at dinner and at prayers if they had not been spoilt from childhood by the pleasant surroundings and the select circle of friends they lived in
how they would have rushed at each other how readily they would have overlooked each other's shortcomings and would have prized each other's strong points
it was true that laevsky was flighty dissipated queer but he did not steal did not spit loudly on the floor he did not abuse his wife and say
he would not beat a child with reins or give his servants stinking meat to eat surely this was reason enough to be indulgent to him besides he was the chief sufferer from his failings
like a sick man from his sores instead of being led by boredom and some sort of misunderstanding to look for degeneracy extinction heredity and other such incomprehensible things in each other
would they not do better to stoop a little lower and turn their hatred and anger where whole streets resounded with moanings from coarse ignorance greed scolding impurity swearing
the shrieks of women the sound of a carriage interrupted the deacon's thoughts he glanced out of the door and saw a carriage and in it three persons laevsky sheshkovsky
and the superintendent of the post office stop said sheshkovsky all three got out of the carriage and looked at one another they are not here yet said sheshkovsky shaking the mud off well
there's not room to turn round here they went further up the river and soon vanished from sight the tatar driver sat in the carriage with his head resting on his shoulder and fell asleep
after waiting ten minutes the deacon came out of the drying shed and taking off his black hat that he might not be noticed he began threading his way among the bushes and strips of maize along the bank
crouching and looking about him the grass and maize were wet and big drops fell on his head from the trees and bushes disgraceful he muttered picking up his wet and muddy skirt
had i realised it i would not have come soon he heard voices and caught sight of them laevsky was walking rapidly to and fro in the small glade with bowed back
and hands thrust in his sleeves his seconds were standing at the water's edge rolling cigarettes strange thought the deacon not recognising laevsky's walk
he looks like an old man how rude it is of them said the superintendent of the post office looking at his watch it may be learned manners to be late but to my thinking it's hoggish
sheshkovsky a stout man with a black beard listened and said
and followed the road to blois while the marriage festivities of monsieur and the princess of england were being celebrated with exceeding animation by the courtiers but to the despair of de guiche and buckingham raoul lost no time on the road
and in sixteen hours he arrived at blois as he traveled along he marshaled his arguments in the most becoming manner fever is an argument that cannot be answered and raoul had an attack
accompanied by grimaud keen sighted and penetrating a mere glance at his son told him that something extraordinary had befallen him
you seem to come on a matter of importance said he to raoul after he had embraced him
yes monsieur replied the young man and i entreat you to give me the same kind attention that has never yet failed me speak raoul i present the case to you monsieur
free from all preface for that would be unworthy of you mademoiselle de la valliere is in paris as one of madame's maids of honor i have pondered deeply on the matter
above everything and it is not proper to leave her in a position where her reputation her virtue even may be assailed it is my wish therefore to marry her monsieur and i have come to solicit your consent to my marriage
while this communication was being made to him athos maintained the profoundest silence and reserve
finished it by allowing a manifest emotion to escape him at every word
overshadowed indeed by a slight sadness
yes monsieur i believe you are already acquainted with my views respecting this alliance yes monsieur replied raoul in a low tone of voice but you added that if i persisted
you do persist then raoul stammered out an almost unintelligible assent
must indeed be very great since notwithstanding my dislike to this union you persist in wanting it raoul passed his hand trembling across his forehead to remove the perspiration that collected there
he rose and said it is no matter my own personal feelings are not to be taken into consideration since yours are concerned i am ready to give it tell me what you want
your kind indulgence first of all monsieur said raoul taking hold of his hand you have mistaken my feelings raoul i have more than mere indulgence for you in my heart
raoul kissed as devotedly as a lover could have done the hand he held in his own
i am quite ready what do you wish me to sign nothing whatever monsieur only it would be very kind if you would take the trouble to write to the king to whom i belong
well thought raoul after or rather before myself you have a master to consult that master being the king
it is loyal in you to submit yourself voluntarily to this double proof i will grant your request without delay raoul the count approached the window and leaning out called to grimaud
who showed his head from an arbor covered with jasmine which he was occupied in trimming my horses grimaud continued the count why this order monsieur inquired raoul we shall set off in a few hours
whither for paris paris monsieur is not the king at paris certainly well ought we not to go there
yes monsieur said raoul almost alarmed by this kind condescension i do not ask you to put yourself to such inconvenience and a letter merely you mistake my position raoul
it is not respectful that a simple gentleman such as i am should write to his sovereign i wish to speak i ought to speak to the king and i will do so we will go together raoul
you overpower me with your kindness monsieur how do you think his majesty is affected towards me monsieur yes excellently well disposed
you know that to be so continued the count the king has himself told me so on what occasion
but i entreat you monsieur pursued raoul not to maintain towards me your present grave and serious manner do not make me bitterly regret having listened to a feeling stronger than anything else
that is the second time you have said so raoul it was quite unnecessary you require my formal consent and you have it we need talk no more on the subject therefore come and see my new plantations raoul
no opportunity of discussion was left him he bowed his head and followed his father into the garden
this perfect repose of manner disconcerted raoul extremely the affection with which his own heart was filled seemed so great that the whole world could hardly contain it
how then could his father's heart remain void and closed to its influence bragelonne therefore collecting all his courage suddenly exclaimed it is impossible monsieur
in heaven's name she is so good so gentle and pure that your mind so perfect in its penetration ought to appreciate her accordingly does any secret repugnance or any hereditary dislike
particularly the shadow which that sycamore tree casts over it so that the warmth and not the blazing heat of the sun filters through its leaves raoul stopped
i wish you to be distinguished by the splendor which glory and fortune confer for nobility of descent you have already monsieur exclaimed raoul carried away by a first impulse
i was reproached the other day for not knowing who my mother was
then knitting his brows like the greatest of all the heathen deities i am waiting to learn the reply you made he demanded in an imperious manner forgive me oh forgive me murmured the young man
sinking at once from the lofty tone he had assumed what was your reply monsieur inquired the count stamping his feet upon the ground monsieur my sword was in my hand immediately my adversary placed himself on guard
i struck his sword over the palisade and threw him after it why did you suffer him to live the king has prohibited duelling and at the moment i was an ambassador of the king very well
said athos but all the greater reason i should see his majesty what do you intend to ask him authority to draw my sword against the man who has inflicted this injury upon me
if i did not act as i ought to have done i beg you to forgive me did i reproach you raoul still the permission you are going to ask from the king
i will implore his majesty to sign your marriage contract but on one condition are conditions necessary with me monsieur command and you shall be obeyed
on the condition i repeat continued athos that you tell me the name of the man who spoke of your mother in that way what need is there that you should know his name
do you take me for a don diego his name i say you insist upon it i demand it the vicomte de wardes very well said athos tranquilly i know him
how saint monica was brought up by christian parents in the city of tagaste on the sunny northern coast of africa in the country which we now call algeria stood in the early days of christianity a city
not far distant lay the field of zarna where the glory of hannibal had perished for ever but rome had long since avenged the sufferings of her bitter struggle with carthage it was the ambition of roman africa
as the new colony had been called by its conquerors to be if possible more roman than rome every town had its baths its theatre its circus its temples its aqueducts
it was forbidden even to exiles as a place of refuge too much like home said the authorities it was about the middle of the fourth century the church was coming forth from her long imprisonment into the light of day
the successor of constantine in name a christian sat on the imperial throne the old struggle with paganism which had lasted for four hundred years was nearly at an end
but new dangers assailed the christian world men had found that it was easier to twist the truth than to deny it and heresy and schism were abroad
an old woman and a young girl sat together looking out into the dark shadows of the evening for the hot african sun had sunk not long since behind the numidian mountains and the day had gone out like a lamp
and the holy bishop cyprian asked the girl they sent him into exile said the old woman for his father had been a senator and his family was well known and powerful at that time they dared not put him to death
though later he too shed his blood for christ it was god's will that he should remain for many years to strengthen his flock in the trial did you ever see him grandmother asked the girl no said the old woman it was before my time
but my mother knew him well it was when he was a boy in carthage and still a pagan that the holy martyrs perpetua and felicitas suffered with their companions it was not till years after that he became a christian
but it may have been their death that sowed the first seed in his heart tell me said the girl softly it was an oft told tale of which she never tired her grandmother had lived through those dark days of persecution
and it was the delight of monica's girlhood to hear her tell the stories of those who had borne witness to the faith in their own land of africa perpetua was not much older than you said the old woman
she was of noble race and born of a christian mother though her father was a pagan she was married and had a little infant of a few months old when she was called before the tribunal of hilarion the roman governor
all were touched by her youth and beauty sacrifice to the gods they said and you shall go free i am a christian she answered and nothing more would she say press her as they might
her old father hastened to her side with the baby and laid it in her arms will you leave your infant motherless he asked and bring your old father's hairs in sorrow to the grave
have pity on the child cried the bystanders have pity on your father perpetua clasped her baby to her breast and her eyes filled with tears they thought she had yielded and brought her the incense
just one little grain on the brazier they said and you are free for the child's sake and your old father's she pushed it from her i am a christian she said god will keep my child
she was condemned with her companions to be thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre and they were taken away and cast into a dark dungeon every day they were tempted with promises of freedom to renounce the truth
the little babe of felicitas was born in the prison where they lay awaiting death a christian woman took the infant to bring it up in the faith the young mother never saw the face of her child in this world one word
one little motion of the hand and they were free restored again to their happy life of old and the homes that were so dear there were many alas in those cruel days who had not courage for the fight who sacrificed and went their way
not so these weak women once again they brought perpetua her little child to try to shake her constancy the prison was like a palace she said while its little downy head lay on her breast her father wept
and even struck her in his grief and anger i am a christian she said and gave him back the babe they were thrown to the wild beasts felicitas and perpetua who had been tossed by a wild cow
and so passed into the presence of her god monica drew a long breath so weak and yet so strong she said so it is my child said the old woman
it is those who are strong and true in the little things of life who are strong and true in the great trials it is hard to be always strong and true said the girl not if god's love comes always first answered the old woman
monica was silent she was thinking of her own young life and how with all the safeguards of a christian home about her she had narrowly escaped a great danger from her babyhood she had been brought up by her father's old nurse
monica though full of life and spirit had common sense and judgment beyond her years she had also a great love of god and of all that belonged to his holy service
and would spend hours kneeling in the church in a quiet corner it was there she brought all her childish troubles and her childish hopes it was to the invisible friend in the sanctuary that she confided all the secrets of her young heart
and above all that desire to suffer for him and for his church with which the stories of the martyrs had inspired her when the time slipped away too fast and she returned home late
she accepted humbly the correction that awaited her for she knew that she had disobeyed although unintentionally her nurse's orders monica had been wilfully disobedient once
and all her life long she would never forget the lesson her disobedience had taught her it was a rule of her old nurse that she should take nothing to drink between meals even in the hot days of summer in that sultry climate
if she had not courage to bear so slight a mortification as that the old woman would argue it would go ill with her in the greater trials of life monica had become used to the habit but when she was old enough to begin to learn the duties of housekeeping
her mother had desired that she should go every day to the cellar to draw the wine for the midday meal a maid servant went with her to carry the flagon and the child feeling delightfully important filled and refilled the little cup which was used to draw the wine from the cask
and emptied it carefully into the wine jar when all was finished a few drops remaining in the cup a spirit of mischief took sudden possession of monica and she drained it off making a wry face as she did so at the strange taste
the maid servant laughed and continued to laugh when the performance was repeated the next day and the day after the strange taste became gradually less strange and less unpleasant to the young girl daily a few drops were added
until at last scarcely thinking what she did she would drink nearly the fill of the little cup while the servant laughed as of old but monica was quick and intelligent and was learning her household duties well
the woman turned on her young mistress angrily it is not for a wine bibber like you to find fault with me she retorted monica stood horrified the woman's insolent word had torn the veil from her eyes
whither was she drifting into what depths might that one act of disobedience so lightly committed have led her had not god in his mercy intervened she never touched wine for the rest of her life unless largely diluted with water
god had taught her that he who despises small things shall fall by little and little and monica had learnt her lesson she had learnt to distrust herself and self distrust makes one marvellously gentle with others
she had learnt too to put her trust in god and trust in god makes one marvellously strong she had been taught to love the poor and the suffering
unselfish god had work for monica to do in his world as he has for us all if we will only do it and he had given her what was needful for her task that night on the way to her chamber
as the young girl passed the place where she had sat with her grandmother earlier in the day she paused a moment and looked out between the tall pillars into the starlit night where the palm trees stood like dark shadows against the deep deep blue of the sky
she clasped her hands and her lips moved in prayer oh god she murmured to suffer for thee and for thy faith god heard the whispered prayer and answered it later
who in the first moment of their conversion shook themselves wholly free from the trammels of the past and never looked back again
thou hast broken my bonds in sunder cries saint augustine to thee will i offer the sacrifice of praise honours wealth pleasure
and didst come in thyself instead of them and i sang to thee my lord god my true honour my riches and my salvation the vacation was close at hand augustine resolved to give up his professorship
and to go away quietly to prepare himself for baptism verecundus one of the little group of faithful friends who surrounded him had a country house in cassiacum which he offered for his use while he remained in italy
it was a happy party that gathered within its walls there were augustine and his younger brother navigius the faithful alypius who was to receive baptism with his friend licentius and trigetius augustine's two pupils
and several others lastly there was monica who was a mother to them all and whose sunny presence did much to enliven the household it was autumn an italian mid september the country was a glory of green and gold and crimson
the apennines lying like purple shadows in the distance here in the seclusion that was so dear to his heart augustine read the psalms for the first time his soul was on fire with their beauty every word carried him to god
monica read with him and he tells us that he would often turn to her for an explanation for he continues she was walking steadily in the path in which i was as yet feeling my way there were other studies besides to be carried on
and saint augustine tells us of some of the interesting discussions that were held on the lawn or in the hall of the baths which they used when the weather was not fine enough to go out one morning
when he and his pupils were talking of the wonderful harmony and order that exist in nature the door opened and monica looked in how are you getting on she asked for she knew what they were discussing augustine invited her to join them but monica smiled
i have never heard of a woman amongst the philosophers she said that is a mistake replied augustine there were women philosophers amongst the ancients and you know my dear mother that i like your philosophy very much
philosophy means nothing else but love of wisdom now you love wisdom more even than you love me and i know how much that is why you are so far advanced in wisdom that you fear no ill fortune not even death itself
everybody says that this is the very height of philosophy i will therefore sit at your feet as your disciple monica still smiling told her son that he had never told so many lies in his life in spite of her protests however they would not let her go
the discussions says saint augustine owed a good deal of their beauty to her presence the fifteenth of november was augustine's birthday
their souls might be fed also
that we are made up of soul and body to this everybody agreed but navigius who was inclined to argue and who said he did not know do you mean asked augustine that there is nothing at all that you do know
or that of the few things you do not know this is one navigius was a little put out at this question but they pacified him and at last persuaded him to say
must not the soul have its food too asked augustine and what is that food is it not knowledge monica agreed to this but trigetius objected why you yourself said monica are a living proof of it
did you not tell us at dinner that you did not know what you were eating because you were lost in thought yet your teeth were working all the time where was your soul at that moment if not feeding too then augustine reminding them that it was his birthday
said that as he had already given them a little feast for the body he would now give them one for the soul were they hungry he asked there was an eager chorus of assent can a man be happy he said if he has not what he wants
and is he happy if he has it monica was the first to answer this question if he wants what is good and has it she replied he is happy but if he wants what is bad he is not happy even if he has it
well said mother cried augustine you have reached the heights of philosophy at a single bound someone then said that if a man were needy he could not be happy finally they all agreed that only he who possessed god
could be wholly happy but the discussion had gone on for a long time and augustine suggested that the soul might have too much nourishment as well as the body and that it would be better to put off the rest until to morrow the discussion was continued next day
since only he who possesses god can be happy who is he who possesses god asked augustine and they were all invited to give their opinion he that leads a good life answered one he who does god's will said another
he who is pure of heart said a third navigius would not say anything but agreed with the last speaker monica approved of them all saint augustine continued it is god's will that all should seek him
of course they all replied can he who seeks god be leading a bad life certainly not they said can a man who is not pure in heart seek god no they agreed then
said augustine what have we here a man who leads a good life does god's will and is pure of heart is seeking god but he does not yet possess him therefore we cannot uphold that they who lead good lives
do god's will and are pure of heart possess god they all laughed at the trap in which he had caught them but monica saying that she was slow to grasp these things asked to have the argument repeated
then she thought a moment no one can possess god without seeking him she said true said augustine but while he is seeking he does not yet possess
but those who live well have him for their friend and those who live badly make themselves his enemies let us change the statement he who possesses god is happy to
he who has god for his friend is happy all agreed to this but navigius no he said for this reason if he is happy who has god for his friend and god is the friend of those who seek him
and those who seek him do not possess him for to this all have agreed then it is obvious that those who are seeking god have not what they want and we all agreed yesterday that a man cannot be happy
that he who has found god has him for his friend and is happy but he who is still seeking god has him for his friend but is not yet happy he however who has separated himself from god by sin
has neither god for his friend nor is he happy this satisfied everybody the other side of the question was then considered in what did unhappiness consist asked augustine
monica maintained that neediness and unhappiness must go together
needy and unhappy augustine then supposed a man who had everything he wanted in this world could it be said that he was needy yet was it certain that he was happy
that fear replied augustine would make him unhappy but would not make him needy therefore we could have a man who is unhappy without being needy to this everyone agreed but monica
who still argued that unhappiness could not be separated from neediness this supposed man of yours she said rich and fortunate still fears to lose his good fortune that shows that he wants wisdom
can we call a man who wants money needy and not call him so when he wants wisdom at this remark there was a general outcry of admiration it was the very argument said augustine that he had meant to use himself
nothing said licentius could have been more truly and divinely said what indeed is more wretched than to lack wisdom and the wise man can never be needy whatever else he lacks
augustine then went on to define wisdom the wisdom that makes us happy he said is the wisdom of god and the wisdom of god is the son of god perfect life is the only happy life
he continued and to this by means of firm faith cheerful hope and burning love we shall surely be brought if we but hasten towards it so the discussion ended and all were content
oh cried trigetius how i wish you would provide us with a feast like this every day moderation in all things answered augustine if this has been a pleasure to you it is god alone that you must thank
so the happy innocent days flew past in the pursuit of that wisdom which is eternal
o beauty ever ancient ever new cried augustine behold thou wast within me and i was abroad and there i sought thee i have tasted thee and i am hungry after thee
thou hast touched me and i am all on fire at the beginning of lent augustine and alypius returned to milan to attend the course of instructions which saint ambrose was to give to those who were preparing for baptism
how saint monica lived in the pagan household of her husband patricius although there were many christians in roman africa
pagan manners and customs still survived in many of her cities the people clung to their games in the circus the cruel and bloody combats of the arena which though forbidden by constantine were still winked at by provincial governors
they scarcely pretended to believe in their religion but they held to the old pagan festivals
the paganism of the fourth century with its motto let us eat drink and be merry imposed no self denial it was therefore bound to be popular but unrestrained human nature is a dangerous thing
if men are content to live as the beasts that perish they fall as far below their level as god meant them to rise above it and the roman empire was falling to pieces through its own corruption in africa the worship of the old punic gods
to whom living children used to be offered in sacrifice had still its votaries
it was hard for the christian bishops to keep their flocks untainted for there were enemies on every side
patricius he held a good position in the town for he belonged to a family which though poor was noble
monica knew little of her future husband save that he was nearly twice her age and a pagan but it was the custom for parents to arrange all such matters and she had only to obey
that things might go hard with their daughter in the meantime they did not seem to foresee monica took her new trouble where she had been used to take the old
kneeling in her favourite corner in the church she asked help and counsel of the friend who never fails she had had her girlish ideals of love and marriage she had dreamt of a strong arm on which she could lean
of a heart and soul that would be at one with her in all that was most dear of two lives spent together in god's love and service and now it seemed that it was she who would have to be strong for both
to strive and to suffer to bring her husband's soul out of darkness
would she succeed and if not what would be that married life which lay before her she did not dare to think she must not fail and yet thou in me o lord she prayed again
and again through her tears
she laid the ideals of her girlhood at the feet of him who lets no sacrifice however small go unrewarded she would be true to this new trust she resolved cost what it might
things certainly did not promise well for the young bride's happiness patricius lived with his mother a woman of strong passions like himself and devoted to her son she was bitterly jealous of the young girl who had stolen his affections
and had made up her mind to dislike her the slaves of the household followed of course their mistress's lead and tried to please her by inventing stories against monica
patricius who loved his young wife with the only kind of love of which he was capable had nothing in common with her and had no clue to her thoughts or actions he had neither reverence nor respect for women
indeed most of the women of his acquaintance were deserving of neither and he had chosen monica for her beauty much as he would have chosen a horse or a dog he thought her ways and ideas extraordinary
she took as kindly an interest in the slaves as if they had been of her own flesh and blood and would even intercede to spare them a beating she liked the poor and would gather these dirty and unpleasant people about her
going so far even as to wash and dress their sores patricius did not share her attraction and objected strongly to such proceedings but monica pleaded so humbly and sweetly that he gave way
and let her do what seemed to cause her so much pleasure there was no accounting for tastes he remarked she would spend hours in the church praying with her great eyes fixed on the altar true she was never there at any time when she was likely to be missed by her husband
there was something about monica it is true that was altogether unlike any other inmate of the house as she went about her daily duties always watching for the chance of doing a kind action when patricius was in one of his violent tempers
shouting abusing and even striking everybody who came in his way she would look at him with gentle eyes that showed neither fear nor anger she never answered sharply even though his rude words wounded her cruelly
he had once raised his hand to strike her but he had not dared something he did not know what withheld him later when his anger had subsided and he was perhaps a little ashamed of his violence
she would meet him with an affectionate smile forgiving and forgetting all only if he spoke himself and touched at her generous forbearance tried shamefacedly to make amends for his treatment of her would she gently explain her conduct
more often she said nothing knowing that actions speak more loudly than words as her greatest biographer says of her she spoke little preached not at all
loved much and prayed unceasingly when the young wives of her acquaintance married like herself to pagan husbands complained of the insults and even blows which they had to bear
are you sure your own tongue is not to blame she would ask them laughingly and then with ready sympathy would do all she could to help and comfort and advise they would ask her secret for everyone knew that in spite of the violence of patricius's temper
he treated her with something that almost approached respect then she would bid them be patient and love and pray and meet harshness with gentleness and abuse with silence
and when they sometimes answered that it would seem weak to knock under in such a fashion monica would ask them if they thought it needed more strength to speak or to be silent when provoked and which was easier to smile
or to sulk when insulted many homes were happier in consequence for monica had a particular gift for making peace and even as a child had settled the quarrels of her young companions to everybody's satisfaction
to the outside world patricius's young wife seemed contented and happy she managed her affairs well people said and no one but god knew of the suffering that was her secret and his brought up in the peace and piety of a christian family
she had had no idea of the miseries of paganism now she had ample opportunity to study the effects of unchecked selfishness and of uncontrolled passions to see how low human nature
unrestrained by faith and love could fall her mother in law treated her with suspicion and dislike for the slaves never weary of inventing fresh stories against her misrepresented all her actions to their mistress
monica did not seem to notice unkindness repaying the many insults she received with little services tactfully rendered but she felt it deeply they do not know she would say to herself
and pray for them all the more earnestly offering her sufferings for these poor souls who were so far from the peace of christ how was the light to come to them if not through her how could they learn to love christ unless they learned to love his servants
and to see him in them the revelation must come through her if it was to come at all thou in me o lord she would pray and draw strength and courage at his feet for the daily suffering
the heart of patricius was like a neglected garden germs of generosity of nobility lay hidden under a rank growth of weeds that no one had ever been at any trouble to clear away the habits of a lifetime held him captive
the whole town began to talk of his neglect of his beautiful young wife monica suffered cruelly but in silence when he was at home which was but seldom she was serene and gentle as usual
she never reproached him and treated him with the same tender deference as of old patricius felt the charm of her presence all that was good in him responded but evil habits had gone far to stifle the good
and his lower nature cried out for base enjoyments he was not strong enough to break the chain which held him so monica wept and prayed in secret and god sent a ray of sunshine to brighten her sad life
three children were born to her during the early years of her marriage the name of augustine her eldest son will be for ever associated with that of his mother of the other two navigius and perpetua his sister we know little
navigius delicate in health was of a gentle and pious nature both he and perpetua married but the latter after her husband's death entered a monastery
every morning now brought its regular duties shops were to be visited some new part of the town to be looked at and the pump room to be attended where they paraded up and down for an hour
looking at everybody and speaking to no one the wish of a numerous acquaintance in bath was still uppermost with missus allen
and she repeated it after every fresh proof which every morning brought of her knowing nobody at all they made their appearance in the lower rooms and here fortune was more favourable to our heroine
the master of the ceremonies introduced to her a very gentlemanlike young man as a partner his name was tilney he seemed to be about four or five and twenty
was rather tall had a pleasing countenance a very intelligent and lively eye and if not quite handsome was very near it his address was good
and catherine felt herself in high luck there was little leisure for speaking while they danced but when they were seated at tea she found him as agreeable as she had already given him credit for being
he talked with fluency and spirit and there was an archness and pleasantry in his manner which interested though it was hardly understood by her
after chatting some time on such matters as naturally arose from the objects around them he suddenly addressed her with i have hitherto been very remiss madam
in the proper attentions of a partner here i have not yet asked you how long you have been in bath whether you were ever here before whether you have been at the upper rooms the theatre and the concert
and how you like the place altogether i have been very negligent but are you now at leisure to satisfy me in these particulars if you are i will begin directly
you need not give yourself that trouble sir no trouble i assure you madam then forming his features into a set smile and affectedly softening his voice he added with a simpering air
about a week sir replied catherine trying not to laugh really with affected astonishment why should you be surprised sir
why indeed said he in his natural tone but some emotion must appear to be raised by your reply and surprise is more easily assumed and not less reasonable than any other now let us go on
never sir indeed
yes sir i was there last monday have you been to the theatre yes sir i was at the play on tuesday to the concert yes sir
yes i like it very well now i must give one smirk and then we may be rational again catherine turned away her head not knowing whether she might venture to laugh
i see what you think of me said he gravely i shall make but a poor figure in your journal tomorrow my journal yes i know exactly what you will say
friday went to the lower rooms wore my sprigged muslin robe with blue trimmings plain black shoes appeared to much advantage
but was strangely harassed by a queer half witted man who would make me dance with him and distressed me by his nonsense indeed i shall say no such thing
if you please i danced with a very agreeable young man introduced by mister king had a great deal of conversation with him seems a most extraordinary genius
hope i may know more of him that madam is what i wish you to say but perhaps i keep no journal perhaps you are not sitting in this room and i am not sitting by you
not keep a journal how are your absent cousins to understand the tenour of your life in bath without one how are the civilities and compliments
of every day to be related as they ought to be unless noted down every evening in a journal how are your various dresses to be remembered and the particular state of your complexion
and curl of your hair to be described in all their diversities without having constant recourse to a journal my dear madam i am not so ignorant of young ladies ways as you wish to believe me
it is this delightful habit of journaling which largely contributes to form the easy style of writing for which ladies are so generally celebrated
everybody allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female nature may have done something but i am sure it must be essentially assisted by the practice of keeping a journal
said catherine doubtingly whether ladies do write so much better letters than gentlemen that is i should not think the superiority was always on our side
it appears to me that the usual style of letter writing among women is faultless except in three particulars and what are they a general deficiency of subject
a total inattention to stops and a very frequent ignorance of grammar upon my word i need not have been afraid of disclaiming the compliment you do not think too highly of us in that way
i should no more lay it down as a general rule that women write better letters than men than that they sing better duets or draw better landscapes in every power of which taste is the foundation
excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes they were interrupted by missus allen
i am afraid it has torn a hole already i shall be quite sorry if it has for this is a favourite gown though it cost but nine shillings a yard that is exactly what i should have guessed it madam
said mister tilney looking at the muslin
particularly well i always buy my own cravats and am allowed to be an excellent judge and my sister has often trusted me in the choice of a gown
i bought one for her the other day and it was pronounced to be a prodigious bargain by every lady who saw it i gave but five shillings a yard for it and a true indian muslin
how can you said catherine laughing be so she had almost said strange
replied missus allen and so i told miss morland when she bought it but then you know madam muslin always turns to some account or other miss morland will get enough out of it for a handkerchief
or a cap or a cloak muslin can never be said to be wasted i have heard my sister say so forty times when she has been extravagant in buying more than she wanted or careless in cutting it to pieces
bath is a charming place sir there are so many good shops here we are sadly off in the country not but what we have very good shops in salisbury
mister allen says it is nine measured nine but i am sure it cannot be more than eight and it is such a fag i come back tired to death
now here one can step out of doors and get a thing in five minutes mister tilney was polite enough to seem interested in what she said and she kept him on the subject of muslins till the dancing recommenced
catherine feared as she listened to their discourse that he indulged himself a little too much with the foibles of others what are you thinking of so earnestly
said he as they walked back to the ballroom not of your partner i hope for by that shake of the head your meditations are not satisfactory catherine coloured and said
i was not thinking of anything that is artful and deep to be sure but i had rather be told at once that you will not tell me well then i will not thank you
for now we shall soon be acquainted as i am authorized to tease you on this subject whenever we meet and nothing in the world advances intimacy so much they danced again
and when the assembly closed parted on the lady's side at least with a strong inclination for continuing the acquaintance
whether she thought of him so much while she drank her warm wine and water and prepared herself for bed as to dream of him when there cannot be ascertained
but i hope it was no more than in a slight slumber or a morning doze at most for if it be true as a celebrated writer has maintained
that no young lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman's love is declared it must be very improper that a young lady should dream of a gentleman before the gentleman is first known to have dreamt of her
how proper mister tilney might be as a dreamer or a lover had not yet perhaps entered mister allen's head but that he was not objectionable as a common acquaintance for his young charge
he was on inquiry satisfied for he had early in the evening taken pains to know who her partner was and had been assured of mister tilney's being a clergyman
but as christ found existence through the spirit of god he called himself the son of god if he had not done so this description would refer to him besides this
the events which he indicated as coming to pass in the days of that rod if interpreted symbolically were in part fulfilled in the day of christ but not all and if not interpreted then decidedly
none of these signs happened for example the leopard and the lamb the lion and the calf the child and the asp are metaphors and symbols for various nations
peoples antagonistic sects and hostile races who are as opposite and inimical as the wolf and lamb we say that by the breath of the spirit of christ
they found concord and harmony they were vivified and they associated together but they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the lord
as the waters cover the sea these conditions did not prevail in the time of the manifestation of christ
various and antagonistic nations exist in the world very few acknowledge the god of israel and the greater number are without the knowledge of god in the same way
universal peace did not come into existence in the time of christ that is to say between the antagonistic and hostile nations there was neither peace nor concord
disputes and disagreements did not cease and reconciliation and sincerity
and the darkness of enmity and hatred will be dispelled from the world universal peace will raise its tent in the center of the earth
to such an extent that it will overshadow the east and the west strong and weak rich and poor antagonistic sects and hostile nations which are like the wolf
and the lamb the leopard and kid the lion and the calf will act toward each other with the most complete love friendship justice and equity
the world will be filled with science with the knowledge of the reality of the mysteries of beings and with the knowledge of god now consider in this great century
which is the cycle of baha'u'llah what progress science and knowledge have made how many secrets of existence have been discovered how many great inventions have been brought to light
and are day by day multiplying in number before long material science and learning as well as the knowledge of god will make such progress and will show forth such wonders
that the beholders will be amazed then the mystery of this verse in isaiah
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the lord
reflect also that in the short time since baha'u'llah has appeared people from all countries nations and races have entered under the shadow of this cause christians jews
zoroastrians buddhists hindus and persians all associate together with the greatest friendship and love as if indeed these people had been related and connected together
they and theirs for a thousand years for they are like father and child mother and daughter sister and brother this is one of the meanings of the companionship of the wolf and the lamb
the leopard and the kid and the lion and the calf one of the great events which is to occur in the day of the manifestation of that
of the standard of god among all nations
these events did not take place in the christian cycle for the nations did not come under the one standard which is the divine branch but in this cycle of the lord of hosts
all the nations and peoples will enter under the shadow of this flag in the same way israel scattered all over the world was not reassembled in the holy land in the christian cycle
as is clearly stated in all the books of the prophets has begun to be manifest
avoid a succession of loose sentences this rule refers especially to loose sentences of a particular type those consisting of two co ordinate clauses
the second introduced by a conjunction or relative although single sentences of this type may be unexceptionable see under rule four a series soon becomes monotonous
and tedious an unskilful writer will sometimes construct a whole paragraph of sentences of this kind using as connectives
which when where and while these last in non restrictive senses see under rule three the third concert of the subscription series was given last evening
and a large audience was in attendance mister edward appleton was the soloist and the boston symphony orchestra furnished the instrumental music the former showed himself to be an artist of the first rank
the interest aroused by the series has been very gratifying to the committee and it is planned to give a similar series annually hereafter the fourth concert will be given on tuesday may tenth
when an equally attractive programme will be presented apart from its triteness and emptiness
because of the structure of its sentences with their mechanical symmetry and sing song contrast with them
or in any piece of good english prose as the preface before the curtain to vanity fair if the writer finds that he has written a series of sentences of the type described
to remove the monotony replacing them by simple sentences by sentences of two clauses joined by a semicolon by periodic sentences of two clauses
by sentences loose or periodic of three clauses whichever best represent the real relations of the thought fifteen express co ordinate ideas
in similar form this principle that of parallel construction requires that expressions of similar content and function should be outwardly similar
the likeness of form enables the reader to recognize more readily the likeness of content and function familiar instances from the bible are the ten commandments the beatitudes
and the petitions of the lord's prayer the unskillful writer often violates this principle from a mistaken belief that he should constantly vary the form of his expressions
it is true that in repeating a statement in order to emphasize it he may have need to vary its form for illustration see the paragraph from stevenson
but apart from this he should follow the principle of parallel construction
the left hand version gives the impression that the writer is undecided or timid he seems unable or afraid to choose one form of expression and hold to it the right hand version
shows that the writer has at least made his choice and abided by it by this principle
applying to all the members of a series
and the portuguese
correlative expressions both and not but not only but also either or
but for action either you must grant his request or incur his ill will you must either grant his request or incur his ill will
the injustice of the measure
that it is unconstitutional
see also the third example under rule twelve and the last under rule thirteen it may be asked what if a writer needs to express a very large number of similar ideas say twenty
must he write twenty consecutive sentences of the same pattern on closer examination
that his twenty ideas can be classified in groups and that he need apply the principle only within each group otherwise he had best avoid difficulty
by putting his statements in the form of a table sixteen keep related words together the position of the words in a sentence
is the principal means of showing their relationship the writer must therefore so far as possible bring together the words and groups of words that are related in thought
and keep apart those which are not so related the subject of a sentence and the principal verb should not as a rule be separated by a phrase or clause that can be transferred to the beginning
gives a minute description of this church
is changed into steel by treatment in a bessemer converter
cast iron is changed into steel the objection is that the interposed phrase or clause needlessly interrupts the natural order of the main clause
when the order is interrupted only by a relative clause or by an expression in apposition nor does it hold in periodic sentences in which the interruption
is a deliberately used means of creating suspense see examples under rule eighteen the relative pronoun should come as a rule immediately after its antecedent
that boded mischief
he published in harper's magazine three articles about his adventures in spain
who became president in eighteen eighty nine
he became president in eighteen eighty nine if the antecedent consists of a group of words the relative comes at the end of the group unless this would cause ambiguity
a proposal to amend the much debated sherman act
who was regarded with hostility by the whigs modifiers should come if possible next to the word they modify if several expressions modify the same word
they should be so arranged that no wrong relation is suggested all the members were not present not all the members were present he only found two mistakes
he found only two mistakes
follow this rule whatever the final consonant thus write charles's friend burns's poems the witch's malice
this is the usage of the united states government printing office and of the oxford university press exceptions
are the possessive of ancient proper names
and such forms as for conscience sake
for righteousness sake
but such forms as achilles heel moses laws isis temple are commonly replaced by the heel of achilles the laws of moses
the temple of isis the pronominal possessives hers its theirs yours and oneself have no apostrophe two
with a single conjunction use a comma after each term except the last thus write
and made a note of its contents this is also the usage of the government printing office and of the oxford university press in the names of business firms
the last comma is omitted as
three enclose parenthetic expressions between commas
unless you are pressed for time is
this rule is difficult to apply it is frequently hard to decide whether a single word such as however or a brief phrase
is or is not parenthetic if the interruption to the flow of the sentence is but slight the writer may safely omit the commas
but whether the interruption be slight or considerable
such punctuation as
colonel nelson paid us a visit yesterday
can no longer be reconstructed
sentences of this type isolated from their context may seem to be in need of rewriting as they make complete sense when the comma is reached the second clause
has the appearance of an afterthought further and is the least specific of connectives used between independent clauses it indicates only
that a relation exists between them without defining that relation in the example above the relation is that of cause and result the two sentences might be rewritten
the story of its first years can no longer be reconstructed
there is still one chance of escape or the subordinate clauses might be replaced by phrases owing to the disappearance of the early records of the city
the story of its first years can no longer be reconstructed
there is still one chance of escape but a writer may err
and an occasional loose sentence prevents the style from becoming too formal and gives the reader a certain relief consequently loose sentences of the type first quoted
are common in easy unstudied writing but a writer should be careful not to construct too many of his sentences after this pattern see rule fourteen
two part sentences of which the second member is introduced by as in the sense of because for or nor and while in the sense of
and at the same time likewise require a comma
this is much better than my first visit to boston will always be remembered by me the latter sentence is less direct less bold and less concise
if the writer tries to make it more concise by omitting by me my first visit to boston will always be remembered it becomes indefinite is it the writer
or some person undisclosed or the world at large that will always remember this visit
which is frequently convenient and sometimes necessary the dramatists of the restoration are little esteemed to day
the first would be the right form in a paragraph on the dramatists of the restoration
the need of making a particular word the subject of the sentence will often as in these examples determine which voice is to be used
depend directly upon another gold was not allowed to be exported
the export of gold was prohibited he has been proved to have been seen entering the building it has been proved that he was seen to enter the building
in both the examples above before correction the word properly related to the second passive is made the subject of the first a common fault
is to use as the subject of a passive construction
leaving to the verb no function beyond that of completing the sentence a survey of this region was made in nineteen hundred this
region was surveyed in nineteen hundred
he usually came late he did not think that studying latin was much use he thought the study of latin useless the taming of the shrew is rather weak in spots
shakespeare does not portray katharine as a very admirable character nor does bianca remain long in memory as an important character in shakespeare's works
the women in the taming of the shrew are unattractive katharine is disagreeable bianca insignificant the last example before correction is indefinite as well as negative
the corrected version consequently is simply a guess at the writer's intention all three examples show the weakness inherent in the word not
consciously or unconsciously the reader is dissatisfied with being told only what is not he wishes to be told what is hence as a rule
not honest dishonest not important trifling did not remember forgot did not pay any attention to ignored
did not have much confidence in distrusted the antithesis of negative and positive is strong not charity but simple justice
a sentence should contain no unnecessary words a paragraph no unnecessary sentences for the same reason that a drawing
this requires not that the writer make all his sentences short
many expressions in common use violate this principle the question as to whether whether the question whether there is no doubt but that no doubt
doubtless used for fuel purposes used for fuel he is a man who he in a hasty manner hastily this is a subject which
this subject his story is a strange one his story is strange in especial the expression the fact that should be revised out of every sentence in which it occurs
owing to the fact that since because in spite of the fact that though although call your attention to the fact that remind you notify you
i was unaware of the fact that i was unaware that did not know the fact that he had not succeeded his failure the fact that i had arrived my arrival
see also under case character nature system
who is which was and the like are often superfluous
his brother a member of the same firm trafalgar which was nelson's last battle trafalgar nelson's last battle as positive statement is more concise than negative
and the active voice more concise than the passive many of the examples given under rules eleven and twelve illustrate this rule as well a common violation of conciseness
is the presentation of a single complex idea step by step
the witches told him that this wish of his would come true the king of scotland at this time was duncan encouraged by his wife macbeth murdered duncan
he was thus enabled to succeed duncan as king
holidays at roselands
chapter one oh truth thou art whilst tenant in a noble breast a crown of crystal
elsie felt in better spirits in the morning her sleep had refreshed her and she arose with a stronger confidence in the love of both her earthly and her heavenly father she found her papa ready and waiting for her
he took her in his arms and kissed her tenderly my precious little daughter he said papa is very glad to see you looking so bright and cheerful this morning i think something was wrong with my little girl last night why did she not come to papa with her trouble
why did you think i was in trouble papa she asked hiding her face on his breast
now tell me what troubled you my own one i am afraid you will be angry with me papa she said almost under her breath not half so angry as if you refuse to give me your confidence
and you need not fear that any other can ever take your place in my heart or that i will make any connection that would render you unhappy i want no one to love but my little girl and you must not let the gossip of the servants disturb you
she lay still on his breast for a moment then raising her eyes timidly to his face again she said in a half hesitating way i am afraid it is very naughty in me papa but i can't help thinking that miss stevens is very disagreeable
i don't think i am just the proper person to reprove you for that he replied trying to look grave for i am afraid i am as naughty as you are but we won't talk any more about her see what i have for you this morning
he pointed to the table where lay a pile of prettily bound books which elsie had not noticed until this moment they were abbot's works
i was sorry for your disappointment yesterday he said but i hope these will make up for it and they will give you a great deal of useful information as well as amusement while it could only be an injury to you to read that trashy book elsie was turning over the books with eager delight
dear papa you are so kind and good to me she said laying them down to put her arms around his neck and kiss him
that is my own darling child said he returning her caress your ready obedience deserved a reward now put on your hat and we will take our walk
leaving it bright and beaming as usual her father had one hand and mister travilla soon possessed himself of the other i don't altogether like these company days when you have to be banished from the table little elsie he remarked
i cannot half enjoy my breakfast without your bright face to look at i don't like them either mister travilla because i see so little of papa i haven't had a ride with him since the company came you shall have one this afternoon if nothing happens said her father quickly
what do you say travilla to a ride on horseback with the four young ladies you took charge of yesterday and myself bravo i shall be delighted to be of the party if the ladies don't object eh elsie what do you think with a questioning look down into her glad face will they want me
i like you next to papa and i believe lucy and the rest like you better oh take care elsie are you not afraid of hurting his feelings no danger as long as she puts me first mister dinsmore said
caroline howard was in elsie's room waiting to show her bracelet which had just been handed to her by her maid pomp having brought it from the city late the night before
i have been waiting for half an hour i should think to show you these she said as elsie came in from her walk but how bright and merry you look so different from last night what ailed you then never mind replied elsie taking the bracelet from her hand and examining it
oh this is very pretty carry the clasp is so beautiful and they have braided the hair so nicely yes i'm sure mamma will like it but now that christmas is gone i think i will keep it for a new year's gift wouldn't you elsie
yes perhaps but i want to tell you carry what papa says
riding on horseback this afternoon don't you think it will be pleasant oh it will be grand exclaimed carry elsie i think now that your papa is very kind and do you know i like him very much indeed quite as well as i do mister travilla
and i always liked him he's so pleasant and so funny too sometimes but i must go and show my bracelet to lucy hark no there's the bell and i'll just leave it here until after breakfast elsie opened a drawer and laid it carefully in and they ran off to the nursery
elsie said her father when they had finished the morning lessons there is to be a children's party to night at mister carleton's and i have an invitation for you would you like to go do you wish me to go papa she asked
not unless you wish to do so daughter he said kindly i cannot go with you as there are to be none but little people and i never feel altogether comfortable in seeing my darling go from home without me
and you will no doubt be very late in returning and getting to bed and i fear will feel
but this once at least you shall just please yourself
he smiled and stroked her hair softly but said nothing are you going to stay at home papa she asked presently yes daughter i expect to spend the evening either in this room or the library as i have letters to write
oh then papa please let me stay with you
will you papa please say yes but you know i cannot talk to you or let you talk
and smiling down into the eager little face oh but if you will only let me sit beside you and read one of my new books i shall be quite contented
mayn't i papa i said you should do as you pleased darling and i always love to have my pet near me
then with a happy little sigh it will be so nice she said to have one of our quiet evenings again and she knew by her father's gratified look
a servant put his head in at the door
very well jim tell him i will be there in a moment elsie dear put away your books and go down to your little friends yes papa i will she replied as he went out and left her
how kind papa is to me and how i do love him she murmured to herself as she placed the books carefully in the drawer where they belonged she found lucy and mary busily engaged in dressing a doll and carry deeply interested in a book
well what shall we play asked elsie good naturedly will you build houses
she isn't at all polite to visitors is she flora
i don't care retorted enna angrily and i don't take all the blocks either well most all you do said the other and it isn't polite
enna answered with a pout that by no means improved her appearance will you play o sister o phebe asked elsie no no cried several little voices enna always wants to be in the middle
suddenly shut his book saying i tell you what elsie tell us one of those nice fairy stories we all like so much yes do do cried several of the little ones clapping their hands so elsie drew up a stool close to herbert's sofa
and the little ones clustered around her enna insisting on having the best place for hearing and for more than an hour
i am going down to the drawing room to ask aunt adelaide to show me how to crochet this mitten for mammy elsie answered
elsie glanced hastily around as they entered and gave a satisfied little sigh on perceiving that miss stevens was not in the room and that her aunt adelaide was seated with her embroidery near one of the windows while her papa sat near by reading the morning paper
the little girls soon established themselves in a group on the opposite side of miss adelaide's window and she very good naturedly gave elsie the assistance she needed
it was quite late when the young party returned and the next day all were dull and more than one peevish and fretful so that elsie on whom fell almost entirely the burden of entertaining them had quite a trying time
but said at once that he might come to her room and that there they could be quite alone as mammy would be down stairs getting her breakfast she led the way and arthur followed he glanced hastily around on entering and then locked the door and stood with his back against it
elsie became very pale you needn't be afraid he said sneeringly i'm not going to hurt you what do you want arthur tell me quickly please because i must soon go to papa and i have a lesson to look over first she said mildly
at the piano because you didn't choose to play what he told you to
now be a good obliging girl come and let me have the money oh arthur you've been gambling how could you do so she exclaimed with a horrified look it is so very wicked you'll go to ruin arthur if you keep on in such bad ways
and pay your debts and then you will feel a great deal happier tell papa indeed never i'd die first elsie you must lend me the money he said seizing her by the wrist let go of me arthur she said
you are stronger than i am but you know if you hurt me papa will be sure to find it out
just what it went for and that would be much worse for you arthur
a great deal worse i am sure you could manage it well enough if you wanted to said he sullenly
and a few pounds to the tobacco that you bought so much of for the old servants
arthur she exclaimed i could never do such a wicked thing i would not deceive papa so for any money and even if i did he would be sure to find it out
arthur put his hand on the lock then turning toward elsie again for an instant shook his fist in her face muttering with an oath
for escaping detection she at length decided
she had a trying time that day endeavoring to keep the children amused and her ingenuity and patience were taxed to the utmost to think of stories and games that would please them all
she was trying to amuse enna's set while her three companions and herbert were taking care of themselves they had sat down on the floor and were playing jack stones let us play jack stones too said flora
no flora i cannot indeed for papa says i must not play that game because he does not like to have me sit down on the floor replied elsie we must try to think of something else
i don't know perhaps we could but papa said i mustn't play it replied elsie shaking her head doubtfully
several other little ones joined their entreaties to flora's and at length elsie said well
was more than half afraid to prefer her request and very much inclined to go back without doing so but as she stood a moment irresolute he looked up from his book and seeing who it was smiled and held out his hand
papa some of the little ones want me to play jack stones to teach them how may i if we don't sit on the floor elsie he replied in a tone of great displeasure it was only the other day that i positively forbade you to play that game
and not daring to utter another word trembling and weeping she hastened from the room and shut herself up as he had bidden her
it was a dismal place to be in and poor elsie wondered how long she would have to stay there it seemed a long long time so long that she began to think it must be night and to fear that perhaps her papa had forgotten all about having sent her there
or that he considered her so very naughty as to deserve to stay there all night but at last she heard his step
elsie yes papa i am here she replied in a trembling voice full of tears come to me he said and then as he took her hand why how cold you are child he exclaimed
i am really sorry you have been so long in that dismal place i did not intend to punish you so severely and should not have kept you there more than half an hour at the very longest
my poor darling he said these little hands are very cold
held her feet out toward the blaze and rubbed them in his warm hands you have been crying a good deal he said looking keenly into her face yes papa she replied dropping her face on his breast and bursting into tears
i thought you were going to leave me there all night did you and were you afraid no papa not afraid
and besides god could take care of me as well in the closet as anywhere else is it getting night papa or morning it is beginning to grow dark he said
partly because i was uncomfortable papa but more because i was sorry i had been naughty and displeased you and afraid that i can never learn to be good it is very strange he remarked that you cannot learn not
and that you are never to coax or tease after papa has once said it i love my little girl very dearly
but i must have her entirely submissive and obedient to me but stop crying now he added wiping her eyes with his handkerchief
going to be a good girl and i will forgive you this time i will try papa she said holding up her face for the kiss
did i give that reason he asked gravely no papa she replied hanging her head then you had no right to think so
that play enlarges the knuckles and i don't choose to have these little hands of mine robbed of their beauty he added playfully raising them to his lips
is it so very hard to give up jack stones he asked no papa i don't care anything about that but i was just thinking how very naughty i must be growing
and then i have had such a hard day of it it was so difficult to amuse the children
ah he said in a sympathizing tone and had you all the burden of entertaining them where were louise and lora they are hardly ever with us papa we are too little to play with them they say
and she paused and the color rushed over her face with the sudden thought i am afraid i am telling tales and so they put upon you all the trouble of entertaining both your own company and theirs eh it
is shameful a downright imposition and i shall not put up with it he exclaimed indignantly i shall speak to lora and louise and tell them they must do their share of the work
will be so vexed and suppose they are they shall not hurt you he said drawing her closer to him and they have no reason to be i think the children will all want to go to bed early to night he added and then
you can come here and sit by me while you copy your letter shall you like that very much papa thank you
you may come back to me elsie had to make haste for the tea bell rang almost immediately the others were just taking their places at the table when she entered the room and thus their attention being occupied with the business in hand
she escaped the battery of questions and looks of curiosity which she had feared flora did turn round after a little to ask why didn't you come back elsie
as mister dinsmore had expected the children were all ready for bed directly after tea and then elsie went to him and had another quiet evening
for all the troubles and trials of the day
was if possible even more than usually tender and affectionate in his manner toward her
and feeling somewhat ashamed of their want of politeness they went into the children's room after breakfast and exerted themselves for an hour or two for the entertainment of the little ones it was but a spasmodic effort however and they soon grew weary of the exertion and again let the burden fall upon elsie
she did the best she could poor child
when the door opened and closed again very quietly and his little girl stole softly to his side and laying her head on his shoulder stood there without uttering a word for hours she had been exerting herself to the utmost to amuse the young guests her efforts thwarted again and again
by the petulance and unreasonableness of walter and enna she had also borne much teasing from arthur and fault finding from missus dinsmore to whom enna was continually carrying tales until at length no longer able to endure it
my little girl is tired he said passing his arm affectionately around her
she burst into tears and sobbed quite violently why what is it darling what troubles my own sweet child he asked in a tone of mingled surprise and alarm as he hastily laid aside his book and drew her to his knee nothing papa
at least nothing very bad i believe i am very silly she replied trying to smile through her tears it must have been something elsie he said very gravely something quite serious i think to affect you so tell me what it was daughter
please don't ask me papa she begged imploringly i hate concealments elsie and shall be very much displeased if you try them with me he answered almost sternly dear papa don't be angry she pleaded
in a tremulous tone i don't want to have any concealments from you but you know i ought not to tell tales you won't make me do it is that it he said kissing her no i shall not ask you to tell tales but
tis easier for the generous to forgive than for offence to ask it thomson's edmund and eleonora the last day of the old year had come
the afternoon was bright and warm for the season and the little folks at roselands were unanimously in favor of a long walk they set out soon after dinner all in high good humor except arthur who was moody and silent
whom he had not yet forgiven for her refusal to lend him money but no one seemed to notice it and for some time nothing occurred to mar their enjoyment at length some of the older ones seeing that the sun was getting low called to the others that it was time to return
and all turned their faces homeward walking more soberly and silently along than at first for they were beginning to feel somewhat fatigued they were climbing a steep hill elsie and caroline howard reached the top first
elsie stooped to pick up a pebble and arthur darting quickly past her managed to give her a push
all was now terror and confusion among the children the little ones who all loved elsie dearly began to scream and cry harry lucy carry and mary rushed down the path again as fast as they could and were soon standing pale and breathless
beside the still form of their little companion carry was the only one who seemed to have any presence of mind
yes yes here here quick quick oh carry say she isn't dead
moaned as if in great pain and relapsed again into insensibility so like death that carry shuddered and trembled with fear
before mister dinsmore came although it was in reality but a few moments as harry ran very fast and mister dinsmore sprang into the carriage which was at the door some of the party having just returned from a drive the instant he heard the news
calling to harry to accompany him and bidding the coachman drive directly to the spot with all speed the moment they were off he began questioning the boy closely
harry could not tell much about it she had fallen down the hill he said but he did not see what made her fall was she much hurt mister dinsmore asked his voice trembling a little in spite of himself harry
did not know but feared she was pretty badly injured was she insensible yes she was when i left harry said
in another moment they had stopped and flinging open the door he sprang to the ground and hurried toward the little group who were still gathered about elsie just as harry had left them some looking on with pale frightened faces others sobbing aloud
walter was crying quite bitterly and even enna had the traces of tears on her cheeks as for arthur he trembled and shuddered at the thought that he was perhaps already a murderer and frightened and full of remorse
again elsie opened her eyes and smiled faintly as she saw him bending over her my precious one he murmured in a low moved tone as he gently lifted her in his arms are you much hurt are you in pain yes papa she answered feebly
where darling my ankle papa it pains me terribly and i think i must have hit my head it hurts me so
no one replied please papa don't ask she pleaded in a faint voice
who was near her he asked glancing sternly around the little circle arthur said several voices arthur quailed beneath the terrible glance of his brother's eye as he turned it upon him exclaiming bitterly
yes i understand it all now i believe you will never be satisfied until you have killed her dear papa please take me home and don't scold poor arthur pleaded elsie's sweet gentle voice i am not so very badly hurt
and i am sure he is very sorry for me yes darling he said i will take you home and will try to do so without hurting you and nothing could exceed the tenderness with which he bore her to the carriage supported her in his arms during the short ride
jim had brought the doctor and mister dinsmore immediately requested him to make a careful examination of the child's injuries he did so and reported a badly sprained ankle and a slight bruise on the head nothing more
are you quite sure doctor that her spine has sustained no injury asked the father anxiously adding there is scarcely anything i should so dread for her as that none whatever
replied the physician confidently and mister dinsmore looked greatly relieved my back does not hurt me at all papa i don't think i struck it elsie said looking up lovingly into his face how did you happen to fall my dear asked the doctor
if you please sir i would rather not tell she replied while the color rushed over her face and then instantly faded away again leaving her deathly pale she was suffering great pain but bearing it bravely
the doctor was dressing the injured ankle and her father sat by the sofa holding her hand you need not darling he answered kissing her cheek thank you papa she said gratefully then whispered won't you stay with me till tea time
if you are not busy yes daughter and all the evening too perhaps all night she looked her happiness and thanks and the doctor praised her patience and fortitude and having given directions concerning the treatment of the wounded limb
bade his little patient good night saying he would call again in the morning mister dinsmore followed him to the door that's a sweet child mister dinsmore he remarked i don't know how any one could have the heart to injure her but i think there has been foul play somewhere
that i shall you may rest assured sir but tell me doctor do you think her ankle very seriously injured not permanently i hope indeed i feel quite sure of it if she is well taken care of and not allowed to use it too soon
but these sprains are tedious things and she will not be able to walk for some weeks good night sir don't be too anxious she will get over it in time and you may be thankful it is nothing worse i am indeed doctor mister dinsmore said
my poor little pet he said pityingly you will have a sad new year's day fastened down to your couch
shall i papa then you will have to stay by me all day long and so i will dearest he said leaning fondly over her and stroking back the hair from her forehead are you in much pain now darling he asked
as he noticed a slight contraction of her brow and an almost deadly pallor around her mouth yes papa a good deal she answered faintly and i feel so weak
i want to lay my head against you
yes papa but oh it aches very much she sighed my poor little daughter my poor little pet
the tea bell rang and elsie half started up lie still dearest her father said i am in no hurry for my tea
and i will hold you while you eat it what will you have you may ask for anything you want i don't know papa whatever you please well then aunt chloe
and she can take her choice bring a cup of hot tea too i think it may do her good to night thank you dear papa you are so kind elsie said gratefully
when the carriage had driven off with mister dinsmore and elsie the rest of the young party at once turned their steps toward the house arthur skulking in the rear and the others eagerly discussing the accident as they went
arthur pushed her down i am sure he did said lucy positively i believe he hates her like poison and he has been at her about something the several days past i know it just by the way i've seen him look at her
yes ever since the morning after the carleton party and now i remember i heard his voice talking angrily in her room that very morning
and when i tried the door it was locked and i went away again directly but what has that to do with elsie's fall asked mary leslie
somewhat impatiently really mary you seem quite stupid sometimes mary looked hurt
such a dear sweet little girl as elsie remarked carry howard no nor i said harry
and it seems to me she could not possibly have fallen of herself besides it was evident enough that arthur felt guilty from the way he acted when mister dinsmore came and when he spoke to him but perhaps he did not do it quite on purpose oh exclaimed mary
looks can't hurt observed harry wisely but i wouldn't be in arthur's shoes just now for considerable because i'll venture to say mister dinsmore will do something a good deal worse than look before he is done with him
when they reached the house lucy went directly to her mamma's room herbert
they had not heard of the accident and were quite startled by lucy's excited manner
we have had such a dreadful accident
and i just expect he'll kill her some day the mean wicked boy and she burst into tears if i were mister dinsmore i'd have him put in jail so i would she sobbed lucy my child what are you talking about
asked her mother with a look of mingled surprise and alarm while herbert started up asking is it elsie oh lucy is she much hurt yes sobbed lucy
we all thought she was dead it was so long before she spoke or moved or even opened her eyes herbert was crying too now as bitterly as his sister but lucy dear said her mother wiping her eyes you haven't told us anything yet
if you had seen him look at arthur but what did arthur do asked herbert anxiously he pushed her down that steep hill that you remember you were afraid to try to climb the other day at least we all think he did
but surely he did not do it intentionally said missus carrington for why should he wish to harm such a sweet gentle little creature as elsie oh mamma exclaimed herbert
and he grew very pale and almost gasped for breath what is it herbert dear what
for he had fallen back on his pillow and seemed almost ready to faint mamma he said with a shudder mamma i believe i know oh why didn't i speak before and perhaps poor little elsie might have been saved all this
i will tell you mama as well as i can he said and then you must tell me what i ought to do you know mamma i went out to walk with the rest the afternoon after that party at mister carleton's
for if you remember i had stayed at home the night before and gone to bed very early and so i felt pretty well and able to walk but elsie was not with us i don't know where she could have been she always thinks of my lameness and walks slowly when i am along
but this time they all walked so fast that i soon grew very tired indeed with trying to keep up so i sat down on a log to rest well mamma i had not been there very long when i heard voices near me on the other side of some bushes that i suppose must have
prevented them from seeing me one voice was arthur's but the other i didn't know i didn't want to be listening but i was too tired to move on so i whistled a little to let them know i was there they didn't seem to care though but went on talking quite loud
so loud that i could not help hearing almost every word and so i soon learned that arthur owed dick percival a gambling debt a debt of honor they called it and had sent this other boy whom arthur called bob to try to collect it
he reminded arthur that he had promised to pay that day and said dick must have it to pay some debts of his own arthur acknowledged that he had promised expecting to borrow the money from somebody i didn't hear the name
but it must have been elsie for i recollect he said she wouldn't lend him anything without telling horace all about it and that you know is mister dinsmore's name
he talked very angrily saying he knew that was only an excuse because she didn't wish to do him a favor and he'd pay her for it some day then they talked about the debt again
when arthur said he would receive his monthly allowance and so would certainly be able to pay it now mamma concluded herbert what ought i to do do you think it is my duty to tell arthur's father yes herbert i do
said missus carrington because it is very important that he should know of his son's evil courses that he may put a stop to them and besides if arthur should escape punishment this time elsie may be in danger from him again
who overheard the conversation but it cannot be helped and we must do our duty always
herbert drew a deep sigh well mamma
uncle wiggily have you anything special to do today asked tommie kat the little kitten boy one morning as he knocked on the door of the hollow stump bungalow where mister longears the rabbit gentleman lived
anything special to do why no i guess not answered the bunny uncle i just have to go walking to look for an adventure to happen to me and then
didn't you promise to go to the five and ten cent store for me and buy me a pair of diamond earrings asked nurse jane fuzzy wuzzy the muskrat lady housekeeper oh so i did
cried uncle wiggily i had forgotten about that but i'll go what was it you wanted of me he asked tommie kat who was making a fishpole of his tail by standing it straight up in the air
oh i wanted you to come and help me build a kite and then come with me and fly it said the kitten boy
well perhaps i could said the bunny uncle i will first go to the store and get nurse jane's diamond earrings then on the way back i'll stop and help you with your kite
and after that is done
that will be fun cried tommie
paper sticks paste and string we'll make a big one and fly it away up in the air
who wanted to wear them to a party missus cluck cluck the hen lady was going to have next week and now to make the kite cried tommie as he and uncle wiggily reached the house where the kat family lived
the bunny uncle and the little kitten boy cut out some red paper in the shape of a kite then they pasted it on the crossed sticks which were tied together with string the kite is almost done said uncle wiggily
as he held it up and can you tell me tommie why your kite is like buddy the guinea pig boy can i tell you why my kite is like buddy the guinea pig boy repeated tommie like a man in a minstrel show
no uncle wiggily i can not why is my kite like buddy the guinea pig boy because laughed the old rabbit gentleman this kite has no tail and neither has buddy
that's right for guinea pigs have no tails you know though if you ask me why i can't tell you some kites do have tails though and others do not
and then he and uncle wiggily went to a clear open place in the fields near the woods to fly it there was a good wind blowing
tommie ran holding the string that was fast to the kite and up and up and up it went in the air soon it was sailing quite near the clouds
only of course no one rode on the kite have you any more string uncle wiggily asked the kitten boy after a bit string tommie what for
but if you have none i'll run home and get some myself will you hold the kite while i'm gone to be sure i will said uncle wiggily so he took hold of the string of tommie's kite
which was now quite high in the air and sitting down on the ground uncle wiggily held the kite from running away while tommie went for more string it was a nice warm summer day
and so pleasant in the woods with the little flies buzzing about that before he knew it uncle wiggily had fallen asleep his pink nose stopped twinkling
all of a sudden he was awakened by feeling himself being pulled at first
or the bad fox trying to drag him off to his den and uncle wiggily opening his eyes cried here stop that if you please don't pull me so but when he looked around he could see no one
and then he knew it was tommie's kite flying up in the air that was doing the pulling the wind was blowing hard now and as uncle wiggily had the kite string wound around his paws
of course he was pulled almost off his feet ha that kite is a great puller said the bunny uncle i must look out or it might pull me up to the clouds i had better fasten the string to this old stump
the kite can't pull that up so the rabbit gentleman fastened the kite cord to the stout old stump winding it around two or three times and he kept the loose end of the string in his paw
uncle wiggily was just going to sleep again and he was wondering why it took tommie so long to find more string for the kite when all of a sudden there was a rustling in the bushes and out jumped the bad old babboon
who had once before made trouble for the bunny uncle
this time i have caught you you can't get away from me now i am going to take you off to my den oh please don't begged uncle wiggily yes i shall too blabbered the babboon
off to my den you shall go you shall go you shall go off to my den oh hold on cried the bad creature that isn't the song i wanted to sing that's the london bridge song
i want the one about the dinner bell is ringing in the bread box this fine day and the dinner bell is ringing for to take you far away uncle wiggily ah then i had better go to my dinner
said the bunny uncle sadly no you will go with me cried the babboon come along now i'm going to take you away well if i must go i suppose i must uncle wiggily said
looking at the kite string which was pulling at the stump very hard now but before you take me away would you mind pulling down tommie's kite asked the bunny uncle i'll leave it for him yes
a very little speck being carried away by the kite
king solomon and the birds king solomon was wiser than all men and his fame was in all nations round about jerusalem he was so wise that he knew every spoken language yes
but more than this he could talk with everything that lived trees and flowers beasts and fowls creeping things and fishes what a very pleasant thing that was for solomon to be sure
and how glad one would be nowadays to have such knowledge solomon was especially fond of birds and loved to talk with them because their voices were so sweet and they spoke such beautiful words one day
the wise king was chatting pleasantly with the birds who lived in his wonderful garden and these are some of the things which he heard them say the nightingale the sweetest singer of all chanted
contentment is the greatest happiness it would be better for most people never to have been born crooned the melancholy turtle dove the happy little swallow gave her opinion do good
and you will be rewarded hereafter the harsh cry of the peacock meant as thou judgest so shalt thou be judged the hoopoe said he who has no pity for others will find none for himself
the cynical old crow croaked disagreeably the further away from men i am the better i am pleased last of all the cock who sings in the morning chanted his joyous song think of your creator
o foolish creatures when they had finished talking king solomon softly stroked the head of the pretty little dove
for life was not so dreadful a thing after all and he gave her permission to build her nest under the walls of the great temple which he was building the most beautiful golden house in the whole world
some years afterward the doves had so increased in numbers that with their extended wings they formed a veil over the numberless pilgrims who came to jerusalem to visit the wonderful temple
but of all the winged singers who spoke that day in the garden the wise king chose to have ever near him the cock because he had spoken words of piety and the nimble hoopoe because he was able to plunge his clear gaze
into the depths of the earth as if it were made of transparent glass and discover the places where springs of living water were hidden under the soil it was very convenient for solomon when he was traveling to have some one with him
who was able to find water in whatsoever place he might be resting thus the cock and the hoopoe became solomon's closest companions but of the two the hoopoe was his favorite the hoopoe is an eastern bird and we do not see him in america
colored a beautiful reddish gray with feathers of purple brown and white and his black wings are banded with white but the peculiar thing about a hoopoe is his crown of tawny feathers a tall crown for so small a bird
and this is the story of the hoopoe's crown one day when solomon was journeying across the desert he was sorely distressed by the heat of the sun until he came near to fainting just then he spied a flock of his friends
the hoopoes flying past and calling to them feebly he begged them to shelter him from the burning rays the king of the hoopoes gathered together his whole nation
in a thick cloud over the head of solomon while he continued his journey in gratitude the wise king offered to give his feathered friends whatever reward they might ask
for a whole day the hoopoes talked the matter over among themselves then their king came to solomon and said to him we have considered your offer o generous king
each of us a golden crown on his head king solomon smiled and answered crowns of gold shall you have but you are foolish birds my hoopoes and when the evil days shall come upon you and you see the folly of your desire
return here to me and i will help you yet again so the king of the hoopoes left king solomon with a beautiful golden crown upon his head and soon all the hoopoes were wearing golden crowns thereupon
they grew very proud and haughty they went down by the lakes and pools
and the queen of the hoopoes became very airy and refused to speak to her own cousin and to the other birds who had once been her friends there was a certain fowler who used to set traps for birds
he put a piece of broken mirror into his trap and a hoopoe spying it went in to admire herself and was caught the fowler looked at the shining crown upon her head and said what have we here
i never saw a crown like this upon any bird i must ask about this
and his eyes stuck out of his head but he said carelessly it is a crown of brass my friend i will give you a quarter of a shekel for it and if you find any more bring them to me but
be sure to tell no other man of the matter a shekel was about sixty two cents after this the fowler caught many hoopoes in the same way and sold their crowns to issachar
but one day as he was on his way to the metalworker's shop he met a jeweler and to him he showed one of the hoopoes crowns what is this and where did you find it exclaimed the jeweler it is pure gold
a talent was worth three hundred shekels
every one turned fowler and began to hunt the precious birds
bird lime was made in every town and the price of traps rose in the market so that the trap makers became rich men not a hoopoe could show his unlucky head without being slain or taken captive
it seemed that soon there would be no more hoopoes left to bewail their sad fate at last the few who still lived gathered together and held a meeting to consider what should be done for their minds were filled with sorrow and dismay
and they decided to appeal once more to king solomon who had granted their foolish prayer flying by stealth through the loneliest ways the unhappy king of the hoopoes came at last to the court of the king
and stood once more before the steps of his golden throne with tears and groans he related the sad fortune which had befallen his golden crowned race
king solomon looked kindly upon the king of the hoopoes and said behold did i not warn you of your folly in desiring to have crowns of gold vanity and pride have been your ruin
but now that there may be a memorial of the service which once you did me your crowns of gold shall be changed into crowns of feathers and with them you may walk unharmed upon the earth
in this way the remaining hoopoes were saved for when the fowlers saw that they no longer wore crowns of gold upon their heads they ceased to hunt them as they had been doing
solomon was ever seeking to grow even wiser the better to know the wonders of god's world and the ways of all creatures he undertook many journeys not as we ordinary poor mortals travel
in heavy wagons or clumsy boats by dusty roads or stormy waves it was in no such troublous ways that solomon the all powerful traversed space and reached the uttermost corners of the earth thanks to his great knowledge
he had discovered a means of locomotion compared to which the most magnificent railway coaches and the richest palanquins of indian princes would seem poor indeed he had caused his genii to make a silken carpet of four leagues in extent
of silver of wood for the multitude of persons of different rank whom he took with him there was also no lack of the most gorgeous furniture
when all was ready solomon was wont to seat himself upon his throne and would command the winds to do their duty
during the journey above the aerial caravan fluttered a cloud of birds
from the sun's heat as the hoopoes had first done one day while on such a journey
which overhung his head shading his eyes the king glanced up and perceived that there was an opening in the canopy one bird was missing from its post in great displeasure solomon demanded of the eagle the name of the truant
anxiously the eagle called the roll of all the birds in his company and he was horrified to find that it was solomon's favorite the hoopoe who was missing with terror he announced the bird's desertion to the most wise king
soar aloft commanded solomon sternly and find the hoopoe that i may punish him i will pluck off his feathers that he may feel the scorching heat of the sun as his carelessness has caused me to do the eagle soared heavenward
until the earth beneath him looked like a bowl turned upside down
the eagle swooped down and would have seized the culprit roughly in his strong talons but the hoopoe begged him for solomon's sake to be gentle for solomon's sake cried the eagle do you dare to name the king whom you have injured
he has discovered your absence and in his righteous anger will punish you severely lead me to him replied the hoopoe i know that he will forgive me when he hears where i have been and what i have to tell him
the eagle led him to the king who with a wrathful face was sitting on his throne the hoopoe trembled and drooped his feathers humbly but when solomon would have crushed him in his mighty fist the bird cried
remember king that one day you also must give an account of your sins let me not therefore be condemned unheard and if i hear you what excuse can you have to offer answered solomon frowning
but this was his favorite bird and he hoped that there might be some reason for sparing him well said the hoopoe at mecca i met a hoopoe of my acquaintance who told me so wonderful a tale of the marvelous kingdom of sheba
in arabia that i could not resist the temptation to visit that country of gold and precious stones and there indeed i saw the most prodigious treasures but best of all o king
more glorious than gold more precious than rare jewels i saw queen balkis the most beautiful of queens tell me of this queen said solomon loosening his rough grasp upon the hoopoe
so it was say the mussulmans that a bird told solomon of the great queen whose journey to jerusalem is described in the bible
and her beauty until solomon sighed a great sigh and said it seems too good to be true but we shall see so the king wrote a letter to balkis
bidding her follow the guidance of fate and come to the court of the wise king this note he sealed with musk stamped with his great signet and gave to the hoopoe saying if now you have spoken truth
take this letter to queen balkis then come away the hoopoe did as he was bid darting off towards the south like an arrow and the next day he came to the palace of the queen of sheba where she sat
in all her splendor among her counselors he hopped into the hall and dropped the letter into her lap then flew away queen balkis stared and stared at the great king's seal upon the mysterious letter
and when she had read the brief invitation she stared and stared again but she had heard the fame of solomon and was eager to ask him
some of her clever questions to prove his wisdom so she decided to accept his invitation and come to jerusalem she came with a great train of attendants with camels that bore spices and treasures of gold and precious stones
sammy was so relieved to think that chatterer was not dead and he was so tickled to think that chatterer who always thought himself so smart should have been caught
that he just had to torment chatterer by laughing at him and saying mean things to him until chatterer lost his temper and said things back quite in the old way this tickled sammy more than ever
for it sounded so exactly like chatterer when he had been a free little imp of mischief in the green forest that sammy felt sure that chatterer had nothing the matter with him
but he couldn't stop very long to make fun of poor chatterer in the first place farmer brown's boy had put his head out the barn door to see what all the fuss was about in the second place
sammy fairly ached all over to spread the news through the green forest and over the green meadows you know he is a great gossip and this was such unusual news sammy knew very well that no one would believe him
he knew that they just couldn't believe that smart mister chatterer had really been caught and no one did believe it all right sammy would reply it doesn't make the least bit of difference in the world to me
whether you believe it or not you can go up to farmer brown's house and see him in prison yourself just as i did so late that afternoon when all was quiet around the farmyard
chatterer saw something very familiar behind the old stone wall at the edge of the old orchard it bobbed up and then dropped out of sight again then it bobbed up again only to drop
out of sight just as quickly it looks to me very much as if peter rabbit is over there and feeling very nervous said chatterer to himself and then he called sharply just as when
right away peter's head bobbed up for all the world like a jack in the box and this time it stayed up peter's eyes were round with surprise as he stared across at chatterer's prison
oh it's true gasped peter as if it were as hard work to believe his own eyes as it was to believe sammy jay
and then because it was broad daylight and he really didn't dare stay another minute peter waved good by to chatterer and started for the green forest as fast as his long legs could take him
a little later who should appear peeping over the stone wall but reddy fox
you see reddy knew that farmer brown's boy
and that he had nothing to fear
it made chatterer angry just to see him smarty smarty mister smarty glad to see you looking hearty weather's fine as you can see won't you take a walk with me so said reddy fox
knowing all the time that chatterer couldn't take a walk with any one
in fact he didn't half hear the mean things reddy fox said to him you see it was coming over him more and more that nothing could take the place of freedom he had a comfortable home plenty to eat
but he was a prisoner and having these visitors made him realize it more than ever something very like tears filled his eyes and he crept into his hollow stump
the room over the chapel from the battlements nothing further was observed
but to the eyes of all these eager sentinels no living thing appeared in the neighbourhood of tunstall house when the night was at length fairly come throgmorton was led to a room overlooking an angle of the moat thence he was lowered with every precaution
the ripple of his swimming was audible for a brief period then a black figure was observed to land by the branches of a willow and crawl away among the grass for some half hour sir daniel and hatch stood eagerly giving ear but all remained quiet
sir daniel's brow grew clearer he turned to hatch bennet he said this john amend all is no more than a man ye see he sleepeth we will make a good end of him go to
dick had been ordered hither and thither one command following another till he was bewildered with the number and the hurry of commissions all that time he had seen no more of sir oliver and nothing of matcham and yet both the priest and the young lad ran continually in his mind
it was now his chief purpose to escape from tunstall moat house as speedily as might be and yet before he went he desired a word with both of these at length with a lamp in one hand he mounted to his new apartment
it was large low and somewhat dark the window looked upon the moat and although it was so high up it was heavily barred the bed was luxurious with one pillow of down and one of lavender
all about the walls were cupboards locked and padlocked and concealed from view by hangings of dark coloured arras dick made the round lifting the arras sounding the panels
then he set down his lamp upon a bracket and once more looked all around for what reason had he been given this chamber it was larger and finer than his own could it conceal a snare
was it indeed haunted his blood ran a little chilly in his veins immediately over him
certainly there was a secret passage in the hall the eye that had watched him from the arras gave him proof of that
and if so that it had an opening in his room to sleep in such a place he felt would be foolhardy he made his weapons ready and took his position in a corner of the room behind the door if ill was intended he would sell his life dear
and just then there came a scratching at the door of the chamber it grew a little louder then a whisper dick dick it is i dick ran to the door drew the bolt and admitted matcham
he was very pale and carried a lamp in one hand and a drawn dagger in the other shut me the door he whispered swift dick this house is full of spies i hear their feet follow me in the corridors i hear them breathe behind the arras
well content you returned dick it is closed we are safe for this while if there be safety anywhere within these walls but my heart is glad to see you by the mass lad i thought ye were sped where hid ye it matters not returned matcham
since we be met it matters not but dick are your eyes open have they told you of to morrow's doings not they replied dick what make they to morrow to morrow or to night i know not said the other
but one time or other dick they do intend upon your life i had the proof of it i have heard them whisper nay they as good as told me
and he told him the day's occurrences at length
matcham arose and began in turn to examine the apartment no he said there is no entrance visible yet tis a pure certainty there is one dick i will stay by you
and i can help look i have stolen a dagger i will do my best and meanwhile an ye know of any issue any sally port we could get opened or any window that we might descend by
give me your hand jack and he grasped the other's hand in silence i will tell you he resumed there is a window out of which the messenger descended the rope should still be in the chamber tis a hope hist said matcham
some one walketh in the room below whispered matcham nay returned dick there is no room below we are above the chapel
well let him come it shall go hard with him
blow me the lights out said the other perchance he will betray himself they blew out both the lamps and lay still as death the footfalls underneath were very soft but they were clearly audible several times they came and went
and then there was a loud jar of a key turning in a lock followed by a considerable silence presently the steps began again and then all of a sudden a chink of light appeared in the planking of the room in a far corner it widened
a trap door was being opened letting in a gush of light they could see the strong hand pushing it up and dick raised his cross bow waiting for the head to follow but now there came an interruption from a distant corner of the moat house shouts began to be heard
and first one voice and then several crying aloud upon a name this noise had plainly disconcerted the murderer for the trap door was silently lowered to its place and the steps hurriedly returned passed once more close below the lads and died away in the distance
all about the moat house feet were running doors were opening and slamming and still the voice of sir daniel towered above all this bustle shouting for joanna joanna repeated dick why who the murrain should this be here is no joanna nor ever hath been
what meaneth it matcham was silent
jack said dick i wot not where ye were all day saw ye this joanna nay returned matcham i saw her not nor heard tell of her he pursued the steps drew nearer
sir daniel was still roaring the name of joanna from the courtyard did ye hear of her repeated dick i heard of her said matcham how your voice twitters what aileth you said dick tis a most excellent good fortune this joanna
it will take their minds from us dick cried matcham i am lost we are both lost let us flee if there be yet time they will not rest till they have found me or see let me go forth
let me forth dick good dick let me away she was groping for the bolt when dick at last comprehended by the mass he cried
dick too was silent for a little then he spoke again joanna he said
and we have seen blood flow and been friends and enemies ay and i took my belt to thrash you and all that time i thought ye were a boy but now death has me and my time's out and before i die i must say this
and if only i could live i would marry you blithely and live or die i love you she answered nothing come he said speak up jack come be a good maid and say ye love me why dick she cried would i be here
well see ye here continued dick an we but escape whole we'll marry and an we're to die we die and there's an end on't but now that i think how found ye my chamber i asked it of dame hatch she answered
she'll not tell upon you we have time before us and just then
here cried a voice open master dick open dick neither moved nor answered it is all over said the girl and she put her arms about dick's neck one after another men came trooping to the door
dick cried the knight be not an ass the seven sleepers had been awake ere now we know she is within there open then the door man dick was again silent down with it said sir daniel
and immediately his followers fell savagely upon the door with foot and fist solid as it was and strongly bolted
over the thunderstorm of blows the cry of a sentinel was heard it was followed by another shouts ran along the battlements shouts answered out of the wood in the first moment of alarm it sounded as if the foresters were carrying the moat house by assault
and sir daniel and his men desisting instantly from their attack upon dick's chamber hurried to defend the walls now cried dick we are saved he seized the great old bedstead with both hands and bent himself in vain to move it help me jack
for your life's sake help me stoutly he cried between them with a huge effort they dragged the big frame of oak across the room
ye do but make things worse said joanna sadly he will then enter by the trap not so replied dick
it is by the trap that we shall flee hark the attack is over nay it was none it had indeed been no attack
and now with a great stamping of hoofs and jingle of accoutrements and arms they were dismounting in the court he will return anon said dick to the trap he lighted a lamp
the open chink through which some light still glittered was easily discovered and taking a stout sword from his small armoury dick thrust it deep into the seam and weighed strenuously on the hilt the trap moved
seizing it with their hands the two young folk threw it back
where the would be murderer had left it a burning lamp now said dick go first and take the lamp i will follow to close the trap so they descended one after the other
to the day's end it was indeed high time for them to run
some being better runners or having open ground to run upon had far outstripped the others and were already close upon the goal some following valleys
and outflanked the lads on either side dick plunged into the nearest cover it was a tall grove of oaks firm under foot and clear of underbrush and as it lay down hill they made good speed there followed next a piece of open
which dick avoided holding to his left two minutes after and the same obstacle arising the lads followed the same course thus it followed that while the lads bending continually to the left drew nearer and nearer to the high road and the river
which they had crossed an hour or two before the great bulk of their pursuers were leaning to the other hand and running towards tunstall the lads paused to breathe there was no sound of pursuit dick put his ear to the ground
on again said dick and tired as they were and matcham limping with his injured foot they pulled themselves together and once more pelted down the hill three minutes later they were breasting through a low thicket of evergreen high overhead
the tall trees made a continuous roof of foliage it was a pillared grove as high as a cathedral and except for the hollies among which the lads were struggling open and smoothly swarded on the other side pushing through the last fringe of evergreen
they blundered forth again into the open twilight of the grove stand cried a voice and there between the huge stems not fifty feet before them they beheld a stout fellow in green sore blown with running who instantly drew an arrow to the head
and covered them matcham stopped with a cry but dick without a pause ran straight upon the forester drawing his dagger as he went the other whether he was startled by the daring of the onslaught or whether he was hampered by his orders did not shoot
he stood wavering and before he had time to come to himself dick bounded at his throat and sent him sprawling backward on the turf
the disarmed forester grappled his assailant but the dagger shone and descended twice then came a couple of groans
stabbed to the heart on
matcham trailing in the rear to say truth they made but poor speed of it by now labouring dismally as they ran and catching for their breath like fish matcham had a cruel stitch and his head swam and as for dick his knees were like lead
but they kept up the form of running with undiminished courage presently they came to the end of the grove it stopped abruptly and there a few yards before them was the high road from risingham to shoreby lying at this point
between two even walls of forest at the sight dick paused and as soon as he stopped running he became aware of a confused noise which rapidly grew louder it was at first like the rush of a very high gust of wind
but soon it became more definite and resolved itself into the galloping of horses and then in a flash
swept before the lads and were gone again upon the instant they rode as for their lives in complete disorder some of them were wounded riderless horses galloped at their side with bloody saddles they were plainly fugitives from the great battle
the noise of their passage had scarce begun to die away towards shoreby before fresh hoofs came echoing in their wake and another deserter clattered down the road this time a single rider and by his splendid armour a man of high degree close after him
there followed several baggage waggons fleeing at an ungainly canter the drivers flailing at the horses as if for life these must have run early in the day but their cowardice was not to save them for just before they came abreast of where the lads stood wondering
a man in hacked armour and seemingly beside himself with fury overtook the waggons and with the truncheon of a sword began to cut the drivers down some leaped from their places and plunged into the wood the others he sabred as they sat
cursing them the while for cowards in a voice that was scarce human all this time
the rumble of carts the clatter of horses the cries of men a great confused rumour
that the rout of a whole army was pouring like an inundation down the road dick stood sombre
but above all he had recognised the colours of earl risingham and he knew that the battle had gone finally against the rose of lancaster had sir daniel joined and was he now a fugitive and ruined or had he deserted to the side of york
come he said sternly and turning on his heel he began to walk forward through the grove with matcham limping in his rear for some time they continued to thread the forest in silence it was now growing late
the sun was setting in the plain beyond kettley the tree tops overhead glowed golden but the shadows had begun to grow darker and the chill of the night to fall
cried dick suddenly pausing as he spoke matcham sat down and began to weep
but when it was to save men's lives your heart was hard enough said dick contemptuously
i'll ne'er forgive you that conscience cried matcham looking fiercely up
and wherefore did ye slay him the poor soul he drew his arrow but he let not fly he held you in his hand and spared you tis as brave to kill a kitten as a man that not defends himself dick was struck dumb i slew him fair
i ran me in upon his bow he cried
ye but abuse advantages let there come a stronger we will see you truckle at his boot ye care not for vengeance neither for your father's death that goes unpaid
and would befriend you down she shall go dick was too furious to observe that she marry he cried and here is news of any two the one will still be stronger the better man throweth the worse and the worse is well served
ye deserve a belting master matcham
and what ye deserve ye shall have and dick who even in his angriest temper still preserved the appearance of composure began to unbuckle his belt here shall be your supper he said grimly matcham had stopped his tears
he was as white as a sheet but he looked dick steadily in the face and never moved dick took a step swinging the belt then he paused
his courage began to subside say ye were in the wrong then he said lamely nay said matcham i was in the right come cruel i be lame i be weary i resist not i ne'er did thee hurt come beat me coward
dick raised the belt at this last provocation but matcham winced and drew himself together with so cruel an apprehension that his heart failed him yet again the strap fell by his side and he stood irresolute feeling like a fool
a plague upon thee shrew he said an ye be so feeble of hand ye should keep the closer guard upon your tongue but i'll be hanged before i beat you
beat you i will not he continued but forgive you never i knew ye not
i lent you my horse my dinner ye have eaten
nay by the mass the measure is filled and runneth over tis a great thing to be weak i trow ye can do your worst yet shall none punish you ye may steal a man's weapons in the hour of need yet may the man not take his own again
nay then if one cometh charging at you with a lance and crieth he is weak ye must let him pierce your body through tut fool words and yet ye beat me not returned matcham let be said dick let be i will instruct you
and yet ye have the makings of some good and beyond all question saved me from the river nay i had forgotten it i am as thankless as thyself but come let us on an we be for holywood this night ay or to morrow early
we had best set forward speedily but though dick had talked himself back into his usual good humour matcham had forgiven him nothing his violence the recollection of the forester whom he had slain above all the vision of the upraised belt
were things not easily to be forgotten i will thank you for the form's sake said matcham
i had liever find my way alone here is a wide wood prithee let each choose his path i owe you a dinner and a lesson fare ye well nay cried dick if that be your tune so be it and a plague be with you
each turned aside and they began walking off severally with no thought of the direction intent solely on their quarrel but dick had not gone ten paces ere his name was called and matcham came running after dick he said
it were unmannerly to part so coldly
for all that wherein you have so excellently served and helped me
fare ye right well well lad returned dick taking the hand which was offered him good speed to you if speed you may but i misdoubt it shrewdly
so then they separated for the second time and presently it was dick who was running after matcham here he said take my cross bow shalt not go unarmed a cross bow said matcham nay boy
i have neither the strength to bend nor yet the skill to aim with it it were no help to me good boy but yet i thank you the night had now fallen and under the trees they could no longer read each other's face
i will go some little way with you said dick the night is dark i would fain leave you on a path at least my mind misgiveth me
without any more words he began to walk forward and the other once more followed him the blackness grew thicker and thicker only here and there in open places they saw the sky dotted with small stars in the distance
the noise of the rout of the lancastrian army still continued to be faintly audible
at the end of half an hour of silent progress they came forth upon a broad patch of heathy open it glimmered in the light of the stars shaggy with fern and islanded with clumps of yew
dick said nay i am so weary answered matcham that methinks i could lie down and die i hear the chiding of a river returned dick
for i am sore athirst the ground sloped down gently and sure enough in the bottom they found a little murmuring river running among willows here they threw themselves down together by the brink
dick said matcham it may not be i can no more
let us lie down therein and sleep nay but with all my heart cried matcham the pit was sandy and dry a shock of brambles hung upon one hedge and made a partial shelter and there
the two lads lay down keeping close together for the sake of warmth their quarrel all forgotten and soon
the sky was all blue the jolly wind blew loud and steady
and he rode right merrily the path went down and down into the marsh till he lost sight of all the neighbouring landmarks but kettley windmill on the knoll behind him
on either hand there were great fields of blowing reeds and willows pools of water shaking in the wind and treacherous bogs as green as emerald to tempt and to betray the traveller the path lay almost straight through the morass
it was already very ancient its foundation had been laid by roman soldiery in the lapse of ages much of it had sunk and every here and there for a few hundred yards it lay submerged below the stagnant waters of the fen
about a mile from kettley dick came to one such break in the plain line of causeway where the reeds and willows grew dispersedly like little islands and confused the eye the gap besides
was more than usually long it was a place where any stranger might come readily to mischief and dick bethought him with something like a pang of the lad whom he had so imperfectly directed
one look backward to where the windmill sails were turning black against the blue of heaven one look forward to the high ground of tunstall forest and he was sufficiently directed and held straight on the water washing to his horse's knees as safe as on a highway half way across
and when he had already sighted the path rising high and dry upon the farther side he was aware of a great splashing on his right and saw a grey horse sunk to its belly in the mud and still spasmodically struggling instantly as though it had divined the neighbourhood of help
the poor beast began to neigh most piercingly it rolled meanwhile a blood shot eye insane with terror and as it sprawled wallowing in the quag
alack thought dick can the poor lad have perished there is his horse for certain a brave grey nay comrade if thou criest to me so piteously i will do all man can to help thee shalt not lie there to drown by inches
and he made ready his crossbow and put a quarrel through the creature's head dick rode on after this act of rugged mercy somewhat sobered in spirit and looking closely about him for any sign of his less happy predecessor in the way
i would i had dared to tell him further he thought for i fear he has miscarried in the slough and just as he was so thinking a voice cried upon his name from the causeway side and looking over his shoulder
he saw the lad's face peering from a clump of reeds are ye there he said reining in
i saw your horse bemired and put him from his agony which by my sooth an ye had been a more merciful rider ye had done yourself
here be none to trouble you nay good boy i have no arms nor skill to use them if i had replied the other stepping forth upon the pathway why call me boy cried dick
good master shelton said the other prithee forgive me i have none the least intention to offend rather i would in every way beseech your gentleness and favour for i am now worse bested than ever having lost my way my cloak and my poor horse
to have a riding rod and spurs and never a horse to sit upon and before all he added looking ruefully upon his clothes before all to be so sorrily besmirched tut cried dick would ye mind a ducking
blood of wound or dust of travel that's a man's adornment nay then i like him better plain observed the lad but prithee how shall i do prithee good master richard help me with your good counsel if i come not safe to holywood i am undone
i will give more than counsel take my horse and i will run awhile and when i am weary we shall change again that so riding and running both may go the speedier
dick with his hand upon the other's knee how call ye your name asked dick call me john matcham replied the lad and what make ye to holywood dick continued i seek sanctuary from a man that would oppress me
was the answer the good abbot of holywood is a strong pillar to the weak and how came ye with sir daniel master matcham pursued dick
dressed me in these weeds ridden with me till my heart was sick gibed me till i could a wept and when certain of my friends pursued thinking to have me back claps me in the rear to stand their shot i was even grazed in the right foot and walk but lamely
nay there shall come a day between us he shall smart for all would ye shoot at the moon with a hand gun said dick tis a valiant knight and hath a hand of iron an he guessed i had made or meddled with your flight it would go sore with me
by the same token so am i or so he saith or else he hath bought my marriage i wot not rightly which but it is some handle to oppress me by boy again said dick nay then shall i call you girl good richard
asked matcham never a girl for me returned dick
ye speak boyishly said the other
not i said dick stoutly they come not in my mind a plague of them say i give me to hunt and to fight and to feast and to live with jolly foresters i never heard of a maid yet that was for any service save one only
and she poor shrew was burned for a witch and the wearing of men's clothes in spite of nature master matcham crossed himself with fervour and appeared to pray what make ye dick inquired
for a witch's spirit dick cried but pray for her an ye list she was the best wench in europe was this joan of arc old appleyard the archer ran from her he said as if she had been mahoun nay she was a brave wench
well but good master richard resumed matcham an ye like maids so little
to be man's hope and woman's comfort faugh
an ye think i be no true man get down upon the path and whether at fists back sword or bow and arrow i will prove my manhood on your body nay i am no fighter said matcham eagerly
i meant but pleasantry and if i talk of women it is because i heard ye were to marry i to marry dick exclaimed
and with whom was i to marry one joan sedley replied matcham colouring it was sir daniel's doing he hath money to gain upon both sides and indeed i have heard the poor wench bemoaning herself pitifully of the match it seems she is of your mind
or else distasted to the bridegroom well marriage is like death it comes to all said dick with resignation and she bemoaned herself i pray ye now see there how shuttle witted are these girls to bemoan herself before that she had seen me
do i bemoan myself not i an i be to marry i will marry dry eyed but if ye know her prithee of what favour is she fair or foul and is she shrewish or pleasant nay what matters it said matcham
what matters foul or fair these be but toys
ye will wed with dry eyes anyhow it is well said replied shelton little i reck your lady wife is like to have a pleasant lord said matcham
it trow there be worse as well as better
and why so poor asked dick to wed a man of wood replied his companion o me for a wooden husband i think i be a man of wood indeed said dick to trudge afoot the while you ride my horse but it is good wood i trow
good dick forgive me cried the other nay
forgive me now sweet dick nay no fool words returned dick
no harm is done i am not touchy praise the saints and at that moment the wind which was blowing straight behind them as they went brought them the rough flourish of sir daniel's trumpeter hark said dick
the tucket soundeth ay said matcham
and he became pale as death
and it is i methinks that am unhorsed alack i shall be taken cried the fugitive dick kind dick
i richard shelton tide what betideth come what may will see you safe in holywood the saints so do to me again if i default you come pick me up a good heart sir white face
chapter six keys and cheques coming up trafalgar road at twenty minutes past nine in the bright astringent morning edwin carried by a string a little round parcel
which for him contained the inspiring symbol of his new life by mere accident he had wakened and had risen early arriving at the shop before half past seven
and the printing business and as soon as he felt its weight securely lodged he became extraordinarily animated and vigorous even gay he had worked with a most agreeable sense of energy until nearly nine o'clock
and then having first called at the ironmonger's had stepped into the bank at the top of saint luke's square a moment after its doors opened and had five minutes exciting conversation with the manager
he had come home to breakfast the symbol was such as could be obtained at any ironmonger's an alarm clock missus nixon had grown less reliable than formerly as an alarm clock machinery was now supplanting her
the two met on the doorstep each full of a justifiable self satisfaction the doctor explained that he had come thus early because mister clayhanger was one of those cases upon which he could look in casually at any time
in the sunshine they talked under the porch of early rising as men who understood the value of that art
by any large interest and he despised the man's womanish smile nevertheless his new respect for him did not weaken he decided that he was a very decent fellow in his way
and he was more impressed than he would admit by the amount of work that the doctor had for years been doing in the morning before his intellectual superiors had sat up in bed
and he imagined that it might be even more agreeable to read in the fresh stillness of the morning than in the solitary night then they returned to the case of darius the doctor was more communicative
and they were both cheerfully matter of fact concerning it there it was to be made the best of
and that in about two years his doom would be accomplished these were basic facts axiomatic
they discussed his medicine his meals his digestion and the great impossible dream of taking him away out of it all
as to the management of darius the ticking parcel drew the discreet attention of the doctor the machine was one guaranteed to go in any position and was much more difficult to stop than to start
it's only an alarm said edwin not without self consciousness the doctor went tripping neatly and optimistically off towards his own breakfast he got up earlier than his horse
he had put on his daily suit and was leisurely digging in an uncultivated patch of ground he stuck the spade into the earth perpendicularly and deep
and when he tried to prise it up and it would not yield because of a concealed half brick he put his tongue between his teeth and then bit his lower lip controlling himself determined to get the better of the spade and the brick by persuasively humouring them
he took no notice whatever of edwin i see you aren't losing any time said edwin who felt as though he were engaging in small talk with a stranger are
i've just come up for a bit of breakfast everything's all right he said he would have liked to add i was in the shop before seven thirty but he was too proud after a pause he ventured essaying the casual
i say father i shall want the keys of the desk and all that
darius muttered leaning on the spade as though demanding in stupefaction what on earth can you want the keys for well edwin stammered but the proposition was too obvious to be denied
darius left the spade to stand up by itself and stared got em in your pocket edwin inquired
one of the chief insignia of his dominion and began to fumble at it you needn't take any of them off i expect i know which is which said edwin holding out his hand
thanks said edwin lightly but the old man's reluctance to perform this simple and absolutely necessary act of surrender the old man's air of having done something tremendous
these signs frightened edwin and shook his courage for the demand compared to which the demand for the keys was naught still the affair had to be carried through and i say he proceeded jingling the keys
about signing and endorsing cheques they tell me at the bank that if you sign a general authority to me to do it for you that will be enough he could not avoid looking guilty he almost felt guilty
almost felt as if he were plotting against his father's welfare and as he spoke his words seemed unreal and his suggestion fantastic at the bank the plan had been simple easy and perfectly natural
but there could be no doubt that as he had walked up trafalgar road receding from the bank and approaching his father the plan had gradually lost those attractive qualities and now in the garden it was merely monstrous
well said edwin desperately what about it do you think
do you think as i'm going to let you sign my cheques for me you're taking too much on yourself my lad but i tell ye you're taking too much on yourself he began to shout menacingly get about your business and don't act the fool
in all his demeanour there was not the least indication of weakness he might never have sat down on the stairs and cried he might never have submitted feebly and perhaps gladly to the caresses of clara and the soothings of auntie hamps
impossible to convince him that he was cut off from the world impossible even to believe it was this the man that edwin and the bank manager and the doctor and all the others had been disposing of
as though he were an automaton accurately responsive to external suggestion look here edwin knew that he ought to say let it be clearly understood once for all i'm the boss now
i have the authority in my pocket and you must sign it and quick too i shall do my best for you but i don't mean to be bullied while i'm doing it but he could not say it nor could his heart emotionally feel it
he turned away sheepishly and then he faced his father again with a distressed apologetic smile well then he asked who is going to sign cheques i am said darius
but you know what the doctor said you know what you promised him what did the doctor say he said you weren't to do anything at all and you said you wouldn't what's more you said you didn't want to darius sneered
i reckon i can sign cheques he said and i reckon i can endorse cheques so it's got to that i can't sign my own name now i shall show some of you whether i can't sign my own name
you know it isn't simply signing them you know if i bring cheques up for you to sign you'll begin worrying about them at once
you'd much better shut up it was like a clap of thunder edwin hesitated an instant and then went towards the house he could hear his father muttering whipper snapper and i'll tell you another thing
darius bawled across the garden assuredly his voice would reach the street it was like your impudence to go to the bank like that without asking me first they tell you at the bank they tell you at the bank anything else they told you at the bank
then a snort edwin was humiliated and baffled he knew not what he could do the situation became impossible immediately it was faced he felt also very resentful and resentment was capturing him
when suddenly an idea seemed to pull him by the sleeve all this is part of his disease it's part of his disease that he can't see the point of a thing and the idea was insistent
and under its insistence edwin's resentment changed to melancholy he said to himself that he must think of his father as a child he blamed himself in a sort of pleasurable luxury of remorse
for all the anger which during all his life he had felt against his father his father's unreasonableness had not been a fault but a misfortune his father had been not a tyrant but a victim
his brain must always have been wrong and now he was doomed and the worst part of his doom was that he was unaware of it
condemned cut off helpless at the last pitiable at the last there was something inexpressibly poignant and the sunshine seemed a shame and edwin's youth and mental vigour seemed a shame
nevertheless edwin knew not what to do master edwin said missus nixon who was rubbing the balustrade of the stairs you munna cross him like that she jerked her head in the direction of the garden the garden door stood open
accident that is to say a chance somewhat more fortuitous than the common hazards which we group together and call existence pushed edwin into the next stage of his career
as on one afternoon in late june he was turning the corner of trafalgar road to enter the shop he surprisingly encountered charlie orgreave whom he had not seen for several years
and when he saw this figure at once fashionably and carelessly dressed
he had scarcely worn the suit at all but that afternoon his father had sent him over to hanbridge about a large order from bostocks the recently established drapers there whose extravagant advertising had shocked and pained the commerce of the five towns
and thus the new costly suit had been as it were officially blessed and henceforth could not be condemned
i've just been in to see you at your shop edwin paused hello the sunday he said quietly
it's a bit of luck i've got these clothes on and he was in fact rather sorry that charlie probably paid no real attention to clothes the new suit had caused edwin to look at everybody's clothes had caused him to walk differently and to put his shoulders back
and to change the style of his collars had made a different man of edwin come in will you edwin suggested they went into the shop together
stifford smiled at them both as if to felicitate them on the chance which had brought them together come in here said edwin indicating the small office
he as much as edwin was a little tongue tied and nervous sit down will you said edwin shutting the door no take the arm chair i'll absquatulate on the desk i'd no idea you were down when did you come
last night last train just a freak you know
they were within a foot of each other in the ebonised cubicle edwin's legs were swinging a few inches away from the arm chair his hat was at the back of his head and charlie's hat was at the back of charlie's head
this was their sole point of resemblance as edwin surreptitiously examined the youth who had once been his intimate friend he experienced the half sneering awe of the provincial for the provincial who has become a londoner
charlie was changed even his accent was changed he and edwin belonged to utterly different worlds now
they seldom saw the same scenes or thought the same things but of course they were obliged by loyalty to the past to pretend that nothing was changed you've not altered much said edwin
and indeed when charlie smiled he was almost precisely the old sunday despite his metropolitan mannerisms
and there was nothing whatever in his figure or deportment to show that he had lived for several years in france and could chatter in a language whose verbs had four conjugations after all he was less formidable than edwin might have anticipated
i suppose you've got this place practically in your own hands now said charlie i wish i was on my own i can tell you that an instinctive gesture from edwin made charlie lower his voice in the middle of a sentence
the cubicle had the appearance but not the reality of being private don't you make any mistake edwin murmured he who depended on his aunt's generosity for clothes the practical ruler of the place
still he was glad that charlie supposed that he ruled even though the supposition might be mere small talk you're in that hospital aren't you bart's bart's is it yes i remember i expect you aren't thinking of settling down here
charlie was about to reply in accents of disdain not me but his natural politeness stayed his tongue i hardly think so he said too much competition here so there is everywhere for the matter of that
the disillusions of the young doctor were already upon charlie and yet people may be found who will assert that in those days there was no competition that competition has been invented during the past ten years you needn't worry about competition said edwin
why not why not man nothing could ever stop you from getting patients with that smile you'll simply walk straight into anything you want you think so charlie affected an ironic incredulity but he was pleased
he had met the same theory in london well you didn't suppose degrees and things had anything to do with it did you said edwin smiling a little superiorly he felt with pleasure that he was still older than the sunday
and it pleased him also to be able thus to utilise ideas which he had formed from observation but which by diffidence and lack of opportunity he had never expressed
all a patient wants is to be smiled at in the right way he continued growing bolder just look at em look at who the doctors here he dropped his voice further
you seem to go about noticing things any charge edwin blushed and laughed their nervousness was dissipated each was reassured of the old basis of decency in the other
look here said charlie i can't stop now hold on a bit i only called to tell you that you've simply got to come up to night come up where to our place you've simply got to
the secret fact was that edwin had once more been under discussion in the house of the orgreaves and osmond orgreave had lent janet a shilling so that she might bet charlie a shilling that he would not succeed in bringing edwin to the house
the understanding was that if janet won her father was to take sixpence of the gain
he was so easy to approach and so difficult to catch janet was slightly piqued as for edwin he was postponing the execution of all his good resolutions until he should be installed in the new house
he could not achieve highly difficult tasks under conditions of expectancy and derangement the whole clayhanger premises were in a suppressed state of being packed up in a week the removal would occur
until the removal was over and the new order was established edwin felt that he could still conscientiously allow his timidity to govern him and so he had remained in his shell
the sole herald of the new order was the new suit oh i can't come not to night why not we're so busy bosh to that some other night no i'm going back to morrow must
now look here old man come on i shall be very disappointed if you don't edwin wondered why he could not accept and be done with it instead of persisting in a sequence of insincere and even lying hesitations but he could not
that's all right said charlie as if clinching the affair then he lowered his voice to a scarce audible confidential whisper fine girl staying up there just now his eyes sparkled oh at your place
edwin adopted the same cautious tone stifford outside strained his ears in vain the magic word girl had in an instant thrown the shop into agitation the shop was no longer provincial
it became a part of the universal yes haven't you seen her about no who is she oh friend of janet's hilda lessways her name is i don't know much of her myself bit of all right is she
edwin tried in a whisper to be a man of vast experience and settled views he tried to whisper as though he whispered about women every day of his life he thought that these londoners were terrific on the subject of women and he did his best to reach their level
he succeeded so well that charlie who as a man knew more of london than of the provinces thought that after all london was nothing in comparison to the seeming quiet provinces
charlie leaned back in his chair drew down the corners of his mouth nodded his head knowingly and then quite spoiled the desired effect of doggishness by his delightfully candid smile
neither of them had the least intention of disrespect towards the fine girl who was on their lips
edwin said to himself
he thought enviously of charlie as a free bird of the air what's she like edwin inquired you come up and see charlie retorted not to night said the fawn in spite of edwin
you come to night or i perish in the attempt said charlie in his natural voice this phrase from their school days made them both laugh again they were now apparently as intimate as ever they had been all right said edwin i'll come sure
yes come for a sort of supper at eight oh edwin drew back supper
they stood a moment together at the door of the shop in the declining warmth of the summer afternoon mutually satisfied so long
the sunday elegantly departed edwin had given his word and he felt as he might have felt had surgeons just tied him to the operating table
nevertheless he was not ill pleased with his own demeanour in front of charlie and he liked charlie as much as ever he should rely on charlie as a support during this adventure into the worldly regions peopled by fine girls
he pictured this hilda as being more romantic and strange than janet orgreave he pictured her as mysteriously superior and he was afraid of his own image of her at tea in the dismantled sitting room
though he was going out to supper he ate quite as much tea as usual from sheer poltroonery he said as casually as he could by the way charlie orgreave called this afternoon did he said maggie
he's off back to london to morrow he would have me slip up there to night to see him and shall you i think so said edwin with an appearance of indecision i may as well it was the first time that there had ever been question of him visiting a private house
except his aunt's at night to him the moment marked an epoch the inception of freedom but the phlegmatic maggie showed no sign of excitement
now father let's have a bottle of wine eh charlie vociferously suggested mister orgreave hesitated you'd better ask your mother really charlie missus orgreave began oh yes charlie cut her short right you are martha
the servant who had stood waiting for a definite command during this brief conflict of wills glanced interrogatively at missus orgreave and perceiving no clear prohibition in her face departed with a smile to get the wine
she was a servant of sound prestige and had the inexpressible privilege of smiling on duty in her time she had fought lively battles of repartee with all the children from charlie downwards
janet humoured martha and martha humoured missus orgreave the whole family save absent marian was now gathered in the dining room another apartment on whose physiognomy were written in cipher
the annals of the vivacious tribe here the curtains were drawn and all the interest of the room centred on the large white gleaming table about which the members stood or sat under the downward radiance of a chandelier
beyond the circle illuminated by the shaded chandelier could be discerned dim forms of furniture and of pictures with a glint of high light here and there burning on the corner of some gold frame
tom sat near his mother janet and hilda sat together flanked by jimmie and johnnie who stood having pushed chairs away charlie and edwin stood opposite the table seemed to edwin to be heaped with food
cold and yet rich remains of bird and beast a large fruit pie opened another intact some puddings cheese sandwiches raw fruit at janet's elbow were cups and saucers and a pot of coffee
a large glass jug of lemonade shone near by plates glasses and cutlery were strewn about irregularly the effect upon edwin was one of immense and careless prodigality it intoxicated him
it made him feel that a grand profuseness was the finest thing in life in his own home the supper consisted of cheese bread and water save on sundays when cold sausages were generally added to make a feast
but the idea of the price of living as the orgreaves lived seriously startled the prudence in him imagine that expense always persisting day after day night after night
there were certainly at least four in the family who bought clothes at shillitoe's and everybody looked elaborately costly except hilda lessways who did not flatter the eye
but equally they all seemed quite unconscious of their costliness now charlie darling you must look after mister edwin said missus orgreave
sit down charlie insisted using force
here i come down specially to see them charlie mused aloud as he twisted the corkscrew into the cork of the bottle unceremoniously handed to him by martha and not only they don't offer to pay my fares but they grudge me a drop of claret
plupp he grimaced as the cork came out and my last night too hilda this is better than coffee as saint paul remarked on a famous occasion pass your glass charlie his mother protested i'll thank you to leave saint paul out
charlie your mother will be boxing your ears if you don't mind his father warned him i'll not have it said his mother shaking her head in a fashion that she imagined to be harsh and forbidding
towards the close of the meal mister orgreave said well edwin what does your father say about bradlaugh he doesn't say much edwin replied let me see does he call himself a liberal
he calls himself a liberal said edwin shifting on his chair yes he calls himself a liberal but i'm afraid he's a regular old tory edwin blushed laughing as half the family gave way to more or less violent mirth
father's a regular old tory too charlie grinned oh i'm sorry said edwin yes father's a regular old tory agreed mister orgreave don't apologise don't apologise i'm used to these attacks i've been nearly kicked out of my own house once
but some one has to keep the flag flying it was plain that mister orgreave enjoyed the unloosing of the hurricane which he had brought about missus orgreave used to say that he employed that particular tone from a naughty love of mischief
in a moment all the boys were upon him except jimmie who out of sheer intellectual snobbery as the rest averred supported his father atheistical bradlaugh had been exciting the british public to disputation for a long time
in that very week the northampton member had been committed to custody for outraging parliament and released and it was known that gladstone meant immediately to bring in a resolution for permitting members to affirm instead of taking oath by appealing to a god
than this complication of theology and politics nothing could have been better devised to impassion an electorate which had but two genuine interests theology and politics the rumour of the feverish affair
had spread to the most isolated communities people talked theology and people talked politics who had till then only felt silently on these subjects in loquacious families bradlaugh caused dissension and division
more real perhaps than apparent for not all bradlaugh's supporters had the courage to avow themselves such it was not easy at any rate it was not easy in the five towns for a timid man in reply to the question
this was what astonished edwin the candour with which bradlaugh's position was upheld in the dining room of the orgreaves it was as if he were witnessing deeds of wilful perilous daring
but the conversation was not confined to bradlaugh for bradlaugh was not a perfect test for separating liberals and tories nobody in the room for example was quite convinced that mister orgreave was anti bradlaugh
the boys had to include other topics such as ireland and the proposal for home rule as for mister orgreave he could and did always infuriate them by refusing to answer seriously
the fact was that this was his device for maintaining his prestige among the turbulent mob dignified and brilliantly clever as osmond orgreave had the reputation of being in the town he was somehow outshone in cleverness at home
and he never put the bar of his dignity between himself and his children thus he could only keep the upper hand by allowing hints to escape from him of the secret amusement roused in him by the comicality
of the spectacle of his filial enemies he had one great phrase which he would drawl out at them with the accents of a man who is trying politely to hide his contempt you'll learn better as you get older
edwin who said little thought the relationship between father and sons utterly delightful he had not conceived that parents and children ever were or could be on such terms now what do you say edwin mister orgreave asked
are you a charlie pass me that bottle charlie was helping himself to another glass of wine the father the two elder sons and edwin alone had drunk of the wine edwin had never tasted wine in his life
and the effect of half a glass on him was very agreeable and strange oh dad i just want a charlie objected holding the bottle in the air above his glass
pass me that bottle mister orgreave repeated charlie obeyed proclaiming himself a martyr mister orgreave filled his own glass emptying the bottle and began to sip this will do me more good than you young man he said
then turning again to edwin are you a bradlaugh man and edwin uplifted said all i say is you can't help what you believe you can't make yourself believe anything and i don't see why you should either there's no virtue in believing
hooray cried the sedate tom
this sad expostulation came from missus orgreave don't you see what i mean he persisted vivaciously reddening but he could not express himself further hooray repeated tom missus orgreave shook her head with grieved good nature
you mustn't take mother too seriously said janet smiling she only puts on that expression to keep worse things from being said she's only pretending to be upset nothing could upset her really she's past being upset
content merely to advise the combatants upon their demeanour so you're against me too edwin mister orgreave sighed with mock melancholy
with more than usual eagerness did catherine hasten to the pump room the next day secure within herself of seeing mister tilney there before the morning were over and ready to meet him with a smile but no smile was demanded
mister tilney did not appear every creature in bath except himself was to be seen in the room at different periods of the fashionable hours
up the steps and down people whom nobody cared about and nobody wanted to see and he only was absent what a delightful place bath is said missus allen as they sat down near the great clock
after parading the room till they were tired and how pleasant it would be if we had any acquaintance here
this sentiment had been uttered so often in vain that missus allen had no particular reason to hope it would be followed with more advantage now but we are told to despair of nothing we would attain as unwearied
diligence our point would gain and the unwearied diligence with which she had every day wished for the same thing was at length to have its just reward for hardly had she been seated ten minutes
before a lady of about her own age who was sitting by her and had been looking at her attentively for several minutes addressed her with great complaisance in these words
it is a long time since i had the pleasure of seeing you but is not your name allen this question answered as it readily was the stranger pronounced hers to be thorpe
and missus allen immediately recognized the features of a former schoolfellow and intimate whom she had seen only once since their respective marriages and that many years ago their joy on this meeting was very great
since they had been contented to know nothing of each other for the last fifteen years compliments on good looks now passed and after observing how time had slipped away since they were last together
how little they had thought of meeting in bath and what a pleasure it was to see an old friend they proceeded to make inquiries and give intelligence as to their families sisters and cousins talking both together
far more ready to give than to receive information and each hearing very little of what the other said missus thorpe however had one great advantage as a talker over missus allen in a family of children
and when she expatiated on the talents of her sons and the beauty of her daughters when she related their different situations and views that john was at oxford
edward at merchant taylors and william at sea and all of them more beloved and respected in their different station than any other three beings ever were
missus allen had no similar information to give no similar triumphs to press on the unwilling and unbelieving ear of her friend
consoling herself however with the discovery which her keen eye soon made
here come my dear girls cried missus thorpe pointing at three smart looking females who arm in arm were then moving towards her
the tallest is isabella my eldest is not she a fine young woman the others are very much admired too but i believe isabella is the handsomest
the miss thorpes were introduced and miss morland who had been for a short time forgotten was introduced likewise the name seemed to strike them all and after speaking to her with great civility
the eldest young lady observed aloud to the rest how excessively like her brother miss morland is
was repeated by them all two or three times over for a moment catherine was surprised but missus thorpe and her daughters had scarcely begun the history of their acquaintance with mister james morland
before she remembered that her eldest brother had lately formed an intimacy with a young man of his own college of the name of thorpe
near london the whole being explained many obliging things were said by the miss thorpes of their wish of being better acquainted with her of being considered as already friends through the friendship of their brothers et cetera which catherine heard with pleasure
and answered with all the pretty expressions she could command and as the first proof of amity she was soon invited to accept an arm of the eldest miss thorpe and take a turn with her about the room catherine was delighted with this extension of her bath acquaintance
and almost forgot mister tilney while she talked to miss thorpe friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love their conversation turned upon those subjects of which the free discussion has generally much to do in perfecting a sudden intimacy between two young ladies
such as dress balls flirtations and quizzes miss thorpe however being four years older than miss morland and at least four years better informed
she could compare the balls of bath with those of tunbridge its fashions with the fashions of london could rectify the opinions of her new friend in many articles of tasteful attire could discover a flirtation between any gentleman and lady who
and point out a quiz through the thickness of a crowd these powers received due admiration from catherine to whom they were entirely new and the respect which they naturally inspired might have been too great for familiarity
had not the easy gaiety of miss thorpe's manners and her frequent expressions of delight on this acquaintance with her softened down every feeling of awe and left nothing but tender affection
their increasing attachment was not to be satisfied with half a dozen turns in the pump room but required when they all quitted it together
door of mister allen's house and that they should there part with a most affectionate and lengthened shake of hands after learning to their mutual relief that they should see each other across the theatre at night and say their prayers in the same chapel
the next morning catherine then ran directly upstairs and watched miss thorpe's progress down the street from the drawing room window admired the graceful spirit of her walk the fashionable air of her
figure and dress and felt grateful as well she might for the chance which had procured her such a friend missus thorpe was a widow and not a very rich one she was a good humoured well meaning woman
and a very indulgent mother her eldest daughter had great personal beauty and the younger ones by pretending to be as handsome as their sister imitating her air and dressing in the same style did very well
this brief account of the family is intended to supersede the necessity of a long and minute detail from missus thorpe herself of her past adventures and sufferings
in which the worthlessness of lords and attorneys might be set forth
now mister morland for he was close to her on the other side i shall not speak another word to you all the rest of the evening so i charge you not to expect it my sweetest catherine how have you been this long age
but i need not ask you for you look delightfully you really have done your hair in a more heavenly style than ever
i assure you my brother is quite in love with you already and as for mister tilney but that is a settled thing even your modesty cannot doubt his attachment now his coming back to bath makes it too plain oh
what would not i give to see him i really am quite wild with impatience my mother says he is the most delightful young man in the world she saw him this morning you know you must introduce him to me
is he in the house now look about for heaven's sake i assure you i can hardly exist till i see him no said catherine he is not here i cannot see him anywhere oh horrid
am i never to be acquainted with him how do you like my gown i think it does not look amiss the sleeves were entirely my own thought do you know i get so immoderately sick of bath
your brother and i were agreeing this morning that though it is vastly well to be here for a few weeks we would not live here for millions we soon found out that our tastes were exactly alike in preferring the country to every other place
really our opinions were so exactly the same it was quite ridiculous there was not a single point in which we differed i would not have had you by for the world you are such a sly thing i am sure you would have made some droll remark or other about it
no indeed i should not oh yes you would indeed i know you better than you know yourself
or some nonsense of that kind which would have distressed me beyond conception
i would not have had you by for the world indeed you do me injustice i would not have made so improper a remark upon any account and besides i am sure it would never have entered my head
isabella smiled incredulously and talked the rest of the evening to james catherine's resolution of endeavouring to meet miss tilney again continued in full force the next morning
and till the usual moment of going to the pump room she felt some alarm from the dread of a second prevention but nothing of that kind occurred no visitors appeared to delay them and they all three set off in good time for the pump room
where the ordinary course of events and conversation took place mister allen after drinking his glass of water joined some gentlemen to talk over the politics of the day and compare the accounts of their newspapers
and the ladies walked about together noticing every new face and almost every new bonnet in the room the female part of the thorpe family attended by james morland appeared among the crowd in less than a quarter of an hour
and catherine immediately took her usual place by the side of her friend james who was now in constant attendance maintained a similar position and separating themselves from the rest of their party they walked in that manner for some time
till catherine began to doubt the happiness of a situation which confining her entirely to her friend and brother gave her very little share in the notice of either they were always engaged in some sentimental discussion or lively dispute
that though catherine's supporting opinion was not unfrequently called for by one or the other she was never able to give any
at length however she was empowered to disengage herself from her friend by the avowed necessity of speaking to miss tilney whom she most joyfully saw just entering the room with missus hughes
and whom she instantly joined with a firmer determination to be acquainted than she might have had courage to command had she not been urged by the disappointment of the day before miss tilney met her with great civility
returned her advances with equal goodwill and they continued talking together as long as both parties remained in the room and though in all probability not an observation was made
nor an expression used by either which had not been made and used some thousands of times before under that roof in every bath season
how well your brother dances was an artless exclamation of catherine's towards the close of their conversation which at once surprised and amused her companion henry she replied with a smile yes he does dance very well
he must have thought it very odd to hear me say i was engaged the other evening when he saw me sitting down but i really had been engaged the whole day to mister thorpe miss tilney could only bow
how surprised i was to see him again i felt so sure of his being quite gone away
he came only to engage lodgings for us
was not the young lady he danced with on monday a miss smith yes an acquaintance of missus hughes i dare say she was very glad to dance do you think her pretty not very
he never comes to the pump room i suppose yes sometimes but he has rid out this morning with my father missus hughes now joined them and asked miss tilney if she was ready to go
i hope i shall have the pleasure of seeing you again soon said catherine shall you be at the cotillion ball tomorrow perhaps we yes i think we certainly shall i am glad of it for we shall all be there
this civility was duly returned and they parted on miss tilney's side with some knowledge of her new acquaintance's feelings and on catherine's without the smallest consciousness of having explained them she went home very happy
the morning had answered all her hopes and the evening of the following day was now the object of expectation the future good what gown and what head dress she should wear on the occasion became her chief concern
she cannot be justified in it dress is at all times a frivolous distinction and excessive solicitude about it often destroys its own aim catherine knew all this very well her great aunt had read her a lecture on the subject only the christmas before
and yet she lay awake ten minutes on wednesday night debating between her spotted and her tamboured muslin and nothing but the shortness of the time prevented her buying a new one for the evening this would have been an error in judgment
great though not uncommon from which one of the other sex rather than her own a brother rather than a great aunt might have warned her
what is costly or new in their attire how little it is biased by the texture of their muslin and how unsusceptible of peculiar tenderness towards the spotted
woman is fine for her own satisfaction alone no man will admire her the more no woman will like her the better for it
neatness and fashion are enough for the former and a something of shabbiness or impropriety will be most endearing to the latter but not one of these grave reflections troubled the tranquillity of catherine
she entered the rooms on thursday evening with feelings very different from what had attended her thither the monday before
and was now chiefly anxious to avoid his sight lest he should engage her again for though she could not dared not expect that mister tilney should ask her a third time to dance
her wishes hopes and plans all centred in nothing less every young lady may feel for my heroine in this critical moment for every young lady has at some time or other known the same agitation
all have been or at least all have believed themselves to be in danger from the pursuit of someone whom they wished to avoid and all have been anxious for the attentions of someone whom they
wished to please as soon as they were joined by the thorpes catherine's agony began she fidgeted about if john thorpe came towards her hid herself as much as possible from his view and when he spoke to her pretended not to hear him
the cotillions were over the country dancing beginning and she saw nothing of the tilneys do not be frightened my dear catherine whispered isabella but i am really going to dance with your brother again
i declare positively it is quite shocking i tell him he ought to be ashamed of himself but you and john must keep us in countenance make haste my dear creature and come to us john is just walked off but he will be back in a moment
catherine had neither time nor inclination to answer the others walked away john thorpe was still in view and she gave herself up for lost that she might not appear however to observe or expect him
she kept her eyes intently fixed on her fan and a self condemnation for her folly in supposing that among such a crowd they should even meet with the tilneys in any reasonable time had just passed through her mind when she suddenly found herself addressed
and again solicited to dance by mister tilney himself with what sparkling eyes and ready motion she granted his request and with how pleasing a flutter of heart she went with him to the set may be easily imagined
to escape and as she believed so narrowly escape john thorpe and to be asked so immediately on his joining her asked by mister tilney as if he had sought her on purpose it did not appear to her that life could supply any greater felicity
tilney he repeated hum i do not know him a good figure of a man well put together
a famous clever animal for the road only forty guineas i had fifty minds to buy it myself
but it would not answer my purpose it would not do for the field i would give any money for a real good hunter i have three now the best that ever were backed i would not take eight hundred guineas for them
this was the last sentence by which he could weary catherine's attention for he was just then borne off by the resistless pressure of a long string of passing ladies her partner now drew near and said
that gentleman would have put me out of patience had he stayed with you half a minute longer he has no business to withdraw the attention of my partner from me we have entered into a contract of mutual agreeableness for the space of an evening
and all our agreeableness belongs solely to each other for that time nobody can fasten themselves on the notice of one without injuring the rights of the other i consider a country dance as an emblem of marriage
fidelity and complaisance are the principal duties of both and those men who do not choose to dance or marry themselves have no business with the partners or wives of their neighbours but they are such very different things
that you think they cannot be compared together to be sure not people that marry can never part but must go and keep house together people that dance only stand opposite each other in a long room for half an hour
and such is your definition of matrimony and dancing taken in that light certainly their resemblance is not striking but i think i could place them in such a view you will allow that in both man has the advantage of choice woman only the power of refusal
that in both it is an engagement between man and woman formed for the advantage of each and that when once entered into they belong exclusively to each other till the moment of its dissolution that it is their duty
each to endeavour to give the other no cause for wishing that he or she had bestowed themselves elsewhere and their best interest to keep their own imaginations from wandering towards the perfections of their neighbours
you will allow all this yes to be sure as you state it all this sounds very well but still they are so very different i cannot look upon them at all in the same light nor think the same duties belong to them in one respect there certainly is a difference
in marriage the man is supposed to provide for the support of the woman the woman to make the home agreeable to the man he is to purvey and she is to smile but in dancing their duties are exactly changed
the agreeableness the compliance are expected from him while she furnishes the fan and the lavender water that i suppose was the difference of duties which struck you as rendering the conditions incapable of comparison
no indeed i never thought of that then i am quite at a loss one thing however i must observe this disposition on your side is rather alarming
you totally disallow any similarity in the obligations and may i not thence infer that your notions of the duties of the dancing state are not so strict as your partner might wish have i not reason to fear that if the gentleman who spoke to you just now were to return
mister thorpe is such a very particular friend of my brother's that if he talks to me i must talk to him again but there are hardly three young men in the room besides him that i have any acquaintance with and is that to be my only security alas alas
for if i do not know anybody it is impossible for me to talk to them and besides i do not want to talk to anybody now you have given me a security worth having and i shall proceed with courage
do you find bath as agreeable as when i had the honour of making the inquiry before yes quite more so indeed more so take care or you will forget to be tired of it at the proper time you ought to be tired at the end of six weeks
i do not think i should be tired if i were to stay here six months bath compared with london has little variety and so everybody finds out every year for six weeks i allow bath is pleasant enough but beyond that it is the most tiresome place in the world
well other people must judge for themselves and those who go to london may think nothing of bath but i who live in a small retired village in the country can never find greater sameness in such a place as this than in my own home
which i can know nothing of there you are not fond of the country yes i am i have always lived there and always been very happy
one day in the country is exactly like another but then you spend your time so much more rationally in the country do i do you not i do not believe there is much difference here you are in pursuit only of amusement all day long
and so i am at home only i do not find so much of it i walk about here and so i do there but here i see a variety of people in every street and there i can only go and call on missus allen
mister tilney was very much amused only go and call on missus allen he repeated what a picture of intellectual poverty however when you sink into this abyss again you will have more to say
oh yes i shall never be in want of something to talk of again to missus allen or anybody else i really believe i shall always be talking of bath when i am at home again
i do like it so very much if i could but have papa and mamma and the rest of them here i suppose i should be too happy james's coming my eldest brother is quite delightful
and especially as it turns out that the very family we are just got so intimate with are his intimate friends already oh who can ever be tired of bath not those who bring such fresh feelings of every sort to it as you do
and the honest relish of balls and plays and everyday sights is past with them here their conversation closed the demands of the dance becoming now too importunate for a divided attention
soon after their reaching the bottom of the set catherine perceived herself to be earnestly regarded by a gentleman who stood among the lookers on immediately behind her partner
of a commanding aspect past the bloom but not past the vigour of life and with his eye still directed towards her she saw him presently address mister tilney in a familiar whisper
confused by his notice and blushing from the fear of its being excited by something wrong in her appearance she turned away her head
i see that you guess what i have just been asked that gentleman knows your name and you have a right to know his it is general tilney my father catherine's answer was only oh but it was an oh expressing everything needful
attention to his words and perfect reliance on their truth with real interest and strong admiration did her eye now follow the general as he moved through the crowd and how handsome a family they are was her secret remark
in chatting with miss tilney before the evening concluded a new source of felicity arose to her she had never taken a country walk since her arrival in bath miss tilney to whom all the commonly frequented environs were familiar
spoke of them in terms which made her all eagerness to know them too and on her openly fearing that she might find nobody to go with her it was proposed by the brother and sister that they should join in a walk some morning or other i shall like it she cried
and do not let us put it off let us go tomorrow this was readily agreed to with only a proviso of miss tilney's that it did not rain which catherine was sure it would not at twelve o'clock they were to call for her in pulteney street and remember
twelve o'clock was her parting speech to her new friend of her other her older her more established friend isabella of whose fidelity and worth she had enjoyed a fortnight's experience she scarcely saw anything during the evening
this is the very place for lovers said lord vivianne they had reached an open piece of moorland where the shadows of the tall trees danced on the grass and great sheets of bluebells contrasted with starry primroses
lord vivianne drew aside the fallen branch of a slender willow that she might find room to sit down the very place for lovers he repeated she looked at him with a smile but we are not lovers she said
false logic fairest of ladies he replied
can a girl have two lovers she asked looking up at him with the frank eyes of an innocent child he laughed that quite depends on the state of one's conscience he replied and the elasticity of one's spirits
the proper thing is to send one away which should be sent away she asked i should say the one that is loved the least tell me now do you really love this country admirer of yours very much i do not understand why you ask me
i will tell you because everything that interests you interests me your pains and pleasures would soon be mine i have no pains she said thoughtfully and no pleasures then yours must be a most dull and monotonous life
how can you with so keen a capacity for enjoyment how can you bear it i do not bear it very well she replied i am always more or less bad tempered he laughed again you improve upon acquaintance miss brace
you are the first lady whom i have heard plead guilty to bad temper as a rule women prefer making themselves out to be angelic i am very far from that said doris frankly nor am i naturally bad tempered it is because nothing in my life pleases or interests me
not even your lover he said bending over her and whispering the words she blushed under his keen gaze her words had betrayed more than she meant to betray then he added would you like it changed this dull life of yours into one of fairy brightness
my fate in the future is fixed nothing can alter it yes he said gently there is one thing that can alter it and only one your will and mine
he looked over the trees and began to talk to her about the flowers doris did not much care about that she had not come out to listen to the praises of flowers she would rather ten thousand times over that her lordly lover had praised herself while he was talking she was thinking of many things
was it a dream or a reality that she doris brace daughter of mark and patty brace was really talking to a lord listening to his compliments that he admired her quite as much as earle did it was more like a dream than a reality
who belonged to the highest society who had seen and known the most beautiful women in england to be talking to her so easily so kindly i must be beautiful thought the girl in her heart or he would never have noticed me then she recalled her wandering thoughts
the sun was shining full upon them and all its light seemed to be concentrated in a superb diamond that he wore on his left hand no matter where she looked her eyes seemed to be drawn to that stone the fire of it was dazzling then her eyes wandered over the well knit figure what a difference dress made
her attention was suddenly attracted you do not answer me he was saying she looked up at him i beg your pardon she said i was not really listening to you i was telling you that i ought to have left the castle three days ago but i was determined that i would not leave until i had seen you
i do not know how i can tear myself away again she blushed crimson
lady estelle he repeated
my dear miss brace he said it is simply impossible that we can be speaking of the same lady i assure you that lady estelle hereford is known everywhere as the coldest and proudest of women
never in love she repeated why she gave me a long lecture about love and advised me never to marry without it when she spoke of it her face quite changed her eyes lost their indolent expression and filled with light
she has none of it we have evidently seen her from different points of view said doris i wonder which is the correct one i dislike contradicting a lady but must state that i am likely to know her better than you
it is for you i remained never mind lady estelle we will not waste the sunny hours of this lovely morning talking about her you have not told me yet if you prefer this country admirer of yours to all the world if you do there remains for me nothing except to take up my hat and go
i know how useless it is even to attempt to win even one corner of a preoccupied heart why should you wish to win one corner of mine she asked stealing from underneath her long lashes one sweet subtle glance that was like fire to him
because i long to win your whole heart and soul your whole love and affection for myself i cannot rest i know no peace no repose i think of nothing but you why should i not win your heart if i can she shrank back trembling blushing
the fire and passion of his words scared her your face haunts me i see it wherever i gaze he continued your voice haunts me i hear it in every sound i would fain win you if i can for my own
this man to whom a perverse fate has bound you if you tell me that i will go and i will never tease you again then she knew that she held the balance of her life in her own hands
should she be true to earle say she loved him and so lose the chance of winning this love from a lord
or should she cast him from her and betray him one word only one word whispered lord vivianne bending his evil handsome face over her you think such a question can be answered in a minute she said it is impossible
i can only say this that i liked him better than any one else one short month ago he grasped her hand and held it tightly clasped in his own you say that you admit that much oh doris the rest shall follow i will not leave downsbury until i have won the rest
then his eyes fell upon the diamond ring shining and scintillating in the sun a sudden thought struck him he held her white hand in his own and looked at it as he held it up to the light how fine and transparent he said i can see every vein
such a hand ought to be covered with jewels she was of the same opinion herself
he looked entreatingly at her i wonder he said if you will be angry this was my mother's ring and i prize it more than i do anything in the wide world i am afraid promise me you will not be angry it was to say the least of it
lord charles vivianne would never have troubled himself to have worn his mother's ring but even he bold and adventurous as he was thought some little preamble necessary before he offered her so valuable a gift
there is a strange sad love story connected with it he said which i will tell you some day but it is dear to me because it was my mother's ring then he drew it from his finger
i should like to see how it looks on that pretty white hand of yours he said laughingly and as he spoke he drew the ring on her finger it shone and glanced like fire the sunbeams seemed to concentrate themselves on it and certainly the beautiful white hand looked the lovelier for the ring
he looked at it admiringly you were born to wear jewels he said you ought never to be without them she laughed with the faintest tinge of bitterness i do not see from whom i am to get them she said as my wife you could get them and everything that your heart could wish
think of it and compare a life of ease and luxury with your dull existence here you will let me see you again i have so much to say to you yes she replied i will see you if i can get away from home you can always do that
then he held the little hand even more tightly in his own i am half afraid he said quietly but i wish that you would allow me to offer you this ring she looked at him suddenly and with a burning flush on her face to me she said hesitatingly yes
but it is so costly it is so very valuable
i should be so happy if you would wear it it is the first time a jewel has given me such pleasure how can i wear such a splendid ring she said every one who sees it will wonder where it came from you will be able to manage that he replied you are so clever
i cannot doubt your skill say you will accept it doris she was quite silent for some minutes then a low voice whispered to her i will hang jewels more costly than this on your beautiful neck and round your white arms you shall be crowned with diamonds if you will
see how marvelously fair it makes that sweet hand of yours jewels crown a beautiful woman with a glory nothing else can give you above all others ought to be so crowned for there is no other woman so fair
the flush died from her face she had not quite made up her mind there came before her a vision of her past lover with his wild worship his passionate love of all the vows and promises she had made to him of his trust and faith in her
though she had slept late in fact till noon and something after
she could not remember how or why
without relish for the promise of the day in a mood altogether as drear as the daylight that waited upon her unclosing eyes main strength of will had not availed to dispel these vapours
neither did their melancholy yield to the distraction provided by first acquaintance with ways of a world
and at any other time in any other temper she knew she must have been swept off her feet by its exciting appeal to her innate love of luxury and sensation but the sad truth was
according to age sex and temporal state of servitude did nothing to mitigate the harshness of those first impressions if anything her depression grew more perversely morbid the more she was catered to courted flattered and cajoled something had happened she could never guess what
to turn her vivid zest in life to ashes in her mouth so that nothing seemed to matter any more thoughts of karslake as her lover
precious beyond compare found her indifferent to day and left her so try as she would she failed to recapture any sense of the reality of those first raptures and yet somehow she didn't doubt he loved her or that buried deep beneath this inexplicable apathy
love for karslake burned on in her heart but she knew no sort of comfort in such confidence
nothing mattered she was able even to meet prince victor without her customary shiver of aversion and when she recalled the persistence and enthusiasm with which she had reasoned herself into believing last night that he might be another than her father
she came as near to mirth as she was to come that day but it was mirth bitter with self derision of course he was her father she had been a ninny ever to dream contrariwise or that it mattered
nor had she met with more success in efforts to find a cause for this drab humour unless indeed it were simply the farthest swing of the pendulum from yesterday's emotional crises a long swing out of sunlit spaces swept by the brave winds of young romance into a gloomy zone of brooding torpor
surcharged with unseizable disquiet its atmosphere electrical with formless apprehensions its sad twilight shot with lurid gleams no sooner glimpsed than gone in this state sofia's sensibilities were less benumbed
than bound in a palsy of suspense not wholly destitute of dread beneath the lethargic shallows of consciousness lay soundless deeps troubled by sinister premonitions now
with its keen wonder that she had contrived to survive such exquisite tedium she perceived that she had moved throughout like an automaton swayed by a will outside its own functioning rather than living performing appointed business executing prescribed gestures
uttering foreordained observations and making dictated responses all without suggestion of spontaneity
waiting for what sofia could not guess she went to bed presently hoping only to find surcease of boredom
discreet and well instructed chou nu turned the night light down to a glimmer placed on and under a chair adjacent to the bed a robe of cashmere that wouldn't rustle and slippers of fine felt with soles of soft leather
in which footfalls must be inaudible and glided gently from the room
she rested without tossing without moving a finger then sleep having held her for precisely one hour by the clock sofia opened her eyes
the memory of that hour was not to leave the girl while life was in her nor was the question it raised ever to be answered in a fashion satisfactory to her intelligence when later she heard it stated with authority
and the crime he had willed her to commit in final analysis not repugnant to her instincts or was it some secret faculty of the soul telepathy or of its kin that roused and sent her to keep her rendezvous with destiny a riddle never to be read
sofia only knew that finding herself awake she got up donned negligee and slippers and set her feet upon the way appointed without its occurring to her that the way was strange without stopping to question why or whether
it could hardly have been apparent sofia herself was not aware of its suspense or supersession she knew quite well what she was doing her every action was direct and decided the goal alone remained obscure
she only knew that somewhere somehow something was going wrong without her and her presence was required to set it right
but left it unlatched with what object she did not know but the lateness of the hour the stillness of the sleeping household made it seem quite in order that she should pause to look cautiously this way and that
the purpose of this as yet aimless nocturnal flitting there was nobody that she could see
when chance or fate or the smooth working out of malicious mortal machinations
and in the boudoir sofia had spent
the circumstance seemed singular
lady randolph west had airily informed her that she considered insurance to their appraised value plus a stout lock on the boudoir door better than any strong box as yet devised by the ingenuity of man there's the safe they're kept in of course the lady had declared but my dear
i never even trouble to lock the thing
impulse at least she called it that moved sofia to approach and cautiously open the door still wider upon the antique writing desk that housed the safe burned a single lamp of low candle power a door that led to the adjoining bedchamber was tightly shut
sofia's mistrustful eyes reconnoitred every corner of the room and reckoned it empty again obedient to undisputed impulse she stepped inside and shut the door the spring latch of the american lock found its socket with a soft click
thereafter silence no sound in the boudoir none from the room beyond but to sofia the hurried beating of her heart reverberated on the stillness like the rolling of a drum without clear appreciation of how she had got there
she found herself standing over the writing desk and discovered what the indifferent light had till now kept hidden
her actions now more than ever resembled those of an unthinking puppet
so true were they to theatrical convention with furtive frightened glances toward both doors sofia dropped to her knees before the safe when she stood up again her hands were filled with jewellery her two hands held a treasure of incalculable price in precious stones
she paused for a little staring at them with dilate eyes dark in a pale rapt face her lips were parted but only her quickened breathing whispered past them she was trembling more painfully than ever but she seemed unable to think of anything but the jewels
hers for the taking then without warning a tremendous convulsion laid hold on her body and soul and she was racked and shaken by it
chapter twenty one meg as benefactress dan and the children had gone on a hike and jane being quite alone
but for the sake of the other three she was willing to be treated unkindly miss abbott she said holding out the newspaper and pretending not to notice the unfriendly expression there is news in here which may be of great importance to you
suddenly jane found herself trembling from some unnamed fear instantly she had thought of the taxes perhaps without really being conscious of it she had read the word somewhere on that outheld paper
she sank back into her chair saying almost breathlessly dan isn't here
there was an expression of terror in the dark eyes that were lifted oh what shall i do what shall i do she implored helplessly
he told us the taxes must be paid but i thought another two weeks would do as well as now dan did not know the need of haste meg seeing that the girl
felt a sudden compassion for her and so she said if you can get the money to the county seat before five o'clock you will not lose your property a dull flush suffused the dark face i i haven't the money i i borrowed it for something i wanted
it was in that letter that julie gave you this morning to mail then looking up eagerly hopefully
oh how i hope that you did but the mountain girl shook her head
the proud girl burst into sudden tears father has lost everything but our home in the east and now
lifting a tear stained face to the girl who was watching her troubled and thoughtful she implored oh isn't there something i can do if i tell them i will pay it in two weeks when my birthday money comes won't that do as well as now meg shook her head
no she said this is final they notified your father some time ago jane nodded hopelessly oh if only brother were here but the worry would start him to coughing again the girl who scorned tears in others began to sob helplessly
how vain and foolish she had been to want that necklace
then she said miss abbott find your papers have them ready for me when i return i'll try to save your place
what does she mean jane sat almost as one stunned
she arose and went indoors to locate the papers their father had given dan these being fastened with a rubber band into a neat packet she held closely while she ran out to the brook calling dan's name frantically but there was no response
it brought a faint hope that her father's cabin might yet be saved down the stone steps she went holding out the papers
but don't hope too much it will be very hard for me to make scarsburg by five o'clock but for julie's sake i'll do my best for julie's sake
the words drifted back to jane as she stood watching the pony hurtling itself down the mountain road until the cloud of dust hid it from view she jane had never done anything for julie's sake
why he risked his health that i might finish my course in that seminary where everyone everything conspired to make me more proud and helpless then before her arose a mental picture meg clear eyed eager to be of service in an hour of need
and more than that capable of being and she
unable to sit still
jane went back to the house and because she had to do something she had entirely lost interest in her book she wandered out into the kitchen she saw on the table a pan of potatoes with the paring knife near hardly knowing what she was about
when she heard him hallooing from the brook placing the pan on the step she ran to meet him
more than words could have done that something of an unusual nature had occurred during their absence catching her in his arms he felt her body tremble he led her back to the porch before he asked jane tell me what has happened has that slinking coyote frightened you
julie and gerald wide eyed and wondering crowded near dan
when she had so often been frightened and had turned to him for protection please send the children away i want to tell you alone gerald needed no second bidding come on julie he called let's go and practice on our pine tree rifle range he was carrying the small gun and so away they raced
oh brother brother if only this cabin is saved for dad i will never never again be so vain and selfish oh dan tell me say that you think meg will reach the county seat before five the lad found that his heart was filled with conflicting emotions
but above all there was something in his heart he had never felt before a warm glow of admiration for a girl who was not his sister what he said was jane dear quiet yourself we can do nothing but wait
and a long long wait they were destined to have the hands of the clock moved slowly to four then five and then six
gee gerald confided to his small sister
try as the small boy might he could not keep the scorn out of his voice but julie was more forgiving gerry don't be too hard on jane
i don't believe she saw a bear or anything that scared her i think it's something in her heart that's troubling her i think she's sorry about something she's done
that's what if she wasn't my sister and if she didn't look just like our mother but even for all of that i'm going to let myself hate her hard if she isn't better to you jule
that julie laughed merrily which broke the spell oh gerry you do look so funny
meanwhile on the front porch the two who had long watched and waited were getting momentarily more anxious and often
down which he gazed at the zig zagging mountain road at last he saw a pony climbing oh so slowly as though it could hardly take another step and at its side there walked a girl dan leaped back to the porch and snatched up his hat
jane he said you and the children have your supper i'm going up to the heger cabin and get one of their horses
jane did not try to detain him and the lad fairly leaped up the road to the heger cabin
then the man held out a strong hand as he said dan boy i hope my gal made it she would if anyone could dan silently returned the clasp then he mounted the horse
sure footed and with great rapidity jane heard the halloo when he passed but she did not stir
he saw at once that she had been crying
in a listless voice she said at once father
but oh how i want to go to newport with merry and the rest but of course it would cost three hundred dollars and there is no money the father had started eagerly toward his daughter when she had entered
but upon hearing the concluding part of her speech he drew back a hurt expression in his clear gray eyes he folded his arms and a more alert observer than jane would have noticed an almost hard tone in his voice
never before had it been used for the daughter who was so like the mother in looks only the matter is decided jane he informed her the three hundred dollars that you require will be forthcoming however i wish you would plan to leave tomorrow
i want to be alone without worries that i may decide how best to go about earning what i shall need to finish paying the debt that i still owe to the poor people who trusted me oh father father jane flung herself into her chair at the table and put her head down on her folded arms
it was not enough to cover their investments the man said still coldly for he believed the girl was crying because she would have to give up even more than she had supposed and be kept in poverty for a longer period of time she sat up however when her father said jane dry your tears
and when she returned her grandmother and julie were in their places her father had remained standing until she also was seated then bowing his head he said the simple grace of gratitude which had never been omitted at that table
jane marveled at the courage of her father for he was actually smiling at the little old lady who sat at his side
have i been good today there were sudden tears in the fading blue eyes and a quiver in the corners of the sweet old mouth as the grandmother replied yes dan you have been very good
and maybe he does know how good you've been
than to be praised for smartness and that's how tis danny and i'm happy and proud the dear little old lady wiped her eyes with a corner of her apron then she smiled up brightly and pretended to eat the meat pie which was in danger of being neglected
by all except julie who prattled we've set away two big pieces one for brother dan when he comes home from the city and one for gerry
won't they be glad when they see them they'll be hungry as anything i like to be awful hungry when there's something extra special to eat don't you janey almost timorously this query was ventured julie did not like to have the big sister look so sad the answer was not encouraging
nor eat neither it looks like the old lady had just said when the front door bell pealed julie leaped up looking eagerly at her father oh dad may i go but being nearest the door he had risen i'll answer it julie he replied
but mister abbott was mistaken a messenger boy stood on the porch
eagerly the girl tore it open the others watching her with varied emotions although julie's was just eager curiosity ohee she squealed
what's in it janey do tell us mister abbott noted that a red spot was burning in each cheek of the daughter who had been so pale she glanced up at him her eyes shining dad she cried you won't have to give me three hundred dollars listen to this
oh merry is certainly wonderful then she read dearest jane aunt belle has changed her plans she has rented a cottage just beyond the hotel grounds and is going to take her own cook and i want you to come as our guest
i owe you a visit since you gave me such a wonderful time in the country with you last year
more than ever is living up to her nickname merry m s during the reading of the night letter mister abbott had quickly made up his mind just what his attitude would be that's splendid jane isn't it
he said and not even his watchful mother noted a trace of disappointment in his voice if i were you i would pack at once you would better go over to the city in the morning and that will give you time to buy a new summer dress for i am sure that you must need one
and so she left the room hurriedly without having more than touched her plate julie followed as she adored packing when they were gone the man sighed deeply mother he said i have decided to send julie with dan she can cook the simple things he will need and some one must go with the boy
the old lady reached out a comforting hand and placed it on that of her son nearest her dan she said in a low voice jane doesn't know a thing about your long illness does she nobody's told her has there the man shook his head
but don't tell her mother she does not seem to care and moreover i am now much stronger my only real worry is dan and i do feel confident that if he can be well cared for the mountain air will restore his health
rising he stooped to kiss his mother's forehead then left the room going through the kitchen to the garden
he saw the two girls hurrying about
this assurance was brought to him when he heard jane singing a snatch of a school song it sounded like a requiem to the man in the garden below he leaned on his hoe as he thought self rebukingly
i have done as much for the other three children but somehow they didn't spoil the comfort of that realization was so great that the father soon returned to his self imposed task and an hour later when dan appeared he told the boy jane's decision saying
son of mine it would be no comfort to you to have her companionship if her heart were elsewhere the shadow of keen disappointment in the lad's eyes was quickly dispelled placing a hand on his father's shoulder he said cheerfully it's all right dad julie is a great little pal
but even yet the matter was not decided that thursday night after the younger members of the household were asleep mister abbott and his mother talked together in his den
the old lady smiled as she recalled the hoppings and squealings with which the small girl had expressed her joy luckily i'd washed and ironed her summer clothes on monday and tuesday and this being only thursday she hadn't soiled any of them
then her tone changed to one of tenderness dan she said julie and jane aren't much alike are they that little girl didn't hop and squeal long before she thought of something that sobered her then she told me i don't like to go grandma
and leave gerald at home he's been wishing and wishing and wishing he could go but he wouldn't tell dad cause he wants to stay home and earn money to help to the little old lady's surprise her companion sprang up as he exclaimed mother i won't be gone long wait up for me
seizing his hat from the hall tree he left the house well now that's certainly a curious caper the old lady thought
he must have thought of something he'd forgotten probably it's something for jane well there's nothing for me to do but wait she glanced at the clock on the mantle even then it was late she was usually asleep at ten there had been time for many a little cat nap before she heard her son returning
his expression assured the old lady that he was satisfied with the result of his errand why dan abbott she exclaimed whatever started you off in that way twasn't anything i said was it the man sank down in his chair again and took from his pocket a telegram
and this is his answer glad indeed to accommodate you dan and i'm sending one more just for good measure happened to recall that you have four children let me do something else for you old man if i can the grandmother looked up with shining eyes as she commented
bert bethel's a true friend if there ever was one won't gerry be wild with joy but goodness me danny that means more packing to do there's room enough in julie's trunk for the things gerald will need and i do believe i'll go right up and put them in while the boy's asleep
then she paused and looked at her son inquiringly will it be quite fair to mister peterson to have gerry leave his store without giving notice i've attended to that mother the man replied
he wants gerald to come over there first thing in the morning to get a present to take with him he didn't say what it would be
i was indeed happy to have him praise gerald as he did
he has watched gerald as he always does every lad who works in the store he said that nearly all of them had helped themselves to a piece of candy from the showcase when they had wished
mister peterson was so pleased that he asked gerald about it one day saying don't you like candy lad and our boy replied indeed i do mister peterson i don't buy it because i want to save all my money to help dad
gerald hadn't even thought of helping himself as he worked around the store of course gerry wouldn't the old lady replied emphatically for isn't he your son daniel and your grandson mother the man smilingly returned but we must get some sleep he added
as the chimes on the mantle clock told them that it was eleven tomorrow is to be a busy day
chapter seven in which a friendly move is originated the arrangement between mister boffin and his literary man mister silas wegg so far altered with the altered habits of mister boffin's life
as that the roman empire usually declined in the morning and in the eminently aristocratic family mansion rather than in the evening as of yore and in boffin's bower there were occasions however when mister boffin seeking a brief refuge from the blandishments of fashion
would present himself at the bower after dark to anticipate the next sallying forth of wegg
if wegg had been worse paid for his office or better qualified to discharge it
but holding the position of a handsomely remunerated humbug he resented them this was quite according to rule for the incompetent servant by whomsoever employed is always against his employer even those born governors noble and right honourable creatures
who have been the most imbecile in high places have uniformly shown themselves the most opposed sometimes in belying distrust sometimes in vapid insolence to their employer what is in such wise true of the public master and servant is equally true of the private master and servant all the world over
when mister silas wegg did at last obtain free access to our house as he had been wont to call the mansion outside which he had sat shelterless so long and when he did at last find it in all particulars as different from his mental plans of it as according to the nature of things it well could be
that far seeing and far reaching character by way of asserting himself and making out a case for compensation affected to fall into a melancholy strain of musing over the mournful past as if the house and he had had a fall in life together
was once our house this sir is the building from which i have so often seen those great creatures miss elizabeth master george aunt jane and uncle parker' whose very names were of his own inventing
and has it come to this indeed ah dear me dear me so tender were his lamentations that the kindly mister boffin was quite sorry for him and almost felt mistrustful that in buying the house he had done him an irreparable injury
two or three diplomatic interviews the result of great subtlety on mister wegg's part but assuming the mask of careless yielding to a fortuitous combination of circumstances impelling him towards clerkenwell had enabled him to complete his bargain with mister venus
bring me round to the bower said silas when the bargain was closed next saturday evening and if a sociable glass of old jamaikey warm should meet your views i am not the man to begrudge it you are aware of my being poor company sir replied mister venus but be it so
it being so here is saturday evening come and here is mister venus come and ringing at the bower gate mister wegg opens the gate descries a sort of brown paper truncheon under mister venus's arm and remarks in a dry tone
no mister wegg replies venus i am not above a parcel above a parcel no says wegg with some dissatisfaction but does not openly growl a certain sort of parcel might be above you
here is your purchase mister wegg says venus politely handing it over and i am glad to restore it to the source from whence it flowed thankee says wegg
you could have kept this article back from me i only throw it out as a legal point do you think so mister wegg i bought you in open contract you can't buy human flesh and blood in this country sir not alive you can't says wegg shaking his head
as a legal point asks venus as a legal point
but upon a point of fact i think myself competent to speak
will you allow me to say further i wouldn't say more than further if i was you mister wegg suggests pacifically
i don't pretend to know how the point of law may stand but i'm thoroughly confident upon the point of fact
and as it is not the cue of mister wegg to have him out of temper the latter gentleman soothingly remarks i only put it as a little case
for i tell you candidly i don't like your little cases arrived by this time in mister wegg's sitting room made bright on the chilly evening by gaslight and fire mister venus softens and compliments him on his abode profiting by the occasion to remind wegg that he venus
told him he had got into a good thing tolerable wegg rejoins but bear in mind mister venus that there's no gold without its alloy
i am but an indifferent performer sir returns the other but i'll accompany you with a whiff or two at intervals so mister venus mixes and wegg mixes and mister venus lights and puffs and wegg lights and puffs and there's alloy even in this metal of yours mister wegg you was remarking
mystery returns wegg i don't like it mister venus i don't like to have the life knocked out of former inhabitants of this house in the gloomy dark and not know who did it might you have any suspicions mister wegg no returns that gentleman
i know who profits by it but i've no suspicions having said which mister wegg smokes and looks at the fire with a most determined expression of charity as if he had caught that cardinal virtue by the skirts as she felt it her painful duty to depart from him and held her by main force
similarly resumes wegg i have observations as i can offer upon certain points and parties but i make no objections mister venus here is an immense fortune drops from the clouds upon a person that shall be nameless
which of us is the better man not the person that shall be nameless that's an observation of mine but i don't make it an objection i take my allowance and my certain weight of coals he takes his fortune that's the way it works
it would be a good thing for me if i could see things in the calm light you do mister wegg again look here
the latter having an undignified tendency to tilt him back in his chair here's another observation mister venus unaccompanied with an objection him that shall be nameless is liable to be talked over he gets talked over
and you may perhaps say meriting to be promoted higher mister venus murmurs that he does say so him that shall be nameless under such circumstances passes me by and puts a talking over stranger above my head which of us two is the better man
which of us two can repeat most poetry which of us two has in the service of him that shall be nameless tackled the romans both civil and military till he has got as husky as if he'd been weaned and ever since brought up on sawdust not the talking over stranger
and peeped in from curiosity did you see anything nothing but the dust yard mister wegg rolls his eyes all round the room in that ever unsatisfied quest of his and then rolls his eyes all round mister venus as if suspicious of his having something about him to be found out
and yet sir he pursues
and you're naturally of a polite disposition you are this last clause as a softening compliment to mister venus it is true sir replies venus winking his weak eyes and running his fingers through his dusty shock of hair that i was so before a certain observation soured me
you understand to what i allude mister wegg to a certain written statement respecting not wishing to be regarded in a certain light since that all is fled save gall not all says mister wegg in a tone of sentimental condolence
yes sir returns venus all the world may deem it harsh but i'd quite as soon pitch into my best friend as not indeed i'd sooner involuntarily making a pass with his wooden leg to guard himself as mister venus springs up in the emphasis of this unsociable declaration
mister wegg tilts over on his back chair and all and is rescued by that harmless misanthrope in a disjointed state and ruefully rubbing his head why you lost your balance mister wegg says venus handing him his pipe
and about time to do it grumbles silas when a man's visitors without a word of notice conduct themselves with the sudden wiciousness of jacks in boxes
i am so soured yes but hang it says wegg argumentatively a well governed mind can be soured sitting and as to being regarded in lights there's bumpey lights as well as bony in which again rubbing his head i object to regard myself i'll bear it in memory sir
if you'll be so good mister wegg slowly subdues his ironical tone and his lingering irritation and resumes his pipe we were talking of old mister harmon being a friend of yours not a friend mister wegg only known to speak to
as inquisitive as secret ah you found him secret returns wegg with a greedy relish
ah with another roll of his eyes as to what was found in the dust now
living on the mysterious premises one would like to know for instance where he found things or for instance how he set about it
whether he prodded mister wegg's pantomime is skilful and expressive here or whether he scooped
prodded i should say neither mister wegg as a fellow man mister venus mix again why neither because i suppose sir that what was found was found in the sorting and sifting all the mounds are sorted and sifted you shall see em
and pass your opinion mix again on each occasion of his saying mix again mister wegg with a hop on his wooden leg hitches his chair a little nearer more as if he were proposing that himself and mister venus should mix again than that they should replenish their glasses
says wegg holding mister venus's palm out flat and ready for smiting and now smiting it as such and no other for i scorn all lowlier ties betwixt myself and the man walking with his face erect that alone i call my twin regarded and regarding in this trustful bond
it is but a supposition mister wegg as a being with his hand upon his heart cries wegg and the apostrophe is not the less impressive for the being's hand being actually upon his rum and water put your supposition into language and bring it out mister venus
he was the species of old gentleman sir slowly returns that practical anatomist after drinking
maybe papers as one that was ever an ornament to human life says mister wegg again holding out mister venus's palm as if he were going to tell his fortune by chiromancy and holding his own up ready for smiting it when the time should come
as one that the poet might have had his eye on in writing the national naval words helm a weather now lay her close yard arm and yard arm she lies again cried i mister venus give her t'other dose man shrouds and grapple sir or she flies
that is to say regarded in the light of true british oak for such you are explain mister venus the expression papers seeing that the old gentleman was generally cutting off some near relation or blocking out some natural affection mister venus rejoins
he most likely made a good many wills and codicils the palm of silas wegg descends with a sounding smack upon the palm of venus and wegg lavishly exclaims twin in opinion equally with feeling mix a little more
mister venus it ain't that i object to being passed over for a stranger though i regard the stranger as a more than doubtful customer it ain't for the sake of making money though money is ever welcome it ain't for myself though i am not so haughty as to be above doing myself a good turn it's for the cause of the right
mister venus passively winking his weak eyes both at once demands what is mister wegg the friendly move sir that i now propose you see the move sir till you have pointed it out mister wegg i can't say whether i do or not
if there is anything to be found on these premises let us find it together let us make the friendly move of agreeing to look for it together let us make the friendly move of agreeing to share the profits of it equally betwixt us in the cause of the right thus silas assuming a noble air
it would be kept a secret by you and me
say it was money or plate or jewellery it would be as much ours as anybody else's mister venus rubs an eyebrow interrogatively in the cause of the right it would
and the buyer would get what he was never meant to have and never bought and what would that be mister venus but the cause of the wrong say it was papers mister venus propounds according to what they contained we should offer to dispose of em to the parties most interested
replies wegg promptly in the cause of the right mister wegg always so mister venus if the parties should use them in the cause of the wrong that would be their act and deed mister venus i have an opinion of you sir to which it is not easy to give mouth
since i called upon you that evening when you were as i may say floating your powerful mind in tea i have felt that you required to be roused with an object in this friendly move sir you will have a glorious object to rouse you
the qualifications of mister venus for such a search he expatiates on mister venus's patient habits and delicate manipulation on his skill in piecing little things together on his knowledge of various tissues and textures
on the likelihood of small indications leading him on to the discovery of great concealments while as to myself says wegg
whether i gave myself up to prodding or whether i gave myself up to scooping i couldn't do it with that delicate touch so as not to show that i was disturbing the mounds quite different with you going to work as you would in the light of a fellow man holily pledged in a friendly move to his brother man
mister wegg next modestly remarks on the want of adaptation in a wooden leg to ladders and such like airy perches and also hints at an inherent tendency in that timber fiction when called into action for the purposes of a promenade on an ashey slope
to stick itself into the yielding foothold and peg its owner to one spot then leaving this part of the subject he remarks on the special phenomenon that before his installation in the bower it was from mister venus that he first heard of the legend of hidden wealth in the mounds which
he observes with a vaguely pious air was surely never meant for nothing lastly he returns to the cause of the right gloomily foreshadowing the possibility of something being unearthed to criminate mister boffin
of whom he once more candidly admits it cannot be denied that he profits by a murder and anticipating his denunciation by the friendly movers to avenging justice and this mister wegg expressly points out not at all for the sake of the reward
though it would be a want of principle not to take it to all this mister venus with his shock of dusty hair cocked after the manner of a terrier's ears attends profoundly when mister wegg having finished opens his arms wide as if to show mister venus how bare his breast is
and then folds them pending a reply mister venus winks at him with both eyes some little time before speaking i see you have tried it by yourself mister wegg he says when he does speak you have found out the difficulties by experience
no it can hardly be said that i have tried it replies wegg a little dashed by the hint
skimmed it and found nothing besides the difficulties wegg shakes his head i scarcely know what to say to this mister wegg
say yes wegg naturally urges if i wasn't soured my answer would be no
wegg joyfully reproduces the two glasses repeats the ceremony of clinking their rims and inwardly drinks with great heartiness to the health and success in life of the young lady who has reduced mister venus to his present convenient state of mind the articles of the friendly move are then severally recited and agreed upon
they are but secrecy fidelity and perseverance the bower to be always free of access to mister venus for his researches and every precaution to be taken against their attracting observation in the neighbourhood there's a footstep exclaims venus where cries wegg starting
they softly break off light their pipes which have gone out and lean back in their chairs no doubt a footstep it approaches the window and a hand taps at the glass come in calls wegg meaning come round by the door
but the heavy old fashioned sash is slowly raised and a head slowly looks in out of the dark background of night pray is mister silas wegg here oh i see him the friendly movers might not have been quite at their ease
even though the visitor had entered in the usual manner but leaning on the breast high window and staring in out of the darkness they find the visitor extremely embarrassing especially mister venus who removes his pipe draws back his head and stares at the starer as if it were his own hindoo baby come to fetch him home
good evening mister wegg the yard gate lock should be looked to if you please it don't catch is it mister rokesmith falters wegg it is mister rokesmith don't let me disturb you i am not coming in
i have only a message for you which i undertook to deliver on my way home to my lodgings i was in two minds about coming beyond the gate without ringing not knowing but you might have a dog about i wish i had mutters wegg with his back turned as he rose from his chair
hush the talking over stranger mister venus is that any one i know inquires the staring secretary no mister rokesmith friend of mine passing the evening with me oh i beg his pardon
mister boffin wishes you to know that he does not expect you to stay at home any evening on the chance of his coming it has occurred to him that he may without intending it have been a tie upon you in future if he should come without notice he will take his chance of finding you
and it will be all the same to him if he does not i undertook to tell you on my way that's all with that and good night the secretary lowers the window and disappears they listen and hear his footsteps go back to the gate and hear the gate close after him
and for that individual mister venus remarks wegg when he is fully gone i have been passed over let me ask you what you think of him
singular look a double look you mean sir rejoins wegg playing bitterly upon the word
venus asks something against him repeats wegg something
everything see into what wonderful maudlin refuges featherless ostriches plunge their heads it is such unspeakable moral compensation to wegg to be overcome by the consideration that mister rokesmith has an underhanded mind
on this starlight night mister venus
on this starlight night to think that talking over strangers and underhanded minds can go walking home under the sky as if they was all square the spectacle of those orbs says mister venus gazing upward with his hat tumbling off
you needn't repeat em says wegg pressing his hand but think how those stars steady me in the cause of the right against some that shall be nameless it isn't that i bear malice but see how they glisten with old remembrances
old remembrances of what sir mister venus begins drearily replying
ah these cigarettes porfiry petrovitch ejaculated at last having lighted one they are pernicious positively pernicious and yet i can't give them up i cough
you know i am a coward i went lately to doctor
he always gives at least half an hour to each patient he positively laughed looking at me he sounded me tobacco's bad for you he said your lungs are affected
what is there to take its place i don't drink
everything is relative rodion romanovitch everything is relative why he's playing his professional tricks again raskolnikov thought with disgust
i came to see you the day before yesterday in the evening you didn't know porfiry petrovitch went on looking round the room i came into this very room i was passing by just as i did to day and i thought i'd return your call
i walked in as your door was wide open i looked round waited and went out without leaving my name with your servant don't you lock your door raskolnikov's face grew more and more gloomy
porfiry seemed to guess his state of mind i've come to have it out with you rodion romanovitch my dear fellow i owe you an explanation and must give it to you he continued with a slight smile just patting raskolnikov's knee
but almost at the same instant a serious and careworn look came into his face to his surprise raskolnikov saw a touch of sadness in it he had never seen and never suspected such an expression in his face
our first interview too was a strange one but then and one thing after another this is the point i have perhaps acted unfairly to you i feel it
your nerves were unhinged and your knees were shaking and so were mine and you know our behaviour was unseemly even ungentlemanly and yet we are gentlemen above all in any case gentlemen that must be understood
what is he up to what does he take me for raskolnikov asked himself in amazement
i've decided openness is better between us porfiry petrovitch went on turning his head away and dropping his eyes as though unwilling to disconcert his former victim and as though disdaining his former wiles yes such suspicions and such scenes cannot continue for long
nikolay put a stop to it or i don't know what we might not have come to that damned workman was sitting at the time in the next room can you realise that you know that of course
but what you supposed then was not true i had not sent for anyone i had made no kind of arrangements you ask why i hadn't what shall i say to you
i had scarcely sent for the porters you noticed them as you went out i dare say an idea flashed upon me
come i thought even if i let one thing slip for a time i shall get hold of something else i shan't lose what i want anyway you are nervously irritable rodion romanovitch by temperament
it's out of proportion with other qualities of your heart and character which i flatter myself i have to some extent divined of course i did reflect even then that it does not always happen that a man gets up and blurts out his whole story it does happen sometimes
if you make a man lose all patience though even then it's rare i was capable of realising that if i only had a fact i thought the least little fact to go upon something i could lay hold of something tangible not merely psychological
one may reckon upon most surprising results indeed i was reckoning on your temperament rodion romanovitch on your temperament above all things i had great hopes of you at that time but what are you driving at now
raskolnikov muttered at last asking the question without thinking what is he talking about he wondered distractedly does he really take me to be innocent what am i driving at i've come to explain myself
i consider it my duty so to speak i want to make clear to you how the whole business the whole misunderstanding arose i've caused you a great deal of suffering rodion romanovitch
i understand what it must mean for a man who has been unfortunate but who is proud imperious and above all impatient to have to bear such treatment i regard you in any case as a man of noble character and not without elements of magnanimity
though i don't agree with all your convictions i wanted to tell you this first frankly and quite sincerely for above all i don't want to deceive you when i made your acquaintance i felt attracted by you perhaps you will laugh at my saying so you have a right to
i speak sincerely porfiry petrovitch made a dignified pause raskolnikov felt a rush of renewed alarm the thought that porfiry believed him to be innocent began to make him uneasy
it's scarcely necessary to go over everything in detail porfiry petrovitch went on indeed i could scarcely attempt it to begin with there were rumours through whom how and when those rumours came to me
and how they affected you i need not go into my suspicions were aroused by a complete accident which might just as easily not have happened
i believe there is no need to go into that either those rumours and that accident led to one idea in my mind i admit it openly for one may as well make a clean breast of it i was the first to pitch on you
the old woman's notes on the pledges and the rest of it that all came to nothing yours was one of a hundred i happened too to hear of the scene at the office from a man who described it capitally unconsciously reproducing the scene with great vividness
how could i avoid being brought to certain ideas from a hundred rabbits you can't make a horse a hundred suspicions don't make a proof as the english proverb says but that's only from the rational point of view you can't help being partial for after all a lawyer is only human
i thought too of your article in that journal do you remember on your first visit we talked of it
but that was only to lead you on i repeat rodion romanovitch you are ill and impatient that you were bold headstrong in earnest and had felt a great deal i recognised long before i too have felt the same
i jeered at you then but let me tell you that as a literary amateur i am awfully fond of such first essays full of the heat of youth there is a mistiness and a chord vibrating in the mist
your article is absurd and fantastic but there's a transparent sincerity a youthful incorruptible pride and the daring of despair in it it's a gloomy article but that's what's fine in it
i read your article and put it aside thinking as i did so that man won't go the common way well i ask you
how could i help being carried away by what followed
what is there in it i reflected there's nothing in it that is really nothing and perhaps absolutely nothing and it's not at all the thing for the prosecutor to let himself be carried away by notions
here i have nikolay on my hands with actual evidence against him you may think what you like of it but it's evidence he brings in his psychology too one has to consider him too for it's a matter of life and death why am i explaining this to you
that you may understand and not blame my malicious behaviour on that occasion
was here when you were lying ill in bed not officially not in my own person but i was here
umsonst i thought to myself now that man will come will come of himself and quickly too
another man wouldn't but he will and you remember how mister razumihin began discussing the subject with you
and razumihin is not a man to restrain his indignation mister zametov was tremendously struck by your anger and your open daring think of blurting out in a restaurant
that was what i thought at the time i was expecting you but you simply bowled zametov over and well you see it all lies in this that this damnable psychology can be taken two ways
my heart was fairly throbbing ach now why need you have come
i saw it all plain as daylight but if i hadn't expected you so specially i should not have noticed anything in your laughter you see what influence a mood has mister razumihin then ah that stone that stone under which the things were hidden
i seem to see it somewhere in a kitchen garden it was in a kitchen garden you told zametov and afterwards you repeated that in my office and when we began picking your article to pieces how you explained it
one could take every word of yours in two senses as though there were another meaning hidden so in this way rodion romanovitch i reached the furthest limit and knocking my head against a post i pulled myself up asking myself what i was about after all i said
you can take it all in another sense if you like and it's more natural so indeed i couldn't help admitting it was more natural i was bothered no i'd better get hold of some little fact i said
gaseous poisons carbon dioxide carbon dioxide is a product of combustion and respiration and is generated in many ways during fermentation it is a constituent of choke damp
due to explosions in coal mines and is given off from lime kilns brick kilns and cement works it is often met with in dangerous quantities in wells and in brewers vats from ten to fifteen per cent in the atmosphere would prove fatal
but even two per cent inhaled for long would produce serious symptoms the proportion usually present in air
symptoms inhalation of the pure gas causes spasm of the glottis insensibility and death from asphyxia at once diluted
causes sense of weight in forehead and back of head giddiness vomiting somnolence loss of muscular power insensibility
lividity of face and body and death from asphyxia convulsions occasionally post mortem appearances face swollen and livid or calm and pale
lividity is most marked in eyelids lips ears et cetera limbs usually flaccid abdomen distended right side of heart lungs and large veins gorged with dark coloured blood
brain and membranes congested treatment pure air cold affusion stimulants artificial respiration galvanism inhalation of oxygen
venesection transfusion carbonic oxide this is one of the most poisonous of gases
water gas obtained by passing steam over heated coke contains forty per cent of the substance the remainder being chiefly hydrogen it forms the chief part of the deadly choke damp after an explosion in a mine
two per cent in the atmosphere is immediately fatal symptoms when in large amount insensibility comes on at once when in very small amounts headache giddiness noises in the ears
nausea and vomiting with prostration insensibility and coma
even in cases which recover permanent impairment of the brain may result post mortem appearances the blood is bright red in colour due to the interaction of carbonic oxide with haemoglobin
a rosy hue
is often noticed bright red patches of colour are found over the surface of the body the spectrum of the blood is characteristic treatment ammonia to the nostrils inhalation of oxygen cold douche in moderation
artificial respiration transfusion of blood coal gas coal gas contains light carburetted hydrogen or marsh gas olefiant gas ammonia sulphuretted hydrogen
carbonic acid carbonic oxide free hydrogen and nitrogen coal gas has an offensive odour burns with a yellowish white flame yielding water and carbonic acid
cases of poisoning often due to escape of gas into the room symptoms headache and giddiness foaming at mouth vomiting convulsions tetanic spasms
dilated pupil the breath smells of gas there is profound stupor the patient if alive exhales gas from the lungs when removed into a fresh room or into the air
smell of gas in the room and in patient's breath post mortem appearances pallor of skin and internal tissues florid colour of neck back and muscles
fluid florid blood infiltration of lungs treatment fresh air artificial respiration cold affusion diffusible stimulants inhalation of oxygen freely
sulphuretted hydrogen is characterized by its odour like that of rotten eggs it is extremely poisonous symptoms giddiness pain and oppression in stomach nausea loss of power
delirium tetanus and convulsions post mortem appearances fluid and black blood sulph haemoglobin smell of h two s on opening the body
loss of contractility of muscles rapid putrefaction treatment fresh air stimulants inhalation of chlorine tests
acetate of lead throws down a brown or black precipitate according to the quantity of the gas sewer gas cesspool emanations usually consist of a mixture of sulphuretted hydrogen
and nitrogen but sometimes it is only deoxidized air with an excess of carbonic acid gas symptoms if poison concentrated death may ensue at once if gas diluted
or exposure only short insensibility lividity hurried respiration weak pulse dilated pupils
tonic convulsions not unlike those of tetanus treatment fresh air oxygen with artificial respiration stimulants hypodermic of strychnine
and alternate hot and cold douche irritant gases are one nitrous acid gas two sulphurous acid gas three hydrochloric acid gas four
chlorine five bromine six ammonia they have the common property of causing irritation and inflammation of the eyes throat and air passages and may cause spasm of the glottis
bronchitis and pneumonia sulphurous acid gas one of the products of combustion of common coal hydrochloric acid gas irrespirable when concentrated
and very irritating when diluted very destructive to vegetable life chlorine used in bleaching and as a disinfectant
jalap scammony seeds of castor oil plant croton oil elaterium the hellebores and colchicum
all these have either alone or combined proved fatal the active principle in aloes is aloin of jalap jalapin of white hellebore veratria and of colchicum
colchicin morrison's pills contain aloes and colocynth aloes is also the chief ingredient in holloway's pills symptoms vomiting purging tenesmus et cetera
followed by cold sweats collapse or convulsions post mortem appearances inflammation of alimentary canal ulceration softening and submucous effusion of dark blood
treatment diluents opium stimulants abdominal fomentations et cetera certain of these irritant poisons exert a marked influence on the central nervous system
as the following laburnum cytisis laburnum all parts of the plant are poisonous the seeds which are contained in pods are often eaten by children contains the alkaloid
which is also contained in arnica it has a bitter taste and is powerfully toxic symptoms are purging vomiting restlessness followed by drowsiness insensibility and convulsive twitchings
death due to respiratory paralysis most of the cases are in children treatment consists of stomach pump or emetics stimulants freely artificial respiration warmth and friction to the surface of the body
yew taxus baccata contains the alkaloid taxine the symptoms are convulsions insensibility coma dilated pupils pallor
collapse death may occur suddenly treatment as above post mortem appearances not characteristic but fragments of leaves or berries may be found in the stomach and intestines arum
this plant commonly known as lords and ladies is common in the woods and the berries may be eaten by children it gives rise to symptoms of irritant poisoning vomiting purging
dilated pupils convulsions followed by insensibility coma and death many plants have an intensely irritating action on the skin and when absorbed act as active poisons
rhus toxicodendron is the poison oak or poison ivy
mere contact with the leaves or branches will in many people set up an acute dermatitis with much
and hyperaemia of the skin the inflammation spreads rapidly and there is formation of blebs with much itching there is often great constitutional disturbance nausea vomiting diarrhoea
and pains in the abdomen the effects may last a week and the skin may desquamate primula obconica is another plant which when handled
gives rise to an acute dermatitis of an erysipelatous character
opium the inspissated juice of the unripe capsules of the papaver somniferum as a poison it is generally taken in the form of the tincture laudanum
which contains one grain opium in fifteen minims opium is found in almost all so called soothing syrups for children and in godfrey's cordial dalby's carminative and collis browne's
chlorodyne laudanum contains one per cent morphine and it along with all other preparations e g paregoric which contain one or more per cent morphine
are the alkaloids morphine and codeine symptoms usually commence in from twenty to thirty minutes giddiness drowsiness and stupor followed by insensibility
patient seems asleep may be roused by loud noise but quickly relapses
pulse weak countenance livid as coma increases pulse becomes slower and fuller the pupils are contracted even to a pin's point they are insensible to the action of light
in deep natural sleep the eyes are turned upwards and the pupils contracted bowels confined skin cold and livid or bathed in sweat temperature subnormal nausea and vomiting are sometimes present
remissions are not infrequent the patient appearing about to recover and then relapsing haemorrhage into the pons may give rise to contracted pupils young children and infants are specially susceptible to the poison
diagnosis is not always easy and one has to differentiate poisoning from cerebral apoplexy in the latter one can seldom rouse the patient the pupils are often unequal and hemiplegia is present
in compression of the brain fracture of the skull may be present subconjunctival haemorrhages may be seen the pupils are unequal and dilated and the paralysis increases in uraemic or diabetic coma
the urine must be examined the habitual use of opium is not uncommon and opium eaters are able to take enormous quantities of the drug the opium eater may be known by his attenuated body
withered yellow countenance stooping posture and glassy sunken eyes post mortem appearances not characteristic turgescence of cerebral vessels there may be effusion under
arachnoid into ventricles at base of the brain and around the cord rarely extravasation of blood stomach and intestines usually healthy lungs gorged skin livid
fatal period usually nine to twelve hours but in many cases if life is prolonged for eight hours recovery takes place fatal dose four grains of opium is the smallest fatal dose in an adult or one drachm
of laudanum children are proportionately much more susceptible to the action of opium than adults treatment stomach tube emetics strong coffee or tea ammonia to nostrils give ten grains of
acidulated with sulphuric acid and repeat the dose every half hour belladonna by mouth or atropine hypodermically patient must be kept roused by dashing cold water over him
walking about et cetera in conditions of collapse however this treatment must not be continued but everything should be done to preserve the strength treatment must be continued as long as life remains method of extraction from the stomach
opium itself cannot be directly detected but we test for morphine and meconic acid these may be separated from organic mixtures thus boil the organic matter with distilled water spirit and acetic acid
filter and to the fluid passed through add acetate of lead till precipitate ceases filter acetate of morphine passes through and meconate of lead remains
the solution of acetate of morphine may be freed from excess of lead by hydrogen sulphide and filtered excess of hydrogen sulphide driven off by heat and tests applied put the meconate of lead with water
and meconic acid set free filter concentrate the solution of meconic acid
tests morphine and its acetate give an orange red colour with nitric acid becoming brighter on standing decompose iodic acid setting free iodine with perchloride of iron
gives a rich indigo blue
when the alkaloid is heated in a watchglass with a drop of strong sulphuric acid until the acid begins to fume and is then allowed to get quite cold a drop of nitric acid produces a brilliant red colour
the iodic acid test is very delicate but requires great care and may be used in the presence of organic matter meconic acid gives a blood red colour with perchloride of iron
not discharged by corrosive sublimate or chloride of gold the similar colour produced by sulpho cyanide of potassium and perchloride of iron is discharged by chloride of gold and corrosive sublimate
morphine habit individuals who have acquired this habit take the drug usually by hypodermic injection
symptoms dryness of mouth and throat intense thirst dysphagia and dysphonia quick pulse noisy delirium and stupor strangury and haematuria and redness of the skin
especially of the face like that of scarlatina have been noticed dilatation of the pupil occurs whether the poison be taken internally or applied locally to the eye post mortem appearances congestion of cerebral vessels
dilated pupils red patches in alimentary canal treatment wash out the stomach freely a hypodermic injection of apomorphine as an emetic followed by hypodermic injections of
pilocarpine or morphine tea coffee or tannin to precipitate the alkaloid tests
the chloro iodide of potassium and mercury precipitates it from very dilute solutions
stramonium thorn apple
stramonium symptoms identical with those of belladonna
the post mortem appearances and treatment being also the same cannabis indica indian hemp
intense prostration verging on collapse and convulsions the patient may recover if allowed to remain in a recumbent position but stimulants by mouth e g ammonia and the hypodermic injection of brandy or
ether may be necessary with the inhalation of nitrite of amyl for care in the prescribing of cocaine see under the dangerous drugs act nineteen twenty
the cocaine habit consists in the self administration of the drug hypodermically it induces excitement which is followed by prostration in time melancholia or mania develops with great irritation of the skin
when of course they are liable to accident
after much discussion it appeared that the choice lay between two fairies one called surcantine
under these circumstances it was unanimously decided that whichever of the two could show to the world the greatest wonder should be queen but it was to be a special kind of wonder
no moving of mountains or any such common fairy tricks would do surcantine therefore resolved that she would bring up a prince whom nothing could make constant
now paridamie had for a long time been very friendly with king bardondon who was a most accomplished prince and whose court was the model of what a court should be his queen
balanice was also charming indeed it is rare to find a husband and wife so perfectly of one mind about everything
because she had a little pink rose printed upon her white throat from her earliest infancy she had shown the most astonishing intelligence and the courtiers knew her smart sayings by heart and repeated them on all occasions
in the middle of the night following the assembly of fairies queen balanice woke up with a shriek and when her maids of honour ran to see what was the matter they found she had had a frightful dream i thought said she
so they ran but what was their dismay when they found that the cradle was empty and though they sought high and low not a trace of rosanella could they discover the queen was inconsolable and so indeed was the king
one lovely summer evening as they sat together on a shady lawn shaped like a star from which radiated twelve splendid avenues of trees
as each drew near she laid her basket at balanice's feet saying charming queen may this be some slight consolation to you in your unhappiness the queen hastily opened the baskets and found in each a lovely baby girl
about the same age as the little princess for whom she sorrowed so deeply at first the sight of them renewed her grief
and in sending hither and thither for swings and dolls and tops and bushels of the finest sweetmeats oddly enough every baby had upon its throat a tiny pink rose the queen found it so difficult to decide on suitable names for all of them
by which it was known so that when they were all together they looked like nothing so much as a nosegay of gay flowers as they grew older it became evident that though they were all remarkably intelligent
and profited equally by the education they received yet they differed one from another in disposition so much so that they gradually ceased to be known as
and the queen instead would say where is my sweet or my beautiful or my gay of course with all these charms they had lovers by the dozen
not only in their own court but princes from afar who were constantly arriving attracted by the reports which were spread abroad but these lovely girls the first maids of honour were as discreet as they were beautiful
and favoured no one but let us return to surcantine she had fixed upon the son of a king who was cousin to bardondon to bring up as her fickle prince she had before at his christening
given him all the graces of mind and body that a prince could possibly require but now she redoubled her efforts and spared no pains in adding every imaginable charm and fascination
he was always perfectly irresistible in truth he was a charming young fellow since the fairy had given him the best heart in the world as well as the best head and had left nothing to be desired but constancy
for it cannot be denied that prince mirliflor was a desperate flirt and as fickle as the wind so much so that by the time he arrived at his eighteenth birthday
they were all his own and he was tired of everyone things were in this state when he was invited to visit the court of his father's cousin king bardondon
imagine his feelings when he arrived and was presented at once to twelve of the loveliest creatures in the world and his embarrassment was heightened by the fact that they all liked him as much as he liked each one of them
so that things came to such a pass that he was never happy a single instant without them for could he not whisper soft speeches to sweet and laugh with joy while he looked at beauty
and in his more serious moments what could be pleasanter than to talk to grave upon some shady lawn
and all the others lingered near in sympathetic silence for the first time in his life he really loved though the object of his devotion was not one person but twelve
uttered little shrieks and fled all together to a distance from the rest of the company immediately to the horror of all who were looking on the bees pursued them
and growing suddenly to an enormous size pounced each upon a maiden and carried her off into the air and in an instant they were all lost to view this amazing occurrence plunged the whole court into the deepest affliction
and prince mirliflor after giving way to the most violent grief at first fell gradually into a state of such deep dejection that it was feared if nothing could rouse him he would certainly die
surcantine came in all haste to see what she could do for her darling but he rejected with scorn all the portraits of lovely princesses which she offered him for his collection in short it was evident that he was in a bad way
and the fairy was at her wits end one day as he wandered about absorbed in melancholy reflections he heard sudden shouts and exclamations of amazement and if he had taken the trouble to look up
he could not have helped being as astonished as everyone else for through the air a chariot of crystal was slowly approaching which glittered in the sunshine six lovely maidens with shining wings drew it by rose coloured ribbons
while a whole flight of others equally beautiful were holding long garlands of roses crossed above it so as to form a complete canopy in it sat the fairy paridamie and by her side a
and proceeded to the queen's apartments though everyone had run together to see this marvel
and exclamations of wonder rose on all sides at the loveliness of the strange princess great queen said paridamie permit me to restore to you your daughter rosanella whom i stole out of her cradle
but my twelve lovely ones are they lost to me for ever shall i never see them again but paridamie only said very soon you will cease to miss them in a tone that evidently meant
don't ask me any more questions and then mounting again into her chariot she swiftly disappeared
however it became absolutely necessary that he should pay his respects and he had scarcely been five minutes in her presence before it seemed to him that she combined in her own charming person all the gifts and graces
in the twelve rose maidens whose loss he had so truly mourned and after all it is really more satisfactory to make love to one person at a time so it came to pass that before he knew where he was he was entreating his lovely cousin to marry him
and the moment the words had left his lips paridamie appeared smiling and triumphant in the chariot of the queen of the fairies for by that time they had all heard of her success and declared her to have earned the kingdom
she had to give a full account of how she had stolen rosanella from her cradle and divided her character into twelve parts that each might charm prince mirliflor
and as one more proof of the fascination of the whole rosanella i may tell you that even the defeated surcantine sent her a wedding gift and was present at the ceremony which took place as soon as the guests could arrive
prince mirliflor was constant for the rest of his life and indeed who would not have been in his place
once upon a time there lived an exceedingly proud princess if any suitor for her hand ventured to present himself she would give him some riddle or conundrum to guess and if he failed to do so
he was hunted out of the town with scorn and derision she gave out publicly that all comers were welcome to try their skill and that whoever could solve her riddle should be her husband now it happened that three tailors had met together
and the two elder thought that after having successfully put in so many fine and strong stitches with never a wrong one amongst them they were certain to do the right thing here too the third tailor was a lazy young scamp who did not even know his own trade properly
but who thought that surely luck would stand by him now just for once for if not what was to become of him the two others said to him you just stay at home you'll never get on much with your small allowance of brains
but the little tailor was not to be daunted and said he had set his mind on it and meant to shift for himself so off he started as though the whole world belonged to him the three tailors arrived at court
where they had themselves duly presented to the princess and begged she would propound her riddles for said they
then said the princess i have on my head two different kinds of hair of what colours are they if that's all said the first tailor
they are most likely black and white like the kind of cloth we call pepper and salt wrong said the princess then said the second tailor
if they are not black and white no doubt they are red and brown like my father's sunday coat wrong again said the princess now let the third speak i see he thinks he knows all about it
then the young tailor stepped boldly to the front and said the princess has one silver and one golden hair on her head and those are the two colours when the princess heard this she turned quite pale and almost fainted away with fear
for the little tailor had hit the mark and she had firmly believed that not a soul could guess it when she had recovered herself she said
and if when i get up in the morning i find you still alive you shall marry me she quite expected to rid herself of the tailor in this way for the bear had never left anyone alive who had once come
within reach of his claws the tailor however had no notion of being scared but said cheerily bravely dared is half won when evening came on he was taken to the stable
and to give him a warm welcome with his great paws gently gently said the tailor i'll soon teach you to be quiet and he coolly drew a handful of walnuts from his pocket and began cracking and eating them
as though he had not a care or anxiety in the world when the bear saw this he began to long for some nuts himself the tailor dived into his pocket and gave him a handful but they were pebbles not nuts
the bear thrust them into his mouth but try as he might he could not manage to crack them dear me thought he what a stupid fool i must be can't even crack a nut and he said to the tailor i say crack my nuts for me will you
you're a nice sort of fellow said the tailor the idea of having those great jaws and not being able even to crack a walnut so he took the stone quickly changed it for a nut and crack it split open in a moment
let me try again said the bear when i see the thing done it looks so easy i fancy i must be able to manage it myself so the tailor gave him some more pebbles and the bear bit and gnawed away as hard as he could
presently the tailor took out a little fiddle and began playing on it when the bear heard the music he could not help dancing and after he had danced some time he was so pleased that he said to the tailor i say is fiddling difficult
mere child's play replied the tailor look here you press the strings with the fingers of the left hand and with the right you draw the bow across them so then it goes as easily as possible up and down
tra la la la la oh cried the bear i do wish i could play like that then i could dance whenever the fancy took me what do you think would you give me some lessons with all my heart said the tailor
if you are sharp about it but just let me look at your paws dear me your nails are terribly long i must really cut them first then he fetched a pair of stocks and the bear laid his paws on them and the tailor screwed them up tight
and left the bear growling away to his heart's content whilst he lay down in a corner and fell fast asleep when the princess heard the bear growling so loud that night she made sure he was roaring with delight as he worried the tailor
next morning she rose feeling quite cheerful and free from care but when she looked across towards the stables there stood the tailor in front of the door looking as fresh and lively as a fish in the water
after this it was impossible to break the promise she had made so publicly so the king ordered out the state coach to take her and the tailor to church to be married as they were starting the two bad hearted other tailors
the princess heard his puffing and roaring and growing frightened she cried oh dear the bear is after us and will certainly catch us up the tailor remained quite unmoved he quietly stood on his head
stuck his legs out at the carriage window and called out to the bear do you see my stocks if you don't go home this minute i'll screw you tight into them when the bear saw and heard this he turned right round and ran off as fast as his legs would carry him
where he and the princess were married and he lived with her many years as happy and merry as a lark
there was once upon a time a poor woman who had one little daughter called parsley she was so called because she liked eating parsley better than any other food indeed she would hardly eat anything else
her poor mother hadn't enough money always to be buying parsley for her but the child was so beautiful that she could refuse her nothing
and so she went every night to the garden of an old witch who lived near and stole great branches of the coveted vegetable in order to satisfy her daughter this remarkable taste of the fair parsley soon became known
and the theft was discovered the witch called the girl's mother to her and proposed that she should let her daughter come and live with her and then she could eat as much parsley as she liked the mother was quite pleased with this suggestion
and so the beautiful parsley took up her abode with the old witch one day three princes whom their father had sent abroad to travel
came to the town where parsley lived and perceived the beautiful girl combing and plaiting her long black hair at the window in one moment they all fell hopelessly in love with her and longed ardently to have the girl for their wife but hardly
had they with one breath expressed their desire than mad with jealousy they drew their swords and all three set upon each other the struggle was so violent and the noise so loud that the old witch heard it and said at once
of course parsley is at the bottom of all this and when she had convinced herself that this was so she stepped forward and full of wrath over the quarrels and feuds parsley's beauty gave rise to she cursed the girl and said
i wish you were an ugly toad sitting under a bridge at the other end of the world hardly were the words out of her mouth than parsley was changed into a toad and vanished from their sight the princes
now that the cause of their dispute was removed put up their swords kissed each other affectionately and returned to their father the king was growing old and feeble and wished to yield his sceptre and crown in favour of one of his sons
but he couldn't make up his mind which of the three he should appoint as his successor he determined that fate should decide for him so he called his three children to him and said my dear sons
but i can't make up my mind to which of you three i should yield my crown for i love you all equally at the same time i would like the best and cleverest of you to rule over my people
i have therefore determined to set you three tasks to do and the one that performs them best shall be my heir the first thing i shall ask you to do is to bring me a piece of linen a hundred yards long
so fine that it will go through a gold ring the sons bowed low and promising to do their best they started on their journey without further delay the two elder brothers took many servants and carriages with them
but the youngest set out quite alone in a short time they came to three cross roads two of them were gay and crowded but the third was dark and lonely the two elder brothers chose the more frequented ways
but the youngest bidding them farewell set out on the dreary road wherever linen was to be bought there the two elder brothers hastened they loaded their carriages with bales of the finest linen they could find and then returned home
the youngest brother on the other hand went on his weary way for many days and nowhere did he come across any linen that would have done so he journeyed on and his spirits sank with every step
at last he came to a bridge which stretched over a deep river flowing through a flat and marshy land before crossing the bridge he sat down on the banks of the stream and sighed dismally over his sad fate suddenly
a misshapen toad crawled out of the swamp and sitting down opposite him asked what's the matter with you my dear prince the prince answered impatiently there's not much good my telling you puddocky for you couldn't help me if i did
don't be too sure of that replied the toad tell me your trouble and we'll see then the prince became most confidential and told the little creature why he had been sent out of his father's kingdom
prince i will certainly help you said the toad and crawling back into her swamp she returned dragging after her a piece of linen not bigger than a finger which she lay before the prince saying
take this home and you'll see it will help you the prince had no wish to take such an insignificant bundle with him but he didn't like to hurt puddocky's feelings by refusing it so he took up the little packet put it in his pocket
and bade the little toad farewell puddocky watched the prince till he was out of sight and then crept back into the water the further the prince went the more he noticed that the pocket in which the little roll of linen lay became heavier
and in proportion his heart grew lighter and so greatly comforted
the king was delighted to see them all again and at once drew the ring from his finger and the trial began in all the waggon loads there was not one piece of linen the tenth part of which would go through the ring and the two elder brothers
who had at first sneered at their youngest brother for returning with no baggage began to feel rather small
and it went through the ring without the smallest difficulty at the same time measuring a hundred yards quite correctly the father embraced his fortunate son and commanded the rest of the linen to be thrown into the water then
turning to his children he said now dear princes prepare yourselves for the second task you must bring me back a little dog that will go comfortably into a walnut shell
as they each wished to win the crown they determined to do their best and after a very few days set out on their travels again at the cross roads they separated once more
the youngest went by himself along his lonely way but this time he felt much more cheerful hardly had he sat down under the bridge and heaved a sigh than puddocky came out and sitting down opposite him asked what's wrong with you now dear prince
the prince who this time never doubted the little toad's power to help him told her his difficulty at once prince i will help you said the toad again and crawled back into her swamp as fast as her short little legs would carry her
she returned dragging a hazel nut behind her which she laid at the prince's feet and said take this nut home with you and tell your father to crack it very carefully and you'll see then what will happen
the prince thanked her heartily and went on his way in the best of spirits while the little puddock crept slowly back into the water when the prince got home he found his brothers had just arrived with great waggon loads of little dogs of all sorts
the king had a walnut shell ready and the trial began but not one of the dogs the two eldest sons had brought with them would in the least fit into the shell when they had tried all their little dogs the youngest son handed his father the hazel nut
with a modest bow and begged him to crack it carefully hardly had the old king done so than a lovely tiny dog sprang out of the nutshell and ran about on the king's hand wagging its tail and barking lustily at all the other little dogs
the joy of the court was great the father again embraced his fortunate son
and once more addressed his sons the two most difficult tasks have been performed now listen to the third and last whoever brings the fairest wife home with him shall be my heir
this demand seemed so easy and agreeable and the reward was so great that the princes lost no time in setting forth on their travels
but when they saw how dreary and deserted it looked they made up their minds that it would be impossible to find what they sought in these wilds and so they stuck to their former paths the youngest was very depressed this time and said to himself
anything else puddocky could have helped me in but this task is quite beyond her power how could she ever find a beautiful wife for me her swamps are wide and empty and no human beings dwell there only frogs and toads and other creatures of that sort
he sighed from the bottom of his heart in a few minutes the toad stood in front of him and asked what's the matter with you now my dear prince oh puddocky this time you can't help me
for the task is beyond even your power replied the prince still answered the toad you may as well tell me your difficulty for who knows but i mayn't be able to help you this time also the prince
just you go home and i'll soon follow you with these words puddocky with a spring quite unlike her usual slow movements jumped into the water and disappeared
the prince rose up and went sadly on his way for he didn't believe it possible that the little toad could really help him in his present difficulty he had hardly gone a few steps when he heard a sound behind him and
drawn by six big rats coming towards him two hedgehogs rode in front as outriders and on the box sat a fat mouse as coachman
in the carriage itself sat puddocky who kissed her hand to the prince out of the window as she passed by sunk deep in thought over the fickleness of fortune that had granted him two of his wishes and now seemed about to deny him the last and best
and still less did he feel inclined to laugh at its comic appearance the carriage drove on in front of him for some time and then turned a corner but what was his joy and surprise when suddenly
round the same corner but coming towards him there appeared a beautiful coach drawn by six splendid horses with outriders coachmen footmen and other servants all in the most gorgeous liveries
and seated in the carriage was the most beautiful woman the prince had ever seen and in whom he at once recognised the beautiful parsley for whom his heart had formerly burned the carriage stopped when it reached him and the footmen sprang down and opened the door for him
and thanked her heartily for her help and told her how much he loved her and so he arrived at his father's capital at the same moment as his brothers who had returned with many carriage loads of beautiful women but when they were all led before the king
the old king was delighted and embraced his thrice fortunate son and his new daughter in law tenderly and appointed them as his successors to the throne but he commanded the other women to be thrown into the water and drowned
like the bales of linen and the little dogs the prince married puddocky and reigned long and happily with her
and they would spend whole days in trying to see which could shoot the highest this is always very dangerous and it was a great wonder they did not put their eyes out but somehow or other they managed to escape
one morning when the prince had done his lessons he ran out to call his friend and they both hurried off to the lawn which was their usual playground they took their bows out of the little hut where their toys were kept
and began to see which could shoot the highest at last they happened to let fly their arrows both together and when they fell to earth again the tail feather of a golden hen was found sticking in one
for they were both alike and look as closely as you would you could see no difference between them the prince declared that the arrow was his and the gardener's boy was quite sure it was his and on this occasion he was perfectly right but as they could not decide the matter they went straight to the king
when the king had heard the story he decided that the feather belonged to his son but the other boy would not listen to this and claimed the feather for himself at length the king's patience gave way and he said angrily very well
and if you fail to find her your head will be the forfeit the boy had need of all his courage to listen silently to the king's words he had no idea where the golden hen might be or even if he discovered that how he was to get to her
but there was nothing for it but to do the king's bidding and he felt that the sooner he left the palace the better so he went home and put some food into a bag and then set forth hoping that some
accident might show him which path to take after walking for several hours he met a fox who seemed inclined to be friendly
where are you going asked the fox
but i don't know where she lives or how i shall catch her oh i can show you the way said the fox who was really very good natured far towards the east in that direction lives a beautiful maiden who is called the sister of the sun
she has three golden hens in her house perhaps the feather belongs to one of them the boy was delighted at this news and they walked on all day together the fox in front and the boy behind when evening came they lay down to sleep
suddenly about midnight the fox gave a low whine and drew nearer to his bedfellow cousin he whispered very low there is someone coming who will take the knapsack away from me look over there
oh i don't think he will rob us said the boy and when the man drew near he told them his story which so much interested the stranger that he asked leave to travel with them as he might be of some use so when the sun rose they set out again
the fox in front as before the man and boy following after some hours they reached the castle of the sister of the sun who kept the golden hens among her treasures
they halted before the gate and took counsel as to which of them should go in and see the lady herself i think it would be best for me to enter and steal the hens said the fox but this did not please the boy at all
well go then said the fox but be careful not to make any mistake steal only the hen which has the feather missing from her tail and leave the others alone the man listened but did not interfere and the boy entered the court of the palace
he soon spied the three hens strutting proudly about though they were really anxiously wondering if there were not some grains lying on the ground that they might be glad to eat and as the last one passed by him he saw she had one feather missing from her tail
at this sight the youth darted forward and seized the hen by the neck so that she could not struggle then tucking her comfortably under his arm he made straight for the gate
unluckily just as he was about to go through it he looked back and caught a glimpse of wonderful splendours from an open door of the palace after all there is no hurry he said to himself i may as well see something now i am here
and turned back forgetting all about the hen which escaped from under his arm and ran to join her sisters he was so much fascinated by the sight of all the beautiful things which peeped through the door that he scarcely noticed that he had lost the prize he had won and
he did not remember there was such a thing as a hen in the world when he beheld the sister of the sun sleeping on a bed before him for some time he stood staring then he came to himself with a start and feeling that he had no business there softly stole away
and was fortunate enough to recapture the hen which he took with him to the gate on the threshold he stopped again why should i not look at the sister of the sun he thought to himself she is asleep and will never know and he turned back for the second time and entered the chamber
while the hen wriggled herself free as before when he had gazed his fill he went out into the courtyard and picked up his hen who was seeking for corn as he drew near the gate he paused why did i not give her a kiss he said to himself
i shall never kiss any woman so beautiful and he wrung his hands with regret so that the hen fell to the ground and ran away but i can do it still he cried with delight and he rushed back to the chamber and kissed the sleeping maiden on the forehead but alas
and worse than that her sisters began to cluck so loud that the sister of the sun was awakened by the noise she jumped up in haste from her bed and going to the door she said to the boy
you shall never never have my hen till you bring me back my sister who was carried off by a giant to his castle which is a long way off slowly and sadly the youth left the palace and told his story to his friends who were waiting outside the gate
how he had actually held the hen three times in his arms and had lost her i knew that we should not get off so easily said the fox shaking his head but there is no more time to waste let us set off at once in search of the sister luckily i know the way
they walked on for many days till at length the fox who as usual was going first stopped suddenly the giant's castle is not far now he said
while i return to the castle and talk to the giants for there are many of them so that they may not notice the escape of the princess a few minutes later they arrived at the castle
and the fox who had often been there before slipped in without difficulty there were several giants both young and old in the hall and they were all dancing round the princess
so the fox stood up and did his steps with the best of them but after a while he stopped and said i know a charming new dance that i should like to show you but it can only be done by two people if the princess will honour me for a few minutes you will soon see how it is done
ah that is delightful we want something new answered they and placed the princess between the outstretched arms of the fox
and in the darkness had borne the princess to the gate his comrades seized hold of her as they had been bidden and the fox was back again in the hall before anyone had missed him
here in my arms replied the fox don't be afraid she is quite safe and he waited until he thought that his comrades had gained a good start and put at least five or six mountains between themselves and the giants
then he sprang through the door calling as he went the maiden is here take her if you can at these words the giants understood that their prize had escaped
who they supposed had the princess on his back the fox on his side was far too clever to choose the same path that his friends had taken
till at last even he was tired out
indeed he was so exhausted with his day's work that he never heard the approach of the giants and their hands were already stretched out to seize his tail when his eyes opened and with a tremendous bound he was once more beyond their reach
all the rest of the night the fox ran and ran but when bright red spread over the east he stopped and waited till the giants were close upon him then he turned and said quietly look there is the sister of the sun
the giants raised their eyes all at once and were instantly turned into pillars of stone the fox then made each pillar a low bow and set off to join his friends he knew a great many short cuts across the hills
and all four travelled night and day till they reached the castle of the sister of the sun what joy and feasting there was throughout the palace at the sight of the princess whom they had mourned as dead and they could not make enough of the boy who had gone through such dangers in order to rescue her
the golden hen was given to him at once and more than that the sister of the sun told him that in a little time when he was a few years older she would herself pay a visit to his home and become his wife
all day long the boy stood at the window looking over the sea by which the princess must travel but there were no signs of her not even the tiniest white sail and as he stood soldiers came and laid hands on him and led him up to the cask
where a big fire was blazing and the horrid black pitch boiling and bubbling over the sides he looked and shuddered but there was no escape so he shut his eyes to avoid seeing
the word was given for him to mount the steps which led to the top of the cask when suddenly some men were seen running with all their might crying as they went that a large ship with its sails spread was making straight for the city
no one knew what the ship was or whence it came but the king declared that he would not have the boy burned before its arrival there would always be time enough for that
and a whisper went through the watching crowd that on board was the sister of the sun who had come to marry the young peasant as she had promised in a few moments more she had landed and desired to be shown the way to the cottage which her bridegroom had so often described to her
and whither he had been led back by the king's order
kiss me said the sister of the sun and the youth obeyed her but still without looking up don't you know me now
i don't know you he replied with the manner of a man whom fear had driven mad at this the sister of the sun grew rather frightened and beginning at the beginning she told him the story of his meeting with her
and how she had come a long way in order to marry him and just as she had finished in walked the king to see if what the boy had said was really true but hardly had he opened the door of the cottage when he was almost blinded by the light that filled it
and he remembered what he had been told about the star on the forehead of the princess he staggered back as if he had been struck then a curious feeling took hold of him
which he had never felt before and falling on his knees before the sister of the sun he implored her to give up all thought of the peasant boy and to share his throne but she laughed and said she had a finer throne of her own if she wanted to sit on it
and that she was free to please herself and would have no husband but the boy whom she would never have seen except for the king himself i shall marry him to morrow ended she and ordered the preparations to be set on foot at once
when the next day came however the bridegroom's father informed the princess that by the law of the land the marriage must take place in the presence of the king
an hour or two passed and everyone was waiting and watching when at last the sound of trumpets was heard and a grand procession was seen marching up the street a chair covered with velvet had been made ready for the king and he took his seat upon it and looking round upon the assembled company he said
i have no wish to forbid this marriage but before i can allow it to be celebrated the bridegroom must prove himself worthy of such a bride by fulfilling three tasks and the first is that in a single day he must cut down every tree in an entire forest
he had never cut down a tree in his life and had not the least idea how to begin and as for a whole forest
what was passing in his mind and whispered to him don't be afraid in my ship you will find an axe which you must carry off to the forest when you have cut down one tree with it just say so let the forest fall
and in an instant all the trees will be on the ground but pick up three chips of the tree you felled and put them in your pocket and the young man did exactly as he was bid and soon returned with the three chips safe in his coat
however in consideration of what the youth had done the day before he hoped his majesty's heart might be softened especially as he had sent a message that they might expect him at once with this the bridal pair had to be content
and be as patient as they could till the king's arrival he did not keep them long but they saw by his face that nothing good awaited them
the marriage cannot take place he said shortly till the youth has joined to their roots all the trees he cut down yesterday this sounded much more difficult than what he had done before and he turned in despair to the sister of the sun
take this water and sprinkle it on one of the fallen trees and say to it so let all the trees of the forest stand upright and in a moment they will be erect again
and the young man did what he was told and left the forest looking exactly as it had done before now surely thought the princess there was no longer any need to put off the wedding and she gave orders that all should be ready for the following day
but again the old man interfered and declared that without the king's permission no marriage could take place for the third time his majesty was sent for and for the third time he proclaimed that he could not give his consent until the bridegroom should have slain a serpent
which dwelt in a broad river that flowed at the back of the castle everyone knew stories of this terrible serpent though no one had actually seen it but from time to time a child strayed from home and never came back
and then mothers would forbid the other children to go near the river which had juicy fruits and lovely flowers growing along its banks so no wonder the youth trembled and turned pale when he heard what lay before him
you will succeed in this also whispered the sister of the sun pressing his hand for in my ship is a magic sword which will cut through everything go down to the river and unfasten a boat which lies moored there and throw the chips into the water
when the serpent rears up its body you will cut off its three heads with one blow of your sword then take the tip of each tongue and go with it to morrow morning into the king's kitchen if the king himself should enter just say to him
here are three gifts i offer you in return for the services you demanded of me and throw the tips of the serpent's tongues at him and hasten to the ship as fast as your legs will carry you
the young man did exactly what the princess had told him the three chips which he flung into the river became a boat and as he steered across the stream the serpent put up its head and hissed loudly
the youth had his sword ready and in another second the three heads were bobbing on the water guiding his boat till he was beside them he stooped down and snipped off the ends of the tongues
and then rowed back to the other bank next morning he carried them into the royal kitchen and when the king entered as was his custom to see what he was going to have for dinner
the bridegroom flung them in his face saying here is a gift for you in return for the services you asked of me and opening the kitchen door he fled to the ship unluckily he missed the way and in his excitement ran backwards and forwards without knowing whither he was going
at last in despair he looked round and saw to his amazement that both the city and palace had vanished completely then he turned his eyes in the other direction and far far away he caught sight of the ship
with her sails spread and a fair wind behind her this dreadful spectacle seemed to take away his senses and all day long he wandered about without knowing where he was going till in the evening he noticed some smoke from a little hut of turf near by
he went straight up to it and cried o mother let me come in for pity's sake the old woman who lived in the hut beckoned to him to enter and hardly was he inside when he cried again o mother can you tell me anything of the sister of the sun
but the woman only shook her head no i know nothing of her said she the young man turned to leave the hut but the old woman stopped him and giving him a letter begged him to carry it to her next eldest sister saying if you should get tired on the way
take out the letter and rustle the paper this advice surprised the young man a good deal as he did not see how it could help him but he did not answer and went down the road without knowing where he was going at length he grew so tired he could walk no more
then he remembered what the old woman had said after he had rustled the leaves only once all fatigue disappeared and he strode over the grass till he came to another little turf hut let me in i pray you dear mother cried he and the door opened in front of him
o mother can you tell me anything of the sister of the sun no i know nothing of her answered she but as he turned hopelessly away she stopped him if you happen to pass my eldest sister's house will you give her this letter said she
and if you should get tired on the road just take it out of your pocket and rustle the paper so the young man put the letter in his pocket and walked all day over the hills till he reached a little turf hut exactly like the other two
let me in i pray you dear mother cried he and as he entered he added here is a letter from your sister and can you tell me anything of the sister of the sun yes i can answered the old woman
she lives in the castle on the banka her father lost a battle only a few days ago because you had stolen his sword from him and the sister of the sun herself is almost dead of grief
and suck the drops of blood that flow then she will grow calmer and will know you again only beware for before you reach the castle on the banka fearful things will happen
he thanked the old woman with tears of gladness for the good news she had given him and continued his journey but he had not gone very far when at a turn of the road he met with two brothers who were quarrelling over a piece of cloth
my good men what are you fighting about said he that cloth does not look worth much oh it is ragged enough answered they but it was left us by our father and if any man wraps it round him no one can see him and we each want it for our own
let me put it round me for a moment said the youth and then i will tell you whose it ought to be the brothers were pleased with this idea and gave him the stuff but the moment he had thrown it over his shoulder he disappeared as completely as if he had never been there at all
meanwhile the young man walked briskly along till he came up with two other men who were disputing over a table cloth what is the matter asked he stopping in front of them if this cloth is spread on a table answered they
the table is instantly covered with the most delicious food and we each want to have it let me try the table cloth said the youth and i will tell you whose it ought to be the two men were quite pleased with this idea and handed him the cloth
he then hastily threw the first piece of stuff round his shoulders and vanished from sight leaving the two men grieving over their own folly the young man had not walked far before he saw two more men standing by the road side both grasping the same stout staff
and sometimes one seemed on the point of getting it and sometimes the other what are you quarrelling about you could cut a dozen sticks from the wood each just as good as that said the young man and as he spoke the fighters both stopped and looked at him ah you may think so said one
but a blow from one end of this stick will kill a man while a touch from the other end will bring him back to life you won't easily find another stick like that no that is true answered the young man let me just look at it and i will tell you whose it ought to be the men were pleased
with the idea and handed him the staff it is very curious certainly said he but which end is it that restores people to life after all anyone can be killed by a blow from a stick if it is only hard enough
at last he saw another set of men who were struggling for the possession of a pair of shoes
why you could not walk a yard in them yes they are old enough answered they but whoever puts them on and wishes himself at a particular place gets there without going that sounds very clever said the youth let me try them and then i shall be able to tell you whose they ought to be
the idea pleased the men and they handed him the shoes but the moment they were on his feet he cried i wish to be in the castle on the banka and before he knew it he was there and found the sister of the sun dying of grief
he knelt down by her side and pulling a pin he stuck it into the palm of her hand so that a drop of blood gushed out this he sucked as he had been told to do by the old woman and immediately the princess came to herself and flung her arms round his neck
then she told him all her story
captain blood did not hear them he did not hear anything save the echo of those cruel words
and yet be shocked to discover through his own senses that the fact is in perfect harmony with his beliefs when first three years ago at tortuga
arabella bishop must hold him if he succumbed only the conviction that already she was for ever lost to him by introducing a certain desperate recklessness into his soul
had supplied the final impulse to drive him upon his rover's course that he should ever meet her again had not entered his calculations had found no place in his dreams they were he conceived irrevocably
and for ever parted yet in spite of this in spite even of the persuasion that to her this reflection that was his torment could bring no regrets he had kept the thought of her ever before him in all those wild years of filibustering
he had used it as a curb
but also upon those who followed him
never had they been so firmly restrained
stipulated in their articles
they must submit to the commands of their leader and because of the singular good fortune which had attended his leadership he had been able to impose that stern condition of a discipline unknown before among buccaneers
how would not these men laugh at him now if he were to tell them that this he had done out of respect for a slip of a girl of whom he had fallen romantically enamoured
how the words clung how they stung and burnt his brain it did not occur to him being no psychologist nor learned in the tortuous workings of the feminine mind
therefore he could not probe it else he might have concluded that if in a moment
by hearing of the course he had taken why
had she not felt that in what he did there was a personal wrong to herself surely he might have reasoned nothing short of this could have moved her to such a degree of bitterness and scorn as that which she had displayed
that is how you will reason not so however reasoned captain blood indeed that night he reasoned not at all his soul was given up to conflict between the almost sacred love he had borne her
and in touching may for a space become confused indistinguishable
that in their fusion they made up a monstrous passion thief and pirate that was what she deemed him without qualification oblivious of the deep wrongs he had suffered
the desperate case in which he found himself after his escape from barbados and all the rest that had gone to make him what he was that he should have conducted his filibustering with hands as clean as were possible to a man engaged in such undertakings
as a charitable thought with which to mitigate her judgment of a man she had once esteemed she had no charity for him no mercy
convicted him and sentenced him in that one phrase he was thief and pirate in her eyes nothing more nothing less what then was she what are those who have no charity he asked the stars well
thief and pirate she had branded him she should be justified
henceforth no more nor less as bowelless as remorseless as all those others who had deserved those names he would cast out the maudlin ideals
by which he had sought to steer a course put an end to this idiotic struggle to make the best of two worlds she had shown him clearly to which world he belonged let him now justify her she was aboard his ship
in his power and he desired her he laughed softly
looking down at the phosphorescent gleam in the ship's wake and his own laughter startled him by its evil note he checked suddenly and shivered
he took his face in his hands and found a chill moisture on his brow meanwhile lord julian
he had observed for instance that blood's ship was named the arabella and he knew that arabella was miss bishop's name and he had observed all the odd
of the meeting of captain blood and miss bishop and the curious change that meeting had wrought in each
yet in spite of her rudeness in spite of the fact that she was the niece of a man whom blood must regard as his enemy miss bishop and his lordship had been shown the utmost consideration aboard the captain's ship
a cabin had been placed at the disposal of each to which their scanty remaining belongings and miss bishop's woman had been duly transferred they were given the freedom of the great cabin and they had sat down to table with pitt the master and wolverstone
who was blood's lieutenant both of whom had shown them the utmost courtesy also there was the fact that blood himself had kept almost studiously from intruding upon them
his lordship's mind went swiftly but carefully down these avenues of thought observing and connecting having exhausted them he decided to seek additional information from miss bishop for this he must wait until pitt and wolverstone should have withdrawn
who had already departed miss bishop detained him with a question mister pitt she asked were you not one of those who escaped from barbados with captain blood i was i too was one of your uncle's slaves
his shipmaster always ma'am she nodded she was very calm and self contained but his lordship observed that she was unusually pale though considering what she had that day undergone this afforded no matter for wonder
did you ever sail with a frenchman named cahusac cahusac pitt laughed the name evoked a ridiculous memory aye
his lordship marvelled at her memory of these names aye cahusac was levasseur's lieutenant until he died until who died levasseur
he was killed on one of the virgin islands two years ago there was a pause then
miss bishop asked who killed him pitt answered readily
though he began to find the catechism intriguing captain blood killed him why pitt hesitated
they quarrelled he said shortly was it about a a lady miss bishop relentlessly pursued him you might put it that way what was the lady's name
pitt's eyebrows went up still he answered
and and peter delivered her out of his dirty clutches he was a black hearted scoundrel and deserved what peter gave him i see and and yet captain blood has not married her
miss bishop nodded in silence and jeremy pitt turned to depart relieved that the catechism was ended he paused in the doorway to impart a piece of information maybe it'll comfort you to know that the captain has altered our course for your benefit
it's his intention to put you both ashore on the coast of jamaica as near port royal as we dare venture we've gone about and if this wind holds ye'll soon be home again mistress vastly obliging of him
indeed ye may say so pitt agreed
but that's always been his way he went out leaving his lordship pensive those dreamy blue eyes of his intently studying miss bishop's face for all their dreaminess his mind increasingly uneasy
i perceived that you were testing it said his lordship i am wondering precisely why receiving no answer he continued to observe her silently his long tapering fingers toying with a ringlet of the golden periwig in which his long face was set
miss bishop sat bemused her brows knit her brooding glance seeming to study the fine spanish point that edged the tablecloth at last his lordship broke the silence he amazes me this man said
that he should alter his course for us is in itself matter for wonder but that he should take a risk on our behalf that he should venture into jamaica waters it amazes me as i have said
miss bishop raised her eyes and looked at him she appeared to be very thoughtful then her lip flickered curiously
her slender fingers drummed the table what is still more amazing is that he does not hold us to ransom
it's what you deserve oh and why if you please
i usually call things by their names do you stab me i shouldn't boast of it it argues either extreme youth or extreme foolishness his lordship you see belonged to my lord sunderland's school of philosophy
he added after a moment so does the display of ingratitude a faint colour stirred in her cheeks your lordship is evidently aggrieved with me i am disconsolate i hope your lordship's grievance is sounder than your views of life
it is news to me that ingratitude is a fault only to be found in the young and the foolish i didn't say so ma'am there was a tartness in his tone evoked by the tartness she had used if you would do me the honour to listen
you would not misapprehend me for if unlike you i do not always say precisely what i think at least i say precisely what i wish to convey to be ungrateful may be human but to display it is childish i
i don't think i understand her brows were knit how have i been ungrateful and to whom to whom to captain blood didn't he come to our rescue did he her manner was frigid
i wasn't aware that he knew of our presence aboard the milagrosa his lordship permitted himself the slightest gesture of impatience you are probably aware that he delivered us said he and living as you have done in these savage places of the world
you can hardly fail to be aware of what is known even in england that this fellow blood strictly confines himself to making war upon the spaniards so that to call him thief and pirate as you did was to overstate the case against him
at a time when it would have been more prudent to have understated it prudence her voice was scornful what have i to do with prudence nothing as i perceive but at least study generosity
sink me when you consider what he has suffered at the hands of his fellow countrymen you may marvel with me that he should trouble to discriminate between spanish and english
and to a damned colonial planter
miss bishop's scorn was almost fierce his lordship stared at her again then he half closed his large pale eyes and tilted his head a little i wonder why you hate him so he said softly
he saw the sudden scarlet flame upon her cheeks the heavy frown that descended upon her brow
but there was no explosion she recovered hate him lord what a thought i don't regard the fellow at all then ye should ma'am his lordship spoke his thought frankly
his service under de ruyter wasn't wasted on him that was a great seaman and blister me
i doubt if the royal navy can show his equal to thrust himself deliberately between those two at point blank range and so turn the tables on them
and blood held him in check a great man miss bishop
his lordship laughed softly faith
in that amazement he left her and went in quest of blood but he was still intrigued
his lordship would have been happier he found the captain pacing the quarter deck a man mentally exhausted from wrestling with the devil although of this particular occupation his lordship could have no possible suspicion
his lordship was not disturbed i desire sir that we be friends
that's mighty condescending of you
especially to seek you ye're not by any means the first to do that the other scoffed
said lord julian and on that he proceeded to explain himself and his mission
disengaged his arm from his lordship's and stood squarely before him ye're my guest aboard this ship said he
or of my lord sunderland since he's your kinsman for having the impudence to send it
he flung out an arm in the direction of the waist whence came the half melancholy chant of the lounging buccaneers again you misapprehend me
that is not intended your followers will be included in your commission
on my soul lord julian it is yourself does the misapprehending are there not even notions of honour left in england
i tell you i wouldn't be soiling my hands with it thief and pirate's hands though they
thing of scorn an outcast and who made me that who made me thief and pirate if you were a rebel his lordship was beginning ye must know that i was no such thing no rebel at all it wasn't even pretended
if it were i could forgive them but not even that cloak could they cast upon their foulness oh no there was no mistake i was convicted for what i did neither more nor less that bloody vampire jeffreys bad cess to him sentenced me to death
because compassionately and without thought for creed or politics i had sought to relieve the sufferings of a fellow creature because i had dressed the wounds of a man who was convicted of treason that was all my offence you'll find it in the records
and for that i was sold into slavery because by the law of england as administered by james stuart in violation of the laws of god who harbours or comforts a rebel is himself adjudged guilty of rebellion
d'ye dream man what it is to be a slave he checked suddenly at the very height of his passion
but there i grow hot for nothing at all i explain myself i think and god knows it is not my custom i am grateful to you lord julian for your kindly intentions i am so but ye'll understand perhaps
ye look as if ye might lord julian stood still
had so convincingly presented the man's bitter case against humanity his complete apologia and justification for all that could be laid to his charge his lordship looked at that keen intrepid face gleaming lividly in the light of the great poop lantern
and his own eyes were troubled he was abashed he fetched a heavy sigh a
oh no offence but
he laughed without mirth and disregarding the proffered hand swung on his heel lord julian stood a moment watching the tall figure as it moved away towards the taffrail then
letting his arms fall helplessly to his sides in dejection he departed just within the doorway of the alley leading to the cabin he ran into miss bishop yet
in the cabin he flung into a chair and exploded with a violence altogether foreign to his nature
or even a man i liked as well yet there's nothing to be done with him so i heard she admitted in a small voice she was very white and she kept her eyes upon her folded hands
if the mischief is of your working your words have rankled with him he threw them at me again and again he wouldn't take the king's commission
he'll end on a yardarm for all his luck and the quixotic fool is running into danger at the present moment on our behalf how she asked him with a sudden startled interest how
and that jamaica is the headquarters of the english fleet true your uncle commands it she leaned across the table to interrupt him and he observed that her breathing had grown labored
my uncle is a hard unforgiving man
that made my uncle leave his barbados plantations to accept the deputy governorship of jamaica captain blood doesn't know that of course she paused with a little gesture of helplessness
said his lordship gravely a man who can forgive such an enemy as don miguel
isn't to be judged by ordinary rules he's chivalrous to the point of idiocy and yet he has been what he has been
without any of her earlier scorn
according to the adage if you want your business done go if not send one sends a letter or a bullet a messenger or a message in all the derived uses this same idea controls if one sends a ball into his own heart
the action is away from the directing hand and he is viewed as the passive recipient of his own act it is with an approach to personification that we speak of the bow sending the arrow or the gun the shot to despatch
is to send hastily or very promptly ordinarily with a destination in view to dismiss
as to dismiss a clerk an application or an annoying subject to discharge is to send away so as to relieve a person or thing of a load we discharge a gun or discharge the contents as applied to persons
discharge is a harsher term than dismiss to emit is to send forth from within
as the sun emits light and heat transmit from the latin is a dignified term often less vigorous than the saxon send but preferable at times in literary or scientific use as to transmit the crown
or the feud from generation to generation to transmit a charge of electricity transmit fixes the attention more on the intervening agency as send does upon the points of departure and destination antonyms
rarely at a mark
send a person into banishment send a shell among the enemy sensation synonyms emotion feeling perception sense
sensation is the mind's consciousness due to a bodily affection as of heat or cold perception is the cognition of some external object which is the cause or occasion of the sensation the sensation of heat may be connected with the perception of a fire
while sensations are connected with the body emotions as joy grief et cetera are wholly of the mind as the most of them the sensations are positively agreeable or the opposite they are nearly akin to those emotions
as hope or terror or those passions as anger and envy which are acknowledged by all to belong exclusively to the spirit and to involve no relation whatever to matter
synonyms feeling impressibility sensitiveness susceptibility sensibility in the philosophical sense denotes the capacity of emotion or feeling as distinguished from the intellect and the will
compare synonyms for sensation in popular use sensibility denotes sometimes capacity of feeling of any kind as sensibility to heat or cold sometimes a peculiar readiness to be the subject of feeling
especially of the higher feelings as the sensibility of the artist or the poet a person of great or fine sensibility sensitiveness denotes an especial delicacy of sensibility ready to be excited by the slightest cause
as displayed for instance in the sensitive plant susceptibility is rather a capacity to take up receive and as it were to contain feeling so that a person of great susceptibility is capable of being not only readily but deeply moved
sensitiveness is more superficial susceptibility more pervading thus in physics the sensitiveness of a magnetic needle is the ease with which it may be deflected as by another magnet
its susceptibility is the degree to which it can be magnetized by a given magnetic force or the amount of magnetism it will hold so a person of great sensitiveness is quickly and keenly affected by any external influence
as by music pathos or ridicule while a person of great susceptibility is not only touched but moved to his inmost soul antonyms
severe synonyms
tenderness indulgence or levity or in literature and art devoid of unnecessary ornament amplification or embellishment of any kind as a severe style as said of anything painful
severe signifies such as heavily taxes endurance or resisting power as a severe pain fever or winter rigid signifies primarily stiff resisting any effort to change its shape
a corpse is said to be rigid in death hence in metaphorical sense a rigid person or character
a rigid rule or statement is one that admits of no deviation rigorous is nearly akin to rigid but is a stronger word having reference to action or active qualities
as rigid does to state or character a rigid rule may be rigorously enforced strict
signifies bound or stretched tight tense strenuously exact stern unites harshness and authority with strictness or severity stern as said even of inanimate objects
suggests something authoritative or forbidding
strict in self restraint or discipline and similarly unrelenting toward others we speak of austere morality rigid rules rigorous discipline stern commands severe punishment harsh speech
or a harsh voice hard requirements strict injunctions and strict obedience strict discipline holds one exactly and unflinchingly to the rule rigorous discipline punishes severely
any infraction of it the austere character is seldom lovely but it is always strong and may be grand commanding
a thing rocks that is sustained from below it swings if suspended from above as a pendulum or pivoted at the side as a crane or a bridge draw to oscillate is to swing with a smooth and regular returning motion
a vibrating motion may be tremulous or jarring the pendulum of a clock may be said to swing vibrate or oscillate a steel bridge vibrates under the passage of a heavy train the term vibrate
is also applied to molecular movements jolting is a lifting from and letting down suddenly upon an unyielding surface as a carriage jolts over a rough road a jarring motion is abruptly and very rapidly repeated
through an exceedingly limited space the jolting of the carriage jars the windows rattling refers directly to the sound produced by shaking to joggle is to shake slightly as
a passing touch joggles the desk on which one is writing a thing trembles that shakes perceptibly and with an appearance of uncertainty and instability
a thing shivers when all its particles are stirred with a slight but pervading tremulous motion as a human body under the influence of cold shuddering is a more pronounced movement of a similar kind in human beings
often the effect of emotional or moral recoil hence the word is applied by extension to such feelings even when they have no such outward manifestation as one says i shudder at the thought to quiver
as the flesh under the surgeon's knife
rather than seen as the nerves thrill with delight quiver is similarly used
to agitate in its literal use is nearly the same as to shake tho we speak of the sea as agitated when we could not say it is shaken the latin agitate is preferred in scientific or technical use to the saxon shake
and especially as applied to the action of mechanical contrivances in the metaphorical use agitate is more transitory and superficial shake more fundamental and enduring a person's feelings are agitated by distressing news
his courage his faith his credit or his testimony is shaken sway applies to the movement of a body suspended from above or not firmly sustained from below and the motion of which is less pronounced than swinging
smoother than vibrating and not necessarily constant as oscillating as the swaying of a reed in the wind sway used transitively especially applies to motions of grace or dignity brandish
denotes a threatening or hostile motion a monarch sways the scepter the ruffian brandishes a club to reel or totter always implies liability to fall reeling is more violent than swaying
tottering more irregular a drunken man reels we speak of the tottering step of age or infancy an extended mass which seems to lack solidity or cohesion is said to quake as a quaking bog
quaver is applied almost exclusively to tremulous sounds of the human voice flap flutter and fluctuate refer to wave like movements
often with that which excites merriment or laughter as he entertained us with an amusing story to divert is to turn from serious thoughts or laborious pursuits to something that lightly and agreeably occupies the mind
one may be entertained or amused who has nothing serious or laborious from which to be diverted to recreate literally to re create
is to engage mind or body in some pleasing activity that restores strength and energy for serious work to beguile is as it were to cheat into cheer and comfort by something that insensibly draws thought or feeling away from pain or disquiet
we beguile a weary hour cheer the despondent divert the preoccupied enliven a dull evening or company gratify our friends wishes entertain interest please a listening audience occupy idle time
disport ourselves when merry recreate when worn with toil we amuse ourselves or others with whatever pleasantly passes the time without special exertion each according to his taste antonyms annoy bore
busy disquiet distract disturb tire weary entertainment synonyms
tho in an agreeable refreshing way they are therefore words of a high order entertainment apart from its special senses of a public performance or a social party and predominantly even there is used of somewhat mirthful mental delight
recreation may and usually does combine the mental with the physical amusement and pastime are nearly equivalent the latter probably the lighter word many slight things may be pastimes
which we should hardly dignify by the name of amusements
tho involving a certain grade of mental action fox hunting horse racing and baseball are sports certain sports may afford entertainment or recreation to certain persons according to their individual tastes but entertainment and recreation
cheer may be very quiet as the cheer of a bright fire to an aged traveler merriment is with liveliness and laughter fun and frolic are apt to be boisterous amusement is a form of enjoyment
but enjoyment may be too keen to be called amusement compare synonyms for entertain
fatigue labor lassitude toil weariness work enthusiasm synonyms
an almost frantic extravagance in behalf of something supposed to be an expression of the divine will this sense remains as the controlling one in the kindred noun enthusiast
enthusiasm has now chiefly the meaning of an earnest and commendable devotion an intense and eager interest against the hindrances of the world nothing great and good can be carried without a certain fervor intensity and vehemence
these joined with faith courage and hopefulness make enthusiasm zeal is burning earnestness always tending to vigorous action with all the devotion of enthusiasm tho often without its hopefulness compare eager
antonyms calculation caution
wariness entrance synonyms
entrance the act of entering refers merely to the fact of passing from without to within some enclosure admission and admittance refer to entering by or with some one's consent
or at least to opportunity afforded by some one's act or neglect we may effect or force an entrance but not admittance or admission those we gain procure obtain secure win admittance refers to place admission
refers also to position privilege favor friendship et cetera an intruder may gain admittance to the hall of a society who would not be allowed admission to its membership approach is a movement toward another access is coming all the way to his presence
recognition and consideration an unworthy favorite may prevent even those who gain admittance to a king's audience from obtaining any real access to the king entrance is also used figuratively for setting out upon some career
into or among the company envious synonyms jealous suspicious one is envious who cherishes selfish ill will toward another because of his superior success endowments
possessions or the like a person is envious of that which is another's and to which he himself has no right or claim he is jealous of intrusion upon that which is his own or to which he maintains a right or claim
according to its object and tendency a free people must be jealous of their liberties if they would retain them one is suspicious of another from unfavorable indications or from a knowledge of wrong in his previous conduct or even without reason
compare doubt antonyms contented friendly kindly satisfied trustful well disposed prepositions
envious of his wealth or power envious of him for because of on account of his wealth or power equivocal synonyms
or more ways ambiguous
signifies lacking in distinctness or certainty obscure or doubtful through indefiniteness of expression ambiguous is applied only to spoken or written statements equivocal has other applications
a statement is ambiguous when it leaves the mind of the reader or hearer to fluctuate between two meanings which would fit the language equally well it is equivocal when it would naturally be understood in one way but is capable of a different interpretation an equivocal expression
or of adequate expression that which is enigmatical must be guessed like a riddle a statement may be purposely made enigmatical in order to provoke thought and study that is doubtful which is fairly open to doubt that is dubious
as a dubious reputation questionable may be used nearly in the sense either of dubious or of doubtful
to say that one's honesty is questionable is a mild way of saying that in the opinion of the speaker he is likely to prove dishonest equivocal is sometimes tho more rarely used in this sense a suspicious character gives manifest reason to be suspected
importance or worth as to appreciate beauty or harmony to appreciate one's services in a cause the word is similarly tho rarely used of persons to prize is to set a high value on for something more than merely commercial reasons
one may value some object as a picture beyond all price as a family heirloom or may prize it as the gift of an esteemed friend without at all appreciating its artistic merit or commercial value
as i regard him as a friend or i regard him as a villain regard has a distinctively favorable sense as applied to institutions proprieties duties et cetera but does not share the use of the noun regard as applied to persons
we regard a person's feelings
synonyms estimate estimation favor regard respect esteem for a person is a favorable opinion on the basis of worth especially of moral worth
regard for a person is the mental view or feeling that springs from a sense of his value
regard is more personal and less distant than esteem
respect is a more distant word than esteem respect may be wholly on one side while regard is more often mutual respect in the fullest sense is given to what is lofty worthy and honorable
or to a person of such qualities we may pay an external respect to one of lofty station regardless of personal qualities showing respect for the office estimate has more of calculation
as my estimate of the man or of his abilities is very high estimation involves the idea of calculation or appraisal with that of esteem or regard and is especially used of the feeling entertained by numbers of people as
he stood high in public estimation compare esteem versus friendship love antonyms
a religious service ordained as an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace is called a sacrament ceremony is a form expressing reverence or at least respect we may speak of religious ceremonies
the ceremonies of a coronation an inauguration et cetera an observance has more than a formal obligation reaching or approaching a religious sacredness a stated religious observance viewed as established by authority
is called an ordinance viewed as an established custom it is a rite the terms sacrament and ordinance in the religious sense are often used interchangeably the ordinance derives its sacredness from the authority that ordained it
while the sacrament possesses a sacredness due to something in itself even when viewed simply as a representation or memorial the lord's supper is the scriptural name for the observance commemorating the death of christ
but not as a distinctive name at an early period however the name communion was so applied as denoting the communing of christians with their lord or with one another the term eucharist describes the lord's supper as a thanksgiving service
it is also called by preeminence the sacrament as the ratifying of a solemn vow of consecration to christ
or recondite by slight indications as by instinct or intuition it is not now applied to mere keenness of sense perception we do not call a hound sagacious in following a clear trail
but if he loses the scent as at the edge of a stream and circles around till he strikes it again his conduct is said to be sagacious in human affairs sagacious refers to a power of ready far reaching and accurate inference
from observed facts perhaps in themselves very slight that seems like a special sense or to a similar readiness to foresee the results of any action especially upon human motives or conduct
a kind of prophetic common sense sagacious is a broader and nobler word than shrewd and not capable of the invidious sense which the latter word often bears
on the other hand sagacious is less lofty and comprehensive than wise in its full sense and more limited to matters of direct practical moment compare astute wisdom antonyms
synonyms bargain barter change deal exchange trade a bargain is strictly an agreement or contract to buy and sell
tho the word is often used to denote the entire transaction and also as a designation for the thing sold or purchased change and exchange are words of wider signification applying only incidentally to the transfer of property
or value a change secures something different in any way or by any means an exchange secures something as an equivalent or return tho not necessarily as payment for what is given
barter is the exchange of one commodity for another the word being used generally with reference to portable commodities trade in the broad sense may apply to vast businesses as the book trade but as denoting a single transaction
is used chiefly in regard to things of moderate value when it becomes nearly synonymous with barter sale is commonly and with increasing strictness limited to the transfer of property for money
or for something estimated at a money value or considered as equivalent to so much money in hand or to be paid a deal in the political sense is a bargain substitution or transfer for the benefit of certain persons or parties against all others
as the nomination was the result of a deal in business it may have a similar meaning but it frequently signifies simply a sale or exchange a dealing as a heavy deal in stocks sample synonyms
specimen a sample is a portion taken at random out of a quantity supposed to be homogeneous so that the qualities found in the sample may reasonably be expected to be found in the whole as a sample of sugar a sample of cloth
a specimen is one unit of a series or a fragment of a mass all of which is supposed to possess the same essential qualities as a specimen of coinage or of architecture
or a specimen of quartz no other unit or portion may be exactly like the specimen while all the rest is supposed to be exactly like the sample an instance is a sample or specimen of action compare example antonyms
abnormality aggregate exception monstrosity total whole satisfy synonyms
to satisfy is to furnish just enough to meet physical mental or spiritual desire
to cloy or surfeit is to gratify to the point of revulsion or disgust glut is a strong but somewhat coarse word applied to the utmost satisfaction of vehement appetites and passions as
to glut a vengeful spirit with slaughter we speak of glutting the market with a supply so excessive as to extinguish the demand much less than is needed to satisfy may suffice a frugal or abstemious person
less than a sufficiency may content one of a patient and submissive spirit compare pay requite antonyms check
satisfy one in the sense of make satisfaction for labors and sacrifices
scholar synonyms disciple learner pupil savant student the primary sense of a scholar is one who is being schooled
thence the word passes to denote one who is apt in school work and finally one who is thoroughly schooled master of what the schools can teach an erudite accomplished person when used without qualification
the word is generally understood in this latter sense as he is manifestly a scholar pupil signifies one under the close personal supervision or instruction of a teacher or tutor
those under instruction in schools below the academic grade are technically and officially termed pupils the word pupil is uniformly so used in the reports of the commissioner of education of the united states but popular american usage prefers scholar
in the original sense as teachers and scholars enjoyed a holiday those under instruction in sunday schools are uniformly designated as sunday school scholars student is applied to those in the higher grades or courses of study
as the academic collegiate scientific et cetera student suggests less proficiency than scholar in the highest sense the student being one who is learning the scholar one who has learned
on the other hand student suggests less of personal supervision than pupil thus the college student often becomes the private pupil of some instructor in special studies for disciple et cetera compare synonyms for adherent
antonyms dunce fool idiot idler ignoramus illiterate person science synonyms art knowledge
knowledge of a single fact not known as related to any other or of many facts not known as having any mutual relations or as comprehended under any general law does not reach the meaning of science
science is knowledge reduced to law and embodied in system the knowledge of various countries gathered by an observant traveler may be a heterogeneous medley of facts which gain real value only when coordinated and arranged by the man of science
art always relates to something to be done science to something to be known not only must art be discriminated from science but art in the industrial or mechanical sense must be distinguished from art in the esthetic sense
the former aims chiefly at utility the latter at beauty the mechanic arts are the province of the artisan the esthetic or fine arts are the province of the artist all the industrial arts
as of weaving or printing arithmetic or navigation are governed by exact rules art in the highest esthetic sense while it makes use of rules transcends all rule
no rules can be given for the production of a painting like raffael's transfiguration a statue like the apollo belvedere or a poem like the iliad science does not like the mechanic arts make production its direct aim
yet its possible productive application in the arts is a constant stimulus to scientific investigation the science as in the case of chemistry or electricity is urged on to higher development by the demands of the art
while the art is perfected by the advance of the science creative art seeking beauty for its own sake is closely akin to pure science seeking knowledge for its own sake compare knowledge literature security
synonyms bail earnest gage pledge surety the first four words agree in denoting something given or deposited as an assurance of something to be given paid or done
an earnest is of the same kind as that to be given a portion of it delivered in advance as when part of the purchase money is paid according to the common expression to bind the bargain
a pledge or security may be wholly different in kind from that to be given or paid and may greatly exceed it in value security may be of real or personal property anything of sufficient value to make the creditor secure a
every pawnshop contains unredeemed pledges land merchandise bonds et cetera are frequently offered and accepted as security a person may become security or surety for another's payment of a debt
appearance in court et cetera in the latter case he is said to become bail for that person the person accused gives bail for himself gage survives only as a literary word chiefly in certain phrases as
the gage of battle prepositions security for the payment of a debt security to the state for the prisoner in the sum of a thousand dollars self abnegation synonyms self control
self control is holding oneself within due limits in pleasures and duties as in all things else self denial the giving up of pleasures for the sake of duty self renunciation surrenders conscious rights and claims
with very much self renunciation
but without a thought of self denial self devotion is heart consecration of self to a person or cause with readiness for any needed sacrifice self sacrifice is the strongest and completest term of all
and contemplates the gift of self as actually made we speak of the self sacrifice of christ where any other of the above terms would be feeble or inappropriate antonyms
had some funny adventures with baby bunty and when he found that his rheumatism did not hurt him so much as he hopped on his red white and blue striped barber pole crutch the bunny uncle wished he might have some strange and wonderful adventures
said uncle wiggily to himself one morning he twinkled his pink nose and then he was all ready to start good bye nurse jane good bye he called to his muskrat lady housekeeper with whom he lived in a hollow stump bungalow
he hopped down the front steps with his red white and blue striped crutch under one paw and his tall silk hat on his head good bye miss fuzzy wuzzy good bye answered nurse jane
i hope you have some nice adventures thanks i wish you the same answered uncle wiggily and away he went over the fields and through the woods
he had not hopped very far looking this way and that before all of a sudden he came to a queer little place near an old rail fence down in one corner was a hole partly underground
ha that's queer said uncle wiggily to himself
so uncle wiggily folding back his ears in order that they would not get bent over and broken began crawling down the rabbit hole for that is what it really was
it was dark inside but the bunny uncle did not mind that being able to see in the dark besides he could make his pink nose twinkle when he wanted to
and this gave almost as much light as a firefly no this isn't the burrow where i used to live said uncle wiggily to himself when he had hopped quite a distance into the hole
but it's very nice perhaps i may have an adventure here who knows
lying under a little table
cried uncle wiggily i'll open that glass box and see what is in it so the bunny uncle raised the cover and in the glass box was a little cake made of carrots and cabbage
and on top spelled out in pink raisins were the words eat me
anything might be wrong the bunny gentleman ate the cake and then all of a sudden he began to feel very funny oh my exclaimed uncle wiggily
i hope that cake didn't belong to my nephew sammie littletail
for i feel so very queer and no wonder for uncle wiggily had suddenly begun to grow very large
or scratch the other when it felt ticklish this is certainly remarkable cried uncle wiggily i wonder what made me grow so large all of a sudden
cried a sudden and buzzing voice
went on the bad biting bug
eat what for asked the bunny uncle puzzled like
was the answer and now you can't this is how i have caught you ha ha and the mosquito buzzed a most unpleasant laugh oh dear thought uncle wiggily
here drink some of this and you'll grow small just as i did
the soft and gentle voice went on and to uncle wiggily's surprise there stood a nice little girl with long flaxen hair
she was holding out to him a bottle with a tag that read drink me am i really to drink this asked the bunny you are
uncle wiggily took a long drink from the bottle it tasted like lollypop ice cream soda and no sooner had he taken a good sip than all of a sudden he found himself shutting up small like a telescope
smaller and smaller he shrank until he was his own regular size and then the little girl took him by the paw and cried come on now you can get out and surely enough uncle wiggily could
but who are you he asked the little girl
come on and away ran uncle wiggily with wonderland alice who had saved him from being bitten so everything came out all right you see and
if the teacup doesn't lose its handle and try to do a foxtrot waltz with the soup tureen
in the city where davy lived the storm played all manner of pranks swooping down upon unwary old gentlemen and turning their umbrellas wrong side out and sometimes blowing their hats quite out of sight
and as for the old ladies who chanced to be out of doors the wind came upon them
and twisted their petticoats about their ankles and even whirled the old ladies themselves about in a very painful way and in the country where davy had come to pass christmas with his dear old grandmother
things were not much better but here people were very wise about the weather and stayed in doors huddled around great blazing wood fires and the storm finding no live game buried up the roads and the fences
and such small fry of houses as could readily be put out of sight and howled and roared over the fields and through the trees in a fashion not to be forgotten davy being of the opinion that a snow storm
was a thing not to be wasted had been out with his sled trying to have a little fun with the weather but presently discovering that this particular storm was not friendly to little boys
he had retreated into the house and having put his hat and his high shoes and his mittens by the kitchen fire to dry he began to find his time hang heavily on his hands
he had wandered idly all over the house and had tried how cold his nose could be made by holding it against the window panes
the balusters and teasing the cat and at last as evening was coming on had curled himself up in the big easy chair facing the fire
and had begun to read once more about the marvellous things that happened to little alice in wonderland then as it grew darker he laid aside the book and sat watching the blazing logs
and listening to the solemn ticking of the high dutch clock against the wall then there stole in at the door a delicious odor of dinner cooking downstairs an odor so promising as to roast chickens
and baked potatoes and gravy and pie as to make any little boy's mouth water and presently davy began softly telling himself what he would choose for his dinner he had quite finished fancying the first part of his feast
and was just coming in his mind to an extra large slice of apple pie well browned staring meanwhile very hard at one of the brass knobs of the andirons to keep his thoughts from wandering
when he suddenly discovered a little man perched upon that identical knob and smiling at him with all his might this little man was a very curious looking person indeed
he was only about a foot high but his head was as big as a cocoanut and he had great bulging eyes like a frog and a ridiculous turned up nose his legs were as slender as spindles and he had long pointed toes
and there was no way of knowing where the smile ended except by looking at it from behind which davy couldn't do as yet without getting into the fire
the fact is he was frightened almost out of his wits particularly when he saw that the little man still smiling furiously
and after cracking them like nuts with his teeth eating them with great relish davy watched this alarming meal expecting every moment to see the little man burst into a blaze and disappear but he finished his coals in safety
i know you do you said davy faintly oh yes said the little man
you are the little boy who doesn't believe in fairies nor in giants nor in goblins
now the truth was that davy having never met any giants when he was out walking nor seen any fairies peeping out of the bushes in the garden
were purely imaginary beings so that now he could do nothing but stare at the little man in a shamefaced sort of way and wonder what was coming next now all that said the little man
shaking his finger at him in a reproving way all that is very foolish and very wrong i'm a goblin myself a hobgoblin and i've come to take you
if you please i can't go cried davy in great alarm at this proposal
rubbish
that stood on the mantel shelf holding a clock in his arms the clock never went but for that matter the colonel never went either for he had been standing stock still
for years and it seemed perfectly ridiculous to ask him anything about going anywhere so davy felt quite safe in looking up at him and asking permission to go on the believing voyage to his dismay
the colonel nodded his head and cried out in a little cracked voice
at this the goblin jumped down off the knob of the andiron and skipping briskly across the room to the big dutch clock rapped sharply on the front of the case with his knuckles when to davy's amazement
the great thing fell over on its face upon the floor as softly as if it had been a feather bed
but before he had time to make any further discoveries
suddenly reappeared carrying two large sponge cakes in his arms now davy was perfectly sure that he had seen his grandmother putting those very sponge cakes into the oven to bake
the goblin clapped one into each seat and scrambling into the clock sat down upon the smaller one merely remarking
it was the midsummer holidays no more lessons said edith as she danced around the schoolroom soon however she rushed up to miss green but i will miss you dear miss green i wish you were going with us
and the warm hearted little girl threw her arms around her governess
edith stood looking at the worn stone in the floor before the altar it was difficult to realize that under this lay the ashes of the great shakespeare
good frend for jesus sake forbeare to digg the dust encloased heare
moves my bones how funny some of the words are papa she said
answered colonel howard they then walked through the neat little market town to shakespeare's house it had been repaired many times
where the american author washington irving stayed while he wrote some of his charming stories about english country life from stratford our friends went to warwick which is most interesting not only on account of the picturesque old town with its ancient houses
but because of its great castle as well edith's papa and mamma wanted her to see this castle which is one of the finest places in england and one of the few examples of an old feudal castle which is still occupied and kept as it was hundreds of years ago
said edith as they sat at breakfast in the coffee room or dining room
it was a pretty room with walls of dark oak panels around the room were hung many plates and dishes of fine and rare old english china a big high sideboard stood at one end on which were many pieces of antique silverware
also some good pewter mugs and pitchers which are now very valuable and some quaint old toby jugs which are in the shape of a fat old gentleman
and the sun sparkled on the dainty silver and pretty china of the well set table edith enjoyed the eggs with crisp slices of bacon and buttered toast
while the neat maid cut for colonel howard slices of cold ham from one of the huge joints of cold meat which stood on the sideboard edith admired very much a glass case of stuffed birds just opposite her
i think i will let papa take you over the castle while i rest here and write some letters said missus howard
walked through the great gateway into warwick castle
and pictures and armour and all kinds of valuable and ancient things they saw the great cedars of lebanon which were brought from the holy land and planted in the garden about eight hundred or nine hundred years ago that's a long time isn't it
the beautiful rare white peacocks were also to be seen strutting about the courtyard spreading their great white tails to be admired
colonel howard also told his little daughter of other beautiful houses he had visited among them haddon hall and welbeck abbey which has a number of the rooms built under ground
on the norfolk broads the broads are really lakes or rivers nearly all connected
living meanwhile on their boat this is a most enjoyable way of spending some weeks and they had promised to go again some time and take edith near the broads
the town of boston which gave its name to the american city there is a great contrast between the great bustling city of boston and this little old english town
why one cannot imagine for it is a very nice church tower and does not look at all like a stump
our party visited oxford as well stopping just long enough for edith to see the gray time stained walls of the many colleges which go to make up the great university of oxford
unless you give us time to break the news gradually and above all when violet is so ill couldn't i see them begged the man almost like a boy
i would promise not to tell them until you consented that might do said doctor mc allister if they grew to like you before they knew who you were it would make things easier certainly
and his young man to wait upon him and irish mary held up her hands in despair when she learned for whom she must cook don't you worry mary bridget flynn said doctor mc allister with emphasis you could cook for the king of england
just make one of your peach shortcakes for lunch and broil a chicken and i'll answer for him
henry shook hands with him before he sat down but he kept glancing at the stranger all through the meal where have i seen that man before he thought missus mc allister
had given the children's names clearly when she introduced them jess benny and henry
but she had not added the man's name she forgot thought jess because she knows him so well she thinks we do
henry was interested benny was fascinated i'd like to see the cucumber said benny pausing in the middle of his shortcake would you indeed said mister cordyce delighted some day if missus mc allister is willing
and we'll bring it to violet asked benny waiting breathlessly for an answer we'll bring it to violet
that is he threw his head back and shut his eyes and breathed very heavily
humming for violet was better but the moment she saw the stranger asleep she stopped her singing abruptly and tiptoed the rest of the way then as suddenly she turned around and came back
it was so gently done that even if he had been really asleep he would never have wakened as it was he could not resist opening one eye the slightest crack to see the bright chestnut hair
and came softly into her room with a nosegay of fragrant english double violets for her they loved him he won all their hearts when he patted her dark head and told her very simply that he was sorry she had been sick
but certainly his manner with violet was very gentle it was clear to every one even to the anxious nurse that the stranger was not tiring the sick child he told her in a pleasant everyday voice
about his garden and his greenhouses where the violets came from about the old swede gardener who always said he must
i'd love to see him said violet earnestly how long you going to stay here benny piped up it was not altogether a polite question
as long as they'll let me my boy answered the stranger quietly then he left the sick room for he knew he should not stay long
he repeated it over and over in his mind trying to remember where he had heard that same voice say my boy he
often henry thought he had caught hold of his truant memory then the man turned his head and he lost it again altogether
as the man smiled over his book
and he had said i like your spirit my boy that
henry sat down out of sight and weeded geraniums for a few moments it is a wonder he did not pull up geraniums instead of weeds his mind was so far away i didn't remember him at first because i was so jolly excited when he shook hands with me decided henry
then he was apparently thunderstruck afresh
he's the man who passed me the cup with the wings
and this satisfied him same man exactly he said when he had finished the flower bed he thought he heard the young doctor moving in the office he stuck his head in the open door
do you know who presented the prizes field day asked henry curiously know what his name was james cordyce of the steel mills replied the doctor carelessly j h cordyce over in greenfield
but for henry the skies were reeling
his grandfather it was impossible
but all the time he knew in his soul
he had said he was going to stay as long as they would let him
had failed to mention his name on purpose it was a wonder benny hadn't asked what it was long before this
it's now or never thought henry i've got to know he walked eagerly after the man who was going toward the garden with his back turned henry easily caught up with him breathing with difficulty the man turned around are you
james henry cordyce of greenfield panted henry i am my boy returned the man with a long look does that question of yours mean that you know that i know that you
are henry james cordyce yes said henry simply
lambs frisk and play the shepherds pipe all day and we hear aye birds tune their merry lay
the fields breathe sweet the daisies kiss our feet young lovers meet old wives a sunning sit in every street these tunes our ears do greet
spring the sweet spring
two summons to love
that she may thy career with roses spread the nightingales thy coming eachwhere sing make an eternal spring
spread forth thy golden hair in larger locks than thou wast wont before and emperor like decore with diadem of pearl thy temples fair chase hence the ugly night
which serves but to make dear thy glorious light this is that happy morn that day long wished day of all my life so dark
if cruel stars have not my ruin sworn and fates not hope betray which purely white deserves an everlasting diamond should it mark
did once thy heart surprize now flora deck thyself in fairest guise if that ye winds would hear a voice surpassing far amphion's lyre your furious chiding stay
let zephyr only breathe and with her tresses play
ensaffroning sea and air makes vanish every star night like a drunkard reels
the fields with flowers are deck'd in every hue the clouds with orient gold spangle their blue here is the pleasant place and nothing wanting is save she alas william drummond
of hawthornden three time and love when i have seen by time's fell hand defaced the rich proud cost of out worn buried age
when sometime lofty towers i see down razed and brass eternal slave to mortal rage when i have seen the hungry ocean gain advantage on the kingdom of the shore
and the firm soil win of the watery main increasing store with loss and loss with store when i have seen such interchange of state or state itself confounded to decay
ruin hath taught me thus to ruminate that time will come and take my love away this thought is as a death which cannot choose but weep to have that which it fears to lose
four since brass nor stone nor earth nor boundless sea but sad mortality o'ersways their power how with this rage shall beauty hold a plea whose action is no stronger than a flower
o how shall summer's honey breath hold out against the wreckful siege of battering days when rocks impregnable are not so stout nor gates of steel so strong but time decays
o fearful meditation where alack shall time's best jewel from time's chest lie hid or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back or who his spoil of beauty can forbid
five the passionate shepherd to his love come live with me and be my love and we will all the pleasures prove that hills and valleys dale and field and all the craggy mountains yield
by shallow rivers to whose falls melodious birds sing madrigals
a cap of flowers and a kirtle embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle a gown made of the finest wool which from our pretty lambs we pull fair lined slippers for the cold with buckles of the purest gold
a belt of straw and ivy buds with coral clasps and amber studs and if these pleasures may thee move come live with me and be my love thy silver dishes for thy meat
the shepherd swains shall dance and sing for thy delight each may morning
then live with me and be my love c marlowe six a madrigal crabbed age and youth cannot live together
youth is full of pleasance age is full of care youth like summer morn age like winter weather youth like summer brave age like winter bare youth is full of sport age's breath is short
youth is nimble age is lame youth is hot and bold age is weak and cold youth is wild and age is tame age i do abhor thee
o my love my love is young age i do defy thee o sweet shepherd hie thee for methinks thou stay'st too long
seven under the greenwood tree who loves to lie with me and tune his merry note unto the sweet bird's throat come hither come hither come hither here shall we see no enemy
but winter and rough weather who doth ambition shun and loves to live the sun seeking the food he eats and pleased with what he gets come hither come hither come hither
here shall he see no enemy but winter and rough weather
eight it was a lover and his lass with a hey and a ho and a hey nonino that o'er the green cornfield did pass in the spring time the only pretty ring time
when birds do sing hey ding a ding sweet lovers love the spring between the acres of the rye these pretty country folks would lie
how that life was but a flower and therefore take the present time with a hey and a ho and a hey nonino for love is crowned with the prime
when birds do sing hey ding a ding sweet lovers love the spring
nine present in absence absence hear thou my protestation against thy strength distance and length do what thou canst for alteration
for hearts of truest mettle absence doth join and time doth settle who loves a mistress of such quality
where he swelled up too big to get out after eating cake from the glass box as i told you in the first story then alice from wonderland happened along
so that he grew small enough to crawl out of the hole again yes i had a wonderful time with alice said the rabbit gentleman it was quite an adventure
asked nurse jane cream puffs answered uncle wiggily they're very swell like you know of course agreed nurse jane and what was in the bottle to make you grow smaller
alum water uncle wiggily made reply that's very shrinking you know and puckery of course spoke nurse jane again i might have guessed it now i suppose you're off again
i hope i meet alice again i wonder where she lives why she's out of a book said nurse jane i used to read about her to sammie littletail when he was quite a little rabbit chap oh yes to be sure
said uncle wiggily alice from wonderland is like mother goose sinbad the sailor and my other arabian night friends
and away he hopped down the front steps of his bungalow as spry as though he never had had the rheumatism
he no longer had to practice being a soldier and stand on guard against them pretty soon as uncle wiggily hopped along he came to a little place in the woods all set around with green trees
and in the center was a large doll's tea table all ready for a meal ha this looks like an adventure already said the bunny uncle to himself and there's a party
which is a sort of spring rabbit a hatter man with a very large hat much larger than uncle wiggily's on his head and a dormouse a dormouse or doormouse is one that crawls out under a door you know to get away from the cat
oh here's uncle wiggily cried alice
spoke uncle wiggily looking at the march hare oh yes there's plenty of room more room than there is to eat said the spring rabbit besides we really knew you were coming
said alice you see the hatter's watch only keeps one kind of time that's what i do when i dance interrupted uncle wiggily we haven't come to that yet alice spoke gently but
as the hatter's watch only keeps tea time we're always at the tea table and the cake and tea were eaten long ago
began to look rather mad and angry he's greased it with the best butter
dipping his watch in the cream pitcher i dare say they'll get soaked in time but pass uncle wiggily the buns he added and alice passed an empty plate which once had dog biscuits on only jackie
and he was wondering if it would be large enough to cover him when all of a sudden the mad march hare caught up the bunny uncle's red white and blue striped rheumatism crutch and cried you've come for uncle wiggily have you well we've no time for that
smashed the crutch down on the hatter's watch bang breaking it all to pieces
while the spring suddenly uncurled and one end catching around uncle wiggily's left hind leg flew out and tossed him safely away over the trees until he fell down on his soft soldier tent right
in front of his own hollow stump bungalow so he was saved from the wabberjocky
cried the bunny uncle i wonder what happened to the rest of them i must find out
the duc de l'omelette
and stepped at once into a cooler clime cowper keats fell by a criticism
to the duc de l'omelette six peers of the empire conveyed the happy bird that night the duc was to sup alone in the privacy of his bureau
he reclined languidly on that ottoman for which he sacrificed his loyalty in outbidding his king the notorious ottoman of cadet he buries his face in the pillow the clock strikes
unable to restrain his feelings his grace swallows an olive at this moment the door gently opens to the sound of soft music and lo the most delicate of birds
is before the most enamored of men but what inexpressible dismay now overshadows the countenance of the duc horreur chien
said his grace on the third day after his decease he he he replied the devil faintly drawing himself up with an air of hauteur why surely you are not serious
retorted de l'omelette i have sinned c'est vrai but my good sir consider you have no actual intention of putting such such barbarous threats into execution no what
said his majesty come sir strip strip indeed
no sir i shall not strip who are you pray that i duc de l'omelette prince de foie gras just come of age author of the mazurkiad and member of the academy should divest myself at your bidding
of the sweetest pantaloons ever made by bourdon the daintiest robe de chambre ever put together by rombert to say nothing of the taking my hair out of paper not to mention the trouble i should have in drawing off my gloves
who am i ah true i am baal zebub prince of the fly i took thee just now from a rose wood coffin inlaid with ivory
thou wast curiously scented and labelled as per invoice belial sent thee my inspector of cemeteries the pantaloons which thou sayest were made by bourdon are an excellent pair of linen drawers
and thy robe de chambre is a shroud of no scanty dimensions sir replied the duc i am not to be insulted with impunity sir i shall take the earliest opportunity of avenging this insult
sir you shall hear from me in the meantime au revoir and the duc was bowing himself out of the satanic presence when he was interrupted and brought back by a gentleman in waiting
hereupon his grace rubbed his eyes yawned shrugged his shoulders reflected having become satisfied of his identity he took a bird's eye view of his whereabouts the apartment was superb
nor its breadth but its height
there was no ceiling certainly none but a dense whirling mass of fiery colored clouds his grace's brain reeled as he glanced upward from above hung a chain
of an unknown blood red metal its upper end lost like the city of boston parmi les nues from its nether extremity swung a large cresset the duc knew it to be a ruby
but from it there poured a light so intense so still so terrible persia never worshipped such gheber never imagined such
mussulman never dreamed of such when drugged with opium he has tottered to a bed of poppies his back to the flowers and his face to the god apollo
decidedly approbatory the corners of the room were rounded into niches three of these were filled with statues of gigantic proportions
their beauty was grecian their deformity egyptian
in the fourth niche the statue was veiled it was not colossal but then there was a taper ankle
de l'omelette pressed his hand upon his heart closed his eyes raised them and caught his satanic majesty in a blush
but the paintings kupris
and rafaelle has beheld them yes rafaelle has been here for did he not paint the and was he not consequently damned the paintings the paintings o luxury
o love who gazing on those forbidden beauties shall have eyes for the dainty devices of the golden frames that besprinkled like stars the hyacinth and the porphyry walls
but the duc's heart is fainting within him he is not however as you suppose dizzy with magnificence nor drunk with the ecstatic breath of those innumerable censers
mais the duc de l'omelette is terror stricken for through the lurid vista
lo gleams the most ghastly of all fires
he could not help imagining that the glorious the voluptuous the never dying melodies which pervaded that hall as they passed filtered and transmuted through the alchemy of the enchanted window panes
were the wailings and the howlings of the hopeless and the damned and there too there upon the ottoman who could he be he the petitmaitre
no the deity who sat as if carved in marble
mais il faut agir that is to say a frenchman never faints outright besides his grace hated a scene
de l'omelette is himself again there were some foils upon a table some points also the duc s'echapper he measures two points and with a grace inimitable
offers his majesty the choice horreur his majesty does not fence
the chances true desperate but scarcely more desperate than the duc besides was he not in the secret
a spectator would have thought of francis and charles his grace thought of his game his majesty did not think he shuffled the duc cut the cards were dealt
the trump is turned it is it is the king no it was the queen
de l'omelette placed his hand upon his heart they play the duc counts the hand is out his majesty counts heavily smiles
and is taking wine the duc slips a card c'est a vous a faire said his majesty cutting his grace bowed dealt and arose from the table
it should not be doubted that at least one third of the affection with which we regard the elder poets of great britain should be attributed to what is in itself a thing apart from poetry we mean to the simple love of the antique
and that again a third of even the proper poetic sentiment inspired by their writings should be ascribed to a fact which while it has strict connection with poetry in the abstract and with the old british poems themselves
should not be looked upon as a merit appertaining to the authors of the poems almost every devout admirer of the old bards if demanded his opinion of their productions would mention vaguely yet with perfect sincerity
a sense of dreamy wild indefinite and he would perhaps say indefinable delight on being required to point out the source of this so shadowy pleasure he would be apt to speak of the quaint in phraseology
and in general handling this quaintness is in fact a very powerful adjunct to ideality but in the case in question it arises independently of the author's will
and is altogether apart from his intention words and their rhythm have varied verses which affect us to day with a vivid delight and which delight in many instances may be traced to the one source quaintness
must have worn in the days of their construction a very commonplace air this is of course no argument against the poems now we mean it only as against the poets thew
there is a growing desire to overrate them the old english muse was frank guileless sincere and although very learned still learned without art
no general error evinces a more thorough confusion of ideas than the error of supposing donne and cowley metaphysical in the sense wherein wordsworth and coleridge are so
with the two former ethics were the end with the two latter the means the poet of the creation wished by highly artificial verse
the poet of the ancient mariner to infuse the poetic sentiment through channels suggested by analysis the one finished by complete failure what he commenced in the grossest misconception
the other by a path which could not possibly lead him astray arrived at a triumph which is not the less glorious because hidden from the profane eyes of the multitude but in this view even the metaphysical verse of cowley
is but evidence of the simplicity and single heartedness of the man and he was in this but a type of his school for we may as well designate in this way the entire class of writers whose poems are bound up in the volume before us
and throughout all of whom there runs a very perceptible general character they used little art in composition their writings sprang immediately from the soul
nor is it difficult to perceive the tendency of this abandon to elevate immeasurably all the energies of mind but again so to mingle the greatest possible fire force delicacy and all good things
baldness and imbecility as to render it not a matter of doubt that the average results of mind in such a school will be found inferior
ceteris paribus more artificial we can not bring ourselves to believe that the selections of the book of gems are such as will impart to a poetical reader
the clearest possible idea of the beauty of the school but if the intention had been merely to show the school's character the attempt might have been considered successful in the highest degree
there are long passages now before us of the most despicable trash with no merit whatever beyond that of their antiquity the criticisms of the editor do not particularly please us
his enthusiasm is too general and too vivid not to be false his opinion for example of sir henry wotton's verses on the queen of bohemia that there are few finer things in our language
is untenable and absurd in such lines we can perceive not one of those higher attributes of poesy which belong to her in all circumstances and throughout all time here every thing is art
nakedly or but awkwardly concealed no prepossession for the mere antique and in this case we can imagine no other prepossession should induce us to dignify with the sacred name of poetry
a series such as this of elaborate and threadbare compliments stitched apparently together without fancy
she could more infuse in me than all nature's beauties can in some other wiser man by her help i also now make this churlish place allow
something that may sweeten gladness in the very gall of sadness the dull loneness the black shade that these hanging vaults have made
the strange music of the waves beating on these hollow caves this black den which rocks emboss overgrown with eldest moss the rude portals that give light more to terror than delight
this my chamber of neglect walled about with disrespect from all these and this dull air a fit object for despair she hath taught me by her might to draw comfort
and delight but these lines however good do not bear with them much of the general character of the english antique something more of this will be found in corbet's farewell to the fairies
we copy a portion of marvell's maiden lamenting for her fawn which we prefer not only as a specimen of the elder poets but in itself as a beautiful poem abounding in pathos
exquisitely delicate imagination and truthfulness to anything of its species it is a wondrous thing how fleet twas on those little silver feet
with what a pretty skipping grace it oft would challenge me the race and when't had left me far away twould stay and run again and stay for it was nimbler much than hinds and trod
as if on the four winds i have a garden of my own but so with roses overgrown and lilies that you would it guess to be a little wilderness and all the spring time of the year it only loved to be there
among the beds of lilies i have sought it oft where it should lie yet could not till itself would rise find it although before mine eyes for in the flaxen lilies shade it like a bank of lilies laid
upon the roses it would feed until its lips even seemed to bleed and then to me twould boldly trip and print those roses on my lip but all its chief delight was still with roses thus itself to fill
in whitest sheets of lilies cold had it lived long it would have been lilies without roses within
how truthful an air of lamentations hangs here upon every syllable it pervades all it comes over the sweet melody of the words over the gentleness and grace which we fancy in the little maiden herself
even over the half playful half petulant air with which she lingers on the beauties and good qualities of her favorite like the cool shadow of a summer cloud over a bed of lilies and violets and all sweet flowers
the whole is redolent with poetry of a very lofty order every line is an idea conveying either the beauty and playfulness of the fawn or the artlessness of the maiden or her love or her admiration
or her grief or the fragrance and warmth and appropriateness of the little nest like bed of lilies and roses which the fawn devoured as it lay upon them and could scarcely be distinguished from them by the once happy little damsel
who went to seek her pet with an arch and rosy smile on her face consider the great variety of truthful and delicate thought in the few lines we have quoted the wonder of the little maiden at the fleetness of her favorite
the little silver feet the fawn challenging his mistress to a race with a pretty skipping grace running on before and then with head turned back awaiting her approach only to fly from it again
can we not distinctly perceive all these things how exceedingly vigorous too is the line and trod as if on the four winds a vigor apparent only when we keep in mind the artless character of the speaker
and the four feet of the favorite one for each wind then consider the garden of my own so overgrown entangled with roses and lilies as to be a little wilderness
the fawn loving to be there and there only the maiden seeking it where it should lie and not being able to distinguish it from the flowers until itself would rise
the lying among the lilies like a bank of lilies the loving to fill itself with roses and its pure virgin limbs to fold in whitest sheets
of lilies cold and these things being its chief delights and then the pre eminent beauty and naturalness of the concluding lines whose very hyperbole only renders them more true to nature
when we consider the innocence the artlessness the enthusiasm the passionate girl and more passionate admiration of the bereaved child had it lived long it would have been lilies without
i said offering my case for the moment loder was not smoking for long enough he had not been talking thanks he replied taking not only the cigarette but the case also the others went on talking loder became silent again
and looked at it from time to time with an interest that neither its design nor its costliness seemed to explain presently i caught his eye a pretty case he remarked putting it down on the table i once had one exactly like it
i answered that they were in every shop window oh yes he said
i lost mine oh he laughed oh that's all right i got it back again don't be afraid i'm going to claim yours but the way i lost it found it the whole thing was rather curious i've never been able to explain it
i wonder if you could i answered that i certainly couldn't till i'd heard it whereupon loder taking up the silver case again and holding it in his hand as he talked began this happened in provence when i was about as old as marsham there
and every bit as romantic i was there with carroll you remember poor old carroll
excuse me marsham won't you it's a romantic tale you see or at least the setting is
twenty four or thereabouts romantic as i say and and this happened and it happened on the top of a whole lot of other things you must understand the things that do happen when you're twenty four
if it hadn't been provence it would have been somewhere else i suppose nearly if not quite as good but this was provence that smells as you might say of twenty four as it smells of argelasse and wild lavender and broom
we'd had the dickens of a walk of it just with knapsacks
at that blanched skeleton of a town les baux we'd nothing to do and had gone just where we liked or rather just where carroll had liked and carroll had had the de bello gallico in his pocket and had had a notion i fancy
i remember he lugged me off to some place or other
its name was because i forget how many thousands were killed in a river bed there and they stove in the water casks so that if the men wanted water they'd have to go forward and fight for it
bow of black velvet in her hair
eating almonds and apricots from the trees watching the women at the communal washing fountains under the dark plane trees
and vercingetorix and dante and trying to learn provencal
that he'd never have looked at if it had been in english well we got to darbisson we'd run across some young chap or other rangon his name was who was a vine planter in those parts and rangon
had asked us to spend a couple of days with him with him and his mother if we happened to be in the neighbourhood so as we might as well happen to be there as anywhere else we sent him a postcard and went
of velvety cypresses sixty feet high all white with dust on the north side of em for the mistral was having its three days revel
were bowed nearly to the earth a roaring day it was i remember but the wind fell a little late in the afternoon and we were poring over what it had left of our ordnance survey like fools we'd got
the unmounted paper maps instead of the linen ones when rangon himself found us coming out to meet us in a very badly turned out trap
where he lived with his mother he spoke no english
beg its pardon the language though there's a good deal of my eye and betty martin about that and i fancy this felibrige business will be in a good many pieces when frederic mistral is under that court of love pavilion arrangement he's had
and while i personally don't want to give it a kick i rather sympathise with the government
but but that's nothing to do with my tale after all so he drove on and by the time we got to rangon's house carroll had learned the greater part of magali as you no doubt know it's a restricted sort of life in some respects that a young
lives in those parts and it was as we reached the house that rangon remembered something
and not been able to get a word in edgeways for carroll
that his mother was away from home for some days apologies of the most profound of course our host was the soul of courtesy though he did try to get at us a bit later we expressed our polite regrets
naturally but i didn't quite see at first what difference it made
it appeared that when madame rangon went away for a few days she dispersed the whole of the female side of her establishment also
they clap across the horse's back and drive between the rows of vines
an aperitif a hall crowded with oak furniture and photographs and a cradle like bread crib and doors opening to right and left to the other rooms of the ground floor he had also it
our postcard had come unexpectedly he said and already he had made an appointment with his agent about
we begged him of course not to allow us to interfere with his business in the slightest degree he thanked us a thousand times but though we dine in the village we will take our own wine with us he said a wine surfin one of my wines you shall see
then he showed us round his place i forget how many hundreds of acres of vines and into the great building with the presses and pumps and casks and the huge barrel they call the thunderbolt and about seven o'clock we walked back to darbisson to dinner carrying our wine with us
i think the restaurant we dined in was the only one in the place and our gaillard of a host he was a straight backed well set up chap with rather fine eyes did us on the whole pretty well his wine certainly was good stuff and set our tongues going
a moment ago i said a fellow like rangon leads a restricted sort of life in those parts i saw this more clearly as dinner went on we dined by an open window from which we could see the stream with the planks across it
there were a dozen or so of them there as we dined laughing and chatting in low tones they all seemed pretty it was quickly falling dusk all the girls are pretty then and are quite conscious of it you know marsham
behind them at the end of the street one of these great cypress wind screens showed black against the sky
and you could only tell whether they were men or women under the plantains by their voices rippling and chattering and suddenly a deeper note once i heard a muffled scuffle and a sound like a kiss it was then that rangon's little trouble came out
it seemed that he didn't know any girls
the girls of the village were pretty enough but you see how it was
and as soon as carroll gave him a chance he began to ask us questions about england english girls the liberty they had and so on of course we couldn't tell him much he hadn't heard already
soiree he had all the later prevosts in his room he told us
between them must be playing the mischief with the
and our young man was what
co educationalist by jove yes he seemed to marvel that we should have left a country so blessed as england to visit his dusty wild lavender smelling girl less provence you don't know half your luck marsham
well we talked after this fashion we'd left the dining room of the restaurant and had planted ourselves on a bench outside with rangon between us when rangon suddenly looked at his watch and said it was time
he asked us and meet him again there he said but as his agent lived in the direction of his own home
envying every englishman who stepped i don't doubt
says that englishmen don't travel to see englishmen i don't know whether he'd stand to that in the case of englishwomen carroll and i didn't
did so and received some name in return which strangely enough i've entirely forgotten i only remember that the ladies were aunt and niece and lived at darbisson they shook their heads when i mentioned m rangon's name and said
we were visiting him they didn't know him i'd never been in darbisson before and i haven't been since so i don't know the map of the village very well but the place isn't very big and the house at which we stopped in twenty minutes or so is probably there yet
it had a large double door a double door in two senses for it was a big
with a smaller door inside it and an iron grille shutting in the whole the gentle voiced old lady had already taken a key from her reticule and was thanking us again for the little service of the handkerchief then with the little gesture one makes when
one has found oneself on the point of omitting a courtesy she gave a little musical laugh but she said with a little movement of invitation one sees so few compatriots here if you have the time to come in and smoke a cigarette
also the cigarette she added
and live alone hastily as i was about to accept carroll was before me professing a nostalgia for the sound of the english tongue that made his recent protestations about provencal a shameless hypocrisy
persuasive young rascal carroll was poor chap so the elder lady opened the grille and the wooden door beyond it and we entered by the light of the candle which the younger lady took from a bracket just within the door
we saw that we were in a handsome hall or vestibule and my wonder that rangon had made no mention of what was apparently a considerable establishment was increased by the fact that its tenants
must be known to be english and could be seen to be entirely charming i couldn't understand it and i'm afraid hypotheses rushed into my head that cast doubts on the rangons you know whether they were all right we knew nothing about our young planter you see
i looked about me there were tubs here and there against the walls gaily painted with glossy leaved aloes and palms in them one of the aloes i remember was flowering a little fountain in the middle made
a tinkling noise we put our caps on a carved and gilt console table
at the top of the staircase were more palms and aloes and double doors painted in a clear grey we followed our hostesses up the staircase i can hear yet the sharp clean click our boots made
on that hard shiny stone see the lights of the candle gleaming on the handrail the young girl she was not much more than a girl pushed at the doors and we went in the room we entered
with the rest for rather old fashioned fineness it was large lofty beautifully kept carroll went round for miss whatever her name was lighting candles in sconces and as the flames crept up they glimmered on a beautifully polished floor
which was bare except for an eastern rug here and there the elder lady had sat down in a gilt chair louis fourteenth i should say with a striped rep of the colour of a petunia
and i really don't know don't smile smith what induced me to lead her to it by the finger tips bending over her hand for a moment as she sat down
there was an old tambour frame behind her chair i remember and a vast oval mirror with clustered candle brackets filled the greater part of the farther wall the brightest and clearest glass i've ever seen
he paused looking at my cigarette case which he had taken into his hand again he smiled at some recollection or other and it was a minute or so before he continued
i must admit that i found it a little annoying after what we'd been talking about at dinner an hour before that rangon wasn't with us i still couldn't understand how he could have neighbours so charming without knowing about them
but i didn't care to insist on this to the old lady who for all i knew might have her own reasons for keeping to herself and after all it was our place to return rangon's hospitality in london
so to speak on his own doorstep so presently i forgot all about rangon and i'm pretty sure that carroll who was talking to his companion of some
didn't waste a thought on him either soon carroll you remember what a pretty crooning humming voice he had soon carroll was murmuring what they call seconds but so low that the sound hardly came across the room
and i came in with a soft bass note from time to time no instrument you know just an unaccompanied murmur no louder than an aeolian harp and it sounded infinitely sweet and plaintive
you might almost say in that formal rather old fashioned salon
outside the wind had now fallen completely all was very quiet and suddenly in a voice not much louder than a sigh carroll's companion was singing oft in the stilly night you know it
he went on again well i'm not going to try to convince you of such a special and delicate thing as the charm of that hour it wasn't more than an hour it
would be all about an hour we stayed things like that just have to be said and left you destroy them the moment you begin to insist on them we've every one of us had experiences like that
and don't say much about them i was as much in love with my old lady as carroll evidently was with his young one i can't tell you why being in love has just to be taken for granted too
i suppose marsham understands we smoked our cigarettes and sang again once more filling that clear painted quiet apartment with a murmuring no louder than if a light breeze
by the side of her chair oh infinitely pretty it was then carroll wandered off into the que cantes awfully pretty is not for myself i sing but for my friend who is near m e and i can't tell you how like four old friends we were
but for all the sweetness and the glamour of it we couldn't stay on indefinitely and i wondered what time it was but didn't ask anything to do with clocks and watches
and when presently we both got up neither carroll nor i asked to be allowed to call again in the morning to thank them for a charming hour and they seemed to feel the same as we did about it there was no hoping
that we should meet again in london' neither an au revoir nor a good bye just a tacit understanding that that hour should remain isolated accepted like a good gift without looking the gift horse in the mouth
single unattached to any hours before or after i don't know whether you see what i mean give me a match somebody and so we left with no more than looks exchanged and finger tips resting between the back of our hands
and our lips for a moment we found our way out by ourselves down that shallow stepped staircase with the handsome handrail and let ourselves out of the double door and grille closing it softly we made for the village without speaking a word
heigho loder had picked up the cigarette case again but for all the way his eyes rested on it i doubt whether he really saw it i'm pretty sure he didn't i knew when he did by the glance he shot at me
as much as to say i see you're wondering where the cigarette case comes in
well he continued we got back to rangon's house i really don't blame rangon for the way he took it when
you know he thought we were pulling his leg of course and he wasn't having any not he there were no english ladies in darbisson he said we told him as nearly as we could just where the house was we weren't very precise i'm afraid
for the village had been in darkness as we had come through it and i had to admit that the cypress hedge i tried to describe where we'd met our friends was a good deal like other cypress hedges and as i say rangon wasn't taking any
i myself was rather annoyed that he should think we were returning his hospitality by trying to get at him and it wasn't very easy either to explain in my french
that we were going to let the thing stand as it was and weren't going to call on our charming friends again
i knew it was good my wine he said but
no he replied think you left it behind at that place last night yes did you rangon popped in with a twinkle i went through all my pockets again no cigarette case
of course it was possible that i'd left it behind and i was annoyed again i didn't want to go back you see but on the other hand i didn't want to lose the case it was a present and rangon's smile nettled me a good deal too
might have done i grunted well in that case we'll go and get it if one tried the restaurant first rangon suggested smiling again
though i remembered having the case after we'd left the restaurant
i'd known jolly well beforehand it wasn't and i saw rangon's mouth twitching with amusement so we now seek the abode
hein he said yes said i and we left the restaurant and strode through the village by the way we'd taken the evening before that
it is then the next village
as we left the last house and came out into the open plain we went back i was irritated because we were two to one you see and carroll backed me up a double door with a grille in front of it
he repeated for the fiftieth time rangon merely replied that it wasn't our good faith he doubted he didn't actually use the word drunk mais tiens he said suddenly trying to conceal his mirth
of these so elusive ladies come this way he took us back along a plantain groved street and suddenly turned up an alley that was little more than two gutters and a crack of sky overhead between two broken tiled roofs it was a
and i was positively angry
with a half unhinged railing in front of it is it that your house he asked no says i and no says carroll and off we started again but another half hour brought us back to the same place and carroll scratched his head
nobody says rangon as much as to say look at it
then meditates taking it then i struck in quite out of temper by this time how much would the rent be i asked as if i really thought of taking the place just to get back at him
he mentioned something ridiculously small in the way of francs one might at least see the place says i can the key be got
baker's not a hundred yards away he said we got the key it was the key of the inner wooden door that grid of rusty iron didn't need one
it came clean off its single hinge when carroll touched it carroll opened and we stood for a moment motioning to one another to step in then rangon went in first and i heard him murmur pardon
now this is the odd part we passed into a sort of vestibule or hall with a burst lead pipe in the middle of a dry tank in the centre of it there was a broad staircase rising in front of us to the first floor and double doors just seen in the half light
at the head of the stairs old tubs stood against the walls but the palms and aloes in them were dead only a cabbage stalk or two and the rusty hoops lay on the ground about them one tub had come to pieces entirely
and was no more than a heap of staves on a pile of spilt earth and everywhere everywhere was dust the floor was an inch deep in dust and old plaster that muffled our footsteps cobwebs hung like old dusters on the walls
a regular goblin's tatter of cobwebs draped the little bracket inside the door and the wrought iron of the hand rail was closed up with webs in which not even a spider moved the whole thing was preposterous it is possible that for even a less rental
come upstairs said i suddenly up we went
and i had to strike a stinking french sulphur match to see into the room at all underfoot was like walking on thicknesses of flannel and except where we put our feet the place was as printless
as a snowfield dust dust unbroken grey dust my match burned down
with never a candle end in them there was the large oval mirror but hardly reflecting carroll's match for
but suddenly i darted forward something new and bright on the table twinkled with the light of carroll's match the match went out and by the time carroll had lighted another i had stopped i wanted rangon to see what was on the table
will you pick it up and rangon stepping forward picked up from the middle of the table my cigarette case loder had finished
nobody spoke for quite a minute nobody spoke and then loder himself broke the silence turning to me make anything of it he said i lifted my eyebrows only your vigneron's explanation i began but
stopped again seeing that wouldn't do any body make anything of it said loder turning from one to another i gathered from smith's face that he thought one thing might be made of it namely that loder had invented the whole tale
but even smith didn't speak were any english ladies ever found to have lived in the place murdered you know bodies found and all that
young marsham asked diffidently yearning for an obvious completeness not that we could ever learn loder replied we made inquiries too so you all give it up
he walked to the door myself following him to get his hat and stick i heard him humming softly the lines they are from oft in the stilly night
read his books and there seemed good reason to suppose that if he steadily continued to turn out novels year by year a progressively increasing circle of readers would acquire
and demand his works from the libraries and bookstalls at the instigation of his publisher he had discarded the baptismal augustus and taken the front name of mark
women like a name that suggests some one strong and silent able but unwilling to answer questions augustus merely suggests idle splendour but such a name as mark mellowkent
besides being alliterative conjures up a vision of some one strong and beautiful and good
one morning in december augustus sat in his writing room at work on the third chapter of his eighth novel
what a rectory garden looks like in july he was now engaged in describing at greater length the feelings of a young girl daughter of a long line of rectors and archdeacons
their eyes met for a brief moment as he handed her two circulars and the fat wrapper bound bulk of the east essex news their eyes met
for the merest fraction of a second yet nothing could ever be quite the same again cost what it might she felt that she must speak must break the intolerable unreal silence that had fallen on them
how is your mother's rheumatism she said the author's labours were cut short by the sudden intrusion of a maidservant a gentleman to see you sir
said the maid handing a card with the name caiaphas dwelf inscribed on it says it's important
the importance of the visitor's mission was probably illusory but he had never met any one with the name caiaphas before it would be at least a new experience mister dwelf was a man of indefinite age
his high narrow forehead cold grey eyes and determined manner bespoke an unflinching purpose
he had a large book under his arm and there seemed every probability that he had left a package of similar volumes in the hall he took a seat before it had been offered him placed the book on the table and began to address mellowkent in the manner of an
open letter you are a literary man the author of several well known books i am engage on a book at the present moment rather busily engaged
exactly said the intruder time with you is a commodity of considerable importance minutes even have their value
that said caiaphas is why this book that i am introducing to your notice is not a book that you can afford to be without right here is indispensable for the writing man
it is no ordinary encyclopaedia or i should not trouble to show it to you it is an inexhaustible mine of concise information
on a shelf at my elbow said the author i have a row of reference books that supply me with all the information i am likely to require here persisted the would be salesman
you have it all in one compact volume no matter what the subject may be which you wish to look up or the fact you desire to verify right here gives you all that you want to know in the briefest and most enlightening form
historical reference for instance career of john huss let us say here we are huss john celebrated religious reformer born
observed mellowkent poultry keeping now resumed caiaphas that's a subject that might crop up in a novel dealing with english country life here we have all about it the leghorn as egg producer
lack of maternal instinct in the minorca
there you see there it all is nothing lacking except the maternal instinct in the minorca
sporting records that's important too now how many men sporting men even
there are at least four men in my club who can not only tell me what horse won in any given year but what horse ought to have won and why it didn't if your book could supply a method for protecting one from information of that sort
it would do more than anything you have yet claimed for it geography said caiaphas imperturbably that's a thing that a busy man writing at high pressure may easily make a slip over
only the other day a well known author made the volga flow into the black sea instead of the caspian now with this book on a polished rose wood stand behind you there reposes a reliable and up to date atlas
an atlas said caiaphas gives merely the chart of the river's course and indicates the principal towns that it passes now right here
gives you the scenery traffic ferry boat charges the prevalent types of fish boatmen's slang terms
as he sat doggedly in the chair wherein he had installed himself unflinchingly extolling the merits of his undesired wares a spirit of wistful emulation took possession of the author
why could he not live up to the cold stern name he had adopted why must he sit here weakly and listen to this weary unconvincing tirade why could he not be
and meet this man on level terms
have you read my last book the cageless linnet he asked i don't read novels said caiaphas tersely oh but you ought to read this one every one ought to
fishing the book down from a shelf published at six shillings you can have it at four and six there is a bit in chapter five that i feel sure you would like where emma is alone in the birch copse
waiting for harold huntingdon that is the man her family want her to marry she really wants to marry him too but she does not discover that till chapter fifteen listen
far as the eye could stretch rolled the mauve and purple billows of heather
and edged round with the delicate greys and silver and green of the young birch trees tiny blue and brown butterflies fluttered above the fronds of heather revelling in the sunlight and overhead
the larks were singing as only larks can sing it was a day when all nature in right here you have full information on all branches of nature study
broke in the bookagent with a tired note sounding in his voice for the first time forestry insect life bird migration reclamation of waste lands as i was saying no man who has to deal with the varied interests of life
i wonder if you would care for one of my earlier books the reluctance of lady cullumpton
hunting again through the bookshelf some people consider it my best novel ah here it is i see there are one or two spots on the cover so i won't ask more than three and ninepence for it do let me read you how it opens
beatrice lady cullumpton entered the long dimly lit drawing room her eyes blazing with a hope that she guessed to be groundless her lips trembling with a fear that she could not disguise
in her hand she carried a small fan a fragile toy of lace and satinwood something snapped as she entered the room she had crushed the fan into a dozen pieces
it tells you at once that there's something afoot i don't read novels said caiaphas sullenly but just think what a resource they are exclaimed the author
on long winter evenings or perhaps when you are laid up with a strained ankle a thing that might happen to any one
or if you were staying in a house party with persistent wet weather and a stupid hostess and insufferably dull fellow guests
you would just make an excuse that you had letters to write go to your room light a cigarette and for three and ninepence you could plunge into the society of beatrice lady cullumpton and her set
no one ought to travel without one or two of my novels in their luggage as a stand by
perhaps sensation is more in your line i wonder if i've got a copy of the python's kiss caiaphas did not wait to be tempted with selections from that thrilling work of fiction
most of the names had a pencil mark running through them what is like a chinese puzzle asked lena luddleford briskly she rather prided herself on being able to grapple with the minor problems of life
getting people suitably sorted together sir richard likes me to have a house party about this time of year and gives me a free hand as to whom i should invite
that seems reasonable enough said lena not only reasonable my dear but necessary sir richard has his literary work to think of
you can't expect a man to concentrate on the tribal disputes of central asian clansmen when he's got social feuds blazing under his own roof
but why should they blaze why should there be feuds at all within the compass of a house party exactly why should they blaze or why should they exist echoed lady prowche
the point is that they always do we have been unlucky persistently unlucky now that i come to look back on things we have always got people of violently opposed views under one roof
and the result has been not merely unpleasantness but explosion
asked lena no not that the broader lines of political or religious difference don't matter you can have church of england and unitarian and buddhist under the same roof without courting disaster
everybody but that was on account of his naturally squabblesome temperament it had nothing to do with his religion and i've always found that people can differ profoundly about politics and meet on
perfectly good terms at breakfast now miss larbor jones who was staying here last year worships lloyd george as a sort of wingless angel while missus walters who was down here at the same time
an antelope let us say an antelope well not an antelope exactly but something with horns and hoofs and tail oh i see
still that didn't prevent them from being the chummiest of mortals on the tennis court and in the billiard room
no account of judicious guest grouping could prevent
you were saying that there were other lines of demarcation that caused the bother interrupted lena exactly it is the minor differences and side issues that give so much trouble
said lady prowche not to my dying day shall i forget last year's upheaval over the suffragette question laura henniseed left the house in a state of speechless indignation
but before she had reached that state she had used language that would not have been tolerated in the austrian reichsrath intensive bear gardening was sir richard's description of the whole affair and i don't think he exaggerated
but one can generally find out beforehand what people's opinions my dear the year before it was worse it was christian science selina goobie is a sort of high priestess of the cult
and she put down all opposition with a high hand then one evening after dinner clovis sangrail put a wasp down her back
to see if her theory about the non existence of pain could be depended on in an emergency the wasp was small but very efficient
and it had been soured in temper by being kept in a paper cage all the afternoon wasps don't stand confinement well at least this one didn't i don't think i ever realised till that moment
he's engaged on a very important work this year isn't he asked lena land tenure in turkestan said lady prowche he is just at work on the final chapters and they require all the concentration he can give them
can't you find out anything about them about their opinions i mean anything my dear lena there's scarcely anything that i haven't found out about them
they're both of them moderate liberal evangelical mildly opposed to female suffrage
thank goodness in this country we don't fly into violent passions about wagner and brahms and things of that sort there is only one thorny subject that i haven't been able to make sure about
or do they both uphold the necessity for scientific experiment there has been a lot of correspondence on the subject in our local newspapers of late and the vicar is certain to preach a sermon about it
vicars are dreadfully provocative at times now if you could only find out for me whether these two men are divergently for or against
still you might discover in some roundabout way
one or other cause or better still send a stamped type written reply postcard with a request for a declaration for or against vivisection
people who would hesitate to commit themselves to a subscription will cheerfully write yes or no on a prepaid postcard
i think milly occasionally has one or other of them at her at homes you might have the luck to meet both of them there the same evening
only it must be done soon my invitations ought to go out by wednesday or thursday at the latest and to day is friday
and one never gets a chance of talking uninterruptedly to any one for a couple of minutes at a time milly is one of those restless hostesses who
always seem to be trying to see how you look in different parts of the room in fresh grouping effects even if i got to speak to popham or atkinson i couldn't plunge into a topic like vivisection straight away
i think the postcard scheme would be more hopeful and decidedly less tiresome how would it be best to word them oh something like this
are you in favour of experiments on living animals for the purpose of scientific research yes or no that is quite simple and unmistakable if they don't answer it will at least be an indication that they are
indifferent about the subject and that is all i want to know
i'll get my brother in law to let me have them addressed to his office and he can telephone the result of the plebiscite direct to you thank you ever so much said lady prowche gratefully
and be sure to get the cards sent off as soon as possible on the following tuesday the voice of an office clerk speaking through the telephone informed lady prowche that
the postcard poll showed unanimous hostility to experiments on living animals lady prowche thanked the office clerk and in a louder and more fervent voice she thanked heaven
the two invitations already sealed and addressed were immediately dispatched in due course they were both accepted the house party of the halcyon hours as the prospective hostess called it was auspiciously launched
lena luddleford was not included among the guests having previously committed herself to another invitation
she wore the air of one who is not interested in cricket and not particularly interested in life she shook hands limply with lena and remarked that it was a beastly day
how has it gone off asked lena quickly don't speak of it was the tragical answer
awful hyaenas could not have behaved with greater savagery sir richard said so and he has been in countries where hyaenas live so he ought to know they actually came to blows
i never felt so humiliated in my life what the servants must have thought but who were the offenders oh naturally the very two that we took all the trouble about
i thought they agreed on every subject that one could violently disagree about religion politics vivisection the derby decision the falconer report what else was there left to quarrel about
after all i had passed through during the preceding twenty four hours then to be suddenly cast from the outer darkness into a hole as light as if illuminated by the mid day sun was a revelation
that caused me to seriously doubt my own senses but having spent a life of travel and adventure in which i had faced many unexpected dangers and inexplicable sights
i soon regained my normal presence of mind and began to look around with considerable interest i was now fully convinced
that the great pile of stone which i had so strangely reached had at one time formed a gigantic structure moulded together by human ingenuity the enclosure i found myself within
might have been a hallway of the edifice but it was hard to positively distinguish it as such for the building in falling had placed things in an almost unrecognizable condition some of the great stones from above
had passed through the ceiling and floor while others had become wedged together before reaching the surface thus forming a very ragged and peculiar aperture in places where there were no obstructions
i noticed a beautiful white marble floor
the space i found myself in was too irregular in its outlines to form an adequate idea of what it might have been used for in some places i had to stoop to pass along
while in others i was forced to climb over great blocks of stone after being in this passage about half an hour making an inspection of the premises i discovered
a small opening which led into another apartment it appeared that a great door had separated the two rooms but had apparently become broken with the fall of the building and left a space barely wide enough for my body to pass through
so in i went or out i went i was not quite sure which for after squeezing through the doorway a scene presented itself to my astonished gaze
that i must confess my inability to properly describe the view before me was a mammoth park with its variety of trees flowers and shrubbery of every possible description
straight ahead in the distance and plainly discernible was a running brook which flowed along in a devious course and emptied into a lake far beyond and there in all its majesty was the sun
just sinking behind the horizon its brilliant radiance forming the most beautiful effects of colorization upon the distant clouds it has ever been my good fortune to behold i stood
in motionless reverence for several minutes as my mind expanded with wonder at the magnificent panorama while my nostrils inhaled
a most delicious fragrance from the innumerable plants which seemed to put new life into my enervated body what strange phenomena is this i soliloquized
on the outside of the earth the sun had gone down and darkness prevailed while down here in under its crust i found it blazing away in all its splendor in fact it seemed
that an entirely new world had suddenly been thrown in front of me was i really alive or had i passed into some other world was the next question to enter my mind
i remembered that i had fallen a considerable distance into this strange place and was somewhat stunned in the tumble
perhaps thought i my body is still lying somewhere among the rocks above while this is only my spirit wandering about in a fanciful manner but no
looking downward i plainly saw my massive frame dressed in sailor's clothes just as i had left the ship and i was positive of being alive awake and in my right senses
and the wonders multiplied
i observed a marble platform elevated about two feet from the ground in the midst of huge flower beds and shaded by large trees upon which sat a number of men silent and motionless
with various musical instruments in their hands as if they had just finished playing and were taking a short rest these instruments were of an entirely different pattern from any i had ever seen and the men
as i saw them what an imposing noble looking lot they were they were all about the same size and not one of them could have been less than eight feet in height in looking at them closely
i noticed that they possessed most magnificent physiques
they were neither fat nor lean and their well groomed bodies showed plainly that no horse or piece of machinery ever received better care or attention while they appeared to be from thirty to forty years in ages
not one of them wore a mustache beard or any other shaggy decoration of the face their foreheads were broad and massive and extended to the center of their splendidly shaped craniums extraordinary intelligence
kindness and gentleness showed forth from every feature of their handsome countenances judging from their well proportioned frames each one looked powerful enough to battle single handed with an elephant
judging from their faces not one of them would have hurt a flea each man appeared to be buried in the depth of thought serious thought notwithstanding every physiognomy plainly showed
that the utmost happiness and contentment existed within each and good will between all of them
hands and feet was as white as snow transparent and backed by a beautiful pink at first sight
uniformly clothed in closely fitting garments from the ankles to the neck their superb forms showed complete symmetrical perfection the hue of their raiment was indescribable for i
had never seen the like before in fact the colors actually appeared to change before my steady gaze their feet were bare very shapely and the toes of greater length than ordinarily
as i stood rooted to the ground and viewed them with intense admiration i wondered why they did not speak or take notice of my presence
i shouted hello my voice sounded rather harsh and peculiar on this occasion and was more like the bray of an ass than anything else but they made no motion as if they heard me or were aware of my existence
walking over to the nearest one i reached up and touched him on the shoulder then i sprang back in amazement for instead of giving any sign of recognition he merely placed his instrument in position as did all the others
and with slow graceful movements began to play the first strains of music
although distinct and supernaturally grand seemed to be miles away but gradually increased in sound as if coming nearer and nearer at the same time i observed that the musicians
who were not only using both hands in the manipulation of their instruments but with graceful dexterity their feet as well were becoming enthusiastic and appeared to throw their very lives and souls into the work if
at first while inactive they appeared to be extraordinarily intellectual beings now in action they looked divine their eyes blazed like miniature suns shooting forth sparks of a thousand different hues
it seemed as if the very music itself came from the expression of their faces and on on on came the intoxicating strains increasing in volume and excellence until i imagined
that all heaven had broken loose in one great effort to charm my feeble senses and then with a thunderous climax it ceased instantly the musicians smiled and bowed pleasantly to one another and then
resumed their former attitudes no mortal's pen could describe my ecstasy while listening to the music produced by this body of i must say heavenly creatures
there was something strange and analogous about it too that seemed to recall a mysterious dream or vision i had once passed through whether it was caused by
the music or the kindly expressions of love for one another on the faces of the players i know not but nevertheless great tears spontaneously rolled down my cheeks
the first i ever recollect having shed and at the conclusion of the piece i remained transfixed to the spot for several minutes in deep cogitation once more however
my inquiring nature aroused me and i walked over toward the leader his face was turned slightly in another direction so i decided to step up on the platform get squarely in front of him
and look straight into his eyes so with a light movement i sprang for the rostrum but instead of reaching it my foot and head struck not the platform but solid wall
and a second later i found myself in a heap on the ground
on his lips the time worn question asked by countless other minds back from that mysterious land of delirium where am i susan sprang to her feet then dropped on her knees at the bedside in your own bed honey is that
susan no wonder he asked the question whenever before had susan talked like that sure it's susan but i can't see you or anything
then covered his eyes with them i know now i know it's come it's come i am blind there there honey don't please don't you'll break susan's heart an you're so much better now better yes
you've been sick very sick how long oh several weeks it's october now and i've been blind all that time yes but i haven't known i was blind no i want to go back
where i didn't know again nonsense keith susan was beginning to talk more like herself go back to be sick of course you don't want to go back an be sick listen don't you worry an don't you fret somethin better is comin yet somethin fine what'll you bet
it's jest the thing you're wantin ter get come come we're goin to have you up an out in no time now boy i don't want to be up and out i'm blind susan an there's your dad he'll be mighty glad to know you're better i'll call him no no susan don't
don't call him he won't want to see me nobody will want to see me now i'm blind susan blind shucks everybody will want to see you so's to see how splendid you are even if you are blind now don't talk any more please don't there's a good boy
you're gettin yourself all worked up an then oh my how that nurse will scold i shan't be splendid moaned the boy i shan't be anything now i shan't be jerry or ned or dad
and i'll be pointed at everywhere and they'll whisper and look and stare and say he's blind he's blind he's blind i tell you susan i can't stand it i can't i can't i want to go back i want to go back to where i didn't know
the nurse came in then and of course susan was banished in disgrace of course too keith was almost in hysterics and his fever had gone away up again he still talked in a high shrill voice
and still thrashed his arms wildly about till the little white powder the nurse gave him got in its blessed work and then he slept keith was entirely conscious the next day when susan came in to sit with him while the nurse took her rest
but it was a very different keith it was a weary spent nerveless keith that lay back on the pillow with scarcely so much as the flutter of an eyelid to show life is there anything i can get you keith she asked
only a faint shake of the head answered her the doctor says you're lots better keith there was no sort of reply to this and for another long minute susan sat tense and motionless watching the boy's face
then with almost a guilty look over her shoulder she stammered keith i don't want you to talk to me but i do wish you'd just speak to me but keith only shook his head again faintly and turned his face away to the wall
by and by the nurse came in and susan left the room she went straight to the kitchen and she did not so much as look toward keith's father whom she met in the hall in the kitchen susan caught up a cloth and vigorously began to polish a brass faucet
the faucet was already a marvel of brightness but perhaps susan could not see that one cannot always see clearly through tears keith was like this every day after that when susan came in to sit with him silent
listless seemingly devoid of life yet the doctor declared that physically the boy was practically well and the nurse was going at the end of the week on the last day of the nurse's stay susan accosted her in the hall somewhat abruptly
is it true that by an by there could be an operator on that boy's eyes oper er oh operation yes there might be if he could only get strong enough to stand it but it might not be successful even then but there's a chance
yes there's a chance i s'pose it it would be mighty expulsive though expulsive the young woman frowned slightly then suddenly she smiled
that evening susan sought her employer in the studio daniel burton spent all his waking hours in the studio now the woods and fields were nothing but a barren desert of loneliness to daniel burton without keith the very poise of susan's head
spelt aggressive determination as she entered the studio and daniel burton shifted uneasily in his chair as he faced her nor did he fail to note that she carried some folded papers in her hand yes yes susan i know
those bills are due and past due he cried nervously before susan could speak and i hoped to have the money both for them and for your wages long before this but
an't ain't wages it's it's somethin else somethin very importune there was a subdued excitement in susan's face and manner that was puzzling yet most promising
unconsciously daniel burton sat a little straighter and lifted his chin though his eyes were smiling something else yes it's poetry
it was as if a bubble had been pricked leaving nothing but empty air but you don't know you don't understand yet pleaded susan unerringly reading the disappointment in her employer's face it's to sell to get some money you know for the operator on the poor lamb's eyes
i i wanted to help some way an this is real poetry truly it is not the immaculate kind that i jest dash off i've worked an worked over this an i'm jest sure it'll sell it's got to sell mister burton we've jest got to have that money an now i i want to read em to you
can't i please and this from susan this palpitating pleading please daniel burton with a helpless gesture that expressed embarrassment dismay bewilderment and resignation threw up both hands and settled back in his chair
read them he muttered as clearly as he could considering the tightness that had come into his throat and susan read this spring oh gentle spring i love thy rills i love thy wooden rocky rills
i love thy budsome beauty but oh i hate o'er anything thy mud an slush oh gentle spring when rubbers are a duty that's the shortest the other is longer explained susan
still the extraordinary palpitating susan with the shining pleading eyes yes go on
i called this them things that plague said susan an it's really true too don't you know things do plague worse nights when you can't sleep an you get to thinkin an thinkin well that's what made me write this
and she began to read them things that plague they come at night them things that plague an gather round my bed they cluster thick about the foot an lean on top the head
they like the dark them things that plague for then they can be great they loom like doom from out the gloom an shriek i am your fate but after all them things that plague are cowards say not you
to strike a man when he is down an in the darkness too for if you'll watch them things that plague till comin of the dawn you'll find when once you're on your feet them things that plague are gone
there ain't that true every word of it she demanded an there ain't hardly any poem license in it too i think they're a ways lots better when there ain't but sometimes of course you jest have to use it
susan was still breathless still shining eyed a strange exotic susan that daniel burton had never seen before i've heard that writers some writers get lots of money mister burton an i can write more lots more
why when i get to goin they jest come autocratically poems do without any thinkin at all an' but how much do you think i ought to get get good heavens woman
daniel burton was on his feet now trying to shake off the conflicting emotions that were all but paralyzing him why you can't get anything for those da just in time he pulled himself up at that moment too he saw susan's face he sat down limply
susan he cleared his throat and began again he tried to speak clearly judiciously kindly susan i'm afraid that is i'm not sure oh hang it all woman he was on his feet now
send them if you want to but don't blame me for the consequences and with a gesture as of flinging the whole thing far from him he turned his back and walked away you mean
only a shrug of the back turned shoulders answered her but mister burton we we've got to have the money for that operator an anyhow i i mean to try with a quick indrawing of her breath she turned abruptly and left the studio
that evening in her own room susan pored over the two inexpensive magazines that came to the house
as she worked she began to look more cheerful both the magazines published poems and if they published one poem they would another of course especially if the poem were a better one and susan could not help feeling that they were better those poems of hers
than almost any she saw there in print before her there was some sense to her poems while those others why some of them didn't mean anything not anything and they didn't even rhyme with real hope and courage therefore
susan laboriously copied off the addresses of the two magazines directed two envelopes
that done she copied the letter word for word except for the title of the poem submitted it was a long letter susan told first of keith and his misfortune and the imperative need of money for the operation
then she told something of herself and of her habit of turning everything into rhyme for she felt it due to them she said that they know something of the person with whom they were dealing she touched again on the poverty of the household
and let it plainly be seen that she had high hopes of the money these poems were going to bring she did not set a price she would leave that to their own indiscretion she said in closing it was midnight before susan had copied this letter and prepared the two manuscripts for mailing
then tired but happy she went to bed it was the next day that the nurse went and that missus colebrook came the doctor said that keith might be dressed now any day that he should be dressed in fact and begin to take some exercise
he had already sat up in a chair every day for a week and he was in no further need of medicine except a tonic to build him up in fact all efforts now should be turned toward building him up the doctor said that was what he needed
all this the nurse mentioned to mister burton and to susan as she was leaving she went away at two o'clock and missus colebrook was not to come until half past five at one minute past two susan crept to the door of keith's room and pushed it open softly
the boy his face to the wall lay motionless but he was not asleep susan knew that for she had heard his voice not five minutes before bidding the nurse good bye for one brief moment susan hesitated then briskly she stepped into the room with a cheery
well keith here we are just ourselves together the nurse is gone an i am on how do you like the weather yes i know she said she was going the boy spoke listlessly wearily without turning his head
keith stirred restlessly i was up this morning ho susan tossed her head disdainfully i don't mean that way i mean up really up with your clothes on the boy shook his head again i couldn't i i'm too tired
nonsense a great boy like you bein too tired to get up why keith it'll do you good you'll feel lots better when you're up an dressed like folks again the boy gave a sudden cry that's just it susan don't you see i'll never be like folks again
nonsense jest as if a little thing like bein blind was goin to keep you from bein like folks again susan was speaking very loudly very cheerfully though with first one hand then the other she was brushing away the hot tears that were rolling down her cheeks why keith
you're goin to be better than folks jest common folks you're goin to do the most wonderful things that but i can't i'm blind i tell you cut in the boy i can't do anything now but you can an you're goin to insisted susan again you jest wait till i tell you
but you can't do it jest lyin abed there in that lazy fashion come i'm goin to get your clothes an put em right on this chair here by the bed then i'm goin to give you twenty minutes to get into em i shan't give you but fifteen tomorrow
susan was moving swiftly around the room now opening closet doors and bureau drawers no no susan i can't get up moaned the boy turning his face back to the wall i can't i can't yes you can now listen they're all here everything you need
on these two chairs by the bed but how can i dress me when i can't see a thing
but i do know an that's the funny part of it keith she cried listen
you'd never guess in a million years so i'm goin to tell you for the last three mornin's she's tied up her eyes with a handkerchief an then dressed herself jest to make sure it could be done you know susan did you really for the first time a faint trace of interest came into the boy's face
sure i did an keith it was great fun really jest to see how smart i could be doin it an i timed myself too it took me twenty five minutes the first time dear dear but i was clumsy but i can do it lots quicker now though i don't believe i'll ever do it as quick as you will
do you think i could do it really i know you could i could try faltered keith dubiously you ain't goin to try you're goin to do it declared susan now listen i'm goin out but in jest twenty minutes i'm comin back
i i shall be ashamed of you if you ain't and without another glance at the boy and before he could possibly protest susan hurried from the room her head was still high and her voice still determinedly clear but in the hall outside the bedroom
susan burst into such a storm of sobs that she had to hurry to the kitchen and shut herself in the pantry lest they be heard later
she came out into the kitchen and looked at the clock an i've been in there five minutes i'll bet ye over that fool cry in she stormed hotly to herself great one i am to take care of that boy if i can't control myself better than this at the end of what she deemed to be twenty minutes
and after a fruitless puttering about the kitchen susan marched determinedly upstairs to keith's room at the door she did hesitate a breathless minute then resolutely she pushed it open the boy fully dressed stood by the bed
his face was alight almost eager i did it i did it susan and if it hasn't been more than twenty minutes i did it sooner than you susan tried to speak but the tears were again chasing each other down her cheeks
susan the boy put out his hand gropingly turning his head with the pitiful uncertainty of the blind susan you are there aren't you
here sure i'm here but so dumb with amazement an admiration that i couldn't open my head to see you standin there all dressed like that what did i tell you i knew you could do it now come let's go see dad she was at his side now her arm linked into his but the boy drew back
you know he he doesn't like to see disagreeable things disagreeable things indeed exploded susan her features working again well i guess if he calls it disagreeable to see his son dressed up an walkin around but keith interrupted her once more with an even stronger protest
and susan was forced to content herself with leading her charge out on to the broad veranda that ran across the entire front of the house there they walked back and forth back and forth she was glad afterward that this was all she did
for at the far end of the veranda daniel burton stepped out from a door and stood for a moment watching them but it was for only a moment and when she begged mutely for him to come forward and speak he shook his head fiercely covered his eyes with his hand and plunged back into the house
what was that susan what was that demanded the boy nothin child nothin only a door shuttin somewhere or a window at that moment a girl's voice caroled shrilly from the street hullo keith how do you do we're awfully glad to see you out again
the boy started violently but did not turn his head except to susan
keith it's mazie mazie and dorothy caroled the high pitched voice again but keith with a tug so imperative that susan had no choice but to obey turned his head quite away as he groped for the door to go in in the hall he drew a choking breath susan
i don't want to go out there to walk any more not any more i don't want to go anywhere where anybody'll see me shucks susan's voice was harshly unsteady again see you indeed why we're goin to be so proud of you we'll want the whole world to see you
you jest wait an see the fate that i've cut out for you we'll be so proud we'll laugh aloud an you'll be laughin too i made that up last night when i laid awake thinkin of all the fine things we was goin to have you do
but keith only shook his head again and complained of feeling oh so tired and susan looking at his pale constrained face did not quote any more poetry to him or talk about the glorious future in store for him
wherein the limberlost falls upon missus duncan and freckles comes to the rescue freckles was halfway to the limberlost when he dismounted he could ride no farther because he could not see the road
he sat under a tree and leaning against it sobs shook twisted and rent him if they would remind him of his position speak condescendingly or notice his hand he could endure it but this
his hot pulsing irish blood was stirred deeply what did they mean why did they do it were they like that to everyone was it pity it could not be
in spite of accident and poverty they evidently expected him to do something worth while in the world that must be his remedy he must work on his education he must get away
mc lean and the duncans spoke of him as the boy but he was a man he must face life bravely and act a man's part the angel was a mere child he must not allow her to torture him past endurance with her frank comradeship that meant to him high heaven earth's richness
and all that lay between and nothing to her there was an ominous growl of thunder and amazed at himself freckles snatched up his wheel and raced toward the swamp he was worried to find his boots lying at the cabin door
the children playing on the woodpile told him that mither said they were so heavy she couldn't walk in them and she had come back and taken them off thoroughly frightened he stopped only long enough to slip them on and then sped with all his strength for the limberlost
to the west the long black hard beaten trail lay clear but far up the east side straight across the path he could see what was certainly a limp brown figure freckles spun with all his might
face down sarah duncan lay across the trail when freckles turned her over his blood chilled at the look of horror settled on her face there was a low humming and something spatted against him glancing around freckles shivered in terror
the air was filled with excited unsettled bees making ready to lead farther in search of a suitable location then he thought he understood and with a prayer of thankfulness in his heart that she had escaped even so narrowly he caught her up and hurried down the trail until they were well out of danger
but she lay in unbroken stillness without a sign of life she had found freckles boots so large and heavy that she had gone back and taken them off
she was not freckles so not a bird of the line was going to be fooled into thinking she was
before freckles was halfway to the town poor missus duncan was hysterical and the limberlost had neither sung nor performed for her but there was trouble brewing it was quiet and intensely hot with that stifling stillness that precedes a summer storm
and feathers and fur were tense and nervous the birds were singing only a few broken snatches and flying around seeking places of shelter one moment everything seemed devoid of life the next there was an unexpected whir buzz and sharp cry
inside a pandemonium of growling spatting snarling and grunting broke loose
patches of clouds gathered shutting out the sun and making it very dark and the next moment were swept away the sun poured with fierce burning brightness and everything was quiet it was at the first growl of thunder that freckles really had noticed the weather
and putting his own troubles aside resolutely raced for the swamp sarah duncan paused on the line weel i wouldna stay in this place for a million a month she said aloud
awfu hot she panted huskily b'lieve there's going to be a big storm i do hope freckles will hurry her chin was quivering as a terrified child's she lifted her bonnet to replace it and brushed against a bush beside her
missus duncan cried out and sprang down the trail alighting on a frog that was hopping across
she screamed wildly and jumped to one side
she caught at the wire as she went down and missing raked her wrist across a barb until she tore a bleeding gash her fingers closed convulsively around the second strand she was too frightened to scream now her tongue stiffened
she clung frantically to the sagging wire and finally managed to grasp it with the other hand then she could reach the top wire and so she drew herself up and found solid footing she picked up the club that she had dropped in order to extricate herself
but she was trembling so that she scarcely could walk going a few steps farther she came to the stump of the first tree that had been taken out she sat bolt upright and very still trying to collect her thoughts and reason away her terror
a squirrel above her dropped a nut and as it came rattling down bouncing from branch to branch every nerve in her tugged wildly when the disgusted squirrel barked loudly she sprang to the trail the wind arose higher the changes from light to darkness were more abrupt
for freckles find out frog fell into trouble with a muskrat and uttered a rasping note that sent missus duncan a rod down the line without realizing that she had moved she was too shaken to run far she stopped and looked around her fearfully
several bees struck her and were angrily buzzing before she noticed them then the humming swelled on all sides a convulsive sob shook her and she ran into the bushes now into the swale
presently the humming seemed to become a little fainter she found the trail again and ran with all her might from a few of her angry pursuers as she ran straining every muscle she suddenly became aware that crossing the trail before her
was a big round black body with brown markings on its back like painted geometrical patterns
gathering her skirts higher with hair flying around her face and her eyes almost bursting from their sockets she ran straight toward it the sound of her feet and the humming of the bees alarmed the rattler so it stopped across the trail
lifting its head above the grasses of the swale and rattling inquiringly rattled until the bees were outdone straight toward it went the panic stricken woman running wildly and uncontrollably she took one leap clearing its body on the path then flew ahead with winged feet
the snake coiled to strike missed missus duncan and landed among the bees instead they settled over and around it and realizing that it had found trouble
the mass of enraged bees darted angrily around searching for it and striking the scrub thorn began a temporary settling there to discover whether it were a suitable place completely exhausted missus duncan staggered on a few steps farther
fell facing the path where freckles found her and lay quietly freckles worked over her until she drew a long quivering breath and opened her eyes
he helped her and with his arm around and half carrying her they made their way to the clearing she clung to him with all her remaining strength but open her eyes she would not until her children came clustering around her then
brawny big scotswoman though she was she quietly keeled over again the children added their wailing to freckles panic
they bathed and bound the bleeding wrist and coaxed her back to consciousness she lay sobbing and shuddering the first intelligent word she said was freckles look at that jar on the kitchen table and see if my yeast is no running ower
even then she could not do it without crying as the least of her babies freckles was almost heartbroken and nursed her as well as any woman could have done while big duncan with a heart full for them both
she could not rest until she sent for mc lean and begged him to save freckles from further risk in that place of horrors the boss went to the swamp with his mind fully determined to do so
why mister mc lean don't you let a woman's nervous system set you worrying about me he said i'm not denying how she felt because i've been through it meself but that's all over and gone it's the height of me glory to fight it out with the old swamp and all that's in it or will be coming to it
and then to turn it over to you as i promised you and meself i'd do sir you couldn't break the heart of me entire quicker than to be taking it from me now when i'm just on the home stretch it won't be over three or four weeks yet and when i've gone it almost a year why what's that to me sir
you mustn't let a woman get mixed up with business for i've always heard about how it's bringing trouble mc lean smiled what about that last tree he said freckles blushed and grinned appreciatively
chapter eighteen the finger prints tarling his hands thrust into his pockets his chin dropped his shoulders bent slowly walked the broad pavement of the edgware road
on his way from the girl's hotel to his flat he dismissed with good reason the not unimportant fact that he himself was suspect he a comparatively unknown detective from shanghai was by reason of his relationship to thornton lyne
and even more so because his own revolver had been found on the scene of the tragedy the object of some suspicion on the part of the higher authorities who certainly would not pooh pooh the suggestion that he was innocent of any association with the crime
because he happened to be engaged in the case he knew that the whole complex machinery of scotland yard was working and working at top speed to implicate him in the tragedy silent and invisible though that work may be
it would nevertheless be sure he smiled a little and shrugged himself from the category of the suspected
that thornton lyne had loved her he did not for one moment imagine thornton lyne was not the kind of man who loved rather had he desired and very few women had thwarted him
tarling only knew of the scene which had occurred between lyne and the girl on the day he had been called in but there must have been many other painful interviews painful for the girl humiliating for the dead millionaire anyway he thought thankfully it would not be odette
he could rule her out because obviously she could not be in two places at once when thornton lyne was discovered in hyde park with odette rider's night dress round about his wound
but what of milburgh that suave and oily man tarling recalled the fact that he had been sent for by his dead relative to inquire into milburgh's mode of living and that milburgh was under suspicion of having robbed the firm
suppose milburgh had committed the crime suppose to hide his defalcations
because the death of thornton lyne would be more likely to precipitate the discovery of the manager's embezzlements
milburgh himself was not unmindful of this argument in his favour as was to be revealed as against this tarling thought it was notorious that criminals did foolish things
they took little or no account of the immediate consequences of their act and a man like milburgh in his desperation might in his very frenzy overlook the possibility of his crime coming to light
he had reached the bottom of edgware road and was turning the corner of the street looking across to the marble arch
i was just coming to see you he said i thought your interview with the young lady would be longer just wait a moment till i've paid the cabman by the way i saw your chink servant and gather you sent him to the yard on a spoof errand
when he returned he met tarling's eye and grinned sympathetically i know what's in your mind he said frankly but really the chief thinks it no more than an extraordinary coincidence
tarling nodded and can you discover how it came to be in the possession of he paused the murderer of thornton lyne
in fact it's hardly so much a theory as an hypothesis whiteside grinned again
the press cuttings descriptive of the late mister lyne's conduct in shanghai
i've heard about your ling chu he's a pretty good policeman isn't he the best in china said tarling promptly but i'm not going to pretend that i understand his mind these are the facts the revolver or rather the pistol was in my cupboard
and the only person who could get at it was ling chu there is the second and more important fact imputing motive that ling chu had every reason to hate thornton lyne the man who had indirectly been responsible for his sister's death
and i now recall that ling chu was unusually silent after he had seen lyne he has admitted to me that he has been to lyne's store
we happened to be discussing the possibility of miss rider committing the murder and ling chu told me that miss rider could not drive a motor car and when i questioned him as to how he knew this he told me that he had made several inquiries at the store this i knew nothing about
here is another curious fact tarling went on i have always been under the impression that ling chu did not speak english
i'll put a couple of men on to watch him said whiteside
i tell you he is a better sleuth than any you have got at scotland yard
leave ling chu to me i know the way to deal with him he added grimly the little daffodil said whiteside thoughtfully repeating the phrase which tarling had quoted
by jove it's something more than a coincidence don't you think tarling
there is no such word as daffodil in chinese in fact i am not so certain that the daffodil is a native of china at all though china's a mighty big place strictly speaking the girl was called the little narcissus
is murdered whilst her brother is in london they had crossed the broad roadway as they were speaking and had passed into hyde park tarling thought whimsically that this open space exercised the same attraction on him as it did upon mister milburgh
what were you going to see me about he asked suddenly remembering that whiteside had been on his way to the hotel when they had met i wanted to give you the last report about milburgh milburgh again
but what whiteside had to tell was not especially thrilling milburgh had been shadowed day and night and the record of his doings was a very prosaic one but it is out of prosaic happenings that big clues are born
what makes you say that asked tarling well replied whiteside he has been buying ledgers and tarling laughed that doesn't seem to be a very offensive proceeding he said good humouredly
what sort of ledgers those heavy things which are used in big offices you know the sort of thing that it takes one man all his time to lift he bought three at roebuck's in city road and took them to his house by taxi
now my theory said whiteside earnestly is that this fellow is no ordinary criminal if he is a criminal at all it may be that he has been keeping a duplicate set of books
and it is more than possible that your first theory was right namely that he contemplates either going with another firm or starting a new business of his own the second supposition is more likely anyway it is no crime to own a ledger or even three
by the way when did he buy these books yesterday said whiteside early in the morning before lyne's opened how did your interview with miss rider go off tarling shrugged his shoulders
and realised just how big a fool he was in allowing her sweetness to drug him
tarling nodded who
and drew forth the two cards bearing the finger impressions he had taken of odette rider it required more than an ordinary effort of will to do this
here are the impressions you wanted he said will you take them whiteside took the cards with a nod and examined the inky smudges and all the time tarling's heart stood still
for inspector whiteside was the recognised authority of the police intelligence department on finger prints and their characteristics the survey was a long one tarling remembered the scene for years afterwards the sunlit path
the straggling idlers the carriages pursuing their leisurely way along the walks
which is rather extraordinary very interesting well asked tarling impatiently almost savagely interesting
chapter six the parsonage again for a few months i remained peaceably at home in the quiet enjoyment of liberty and rest and genuine friendship from all of which i had fasted so long
and in the earnest prosecution of my studies to recover what i had lost during my stay at wellwood house and to lay in new stores for future use my father's health was still very infirm but not materially worse than when i last saw him
and i was glad i had it in my power to cheer him by my return and to amuse him with singing his favourite songs no one triumphed over my failure or said i had better have taken his or her advice and quietly stayed at home
all were glad to have me back again and lavished more kindness than ever upon me to make up for the sufferings i had undergone but not one would touch a shilling of what i had so cheerfully earned and so carefully saved
in the hope of sharing it with them by dint of pinching here and scraping there our debts were already nearly paid mary had had good success with her drawings but our father had insisted upon her likewise
keeping all the produce of her industry to herself all we could spare from the supply of our humble wardrobe and our little casual expenses he directed us to put into the savings' bank saying
we knew not how soon we might be dependent on that alone for support for he felt he had not long to be with us and what would become of our mother and us when he was gone god only knew dear papa
i am convinced that dreaded event would not have taken place so soon my mother would never suffer him to ponder on the subject if she could help it oh richard exclaimed she on one occasion if you would but dismiss such gloomy subjects from your mind
you would live as long as any of us at least you would live to see the girls married and yourself a happy grandfather with a canty old dame for your companion my mother laughed and so did my father but his laugh soon perished in a dreary sigh
they married poor penniless things said he who will take them i wonder why nobody shall that isn't thankful for them wasn't i penniless when you took me
and you pretended at least to be vastly pleased with your acquisition but it's no matter whether they get married or not we can devise a thousand honest ways of making a livelihood and i wonder richard you can think of bothering your head about our poverty
in case of your death as if that would be anything compared with the calamity of losing you an affliction that you well know would swallow up all others and which you ought to do your utmost to preserve us from and there is nothing like a cheerful mind for keeping the body in health
i know alice it is wrong to keep repining as i do but i cannot help it you must bear with me i won't bear with you if i can alter you replied my mother
but the harshness of her words was undone by the earnest affection of her tone and pleasant smile that made my father smile again less sadly and less transiently than was his wont
my money is but little and cannot last long if i could increase it it would lessen papa's anxiety on one subject at least i cannot draw like mary and so the best thing i could do would be to look out for another situation and so you would actually try again agnes
some are worse interrupted my mother but not many i think replied i and i'm sure all children are not like theirs for i and mary were not we always did as you bid us didn't we generally
but then i did not spoil you and you were not perfect angels after all mary had a fund of quiet obstinacy and you were somewhat faulty in regard to temper but you were very good children on the whole
for then i could have understood them but they never were for they could not be offended nor hurt nor ashamed they could not be unhappy in any way except when they were in a passion well if they could not it was not their fault
you cannot expect stone to be as pliable as clay no but still it is very unpleasant to live with such unimpressible incomprehensible creatures you cannot love them and if you could your love would be utterly thrown away
they could neither return it nor value nor understand it but however
and the end and aim of this preamble is let me try again well my girl you are not easily discouraged i see i am glad of that but let me tell you you are a good deal paler and thinner than when you first left home
either for yourself or others
for i was in a constant state of agitation and anxiety all day long but next time i am determined to take things coolly after some further discussion my mother promised once more to assist me provided i would wait and be patient
and i left her to broach the matter to my father when and how she deemed it most advisable never doubting her ability to obtain his consent meantime i searched with great interest the advertising columns of the newspapers
wanted a governess that appeared at all eligible but all my letters as well as the replies when i got any were dutifully shown to my mother and she to my chagrin made me reject the situations one after another
these were low people these were too exacting in their demands and these too niggardly in their remuneration your talents are not such as every poor clergyman's daughter possesses agnes she would say and you must not throw them away
you have plenty of time before you and may have many chances yet at length she advised me to put an advertisement myself in the paper
french latin and german said she are no mean assemblage many will be glad to have so much in one instructor and this time you shall try your fortune in a somewhat higher family
for such are far more likely to treat you with proper respect and consideration than those purse proud tradespeople and arrogant upstarts i have known several among the higher ranks who treated their governesses quite as one of the family
though some i allow are as insolent and exacting as any one else can be for there are bad and good in all classes the advertisement was quickly written and despatched of the two parties who answered it
but one would consent to give me fifty pounds the sum my mother bade me name as the salary i should require and here i hesitated about engaging myself as i feared the children would be too old and their parents would require some one more showy
or more experienced if not more accomplished than i but my mother dissuaded me from declining it on that account i should do vastly well she said if i would only throw aside my diffidence and acquire a little more confidence in myself
i was just to give a plain true statement of my acquirements and qualifications and name what stipulations i chose to make and then await the result the only stipulation i ventured to propose
was that i might be allowed two months holidays during the year to visit my friends at midsummer and christmas the unknown lady in her reply made no objection to this and stated that as to my acquirements she had no doubt i should be able to give satisfaction
but in the engagement of governesses she considered those things as but subordinate points as being situated in the neighbourhood of o she could get masters to supply any deficiencies in that respect but in her opinion
next to unimpeachable morality a mild and cheerful temper and obliging disposition were the most essential requisities my mother did not relish this at all and now made many objections to my accepting the situation
in which my sister warmly supported her but unwilling to be balked again i overruled them all and having first obtained the consent of my father who had a short time previously been apprised of these transactions
i wrote a most obliging epistle to my unknown correspondent and finally the bargain was concluded it was decreed that on the last day of january i was to enter upon my new office as governess in the family of mister murray
of horton lodge near o about seventy miles from our village a formidable distance to me as i had never been above twenty miles from home in all the course of my twenty years sojourn on earth and as moreover
every individual in that family and in the neighbourhood was utterly unknown to myself and all my acquaintances but this rendered it only the more piquant to me i had now in some measure
there was a pleasing excitement in the idea of entering these unknown regions and making my way alone among its strange inhabitants i now flattered myself i was going to see something in the world mister murray's residence was near a large town
his rank from what i could gather appeared to be higher than that of mister bloomfield and doubtless he was one of those genuine thoroughbred gentry my mother spoke of who would treat his governess with due consideration as a respectable well educated lady
the instructor and guide of his children and not a mere upper servant then my pupils being older would be more rational more teachable and less troublesome than the last they would be less confined to the schoolroom
and finally bright visions mingled with my hopes with which the care of children and the mere duties of a governess had little or nothing to do thus the reader will see that i had no claim to be regarded as a martyr to filial piety
going forth to sacrifice peace and liberty for the sole purpose of laying up stores for the comfort and support of my parents though certainly the comfort of my father and the future support of my mother
had a large share in my calculations and fifty pounds appeared to me no ordinary sum i must have decent clothes becoming my station i must it seemed put out my washing and also pay for my four annual journeys between horton lodge and home
surely twenty pounds or little more
i am astonished to discover what a bundle of discordant motives i am i do not seem to deserve to be called a personality i cannot discover even a general direction
much more am i like a taxi cab in which all sorts of aims and desires have travelled to their destination and got out are we all like that a bundle held together by a name and address and a certain thread of memory said the doctor and considered
more than that more than that we have leading ideas associations possessions liabilities we build ourselves a prison of circumstances that keeps us from complete dispersal exactly said the doctor and there is also something
i have been trying to recall my sexual history said sir richmond going off at a tangent my sentimental education i wonder if it differs very widely from yours or most men's some men are more eventful in these matters than others
said the doctor it sounded wistfully they have the same jumble of motives and traditions i suspect whether they are eventful or not the brakes may be strong or weak but the drive is the same i can't remember much of the beginnings of curiosity and knowledge in these matters can you
not much said the doctor no your psychoanalysts tell a story of fears suppressions monstrous imaginations symbolic replacements i don't remember much of that sort of thing in my own case it may have faded out of my mind
there were probably some uneasy curiosities a grotesque dream or so perhaps i can't recall anything of that sort distinctly now i had a very lively interest in women even when i was still quite a little boy and a certain what shall i call it
imaginative slavishness not towards actual women but towards something magnificently feminine my first love sir richmond smiled at some secret memory
my first love was britannia as depicted by tenniel in the cartoons in punch i must have been a very little chap at the time of the britannia affair i just clung to her in my imagination and did devoted things for her then i recall a little later
a secret abject adoration for the white goddesses of the crystal palace not for any particular one of them that i can remember for all of them but i don't remember anything very monstrous or incestuous in my childish imaginations such things as freud i understand lays stress upon
it has been very completely washed out again perhaps a child which is brought up in a proper nursery of its own and sees a lot of pictures of the nude human body and so on gets its mind shifted off any possible concentration upon the domestic aspect of sex
i got to definite knowledge pretty early by the time i was eleven or twelve normally what is normally decently anyhow here again i may be forgetting much secret and shameful curiosity
and some dissecting of rats and mice my schoolmaster was a capable sane man in advance of his times and my people believed in him i think much of this distorted perverse stuff that grows up in people's minds about sex and develops into evil vices and still more evil habits
is due to the mystery we make about these things not entirely said the doctor largely what child under a modern upbringing ever goes through the stuffy horrors described in james joyce's portrait of the artist as a young man
i've not read it a picture of the catholic atmosphere a young soul shut up in darkness and ignorance to accumulate filth in the name of purity and decency and under threats of hell fire horrible quite
a study of intolerable tensions the tensions that make young people write unclean words in secret places
where nothing is concealed nothing can explode on the whole i came up to adolescence pretty straight and clean said sir richmond what stands out in my memory now
is this idea of a sort of woman goddess who was very lovely and kind and powerful and wonderful that ruled my secret imaginations as a boy but it was very much in my mind as i grew up the mother complex
said doctor martineau as a passing botanist might recognize and name a flower sir richmond stared at him for a moment it had not the slightest connexion with my mother or any mother or any particular woman at all
far better to call it the goddess complex the connexion is not perhaps immediately visible said the doctor there was no connexion said sir richmond
the women of my adolescent dreams were stripped and strong and lovely they were great creatures they came it was clearly traceable from pictures sculpture and from a definite response in myself to their beauty my mother had nothing whatever to do with that
the women and girls about me were fussy bunches of clothes that i am sure i never even linked with that dream world of love and worship were you co educated no but i had a couple of sisters one older one younger than myself
and there were plenty of girls in my circle i thought some of them pretty but that was a different affair i know that i didn't connect them with the idea of the loved and worshipped goddesses at all because i remember when i first saw the goddess in a real human being
and how amazed i was at the discovery i was a boy of twelve or thirteen my people took me one summer to dymchurch in romney marsh in those days before the automobile had made the marsh accessible to the hythe and folkestone crowds
it was a little old forgotten silent wind bitten village crouching under the lee of the great sea wall at low water there were miles of sand as smooth and shining as the skin of a savage brown woman shining and with a texture the very same
and one day as i was mucking about by myself on the beach boy fashion there were some ribs of a wrecked boat buried in the sand near a groin and i was busy with them a girl ran out from a tent high up on the beach and across the sands to the water
she was dressed in a tight bathing dress and not in the clumsy skirts and frills that it was the custom to inflict on women in those days her hair was tied up in a blue handkerchief she ran swiftly and gracefully intent upon the white line of foam ahead
i can still remember how the sunlight touched her round neck and cheek as she went past me she was the loveliest most shapely thing i have ever seen to this day she lifted up her arms and thrust through the dazzling white and green breakers and plunged into the water and swam
she swam straight out for a long way as it seemed to me and presently came in and passed me again on her way back to her tent light and swift and sure the very prints of her feet on the sand were beautiful
suddenly i realized that there could be living people in the world as lovely as any goddess she wasn't in the least out of breath
i wonder now why i have kept the thing so secret until now i have never told a soul about it i resorted to all sorts of tortuous devices and excuses to get a chance of seeing her again without betraying what it was i was after doctor martineau retained a simple fondness for a story
a day or so later i was stabbed to the heart by the discovery that the tent she came out of had been taken away she had gone for ever sir richmond smiled brightly at the doctor's disappointment
section three i was never wholehearted and simple about sexual things sir richmond resumed presently never
i do not think any man is we are too much plastered up things too much the creatures of a tortuous and complicated evolution doctor martineau under his green umbrella nodded his conceded agreement this
what shall i call it this dream of women grew up in my mind as i grew up as something independent of and much more important than the reality of women it came only very slowly into relation with that
that girl on the dymchurch beach was one of the first links but she ceased very speedily to be real
i thought of these dream women not only as something beautiful but as something exceedingly kind and helpful the girls and women i met belonged to a different creation sir richmond stopped abruptly and rowed a few long strokes doctor martineau sought information
there was a sensuous element in these dreamings certainly a very strong one it didn't dominate but it was a very powerful undertow was there any tendency in all this imaginative stuff to concentrate
to group itself about a single figure the sort of thing that victorians would have called an ideal not a bit of it said sir richmond with conviction
and the next i would be off over the mountains with an armed brunhild
as a young man yes none at all i cannot recall a single philoprogenitive moment these dream women were all conceived of and i was conceived of as being concerned in some tremendous enterprise something quite beyond domesticity
it kept us related gave us dignity certainly it wasn't babies all this is very interesting very interesting from the scientific point of view a priori it is not what one might have expected
one might reasonably expect a convergence if not a complete concentration upon the idea of offspring it is almost as if
ends to be served it is clear that nature has not worked this impulse out to any sight of its end has not perhaps troubled to do so the instinct of the male for the female isn't primarily for offspring
not even in the most intelligent and farseeing types the desire just points to glowing satisfactions and illusions quite equally i think the desire of the female for the male ignores its end nature has set about this business in a
cheap sort of way she is like some pushful advertising tradesman she isn't frank with us she just humbugs us into what she wants with us
all very well in the early stone age when the poor dear things never realized that their mutual endearments meant all the troubles and responsibilities of parentage but now
he shook his head sideways and twirled the green umbrella like an animated halo around his large broad minded face sir richmond considered desire has never been the chief incentive of my relations with women never
so far as i can analyze the thing it has been a craving for a particular sort of life giving companionship that i take it is nature's device to keep the lovers together in the interest of the more or less unpremeditated offspring
a poor device if that is its end it doesn't keep parents together more often it tears them apart
becomes all too manifestly not the companion goddess sir richmond brooded over his sculls and thought throughout my life i have been an exceedingly busy man i have done a lot of scientific work and some of it has been very good work and very laborious work
i've travelled much i've organized great business developments you might think that my time has been fairly well filled without much philandering and all the time all the time i've been about women like a thirsty beast looking for water always always
all through my life doctor martineau waited through another silence i was very grave about it at first i married young i married very simply and purely i was not one of those young men who sow a large crop of wild oats
i was a fairly decent youth it suddenly appeared to me that a certain smiling and dainty girl could make herself into all the goddesses of my dreams i had but to win her and this miracle would occur of course i forget now the exact things i thought and felt then
but surely i had some such persuasion or why should i have married her my wife was seven years younger than myself a girl of twenty she was charming she is charming she is a wonderfully intelligent and understanding woman
i owe my home and all the comfort and dignity of my life to her ability i have no excuse for any misbehaviour so far as she is concerned none at all by all the rules i should have been completely happy
but instead of my marriage satisfying me it presently released a storm of long controlled desires and imprisoned cravings a voice within me became more and more urgent this will not do this is not love where are your goddesses this is not love
and i was unfaithful to my wife within four years of my marriage it was a sudden overpowering impulse
i forget now all the emotions of that adventure i suppose at the time it seemed beautiful and wonderful i do not excuse myself still less do i condemn myself i put the facts before you so it was there were no children by your marriage
your line of thought doctor is too philoprogenitive we have had three my daughter was married two years ago she is in america one little boy died when he was three the other is in india taking up the mardipore power scheme again now that he is out of the army
no it is simply that i was hopelessly disappointed with everything that a good woman and a decent marriage had to give me pure disappointment and vexation the anti climax to an immense expectation built up throughout an imaginative boyhood and youth and early manhood
i was shocked and ashamed at my own disappointment i thought it mean and base nevertheless this orderly household into which i had placed my life these almost methodical connubialities he broke off in mid sentence
doctor martineau shook his head disapprovingly no he said it wasn't fair to your wife it was shockingly unfair i have always realized that i've done what i could to make things up to her heaven knows what counter disappointments she has concealed
but it is no good arguing about rights and wrongs now this is not an apology for my life i am telling you what happened not for me to judge said doctor martineau go on by marrying i had got nothing that my soul craved for
i had satisfied none but the most transitory desires and i had incurred a tremendous obligation that obligation didn't restrain me from making desperate lunges at something vaguely beautiful that i felt was necessary to me
but it did cramp and limit these lunges so my story flops down into the comedy of the lying cramped intrigues of a respectable married man i was still driven by my dream of some extravagantly beautiful inspiration called love
and i sought it like an area sneak gods what a story it is when one brings it all together i couldn't believe that the glow and sweetness i dreamt of were not in the world somewhere hidden away from me
now in a slim form seen against the sky often i cared nothing for the woman i made love to i cared for the thing she seemed to be hiding from me sir richmond's voice altered
i don't see what possible good it can do to talk over these things he began to row and rowed perhaps a score of strokes then he stopped and the boat drove on with a whisper of water at the bow and over the outstretched oar blades
what a muddle and mockery the whole thing is he cried what a fumbling old fool old mother nature has been she drives us into indignity and dishonour and she doesn't even get the children which are her only excuse for her mischief
see what a fantastic thing i am when you take the machine to pieces i have been a busy and responsible man throughout my life i have handled complicated public and industrial affairs not unsuccessfully and discharged quite big obligations fully and faithfully
and all the time hidden away from the public eye my life has been laced by the thread of these
what can one call them love adventures how many you ask i don't know never have i been a whole hearted lover never have i been able to leave love alone never has love left me alone and as i am made said sir richmond with sudden insistence
as i am made i do not believe that i could go on without these affairs i know that you will be disposed to dispute that doctor martineau made a reassuring noise these affairs are at once unsatisfying and vitally necessary
it is only latterly that i have begun to perceive this women make life for me whatever they touch or see or desire becomes worth while and otherwise it is not worth while whatever is lovely in my world whatever is delightful has been so conveyed to me by some woman
without the vision they give me i should be a hard dry industry in the world a worker ant a soulless rage making much valuing nothing he paused you are i think abnormal
considered the doctor not abnormal excessive if you like without women i am a wasting fever of distressful toil without them there is no kindness in existence no rest no sort of satisfaction
logical necessity and utter desolation with nothing whatever worth fighting for whatever justifies effort whatever restores energy is hidden in women an access of sex said doctor martineau
this is a phase it is how i am made said sir richmond a brief silence fell upon that doctor martineau persisted
thus far you know little or nothing about me mister dexter i said you are as i believe quite unaware that my husband and i are not living together at the present time
is it necessary to mention your husband he asked coldly without looking up from his embroidery and without pausing in his work it is absolutely necessary i answered i can explain myself to you in no other way
he bent his head and sighed resignedly you and your husband are not living together at the present time he resumed does that mean that eustace has left you he has left me and has gone abroad without any necessity for it
without the least necessity has he appointed no time for his return to you if he persevere in his present resolution mister dexter eustace will never return to me
for the first time he raised his head from his embroidery with a sudden appearance of interest is the quarrel so serious as that he asked are you free of each other pretty missus valeria by common consent of both parties
the tone in which he put the question was not at all to my liking the look he fixed on me was a look which unpleasantly suggested that i had trusted myself alone with him and that he might end in taking advantage of it
i reminded him quietly by my manner more than by my words of the respect which he owed to me you are entirely mistaken i said there is no anger there is not even a misunderstanding between us
our parting has cost bitter sorrow mister dexter to him and to me he submitted to be set right with ironical resignation i am all attention he said threading his needle pray go on i won't interrupt you again
acting on this invitation i told him the truth about my husband and myself quite unreservedly taking care however at the same time to put eustace's motives in the best light that they would bear
miserrimus dexter dropped his embroidery on his lap and laughed softly to himself with an impish enjoyment of my poor little narrative which set every nerve in me on edge as i looked at him i see nothing to laugh at i said sharply
his beautiful blue eyes rested on me with a look of innocent surprise nothing to laugh at he repeated in such an exhibition of human folly as you have just described his expression suddenly changed his face darkened and hardened very strangely
stop he cried before i could answer him there can be only one reason for you're taking it as seriously as you do missus valeria you are fond of your husband fond of him isn't strong enough to express it i retorted
i love him with my whole heart
you love him with your whole heart do you know why because i can't help it i answered doggedly he smiled satirically and went on with his embroidery curious he said to himself eustace's first wife loved him too
there are some men whom the women all like and there are other men whom the women never care for without the least reason for it in either case the one man is just as good as the other just as handsome as agreeable as honorable and as high in rank as the other
and yet for number one they will go through fire and water and for number two they won't so much as turn their heads to look at him why they don't know themselves as missus valeria has just said is there a physical reason for it
is there some potent magnetic emanation from number one which number two doesn't possess i must investigate this when i have the time and when i find myself in the humor having so far settled the question to his own entire satisfaction he looked up at me again
i am still in the dark about you and your motives he said i am still as far as ever from understanding what your interest is in investigating that hideous tragedy at gleninch clever missus valeria please take me by the hand and lead me into the light you're not offended with me are you
make it up and i will give you this pretty piece of embroidery when i have done it i am only a poor solitary deformed wretch with a quaint turn of mind i mean no harm forgive me indulge me enlighten me
i began to doubt whether i might not have been unreasonably hard on him i penitently resolved to be more considerate toward his infirmities of mind and body during the remainder of my visit let me go back for a moment mister dexter
to past times at gleninch i said you agree with me in believing eustace to be absolutely innocent of the crime for which he was tried your evidence at the trial tells me that
he paused over his work and looked at me with a grave and stern attention which presented his face in quite a new light that is our opinion i resumed but it was not the opinion of the jury their verdict you remember was not proven
in plain english the jury who tried my husband declined to express their opinion positively and publicly that he was innocent am i right instead of answering he suddenly put his embroidery back in the basket and moved the machinery of his chair so as to bring it close by mine
who told you this he asked i found it for myself in a book thus far his face had expressed steady attention and no more now for the first time i thought i saw something darkly passing over him which betrayed itself to my mind as rising distrust
ladies are not generally in the habit of troubling their heads about dry questions of law he said missus eustace macallan the second you must have some very powerful motive for turning your studies that way i have a very powerful motive mister dexter
my husband is resigned to the scotch verdict his mother is resigned to it his friends so far as i know are resigned to it well well i don't agree with my husband or his mother or his friends i refuse to submit to the scotch verdict
he suddenly stretched himself over his chair he pounced on me with a hand on each of my shoulders his wild eyes questioned me fiercely frantically within a few inches of my face
what do you mean he shouted at the utmost pitch of his ringing and resonant voice a deadly fear of him shook me i did my best to hide the outward betrayal of it
remove your hands sir i said and retire to your proper place he obeyed me mechanically he apologized to me mechanically his whole mind was evidently still filled with the words that i had spoken to him and still bent on discovering what those words meant
i beg your pardon he said i humbly beg your pardon the subject excites me frightens me maddens me you don't know what a difficulty i have in controlling myself never mind don't take me seriously don't be frightened at me i am so ashamed of myself
i feel so small and so miserable at having offended you make me suffer for it take a stick and beat me tie me down in my chair call up ariel who is as strong as a horse and tell her to hold me
dear missus valeria injured missus valeria i'll endure anything in the way of punishment if you will only tell me what you mean by not submitting to the scotch verdict he backed his chair penitently as he made that entreaty
i'll drop out of sight if you prefer it in the bottom of the chair he lifted the sea green coverlet in another moment he would have disappeared like a puppet in a show if i had not stopped him say nothing more and do nothing more i accept your apologies i said
when i tell you that i refuse to submit to the opinion of the scotch jury i mean exactly what my words express that verdict has left a stain on my husband's character he feels the stain bitterly how bitterly no one knows so well as i do
his sense of his degradation is the sense that has parted him from me it is not enough for him that i am persuaded of his innocence
nothing will bring him back to me nothing will persuade eustace that i think him worthy to be the guide and companion of my life but the proof of his innocence set before the jury which doubts it and the public which doubts it to this day
he and his friends and his lawyers all despair of ever finding that proof now but i am his wife and none of you love him as i love him i alone refuse to despair i alone refuse to listen to reason
if god spare me mister dexter i dedicate my life to the vindication of my husband's innocence you are his old friend i am here to ask you to help me it appeared to be now my turn to frighten him the color left his face
he passed his hand restlessly over his forehead as if he were trying to brush some delusion out of his brain is this one of my dreams he asked faintly are you a vision of the night i am only a friendless woman i said
who has lost all that she loved and prized and who is trying to win it back again he began to move his chair nearer to me once more i lifted my hand he stopped the chair directly there was a moment of silence we sat watching one another
i saw his hands tremble as he laid them on the coverlet i saw his face grow paler and paler and his under lip drop what dead and buried remembrances had i brought to life in him in all their olden horror he was the first to speak again
so this is your interest he said in clearing up the mystery of missus eustace macallan's death yes and you believe that i can help you i do he slowly lifted one of his hands and pointed at me with his long forefinger
you suspect somebody he said the tone in which he spoke was low and threatening it warned me to be careful
at the same time if i now shut him out of my confidence i should lose the reward that might yet be to come for all that i had suffered and risked at that perilous interview you suspect somebody he repeated perhaps was all that i said in return
is the person within your reach not yet do you know where the person is no he laid his head languidly on the back of his chair with a trembling long drawn sigh
was he disappointed or was he relieved or was he simply exhausted in mind and body alike who could fathom him who could say will you give me five minutes he asked feebly and wearily without raising his head
you know already how any reference to events at gleninch excites and shakes me i shall be fit for it again if you will kindly give me a few minutes to myself there are books in the next room please excuse me
without speaking to us without looking at us she led the way down the dark garden walk and locked the gate behind us good night ariel i called out to her over the paling
the footman had thoughtfully lighted the carriage lamps carrying one of them to serve as a lantern he lighted us over the wilds of the brick desert and landed us safely on the path by the high road well said my mother in law when we were comfortably seated in the carriage again
you have seen miserrimus dexter and i hope you are satisfied
but speaking for myself i'm not quite sure that he is mad not mad cried missus macallan after those frantic performances in his chair not mad after the exhibition he made of his unfortunate cousin
not mad after the song that he sang in your honor and the falling asleep by way of conclusion oh valeria valeria well said the wisdom of our ancestors there are none so blind as those who won't see
it seems to me that he only expresses i admit in a very reckless and boisterous way thoughts and feelings which most of us are ashamed of as weaknesses and which we keep to ourselves accordingly
i confess i have often fancied myself transformed into some other person and have felt a certain pleasure in seeing myself in my new character
but i noticed that when his imagination cooled down he became miserrimus dexter again he no more believed himself than we believed him to be napoleon or shakespeare
i hope the confession will not lower me seriously in your good opinion but i must say i have enjoyed my visit and worse still miserrimus dexter really interests me
asked missus macallan i don't know how i may feel about it tomorrow morning i said but my impulse at this moment is decidedly to see him again i had a little talk with him while you were away at the other end of the room and i believe he really can be of use to me
of use to you in what interposed my mother in law in the one object which i have in view the object dear missus macallan which i regret to say you do not approve and you are going to take him into your confidence
to open your whole mind to such a man as the man we have just left yes if i think of it to morrow as i think of it to night i dare say it is a risk but i must run risks
i know i am not prudent but prudence won't help a woman in my position with my end to gain missus macallan made no further remonstrance in words she opened a capacious pocket in front of the carriage and took from it a box of matches and a railway reading lamp
you provoke me said the old lady into showing you what your husband thinks of this new whim of yours i have got his letter with me his last letter from spain
the useless and hopeless sacrifice which you are bent on making of yourself for his sake strike a light i willingly obeyed her
ever since she had informed me of eustace's departure to spain i had been eager for more news of him for something to sustain my spirits after so much that had disappointed and depressed me thus far i did not even know whether my husband thought of me sometimes in his self imposed exile
the lamp having been lighted and fixed in its place between the two front windows of the carriage missus macallan produced her son's letter there is no folly like the folly of love it cost me a hard struggle to restrain myself from kissing the paper on which the dear hand had rested
there said my mother in law begin on the second page the page devoted to you read straight down to the last line at the bottom and in god's name come back to your senses child before it is too late i followed my instructions and read these words
i must write of her tell me how she is how she looks what she is doing i am always thinking of her not a day passes but i mourn the loss of her
oh if she had never discovered the miserable truth she spoke of reading the trial when i saw her last has she persisted in doing so i believe i say this seriously mother i believe the shame and the horror of it
would have been the death of me if i had met her face to face when she first knew of the ignominy that i have suffered of the infamous suspicion of which i have been publicly made the subject think of those pure eyes looking at a man who has been accused
and then think of what that man must feel if he have any heart and any sense of shame left in him i sicken as i write of it does she still meditate that hopeless project the offspring poor angel of her artless unthinking generosity
for her sake for my sake leave no means untried to attain this righteous this merciful end i send her no message i dare not do it
on the contrary help her to forget me as soon as possible the kindest thing i can do the one atonement i can make to her is to drop out of her life with those wretched words it ended i handed his letter back to his mother in silence
she said but little on her side if this doesn't discourage you she remarked slowly folding up the letter nothing will let us leave it there and say no more i made no answer i was crying behind my veil
my domestic prospect looked so dreary
the one chance for both of us and the one consolation for poor me was to hold to my desperate resolution more firmly than ever
if i had wanted anything to confirm me in this view and to arm me against the remonstrances of every one of my friends eustace's letter would have proved more than sufficient to answer the purpose at least he had not forgotten me
he thought of me and he mourned the loss of me every day of his life that was encouragement enough for the present if ariel calls for me in the pony chaise to morrow i thought to myself with ariel i go
missus macallan set me down at benjamin's door i mentioned to her at parting i stood sufficiently in awe of her to put it off till the last moment that miserrimus dexter had arranged to send his cousin and his pony chaise to her residence on the next day
and i inquired thereupon whether my mother in law would permit me to call at her house to wait for the appearance of the cousin or whether she would prefer sending the chaise on to benjamin's cottage i fully expected an explosion of anger to follow this bold avowal of my plans for the next day
the old lady agreeably surprised me she proved that she had really taken a liking to me she kept her temper if you persist in going back to dexter you certainly shall not go to him from my door she said but i hope you will not persist
i hope you will awake a wiser woman to morrow morning the morning came
i have no right to control your movements my mother in law wrote i send the chaise to mister benjamin's house and i sincerely trust that you will not take your place in it i wish i could persuade you valeria how truly i am your friend
i have been thinking about you anxiously in the wakeful hours of the night how anxiously you will understand when i tell you that i now reproach myself for not having done more than i did to prevent your unhappy marriage and yet what more i could have done i don't really know
my son admitted to me that he was courting you under an assumed name but he never told me what the name was
i honestly thought i did my duty in expressing my disapproval and in refusing to be present at the marriage was i too easily satisfied it is too late to ask why do i trouble you with an old woman's vain misgivings and regrets
my child if you come to any harm i shall feel indirectly responsible for it
write him an excuse valeria i firmly believe you will repent it if you return to that house was ever a woman more plainly warned more carefully advised than i and yet warning and advice were both thrown away on me
as long as i lived moved and thought my one purpose now was to make miserrimus dexter confide to me his ideas on the subject of missus eustace macallan's death to those ideas i looked as my guiding stars along the dark way on which i was going
i wrote back to missus macallan as i really felt gratefully and penitently
i don't ask after your health said the old gentleman your eyes answer me my dear lady before i can put the question
at your age a long sleep is the true beauty draught plenty of bed there is the simple secret of keeping your good looks and living a long life plenty of bed
i have not been so long in my bed major as you suppose to tell the truth i have been up all night reading major fitz david lifted his well painted eyebrows in polite surprise what is the happy book which has interested you so deeply
he asked the book i answered is the trial of my husband for the murder of his first wife don't mention that horrid book he exclaimed don't speak of that dreadful subject
why my charming friend profane your lips by talking of such things why frighten away the loves and the graces that lie hid in your smile humor an old fellow who adores the loves and the graces and who asks nothing better than to sun himself in your smiles
luncheon is ready let us be cheerful let us laugh and lunch he led me to the table and filled my plate and my glass with the air of a man who considered himself to be engaged in one of the most important occupations of his life benjamin kept the conversation going in the interval
major fitz david brings you some news my dear he said your mother in law missus macallan is coming here to see you to day my mother in law coming to see me i turned eagerly to the major for further information
and she has also heard from your uncle the vicar our excellent starkweather has written to her to what purpose i have not been informed i only know that on receipt of his letter she has decided on paying you a visit
i met the old lady last night at a party and i tried hard to discover whether she were coming to you as your friend or your enemy my powers of persuasion were completely thrown away on her the fact is
said the major speaking in the character of a youth of five and twenty making a modest confession
those words offered me the opportunity for which i was waiting i determined not to lose it you can be of the greatest use to me i said if you will allow me to presume major on your past kindness
i want to ask you a question and i may have a favor to beg when you have answered me major fitz david set down his wine glass on its way to his lips and looked at me with an appearance of breathless interest
command me my dear lady i am yours and yours only said the gallant old gentleman what do you wish to ask me i wish to ask if you know miserrimus dexter good heavens cried the major
what can be your object i can tell you what my object is in two words i interposed i want you to give me an introduction to miserrimus dexter my impression is that the major turned pale under his paint
this at any rate is certain his sparkling little gray eyes looked at me in undisguised bewilderment and alarm you want to know miserrimus dexter he repeated with the air of a man who doubted the evidence of his own senses
mister benjamin have i taken too much of your excellent wine am i the victim of a delusion or did our fair friend really ask me to give her an introduction to miserrimus dexter
benjamin looked at me in some bewilderment on his side and answered quite seriously i think you said so my dear i certainly said so i rejoined what is there so very surprising in my request
have you heard of his horrible deformity i have heard of it and it doesn't daunt me doesn't daunt you my dear lady the man's mind is as deformed as his body
what voltaire said satirically of the character of his countrymen in general is literally true of miserrimus dexter he is a mixture of the tiger and the monkey
at one moment he would frighten you and at the next he would set you screaming with laughter i don't deny that he is clever in some respects brilliantly clever i admit
and i don't say that he has ever committed any acts of violence or ever willingly injured anybody but for all that he is mad if ever a man were mad yet forgive me if the inquiry is impertinent
what can your motive possibly be for wanting an introduction to miserrimus dexter i want to consult him may i ask on what subject on the subject of my husband's trial
major fitz david groaned and sought a momentary consolation in his friend benjamin's claret that dreadful subject again he exclaimed mister benjamin why does she persist in dwelling on that dreadful subject
i must dwell on what is now the one employment and the one hope of my life i said i have reason to hope that miserrimus dexter can help me to clear my husband's character of the stain which the scotch verdict has left on it
tiger and monkey as he may be i am ready to run the risk of being introduced to him and i ask you again rashly and obstinately as i fear you will think to give me the introduction
it will put you to no inconvenience i won't trouble you to escort me a letter to mister dexter will do the major looked piteously at benjamin and shook his head benjamin looked piteously at the major and shook his head
she appears to insist on it said the major yes said benjamin she appears to insist on it i won't take the responsibility mister benjamin of sending her alone to miserrimus dexter shall i go with her sir
the major reflected benjamin in the capacity of protector did not appear to inspire our military friend with confidence after a moment's consideration a new idea seemed to strike him he turned to me my charming friend he said
be more charming than ever consent to a compromise let us treat this difficulty about dexter from a social point of view what do you say to a little dinner a little dinner i repeated not in the least understanding him
a little dinner the major reiterated at my house
the only alternative under the circumstances is to invite him to meet you and to let you form your own opinion of him under the protection of my roof who shall we have to meet you besides pursued the major brightening with hospitable intentions we want a
perfect galaxy of beauty around the table as a species of compensation when we have got miserrimus dexter as one the guests madame mirliflore is still in london
you would be sure to like her she is charming she possesses your firmness your extraordinary tenacity of purpose yes we will have madame mirliflore who else shall we say lady clarinda
another charming person mister benjamin you would be sure to admire her she is so sympathetic she resembles in so many respects our fair friend here
yes lady clarinda shall be one of us and you shall sit next to her mister benjamin as a proof of my sincere regard for you shall we have my young prima donna to sing to us in the evening
very well there is our party complete i will shut myself up this evening and approach the question of dinner with my cook shall we say this day week asked the major taking out his pocketbook at eight o'clock
i consented to the proposed compromise but not very willingly with a letter of introduction i might have seen miserrimus dexter that afternoon
as it was the little dinner compelled me to wait in absolute inaction through a whole week however there was no help for it but to submit major fitz david in his polite way could be as obstinate as i was
he had evidently made up his mind and further opposition on my part would be of no service to me punctually at eight mister benjamin reiterated the major put it down in your book
benjamin obeyed with a side look at me which i was at no loss to interpret my good old friend did not relish meeting a man at dinner who was described as half tiger half monkey and the privilege of sitting next to lady clarinda rather daunted than delighted him
it was all my doing and he too had no choice but to submit punctually at eight sir said poor old benjamin obediently recording his formidable engagement please to take another glass of wine
the major looked at his watch and rose with fluent apologies for abruptly leaving the table
i have an appointment with a friend a female friend a most attractive person you a little remind me of her my dear lady you resemble her in complexion the same creamy paleness i adore creamy paleness
as i was saying i have an appointment with my friend she does me the honor to ask my opinion on some very remarkable specimens of old lace i have studied old lace i study everything that can make me useful or agreeable to your enchanting sex
you won't forget our little dinner i will send dexter his invitation the moment i get home he took my hand and looked at it critically with his head a little on one side a delicious hand he said
a delicious hand is one of my weaknesses
in the italian cuisine we find in the highest degree these three qualities that it is palatable all those who have partaken of food in an italian trattoria or at the home of an italian family can testify
that it is healthy the splendid manhood and womanhood of italy is a proof more than sufficient and who could deny knowing the thriftiness of the italian race that it is economical
it has therefore been thought that a book of practical recipes of the italian cuisine could be offered to the american public with hope of success it is not a pretentious book and the recipes have been made as clear and simple as possible
some of the dishes described are not peculiar to italy all however are representative of the cucina casalinga of the peninsular kingdom which is not the least product of a lovable and simple people
among whom the art of living well and getting the most out of life at a moderate expense has been attained to a very high degree one broth or soup stock brodo
to obtain good broth the meat must be put in cold water and then allowed to boil slowly add to the meat some pieces of bones and soup greens as for instance celery carrots and parsley
to give a brown color to the broth some sugar first browned at the fire then diluted in cold water may be added while it is not considered that the broth has much nutritive power it is excellent to promote the digestion
nearly all the italian soups are made on a basis of broth a good recipe for substantial broth to be used for invalids is the following cut some beef in thin slices and place them in a large saucepan add some salt
pour cold water upon them so that they are entirely covered cover the saucepan so that it is hermetically closed and place on the cover a receptacle containing water which must be constantly renewed
strain the liquid in cheese cloth the soup stock besides being used for soups is a necessary ingredient in hundreds of italian dishes two soup of cappelletti
this soup is called of cappelletti or little hats on account of the shape of the cappelletti first a thin sheet of paste is made according to the following directions
the best and most tender paste is made simply of eggs flour and salt water may be substituted for part of the eggs for economy or when a less rich paste is needed
put the flour on a bread board make a hollow in the middle and break in the egg
knead it thoroughly adding more flour if necessary until you have a paste you can roll out roll it as thin as an eighth of an inch
a long rolling pin is necessary but any stick well scrubbed and sand papered will serve in lieu of the long italian rolling pin cut from this sheet of paste rounds measuring about three inches in diameter
in the middle of each circle place a spoonful of filling that must be made beforehand composed of cooked meat chicken pork or veal ground very fine and seasoned with grated cheese grated lemon peel nutmeg allspice salt
the ground meat is to be mixed with an equal amount of curds or cottage cheese when the filling is placed in the circle of paste fold the latter over and moisten the edge of the paste with the finger dipped in water to make it stay securely closed
these cappelletti should be cooked in chicken or beef broth until the paste is tender and served with this broth as a soup three bread soup
it is composed of bread crumbs and grated bread eggs grated cheese nutmeg in very small quantity and salt all mixed together and put in broth previously prepared which must be warm at the moment of the immersion but not at the boiling point
then place it on a low fire and stir gently any vegetable left over may be added four gnocchi this is an excellent soup but as it requires boiled or roast breast of chicken or turkey
it is well to make it only when these ingredients are handy prepare a certain quantity of boiled potatoes the mealy kind being preferred mash the potatoes and mix them with chicken or turkey breast well ground grated cheese parmesan or swiss
two or more yolks of eggs salt and a small quantity of nutmeg pour the compound on the bread board with a quantity of flour sufficient to make a paste and roll it in little sticks as thick as the small finger
cut the sticks in little pieces about half an inch long and put them in boiling water five or six minutes cooking will be sufficient five vegetable soup
any kind of vegetables may be used for this soup carrots celery cabbage turnips onions potatoes spinach the outside leaves of lettuce or greens of any variety
select three or four kind of vegetables shred or chop coarsely cabbage or greens and slice or cut in cubes the root vegetables put them over the fire with a small quantity of cooking oil or butter substitute
and let them fry until they have absorbed the fat then add broth and cook until the vegetables are very tender fry croutons of stale bread in oil and serve them in the soup six
this is made with the white meat of chicken which is to be ground in a meat grinder together with blanched almonds five or six for one quart of chicken stock to the meat and almond add some bread crumbs first soaked in milk or broth
in the proportion of about one fifth of the quantity of the meat all these ingredients are to be rubbed to a very smooth paste and hot broth is to be added to them if you wish the soup to be richer and have a more milky consistency use the yolk of an egg
which should be beaten and have a few tablespoonfuls of hot broth stirred into it before adding to the soup do not let the soup boil after the egg is added or it will curdle one slice of stale bread may be cut into cubes fried in deep fat
and the croutons put in the soup send it to the table with a dish of grated cheese seven bean soup zuppa di fagiuoli one cup of dried beans kidney navy or lima is to be soaked over night
then boil until tender it is preferable to put the beans to cook in cold water with a pinch of soda when they come to boil
one clove of garlic one sprig of parsley and one piece of celery
when the vegetables are a delicate brown add to them two cups of the broth from the beans and one cup of tomatoes canned or fresh let all come to a boil and pour the mixture into the kettle of beans
from which some of the water has been drained if they are very liquid this soup may be served as it is
croutons or triangles of dry toast make an excellent addition the bean soup is made without meat or chicken broth
or lean soup to be served preferably on friday
eight lentil soup zuppa di lenticchie the lentil soup is prepared in the same way as the bean soup only substituting lentils for beans a good combination is that of lentils and rice
the nutritive qualities of the lentils are not sufficiently known in this country
minestrone alla milanese
and put it into two quarts of water to boil cut off a small slice of the pork and beat it to a paste with two or three sprigs of parsley a little celery and one kernel of garlic add this paste to the pork and water
slice two carrots cut the rib out of the leaves of one quarter medium sized cabbage add the carrots cabbage leaves other vegetables seasoning and butter to the soup
when the pork is very soft remove and slice in little ribbons and put it back the minestrone is equally good eaten cold ten ravioli
put on the bread board about two pounds of flour in a heap make a hollow in the middle and put in it a piece of butter three egg yolks salt and three or four tablespoonfuls of lukewarm water make a paste and knead it well
then let it stand for an hour wrapped or covered with a linen cloth then spread the paste to a thin sheet as thin as a ten cent piece chop and grind pieces of roast or boiled chicken meat
add to it an equal part of marrow from the bones of beef and pieces of brains three yolks some crumbs of bread soaked in milk or broth and some grated cheese parmesan or swiss
which are to be placed at equal distances a little more than an inch in a line over the sheet of paste beat a whole egg and pass it over the paste with a brush all around the little balls cover these with another sheet of paste
press down the intervals between each ball and then separate each section from the other with a knife moisten the edges of each section with the finger dipped in cold water to make them stick together and press them down with the fingers or the prongs of a fork
then put to boil in water seasoned with salt or better still in broth
or with brown stock or tomato sauce eleven pavese soup zuppa alla pavese cut as many thin slices of bread as are needed in order that each person may have at least two of them
these slices are then to be toasted and browned with butter poach two eggs for each person one on each slice of bread and place the slices on a large and deep dish not in a soup tureen
eighty six meat genovese
weighing about a pound beat it and flatten it well beat three or four eggs season them with salt and pepper a pinch of grated cheese and some chopped parsley
cutting it where it overlaps and putting the pieces where it lacks so as to cover the meat entirely after that roll tight the meat together with the omelet and tie it with thread then sprinkle some flour over it
and put it in a saucepan with a piece of butter seasoning with salt and pepper when it is well browned on all sides pour some soup stock to complete the cooking and serve it in its gravy which will be thick enough on account of the flour eighty seven
rice pudding with giblets
and use the same for the rice as well as for the giblets to these add some thin slices of ham and brown them first in butter seasoned moderately with salt and pepper completing the cooking with brown stock a taste of mushrooms will be found useful
brown the rice equally in butter then complete the cooking with hot water drain and put the brown stock
when the rice has cooled a little take a smooth mold round or oval grease it evenly with butter cover the bottom with buttered paper and place in it the rice to harden it in the oven when taken from the mold pour over the gravy from the giblets
slightly thickened with a pinch of flour and serve with the giblets around seeing that there is plenty of gravy for them eighty eight
and a crumb of bread soaked with milk rub through a sieve and add three tablespoonfuls of balsamella
which you will make thick enough for this dish three eggs and just a taste of nutmeg mixing everything well take a smooth mold grease it evenly with butter and put on the bottom a sheet of paper cut according to the shape of the bottom
pour over the above ingredients and cook in a vessel immersed in boiling water double boiler when taken from the mold remove the paper and in its place put a gravy formed with chopped chicken giblets cooked in brown stock serve hot
eighty nine liver loaf pane di fegato cut about one pound of veal liver in thin slices and four chicken livers in two parts and put all this in a saucepan with rosemary and a piece of butter
when this is melted put in another piece and season with salt and pepper after four or five minutes at a live fire
in the gravy that remains in the saucepan put a big crumb of bread cut into small pieces and make a paste that will also be ground with the liver then rub everything through a sieve add one whole egg and two yolks and a pinch of grated cheese
diluting with brown stock or water finally put in a smooth mold with a sheet of paper in the bottom all evenly greased with butter and cook in a double boiler remove from the mold when cool and serve cold with gelatine ninety
veal with tunny vitello tonnato take two pounds of meat without bones remove the fat and tendons then lard it with two anchovies
these must be washed and boned and cut lengthwise after opening them making in all eight pieces tie the piece of meat not very tight and boil it for an hour and a half in enough water to cover it completely
previously put into the water one quarter of an onion larded with clover one leaf of laurel celery carrot and parsley salt the water generously and don't put the veal in until it is boiling when the veal is cooked
untie dry it and keep it for two or three days in the following sauce in quantity sufficient to cover it
crush them well with the blade of a knife and rub through a sieve adding good olive oil in abundance little by little and squeeze in one whole lemon so that the sauce should remain liquid finally mix in some capers soaked in vinegar
serve the veal cold in thin slices with the sauce the stock of the veal can be rubbed through a sieve and used for risotto ninety one stuffed italian squash zucchini ripieni
to make the stuffed zucchini first cut them lengthwise in two halves and remove the interior pulp leaving space enough for the filling take some lean veal quantity in proportion to the squashes
cut it into pieces and place it on the fire in a saucepan with a hash of onion parsley celery carrot a little corned beef cut in little pieces a little oil salt and pepper stir it often with a spoon and when the meat is brown pour in a cup of water
and then another after a while then rub the gravy through a sieve and put it aside chop the cooked meat fine and grind it in the grinder and make a hash of it and one egg a little grated cheese a crumb of bread boiled in milk or in soup stock
and just a taste of nutmeg put this hash inside each half squash and put them to brown in butter completing the cooking with the gravy set aside ninety two string beans and squashes saute
brown in butter some string beans that have been previously half cooked in water and some raw squashes cut in cubes put the squashes in only when the butter is beginning to brown season moderately with salt and butter
and add some brown stock or good tomato sauce ninety three string beans with egg sauce fagiuolini in salsa d'uovo take less than a pound of string beans cutting off the two points and removing all the strings
and then cook them partially in water moderately salted take them from the kettle drain and brown with butter salt and pepper beat one yolk with a teaspoonful of flour and the juice of half a small lemon dilute with half a cup of cold broth
from which the fat has been removed and put this liquid on the fire in a small saucepan stirring continually when the liquid has become through the cooking like a cream pour it on the string beans that you will keep on the fire a little longer with the sauce
the string beans so prepared can be served with boiled beef ninety four string beans in mold sformato di fagiolini take one pound of string beans seeing that they are quite tender cut off the ends and remove the strings
throw them into boiling water with a pinch of salt and when they are half cooked take them away and put them in cold water if you have brown stock complete the cooking with this and with butter otherwise brown a piece of onion some parsley a piece of celery and olive oil
when the onion is browned put in the string beans and complete the cooking with a little water if necessary prepare a balsamella sauce no fifty four with a small piece of butter
and half a cup of milk with this a tablespoonful of grated cheese and four beaten eggs bind the string beans when they are cold mix and put in a mold evenly greased with butter and the bottom covered with paper cook in a double boiler and serve hot
ninety five cauliflower in mold sformato di cavolfiore take a good sized cauliflower remove the stalk and outside leaves half cook it in water
salt them and put them to brown with a little piece of butter and then complete the cooking with a cup of milk then rub them through a sieve prepare a balsamella
and add it to the cauliflower with three beaten eggs and a tablespoonful of grated cheese cook in a greased mold and serve hot ninety six artichokes in mold sformato di carciofi
remove the outside leaves of the artichokes the harder part of all leaves and clean the stalks without removing them cut each artichoke into four parts and put them to boil in salt water for only five minutes if left longer on the fire
they become too soaked in water and lose their taste remove from the water drain them grind or pound and rub them through a sieve season the pulp so obtained with two or three beaten eggs two or three tablespoonfuls of balsamella
grated cheese salt and a taste of nutmeg but taste the seasoning several times to see that it is correctly dosed place in a mold with brown stock or meat gravy
and cook in double boiler ninety seven fried mushrooms funghi fritti choose middle sized mushrooms which are also of the right ripeness
when they are too big they are too soft and if small they are too hard scrape the stems wash them carefully but do not keep in water for then they would lose their pleasant odor then cut them in rather large slices and dip them in flour before putting in the frying pan
olive oil is best for frying mushrooms and the seasoning is composed exclusively of salt and pepper to be applied when they are frying they can also be dipped in beaten eggs after being sprinkled with flour but this is superfluous ninety eight
stewed mushrooms funghi in umido for a stew the mushrooms ought to be below middle size clean wash and cut as for the preceding put a saucepan on the fire with olive oil one or two cloves of oil and some mint leaves
when the oil begins to splutter put the mushrooms in without dipping in flour season with salt and pepper and when they are half cooked pour in some tomato sauce
be sparing however with the seasoning in order that the mushrooms do not absorb it too much and so lose some of their own delicate flavor ninety nine dried mushrooms funghi secchi
and for this reason it is well to have some always at hand since however it is not always possible to have them fresh the following recipe to prepare dried mushrooms will be found useful first of all wait until there is a sunny day
choose young mushrooms middle sized or big but not too soft scrape the stem clean them well in order to remove the earth and without washing cut them in big pieces this because when dried they diminish considerably in size
keep these pieces exposed in the sun for two or three days then thread them on a string practising a hole in them and keep in a well ventilated room or in the sun until they become quite dry
then put them away well closed in a paper bag but don't fail to look at them from time to time to see if it is necessary to expose them some more to sun and ventilation
one hundred seventy four trout alpine trota all'alpigiana these are many ways to prepare this delicious fish found in abundance in the many streams of clear water that run from the alps and the apennine mountains
often the trout is cooked in wine
for the trota all'alpigiana so called because it is the favorite dish of piedmont
and left under the action of the salt for about an hour pour in a fish kettle one quart of white wine to which will be added three medium sized onions a few cloves two sections of garlic
and a little bunch made of thyme bay leaf basil or mint finally a piece of butter as large as an egg dipped in flour
when the liquid has boiled the trout is cooked remove the onions and the bunch of greens and serve the trout with its gravy and some parsley one hundred seventy five trout lombard trota fritta
clean scale wash and wipe the trout salt and leave for half an hour fill with water half a fish kettle add half a lemon two bay leaves one carrot light or ten berries of pepper
one onion divided into four parts salt and three cloves when the water is lukewarm dip in the trout cook on a moderate fire and serve the trout with parsley slices of lemon and young potatoes boiled
a good fish sauce ought to accompany it one hundred seventy six fried trout trota fritta small and young trouts are best for frying scale clean wash and wipe
then dip in flour and fry like the other fish in oil or in butter serve with browned parsley and lemon one hundred seventy seven trout with anchovies
cut the sides and place to pickle with salt pepper berries garlic parsley and onions chopped fine with mushrooms chopped fine with thyme bay leaf and mint all seasoned with good olive oil rub the pickled pieces at the sieve
and place it and the trout in a baking tin
melt in a saucepan a piece of butter in which brown half an onion cut into thin slices to be removed from the butter when browned then add to the butter two teaspoonfuls of flour mix but don't allow to brown
put the sliced eggs in the sauce to warm them stir a little but carefully to avoid breaking them and do not boil again just before serving add to the sauce a teaspoonful of cream and stir carefully one hundred seventy nine
eggs with ham uova al prosciutto place in a frying pan as many pieces of butter large like a nut as there are eggs to be cooked for each piece of butter put a little slice of ham and place the frying pan on the fire
as soon as the butter is melted break an egg on each slice of ham let cook for ten minutes on a moderate fire
eggs with tomato sauce uova al pomidoro prepare some hard boiled eggs cut them through the middle lengthwise place in good order upon a plate and pour some good tomato sauce taking care not to cover the upper part of the eggs
which must emerge from the sauce
one hundred eighty one scrambled eggs
melt in a saucepan a piece of butter about as big as an egg when it is melted pour the egg and scramble them with a fork on a low fire when the eggs are cooked season moderately with salt and butter just when you take them away from the fire and before serving
add a tablespoonful of milk or liquid cream
and put back on the fire with the nuts to dissolve the sugar
pour in a mold greased with butter and sprinkled with bread crumbs ground fine the mold must not be all full bake in the oven and serve cold this dose will be sufficient for eight or ten persons
one hundred eighty three crisp biscuits biscotti croccanti one pound of flour
mixed to a few pine seeds a piece of butter one and a half ounce a pinch of anise seeds five eggs a pinch of salt leave back the almonds and pine seeds to add them afterward
and mix everything with four eggs so as to use the fifth if it is necessary to make a soft dough divide into four cakes half an inch thick and as large as a hand place them in a receptacle greased with butter and sprinkled with flour glaze the cakes with yolk of eggs
bake in the oven but only as much as will still permit cutting the cakes into slices which you will do the day after as the crust will then be softened put the slices back in the oven so that they will be toasted on both sides and you will have the crisp biscuits
one hundred eighty four soft biscuits biscotti teneri for these biscuits it would be necessary to have a tin box about four inches wide and a little less long than the oven used
in this way the biscuits will have a corner on both sides and if cut a little more than half an inch they will be of the right proportion
three eggs skin the almonds cut them in half lengthwise and dry in the sun or at the fire pastry cooks usually leave them with the skin but it is much preferable to skin them cut in little cubes the candied fruits and the preserve
stir for a long while about half an hour the sugar in the egg yolks and a little flour then add the white of the eggs well beaten and when every thing is well beaten
mix slowly and scatter on the mixing the almonds and the cubes of candied and preserved fruit grease and sprinkle the tin box with flour bake in the oven and cut the biscuits the day after if desired these can also be roasted on both sides
biscuits sultan biscotto alla sultana granulated sugar six ounces flour four ounces potato meal two ounces currants three ounces
candied fruits one ounce five eggs a taste of lemon peel two tablespoonfuls of brandy
put first on the fire the currants and the candied fruits cut in very little cubes with as much brandy or cognac as is necessary to cover them when it boils light the brandy and let it burn out of the fire until the liquor is all consumed
then remove the currants and candy and let them dry in a folded napkin then stir for half an hour the sugar with the egg yolks and the taste of lemon peel beat well the white of the eggs and pour them on the sugar and yolks
and stir slowly until everything is well mixed together add the currants and the pieces of candied fruits and pour the mixing in a smooth mold or in a high and round cake dish grease the mold or the dish with butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar or flour
put at once in the oven to avoid that the currants and the candied fruits fall in the oven one hundred eighty six margherita cake pasta margherita potato meal three ounces sugar six ounces
lemon juice beat well the egg yolks with the sugar add the potato meal and the lemon juice and stir everything for half an hour finally beat well the whites and mix the rest stirring continually but slowly
pour the mixture in a smooth and round mold greased with butter and sprinkled with powdered sugar put at once in the oven remove from the mold when cold and dust with powdered sugar and vanilla one hundred eighty seven mantua tart
torta mantovana flour six ounces sugar six ounces butter five ounces sweet almonds and pine seeds two ounces
four egg yolks a taste of lemon peel first work well with a ladle the eggs with the sugar then pour the flour little by little still stirring
on top put the almonds and the pine seeds cut the latter in half and cut the almonds previously skinned in warm water each in eight or ten pieces this tart must not be thicker than one inch so that it can dry well in the oven
which must not be too hot sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve cold one hundred eighty eight curly tart
sweet almonds with a few bitter ones four ounces granulated sugar six ounces candied fruits or angelica
butter two ounces lemon peel mix two eggs with flour flatten the paste to a thin sheet on a bread board and cut into thin noodles in a corner of the bread board make a heap of the almonds with the sugar
the candied fruit cut in pieces and the grated lemon peel all this cut and crush so as to reduce the mixture in little pieces
his accounts once settled and his recommendations made d'artagnan thought of nothing but returning to paris as soon as possible athos on his part was anxious to reach home and to rest a little however whole the character and the man may remain after the fatigues of a voyage
even though the day has been a fine one that night is approaching and will bring a little sleep with it so from boulogne to paris jogging on side by side
was above all anxious to abridge the distance by speed athos and d'artagnan arrived at the gates of paris on the evening of the fourth day after leaving boulogne where are you going my friend asked athos i shall direct my course straight to my hotel
yes at the pilon d'or well but shall we not meet again if you remain in paris yes for i shall stay here
with whom i have appointed a meeting at my hotel i shall set out immediately for la fere
i shall purchase for you if you like a handsome estate in the vicinity of cheverny or of bracieux
which join those of chambord on the other admirable marshes you who love sporting and who whether you admit it or not are a poet my dear friend
that is a quiet amusement for old fellows like us d'artagnan took the hands of athos in his own dear count said he
and accustom myself by degrees to the heavy and glittering idea which is beating in my brain and dazzles me i am rich you see
i know myself and i shall be an insupportable animal now
the cloak is handsome the cloak is richly gilded but it is new and does not seem to fit me athos smiled so be it said he but a propos of this cloak dear d'artagnan
will you allow me to offer you a little advice yes willingly
proceed when wealth comes to a man late in life or all at once
that is to say not spend much more money than he had done before or else become a prodigal and contract so many debts as to become poor again oh but what you say looks very much like a sophism my dear philosophic friend
i do not think so will you become a miser no pardieu i was one already having nothing let us change then be prodigal still less mordioux debts terrify me
creditors appear to me by anticipation like those devils who turn the damned upon the gridirons
great fools must they be who think they have anything to teach you but are we not at the rue saint honore yes dear athos look yonder on the left that small long white house is the hotel where i lodge
you may observe that it has but two stories i occupy the first the other is let to an officer whose duties oblige him to be absent eight or nine months in the year so i am in that house as in my own home without the expense oh how well you manage athos
they are what i wish to unite but of what use trying that comes from birth and cannot be acquired you are a flatterer well
a propos remember me to master planchet he always was a bright fellow and a man of heart too athos adieu and the separated
nine o'clock was striking at saint merri planchet's helps were shutting up his shop d'artagnan stopped the postilion who rode the pack horse at the corner of the rue des lombards under a pent house
but to watch the postilion after which he entered the shop of the grocer
and who in his little private room was with a degree of anxiety consulting the calendar
d'artagnan kicked the door with his foot and the blow made his steel spur jingle
he looks sad the musketeer sat down my dear monsieur d'artagnan said planchet with a horrible palpitation of the heart
tolerably good planchet
the expedition has been a trying one yes said d'artagnan a shudder ran down planchet's back
that good old anjou wine which was one day nearly costing us all so dear
come my dear master said planchet making a super human effort whilst all his contracted muscles his pallor and his trembling betrayed the most acute anguish
before he answered d'artagnan took his time and that appeared an age to the poor grocer
and if that were the case said he slowly moving his head up and down if that were the case what would you say my dear friend
it might have been thought he was going to swallow his tongue so full became his throat so red were his eyes
well said he i see how it is let us be men it is all over is it not the principal thing is monsieur that your life is safe doubtless doubtless life is something but i am ruined
cordieu monsieur said planchet if it is so we must not despair for that you shall become a grocer with me i shall take you for my partner we will share the profits and if there should be no more profits well
d'artagnan could hold out no longer mordioux cried he with great emotion
have not seen the pack horse with the bags under the shed yonder
said d'artagnan all radiant quite transfigured
you think me mad mordioux on the contrary never was my head more clear or my heart more joyous
but to what bags good heavens
under that shed yonder don't you see a horse yes don't you see how his back is laden yes yes don't you see your lad talking with the postilion yes yes yes
call him abdon abdon
bring the horse shouted d'artagnan
now give ten livres to the postilion
two lads to bring up the first two bags
a moment later the lads ascended the stairs bending beneath their burden d'artagnan sent them off to their garrets carefully closed the door and addressing planchet
when planchet heard the provoking sound of the silver and gold when he saw bubbling out of the bags the shining crowns which glittered like fish from the sweep net when he felt himself plunging his hands up to the elbows in that still rising tide
a giddiness seized him and like a man struck by lightning he sank heavily down upon the enormous heap which his weight caused to roll away in all directions
d'artagnan threw a glass of white wine in his face which incontinently recalled him to life ah
wiping his mustache and beard at that time as they do now grocers wore the cavalier mustache and the lansquenet beard only the money baths already rare in those days have become almost unknown now mordioux said d'artagnan
there are a hundred thousand livres for you partner draw your share if you please and i will draw mine oh the lovely sum monsieur d'artagnan the lovely sum i confess that half an hour ago i regretted that i had to give you so much
but now i no longer regret it thou art a brave grocer planchet there let us close our accounts for as they say short reckonings make long friends
that must be better than the money ma foi said d'artagnan stroking his mustache i can't say no
listen then planchet i will tell you all about it and i shall build piles of crowns said planchet begin my dear master well this is it said d'artagnan drawing his breath
and which nevertheless is not foreign to the conversation our musketeer had just had with the king only this scene took place out of paris in a house possessed by the superintendent fouquet in the village of saint mande
the minister had just arrived at this country house followed by his principal clerk who carried an enormous portfolio full of papers to be examined and others waiting for signature
the masters had dined supper was being prepared for twenty subaltern guests the superintendent did not stop on alighting from his carriage he at the same bound sprang through the doorway traversed the apartments and gained his cabinet where he declared he would shut himself up to work
commanding that he should not be disturbed for anything but an order from the king as soon as this order was given fouquet shut himself up and two footmen were placed as sentinels at his door
but against all probability
when the repeated noise of several slight equal knocks struck his ear and appeared to fix his utmost attention
turned his ear and listened the strokes continued
for at the moment fouquet approached the glass listening the same noise was renewed and in the same measure oh oh murmured the intendant with surprise who is yonder i did not expect anybody to day
he appeared to think of nothing now but work in fact with incredible rapidity and marvelous lucidity fouquet deciphered the largest papers and most complicated writings correcting them annotating them
signatures figures references became multiplied as if ten clerks that is to say a hundred fingers and ten brains had performed the duties instead of the five fingers and single brain of this man
from time to time only fouquet absorbed by his work raised his head to cast a furtive glance upon a clock placed before him the reason of this was
always certain consequently provided he was not disturbed of arriving at the close in the time his devouring activity had fixed but in the midst of his ardent labor the soft strokes upon the little bell placed behind the glass sounded again hasty and consequently more urgent
the lady appears to be impatient said fouquet humph a calm that must be the comtesse
the greatest certainty is that i do not know who it can be but that i know who it cannot be
at the end of a quarter of an hour however impatience prevailed over fouquet in his turn
he thrust his papers into his portfolio and giving a glance at the mirror whilst the taps continued faster than ever oh oh said he whence comes all this racket what has happened and who can the ariadne be who expects me so impatiently let us see
when there he touched another spring which opened not a board but a block of the wall and he went out by that opening leaving the door to shut of itself then fouquet descended about a score of steps which sank winding underground and came to a long subterranean passage
and from this closet an untenanted chamber furnished with the utmost elegance as soon as he entered he examined carefully whether the glass closed without leaving any trace
he opened by means of a small gold key the triple fastenings of a door in front of him
really said the marquise in a melancholy tone
and how evident it is that you fear the least suspicion of your amours to escape
no unfortunately no but tell me you who during a year i have loved without return or hope you are mistaken without hope it is true but not without return what for me of my love
devotion ah then you do not love me devotion is but a virtue love is a passion listen to me i implore you i should not have come hither without a serious motive
the motive is of very little consequence so that you are but here
oh that would be to live like a happy woman
to be speaking of my wife yes certainly of her i spoke
of all the women with whom i have had any relations
and who has the least intercourse with me at least monsieur she is not reduced to place as i have done her hand upon the ornament of a glass to call you to her at least you do not reply to her by the mysterious alarming sound of a bell the spring of which comes from i don't know where
under pain of breaking off forever your connections with her
it is with mystery alone we can love without trouble
just now i was prepared to speak my ideas were clear and bold now i am quite confused quite troubled i fear i bring you bad news if it is to that bad news i owe your presence marquise welcome be even that bad news
let me hear nothing of the bad news but speak of yourself no no on the contrary
fouquet my friend it is of immense importance
yes colbert little colbert mazarin's factotum the same well
cuistre in the first place is it positively true that the king has given it to him it is so said ay but who says so everybody everybody that's nobody mention some one likely to be well informed who says so
madame vanel ah
as you said just now had passed over that love and left the impression upon it of a spot of ink or a stain of grease fouquet fouquet is this the way you always treat the poor creatures you desert
but let me ask you do you know marguerite she was my convent friend and you say that she has informed you that monsieur colbert was named intendant yes she did
in what can an intendant that is to say my subordinate my clerk give me umbrage or injure me even if he is monsieur colbert you do not reflect monsieur apparently
hates me cried fouquet good heavens marquise
where can you live hates me why all the world hates me he of course as others do
more than others let him he is ambitious who is not marquise yes but with him ambition has no bounds
and obtained his end look at that do you mean to say he has the presumption to pass from intendant to superintendent have you not yourself already had the same fear oh oh said fouquet to succeed with madame vanel is one thing to succeed me with the king is another
you to whom i have offered millions instead of millions fouquet you should have offered me a true only and boundless love
if not in one way by another so colbert in your opinion is in a fair way of bargaining for my place of superintendent make yourself easy on that head
but if he should rob you of it ah that is another thing unfortunately before he can reach me that is to say the body of the place he must destroy must make a breach in the advanced works
what you call your advanced works are your creatures are they not your friends exactly so
but but but they must not touch the others well
it is time to look about you who threatens them will you listen to me now
without interrupting me speak
poor woman she vastly deceives herself
yes but that is not all marguerite is intimate as you know with madame d'eymeris and madame lyodot i know it well
and as to the devotion they had for you oh as to those two i can answer for them
began to make notes notes concerning d'eymeris and lyodot exactly i should like to know what those notes were about and that is just what i have brought you madame vanel has taken colbert's notes and sent them to me
no but by a chance which resembles a miracle she has a duplicate of those notes how could she get that listen i told you that colbert found paper on the table yes
yes and wrote upon that paper yes well this pencil was a lead pencil consequently hard so it marked in black upon the first sheet and in white upon the second go on colbert when tearing off the first sheet took no notice of the second well
here it is monsieur read it
indif d'eymeris and lyodot
but what is the meaning of these words
dame said the marquise that is clear enough i think besides that is not all read on read on and fouquet continued
great god cried fouquet to death to death
oh cried fouquet as if he caught a glimpse of the abyss that yawned beneath his feet impossible impossible but who passed a pencil over the marks made by colbert i did i was afraid the first would be effaced
oh i will know all you will know nothing monsieur you despise your enemy too much for that
but i i have time and as you are here
as we are alone i came here to save you monsieur fouquet and not to ruin myself
and i asked he and you you have only a noble heart beware beware so i have done what was right my friend at the risk of my reputation adieu
giving her hand to fouquet to kiss and walking towards the door with so firm a step that he did not dare to bar her passage as to fouquet he retook with his head hanging down and a fixed cloud on his brow the path of the subterranean passage along which ran the metal wires that communicated from one house to the other
turned his head as soon as he heard the steps of the horses and left off looking at the house to look at the dragoons
passing a little review upon the dragoons after having reviewed the buildings not a man not a tag not a horse's hoof escaped his inspection
d'artagnan perceived him the last eh said he eh mordioux i was not mistaken cried raoul turning his horse towards him mistaken no good day to you replied the ex musketeer
take care raoul said d'artagnan
wait a minute i will come back said raoul can you quit your detachment the cornet is there to take my place
be quick then leave your horse or make them give me one i prefer coming back on foot with you raoul hastened to give notice to the cornet who took his post he then dismounted
what do you come from vincennes said he yes monsieur le chevalier and the cardinal
it is even reported he is dead
so much the worse so much the worse for a new king always seeks to get good men in his employment oh the king means no harm replied the young man i say nothing about the crown
if you do not wish to molder away all your life as i have moldered it is true you have fortunately other protectors
athos oh that's different yes athos and if you have any wish to make your way in england you cannot apply to a better person
there is a king god speed him
yes a king who amuses himself it is true but who has had a sword in his hand and can appreciate useful men
i am settled i had some family property
the poverty of d'artagnan was proverbial a gascon he exceeded in ill luck all the gasconnades of france and navarre
d'artagnan caught raoul's look of astonishment
yes a very worthy friend of mine a great nobleman the viceroy of scotland and ireland has endowed me with an inheritance an inheritance and a good one too
thank you look that is my house place de greve yes don't you like this quarter on the contrary the look out over the water is pleasant oh what a pretty old house
which i have transformed into a private house in two days
pardieu and where do you lodge then i i lodge with planchet you said just now this is my house i said so because in fact it is my house i have bought it ah said raoul
at ten years purchase my dear raoul a superb affair i bought the house for thirty thousand livres it has a garden which opens to the rue de la mortillerie the cabaret lets for a thousand livres with the first story the garret or second floor for five hundred livres
indeed yes indeed five hundred livres for a garret why it is not habitable therefore no one inhabits it
yes monsieur well then every time anybody is broken on the wheel or hung quartered or burnt these two windows let for twenty pistoles oh said raoul with horror it is disgusting is it not said d'artagnan
but i do not inhabit it and you let the garret for five hundred livres to the ferocious cabaretier who sub lets it i said then fifteen hundred livres the natural interest of money said raoul five per cent exactly so
i then have left the side of the house at the back store rooms and cellars inundated every winter two hundred livres and the garden which is very fine well planted well shaded under the walls and the portal of saint gervais saint protais thirteen hundred livres
thirteen hundred livres why that is royal this is the whole history
i suspect some canon of having hired the garden to take his pleasure in
that is either a false name or a real name if true he is a canon if false he is some unknown but of what consequence is it to me
your dragoons interrupted my calculations but come
but the dinner was ready there was a remains of military regularity and punctuality preserved in the grocer's household d'artagnan returned to the subject of raoul's future your father brings you up rather strictly said he justly monsieur le chevalier
oh yes i know athos is just but close perhaps
well never want my boy
my dear monsieur d'artagnan
never successful with the ladies then oh my little aramis that my dear friend costs even more than play
you are very hard upon the king my dear monsieur d'artagnan
she is a spaniard you see this queen of ours and she has for mother in law madame anne of austria i know something of the spaniards of the house of austria and next well
he will dismount his musketeers because oats and hay of a horse cost five sols a day oh do not say that
even from your mouth words injurious to his majesty your father eh he is a knight in every bad cause pardieu yes your father is a brave man a caesar it is true but a man without perception now my dear chevalier exclaimed raoul laughing
are you going to speak ill of my father of him you call the great athos
pardieu you are right i
i am an unhappy wretch grown old a tent cord untwisted a pierced cuirass a boot without a sole a spur without a rowel but do me the pleasure to add one thing what is that my dear monsieur d'artagnan simply say mazarin was a pitiful wretch
perhaps he is dead more the reason i say was if i did not hope that he was dead i would entreat you to say mazarin is a pitiful wretch come say so say so for love of me well i will say it
a moment said the latter
here is the conclusion of it repeat raoul repeat but i regret mazarin chevalier you will not say it
but you would regret mazarin and
give it me cried the musketeer the handwriting of monsieur le comte said raoul yes yes and d'artagnan broke the seal dear friend said athos
seek me said d'artagnan letting the paper fall upon the table
make haste his majesty is very anxious to speak to you and expects you at the louvre expects me
open the door monseigneur i entreat you open the door
yes yes said fouquet to himself yes my friend i know you well enough
is it not gourville why yes monseigneur
cast a look at one of his glasses went to the door pushed back the bolt and gourville entered ah monseigneur monseigneur cried he what cruelty in what
now although i might make you an exception gourville i insist upon my orders being respected by others monseigneur at this moment orders doors bolts locks and walls i could have broken forced and overthrown ah ah
oh i assure you it does monseigneur replied gourville
i know there is but do the members meet gourville they not only meet but they have passed a sentence monseigneur a sentence said the superintendent with a shudder and pallor he could not conceal
two of your best friends
sentence of death passed oh you must be mistaken gourville that is impossible here is a copy of the sentence which the king is to sign to day
the king will never sign that said he gourville shook his head
i will face him let him raise his head i will crush him
patience monseigneur for you do not know what colbert is study him quickly it is with this dark financier as it is with meteors which the eye never sees completely before their disastrous invasion when we feel them we are dead
oh gourville this is going too far replied fouquet smiling
corbleu we confront the meteor
are you sure of what you say cried he here is the proof monseigneur and gourville held out to the superintendent
yes that is true murmured the minister the scaffold may be prepared but the king has not signed gourville the king will not sign i shall soon know said gourville how
only three days ago i received a present of some syracuse wine from poor d'eymeris what does that prove replied gourville
has deliberated in the absence of the accused and that the whole proceeding was complete when they were arrested what are they then arrested no doubt they are
lyodot yesterday at daybreak d'eymeris the day before yesterday in the evening
their disappearances had disturbed nobody
it is being cried by sound of trumpet at this moment in paris and in truth monseigneur there is scarcely anybody but yourself ignorant of the event
i would go to the king cried fouquet but as i go to the louvre i will pass by the hotel de ville we shall see if the sentence is signed incredulity thou art the pest of all great minds said gourville shrugging his shoulders gourville
yes continued he and incredulity
that is to say in an instant let us go cried fouquet desire the door to be opened gourville be cautious said the latter
ah my brother
the devil if my brother is there my affairs are bad gourville
monseigneur calumniates him said gourville laughing
what do you excuse him cried fouquet a fellow without a heart without ideas a devourer of wealth he knows you are rich and would ruin me no but he would have your purse that is all
enough enough a hundred thousand crowns per month during two years
it is i that pay gourville and i know my figures gourville laughed in a silent sly manner
ah gourville that is a vile joke this is not the place monseigneur do not be angry
eh but everything and every man has a good side their useful side monseigneur the bandits whom the abbe keeps in pay and drink have their useful side have they prove that if you please
you advise me then to be reconciled to the abbe said fouquet ironically i advise you monseigneur not to quarrel with a hundred or a hundred and twenty loose fellows who by putting their rapiers end to end would form a cordon of steel capable of surrounding three thousand men
fouquet darted a searching glance at gourville
that is all very well
said he to the footman you are right gourville two minutes after the abbe fouquet appeared in the doorway with profound reverence he was a man of from forty to forty five years of age half churchman half soldier a spadassin grafted upon an abbe
upon seeing that he had not a sword by his side you might be sure he had pistols
said he oh oh how coldly you speak to me brother i speak like a man who is in a hurry monsieur the abbe looked maliciously at gourville and anxiously at fouquet and said
a play debt a sacred debt what next said fouquet bravely for he comprehended that the abbe fouquet would not have disturbed him for such a want a thousand to my butcher who will supply no more meat next
the fellow has made me take back seven suits of my people's
which would be a humiliation for the church what else said fouquet you will please to remark said the abbe humbly
that is delicate monsieur replied fouquet so as you see i wait and i ask nothing oh no it is not for want of need though i assure you the minister reflected for a minute twelve hundred pistoles to the tailor
that seems a great deal for clothes said he i maintain a hundred men said the abbe proudly that is a charge i believe why a hundred men said fouquet are you a richelieu or a mazarin to require a hundred men as a guard
ah how can you put such a question why i maintain a hundred men ah why yes i do put that question to you what have you to do with a hundred men answer ingrate continued the abbe
explain yourself why monsieur the superintendent i only want one valet de chambre for my part and even if i were alone could help myself very well but you you who have so many enemies a hundred men are not enough for me to defend you with a
i maintain then these men in order that in public places in assemblies no voice may be raised against you and without them monsieur you would be loaded with imprecations
ah i did not know you were my champion to such an extent monsieur le abbe you doubt it cried the abbe listen then
a man was cheapening a fowl well how could that injure me abbe this way the fowl was not fat the purchaser refused to give eighteen sous for it
death to the devils and the canaille were delighted the joker added
whom i like very much he made his way through the press saying to the joker
here's a thrust for colbert and one for fouquet replied the joker upon which they drew in front of the cook's shop with a hedge of the curious round them and five hundred as curious at the windows well said fouquet
well monsieur my menneville spitted the joker to the great astonishment of the spectators and said to the cook this goose my friend for it is fatter than your fowl that is the way monsieur ended the abbe triumphantly in which i spend my revenues
and i have a hundred as good as he continued the abbe very well said fouquet give the account to gourville and remain here this evening
yes there will be supper but the chest is closed gourville will open it for you
leave us then we are friends said the abbe with a bow oh yes friends come gourville
i shall be back in an hour rest easy abbe then aside to gourville
he stretched forth his hand and touched stone he rose to his seat and found himself lying on his bournous in a bed of dry heather very soft and odoriferous
he found that he was in a grotto went towards the opening and through a kind of fanlight saw a blue sea
the air and water were shining in the beams of the morning sun on the shore the sailors were sitting chatting and laughing and at ten yards from them the boat was at anchor undulating gracefully on the water there for some time he enjoyed the fresh breeze which played on his brow
and listened to the dash of the waves on the beach that left against the rocks a lace of foam as white as silver he was for some time without reflection or thought for the divine charm which is in the things of nature
then gradually this view of the outer world so calm so pure so grand reminded him of the illusiveness of his vision and once more awakened memory he recalled his arrival on the island his presentation to a smuggler chief
a subterranean palace full of splendor an excellent supper and a spoonful of hashish it seemed however even in the very face of open day
so deep was the impression made in his mind by the dream and so strong a hold had it taken of his imagination thus every now and then he saw in fancy amid the sailors seated on a rock or undulating in the vessel
one of the shadows which had shared his dream with looks and kisses otherwise his head was perfectly clear and his body refreshed he was free from the slightest headache on the contrary he felt a certain degree of lightness a faculty for absorbing the pure air
and enjoying the bright sunshine more vividly than ever he went gayly up to the sailors who rose as soon as they perceived him and the patron accosting him said
this is then all reality there exists a man who has received me in this island entertained me right royally and his departed while i was asleep he exists as certainly
and if you will use your glass you will in all probability recognize your host in the midst of his crew so saying gaetano pointed in a direction in which a small vessel was making sail towards the southern point of corsica
franz adjusted his telescope and directed it towards the yacht gaetano was not mistaken at the stern the mysterious stranger was standing up looking towards the shore and holding a spy glass in his hand he was attired as he had been on the previous evening
and waved his pocket handkerchief to his guest in token of adieu franz returned the salute by shaking his handkerchief as an exchange of signals after a second a slight cloud of smoke was seen at the stern of the vessel
which rose gracefully as it expanded in the air and then franz heard a slight report there do you hear observed gaetano
the young man took his carbine and fired it in the air but without any idea that the noise could be heard at the distance which separated the yacht from the shore what are your excellency's orders inquired gaetano in the first place light me a torch
ah yes i understand replied the patron to find the entrance to the enchanted apartment with much pleasure your excellency if it would amuse you and i will get you the torch you ask for
but i too have had the idea you have and two or three times the same fancy has come over me but i have always given it up giovanni light a torch he added and give it to his excellency giovanni obeyed
franz took the lamp and entered the subterranean grotto followed by gaetano
but it was in vain that he carried his torch all round the exterior surface of the grotto
others had before him attempted the same thing and like him in vain yet he did not leave a foot of this granite wall as impenetrable as futurity without strict scrutiny he did not see a fissure without introducing the blade of his hunting sword into it
or a projecting point on which he did not lean
which were at last utterly useless at the end of this time he gave up his search and gaetano smiled when franz appeared again on the shore the yacht only seemed like a small white speck on the horizon he looked again through his glass but even then he could not distinguish anything
gaetano reminded him that he had come for the purpose of shooting goats which he had utterly forgotten he took his fowling piece and began to hunt over the island with the air of a man who is fulfilling a duty rather than enjoying a pleasure
and at the end of a quarter of an hour he had killed a goat and two kids these animals though wild and agile as chamois were too much like domestic goats and franz could not consider them as game moreover other ideas much more enthralling occupied his mind
the second visit was a long one and when he returned the kid was roasted and the repast ready franz was sitting on the spot where he was on the previous evening when his mysterious host had invited him to supper
and he saw the little yacht now like a sea gull on the wave continuing her flight towards corsica why he remarked to gaetano you told me that signor sinbad was going to malaga while it seems he is in the direction of porto vecchio
don't you remember said the patron i told you that among the crew there were two corsican brigands true and he is going to land them added franz precisely so replied gaetano ah he is one who fears neither god nor satan they say
or any authorities he smiles at them let them try to pursue him why in the first place his yacht is not a ship but a bird and he would beat any frigate three knots in every nine and if he were to throw himself on the coast why is he not certain of finding friends everywhere
had the honor of being on excellent terms with the smugglers and bandits along the whole coast of the mediterranean and so enjoyed exceptional privileges as to franz he had no longer any inducement to remain at monte cristo
as it disappeared in the gulf of porto vecchio with it was effaced the last trace of the preceding night and then supper sinbad hashish statues all became a dream for franz
they had lost sight of monte cristo when franz had once again set foot on shore he forgot for the moment at least the events which had just passed while he finished his affairs of pleasure at florence
who was awaiting him at rome he set out and on the saturday evening reached the eternal city by the mail coach an apartment as we have said had been retained beforehand and thus he had but to go to signor pastrini's hotel
but this was not so easy a matter for the streets were thronged with people and rome was already a prey to that low and feverish murmur which precedes all great events and at rome there are four great events in every year
the carnival holy week corpus christi and the feast of saint peter all the rest of the year the city is in that state of dull apathy between life and death which renders it similar to a kind of station between this world and the next
a sublime spot a resting place full of poetry and character and at which franz had already halted five or six times and at each time found it more marvellous and striking
and reached the hotel on his first inquiry he was told
this plan succeeded and signor pastrini himself ran to him excusing himself for having made his excellency wait scolding the waiters taking the candlestick from the porter
when morcerf himself appeared the apartment consisted of two small rooms and a parlor the two rooms looked onto the street a fact which signor pastrini commented upon as an inappreciable advantage
who was supposed to be a sicilian or maltese but the host was unable to decide to which of the two nations the traveller belonged very good signor pastrini said franz but we must have some supper instantly and a carriage for tomorrow and the following days
you shall be served immediately but as for the carriage what as to the carriage exclaimed albert come come signor pastrini no joking we must have a carriage sir replied the host we will do all in our power to procure you one this is all i can say
and when shall we know inquired franz to morrow morning answered the inn keeper oh the deuce then we shall pay the more that's all i see plainly enough
i am afraid if we offer them double that we shall not procure a carriage then they must put horses to mine
there are no horses albert looked at franz like a man who hears a reply he does not understand do you understand that my dear franz no horses he said but can't we have post horses
they have been all hired this fortnight and there are none left but those absolutely requisite for posting what are we to say to this asked franz i say that when a thing completely surpasses my comprehension i am accustomed not to dwell on that thing but to pass to another
is supper ready signor pastrini yes your excellency
for a long time marius was neither dead nor alive for many weeks he lay in a fever accompanied by delirium and by tolerably grave cerebral symptoms caused more by the shocks of the wounds on the head than by the wounds themselves
he repeated cosette's name for whole nights in the melancholy loquacity of fever and with the sombre obstinacy of agony the extent of some of the lesions presented a serious danger
the suppuration of large wounds being always liable to become re absorbed and consequently to kill the sick man under certain atmospheric conditions at every change of weather at the slightest storm the physician was uneasy
at that epoch nicolette used up a sheet as big as the ceiling as she put it for lint it was not without difficulty that the chloruretted lotions and the nitrate of silver overcame the gangrene as long as there was any danger
every day sometimes twice a day a very well dressed gentleman with white hair such was the description given by the porter came to inquire about the wounded man and left a large package of lint for the dressings
finally on the seventh of september four months to a day after the sorrowful night when he had been brought back to his grandfather in a dying condition the doctor declared that he would answer for marius convalescence began
but marius was forced to remain for two months more stretched out on a long chair on account of the results called up by the fracture of his collar bone there always is a last wound like that which will not close and which prolongs the dressings indefinitely
to the great annoyance of the sick person however this long illness and this long convalescence saved him from all pursuit
not even of a public character which six months will not extinguish revolts in the present state of society are so much the fault of every one that they are followed by a certain necessity of shutting the eyes
the wounded were covered and protected by this indignation and with the exception of those who had been made prisoners in the very act of combat the councils of war did not dare to trouble any one so marius was left in peace
and then through every form of ecstasy it was found difficult to prevent his passing every night beside the wounded man
he required his daughter to take the finest linen in the house for compresses and bandages
contrived to spare the fine linen while allowing the grandfather to think that he was obeyed
that for the preparation of lint batiste is not nearly so good as coarse linen nor new linen as old linen he was present at all the dressings of the wounds
nothing was more touching than to see him with his gentle senile palsy offer the wounded man a cup of his cooling draught he overwhelmed the doctor with questions he did not observe that he asked the same ones over and over again
on the day when the doctor announced to him that marius was out of danger
more than diana herself jeanne and her firm breton breasts then he knelt upon a chair and basque who was watching him through the half open door made sure that he was praying up to that time he had not believed in god
at each succeeding phase of improvement which became more and more pronounced the grandfather raved he executed a multitude of mechanical actions full of joy he ascended and descended the stairs without knowing why
a pretty female neighbor was amazed one morning at receiving a big bouquet
the husband made a jealous scene
every moment he kept asking the doctor is he no longer in danger he gazed upon marius with the eyes of a grandmother he brooded over him while he ate he no longer knew himself he no longer rendered himself an account of himself
marius was the master of the house there was abdication in his joy he was the grandson of his grandson in the state of joy in which he then was he was the most venerable of children
in his fear lest he might fatigue or annoy the convalescent he stepped behind him to smile he was content joyous delighted charming young his white locks added a gentle majesty to the gay radiance of his visage
when grace is mingled with wrinkles it is adorable there is an indescribable aurora in beaming old age as for marius as he allowed them to dress his wounds and care for him he had but one fixed idea cosette
after the fever and delirium had left him he did not again pronounce her name and it might have been supposed that he no longer thought of her he held his peace precisely because his soul was there
he did not know what had become of cosette the whole affair of the rue de la chanvrerie was like a cloud in his memory shadows that were almost indistinct floated through his mind eponine gavroche mabeuf
all his friends gloomily intermingled with the smoke of the barricade the strange passage
he understood nothing connected with his own life he did not know how nor by whom he had been saved and no one of those around him knew this all that they had been able to tell him was that he had been brought home at night in a hackney coach
past present future were nothing more to him than the mist of a vague idea but in that fog there was one immovable point one clear and precise outline something made of granite a resolution a will
to find cosette once more for him the idea of life was not distinct from the idea of cosette he had decreed in his heart that he would not accept the one without the other and he was immovably resolved to exact of any person whatever
who should desire to force him to live from his grandfather from fate from hell the restitution of his vanished eden he did not conceal from himself the fact that obstacles existed
he was not won over and was but little softened by all the solicitude and tenderness of his grandfather
then in his reveries of an invalid which were still feverish
which had for its object his conquest he remained cold the grandfather absolutely wasted his poor old smile
and let things take their course but that when it became a question of cosette he would find another face and that his grandfather's true attitude would be unmasked then there would be an unpleasant scene a recrudescence of family questions
a confrontation of positions every sort of sarcasm and all manner of objections at one and the same time fauchelevent coupelevent fortune poverty a stone about his neck the future violent resistance conclusion
a refusal marius stiffened himself in advance and then in proportion as he regained life the old ulcers of his memory opened once more he reflected again on the past colonel pontmercy placed himself once more
marius he told himself
who had been so unjust and so hard to his father
the old man was gently pained by this
and had regained consciousness had not once called him father it is true that he did not say monsieur to him but he contrived not to say either the one or the other by means of a certain way of turning his phrases obviously a crisis was approaching
as almost always happens in such cases marius skirmished before giving battle by way of proving himself this is called feeling the ground
apropos of a newspaper which had fallen into his hands and gave vent to a royalist harangue
the men of ninety three were giants said marius with severity the old man held his peace and uttered not a sound during the remainder of that day marius who had always present to his mind the inflexible grandfather of his early years
augured from it a hot conflict and augmented his preparations for the fray in the inmost recesses of his mind
what had become of jean valjean immediately after having laughed at cosette's graceful command when no one was paying any heed to him jean valjean had risen and had gained the antechamber unperceived
this was the very room which eight months before he had entered black with mud with blood and powder bringing back the grandson to the grandfather the old wainscoting was garlanded with foliage and flowers the musicians were seated on the sofa
on which they had laid marius down basque in a black coat knee breeches white stockings and white gloves was arranging roses round all of the dishes that were to be served
charged basque to explain his absence and went away the long windows of the dining room opened on the street
and returned to the rue de l'homme arme in order to return thither
and the blancs manteaux it was a little longer but it was the road through which for the last three months he had become accustomed to pass every day on his way from the rue de l'homme arme
through which cosette had passed excluded for him all possibility of any other itinerary
he lighted his candle and mounted the stairs the apartment was empty even toussaint was no longer there
all the cupboards stood open he penetrated to cosette's bedroom there were no sheets on the bed the pillow covered with ticking and without a case or lace was laid on the blankets folded up on the foot of the mattress whose covering was visible
and on which no one was ever to sleep again all the little feminine objects which cosette was attached to had been carried away nothing remained except the heavy furniture and the four walls toussaint's bed was despoiled in like manner
one bed only was made up and seemed to be waiting some one
jean valjean looked at the walls closed some of the cupboard doors and went and came from one room to another then he sought his own chamber once more and set his candle on a table he had disengaged his arm from the sling
and he used his right hand as though it did not hurt him he approached his bed and his eyes rested was it by chance was it intentionally on the inseparable of which cosette had been jealous on the little portmanteau which never left him
on his arrival in the rue de l'homme arme on the fourth of june he had deposited it on a round table near the head of his bed he went to this table with a sort of vivacity took a key from his pocket and opened the valise
from it he slowly drew forth the garments in which ten years before
first the little gown then the black fichu then the stout coarse child's shoes which cosette might almost have worn still so tiny were her feet then the fustian bodice which was very thick
then the knitted petticoat next the apron with pockets then the woollen stockings these stockings which still preserved the graceful form of a tiny leg were no longer than jean valjean's hand all this was black of hue
he laid them on the bed he fell to thinking he called up memories it was in winter in a very cold month of december she was shivering half naked in rags her poor little feet were all red in their wooden shoes
the mother must have felt pleased in her grave to see her daughter wearing mourning for her and above all to see that she was properly clothed and that she was warm
they had traversed it together cosette and he he thought of what the weather had been of the leafless trees of the wood destitute of birds of the sunless sky it mattered not it was charming he arranged the tiny garments on the bed
the fichu next to the petticoat the stockings beside the shoes and he looked at them one after the other she was no taller than that
she had laughed they walked hand in hand she had no one in the world but him then his venerable white head fell forward on the bed that stoical old heart broke his face was engulfed so to speak in cosette's garments
and if any one had passed up the stairs at that moment he would have heard frightful sobs
began once more jacob struggled with the angel but one night
clasped and overthrown him how many times had the truth set her knee inexorably upon his breast how many times hurled to earth by the light had he begged for mercy how many times had that implacable spark lighted within him
and upon him by the bishop dazzled him by force when he had wished to be blind how many times had he risen to his feet in the combat held fast to the rock
dragged in the dust now getting the upper hand of his conscience again overthrown by it how many times after an equivoque
had he heard his irritated conscience cry in his ear a trip you wretch how many times had his refractory thoughts rattled convulsively in his throat under the evidence of duty resistance to god funereal sweats
what secret wounds which he alone felt bleed what excoriations in his lamentable existence
enlightened despair in his heart serenity in his soul and vanquished he had felt himself the conqueror and after having dislocated broken and rent his conscience with red hot pincers
it had said to him as it stood over him formidable luminous and tranquil now go in peace but on emerging from so melancholy a conflict what a lugubrious peace alas
a heart rending question presented itself predestinations are not all direct they do not open out in a straight avenue before the predestined man they have blind courts impassable alleys obscure turns
he had come to the supreme crossing of good and evil he had that gloomy intersection beneath his eyes on this occasion once more as had happened to him already in other sad vicissitudes two roads opened out before him
the one tempting the other alarming which was he to take he was counselled to the one which alarmed him by that mysterious index finger which we all perceive whenever we fix our eyes on the darkness
of cosette and marius it was he who had willed that happiness it was he who had brought it about he had himself buried it in his entrails and at that moment when he reflected on it he was able to enjoy the sort of satisfaction
which an armorer would experience on recognizing his factory mark on a knife on withdrawing it all smoking from his own breast cosette had marius marius possessed cosette they had everything even riches and this was his doing
now that it was there should he force himself on this happiness should he treat it as belonging to him no doubt cosette did belong to another but should he jean valjean retain of cosette all that he could retain
should he remain the sort of father half seen but respected which he had hitherto been should he without saying a word bring his past to that future should he present himself there as though he had a right
and should he seat himself veiled at that luminous fireside should he take those innocent hands into his tragic hands with a smile
which dragged behind them the disgraceful shadow of the law should he enter into participation in the fair fortunes of cosette and marius should he render the obscurity on his brow and the cloud upon theirs still more dense
should he place his catastrophe as a third associate in their felicity should he continue to hold his peace in a word should he be the sinister mute of destiny beside these two happy beings
good or evil stands behind this severe interrogation point
he gazed intently at the sphinx he examined the pitiless problem under all its aspects cosette that charming existence was the raft of this shipwreck what was he to do
if he clung to it he should emerge from disaster he should ascend again into the sunlight he should let the bitter water drip from his garments and his hair he was saved he should live and if he let go his hold then the abyss
thus he took sad council with his thoughts or to speak more correctly he fought he kicked furiously internally now against his will now against his conviction
that relieved him possibly but the beginning was savage
he compared them and sobbed
he felt that he had been stopped short alas in this fight to the death between our egotism and our duty when we thus retreat step by step
bewildered furious exasperated at having to yield disputing the ground hoping for a possible flight seeking an escape what an abrupt and sinister resistance does the foot of the wall offer in our rear
to feel the sacred shadow which forms an obstacle the invisible inexorable what an obsession then one is never done with conscience make your choice brutus make your choice cato
it is fathomless since it is god one flings into that well the labor of one's whole life one flings in one's fortune one flings in one's riches one flings in one's success one flings in one's liberty or fatherland
one flings in one's well being one flings in one's repose one flings in one's joy more more more empty the vase tip the urn one must finish by flinging in one's heart
somewhere in the fog of the ancient hells there is a tun like that is not one pardonable if one at last refuses
are not chains which are endless above human strength
the obedience of matter is limited by friction is there no limit to the obedience of the soul if perpetual motion is impossible can perpetual self sacrifice be exacted the first step is nothing it is the last which is difficult
and of that which it entailed what is a re entrance into the galleys compared to entrance into the void oh first step that must be descended how sombre art thou oh second step how black art thou how could he refrain from turning aside his head this time
martyrdom is sublimation corrosive sublimation it is a torture which consecrates one can consent to it for the first hour one seats oneself on the throne of glowing iron one places on one's head the crown of hot iron
one accepts the globe of red hot iron one takes the sceptre of red hot iron but the mantle of flame still remains to be donned and comes there not a moment when the miserable flesh revolts and when one abdicates from suffering
he weighed he reflected he considered the alternatives the mysterious balance of light and darkness should he impose his galleys on those two dazzling children or should he consummate his irremediable engulfment by himself
on one side lay the sacrifice of cosette on the other that of himself at what solution should he arrive what decision did he come to what resolution did he take what was his own inward definitive response
to the unbribable interrogatory of fatality what door did he decide to open which side of his life did he resolve upon closing and condemning among all the unfathomable precipices which surrounded him which was his choice
what extremity did he accept to which of the gulfs did he nod his head his dizzy revery lasted all night long he remained there until daylight in the same attitude bent double over that bed prostrate beneath the enormity of fate
crushed perchance alas with clenched fists with arms outspread at right angles like a man crucified who has been un nailed and flung face down on the earth there he remained for twelve hours
ice cold without once raising his head and without uttering a word he was as motionless as a corpse while his thoughts wallowed on the earth and soared now like the hydra now like the eagle any one to behold him thus motionless
all at once he shuddered convulsively and his mouth glued to cosette's garments kissed them then it could be seen that he was alive who could see
the medium was a thin nervous looking youth of about nineteen but as mister dempster assured mister hogarth was in every way to be trusted as his character was irreproachable and of great sincerity and simplicity
being caused by spiritual agency and though he could
as every unbeliever always feels at first but the eagerness of the large party who were gathered together had something infectious in it many of them had known severe bereavement
and the brief messages communicated by raps or by the voice of the medium gave them consolation and hope to francis the details communicated appeared to be meagre and unsatisfactory the spirits all said that they were happy
which to some present was a fact of inestimable value but to him it was a matter of course he never had believed since he had thought out the subject in early manhood that god would continue existence if he did not make it a blessing
but to others who like many before him had intelligently accepted of a sterner theology and who had been struggling through years of chaotic doubts and fancies for footing on which to rest he saw that these assurances gave real strength and support
an hour had passed amidst these manifestations the interest of the believers continued to be unflagging but francis felt a little tired of it he had lost no dear friend by death
the dearest beings in the world to him were his two cousins and they were divided from him by circumstances almost as cruel as the grave how few have done justice to the sad partings the mournful alienations
bereavement in all its varied bitterness has been sung by many poets in strains worthy of the subject but circumstances are so insidious and often so prosaic that their tragical operation has been rarely treated of in verse
his thoughts recurred as they always did when he felt sad or serious to jane melville to the will that had brought them together and at the same time so cruelly parted them to the unknown father whose own life had been blighted by the loss
of domestic happiness dealing so fatal a blow to the son whom he meant to bless and reward by placing him in circumstances where he could not help loving jane and forbidding so far as he could forbid the marriage of two souls made for one another
francis was wondering if his father now saw the mistake he had committed or regretted it when he was startled by the announcement that his father was in the room and wished to communicate with him
starting up incredulously but at the same time somewhat awed by the mere possibility that such a one was there out of the body owning him as his son which he had not done while he was alive does the spirit mean to communicate by raps or through the medium
asked mister dempster by raps was the answer given take the alphabet in your own hand said mister dempster and ask the spirit his name and then pass your finger over the alphabet the rap will arrest you at the right letter
francis passed his finger along the alphabet half disdainfully half in curiosity the rap stopped him at the letter h he had never thought the curious little taps sounded so unearthly before
next he was stopped at e then at n then at r and next at y and so on till the full name of henry hogarth was spelled out you wish to communicate with me then you love me now
the three quick raps meaning yes was the immediate reply are you satisfied with what i have done at cross hall since your death again the alphabet was called for and the raps spelled out very much pleased are you sorry for the will you made
all will be well in the end was spelled out did you see your nieces sufferings unmoved their poverty their disappointments their unfitness for the work that you had set them to do they are better for what they have suffered was spelled out
and you too does the letter in my pocket come from my mother the three raps replied in the affirmative did you give her an annuity as she says you did a single rap meaning no was the reply
what did you give her then to make her forego her claims on you a sum of money was the reply francis observed a great difference in the character of the raps proceeding from mister hogarth from those of the spirit last summoned
which had been supposed to be that of mister dempster's eldest daughter who had died at sixteen and of a lingering disease the latter were faint and almost inaudible to an unpractised ear while those of his father were firm and distinct
there was never any power of knowing from what part of the room the raps would come and as answer after answer appeared to come so readily to his questions
advise me my father tell me what to do if you see more and know than more i can do should i assist my mother as she asks me to do the single impatient rap meaning no was the immediate reply
can i ever have what i most desire in the world you promise improvement i want happiness said francis passionately
as to what they thought of him patience i watch over you was the reply what do you do in the spiritual world i am learning answered the spirit from one who loves me what is her name asked francis
the alphabet was in his hands he was anxious not to let any sign of his give any clue in case of its being all imposture and extraordinary quickness of sight he purposely passed over the letters but was rapped back by the recognised signal
till the name marguerite was spelled out
you think all is well in the end you have met marguerite in the spirit world after being separated for a lifetime in this and this is very sweet to you but i want jane now to help me to live worthily can i win her in this life
after a time said the spirit rapping by the alphabet this answer to his inaudible question you then can answer mental questions thought francis what connection can mister phillips possibly have with missus peck or rather elizabeth hogarth
but to this inaudible question the spirit made no reply and told him through the medium that he was disinclined for any further communication certainly it was a question which he felt conscious he had no right to put after what mister phillips had said to him
the spirit was in the right not to answer it are you convinced said mister dempster who had seen the surprise with which mister hogarth had spelled out the answers i am staggered said francis
the general answers might have been given at random but the names i am convinced were unknown to every one here except myself
i have asked some questions as to the future said francis i do not know if it is allowable to do so do your spirits claim to have a knowledge of what is to come oh yes they do those of the highest class in particular said mister dempster
i do not see how they can said francis musingly to know the future is a prerogative of omniscience and even the highest created intelligence cannot tell what his purposes may be
how do we guess at the future with sufficient accuracy to direct us in the present but by generalization from experience
sees more into other souls and their workings than we can possibly do while encumbered with these robes of clay and consequently can make a juster generalization said mister dempster but not an infallible one said francis
but as to the present their views are sure to be correct said francis if they are good spirits and not lying spirits we prayed against their appearance and i do not believe that the spirit
who has been communicating with you was of that kind said mister dempster how then do you judge between lying spirits and true ones asked francis by the nature of their communications
cannot be delivered by a good spirit then you still continue to be the judges of the spirits you do not bow your morality to theirs you select and reject as you see good morality is universal and eternal
said mister dempster even god himself cannot make evil good or good evil
then have these manifestations taught you anything that could not have been otherwise learned asked francis they have taught me much that i could not have otherwise learned i cannot say what other people may attain
to through pure reason or through a simple faith in the revealed will of god there are diversities of administration but the same spirit said mister dempster with a simple earnestness that weighed much with francis
but here mister dempster's attention was called to a message from an old friend who had just died
these raps were still stronger than those of mister hogarth being violent and following immediately on the question wherever a negative or affirmative was used mister dempster said he had been a powerful young man
of the most unquestionable determination and that the raps were always consonant to the character of the spirit when in life
the date of his death the length of time he had existed without food and water and the clothes he had on when he died
who had so long mourned for her youngest born that he was expecting her soon to join him in the spirit land the place where the old lady lived was mentioned and her state of health was described as being bad all perfectly true perfectly true mister hogarth
his was a distressing fate i expected that we should have something good in manifestations this evening but i scarcely looked for anything so perfectly satisfactory as this every name and every date exactly correct are you not convinced now
i am certainly very much staggered said francis
i often think of his solitary death have you heard that his mother is in bad health
and you heard her age but we must make a note of the date and ascertain if she is particularly worse to night i feel sure that there are not many days of this earth for her and how blessed a thing it is
when francis got into the open air after the excitement of the evening
the difficulty and almost the impossibility of any cheat or collusion and the apparent sincerity of all who had been sitting by him during the manifestations increased the bewilderment of his mind
everything is going to the dogs at my station i will probably have to buy land at a high price and there appears to have been great mismanagement from the accounts i hear another six months like the last and i will be a ruined man
it is very hard that one cannot take a short holiday without suffering so grievously for it what were your accounts phillips i think you said they were rather unsatisfactory
will look to wiriwilta a little when you return and send me your opinion i had better entrust you with full powers to act for me for i should prefer you as my attorney to grant i hope he will not be offended at the transfer said brandon oh i think not
he took it very reluctantly for he said his own affairs were enough for him and perhaps a little more than enough said brandon with a smile in that case i will be very glad to do all in my power for you
i have no wish to return to australia said mister phillips if i can possibly afford to live here with a family like mine england offers so many advantages in fact
and that is london very true if you have enough to live on said brandon shrugging his shoulders i must go now to work as hard as ever to get things set to rights again and perhaps in another dozen of years
when i am feeble old and grey i may return and spend the poor remnant of my days in this delightful centre of civilization but with me fortunately there are only the two alternatives either london or the bush of australia
there is no middle course of life desirable if i cannot attain the one i must make the best of the other harriett phillips listened to all this
she had no fancy for a twelve years banishment from england nor for a rough life in the bush mister brandon had been represented to her as a thriving settler who had made money she saw the very comfortable style in which her brother lived
and she had no objection to such an establishment for herself but she was not so particularly fond of mister brandon as to accept for his sake a life so very different and so very much inferior she felt that she had been deceived
and she did not like being deceived or mistaken and she still less liked to make mistakes and instead of blaming herself she was angry with everyone else her brother her sister in law
brandon himself for leading her to believe that his circumstances were so much better than they were of course he would ask her he could not help doing so but as to accepting him that was quite a different question
she had put on her old bonnet with a grudge at elsie and when missus phillips appeared in the drawing room ready for the party to the exhibition in all the splendour of her new one which really looked lovely and she lovely in it
and harriett caught the reflection of both figures in the large mirror she felt still more dissatisfied with everybody than she had done before the gentlemen were ready and they were just about to start when a light quick step came to the door and a little tap was heard
harriett opened it and was delighted to see elsie holding in her hand the second bonnet completed equally beautiful equally tasteful and apparently quite as expensive oh
look at alice's clever handiwork and alice was introduced a little unwillingly into the drawing room to be complimented on her taste and her despatch and to shake hands with the two gentlemen miss phillips was too much engrossed with her bonnet
and with the improvement it would make in her appearance to observe the earnest anxious looks of her two fancied admirers as they greeted her sister's lady'smaid or that they looked with interest and concern on her tired face
which though now a little flushed with excitement bore to those who knew the circumstances traces of having been up very late and very early over her work i knew she could do it harriett whispered to mister brandon when alice left the room
she is so excessively quick i never would have said so much about it yesterday if i had not known she could easily do it and does not mine look as well as missus phillips's i said it would and so she accepted mister hogarth's arm
and went to see the pictures with a better judge than brandon in all the triumph of her new bonnet the lightest the most becoming she had ever had in her life but her influence with walter brandon was lost for ever
with her good common sense or elsie with her sweet voice and winning ways hanging on his arm instead of missus phillips who was very uninteresting to him though her great beauty and excellent style of dress made her an object of interest to other people
and who always enjoyed being well stared at in public places but jane was engaged with her pupils at this time and elsie was always kept very busy so that neither of them could accompany the party and francis hogarth felt disappointed
for he had anticipated the society of one or both of them how curiously the egotist
how harriett phillips would have started if she could have read the hearts of hogarth and brandon and seen what a very infinitesimal share she had in either francis was only impelled to pay attention to miss phillips by his natural sense of politeness
and by the wish to make the situation of his cousins in the family pleasant as far as it lay in his power to do so while brandon who had at last struck the key note of harriett's character was astonished to find new proofs of her selfishness
and egotism peeping out in the most trifling circumstances he observed how different her manner was towards him now that a man of property in the old country had appeared in the circle of her acquaintances
and he could not fail to see that an additional coldness had come over her when his circumstances were supposed to be less flourishing and this made him rather disposed
in derbyshire
georgiana gave way to her so much she had appeared more amiable than she did now the armed neutrality which she maintained with her sister in law had amused brandon at first but now it appeared to him to be unladylike and ungraceful to accept
of hospitality in her brother's house without any gratitude or any forbearance he began to question the reality of her very great superiority over missus phillips with all her advantages of education and society
she ought to have shown more gentleness and affection both to her brother's wife and his children he analysed as he had never done before her expressions and weighed her opinions and found they generally had more sound than sense
and her habitual assumption that she knew everything much better than other people became tiresome when he did not believe in her superiority he began too to contrast the charm of a face
with that of one so unimpressible as harriett phillips's whose self possession was nearly as different from that of jane melville as it was from the timidity and diffidence of elsie
jane's calmness was the result of a strong will mastering the strong emotions which she really felt and not in the absence of any powerful feeling or emotion whatever brandon had learned to like jane better as he knew more of her
and rather enjoyed being preached to by one who could practise as well as preach he felt that if she was superior to him she did not look down on him and she certainly had the power of making him speak well and of bringing out the very large amount of real useful practical knowledge
that he had acquired in his australian life
for all things and people colonial but above all miss phillips's want of consideration for alice melville had weaned mister brandon's heart from her
the pointer it has never been made quite clear in history why the spaniards had a dog that was very remarkable for pointing all kinds of game
singularly enough too the most esteemed breeds in many countries can be traced from the same source such as the russian pointer the german pointer the french double nosed griffon and far more important still the english pointer
a view has been taken that the spanish double nosed pointer was introduced into england about two hundred years ago when fire arms were beginning to be popular for fowling purposes setters and spaniels had been used to find and drive birds into nets
but as the spanish pointer became known it was apparently considered that he alone had the capacity to find game for the gun this must have been towards the end of the seventeenth century
and for the next fifty years at least something very slow was wanted to meet the necessities of the old fashioned flintlock gun which occupied many minutes in loading and getting into position
improvements came by degrees until they set in very rapidly but probably by seventeen fifty when hunting had progressed a good deal and pace was increased in all pastimes
the old fashioned pointer was voted a nuisance through his extreme caution and tortoise like movements there is evidence through portraits that pointers had been altogether changed by the year eighteen hundred
but it is possible that the breed then had been continued by selection rather than by crossing for a couple of decades as it is quite certain that by eighteen fifteen sportsmen were still dissatisfied with the want of pace in the pointer
and many sportsmen are known to have crossed their pointers with foxhounds at about that time by eighteen thirty five the old spanish pointer had been left behind and the english dog was a perfect model for pace stamina
resolution and nerve the breed was exactly adapted to the requirements of that day which was not quite as fast as the present men shot with good joe mantons did their own loading
the dogs beat their ground methodically their heads at the right level for body scent and when they came on game down they were the dog that had got it pointing and the other barking or awaiting developments
there was nothing more beautiful than the work of a well bred and well broken brace of pointers or more perfect than the way a man got his shots from them there was nothing slow about them
the truth of it was that the capacity to concentrate the whole attention on the object found was so intense as to have lessened every other propensity the rush of the foxhound had been absorbed by the additional force of the pointer character
and although setters had been getting into equal repute for the beauty of their work there was something more brilliant about the pointers at first brockton's bounce was a magnificent dog a winner on the show bench and of the first field trial in england
newton's ranger was another of the early performers and he was very staunch and brilliant but it was in the next five years that the most extraordinary pointer merit was seen as quite incomparable was sir richard garth's drake
who was just five generations from the spanish pointer drake was rather a tall gaunt dog but with immense depth of girth long shoulders long haunches and a benevolent quiet countenance
there was nothing very attractive about him when walking about at stafford prior to his trial but the moment he was down
as he went half as fast again it was calculated that he went fifty miles an hour and at this tremendous pace he would stop as if petrified and the momentum would cover him with earth and dust he did not seem capable of making a mistake
and his birds were always at about the same distance from him to show thereby his extraordinary nose and confidence nothing in his day could beat him in a field he got some good stock but they were not generally show form
the bitches by him being mostly light and small and his sons a bit high on the leg none of them had his pace but some were capital performers such as sir thomas lennard's mallard mister george pilkington's tory
mister lloyd price's luck of edenhall winner of the field trial derby eighteen seventy eight lord downe's mars and bounce and mister barclay field's riot when sir richard garth went to india and sold his kennel of pointers at tattersall's
the mid century owners and breeders had probably all the advantages of what a past generation had done as there were certainly many wonderful pointers in the fifties sixties and seventies as old men living to day will freely allow
they were produced very regularly too in a marvellous type of perfection mister william arkwright of sutton scarsdale derbyshire has probably the best kennel in england at the present time
he discovered and revived an old breed of the north of england that was black and bred for a great many years by mister pape of carlisle and his father before him with these mister arkwright has bred
and the brackenburg romps and his have been amongst the best at the shows and the field trials during the past few years there are of course exceptions to the rule that many of the modern pointers do not carry about them the air of their true business
but it would appear that fewer people keep them now than was the case a quarter of a century ago owing to the advance of quick shooting otherwise driving
and it would be a sin indeed in the calendar of british sports if the fine old breed of pointer were allowed even to deteriorate the apparent danger is that the personal or individual element is dying out in the seventies the name of drake
bang or garnet were like household words people talked of the great pointers they were spoken of in club chat or gossip written about and the prospects of the moors were much associated with the up to date characters of the pointers and setters
there is very little of this sort of talk now a days guns are more critically spoken of there is however a wide enough world to supply with first class pointers in england's numerous colonies it may be much more fitting to shoot over dogs
it has been tried in south africa with marvellous results descendants of bang have delighted the lone colonist on cape partridge and quails and pointers suit the climate whereas setters do not the pointer is a noble breed to take up
as those still in middle life have seen its extraordinary merit whenever bred in the right way as to the essential points of the breed they may be set down as follows head should be wide from ear to ear
cheek bones prominent ears set low and thin in texture soft and velvety nose broad at the base mouth large and jaws level neck
the neck should be very strong but long and slightly arched meeting shoulders well knit into the back which should be straight and joining a wide loin there should be great depth of heart room very deep brisket narrow chest rather than otherwise
shoulders long and slanting legs and feet
there should be really no difference as they must be straight the knees big and the bone should be of goodly size down to the toes and the feet should be very round and cat shaped hind quarters
a great feature in the pointer is his hind quarters he cannot well be too long in the haunch or strong in the stifle which should be well bent and the muscles in the second thigh of a good pointer are always remarkable
the hocks may be straighter than even in a foxhound as in pulling up sharp on his point he in a great measure throws his weight on them the shank bones below the hock should be short colour
there have been good ones of all colours the derby colours were always liver and whites for their pointers and black breasted reds for their game cocks the seftons were liver and whites also and so were the edges of strelly but mostly heavily ticked
mike and young bang drake was more of the derby colour dark liver and white mister whitehouse's were mostly lemon and whites after hamlet of that colour
mister francis's afterwards mister salter's chang was a field trial winner of this colour a still better one was mister s becket's rector a somewhat mean little dog to look at
but quite extraordinary in his work as he won the pointer puppy stake at shrewsbury and the all aged stake three years in succession mister salter's romp family were quite remarkable in colour
a white ground heavily shot with black in patches and in ticks there have never been any better pointers than these there have been and are good black pointers also height and size
were of the former height and the great bitch mister lloyd price's belle was twenty four inches for big pointers sixty pounds is about the weight for dogs and fifty six pounds bitches smaller size fifty four pounds dogs and forty eight pounds bitches
the old working terrier there can hardly have been a time since the period of the norman conquest when the small earth dogs which we now call terriers were not known in these islands and used by sporting men as assistants in the chase
and by husbandmen for the killing of obnoxious vermin
and a hundred years later doctor caius gave pointed recognition to their value in unearthing the fox and drawing the badger another sorte there is wrote the doctor's translator in fifteen seventy six
after the manner and custome of ferrets in searching for connyes creep into the grounde
that eyther they teare them in pieces with theyr teeth beying in the bosome of the earth
or at the least through cocened feare drive them out of theire hollow harbours in so much that they are compelled to prepare speedie flyte
and being desirous of the next albeit not the safest refuge are otherwise taken and intrapped with snayres and nettes layde over holes to the same purpose
the colour size and shape of the original terriers are not indicated by the early writers and art supplies but vague and uncertain evidence nicholas cox who wrote of sporting dogs in the gentleman's recreation sixteen sixty seven
seems to suggest that the type of working terrier was already fixed sufficiently to be divided into two kinds the one having shaggy coats and straight limbs the other smooth coats and short bent legs
yet some years later another authority blome in the same publication was more guarded in his statements as to the terrier type when he wrote everybody that is a fox hunter is of opinion that he hath a good breed
i will not say anything to the affirmative or negative of the point searching for evidence on the subject one finds that perhaps the earliest references to the colours of terriers were made by daniel in his field sports at the end of the eighteenth century
when he described two sorts the one rough short legged and long backed very strong and most commonly of a black or yellowish colour mixed with white evidently a hound marked dog
and another smooth coated and beautifully formed with a shorter body and more sprightly appearance generally of a reddish brown colour or black with tanned legs
gilpin's portrait of colonel thornton's celebrated pitch painted in seventeen ninety presents a terrier having a smooth white coat with a black patch at the set on of the undocked tail
and black markings on the face and ears the dog's head is badly drawn and small in proportion but the body and legs and colouring would hardly disgrace the totteridge kennels of to day
fox terriers of a noted strain were depicted from life by reinagle in the sportsman's cabinet published over a hundred years ago
and in the text accompanying the engraving a minute account is given of the peculiarities and working capacities of the terrier we are told that there were two breeds the one wire haired larger more powerful and harder bitten
the other smooth haired and smaller with more style the wire hairs were white with spots the smooths were black and tan the tan apparently predominating over the black
it is well known that many of the old fox hunters have kept their special breeds of terrier and the belvoir the grove and lord middleton's are among the packs to which particular terrier strains have been attached
that even a hundred years ago terriers were bred with care and that certain strains were held in especial value is shown by the recorded fact that a litter of seven puppies was sold for twenty one guineas a good price even in these days
and that on one occasion so high a sum as twenty guineas was paid for a full grown dog at that time there was no definite and well established breed recognised throughout the islands by a specific name the embracing title of terrier
included all the varieties which have since been carefully differentiated but very many of the breeds existed in their respective localities awaiting national recognition
or otters to be killed terriers of definite strain were religiously cherished several of these still survive and are as respectable in descent and quite as important historically as some of the favoured and fashionable champions of our time
they do not perhaps possess the outward beauty and distinction of type which would justify their being brought into general notice but as workers they retain all the fire and verve that are required in dogs that are expected to encounter such vicious vermin as the badger and the fox
some of the breeds of terriers seen nowadays in every dog show were equally obscure and unknown a few years back thirty seven years ago the now popular irish terrier was practically unknown in england
and the scottish terrier was only beginning to be recognised as a distinct breed
and so recently as eighteen eighty one the airedale was merely a local dog known in yorkshire as the waterside or the bingley terrier yet the breeds just mentioned are all of unimpeachable ancestry
and the circumstance that they were formerly bred within limited neighbourhoods is in itself an argument in favour of their purity we have seen the process of a sudden leap into recognition enacted during the past few years in connection with the white terrier of the western highlands
a dog which was familiarly known in argyllshire centuries ago yet which has only lately emerged from the heathery hillsides around poltalloch to become an attraction on the benches at the crystal palace
and on the lawns of the botanical gardens and the example suggests the possibility that in another decade or so the neglected sealyham terrier the ignored terrier of the borders and the almost forgotten jack russell strain
may have claimed a due recompense for their long neglect there are lovers of the hard bitten working earth dogs who still keep these strains inviolate and who greatly prefer them to the better known terriers whose natural activities have been too often atrophied
by a system of artificial breeding to show points few of these old unregistered breeds would attract the eye of the fancier accustomed to judge a dog parading before him in the show ring to know their value and to appreciate their sterling good qualities
one needs to watch them at work on badger or when they hit upon the line of an otter it is then that they display the alertness and the dare devil courage which have won for the english terriers their name and fame
the working attributes of these energetic terriers have long been understood and the smart plucky little dogs have been constantly coveted by breeders all over the country but they have never won the popularity they deserve
fought and killed single handed a full grown dog fox the sealyham derives its breed name from the seat of the edwardes family near haverfordwest in pembrokeshire where the strain has been carefully preserved for well over a century
but also white with black or brown markings or brown with black they may be as heavy as seventeen pounds but twelve pounds is the average weight some years ago the breed seemed to be on the down grade
requiring fresh blood from a well chosen outcross one hears very little concerning them nowadays but it is certain that when in their prime they possessed all the grit determination and endurance that are looked for in a good working terrier
there was also in shropshire a well known breed of wire hair terriers black and tan on very short legs and weighing about ten pounds or twelve pounds with long punishing heads and extraordinary working powers
and squire thornton at his place near pickering in yorkshire had a breed of wire hairs tan in colour with a black stripe down the back then there is the cowley strain kept by the cowleys of callipers near king's langley
they were not easily distinguishable from the better known border terriers of which there are still many strains ranging from northumberland where mister t robson of bellingham has kept them for many years
and the pittenweem with which the poltalloch terriers are now being crossed while missus alastair campbell of ardrishaig has a pack of cairn terriers which seem to represent the original type of the improved scottie
considering the great number of strains that have been preserved by sporting families and maintained in more or less purity to type it is easy to understand how a new breed may become fashionable and still claim the honour of long descent
they may not in all cases have the beauty of shape which is desired on the show bench
the breed of terrier now known as the dandie dinmont is one of the races of the dog which can boast of a fairly ancient lineage
though it is impossible now to say what was the exact origin of this breed we know that it was first recognised under its present name after the publication of scott's guy mannering in the year eighteen fourteen
and we know that for many years previously there had existed in the border counties a rough haired short legged race of terrier the constant and very effective companion of the border farmers and others in their fox hunting expeditions
various theories have been suggested by different writers as to the manner in which the breed was founded some say that the dandie is the result of crossing a strain of rough haired terriers with the dachshund others that a rough haired terrier was crossed with the otterhound
and others again assert that no direct cross was ever introduced to found the breed but that it was gradually evolved from the rough haired terriers of the border district and this latter theory is probably correct
the dandie would appear to be closely related to the bedlington terrier in both breeds we find the same indomitable pluck the same pendulous ear and a light silky topknot adorning the skull of each
a case is quoted of the late lord antrim who in the early days of dog shows exhibited two animals from the same litter and with the one obtained a prize or honourable mention in the dandie classes and with the other a like distinction in the bedlington classes
it may be interesting to give a few particulars concerning the traceable ancestors of the modern dandie in mister charles cook's book on this breed we are given particulars of one william allan of holystone born in seventeen o four
and known as piper allan and celebrated as a hunter of otters and foxes and for his strain of rough haired terriers who so ably assisted him in the chase william allan's terriers descended to his son james also known as the piper
and born in the year seventeen thirty four james allan died in eighteen ten and was survived by a son who sold to mister francis somner at yetholm a terrier dog named old pepper descended from his grandfather's famous dog hitchem
old pepper was the great grandsire of mister somner's well known dog shem these terriers belonging to the allans and others in the district are considered by mister cook to be the earliest known ancestors of the modern dandie dinmont
sir walter scott himself informs us that he did not draw the character of dandie dinmont from any one individual in particular but that the character would well fit a dozen or more of the lidderdale yeomen of his acquaintance
however owing to the circumstance of his calling all his terriers mustard and pepper without any other distinction except auld and young and little the name came to be fixed by his associates upon one james davidson of hindlee
a wild farm in the teviotdale mountains
james davidson died in the year eighteen twenty by which time the dandie dinmont terrier was being bred in considerable numbers by the border farmers and others to meet the demand for it which had sprung up since the appearance of guy mannering
as a result of the controversies that were continually recurring with regard to the points of a typical dandie dinmont there was formed in the year eighteen seventy six the dandie dinmont terrier club with the object of settling the question for ever
and for this purpose all the most noted breeders and others interested were invited to give their views upon it
head strongly made and large not out of proportion to the dog's size the muscles showing extraordinary development more especially the maxillary skull
broad between the ears getting gradually less towards the eyes and measuring about the same from the inner corner of the eyes to back of skull as it does from ear to ear the forehead well domed
the head is covered with very soft silky hair which should not be confined to a mere topknot and the lighter in colour and silkier it is the better the cheeks starting from the ears proportionately with the skull
have a gradual taper towards the muzzle which is deep and strongly made and measures about three inches in length or in proportion to skull as three is to five the muzzle is covered with hair of a little darker shade than the topknot
and of the same texture as the feather of the fore legs the top of the muzzle is generally bare for about an inch from the black part of the nose the bareness coming to a point towards the eye and being about one inch broad at the nose
the nose and inside of mouth black or dark coloured the teeth very strong especially the canine which are of extraordinary size for such a small dog the canines fit well into each other so as to give the greatest available holding and punishing power
and the teeth are level in front the upper ones very slightly overlapping the under ones many of the finest specimens have a swine mouth which is very objectionable but it is not so great an objection as the protrusion of the under jaw
eyes set wide apart large full round bright expressive of great determination intelligence and dignity set low and prominent in front of the head colour a rich dark hazel
ears pendulous set well back wide apart and low on the skull hanging close to the cheek with a very slight projection at the base broad at the junction of the head and tapering almost to a point
the fore part of the ear tapering very little the tapering being mostly on the back part the fore part of the ear coming almost straight down from its junction with the head to the tip they should harmonise in colour with the body colour
in the case of a pepper dog they are covered with a soft straight brownish hair in some cases almost black in the case of a mustard dog the hair should be mustard in colour a shade darker than the body but not black
all should have a thin feather of light hair starting about two inches from the tip and of nearly the same colour and texture as the topknot which gives the ear the appearance of a distinct point the animal is often one or two years old before the feather is shown
the cartilage and skin of the ear should not be thick but rather thin length of ear from three to four inches neck very muscular well developed and strong
showing great power of resistance being well set into the shoulders body long strong and flexible ribs well sprung and round chest well developed and let well down between the fore legs
from top of loins to root of tail both sides of backbone well supplied with muscle tail
with a nice feather about two inches long getting shorter as it nears the tip rather thick at the root getting thicker for about four inches then tapering off to a point
it should not be twisted or curled in any way but should come up with a curve like a scimitar the tip when excited being in a perpendicular line with the root of the tail it should neither be set on too high nor too low
when not excited it is carried gaily and a little above the level of the body legs the fore legs short with immense muscular development and bone set wide apart the chest coming well down between them
the feet well formed and not flat with very strong brown or dark coloured claws bandy legs and flat feet are objectionable the hair on the fore legs and feet of a pepper dog should be tan
of a mustard dog they are of a darker shade than its head which is a creamy white in both colours there is a nice feather about two inches long rather lighter in colour than the hair on the fore part of the leg
the hind legs are a little longer than the fore ones and are set rather wide apart but not spread out in an unnatural manner while the feet are much smaller the thighs are well developed and the hair of the same colour and texture as the fore ones
but having no feather or dew claws the whole claws should be dark but the claws of all vary in shade according to the colour of the dog's body coat this is a very important point
the hair on the under part of the body is lighter in colour and softer than that on the top
colour the colour is pepper or mustard the pepper ranges from a dark bluish black to a light silver grey the intermediate shades being preferred
the body colour coming well down the shoulder and hips gradually merging into the leg colour the mustards vary from a reddish brown to a pale fawn the head being a creamy white the legs and feet of a shade darker than the head
the claws are dark as in other colours nearly all dandie dinmonts have some white on the chest and some have also white claws size the height should be from eight to eleven inches at the top of shoulder
length from top of shoulder to root of tail should not be more than twice the dog's height but preferably one or two inches less weight from fourteen pounds to twenty four pounds the best weight as near eighteen pounds as possible
these weights are for dogs in good working order in the above standard of points we have a very full and detailed account of what a dandie should be like and if only judges at shows would bear them in mind a little more we should have fewer conflicting decisions given
and dandie fanciers and the public generally would not from time to time be set wondering as to what is the correct type of the breed a dandie makes an excellent house guard
for such a small dog he has an amazingly deep loud bark so that the stranger who has heard him barking on the far side of the door is quite astonished when he sees the small owner of the big voice
when kept as a companion he becomes a most devoted and affectionate little friend and is very intelligent as a dog to be kept in kennels there is certainly one great drawback where large kennels are desired
and that is the risk of keeping two or more dogs in one kennel sooner or later there is sure to be a fight and when dandies fight it is generally a very serious matter
if no one is present to separate them one or both of the combatants is pretty certain to be killed but when out walking the dandie is no more quarrelsome than other breeds of terriers if properly trained from puppyhood
there is one little matter in breeding dandies that is generally a surprise to the novice and that is the very great difference in the appearance of the young pups and the adult dog the pups are born quite smooth haired
the peppers are black and tan in colour and the mustards have a great deal of black in their colouring the topknot begins to appear sometimes when the dog is a few months old and sometimes not till he is a year or so old
it is generally best to mate a mustard to a pepper to prevent the mustards becoming too light in colour though two rich coloured mustards may be mated together with good results
wireless telegraphy broadly speaking wireless telegraphy is any method of transmitting intelligible signals to a distance without wires
such as flags and long arms of wood by day and lights by night also the heliograph an apparatus for flashing sunlight and sound signals made either through the air or water electrical conduction
either through rarefied air or the earth also comes under this heading the name wireless telegraphy however is specifically applied to a system of signaling by means of ether waves
induced by electrical discharges of very high voltage ether waves of a greater or less degree are always set up whenever there are sudden electrical disturbances however slight
ether waves electrically induced are probably as old as the universe when there were thunders and lightnings from the cloud that hovered over mount sinai in the time of moses ether waves of great power
were sent out through the camp of israel but the people of those days had no coherer or telephone or any other means of converting these waves into visual or audible signals thousands of years had to elapse before the intellect of man
could grasp the meaning of these natural phenomena sufficiently to harness them and make them subservient to his will many people have been powerfully shocked some even killed by the impact of ether waves
set up by powerful discharges of lightning between the clouds and the earth when they were not in the direct path of the lightning stroke the history of electro wireless telegraphy like that of all inventions
is one of successive stages and all the work was not done by one man the one who gets the most credit is usually the one who puts on the finishing touches and brings it out before the public he may have done much toward its development
by conduction through water in eighteen thirty five joseph henry produced an effect on a galvanometer by ether waves through a distance of twenty feet by an arrangement of batteries and circuits like that shown in fig one
from the primary to the secondary coil but through very short distances in eighteen eighty professor trowbridge transmitted an electrical current through the earth for one mile so as to produce signals in a telephone
professor dolbear used for a short distance fifty feet substantially the same arrangement as marconi now uses except that the former used a telephone as a receiver he used an induction coil
having one end of the secondary wire connected with the earth while the other was attached to a wire running up into the air at the receiving end a wire starting from the earth extended into the air passing through a telephone which acted as a receiver
in eighteen eighty six he used a kite to elevate the wire through which electrical discharges of high voltage were made into the air to produce ether waves the receiver being two thousand feet away
dolbear's experiments were public fourteen years ago but at that time there was no interest in such matters so that his work received little or no attention in eighteen eighty seven doctor hertz of germany
made some experiments in producing and detecting ether waves and he did a great deal to awaken an interest in the subject so that others began investigations that have led to its present use as a means of telegraphing
to a distance of many miles in eighteen ninety one professor branly of paris invented the coherer in eighteen ninety four it was improved by lodge
and by him used as a detector of ether waves in eighteen ninety six
marconi an italian substituted the coherer of branly for the telephone of dolbear this coherer is constructed and operated as follows it consists of a glass tube
of comparatively small diameter loosely filled with metal filings of a certain grade this body of metal dust is made a part of a local battery circuit in which is placed an ordinary electric bell or telegraphic sounder
the resistance of this body of filings is so great that current enough will not pass through it to ring the bell or actuate the sounder until an ether wave strikes it and the wire attached to it
the filings must be made to de cohere and to accomplish this a little tapper that works automatically between the signals strikes the glass tube with a succession of light blows briefly stated
while the other extends into the air a greater or less distance according to the distance it is desired to send signals the greater the distance the higher the wire should extend into the air at the receiving end
a wire of corresponding height is erected also connected with the earth in this wire as a part of its circuit is placed the coherer in a local circuit that is connected to the upright wire in parallel with the coherer
is placed a battery a sounder or a bell that is rung when the filings cohere when an ether wave is set up by a discharge of electricity into the air it strikes the perpendicular wire of the receiver
and that portion of the wave that strikes is converted into electricity which is called an induced current it is this current as it discharges through the coherer to the earth that causes the filings to unite
while marconi has done more than any other man to improve and popularize wireless telegraphy history shows that he invented none of the essential elements so far as the system has been made public
what he seems to have really done was to substitute the coherer of branly and lodge with its adjuncts for the telephone of dolbear there is no doubt but that marconi has done much to improve
and enlarge the capacity of the apparatus and to demonstrate to the world some of its possibilities he has been an indefatigable worker and deserves great credit but without the work of those who preceded him he could not have succeeded
the honors should be divided this system has been used at various times for reporting yacht races and between ships it is said also to have been used to some extent in the south african war
there is much to be done yet however before it can be made entirely reliable for defensive work in time of war as it is now all an enemy would have to do to destroy its usefulness
to work automatically anywhere within the sphere of influence of the system to speak diplomatically when it would render unintelligible any message that should be sent to make the system of the greatest value
some sort of selective receiver must be invented that will select signals sent from a transmitter that is designed to work with it there is no doubt but that
but in this case it is not through the medium of induction but conduction it has been explained in former chapters that earth currents are constantly flowing from one point to another
sometimes these inequalities of potential are caused by heat and sometimes by electricity as in the case of a thunder storm if a cloud is heavily charged with positive electricity say the earth underneath
will have an equal charge of negative electricity let us illustrate it by the tides as the moon passes over the ocean it attracts the water toward it and tends to pile up as it were at the nearest point between the earth and the moon
suppose that while the water is thus piled up at a point under the moon we could suddenly suspend the attraction between the earth and the moon the water would begin immediately to flow off by the force of gravitation
until it had found a common level suppose in the place of the moon we have a cloud containing a static charge of positive electricity it attracts a negative charge to a point on the earth nearest the cloud if now
a discharge takes place between the earth and cloud the potential between the two will suddenly become equalized and the static charge that was accumulated in the earth is released and it dissipates in every direction seeking an equilibrium
following the analogy of the water the difference being that in one case the movement is very slow while in the other it is as quick as lightning about eighteen years ago i had a short telephone line between my house
and that of one of my neighbors this line was equipped with what was known in those days as magneto transmitters such as we have described in a previous chapter on the subject of telephony when a line is equipped in this way no batteries are needed
as the voice generates the current on the principle employed in the dynamo electric machine often on summer evenings when the sky appears to be cloudless we can see faint flashes of lightning on the horizon an appearance which is commonly called
heat lightning as a matter of fact i do not suppose there is any such thing as heat lightning but what we see is the effect of very distant storm clouds often at such times i have held the telephone receiver to my ear
and could hear simultaneously with each flash a slight sound in the telephone this effect could be produced in the earth by a simple discharge between two or more clouds which would distribute the electrical discharge over a greater area
but that both of these effects ether waves and conduction through earth may be felt when a discharge takes place between a cloud and the earth if we could by operating an ordinary telegraphic key
could transmit the morse code through the earth to the man who was listening at the telephone thousands of people might be listening at telephones in every direction from the transmitting station and they would all get the same message
and no part of the line between the two stations was above ground many and many times during the prevalence of a thunder storm have the telephone bells been made to ring at both ends of the line
and in some cases the discharge was several miles away the wires could not have been affected so powerfully in any other way than through the earth it will be seen by the foregoing statements
that it is possible to transmit messages through the earth for long distances but the difficulty in the way of its becoming a general system is twofold first we cannot always have a thunder cloud at hand from which to transmit our signals
the atmosphere meteorology is a science that at one time included astronomy but now it is restricted to the weather seasons and all phenomena that are manifested in the atmosphere in its relation to heat electricity and moisture
as well as the laws that govern the ever varying conditions of the circumambient air of our globe the air is made up chiefly of oxygen and nitrogen in the proportions of about twenty one parts of oxygen
and seventy nine parts nitrogen by volume and by weight about twenty three parts oxygen and seventy seven of nitrogen these gases exist in the air as free gases and not chemically combined the air
is simply a mixture of these two gases there is a difference between a mixture and a compound in a mixture there is no chemical change in the molecules of the substances mixed in a compound
new molecules are formed and a new substance is the result
and one half per cent is chiefly carbon dioxide carbon dioxide is a product of combustion decay and animal exhalation it is poison to the animal but food for the vegetable however the proportion in the air is so small
that its baneful influence upon animal life is reduced to a minimum the nitrogen is an inert odorless gas and its use in the air seems to be to dilute it so that man and animals can breathe it if all the nitrogen were extracted from the air
i suppose men and animals might have been so organized that they could breathe pure oxygen without being hurt but they were not for some reason made that way air contains more or less moisture in the form of vapor
this subject however will be discussed more fully under the head of evaporation the air at sea level weighs fifteen pounds to the square inch and if the whole envelope of air were homogeneous the same in character
it would reach only about five miles high but as it becomes gradually rarefied as we ascend it probably extends in a very thin state to a height of eighty or ninety miles at least at that height
we should find a more perfect vacuum than can be produced by artificial means the weight of all the air on the globe
if no deduction had to be made for space filled by mountains and land above sea level as it is the whole bulk weighs something less than the above figures as we have said the air envelopes the globe
to a height at sea level of eighty or ninety miles gradually thinning out into the ether that fills all interstellar space we live and move on the bottom of a great ocean of air
the birds fly in it just as the fish swim in the ocean of water both are transparent and both have weight water in the condensed state is heavier than the air and will seek the lowest places but when vaporized
as in the process of evaporation it is lighter than air and floats upward in the vapor state it is transparent like steam if you study a steam jet you will notice that for a short distance after it issues from the boiler
it is transparent but soon it condenses into cloud if we could see inside of a boiler in which steam had been generated all the space not occupied with water would seem to be vacant since steam before it is condensed
something more is needed which is absolutely essential both to animal and vegetable life and this essential is motion if the air remained perfectly still with no lateral movement or upward and downward currents of any kind
we should have a perfectly constant condition of things subjected only to such gradual changes as the advancing and receding seasons would produce owing to the change in the angle of the sun's rays no cloud would ever form
no rain would ever fall and no wind would ever blow it is of the highest importance
but that comparatively sudden changes of temperature take place in the atmosphere in order that vegetation as well as animal life may exist upon the surface of the globe the only place where animal life could exist would be in the great bodies of water
and it is even doubtful if water could remain habitable unless there were means provided for constant circulation motion the mobility of the atmosphere is such that the least influence that changes its balance will put it in motion
so true is this that it is never safe to plan a picnic for to morrow based upon the predictions of to day the chief difficulty in the way of solving the great problems relating to the sudden changes in the weather and temperature
lies in the fact that two thirds or more of the earth's surface is covered with water thus making it impossible to establish stations for observation that would be evenly distributed all over the earth's surface
enough is known however to make the study of meteorology a most wonderfully interesting subject
with a small amount of carbon dioxide so far as the life and health of the animal is concerned we could get along without this latter substance but it seems to be a necessity in the growth of vegetation there are other things in the air which
while they are unnecessary for breathing purposes it will be well for us to understand as some of them are things to be avoided rather than inhaled as before mentioned air contains moisture which is a very variable quantity
in a cold day in winter it is not more than one thousandth part while in a warm day in summer it may equal one fortieth of the quantity of air in a given space there is also a small amount of ammonia perhaps not over one sixty millionth
oxygen also exists in the air in very small quantities in another form called ozone one way to produce ozone is by passing an electric spark through air anyone who has operated a holtz machine
has noticed a peculiar smell attending the disruptive discharges which is the odor of ozone it is what chemists call an allotropic form of oxygen just as the diamond graphite and charcoal are all different forms of carbon
and yet the chemical differences are scarcely traceable it is more stimulating to breathe than oxygen
the oxygen of the air is consumed by all processes of combustion and in this we include the breathing of men and animals and the decay of vegetable matter as well as the more active combustion arising from fires a grown person
consumes something over four hundred gallons of oxygen per day and it is estimated that all the fires on the earth consume in a century as much oxygen as is contained in the air over an area of seventy miles square
all of these processes are throwing into the air carbon dioxide carbonic acid which however is offset by the power of vegetation to absorb it where the carbon is retained and forms a part of the woody fiber
and pure oxygen is given back into the air by this process the normal conditions of the air are maintained one decimeter nearly four inches square of green leaves will decompose in one hour
seven cubic centimeters of carbon dioxide if the sun is shining on them in the shade the same area will absorb about three in the same time there is another substance in the form of vegetable germs in the air
called bacteria at one time these were supposed to be low forms of animal life but it is now determined that they are the lowest forms of vegetable germs bacteria is the general or generic name for a large class of germs
many of them disease germs by analysis of the air in different locations and in different parts of the country it has been determined that on the ocean and on the mountain tops these germs average only one to each cubic yard of air
in the streets of the average city there are three thousand of them to the cubic yard while in other places where there is sickness as in a hospital ward there may be as many as eighty thousand to the cubic yard
within certain limits other things being equal the higher one's dwelling is located above the common level the purer will be the air this rule however has its limits as the oxygen of the air is heavier than the nitrogen
so that the air at very great altitudes has not the same proportion of oxygen to nitrogen that it has at a lower level an analysis that was made some years ago of the air on the west shore of lake michigan especially that section where the bluffs are high
shows that it compares favorably with that of any other portion of the united states in view of the foregoing it is of the highest importance to the sanitary condition of any city town or village
that it be not too compactly built if more than a certain number of people occupy a given area it is absolutely impossible to preserve
oxygen is the great purifier of the blood and if one does not get enough of it he suffers even though he breathes no impurities the power to resist the effects of bad air is much greater when one is awake and active than when asleep
air temperature the most recent definition of heat is that it is a mode of motion not movement of a mass of substance
that the ability of any substance to absorb heat depends upon the number of atoms it contains
weighs fifteen pounds the density of the air decreases as we ascend each successive layer as we ascend is more and more expanded and consequently has a less and less number of air molecules in a given space
therefore the capacity of the air for holding heat decreases as we go higher we deduce from these facts that the higher we go the colder it becomes and this we find to be the case whoever has ascended a high mountain
to take enough of oxygen into our lungs to carry on the natural operations of the bodily functions to overcome this difficulty if we remain at this altitude for a considerable time we shall find that our lungs have expanded so as to make up in quantity what is lacking in quality
he will find that his lungs are so expanded
with one whose lungs are adapted to the conditions we find at sea level when he ascends to a higher altitude there is a constant endeavor on the part of nature to adapt both animal and vegetable life to the surroundings while no exact formula
the temperature will be more or less affected by local conditions if we go up in a balloon we have to depend upon the barometer as a means of measuring altitude which
it is easily understood that a cubic foot of air at sea level will contain a great many more atoms than a cubic foot of air will at the top of a high mountain or to state it in another way a cubic foot of air at sea level
suppose then that the amount of heat held in a cubic foot of air at sea level remained the same as related to the number of atoms in its ascent we shall find that at a high altitude the same number of atoms that were held at sea level
in a cubic foot have been distributed over a so much larger space that the sensible heat is greatly diminished or diluted so to speak it was an old notion that heat would hide itself away in fluids under a name called by scientists latent heat
this theory has been exploded however by modern investigation if we place some substance that will inflame at a low temperature in the bottom of what is called a fire syringe which is nothing but a cylinder bored out smoothly with a piston head nicely fitted to it
so that it will be air tight and then suddenly condense the air in the syringe by shoving the plunger to the bottom we can inflame the substance which has been placed in the bottom of the cylinder in this operation the heat that was distributed through the whole body of air
that was contained in the cylinder before it was compressed
if we withdraw the plunger immediately before the heat has been taken up by the walls of the syringe we shall find the air of the same temperature as before the plunger was thrust down this however does not take into account any heat that was generated by friction
let us further illustrate the phenomenon by another experiment if we suddenly compress a cubic foot of air at ordinary pressure into a cubic inch of space that cubic inch will be very hot
because it contains all the heat that was distributed through the entire cubic foot before the compression took place now let it remain compressed until the heat has radiated from it as it soon will and the air becomes of the same temperature as the surrounding air
what ought to happen if then we should suddenly allow this cubic inch of air to expand to its normal pressure when it will occupy a cubic foot of space inasmuch as we allowed the heat to escape from it when in the condensed form
when it expands it will be very cold because the heat of the cubic inch
is distributed over a cubic foot of space this is precisely what takes place when heated air at the surface of the earth which is condensed to a certain extent rises to the higher regions of the atmosphere there is a gradual expansion as it ascends
and consequently a gradual cooling because a given amount of heat is being constantly distributed over a greater amount of space at an altitude of forty five miles it will have expanded about twenty five thousand times
which will bring the temperature down to between two hundred and three hundred degrees below zero when we get beyond the limits of the atmosphere we get into the region of absolute cold because heat is atomic motion and there can be no atomic motion where there are no atoms
purg'd from the pond'rous dregs of earth below by interplanetary space we mean all space between the planets not occupied by sensible material it is the same as interatomic space or the space between atoms except in degree
are so small that no sensible substance can be made sufficiently dense to resist it or confine it it is easy to see that a substance possessing such qualities cannot be weighed or in any way made appreciable to our senses
but from the fact that radiant energy can be transmitted through it with vibrations amounting to billions per second we know that it must be a substance with elastic qualities that approach the infinite assuming that the ether is a substance the question arises
how is it related to other forms of substance this is a question more easily asked than answered the longer one dwells upon the subject however the more one is impressed with the thought that after all the ether may be the one element out of which all other elements come
this is true at least as a basis for chemical science chemical analysis has never been able to make gold anything but gold or oxygen anything but oxygen and so on through the whole catalogue of elements it may be however
that the play of forces under and beyond those that seem to be active in all chemical processes and relations are able to produce certain affections of the ether the result of which in the one case is an atom of gold and in the other an atom of oxygen et cetera
to the end of the list in this case all of the so called elements may have their origin in one fundamental element that we call the ether i am aware that we are wading in deep water here
but sometimes we love to get into deep water just to try our swimming powers the above is a suggestion of a theory called the vortex theory that is taking root in the minds of many philosophers to day and yet there is almost nothing of known facts to base such a theory upon
and nearly all we can say about it is that it seems plausible when viewed through the eye of imagination we do know that substances such as fluids or gases assume very different qualities when put into different rates of motion
a straw has been known to penetrate the body of a tree endwise by the extreme velocity imparted to it when carried in the vortex of a tornado
or it may float a little distance above the ground but more frequently it moves forward with a bounding motion now touching the earth and now rising in the air this cone is revolving at a terrific speed the substance revolving is chiefly air
carrying other light substances that it has gathered up from the ground if it comes in contact with a tree or building
this is not simply the force of wind but a kind of solidity given to the fluent air by its whirling motion i remember a case in iowa where one of these revolving cones passed through a barnyard striking the corner of the barn
cutting it off as smoothly as though done with some sharp edged tool but it in no other way affected the rest of the building one would suppose that the centrifugal force developed in this whirling motion would cause the cone to fly apart
and why it does not no one certainly knows but we are obliged to accept the fact these cases are cited to show that motion gives rigidity to substances that in the quiescent state are mobile or easily moved like the straw or the air
if we should assume that there are infinitesimal vortices or whirling rings in the ether of such rapidity as to give it different degrees of rigidity we can get a glimmering idea of how an atom of matter may be formed from ether
referring to the rigidity which motion gives to ordinary matter it is well known that when two vessels at sea collide the one having the higher speed is not so liable to injury as the one with the lower the reader will perhaps remember a circumstance
said to have occurred a few years ago on the lake shore railroad between buffalo and cleveland the limited express was going west and while rounding a curve the engineer suddenly came in sight of a wrecked freight train
a part of which was lying on the track where the express train had to pass the engineer saw that he was too near the wreck to stop his train
chapter twenty four pinocchio reaches the island of the busy bees and finds the fairy once more pinocchio spurred on by the hope of finding his father and of being in time to save him swam all night long
and what a horrible night it was it poured rain it hailed it thundered and the lightning was so bright that it turned the night into day at dawn he saw not far away from him a long stretch of sand it was an island in the middle of the sea
pinocchio tried his best to get there but he couldn't the waves played with him and tossed him about as if he were a twig or a bit of straw at last and luckily for him a tremendous wave tossed him to the very spot where he wanted to be
the blow from the wave was so strong that as he fell to the ground his joints cracked and almost broke but nothing daunted he jumped to his feet and cried once more i have escaped with my life little by little the sky cleared
the sun came out in full splendor and the sea became as calm as a lake then the marionette took off his clothes and laid them on the sand to dry he looked over the waters to see whether he might catch sight of a boat with a little man in it
he searched and he searched but he saw nothing except sea and sky and far away a few sails so small that they might have been birds if only i knew the name of this island he said to himself
if i even knew what kind of people i would find here but whom shall i ask there is no one here the idea of finding himself in so lonesome a spot made him so sad
that he was about to cry but just then he saw a big fish swimming near by with his head far out of the water not knowing what to call him the marionette said to him hey there mister fish may i have a word with you even two if you want answered the fish
who happened to be a very polite dolphin will you please tell me if on this island there are places where one may eat without necessarily being eaten surely there are answered the dolphin in fact you'll find one not far from this spot and how shall i get there
take that path on your left and follow your nose you can't go wrong tell me another thing you who travel day and night through the sea did you not perhaps meet a little boat with my father in it and who is you father he is the best father in the world
even as i am the worst son that can be found in the storm of last night answered the dolphin the little boat must have been swamped and my father by this time he must have been swallowed by the terrible shark which for the last few days
has been bringing terror to these waters is this shark very big asked pinocchio who was beginning to tremble with fright is he big replied the dolphin just to give you an idea of his size let me tell you that he is larger than a five story building
he turned to the dolphin and said farewell mister fish
this said he took the path at so swift a gait that he seemed to fly and at every small sound he heard he turned in fear to see whether the terrible shark five stories high and with a train in his mouth was following him after walking a half hour
he came to a small country called the land of the busy bees the streets were filled with people running to and fro about their tasks everyone worked everyone had something to do
even if one were to search with a lantern not one idle man or one tramp could have been found i understand said pinocchio at once wearily this is no place for me i was not born for work
but in the meantime he began to feel hungry for it was twenty four hours since he had eaten what was to be done there were only two means left to him in order to get a bite to eat he had either to work or to beg
he was ashamed to beg because his father had always preached to him that begging should be done only by the sick or the old he had said that the real poor in this world deserving of our pity and help
were only those who either through age or sickness had lost the means of earning their bread with their own hands all others should work and if they didn't and went hungry so much the worse for them just then a man passed by
worn out and wet with perspiration pulling with difficulty two heavy carts filled with coal pinocchio looked at him and judging him by his looks to be a kind man said to him with eyes downcast in shame will you be so good as to give me a penny
for i am faint with hunger not only one penny answered the coal man i'll give you four if you will help me pull these two wagons i am surprised answered the marionette very much offended
answered the coal man then my boy if you are really faint with hunger eat two slices of your pride and i hope they don't give you indigestion a few minutes after a bricklayer passed by carrying a pail full of plaster on his shoulder good man
will you be kind enough to give a penny to a poor boy who is yawning from hunger gladly answered the bricklayer come with me and carry some plaster and instead of one penny i'll give you five but the plaster is heavy answered pinocchio
if the work is too hard for you my boy enjoy your yawns and may they bring you luck
but they all answered aren't you ashamed instead of being a beggar in the streets why don't you look for work and earn your own bread
with pleasure my boy she answered setting the two jugs on the ground before him when pinocchio had had his fill he grumbled as he wiped his mouth my thirst is gone if i could only as easily get rid of my hunger on hearing these words the good little woman immediately said
i'll give you a slice of bread pinocchio looked at the jug and said neither yes nor no and with the bread i'll give you a nice dish of cauliflower with white sauce on it pinocchio gave the jug another look and said neither yes nor no
and after the cauliflower some cake and jam at this last bribery pinocchio could no longer resist and said firmly
very well i'll take the jug home for you the jug was very heavy and the marionette not being strong enough to carry it with his hands had to put it on his head when they arrived home the little woman made pinocchio sit down at a small table
and placed before him the bread the cauliflower and the cake pinocchio did not eat he devoured his stomach seemed a bottomless pit his hunger finally appeased he raised his head to thank his kind benefactress
why all this surprise asked the good woman laughing because answered pinocchio stammering and stuttering
tell me that it is you don't make me cry any longer if you only knew i have cried so much i have suffered so
one is wounded pinocchio is arrested going like the wind pinocchio took but a very short time to reach the shore he glanced all about him but there was no sign of a shark
the sea was as smooth as glass hey there boys where's that shark he asked turning to his playmates he may have gone for his breakfast said one of them laughing or perhaps he went to bed for a little nap said another laughing also
from the answers and the laughter which followed them pinocchio understood that the boys had played a trick on him what now he said angrily to them what's the joke oh the joke's on you cried his tormentors laughing more heartily than ever
and dancing gayly around the marionette and that is that we have made you stay out of school to come with us aren't you ashamed of being such a goody goody and of studying so hard you never have a bit of enjoyment and what is it to you if i do study
what does the teacher think of us you mean why don't you see if you study and we don't we pay for it after all it's only fair to look out for ourselves what do you want me to do hate school and books
and teachers as we all do they are your worst enemies you know and they like to make you as unhappy as they can and if i go on studying what will you do to me you'll pay for it really you amuse me answered the marionette nodding his head
hey pinocchio cried the tallest of them all that will do we are tired of hearing you bragging about yourself you little turkey cock you may not be afraid of us but remember we are not afraid of you either you are alone you know and we are seven
you'll be sorry cuck oo we'll whip you soundly cuck oo you'll go home with a broken nose cuck oo very well then take that
and keep it for your supper called out the boldest of his tormentors and with the words he gave pinocchio a terrible blow on the head pinocchio answered with another blow and that was the signal for the beginning of the fray in
with those two wooden feet of his he worked so fast that his opponents kept at a respectful distance wherever they landed they left their painful mark and the boys could only run away and howl enraged at not being able to fight the marionette at close quarters
they started to throw all kinds of books at him readers geographies histories grammars flew in all directions but pinocchio was keen of eye and swift of movement and the books only passed over his head
came to the top of the water in great numbers some took a nibble some took a bite but no sooner had they tasted a page or two than they spat them out with a wry face as if to say
at the noise a large crab crawled slowly out of the water and with a voice that sounded like a trombone suffering from a cold he cried out
poor crab he might as well have spoken to the wind instead of listening to his good advice pinocchio turned to him and said as roughly as he knew how keep quiet ugly gab it would be better for you to chew a few cough drops to get rid of that cold you have
go to bed and sleep you will feel better in the morning in the meantime the boys having used all their books looked around for new ammunition
they somehow managed to get hold of it one of the books was a very large volume an arithmetic text heavily bound in leather it was pinocchio's pride among all his books he liked that one the best
one of the boys took hold of it and threw it with all his strength at pinocchio's head but instead of hitting the marionette the book struck one of the other boys who as pale as a ghost cried out faintly oh mother help i'm dying and fell senseless to the ground
that they turned tail and ran in a few moments all had disappeared all except pinocchio although scared to death by the horror of what had been done he ran to the sea and soaked his handkerchief in the cool water and with it bathed the head of his poor little schoolmate
why don't you answer i was not the one who hit you you know believe me i didn't do it open your eyes eugene if you keep them shut i'll die too oh dear me how shall i ever go home now
how shall i ever look at my little mother again what will happen to me where shall i go where shall i hide oh how much better it would have been a thousand times better if only i had gone to school why did i listen to those boys
that's what she said but i'm stubborn and proud i listen but always i do as i wish and then i pay i've never had a moment's peace since i've been born oh dear what will become of me what will become of me
pinocchio went on crying and moaning and beating his head again and again he called to his little friend when suddenly he heard heavy steps approaching he looked up and saw two tall carabineers near him what are you doing stretched out on the ground they asked pinocchio
has he fainted i should say so said one of the carabineers bending to look at eugene this boy has been wounded on the temple
repeated pinocchio and with what was he wounded with this book and the marionette picked up the arithmetic text to show it to the officer and whose book is this mine enough not another word
come with us but i am innocent come with us before starting out the officers called out to several fishermen passing by in a boat and said to them take care of this little fellow who has been hurt take him home and bind his wounds tomorrow we'll come after him
said to him in a rough voice march and go quickly
they did not have to repeat their words the marionette walked swiftly along the road to the village but the poor fellow hardly knew what he was about he thought he had a nightmare he felt ill his eyes saw everything double his legs trembled
his tongue was dry and try as he might he could not utter a single word yet in spite of this numbness of feeling he suffered keenly at the thought of passing under the windows of his good little fairy's house what would she say on seeing him between two carabineers
they had just reached the village when a sudden gust of wind blew off pinocchio's cap and made it go sailing far down the street would you allow me the marionette asked the carabineers to run after my cap very well go but hurry the marionette went picked up his cap
but instead of putting it on his head he stuck it between his teeth and then raced toward the sea he went like a bullet out of a gun the carabineers judging that it would be very difficult to catch him sent a large mastiff after him one that had won first prize in all the dog races
pinocchio returns to the fairy's house and she promises him that on the morrow he will cease to be a marionette and become a boy a wonderful party of coffee and milk to celebrate the great event
mindful of what the fisherman had said pinocchio knew that all hope of being saved had gone he closed his eyes and waited for the final moment
came running into the cave get out cried the fisherman threateningly and still holding onto the marionette who was all covered with flour but the poor dog was very hungry and whining and wagging his tail he tried to say
get out i say repeated the fisherman and he drew back his foot to give the dog a kick then the dog who being really hungry would take no refusal
the dog immediately recognized pinocchio's voice great was his surprise to find that the voice came from the little flour covered bundle that the fisherman held in his hand then what did he do with one great leap
he grasped that bundle in his mouth and holding it lightly between his teeth ran through the door and disappeared like a flash the fisherman angry at seeing his meal snatched from under his nose ran after the dog
but a bad fit of coughing made him stop and turn back meanwhile alidoro as soon as he had found the road which led to the village stopped and dropped pinocchio softly to the ground how much i do thank you
answered the dog you saved me once and what is given is always returned we are in this world to help one another but how did you get in that cave i was lying here on the sand more dead than alive
and who threw it a schoolmate of his a certain pinocchio and who is this pinocchio asked the marionette feigning ignorance they say he is a mischief maker a tramp a street urchin calumnies all calumnies
do you know this pinocchio by sight answered the marionette
i think he's a very good boy fond of study obedient kind to his father and to his whole family as he was telling all these enormous lies about himself pinocchio touched his nose and found it twice as long as it should be
scared out of his wits he cried out don't listen to me good man all the wonderful things i have said are not true at all i know pinocchio well and he is indeed a very wicked fellow lazy and disobedient who instead of going to school runs away with his playmates to have a good time
at this speech his nose returned to its natural size why are you so pale
let me tell you without knowing it i rubbed myself against a newly painted wall he lied ashamed to say that he had been made ready for the frying pan what have you done with your coat and your hat and your breeches i met thieves and they robbed me
tell me my good man have you not perhaps a little suit to give me so that i may go home my boy as for clothes i have only a bag in which i keep hops if you want it take it there it is pinocchio did not wait for him to repeat his words
he took the bag which happened to be empty and after cutting a big hole at the top and two at the sides he slipped into it as if it were a shirt lightly clad as he was he started out toward the village along the way he felt very uneasy
in fact he was so unhappy that he went along taking two steps forward and one back and as he went he said to himself how shall i ever face my good little fairy what will she say when she sees me will she forgive this last trick of mine i am sure she won't
oh no she won't and i deserve it as usual for i am a rascal fine on promises which i never keep he came to the village late at night it was so dark he could see nothing and it was raining pitchforks
pinocchio went straight to the fairy's house firmly resolved to knock at the door when he found himself there he lost courage and ran back a few steps a second time he came to the door and again he ran back a third time he repeated his performance
the fourth time before he had time to lose his courage he grasped the knocker and made a faint sound with it he waited and waited and waited finally after a full half hour a top floor window
the house had four stories opened and pinocchio saw a large snail look out a tiny light glowed on top of her head who knocks at this late hour she called is the fairy home asked the marionette
the fairy is asleep and does not wish to be disturbed who are you it is i who's i pinocchio who is pinocchio
oh i understand said the snail wait for me there
hurry i beg of you for i am dying of cold my boy i am a snail and snails are never in a hurry an hour passed
knocked a second time this time louder than before at that second knock a window on the third floor opened and the same snail looked out dear little snail cried pinocchio from the street i have been waiting two hours for you
and two hours on a dreadful night like this are as long as two years hurry please my boy answered the snail in a calm peaceful voice my dear boy i am a snail and snails are never
in a hurry and the window closed a few minutes later midnight struck then one o'clock two o'clock and the door still remained closed then pinocchio losing all patience grabbed the knocker with both hands
as soon as he touched the knocker however it became an eel and wiggled away into the darkness really cried pinocchio blind with rage if the knocker is gone i can still use my feet he stepped back and gave the door a most solemn kick
he kicked so hard that his foot went straight through the door and his leg followed almost to the knee no matter how he pulled and tugged he could not pull it out there he stayed as if nailed to the door poor pinocchio
the rest of the night he had to spend with one foot through the door and the other one in the air as dawn was breaking the door finally opened that brave little animal the snail
had taken exactly nine hours to go from the fourth floor to the street how she must have raced what are you doing with your foot through the door she asked the marionette laughing it was a misfortune
won't you try pretty little snail to free me from this terrible torture
ask the fairy to help me the fairy is asleep and does not want to be disturbed but what do you want me to do nailed to the door like this enjoy yourself counting the ants
which are passing by bring me something to eat at least for i am faint with hunger immediately
roast chicken fruit here is the breakfast the fairy sends to you said the snail at the sight of all these good things the marionette felt much better what was his disgust however when on tasting the food
he found the bread to be made of chalk the chicken of cardboard and the brilliant fruit of colored alabaster he wanted to cry he wanted to give himself up to despair he wanted to throw away the tray and all that was on it instead
either from pain or weakness he fell to the floor in a dead faint when he regained his senses he found himself stretched out on a sofa and the fairy was seated near him
said the fairy to him but be careful not to get into mischief again pinocchio promised to study and to behave himself and he kept his word for the remainder of the year at the end of it he passed first in all his examinations
and his report was so good that the fairy said to him happily tomorrow your wish will come true and what is it tomorrow you will cease to be a marionette and will become a real boy
pinocchio was beside himself with joy all his friends and schoolmates must be invited to celebrate the great event
but unluckily in a marionette's life
instantly brought the great stevinus into my head who you must know is a favourite author with me then added my father making use of the argument ad crumenam i will lay twenty guineas to a single crown piece
which will serve to give away to obadiah when he gets back that this same stevinus was some engineer or other or has wrote something or other either directly or indirectly upon the science of fortification
he has so replied my uncle toby i knew it said my father though for the soul of me i cannot see what kind of connection there can be betwixt doctor slop's sudden coming and a discourse upon fortification yet i fear'd it
talk of what we will brother or let the occasion be never so foreign or unfit for the subject you are sure to bring it in i would not brother toby continued my father
interrupting him and laughing most immoderately at his pun
or the insinuation of a pun more cordially than my father he would grow testy upon it at any time but to be broke in upon by one in a serious discourse was as bad he would say as a fillip upon the nose
he saw no difference sir quoth my uncle toby addressing himself to doctor slop the curtins my brother shandy mentions here have nothing to do with beadsteads
that bed curtains in all probability have taken their name from them nor have the horn works he speaks of any thing in the world to do with the horn works of cuckoldom but the curtin sir is the word we use in fortification
for that part of the wall or rampart which lies between the two bastions and joins them besiegers seldom offer to carry on their attacks directly against the curtin for this reason because they are so well flanked
tis the case of other curtains quoth doctor slop laughing however continued my uncle toby to make them sure we generally choose to place ravelins before them
the common men who know very little of fortification confound the ravelin and the half moon together tho they are very different things not in their figure or construction for we make them exactly alike in all points
for they always consist of two faces making a salient angle with the gorges not straight but in form of a crescent where then lies the difference quoth my father a little testily
in their situations answered my uncle toby for when a ravelin brother stands before the curtin it is a ravelin and when a ravelin stands before a bastion then the ravelin is not a ravelin it is a half moon
a half moon likewise is a half moon and no more so long as it stands before its bastion but was it to change place and get before the curtin
a half moon in that case is not a half moon
i think quoth my father that the noble science of defence has its weak sides as well as others as for the horn work high ho sigh'd my father which continued my uncle toby my brother was speaking of
they are a very considerable part of an outwork they are called by the french engineers ouvrage a corne and we generally make them to cover such places as we suspect to be weaker than the rest
i own continued my uncle toby when we crown them they are much stronger but then they are very expensive and take up a great deal of ground so that in my opinion they are most of use to cover or defend the head of a camp
by the mother who bore us brother toby quoth my father
you would provoke a saint here have you got us i know not how
but so full is your head of these confounded works that though my wife is this moment in the pains of labour and you hear her cry out yet nothing will serve you but to carry off the man midwife
accoucheur if you please quoth doctor slop with all my heart replied my father i don't care what they call you but i wish the whole science of fortification with all its inventors at the devil it has been the death of thousands
and it will be mine in the end i would not i would not brother toby have my brains so full of saps mines blinds gabions pallisadoes ravelins half moons and such trumpery
my uncle toby was a man patient of injuries not from want of courage i have told you in a former chapter that he was a man of courage and will add here that where just occasions presented or called it forth
i know no man under whose arm i would have sooner taken shelter nor did this arise from any insensibility or obtuseness of his intellectual parts for he felt this insult of my father's as feelingly as a man could do
but he was of a peaceful placid nature no jarring element in it all was mixed up so kindly within him my uncle toby had scarce a heart to retaliate upon a fly go says he one day at dinner
to an over grown one which had buzzed about his nose and tormented him cruelly all dinner time and which after infinite attempts he had caught at last as it flew by him i'll not hurt thee says my uncle toby rising from his chair
and going across the room with the fly in his hand i'll not hurt a hair of thy head go says he lifting up the sash and opening his hand as he spoke to let it escape go poor devil get thee gone why should i hurt thee
this world surely is wide enough to hold both thee and me i was but ten years old when this happened but whether it was that the action itself was more in unison to my nerves at that age of pity
which instantly set my whole frame into one vibration of most pleasurable sensation or how far the manner and expression of it might go towards it or in what degree or by what secret magick a tone of voice and harmony of movement
attuned by mercy might find a passage to my heart i know not this i know that the lesson of universal good will then taught and imprinted by my uncle toby has never since been worn out of my mind
have done for me in that respect or discredit the other helps of an expensive education bestowed upon me both at home and abroad since yet i often think that i owe one half of my philanthropy to that one accidental impression
this is to serve for parents and governors instead of a whole volume upon the subject i could not give the reader this stroke in my uncle toby's picture by the instrument with which i drew the other parts of it
that taking in no more than the mere hobby horsical likeness this is a part of his moral character my father in this patient endurance of wrongs which i mention was very different as the reader must long ago have noted
he had a much more acute and quick sensibility of nature attended with a little soreness of temper tho this never transported him to any thing which looked like malignancy
yet in the little rubs and vexations of life twas apt to shew itself in a drollish and witty kind of peevishness he was however frank and generous in his nature at all times open to conviction
and in the little ebullitions of this subacid humour towards others but particularly towards my uncle toby whom he truly loved he would feel more pain ten times told
except in the affair of my aunt dinah or where an hypothesis was concerned than what he ever gave the characters of the two brothers in this view of them
reflected light upon each other and appeared with great advantage in this affair which arose about stevinus i need not tell the reader if he keeps a hobby horse that a man's hobby horse is as tender a part as he has about him
and that these unprovoked strokes at my uncle toby's could not be unfelt by him no as i said above my uncle toby did feel them and very sensibly too
pray sir what said he how did he behave o sir it was great for as soon as my father had done insulting his hobby horse he turned his head without the least emotion from doctor slop to whom he was addressing his discourse
and looking up into my father's face with a countenance spread over with so much good nature so placid so fraternal so inexpressibly tender towards him it penetrated my father to his heart
he rose up hastily from his chair and seizing hold of both my uncle toby's hands as he spoke brother toby said he i beg thy pardon forgive i pray thee this rash humour which my mother gave me
rising up by my father's help say no more about it you are heartily welcome had it been ten times as much brother
by heaven tis cowardly you are heartily welcome brother quoth my uncle toby had it been fifty times as much besides what have i to do my dear toby cried my father either with your amusements or your pleasures
unless it was in my power which it is not to increase their measure brother shandy answered my uncle toby looking wistfully in his face you are much mistaken in this point
and bathsheba appeared in their midst their soft feathery arms caressing her up to her shoulders she paused turned went back over the hill and half way to her own door
whence she cast a farewell glance upon the spot she had just left having resolved not to remain near the place after all she saw a dim spot of artificial red moving round the shoulder of the rise
it disappeared on the other side she waited one minute two minutes thought of troy's disappointment at her non fulfilment of a promised engagement till she again ran along the field clambered over the bank
and followed the original direction she was now literally trembling and panting at this her temerity in such an errant undertaking her breath came and went quickly and her eyes shone with an infrequent light
yet go she must she reached the verge of a pit in the middle of the ferns troy stood in the bottom looking up towards her i heard you rustling through the fern before i saw you he said
the pit was a saucer shaped concave naturally formed with a top diameter of about thirty feet and shallow enough to allow the sunshine to reach their heads standing in the centre
the sky overhead was met by a circular horizon of fern this grew nearly to the bottom of the slope and then abruptly ceased the middle within the belt of verdure was floored with a thick flossy carpet of moss and grass intermingled
so yielding that the foot was half buried within it now said troy producing the sword which as he raised it into the sunlight gleamed a sort of greeting like a living thing
first we have four right and four left cuts four right and four left thrusts infantry cuts and guards are more interesting than ours to my mind but they are not so swashing
so much as a preliminary well next our cut one is as if you were sowing your corn so bathsheba saw a sort of rainbow upside down in the air and troy's arm was still again cut two
as if you were hedging so three as if you were reaping so four as if you were threshing in that way then the same on the left the thrusts are these one two three four right
one two three four left he repeated them have em again he said one two she hurriedly interrupted i'd rather not though i don't mind your twos and fours but your ones and threes are terrible
very well i'll let you off the ones and threes next cuts points and guards altogether troy duly exhibited them then there's pursuing practice in this way he gave the movements as before
there those are the stereotyped forms the infantry have two most diabolical upward cuts which we are too humane to use like this three four how murderous and bloodthirsty
you are my antagonist with this difference from real warfare that i shall miss you every time by one hair's breadth or perhaps two mind you don't flinch whatever you do i'll be sure not to she said invincibly
he pointed to about a yard in front of him bathsheba's adventurous spirit was beginning to find some grains of relish in these highly novel proceedings she took up her position as directed facing troy
now just to learn whether you have pluck enough to let me do what i wish i'll give you a preliminary test he flourished the sword by way of introduction number two
and the next thing of which she was conscious was that the point and blade of the sword were darting with a gleam towards her left side just above her hip then of their reappearance on her right side emerging as it were from between her ribs having apparently passed through her body
the third item of consciousness was that of seeing the same sword perfectly clean and free from blood held vertically in troy's hand in the position technically called recover swords all was as quick as electricity
no you have not whatever have you done i have not touched you said troy quietly it was mere sleight of hand the sword passed behind you now you are not afraid are you because if you are i can't perform
but not once touch you i don't think i am afraid you are quite sure you will not hurt me quite sure is the sword very sharp o no only stand as still as a statue now
all emitted in the marvellous evolutions of troy's reflecting blade which seemed everywhere at once and yet nowhere specially these circling gleams were accompanied by a keen rush that was almost a whistling
also springing from all sides of her at once
never since the broadsword became the national weapon had there been more dexterity shown in its management than by the hands of sergeant troy and never had he been in such splendid temper for the performance as now in the evening sunshine
among the ferns with bathsheba it may safely be asserted with respect to the closeness of his cuts that had it been possible for the edge of the sword to leave in the air a permanent substance wherever it flew past
the space left untouched would have been almost a mould of bathsheba's figure behind the luminous streams of this aurora militaris
and behind all troy himself mostly facing her sometimes to show the rear cuts half turned away his eye nevertheless always keenly measuring her breadth and outline
and his lips tightly closed in sustained effort next his movements lapsed slower and she could see them individually the hissing of the sword had ceased and he stopped entirely
that outer loose lock of hair wants tidying he said before she had moved or spoken wait i'll do it for you an arc of silver shone on her right side the sword had descended the lock dropped to the ground
bravely borne said troy you didn't flinch a shade's thickness wonderful in a woman it was because i didn't expect it oh you have spoilt my hair only once more no no i am afraid of you indeed i am she cried
she saw the point glisten towards her bosom and seemingly enter it bathsheba closed her eyes in the full persuasion that she was killed at last however feeling just as usual she opened them again
there it is look said the sergeant holding his sword before her eyes the caterpillar was spitted upon its point why it is magic said bathsheba amazed oh no dexterity
checked the extension a thousandth of an inch short of your surface but how could you chop off a curl of my hair with a sword that has no edge no edge this sword will shave like a razor look here
he touched the palm of his hand with the blade and then lifting it showed her a thin shaving of scarf skin dangling therefrom but you said before beginning that it was blunt and couldn't cut me
that was to get you to stand still and so make sure of your safety the risk of injuring you through your moving was too great not to force me to tell you a fib to escape it she shuddered i have been within an inch of my life and didn't know it
more precisely speaking you have been within half an inch of being pared alive two hundred and ninety five times cruel cruel tis of you you have been perfectly safe nevertheless
and troy returned the weapon to the scabbard bathsheba overcome by a hundred tumultuous feelings resulting from the scene abstractedly sat down on a tuft of heather i must leave you now said troy softly
and i'll venture to take and keep this in remembrance of you she saw him stoop to the grass pick up the winding lock which he had severed from her manifold tresses twist it round his fingers unfasten a button in the breast of his coat
and carefully put it inside she felt powerless to withstand or deny him he was altogether too much for her and bathsheba seemed as one who facing a reviving wind finds it blow so strongly that it stops the breath
he drew near and said i must be leaving you he drew nearer still a minute later and she saw his scarlet form disappear amid the ferny thicket almost in a flash like a brand swiftly waved
that minute's interval had brought the blood beating into her face set her stinging as if aflame to the very hollows of her feet and enlarged emotion to a compass which quite swamped thought
chapter fifteen passage of the jordan and now dthemetri began to enter into a negotiation with my hosts for a passage over the river
i never interfered with my worthy dragoman upon these occasions because from my entire ignorance of the arabic
i should have been quite unable to exercise any real control over his words and it would have been silly to break the stream of his eloquence to no purpose i have reason to fear however that he lied transcendently
the grounds of the infinite respect which he and his tribe entertained for the pasha a few weeks before ibrahim had craftily sent a body of troops across the jordan the force went warily round to the foot of the mountains on the east
so as to cut off the retreat of this tribe and then surrounded them as they lay encamped in the vale
were carried off by the soldiery
might not procure for his friend a very gracious reception amongst the people whom he had thus despoiled and decimated but the asiatic seems to be animated with a feeling of profound respect almost bordering upon affection
for all who have done him any bold and violent wrong
when it is wrought upon by the idea of power after some discussion the arabs agreed as i thought to conduct me to a ford and we moved on towards the river followed by seventeen of the most able bodied of the tribe
under the guidance of several grey bearded elders
upon leaving the encampment a sort of ceremony was performed for the purpose it seemed of ensuring if possible a happy result for the undertaking
the tented arabs are looked upon as very bad mahometans we arrived upon the banks of the rivernot
but at a deep and rapid part of the stream and i now understood that it was the plan of these men if they helped me at all to transport me across the river by some species of raft but a reaction had taken place in the opinions of many
the fellows all gathered together in circle at a little distance from my party and there disputed with great vehemence and fury for nearly two hours i cant give a correct report of the debate
for it was held in a barbarous dialect of the arabic unknown to my dragoman i recollect i sincerely felt at the time that the arguments in favour of robbing me must have been almost unanswerable
and i gave great credit to the speakers on my side for the ingenuity and sophistry which they must have shown in maintaining the fight so well during the discussion i remained lying in front of my baggage
which had all been taken from the pack saddles and placed upon the ground i was so languid from want of food that i had scarcely animation enough to feel as deeply interested as you would suppose in the result of the discussion
i thought however that the pleasantest toys to play with during this interval were my pistols and now and then when i listlessly visited my loaded barrels with the swivel ramrods or drew a sweet musical click from my english firelocks it seemed to me that i exercised a slight and gentle influence on the debate
thanks to ibrahim pashas terrible visitation the men of the tribe were wholly unarmed and my advantage in this respect might have counterbalanced in some measure the superiority of numbers mysseri not interpreting in arabic
had no duty to perform and he seemed to be faint and listless as myself shereef looked perfectly resigned to any fate but dthemetri faithful terrier was bristling with zeal and watchfulness
he could not understand the debate which indeed was carried on at a distance too great to be easily heard even if the language had been familiar but he was always on the alert and now and then conferring with men who had straggled out of the assembly
at last he found an opportunity of making a proposal which at once produced immense sensation he offered on my behalf that if the tribe should bear themselves loyally towards me
and take my party and my baggage in safety to the other bank of the river i should give them a teskeri or written certificate of their good conduct which might avail them hereafter in the hour of their direst need
this proposal was received and instantly accepted by all the men of the tribe there present with the utmost enthusiasm i was to give the men too a baksheish that is a present of money
which is usually made upon the conclusion of any sort of treaty but although the people of the tribe were so miserably poor they seemed to look upon the pecuniary part of the arrangement as a matter quite trivial in comparison with the teskeri
and not the slightest attempt was made to extort any further reward
and overwhelmed me with vehement gratulations they caressed my boots with much affection and my hands were severely kissed the arabs now went to work in right earnest to effect the passage of the river
and fastened several of them to small boughs which they cut from the banks of the river in this way they constructed a raft not more than about four or five feet square but rendered buoyant by the inflated skins which supported it
on this a portion of my baggage was placed and was firmly tied to it by the cords used on my pack saddles the little raft with its weighty cargo was then gently lifted into the water
and i had the satisfaction to see that it floated well twelve of the arabs now stripped and tied inflated skins to their loins
six of the men went down into the river got in front of the little raft and pulled it off a few feet from the bank the other six then dashed into the stream with loud shouts and swam along after the raft pushing it from behind
off went the craft in capital style at first for the stream was easy on the eastern side but i saw that the tug was to come for the main torrent swept round in a bend near the western bank of the river
the old men with their long grey grisly beards stood shouting and cheering praying and commanding at length the raft entered upon the difficult part of its course the whirling stream seized and twisted it about
and then bore it rapidly downwards
sent forth a cry and a shout that tore the wide air into tatters and then to make their urging yet more strong they shrieked out the dreadful syllables brahim pasha the swimmers one moment before so blown and so weary
found lungs to answer the cry and shouting back the name of their great destroyer they dashed on through the torrent and bore the raft in safety to the western bank afterwards the swimmers returned with the raft
i took my seat upon the top of the cargo and the raft thus laden passed the river in the same way and with the same struggle as before the skins however not being perfectly air tight had lost a great part of their buoyancy
got wet in the waters of jordan the raft could not be trusted for another trip and the rest of my party passed the river in a different and for them much safer way
inflated skins were fastened to their loins and thus supported they were tugged across by arabs swimming on either side of them the horses and mules were thrown into the water and forced to swim over
the poor beasts had a hard struggle for their lives in that swift stream and i thought that one of the horses would have been drowned for he was too weak to gain a footing on the western bank and the stream bore him down
he poor fellow was shivering on the eastern bank for his dread of the passage was so great that he delayed it as long as he could
i lay that night on the banks of the river and at a little distance from me the arabs kindled a fire round which they sat in a circle they were made most savagely happy by the tobacco with which i supplied them
and they soon determined that the whole night should be one smoking festival the poor fellows had only a cracked bowl
in that way they passed the whole night the next morning old shereef was brought across it was a strange sight to see this solemn old mussulman with his shaven head and his sacred beard
sprawling and puffing upon the surface of the water when at last he reached the bank the people told him that by his baptism in jordan he had surely become a mere christian
poor shereef the holy man the descendant of the prophet he was sadly hurt by the taunt and the more so as he seemed to feel that there was some foundation for it
and that he really might have absorbed some christian errors when all was ready for departure
together with the promised baksheish he was exceedingly grateful and i parted in a very friendly way from this ragged tribe in two or three hours i gained rihah
a village said to occupy the site of ancient jericho
deformity of body sickness baseness of birth peculiar discontents particular discontents and grievances are either of body mind or fortune
which as they wound the soul of man produce this melancholy and many great inconveniences by that antidote of good counsel and persuasion may be eased or expelled deformities and imperfections of our bodies
as lameness crookedness deafness blindness be they innate or accidental torture many men yet this may comfort them that those imperfections of the body do not a whit blemish the soul or hinder the operations of it
after we'd fairly settled to stay father began to be more pleasant than he'd ever been before we were pretty likely he said to have a visit from starlight and the half caste in a day or two if we'd like to wait
he was to meet him at the hollow on purpose to help him out with the mob of fat bullocks we had looked at father it appears was coming here by himself when he met this outlying lot of mister hunter's cattle
and thought he and old crib could bring them in by themselves and a mighty good haul it was father said we should share the weaners between the three of us that meant fifty pounds a piece at least the devil always helps beginners
we put through a couple of days pleasantly enough after our hardish bit of work jim found some fish hooks and a line and we caught plenty of mullet and eels in the deep clear waterholes
we found a couple of double barrelled guns and shot ducks enough to last us a week no wonder the old frequenters of the hollow used to live here for a month at a time having great times of it as long as their grog lasted
and sometimes having the tribe of blacks that inhabited the district to make merry and carouse with them like the buccaneers of the spanish main that i've read about till the plunder was all gone
and jim picked up part of a woman's dress splashed with blood
a long lock of woman's hair fair bright brown that looked as if the name of terrible hollow might not have been given to this lonely wonderful glen for nothing we spent nearly a week in this way
and were beginning to get rather sick of the life when father who used always to be looking at a bare patch in the scrub above us said they're coming at last who are coming friends why friends of course that's starlight's signal
see that smoke the half caste always sends that up like the blacks in his mother's tribe i suppose any cattle or horses with them said jim no or they'd send up two smokes
they'll be here about dinner time so we must get ready for them we had plenty of time to get ourselves or anything else ready in about four hours we began to look at them through a strong spyglass which father brought out
by and by we got sight of two men coming along on horseback on the top of the range the other side of the far wall they wasn't particularly easy to see and every now and then we'd lose sight of em as they got into thick timber or behind rocks
father got the spyglass on to em at last pretty clear and nearly threw it down with an oath
i believe starlight's hurt somehow he's so infernal rash i can see the half caste holding him on if the police are on his tracks they'll spring the plant here and the whole thing'll be blown we saw them come to the top of the wall as it were
let's go over to the other side says father they're coming down the gully now it's a terrible steep rough track worse than the other if starlight's hurt bad he'll never ride down but he has the pluck of the devil sure enough
we rode over to the other side where there was a kind of gully that came in something like the one we came in by
there was a path but it looked as if cattle could never be driven or forced up it we found afterwards that they had an old pack bullock that they'd trained to walk up this and down too when they wanted him and the other cattle followed in his track as cattle will
father showed us a sort of cave by the side of the track where one man with a couple of guns and a pistol or two could have shot down a small regiment as they came down one at a time
we stayed in there by the track and after about half an hour we heard the two horses coming down slowly step by step kicking the stones down before them then we could hear a man groaning as if he couldn't bear the pain
and partly as if he was trying to smother it then another man's voice very soft and soothing like trying to comfort another
my head's a fire and these cursed ribs are grinding against one another every step of this infernal ladder is it far now how he groaned then
just then the leading horse came out into the open before the cave we had a good look at him and his rider i never forgot them it was a bad day i ever saw either and many a man had cause to say the same
the horse held up his head and snorted as he came abreast of us and we showed out he was one of the grandest animals i'd ever seen and i afterwards found he was better than he looked
he came stepping down that beastly rocky goat track he a clean thoroughbred that ought never to have trod upon anything rougher than a rolled training track or the sound bush turf
a half dead fainting man that couldn't hold the reins and him walking down as steady as an old mountain bull or a wallaroo on the side of a creek bank i hadn't much time to look him over
he was as pale as a ghost his eyes great dark ones they were too were staring out of his head i thought he was dead and called out to father and jim that he was they ran up and we lifted him off after undoing some straps and a rope
he was tied on that was what the half caste was waiting for at the top of the gully when we laid him down his head fell back and he looked as much like a corpse as if he had been dead a day then we saw he had been wounded there was blood on his shirt and the upper part of his arm was bandaged
it's too late father said i he's a dead man what pluck he must have had to ride down there he's worth two dead uns yet said father who had his hand on his pulse hold his head up one of you while i go for the brandy
a slight active looking chap about sixteen that looked as if he could jump into a gum tree and back again and i believe he could sergeant goring he very near grab us at dilligah
my word he very nearly fall off just like that here he imitated a man reeling in his saddle but the old horse stop steady with him my word till he come to then the sergeant fire at him again hit him in the shoulder with his pistol
then starlight come to his senses and we clear my word he couldn't see the way the old horse went ha ha here the young devil laughed till the trees and rocks rang again gallop different ways too and met at the old needle rock
but they was miles away then before the wild boy had come to the end of his story the wounded man had proved that it was only a dead faint as the women call it not the real thing
and after he had tasted a pannikin full of brandy and water which father brought him he sat up and looked like a living man once more better have a look at my shoulder he said
i've had a squeak for it puts me in mind of our old poaching rows said father while he carefully cut the shirt off that was stiffened with blood and showed where the bullet had passed through the muscle narrowly missing the bone of the joint
we washed it and relieved the wounded man by discovering that the other bullet had only been spent after striking a tree most like when it had knocked the wind out of him and nearly unhorsed him as warrigal said fill my pipe one of you
who the devil are these lads yours i suppose marston or you wouldn't be fool enough to bring them here why didn't you leave them at home with their mother don't you think you and i and this devil's limb enough for this precious trade of ours
they'll take their luck as it comes like others growled father what's good enough for me isn't too bad for them we want another hand or two to work things right
oh we do do we said the stranger fixing his eyes on father as if he was going to burn a hole in him with a burning glass
but if i'd a brace of fine boys like those of my own i'd hang myself before i'd drag them into the pit after myself that's all very fine said father looking very dark and dangerous
is mister starlight going to turn parson you'll be just in time for we'll all be shopped if you run against the police like this and next thing to lay them on to the hollow by making for it when you're too weak to ride
what would you have me do pull up and hold up my hands there was nowhere else to go and that new sergeant rode devilish well i can tell you with a big chestnut well bred horse that gave old rainbow here all he knew to lose him
now once for all no more of that marston and mind your own business i'm the superior officer in this ship's company you know that very well your business is to obey me and take second place father growled out something
but did not offer to deny it we could see plainly that the stranger was or had been far above our rank whatever were the reasons which had led to his present kind of life
he was pleasant enough too when the pain went away he had been in other countries and told us all kinds of stories about them he said nothing though about his own former ways and we often wondered whatever could have made him take to such a life
unknown to father too he gave us good advice warned us that what we were in was the road to imprisonment or death in due course and not to flatter ourselves that any other ending was possible
i have my own reasons for leading the life i do he said and must run my own course of which i foresee the end as plainly as if it was written in a book before me your father had a long account to square with society
and he has a right to settle it his own way that yellow whelp was never intended for anything better but for you lads'
and never come back here again tell your father you won't come cut loose from him once and for all you'd better drown yourselves comfortably at once than take to this cursed trade now mind what i tell you and keep your own counsel
by and by the day came when the horses were run in for father and mister starlight and warrigal who packed up to be off for some other part when they were in the yard we had a good look at his own horse
a good look and if i'd been a fellow that painted pictures and that kind of thing i could draw a middlin good likeness of him now by george how fond i am of a good horse a real well bred clinker
and many another currency chap can say the same
that's about the size of it one or t'other generally fetches us i shall never put foot in stirrup again but i'll try and scratch out a sort of likeness of rainbow he was a dark bay horse nearly brown without a white hair on him
he wasn't above fifteen hands and an inch high but looked a deal bigger than he was for the way he held his head up and carried himself he was deep and thick through behind the shoulders and girthed ever so much more than you'd think
he had a short back and his ribs went out like a cask long quarter great thighs and hocks wonderful legs and feet of course to do the work he did his head was plainish but clean and bony and his eye was big and well opened with no white showing
his shoulder was sloped back that much that he couldn't fall no matter what happened his fore legs all his paces were good too i believe he could jump jump anything he was ridden at and very few horses could get the better of him for one mile or three
where he'd come from of course we were not to know then he had a small private sort of brand that didn't belong to any of the big studs but he was never bred by a poor man
and his dam killed as soon as she had weaned him so of course no one could swear to him and starlight could have ridden past the supreme court at the assizes and never been stopped as far as this horse was concerned
before we went away father and starlight had some terrible long talks and one evening jim came to me and says he what do you think they're up to now how should i know sticking up a bank or boning a flock of maiden ewes to take up a run with
they seem to be game for anything there'll be a hanging match in the family if us boys don't look out there's no knowing says jim with a roguish look in his eye i didn't think then how near the truth i was but it's about a horse this time
but what's one horse to make such a shine about ah that's the point says poor old jim it's a horse worth talking about
him that mister windhall gave two thousand pounds for what the marquis of lorne why you don't mean to say they're going for him by george i do says jim
and they'll have him here and twenty blood mares to put to him before september they're all gone mad they'll raise the country on us every police trooper in the colony'll be after us like a pack of dingoes after an old man kangaroo when the ground's boggy
and they'll run us down too they can't be off it whatever made em think of such a big touch as that that starlight's the devil i think said jim slowly father didn't seem to like it at first
but he brought him round bit by bit said he knew a squatter in queensland he could pass him on to
and when the derry was off he'd take him over himself but how's he going to nail him people say windhall keeps him locked up at night and his box is close to his house starlight says he has a friend handy
he seems to have one or two everywhere it's wonderful
by george it would be a touch and no mistake
it did seem a grand sort of thing young fools that we were
good as anything england could turn out i say again if it weren't for the horse flesh part of it the fun and hard riding and tracking and all the rest of it there wouldn't be anything like the cross work that there is in australia it lies partly between that and the dry weather
there's the long spells of drought when nothing can be done by young or old sometimes for months you can't work in the garden nor plough nor sow
only sit at home and do nothing or else go out and watch the grass witherin and the water dryin up and the stock dyin by inches before your eyes and no change maybe for months the ground like iron and the sky like brass as the parson said
and very true too last sunday then the youngsters havin so much idle time on their hands take to gaffin and flash talk and money must be got to sport and pay up if they lose and the stock all ramblin about and mixed up
like we did that first red heifer i shall remember her to my dying day it seems as if i had put that brand on my own heart when i jammed it down on her soft skin anyhow i never forgot it and there's many another like me i'll be bound
the next morning jim and i started off home father said he should stay in the hollow till starlight got round a bit he told us not to tell mother or ailie a word about where we'd been of course they couldn't be off knowin that we'd been with him
but we were to stall them off by saying we'd been helping him with a bit of bush work or anything we could think off it'll do no good and your mother's quite miserable enough as it is boys he said she'll know time enough and maybe break her heart over it too poor norah
dashed if i ever heard father say a soft thing before i couldn't a believed it i always thought he was ironbark outside and in but he seemed real sorry for once and i was near sayin
but when i looked again his face was all changed and hard like off you go he says with his old voice next time i want either of you i'll send warrigal for you
and with that he walked off from the yard where we had been catching our horses and never looked nigh us again we rode away to the low end of the gully and then we led the horses up foot by foot and hard work it was like climbing up the roof of a house
we made our way to the yard where there were the tracks of the cows all round about it but nothing but the wild horses had ever been there since what a scrubby hole it is said jim i wonder how in the world they ever found out the way to the hollow
some runaway government men i believe so that half caste chap told me and a gin showed em the track down and where to get water and everything they lived on kangaroos at first
then by degrees they used to crawl out by moonlight and collar a horse or two or a few cattle they managed to live there years and years one died one was killed by the blacks the last man showed it to the chaps that passed it on to starlight
have you never found out what the indians use as an antidote i asked no i have tried but they keep it a carefully guarded secret
among the birds he brought back were a lot of skins of the blue chatterer the one with the purple throat you know
they all looked alike except about the throat and head one lot had a gold band across the breast another had the whole throat gold others had gold stripes or spots i believe he produced these gaudy effects with the lighted end of his cigar
he doctored up a lot of humming birds too
most reprehensible and there is no money in it because you are dead sure to get found out
he could change a bird's color by feeding it on certain kinds of food
and brightens up old worn birds which have faded out in the zoological gardens
it was as i said in the spring of eighty nine a
and one day a chap came into our camp
he travelled about the country giving exhibitions with his snakes and selling the rattlesnake cure which was put up in small bottles containing a brown colored liquid which he claimed he made from a plant which was a sure cure for the bite of the rattlesnake
there were several of us in the party
baker proposed that we should see how much faith miguel had in his own antidote
by the aid of some forked sticks and bagging we succeeded in fastening the snake so that he could not move
baker carefully cut out the poison sacs which are situated just beneath the temporal muscle back of the eye
he took the precaution however while the snake lay helpless with its mouth open to carefully wash the teeth and then filled the small openings near the end of the fangs with some dental cement which baker had in his outfit
you see the fangs of a rattlesnake are like two hypodermic syringes
he however was fighting mad and evidently did not enjoy the operation which he had undergone
towards evening miguel came back to camp and we had the snake all ready for him it was a much larger one than those which he had in his box and when we slipped it in among the others we could easily recognize it from its size the boys asked john to give an exhibition of the curative powers of his snake cure
as he did so he was immediately struck
my how he carried on
he gave one screech grabbed a knife
don't touch me i am going to die i'm going to die and say what do you think he did die
let the contest be fair and square on both sides said smith the chairman of the phoenix committee
and a member of the club in good standing and let the best man win them's my sentiments exactly responded johnson the chairman of the prescott committee fair play and honors to the best man say i
and is quite clever he's a gunsmith by profession
and that makes him a professional doesn't it
he is a clerk in a bank who has lately been engaged by my friend robinson
i think you will find all the money ready for you in the way of bets that you will want our population is made up a great deal as you know largely of miners and ranchers and they are inclined to bet recklessly
may the best man win yours et cetera
the two principals had met and been introduced to one another
both were dressed for the occasion and i tell you they were sights
i may add that he is a personal friend of our vice president mister robinson
for the first minute or two nothing was done forward and back they moved their arms moving in and out
which grazed his nose as he got back out of the way in came the drug clerk with a rush and they closed just as the gong
and the other would spring back with the agility of a dancing master suddenly the financier thought he saw an opening and let go his left but was short
and the knowledge shown by these amateurs of the little unfair tricks
montezuma's castle no said the curiosity dealer that mummy is not for sale i had too big a job to get it tell me about it i asked the curiosity dealer carefully closed and locked the case
and then meditatively rolled a cigarette well it was this way you see i was out after snakes and other natural history specimens i had a special order from a chap in new york for three hundred snakes he wanted some big rattlers
i think i sent him some that pleased him anyhow he paid for them all right i had a customer who wanted a rattlesnake with a very big rattle and i fixed up a snake for him on this trip and sent it to him afterwards it had one hundred and eighteen rattles
i glued a lot of rattles together and by taking off the buttons it was pretty hard to see where they were joined this rattle was more than a foot long there was another eastern chap wanted an ibex which he said was found up in these mountains
it had light colored horns curved over at the tips like a chamois and striped legs and eyes that stuck out like an antelope he had heard about the ibex and wanted a pair i told him i had often killed them but they were hard to get
what is an ibex i asked i'll be hanged if i know answered the collector but there are fellows in these mountains who say that there really are such animals and if he wanted to have an ibex and had to have an ibex
i might as well get him an ibex as anybody else even if i had to make one but to get back to my story
which might prove salable my outfit consisted of two wagons five horses and i had a mexican along to look after the teams and do the cooking after being out some two weeks we found ourselves near what is called montezuma's castle up by the verde
there are a lot of caves scattered about up there
and many of them had never been touched or examined i had an offer of good money for a mummy
the bones are not crumbly enough and the rags which the real mummies are done up in are pretty difficult to imitate i was mighty anxious to explore the big caves so off we went to the place
and i tell you the old ruin they call montezuma's castle is a dandy and don't you forget it the castle is built on a ledge high up on the side of a mountain which hangs over at the top the only way to get up is by ladders or ropes
right near there on the face of the high cliff there are a lot of fine old cliff dwellings and some of them are more than one hundred feet from the base these cliffs are straight up and down sometimes nearly smooth but often with narrow broken ledges here and there on the face of the wall
and i came to the conclusion that if i wished to explore one of these caves
i succeeded in making two very good ladders one fourteen feet long with the two top poles one from each tent and two small ladders each about seven feet i made these last from the four upright tent poles there being two to each tent as you know
the foot of the cliff was rough and the first fifteen feet or so we could climb easily to a broad ledge then there came a space between nine and ten feet in height
here my first ladder was put up two small ledges above this some three feet apart and a wider ledge four feet higher allowed me to climb up without the use of ladders to another ledge from here i ran another small ladder up to a ledge which was between two and three feet wide
from this ledge to the entrance of the cave was about twelve feet and my fourteen foot ladder answered finely but the difficulty was it had to stand so straight that it was rather ticklish business going up one could not help feeling that a slip or a little backward jerk
and as from the ledge where it stood to the bottom was some forty feet a tumble on to the rocks would prove most unpleasant however my mexican antonio
i had no sooner entered than i felt pretty sure it had never previously been visited by any one since the original inhabitants left it the first thing i did was to take a stout piece of twine from my pocket and fasten the end of the ladder to a piece of rock then i felt easier
there were numerous bits of broken pottery scattered about and one nearly perfect specimen besides these there was a very interesting bit of stone carving these things i gathered together and placed in a heap near the entrance
i then went back and taking a small hatchet which i had brought with me
and pretty soon found this little child mummy
as you may suppose i was careful and did not hurry matters and the cave was like an oven wrapping the little mummy carefully in a big handkerchief which i had tied round my neck
it reached him safely but while he was untying it i carelessly dropped the end of the string i went back however and gathered up the other relics intending to take some of them down with me and then come back for the rest if i could not manage them all the first time
while i was looking them over i heard a crash and the sound of tumbling stones
and commenced to curse antonio for his carelessness but imagine my horror when i saw him throw down the bottom ladder and then run as fast as he could towards the camp my first and only thought was to pay antonio for his treachery
it was evidently his intention to leave me safely housed in a place from which i could never escape alive and start off the proud owner of the two wagons five horses and various valuables which he believed my boxes to contain
my revolver was still in my belt and hastily pulling it i commenced shooting at the running figure now some sixty or seventy yards distant
the second was still worse
and fell among some loose rocks in a way that must have been unpleasant
after that he lay pretty quiet although i thought i saw him move his arm once or twice i reloaded having plenty of cartridges in my belt and began shooting at him again this time i hit him three times out of six shots
then i began to think over how i was going to get down
it looked very clear and refreshing i thought and thought and the more i thought the more hopeless it seemed to me to plan a way to get down alive
i had absolutely nothing not even a string to aid me in getting down there was no use hoping for help from any one for the place was rarely visited and it might be weeks before any person would discover that i was there i was getting more thirsty all the time
and at last i hated to go to the mouth of the cave hot as it was inside because the sight of the water nearly drove me mad i amused myself by occasionally taking a shot at antonio i had his range down pretty fine now
above the mountains there was one tall peak which i could see up the canyon
bright and shining even after the canyon had become quite dark
for a few minutes it shone a fiery red and then the light was gone like a huge torch which flickers and goes out then the night noises commenced the incessant maddening croaking of the frogs and now and then an owl
did you ever hear the frogs in arizona i responded in the affirmative well then
and know they can give eastern frogs cards and spades and beat them easy but you don't know what they sound like when you are really thirsty probably not i answered well continued the curiosity dealer i knew nothing could be done until morning
so i lay down and tried to sleep i was very nervous and could not help fearing that in the night i might walk in my sleep or roll to the mouth of the cave and tumble out i do not think i really slept at all but lay in a half dazed condition until it was light enough for me to see things in the canyon below
strange to say i was not hungry
my whole thoughts were concentrated on the one desire something to drink i thought and pondered trying to think of some possible way to get down
but i knew that it would be impossible for me to stay on it even if my legs were not broken by the fall
at last a thought occurred to me that i might possibly make a rope out of my clothes i had a large pocket knife and a hatchet
my canvas coat shirt and trousers and some thin underclothes constituted my entire wardrobe and by carefully cutting them into strips wide enough to bear my weight and yet narrow enough to give sufficient length
with which i hoped i could succeed in reaching the second ladder without broken bones
walking about the cave i suffered so with the heat and thirst that the hope of escape alone kept me from going mad at last the rope was done and tied together with various knots it had a creepy sort of stretchy feeling when i pulled on it
but i had no alternative but to trust to it it was that or nothing and nothing meant death from thirst in a very short time i succeeded in fixing the hatchet firmly into and across a cleft in the rock where it was split
and it gave me something to tie the rope to which i was satisfied would hold my weight i tied the end of the rope to the hatchet handle and threw the other end down
i was stark naked excepting my shoes
and i shall never forget the feeling which came over me as i swung myself clear of the ledge and hung swaying on that improvised rope which seemed to stretch and grow thin in a way which sent cold shivers running up and down my spine it seemed a year before i reached the ledge
i went down pretty slow sparing the rope as much as i could by supporting part of my weight by digging my toes into every little crack and crevice i could find but i got there at last and when i did i sat down on the ledge and cried like a baby well
of course i got down the rest of the way all right or i wouldn't be here but i don't know as i would have done it if antonio had pulled down the second ladder instead of the bottom one
after reaching the second ladder
the first thing i did when i got down was to run as fast as i could to the river and drink as much water as i dared then i lay down in the water and enjoyed it talk about your paradise cocktails they are not to be compared with that verde river water which i tasted that day
antonio oh yes he is there yet i believe
my first experience among the cliff dwellers was all sufficient
at the end of our journey it is time to return to the question from which we set out namely what is it that characterizes mind as opposed to matter or to state the same question in other terms how is psychology to be distinguished from physics
the answer provisionally suggested at the outset of our inquiry was that psychology and physics are distinguished by the nature of their causal laws not by their subject matter at the same time we held that there is a certain subject matter
this subject matter therefore we assigned exclusively to psychology but we found no way of defining images except through their causation
in their intrinsic character they appeared to have no universal mark by which they could be distinguished from sensations in this last lecture i propose to pass in review various suggested methods of distinguishing mind from matter
i shall then briefly sketch the nature of that fundamental science which i believe to be the true metaphysic in which mind and matter alike are seen to be constructed out of a neutral stuff whose causal laws have no such duality as that of psychology
but form the basis upon which both physics and psychology are built in search for the definition of mental phenomena let us begin with consciousness which is often thought to be the essence of mind
in the first lecture i gave various arguments against the view that consciousness is fundamental but i did not attempt to say what consciousness is we must find a definition of it if we are to feel secure in deciding that it is not fundamental
it is for the sake of the proof that it is not fundamental that we must now endeavour to decide what it is consciousness by those who regard it as fundamental
sensation in the strict sense of the term demands the existence of consciousness
this statement at first sight is one to which we feel inclined to assent but i believe we are mistaken if we do so
but not a thing of which we must be conscious we have been led in the course of our inquiry
i think it may be said that the existence of the image constitutes consciousness of the sensation provided it is accompanied by that sort of belief which when we reflect upon it makes us feel that the image is a sign of something other than itself
this is the sort of belief which in the case of memory we expressed in the words this occurred or which in the case of a judgment of perception makes us believe in qualities correlated with present sensations as
the addition of some element of belief seems required since mere imagination does not involve consciousness of anything and there can be no consciousness which is not of something if images alone constituted consciousness of their prototypes
such imagination images as in fact have prototypes would involve consciousness of them since this is not the case an element of belief must be added to the images in defining consciousness
the belief must be of that sort that constitutes objective reference past or present an image together with a belief of this sort concerning it constitutes according to our definition consciousness of the prototype of the image
but when we pass from consciousness of sensations to consciousness of objects of perception certain further points arise which demand an addition to our definition a judgment of perception we may say
consists of a core of sensation together with associated images with belief in the present existence of an object to which sensation and images are referred in a way which is difficult to analyse perhaps we might say
that the belief is not fundamentally in any present existence but is of the nature of an expectation for example when we see an object we expect certain sensations to result if we proceed to touch it
perception then will consist of a present sensation together with expectations of future sensations this of course is a reflective analysis not an account of the way perception appears to unchecked introspection
but not invariable any such correlation may mislead us in a particular case for example if we try to touch a reflection in a looking glass under the impression that it is real
since memory is fallible a similar difficulty arises as regards consciousness of past objects it would seem odd to say that we can be conscious of a thing which does not or did not exist
the only way to avoid this awkwardness is to add to our definition the proviso that the beliefs involved in consciousness must be true in the second place the question arises as to whether we can be conscious of images
if we apply our definition to this case it seems to demand images of images in order for example to be conscious of an image of a cat we shall require according to the letter of the definition
an image which is a copy of our image of the cat and has this image for its prototype now it hardly seems probable as a matter of observation that there are images of images as opposed to images of sensations
we may meet this difficulty in two ways either by boldly denying consciousness of images or by finding a sense in which by means of a different accompanying belief an image instead of meaning its prototype
but it would not happen except by accident that a cat would be associated with a mat and in like manner an image may have certain associations which its prototype will not have
when these associations are active an image means an image instead of meaning its prototype if i have had images of a given prototype many times i can mean one of these as opposed to the rest
by recollecting the time and place or any other distinctive association of that one occasion this happens for example when a place recalls to us some thought we previously had in that place so that we remember a thought as opposed to the occurrence to which it referred
thus we may say that we think of an image a when we have a similar image b associated with recollections of circumstances connected with a but not with its prototype or with other images of the same prototype
merely by the help of new associations this theory so far as i can see
according to what we have been saying sensation itself is not an instance of consciousness though the immediate memory by which it is apt to be succeeded is so
a sensation which is remembered becomes an object of consciousness as soon as it begins to be remembered which will normally be almost immediately after its occurrence if at all
but while it exists it is not an object of consciousness if however it is part of a perception say of some familiar person
for in this case the sensation is a sign of the perceived object in much the same way in which a memory image is a sign of a remembered object the essential practical function of consciousness and thought
is that they enable us to act with reference to what is distant in time or space even though it is not at present stimulating our senses this reference to absent objects is possible through association and habit
actual sensations in themselves are not cases of consciousness because they do not bring in this reference to what is absent but their connection with consciousness is very close both through immediate memory
and through the correlations which turn sensations into perceptions enough has i hope been said to show that consciousness is far too complex and accidental to be taken as the fundamental characteristic of mind
suppose you are in a familiar room at night and suddenly the light goes out you will be able to find your way to the door without much difficulty by means of the picture of the room which you have in your mind
in this case visual images serve somewhat imperfectly it is true the purpose which visual sensations would otherwise serve the stimulus to the production of visual images is the desire to get out of the room which
again words heard or read enable you to act with reference to the matters about which they give information here again a present sensible stimulus
in virtue of habits formed in the past enables you to act in a manner appropriate to an object which is not sensibly present the whole essence of the practical efficiency of thought consists in sensitiveness to signs
the sensible presence of a which is a sign of the present or future existence of b enables us to act in a manner appropriate to b of this words are the supreme example
since their effects as signs are prodigious while their intrinsic interest as sensible occurrences on their own account is usually very slight the operation of signs may or may not be accompanied by consciousness
if a sensible stimulus a calls up an image of b and we then act with reference to b we have what may be called consciousness of b
it operates without the help of consciousness broadly speaking a very familiar sign tends to operate directly in this manner and the intervention of consciousness marks an imperfectly established habit
the power of acquiring experience which characterizes men and animals is an example of the general law that in mnemic causation the causal unit is not one event at one time
but two or more events at two or more times and a burnt child fears the fire that is to say the neighbourhood of fire has a different effect upon a child which has had the sensations of burning than upon one which has not
more correctly the observed effect when a child which has been burnt is put near a fire has for its cause not merely the neighbourhood of the fire but this together with the previous burning the general formula
when an animal has acquired experience through some event a is that when b occurs at some future time the animal to which a has happened acts differently from an animal which a has not happened
thus a and b together not either separately must be regarded as the cause of the animal's behaviour unless we take account of the effect which a has had in altering the animal's nervous tissue
but is different from the effect which the present occurrence would have produced if the recollected event had not occurred this may be accounted for by the physical effect of the past event on the brain
making it a different instrument from that which would have resulted from a different experience
with every special class of mental phenomena this possibility meets us afresh if psychology is to be a separate science at all we must seek a wider ground for its separateness than any that we have been considering hitherto
we have found that consciousness is too narrow to characterize mental phenomena and that mnemic causation is too wide
namely subjectivity subjectivity as a characteristic of mental phenomena
we there decided that those particulars which constitute the physical world can be collected into sets in two ways one of which makes a bundle of all those particulars that are appearances of a given thing from different places
while the other makes a bundle of all those particulars which are appearances of different things from a given place a bundle of this latter sort at a given time is called a perspective taken throughout a period of time
it is called a biography subjectivity is the characteristic of perspectives and biographies the characteristic of giving the view of the world from a certain place
such as consciousness experience and memory we found in fact that it is exhibited by a photographic plate and strictly speaking
those forming one biography primarily by the existence of direct time relations between them to these are to be added relations derivable from the laws of perspective
in all this we are clearly not in the region of psychology as commonly understood yet we are also hardly in the region of physics and the definition of perspectives and biographies
though it does not yet yield anything that would be commonly called mental is presupposed in mental phenomena for example in mnemic causation the causal unit in mnemic causation which gives rise to semon's engram
is the whole of one perspective not of any perspective but of a perspective in a place where there is nervous tissue or at any rate living tissue of some sort perception also as we saw
can only be defined in terms of perspectives thus the conception of subjectivity
is clearly an essential element in the definition i have maintained throughout these lectures that the data of psychology do not differ in their intrinsic character from the data of physics
i have maintained that sensations are data for psychology and physics equally while images which may be in some sense exclusively psychological data can only be distinguished from sensations by their correlations
not by what they are in themselves it is now necessary however to examine the notion of a datum and to obtain if possible a definition of this notion the notion of data is familiar throughout science
and is usually treated by men of science as though it were perfectly clear psychologists on the other hand find great difficulty in the conception data are naturally defined in terms of theory of knowledge
they are those propositions of which the truth is known without demonstration so that they may be used as premisses in proving other propositions further when a proposition which is a datum asserts the existence of something
we say that the something is a datum
there is some difficulty in connecting this epistemological definition of data with our psychological analysis of knowledge but until such a connection has been effected we have no right to use the conception data
it is clear in the first place that there can be no datum apart from a belief a sensation which merely comes and goes is not a datum it only becomes a datum when it is remembered similarly in perception
we do not have a datum unless we have a judgment of perception in the sense in which objects as opposed to propositions are data it would seem natural to say that those objects of which we are conscious are data
but consciousness as we have seen is a complex notion involving beliefs as well as mnemic phenomena such as are required for perception and memory it follows that no datum is theoretically indubitable since no belief is infallible
since there is always some vagueness in memory and the meaning of images data are not those things of which our consciousness is earliest in time at every period of life
after we have become capable of thought some of our beliefs are obtained by inference while others are not a belief may pass from either of these classes into the other and may therefore become
when in what follows i speak of data i do not mean the things of which we feel sure before scientific study begins but the things which
i assume that is to say a trained observer with an analytic attention knowing the sort of thing to look for and the sort of thing that will be important what he observes is at the stage of science which he has reached
a datum for his science it is just as sophisticated and elaborate as the theories which he bases upon it since only trained habits and much practice enable a man to make the kind of observation that will be scientifically illuminating nevertheless
when once it has been observed belief in it is not based on inference and reasoning but merely upon its having been seen in this way its logical status differs from that of the theories which are proved by its means
but if we postulate an ideal observer he will be able to isolate the sensation and treat this alone as datum there is therefore an important sense in which we may say that
our data outside psychology consist of sensations which include within themselves certain spatial and temporal relations applying this remark to physiology
we see that the nerves and brain as physical objects are not truly data they are to be replaced in the ideal structure of science by the sensations through which the physiologist is said to perceive them
the passage from these sensations to nerves and brain as physical objects belongs really to the initial stage in the theory of physics and ought to be placed in the reasoned part not in the part supposed to be observed
to say we see the nerves is like saying we hear the nightingale both are convenient but inaccurate expressions we hear a sound which we believe to be causally connected with the nightingale
but in each case it is only the sensation that ought in strictness to be called a datum now sensations are certainly among the data of psychology therefore all the data of the physical sciences are also psychological data
it remains to inquire whether all the data of psychology are also data of physical science and especially of physiology if we have been right in our analysis of mind
the ultimate data of psychology are only sensations and images and their relations beliefs desires volitions and so on appeared to us to be complex phenomena consisting of sensations and images variously interrelated
thus apart from certain relations the occurrences which seem most distinctively mental and furthest removed from physics are like physical objects
from both ends therefore the difference between physical and psychological data is diminished is there ultimately no difference or do images remain as irreducibly and exclusively psychological
this brings us to a new question namely
or are they really physiological certain ambiguities must be removed before this question can be adequately discussed
first there is the distinction between rough approximate laws and such as appear to be precise and general i shall return to the former presently it is the latter that i wish to discuss now
except in cases of perfect regularity in appearances of which we can have no experience the actual appearances of a piece of matter are not members of that ideal system of regular appearances which is defined as being the matter in question
but the matter is after all inferred from its appearances which are used to verify physical laws thus in so far as physics is an empirical and verifiable science
it must assume or prove that the inference from appearances to matter is in general legitimate and it must be able to tell us more or less what appearances to expect
it is through this question of verifiability and empirical applicability to experience that we are led to a theory of matter such as i advocate from the consideration of this question it results that physics
in so far as it is an empirical science not a logical phantasy is concerned with particulars of just the same sort as those which psychology considers under the name of sensations
differ from those of psychology only by the fact that they connect a particular with other appearances in the same piece of matter rather than with other appearances in the same perspective
that is to say they group together particulars having the same active place while psychology groups together those having the same passive place
some particulars such as images have no active place and therefore belong exclusively to psychology we can now understand the distinction between physics and psychology the nerves and brain are matter
our visual sensations when we look at them may be and i think are members of the system constituting irregular appearances of this matter but are not the whole of the system psychology is concerned inter alia
with our sensations when we see a piece of matter as opposed to the matter which we see assuming as we must that our sensations have physical causes
requires the breaking up of the group of which it is a member
but when it is studied by psychology it is taken away from that group and put into quite a different context where it causes images or voluntary movements
a secondary difference is that images which belong to psychology
there remains however an important question
before we can discuss the answer to this question we must first be clear as to what our question means when given a it is possible to infer b but given b it is not possible to infer a
we say that b is dependent upon a in a sense in which a is not dependent upon b stated in logical terms this amounts to saying that when we know a many one relation of a to b
b is dependent upon a in respect of this relation
the illustration that chiefly concerns us is the system of appearances of a physical object we can broadly speaking infer distant appearances from near ones but not vice versa
all men look alike when they are a mile away hence when we see a man a mile off we cannot tell what he will look like when he is only a yard away
we can tell what he will look like a mile away thus the nearer view gives us more valuable information
it is this greater causal potency of the near appearance that leads physics to state its causal laws in terms of that system of regular appearances to which the nearest appearances increasingly approximate
and that makes it value information derived from the microscope or telescope
therefore in our sensational life we are in causal dependence upon physical laws this however is not the most important or interesting part of our question it is the causation of images that is the vital problem
we have seen that they are subject to mnenic causation and that mnenic causation may be reducible to ordinary physical causation in nervous tissue this is the question upon which our attitude must turn towards what may be called materialism
whether this is the case or not i do not profess to know the question seems to me the same as the question whether mnemic causation is ultimate
in considering the causal laws of psychology the distinction between rough generalizations and exact laws is important there are many rough generalizations in psychology not only of the sort by which we govern our ordinary behaviour to each other
but also of a more nearly scientific kind habit and association belong among such laws i will give an illustration of the kind of law that can be obtained
suppose a person has frequently experienced a and b in close temporal contiguity an association will be established so that a or an image of a tends to cause an image of b the question arises
will the association work in either direction or only from the one which has occurred earlier to the one which has occurred later in an article by mister wohlgemuth called the direction of associations
it is claimed to be proved by experiment that in so far as motor memory
association works only from earlier to later while in visual and auditory memory this is not the case but the later of two neighbouring experiences may recall the earlier as well as the earlier the later
it is suggested that motor memory is physiological while visual and auditory memory are more truly psychological but that is not the point which concerns us in the illustration the point which concerns us is that a law of association
established by purely psychological observation is a purely psychological law and may serve as a sample of what is possible in the way of discovering such laws it is however
still no more than a rough generalization a statistical average it cannot tell us what will result from a given cause on a given occasion it is a law of tendency
if we wish to pass from the law of habit stated as a tendency or average to something more precise and invariable we seem driven to the nervous system
we can more or less guess how an occurrence produces a change in the brain and how its repetition gradually produces something analogous to the channel of a river
would resemble psychology rather than physics in what we found to be the decisive difference between them i think that is to say that such an account would not be content to speak even formally as though matter
which is a logical fiction were the ultimate reality i think that if our scientific knowledge were adequate to the task which it neither is nor is likely to become
it would exhibit the laws of correlation of the particulars constituting a momentary condition of a material unit and would state the causal laws of the world in terms of these particulars not in terms of matter
causal laws so stated would i believe be applicable to psychology and physics equally the science in which they were stated would succeed in achieving what metaphysics has vainly attempted
namely a unified account of what really happens
and free from all convenient fictions or unwarrantable assumptions of metaphysical entities
useful prescriptions cure for liver complaint in children
a week on the rolling deep
original motion carried by majority of three to one there were four of us george
we were sitting in my room smoking and talking about how bad we were bad from a medical point of view i mean of course we were all feeling seedy and we were getting quite nervous about it harris said he felt such extraordinary fits of
giddiness come over him at times that he hardly knew what he was doing
and hardly knew what he was doing with me it was my liver that was out of order i knew it was my liver that was out of order because i had just been reading a patent liver pill circular
in which were detailed the various symptoms by which a man could tell when his liver was out of order
i got down the book and read all
and then in an unthinking moment i idly turned the leaves and began to indolently study diseases generally i forget which was the first distemper i plunged into some fearful devastating scourge i know
premonitory symptoms it was borne in upon me that i had fairly got it i sat for awhile frozen with horror and then in the listlessness of despair i again turned over the pages
i came to typhoid fever read the symptoms
must have had it for months without knowing it
found as i expected that i had that too began to get interested in my case and determined to sift it to the bottom and so started alphabetically
and that the acute stage would commence in about another fortnight bright's disease i was relieved to find i had only in a modified form and so far as that was concerned i might live for years
cholera i had with severe complications and diphtheria i seemed to have been born with i plodded conscientiously through the twenty six letters and the only malady i could conclude i had not got
i felt rather hurt about this at first
why this invidious reservation after a while however less grasping feelings prevailed i reflected that i had every other known malady in the pharmacology and i grew less selfish
and determined to do without housemaid's knee gout in its most malignant stage it would appear had seized me without my being aware of it and zymosis i had evidently been suffering with from boyhood
there were no more diseases after zymosis so i concluded there was nothing else the matter with me i sat and pondered
students would have no need to walk the hospitals if they had me i was a hospital in myself
and after that take their diploma then i wondered how long i had to live
i felt my pulse i could not at first feel any pulse at all
all of a sudden it seemed to start off i pulled out my watch and timed it i made it a hundred and forty seven to the minute i tried to feel my heart i could not feel my heart it had stopped beating
i have since been induced to come to the opinion that it must have been there all the time and must have been beating
what a doctor wants i said is practice he shall have me he will get more practice out of me than out of seventeen hundred of your ordinary commonplace patients with only one or two diseases each so i went straight up and saw him and he said well
i will not take up your time dear boy with telling you what is the matter with me life is brief and you might pass away before i had finished but i will tell you what is not the matter with me i have not got housemaid's knee
why i have not got housemaid's knee i cannot tell you but the fact remains that i have not got it everything else however i have got and i told him how i came to discover it all
then he opened me and looked down me and clutched hold of my wrist and then he hit me over the chest when i wasn't expecting it a cowardly thing to do i call it and immediately afterwards butted me with the side of his head after that
and i put it in my pocket and went out i did not open it
he said he didn't keep it i said you are a chemist
if i was a co operative stores and family hotel combined i might be able to oblige you
i read the prescription it ran
one ten mile walk every morning one bed at eleven sharp every night and don't stuff up your head with things you don't understand
that my life was preserved and is still going on in the present instance going back to the liver pill circular i had the symptoms beyond all mistake the chief among them being a general disinclination to work of any kind
what i suffer in that way no tongue can tell from my earliest infancy i have been a martyr to it as a boy the disease hardly ever left me for a day
they gave me clumps on the side of the
than a whole box of pills does now
those simple old fashioned remedies are sometimes more efficacious than all the dispensary stuff we sat there for half an hour describing to each other our maladies i explained to george and william harris how i felt when i got up in the morning
and william harris told us how he felt when he went to bed and george stood on the hearth rug and gave us a clever and powerful piece of acting illustrative of how he felt in the night george fancies he is ill
we smiled sadly at one another and said we supposed we had better try to swallow a bit harris said a little something in one's stomach often kept the disease in check and missus poppets brought the tray in
and we drew up to the table and toyed with a little steak and onions and some rhubarb tart i must have been very weak at the time because i know after the first half hour or so i seemed to take no interest whatever in my food an unusual thing for me
but the unanimous opinion was that it whatever it was had been brought on by overwork what we want is rest said harris rest and a complete change said george
the overstrain upon our brains has produced a general depression throughout the system change of scene and absence of the necessity for thought will restore the mental equilibrium
described in the charge sheet as a medical student so that he naturally has a somewhat family physicianary way of putting things i agreed with george and suggested that we should seek out some retired and old world spot
far from the madding crowd and dream away a sunny week among its drowsy lanes some half forgotten nook hidden away by the fairies out of reach of the noisy world
for the price of the cow that you cannot afford edible a d j good to eat and wholesome to digest
a snake to a pig a pig to a man and a man to a worm editor
but is placable with an obolus a severely virtuous censor but so charitable withal
petulantly uttering his mind at the tail of a dog then straightway murmurs a mild melodious lay soft as the cooing of a donkey intoning its prayer to the evening star master of mysteries and lord of law
high pinnacled upon the throne of thought his face suffused with the dim splendors of the transfiguration his legs intertwisted and his tongue a cheek the editor spills his will along the paper and cuts it off in lengths to suit
and at intervals from behind the veil of the temple is heard the voice of the foreman demanding three inches of wit
or bidding him turn off the wisdom and whack up some pathos
silly old quilly old monarch of thought public opinion's camp follower he thundering blundering plundering free affected ungracious suspected mendacious respected contemporaree
bumbleshook education
that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding effect
the second of two phenomena which always occur together in the same order the first called a cause is said to generate the other which is no more sensible
to declare the rabbit the cause of a dog egotist
a person of low taste
megaceph chosen to serve the state in the halls of legislative debate one day with all his credentials came to the capitol's door and announced his name
the doorkeeper looked with a comical twist of the face at the eminent egotist and said go away for we settle here
a man who to all things under the sky assents by eternally voting i ejection
an approved remedy for the disease of garrulity it is also much used in cases of extreme poverty elector
one who enjoys the sacred privilege of voting for the man of another man's choice electricity
the memory of doctor franklin is justly held in great reverence particularly in france where a waxen effigy of him was recently on exhibition bearing the following touching account of his life and services to science
this illustrious savant after having made several voyages around the world
of whom not a single fragment was ever recovered electricity seems destined to play a most important part in the arts and industries the question of its economical application to some purposes is still unsettled
that it will propel a street car better than a gas jet
a composition in verse in which without employing any of the methods of humor the writer aims to produce in the reader's mind the dampest kind of dejection the most famous english example begins somewhat like this
the cur foretells the knell of parting day the loafing herd winds slowly o'er the lea the wise man homeward plods i only stay to fiddle faddle in a minor key eloquence
the art of orally persuading fools
it includes the gift of making any color appear white elysium
an imaginary delightful country which the ancients foolishly believed to be inhabited by the spirits of the good this ridiculous and mischievous fable was swept off the face of the earth by the early christians
may their souls be happy in heaven emancipation
a bondman's change from the tyranny of another to the despotism of himself he was a slave at word he went and came his iron collar cut him to the bone then liberty erased his owner's name
tightened the rivets and inscribed his own
by embalming their dead and thereby deranging the natural balance between animal and vegetable life the egyptians made their once fertile and populous country barren and incapable of supporting more than a meagre crew the modern metallic
burial casket is a step in the same direction and many a dead man who ought now to be ornamenting his neighbor's lawn as a tree or enriching his table as a bunch of radishes is doomed to a long inutility
we shall get him after awhile if we are spared
the violet and rose are languishing for a nibble at his glutoeus maximus emotion
a prostrating disease caused by a determination of the heart to the head it is sometimes accompanied by a copious discharge of hydrated chloride of sodium from the eyes encomiast
a special but not particular kind of liar end
the position farthest removed on either hand from the interlocutor the man was perishing apace who played the tambourine the seal of death was on his face twas pallid for twas clean this is the end
the sick man said in faint and failing tones a moment later he was dead and tambourine was bones
all there is in the world if you like it enough is as good as a feast for that matter enougher's as good as a feast for the platter
from the officer of lower rank to whom his death would give promotion epicure
a short sharp saying in prose or verse
by acidity or acerbity and sometimes by wisdom following are some of the more notable epigrams of the learned and ingenious doctor jamrach holobom we know better the needs of ourselves than of others
to serve oneself is economy of administration in each human heart are a tiger a pig an ass and a nightingale diversity of character is due to their unequal activity
there are three sexes males females and girls beauty in women and distinction in men are alike in this
women in love are less ashamed than men they have less to be ashamed of while your friend holds you affectionately by both your hands you are safe for you can watch both his epitaph
an inscription on a tomb showing that virtues acquired by death have a retroactive effect following is a touching example
wise pious humble and all that who showed us life as all should live it let that be said and god forgive it
dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull so wide his erudition's mighty span he knew creation's origin and plan and only came by accident to grief he thought poor man twas right to be a thief
esoteric a d j very particularly abstruse and consummately occult the ancient philosophies were of two kinds exoteric those that the philosophers themselves could partly understand
and esoteric those that nobody could understand it is the latter that have most profoundly affected modern thought and found greatest acceptance in our time ethnology
as robbers thieves swindlers dunces lunatics idiots and ethnologists eucharist
and the question is still unsettled eulogy
praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power or the consideration to be dead evangelist
a bearer of good tidings particularly in a religious sense such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of our neighbors everlasting a d j lasting forever
it is with no small diffidence that i venture to offer this brief and elementary definition for i am not unaware of the existence of a bulky volume by a sometime bishop of worcester entitled
a partial definition of the word everlasting
his book was once esteemed of great authority in the anglican church and is still i understand studied with pleasure to the mind and profit of the soul
a thing which takes the liberty to differ from other things of its class
the exception proves the rule is an expression constantly upon the lips of the ignorant who parrot it from one another with never a thought of its absurdity in the latin exceptio probat regulam
means that the exception tests the rule puts it to the proof not confirms it the malefactor who drew the meaning from this excellent dictum and substituted a contrary one of his own
exerted an evil power which appears to be immortal excess
the law of moderation hail high excess especially in wine to thee in worship do i bend the knee
my skull thy pulpit as my paunch thy shrine precept on precept aye and line on line could ne'er persuade so sweetly to agree with reason as thy touch exact and free
upon my forehead and along my spine at thy command eschewing pleasure's cup with the hot grape i warm no more my wit when on thy stool of penitence i sit i'm quite converted for i can't get up
excommunication
and forbidding christ to save him
huckle executive
whose duty it is to enforce the wishes of the legislative power until such time as the judicial department shall be pleased to pronounce them invalid and of no effect
lunarian then when your congress has passed a law it goes directly to the supreme court in order that it may at once be known whether it is constitutional terrestrian o no it does not require the approval of the supreme court
until having perhaps been enforced for many years somebody objects to its operation against himself i mean his client the president if he approves it begins to execute it at once
do your policemen also have to approve the local ordinances that they enforce terrestrian not yet
lunarian i see the death warrant is not valid until signed by the murderer terrestrian my friend you put it too strongly we are not so consistent lunarian
but this system of maintaining an expensive judicial machinery to pass upon the validity of laws only after they have long been executed
terrestrian it does lunarian why then should not your laws previously to being executed be validated not by the signature of your president but by that of the chief justice of the supreme court
terrestrian there is no precedent for any such course lunarian precedent what is that terrestrian
so how can any one know exhort
and roast it to a nut brown discomfort exile
one who serves his country by residing abroad yet is not an ambassador
no sir but i should like to anchor on it
made a joke on the ex isle of erin coldly received war with the whole world existence
a transient horrible fantastic dream wherein is nothing yet all things do seem from which we're wakened by a friendly nudge of our bedfellow death and cry o fudge
the wisdom that enables us to recognize as an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced
expostulation
one of the many methods by which fools prefer to lose their friends
chapter seventeen a new interest in life the next afternoon anne bending over her patchwork at the kitchen window happened to glance out and beheld diana down by the dryad's bubble beckoning mysteriously
astonishment and hope struggling in her expressive eyes but the hope faded when she saw diana's dejected countenance your mother hasn't relented she gasped diana shook her head mournfully no and oh anne
oh diana will you promise faithfully never to forget me the friend of your youth no matter what dearer friends may caress thee indeed i will sobbed diana and i'll never have another bosom friend i don't want to have
i couldn't love anybody as i love you oh diana cried anne clasping her hands do you love me why of course i do didn't you know that no anne drew a long breath
it's a ray of light which will forever shine on the darkness of a path severed from thee diana oh just say it once again i love you devotedly anne said diana stanchly and i always will you may be sure of that
and i will always love thee diana said anne solemnly extending her hand in the years to come thy memory will shine like a star over my lonely life
have you got anything to cut it with queried diana wiping away the tears which anne's affecting accents had caused to flow afresh and returning to practicalities yes i've got my patchwork scissors in my apron pocket fortunately
anne stood and watched diana out of sight
and even if i had it wouldn't be the same somehow little dream girls are not satisfying after a real friend diana and i had such an affecting farewell down by the spring it will be sacred in my memory forever
i used the most pathetic language i could think of and said thou and thee thou and thee seem so much more romantic than you
please see that it is buried with me for i don't believe i'll live very long perhaps when she sees me lying cold and dead before her missus barry may feel remorse for what she has done and will let diana come to my funeral
i don't think there is much fear of your dying of grief as long as you can talk anne said marilla unsympathetically the following monday anne surprised marilla by coming down from her room with her basket of books on her arm and hip
and her lips primmed up into a line of determination i'm going back to school she announced that is all there is left in life for me now that my friend has been ruthlessly torn from me in school i can look at her and muse over days departed
i'll try to be a model pupil agreed anne dolefully there won't be much fun in it i expect mister phillips said minnie andrews was a model pupil and there isn't a spark of imagination or life in her
she is just dull and poky and never seems to have a good time but i feel so depressed that perhaps it will come easy to me now i'm going round by the road i couldn't bear to go by the birch path all alone i should weep
bitter tears if i did anne was welcomed back to school with open arms her imagination had been sorely missed in games her voice in the singing and her dramatic ability in the perusal aloud of books at dinner hour
so nice for trimming aprons katie boulter
and julia bell copied carefully on a piece of pale pink paper scalloped on the edges the following effusion when twilight drops her curtain down and pins it with a star remember that you have a friend though she may wander far
it's so nice to be appreciated sighed anne rapturously to marilla that night the girls were not the only scholars who appreciated her when anne went to her seat after dinner hour
she had been told by mister phillips to sit with the model minnie andrews she found on her desk a big luscious strawberry apple anne caught it up all ready to take a bite when she remembered that the only place in avonlea where strawberry apples grew
was in the old blythe orchard on the other side of the lake of shining waters anne dropped the apple as if it were a red hot coal and ostentatiously wiped her fingers on her handkerchief
bedizened with striped red and yellow paper costing two cents where ordinary pencils cost only one which he sent up to her after dinner hour met with a more favorable reception anne was graciously pleased to accept it
and rewarded the donor with a smile which exalted that infatuated youth straightway into the seventh heaven of delight and caused him to make such fearful errors in his dictation that mister phillips kept him in after school to rewrite it
but as the caesar's pageant shorn of brutus bust did but of rome's best son remind her more so the marked absence of any tribute or recognition from diana barry who was sitting with gertie pye embittered
anne's little triumph diana might just have smiled at me once i think she mourned to marilla that night but the next morning a note most fearfully and wonderfully twisted and folded
and a small parcel were passed across to anne dear anne ran the former mother says i'm not to play with you or talk to you even in school it isn't my fault and don't be cross at me because i love you as much as ever
they are awfully fashionable now and only three girls in school know how to make them when you look at it remember your true friend diana barry anne read the note
kissed the bookmark and dispatched a prompt reply back to the other side of the school my own darling diana of course i am not cross at you because you have to obey your mother our spirits can commune
i shall keep your lovely present forever minnie andrews is a very nice little girl although she has no imagination but after having been diana's busum friend i cannot be minnie's
although much improoved yours until death us do part anne or cordelia shirley p s i shall sleep with your letter under my pillow tonight a or c s
marilla pessimistically expected more trouble since anne had again begun to go to school but none developed perhaps anne caught something of the model spirit from minnie andrews
at least she got on very well with mister phillips thenceforth she flung herself into her studies heart and soul determined not to be outdone in any class by gilbert blythe the rivalry between them was soon apparent
it was entirely good natured on gilbert's side but it is much to be feared that the same thing cannot be said of anne who had certainly an unpraiseworthy tenacity for holding grudges she was as intense in her hatreds as in her loves
she would not stoop to admit that she meant to rival gilbert in schoolwork because that would have been to acknowledge his existence which anne persistently ignored but the rivalry was there and honors fluctuated between them
now gilbert was head of the spelling class now anne with a toss of her long red braids spelled him down one morning gilbert had all his sums done correctly and had his name written on the blackboard on the roll of honor
the next morning anne having wrestled wildly with decimals the entire evening before would be first one awful day they were ties and their names were written up together it was almost as bad as a take notice
and anne's mortification was as evident as gilbert's satisfaction when the written examinations at the end of each month were held the suspense was terrible the first month gilbert came out three marks ahead the second
anne beat him by five but her triumph was marred by the fact that gilbert congratulated her heartily before the whole school it would have been ever so much sweeter to her if he had felt the sting of his defeat
mister phillips might not be a very good teacher but a pupil so inflexibly determined on learning as anne was could hardly escape making progress under any kind of teacher
anne and gilbert were both promoted into the fifth class and allowed to begin studying the elements of the branches by which latin geometry french and algebra were meant in geometry anne met her waterloo
it's perfectly awful stuff marilla she groaned i'm sure i'll never be able to make head or tail of it there is no scope for imagination in it at all mister phillips says i'm the worst dunce he ever saw at it
even diana gets along better than i do but i don't mind being beaten by diana
the queen herself wrote henry a letter from the tower
who was determined to pave the way for his new marriage by the death of anne boleyn morris weston brereton and smeton were tried but no legal evidence was produced against them
the chief proof of their guilt consisted in a hearsay from one lady wingfield who was dead smeton was prevailed on by the vain hopes of life to confess a criminal correspondence with the queen
but even her enemies expected little advantage from this confession for they never dared to confront him with her and he was immediately executed as were also brereton and weston norris had been much in the king's favor
and an offer of life was made him if he would confess his crime and accuse the queen but he generously rejected the proposal
the chief evidence it is said amounted to no more than that rocheford had been seen to lean on her bed before some company part of the charge against her was that she had affirmed to her minions that the king never had her heart
such palpable absurdities were at that time admitted and they were regarded by the peers of england as a sufficient reason for sacrificing an innocent queen to the cruelty of their tyrant though unassisted by counsel
she defended herself with presence of mind and the spectators could not forbear pronouncing her entirely innocent judgment however was given by the court both against the queen and lord rocheford
thou who art the way the truth and the life thou knowest that i have not deserved this fate and then turning to the judges made the most pathetic declarations of her innocence henry not satisfied with this cruel vengeance
and to declare her issue illegitimate he recalled to his memory that a little after her appearance in the english court some attachment had been acknowledged between her and the earl of northumberland
and he now questioned that nobleman with regard to these engagements northumberland took an oath before the two archbishops that no contract or promise of marriage had ever passed between them he received the sacrament upon it
before the duke of norfolk and others of the privy council and this solemn act he accompanied with the most solemn protestations of veracity the queen however
was shaken by menaces of executing the sentence against her in its greatest rigor and was prevailed on to confess in court some lawful impediment to her marriage with the king the afflicted primate who sat as judge
thought himself obliged by this confession to pronounce the marriage null and invalid henry in the transports of his fury did not perceive
and acknowledged the obligations which she owed him in thus uniformly continuing his endeavors for her advancement from a private gentlewoman she said he had first made her a marchioness then a queen and now
since he could raise her no higher in this world he was sending her to be a saint in heaven she then renewed the protestations of her innocence and recommended her daughter to his care before the lieutenant of the tower and all who approached her
she made the like declarations and continued to behave herself with her usual serenity and even with cheerfulness the executioner she said to the lieutenant is i hear very expert and my neck is very slender upon which
she grasped it in her hand and smiled when brought however to the scaffold she softened her tone a little with regard to her protestations of innocence she probably reflected
which the unjust sentence by which she suffered naturally excited in her she said that she was come to die as she was sentenced by the law
she prayed heartily for the king called him a most merciful and gentle prince and acknowledged that he had always been to her a good and gracious sovereign and if any one should think proper to canvass her cause
she desired him to judge the best she was beheaded by the executioner of calais
knew not whom to accuse as her lover and though he imputed guilt to her brother and four persons more he was able to bring proof against none of them the whole tenor of her conduct forbids us to ascribe to her an abandoned character
such as is implied in the king's accusation
by marrying jane seymour the very day after her execution his impatience to gratify this new passion caused him to forgot all regard to decency and his cruel heart was not softened a moment by the bloody catastrophe
had been offended with her on account of the part which she had taken in her mother's quarrel her advances were not at first received and henry exacted from her some further proofs of submission and obedience
he required this young princess then about twenty years of age to adopt his theological tenets to acknowledge his supremacy to renounce the pope and to own her mother's marriage to be unlawful
made a merit to his people that notwithstanding the misfortunes attending his two former marriages he had been induced for their good to venture on a third the speaker received this profession with suitable gratitude
and he took thence occasion to praise the king for his wonderful gifts of grace and nature he compared him for justice and prudence to solomon for strength and fortitude to samson and for beauty and comeliness to absalom
the king very humbly replied
that he disavowed these praises since if he were really possessed of such endowments they were the gift of almighty god only henry found that the parliament was no less submissive in deeds than complaisant in their expressions
and that they would go the same lengths as the former in gratifying even his most lawless passions his divorce from anne boleyn was ratified that queen and all her accomplices were attainted
to throw any slander upon the present king queen or their issue was subjected to the same penalty the crown was settled on the king's issue by jane seymour or any subsequent wife and in case he should die without children
he was empowered by his will or letters patent to dispose of the crown
whoever being required refused to answer upon oath to any article of this act of settlement was declared to be guilty of treason and by this clause a species of political inquisition was established in the kingdom
as well as the accusations of treason multiplied to an unreasonable degree the king was also empowered to confer on any one by his will or letters patent any castles honors liberties or franchises
words which might have been extended to the dismembering of the kingdom by the erection of principalities and independent jurisdictions
the conduct of foreign affairs alone required effort and application and they were now brought to such a situation that it was no longer safe for england to remain entirely neutral the feigned moderation of the emperor was of short duration
and it was soon obvious to all the world that his great dominions far from gratifying his ambition were only regarded as the means of acquiring an more extensive the terms which he demanded of his prisoner
he said that he would rather live and die a prisoner than agree to dismember his kingdom and that even were he so base as to submit to such conditions his subjects would never permit him to carry them into execution
he was uneasy however to be so far distant from the emperor with whom he must treat and he expressed his desire which was complied with to be removed to madrid
he was soon convinced of his mistake partly from want of exercise partly from reflections on his present melancholy situation he fell into a languishing illness which begat apprehensions in charles
lest the death of his captive should bereave him of all those advantages which he purposed to extort from him he then paid him a visit in the castle of madrid and as he approached the bed in which francis lay the sick monarch called to him
by which it was hoped an end would be finally put to the differences between these great monarchs the principal condition was the restoring of francis's liberty and the delivery of his two eldest sons as hostages to the emperor
and charles discovered evidently his intention of reducing italy as well as france to subjection and dependence
or rather ruinous and destructive to himself his posterity and his country by putting burgundy they thought into the emperor's hands he gave his powerful enemy an entrance into the heart of the kingdom by sacrificing his allies in italy
he deprived himself of foreign assistance and arming his oppressor with the whole force and wealth of that opulent country rendered him absolutely irresistible to these great views of interest were added the motives
which had been exacted of him for the recovery of his liberty it was also foreseen that the emulation and rivalship which had so long subsisted between these two monarchs would make him feel the strongest reluctance on yielding the superiority to an antagonist who
by the whole tenor of his conduct he would be apt to think had shown himself so little worthy of that advantage which fortune and fortune alone had put into his hands his ministers his friends his subjects his allies
when the spanish envoy demanded his ratification of the treaty of madrid now that he had fully recovered his liberty he declined the proposal under color that it was previously necessary to assemble the states both of france and of burgundy
and to obtain their consent the states of burgundy soon met and declaring against the clause which contained an engagement for alienating their province they expressed their resolution of opposing
and even destructive of his independency had very frankly offered him a dispensation from all his oaths and engagements francis remained not in suspense but entered immediately into the confederacy proposed to him
it was stipulated by that king the pope the venetians the swiss the florentines and the duke of milan among other articles that they would oblige the emperor to deliver up the two young princes of france on receiving a reasonable sum of money
the king of england was invited to accede not only as a contracting party
of which the emperor intended to grant him the investiture and having levied a considerable army in germany he became formidable to all the italian potentates and not the less so because charles destitute as usual of money
had not been able to remit any pay to the forces the general was extremely beloved by his troops and in order to prevent those mutinies which were ready to break out every moment and which their affection alone for him had hitherto restrained
he led them to rome and promised to enrich them by the plunder of that opulent city he was himself killed as he was planting a scaling ladder against the walls but his soldiers rather enraged than discouraged by his death
mounted to the assault with the utmost valor and entering the city sword in hand exercised all those brutalities which may be expected from ferocity excited by resistance and from insolence which takes place when that resistance is no more
this renowned city exposed by her renown alone to so many calamities never endured in any age even from the barbarians by whom she was often subdued such indignities as she was now compelled to suffer
the unrestrained massacre and pillage which continued for several days were the least ills to which the unhappy romans were exposed whatever was respectable in modesty or sacred in religion
or purchase liberty by exorbitant ransoms clement himself who had trusted for protection to the sacredness of his character and neglected to make his escape in time was taken captive
and found that his dignity which procured him no regard from the spanish soldiers did but draw on him the insolent mockery of the german who being generally attached to the lutheran principles
were pleased to gratify their animosity by the abasement of the sovereign pontiff when intelligence of this great event was conveyed to the emperor that young prince habituated to hypocrisy
expressed the most profound sorrow for the success of his arms he put himself and all his court in mourning he stopped the rejoicings for the birth of his son philip and knowing that every artifice however gross
to impose upon the people he ordered prayers during several months to be put up in the churches for the pope's liberty which all men knew a letter under his hand could in a moment have procured
the concern expressed by henry and francis for the calamity of their ally was more sincere these two monarchs a few days before the sack of rome had concluded a treaty at westminster in which besides renewing former alliances
they agreed to send ambassadors to charles requiring him to accept of two millions of crowns as the ransom of the french princes and to repay the money borrowed from henry and in case of refusal the ambassadors attended by heralds
than they changed by a new treaty the scene of the projected war from the netherlands to italy and hearing of the pope's captivity they were further stimulated to undertake the war with vigor for restoring him to liberty
wolsey himself crossed the sea in order to have an interview with francis and to concert measures for that purpose and he displayed all that grandeur and magnificence with which he was so much intoxicated
he was attended by a train of a thousand horse the cardinal of lorraine and the chancellor alencon met him at boulogne francis himself besides granting to that haughty prelate
the power of giving in every place where he came liberty to all prisoners
and as the emperor seemed to be taking some steps towards assembling a general council the two monarchs agreed not to acknowledge it but during the interval of the pope's captivity
it was agreed that the parliaments and great nobility of both kingdoms should give their assent to it the mareschal montmorency accompanied by many persons of distinction
was sent over to ratify the treaty and was received at london with all the parade which suited the solemnity of the occasion the terror of the emperor's greatness had extinguished the ancient animosity between the nations and spain
during more than a century became though a more distant power the chief object of jealousy to the english this cordial union between france and england though it added influence to the joint embassy which they sent to the emperor
was not able to bend that monarch to submit entirely to the conditions insisted on by the allies he departed indeed from his demand of burgundy as the ransom of the french princes but he required previously to their liberty
that francis should evacuate genoa and all the fortresses held by him in italy and he declared his intention of bringing sforza to a trial and confiscating the duchy of milan on account of his pretended treason
the english and french heralds therefore according to agreement declared war against him and set him at defiance charles answered the english herald with moderation but to the french
francis retaliated this challenge by giving charles the lie and after demanding security of the field he offered to maintain his cause by single combat many messages passed to and fro between them
but though both princes were undoubtedly brave the intended duel never took place the french and spaniards during that age zealously disputed which of the monarchs incurred the blame of this failure
but all men of moderation every where lamented the power of fortune that the prince the more candid generous and sincere should by unhappy incidents have been reduced to so cruel a situation that nothing but his violation of treaty
could preserve his people and that he must ever after without being able to make a proper reply bear to be reproached with breach of promise by a rival inferior to him both in honor and virtue
but though this famous challenge between charles and francis had no immediate consequence with regard to these monarchs themselves it produced a considerable alteration on the manners of the age
the practice of challenges and duels which had been part of the ancient barbarous jurisprudence which was still preserved on very solemn occasions and which was sometimes countenanced by the civil magistrate began thenceforth
to prevail in the most trivial incidents and men on any affront or injury thought themselves entitled or even required in honor to take revenge on their enemies by openly vindicating their right in single combat
these absurd though generous maxims shed much of thee best blood in christendom during more than two centuries
should choose forty commissioners bruce and his adherents forty more to these the king added twenty four englishmen
and make their report to him and he promised in the ensuing year to give his determination meanwhile he pretended that it was requisite to have all the fortresses of scotland delivered into his hands in order to enable him without opposition to put the true heir in possession of the crown
and this exorbitant demand was complied with both by the states and by the claimants the governors also of all the castles immediately resigned their command except umfreville
earl of angus who refused without a formal and particular acquittal from the parliament and the several claimants to surrender his fortresses to so domineering an arbiter who had given to scotland so many just reasons of suspicion
before this assembly broke up which had fixed such a mark of dishonor on the nation
both in order to assist at the funeral of his mother queen eleanor who died about this time and to compose some differences which had arisen among his principal nobility gilbert earl of glocester the greatest baron of the kingdom had espoused the king's daughter
and being elated by that alliance and still more by his own power which he thought set him above the laws he permitted his bailiffs and vassals to commit violence on the lands of humphrey bohun earl of hereford who retaliated the injury by like violence
but this was not a reign in which such illegal proceedings could pass with impunity edward procured a sentence against the two earls committed them both to prison and would not restore them to their liberty till he had exacted a fine of one thousand marks from hereford
whose claims appeared to be the best founded among the competitors for the crown of scotland were the subject of general disquisition as well as of debate among the commissioners edward in order to give greater authority to his intended decision
this was the true state of the case and the principle of representation had now gained such ground every where that a uniform answer was returned to the king in the affirmative he therefore pronounced sentence in favor of balioi
and when bruce upon this disappointment joined afterwards lord hastings and claimed a third of the kingdom which he now pretended to be divisible edward though his interests seemed more to require the partition of scotland
again pronounced sentence in favor of baliol that competitor upon renewing his oath of fealty to england was put in possession of the kingdom all his fortresses were restored to him and the conduct of edward both in the deliberate solemnity of the proceedings
and in the justice of the award was so far unexceptionable
though the iniquity of that claim was apparent and was aggravated by the most egregious breach of trust he might have fixed his pretensions
but he immediately proceeded in such a manner as made it evident that not content with this usurpation
to engage him in rebellion and to assume the dominion of the state as the punishment of his treason and felony accordingly baliol though a prince of a soft and gentle spirit returned into scotland highly provoked at this usage
and determined at all hazards to vindicate his liberty and the war which soon after broke out between france and england gave him a favorable opportunity of executing his purpose the violence robberies and disorders to which that age was so subject
were not confined to the licentious barons and their retainers at land the sea was equally infested with piracy the feeble execution of the laws had given license to all orders of men
and both of them having occasion for water they sent their boats to land and the several crews came at the same time to the same spring there ensued a quarrel for the preference a norman drawing his dagger attempted to stab an englishman
who grappling with him threw his adversary on the ground and the norman as was pretended falling on his own dagger
who without carrying any complaint to the king or waiting for redress retaliated by committing like barbarities on all french vessels without distinction the french provoked by their losses preyed on the ships of all edward's subjects whether english or gascon
the sea became a scene of piracy between the nations the sovereigns without either seconding or repressing the violence of their subjects seemed to remain indifferent spectators the english made private associations with the irish and dutch seamen
and the animosities of the people on both sides became every day more violent and barbarous a fleet of two hundred norman vessels set sail to the south for wine and other commodities and in their passage seized all the english ships which they met with
hanged the seamen and seized the goods the inhabitants of the english seaports informed of this incident fitted out a fleet of sixty sail stronger and better manned than the others and awaited the enemy on their return after an obstinate battle
that the norman fleet was employed in transporting a considerable body of soldiers from the south the affair was now become too important to be any longer overlooked by the sovereigns on philip's sending an envoy to demand reparation and restitution
the king despatched his brother edmond earl of lancaster to paris and as this prince had espoused the queen of navarre mother to jane queen of france he seemed on account of that alliance the most proper person for finding expedients to accommodate the difference
jane pretended to interpose with her good offices mary the queen dowager feigned the same amicable disposition and these two princesses told edmond that the circumstance the most difficult to adjust was the point of honor with philip
who thought himself affronted by the injuries committed against him by his sub vassals in guienne but if edward would once consent to give him seizin and possession of that province he would think his honor fully repaired would engage to restore guienne immediately
and would accept of a very easy satisfaction for all the other injuries the king was consulted on the occasion and as he then found himself in immediate danger of war with the scots which he regarded as the more important concern
allowed himself to be deceived by so gross an artifice he sent his brother orders to sign and execute the treaty with the two queens philip solemnly promised to execute his part of it
and the king's citation to appear in the court of france was accordingly recalled but the french monarch was no sooner put in possession of guienne than the citation was renewed
in being so egregiously overreached by the court of france sensible of the extreme difficulties which he should encounter in the recovery of gascony where he had not retained a single place in his hands
he endeavored to compensate that loss by forming alliances with several princes who he projected should attack france on all quarters and make a diversion of her forces adolphus de nassau king of the romans
entered into a treaty with him for that purpose as did also amadaeus count of savoy the archbishop of cologne
which he completed by emptying the jails of many thousand thieves and robbers who had been confined there for their crimes so low had the profession of arms fallen
and under him by saint john
charles de valois who commanded the french armies having laid siege to podensac a small fortress near reole
the governor to capitulate and the articles though favorable to the english left all the gascons prisoners at discretion of whom about fifty were hanged by charles as rebels a policy by which he both intimidated that people
and produced an irreparable breach between them and the english that prince immediately attacked reole where the earl of richmond himself commanded and as the place seemed not tenable the english general drew his troops to the water side
with an intention of embarking with the greater part of the army the enraged gascons fell upon his rear and at the same time opened their gates to the french who besides making themselves masters of the place took many prisoners of distinction
saint severe was more vigorously defended by hugh de vere
but was at last obliged to capitulate the french king not content with these successes in gascony threatened england with an invasion and by a sudden attempt his troops took and burnt dover but were obliged soon after to retire
introduced the lower orders of the state into the public councils and laid the foundations of great and important changes in the government though nothing could be worse calculated for cultivating the arts of peace or maintaining peace itself
than the long subordination of vassalage from the king to the meanest gentleman and the consequent slavery of the lower people evils inseparable from the feudal system that system was never able to fix the state in a proper warlike posture
or give it the full exertion of its power for defence and still less for offence against a public enemy the military tenants unacquainted with obedience unexperienced in war held a rank in the troops by their birth
whom they dismissed at the end of the war the barons and knights themselves often entered into these engagements with the prince and were enabled to fill their bands both by the authority which they possessed over their vassals and tenants
and from the great numbers of loose disorderly people whom they found on their estates
meanwhile the old gothic fabric being neglected went gradually to decay though the conqueror had divided all the lands of england into sixty thousand knights fees the number of these was insensibly diminished by various artifices
and the king at last found that by putting the law in execution he could assemble a small part only of the ancient force of the kingdom it was a usual expedient for men who held of the king or great barons by military tenure to transfer their land to the church
and receive it back by another tenure called frankalmoigne by which they were not bound to per form any service a law was made against this practice but the abuse had probably gone far before it was attended to
and probably was not entirely corrected by the new statute which like most laws of that age we may conjecture to have been but feebly executed by the magistrate against the perpetual interest of so many individuals
the constable and mareschal when they mustered the armies often in a hurry and for want of better information
it was then too late to think of examining records and charters and the service was accepted on the footing which the vassal himself was pleased to acknowledge after all the various subdivisions and conjunctions of property had thrown an obscurity on the nature and extent of his tenure
it is easy to judge of the intricacies which would attend disputes of this kind with individuals when even the number of military fees belonging to the church whose property way fixed and unalienable became the subject of controversy
and we find in particular that when the bishop of durham was charged with seventy knights fees
and this rate must also have fixed all his future payments pecuniary scutages therefore
other methods of filling the exchequer as well as the armies must be devised
he smiled to himself in grim satisfaction and rubbed his hands softly together to tell truth
and had wondered why he had not come the palmer should have proved a bait in himself so the sheriff imagined but robin only learned on the eve of the fair the whole truth about that holy man it was in this way for ten nights had robin waited at the trysting place for sight of marian
and had waited in vain at last doubt grew into suspicion and suspicion into fierce terror had marian been abducted by monceux and did the squire fear to tell him on the night before the fair he took courage and marched up to the castle entrance
then wound his horn for the bridge to be lowered now if monceux could but have known
he rushed across the bridge soon as it had fallen clangingly upon the buttresses the same old servant met him at the gates holding it open just a little way so that he might peer forth robin pulled his cloak about himself
my master hath been gone near two weeks he went alone from here but tell me who you are clamoring so noisily with your questioning i am robin hood said robin in desperation and now for the love of heaven give me news of mistress fitzwalter
she left here on the day after my lord's departure hath left gamewell robin gasped how in what way the man sniggered to tell truth excellence she did leave us in strange guise
mistress would have our maids make her a monk's gown and i was bid to fashion her a staff such as these palmers carry in their hands then with sandalled feet did she go forth from here upon the day of the rioting in nottingham when stuteley and the others escaped
it was upon the morning of that day the man replied and i promise you we have not seen her since robin turned abruptly from him next minute he was running blindly under the night towards the city gates the sheriff's prize had been announced far and wide
for the best archer there was an arab horse coal black and worth a bag of gold and with the horse there would be a saddle of silver and fine leather also a silk purse worked by the demoiselle marie containing a hundred pieces there were other rewards for the quarter staff and single stick but this year there would be no tourney
it was a fete day and folk crowded into nottingham by all gates these had been lowered hospitably and were to remain down all day the stages had been erected for quarter staff there was a fellow one nat of nottingham who was believed to be the finest player at the game for many miles around
he began boasting then of his prowess and called them all cowardly and the like a lame beggar who had pushed himself well to the front of the ring about the stage came in for a share of nat's abuse
he wore a beard pointed and untrimmed and he listened very calmly to the other's noisy chattering come up here you dirty villain and i'll dust your rags for you cried nat flourishing his staff if you will use a shorter staff than this master wind bag
said the beggar quietly and showing his stick
the beggar made as if to drop his staff forthright and nat lifted himself for another and crushing blow but the one eyed man recovered his guard sprang suddenly on one side and as nat's staff was descending vainly the beggar dealt his foe a back thrust so neatly
therefore when the beggar went to fetch his prize from the sheriff's own hands there was great cheering and applause he found monceux seated in a handsome booth with his daughter and her maids near by the archery rings here the shooting was in progress
the sheriff narrowly watched each competitor and glanced often towards mistress monceux the demoiselle marie had one of her women sitting near her feet so that every movement she made might be observed the sheriff's daughter signalled no and no again to her father as the various bowmen
took their places the beggar paused to watch the contest it seemed to amuse him exceedingly master patch was thus for some minutes close to the sheriff's tent his patched eye was turned towards it and he seemed to be blissfully unaware of the great man's near presence
but he had taken due note nevertheless of master monceux and his cold daughter and the maid sitting so forlornly upon the hard ground at the latter's feet one of the nottingham men a tanner by trade had so far been most successful
and like nat he began to be disdainful of the rest and to swagger it somewhat each time his turn to shoot came round the prize will surely be thine arthur a bland cried monceux loudly clapping his hands together after this fellow had made a fair shot
indeed i do not think that master hood himself would beat me to day admitted arthur a bland conceitedly the beggar heard both remark and answer thou speakest well gossip he said here in nottingham town
yet i would venture to advise thee were this pretty place in sherwood and the bold robin within earshot
he sneered angrily i know too much of him
once like you gossip i boasted of my skill with the bow
whilst i was walking with a stranger who had met me very civilly upon the road says he if you can hit yon mark i'll know you a better archer than robin hood so i flew my shaft arrogantly and twas a tidy shot near two hundred paces my arrow struck the mark fairly
what say you stranger says i
for having stepped back a score of yards he yet was able to speed his arrow so cleverly as to split mine own from end to end thou art robin hood i said then and i had fear upon me what then asked arthur a bland composedly
for my boasting he gave me a drubbing the beggar went on and for my archery five silver crowns then thou canst bend the bow said arthur will you not attempt my lord sheriff's prize old patch and rags
marry i would most willingly cried the beggar but for my lame leg and blind eye one does not need a leg to shoot arrows nor yet two eyes take aim gossip and show us how you played the sport in sherwood on that day
the archer's tone was mocking but the beggar only replied that he had already won a prize and was content just then one of the sheriff's guards approached him my master would have speech with you friend said he and so you have met bold robin hood
asked monceux so soon as the beggar stood before him well do i know it the beggar answered writhing his eye in fiery glance about the sheriff's tent my body is full sore yet from the beating he gave me are you sure twas robin hood that am i
he is a slim slight man with long hair and small fair beard if you could lead me to him friend i would reward you well said the sheriff in malicious tones i will show the place where we met soon as you will excellence replied the beggar
he said the beggar went back to the archer and said that now he would take a shot with him i may as well win two prizes as one he continued affably for the horse will help me carry my pieces arthur a bland was greatly incensed at this speech and took aim with hands that trembled with anger
however he made a pretty shot and a round of cheering met his effort the beggar took the bow which one of the archers held out to him and fitted his arrow to it with a great show of care when at last he released the arrow all got ready to laugh and jeer at him
he contrived however to surprise them once again for his arrow was found to be a full inch nearer the middle of the mark than all the others they shot again and again and at length arthur a bland lodged his shaft in the center of the target
now mend that shot master patch an you can cried he nay i fear that i must now yield the prize to you gossip declared the beggar yet i will even do my best he aimed with every circumstance of effort and flew his shaft with a loud sigh
it rose up high in the air as though it must fly altogether wide of the target and folk had already opened their mouths to laugh when suddenly it dropped in a graceful curve towards the mark the steel point struck exactly on the point of the other's arrow just where it had lodged loosely in the bull
and master bland's arrow came tumbling to the ground leaving the beggar's shaft shaking in the very hole its opponent's arrow had made this wondrous feat of archery evoked the loudest applause and had not the sheriff been so foolish a man must have awakened suspicion in his breast
but no master monceux pompously gave over the arab horse with its saddle and the purse of gold to the victorious beggar and then turned to leave the sports he bade master carfax to see that the beggar did not go far away the sheriff did not mean to lose his gifts so easily
but the beggar was very willing to keep near to the sheriff and asked very humbly that he might be given a place in monceux's household instead of taking this horse which was of small use to one of his trade i will accept your offer said monceux on the understanding that you will take the captaincy of my archers
with such a fellow as this in his household monceux felt that he would soon lay robin hood by the heels so he strutted to his horse and was lifted thereon in fine self satisfaction his daughter mounted her palfrey and carfax led the beast gently
and only dared once peep at this strange ragged fellow his lips moved making her a signal then were shut resolutely that night monceux kept open house and grew noisy in his cups he swore that robin hood was both coward and villain
even as he spoke an arrow came flying in through one of the narrow windows of the sheriff's hall and curving fell with a rattle upon the table in front of the startled monceux attached to it was an empty purse monceux's own
that one indeed which had that morn held the hundred pieces so comfortably where is that rascal beggar cried the sheriff suddenly having his doubts
even now he has gained the bridge carrying your new maid a pillion mistress none may hope to catch them on that fleet horse they cannot win through the gates after them simeon as you love me
mistress monceux was quite beside herself with fury alas mistress said the servant the gates of nottingham stand wide did not my master order it so but this very morn
roberts the weak boy with the strong will when one is picking out soldiers one usually chooses big men you see a strapping fellow going by in regimentals and you say my what a dandy soldier
such as washington but it is interesting to note that many of our great generals have been undersized such were grant wellington and napoleon such was lord roberts who became earl and marshal
and was one of the best loved leaders that england has produced he was associated with two great campaigns to extend the british empire in india and south africa and passed away in the midst of the great world war within a few months of kitchener
roberts himself has left an entertaining story of his life in forty one years in india which shows that a soldier's life is not tinsel and parade but is made up of infinite hardship the weak boy must indeed have to have a strong will in order to pull through
frederick roberts was born in india at a time when his father abraham roberts was lieutenant colonel of infantry at cawnpore this fine old soldier gave a life time of service to the crown and was active in the border raids in india
his son lived to complete the task which he began of helping to open india to the civilized world for his services abraham roberts became a general and was knighted
the son who was destined to win still higher honors began his career september thirtieth eighteen thirty two
he must have been a disappointment to his soldier father he was puny and sickly and for a time it did not seem likely that he would live at all so when he was only a few months old he was taken from the uncongenial air of india and brought by his parents to england
here he spent his boyhood away from the father and mother who were forced by official duties to return to the east his home was a charming country house at clifton near bristol where for the first years he had private tutors
one interesting experience was in a small school at carrickmacross in ireland then at eleven he attended public school at hampton but almost nothing is set down in detail as to these early years which would show that besides being a weakling
he was in no sense remarkable he was merely another of those small backward urchins that one may see at any recess on any public school playground
it will do no harm anyway and may straighten his shoulders a bit he doubtless said and so at thirteen young roberts was entered at eton that training ground of so many of england's soldiers he made his first mark in this famous school by winning a prize in mathematics
the obscure lad was beginning to assert himself to the end of his days roberts held a warm regard for eton once when at the end of a great campaign he was presented with a sword of honor on this boyhood's drill ground he said to a younger generation then assembled
to you boys who intend to enter the army
england's greatest general himself an etonian
in thus expressing himself the duke wellington meant that bodily vigor power of endurance courage and rapidity of decision are produced by the manly games which are fostered here
undoubtedly there was a personal touch to these remarks as roberts recalled how he himself had begun to gain these sterling qualities on the cricket field and gridiron
but remained there only two terms by nature he was a studious chap doing especially well in german and mathematics so easily did he solve problems in algebra and geometry that his mates promptly nicknamed him deductions
do you think you can stand india now my lad he asked why not sir replied the boy briefly then i think that the east india company's service is the place for you colonel roberts himself had been connected with this great company
which was the forerunner of the government in india and he was right in thinking that its service offered many chances of advancement accordingly the boy was entered in the company's own military school at addiscombe and in less than two years had become a second lieutenant in the bengal artillery
in eighteen fifty two in his twentieth year he received his first marching orders they were to report for duty he set sail by way of suez but there was no canal in those days to make possible an all water journey instead at alexandria he changed to a small inland steamer
going by canal and river to cairo thence a hot dusty trek across the desert was necessary in order to reach suez once in calcutta the young subaltern lost no time in proving that he was not a mollycoddle
he began by riding every horse in the battery or troop as it was called in those days thus he tells us i learned to understand the amount of nerve patience and skill necessary to the making of a good horse artillery driver
with the additional advantage that i was brought into constant contact with the men roberts was early learning the secret of more than one great general's success to know his men in later life he could call many a man by name and knew just what each could do
while they responded with a close affection and the nickname by which he will be known to history bobs it is said that napoleon expected his officers to know the names and personal histories of every man in their command as another result of roberts fellowship with the rank and file
he became a crack shot and expert horseman during the fighting in the mutiny of indian sepoys he proved himself a good swordsman as well and even when he became commander in chief he would ride with a tent pegging team of his own staff
it was a long and thorough service that he was destined to receive he joined the quartermaster general's office before the mutiny broke out and remained in it for more than twenty years during this period he gradually worked his way up from one post of responsibility to another
doing it so gradually that even he himself hardly noticed the advance on one occasion for example he superintended all the arrangements for embarking the bengal division which sailed from calcutta to take part in an expedition against abyssinia
but how he must have chafed at the long delay in getting into the field he asked his father more than once to get him transferred to burma where war had broken out and there was a chance for active service the transfer was not granted
it was actually welcomed anything for a change roberts gives a detailed account of it in his autobiography he and a native servant were caught out in the open when the storm descended with little warning
i shouted to him the servant as loudly as i could he relates but the uproar was so terrific that he could not hear a word
the darkness was profound as i was walking carefully along i suddenly came in contact with an object which a timely flash of lightning showed me was a column standing in exactly the opposite direction from my own house i could now locate myself correctly
and the lightning becoming every moment more vivid i was enabled to grope my way by slow degrees to the mess where i expected to find some one to show me my way home
had already closed the outside venetian shutters and barred all the doors in vain i banged at the door and called at the top of my voice they heard nothing in desperation he had to make his way as best he could back to his own bungalow
about half a mile away only to find that also barred against him i had to continue hammering for a long time before they heard and admitted me thankful to be comparatively safe inside a house another disappointment to roberts lay in the fact that he was still away from his father
who seemed destined all his life to remain a stranger to him the junior officer was stationed at dum dum famous as the birthplace of the soft nosed bullets now proscribed in civilized warfare his father had been appointed to the command of the troops at peshawar
and now wrote him a welcome note bidding him come to join him this was easier said than done but was finally accomplished after three months of toilsome and dangerous travel he used every sort of native conveyance barge post chaise palanquin pony and shank's mares
he went by way of benares
cawnpore and meerut places destined to win unpleasant fame in the mutiny peshawar his destination proved no less fascinating than the way stations it commanded the caravan route between india and afghanistan
and guarded the entrance to khyber pass
a very accurate title at peshawar at last frederick roberts became acquainted with his father who proved a good comrade the junior officer served as aide de camp on the general's staff and went with him on several expeditions outwardly peaceful but inwardly full of danger
india then was a seething caldron of trouble nevertheless this period with his father is described by frederick roberts as one of the brightest and happiest of my early life unfortunately the senior officer's health showed signs of breaking and again father and son had to part
peshawar was a notoriously unhealthy station and young roberts also soon began to feel the effects of the climate he was still far from robust and traded continually on his will and nerve the native fever sapped his energy and he was sent to recuperate to kashmir
he was enthusiastic about the scenery here and his tramping and shooting trips in the bracing climate soon gave back his strength and vim it was about this time that he realized his pet ambition of joining the horse artillery he also set himself with a will to the study of hindustani
as he realized that his usefulness in the quartermaster general's office would be vastly increased if he could deal directly with the natives this was a turning point in roberts career it was to be his first stepping stone upward and it illustrates the point that even though opportunity may knock at the door
one must be ready for her that roberts finally won his larger success was due not so much to his genius as to his industry
had its immediate cause in a strange thing greased cartridges
is one of the strange true stories of history there were of course other contributory factors but this was the match that touched off the magazine at this time england employed a great many native troops
while the british regulars numbered only thirty six thousand the latter were outnumbered seven to one the ordnance department adopted a new rifle the enfield at this juncture and sent a consignment to india
the cartridges for the rifle were greased for easy loading and were to be bitten by the soldiers
it was against their religious scruples to touch meat of any kind and they heard it stated that the objectionable cartridges were greased with pig's and cow's fat as soon as the commanding officers saw the trouble they ordered that the cartridges be withdrawn but the mischief was done
a basket of unleavened cakes was brought in and broken by way of prearranged signal after the first outbreaks councils of war were hurriedly held on the part of the british officers and field expeditions organized
one of the officers colonel neville chamberlain was assigned to the command of what was called the movable column or chief army of pursuit roberts was made one of his staff officers the most wonderful piece of good fortune that could come to me he says shortly afterward
chamberlain was made adjutant general to the army before delhi and then came orders for all the artillery officers to join in this attack roberts was to see active service at last he found himself under fire at delhi for the first time on june thirtieth eighteen fifty seven
while it was only a skirmish it was a lively one while it lasted
major coke went on an expedition against a troublesome group of rebels and roberts accompanied him as a staff officer when the enemy appeared the only way to reach them in time was by crossing a swamp another troop of rebels unexpectedly appeared in force but were put to rout
a few days later a similar skirmish occurred which for a time looked more serious roberts was posted across a road with a squad of men and two guns the enemy attacked them with a cross fire how he and his band escaped is a mystery
during their enforced retreat roberts felt a stinging sensation in his back but managed to keep going it was found afterwards that his life had been saved by the slipping of his knapsack down from his shoulders this had been penetrated by a bullet which had entered his body close to his spine
its force had been broken but the wound was still so severe as to lay him up for several weeks the almost superhuman difficulties which lay in the path of this handful of englishmen scattered throughout india are summed up in a letter by another officer hodson as follows
the whole country is a steaming bog i keep my health wonderfully thank god in spite of heat hard work and exposure and the men bear up like britons
we all feel that the government ought to allow every officer and man before delhi to count every month spent here as a year of service in india there is much that is disappointing and disgusting to a man who feels that more might have been done
but i comfort myself with the thought that history will do justice to the constancy and fortitude of the handful of englishmen who have for so many weeks months i may say of desperate weather amid the greatest toil and hardship
resisted and finally defeated the worst and most strenuous exertions of an entire army and a whole nation in arms an army trained by ourselves and supplied with all but exhaustless munitions of war laid up by ourselves for the maintenance of the empire
or have avoided defeat had they attempted to do so the story of the rise and fall of the indian mutiny is the story of the life of roberts in so far as the rise is concerned his was an inconspicuous but well played part
acting as staff officer and lieutenant of a gunners company by turns he was always in the thick of it if it were the command of guns at a difficult salient before delhi it was send roberts if it were an urgent message for more ammunition at agra send roberts
send roberts this slender undersized officer in spite of his physique seemed indefatigable he had several narrow escapes from death
roberts drew his pistol but the weapon missed fire
had not a lancer spurred his horse in between and run the fellow down on still another occasion his presence of mind saved the flag from capture and brought him the first of his many honors the victoria cross
and the pursuit was being followed up in brave style
roberts was of the party and had gone to the rescue of a man who was on the verge of being run through by a bayonet when he saw two sepoys running off with the union jack he spurred his horse in pursuit and leaning over wrenched the standard out of the hands of one of the men at the same time sabering him
but the weapon missed fire roberts returned with the flag and for reward of his gallant action was given the v c that most coveted of british decorations another officer in writing of the event says
roberts is one of those rare men who to uncommon daring and bravery in the field and unflinching hard working discharge of duty in the camp adds the charm of cheery and unaffected kindness and hospitality in the tent and his acquaintance and friendship are high prizes to those who obtain them
he turned over his duties of deputy assistant quartermaster general to his successor though much against his will he felt that again he was in danger of being put upon the shelf and his intensely active nature longed for still further field service
in a little over a year however he was recalled to india and there given a unique task the first viceroy to india
and show the majesty of england by holding a series of durbars or triumphal processions these extended right across india from city to city for a thousand miles to roberts was assigned the important task of arranging all the details of the tour and he did it with characteristic thoroughness
it was like moving a mammoth circus what with elephants tents supplies of all kinds and gorgeous trappings to be handled these durbars lasted for six months and the viceroy not only complimented roberts for his work but gazetted him for the rank of brevet major
the next few years were much of a piece a routine of office and field work which if it brought nothing sensational to the conscientious young officer still kept his feet in the path of glory it was not until the year eighteen seventy five
that he reached the goal for which he had long striven quartermaster general of the army in india which carried with it the rank of major general with this title his larger work in india may be said to have fairly begun
for nearly twenty years longer his military career was to be continued there and in the neighboring country of afghanistan it is all recounted in his forty one years in india a recital of constant adventure and interest for his services he was made a peer of england
receiving the title of baron roberts of kandahar an address presented to him by the native and english residents on his leaving india is worth repeating the history of the british empire in india has not at least in the last thirty years produced a hero like your lordship
whose soldier like qualities are fully known to the world the country which has been the cradle of indian invasions came to realize the extent of your power and recognized your generalship the occupation of kabul and the glorious battle of kandahar are amongst the brightest jewels in the diadem
of your lordship's baronage terrible in war and merciful in peace your excellency's name has become a dread to the enemies of england and lovely to your friends
of one great secret of roberts renown he has been called the best loved soldier of england and he possessed in an especial degree the power of attracting and holding the love and respect of the east indians they felt that he would always deal fairly by them
when he went to mandalay in eighteen eighty six he saw that if he wished to win the confidence of the people of upper burmah he must win over the buddhist priests this he did and even persuaded his government to pension the three head priests they showed their gratitude he says
by doing all they could to help me and when i was leaving the country the old thathana bain accompanied me as far as rangoon we corresponded till his death and i still hear occasionally from one or other of my phoonghi friends as for his own soldiers
they came fairly to worship him to them he was not a lord or general or field marshal but just bobs and our bobs wellington commanded the respect of his men but roberts their love lord roberts
well he's just a father is the testimony of one gunner in the south african war often goes around hospital in bloemfontein and it's well my lad how are you today anything i can do for you
are you sure you're comfortable then it's buck up buck up to those who need it but when he sees a man dying it's can i pray with you my lad i've seen him many a time praying with not a dry eye near tears in his eyes and ours he is a lord
a favorite story about him relates to an audience with queen victoria the famous veteran was then sixty eight and for several years had been living in retirement now his sovereign asked him to buckle on his sword again and go to retrieve the fallen british fortunes in south africa
you do not think that you are too old for this arduous task asked the queen you are not afraid of your health breaking down i have kept myself fit replied the old soldier for the past twenty years in the hope that i might command in such a campaign as this
the remark i have kept myself fit is a keynote of his life the puny boy of the long ago was to survive this campaign with flying colors and to lend his counsel in the great war of our own time it was a long life and full of service
in an address to a children's school when a man of eighty he summed up his creed by saying in the first place don't be slack in anything that you are doing whether it be work or play
by the exercise of self denial by training by discipline and by courage important dates in roberts's life eighteen thirty two september thirtieth frederick roberts born eighteen forty five
entered eton school eighteen forty seven entered military college at sandhurst eighteen fifty two went as second lieutenant of bengal artillery to india eighteen fifty seven
fought in the mutiny and won victoria cross eighteen fifty eight
eighteen fifty nine sent back to india major eighteen seventy five quartermaster general of army of india eighteen eighty five commander in chief in india eighteen ninety one created a peer
eighteen ninety five created field marshal nineteen hundred south african campaign nineteen o one commander in chief of british army nineteen fourteen november fourteenth
our provision of water could not last more than three days i found that out for certain when supper time came and to our sorrow we had little reason to expect to find a spring in these transition beds
the whole of the next day the gallery opened before us its endless arcades we moved on almost without a word hans silence seemed to be infecting us the road was now not ascending
at least not perceptibly sometimes even it seemed to have a slight fall but this tendency which was very trifling could not do anything to reassure the professor for there was no change in the beds
and the transitional characteristics became more and more decided the electric light was reflected in sparkling splendour from the schist limestone and old red sandstone of the walls it might have been thought that we were passing through a section of wales
of which an ancient people gave its name to this system specimens of magnificent marbles clothed the walls some of a greyish agate fantastically veined with white others of rich crimson or yellow dashed with splotches of red
then came dark cherry coloured marbles relieved by the lighter tints of limestone the greater part of these bore impressions of primitive organisms creation had evidently advanced since the day before
i noticed remains of a more perfect order of beings amongst others ganoid fishes and some of those sauroids in which palaeontologists have discovered the earliest reptile forms the devonian seas were peopled by animals of these species
and deposited them by thousands in the rocks of the newer formation it was evident that we were ascending that scale of animal life in which man fills the highest place but professor liedenbrock seemed not to notice it he was awaiting one of two events
either the appearance of a vertical well opening before his feet down which our descent might be resumed or that of some obstacle which should effectually turn us back on our own footsteps but evening came and neither wish was gratified
on friday after a night during which i felt pangs of thirst our little troop again plunged into the winding passages of the gallery after ten hours walking i observed a singular deadening of the reflection of our lamps from the side walls
the marble the schist the limestone and the sandstone were giving way to a dark and lustreless lining at one moment the tunnel becoming very narrow i leaned against the wall when i removed my hand it was black
i looked nearer and found we were in a coal formation a coal mine i cried a mine without miners my uncle replied who knows i asked
i am certain that this gallery driven through beds of coal was never pierced by the hand of man but whether it be the hand of nature or not does not matter supper time is come let us sup hans prepared some food
i scarcely ate and i swallowed down the few drops of water rationed out to me one flask half full was all we had left to slake the thirst of three men after their meal my two companions laid themselves down upon their rugs
and found in sleep a solace for their fatigue but i could not sleep and i counted every hour until morning on saturday at six we started afresh in twenty minutes we reached a vast open space
i then knew that the hand of man had not hollowed out this mine the vaults would have been shored up and as it was they seemed to be held up by a miracle of equilibrium this cavern was about a hundred feet wide and a hundred and fifty in height
a large mass had been rent asunder by a subterranean disturbance yielding to some vast power from below it had broken asunder leaving this great hollow into which human beings were now penetrating for the first time
the whole history of the carboniferous period was written upon these gloomy walls and a geologist might with ease trace all its diverse phases the beds of coal were separated by strata of sandstone or compact clays
and appeared crushed under the weight of overlying strata at the age of the world which preceded the secondary period the earth was clothed with immense vegetable forms the product of the double influence of tropical heat and constant moisture
a vapoury atmosphere surrounded the earth still veiling the direct rays of the sun thence arises the conclusion that the high temperature then existing was due to some other source than the heat of the sun
perhaps even the orb of day may not have been ready yet to play the splendid part he now acts there were no climates as yet and a torrid heat equal from pole to equator was spread over the whole surface of the globe
whence this heat was it from the interior of the earth notwithstanding the theories of professor liedenbrock a violent heat did at that time brood within the body of the spheroid
unacquainted with the beneficent influences of the sun yielded neither flowers nor scent but their roots drew vigorous life from the burning soil of the early days of this planet there were but few trees herbaceous plants alone existed
there were tall grasses ferns lycopods besides sigillaria asterophyllites now scarce plants but then the species might be counted by thousands the coal measures owe their origin to this period of profuse vegetation
the yet elastic and yielding crust of the earth obeyed the fluid forces beneath thence innumerable fissures and depressions the plants sunk underneath the waters formed by degrees into vast accumulated masses
then came the chemical action of nature in the depths of the seas the vegetable accumulations first became peat then acted upon by generated gases and the heat of fermentation they underwent a process of complete mineralization
thus were formed those immense coalfields which nevertheless are not inexhaustible and which three centuries at the present accelerated rate of consumption will exhaust unless the industrial world will devise a remedy
these reflections came into my mind whilst i was contemplating the mineral wealth stored up in this portion of the globe these no doubt i thought will never be discovered the working of such deep mines would involve too large an outlay
and where would be the use as long as coal is yet spread far and wide near the surface such as my eyes behold these virgin stores such they will be when this world comes to an end
but still we marched on and i alone was forgetting the length of the way by losing myself in the midst of geological contemplations the temperature remained what it had been during our passage through the lava and schists
only my sense of smell was forcibly affected by an odour of protocarburet of hydrogen i immediately recognised in this gallery the presence of a considerable quantity of the dangerous gas called by miners firedamp
the explosion of which has often occasioned such dreadful catastrophes happily our light was from ruhmkorff's ingenious apparatus if unfortunately we had explored this gallery with torches
a terrible explosion would have put an end to travelling and travellers at one stroke this excursion through the coal mine lasted till night my uncle scarcely could restrain his impatience at the horizontal road
the darkness always deep twenty yards before us prevented us from estimating the length of the gallery and i was beginning to think it must be endless when suddenly at six o'clock a wall very unexpectedly stood before us right or left
top or bottom there was no road farther we were at the end of a blind alley very well it's all right cried my uncle now at any rate we shall know what we are about we are not in saknussemm's road
and all we have to do is to go back let us take a night's rest and in three days we shall get to the fork in the road yes said i if we have any strength left why not because to morrow we shall have no water
nor courage either asked my uncle severely
we were still following the gallery of lava a real natural staircase and as gently sloping as those inclined planes which in some old houses are still found instead of flights of steps
the precise moment when we overtook hans who had stopped ah here we are exclaimed my uncle at the very end of the chimney i looked around me we were standing at the intersection of two roads
both dark and narrow which were we to take this was a difficulty still my uncle refused to admit an appearance of hesitation either before me or the guide he pointed out the eastern tunnel
and we were soon all three in it besides there would have been interminable hesitation before this choice of roads for since there was no indication whatever to guide our choice
we were obliged to trust to chance the slope of this gallery was scarcely perceptible and its sections very unequal sometimes we passed a series of arches succeeding each other like the majestic arcades of a gothic cathedral
here the architects of the middle ages might have found studies for every form of the sacred art which sprang from the development of the pointed arch a mile farther we had to bow our heads under corniced elliptic arches in the romanesque style
and massive pillars standing out from the wall bent under the spring of the vault that rested heavily upon them in other places this magnificence gave way to narrow channels between low structures which looked like beaver's huts and we had to creep along
through extremely narrow passages the heat was perfectly bearable involuntarily i began to think of its heat when the lava thrown out by snaefell was boiling and working through this now silent road
i imagined the torrents of fire hurled back at every angle in the gallery and the accumulation of intensely heated vapours in the midst of this confined channel i only hope thought i
that this so called extinct volcano won't take a fancy in his old age to begin his sports again i abstained from communicating these fears to professor liedenbrock he would never have understood them at all he had but one idea
forward he walked he slid he scrambled he tumbled with a persistency which one could not but admire by six in the evening after a not very fatiguing walk
we had gone two leagues south but scarcely a quarter of a mile down my uncle said it was time to go to sleep we ate without talking and went to sleep without reflection our arrangements for the night were very simple
a railway rug each into which we rolled ourselves was our sole covering we had neither cold nor intrusive visits to fear travellers who penetrate into the wilds of central africa and into the pathless forests of the new world
are obliged to watch over each other by night but we enjoyed absolute safety and utter seclusion no savages or wild beasts infested these silent depths
the road was resumed as the day before we followed the path of the lava it was impossible to tell what rocks we were passing the tunnel instead of tending lower approached more and more nearly to a horizontal direction
i even fancied a slight rise but about ten this upward tendency became so evident and therefore so fatiguing that i was obliged to slacken my pace well axel demanded the professor impatiently
well i cannot stand it any longer i replied what after three hours walk over such easy ground it may be easy but it is tiring all the same what when we have nothing to do but keep going down
going up if you please going up said my uncle with a shrug no doubt for the last half hour the inclines have gone the other way and at this rate we shall soon arrive upon the level soil of iceland
the professor nodded slowly and uneasily like a man that declines to be convinced i tried to resume the conversation he answered not a word and gave the signal for a start i saw that his silence was nothing but ill humour
still i had courageously shouldered my burden again and was rapidly following hans whom my uncle preceded i was anxious not to be left behind my greatest care was not to lose sight of my companions
i shuddered at the thought of being lost in the mazes of this vast subterranean labyrinth besides if the ascending road did become steeper i was comforted with the thought that it was bringing us nearer to the surface there was hope in this
every step confirmed me in it and i was rejoicing at the thought of meeting my little graeuben again by mid day there was a change in the appearance of this wall of the gallery
solid rock was appearing in the place of the lava coating the mass was composed of inclined and sometimes vertical strata
it is evident i cried the marine deposits formed in the second period these shales limestones and sandstones we are turning away from the primary granite we are just as if we were people of hamburg going to luebeck by way of hanover
i had better have kept my observations to myself but my geological instinct was stronger than my prudence and uncle liedenbrock heard my exclamation what's that you are saying he asked see
i said pointing to the varied series of sandstones and limestones and the first indication of slate well we are at the period when the first plants and animals appeared
look close and examine i obliged the professor to move his lamp over the walls of the gallery i expected some signs of astonishment but he spoke not a word and went on had he understood me or not
i will look i had not gone a hundred paces before incontestable proofs presented themselves it could not be otherwise
my feet which had become accustomed to the indurated lava floor suddenly rested upon a dust composed of the debris of plants and shells
professor liedenbrock could not be mistaken i thought and yet he pushed on with i suppose his eyes resolutely shut this was only invincible obstinacy i could hold out no longer
i picked up a perfectly formed shell which had belonged to an animal not unlike the woodlouse then joining my uncle i said look at this very well said he quietly
it is the shell of a crustacean of an extinct species called a trilobite nothing more but don't you conclude just what you conclude yourself yes i do perfectly
but i cannot be sure of that until i have reached the very end of this gallery you are right in doing this my uncle and i should quite approve of your determination if there were not a danger threatening us nearer and nearer what danger the want of water
we had to hasten forward it was a three days march to the cross roads i will not speak of the sufferings we endured in our return my uncle bore them with the angry impatience of a man obliged to own his weakness
hans with the resignation of his passive nature i i confess with complaints and expressions of despair i had no spirit to oppose this ill fortune as i had foretold
the water failed entirely by the end of the first day's retrograde march our fluid aliment was now nothing but gin but this infernal fluid burned my throat and i could not even endure the sight of it i found the temperature and the air stifling
more than once i dropped down motionless then there was a halt and my uncle and the icelander did their best to restore me but i saw that the former was struggling painfully against excessive fatigue and the tortures of thirst
at last on tuesday july eighth we arrived on our hands and knees and half dead at the junction of the two roads there i dropped like a lifeless lump extended on the lava soil it was ten in the morning
hans and my uncle clinging to the wall tried to nibble a few bits of biscuit long moans escaped from my swollen lips after some time my uncle approached me and raised me in his arms
said he in genuine tones of compassion i was touched with these words not being accustomed to see the excitable professor in a softened mood i grasped his trembling hands in mine he let me hold them and looked at me
his eyes were moistened then i saw him take the flask that was hanging at his side to my amazement he placed it on my lips drink said he had i heard him was my uncle beside himself
i stared at him stupidly and felt as if i could not understand him drink he said again and raising his flask he emptied it every drop between my lips oh infinite pleasure
a slender sip of water came to moisten my burning mouth it was but one sip but it was enough to recall my ebbing life i thanked my uncle with clasped hands yes he said a draught of water
but it is the very last you hear the last i had kept it as a precious treasure at the bottom of my flask twenty times nay a hundred times have i fought against a frightful impulse to drink it off but no axel i kept it for you
my dear uncle i said whilst hot tears trickled down my face yes my poor boy i knew that as soon as you arrived at these cross roads you would drop half dead and i kept my last drop of water to reanimate you
thank you thank you i said although my thirst was only partially quenched yet some strength had returned the muscles of my throat until then contracted now relaxed again and the inflammation of my lips abated somewhat
and i was now able to speak let us see i said we have now but one thing to do we have no water we must go back while i spoke my uncle avoided looking at me he hung his head down
his eyes avoided mine we must return i exclaimed vehemently we must go back on our way to snaefell may god give us strength to climb up the crater again return said my uncle
as if he was rather answering himself than me yes return without the loss of a minute a long silence followed so then axel replied the professor ironically
you have found no courage or energy in these few drops of water courage i see you just as feeble minded as you were before and still expressing only despair
what sort of a man was this i had to do with and what schemes was he now revolving in his fearless mind what you won't go back should i renounce this expedition just when we have the fairest chance of success never
then must we resign ourselves to destruction no axel no go back hans will go with you leave me to myself leave you here leave me i tell you i have undertaken this expedition
i will carry it out to the end and i will not return go axel go my uncle was in high state of excitement his voice which had for a moment been tender and gentle had now become hard and threatening
he was struggling with gloomy resolutions against impossibilities i would not leave him in this bottomless abyss and on the other hand the instinct of self preservation prompted me to fly
the guide watched this scene with his usual phlegmatic unconcern yet he understood perfectly well what was going on between his two companions the gestures themselves were sufficient to show that we were each bent on taking a different road
but hans seemed to take no part in a question upon which depended his life he was ready to start at a given signal or to stay if his master so willed it how i wished at this moment i could have made him understand me
my words my complaints my sorrow would have had some influence over that frigid nature those dangers which our guide could not understand i could have demonstrated and proved to him together we might have over ruled the obstinate professor
if it were needed we might perhaps have compelled him to regain the heights of snaefell i drew near to hans i placed my hand upon his he made no movement my parted lips sufficiently revealed my sufferings
the icelander slowly moved his head and calmly pointing to my uncle said master master i shouted you madman no he is not the master of our life we must fly we must drag him do you hear me
i had seized hans by the arm i wished to oblige him to rise i strove with him my uncle interposed be calm axel you will get nothing from that immovable servant therefore listen to my proposal
i crossed my arms and confronted my uncle boldly the want of water he said is the only obstacle in our way in this eastern gallery made up of lavas schists and coal we have not met with a single particle of moisture
perhaps we shall be more fortunate if we follow the western tunnel i shook my head incredulously hear me to the end the professor went on with a firm voice
whilst you were lying there motionless i went to examine the conformation of that gallery it penetrates directly downward and in a few hours it will bring us to the granite rocks there we must meet with abundant springs
the nature of the rock assures me of this and instinct agrees with logic to support my conviction now this is my proposal when columbus asked of his ships crews for three days more to discover a new world those crews
disheartened and sick as they were recognised the justice of the claim and he discovered america i am the columbus of this nether world and i only ask for one more day
if in a single day i have not met with the water that we want i swear to you we will return to the surface of the earth in spite of my irritation i was moved with these words
as well as with the violence my uncle was doing to his own wishes in making so hazardous a proposal well i said do as you will and god reward your superhuman energy you have now but a few hours to tempt fortune
just then another visitor entered the drawing room
he was a very handsome young man of medium height with firm clearcut features everything about him from his weary bored expression to his quiet measured step
it was evident that he not only knew everyone in the drawing room but had found them to be so tiresome that it wearied him to look at or listen to them and among all these faces that he found so tedious
none seemed to bore him so much as that of his pretty wife he turned away from her with a grimace that distorted his handsome face kissed anna pavlovna's hand and screwing up his eyes scanned the whole company
you are off to the war prince said anna pavlovna general kutuzov said bolkonski speaking french and stressing the last syllable of the general's name like a frenchman
she will go to the country are you not ashamed to deprive us of your charming wife andre said his wife addressing her husband in the same coquettish manner in which she spoke to other men
the vicomte has been telling us such a tale about mademoiselle george and buonaparte prince andrew screwed up his eyes and turned away pierre who from the moment prince andrew entered the room had watched him with glad affectionate eyes now came up
and took his arm before he looked round prince andrew frowned again expressing his annoyance with whoever was touching his arm but when he saw pierre's beaming face he gave him an unexpectedly kind and pleasant smile
there now so you too are in the great world
i knew you would be here replied pierre i will come to supper with you may i he added in a low voice so as not to disturb the vicomte who was continuing his story no impossible
said prince andrew laughing and pressing pierre's hand to show that there was no need to ask the question he wished to say something more but at that moment prince vasili and his daughter got up to go and the two young men rose to let them pass
said prince vasili to the frenchman holding him down by the sleeve in a friendly way to prevent his rising this unfortunate fete at the ambassador's deprives me of a pleasure and obliges me to interrupt you i am very sorry to leave your enchanting party
his daughter princess helene passed between the chairs lightly holding up the folds of her dress and the smile shone still more radiantly on her beautiful face pierre gazed at her with rapturous almost frightened eyes as she passed him
very lovely said prince andrew very said pierre in passing prince vasili seized pierre's hand and said to anna pavlovna educate this bear for me
and this is the first time i have seen him in society nothing is so necessary for a young man as the society of clever women anna pavlovna smiled and promised to take pierre in hand
she knew his father to be a connection of prince vasili's the elderly lady who had been sitting with the old aunt rose hurriedly and overtook prince vasili in the anteroom all the affectation of interest she had assumed
had left her kindly and tear worn face and it now expressed only anxiety and fear how about my son boris prince
i can't remain any longer in petersburg tell me what news i may take back to my poor boy although prince vasili listened reluctantly and not very politely to the elderly lady even betraying some impatience
she gave him an ingratiating and appealing smile and took his hand that he might not go away what would it cost you to say a word to the emperor and then he would be transferred to the guards at once
belonging to one of the best families in russia but she was poor and having long been out of society had lost her former influential connections she had now come to petersburg to procure an appointment in the guards for her only son
it was in fact solely to meet prince vasili that she had obtained an invitation to anna pavlovna's reception and had sat listening to the vicomte's story
an embittered look clouded her once handsome face but only for a moment then she smiled again and clutched prince vasili's arm more tightly
nor have i ever reminded you of my father's friendship for you but now i entreat you for god's sake to do this for my son and i shall always regard you as a benefactor she added hurriedly no don't be angry but promise
i have asked golitsyn and he has refused be the kindhearted man you always were she said
papa we shall be late said princess helene turning her beautiful head and looking over her classically molded shoulder as she stood waiting by the door influence in society however is a capital which has to be economized if it is to last
he would soon be unable to ask for himself
but in princess drubetskaya's case he felt after her second appeal something like qualms of conscience she had reminded him of what was quite true he had been indebted to her father for the first steps in his career
moreover he could see by her manners that she was one of those women mostly mothers who having once made up their minds will not rest until they have gained their end and are prepared if necessary to go on insisting day after day and hour after hour
and even to make scenes this last consideration moved him my dear anna mikhaylovna
it is almost impossible for me to do what you ask but to prove my devotion to you and how i respect your father's memory i will do the impossible your son shall be transferred to the guards here is my hand on it are you satisfied my dear benefactor
this is what i expected from you i knew your kindness he turned to go wait just a word when he has been transferred to the guards she faltered
recommend boris to him as adjutant then i shall be at rest and then
my dear benefactor papa said his beautiful daughter in the same tone as before we shall be late well au revoir good bye you hear her then tomorrow you will speak to the emperor
certainly but about kutuzov i don't promise do promise do promise vasili cried anna mikhaylovna as he went with the smile of a coquettish girl which at one time probably came naturally to her but was now very ill suited to her careworn face
apparently she had forgotten her age and by force of habit employed all the old feminine arts but as soon as the prince had gone her face resumed its former cold artificial expression
and of the comedy of the people of genoa and lucca laying their petitions before monsieur buonaparte and monsieur buonaparte sitting on a throne and granting the petitions of the nations adorable
prince andrew looked anna pavlovna straight in the face with a sarcastic smile dieu me la donne
they say he was very fine when he said that he remarked repeating the words in italian
i hope this will prove the last drop that will make the glass run over anna pavlovna continued
i do not speak of russia said the vicomte
prince hippolyte who had been gazing at the vicomte for some time through his lorgnette suddenly turned completely round toward the little princess and having asked for a needle
he explained this to her with as much gravity as if she had asked him to do it baton de gueules engrele de gueules d'azur
if buonaparte remains on the throne of france a year longer the vicomte continued with the air of a man who in a matter with which he is better acquainted than anyone else does not listen to others but follows the current of his own thoughts
by intrigues violence exile and executions french society i mean good french society will have been forever destroyed and then
pierre wished to make a remark for the conversation interested him but anna pavlovna who had him under observation interrupted the emperor alexander
said she with the melancholy which always accompanied any reference of hers to the imperial family has declared that he will leave it to the french people themselves to choose their own form of government and i believe
that once free from the usurper the whole nation will certainly throw itself into the arms of its rightful king she concluded trying to be amiable to the royalist emigrant that is doubtful said prince andrew
monsieur le vicomte quite rightly supposes that matters have already gone too far
from what i have heard said pierre blushing and breaking into the conversation almost all the aristocracy has already gone over to bonaparte's side it is the buonapartists who say that
at the present time it is difficult to know the real state of french public opinion bonaparte has said so remarked prince andrew with a sarcastic smile it was evident that he did not like the vicomte
and was aiming his remarks at him though without looking at him i showed them the path to glory but they did not follow it prince andrew continued after a short silence again quoting napoleon's words
i opened my antechambers and they crowded in i do not know how far he was justified in saying so not in the least replied the vicomte after the murder of the duc
even the most partial ceased to regard him as a hero if to some people he went on turning to anna pavlovna
after the murder of the duc there was one martyr more in heaven and one hero less on earth before anna pavlovna and the others had time to smile their appreciation of the vicomte's epigram pierre again broke into the conversation
and though anna pavlovna felt sure he would say something inappropriate she was unable to stop him
and it seems to me that napoleon showed greatness of soul by not fearing to take on himself the whole responsibility of that deed dieu mon dieu muttered anna pavlovna in a terrified whisper
said the little princess
oh oh exclaimed several voices capital said prince hippolyte in english
the vicomte merely shrugged his shoulders pierre looked solemnly at his audience over his spectacles and continued i say so he continued desperately
leaving the people to anarchy and napoleon alone understood the revolution and quelled it and so for the general good he could not stop short for the sake of one man's life won't you come over to the other table
suggested anna pavlovna but pierre continued his speech without heeding her
napoleon is great because he rose superior to the revolution suppressed its abuses preserved all that was good in it equality of citizenship and freedom of speech and of the press and only for that reason did he obtain power
yes if having obtained power without availing himself of it to commit murder he had restored it to the rightful king i should have called him a great man remarked the vicomte he could not do that
the people only gave him power that he might rid them of the bourbons and because they saw that he was a great man the revolution was a grand thing continued monsieur pierre betraying by this desperate and provocative proposition
his extreme youth and his wish to express all that was in his mind what revolution and regicide a grand thing well after that
said the vicomte with a tolerant smile
those were extremes no doubt
emancipation from prejudices and equality of citizenship and all these ideas napoleon has retained in full force liberty and equality said the vicomte contemptuously as if
at last deciding seriously to prove to this youth how foolish his words were
who does not love liberty and equality even our saviour preached liberty and equality
on the contrary we wanted liberty but buonaparte has destroyed it prince andrew kept looking with an amused smile from pierre to the vicomte and from the vicomte to their hostess
despite her social experience was horror struck but when she saw that pierre's sacrilegious words had not
and had convinced herself that it was impossible to stop him she rallied her forces and joined the vicomte in a vigorous attack on the orator but my dear monsieur pierre
or even an ordinary man who is innocent and untried i should like said the vicomte to ask how monsieur explains the eighteenth brumaire was not that an imposture it was a swindle and not at all like the conduct of a great man
that was horrible said the little princess shrugging her shoulders he's a low fellow say what you will remarked prince hippolyte pierre not knowing whom to answer looked at them all and smiled
his smile was unlike the half smile of other people when he smiled
was instantaneously replaced by another a childlike kindly even rather silly look which seemed to ask forgiveness the vicomte who was meeting him for the first time
saw clearly that this young jacobin was not so terrible as his words suggested all were silent how do you expect him to answer you all at once said prince andrew besides
in the actions of a statesman one has to distinguish between his acts as a private person as a general and as an emperor so it seems to me yes yes of course pierre chimed in pleased at the arrival of this reinforcement
one must admit continued prince andrew that napoleon as a man was great on the bridge of arcola and in the hospital at jaffa where he gave his hand to the plague stricken
prince andrew
rose and made a sign to his wife that it was time to go suddenly prince hippolyte started up making signs to everyone to attend
and must treat you to it excuse me vicomte i must tell it in russian or the point will be lost and prince hippolyte began to tell his story
everyone waited so emphatically and eagerly did he demand their attention to his story there is in moscow a lady une dame and she is very stingy she must have two footmen behind her carriage
and very big ones that was her taste and she had a lady's maid also big she said here prince hippolyte paused evidently collecting his ideas with difficulty she said oh yes she said girl to the maid
put on a livery get up behind the carriage and come with me while i make some calls here prince hippolyte spluttered and burst out laughing long before his audience which produced an effect unfavorable to the narrator
several persons among them the elderly lady and anna pavlovna did however smile she went suddenly there was a great wind the girl lost her hat and her long hair came down
and the whole world knew and so the anecdote ended though it was unintelligible why he had told it or why it had to be told in russian still
anna pavlovna and the others appreciated prince hippolyte's social tact in so agreeably ending pierre's unpleasant and unamiable outburst
the spindles hummed steadily and ceaselessly on all sides with the exception of the aunt beside whom sat only one elderly lady who with her thin careworn face was rather out of place in this brilliant society
the whole company had settled into three groups one chiefly masculine had formed round the abbe another of young people was grouped round the beautiful princess helene prince vasili's daughter
and the little princess bolkonskaya very pretty and rosy though rather too plump for her age the third group was gathered round mortemart and anna pavlovna the vicomte was a nice looking young man
with soft features and polished manners who evidently considered himself a celebrity but out of politeness modestly placed himself at the disposal of the circle in which he found himself
anna pavlovna was obviously serving him up as a treat to her guests as a clever maitre d'hotel serves up as a specially choice delicacy a piece of meat that no one who had seen it in the kitchen would have cared to eat
so anna pavlovna served up to her guests first the vicomte and then the abbe as peculiarly choice morsels the group about mortemart immediately began discussing the murder of the duc d'enghien
the vicomte said that the duc d'enghien had perished by his own magnanimity and that there were particular reasons for buonaparte's hatred of him ah yes do tell us all about it vicomte said anna pavlovna
the vicomte bowed and smiled courteously in token of his willingness to comply anna pavlovna arranged a group round him inviting everyone to listen to his tale
the vicomte knew the duc personally whispered anna pavlovna to one of the guests the vicomte is a wonderful raconteur said she to another how evidently he belongs to the best society
and the vicomte was served up to the company in the choicest and most advantageous style like a well garnished joint of roast beef on a hot dish the vicomte wished to begin his story and gave a subtle smile
come over here helene dear said anna pavlovna to the beautiful young princess who was sitting some way off the center of another group the princess smiled she rose with the same unchanging smile with which she had first entered the room
the smile of a perfectly beautiful woman
she passed between the men who made way for her not looking at any of them but smiling on all as if graciously allowing each the privilege of admiring her beautiful figure and shapely shoulders back and bosom
which in the fashion of those days were very much exposed and she seemed to bring the glamour of a ballroom with her as she moved toward anna pavlovna helene was so lovely that not only did she not show any trace of coquetry
but on the contrary she even appeared shy of her unquestionable and all too victorious beauty she seemed to wish but to be unable to diminish its effect
and the vicomte lifted his shoulders and dropped his eyes as if startled by something extraordinary when she took her seat opposite and beamed upon him also with her unchanging smile madame i doubt my ability before such an audience
the princess rested her bare round arm on a little table and considered a reply unnecessary she smilingly waited all the time the story was being told she sat upright glancing now at her beautiful round arm
now at her still more beautiful bosom on which she readjusted a diamond necklace
and whenever the story produced an effect she glanced at anna pavlovna at once adopted just the expression she saw on the maid of honor's face and again relapsed into her radiant smile
the little princess had also left the tea table and followed helene wait a moment i'll get my work
there was a general movement as the princess smiling and talking merrily to everyone at once sat down and gaily arranged herself in her seat now i am all right she said and asking the vicomte to begin she took up her work
prince hippolyte having brought the workbag joined the circle and moving a chair close to hers seated himself beside her le charmant hippolyte was surprising by his extraordinary resemblance to his beautiful sister but yet more
by the fact that in spite of this resemblance he was exceedingly ugly his features were like his sister's but while in her case everything was lit up by a joyous self satisfied youthful and constant smile of animation
and by the wonderful classic beauty of her figure his face on the contrary was dulled by imbecility and a constant expression of sullen self confidence while his body was thin and weak his eyes nose and mouth
all seemed puckered into a vacant wearied grimace and his arms and legs always fell into unnatural positions it's not going to be a ghost story
and hastily adjusting his lorgnette as if without this instrument he could not begin to speak why no my dear fellow said the astonished narrator shrugging his shoulders because i hate ghost stories said prince hippolyte in a tone which showed
that he only understood the meaning of his words after he had uttered them he spoke with such self confidence that his hearers could not be sure whether what he said was very witty or very stupid
he was dressed in a dark green dress coat knee breeches of the color
as he called it shoes and silk stockings the vicomte told his tale very neatly it was an anecdote then current to the effect that the duc d'enghien had gone secretly to paris to visit mademoiselle george
that at her house he came upon bonaparte
and that in his presence napoleon happened to fall into one of the fainting fits to which he was subject and was thus at the duc's mercy the latter spared him and this magnanimity bonaparte subsequently repaid by death
the story was very pretty and interesting especially at the point where the rivals suddenly recognized one another and the ladies looked agitated charming said anna pavlovna
charming whispered the little princess sticking the needle into her work as if to testify that the interest and fascination of the story prevented her from going on with it the vicomte appreciated this silent praise
and smiling gratefully prepared to continue but just then anna pavlovna who had kept a watchful eye on the young man who so alarmed her noticed that he was talking too loudly and vehemently with the abbe so she hurried to the rescue
pierre had managed to start a conversation with the abbe about the balance of power and the latter evidently interested by the young man's simple minded eagerness was explaining his pet theory
both were talking and listening too eagerly and too naturally which was why anna pavlovna disapproved the means are the balance of power in europe and the rights of the people the abbe was saying
it is only necessary for one powerful nation like russia barbaric as she is said to be to place herself disinterestedly at the head of an alliance
and it would save the world but how are you to get that balance pierre was beginning at that moment anna pavlovna came up and looking severely at pierre asked the italian how he stood russian climate
the italian's face instantly changed and assumed an offensively affected sugary expression evidently habitual to him when conversing with women i am so enchanted by the brilliancy of the wit and culture of the society
more especially of the feminine society
that i have not yet had time to think of the climate
anna pavlovna the more conveniently to keep them under observation
one glorious morning in early summer i found myself led by the ungentle hand of missus mitchell towards a little school on the outside of the village kept by an old woman called missus shand in an english village i think she would have been called dame shand
we called her luckie shand half dragged along the road by missus mitchell from whose rough grasp i attempted in vain to extricate my hand i looked around at the shining fields and up at the blue sky
with something like the despair of a man going to the gallows and bidding farewell to the world we had to cross a little stream and when we reached the middle of the foot bridge i tugged yet again at my imprisoned hand with a half formed intention of throwing myself into the brook
but my efforts were still unavailing over a half mile or so rendered weary by unwillingness i was led to the cottage door
but a dreary little house with nothing green to cover the brown stones of which it was built and having an open ditch in front of it with a stone slab over it for a bridge did i say there was nothing on the walls this morning there was the loveliest sunshine
and that i was going to leave behind it was very bitter especially as i had expected to go with my elder brother to spend the day at a neighbouring farm missus mitchell opened the door and led me in it was an awful experience dame shand stood at her table ironing
she was as tall as missus mitchell and that was enough to prejudice me against her at once she wore a close fitting widow's cap with a black ribbon round it her hair was grey and her face was as grey as her hair
and her skin was gathered in wrinkles about her mouth where they twitched and twitched as if she were constantly meditating something unpleasant she looked up inquiringly i've brought you a new scholar said missus mitchell well very well
said the dame in a dubious tone i hope he's a good boy for he must be good if he comes here well he's just middling his father spares the rod missus shand and we know what comes of that they went on with their talk which as far as i can recall it
was complimentary to none but the two women themselves meantime i was making what observations my terror would allow about a dozen children were seated on forms along the walls looking over the tops of their spelling books at the newcomer
in the farther corner two were kicking at each other as opportunity offered looking very angry but not daring to cry my next discovery was terribly disconcerting some movement drew my eyes to the floor there i saw a boy of my own age on all fours
fastened by a string to a leg of the table at which the dame was ironing while horrible to relate a dog not very big but very ugly and big enough to be frightened at lay under the table watching him i gazed in utter dismay
ah you may look said the dame if you're not a good boy that is how you shall be served the dog shall have you to look after i trembled and was speechless after some further confabulation missus mitchell took her leave saying
i'll come back for him at one o'clock and if i don't come just keep him till i do come the dame accompanied her to the door and then i discovered that she was lame and hobbled very much a resolution arose full formed in my brain
i sat down on the form near the door and kept very quiet had it not been for the intention i cherished i am sure i should have cried when the dame returned she resumed her box iron in which the heater went rattling about
as standing on one leg the other was so much shorter she moved it to and fro over the garment on the table then she called me to her by name in a would be pompous manner i obeyed trembling can you say your letters
she asked now although i could not read i could repeat the alphabet how i had learned it i do not know i did repeat it how many questions of your catechism can you say she asked next
not knowing with certainty what she meant i was silent no sulking said the dame and opening a drawer in the table she took out a catechism turning back the cover she put it in my hand and told me to learn the first question
she had not even inquired whether i could read i took the catechism and stood as before go to your seat she said i obeyed and with the book before me pondered my plan
everything depended on whether i could open the door before she could reach me once out of the house i was sure of running faster than she could follow and soon i had my first experience of how those are helped who will help themselves
the ironing of course required a fire to make the irons hot and as the morning went on the sunshine on the walls conspiring with the fire on the hearth made the place too hot for the comfort of the old dame she went and set the door wide open
i was instantly on the alert watching for an opportunity one soon occurred a class of some five or six was reading if reading it could be called out of the bible at length it came to the turn of one who blundered dreadfully
it was the same boy who had been tied under the table but he had been released for his lesson the dame hobbled to him and found he had his book upside down whereupon she turned in wrath to the table and took from the drawer a long leather strap
with which she proceeded to chastise him as his first cry reached my ears i was halfway to the door on the threshold i stumbled and fell
i heard with horror but i was up and off in a moment i had not however got many yards from the cottage before i heard the voice of the dame screaming after me to return i took no heed only sped the faster
but what was my horror to find her command enforced by the pursuing bark of her prime minister this paralysed me i turned and there was the fiendish looking dog close on my heels i could run no longer
the next moment a wholesome rage sent the blood to my brain from abject cowardice to wild attack i cannot call it courage was the change of an instant i rushed towards the little wretch i did not know how to fight him
but in desperation i threw myself upon him and dug my nails into him they had fortunately found their way to his eyes he was the veriest coward of his species he yelped and howled and struggling from my grasp ran with his tail merged in his person back to his mistress
who was hobbling after me but with the renewed strength of triumph i turned again for home and ran as i had never run before when or where the dame gave in i do not know
and there i burst out sobbing and crying it was all the utterance i had left as soon as kirsty had succeeded in calming me i told her the whole story she said very little but i could see she was very angry no doubt she was pondering what could be done
she got me some milk half cream i do believe it was so nice and some oatcake and went on with her work while i ate i reflected that any moment missus mitchell might appear to drag me back in disgrace to that horrible den
i knew that kirsty's authority was not equal to hers and that she would be compelled to give me up so i watched an opportunity to escape once more and hide myself so that kirsty might be able to say she did not know where i was
when i had finished and kirsty had left the kitchen for a moment i sped noiselessly to the door and looked out into the farmyard there was no one to be seen dark and brown and cool the door of the barn stood open as if inviting me to shelter and safety
for i knew that in the darkest end of it lay a great heap of oat straw i sped across the intervening sunshine into the darkness and began burrowing in the straw like a wild animal drawing out handfuls and laying them carefully aside so that no disorder should betray my retreat
when i had made a hole large enough to hold me i got in but kept drawing out the straw behind me and filling the hole in front this i continued until i had not only stopped up the entrance but placed a good thickness of straw between me and the outside
by the time i had burrowed as far as i thought necessary i was tired and lay down at full length in my hole delighting in such a sense of safety as i had never before experienced
he was certainly the tall young man with light hair red beard black eyes and brilliant complexion whom his master had so particularly described to him when the count entered the room the young man was carelessly stretched on a sofa tapping his boot with the gold headed cane which he held in his hand
on perceiving the count he rose quickly the count of monte cristo i believe said he yes sir and i think i have the honor of addressing count andrea cavalcanti count andrea cavalcanti repeated the young man accompanying his words with a bow
you are charged with a letter of introduction addressed to me are you not said the count i did not mention that because the signature seemed to me so strange the letter signed sinbad the sailor is it not exactly so
well it is one of his descendants and a great friend of mine he is a very rich englishman eccentric almost to insanity and his real name is lord wilmore ah indeed then that explains everything that is extraordinary said andrea
he is then the same englishman whom i met
well monsieur i am at your service
certainly i will do so said the young man with a quickness which gave proof of his ready invention i am as you have said the count andrea cavalcanti son of major bartolomeo cavalcanti
a descendant of the cavalcanti whose names are inscribed in the golden book at florence our family although still rich for my father's income amounts to half a million has experienced many misfortunes and i myself was at the age of five years
taken away by the treachery of my tutor so that for fifteen years i have not seen the author of my existence since i have arrived at years of discretion and become my own master i have been constantly seeking him but all in vain
at length i received this letter from your friend which states that my father is in paris and authorizes me to address myself to you for information respecting him
and you have done well to conform in everything to the wishes of my friend sinbad for your father is indeed here and is seeking you the count from the moment of first entering the drawing room had not once lost sight of the expression of the young man's countenance
he had admired the assurance of his look and the firmness of his voice but at these words so natural in themselves your father is indeed here and is seeking you young andrea started and exclaimed my father is my father here
most undoubtedly replied monte cristo your father major bartolomeo cavalcanti the expression of terror which for the moment had overspread the features of the young man had now disappeared ah yes that is the name certainly
major bartolomeo cavalcanti and you really mean to say monsieur that my dear father is here yes sir and i can even add that i have only just left his company the history which he related to me of his lost son touched me to the quick
indeed his griefs hopes and fears on that subject might furnish material for a most touching and pathetic poem at length he one day received a letter stating that the abductors of his son now offered to restore him or at least to give notice where he might be found
on condition of receiving a large sum of money by way of ransom your father did not hesitate an instant and the sum was sent to the frontier of piedmont with a passport signed for italy you were in the south of france i think
yes replied andrea with an embarrassed air i was in the south of france a carriage was to await you at nice precisely so and it conveyed me from nice to genoa from genoa to turin
and from pont de beauvoisin to paris indeed then your father ought to have met with you on the road for it is exactly the same route which he himself took and that is how we have been able to trace your journey to this place
but said andrea if my father had met me i doubt if he would have recognized me i must be somewhat altered since he last saw me oh the voice of nature said monte cristo true interrupted the young man i had not looked upon it in that light
now replied monte cristo there is only one source of uneasiness left in your father's mind which is this he is anxious to know how you have been employed during your long absence from him how you have been treated by your persecutors
and if they have conducted themselves towards you with all the deference due to your rank finally he is anxious to see if you have been fortunate enough to escape the bad moral influence to which you have been exposed and which is infinitely more to be dreaded than any physical suffering
he wishes to discover if the fine abilities with which nature had endowed you have been weakened by want of culture and in short whether you consider yourself capable of resuming and retaining in the world the high position to which your rank entitles you
i hope no false report as for myself i first heard you spoken of by my friend wilmore the philanthropist i believe he found you in some unpleasant position but do not know of what nature for i did not ask not being inquisitive
your misfortunes engaged his sympathies so you see you must have been interesting he told me that he was anxious to restore you to the position which you had lost and that he would seek your father until he found him he did seek and has found him apparently since he is here now
and finally my friend apprised me of your coming and gave me a few other instructions relative to your future fortune i am quite aware that my friend wilmore is peculiar but he is sincere and as rich as a gold mine
consequently he may indulge his eccentricities without any fear of their ruining him and i have promised to adhere to his instructions now sir pray do not be offended at the question i am about to put to you as it comes in the way of my duty as your patron
i would wish to know if the misfortunes which have happened to you misfortunes entirely beyond your control and which in no degree diminish my regard for you
i would wish to know if they have not in some measure contributed to render you a stranger to the world in which your fortune and your name entitle you to make a conspicuous figure sir returned the young man with a reassurance of manner
make your mind easy on this score those who took me from my father and who always intended sooner or later to sell me again to my original proprietor as they have now done calculated that in order to make the most of their bargain it would be politic to leave me in possession of all my personal
and hereditary worth and even to increase the value if possible i have therefore received a very good education and have been treated by these kidnappers very much as the slaves were treated in asia minor whose masters made them grammarians doctors and philosophers
in order that they might fetch a higher price in the roman market monte cristo smiled with satisfaction
i suppose it would be excused in consideration of the misfortunes which accompanied my birth and followed me through my youth well said monte cristo in an indifferent tone you will do as you please count for you are the master of your own actions and are the person most concerned in the matter
but if i were you i would not divulge a word of these adventures your history is quite a romance and the world which delights in romances in yellow covers strangely mistrusts those which are bound in living parchment even though they be gilded like yourself
this is the kind of difficulty which i wished to represent to you my dear count you would hardly have recited your touching history before it would go forth to the world and be deemed unlikely and unnatural
you would be no longer a lost child found but you would be looked upon as an upstart who had sprung up like a mushroom in the night you might excite a little curiosity
and the subject of unpleasant remark i agree with you monsieur said the young man turning pale and in spite of himself trembling beneath the scrutinizing look of his companion such consequences would be extremely unpleasant
nevertheless you must not exaggerate the evil said monte cristo for by endeavoring to avoid one fault you will fall into another you must resolve upon one simple and single line of conduct
and for a man of your intelligence this plan is as easy as it is necessary you must form honorable friendships and by that means counteract the prejudice which may attach to the obscurity of your former life andrea visibly changed countenance
i would offer myself as your surety and friendly adviser said monte cristo did i not possess a moral distrust of my best friends and a sort of inclination to lead others to doubt them too therefore in departing from this rule i should as the actors say
be playing a part quite out of my line and should therefore run the risk of being hissed which would be an act of folly however your excellency said andrea in consideration of lord wilmore by whom i was recommended to you yes certainly interrupted monte cristo
that the season of your youth was rather a stormy one ah said the count watching andrea's countenance i do not demand any confession from you it is precisely to avoid that necessity that your father was sent for from lucca you shall soon see him
he is a little stiff and pompous in his manner and he is disfigured by his uniform but when it becomes known that he has been for eighteen years in the austrian service all that will be pardoned we are not generally very severe with the austrians
in short you will find your father a very presentable person i assure you ah sir you have given me confidence it is so long since we were separated that i have not the least remembrance of him and besides you know that in the eyes of the world a large fortune covers all defects
he is a millionaire his income is five hundred thousand francs then said the young man with anxiety i shall be sure to be placed in an agreeable position one of the most agreeable possible my dear sir
then in that case i shall always choose to remain there you cannot control circumstances my dear sir man proposes and god disposes andrea sighed but said he
so long as i do remain in paris and nothing forces me to quit it do you mean to tell me that i may rely on receiving the sum you just now mentioned to me
asked andrea with some uneasiness yes you will receive it from your father personally but lord wilmore will be the security for the money he has at the request of your father opened an account of six thousand francs a month
which is one of the safest banks in paris and does my father mean to remain long in paris asked andrea only a few days replied monte cristo his service does not allow him to absent himself more than two or three weeks together ah my dear father
exclaimed andrea evidently charmed with the idea of his speedy departure therefore said monte cristo feigning to mistake his meaning therefore i will not for another instant retard the pleasure of your meeting are you prepared to embrace your worthy father
i hope you do not doubt it go then into the drawing room my young friend where you will find your father awaiting you andrea made a low bow to the count and entered the adjoining room monte cristo watched him till he disappeared
and then touched a spring in a panel made to look like a picture which in sliding partly from the frame discovered to view a small opening so cleverly contrived that it revealed all that was passing in the drawing room now occupied by cavalcanti and andrea
the young man closed the door behind him and advanced towards the major who had risen when he heard steps approaching him ah my dear father said andrea in a loud voice in order that the count might hear him in the next room is it really you
how do you do my dear son said the major gravely after so many years of painful separation said andrea in the same tone of voice and glancing towards the door what a happiness it is to meet again
will you not embrace me sir said andrea if you wish it my son said the major and the two men embraced each other after the fashion of actors on the stage that is to say each rested his head on the other's shoulder
then we are once more reunited said andrea once more replied the major never more to be separated
why as to that i think my dear son you must be by this time so accustomed to france as to look upon it almost as a second country the fact is said the young man that i should be exceedingly grieved to leave it
as for me you must know i cannot possibly live out of lucca therefore i shall return to italy as soon as i can but before you leave france my dear father i hope you will put me in possession of the documents which will be necessary to prove my descent
certainly i am come expressly on that account it has cost me much trouble to find you but i had resolved on giving them into your hands and if i had to recommence my search it would occupy all the few remaining years of my life where are these papers then
here they are andrea seized the certificate of his father's marriage and his own baptismal register and after having opened them with all the eagerness which might be expected under the circumstances he read them with a facility which proved that he was accustomed to similar documents
and with an expression which plainly denoted an unusual interest in the contents when he had perused the documents an indefinable expression of pleasure lighted up his countenance and looking at the major with a most peculiar smile he said in very excellent tuscan
then there is no longer any such thing in italy as being condemned to the galleys the major drew himself up to his full height
i mean that if there were it would be impossible to draw up with impunity two such deeds as these in france my dear sir half such a piece of effrontery as that would cause you to be quickly despatched to toulon for five years for change of air
will you be good enough to explain your meaning said the major endeavoring as much as possible to assume an air of the greatest majesty
said andrea taking the major by the arm in a confidential manner how much are you paid for being my father the major was about to speak when andrea continued in a low voice nonsense i am going to set you an example of confidence
they give me fifty thousand francs a year to be your son consequently you can understand that it is not at all likely i shall ever deny my parent the major looked anxiously around him make yourself easy we are quite alone said andrea
besides we are conversing in italian well then replied the major they paid me fifty thousand francs down monsieur cavalcanti said andrea do you believe in fairy tales
you have then been induced to alter your opinion you have had some proofs of their truth the major drew from his pocket a handful of gold most palpable proofs said he as you may perceive
you think then that i may rely on the count's promises certainly i do you are sure he will keep his word with me to the letter but at the same time remember we must continue to play our respective parts i as a tender father
and i as a dutiful son as they choose that i shall be descended from you whom do you mean by they ma foi i can hardly tell but i was alluding to those who wrote the letter you received one did you not yes from whom
from a certain abbe busoni have you any knowledge of him no i have never seen him what did he say in the letter you will promise not to betray me rest assured of that you well know that our interests are the same
then read for yourself and the major gave a letter into the young man's hand andrea read in a low voice
a miserable old age awaits you would you like to become rich or at least independent set out immediately for paris and demand of the count of monte cristo
by the marchesa corsinari and who was taken from you at five years of age this son is named andrea cavalcanti in order that you may not doubt the kind intention of the writer of this letter you will find enclosed an order for two thousand four hundred francs
payable in florence at signor gozzi's also a letter of introduction to the count of monte cristo on whom i give you a draft of forty eight thousand francs
signed abbe busoni it is the same
said the major i was going to say that i received a letter almost to the same effect you yes from the abbe busoni no from whom then
from an englishman called lord wilmore who takes the name of sinbad the sailor and of whom you have no more knowledge than i of the abbe busoni you are mistaken there i am ahead of you you have seen him then yes once where
ah that is just what i cannot tell you if i did i should make you as wise as myself which it is not my intention to do and what did the letter contain read it you are poor and your future prospects are dark and gloomy do you wish for a name
should you like to be rich and your own master ma foi said the young man was it possible there could be two answers to such a question take the post chaise which you will find waiting at the porte de genes as you enter nice
go to the count of monte cristo
the marquis will give you some papers which will certify this fact and authorize you to appear under that name in the parisian world
banker at nice and also a letter of introduction to the count of monte cristo whom i have directed to supply all your wants sinbad the sailor humph said the major very good you have seen the count you say i have only just left him
and has he conformed to all that the letter specified he has do you understand it not in the least there is a dupe somewhere at all events it is neither you nor i certainly not well then
why it does not much concern us do you think it does no i agree with you there we must play the game to the end and consent to be blindfolded ah you shall see i promise you i will sustain my part to admiration
i never once doubted your doing so monte cristo chose this moment for re entering the drawing room on hearing the sound of his footsteps the two men threw themselves in each other's arms and while they were in the midst of this embrace the count entered
well marquis said monte cristo you appear to be in no way disappointed in the son whom your good fortune has restored to you ah your excellency i am overwhelmed with delight and what are your feelings said monte cristo turning to the young man
as for me my heart is overflowing with happiness happy father happy son said the count there is only one thing which grieves me observed the major and that is the necessity for my leaving paris so soon
i am at your service sir replied the major now sir said monte cristo addressing andrea make your confession to whom
ma foi monsieur you have touched upon a tender chord do you hear what he says major certainly i do but do you understand i do your son says he requires money well what would you have me do said the major
you should furnish him with some of course replied monte cristo
at the same time advancing towards andrea and slipping a packet of bank notes into the young man's hand what is this it is from your father from my father yes did you not tell him just now that you wanted money well then
he deputes me to give you this am i to consider this as part of my income on account no it is for the first expenses of your settling in paris ah how good my dear father is silence said monte cristo
he does not wish you to know that it comes from him i fully appreciate his delicacy said andrea cramming the notes hastily into his pocket and now gentlemen i wish you good morning said monte cristo
asked cavalcanti ah said andrea when may we hope for that pleasure on saturday if you will yes let me see saturday
i will introduce you to him for it will be necessary he should know you as he is to pay your money full dress said the major half aloud oh yes certainly said the count uniform cross knee breeches and how shall i be dressed demanded andrea
oh very simply black trousers patent leather boots white waistcoat either a black or blue coat and a long cravat go to blin or veronique for your clothes baptistin will tell you where if you do not know their address
the less pretension there is in your attire the better will be the effect as you are a rich man if you mean to buy any horses get them of devedeux and if you purchase a phaeton go to baptiste for it at what hour shall we come asked the young man about half past six
we will be with you at that time said the major
and had wandered further and further westward upon trading ventures settling finally in melbourne australia he ceased to roam became a steady going substantial merchant and prospered greatly his life lay beyond the theatre of this tale
his remittances had supported the hawkins family entirely from the time of his father's death until latterly when laura by her efforts in washington had been able to assist in this work
clay was away on a long absence in some of the eastward islands when laura's troubles began trying and almost in vain to arrange certain interests which had become disordered through a dishonest agent
and consequently he knew nothing of the murder till he returned and read his letters and papers his natural impulse was to hurry to the states and save his sister if possible for he loved her with a deep and abiding affection
his business was so crippled now and so deranged that to leave it would be ruin therefore he sold out at a sacrifice that left him considerably reduced in worldly possessions and began his voyage to san francisco
arrived there he perceived by the newspapers that the trial was near its close at salt lake later telegrams told him of the acquittal and his gratitude was boundless so boundless indeed that sleep was driven from his eyes
by the pleasurable excitement almost as effectually as preceding weeks of anxiety had done it he shaped his course straight for hawkeye now and his meeting with his mother and the rest of the household was joyful albeit he had been away so long
that he seemed almost a stranger in his own home but the greetings and congratulations were hardly finished when all the journals in the land clamored the news of laura's miserable death missus hawkins was prostrated by this last blow
and it was well that clay was at her side to stay her with comforting words and take upon himself
washington hawkins had scarcely more than entered upon that decade which carries one to the full blossom of manhood which we term the beginning of middle age and yet a brief sojourn at the capital of the nation had made him old
his hair was already turning gray when the late session of congress began its sittings it grew grayer still and rapidly after the memorable day that saw laura proclaimed a murderess
it waxed grayer and still grayer during the lagging suspense that succeeded it and after the crash which ruined his last hope the failure of his bill in the senate and the destruction of its champion dilworthy a few days later when he stood uncovered
while the last prayer was pronounced over laura's grave his hair was whiter and his face hardly less old than the venerable minister's whose words were sounding in his ears
a week after this he was sitting in a double bedded room in a cheap boarding house in washington with colonel sellers the two had been living together lately and this mutual cavern of theirs the colonel sometimes referred to as their premises
and sometimes as their apartments more particularly when conversing with persons outside a canvas covered modern trunk
strapped and ready for a journey on it lay a small morocco satchel also marked g w h there was another trunk close by a worn and scarred and ancient hair relic with b s wrought in brass nails on its top
washington got up and walked the floor a while in a restless sort of way and finally was about to sit down on the hair trunk stop don't sit down on that exclaimed the colonel there now that's all right the chair's better
i couldn't get another trunk like that not another like it in america i reckon i am afraid not said washington with a faint attempt at a smile no indeed the man is dead that made that trunk and that saddle bags
are his great grand children still living said washington with levity only in the words not in the tone well i don't know i hadn't thought of that but anyway they can't make trunks and saddle bags like that if they are
no man can said the colonel with honest simplicity wife didn't like to see me going off with that trunk
well then why shouldn't a man want to steal it if he got a chance indeed i don't know why should he washington i never heard anybody talk like you suppose you were a thief and that trunk was lying around and nobody watching
wouldn't you steal it come now answer fair wouldn't you steal it well now since you corner me i would take it but i wouldn't consider it stealing you wouldn't well that beats me now what would you call stealing
why taking property is stealing property now what a way to talk that is
is it in good repair perfect hair rubbed off a little but the main structure is perfectly sound does it leak anywhere
why a do the clothes fall out of it when it is when it is stationary confound it washington you are trying to make fun of me
you act mighty curious what is the matter with you well i'll tell you old friend i am almost happy i am indeed it wasn't clay's telegram that hurried me up so and got me ready to start with you
it was a letter from louise good what is it what does she say she says come home her father has consented at last my boy i want to congratulate you i want to shake you by the hand
it's a long turn that has no lane at the end of it as the proverb says or somehow that way
i believe it general boswell is pretty nearly a poor man now the railroad that was going to build up hawkeye made short work of him along with the rest he isn't so opposed to a son in law without a fortune now
without a fortune indeed why that tennessee land never mind the tennessee land colonel i am done with that forever and forever why no you can't mean to say
my father away back yonder years ago bought it for a blessing for his children and
i'm bound to say there's more or less truth it began to curse me when i was a baby and it has cursed every hour of my life to this day lord lord but it's so time and again my wife
i depended on it all through my boyhood and never tried to do an honest stroke of work for my living right again but then you i have chased it years and years as children chase butterflies we might all have been prosperous now
we might all have been happy all these heart breaking years if we had accepted our poverty at first and gone contentedly to work and built up our own wealth by our own toil and sweat
instead of that we have suffered more than the damned themselves suffer i loved my father and i honor his memory and recognize his good intentions but i grieve for his mistaken ideas of conferring happiness upon his children
i am going to begin my life over again and begin it and end it with good solid work i'll leave my children no tennessee land spoken like a man sir spoken like a man your hand again my boy
i'm going to begin again too indeed yes sir i've seen enough to show me where my mistake was the law is what i was born for i shall begin the study of the law heavens and earth but that braham's a wonderful man a wonderful man sir
such a head and such a way with him but i could see that he was jealous of me the little licks i got in in the course of my argument before the jury your argument why you were a witness oh yes to the popular eye to the popular eye
but i knew when i was dropping information and when i was letting drive at the court with an insidious argument but the court knew it bless you and weakened every time and braham knew it i just reminded him of it in a quiet way and its final result
and he said in a whisper you did it colonel you did it sir but keep it mum for my sake and i'll tell you what you do says he you go into the law colonel sellers go into the law sir that's your native element and into the law the subscriber is going
there's worlds of money in it whole worlds of money practice first in hawkeye then in jefferson then in saint louis then in new york in the metropolis of the western world climb and climb and climb and wind up on the supreme bench
chief justice of the supreme court of the united states sir a made man for all time and eternity that's the way i block it out sir and it's as clear as day clear as the rosy morn washington had heard little of this
the first reference to laura's trial had brought the old dejection to his face again and he stood gazing out of the window at nothing lost in reverie there was a knock the postman handed in a letter it was from obedstown east tennessee
and was for washington he opened it there was a note saying that enclosed he would please find a bill for the current year's taxes on the seventy five thousand acres of tennessee land belonging to the estate of silas hawkins deceased
and added that the money must be paid within sixty days or the land would be sold at public auction for the taxes as provided by law
something more than twice the market value of the land perhaps washington hesitated doubts flitted through his mind the old instinct came upon him to cling to the land just a little longer and give it one more chance
he walked the floor feverishly his mind tortured by indecision presently he stopped took out his pocket book and counted his money two hundred and thirty dollars it was all he had in the world
one hundred and eighty from two hundred and thirty he said to himself fifty left
shall i do it or shall i not i wish i had somebody to decide for me the pocket book lay open in his hand with louise's small letter in view his eye fell upon that and it decided him
it shall go for taxes he said and never tempt me or mine any more he opened the window and stood there tearing the tax bill to bits and watching the breeze waft them away till all were gone
the spell is broken the life long curse is ended he said let us go the baggage wagon had arrived five minutes later the two friends were mounted upon their luggage in it and rattling off toward the station
the colonel endeavoring to sing homeward bound a song whose words he knew but whose tune as he rendered it
the broken shaggy ramparts of the giant crater rose above us we toiled upward out of the foothills clinging now to the crags and pitted terraces of the main ascent an hour had passed since we turned from the borders of mare imbrium
or was it two hours i could not tell i only know that we ran with desperate frantic haste anita would not admit that she was tired she was more skillful than i in this leaping over the broken rock masses
yet i felt that her slight strength must give out it seemed miles up the undulating slopes of the foothills with the black and white ramparts of the crater close before us and then the main ascent
there were places where like smooth black frozen ice the walls rose sheer we avoided them toiling aside plunging into gullies crossing pits where sometimes perforce we went downwards and then up again
or sometimes we stood hot and breathless upon ledges recovering our strength selecting the best route upward in tumbled mass of rock honeycombed everywhere with caves and passages leading into impenetrable darkness
we might have been upon this main ascent for an hour the plains were far down the broken surface down there smoothed now by the perspective of height and yet still above us the brooding circular wall went up into the sky
ten thousand feet above us you're tired anita we'd better stay here no if we could only get to the top the ship may land on the other side they would see us there was as yet no sign of the brigand ship
with every stop for rest we searched the starry vault the earth hung over us flattened beyond the full
of the archimedes walls but no speck appeared to tell us that the ship was up there we were on the curving side of the archimedes wall which fronted the mare imbrium to the north the plains lay like a great frozen sea
congealed ripples shining in the light of the earth with dark patches to mark the hollows somewhere down there six or eight thousand feet below us now miko's encampment lay concealed we searched for lights of it but could see none
left his camp and come here like ourselves to climb archimedes or was our assumption wholly wrong perhaps the brigand ship would not land near here at all
the plains were less smooth the little crater which concealed the grantline camp was off in the crater scarred region beyond which the distant apennines raised their terraced walls there was nothing to mark it from here
she added there seems to be a blur her sight sharper than mine had picked it out the descending brigand ship a faintest tiny blur against the stars a few of them occulted
as though an invisible shadow were upon them a growing shadow materializing into a blur a blob a shape faintly defined then sharper until we were sure of what we saw it was the brigand ship
it was dropping slowly silently down we crouched on the little ledge a cave mouth was behind us a gully was beside us a break in the ledge and at our feet the sheer wall dropped
we had extinguished our lights we crouched silently gazing up into the stars the ship when we first distinguished it was centered over archimedes we thought for a while that it might descend into the crater but it did not
miko had forced snap to signal this brigand band on mars miko's only information as to the whereabouts of the grantline camp was that it lay between archimedes and the apennines the brigands now were following that information
a tense interval passed we could see the ship plainly above us now a gray black shape among the stars up beyond the shaggy towering crater rim the vessel came upon a level keel hull down slowly circling
looking for miko's signal no doubt or for possible lights from grantline's camp they might also be picking a landing place we saw it soon as a cylindrical cigarlike shape rather smaller than the planetara but similar of design
it bore lights now the ports of its hull were tiny rows of illumination and the glow of light under its rounding upper dome was faintly visible a bandit ship no doubt of that its identification keel plate was empty of official pass code lights
these brigands had not attempted to secure official sailing lights when leaving ferrok shahn it was unmistakably an outlaw ship and here upon the deserted moon there was no need for secrecy its lights were openly displayed
and join it it went slowly past us only a few thousand feet higher than our level we could see the whole outline of its pointed cylinder hull with the rounded dome on top and under the dome was its open deck with a little cabin superstructure in the center
i thought for a moment that by some unfortunate chance it might land quite near us but it went past and then i saw that it was heading for a level plateaulike surface a few miles further on it dropped cautiously floating down
but i realized that haste was necessary we must be the first to join the brigand ship i lifted anita to her feet i don't think we should signal from here
we could not tell where he was down on the plains perhaps or up here somewhere in these miles of towering rocks are you ready anita yes gregg
i stared through the visors at her white solemn face yes i'm ready she repeated her hand pressure seemed to me suddenly like a farewell we were plunging rashly into what was destined to mean our death
was this a farewell an instinct told me not to do this thing why in a few hours i could have anita back to the comparative safety of the grantline camp the exit ports would doubtless be repaired by now
i could get her inside she had bounded away from me leaped down some thirty feet into the broken gully to cross it and then up on the other side i stood for an instant watching her fantastic shape with the great rounded goggled trunked helmet
and the lump on her shoulders which held the little erentz motors then i hurried after her it did not take us long two or three miles of circling along the giant wall the ship lay only a few hundred feet above our level
the lights of the ship were close over us and there were moving lights up there tiny moving spots on the adjacent rocks the brigands had come out prowling about to investigate their location
i'll flash now i whispered yes
i took the lamp from my helmet my hand was trembling suppose my signal were answered by a shot a flash from some giant projector mounted on the ship anita crouched behind a rock as she had promised
i stood with my torch and flung its switch my puny light beam shot up i waved it touched the ship with its faint glowing circle of illumination they saw me there was a sudden movement among the lights up there i semaphored
do not fire i used open universal code in martian first and then in english there was no answer but no attack i tried again this is haljan one of the planetara
george prince's sister is with me
a small light beam came down from the brink of the overhead cliff beside the ship continue i went steadily on disaster the planetara is wrecked
all killed but me and prince's sister we want to join you i flashed off my light the answer came where is the grantline camp
as though to answer my lie from down on the earthlit plains some ten miles or so from the crater base a tiny signal light shot up anita saw it and gripped me there is miko's light
it spelled in martian come down land
miko had seen the signaling up here and had joined it he repeated land mare imbrium i flashed a protest up to the ship beware that is grantline trickery
from the ship the summons came come up we had won this first encounter miko must have realized his disadvantage his distant light went out come anita
there was no retreat now but again i seemed to feel in the pressure of her hand that vague farewell her voice whispered we must do our best act our best to be convincing
in the white glow of a searchbeam we climbed the crags reached the broad upper ledge helmeted figures rushed at us searched us for weapons seized our helmet lights the evil face of a giant martian peered at me through the visors
two other monstrous towering figures seized anita we were shoved toward the port locks at the base of the ship's hull above the hull bulge i could see the grids of projectors mounted on the dome side
and the figures of men standing on the deck peering down at us we went through the admission locks into a hull corridor
that is to say the tunnel had reached a point in the hill which was considerably beyond where the coal vein should pass according to all his calculations if there were a coal vein there and so every foot that the tunnel now progressed
seemed to carry it further away from the object of the search sometimes he ventured to hope that he had made a mistake in estimating the direction which the vein should naturally take after crossing the valley and entering the hill
upon such occasions he would go into the nearest mine on the vein he was hunting for and once more get the bearings of the deposit and mark out its probable course but the result was the same every time
his tunnel had manifestly pierced beyond the natural point of junction and then his spirits fell a little lower his men had already lost faith
foremen and laborers from neighboring mines and no end of experienced loafers from the village visited the tunnel from time to time and their verdicts were always the same and always disheartening no coal in that hill
now and then philip would sit down and think it all over and wonder what the mystery meant then he would go into the tunnel and ask the men if there were no signs yet none always none he would bring out a piece of rock and examine it
and say to himself it is limestone it has crinoids and corals in it the rock is right then he would throw it down with a sigh and say but that is nothing where coal is
but it does not necessarily follow that where this peculiar rock is coal must lie above it or beyond it this sign is not sufficient the thought usually followed
everybody chases butterflies everybody seeks sudden fortune and will not lay one up by slow toil this is not right i will discharge the men and go at some honest work there is no coal here
what a fool i have been i will give it up but he never could do it
and at the end of it he was sure to get up and straighten himself and say there is coal there i will not give it up and coal or no coal i will drive the tunnel clear through the hill i will not surrender while i am alive
he never thought of asking mister montague for more money he said there was now but one chance of finding coal against nine hundred and ninety nine that he would not find it and so it would be wrong in him to make the request
and foolish in mister montague to grant it he had been working three shifts of men finally the settling of a weekly account exhausted his means he could not afford to run in debt and therefore he gave the men their discharge
and it was a mighty help to his family whenever any of us was in trouble you've done what you could to help us out you've acted fair and square with us every time and i reckon we are men and know a man when we see him we haven't got any faith in that hill
but we have a respect for a man that's got the pluck that you've showed you've fought a good fight with everybody agin you
that is what the boys say now we want to put in one parting blast for luck
we won't bring in no bill against you that is what we've come to say philip was touched if he had had money enough to buy three days grub he would have accepted the generous offer
but as it was he could not consent to be less magnanimous than the men and so he declined in a manly speech shook hands all around and resumed his solitary communings the men went back to the tunnel
and put in a parting blast for luck anyhow they did a full day's work and then took their leave they called at his cabin and gave him good bye but were not able to tell him their day's effort had given things a mere promising look
the next day philip sold all the tools but two or three sets he also sold one of the now deserted cabins as old lumber together with its domestic wares
and made up his mind that he would buy provisions with the trifle of money thus gained and continue his work alone about the middle of the afternoon he put on his roughest clothes and went to the tunnel he lit a candle and groped his way in
presently he heard the sound of a pick or a drill and wondered what it meant a spark of light now appeared in the far end of the tunnel and when he arrived there he found the man tim at work
tim said i'm to have a job in the golden brier mine by and by in a week or ten days and i'm going to work here till then a man might as well be at some thing and besides i consider that i owe you what you paid me when i was laid up
philip said oh no he didn't owe anything but tim persisted and then philip said he had a little provision now and would share so for several days philip held the drill and tim did the striking
at first philip was impatient to see the result of every blast and was always back and peering among the smoke the moment after the explosion but there was never any encouraging result and therefore he finally lost almost all interest
and hardly troubled himself to inspect results at all he simply labored on stubbornly and with little hope tim staid with him till the last moment and then took up his job at the golden brier
apparently as depressed by the continued barrenness of their mutual labors as philip was himself after that philip fought his battle alone day after day and slow work it was he could scarcely see that he made any progress
late one afternoon he finished drilling a hole which he had been at work at for more than two hours he swabbed it out and poured in the powder and inserted the fuse then filled up the rest of the hole with dirt and small fragments of stone tamped it down firmly
touched his candle to the fuse and ran by and by the dull report came and he was about to walk back mechanically and see what was accomplished but he halted presently turned on his heel and thought rather than said no this is useless
this is absurd if i found anything it would only be one of those little aggravating seams of coal which doesn't mean anything and by this time he was walking out of the tunnel his thought ran on
i will go and work for money and come back and have another fight with fate ah me it may be years it may be years arrived at the mouth of the tunnel he threw his coat upon the ground sat down on a stone and his eye sought the westering sun
and dwelt upon the charming landscape which stretched its woody ridges wave upon wave to the golden horizon something was taking place at his feet which did not attract his attention
his reverie continued and its burden grew more and more gloomy presently he rose up and cast a look far away toward the valley and his thoughts took a new direction there it is how good it looks
but he smiled at the thought and continued his journey such a coat as that could be of little use in a civilized land a little further on he remembered that there were some papers of value in one of the pockets of the relic
and then with a penitent ejaculation he turned back picked up the coat and put it on
he stood still a moment as one who is trying to believe something and cannot he put a hand up over his shoulder and felt his back and a great thrill shot through him he grasped the skirt of the coat impulsively
and another thrill followed he snatched the coat from his back glanced at it threw it from him and flew back to the tunnel he sought the spot where the coat had lain he had to look close for the light was waning
then to make sure he put his hand to the ground and a little stream of water swept against his fingers thank god i've struck it at last he lit a candle and ran into the tunnel
he picked up a piece of rubbish cast out by the last blast and said this clayey stuff is what i've longed for i know what is behind it he swung his pick with hearty good will till long after the darkness had gathered upon the earth
and when he trudged home at length he knew he had a coal vein and that it was seven feet thick from wall to wall he found a yellow envelope lying on his rickety table
and recognized that it was of a family sacred to the transmission of telegrams he opened it read it crushed it in his hand and threw it down it simply said
the rescue of the tin woodman when dorothy awoke the sun was shining through the trees and toto had long been out chasing birds around him and squirrels
we must go and search for water she said to him why do you want water he asked to wash my face clean after the dust of the road and to drink so the dry bread will not stick in my throat
it must be inconvenient to be made of flesh said the scarecrow thoughtfully for you must sleep and eat and drink however you have brains and it is worth a lot of bother to be able to think properly
they left the cottage and walked through the trees until they found a little spring of clear water where dorothy drank and bathed and ate her breakfast she saw there was not much bread left in the basket and the girl was thankful the scarecrow did not have to eat anything for there was scarcely enough for herself and toto for the day
she was startled to hear a deep groan near by what was that she asked timidly i cannot imagine replied the scarecrow but we can go and see
they turned and walked through the forest a few steps when dorothy discovered something shining in a ray of sunshine that fell between the trees she ran to the place and then stopped short with a little cry of surprise
one of the big trees had been partly chopped through and standing beside it with an uplifted axe in his hands was a man made entirely of tin his head and arms and legs were jointed upon his body
but he stood perfectly motionless as if he could not stir at all dorothy looked at him in amazement and so did the scarecrow while toto barked sharply and made a snap at the tin legs which hurt his teeth
did you groan asked dorothy yes answered the tin man i did i've been groaning for more than a year
get an oil can and oil my joints he answered
if i am well oiled i shall soon be all right again you will find an oil can on a shelf in my cottage dorothy at once ran back to the cottage and found the oil can and then she returned and asked anxiously
oil my neck first replied the tin woodman so she oiled it
and then the man could turn it himself
and dorothy oiled them and the scarecrow bent them carefully until they were quite free from rust and as good as new the tin woodman gave a sigh of satisfaction and lowered his axe which he leaned against the tree this is a great comfort he said
i have been holding that axe in the air ever since i rusted and i'm glad to be able to put it down at last now if you will oil the joints of my legs i shall be all right once more
and he thanked them again and again for his release for he seemed a very polite creature and very grateful i might have stood there always if you had not come along he said so you have certainly saved my life
how did you happen to be here we are on our way to the emerald city to see the great oz she answered and we stopped at your cottage to pass the night why do you wish to see oz he asked i want him to send me back to kansas
and the scarecrow wants him to put a few brains into his head she replied the tin woodman appeared to think deeply for a moment
why i guess so dorothy answered it would be as easy as to give the scarecrow brains true the tin woodman returned so if you will allow me to join your party
i will also go to the emerald city and ask oz to help me come along said the scarecrow heartily and dorothy added that she would be pleased to have his company
so the tin woodman shouldered his axe and they all passed through the forest until they came to the road that was paved with yellow brick the tin woodman had asked dorothy to put the oil can in her basket for he said if i should get caught in the rain
i would need the oil can badly it was a bit of good luck to have their new comrade join the party for soon after they had begun their journey again they came to a place where the trees and branches grew so thick over the road
that the travelers could not pass but the tin woodman set to work with his axe and chopped so well that soon he cleared a passage for the entire party dorothy was thinking so earnestly as they walked along
that she did not notice when the scarecrow stumbled into a hole and rolled over to the side of the road indeed he was obliged to call to her to help him up again why didn't you walk around the hole asked the tin woodman
i don't know enough replied the scarecrow cheerfully my head is stuffed with straw you know
oh i see said the tin woodman but after all brains are not the best things in the world have you any inquired the scarecrow no my head is quite empty answered the woodman
but once i had brains and a heart also so having tried them both
and why is that asked the scarecrow i will tell you my story and then you will know so while they were walking through the forest the tin woodman told the following story
i was born the son of a woodman who chopped down trees in the forest and sold the wood for a living when i grew up i too became a woodchopper and after my father died i took care of my old mother as long as she lived then i made up my mind that instead of living alone i would marry
so that i might not become lonely there was one of the munchkin girls who was so beautiful that i soon grew to love her with all my heart she on her part promised to marry me as soon as i could earn enough money to build a better house for her so i set to work harder than ever
but the girl lived with an old woman who did not want her to marry anyone for she was so lazy she wished the girl to remain with her and do the cooking and the housework so the old woman went to the wicked witch of the east and promised her two sheep and a cow if she would prevent the marriage
thereupon the wicked witch enchanted my axe and when i was chopping away at my best one day for i was anxious to get the new house and my wife as soon as possible the axe slipped all at once and cut off my left leg
this at first seemed a great misfortune for i knew a one legged man could not do very well as a wood chopper so i went to a tinsmith and had him make me a new leg out of tin the leg worked very well once i was used to it
but my action angered the wicked witch of the east for she had promised the old woman i should not marry the pretty munchkin girl when i began chopping again my axe slipped and cut off my right leg again i went to the tinsmith and again he made me a leg out of tin
after this the enchanted axe cut off my arms one after the other but nothing daunted i had them replaced with tin ones the wicked witch then made the axe slip and cut off my head and at first i thought that was the end of me
but the tinsmith happened to come along and he made me a new head out of tin i thought i had beaten the wicked witch then and i worked harder than ever but i little knew how cruel my enemy could be she thought of a new way to kill my love for the beautiful munchkin maiden
and made my axe slip again so that it cut right through my body splitting me into two halves once more the tinsmith came to my help and made me a body of tin fastening my tin arms and legs and head to it
but alas i had now no heart so that i lost all my love for the munchkin girl and did not care whether i married her or not i suppose she is still living with the old woman waiting for me to come after her
my body shone so brightly in the sun that i felt very proud of it
there was only one danger that my joints would rust but i kept an oil can in my cottage and took care to oil myself whenever i needed it however there came a day when i forgot to do this and being caught in a rainstorm before i thought of the danger my joints had rusted
the year i stood there i had time to think that the greatest loss i had known
while i was in love i was the happiest man on earth but no one can love who has not a heart and so i am resolved to ask oz to give me one if he does i will go back to the munchkin maiden and marry her
both dorothy and the scarecrow had been greatly interested in the story of the tin woodman and now they knew why he was so anxious to get a new heart all the same said the scarecrow i shall ask for brains instead of a heart
for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one i shall take the heart returned the tin woodman for brains do not make one happy and happiness is the best thing in the world dorothy did not say anything
for she was puzzled to know which of her two friends was right and she decided if she could only get back to kansas and aunt em it did not matter so much whether the woodman had no brains and the scarecrow no heart
what worried her most was that the bread was nearly gone and another meal for herself and toto would empty the basket to be sure neither the woodman nor the scarecrow ever ate anything
the council with the munchkins she was awakened by a shock so sudden and severe that if dorothy had not been lying on the soft bed she might have been hurt as it was the jar made her catch her breath and wonder what had happened
dorothy sat up and noticed that the house was not moving nor was it dark for the bright sunshine came in at the window flooding the little room she sprang from her bed and with toto at her heels ran and opened the door
the little girl gave a cry of amazement and looked about her her eyes growing bigger and bigger at the wonderful sights she saw
there were lovely patches of greensward all about with stately trees bearing rich and luscious fruits banks of gorgeous flowers were on every hand and birds with rare and brilliant plumage sang and fluttered in the trees and bushes
a little way off was a small brook rushing and sparkling along between green banks and murmuring in a voice very grateful to a little girl who had lived so long on the dry gray prairies
while she stood looking eagerly at the strange and beautiful sights she noticed coming toward her a group of the queerest people she had ever seen they were not as big as the grown folk she had always been used to but neither were they very small in fact
they seemed about as tall as dorothy who was a well grown child for her age although they were so far as looks go many years older three were men and one a woman and all were oddly dressed
they wore round hats that rose to a small point a foot above their heads with little bells around the brims that tinkled sweetly as they moved the hats of the men were blue the little woman's hat was white
and she wore a white gown that hung in pleats from her shoulders over it were sprinkled little stars that glistened in the sun like diamonds the men were dressed in blue of the same shade as their hats
and wore well polished boots with a deep roll of blue at the tops the men dorothy thought were about as old as uncle henry for two of them had beards but the little woman was doubtless much older her face was covered with wrinkles
her hair was nearly white and she walked rather stiffly when these people drew near the house where dorothy was standing in the doorway they paused and whispered among themselves as if afraid to come farther but the little old woman walked up to dorothy
made a low bow and said in a sweet voice you are welcome most noble sorceress to the land of the munchkins we are so grateful to you for having killed the wicked witch of the east and for setting our people free from bondage
dorothy listened to this speech with wonder what could the little woman possibly mean by calling her a sorceress and saying she had killed the wicked witch of the east dorothy was an innocent harmless little girl
and she had never killed anything in all her life but the little woman evidently expected her to answer so dorothy said with hesitation you are very kind but there must be some mistake i have not killed anything
your house did anyway replied the little old woman with a laugh and that is the same thing see she continued pointing to the corner of the house there are her two feet still sticking out from under a block of wood dorothy looked
and gave a little cry of fright there indeed just under the corner of the great beam the house rested on two feet were sticking out shod in silver shoes with pointed toes
oh dear oh dear cried dorothy clasping her hands together in dismay the house must have fallen on her whatever shall we do there is nothing to be done said the little woman calmly but who was she asked dorothy
she was the wicked witch of the east as i said answered the little woman she has held all the munchkins in bondage for many years making them slave for her night and day now they are all set free
and are grateful to you for the favor who are the munchkins inquired dorothy they are the people who live in this land of the east where the wicked witch ruled are you a munchkin asked dorothy no but i am their friend
although i live in the land of the north when they saw the witch of the east was dead the munchkins sent a swift messenger to me and i came at once i am the witch of the north oh gracious cried dorothy are you a real witch
yes indeed answered the little woman but i am a good witch and the people love me i am not as powerful as the wicked witch was who ruled here or i should have set the people free myself but i thought all witches were wicked
said the girl who was half frightened at facing a real witch oh no that is a great mistake there were only four witches in all the land of oz and two of them
i know this is true for i am one of them myself and cannot be mistaken those who dwelt in the east and the west were indeed wicked witches but now that you have killed one of them there is but one wicked witch in all the land of oz the one who lives in the west
aunt em has told me that the witches were all dead years and years ago who is aunt em inquired the little old woman
the witch of the north seemed to think for a time with her head bowed and her eyes upon the ground then she looked up and said i do not know where kansas is for i have never heard that country mentioned before but tell me
is it a civilized country oh yes replied dorothy then that accounts for it in the civilized countries i believe there are no witches left nor wizards nor sorceresses nor magicians but
you see the land of oz has never been civilized for we are cut off from all the rest of the world therefore we still have witches and wizards amongst us who are the wizards asked dorothy oz himself is the great wizard
answered the witch sinking her voice to a whisper he is more powerful than all the rest of us together he lives in the city of emeralds dorothy was going to ask another question but just then
the munchkins who had been standing silently by gave a loud shout and pointed to the corner of the house where the wicked witch had been lying what is it asked the little old woman and looked and began to laugh the feet of the dead witch had disappeared entirely
and nothing was left but the silver shoes she was so old explained the witch of the north that she dried up quickly in the sun that is the end of her but the silver shoes are yours and you shall have them to wear
she reached down and picked up the shoes and after shaking the dust out of them handed them to dorothy the witch of the east was proud of those silver shoes said one of the munchkins and there is some charm connected with them but what it is we never knew
dorothy carried the shoes into the house and placed them on the table then she came out again to the munchkins and said
for i am sure they will worry about me can you help me find my way the munchkins and the witch first looked at one another and then at dorothy and then shook their heads at the east not far from here said one
there is a great desert and none could live to cross it it is the same at the south said another for i have been there and seen it the south is the country of the quadlings i am told said the third man
and that country where the winkies live is ruled by the wicked witch of the west who would make you her slave if you passed her way the north is my home said the old lady
and at its edge is the same great desert that surrounds this land of oz i'm afraid my dear you will have to live with us dorothy began to sob at this for she felt lonely among all these strange people
her tears seemed to grieve the kind hearted munchkins for they immediately took out their handkerchiefs and began to weep also as for the little old woman she took off her cap and balanced the point on the end of her nose while she counted one two
three in a solemn voice at once the cap changed to a slate on which was written in big white chalk marks let dorothy go to the city of emeralds the little old woman took the slate from her nose
and having read the words on it asked is your name dorothy my dear yes answered the child looking up and drying her tears then you must go to the city of emeralds perhaps oz will help you where is this city asked dorothy
it is exactly in the center of the country and is ruled by oz the great wizard i told you of is he a good man inquired the girl anxiously he is a good wizard whether he is a man or not i cannot tell
for i have never seen him how can i get there asked dorothy you must walk it is a long journey through a country that is sometimes pleasant and sometimes dark and terrible however i will use all the magic arts i know of to keep you from harm
won't you go with me pleaded the girl who had begun to look upon the little old woman as her only friend no i cannot do that she replied but i will give you my kiss and no one will dare injure a person who has been kissed by the witch of the north
where her lips touched the girl they left a round shining mark as dorothy found out soon after the road to the city of emeralds is paved with yellow brick said the witch so you cannot miss it
when you get to oz do not be afraid of him but tell your story and ask him to help you good bye my dear the three munchkins bowed low to her and wished her a pleasant journey after which they walked away through the trees
the witch gave dorothy a friendly little nod whirled around on her left heel three times and straightway disappeared much to the surprise of little toto who barked after her loudly enough when she had gone
because he had been afraid even to growl while she stood by but dorothy knowing her to be a witch
how dorothy saved the scarecrow when dorothy was left alone she began to feel hungry so she went to the cupboard and cut herself some bread which she spread with butter she gave some to toto and taking a pail from the shelf
she carried it down to the little brook and filled it with clear sparkling water toto ran over to the trees and began to bark at the birds sitting there dorothy went to get him and saw such delicious fruit hanging from the branches that she gathered some of it
finding it just what she wanted to help out her breakfast then she went back to the house and having helped herself and toto to a good drink of the cool clear water she set about making ready for the journey to the city of emeralds
dorothy had only one other dress but that happened to be clean and was hanging on a peg beside her bed it was gingham with checks of white and blue and although the blue was somewhat faded with many washings it was still a pretty frock
the girl washed herself carefully dressed herself in the clean gingham and tied her pink sunbonnet on her head she took a little basket and filled it with bread from the cupboard laying a white cloth over the top
then she looked down at her feet and noticed how old and worn her shoes were
and toto looked up into her face with his little black eyes and wagged his tail to show he knew what she meant at that moment dorothy saw lying on the table the silver shoes that had belonged to the witch of the east
she said to toto they would be just the thing to take a long walk in for they could not wear out she took off her old leather shoes
come along toto she said we will go to the emerald city and ask the great oz how to get back to kansas again she closed the door locked it and put the key carefully in the pocket of her dress and so
with toto trotting along soberly behind her she started on her journey there were several roads nearby but it did not take her long to find the one paved with yellow bricks within a short time she was walking briskly toward the emerald city
her silver shoes tinkling merrily on the hard yellow road bed the sun shone bright and the birds sang sweetly and dorothy did not feel nearly so bad as you might think a little girl
she was surprised as she walked along to see how pretty the country was about her there were neat fences at the sides of the road painted a dainty blue color and beyond them were fields of grain and vegetables in abundance
evidently the munchkins were good farmers and able to raise large crops once in a while she would pass a house and the people came out to look at her and bow low as she went by for everyone knew she had been the means of destroying the wicked witch and setting them free from bondage
the houses of the munchkins were odd looking dwellings for each was round with a big dome for a roof all were painted blue for in this country of the east blue was the favorite color
toward evening when dorothy was tired with her long walk and began to wonder where she should pass the night she came to a house rather larger than the rest on the green lawn before it many men and women were dancing
five little fiddlers played as loudly as possible and the people were laughing and singing while a big table near by was loaded with delicious fruits and nuts pies and cakes
and invited her to supper and to pass the night with them for this was the home of one of the richest munchkins in the land and his friends were gathered with him to celebrate their freedom from the bondage of the wicked witch
dorothy ate a hearty supper and was waited upon by the rich munchkin himself whose name was boq then she sat upon a settee and watched the people dance when boq saw her silver shoes he said
you must be a great sorceress why asked the girl
besides you have white in your frock and only witches and sorceresses wear white my dress is blue and white checked said dorothy smoothing out the wrinkles in it it is kind of you to wear that said boq
blue is the color of the munchkins and white is the witch color so we know you are a friendly witch dorothy did not know what to say to this
and she knew very well she was only an ordinary little girl
when she had tired watching the dancing boq led her into the house where he gave her a room with a pretty bed in it the sheets were made of blue cloth and dorothy slept soundly in them till morning with toto curled up on the blue rug beside her
she ate a hearty breakfast and watched a wee munchkin baby who played with toto and pulled his tail and crowed and laughed in a way that greatly amused dorothy toto was a fine curiosity to all the people for they had never seen a dog before
how far is it to the emerald city the girl asked i do not know answered boq gravely for i have never been there it is better for people to keep away from oz unless they have business with him
and it will take you many days the country here is rich and pleasant but you must pass through rough and dangerous places before you reach the end of your journey this worried dorothy a little
so she bravely resolved not to turn back she bade her friends good bye and again started along the road of yellow brick when she had gone several miles she thought she would stop to rest
there was a great cornfield beyond the fence and not far away she saw a scarecrow placed high on a pole to keep the birds from the ripe corn dorothy leaned her chin upon her hand and gazed thoughtfully at the scarecrow
its head was a small sack stuffed with straw with eyes nose and mouth painted on it to represent a face an old pointed blue hat that had belonged to some munchkin was perched on his head and the rest of the figure was a blue suit of clothes
worn and faded which had also been stuffed with straw on the feet were some old boots with blue tops such as every man wore in this country and the figure was raised above the stalks of corn by means
of the pole stuck up its back while dorothy was looking earnestly into the queer painted face of the scarecrow she was surprised to see one of the eyes slowly wink at her she thought she must have been mistaken at first for none of the scarecrows in kansas ever wink
but presently the figure nodded its head to her in a friendly way then she climbed down from the fence and walked up to it while toto ran around the pole and barked good day said the scarecrow in a rather husky voice
did you speak asked the girl in wonder certainly answered the scarecrow how do you do i'm pretty well thank you replied dorothy politely how do you do i'm not feeling well
said the scarecrow with a smile for it is very tedious being perched up here night and day to scare away crows can't you get down asked dorothy no for this pole is stuck up my back
if you will please take away the pole i shall be greatly obliged to you dorothy reached up both arms and lifted the figure off the pole for being stuffed with straw it was quite light
i feel like a new man dorothy was puzzled at this for it sounded queer to hear a stuffed man speak and to see him bow and walk along beside her who are you asked the scarecrow when he had stretched himself and yawned and where are you going
my name is dorothy said the girl and i am going to the emerald city to ask the great oz to send me back to kansas where is the emerald city he inquired and who is oz why
don't you know she returned in surprise no indeed i don't know anything you see i am stuffed so i have no brains at all he answered sadly oh said dorothy i'm awfully sorry for you
do you think he asked if i go to the emerald city with you that oz would give me some brains i cannot tell she returned but you may come with me if you like
that is true said the scarecrow you see he continued confidentially i don't mind my legs and arms and body being stuffed because i cannot get hurt if anyone treads on my toes or sticks a pin into me it doesn't matter for i can't feel it
but i do not want people to call me a fool and if my head stays stuffed with straw instead of with brains as yours is how am i ever to know anything i understand how you feel
said the little girl who was truly sorry for him if you will come with me i'll ask oz to do all he can for you thank you he answered gratefully
they walked back to the road dorothy helped him over the fence and they started along the path of yellow brick for the emerald city toto did not like this addition to the party at first he smelled around the stuffed man as if he suspected there might be a nest of rats in the straw
and he often growled in an unfriendly way at the scarecrow don't mind toto said dorothy to her new friend he never bites oh i'm not afraid replied the scarecrow he can't hurt the straw do let me carry that basket for you
i shall not mind it for i can't get tired i'll tell you a secret he continued as he walked along there is only one thing in the world i am afraid of what is that asked dorothy
the brakeman at church by robert j burdette one bright winter morning the twenty ninth day of december anno domini eighteen seventy nine
i was journeying from lebanon indiana where i had sojourned sunday to indianapolis i did not see the famous cedars and i supposed they had been used up for lead pencils and moth proof chests
and relics and souvenirs for lebanon is right in the heart of the holy land that part of indiana was settled by second adventists and they have sprinkled goodly names all over their heritage
i got out my writing pad pointed a pencil and wondered what manner of breakfast i would be able to serve for the ever hungry hawkeye next morning
i was beginning to think i would have to disguise some left overs under a new name as the thrifty housekeeper knows how to do
when my colleague my faithful yoke fellow who has many a time found for me a spring of water in the desert place the brakeman came down the aisle of the car
he glanced at the tablet and pencil as i would look at his lantern put my right hand into a cordial compress that abode with my fingers for ten minutes after he went away and seating himself easily on the arm of the seat
by saying say i went to church yesterday good boy i said and what church did you attend guess was his reply some union mission chapel i ventured
he said i don't care to run on these branch roads very much i don't get a chance to go to church every sunday and when i can go i like to run on the main line where your trip is regular
i don't care to run on a branch good enough i reckon but i don't like it episcopal i guessed limited express he said all parlor cars vestibuled and two dollars extra for a seat
fast time and only stop at the big stations elegant line but too rich for a brakeman all the trainmen in uniform conductor's punch and lanterns silver plated
passengers talk back at the conductor trips scheduled through the whole year so when you get aboard you know just where you're going and how long it will take you most systematic road in the country and has a mighty nice class of travel
never hear of a receiver appointed on that line but i didn't ride in the parlor car yesterday universalist i suggested broad gauge the brakeman chuckled
does too much complimentary business to be prosperous everybody travels on a pass conductor doesn't get a cash fare once in fifty miles stops at all way stations and won't run into anything but a union depot
no smoking car allowed on the train because the company doesn't own enough brimstone to head a match train orders are rather vague though and i've noticed the trainmen don't get along very well with the passengers
been running on it all their lives presbyterian i hinted
said the brakeman pretty track straight as a rule tunnel right through the heart of a mountain rather than go around it spirit level grade strict rules too passengers have to show their tickets before they get on the train
cars a little bit narrow for sleepers have to sit one in a seat and no room in the aisle to dance no stop over tickets allowed
or stay off the car when the car's full gates are shut cars built at the shops to hold just so many and no more allowed on that road is run right up to the rules and you don't often hear of an accident on it
had a head on collision at schenectady union station and run over a weak bridge at cincinnati not many years ago but
the brakeman shook his head emphatically
dirt road bed and no ballast no time card and no train dispatcher all trains run wild and every engineer makes his own time just as he pleases
a sort of smoke if you want to road too many side tracks every switch wide open all the time switchman sound asleep and the target lamp dead out get on where you please and get off when you want
don't have to show your tickets and the conductor has no authority to collect fare no sir i was offered a pass but i don't like the line i don't care to travel over a road that has no terminus
do you know i asked a division superintendent where his road run to
i asked him if the general superintendent could tell me and he said he didn't believe they had a general superintendent and if they had he didn't know any more about the road than the passengers did
i asked a conductor who he got his orders from and he said he didn't take no orders from any living man or dead ghost and when i asked the engineer who gave him orders
he said he'd just like to see any man on this planet try to give him orders black and white or verbal he said he'd run that train to suit himself or he'd run it into the ditch now you see
i'm not much of a theologian but i'm a good deal of a railroad man and i don't want to run on a road that has no schedule makes no time has no connections starts anywhere and runs nowhere
and has neither signal man train dispatcher or superintendent might be all right but i've railroaded too long to understand it
now you're shoutin he cried with enthusiasm
fast time and crowds of passengers engines carry a power of steam and don't you forget it steam gauge shows a hundred and enough all the time lively train crews too
every train lamp shines like a head light stop over privileges on all tickets
do the station a couple of days and hop on to the next revival train that comes thundering along with an evangelist at the throttle good whole souled companionable conductors
ain't a road on earth that makes the passengers feel more at home no passes issued on any account everybody pays full traffic rate for his own ticket safe road too well equipped
wesleyanhouse air brakes on every train it's a road i'm fond of but i didn't begin this week's run with it i began to feel that i was running ashore i tried one more lead
ah ha he shouted
beautiful curves lines of grace at every bend and sweep of the river all steel rail and rock ballast single track and not a siding from the round house to the terminus takes a heap of water to run it though
double tanks at every station and there isn't an engine in the shops that can run a mile or pull a pound with less than two gauges runs through a lovely country river on one side and the hills on the other
at the fountain head
sure connections good time and no dust blowing in when you open a window
the university intelligence office by john kendrick bangs mister brief said the idiot the other morning as the family of missus smithers pedagog gathered at the breakfast table don't you want to be let in on the ground floor of a sure thing
i do if there's no cellar under it to fall into when the bottom drops out smiled mister brief what's up you going into partnership with mister rockefeller no said the idiot there isn't any money in that
no money in a partnership with rockefeller not a cent said the idiot
my scheme is to start an entirely new business one that's never been thought of before apparently
twenty four thousand dollars worth of shares to go to mister brief for legal services and the balance to be put on the market at forty five that sounds rich said mister brief
i might devote an hour of my time to your scheme some rainy sunday afternoon when there is nothing else to do for that amount of stock provided of course your scheme has no state's prison string tied to it
there isn't even a county jail at the end of it observed the idiot it's clean clear and straight it will fill a long felt want and as i see it ought to
pay fifty percent dividends the first year they say figures don't lie and i am in possession of some that tell me i've got a bonanza in my university intelligence office company
the title sounds respectable said mister whitechoker what is it mister idiot
well yes said the idiot
to put it briefly it's an intelligence office for college graduates where they may go for the purpose of getting a job just as our cooks and butlers and valets and the rest do
if there's money in securing a place at good wages for the ladies who burn our steaks and promote indigestion for us and for the gentlemen who keep our trousers pressed and wear out our linen
which did the same thing for the struggling young bachelor of arts who is thrown out of the arms of alma mater
at last cried the doctor at last i find sanity in one of your suggestions that idea of yours mister idiot is worthy of a genius i have a nephew just out of college
and what on earth to do with him nobody in the family can imagine he doesn't seem to be good for anything except sitting around and letting his hair grow long that isn't much of a profession is it said the idiot
what does he want to do that's the irritating part of it observed the doctor when i asked him the other night what he intended to do for a living he said he hadn't made up his mind yet between becoming a motor man
or the editor of the south american review
especially when the family income is hardly big enough to keep the modern youth in neckties i don't believe any intelligence office in creation could do anything for a man like that sneered the bibliomaniac
and i'd like to give it to him all right said the doctor with a laugh i'll see that you have the chance
and you can begin why don't you do it yourself doctor
laughed the doctor besides i only weigh one hundred and twenty pounds and bill is six feet two inches high and weighs two hundred and ten pounds stripped i think if i were armed with a telegraph pole
and bill with only a tooth pick as a weapon of defense he could thrash me with ease however if mister bib wants to try it send bill to us doctor said the idiot i sort of like bill
and i'll bet the university intelligence office will get him a job in forty eight hours a man who is willing to mote or edit has an adaptability that ought to locate him permanently somewhere
i don't quite see said mister brief just how you are going to work your scheme mister idiot i must confess i should regard bill as a pretty tough proposition not at all said the idiot the only trouble with bill
is that he hasn't found himself yet he's probably one of those easy going popular youngsters who've devoted their college days to growing just at present he's got more vitality than brains
i imagine from his answer to the doctor that he is a good natured hulks who could get anything he wanted in college except a scholarship i haven't any doubt that he was beloved of all his classmates
and was known to his fellows as old hoss or beefy bill or blue eyed billie and could play any game from muggins to pit like a hero of a bret harte romance
you've sized bill up all right said the doctor he is just that but he has brains the only trouble is he's been saving them up for a rainy day and now when the showers are beginning he doesn't know how to use em
how would you go about getting him a job mister idiot bill ought to go into the publishing business said the idiot he was cut out for a book agent he has a physique which to begin with
would command respectful attention for anything he might have to say concerning the wares he had to sell he seems to have from your brief description of him that suavity of manner which would surely secure his admittance into the houses of the elite
and his sense of humor i judge to be sufficiently highly developed to enable him to make a sale wherever he felt there was the remotest chance is he handsome
he looks like me said the doctor pleasantly oh well rejoined the idiot good looks aren't essential after all it would be better though if he were a man of fine presence
if he's big and genial as you suggest he can carry off his deficiencies in personal pulchritude the doctor flushed a trifle oh bill isn't so plain he observed airily
there's none of your sissy beauty about bill i grant you but oh well here the doctor twirled his mustache complacently i should think the place for bill would be on the trolley sneered the bibliomaniac
no sir returned the idiot never geniality never goes on the trolley in the first place it isn't appreciated by the management and in the second place
it is a dangerous gift for a motor man i had a friend once a college graduate of very much bill's kind who went on the trolley as a conductor at seven dollars a week and by jingo would you believe it
all his friends waited for his car and of course he never asked any of em for their fare gentlemen he used to say welcome to my car this is on me
said the bibliomaniac never said the idiot
on his first month he was nine dollars out then he couldn't bring himself to ask a lady for money and if a passenger looked like a sport pete would offer to match him for his fare double or quits
consequence was he lost money steadily all the hard luck people used to ride with him too and one night it was a bitter night in december and everybody in the car was pretty near frozen
pete stopped his car in front of the fifth avenue hotel and invited everybody on board to come in and have a wee nippy all except two old ladies and a chinaman accepted and of course the reporters got hold of it
told the story in the papers and pete was bounced i don't think the average college graduate is quite suited by temperament for the trolley service
observed the bibliomaniac but i don't see how it helps to make your university intelligence office company convincing it helps in this way explained the idiot
who will put these thousands of young graduates through a cross examination to find out just what they can do
few of em have the slightest idea of that and they'll gladly pay for the assistance we propose to give them when they have discovered that they have taken the first real step toward securing a useful and profitable occupation
if a valedictorian comes into the university intelligence office and applies for a job we'll put him through a third degree examination and if we discover in him those restful qualities which go to the making of a good plumber
we'll set about finding him a job in a plumbing establishment
that indicates a useful career as a window washer we will put him in communication with those who need just such a person how about the coldly supercilious young man who knows it all
and wishes to lead a life of elegant leisure yet must have wages asked the bibliomaniac our colleges are turning out many such he's the easiest proposition in the bunch replied the idiot
if they were all like that our fortunes would be established in a week in what way persisted the bibliomaniac in two ways replied the idiot
such persons are constantly in demand as janitors of cheap apartment houses which are going up with marvelous rapidity on all sides of us and as editors of ten cent magazines of which on the average there are
i believe five new ones started every day of the year including saturdays sundays and legal holidays i say mister idiot said the doctor later
that was a bully idea of yours about the university intelligence office it would be a lot of help to the thousands of youngsters who are graduated every year but i don't think it's practicable just yet what i wanted to ask you is
i can help you a lot how what shall i do asked the doctor take my advice whispered the idiot let bill alone he'll find himself
you can tell that by his answer oh said the doctor lapsing into solemnity i thought
yes said the doctor well get him a job as a campaign speaker this is a great year for the stump said the idiot that isn't bad said the doctor which side
the other morning at breakfast missus perkins observed that mister stiver in whose house we live had been called away and wanted to know if i would see to his horse through the day
i knew that mister stiver owned a horse because i occasionally saw him drive out of the yard and i saw the stable every day but what kind of a horse i didn't know i never went into the stable for two reasons in the first place
i had no desire to and secondly i didn't know as the horse cared particularly for company i never took care of a horse in my life and had i been of a less hopeful nature
the charge mister stiver had left with me might have had a very depressing effect but i told missus perkins i would do it you know how to take care of a horse don't you said she i gave her a reassuring wink
in fact i knew so little about it that i didn't think it safe to converse more fluently than by winks after breakfast i seized a toothpick and walked out towards the stable
there was nothing particular to do as stiver had given him his breakfast and i found him eating it so i looked around the horse looked around too and stared pretty hard at me there was but little said on either side
i hunted up the location of the feed and then sat down on a peck measure and fell to studying the beast there is a wide difference in horses some of them will kick you over and never look around to see what becomes of you
i don't like a disposition like that and i wondered if stiver's horse was one of them when i came home at noon i went straight to the stable the animal was there all right stiver hadn't told me what to give him for dinner
and i had not given the subject any thought but i went to the oat box and filled the peck measure and sallied boldly up to the manger when he saw the oats he almost smiled this pleased and amused him i emptied them into the trough
and left him above me to admire the way i parted my hair behind i just got my head up in time to save the whole of it he had his ears back his mouth open
and looked as if he were on the point of committing murder i went out and filled the measure again and climbed up the side of the stall and
letting go of everything to do it i struck on the sharp edge of a barrel rolled over a couple of times then disappeared under a hay cutter the peck measure went down on the other side and got mysteriously tangled up in that animal's heels
and he went to work at it and then ensued the most dreadful noise i ever heard in all my life and i have been married eighteen years it did seem as if i never would get out from under that hay cutter
and all the while i was struggling and wrenching myself and the cutter apart
when i got out i found missus perkins at the door she had heard the racket and had sped out to the stable her only thought being of me and three stove lids which she had under her arm and one of which she was about to fire at the beast
this made me mad go away you unfortunate idiot i shouted do you want to knock my brains out for i remembered seeing missus perkins sling a missile once before
and that i nearly lost an eye by the operation although standing on the other side of the house at the time she retired at once and at the same time the animal quieted down but there was nothing left of that peck measure
i followed missus perkins into the house and had her do me up and then i sat down in a chair and fell into a profound strain of meditation after a while i felt better and went out to the stable again
the horse was leaning against the stable stall with eyes half closed and appeared to be very much engrossed in thought step off to the left i said rubbing his back he didn't step
i got the pitchfork and punched him in the leg with the handle he immediately raised up both hind legs at once and that fork flew out of my hands and went rattling up against the timbers above
and came down again in an instant the end of the handle rapping me with such force on the top of the head that i sat right down on the floor under the impression that i was standing in front of a drug store in the evening
but i couldn't keep away from that stable i went out there again the thought struck me that what the horse wanted was exercise if that thought had been an empty glycerin can
but exercise would tone him down and exercise him i should i laughed to myself to think how i would trounce him around the yard i didn't laugh again that afternoon
i got him unhitched and then wondered how i was to get him out of the stall without carrying him out i pushed but he wouldn't budge i stood looking at him in the face thinking of something to say
when he suddenly solved the difficulty by veering about and plunging for the door i followed as a matter of course because i had a tight hold on the rope and hit about every partition stud worth speaking of on that side of the barn
missus perkins was at the window and saw us come out of the door she subsequently remarked that we came out skipping like two innocent children the skipping was entirely unintentional on my part
i felt as if i stood on the verge of eternity my legs may have skipped but my mind was filled with awe i took the animal out to exercise him he exercised me before i got through with it
he went around a few times in a circle then he stopped suddenly spread out his forelegs and looked at me then he leaned forward a little and hoisted both hind legs and threw about two coal hods of mud
that excellent lady had taken a position at the window and whenever the evolutions of the awful beast permitted i caught a glance of her features she appeared to be very much interested in the proceedings but the instant that the mud flew
she disappeared from the window and a moment later she appeared on the stoop
just then stiver's horse stood up on his hind legs and tried to hug me with the others this scared me a horse never shows his strength to such advantage as when he is coming down on you like a frantic pile driver
i instantly dodged and the cold sweat fairly boiled out of me it suddenly came over me that i had once figured in a similar position years ago
my grandfather owned a little white horse that would get up from a meal at delmonico's to kick the president of the united states he sent me to the lot one day and unhappily suggested that i often went after that horse
and suffered all kinds of defeat in getting him out of the pasture but i had never tried to ride him heaven knows i never thought of it i had my usual trouble with him that day he tried to jump over me and push me down in a mud hole
and finally got up on his hind legs and came waltzing after me with facilities enough to convert me into hash but i turned and just made for that fence with all the agony a prospect of instant death could crowd into me
there would be seventy five postmasters in danbury to day instead of one i got him out finally and then he was quiet enough and i took him up alongside the fence and got on him he stopped an instant
one brief instant and then tore off down the road at a frightful speed i lay down on him and clasped my hands tightly around his neck and thought of my home
when we got to the stable i was confident he would stop but he didn't he drove straight at the door it was a low door just high enough to permit him to go in at lightning speed but there was no room for me
i saw if i struck that stable the struggle would be a very brief one i thought this all over in an instant and then spreading put my arms and legs emitted a scream and the next moment i was
bounding about in the filth of that stable yard all this passed through my mind as stiver's horse went up into the air it frightened missus perkins dreadfully why you old fool she said
why don't you get rid of him how can i said i in desperation why there are a thousand ways said she this is just like a woman how differently a statesman would have answered
but i could think of only two ways to dispose of the beast i could either swallow him where he stood and then sit down on him or i could crawl inside of him and kick him to death
and then he turned about and kicking me full of mud shot for the gate
with two of missus perkins garments which he hastily snatched from the line floating over his neck in a very picturesque manner so i was afterwards told
taboos on intercourse with strangers so much for the primitive conceptions of the soul and the dangers to which it is exposed these conceptions are not limited to one people or country
with variations of detail they are found all over the world and survive as we have seen in modern europe
for if every person was at such pains to save his own soul from the perils which threatened it on so many sides how much more carefully must he have been guarded
upon whose life hung the welfare and even the existence of the whole people and whom therefore it was the common interest of all to preserve therefore
than those which in primitive society every man adopts for the safety of his own soul now
by a very exact code of rules may we not then conjecture that these rules are in fact the very safeguards which we should expect to find adopted for the protection of the king's life
an examination of the rules themselves confirms this conjecture for from this it appears that some of the rules observed by the kings are identical with those observed by private persons out of regard for the safety of their souls
many if not all are most readily explained on the hypothesis that they are nothing but safeguards or lifeguards of the king i will now enumerate some of these royal rules or taboos
offering on each of them such comments and explanations as may serve to set the original intention of the rule in its proper light as the object of the royal taboos is to isolate the king from all sources of danger
their general effect is to compel him to live in a state of seclusion more or less complete according to the number and stringency of the rules he observes now of all sources of danger none are more dreaded by the savage than magic and witchcraft
and he suspects all strangers of practising these black arts to guard against the baneful influence exerted voluntarily or involuntarily by strangers is therefore an elementary dictate of savage prudence
hence before strangers are allowed to enter a district or at least before they are permitted to mingle freely with the inhabitants
of counteracting the baneful influence which is believed to emanate from them or of disinfecting so to speak the tainted atmosphere by which they are supposed to be surrounded
to conclude a peace with the turks had reached their destination they were received by shamans who subjected them to a ceremonial purification for the purpose of exorcising all harmful influence
having deposited the goods brought by the ambassadors in an open place these wizards carried burning branches of incense round them while they rang a bell and beat on a tambourine
snorting and falling into a state of frenzy in their efforts to dispel the powers of evil
south pacific strangers from ships or from other islands were not allowed to communicate with the people until they all or a few as representatives of the rest had been taken to each of the four temples in the island
and prayers offered that the god would avert any disease or treachery which these strangers might have brought with them meat offerings were also laid upon the altars accompanied by songs and dances in honour of the god
while these ceremonies were going on all the people except the priests and their attendants kept out of sight amongst the ot danoms of borneo it is the custom that strangers entering the territory should pay to the natives a certain sum
in order to reconcile them to the presence of the strangers
fearing to look upon a european traveller lest he should make them ill warned their wives and children not to go near him those who could not restrain their curiosity killed fowls to appease the evil spirits and smeared themselves with the blood more dreaded
says a traveller in central borneo than the evil spirits of the neighbourhood are the evil spirits from a distance which accompany travellers
a few moments after his arrival some of the indians brought him a number of large black ants of a species whose bite is painful fastened on palm leaves
then all the people of the village without distinction of age or sex presented themselves to him and he had to sting them all with the ants on their faces thighs and other parts of their bodies sometimes when he applied the ants too tenderly
they called out more more and were not satisfied till their skin was thickly studded with tiny swellings like what might have been produced by whipping them with nettles
the object of this ceremony is made plain by the custom observed in amboyna and uliase of sprinkling sick people with pungent spices such as ginger and cloves chewed fine in order by the prickling sensation
to drive away the demon of disease which may be clinging to their persons in java a popular cure for gout or rheumatism is to rub spanish pepper into the nails of the fingers and toes of the sufferer
the pungency of the pepper is supposed to be too much for the gout or rheumatism who accordingly departs in haste so on the slave coast the mother of a sick child sometimes believes that an evil spirit has taken possession of the child's body
and in order to drive him out she makes small cuts in the body of the little sufferer and inserts green peppers or spices in the wounds believing that she will thereby hurt the evil spirit and force him to be gone
the poor child naturally screams with pain but the mother hardens her heart in the belief that the demon is suffering equally it is probable that the same dread of strangers rather than any desire to do them honour
is the motive of certain ceremonies which are sometimes observed at their reception but of which the intention is not directly stated in the ongtong java islands which are inhabited by polynesians
the priests or sorcerers seem to wield great influence their main business is to summon or exorcise spirits for the purpose of averting or dispelling sickness and of procuring favourable winds a good catch of fish and so on
when strangers land on the islands they are first of all received by the sorcerers
and the newcomer and his boat are wiped with green leaves after this ceremony the strangers are introduced by the sorcerers to the chief in afghanistan and in some parts of persia
the traveller before he enters a village is frequently received with a sacrifice of animal life or food or of fire and incense the afghan boundary mission in passing by villages in afghanistan was often met with fire and incense
sometimes a tray of lighted embers is thrown under the hoofs of the traveller's horse with the words you are welcome on entering a village in central africa emin pasha was received with the sacrifice of two goats
their blood was sprinkled on the path and the chief stepped over the blood to greet emin sometimes the dread of strangers and their magic is too great to allow of their reception on any terms
because they had never before seen a white man nor the tin boxes that the men were carrying who knows they said but that these very boxes are the plundering watuta transformed and come to kill us you cannot be admitted
no persuasion could avail with them and the party had to proceed to the next village the fear thus entertained of alien visitors is often mutual entering a strange land the savage feels that he is treading enchanted ground
and he takes steps to guard against the demons that haunt it and the magical arts of its inhabitants thus on going to a strange land the maoris performed certain ceremonies to make it common
was approaching a village on the maclay coast of new guinea one of the natives who accompanied him broke a branch from a tree and going aside whispered to it for a while then stepping up to each member of the party one after another
he spat something upon his back and gave him some blows with the branch lastly he went into the forest and buried the branch under withered leaves in the thickest part of the jungle
the idea probably was that the malignant influences were drawn off from the persons into the branch and buried with it in the depths of the forest in australia when a strange tribe has been invited into a district
and is approaching the encampment of the tribe which owns the land the strangers carry lighted bark or burning sticks in their hands for the purpose they say of clearing and purifying the air when the toradjas are on a head hunting expedition
and have entered the enemy's country they may not eat any fruits which the foe has planted nor any animal which he has reared until they have first committed an act of hostility as by burning a house or killing a man
which would destroy the mystic virtue of their talismans
lest they should have contracted from strangers some evil by witchcraft or sorcery in some parts of western africa when a man returns home after a long absence before he is allowed to visit his wife he must wash his person with a particular fluid
and receive from the sorcerer a certain mark on his forehead in order to counteract any magic spell which a stranger woman may have cast on him in his absence and which might be communicated through him to the women of his village
and had returned to india were considered to have so polluted themselves by contact with strangers that nothing but being born again could restore them to purity
in the shape either of a woman or of a cow in this statue the person to be regenerated is enclosed and dragged through the usual channel as a statue of pure gold and of proper dimensions would be too expensive
it is sufficient to make an image of the sacred yoni through which the person to be regenerated is to pass such an image of pure gold was made at the prince's command and his ambassadors were born again by being dragged through it
it is no wonder that special measures are adopted to protect the king from the same insidious danger in the middle ages the envoys who visited a tartar khan were obliged to pass between two fires before they were admitted to his presence
and the gifts they brought were also carried between the fires the reason assigned for the custom was that the fire purged away any magic influence which the strangers might mean to exercise over the khan
when subject chiefs come with their retinues to visit kalamba the most powerful chief of the bashilange in the congo basin for the first time or after being rebellious they have to bathe men and women together
in two brooks on two successive days passing the nights under the open sky in the market place after the second bath they proceed entirely naked to the house of kalamba who makes a long white mark on the breast and forehead of each of them
then they return to the market place and dress after which they undergo the pepper ordeal pepper is dropped into the eyes of each of them and while this is being done the sufferer has to make a confession of all his sins to answer all questions
two taboos on eating and drinking in the opinion of savages the acts of eating and drinking are attended with special danger for at these times the soul may escape from the mouth
or be extracted by the magic arts of an enemy present among the ewe speaking peoples of the slave coast the common belief seems to be that the indwelling spirit leaves the body and returns to it through the mouth
hence should it have gone out it behoves a man to be careful about opening his mouth lest a homeless spirit should take advantage of the opportunity and enter his body this it appears
is considered most likely to take place while the man is eating precautions are therefore adopted to guard against these dangers
but it is only possible to prevent the soul from straying when one is in the house at feasts one may find the whole house shut up in order that the soul may stay and enjoy the good things set before it
the zafimanelo in madagascar lock their doors when they eat and hardly any one ever sees them eating the warua
being doubly particular that no person of the opposite sex shall see them doing so i had to pay a man to let me see him drink i could not make a man let a woman see him drink
if these are the ordinary precautions taken by common people the precautions taken by kings are extraordinary
the king of loango may not be seen eating or drinking by man or beast under pain of death a favourite dog having broken into the room where the king was dining the king ordered it to be killed on the spot
once the king's own son a boy of twelve years old inadvertently saw the king drink immediately the king ordered him to be finely apparelled and feasted
after which he commanded him to be cut in quarters and carried about the city with a proclamation that he had seen the king drink when the king has a mind to drink he has a cup of wine brought
on which all present fall down with their faces to the ground and continue so till the king has drank his eating is much in the same style for which he has a house on purpose where his victuals are set upon a bensa or table
which he goes to and shuts the door when he has done he knocks and comes out so that none ever see the king eat or drink for it is believed that if any one should the king shall immediately die
the remnants of his food are buried doubtless to prevent them from falling into the hands of sorcerers who by means of these fragments might cast a fatal spell over the monarch the rules observed by the neighbouring king of cacongo were similar
it is a capital offence to see the king of dahomey at his meals when he drinks in public as he does on extraordinary occasions he hides himself behind a curtain or handkerchiefs are held up round his head
in central africa went to drink milk in the dairy every man must leave the royal enclosure and all the women had to cover their heads till the king returned no one might see him drink
one wife accompanied him to the dairy and handed him the milk pot but she turned away her face while he drained it three taboos on showing the face
in some of the preceding cases the intention of eating and drinking in strict seclusion may perhaps be to hinder evil influences from entering the body
this certainly is the motive of some drinking customs observed by natives of the congo region thus we are told of these people that
one of them rings a bell all the time he is drinking another crouches down and places his left hand on the earth another veils his head another puts a stalk of grass or a leaf in his hair or marks his forehead with a line of clay
this fetish custom assumes very varied forms to explain them the black is satisfied to say that they are an energetic mode of conjuring spirits
in this part of the world a chief will commonly ring a bell at each draught of beer which he swallows and at the same moment a lad stationed in front of him brandishes a spear
to keep at bay the spirits which might try to sneak into the old chief's body by the same road as the beer the same motive of warding off evil spirits probably explains the custom observed by some african sultans of veiling their faces
the sultan of darfur wraps up his face with a piece of white muslin which goes round his head several times covering his mouth and nose first
is said to be observed in other parts of central africa the sultan of wadai always speaks from behind a curtain no one sees his face except his intimates and a few favoured persons four
taboos on quitting the house by an extension of the like precaution kings are sometimes forbidden ever to leave their palaces or if they are allowed to do so their subjects are forbidden to see them abroad
the fetish king of benin who was worshipped as a deity by his subjects might not quit his palace after his coronation the king of loango is confined to his palace which he may not leave the king of onitsha
does not step out of his house into the town unless a human sacrifice is made to propitiate the gods on this account he never goes out beyond the precincts of his premises
indeed we are told that he may not quit his palace under pain of death or of giving up one or more slaves to be executed in his presence as the wealth of the country is measured in slaves
the king takes good care not to infringe the law yet once a year at the feast of yams the king is allowed and even required by custom to dance before his people outside the high mud wall of the palace in dancing he carries a great weight
generally a sack of earth on his back to prove that he is still able to support the burden and cares of state were he unable to discharge this duty he would be immediately deposed and perhaps stoned
the kings of ethiopia were worshipped as gods but were mostly kept shut up in their palaces on the mountainous coast of pontus there dwelt in antiquity a rude and warlike people
named the mosyni or mosynoeci through whose rugged country the ten thousand marched on their famous retreat from asia to europe these barbarians kept their king in close custody at the top of a high tower
from which after his election he was never more allowed to descend here he dispensed justice to his people but if he offended them they punished him by stopping his rations for a whole day or even starving him to death
the kings of sabaea or sheba the spice country of arabia were not allowed to go out of their palaces
five taboos on leaving food over again magic mischief may be wrought upon a man through the remains of the food he has partaken of
and the refuse of it which he has left untouched and hence by injuring the refuse you can simultaneously injure the eater among the narrinyeri of south australia
every adult is constantly on the look out for bones of beasts birds or fish of which the flesh has been eaten by somebody in order to construct a deadly charm out of them every one is therefore careful to burn the bones of the animals which he has eaten
lest they should fall into the hands of a sorcerer too often however the sorcerer succeeds in getting hold of such a bone and when he does so he believes that he has the power of life and death over the man woman or child who ate the flesh of the animal
inserts in it the eye of a cod and a small piece of the flesh of a corpse and having rolled the compound
after being left for some time in the bosom of a dead body in order that it may derive a deadly potency by contact with corruption the magical implement is set up in the ground near the fire and as the ball melts
so the person against whom the charm is directed wastes with disease if the ball is melted quite away the victim will die when the bewitched man learns of the spell that is being cast upon him he endeavours to buy the bone from the sorcerer
and if he obtains it he breaks the charm by throwing the bone into a river or lake in tana one of the new hebrides people bury or throw into the sea the leavings of their food lest these should fall into the hands of the disease makers
for if a disease maker finds the remnants of a meal say the skin of a banana he picks it up and burns it slowly in the fire
offering him presents if he will stop burning the banana skin in new guinea the natives take the utmost care to destroy or conceal the husks and other remains of their food
lest these should be found by their enemies and used by them for the injury or destruction of the eaters hence they burn their leavings throw them into the sea or otherwise put them out of harm's way from a like
fear no doubt of sorcery no one may touch the food which the king of loango leaves upon his plate it is buried in a hole in the ground and no one may drink out of the king's vessel
in antiquity the romans used immediately to break the shells of eggs and of snails which they had eaten in order to prevent enemies from making magic with them the common practice still observed among us of breaking egg shells after the eggs have been eaten
may very well have originated in the same superstition the superstitious fear of the magic that may be wrought on a man through the leavings of his food
not a merely imaginary source of disease and death nor is it only the sanitary condition of a tribe which has benefited by this superstition curiously enough the same baseless dread the same false notion of causation
will himself partake of that food because if he did so he would on the principles of sympathetic magic suffer equally with his enemy from any injury done to the refuse
this is the idea which in primitive society lends sanctity to the bond produced by eating together by participation in the same food two men give as it were hostages for their good behaviour
each guarantees the other that he will devise no mischief against him since being physically united with him by the common food in their stomachs
englishmen had no sooner set foot upon our continent than they began to penetrate inland with the hope of soon reaching the western ocean
which the coast savages almost as ignorant of the geography of the interior as the europeans themselves declared lay just beyond the mountains in fifteen eighty six we find ralph lane governor of raleigh's ill fated colony
leading his men up the roanoke river for a hundred miles only to turn back disheartened at the rapids and falls which necessitated frequent portages through the forest
it seems to be well established that the very next year sixteen seventy one a party under abraham wood one of governor berkeley's major generals penetrated as far as the great falls of the great kanawha only eighty miles from the ohio
fur traders possibly better to the latter than to the former
the legalized monopoly granted to the great fur trade companies of new france with the official corruption necessary to create and perpetuate that monopoly made the french trade an expensive business consequently goods were dear
the latter looked upon the indian trade as an entering wedge they thought of the west as a place for growth
close upon the heels of the path breaking trader went the cattle raiser and following him the agricultural settler looking for cheap fresh and broader lands no edicts of the board of trade could repress these backwoodsmen
browbeat their savage allies and easily inflaming their passions kept the body of them almost continually at war with the english the iroquois excepted
not because the latter were english lovers or did not understand the aim of english colonization but because the earliest french had won their undying enmity
amidst all this weary strife the indian a born trader who dearly loved a bargain never failed to recognize that the goods of his french
chapter twenty one the cumberland and the tennessee stately solitudes old fort massac dead towns in egypt the last camp cairo
who was going out to his work again as noisy as ever one of our own black men walked down the bank ostensibly to light his pipe at the breakfast fire but really to satisfy a pardonable curiosity regarding us
the singing brother on the mainland appeared to amuse him and he paused to listen saying dat yere nigger he got too loud voice then when he had left our camp and regained the top of the bank he leaned upon his hoe and yelled
who you holl'rin at you brack island niggah was the quick reply you lan niggah you tink you smart
his work and the other kicking the mule into action trotted off to the tune of
we went up into the field to see the laborers cultivating corn the sun was blazing hot without a breath of air stirring but the great black fellows seemed to mind it not
chattering away to themselves like magpies and keeping up their conversation by shouts when separated from each other at the ends of plow rows a natural levee
eight and ten feet high and studded with large tree willows rims in the island farm like the edge of a basin
we were told that this served as a barrier only against the june fresh for the regular spring floods invariably swamp the place but what is left within the bowl when the outer waters subside soon leaches through the sandy soil
after passing the pretty shores of dog island not far below the bold dark headland of cumberland island soon bursts upon our view we follow the narrow eastern channel in order to greet the cumberland river nine hundred nine miles which half way down its island name sake at the woe begone little village of smithland kentucy empties a generous
flood into the ohio the cumberland perhaps a quarter of a mile wide debouches through high clay banks which might readily be melted in the turbulent cross currents produced by the mingling of the rivers but to avoid this the government engineers have built a wing
dam running out from the foot of the cumberland
to day stopping at the farm landings as well as at the crude and infrequent hamlets mere notches of settlement in the wooded lines of shore doing a small business in chance cargoes and in passengers who flag them from the bank
a sultry atmosphere has been with
us through the day the glassy surface of the river has when not lashed into foam by passing boats dazzled the eyes most painfully the hills from below stewart's island have receded on either side generally leaving either low broad heavily timbered bottoms or high clay banks which stretch back wide plains of yellow and gray corn land frequently inundated but highly productive
now and then the encroaching river has remained too long in some belt of forest
limb tips with virginia creeper a bit of shaly hillside occasionally abuts upon the river though less frequently than above
when sufficiently refreshed in this cool bower we ventured once more into the fierce light of the open river and two miles below shot into the broader and more inviting massac
abandoned no doubt the face of this rugged promontory of gravel has within a century suffered much from floods but the remains of the earthwork on the crest of the cliff some fifty feet above the present river stage are still easily traceable throughout
the fort was about forty yards square with a bastion at each corner there are the remains of an unstoned well near the center the ditch surrounding the earthwork is still some two and a half or three feet below the surrounding level
and the breastwork about two feet above the inner level no doubt palisades once surmounted the work and were relied upon as the chief protection from assault
the grounds a pleasant grassy grove several acres in extent are now enclosed by a rail fence and neatly maintained as a public park by the little city of metropolis which lies not far below it was a commanding view of land and river which was enjoyed by the garrison of old fort massac up stream there is a straight stretch of eleven miles to the mouth of the tennessee
both up and down the shore lines are under full survey until they melt away in the distance no enemy could well surprise the holders of this key to the lower ohio
as the still cool night crept on metropolis was astir across the mile of intervening water darted tremulous shafts of light
we heard voices singing and laughing a fiddle in its highest notes the puffing of a stationary engine and the bay and yelp of countless dogs later a packet swooped down with smothered roar and threw its electric search light on the city wharf revealing a crowd of negroes gathered there
like moths in the radiance of a candle there were gay shouts and a mad scampering we could see it all as plainly as if in ordinary light it had been
the fort massac ridge extends down stream as far as mound city but soon degenerates into a ridge of clay varying in height from twenty five to fifty feet above the water level upon the low lying bottom of the kentucky shore is still an interminable dark line of forest the settlements are meager and now wholly in illinois
a row of a half dozen unpainted dilapidated buildings chiefly stores and abandoned warehouses bespeaking a river traffic of the olden time that has gone to decay
a hot dreary baking spot this joppa as it lies sprawling upon the clay ridge flanked by a low wide gravel beach on which gaunt
bell ringing cows are wandering eating the leaves of fallen trees for lack of better pasturage
on the site of old fort wilkinson of the war of eighteen twelve fifteen but no one along the banks appears to have ever heard of it however after much
houseboats have been few to day and they of the shanty order and generally stranded high upon the beach one sees now and then on the illinois ridge the cheap log or frame house of a cracker
the very picture of desolate despair but on the kentucky shore are few signs of life for the bottom lies so low that it is frequently inundated and settlement ventures no nearer than two or three miles from the riverside
a fisherman comes occasionally into view upon this wide expanse of wood and water and clay banks sometimes we hail him in passing always getting a respectful answer but a stare of innocent curiosity
our last home upon the ohio is facing the kentucky shore on the cleanly sand beach of mound city towhead a small island which in times of high water is but a bar
the tent is screened in a willow clump just below us on higher ground sycamores soar heavenward gayly festooned with vines hiding from us mound city and the illinois mainland
but it is over a mile away and while the tune is plain the words are lost children's voices and the bay of hounds come wafted to us from the northern shore a steamer's wake rolls along our island strand dangerously near the camp fire
the river is still falling however and we no longer fear the encroachments of the flood the doctor and i found a secluded nook where in the moonlight we took our final plunge
it is sad this bidding good bye to the stream which has floated us so merrily for a thousand miles from the mountains down to the plain we elders linger long by the last camp fire to talk in fond reminiscence of the six weeks afloat
while the boy no doubt dreams peacefully of houseboats and fishermen of gigantic bridges and flashing steel plants of coal mines and oil wells of pioneers and indians and all that
of six weeks of kaleidoscopic sensations at an age when the mind is keenly active and the heart open to impressions which can never be dimmed so long as his little life shall last cairo monday
but we preferred to reach our destination in the morning the better to arrange for railway transportation hence our agreeable pause upon the towhead before embarking for the last run this morning
we made a neat heap on the beach of such of our stores edible and wearable as had been requisite to the trip but were not worth the cost of sending home
feeling confident that some passing fisherman would soon be tempted ashore to inspect this curious landmark and yet might be troubled by nice scruples as to the policy of appropriating the find we conspicuously labeled it abandoned by the owners the finder is welcome to the lot
quickly passing mound city now bustling with life pilgrim closely skirted the monotonous clay banks of illinois
swept rapidly under the monster railway bridge which stalks high above the flood and loses itself over the tree tops of the kentucky bottom and at a quarter past eight o'clock was pulled up at cairo with the mississippi in plain sight over there through the opening in the forest in another hour or two she will be housed in a box car
and we her crew having again donned the garb of landsmen will be speeding toward our northern home this pilgrimage
mister elliot was attending his two cousins and missus clay they were in milsom street
but enough to make shelter desirable for women and quite enough to make it very desirable for miss elliot to have the advantage of being conveyed home in lady dalrymple's carriage which was seen waiting at a little distance she anne and missus clay therefore turned into molland's
while mister elliot stepped to lady dalrymple to request her assistance he soon joined them again successful of course lady dalrymple would be most happy to take them home and would call for them in a few minutes
her ladyship's carriage was a barouche and did not hold more than four with any comfort miss carteret was with her mother consequently it was not reasonable to expect accommodation for all the three camden place ladies there could be no doubt as to miss elliot
whoever suffered inconvenience she must suffer none but it occupied a little time to settle the point of civility between the other two the rain was a mere trifle and anne was most sincere in preferring a walk with mister elliot
she would hardly allow it even to drop at all and her boots were so thick much thicker than miss anne's and in short her civility rendered her quite as anxious to be left to walk with mister elliot as anne could be and it was discussed between them with a generosity so polite and so determined
that the others were obliged to settle it for them miss elliot maintaining that missus clay had a little cold already and mister elliot deciding on appeal that his cousin anne's boots were rather the thickest it was fixed accordingly
and they had just reached this point when anne as she sat near the window descried most decidedly and distinctly captain wentworth walking down the street her start was perceptible only to herself
she was lost and when she had scolded back her senses she found the others still waiting for the carriage and mister elliot always obliging just setting off for union street on a commission of missus clay's she now felt a great inclination to go to the outer door she wanted to see if it rained
why was she to suspect herself of another motive captain wentworth must be out of sight she left her seat she would go
or always suspecting the other of being worse than it was she would see if it rained she was sent back however in a moment by the entrance of captain wentworth himself among a party of gentlemen and ladies evidently his acquaintance and whom he must have joined a little below milsom street
he was more obviously struck and confused by the sight of her than she had ever observed before he looked quite red
she had the advantage of him in the preparation of the last few moments all the overpowering blinding bewildering first effects of strong surprise were over with her still however she had enough to feel it was agitation pain pleasure
a something between delight and misery he spoke to her and then turned away the character of his manner was embarrassment she could not have called it either cold or friendly or anything so certainly as embarrassed
mutual enquiries on common subjects passed neither of them probably much the wiser for what they heard and anne continuing fully sensible of his being less at ease than formerly
they had by dint of being so very much together got to speak to each other with a considerable portion of apparent indifference and calmness but he could not do it now time had changed him or louisa had changed him there was consciousness of some sort or other
he looked very well not as if he had been suffering in health or spirits and he talked of uppercross of the musgroves nay even of louisa and had even a momentary look of his own arch significance as he named her but yet it was captain wentworth not comfortable
not easy not able to feign that he was it did not surprise but it grieved anne to observe that elizabeth would not know him she saw that he saw elizabeth that elizabeth saw him that there was complete internal recognition on each side
she was convinced that he was ready to be acknowledged as an acquaintance expecting it and she had the pain of seeing her sister turn away with unalterable coldness lady dalrymple's carriage for which miss elliot was growing very impatient now drew up
the servant came in to announce it it was beginning to rain again and altogether there was a delay and a bustle and a talking which must make all the little crowd in the shop understand that lady dalrymple was calling to convey miss elliot
were walking off and captain wentworth watching them turned again to anne and by manner rather than words was offering his services to her i am much obliged to you was her answer but i am not going with them the carriage would not accommodate so many i walk
i prefer walking but it rains oh very little nothing that i regard
though i came only yesterday i have equipped myself properly for bath already you see pointing to a new umbrella i wish you would make use of it if you are determined to walk though i think it would be more prudent to let me get you a chair
she was very much obliged to him but declined it all repeating her conviction that the rain would come to nothing at present and adding i am only waiting for mister elliot
she had hardly spoken the words when mister elliot walked in captain wentworth recollected him perfectly there was no difference between him and the man who had stood on the steps at lyme admiring anne as she passed except in the air and look and manner of the privileged relation and friend
he came in with eagerness appeared to see and think only of her
and anxious to get her away without further loss of time and before the rain increased and in another moment they walked off together her arm under his a gentle and embarrassed glance and a good morning to you being all that she had time for as she passed away
as soon as they were out of sight the ladies of captain wentworth's party began talking of them mister elliot does not dislike his cousin i fancy oh no that is clear enough one can guess what will happen there he is always with them half lives in the family i believe
what a very good looking man yes and miss atkinson who dined with him once at the wallises says he is the most agreeable man she ever was in company with she is pretty i think anne elliot very pretty when one comes to look at her
it is not the fashion to say so but i confess i admire her more than her sister
and so do i no comparison but the men are all wild after miss elliot anne is too delicate for them
if he would have walked by her side all the way to camden place without saying a word
though nothing could exceed his solicitude and care and though his subjects were principally such as were wont to be always interesting
and insinuations highly rational against missus clay but just now she could think only of captain wentworth she could not understand his present feelings whether he were really suffering much from disappointment or not and till that point were settled she could not be quite herself
she hoped to be wise and reasonable in time but alas alas she must confess to herself that she was not wise yet
was how long he meant to be in bath he had not mentioned it or she could not recollect it he might be only passing through but it was more probable that he should be come to stay in that case so liable as every body was to meet every body in bath
lady russell would in all likelihood see him somewhere would she recollect him how would it all be she had already been obliged to tell lady russell that louisa musgrove was to marry captain benwick it had cost her something to encounter lady russell's surprise
and now if she were by any chance to be thrown into company with captain wentworth her imperfect knowledge of the matter might add another shade of prejudice against him the following morning anne was out with her friend and for the first hour in an incessant and fearful sort of watch for him in vain
but at last in returning down pulteney street she distinguished him on the right hand pavement at such a distance as to have him in view the greater part of the street there were many other men about him many groups walking the same way but there was no mistaking him she looked instinctively at lady russell
but not from any mad idea of her recognising him so soon as she did herself no it was not to be supposed that lady russell would perceive him till they were nearly opposite she looked at her however from time to time anxiously and when the moment approached which must point him out
she was yet perfectly conscious of lady russell's eyes being turned exactly in the direction for him of her being in short intently observing him she could thoroughly comprehend the sort of fascination he must possess over lady russell's mind
the difficulty it must be for her to withdraw her eyes the astonishment she must be feeling that eight or nine years should have passed over him and in foreign climes and in active service too without robbing him of one personal grace
at last lady russell drew back her head now how would she speak of him you will wonder said she what has been fixing my eye so long but i was looking after some window curtains which lady alicia and missus frankland were telling me of last night
as being the handsomest and best hung of any in bath but could not recollect the exact number and i have been trying to find out which it could be but i confess i can see no curtains hereabouts that answer their description anne sighed
and blushed and smiled in pity and disdain either at her friend or herself the part which provoked her most was that in all this waste of foresight and caution she should have lost the right moment for seeing whether he saw them
a day or two passed without producing anything the theatre or the rooms where he was most likely to be were not fashionable enough for the elliots whose evening amusements were solely in the elegant stupidity of private parties in which they were getting more and more engaged
and anne wearied of such a state of stagnation sick of knowing nothing and fancying herself stronger because her strength was not tried was quite impatient for the concert evening it was a concert for the benefit of a person patronised by lady dalrymple of course they must attend
it was really expected to be a good one and captain wentworth was very fond of music if she could only have a few minutes conversation with him again she fancied she should be satisfied and as to the power of addressing him she felt all over courage if the opportunity occurred
elizabeth had turned from him lady russell overlooked him her nerves were strengthened by these circumstances she felt that she owed him attention
mary had had her evils but upon the whole as was evident by her staying so long she had found more to enjoy than to suffer
and when they dined with the harvilles there had been only a maid servant to wait and at first missus harville had always given missus musgrove precedence but then she had received so very handsome an apology from her on finding out whose daughter she was
and there had been so much going on every day there had been so many walks between their lodgings and the harvilles and she had got books from the library and changed them so often that the balance had certainly been much in favour of lyme she had been taken to charmouth too
and she had bathed and she had gone to church and there were a great many more people to look at in the church at lyme than at uppercross and all this joined to the sense of being so very useful had made really an agreeable fortnight anne enquired after captain benwick
mary's face was clouded directly charles laughed oh captain benwick is very well i believe
we asked him to come home with us for a day or two charles undertook to give him some shooting and he
on tuesday night he made a very awkward sort of excuse
and he had promised this and he had promised that
i suppose he was afraid of finding it dull but upon my word i should have thought we were lively enough at the cottage for such a heart broken man as captain benwick charles laughed again and said now mary you know very well how it really was it was all your doing turning to anne
he fancied that if he went with us he should find you close by he fancied everybody to be living in uppercross and when he discovered that lady russell lived three miles off his heart failed him and he had not courage to come that is the fact upon my honour mary knows it is
but mary did not give into it very graciously whether from not considering captain benwick entitled by birth and situation to be in love with an elliot or from not wanting to believe anne a greater attraction to uppercross than herself must be left to be guessed
anne's good will however was not to be lessened by what she heard she boldly acknowledged herself flattered and continued her enquiries oh he talks of you cried charles in such terms
no admitted charles i do not know that he ever does in a general way but however it is a very clear thing that he admires you exceedingly his head is full of some books that he is reading upon your recommendation and he wants to talk to you about them
i overheard him telling henrietta all about it and then miss elliot was spoken of in the highest terms now mary i declare it was so i heard it myself and you were in the other room
it was a very little to his credit if he did miss harville only died last june such a heart is very little worth having is it lady russell
i must see captain benwick before i decide said lady russell smiling
said charles though he had not nerves for coming away with us and setting off again afterwards to pay a formal visit here he will make his way over to kellynch one day by himself you may depend on it i told him the distance and the road and i told him of the church's being so very well worth seeing
so i give you notice lady russell any acquaintance of anne's will always be welcome to me was lady russell's kind answer
for i have been seeing him every day this last fortnight well as your joint acquaintance then i shall be very happy to see captain benwick
he is one of the dullest young men that ever lived
there we differ mary said anne i think lady russell would like him i think she would be so much pleased with his mind that she would very soon see no deficiency in his manner so do i anne said charles i am sure lady russell would like him he is just lady russell's sort
give him a book and he will read all day long yes that he will exclaimed mary tauntingly he will sit poring over his book and not know when a person speaks to him or when one drop's one's scissors or
do you think lady russell would like that lady russell could not help laughing upon my word said she i should not have supposed that my opinion of any one could have admitted of such difference of conjecture
i have really a curiosity to see the person who can give occasion to such directly opposite notions
but i am determined not to judge him beforehand you will not like him i will answer for it lady russell began talking of something else mary spoke with animation of their meeting with or rather missing mister elliot so extraordinarily he is a man said lady russell
whom i have no wish to see his declining to be on cordial terms with the head of his family has left a very strong impression in his disfavour with me
with regard to captain wentworth though anne hazarded no enquiries there was voluntary communication sufficient his spirits had been greatly recovering lately as might be expected as louisa improved he had improved
and he was now quite a different creature from what he had been the first week he had not seen louisa and was so extremely fearful of any ill consequence to her from an interview that he did not press for it at all
he had talked of going down to plymouth for a week and wanted to persuade captain benwick to go with him but as charles maintained to the last captain benwick seemed much more disposed to ride over to kellynch
there can be no doubt that lady russell and anne were both occasionally thinking of captain benwick from this time lady russell could not hear the door bell without feeling that it might be his herald nor could anne return from any stroll of solitary indulgence in her father's grounds
without wondering whether she might see him or hear of him captain benwick came not however
or he was too shy and after giving him a week's indulgence lady russell determined him to be unworthy of the interest which he had been beginning to excite the musgroves came back to receive their happy boys and girls from school
bringing with them missus harville's little children to improve the noise of uppercross and lessen that of lyme henrietta remained with louisa but all the rest of the family were again in their usual quarters lady russell and anne paid their compliments to them once
when anne could not but feel that uppercross was already quite alive again though neither henrietta nor louisa nor charles hayter nor captain wentworth were there
immediately surrounding missus musgrove were the little harvilles whom she was sedulously guarding from the tyranny of the two children from the cottage expressly arrived to amuse them on one side was a table occupied by some chattering girls cutting up silk and gold paper
and on the other were tressels and trays bending under the weight of brawn and cold pies where riotous boys were holding high revel the whole completed by a roaring christmas fire which seemed determined to be heard in spite of all the noise of the others
charles and mary also came in of course during their visit and mister musgrove made a point of paying his respects to lady russell and sat down close to her for ten minutes talking with a very raised voice but from the clamour of the children on his knees generally in vain it was a fine family piece
would have deemed such a domestic hurricane a bad restorative of the nerves which louisa's illness must have so greatly shaken but missus musgrove who got anne near her on purpose to thank her most cordially again and again for all her attentions to them
concluded a short recapitulation of what she had suffered herself by observing with a happy glance round the room that after all she had gone through nothing was so likely to do her good as a little quiet cheerfulness at home louisa was now recovering apace
the harvilles had promised to come with her and stay at uppercross whenever she returned captain wentworth was gone for the present to see his brother in shropshire i hope i shall remember in future said lady russell as soon as they were reseated in the carriage not to call at uppercross in the christmas holidays
everybody has their taste in noises as well as in other matters and sounds are quite innoxious or most distressing by their sort rather than their quantity when lady russell not long afterwards was entering bath on a wet afternoon
and driving through the long course of streets from the old bridge to camden place amidst the dash of other carriages the heavy rumble of carts and drays the bawling of newspapermen muffin men and milkmen and the ceaseless clink of pattens she made no complaint no
these were noises which belonged to the winter pleasures her spirits rose under their influence and like missus musgrove she was feeling though not saying that after being long in the country nothing could be so good for her as a little quiet cheerfulness
anne did not share these feelings she persisted in a very determined though very silent disinclination for bath caught the first dim view of the extensive buildings smoking in rain without any wish of seeing them better
felt their progress through the streets to be however disagreeable yet too rapid for who would be glad to see her when she arrived and looked back with fond regret to the bustles of uppercross and the seclusion of kellynch
elizabeth's last letter had communicated a piece of news of some interest mister elliot was in bath he had called in camden place had called a second time a third had been pointedly attentive if elizabeth and her father did not deceive themselves
had been taking much pains to seek the acquaintance and proclaim the value of the connection as he had formerly taken pains to shew neglect this was very wonderful if it were true and lady russell was in a state of very agreeable curiosity and perplexity about mister elliot
of his being a man whom she had no wish to see she had a great wish to see him
he must be forgiven for having dismembered himself from the paternal tree anne was not animated to an equal pitch by the circumstance but she felt that she would rather see mister elliot again than not which was more than she could say for many other persons in bath
lady russell was most anxiously zealous on the subject and gave it much serious consideration she was a woman rather of sound than of quick abilities whose difficulties in coming to any decision in this instance were great
from the opposition of two leading principles she was of strict integrity herself with a delicate sense of honour but she was as desirous of saving sir walter's feelings
as aristocratic in her ideas of what was due to them as anybody of sense and honesty could well be she was a benevolent charitable good woman and capable of strong attachments most correct in her conduct
she had a cultivated mind and was generally speaking rational and consistent but she had prejudices on the side of ancestry she had a value for rank and consequence which blinded her a little to the faults of those who possessed them
herself the widow of only a knight she gave the dignity of a baronet all its due and sir walter independent of his claims as an old acquaintance an attentive neighbour an obliging landlord the husband of her very dear friend the father of anne and her sisters
was as being sir walter in her apprehension entitled to a great deal of compassion and consideration under his present difficulties they must retrench that did not admit of a doubt but she was very anxious to have it done with the least possible pain to him and elizabeth
she drew up plans of economy she made exact calculations and she did what nobody else thought of doing she consulted anne who never seemed considered by the others as having any interest in the question
which was at last submitted to sir walter every emendation of anne's had been on the side of honesty against importance she wanted more vigorous measures a more complete reformation a quicker release from debt a much higher tone of indifference
for everything but justice and equity if we can persuade your father to all this said lady russell looking over her paper much may be done if he will adopt these regulations in seven years he will be clear
and i hope we may be able to convince him and elizabeth that kellynch hall has a respectability in itself which cannot be affected by these reductions and that the true dignity of sir walter elliot
by acting like a man of principle what will he be doing in fact but what very many of our first families have done or ought to do there will be nothing singular in his case and it is singularity which often makes the worst part of our suffering
i have great hope of prevailing we must be serious and decided for after all
and though a great deal is due to the feelings of the gentleman and the head of a house like your father there is still more due to the character of an honest man this was the principle on which anne wanted her father to be proceeding his friends to be urging him
she considered it as an act of indispensable duty to clear away the claims of creditors with all the expedition which the most comprehensive retrenchments could secure and saw no dignity in anything short of it she wanted it to be prescribed and felt as a duty
she rated lady russell's influence highly and as to the severe degree of self denial which her own conscience prompted she believed there might be little more difficulty in persuading them to a complete than to half a reformation
her knowledge of her father and elizabeth inclined her to think that the sacrifice of one pair of horses would be hardly less painful than of both and so on through the whole list of lady russell's too gentle reductions
how anne's more rigid requisitions might have been taken is of little consequence lady russell's had no success at all could not be put up with were not to be borne what every comfort of life knocked off journeys london servants horses table
to live no longer with the decencies even of a private gentleman no he would sooner quit kellynch hall at once than remain in it on such disgraceful terms quit kellynch hall
whose interest was involved in the reality of sir walter's retrenching
he had no scruple he said in confessing his judgement to be entirely on that side it did not appear to him that sir walter could materially alter his style of living in a house which had such a character of hospitality and ancient dignity to support
in any other place sir walter might judge for himself and would be looked up to as regulating the modes of life in whatever way he might choose to model his household sir walter would quit kellynch hall and after a very few days more of doubt and indecision
the great question of whither he should go was settled and the first outline of this important change made out there had been three alternatives london bath or another house in the country all anne's wishes had been for the latter a small house in their own neighbourhood
where they might still have lady russell's society still be near mary and still have the pleasure of sometimes seeing the lawns and groves of kellynch was the object of her ambition but the usual fate of anne attended her in having something very opposite from her inclination fixed on
she disliked bath and did not think it agreed with her and bath was to be her home sir walter had at first thought more of london but mister shepherd felt that he could not be trusted in london and had been skilful enough to dissuade him from it and make bath preferred
he might there be important at comparatively little expense two material advantages of bath over london had of course been given all their weight its more convenient distance from kellynch only fifty miles and lady russell's spending some part of every winter there
and to the very great satisfaction of lady russell whose first views on the projected change had been for bath sir walter and elizabeth were induced to believe that they should lose neither consequence nor enjoyment by settling there
lady russell felt obliged to oppose her dear anne's known wishes it would be too much to expect sir walter to descend into a small house in his own neighbourhood anne herself would have found the mortifications of it more than she foresaw
and to sir walter's feelings they must have been dreadful and with regard to anne's dislike of bath she considered it as a prejudice and mistake arising first from the circumstance of her having been three years at school there after her mother's death and secondly
from her happening to be not in perfectly good spirits the only winter which she had afterwards spent there with herself lady russell was fond of bath in short and disposed to think it must suit them all
and as to her young friend's health by passing all the warm months with her at kellynch lodge every danger would be avoided and it was in fact a change which must do both health and spirits good anne had been too little from home too little seen
her spirits were not high a larger society would improve them she wanted her to be more known the undesirableness of any other house in the same neighbourhood for sir walter was certainly much strengthened by one part and a very material part of the scheme
which had been happily engrafted on the beginning he was not only to quit his home but to see it in the hands of others a trial of fortitude which stronger heads than sir walter's have found too much kellynch hall was to be let this however
was a profound secret not to be breathed beyond their own circle sir walter could not have borne the degradation of being known to design letting his house mister shepherd had once mentioned the word advertise but never dared approach it again
sir walter spurned the idea of its being offered in any manner forbad the slightest hint being dropped of his having such an intention and it was only on the supposition of his being spontaneously solicited by some most unexceptionable applicant on his own terms
and as a great favour that he would let it at all how quick come the reasons for approving what we like lady russell had another excellent one at hand for being extremely glad that sir walter and his family were to remove from the country
elizabeth had been lately forming an intimacy which she wished to see interrupted it was with the daughter of mister shepherd who had returned after an unprosperous marriage to her father's house with the additional burden of two children
she was a clever young woman who understood the art of pleasing the art of pleasing at least at kellynch hall and who had made herself so acceptable to miss elliot
who thought it a friendship quite out of place could hint of caution and reserve lady russell indeed had scarcely any influence with elizabeth and seemed to love her rather because she would love her than because elizabeth deserved it
she had never received from her more than outward attention nothing beyond the observances of complaisance had never succeeded in any point which she wanted to carry against previous inclination she had been repeatedly very earnest in trying to get anne included in the visit to london
sensibly open to all the injustice and all the discredit of the selfish arrangements which shut her out and on many lesser occasions had endeavoured to give elizabeth the advantage of her own better judgement and experience but always in vain elizabeth would go her own way
and never had she pursued it in more decided opposition to lady russell than in this selection of missus clay turning from the society of so deserving a sister to bestow her affection and confidence on one who ought to have been nothing to her but the object of distant civility
when he entered the private room count rostopchin puckering his face was rubbing his forehead and eyes with his hand a short man was saying something but when pierre entered he stopped speaking and went out
ah how do you do great warrior said rostopchin as soon as the short man had left the room
he went on severely as though there were something wrong about it which he nevertheless intended to pardon pierre remained silent i am well informed my friend but i am aware that there are masons
and i hope that you are not one of those who on pretense of saving mankind wish to ruin russia yes i am a mason pierre replied there you see mon cher
and magnitski have been deported to their proper place
and so have others who on the plea of building up the temple of solomon have tried to destroy the temple of their fatherland
had he not been a harmful person it has now come to my knowledge that you lent him your carriage for his removal from town and that you have even accepted papers from him for safe custody i like you and don't wish you any harm and
i advise you as a father would to cease all communication with men of that stamp and to leave here as soon as possible
asked pierre that is for me to know but not for you to ask shouted rostopchin if he is accused of circulating napoleon's proclamation it is not proved that he did so said pierre without looking at rostopchin
said he with the vindictive heat with which people speak when recalling an insult but i did not summon you to discuss my actions but to give you advice or an order if you prefer it
and i will knock the nonsense out of anybody but probably realizing that he was shouting at bezukhov
and i haven't time to be polite to everybody who has business with me my head is sometimes in a whirl well mon cher
why nothing answered pierre without raising his eyes or changing the thoughtful expression of his face the count frowned a word of friendly advice mon cher be off as soon as you can that's all i have to tell you
happy he who has ears to hear good bye my dear fellow oh by the by he shouted through the doorway after pierre
pierre did not answer and left rostopchin's room more sullen and angry than he had ever before shown himself when he reached home it was already getting dark some eight people had come to see him that evening
the secretary of a committee the colonel of his battalion his steward his major domo and various petitioners they all had business with pierre and wanted decisions from him
pierre did not understand and was not interested in any of these questions and only answered them in order to get rid of these people when left alone at last he opened and read his wife's letter they the soldiers at the battery
prince andrew killed that old man simplicity is submission to god suffering is necessary the meaning of all one must harness my wife is getting married one must forget and understand
and going to his bed he threw himself on it without undressing and immediately fell asleep
was a little out of this combination but he was not a person to allow himself to droop he came and seated himself by miss chancellor and broached a literary subject he asked her
if she were following any of the current serials in the magazines on her telling him that she never followed anything of that sort he undertook a defence of the serial system
which she presently reminded him that she had not attacked he was not discouraged by this retort but glided gracefully off to the question of mount desert
conversation on some subject or other being evidently a necessity of his nature he talked very quickly and softly
there was a certain amiable flatness in his tone and he abounded in exclamations goodness gracious and mercy on us not much in use among the sex whose profanity is apt to be coarse
he had small fair features remarkably neat and pretty eyes and a moustache that he caressed and an air of juvenility much at variance with his grizzled locks
and the free familiar reference in which he was apt to indulge to his career as a journalist his friends knew that in spite of his delicacy and his prattle he was what they called a live man
his appearance was perfectly reconcilable with a large degree of literary enterprise it should be explained that for the most part they attached to this idea the same meaning as selah tarrant
a state of intimacy with the newspapers the cultivation of the great arts of publicity for this ingenuous son of his age all distinction between the person and the artist had ceased to exist the writer was personal
the person food for newsboys and everything and every one were every one's business all things with him referred themselves to print and print meant simply infinite reporting
a promptitude of announcement abusive when necessary or even when not about his fellow citizens he poured contumely on their private life on their personal appearance with the best conscience in the world
his faith again was the faith of selah tarrant that being in the newspapers is a condition of bliss and that it would be fastidious to question the terms of the privilege
he was an enfant de la balle as the french say he had begun his career at the age of fourteen by going the rounds of the hotels to cull flowers from the big greasy registers which lie on the marble counters
and he might flatter himself that he had contributed in his measure and on behalf of a vigilant public opinion the pride of a democratic state to the great end
he was the most brilliant young interviewer on the boston press he was
he had condensed into shorthand many of the most celebrated women of his time some of these daughters of fame were very voluminous and he was supposed to have a remarkably insinuating way
the morning after their arrival or sometimes the very evening while their luggage was being brought up
and with his hoary head was a thoroughly modern young man he had no idea of not taking advantage of all the modern conveniences he regarded the mission of mankind upon earth
but the newest thing was what came nearest exciting in his mind the sentiment of respect he was an object of extreme admiration to selah tarrant who believed that he had mastered all the secrets of success
and who when missus tarrant remarked as she had done more than once that it looked as if mister pardon was really coming after verena declared that if he was he was one of the few young men
he should want to see in that connexion one of the few he should be willing to allow to handle her it was tarrant's conviction that if matthias pardon should seek verena in marriage
who was at the same time reporter interviewer manager agent who had the command of the principal dailies would write her up and work her as it were scientifically
the attraction of all this was too obvious to be insisted on matthias had a mean opinion of tarrant thought him quite second rate a votary of played out causes
it was his impression that he himself was in love with verena but his passion was not a jealous one and included a remarkable disposition to share the object of his affection with the american people
he talked some time to olive about mount desert told her that in his letters he had described the company at the different hotels he remarked however
that a correspondent suffered a good deal to day from the competition of the lady writers the sort of article they produced was sometimes more acceptable to the papers
he supposed she would be glad to hear that he knew she was so interested in woman's having a free field they certainly made lovely correspondents
they picked up something bright before you could turn round there wasn't much you could keep away from them you had to be lively if you wanted to get there first of course they were naturally more chatty and that was the style of literature
that seemed to take most to day only they didn't write much but what ladies would want to read of course he knew there were millions of lady readers but he intimated that he didn't address himself exclusively to the gynecaeum
he tried to put in something that would interest all parties if you read a lady's letter you knew pretty well in advance what you would find now what he tried for was that you shouldn't have the least idea
he always tried to have something that would make you jump mister pardon was not conceited more at least than is proper when youth and success go hand in hand
and it was natural he should not know in what spirit miss chancellor listened to him being aware that she was a woman of culture his desire was simply to supply her with the pabulum that she would expect
she thought him very inferior she had heard he was intensely bright but there was probably some mistake there couldn't be any danger for verena from a mind that took merely a gossip's view of great tendencies
besides he wasn't half educated and it was her belief or at least her hope that an educative process was now going on for verena under her own direction
which would enable her to make such a discovery for herself olive had a standing quarrel with the levity the good nature of the judgements of the day many of them seemed to her weak to imbecility
losing sight of all measures and standards lavishing superlatives delighted to be fooled the age seemed to her relaxed and demoralised
and i believe she looked to the influx of the great feminine element to make it feel and speak more sharply well it's a privilege to hear you two talk together missus tarrant said to her
it's what i call real conversation it isn't often we have anything so fresh it makes me feel as if i wanted to join in i scarcely know whom to listen to most verena
seems to be having such a time with those gentlemen first i catch one thing and then another it seems as if i couldn't take it all in perhaps i ought to pay more attention to mister burrage i don't want him to think
we are not so cordial as they are in new york she decided to draw nearer to the trio on the other side of the room for she had perceived as she devoutly hoped miss chancellor had not
and that these unscrupulous young men after a glance over their shoulder appeared to plead for remission to intimate that this was not what they had come round for
selah wandered out of the room again with his collection of cakes and mister pardon began to talk to olive about verena to say that he felt as if he couldn't say all he did feel with regard to the interest she had shown in her
olive could not imagine why he was called upon to say or to feel anything and she gave him short answers while the poor young man unconscious of his doom remarked that he hoped she wasn't going to exercise any influence
that would prevent miss tarrant from taking the rank that belonged to her he thought there was too much hanging back he wanted to see her in a front seat he wanted to see her name in the biggest kind of bills
he didn't see what they were waiting for he didn't suppose they were waiting till she was fifty years old there were old ones enough in the field he knew that miss chancellor appreciated the advantage of her girlhood
because miss verena had told him so her father was dreadfully slack and the winter was ebbing away mister pardon went so far as to say that if doctor tarrant didn't see his way to do something
he should feel as if he should want to take hold himself he expressed a hope at the same time that olive had not any views that would lead her to bring her influence to bear to make miss verena hold back
also that she wouldn't consider that he pressed in too much he knew that was a charge that people brought against newspaper men that they were rather apt to cross the line he only worried
because he thought those who were no doubt nearer to miss verena than he could hope to be were not sufficiently alive he knew that she had appeared in two or three parlours since that evening at miss birdseye's
and he had heard of the delightful occasion at miss chancellor's own house where so many of the first families had been invited to meet her this was an allusion to a small luncheon party that olive had given
when verena discoursed to a dozen matrons and spinsters selected by her hostess with infinite consideration and many spiritual scruples a report of the affair
presumably from the hand of the young matthias who naturally had not been present appeared with extraordinary promptness in an evening paper that was very well so far as it went
but he wanted something on another scale something so big that people would have to go round if they wanted to get past then lowering his voice a little he mentioned what it was a lecture
in the music hall at fifty cents a ticket without her father right there on her own basis he lowered his voice still more and revealed to miss chancellor his innermost thought
having first assured himself that selah was still absent and that missus tarrant was inquiring of mister burrage
miss verena wanted to shed her father altogether she didn't want him pawing round her that way before she began it didn't add in the least to the attraction mister pardon expressed the conviction
that miss chancellor agreed with him in this and it required a great effort of mind on olive's part so small was her desire to act in concert with mister pardon to admit to herself that she did
she asked him with a certain lofty coldness he didn't make her shy now a bit whether he took a great interest in the improvement of the position of women the question appeared to strike the young man as abrupt and irrelevant
to come down on him from a height with which he was not accustomed to hold intercourse he was used to quick operations however and he had only a moment of bright blankness before replying
olive was silent a moment what i mean is is your sympathy a sympathy with our sex or a particular interest in miss tarrant
it takes in miss verena and it takes in all others except the lady correspondents
as he perceived even at the moment was lost on verena's friend he was not more successful when he went on it takes in even you miss chancellor olive rose to her feet hesitating
she wanted to go away and yet she couldn't bear to leave verena to be exploited as she felt that she would be after her departure that indeed she had already been
by those offensive young men she had a strange sense too that her friend had neglected her for the last half hour had not been occupied with her had placed a barrier between them
a barrier of broad male backs of laughter that verged upon coarseness of glancing smiles directed across the room directed to olive which seemed rather to disconnect her with what was going forward
on that side than to invite her to take part in it if verena recognised that miss chancellor was not in report as her father said when jocose young men ruled the scene
the discovery implied no great penetration but the poor girl might have reflected further that to see it taken for granted that she was unadapted for such company
could scarcely be more agreeable to olive than to be dragged into it this young lady's worst apprehensions were now justified by missus tarrant's crying to her that she must not go
as mister burrage and mister gracie were trying to persuade verena to give them a little specimen of inspirational speaking and she was sure her daughter would comply in a moment
if miss chancellor would just tell her to compose herself they had got to own up to it miss chancellor could do more with her than any one else
but mister gracie and mister burrage had excited her so that she was afraid it would be rather an unsuccessful effort the whole group had got up and verena came to olive with her hands outstretched
and no signs of a bad conscience in her bright face i know you like me to speak so much i'll try to say something if you want me to
i wish we had brought some of our friends they would have been delighted to come if we had given them a chance said mister burrage there is an immense desire throughout the university to hear you
and there is no such sympathetic audience
and i am sure he will say as much of me the young man spoke these words freely and lightly smiling at verena and even a little at olive with the air of one to whom
a mastery of clever chaff was commonly attributed mister burrage listens even better than he talks his companion declared we have the habit of attention at lectures you know
to be lectured by you would be an advantage indeed we are sunk in ignorance and prejudice
if you could see them i assure you they are something monstrous give them a regular ducking and make them gasp matthias pardon cried
these gentlemen will carry the news it will be the narrow end of the wedge i can't tell what you like verena said still looking into olive's eyes
selah had reappeared by this time his lofty contemplative person was framed by the doorway want to try a little inspiration he inquired looking round on the circle with an encouraging inflexion
i'll do it alone if you prefer verena said soothingly to her friend it might be a good chance to try without father you don't mean to say you ain't going to be supported missus tarrant exclaimed with dismay
defending his integrity i will drop right
i have no desire to draw attention to my own poor gifts this declaration appeared to be addressed to miss chancellor well there will be more inspiration if you don't touch her matthias pardon said to him
it will seem to come right down from well wherever it does come from yes we don't pretend to say that missus tarrant murmured this little discussion
had brought the blood to olive's face she felt that every one present was looking at her verena most of all and that here was a chance to take a more complete possession of the girl such chances were agitating
moreover she didn't like on any occasion to be so prominent but everything that had been said was benighted and vulgar
the place seemed thick with the very atmosphere out of which she wished to lift verena they were treating her as a show as a social resource
and the two young men from the college were laughing at her shamelessly she was not meant for that and olive would save her verena was so simple she couldn't see herself she was the only pure spirit in the odious group
i want you to address audiences that are worth addressing to convince people who are serious and sincere olive herself as she spoke heard the great shake in her voice your mission
is not to exhibit yourself as a pastime for individuals but to touch the heart of communities of nations dear madam i'm sure miss tarrant will touch my heart
mister burrage objected gallantly well i don't know but she judges you young men fairly said missus tarrant with a sigh verena diverted a moment from her communion with her friend
said olive almost inaudibly
i can see you don't want it said verena wondering you would stay if you liked it wouldn't you i don't know what i should do come out with me olive spoke almost with fierceness
came said matthias pardon i guess you had better come round some other night selah suggested pacifically but with a significance which fell upon olive's ear
do you want to save harvard college or do you not he demanded with a humorous frown i didn't know you were harvard college verena returned as humorously i am afraid you are rather disappointed in your evening
if you expected to obtain some insight into our ideas said missus tarrant with an air of impotent sympathy to mister gracie well good night miss chancellor she went on
it seems as if doctor tarrant couldn't remember to go for the man to fix it i am afraid you'll think we're too much taken up with all these new hopes well we have enjoyed seeing you in our home
i can't stand a sleigh myself it makes me sick this was her hostess's response to miss chancellor's very summary farewell uttered as the three ladies proceeded together to the door of the house
olive had got herself out of the little parlour with a sort of blind defiant dash she had taken no perceptible leave of the rest of the company when she was calm she had very good manners
but when she was agitated she was guilty of lapses every one of which came back to her magnified in the watches of the night sometimes they excited remorse and sometimes triumph
in the latter case she felt that she could not have been so justly vindictive in cold blood tarrant wished to guide her down the steps out of the little yard to her carriage
he reminded her that they had had ashes sprinkled on the planks on purpose but she begged him to let her alone she almost pushed him back she drew verena out into the dark freshness
there was a splendid sky all blue black and silver a sparkling wintry vault where the stars were like a myriad points of ice the air was silent and sharp
and the vague snow looked cruel olive knew now very definitely what the promise was that she wanted verena to make but it was too cold she could keep her there bareheaded but an instant
missus tarrant meanwhile in the parlour remarked that it seemed as if
mister burrage and mister gracie said they would invite her on the spot in the name of the university and matthias pardon reflected and asserted with glee that this would be the newest thing yet
but he added that they would have a high time with miss chancellor first and this was evidently the conviction of the company i can see you are angry at something verena said to olive
as the two stood there in the starlight i hope it isn't me what have i done i am not angry i am anxious i am so afraid i shall lose you verena
don't fail me don't fail me olive spoke low with a kind of passion fail you how can i fail you can't of course you can't
your star is above you but don't listen to them to whom do you mean olive to my parents oh no not your parents miss chancellor replied with some sharpness
she paused a moment and then she said i don't care for your parents i have told you that before but now that i have seen them
i don't care for them i must repeat it verena i should be dishonest if i let you think i did why olive chancellor verena murmured
as if she were trying in spite of the sadness produced by this declaration to do justice to her friend's impartiality yes i am hard perhaps i am cruel
but we must be hard if we wish to triumph don't listen to young men when they try to mock and muddle you they don't care for you they don't care for us they care only for their pleasure
verena said with a smile that looked dim in the darkness
do you mean to give you up no all our wretched sisters all our hopes and purposes all that we think sacred and worth living for
oh they don't want that olive verena's smile became more distinct
and dance for them olive you are cruel yes i am but promise me one thing and i shall be oh so tender
what a strange place for promises said verena with a shiver looking about her into the night yes i am dreadful i know it but promise
and olive drew the girl nearer to her flinging over her with one hand the fold of a cloak that hung ample upon her own meagre person and holding her there with the other while she looked at her
suppliant but half hesitating promise she repeated is it something terrible never to listen to one of them never to be bribed at this moment the house door was opened again
matthias pardon stood in the aperture and tarrant and his wife with the two other visitors appeared to have come forward as well to see what detained verena
mister pardon said you ladies had better look out or you'll freeze together verena was reminded by her mother that she would catch her death but she had already heard sharply
low as they were spoken five last words from olive who now abruptly released her and passed swiftly over the path from the porch to her waiting carriage tarrant creaked along
in pursuit to assist miss chancellor the others drew verena into the house promise me not to marry that was what echoed in her startled mind
and repeated itself there when mister burrage returned to the charge asking her if she wouldn't at least appoint some evening when they might listen to her
she had already felt it in the air she would have said at any time if she had been asked that she didn't suppose miss chancellor would want her to marry but the idea uttered as her friend had uttered it
had a new solemnity and the effect of that quick violent colloquy was to make her nervous and impatient as if she had had a sudden glimpse of futurity that was rather awful
even if it represented the fate one would like when the two young men from the college pressed their petition she asked with a laugh that surprised them whether they wished to mock and muddle her
they went away assenting to missus tarrant's last remark i am afraid you'll feel that you don't quite understand us yet matthias pardon remained her father and mother expressing their perfect confidence
that he would excuse them went to bed and left him sitting there he stayed a good while longer nearly an hour and said things that made verena think that he perhaps would like to marry her
but while she listened to him more abstractedly than her custom was she remarked to herself that there could be no difficulty in promising olive so far as he was concerned
he was very pleasant and he knew an immense deal about everything or rather about every one and he would take her right into the midst of life but she didn't wish to marry him all the same
and after he had gone she reflected that once she came to think of it she didn't want to marry any one so it would be easy after all to make olive that promise
all knowledge is with the king
and his name was yeb him thou didst overtake and when he heeded not thy coming thou didst ride over him
then a great journey lies before him before he may rest again till he come to that star that is called the left eye of gundo
up the crystal steps that lie beyond omrazu he must go and any that follow
for in that part of the crystal space go many meteors up and down all squealing in the dark which greatly perplex all travellers and if he may see though the gleaming of the meteors and in spite of their uproar come safely through
he shall come to the star omrund at the edge of the track of stars
and there the journey lies no more straight forward but curves to the right then said king ebalon of this beggar whom my horse smote down thou hast spoken much
but i sought to know by what road a king should go when he taketh his last royal journey and what princes and what people should meet him upon another shore then answered monith all knowledge is with the king
it hath been doomed by the gods who speak not in jest that thou shalt follow the soul that thou didst send alone upon its journey that that soul go not unattended up the crystal steps moreover
as this beggar went upon his lonely journey he dared to curse the king and his curses lie like a red mist along the valleys and hollows wherever he uttered them by these red mists o king
then said the king
and monith said how a man may come to the shore of space beyond the tides of time i know not but it is doomed that thou shalt certainly first follow the beggar past the moon omrund and omrazu till thou comest to the track of stars
there the soul of the beggar yeb sat long then breathing deep set off on his great journey earthward adown the crystal steps
following the dull gleam of earth and her fields till he come at last where journeys end and start then said king ebalon if this hard tale be true how shall i find the beggar that i must follow when i come again to the earth
and the prophet answered thou shalt know him by his name and find him in this place for that beggar shall be called king ebalon and he shall be sitting upon the throne of the kings of zarkandhu and the king answered
if one sit upon this throne whom men call king ebalon who then shall i be and the prophet answered thou shalt be a beggar and thy name shall be yeb
then said the king
they too have sinned against him when they doomed him to travel on this weary journey though he hath not offended and monith said he too hath offended for he was angry as thy horse struck him and the gods smite anger
and his anger and his curses doom him to journey without rest as also they doom thee then said the king
dreaming thy dreams and making prophecies foresee the ending of this weary quest and tell me where it shall be and monith answered as a man looks across great lakes i have gazed into the days to be
and as the great flies come upon four wings of gauze to skim over blue waters so have my dreams come sailing two by two out of the days to be and i dreamed that king ebalon whose soul was not thy soul stood in his palace in a time far hence
and beggars thronged the street outside and among them was yeb a beggar having thy soul and it was on the morning of a festival and the king came robed in white with all his prophets and his seers and magicians all down the marble steps to bless the land
and all that stood therein as far as the purple hills because it was the morning of festival and as the king raised up his hand over the beggars heads to bless the fields and rivers and all that stood therein i dreamed that the quest was ended all knowledge is with the king
evening darkened and above the palace domes gleamed out the stars whereon haply others missed the secret too and outside the palace in the dark
then spake ynar called the prophet of the crystal peak for there rises amanath above all that land a mountain whose peak is crystal and
and at the hour when all faces are turned on amanath ynar comes forth beneath the crystal peak to weave strange spells and to make signs that people say are surely for the gods therefore it is said in all those lands
that ynar speaks at evening to the gods when all the world is still and ynar said all knowledge is with the king and without doubt it hath come to the king's ears how certain speech is held at evening on the peak
of amanath they that speak to me at evening on the peak are they that live in a city through whose streets death walketh not and i have heard it from their elders that the king shall take no journey
and the green fields shall go on untrodden by thy feet and the blue sky ungazed at by thine eyes and still the rivers shall all run seaward but making no music in thine ears and all the old laments shall still be spoken
troubling thee not and to the earth shall fall the tears of the children of earth and never grieving thee pestilence heat and cold ignorance famine and anger these things shall
grip their claws upon all men as heretofore in fields and roads and cities but shall not hold thee but from thy soul
shall fall off the shackles of circumstance and thou shalt dream thy dreams alone and thou shalt find that dreams are real where there is nought as far as the rim but only thy dreams and thee
with them thou shalt build palaces and cities resting upon nothing and having no place in time not to be assailed by the hours or harmed by ivy or rust not to be taken by conquerors but destroyed by thy fancy if thou dost wish it so
or by thy fancy rebuilded and nought shall ever disturb these dreams of thine which here are troubled and lost by all the happenings of earth as the dreams of one who sleeps in a tumultuous city
wherein are neither rocks nor hills to turn it only in that place there shall be no boundaries nor sea neither hindrance nor end and it were well for thee that thou shouldst take few regrets into thy waste dominions from the world wherein thou livest
and they too shall be only dreams but very real there nought shall hinder thee among thy dreams for even the gods may harass thee no more when flesh and earth and events with which they bound thee shall have slipped away then said the king
i like not this grey doom for dreams are empty i would see action roaring through the world and men and deeds then answered the prophet victory jewels and dancing but please thy fancy
what is the sparkle of the gem to thee without thy fancy which it allures and thy fancy is all a dream
there shall be only dreams and the king answered a mad prophet and ynar said a mad prophet but believing that his soul possesseth all things of which his soul may become aware and that he is master of that soul
as are leaguered by thine armies and the sea and that thy soul is possessed by certain strange gods of whom
until a knowledge come to us that either is wrong i have wider realms i king than thee and hold them beneath no overlords then said the king thou hast said no overlords to whom then
dost thou speak by strange signs at evening above the world and ynar went forward and whispered to the king and the king shouted
the writer of a book which copies the manners and language of queen anne's time must not omit the dedication to the patron and i ask leave to inscribe this volume to your lordship for the sake of the great kindness and friendship which i owe to you and yours
wherever i am i shall gratefully regard you and shall not be the less welcomed in america because i am your obliged friend and servant
the esmonds of virginia the estate of castlewood in virginia which was given to our ancestors by king charles the first as some return for the sacrifices made in his majesty's cause by the esmond family lies in westmoreland county
between the rivers potomac and rappahannock and was once as great as an english principality though in the early times its revenues were but small indeed for near eighty years after our forefathers possessed them
our plantations were in the hands of factors who enriched themselves one after another though a few scores of hogsheads of tobacco were all the produce that for long after the restoration
my dear and honored father colonel henry esmond whose history written by himself is contained in the accompanying volume came to virginia in the year seventeen eighteen built his house of castlewood and here permanently settled
after a long stormy life in england he passed the remainder of his many years in peace and honor in this country how beloved and respected by all his fellow citizens how inexpressibly dear to his family i need not say
he gave the best example the best advice the most bounteous hospitality to his friends the tenderest care to his dependants and bestowed on those of his immediate family such a blessing of fatherly love and protection as can never be thought of by us at least
without veneration and thankfulness and my sons children whether established here in our republic or at home in the always beloved mother country from which our late quarrel hath separated us may surely be proud to be descended from one who in all ways
was so truly noble my dear mother died in seventeen thirty six soon after our return from england whither my parents took me for my education and where i made the acquaintance of mister warrington whom my children never saw
when it pleased heaven in the bloom of his youth and after but a few months of a most happy union to remove him from me i owed my recovery from the grief which that calamity caused me mainly to my dearest father's tenderness
and then to the blessing vouchsafed to me in the birth of my two beloved boys i know the fatal differences which separated them in politics never disunited their hearts
and him above all my father and theirs the dearest friend of their childhood the noble gentleman who bred them from their infancy in the practice and knowledge of truth and love and honor my children will never forget the appearance and figure of their revered grandfather
and i wish i possessed the art of drawing which my papa had in perfection so that i could leave to our descendants a portrait of one who was so good and so respected my father was of a dark complexion
with a very great forehead and dark hazel eyes overhung by eyebrows which remained black long after his hair was white his nose was aquiline his smile extraordinary sweet how well i remember it and how little any description i can write can recall his image
he was of rather low stature not being above five feet seven inches in height he used to laugh at my sons whom he called his crutches and say they were grown too tall for him to lean upon but small as he was
such as i have never seen in this country except perhaps in our friend mister washington and commanded respect wherever he appeared in all bodily exercises he excelled and showed an extraordinary quickness and agility
of fencing he was especially fond and made my two boys proficient in that art so much so that when the french came to this country with monsieur rochambeau not one of his officers was superior to my henry
neither my father nor my mother ever wore powder in their hair both their heads were as white as silver as i can remember them my dear mother possessed to the last an extraordinary brightness and freshness of complexion
nor would people believe that she did not wear rouge at sixty years of age she still looked young and was quite agile it was not until after that dreadful siege of our house by the indians which left me a widow ere i was a mother
that my dear mother's health broke she never recovered her terror and anxiety of those days which ended so fatally for me then a bride scarce six months married
and died in my father's arms ere my own year of widowhood was over from that day until the last of his dear and honored life it was my delight and consolation to remain with him as his comforter and companion
and from those little notes which my mother hath made here and there in the volume in which my father describes his adventures in europe i can well understand the extreme devotion with which she regarded him a devotion so passionate and exclusive as to prevent her i think
from loving any other person except with an inferior regard her whole thoughts being centred on this one object of affection and worship i know that before her
and in her last and most sacred moments this dear and tender parent owned to me her repentance that she had not loved me enough her jealousy even that my father should give his affection to any but herself
and in the most fond and beautiful words of affection and admonition she bade me never to leave him and to supply the place which she was quitting with a clear conscience and a heart inexpressibly thankful
i think i can say that i fulfilled those dying commands and that until his last hour my dearest father never had to complain that his daughter's love and fidelity failed him and it is since i knew him entirely for during my mother's life
he never quite opened himself to me since i knew the value and splendor of that affection which he bestowed upon me
her jealousy respecting her husband's love twas a gift so precious that no wonder she who had it was for keeping it all and could part with none of it even to her daughter though i never heard my father use a rough word twas extraordinary with how much
and the servants on our plantation both those assigned from england and the purchased negroes obeyed him with an eagerness such as the most severe taskmasters round about us could never get from their people
he was never familiar though perfectly simple and natural he was the same with the meanest man as with the greatest
no one ever thought of taking a liberty with him except once a tipsy gentleman from york and i am bound to own that my papa never forgave him he set the humblest people at once on their ease with him
and brought down the most arrogant by a grave satiric way which made persons exceedingly afraid of him
it was always the same as he was always dressed the same whether for a dinner by ourselves or for a great entertainment they say he liked to be the first in his company but what company was there in which he would not be first when i went to europe for my education
and we passed a winter at london with my half brother my lord castlewood and his second lady i saw at her majesty's court some of the most famous gentlemen of those days and i thought to myself none of these are better than my papa
and the famous lord bolingbroke who came to us from dawley said as much and that the men of that time were not like those of his youth were your father madam he said to go into the woods the indians would elect him sachem
and his lordship was pleased to call me pocahontas i did not see our other relative bishop tusher's lady of whom so much is said in my papa's memoirs although my mamma went to visit her in the country
yet i own to a decent respect for my name and wonder how one who ever bore it should change it for that of missus thomas tusher i pass over as odious and unworthy of credit those reports which i heard in europe
and was then too young to understand how this person having left her family and fled to paris out of jealousy of the pretender betrayed his secrets to my lord stair king george's ambassador
and nearly caused the prince's death there how she came to england and married this mister tusher and became a great favorite of king george the second by whom mister tusher was made a dean and then a bishop i did not see the lady who chose to remain at her
she grew exceedingly stout and i remember my brother's wife lady castlewood saying no wonder she became a favorite for the king likes them old and ugly as his father did before him on which papa said all women were alike
that there was never one so beautiful as that one and that we could forgive her everything but her beauty and hereupon my mamma looked vexed
could not understand what was the subject of their conversation after the circumstances narrated in the third book of these memoirs
in consequence of the transactions which are recounted at the close of the volume of the memoirs but my brother hearing how the future bishop's lady had quitted castlewood and joined the pretender at paris pursued him and would have killed him
prince as he was had not the prince managed to make his escape on his expedition to scotland directly after castlewood was so enraged against him that he asked leave to serve as a volunteer and join the duke of argyle's army in scotland
which the pretender never had the courage to face
from whom he hath even received promotion missus tusher was by this time as angry against the pretender as any of her relations could be and used to boast as i have heard
which the junior branch of our family at present enjoys
my papa used laughing to say however the bishop died of apoplexy suddenly
the first missus tusher lying sixty miles off at castlewood
can be expected to have and his adventures in europe far more exciting than his life in this country which was passed in the tranquil offices of love and duty and i shall say no more by way of introduction to his memoirs
were the principal theatre on which the apostle of the gentiles displayed his zeal and piety the seeds of the gospel which he had scattered in a fertile soil were diligently cultivated by his disciples and it should seem that
to these domestic testimonies we may add the confession the complaints and the apprehensions of the gentiles themselves
and that the christians however multiplied by zeal and power did not exceed a fifth part of that great city how different a proportion must we adopt when we compare the persecuted with the triumphant church
the west with the east remote villages with populous towns and countries recently converted to the faith
whoever was guilty or suspected might hope
it was likewise apprehended that a very great multitude as it were another people
and in a former instance of pliny
the church of rome was undoubtedly the first and most populous of the empire and we are possessed of an authentic record which attests the state of religion in that city about the middle of the third century and after a peace of thirty eight years
the clergy at that time consisted of a bishop forty six presbyters seven deacons
yet notwithstanding the many favorable
the practice introduced into that province of appointing bishops to the most inconsiderable towns and very frequently to the most obscure villages contributed to multiply the splendor and importance of their religious societies
directed by the abilities of cyprian and adorned by the eloquence of lactantius but if on the contrary we turn our eyes towards gaul
and even as late as the reign of decius we are assured that in a few cities only
from gaul which claimed a just preeminence of learning and authority over all the countries on this side of the alps
the miraculous shrine of compostella displayed his power and the sword of a military order
a people whether greek or barbarian or any other race of men by whatsoever appellation or manners they may be distinguished however ignorant of arts or agriculture whether they dwell under tents or wander about in covered wagons
which even at present it would be extremely difficult to reconcile with the real state of mankind can be considered only as the rash sally of a devout but careless writer the measure of whose belief was regulated by that of his wishes
but neither the belief nor the wishes of the fathers can alter the truth of history
chapter twenty three in the enemy's house sir nathaniel was in the library next morning after breakfast when adam came to him carrying a letter her ladyship doesn't lose any time she has begun work already
sir nathaniel who was writing at a table near the window looked up
it was in a blazoned envelope ha said sir nathaniel from the white worm i expected something of the kind but said adam how could she have known we were here she didn't know last night
this is only another mystery suffice it that she does know perhaps it is all the better and safer for us how is that asked adam with a puzzled look general process of reasoning my boy and the experience of some years in the diplomatic world
this creature is a monster without heart or consideration for anything or anyone she is not nearly so dangerous in the open as when she has the dark to protect her besides we know by our own experience of her movements
that for some reason she shuns publicity in spite of her vast bulk and abnormal strength she is afraid to attack openly after all she is only a snake and with a snake's nature which is to keep low and squirm and proceed by stealth and cunning
she will never attack when she can run away although she knows well that running away would probably be fatal to her what is the letter about sir nathaniel's voice was calm and self possessed when he was engaged in any struggle of wits he was all diplomatist
she asks mimi and me to tea this afternoon at diana's grove and hopes that you also will favour her sir nathaniel smiled please ask missus salton to accept for us all she means some deadly mischief surely surely it would be wiser not
to fight on ground of your own choice it is true that she suggested the place on this occasion but by accepting it we make it ours moreover she will not be able to understand our reason for doing so and her own bad conscience if she has any bad or good
and her own fears and doubts will play our game for us no my dear boy let us accept by all means adam said nothing but silently held out his hand which his companion shook no words were necessary
when it was getting near tea time mimi asked sir nathaniel how they were going we must make a point of going in state we want all possible publicity mimi looked at him inquiringly certainly my dear
in the present circumstances publicity is a part of safety do not be surprised if whilst we are at diana's grove occasional messages come for you for all or any of us i see said missus salton you are taking no chances none my dear
is going to be utilised within the next couple of hours sir nathaniel's voice was full of seriousness and it brought to mimi in a convincing way the awful gravity of the occasion in due course they set out in a carriage drawn by a fine pair of horses
who soon devoured the few miles of their journey before they came to the gate sir nathaniel turned to mimi i have arranged with adam certain signals which may be necessary if certain eventualities occur these need be nothing to do with you directly
but bear in mind that if i ask you or adam to do anything do not lose a second in the doing of it we must try to pass off such moments with an appearance of unconcern in all probability nothing requiring such care will occur
the white worm will not try force though she has so much of it to spare whatever she may attempt to day of harm to any of us will be in the way of secret plot some other time she may try force but if i am able to judge such a thing
not to day the messengers who may ask for any of us will not be witnesses only they may help to stave off danger seeing query in her face he went on of what kind the danger may be i know not and cannot guess
it will doubtless be some ordinary circumstance but none the less dangerous on that account here we are at the gate now be careful in all matters however small to keep your head is half the battle there were a number of men in livery in the hall when they arrived
the doors of the drawing room were thrown open and lady arabella came forth and offered them cordial welcome this having been got over lady arabella led them into another room where tea was served adam was acutely watchful and suspicious of everything
as the outer door of the room where was the well hole wherein oolanga had disappeared something in the sight alarmed him and he quietly stood near the door he made no movement even of his eyes but he could see that sir nathaniel was watching him intently
and he fancied with approval they all sat near the table spread for tea adam still near the door lady arabella fanned herself complaining of heat and told one of the footmen to throw all the outer doors open
tea was in progress when mimi suddenly started up with a look of fright on her face at the same moment the men became cognisant of a thick smoke which began to spread through the room a smoke which made those who experienced it gasp and choke
the footmen began to edge uneasily towards the inner door denser and denser grew the smoke and more acrid its smell mimi towards whom the draught from the open door wafted the smoke rose up choking and ran to the inner door which she threw open to its fullest extent
and in her fright she tore down the curtain which enveloped her from head to foot then she ran through the still open door heedless of the fact that she could not see where she was going adam followed by sir nathaniel rushed forward and joined her
adam catching his wife by the arm and holding her tight it was well that he did so for just before her lay the black orifice of the well hole which of course she could not see with the silk curtain round her head the floor was extremely slippery
something like thick oil had been spilled where she had to pass and close to the edge of the hole her feet shot from under her and she stumbled forward towards the well hole when adam saw mimi slip he flung himself backward still holding her
his weight told and he dragged her up from the hole and they fell together on the floor outside the zone of slipperiness in a moment he had raised her up and together they rushed out through the open door into the sunlight sir nathaniel close behind them
they were all pale except the old diplomatist who looked both calm and cool
both managed to follow his example
who saw the three who had just escaped a terrible danger walking together gaily as under the guiding pressure of sir nathaniel's hand they turned to re enter the house lady arabella whose face had blanched to a deadly white
now resumed her ministrations at the tea board as though nothing unusual had happened the slop basin was full of half burned brown paper over which tea had been poured sir nathaniel had been narrowly observing his hostess
the real attack is to come she is too quiet
come with us and caution her to hurry don't lose a second even if you have to make a scene
brought in fresh tea thence on that tea party seemed to adam whose faculties were at their utmost intensity like a terrible dream as for poor mimi she was so overwrought both with present and future fear and with horror at the danger she had escaped
that her faculties were numb however she was braced up for a trial and she felt assured that whatever might come she would be able to go through with it sir nathaniel seemed just as usual suave dignified and thoughtful perfect master of himself
to her husband it was evident that mimi was ill at ease the way she kept turning her head to look around her the quick coming and going of the colour of her face her hurried breathing alternating with periods of suspicious calm were evidences of mental perturbation
to her the attitude of lady arabella seemed compounded of social sweetness and personal consideration it would be hard to imagine more thoughtful and tender kindness towards an honoured guest when tea was over and the servants had come to clear away the cups
lady arabella putting her arm round mimi's waist strolled with her into an adjoining room where she collected a number of photographs which were scattered about and sitting down beside her guest began to show them to her
as well as that which opened from the room outside that of the well hole into the avenue suddenly without any seeming cause the light in the room began to grow dim sir nathaniel who was sitting close to mimi rose to his feet and crying quick
caught hold of her hand and began to drag her from the room adam caught her other hand and between them they drew her through the outer door which the servants were beginning to close it was difficult at first to find the way the darkness was so great
but to their relief when adam whistled shrilly the carriage and horses which had been waiting in the angle of the avenue dashed up her husband and sir nathaniel lifted almost threw mimi into the carriage
the postillion plied whip and spur and the vehicle rocking with its speed swept through the gate and tore up the road behind them was a hubbub
and somewhere seemingly far back in the house a strange noise every nerve of the horses was strained as they dashed recklessly along the road the two men held mimi between them the arms of both of them round her as though protectingly
as they went there was a sudden rise in the ground but the horses breathing heavily dashed up it at racing speed not slackening their pace when the hill fell away again leaving them to hurry along the downgrade
it would be foolish to say that neither adam nor mimi had any fear in returning to doom tower mimi felt it more keenly than her husband whose nerves were harder and who was more inured to danger still she bore up bravely
and as usual the effort was helpful to her when once she was in the study in the top of the turret she almost forgot the terrors which lay outside in the dark she did not attempt to peep out of the window but adam did and saw nothing
the moonlight showed all the surrounding country but nowhere was to be observed that tremulous line of green light the peaceful night had a good effect on them all danger being unseen seemed far off
at times it was hard to realise that it had ever been with courage restored adam rose early and walked along the brow seeing no change in the signs of life in castra regis what he did see to his wonder and concern
on his returning homeward was lady arabella in her tight fitting white dress and ermine collar but without her emeralds she was emerging from the gate of diana's grove and walking towards the castle
pondering on this and trying to find some meaning in it occupied his thoughts till he joined mimi and sir nathaniel at breakfast they began the meal in silence what had been had been and was known to them all moreover it was not a pleasant topic
a fillip was given to the conversation when adam told of his seeing lady arabella on her way to castra regis they each had something to say of her and of what her wishes or intentions were towards edgar caswall
mimi spoke bitterly of her in every aspect she had not forgotten and never would never could the occasion when to harm lilla the woman had consorted even with the nigger
as a social matter she was disgusted with her for following up the rich landowner throwing herself at his head so shamelessly was how she expressed it she was interested to know that the great kite still flew from caswall's tower
but beyond such matters she did not try to go the only comment she made was of strongly expressed surprise at her ladyship's cheek in ignoring her own criminal acts and her impudence in taking it for granted that others had overlooked them also
chapter twenty four a startling proposition the more mimi thought over the late events the more puzzled she was what did it all mean what could it mean except that there was an error of fact somewhere
could it be possible that some of them all of them had been mistaken that there had been no white worm at all on either side of her was a belief impossible of reception not to believe in what seemed apparent was to destroy the very foundations of belief
yet in old days there had been monsters on the earth and certainly some people had believed in just such mysterious changes of identity it was all very strange just fancy how any stranger say a doctor
would regard her if she were to tell him that she had been to a tea party with an antediluvian monster
adam had returned exhilarated by his walk and more settled in his mind than he had been for some time like mimi he had gone through the phase of doubt and inability to believe in the reality of things though it had not affected him to the same extent
the idea however that his wife was suffering ill effects from her terrible ordeal braced him up he remained with her for a time then he sought sir nathaniel in order to talk over the matter with him
he knew that the calm common sense and self reliance of the old man as well as his experience would be helpful to them all sir nathaniel had come to the conclusion that for some reason which he did not understand lady arabella had changed her plans
and for the present at all events was pacific he was inclined to attribute her changed demeanour to the fact that her influence over edgar caswall was so far increased as to justify a more fixed belief in his submission to her charms
she had seen caswall that morning when she visited castra regis
caswall without being enthusiastic on the subject had been courteous and attentive as she had walked back to diana's grove she almost congratulated herself on her new settlement in life that the idea was becoming fixed in her mind
was shown by a letter which she wrote later in the day to adam salton and sent to him by hand it ran as follows
i wonder if you would kindly advise and if possible help me in a matter of business i have been for some time trying to make up my mind to sell diana's grove i have put off and put off the doing of it till now
the place is my own property and no one has to be consulted with regard to what i may wish to do about it it was bought by my late husband captain adolphus ranger march who had another residence the crest appleby
he acquired all rights of all kinds including mining and sporting when he died he left his whole property to me i shall feel leaving this place which has become endeared to me by many sacred memories and affections
the recollection of many happy days of my young married life and the more than happy memories of the man i loved and who loved me so much i should be willing to sell the place for any fair price so long of course
as the purchaser was one i liked and of whom i approved may i say that you yourself would be the ideal person but i dare not hope for so much it strikes me however that among your australian friends
may be someone who wishes to make a settlement in the old country and would care to fix the spot in one of the most historic regions in england full of romance and legend and with a never ending vista of historical interest an estate which though small
is in perfect condition and with illimitable possibilities of development and many doubtful or unsettled rights which have existed before the time of the romans or even celts who were the original possessors in addition
immediate possession can be arranged my lawyers can provide you or whoever you may suggest with all business and historical details
and we can leave details to be thrashed out by our agents forgive me won't you for troubling you in the matter and believe me yours very sincerely arabella march adam read this over several times and then his mind being made up
he went to mimi and asked if she had any objection she answered after a shudder that she was in this as in all things willing to do whatever he might wish
be quite free to act as you see your duty and as your inclination calls we are in the hands of god and he has hitherto guided us and will do so to his own end from his wife's room adam salton went straight to the study in the tower
where he knew sir nathaniel would be at that hour the old man was alone so when he had entered in obedience to the come in which answered his query he closed the door and sat down beside him do you think sir
that it would be well for me to buy diana's grove god bless my soul said the old man startled
well i have vowed to destroy that white worm and my being able to do whatever i may choose with the lair would facilitate matters and avoid complications sir nathaniel hesitated longer than usual before speaking he was thinking deeply
yes adam there is much common sense in your suggestion though it startled me at first i think that for all reasons you would do well to buy the property and to have the conveyance settled at once if you want more money than is immediately convenient
let me know so that i may be your banker thank you sir most heartily but i have more money at immediate call than i shall want i am glad you approve the property is historic and as time goes on it will increase in value
moreover i may tell you something which indeed is only a surmise but which if i am right will add great value to the place adam listened has it ever struck you why the old name the lair of the white worm was given
we know that there was a snake which in early days was called a worm but why white i really don't know sir i never thought of it i simply took it for granted so did i at first long ago
but later i puzzled my brain for a reason and what was the reason sir simply and solely because the snake or worm was white we are near the county of stafford where the great industry of china burning was originated and grew
stafford owes much of its wealth to the large deposits of the rare china clay found in it from time to time these deposits become in time pretty well exhausted but for centuries stafford adventurers looked for the special clay
as ohio and pennsylvania farmers and explorers looked for oil anyone owning real estate on which china clay can be discovered strikes a sort of gold mine yes and then the young man looked puzzled
the original worm so called from which the name of the place came
now the clay is easily penetrable and the original hole probably pierced a bed of china clay when once the way was made it would become a sort of highway for the worm but as much movement was necessary to ascend such a great height
some of the clay would become attached to its rough skin by attrition the downway must have been easy work but the ascent was different and when the monster came to view in the upper world it would be fresh from contact with the white clay hence the name
which has no cryptic significance but only fact now if that surmise be true and i do not see why not there must be a deposit of valuable clay possibly of immense depth adam's comment pleased the old gentleman
i have it in my bones sir that you have struck or rather reasoned out a great truth sir nathaniel went on cheerfully
it will be as well that your title to ownership has been perfectly secured if anyone ever deserved such a gain it is you with his friend's aid adam secured the property without loss of time then he went to see his uncle and told him about it
mister salton was delighted to find his young relative already constructively the owner of so fine an estate one which gave him an important status in the county he made many anxious enquiries about mimi and the doings of the white worm but adam reassured him
the next morning when adam went to his host in the smoking room sir nathaniel asked him how he purposed to proceed with regard to keeping his vow
to destroy such a monster is something like one of the labours of hercules in that not only its size and weight and power of using them in little known ways are against you but the occult side is alone an unsurpassable difficulty
the worm is already master of all the elements except fire and i do not see how fire can be used for the attack it has only to sink into the earth in its usual way and you could not overtake it if you had the resources of the biggest coal mine in existence
but i daresay you have mapped out some plan in your mind he added courteously i have sir but of course it may not stand the test of practice may i know the idea well sir this was my argument
at the time of the chartist trouble an idea spread amongst financial circles that an attack was going to be made on the bank of england accordingly the directors of that institution consulted many persons who were supposed to know what steps should be taken
and it was finally decided that the best protection against fire which is what was feared was not water but sand to carry the scheme into practice great store of fine sea sand the kind that blows about and is used to fill hour glasses
was provided throughout the building especially at the points liable to attack from which it could be brought into use
an enormous amount of such sand
which it will in time choke thus lady arabella in her guise of the white worm will find herself cut off from her refuge the hole is a narrow one and is some hundreds of feet deep the weight of the sand this can contain would not in itself be sufficient to obstruct
but the friction of such a body working up against it would be tremendous one moment what use would the sand be for destruction none directly but it would hold the struggling body in place till the rest of my scheme came into practice and what is the rest
good but how would the dynamite explode for of course that is what you intend
that was proved in new york a thousand pounds of dynamite in sealed canisters was placed about some workings at the last a charge of gunpowder was fired and the concussion exploded the dynamite it was most successful
those who were non experts in high explosives expected that every pane of glass in new york would be shattered but in reality the explosive did no harm outside the area intended although sixteen acres of rock had been mined
and only the supporting walls and pillars had been left intact the whole of the rocks were shattered sir nathaniel nodded approval
a very excellent one but if it has to tear down so many feet of precipice it may wreck the whole neighbourhood
meanwhile the count had arrived at his house
but these six minutes were sufficient to induce twenty young men who knew the price of the equipage they had been unable to purchase themselves to put their horses in a gallop in order to see the rich foreigner who could afford to give twenty thousand francs apiece for his horses
the house ali had chosen and which was to serve as a town residence to monte cristo
around this shrubbery two alleys like two arms extended right and left and formed a carriage drive from the iron gates to a double portico on every step of which stood a porcelain vase filled with flowers this house isolated from the rest had
besides the main entrance another in the rue ponthieu even before the coachman had hailed the concierge the massy gates rolled on their hinges they had seen the count coming and at paris as everywhere else he was served with the rapidity of lightning
the coachman entered and traversed the half circle without slackening his speed and the gates were closed ere the wheels had ceased to sound on the gravel
two men presented themselves at the carriage window the one was ali who smiling with an expression of the most sincere joy seemed amply repaid by a mere look from monte cristo the other bowed respectfully and offered his arm to assist the count in descending
and the notary he is in the small salon excellency returned bertuccio and the cards i ordered to be engraved as soon as you knew the number of the house your excellency it is done already
who did the plate in my presence the first card struck off was taken according to your orders
the others are on the mantle piece of your excellency's bedroom good what o'clock is it four o'clock
these are but indifferent marbles in this ante chamber said monte cristo i trust all this will soon be taken away bertuccio bowed as the steward had said the notary awaited him in the small salon he was a simple looking lawyer's clerk
elevated to the extraordinary dignity of a provincial scrivener you are the notary empowered to sell the country house that i wish to purchase monsieur asked monte cristo yes count returned the notary is the deed of sale ready yes count
have you brought it here it is very well and where is this house that i purchase asked the count carelessly addressing himself half to bertuccio half to the notary the steward made a gesture that signified
the notary looked at the count with astonishment what said he
no returned the count the count does not know how should i know i have arrived from cadiz this morning i have never before been at paris and it is the first time i have ever even set my foot in france ah that is different
at these words bertuccio turned pale
close by here monsieur replied the notary a little beyond passy a charming situation in the heart of the bois de boulogne so near as that said the count but that is not in the country
i cried the steward with a strange expression his excellency did not charge me to purchase this house if his excellency will recollect if he will think ah true observed monte cristo
it is more it is magnificent peste let us not lose such an opportunity returned monte cristo the deed if you please mister notary
and he signed it rapidly after having first run his eye over that part of the deed in which were specified the situation of the house and the names of the proprietors bertuccio said he give fifty five thousand francs to monsieur the steward left the room with a faltering step
and returned with a bundle of bank notes which the notary counted like a man who never gives a receipt for money until after he is sure it is all there and now demanded the count are all the forms complied with all sir have you the keys
they are in the hands of the concierge who takes care of the house but here is the order i have given him to install the count in his new possessions very well and monte cristo made a sign with his hand to the notary which said i have no further need of you you may go
but observed the honest notary the count is i think mistaken it is only fifty thousand francs everything included and your fee is included in this sum
yes certainly well then it is but fair that you should be paid for your loss of time and trouble said the count and he made a gesture of polite dismissal the notary left the room backwards and bowing down to the ground
it was the first time he had ever met a similar client see this gentleman out said the count to bertuccio and the steward followed the notary out of the room scarcely was the count alone when he drew from his pocket a book closed with a lock
and opened it with a key which he wore round his neck and which never left him after having sought for a few minutes he stopped at a leaf which had several notes and compared them with the deed of sale which lay on the table
is indeed the same said he
however in an hour i shall know all bertuccio cried he striking a light hammer with a pliant handle on a small gong bertuccio the steward appeared at the door monsieur bertuccio said the count did you never tell me that you had travelled in france
in some parts of france yes excellency you know the environs of paris then no excellency no returned the steward with a sort of nervous trembling which monte cristo a connoisseur in all emotions rightly attributed to great disquietude
it is unfortunate returned he that you have never visited the environs for i wish to see my new property this evening and had you gone with me you could have given me some useful information
well what is there surprising in that when i live at auteuil you must come there as you belong to my service bertuccio hung down his head before the imperious look of his master and remained motionless without making any answer
why what has happened to you are you going to make me ring a second time for the carriage asked monte cristo
i have been almost obliged to wait bertuccio made but one bound to the ante chamber and cried in a hoarse voice his excellency's horses monte cristo wrote two or three notes and as he sealed the last the steward appeared
your excellency's carriage is at the door said he well take your hat and gloves returned monte cristo am i to accompany you your excellency cried bertuccio
chapter twenty three paul cannot find the rock people life was very pleasant in avonlea that summer although anne amid all her vacation joys was haunted by a sense of something gone which should be there
she would not admit even in her inmost reflections that this was caused by gilbert's absence but when she had to walk home alone from prayer meetings and a v i s pow wows
while diana and fred and many other gay couples loitered along the dusky starlit country roads there was a queer lonely ache in her heart which she could not explain away gilbert did not even write to her as she thought he might have done
and diana supposing that anne heard from him volunteered no information gilbert's mother who was a gay frank light hearted lady but not overburdened with tact had a very embarrassing habit of asking anne
always in a painfully distinct voice and always in the presence of a crowd if she had heard from gilbert lately poor anne could only blush horribly and murmur not very lately which was taken by all missus blythe included to be merely a maidenly evasion
apart from this anne enjoyed her summer priscilla came for a merry visit in june
paul and charlotta the fourth came home for july and august echo lodge was the scene of gaieties once more and the echoes over the river were kept busy mimicking the laughter that rang in the old garden behind the spruces
paul adored her and the companionship between them was beautiful to see but i don't call her mother just by itself he explained to anne you see that name belongs just to my own little mother and i can't give it to any one else you know teacher
but i call her mother lavendar and i love her next best to father i i even love her a little better than you teacher
paul was thirteen now and very tall for his years his face and eyes were as beautiful as ever and his fancy was still like a prism separating everything that fell upon it into rainbows he and anne had delightful rambles to wood and field and shore
never were there two more thoroughly kindred spirits charlotta the fourth had blossomed out into young ladyhood she wore her hair now in an enormous pompador and had discarded the blue ribbon bows of auld lang syne
but her face was as freckled her nose as snubbed and her mouth and smiles as wide as ever you don't think i talk with a yankee accent do you miss shirley ma'am she demanded anxiously i don't notice it charlotta i'm real glad of that
they said i did at home but i thought likely they just wanted to aggravate me i don't want no yankee accent
they're real civilized but give me old p e island every time paul spent his first fortnight with his grandmother irving in avonlea anne was there to meet him when he came and found him wild with eagerness to get to the shore nora and the golden lady and the twin sailors would be there
he could hardly wait to eat his supper could he not see nora's elfin face peering around the point watching for him wistfully but it was a very sober paul who came back from the shore in the twilight didn't you find your rock people asked anne
paul shook his chestnut curls sorrowfully the twin sailors and the golden lady never came at all he said nora was there but nora is not the same teacher she is changed oh paul it is you who are changed said anne
you have grown too old for the rock people they like only children for playfellows i am afraid the twin sailors will never again come to you in the pearly enchanted boat with the sail of moonshine and the golden lady will play no more for you on her golden harp even nora will not meet you much longer
you must pay the penalty of growing up paul you must leave fairyland behind you you two talk as much foolishness as ever you did said old missus irving half indulgently half reprovingly oh no we don't said anne
we are getting very very wise and it is such a pity
it doesn't seem a day since i came home that spring evening with the mayflowers when i was little i couldn't see from one end of the summer to the other it stretched before me like an unending season now tis a handbreadth tis a tale
i am just as much gilbert's friend as ever i was miss lavendar
i see something's gone wrong anne i'm going to be impertinent and ask what have you quarrelled no it's only that gilbert wants more than friendship and i can't give him more are you sure of that anne perfectly sure
i'm very very sorry i wonder why everybody seems to think i ought to marry gilbert blythe said anne petulantly
in the already cordial relations between captain blood and the governor of tortuga at the fine stone house with its green jalousied windows
in a spacious and luxuriant garden to the east of cayona the captain became a very welcome guest
pieces of eight which he had provided for mademoiselle's ransom and shrewd hard bargain driver though he might be
this he now proved in every possible way and under his powerful protection the credit of captain blood among the buccaneers very rapidly reached its zenith so when it came to fitting out his fleet
and the appointment was confirmed by the men it was some months after the rescue of mademoiselle d'ogeron in august of that year sixteen eighty seven that this little fleet after some minor adventures which i pass over in silence
sailed into the great lake of maracaybo and effected its raid upon that opulent city of the main the affair did not proceed exactly as was hoped and blood's force came to find itself in a precarious position
this is best explained in the words employed by cahusac which pitt has carefully recorded in the course of an altercation that broke out
on the steps of the church of nuestra senora del carmen which captain blood had impiously appropriated for the purpose of a corps de garde i have said already that he was a papist only when it suited him
the dispute was being conducted by hagthorpe wolverstone and pitt on the one side and cahusac out of whose uneasiness it all arose on the other behind them in the sun scorched dusty square
sparsely fringed by palms whose fronds drooped listlessly in the quivering heat surged a couple of hundred wild fellows belonging to both parties their own excitement momentarily quelled
so that they might listen to what passed among their leaders cahusac appeared to be having it all his own way and he raised his harsh querulous voice so that all might hear his truculent denunciation he spoke
pitt tells us a dreadful kind of english which the shipmaster however makes little attempt to reproduce his dress was as discordant as his speech it was of a kind to advertise his trade
and the almost foppish daintiness of jeremy pitt his soiled and blood stained shirt of blue cotton was open in front to cool his hairy breast and the girdle about the waist of his leather breeches
whilst a cutlass hung from a leather baldrick loosely slung about his body above his countenance broad and flat as a mongolian's
turban wise about his head is it that i have not warned you from the beginning that all was too easy he demanded between plaintiveness and fury i am no fool my friends
and i see i see an abandoned fort at the entrance of the lake and nobody there to fire a gun at us when we came in then i suspect the trap who would not that had eyes and brain bah we come on
what do we find a city abandoned like the fort a city out of which
again i warn captain blood it is a trap i say we are to come on always to come on without opposition until we find that it is too late to go to sea again that we cannot go back at all
but no one will listen to me you all know so much more name of god captain blood he will go on and we go on we go to gibraltar true that at last after long time we catch the deputy governor
true we make him pay big ransom for gibraltar
we return here with some two thousand pieces of eight but what is it in reality will you tell me or shall i tell you it is a piece of cheese a piece of cheese in a mousetrap and we are the little mice goddam and the cats oh
the cats they wait for us the cats are those four spanish ships of war that have come meantime and they wait for us outside the bottle neck of this lagoon
wolverstone laughed cahusac exploded in fury
came an angry rumble of approval the single eye of the gigantic wolverstone rolled terribly and he clenched his great fists as if to strike the frenchman who was exposing them to mutiny but cahusac was not daunted
the mood of the men enheartened him you think perhaps this your captain blood is the good god that he can make miracles eh he is ridiculous you know this captain blood with his grand air and his
he checked out of the church at that moment grand air and all sauntered peter blood with him came a tough long legged french sea wolf named yberville
who though still young had already won fame as a privateer commander before the loss of his own ship had driven him to take service under blood the captain advanced towards that disputing group
leaning lightly upon his long ebony cane his face shaded by a broad plumed hat there was in his appearance nothing of the buccaneer he had much more the air of a lounger
the latter rather since his elegant suit of violet taffetas with gold embroidered button holes was in the spanish fashion but the long stout serviceable rapier thrust up behind by the left hand
resting lightly on the pummel corrected the impression that and those steely eyes of his announced the adventurer you find me ridiculous eh cahusac said he as he came to a halt
what then must i find you he spoke quietly almost wearily
but whose is the fault of that delay we have been a month in doing what should have been done
in the middle of the lake you would not be piloted you knew your way
in getting canoes to bring off your men and your gear those three days gave the folk at gibraltar not only time to hear of our coming but time in which to get away after that and because of it we had to follow the governor to his infernal island fortress
round from la guayra by a guarda costa and if ye hadn't lost la foudre and so reduced our fleet from three ships to two we should even now be able to fight our way through with a reasonable hope of succeeding yet you think it is for you to come hectoring here
he spoke with a restraint which i trust you will agree was admirable when i tell you that the spanish fleet guarding the bottle neck exit of the great lake of maracaybo and awaiting there the coming forth of captain blood
with a calm confidence based upon its overwhelming strength was commanded by his implacable enemy
the admiral of spain in addition to his duty to his country the admiral had as you know a further personal incentive arising out of that business aboard the encarnacion a year ago and the death of his brother
don diego and with him sailed his nephew esteban whose vindictive zeal exceeded the admiral's own yet knowing all this captain blood could preserve his calm in reproving the cowardly frenzy of one for whom the situation
had not half the peril with which it was fraught for himself he turned from cahusac to address the mob of buccaneers who had surged nearer to hear him for he had not troubled to raise his voice
sure now there's no question at all said captain blood indeed but there is cahusac insisted don miguel the spanish admiral have offer us safe passage to sea if we will depart at once do no damage to the town
release our prisoners and surrender all that we took at gibraltar captain blood smiled quietly knowing precisely how much don miguel's word was worth it was yberville who replied in manifest scorn of his compatriot
behind enheartened him you have refuse you have refuse already and without consulting me
wish to avail yourselves of the spaniard's terms we shall not hinder you
don miguel will welcome your decision you may be sure
then having controlled himself
precisely what answer have you make to the admiral a smile irradiated the face and eyes of captain blood i have answered him that unless within four and twenty hours we have his parole to stand out to sea
ceasing to dispute our passage or hinder our departure and a ransom of fifty thousand pieces of eight for maracaybo we shall reduce this beautiful city to ashes and thereafter go out and destroy his fleet
the impudence of it left cahusac speechless
even cahusac's french followers were carried off their feet by that wave of jocular enthusiasm until in his truculent obstinacy cahusac remained the only dissentient he withdrew in mortification
nor was he to be mollified until the following day brought him his revenge this came in the shape of a messenger from don miguel with a letter in which the spanish admiral solemnly vowed to god that
he would so soon as he was reenforced by a fifth ship the santo nino on its way to join him from la guayra himself come inside to seek them at maracaybo this time captain blood was put out of temper
trouble me no more he snapped at cahusac who came growling to him again send word to don miguel
they however were torn between greed and apprehension if they went they must abandon their share of the plunder which was considerable as well as the slaves and other prisoners they had taken if they did this and captain blood
should afterwards contrive to get away unscathed and from their knowledge of his resourcefulness the thing however unlikely need not be impossible he must profit by that which they now relinquished this was a contingency too bitter for contemplation
and so in the end despite all that cahusac could say the surrender was not to don miguel but to peter blood they had come into the venture with him they asserted and they would go out of it with him or not at all
that was the message he received from them that same evening by the sullen mouth of cahusac himself he welcomed it and invited the breton to sit down and join the council which was even then deliberating upon the means to be employed
which captain blood had appropriated to his own uses a cloistered stone quadrangle in the middle of which a fountain played coolly under a trellis of vine orange trees grew on two sides of it
and the still evening air was heavy with the scent of them it was one of those pleasant exterior interiors which moorish architects had introduced to spain and the spaniards had carried with them to the new world
here that council of war composed of six men in all deliberated until late that night upon the plan of action which captain blood put forward the great freshwater lake of maracaybo
nourished by a score of rivers from the snow capped ranges that surround it on two sides is some hundred and twenty miles in length and almost the same distance across at its widest it is as has been indicated in the shape of a great bottle
having its neck towards the sea at maracaybo beyond this neck it widens again and then the two long narrow strips of land known as the islands of vigilias and palomas block the channel standing lengthwise across it
by any but the shallowest craft save at its eastern end where completely commanding the narrow passage out to sea stands the massive fort which the buccaneers had found deserted upon their coming in the broader water between this passage and the bar
the four spanish ships were at anchor in mid channel the admiral's encarnacion which we already know was a mighty galleon of forty eight great guns and eight small next in importance was the salvador with thirty six guns
though smaller vessels were still formidable enough with their twenty guns and a hundred and fifty men apiece such was the fleet of which the gauntlet was to be run by captain blood
and two sloops captured at gibraltar which they had indifferently armed with four culverins each
complacently he pulled at a pipe that was loaded with that fragrant sacerdotes tobacco for which gibraltar was famous and of which
and what is more they've succeeded
bedad they knew their world the old romans he breathed into his companions and even into cahusac some of his own spirit of confidence and in confidence all went busily to work for three days from sunrise to sunset
the buccaneers laboured and sweated to complete the preparations for the action that was to procure them their deliverance time pressed they must strike before don miguel de espinosa
which was coming to join him from la guayra their principal operations were on the larger of the two sloops captured at gibraltar to which vessel was assigned the leading part in captain blood's scheme they began by tearing down all bulkheads
next they increased by a half dozen the scuttles in her deck whilst into her hull they packed all the tar and pitch and brimstone that they could find in the town to which they added six barrels of gunpowder placed on end like guns
at the open ports on her larboard side on the evening of the fourth day everything being now in readiness all were got aboard and the empty pleasant city of maracaybo was at last abandoned but they did not weigh anchor until some two hours after midnight
then at last on the first of the ebb they drifted silently down towards the bar with all canvas furled save only their spiltsails which so as to give them steering way were spread to the faint breeze
that stirred through the purple darkness of the tropical night
ahead went the improvised fire ship in charge of wolverstone with a crew of six volunteers each of whom was to have a hundred pieces of eight over and above his share of plunder as a special reward next came the arabella
she was followed at a distance by the elizabeth commanded by hagthorpe with whom was the now shipless cahusac and the bulk of his french followers
and some eight canoes aboard of which had been shipped the prisoners the slaves and most of the captured merchandise the prisoners were all pinioned and guarded by four buccaneers with musketoons
who manned these boats in addition to the two fellows who were to sail them their place was to be in the rear
it is unlikely that they used a vigilance keener than their careless habit certain it is that they did not sight blood's fleet in that dim light
just as the slight vessel went crashing and bumping and scraping against the side of the flagship whilst rigging became tangled with rigging
his six men stood at their posts on the larboard side stark naked each armed with a grapnel four of them on the gunwale two of them aloft at the moment of impact these grapnels were slung to bind the spaniard to them
aboard the rudely awakened galleon all was confused hurrying scurrying trumpeting and shouting at first there had been a desperately hurried attempt to get up the anchor but this was abandoned as being already too late
and conceiving themselves on the point of being boarded the spaniards stood to arms to ward off the onslaught its slowness in coming intrigued them
and then one of their officers rendered reckless by panic
the nearest gaping scuttle into the hold and thereupon dived overboard in his turn to be picked up presently by the longboat from the arabella but before that happened the sloop was a thing of fire from which explosions were hurling blazing combustibles
and long tongues of flame were licking out to consume the galleon beating back those daring spaniards who too late
blood had sailed in to open fire upon the salvador first athwart her hawse he had loosed a broadside that had swept her decks with terrific effect then going on and about
he had put a second broadside into her hull at short range leaving her thus half crippled temporarily at least and keeping to his course he had bewildered the crew of the infanta by a couple of shots from the chasers on his beak head
then crashed alongside to grapple and board her whilst hagthorpe was doing the like by the san felipe and in all this time not a single shot had the spaniards contrived to fire so completely had they been taken by surprise
and so swift and paralyzing had been blood's stroke boarded now and faced by the cold steel of the buccaneers
offered much resistance the sight of their admiral in flames and the salvador drifting crippled from the action had so utterly disheartened them that they accounted themselves vanquished and laid down their arms if by a resolute stand the salvador
had encouraged the other two undamaged vessels to resistance the spaniards might well have retrieved the fortunes of the day but it happened that the salvador was handicapped in true spanish fashion by being the treasure ship of the fleet
intent above all upon saving this from falling into the hands of the pirates don miguel who with a remnant of his crew had meanwhile transferred himself aboard her headed her down towards palomas and the fort that guarded the passage
this fort the admiral in those days of waiting had taken the precaution secretly to garrison and rearm for the purpose he had stripped the fort of cojero farther out on the gulf of its entire armament
which included some cannon royal of more than ordinary range and power with no suspicion of this captain blood gave chase accompanied by the infanta which was manned now by a prize crew under the command of yberville
the stern chasers of the salvador desultorily
but such was the damage she herself sustained that presently coming under the guns of the fort she began to sink and finally settled down in the shallows with part of her hull above water thence some in boats and some by swimming
the admiral got his crew ashore on palomas as best he could and then just as captain blood accounted the victory won and that his way out of that trap to the open sea beyond lay clear the fort suddenly revealed its formidable
and utterly unsuspected strength with a roar the cannons royal proclaimed themselves and the arabella staggered under a blow that smashed her bulwarks at the waist and scattered death and confusion among the seamen gathered there
had not pitt her master himself seized the whipstaff and put the helm hard over to swing her sharply off to starboard she must have suffered still worse from the second volley that followed fast upon the first
although hit by one shot only this had crushed her larboard timbers on the waterline starting a leak that must presently have filled her but for the prompt action of the experienced yberville in ordering her larboard guns to be flung overboard
thus lightened and listing now to starboard he fetched her about
which did them however little further damage out of range at last they lay to
with a skill of which he might justly be proud having destroyed a force so superior in ships and guns and men that don miguel de espinosa had justifiably deemed it overwhelming
his victory was rendered barren by three lucky shots from an unsuspected battery by which they had been surprised and barren must their victory remain until they could reduce the fort that still remained to defend the passage
at first captain blood was for putting his ships in order and making the attempt there and then but the others dissuaded him from betraying an impetuosity usually foreign to him and born entirely of chagrin and mortification
emotions which will render unreasonable the most reasonable of men with returning calm he surveyed the situation
was almost as sorely damaged by the fire she had sustained from the buccaneers before surrendering clearly then he was compelled to admit in the end that nothing remained
there to refit the ships before attempting to force the passage and so back to maracaybo came those defeated victors of that short terrible fight and if anything had been wanting further to exasperate their leader
he had it in the pessimism of which cahusac did not economize expressions transported at first to heights of dizzy satisfaction by the swift and easy victory of their inferior force that morning
the frenchman was now plunged back and more deeply than ever into the abyss of hopelessness and his mood infected at least the main body of his own followers it is the end he told captain blood this time we are checkmated
i am looking at it said cahusac pish
you call me a coward i'll take that liberty the breton glared at him breathing hard but he had no mind to ask satisfaction for the insult he knew too well the kind of satisfaction
that captain blood was likely to afford him he remembered the fate of levasseur so he confined himself to words it is too much you go too far he complained bitterly look you cahusac
it's sick and tired i am of your perpetual whining and complaining when things are not as smooth as a convent dining table if ye wanted things smooth and easy ye shouldn't have taken to the sea
for with me things are never smooth and easy and that i think is all i have to say to you this morning cahusac flung away cursing and went to take the feeling of his men captain blood went off to give his surgeon's skill to the wounded
in purest castilian to don miguel i have shown your excellency this morning of what i am capable he wrote although outnumbered by more than two to one in men in ships and in guns
i have sunk or captured the vessels of the great fleet with which you were to come to maracaybo to destroy us so that you are no longer in case to carry out your boast even when your reenforcements on the santo nino reach you from la guayra
from what has occurred you may judge of what must occur i should not trouble your excellency with this letter but that i am a humane man abhorring bloodshed therefore
before proceeding to deal with your fort which you may deem invincible as i have dealt already with your fleet which you deemed invincible i make you purely out of humanitarian considerations this last offer of terms
i will spare this city of maracaybo and forthwith evacuate it leaving behind me the forty prisoners i have taken in consideration of your paying me the sum of fifty thousand pieces of eight
and one hundred head of cattle as a ransom thereafter granting me unmolested passage of the bar my prisoners most of whom are persons of consideration i will retain as hostages until after my departure
sending them back in the canoes which we shall take with us for that purpose if your excellency should be so ill advised as to refuse these terms and thereby impose upon me the necessity
of reducing your fort at the cost of some lives i warn you that you may expect no quarter from us and that i shall begin by leaving a heap of ashes where this pleasant city of maracaybo now stands the letter written
he bade them bring him from among the prisoners the deputy governor of maracaybo who had been taken at gibraltar disclosing its contents to him he despatched him with it to don miguel
his choice of a messenger was shrewd the deputy governor was of all men the most anxious for the deliverance of his city the one man who on his own account would plead most fervently for its preservation at all costs
from the fate with which captain blood was threatening it and as he reckoned so it befell the deputy governor added his own passionate pleading to the proposals of the letter but don miguel was of stouter heart
true his fleet had been partly destroyed and partly captured but then he argued he had been taken utterly by surprise that should not happen again there should be no surprising the fort
let captain blood do his worst at maracaybo there should be a bitter reckoning for him when eventually he decided as sooner or later decide he must to come forth the deputy governor was flung into panic he lost his temper
and said some hard things to the admiral but they were not as hard as the thing the admiral said to him in answer had you been as loyal to your king in hindering the entrance of these cursed pirates
so weary me no more with your coward counsels i make no terms with captain blood i know my duty to my king and i intend to perform it i also know my duty to myself i have a private score with this rascal
and i intend to settle it take you that message back so back to maracaybo back to his own handsome house in which captain blood had established his quarters
and is it like that said captain blood with a quiet smile though the heart of him sank at this failure of his bluster
which was his own to lose this pleasant city of maracaybo isn't so no doubt he'll lose it with fewer misgivings i am sorry waste like bloodshed is a thing abhorrent to me but there ye are
i'll have the faggots to the place in the morning and maybe when he sees the blaze to morrow night he'll begin to believe that peter blood is a man of his word ye may go don francisco the deputy governor went out with dragging feet
followed by guards his momentary truculence utterly spent but no sooner had he departed than up leapt cahusac
as he held them out in protest death of my life what have you to say now he cried his voice husky and without waiting to hear what it might be he raved on i knew you not frighten the admiral so easy
your fool letter it have seal the doom of us all have ye done quoth blood quietly as the frenchman paused for breath no i have not then spare me the rest it'll be of the same quality devil a doubt
and it doesn't help us to solve the riddle that's before us
but since ye're so desperately concerned to save your skin you and those that think like you are welcome to leave us i've no doubt at all the spanish admiral will welcome the abatement of our numbers
ye shall have the sloop as a parting gift from us and ye can join don miguel in the fort for all i care or for all the good ye're likely to be to us in this present pass it is to my men to decide cahusac retorted swallowing his fury
leaving the others to deliberate in peace next morning early he sought captain blood again he found him alone in the patio pacing to and fro his head sunk on his breast cahusac
mistook consideration for dejection each of us carries in himself a standard by which to measure his neighbour we have take you at your word captain he announced between sullenness and defiance captain blood paused
shoulders hunched hands behind his back and mildly regarded the buccaneer in silence cahusac explained himself last night i send one of my men to the spanish admiral with a letter
if he will accord us passage with the honours of war this morning i receive his answer he accord us this on the understanding that we carry nothing away with us
we sail at once bon voyage said captain blood
mutilation by crowding the same curse of suffering vitiates agrippa's ingenious parable and the joyful humility of dante's celestial friends and renders both equally irrelevant to human conditions
nature may arrange her hierarchies as she chooses
that interrelation is no injury to any part and an added beauty in the whole
in attaining its own end to make the attainments of the others ends possible to them also an approach to such an equilibrium has actually been reached in some respects by the rough sifting of miscellaneous organisms
until those that were compatible alone remained but nature in her haste to be fertile wants to produce everything at once and her distracted industry has brought about terrible confusion and waste and terrible injustice
she has been led to punish her ministers for the services they render and her favourites for the honours they receive she has imposed suffering on her creatures together with life she has defeated her own objects and vitiated her bounty
by letting every good do harm and bring evil in its train to some unsuspecting creature this oppression is the moral stain that attaches to aristocracy and makes it truly unjust every privilege that imposes suffering involves a wrong
not only does aristocracy lay on the world a tax in labour and privation that its own splendours intellectual and worldly may arise
it infects intelligence and grandeur with inhumanity and renders corrupt and odious that pre eminence which should have been divine the lower classes in submitting to the hardship and meanness of their lives
which to be sure might have been harder and meaner had no aristocracy existed must upbraid their fellow men for profiting by their ill fortune and therefore having an interest in perpetuating it instead of the brutal but innocent injustice of nature
what they suffer from is the sly injustice of men and though the suffering be less for the worst of men is human the injury is more sensible the inclemencies and dangers men must endure in a savage state in scourging them
would not have profited by that cruelty but suffering has an added sting when it enables others to be exempt from care and to live like the gods in irresponsible ease the inequality which would have been innocent and even beautiful in a happy world
becomes in a painful world a bitter wrong
it would be a happy relief to the aristocrat's conscience when he possesses one could he learn from some yet bolder descartes that common people were nothing
and that only a groundless prejudice had hitherto led us to suppose that life could exist where evidently nothing good could be attained by living if all unfortunate people could be proved to be unconscious automata what a brilliant justification
that would be for the ways of both god and man philosophy would not lack arguments to support such an agreeable conclusion beginning with the axiom that whatever is is right
that consciousness is something self existent and indubitably real therefore he would contend it must be self justifying and indubitably good and he might continue by saying that a slave's life was not its own excuse for being
nor were the labours of a million drudges otherwise justified than by the conveniences which they supplied their masters with ergo those servile operations could come to consciousness only where they attained their end
and the world could contain nothing but perfect and universal happiness a divine omniscience and joy shared by finite minds in so far as they might attain perfection would be the only life in existence and the notion that such a thing as pain
would forthwith vanish like the hideous and ridiculous illusion that it was this argument may be recommended to apologetic writers as no weaker than those they commonly rely on
but so long as people remain on what such an invaluable optimist might call the low level of sensuous thought and so long as we imagine that we exist and suffer an aristocratic regimen can only be justified
by radiating benefit and by proving that were less given to those above less would be attained by those beneath them such reversion of benefit might take a material form as when by commercial guidance and military protection
a greater net product is secured to labour even after all needful taxes have been levied upon it to support greatness an industrial and political oligarchy might defend itself on that ground or the return might take the less positive form of opportunity
as it does when an aristocratic society has a democratic government here the people neither accept guidance nor require protection but the existence of a rich and irresponsible class offers them an ideal such as it is
in their ambitious struggles for they too may grow rich exercise financial ascendancy educate their sons like gentlemen and launch their daughters into fashionable society finally
if the only aristocracy recognised were an aristocracy of achievement and if public rewards followed personal merit the reversion to the people might take the form of participation by them in the ideal interests of eminent men holiness
genius and knowledge can reverberate through all society the fruits of art and science are in themselves cheap and not to be monopolised or consumed in enjoyment on the contrary their wider diffusion stimulates their growth
and makes their cultivation more intense and successful when an ideal interest is general the share which falls to the private person is the more apt to be efficacious the saints have usually had companions
and artists and philosophers have flourished in schools at the same time ideal goods cannot be assimilated without some training and leisure like education and religion they are degraded by popularity
and reduced from what the master intended to what the people are able and willing to receive so pleasing an idea then as this of diffused ideal possessions has little application in a society aristocratically framed
for the greater eminence the few attain the less able are the many to follow them great thoughts require a great mind and pure beauties a profound sensibility to attempt to give such things a wide currency
in order to boast that they have been propagated culture is on the horns of this dilemma if profound and noble it must remain rare if common it must become mean these alternatives can never be eluded
until some purified and high bred race succeeds the promiscuous bipeds
adds wrong to nature's injury
like everything else has no practical force save that which mechanical causes endow it with its privileges are fruits of inevitable advantages its oppressions are simply new forms and vehicles
for nature's primeval cruelty while the benefits it may also confer are only further examples of her nice equilibrium and necessary harmony for it lies in the essence of a mechanical world where the interests of its products
are concerned to be fundamentally kind since it has formed and on the whole maintains those products and yet continually cruel since it forms and maintains them blindly without considering difficulties or probable failures
now the most tyrannical government like the best is a natural product maintained by an equilibrium of natural forces it is simply a new mode of mechanical energy to which the philosopher living under it must adjust himself
as he would to the weather but when the vehicle of nature's inclemency is a heartless man even if the harm done be less it puts on a new and a moral aspect the source of injury is then not only natural but criminal as well
and the result is a sense of wrong added to misfortune it must needs be that offence come but woe to him by whom the offence cometh he justly arouses indignation
now civilisation cannot afford to entangle its ideals with the causes of remorse and of just indignation in the first place nature in her slow and ponderous way
levels her processes and rubs off her sharp edges by perpetual friction where there is maladjustment there is no permanent physical stability therefore the ideal of society
can never involve the infliction of injury on anybody for any purpose such an ideal would propose for a goal something out of equilibrium a society which even if established could not maintain itself
but an ideal life must not tend to destroy its ideal by abolishing its own existence in the second place it is impossible on moral grounds that injustice should subsist in the ideal the ideal means the perfect
and a supposed ideal in which wrong still subsisted would be the denial of perfection the ideal state and the ideal universe should be a family where all are not equal but where all are happy
so that an aristocratic or theistic system in order to deserve respect must discard its sinister apologies for evil and clearly propose such an order of existences one superposed upon the other as should involve no suffering on any of its levels
the services required of each must involve no injury to any to perform them should be made the servant's spontaneous and specific ideal
because the one is in most cases the negative of the other and is used to relieve it exactly as shadow relieves light recess alternating with roll not only in lateral but in successive order
not merely side by side with each other but interrupted the one by the other in their own lines a recess itself has properly no decoration but its depth gives value to the decoration
which flanks encloses or interrupts it
for any mouldings which present to the eye somewhat the appearance of being cylindrical and look like round rods when upright they are in appearance if not in fact small shafts
and are a kind of bent shaft even when used in archivolts and traceries when horizontal they confuse themselves with cornices and are in fact generally to be considered
as the best means of drawing an architectural line in any direction the soft curve of their side obtaining some shadow at nearly all times of the day and that more tender and grateful to the eye
too slight for rich work and they frequently require
when the roll is small this is effected
by cutting pieces out of it giving in the simplest results what is called the norman billet moulding and when the cuts are given in couples and the pieces rounded into spheres and almonds
we have the ordinary greek bead both of them too well known to require illustration the norman billet we shall not meet with in venice
and of course in renaissance work
there is a remarkable example of its early treatment
if it be of any size deserves better treatment its rounded surface is too beautiful to be cut away in notches and it is rather to be covered with flat chasing or inlaid patterns thus ornamented it gradually blends itself with the true shaft
both in the romanesque work of the north and in the italian connected schools
as alternating with the recess it has a decoration peculiar to itself we have often in the preceding chapters noted the fondness of the northern builders for deep shade and hollowness in their mouldings
and in the second chapter of the seven lamps the changes are described which reduced the massive roll mouldings of the early gothic to a series of recesses separated by bars of light the shape of these recesses
is at present a matter of no importance to us it was indeed endlessly varied but needlessly for the value of a recess is in its darkness and its darkness disguises its form
but it was not in mere wanton indulgence of their love of shade that the flamboyant builders deepened the furrows of their mouldings they had found a means of decorating those furrows as rich as it was expressive
and the entire frame work of their architecture was designed with a view to the effect of this decoration where the ornament ceases the frame work is meagre and mean but the ornament is in the best examples of the style
an ornament formed by the ghosts or anatomies of the old shafts left in the furrows which had taken their place every here and there a fragment of a roll or shaft is left in the recess or furrow
a billet moulding on a huge scale but a billet moulding reduced to a skeleton for the fragments of roll are cut hollow and worked into mere entanglement of stony fibres with the gloom of the recess shown through them
these ghost rolls forming sometimes pedestals sometimes canopies sometimes covering the whole recess with an arch of tracery
the relations of the canopy to the statue it shelters are to be considered altogether distinctly from those of the canopy to the building which it decorates in its earliest conditions the canopy
is partly confused with representations of miniature architecture it is sometimes a small temple or gateway sometimes a honorary addition to the pomp of a saint
and this canopy is often expressed
as in painting without much reference to the great requirements of the building at other times it is a real protection to the statue and is enlarged into a complete pinnacle carried on proper shafts and boldly roofed
but in the late northern system the canopies are neither expressive nor protective they are a kind of stone lace work
with the ordinary forms of independent shrines and tombs but the general idea of all tabernacle work is marked in the common phrase of a niche that is to say a hollow intended for a statue and crowned by a canopy
and this niche decoration only reaches its full development when the flamboyant hollows are cut deepest and when the manner and spirit of sculpture had so much lost their purity and intensity
that it became desirable to draw the eye away from the statue to its covering so that at last the canopy became the more important of the two and is itself so beautiful that we are often contented with architecture
from which profanity has struck the statues if only the canopies are left and consequently in our modern ingenuity even set up canopies
in the recesses of architecture for the flamboyant recess was not so much a preparation for it as a gulf which swallowed it up when statues were most earnestly designed they were thrust forward in all kinds of places
often in front of the pillars
awkwardly enough but with manly respect to the purpose of the figures the flamboyant hollows yawned at their sides the statues fell back into them and nearly disappeared and a flash of flame in the shape of a canopy
my late studies in italy having somewhat destroyed my sympathies with it but i once loved it intensely and will not say anything to depreciate it now save only this
being used merely to give value to the leafage by its gloom and the difference between such conditions and those of the south being merely that in the one the leaves are laid across a hollow
chiefly in english work it consists merely in leaving a small boss or sphere fixed as it were at intervals in the hollows such bosses being afterwards carved into roses or other ornamental forms
and sometimes lifted quite up out of the hollow on projecting processes like vertebrae so as to make them more conspicuous as throughout the decoration of the cathedral of bourges
the value of this ornament is chiefly in the spotted character which it gives to the lines of mouldings seen from a distance it is very rich and delightful when not used in excess
if it were ever used in general architecture the spire of salisbury and of saint mary's at oxford are agreeable as isolated masses but if an entire street were built with this spotty decoration at every casement
we could not traverse it to the end without disgust it is only another example of the constant aim at piquancy of effect which characterised the northern builders an ingenious but somewhat vulgar effort
to give interest to their grey masses of coarse stone without overtaking their powers either of invention or execution
good morning homer my boy said the idiot genially as the poet entered the breakfast room all hail to thee thou art the bright particular bird of plumage i most hoped to see this rare and beauteous summer morning
no sweet singing robin redbreast or soft honking canvasback for yours truly this a m when a living breathing palpitating son of the muses lurks near at hand i fain would make thee a proposition shakespeare dear
back pedal there avaunt with your flowery speech oh idiot cried the doctor else will i call an ambulance no ambulance for mine chortled the idiot nay sweet gas bags quoth the doctor
but for once i fear me we may be scorched by this pelee of words that thou spoutest forth what's the proposition mister idiot asked the poet i'm always open to anything of the kind as the subway said when an automobile fell into it
i thirst for laurels said the idiot
with your name on the title page and my poems in the book i think we can make a go of it what's the lay asked the poet amused but wary sonnets or french forms or just plain snatches of song
any old thing as long as it runs smoothly replied the idiot only the poems must fit the title of the book which is to be now now said the poet now repeated the idiot
i find in reading over the verse of the day that the now poem always finds a ready market therefore there must be money in it and where the money goes there the laurels are you know what browning robinson the laureate of wall street
wrote in his message to posterity oh when you come to crown my brow bring me no bay nor sorrel give me no parsley wreath but just the legal long green laurel i never heard that poem before laughed the poet
though the sentiment in these commercial days is not unfamiliar true said the idiot alfred austin biggs of texas voiced the same idea when he said crown me not with spinach
place no salad on my head when you bring the bay give me not the water cresses to adorn my flowing tresses but at e'en crown my pockets good and strong with the green the green that's long
do you remember that asked the idiot only faintly said the poet i think you read it to me once before just after you er ah rather just after alfred austin biggs of texas wrote it the idiot laughed
i see you're on he said anyhow it's good sentiment whether i wrote it or biggs fact is in my judgment what the poet of to day ought to do is to collect the long green from the present and the laurel from posterity
that's a fair division but what do you say to my proposition well it's certainly er cheeky enough said the poet do i understand it you want me to father your poems to tell the truth
until i hear some of them i can't promise to be more than an uncle to them that's all right said the idiot you ought to be cautious as a matter of protection to your own name i've got some of the goods right here here's a little thing called summer tide
it shows the whole now principle in a nutshell listen to this now the festive frog is croaking in the mere and the canvasback is honking in the bay and the summer girl is smiling full of cheer
on the willieboys that chance along her way now the skeeter sings his carols to the dawn and bewails the early closing of the bar that prevents the little nips he seeks each morn
on the sea shore where the fatling boarders are now the landlord of the pastoral hotel spends his mornings nights and eke his afternoons scheming plans to get more milk from out the well
and a hundred novel ways of cooking prunes now the pumpkin goes a pumpking through the fields and the merry visaged cows are chewing cud and the profits that the plumber's business yields
come a tumbling to the earth with deadly thud and from all of this we learn the lesson sweet the soft message of dame nature grand and clear that the winter time is gone with storm and sleet
and the soft and jolly summer tide is here how's that pretty fair well i might consent to be a cousin to a poem of that kind i've read worse and written some that are quite as bad but you know mister idiot
even so great a masterpiece as that won't make a book said the poet of course it won't retorted the idiot that's only for the summer here's another one on winter just listen now the man who deals in mittens and in tabs
is a smiling broadly aye from ear to ear as he reaches out his hand and fondly grabs all the shining golden shekels falling near now the snow lies on the hill side and the roof
and the birdling to the sunny southland flies while the frowning summer landlord stands aloof and to solemncholy meditation hies now the tinkling of the sleigh bells tinge the air
and the coal man is as happy as can be while the hulking sulking grizzly seeks his lair and the ice man's soul is filled with misery clad in frost are all the distant mountain peaks
and the furnace is as hungry as a boy while the plumber as he gloats upon the leaks is the model that the painter takes for joy and from all of this we learn the lesson sweet the glad message of dame nature grand and clear
that the summer time has gone with all its heat and the crisp and frosty winter days are here you see mister poet that out of that one idea alone that cataloguing of the things of the four seasons you can get four poems
that are really worth reading said the idiot we could call that section the seasons and make it the first part of the book in the second part we could do the same thing only in greater detail for each one of the months
just as a sample take the month of february we could run something like this in on february
as pattering feet wade deep in slush
i see said the poet it wouldn't take long to fill up a book with stuff like that to make the appeal stronger let me take the month of july
you may find it even more convincing now the fly the rhubarb pie the lightning in the sky thermometers so spry that leap up high the roads all dry the hoboes nigh the town a fry
the crickets cry all tell us that it is july
i don't believe anybody would believe i wrote it that's all said the poet shaking his head dubiously they'd find out sooner or later that you did it just as they discovered that will carleton wrote paradise lost
and dick davis was the real author of shakespeare why don't you publish the thing over your own name too modest said the idiot
now the festive candidate goes a sporting through the state and he kisses babes from quogue to kalamazoo for he really wants to win without spending any tin and he thinks he has a chance to kiss it through that's fair
said the poet most public men i know of would rather spend their money than kiss the babies that style of campaigning has gone out it has in the cities said the idiot but back in the country it is still done
and the candidate who turns his back on the infant might as well give up the race i know because a cousin of mine ran for supervisor once and he was licked out of his boots because he tried to do his kissing by proxy
said he'd give the kisses in a bunch to a committee of young ladies who could distribute them for him result was everybody was down on him even the young ladies i guess he was a cousin of yours all right laughed the doctor
that scheme bears the idiot brand here's one on the opening of the opera season said the idiot now the fiddlers tune their fiddles to the lovely taradiddles
now the trombone is a tooting out its scaley shute the chuteing and the oboe is hoboing with a zest now the dressmakers are working not a single minute shirking
making gowns with frills and fal lals mighty queer for the autumn days are flying and there's really no denying that the season of the opera is near mister brief took a hand in the discussion at this moment
then you can have a blanket verse he said scribbling with his pencil on a piece of paper in front of him something like this and as time goes on a stalking and the idiot still is talking
in his usual blatant manner loud and free with his silly jokes and rhyme it is well it's any time from creation to the jumping off place that you'll find
that settles it said the idiot rising i withdraw my proposition let's call it off mister poet what's the matter asked mister brief isn't my verse good yes said the idiot just as good as mine
and that being the case it isn't worth doing when lawyers can write as good poetry as real poets it doesn't pay to be a real poet i'm going in for something else i guess i'll apply for a job as a motorman and make a name for myself there
can a motorman make a name for himself asked the doctor oh yes said the idiot easily by being civil a civil motorman would be unique but he wouldn't make a fortune suggested the poet
yes he would too said the idiot if he could prove he really was civil the vaudeville people would pay him a thousand dollars a week and tour the country with him he'd draw mobs with which the idiot left the dining room
i think his poems would sell smiled missus pedagog yes said mister pedagog chopped up fine and properly advertised they might make a very successful new kind of breakfast food
known also as cursed joe one of the most striking amusing and instructive pages in the history of humbug is the life of count alessandro di cagliostro whose real name was joseph or giuseppe balsamo
he was born at palermo in seventeen forty three and very early began to manifest his brilliant talents for roguery he ran away from his first boarding school at the age of eleven or twelve
getting up a masquerade of goblins by the aid of some scampish schoolfellows which frightened the monkish watchmen of the gates away from their posts nearly dead with terror he had gained little at this school except the pleasant surname of beppo maldetto or
cursed joe at the age of thirteen he was a second time expelled from the convent of cartegirone belonging to the order of benfratelli the good fathers having in vain endeavored to train him up
while in this convent the boy was in charge of the apothecary
his final offence was a ridiculous and characteristic one he was a greedy and thievish fellow
those dry though pious old gentlemen while the monks ate dinner thus put to what he liked least and deprived of what he liked best he impudently extemporized instead of the stories of holy agonies
all the indecorous scandal he could think of about the more notorious disreputable women of palermo putting their names instead of those of the martyrs after this master joe proceeded to distinguish himself by forging opera tickets
and even documents of various kinds indiscriminate pilfering and swindling interpreting visions conjuring and finally it is declared a touch of genuine assassination pretty soon
he made a foolish greedy goldsmith one marano believe that there was a treasure hidden in the sand on the sea shore near palermo and induced the silly man to go one night to dig it up having reached the spot
a magic circle was drawn round him with all sorts of raw head and bloody bones ceremonies and beppo exhorting him not to leave the ring lest the spirits should kill him stepped out of sight to make the incantations to raise them
almost instantly six devils horned hoofed tailed and clawed breathing fire and smoke leaped from among the rocks and beat the wretched goldsmith senseless and almost to death they were of course
cursed joe and some confederates and taking marano's money and valuables they left him he got home in wretched plight but had sense enough left to suspect master joe whom he shortly promised after the sicilian manner to assassinate
so joe ran away from palermo and went to messina here he said he fell in with a venerable humbug named athlotas an armenian sage who united his talents with beppo's own in making a peculiar preparation of flax and hemp
and passing it off upon the people of alexandria in egypt as a new kind of silk this feat made not only a sensation but plenty of money and the two swindlers now traversed greece turkey and arabia in various directions
stirring up the oriental old fogies in amazing style harems and palaces according to cagliostro's own apocryphal story were thrown open to them everywhere
one of the grand muftis actually gave him splendid apartments in his own abode it is only necessary to reflect upon the unbounded reverence felt by all good mussulmen for these exalted dignitaries to comprehend the height of distinction thus attained by the palermo thimble rigger
but among the many obscure records that exist in the italian french and german languages touching this arch impostor
whereby the latter was put out of doors with his robes torn and his beard singed by his own domestics and left to wander in the streets while beppo in disguise received the salaams and sequins of the establishment
including the attentions of the fair ones therein caged for an entire night his escape to the seacoast after this adventure was almost miraculous but escape he did and shortly afterward turned up in rome with the title
conferred by himself of count cagliostro the reputation of enormous wealth and genuine and enthusiastic letters of recommendation from pinto grand master of the knights of malta pinto was an alchymist
and had been fooled to the top of his bent by the cunning joseph these letters introduced our humbug into the first families of rome who like some other first families
were first also as fools he also married a very beautiful very shrewd and very wicked roman donzella
and the worthy couple combining their various talents and regarding the world as their oyster at once proceeded to open it in the most scientific style i cannot follow this wonderful human chameleon in all his transformations under his various names of fischio
chemistry the hidden properties of numbers astronomy astrology mesmerism clairvoyance and the genuine old fashioned black art but suffice it to say that he travelled through every part of europe and set it in a blaze with excitement
there were always enough of silly coxcombs
countess and dupes of both sexes everywhere to swallow his yarns and gape at his juggleries in the course of his rambles he paid a visit to his great brother humbug the count of saint germain in westphalia or schleswig
his grand discoveries in alchemy of the philosopher's stone and the elixir of life or waters of perpetual youth these and many similar wonders were declared to be the result of his investigations under the arch of old egyptian masonry which degree he claimed to have revived
left by one george cofton which fell into our quack's hands this degree was to give perfection to human beings by means of moral and physical regeneration of these two the former was to be secured by means of a pentagon
which removes original sin and renews pristine innocence the physical kind of regeneration was to be brought about by using the prime matter or philosopher's stone and the acacia which two ingredients will give immortal youth
in this new structure he assumed the title of the grand cophta and actually claimed the worship of his followers declaring that the institution had been established by enoch and elias and that he had been summoned by spiritual agencies
to restore it to its pristine glory in fact this pretension which influenced thousands upon thousands of believers was one of the most daring impostures that ever saw the light and it is astounding to think that so late as seventeen eighty
it should for a long time have been entirely successful the preparatory course of exercises for admission to the mystic brotherhood
purgation starvation and desperation lasting for forty days and ending in physical regeneration and an immortality on earth the celebrated lavater
became one of cagliostro's disciples and was bamboozled to his heart's content in fact made to believe that the count could put the devil into him or take him out as the case might be
the wondrous water of beauty that made old wrinkled faces look young smooth and blooming again was the special merchandise of the countess and was of course
and dowagers of the day who were easily persuaded of their own restored loveliness the transmutation of baser metals into gold usually terminated in the transmigration of all the gold his victims had into the count's own purse
in seventeen seventy six the count and countess came to london here funnily enough they fell into the hands of a gambler a shyster and a female scamp who together tormented them almost to death
because the count would not pick them out lucky numbers to gamble by they persecuted him fairly into jail and plagued and outswindled him so awfully
with only fifty pounds left out of three thousand which he had brought with him one incident of cagliostro's english experience was the affair of the arsenical pigs a notice of which may be found in the public advertiser
of london of september third seventeen eighty six a frenchman named morande was at that time editing there a paper in his own language entitled le courrier de l'europe and lost no opportunity to denounce the count as a humbug
cagliostro at length irritated by these repeated attacks published in the advertiser an open challenge offering to forfeit five thousand guineas if morande should not be found dead in his bed on the morning after partaking of the flesh of a pig
to be selected by himself from among a drove fattened by the count the cooking et cetera all to be done at morande's own house and under his own eye the time was fixed for this singular repast but when it came round the french editor
backed down completely to the great delight of his opponent and his credulous followers
and by their usual arts and trades in a great measure renewed their fallen fortunes among other new dodges he now assumed so supernatural a piety that he said he could distinguish an unbeliever by the smell
which of course was just the opposite of the odor of sanctity the count's claim to have lived for hundreds of years was by some thoroughly believed he ascribed his immortality to his own elixir and his comparatively youthful appearance
his countess readily assisting him by speaking of her son a colonel in the dutch service fifty years old
at length in rome he and the countess fell into the clutches of the holy office and both having been tried for their manifold offences against the church were found guilty and in spite of their contrition and eager confessions
immured for life the count within the walls of the castle of sante leone in the duchy of urbino where after eight years imprisonment he died in seventeen ninety five and the countess in a suburban convent
the portraits of cagliostro of which a number are extant are pictures of a strong built bull necked fat gross man with a snub nose a vulgar face a look of sensuality and low hypocritical cunning
superior to cagliostro even in accomplishments and second to him in notoriety only was that human nondescript the so called count de saint germain whom fredrick the great called a man no one has ever been able to make out
simon wolff by name and born at strasburg about the close of the seventeenth
and others again intimate that his true title was the marquis de betmar
the most plausible theory however makes him the natural son of an italian princess and fixes his birth at san germano in savoy about the year seventeen ten his ostensible father being one rotondo a tax collector of that district
this supposition is borne out by the fact that he spoke all his many languages with an italian accent it was about the year seventeen fifty that he first began to be heard of in europe as the count saint germain
and put forth the astounding pretensions that soon gave him celebrity over the whole continent
whose favor he very quickly gained the influence of that famous beauty
he was remarkably handsome as an old portrait at friersdorf in saxony in the rooms he once occupied sufficiently indicated and his musical accomplishments added to the ineffable charm of his manners and conversation and the miracles he performed
rendered him an irresistible attraction especially to the ladies
he could also play every instrument then in vogue but especially excelled upon the violin which he could handle in such a manner as to give it the effect of a small orchestra cotemporary writers declare that
when the count was extemporizing on his favorite cremona
published in england for private circulation only bears testimony to his musical genius and to the wondrous eccentricity as well as beauty of his conceptions but it was in alectromancy or divination by signs and circles
hydromancy or divination by water cleidomancy or divination by the key and dactylomancy or divination by the fingers that the count chiefly excelled although he at the same time professed alchemy astrology
and prophecy in the higher branches the fortunes of the count saint germain rose so rapidly in france that in seventeen sixty
greatly feared and detested the count and secretly wrote to pitt begging the latter to have that personage arrested
received timely warning and escaped to the continent in england he was the inseparable friend of prince lobkowitz a circumstance that gave some color to his alleged connection with the russians
his sojourn there was equally distinguished by his devotion to the ladies and his unwavering success at the gaming table where he won fabulous sums
which were afterward dispensed with imperial munificence it was there too that he put forward his claims to the highest rank in masonry and of course added thereby immensely to the eclat of his position
he spoke english french spanish portuguese italian german russian polish the scandinavian and many of the oriental tongues with equal fluency
in the course of a lifetime which with continual transmigrations he declared to have lasted for thousands of years his birth he said had been in chaldea in the dawn of time and that he was the sole inheritor of the lost sciences and mysteries
of his own and the egyptian race he spoke of his personal intimacy with all the twelve apostles and even the august presence of the savior and one of his pretensions would have been most singularly amusing had it not bordered upon profanity
remonstrated with the apostle peter upon the irritability of his temperament in regard to later periods of history he spoke with the careless ease of an every day looker on
and told anecdotes that the researches of scholars afterwards fully verified his predictions were indeed
his gift of memory was perfectly amazing having once read a journal of the day he could repeat its contents accurately from beginning to end
in characters like copperplate thus he could indite a love letter with his right while he composed a verse with his left hand and apparently with the utmost facility a splendid acquisition for the treasury department
he would however have been ineligible for any faithful post office since he read the contents of sealed letters at a glance and by his clairvoyant powers detected crime or in fact the movements of men and the phenomena of nature at any distance
like all the great magi and brothers of the rosy cross of whom he claimed to be a shining light he most excelled in medicine and along with remedies for every ill that flesh is heir to boasted his aqua benedetta
as the genuine elixir of life capable of restoring youth to age beauty and strength to decay and brilliant intellect to the exhausted brain and if properly applied protracting human existence through countless centuries
as a proof of its virtues he pointed to his own youthful appearance and the testimony of old men who had seen him sixty or seventy years earlier and who declared that time had made no impression on him
strangely enough the margrave of anspach of whom i shall presently speak purchased what purported to be the recipe of the aqua benedetta from john dyke the english consul at leghorn towards the close of the last century
and the utmost secrecy by certain noble families in berlin and vienna where the preparation has been used as they believe with perfect success against a host of diseases still another peculiarity of the count
would be highly advantageous to any of us particularly at this period of high prices and culinary scarcity he never ate nor drank or at least he was never seen to do so it is said that boarding house regime in these days
is rapidly accustoming a considerable class of our fellow citizens
but i can scarcely believe it again the count would fall into cataleptic swoons which continued often for hours and even days and during these periods he declared that he visited in spirit
the most remote regions of the earth and even the farthest stars and would relate with astonishing power the scenes he there had witnessed he of course
laid claim to the transmutation of baser metals into gold and stated that in seventeen fifty five while on a visit to india to consult the erudition of the hindoo brahmins he solved by their assistance the problem of the artificial crystallization of pure carbon
or in other words the production of diamonds one thing is certain viz that upon a visit to the french ambassador to the hague in seventeen eighty he in the presence of that functionary induced him to believe and testify
that he broke to pieces with a hammer a superb diamond of his own manufacture the exact counterpart of another of similar origin
his career and transformations on the continent were multiform in seventeen sixty two he was mixed up with the dynastic conspiracies and changes at saint petersburg
and his importance there was indicated ten years later by the reception given to him at vienna by the russian count orloff who accosted him joyously as caro padre dear father and gave him twenty thousand golden venetian sequins
from petersburg he went to berlin where he at once attracted the attention of frederick the great who questioned voltaire about him the latter replying as it is said that he was a man who knew all things
and would live to the end of the world a fair statement in brief of the position assumed by more than one of our ward politicians in seventeen seventy four he took up his abode at schwabach
which is a transposition of ragotzy a well known noble name the margrave of anspach met him at the house of his favorite clairon the actress and became so fond of him
on his return he went to dresden leipzig and hamburg and finally to eckernfiorde in schleswig where he took up his residence with the landgrave karl of hesse and at length in seventeen eighty three tired as he said of life
and disdaining any longer immortality he gave up the ghost it was during saint germain's residence in schleswig
who openly acknowledged him as master and learned many of his most precious secrets from him among others the faculty of discriminating the character by the handwriting and of fascinating birds animals and reptiles
and often totally disappeared for months together in venice he was known as the count de bellamare at pisa as the chevalier de schoening at milan as the chevalier welldone at genoa as the count soltikow et cetera
a tipsy parson in a village not a hundred miles from philadelphia
who had the pastoral charge of a very respectable congregation and was highly esteemed by them but there was one thing in which he did not give general satisfaction and in consequence of which many excellent members of his church felt seriously scandalized
he would neither join a temperance society
is only fair to say however that such spirituous indulgences were not of frequent occurrence it was more the principle of the thing as he said that he stood upon than any thing else that prevented his signing a temperance pledge
sundry were the attacks both open and secret to which the reverend mister manlius was subjected and many were the discussions into which he was drawn by the advocates of total abstinence his mode of argument was very summary
i would no more sign a pledge not to drink brandy than i would sign a pledge not to steal was the position he took i wish to be free to choose good or evil and to act right because it is wrong to do otherwise
i do not find fault with others for signing a pledge nor for abstaining from wine if they think it right it is right for them but as for myself
my bonds are internal principles i am temperate because intemperance is sin for men who have abused their freedom and so far lost all rational control over themselves that they cannot resist the insane spirit of intemperance
the pledge is all important sign it i say in the name of heaven but do not sign it because this that or the other temperate man has signed it but because you feel it to be your only hope do it for yourself
and do it if you are the only man in the world who acts thus to sign because another man whom you think more respectable has signed will give you little or no strength you must do it for yourself and because it is right
the parson was pretty ready with the tongue and rarely came off second best when his opponents dragged him into a controversy although his arguments were called by them when he was not present mere fustian
his love for wine and brandy is at the bottom of all this hostility to the temperance cause was boldly said of him by individuals in and out of his church but especially were the members of other churches severe upon him he'll turn out a drunkard said one
he does more harm to the temperance cause than ten drunkards alleged a third while others said isn't it scandalous he's a disgrace to his profession he pretend to have religion a minister indeed and so the changes rang
all this time mister manlius firmly maintained his ground taking his glass of wine whenever it suited him at last
and at which wine was circulated freely a rather scandalous report got abroad and soon went buzzing all over the village a young man who made no secret of being fond of his glass and who was at the dinner party met on the day after
a very warm advocate of temperance and a member of a different denomination from that in which mister manlius was a minister and said to him with mock gravity we had a rara avis at our dinner party yesterday perkins indeed what wonderful thing was that
a tipsy parson a what the man's eyes became instantly almost as big as saucers a tipsy parson who mister manlius was eagerly inquired i didn't say so i call no names
he was present i know and drank wine i am told like a fish i wasn't aware before that fishes drank wine said the man gravely it was manlius wasn't it urged the other i call no names was repeated
all i said was that we had a tipsy parson and so we had i'll prove it before a jury of a thousand if necessary it's no more than i expected said the temperance man
he pretend to preach the gospel i wonder he isn't struck dead in the pulpit the moment his informant had left him
at mister reeside's dinner party from lip to lip the scandal flew with little less than electric quickness it was all over the village by the next day some doubted some denied but the majority believed the story it was so likely to be true
and cite the minister to appear and answer for himself on the scandalous charge of drunkenness there was an unusual number of vacant pews during service both morning and afternoon monday came
and early in the day a committee of two deacons waited upon mister manlius and informed him of the report in circulation and of their wish that he would appear before them on the next afternoon to give an account of himself
as the church deemed the matter far too serious to be passed lightly over the minister was evidently a good deal surprised and startled at this but he neither denied the charge nor attempted any palliation merely saying that he would attend of course
as they walked with sober faces away from the minister's dwelling plain yes it's written in his face returned deacon todd so much for opposing temperance reforms and drinking wine it's a judgment upon him but what a scandal to our church said deacon jones
yes think of that he must be suspended and not restored until he signs the pledge i don't believe he'll ever do that why not he says he would cut off his right hand first people are very fond of cutting off their right hand you know
my word for it this will do the business for him
i shall go for suspending him until he signs the pledge i don't know but that i will go with you if he signs the pledge he's safe and so the two deacons settled the matter on the next day in grave council assembled were all the deacons of the church
besides sundry individuals who had come as the minister's friends or accusers perkins who had put the report in circulation was there at the special request of one of the deacons who had ascertained that he had as much or a little more to say in the matter than any one
perkins was called upon rather unexpectedly to answer one or two questions immediately on the opening of the meeting but as he was a stanch temperance man and cordially despised the minister he was bold to reply
mister perkins said the presiding deacon as far as we can learn this scandalous charge originated with you i will therefore ask you
i did was the unhesitating answer were you present at mister reeside's no sir did you see mister manlius coming from the house intoxicated no what evidence then have you of the truth of your charge
we have conversed this morning with several who were present and all say that they observed nothing out of the way in mister manlius on the occasion of which you speak this is a serious matter and we should like to have your authority for a statement
so injurious to the reputation of the minister and the cause of religion my authority is mister burton who was present did he tell you that mister manlius was intoxicated
he said there was a drunken minister there and mister manlius i have ascertained was the only clergyman present was that so asked the deacon of an individual who was at mister reeside's mister manlius was the only clergyman there was replied
then said perkins if there was a drunken minister there it must have been mister manlius i can draw no other inference can mister burton be found was now asked an individual immediately volunteered to go in search of him
in half an hour he was produced as he entered the grave assembly he looked around with great composure upon the array of solemn faces and eyes intently fixed upon him he did not appear in the least abashed
you were at mister reeside's last week at a dinner party i believe said the presiding deacon i was did you see mister manlius intoxicated on that occasion mister manlius good heavens no
i can testify upon oath that he was as solemn as a judge who says that i made so scandalous an allegation burton appeared to grow strongly excited i say so cried perkins in a loud voice you say so
and pray upon what authority upon the authority of your own words never but you did tell me so perkins was much excited when on the day after the dinner party don't you remember what you said to me
oh yes perfectly that you had a drunken minister at dinner no i never said that but you did i can be qualified to it i said we had a tipsy parson and pray
what is the difference at the words tipsy parson the minister burst into a loud laugh and so did two or three others who had been at mister reeside's the grave deacon in the chair looked around with frowning wonder at such indecorum
and felt that especially ill timed was the levity of the minister i do not understand this he said with great gravity i can explain it remarked an individual rising
the tipsy parson the cook of our kind hostess in her culinary ingenuity furnished a dessert which she called tipsy parson made i believe by soaking sponge cake in brandy and pouring a custard over it it is therefore true
as our friend burton has said that there was a tipsy parson at the table but as to the drunken minister of mister perkins i know nothing never before in a grave and solemn assembly of deacons was there such a sudden and universal burst of laughter
such a holding of sides and vibration of bodies as followed this unexpected speech in the midst of the confusion and noise perkins quietly retired he has been known ever since in the village much to his chagrin and scandalization
he being still a warm temperance man as the tipsy parson
and he is now seriously inclined to leave the village in order to escape the ridicule his over zealous effort to blast the minister's reputation has called into existence
he acted rather than indulged in reflex thought but the centre of his position was simple faith the catholic religion he knew well enough gave the only adequate explanation of the universe it did not unlock all mysteries
and accounted for him in his essential nature further he saw well enough that the failure of christianity to unite all men one to another rested not upon its feebleness but its strength its lines met in eternity
not in time besides he happened to believe it but to this foreground there were other moods whose shifting was out of his control in his exalt moods which came upon him like a breeze from paradise
the huge superincumbent weight of incredulity could not disturb a fact that was as the sun in heaven moreover the very desperateness of the cause was their inspiration there was no temptation to lean upon the arm of flesh
for there was none that fought for them but god their nakedness was their armour their slow tongues their persuasiveness their weakness demanded god's strength and found it yet there was this difference and it was a significant one
for peter the spiritual world had an interpretation and a guarantee in the outward events he had witnessed he had handled the risen christ the external corroborated the internal
but for silvester it was not so for him it was necessary so to grasp spiritual truths in the supernatural sphere that the external events of the incarnation were proved by rather than proved
the certitude of his spiritual apprehension certainly historically speaking christianity was true proved by its records yet to see that needed illumination he apprehended the power of the resurrection
therefore christ was risen therefore in heavier moods it was different with him there were periods lasting sometimes for days together clouding him when he awoke stifling him as he tried to sleep
dulling the very savour of the sacrament and the thrill of the precious blood times in which the darkness was so intolerable that even the solid objects of faith attenuated themselves to shadow
when half his nature was blind not only to christ but to god himself and the reality of his own existence when his own awful dignity seemed as the insignia of a fool
his earthly mind demanded that he and his college of twelve and his few thousands should be right and the entire consensus of the civilised world wrong it was not that the world had not heard the message of the gospel
it had heard little else for two thousand years and now pronounced it false false in its external credentials and false therefore in its spiritual claims it was a lost cause for which he suffered he was not the last of an august line
he was the smoking wick of a candle of folly he was the reductio ad absurdam of a ludicrous syllogism based on impossible premises he was not worth killing he and his company of the insane
they were no more than the crowned dunces of the world's school sanity sat on the solid benches of materialism and this heaviness waxed so dark sometimes that he almost persuaded himself that his faith was gone the clamours of mind so loud
that the whisper of the heart was unheard the desires for earthly peace so fierce that supernatural ambitions were silenced so dense was the gloom that hoping against hope believing against knowledge
and loving against truth he cried as one other had cried on another day like this eli eli lama sabachthani but that at least he never failed to cry one thing alone gave him power to go on
so far at least as his consciousness was concerned and that was his meditation he had travelled far in the mystical life since his agonies of effort now he used no deliberate descents into the spiritual world he threw as it were his hands over his head
and dropped into spacelessness consciousness would draw him up as a cork to the surface but he would do no more than repeat his action until by that cessation of activity which is the supreme energy he floated
and there god would deal with him now by an articulate sentence now by a sword of pain now by an air like the vivifying breath of the sea
sometimes as he fell asleep sometimes in the whirl of work yet his consciousness did not seem to retain for long such experiences five minutes later it might be
there he lay then in the chair revolving the intolerable blasphemies that he had read his white hair was thin upon his browned temples his hands were as the hands of a spirit and his young face lined and patched with sorrow
his bare feet protruded from beneath his stained tunic and his old brown burnous lay on the floor beside him it was an hour before he moved
when the steps of the horses sounded in the paved court outside then he sat up slipped his feet into their shoes and lifted the burnous from the floor as the door opened and the lean sun burned priest came through the horses holiness said the man
the pope spoke not one word that afternoon until the two came towards sunset up the bridle path that leads between thabor and nazareth they had taken their usual round through cana mounting a hillock from which the long mirror of gennesareth could be seen
and passing on always bearing to the right under the shadow of thabor until once more esdraelon spread itself beneath like a grey green carpet a vast circle twenty miles across sprinkled sparsely with groups of huts
white walls and roofs with nain visible on the other side carmel heaving its long form far off on the right and nazareth nestling a mile or two away on the plateau on which they had halted
it was a sight of extraordinary peace and seemed an extract from some old picture book designed centuries ago here was no crowd of roofs no pressure of hot humanity
no terrible evidences of civilisation and manufactory and strenuous fruitless effort a few tired jews had come back to this quiet little land as old people may return to their native place with no hope of renewing their youth
and a few more barrack like houses had been added here and there to the obscure villages in sight but it was very much as it had been a hundred years ago the plain was half shadowed by carmel and half in dusty golden light
overhead the clear eastern sky was flushed with rose as it had flushed for abraham jacob and the son of david there was no little cloud here as a man's hand over the sea charged with both promise and terror
no sound of chariot wheels from earth or heaven no vision of heavenly horses such as a young man had seen thirty centuries ago in this very sky here was the old earth and the old heaven unchanged and unchangeable
the patient returning spring had starred the thin soil with flowers of bethlehem and those glorious lilies to which solomon's scarlet garments might not be compared there was no whisper from the throne
as when gabriel had once stooped through this very air to hail her who was blessed among women no breath of promise or hope beyond that which god sends through every movement of his created robe of life
as the two halted and the horses looked out with steady inquisitive eyes at the immensity of light and air beneath them a soft hooting cry broke out and a shepherd passed below along the hillside a hundred yards away trailing his long shadow behind him
and to the mellow tinkle of bells his flock came after a troop of obedient sheep and wilful goats cropping and following and cropping again as they went on to the fold called by name in that sad minor voice of him who knew each
and led instead of driving the soft clanking grew fainter the shadow of the shepherd
as he topped the rise and vanished again as he stepped down once more and the call grew fainter yet and ceased the pope lifted his hand to his eyes for an instant then smoothed it down his face
he nodded across to a dim patch of white walls glimmering through the violet haze of the falling twilight that place father he said what is its name the syrian priest looked across back once more at the pope
and across again that among the palms holiness yes that is megiddo he said
and as for himself what had he to say to all this a transcendent god who hid himself a divine saviour who delayed to come a comforter heard no longer in wind nor seen in fire
there in the next room was a little wooden altar and above it an iron box and within that box a silver cup and within that cup something outside the house
a hundred yards away lay the domes and plaster roofs of a little village called nazareth carmel was on the right a mile or two away thabor on the left the plain of esdraelon in front and behind cana and galilee
and the quiet lake and hermon and far away to the south lay jerusalem it was to this tiny strip of holy land that the pope had come the land where a faith had sprouted two thousand years ago and where
unless god spoke in fire from heaven it would presently be cut down as a cumberer of the ground it was here on this material earth that one had walked whom all men had thought to have been he who would redeem israel
in this village that he had fetched water and made boxes and chairs on that long lake that his feet had walked on that high hill that he had flamed in glory on that smooth low mountain to the north
that he had declared that the meek were blessed and should inherit the earth that peacemakers were the children of god
should be satisfied and now it was come to this christianity had smouldered away from europe like a sunset on darkening peaks eternal rome was a heap of ruins in east and west alike
a man had been set upon the throne of god had been acclaimed as divine the world had leaped forward social science was supreme men had learned consistency they had learned too
the social lessons of christianity apart from a divine teacher or rather they said in spite of him there were left perhaps three millions perhaps five at the utmost ten millions it was impossible to know
throughout the entire inhabited globe who still worshipped jesus christ as god and the vicar of christ sat in a whitewashed room in nazareth dressed as simply as his master waiting for the end he had done what he could
there were left three cardinals alive himself steinmann and the patriarch of jerusalem the rest lay mangled somewhere in the ruins of rome there was no precedent to follow
so the two europeans had made their way out to the east and to the one town in it where quiet still reigned with the disappearance of greek christianity
and by a kind of tacit consent of the world christians were allowed a moderate liberty in palestine russia which now held the country as a dependency had sufficient sentiment left to leave it alone
it was true that the holy places had been desecrated and remained now only as spots of antiquarian interest the altars were gone
and although mass could no longer be said there it was understood that private oratories were not forbidden it was in this state that the two european cardinals had found the holy city
it was not thought wise to wear insignia of any description in public and it was practically certain even now that the civilised world was unaware of their existence for within three days of their arrival the old patriarch had died
yet not before percy franklin surely under the strangest circumstances since those of the first century had been elected to the supreme pontificate it had all been done in a few minutes by the dying man's bedside
the two old men had insisted
and had murmured his old half heard remarks about the antithesis and the finger of god and percy marvelling at his superstition had accepted and the election was recorded he had taken the name of silvester
the last saint in the year and was the third of that title he had then retired to nazareth with his chaplain steinmann had gone back to germany and been hanged in a riot within a fortnight of his arrival
the next matter was the creation of new cardinals and to twenty persons with infinite precautions briefs had been conveyed of these nine had declined three more had been approached of whom only one had accepted
there were therefore at this moment twelve persons in the world who constituted the sacred college two englishmen of whom corkran was one two americans a frenchman a german an italian a spaniard a pole
a chinaman a greek and a russian to these were entrusted vast districts over which their control was supreme subject only to the holy father himself as regarded the pope's own life very little need be said
it resembled he thought in its outward circumstances that of such a man as leo the great without his worldly importance or pomp theoretically the christian world was under his dominion practically christian affairs were administered by local authorities
it was impossible for a hundred reasons for him to do what he wished with regard to the exchange of communications an elaborate cypher had been designed and a private telegraphic station organised on his roof
communicating with another in damascus where cardinal corkran had fixed his residence and from that centre messages occasionally were despatched to ecclesiastical authorities elsewhere but for the most part there was little to be done
the pope however had the satisfaction of knowing that with incredible difficulty a little progress had been made towards the reorganisation of the hierarchy in all countries bishops were being consecrated freely
there were not less than two thousand of them all told and of priests an unknown number the order of christ crucified was doing excellent work and the tales of not less than four hundred martyrdoms had reached nazareth during the last two months
accomplished mostly at the hands of the mobs in other respects also as well as in the primary object of the order's existence namely the affording of an opportunity to all who loved god to dedicate themselves to him more perfectly
the new religious were doing good work the more perilous tasks the work of communication between prelates missions to persons of suspected integrity all the business in fact which was carried on now at the vital risk of the agent
were entrusted solely to members of the order stringent instructions had been issued from nazareth that no bishop was to expose himself unnecessarily each was to regard himself as the heart of his diocese
to be protected at all costs save that of christian honour and in consequence each had surrounded himself with a group of the new religious men and women who with extraordinary and generous obedience
undertook such dangerous tasks as they were capable of performing it was plain enough by now that had it not been for the order
extraordinary facilities were being issued in all directions every priest who belonged to the order received universal jurisdiction subject to the bishop if any of the diocese in which he might be
mass might be said on any day of the year of the five wounds or the resurrection or our lady and all had the privilege of the portable altar now permitted to be wood further ritual requirements were relaxed
mass might be said with any decent vessels of any material capable of destruction such as glass or china bread of any description might be used and no vestments were obligatory except the thin thread that now represented the stole
lights were non essential none need wear the clerical habit and rosary even without beads was always permissible instead of the office
in this manner priests were rendered capable of giving the sacraments and offering the holy sacrifice at the least possible risk to themselves
where by this time many thousands of catholics were undergoing the penalty of refusing public worship the pope's private life was as simple as his room he had one syrian priest for his chaplain and two syrian servants
he said his mass each morning himself wearing vestments and his white habit beneath and heard a mass after he then took his coffee after changing into the tunic and burnous of the country and spent the morning over business
he dined at noon slept and rode out for the country by reason of its indeterminate position was still in the simplicity of a hundred years ago he returned at dusk supped and worked again till late into the night
that was all his chaplain sent what messages were necessary to damascus his servants themselves ignorant of his dignity dealt with the secular world so far as was required and the utmost that seemed to be known to his few neighbours
was that there lived in the late sheikh's little house on the hill an eccentric european with a telegraph office his servants themselves devout catholics knew him for a bishop but no more than that
they were told only that there was yet a pope alive and with that and the sacraments were content to sum up therefore the catholic world knew that their pope lived under the name of silvester and thirteen persons of the entire human race
knew that franklin had been his name and that the throne of peter rested for the time in nazareth it was as a frenchman had said just a hundred years ago catholicism survived
so far as graham was able to judge it was near midday when the white banner of the council fell but some hours had to elapse before it was possible to effect the formal capitulation and so after he had spoken his word
he retired to his new apartments in the wind vane offices
for a space he sat inert and passive with open eyes and for a space he slept he was roused by two medical attendants come prepared with stimulants to sustain him through the next occasion
after he had taken their drugs and bathed by their advice in cold water he felt a rapid return of interest and energy
the way ran deviously through a maze of buildings they came at last to a passage that curved about and showed broadening before him an oblong opening clouds hot with sunset
in another moment they had come out high up on the brow of the cliff of torn buildings that overhung the wreckage the vast area opened to graham's eyes none the less strange and wonderful for the remote view he had had of it in the oval mirror
this rudely amphitheatral space seemed now the better part of a mile to its outer edge it was gold lit on the left hand catching the sunlight and below and to the right clear and cold in the shadow
above the shadowy grey council house that stood in the midst of it the great black banner of the surrender still hung in sluggish folds against the blazing sunset severed rooms halls and passages gaped strangely
broken masses of metal projected dismally from the complex wreckage vast masses of twisted cable dropped like tangled seaweed and from its base came a tumult of innumerable voices violent concussions
and the sound of trumpets all about this great white pile was a ring of desolation the smashed and blackened masses the gaunt foundations and ruinous lumber of the fabric that had been destroyed by the council's orders skeletons of girders
titanic masses of wall forests of stout pillars amongst the sombre wreckage beneath running water flashed and glistened and far away across the space out of the midst of a vague vast mass of buildings
there thrust the twisted end of a water main two hundred feet in the air thunderously spouting a shining cascade and everywhere great multitudes of people wherever there was space and foothold people swarmed
except where the sunset touched them to indistinguishable gold they clambered up the tottering walls they clung in wreaths and groups about the high standing pillars they swarmed along the edges of the circle of ruins the air was full of their shouting
and they were pressing and swaying towards the central space the upper storeys of the council house seemed deserted not a human being was visible only the drooping banner of the surrender hung heavily against the light the dead were within the council house
or hidden by the swarming people or carried away graham could see only a few neglected bodies in gaps and corners of the ruins and amidst the flowing water will you let them see you sire said ostrog
they are very anxious to see you graham hesitated and then walked forward to where the broken verge of wall dropped sheer he stood looking down a lonely tall black figure against the sky
very slowly the swarming ruins became aware of him and as they did so little bands of black uniformed men appeared remotely thrusting through the crowds towards the council house he saw little black heads become pink
looking at him saw by that means a wave of recognition sweep across the space it occurred to him that he should accord them some recognition he held up his arm then pointed to the council house and dropped his hand
the voices below became unanimous gathered volume came up to him as multitudinous wavelets of cheering the western sky was a pallid bluish green and jupiter shone high in the south before the capitulation was accomplished
above was a slow insensible change the advance of night serene and beautiful below was hurry excitement conflicting orders pauses spasmodic developments of organisation
a vast ascending clamour and confusion before the council came out toiling perspiring men directed by a conflict of shouts carried forth hundreds of those who had perished in the hand to hand conflict
within those long passages and chambers guards in black lined the way that the council would come and as far as the eye could reach into the hazy blue twilight of the ruins and swarming now at every possible point
in the captured council house and along the shattered cliff of its circumadjacent buildings were innumerable people and their voices even when they were not cheering
were as the soughing of the sea upon a pebble beach ostrog had chosen a huge commanding pile of crushed and overthrown masonry and on this a stage of timbers and metal girders was being hastily constructed its essential parts were complete
but humming and clangorous machinery still glared fitfully in the shadows beneath this temporary edifice the stage had a small higher portion on which graham stood with ostrog and lincoln close beside him
a little in advance of a group of minor officers a broader lower stage surrounded this quarter deck and on this were the black uniformed guards of the revolt armed with the little green weapons whose very names graham still did not know
those standing about him perceived that his eyes wandered perpetually from the swarming people in the twilight ruins about him to the darkling mass of the white council house whence the trustees would presently come and to the gaunt cliffs of ruin that encircled him
and so back to the people the voices of the crowd swelled to a deafening tumult he saw the councillors first afar off in the glare of one of the temporary lights that marked their path a little group of white figures in a black archway
in the council house they had been in darkness he watched them approaching drawing nearer past first this blazing electric star and then that the minatory roar of the crowd over whom their power had lasted for a hundred and fifty years
marched along beside them as they drew still nearer their faces came out weary white and anxious he saw them blinking up through the glare about him and ostrog
presently he could recognise several of them the man who had rapped the table at howard a burly man with a red beard and one delicate featured short dark man with a peculiarly long skull
he noted that two were whispering together and looking behind him at ostrog next there came a tall dark and handsome man walking downcast abruptly he glanced up his eyes touched graham for a moment and passed beyond him to ostrog
the way that had been made for them was so contrived that they had to march past and curve about before they came to the sloping path of planks that ascended to the stage where their surrender was to be made
the master the master god and the master shouted the people to hell with the council graham looked at their multitudes receding beyond counting into a shouting haze
and then at ostrog beside him white and steadfast and still his eye went again to the little group of white councillors and then he looked up at the familiar quiet stars overhead
d'artagnan retired to bed not to sleep but to think over all he had heard that evening
which had grown into a sincere friendship he was delighted at thus meeting a man full of intelligence and moral strength instead of a drunkard
he was delighted also that the high qualities of athos appeared to promise favorably for his mission
who was the youth he had adopted and who bore so striking a resemblance to him
gave d'artagnan uneasiness it was evident either that he no longer possessed the confidence of his friend
or that he had been forewarned of the lieutenant's visit he could not help thinking of m rochefort
again the moderate fortune which athos possessed concealed as it was so skillfully seemed to show a regard for appearances and to betray a latent ambition which might be easily aroused
the clear and vigorous intellect of athos would render him more open to conviction than a less able man would be he would enter into the minister's schemes with the more ardor because his natural activity would be doubled by necessity
resolved to seek an explanation on all these points on the following day d'artagnan in spite of his fatigue prepared for an attack and determined that it should take place after breakfast he determined to cultivate the good will of the youth raoul
and either whilst fencing with him or when out shooting to extract from his simplicity some information
but d'artagnan at the same time being a man of extreme caution was quite aware what injury he should do himself if by any indiscretion or awkwardness he should betray has manoeuvering to the experienced eye of athos
besides to tell truth whilst d'artagnan was quite disposed to adopt a subtle course against the cunning of aramis or the vanity of porthos he was ashamed to equivocate with athos
they would like him all the better for it
ah why is not grimaud the taciturn grimaud here thought d'artagnan there are so many things his silence would have told me with grimaud silence was another form of eloquence
there reigned a perfect stillness in the house d'artagnan had heard the door shut and the shutters barred the dogs became in their turn silent at last a nightingale lost in a thicket of shrubs in the midst of its most melodious cadences
had fluted low and lower into stillness and fallen asleep not a sound was heard in the castle except of a footstep up and down in the chamber above
he is walking about and thinking thought d'artagnan but of what it is impossible to know everything else might be guessed but not that
for the noise ceased silence and fatigue together overcame d'artagnan and sleep overtook him also he was not however a good sleeper scarcely had dawn gilded his window curtains
when he sprang out of bed and opened the windows somebody he perceived was in the courtyard moving stealthily true to his custom of never passing anything over that it was within his power to know d'artagnan looked out of the window
and perceived the close red coat and brown hair of raoul the young man was opening the door of the stable he then with noiseless haste took out the horse that he had ridden on the previous evening saddled and bridled it himself
and led the animal into the alley to the right of the kitchen garden opened a side door which conducted him to a bridle road shut it after him and d'artagnan saw him pass by like a dart
bending as he went beneath the pendent flowery branches of maple and acacia
so thought the gascon here's a young blade who has already his love affair
he's not going to hunt for he has neither dogs nor arms he's not going on a message for he goes secretly why does he go in secret is he afraid of me or of his father for i am sure the count is his father
by jove i shall know about that soon
day was now advanced all the noises that had ceased the night before reawakened one after the other the bird on the branch the dog in his kennel the sheep in the field
even became alive and vocal the latter leaving the shore abandoned themselves gaily to the current the gascon gave a last twirl to his mustache a last turn to his hair brushed from habit the brim of his hat with the sleeve of his doublet
and went downstairs scarcely had he descended the last step of the threshold
good morning my dear host cried d'artagnan good day to you have you slept well
but what are you looking for you are perhaps a tulip fancier my dear friend if i am you must not laugh at me for being so in the country people alter
one gets to like without knowing it all those beautiful objects that god causes to spring from the earth which are despised in cities i was looking anxiously for some iris roots i planted here close to this reservoir
and which some one has trampled upon this morning these gardeners are the most careless people in the world in bringing the horse out to the water they've allowed him to walk over the border d'artagnan began to smile
ah you think so do you and he took his friend along the alley where a number of tracks like those which had trampled down the flowerbeds were visible
yes indeed the marks are recent quite so replied the lieutenant who went out this morning
has any horse got loose not likely answered the gascon these marks are regular where is raoul
how is it that i have not seen him hush exclaimed d'artagnan
wherefore ah to inquire after the little la valliere she has sprained her foot you know you think he has i am sure of it said athos don't you see that raoul is in love
with whom with a child seven years old dear friend at raoul's age the heart is so expansive that it must encircle one object or another fancied or real well his love is half real half fanciful
she is the prettiest little creature in the world with flaxen hair blue eyes at once saucy and languishing
nothing i laugh at raoul but this first desire of the heart is imperious i remember just at his age how deep in love i was with a grecian statue which our good king
was nothing but a fable it is mere want of occupation you do not make raoul work so he takes his own way of employing himself exactly therefore i think of sending him away from here you will be wise to do so
no doubt of it but it will break his heart so long as three or four years ago he used to adorn and adore his little idol whom he will some day fall in love with in right earnest if he remains here the parents of little la valliere
have for a long time perceived and been amused at it now they begin to look concerned nonsense however raoul must be diverted from this fancy send him away or you will never make a man of him
i think i shall send him to paris so thought d'artagnan and it seemed to him that the moment for attack had arrived suppose he said we roughly chalk out a career for this young man i wish to consult you about some thing
do so do you think it is time for us to enter the service but are you not still in the service you d'artagnan i mean active service our former life has it still no attractions for you
would you not be happy to begin anew in my society and in that of porthos the exploits of our youth do you propose to me to do so d'artagnan decidedly and honestly on whose side
and must have a definite answer listen d'artagnan there is but one person or rather one cause to whom a man like me can be useful that of the king exactly answered the musketeer
yes but let us understand each other
if by the cause of the king you mean that of monsieur de mazarin we do not understand each other i don't say exactly answered the gascon confused come d'artagnan don't let us play a sidelong game
your hesitation your evasion tells me at once on whose side you are for that party no one dares openly to recruit and when people recruit for it it is with averted eyes and humble voice ah
you know that i am not alluding to you you are the pearl of brave bold men i speak of that spiteful and intriguing italian of the pedant who has tried to put on his own head a crown which he stole from under a pillow
of the scoundrel who calls his party the party of the king who wants to send the princes of the blood to prison not daring to kill them as our great cardinal our cardinal did of the miser who weighs his gold pieces
and keeps the clipped ones for fear though he is rich of losing them at play next morning of the impudent fellow who insults the queen as they say so much the worse for her
and who is going in three months to make war upon us in order that he may retain his pensions is that the master whom you propose to me i thank you d'artagnan you are more impetuous than you were
returned d'artagnan age has warmed not chilled your blood who informed you this was the master i propose to you devil take it he muttered to himself don't let me betray my secrets to a man not inclined to entertain them well then
you live on your estate happy in golden mediocrity porthos has perhaps sixty thousand francs income aramis has always fifty duchesses quarreling over the priest as they quarreled formerly over the musketeer but i
kept down in this inferior rank without going forward or backward hardly half living in fact i am dead well when there is some idea of being resuscitated you say he's a scoundrel an impudent fellow a miser a bad master
by jove i am of your opinion but find me a better one or give me the means of living
good d'artagnan is for mazarin he said to himself from that moment he grew very guarded on his side d'artagnan became more cautious also you spoke to me athos resumed of porthos
have you persuaded him to seek his fortune but he has wealth i believe already doubtless he has but such is man we always want something more than we already have what does porthos wish for to be a baron
tis true thought the gascon where has he heard it does he correspond with aramis ah if i knew that he did i should know all the conversation was interrupted by the entrance of raoul
is our little neighbor worse asked d'artagnan seeing a look of vexation on the face of the youth ah sir replied raoul her fall is a very serious one
and without any ostensible injury the physician fears she will be lame for life this is terrible said athos and what makes me all the more wretched sir is that i was the cause of this misfortune
how so asked athos it was to run to meet me that she leaped from that pile of wood there's only one remedy dear raoul
that is to marry her as a compensation remarked d'artagnan
you joke about a real misfortune that is cruel indeed the good understanding between the two friends was not in the least altered by the morning's skirmish they breakfasted with a good appetite looking now and then at poor raoul
who with moist eyes and a full heart scarcely ate at all after breakfast two letters arrived for athos who read them with profound attention whilst d'artagnan could not restrain himself from jumping up several times on seeing him read these epistles
in one of which there being at the time a very strong light he perceived the fine writing of aramis the other was in a feminine hand long and crossed come said d'artagnan to raoul
come let us take a turn in the fencing gallery that will amuse you and they both went into a low room where there were foils gloves masks breastplates and all the accessories for a fencing match
in a quarter of an hour athos joined them and at the same moment charles brought in a letter for d'artagnan which a messenger had just desired might be instantly delivered it was now athos's turn to take a sly look
d'artagnan read the letter with apparent calmness and said shaking his head see dear friend what it is to belong to the army faith you are indeed right not to return to it monsieur de treville is ill
so my company can't do without me there my leave is at an end do you return to paris asked athos quickly
should i go i shall be delighted to see you there
cried the gascon from the door we must set out in ten minutes give the horses some hay then turning to athos he added i seem to miss something here i am really sorry to go away without having seen grimaud grimaud
i'm surprised you have never so much as asked after him i have lent him to a friend who will understand the signs he makes returned d'artagnan i hope so the friends embraced cordially d'artagnan pressed raoul's hand
will you not come with me he said
who showed him by a secret sign that he did not wish him to go
adieu then to both my good friends said d'artagnan may god preserve you as we used to say when we said good bye to each other in the late cardinal's time
raoul bowed and d'artagnan and planchet set out the count followed them with his eyes his hands resting on the shoulders of the youth whose height was almost equal to his own but as soon as they were out of sight he said
raoul we set out to night for paris eh cried the young man turning pale
i shall wait for you here till seven the young man bent low with an expression of sorrow and gratitude mingled and retired in order to saddle his horse as to d'artagnan scarcely on his side was he out of sight when he drew from his pocket a letter
which he read over again return immediately to paris j m the epistle is laconic said d'artagnan and if there had not been a postscript probably i should not have understood it
but happily there is a postscript and he read that welcome postscript which made him forget the abruptness of the letter
tell him your name and show him this letter
come planchet let us pay a visit to the king's treasurer and then set off toward paris sir toward paris
namely since that another may be glad with that that thus in sorrow makes me sad wyatt margaret had not expected much pleasure to herself from mister bell's visit she had only looked forward to it on her father's account
but when her godfather came she at once fell into the most natural position of friendship in the world he said she had no merit in being what she was a girl so entirely after his own heart it was an hereditary power which she had to walk in and take possession of his regard
while she in reply gave him much credit for being so fresh and young under his fellow's cap and gown fresh and young in warmth and kindness i mean i'm afraid i must own that i think your opinions are the oldest and mustiest i have met with this long time
hear this daughter of yours hale her residence in milton has quite corrupted her she's a democrat a red republican a member of the peace society a socialist papa it's all because i'm standing up for the progress of commerce
mister bell would have had it keep still at exchanging wild beast skins for acorns no no i'd dig the ground and grow potatoes and i'd shave the wild beast skins and make the wool into broad cloth don't exaggerate missy
everybody rushing over everybody in their hurry to get rich it is not every one who can sit comfortably in a set of college rooms and let his riches grow without any exertion of his own
without his taking any trouble about it said mister hale i don't believe they would it's the bustle and the struggle they like as for sitting still and learning from the past or shaping out the future by faithful work done in a prophetic spirit
why pooh i don't believe there's a man in milton who knows how to sit still and it is a great art milton people i suspect think oxford men don't know how to move it would be a very good thing if they mixed a little more
it might be good for the miltoners many things might be good for them which would be very disagreeable for other people are you not a milton man yourself asked margaret
i confess i don't see what there is to be proud of
well said mister hale mister thornton is coming to drink tea with us to night and he is as proud of milton as you of oxford you two must try and make each other a little more liberal minded i don't want to be more liberal minded thank you said mister bell
asked margaret in a low voice either to tea or soon after he could not tell he told us not to wait mister thornton had determined
that he would make no inquiry of his mother as to how far she had put her project into execution of speaking to margaret about the impropriety of her conduct he felt pretty sure that if this interview took place his mother's account of what passed at it would only annoy and chagrin him
though he would all the time be aware of the colouring which it received by passing through her mind he shrank from hearing margaret's very name mentioned he while he blamed her while he was jealous of her while he renounced her
he dreamt of her he dreamt she came dancing towards him with outspread arms
even while it allured him but the impression of this figure of margaret with all margaret's character taken out of it as completely as if some evil spirit had got possession of her form was so deeply stamped upon his imagination
that when he wakened he felt hardly able to separate the una from the duessa and the dislike he had to the latter seemed to envelope and disfigure the former yet he was too proud to acknowledge his weakness by avoiding the sight of her
he would neither seek an opportunity of being in her company nor avoid it
he lingered over every piece of business this afternoon he forced every movement into unnatural slowness and deliberation
then there were business arrangements to be transacted in the study with mister bell and the latter kept on sitting over the fire and talking wearily long after all business was transacted and when they might just as well have gone upstairs
but mister thornton would not say a word about moving their quarters he chafed and chafed and thought mister bell a most prosy companion while mister bell returned the compliment in secret by considering mister thornton about as brusque and curt a fellow as he had ever met with
and terribly gone off both in intelligence and manner at last some slight noise in the room above suggested the desirableness of moving there they found margaret with a letter open before her eagerly discussing its contents with her father
on the entrance of the gentlemen it was immediately put aside
a letter from henry lennox it makes margaret very hopeful mister bell nodded
we were thinking said mister hale that you and mister thornton had taken margaret's advice and were each trying to convert the other you were so long in the study and you thought there would be nothing left of us but an opinion
pray whose opinion did you think would have the most obstinate vitality mister thornton had not a notion what they were talking about and disdained to inquire mister hale politely enlightened him mister thornton
we were accusing mister bell this morning of a kind of oxonian mediaeval bigotry against his native town and we margaret i believe
i beg your pardon margaret thought it would do the milton manufacturers good to associate a little more with oxford men now wasn't it so margaret i believe i thought it would do both good to see a little more of the other
and so you see mister thornton
instead of talking over vanished families of smiths and harrisons
all your lives seem to be spent in gathering together the materials for life by living i suppose you mean enjoyment yes enjoyment i don't specify of what because i trust we should both consider mere pleasure as very poor enjoyment
i would rather have the nature of the enjoyment defined well enjoyment of leisure enjoyment of the power and influence which money gives you are all striving for money what do you want it for
mister thornton was silent then he said i really don't know but money is not what i strive for what then it is a home question
i shall have to lay myself open to such a catechist and i am not sure that i am prepared to do it no said mister hale don't let us be personal in our catechism you are neither of you representative men you are each of you too individual for that
i am not sure whether to consider that as a compliment or not i should like to be the representative of oxford with its beauty and its learning and its proud old history
i don't know oxford but there is a difference between being the representative of a city and the representative man of its inhabitants very true miss margaret now i remember
you were against me this morning and were quite miltonian and manufacturing in your preferences margaret saw the quick glance of surprise that mister thornton gave her and she was annoyed at the construction which he might put on this speech of mister bell's mister bell went on
ah i wish i could show you our high street our radcliffe square i am leaving out our colleges just as i give mister thornton leave to omit his factories in speaking of the charms of milton i have a right to abuse my birth place remember i am a milton man
he was not in a mood for joking
but now he was galled enough to attempt to defend what was never meant to be seriously attacked i don't set up milton as a model of a town not in architecture slyly asked mister bell
no we've been too busy to attend to mere outward appearances don't say mere outward appearances said mister hale gently they impress us all from childhood upward every day of our life wait a little while said mister thornton
remember we are of a different race from the greeks to whom beauty was everything and to whom mister bell might speak of a life of leisure and serene enjoyment much of which entered in through their outward senses i don't mean to despise them any more than i would ape them
but i belong to teutonic blood it is little mingled in this part of england to what it is in others we retain much of their language we retain more of their spirit we do not look upon life as a time for enjoyment but as a time for action and exertion
our glory and our beauty arise out of our inward strength which makes us victorious over material resistance and over greater difficulties still we are teutonic up here in darkshire in another way
we hate to have laws made for us at a distance we wish people would allow us to right ourselves instead of continually meddling with their imperfect legislation we stand up for self government and oppose centralisation in short
you would like the heptarchy back again well at any rate i revoke what i said this morning that you milton people did not reverence the past you are regular worshippers of thor if we do not reverence the past as you do in oxford
which is full of difficulties that must be encountered and upon the mode in which they are met and conquered not merely pushed aside for the time depends our future out of the wisdom of the past help us over the present
and yet this last strike under which i am smarting has been respectable a respectable strike said mister bell that sounds as if you were far gone in the worship of thor margaret felt rather than saw
that mister thornton was chagrined by the repeated turning into jest of what he was feeling as very serious she tried to change the conversation from a subject about which one party cared little while to the other it was deeply because personally interesting
she forced herself to say something edith says she finds the printed calicoes in corfu better and cheaper than in london does she said her father i think that must be one of edith's exaggerations are you sure of it margaret
then i am sure of the fact said mister bell margaret
i don't believe a cousin of yours could exaggerate is miss hale so remarkable for truth said mister thornton bitterly the moment he had done so he could have bitten his tongue out what was he
and why should he stab her with her shame in this way how evil he was to night possessed by ill humour at being detained so long from her
now ill tempered because he had been unable to cope with a light heart against one who was trying by gay and careless speeches to make the evening pass pleasantly away the kind old friend to all parties whose manner by this time might be well known to mister thornton
who had been acquainted with him for many years and then to speak to margaret as he had done she did not get up and leave the room as she had done in former days when his abruptness or his temper had annoyed her she sat quite still
after the first momentary glance of grieved surprise that made her eyes look like some child's who has met with an unexpected rebuff they slowly dilated into mournful reproachful sadness and then they fell
and she bent over her work and did not speak again
as if she quivered in some unwonted chill he felt as the mother would have done in the midst of her rocking it and rating it had she been called away before her slow confiding smile implying perfect trust in mother's love had proved the renewing of its love
he gave short sharp answers he was uneasy and cross unable to discern between jest and earnest anxious only for a look a word of hers before which to prostrate himself in penitent humility
but she neither looked nor spoke her round taper fingers flew in and out of her sewing as steadily and swiftly as if that were the business of her life she could not care for him he thought
or else the passionate fervour of his wish would have forced her to raise those eyes if but for an instant to read the late repentance in his he could have struck her before he left in order that by some strange overt act of rudeness
he might earn the privilege of telling her the remorse that gnawed at his heart it was well that the long walk in the open air wound up this evening for him it sobered him back into grave resolution that henceforth he would see as little of her as possible
since the very sight of that face and form the very sounds of that voice like the soft winds of pure melody had such power to move him from his balance well he had known what love was a sharp pang a fierce experience
in the midst of whose flames he was struggling but through that furnace he would fight his way out into the serenity of middle age all the richer and more human for having known this great passion when he had somewhat abruptly left the room
margaret rose from her seat and began silently to fold up her work the long seams were heavy and had an unusual weight for her languid arms the round lines in her face took a lengthened straighter form
and her whole appearance was that of one who had gone through a day of great fatigue as the three prepared for bed mister bell muttered forth a little condemnation of mister thornton i never saw a fellow so spoiled by success
he can't bear a word a jest of any kind everything seems to touch on the soreness of his high dignity formerly he was as simple and noble as the open day
because he had no vanity he is not vain now said margaret
to night he has not been like himself something must have annoyed him before he came here
she stood it quite calmly but after she had left the room he suddenly asked hale
have what the french call a tendresse for each other
no i am sure you are wrong i am almost certain you are mistaken if there is anything it is all on mister thornton's side poor fellow i hope and trust he is not thinking of her for i am sure she would not have him
well i'm a bachelor and have steered clear of love affairs all my life so perhaps my opinion is not worth having or else i should say there were very pretty symptoms about her then i am sure you are wrong said mister hale he may care for her
i'm sure such a thing has never entered her head entering her heart would do but i merely threw out a suggestion of what might be i dare say i was wrong and whether i was wrong or right i'm very sleepy
so having disturbed your night's rest as i can see with my untimely fancies i'll betake myself with an easy mind to my own but mister hale resolved that he would not be disturbed by any such nonsensical idea so he lay awake determining not to think about it
mister bell took his leave the next day bidding margaret look to him as one who had a right to help and protect her in all her troubles of whatever nature they might be to mister hale he said that margaret of yours has gone deep into my heart
take care of her for she is a very precious creature a great deal too good for milton only fit for oxford in fact the town i mean not the men i can't match her yet when i can
i shall bring my young man to stand side by side with your young woman just as the genie in the arabian nights brought prince caralmazan to match with the fairy's princess badoura i beg you'll do no such thing remember the misfortunes that ensued and besides
i can't spare margaret no on second thoughts we'll have her to nurse us ten years hence when we shall be two cross old invalids seriously hale i wish you'd leave milton which is a most unsuitable place for you
though it was my recommendation in the first instance if you would i'd swallow my shadows of doubts and take a college living and you and margaret should come and live at the parsonage you to be a sort of lay curate and take the unwashed off my hands
and she to be our housekeeper the village lady bountiful by day and read us to sleep in the evenings i could be very happy in such a life what do you think of it never said mister hale decidedly
here i stay out my life and here will i be buried and lost in the crowd i don't give up my plan yet only i won't bait you with it any more just now where's the pearl come margaret give me a farewell kiss and remember my dear
where you may find a true friend as far as his capability goes you are my child margaret remember that and god bless you so they fell back into the monotony of the quiet life they would henceforth lead there was no invalid to hope and fear about
even the higginses so long a vivid interest seemed to have receded from any need of immediate thought the boucher children left motherless orphans claimed what of margaret's care she could bestow and she went pretty often to see mary higgins who had charge of them
by the kind neighbour whose good sense had struck margaret at the time of boucher's death of course she was paid for her trouble and indeed in all his little plans and arrangements for these orphan children nicholas showed a sober judgment
and regulated method of thinking which were at variance with his former more eccentric jerks of action he was so steady at his work that margaret did not often see him during these winter months but when she did
she saw that he winced away from any reference to the father of those children whom he had so fully and heartily taken under his care he did not speak easily of mister thornton to tell the truth said he he fairly bamboozles me
how them two chaps is bound up in one body is a craddy for me to find out i'll not be beat by it though meanwhile he comes here pretty often
and i reckon he's taken aback by me pretty much as i am by him for he sits and listens and stares as if i were some strange beast newly caught in some of the zones but i'm none daunted
and does he not answer you asked mister hale
for all i take credit for improving him above a bit sometimes he says a rough thing or two which is not agreeable to look at at first but has a queer smack o truth in it when yo come to chew it
what are they' began mister hale but margaret touching his arm showed him her watch it is nearly seven she said the evenings are getting longer now come papa she did not breathe freely
till they were some distance from the house then as she became more calm she wished that she had not been in so great a hurry for somehow they saw mister thornton but very seldom now and he might have come to see higgins
yes he came very seldom even for the dull cold purpose of lessons mister hale was disappointed in his pupil's lukewarmness about greek literature
that a hurried note from mister thornton would arrive
saying that he was so much engaged that he could not come to read with mister hale that evening
no one was like his first scholar in mister hale's heart he was depressed and sad at this partial cessation of an intercourse which had become dear to him and he used to sit pondering over the reason that could have occasioned this change
he startled margaret one evening as she sate at her work by suddenly asking margaret
he almost blushed as he put this question but mister bell's scouted idea recurred to him
margaret did not answer immediately but by the bent drooping of her head he guessed what her reply would be yes i believe oh papa i should have told you
and she dropped her work and hid her face in her hands no dear
did he speak to you about it no answer at first but by and by a little gentle reluctant yes and you refused him a long sigh
a more helpless nerveless attitude and another yes but before her father could speak margaret lifted up her face rosy with some beautiful shame and fixing her eyes upon him said
now papa i have told you this and i cannot tell you more and then the whole thing is so painful to me every word and action connected with it is so unspeakably bitter that i cannot bear to think of it
oh papa i am sorry to have lost you this friend but i could not help it but oh i am very sorry she sate down on the ground and laid her head on his knees i too am sorry my dear
some idea of the kind mister bell oh did mister bell see it a little but he took it into his head that you how shall i say it that you were not ungraciously disposed towards mister thornton
i knew that could never be i hoped the whole thing was but an imagination but i knew too well what your real feelings were to suppose that you could ever like mister thornton in that way but i am very sorry they were very quiet and still for some minutes
but on stroking her cheek in a caressing way soon after he was almost shocked to find her face wet with tears as he touched her she sprang up and smiling with forced brightness began to talk of the lennoxes with such a vehement desire to turn the conversation
oh how strange it will be i wonder what room they will make into the nursery aunt shaw will be happy with the baby fancy edith a mamma and captain lennox i wonder what he will do with himself now he has sold out
i'll tell you what said her father anxious to indulge her in this fresh subject of interest i think i must spare you for a fortnight just to run up to town and see the travellers
you could learn more by half an hour's conversation with mister henry lennox about frederick's chances than in a dozen of these letters of his
and what's more i won't be spared then after a pause she added i am losing hope sadly about frederick he is letting us down gently but i can see that mister lennox himself has no hope of hunting up the witnesses under years and years of time
no said she that bubble was very pretty and very dear to our hearts but it has burst like many another
and with being a great deal to each other so don't offend me by talking of being able to spare me papa for i assure you you can't but the idea of a change took root and germinated in margaret's heart although not in the way in which her father proposed it at first
she began to consider how desirable something of the kind would be to her father whose spirits always feeble now became too frequently depressed and whose health though he never complained had been seriously affected by his wife's illness and death
there were the regular hours of reading with his pupils but that all giving and no receiving could no longer be called companion ship as in the old days when mister thornton came to study under him margaret was conscious of the want under which he was suffering unknown to himself
and the poor labourers in the fields or leisurely tramping home at eve or tending their cattle in the forest
but in milton every one was too busy for quiet speech or any ripened intercourse of thought what they said was about business very present and actual and when the tension of mind relating to their daily affairs was over they sunk into fallow rest until next morning
the workman was not to be found after the day's work was done he had gone away to some lecture or some club or some beer shop according to his degree of character mister hale thought of trying to deliver a course of lectures at some of the institutions
it was a clear frosty january day on which mister tulliver first came downstairs the bright sun on the chestnut boughs and the roofs opposite his window had made him impatiently declare that he would be caged up no longer he thought everywhere would be more cheery under this sunshine than his bedroom
for he knew nothing of the bareness below which made the flood of sunshine importunate
was so continually implied in his talk and the attempts to convey to him the idea that many weeks had passed and much had happened since then had been so soon swept away by recurrent forgetfulness
this resolution to come downstairs was heard with trembling by the wife and children missus tulliver said tom must not go to saint ogg's at the usual hour he must wait and see his father downstairs and tom complied though with an intense inward shrinking from the painful scene
the hearts of all three had been more deeply dejected than ever during the last few days for guest and co had not bought the mill both mill and land had been knocked down to wakem
who had been over the premises and had laid before mister deane and mister glegg in missus tulliver's presence his willingness to employ mister tulliver in case of his recovery as a manager of the business this proposition had occasioned much family debating
that such an offer ought not to be rejected when there was nothing in the way but a feeling in mister tulliver's mind which as neither aunts nor uncles shared it was regarded as entirely unreasonable and childish
indeed as a transferring toward wakem of that indignation and hatred which mister tulliver ought properly to have directed against himself for his general quarrelsomeness and his special exhibition of it in going to law here was an opportunity for mister tulliver to provide for his wife and daughter
without any assistance from his wife's relations and without that too evident descent into pauperism which makes it annoying to respectable people to meet the degraded member of the family by the wayside mister tulliver missus glegg considered must be made to feel when he came to his right mind
that he could never humble himself enough
mister glegg and mister deane were less stern in their views but they both of them thought tulliver had done enough harm by his hot tempered crotchets and ought to put them out of the question when a livelihood was offered him wakem showed a right feeling about the matter he had no grudge against tulliver
tom had protested against entertaining the proposition he shouldn't like his father to be under wakem he thought it would look mean spirited
who spoke so as nobody could be fairer indeed missus tulliver's mind was reduced to such confusion by living in this strange medium of unaccountable sorrow against which she continually appealed by asking oh dear what have i done to deserve worse than other women
tom she said when they were out of their father's room together we must try to make father understand a little of what has happened before he goes downstairs but we must get my mother away she will say something that will do harm
having declared her intention of staying till the master could get about again wage or no wage she had found a certain recompense in keeping a strong hand over her mistress scolding her for moithering herself and going about all day without changing her cap and looking as if she was mushed
she could scold her betters with unreproved freedom on this particular occasion there were drying clothes to be fetched in she wished to know if one pair of hands could do everything in doors and out and observed that she should have thought it would be good for missus tulliver to put on her bonnet
and get a breath of fresh air by doing that needful piece of work poor missus tulliver went submissively downstairs to be ordered about by a servant was the last remnant of her household dignities she would soon have no servant to scold her
mister tulliver was resting in his chair a little after the fatigue of dressing and maggie and tom were seated near him when luke entered to ask if he should help master downstairs ay ay luke stop a bit sit down said mister tulliver pointing his stick toward a chair
and looking at him with that pursuant gaze which convalescent persons often have for those who have tended them reminding one of an infant gazing about after its nurse for luke had been a constant night watcher by his master's bed how's the water now eh luke said mister tulliver
dix hasn't been choking you up again eh no sir it's all right ay i thought not he won't be in a hurry at that again now riley's been to settle him that was what i said to riley yesterday i said
mister tulliver leaned forward resting his elbows on the armchair and looking on the ground as if in search of something striving after vanishing images like a man struggling against a doze maggie looked at tom in mute distress their father's mind was so far off the present
which would by and by thrust itself on his wandering consciousness tom was almost ready to rush away with that impatience of painful emotion which makes one of the differences between youth and maiden man and woman father said maggie laying her hand on his
don't you remember that mister riley is dead dead said mister tulliver sharply looking in her face with a strange examining glance yes he died of apoplexy nearly a year ago i remember hearing you say you had to pay money for him
and he left his daughters badly off one of them is under teacher at miss firniss's where i've been to school you know ah said her father doubtfully still looking in her face but as soon as tom began to speak he turned to look at him with the same inquiring glances
i've been at school there three years don't you remember mister tulliver threw himself backward again losing the childlike outward glance under a rush of new ideas which diverted him from external impressions
i was determined my son should have a good eddication i'd none myself and i've felt the miss of it and he'll want no other fortin that's what i say if wakem was to get the better of me again the thought of wakem roused new vibrations
and after a moment's pause he began to look at the coat he had on and to feel in his side pocket
you know what there is in the letter father said tom as he gave it to him to be sure i do said mister tulliver rather angrily what o that
but it's hindering my not being well
gore's expecting me no dear father maggie burst out entreatingly it's a very long while since all that you've been ill a great many weeks more than two months everything is changed
but it came upon him now with entire novelty yes father said tom in answer to the gaze you needn't trouble your mind about business until you are quite well everything is settled about that for the present about the mill and the land and the debts what's settled then said his father angrily
don't you take on too much bout it sir said luke you'd ha paid iverybody if you could that's what i said to master tom
good luke felt after the manner of contented hard working men whose lives have been spent in servitude that sense of natural fitness in rank which made his master's downfall a tragedy to him he was urged in his slow way to say something that would express his share in the family sorrow
and these words which he had used over and over again to tom when he wanted to decline the full payment of his fifty pounds out of the children's money were the most ready to his tongue they were just the words to lay the most painful hold on his master's bewildered mind
paid everybody he said with vehement agitation his face flushing and his eye lighting up why what have they made me a bankrupt oh father dear father said maggie who thought that terrible word really represented the fact
bear it well because we love you your children will always love you tom will pay them all he says he will when he's a man she felt her father beginning to tremble his voice trembled too as he said after a few moments ay my little wench
but i shall never live twice o'er but perhaps you will live to see me pay everybody father said tom speaking with a great effort ah my lad said mister tulliver shaking his head slowly but what's broke can never be whole again it ud be your doing not mine
then looking up at him you're only sixteen it's an up hill fight for you
the raskills have been too many for him i've given you a good eddication that'll start you something in his throat half choked the last words the flush which had alarmed his children because it had so often preceded a recurrence of paralysis had subsided and his face looked pale and tremulous
tom said nothing he was still struggling against his inclination to rush away his father remained quiet a minute or two but his mind did not seem to be wandering again have they sold me up then he said more clamly as if he were possessed simply by the desire to know what had happened
everything is sold father but we don't know all about the mill and the land yet said tom anxious to ward off any question leading to the fact that wakem was the purchaser you must not be surprised to see the room look very bare downstairs father said maggie but there's your chair and the bureau they're not gone
let us go help me down luke i'll go and see everything said mister tulliver leaning on his stick and stretching out his other hand toward luke ay sir said luke as he gave his arm to his master you'll make up your mind to't a bit better when you've seen iverything you'll get used to't
that's what my mother says about her shortness o breath she says she's made friends wi't now though she fought again it sore when it just come on maggie ran on before to see that all was right in the dreary parlor where the fire dulled by the frosty sunshine seemed part of the general shabbiness
she turned her father's chair and pushed aside the table to make an easy way for him and then stood with a beating heart to see him enter and look round for the first time tom advanced before him carrying the leg rest and stood beside maggie on the hearth
he would rather go and slay the nemean lion or perform any round of heroic labors than endure perpetual appeals to his pity for evils over which he can make no conquest mister tulliver paused just inside the door
resting on luke and looking round him at all the bare places which for him were filled with the shadows of departed objects the daily companions of his life his faculties seemed to be renewing their strength from getting a footing on this demonstration of the senses ah
he said slowly moving toward his chair they've sold me up they've sold me up then seating himself and laying down his stick while luke left the room he looked round again they've left the big bible he said it's got everything in when i was born and married
bring it me tom the quarto bible was laid open before him at the fly leaf and while he was reading with slowly travelling eyes missus tulliver entered the room but stood in mute surprise to find her husband down already and with the great bible before him
ah he said looking at a spot where his finger rested my mother was margaret beaton she died when she was forty seven hers wasn't a long lived family
he seemed to be pausing over the record of his sister's birth and marriage as if it were suggesting new thoughts to him then he suddenly looked up at tom and said in a sharp tone of alarm they haven't come upo moss for the money as i lent him have they no father said tom the note was burnt
mister tulliver turned his eyes on the page again and presently said ah elizabeth dodson it's eighteen year since i married her come next ladyday said missus tulliver going up to his side and looking at the page her husband fixed his eyes earnestly on her face
poor bessy he said you was a pretty lass then everybody said so and i used to think you kept your good looks rarely but you're sorely aged don't you bear me ill will i meant to do well by you we promised one another for better or for worse
and my poor father gave me away and to come on so all at once oh mother said maggie don't talk in that way no i know you won't let your poor mother speak that's been the way all my life your father never minded what i said
don't say so bessy said mister tulliver whose pride in these first moments of humiliation was in abeyance to the sense of some justice in his wife's reproach it there's anything left as i could do to make you amends i wouldn't say you nay
and me been such a good wife to you and never crossed you from week's end to week's end and they all say so
when he says you may stay here and speaks as fair as can be and says you may manage the business and have thirty shillings a week and a horse to ride about to market
mister tulliver had sunk back in his chair trembling you may do as you like wi me bessy he said in a low voice i've been the bringing of you to poverty this world's too many for me i'm nought but a bankrupt it's no use standing up for anything now
i get a pound a week now and you can find something else to do when you get well say no more tom say no more i've had enough for this day
the days passed and mister tulliver showed at least to the eyes of the medical man stronger and stronger symptoms of a gradual return to his normal condition the paralytic obstruction was little by little losing its tenacity
and the mind was rising from under it with fitful struggles like a living creature making its way from under a great snowdrift that slides and slides again and shuts up the newly made opening time would have seemed to creep to the watchers by the bed
if it had only been measured by the doubtful distant hope which kept count of the moments within the chamber but it was measured for them by a fast approaching dread which made the nights come too quickly
while mister tulliver was slowly becoming himself again his lot was hastening toward its moment of most palpable change the taxing masters had done their work like any respectable gunsmith conscientiously preparing the musket that duly pointed by a brave arm will spoil a life or two
allocaturs filing of bills in chancery decrees of sale are legal chain shot or bomb shells that can never hit a solitary mark but must fall with widespread shattering so deeply inherent is it in this life of ours that men have to suffer for each other's sins
so inevitably diffusive is human suffering that even justice makes its victims and we can conceive no retribution that does not spread beyond its mark in pulsations of unmerited pain by the beginning of the second week in january the bills were out advertising the sale
under a decree of chancery of mister tulliver's farming and other stock to be followed by a sale of the mill and land held in the proper after dinner hour at the golden lion
the miller himself unaware of the lapse of time fancied himself still in that first stage of his misfortunes when expedients might be thought of and often in his conscious hours talked in a feeble disjointed manner of plans he would carry out when he got well
the wife and children were not without hope of an issue that would at least save mister tulliver from leaving the old spot and seeking an entirely strange life for uncle deane had been induced to interest himself in this stage of the business
it would not he acknowledged be a bad speculation for guest and co to buy dorlcote mill and carry on the business which was a good one and might be increased by the addition of steam power in which case tulliver might be retained as manager
still mister deane would say nothing decided about the matter the fact that wakem held the mortgage on the land might put it into his head to bid for the whole estate and further to outbid the cautious firm of guest and co who did not carry on business on sentimental grounds
mister deane was obliged to tell missus tulliver something to that effect when he rode over to the mill to inspect the books in company with missus glegg for she had observed that if guest and co would only think about it mister tulliver's father and grandfather had been carrying on dorlcote mill
long before the oil mill of that firm had been so much as thought of mister deane in reply doubted whether that was precisely the relation between the two mills which would determine their value as investments as for uncle glegg the thing lay quite beyond his imagination
the good natured man felt sincere pity for the tulliver family but his money was all locked up in excellent mortgages and he could run no risk that would be unfair to his own relatives but he had made up his mind that tulliver should have some new flannel waistcoats
one day he had brought lucy who was come home for the christmas holidays and the little blond angel head had pressed itself against maggie's darker cheek with many kisses and some tears these fair slim daughters keep up a tender spot in the heart of many a respectable partner in a respectable firm
and perhaps lucy's anxious pitying questions about her poor cousins helped to make uncle deane more prompt in finding tom a temporary place in the warehouse and in putting him in the way of getting evening lessons in book keeping and calculation
that might have cheered the lad and fed his hopes a little if there had not come at the same time the much dreaded blow of finding that his father must be a bankrupt after all at least the creditors must be asked to take less than their due which to tom's untechnical mind was the same thing as bankruptcy
his father must not only be said to have lost his property but to have failed the word that carried the worst obloquy to tom's mind for when the defendant's claim for costs had been satisfied there would remain the friendly bill of mister gore and the deficiency at the bank as well as the other debts
which would make the assets shrink into unequivocal disproportion not more than ten or twelve shillings in the pound predicted mister deane in a decided tone tightening his lips and the words fell on tom like a scalding liquied leaving a continual smart
he was sadly in want of something to keep up his spirits a little in the unpleasant newness of his position
and the busy idleness of castle building in a last half at school to the companionship of sacks and hides and bawling men thundering down heavy weights at his elbow the first step toward getting on in the world was a chill dusty noisy affair
and implied going without one's tea in order to stay in saint ogg's and have an evening lesson from a one armed elderly clerk in a room smelling strongly of bad tobacco tom's young pink and white face had its colors very much deadened by the time he took off his hat at home
and sat down with keen hunger to his supper no wonder he was a little cross if his mother or maggie spoke to him but all this while missus tulliver was brooding over a scheme by which she and no one else would avert the result most to be dreaded
and prevent wakem from entertaining the purpose of bidding for the mill imagine a truly respectable and amiable hen by some portentous anomaly taking to reflection and inventing combinations by which she might prevail on hodge not to wring her neck or send her and her chicks to market
the result could hardly be other than much cackling and fluttering missus tulliver seeing that everything had gone wrong had begun to think she had been too passive in life and that if she had applied her mind to business and taken a strong resolution now and then
nobody it appeared had thought of going to speak to wakem on this business of the mill and yet missus tulliver reflected
even if he had been able and willing for he had been going to law against wakem and abusing him for the last ten years
and now that missus tulliver had come to the conclusion that her husband was very much in the wrong to bring her into this trouble she was inclined to think that his opinion of wakem was wrong too to be sure wakem had put the bailies in the house and sold them up but she supposed he did that to please the man that lent mister tulliver the money
for a lawyer had more folks to please than one and he wasn't likely to put mister tulliver who had gone to law with him above everybody else in the world
and at the time missus tulliver had heard of that marriage the summer when she wore her blue satin spencer and had not yet any thoughts of mister tulliver she knew no harm of wakem and certainly toward herself whom he knew to have been a miss dodson it was out of all possibility that he could entertain anything but good will
when it was once brought home to his observation that she for her part had never wanted to go to law and indeed was at present disposed to take mister wakem's view of all subjects rather than her husband's in fact if that attorney saw a respectable matron like herself disposed to give him good words
why shouldn't he listen to her representations for she would put the matter clearly before him which had never been done yet and he would never go and bid for the mill on purpose to spite her an innocent woman who thought it likely enough that she had danced with him in their youth at squire darleigh's
for at those big dances she had often and often danced with young men whose names she had forgotten missus tulliver hid these reasonings in her own bosom for when she had thrown out a hint to mister deane and mister glegg that she wouldn't mind going to speak to wakem herself they had said
no no no and pooh pooh and let wakem alone in the tone of men who were not likely to give a candid attention to a more definite exposition of her project still less dared she mention the plan to tom and maggie for the children were always so against everything their mother said and tom she observed
was almost as much set against wakem as his father was but this unusual concentration of thought naturally gave missus tulliver an unusual power of device and determination and a day or two before the sale to be held at the golden lion
when there was no longer any time to be lost she carried out her plan by a stratagem there were pickles in question a large stock of pickles and ketchup which missus tulliver possessed
so she would walk with tom to saint ogg's that morning and when tom urged that she might let the pickles be at present he didn't like her to go about just yet she appeared so hurt at this conduct in her son contradicting her about pickles which she had made after the family receipts inherited from his own grandmother
who had died when his mother was a little girl that he gave way and they walked together until she turned toward danish street where mister hyndmarsh retailed his grocery not far from the offices of mister wakem that gentleman was not yet come to his office
would missus tulliver sit down by the fire in his private room and wait for him she had not long to wait before the punctual attorney entered knitting his brow with an examining glance at the stout blond woman who rose curtsying deferentially
a tallish man with an aquiline nose and abundant iron gray hair you have never seen mister wakem before and are possibly wondering whether he was really as eminent a rascal and as crafty bitter an enemy of honest humanity in general and of mister tulliver in particular
or portrait of him which we have seen to exist in the miller's mind it is clear that the irascible miller was a man to interpret any chance shot that grazed him as an attempt on his own life and was liable to entanglements in this puzzling world which due consideration had to his own infallibility
required the hypothesis of a very active diabolical agency to explain them it is still possible to believe that the attorney was not more guilty toward him than an ingenious machine which performs its work with much regularity is guilty toward the rash man who
venturing too near it is caught up by some fly wheel or other and suddenly converted into unexpected mince meat but it is really impossible to decide this question by a glance at his person the lines and lights of the human countenance are like other symbols not always easy to read without a key
on an a priori view of wakem's aquiline nose which offended mister tulliver there was not more rascality than in the shape of his stiff shirt collar though this too along with his nose might have become fraught with damnatory meaning when once the rascality was ascertained missus tulliver i think said mister wakem
yes sir miss elizabeth dodson as was pray be seated you have some business with me well sir yes said missus tulliver beginning to feel alarmed at her own courage now she was really in presence of the formidable man
and reflecting that she had not settled with herself how she should begin mister wakem felt in his waistcoat pockets and looked at her in silence i hope sir she began at last i hope sir you're not a thinking as i bear you any ill will because o my husband's losing his lawsuit
and the bailies being put in and the linen being sold oh dear for i wasn't brought up in that way i'm sure you remember my father sir for he was close friends with squire darleigh and we allays went to the dances there the miss dodsons
nobody could be more looked on and justly for there was four of us and you're quite aware as missus glegg and missus deane are my sisters and as for going to law and losing money and having sales before you're dead i never saw anything o that before i was married nor for a long while after
missus tulliver shook her head a little and looked at the hem of her pocket handkerchief i've no doubt of what you say missus tulliver said mister wakem with cold politeness but you have some question to ask me
i've said you'd had some nat'ral feeling
not but what there's worse men for he never wronged nobody of a shilling nor a penny not willingly
but i can't believe but what you'll behave as a gentleman what does all this mean missus tulliver said mister wakem rather sharply what do you want to ask me
if you'll be so good not to buy the mill an the land
something like a new thought flashed across mister wakem's face as he said who told you i meant to buy it why sir it's none o my inventing
for my husband as ought to know about the law he allays used to say as lawyers had never no call to buy anything either lands or houses
an i should think that ud be the way with you sir and i niver said as you'd be the man to do contrairy to that ah well who was it that did say so said wakem opening his desk and moving things about with the accompaniment of an almost inaudible whistle
for it was his father's before him the mill was and his grandfather built it though i wasn't fond o the noise of it when first i was married for there was no mills in our family not the dodson's
but i went into it blindfold that i did erigation and everything
oh dear sir it's hard to think of said poor missus tulliver a little tear making its way
and if you'll only think if you was to bid for the mill and buy it my husband might be struck worse than he was before and niver get better again as he's getting now well but if i bought the mill and allowed your husband to act as my manager in the same way how then said mister wakem
oh sir i doubt he could niver be got to do it not if the very mill stood still to beg and pray of him for your name's like poison to him it's so as never was and he looks upon it as you've been the ruin of him all along ever since you set the law on him about the road through the meadow
as i've allays told him he was wrong he's a pig headed foul mouthed fool burst out mister wakem forgetting himself oh dear sir said missus tulliver frightened at a result so different from the one she had fixed her mind on
i wouldn't wish to contradict you but it's like enough he's changed his mind with this illness he's forgot a many things he used to talk about
and the water might all run away and then not as i'm wishing you any ill luck sir for i forgot to tell you as i remember your wedding as if it was yesterday missus wakem was a miss clint i know that
you must excuse me for interrupting you missus tulliver i have business that must be attended to and i think there is nothing more necessary to be said but if you would bear it in mind sir said missus tulliver rising and not run against me and my children and i'm not denying mister tulliver's been in the wrong
but he's been punished enough and there's worse men for it's been giving to other folks has been his fault he's done nobody any harm but himself and his family the more's the pity
yes yes i'll bear it in mind said mister wakem hastily looking toward the open door and if you'd please not to say as i've been to speak to you for my son ud be very angry with me for demeaning myself i know he would and i've trouble enough without being scolded by my children
poor missus tulliver's voice trembled a little and she could make no answer to the attorney's good morning but curtsied and walked out in silence which day is it that dorlcote mill is to be sold where's the bill said mister wakem to his clerk when they were alone
next friday is the day friday at six o'clock oh just run to winship's the auctioneer and see if he's at home i have some business for him ask him to come up
his mind was already made up missus tulliver had suggested to him several determining motives and his mental glance was very rapid he was one of those men who can be prompt without being rash because their motives run in fixed tracks and they have no need to reconcile conflicting aims
to suppose that wakem had the same sort of inveterate hatred toward tulliver that tulliver had toward him would be like supposing that a pike and a roach can look at each other from a similar point of view the roach necessarily abhors the mode in which the pike gets his living
and the pike is likely to think nothing further even of the most indignant roach than that he is excellent good eating it could only be when the roach choked him that the pike could entertain a strong personal animosity
wakem would not have refused him the distinction of being a special object of his vindictiveness but when mister tulliver called wakem a rascal at the market dinner table
stimulated by opportunity and brandy made a thrust at him by alluding to old ladies wills
that is to say a man who always knew the stepping stones that would carry him through very muddy bits of practice a man who had made a large fortune had a handsome house among the trees at tofton and decidedly the finest stock of port wine in the neighborhood of saint ogg's
since i have understood from persons versed in history that mankind is not disposed to look narrowly into the conduct of great victors when their victory is on the right side tulliver then could be no obstruction to wakem on the contrary he was a poor devil whom the lawyer had defeated several times
a hot tempered fellow who would always give you a handle against him
the successful yellow candidate for the borough of old topping perhaps feels no pursuant meditative hatred toward the blue editor who consoles his subscribers with vituperative rhetoric against yellow men who sell their country and are the demons of private life but he might not be sorry if law and opportunity favored
to kick that blue editor to a deeper shade of his favorite color prosperous men take a little vengeance now and then as they take a diversion when it comes easily in their way and is no hindrance to business and such small unimpassioned revenges have an enormous effect in life
running through all degrees of pleasant infliction blocking the fit men out of places and blackening characters in unpremeditated talk still more to see people who have been only insignificantly offensive to us reduced in life and humiliated without any special effort of ours
is apt to have a soothing flattering influence providence or some other prince of this world it appears has undertaken the task of retribution for us and really by an agreeable constitution of things our enemies somehow don't prosper
wakem was not without this parenthetic vindictiveness toward the uncomplimentary miller and now missus tulliver had put the notion into his head it presented itself to him as a pleasure to do the very thing that would cause mister tulliver the most deadly mortification and a pleasure of a complex kind
not made up of crude malice but mingling with it the relish of self approbation to see an enemy humiliated gives a certain contentment but this is jejune compared with the highly blent satisfaction of seeing him humiliated by your benevolent action or concession on his behalf
that is a sort of revenge which falls into the scale of virtue and wakem was not without an intention of keeping that scale respectably filled he had once had the pleasure of putting an old enemy of his into one of the saint ogg's alms houses to the rebuilding of which he had given a large subscription
such things give a completeness to prosperity and contribute elements of agreeable consciousness that are not dreamed of by that short sighted overheated vindictiveness which goes out its way to wreak itself in direct injury
would make a better servant than any chance fellow who was cap in hand for a situation tulliver was known to be a man of proud honesty and wakem was too acute not to believe in the existence of honesty he was given too observing individuals not to judging of them according to maxims
and no one knew better than he that all men were not like himself besides he intended to overlook the whole business of land and mill pretty closely
but there were good reasons for purchasing dorlcote mill quite apart from any benevolent vengeance on the miller it was really a capital investment besides guest and co were going to bid for it
as well as in his table talk for wakem was not a mere man of business he was considered a pleasant fellow in the upper circles of saint ogg's chatted amusingly over his port wine
than most men were to their best shapen offspring not that mister wakem had not other sons beside philip
and provided for them in a grade of life duly beneath his own in this fact indeed there lay the clenching motive to the purchase of dorlcote mill
that this purchase would in a few years to come furnish a highly suitable position for a certain favorite lad whom he meant to bring on in the world these were the mental conditions on which missus tulliver had undertaken to act persuasively and had failed
there was a rich man who had a beautiful and pious wife they loved one another dearly but they had no children
but still they had none in front of their house was a yard where stood a juniper tree and under it the wife stood once in winter and peeled an apple
and the blood fell on the snow oh said she sighing deeply and looking sorrowfully at the blood
as red as blood and as white as snow while she spoke she became quite happy it seemed to her
then she went into the house and a month passed and the snow melted
and three months and the flowers came up out of the earth and four months and all the trees in the wood burst forth and the green twigs all grew thickly together the little birds sang so that the whole wood rang
and the blossoms fell from the trees the fifth month passed and she stood under the juniper tree and it smelt so beautiful and her heart leaped with joy she fell upon her knees but could not speak
when the sixth month was gone the fruit was large and ripe and she was very quiet the seventh month she took the juniper berries ate them eagerly and was sick and sorrowful
and the eighth month went by and she called to her husband and cried and said if i die bury me under the juniper tree after this
and then she had a child as white as snow and as red as blood when she beheld it she was so glad that she died her husband buried her under the juniper tree
and began to mourn very much but after a little time he became calmer and when he had wept a little more he left off weeping entirely and soon afterwards he took another wife
the second wife brought him a daughter but the child of the first wife was a little son and was as red as blood and as white as snow when the wife looked at her daughter she loved her
and she was always thinking how she could get all the property for her daughter the evil one possessed her so that she was quite angry with the little boy and pushed him about from one corner to another
and cuffed him here and pinched him there until the poor child was always in fear when he came home from school he could not find a quiet place to creep into once
when the woman went up to her room her little daughter came up too and said mother give me an apple yes my child said the woman
and gave her a beautiful apple out of the chest and the chest had a great heavy lid
mother said the little daughter shall not brother have one too that vexed the woman but she said yes when he comes from school and when she saw from the window that he was coming
it was just as if the evil one came into her and she snatched away the apple from her daughter and said you shall not have one before your brother then she threw the apple into the chest
and shut the lid close down when the little boy came in at the door the evil one made her say kindly my son will you have an apple yet she looked so angry all the time
that the little boy said mother how dreadful you look yes
then she felt that she must speak to him come with me said she and opened the lid pick out an apple for yourself and as the little boy stooped over
the evil one prompted her and smash she banged the lid down so that his head flew off and fell among the red apples then she was seized with terror and thought can i get rid of the blame of this
to her chest of drawers and took out of the top drawer a white cloth and placed the head on the neck again and tied the handkerchief round it so that one could see nothing and set him before the door on a chair
and gave him the apple in his hand soon after little margery came to her mother who stood by the kitchen fire and had a pot of hot water before her which she kept stirring round
mother said little margery brother sits before the door and looks quite white
i asked him to give me the apple but he did not answer me and i was frightened go to him again said her mother and if he will not answer you give him a box on the ear
then margery went and said brother give me the apple but he was silent so she gave him a box on the ear and the head fell down she was frightened
and began to cry and sob and ran to her mother and said oh mother i have knocked my brother's head off and cried and cried and would not be comforted margery
said her mother what have you done but now be quiet and no one will notice it cannot be helped now we will cook him in vinegar then the mother took the little boy and chopped him in pieces
put him into the pot and cooked him in vinegar but margery stood by and cried and cried and all her tears fell into the pot so that the cookery did not want any salt
when the father came home and sat down to dinner he said where is my son
and margery cried and cried without ceasing then the father said again where is my son oh
what does he want there and he has not even said good bye to me oh
said the father i am sorry for he ought to have bade me good bye
and said margery what are you crying for brother will be sure to come back oh wife continued he how delicious this food tastes give me some more
the more he wanted and he said give me more you shall not have any of it i feel as if it were all mine and he ate and ate throwing the bones under the table
till he had finished it all but margery went to her drawers
her best silk handkerchief and fetched out all the bones from under the table she tied them up in the silk handkerchief and took them out of doors and shed bitter tears over them
then she laid them under the juniper tree in the green grass and when she had put them there she felt all at once quite happy and did not cry any more soon the juniper began to move
just as if the tree were clapping its hands for joy after that there went up from it a sort of mist and right in the centre of the mist burnt a fire and out of the fire
flew a beautiful bird who singing deliciously rose up high in the air when he was out of sight the juniper tree was just as it had been before
was gone but margery felt quite pleased and happy just as if her brother were still alive and she went back merrily into the house to dinner
and began to sing my mother she killed me my father he ate me my sister little margery gathered up all my bones tied them in a silk handkerchief and laid them under the juniper tree
making a gold chain but he heard the bird which sat on his roof and sang and he thought it very beautiful he stood up and as he went over the door step he lost one slipper
but he went right into the middle of the street with one slipper and one sock on he had on his leather apron in one hand he carried the gold chain and in the other the pincers while the sun shone brightly up the street
there he stood and looked at the bird bird said he
sing me that song again no said the bird i do not sing twice for nothing give me that gold chain and i will sing it again there said the goldsmith
you shall have the gold chain now sing me that song once more
and went and sat before the goldsmith and sang my mother she killed me my father he ate me my sister little margery gathered up all my bones
tied them in a silk handkerchief and laid them under the juniper tree
afterwards he flew away to a shoemaker's and set himself on his roof and sang my mother she killed me my father he ate me my sister little margery
gathered up all my bones tied them in a silk handkerchief and laid them under the juniper tree kywitt
what a beautiful bird am i when the shoemaker heard it
so that the sun should not dazzle him bird said he how beautifully you can sing and he called in at his door wife just come out there is a bird here which can sing so beautifully
then he called his daughter and his workpeople both boys and girls they all came into the street looked at the bird and saw how handsome he was for he had bright red and green feathers
and his neck shone like real gold and his eyes twinkled in his head like stars bird said the shoemaker now sing me that song again no replied the bird
i do not sing twice for nothing you must give me something
said the man go to the garret on the highest shelf there stands a pair of red shoes bring them here the wife went and fetched the shoes there said the man
and took the shoes in his left claw and flew back on the roof and sang my mother she killed me my father he ate me my sister little margery gathered up all my bones
tied them in a silk handkerchief and laid them under the juniper tree
and when he had finished
with the chain in his right claw and the shoes in his left
and the mill went clipper clapper clipper clapper clipper clapper and in the mill there sat twenty millers who chopped a stone and chopped hick hack hick hack hick hack and the mill went
clipper clapper clipper clapper clipper clapper the bird flew up and sat in a lime tree that grew before the mill and sang my mother she killed me then one man stopped
then two more stopped and listened my sister little margery then four more stopped gathered up all my bones tied them in a silk handkerchief now only eight more were chopping
laid them under now only five the juniper tree now only one
then the last man stopped too and heard the last word bird said he how beautifully you sing please to sing me that song once more no answered the bird
i do not sing twice for nothing give me the millstone and i will sing it again yes said he if it belonged to me only you should have it yes cried all the others
if he sings it again he shall have it then the bird came down and all the twenty millers took poles and lifted the stone up
and put it on like a collar and flew back to the tree and sang my mother she killed me my father he ate me my sister little margery gathered up all my bones
tied them in a silk handkerchief and laid them under the juniper tree
and when he had done singing he opened his wings
and round his neck the millstone he flew far away to his father's house
the mother and little margery at dinner and the father said oh how happy i am altogether joyful for me said the mother i feel quite frightened
as if a dreadful storm was coming but margery sat and cried and cried then
oh said the father i feel so happy and the sun shines out of doors so beautifully it is just as if i were going to see an old friend no said the wife
i am so frightened my teeth chatter and it feels as if there was a fire in my veins and she tore open her dress but margery sat in a corner and cried holding her apron before her eyes
till the apron was quite wet through the bird perched upon the juniper tree and sang my mother she killed me
and shut her eyes tight and did not want to see or hear
oh wife said the man look at that beautiful bird he sings so splendidly and the sun shines so warm
my sister little margery
and sobbed out loud but the man said i shall go out i must look at the bird quite close oh do not go said the wife it seems to me as if the whole house shook
and was in flames but the man went out and watched the bird which still went on singing gathered up all my bones tied them in a silk handkerchief and laid them under the juniper tree
after that the bird let the gold chain fall
he went in and said see what a beautiful bird that is it has given me such a splendid gold chain but the wife was frightened
and her cap dropped off her head then the bird sang again my mother she killed me oh
so that i might not hear
then she fell down as if she was dead my sister little margery oh said margery i will go out too
gathered up all my bones tied them in a silk handkerchief and the shoes were thrown down and laid them under the juniper tree
then margery was very joyful she put on the new red shoes and danced and jumped about oh said she i was so unhappy
the bird threw the millstone on her head and she was crushed to pieces the father and margery heard it and rushed out to see what had happened
and when that was gone there stood the little brother all alive again as if he had never died he took his father and margery by the hand
the widow said i was coming along slow but sure and doing very satisfactory
but miss watson was in ahead of me and crossed me off she says take your hands away huckleberry what a mess you are always making the widow put in a good word for me but that warn't going to keep off the bad luck i knowed that well enough
i started out after breakfast feeling worried and shaky and wondering where it was going to fall on me and what it was going to be there is ways to keep off some kinds of bad luck but this wasn't one of them kind
but just poked along low spirited and on the watch out i went down to the front garden and clumb over the stile where you go through the high board fence there was an inch of new snow on the ground and i seen somebody's tracks
they had come up from the quarry and stood around the stile a while and then went on around the garden fence it was funny they hadn't come in after standing around so
i didn't notice anything at first but next i did there was a cross in the left boot heel made with big nails to keep off the devil i was up in a second and shinning down the hill i looked over my shoulder every now and then but i didn't see nobody
i was at judge thatcher's as quick as i could get there he said
no sir i says is there some for me
no sir i says
i want you to take it i want to give it to youthe six thousand and all he looked surprised he couldn't seem to make it out he says why what can you mean my boy i says
he says well i'm puzzled is something the matter please take it says i and don't ask me nothingthen i won't have to tell no lies he studied a while and then he says oho o
i think i see you want to sell all your property to menot give it that's the correct idea
there you see it says for a consideration that means i have bought it of you and paid you for it here's a dollar for you now you sign it so i signed it and left miss watson's nigger jim had a hair ball as big as your fist
which had been took out of the fourth stomach of an ox and he used to do magic with it he said there was a spirit inside of it and it knowed everything so i went to him that night and told him pap was here again for i found his tracks in the snow
jim got out his hair ball and said something over it
it fell pretty solid and only rolled about an inch
jim got down on his knees and put his ear against it and listened but it warn't no use he said it wouldn't talk he said sometimes it wouldn't talk without money
and it wouldn't pass nohow even if the brass didn't show
i said it was pretty bad money but maybe the hair ball would take it because maybe it wouldn't know the difference jim smelt it and bit it and rubbed it and said he would manage so the hair ball would think it was good
he said he would split open a raw irish potato
and it wouldn't feel greasy no more and so anybody in town would take it in a minute let alone a hair ball well i knowed a potato would do that before but i had forgot it
this time he said the hair ball was all right he said
i says go on so the hair ball talked to jim and jim
sometimes he spec he'll go way
en let de ole man take his own way dey's two angels hoverin roun bout him one em is white en shiny
de white one gits him to go right a little while den de black one sail in en bust it all up
dey's two gals flyin bout you in yo life one em's light
but the widow she didn't scold but only cleaned off the grease and clay and looked so sorry that i thought i would behave awhile if i could then miss watson she took me in the closet and prayed but nothing come of it she told me to pray every day and whatever i asked for i would get it
but it warn't so i tried it once i got a fish line but no hooks it warn't any good to me without hooks i tried for the hooks three or four times but somehow i couldn't make it work by and by one day
i set down one time back in the woods and had a long think about it i says to myself if a body can get anything they pray for
why can't the widow get back her silver snuffbox that was stole why can't miss watson fat up no says i to my self there ain't nothing in it
and she said the thing a body could get by praying for it was spiritual gifts this was too many for me but she told me what she meant i must help other people and do everything i could for other people and look out for them all the time
and never think about myself this was including miss watson as i took it
but i couldn't see no advantage about itexcept for the other people
sometimes the widow would take me one side and talk about providence in a way to make a body's mouth water but maybe next day miss watson would take hold and knock it all down again i judged
seeing i was so ignorant and so kind of low down and ornery
well about this time
so people said they judged it was him anyway said this drownded man was just his size and was ragged and had uncommon long hair which was all like pap but they couldn't make nothing out of the face because it had been in the water so long it warn't much like a face at all
they said he was floating on his back in the water they took him and buried him on the bank but i warn't comfortable long because i happened to think of something i knowed mighty well that a drownded man don't float on his back but on his face
so i was uncomfortable again i judged the old man would turn up again by and by though i wished he wouldn't we played robber now and then about a month and then i resigned all the boys did
we hadn't robbed nobody hadn't killed any people but only just pretended we used to hop out of the woods and go charging down on hog drivers and women in carts taking garden stuff to market but we never hived any of them tom sawyer called the hogs ingots
and he called the turnips and stuff julery
and how many people we had killed and marked but i couldn't see no profit in it one time tom sent a boy to run about town with a blazing stick
which was the sign for the gang to get together and then he said he had got secret news
that next day a whole parcel of spanish merchants and rich a rabs was going to camp in cave hollow with two hundred elephants and six hundred camels and over a thousand sumter mules all loaded down with di'monds and they didn't have only a guard of four hundred soldiers
and scoop the things he said we must slick up our swords and guns and get ready
and you might scour at them till you rotted and then they warn't worth a mouthful of ashes more than what they was before i didn't believe we could lick such a crowd of spaniards and a rabs but i wanted to see the camels and elephants so i was on hand next day saturday in the ambuscade
but there warn't no spaniards and a rabs
it warn't anything but a sunday school picnic and only a primer class at that
though ben rogers got a rag doll and jo harper got a hymn book and a tract
i said why couldn't we see them then he said if i warn't so ignorant but had read a book called don quixote i would know without asking
and elephants and treasure and so on but we had enemies which he called magicians and they had turned the whole thing into an infant sunday school just out of spite i said all right then the thing for us to do was to go for the magicians
tom sawyer said i was a numskull why said he
and they would hash you up like nothing before you could say jack robinson they are as tall as a tree and as big around as a church well i says s'pose we got some genies to help us can't we lick the other crowd then
why they rub an old tin lamp or an iron ring and then the genies come tearing in with the thunder and lightning a ripping around and the smoke a rolling and everything they're told to do they up and do it they don't think nothing of pulling a shot tower up by the roots and belting a sunday school superintendent over the head with itor
why whoever rubs the lamp or the ring they belong to whoever rubs the lamp or the ring and they've got to do whatever he says if he tells them to build a palace forty miles long out of di'monds
or whatever you want and fetch an emperor's daughter from china for you to marry
wherever you want it you understand well says i
i would see a man in jericho before i would drop my business and come to him for the rubbing of an old tin lamp how you talk huck finn why you'd have to come when he rubbed it whether you wanted to or not what and i as high as a tree
and as big as a church all right then i would come
you don't seem to know anything somehowperfect saphead i thought all this over for two or three days and then i reckoned i would see if there was anything in it
and went out in the woods and rubbed and rubbed till i sweat like an injun calculating to build a palace and sell it but it warn't no use
i had shut the door to then i turned around
he tanned me so much i reckoned i was scared now too
i see i was mistakenthat is after the first jolt
his hair was long and tangled and greasy and hung down and you could see his eyes shining through like he was behind vines it was all black no gray so was his long mixed up whiskers there warn't no color in his face
it was white not like another man's white but a white to make a body sick a white to make a body's flesh crawla tree toad white a fish belly white
the boot on that foot was busted
and he worked them now and then his hat was laying on the flooran old black slouch with the top caved in like a lid i stood a looking at him he set there a looking at me with his chair tilted back a little i set the candle down
i noticed the window was up so he had clumb in by the shed he kept a looking me all over
starchy clothesvery you think you're a good deal of a big bug don't you maybe i am
says he you've put on considerable many frills since i been away i'll take you down a peg before i get done with you you're educated too
you think you're better'n your father now don't you because he can't
who told you you could the widow she told me the widow hey
nobody never told her well i'll learn her how to meddle
and let on to be better'n what he is you lemme catch you fooling around that school again you hear your mother couldn't read and she couldn't write nuther before she died none of the family couldn't before they died i can't and here you're a swelling yourself up like this
i ain't the man to stand ityou hear say lemme hear you read
when i'd read about a half a minute he fetched the book a whack with his hand and knocked it across the house he says it's so you can do it i had my doubts when you told me now looky here you stop that putting on frills i won't have it
first you know you'll get religion too i never see such a son he took up a little
he tore it up and says
and then he says ain't you a sweet scented dandy though a bed
i'm a standing about all i can stand nowso don't gimme no sass i've been in town two days
that's why i come you git me that money to morrow i want it i hain't got no money it's a lie judge thatcher's got it you git it i want it
i hain't got no money i tell you you ask judge thatcher he'll tell you the same all right
i'll make him pungle too or i'll know the reason why say
and then he said he was going down town to get some whisky said he hadn't had a drink all day
and trying to be better than him and when i reckoned he was gone he come back and put his head in again
next day he was drunk and he went to judge thatcher's and bullyragged him
said he'd druther not take a child away from its father so judge thatcher and the widow had to quit on the business that pleased the old man till he couldn't rest he said he'd cowhide me till i was black and blue if i didn't raise some money for him i borrowed three dollars from judge thatcher
and pap took it and got drunk and went a blowing around and cussing and whooping and carrying on and he kept it up all over town with a tin pan till most midnight then they jailed him and next day they had him before court and jailed him again for a week
but he said he was satisfied said he was boss of his son and he'd make it warm for him
and had him to breakfast and dinner and supper with the family
and after supper he talked to him about temperance and such things till the old man cried
and he hoped the judge would help him and not look down on him the judge said he could hug him for them words so he cried and his wife she cried again
and the judge said he believed it the old man said that what a man wanted that was down was sympathy and the judge said it was so so they cried again and when it was bedtime the old man rose up and held out his hand and says
take a hold of it shake it there's a hand
but it ain't so no more it's the hand of a man that's started in on a new life and'll die before he'll go back you mark them wordsdon't forget i said them it's a clean hand now shake
one after the other all around and cried the judge's wife she kissed it then the old man he signed a pledgemade his mark the judge said it was the holiest time on record or something like that
then they tucked the old man into a beautiful room which was the spare room and in the night some time he got powerful thirsty
and slid down a stanchion and traded his new coat for a jug of forty rod
and had a good old time and towards daylight he crawled out again drunk as a fiddler and rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in two places and was most froze to death when somebody found him after sun up
and when they come to look at that spare room they had to take soundings before they could navigate it
chapter two we went tiptoeing along a path amongst the trees back towards the end of the widow's garden stooping down so as the branches wouldn't scrape our heads
miss watson's big nigger named jim was setting in the kitchen door we could see him pretty clear because there was a light behind him he got up and stretched his neck out about a minute listening then he says who dah
he listened some more
we could a touched him nearly well
and we all there so close together there was a place on my ankle that got to itching but i dasn't scratch it
and next my back right between my shoulders seemed like i'd die if i couldn't scratch well i've noticed that thing plenty times since if you are with the quality or at a funeral
this miserableness went on as much as six or seven minutes
i was itching in eleven different places now
so we slid in there and got three candles and tom laid five cents on the table for pay then we got out and i was in a sweat to get away but nothing would do tom but he must crawl to where jim was on his hands and knees and play something on him
i waited and it seemed a good while
as soon as tom was back we cut along the path around the garden fence and by and by
and hung it on a limb right over him and jim stirred a little but he didn't wake afterwards jim said the witches be witched him and put him in a trance and rode him all over the state and then set him under the trees again and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it and next time
and after that every time he told it
till by and by he said they rode him all over the world and tired him most to death and his back was all over saddle boils
and he got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other niggers niggers would come miles to hear jim tell about it and he was more looked up to than any nigger in that country strange niggers would stand with their mouths open and look him all over same as if he was a wonder
niggers is always talking about witches in the dark by the kitchen fire but whenever one was talking and letting on to know all about such things
jim always kept that five center piece round his neck with a string
anybody with it and fetch witches
just by saying something to it but he never told what it was he said to it niggers would come from all around there and give jim anything they had
but they wouldn't touch it because the devil had had his hands on it
and been rode by witches well when tom and me got to the edge of the hilltop we looked away down into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling where there was sick folks maybe
a whole mile broad and awful still and grand we went down the hill and found jo harper and ben rogers and two or three more of the boys
so we unhitched a skiff and pulled down the river two mile and a half to the big scar on the hillside and went ashore we went to a clump of bushes and tom made everybody swear to keep the secret and then showed them a hole in the hill
then we lit the candles and crawled in on our hands and knees we went about two hundred yards and then the cave opened up tom poked about amongst the passages and pretty soon ducked under a wall where you wouldn't a noticed that there was a hole
we went along a narrow place and got into a kind of room all damp and sweaty and cold and there we stopped tom says now we'll start this band of robbers and call it tom sawyer's gang
everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath and write his name in blood everybody was willing so tom got out a sheet of paper that he had wrote the oath on and read it it swore every boy to stick to the band and never tell any of the secrets
and if anybody done anything to any boy in the band whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and his family must do it
till he had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts which was the sign of the band
he must have his throat cut and then have his carcass burnt up and the ashes scattered all around and his name
but have a curse put on it and be forgot forever everybody said it was a real beautiful oath and asked tom if he got it out of his own head he said some of it
but the rest was out of pirate books and robber books and every gang that was high toned had it some thought it would be good to kill the families of boys that told the secrets tom said it was a good idea
says tom sawyer yes he's got a father but you can't never find him these days
because they said every boy must have a family or somebody to kill or else it wouldn't be fair and square for the others well nobody could think of anything to doeverybody was stumped and set still i was most ready to cry but all at once i thought of a way
and so i offered them miss watsonthey
everybody said oh she'll do that's all right huck can come in then they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get blood to sign with and i made my mark on the paper now says ben rogers what's the line of business of this gang
but who are we going to rob houses or cattle or stuff stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery it's burglary says tom sawyer we ain't burglars that ain't no sort of style we are highwaymen
we stop stages and carriages on the road with masks on and kill the people and take their watches and money must we always kill the people oh certainly it's best some authorities think different but mostly it's considered best to kill
ransomed what's that
why blame it all we've got to do it don't i tell you it's in the books
oh that's all very fine to say tom sawyer
now that's something like that'll answer why couldn't you said that before
how you talk ben rogers
just so as to watch them i think that's foolishness
because it ain't in the books sothat's why now ben rogers
do you reckon you can learn em anything not by a good deal no sir we'll just go on and ransom them in the regular way all right i don't mind
say do we kill the women too well ben rogers if i was as ignorant as you i wouldn't let on kill the women no nobody ever saw anything in the books like that you fetch them to the cave
and by and by they fall in love with you and never want to go home any more
little tommy barnes was asleep now and when they waked him up he was scared and cried and said he wanted to go home to his ma
so they all made fun of him and called him cry baby and that made him mad and he said he would go straight and tell all the secrets but tom give him five cents to keep quiet and said we would all go home and meet next week and rob somebody and kill some people
but all the boys said it would be wicked to do it on sunday and that settled the thing they agreed to get together and fix a day as soon as they could and then we elected tom sawyer first captain and jo harper second captain of the gang and so started home
well the next morning we crossed by the ruins of old greek phanar across the triple stamboul wall which still showed its deep ivied portal and made our way not without climbing along the golden horn to the foot of the old seraglio where i soon found signs of the railway
and that minute commenced our journey across turkey bulgaria servia bosnia croatia to trieste occupying no day or two as in old times but four months a long drawn nightmare
though a nightmare of rich happiness if one may say so leaving on the memory a vague vast impression of monstrous ravines ever succeeding profundities heights and greatnesses jungles strange as some moon struck poet's fantasy
everlasting glooms and a sound of mighty unseen rivers cataracts and slow cumbered rills whose bulrushes never see the sun with largesse everywhere secrecies profusions the unimaginable the unspeakable
a savagery most lush and fierce and gaudy and vales of arcadie and remote mountain peaks and tarns shy as old buried treasure
yet moving always through it we followed the lines that first day till we came to a steam train and i found the engine fairly good and everything necessary to move it at my hand
but the metals in such a condition of twisted broken vaulted and buried confusion due to the earthquake that having run some hundreds of yards to examine them i saw that nothing could be done in that way
at first this threw me into a condition like despair for what we were to do i did not know but after persevering on foot for four days along the deep rusted track which is of that large gauge type peculiar to eastern europe
i began to see that there were considerable sound stretches and took heart i had with me land charts and compass but nothing for taking altitude observations for the speranza instruments except one compass had all been broken up by her shock
i saw in the ruins of a half standing bazaar shop a number of brass objects and there found several good sextants quadrants and theodolites two mornings later we came upon an engine in mid country with coals in it and a stream near
i had a goat skin of almond oil in the bag and found the machinery serviceable after an hour's careful inspection having examined the boiler with a candle through the manhole and removed the autoclaves of the heaters all was red with rust
and the shaft of the connecting rod in particular seemed so frail that at one moment i was very dubious i decided however and except for a slight leakage at the tubulure which led the steam to the valve chest all went very well
at a pressure never exceeding three and a half atmospheres we travelled nearly a hundred and twenty miles before being stopped by a head to head block on the line when we had to abandon our engine we then continued another seven miles a foot
i all the time mourning my motor which i had had to leave at imbros and hoping at every townlet to find a whole one but in vain it was wonderful to see the villages and towns going back to the earth
already invaded by vegetation and hardly any longer breaking the continuity of pure nature the town now as much the country as the country and that which is not man becoming all in all with a certain furore of vigour
a whole day in the southern gorges of the balkan mountains the slow train went tearing its way through many a mile of bind weed tendrils a continuous curtain flaming with large flowers
but sombre as the falling shades of night rather resembling jungles of ceylon and the filipinas and she that day lying in the single car behind where i had made her a little yatag bed from tatar bazardjik continually played the kittur
barely touching the strings and crooning low low in her rich contralto eternally the same air over and over again crooning crooning some melancholy tune of her own dreaming
my god a woe that was sweet as life and a dolour that lulled like nepenthe and a grief that soothed like kisses so sweet so sweet that all that world of wood and gloom lost locality and realness for me
and became nothing but a charmed and pensive heaven for her to moan and lullaby in and from between my fingers streamed plenteous tears that day
till my heart was near to break the feed pump eccentric shaft of this engine which was very poor and flaky suddenly gave out about five in the afternoon and i had to stop in a hurry
and that sweet invisible mechanism which had crooned and crooned about my ears in the air and followed me whithersoever i went stopped too down she jumped calling out well i had a plesentiment that something would happen and i am so glad for i was tired
we went pioneering to the left between a rock cleft stepping over large stones that looked black with moss growths no sky but hundreds of feet of impenetrable leafage overhead and everywhere the dew dabbled profusion of dim ferneries
dishevelled maidenhairs mixed with a large leaved mimosa wild vine white briony and a smell of cedar
the way led slightly upwards three hundred feet and presently after some windings and the climbing of five huge steps almost regular yet obviously natural the gorge opened in a roundish space fifty feet across with far overhanging edges
seven hundred feet high and there behind a curtain which fell from above its tendrils defined and straight like a japanese bead hanging we spread the store of foods i opening the wines fruits vegetables and meats
she arranging them in order with the gold plate and lighting both the spirit lamp and the lantern for here it was quite dark near us behind the curtain of tendrils was a small green cave in the rock and at its mouth a pool two yards wide
a black and limpid water that leisurely wheeled discharging a little rivulet from the cave and in it i saw three owl eyed fish a finger long loiter and spur themselves and gaze leda who cannot be still in tongue or limb
and then after smoking a cigarette said that she would go and lun and went and left me darkling for she is the sun and the moon and the host of the stars
for my almanack and many things that i prized were lost with the palace making a calendar counting the days in my head but counting them across my thoughts of her she came again to tell me good night and then went down to the train to sleep
and i put out the lantern and stooped within the cave and made my simple couch beside the little rivulet and slept but a fitful sleep and soon again i woke
and a long time i lay so gradually becoming conscious of a slow dripping at one spot in the cave for at a minute's interval it darkly splashed regularly very deliberately and it seemed to grow always louder and sadder
and the splash at first was leesha but it became leda to my ears and it sobbed her name and i pitied myself so sad was i and when i could no longer bear the anguished melancholy of its spasm and its sobbing i arose and went softly
softly lest she should hear in that sounding silence of the hushed and darksome night going more slow more soft as i went nearer a sob in my throat my feet leading me to her till i touched the carriage
and against it a long time i leant my clammy brow a sob aching in my poor throat and she all mixed up in my head with the suspended hushed night and with the elfin things in the air that made the silence so musically a sound to the vacant ear drum
and with the dripping splash in the cave and softly i turned the door handle and heard her breathe in asleep her head near me and i touched her hair with my lips and close to her ear i said for i heard her breathe as if in sleep
leda and oh my heart is full of the love of you for you are mine and i am yours and to live with you till we die and after we are dead to be near you still leda with my broken heart near your heart little leda
i must have sobbed i think for as i spoke close at her ears with passionately dying eyes of love i was startled by an irregularity in her breathing and with cautious hurry i shut the door and quite back to the cave i stole in haste
i thought so she may she may have heard but i cannot tell twice i was obliged to abandon engines on account of forest tree obstructions right across the line which do what i might i could not move
and these were the two bitterest incidents of the pilgrimage and at least thirty times i changed from engine to engine when other trains blocked as for the extent of the earthquake it is pretty certain that it was universal over the peninsula and at many points exhibited extreme violence
for up to the time that we entered upon servian territory we occasionally came upon stretches of the lines so dislocated that it was impossible to proceed upon them and during the whole course i never saw one intact house or castle four times
where the way was of a nature to permit of it i left the imbedded metals and made the engine travel the ground till i came upon other metals
it was all very leisurely for not everywhere nor every day could i get a nautical observation and having at all times to go at low pressures for fear of tube and boiler weakness crawling through tunnels and stopping when total darkness came on we did not go fast
nor much cared to once moreover for three days and once for four we were overtaken by hurricanes of such vast inclemency that no thought of travelling entered our heads
our only care being to hide our poor cowering bodies as deeply and darkly as possible once i passed through a city adrianople doubly devastated once by the hellish arson of my own hand and once by the earthquake
three months and twenty seven days from the date of the earthquake having traversed only nine hundred odd english miles i let go in the venice lagoon in the early morning of the tenth september the lateen sail and stone anchor of a maltese speronare
and thence i passed up the canalazzo in a gondola for i said to leda
she standing in pale wonderment at my bed side sickness quite a novel thing to her and indeed this was my first serious illness since my twentieth year or thereabouts when i had over worked my brain and went a voyage to constantinople
i could not move from bed for some weeks but happily did not lose my senses and she brought me the whole pharmacopoeia from the shops from which to choose my medicines
and as soon as my trembling knees could bear me i again set out always westward enjoying now a certain luxury in travelling compared with that turkish difficulty for here were no twisted metals more and better engines
in the cities as many good petrol motors as i chose and nature markedly less savage i do not know why i did not stop at verona or brescia or some other neighbourhood of the italian lakes since i was fond of water but i had i think
for i thought that she might like those old monks at all events we did not remain long in any place till we came to turin where we spent nine days she in the house opposite mine and after that at her own suggestion
and then into that of the western rhone till we came to the old town of geneva among some very great mountains peaked with snow the town seated at the head of a long lake which the earth has made in the shape of the crescent moon
and like the moon it is a thing of much beauty and many moods suggesting a creature under the spell of charms and magics however with this idea of vauclaire still in my head
i intending to reach the town called bourg that night about eight and there sleep
and so by the bordeaux route make vauclaire but by some chance for which i cannot to this hour account unless the rain was the cause i missed the chart road which should have been fairly level and found myself on mountain tracks
unconscious of my whereabouts while darkness fell and a windless downpour that had a certain sullen venom in its superabundance drenched us i stopped several times looking about for chateau chalet or village but none did i see
apparently risen straight out of the lake looking ghostly livid for it was of white stone not high but an old thing of complicated white little turrets roofed with dark red candle extinguishers and oddities of gothic nooks window slits and outline
very like a fanciful picture round to this we went drowned as rats
we quickly found a small open portal and went throughout the place quite gay at the shelter everywhere lighting candles which we found in iron sconces in the rather queer apartments
so that as the castle is far seen from the shores of the lake it would have appeared to one looking thence a place suddenly possessed and haunted we found beds and slept
where we remained five long and happy months till again again fate overtook us the morning after our coming we had breakfast our last meal together
on the first floor in a pentagonal room approached from a lower level by three little steps in it is a ponderous oak table pierced with a multitude of worm eaten tunnels also three mighty high backed chairs
an old oak desk covered still with papers arras on the walls and three dark religious oil paintings and a grandfathers clock
in each face four compartments with white stone shafts between these looking south upon shrubs and the rocky edge of the island then upon the deep blue lake then upon another tiny island containing four trees in a jungle of flowers
then upon the shore of the lake interrupted by the mouths of a river which turned out to be the rhone then upon a white town on the slopes which turned out to be villeneuve then upon the great mountains back of bouveret and saint gingolph
everything new washed in dyes of azure ultramarine indigo snow emerald that fresh morning so that one had to call it the best and holiest place in the world
these five old room walls and oak floor and two oriels became specially mine though it was really common ground to us both and there i would do many little things
the papers on the desk told that it had been the bureau of one r e gaud grand bailli whose residence the place no doubt had been she asked me while eating that morning to stay here
at both ends are suites mostly small rooms infinitely quaint and cosy
furniture and bed draperies and there are separate and as it were secret spiral stairs for exit to each so we decided that she should have the suite overlooking the length of the lake the mouths of the rhone
and i should have that overlooking the spit of land behind and the little drawbridge shore cliffs and elmwood which comes down to the shore
well then here we stay both under the same roof for the first time
dangerous my poor girl you do not understand but that is the fact believe me for i know it very well and i would not tell you false well then you will easily comprehend that this being so you must never on any account come near my part of the house
nor will i come near yours lately we have been very much together but then we have been active full of purpose and occupation here we shall be nothing of the kind i can see you do not understand at all but things are so
we must live perfectly separate lives then you are nothing to me really nor i to you only we live on the same earth which is nothing at all a mere chance your own food clothes and everything that you want you will procure for yourself
it is perfectly easy the shores are crowded with mansions castles towns and villages and i will do the same for myself the motor down there i set apart for your private use if i want another i will get one and to day i will set about looking you up a boat
and fishing tackle and cut a cross on the bow of yours so that you may know yours and never use mine all this is very necessary you cannot dream how much but i know how much do not run any risks in climbing
now or with the motor or in the boat little leda i saw her under lip push and i turned away in haste for i did not care whether she cried or not in that long voyage and in my illness at venice she had become too near and dear to me
my tender love my dear darling soul and i said in my heart i will be a decent being i will turn out trumps under this castle is a sort of dungeon not narrow nor very dark in which are seven stout dark grey pillars
and an eighth half built into the wall and one of them which has an iron ring as well as the ground around it is all worn away by some prisoner or prisoners once chained there and in the pillar the word byron engraved
and two days afterwards i actually came upon three volumes of the poet in a room containing a great number of books many of them english near the grand bailli's bureau and in one i read the poem
i found it very affecting and the description good only i saw no seven rings and where he speaks of the pale and livid light he should speak rather of the dun and brownish gloom for the word light disconcerts the fancy
however i was so struck by the horror of man's cruelty to man as depicted in this poem that i determined that she should see it went up straight to her rooms with the book and she being away ferreted among her things to see what she was doing finding all very neat
except in one room where were a number of prints called la mode and debris of snipped cloth and medley when after two hours she came in and i suddenly presented myself oh she let slip and then fell to cooing her laugh
and i took her down through a big room stacked with every kind of rifle with revolvers cartridges powder swords bayonets evidently some official or cantonal magazine
the ring the narrow deep slits in the wall and i told the tale of cruelty while the splashing of the lake upon the rock outside was heard with a strange and tragic sound and her mobile face was all one sorrow
they were mere beastly monsters said i it is nothing surprising if monsters were cruel and in the short time while i said that she was looking up with a new born smile
chapter twenty metabolism am i looking grave
you certainly are sir we little thought when first we met that we should be drawn into such a vortex already we are mixed up in robbery and probably murder but a thousand times worse than all the crimes in the calendar
in an affair of ghastly mystery which has no bottom and no end with forces of the most unnerving kind which had their origin in an age when the world was different from the world which we know
to an age when dragons tore each other in their slime we must fear nothing no conclusion however improbable almost impossible it may be life and death is hanging on our judgment not only for ourselves but for others whom we love
remember i count on you as i hope you count on me i do with all confidence then said sir nathaniel let us think justly and boldly and fear nothing however terrifying it may seem
so far as i know yes of course i may be mistaken in recollection of some detail or another but i am certain that in the main what i have said is correct you feel sure that you saw lady arabella seize the negro round the neck
and drag him down with her into the hole absolutely certain sir
we have then an account of what happened from an eye witness whom we trust that is yourself we have also another account written by lady arabella under her own hand these two accounts do not agree
therefore we must take it that one of the two is lying apparently sir and that lady arabella is the liar apparently as i am not we must therefore try to find a reason for her lying she has nothing to fear from oolanga who is dead
therefore the only reason which could actuate her would be to convince someone else that she was blameless this someone could not be you for you had the evidence of your own eyes there was no one else present therefore it must have been an absent person
that seems beyond dispute sir there is only one other person whose good opinion she could wish to keep edgar caswall he is the only one who fills the bill her lies point to other things besides the death of the african
she evidently wanted it to be accepted that his falling into the well was his own act i cannot suppose that she expected to convince you the eye witness but if she wished later on to spread the story it was wise of her to try to get your acceptance of it
there were other matters of untruth that for instance of the ermine collar embroidered with emeralds if an understandable reason be required for this it would be to draw attention away from the green lights which were seen in the room and especially in the well hole
any unprejudiced person would accept the green lights to be the eyes of a great snake such as tradition pointed to living in the well hole in fine therefore lady arabella wanted the general belief to be that there was no snake of the kind in diana's grove
for my own part i don't believe in a partial liar this art does not deal in veneer a liar is a liar right through self interest may prompt falsity of the tongue but if one prove to be a liar nothing that he says can ever be believed
we should look for one and expect to find it too now let me digress i live and have for many years lived in derbyshire a county more celebrated for its caves than any other county in england i have been through them all and am familiar with every turn of them
as also with other great caves in kentucky in france in germany and a host of other places in many of these are tremendously deep caves of narrow aperture which are valued by intrepid explorers who descend narrow gullets of abysmal depth and sometimes never return
in many of the caverns in the peak i am convinced that some of the smaller passages were used in primeval times as the lairs of some of the great serpents of legend and tradition it may have been that such caverns were formed in the usual geologic way bubbles or flaws in the earth's crust
which were later used by the monsters of the period of the young world it may have been of course that some of them were worn originally by water but in time they all found a use when suitable for living monsters this brings us to another point
more difficult to accept and understand than any other requiring belief in a base not usually accepted or indeed entered on whether such abnormal growths could have ever changed in their nature
some day the study of metabolism may progress so far as to enable us to accept structural changes proceeding from an intellectual or moral base we may lean towards a belief that great animal strength may be a sound base for changes of all sorts
if this be so what could be a more fitting subject than primeval monsters whose strength was such as to allow a survival of thousands of years
after all the mediaeval belief in the philosopher's stone which could transmute metals has its counterpart in the accepted theory of metabolism which changes living tissue in an age of investigation like our own when we are returning to science as the base of wonders
almost of miracles we should be slow to refuse to accept facts however impossible they may seem to be let us suppose a monster of the early days of the world a dragon of the prime of vast age running into thousands of years
to whom had been conveyed in some way it matters not a brain just sufficient for the beginning of growth
a veritable incarnation of animal strength suppose this animal is allowed to remain in one place thus being removed from accidents of interrupted development might not would not this creature in process of time ages if necessary
have that rudimentary intelligence developed there is no impossibility in this it is only the natural process of evolution in the beginning the instincts of animals are confined to alimentation self protection and the multiplication of their species
as time goes on and the needs of life become more complex power follows need we have been long accustomed to consider growth as applied almost exclusively to size in its various aspects but nature
a developing thing may expand in any given way or form now it is a scientific law that increase implies gain and loss of various kinds what a thing gains in one direction it may lose in another
may it not be that mother nature may deliberately encourage decrease as well as increase
take for instance monsters that tradition has accepted and localised such as the worm of lambton
if such a creature were by its own process of metabolism to change much of its bulk for intellectual growth we should at once arrive at a new class of creature
a force which can think which has no soul and no morals and therefore no acceptance of responsibility a snake would be a good illustration of this for it is cold blooded and therefore removed from the temptations which often weaken or restrict warm blooded creatures
if for instance the worm of lambton if such ever existed were guided to its own ends by an organised intelligence capable of expansion
why such a being would devastate a whole country now all these things require much thought and we want to apply the knowledge usefully and we should therefore be exact would it not be well to resume the subject later in the day i quite agree sir
so that i may try to digest it both men seemed fresher and better for the easy and when they met in the afternoon each of them had something to contribute to the general stock of information adam who was by nature of a more militant disposition than his elderly friend
was glad to see that the conference at once assumed a practical trend sir nathaniel recognised this and like an old diplomatist turned it to present use tell me now adam what is the outcome in your own mind of our conversation
that the whole difficulty already assumes practical shape
what is the practical shape and what are the added dangers
some of them must have overlapped the christian era they may have progressed intellectually in process of time if they had in any way so progressed or even got the most rudimentary form of brain they would be the most dangerous things that ever were in the world
tradition says that one of these monsters lived in the marsh of the east and came up to a cave in diana's grove which was also called the lair of the white worm such creatures may have grown down as well as up they may have grown into or something like human beings
she has committed crimes to our knowledge she retains something of the vast strength of her primal being
has the eyes of a snake she used the nigger and then dragged him through the snake's hole down to the swamp she is intent on evil and hates some one we love result yes the result
first that mimi watford should be taken away at once then yes the monster must be destroyed bravo that is a true and fearless conclusion at whatever cost it must be carried out at once
soon at all events that creature's very existence is a danger her presence in this neighbourhood makes the danger immediate as he spoke sir nathaniel's mouth hardened and his eyebrows came down till they met
there was no doubting his concurrence in the resolution or his readiness to help in carrying it out but he was an elderly man with much experience and knowledge of law and diplomacy it seemed to him to be a stern duty
there were all sorts of legal cruxes to be thought out not only regarding the taking of life even of a monstrosity in human form but also of property lady arabella be she woman or snake or devil
all such difficulties should be must be avoided for mister salton's sake for adam's own sake and most of all for mimi watford's sake before he spoke again sir nathaniel had made up his mind that he must try to postpone decisive action until the circumstances on which they depended
which after all were only problematical should have been tested satisfactorily one way or another when he did speak adam at first thought that his friend was wavering in his intention or funking the responsibility however
his respect for sir nathaniel was so great that he would not act or even come to a conclusion on a vital point without his sanction he came close and whispered in his ear
chapter nineteen an enemy in the dark adam salton went for a walk before returning to lesser hill he felt that it might be well not only to steady his nerves shaken by the horrible scene but to get his thoughts into some sort of order
so as to be ready to enter on the matter with sir nathaniel he was a little embarrassed as to telling his uncle for affairs had so vastly progressed beyond his original view that he felt a little doubtful as to what would be the old gentleman's attitude when he should hear of the strange events for the first time
mister salton would certainly not be satisfied at being treated as an outsider with regard to such things most of which had points of contact with the inmates of his own house
that he was detained by business at walsall where he would remain for the night and that he would be back in the morning in time for lunch when adam got home after his walk he found sir nathaniel just going to bed
he did not say anything to him then of what had happened but contented himself with arranging that they would walk together in the early morning as he had much to say that would require serious attention
strangely enough he slept well and awoke at dawn with his mind clear and his nerves in their usual unshaken condition the maid brought up with his early morning cup of tea a note which had been found in the letter box
i cannot go to bed until i have written to you
indeed you must also forgive me if in trying to do what is right i err in saying too much or too little the fact is that i am quite upset and unnerved by all that has happened in this terrible night i find it difficult even to write
my hands shake so that they are not under control and i am trembling all over with memory of the horrors we saw enacted before our eyes i am grieved beyond measure that i should be however remotely a cause of this horror coming on you
forgive me if you can and do not think too hardly of me this i ask with confidence for since we shared together the danger the very pangs of death i feel that we should be to one another something more than mere friends
that i may lean on you and trust you assured that your sympathy and pity are for me you really must let me thank you for the friendliness the help the confidence the real aid at a time of deadly danger and deadly fear which you showed me that awful man
i shall see him for ever in my dreams his black malignant face will shut out all memory of sunshine and happiness i shall eternally see his evil eyes as he threw himself into that well hole in a vain effort to escape from the consequences of his own misdoing
the more i think of it the more apparent it seems to me that he had premeditated the whole thing of course except his own horrible death perhaps you have noticed a fur collar i occasionally wear it is one of my most valued treasures
an ermine collar studded with emeralds i had often seen the nigger's eyes gleam covetously when he looked at it unhappily i wore it yesterday that may have been the cause that lured the poor man to his doom on the very brink of the abyss he tore the collar from my neck
that was the last i saw of him when he sank into the hole i was rushing to the iron door which i pulled behind me
when i tore myself out of the negro's grasp as he sank into the well hole i realised what freedom meant freedom freedom not only from that noisome prison house which has now such a memory
whilst i live i shall always thank you for my freedom a woman must sometimes express her gratitude otherwise it becomes too great to bear i am not a sentimental girl who merely likes to thank a man i am a woman who knows all of bad as well as good
that life can give i have known what it is to love and to lose but you must not let me bring any unhappiness into your life i must live on as i have lived alone and in addition
bear with other woes the memory of this latest insult and horror in the meantime i must get away as quickly as possible from diana's grove in the morning i shall go up to town where i shall remain for a week i cannot stay longer as business affairs demand my presence here
will help to soften i cannot expect total obliteration the terrible images of the bygone night when i can sleep easily which will be i hope after a day or two i shall be fit to return home and take up again the burden which will i suppose
always be with me i shall be most happy to see you on my return or earlier if my good fortune sends you on any errand to london
in that busy spot we may forget some of the dangers and horrors we have shared together adieu and thank you again and again for all your kindness and consideration to me arabella marsh adam was surprised by this effusive epistle
but he determined to say nothing of it to sir nathaniel until he should have thought it well over
the result had been that not only was he familiar with the facts in all their bearings but he had already so far differentiated them that he was able to arrange them in his own mind according to their values
so soon as the door was closed sir nathaniel began
accordingly adam gave him details of all that had happened during the previous evening
or any opinion of the meaning of things which he did not fully understand
but shortly gave this up when he recognised that the narration was concise and self explanatory thenceforth he contented himself with quick looks and glances easily interpreted or by some acquiescent motions of his hands when such could be convenient
to emphasise his idea of the correctness of any inference
the elder man made no comment whatever even when adam took from his pocket lady arabella's letter with the manifest intention of reading it he did not make any comment finally when adam folded up the letter and put it
for a beginning then let me say that lady arabella's letter makes clear some things which she intended and also some things which she did not intend but before i begin to draw deductions let me ask you a few questions adam
are you heart whole quite heart whole in the matter of lady arabella his companion answered at once each looking the other straight in the eyes during question and answer lady arabella sir is a charming woman and i should have deemed it a privilege to meet her to talk to her
even since i am in the confessional to flirt a little with her but if you mean to ask if my affections are in any way engaged i can emphatically answer no as indeed you will understand when presently i give you the reason
apart from that there are the unpleasant details we discussed the other day could you would you mind giving me the reason now it will help us to understand what is before us in the way of difficulty certainly sir
my reason on which i can fully depend is that i love another woman that clinches it may i offer my good wishes and i hope my congratulations i am proud of your good wishes sir and i thank you for them
the lady does not even know my hopes yet indeed i hardly knew them myself as definite till this moment i take it then adam that at the right time i may be allowed to know who the lady is adam laughed a low sweet laugh such as ripples from a happy heart there need not be an hour's
a minute's delay i shall be glad to share my secret with you sir the lady sir whom i am so happy as to love and in whom my dreams of life long happiness are centred is mimi watford then my dear adam i need not wait to offer congratulations
i do not think i ever saw a girl who united in such perfection the qualities of strength of character and sweetness of disposition with all my heart i congratulate you then i may take it that my question as to your heart wholeness is answered in the affirmative
yes and now sir may i ask in turn why the question certainly i asked because it seems to me that we are coming to a point where my questions might be painful to you
it is not merely that i love mimi but i have reason to look on lady arabella as her enemy adam continued her enemy yes a rank and unscrupulous enemy who is bent on her destruction
chapter twenty one green light when old mister salton had retired for the night adam and sir nathaniel returned to the study things went with great regularity at lesser hill so they knew that there would be no interruption to their talk
when their cigars were lighted sir nathaniel began i hope adam that you do not think me either slack or changeable of purpose i mean to go through this business to the bitter end whatever it may be
be satisfied that my first care is and shall be the protection of mimi watford to that i am pledged my dear boy we who are interested are all in the same danger that semi human monster out of the pit hates
and means to destroy us all you and me certainly and probably your uncle i wanted especially to talk with you to night for i cannot help thinking that the time is fast coming if it has not come already when we must take your uncle into our confidence
it was one thing when fancied evils threatened but now he is probably marked for death and it is only right that he should know all i am with you sir things have changed since we agreed to keep him out of the trouble now we dare not
consideration for his feelings might cost his life it is a duty and no light or pleasant one either i have not a shadow of doubt that he will want to be one with us in this but remember we are his guests his name his honour have to be thought of as well as his safety
all shall be as you wish adam and now as to what we are to do we cannot murder lady arabella off hand therefore we shall have to put things in order for the killing and in such a way that we cannot be taxed with a crime
it seems to me sir that we are in an exceedingly tight place our first difficulty is to know where to begin i never thought this fighting an antediluvian monster would be such a complicated job
this one is a woman with all a woman's wit combined with the heartlessness of a cocotte
we may be sure that in the fight that is before us there will be no semblance of fair play also that our unscrupulous opponent will not betray herself that is so but being feminine she will probably over reach herself
now adam it strikes me that as we have to protect ourselves and others against feminine nature our strong game will be to play our masculine against her feminine perhaps we had better sleep on it she is a thing of the night
and the night may give us some ideas so they both turned in adam knocked at sir nathaniel's door in the grey of the morning and on being bidden came into the room he had several letters in his hand sir nathaniel sat up in bed well
in fact with a smile and a blush there are several things which i want to do but i hold my hand and my tongue till i have your approval go on said the other kindly tell me all and count at any rate on my sympathy and on my approval and help if i can see my way
accordingly adam proceeded when i told you the conclusions at which i had arrived i put in the foreground that mimi watford should for the sake of her own safety
yes that is so to carry this into practice sir one preliminary is required unless harm of another kind is to be faced mimi should have some protector whom all the world would recognise the only form recognised by convention is marriage
sir nathaniel smiled in a fatherly way to marry a husband is required and that husband should be you yes yes and the marriage should be immediate and secret or at least not spoken of outside ourselves
would the young lady be agreeable to that proceeding i do not know sir then how are we to proceed i suppose that we or one of us must ask her is this a sudden idea adam a sudden resolution
a sudden resolution sir but not a sudden idea if she agrees all is well and good the sequence is obvious and it is to be kept a secret amongst ourselves i want no secret sir except for mimi's good for myself i should like to shout it from the house tops
and how would you suggest adam that we could combine the momentous question with secrecy adam grew red and moved uneasily someone must ask her as soon as possible and that someone i thought that you sir would be so good
god bless my soul this is a new kind of duty to take on at my time of life adam i hope you know that you can count on me to help in any way i can i have already counted on you sir when i ventured to make such a suggestion
i can only ask he added that you will be more than ever kind to me to us and look on the painful duty as a voluntary act of grace prompted by kindness and affection painful duty yes said adam boldly painful to you though to me it would be all joyful
it is a strange job for an early morning well we all live and learn i suppose the sooner i go the better you had better write a line for me to take with me for you see this is to be a somewhat unusual transaction and it may be embarrassing to the lady even to myself
so we ought to have some sort of warrant something to show that we have been mindful of her feelings it will not do to take acquiescence for granted although we act for her good sir nathaniel you are a true friend
i am sure that both mimi and i shall be grateful to you for all our lives however long they may be so the two talked it over and agreed as to points to be borne in mind by the ambassador it was striking ten when sir nathaniel left the house adam seeing him quietly off
as the young man followed him with wistful eyes almost jealous of the privilege which his kind deed was about to bring him he felt that his own heart was in his friend's breast the memory of that morning was like a dream to all those concerned in it
adam salton's recollection was of an illimitable wait filled with anxiety hope and chagrin all dominated by a sense of the slow passage of time and accompanied by vague fears mimi could not for a long time think at all or recollect anything
except that adam loved her and was saving her from a terrible danger when she had time to think later on she wondered when she had any ignorance of the fact that adam loved her and that she loved him with all her heart
everything every recollection however small every feeling seemed to fit into those elemental facts as though they had all been moulded together the main and crowning recollection was her saying goodbye to sir nathaniel and entrusting to him loving messages straight from her heart to adam salton
and of his bearing when with an impulse which she could not check she put her lips to his and kissed him
that she would have to be silent for a time to lilla on the happy events of that strange mission she had of course agreed to keep all secret until adam should give her leave to speak
the advice and assistance of sir nathaniel was a great help to adam in carrying out his idea of marrying mimi watford without publicity he went with him to london and with his influence the young man obtained the license of the archbishop of canterbury for a private marriage
sir nathaniel then persuaded old mister salton to allow his nephew to spend a few weeks with him at doom tower and it was here that mimi became adam's wife but that was only the first step in their plans before going further however adam took his bride off to the isle of man
he wished to place a stretch of sea between mimi and the white worm while things matured on their return sir nathaniel met them and drove them at once to doom taking care to avoid any one that he knew on the journey sir nathaniel had taken care to have the doors and windows shut and locked
all but the door used for their entry the shutters were up and the blinds down moreover heavy curtains were drawn across the windows when adam commented on this sir nathaniel said in a whisper wait till we are alone and i'll tell you why this is done
doom tower was a lofty structure situated on an eminence high up in the peak
the windows of the study were barred and locked and heavy dark curtains closed them in when this was done not a gleam of light from the tower could be seen from outside when they were alone sir nathaniel explained that he had taken his old friend mister salton into full confidence
and that in future all would work together it is important for you to be extremely careful in spite of the fact that our marriage was kept secret as also your temporary absence both are known how to whom
how i know not but i am beginning to have an idea to her asked adam in momentary consternation sir nathaniel shivered perceptibly the white worm yes adam noticed that from now on his friend never spoke of lady arabella otherwise
except when he wished to divert the suspicion of others sir nathaniel switched off the electric light and when the room was pitch dark he came to adam took him by the hand and led him to a seat set in the southern window
then he softly drew back a piece of the curtain and motioned his companion to look out adam did so and immediately shrank back as though his eyes had opened on pressing danger his companion set his mind at rest by saying in a low voice it is all right you may speak but speak low
there is no danger here at present adam leaned forward taking care however not to press his face against the glass what he saw would not under ordinary circumstances have caused concern to anybody with his special knowledge it was appalling
though the night was now so dark that in reality there was little to be seen on the western side of the tower stood a grove of old trees of forest dimensions they were not grouped closely but stood a little apart from each other producing the effect of a row widely planted
over the tops of them was seen a green light something like the danger signal at a railway crossing it seemed at first quite still but presently when adam's eye became accustomed to it he could see that it moved as if trembling
oolanga's awful shriek and the hideous black face now grown grey with terror disappearing into the impenetrable gloom of the mysterious orifice instinctively he laid his hand on his revolver and stood up ready to protect his wife
then seeing that nothing happened and that the light and all outside the tower remained the same he softly pulled the curtain over the window
archer said missus flanders with that tenderness which mothers so often display towards their eldest sons will be at gibraltar to morrow the post for which she was waiting strolling up dods hill while the random church bells swung a hymn tune about her head
the clock striking four straight through the circling notes the glass purpling under a storm cloud and the two dozen houses of the village cowering infinitely humble in company under a leaf of shadow
the post with all its variety of messages envelopes addressed in bold hands in slanting hands stamped now with english stamps again with colonial stamps or sometimes hastily dabbed with a yellow bar
but that letter writing is practised mendaciously nowadays particularly by young men travelling in foreign parts
for example take this scene here was jacob flanders gone abroad and staying to break his journey in paris old miss birkbeck his mother's cousin had died last june and left him a hundred pounds
you needn't repeat the whole damned thing over again cruttendon said mallinson the little bald painter who was sitting at a marble table splashed with coffee and ringed with wine talking very fast
said cruttendon as jacob came and took his seat beside them holding in his hand an envelope addressed to missus flanders near scarborough england
said cruttendon by god he does said mallinson he always gets like this said cruttendon irritably jacob looked at mallinson with excessive composure
i'll tell you the three greatest things that were ever written in the whole of literature cruttendon burst out hang there like fruit my soul he began don't listen to a man who don't like velasquez said mallinson
don't give mister mallinson any more wine said cruttendon fair play fair play said jacob judicially let a man get drunk if he likes that's shakespeare cruttendon i'm with you there
shakespeare had more guts than all these damned frogs put together hang there like fruit my soul he began quoting in a musical rhetorical voice flourishing his wine glass the devil damn you black you cream faced loon
he exclaimed as the wine washed over the rim hang there like fruit my soul cruttendon and jacob both began again at the same moment and both burst out laughing curse these flies
said mallinson flicking at his bald head what do they take me for something sweet smelling said cruttendon shut up cruttendon said jacob the fellow has no manners
he explained to mallinson very politely wants to cut people off their drink look here i want grilled bone what's the french for grilled bone grilled bone adolphe now you juggins don't you understand
and i'll tell you flanders the second most beautiful thing in the whole of literature said cruttendon bringing his feet down on to the floor and leaning right across the table so that his face almost touched jacob's face hey diddle diddle
the cat and the fiddle mallinson interrupted strumming his fingers on the table the most ex qui sitely beautiful thing in the whole of literature cruttendon is a very good fellow he remarked confidentially but he's a bit of a fool
and he jerked his head forward well not a word of this was ever told to missus flanders
then here is another scrap of conversation the time about eleven in the morning the scene a studio and the day sunday i tell you flanders said cruttendon
i'd as soon have one of mallinson's little pictures as a chardin and when i say that he squeezed the tail of an emaciated tube chardin was a great swell he sells em to pay his dinner now but wait till the dealers get hold of him
a great swell oh a very great swell it's an awfully pleasant life said jacob messing away up here still
he wandered off across the room there's this man pierre louys now he took up a book now my good sir are you going to settle down said cruttendon
said cruttendon looking over his shoulder you're a pretty competent painter in my opinion said jacob after a time now if you'd like to see what i'm after at the present moment said cruttendon putting a canvas before jacob there
that's it that's more like it that's he squirmed his thumb in a circle round a lamp globe painted white a pretty solid piece of work said jacob straddling his legs in front of it but what i wish you'd explain
miss jinny carslake pale freckled morbid came into the room oh jinny here's a friend flanders an englishman wealthy highly connected go on flanders jacob said nothing
it's that that's not right said jinny carslake no said cruttendon decidedly can't be done he took the canvas off the chair and stood it on the floor with its back to them
sit down ladies and gentlemen miss carslake comes from your part of the world flanders from devonshire oh i thought you said devonshire very well she's a daughter of the church too the black sheep of the family
her mother writes her such letters i say have you one about you it's generally sundays they come sort of church bell effect you know have you met all the painter men said jinny was mallinson drunk
if you go to his studio he'll give you one of his pictures i say teddy half a jiff said cruttendon what's the season of the year he looked out of the window we take a day off on sundays flanders
will he said jinny looking at jacob you yes he'll come with us said cruttendon and then here is versailles jinny stood on the stone rim and leant over the pond
clasped by cruttendon's arms or she would have fallen in there there she cried right up to the top some sluggish sloping shouldered fish had floated up from the depths to nip her crumbs you look
she said jumping down and then the dazzling white water rough and throttled shot up into the air the fountain spread itself through it came the sound of military music far away
how all the nurses and children and old men and young crowded to the edge leant over and waved their sticks the little girl ran stretching her arms towards her air ball but it sank beneath the fountain edward cruttendon
jinny carslake and jacob flanders walked in a row along the yellow gravel path got on to the grass so passed under the trees and came out at the summer house where marie antoinette used to drink chocolate
in went edward and jinny but jacob waited outside sitting on the handle of his walking stick out they came again well said cruttendon smiling at jacob jinny waited
edward waited and both looked at jacob well said jacob smiling and pressing both hands on his stick come along he decided and started off the others followed him smiling
and then they went to the little cafe in the by street where people sit drinking coffee watching the soldiers meditatively knocking ashes into trays but he's quite different said jinny
folding her hands over the top of her glass i don't suppose you know what ted means when he says a thing like that she said looking at jacob but i do sometimes i could kill myself sometimes he lies in bed all day long just lies there
i don't want you right on the table she waved her hands swollen iridescent pigeons were waddling round their feet look at that woman's hat said cruttendon
no flanders i don't think i could live like you when one walks down that street opposite the british museum what's it called that's what i mean it's all like that those fat women
and the man standing in the middle of the road as if he were going to have a fit everybody feeds them said jinny waving the pigeons away they're stupid old things well i don't know said jacob smoking his cigarette
there's saint paul's i mean going to an office said cruttendon hang it all jacob expostulated but you don't count said jinny looking at cruttendon you're mad
i mean you just think of painting yes i know i can't help it i say will king george give way about the peers he'll jolly well have to said jacob there said jinny he really knows
you see i would if i could said cruttendon but i simply can't i think i could said jinny only it's all the people one dislikes who do it at home i mean they talk of nothing else
even people like my mother now if i came and lived here said jacob what's my share cruttendon oh very well have it your own way those silly birds directly one wants them they've flown away
which may wound or pass unnoticed but generally inflict a good deal of discomfort jinny and cruttendon drew together jacob stood apart they had to separate something must be said
nothing was said a man wheeled a trolley past jacob's legs so near that he almost grazed them when jacob recovered his balance the other two were turning away though jinny looked over her shoulder
and cruttendon waving his hand disappeared like the very great genius that he was no missus flanders was told none of this
that nothing in the world was of greater importance and as for cruttendon and jinny he thought them the most remarkable people he had ever met being of course unable to foresee how it fell out in the course of time that cruttendon took to painting orchards
had therefore to live in kent and must one would think see through apple blossom by this time since his wife for whose sake he did it eloped with a novelist but no
cruttendon still paints orchards savagely in solitude then jinny carslake after her affair with lefanu the american painter frequented indian philosophers and now you find her in pensions in italy
cherishing a little jeweller's box containing ordinary pebbles picked off the road but if you look at them steadily she says multiplicity becomes unity
though it does not prevent her from following the macaroni as it goes round the table and sometimes on spring nights she makes the strangest confidences to shy young englishmen jacob had nothing to hide from his mother
it was only that he could make no sense himself of his extraordinary excitement and as for writing it down jacob's letters are so like him said missus jarvis folding the sheet
indeed he seems to be having said missus flanders and paused for she was cutting out a dress and had to straighten the pattern a very gay time missus jarvis thought of paris
at her back the window was open for it was a mild night a calm night when the moon seemed muffled and the apple trees stood perfectly still i never pity the dead said missus jarvis shifting the cushion at her back
and clasping her hands behind her head betty flanders did not hear for her scissors made so much noise on the table they are at rest said missus jarvis and we spend our days doing foolish unnecessary things without knowing why
missus jarvis was not liked in the village you never walk at this time of night she asked missus flanders it is certainly wonderfully mild said missus flanders
yet it was years since she had opened the orchard gate and gone out on dods hill after dinner it is perfectly dry said missus jarvis as they shut the orchard door and stepped on to the turf i shan't go far
said betty flanders yes jacob will leave paris on wednesday jacob was always my friend of the three said missus jarvis now my dear i am going no further said missus flanders
they had climbed the dark hill and reached the roman camp the rampart rose at their feet the smooth circle surrounding the camp or the grave how many needles betty flanders had lost there and her garnet brooch it
is much clearer than this sometimes said missus jarvis standing upon the ridge there were no clouds and yet there was a haze over the sea and over the moors the lights of scarborough flashed
as if a woman wearing a diamond necklace turned her head this way and that how quiet it is said missus jarvis missus flanders rubbed the turf with her toe thinking of her garnet brooch
missus jarvis found it difficult to think of herself to night it was so calm there was no wind nothing racing flying escaping black shadows stood still over the silver moors
the furze bushes stood perfectly still neither did missus jarvis think of god there was a church behind them of course the church clock struck ten did the strokes reach the furze bush
or did the thorn tree hear them missus flanders was stooping down to pick up a pebble sometimes people do find things missus jarvis thought and yet in this hazy moonlight it was impossible to see anything
except bones and little pieces of chalk jacob bought it with his own money and then i brought mister parker up to see the view and it must have dropped missus flanders murmured did the bones stir or the rusty swords
was missus flanders's twopenny halfpenny brooch for ever part of the rich accumulation and if all the ghosts flocked thick and rubbed shoulders with missus flanders in the circle would she not have seemed perfectly in her place
a live english matron growing stout the clock struck the quarter the frail waves of sound broke among the stiff gorse and the hawthorn twigs as the church clock divided time into quarters
it is fifteen minutes past the hour but made no answer unless a bramble stirred yet even in this light the legends on the tombstones could be read brief voices saying i am bertha ruck
i am tom gage and they say which day of the year they died and the new testament says something for them very proud very emphatic or consoling the moors accept all that too
and illumines the kneeling family in the niche and the tablet set up in seventeen eighty to the squire of the parish who relieved the poor and believed in god so the measured voice goes on down the marble scroll
as though it could impose itself upon time and the open air now a fox steals out from behind the gorse bushes often even at night the church seems full of people the pews are worn and greasy
and the cassocks in place and the hymn books on the ledges it is a ship with all its crew aboard the timbers strain to hold the dead and the living the ploughmen the carpenters the fox hunting gentlemen
and the farmers smelling of mud and brandy their tongues join together in syllabling the sharp cut words which for ever slice asunder time and the broad backed moors plaint and belief and elegy
despair and triumph but for the most part good sense and jolly indifference go trampling out of the windows any time these five hundred years still as missus jarvis said stepping out on to the moors
how quiet it is quiet at midday except when the hunt scatters across it quiet in the afternoon save for the drifting sheep
a garnet brooch has dropped into its grass a fox pads stealthily a leaf turns on its edge missus jarvis who is fifty years of age reposes in the camp in the hazy moonlight and
said missus flanders straightening her back i never cared for mister parker neither did i said missus jarvis they began to walk home but their voices floated for a little above the camp
the moonlight destroyed nothing the moor accepted everything tom gage cries aloud so long as his tombstone endures the roman skeletons are in safe keeping
betty flanders's darning needles are safe too and her garnet brooch and sometimes at midday in the sunshine
but at midnight when no one speaks or gallops and the thorn tree is perfectly still
what and why
the victory my first intent was to let them advance unhampered
and so we disputed their course all the way i gave orders to show no great amount of resistance and thus the louts reached vlama in high feather confident that the game was theirs
i stood at the door of the palace as klow himself rolled up to the edge of the parade ground my men obeying orders had given way to him his crews swarmed the space behind and on all sides of him
while my own bullies were all about and behind the palace never did two such giant armies face one another in peace for i had caused my banner to be floated wrong end to in token of surrender
first a small body of subordinates waited upon me demanding that i give up the throne
and shortly the knave surrounded by perhaps fifty underlings stepped up before me hail stroker he growled his voice shaking a bit with excitement not with fear for he were a brave man
hail to thee and to thine and a pleasant stay in hofe for ye all hail klow replied i glancing up meaningly at the air monsters wheeling there
i take it that ye purpose to execute us
thou didst attack without provocation thy life is forfeit and as many more as may be found needful to guarantee peace then i quoth my manner changing
then ye have saved me the trouble of deciding what shall be thy fate execution say you so be it and i strode down to the great log of iron which lay ready to fill the gap
klow looked at me with a peculiar expression as though he thought me mad true it looked it how could i do him harm without myself suffering but i kicked the props which held the iron
and gave it a start with my foot the ends of the pole to pole rod lay concealed by brush perchance fifty yards away in ten seconds that last section had rolled completely between them
and only a fool would have missed seeing that the last ten feet the iron was fair jerked through the air as this happened we all heard a tremendous crackling like that of nearby lightning
while enormous clouds of dust arose from the two concealed ends which were now become connections and at the same time a loud steely click just one and no more sounded from the intruding host
then he snarled angrily what means this foolery strokor advance and give up thy ax for answer i turned me about so as to face my men and held up my hand in signal
instantly the whistles sounded and my hearties came bounding into the field treachery shouted klow and his officers ran here and there shouting to arms charge and destroy
but i paid little attention to the hubbub i were gazing up at those infernal creatures of the air and my heart sang within me as i saw them circling erratically but very surely down to the earth
and as they came nearer my satisfaction was entire for their engines were silent at the same time consternation was reigning among our visitors
every slinger was jammed as though frozen by invisible ice all their balls and shells were stuck together like the work of a transparent glue even their side arms were locked in their scabbards
and all their tugging could budge them not but none of my men were so handicapped each man's chariot was running as though naught had happened
they thundered forward discharging their balls and shells as freely as they had across the sea their charge was a murderous one not a man of klow's was able to resist save with what force he could put into his bare hands
none were able to more than place his body twixt us and their chief in a very few moments they saw that the unknown magic had made them as children in our hands they were utterly lost
what means this ye huge bundle of lies what mean ye by tricking us with yon badge of surrender only to tie our hands with thy magic of hofe is this the way to fight like a man
i had stood at ease in my door since rolling the iron now i looked about me still more easily my men were running down the louts who had jumped from their useless chariots and taken to their heels
ye are right this is not the way to fight like a man neither i pointed out one of the fallen air cars neither is that the way
flitting over our heads like shadows and destroying us with filthy smoke
you attacked us without provocation he muttered sourly aye and for a very good reason i replied yet i see thy viewpoint
and shalt give thee the benefit of the doubt i turned to my whistlers and gave an order so that presently the great slaughter had stopped my men and klow's alike struggled back to see what were amiss
i handed klow an ax throw away thine own scabbard and all i told him it is useless for tis made of iron
ours and all our tools of war are formed of an alloy which is immune from the magic he took the ax in wonderment what means it strokor
asked he again meanwhile stripping himself in a businesslike fashion that it were good to see it means said i throwing off my robe that i have unchained the magnetism of this world
it is like unto that of the tiny magnet which ye give children for to play but it is mighty even as our world is mighty good jon he gasped for his was not a daring mind
what have ye done ye trifler i have transformed this empire into one vast magnet i answered coolly then i showed him a boulder on the summit of a distant hill
through the tube klow could see some of my men standing beside it place one of thy own men on the roof of the palace i told klow and give him orders to lower my banner should ye give him the word
hinges the whole affair if thou dost survive down comes my banner and my men on the hill shall topple the boulder which shall rush down the slope and burst the iron rod and break the spell
stand then and defend thyself and it did me good to see the spirit fly into his eyes he saw that his empire lived or died as he lived or died
and he fought as he had never fought before small man that he was beside myself he were wondrous quick and sure in his motions before i knew it he had bit his ax deep into my side
and in another moment or two it was over
now as he was about to quit me the clouds were clearing away and an occasional stroke of lightning came down one of these however hit the ground such a short distance away that both of us could smell the smoke
my mind was more alive than it had ever been before now what caused that maka the lightning i mean we have it nearly every day yet i have never thought to question it before
it is no mystery my lad quoth maka dodging into his chariot so that he was not wet
where the air is so light that a man can scarce get enough to fill his lungs
the space about the air is full of it he started his engine then leaned out into the rain and said softly hold fast to what thy father has taught thee strokor
have nothing to do with the women tis a man's job ahead of thee and the future of the empire is in thy hands and as he clattered off fill not thy head with wonderings about the lightning
and immediately turned my thoughts to my new ambition and yet
and so it does to this very day
whether i will or no i slept not at all that night but sat footnote it seems to have been the custom among the soldiers never to lie down but to take their sleep sitting or standing
no doubt this also explains their stunted legs
till the dawn came thinking out a plan of action by that time i was fair convinced that there was naught to be gained by waiting waiting makes me impatient as well
i determined to act at once and since one day is quite as good as the next i decided that this day was to see the thing begun i came before the emperor at noon and received my decorations
within the hour i had made myself known to the four and ninety men who were to be my command a picked company all of a height and weight with bodies that lacked little of my own perfection
never was there a finer guard about the palace my first care was to pick a quarrel with the outgoing commander twere easy enough he was green with envy anyhow
and so it came about that we met about mid afternoon with seconds in a well frequented field in the outskirts
before supper was eaten my entire troop knew that their new captain had tossed his ball slinger away without using it had taken twenty balls from their former commander's weapon
and while thus wounded had charged the man and despatched him with bare hands needless to say this exploit quite won their hearts
none but a blind man could have missed the respect they showed me when all bandaged and sore i lined them up next morning afterward i learned that they had all taken a pledge to follow strokor through the gates of hofe itself
i called my men together one morn as the sun rose by that time i had given them a sample of my brains through ordering a rearrangement of their quarters such as made the same much more comfortable also
i had dealt with one slight infraction of the rules in such a drastic fashion that they knew i would brook no trifling all told tis hard to say whether they thought the most of me or of jon
men said i as bluntly as i knew the emperor is an old man and as ye know he is disposed to be lenient toward the men of klow
now i will tell ye more it has come to me lately that klow is plotting to attack us with strange weapons i thought best considering their ignorance not to give them my own reasons
of course i have told the emperor of it yet he will not act he says to wait till we are attacked i stopped and watched their faces
sure enough the idea fair made them ache each and every one of these men was spoiling for a fight now tell me how would ye like to become the emperor's body guard
i did not have to wait long the light that flared in their faces told me plainly and how would ye like to have me for your emperor
they yelled for pure joy and pressed about me like a pack of children i saw that the time was ripe for action up then i roared and of course led the way
we met the emperor's guard on the lower stairs and from that point on we fair hacked our way through well no need to describe the fight for a time i thought we were gone
the guards had a cunningly devised labyrinth on the second floor and attacked us from holes in a false ceiling so that we suffered heavily at first but i saw what was amiss
and shouted to my men to clear away the timbers and after that it was clear work i lost forty men before the guard was disposed of the emperor i finished myself
he dodged right spryly for a time but at last i caught him and tossed him to the foot of the upper stairs and there he still lies for none of my men would touch him nor would i
we covered him with quicklime and some earth as soon as we had taken care of those who were not too far gone i called the men together and caused a round of spirits to be served
then we all feasted on the emperor's store and soon were feeling like ourselves men i said impressively i am proud of ye
at that they all grinned happily and i added and tis a fine staff of generals that ye'll make need i say more
those men would have overturned the palace for me had i said the word as it was they obeyed my next orders in such a spirit that success was assured from the first
first using the dead emperor's name i caused the various chiefs to be brought together at once to the court chamber at the same time i contrived by means i need not go into here
to prevent any word of our action from getting abroad so when the former staff faced me the next morning they learned that they were to be executed i could trust not one they were all friends of the old man
with the chiefs out of the way and my own men taking their commands the whole army fell into my hands true there were some insurrections here and there but my men handled them with such speed and harshness
that any further stubbornness turned to admiration by this time the fame of strokor was spread throughout the empire and thus it came about that
strokor son of strok reigned throughout vlamaland
now out of a total population of perhaps three million i had about a quarter million first class fighters in my half of the world
his land was not a rich one but he had the advantage of knowing some while in advance of the new ruler in vlama and shortly my spies reported that his armories were devising a new type of weapon
twas a strange verification of my own fiction to my men i could learn nothing however about it meanwhile i caused a vast number of flat boats to be built all in secret
each of them was intended for a single fighter and his supplies and each was so arranged with side paddle wheels that it would be driven by the motor in the soldier's chariot and thus give each his own boat
again discarding all precedent i packed not all my forces together as had been done in the past but scattered them up and adown the coast fronting the land of klow
and at a prearranged time my quarter million men set out a company in each tiny fleet some were slightly in advance of the rest who had the shorter distance to travel
and just as i had planned we all arrived at a certain spot on klow's coast at practically the same hour although two nights later twas a brilliant stroke
the enemy looked not for a fleet of water ants ready to step right out of the sea into battle their fleet was looking for us true but not in that shape
and we were all safely ashore before they had ceased to scour the seas for us i immediately placed my heavy machines and just as all former expeditions had done
opened the assault at once with a shower of the poison shells i relied it will be seen upon the surprise of my attack to strike terror into the hearts of the louts but apparently they were prepared for anything
no matter how rapid the attack my bombardment had not proceeded many moments before to my dismay some of their own shells began to fall among us soon they were giving as good as we
i demanded of maka i had placed him in my cabinet as soon as i had reached the throne the old man stroked his beard gravely perchance it had been wrong to come to the old landing
they simply began shelling it as a matter of course ye are right again i told him and forthwith moved my pieces over into another triangle
previously of course all my charioteers had gone on toward the capital however i took care to move my machines one at a time so that there was no let up in my bombardment
but scarce had we taken up the new position before the enemy's shells likewise shifted and began to strike once more in our midst
and whirled upon maka in wrath think ye that there be a spy among us i demanded how else can ye explain this thing my men have combed the land about us
there are none of the louts secreted here and even so they could not have notified klow so soon besides tis pitch dark i were sorely mystified
all we could do was to fling our shells as fast as our machines would work and dodge the enemy's hail as best we could thus the time passed and it were near dawn when the first messengers footnote
messengers no telegraph or telephone much less wireless in a civilization as strenuous as that of mercury there was never enough consideration for others to lead to such socially beneficial things as these
no more than railroads or printing presses civilization appears to be in exact proportion to the ease of getting a living other conditions being equal
returned they have stopped us just outside the walls of the city was the report it pleased me that they should have pushed so far at first i climbed at once into my chariot
now is the time for strokor to strike i gave orders for the staff to remain where it was i will send ye word when the city is mine
but before i started my engine i glanced up at the sky to see if the dawn were yet come and as i gazed i thought i saw something come between me and a star
i brushed the hair away from my eyes and looked again
look i cried and my whole staff craned their necks in a moment all had seen and great was their wonder i blamed them not for their fears
they are much too large to be creatures of jon he muttered they must be some trick of the enemy
dost recall edam's vision of the creatures in the air of jeos he went on knowing that i would not hinder him now as i remember it he said they flew with great speed
were it not possible strokor for suitable engines to propel very light structures at such high speed as to remain suspended in the air after the manner of leaves in a storm
i note these strangers move quite fast it was even so and at that same instant one of them swung directly above our heads so close that i could hear the hum of a powerful engine
so it was only a trick i shook myself together attention my staff drew up at the word they are but few fear them not
pack up the machines and follow and thus we charged upon klow i found that my men had entirely surrounded the city klow's men were putting up a plucky fight
and showing no signs of fearing us seeing this i blew a blast on my engine's whistle so that my bullies might know that i had come immediately the word ran up and down the line
i myself set the example by charging the nearest group of the enemy all of whom were mounted within the rather small and perfectly circular chariots which they preferred they were quick but slippery
also they could not stand before a determined rush as several of them learned after vainly trying to slip some balls through my windows and failing in that striving to get away from me
but i ran them down and toppled them over and dropped suffocation bombs into their little cages with such vigor and disregard of their volleys that my men could not resist the example
we charged all along that vast circular line and we cheered mightily when the whole front broke turned tail and ran before us but scarce had they got away before a queer thing happened
a flock of those great air creatures some eight altogether rose up from the middle of the city it was now fairly light and we could see well one of them had some sort of engine trouble
so that it had to return at once but the other seven came out to the battle line and began to circle the city as they did so they dropped odd misshapen parcels totally unlike materials of war
but when they struck they gave off prodigious puffs of a greenish smoke of so terribly pungent a nature that my men dropped before it like apples from a shaken tree twas a fearful sight
lucky for us that the louts had had no practice else few of us should be alive to tell the tale and so they swept around the great circle many triangles in area
and everywhere the unthinkable things smote the hearts of my men with a fear they had never known only one of the devices suffered it was brought down by a chance fling of a poison shell
the rest after loosing their burdens returned to the city for more
i saw that we could do nothing against such weapons but must use all our wits if we escaped even return i commanded and instantly my staff whistled the code
the men obeyed with alacrity making off at top speed with the men of klow in hot pursuit although able to do little damage aye it were a sorrowful thing that retreat the best i could do
but i managed to empty my slinger into some of them and to topple the rest
by the time i had reached the seashore most of my men were in their boats again i stayed till the last although i could see the enemy's fleet bearing down hard upon us from the north
in truth we would have all been lost had we come in the manner of former campaigns all together in big transports but because we could scatter every which way
the fleet harmed us little and four fifths of us got safely back happily none of the air machines had range enough to reach vlamaland
as soon as i could get my staff together i gave orders such as would insure discipline then reminding my hearties that klow knowing our helplessness would surely attack as soon as fully equipped i made this offer
to the man who shall suggest the best way of meeting their attack i shall give the third of my empire so they knew that the case was desperate as for myself i slept not a bit
but paced my sleep chamber and thought deeply now a bit of a shell from an enemy slinger had penetrated my arm till now i had paid no attention to it
but it began to bother me so i pulled the metal from my arm with my teeth and quite by chance i placed the billet on the table within a few inches of the compass i had carried on my boat to my intense surprise
the needle of the compass swung violently about so that one end pointed directly at the fragment of metal i moved them closer together there was no doubt that they were strongly attracted
the enemy's shells were made of mere iron the moment i fully realized this i saw clearly how we might baffle the men of klow i instantly summoned some men
and in a few moments had the satisfaction of seeing my messengers hurrying north and south and so it came about that within three days of our shameful retreat
a tenth of my men were at work on the new project as yet there was no word from my spies across the sea but we worked with all possible haste and this very briefly is what we did
we laid a gigantic line of iron clear across the empire from north to south from snow to snow one end was bedded in the island of pathna where the north magnetic pole is found
in a hole dug through the ice into the solid earth of the south polar plain and every foot of that enormous rod twas as big around as my leg
was insulated from the ground with pieces of our secret non magnetic alloy not for nothing had our chemists sought the metal which would resist the lightning and not for nothing did my bullies piece the rod together
all working at the same time so that the whole thing were complete in seven days that is complete save for the final connecting link
chapter six the party at the milan the dinner party which i arranged for in the milan restaurant was on the whole a great success my sister played hostess for me
and confessed herself charmed with eve as indeed was every one else mister parker's stories kept his end of the table in continual bursts of merriment one little incident too was in its way exceedingly satisfactory
mister and missus samuelson were being entertained by some friends close at hand and they appeared very much gratified at the cordiality of our greeting i talked with mister samuelson during the evening and i felt that so far as he was concerned at any rate
not a shadow of suspicion remained in his mind as to my two guests we sat a long time over dinner eve was between a cousin of mine who was a member of parliament a master of foxhounds and in his way quite a distinguished person
and the old earl of enterdean my godfather and they were both of them obviously her abject slaves no one seemed in the least inclined to move and it was nearly eleven o'clock before we passed into the private room i had engaged
where coffee and some bridge tables awaited us we broke up there into little groups i left eve talking to my sister and was on my way to try to get near her father
when the countess of enterdean a perfectly charming old lady who had known me from boyhood intercepted me my dear paul she said
and i really must tell you this i had meant to keep it a secret but from you i cannot i knew all the time that the name of bundercombe was familiar to me and suddenly it came over me like a flash
directly i asked mister bundercombe in what part of america his home was
small world it is
mister bundercombe and his daughter who were so amazingly kind to reggie when he was out in the states on his way to dicky's ranch i was for a moment absolutely thunderstruck
i asked she shook her head
reggie is in town just for a few days
but i told him mister bundercombe and his daughter were here and he is rushing into his clothes as fast as he can
i felt completely at my wit's end i saw the whole of my little scheme which up to now had proved so successful threatened with instant destruction lady enterdean passed on probably to take some one else into her confidence
i crossed the room to the little group surrounding my friend and as soon as i got near him i touched him on the shoulder just one word with you mister bundercombe i begged the little circle of men let him through with reluctance
i passed my arm through his and led him out toward the foyer you seem i declared bitterly to have chosen the most unfortunate personality i wish to goodness you had remained mister parker
this infernal name of yours bundercombe has got us into trouble in what way he asked quickly
she has a son who has been traveling in the states and who was wonderfully entertained by two people of the name of bundercombe in the very place you told me to say you came from
well that goes all right mister parker remarked complacently we're getting the credit for it precisely i admitted the only trouble is that lady enterdean has just telephoned to her son to come down at once
and renew his acquaintance with you and eve mister parker whistled softly his face had become a blank my we do seem to be up against it he confessed uneasily
the young man i continued will be here in ten minutes perhaps sooner prepared to grasp you both by the hand and exchange reminiscences mister parker shook out a white silk handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his forehead
kind of warm out here he remarked i'll just have to talk to eve for a minute or two he had no sooner left me than i found i was absolutely compelled to devote myself to one or two of my guests who wished to play bridge
and others of whom i had seen little at dinner time i kept looking anxiously round and at last the blow fell the door opened and lord reginald sidley was announced
hope you don't mind my butting in old chap he said as he shook hands with me
i glanced round the room just at that moment a waiter from the restaurant presented himself he brought me a card upon a salver the gentleman asked me to give you this sir he announced i picked it up
on the back of a plain visiting card were a few hasty words scrawled in pencil so sorry but eve is not feeling quite herself and begged me to take her home at once quietly my respects and apologies to you and all your delightful guests
i read it out and passed it to reggie his face fell
fancy your knowing them isn't miss bundercombe a topper
i shall make a point of calling on them myself tomorrow now paul you must go and play bridge they are waiting for you don't bother about me i'll amuse myself quite well strolling round and talking to my friends
i made up a rubber of bridge chiefly with the idea of distracting my thoughts presently while my partner was playing the hand i rose and crossed the room to the sideboard for some cigarettes
i found lady enterdean peering about with her lorgnette fixed to her eyes apparently searching for something lost anything lady enterdean i asked
she declared resting her hand on the bosom of her gown i am perfectly certain it was there a quarter of an hour ago my cameo brooch you know the one that old sir henry brought home from italy
too large to lose anyway i remarked cheerfully as i joined in the search we pulled aside a table and i almost collided with one of my most distinguished guests sir blaydon harrison k c b
sir blaydon also with an eyeglass in his eye was moving discontentedly backward and forward kicking the carpet silly thing he observed as he glanced up for a moment
that little diamond charm of mine has slipped off my fob i saw it as we crossed the foyer from the restaurant why what has happened to us all my sister joined in
paul did you give us too much to drink or what i am not sure that this was not the most awful moment of my life a cold shiver of fear suddenly seized me i looked from one to the other speechless
if appearances had gone for anything at that moment
i begged earnestly i'll go out and make inquiries sir blaydon take my place in that rubber of bridge there's a good fellow i'll have the restaurant searched too don't mind if i am away a few minutes i hurried out
without hat or coat i jumped into a taxi and in less than ten minutes i was mounting the stairs of number seventeen banton street with the hall porter blinking at me from his office i scarcely went through the formality of knocking at the door mister parker and eve were both standing at the table
their heads close together at the sound of my footsteps and precipitate entrance mister parker swung round one hand was still behind him upon the table a white silk handkerchief was lying my dear fellow he exclaimed
my dear walmsley what has happened i opened my lips and closed them again it really seemed impossible to say anything
mister parker's expression had never been so boyish so earnest and yet so wistful eve was quivering with some emotion the nature of which i could not at once divine i felt very certain however
that she had been remonstrating with her father don't keep us in suspense my dear fellow mister parker implored what has gone wrong eve and i were just just talking over
and looking over the spoils i said grimly i went a little farther into the room mister parker with a sigh abandoned his position
he unclosed the fingers of his hand and removed the silk handkerchief i saw upon the table my aunt's brooch my sister's pendant and sir blaydon harrison's diamond pig
i said not a word i looked at them and i looked at mister parker he smiled weakly and scratched his chin i didn't do so badly
he essayed apologetically to tell you the truth i really hadn't meant never mind what you meant i interrupted please give me those things back again at once
but really you know no people ought to carry about their valuables like that it was trying us a little too high wasn't it and dear reggie did he arrive for the first time i was really angry with eve
if you will allow me i said i will pursue this conversation to morrow morning i tore downstairs jumped into the waiting taxi and returned to the milan i entered the private room with a grave face
evidently i was only just in time the rubber of bridge had been broken up and my guests were standing about in little groups talking i closed the door behind me and held up my hand blanche i announced lady enterdean
i am delighted to say i have recovered
lady enterdean exclaimed how relieved i feel most satisfactory i am sure she sat down promptly there was a little murmur of voices my guests gathered round me i drew a long breath
and continued on my mendacious career i have been closeted with the manager i explained it was one of the underwaiters the little dark one who brought in the coffee
he confessed directly he was questioned he has restored everything and i thought it best to have him simply turned off without any fuss here is your pig sir blaydon your pendant blanche your brooch lady enterdean
i am exceedingly sorry you should have had any anxiety but all's well that ends well i wound up weakly every one was talking cheerfully the great topic now was one of ethics
had i acted properly in not charging the waiter
one of us
cheero he said brightly as he seated himself in my easy chair and tapped the end of one of my cigarettes upon the tablecloth i haven't been up so early for months but
what about them i want their address of course reggie continued
all for seeing miss bundercombe again ripping girl isn't she then prepare yourself for a disappointment my friend i advised glancing at the clock they left for paris by the nine o'clock train this morning
reggie stared at me blankly gone already i nodded and invented a little difficulty with my coffee pot theirs was only a flying visit i explained i was lucky to get hold of them for my dinner
i'm hanged if i understand this reggie remarked looking at me suspiciously why
and they were as keen as mustard on my taking them round london how long have they been here not long i answered sure you won't have some coffee
and she never said a word about any of them coming over they seem to have made their minds up all of a sudden i explained they spoke of it as quite a flying trip reggie coughed and stared for a moment at the end of his boot
can't understand it at all he repeated devilish queer thing anyway i say paul you're sure it's all right i suppose all right
between you and me he went on don't give it away outside this room you know but there have been rumors going about concerning an american and his pretty daughter over here regular wrong uns
you're not associating these people whoever they may be with mister and miss bundercombe i asked sternly reggie gazed once more at the point of his boot the thing is he remarked
are your friends mister and miss bundercombe at all don't talk rot
or it may not by the by where did you meet them if you don't mind i answered we won't discuss them any longer at least reggie insisted will you tell me this
where have they been staying in london i shall go there and see whether they have left any address for letters to be forwarded i shall tell you nothing i decided as a matter of fact i am finding you rather a nuisance
reggie picked up his hat there is something more in this he said didactically than meets the eye machiavellian i scoffed be off reggie i had tea with eve that afternoon
and broached the subject of reggie's visit as delicately as i could you remember lord reggie sidley i asked lord reggie what eve exclaimed sidley i repeated firmly
he spent three weeks with you out at your home in okata his threatened arrival last night was the cause of your father's precipitate retreat and yours oh that young man
he has been round to see me this morning i told her wanted your address she sighed london will be getting too hot for us soon she murmured am i engaged to him or anything
eve i said when are you going to let me announce our engagement our what she demanded engagement i repeated i have proposed to you two or three times
i will do it again if you like pray don't she begged you are not going to tell me are you she added looking at me with wide open eyes
i pointed out if i haven't she assured me it has been simply to save your feelings i gulped down a little rising storm of indignation
there are a great many she assured me it was to get away from them as much as anything that i came over with father on this business trip business trip i groaned
oh i dare say it all seems very disgraceful to any one like you
and have mixed with respectable people all your life she exclaimed all the same let me tell you there are plenty of charming and delightful people going about the world earning their living by their wits simply because they are forced to
there is more than one code of morals you know i flatter myself that at this point i was tactful my dear eve i reminded her you forget that i have joined the gang i mean
i corrected myself hastily that i have offered to associate myself with you and your father in any of your enterprises i am perfectly willing to give up anything in life you may consider too respectable at the same time i must say
there are limits so far as you are concerned she pouted a little i hate being out of things she said no need for you to be altogether i continued
now if i could institute a real big affair in the shape of a bucketshop swindle in which your father and i could play the principal parts and you become merely a subordinate
it doesn't sound very amusing for me she objected how much should we make thousands i assured her if it were properly engineered i think she said reflectively
he says the market over here for such little trifles as we have come across is very restricted i groaned under my breath in imagination i could see mister parker bartering with some shady individual for lady enterdean's cameo brooch
i reverted to our previous subject of conversation eve i went on i hate to seem tedious but the question of our engagement still hangs fire you persistent person she sighed
tell me if i married you would all those people we met last night be nice to me of course they would i assured her they are only waiting for a word from you i think they must have an idea already
she was thoughtful for a few moments and her eyes lit up with reminiscent humor dear me she murmured if only they knew they hadn't any suspicions i suppose about those those little trifles
none i replied i put it all on to a waiter how clever of you you really do seem to be a most capable person and so masterful i begin to fear that some day you'll have your own way
her eyes laughed at me there was something softly provocative in them a new and kinder light i bent over her and kissed her she sat quite still mister walmsley
it's usual among engaged couples i pleaded is it she remarked coldly doesn't the man as a rule wait to be quite sure he is engaged not in this country i declared
i have heard that americans are rather shy about that sort of thing englishmen oh bother englishmen she exclaimed stamping her foot i don't believe a word i've ever heard about them i suppose now i shall have to marry you i don't see any way out of it i agreed readily
she held up her finger the door was quietly opened mister parker entered he was followed by the most utterly objectionable and repulsive looking person i have ever set eyes on in my life a young man thin
flashily dressed in cheap clothes with patent boots and brilliant necktie his cheeks were sallow and his eyes deeply inset were closer together than any i have ever seen
my dear mister parker exclaimed let me present mister moss my daughter sir mister walmsley also one of us i have been privileged mister parker continued dropping his voice a little
to watch mister moss at work this afternoon and i can assure you that a more consummate artist i have never seen
mister moss smiled deprecatingly and jerked his head sideways
he remarked as he laid his hat on the table i am very glad to know mister moss of course eve said but i am not in the least in sympathy with the er branch of our industry he represents
you know daddy it's much too dangerous and not a bit remunerative to a certain extent my dear her father admitted i am with you not all the way though one needs of course to discriminate
personally i must admit that the nerve and actual genius required in finger manipulation have always attracted me mister moss paused with his glass halfway to his lips he jerked his head in the direction of mister parker
he is one for the gab ain't he he remarked confidentially to me for the life of me at that moment i could not tell whether to leave the room in a fit of angry disgust or to accept the ludicrous side of the situation and laugh
fortunately for me perhaps i caught eve's eye in which there was more than the suspicion of a twinkle i chose therefore the latter alternative mister moss watched us for a moment curiously
he asked as he set down his glass
city work is rather my specialty i know mister moss exclaimed quickly
fine appearance for the job he added admiringly eve sat down and began to laugh softly to herself she had a habit of laughing almost altogether with her eyes in a way that expressed more genuine enjoyment
than anything i have ever realized she rocked herself gently backward and forward mister moss looked at us both a little suspiciously seem to be missing the joke a bit i do he remarked eve sat up and was instantly grave
it is your clear sighted way of putting things she explained softly you seem to understand people so thoroughly i don't generally make no mistake about the number of beans in the game mister moss observed in a self congratulatory tone
i have suggested to mister moss my dear
just a little early dinner say at stephano's just as we are you know will this be agreeable to you certainly eve assented promptly mister moss will tell us some of his little adventures mister parker continued with satisfaction
considering that he has had twelve years continual work i think you'll all agree with me that his is a wonderful record he has been compelled to enter into a little involuntary er retirement only once during the whole of that time
mister moss looked a little puzzled he means lagged don't he he remarked a light breaking in on him
and that for a trifling beano a lady's bag and a couple of wipes
the profession ain't what it was you will come with us won't you mister walmsley eve begged turning to me i shall be delighted i answered with strenuous mendacity did you say stephano's or what
i was told of a little restaurant in soho the other day where the cooking is remarkable i'm all for stephano's mister moss declared grinning and the sooner the better
one of the neatest pieces of business i ever did in my life i brought off there in the old bar to tell you the truth i'm getting a bit peckish there is no reason mister parker agreed why we should not dine at once
yoicks tally ho for the strand mister moss exclaimed with spirit
the fine freedoms we shall ascribe to them their world unity world language world wide travellings world wide freedom of sale and purchase will remain mere dreamstuff incredible even by twilight
until we have shown that at that level the community will still sustain itself at any rate the common liberty of the utopians
will not embrace the common liberty to be unserviceable the most perfect economy of organisation still leaves the fact untouched that all order and security in a state
rests on the certainty of getting work done how will the work of this planet be done
now in the first place a state so vast and complex as this world utopia and with so migratory a people will need some handy symbol to check the distribution
of services and commodities almost certainly they will need to have money they will have money and it is not inconceivable that for all his sorrowful thoughts our botanist
from some wayfarer's pocket this in our first hour or so before we reach the inn
you figure us upon the high gotthard road heads together over the little disk that contrives to tell us so much of this strange world
it is i imagine of gold and it will be a convenient accident if it is sufficient to make us solvent for a day or so until we are a little more informed of the economic system into which we have come
it is moreover of a fair round size and the inscription declares it one lion equal to twaindy bronze crosses unless the ratio of metals is very different here
this latter must be a token coin and therefore legal tender for but a small amount that would be pain and pleasure to mister wordsworth donisthorpe if he were to chance to join us
for once he planned a utopian coinage footnote a system of measures by wordsworth donisthorpe and the words lion and cross are his
but a token coinage and legal tender he cannot abide they make him argue and being in utopia that unfamiliar twaindy suggests at once we have come upon
that most utopian of all things a duodecimal system of counting my author's privilege of details serves me here this lion is distinctly a beautiful coin
and an hour glass halfway run very human these utopians after all and not by any means above the obvious in their symbolism so for the first time we learn definitely of the world state
and we get our first clear hint too that there is an end to kings but our coin raises other issues also it would seem that this utopia has no simple community of goods
a restriction upon what one may take a need for evidences of equivalent value a limitation to human credit it dates
so much of this present utopia of ours dates those former utopists were bitterly against gold you will recall the undignified use sir thomas more would have us put it to
and how there was no money at all in the republic of plato and in that later community for which he wrote his laws an iron coinage of austere appearance and doubtful efficacy
it may be these great gentlemen
with a complicated difficulty and not a little unjust to a highly respectable element gold is abused and made into vessels of dishonour and abolished from ideal society
from the state is punishing the hatchet for the murderer's crime money did you but use it right is a good thing in life a necessary thing in civilised human life as complicated
indeed for its purposes but as natural a growth as the bones in a man's wrist and i do not see how one can imagine anything at all worthy of being called a civilisation without it
it is the water of the body social it distributes and receives and renders growth and assimilation and movement and recovery possible it is the reconciliation
of human interdependence with liberty what other device will give a man so great a freedom with so strong an inducement to effort the economic history of the world
where it is not the history of the theory of property is very largely the record of the abuse not so much of money as of credit devices to supplement money to amplify
commodities from a central store footnote more's
heaven knows where progress may not end but at any rate this developing state into which we two men have fallen this twentieth century utopia has still not passed beyond money and the use of coins
section two now if this utopian world is to be in some degree parallel to contemporary thought it must have been concerned
with many unsettled problems of currency and with the problems that centre about a standard of value gold is perhaps of all material substances
but even at that best it falls far short of an imaginable ideal it undergoes spasmodic and irregular cheapening through new discoveries of gold and at any time it may undergo
very extensive and sudden and disastrous depreciation through the discovery of some way of transmuting less valuable elements
and an automatic impoverishment of the citizens in general as against the creditor class
unexpected spate of gold production
no substance whatever but instead force and that value might be measured in units of energy
of enterprises and interests led by men of power now i glance at this matter in the most incidental manner as a man may skim through a specialist's exposition in a popular magazine
for general criticism and one gathers that in the modern utopia
flaws anticipated side issues raised
by a planetful of critics before the actual process of legislation begins the explanation of these proposals involves an anticipatory glance at the local administration
there will be no shock in the idea that a general consolidation of a great number of common public services over areas of considerable size is now not only practicable but very desirable
in a little while heating and lighting and the supply of power for domestic and industrial purposes and for urban and inter urban communications will all be managed electrically
from common generating stations and the trend of political and social speculation points decidedly to the conclusion
that so soon as it passes out of the experimental stage the supply of electrical energy just like drainage and the supply of water will fall to the local authority moreover
the local authority will be the universal landowner upon that point so extreme an individualist as herbert spencer was in agreement with the socialist in utopia
we conclude that whatever other types of property may exist all natural sources of force and indeed all strictly natural products coal water power and the like
are inalienably vested in the local authorities which in order to secure the maximum of convenience and administrative efficiency
they will generate electricity by water power by combustion by wind or tide or whatever other natural force is available and this electricity will be devoted
some of it to the authority's lighting and other public works some of it as a subsidy
which controls the high roads the great railways the inns and other apparatus of world communication and the rest will pass on to private individuals or to distributing companies
at a uniform fixed rate for private lighting and heating for machinery and industrial applications of all sorts such an arrangement of affairs will necessarily
involve a vast amount of book keeping between the various authorities the world state government and the customers and this book keeping will naturally be done most conveniently in units of physical energy
it is not incredible that the assessment of the various local administrations for the central world government would be already calculated upon the estimated total of energy
periodically available in each locality and booked and spoken of in these physical units accounts between central and local governments could be kept in these terms
but in notes good for so many thousands or millions of units of energy at one or other of the generating stations now the problems of economic theory will have undergone
an enormous clarification if instead of measuring in fluctuating money values the same scale of energy units can be extended to their discussion if in fact the idea of trading
could be entirely eliminated in my utopia at any rate this has been done the production and distribution of common commodities have been expressed as a problem in the conversion of energy
and the scheme that utopia was now discussing was the application of this idea of energy as the standard of value to the entire utopian coinage
every one of those giant local authorities was to be free to issue energy notes against the security of its surplus of saleable available energy and to make all its contracts
for payment in those notes up to a certain maximum defined by the amount of energy produced and disposed of in that locality in the previous year
this power of issue was to be renewed just as rapidly as the notes came in for redemption in a world without boundaries with a population largely migratory and
emancipated from locality the price of the energy notes of these various local bodies would constantly tend to be uniform because employment would constantly shift into the areas where energy was cheap
accordingly the price of so many millions of units of energy at any particular moment in coins of the gold currency would be approximately the same throughout the world
it was proposed to select some particular day when the economic atmosphere was distinctly equable and to declare
it was in fact to become a temporary token coinage a token coinage of full value for the day of conversion at any rate if not afterwards under the new standard of energy and to be replaceable
by an ordinary token coinage as time went on the old computation by lions and the values of the small change of daily life
were therefore to suffer no disturbance whatever the economists of utopia as i apprehended them had a different method
and this makes my exposition considerably more difficult this article upon which i base my account floated before me in an unfamiliar perplexing
and dream like phraseology yet i brought away an impression that here was a rightness that earthly economists have failed to grasp
few earthly economists have been able to disentangle themselves from patriotisms and politics and their obsession has always been international trade here in utopia
the world state cuts that away from beneath their feet there are no imports but meteorites and no exports at all trading is the earthly economists initial notion
and they start from perplexing and insoluble riddles about exchange value
finally involves individual preferences which are incalculable and unique nowhere do they seem to be handling really defined standards every economic dissertation and discussion
reminds one more strongly than the last of the game of croquet alice played in wonderland when the mallets were flamingoes and the balls were hedgehogs and crawled away
but physics applied to problems in the theory of sociology the general problem of utopian economics is to state the conditions of the most efficient application
and existing material are dealt with in relation to that trading and relative wealth are merely episodical in such a scheme the trend of the article i read as i understood it
was that a monetary system based upon a relatively small amount of gold upon which the business of the whole world had hitherto been done fluctuated unreasonably and supplied no real criterion
of well being that the nominal values of things and enterprises had no clear and simple relation to the real physical prosperity of the community that the nominal wealth of a community in millions of pounds or dollars or lions measured nothing but the quantity of hope in the air
and an increase of confidence meant an inflation of credit and a pessimistic phase a collapse of this hallucination of possessions the new standards this advocate reasoned were to alter all that and it seemed to me
they would i have tried to indicate the drift of these remarkable proposals but about them clustered an elaborate mass of keen and temperate discussion
into the details of that discussion i will not enter now
and we were sitting in a little inn at the end of the lake of uri we had loitered there and i had fallen reading because of a shower of rain but certainly as i read it the proposition struck me
as a singularly simple and attractive one and its exposition opened out to me for the first time clearly in a comprehensive outline the general conception of the economic nature
the difference between the social and economic sciences as they exist in our world footnote but see gidding's principles of sociology
a modern and richly suggestive american work imperfectly appreciated by the british student
economic science has been raised to a very high level of tortuous abstraction by the industry of its professors and i can claim neither a patient student's intimacy
my utopians make two divisions of the science of psychology first the general psychology of individuals a sort of mental physiology separated by no definite line
of the reaction of people upon each other and of all possible relationships
and of the methods of intercourse and collective decision that hold human groups together and finally of government and the state the elucidation of economic relationships
depending as it does on the nature of the hypothesis of human aggregation actually in operation at any time is considered to be subordinate and subsequent to this general science of sociology
political economy and economics in our world now consist of a hopeless muddle of social assumptions and preposterous psychology and a few geographical and physical
generalisations its ingredients will be classified out and widely separated in utopian thought on the one hand there will be the study of physical economies ending in the
which will be already at such a stage of practical development as to be giving the world this token coinage representing energy and on the other there will be the study of economic problems as problems in the division of labour
working unencumbered by the other will be continually contributing fresh valid conclusions for the use of the practical administrator in no region of intellectual activity
will our hypothesis of freedom from tradition be of more value in devising a utopia than here from its beginning the earthly study of economics has been infertile and unhelpful
and scarcely suspected assumptions upon which it rested the facts were ignored that trade is a bye product and not an essential factor in social life that property is a plastic
and fluctuating convention that value is capable of impersonal treatment only in the case of the most generalised requirements wealth was measured by the standards of exchange
adult units incapable of any other subordinate groupings than business partnerships and the sources of competition were assumed to be inexhaustible
upon such quicksands rose an edifice that aped the securities of material science developed a technical jargon and professed the discovery of laws
our liberation from these false presumptions through the rhetoric of carlyle and ruskin and the activities of the socialists is more apparent than real the old edifice
oppresses us still repaired and altered by indifferent builders underpinned in places and with a slight change of name political economy has been painted out
and instead we read economics under entirely new management modern economics differs mainly from old political economy in having produced no adam smith
the science hangs like a gathering fog in a valley a fog which begins nowhere and goes nowhere an incidental unmeaning inconvenience to passers by
its most typical exponents display a disposition to disavow generalisations altogether to claim consideration as experts and to make immediate political application of that conceded claim
now newton darwin dalton davy joule and adam smith did not affect this expert hankey pankey becoming enough in a hairdresser or a fashionable physician
but indecent in a philosopher or a man of science in this state of impotent expertness however or in some equally unsound state economics must struggle on
a science that is no science a floundering lore wallowing in a mud of statistics until either
the study of the material organisation of production on the one hand as a development of physics and geography or the study of social aggregation on the other renders
the older utopias were all relatively small states plato's republic for example was to be smaller than the average english borough and no distinction was made between the family the local government
and the state plato and campanella for all that the latter was a christian priest carried communism to its final point
an idea that was brought at last to the test of effectual experiment in the oneida community of new york state eighteen forty eight eighteen seventy nine this latter body
denied privacy and ruled an absolute community of goods at any rate and so coming to the victorian utopias did cabet but cabet's communism was one of the free store type and the goods were yours
only after you had requisitioned them that seems the case in the nowhere of morris also compared with the older writers bellamy and morris have a vivid sense of individual separation
and their departure from the old homogeneity is sufficiently marked to justify a doubt whether there will be any more thoroughly communistic utopias for ever
a utopia such as this present one written in the opening of the twentieth century and after the most exhaustive discussion
nearly a century long between communistic and socialistic ideas on the one hand and individualism on the other emerges upon a sort of effectual conclusion to those controversies
the two parties have so chipped and amended each other's initial propositions that indeed except for the labels still flutteringly adhesive to the implicated men it is hard to choose between them
each side established a good many propositions and we profit by them all
we of the succeeding generation can see quite clearly that for the most part the heat and zeal of these discussions arose in the confusion of a quantitative for a qualitative question
to the onlooker both individualism and socialism are in the absolute absurdities the one would make men the slaves of the violent or rich the other
the slaves of the state official and the way of sanity runs perhaps even sinuously down the intervening valley
happily the dead past buries its dead and it is not our function now to adjudicate the preponderance of victory in the very days when our political and economic order
is becoming steadily more socialistic our ideals of intercourse turn more and more to a fuller recognition of the claims of individuality the state is to be progressive
it is no longer to be static and this alters the general condition of the utopian problem profoundly we have to provide
to speak teleologically the world exists for the sake of and through initiative and individuality is the method of initiative each man and woman
to the extent that his or her individuality is marked breaks the law of precedent transgresses the general formula and makes a new experiment
to make effectual experiments and intelligent innovations and so supply the essential substance of life as against the individual
makes his experiment and either fails dies and comes to an end or succeeds and impresses himself in offspring in consequences and results intellectual material and moral upon the world
biologically the species is the accumulation of the experiments of all its successful individuals since the beginning and the world state of the modern utopist will in its economic aspect
the rising level platform on which individualities stand the world state in this ideal presents itself as the sole landowner of the earth with the great local governments i have adumbrated
the local municipalities holding as it were feudally under it as landlords the state or these subordinates holds all the sources of energy
and either directly or through its tenants farmers and agents develops these sources and renders the energy available for the work of life it or its tenants will produce food
control let or administer all natural productions pay for and secure healthy births and a healthy and vigorous new generation maintain the public health coin money
and sustain standards of measurement subsidise research and reward such commercially unprofitable undertakings as benefit the community as a whole
subsidise when needful chairs of criticism and authors and publications and collect and distribute information the energy developed
transfer tax legacy and forfeiture returning to the sea between the clouds and the sea
of individual enterprise and interplay whose freedom it will sustain
the essential substance of life from our human point of view the mountains and sea are for the habitable lands that lie between so likewise the state is for individualities
the state is for individuals the law is for freedoms the world is for experiment
instead of resuming his investigation of south's brain which perhaps was not so interesting under the microscope as might have been expected from the importance of that organ in life fitzpiers reclined and ruminated on the interview
grace's curious susceptibility to his presence though it was as if the currents of her life were disturbed rather than attracted by him added a special interest to her general charm fitzpiers was in a distinct degree scientific
being ready and zealous to interrogate all physical manifestations but primarily he was an idealist he believed that behind the imperfect lay the perfect that rare things were to be discovered amid a bulk of commonplace
that results in a new and untried case might be different from those in other cases where the conditions had been precisely similar regarding his own personality as one of unbounded possibilities because it was his own
notwithstanding that the factors of his life had worked out a sorry product for thousands he saw nothing but what was regular in his discovery at hintock of an altogether exceptional being of the other sex who for nobody else would have had any existence
one habit of fitzpiers's commoner in dreamers of more advanced age than in men of his years was that of talking to himself he paced round his room with a selective tread upon the more prominent blooms of the carpet and murmured
this phenomenal girl will be the light of my life while i am at hintock and the special beauty of the situation is that our attitude and relations to each other will be purely spiritual
would be absurd they would spoil the ethereal character of my regard and
fitzpiers bestowed a regulation thought on the advantageous marriage he was bound to make with a woman of family as good as his own and of purse much longer but as an object of contemplation for the present as objective spirit rather than corporeal presence
grace melbury would serve to keep his soul alive and to relieve the monotony of his days his first notion acquired from the mere sight of her without converse that of an idle and vulgar flirtation with a timber merchant's pretty daughter
personal intercourse with such as she could take no lower form than intellectual communion and mutual explorations of the world of thought since he could not call at her father's having no practical views cursory encounters in the lane in the wood
were what the acquaintance would have to feed on such anticipated glimpses of her now and then realized themselves in the event rencounters of not more than a minute's duration frequently repeated will build up mutual interest even an intimacy in a lonely place
theirs grew as imperceptibly as the tree twigs budded
spring weather came on rather suddenly the unsealing of buds that had long been swollen accomplishing itself in the space of one warm night the rush of sap in the veins of the trees could almost be heard
the flowers of late april took up a position unseen and looked as if they had been blooming a long while
birds began not to mind getting wet in door people said they had heard the nightingale to which out door people replied contemptuously that they had heard him a fortnight before the young doctor's practice being scarcely so large as a london surgeon's he frequently walked in the wood
indeed such practice as he had he did not follow up with the assiduity that would have been necessary for developing it to exceptional proportions one day book in hand he walked in a part of the wood where the trees were mainly oaks
which is apt to fill reflective human beings who are not undertaking much themselves with a sudden uneasiness at the contrast he heard in the distance a curious sound something like the quack of a duck which
was not common to him looking through the trees fitzpiers soon perceived the origin of the noise the barking season had just commenced and what he had heard was the tear of the ripping tool as it ploughed its way along the sticky parting between the trunk and the rind
melbury did a large business in bark and as he was grace's father and possibly might be found on the spot fitzpiers was attracted to the scene even more than he might have been by its intrinsic interest when he got nearer he recognized among the workmen
each tree doomed to this flaying process was first attacked by creedle with a small billhook he carefully freed the collar of the tree from twigs and patches of moss which incrusted it to a height of a foot or two above the ground
an operation comparable to the little toilet of the executioner's victim after this it was barked in its erect position to a point as high as a man could reach if a fine product of vegetable nature could ever be said to look ridiculous it was the case now
till the axe man came and cut a ring round it and the two timothys finished the work with the crosscut saw as soon as it had fallen the barkers attacked it like locusts
running her tool into the smallest branches beyond the farthest points to which the skill and patience of the men enabled them to proceed branches which in their lifetime had swayed high above the bulk of the wood and caught the latest and earliest rays of the sun and moon
you seem to have a better instrument than they marty said fitzpiers no sir she said holding up the tool a horse's leg bone fitted into a handle and filed to an edge
fitzpiers sat down inside the shelter and went on with his reading except when he looked up to observe the scene and the actors the thought that he might settle here and become welded in with this sylvan life by marrying grace melbury crossed his mind for a moment
the secret of quiet happiness lay in limiting the ideas and aspirations these men's thoughts were conterminous with the margin of the hintock woodlands and why should not his be likewise limited a small practice among the people around him being the bound of his desires
when it was ready the men were called and fitzpiers being in a mood to join sat down with them the latent reason of his lingering here so long revealed itself when the faint creaking of the joints of a vehicle became audible and one of the men said here's he
turning their heads they saw melbury's gig approaching the wheels muffled by the yielding moss
who kept her seat where and how to duck her head so as to avoid the overhanging branches they stopped at the spot where the bark ripping had been temporarily suspended
accepted their shouted invitation to have a dish of tea for which purpose he hitched the horse to a bough grace declined to take any of their beverage and remained in her place in the vehicle
and warmly appreciated fitzpiers's invitation to sit down on the log beside him
obviously much pleased at the circumstance i wonder now if my daughter knows you are so nigh at hand i don't expect she do
she doesn't see us well never mind let her be grace was indeed quite unconscious of fitzpiers's propinquity she was thinking of something which had little connection with the scene before her thinking of her friend lost as soon as found missus charmond
to which grace herself had hoped to be introduced by her friend's means she wondered if this patronizing lady would return to hintock during the summer and whether the acquaintance which had been nipped on the last occasion of her residence there would develop on the next
melbury told ancient timber stories as he sat
marty who poured out tea was just saying
saw that the horse had become restless
though she refrained from screaming melbury jumped up immediately but not more quickly than fitzpiers and while her father ran to the horse's head and speedily began to control him
her surprise at his appearance was so great that far from making a calm and independent descent she was very nearly lifted down in his arms he relinquished her when she touched ground and hoped she was not frightened oh no not much she managed to say
which was by no means an impossibility and justifies any amount of alarm
that of producing in her an unaccountable tendency to tearfulness melbury soon put the horse to rights and seeing that grace was safe turned again to the work people his daughter's nervous distress had passed off in a few moments and she said quite gayly to fitzpiers as she walked with him towards the group
marty prepared her a comfortable place and she sat down in the circle and listened to fitzpiers while he drew from her father and the bark rippers sundry narratives of their fathers their grandfathers
of white witches and black witches and the standard story of the spirits of the two brothers who had fought and fallen
and compelled to retreat to a swamp in this very wood whence they were returning to their old quarters at the rate of a cock's stride every new year's day old style hence the local saying on new year's tide a cock's stride
it was a pleasant time the smoke from the little fire of peeled sticks rose between the sitters and the sunlight and behind its blue veil stretched the naked arms of the prostrate trees the smell of the uncovered sap mingled with the smell of the burning wood
and the sticky inner surface of the scattered bark glistened as it revealed its pale madder hues to the eye melbury was so highly satisfied at having fitzpiers as a sort of guest
but grace on whom fitzpiers's eyes only too frequently alighted seemed to think it incumbent upon her to make a show of going and her father thereupon accompanied her to the vehicle
as the doctor had helped her out of it he appeared to think that he had excellent reasons for helping her in and performed the attention lingeringly enough what were you almost in tears about just now he asked softly
and the words were strictly true melbury mounted on the other side and they drove on out of the grove their wheels silently crushing delicate patterned mosses hyacinths primroses lords and ladies and other strange and ordinary plants and cracking up little sticks that lay across the track
their way homeward ran along the crest of a lofty hill whence on the right they beheld a wide valley differing both in feature and atmosphere from that of the hintock precincts it was the cider country which met the woodland district on the axis of this hill
over the vale the air was blue as sapphire such a blue as outside that apple valley was never seen under the blue the orchards were in a blaze of bloom some of the richly flowered trees running almost up to where they drove along
over a gate which opened down the incline a man leaned on his arms regarding this fair promise so intently that he did not observe their passing that was giles said melbury when they had gone by was it
meanwhile in the wood they had come from the men had sat on so long that they were indisposed to begin work again that evening they were paid by the ton and their time for labor was as they chose
they placed the last gatherings of bark in rows for the curers which led them farther and farther away from the shed and thus they gradually withdrew as the sun went down fitzpiers lingered yet he had opened his book again though he could hardly see a word in it
and sat before the dying fire scarcely knowing of the men's departure he dreamed and mused till his consciousness seemed to occupy the whole space of the woodland around so little was there of jarring sight or sound to hinder perfect unity with the sentiment of the place
the idea returned upon him of sacrificing all practical aims to live in calm contentment here and instead of going on elaborating new conceptions with infinite pains
these reflections detained him till the wood was embrowned with the coming night
from a bush not very far off fitzpiers's eyes commanded as much of the ground in front as was open entering upon this he saw a figure whose direction of movement was towards the spot where he sat
the surgeon was quite shrouded from observation by the recessed shadow of the hut and there was no reason why he should move till the stranger had passed by the shape resolved itself into a woman's she was looking on the ground and walking slowly
as if searching for something that had been lost her course being precisely that of mister melbury's gig fitzpiers by a sort of divination jumped to the idea that the figure was grace's her nearer approach made the guess a certainty
thus she approached the heap of ashes and acting upon what was suggested by a still shining ember or two she took a stick and stirred the heap which thereupon burst into a flame on looking around by the light thus obtained
she for the first time saw the illumined face of fitzpiers
grace gave a start and a scream the place had been associated with him in her thoughts but she had not expected to find him there still fitzpiers lost not a moment in rising and going to her side i frightened you dreadfully i know he said
he was actually supporting her with his arm as though under the impression that she was quite overcome and in danger of falling as soon as she could collect her ideas she gently withdrew from his grasp and explained what she had returned for
in getting up or down from the gig or when sitting by the hut fire she had dropped her purse
said fitzpiers he threw an armful of last year's leaves on to the fire which made the flame leap higher and the encompassing shades to weave themselves into a denser contrast turning eve into night in a moment
by this radiance they groped about on their hands and knees till fitzpiers rested on his elbow and looked at grace we must always meet in odd circumstances he said and this is one of the oddest i wonder if it means anything oh
indeed money is of little more use at hintock than on crusoe's island there's hardly any way of spending it
oh he knows nothing of what i do now the admirer said fitzpiers slyly
the admirer is a superficial conditional creature and this person is quite different he has all the cardinal virtues perhaps though i don't know them precisely
according to schleiermacher they are self control perseverance wisdom and love and his is the best list that i know i am afraid poor
had not much perseverance though
but she determined to go no further in this direction and was silent these half revelations made a perceptible difference in fitzpiers his sense of personal superiority wasted away and grace assumed in his eyes
the true aspect of a mistress in her lover's regard miss melbury he said suddenly i divine that this virtuous man you mention has been refused by you she could do no otherwise than admit it
i do not inquire without good reason god forbid that i should kneel in another's place at any shrine unfairly but my dear miss melbury now that he is gone may i draw near
i i can't say anything about that she cried quickly because when a man has been refused you feel pity for him and like him more than you did before
this increasing complication added still more value to grace in the surgeon's eyes it rendered her adorable but cannot you say he pleaded distractedly i'd rather not i think i must go home at once oh yes said fitzpiers
but as he did not move she felt it awkward to walk straight away from him and so they stood silently together a diversion was created by the accident of two birds that had either been roosting above their heads or nesting there tumbling one over the other into the hot ashes at their feet
apparently engrossed in a desperate quarrel that prevented the use of their wings they speedily parted however and flew up and were seen no more
the speaker was neither grace nor fitzpiers but marty south who approached with her face turned up to the sky in her endeavor to trace the birds suddenly perceiving grace she exclaimed oh miss melbury
and here's mister winterborne she continued shyly as she looked towards fitzpiers who stood in the background marty
will you come along and without lingering longer she took hold of marty's arm and led her away they went between the spectral arms of the peeled trees as they lay and onward among the growing trees by a path where there were no oaks and no barking and no fitzpiers
when melbury heard what had happened he seemed much moved and walked thoughtfully about the premises
as the betrothed of his daughter he was quite angry with circumstances for so heedlessly inflicting on giles a second trouble
but he wouldn't listen to me and now giles has to suffer for it poor giles murmured grace
had we not dismissed him already we could hardly have found it in our hearts to dismiss him now so i say be thankful i'll do all i can for him as a friend but as a pretender to the position of my son in law that can never be thought of more
and yet at that very moment the impracticability to which poor winterborne's suit had been reduced was touching grace's heart to a warmer sentiment on his behalf than she had felt for years concerning him
he meanwhile was sitting down alone in the old familiar house which had ceased to be his taking a calm if somewhat dismal survey of affairs the pendulum of the clock bumped every now and then against one side of the case in which it swung
as the muffled drum to his worldly march
owing obviously to a conviction that they might not be living there long enough to profit by next season's crop he looked at the leases again and the letter attached
there was no doubt that he had lost his houses by an accident which might easily have been circumvented if he had known the true conditions of his holding the time for performance had now lapsed in strict law but might not the intention be considered by the landholder when she became aware of the circumstances
and his moral right to retain the holdings for the term of his life be conceded his heart sank within him when he perceived that despite all the legal reciprocities and safeguards prepared and written the upshot of the matter amounted to this
whether he was to possess his houses for life or no while he was sitting and thinking a step came to the door and melbury appeared looking very sorry for his position
winterborne welcomed him by a word and a look and went on with his examination of the parchments his visitor sat down
throw yourself upon her generosity
but you must said melbury in short
and sent to hintock house whence
melbury feeling that he had done so good an action in coming as almost to extenuate his previous arbitrary conduct to nothing went home and giles was left alone to the suspense of waiting for a reply from the divinity who shaped the ends of the hintock population
by this time all the villagers knew of the circumstances and being wellnigh like one family a keen interest was the result all round everybody thought of giles nobody thought of marty
had any of them looked in upon her during those moonlight nights which preceded the burial of her father
its beams streamed across the still profile of south sublimed by the august presence of death and onward a few feet farther upon the face of his daughter
the repose of a guileless soul that had nothing more left on earth to lose except a life which she did not overvalue south was buried and a week passed and winterborne watched for a reply from missus charmond melbury was very sanguine as to its tenor
but winterborne had not told him of the encounter with her carriage when if ever he had heard an affronted tone on a woman's lips he had heard it on hers the postman's time for passing was just after melbury's men had assembled in the spar house and winterborne who when not busy on his own account
and meet the post man at the end of one of the green rides through the hazel copse in the straight stretch of which his laden figure could be seen a long way off
more perhaps than winterborne himself
fitzpiers too
but might have lived for twenty years eleven times had winterborne gone to that corner of the ride and looked up its long straight slope through the wet grays of winter dawn but though the postman's bowed figure loomed in view pretty regularly he brought nothing for giles
on the twelfth day the man of missives while yet in the extreme distance held up his hand and winterborne saw a letter in it he took it into the spar house before he broke the seal
the letter was not from missus charmond herself but her agent at sherton winterborne glanced it over and looked up
particularly as she contemplates pulling the houses down he said quietly only think of that said several winterborne had turned away and said vehemently to himself then let her pull em down
and be d d to her creedle looked at him with a face of seven sorrows saying ah twas that sperrit that lost em for ye maister winterborne subdued his feelings and from that hour whatever they were kept them entirely to himself
there could be no doubt that up to this last moment he had nourished a feeble hope of regaining grace in the event
not being aware of the fact that her father could have settled upon her a fortune sufficient to enable both to live in comfort he deemed it now an absurdity to dream any longer of such a vanity as making her his wife and sank into silence forthwith yet
whatever the value of taciturnity to a man among strangers it is apt to express more than talkativeness when he dwells among friends
the countryman who is obliged to judge the time of day from changes in external nature sees a thousand successive tints and traits in the landscape which are never discerned by him who hears the regular chime of a clock because they are never in request
in like manner do we use our eyes on our taciturn comrade the infinitesimal movement of muscle curve hair and wrinkle which when accompanied by a voice goes unregarded is watched and translated in the lack of it
till virtually the whole surrounding circle of familiars is charged with the reserved one's moods and meanings this was the condition of affairs between winterborne and his neighbors after his stroke of ill luck
he held his tongue and they observed him and knew that he was discomposed mister melbury in his compunction thought more of the matter than any one else except his daughter
but to speak any further on the subject he could not find it in his heart to do now
he could make matters unpleasant if he chose to work upon grace and hence when melbury saw the young man approaching along the road one day
his manner was that of a man who abandoned all claims i am glad to meet ye mister melbury he said in a low voice whose quality he endeavored to make as practical as possible i am afraid i shall not be able to keep that mare i bought and
as i don't care to sell her i should like
he declared that he did not like to be hard on a man when he was in difficulty but he really did not see how winterborne could marry his daughter now without even a house to take her to
he did not speak out positively there and then he accordingly departed somewhat abruptly and went home to consider whether he would seek to bring about a meeting with her in the evening while he sat quietly pondering he fancied that he heard a scraping on the wall outside his house
as no wind was stirring he knew that it could not be the rose tree he took up the candle and went out nobody was near as he turned the light flickered on the whitewashed rough case of the front and he saw words written thereon in charcoal
o giles you've lost your dwelling place and therefore giles you'll lose your grace giles went in doors he had his suspicions as to the scrawler of those lines but he could not be sure
what suddenly filled his heart far more than curiosity about their authorship was a terrible belief that they were turning out to be true try to see grace as he might they decided the question for him
in which he briefly stated that he was placed in such a position as to make him share to the full melbury's view of his own and his daughter's promise made some years before to wish that it should be considered as cancelled
having fastened up this their plenary absolution he determined to get it out of his hands and have done with it to which end he went off to melbury's at once it was now so late that the family had all retired he crept up to the house
melbury himself was the first to rise the next morning and when he had read the letter his relief was great
i shall not forget him now to keep her up to her own true level it happened that grace went out for an early ramble that morning passing through the door and gate while her father was in the spar house to go in her customary direction she could not avoid passing winterborne's house
the morning sun was shining flat upon its white surface and the words which still remained were immediately visible to her she read them her face flushed to crimson
she could see giles and creedle talking together at the back the charred spar gad with which the lines had been written lay on the ground beneath the wall feeling pretty sure that winterborne would observe her action she quickly went up to the wall rubbed out lose and inserted keep in its stead
then she made the best of her way home without looking behind her giles could draw an inference now if he chose there could not be the least doubt that gentle grace was warming to more sympathy with and interest in giles winterborne than ever she had done while he was
her promised lover that since his misfortune those social shortcomings of his which contrasted so awkwardly with her later experiences of life had become obscured by the generous revival of an old romantic attachment to him though mentally trained and tilled into foreignness of view
as compared with her youthful time grace was not an ambitious girl and might if left to herself have declined winterborne without much discontent or unhappiness her feelings just now were so far from latent that the writing on the wall had thus quickened her to an unusual rashness
having returned from her walk she sat at breakfast silently when her step mother had left the room she said to her father i have made up my mind that i should like my engagement to giles to continue for the present at any rate till i can see further what i ought to do
melbury looked much surprised nonsense he said sharply
look here he handed across to her the letter received from giles she read it and said no more could he have seen her write on the wall she did not know
it was a few hours after this that winterborne who curiously enough had not perceived grace writing
he saw marty standing in her door way
almost without womanly contours as yet he went up to her and said marty why did you write that on my wall last night it was you you know because it was the truth i didn't mean to let it stay mister winterborne but
when i was going to rub it out you came and i was obliged to run off having prophesied one thing why did you alter it to another your predictions can't be worth much i have not altered it but you have no it is altered go and see
marty came back surprised well i never she said who can have made such nonsense of it who indeed said he i have rubbed it all out as the point of it is quite gone
you'd no business to rub it out i didn't tell you to
some idle boy did it no doubt she murmured as this seemed very probable and the actual perpetrator was unsuspected winterborne said no more and dismissed the matter from his mind
winterborne though not absolutely out of his house as yet retired into the background of human life and action thereabout a feat not particularly difficult of performance anywhere when the doer has the assistance of a lost prestige grace thinking that winterborne saw her write made no further sign
and she had utterly confounded allan by inquiring whether the contemplated elopement was an offense punishable by the law
her memory satisfied her that she had certainly read somewhere at some former period in some book or other possibly a novel
of an elopement with a dreadful end of a bride dragged home in hysterics and of a bridegroom sentenced to languish in prison with all his beautiful hair cut off
by act of parliament close to his head supposing she could bring herself to consent to the elopement at all which she positively declined to promise she must first insist on discovering
whether there was any fear of the police being concerned in her marriage as well as the parson and the clerk allan being a man ought to know and to allan she looked for information
with this preliminary assurance to assist him in laying down the law that she would die of a broken heart a thousand times over
rather than be the innocent means of sending him to languish in prison and of cutting his hair off by act of parliament close to his head it's no laughing matter said neelie resolutely in conclusion
i decline even to think of our marriage till my mind is made easy first on the subject of the law but i don't know anything about the law
i don't mind my head being cropped let's risk it risk it repeated neelie indignantly have you no consideration for me i won't risk it where there's a will there's a way
we must find out the law for ourselves with all my heart said allan how
i'll go over the backs of ten thousand cried allan warmly
read every word of it and then come here and explain it to me what you don't think your head is to be trusted to do such a simple thing as that i'm certain it isn't said allan
can't you help me of course i can if you can't manage without me law may be hard but it can't be harder than music and i must and will satisfy my mind
the result of this conversation was allan's appearance in the park with a volume of blackstone's commentaries under his arm
on the fatal monday morning when miss gwilt's written engagement of marriage was placed in midwinter's hands here again in this as in all other human instances
the widely discordant elements of the grotesque and the terrible were forced together by that subtle law of contrast which is one of the laws of mortal life
amid all the thickening complications now impending over their heads with the shadow of meditated murder stealing toward one of them already from the lurking place that hid miss gwilt
the two sat down unconscious of the future with the book between them and applied themselves to the study of the law of marriage with a grave resolution to understand it which
in two such students was nothing less than a burlesque in itself find the place said neelie as soon as they were comfortably established
she produced forthwith a smart little pocket book and pencil and opened the book in the middle where there was a blank page on the right hand and the left at the top of the right hand page she wrote the word good
at the top of the left hand page she wrote the word bad good means where the law is on our side she explained and bad means where the law is against us
we will have good and bad opposite each other all down the two pages and when we get to the bottom we'll add them up and act accordingly they say girls have no heads for business haven't they
don't look at me look at blackstone and begin
i should mind it very much in our serious situation when we have both got to exert our intellects i wonder you can ask for such a thing
that's why i asked for it said the unblushing allan i feel as if it would clear my head oh if it would clear your head that's quite another thing i must clear your head of course at any sacrifice
only one mind she whispered coquettishly and pray be careful of blackstone or you'll lose the place there was a pause in the conversation blackstone and the pocket book both rolled on the ground together
if this happens again said neelie picking up the pocket book with her eyes and her complexion at their brightest and best i shall sit with my back to you for the rest of the morning will you go on
law of husband and wife here's a bit i don't understand to begin with it may be observed generally that the law considers marriage in the light of a contract
when he promises to have the workmen out of the house in a given time and when the time comes as my poor mother used to say the workmen never go is there nothing about love asked neelie look a little lower down
here's a bit that's more in our way incapacities if any persons under legal incapacities come together it is a meretricious and not a matrimonial union
the first of these legal disabilities is a prior marriage and having another husband or wife living stop
said neelie i must make a note of that she gravely made her first entry on the page headed good as follows i have no husband and allan has no wife
we are both entirely unmarried at the present time all right so far remarked allan looking over her shoulder go on said neelie what next
the next disability proceeded allan is want of age the age for consent to matrimony is fourteen in males and twelve in females come cried allan cheerfully blackstone begins early enough at any rate
neelie was too business like to make any other remark on her side than the necessary remark in the pocket book she made another entry under the head of good i am old enough to consent
and so is allan too go on resumed neelie looking over the reader's shoulder never mind all that prosing of blackstone's about the husband being of years of discretion and the wife under twelve abominable wretch
the wife under twelve skip to the third incapacity if there is one the third incapacity allan went on is want of reason neelie immediately made a third entry on the side of good
allan and i are both perfectly reasonable skip to the next page allan skipped a fourth incapacity is in respect of proximity of relationship
a fourth entry followed instantly on the cheering side of the pocket book he loves me and i love him without our being in the slightest degree related to each other
blackstone might put it in shorter sentences i think if he can't put it in fewer words cheer up neelie
besides this roundabout way that ends in a publication and a void infernal gibberish i could write better english myself we are not at the end of it yet said neelie the void is nothing to what is to come
whatever it is rejoined allan we'll treat it like a dose of physic we'll take it at once and be done with it he went on reading and no license to marry without banns shall be granted
what are you shaking your head about go on and i shall see oh all right i'll go on here we are
shall be under the age of twenty one years oath must first be made that the consent of the person or persons whose consent is required has been obtained or that there is no person having authority to give such consent
the consent required by this act is that of the father at those last formidable words allan came to a full stop
the consent of the father he repeated with all needful seriousness of look and manner i couldn't exactly swear to that could i
neelie answered in expressive silence she handed him the pocket book with the final entry completed on the side of bad in these terms our marriage is impossible
unless allan commits perjury the lovers looked at each other across the insuperable obstacle of blackstone in speechless dismay shut up the book said neelie resignedly
i have no doubt we should find the police and the prison and the hair cutting all punishments for perjury exactly as i told you if we looked at the next page but we needn't trouble ourselves to look
we have found out quite enough already it's all over with us i must go to school on saturday and you must manage to forget me as soon as you can perhaps we may meet in after life
and you may be a widower and i may be a widow and the cruel law may consider us emancipated when it's too late to be of the slightest use by that time no doubt i shall be old and ugly
and the sooner the better good by concluded neelie rising mournfully with the tears in her eyes it's only prolonging our misery to stop here unless unless you have anything to propose
i've got something to propose cried the headlong allan
it's an entirely new idea would you mind trying the blacksmith at gretna green no earthly consideration answered neelie indignantly would induce me to be married by a blacksmith don't be offended pleaded allan
i meant it for the best lots of people in our situation have tried the blacksmith and found him quite as good as a clergyman and a most amiable man i believe into the bargain never mind
we haven't got another to try said neelie take my word for it persisted allan stoutly there must be ways and means of circumventing blackstone without perjury if we only knew of them it's a matter of law
and we must consult somebody in the profession i dare say it's a risk but nothing venture nothing have
what do you say to young pedgift he's a thorough good fellow i'm sure we could trust young pedgift to keep our secret not for worlds exclaimed neelie you may be willing to trust your secrets to the vulgar little wretch
i won't have him trusted with mine i hate him no she concluded with a mounting color and a peremptory stamp of her foot on the grass
i positively forbid you to take any of the thorpe ambrose people into your confidence they would instantly suspect me and it would be all over the place in a moment
my attachment may be an unhappy one remarked neelie with her handkerchief to her eyes and papa may nip it in the bud
i won't say a word at thorpe ambrose i won't indeed he paused and considered for a moment there's another way he burst out brightening up on the instant we've got the whole week before us
i'll tell you what i'll do i'll go to london
one more of the difficulties in her way the difficulty of getting allan to london now promised to be removed by an act of allan's own will to london repeated neelie looking up in astonishment
to london reiterated allan that's far enough away from thorpe ambrose surely wait a minute and don't forget that this is a question of law very well i know some lawyers in london
who managed all my business for me when i first came in for this property they are just the men to consult and if they decline to be mixed up in it there's their head clerk who is one of the best fellows i ever met with in my life
i asked him to go yachting with me i remember
that's the man to help us blackstone's a mere infant to him don't say it's absurd don't say it's exactly like me do pray hear me out
i won't breathe your name or your father's i'll describe you as a young lady to whom i am devotedly attached and if my friend the clerk asks where you live i'll say the north of scotland or the west of ireland
or the channel islands or anywhere else you like my friend the clerk is a total stranger to thorpe ambrose and everybody in it which is one recommendation and in five minutes time he'd put me up to what to do which is another
if you only knew him he's one of those extraordinary men who appear once or twice in a century the sort of man who won't allow you to make a mistake if you try all i have got to say to him putting it short is
my dear fellow i want to be privately married without perjury all he has got to say to me putting it short is you must do so and so and so and so
when the bridegroom is ready and willing his arm stole round neelie's waist and his lips pointed the moral of the last sentence with that inarticulate eloquence which is so uniformly successful in persuading a woman against her will
all neelie's meditated objections dwindled in spite of her to one feeble little question suppose i allow you to go allan she whispered toying nervously with the stud in the bosom of his shirt
shall you be very long away i'll be off to day said allan by the eleven o'clock train and i'll be back to morrow if i and my friend the clerk can settle it all in time
you'll write to me every day pleaded neelie clinging a little closer to him i shall sink under the suspense if you don't promise to write to me every day allan promised to write twice a day if she liked
was no effort to him and mind
whatever those people may say to you in london proceeded neelie i insist on your coming back for me i positively decline to run away unless you promise to fetch me allan promised for the second time on his sacred word of honor and at the full compass of his voice
but neelie was not satisfied even yet she reverted to first principles and insisted on knowing whether allan was quite sure he loved her
allan called heaven to witness how sure he was and got another question directly for his pains could he solemnly declare that he would never regret taking neelie away from home allan called heaven to witness again louder than ever
all to no purpose the ravenous female appetite for tender protestations
and you will wish you had married her instead of me as allan opened his lips for a final outburst of asseveration the stable clock at the great house was faintly audible in the distance striking the hour
neelie started guiltily it was breakfast time at the cottage
and her head sank on allan's bosom as she tried to say good by
think before you really go to london
the major's resolutely unfavorable reception of allan's letter rose in neelie's memory and answered her as the words passed her lips with a girl's impulsiveness she pushed allan away before he could speak
and signed to him impatiently to go the conflict of contending emotions which she had mastered thus far burst its way outward in spite of her after he had waved his hand for the last time and had disappeared in the depths of the dell
when she turned from the place on her side her long restrained tears fell freely at last and made the lonely way back to the cottage
the dimmest prospect that neelie had seen for many a long day past as she hurried homeward the leaves parted behind her and miss gwilt stepped softly into the open space she stood there in triumph
tall beautiful and resolute
i paid for my purchases and left the place i don't know how i might have felt if i had been in my usual spirits in the anxious unsettled state i am in now i can't deny it the girl stung me
in the weakness of the moment for it was nothing else i was on the point of matching her petty spitefulness by spitefulness quite as petty on my side i had actually got as far as the whole length of the street
on my way to the major's cottage bent on telling him the secret of his daughter's morning walks before my better sense came back to me when i did cool down i turned round at once and took the way home
no no miss milroy mere temporary mischief making at the cottage which would only end in your father forgiving you and in armadale profiting by his indulgence will nothing like pay the debt i owe you
i don't forget that your heart is set on armadale and that the major however he may talk has always ended hitherto in giving you your own way my head may be getting duller and duller
but it has not quite failed me yet in the meantime there is mother oldershaw's letter waiting obstinately to be answered and here am i not knowing what to do about it yet shall i answer it or not
it doesn't matter for the present there are some hours still to spare before the post goes out suppose i asked armadale to lend me the money i should enjoy getting something out of him
and i believe in his present situation with miss milroy he would do anything to be rid of me mean enough this on my part pooh when you hate and despise a man as i hate and despise armadale
who cares for looking mean in his eyes and yet
half past two only half past two oh the dreadful weariness of these long summer days
i must do something to relieve my mind can i go to my piano no i'm not fit for it work
a man in my place would find refuge in drink i'm not a man and i can't drink i'll dawdle over my dresses and put my things tidy has an hour passed more than an hour
it seems like a minute i can't look back through these leaves but i know i wrote somewhere that i felt myself getting nearer and nearer to some end that was still hidden from me the end is hidden no longer
the cloud is off my mind the blindness has gone from my eyes i see it i see it it came to me i never sought it if i was lying on my death bed
i could swear with a safe conscience i never sought it i was only looking over my things i was as idly and as frivolously employed as the most idle and most frivolous woman living
i went through my dresses and my linen what could be more innocent children go through their dresses and their linen it was such a long summer day and i was so tired of myself i went to my boxes next
i looked over the large box first which i usually leave open and then i tried the small box which i always keep locked from one thing to the other i came at last to the bundle of letters at the bottom
the letters of the man for whom i once sacrificed and suffered everything the man who has made me what i am a hundred times i had determined to burn his letters but i have never burned them
this time all i said was i won't read his letters and i did read them the villain the false cowardly heartless villain what have i to do with his letters now
oh the misery of being a woman oh the meanness that our memory of a man can tempt us to when our love for him is dead and gone i read the letters i was so lonely and so miserable i read the letters
i came to the last the letter he wrote to encourage me when i hesitated as the terrible time came nearer and nearer
i read on line after line till i came to these words
i really have no patience with such absurdities as you have written to me you say i am driving you on to do what is beyond a woman's courage am i
i might refer you to any collection of trials english or foreign
but such collections may be beyond your reach and i will only refer you to a case in yesterday's newspaper the circumstances are totally different from our circumstances but the example of resolution in a woman
is an example worth your notice
charged with fraudulently representing herself to be the missing widow of an officer in the merchant service who was supposed to have been drowned the name of the prisoner's husband living and the name of the officer
a very common one both as to christian and surname happened to be identically the same there was money to be got by it sorely wanted by the prisoner's husband to whom she was devotedly attached
if the fraud had succeeded the woman took it all on herself her husband was helpless and ill and the bailiffs were after him the circumstances as you may read for yourself were all in her favor
and were so well managed by her that the lawyers themselves acknowledged she might have succeeded
had not turned up alive and well in the nick of time to confront her the scene took place at the lawyer's office and came out in the evidence at the police court the woman was handsome and the sailor was a good natured man
he wanted at first if the lawyers would have allowed him to let her off he said to her among other things you didn't count on the drowned man coming back alive and hearty did you ma'am
why what would you have done if you had known i was coming back says the sailor she looked him steadily in the face and answered i would have killed you there do you think such a woman as that
would have written to tell me i was pressing her further than she had courage to go a handsome woman too like yourself you would drive some men in my position to wish they had her now in your place i read no further
when i had got on line by line to those words it burst on me like a flash of lightning in an instant i saw it as plainly as i see it now it is horrible it is unheard of
it outdares all daring but if i can only nerve myself to face one terrible necessity it is to be done i may personate the richly provided widow of allan armadale of thorpe ambrose
if i can count on allan armadale's death in a given time there in plain words is the frightful temptation under which i now feel myself sinking it is frightful in more ways than one
for it has come straight out of that other temptation to which i yielded in the by gone time yes there the letter has been waiting for me in my box to serve a purpose never thought of by the villain who wrote it
there is the case as he called it only quoted to taunt me utterly unlike my own case at the time there it has been waiting and lurking for me through all the changes in my life
till it has come to be like my case at last it might startle any woman to see this and even this is not the worst
the whole thing has been in my diary for days past without my knowing it every idle fancy that escaped me has been tending secretly that one way and i never saw
never suspected it till the reading of the letter put my own thoughts before me in a new light till i saw the shadow of my own circumstances suddenly reflected in one special circumstance
of that other woman's case it is to be done if i can but look the necessity in the face it is to be done if i can count on allan armadale's death in a given time
all but his death is easy the whole series of events under which i have been blindly chafing and fretting for more than a week past have been one and all though i was too stupid to see it events in my favor
events paving the way smoothly and more smoothly straight to the end in three bold steps only three that end might be reached let midwinter marry me privately
under his real name step the first let armadale leave thorpe ambrose a single man and die in some distant place among strangers step the second
elsewhere i have set down for whatever interest they have in this the twenty fifth century my personal recollections of the twentieth century now it occurs to me that my memoirs of the twenty fifth century may have an equal interest five hundred years from now
particularly in view of that unique perspective from which i have seen the twenty fifth century entering it as i did in one leap across a gap of four hundred ninety two years this statement requires elucidation
there are still many in the world who are not familiar with my unique experience five centuries from now there may be many more especially if civilization is fated to endure any worse convulsions than those which have occurred between nineteen seventy five a d and the present time
i should state therefore that i anthony rogers am so far as i know the only man alive whose normal span of eighty one years of life
to be precise i lived the first twenty nine years of my life between eighteen ninety eight and nineteen twenty seven the other fifty two since twenty four nineteen the gap between these two a period of nearly five hundred years
i spent in a state of suspended animation free from the ravages of katabolic processes
when i began my long sleep man had just begun his real conquest of the air in a sudden series of transoceanic flights in airplanes driven by internal combustion motors he had barely begun to speculate on the possibilities of harnessing sub atomic forces
and had made no further practical penetration into the field of ethereal pulsations than the primitive radio and television of that day the united states of america was the most powerful nation in the world
its political financial industrial and scientific influence being supreme and in the arts also it was rapidly climbing into leadership i awoke to find the america i knew a total wreck to find americans a hunted race in their own land
hiding in the dense forests that covered the shattered and leveled ruins of their once magnificent cities desperately preserving and struggling to develop in their secret retreats the remnants of their culture and science and the undying flame of their sturdy independence
world domination was in the hands of mongolians and the center of world power lay in inland china with americans one of the few races of mankind unsubdued and it must be admitted in fairness to the truth
for they needed not the forests in which the americans lived nor the resources of the vast territories these forests covered with the perfection to which they had reduced the synthetic production of necessities and luxuries
their remarkable development of scientific processes and mechanical accomplishment of work they had no economic need for the forests and no economic desire for the enslaved labor of an unruly race
they had all they needed for their magnificently luxurious and degraded scheme of civilization within the walls of the fifteen cities of sparkling glass they had flung skyward on the sites of ancient american centers into the bowels of the earth underneath them
and with relatively small surrounding areas of agriculture complete domination of the air rendered communication between these centers a matter of ease and safety occasional destructive raids on the waste lands were considered all that was necessary to keep the wild americans on the run
within the shelter of their forests and prevent their becoming a menace to the han civilization but nearly three hundred years of easily maintained security the last century of which had been nearly sterile in scientific social and economic progress
had softened and devitalized the hans it had likewise developed beneath the protecting foliage of the forest the growth of a vigorous new american civilization
i began the exploration of a deserted working in a mountainous district where several weeks before a number of mining engineers had reported traces of carnotite
we noticed too that the rock in the side walls of the shaft was soft evidently due to the radioactivity and pieces crumbled under foot rather easily we made our way cautiously down the shaft when suddenly the rotted timbers above us gave way
i jumped ahead barely escaping the avalanche of coal and soft rock but my companions who were several paces behind me were buried under it and undoubtedly met instant death i was trapped return was impossible
with my electric torch i explored the shaft to its end but could find no other way out the air became increasingly difficult to breathe
in a little while my senses reeled and i lost consciousness when i awoke there was a cool and refreshing circulation of air in the shaft i had no thought that i had been unconscious more than a few hours
my awakening i figured out later had been due to some shifting of the strata which reopened the shaft and cleared the atmosphere in the working
where an entirely different world overgrown with a vast forest and no visible sign of human habitation met my eyes i shall pass over the days of mental agony that followed in my attempt to grasp the meaning of it all
there were times when i felt that i was on the verge of insanity i roamed the unfamiliar forest like a lost soul had it not been for the necessity of improvising traps and crude clubs with which to slay my food i believe i should have gone mad
suffice it to say however that i survived this psychic crisis
what o'clock is it old saying everybody knows in a general way that the finest place in the world is or alas was the dutch borough of vondervotteimittiss yet
there are perhaps very few of my readers who have ever paid it a visit for the benefit of those who have not therefore it will be only proper that i should enter into some account of it
i design here to give a history of the calamitous events which have so lately occurred within its limits no one who knows me will doubt that the duty thus self imposed will be executed to the best of my ability with all that rigid impartiality all that cautious examination into facts
and diligent collation of authorities which should ever distinguish him who aspires to the title of historian by the united aid of medals manuscripts and inscriptions i am enabled to say positively
that the borough of vondervotteimittiss has existed from its origin in precisely the same condition which it at present preserves of the date of this origin however i grieve that i can only speak with that species of indefinite definiteness
which mathematicians are at times forced to put up with in certain algebraic formulae the date i may thus say in regard to the remoteness of its antiquity cannot be less than any assignable quantity whatsoever
touching the derivation of the name vondervotteimittiss i confess myself with sorrow equally at fault among a multitude of opinions upon this delicate point some acute some learned some sufficiently the reverse
i am able to select nothing which ought to be considered satisfactory perhaps the idea of grogswigg nearly coincident with that of kroutaplenttey is to be cautiously preferred it runs
votteimittis quasi und bleitziz bleitziz obsol pro blitzen this derivative to say the truth is still countenanced by some traces of the electric fluid evident on the summit of the steeple of the house of the town council
i do not choose however to commit myself on a theme of such importance and must refer the reader desirous of information
of dundergutz see also blunderbuzzard de derivationibus
wherein consult also marginal notes in the autograph of stuffundpuff
there can be no doubt as i said before that it has always existed as we find it at this epoch the oldest man in the borough can remember not the slightest difference in the appearance of any portion of it and indeed the very suggestion of such a possibility is considered an insult
the site of the village is in a perfectly circular valley about a quarter of a mile in circumference and entirely surrounded by gentle hills over whose summit the people have never yet ventured to pass for this they assign the very good reason
that they do not believe there is anything at all on the other side round the skirts of the valley which is quite level and paved throughout with flat tiles extends a continuous row of sixty little houses these having their backs on the hills must look of course to the centre of the plain
which is just sixty yards from the front door of each dwelling every house has a small garden before it with a circular path a sun dial and twenty four cabbages the buildings themselves are so precisely alike that one can in no manner be distinguished from the other
owing to the vast antiquity the style of architecture is somewhat odd but it is not for that reason the less strikingly picturesque they are fashioned of hard burned little bricks red with black ends so that the walls look like a chess board upon a great scale
the gables are turned to the front and there are cornices as big as all the rest of the house over the eaves and over the main doors the windows are narrow and deep with very tiny panes and a great deal of sash
on the roof is a vast quantity of tiles with long curly ears the woodwork throughout is of a dark hue and there is much carving about it
the carvers of vondervotteimittiss have never been able to carve more than two objects a time piece and a cabbage but these they do exceedingly well and intersperse them with singular ingenuity wherever they find room for the chisel
the dwellings are as much alike inside as out and the furniture is all upon one plan the floors are of square tiles the chairs and tables of black looking wood with thin crooked legs and puppy feet the mantelpieces are wide and high
and have not only time pieces and cabbages sculptured over the front but a real time piece which makes a prodigious ticking on the top in the middle
between each cabbage and the time piece again is a little china man having a large stomach with a great round hole in it through which is seen the dial plate of a watch the fireplaces are large and deep with fierce crooked looking fire dogs
there is constantly a rousing fire and a huge pot over it full of sauer kraut and pork to which the good woman of the house is always busy in attending she is a little fat old lady with blue eyes and a red face and wears a huge cap like a sugar loaf
ornamented with purple and yellow ribbons her dress is of orange colored linsey woolsey made very full behind and very short in the waist and indeed very short in other respects not reaching below the middle of her leg this is somewhat thick and so are her ankles
but she has a fine pair of green stockings to cover them her shoes of pink leather are fastened each with a bunch of yellow ribbons puckered up in the shape of a cabbage in her left hand she has a little heavy dutch watch in her right she wields a ladle for the sauerkraut and pork
by her side there stands a fat tabby cat with a gilt toy repeater tied to its tail which the boys have there fastened by way of a quiz the boys themselves are all three of them in the garden attending the pig they are each two feet in height
they have three cornered cocked hats purple waistcoats reaching down to their thighs buckskin knee breeches red stockings heavy shoes with big silver buckles long surtout coats with large buttons of mother of pearl each too has a pipe in his mouth
and a little dumpy watch in his right hand he takes a puff and a look and then a look and a puff the pig which is corpulent and lazy is occupied now in picking up the stray leaves that fall from the cabbages and now in giving a kick behind at the gilt repeater
right at the front door in a high backed leather bottomed armed chair with crooked legs and puppy feet like the tables is seated the old man of the house himself he is an exceedingly puffy little old gentleman with big circular eyes and a huge double chin
his dress resembles that of the boys and i need say nothing farther about it all the difference is that his pipe is somewhat bigger than theirs and he can make a greater smoke like them he has a watch but he carries his watch in his pocket
to say the truth he has something of more importance than a watch to attend to and what that is i shall presently explain
he sits with his right leg upon his left knee wears a grave countenance and always keeps one of his eyes at least resolutely bent upon a certain remarkable object in the centre of the plain this object is situated in the steeple of the house of the town council
the town council are all very little round oily intelligent men with big saucer eyes and fat double chins and have their coats much longer and their shoe buckles much bigger than the ordinary inhabitants of vondervotteimittiss since my sojourn in the borough
they have had several special meetings and have adopted these three important resolutions that it is wrong to alter the good old course of things that there is nothing tolerable out of vondervotteimittiss and that we will stick by our clocks and our cabbages
above the session room of the council is the steeple and in the steeple is the belfry where exists and has existed time out of mind the pride and wonder of the village the great clock of the borough of vondervotteimittiss
the great clock has seven faces
its faces are large and white and its hands heavy and black there is a belfry man whose sole duty is to attend to it but this duty is the most perfect of sinecures for the clock of vondervotteimittis was never yet known to have anything the matter with it
until lately the bare supposition of such a thing was considered heretical from the remotest period of antiquity to which the archives have reference the hours have been regularly struck by the big bell
and indeed the case was just the same with all the other clocks and watches in the borough never was such a place for keeping the true time when the large clapper thought proper to say twelve o'clock all its obedient followers opened their throats simultaneously
and responded like a very echo in short the good burghers were fond of their sauer kraut but then they were proud of their clocks all people who hold sinecure offices are held in more or less respect
and as the belfry man of vondervotteimittiss has the most perfect of sinecures he is the most perfectly respected of any man in the world he is the chief dignitary of the borough and the very pigs look up to him with a sentiment of reverence his coat tail is very far longer
his pipe his shoe buckles his eyes and his stomach very far bigger than those of any other old gentleman in the village and as to his chin it is not only double but triple i have thus painted the happy estate of vondervotteimittiss
alas that so fair a picture should ever experience a reverse there has been long a saying among the wisest inhabitants that no good can come from over the hills and it really seemed that the words had in them something of the spirit of prophecy
it wanted five minutes of noon on the day before yesterday when there appeared a very odd looking object on the summit of the ridge of the eastward such an occurrence of course attracted universal attention and every little old gentleman who sat in a leather bottomed arm chair
turned one of his eyes with a stare of dismay upon the phenomenon still keeping the other upon the clock in the steeple by the time that it wanted only three minutes to noon the droll object in question was perceived to be a very diminutive foreign looking young man
he descended the hills at a great rate so that every body had soon a good look at him he was really the most finicky little personage that had ever been seen in vondervotteimittiss his countenance was of a dark snuff color
and he had a long hooked nose pea eyes a wide mouth and an excellent set of teeth which latter he seemed anxious of displaying as he was grinning from ear to ear what with mustachios and whiskers there was none of the rest of his face to be seen his head was uncovered
and his hair neatly done up in papillotes his dress was a tight fitting swallow tailed black coat from one of whose pockets dangled a vast length of white handkerchief
black stockings and stumpy looking pumps with huge bunches of black satin ribbon for bows under one arm he carried a huge chapeau de bras and under the other a fiddle nearly five times as big as himself in his left hand was a gold snuff box from which as he capered down the hill
cutting all manner of fantastic steps he took snuff incessantly with an air of the greatest possible self satisfaction god bless me here was a sight for the honest burghers of vondervotteimittiss to speak plainly
the fellow had in spite of his grinning an audacious and sinister kind of face
and many a burgher who beheld him that day would have given a trifle for a peep beneath the white cambric handkerchief which hung so obtrusively from the pocket of his swallow tailed coat but what mainly occasioned a righteous indignation was that the scoundrelly popinjay
did not seem to have the remotest idea in the world of such a thing as keeping time in his steps the good people of the borough had scarcely a chance however to get their eyes thoroughly open when just as it wanted half a minute of noon
the rascal bounced as i say right into the midst of them gave a chassez here and a balancez there
pigeon winged himself right up into the belfry of the house of the town council where the wonder stricken belfry man sat smoking in a state of dignity and dismay but the little chap seized him at once by the nose gave it a swing and a pull clapped the big chapeau de bras upon his head
knocked it down over his eyes and mouth and then lifting up the big fiddle beat him with it so long and so soundly that what with the belfry man being so fat and the fiddle being so hollow
you would have sworn that there was a regiment of double bass drummers all beating the devil's tattoo up in the belfry of the steeple of vondervotteimittiss there is no knowing to what desperate act of vengeance this unprincipled attack might have aroused the inhabitants
but for the important fact that it now wanted only half a second of noon the bell was about to strike and it was a matter of absolute and pre eminent necessity that every body should look well at his watch
it was evident however that just at this moment the fellow in the steeple was doing something that he had no business to do with the clock but as it now began to strike
for they had all to count the strokes of the bell as it sounded
von echoed every little old gentleman in every leather bottomed arm chair in vondervotteimittiss von said his watch also von said the watch of his vrow and von said the watches of the boys and the little gilt repeaters on the tails of the cat and pig
three four five six seven eight nine ten said the bell dree vour fibe
eleven said the big one eleben assented the little ones twelve said the bell dvelf they replied perfectly satisfied and dropping their voices und dvelf it is said all the little old gentlemen putting up their watches
but the big bell had not done with them yet thirteen said he der teufel gasped the little old gentlemen turning pale dropping their pipes and putting down all their right legs from over their left knees der teufel
mein gott it is dirteen o'clock why attempt to describe the terrible scene which ensued all vondervotteimittiss flew at once into a lamentable state of uproar vot is cum'd to mein pelly roared all the boys i've been ongry for dis hour
donder and blitzen it has been smoked out for dis hour and they filled them up again in a great rage
that the whole valley was immediately filled with impenetrable smoke meantime the cabbages all turned very red in the face and it seemed as if old nick himself had taken possession of every thing in the shape of a timepiece
the clocks carved upon the furniture took to dancing as if bewitched while those upon the mantel pieces could scarcely contain themselves for fury and kept such a continual striking of thirteen
but worse than all neither the cats nor the pigs could put up any longer with the behavior of the little repeaters tied to their tails and resented it by scampering all over the place scratching and poking and squeaking and screeching
and caterwauling and squalling and flying into the faces and running under the petticoats of the people and creating altogether the most abominable din and confusion which it is possible for a reasonable person to conceive and to make matters still more distressing
the rascally little scape grace in the steeple was evidently exerting himself to the utmost every now and then one might catch a glimpse of the scoundrel through the smoke there he sat in the belfry upon the belfry man who was lying flat upon his back
in his teeth the villain held the bell rope which he kept jerking about with his head raising such a clatter that my ears ring again even to think of it on his lap lay the big fiddle at which he was scraping out of all time and tune
with both hands making a great show the nincompoop of playing judy o'flannagan and paddy o'rafferty affairs being thus miserably situated i left the place in disgust and now appeal for aid to all lovers of correct time and fine kraut
chapter five setting the trap inside of fifteen minutes we were on our way a certain amount of caution was sacrificed for the sake of speed and the men leaped away either across the forest top or over open spaces of ground
but concentration was forbidden the big boss named the spot on the hillside as the rallying point we'll have to take a chance on being seen so long as we don't group he declared at least until within five miles of the rallying spot
from then on i want every man to disappear from sight and to travel under cover and keep your ultrophones open and tuned on ten four seven six wilma and i had received our battle equipment from the gear boss
which made the load weigh but a few ounces and a short sword this gear we strapped over each other's shoulders on top of our jumping belts in addition we each received an ultrophone
all this stuff we cleared from the susquannas a few hours ago
but you two had better be moving he's beckoning you now hart was about to call us on our phones when we looked up as soon as we did so he leaped away waving us to follow closely he was a powerful man
and he darted ahead in long swift low leaps up the banks of the stream which followed a fairly straight course at this point by extending ourselves however wilma and i were able to catch up to him as we gradually synchronized our leaps with his
he outlined to us between the grunts that accompanied each leap his plan of action we have to start the big business unh sooner or later he said and if unh
although the council of bosses unh had intended waiting a few years until enough rocket ships have been unh built but no matter what the sacrifice unh
we can't afford to let them get us on the run unh we'll set a trap for the yellow devils in the unh valley
we can use unh that idea of yours of shooting up the repellor unh beams want you to give us a demonstration with further admonition to follow him closely he increased his pace and wilma and i were taxed to our utmost to keep up with him
it was only in ascending the slopes that my tougher muscles overbalanced his greater skill
as i had for wilma we slept in greater comfort that night under our inertron blankets and were off with the dawn leaping cautiously to the top of the ridge overlooking the valley which wilma and i had left the boss scanned the sky with his ultroscope
patiently taking some fifteen minutes to the task and then swung his phone into use calling the roll and giving the men their instructions his first order was for us all to slip our ear and chest discs into permanent position
that one was contained entirely in a small pocket case these with which we were now equipped consisted of a pair of ear discs each a separate and self contained receiving set they slipped into little pockets over our ears in the fabric helmets we wore
the chest discs were likewise self contained sending sets strapped to the chest a few inches below the neck and actuated by the vibrations from the vocal cords through the body tissues the total range of these sets was about eighteen miles
reception was remarkably clear quite free from the static that so marked the twentieth century radios and of a strength in direct proportion to the distance of the speaker
which were indulged in however with great restraint and only for the purpose of maintaining contacts
were the reverse of each other in efficiency these modern americans for instance knew little of hand to hand fighting and nothing naturally of trench warfare of barrages they were quite ignorant although they possessed weapons of terrific power
and until my recent flash of inspiration no one among them apparently had ever thought of the scheme of shooting a rocket into a repellor beam and letting the beam itself hurl it upward into the most vital part of the han ship hart patiently placed his men
first giving his instructions to the campmasters
in the end the hundred men were ringed about the valley on the hillsides and tops each in a position from which he had a good view of the wreckage of the han ship but not a man had come in view so far as i could see in the whole process
the boss explained to me that it was his idea that he wilma and i should investigate the wreck if han ships should appear in the sky we would leap for the hillsides i suggested to him to have the men set up their long guns trained on an imaginary circle surrounding the wreck
serving as a target himself while he called on the men individually to aim their pieces and lock them in position
or utterly destroyed by the ship's disintegrator rays which apparently had continued to operate in the midst of its warped remains for some moments after the crash it was unpleasant work searching the mangled bodies of the crew but it had to be done
the han clothing i observed was quite different from that of the americans and in many respects more like the garb to which i had been accustomed in the earlier part of my life it was made of synthetic fabrics like silks loose and comfortable trousers of knee length and sleeveless shirts
for the han cities were entirely enclosed with splendid arrangements for ventilation and heating these arrangements of course were equally adequate in their airships the hans indeed had quite a distaste for unshaded daylight since their lighting apparatus diffused a controlled amount of violet rays
making the unmodified sunlight unnecessary for health and undesirable for comfort since the hans did not have the secret of inertron none of them wore anti gravity belts
for they lived lives of degenerative physical inertia having machinery of every description for the performance of all labor and convenient conveyances for any movement of more than a few steps
even from the twisted wreckage of this ship i could see that seats chairs and couches played an extremely important part in their scheme of existence but none of the bodies were overweight
but muscularly much underdeveloped
and of course dietetics to the point where men and women among them not uncommonly reached the age of a hundred years with arteries and general health in splendid condition
the boss had hardly finished his arrangements for the ring barrage when one of the scouts on an eminence to the north announced the approach of seven han ships spread out in a great semi circle hart leaped for the hillside
but wilma and i had raised the flaps of our helmets and switched off our speakers for conversation between ourselves and by the time we discovered what had happened the ships were clearly visible so fast were they approaching jump we heard the boss order deering to the north rogers to the east
but wilma looked at me meaningly and pointed to where the twisted plates of the ship projecting from the ground offered a shelter too late boss she said they'd see us
hart warned we'll risk it
good for you replied the boss take command then rogers for the present do you all know his voice boys
wilma hunt for that record i said knowing that by the simple process of talking i could keep the entire command continuously informed as to the situation on the hillsides keep your guns trained on the circles and stand by on the hilltops how many of you are there
speak in rotation from bald knob around to the east north west in turn the men called their names there were twenty of them i assigned them by name to cover the various han ships numbering the latter from left to right
train your rockets on their repellor rays about three quarters of the way up between ships and ground aim is more important than elevation
shoot when i tell you not before deering has the record
since they're settling without opening up disintegrators any opinions my ear discs remained silent
stand by and keep alert rapidly and easily the largest of the han ships settled to the earth
chapter nine the outrage a beautiful starlit night had followed on the day of incessant rain a cool balmy late summer's night essentially english in its suggestion of moisture and scent of wet earth and dripping leaves
the magnificent coach drawn by four of the finest thoroughbreds in england had driven off along the london road with sir percy blakeney on the box holding the reins in his slender feminine hands and beside him lady blakeney wrapped in costly furs
marguerite had hailed the notion of it with delight
were just sufficiently fresh and restive to add zest to the expedition and marguerite revelled in anticipation of the few hours of solitude with the soft night breeze fanning her cheeks her thoughts wandering whither away
she knew from old experience that sir percy would speak little if at all he had often driven her on his beautiful coach for hours at night from point to point without making more than one or two casual remarks upon the weather or the state of the roads
admiring the dexterous certain way in which he handled the reins she often wondered what went on in that slow going head of his he never told her and she had never cared to ask at the fisherman's rest mister jellyband was going the round putting out the lights
his bar customers had all gone but upstairs in the snug little bedrooms mister jellyband had quite a few important guests the comtesse de tournay with suzannne and the vicomte
had been allowed to burn merrily i say jelly has everyone gone asked lord tony as the worthy landlord still busied himself clearing away glasses and mugs everyone as you see my lord and all your servants gone to bed
all except the boy on duty in the bar and added mister jellyband with a laugh i expect he'll be asleep afore long the rascal then we can talk here undisturbed for half an hour at your service my lord i'll leave your candles on the dresser and your rooms are quite ready
i sleep at the top of the house myself but if your lordship'll only call loudly enough i daresay i shall hear all right jelly and i say put the lamp out the fire'll give us all the light we need and we don't want to attract the passer by
jellyband went off to fetch the wine the room now was quite dark save for the circle of ruddy and fitful light formed by the brightly blazing logs in the hearth is that all gentlemen asked jellyband as he returned with a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses which he placed on the table
that'll do nicely thanks jelly said lord tony good night my lord good night sir good night jelly the two young men listened whilst the heavy tread of mister jellyband was heard echoing along the passage and staircase
presently even that sound died out and the whole of the fisherman's rest seemed wrapt in sleep save the two young men drinking in silence beside the hearth for a while no sound was heard even in the coffee room save the ticking of the old grandfather's clock and the crackling of the burning wood
sir andrew had been dreaming evidently gazing into the fire and seeing therein no doubt a pretty piquant face with large brown eyes and a wealth of dark curls round a childish forehead yes he said still musing all right
no hitch none lord antony laughed pleasantly as he poured himself out another glass of wine
no friend you need not ask replied sir andrew gaily it was all right then here's to her very good health said jovial lord tony she's a bonnie lass though she is a french one and here's to your courtship may it flourish and prosper exceedingly
he drained his glass to the last drop then joined his friend beside the hearth well you'll be doing the journey next tony i expect said sir andrew rousing himself from his meditations you and hastings certainly
no i haven't interrupted his friend pleasantly but i'll take your word for it and now he added whilst a sudden earnestness crept over his jovial young face how about business the two young men drew their chairs closer together and instinctively though they were alone their voices sank to a whisper
and the vicomte lay concealed among the turnips and cabbages they themselves of course never suspected who their driver was he drove them right through a line of soldiery and a yelling mob who were screaming a bas les aristos
he wants you and hastings to meet him at calais said sir andrew more quietly on the second of next month let me see that will be next wednesday yes it is of course the case of the comte de tournay this time a dangerous task for the comte
whose escape from his chateau after he had been declared a suspect by the committee of public safety was a masterpiece of the scarlet pimpernel's ingenuity
saint just has actually gone to meet him of course no one suspects saint just as yet but after that to get them both out of the country i'faith twill be a tough job and tax even the ingenuity of our chief i hope i may yet have orders to be of the party
have you any special instructions for me yes rather more precise ones than usual it appears that the republican government have sent an accredited agent over to england a man named chauvelin
who is said to be terribly bitter against our league and determined to discover the identity of our leader so that he may have him kidnapped the next time he attempts to set foot in france this chauvelin has brought a whole army of spies with him
and until the chief has sampled the lot he thinks we should meet as seldom as possible on the business of the league and on no account should talk to each other in public places for a time when he wants to speak to us he will contrive to let us know
the rest of the room lay buried in complete gloom sir andrew had taken a pocket book from his pocket and drawn therefrom a paper which he unfolded and together they tried to read it by the dim red firelight
so intent were they upon this so wrapt up in the cause the business they had so much at heart so precious was this document which came from the very hand of their adored leader that they had eyes and ears only for that they lost count of the sounds around them
of the dropping of the crisp ash from the grate of the monotonous ticking of the clock of the soft almost imperceptible rustle of something on the floor close beside them a figure had emerged from under one of the benches
with snake like noiseless movements it crept closer and closer to the two young men not breathing only gliding along the floor in the inky blackness of the room you are to read these instructions and commit them to memory said sir andrew then destroy them
when a tiny slip of paper fluttered from it and fell on to the floor lord antony stooped and picked it up what's that he asked i don't know replied sir andrew it dropped out of your pocket just now it certainly does not seem to be with the other paper
strange i wonder when it got there it is from the chief he added glancing at the paper both stooped to try and decipher this last tiny scrap of paper on which a few words had been hastily scrawled when suddenly a slight noise attracted their attention
which seemed to come from the passage beyond what's that said both instinctively lord antony crossed the room towards the door which he threw open quickly and suddenly at that very moment he received a stunning blow between the eyes which threw him back violently into the room
simultaneously the crouching snake like figure in the gloom had jumped up and hurled itself from behind upon the unsuspecting sir andrew felling him to the ground
they were each seized by two men a muffler was quickly tied round the mouth of each and they were pinioned to one another back to back their arms hands and legs securely fastened one man had in the meanwhile quietly shut the door
he wore a mask and now stood motionless while the others completed their work all safe citoyen said one of the men as he took a final survey of the bonds which secured the two young men good replied the man at the door now search their pockets and give me all the papers you find
this was promptly and quietly done the masked man having taken possession of all the papers listened for a moment or two if there were any sound within the fisherman's rest evidently satisfied that this dastardly outrage had remained unheard
he once more opened the door and pointed peremptorily down the passage the four men lifted sir andrew and lord antony from the ground and as quietly as noiselessly as they had come they bore the two pinioned young gallants out of the inn and along the dover road into the gloom beyond
in the coffee room the masked leader of this daring attempt was quickly glancing through the stolen papers
noted the tiny scrap of paper which the two young men had only just had time to read but one letter specially signed armand saint just seemed to give him strange satisfaction
in every conversation that we hear in every book we open in every newspaper we take up the reigning idea recurs and then we are surprised and exclaim at these wonderful coincidences
probably such happen every day but pass unobserved when the mind is not intent upon similar ideas or excited by any strong analogous feeling
when the learned sir thomas browne was writing his essay on the gardens of cyrus his imagination was so possessed by the idea of a quincunx that he is said to have seen a quincunx in every object in nature
in the same manner after a jew had once made an impression on my imagination a jew appeared wherever i went as i was on my road to cambridge travelling in a stagecoach whilst we were slowly going up a steep hill
there was a pedlar's box beside him i thought i knew the box i called out as we were passing and asked the man what's the mile stone he looked up it was poor jacob
putting his book in his pocket took up his well known box and walked along with me i began not by asking any question about his father though curiosity was not quite dead within me
he said that if i had any curiosity about it he could lend me a translation which he had in his pack and with all the alacrity of good will he set down the box to look for the book no don't trouble yourself don't open it said i putting my hand on the box
instantly a smile and a sigh and a look of ineffable kindness and gratitude from jacob showed me that all the past rushed upon his heart not trouble myself oh master harrington said he poor jacob is not so ungrateful as that would come to
you're only too grateful said i but walk on keep up with me and tell me how your affairs are going on in the world for i am much more interested about them than about the life of the celebrated mendelssohn is that possible said his looks of genuine surprised simplicity
he thanked me and told me that he was much better in the world than formerly that a good friend of his a london jeweller of his own tribe who had employed him as a pedlar and had been satisfied with his conduct had assisted him through his difficulties
he said he was going into another and a much better way of business his friend the london jeweller had recommended him to his brother a rich israelite who had a valuable store in gibraltar and who wanted a young man to assist him on whom he could entirely depend
jacob was going out to gibraltar in the course of the next week and now mister harrington said he changing his tone and speaking with effort as if he were conquering some inward feeling now it is all over mister harrington and that i am leaving england and perhaps may never see you again
i wish before i take leave of you to tell you sir who my father was was for he is no more i did not make a mystery of his name merely to excite curiosity as some of the young gentlemen thought nor because i was ashamed of my low birth
my father was simon the old clothes man
i knew all that you suffered in your childhood about him and i once heard you say to lord mowbray who was taunting you with something about old simon that you would not have that known upon any account to your school fellows for that they would plague you for ever
that mister harrington will not hate poor jacob though he is the son of he paused i assured him of my regard i assured him that i had long since got rid of all the foolish prejudices of my childhood
thanking me again for taking as he said such a kind interest in the concerns of a poor jew like him he added with tears in his eyes that he wished he might some time see me again that he should to the last day of his life remember me and should pray for my health and happiness
and that he was sorry he had no way of showing me his gratitude again he recurred to his box and would open it to show me the translation of mendelssohn's life or if that did not interest me he begged of me to take my choice from among a few books he had with him
he said he should be there in a few days for that he took cambridge in his road and he rejoiced that he should see me again i gave him a direction to my college and for his gratification in truth more than for my own i borrowed the magazine containing the life of mendelssohn
which he was so anxious to lend me we had now reached the coach at the top of the hill i got in and saw jacob trudging after me for some time but at the first turn of the road i lost sight of him and then as my two companions in the coach were not very entertaining
mendelssohn was a jew born like himself in abject poverty but by perseverance he made his way through incredible difficulties to the highest literary reputation among the most eminent men of his country and of his age and obtained the name of the jewish socrates
in consequence of his early intense and misapplied application in his first jewish school he was seized at ten years old with some dreadful nervous disease this interested me and i went on with his history of his life i should probably have remembered nothing
except what related to the nervous disorder but it so happened that soon after i had read this life i had occasion to speak of it and it was of considerable advantage in introducing me to good company at cambridge a few days after i arrived there jacob called on me
and who if i may be bold enough to say so has been prepossessed in your favour by hearing of your humanity to poor jacob touched as i was by his eagerness to be of use to me i could not help smiling at jacob's simplicity and enthusiasm
when he proceeded to explain that this person with whom he was so anxious to make me acquainted was a learned rabbi who at this time taught hebrew to several of the gownsmen of cambridge
and the contrast was striking between what he conceived my first objects at cambridge would be and what they really were however i thanked him for his good opinion and promised to make myself acquainted with his learned countryman
to make the matter secure as jacob was to leave cambridge the next day
jacob left with me a letter for him and the very parcel which i had seen directed to mister israel lyons these i engaged to deliver with my own hands jacob departed satisfied happy in the hope that he had done me a service and so in fact it proved
every father and every son who has been at the university knows how much depends upon the college companions with whom a young man first associates there are usually two sets if he should join the dissipated set it is all over with him he learns nothing
he acquires knowledge and a taste for knowledge with all the ardour inspired by sympathy and emulation with all the facility afforded by public libraries and public lectures the collected and combined information of the living and the dead he pursues his studies
the union of many minds intent upon the same object
in a literary manufactory when i went to deliver my packet to mister lyons i was surprised by seeing in him a man as different as possible from my preconceived notion of a jewish rabbi i never should have guessed him to be either a rabbi or a jew
i thought i must have made a mistake and presented my packet with some hesitation reading aloud the direction to mister israel lyons i am the man sir said he our honest friend jacob has described you so well mister harrington mister william harrington harrington
you perceive that i am well informed that i feel as if i had had the pleasure of being acquainted with you for some time
and my necessary engagements do not leave as much time for my pleasures as i could wish i perceived by the tone of his address that though he was a hebrew teacher he was proud of showing himself to be a man of the world
i found him in the midst of his hebrew scholars and moreover with some of the best mathematicians and some of the first literary men in cambridge
which recalled to my mind the life of this great man by the help of that i had happily some ideas in common with the learned jew and we entered immediately into conversation much to our mutual relief and delight
doctor johnson in one of his letters speaking of a first visit from a young gentleman who had been recommended to his acquaintance says that the initiatory conversation of two strangers is seldom pleasing or instructive
but i am sure that i was both pleased and instructed during this initiatory conversation and mister lyons did not appear to be oppressed or encumbered by my visit i found by his conversation
and though he had written a treatise on fluxions and a work on botany yet he was not a mere mathematician
in despite of the assertion that hebrew roots are always found to flourish best on barren ground
this visit determined my course and decided me as to the society which i kept during the three happy and profitable years i afterwards spent at cambridge
mister israel lyons is now no more i hope it is no disrespect to his memory to say that he had his foibles it was no secret among our contemporaries at cambridge that he was like too many other men of genius a little deficient in economy shall i say it
a little extravagant the difficulties into which he brought himself by his improvidence were however always to him matters of jest and raillery and often indeed proved subjects of triumph for he was sure to extricate himself by some of his many talents
to mark the effect of circumstances in changing my own prepossessions the faults of israel lyons were not of that species which i expected to find in a jew perhaps he was aware that the hebrew nation is in general supposed to be too careful
i was never fond of money or remarkably careful of it myself but i always kept out of debt and my father gave me such a liberal allowance that i had it in my power to assist a friend
mister lyons lively disposition and manners took off all that awe which i might have felt for his learning and genius i may truly say that these three years which i spent at cambridge fixed my character and the whole tone and colour of my future life
and to offer him my grateful acknowledgments in the course of the conversation i mentioned the childish terror and aversion with which i had been early taught to look upon a jew i rejoiced that even while a schoolboy i had conquered this foolish prejudice
the impatient sticks in the pit and shrill catcalls in the gallery had begun to contend with the music in the orchestra and thrice had we surveyed the house to recognize every body whom any body knew when the door of the box next to ours the only box that had remained empty
was thrown open and in poured an over dressed party whom nobody knew lady de brantefield after one reconnoitring glance pronounced them to be city goths and vandals
and without resting her glass upon them for half a moment turned it to some more profitable field of speculation there was no gentleman of this party but a portly matron towering above the rest seemed the principal mover and orderer of the group
the awkward bustle they made facing and backing placing and changing of places and the difficulty they found in seating themselves were in striking contrast with the high bred ease of the ladies of our party
lady anne mowbray looked down upon their operations with a pretty air of quiet surprise tinctured with horror while my mother's shrinking delicacy endeavoured to suggest some idea of propriety to the city matron
leaning on the partition which divided or ought to have divided her from us considerably passed the line of demarcation lady de brantefield with all the pride of all the de brantefields since the norman conquest concentrated in her countenance
threw an excommunicating withering look upon the arm but the elbow felt it not it never stirred the lady seemed not to be made of penetrable stuff in happy ignorance she sat fanning herself for a few seconds
then suddenly starting and stretching forward to the front row where five of her young ladies were wedged she aimed with her fan at each of their backs in quick succession
all eyes turned to look for berry
miss berry that must not be come forward here's my place or queeney's cried missus coates stretching backwards with her utmost might to seize some one in the farthest corner of the back row who had hitherto been invisible
but to our surprise we beheld one who seemed of a different order of beings from those by whom she was surrounded lord mowbray and i looked at each other struck by the same sentiment pained for this elegant timid young creature as we saw her
all blushing and reluctant forced by the irresistible fat orderer of all things to step up on the seat to step forward from bench to bench and then wait in painful pre eminence while issy and cecy and queeney and miss coates settled how they could make room
or which should vacate her seat in her favour in spite of the awkwardness of her situation she stood with such quiet resigned yet dignified grace that ridicule could not touch her the moment she was seated with her back to us and out of hearing
lady de brantefield turned to her son and asked who is she an east indian i should guess by her dark complexion whispered lady anne to me some feather or lappet intercepted my view of her face
and they should give in its stead the merchant of venice the merchant of venice and macklin the jew murmurs of discontent from the ladies in my box who regretted their sentimental comedy and their silver toned barry were all lost upon me
i rejoiced that i should see macklin in shylock before the performance began my attention was again caught by the proceedings of the persons in the next box there seemed to be some sudden cause of distress as i gathered from exclamations of how unlucky how distressing
he made his way to a young lady at the other end of the box and i occupying immediately the ceded place stationed myself so that i had a better view of my object and could observe her without being seen by any one she was perfectly still
though from an indescribable expression in the air of the back of her head and neck
the play went on shylock appeared i forgot every thing but him such a countenance such an expression of latent malice and revenge of every thing detestable in human nature
much as my expectations had been raised it far surpassed any thing i had conceived i forgot it was macklin i thought only of shylock in my enthusiasm i stood up i pressed forward
i leaned far over towards the stage that i might not lose a word a look a gesture when the act finished as the curtain fell and the thunders of applause died away i heard a soft low sigh near me i looked and saw the jewess
she looked up while my eyes were fixed upon her a sudden and deep colour spread over her face and mounted to her temples in my confusion i did the very thing i should not have done and said the thing of all others i should not have said
i expressed a fear that i had been standing in such a manner as to prevent her from seeing shylock she bowed mildly and was i believe going to speak you have indeed sir interrupted missus coates stood so that nobody could see nothing but yourself so since you mention it
and speak without an introduction excuse me if i suggest against the next act that this young lady has never been at a play before in her life in lon'on at least
yet since she is here tis better she should see something than nothing if gentlemen will give her leave i bowed in sign of submission and repentance and was retiring so as to leave my place vacant and a full opening to the stage
but in a sweet gentlewomanlike voice seeming perhaps more delightful from contrast the young lady said that she had seen and could see quite as much as she wished of the play and she begged that i would not quit my place i should oblige her she added in a lower tone
if i would continue to stand as i had done i obeyed and placed myself so as to screen her from observation during the whole of the next act but now my pleasure in the play was over i could no longer enjoy macklin's incomparable acting
at every stroke characteristic of the skilful actor or of the master poet i felt a strange mixture of admiration and regret i almost wished that shakspeare had not written or macklin had not acted the part so powerfully
my imagination formed such a strong conception of the pain the jewess was feeling and my inverted sympathy if i may so call it so overpowered my direct and natural feelings that at every fresh development of the jew's villany i shrunk as though i had myself been a jew
each exclamation against this dog of a jew and still more every general reflection on jewish usury avarice and cruelty i felt poignantly no power of imagination could make me pity shylock but i felt the force of some of his appeals to justice
and some passages struck me in quite a new light on the jewish side of the question many a time and oft in the rialto you have rated me about my moneys and my usances still have i borne it with a patient shrug
should have laughed at his losses thwarted his bargains cooled his friends heated his enemies shylock deserved all this but when he came to what's his reason i am a jew
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a christian is if you prick us do we not bleed if you tickle us do we not laugh if you poison us do not we die and if you wrong us shall we not revenge
if we are like you in the rest we will resemble you in that if a jew wrong a christian what is his humility revenge if a christian wrong a jew what should his sufferance be by christian example why revenge
i felt at once horror of the individual shylock and submission to the strength of his appeal during the third act during the jessica scenes i longed so much to have a look at the jewess that i took an opportunity of changing my position
the ladies in our box were now so happily occupied with some young officers of the guards that there was no farther danger of their staring at the jewess i was so placed that i could see her without being seen
and during the succeeding acts my attention was chiefly directed to the study of all the changes in her expressive countenance i now saw and heard the play solely with reference to her feelings i anticipated every stroke which could touch her
from the perception that my anticipations were just and that i perfectly knew how to read her soul and interpret her countenance i saw that the struggle to repress her emotion was often the utmost she could endure and at last i saw or fancied i saw
that she grew so pale that as she closed her eyes at the same instant i was certain she was going to faint and quite forgetting that i was an utter stranger to her i started forward and then unprovided with an apology could only turn to missus coates
missus coates alarmed immediately wished they could get her out into the air and regretted that her gentlemen were not with their party to night there could be no getting servants or carriage what could be done
i eagerly offered my services which were accepted and we conducted the young lady out she did not faint she struggled against it and it was evident that there was no affectation in the case but on the contrary an anxious desire not to give trouble
miss berry did her utmost to support herself and said she believed she was now quite well and could return but i saw she wished to get away and i ran to see if a chair could be had
lord mowbray who had assisted in conducting the ladies out now followed me he saw and called to one of his footmen and despatched him for a chair there now said mowbray we may leave the rest to missus coates who can elbow her own way through it come back with me
missus abingdon plays lady bab lardoon her favourite character she is incomparable and i would not miss it for the world i begged mowbray to go back for i could not leave these ladies well said he parting from me and pursuing his own way
i see how it is i see how it will be these things are ruled in heaven above or hell beneath tis in vain struggling with one's destiny so you to your jewess and i to my little jessica we shall have her again i hope in the farce the prettiest creature i ever saw
missus coates all thanks and apologies and hurry now literally elbowed her way back to her box expressing her reiterated fears that we should lose the best part of the maid of the oaks which was the only farce she made it a rule ever to stay for
in spite of her hurry and her incessant talking i named the thing i was intent upon i said that with her permission i should do myself the honour of calling upon her the next morning to inquire after miss berry's health
i am sure sir she replied mister alderman coates and myself will be particularly glad of the honour of seeing you tomorrow or any time and moreover sir the young lady added she with a shrewd and to me offensive smile
as rich as a jew she'll be miss montenero miss montenero repeated lord mowbray and i in the same instant i thought said i this young lady's name was berry berry yes berry we call her we who are intimate
which is her out o the way christian that is jewish name mister montenero the father is a spanish or american jew i'm not clear which but he's a charming man for a jew and the daughter most uncommon fond of him to a degree
can't now bear any reflections the most distant now sir upon the jews which was what distressed me when i found the play was to be this jew of venice
digressed into a subject utterly uninteresting to me and would explain to us the reasons why mister alderman coates and mister peter coates her son were not this night of her party
this lasted till we reached her box and then she had so much to say to all the miss issys cecys and hennys that it was with the utmost difficulty i could even by carefully watching my moment obtain a card with her own and another with miss montenero's address
physical culture why don't you sit up said adela at dinner
suddenly prodding me in the back adela is old enough to take a motherly interest in my figure and young enough to look extremely pretty while doing so i always stoop at meals i explained
it helps the circulation my own idea but it looks so bad you ought don't improve me i begged no wonder you have hush i haven't
and sometimes it hurts me a little in the cold weather that's all why don't you try the hyperion i will where is it it isn't anywhere you buy it
oh i thought you dined at it
it's one of those developers with elastics and pulleys and so on every morning early for half an hour before breakfast
i said suspiciously but they are such good things went on adela earnestly
being simply as tactful as you can be and graceful it isn't as though you were actually a relation i protested adela continued full of her idea
would you promise me to use it every day if i sent you mine why don't you want yours any more are you perfect now
i reflected there is a limit of beauty beyond which it is dangerous to go after that
well said adela suddenly aren't i looking well you're looking radiant i said appreciatively but it may only be because you're going to marry billy next month
she smiled and blushed well i'll send it to you she said and you try it for a week and then tell me if you don't feel better oh
and don't do all the exercises to begin with start with three or four of the easy ones of course i said i undid the wrappings eagerly took off the lid of the box
and was confronted with apparently six pairs of braces i shook them out of the box and saw i had made a mistake it was one pair of braces for magog
i picked it up and i knew that i was in the presence of the hyperion in five minutes i had screwed a hook into the bedroom wall and attached the beautifier
then i sat on the edge of the bed and looked at it there was a tin plate fastened to the top with the word ladies on it i got up removed it with a knife and sat down again
everything was very dusty and i wondered when adela had last developed herself by and by i went into the other room to see if i had overlooked anything i found on the floor
a chart of exercises and returned triumphantly with it there were thirty exercises altogether and the chart gave you one a detailed explanation of how to do each particular exercise
two a photograph of a lady doing it after all i reassured myself after the first bashful glance it is adela who has thrust this upon me and she must have known
numbers ten fifteen and twenty eight seemed the easiest i decided to confine myself to them for the first of these you strap yourself in at the waist
grasp the handles and fall slowly backwards until your head touches the floor all the elastic cords being then at full stretch when i had got very slowly halfway down
an extra piece of elastic which had got hitched somewhere came suddenly into play and i did the rest of the journey without a stop finishing up sharply against the towel horse the chart had said
inhale going down and i was inhaling hard at the moment that the towel horse and two damp towels spread themselves over my face
so much for exercise ten i thought as i got up i'll just get the idea to night and then start properly to morrow now
somehow i felt instinctively
what officially you do then i cannot say some people can stand easily upon the right foot when the left is fastened to the wall
it is a gift
this one i realised was extremely important i would do it twelve times you begin by lying flat on the floor roped in at the waist
and with your hands grasping the elastic cords held straight up in the air the tension on your waist is then extreme but on your hands only moderate then taking a deep breath
you pull your arms slowly out until they lie along the floor the tension becomes terrific the strain on every part of you is immense
while i lay there taking a deep breath before relaxing i said to myself the strain will be too much for me i was wrong it was too much for the hook the hook
everything flew at me at once and i remembered no more as i limped into bed i trod heavily upon something sharp i shrieked and bent down to see what had bitten me
it was a tin plate bearing the word ladies
said adela a week later i looked at her for a long time when did you last use the hyperion i asked about a year ago ah
you don't remember the chart that went with it not well except of course that each exercise was arranged for a particular object according to what you wanted
exactly so i discovered yesterday it was in very small type
well how many did you do i limited myself to exercises ten fifteen and twenty eight do you happen to remember what those are for not particularly
and when i had been doing it for a week i discovered what its particular object was what
i said i cannot bear to speak of twenty eight
why was it even more unsuitable than the other two i found when i had done it six times
that however was not the real effect and so i crossed out the false comment and wrote the true one in its place and what is that asked adela
a billiard lesson i was showing celia a few fancy strokes on the billiard table the other members of the house party were in the library learning their parts for some approaching theatricals
that is to say they were sitting round the fire and saying to each other this is a rotten play we had been offered the position of auditors to several of the company but we were going to see parsifal on the next day
and i was afraid that the constant excitement would be bad for celia why don't you ask me to play with you she asked you never teach me anything
why i gave you your first lesson at golf only last thursday so you did i know golf now show me billiards i looked at my watch
we've only twenty minutes i'll play you thirty up right o
a ball or a bisque or what i can't spare you a ball i'm afraid i shall want all three when i get going you may have fifteen start and i'll tell you what to do well what do i do first
select a cue she went over to the rack and inspected them this seems a nice brown one now then you begin celia you've got the half butt
put it back and take a younger one i thought it seemed taller than the others she took another how's this good then off you go
will you be spot or plain i said chalking my cue does it matter not very much they're both the same shape then what's the difference well
one is more spotted than the other then i'll be less spotted i went to the table i think i said i'll try and screw in off the red
i did this once by accident and i've always wanted to do it again or perhaps i corrected myself as soon as the ball had left me i had better give a safety miss i did
my ball avoided the red and came swiftly back into the left hand bottom pocket that's three to you i said without enthusiasm celia seemed surprised
but i haven't begun yet she said well i suppose you know the rules but it seems funny what would you like me to do well there isn't much on you'd better just try and hit the red ball
right she leant over the table and took long and careful aim i held my breath still she aimed then keeping her chin on the cue she slowly turned her head
with a thoughtful expression oughtn't there to be three balls on the table she said wrinkling her forehead no i answered shortly but why not
because i went down by mistake but you said that when you got going you wanted i can't argue bending down like this she raised herself slowly
you said oh all right i expect you know
i have scored some already haven't i yes you're eighteen to my nothing yes well now i shall have to aim all over again she bent slowly over her cue
does it matter where i hit the red not much as long as you hit it on the red part she hit it hard on the side and both balls came into baulk too good i said
does either of us get anything for it no the red and white were close together and i went up the table and down again on the off chance of a cannon i misjudged it however
that's three to you i said stiffly as i took my ball out of the right hand bottom pocket twenty one to nothing funny how i'm doing all the scoring
said celia meditatively and i've practically never played before i shall hit the red hard now and see what happens to it she hit and the red coursed madly about the table
coming to rest near the top right hand pocket and close to the cushion with a forcing shot i could get in this will want a lot of chalk i said pleasantly to celia
and gave it plenty then i let fly why did that want a lot of chalk said celia with interest i went to the fireplace and picked my ball out of the fender
that's three to you i said coldly twenty four to nothing
you're leading i explained only you see i may make a twenty at any moment oh she thought this over well i may make my three at any moment
she chalked her cue and went over to her ball what shall i do just touch the red on the right hand side i said and you'll go into the pocket the right hand side
do you mean my right hand side or the ball's the right hand side of the ball of course that is to say the side opposite your right hand but
if the ball is facing this way take it i said wearily that the ball has its back to you how rude of it said celia
and hit it on the left hand side and sank it was that what you meant well it's another way of doing it i thought it was what do i give you for that
you get three oh i thought the other person always got the marks i know the last three times go on i said freezingly you have another turn
oh is it like rounders something go on there's a dear it's getting late she went and left the red over the middle pocket
i said i found a nice place in the d for my ball now then this is the grey stroke you know i suppose i was nervous anyhow
i just nicked the red ball gently on the wrong side and left it hanging over the pocket the white travelled slowly up the table why is that called the grey stroke asked celia with great interest
because once when sir edward grey was playing the german ambassador but it's rather a long story i'll tell you another time oh well anyhow did the german ambassador get anything for it no
but you've only got to knock the red in for game oh there what's that that's a miscue i get one oh oh well
she added magnanimously i'm glad you've started scoring it will make it more interesting for you there was just room to creep in off the red leaving it still over the pocket
with celia's ball nicely over the other pocket there was a chance of my twenty break let's see i said how many do i want twenty nine replied celia
ah i said and i crept in that's three to you
said queen elizabeth yes i really am i sighed what as i don't know at all something with a cold i leave it to you partner
only don't go a black suit what about richelieu i should never be able to pronounce that i confessed besides
i always think that these great scientists i should say philos
you might go as one of the kings of england which is your favourite king
now that would be an original costume i should have don't be ridiculous
i don't think it's a very becoming figure but you don't wear fancy dress simply because it's becoming well that is rather the point to settle
are we going to enhance my natural beauty or would you like it er toned down a little of course i could go as the dog faced man only very well then if you don't like henry
but why do you want to thrust royalty on me i'd much sooner go as perkin warbeck i should wear a brown perkin i mean jerkin
jack is going as sir walter raleigh then i shall certainly touch him for a cigarette i said as i got up to go
it was a week later that i met elizabeth in regent street well she said have you got your things i haven't i confessed i forgot
somebody who had black hair i said i have been thinking it over and i have come to the conclusion
if i had had black hair instead of curly eyes and blue hair can you think of anybody for me
queen elizabeth regarded me as sternly as she might have regarded well i'm not very good at history
she said at last
got somebody who had black hair
i protested it's something to have been measured for the wig have you been measured for your wig
but well the fact is
i say where do i get a wig you've done nothing said elizabeth absolutely nothing i say don't say that
i began nervously i've done an awful lot really i've practically got the costume i'm going as harold the boy earl or jessica's last
bus i've got a cold i mustn't keep it waiting good bye and i fled i am going i said
think how cool that will be do you mean to say cried elizabeth that you have altered again don't be rough with me or i shall cry
i've got an awful cold
now you're trying to unsettle me and i was going to morrow to order the clothes
you haven't i was really going this afternoon only only it's early closing day besides
because if it didn't look here i'll be frank with you i am going as charlemagne
charlemagne in half mourning because pepin the short had just died something quiet in grey with a stripe i thought only half mourning because
he only got half the throne by the way i suppose all these people wore pumps and white kid gloves all right yes i thought so
i wonder if charlemagne really had black hair anyhow they can't prove he didn't seeing when he lived
i added indignantly a minute later i swear i'm going somehow hallo i said cheerfully as i ran into her majesty in piccadilly
i've just been ordering that is to say
let's see it's next week isn't it for a moment elizabeth was speechless not at all my idea of the character now then she said
at last i am going to take you in hand will you trust yourself entirely to me to the death your majesty i'm sickening for something as it is how tall are you
oh more than that i said quickly gents large medium i am then i'll order a costume for you and have it sent round
there's no need for you to be anything historical you might be a butcher quite blue is my colour in fact i can do you the best end of the neck at tenpence madam
if you'll wait a moment while i sharpen the knife let's see you like it cut on the cross i think bother they've forgotten the strop well it may not be a butcher
said elizabeth it depends what they've got that was a week ago this morning i was really ill at last
simply couldn't look a poached in the yolk a day on the sofa in a darkened room and bed at seven o'clock was my programme and then my eye
caught a great box of clothes and i remembered that the dance was to night i opened the box perhaps dressed soberly as a black haired butcher
i could look in for an hour or two and help a yellow waistcoat pink breeches and no it's not an eider down it's a coat a yellow pink br
i am going as joseph i am going as a humming bird i am going yes that's it i am going
chapter eight tuppenny travels in london
this sounds like a reasonable and sensible statement yet the moment it is made i retract it as quite misleading and altogether too general
and begs us to conduct him there on the very next saturday another has not seen westminster abbey for fifteen years because he attends church at saint dunstan's in the east another says that he should like to have us read up london in the red covered baedeker
and then show it to him properly and systematically
but that he thinks it would be rather jolly
we think we get a kind of vague apprehension of what london means from the top of a bus better than anywhere else and this vague apprehension is as much as the thoughtful or imaginative observer will ever arrive at in a lifetime
it is too stupendous to be comprehended the mind is dazed by its distances confused by its contrasts tossed from the spectacle of its wealth to the contemplation of its poverty
the brilliancy of its extravagances to the stolidity of its miseries the luxuries that blossom in mayfair to the brutalities that lurk in whitechapel
salemina and i and travel twenty miles in the day
we never know whither we are going and indeed it is not a matter of great moment i mean to a woman where everything is new and strange and where the driver
tells one everything of interest along the way
we have our favourite buses of course but when one appears and we jump on while it is still in motion as the conductor seems to prefer and pull ourselves up the cork screw stairway not a simple matter in the garments of sophistication
we like the cadbury's cocoa bus very much it takes you by saint mary le strand bow bells the temple
eat black pudding and drink pale ale sit in doctor johnson's old seat and put your head against the exact spot on the wall where his rested
all is novel and all is interesting
traversed by the davies pea fed bacon buses or whether you ride to the very outskirts of london through green fields and hedgerows by the ridge's food or nestle's milk route there are trams too which take one to delightful places
though the seats on top extend lengthwise after the old knifeboard pattern and one does not get so good a view of the country as from the garden seats on the roof of the omnibus
still there is nothing we like better on a warm morning than a good outing on the vinolia tram that we pick up in shaftesbury avenue
one of the dozens of hamlets swallowed up by the great maw of london and it still looks like a hamlet although it has been absorbed for many years we constantly happen on these absorbed villages from which not a century ago people drove up to town in their coaches
if you wish to see another phase of life go out on a saturday evening from nine o'clock on to eleven starting on a beecham's pill bus and keep to the poorer districts
it is a market night and the streets will be a moving mass of men and women buying at the hucksters stalls everything that can be sold at a stall is there fruit vegetables meat fish crockery tin ware children's clothing cheap toys
boots shoes and sun bonnets all in reckless confusion the vendors cry their wares in stentorian tones vying with one another to produce excitement and induce patronage while gas jets are streaming into the air from the roofs
and flaring from the sides of the stalls children crying children dancing to the strains of an accordion children quarrelling children scrambling for the refuse fruit in the midst of this spectacle this din and uproar
the women are chaffering and bargaining quite calmly watching the scales to see that they get their full pennyworth or sixpennyworth of this or that
to the student of faces of manners of voices of gestures to the person who sees unwritten and unwritable stories in all these groups of men women and children the scene reveals many things some comedies many tragedies a few plain narratives
thank god and now and then only now and then a romance as to the dark alleys and tenements on the fringe of this glare and brilliant confusion this babel of sound and ant bed of moving life one can only surmise and pity and shudder
or one could never sleep for thinking of it yet not too tightly lest one sleep too soundly and forget altogether the seamy side of things
and stands on westminster bridge or walks along the thames embankment the lights of parliament house gleam from a hundred windows and in the dark shadows by the banks thousands of coloured discs of light twinkle and dance and glow like fairy lamps
and are reflected in the silver surface of the river that river as full of mystery and contrast in its course as london itself where is such another
it has ever been a river of pageants a river of sighs a river into whose placid depths kings and queens princes and cardinals have whispered state secrets
as no other river in the world can boast sometimes we sally forth in search of adventures in the thick of a london particular mister guppy's phrase for a fog when you are once ensconced in your garden seat by the driver
you go lumbering through a world of bobbing shadows where all is weird vague grey dense and where great objects loom up suddenly in the mist and then disappear where the sky heavy and leaden seems to descend bodily upon your head
and the air is full of a kind of luminous yellow smoke a lipton's tea bus is the only one we can see plainly in this sort of weather and so we always take it
because i am well aware that they are not sufficiently specific for the ordinary tourist who wishes to see london systematically and without any loss of time if you care to go to any particular place or reach that place by any particular time
and ends of the chariots as we do you must stand quietly at one of the regular points of departure and try to decipher in a narrow horizontal space along the side certain little words that show the route and destination of the vehicle
old londoners assert that they are not blinded or confused by pears soap in letters two feet high scarlet on a gold ground but can see below in fine print and with the naked eye such legends as tottenham court road westbourne grove saint pancras
it is certainly reasonable that the omnibuses should be decorated to suit the inhabitants of the place rather than foreigners and it is perhaps better to carry a few hundred stupid souls to the wrong station daily than to allow them to cleanse their hands with the wrong soap
or quench their thirst with the wrong which is to say the unadvertised beverage the conductors do all in their power to mitigate the lot of unhappy strangers
we claim for our method of travelling not that it is authoritative but that it is simple suitable to persons whose desires are flexible and whose plans are not fixed it has its disadvantages which may indeed be said of almost anything
for instance we had gone for two successive mornings on a cadbury's cocoa bus to francesca's dressmaker in kensington on the third morning deceived by the ambitious and unscrupulous cadbury
we mounted it and journeyed along comfortably three miles to the east of kensington before we discovered our mistake it was a pleasant and attractive neighbourhood where we found ourselves but unfortunately francesca's dressmaker did not reside there
if you have determined to take a certain train from a certain station and do not care for any other no matter if it should turn out to be just as interesting then never take a lipton's tea bus
and if i did not feel that it must have been said before it is so apt i should quote horace and say
there is no bus unseized by the napoleonic lipton do not ascend one of them supposing for a moment that by paying fourpence and going to the very end of the route you will come to a neat tea station
never nor with a draught of cadbury's cocoa or nestle's milk
and though you may have passed other buses with the same highly coloured names glaring at you until they are burned into the grey matter of your brain to remain there as long as the copy book maxims you penned when you were a child
of course it must be so or they would never be prosecuted but although they may allure millions of customers they will lose two in our modest persons when salemina and i go into a cafe for tea we ask the young woman if they serve lipton's
and if they say yes we take coffee this is self punishment indeed in london
perhaps not commensurate with the physical effect of the coffee upon us but these delicate matters can never be adjusted with absolute exactitude sometimes when we are to travel on a pears soap bus we buy beforehand a bit of pure white castile
cut from a shrinking reserved exclusive bar with no name upon it
for in spite of mister weston's confidence she could not think it so very impossible that the churchills might not allow their nephew to remain a day beyond his fortnight but this was not judged feasible the preparations must take their time
at the risk in her opinion the great risk of its being all in vain enscombe however was gracious gracious in fact if not in word his wish of staying longer evidently did not please but it was not opposed
all was safe and prosperous and as the removal of one solicitude generally makes way for another emma being now certain of her ball began to adopt as the next vexation mister knightley's provoking indifference about it either because he did not dance himself
he seemed resolved that it should not interest him determined against its exciting any present curiosity or affording him any future amusement to her voluntary communications emma could get no more approving reply than
very well if the westons think it worth while to be at all this trouble for a few hours of noisy entertainment i have nothing to say against it but that they shall not chuse pleasures for me oh yes i must be there
but i would rather be at home looking over william larkins's week's account much rather i confess
not i indeed i never look at it i do not know who does fine dancing i believe like virtue must be its own reward those who are standing by are usually thinking of something very different this emma felt was aimed at her
and it made her quite angry it was not in compliment to jane fairfax however that he was so indifferent or so indignant he was not guided by her feelings in reprobating the ball for she enjoyed the thought of it to an extraordinary degree
it made her animated open hearted she voluntarily said oh miss woodhouse i hope nothing may happen to prevent the ball what a disappointment it would be i do look forward to it i own with very great pleasure
no she was more and more convinced that missus weston was quite mistaken in that surmise there was a great deal of friendly and of compassionate attachment on his side but no love alas there was soon no leisure for quarrelling with mister knightley
two days of joyful security were immediately followed by the over throw of every thing a letter arrived from mister churchill to urge his nephew's instant return missus churchill was unwell far too unwell to do without him she had been in a very suffering state
so said her husband when writing to her nephew two days before though from her usual unwillingness to give pain and constant habit of never thinking of herself she had not mentioned it but now she was too ill to trifle and must entreat him to set off for enscombe without delay
the substance of this letter was forwarded to emma in a note from missus weston instantly as to his going it was inevitable he must be gone within a few hours though without feeling any real alarm for his aunt to lessen his repugnance he knew her illnesses
missus weston added that he could only allow himself time to hurry to highbury
this wretched note was the finale of emma's breakfast when once it had been read there was no doing any thing but lament and exclaim the loss of the ball the loss of the young man and all that the young man might be feeling it was too wretched
such a delightful evening as it would have been every body so happy and she and her partner the happiest i said it would be so was the only consolation her father's feelings were quite distinct
he thought principally of missus churchill's illness and wanted to know how she was treated and as for the ball it was shocking to have dear emma disappointed but they would all be safer at home emma was ready for her visitor some time before he appeared
but if this reflected at all upon his impatience his sorrowful look and total want of spirits when he did come might redeem him he felt the going away almost too much to speak of it his dejection was most evident he sat really lost in thought for the first few minutes
and when rousing himself it was only to say of all horrid things leave taking is the worst but you will come again said emma this will not be your only visit to randalls ah shaking his head
the uncertainty of when i may be able to return
our poor ball must be quite given up ah that ball why did we wait for any thing why not seize the pleasure at once how often is happiness destroyed by preparation foolish preparation you told us it would be so
indeed i am very sorry to be right in this instance i would much rather have been merry than wise if i can come again we are still to have our ball my father depends on it do not forget your engagement emma looked graciously
such a fortnight as it has been he continued
every day making me less fit to bear any other place happy those who can remain at highbury as you do us such ample justice now said emma laughing i will venture to ask whether you did not come a little doubtfully at first
do not we rather surpass your expectations i am sure we do i am sure you did not much expect to like us you would not have been so long in coming if you had had a pleasant idea of highbury he laughed rather consciously and though denying the sentiment
and you must be off this very morning yes my father is to join me here we shall walk back together and i must be off immediately i am almost afraid that every moment will bring him
not five minutes to spare even for your friends miss fairfax and miss bates how unlucky
yes i have called there passing the door i thought it better it was a right thing to do
she was out and i felt it impossible not to wait till she came in she is a woman that one may that one must laugh at but that one would not wish to slight it was better to pay my visit then he hesitated got up walked to a window
in short said he perhaps miss woodhouse
he looked at her as if wanting to read her thoughts she hardly knew what to say it seemed like the forerunner of something absolutely serious which she did not wish
he was silent she believed he was looking at her probably reflecting on what she had said and trying to understand the manner she heard him sigh it was natural for him to feel that he had cause to sigh he could not believe her to be encouraging him
a few awkward moments passed and he sat down again and in a more determined manner said it was something to feel that all the rest of my time might be given to hartfield my regard for hartfield is most warm he stopt again rose again and seemed quite embarrassed
he was more in love with her than emma had supposed and who can say how it might have ended if his father had not made his appearance mister woodhouse soon followed and the necessity of exertion made him composed a very few minutes more however completed the present trial
as of foreseeing any that was doubtful said it was time to go and the young man though he might and did sigh could not but agree to take leave i shall hear about you all said he that is my chief consolation
i shall hear of every thing that is going on among you i have engaged missus weston to correspond with me she has been so kind as to promise it oh the blessing of a female correspondent when one is really interested in the absent she will tell me every thing
in her letters i shall be at dear highbury again a very friendly shake of the hand a very earnest good bye closed the speech and the door had soon shut out frank churchill short had been the notice short their meeting he was gone
and emma felt so sorry to part and foresaw so great a loss to their little society from his absence as to begin to be afraid of being too sorry and feeling it too much it was a sad change
certainly his being at randalls had given great spirit to the last two weeks indescribable spirit
and forlorn must be the sinking from it into the common course of hartfield days to complete every other recommendation he had almost told her that he loved her what strength or what constancy of affection he might be subject to was another point
but at present she could not doubt his having a decidedly warm admiration a conscious preference of herself and this persuasion joined to all the rest made her think that she must be a little in love with him in spite of every previous determination against it
i certainly must said she this sensation of listlessness weariness stupidity this disinclination to sit down and employ myself
i must be in love i should be the oddest creature in the world if i were not for a few weeks at least well evil to some is always good to others i shall have many fellow mourners for the ball if not for frank churchill
but mister knightley will be happy he may spend the evening with his dear william larkins now if he likes mister knightley however shewed no triumphant happiness
you emma who have so few opportunities of dancing you are really out of luck you are very much out of luck it was some days before she saw jane fairfax to judge of her honest regret in this woeful change but when they did meet her composure was odious
chapter twelve patricia makes her debut for three days we had been overseeing the details would they approve the result would they think the grand piano in the proper corner were the garlands hung too low
was the balcony scheme effective was our menu for the supper satisfactory were there too many lanterns
and we so much that we felt personally responsible now came musicians with their instruments the butler sent four melancholy spanish students to the balcony
we conjectured on some extension or balcony in the rear the existence of which we had not guessed until we heard the music later then the butler turned on the electric light and the family came into the drawing rooms they did admire them as much as we could wish
and we on our part thoroughly approved of the family we had feared it might prove dull plain dowdy though wellborn with only dear patricia to enliven it but it was well dressed merry and had not a thought of glancing at the windows or pulling down the blinds bless its simple heart
the mother entered first wearing a grey satin gown and a diamond crown that quite established her position in the great world then girls and more girls a rose pink girl a pale green a lavender a yellow and our patricia in a cloud of white
with a sparkle of silver and a diamond arrow in her lustrous hair what an english nosegay they made to be sure as they stood in the back of the room while paterfamilias approached and calling each in turn gave her a lovely bouquet
from a huge basket held by the butler everybody's flowers matched everybody's frock to perfection those of the h'orphan nieces were just as beautiful as those of the daughters
and it is no wonder that the english nosegay descended upon paterfamilias bore him into the passage and if they did not kiss him soundly why did he come back all rosy and crumpled smoothing his dishevelled hair and smiling at lady brighthelmston
we speedily named the girls rose mignonette violet and celandine each after the colour of her frock but there are only five and there ought to be six whispered salemina as if she expected to be heard across the street
one two three four five you are right said mister beresford the plainest of the lot must be staying in wales with a maiden aunt who has a lot of money to leave the old lady isn't so ill that they can't give the ball
poor girl to be plain and then to miss such a ball as this hello the first guest he is on time to be sure i hate to be first don't you the first guest was a strikingly handsome fellow irreproachably dressed and unmistakably nervous
he is afraid he is too early he is afraid that if he waits he'll be too late he doesn't want the driver to stop directly in front of the door he has something beside him on the seat of the hansom the tissue paper has blown off it is flowers
it is a piece jove this is a rum ball what is the thing no wonder he doesn't drive up to the door and go in with it it is a harp as sure as i am alive then electrically from francesca
it is patricia's irish lover i forget his name rory shamus michael patrick terence hush she exclaimed at this chorus of hibernian christian names
it is patricia's undeclared impecunious lover he is afraid that she won't know his gift is a harp and afraid that the other girls will he feared to send it lest one of the sisters or h'orphan nieces should get it it is frightful to love one of six
and if it is an offer and the wrong woman gets it she always accepts somehow said mister beresford it's only the right one who declines and here he certainly looked at me pointedly he hoped to arrive before any one else francesca went on
now poor dear yes his name is sure to be terence he is too late and i am sure he will leave it in the hansom he will be so embarrassed and so he did but alas the driver came back with it in an instant
the butler ran down the long path of crimson carpet that covered the sidewalk the first footman assisted the second footman pursued terence and caught him on the staircase and he descended reluctantly only to receive the harp in his arms and send a tip to the cabman
whom of course he was cursing in his heart i can't think why he should give her a harp mused bertie godolphin such a rum thing a harp isn't it it's too heavy for her to tote as you say in the states
yes we always say tote particularly in the north
perhaps terence first saw her at the harp and loved her from the moment he heard her sing the minstrel boy and the meeting of the waters perhaps he merely brought it as a sort of symbol suggested mister beresford
a kind of flowery metaphor signifying that all ireland in his person is at her disposal only waiting to be played upon if that is what he means he must be a jolly muff remarked the honourable arthur
i should think he'd have to send a guidebook with the bloomin thing we never knew how terence arranged about the incubus we only saw that he did not enter the drawing room with it in his arms he was well received
although there was no special enthusiasm over his arrival but the first guest is always at a disadvantage he greeted the young ladies as if he were in the habit of meeting them often but when he came to patricia
he said they were delicious but looked at her she asked him if he did not think the garlands lovely he said perfectly charming but never lifted his eyes higher than her face
her glance seemed to ask wonderful his seemed to reply as he stealthily put out his hand and touched a soft fold of its white fluffiness i could hear him think as she leaned into the curve of the broadwood and bent over the flowers
have you seen but a bright lily grow before rude hands have touched it have you marked but the fall of the snow before the soil hath smutched it have you felt the wool of beaver or swan's down ever or have smelt o the bud o the brier or
a footman entered bearing the harp which he placed on a table in the corner he disclaimed all knowledge of it having probably been well paid to do so
to think it may never be a match sighed francesca and they are such an ideal pair but it is easy to see that the mother will oppose it and although patricia is her father's darling he cannot allow her to marry a handsome young pauper like terence
cheer up said bertie godolphin reassuringly
estates or no estates said salemina who like many ladies who have elected to remain single is distinctly sentimental and has not an ounce of worldly wisdom well i think a fellow deserves some reward remarked mister beresford
it shows that his passion has quite eclipsed his sense of humour by the way i am not sure but i should choose rose after all there's something very attractive about rose it is the fact that she is promised to another laughed francesca somewhat pertly
she would make an admirable wife missus beresford interjected absent mindedly and so of course terence will not choose her and similarly neither would you if you had the chance
and i can hardly forbear smiling so unconscious is she that his choice is already made however he replies who ever loved a woman for her solid virtues mother who ever fell a victim to punctuality patience or frugality
i dare say when once captured don't you know berkeley says
meantime violet and celandine have come out on the balcony and seeing the tinkling musicians there have straightway banished them to another part of the house a good thing too murmured bertie godolphin making a beastly row in that nailing little corner
collecting a crowd sooner or later don't you know and putting a dead stop to the jolly little flirtations the honourable arthur glanced critically at celandine i should make up to her he said thoughtfully she's the best groomed one of the whole stud
though why you call her celandine i can't think it's a flower and her dress is yellow can't you see man
said the candid bertie i believe you'd just as soon be a green parrot with a red head as not and now the guests began to arrive so many of them and so near together that we hardly had time to label them as they said good evening and told dear lady brighthelmston
how pretty the decorations were and how prevalent the influenza had been
the sound of the music drifted into the usually quiet street and by half past eleven the ball was in full splendour lady brighthelmston stood alone now greeting all the late arrivals
and we could catch a glimpse now and then of violet dancing with a beautiful being in a white uniform and of rose followed about by her accepted lover
celandine was a bit of a flirt no doubt she had many partners walked in the garden with them impartially divided her dances sat on the stairs wherever her yellow draperies moved nonsense merriment and chatter followed in her wake
patricia danced often with terence we could see the dark head darker and a bit taller than the others move through the throng the diamond arrow gleaming in its lustrous coils she danced like a flower blown by the wind
the bend of her slender body at the waist the pose of her head the line of her shoulder the suggestion of dimple in her elbow all were so many separate allurements to the kindling eye of love
for he stood in a corner and looked at patricia whenever he was not dancing with her
and the most indefatigable sensation monger had wearied of singing the praises of the princess sofia and tossing off a final whiskey and soda had paddled sleepily back to bed
lights burned on brightly in two parts only of frampton court in the bedchambers tenanted respectively by prince victor vassilyevski and his reputed daughter alone prince victor sat at the desk where he had four hours earlier
inscribed those characters which should have hurried nogam into a premature grave that they had failed of their mission was something that fretted victor vassilyevski his mind and nerves to a pitch of exacerbation all but unendurable
what had become of that sentence to death and what of that other the telegram which forwarded by nogam's hand to sturm should long since have set in motion the organized machinery of murder and demolition
had nogam as he had meekly insisted on being questioned subsequent to his subjugation truly delivered the two messages as directed and miraculously escaping his fate decreed
lest it elicit too much in the hearing of others once overpowered nogam had been philosophic about his bad luck but the eyes in his face of a stoic had held a gleam that victor didn't altogether like
a light that seemed suspiciously malicious a suggestion of spirited humour deplorable to say the least in a self confessed sneak thief caught in the very act deplorable and disturbing
in victor's sight a look constructively indicative of more knowledge than nogam had any right to possess take it any way you pleased something to think about still more disquieting victor thought the circumstance
that nobody else had seemed to notice that anomalous light in nogam's eyes which of course might mean merely that victor had worked himself into such a state of nerves that he was seeing things but equally well that the look was one reserved for victor alone
intentionally or not holding for him a message if he had but had the wit to read it
it might have implied for example that victor's half hearted and paltering distrust of nogam had all along been only too well warranted in which case the fat was already in the fire with a vengeance
and victor's probable duration of life was dependent wholly upon the speed with which he could quit frampton court and hurl his motor car through the night to the lower reaches of the thames
envisagement of the worst at its blackest being part of the holy duty of self preservation victor sat fully dressed with every other provision made for flight at the first flash of warning only waiting to make sure
and with what impatience was apparent in the working of paste coloured features
all rested with the telephone that stood mockingly mute at the man's elbow callous alike to his anxiety and the rancorous regard in which he held it his call for the house near queen anne's gate had now been in for more than forty minutes
in that interval he had no less than three times pleaded its urgency to the trunk line operator and still the muffled bell beneath the desk was dumb and the worst of it was
fatal though the delay might prove he dared not stir a hand to save himself until he knew in the taut torment of those long drawn minutes a sound of circumspect scratching was enough to bring victor to his feet in one startled bound
he stood for a moment a twitch but intent upon the corridor door then composed himself with indifferent success approached and opened the door
the girl chou nu slipped in offered a timid courtesy and awaited his leave to speak well what is it excellency the princess sofia refuses to let me stay in the room with her why don't you know
she would not go back to her bed but walked up and down
when she turned on me in a rage and bade me be gone then i came to you
you have done well return keep watch
the door is locked excellency she will not let me in spy through the keyhole then or hide in one of the empty rooms across the corridor and watch a muted mutter from the direction of the desk dried speech on victor's lips
he started hastily toward the source of the sound midway wheeled and dismissed the maid with a brusque hand and monosyllable go then fairly pounced upon the telephone
but all he heard in the course of the ensuing five minutes was the voice of the trunk line operator advising him to begin with that she was ready to put him through to westminster
then maddeningly punctuating the buzz and whine of the empty wire with her call of a talking doll
and victor hearing the falsetto of chou nu's second uncle cheerily respond to the operator's query unceremoniously broke in shaik tsin it is i number one and the devil's own time i've had getting through
why didn't you answer more promptly what's the matter has anything gone wrong all is well excellency as well as you could wish knowing what you know profound relief found voice in a sigh from victor's heart
you got my messages then nogam delivered them so i understand i myself did not see him excellency the man sturm on that name the voice died away in what victor fancied was a gasp
that might have been of either fright or pain hello he prompted are you there shaik tsin i say
why don't you answer he paused no sound for seconds that dragged like so many minutes then of a sudden a deadened noise like the slam of a door heard afar or a pistol shot at some distance from the telephone in the study
further and frantic importuning of the cold and unresponsive wire presently was silenced by a new voice little like that of shaik tsin hello who's there i say that you prince victor
involuntarily victor cried karslake what gorgeous luck i've been wanting a word with you all evening what has happened why did shaik tsin oh most unfortunate about him frightfully sorry
you see the old devil murdered sturm to night for some reason i daresay you understand better than i we found a paper on the beggar written in chinese
while oliver was resting in such good hands very strange things were occurring in the house of fagin when the artful dodger told him of the arrest the jew was full of anger he had intended to make a clever thief of oliver
and compel him to bring him many stolen things now he had not only failed in this and lost the boy's help but he was also afraid that oliver would tell all about the wicked practices he had seen and show the officers where he had lived
this he thought was likely to happen at any time unless he could get the boy into his power again something had occurred too meantime that made fagin almost crazy with rage at losing him
it was this a wicked man so wicked that he was afraid of thunder who went by the name of monks had come to him and told him he would pay a large sum of money
if he could succeed in making oliver a thief and so ruin his reputation and his good name it was plain enough that for some reason the man hated oliver but cunning as fagin was
he would never have guessed why for monks was really oliver's older half brother a little while before this story began oliver's father had been obliged to go on a trip to a foreign country
the will declared oliver should have the money only on condition that he never stain his name with any act of meanness dishonor cowardice or wrong if he did do this
then half the money was to go to the older son the dying man also wrote a letter to oliver's mother telling her that he had made the will and that he was dying but the older son who was with him when he died
found the letter and destroyed it so oliver's poor mother knowing nothing of all this when his father did not come back thought at last that he had deserted her
and in her shame stole away from her home poor and ill clad to die finally in the poorhouse the older brother who had taken the name of monks hunted and hunted for them
because he hated oliver on account of their father's will and wanted to do him all the harm he could
but this was after oliver had run away he found however to his satisfaction that the boy knew nothing about his parentage or his real name
there was only one person who could have told oliver and that one was missus bumble she knew through the locket she had kept which had belonged to oliver's mother
and which contained the dead woman's wedding ring with her name engraved inside it
she thought it a capital chance to make some money she went therefore to monks's house and sold the locket and ring to him these monks thought
were the only proofs in the world that could ever show oliver who he was and to make it impossible for him ever to see them he dropped them through a trap door in his house down into the river
where they could never be found but monks did not give up searching for oliver and at last on the very day that oliver was arrested he saw him coming from fagin's house with the artful dodger
from his wonderful resemblance to their dead father he guessed at once
knowing the other now to be in london monks was afraid that by some accident he might yet find out what a fortune had been willed him if he could only make oliver dishonest monks reflected
and had made him his offer of money to make the boy a thief fagin of course had agreed and now to find his victim was out of his power made the jew grind his teeth with rage
all these things made fagin determined to gain possession of oliver again and to do this he got the help of two others a young woman named nancy and her lover a brutal robber named bill sikes
these two discovered that oliver was at mister brownlow's house and lay in wait to kidnap him if he ever came out the chance they waited for occurred before many days
the artful dodger had stolen the handkerchief and oliver went without dreaming of any danger suddenly a young woman in a cap and apron screamed out behind him very loudly oh my dear little brother
and threw her arms tight around him oh my gracious i've found him she cried come home directly you naughty boy for shame to treat your poor mother so
oliver struggled but to no purpose nancy for it was she told the people that crowded about them that it was her little brother who had run away from home and nearly broken his mother's heart
and that she wanted to take him back oliver insisted that he didn't know her at all and hadn't any sister but just then bill sikes appeared as he had planned
and said the young woman was telling the truth and that oliver was a little rascal and a liar the people were all convinced at this and when sikes struck oliver and seized him by the collar they said serves him right
and so oliver found himself dragged away from mister brownlow to the filthy house where lived fagin the wily old jew was overjoyed to see them
but in spite of this there was a little good in her she had already begun to repent having helped steal the boy and now his plight touched her heart she seized the club and threw it into the fire
and so saved him the beating for that time for many days oliver was kept a prisoner he was free to wander about the mildewed old house
but every outer door was locked and every window had closed iron shutters all the light came in through small round holes at the top which made the rooms gloomy and full of shadows
there was only one window to look out of and that was in a back garret but it had iron bars and looked out only on to the housetops he found only one book to read this was a history of the lives of great criminals
and was full of stories of secret thefts and murders for the old jew having tortured his mind by loneliness and gloom had left the volume in his way hoping it would instil into his soul the poison that would blacken it for ever
but oliver's blood ran cold as he read and he pushed the book away in horror and falling on his knees prayed that he might be spared from such deeds and rescued from that terrible place
to go on a journey with bill sikes
oliver saw she was very sorry for him and indeed she told him she would help him if she could but that there was no use trying to escape now because they were watched all the time and if he got away sikes would certainly kill her
nancy took him to the house where sikes lived and the next morning the latter started out making oliver go with him
sikes had a loaded pistol in his overcoat pocket and he showed this to oliver and told him if he spoke to anybody on the road or tried to get away he would shoot him with it they walked a long way out of london
once or twice riding in carts which were going in their direction whenever this happened sikes kept his hand in the pocket where the pistol was so that oliver was afraid to appeal for help
late at night they came to an old deserted mansion in the country and in the basement of this where a fire had been kindled they joined two other men whom oliver had seen more than once in fagin's house in london
till two o'clock in the morning when sikes woke him roughly and bade him come with them it was foggy and cold and dark outside sikes and one of the others each took one of oliver's hands
and so they walked a quarter of a mile to where was a fine house with a high wall around it they made him climb over the wall with them and pulling him along crept toward the house
so that he too would be a burglar his limbs began to tremble and he sank to his knees begging them to have mercy and to let him run away and die in the fields rather than to make him steal
but sikes drew his pistol with a frightful oath and dragged him on in the back of the house was a window which was not fastened because it was much too small for a man to get through but oliver was so little that he could do it easily
and with everything swimming before his eyes he heard cries and the loud ringing of a bell and felt sikes drag him backward through the window
almost starved and very ill she had walked a long way for her shoes were worn to pieces but where she came from or where she was going nobody knew as she had no money she was taken to the poorhouse
the locket fell into the hands of the mistress of the poorhouse who was named missus bumble it contained the dead mother's wedding ring and as missus bumble was a dishonest woman
she hid both locket and ring intending sometime to sell them the baby was left with no one to care for it
and had little to eat and many whippings mister bumble the master of the poorhouse was a pompous self important bully who browbeat every one weaker than himself
and scolded and cuffed the paupers to his heart's content it was he who named the baby oliver twist he used to name all the babies as they came along by the letters of the alphabet
the one before oliver was named swubble then came oliver with a t the next would be unwin the next vilkins
then he would begin the alphabet all over again little oliver the baby grew without any idea of who he was when he was a year old he was sent to the poor farm where an old woman took care of orphan children
for a very small sum apiece each week this money which was paid by the town was hardly enough to buy them food but nevertheless the old woman took good care to save the bigger share for herself
he lived there till he was a pale handsome boy of nine years and then he was taken to the workhouse where with many other boys of his own age or older he had to work hard all day picking oakum
the boys had nothing but thin gruel for their meals with an onion twice a week and half a roll on sundays they ate in a great stone hall in one end of which stood the big copper of gruel
which mister bumble ladled out each boy got only one helping and the bowls never needed washing because when the meal was through there was not a drop of gruel left in them
after each meal they all sat staring at the copper and sucking their fingers but nobody dared ask for more one day they felt so terribly hungry
that one of the biggest boys said unless he got another helping of gruel he was afraid he would have to eat the boy who slept next him the little boys all believed this and cast lots to see who should ask for more
it fell to oliver twist so that night after supper though he was dreadfully frightened oliver rose and went up to the end of the room and said to mister bumble please sir
i want some more mister bumble was so surprised he turned pale what he gasped please sir said oliver again i want some more
mister bumble picked up the ladle and struck oliver on the head with it then he pounced on him and shook him when he was tired shaking him he dragged him away and shut him up in a dark room
where he stayed a whole week and was only taken out once a day to be whipped then to make an example of him a notice was pasted on the gate of the workhouse
and do what he liked with him the first one who came by was a middle aged chimney sweep who wanted a boy to climb up the insides of chimneys and clean out the soot this was a dangerous thing to do for sometimes the boys who did it
he burst out crying so that a kind hearted magistrate interfered and would not let the chimney sweep have him mister bumble finally gave him to the village undertaker
and there he had to mind the shop and do all the chores he slept under the counter among piles of empty coffins the undertaker's wife beat him often and whenever he was not at work he had to attend funerals
which was by no means amusing so that he found life no better than it had been at the workhouse the undertaker had an apprentice too who kicked him whenever he came near
all this wretchedness oliver bore as well as he could without complaining but one day the cowardly apprentice began to say unkind things of oliver's dead mother and this he could not stand
his anger made him stronger even than his tormentor though the latter was more than a head taller and much older and he sprang upon him caught him by the throat and after shaking him till his teeth rattled
knocked him flat on the floor the big bully screamed for help and cried that he was being murdered so that the undertaker and his wife came running in oliver told them what the apprentice had said but that made no difference
and sent him to bed without anything to eat till then oliver had not shed a tear but now alone in the dark he felt so miserable that he cried for a long time there was nothing to do
he thought at last but to run away so he tied up his few belongings in a handkerchief and waiting till the first beam of sunrise he unbarred the door
and ran away as fast as he could through the town into the country he hid behind hedges whenever he saw anybody for fear the undertaker or mister bumble were after him
and before long he found a road that he knew led to london oliver had never seen a city but he thought where there were so many people there would certainly be something for a boy to do to earn his living
so he trudged stoutly on and before nightfall had walked twenty miles he begged a crust of bread at a cottage and slept under a hayrick the next day and night he was so very hungry and cold
that when morning came again he could scarcely walk at all he sat down finally at the edge of a village wondering whether he was going to die when he saw coming along the queerest looking boy
he was about oliver's age with a snub nose bow legs and little sharp eyes
whose ragged tails came to his heels the boy saw oliver's plight and asked him what the matter was mixing his words with such a lot of strange slang that oliver could hardly understand him
when oliver explained that he had been walking a number of days and was very hungry the other took him to a shop near by bought him some bread and ham and watched him eat it with great attention asking him many questions
whether he had any money or knew any place in london where he could stay oliver answered no don't fret about that said the other i know a spectable old genelman as lives there wot'll give you lodgings for nothing
if i interduce you oliver did not think his new host looked very respectable himself but he thought it might be as well for him to know the old gentleman particularly as he had nowhere else to go
so they set off it was night when they reached london and it was so big and crowded that oliver kept close to his guide
and the houses old and hideously filthy the people too seemed low and wretched he was just wondering if he had not better run away when the boy pushed open a door
drew oliver inside up a broken stairway and into a back room here frying some sausages over a stove was a shriveled old jew in a greasy flannel gown he was very ugly
and his matted red hair hung down over his villainous face in a corner stood a clothes horse on which hung hundreds of silk handkerchiefs and four or five boys as dirty and oddly dressed
as the one who had brought oliver sat about a table smoking pipes like rough grown men oliver's guide introduced him to the jew whose name was fagin
and the boys crowded around him putting their hands into his pockets which he thought a queer joke fagin grinned horribly as he shook hands with him and told him he was very welcome which did not tend to reassure him
and then the sausages were passed around the jew gave oliver a glass of something to drink and as soon as he drank it he became very sleepy and knew nothing more till the following morning
whom they called the artful dodger came in and gave the jew some pocketbooks and handkerchiefs oliver thought he must have made the pocketbooks only they did not look new and some seemed to have money in them
he noticed too that whenever the artful dodger came home empty handed fagin seemed angry and cuffed and kicked him and sent him to bed supperless but when he brought home a good number everything was very jolly
whenever there was nothing else to do the old jew played a very curious game with the boys this was the way they played it fagin would put a snuff box in one pocket a watch in another and a handkerchief in a third
then he would walk about the room just as any old gentleman would walk about the street stopping now and then as if he were looking into shop windows all the time the boys followed him closely sometimes treading on his toes
or stumbling against him and when this happened one of them would slip a hand into his pocket and take out either the watch or the snuff box or the handkerchief if the jew felt a hand in his pocket he cried out
which it was and then the game began all over again at last fagin made oliver try if he could take something out of his pocket without his knowing it and when oliver succeeded he patted his head and seemed well pleased
but oliver grew very tired of the dirty room and the same game he longed for the open air and begged to be allowed to go out so one day the jew put him in charge of the artful dodger and they went upon the streets
oliver wondering where in the world he was going to be taught to make pocketbooks he was on the point of asking when the artful dodger signed to him to be silent
and slunk behind an old gentleman who was reading a book in front of a book stall you can imagine oliver's horror when he saw him thrust his hand into the old gentleman's pocket
draw out a silk handkerchief and run off at full speed in an instant oliver understood the mystery of the handkerchiefs the watches the purses
and the curious game he had learned at fagin's he knew then that the artful dodger was a pickpocket he was so frightened that for a minute he lost his wits and ran off as fast as he could go
just then the old gentleman found his handkerchief was gone and seeing oliver running away shouted stop thief which frightened the poor boy even more and made him run all the faster everybody joined the chase
a policeman was at hand and he was dragged more dead than alive to the police court followed by the angry old gentleman the moment the latter saw the boy's face
however he could not believe it was the face of a thief and refused to appear against him but the magistrate was in a bad humor and was about to sentence oliver to prison anyway
when the owner of the book stall came hurrying in he had seen the theft and knew oliver was not guilty so the magistrate was obliged to let him go but the terror and the blow he had received had been too much for oliver
he fell down in a faint and the old gentleman whose name was mister brownlow overcome with pity put him into a coach and drove him to his own home
some one did introduce me to the gentleman i am sure at some public meeting i know very well held about something of great importance no doubt at some place or other i feel convinced
whose name i have unaccountably forgotten the truth is that the introduction was attended upon my part with a degree of anxious embarrassment which operated to prevent any definite impressions of either time or place
i am constitutionally nervous this with me is a family failing and i can't help it in especial the slightest appearance of mystery of any point i cannot exactly comprehend
puts me at once into a pitiable state of agitation there was something as it were remarkable yes remarkable although this is but a feeble term to express my full meaning
about the entire individuality of the personage in question he was perhaps six feet in height and of a presence singularly commanding there was an air distingue pervading the whole man
which spoke of high breeding and hinted at high birth upon this topic the topic of smith's personal appearance i have a kind of melancholy satisfaction in being minute
his head of hair would have done honor to a brutus nothing could be more richly flowing or possess a brighter gloss it was of a jetty black
which was also the color or more properly the no color of his unimaginable whiskers you perceive i cannot speak of these latter without enthusiasm it is not too much to say
at all events they encircled and at times partially overshadowed a mouth utterly unequalled here were the most entirely even and the most brilliantly white of all conceivable teeth
of surpassing clearness melody and strength in the matter of eyes also my acquaintance was pre eminently endowed either one of such a pair was worth a couple of the ordinary ocular organs
they were of a deep hazel exceedingly large and lustrous
just that amount of interesting obliquity which gives pregnancy to expression the bust of the general was unquestionably the finest bust i ever saw
for your life you could not have found a fault with its wonderful proportion this rare peculiarity set off to great advantage a pair of shoulders
which would have called up a blush of conscious inferiority into the countenance of the marble apollo i have a passion for fine shoulders and may say that i never beheld them in perfection before
the arms altogether were admirably modelled nor were the lower limbs less superb these were indeed the ne plus ultra of good legs every connoisseur in such matters admitted the legs to be good
there was neither too much flesh nor too little neither rudeness nor fragility i could not imagine a more graceful curve than that of the os femoris and there was just that due gentle prominence in the rear of the fibula
which goes to the conformation of a properly proportioned calf i wish to god my young and talented friend chiponchipino the sculptor had but seen the legs of brevet brigadier general john a b c smith
but although men so absolutely fine looking are neither as plenty as reasons or blackberries still i could not bring myself to believe that the remarkable something to which i alluded just now
lay altogether or indeed at all in the supreme excellence of his bodily endowments perhaps it might be traced to the manner yet here again i could not pretend to be positive
there was a primness not to say stiffness in his carriage a degree of measured and if i may so express it of rectangular precision attending his every movement which observed in a more diminutive figure
would have had the least little savor in the world of affectation pomposity or constraint but which noticed in a gentleman of his undoubted dimensions was readily placed to the account of reserve
of a commendable sense in short of what is due to the dignity of colossal proportion the kind friend who presented me to general smith whispered in my ear some few words of comment upon the man
he was a remarkable man a very remarkable man indeed one of the most remarkable men of the age he was an especial favorite too with the ladies
chiefly on account of his high reputation for courage in that point he is unrivalled indeed he is a perfect desperado a down right fire eater and no mistake
said my friend here dropping his voice excessively low and thrilling me with the mystery of his tone a downright fire eater and no mistake showed that i should say
to some purpose in the late tremendous swamp fight away down south with the bugaboo and kickapoo indians here my friend opened his eyes to some extent bless my soul
blood and thunder and all that prodigies of valor heard of him of course you know he's the man man alive how do you do why how are ye
here interrupted the general himself seizing my companion by the hand as he drew near
i then thought and i think so still
nor beheld a finer set of teeth but i must say that i was sorry for the interruption just at that moment as owing to the whispers and insinuations aforesaid
my interest had been greatly excited in the hero of the bugaboo and kickapoo campaign however the delightfully luminous conversation of brevet brigadier general john a b c smith soon completely dissipated this chagrin
my friend leaving us immediately we had quite a long tete a tete and i was not only pleased but really instructed i never heard a more fluent talker or a man of greater general information
with becoming modesty he forebore nevertheless to touch upon the theme i had just then most at heart i mean the mysterious circumstances attending the bugaboo war and on my own part
what i conceive to be a proper sense of delicacy forbade me to broach the subject although in truth i was exceedingly tempted to do so i perceived too that the gallant soldier preferred topics of philosophical interest
and that he delighted especially in commenting upon the rapid march of mechanical invention indeed lead him where i would this was a point to which he invariably came back
and live in a wonderful age parachutes and rail roads man traps and spring guns our steam boats are upon every sea and the nassau balloon packet is about to run regular trips
fare either way only twenty pounds sterling between london and timbuctoo and who shall calculate the immense influence upon social life
upon arts upon commerce upon literature which will be the immediate result of the great principles of electro magnetics nor is this all let me assure you
the most ingenious and let me add mister mister thompson i believe is your name let me add i say the most useful
the most truly useful mechanical contrivances are daily springing up like mushrooms if i may so express myself
thompson to be sure is not my name but it is needless to say that i left general smith with a heightened interest in the man with an exalted opinion of his conversational powers
and a deep sense of the valuable privileges we enjoy in living in this age of mechanical invention my curiosity however had not been altogether satisfied
and i resolved to prosecute immediate inquiry among my acquaintances touching the brevet brigadier general himself and particularly respecting the tremendous events quorum pars magna fuit
during the bugaboo and kickapoo campaign the first opportunity which presented itself and which horresco referens i did not in the least scruple to seize occurred at the church of the reverend doctor drummummupp
where i found myself established one sunday just at sermon time not only in the pew but by the side of that worthy and communicative little friend of mine miss tabitha t
that person it was clear to me was miss tabitha t we telegraphed a few signals
a brisk tete a tete smith said she in reply to my very earnest inquiry smith why not general john a b c bless me i thought you knew all about him
this is a wonderfully inventive age horrid affair that a bloody set of wretches those kickapoos fought like a hero prodigies of valor immortal renown smith
here broke in doctor drummummupp at the top of his voice and with a thump that came near knocking the pulpit about our ears
i started to the extremity of the pew and perceived by the animated looks of the divine that the wrath which had nearly proved fatal to the pulpit had been excited by the whispers of the lady and myself
there was no help for it
and listened in all the martyrdom of dignified silence to the balance of that very capital discourse next evening found me a somewhat late visitor at the rantipole theatre
where i felt sure of satisfying my curiosity at once
climax was doing iago to a very crowded house and i experienced some little difficulty in making my wishes understood especially as our box was next the slips and completely overlooked the stage
said miss arabella as she at length comprehended the purport of my query
smith inquired miranda musingly god bless me did you ever behold a finer figure never madam but do tell me or so inimitable grace
never upon my word but pray inform me or so just an appreciation of stage effect
in a way that i couldn't stand and i wouldn't i left the misses cognoscenti immediately went behind the scenes forthwith
and gave the beggarly scoundrel such a thrashing as i trust he will remember to the day of his death
i was confident that i should meet with no similar disappointment
the solution of which had become a matter so essential to my peace smith said my partner why not general john a b c horrid affair that wasn't it diamonds did you say
we are playing whist if you please mister tattle however this is the age of invention most certainly the age one may say the age par excellence speak french oh
quite a hero perfect desperado no hearts mister tattle i don't believe it immortal renown and all that
and i i went off there was no chance of hearing anything farther that evening in regard to brevet brigadier general john a b c smith
still i consoled myself with the reflection that the tide of ill luck would not run against me forever and so determined to make a bold push for information
smith said missus p as we twirled about together
why not general john a b c dreadful business that of the bugaboos wasn't it
do turn out your toes i really am ashamed of you man of great courage poor fellow but this is a wonderful age for invention o dear me i'm out of breath
quite a desperado prodigies of valor never heard can't believe it i shall have to sit down and enlighten you smith why he's the man
man fred i tell you here bawled out miss bas bleu as i led missus pirouette to a seat did ever anybody hear the like it's man fred i say
and not at all by any means man friday here miss bas bleu beckoned to me in a very peremptory manner and i was obliged will i nill i to leave missus p for the purpose of deciding a dispute
although i pronounced with great promptness that the true title was man friday and not by any means man fred
and i resolved to call at once upon my particular friend mister theodore sinivate for i knew that here at least i should get something like definite information smith
said he in his well known peculiar way of drawling out his syllables
why not general john a b c
say don't you think so
great pity pon my honor wonderfully inventive age
said i please to go on with your story
as we say in france smith
i say here mister s thought proper to put his finger to the side of his nose i say
really and truly and conscientiously that you don't know all about that affair of smith's
no o o said he looking wise
and positive insult and so left the house at once in high dudgeon with a firm resolve to call my friend mister sinivate to a speedy account for his ungentlemanly conduct and ill breeding in the meantime however
i had no notion of being thwarted touching the information i desired there was one resource left me yet i would go to the fountain head i would call forthwith upon the general himself and demand
in explicit terms a solution of this abominable piece of mystery here at least there should be no chance for equivocation i would be plain positive peremptory as short as pie crust
as concise as tacitus or montesquieu it was early when i called and the general was dressing but i pleaded urgent business
who remained in attendance during my visit as i entered the chamber i looked about of course for the occupant but did not immediately perceive him
i fairly shouted with terror and made off at a tangent into the farthest extremity of the room god bless me my dear fellow here again whistled the bundle
and then it stood up before my eyes and a bloody action it was continued the thing as if in a soliloquy but then one mustn't fight with the bugaboos and kickapoos
turning to me is decidedly the
here pompey screwed on an arm
that you may say now you dog slip on my shoulders and bosom pettitt makes the best shoulders but for a bosom you will have to go to ducrow bosom said i
will you never be ready with that wig scalping is a rough process after all but then you can procure such a capital scratch at de l'orme's
you had better go to parmly's at once high prices but excellent work i swallowed some very capital articles though
when the big bugaboo rammed me down with the butt end of his rifle butt end ram down my eye o yes by the by my eye here
i now began very clearly to perceive that the object before me was nothing more nor less than my new acquaintance brevet brigadier general john a b c smith
a very striking difference in the appearance of the personal man the voice however still puzzled me no little but even this apparent mystery was speedily cleared up
went up to his master opened his mouth with the knowing air of a horse jockey and adjusted therein a somewhat singular looking machine in a very dexterous manner that i could not altogether comprehend
the alteration however in the entire expression of the general's countenance was instantaneous and surprising when he again spoke
his voice had resumed all that rich melody and strength which i had noticed upon our original introduction d n the vagabonds said he in so clear a tone that i positively started at the change
but took the trouble to cut off at least seven eighths of my tongue there isn't bonfanti's equal however in america for really good articles of this description
i can recommend you to him with confidence here the general bowed and assure you that i have the greatest pleasure in so doing i acknowledged his kindness in my best manner
and took leave of him at once with a perfect understanding of the true state of affairs with a full comprehension of the mystery which had troubled me so long it was evident it was a clear case
brevet brigadier general john a b c smith was the man
it was a morning of the latter summer time a morning of lingering dews when the grass is never dry in the shade
with small drops and dashes of water changing the colour of their sparkle at every movement of the air and elsewhere hanging on twigs like small silver fruit the threads of garden spiders appeared thick and polished
in the dry and sunny places dozens of long legged crane flies whizzed off the grass at every step the passer took fancy day and her friend susan dewy the tranter's daughter were in such a spot as this
pulling down a bough laden with early apples three months had elapsed since dick and fancy had journeyed together from budmouth and the course of their love had run on vigorously during the whole time
there had been just enough difficulty attending its development and just enough finesse required in keeping it private to lend the passion an ever increasing freshness on fancy's part whilst whether from these accessories or not
dick's heart had been at all times as fond as could be desired but there was a cloud on fancy's horizon now she is so well off better than any of us susan dewy was saying
her father farms five hundred acres and she might marry a doctor or curate or anything of that kind if she contrived a little
replied fancy uneasily he didn't know that you would not be there till it was too late to refuse the invitation said susan
well she was rather pretty i must own tell straight on about her can't you
once twice i think you said indeed i'm sure i didn't well and he wanted to again i expect
she wanted to dance with him again bad enough i know everybody does with dick because he's so handsome and such a clever courter
how did you say she wore her hair
and it curls without being put in paper that's how it is she's so attractive she's trying to get him away yes yes she is
and through keeping this miserable school i mustn't wear my hair in curls but i will
look susan do is her hair as soft and long as this fancy pulled from its coil under her hat a twine of her own hair and stretched it down her shoulder to show its length
looking at susan to catch her opinion from her eyes
said miss dewy fancy paused hopelessly i wish mine was lighter like hers she continued mournfully
i don't know fancy abstractedly extended her vision to survey a yellow butterfly and a red and black butterfly that were flitting along in company and then became aware that dick was advancing up the garden
susan here's dick coming i suppose that's because we've been talking about him well then i shall go indoors now you won't want me and susan turned practically and walked off
enter the single minded dick whose only fault at the gipsying or picnic had been that of loving fancy too exclusively and depriving himself of the innocent pleasure the gathering might have afforded him
by sighing regretfully at her absence
flat and unprofitable afternoon in any other way but this she would not believe fancy had settled her plan of emotion to reproach dick o no no
i am in great trouble said she taking what was intended to be a hopelessly melancholy survey of a few small apples lying under the tree yet a critical ear might have noticed in her voice a tentative tone
as to the effect of the words upon dick when she uttered them what are you in trouble about tell me of it said dick earnestly darling i will share it with ee and help ee
no no you can't nobody can why not you don't deserve it whatever it is tell me dear o it isn't what you think it is dreadful
my own sin sin fancy as if you could sin i know it can't be tis
said the young lady in a pretty little frenzy of sorrow
nobody will forgive me nobody and you above all will not i have allowed myself to to fl
not flirt he said controlling his emotion as it were by a sudden pressure inward from his surface and you said
yes i did and that was a wicked story
well i'll forgive you yes if you couldn't help it yes i will said the now dismal dick did you encourage him o i don't know yes no o i think so
mister shiner after a silence that was only disturbed by the fall of an apple
and a sob from fancy he said with real austerity tell it all every word he looked at me and i looked at him and he said
and i said yes and then he said come here and i went with him down to the lovely river and then he said to me look and see how i do it and then you'll know i put this birdlime round this twig and then i go here he said
clever mister bird comes and perches upon the twig and flaps his wings and you've got him before you can say jack' something
jack sprat mournfully suggested dick through the cloud of his misery no not jack sprat she sobbed then twas jack robinson he said
yes that was it and then i put my hand upon the rail of the bridge to get across and that's all well
said dick critically and more cheerfully not that i see what business shiner has to take upon himself to teach you anything
but it seems it do seem there must have been more than that to set you up in such a dreadful taking he looked into fancy's eyes misery of miseries guilt was written there still
said dick rather sternly for a quiet young man o don't speak so cruelly
now i can't come dear fancy tell come i'll forgive i must by heaven and earth i must whether i will or no i love you so
when i put my hand on the bridge he touched it
said dick grinding an imaginary human frame to powder and then he looked at me and at last he said are you in love with dick dewy and i said
perhaps i am and then he said
there's a villain now want to marry you and dick quivered with the bitterness of satirical laughter
unless to be sure you are willing to have him perhaps you are he said with the wretched indifference of a castaway no indeed i am not she said
her sobs just beginning to take a favourable turn towards cure well then said dick coming a little to his senses you've been stretching it very much in giving such a dreadful beginning to such a mere nothing
and i know what you've done it for just because of that gipsy party he turned away from her and took five paces decisively as if he were tired of an ungrateful country including herself
you did it to make me jealous and i won't stand it he flung the words to her over his shoulder and then stalked on apparently very anxious to walk to the remotest of the colonies that very minute o
o o dick dick she cried trotting after him like a pet lamb and really seriously alarmed at last you'll kill me my impulses are bad miserably wicked and i can't help it forgive me dick
and i love you always and those times when you look silly and don't seem quite good enough for me just the same i do dick and there is something more serious though not concerning that walk with him well
and standing so rooted to the road that he was apparently not even going home
this is the serious part
that it was far better to be married to anybody than do that
upon either sill of which she could sit by first mounting a desk and using it as a footstool
here she perched herself as was her custom on such wet and gloomy occasions put on a light shawl and bonnet opened the window and looked out at the rain the window overlooked a field called the grove
and it was the position from which she used to survey the crown of dick's passing hat in the early days of their acquaintance and meetings not a living soul was now visible anywhere
and necessity was less importunate on sundays than during the week sitting here and thinking again
well it is unknown thinking and thinking she saw a dark masculine figure arising into distinctness at the further end of the grove a man without an umbrella
nearer and nearer he came and she perceived that he was in deep mourning and then that it was dick yes in the fondness and foolishness of his young heart after walking four miles in a drizzling rain without overcoat or umbrella
and in face of a remark from his love that he was not to come because he would be tired he had made it his business to wander this mile out of his way again
your coat shines as if it had been varnished and your hat my goodness there's a streaming hat
i am rather sorry for my best clothes
i don't know when i shall get mine back and look there's a nasty patch of something just on your shoulder
that's japanning it rubbed off the clamps of poor jack's coffin when we lowered him from our shoulders upon the bier i don't care about that for twas the last deed i could do for him and tis hard if you can't afford a coat for an old friend
fancy put her hand to her mouth for half a minute underneath the palm of that little hand there existed for that half minute a little yawn dick
he pleaded if i can reach then he looked rather disappointed at not being invited round to the door she twisted from her seated position and bent herself downwards
but not even by standing on the plinth was it possible for dick to get his lips into contact with hers as she held them by great exertion she might have reached a little lower but
he walked slowly away turning and turning again to look at her till he was out of sight during the retreat she said to herself almost involuntarily and still conscious of that morning's triumph
i like dick and i love him but how plain and sorry a man looks in the rain with no umbrella and wet through as he vanished she made as if to descend from her seat
but glancing in the other direction she saw another form coming along the same track it was also that of a man he too was in black from top to toe but he carried an umbrella
he drew nearer and the direction of the rain caused him so to slant his umbrella that from her height above the ground his head was invisible as she was also to him he passed in due time directly beneath her
and in looking down upon the exterior of his umbrella her feminine eyes perceived it to be of superior silk less common at that date than since and of elegant make
he reached the entrance to the building and fancy suddenly lost sight of him instead of pursuing the roadway as dick had done he had turned sharply round into her own porch she jumped to the floor
hastily flung off her shawl and bonnet smoothed and patted her hair till the curls hung in passable condition and listened no knock nearly a minute passed and still there was no knock
then there arose a soft series of raps no louder than the tapping of a distant woodpecker and barely distinct enough to reach her ears she composed herself and flung open the door
in the porch stood mister maybold there was a warm flush upon his face and a bright flash in his eyes which made him look handsomer than she had ever seen him before good evening miss day
she said in a strange state of mind she had noticed beyond the ardent hue of his face that his voice had a singular tremor in it and that his hand shook like an aspen leaf when he laid his umbrella in the corner of the porch
shut the door and moved close to her once inside the expression of his face was no more discernible by reason of the increasing dusk of evening i want to speak to you he then said seriously
on a perhaps unexpected subject but one which is all the world to me i don't know what it may be to you miss day no reply fancy i have come to ask you if you will be my wife
rolling a snowball might start at finding he had set in motion an avalanche so did fancy start at these words from the vicar and in the dead silence which followed them the breathings of the man and of the woman
could be distinctly and separately heard and there was this difference between them his respirations gradually grew quieter
i have loved you for more than six months
you will understand my motive like me better perhaps for honestly telling you that i have struggled against my emotion continually because i have thought that it was not well for me to love you but i resolved to struggle no longer
i have examined the feeling and the love i bear you is as genuine as that i could bear any woman i see your great charm i respect your natural talents and the refinement they have brought into your nature
they are quite enough and more than enough for me they are equal to anything ever required of the mistress of a quiet parsonage house the place in which i shall pass my days wherever it may be situated
o fancy i have watched you criticized you even severely brought my feelings to the light of judgment and still have found them rational and such as any man might have expected to be inspired with by a woman like you
so there is nothing hurried secret or untoward in my desire to do this fancy will you marry me no answer was returned don't refuse
don't he implored it would be foolish of you i mean cruel of course we would not live here fancy i have had for a long time the offer of an exchange of livings with a friend in yorkshire
but i have hitherto refused on account of my mother there we would go your musical powers shall be still further developed you shall have whatever pianoforte you like you shall have anything fancy anything to make you happy
pony carriage flowers birds pleasant society yes you have enough in you for any society
will you fancy marry me another pause ensued varied only by the surging of the rain against the window panes and then fancy spoke in a faint and broken voice yes
i will she said god bless you my own he advanced quickly and put his arm out to embrace her she drew back hastily no no not now she said in an agitated whisper
there are things but the temptation is o too strong and i can't resist it i can't tell you now but i must tell you don't please don't come near me now i want to think
the next minute she turned to a desk
it was with visible difficulty that he restrained himself from approaching her
in the early morning of midsummer eve hazel wandered up the hill slopes there the sheep golden and gospel like in the early light fed on wet lawns pale and unsubstantial as gauze
she did not as the more self conscious creatures of civilization would have done envy their peace in so many words
when she went in to breakfast she thought the same of missus marston afterwards they picked black currants missus marston seated on a camp stool and wearing her large mushroom hat
which always tilted slightly and made her look rakish whenever a blackbird dashed out of the grove of half ripe red currants scolding with demoniac vitality she would look up and say naughty bird she picked with deliberation
and placed the currants in the basket with an air of benediction the day was hot and splendid a day to make the leaves limp and crack the flower beds
and a breeze laden with wild thyme and moss fragrance played about the garden like an invisible child at eleven martha appeared with cake and milk and edward returned from old solomon's bedside
then they went on picking while edward read them snatches of natural law hazel was soothed by the reading to the sense of which she paid no heed it mingled with the drone of the hot bees falling in and out of the big red peonies
the far off sound of grass cutting the grave measured soliloquy of a blackbird hidden in the flame flowered chestnut hazel felt that she would like to go on picking currants for ever
growing more and more like missus marston every day and at least becoming possibly through sheer benignity a grandmother there seemed no place in her life for reddin no time for hunter's spinney she thought i wunna go
but a peremptory voice said that she must go and once more her soul became the passive battleground of strange emotions
while they fought there like creatures in the dark hazel sitting in the aromatic shadow of the currants fell fast asleep and as missus marston could never bring herself to wake anyone she slept until martha rang the dinner bell
so the peaceful golden day wore on to green evening it was a day that hazel always remembered when the shadows grew long and dew fell
and the daisies on the graves filled the house with their faint innocent fragrance and closed their pink lined petals for the night hazel felt very miserable this very night she was going to work the last charm
the charm of the bracken flower and whoso she dreamed of with that flower beneath her pillow must be her lover she felt traitorous to edward in doing this she and edward were handfasted
how then could she have any lover but edward why should she work the charm she puzzled over this during prayers but no answer came to her questioning life is a taciturn mother
and teaches not so much by instruction as by blows edward was reading the twenty third psalm which always affected his mother to tears and in reading which his voice was very tender
and lead thee forth beside the waters of comfort the room was full of a deep exaltation a passion of trustfulness i went along by the water hazel thought
and i thought it was the waters of comfort
she did not feel as sure as the others did of the waters of comfort so beautiful dear murmured missus marston so like your poor dear father
edward's good night to hazel was more curt than usual she was looking so mysteriously lovely her stress of mind had given a touch of spirituality to her face
and there is nothing that stirs passion as spirituality does she had on a print frock of a neat design reminiscent of old fashioned china and she had pinned a posy of daisies on her shoulder
for one second as she held up her cheek to be kissed standing on the threshold of her moonlit room edward hesitated then he abruptly turned and shut his door
his hour had passed hazel stood in the window reading the charm on midsummer eve when it wants a little of midnight spread your smock where the bracken grows
for this is the night of the flowering of the brake that beareth a blue flower on the stroke of midnight
come you again about the time of the first bird call if aught is in the smock take it it is the dust of the flower sleep above it and he you dream of is your lover
this is a sure charm and cannot be broke she took a clean chemise from the drawer and when the landing clock struck the half hour she slipped out on to the hillside and laid it under a clump of bracken
as she stooped to set it smooth and straight the moon swam out of cloud and flung her shadow black and gigantic up the hillside
frightened she ran home raked the fire together and made herself a cup of tea to keep her awake sipping it in the dim parlour where familiar things looked eerie
as she half guessed the answer she waited in the dove grey hour that precedes dawn an hour pregnant with the future it is full of hope
what rare emotion struck out of pain in the coming day it is full of grief for how many beautiful things will be trampled great dreams torn sensitive spirits crucified in the time between dusk and dusk
for the death pack hunts at all hours light and dark it is no pale phantom of dreams it is made not of spirit hounds with fiery eyes a ghastly melody a grisly music' but of our fellows
all that have strength without pity sometimes our kith and kin our nearest intimates are in the first flight give a view hallo as we slip hopefully under a covert are in at the death
one flicker of merciful intention amid relentless action would redeem it for the world is founded and built up on death and the reality of death is neither to be questioned nor feared
death is a dark dream but it is not a nightmare it is mankind's lack of pity mankind's fatal propensity for torture that is the nightmare when a man or woman confronted by helpless terror
is without the impulse to save the world becomes hell it was this dimly but passionately felt that made hazel shrink from reddin for unless reddin was without this impulse to save
and had the mind of a fiend without pity how could he in the mere pursuit of pleasure inflict wholly unnecessary torture as in fox hunting
she watched venus shrink from a silver pool to a silver point she was full of trouble and unrest would she dream of reddin would she go to sleep at all
missus marston's armchair loomed in the gathering light and she felt guilty again the east quickened as if someone had turned up a light there she opened the window and in rushed the inexpressible sweetness of dawn
the bush of syringa by the kitchen window swept in its whole fragrance heady and sensuous she took long breaths of it and thought of reddin's green dress of the queer look in his eyes when he stared long at her
a curious passivity quite foreign to her came over her now at the thought of reddin what would he look like what would he say would he hold her roughly if she went to hunter's spinney an unwilling elation possessed her as she thought of it
it did not occur to her to wonder why edward did not kiss her as reddin did she took him as much for granted as a child takes its parents suddenly the first bird called silverly startling the dusk
it was a woodlark and its song seemed even more vacillating than usual in the vast hush at the first note all hazel's thoughts of reddin fled it seemed that clarity freshness and music were bound up in her mind with edward
and then the charm's broke she thought hopefully if the charm's broke i canna dream and i shanna go but when she came to the white garment lying wet and pale in the half light she drew a sharp breath there
in the centre lay one minute blue petal
it was a faery flower she took it up reverently and went home solemn as a child in church when with blue petal under her pillow she lay down she fell asleep in a moment she dreamt of reddin
for he had more control over her thoughts than edward who appealed to her emotions while reddin stirred her instincts waking at martha's knock she said to herself with mingled heart sickness and elation
foxy wants me to go
the egg mother crab carries her eggs with her under her tail which itself is always kept tucked up under her body out of each egg there comes the queerest little creature it is just large enough to be seen as it wriggles in the water
then its skin splits and there appears a quaint thing with long feathery legs a big head a spike on the back of its head and another spike like a nose who would suspect this strange atom would turn into a crab well nobody did
it was called a z o e a but you can call it a crab caterpillar or larva the maggot is the larva of the fly and the zoea is the larva of the crab
with crowds of its brothers and sisters the zoea kicks about on the surface of the sea fishes and even great whales swallow these tiny things by the million
the crab larva eats and grows again and again its skin splits and a rather different zoea appears this happens about once a week until hey presto the spiked zoea is now rather like a crab
and now it has tiny claws and two eyes at the end of stalks yet it still owns a tail at last this is tucked up under its body and lo our little friend has changed into a very small crab no longer able to swim about
it comes to get a living in the shallow pools of the shore
he knows how to dig himself into the sand and work his shell well down then only his funny eyes on stalks peer up at you at this time of his life he has to make himself scarce
and they themselves hunt sand hoppers and eat anything they can find or steal so they grow bigger and then like the boy who grows quickly the crab finds his shelly suit a size too small for him now look at his suit it is a hard coat
a complete suit of armour to protect his soft body our picture shows the lobster the crab's cousin the shrimp and prawn and lobster are relations of the crab these crustaceans as they are called
soon the shell breaks across and the crab struggles to get free at last he backs out and leaves his old suit for ever it is a wonderful performance for he has withdrawn even from the legs
claws feelers bristles eye stalks and eyes the old shell is left quite whole a perfect crab but with no crab inside it now the crab in his new suit hides away
he knows that he is a soft flabby creature at this time and that other animals even missus crab would be glad to meet him and eat him while his covering is yet soft he grows quickly
and cast their shells as we have seen crabs can see and hear and smell and they must also have a fine sense of touch i was once watching a big crab eating his dinner under a rocky ledge in a large glass tank
one by one each bit was gravely carried to his mouth and tucked in and then he reached out for another though i was very close to the crab i could hardly see the tiny scraps which he was able to pick up so easily
one of the strangest crabs is the hermit you would think that nature had played a joke on him for he has only half a suit of armour his tail part is soft he would have a bad time in the sea but for a dodge he has learnt
the baby hermit takes the empty home of a periwinkle as he grows he needs a larger house and so leaves the tight shell and pops his tail into a bigger one generally a whelk shell if he meets with another hermit there is a battle
one trying to steal the other's shell our coloured picture page thirty five shows some hermits at war fighting house hunting and moving house seem to be the hermit's favourite pursuits
his first care is to protect that soft tail of his his right claw is large and strong
they can swim along by using the little swimmerets under their bodies or by rapidly bending down their powerful tails lobsters are able to shoot backwards through the water at a great pace
are often on sale in the fishmonger's shop like the crabs and prawns they are usually caught in traps or pots baited with pieces of fish and left among the rocks
some being like bee hives made of cane or wicker
this gradually grows into a new limb
what a useful gift this must be to an animal like the lobster whose whole life is one terrible fight after another the baby lobsters like the baby crabs are quite unlike their parents
they swim about at the surface of the sea and already they seize every chance of fighting and eating their small neighbours
here they eat fight grow and change their coats just as the young crabs do they are now like their parents sometimes they grow to be huge and to weigh as much as ten and a half pounds
the mother lobster carries as many as thirty thousand eggs under her body needless to say a very very few of this enormous family survive the dangers of the sea the rule there is eat and be eaten
exercises one what is a crab larva like two give the names of four crustaceans three
why does the crab have to change its shell four why does it hide away at that time five of what use are shore crabs
he slew them all and spared not so much as the infants without omitting the utmost instances of cruelty and barbarity for he used such severity upon his own countrymen as would not be pardonable with regard to strangers who had been conquered by him
but when pul king of assyria had made an expedition against him he did not think meet to fight or engage in battle with the assyrians but he persuaded him to accept of a thousand talents of silver and to go away and so put an end to the war
his successor in the kingdom who followed the barbarity of his father and so ruled but two years only after which he was slain with his friends at a feast
who laid snares for him now this pekah held the government twenty years and proved a wicked man and a transgressor
when he had made an expedition against the israelites
and the region beyond jordan and the adjoining country which is called galilee
whose name was jerusha this king was not defective in any virtue but was religious towards god and righteous towards men and careful of the good of the city for what part soever wanted to be repaired or adorned he magnificently repaired and adorned them
he also made an expedition against the ammonites and overcame them in battle and ordered them to pay tribute a hundred talents and ten thousand cori of wheat and as many of barley every year
whose name was nahum who spake after this manner concerning the overthrow of the assyrians and of nineveh
and tossed and go away by flight while they say one to another stand stand still seize their gold and silver for there shall be no one to wish them well for they will rather save their lives than their money
for a terrible contention shall possess them one with another and lamentation and loosing of the members and their countenances shall be perfectly black with fear and there will be the den of the lions and the mother of the young lions
god says to thee nineveh that they shall deface thee and the lion shall no longer go out from thee to give laws to the world and indeed this prophet prophesied many other things besides these concerning nineveh
which i do not think necessary to repeat and i here omit them that i may not appear troublesome to my readers all which thing happened about nineveh a hundred and fifteen years afterward
so this may suffice to have spoken of these matters chapter twelve how upon the death of jotham ahaz reigned in his stead
came to the assistance of ahaz
and was buried in the sepulchers of the kings and the kingdom came to his son ahaz who proved most impious towards god and a transgressor of the laws of his country
he imitated the kings of israel and reared altars in jerusalem and offered sacrifices upon them to idols to which also he offered his own son as a burnt offering according to the practices of the canaanites
his other actions were also of the same sort now as he was going on in this mad course rezin the king of syria and damascus
who were now at amity one with another made war with him and when they had driven him into jerusalem they besieged that city a long while making but a small progress on account of the strength of its walls
and when the king of syria had taken the city elath upon the red sea and had slain the inhabitants he peopled it with syrians and when he had slain those in the other garrisons and the jews in their neighborhood
and had driven away much prey he returned with his army back to damascus now when the king of jerusalem knew that the syrians were returned home he supposing himself a match for the king of israel drew out his army against him
and joining battle with him was beaten and this happened because god was angry with him on account of his many and great enormities accordingly there were slain by the israelites one hundred and twenty thousand of his men that day
slew zechariah the king's son in his conflict with ahaz as well as the governor of the kingdom whose name was azricam he also carried elkanah the general of the troops of the tribe of judah into captivity
he met the army before the city walls and with a loud voice told them that they had gotten the victory not by their own strength but by reason of the anger god had against king ahaz
and he complained that they were not satisfied with the good success they had had against him but were so bold as to make captives out of their kinsmen the tribes of judah and benjamin he also gave them counsel to let them go home without doing them any harm
for that if they did not obey god herein they should be punished so the people of israel came together to their assembly and considered of these matters when a man whose name was berechiah and who was one of chief reputation in the government
as the prophets assure us nor ought we therefore to introduce the practice of new crimes when the soldiers heard that they permitted them to do what they thought best
so the forenamed men took the captives and let them go and took care of them and gave them provisions and sent them to their own country without doing them any harm
and sued for assistance from him in his war against the israelites and syrians and damascenes with a promise to send him much money he sent him also great presents at the same time
now this king upon the reception of those ambassadors came to assist ahaz and made war upon the syrians and laid their country waste and took damascus by force and slew rezin their king
and transplanted the people of damascus into the upper media and brought a colony of assyrians and planted them in damascus he also afflicted the land of israel and took many captives out of it
while he was doing thus with the syrians king ahaz took all the gold that was in the king's treasures and the silver and what was in the temple of god
and he carried them with him and came to damascus and gave it to the king of assyria according to his agreement so he confessed that he owed him thanks for all he had done for him and returned to jerusalem
that he would not leave off worshipping the syrian gods when he was beaten by them but he went on in worshipping them as though they would procure him the victory and when he was beaten again he began to honor the gods of the assyrians
and he seemed more desirous to honor any other gods than his own paternal and true god whose anger was the cause of his defeat nay he proceeded to such a degree of despite and contempt of god's worship that he shut up the temple entirely
and forbade them to bring in the appointed sacrifices and took away the gifts that had been given to it
as the flood pouring into the valley sweeps everything before it the people rushing to seek vengeance forced every one they met to join them no egyptian from whom death had snatched a loved one failed to follow the swelling torrent
which increased till hundreds became thousands men women and children freedmen and slaves winged by the ardent longing to bring death and destruction on the hated hebrews darted to the remote quarter where they dwelt
how the workman had grasped a hatchet the housewife an axe they themselves scarcely knew they were dashing forward to deal death and ruin and had had no occasion to search for weapons they had been close at hand
the first to feel the weight of their vengeance must be nun an aged hebrew rich in herds loved and esteemed by many an egyptian whom he had benefitted but when hate and revenge speak gratitude shrinks timidly into the background
usually at this hour herds of cattle and flocks of sheep were being watered or driven to pasture and the great yard before his house was filled with cattle servants of both sexes carts and agricultural implements
the owner usually overlooked the departure of the flocks and herds and the mob had marked him and his family for the first victims of their fury the swiftest of the avengers had now reached his extensive farm buildings among them hornecht
captain of the archers brother in law of the old astrologer house and barns were brightly illumined by the first light of the young day a stalwart smith kicked violently on the stout door
but the unbolted sides yielded so easily that he was forced to cling to the door post to save himself from falling others hornecht among them pressed past him into the yard what did this mean
the stalls contained a few dead cattle and sheep killed because they had been crippled in some way while a lame lamb
the carts and wagons too had vanished the lowing bleating throng which the priests had imagined to be the souls of the damned was the hebrew host departing by night from their old home with all their flocks under the guidance of moses
the captain of the archers dropped his sword and a spectator might have believed that the sight was a pleasant surprise to him but his neighbor a clerk from the king's treasure house gazed around the empty space with the disappointed air of a man who has been defrauded
the flood of schemes and passions which had surged so high during the night ebbed under the clear light of day even the soldier's quickly awakened wrath had long since subsided into composure
the populace might have wreaked their utmost fury on the other hebrews but not upon nun whose son hosea had been his comrade in arms one of the most distinguished leaders in the army and an intimate family friend
had he thought of him and foreseen that his father's dwelling would be first attacked he would never have headed the mob in their pursuit of vengeance nay he bitterly repented having forgotten the deliberate judgment which befitted his years
while many of the throng began to plunder and destroy nun's deserted home men and women came to report that not a soul was to be found in any of the neighboring dwellings others told of cats cowering on the deserted hearthstones
of slaughtered cattle and shattered furniture but at last the furious avengers dragged out a hebrew with his family and a half witted grey haired woman found hidden among some straw the crone
amid imbecile laughter said her people had made themselves hoarse calling her but meliela was too wise to walk on and on as they meant to do besides her feet were too tender and she had not even a pair of shoes
the man a frightfully ugly jew whom few of his own race would have pitied protested sometimes with a humility akin to fawning sometimes with the insolence which was a trait of his character that he had nothing to do with the god of lies
in whose name the seducer moses had led away his people to ruin he himself his wife and his child had always been on friendly terms with the egyptians indeed many knew him he was a money lender
and when the rest of his nation had set forth on their pilgrimage he had concealed himself hoping to pursue his dishonest calling and sustain no loss some of his debtors however were among the infuriated populace though even without their presence
nobody knew who had done this first bloody deed too many had dashed forward at once
also fell victims to the people's thirst for vengeance though many had time to escape and while streams of blood were flowing axes were wielded and walls and doors were battered down with beams and posts to efface the abodes of the detested race from the earth
so the hebrews dwellings escaped the flames but as the sun mounted higher dense clouds of white dust shrouded the abodes they had forsaken and where only yesterday thousands of people had possessed happy homes and numerous herds
had quenched their thirst in fresh waters the glowing soil was covered with rubbish and stone shattered beams and broken woodwork dogs and cats left behind by their owners wandered among the ruins and were joined by women and children
who lived in the beggars hovels on the edge of the necropolis close by and now holding their hands over their mouths searched amid the stifling dust and rubbish for any household utensil or food which might have been left by the fugitives and overlooked by the mob
yet a satisfied smile hovered around his stern mouth as he noticed how thoroughly the people had performed their work his own purpose it is true had not been fulfilled the leader of the fugitives had escaped their vengeance but hate though never sated
can yet be gratified even the smallest pangs of an enemy are a satisfaction and the priest had just come from the grieving pharaoh he had not succeeded in releasing him entirely from the bonds of the hebrew magician but he had loosened them
bless me too pharaoh had uttered them and the entreaty had been addressed neither to old rui the chief priest nor to himself the only persons who could possess the privilege of blessing the monarch
nay but to the most atrocious wretch that breathed to the foreigner the hebrew mesu whom he hated more than any other man on earth bless me too the pious entreaty which wells so trustingly from the human heart in the hour of anguish
had pierced his soul like a dagger it had seemed as if such a petition uttered by the royal lips to such a man had broken the crozier in the hand of the whole body of egyptian priests stripped the panther skin from their shoulders
and branded with shame the whole people whom he loved he knew full well that moses was one of the wisest sages who had ever graduated from the egyptian schools
knew that pharaoh was completely under the thrall of this man who had grown up in the royal household and been a friend of his father rameses the great he had seen the monarch pardon deeds committed by moses which would have cost the life of any other mortal
though he were the highest noble in the land and what must the hebrew be to pharaoh the sun god incarnate on the throne of the world when standing by the death bed of his own son he could yield to the impulse to uplift his hands to him and cry
bless me too he had told himself all these things maturely considered them yet he would not yield to the might of the strangers the destruction of this man and all his race was in his eyes the holiest most urgent duty
to accomplish which he would not shrink even from assailing the throne nay in his eyes pharaoh menephtah's shameful entreaty bless me too had deprived him of all the rights of sovereignty
moses had murdered pharaoh's first born son but he and the aged chief priest of amon held the weal or woe of the dead prince's soul in their hands a weapon sharp and strong for he knew the monarch's weak and vacillating heart
if the high priest of amon the only man whose authority surpassed his own did not thwart him by some of the unaccountable whims of age it would be the merest trifle to force pharaoh to yield
but any concession made to day would be withdrawn to morrow should the hebrew succeed in coming between the irresolute monarch and his egyptian advisers this very day the unworthy son of the great rameses had covered his face and trembled like a timid fawn
at the bare mention of the sorcerer's name and to morrow he might curse him and pronounce a death sentence upon him perhaps he might be induced to do this and on the following one he would recall him and again sue for his blessing
no the place is dark as pitch and we have no lights
if it's light enough for them it will be light enough for us lad let's find the way in and that will be enough they won't show fight let's get on and we shall be marching them all out tied two and two before they're much older
and upon receiving this information the master spread his men out a few yards apart to sweep the ground after the fashion observed on the previous night you must find it now my lads he said
yes something like the mouths of the old quarries we have seen added archy then there's something of the sort down yonder cried dick pointing to a spot where the ground seemed to have sunk down yes cried archy eagerly
and that's the place look here mister gurr
i can't my lad perhaps you can with your young eyes oh it's all right growled the boatswain keep a sharp look out then and mind no one gets by
the little force advanced with the men spread out to right and left the officers in the centre following the trail which led right to the gully like depression
and there sure enough as discovered only a short time before by celia was the scooped out hollow filled with fern bramble and wild clematis and the rough steps down and the archway dimly seen beyond the loose stones halt
cried the master and after a careful inspection had shown that the footprints in the dewy grass had gone no farther than the entrance the men were called up and stood round the pit there it all was exactly as archy had pictured it in his own mind
the loose stones at the bottom of the hole covering he was sure the trap door he had so often heard opened and shut but as he went down a few steps in his eagerness and scanned the place he was puzzled and disappointed
for the trap door if that was the spot where it lay was covered and therefore the men could not be in the cave bad job we've got no lanthorns said gurr who was looking over archy's shoulder
and it looks bad travelling but in we've got to go if they won't surrender let me go first my lad for answer the midshipman went down to the bottom of the rough steps and stood over the trap door on the loose stones
no no my lad said gurr kindly as he joined him too rough a job for you i'll lead and hang it i shall have to crawl not very good work for one's clothes come along my lads
you mister raystoke and four men stop back and form the reserve to take prisoner any one who tries to escape the men descended till every step was occupied the little force extending from top to bottom stop a minute mister gurr
let the bo's'n guard the entry here i must go with you to act as guide it aren't all passage then like this no it's a great open place supported by pillars big enough to lose yourselves in but stop that can't be the way sir
oh hang it all my lad cried the master in disappointed tones don't say that but i do cried archy there ought to be a trap door covered with stones leading down a place like a well yes that's what we've come down
no no another i think it was down here he stamped his foot on the loose stones and then uttered a cry of joy for there was a curious hollow sound and on stooping down he pulled away some of the great shaley fragments
and laid bare a rough plank with a bolt partly visible right got em at last cried gurr clear off more stones my lads no stop he said yes i know what you are thinking mister gurr said archy
he shouted into the hollow passage now then my lads out you come a pause
still no reply come come my lads no nonsense surrender i don't want to use pistols and cutlashes to englishmen you know the game's up surrender still no reply i don't
think that hole goes in far mister raystoke whispered the master there's no echo like and it sounds smothered then aloud now then is it surrender
oh very well i've got some nice little round messengers to send in after you he drew a pistol from his belt and cocked it winking at archy as he did so now then once twice fire
he pointed the mouth of the pistol downward and drew the trigger and in the semi darkness below the overhanging brambles and clematis there was a dull flash the report sounded smothered and the place was filled with the dank heavy scented smoke
there's precious little room in there whispered the master
hi in there do you surrender there was not a sound and after a momentary pause the master spat in his fist gripped his cutlass
went down on all fours after driving his hat on tightly and crawled into the hole followed by dick keep a cheery heart on it lad said one of the men just before to dick we'll fetch you out and bury you at sea
dick drove his elbow into the man's chest for an answer grinned as he felt the point of his cutlass and dived into the hole while the boatswain and his men stood waiting eagerly ready to plunge forward at the first sound of a scuffle
archy peered in at the dark passage his heart beating as he listened to the noise made by the two men crawling in and the last of the two had hardly disappeared when there was a shout a scuffle and the boatswain plunged in
as the listeners pictured in their own minds the man squeezing past the master and his prisoner and then dick's voice came out in a half smothered way can't get no farther all choked up all right then but make sure
oh i'm sure enough said dick it's all a stopper here then out you come my lad said the master and the next minute his legs were seed as he backed out dragging evidently some one after him who was resisting
here dick came in smothered tones ay ay sir says he won't come if he gives me any more of his nonsense touch him up behind with the pynte of your cutlash
ram exclaimed archy as the boy looking hot and fierce was dragged out by the master to stand looking round him as fiercely as a wild cat hullo cried archy it's my turn now ram
but he repented his words directly as he saw the reproachful look the boy darted at him then he forgot all directly as he exclaimed
unable to contain himself ram thoroughly endorsed the midshipman's words by giving an angry stamp upon the bottom of the hole that's it cried gurr here chuck these stones into the passage my lads
and the rough trap door was laid bare the two bolts by which it was secured were seen to be unfastened and the lock unshot no way out mister raystoke is there no then we've got em trapped safe this time said gurr as the door was thrown open
if they won't surrender you must feel your way with the pyntes of your toothpicks there was a murmur of excitement among the men and then gurr leaned down over the hole put his hand to his mouth and shouted
his words went rolling and echoing through the place but there was no reply once more my lads to save bloodshed will you surrender no reply
ah you do not know with what i am threatened
the devil take the constitutional government and since we had our choice as they say at least how could we choose that i understand you must lay in a stock of hilarity
he votes for you for he belongs to the opposition pardieu that is exactly the worst of all
my dear friend said albert to beauchamp it is plain that the affairs of spain are settled for you are most desperately out of humor this morning recollect that parisian gossip
i cannot in conscience therefore let you run down the speeches of a man who will one day say to me
the king has made him a baron and can make him a peer but he cannot make him a gentleman and the count of morcerf is too aristocratic to consent for the paltry sum of two million francs to a mesalliance
but two million francs make a nice little sum replied morcerf
jardin des plantes to la rapee never mind what he says morcerf said debray do you marry her
on my word i think you are right lucien said albert absently to be sure besides every millionaire is as noble as a bastard that is he can be
for here is chateau renaud who to cure you of your mania for paradoxes
said the servant announcing two fresh guests now then to breakfast said beauchamp for if i remember you told me you only expected two persons albert morrel muttered albert morrel who is he
took albert's hand my dear albert said he
salute my hero viscount and he stepped on one side to give place to a young man of refined and dignified bearing with large and open brow piercing eyes and black mustache whom our readers have already seen at marseilles under
circumstances sufficiently dramatic not to be forgotten a rich uniform half french half oriental
monsieur said albert with affectionate courtesy the count of chateau renaud knew how much pleasure this introduction would give me you are his friend be ours also well said interrupted chateau renaud
and pray that if you should ever be in a similar predicament he may do as much for you as he did for me
oh nothing worth speaking of said morrel
cried chateau renaud life is not worth speaking of that is rather too philosophical on my word morrel
do not set him off on some long story well
chateau renaud can tell us while we eat our breakfast gentlemen said morcerf
ah true a diplomatist observed debray diplomat or not i don't know
which he terminated so entirely to my satisfaction that had i been king
even had i been able to offer him the golden fleece and the garter well since we are not to sit down to table said debray take a glass of sherry and tell us all about it you all know that i had the fancy of going to africa
observed the young aristocrat it was only to fight as an amateur
the devil take me if i remember returned chateau renaud but i recollect perfectly one thing that being unwilling to let such talents as mine sleep
in consequence i embarked for oran
i retreated with the rest for eight and forty hours i endured the rain during the day and the cold during the night tolerably well
poor brute accustomed to be covered up and to have a stove in the stable
you are mistaken for i have made a vow never to return to africa you were very much frightened then asked beauchamp well yes and i had good reason to be so replied chateau renaud
i was retreating on foot for my horse was dead six arabs came up full gallop to cut off my head i shot two with my double barrelled gun and two more with my pistols but i was then disarmed and two were still left one seized me by the hair
the other swung a yataghan and i already felt the cold steel on my neck when this gentleman whom you see here charged them
he had assigned himself the task of saving a man's life that day
when i am rich i will order a statue of chance from klagmann or marochetti yes said morrel smiling
therefore as far as it lies in my power i endeavor to celebrate it by some heroic action interrupted chateau renaud i was chosen but that is not all
not by sharing his cloak with me like saint martin
from hunger by sharing with me guess what a strasbourg pie
no his horse of which we each of us ate a slice with a hearty appetite it was very hard the horse
no the sacrifice returned chateau renaud
not for a stranger said debray but for a friend i might perhaps
continued chateau renaud is an admirable one which he will tell you some day when you are better acquainted with him to day let us fill our stomachs and not our memories what time do you breakfast albert at half past ten precisely asked debray taking out his watch
for i also expect a preserver of whom of myself cried morcerf
our breakfast is a philanthropic one and we shall have at table at least i hope so two benefactors of humanity
and where does he come from asked debray
really said albert i do not know
he was then at rome but since that time who knows where he may have gone and you think him capable of being exact demanded debray i think him capable of everything well
i will profit by them to tell you something about my guest
called the catacombs of saint sebastian i know it said chateau renaud i narrowly escaped catching a fever there and i did more than that replied morcerf for i caught one i was informed that i was prisoner until i paid the sum of four thousand roman crowns
i was at the end of my journey and of my credit i wrote to franz and were he here he would confirm every word i wrote then to franz
at ten minutes past i should have gone to join the blessed saints and glorious martyrs in whose company i had the honor of being and signor luigi vampa such was the name of the chief of these bandits
but franz did come with the four thousand crowns said chateau renaud a man whose name is franz d'epinay or albert de morcerf has not much difficulty in procuring them no he arrived accompanied simply by the guest i am going to present to you
ah this gentleman is a hercules killing cacus a perseus freeing andromeda no he is a man about my own size armed to the teeth
but he paid your ransom he said two words to the chief and i was free and they apologized to him for having carried you off said beauchamp just so why he is a second ariosto no
his name is the count of monte cristo there is no count of monte cristo said debray
does any one know anything of a count of monte cristo
i think i can assist your researches said maximilian monte cristo is a little island i have often heard spoken of by the old sailors my father employed a grain of sand in the centre of the mediterranean an atom in the infinite precisely cried albert well
he is rich then i believe so but that ought to be visible
have you read the arabian nights what a question well do you know
they seem like poor fishermen and suddenly they open some mysterious cavern filled with the wealth of the indies which means which means that my count of monte cristo is one of those fishermen
no but franz has for heaven's sake not a word of this before him franz went in with his eyes blindfolded and
for they did not come in until after he had taken hashish
the two young men looked at morcerf as if to say are you mad or are you laughing at us
gives a clew to the labyrinth my dear albert said debray
ah because your ambassadors and your consuls do not tell you of them they have no time they are too much taken up with interfering in the affairs of their countrymen who travel now you get angry and attack our poor agents how will you have them protect you
the chamber cuts down their salaries every day
send me the bowstring and make my secretaries strangle me you say very true responded debray yes said albert
pardieu every one exists doubtless but not in the same way every one has not black slaves a princely retinue an arsenal of weapons that would do credit to an arabian fortress horses that cost six thousand francs apiece
and greek mistresses have you seen the greek mistress
i saw her at the theatre and heard her one morning when i breakfasted with the count he eats then yes but so little it can hardly be called eating he must be a vampire laugh if you will the countess g who knew lord ruthven
wild eyes
facial angle strongly developed magnificent forehead livid complexion black beard
politeness unexceptionable
returned morcerf you have described him feature for feature yes keen and cutting politeness this man has often made me shudder and one day that we were viewing an execution i thought i should faint
than from the sight of the executioner and the culprit
surrendering your soul to him as esau did his birth right rail on rail on at your ease gentlemen
when i look at you parisians
i am highly flattered returned beauchamp at the same time added chateau renaud your count of monte cristo is a very fine fellow always excepting his little arrangements with the italian banditti there are no italian banditti said debray
there is half past ten striking albert confess you have dreamed this and let us sit down to breakfast continued beauchamp but the sound of the clock had not died away when germain announced his excellency the count of monte cristo
and albert himself could not wholly refrain from manifesting sudden emotion he had not heard a carriage stop in the street or steps in the ante chamber
the count appeared dressed with the greatest simplicity but the most fastidious dandy
every article of dress hat coat gloves and boots was from the first makers he seemed scarcely five and thirty
who hastened towards him holding out
punctuality said monte cristo is the politeness of kings according to one of your sovereigns i think
however i hope you will excuse the two or three seconds i am behindhand
it is forbidden to beat the postilions my dear count replied albert
and whom i now present to you they are the count of chateau renaud whose nobility goes back to the twelve peers and whose ancestors had a place at the round table
and the terror of the french government but of whom in spite of his national celebrity
at this name the count
but at the same time with coldness and formality stepped a pace forward
you wear the uniform of the new french conquerors monsieur said he it is a handsome uniform no one could have said what caused the count's voice to vibrate so deeply and what made his eye flash
which was in general so clear lustrous and limpid when he pleased
said albert never replied the count who was by this time perfectly master of himself again well
interrupted morrel let me go on captain and we have just heard continued albert of a new deed of his and so heroic a one that
at these words it was still possible to observe in monte cristo the concentrated look changing color and slight trembling of the eyelid that show emotion ah you have a noble heart said the count so much the better this exclamation
which corresponded to the count's own thought rather than to what albert was saying
in reality replied the latter
had penetrated at once all that was penetrable in monte cristo albert has not deceived us for the count is a most singular being what say you morrel ma foi
gentlemen said albert germain informs me that breakfast is ready my dear count allow me to show you the way they passed silently into the breakfast room and every one took his place gentlemen said the count seating himself permit me to make a confession
i am a stranger and a stranger to such a degree
the french way of living is utterly unknown to me
which are entirely in contrast to the parisian i beg you therefore
the count was it may be remembered a most temperate guest albert remarked this expressing his fears lest
my dear count said he i fear one thing and that is that the fare of the rue du helder
as that of the piazza di spagni i ought to have consulted you on the point
did you know me better returned the count smiling
who has successively lived on maccaroni at naples polenta at milan
i eat everywhere and of everything only i eat but little and to day that you reproach me with my want of appetite is my day of appetite
what cried all the guests
no replied the count i was forced to go out of my road to obtain some information near nimes
asked morcerf no i slept
but you can sleep when you please monsieur said morrel yes you have a recipe for it an infallible one that would be invaluable to us in africa who have not always any food to eat and rarely anything to drink
yes said monte cristo but unfortunately a recipe excellent for a man like myself would be very dangerous applied to an army which might not awake when it was needed may we inquire
oh yes returned monte cristo i make no secret of it
and the best hashish which grows in the east
and formed into pills ten minutes after one is taken the effect is produced ask baron franz d'epinay i think he tasted them one day
but said beauchamp who as became a journalist was very incredulous you always carry this drug about you always would
hoping to take him at a disadvantage no monsieur returned the count
but it was more to examine the admirable emerald than to see the pills that it passed from hand to hand
replied monte cristo i do not thus betray my enjoyments to the vulgar
this is a magnificent emerald and the largest i have ever seen said chateau renaud
i had three similar ones returned monte cristo i gave one to the sultan who mounted it in his sabre another to our holy father the pope who had it set in his tiara
which reduced its value but rendered it more commodious for the purpose i intended every one looked at monte cristo with astonishment
however the sight of the emerald made them naturally incline to the former belief
what did these two sovereigns give you in exchange for these magnificent presents asked debray the sultan the liberty of a woman replied the count the pope the life of a man so that once in my life
perhaps returned the count smiling my dear count you have no idea what pleasure it gives me to hear you speak thus said morcerf i had announced you beforehand
ah said monte cristo you promised me never to mention that circumstance it was not i who made that promise cried morcerf
pray speak of it for i shall not only i trust relate the little i do know
that you played a sufficiently important part to know as well as myself what happened well you promise me if i tell all i know to relate in your turn all that i do not know
replied monte cristo well said morcerf for three days i believed myself the object of the attentions of a masque
a contadina and i say contadina to avoid saying peasant girl
a greater fool than he of whom i spoke just now i mistook for this peasant girl a young bandit of fifteen or sixteen with a beardless chin and slim waist and who just as i was about to imprint a chaste salute on his lips
to the catacombs of saint sebastian
and who deigned to leave off reading to inform me that unless the next morning before six o'clock
but i know not count how you contrived to inspire so much respect in the bandits of rome who ordinarily have so little respect for anything
nothing more simple returned the count i had known the famous vampa for more than ten years
i gave him a few gold pieces for showing me my way
which ought to have cemented our friendship or whether he did not recollect me he sought to take me but on the contrary it was i who captured him and a dozen of his band
but i did nothing of the sort i suffered him and his band to depart
i see they kept their promise no monsieur returned monte cristo upon the simple condition that they should respect myself and my friends
but i never seek to protect a society which does not protect me
which i will even say generally occupies itself about me only to injure me
and preserving a neutrality towards them it is society and my neighbor who are indebted to me bravo cried chateau renaud you are the first man i ever met sufficiently courageous to preach egotism bravo count bravo it is frank at least said morrel
how have i deviated from those principles monsieur asked monte cristo who could not help looking at morrel with so much intensity
why it seems to me replied morrel
my dear count cried morcerf
you must see it clearly proved that instead of being an egotist you are a philanthropist
a levantine maltese indian chinese your family name is monte cristo
the first day you set foot in paris
of us eccentric parisians that is you assume the vices you have not
my dear vicomte returned monte cristo i do not see in all i have done
our himalaya is mount valerien our great desert is the plain of grenelle where they are now boring an artesian well to water the caravans we have plenty of thieves though not so many as is said
france is so prosaic and paris so civilized a city
i say eighty five because i do not include corsica you will not find then in these eighty five departments a single hill on which there is not a telegraph
there is but one service i can render you
besides you have no need of any one to introduce you
you can present yourself everywhere and be well received
you may depend upon me to find you a fitting dwelling here
for except myself these rooms would not hold a shadow more
ah said the count
the affair is still in projection and he who says in projection means already decided said debray no replied morcerf my father is most anxious about it and i hope ere long to introduce you
mademoiselle eugenie danglars eugenie
said monte cristo tell me is not her father baron danglars yes
what matter said monte cristo if he has rendered the state services which merit this distinction
although in reality a liberal
but at his button hole ah interrupted morcerf laughing
but spare my future father in law before me then turning to monte cristo you just now spoke his name as if you knew the baron i do not know him returned monte cristo but i shall probably soon make his acquaintance for
i have a credit opened with him by the house of richard and blount of london arstein and eskeles of vienna and thomson and french at rome
if the stranger expected to produce an effect on morrel he was not mistaken maximilian started as if he had been electrified thomson and french said he
they are my bankers in the capital of the christian world returned the count quietly can my influence with them be of any service to you oh count you could assist me perhaps in researches which have been up to the present fruitless
this house in past years did ours a great service and has i know not for what reason always denied having rendered us this service i shall be at your orders said monte cristo bowing but continued morcerf
come gentlemen let us all propose some place
the count will find there a charming hotel with a court and garden bah
returned debray you only know your dull and gloomy faubourg saint germain
and as he smokes his chibouque see all paris pass before him you have no idea then morrel asked chateau renaud you do not propose anything oh yes returned the young man smiling on the contrary i have one
in the rue meslay you have a sister asked the count yes monsieur a most excellent sister married nearly nine years happy asked the count again
emmanuel herbaut monte cristo smiled imperceptibly i live there during my leave of absence continued maximilian and i shall be together with my brother in law emmanuel at the disposition of the count whenever he thinks fit to honor us
oh no said morrel my sister is five and twenty my brother in law is thirty they are gay young and happy besides the count will be in his own house and only see them when he thinks fit to do so thanks monsieur said monte cristo
i shall content myself with being presented to your sister and her husband
but i cannot accept the offer of any one of these gentlemen since my habitation is already prepared what cried morcerf
that will be very dull for you was i so badly lodged at rome said monte cristo smiling
but as i determined to have a house to myself i sent on my valet de chambre
he is black and cannot speak returned monte cristo it is ali cried albert in the midst of the general surprise
certainly said morcerf i recollect him perfectly but how could you charge a nubian to purchase a house and a mute to furnish it
undeceive yourself monsieur replied monte cristo i am quite sure that on the contrary
he knows my tastes my caprices my wants
he knew that i should arrive to day at ten o'clock
very princely added chateau renaud
the young men looked at each other
besides why should he tell a falsehood we must content ourselves then
thanks monsieur returned monte cristo
is your steward also a nubian asked debray no he is a countryman of yours if a corsican is a countryman of any one's
who understands hiring windows so well yes you saw him the day i had the honor of receiving you
a stab with a knife for instance
of how much does he rob you every year on my word replied the count not more than another
then continued chateau renaud
you only want a mistress albert smiled
said monte cristo i have a slave you procure your mistresses from the opera the vaudeville or the varietes
it cost me more but i have nothing to fear but you forget replied debray laughing
she only speaks romaic that is different
oh no replied monte cristo i do not carry brutalism so far every one who surrounds me is free to quit me
they had long since passed to dessert and cigars my dear albert said debray rising it is half past two your guest is charming but you leave the best company to go into the worst sometimes
take care returned albert
oh
i promise you au revoir albert gentlemen good morning as he left the room debray called out loudly my carriage
do not deprive me of the merit of introducing him everywhere
are you coming morrel directly
spargo sat down again in the chair which he had just left and looked at the two people upon whom his startling announcement had produced such a curious effect and he recognized as he looked at them that while they were both frightened they were frightened in different ways
miss baylis had already recovered her composure she now sat sombre and stern as ever returning spargo's look with something of indifferent defiance he thought he could see that in her mind a certain fear was battling with a certain amount of wonder that he had discovered the secret
the secret had come to an end it was as if she said in so many words that now the secret was out he might do his worst but upon mister septimus elphick the effect was very different he was still trembling from excitement
he groaned as he sank into his chair and the hand with which he poured out a glass of spirits shook the glass rattled against his teeth when he raised it to his lips
he was a man who had received a shock and a bad one
this man knows a great deal more than a great deal beyond the mere fact that marbury was maitland and that ronald breton is in reality maitland's son
it was as if he had buried something deep deep down in the lowest depths
i shall wait suddenly said spargo until you are composed mister elphick i have no wish to distress you
shall we say fear elphick took another stiff pull at his liquor his hand had grown steadier and the colour was coming back to his face if you will let me explain he said
that answered spargo is precisely what i wish i can tell you this i am the last man in the world to wish harm of any sort to mister breton miss baylis relieved her feelings with a scornful sniff
he says that knowing that he means to tell the world in his rag of a paper that ronald breton on whom every care has been lavished is the son of a scoundrel an ex convict a elphick lifted his hand hush hush he said imploringly
mister spargo means well i am sure i am convinced
but before spargo could reply a loud insistent knocking came at the outer door elphick started nervously but presently he moved across the room walking as if he had received a blow and opened the door a boy's voice penetrated into the sitting room
if you please sir is mister spargo of the watchman here he left this address in case he was wanted spargo recognized the voice as that of one of the office messenger boys and jumping up went to the door what is it rawlins he asked
all right
he motioned the lad away and turned to elphick i shall have to go he said i may be kept now mister elphick can i come to see you tomorrow morning yes yes tomorrow morning replied elphick eagerly tomorrow morning certainly
at eleven eleven o'clock that will do
said spargo eleven sharp he was moving away when elphick caught him by the sleeve a word just a word he said you you have not told the the boy ronald of what you know you haven't i haven't replied spargo
elphick tightened his grip on spargo's sleeve he looked into his face beseechingly
he implored i beg you to promise me this spargo hesitated considering matters very well i promise he said and you won't print it continued elphick still clinging to him say you won't print it tonight
i shall not print it tonight answered spargo that's certain elphick released his grip on the young man's arm come at eleven tomorrow morning he said and drew back and closed the door
spargo ran quickly to the office and hurried up to his own room and there calmly seated in an easy chair
he greeted spargo with a careless nod and a smile well he said how's things spargo half breathless dropped into his desk chair
rathbury laughed no he said throwing the newspaper aside i didn't i came to tell you my latest you're at full liberty to stick it into your paper tonight it may just as well be known well said spargo
rathbury took his cigar out of his lips and yawned
spargo sat up sharply identified identified my son beyond doubt but as whom as what exclaimed spargo rathbury laughed he's an old lag an ex convict served his time partly at dartmoor
that of course is where he met maitland or marbury d'ye see clear as noontide now spargo spargo sat drumming his fingers on the desk before him his eyes were fixed on a map of london that hung on the opposite wall
his ears heard the throbbing of the printing machines far below but what he really saw
was the voices of two girls clear as noontide as noontide repeated rathbury with great cheerfulness spargo came back to the earth of plain and brutal fact what's clear as noontide
he asked sharply what why the whole thing motive everything answered rathbury don't you see maitland and aylmore his real name is ainsworth by the by
in time maitland who after his time has also gone abroad also comes back the two meet maitland probably tries to blackmail aylmore or threatens to let folk know that the flourishing mister aylmore m p is an ex convict result
pooh the whole thing's clear as noontide as i say as noontide spargo drummed his fingers again how he asked quietly how came aylmore to be identified
my work said rathbury proudly my work my son you see i thought a lot and especially after we'd found out that marbury was maitland you mean after i'd found out remarked spargo rathbury waved his cigar
well well it's all the same he said
well as i say i thought a considerable lot
at any rate before his trial and we haven't the least proof that he was in london after and why won't aylmore tell clearly because it must have been in some undesirable place and then all of a sudden it flashed on me in a moment of
inspiration i should think said spargo direct inspiration that's it in a moment of direct inspiration it flashed on me why twenty years ago maitland was in dartmoor they must have met there
of course he's twenty years older and he's grown a beard but they began to recall him
asked spargo rathbury pitched his cigar into the fireplace and laughed know he said scornfully know he's admitted it what was the use of standing out against proof like that he admitted it tonight in my presence oh he knows all right
and what did he say rathbury laughed contemptuously say oh not much pretty much what he said about this affair that when he was convicted the time before he was an innocent man
and of what was he convicted oh of course we know all about it now as soon as we found out who he really was we had all the particulars turned up aylmore or ainsworth stephen ainsworth his name really is
was a man who ran a sort of what they call a mutual benefit society in a town right away up in the north cloudhampton some thirty years ago
cloudhampton's a purely artisan population and they stuck a lot of their brass as they call it in it then suddenly it came to smash and there was nothing he ainsworth or aylmore pleaded that he was robbed and duped by another man but the court didn't believe him and he got seven years
all stories are quite plain when they come out
just so agreed rathbury and i don't know that i blame him he thought of course that he'd go scot free over this marbury affair
spargo got up from his desk and walked around his room for a few minutes rathbury meanwhile finding and lighting another cigar at last spargo came back and clapped a hand on the detective's shoulder look here rathbury
he said it's very evident that you're now going on the lines that aylmore did murder marbury eh rathbury looked up his face showed astonishment after evidence like that he exclaimed why of course there's the motive my son the motive
spargo laughed rathbury he said aylmore no more murdered marbury than you did the detective got up and put on his hat oh he said perhaps you know who did then i shall know in a few days answered spargo
rathbury stared wonderingly at him then he suddenly walked to the door good night
chapter twelve when they all drove back from pelageya danilovna's natasha who always saw and noticed everything arranged that she and madame schoss should go back in the sleigh with dimmler
and sonya with nicholas and the maids on the way back nicholas drove at a steady pace instead of racing and kept peering by that fantastic all transforming light into sonya's face
from whom he had resolved never to be parted again
the old and the new sonya and being reminded by the smell of burnt cork of the sensation of her kiss inhaled the frosty air with a full breast and looking at the ground flying beneath him and at the sparkling sky
felt himself again in fairyland sonya is it well with thee he asked from time to time yes she replied
when halfway home nicholas handed the reins to the coachman and ran for a moment to natasha's sleigh and stood on its wing natasha he whispered in french do you know i have made up my mind about sonya
have you told her
i am so glad so glad i was beginning to be vexed with you i did not tell you but you have been treating her badly what a heart she has nicholas
i am horrid sometimes but i was ashamed to be happy while sonya was not continued natasha now i am so glad
peering into her face and finding in his sister too something new unusual and bewitchingly tender that he had not seen in her before natasha it's magical isn't it yes she replied you have done splendidly
had i seen her before as she is now thought nicholas i should long ago have asked her what to do and have done whatever she told me and all would have been well so you are glad and i have done right
oh quite right i had a quarrel with mamma some time ago about it mamma said she was angling for you how could she say such a thing i nearly stormed at mamma i will never let anyone say anything bad of sonya
for there is nothing but good in her then it's all right said nicholas again scrutinizing the expression of his sister's face to see if she was in earnest then he jumped down
ran back to his sleigh the same happy smiling
with mustache and beaming eyes looking up from under a sable hood was still sitting there and that circassian was sonya and that sonya was certainly his future happy and loving wife when they reached home
at the melyukovs the girls went to their bedroom
they sat a long time talking of their happiness they talked of how they would live when they were married how their husbands would be friends and how happy they would be on natasha's table stood two looking glasses
which dunyasha had prepared beforehand
sit down natasha perhaps you'll see him said sonya natasha lit the candles
i see someone with a mustache said natasha seeing her own face you mustn't laugh miss said dunyasha with sonya's help and the maid's natasha got the glass she held into the right position opposite the other
her face assumed a serious expression and she sat silent she sat a long time looking at the receding line of candles reflected in the glasses and expecting from tales she had heard to see a coffin or him prince andrew
in that last dim indistinctly outlined square
or of a coffin she saw nothing
you sit down now sonya you absolutely must tonight do it for me today i feel so frightened sonya sat down before the glasses got the right position and began looking
now miss sonya is sure to see something whispered dunyasha while you do nothing but laugh sonya heard this and natasha's whisper i know she will she saw something last year
for about three minutes all were silent of course she will whispered natasha but did not finish suddenly sonya pushed away the glass she was holding
and covered her eyes with her hand oh natasha she cried did you see did you what was it exclaimed natasha holding up the looking glass sonya had not seen anything she was just wanting to blink and to get up
but it was hard to sit still she did not herself know how or why the exclamation escaped her when she covered her eyes
yes wait a bit i
not yet knowing whom natasha meant by him nicholas or prince andrew but why shouldn't i say i saw something others do see besides who can tell whether i saw anything or not flashed through sonya's mind
yes i saw him she said how standing or lying no i saw at first there was nothing then i saw him lying down
andrew lying is he ill asked natasha her frightened eyes fixed on her friend no on the contrary on the contrary his face was cheerful and he turned to me
well and then sonya after that i could not make out what there was something blue and red
came into the ballroom where candles were hurriedly lighted the clown dimmler and the lady nicholas
covering their faces and disguising their voices bowed to their hostess and arranged themselves about the room dear me there's no recognizing them and natasha see whom she looks like
she really reminds me of somebody but herr dimmler isn't he good i didn't know him and how he dances dear me there's a circassian really how becoming it is to dear sonya
and who is that well you have cheered us up
the hussar the hussar just like a boy and the legs i can't look at him different voices were saying natasha the young melyukovs favorite disappeared with them into the back rooms
pelageya danilovna having given orders to clear the rooms for the visitors and arranged about refreshments for the gentry and the serfs went about among the mummers without removing her spectacles
peering into their faces with a suppressed smile and failing to recognize any of them it was not merely dimmler and the rostovs she failed to recognize
dressing gowns and uniforms which they had put on
kazan tartar i suppose it is one of the rostovs well mister hussar and what regiment do you serve in she asked natasha here hand some fruit jelly to the turk she ordered the butler who was handing things round
that's not forbidden by his law
cut by the dancers who having decided once for all that being disguised no one would recognize them were not at all shy pelageya danilovna hid her face in her handkerchief and her whole stout body
shook with irrepressible kindly elderly laughter
after russian country dances and chorus dances
made the serfs and gentry join in one large circle a ring a string and a silver ruble were fetched and they all played games together in an hour all the costumes were crumpled and disordered
admired their cleverly contrived costumes and particularly how they suited the young ladies and she thanked them all for having entertained her so well the visitors were invited to supper in the drawing room
and the serfs had something served to them in the ballroom now to tell one's fortune in the empty bathhouse is frightening said an old maid who lived with the melyukovs during supper why said the eldest melyukov girl
said sonya tell what happened to the young lady said the second melyukov girl well began the old maid a young lady once went out took a cock laid the table for two all properly
and sat down after sitting a while
a sleigh drives up with harness bells she hears him coming he comes in just in the shape of a man like an officer
yes and how did he speak yes like a man
but she got frightened just got frightened and hid her face in her hands
now why frighten them said pelageya danilovna
and how does one do it in a barn inquired sonya well
it depends on what you hear hammering and knocking that's bad but a sound of shifting grain is good
mamma tell us what happened to you in the barn pelageya danilovna smiled
let me i'll go said sonya well why not if you're not afraid louisa ivanovna may i asked sonya
or the ruble game or talking as now
halfway lay some snow covered piles of firewood and across and along them a network of shadows from the bare old lime trees fell on the snow and on the path this path led to the barn
the log walls of the barn and its snow covered roof that looked as if hewn out of some precious stone sparkled in the moonlight
and then all was again perfectly silent his bosom seemed to inhale not air but the strength of eternal youth and gladness from the back porch came the sound of feet descending the steps
the bottom step upon which snow had fallen gave a ringing creak and he heard the voice of an old maidservant saying straight
and along the path toward nicholas came the crunching whistling sound of sonya's feet in her thin shoes sonya came along wrapped in her cloak
she was only a couple of paces away when she saw him and to her too he was not the nicholas she had known and always slightly feared he was in a woman's dress with tousled hair and a happy smile new to sonya
she ran rapidly toward him quite different and yet the same thought nicholas looking at her face all lit up by the moonlight he slipped his arms under the cloak that covered her head embraced her
chapter thirteen soon after the christmas holidays nicholas told his mother of his love for sonya
the countess who had long noticed what was going on between them and was expecting this declaration listened to him in silence and then told her son that he might marry whom he pleased but that neither she nor his father
she sent for her husband and when he came tried briefly and coldly to inform him of the facts in her son's presence but unable to restrain herself she burst into tears of vexation and left the room
the old count began irresolutely to admonish nicholas and beg him to abandon his purpose
and went in to the countess in all his encounters with his son the count was always conscious of his own guilt toward him for
on this occasion he was only more vividly conscious
could have been wished for and that no one but himself with his mitenka
was to blame for the condition of the family finances the father and mother did not speak of the matter to their son again but a few days later the countess sent for sonya and
with a cruelty neither of them expected reproached her niece for trying to catch nicholas and for ingratitude sonya listened silently with downcast eyes
she could not help loving the countess and the whole rostov family but neither could she help loving nicholas and knowing that his happiness depended on that love she was silent and sad and did not reply
nicholas felt the situation to be intolerable and went to have an explanation with his mother he first implored her to forgive him and sonya and consent to their marriage then he threatened that if she molested sonya
he would at once marry her secretly the countess with a coldness her son had never seen in her before replied that he was of age that prince andrew was marrying without his father's consent and he could do the same
but that she would never receive that intriguer as her daughter exploding at the word intriguer
he had never expected her to try to force him to sell his feelings but if that were so
but he had no time to utter the decisive word which the expression of his face caused his mother to await with terror
entered the room from the door at which she had been listening nicholas you are talking nonsense
my poor sweet darling she said to her mother who conscious that they had been on the brink of a rupture gazed at her son with terror but in the obstinacy and excitement of the conflict could not and would not give way
nicholas i'll explain to you go away listen mamma darling said natasha
but they attained the purpose at which she was aiming the countess sobbing heavily hid her face on her daughter's breast while nicholas rose clutching his head and left the room natasha set to work to effect a reconciliation
and so far succeeded that nicholas received a promise from his mother that sonya should not be troubled while he on his side promised not to undertake anything without his parents knowledge
firmly resolved after putting his affairs in order in the regiment to retire from the army and return and marry sonya nicholas serious sorrowful and at variance with his parents but as it seemed to him
passionately in love left at the beginning of january to rejoin his regiment after nicholas had gone things in the rostov household were more depressing than ever
sonya was unhappy at the separation from nicholas and still more so on account of the hostile tone the countess could not help adopting toward her the count was more perturbed than ever by the condition of his affairs
which called for some decisive action their town house and estate near moscow had inevitably to be sold and for this they had to go to moscow
which she would have employed in loving him were being vainly wasted with no advantage to anyone tormented her incessantly his letters for the most part irritated her it hurt her to think that while she lived only in the thought of him
he was living a real life seeing new places and new people that interested him
her letters to him far from giving her any comfort seemed to her a wearisome and artificial obligation she could not write because she could not conceive the possibility of expressing sincerely in a letter
even a thousandth part of what she expressed by voice smile and glance she wrote to him formal monotonous and dry letters to which she attached no importance herself
and in the rough copies of which the countess corrected her mistakes in spelling
but it was impossible to defer the journey to moscow any longer natasha's trousseau had to be ordered
moreover prince andrew was expected in moscow
was spending the winter and natasha felt sure he had already arrived so the countess remained in the country and the count
nothing that everything good is past
but sad i should think so he replied i have felt like that when everything was all right and everyone was cheerful the thought has come into my mind that i was already tired of it all and that we must all die
once in the regiment i had not gone to some merrymaking where there was music and suddenly i felt so depressed
when i was quite little that used to be so with me
you were all dancing and i sat sobbing in the schoolroom i shall never forget it i felt sad and sorry for everyone for myself and for everyone and i was innocent
i remember answered nicholas
i felt ashamed to we were terribly absurd
and do you remember natasha asked with a pensive smile how once long long ago when we were quite little uncle called us into the study
and suddenly there stood a negro chimed in nicholas with a smile of delight of course i remember
or if we only dreamed it or were told about him he was gray you remember and had white teeth and stood and looked at us sonya do you remember asked nicholas yes yes
i do remember something too sonya answered timidly you know i have asked papa and mamma about that negro said natasha
and suddenly two old women began spinning round on the carpet was that real or not
smiling with pleasure not the sad memories of old age but poetic youthful ones those impressions of one's most distant past in which dreams and realities blend and they laughed with quiet enjoyment sonya
she simply enjoyed their pleasure and tried to fit in with it she only really took part when they recalled sonya's first arrival
he had on a corded jacket and her nurse had told her that she too would be sewn up with cords and i remember their telling me that you had been born under a cabbage said natasha and i remember that i dared not disbelieve it then
it isn't wanted petya tell them to take it away replied natasha in the middle of their talk in the sitting room
he took off its cloth covering and the harp gave out a jarring sound mister dimmler please play my favorite nocturne by field came the old countess voice from the drawing room
dimmler struck a chord and turning to natasha nicholas and sonya remarked how quiet you young people are
they were now discussing dreams dimmler began to play natasha
and returned seating herself quietly in her former place it was dark in the room especially where they were sitting on the sofa but through the big windows the silvery light of the full moon fell on the floor
dimmler had finished the piece but still sat softly running his fingers over the strings evidently uncertain whether to stop or to play something else
do you know said natasha in a whisper moving closer to nicholas and sonya that when one goes on and on recalling memories one at last begins to remember what happened before one was in the world
and remembered everything the egyptians believed that our souls have lived in animals and will go back into animals again no i don't believe we ever were in animals said natasha still in a whisper though the music had ceased
but i am certain that we were angels somewhere there and have been here
may i join you said dimmler who had come up quietly
why have we fallen lower said nicholas no that can't be not lower who said we were lower how do i know what i was before natasha rejoined with conviction the soul is immortal well then
why is it hard to imagine eternity said natasha it is now today and it will be tomorrow and always and there was yesterday and the day before natasha now it's your turn sing me something they heard the countess say
none of them not even the middle aged dimmler
but natasha got up and nicholas sat down at the clavichord standing as usual in the middle of the hall and choosing the place where the resonance was best natasha began to sing her mother's favorite song
but it was long since she had sung and long before she again sang as she did that evening the count from his study where he was talking to mitenka heard her and
like a schoolboy in a hurry to run out to play blundered in his talk while giving orders to the steward
nicholas did not take his eyes off his sister and drew breath in time with her sonya as she listened thought of the immense difference there was between herself and her friend
and how impossible it was for her to be anything like as bewitching as her cousin the old countess sat with a blissful yet sad smile
occasionally shaking her head she thought of natasha and of her own youth and of how there was something unnatural and dreadful
and prince andrew dimmler who had seated himself beside the countess listened with closed eyes ah countess he said at last that's a european talent she has nothing to learn
what softness tenderness and strength ah how afraid i am for her how afraid i am said the countess not realizing to whom she was speaking
her maternal instinct told her that natasha had too much of something
fourteen year old petya rushed in delightedly to say that some mummers had arrived
it's nothing mamma really it's nothing only petya startled me she said trying to smile but her tears still flowed and sobs still choked her the mummers some of the house serfs dressed up as bears turks
bringing in with them the cold from outside
crowded at first timidly into the anteroom then hiding behind one another they pushed into the ballroom where shyly at first and then more and more merrily and heartily they started singing dancing
and playing christmas games the countess when she had identified them and laughed at their costumes went into the drawing room
the young people had disappeared half an hour later there appeared among the other mummers in the ballroom an old lady in a hooped skirt this was nicholas a turkish girl
with burnt cork mustache and eyebrows after the condescending surprise nonrecognition and praise from those who were not themselves dressed up the young people decided that their costumes were so good that they ought to be shown elsewhere
nicholas who as the roads were in splendid condition wanted to take them all for a drive in his troyka proposed to take with them about a dozen of the serf mummers and drive to uncle's
chimed in the old count thoroughly aroused i'll dress up at once and go with them i'll make pashette open her eyes
it was decided that the count must not go but that if louisa ivanovna madame schoss would go with them the young ladies might go to the melyukovs sonya generally so timid and shy
louisa ivanovna not to refuse sonya's costume was the best of all her mustache and eyebrows were extraordinarily becoming everyone told her she looked very handsome
and she was in a spirited and energetic mood unusual with her some inner voice told her that now or never her fate would be decided and in her male attire she seemed quite a different person
louisa ivanovna consented to go and in half an hour four troyka sleighs with large and small bells their runners squeaking and whistling over the frozen snow drove up to the porch natasha
laughing and shouting two of the troykas were the usual household sleighs the third was the old count's with a trotter from the orlov stud as shaft horse the fourth
nicholas in his old lady's dress over which he had belted his hussar overcoat stood in the middle of the sleigh reins in hand it was so light that he could see the moonlight reflected from the metal harness disks
and from the eyes of the horses
under the shadow of the porch roof natasha sonya madame schoss
dimmler his wife and petya into the old count's and the rest of the mummers seated themselves in the other two sleighs you go ahead zakhar shouted nicholas to his father's coachman
wishing for a chance to race past him the old count's troyka with dimmler and his party started forward squeaking on its runners as though freezing to the snow its deep toned bell clanging
sank in the snow which was dry and glittered like sugar and threw it up
their runners squeaking at first they drove at a steady trot along the narrow road while they drove past the garden the shadows of the bare trees often fell across the road and hid the brilliant moonlight
but as soon as they were past the fence the snowy plain bathed in moonlight and motionless spread out before them glittering like diamonds and dappled with bluish shadows
bang bang went the first sleigh over a cradle hole in the snow of the road and each of the other sleighs jolted in the same way and rudely breaking the frost bound stillness
the troykas began to speed along the road one after the other a hare's track a lot of tracks rang out natasha's voice through the frost bound air how light it is nicholas came sonya's voice
when they came out onto the beaten highroad polished by sleigh runners and cut up by rough shod hoofs the marks of which were visible in the moonlight the horses began to tug at the reins of their own accord and increased their pace
ringing farther and farther off the black horses driven by zakhar
and voices of the mummers gee up my darlings shouted nicholas pulling the reins to one side and flourishing the whip it was only by the keener wind that met them and the jerks given by the side horses who pulled harder
ever increasing their gallop that one noticed how fast the troyka was flying nicholas looked back with screams squeals and waving of whips that caused even the shaft horses to gallop the other sleighs followed
the shaft horse swung steadily beneath the bow over its head with no thought of slackening pace and ready to put on speed when required nicholas overtook the first sleigh
and heaven only knows what it is it is something new and enchanted well whatever it may be and shouting to his horses he began to pass the first sleigh zakhar held back his horses and turned his face
which was already covered with hoarfrost to his eyebrows nicholas gave the horses the rein and zakhar stretching out his arms clucked his tongue and let his horses go now look out master he cried
faster still the two troykas flew side by side and faster moved the feet of the galloping side horses nicholas began to draw ahead
raised one hand with the reins no you won't master he shouted nicholas put all his horses to a gallop and passed zakhar the horses showered the fine dry snow on the faces of those in the sleigh
beside them sounded quick ringing bells
and the shadows of the troyka they were passing
and spangled with stars zakhar is shouting that i should turn to the left but why to the left thought nicholas are we getting to the melyukovs is this melyukovka
and heaven knows what is happening to us
look his mustache and eyelashes are all white said one of the strange pretty unfamiliar people
i think this used to be natasha thought nicholas and that was madame schoss but perhaps it's not
they did not answer but began to laugh
but here was a fairy forest with black moving shadows and a glitter of diamonds and a flight of marble steps and the silver roofs of fairy buildings and the shrill yells of some animals
it is still stranger that we
out to the porch carrying candles
sir thomas wyat received despatches from the king for the court of france his majesty bade me tell you to make your preparations quickly sir thomas said the messenger who delivered the despatches he cares not how soon you set forth
the king's pleasure shall be obeyed rejoined wyat and the messenger retired left alone wyat remained for some time in profound and melancholy thought
heaving a deep sigh he then arose and paced the chamber with rapid strides yes it is better thus he ejaculated if i remain near her i shall do some desperate deed better
far better i should go and yet to leave her with henry to know that he is ever near her that he drinks in the music of her voice and basks in the sunshine of her smile
the thought is madness i will not obey the hateful mandate i will stay and defy him as he uttered aloud this wild and unguarded speech the arras screening the door was drawn aside
and gave admittance to wolsey wyat's gaze sunk before the penetrating glance fixed upon him by the cardinal i did not come to play the eavesdropper sir thomas said wolsey
but i have heard enough to place your life in my power so you refuse to obey the king's injunctions you refuse to proceed to paris you refuse to assist in bringing about the divorce
and prefer remaining here to brave your sovereign and avenge yourself upon a fickle mistress ha wyat returned no answer if such be your purpose pursued wolsey after a pause
during which he intently scrutinised the knight's countenance i will assist you in it be ruled by me and you shall have a deep and full revenge
say on rejoined wyat his eyes blazing with infernal fire and his hand involuntarily clutching the handle of his dagger if i read you aright continued the cardinal
you are arrived at that pitch of desperation when life itself becomes indifferent and when but one object remains to be gained and that is vengeance interrupted wyat fiercely right cardinal right
i will have vengeance terrible vengeance you shall but i will not deceive you you will purchase what you seek at the price of your own head i care not replied wyat
all sentiments of love and loyalty are swallowed up by jealousy and burning hate nothing but blood can allay the fever that consumes me show me how to slay him him echoed the cardinal in alarm and horror
wretch would you kill your king god forbid that i should counsel the injury of a hair of his head i do not want you to play the assassin wyat he added more calmly but the just avenger
liberate the king from the thraldom of the capricious siren who enslaves him and you will do a service to the whole country a word from you a letter a token
will cast her from the king and place her on the block and what matter the gory scaffold were better than henry's bed i cannot harm her cried wyat distractedly i love her still devotedly as ever
she was in my power yesterday and without your aid cardinal i could have wreaked my vengeance upon her if i had been so minded you were then in her chamber as the king suspected cried wolsey with a look of exultation
trouble yourself no more sir thomas i will take the part of vengeance off your hands my indiscretion will avail you little cardinal replied wyat sternly a hasty word proves nothing
i will perish on the rack sooner than accuse anne boleyn i am a desperate man but not so desperate as you suppose me a moment ago i might have been led on by the murderous and traitorous impulse that prompted me
to lift my hand against the king but i never could have injured her you are a madman cried wolsey impatiently and it is a waste of time to argue with you i wish you good speed on your journey
on your return you will find anne boleyn queen of england and you disgraced rejoined wyat as with a malignant and vindictive look the cardinal quitted the chamber again left alone
wyat fell into another fit of despondency from which he roused himself with difficulty and went forth to visit the earl of surrey in the round tower some delay occurred before he could obtain access to the earl
the halberdier stationed at the entrance to the keep near the norman tower refused to admit him without the order of the officer in command of the tower and as the latter was not in the way at the moment
wyat had to remain without till he made his appearance while thus detained he beheld anne boleyn and her royal lover mount their steeds in the upper ward and ride forth with their attendants on a hawking expedition
wyat's own gift to her in happier days
without the vestige of a cloud upon her brow or a care on her countenance with increased bitterness of heart he turned from the sight and shrouded himself beneath the gateway of the norman tower
soon after this the officer appeared and at once according wyat permission to see the earl preceded him up the long flight of stone steps communicating with the upper part of the keep
and screened by an embattled and turreted structure constituting a covered way to the round tower arrived at the landing the officer unlocked a door on the left and ushered his companion into the prisoner's chamber
influenced by the circular shape of the structure in which it was situated and of which it formed a segment the farther part of this chamber was almost lost to view
and a number of cross beams and wooden pillars added to its sombre and mysterious appearance the walls were of enormous thickness and a narrow loophole terminating a deep embrasure afforded but scanty light
opposite the embrasure sat surrey at a small table covered with books and writing materials a lute lay beside him on the floor and there were several astrological and alchemical implements within reach
so immersed was the youthful prisoner in study that he was not aware until a slight exclamation was uttered by wyat of the entrance of the latter he then arose and gave him welcome
nothing material passed between them as long as the officer remained in the chamber but on his departure surrey observed laughingly to his friend and how doth my fair cousin the lady anne boleyn
she has just ridden forth with the king to hawk in the park replied wyat moodily for myself l am ordered on a mission to france but i could not depart without entreating your forgiveness for the jeopardy in which i have placed you
would i could take your place do not heed me replied surrey i am well content with what has happened virgil and homer dante and petrarch are the companions of my confinement
and in good sooth i am glad to be alone amid the distractions of the court i could find little leisure for the muse your situation is in many respects enviable surrey replied wyat
disturbed by no jealous doubts and fears you can beguile the tedious hours in the cultivation of your poetical tastes or in study still i must needs reproach myself with being the cause of your imprisonment
i repeat you have done me a service rejoined the earl i would lay down my life for my fair cousin anne boleyn and i am glad to be able to prove the sincerity of my regard for you wyat
i applaud the king's judgment in sending you to france and if you will be counselled by me you will stay there long enough to forget her who now occasions you so much uneasiness
will the fair geraldine be forgotten when the term of your imprisonment shall expire my lord asked wyat of a surety not replied the earl and yet in less than two months i shall return from france rejoined wyat
our cases are not alike said surrey the lady elizabeth fitzgerald has plighted her troth to me anne boleyn vowed eternal constancy to me cried wyat bitterly and you see how she kept her oath
the absent are always in danger and few women are proof against ambition vanity vanity is the rock they split upon may you never experience from richmond the wrong i have experienced from his father
i have no fear replied surrey as he spoke there was a slight noise in that part of the chamber which was buried in darkness have we a listener here cried wyat grasping his sword
not unless it be a four legged one from the dungeons beneath replied surrey but you were speaking of richmond he visited me this morning and came to relate the particulars of a mysterious adventure that occurred to him last night
and the earl proceeded to detail what had befallen the duke in the forest a marvellous story truly said wyat pondering upon the relation i will seek out the demon huntsman myself
again a noise similar to that heard a moment before resounded from the lower part of the room wyat immediately flew thither and drawing his sword searched about with its point but ineffectually it could not be fancy he said
and yet nothing is to be found i do not like jesting about herne the hunter remarked surrey after what i myself have seen
wyat returned no answer he seemed lost in gloomy thought and soon afterwards took his leave on returning to his lodgings he summoned his attendants and ordered them to proceed to kingston adding that he would join them there
early the next morning one of them an old serving man noticing the exceeding haggardness of his looks endeavoured to persuade him to go with them but wyat with a harshness totally unlike his customary manner
which was gracious and kindly in the extreme peremptorily refused you look very ill sir thomas said the old servant worse than i ever remember seeing you listen to my counsel i beseech you
plead ill health with the king in excuse of your mission to france and retire for some months to recruit your strength and spirits at allington tush adam twisden i am well enough exclaimed wyat impatiently
go and prepare my mails my dear dear master cried old adam bending the knee before him and pressing his hand to his lips something tells me that if i leave you now i shall never see you again there is a paleness in your cheek
and a fire in your eye such as i never before observed in you or in mortal man i tremble to say it but you look like one possessed by the fiend forgive my boldness sir i speak from affection and duty
i was serving man to your father good sir henry wyat before you and i love you as a son while i honour you as a master i have heard that there are evil beings in the forest nay even within the castle
who lure men to perdition by promising to accomplish their wicked desires i trust no such being has crossed your path make yourself easy good adam replied wyat no fiend has tempted me
swear it sir cried the old man eagerly swear it by the holy trinity by the holy trinity i swear it replied wyat as the words were uttered the door behind the arras was suddenly shut with violence
curses on you villain you have left the door open cried wyat fiercely our conversation has been overheard i will soon see by whom cried adam springing to his feet and rushing towards the door which opened upon a long corridor
well cried wyat as adam returned the next moment with cheeks almost as white as his own was it the cardinal it was the devil i believe replied the old man i could see no one
it would not require supernatural power to retreat into an adjoining chamber replied wyat affecting an incredulity he was far from feeling your worship's adjuration was strangely interrupted cried the old man
crossing himself devoutly saint dunstan and saint christopher shield us from evil spirits a truce to your idle terrors adam said wyat take these packets he added giving him henry's despatches and guard them as you would your life
i am going on an expedition of some peril to night and do not choose to keep them about me bid the grooms have my steed in readiness an hour before midnight
i hope your worship is not about to ride into the forest at that hour said adam trembling i was told by the stout archer whom the king dubbed duke of shoreditch that he and the duke of richmond ventured thither last night
and that they saw a legion of demons mounted on coal black horses and amongst them mark fytton the butcher who was hanged a few days ago from the curfew tower by the king's order and whose body so strangely disappeared
do not go into the forest dear sir thomas no more of this cried wyat fiercely do as i bid you and if i join you not before noon to morrow proceed to rochester and there await my coming
i never expect to see you again sir groaned the old man as he took his leave the anxious concern evinced in his behalf by his old and trusty servant was not without effect on sir thomas wyat
and made him hesitate in his design but by and by another access of jealous rage came on and overwhelmed all his better resolutions he remained within his chamber to a late hour and then issuing forth
proceeded to the terrace at the north of the castle where he was challenged by a sentinel but was suffered to pass on on giving the watch word the night was profoundly dark
and the whole of the glorious prospect commanded by the terrace shrouded from view but wyat's object in coming thither was to gaze for the last time at that part of the castle which enclosed anne boleyn
and knowing well the situation of her apartments he fixed his eyes upon the windows but although numerous lights streamed from the adjoining corridor all here was buried in obscurity suddenly however the chamber was illumined
and he beheld henry and anne boleyn enter it preceded by a band of attendants bearing tapers it needed not wyat's jealousy sharpened gaze to read even at that distance the king's enamoured looks
or anne boleyn's responsive glances he saw that one of henry's arms encircled her waist while the other caressed her yielding hand they paused henry bent forward and anne half averted her head
from imprinting a long and fervid kiss upon her lips terrible was its effect upon wyat an adder's bite would have been less painful his hands convulsively clutched together his hair stood erect upon his head
a shiver ran through his frame and he tottered back several paces when he recovered henry had bidden good night to the object of his love and having nearly gained the door turned and waved a tender valediction to her
as soon as he was gone anne looked round with a smile of ineffable pride and pleasure at her attendants but a cloud of curtains dropping over the window shrouded her from the sight of her wretched lover
in a state of agitation wholly indescribable wyat staggered towards the edge of the terrace it might be with the design of flinging himself from it but when within a few yards of the low parapet wall defending its precipitous side
he perceived a tall dark figure standing directly in his path and halted whether the object he beheld was human or not he could not determine but it seemed of more than mortal stature it was wrapped in a long black cloak
and wore a high conical cap on its head before wyat could speak the figure addressed him you desire to see herne the hunter said the figure in a deep sepulchral tone
ride hence to the haunted beechtree near the marsh at the farther side of the forest and you will find him you are herne i feel it cried wyat why go into the forest speak now
and he stepped forward with the intention of grasping the figure but it eluded him and with a mocking laugh melted into the darkness wyat advanced to the edge of the terrace and looked over the parapet
but he could see nothing except the tops of the tall trees springing from the side of the moat flying to the sentinel he inquired whether any one had passed him but the man returned an angry denial
awestricken and agitated wyat quitted the terrace and seeking his steed mounted him and galloped into the forest if he i have seen be not indeed the fiend
he will scarcely outstrip me in the race he cried as his steed bore him at a furious pace up the long avenue the gloom was here profound being increased by the dense masses of foliage beneath which he was riding
by the time however that he reached the summit of snow hill the moon struggled through the clouds and threw a wan glimmer over the leafy wilderness around the deep slumber of the woods was unbroken by any sound
save that of the frenzied rider bursting through them well acquainted with the forest wyat held on a direct course his brain was on fire and the fury of his career increased his fearful excitement
heedless of all impediments he pressed forward now dashing beneath overhanging boughs at the risk of his neck now skirting the edge of a glen where a false step might have proved fatal
on on he went his frenzy increasing each moment at length he reached the woody height overlooking the marshy tract that formed the limit of his ride once more the moon had withdrawn her lustre
and a huge indistinct black mass alone pointed out the position of the haunted tree around it wheeled a large white owl distinguishable by its ghostly plumage through the gloom
like a sea bird in a storm and hooting bodingly as it winged its mystic flight no other sound was heard nor living object seen while gazing into the dreary expanse beneath him
wyat for the first time since starting experienced a sensation of doubt and dread and the warning of his old and faithful attendant rushed upon his mind he tried to recite a prayer but the words died away on his lips
neither would his fingers fashion the symbol of a cross but even these admonitions did not restrain him springing from his foaming and panting steed and taking the bridle in his hand he descended the side of the acclivity
ever and anon a rustling among the grass told him that a snake with which description of reptile the spot abounded was gliding away from him his horse which had hitherto been all fire and impetuosity
now began to manifest symptoms of alarm quivered in every limb snorted and required to be dragged along forcibly when within a few paces of the tree its enormous rifted trunk became fully revealed to him
but no one was beside it wyat then stood still and cried in a loud commanding tone spirit i summon thee appear at these words a sound like a peal of thunder rolled over head
accompanied by screeches of discordant laughter other strange and unearthly noises were heard and amidst the din a blue phosphoric light issued from the yawning crevice in the tree
while a tall gaunt figure crested with an antlered helm sprang from it at the same moment a swarm of horribly grotesque swart objects looking like imps
appeared amid the branches of the tree and grinned and gesticulated at wyat whose courage remained unshaken during the fearful ordeal not so his steed after rearing and plunging violently
the affrighted animal broke its hold and darted off into the swamp where it floundered and was lost you have called me sir thomas wyat
i am here what would you my name being known to you spirit of darkness my errand should be also replied wyat boldly your errand is known to me replied the demon you have lost a mistress
and would regain her i would give my soul to win her back from my kingly rival cried wyat i accept your offer rejoined the spirit anne boleyn shall be yours your hand upon the compact
wyat stretched forth his hand and grasped that of the demon his fingers were compressed as if by a vice and he felt himself dragged towards the tree while a stifling and sulphurous vapour rose around him
who was so called because his father was a general in the navy now this requires a little explanation my grandfather you must know was master at arms on board the royal standard seventy four guns
it was his duty as a warrant officer to officiate when a man was to be flogged for getting drunk or any other crime they were tied up to a grating and punished with the cat in those days
thank goodness it is not so now in the british navy it was the duty of the armorer to attend the surgeon of the ship in full uniform with drawn sword to see that the prisoner received his allowance
and the doctor's duty was to tell the boatswain to cast the man off when he saw he could bear no more so this is how the aforesaid son of a gun's grandfather was nicknamed the flogmaster general gun was armorer's mate
fought in three engagements and got his discharge without pension his brother was not so fortunate he rose by merit to be a second lieutenant and one day was ordered to man the boat and go on shore at portsmouth with orders for the ship
when he reached the stairs the men begged so hard to be allowed to go on shore for a short time to purchase some necessaries that gun's brother gave them leave on their engaging on honour to return soon
imagine his feelings when he returned to find that all his men had deserted in this dilemma gun's brother did not know what to do to go on board he was ashamed and therefore he made up his mind to follow the example of the men and bolt
he did so was caught
they came the next morning and took him on board and placed him in irons a court martial was called he was reduced from lieutenant to common seaman
and then they sentenced him to two dozen lashes which he received on his birthday as a very unwelcome present gun obtained his discharge went to london and got married
i being the wind up of the lot which consisted of nine boys and one girl now began some of the stirring and painful events of my wonderful life my mother died when i was only five months old and my sister became my only nurse
she used to carry me round the parish to mothers who had babies and beg a drop of milk from one and another so that i had many foster mothers now it so happened that i had a rich aunt and she made an offer to old gun that if he would give me up entirely to her care
which offer old gun readily accepted the will was made and duly registered and i was taken from old gun and placed under the care of a good nurse old gun took to drink
and when drunk visited my nurse and listened to her complaints against my aunt he called and had words with her which so disgusted the old lady that she sent for a lawyer and altered her will without leaving me a single penny so much for drink
i remained with this nurse about five years about this time i was nearly burned to death my nurse having left me to mind the house i got playing with the fire
two working men who happened to be passing seized me and threw me into a ditch close by after that they took me to a doctor and i was laid up in bed for twelve months when old gun heard of it he took me away from my nurse
and when he got me home he made use of me to fetch his gin while he was on the drink i remember fetching gun as many as nineteen half quarterns of gin before dinner and sometimes he would be on the fuddle for a fortnight
gun having got into debt with a publican to the extent of two pounds he summoned him for the amount as gun refused to pay
i used to visit father gun in prison and take him coffee and sugar now while gun was in trouble i was also doomed to suffer gun's landlady refused to give me a night's lodging
i lived on the few coppers earned by running about the city and holding gentlemen's horses at last to get rid of me the landlady took me to the workhouse and left me there till gun came out of prison
at last the end came and gun died a penitent sinner the parish apprenticed me to a shoe maker a man that wanted the premium much more than he wanted the boy my master treated me more like a dog than a human being
i was fed badly and clothed worse was allowed one suit of the commonest corderoy that could be got per year in fact i wore one pair of trousers until they became kneebreeches one pair of common boots a year and a good sound thrashing twice a week
not only were my hours of labor from five o'clock in the morning until ten at night but my fare was far worse
now it so happened at this period of my life that i took a fancy to swimming and in order to gain a knowledge of this art i used to get up very early every morning and bathe in a canal which was not far off this pastime nearly cost me my life
no less than three times i was brought out of the water nearly dead but i was determined not to be beaten and after taking lessons of a professor i became a very fair swimmer i soon found that my master was a bad man
the woman that lived with him had left her husband a respectable farmer in yorkshire and both these worthies took to heavy drinking at this time i was between fifteen and sixteen years of age
at last being greatly troubled in his mind he determined to shoot not himself but the moon as it was called in london which being interpreted means that he ran away from his house in the night time not forgetting to take his goods with him
but in his hurry and excitement left an old bedstead in the house i was ordered to go early the next morning and get this bedstead out by the back door my master being there to help me carry it home
to accomplish this task i had to get through the cellar window i succeeded in taking down the bedstead put the screws in my pocket and got it outside when alas i beheld that kindest of friends the policeman
who most affectionately put his hand upon my arm and marched me off to the lockup on a charge of house breaking i was taken before the magistrate and the landlady appeared against me
i was kept in prison eleven days before my trial and no one was allowed to see me but my fellow prisoners and when at last i was tried i pleaded my own case and succeeded in justifying my conduct by explaining that i was only an apprentice
and therefore bound to obey my master's orders and keep his secrets according to the wording of my indentures and so i was honourably acquitted
i had to attend chapel now any moral or religious benefit i might have received from such attendance was utterly neutralized by bad management of our prisons in compelling comparatively innocent persons to mix with the greatest blackguards and thieves in london
who were guilty of every crime you can mention including murder amongst them however
who was imprisoned for speaking against the bible and the government he used to lecture at the rotunda in the blackfriar's road he made my acquaintance and taught me many good things and although a prisoner he was not by any means a bad man
for he had the fear of god in his heart he persuaded me to attend sunday school and church when i got out
especially when injudiciously administered i did not forget his good counsel for when i got back to my master i begged to be allowed to go to a sunday school and also to church this request was granted
and many a time i went without my sunday's dinner rather than be late at school the parish clerk found out that i had a voice so he sent for me
i felt very proud of this and although i occasionally received a good thrashing from my master for the most trifling mistakes in my work i bore up well till i was nearly seventeen years of age by this time however my master's treatment grew rather worse than better
so i determined to run away and try the country for a change of air i had a married brother living at hastings in sussex and to go there i began to save up for the journey out of my pocket money which was only threepence per week out of which i saved two thirds
at length with my savings which amounted to tenpence a two pound loaf and no butter i rose at three o'clock on a beautiful summer's morning and crept down stairs very softly opened the door and got outside without being heard by any of the inmates
after walking about five miles without resting i began to sing a verse from an old man a war song as follows i wish i was at hastings with my true love along with me everything that's fitting to serve his royal majesty
where liquor there is plenty flowing bowls on every side hard fortune ne'er shall daunt me for i'm young and the world is wide after walking eight miles i had a rest and refreshed the inner man with bread and water
the very place i was bound for i made a dart and got up behind when the driver stopped to change horses i asked him if he would allow me to ride behind for which privilege i offered to skid the wheel which means in railway language put on the brake
was very kind for the rest of the journey i arrived safe and sound the same night and found out my brother's residence but unfortunately my brother was ten miles from home working at a gentleman's seat and did not return for a week after my arrival
my sister in law was very good to me at first but soon began to speak in terms that convinced me that she was no friend of mine she used to drink gin on the sly and get drunk and deceive her husband by making him believe that she was ill
fearing that i would let my brother into the secret she became my bitter enemy i saw through it and when i had managed to get work i left my brother's house and took lodgings amongst a tribe of gipsies who lived in the neighbourhood
my new master was a regular out and outer a splendid workman well educated a good reciter but too fond of company and drink which kept him poor and made his wife miserable
she was very good to me and gave me many a meal when my master was on the spree i left the gipsies and found cheap lodgings by the sad sea waves in the fishing boats
i used to rise early and assist the fishermen to wash and pack their fish for market for which service i used to get a fish for breakfast it was at hastings that i improved in the art of swimming i might have been seen in the sea three times a day
and so the time rolled on i improved in my trade but unfortunately at the end of the season i had no work to do i then took it into my head that i would return to london and find out my sister the next question was how to get there without money to start
i started accordingly early one morning and walked eight miles to a place called battle the spot where the great battle of hastings took place when i arrived i found there was a fox hunt on and that after the hunt there was to be a dinner for the sportsmen
so i made up my mind to stay and offer my services as a singer and trust to their generosity as to what they would give me i did so and so pleased the company that they gave me a good dinner and four and ninepence to boot
and the landlord gave me a night's lodging i started next morning for tunbridge in kent next i went to maidstone where i met with a harpist with whom i joined company i to sing and harpy to play and go share in the profits
we waited on the mayor of the town and got his permission to play and sing in the streets we did well lived like fighting cocks and saved money from maidstone we travelled to sittingbourne
where we were engaged to play and sing in the assembly rooms and there made a great hit in my song funking the cobbler sung in caricature i now began to fancy myself
missus eyreco urt's discovery the leaves had fallen in the grounds at ten acres lodge and stormy winds told drearily that winter had come an unchanging dullness pervaded the house
romayne was constantly absent in london attending to his new religious duties under the guidance of father benwell the litter of books and manuscripts in the study was seen no more hideously rigid order reigned in the unused room
some of romayne's papers had been burned others were imprisoned in drawers and cupboards the history of the origin of religions had taken its melancholy place among the suspended literary enterprises of the time
missus eyrecourt after a superficially cordial reconciliation with her son in law visited her daughter every now and then as an act of maternal sacrifice she yawned perpetually she read innumerable novels
she corresponded with her friends in the long dull evenings the once lively lady sometimes openly regretted that she had not been born a man with the three masculine resources of smoking drinking and swearing placed at her disposal
it was a dreary existence and happier influences seemed but little likely to change it grateful as she was to her mother no persuasion would induce stella to leave ten acres and amuse herself in london
missus eyrecourt said with melancholy and metaphorical truth there is no elasticity left in my child on a dim gray morning mother and daughter sat by the fireside with another long day before them
where is that contemptible husband of yours missus eyrecourt asked looking up from her book lewis is staying in town stella answered listlessly in company with judas iscariot stella was too dull to immediately understand the allusion
do you mean father benwell she inquired don't mention his name my dear i have re christened him on purpose to avoid it even his name humiliates me how completely the fawning old wretch took me in with all my knowledge of the world too
he was so nice and sympathetic such a comforting contrast on that occasion to you and your husband i declare i forgot every reason i had for not trusting him ah we women are poor creatures we may own it among ourselves
if a man only has nice manners and a pleasant voice how many of us can resist him even romayne imposed upon me assisted by his property which in some degree excuses my folly there is nothing to be done now stella but to humor him
do as that detestable priest does and trust to your beauty there isn't as much of it left as i could wish to turn the scale in your favor have you any idea when the new convert will come back i heard him ordering a fish dinner for himself yesterday because it was friday
did you join him at dessert time profanely supported by meat what did he say what he has said more than once already mama his peace of mind is returning thanks to father benwell
but he looked as if he lived in a different world from mine
i didn't ask him what it meant whatever it is i suppose he is there now my dear don't you remember your sister began in the same way she retreated
we shall have romayne with a red nose and a double chin offering to pray for us next do you recollect that french maid of mine the woman i sent away because she would spit when she was out of temper like a cat i begin to think i treated the poor creature harshly
when i hear of romayne and his retreat i almost feel inclined to spit myself there let us go on with your reading take the first volume i have done with it what is it mama
a very remarkable work stella in the present state of light literature in england a novel that actually tells a story it's quite incredible i know try the book it has another extraordinary merit it isn't written by a woman
stella obediently received the first volume turned over the leaves and wearily dropped the wonderful novel on her lap i can't attend to it she said my mind is too full of my own thoughts about romayne said her mother
no when i think of my husband now i almost wish i had his confidence in priests and retreats the conviction grows on me mama that my worst troubles are still to come when i was younger i don't remember being tormented by presentiments of any kind
did i ever talk of presentiments to you in the bygone days if you had done anything of the sort my love excuse me if i speak plainly i should have said stella your liver is out of order and i should have opened the family medicine chest i will only say now
send for the carriage let us go to a morning concert dine at a restaurant
this characteristic proposal was entirely thrown away on stella she was absorbed in pursuing her own train of thought i almost wish i had told lewis she said to herself absently told him of what my dear of what happened to me with winterfield
missus eyrecourt's faded eyes opened wide in astonishment do you really mean it she asked i do indeed are you actually simple enough stella to think that a man of romayne's temper would have made you his wife if you had told him of the brussels marriage
why not why not would romayne would any man believe that you really did part from winterfield at the church door considering that you are a married woman your innocence my sweet child is a perfect phenomenon
don't speak too positively mama lewis may find it out yet
yes how is he to find it out if you please i am afraid through father benwell yes yes i know you only think him a fawning old hypocrite you don't fear him as i do
nothing will persuade me that zeal for his religion is the motive under which that man acts in devoting himself to romayne he has some abominable object in view and his eyes tell me that i am concerned in it missus eyrecourt burst out laughing
what is there to laugh at stella asked i declare my dear there is something absolutely provoking in your utter want of knowledge of the world when you are puzzled to account for anything remarkable in a clergyman's conduct i don't care my poor child to what denomination he belongs
you can't be wrong in attributing his motive to money if romayne had turned baptist or methodist the reverend gentleman in charge of his spiritual welfare would not have forgotten as you have forgotten you little goose that his convert was a rich man
his mind would have dwelt on the chapel or the mission or the infant school in want of funds and with no more abominable object in view than i have at this moment in poking the fire he would have ended in producing his modest subscription list and would have betrayed himself
please contribute is there any other presentiment my dear on which you would like to have your mother's candid opinion stella resignedly took up the book again i daresay you are right she said let us read our novel
she was thinking of that other presentiment which had formed the subject of her mother's last satirical inquiry the vague fear that had shaken her when she had accidentally touched the french boy on her visit to camp's hill still from time to time troubled her memory
even the event of his death had failed to dissipate the delusion which associated him with some undefined evil influence that might yet assert itself a superstitious forewarning of this sort was a weakness new to her in her experience of herself she was heartily ashamed of it
and yet it kept its hold once more the book dropped on her lap she laid it aside and walked wearily to the window to look at the weather almost at the same moment missus eyrecourt's maid disturbed her mistress over the second volume of the novel by entering the room with a letter
for me stella asked looking round from the window no ma'am for missus eyrecourt the letter had been brought to the house by one of lady loring's servants in delivering it he had apparently given private instructions to the maid
she laid her finger significantly on her lips when she gave the letter to her mistress in these terms lady loring wrote if stella happens to be with you when you receive my note don't say anything which will let her know that i am your correspondent
she has always poor dear had an inveterate distrust of father benwell and between ourselves i am not sure that she is quite so foolish as i once thought the father has unexpectedly left us with a well framed excuse which satisfied lord loring
it fails to satisfy me not from any wonderful exercise of penetration on my part but in consequence of something i have just heard in course of conversation with a catholic friend father benwell my dear turns out to be a jesuit
and what is more a person of such high authority in the order that his concealment of his rank while he was with us must have been a matter of necessity
he must have had some very serious motive for occupying a position so entirely beneath him as his position in our house i have not the shadow of a reason for associating this startling discovery with dear stella's painful misgivings
and yet there is something in my mind which makes me want to hear what stella's mother thinks come and have a talk about it as soon as you possibly can missus eyrecourt put the letter in her pocket smiling quietly to herself
applying to lady loring's letter the infallible system of solution which she had revealed to her daughter missus eyrecourt solved the mystery of the priest's conduct without a moment's hesitation
lord loring's check in father benwell's pocket representing such a liberal subscription that my lord was reluctant to mention it to my lady there was the reading of the riddle as plain as the sun at noonday
would it be desirable to enlighten lady loring as she had already enlightened stella missus eyrecourt decided in the negative as roman catholics and as old friends of romayne the lorings naturally rejoiced in his conversion
but as old friends also of romayne's wife they were bound not to express their sentiments too openly feeling that any discussion of the priest's motives would probably lead to the delicate subject of the conversion missus eyrecourt prudently determined to let the matter drop
as a consequence of this decision stella was left without the slightest warning of the catastrophe which was now close at hand
well my dear is it clearing up shall we take a drive before luncheon if you like mama
the light of the clearing sky at once soft and penetrating fell full on her missus eyrecourt looking at her as usual suddenly became serious she studied her daughter's face with an eager and attentive scrutiny
do you see any extraordinary change in me stella asked with a faint smile
the worldly mother's eyes rested with a lingering tenderness on the daughter's face stella she said softly and stopped at a loss for words for the first time in her life after a while she began again
yes i see a change in you she whispered an interesting change which tells me something can you guess what it is stella's color rose brightly and faded again she laid her head in silence on her mother's bosom
worldly frivolous self interested missus eyrecourt's nature was the nature of a woman and the one great trial and triumph of a woman's life appealing to her as a trial and a triumph soon to come to her own child
touched fibers under the hardened surface of her heart which were still unprofaned my poor darling she said have you told the good news to your husband no why not he doesn't care now for anything that i can tell him nonsense stella
you may win him back to you by a word and do you hesitate to say the word i shall tell him stella suddenly drew herself away from her mother's caressing arm
promise on your word of honor promise you will leave it to me will you tell him yourself if i leave it to you yes at my own time promise hush hush don't excite yourself my love i promise give me a kiss
i declare i am agitated myself she exclaimed falling back into her customary manner such a shock to my vanity stella the prospect of becoming a grandmother i really must ring for matilda and take a few drops of red lavender
be advised by me my poor dear and we will turn the priest out of the house yet when romayne comes back from his ridiculous retreat after his fasting and flagellation and heaven knows what besides
then is the time to tell him will you think of it yes i will think of it and one word more before matilda comes in
and don't know which barrel will explode next and send me flying said missus jo to herself next day as she trudged up to parnassus to suggest to her sister that perhaps the most charming of the young nurses had better return to her marble gods before she unconsciously
and at once devised a very simple means of escape from danger mister laurie was going to washington on dan's behalf and was delighted to take his family with him when the idea was carelessly suggested so the conspiracy succeeded finely and missus jo went home
feeling more like a traitor than ever she expected an explosion but dan took the news so quietly it was plain that he cherished no hope and missus amy was sure her romantic sister had been mistaken if she had seen dan's face
when bess went to say good bye her maternal eye would have discovered far more than the unconscious girl did missus jo trembled lest he should betray himself but he had learned self control in a stern school and would have got through the hard moment bravely
only when he took both hands saying heartily good bye princess if we don't meet again remember your old friend dan sometimes she touched by his late danger and the wistful look he wore answered with unusual warmth
how can i help it when you make us all so proud of you
as she looked up at him with a face full of frank affection and sweet regret all that he was losing rose so vividly before him that dan could not resist the impulse to take the dear goldy head between his hands and kiss it with a broken
good bye then hurried back to his room feeling as if it were the prison cell again with no glimpse of heaven's blue to comfort him this abrupt caress and departure rather startled bess for she felt with a girl's quick instinct
that there was something in that kiss unknown before and looked after him with sudden colour in her cheeks and new trouble in her eyes missus jo saw it and fearing a very natural question answered it before it was put forgive him bess
he has had a great trouble and it makes him tender at parting with old friends
you mean the fall and danger of death asked bess innocently no dear a greater trouble than that but i cannot tell you any more except
so you may trust and respect him as i do he has lost someone he loved poor dan we must be very kind to him bess did not ask the question but seemed content with her solution of the mystery
which was so true that missus jo confirmed it by a nod and let her go away believing that some tender loss and sorrow wrought the great change all saw in dan and made him so slow to speak concerning the past year but ted was less easily satisfied
and this unusual reticence goaded him to desperation his mother had warned him not to trouble dan with questions till he was quite well but this prospect of approaching departure made him resolve to have a full clear and satisfactory account of the adventures
which he felt sure must have been thrilling from stray words dan let fall in his fever so one day when the coast was clear master ted volunteered to amuse the invalid and did so in the following manner look here old boy if you don't want me to read
no i don't forget it isn't interesting to anyone but myself i didn't see any farms gave it up he said slowly why other things to do what well brush making for one thing
i truly did what for to keep out of mischief as much as anything well of all the queer things and you've done a lot that's the queerest cried ted
taken aback at this disappointing discovery but he didn't mean to give up yet and began again what mischief dan never you mind boys shouldn't bother but i do want to know awfully
because i'm your pal and care for you no end always did come now tell me a good yarn i love scrapes i'll be mum as an oyster if you don't want it known will you and dan looked at him
wondering how the boyish face would change if the truth were suddenly told him i'll swear it on locked fists if you like i know it was jolly and i'm aching to hear you are as curious as a girl more than some
they don't care about rows and things they liked the mine business heroes and that sort
who blair and mason are and who was hit and who ran away and all the rest of it what cried dan in a tone that made ted jump well you used to mutter about em in your sleep and uncle laurie wondered so did i
but don't mind if you can't remember or would rather not what else did i say queer what stuff a man will talk when his wits are gone that's all i heard but it seemed interesting and i just mentioned it thinking it might refresh your memory a bit
half truths hoping to quench his curiosity
well a sort of hospital where i happened to be blair ran off to his brothers and i suppose i might say mason was hit because he died there does that suit you no it doesn't why did blair run and who hit the other fellow
if i guess right and you are under oath to keep silent i shall know by your face and never tell now see if i'm not right out there they have wild doings and it's my belief you were in some of em
i don't mean robbing mails and klu kluxing and that sort of thing but defending the settlers or hanging some scamp or even shooting a few as a fellow must sometimes in self defence ah ha i've hit it i see needn't speak
i know the flash of your old eye and the clench of your big fist and ted pranced with satisfaction drive on smart boy and don't lose the trail said dan
finding a curious sense of comfort in some of these random words and longing but not daring to confirm the true ones he might have confessed the crime but not the punishment that followed the sense of its disgrace was still so strong upon him
i knew i should get it can't deceive me long began ted with such an air of pride dan could not help a short laugh it's a relief isn't it to have it off your mind now just confide in me and it's all safe unless you've sworn not to tell
how many did you kill only one bad lot of course a damned rascal well don't look so fierce i've no objection wouldn't mind popping at some of those bloodthirsty blackguards myself
had to dodge and keep quiet after it i suppose pretty quiet for a long spell got off all right in the end and headed for your mines and did that jolly brave thing now i call that decidedly interesting and capital i'm glad to know it
but i won't blab mind you don't look here ted if you'd killed a man would it trouble you a bad one i mean the lad opened his mouth to say not a bit but checked that answer as if something in dan's face made him change his mind
well if it was my duty in war or self defence i suppose i shouldn't
shouldn't wonder if he sort of haunted me and remorse gnawed me as it did aram and those fellows
makes it hard but it don't matter don't tell em then they can't worry said ted with the nod of one versed in the management of the sex don't intend to mind you keep your notions to yourself for some of em are wide of the mark
now you may read if you like and there the talk ended but ted took great comfort in it and looked as wise as an owl afterwards a few quiet weeks followed during which dan chafed at the delay and when at length word came that his credentials were ready
he was eager to be off to forget a vain love in hard work and live for others since he might not for himself so one wild march morning our sintram rode away with horse and hound to face again the enemies
but for heaven's help and human pity ah me it does seem as if life was made of partings and they get harder as we go on
as she sat in the long parlour at parnassus one evening whither the family had gone to welcome the travellers back and meetings too dear for here we are and nat is on his way at last look for the silver lining as marmee used to say
and be comforted answered missus amy glad to be at home and find no wolves prowling near her sheepfold i've been so worried lately i can't help croaking i wonder what dan thought at not seeing you again
it was wise but he would have enjoyed another look at home faces before he went into the wilderness said missus jo regretfully much better so we left notes and all we could think of that he might need
and slipped away before he came bess really seemed relieved i'm sure i was and missus amy smoothed an anxious line
missus jo shook her head as if the silver lining of that cloud was hard to find but she had no time to croak again for just then mister laurie came in looking well pleased at something
this caused a laugh and made things gay and comfortable at once
to be kept up briskly while the boys admired nat's blond beard and foreign clothes the girls his improved appearance for he was ruddy with good english beef and beer and fresh with the sea breezes which had blown him swiftly home
and the older folk rejoiced over his prospects of course all wanted to hear him play and when tongues tired he gladly did his best for them surprising the most critical by his progress in music even more than by the energy and self possession
which made a new man of bashful nat by and by when the violin that most human of all instruments had sung to them the loveliest songs without words he said looking about him at these old friends with what mister bhaer called a
the first night he came to plumfield they remembered it and joined in the plaintive chorus which fitly expressed his own emotions oh my heart is sad and weary everywhere i roam longing for the old plantation
and for the old folks at home now i feel better said missus jo as they all trooped down the hill soon after some of our boys are failures but i think this one is going to be a success
and patient daisy a happy girl at last nat is your work fritz and i congratulate you heartily
and trust that it falls on good ground i planted perhaps but you watched that the fowls of the air did not devour it and brother laurie watered generously
us and be glad even for a small one heart's dearest i thought the seed had fallen on very stony ground with my poor dan but i shall not be surprised if he surpasses all the rest in the real success of life
since there is more rejoicing over one repentant sinner than many saints answered missus jo still clinging fast to her black sheep although a whole flock of white ones trotted happily before her
it is a strong temptation to the weary historian to close the present tale with an earthquake which should engulf plumfield and its environs so deeply in the bowels of the earth that no youthful schliemann could ever find a vestige of it
but as that somewhat melodramatic conclusion might shock my gentle readers i will refrain and forestall the usual question how did they end by briefly stating that all the marriages turned out well the boys prospered in their various callings so did the girls
dan never married but lived bravely and usefully among his chosen people till he was shot defending them and at last lay quietly asleep in the green wilderness he loved so well with a lock of golden hair upon his breast and a smile on his face which seemed to say
that aslauga's knight had fought his last fight and was at peace stuffy became an alderman and died suddenly of apoplexy after a public dinner dolly was a society man of mark till he lost his money
demi became a partner and lived to see his name above the door and rob was a professor at laurence college but teddy eclipsed them all by becoming an eloquent and famous clergyman to the great delight of his astonished mother
one of us two must bowen douteless and sith a man is more reasonable than woman is ye men moste be suffrable chaucer
what wonder then that in eighteen thirty two old sir godwin lydgate was slow to write a letter which was of consequence to others rather than to himself
and rosamond awaiting an answer to her winning appeal was every day disappointed lydgate in total ignorance of her expectations was seeing the bills come in and feeling that dover's use of his advantage over other creditors was imminent
he had never mentioned to rosamond his brooding purpose of going to quallingham he did not want to admit
until the last moment but he was really expecting to set off soon
would enable him to manage the whole journey and back in four days but one morning after lydgate had gone out a letter came addressed to him which rosamond saw clearly to be from sir godwin she was full of hope
perhaps there might be a particular note to her enclosed but lydgate was naturally addressed on the question of money
and the fact that he was written to nay the very delay in writing at all seemed to certify that the answer was thoroughly compliant she was too much excited by these thoughts to do anything but light stitching in a warm corner of the dining room
with the outside of this momentous letter lying on the table before her about twelve she heard her husband's step in the passage and tripping to open the door she said in her lightest tones tertius come in here here is a letter for you
ah he said not taking off his hat but just turning her round within his arm to walk towards the spot where the letter lay
while rosamond reseated herself and watched him as he opened the letter she had expected him to be surprised while lydgate's eyes glanced rapidly over the brief letter
taking on a dry whiteness with nostrils and lips quivering he tossed down the letter before her and said violently it will be impossible to endure life with you if you will always be acting secretly acting in opposition to me and hiding your actions
he checked his speech and turned his back on her then wheeled round and walked about sat down and got up again restlessly
rosamond too had changed color as she read
dear tertius don't set your wife to write to me when you have anything to ask it is a roundabout wheedling sort of thing which i should not have credited you with i never choose to write to a woman on matters of business
and to have made a mess where you are the sooner you go somewhere else the better but i have nothing to do with men of your profession and can't help you there i did the best i could for you as guardian and let you have your own way in taking to medicine you might have gone into the army or the church
when rosamond had finished reading the letter she sat quite still with her hands folded before her restraining any show of her keen disappointment and intrenching herself in quiet passivity under her husband's wrath
lydgate paused in his movements looked at her again and said with biting severity will this be enough to convince you of the harm you may do by secret meddling have you sense enough to recognize now your incompetence to judge and act for me
to interfere with your ignorance in affairs which it belongs to me to decide on the words were hard but this was not the first time that lydgate had been frustrated by her she did not look at him and made no reply
i had nearly resolved on going to quallingham it would have cost me pain enough to do it yet it might have been of some use but it has been of no use for me to think of anything you have always been counteracting me secretly you delude me with a false assent
it is a terrible moment in young lives when the closeness of love's bond has turned to this power of galling in spite of rosamond's self control a tear fell silently and rolled over her lips she still said nothing
but under that quietude was hidden an intense effect she was in such entire disgust with her husband that she wished she had never seen him sir godwin's rudeness towards her and utter want of feeling ranged him with dover and all other creditors
and did not mind how annoying they were to her even her father was unkind and might have done more for them in fact there was but one person in rosamond's world whom she did not regard as blameworthy and that was the graceful creature with blond plaits
and with little hands crossed before her
by moderating his words can you not see rosamond he began again trying to be simply grave and not bitter that nothing can be so fatal as a want of openness and confidence between us it has happened again and again
that i have expressed a decided wish and you have seemed to assent yet after that you have secretly disobeyed my wish in that way i can never know what i have to trust to there would be some hope for us if you would admit this
am i such an unreasonable furious brute why should you not be open with me still silence
will you only say that you have been mistaken and that i may depend on your not acting secretly in future said lydgate urgently but with something of request in his tone which rosamond was quick to perceive she spoke with coolness
you have spoken of my secret meddling and my interfering ignorance and my false assent i have never expressed myself in that way to you and i think that you ought to apologize you spoke of its being impossible to live with me
lydgate flung himself into a chair feeling checkmated what place was there in her mind for a remonstrance to lodge in he laid down his hat flung an arm over the back of his chair
and looked down for some moments without speaking rosamond had the double purchase over him of insensibility to the point of justice in his reproach and of sensibility to the undeniable hardships now present in her married life
although her duplicity in the affair of the house had exceeded what he knew
she had no consciousness that her action could rightly be called false
any more than the materials of our grocery and clothes rosamond felt that she was aggrieved and that this was what lydgate had to recognize as for him the need of accommodating himself to her nature which was inflexible in proportion to its negations
of love for him and the consequent dreariness of their life the ready fulness of his emotions made this dread alternate quickly with the first violent movements of his anger it would assuredly have been a vain boast in him to say that he was her master
the hardships which our marriage has brought on me
as a pain makes an exaggerated dream if he were not only to sink from his highest resolve but to sink into the hideous fettering of domestic hate rosamond he said turning his eyes on her with a melancholy look
you should allow for a man's words when he is disappointed and provoked you and i cannot have opposite interests i cannot part my happiness from yours if i am angry with you it is that you seem not to see how any concealment divides us
how could i wish to make anything hard to you either by my words or conduct when i hurt you i hurt part of my own life i should never be angry with you
without any necessity said rosamond the tears coming again from a softened feeling now that her husband had softened it is so very hard to be disgraced here among all the people we know and to live in such a miserable way i wish i had died with the baby
she spoke and wept with that gentleness which makes such words and tears omnipotent over a loving hearted man lydgate drew his chair near to hers and pressed her delicate head against his cheek with his powerful tender hand
he only caressed her he did not say anything for what was there to say he could not promise to shield her from the dreaded wretchedness for he could see no sure means of doing so
when he left her to go out again he told himself that it was ten times harder for her than for him he had a life away from home and constant appeals to his activity on behalf of others he wished to excuse everything in her if he could
but it was inevitable that in that excusing mood he should think of her as if she were an animal of another and feebler species
class day the clerk of the weather evidently has a regard for young people and sends sunshine for class days as often as he can an especially lovely one shone over plumfield as this interesting anniversary came round
bringing the usual accompaniments of roses strawberries white gowned girls beaming youths proud friends and stately dignitaries full of well earned satisfaction with the yearly harvest as laurence college was a mixed one
the presence of young women as students gave to the occasion a grace and animation entirely wanting where the picturesque half of creation appear merely as spectators
the hands that turned the pages of wise books also possessed the skill to decorate the hall with flowers eyes tired with study shone with hospitable warmth on the assembling guests and under the white muslins beat hearts as full of ambition hope and courage
as those agitating the broadcloth of the ruling sex college hill parnassus and old plum swarmed with cheery faces as guests students and professors hurried to and fro in the pleasant excitement of arriving and receiving
that rewarded many a mutual sacrifice mister laurie and his wife were on the reception committee and their lovely house was overflowing missus meg with daisy and jo as aides was in demand among the girls helping on belated toilettes
giving an eye to spreads and directing the decorations missus jo had her hands full as president's lady and the mother of ted for it took all the power and skill of that energetic woman
far from it he adored good clothes and owing to his great height already revelled in a dress suit bequeathed him by a dandy friend the effect was very funny but he would wear it in spite of the jeers of his mates
and sighed vainly for a beaver because his stern parent drew the line there he pleaded that english lads of ten wore them and were no end nobby but his mother only answered with a consoling pat of the yellow mane
my child you are absurd enough now if i let you add a tall hat plumfield wouldn't hold either of us such would be the scorn and derision of all beholders
and don't ask for the most ridiculous head gear in the known world denied this noble badge of manhood ted soothed his wounded soul by appearing in collars of an amazing height and stiffness
and ties which were the wonder of all female eyes this freak
for the collars drove the laundress to despair never being just right and the ties required such art in the tying that three women sometimes laboured long before like beau brummel he turned from a heap of failures with the welcome words
that will do rob was devoted on these trying occasions his own toilet being distinguished only by its speed simplicity and neatness ted was usually in a frenzy before he was suited
and roars whistles commands and groans were heard from the den wherein the lion raged and the lamb patiently toiled missus jo bore it till boots were hurled and a rain of hair brushes set in then fearing for the safety of her eldest
she would go to the rescue and by a wise mixture of fun and authority finally succeed in persuading ted that he was a thing of beauty if not a joy for ever
at last he would stalk majestically forth imprisoned in collars compared to which those worn by dickens's afflicted biler were trifles not worth mentioning the dresscoat was a little loose in the shoulders but allowed a noble expanse of glossy bosom to be seen
and with a delicate handkerchief negligently drooping at the proper angle had a truly fine effect boots that shone and likewise pinched appeared at one end of the long black clothes pin' as josie called him
and a youthful but solemn face at the other carried at an angle which if long continued would have resulted in spinal curvature light gloves a cane and oh bitter drop in the cup of joy an ignominious straw hat
and a festoon of watchguard below finished off this impressive boy how's that for style he asked appearing to his mother and cousins whom he was to escort to the hall on this particular occasion
a shout of laughter greeted him followed by exclamations of horror for he had artfully added the little blond moustache he often wore when acting it was very becoming and seemed the only balm to heal the wound made by the loss of the beloved hat
said missus jo trying to frown but privately thinking that among the many youths about her none were so beautiful and original
no one will ever guess he isn't eighteen at least cried josie
later however the moustache appeared and many strangers firmly believed
so ted found one ray of joy to light his gloom
at the appointed hour he looked down upon the parterre of youthful faces before him
and from which this beautiful harvest seemed to have sprung mister march's fine old face shone with the serenest satisfaction for this was the dream of his life fulfilled after patient waiting
and the love and reverence in the countenances of the eager young men and women looking up at him plainly showed that the reward he coveted was his in fullest measure laurie always effaced himself on these occasions as much as courtesy would permit
and noble dispenser of his beneficence the three sisters beamed with pride as they sat among the ladies enjoying as only women can the honour done the men they loved while the original plums as the younger ones called themselves
regarded the whole affair as their work receiving the curious admiring or envious glances of strangers with a mixture of dignity and delight rather comical to behold the music was excellent and well it might be when apollo waved the baton
the poems were as usual on such occasions of varied excellence as the youthful speakers tried to put old truths into new words and made them forceful by the enthusiasm of their earnest faces and fresh voices
it was beautiful to see the eager interest with which the girls listened to some brilliant brother student and applauded him with a rustle as of wind over a bed of flowers it was still more significant and pleasant to watch the young men's faces
when a slender white figure stood out against the background of black coated dignitaries and with cheeks that flushed and paled and lips that trembled till earnest purpose conquered maiden fear
and brain concerning the hopes and doubts the aspirations and rewards all must know desire and labour for this clear sweet voice seemed to reach and rouse all that was noblest in the souls of these youths and to set a seal upon the years of comradeship
which made them sacred and memorable for ever alice heath's oration was unanimously pronounced the success of the day for without being flowery or sentimental as is too apt to be the case with these first efforts of youthful orators
it was earnest sensible and so inspiring that she left the stage in a storm of applause the good fellows being as much fired by her stirring appeal to march shoulder to shoulder as if she had chanted the marseillaise then and there
one young man was so excited that he nearly rushed out of his seat to receive her as she hastened to hide herself among her mates
a prudent sister detained him however and in a moment he was able to listen with composure to the president's remarks they were worth listening to for mister bhaer spoke like a father to the children whom he was dismissing to the battle of life
and his tender wise and helpful words lingered in their hearts long after the praise was forgotten then came other exercises peculiar to plumfield and the end
why the roof did not fly off when the sturdy lungs of the excited young men pealed out the closing hymn will for ever be a mystery
and only the fading garlands vibrated as the waves of music rolled up and died away leaving sweet echoes to haunt the place for another year dinners and spreads consumed the afternoon
as could be compressed into a few hours by youths and maidens just out of school carriages were rolling about and gay groups on piazzas lawns and window seats idly speculated as to who the distinguished guests might be
then they all disappeared into the house the luggage followed and the watchers were left to wonder who the mysterious strangers were till a fair collegian declared that they must be the professor's nephews one of whom was expected on his wedding journey
she was right franz proudly presented his blonde and buxom bride
on the evening after their arrival at bath godfrey who had kept himself up all day for that purpose went in boots to the billiard table and two gentlemen being at play
began to bet with so little appearance of judgment that one of the adventurers then present was inflamed with a desire of profiting by his inexperience and when the table was vacant invited him to take a game for amusement
the soldier assuming the air of a self conceited dupe answered that he did not choose to throw away his time for nothing but if he pleased would piddle for a crown a game
this declaration was very agreeable to the other who wanted to be further confirmed in the opinion he had conceived of the stranger before he would play for anything of consequence the party being accepted gauntlet put off his coat
and beginning with seeming eagerness won the first game because his antagonist kept up his play with a view of encouraging him to wager a greater sum the soldier purposely bit at the hook
the stakes were doubled and he was again victorious by the permission of his competitor he now began to yawn and observing that it was not worth his while to proceed in such a childish manner
the other swore in an affected passion that he would play him for twenty guineas the proposal being embraced through the connivance of godfrey the money was won by the sharper who exerted his dexterity to the utmost
swore that the table had a cast and that the balls did not run true changed his mast and with great warmth challenged his enemy to double the sum the gamester who feigned reluctance complied with his desire
offered to lay one hundred guineas to fifty on the game the odds were taken and godfrey having allowed himself to be overcome began to rage with great violence broke the mast to pieces
threw the balls out of the window and in the fury of his indignation defied his antagonist to meet him tomorrow when he should be refreshed from the fatigue of travelling this was a very welcome invitation to the gamester
who imagining that the soldier would turn out a most beneficial prize assured him that he would not fail to be there next forenoon in order to give him his revenge gauntlet went home to his lodgings
fully certified of his own superiority and took his measures with peregrine touching the prosecution of their scheme while his opponent made a report of his success to the brethren of the gang who resolved to be present at the decision of the match
with a view of taking advantage of the stranger's passionate disposition affairs being thus concerted on both sides the players met according to appointment and the room was immediately filled with spectators
proffered to lay another hundred on the head of his associate godfrey took him upon the instant a second worthy of the same class seeing him so eager challenged him to treble the sum and his proposal met with the same reception
to the astonishment of the company whose expectation was raised to a very interesting pitch the game was begun and the soldier having lost the first hazard the odds were offered by the confederacy with great vociferation
but nobody would run such a risk in favour of a person who was utterly unknown the sharper having gained the second also the noise increased to a surprising clamour not only of the gang
but likewise of almost all the spectators who desired to lay two to one against the brother of emilia peregrine who was present perceiving the cupidity of the association sufficiently inflamed
which were immediately deposited on both sides in money and notes so that this was perhaps the most important game that ever was played at billiards gauntlet seeing the agreement settled
for which however they consoled themselves by imputing the success to accident but when at the very next stroke he sprung it over the table their countenances underwent an instantaneous distraction of feature
and they waited in the most dreadful suspense for the next hazard which being likewise taken with infinite ease by the soldier the blood forsook their cheeks
and the interjection zounds pronounced with a look of consternation and in a tone of despair proceeded from every mouth at the same instant of time they were overwhelmed with horror and astonishment
at seeing three hazards taken in as many strokes from a person of their friend's dexterity and shrewdly suspected that the whole was a scheme preconcerted for their destruction
on this supposition they changed the note and attempted to hedge for their own indemnification by proposing to lay the odds in favour of gauntlet but so much was the opinion of the company altered by that young gentleman's success
that no one would venture to espouse the cause of his competitor who chancing to improve his game by the addition of another lucky hit diminished the concern and revived the hopes of his adherents
but this gleam of fortune did not long continue godfrey collected his whole art and capacity and augmenting his score to number ten indulged himself with a view of the whole fraternity
the visages of these professors had adopted different shades of complexion at every hazard he had taken from their natural colour they had shifted into a sallow hue from thence into pale
from pale into yellow which degenerated into a mahogany tint and now they saw seventeen hundred pounds of their stock depending upon a single stroke they stood like so many swarthy moors
jaundiced with terror and vexation the fire which naturally glowed in the cheeks and nose of the player seemed utterly extinct and his carbuncles exhibited a livid appearance
as if a gangrene had already made some progress in his face his hand began to shake and his whole frame was seized with such trepidation that he was fain to swallow a bumper of brandy
this fatal accident was attended with a universal groan as if the whole universe had gone to wreck and notwithstanding that tranquility for which adventurers are so remarkable
this loss made such an impression upon them all that each in particular manifested his chagrin by the most violent emotions one turned up his eyes to heaven and bit his nether lip
another gnawed his fingers while he stalked across the room a third blasphemed with horrid imprecations and he who played the party sneaked off grinding his teeth together
with a look that baffles all description and as he crossed the threshold exclaiming
the victors after having insulted them by asking if they were disposed for another chance carried off their winning with the appearance of great composure
though in their hearts they were transported with unspeakable joy not so much on account of the booty they had gained as in consideration of having so effectually destroyed such a nest of pernicious miscreants
peregrine believing that now he had found an opportunity of serving his friend without giving offence to the delicacy of his honour told him upon their arrival at their lodgings
he put his share of the success in gauntlet's hand as a sum that of right belonged to him and promised to write in his behalf to a nobleman who had interest enough to promote such a quick rise in the service godfrey
thanked him for his obliging intention but absolutely refused with great loftiness of demeanour to appropriate to his own use any part of the money which pickle had gained
resolved to govern himself in his next endeavours of friendship by his experience of this ticklish punctilio and in the meantime gave a handsome benefaction to the hospital out of these first fruits of the success in play
but a little further off no motion is visible nor anything save color dim warm blue of water
illumined by a sunshine soft as memory what i have thus been trying to describe is a kakemono that is to say a japanese painting on silk
suspended to the wall of my alcove and the name of it is shinkiro which signifies mirage but the shapes of the mirage are unmistakable
those are the glimmering portals of horai the blest and those are the moony roofs of the palace of the dragon king and the fashion of them
though limned by a japanese brush of to day is the fashion of things chinese twenty one hundred years ago
thus much is told of the place in the chinese books of that time in horai there is neither death nor pain and there is no winter
the flowers in that place never fade and the fruits never fail and if a man taste of those fruits even but once he can never again feel
or hunger in horai grow the enchanted plants so rin shi
and ban kon to which heal all manner of sickness and there grows also the magical grass yo shin shi
and the magical grass is watered by a fairy water of which a single drink confers perpetual youth the people of horai
eat their rice out of very very small bowls but the rice never diminishes within those bowls however much of it be eaten
until the eater desires no more and the people of horai drink their wine out of very very
even in a mirage is not believable for really there are no enchanted fruits which leave the eater forever satisfied
nor any magical grass which revives the dead nor any fountain of fairy water
bone and the heaping of snow is monstrous on the roofs of the dragon king nevertheless there are wonderful things in horai
and the most wonderful of all has not been mentioned by any chinese writer
the atmosphere of horai it is an atmosphere peculiar to the place and because of it the sunshine in horai is whiter than any other sunshine
and it is not a mixture of nitrogen and oxygen it is not made of air at all but of ghost
the substance of quintillions of quintillions of generations of souls blended into one immense translucency
whatever mortal man inhales that atmosphere he takes into his blood the thrilling of these spirits and they change the sense within him
reshaping his notions of space
so that he can see only as they used to see and feel only as they used to feel and think only as they used to think
soft as sleep are these changes of sense and horai discerned across them
the people of horai smile from birth until death except when the gods send sorrow among them
all folk in horai love and trust each other as if all were members of a single household
is like birdsong
in horai nothing is hidden but grief because there is no reason for shame and nothing is locked away
because there could not be any theft and by night as well as by day all doors remain unbarred because there is no reason for fear
ghostly atmosphere but not all
has found fulfillment in many hearts in the simple beauty of unselfish lives in the sweetness of woman evil winds
from the west are blowing over horai and the magical atmosphere alas is shrinking away before them it lingers now in patches only
under these shreds of the elfish vapor
but not everywhere remember that horai is also called shinkiro
i got ground enough for the situation which pleased me and had she remained close beside my elbow till midnight i should have held true to my system and considered her only under that
general idea she had scarce got twenty paces distant from me ere something within me called out for a more particular enquiry
it brought on the idea of a further separation i might possibly never see her more the heart is for saving what it can
and i wanted the traces through which my wishes might find their way to her in case i should never rejoin her myself
i form'd a score different plans there was no such thing as a man's asking her directly the thing was impossible a little french
debonnaire captain who came dancing down the street showed me it was the easiest thing in the world for popping in betwixt us
he introduced himself to my acquaintance and before he had well got announced i would do him the honour to present him to the lady i had not been presented myself
so turning about to her he did it just as well by asking her if she had come from paris no she was going that route she said
she was not she replied then madame must have come through flanders
she answered she was of brussels he had had the honour he said to
and full of noblesse when the imperialists were driven out by the french
i observed the lady was as little taken with it as myself
telling us as he recommended them that they had been purchased by my lord a and b to
but had gone no further than paris
which stood behind and forthwith begun to chaffer for the price
opening the door and getting in have the goodness madame
the lady hesitated half a second and stepped in
he shut the door of the chaise upon us and left us
said the lady smiling
by a parcel of nonsensical contingencies c'est bien comique said she there wants nothing said i
to make it so but the comic use which the gallantry of a frenchman would put it to to make love the first moment and an offer of his person the second
but for my own part i think them arrant bunglers and in truth the worst set of marksmen that ever tried cupid's patience to think of making love by
sentiments i should as soon think of making a genteel suit of clothes out of
declaration is submitting the offer and themselves with it
by an unheated mind the lady attended as if she expected i should go on consider then madame continued i
that selfish people hate it for their own hypocrites for heaven's and that all of us both old and young
whoever lets the word come out of his lips till an hour or two at least after the time that his silence upon it becomes tormenting a course of small quiet attentions not so
with now and then a look of kindness and little or nothing said upon it leaves nature for your mistress and she fashions it to her mind
then i solemnly declare said the lady blushing you have been making love to me all this while
monsieur dessein came back to let us out of the chaise and acquaint the lady the count de l her brother was just arrived at the hotel
said i that i was going to make to you you need not tell me what the proposal was said she laying her hand upon both mine as she interrupted me a man
my good sir has seldom an offer of kindness to make to a woman but she has a presentiment of it some moments before nature arms her with it said i
for immediate preservation but i think said she looking in my face i had no evil to apprehend and to deal frankly with you had determined to accept it
if i had she stopped a moment i believe your good will would have drawn a story from me which would have made pity the only dangerous thing in the journey
in saying this she suffered me to kiss her hand twice and with a look of sensibility mixed with concern she got out of the chaise
meanwhile the french siren balked in her design upon her english cully
that should be altogether unprofitable resolved to practise her charms upon the dutch merchant she had already made such innovation upon his heart that he cultivated her with peculiar complacency
gazed upon her with a most libidinous stare and unbended his aspect into a grin that was truly israelitish the painter saw and was offended at this correspondence
which he considered as an insult upon his misfortune as well as an evident preference of his rival and conscious of his own timidity swallowed an extraordinary glass that his invention might be stimulated
and his resolution raised to the contrivance and execution of some scheme of revenge the wine failed in the expected effect and without inspiring him with the plan served only to quicken his desire of vengeance
so that he communicated his purpose to his friend peregrine and begged his assistance but our young gentleman was too intent upon his own affair to mind the concerns of any other person and he declining to be engaged in the project
who readily embarked in the undertaking and invented a plan which was executed accordingly the evening being pretty far advanced and the company separated into their respective apartments
pickle repaired in all the impatience of youth and desire to the chamber of his charmer and finding the door unbolted entered in a transport of joy by the light of the room which shone through the window
he was conducted to her bed which he approached in the utmost agitation and perceiving her to all appearance asleep essayed to wake her with a gentle kiss but this method proved ineffectual
as persuaded him that she was resolved to sleep in spite of all his endeavours flushed with this supposition he locked the door in order to prevent interruption and stealing himself under the clothes set fortune at defiance
while he held the fair creature circled in his arms nevertheless near as he seemed to be to the happy accomplishment of his desire his hope was again frustrated with a fearful noise
which in a moment awaked his amanda in a fright and for the present engaged all his attention
and the hebrew supposed to be bedded with his mistress they led upstairs into a long thoroughfare from which the chambers were detached on each side the painter perceiving the lady's door ajar according to his expectation
mounted this animal with intention to ride into the room and disturb the lovers in the midst of their mutual endearments but the ass true to its kind finding himself bestrid by an unknown rider
instead of advancing in obedience to his conductor retreated backward to the other end of the passage in spite of all the efforts of the painter who spurred and kicked and pummeled to no purpose
it was the noise of this contention between pallet and the ass which invaded the ears of peregrine and his mistress neither of whom could form the least rational conjecture about the cause of such strange disturbance
which increased as the animal approached their apartment at length the bourrique's retrograde motion was obstructed by the door which it forced open in a twinkling with one kick and entered with such complication of sound
as terrified the lady almost into a fit and threw her lover into the utmost perplexity and confusion the painter finding himself thus violently intruded into the bed chamber of he knew not whom and dreading the resentment of the possessor
who might discharge a pistol at him as a robber who had broken into his apartment was overwhelmed with consternation and redoubled his exertion to accomplish a speedy retreat sweating all the time with fear and putting up petition to heaven for his safety
but his obstinate companion regardless of his situation instead of submitting to his conduct began to turn round like a millstone the united sound of his feet and bells producing a most surprising concert
the unfortunate rider whirling about in this manner would have quitted his seat and left the beast to his own amusement but the rotation was so rapid that the terror of a severe fall hindered him from attempting to dismount
and in the desperation of his heart he seized one of his ears which he pinched so unmercifully that the creature set up his throat and brayed aloud this hideous exclamation was no sooner heard by the fair fleming
already chilled with panic and prepared with superstition than believing herself visited by the devil who was permitted to punish her for her infidelity to the marriage bed she uttered a scream and began to repeat her pater noster with a loud voice
her lover finding himself under the necessity of retiring started up and stung with the most violent pangs of rage and disappointment ran directly to the spot from whence this diabolical noise seemed to proceed
having thus cleared the room of such disagreeable company he went back to his mistress and assuring her that this was only some foolish prank of pallet took his leave with a promise of returning after the quiet of the inn should be re established
in the mean time the noise of the bourrique the cries of the painter and the lady's scream had alarmed the whole house and the ass in the precipitation of his retreat seeing people with lights before him
where he lay concealed mister jolter and the priest who were the foremost of those who had been aroused by the noise were not unmoved when they saw such a spectacle rushing into the chamber whence the lady of pleasure began to shriek
the governor made a full halt and the capuchin discovered no inclination to proceed they were however by the pressure of the crowd that followed them thrust forward to the door through which the vision entered
and there jolter with great ceremony complimented his reverence with the pas beseeching him to walk in the mendicant was too courteous and humble to accept this pre eminence and a very earnest dispute ensued
during which the ass in the course of his circuit showed himself and rider and in a trice decided the contest for struck with this second glimpse both at one instant sprang backward with such force
as overturned their next men who communicated the impulse to those that stood behind them and these again to others so that the whole passage was strewed with a long file of people that lay in a line
like the sequel and dependence of a pack of cards in the midst of this havoc our hero returned from his own room with an air of astonishment asking the cause of this uproar
receiving such hints of intelligence as jolter's consternation would permit him to give he snatched the candle out of his hand and advanced into the haunted chamber without hesitation being followed by all present
who broke forth into a long and loud peal of laughter when they perceived the ludicrous source of their disquiet the painter himself made an effort to join their mirth but he had been so harrowed by fear
and smarted so much with the pain of the discipline he had received from pickle that he could not with all his endeavours vanquish the ruefulness of his countenance his attempt served only to increase the awkwardness of his situation
which was not at all mended by the behaviour of the coquette who furious with her disappointment slipped on a petticoat and bedgown and springing upon him like mother hecuba with her nails deprived all one side of his nose of the skin
and would not have left him an eye to see through if some of the company had not rescued him from her unmerciful talons provoked at this outrage as well as by her behaviour to him in the diligence
assured them that he must have absconded somewhere in the apartment
chapter thirty four the bargain it may be that when one is placed in such a predicament as that in which i then found myself one's wits are suddenly sharpened and a new sense is given to one
whether that is so or not i was as certain as if i actually saw him that my assailant was the butler hollins and i should have been infinitely surprised if any other voice than his had spoken
as he did speak when the last grumble of the thunder died out in a sulky reluctant murmur in at that door and straight up the stairs moneylaws he commanded and quick
lively now he trailed the muzzle of the revolver round from my temple to the back of my head as he spoke pressing it into my hair in its course in a fashion that was anything but reassuring
and how i was for it's a fact more curious than frightened about it but the sense of self preservation was on me self assertive enough and i obliged him stumbling in at the door under the pressure of his strong arm and
of the revolver and beginning to boggle at the first steps old and much worn ones which were deeply hollowed in the middle he shoved me forward up you go he said straight ahead put your arms up and out in front of you till you feel a door
push it open he kept one hand on the scruff of my neck too tightly for comfort and with the other pressed the revolver into the cavity just above it and in this fashion we went up and even in that predicament i must have had my wits about me
for i counted two and twenty steps
a musty close smell came from whatever was within
now then halt and keep halting if you move one finger moneylaws out fly your brains no great loss to the community my lad but i've some use for them yet
and suddenly i heard a snap behind me and the place in which we stood was lighted up feebly but enough to show me a cell like sort of room stone walled of course and destitute of everything in the furnishing way
in its blue glare he drew the revolver away from my head and stepping aside but always covering me with his weapon motioned me to the further stool i obeyed him mechanically
sat down on the other stool and resting his elbow on the table ledge poked the revolver within a few inches of my nose now we'll talk for a few minutes moneylaws he said quietly
and i'd have been off now if it hadn't been for your cursed peeping and prying but i don't want to kill you unless i'm obliged to
not to my knowledge said i you came alone he asked absolutely alone i replied and why he demanded to see if i could get any news of miss dunlop i answered
why should you think to find miss dunlop here in this old ruin he argued and i could see he was genuinely curious come now straight talk moneylaws
she's missing since last night i replied it came to me that she likely took a short cut across these grounds and that in doing so she fell in with sir gilbert or with you and was kept lest she should let out what she'd seen
that's the plain truth mister hollins he was keeping his eyes on me just as steadily as he kept the revolver and i saw from the look in them that he believed me aye he said
but did you keep that idea of yours strictly to yourself now absolutely i repeated you didn't mention it to a soul he asked searchingly not to a soul said i there isn't man woman or child knows i'm here
i thought he might have dropped the muzzle of the revolver at that but he still kept it in a line with my nose and made no sign of relaxing his vigilance but as he was silent for the moment i let out a question at him
it'll do you no harm to tell me the truth mister hollins i said do you know anything about miss dunlop is she safe you've maybe had a young lady yourself one time or another you'll understand what i'm feeling about it
he nodded solemnly at that and in quite a friendly way aye he answered i understand your feelings well enough moneylaws
so i'll tell you at once that the lass is safe enough and there's not as much harm come to her as you could put on a sixpence so there but i'm not sure yet that you're safe yourself he went on
i'm a soft hearted man moneylaws or else you wouldn't have your brains in their place at this present minute there's a mighty lot of chance of my harming you anyway said i with a laugh that surprised myself not so much as a penknife on me
and you with that thing at my head aye but you've got a tongue in that head
but come now i'm loth to harm you
what's the police doing what police do you mean i inquired here there everywhere anywhere he exclaimed no quibbles now you'll have had plenty of information they're acting on yours i retorted
searching about glasgow for sir gilbert and lady carstairs you put us on to that mister hollins i had to he answered aye i put lindsey on to it to be sure and he took it all in like it was gospel and so did all of you
it gained time do you see moneylaws it had to be done then they aren't in glasgow i asked he shook his big head solemnly at that and something like a smile came about the corners of his lips
nor near it he answered readily but where all the police in england and in scotland too for that matter
out of hand moneylaws out of hand d'ye see for the police
you're not in any danger that i know of he looked at me as if wondering whether i wasn't trying a joke on him
i'm leaving this part finally he answered
and as i say whether it's storm or no storm i must be away and there's just two things i can do moneylaws i can lay you out on the floor here with your brains running over your face or i can trust to your honour
we looked at each other for a full minute in silence our eyes meeting in the queer bluish light of the electric pocket lamp which he had set on the table before us between us too was that revolver always pointing at me out of its one black eye
if it's all the same to you mister hollins
i'd prefer you to trust to my honour whatever quality my brains may have i'd rather they were used than misused in the way you're suggesting if it's just this that you want me to hold my tongue
i'll make a bargain with you he broke in on me
aye i would that i exclaimed give me the chance mister hollins then give me your word that whatever happens whatever comes you'll not mention to the police that you've seen me tonight and that whenever you're questioned you'll know nothing about me
he said eagerly twelve hours start aye six means safety to me moneylaws will you keep silence where's miss dunlop asked i you can be with her in three minutes he answered
that you'll both bide where you are till morning
you'll keep your tongue quiet will you do that she's close by i demanded over our heads he said calmly and you've only to say the word it's said mister hollins i exclaimed go your ways
i'll never breathe a syllable of it to a soul neither in six nor twelve nor a thousand hours your secret's safe enough with me so long as you keep your word about her and just now he drew his free hand off the table still watching me
and still keeping up the revolver and from a drawer in the table
there's a door behind you in yon corner he said and you'll find a lantern at its foot you've matches on you no doubt and beyond the door there's another stair that leads up to the turret
and you'll find her there and safe and so go your ways now moneylaws and i'll go mine he dropped the revolver into a side pocket of his waterproof coat as he spoke and pointing me to the door in the corner
turned to that by which he had entered and as he turned he snapped off the light of his electric lamp while i myself
in its spluttering light i saw his big figure round the corner then just as i made for the lantern the match went out and all was darkness again
and suddenly there was a sort of scuffle and he cried out loudly once and there was the sound of a fall and then of lighter steps hurrying away and then a heavy rattling groan
and with my heart in my mouth and fingers trembling so that i could scarcely hold the match i made shift to light the candle in the lantern and went fearfully after him there
with the blood running in dark streams from a gap in his throat while his hands which he had instinctively put up to it were feebly dropping away and relaxing on his broad chest
and as i put the lantern closer to him he looked up at me in a queer puzzled fashion
of course i recognized his voice instantly when he said that you penny
i said of course ralph where have you been and he said in that coaxing teasing voice of his that i know so well peeved penny i don't blame you honey you really ought
that's exactly how he talked bonnie dundee exactly
did you ask him where he was dundee asked finally no i just told him to come on over and he said i could depend on it that he wouldn't waste any time oh bonnie what shall we do
listen penny dundee urged rapidly you must realize that i've got to see and hear but i don't want ralph hammond to see me until after he's had a talk with you will you let me eavesdrop behind these portieres
i know it's a beastly thing to do but penny agreed at last and within ten minutes after that amazing telephone call dundee
heard penny greeting her visitor in the little foyer she had played fair had not gone out into the hall to whisper a warning
he had seen ralph hammond enter the dining room of the stuart house the day before in company with clive hammond and polly beale when the three had been strangers to him but dundee told himself now that he would hardly have recognized the young man whom penny was preceding into her living room
the ralph hammond of saturday had had a white drawn face and sick eyes but this boy like his older brother clive ralph hammond had dark red curling hair but unlike his brother's his eyes were a wide candid hazel
the green iris thickly flecked with brown a little shorter than clive a trifle more slender but that which held the detective's eyes was something less tangible but at once more evident than superlative masculine good looks
it was a sort of shy joyousness and buoyance which flushed the tan of his cheeks sang in his voice made his eyes almost unbearably bright before penny crain very pale and quiet could sink into the chair she was groping toward
ralph hammond was at her side one arm going out to encircle her shoulders don't look like that penny dundee heard him plead his voice suddenly humble you've every right to be sore at me honey but please don't be
i know i've been an awful cad these last few weeks but i'm myself again i'm cured now penny wait ralph penny protested faintly holding back as he would have hugged her hard against his breast
what about nita dundee saw the young man's face go darkly red but heard him answer almost steadily
i'm cured of nita i can't express it any other way except to say i was sick and now i'm cured you mean penny faltered but with a swift imploring glance toward dundee you don't love nita any more
you can't deny you were terribly in love with her ralph
that she had promised to marry you just thursday night the boy's face was very pale as he dropped his hands from penny's shoulders but dundee from behind the portieres was not troubling to spy for the moment
he was too indignant with penny for having withheld from him the vital fact of nita's engagement to ralph hammond that's true penny ralph was saying dully you have a right to know because i'm asking you to marry me now
i did propose to nita again thursday night and she did accept me i confess now i was wild with happiness why did she refuse you before penny cut in
and dundee silently thanked her for asking the question he would have liked to ask himself was it because she wasn't sure she was in love with you you're making it awfully hard for me honey the boy protested then admitted humbly
of course you want to know and you should know no she said all along almost from the first that she loved me more than i could love her but that there were reasons two reasons she always said
and once i asked her jealously if they were both men but she looked so startled and then laughed so queerly that i didn't ask again then i thought it might be because i was younger than she was
though i can't believe she is more than twenty three or so and i'm twenty five you know and once i got cold sick because i thought she might still be married but she said her husband was married again
and i wasn't to ask questions or worry about him but she did accept you thursday night penny persisted yes the boy admitted his face darkly flushed again this is awfully hard honey
but i'll tell you once for all and get it over with i took her to dinner we drove to burnsville because she said she was sick of hamilton when we were driving back she suddenly became very queer reckless defiant
and i said i did i asked her right then to say when and she said she'd marry me june first but she added
that she'd marry me june first if she lived to see the day oh penny gasped then controlling her horror she asked with what sounded like real curiosity then what happened ralph
on on sunday a gorgeous actress sacrificed to the typewriter dundee told himself as he waited for ralph hammond's reluctant reply can't we forget it honey
you do love me a little don't you can't you take my word for it that i'm cured now forever penny's hands went up to cover her face and dundee had the grace to feel very sorry indeed for her
sorry even if she intended to give her promise to ralph hammond as a sick feeling in his stomach prophesied that she was about to do how can i know you're really cured if i don't know what cured you
i suppose you're right the boy admitted miserably there's no need to ask you not to tell anyone else although i don't want to see her again ever
i tried to keep her back i don't quite understand ralph penny interrupted you mean something happened when you were at nita's house yesterday morning yes
judge marshall had promised nita to have the unfinished half of the top story turned into a maid's bedroom and bath and a guest bedroom and bath clive let me go to make the estimates of course i was glad of the chance to see nita again
i hadn't been with her since thursday night but she had to take lydia in for a dentist's appointment and they left me alone in the house i had to go into the finished half to make some measurements and in the bedroom i found oh god
he groaned and pressed a fist against his trembling mouth you found that dexter sprague was staying there
didn't you penny helped him at last in desperation
then seemed to crumple as if from a new blow i suppose it was common gossip that nita and sprague were lovers and i was the only one she fooled my god to think all of you would stand by and let me marry her a cheap little gold digger from broadway
living with a cheap four flusher she couldn't get along without and had to send for did you want to kill her ralph penny whispered touching one of his knotted fists with a trembling hand kill her
good lord no the boy flung at her violently i'm not such an ass as that you girls are all alike polly had so little sense as to think i'd want to kill nita and sprague both she couldn't see and neither could clive
that all i wanted was to get away from everybody and get so drunk i could forget what a fool i'd been what did you do ralph penny asked urgently why i got drunk of course the boy answered as if surprised at her persistence
if he had known how much good it would do me hotel penny snatched at the vital word where did you go to get drunk ralph
after i shook clive polly went on to nita's bridge party because she couldn't throw her down at the last minute i wandered around till i came to the railroad men's hotel down on state street you know the other side of the tracks
it's a miserable dump but i sort of hankered for a place to hide in that was as miserable and cheap as i felt did you register under your own name ashamed of me penny no i registered under my first two names ralph edwards
and the rat faced filthy little hotel clerk turned out to be a bootlegger well when i woke up about eleven this morning i give you my word i wasn't sick and headachy
penny i woke up feeling well i can't explain it
all washed up at first i thought my heart was empty it felt so free of pain but as i lay there thanking god that that was that i found my heart wasn't empty at all it was brimming full of love gosh honey i sound
like a laura jean libbey hero don't i but before i rang you from the lunch room where i ate breakfast i wrote nita a special delivery note telling her it was all off i had to be free actually before i could ask you
you will marry me won't you penny honey i knew this morning i had never really loved anyone else penelope crain remained rigid for a moment
chapter one a novel case talking of sudden disappearances the one you mention of hannah in that leavenworth case of ours is not the only remarkable one which has come under my direct notice
indeed i know of another that in some respects at least surpasses that in points of interest and if you will promise not to inquire into the real names of the parties concerned
i will relate you my experience regarding it
then in the bureau always and of course excepting mister gryce and such a statement from him could not but arouse our deepest curiosity drawing up then to the stove around which we were sitting in lazy enjoyment of one of those
off hours so dear to a detective's heart we gave with alacrity the required promise and settling himself back with the satisfied air of a man who has a good story to tell
he began i was one sunday morning loitering at the precinct station when the door opened and a respectable looking middle aged woman came in whose agitated air at once attracted my attention
going up to her i asked her what she wanted
i don't wish anything said about it but a girl disappeared from our house last night and she stopped here her emotion seeming to choke her and i want some one to look her up she went on at last with the most intense
emphasis a girl
and what house do you mean when you say our house she looked at me keenly before replying
said she isn't there some one here more responsible than yourself that i can talk to
she at once seemed to put confidence in him drawing him aside she whispered a few low eager words which i could not hear he listened nonchalantly for a moment but suddenly made a move which i knew indicated strong and surprised interest
though from his face but you know what gryce's face is i was about to walk off convinced he had got hold of something he would prefer to manage himself when the superintendent came in
mister gryce heard him and hastened forward as he passed me he whispered take a man and go with this woman look into matters and send me word if you want me
i did not need a second permission beckoning to harris i reapproached the woman
did he say so she asked pointing to mister gryce who now stood with his back to us busily talking with the superintendent i nodded and she at once moved towards the door
second avenue mister blake's house she whispered uttering a name so well known i at once understood mister gryce's movement of sudden interest a girl one who sewed for us disappeared last night in a way to alarm us very much
she was taken from her room yes she cried vehemently seeing my look of sarcastic incredulity
she never went of her own accord and she must be found if i spend every dollar of the pittance i have laid up in the bank against my old age her manner was so intense her tone so marked and her words so vehement
i at once and naturally asked if the girl was a relative of hers that she felt her abduction so keenly no she replied not a relative but she went on looking every way but in my face a very dear friend a
a protegee i think they call it of mine i i she must be found she again reiterated we were by this time in the street nothing must be said about it she now whispered catching me by the arm i told him so
and he promised secrecy it can be done without folks knowing anything about it can't it what i asked finding the girl well said i we can tell you better about that when we know a few more of the facts
what is the girl's name and what makes you think she didn't go out of the house door of her own accord why why everything she wasn't the person to do it then the looks of her room and they all got out of the window she cried suddenly
and went away by the side gate into street they who do you mean by they why
well no said i not in the sense you mean
he did'nt seem to doubt it at all i laughed
yes and he said very likely and well he might for i heard the men talking in her room and you heard men talking in her room when o it must have been as late as half past twelve
i had been asleep and the noise they made whispering woke me wait i said tell me where her room is hers and yours hers is the third story back mine the front one on the same floor
who are you i now inquired what position do you occupy in mister blake's house i am the housekeeper mister blake was a bachelor and you were wakened last night by hearing whispering which seemed to come from this girl's room yes
i at first thought it was the folks next door we often hear them when they are unusually noisy but soon i became assured it came from her room and more astonished than i could say she is a good girl she broke in suddenly looking at me with hotly indignant eyes
as this whole city can show don't you dare any of you to hint at anything else o come come i said soothingly a little ashamed of my too communicative face i haven't said anything we will take it for granted she is as good
as gold go on the woman wiped her forehead with a hand that trembled like a leaf where was i said she
i waited a moment then i turned the knob and called her she did not reply and i called again then she came to the door but did not unlock it what is it she asked o said i i thought i heard talking here and i was frightened
it must have been next door said she i begged pardon and went back to my room there was no more noise but when in the morning we broke into her room and found her gone the window open and signs of distress and struggle around i knew i had not been mistaken
that there were men with her when i went to her door and that they had carried her off this time i could not restrain myself did they drop her out of the window i inquired o said she
and it was by means of that they took her indeed
don't you believe it gasped she stopping me in the street where we were i tell you if what i say is true and these burglars or whatever they were did carry her off it was an agony to her an awful awful thing that will kill her
if it has not done so already you don't know what you are talking about you never saw her was she pretty i asked hurrying the woman along for more than one passer by had turned their heads to look at us
the question seemed in some way to give her a shock ah i don't know she muttered some might not think so i always did it depended upon the way you looked at her
for the first time i felt a thrill of anticipation shoot through my veins why i could not say her tone was peculiar and she spoke in a sort of brooding way as though she were weighing something in her own mind
but then her manner had been peculiar throughout whatever it was that aroused my suspicion i determined henceforth to keep a very sharp eye upon her ladyship levelling a straight glance at her face
i asked her how it was that she came to be the one to inform the authorities of the girl's disappearance doesn't mister blake know anything about it the faintest shadow of a change came into her manner yes said she i told him at breakfast time
but mister blake doesn't take much interest in his servants he leaves all such matters to me then he does not know you have come for the police no sir and o if you would be so good as to keep it from him
it is not necessary he should know i shall let you in the back way mister blake is a man who never meddles with anything and what did mister blake say this morning when you told him that this girl by the way what is her name emily
that this girl emily had disappeared during the night not much of anything sir he was sitting at the breakfast table reading his paper he merely looked up frowned a little in an absent minded way and told me i must manage the servants affairs without troubling him
and you let it drop yes sir mister blake is not a man to speak twice to i could easily believe that from what i had seen of him in public for though by no means a harsh looking man he had a reserved air which
if maintained in private must have made him very difficult of approach we were now within a half block or so of the old fashioned mansion regarded by this scion of new york's aristocracy
as one of the most desirable residences in the city so motioning to the man who had accompanied me to take his stand in a doorway near by and watch for the signal i would give him in case i wanted mister gryce i turned to the woman
and asked her how she proposed to get me into the house without the knowledge of mister blake o sir
he won't notice or if he does will not ask any questions
johnnie and billie bushytail the squirrels
nurse jane fuzzy wuzzy the muskrat lady housekeeper went to the bungalow door and called boys boys will you please be a little quiet
it's about time i got up he said so the boys are playing marbles eh well i'll go out and watch them it will make me think of the days when i was a spry young bunny chap hopping about
spinning my kites and flying my tops i guess you are a little bit twisted are you not
oh so i am said uncle wiggily i mean flying my kite and spinning my top then he pinkled his twink nose ah you see
i was twisted i mean he twinkled his pink nose uncle wiggily did
billie johnnie and jimmie as well as sammie wanted the bunny uncle to play also but he said his rheumatism hurt too much to bend over so he just watched the marble game
oh i forgot i have to go to the store for a loaf of bread for supper come on fellows with me will you
but neither jimmie nor sammie nor billie wanted to go with johnnie so he started off through the woods to the store alone when uncle wiggily cried wait a minute johnnie and i'll go with you
and i have had no adventure at all i'll go along and see what happens oh that will be nice chattered johnnie who did not like to go to the store alone
in which he carried them he ran along beside uncle wiggily
and before uncle wiggily could hold his hat down over his ears it was blown off his head i mean his hat was not his ears
away through the trees the tall silk hat was blown oh dear cried the bunny uncle
i'll get your hat for you uncle wiggily said johnnie kindly you hold my bag of marbles so i can run faster and i'll get the hat for you tossing the rabbit gentleman the marbles away scampered johnnie after the hat
well i hope he gets it
as he sat down on a green moss covered stone to wait for the squirrel boy and while he was waiting the bunny uncle opened the bag and looked at johnnie's marbles
there were green ones and blue and red and pink very pretty all of them
when i was a boy rabbit thought the bunny gentleman just now
i think i'll try and see how well i can shoot marbles so he marked out a ring on the ground
with another marble just the way you boys do ha a good shot cried the bunny uncle as he knocked two marbles out of the ring at once
even if i have the rheumatism he was just going to shoot again when a growling voice over behind a bush said well you will not have it much longer have what much longer
asked uncle wiggily and glancing up there he saw a big bear not at all polite looking you won't have the rheumatism much longer the bear said why not uncle wiggily wanted to know
because answered the bear
and he made a jump for the bunny uncle but did he catch him that bear did not for he stepped on one of the round marbles which rolled under his paw and he fell down ker punko on his nose o
uncle wiggily started to run away but he did not like to go and leave johnnie's marbles on the ground so he stayed to pick them up and by then the bear stood up on his hind legs again
and grabbed the bunny uncle in his sharp claws
ha now i have you said the bear grillery and growlery like yes i see you have sadly spoke uncle wiggily
will you grant me one favor yes and only one growled the bear be quick about it what is it will you let me have one more shot asked the bunny uncle
well i see no harm in that slowly grumbled the bear go ahead shoot uncle wiggily picked out the biggest shooter in johnnie's bag then he took careful aim
never found completely realized
living each on his little patch of ground does not have any essential feature of the wage system so long as they continue to be independent small farmers owners of small capital self employing workers
the wage system does not exist in complete form some men with capital in every community are working for wages while others as independent producers are their own employers
society is not sharply divided into two classes one controlling all the working capital the other quite without resources the wage system may be spoken of as prevailing to day
not as the exclusive but as the typical or dominant form while side by side or along with it is found independent production it is clear
that the wages here spoken of are contract wages the wage system implies a money contract between employer and employed the relation or bond between them is that of a wage payment the wage system cannot be judged properly
such as private property and the enterpriser's part in industry
and an economic relation the serf was bound to the soil the lord could command and control him but the serf's obligations were pretty well defined he had to give services but in return for them
he got something definite in the form of protection and the use of land between the lord and the serf continued a lifelong contract
in the towns conditions were better for the skilled workmen but many things bore heavily on the mass of the workers shut out from special privileges
preventing the choice of an occupation
neglect of children by parents is a limitation preventing industrial training and the development of qualities that would make it possible for the child to excel the faults of human nature cannot be
and if they are remediable it is by education and better social opportunity trade unions often forbid boys to become apprentices and forbid the choice of a trade except under conditions so exacting
that to many they are impossible such limitations are made by the privileged few in their own interest but they are annoying and opposed to the interests of the many the typical wage system
would be one in which all such hindrances were lacking in which there were no social or political limitations on free competition
the wage system should be judged by what it is not by things directly opposed to its spirit
is the one best prepared to assume the risk will be made clearer in the discussion of the employer's function
wage payment therefore is a form of insurance to the workingman he gets something definite instead of taking chances he is ill prepared to take
active among employed as well as among employers a believer in the subsistence theory of wages must
that wages can and will remain indefinitely above that level falling or rising as conditions change the increase in material wealth of itself tends to increase the wages of the workman the laborer though
without resources and even though not contributing to the increase of capital by saving thus shares in the benefit of increasing capital it is true that under some conditions the workman is at a disadvantage
in making the wage contract labor must be applied from day to day or it is lost and the laborer must work to live while this does not determine the rate of wages in the long run in any occupation
nor to any great extent except among the lowest grades of labor
of the section hand cursed and beaten by a brutal foreman with that of the wage earner in the locomotive
and lives the wage system is manifold it is adaptable
it gives to all a wide measure of opportunity and to most a great degree of independence in their lives a hasty resort to indiscriminating analogy
the power to purchase goods with labor
health giving pleasures of country life cannot easily be expressed in england likewise the rise in money wages has been great in eighteen sixty it is represented by one hundred
in eighteen seventy by one hundred thirteen in eighteen eighty by one hundred twenty five in eighteen ninety one by one hundred forty in the intervals some decline occurring
for a century in all civilized lands wages have moved in an ever rising series of waves the purchasing power of wages in england increased
ninety per cent in the thirty years between eighteen sixty and eighteen ninety one throughout europe the same general change is seen
this progress is attributed by different observers to different causes in america by many to the protective tariff in england by many to the freer trade introduced about
eighteen forty throughout the continent of europe to the spread of constitutional government and free institutions by trade unions everywhere to the organization of labor there is doubtless under certain conditions
and especially with the wage system there must go a steady depression in the welfare of the workingman
the exchange of goods by barter is extremely difficult in most cases
things can be compared in their utility their importance to our welfare can be estimated without the use of money many problems of economics can be discussed pretty thoroughly and solved without the use of the word money or any term of similar meaning
but to day it is impossible to go very far in the discussion of economic questions without using the concept of money which is interwoven with every practical and theoretical problem in economics
in kind if the two things do not chance to coincide in value the exchange cannot be completed an equivalent must be found or a multiple if the marginal utility of two goods
is to be equalized for either party by exchange as in most cases this adjustment must be very incomplete
cannot take place in the earlier stages of development this careful estimate of value is not found children do not make it the typical trade of the small boy is a trade even johnny exchanges his gingerbread for jimmie's jack knife
it marks an epoch in the industrial development of the boy when he begins to keep store with pins and no longer trades candy for apples but both for pins which have become the medium of exchange in his boy world
he then can express values in much more exact terms in our society most children begin early to grow familiar with this conception but travelers find some savage tribes
childish stage of development unable to grasp the thought of a general medium of exchange when through lack of a medium of exchange
to carry to know to keep to divide and unite
some things will be better fitted than others first this thing must have the quality of salability or marketability in the channels of exchange it is taken not because it is wanted for itself
of a ready sale in a primitive community it must however
which supply the fundamental physical needs are the most generally used and desired of all goods
the second quality of a good money material
transportability food is bulky the carrying of a venison or of a bag of wheat on one's back a short distance requires an effort as great as that for the
furs however
as the use of money develops as commerce extends to more distant lands the heavier less precious metals fail to serve the money need especially in the larger transactions
it has value just as other indirect agents have
in the extremest conditions is greater than its marginal utility under ordinary conditions food is not credited in the market with enormous value but if starvation threatened all else would be given for food
in a society without money industrial processes would be very different and exchange would be hampered in almost inconceivable ways it is true therefore that money is an economic factor of high importance
it gets along with less money than is convenient just as it
this is sometimes rendered directly as psychic income as in enabling the traveler to buy his dinner for the money thus yields gratification just as does the carriage in which he rides one may go for a day
to the seashore without a parasol and suffer from heat or without money and suffer from hunger in every case where money is retained for a time in possession there is expected from it
can be secured from anything else for which it can be exchanged this usufruct is a net surplus or income yielded by a sum of money undiminished in amount up to the moment it is spent
but meantime increasing in the gratification it will help to secure in many cases in practical business money yields gratification only indirectly
chapter twelve harry annesley's success harry annesley a day or two after he had left tretton
and with the invitation an intimation that florence mountjoy was to be at the dance if i were to declare that the dance had been given and florence asked to it merely as an act of friendship to harry it would perhaps be thought that modern friendship is seldom carried to so great a length
but it was undoubtedly the fact that missus armitage who gave the dance was a great friend and admirer of harry's and that mister armitage was an especial chum let not however any reader suppose that florence was in the secret
as to my going to montpelier place harry had once said to missus armitage i might as well knock at a prison door missus mountjoy lived in montpelier place
and she had managed it is she coming harry said to missus armitage in an anxious whisper as he entered the room she has been here this half hour
she has not gone said harry almost awe struck at the idea no she is sitting like patience on a monument smiling at grief in the room inside she has got horrible news to tell you oh heavens what news
and that she is to live for a while amid the ambassadorial splendors with sir magnus and his wife by retiring from the world missus mountjoy had not intended to include such slight social relaxations as missus armitage's party for harry on turning round
he greeted her with his pleasantest smile to which missus mountjoy did not respond quite so sweetly
and had to day heard a story very much as she thought to his discredit is your daughter here asked harry with well trained hypocrisy missus mountjoy could not but acknowledge that florence was in the room and then harry passed on in pursuit of his quarry
oh mister annesley when did you come to cheltenham
i began to think of coming immediately then an idea for the first time shot through florence's mind
what dance have you disengaged i have something that i must tell you to night
this was merely a lover's anxious doubt on his part because florence had not at once replied to him i am told that you are going away to brussels mamma is going on a visit to her brother in law and you with her of course i shall go with mamma
all this had been said apart while a fair haired lackadaisical young gentleman was standing twiddling his thumbs waiting to dance with florence
and harry's name was duly inscribed the next dance was a quadrille
so he boldly wrote down his name for both i almost think that florence must have suspected that harry annesley was to be there that night or why should the two places have been kept vacant and now what is this he began about your going to brussels
mamma's brother is minister there and we are just going on a visit but why now i am sure there is some especial cause florence would not say that there was no especial cause so she could only repeat her assertion that they certainly were going to brussels
she herself was well aware that she was to be taken out of harry's way and that something was expected to occur during this short month of her absence which might be detrimental to him
nor did she like to say that the plea given by her mother was the general state of the scarborough affairs she did not wish to declare to this lover that that other lover was as nothing to her and how long are you to be away asked harry
we shall be a month with sir magnus but mamma is talking of going on afterward to the italian lakes good heavens you will not be back i suppose till ever so much after christmas i cannot tell nothing as yet has been settled
i do not know that i ought to tell you anything about it harry at this moment looked up and caught the eye of missus mountjoy as she was standing in the door way opposite
then however it came to his turn to dance and he had a moment allowed to him to collect his thoughts by nothing that he could do or say could he prevent her going and he could only use the present moment to the best purpose in his power he bethought himself then
and that such word if ever to be spoken should be forthcoming that night what might not happen to a girl who was passing the balmy christmas months amid the sweet shadows of an italian lake
at present somewhat vague but future months were to his thinking interminable the present moment only was his own the dance was now finished come and take a walk said harry i think i will go to mamma
florence had seen her mother's eye fixed upon her oh come that won't do at all said harry who had already got her hand within his arm a fellow is always entitled to five minutes and then i am down for the next waltz oh no but i am and you can't get out of it now
oh florence will you answer me a question one question i asked it you before and you did not vouchsafe me any answer you asked me no question said florence who remembered to the last syllable every word that had been said to her on that occasion
oh florence can you love me had she given her ears for it she could not have told him the truth then on the spur of the moment her mother's eye was she knew watching her through the door way all the way across from the other room
and have declared that she regarded him already as her lord and master but now she had not a word to say to him all she knew was that he had now pledged himself to her and that she intended to keep him to his pledge may i not have one word
he said one word what could he want with a word more thought florence her silence now was as good as any speech
so there came upon his arm the slightest possible sense of pressure from those sweet fingers
after a moment he stood still and passed his fingers through his hair and waved his head as a god might do it
oh florence he exclaimed i must have you alone with me for one moment
thought florence there was her mother still looking at them but for her harry did not now care one straw nor did he hate those bright italian lakes with nearly so strong a feeling of abhorrence florence you are now all my own
there came another slightest pressure slight but so eloquent from those fingers i hate dancing how is a fellow to dance now i shall run against everybody i can see no one i should be sure to make a fool of myself
well if i must of course i must
though there is so much that you must have to say what have you got to say what a question to ask you must tell me oh you know what you have got to tell me
she whispered but i want to hear it oh florence florence i do not think you can understand how completely i am beyond myself with joy i cannot dance again and will not oh my wife my wife hush said florence
afraid that the very walls might hear the sound of harry's words what does it signify though all the world knew it oh yes
that is what i cannot understand poor mountjoy i do feel for him that he should have had the start of me so long and have done nothing nothing whispered florence
and florence found that she was able to say one word you are my hero the sound of this nearly drove him mad with joy he forgot all his troubles prodgers the policeman augustus scarborough and that fellow whom he hated so much septimus jones
what were they all to him now he had set his mind upon one thing of value and he had got it
but he felt that for the full enjoyment of his triumph he must be alone somewhere with florence for five minutes he had not actually explained to himself why but he knew that he wished to be alone with her at present there was no prospect of any such five minutes
but he must say something in preparation for some future five minutes at a time to come perhaps it might be to morrow though he did not at present see how that might be possible for missus mountjoy he knew would shut her door against him
harry saw her as he got florence to an opposite door and there for the moment escaped with her and now he said how am i to manage to see you before you go to brussels
i do mean it mamma is of course attached to her nephew what after all that has passed why not is he to blame for what his father has done harry felt that he could not press the case against captain scarborough
without some want of generosity and though he had told florence once about that dreadful midnight meeting he could say nothing farther on that subject of course mamma thinks that i am foolish but why he asked because she doesn't see with my eyes harry
you have made this opportunity for yourself before i start
don't say that florence i shall think so unless you can be discreet harry you will have to wait
but i shall not change nor i nor i i think not because i trust you here is mamma and now i must leave you but i shall tell mamma everything before i go to bed
then missus mountjoy came up and took florence away with a few words of most disdainful greeting to harry annesley when florence was gone harry felt that as the sun and the moon and the stars had all set
he might as well escape into the street where there was no one but the police to watch him as he threw his hat up into the air in his exultation but before he did so he had to pass by missus armitage and thank her for all her kindness
oh missus armitage i am so obliged to you no fellow was ever so obliged to a friend before how has it gone off for missus mountjoy has taken florence home oh yes she has taken her away
oh the steed has been stolen yes i think so i do think so and that poor man who has disappeared is nowhere men who disappear never are anywhere but i do flatter myself that if he had held his ground and kept his property
i dare say don't suppose missus armitage that i am taking any pride to myself
oh no not in the least it's all very well for you to laugh missus armitage but as i have thought of it all i have sometimes been in despair but now you are not in despair no indeed just now i am triumphant
i have thought so often that i was a fool to love her because everything was so much against me i have wondered that you continued it always seemed to me that there wasn't a ghost of a chance for you mister armitage bade me give it all up because he was sure you would never do any good
i don't care how much you laugh at me missus armitage
i think you have and because you tell me so i like you all the better as for augustus but i will not burden my spirit now at the last with uttering curses against my own son he is not worth it
now you are not half as clever a fellow as he is
but he has been utterly unable to read me i have poured out my money with open hands for both of you that is true sir certainly as regards me and have thought nothing of it till it was quite hopeless with you i went on and would have gone on
as things were then i was bound to do something to save the property
after all he was quite right with his suspicions
well it was natural enough that he should not trust me
but he was such an ass that he could not bring himself to keep on good terms with me for the few months that were left and then he brought that brute jones down here without saying a word to me as to asking my leave
but waiting for my death from day to day he is a cold blooded selfish brute
that i am even with him before all is over i shall try it on with him sir
and now if i have this money it will give me the means of doing so you ought to know for what purpose i shall use it that is all settled said the father the document properly completed has gone back with the clerk
were i to die this minute you would find that everything inside the house is your own
there is a lot of plate with the banker which i have not wanted of late years
things which i used to fancy though i have not cared so much about them lately
but the books are the most valuable only you do not care for them i shall not have a house to put them in there is no saying what an idiot what a fool what a blind unthinking ass augustus has been
do you regret it sir that he should not have them and the house too i regret that my son should have been such a fool
i did not even want him to be kind to me
but he came here to enjoy himself
i don't know whether i hate him most for the hardness of his heart or despise him for the slowness of his intellect
at which he had found himself thoroughly exhausted now she came for the third time and that period had arrived
was told to go about his business and shoot birds or hunt foxes
this was a long gloomy room which contained perhaps ten thousand volumes
although the room itself was gloomy he took out book after book and told himself with something of sadness in his heart that they were all caviare to him
it became to him utterly confused and unintelligible
and of this he could make neither head nor tail he was informed by a heading in the book itself that a piece of poetry was to be sung as the ten commandments he could not do that and put the book back again and declared to himself that farther search would be useless
then he wandered on into the state drawing room
and found that all the furniture was carefully covered of what use could it all be to him
and looked into the huge mirror which stood there
in earlier days two or three years ago at a time which now seemed to him to be very distant he had regarded florence as his own and as such had demanded her hand
he told himself that it had been so with much self condemnation at any rate he had learned during those months of solitary wandering the power of condemning himself and now he told him that if she would yet come
he might still learn to sing that song of the old fashioned poet as to the ten commandments
oh florence my florence he said as he passed on he had done it all for himself brought down upon his own head this infinite ruin and for what he had scarcely ever won and tretton was gone from him forever
but still there might yet be a chance if he could abstain from gambling and then when it was dusk within the house he went out and passed through the stables and roamed about the gardens till the evening had altogether set in and black night had come upon him
two years ago he had known that he was the heir to it all though even then that habit was so strong upon him he had felt that his tenure of it would be but slight
his marriage had not taken place and the next fatal year had fallen upon him as long as the inheritance of the estate was certainly his he could assuredly raise money at a certain cost
and the money had always been forthcoming at a tremendous sacrifice
on the few occasions on which they had met with an imperiousness which had been natural to him
which had been in truth final had come afterward
what had followed has been told already perhaps too often but at this moment as he stood in the gloom of the night below the porch in the front of the house
though he was prepared to go to law the moment that augustus put himself forward as the eldest son he did recognize how long suffering his father had been and how much had been done for him in order if possible to preserve him
his anger too against his brother was quite as hot as was that of his father
and from that hour augustus had become to him the most cruel of tyrants and this tyranny had come to an end with his absolute banishment from his brother's house
he was not the man who could bear such tyranny well i can forgive my father he said but augustus i will never forgive
and in a short time was sitting at dinner with merton the young doctor and secretary miss scarborough seldom came to table at that hour but remained in a room up stairs close to her brother
upon the whole merton he said what do you think of my father
will he live or will he die he will die certainly do not joke with me but i know you would not joke on such a subject and my question did not merely go to the state of his health what do you think of him as a man generally
do you call him an honest man how am i to answer you just the truth if you will have an answer i do not consider him an honest man all this story about your brother is true or is not true
in neither case can one look upon him as honest just so but i think that he has within him a capacity for love and an unselfishness which almost atones for his dishonesty and there is about him a strange dislike to conventionality
and to law which is so interesting as to make up the balance i have always regarded your father as a most excellent man but thoroughly dishonest he would rob any one but always to eke out his own gifts to other people he has therefore to my eyes been most romantic
and as to his health ah as to that i cannot answer so decidedly he will do nothing because i tell him do you mean that you could prolong his life
who can say sir william brodrick when that fearful operation was performed in london thought that a month would see the end of it that is eight months ago and he has more vitality now than he had then
later on in the evening mountjoy scarborough began again
i am paid for it all but he has not left you anything by his will i have certainly expected nothing and there could be no reason why he should
and therefore as he says he does not choose to burden his will with legacies there is some provision made for my aunt who however has her own fortune he has told me to look after you it will be quite unnecessary said mister merton
if you choose to cut up rough you can do so i would propose that we should fix upon some sum which shall be yours at his death just as though he had left it to you indeed he shall fix the sum himself merton of course
but with this understanding mountjoy scarborough went that night to bed early on the following morning his father again sent for him mountjoy he said
about your will no not about my will at all that shall remain as it is i do not think i should have strength to make another will nor do i wish to do so you mean about merton i don't mean about merton at all give him five hundred pounds and he ought to be satisfied
fielding's third great novel has been the subject of much more discordant judgments than either of its forerunners
we find the greatest authority in the earliest johnson speaking of it with something more nearly approaching to enthusiasm than he allowed himself in reference to any other work of an author to whom he was on the whole so unjust the greatest man of letters
of the next generation scott whose attitude to fielding was rather undecided
or at least failure in sympathy pronounces it on the whole unpleasing and regards it chiefly as a sequel to tom jones showing what is to be expected of a libertine and thoughtless husband but he too is enthusiastic over the heroine thackeray
whom in this special connection at any rate it is scarcely too much to call the greatest man of the third generation overflows with predilection for it but chiefly as it would seem because of his affection for amelia herself in which he practically agrees with scott and johnson
it would be invidious and is noways needful
but it cannot be denied that the book now as always has incurred a considerable amount of hinted fault and hesitated dislike even mister dobson notes some things in it as unsatisfactory mister gosse with evident consciousness of temerity
and of introductory dissertations has been brought against it as the presence of these things was brought against its forerunners i have sometimes wondered whether amelia pays the penalty of an audacity which a priori
its most unfavourable critics would indignantly deny to be a fault it begins instead of ending with the marriage bells and though critic after critic of novels has exhausted his indignation and his satire over the folly of insisting on these as a finale
i doubt whether the demand is not too deeply rooted in the english nay in the human mind to be safely neglected the essence of all romance is a quest the quest most perennially and universally interesting to man is the quest of a wife or a mistress
and the chapters dealing with what comes later have an inevitable flavour of tameness and of the day after the feast it is not common now a days to meet anybody who thinks tommy moore a great poet
one has to encounter either a suspicion of philistinism or a suspicion of paradox if one tries to vindicate for him even his due place in the poetical hierarchy yet i suspect that no poet ever put into words
a more universal criticism of life than he did when he wrote i saw from the beach with its moral of give me back give me back the wild freshness of morning her smiles and her tears are worth evening's best light
if we discard this fallacy boldly and ask ourselves whether amelia is or is not as good as joseph andrews or tom jones we shall i think be inclined to answer rather in the affirmative than in the negative
it is perhaps a little more easy to find fault with its characters than with theirs
it is easy to say that no one of them has the charm of the best personages of the earlier books
but though she is by no means what her namesake and spiritual grand daughter miss sedley must i fear be pronounced to be an amiable fool
there is really too much of the milk of human kindness unrefreshed and unrelieved of its mawkishness by the rum or whisky of human frailty in her one could have better pardoned her forgiveness of her husband
if she had in the first place been a little more conscious of what there was to forgive and in the second a little more romantic in her attachment to him
to put what i mean out of reach of cavil compare imogen and amelia and the difference will be felt but fielding was a prose writer writing in london in the eighteenth century while shakespeare was a poet writing in all time and all space
so that the comparison is luminous in more ways than one i do not think that in the special scheme which the novelist set himself here he can be accused of any failure the life is as vivid as ever
doctor harrison is not perfect i do not mean that he has ethical faults for that is a merit not a defect but he is not quite perfect in art his alternate persecution and patronage of booth though useful to the story
repeat the earlier fault of allworthy and are something of a blot
and indeed is something like what doctor johnson would have been if he had been rather better bred less crotchety and blessed with more health miss matthews in her earlier scenes has touches of greatness which a thousand french novelists lavishing candour and reckless of exaggeration
have not equalled and i believe that fielding kept her at a distance during the later scenes of the story because he could not trust himself not to make her more interesting than amelia of the peers more wicked and less wicked there is indeed not much good to be said
even when as in fielding's case there was no reason why they should mention him with kor as policeman x has it is almost always a faint type of goodness or wickedness dressed out with stars and ribbons and coaches and six
only swift by combination of experience and genius has given us live lords in lord sparkish and lord smart but missus ellison and missus atkinson are very women and the serjeant
though the touch of sensibility is on him is excellent and doctor harrison's country friend and his prig of a son are capital and bondum and the author and robinson and all the minor characters are as good as they can be
it is however usual to detect a lack of vivacity in the book an evidence of declining health and years it may be so it is at least certain that fielding during the composition of amelia
had much less time to bestow upon elaborating his work than he had previously had and that his health was breaking but are we perfectly sure that if the chronological order had been different we should have pronounced the same verdict had amelia come between joseph and tom
how many of us might have committed ourselves to some such sentence as this in amelia we see the youthful exuberances of joseph andrews corrected by a higher art the adjustment of plot and character arranged with a fuller craftsmanship
the genius which was to find its fullest exemplification in tom jones already displaying maturity and do we not too often forget that a very short time in fact barely three years
it is extremely improbable that a man of fielding's temperament of his wants of his known habits and history
it is not improbable that there was no more than a few months interval i do not urge these things in mitigation of any unfavourable judgment against the later novel
i only ask how much of that unfavourable judgment ought in justice to be set down to the fallacies connected with an imperfect appreciation of facts to me it is not so much a question of deciding whether i like amelia less and if so how much less than the others
as a question what part of the general conception of this great writer it supplies i do not think that we could fully understand fielding without it i do not think that we could derive the full quantity of pleasure from him without it
the exuberant romantic faculty of joseph andrews and its pleasant satire the mighty craftsmanship and the vast science of life of tom jones the ineffable irony and logical grasp of jonathan wild
might have left us with a slight sense of hardness a vague desire for unction if it had not been for this completion of the picture we should not have known for in the other books with the possible exception of missus fitzpatrick the characters are a little too determinately goats and sheep
how fielding could draw nuances how he could project a mixed personage on the screen if we had not had miss matthews and missus atkinson the last especially a figure full of the finest strokes and as a rule insufficiently done justice to by critics
there has been little question but who are among the triumphs of fielding's art the two colonels and their connecting link the wife of the one and the sister of the other colonel bath has necessarily united all suffrages he is of course a very little stagey
he reminds us that his author had had a long theatrical apprenticeship he is something too much d'une piece but as a study of the brave man who is almost more braggart than brave
of the generous man who will sacrifice not only generosity but bare justice to a hogo of honour he is admirable and up to his time almost unique
ordinary writers and ordinary readers have never been quite content to admit that bravery and braggadocio can go together that the man of honour may be a selfish pedant people have been unwilling to tell and to hear the whole truth even about wolfe and nelson
who were both favourable specimens of the type but fielding the infallible saw that type in its quiddity and knew it and registered it for ever less amusing but more delicately faithful and true are colonel james and his wife
they are both very good sort of people in a way who live in a lax and frivolous age who have plenty of money no particular principle no strong affection for each other and little individual character they might have been missus james to some extent is
quite estimable and harmless but even as it is they are not to be wholly ill spoken of being what they are fielding has taken them and with a relentlessness which swift could hardly have exceeded and a good nature which swift rarely or never attained
has held them up to us as dissected preparations of half innocent meanness scoundrelism and vanity such as are hardly anywhere else to be found i have used the word preparations and it in part indicates fielding's virtue
a virtue shown i think in this book as much as anywhere but it does not fully indicate it for the preparation wet or dry is a dead thing and a museum is but a mortuary
the palace of his work is the hall not of eblis but of a quite beneficent enchanter who puts burning hearts into his subjects not to torture them but only that they may light up for us their whole organisation and being they are not in the least the worse for it
sir the following book is sincerely designed to promote the cause of virtue and to expose some of the most glaring evils
as well public as private which at present infest the country though there is scarce as i remember a single stroke of satire aimed at any one person throughout the whole the best man is the properest patron of such an attempt this i believe will be readily granted
nor will the public voice i think be more divided to whom they shall give that appellation should a letter indeed be thus inscribed detur optimo there are few persons who would think it wanted any other direction
i will not trouble you with a preface concerning the work nor endeavour to obviate any criticisms which can be made on it the good natured reader if his heart should be here affected will be inclined to pardon many faults for the pleasure he will receive from a tender sensation
and for readers of a different stamp the more faults they can discover the more i am convinced they will be pleased
i have not their usual design in this epistle nor will i borrow their language long very long may it be before a most dreadful circumstance shall make it possible for any pen to draw a just and true character of yourself without incurring a suspicion of flattery in the bosoms of the malignant
this task therefore i shall defer till that day if i should be so unfortunate as ever to see it when every good man shall pay a tear for the satisfaction of his curiosity a day which at present i believe there is but one good man in the world who can think of it with unconcern
accept then sir this small token of that love that gratitude and that respect with which i shall always esteem it my greatest honour to be sir
what emotion had i thoughtlessly aroused in miss dunross had i offended or distressed her or had i without meaning it
forced on her inner knowledge some deeply seated feeling which she had thus far resolutely ignored i looked back through the days of my sojourn in the house
i questioned my own feelings and impressions on the chance that they might serve me as a means of solving the mystery of her sudden flight from the room what effect had she produced on me in plain truth
she had simply taken her place in my mind to the exclusion of every other person and every other subject in ten days she had taken a hold on my sympathies of which other women
would have failed to possess themselves in so many years i remembered to my shame that my mother had but seldom occupied my thoughts even the image of missus van brandt except when the conversation had turned on her
had become a faint image in my mind as to my friends at lerwick from sir james downward they had all kindly come to see me and i had secretly and ungratefully rejoiced
when their departure left the scene free for the return of my nurse in two days more the government vessel was to sail on the return voyage my wrist was still painful when i tried to use it
but the far more serious injury presented by the re opened wound was no longer a subject of anxiety to myself or to any one about me i was sufficiently restored to be capable of making the journey to lerwick
if i rested for one night at a farm half way between the town and mister dunross's house knowing this i had nevertheless left the question of rejoining the vessel undecided to the very latest moment
the motive which i pleaded to my friends was uncertainty as to the sufficient recovery of my strength the motive which i now confessed to myself was reluctance to leave miss dunross
what was the secret of her power over me what emotion what passion had she awakened in me was it love no
the place which mary had once held in my heart the place which missus van brandt had taken in the after time was not the place occupied by miss dunross how could i
in the ordinary sense of the word be in love with a woman whose face i had never seen whose beauty had faded never to bloom again whose wasted life
hung by a thread which the accident of a moment might snap the senses have their share in all love between the sexes which is worthy of the name they had no share in the feeling
with which i regarded miss dunross what was the feeling then i can only answer the question in one way the feeling lay too deep in me for my sounding what impression
had i produced on her what sensitive chord had i ignorantly touched when my lips touched her hand i confess i recoiled from pursuing the inquiry
which i had deliberately set myself to make i thought of her shattered health of her melancholy existence in shadow and solitude of the rich treasures of such a heart and such a mind as hers wasted
with her wasting life and i said to myself let her secret be sacred let me never again by word or deed bring the trouble which tells of it to the surface let her heart be veiled from me
in the darkness which veils her face in this frame of mind toward her i waited her return i had no doubt of seeing her again sooner or later on that day the post to the south
went out on the next day and the early hour of the morning at which the messenger called for our letters made it a matter of ordinary convenience to write overnight in the disabled state of my hand
miss dunross had been accustomed to write home for me under my dictation she knew that i owed a letter to my mother and that i relied as usual on her help her return to me under these circumstances
was simply a question of time any duty which she had once undertaken was an imperative duty in her estimation no matter how trifling it might be the hours wore on
the day drew to its end and still she never appeared i left my room to enjoy the last sunny gleam of the daylight in the garden attached to the house first telling peter where i might be found
if miss dunross wanted me the garden was a wild place to my southern notions but it extended for some distance along the shore of the island and it offered some pleasant views of the lake
and the moorland country beyond slowly pursuing my walk i proposed to myself to occupy my mind to some useful purpose by arranging beforehand the composition of the letter
which miss dunross was to write to my great surprise i found it simply impossible to fix my mind on the subject try as i might my thoughts persisted in wandering from the letter to my mother
and concentrated themselves instead on miss dunross no on the question of my returning or not returning to perthshire by the government vessel no
by some capricious revulsion of feeling which it seemed impossible to account for my whole mind was now absorbed on the one subject which had been hitherto so strangely absent from it
the subject of missus van brandt my memory went back in defiance of all exercise of my own will to my last interview with her i saw her again i heard her again
i tasted once more the momentary rapture of our last kiss i felt once more the pang of sorrow that wrung me when i had parted with her and found myself alone in the street tears
of which i was ashamed though nobody was near to see them filled my eyes when i thought of the months that had passed since we had last looked on one another and of all that she might have suffered must have suffered
in that time hundreds on hundreds of miles were between us and yet she was now as near me as if she were walking in the garden by my side this strange condition of my mind
was matched by an equally strange condition of my body a mysterious trembling shuddered over me faintly from head to foot i walked without feeling the ground as i trod on it i looked about me
with no distinct consciousness of what the objects were on which my eyes rested my hands were cold and yet i hardly felt it my head throbbed hotly
and yet i was not sensible of any pain it seemed as if i were surrounded and enwrapped in some electric atmosphere which altered all the ordinary conditions of sensation
i looked up at the clear calm sky and wondered if a thunderstorm was coming i stopped and buttoned my coat round me and questioned myself if i had caught a cold
the sun sank below the moorland horizon the gray twilight trembled over the dark waters of the lake i went back to the house and the vivid memory of missus van brandt still in close companionship
went back with me the fire in my room had burned low in my absence one of the closed curtains had been drawn back a few inches so as to admit through the window a ray of the dying light
on the boundary limit where the light was crossed by the obscurity which filled the rest of the room i saw miss dunross seated with her veil drawn and her writing case on her knee waiting my return
i hastened to make my excuses i assured her that i had been careful to tell the servant where to find me she gently checked me before i could say more it's not peter's fault she said
i told him not to hurry your return to the house have you enjoyed your walk she spoke very quietly the faint sad voice was fainter and sadder than ever she kept her head bent over her writing case
instead of turning it toward me as usual while we were talking i still felt the mysterious trembling which had oppressed me in the garden drawing a chair near the fire i stirred the embers together
and tried to warm myself our positions in the room left some little distance between us i could only see her sidewise as she sat by the window in the sheltering darkness of the curtain which still remained drawn
i think i have been too long in the garden i said i feel chilled by the cold evening air will you have some more wood put on the fire she asked can i get you anything no thank you
i shall do very well here i see you are kindly ready to write for me yes she said at your own convenience when you are ready my pen is ready the unacknowledged reserve that had come between us
since we had last spoken together was i believe as painfully felt by her as by me we were no doubt longing to break through it on either side if we had only known how
the writing of the letter would occupy us at any rate
the coquette's blandishments have you finished thinking yet doris asked earle gently no she replied i am getting a little clearer in my ideas but i have by no means finished yet
she had two plans before her one was to wait for lord charles and tell him all to trust to his generosity to keep their secret then she laughed bitterly as she repeated the word generosity he had none
he was reckless extravagant over money but as for generosity honor or principle she knew he had none in trusting to that she would indeed trust to a broken reed besides
if she were once established in this new sphere of life it would be highly disagreeable and offensive to have any one near her who knew of this episode
he would hold the secret like a drawn sword over her head no better for her own safety to steal away from him without saying one word even if in the after years
they should meet again it was hardly possible that he would recognize her surrounded by all the luxuries of her position the honored daughter of noble parents it was not likely that he would recognize in her
the girl who had left brackenside for his sake as for leaving him far from feeling the least regret far from seeing that she was treating him dishonorably she smiled to herself at his consternation when he should return
to the river side and not find her he will think that i have run away with some one else she thought and the idea amused her so intensely that she laughed aloud you are well content said earle bitterly
you have brought me wealth and fortune title and honor
and it had brought her to two conclusions she must leave lord vivianne at once and in silence while she must at the same time at any price keep her secret from earle
another and very probable idea occurred to her it was this by earle being sent to fetch her it was very evident that her parents approved of him and that she would have to marry him looking at him
she thought it was not such a bad alternative after all he was handsomer younger stronger than lord vivianne besides what little affection she had had to give had always been his then she arose from her seat with a smile
i have finished thinking earle to make matters square i promise myself that i will not think again for ever so many months what is the result of your deliberation he said i wish you would be a little kinder to me earle
you speak so gravely you look so coldly that you make me quite unhappy his face flushed slightly and his lips trembled i do not wish to seem unkind doris but let me ask you
what else besides coldness and gravity can you expect from me you know i always liked you earle i know you betrayed and deceived me about as basely as it is possible to deceive any one
but we need not discuss that now she looked at him with a smile few men could resist and held out her hands be friends earle i like you too well after all to travel with you while you look so cold and stern
give me one smile only one then i shall feel more at my ease i do not think my smiles cheer or the loss of them depresses you neither can i smile to order still you need have no fear of traveling with me
it was in her nature to respect him more the more difficult he seemed to please i shall manage him in time she thought i shall return with you earle she said i have been thinking it all over and i will go at once
i will not wait to say good bye to the people here but that seems strange not quite right why not go and bid them farewell tell them the good fortune that has happened to you no
they would not let me come away but it does not seem right persisted earle it is right enough if i go back to them i shall not go with you i can write to them as soon as i reach england and tell them all about it
i know you will have your own way doris it is useless for me to interfere do as you please that is like my old lover earle now i begin to feel at home with you i did use you very wickedly
but all the time i liked you i know exactly the value of your liking said earle who had determined to be cool and guarded she talked to him in the old sweet tones
she gave him the sweetest glances from her lovely eyes she remembered all the pretty arts and graces which had attracted him most and earle despite his caution despite his resolve
knew that his heart was on fire again with the glamour and magic of her beauty knew that every pulse was throbbing with passion and she knew as well as though he had put it into words
that the old charm was returning only a thousand times stronger she laid her white hand on his arm and he shrank shuddering from the touch she only smiled her time would come
the reason is that i wish them to forget me i shall not like when i am lady doris studleigh to be recognized by them that pride was so exactly like her he understood it well
you can return to florence if you like she continued with the air of a queen but if you wish to please me you will walk on with me to the nearest railway station and let us go at once to genoa we can travel from genoa to london
but i have left my things at the hotel he said is there anything particular among them earle no he replied then you can send for them on your arrival please yourself if you do not go on my terms i shall go alone
then he looked at the rippling golden hair that fell in such shining profusion over her shoulders at the dress of rich velvet silk and delicate lace you are not dressed for traveling why be so hasty he said
she replied then he noticed for the first time what costly jewels she wore and how her hands were covered with shining gems for the first time a thrill of uneasiness of doubt of fear shot through him
you have some beautiful jewels doris he said slowly her face flushed then she laughed carelessly how easy it is to deceive a man she said a lady would have known at one glance that they were not real
he felt greatly relieved they are pretty but not very valuable she continued given to me by the children
if you do not like them earle i will throw them into the arno one by one why do that if the little children gave them to you i am no judge of precious stones but looking at the light in those i should have thought them real
do you know that if they were real they would be worth hundreds and hundreds of pounds you must think an english governess in italy coins money he looked admiringly at her handsome dress although too inexperienced
to know its real value this is my best dress too she said and do you know earle that as i put it on i said to myself i do not look amiss in this i wish earle could see me did you really
he asked a flush of delight rising to his brow
did you doris then
oh earle what a question like you did you not feel sure that when i had seen something of the world had allayed the fever of excitement that i should return to you did you not feel sure of it
no such thought or intention had ever been in her mind still she wished to make the best of matters it was no use for her to return to england
a few untruths more or less did not trouble her in the least only provided that he believed them i never thought so was his simply reply i believed you had left me forever doris
you must never judge me by the same rule you would apply to others earle
i believe it he replied yet although he saw that she wished to make friends and was flattered by the belief
then she took out a little jeweled watch that she wore time was flying in one short half hour lord charles would be back with her flowers and news of the opera box how angry he will be she said to herself
to think that any one should thwart his sovereign will and pleasure he will look in every pretty nook by the river bank then he will go into the house and ask have you seen missus conyers and no one will be able to answer him
i should like to be here to see the sensation then he will be sulky and finally come to the conclusion that i have given him up and have run away from him she was so accustomed to think of him as selfish loving nothing but himself
with a madness of passion to which he would have sacrificed everything on earth she had been so entirely wrapped up in her own pursuits in the acquisition of numberless dresses and jewels
that she had not observed the signs of his increasing devotion blind to his mad passion for her she decided upon leaving him and of all the mistakes that she ever made in her life none was so great as this
ten minutes later they were walking rapidly toward the little town of seipia there they could go by train to genoa as they walked along the high road doris laughed and talked gayly
this reminds me of old times earle she said how goes the poetry dear i expect to hear that you have performed miracles by this time you destroyed my poetry doris when you marred my genius and blighted my life
she laid her hand caressingly on his did i then i must make amends for it now she said and he was almost vexed to find how the words thrilled him with a keen passionate delight
suddenly she raised a laughing face to his was there a very dreadful sensation earle when they found out i was gone the smiling face the laughing voice smote him like a sharp sword
he remembered the pain and the anguish the torture he had suffered the long hours when he had lain between life and death he remembered the fame he had lost the sweet gift of genius all destroyed his heart broken
his life rendered stale and profitless while she could smile and ask with laughing eyes if there had been much sensation i believe he cried with a sudden flame of passion women are nerved with heartlessness
who was bishop of exeter in king james the first's reign
at the end of his divine art of meditation imprinted at london
and yet on the other hand when a thing is executed in a masterly kind of a fashion which thing is not likely to be found out i think it is full as abominable
that a man should lose the honour of it and go out of the world
this is precisely my situation for in this long digression which i was accidentally led into as in all my digressions one only excepted there is a master stroke of digressive skill
the merit of which has all along i fear been over looked by my reader not for want of penetration in him but because tis an excellence seldom looked for or expected indeed in a digression and it is this
that tho my digressions are all fair as you observe and that i fly off from what i am about as far and as often too as any writer in great britain yet i constantly take care
so that my main business does not stand still in my absence i was just going for example to have given you the great out lines of my uncle toby's most whimsical character
when my aunt dinah and the coachman came across us and led us a vagary some millions of miles into the very heart of the planetary system notwithstanding all this you perceive that
as we went along so that you are much better acquainted with my uncle toby now than you was before by this contrivance the machinery of my work is of a species by itself two contrary motions
from that of the earth's moving round her axis
which brings about the year and constitutes that variety and vicissitude of seasons we enjoy though i own it suggested the thought as i believe the greatest of our
boasted improvements and discoveries have come from such trifling hints digressions incontestably are the sunshine they are the life the soul of reading take them out of this book for instance
you might as well take the book along with them one cold eternal winter would reign in every page of it restore them to the writer he steps forth like a bridegroom bids all hail brings in variety
and forbids the appetite to fail all the dexterity is in the good cookery and management of them so as to be not only for the advantage of the reader but also of the author
one wheel within another that the whole machine in general has been kept a going and what's more it shall be kept a going these forty years
to bless me so long with life and good spirits
and i will not balk my fancy accordingly i set off thus
according to the proposed emendation of that arch critick had taken place first this foolish consequence would certainly have followed that the very wisest and very gravest of us all in one coin or other
must have paid window money every day of our lives and secondly
in order to have taken a man's character but to have taken a chair and gone softly as you would to a dioptrical bee hive and look'd in view'd the soul stark naked observed all her motions her machinations
and after some notice of her more solemn deportment
nothing but what you had seen and could have sworn to but this is an advantage not to be had by the biographer in this planet in the planet mercury belike it may be so if not better still for him
for there the intense heat of the country which is proved by computators from its vicinity to the sun to be more than equal to that of red hot iron must i think long ago have vitrified the bodies of the inhabitants
as the efficient cause
so that betwixt them both all the tenements of their souls from top to bottom may be nothing else for aught the soundest philosophy can shew to the contrary but one fine transparent body
of clear glass bating the umbilical knot so that till the inhabitants grow old and tolerably wrinkled whereby the rays of light in passing through them become so monstrously refracted
or return reflected from their surfaces in such transverse lines to the eye that a man cannot be seen through his soul might as well unless for mere ceremony
or the trifling advantage which the umbilical point gave her might upon all other accounts i say as well play the fool out o'doors as in her own house but this as i said above
we must go some other way to work many in good truth are the ways which human wit has been forced to take to do this thing with exactness some for instance draw all their characters with wind instruments
but it is as fallacious as the breath of fame and moreover bespeaks a narrow genius i am not ignorant that the italians pretend to a mathematical exactness
of one particular sort of character among them from the forte or piano of a certain wind instrument they use which they say is infallible
but never think of making a drawing by it this is aenigmatical and intended to be so at least ad populum
when you come here that you read on as fast as you can and never stop to make any inquiry about it there are others again who will draw a man's character from no other helps in the world but merely from his evacuations
but this often gives a very incorrect outline unless indeed you take a sketch of his repletions too and by correcting one drawing from the other compound one good figure out of them both
i should have no objection to this method but that i think it must smell too strong of the lamp and be render'd still more operose
one of these you will see drawing a full length character against the light that's illiberal dishonest and hard upon the character of the man who sits
that is most unfair of all because
to avoid all and every one of these errors in giving you my uncle toby's character
nor shall my pencil be guided by any one wind instrument which ever was blown upon either on this
he was at that time five and thirty years old or thereabouts fine to gild like a leaden dagger for he was a notable cheater and coney catcher he was a very gallant and proper man of his person
only that he was a little lecherous and naturally subject to a kind of disease which at that time they called lack of money it is an incomparable grief yet notwithstanding he had three score and three tricks to come by it at his need
of which the most honourable and most ordinary was in manner of thieving secret purloining and filching for he was a wicked lewd rogue a cozener drinker roister rover and a very dissolute and debauched fellow
the best and most virtuous man in the world and he was still contriving some plot and devising mischief against the sergeants and the watch
made them in the evening drink like templars afterwards led them till they came under saint genevieve or about the college of navarre and at the hour that the watch was coming up that way
which he knew by putting his sword upon the pavement and his ear by it and when he heard his sword shake it was an infallible sign that the watch was near at that instant then he and his companions took a tumbrel or dung cart
and gave it the brangle hurling it with all their force down the hill and so overthrew all the poor watchmen like pigs and then ran away upon the other side
for in less than two days he knew all the streets lanes and turnings in paris as well as his deus det at another time he made in some fair place where the said watch was to pass a train of gunpowder
and at the very instant that they went along set fire to it and then made himself sport to see what good grace they had in running away
as for the poor masters of arts he did persecute them above all others when he encountered with any of them upon the street he would not never fail to put some trick or other upon them
sometimes putting the bit of a fried turd in their graduate hoods
or some such other roguish prank one day that they were appointed all to meet in the fodder street sorbonne he made a borbonesa tart or filthy and slovenly compound made of store of garlic
of assafoetida of castoreum of dogs turds very warm which he steeped tempered and liquefied in the corrupt matter of pocky boils and pestiferous botches
and very early in the morning therewith anointed all the pavement in such sort that the devil could not have endured it
eighteen grew lousy and about seven and twenty had the pox but he did not care a button for it he commonly carried a whip under his gown wherewith he whipped without remission the pages
to make them mend their pace in his coat he had above six and twenty little fobs and pockets always full one with some lead water and a little knife as sharp as a glover's needle
wherewith he used to cut purses another with some kind of bitter stuff which he threw into the eyes of those he met another with clotburrs penned with little geese or capon's feathers
which he cast upon the gowns and caps of honest people and often made them fair horns which they wore about all the city sometimes all their life very often also upon the women's french hoods
would he stick in the hind part somewhat made in the shape of a man's member in another he had a great many little horns
and cast them with small canes or quills to write with into the necks of the daintiest gentlewomen that he could find yea even in the church for he never seated himself above in the choir but always sat in the body of the church amongst the women
in another he used to have good store of hooks and buckles wherewith he would couple men and women together that sat in company close to one another but especially those that wore gowns of crimson taffeties
that when they were about to go away
in another he had a squib furnished with tinder matches stones to strike fire and all other tackling necessary for it in another two or three burning glasses
for he said that there was but an antistrophe or little more difference than of a literal inversion
and molle a la fesse that is foolish
and of a pliant buttock
and then withdrew himself when the said lords of the court or counsellors came to hear the said mass
he plucked off withal both his frock and shirt which were well sewed together and thereby stripping himself up to the very shoulders showed his bel vedere to all the world
together with his don cypriano which was no small one as you may imagine and the friar still kept haling but so much the more did he discover himself and lay open his back parts till one of the lords of the court said
will this fair father make us here an offering of his tail to kiss it nay saint anthony's fire kiss it for us from thenceforth it was ordained that the poor fathers should never disrobe themselves any more before the world
by the like reason that which makes the genitories or generation tools of those so fair fraters so long is
and therefore their jolly member having no impediment hangeth dangling at liberty as far as it can reach
as women carry their paternoster beads and the cause wherefore they have it so correspondently great is that in this constant wig wagging the humours of the body descend into the said member for according to the legists
whereof he would cast some into the backs of those women whom he judged to be most beautiful and stately which did so ticklishly gall them that some would strip themselves in the open view of the world
and others dance like a cock upon hot embers or a drumstick on a tabor others again ran about the streets and he would run after them to such as were in the stripping vein he would very civilly come to offer his attendance
and cover them with his cloak like a courteous and very gracious man item in another he had a little leather bottle full of old oil wherewith when he saw any man or woman in a rich new handsome suit
under colour and pretence of touching them saying this is good cloth this is good satin good taffeties madam god give you all that your noble heart desireth you have a new suit pretty sir
and you a new gown sweet mistress god give you joy of it and maintain you in all prosperity and with this would lay his hand upon their shoulder at which touch such a villainous spot was left behind
so enormously engraven to perpetuity in the very soul body and reputation that the devil himself could never have taken it away then upon his departing he would say
in that powder did he lay a fair handkerchief curiously wrought which he had stolen from a pretty seamstress of the palace in taking away a louse from off her bosom which he had put there himself
is it of flanders or of hainault and then drew out his handkerchief and said hold hold look what work here is it is of foutignan or of fontarabia and shaking it hard at their nose
and the women would laugh and say how now do you fart panurge no no madam said he i do but tune my tail to the plain song of the music which you make with your nose in another he had a picklock
a pelican a crampiron a crook and some other iron tools wherewith there was no door nor coffer which he would not pick open
and of the suit in law which he had at paris one day i found panurge very much out of countenance melancholic and silent which made me suspect that he had no money
whereupon i said unto him panurge you are sick as i do very well perceive by your physiognomy and i know the disease you have a flux in your purse but take no care
i have yet sevenpence halfpenny that never saw father nor mother which shall not be wanting no more than the pox in your necessity whereunto he answered me well well
for money one day i shall have but too much for i have a philosopher's stone which attracts money out of men's purses
but will you go with me to gain the pardons said he by my faith said i i am no great pardon taker in this world if i shall be any such in the other i cannot tell
yet let us go in god's name it is but one farthing more or less but said he
no no said i i will give it you freely and from my heart
and i got the pardons at the first box only for in those matters very little contenteth me then did i say my small suffrages and the prayers of saint brigid but he gained them all at the boxes
and always gave money to everyone of the pardoners from thence we went to our lady's church to saint john's to saint anthony's
for my part i gained no more of them but he at all the boxes kissed the relics and gave at everyone to be brief when we were returned he brought me to drink at the castle tavern
and there showed me ten or twelve of his little bags full of money at which i blessed myself and made the sign of the cross saying
unto which he answered me that he had taken it out of the basins of the pardons for in giving them the first farthing said he i put it in with such sleight of hand and so dexterously
that it appeared to be a threepence thus with one hand i took threepence ninepence or sixpence at the least and with the other as much and so through all the churches where we have been yea but said i
you damn yourself like a snake and are withal a thief and sacrilegious person true said he in your opinion but i am not of that mind for the pardoners do give me it
that for one penny i should take a hundred
even so when the pardon bearer says to me
moreover pope sixtus gave me fifteen hundred francs of yearly pension which in english money is a hundred and fifty pounds upon his ecclesiastical revenues and treasure
for having cured him of a cankerous botch which did so torment him that he thought to have been a cripple by it all his life thus i do pay myself at my own hand
for otherwise i get nothing upon the said ecclesiastical treasure ho my friend said he if thou didst know what advantage i made and how well i feathered my nest by the pope's bull of the crusade
thou wouldst wonder exceedingly it was worth to me above six thousand florins in english coin six hundred pounds and what a devil is become of them said i
for of that money thou hast not one halfpenny they returned from whence they came said he they did no more but change their master but i employed at least three thousand of them
that is three hundred pounds english in marrying not young virgins for they find but too many husbands but great old sempiternous trots
and that out of the consideration i had
by this means to one i gave a hundred florins to another six score to another three hundred
so much the more must i needs have given them otherwise the devil would not have jummed them presently i went to some great and fat wood porter or such like and did myself make the match
but before i did show him the old hags
dinfredaille or lecher it one good time then began the poor rogues to gape like old mules and i caused to be provided for them a banquet with drink of the best and store of spiceries
to put the old women in rut and heat of lust to be short they occupied all like good souls only to those that were horribly ugly and ill favoured
besides all this i have lost a great deal in suits of law and what lawsuits couldst thou have said i thou hast neither house nor lands my friend said he the gentlewomen of this city had found out
by the instigation of the devil of hell a manner of high mounted bands and neckerchiefs for women which did so closely cover their bosoms that men could no more put their hands under for they had put the slit behind
making myself a party against the said gentlewomen and showing the great interest that i pretended therein protesting that by the same reason i would cause the codpiece of my breeches to be sewed behind
that by a sentence of the court it was decreed those high neckcloths should be no longer worn if they were not a little cleft and open before but it cost me a good sum of money
i had another very filthy and beastly process against the dung farmer called master fifi and his deputies that they should no more read privily the pipe puncheon nor quart of sentences
by reason of some clause mistaken in the relation of the sergeant another time i framed a complaint to the court against the mules of the presidents counsellors and others tending to this purpose that
when in the lower court of the palace they left them to champ on their bridles some bibs were made for them by the counsellors wives that with their drivelling they might not spoil the pavement to the end that the pages of the palace
or at the game of coxbody at their own ease without spoiling their breeches at the knees and for this i had a fair decree but it cost me dear
i made to the pages of the palace and to what end said i my friend said he
i have more than the king and if thou wilt join thyself with me we will do the devil together no no said i by saint adauras that will i not
and thou said he wilt be interred some time or other
whilst the pages are at their banqueting
and to someone i cut the stirrup leather of the mounting side
he may fall flat on his side like a pork and so furnish the spectators with more than a hundred francs worth of laughter but i laugh yet further to think how at his home coming
the master page is to be whipped like green rye which makes me not to repent what i have bestowed in feasting them
at first i was more afraid of that than of anything else then after that danger seemed past i was afraid of the life to come that fear left me next and now it is the thing itself that is always haunting me
i often wish they would come and take me and deliver me from myself it would be a comfort to have it all known and never need to start again
if it would annihilate the deed or bring emmeline back i cannot tell you how gladly i would be hanged i would indeed mister wingfold i i hope you will believe me though i don't deserve it
i do believe you said the curate and a silence followed there is but one thing i can say with confidence at this moment he resumed it is that i am your friend and will stand by you
but the first part of friendship sometimes is to confess poverty and i want to tell you that of the very things concerning which i ought to know most i knew least i have but lately begun to feel after god
that so together we may wait for what light may come does anything ever look to you as if it would make you feel better
or take comfort from anything i am not sure about that
and it does not make you think less of your crime no it makes me feel it worse than ever to see you sitting there a clean strong innocent man and think what i might have been
then the comfort you get from me does you no harm at least if i were to find my company made you think with less hatred of your crime i should go away that instant thank you sir said leopold humbly
oh sir he resumed after a little silence to think that never more to all eternity shall i be able to think of myself as i used to think perhaps you used to think too much of yourself returned the curate
for the greatest fool and rascal in creation there is yet a worse condition and that is not to know it but think himself a respectable man as the event proves though you would doubtless have laughed at the idea
i have come to see at least i think i have that except a man has god dwelling in him he may be or may become capable of any crime within the compass of human nature
i don't know anything about god said leopold i daresay i thought i did before this happened before i did it i mean he added in correction but i know now that i don't and never did
ah leopold said the curate think if my coming to you comforts you what would it be to have him who made you always with you where would be the good i daresay he might forgive me
but where would be the good of it it would not take the thing off me one bit ah now said wingfold i fear you are thinking a little about your own disgrace and not only of the bad you have done
why should you not be ashamed why would you have the shame taken off you nay you must humbly consent to bear it perhaps your shame is the hand of love washing the defilement from off you
is it not rather to have that in you a part or all but a part of your being that makes you capable of doing it if you had resisted and conquered
and now if you repent and god comes to you you will yet be clean again i say let us keep our shame and be made clean
though a mean pride persuades men so on the contrary the man who is honestly ashamed has begun to be clean
but what good would that do to emmeline it cannot bring her up again to the bright world out of the dark grave emmeline is not in the dark grave where is she then
he said with a ghastly look that i cannot tell i only know that if there be a god she is in his hands replied the curate
wingfold saw that he had been wrong in trying to comfort him with the thought of god dwelling in him how was such a poor passionate creature to take that for a comfort how was he to understand or prize the idea
who had his spiritual nature so all undeveloped he would try another way shall i tell you what seems to me sometimes the only one thing i want to help me out of my difficulties
yes please sir answered leopold as humbly as a child i think sometimes if i could but see jesus for one moment ah cried leopold and gave a great sigh
you would like to see him then would you oh mister wingfold what would you say to him if you saw him i don't know i would fall down on my face and hold his feet lest he should go away from me
he could destroy what i have done but still as you say the crime would remain but as you say he could pardon that and make me
so you think the story about jesus christ is true
come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and i will give you rest it is rest you want my poor boy not deliverance from danger or shame but rest
do not waste time in asking yourself how he can do it that is for him to understand not you until it is done ask him to forgive you and make you clean and set things right for you
if he will not do it then he is not the saviour of men and was wrongly named jesus the curate rose leopold
and in front of the castle there grew an apple tree on which there were golden apples anyone who picked an apple gained admittance into the golden castle and there in a silver room
sat an enchanted princess of surpassing fairness and beauty she was as rich too as she was beautiful for the cellars of the castle were full of precious stones
stood round the walls of all the rooms many knights had come from afar to try their luck but it was in vain they attempted to climb the mountain in spite
of having their horses shod with sharp nails no one managed to get more than half way up and then they all fell back right down to the bottom of the steep slippery hill
sometimes they broke an arm sometimes a leg and many a brave man had broken his neck even the beautiful princess sat at her window and watched
the bold knights trying to reach her on their splendid horses the sight of her always gave men fresh courage and they flocked from the four quarters of the globe
to attempt the work of rescuing her but all in vain and for seven years the princess had sat now and waited for some one to scale the glass mountain
a heap of corpses both of riders and horses lay round the mountain and many dying men lay groaning there unable to go any farther with their
wounded limbs the whole neighbourhood had the appearance of a vast churchyard in three more days the seven years would be at an end
when a knight in golden armour and mounted on a spirited steed was seen making his way towards the fatal hill
sticking his spurs into his horse he made a rush at the mountain and got up half way then he calmly turned his horse's head
without a slip or stumble the following day he started in the same way the horse trod on the glass as if it had been level earth and sparks of fire
flew from its hoofs all the other knights gazed in astonishment for he had almost gained the summit and in another moment he would have reached the apple tree
but of a sudden a huge eagle rose up and spread its mighty wings hitting as it did so the knight's horse in the eye
then rearing high up in the air its hind feet slipped and it fell with its rider down the steep mountain side nothing was left of either of them except their bones
which rattled in the battered golden armour like dry peas in a pod and now there was only one more day before the close of the seven years
then there arrived on the scene a mere schoolboy a merry happy hearted youth but at the same time strong and well grown
he saw how many knights had broken their necks in vain but undaunted he approached the steep mountain on foot
for long he had heard his parents speak of the beautiful princess who sat in the golden castle at the top of the glass mountain he listened to all he heard and determined that he too would try his luck
but first he went to the forest and caught a lynx and cutting off the creature's sharp claws he fastened them on to his own hands and feet armed with these weapons he boldly started up the glass mountain
the sun was nearly going down and the youth had not got more than half way up he could hardly draw breath he was so worn out and his mouth was parched by thirst
but in vain did he beg and beseech her to let a drop of water fall on him he opened his mouth but the black cloud sailed past
and not as much as a drop of dew moistened his dry lips his feet were torn and bleeding and he could only hold on now with his hands
then he gazed beneath him and what a sight met his eyes a yawning abyss with certain and terrible death at the bottom reeking with half decayed bodies of horses and riders
and this
it was almost pitch dark now and only the stars lit up the glass mountain the poor boy still clung on as if glued to the glass
by his blood stained hands he made no struggle to get higher for all his strength had left him and seeing no hope he calmly awaited death then
he slumbered sweetly but all the same although he slept he had stuck his sharp claws so firmly into the glass that he was quite safe not to fall
now the golden apple tree was guarded by the eagle which had overthrown the golden knight and his horse every night it flew round the glass mountain keeping a careful look out
and no sooner had the moon emerged from the clouds than the bird rose up from the apple tree and circling round in the air
greedy for carrion
down upon the boy but he was awake now and perceiving the eagle he determined by its help to save himself
the eagle dug its sharp claws into the tender flesh of the youth but he bore the pain without a sound and seized the bird's two feet with his hands
the creature in terror lifted him high up into the air and began to circle round the tower of the castle the youth held on bravely he saw the glittering palace
which by the pale rays of the moon looked like a dim lamp and he saw the high windows and round one of them a balcony in which the beautiful princess sat lost in sad thoughts
then the boy saw that he was close to the apple tree and drawing a small knife from his belt he cut off both the eagle's feet the bird rose up in the air in its agony
and vanished into the clouds and the youth fell on to the broad branches of the apple tree then he drew out the claws of the eagle's feet that had remained in his flesh and put the peel of one of the golden apples on the wound
and in one moment it was healed and well again he pulled several of the beautiful apples and put them in his pocket then he entered the castle the door was guarded by a great dragon but as soon as he threw an apple at it the beast vanished
and the youth perceived a courtyard full of flowers and beautiful trees and on a balcony sat the lovely enchanted princess with her retinue as soon as she saw the youth she ran towards him and greeted him as her husband
and master she gave him all her treasures
but he never returned to the earth for only the mighty eagle who had been the guardian of the princess and of the castle could have carried on his wings the enormous treasure down to the world
but as the eagle had lost its feet it died and its body was found in a wood on the glass mountain one day when the youth was strolling about in the palace garden with the princess his wife
he looked down over the edge of the glass mountain and saw to his astonishment a great number of people gathered there he blew his silver whistle
fly down and ask what the matter is he said to the little bird
and soon returned saying the blood of the eagle has restored all the people below to life all those who have perished on this mountain are awakening up to day
and i was stronger than ever in those tremendous practical resolutions that i felt the crisis required i continued to walk extremely fast and to have a general idea that i was getting on
i made it a rule to take as much out of myself as i possibly could in my way of doing everything to which i applied my energies i made a perfect victim of myself i even entertained some idea of putting myself on a vegetable diet
vaguely conceiving that in becoming a graminivorous animal i should sacrifice to dora as yet little dora was quite unconscious of my desperate firmness otherwise than as my letters darkly shadowed it forth
but another saturday came and on that saturday evening she was to be at miss mills's and when mister mills had gone to his whist club telegraphed to me in the street by a bird cage in the drawing room middle window
i was to go there to tea by this time we were quite settled down in buckingham street where mister dick continued his copying in a state of absolute felicity
throwing the first pitcher she planted on the stairs out of window and protecting in person up and down the staircase a supernumerary whom she engaged from the outer world
these vigorous measures struck such terror to the breast of missus crupp that she subsided into her own kitchen under the impression that my aunt was mad
missus crupp of late the bold became within a few days so faint hearted that rather than encounter my aunt upon the staircase
she would endeavour to hide her portly form behind doors leaving visible however a wide margin of flannel petticoat or would shrink into dark corners
this gave my aunt such unspeakable satisfaction that i believe she took a delight in prowling up and down with her bonnet insanely perched on the top of her head at times when missus crupp was likely to be in the way
my aunt being uncommonly neat and ingenious made so many little improvements in our domestic arrangements that i seemed to be richer instead of poorer
how to make me happy peggotty had considered herself highly privileged in being allowed to participate in these labours and although she still retained something of her old sentiment of awe in reference to my aunt
had received so many marks of encouragement and confidence that they were the best friends possible but the time had now come i am speaking of the saturday when i was to take tea at miss mills's
and enter on the discharge of the duties she had undertaken in behalf of ham
i took peggotty to the coach office and saw her off she cried at parting and confided her brother to my friendship as ham had done we had heard nothing of him since he went away that sunny afternoon
and now my own dear davy said peggotty if while you're a prentice you should want any money to spend or if when you're out of your time my dear you should want any to set you up and you must do one or other or both my darling
who has such a good right to ask leave to lend it you as my sweet girl's own old stupid me i was not so savagely independent as to say anything in reply
next to accepting a large sum on the spot i believe this gave peggotty more comfort than anything i could have done and my dear whispered peggotty tell the pretty little angel that i should so have liked to see her only for a minute
and tell her that before she marries my boy i'll come and make your house so beautiful for you if you'll let me
i fatigued myself as much as i possibly could in the commons all day by a variety of devices and at the appointed time in the evening repaired to mister mills's street mister mills who was a terrible fellow to fall asleep after dinner
that i fervently hoped the club would fine him for being late at last he came out and then i saw my own dora hang up the bird cage and peep into the balcony to look for me
and we all three went in as happy and loving as could be
by asking dora without the smallest preparation if she could love a beggar my pretty little startled dora
her only association with the word was a yellow face and a nightcap or a pair of crutches or a wooden leg or a dog with a decanter stand in his mouth or something of that kind and she stared at me with the most delightful wonder
how can you ask me anything so foolish pouted dora love a beggar dora my own dearest said i i am a beggar how can you be such a silly thing replied dora slapping my hand
as to sit there telling such stories i'll make jip bite you her childish way was the most delicious way in the world to me but it was necessary to be explicit and i solemnly repeated dora
i declare i'll make jip bite you said dora shaking her curls if you are so ridiculous but i looked so serious that dora left off shaking her curls and laid her trembling little hand upon my shoulder and first looked scared and anxious
then began to cry that was dreadful i fell upon my knees before the sofa caressing her
and oh she was so frightened and where was julia mills and oh take her to julia mills and go away please until i was almost beside myself
at last after an agony of supplication and protestation i got dora to look at me with a horrified expression of face which i gradually soothed until it was only loving and her soft pretty cheek was lying against mine
then i told her with my arms clasped round her how i loved her so dearly and so dearly how i felt it right to offer to release her from her engagement because now i was poor how i never could bear it or recover it
if i lost her how i had no fears of poverty if she had none my arm being nerved and my heart inspired by her how i was already working with a courage such as none but lovers knew
how i had begun to be practical and look into the future how a crust well earned was sweeter far than a feast inherited and much more to the same purpose which i delivered in a burst of passionate eloquence quite surprising to myself
though i had been thinking about it day and night ever since my aunt had astonished me is your heart mine still dear dora said i rapturously for i knew by her clinging to me that it was oh yes cried dora oh yes it's all yours oh don't be dreadful
i dreadful to dora don't talk about being poor and working hard said dora nestling closer to me oh don't don't my dearest love said i the crust well earned oh yes but i don't want to hear any more about crusts said dora
i was charmed with her childish winning way i fondly explained to dora that jip should have his mutton chop with his accustomed regularity
sketching in the little house i had seen at highgate and my aunt in her room upstairs i am not dreadful now dora said i tenderly oh no no cried dora but i hope your aunt will keep in her own room a good deal
and i hope she's not a scolding old thing if it were possible for me to love dora more than ever i am sure i did but i felt she was a little impracticable it damped my new born ardour to find that ardour so difficult of communication to her
my own may i mention something oh please don't be practical said dora coaxingly because it frightens me so sweetheart i returned there is nothing to alarm you in all this i want you to think of it quite differently
i want to make it nerve you and inspire you dora oh but that's so shocking cried dora my love no perseverance and strength of character will enable us to bear much worse things
but i haven't got any strength at all said dora shaking her curls have i jip oh do kiss jip and be agreeable
as she directed the operation which she insisted should be performed symmetrically on the centre of his nose i did as she bade me rewarding myself afterwards for my obedience
and she charmed me out of my graver character for i don't know how long but dora my beloved said i at last resuming it i was going to mention something
to see her fold her little hands and hold them up begging and praying me not to be dreadful any more indeed i am not going to be my darling i assured her but dora my love if you will sometimes think not despondingly
just to encourage yourself that you are engaged to a poor man don't don't pray don't cried dora it's so very dreadful my soul not at all said i cheerfully
poor little dora received this suggestion with something that was half a sob and half a scream it would be so useful to us afterwards i went on
a little cookery book that i would send you it would be so excellent for both of us for our path in life my dora said i warming with the subject is stony and rugged now and it rests with us to smooth it we must fight our way onward
we must be brave there are obstacles to be met and we must meet and crush them
with a clenched hand and a most enthusiastic countenance but it was quite unnecessary to proceed i had said enough i had done it again oh she was so frightened oh where was julia mills
oh take her to julia mills and go away please so that in short i was quite distracted and raved about the drawing room i thought i had killed her this time i sprinkled water on her face
i went down on my knees i plucked at my hair
i implored her forgiveness i besought her to look up
and dropped all the needles over dora
i did every wild extravagance that could be done
when miss mills came into the room who has done this exclaimed miss mills succouring her friend i replied i miss mills i have done it behold the destroyer or words to that effect and hid my face from the light in the sofa cushion
at first miss mills thought it was a quarrel and that we were verging on the desert of sahara but she soon found out how matters stood for my dear affectionate little dora embracing her began exclaiming that i was a poor labourer
would i let her give me all her money to keep and then fell on miss mills's neck sobbing as if her tender heart were broken miss mills must have been born to be a blessing to us
she ascertained from me in a few words what it was all about comforted dora and gradually convinced her that i was not a labourer from my manner of stating the case i believe dora concluded that i was a navigator
and went balancing myself up and down a plank all day with a wheelbarrow and so brought us together in peace
miss mills rang for tea
to expound to dora miss mills replied on general principles that the cottage of content was better than the palace of cold splendour and that where love was all was i said to miss mills that this was very true
and who should know it better than i who loved dora with a love that never mortal had experienced yet but on miss mills observing with despondency that it were well indeed for some hearts if this were so
i explained that i begged leave to restrict the observation to mortals of the masculine gender
i then put it to miss mills to say whether she considered that there was or was not any practical merit in the suggestion i had been anxious to make concerning the accounts the housekeeping and the cookery book miss mills after some consideration thus replied
mister copperfield i will be plain with you mental suffering and trial supply in some natures the place of years
no the suggestion is not appropriate to our dora
i am free to confess that if it could be done it might be well but and miss mills shook her head i was encouraged by this closing admission on the part of miss mills to ask her
whether for dora's sake if she had any opportunity of luring her attention to such preparations for an earnest life she would avail herself of it
undertake to do me that crowning service
and she loved me so much and was so captivating particularly when she made jip stand on his hind legs for toast and when she pretended to hold that nose of his against the hot teapot for punishment because he wouldn't that i felt like a sort of monster who had got into a fairy's bower
when i thought of having frightened her and made her cry after tea we had the guitar and dora sang those same dear old french songs about the impossibility of ever on any account leaving off dancing la ra la la ra la
until i felt a much greater monster than before we had only one check to our pleasure and that happened a little while before i took my leave when miss mills chancing to make some allusion to tomorrow morning i unluckily let out that
being obliged to exert myself now i got up at five o'clock whether dora had any idea that i was a private watchman i am unable to say but it made a great impression on her and she neither played nor sang any more
and she said to me in her pretty coaxing way as if i were a doll i used to think now don't get up at five o'clock you naughty boy it's so nonsensical
chapter thirty two describes far more fully than the court newsman ever did a bachelor's party given by mister bob sawyer at his lodgings in the borough
there is a repose about lant street in the borough which sheds a gentle melancholy upon the soul there are always a good many houses to let in the street
it is a by street too and its dulness is soothing a house in lant street would not come within the denomination of a first rate residence in the strict
acceptation of the term but it is a most desirable spot nevertheless if a man wished to abstract himself from the world to remove himself from within the reach of temptation
to place himself beyond the possibility of any inducement to look out of the window we should recommend him by all means go to lant street in this happy retreat are colonised
a few clear starchers a sprinkling of journeymen bookbinders one or two prison agents for the insolvent court several small housekeepers who are employed in the docks
a handful of mantua makers and a seasoning of jobbing tailors the majority of the inhabitants either direct their energies to the letting of furnished apartments
or devote themselves to the healthful and invigorating pursuit of mangling the chief features in the still life of the street are green shutters lodging bills brass door plates and bell handles
the principal specimens of animated nature the pot boy the muffin youth and the baked potato man the population is migratory usually disappearing on the verge of quarter day
and generally by night his majesty's revenues are seldom collected in this happy valley the rents are dubious and the water communication is very frequently cut off
mister bob sawyer embellished one side of the fire in his first floor front
the bonnet and shawl of the landlady's servant had been removed from the bannisters there were not more than two pairs of pattens on the street door mat and a kitchen candle with a very long snuff
burned cheerfully on the ledge of the staircase window mister bob sawyer had himself purchased the spirits at a wine vaults in high street and had returned home preceding the bearer thereof
to preclude the possibility of their delivery at the wrong house the punch was ready made in a red pan in the bedroom a little table covered with a green baize cloth had been borrowed from the parlour
together with those which had been borrowed for the occasion from the public house were all drawn up in a tray which was deposited on the landing outside the door
notwithstanding the highly satisfactory nature of all these arrangements there was a cloud on the countenance of mister bob sawyer as he sat by the fireside there was a sympathising expression too
in the features of mister ben allen as he gazed intently on the coals
said after a long silence
it is unlucky
just on this occasion she might at least have waited till to morrow that's her malevolence that's her malevolence returned mister
i ought to be able to pay her confounded little bill how long has it been running inquired mister ben allen
a bill by the bye is the most extraordinary locomotive engine that the genius of man ever produced it would keep on running during the longest lifetime without ever once stopping of its own accord
only a quarter and a month or so replied mister bob sawyer ben allen coughed hopelessly and directed a searching look between the two top bars
of the stove it'll be a
to let out when those fellows are here won't it said mister ben allen at length horrible replied bob sawyer horrible a low tap was heard at the room door
mister bob sawyer looked expressively at his friend and bade the tapper come in whereupon a dirty slipshod girl in black cotton stockings
who might have passed for the neglected daughter of a superannuated dustman in very reduced circumstances
and said please mister sawyer missis raddle wants to speak to you
as if somebody had given her a violent pull behind this mysterious exit was no sooner accomplished than there was another tap at the door a smart pointed tap which seemed to say
here i am and in i'm coming mister bob sawyer glanced at his friend with a look of abject apprehension and once more cried come in
the permission was not at all necessary for before mister bob sawyer had uttered the words a little fierce woman bounced into the room
all in a tremble with passion and pale with rage now mister sawyer said the little fierce woman trying to appear very calm
kindness to settle that little bill of mine i'll thank you because i've got my rent to pay this afternoon and my landlord's a waiting below now
here the little woman rubbed her hands and looked steadily over mister bob sawyer's head at the wall behind him i am very sorry to put you to
any inconvenience missus raddle said bob sawyer deferentially but oh it isn't any inconvenience replied the little woman with a shrill titter i didn't want it particular before to day
leastways as it has to go to my landlord directly it was as well for you to keep it as me you promised me this afternoon mister sawyer and every gentleman as has ever lived here has kept his word sir
as of course anybody as calls himself a gentleman does missus raddle tossed her head bit her lips rubbed her hands harder and looked at the wall more steadily than ever
it was plain to see as mister bob sawyer remarked in a style of eastern allegory on a subsequent occasion that she was getting the steam up
i am very sorry missus raddle said bob sawyer with all imaginable humility but the fact is that
i have been disappointed in the city to day extraordinary place that city an astonishing number of men always are getting disappointed there
well mister sawyer said missus raddle planting herself firmly on a purple cauliflower in the kidderminster carpet and what's that to me
be able to set ourselves quite square and go on on a better system afterwards this was
wanted she had bustled up to the apartment of the unlucky bob sawyer so bent upon going into a passion that in all probability payment would have rather disappointed her than otherwise
interposed mister benjamin allen soothingly
the goodness to keep
i beg said missus raddle suddenly arresting the rapid torrent of her speech and addressing the third party with impressive slowness and solemnity
in a cold perspiration of anger but will you have the goodness just to call me that again sir i didn't
but who do you call a woman
missus raddle backing gradually to the door and raising her voice to its loudest pitch
yes of course you did and everybody knows that they may safely insult me in my own ouse while my husband sits sleeping downstairs and taking no more notice
of live people's bodies that disgraces the lodgings another sob and leaving her exposed to all manner of abuse a base faint
been successful proceeded to descend the stairs with sobs innumerable when there came a loud double knock at the street door whereupon she burst into an
hysterical fit of weeping
when in an uncontrollable burst of mental agony she threw down all the umbrellas and disappeared into the back parlour closing the door after her with an awful crash
does mister sawyer live here said mister pickwick when the door was opened yes said the girl first floor it's the door straight afore you
when you gets to the top of the stairs having given this instruction the handmaid who had been brought up among the aboriginal inhabitants of southwark
disappeared with the candle in her hand down the kitchen stairs perfectly satisfied that she had done everything that could possibly be required
mister snodgrass who entered last secured the street door after several ineffectual efforts by putting up the chain and the friends stumbled upstairs where they were
said the discomfited student glad to see you
this caution was addressed to mister pickwick who had put his hat in the tray dear me said mister pickwick i beg your pardon don't mention it don't mention it said bob sawyer i'm rather confined for room here but you
must put up with all that when you come to see a young bachelor walk in you've seen this gentleman before i think mister pickwick shook hands with mister benjamin allen and his friends followed his example
double knock i hope that's jack hopkins said mister bob sawyer hush yes it is come up jack come up a heavy footstep was heard upon the stairs and jack hopkins presented himself
he wore a black velvet waistcoat with thunder and lightning buttons
you're late jack said mister benjamin allen been detained at bartholomew's replied hopkins anything new no nothing particular rather a good accident brought into the casualty ward
what was that sir inquired mister pickwick only a man fallen out of a four pair of stairs window but it's a very fair case indeed
do you mean that the patient is in a fair way to recover inquired mister pickwick no replied mister hopkins carelessly no i should rather say he wouldn't there must be a splendid operation though
to morrow magnificent sight if slasher does it you consider mister slasher a good operator said mister pickwick best alive replied hopkins took a boy's leg out of the socket last week
boy said he wouldn't lie there to be made game of and he'd tell his mother if they didn't begin
that ain't said jack hopkins is it bob nothing at all replied mister bob sawyer by the bye bob said hopkins with a scarcely perceptible glance at mister pickwick's attentive face
we had a curious accident last night a child was brought in who had swallowed a necklace swallowed what sir interrupted
not all at once you know that would be too much you couldn't swallow that if the child did eh mister pickwick ha ha
the way was this child's parents were poor people who lived in a court child's eldest sister bought a necklace common necklace made of large black wooden beads child
cut the string and swallowed a bead child thought it capital fun went back next day and swallowed another bead bless my heart said mister pickwick what a dreadful thing i beg your pardon sir go on
cried her eyes out at the loss of the necklace looked high and low for it but i needn't say didn't find it a few days afterwards the family were at dinner baked shoulder of mutton and potatoes under it
the child who wasn't hungry was playing about the room when suddenly there was heard a devil of a noise like a small hailstorm don't do that my boy said the father
it's the necklace i swallowed it father the father caught the child up and ran with him to the hospital the beads in the boy's stomach rattling all the way with the jolting
to see where the unusual sound came from he's in the hospital now said jack hopkins and he makes such a devil of a noise when he walks about
that they're obliged to muffle him in a watchman's coat for fear he should wake the patients that's the most extraordinary case i ever heard of said mister pickwick with an emphatic blow
certainly not replied bob sawyer very singular things occur in our profession i can assure you sir said hopkins so i should be disposed to imagine
another knock at the door announced a large headed young man in a black wig who
with a plated watchguard the arrival of a prim personage in clean linen and cloth boots rendered the party complete the little table with the green baize cover was wheeled out the first instalment of punch
was brought in in a white jug and the succeeding three hours were devoted to
at sixpence a dozen which was only once interrupted by a slight dispute between the scorbutic youth and the gentleman with the pink anchors
in the course of which the scorbutic youth intimated a burning desire to pull the nose of the gentleman with the emblems of hope in reply to which that individual
on gratuitous terms either from the irascible young
or any other person who was ornamented with a head when the last natural had been declared and the profit and loss account of fish and sixpences adjusted to the satisfaction of all parties
mister bob sawyer rang for supper and the visitors squeezed themselves into corners while it was getting ready it was not so easily got ready as some people may imagine
first of all it was necessary to awaken the
fallen asleep with her face on the kitchen table this took a little time and even when she did answer the bell another quarter of an hour was consumed in fruitless endeavours to impart to her
a faint and distant glimmering of reason the man to whom the order for the oysters had been sent had not been told to open them it is a very difficult thing to open an oyster with a limp knife
and a two pronged fork and very little was done in this way very little of the beef was done either and the ham which was also from the german sausage shop round the corner was in a similar predicament
however there was plenty of porter in a tin can and the cheese went a great way for it was very strong so upon the whole perhaps the supper was quite as good as such
after supper another jug of punch was put upon the table together with a paper of
then there was an awful pause and this awful pause was occasioned by a very common occurrence in this sort of place but a very embarrassing one notwithstanding the fact is
as at all derogatory to missus raddle for there never was a lodging house yet that was not short of glasses
blown glass tumblers and those which had been borrowed from the public house were great dropsical bloated articles each supported on a huge gouty leg this would have been
mister bob sawyer that it was to be conveyed downstairs and washed forthwith it is a very ill wind that blows nobody any good
saw his opportunity and availed himself of it the instant the glasses disappeared he commenced a long story about a great public character whose name he had forgotten
making a particularly happy reply to another eminent and illustrious individual whom he had never been able to identify he enlarged at some length and with great
collateral circumstances distantly connected with the anecdote in hand but for the life of him he couldn't recollect at that precise moment what the anecdote was
although he had been in the habit of telling the story with great applause for the last ten years
it is a very extraordinary circumstance i am sorry you have forgotten it said mister bob sawyer glancing eagerly at the door as he thought he heard the noise of glasses jingling
very sorry so am i responded the prim man because i know it would have afforded so much amusement
to recollect it in the course of half an hour or so the prim man arrived at this point just as the glasses came back when mister bob sawyer who had been absorbed in attention during the whole time said he should
very much like to hear the end of it for so far as it went it was without exception the very best story he had ever heard
now betsy said mister bob sawyer with great suavity and dispersing at the same time
no warm water exclaimed mister bob sawyer
than the most copious language could have conveyed missis raddle said you warn't to have none the surprise depicted on the countenances of his guests imparted new courage to the host
bring up the warm water
desperate sternness no i can't replied the girl missis raddle raked out the kitchen fire afore she went to bed and locked up the kittle
oh never mind never mind pray don't disturb yourself about such a trifle said mister pickwick observing the conflict of bob sawyer's passions as depicted in his countenance
cold water will do very well oh admirably said mister benjamin allen my landlady is subject to some slight attacks of mental derangement remarked bob sawyer with a
ghastly smile i fear i must give her warning no don't said ben allen i fear i must said bob with heroic firmness
i'll pay her what i owe her and give her warning to morrow morning poor fellow how devoutly he wished he could mister bob sawyer's heart sickening attempts to rally
under this last blow communicated a dispiriting influence to the company the greater part of whom with the view of raising their spirits attached themselves with extra cordiality to the
cold brandy and water the first perceptible effects of which were displayed in a renewal of hostilities between the scorbutic youth and the gentleman in the shirt the belligerents vented their
feelings of mutual contempt for some time in a variety of frownings and snortings until at last the scorbutic youth felt it necessary to come to a more explicit understanding on the matter
when the following clear understanding took place sawyer said the scorbutic youth in a loud voice well noddy replied mister bob sawyer
i should be very sorry sawyer said mister noddy to create any unpleasantness at any friend's table and much less at yours sawyer very but
i must take this opportunity of informing mister gunter that he is no gentleman and i should be very sorry sawyer to create any disturbance in the street in which you reside
said mister gunter but i'm afraid i shall be under the necessity of alarming the neighbours by throwing the person who has just spoken out o window
you shall feel me do it in half a minute sir replied mister gunter i request that you'll favour me with your card sir said mister noddy i'll do nothing of the kind sir replied mister gunter why not sir
inquired mister noddy because you'll stick it up over your chimney piece and delude your visitors
sir a friend of mine shall wait on you in the morning said mister noddy sir i'm very much obliged to you for the caution
and i'll leave particular directions with the servant to lock up the spoons replied mister gunter at this point the remainder of the guests interposed and remonstrated with both parties on the impropriety of their conduct
on which mister noddy begged to state that his father was quite as respectable as mister gunter's father to which mister gunter replied that his father was to the full as respectable as mister noddy's father
and that his father's son was as good a man as mister noddy any day in the week as this announcement seemed the prelude to a recommencement of the dispute
and a vast quantity of talking and clamouring ensued in the course of which mister noddy gradually allowed his feelings to overpower him and professed that he had ever entertained
a devoted personal attachment towards mister gunter to this mister gunter replied that upon the whole he rather preferred mister noddy to his own brother
on hearing which admission mister noddy magnanimously rose from his seat and proffered his hand to mister gunter mister gunter grasped it with affecting fervour and everybody said
that the whole dispute had been conducted in a manner which was highly honourable to both parties concerned now said jack hopkins just to set us going again bob i don't mind singing a song
tumultuous applause plunged himself at once into the king god bless him
compounded of the bay of biscay and a frog he would the chorus was the essence of the song and as each gentleman sang it to the tune he knew best the effect was very striking
indeed it was at the end of the chorus to the first verse that mister pickwick held up his hand in a listening attitude and said as soon as silence was restored hush
i beg your pardon i thought i heard somebody calling from upstairs a profound silence immediately ensued and mister bob sawyer was observed to turn pale
it's my landlady said bob sawyer looking
why don't you go down and knock em every one downstairs you would if you was a man i should if i was a dozen men my dear replied mister raddle pacifically but
they have the advantage of me in numbers my dear ugh you coward replied missus raddle with supreme contempt
said the miserable bob i am afraid you'd better go said mister bob sawyer to his friends i thought you were making too much noise it's a very unfortunate thing
said the prim man just as we were getting so comfortable too the prim man was just beginning to have a dawning recollection of the story he had forgotten
not to be endured replied jack hopkins let's have the other verse bob come here goes no no jack don't interposed bob sawyer it's a capital song but i am afraid we had better not have the other verse
they are very violent people the people of the house
go and groan on the staircase you may command me bob i am very much indebted to you for your friendship and good nature hopkins said the wretched mister bob sawyer but i think the best
plan to avoid any further dispute is for us to break up at once
they're only looking for their hats missus raddle said bob they are going directly
my dear ma'am remonstrated mister pickwick
mister pickwick found it in vain to protest his innocence
whither he was closely followed by mister tupman mister winkle and mister snodgrass mister ben allen who was dismally depressed with spirits and agitation
as an especially eligible person to intrust the secret to that he was resolved to cut the throat of any gentleman except mister bob sawyer who should aspire to the affections of his sister arabella
having expressed his determination to perform this painful duty of a brother with proper firmness he burst into tears knocked his hat over his eyes and making the best of his way back knocked double knocks
alternately until daybreak under the firm impression that he lived there and had forgotten the key the visitors having all departed
in compliance with the rather pressing request of missus raddle the luckless mister bob sawyer was left alone
the comprachicos or comprapequenos were a hideous and nondescript association of wanderers famous in the seventeenth century
unheard of in the nineteenth the comprachicos are like the succession powder an ancient social characteristic detail they are part of old human ugliness to the great eye of history which sees everything collectively
you find here and there in the dark confusion of english laws the impress of this horrible truth like the foot print
the comprachicos traded in children they bought and sold them they did not steal them the kidnapping of children is another branch of industry and what did they make of these children
monsters why monsters to laugh at the populace must needs laugh and kings too the mountebank is wanted in the streets
what are we sketching in these few preliminary pages a chapter in the most terrible of books a book which might be entitled the farming of the unhappy by the happy
two a child destined to be a plaything for men such a thing has existed such a thing exists even now in simple and savage times
such a thing constituted an especial trade the seventeenth century called the great century was of those times
it combined corrupt simplicity with delicate ferocity a curious variety of civilization a tiger with a simper
he must be taken early the dwarf must be fashioned when young we play with childhood but a well formed child is not very amusing a hunchback is better fun
hence grew an art there were trainers who took a man and made him an abortion they took a face and made a muzzle they stunted growth
of teratological cases had its rules it was quite a science
where god had put a look their art put a squint where god had made harmony they made discord where god had made the perfect picture they re established the sketch
in our own days do they not dye dogs blue and green nature is our canvas man has always wished to add something to god's work man retouches creation sometimes for better
sometimes for worse the court buffoon was nothing but an attempt to lead back man to the monkey it was a progress the wrong way a masterpiece in retrogression
at the same time they tried to make a man of the monkey barbara duchess of cleveland and countess of southampton had a marmoset for a page frances sutton baroness dudley eighth peeress in the bench of barons
three cape monkeys in grand livery
whose toilet cardinal pole witnessed
these monkeys raised in the scale were a counterpoise to men brutalized and bestialized this promiscuousness of man and beast desired by the great
this juxtaposition is authenticated by a mass of domestic records notably by the portrait of jeffrey hudson dwarf of henrietta of france
tends to deform him the suppression of his state was completed by disfigurement certain vivisectors of that period succeeded marvellously well in effacing from the human face the divine effigy
doctor conquest member of the amen street college and judicial visitor of the chemists shops of london wrote a book in latin on this pseudo surgery the processes of which he describes
if we are to believe justus of carrickfergus the inventor of this branch of surgery was a monk named avonmore an irish word signifying great river the dwarf of the elector palatine
very varied in its applications it fashioned beings the law of whose existence was hideously simple it permitted them to suffer and commanded them to amuse
the manufacture of monsters was practised on a large scale and comprised various branches the sultan required them so did the pope
utilized the same species of monsters fierce in the former case mild in the latter they knew how to produce things in those days which are not produced now they had talents which we lack
and it is not without reason that some good folk cry out that the decline has come we no longer know how to sculpture living human flesh this is consequent on the loss of the art of torture
we are obliged to renounce these experiments now and are thus deprived of the progress which surgery made by aid of the executioner
the vivisection of former days was not limited to the manufacture of phenomena for the market place
a species of augmentative of the courtier and eunuchs for sultans and popes it abounded in varieties one of its triumphs was the manufacture of cocks for the king of england it was the custom
in the palace of the kings of england to have a sort of watchman who crowed like a cock this watcher awake while all others slept ranged the palace and raised from hour to hour the cry of the farmyard
the salivation inseparable to the operation having disgusted the duchess of portsmouth the appointment was indeed preserved so that the splendour of the crown should not be tarnished but they got an unmutilated man to represent the cock
a retired officer was generally selected for this honourable employment
inform us that at saint petersburg scarcely a hundred years since
he was forced to squat down in the great antechamber of the palace
or clucking like a sitting hen and pecking his food from the floor these fashions have passed away but not so much perhaps as one might imagine
nowadays courtiers slightly modify their intonation in clucking to please their masters more than one picks up from the ground we will not say from the mud
it is very fortunate that kings cannot err
would have seemed to louis the great incompatible with the crown of saint louis we know what his displeasure was when madame henriette forgot herself so far as to see a hen in a dream
and carried on the trade they bought children worked a little on the raw material and resold them afterwards the venders were of all kinds from the wretched father getting rid of his family to the master
and hung up his subjects in his shop come buy it is for sale in england under jeffreys after the tragical episode of monmouth
widows and orphans
his wife the queen sold these ladies to william penn very likely the king had so much per cent on the transaction the extraordinary thing is
penn's purchase is excused or explained by the fact that having a desert to sow with men he needed women as farming implements her gracious majesty made a good business out of these ladies
the young sold dear we may imagine with the uneasy feeling which a complicated scandal arouses that probably some old duchesses were thrown in cheap the comprachicos were also called the cheylas
a hindu word which conveys the image of harrying a nest for a long time the comprachicos only partially concealed themselves
there is sometimes in the social order a favouring shadow thrown over iniquitous trades in which they thrive in our own day we have seen an association of the kind in spain
the comprachicos were by no means in bad odour at court on occasions they were used for reasons of state
they were almost an instrumentum regni it was a time when families which were refractory or in the way were dismembered when a descent was cut short when heirs were suddenly suppressed
at times one branch was defrauded to the profit of another the comprachicos had a genius for disfiguration which recommended them to state policy to disfigure is better than to kill
there was indeed the iron mask but that was a mighty measure europe could not be peopled with iron masks while deformed tumblers ran about the streets without creating any surprise besides the iron mask is removable
not so the mask of flesh you are masked for ever by your own flesh what can be more ingenious the comprachicos worked on man as the chinese work on trees
they had their secrets as we have said they had tricks which are now lost arts a sort of fantastic stunted thing left their hands it was ridiculous and wonderful
they would touch up a little being with such skill that its father could not have known it et que meconnaitrait l'oeil meme de son pere as racine says in bad french
had their joints dislocated in a masterly manner you would have said they had been boned thus gymnasts were made not only did the comprachicos take away his face from the child
they also took away his memory at least they took away all they could of it the child had no consciousness of the mutilation to which he had been subjected this frightful surgery left its traces on his countenance
but not on his mind the most he could recall was that one day he had been seized by men that next he had fallen asleep
cured of what he did not know of burnings by sulphur and incisions by the iron he remembered nothing the comprachicos deadened the little patient by means of a stupefying powder which was thought to be magical
and suppressed all pain this powder has been known from time immemorial in china and is still employed there in the present day the chinese have been beforehand with us in all our inventions printing artillery
remains a chrysalis in china
china is a museum of embryos since we are in china let us remain there a moment to note a peculiarity in china from time immemorial
they have possessed a certain refinement of industry and art it is the art of moulding a living man they take a child
put him in a porcelain vase more or less grotesque which is made without top or bottom to allow egress for the head and feet
thus the child thickens without growing taller filling up with his compressed flesh and distorted bones the reliefs in the vase this development in a bottle continues many years
the child comes out and behold
this is convenient by ordering your dwarf betimes you are able to have it of any shape you wish
an excellent expedient sometimes for the higher one which is called state policy was willingly left in a miserable state but was not persecuted there was no surveillance but a certain amount of attention
thus much might be useful the law closed one eye the king opened the other sometimes the king went so far as to avow his complicity these are audacities of monarchical terrorism
they took from him the mark of god they put on him the mark of the king jacob astley knight and baronet lord of melton constable in the county of norfolk had in his family a child who had been sold
and upon whose forehead the dealer had imprinted a fleur de lis with a hot iron
for her personal service the fleur de lis the comprachicos allowing for the shade which divides a trade from a fanaticism were analogous to the stranglers of india
they lived among themselves in gangs and to facilitate their progress affected somewhat of the merry andrew
the people for a long time wrongly confounded them with the moors of spain and the moors of china the moors of spain were coiners the moors of china were thieves there was nothing of the sort about the comprachicos they were honest folk
whatever you may think of them they were sometimes sincerely scrupulous they pushed open a door entered bargained for a child paid and departed all was done with propriety they were of all countries
under the name of comprachicos fraternized english french castilians germans italians a unity of idea a unity of superstition the pursuit of the same calling
make such fusions in this fraternity of vagabonds those of the mediterranean seaboard represented the east those of the atlantic seaboard the west many basques conversed with many irishmen
they speak the old punic jargon add to this the intimate relations of catholic ireland with catholic spain relations such that they terminated by bringing to the gallows in london one almost king of ireland the celtic lord de brany
in the interior of the van there were two other inscriptions above the box on a whitewashed plank
the baron peer of england wears a cap with six pearls
mingled with strawberry leaves placed low between the marquis one with pearls and leaves on the same level the duke one with strawberry leaves alone no pearls
the duke is a most high and most puissant prince the marquis and earl most noble and puissant lord
the duke is his grace the other peers their lordships most honourable is higher than right honourable lords who are peers are lords in their own right lords who are not peers are lords by courtesy
when ordered to the bar of the lords humbly present themselves bareheaded before the peers who remain covered the commons send up their bills by forty members who present the bill with three low bows
in case of disagreement the two houses confer in the painted chamber the peers seated and covered the commons standing and bareheaded peers go to parliament in their coaches in file the commons do not
and forms a portion of their dignity barons have the same rank as bishops to be a baron peer of england it is necessary to be in possession of a tenure from the king per baroniam integram by full barony
the full barony consists of thirteen knights fees and one third part
which makes in all four hundred marks the head of a barony caput baroniae is a castle disposed by inheritance as england herself
and in that case going to the eldest daughter
of a variety of little white furs always excepting ermine
a lord never takes an oath
is not prosecuted the persons of peers are inviolable a peer cannot be held in durance save in the tower of london
a peer sent for by the king has the right to kill one or two deer in the royal park a peer holds in his castle a baron's court of justice
he should only show himself attended by a great train of gentlemen of his household a peer can be amerced only by his peers and never to any greater amount than five pounds
a peer may retain six aliens born any other englishman but four
thus have done their graces the dukes of athol hamilton and northumberland a peer can hold only of a peer
if there be not at least one knight on the jury
an earl and a marquis five a duke six a peer cannot be put to the rack even for high treason a peer cannot be branded on the hand a peer is a clerk
though he knows not how to read in law he knows
or cloth of state in all places where the king is not present
a baron has a cover of assay
in the presence of a viscountess eighty six tables with five hundred dishes are served every day in the royal palace at each meal if a plebeian strike a lord his hand is cut off
a lord is very nearly a king
satisfaction which must suffice those who have nothing
and famous for what is called the labyrinth of passages a curiosity which contains the scarlet corridor in marble of sarancolin the brown corridor in lumachel of astracan the white corridor in marble of lani
the black corridor in marble of alabanda the gray corridor in marble of staremma the yellow corridor in marble of hesse the green corridor in marble of the tyrol the red corridor half cherry spotted marble of bohemia
the pink corridor in cipolin of the alps the pearl corridor in lumachel of nonetta and the corridor of all colours called the courtiers corridor in motley richard lowther
owns lowther in westmorland which has a magnificent approach
richard earl of scarborough
where you admire a superb railing in the form of a semicircle surrounding the basin of a matchless fountain
robert darcy earl of holderness
preceded by two outriders as becomes a peer of england charles beauclerc duke of saint albans earl of burford baron hedington grand falconer of england has an abode at windsor
regal even by the side of the king's
owns wimpole in cambridgeshire which is as three palaces in one
one bowed and two triangular the approach is by an avenue of trees four deep the most noble and most puissant lord philip baron herbert of cardiff
hereditary visitor of jesus college possesses the wonderful gardens at wilton where there are two sheaf like fountains
charles somerset duke of somerset owns somerset house on the thames which is equal to the villa pamphili at rome
which are worth half a million in french money in yorkshire arthur lord ingram
robert lord ferrers of chartly
has staunton harold in leicestershire
is the great church with the square belfry which belongs to his lordship in the county of northampton charles spencer earl of sunderland member of his majesty's privy council
philip stanhope earl of chesterfield
charles cornwallis baron cornwallis of eye owns broome hall a palace of the fourteenth century the most noble algernon capel
owns darnley in middlesex approached by italian gardens james cecil earl of salisbury has seven leagues from london hatfield house
which is a panacea against the bites of serpents and which is called milhombres that is to say a thousand men on this bed is inscribed
earl of warwick and holland is owner of warwick castle where whole oaks are burnt in the fireplaces in the parish of sevenoaks charles sackville baron buckhurst baron cranfield
which is as large as a town and is composed of three palaces standing parallel one behind the other like ranks of infantry there are six covered flights of steps on the principal frontage and a gate under a keep with four towers
pepper boxes pavilions and turrets as at chambord in france which belongs to the king henry howard earl of suffolk owns twelve leagues from london the palace of audley end in essex
in bedfordshire wrest house and park which is a whole district enclosed by ditches walls woodlands rivers and hills belongs to henry marquis of kent
in herefordshire with its strong embattled keep
its park its fish ponds its pheasantries its sheepfolds its lawns
its groves its walks its shrubberies its flower beds and borders
its racecourses and the majestic sweep for carriages to turn in
belongs to robert earl lindsey hereditary lord of the forest of waltham up park in sussex
belongs to the right honourable forde baron grey of werke
newnham paddox in warwickshire which has two quadrangular fish ponds and a gabled archway with a large window of four panes
and its great embattled towers supported by two bastions
earl of abingdon who also owns rycote of which he is baron and the principal door of which bears the device virtus ariete fortior
william cavendish duke of devonshire has six dwelling places of which chatsworth two storied and of the finest order of grecian architecture
is owner of burlington house piccadilly with its extensive gardens reaching to the fields outside london
a residence from which a number of avenues branch out
is also marquis and earl of worcester earl of glamorgan
and baron herbert of chepstow ragland and gower baron beaufort of caldecott castle and baron de bottetourt john holies duke of newcastle and marquis of clare owns bolsover
with its majestic square keeps
where is to be seen the finest water jet in england and in berkshire two baronies hamstead marshall
are five gothic lanterns sunk in the wall and ashdown park which is a country seat situate at the point of intersection of cross roads in a forest linnaeus lord clancharlie
baron clancharlie and hunkerville marquis of corleone in sicily derives his title from the castle of clancharlie
besides hunkerville house in london which is a palace he has corleone lodge at windsor which is another and eight castlewards one at burton on trent with a royalty on the carriage of plaster of paris
then grumdaith humble moricambe trewardraith hell kerters where there is a miraculous well phillinmore with its turf bogs reculver near the ancient city vagniac
opposite the last name that of linnaeus lord clancharlie there was a note in the handwriting of ursus rebel in exile houses lands and chattels sequestrated it is well
ursus admired homo one admires one's like it is a law to be always raging inwardly and grumbling outwardly was the normal condition of ursus
he took the world unkindly he gave his satisfecit to no one and to nothing the bee did not atone by its honey making for its sting
a full blown rose did not absolve the sun for yellow fever and black vomit it is probable that in secret ursus criticized providence a good deal evidently
he would say the devil works by a spring and the wrong that god does is having let go the trigger he approved of none but princes and he had his own peculiar way of expressing his approbation
of a massive gold lamp ursus passing that way with homo who was more indifferent to such things broke out in admiration before the crowd and exclaimed
probably contributed in no small degree to make the magistrates tolerate his vagabond life and his low alliance with a wolf sometimes of an evening through the weakness of friendship he allowed homo to stretch his limbs
and wander at liberty about the caravan the wolf was incapable of an abuse of confidence and behaved in society that is to say among men with the discretion of a poodle
all the same if bad tempered officials had to be dealt with difficulties might have arisen so ursus kept the honest wolf chained up as much as possible from a political point of view
his writing about gold not very intelligible in itself and now become undecipherable was but a smear and gave no handle to the enemy
his quack mummeries and he passed with ease through the meshes of the nets which the police at that period had spread all over england in order to sift wandering gangs and especially to stop the progress
if ursus could have had his way he would have been a caribbee that being impossible he preferred to be alone the solitary man is a modified savage accepted by civilization
he passed his life in passing on his way the sight of towns increased his taste for brambles thickets thorns and holes in the rock his home was the forest
he did not feel himself much out of his element in the murmur of crowded streets which is like enough to the bluster of trees the crowd to some extent satisfies our taste for the desert
what he disliked in his van was its having a door and windows and thus resembling a house he would have realized his ideal
he did not smile
but he used to laugh sometimes indeed frequently a bitter laugh there is consent in a smile while a laugh is often a refusal
his great business was to hate the human race he was implacable in that hate having made it clear that human life is a dreadful thing having observed the superposition of evils
kings on the people war on kings the plague on war famine on the plague folly on everything having proved a certain measure of chastisement in the mere fact of existence
and hurled this sarcasm at them there you are on your paws once more
when he saw a poor man dying of hunger he gave him all the pence he had about him growling out live on you wretch eat last a long time it is not i who would shorten your penal servitude
after which he would rub his hands and say i do men all the harm i can through the little window at the back passers by could read on the ceiling of the van
chapter thirteen extracts from my inaugural our financial system receipts and expenditures of the first year resources loans and taxes
loans authorized notes and bonds funding notes treasury notes guaranteed by the states measure to reduce the currency
currency fundable taxation popular aversion compulsory reduction of the currency tax law successful result
financial condition of the government at its close sources whence revenue was derived total public debt system of direct taxes and revenue the tariff
war tax of fifty cents on a hundred dollars property subject to it every resource of the country to be reached tax paid by the states mostly
obstacle to the taking of the census the foreign debt terms of the contract premium false charge against me of repudiation
facts stated in my inaugural address in eighteen sixty two i said
the first year of our history has been the most eventful in the annals of this continent a new government has been established and its machinery put in operation over an area exceeding seven hundred thousand square miles
the great principles upon which we have been willing to hazard everything that is dear to man have made conquests for us which could never have been achieved by the sword
our confederacy has grown from six to thirteen states and maryland already united to us by hallowed memories and material interests will i believe
connect her destiny with the south our people have rallied with unexampled unanimity to the support of the great principles of constitutional government
with firm resolve to perpetuate by arms the rights which they could not peacefully secure a million of men it is estimated are now standing in hostile array
and waging war along a frontier of thousands of miles battles have been fought sieges have been conducted and although the contest is not ended and the tide for the moment is against us
the final result in our favor is not doubtful fellow citizens after the struggles of ages had consecrated the right of the englishman to constitutional representative government
our colonial ancestors were forced to vindicate that birthright by an appeal to arms success crowned their efforts and they provided for their posterity a peaceful remedy against future aggression
the tyranny of an unbridled majority the most odious and the least responsible form of despotism has denied us both the right and the remedy therefore
we are in arms to renew such sacrifices as our forefathers made to the holy cause of constitutional liberty
the financial system which had been adopted from necessity proved adequate at this early period to supply all the wants of the government and of the people
an unexpected and very large increase of expenditures had resulted from the great enlargement of the necessary means of defense yet the government entered on its second year without a floating debt
and with its credit unimpaired the total expenditures of the first year ending february first eighteen sixty two amounted to one hundred and seventy million dollars a statement of the secretary of the treasury
comprising the period from the organization of the government to august first eighteen sixty two presents the following results
two hundred ninety eight million three hundred seventy six thousand five hundred forty nine dollars
fifteen million seven hundred sixty six thousand five hundred three
total three hundred twenty eight million seven hundred forty eight thousand
outstanding requisitions eighteen million five hundred twenty four thousand
total expenditures three hundred forty seven million two hundred seventy two thousand
deficient treasury notes authorized sixteen million seven hundred fifty five thousand
forty four million seven hundred ninety thousand eight hundred sixty two dollars
the receipts were derived as follows customs one million four hundred thirty seven thousand
war tax ten million five hundred thirty nine thousand
thirteen million nine hundred fifty two thousand and seventy nine dollars
loans bonds february eighteen sixty one
august eighteen sixty one
call certificates
april eighteen sixty one twenty two million seven hundred ninety nine thousand
august eighteen sixty one
total receipts three hundred two million five hundred three thousand and ninety six dollars
it commenced that existence without a treasury and without the sinews and the munitions of war was in less than two months invaded on every side by an implacable foe
its ways and means consisted in loans and taxes and to these it resorted on february twenty eighth i was authorized by congress to borrow at any time within twelve months
fifteen million dollars or less as might be needed it was to be applied to the payment of appropriations for the support of the government and for the public defense
for the payment of the interest and principal of this loan a tax or duty of one eighth of one per cent per pound was laid on all cotton exported
on march ninth an issue of one million dollars in treasury notes of fifty dollars and upward was authorized payable in one year from date at three point six five per cent interest
and receivable for all public debts except the export duty on cotton
on may sixteenth a loan of fifty million dollars in bonds payable after twenty years at eight per cent interest was authorized
military stores or for the proceeds of sales of raw produce or manufactured articles to be paid in the form of specie or with foreign bills of exchange
the bonds could not be issued in fractional parts of a hundred dollars or be exchanged for treasury notes or the notes of any bank corporation or individual in lieu of any amount of these bonds
in denominations of five dollars and upward was authorized to be issued these notes were payable in two years in specie and were receivable for all debts or taxes except the export duty on cotton
they were also convertible into bonds payable in ten years at eight per cent interest on august nineteenth another issue of treasury notes amounting with those then issued to one hundred million dollars
was authorized they were of the denominations of five dollars and upward they were receivable for the war tax and all other public dues except the export duty on cotton
thirty millions were to be a substitute for the same amount authorized by the act of may sixteenth eighteen sixty one
these bonds could be exchanged for specie military and naval stores or for the proceeds of raw produce and manufactured articles on december nineteenth ten million dollars in treasury notes
were issued to pay the advance of the banks on december twenty fourth an additional issue of fifty millions of treasury notes like those of the act of august nineteenth was authorized
an additional issue of thirty millions of bonds was also authorized on april twelfth eighteen sixty two
as the public necessities might require to the amount of two hundred and fifteen millions was authorized of these fifty millions in treasury notes were issued without reserve ten millions in treasury notes retained
and one hundred and sixty five millions certificates of stock or bonds bonds to the amount of fifty million dollars payable in ten years at six per cent interest
were authorized and made exchangeable for any of the above treasury notes all these notes and bonds were subject to the same conditions as those of the acts of august nineteenth and december twenty fourth eighteen sixty one
on april seventeenth five millions of treasury notes were authorized to be issued in denominations of one and two dollars which were receivable for all public dues except the cotton duty
an amount of treasury notes bearing interest at two cents per day on each hundred dollars as a substitute for as much of the one hundred and sixty five millions of bonds authorized was also authorized to be issued
on september nineteenth eighteen sixty two three million five hundred thousand dollars in bonds was authorized to be issued to meet a contract for six iron clad vessels of war
on september twenty third eighteen sixty two the amount of treasury notes under the denomination of five dollars was increased from five million to ten million dollars
and a further issue of bonds or certificates of stock to the amount of fifty million dollars was authorized on march twenty third eighteen sixty three
an effort was made to remove from circulation some of the issues of treasury notes by funding them for this purpose it was provided that all treasury notes not bearing interest issued prior to december eighteen sixty two
should be fundable in eight per cent bonds or stock during the ensuing thirty days and during the succeeding three months in seven per cent bonds or stock after which they ceased to be fundable
all treasury notes not bearing interest and issued after december first eighteen sixty two until ten days after the passage of the act were made fundable in seven per cent bonds
or stock during the ensuing four months and afterward only in four per cent thirty years bonds call certificates were made fundable in thirty years bonds at eight per cent
a monthly issue of treasury notes without interest to the amount of fifty million dollars was also authorized these were made fundable during the first year of their issue in six per cent
the further issue of call certificates was suspended but treasury notes fundable in the six per cent bonds might be converted
into such certificates at five per cent interest which were reconvertible into like notes within six months or afterward exchanged for thirty years six per cent bonds
treasury notes fundable in four per cent bonds were convertible in like manner at four per cent all disposable means in the treasury were to be applied to the purchase of treasury notes bearing no interest
until the amount in circulation did not exceed one hundred and seventy five millions the issue of five million dollars in notes of two dollars one dollar and fifty cents was also authorized
they might be used to purchase treasury notes the whole amount of such bonds could not exceed two hundred million dollars treasury notes so purchased were not to be reissued
the issue of six per cent coupon bonds to the amount of one hundred million dollars which were to be applied only to the absorption of treasury notes was also authorized
the coupons were payable either in the currency in which interest on other bonds was paid or in cotton certificates pledging the government to pay the same in cotton of new orleans middling quality delivered at the rate of eight pence
sterling per pound an important measure was adopted on february seventeenth eighteen sixty four the object of which was to reduce the currency and to authorize a new issue of notes and bonds
all treasury notes above the denomination of five dollars and not bearing interest were if offered within a short period
at the same time a new issue of treasury notes was authorized and made receivable for all public dues except customs duties at the rate of two dollars for three of the old the issue of other treasury notes
after the first of the ensuing april was prohibited to pay the expenses of the government an issue of five hundred million dollars in six per cent bonds was authorized for the payment of interest the receipts of the export and import duties
payable in specie were pledged a review of this statement of the legislation of congress will clearly present the financial system of the government the first action of the provisional congress was confined to the adoption of a tariff law
and an act for a loan of fifteen million dollars with a pledge of a small export duty on cotton to provide for the redemption of the debt at the next session after the commencement of the war
provision was made for the issue of twenty million dollars in treasury notes and for borrowing thirty million dollars in bonds at the same time the tariff was revised and preparatory measures taken for the levy of internal taxes
early in july eighteen sixty one
there arose the necessity that a financial system should be devised on a basis sufficiently large for the vast proportions of the approaching contest the plan then adopted was founded on the theory of issuing treasury notes
convertible at the pleasure of the holder into eight per cent bonds with the interest payable in coin it was assumed that any tendency to depreciation
would be checked by the constant exercise of the holder's right to fund the notes at a liberal interest payable in specie the success of this system depended on the ability of the government constantly to pay the interest in specie
termed a war tax and the appropriation of the revenue from imports the first operation of this plan was quite successful the interest was paid from the reserve of coin existing in the country
and experience sustained the expectations of those who devised the system wheat in the beginning of the year eighteen sixty two was selling at one dollar and thirty cents per bushel
thus but little exceeding its average price in time of peace the other agricultural products of the country were at similarly moderate rates thus indicating that there was no excess of circulation
at the same time the premium on coin had reached about twenty per cent but it had become apparent that the commerce of our country was threatened with permanent suspension by reason of the conduct of neutral nations
by sanctioning its declaration of a blockade these neutral nations treated our invasion by our former limited and special agent as though it were the attempt of a sovereign to suppress a rebellion against lawful authority
this exceptional cause heightened the premium on specie because it indicated the exhaustion of our reserve without the possibility of renewing the supply
at the inauguration of the permanent government in february eighteen sixty two a popular aversion to internal taxation had been so strongly manifested as to indicate its partial failure
this will be further explained presently in our statement of the system of taxation under all these circumstances the effort was made to avoid the increase in the volume of notes in circulation
by offering inducements to voluntary funding the measures adopted for that purpose were but partially successful meanwhile the intervening exigencies from the fortunes of war permitted no delay
the issues of treasury notes were increased until in december eighteen sixty three the currency in circulation amounted to more than six hundred million dollars
or more than threefold the amount required by the business of the country the evil effects of this financial condition were but too apparent in addition to the difficulty presented
that it became our highest duty to remove the cause by prompt and stringent measures i therefore recommended to congress in december eighteen sixty three the compulsory reduction
of the currency to the amount required by the business of the country accompanied by a pledge that under no stress of circumstances would the amount be increased
but by the very fact of the large amounts thus made requisite in the conduct of the war these prices would reach rates still more extravagant and the whole system would fall under its own weight
and destroying its value in the hands of the holder if on the contrary a funded debt with interest secured by adequate taxation could be substituted for the outstanding currency its entire amount would be made available to the holder
and the government would be in a condition beyond the reach of any probable contingency to prosecute the war to a successful issue this recommendation was followed by the passage of the act of february seventeenth eighteen sixty four above mentioned
regarding the government when contracting a debt as the agent of the people its debt is their debt as the currency was held exclusively by ourselves
it was obvious that if each person held treasury notes in exact proportion to the valuation of his whole estate each would in fact owe himself the amount of the notes held by him and
were it possible to distribute the currency among the people in this exact proportion a tax levied on the currency alone to an amount sufficient to reduce it to its proper limits would afford the best of all remedies
under such circumstances the notes remaining in the hands of each holder after the payment of his tax would be worth quite as much as the whole sum previously held for it would have an equal purchasing capacity
after this law had been in operation for one year it was manifest that it had the desired effect of withdrawing from circulation the large excess of treasury notes which had been issued on july first eighteen sixty four
the outstanding amount was estimated at two hundred and thirty million dollars the estimate of the amount funded under this act about this time was three hundred million dollars while new notes were authorized to be issued
to the extent of two thirds of the sum received under its provisions the chief difficulty apprehended in connection with our finances
resulted from the depreciation of our treasury notes which was to be attributed to the increasing redundancy in amount and the diminishing confidence in their ultimate redemption
the financial condition of the government near its close is very correctly represented in the report of the treasury department the total receipts of the treasury for the two quarters
ending on september thirtieth eighteen sixty four amounted to four hundred fifteen million one hundred ninety one thousand five hundred fifty dollars which sum added to the balance
three hundred eight million
seven hundred twenty two dollars that remained in the treasury on april first eighteen sixty four formed a total of seven hundred twenty three million four hundred seventy four thousand
of this total not far from half that is to say
five hundred sixty thousand three hundred twenty seven dollars were applied to the extinction of the public debt while the total expenditures were two hundred seventy two million three hundred seventy eight thousand
leaving a balance in the treasury on october first eighteen sixty four of one hundred eight million
the sources from which this revenue was derived were as follows four per cent registered bonds act of february seventeenth eighteen sixty four thirteen million three hundred sixty three thousand
six per cent bonds
four per cent call certificates act of february seventeenth eighteen sixty four twenty million
tax on old issue of certificates redeemed fourteen million four hundred forty thousand five hundred sixty six dollars repayments by disbursing officers twenty million one hundred fifteen thousand
treasury notes act of february seventeenth eighteen sixty four two hundred seventy seven million
war tax forty two million two hundred ninety four thousand
sequestrations one million three hundred thirty eight thousand
export duty
coin seized by the secretary of war one million six hundred fifty three thousand
premium on loans four million eight hundred twenty two thousand two hundred forty nine soldiers tax nine hundred eight thousand six hundred twenty two
the total amount of the public debt on october first eighteen sixty four
of which five hundred thirty million three hundred forty thousand and ninety dollars were funded debt bearing interest and two hundred eighty three million eight hundred eighty thousand
and the remainder consisted of the former issue of treasury notes which were converted into other forms of debt and ceased to exist on december thirty first
in consequence however of the absence of certain returns from distant officers the true amount of the debt was less by twenty one million
on the books of the register so that the total public debt on october first might have been fairly considered
nine five dollars of this amount five hundred forty one million three hundred forty thousand and ninety dollars consisted of funded debt and the balance unfunded debt or treasury notes
the foreign debt is omitted in these statements it amounted
and was provided for by about two hundred and fifty thousand bales of cotton collected by the government
ending on june thirtieth eighteen sixty five amounted to four hundred thirty eight million four hundred sixteen thousand five hundred four dollars it was estimated that the remains of former appropriations would
on january first eighteen sixty five amount to a balance of four hundred sixty seven million four hundred sixteen thousand five hundred four dollars no additional appropriations were therefore required
for the ensuing six months a system of measures by which to obtain a revenue from direct taxes and duties was commenced at the first session of congress under the provisional government
the officers who at the time of the adoption of the provisional constitution held any office connected with the collection of the customs duties and imposts
or as assistant treasurers intrusted with the keeping of moneys arising therefrom were continued in office with the same powers
the tariff laws of the united states were continued in force until they might be altered the free list was enlarged so as to embrace many articles of necessity additional ports and places of entry were established
restrictive laws were repealed and foreign vessels were admitted to the coasting trade a lighthouse bureau was organized a lower rate of duties was imposed on a number of enumerated articles
was imposed on all cotton exported in the raw state at the second session in may a complete tariff law was enacted with a lower scale of duties than had previously existed on august nineteenth eighteen sixty one
a war tax of fifty cents on each hundred dollars of certain classes of property was levied for the special purpose of paying the principal and interest of the public debt and of supporting the government
real estate of all kinds slaves merchandise bank stocks railroad and other corporation stocks money at interest or invested by individuals in the purchase of bills notes
and other securities for money except the bonds of the confederate states and cash on hand or on deposit cattle horses and mules gold watches
gold and silver plate pianos and pleasure carriages there were some exemptions such as the property of educational charitable and religious institutions
and of a head of a family having property worth less than five hundred dollars an act was passed for the sequestration of the property of alien enemies as a retaliatory measure to offset the confiscation act
of the united states on april twenty fourth eighteen sixty three a new act was passed relative to internal or direct taxes it was designed to reach as far as practicable
every resource of the country except the capital invested in real estate and slaves and by means of an income tax and a tax in kind on the produce of the soil
as well as by licenses on business occupations and professions to command resources sufficient for the wants of the country on february seventeenth eighteen sixty four an amendment to this last mentioned act was passed
it levied additional taxes on all business of individuals of copartnerships and corporations also on trades sales liquor dealers hotel keepers distillers
on june tenth eighteen sixty four an act was passed which levied a tax equal to one fifth of the amount of the existing tax upon all subjects of taxation for the year within six months after the passage of the war tax
the popular aversion to internal taxation by the general government
mississippi and texas were the taxes actually collected from the people the quotas of the remaining states had been raised by the issue of bonds and state treasury notes
but before he had time to commit himself to this perilous mixture of gallantry and impiety the young lady resuming her walk gave an exclamation in quite another tone well here's mother i guess she hasn't got randolph to go to bed
the figure of a lady appeared at a distance very indistinct in the darkness and advancing with a slow and wavering movement suddenly it seemed to pause are you sure it is your mother can you distinguish her in this thick dusk
and when she has got on my shawl too she is always wearing my things the lady in question ceasing to advance hovered vaguely about the spot at which she had checked her steps i am afraid your mother doesn't see you said winterbourne or perhaps
he added thinking with miss miller the joke permissible perhaps she feels guilty about your shawl oh it's a fearful old thing the young girl replied serenely i told her she could wear it she won't come here because she sees you ah then
said winterbourne i had better leave you oh no come on urged miss daisy miller i'm afraid your mother doesn't approve of my walking with you miss miller gave him a serious glance it isn't for me it's for you
that is it's for her well i don't know who it's for but mother doesn't like any of my gentlemen friends she's right down timid she always makes a fuss if i introduce a gentleman but i do introduce them almost always
if i didn't introduce my gentlemen friends to mother the young girl added in her little soft flat monotone i shouldn't think i was natural to introduce me said winterbourne you must know my name and he proceeded to pronounce it oh
dear i can't say all that said his companion with a laugh but by this time they had come up to missus miller who as they drew near walked to the parapet of the garden and leaned upon it looking intently at the lake and turning her back to them mother
common she was as missus costello had pronounced her yet it was a wonder to winterbourne that with her commonness she had a singularly delicate grace her mother was a small spare light person
with a wandering eye a very exiguous nose and a large forehead decorated with a certain amount of thin much frizzled hair like her daughter missus miller was dressed with extreme elegance
she had enormous diamonds in her ears so far as winterbourne could observe she gave him no greeting she certainly was not looking at him daisy was near her pulling her shawl straight
what are you doing poking round here this young lady inquired but by no means with that harshness of accent which her choice of words may imply i don't know said her mother turning toward the lake again i shouldn't think you'd want that shawl
daisy exclaimed well i do her mother answered with a little laugh did you get randolph to go to bed asked the young girl no i couldn't induce him said missus miller very gently he wants to talk to the waiter
he likes to talk to that waiter i was telling mister winterbourne the young girl went on and to the young man's ear her tone might have indicated that she had been uttering his name all her life oh yes said winterbourne i have the pleasure of knowing your son
randolph's mamma was silent she turned her attention to the lake but at last she spoke well i don't see how he lives anyhow it isn't so bad as it was at dover said daisy miller and what occurred at dover winterbourne asked
he wouldn't go to bed at all i guess he sat up all night in the public parlor he wasn't in bed at twelve o'clock i know that it was half past twelve declared missus miller with mild emphasis does he sleep much during the day winterbourne demanded
i guess he doesn't sleep much daisy rejoined i wish he would said her mother it seems as if he couldn't i think he's real tiresome daisy pursued then for some moments there was silence well daisy miller
said the elder lady presently i shouldn't think you'd want to talk against your own brother well he is tiresome mother said daisy quite without the asperity of a retort he's only nine urged missus miller
well he wouldn't go to that castle said the young girl i'm going there with mister winterbourne to this announcement very placidly made daisy's mamma offered no response winterbourne took for granted that she deeply disapproved of the projected excursion
but he said to himself that she was a simple easily managed person and that a few deferential protestations would take the edge from her displeasure yes he began your daughter has kindly allowed me the honor of being her guide
missus miller's wandering eyes attached themselves with a sort of appealing air to daisy who however strolled a few steps farther gently humming to herself i presume you will go in the cars said her mother
yes or in the boat said winterbourne well of course i don't know missus miller rejoined i have never been to that castle it is a pity you shouldn't go said winterbourne beginning to feel reassured as to her opposition
and yet he was quite prepared to find that as a matter of course she meant to accompany her daughter we've been thinking ever so much about going she pursued but it seems as if we couldn't of course daisy she wants to go round but there's a lady here
i don't know her name she says she shouldn't think we'd want to go to see castles here she should think we'd want to wait till we got to italy
continued missus miller with an air of increasing confidence of course we only want to see the principal ones we visited several in england she presently added ah yes in england there are beautiful castles said winterbourne
well if daisy feels up to it said missus miller in a tone impregnated with a sense of the magnitude of the enterprise it seems as if there was nothing she wouldn't undertake oh i think she'll enjoy it winterbourne declared
and he desired more and more to make it a certainty that he was to have the privilege of a tete a tete with the young lady who was still strolling along in front of them softly vocalizing you are not disposed madam he inquired to undertake it yourself
daisy's mother looked at him an instant askance and then walked forward in silence then i guess she had better go alone she said simply
winterbourne observed to himself that this was a very different type of maternity from that of the vigilant matrons who massed themselves in the forefront of social intercourse in the dark old city at the other end of the lake
but his meditations were interrupted by hearing his name very distinctly pronounced by missus miller's unprotected daughter mister winterbourne murmured daisy mademoiselle said the young man don't you want to take me out in a boat
at present he asked of course said daisy
i beg you madam to let her go said winterbourne ardently for he had never yet enjoyed the sensation of guiding through the summer starlight a skiff freighted with a fresh and beautiful young girl i shouldn't think she'd want to said her mother
i should think she'd rather go indoors i'm sure mister winterbourne wants to take me daisy declared he's so awfully devoted
you haven't spoken to me for half an hour her daughter went on i have been having some very pleasant conversation with your mother said winterbourne well i want you to take me out in a boat daisy repeated
they had all stopped and she had turned round and was looking at winterbourne her face wore a charming smile her pretty eyes were gleaming she was swinging her great fan about no it's impossible to be prettier than that thought winterbourne
there are half a dozen boats moored at that landing place he said pointing to certain steps which descended from the garden to the lake if you will do me the honor to accept my arm we will go and select one of them daisy stood there smiling
she threw back her head and gave a little light laugh i like a gentleman to be formal she declared i assure you it's a formal offer i was bound i would make you say something daisy went on you see it's not very difficult said winterbourne
but i am afraid you are chaffing me i think not sir remarked missus miller very gently do then let me give you a row he said to the young girl it's quite lovely the way you say that cried daisy it will be still more lovely to do it
yes it would be lovely said daisy but she made no movement to accompany him she only stood there laughing i should think you had better find out what time it is interposed her mother it is eleven o'clock madam
said a voice with a foreign accent out of the neighboring darkness and winterbourne turning perceived the florid personage who was in attendance upon the two ladies he had apparently just approached oh eugenio said daisy i am going out in a boat
eugenio bowed at eleven o'clock mademoiselle i am going with mister winterbourne this very minute do tell her she can't said missus miller to the courier i think you had better not go out in a boat mademoiselle eugenio declared
winterbourne wished to heaven this pretty girl were not so familiar with her courier but he said nothing i suppose you don't think it's proper daisy exclaimed eugenio doesn't think anything's proper i am at your service said winterbourne
does mademoiselle propose to go alone
answered daisy's mamma the courier looked for a moment at winterbourne the latter thought he was smiling and then solemnly with a bow as mademoiselle pleases he said
i myself shall make a fuss if you don't go said winterbourne that's all i want a little fuss and the young girl began to laugh again mister randolph has gone to bed the courier announced frigidly oh
daisy now we can go said missus miller daisy turned away from winterbourne looking at him smiling and fanning herself good night she said i hope you are disappointed or disgusted or something he looked at her
taking the hand she offered him i am puzzled he answered well i hope it won't keep you awake she said very smartly and under the escort of the privileged eugenio the two ladies passed toward the house winterbourne stood looking after them
he was indeed puzzled he lingered beside the lake for a quarter of an hour turning over the mystery of the young girl's sudden familiarities and caprices but the only very definite conclusion he came to was that he should enjoy deucedly going off with her somewhere
he waited for her in the large hall of the hotel where the couriers the servants the foreign tourists were lounging about and staring it was not the place he should have chosen but she had appointed it
she came tripping downstairs buttoning her long gloves squeezing her folded parasol against her pretty figure dressed in the perfection of a soberly elegant traveling costume
winterbourne was a man of imagination and as our ancestors used to say sensibility as he looked at her dress and on the great staircase her little rapid confiding step he felt as if there were something romantic going forward
he could have believed he was going to elope with her he passed out with her among all the idle people that were assembled there they were all looking at her very hard she had begun to chatter as soon as she joined him
but she expressed a lively wish to go in the little steamer she declared that she had a passion for steamboats there was always such a lovely breeze upon the water and you saw such lots of people
to the young man himself their little excursion was so much of an escapade an adventure that even allowing for her habitual sense of freedom
but it must be confessed that in this particular he was disappointed daisy miller was extremely animated she was in charming spirits but she was apparently not at all excited
she was not fluttered she avoided neither his eyes nor those of anyone else she blushed neither when she looked at him nor when she felt that people were looking at her
and winterbourne took much satisfaction in his pretty companion's distinguished air he had been a little afraid that she would talk loud laugh overmuch and even perhaps desire to move about the boat a good deal but he quite forgot his fears
he sat smiling with his eyes upon her face while without moving from her place she delivered herself of a great number of original reflections it was the most charming garrulity he had ever heard he had assented to the idea that she was common
but was she so after all or was he simply getting used to her commonness her conversation was chiefly of what metaphysicians term the objective cast but every now and then it took a subjective turn
what on earth are you so grave about she suddenly demanded fixing her agreeable eyes upon winterbourne's am i grave he asked i had an idea i was grinning from ear to ear
you look as if you were taking me to a funeral if that's a grin your ears are very near together should you like me to dance a hornpipe on the deck pray do and i'll carry round your hat it will pay the expenses of our journey
i never was better pleased in my life murmured winterbourne she looked at him a moment and then burst into a little laugh i like to make you say those things you're a queer mixture
in the castle after they had landed the subjective element decidedly prevailed daisy tripped about the vaulted chambers rustled her skirts in the corkscrew staircases flirted back with a pretty little cry and a shudder from the edge of the oubliettes
and turned a singularly well shaped ear to everything that winterbourne told her about the place but he saw that she cared very little for feudal antiquities
and winterbourne arranged with this functionary that they should not be hurried that they should linger and pause wherever they chose the custodian interpreted the bargain generously winterbourne on his side had been generous and ended by leaving them quite to themselves
miss miller's observations were not remarkable for logical consistency for anything she wanted to say she was sure to find a pretext
his family his previous history his tastes his habits his intentions and for supplying information upon corresponding points in her own personality of her own tastes habits and intentions miss miller was prepared to give the most definite
and indeed the most favorable account well i hope you know enough she said to her companion
i never saw a man that knew so much the history of bonivard had evidently as they say gone into one ear and out of the other but daisy went on to say that she wished winterbourne would travel with them and go round with them they might know something in that case
don't you want to come and teach randolph she asked winterbourne said that nothing could possibly please him so much but that he had unfortunately other occupations other occupations
you are not in business the young man admitted that he was not in business but he had engagements which even within a day or two would force him to go back to geneva oh bother she said i don't believe it
but a few moments later when he was pointing out to her the pretty design of an antique fireplace she broke out irrelevantly you don't mean to say you are going back to geneva
just at the last the last
and for the next ten minutes she did nothing but call him horrid poor winterbourne was fairly bewildered no young lady had as yet done him the honor to be so agitated by the announcement of his movements
she opened fire upon the mysterious charmer in geneva whom she appeared to have instantly taken it for granted that he was hurrying back to see how did miss daisy miller know that there was a charmer in geneva winterbourne who denied the existence of such a person
was quite unable to discover and he was divided between amazement at the rapidity of her induction and amusement at the frankness of her persiflage she seemed to him in all this an extraordinary mixture of innocence and crudity
does she never allow you more than three days at a time asked daisy ironically doesn't she give you a vacation in summer there's no one so hard worked but they can get leave to go off somewhere at this season i suppose if you stay another day she'll come after you in the boat
do wait over till friday and i will go down to the landing to see her arrive winterbourne began to think he had been wrong to feel disappointed in the temper in which the young lady had embarked if he had missed the personal accent the personal accent was now making its appearance
it sounded very distinctly at last in her telling him she would stop teasing him if he would promise her solemnly to come down to rome in the winter that's not a difficult promise to make said winterbourne my aunt has taken an apartment in rome for the winter
and has already asked me to come and see her i don't want you to come for your aunt said daisy i want you to come for me and this was the only allusion that the young man was ever to hear her make to his invidious kinswoman
he declared that at any rate he would certainly come after this daisy stopped teasing
the young girl was very quiet
the americans of the courier asked this lady ah happily said winterbourne the courier stayed at home she went with you all alone all alone
when it was the seven hundred and sixty third night she continued it hath reached me o auspicious king that when sa'id son of the wazir faris had read to sayf al muluk son of king asim the writ on the tunic
daughter of shahyal bin sharukh a king of the kings of the moslem jinns dwelling in babel city
son of ad the greater he cried o my brother knowest thou of what woman this is the presentment that we may seek for her sayf al muluk replied no by allah o my brother i know her not
and sa'id rejoined come read this writing on the crown so sayf al muluk read it and cried out from his heart's core and very vitals saying alas alas alas
quoth sa'id o my brother an the original of the portrait exist and her name be badi'a al jamal and she abide in the world i will hasten to seek her that thou mayst win thy will without delay
but allah upon thee o my brother leave this weeping and ascend thy throne that the officers of the state may come in to do their service to thee and in the undurn do thou summon the merchants and fakirs
and travellers and pilgrims and paupers and ask of them concerning this city and the garden of iram haply by the help and blessing of allah extolled and exalted be he some one of them shall direct us thither
so when it was day sayf al muluk went forth and mounted the throne clasping the tunic in his arms for he could neither stand nor sit without it nor would sleep visit him save it were with him
and the emirs and wazirs and lords and officers came in to him when the divan was complete all being assembled in their places he said to his minister go forth to them and tell them that the king hath been suddenly struck by sickness
and he by allah hath passed the night in ill case so sa'id fared forth and told the folk what he said which when old king asim heard he was concerned for his son
they looked at him and prescribed him ptisanes and diet drinks simples and medicinal waters and wrote him characts and incensed him with nadd and aloes wood
and ambergris three days space but his malady persisted three months till king asim was wroth with the leaches and said to them woe to you o dogs what
are all of you impotent to cure my son except ye heal him forthright i will put the whole of you to death the archiater replied o king of the age in very sooth we know that this is thy son
and thou wottest that we fail not of diligence in tending a stranger so how much more with medicining thy son
which if thou desire to know we will discover it to thee quoth asim what then find ye to be the malady of my son and quoth the leach o king of the age
thy son is in love and he loveth one to whose enjoyment he hath no way of access at this the king was wroth and asked how know ye that my son is in love and how came love to him they answered
enquire of his wazir and brother sa'id for he knoweth his case the king rose and repaired to his private closet and summoning sa'id said to him tell me the truth of thy brother's malady
but sa'id replied i know it not so king asim said to the sworder take sa'id and bind his eyes and strike his neck whereupon sa'id feared for himself and cried o king of the age grant me immunity
replied the king speak and thou shalt have it thy son is in love with whom is he in love with a king's daughter of the jann
her portrait is wroughten on the tunic that was in the bundle given thee by solomon
when the king heard this he rose and going in to sayf al muluk said to him o my son what hath afflicted thee what is this portrait whereof thou art enamoured
how then shall we do o my son and sayf al muluk answered bring us all the merchants and travellers and wanderers in the city
o my sire equip me a ship that i may fare to the china land and do thou rule the reign in my stead replied the old king o my son abide thou on the throne of thy kingship and govern thy commons
and i myself will make the voyage to china and ask for thee of the city of babel and the garden of iram but sayf al muluk rejoined o my sire in very sooth this affair concerneth me and none can search after it like myself
so come what will an thou give me leave to make the voyage i will depart and wander awhile if i find trace or tidings of her my wish will be won and if not belike the voyage will broaden my breast and recruit my courage
and haply by foreign travel my case will be made easy to me and if i live i shall return to thee safe and sound
when it was the seven hundred and sixty fourth night she pursued it hath reached me o auspicious king that sayf al muluk said to his sire king asim equip me a ship that i may fare therein to the china land
and search for the object of my desire if i live i shall return to thee safe and sound the old king looked at his son and saw nothing for it but to do what he desired
so he gave him the leave he wanted and fitted him forty ships manned with twenty thousand armed mamelukes besides servants and presented him with great plenty of money and necessaries and warlike gear
as much as he required when the ships were laden with water and victual weapons and troops
full of armed men and stores weapons and hoards they made sure that these were enemies come to battle with them
son of king asim of egypt who is come to thy city as a guest to divert himself by viewing thy country awhile
and quoth sayf al muluk may allah almighty long honour it with thee o king
naught hath brought thee hither save some need which hath occurred to thee and whatso thou desirest of my country i will accomplish it to the replied sayf al muluk o king my case is a wondrous
and told him how he had fallen in love
and wept bitter tears when the king of china heard his story he wept for pity and solicitude for him and cried and what wouldst thou have now o sayf al muluk and he rejoined
i would have thee bring me all the wanderers and travellers the seafarers and sea captains that i may question them of the original of this portrait perhaps one of them may give me tidings of her
and body guards to fetch all the wanderers and travellers in the land and they brought them before the two kings and they were a numerous company then sayf al muluk questioned them of the city of babel
whereupon sayf al muluk opened his eyes and seeing no sign of the ships nor aught but sky and sea said to the mamelukes who were with him where are the carracks and cock boats and where is my brother sa'id
they replied o king of the age there remain nor ships nor boats nor those who were therein for they are all drowned and become food for fishes now when he heard this he cried aloud
and repeated the saying which whoso saith shall not be confounded and it is
then he fell to buffeting his face and would have cast himself into the sea but his mamelukes withheld him saying o king what will this profit thee thou hast brought all this on thyself for
hadst thou hearkened to thy father's words naught thereof had betided thee but this was written from all eternity by the will of the creator of souls and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say
when it was the seven hundred and sixty fifth night she resume it hath reached me o auspicious king that when sayf al muluk would have cast himself into the main his mamelukes withheld him saying
what will this profit thee thou hast done this deed by thyself yet was it written from all eternity by the will of the creator of souls that the creature might accomplish that which allah hath decreed unto him and indeed at the time of thy birth
the astrologers assured thy sire that all manner troubles should befal thee so there is naught for it but patience till allah deliver us from this our strait replied the prince
there is no majesty and there is no might save in allah the glorious the great neither is there refuge nor fleeing from that which he decreeth and he sighed and recited these couplets by the compassionate
i'm dazed about my case for lo troubles and griefs beset me sore i know not whence they grow i will be patient
less bitter than my patience is the taste of aloes juice i've borne with patience what's more hot than coals with fire aglow in this my trouble what resource have i save to commit my case to him
who orders all that is for weal or woe then he became drowned in the depth of thoughts and his tears ran down upon his cheeks like torrent rain and he slept a while of the day after which he awoke and sought of food somewhat
so they set meat before him and he ate his sufficiency till they removed the food from before him whilst the boat drove on with them they knew not whither it was wandering it drifted with them at the will of the winds and the waves
night and day a great while till their victual was spent and they saw themselves shent and were reduced to extreme hunger and thirst and exhaustion when behold suddenly they sighted an island from afar
and the breezes wafted them on till they came thither then making the cock boat fast to the coast and leaving one therein to guard it they fared on into the island where they found abundance of fruits of all colours
and ate of them till they were satisfied presently they saw a person sitting among those trees and he was long faced of strange favour and white of beard and body he called to one of the mamelukes by his name saying
eat not of these fruits for they are unripe but come hither to me that i may give thee to eat of the best and the ripest the slave looked at him and thought that he was one of the shipwrecked who had made his way to that island
so he joyed with exceeding joy at sight of him and went close up to him knowing not what was decreed to him in the secret purpose nor what was writ upon his brow but when he drew near the stranger in human shape leapt upon him
the blackamoors who had captured the prince and his mamelukes set them before the king and said to him we found these birds amoung the trees and the king was sharp set so he took two of the servants and cut their throats and ate them
that when king mohammed son of sabaik said to hasan the merchant an thou bring me that i seek of thee especial favour awaiteth thee and thou mayest now rejoice in that which i have promised thee but an thou bring it not
thou art not of us nor are we of thee hasan kissed ground before the king and went out from the presence then he chose five of the best of his mamelukes who could all write and read and were learned intelligent accomplished
and he gave each of them five thousand dinars saying i reared you not save for the like of this day so do ye help me to further the king's desire and deliver me from his hand quoth they what wilt thou have us do
our lives be thy ransom quoth he i wish you to go each to a different country and seek out diligently the learned and erudite and literate and the tellers of wondrous stories and marvellous histories
and do your endeavour to procure me the story of sayf al muluk if ye find it with any one pay him what price soever he asketh for it although he demand a thousand dinars give him what ye may and promise him the rest
and bring me the story for whoso happeneth on it and bringeth it to me i will bestow on him a costly robe of honour and largesse galore and there shall be to me none more worshipped than he
hie thou to al hind and al sind and all their provinces and dependencies to another hie thou to the home of the persians and to china and her climates to the third hie thou to the land of khorasan with its districts
to the fourth hie thou to mauritania and all its regions districts provinces and quarters and to the fifth hie thou to syria and egypt and their outliers moreover he chose them out an auspicious day and said to them
fare ye forth this day and be diligent in the accomplishment of my need and be not slothful though the case cost you your lives so they farewelled him and departed each taking the direction perscribed to him
now four of them were absent four months and searched but found nothing so they returned and told their master whose breast was straitened that they had ransacked towns and cities and countries for the thing he sought but had happened upon naught thereof
meanwhile the fifth servant journeyed till he came to the land of syria and entered damascus which he found a pleasant city and a secure abounding in trees and rills leas and fruiteries
and birds chanting the praises of allah the one the all powerful of sway creator of night and day here he tarried some time asking for his master's desire but non answered him
wherefore he was on the point of departing thence to another place when he met a young man running and stumbling over his skirts so he asked of him wherefore runnest thou in such eagerness
where he saw an old man of bright favour seated on a stool holding forth to the folk he sat down near him and addressed himself to hear his story till the going down of the sun when the old man made an end of his tale and the people having heard it all
dispersed from about him whereupon the mameluke accosted him and saluted him and he returned his salam and greeted him with the utmost worship and courtesy then said the messenger to him o my lord shaykh thou art a comely and reverend man
replied the old man ask of what thou wilt
rejoined the elder and who told thee of this story and informed thee thereof answered the messenger none told me of it but i am come from a far country in quest of this tale and i will pay thee whatever thou askest for its price if thou have it
and wilt of thy bounty and charity impart it to me and make it an alms to me of the generosity of thy nature for had i my life in my hand and lavished it upon thee for this thing yet were it pleasing to my heart
replied the old man be of good cheer and keep thine eye cool and clear thou shalt have it but this is no story that one telleth in the beaten highway nor do i give it to every one cried the other
by allah o my lord do not grudge it me but ask of me what price thou wilt and the old man if thou wish for the history give me an hundred dinars and thou shalt have it but upon five conditions
he donned his clothes and taking the dinars repaired to the story teller whom he found seated at the door of his house so he saluted him and the other returned his salam then he gave him the gold and the old man took it and carrying the messenger into his house
nor before women and slave girls nor to black slaves nor feather heads nor again to boys but read it only before kings and emirs and wazirs and men of learning such as expounders of the koran and others
thereupon the messenger accepted the conditions and kissing the old man'shand took leave of him and fared forth and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say
when it was the seven hundred and fifty eighth night she continued it hath reached me o auspicious king that when the mameluke of hasan the merchant
had copied the tale out of the book belonging to the old man of damascus and had accepted his conditions and farewelled him he fared forth on the same day glad and joyful and journeyed on diligently of the excess of his contentment
for that he had gotten the story of sayf al muluk till he came to his own country when he despatched his servant to bear the good news to his master and say to him thy mameluke is come back in safety and hath won his will and his aim
now of the term appointed between hasan and the king there wanted but ten days then after taking rest in his own quarters he himself went in to the merchant and told him all that had befallen him
and gave him the book containing the story of sayf al muluk and badi'a al jamal
and bestowed on him all the clothes he had on and gave him ten thoroughbred horses and the like number of camels and mules and three negro chattels and two white slaves then hasan took the book and copied out the story plainly in his own hand
after which he presented himself before the king and said to him o thou auspicious king i have brought thee a night story and a rarely pleasant relation whose like none ever heard at all when these words reached the king's ear
who were men of understanding and all the learned doctors and folk of erudition and culture and poets and wits and hasan sat down and read the history before the king who marvelled thereat and approved it as did all who were present
and they showered gold and silver and jewels upon the merchant moreover the king bestowed on him a costly robe of honour of the richest of his raiment
and had no child male or female by reason whereof he was ever in cark and care from morning to night and from night to morn
it so happened that one day of the days he was sitting on the throne of his kingship with his emirs and wazirs and captains and grandees in attendance on him according to their custom in their several stations
and whenever there came in an emir who had with him a son or two sons or haply three
the king envied him and said in himself
now when the wazir and notables of the realm and others who were present in the assembly saw him do thus with his royal person they feared for their lives and let the poursuivants cry aloud to the lieges saying
from what aileth him so they went away leaving none in the presence save the minister who as soon as the king came to himself kissed ground between his hands and said o king of the age and the time wherefore this weeping and wailing
tell me who hath transgressed against thee of the kings or castellans or emirs or grandees and inform me who hath thwarted thee o my liege lord that we may all fall on him and tear his soul from his two sides
tell me therefore why this weeping and wherefore thine affliction nevertheless the king neither opened his mouth nor raised his head but ceased not to weep and cry with a loud crying and lament with exceeding lamentation and ejaculate
alas the wazir took patience with him awhile after which he said to him except thou tell me the cause of this thine affliction i will set this sword to my heart and will slay myself before thine eyes rather than see thee
thus distressed then king asim raised his head and wiping away his tears said o minister of good counself and experience leave me to my care and my chagrin
for that which is in my heart of sorrow sufficeth me but faris said tell me o king the cause of this thy weeping haply allah will appoint thee relief at my hands
when it was the seven hundred and fifty ninth night she pursued it hath reached me o auspicious king that the wazir said to king asim tell me the cause of this thy weeping
haply allah shall appoint thee relief at my hands replied the king o wazir i weep not for monies nor horses nor kingdoms nor aught else but that i am become an old man yea very old
nigh upon an hundred and fourscore years of age and i have not been blessed with a child male or female so when i die they will bury me and my trace will be effaced and my name cut off
the stranger will take my throne and reign and none will ever make mention of my being rejoined the minister faris o king of the age i am older than thou by an hundred years
from cark and care and concern so how shall we do i and thou quoth asim
the king cried this is well seen and my breast is braodened by this thy speech but where shall we find a messenger befitting this grave matter for that this solomon is no kinglet and the approaching him is no light affair
indeed i will send him none on the like of this matter save thyself for thou art ancient and versed in all manner affairs and the like of thee is the like of myself wherefore i desire that thou weary thyself and journey to him
and occupy thyself sedulously with accomplishing this matter so haply solace may be at thy hand the minister said i hear and i obey but rise thou forthwith and seat thee upon the throne
so the emirs and lords of the realm and officers and the lieges may enter applying themselves to thy service according to their custom for they all went away from thee troubled at heart on thine account
then will i go out and set forth on the sovran's errand so the king arose forthright and sat down on the throne of his kingship whilst the wazir went out and said to the chamberlain
bid the folk proceed to their service as of their wont accordingly the troops and captains and lords of the land entered after they had spread the tables and ate and drank and withdrew as was their wont
and repairing to his own house equipped himself for travel and returned to the king who opened to him the treasuries and provided him with rarities and things of price and rich stuffs and gear without compare
such as nor emir nor wazir hath power to possess moreover king asim charged him to accost solomon with reverence foregoing him with the salam but not exceeding in speech and continued he
then do thou ask of him thy need and if he say tis granted return to us in haste for i shall be awaiting thee accordingly the minister kissed hands and took the presents and setting out fared on night and day
till he came within fifteen days journey of saba meanwhile allah extolled and exalted be he inspired solomon the son of david the peace be upon both and said to him o solomon
the king of egypt sendeth unto thee his chief wazir
and setting out fared on till he fell in with faris and accosted him with the salam
the god of all creatures this is none other than a mighty god and do ye not worship him
o wazir faris the sun is but a star of the stars created by allah extolled and exalted be he and allah forbid that it should be a lord
but our lord is ever present and never absent
appearing all to mortal eyes without concealment in divers forms grisly and gruesome so they lined the road on either hand and the birds bespread their wings over the host of creatures to shade them
warbling one to other in all manner of voices and tongues now when the people of egypt came to this terrible array they dreaded it and durst not proceed but asaf said to them pass on amidst them and walk forward and fear them not
for they are slaves of solomon son of david and none of them will harm you so saying he entered between the ranks followed by all the folk and amongst them the wazir of egypt and his company fearful
and they ceased not faring forwards till they reached the city where they lodged the embassy in the guest house and for the space of three days entertained them sumptuously entreating them with the utmost honour then they carried them before solomon
prophet of allah on whom be the peace and when entering they would have kissed the earth before him but he forbade them saying
creator of earth and heaven and all other things wherefore whosoever of you hath a mint to sit let him be seated in my service or to stand let him stand but let none stand to do me worship
so they obeyed him and the wazir faris and some of his intimates sat down
and wazirs and captains and grandees in attendance on him he saw some of them with two sons others with one and others even three who came with their sires to do him service
so he said in himself of the excess of his sorrow who shall get my kingdom after my death will any save a stranger take it and thus shall i pass out of being as though i had never been on this account he became drowned in the sea of thought
until his eyes were flooded with tears and he covered his face with his kerchief and wept with sore weeping then he rose from off his throne and sat down upon the floor wailing and lamenting
this will appear by the following considerations first that in the passage of light out of glass into air there is a reflexion as strong
and by many degrees stronger than in its passage out of glass into water and it seems not probable that air should have more strongly reflecting parts than water or glass but if that should possibly be supposed
yet it will avail nothing for the reflexion is as strong or stronger when the air is drawn away from the glass suppose by the air pump invented by otto gueriet and improved and made useful by mister boyle
as when it is adjacent to it secondly if light in its passage out of glass into air be incident more obliquely than at an angle of forty or forty one degrees it is wholly reflected if less obliquely
it is in great measure transmitted now it is not to be imagined that light at one degree of obliquity should meet with pores enough in the air to transmit the greater part of it
should meet with nothing but parts to reflect it wholly especially considering that in its passage out of air into glass how oblique soever be its incidence it finds pores enough in the glass to transmit a great part of it
if any man suppose that it is not reflected by the air but by the outmost superficial parts of the glass there is still the same difficulty besides that such a supposition is unintelligible
and will also appear to be false by applying water behind some part of the glass instead of air for so in a convenient obliquity of the rays suppose of forty five or forty six degrees
at which they are all reflected where the air is adjacent to the glass they shall be in great measure transmitted where the water is adjacent to it which argues that their reflexion or transmission depends on the constitution of the air
and water behind the glass and not on the striking of the rays upon the parts of the glass thirdly
placed at the entrance of a beam of light into a darken'd room be successively cast on a second prism placed at a greater distance from the former in such manner that they are all alike incident upon it the second prism
may be so inclined to the incident rays that those which are of a blue colour shall be all reflected by it and yet those of a red colour pretty copiously transmitted now if the reflexion be caused by the parts of air or glass i would ask
why at the same obliquity of incidence the blue should wholly impinge on those parts so as to be all reflected and yet the red find pores enough to be in a great measure transmitted fourthly
where two glasses touch one another there is no sensible reflexion as was declared in the first observation and yet i see no reason why the rays should not impinge on the parts of glass as much when contiguous to other glass
as when contiguous to air fifthly when the top of a water bubble in the seventeenth observation by the continual subsiding and exhaling of the water grew very thin
there was such a little and almost insensible quantity of light reflected from it that it appeared intensely black whereas round about that black spot where the water was thicker the reflexion was so strong as to make the water seem very white
nor is it only at the least thickness of thin plates or bubbles that there is no manifest reflexion but at many other thicknesses continually greater and greater for in the fifteenth observation the rays of the same colour
were by turns transmitted at one thickness and reflected at another thickness for an indeterminate number of successions and yet
where it is of any one thickness there are as many parts for the rays to impinge on as where it is of any other thickness sixthly if reflexion were caused by the parts of reflecting bodies
it would be impossible for thin plates or bubbles at one and the same place to reflect the rays of one colour and transmit those of another as they do according to the thirteenth and fifteenth observations for it is not to be imagined
that at one place the rays which for instance exhibit a blue colour should have the fortune to dash upon the parts and those which exhibit a red to hit upon the pores of the body and then at another place where the body is either a little thicker or a little thinner
that on the contrary the blue should hit upon its pores and the red upon its parts lastly were the rays of light reflected by impinging on the solid parts of bodies their reflexions from polish'd bodies
could not be so regular as they are for in polishing glass with sand putty or tripoly it is not to be imagined that those substances can by grating and fretting the glass
bring all its least particles to an accurate polish so that all their surfaces shall be truly plain or truly spherical and look all the same way so as together to compose one even surface
the smaller the particles of those substances are the smaller will be the scratches by which they continually fret and wear away the glass until it be polish'd but be they never so small
they can wear away the glass no otherwise than by grating and scratching it and breaking the protuberances and therefore polish it no otherwise than by bringing its roughness to a very fine grain
so that the scratches and frettings of the surface become too small to be visible and therefore if light were reflected by impinging upon the solid parts of the glass it would be scatter'd as much by the most polish'd glass as by the roughest
so then it remains a problem how glass polish'd by fretting substances can reflect light so regularly as it does and this problem is scarce otherwise to be solved than by saying that the reflexion of a ray is effected
not by a single point of the reflecting body but by some power of the body which is evenly diffused all over its surface and by which it acts upon the ray without immediate contact
for that the parts of bodies do act upon light at a distance shall be shewn hereafter now if light be reflected not by impinging on the solid parts of bodies but by some other principle
it's probable that as many of its rays as impinge on the solid parts of bodies are not reflected but stifled and lost in the bodies for otherwise we must allow two sorts of reflexions
should all the rays be reflected which impinge on the internal parts of clear water or crystal those substances would rather have a cloudy colour than a clear transparency to make bodies look black it's necessary that many rays be stopp'd
retained and lost in them and it seems not probable that any rays can be stopp'd and stifled in them which do not impinge on their parts
and hence we may understand that bodies are much more rare and porous than is commonly believed water is nineteen times lighter and by consequence nineteen times rarer than gold and gold is so rare
as very readily and without the least opposition to transmit the magnetick effluvia and easily to admit quicksilver into its pores and to let water pass through it
and solder'd up has upon pressing the sphere with great force let the water squeeze through it and stand all over its outside in multitudes of small drops
like dew without bursting or cracking the body of the gold as i have been inform'd by an eye witness from all which we may conclude that gold has more pores than solid parts
and by consequence that water has above forty times more pores than parts and he that shall find out an hypothesis by which water may be so rare and yet not be capable of compression by force may doubtless by the same hypothesis
make gold and water and all other bodies as much rarer as he pleases so that light may find a ready passage through transparent substances the magnet acts upon iron through all dense bodies not magnetick nor red hot
without any diminution of its virtue as for instance through gold silver lead glass water the gravitating power of the sun is transmitted through the vast bodies of the planets without any diminution
with the same force and according to the same laws as if the part upon which it acts were not surrounded with the body of the planet the rays of light whether they be very small bodies projected or only motion or force propagated
are moved in right lines and whenever a ray of light is by any obstacle turned out of its rectilinear way
and yet light is transmitted through pellucid solid bodies in right lines to very great distances how bodies can have a sufficient quantity of pores for producing these effects is very difficult to conceive
but perhaps not altogether impossible for the colours of bodies arise from the magnitudes of the particles which reflect them as was explained above now if we conceive these particles of bodies to be so disposed amongst themselves
that the intervals or empty spaces between them may be equal in magnitude to them all and that these particles may be composed of other particles much smaller which have as much empty space between them as equals
all the magnitudes of these smaller particles and that in like manner these smaller particles are again composed of others much smaller all which together are equal to all the pores
or empty spaces between them and so on perpetually till you come to solid particles such as have no pores or empty spaces within them and if in any gross body there be for instance
three such degrees of particles the least of which are solid this body will have seven times more pores than solid parts but if there be four such degrees of particles the least of which are solid
the body will have fifteen times more pores than solid parts if there be five degrees the body will have one and thirty times more pores than solid parts if six degrees
the body will have sixty and three times more pores than solid parts and so on perpetually and there are other ways of conceiving how bodies may be exceeding porous but what is really their inward frame is not yet known to us
by one and the same power variously exercised in various circumstances this appears by several considerations first because when light goes out of glass into air as obliquely as it can possibly do
if its incidence be made still more oblique it becomes totally reflected for the power of the glass after it has refracted the light as obliquely as is possible if the incidence be still made more oblique
becomes too strong to let any of its rays go through and by consequence causes total reflexions secondly because light is alternately reflected and transmitted by thin plates of glass for many successions
accordingly as the thickness of the plate increases in an arithmetical progression
the first book of opticks
my design in this book is not to explain the properties of light by hypotheses but to propose and prove them by reason and experiments
in order to which i shall premise the following definitions and axioms definitions
i understand its least parts and those as well successive in the same lines as contemporary in several lines for it is manifest that light consists of parts both successive and contemporary
because in the same place you may stop that which comes one moment and let pass that which comes presently after and in the same time you may stop it in any one place
and let it pass in any other for that part of light which is stopp'd cannot be the same with that which is let pass the least light or part of light
which may be stopp'd alone without the rest of the light or propagated alone or do or suffer any thing alone
is their disposition to be turned more or less out of their way in like incidences
mathematicians usually consider the rays of light to be lines reaching from the luminous body to the body illuminated and the refraction of those rays
to be the bending or breaking of those lines in their passing out of one medium into another and thus may rays and refractions be considered if light be propagated in an instant
it seems that light is propagated in time spending in its passage from the sun to us about seven minutes of time and therefore i have chosen to define rays and refractions in such general terms
as may agree to light in both cases
reflexibility of rays is their disposition to be reflected or turned back into the same medium from any other medium upon whose surface they fall
and rays are more or less reflexible which are turned back more or less easily as if light pass out of a glass into air
begins at length to be totally reflected by that surface those sorts of rays which at like incidences are reflected most copiously
or by inclining the rays begin soonest to be totally reflected are most reflexible
homogeneal and similar and that whose rays are some more refrangible than others i call compound heterogeneal and dissimilar the former light i call homogeneal
oranges and yellows if they be pure and intense are most probably of the second order those of the first and third order also may be pretty good only the yellow of the first order is faint and the orange and red of the third order
have a great mixture of violet and blue there may be good greens of the fourth order but the purest are of the third
and partly because when they wither some of them turn to a greenish yellow and others to a more perfect yellow or orange or perhaps to red
which changes seem to be effected by the exhaling of the moisture which may leave the tinging corpuscles more dense and something augmented by the accretion of the oily and earthy part of that moisture now the green without doubt
yet are often too full and lively to be of the fourth order blues and purples may be either of the second or third order but the best are of the third thus the colour of violets seems to be of that order
because their syrup by acid liquors turns red and by urinous and alcalizate turns green for since it is of the nature of acids to dissolve or attenuate and of
was of the second order an acid liquor by attenuating its tinging corpuscles would change it to a red of the first order
by incrassating them would change it to a green of the second order
but if the said purple be supposed of the third order its change to red of the second and green of the third may without any inconvenience be allow'd if there be found any body
of a deeper and less reddish purple than that of the violets
but yet there being no body commonly known whose colour is constantly more deep than theirs i have made use of their name to denote the deepest and least reddish purples such as manifestly transcend their colour in purity
the blue of the first order though very faint and little may possibly be the colour of some substances and particularly the azure colour of the skies seems to be of this order
for all vapours when they begin to condense and coalesce into small parcels become first of that bigness
and so this being the first colour which vapours begin to reflect it ought to be the colour of the finest and most transparent skies in which vapours are not arrived
as we find it is by experience whiteness if most intense and luminous is that of the first order if less strong and luminous a mixture of the colours of several orders
of this last kind is the whiteness of froth paper linnen and most white substances of the former i reckon that of white metals to be for whilst the densest of metals gold
if foliated is transparent and all metals become transparent if dissolved in menstruums or vitrified
from their density alone they being less dense than gold
did not some other cause concur with their density to make them opake and this cause
as fits them to reflect the white of the first order
which appear upon hot steel in tempering it and sometimes upon the surface of melted metals in the skin or scoria which arises upon them in their cooling and as the white of the first order is the strongest
which can be made by plates of transparent substances so it ought to be stronger in the denser substances of metals than in the rarer of air water and glass nor do i see but that metallick substances
of such a thickness as may fit them to reflect the white of the first order may by reason of their great density according to the tenor of the first of these propositions reflect all the light incident upon them and so be as opake
and splendent as it's possible for any body to be gold or copper mix'd with less than half their weight of silver or tin or regulus of antimony
which shews both that the particles of white metals
and so are smaller than those of gold and copper and also that they are so opake as not to suffer the particles of gold or copper to shine through them now it is scarce to be doubted
and therefore the particles of white metals cannot be much bigger than is requisite to make them reflect the white of the first order the volatility of mercury argues that they are not much bigger
nor may they be much less lest they lose their opacity and become either transparent as they do when attenuated by vitrification or by solution in menstruums or black as they do when ground smaller
by rubbing silver or tin or lead upon other substances to draw black lines the first and only colour which white metals take by grinding their particles smaller is black and therefore their white
that is the white of the first order but if you would hence gather the bigness of metallick particles you must allow for their density for were mercury transparent its density is such that the sine of incidence upon it
by my computation would be to the sine of its refraction as seventy one to twenty or seven to two and therefore the thickness of its particles
ought to be less than the thickness of the skin of those bubbles in the proportion of two to seven whence it's possible that the particles of mercury may be as little as the particles of some transparent and volatile fluids
and yet reflect the white of the first order lastly for the production of black the corpuscles must be less than any of those which exhibit colours for at all greater sizes there is too much light reflected to constitute this colour
but if they be supposed a little less than is requisite to reflect the white and very faint blue of the first order they will according to the fourth eighth seventeenth and eighteenth observations
reflect so very little light as to appear intensely black and yet may perhaps variously refract it to and fro within themselves so long until it happen to be stifled and lost by which means they will appear black in all positions of the eye
without any transparency and from hence may be understood why fire and the more subtile dissolver putrefaction by dividing the particles of substances turn them to black
why small quantities of black substances impart their colour very freely and intensely to other substances to which they are applied the minute particles of these by reason of their very great number easily overspreading the gross particles of others
why glass ground very elaborately with sand on a copper plate till it be well polish'd makes the sand together with what is worn off from the glass and copper become very black why black substances do soonest of all others
become hot in the sun's light and burn which effect may proceed partly from the multitude of refractions in a little room and partly from the easy commotion of so very small corpuscles
and why blacks are usually a little inclined to a bluish colour for that they are so
by light reflected from black substances for the paper will usually appear of a bluish white and the reason is that black borders in the obscure blue of the order described in the eighteenth observation and therefore reflects more rays of that colour
than of any other in these descriptions i have been the more particular because it is not impossible but that microscopes may at length be improved to the discovery of the particles of bodies on which their colours depend
if they are not already in some measure arrived to that degree of perfection for if those instruments are or can be so far improved as with sufficient distinctness to represent objects five or six hundred times bigger
than at a foot distance they appear to our naked eyes i should hope that we might be able to discover some of the greatest of those corpuscles and by one that would magnify three or four thousand times perhaps they might all be discover'd
it was a bleak november morning in the dreary little village of twelve trees nature herself seemed hopeless and disgusted with the universe as the chill mists stole wearily among the bare trees
and the boughs dripped with a clammy moisture that had nothing of the energy of tears twelve trees was a poor little village at the best of times but the past summer had been more than usually unkind to it
and the lean wheat fields and the ragged orchards had been leaner and more ragged than ever before so said the memory of the oldest villagers there was very little to eat in the village of twelve trees and practically no money at all
but this was no comfort to the gaunt and shivering children left to themselves on the chill door steps half heartedly trying to play their innocent little games
even the heart of childhood felt the shadows that november morning in the dreary little village of twelve trees
and moved about with a dank hopelessness evidently expecting nothing in the shape of discarded fish or transfiguring smells there was no life in the long disheveled high street
there was nothing to get up for and no work worth doing so naturally in all this echoing emptiness this lack of excitement anything that happened attracted a gratefully alert attention
even from those cats and dogs so sadly prowling amid the dejected refuse of the village
the blank nothingness of the damp deserted street there was to be seen approaching from the south a curious little figure of an old man trundling at his side a strange apparatus resembling a knife grinder's wheel
and he carried some forlorn old umbrellas under one arm evidently he was an itinerant knife grinder and umbrella mender as he proceeded up the street he called out some strange sing song
the words of which it was impossible to distinguish but though his cry was melancholy his old puckered and wizened face seemed to be alight with some inner and inextinguishable gladness and his electrical blue eyes startlingly set in a network of wrinkles
were as full of laughter as a boy's his cry attracted a weary face here and there at window and door but seeing nothing but an old knife grinder the faces lost interest and immediately disappeared
the children however being less sophisticated were filled with a grateful curiosity toward the stranger and left the chill door steps and trooped about him in wonder a little girl with tears making channels down her pale unwashed face
caught the old man's eye little one he said with a magical smile and a voice all reassuring love give me one of those tears and i will show you what i can make of it
and he touched the child's face with his hand and caught one of her tears on his finger and placed it glittering on his wheel then working a pedal with his foot the wheel began to move so swiftly
that one could see nothing but its whirling and as it whirled wonderful colored rays began to rise from it so that presently the dreary street seemed full of rainbows the sad houses were lit up with a fairy radiance
and the faces of the children were all laughter again well little one he said when the wheel stopped whirling did you like what i made out of that sad little tear and the children laughed and begged him to do some other trick for them
indescribably dirty and bedraggled talking to herself and laughing in a creepy way the village knew her as crazy sal and the children were accustomed to make cruel sport of her as she came near they began to jeer at her
with the heartlessness of young unknowing things
stay children he said and watch and as he said this his wheel went whirling again and as it whirled a light shot out from it so that it illuminated the poor old woman
and in its radiance she became strangely transfigured in place of crazy sal whom they had been accustomed to mock the children saw a beautiful young girl all blushes and bright eyes and pretty ribbons
that it drew to the door steps their fathers and mothers who also saw crazy sal as none of them had ever seen her before except a very old man who remembered her as a beautiful young girl and remembered too
how her mind had gone from her as the news came one day that her sweetheart a sailor had been drowned in the north sea
are you a wizard that you change a child's tears into laughter
you must be of the devil
and once more his wheel went whirring and again that strange light shot out from it and spread far past the houses over the fields beyond
they appeared waving with golden grain waiting for the scythe and again as the wheel stopped whirring the old man who had remembered crazy sal as a young girl spoke to the knife grinder again he asked
what and who are you are you a wizard that you change a child's tears into laughter and turn an old half witted woman back to a young girl and make of a barren glebe a waving corn field
and the man with the strange wheel answered i am the maker of rainbows i am the alchemist of hope to me november is always may tears are always laughter that is going to be
and darkness is light misunderstood the sad heart makes its own sorrow the happy heart makes its own joy the harvest is made by the harvestman and there is nothing hard or black or weary that is not waiting for the magic touch
of hope to become soft as a spring flower bright as the morning star and valiant as a young runner in the dawn but the village of twelve trees was not to be convinced by such words made out of moonshine
only the children believed in the laughing old man with the strange wheel rainbows mocked their fathers and mothers rainbows much good are rainbows to a starving village the old maker of rainbows took their taunts in silence
and made ready to go his way but as he started once more along the road he said with a cynical smile have you never heard that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow a pot of gold cried out the whole village of twelve trees
yes he answered a pot of gold i know where it is and i am going to find it and he moved on his way then the villagers looked at one another and said over and over again a pot of gold
and set out to accompany the old visitor but when they reached the outskirts of the village there was no sign of him he had mysteriously disappeared
aunt jane's jalap chapter one before taking there's a fortune in it
if for them then what for us we shan't want more bottles than we can sell besides we can make our own bottles if it comes to that cost of bottle contents cork label and all one penny selling price eightpence
sale at a moderate estimate one million bottles a year
it figures nicely but give me facts how long do you suppose it will take us to reach that sale no time the name will sell it aunt jane's jalap there isn't an old woman in england who seeing those words staring her in the face
won't press a longing hand to her inside outside i presume you mean but no matter hughes placed the bottle on the table he looked at it with loving eyes then he shook his head there's only one thing we want customers
testimonials there's something in it i know there is not much perhaps but still something that bottle sir contains a remedy for all known diseases and all unknown ones for all that i can tell in fact
patent medicines generally do
up to the advent of aunt jane's jalap have baffled all the resources of medical science give me a day or two and i will prove it i will bring you testimonials which will make your hair stand up on end and
he paused looking me fixedly in the face all genuine that evening i had a small dinner party it was rather an occasion the suggestion i am bound to admit had come from margaret
my dear george it's the easiest thing in the world and you could do it nicely why don't you ask us to dinner
square it off i suspect she meant
that would make four with me but i didn't correct her and then you and i could look over the house together after dinner so i asked them and they came
but missus chalmers does and this was an occasion on which her taste had to be consulted rather than mine and during dinner i began on aunt jane's jalap well it's all settled with hughes i addressed myself to margaret what about
aunt jane's jalap missus chalmers put down her spoon this was while the soup was on aunt jane's jalap whatever's that the new patent medicine the coming boom
you must know that my friend francis hughes has a wonderful old nurse and this wonderful old nurse has the most wonderful medicine which she used to administer to all her charges
how much did he give her for it half a crown
but of course we should both of us see that she made a good thing of it when the sale got up i need scarcely observe what fortunes have been made in patent medicines and lost in them my boy
but i let it pass millions literally millions have been made
have you tried the stuff upon yourself
well hughes has supplied the medicine and i am going to supply part of the capital what part
sufficient i trust to bring the matter before the public eye
this was hard coming from margaret my dear margaret the name is half the battle hughes thinks it's a splendid one but don't you think it makes one think of indigestion that's exactly what it's meant to do before or afterwards
let those laugh who win wait till you see the name blazoned on every dead wall then you'll welcome aunt jane's jalap as a friend that dinner i confess was a little patent mediciney
pybus told some pleasant and characteristic anecdotes about injurious effects of patent medicines how he had known whole families killed by taking them how more than half the infant mortality of great britain was owing to their unrestricted sale
how the habit of taking patent medicines was worse than the habit of dram drinking
i could not at my own table take the man by the scruff of the neck and drop him from the first floor window but i know that margaret didn't like it and i didn't either missus chalmers seemed undecided
she herself swears by some noxious compound which is absurdly named daddy's delight and which i know by the mere smell of it is nothing else but poison have you any of the stuff in the house she asked
i have a bottle of aunt jane's jalap which is not stuff my dear missus chalmers but a most invaluable medicine hughes brought it this afternoon as a sample
i was not going to act on such a hint as that but when missus chalmers expressed a wish to look at it i fetched the bottle it was a small black bottle such as is used for samples of wines about quarter bottle size i held it in my hand
this ladies and gentlemen is aunt jane's jalap it is a name which i trust will soon be familiar in your mouths as household words this however is its first appearance on the scene and i propose to mark the importance of the occasion
that we drink to its success i propose ladies and gentlemen that we drink to aunt jane's jalap in aunt jane's jalap brooks bring four claret glasses i drew the cork
george you don't mean that we're to drink the stuff i do my dear margaret why not the dose is a wine glassful to be taken immediately after meals missus chalmers allow me to offer you a glass of aunt jane's jalap
she sniffed at it it has a very disagreeable smell that was good i protest that i have smelt daddy's delight when i was passing the house and took it till i knew better for drains
margaret a glass of aunt jane's jalap but george i assure you that i never do take medicine some people's wine is no better than medicine we drink that and pretend we like it why not jalap
as he had just before been making insinuations about my wine the allusion was pointed but the man's proverbial no heeltraps
we all stood up i drained my glass i immediately wished i hadn't the others drained their glasses i saw they wished they hadn't too i do not think i ever tasted anything quite so nasty
i wished i had sampled it before as it was it took me by surprise
the man who takes much of that stuff will be killed if he isn't cured death for me rather than aunt jane's jalap' if it is jalap it is rather pungent i owned
but with ice pudding it's a failure never declared missus chalmers who was leaning back in her chair and had her handkerchief in her hand never did i taste anything like it never and after dinner too
margaret's feelings seemed for the moment to be too strong for speech i perceived the thing had been a failure still i endeavoured to pass it off which was difficult for i myself felt really ill
ah it is to the after effects we must look forward it is the after effects i'm thinking of said pybus that was almost more than i could bear it was the after effects i was thinking of as well come let's adjourn and have a little music
have we finished the bottle of jalap
i really must apologise i confess i had no idea what a peculiar taste it had it certainly is peculiar missus chalmers put her handkerchief up to her eyes and after dinner too we accompanied the ladies to the drawing room as well as we could
as we went i whispered in her ear now you and i can look over the house together i am afraid george you must excuse me i i couldn't walk about just yet do take me to a chair
we had planned that we would examine the house together from attic to basement indeed the whole affair had been got up for that express purpose everything was in apple pie order and ready for inspection the servants were on the tiptoe of expectation
as we went margaret was to make suggestions for alterations which would fit the house for its mistress and opportunities might arise for a little confidential intercourse but of course i could not drag the girl about the place against her will
the atmosphere of the drawing room was depressing
and general conversation seemed out of the question so i tried another line
pybus thinks he can sing he may have been able to once here's drink to me only that's a favourite of yours you should hear him sing it margaret will play the accompaniment lucas he said
hearing of a family being poisoned by an overdose of jalap in their case they took it by mistake though judging from the taste of your jalap i can't see how that could be
margaret murmured missus chalmers let's go home why aunt it will pass off in time in time at that moment i heartily wished that hughes had been at jericho before he induced me to dabble in his patent medicines
i always did hate them even as a child
are the ordinary and natural outcome of a dose of jalap margaret groaned missus chalmers i insist upon your coming home aunt what is the use of going home you haven't got a book in the house lucas treating of poisons
i quite perceive that i made a mistake in administering the dose after dinner in fact i am myself inclined to believe that i misunderstood hughes
good god pybus i can't help it i really cannot help it sir the idea of a reasonable person voluntarily swallowing such a concoction as that before his dinner is enough to make any man profane
i don't think mister lucas murmured missus chalmers that you have the least idea how ill i feel my dear missus chalmers if if there is anything i can do for you
the obvious celia had been calling on a newly married friend of hers they had been schoolgirls together they had looked over the same algebra book
i have never been quite certain they had done their calisthenics side by side they had compared picture post cards of lewis waller
i believe he is a stockbroker is ermyntrude's husband and we play our golf on saturday afternoons and go to sleep after dinner and well
and celia had been calling on ermyntrude i hope you did all the right things i said asked to see the wedding ring and admired the charming little house
and gave a few hints on the proper way to manage a husband rather said celia but it did seem funny because she used to be older than me at school isn't she still oh no
i'm ever so much older now talking about wedding rings she went on as she twisted her own round and round she's got all sorts of things written inside hers the date and their initials and i don't know what else
there can't be much else unless perhaps she has a very large finger well i haven't got anything in mine said celia mournfully she took off the offending ring and gave it to me
on the day when i first put the ring on her finger celia swore an oath that nothing but death extreme poverty or brigands should ever remove it i swore too unfortunately
which seemed to break the spell somehow
i took it from her and looked inside there are all sorts of things here too i said really you don't seem to have read your wedding ring at all or anyhow you've been skipping
there's nothing said celia in the same mournful voice i do think you might have put something i went and sat on the arm of her chair and held the ring up you're an ungrateful wife i said
after all the trouble i took now look there and i pointed with a pencil what's the first thing you see twenty two that's only the that was your age when you married me
i had it put in at enormous expense if you had been eighteen the man said or or nine it would have come much cheaper but no i would have your exact age you were twenty two
and that's what i had engraved on it very well now what do you see next to it a crown yes and what does that mean in the language of er crowns it means you are my queen
i insisted on a crown it would have been cheaper to have had a lion which means er lions but i was determined not to spare myself for i thought i went on pathetically i quite thought you would like a crown
if it really means that she took the ring in her hands and looked at it lovingly and what's that there sort of a man's head i gazed at her sadly you don't recognize it
has a year of marriage so greatly changed me celia it is your ronald i sat for that hour after hour day after day
in the small space allotted to him the sculptor has hardly done me justice and there i added is his initial r oh woman the amount of thought i spent on that ring
she came a little closer and slipped the ring on my finger spend a little more she pleaded there's plenty of room just have something nice written in it something about you and me like pisgah
what does that mean i don't know perhaps it's mizpah or ichabod or habakkuk i'm sure there's a word you put on rings i expect they'd know at the shop but i don't want what they know at shops
but the shop has got to know about it when i tell them and i don't like telling strange men in shops private and special things about ourselves i love you celia but
that would be a lovely thing she said clasping her hands eagerly what i love you celia i looked at her aghast do you want me to order that in cold blood
from the shopman he wouldn't mind besides if he saw us together he'd probably know you aren't afraid of a goldsmith are you
but i should prefer to be sentimental in some other language than plain english i could order cars sposa
or anything like that without a tremor but of course you shall put just whatever you like only only let it be original not mizpahs right i said
and for three days celia went about without a wedding ring and for all i know without even her marriage lines in her muff and on the fourth day i walked boldly in i want i said
a wedding ring engraved and i felt in my pockets not initials i said and i felt in some more pockets but but i tried the trousers pockets again well look here i'll be quite frank with you
i fumbled in my ticket pocket i want i love you on it and i went through the waistcoat pockets a third time i er love you me said the shopman surprised
i love you i repeated mechanically i love you i love you i well look here perhaps i'd better go back and get the ring on the next day i was there again but there was a different man behind the counter
i want this ring engraved i said certainly what shall we put i had felt the question coming
i hesitated i er well ladies often like the date put in when is it to be
the wedding he smiled it has been i said it's all over you're too late for it i gave myself up to thought at all costs i must be original there must be something on celia's wedding ring
there was only one thing i could think of the engraved ring arrived as we were at tea a few days later and i had a sudden overwhelming fear that celia would not be pleased
i saw that i must explain it to her after all there was a distinguished precedent come into the bath room a moment i said and i led the way she followed wondering
the bath mat she said surprised and what is written on it
not many years ago there issued from a town in estramadura a hidalgo nobly born who like another prodigal son went about various parts of spain italy and flanders
squandering his years and his wealth at last after long peregrinations his parents being dead and his fortune spent
to get rid of the little he had left finding himself then so bare of money and not better provided with friends he adopted the remedy to which many a spendthrift in that city has recourse that is to betake themselves to the indies
the refuge of the despairing sons of spain the church of the homeless the asylum of homicides the haven of gamblers and cheats the general receptacle for loose women the common centre of attraction for many but
effectual resource of very few a fleet being about to sail for tierrafirma he agreed with the admiral for a passage got ready his sea stores and his shroud of spanish grass cloth and embarking at cadiz
gave his benediction to spain intending never to see it again the fleet slipped from its moorings and amidst the general glee of its living freight the sails were spread to the soft and prosperous gale which soon wafted them out of sight of land
the ocean our passenger now became very thoughtful revolving in his memory the many and various dangers he had passed in the years of his peregrinations and the thriftless conduct he had pursued all his life long
the result of the account to which he thus called himself was a firm resolution to change his way of life to keep a much better hold of whatever wealth god might yet be pleased to bestow upon him
and concern himself only with the affairs of his voyage it was so prosperous that they arrived without check or accident at the port of cartagena
to return to his native country rejecting therefore great opportunities for profit which presented themselves to him he quitted peru where he had amassed his wealth turned all his money into ingots and putting it on board a registered ship
to avoid accidents returned to spain landed at san lucar and arrived at seville loaded alike with years and riches having placed his property in safety he went in search of his friends
he had no rest from the thoughts that distracted him in the midst of the wide ocean he was now no less assailed by care but from a different cause formerly his poverty would not let him sleep and now his wealth disturbed his rest
for riches are as heavy a burden to one who is not used to them or knows not how to employ them as indigence to one who is continually under its pressure money and the want of it alike bring care
but in the one case the acquisition of a moderate quantity affords a remedy the other case grows worse by further acquisition carrizales contemplated his ingots with anxiety not as a miser
all inclination for resuming the anxious life of traffic had died out in him and at his time of life his actual wealth was more than enough for the rest of his days he would fain have spent them in his native place put out his money there to interest
and passed his old age in peace and quiet giving what he could to god since he had given more than he ought to the world he considered however that the penury of his native place was great the inhabitants very needy
and that to go and live there would be to offer himself as a mark for all the importunities with which the poor usually harass a rich neighbour especially when there is only one in the place to whom they can have recourse in their distress
he wanted some one to whom he might leave his property after his death and with that view
he concluded that he was not yet too old to bear the burthen of matrimony but immediately on conceiving this notion he was seized with such a terrible fear as scattered it like a mist before the wind
he was naturally the most jealous man in the world even without being married and the mere thought of taking a wife called up such horrible spectres before his imagination that he resolved by all means to remain a bachelor
that point was settled but it was not yet settled what he should do with the rest of his life when it chanced that
he looked up and saw at a window a young girl apparently about thirteen or fourteen with a face so very handsome and so very pleasing in its expression that poor old carrizales was vanquished at once
and surrendered without an effort to the charms of the beautiful leonora for that was the girl's name without more ado he began to string together a long train of arguments to the following effect this girl is very handsome
and to judge from the appearance of the house her parents cannot be rich she is almost a child too assuredly a wife of her age could not give a husband any uneasiness let me see
say that i marry her i will keep her close at home i will train her up to my own hand and so fashion her to my wishes that she will never have a thought beyond them i am not so old
but that i may yet hope to have children to inherit my wealth whether she brings me any dower or not is a matter of no consideration since heaven has given me enough for both and rich people should not look for money with a wife
but for enjoyment for that prolongs life whereas jarring discontent between married people makes it wear out faster than it would do otherwise so be it then the die is cast
and this is the wife whom heaven destines me to have having thus soliloquised not once but a hundred times on that day and the two or three following carrizales had an interview with leonora's parents
and found that although poor they were persons of good birth he made known his intention to them acquainted them with his condition and fortune and begged them very earnestly to bestow their daughter upon him in marriage
they required time to consider his proposal and to give him also an opportunity to satisfy himself that their birth and quality was such as they had stated the parties took leave of each other made the necessary inquiries
found them satisfactory on both sides and finally leonora was betrothed to carrizales who settled upon her twenty thousand ducats so hotly enamoured was the jealous old bridegroom but no sooner had he pronounced the conjugal yes
in resolving that no tailor should take measure of his betrothed for any of the many wedding garments he intended to present her accordingly he went about looking for some other woman who might be nearly of the same height and figure as leonora
he found a poor woman who seemed suitable for his purpose and having had a gown made to her measure he tried it on his betrothed found that it fitted well and gave orders that it should serve as a pattern for all the other dresses
which were so many and so rich that the bride's parents thought themselves fortunate beyond measure in having obtained for themselves and their daughter
so nobly munificent as for leonora she was at her wit's end with amazement at the sight of such gorgeous finery for the best she had ever worn in her life
that he would not consummate his marriage until he had provided a house after his own fancy which he arranged in this singular manner
in one of the best wards of the city with a fountain and pond and a garden well stocked with orange trees he put screens before all the windows that looked towards the street leaving them no other prospect than the sky
and did much the same with all the others in the house in the gateway next the street he erected a stable for a mule and over it a straw loft and a room for an old black eunuch
he raised the parapets round the flat roof of the house so high that nothing could be seen above them but the sky and that only by turning one's face upwards in the inner door opening from the gateway upon the quadrangle
he fixed a turning box like that of a convent by means of which articles were to be received from without he furnished the house in a sumptuous style such as would have become the mansion of a great lord and he bought four white slave girls
whom he branded in the face and two negresses for the daily supplies of his establishment he engaged a purveyor who was to make all the necessary purchases
part he placed in the bank and the rest he kept by him to meet any emergencies that might arise
and he laid up a whole year's store of all such things as it is usual to purchase in bulk at their respective seasons and everything being now ready to his mind he went to his father in law's house and claimed his bride
whom her parents delivered up to him with no few tears for it seemed to them as if they were giving her up for burial leonora knew not poor young creature what was before her
but she shed tears because she saw her parents weep and taking leave of them with their blessing she went to her new home her husband leading her by the hand and her slaves and servants attending her on their arrival
carrizales harangued all his domestics enjoining them to keep careful watch over leonora and by no means on any pretence whatsoever to allow anybody to enter within the second gate not even the black eunuch
but the person whom above all others he charged with the safe keeping and due entertainment of his wife was a duena of much prudence and gravity whom he had taken to be leonora's monitress and superintendent of the whole house
and to command the slaves and two other maidens of leonora's age whom he had also added to his family that his wife might not be without companions of her own years he promised them all that he would treat them so well
and take such care for their comfort and gratification that they should not feel their confinement and that on holidays they should every one of them without exception be allowed to go to mass but so early in the morning that daylight itself
should scarcely have a chance of seeing them the servant maids and the slaves promised to obey all his orders cheerfully and with prompt alacrity and the bride with a timid shrinking of her shoulders bowed her head
and said that she had no other will than that of her lord and spouse to whom she always owed obedience having thus laid down the law for the government of his household the worthy estramaduran began to enjoy as well as he could
the fruits of matrimony which to leonora's inexperienced taste were neither sweet flavoured nor insipid her days were spent with her duena her damsels and her slaves who to make the time pass more agreeably
for by that means he expected to keep them occupied and amused so that they should have no time to think of their confinement and seclusion leonora lived on a footing of equality with her domestics amused herself as they did
and that it was not within the compass of human art or malice to trouble his repose accordingly his whole care was devoted to anticipating his wife's wishes by all sorts of presents and encouraging her to ask for whatever came into her head
for in everything it should be his pleasure to gratify her on the days she went to mass which as we have said was before daylight
who made them such liberal gifts as mitigated the keenness of their compassion for the secluded life led by their daughter carrizales used to get up in the morning and watch for the arrival of the purveyor who was always made aware of what was wanted for the day
by means of a note placed over night in the turning box after the purveyor had come and gone carrizales used to go abroad generally on foot locking both entrance doors behind him that next the street
and that which opened on the quadrangle and leaving the negro shut up between them having despatched his business which was not much he speedily returned shut himself up in his house
and occupied himself in making much of his wife and her handmaids who all liked him for his placid and agreeable humour and above all for his great liberality towards them in this way they passed a year of novitiate
and made profession of that manner of life resolved every one of them to continue in it to the end of their days
since he would not even allow that there should be any male animal within his dwelling no tom cat ever persecuted its rats nor was the barking of a dog ever heard within its walls all creatures belonging to it were of the feminine gender
he took thought by day and by night he did not sleep he was himself the patrol and sentinel of his house and the argus of what he held dear never did a man set foot within the quadrangle
he transacted his business with his friends in the street the pictures that adorned his rooms were all female figures flowers or landscapes
the very tales which the maid servants told by the fireside in the long winter nights being told in his presence were perfectly free from the least tinge of wantonness her aged spouse's silver hairs
seemed in leonora's eyes locks of pure gold for the first love known by maidens imprints itself on their hearts like a seal on melted wax his inordinate watchfulness
seemed to her no more than the due caution of an experienced and judicious man she was fully persuaded that the life she led was the same as that led by all married women her thoughts never wandered beyond the walls of her dwelling
never was there seen a convent more closely barred and bolted never were nuns kept more recluse or golden apples better guarded and yet for all his precautions
or at least believing that he had so fallen
an idle pleasure seeking class of people
always finding means to make themselves welcome at rich men's feasts of these people their manners and customs and the laws they observe among themselves i should have much to say but abstain from it for good reasons one of these gallants a bachelor
as such persons are called in their jargon
took notice of the house of carrizales and seeing it always shut close he was curious to know who lived there he set about this inquiry with such ardour and ingenuity that he failed not to obtain all the information he desired
he learned the character and habits of the old man the beauty of leonora and the singular method adopted by her husband in order to keep her safe all this inflamed him with desire to see if it would not be possible by force or stratagem
to effect the reduction of so well guarded a fortress he imparted his thoughts to three of his friends and they all agreed that he should go to work
at first they were at a loss how to set about so difficult an exploit but after many consultations they agreed upon the following plan loaysa
disappeared from among his friends
then drawing on a pair of linen drawers and a clean shirt he put over them a suit of clothes so torn and patched that the poorest beggar in the city would have disdained to wear such rags he shaved off the little beard he had
loaysa produced a greasy guitar wanting some of its strings and as he was something of a musician he began to play a few lovely airs and to sing moorish ballads in a feigned voice
with so much expression that all who were passing through the street stopped to listen the boys all made a ring round him when he sang and luis the negro
loaysa four or five times repeated this serenade to the negro for whose sake alone he played and sang thinking that the way to succeed in his sap and siege was to begin by making sure of old luis nor was his expectation disappointed
one night when he had taken his place as usual before the door and had begun to time his guitar perceiving that the negro was already on the alert he put his lips to the key hole and whispered
i am dying with thirst and can't sing no said the negro for i have not the key of this door and there is no hole through which i can give you drink who keeps the key then my master
who is the most jealous man in the world and if he knew that i was now talking here with any one it were pity of my life but who are you who ask me for water i am a poor cripple
besides which i teach the guitar to some moriscoes and other poor people among my pupils i have three negroes slaves to three aldermen whom i have taught so well that they are fit to sing and play at dance or in any tavern
and they have paid me for it very well indeed a deal better would i pay you to have the opportunity of taking lessons but it is not possible for when my master goes out in the morning he locks the door behind him and he does the same when he comes in
leaving me shut up between two doors
and from what i can judge from the tone of your voice you must sing very well i don't sing badly
except the star of venus or in the green meadow or the tune that is now so much in vogue clinging to her grated window with a trembling hand all these are moonshine to what i could teach you
with those of his lady xarifa and all those comprising the history of the grand sofi tomunibeyo
among whom they are most in vogue and all these i teach by such methods and with such facility that almost before you have swallowed three or four bushels of salt you will find yourself an out and out performer in every kind of guitar music
with which you may take an impression of the wards for i have taken such a liking to you i will get a locksmith a friend of mine to make new keys and then i can come in at night and teach you to play better than prester john in the indies it is a thousand pities
that a voice like yours should be lost for want of the accompaniment of the guitar
that the finest voice in the world loses its perfection when it is not accompanied by some instrument be it guitar or harpsichord organ or harp but the instrument that will suit your voice best is the guitar because it is the handiest
and the least costly of all all that is very good but the thing can't be done for i never get hold of the keys nor does my master ever let them out of his keeping day and night they sleep under his pillow well then
if it were possible anyhow for sake of being able to play music well if that's the case
and i will give you through that opening a pair of pincers and a hammer with which you may by night draw out the nails of the staple and we can easily put that to rights again so that no one will ever suspect that the lock was opened
once shut up with you in your loft or wherever you sleep
that you will turn out even better than i said to my own personal advantage and to the increase of your accomplishments you need not give yourself any concern about what we shall have to eat i will bring enough to last us both for more than a week
and i will make an opening close to the hinge through which you may pass them in and i will stop it up again with mud
and even should it be necessary to give some loud knocks
well then with the blessing of god friend luis in two days from this time you shall have everything necessary for the execution of your laudable purpose meanwhile take care not to eat such things as are apt to make phlegm
for they do the voice no good but a deal of harm nothing makes me so hoarse so much as wine but i would not give it up for all the voices above ground
drink luis my boy drink and much good may it do you for wine drunk in measure never did any one harm i always drink in measure i have a jug here that holds exactly three pints and a half the girls fill this for me unknown to my master
and the purveyor brings me on the sly
that's the way to live my boy
i'll just sing you one song but when i am inside you will see wonders here ended this long dialogue and loaysa sang a sprightly ditty with such good effect that the negro was in ecstacies
and felt as if the time for opening the door would never arrive having finished his song loaysa took his departure and set off at a rounder pace than might have been expected of a man on crutches to report to his friends what a good beginning he had made
he told them what he had concerted with the negro and the following day they procured tools of the right sort fit to break any fastening as if it was made of straw
which he plastered up so well that no one could perceive it unless he searched for it on purpose on the second night loaysa passed in the tools luis went to work with them whipped off the staple in a trice opened the door and let in his orpheus
with such a distorted leg and in such a tattered plight loaysa did not wear the patch over his eye for it was not necessary and as soon as he entered he embraced his pupil
a box of preserves and other sweet things with which his wallet was well stored then throwing aside his crutches he began to cut capers as if nothing ailed him to the still greater amazement of the negro
you must know brother luis said loaysa that my lameness does not come of natural infirmity but from my own ingenious contrivance whereby i get my bread asking alms for the love of god in this way
and with the help of my music i lead the merriest life in the world where others with less cleverness and good management would be starved to death of this you will be convinced in the course of our friendship we shall see said the negro
but now let us put this staple back in its place so that it may not appear that it has been moved very good said loaysa and taking out some nails from his wallet he soon made the lock seem as secure as ever to the great satisfaction of the negro
who taking him at once to his loft made him as comfortable there as he could luis lighted a lamp loaysa took up his guitar and began to strike the chords softly and sweetly so that the poor negro was transported with delight
he drew forth a fresh supply of good things for a collation which they partook of together and the pupil applied himself so earnestly to the bottle
so persuaded was the poor fellow of this that he did nothing all night but jangle and strum away they had but a short sleep that night in the morning just on the strike of six carrizales came down opened both entrance doors
after depositing the day's supplies in the turning box called the negro down to receive his ration and oats for the mule after the purveyor was gone old carrizales went out locking both doors after him without having seen what had been done to the lock of one of them
whereat both master and pupil rejoiced not a little
than the negro laid hold on the guitar and began to scrape it in such a manner that all the servant maids came to the second door and asked him through the turning box what is this luis how long have you had a guitar who gave it you
but where can he be for us to see him returned the duena since no one but our master ever enters this house i will not tell you any more about the matter till you have heard what i can do and how much he has taught me in this short time
by my troth unless he is a demon who has taught you i don't know how you can have become a musician all at once stop a bit and you shall hear him and mayhap you will see him too some day that can't be said another of the women
never mind said the negro there's a remedy for everything but death if you only could or would keep silence keep silence ay that we will brother luis as if we were born dumb
i give you my word friend i am dying to hear a good voice for ever since we have been shut up here we have not even heard the birds sing
loaysa listened with great inward glee to this conversation which showed how readily the women were taking the very bent he would have given them the negro was afraid lest his master should return and catch him talking with them
when they least expected it he would call them to hear a capital voice he then retreated to his loft
but durst not do so by day for fear of detection his master returned soon after and went into the house locking both doors behind him as usual when luis went that day to the turning box for his victuals
to let her fellow servants know that when their master was asleep that night they should all of them come down to the turning box when he would be sure to give them the treat he had promised he was enabled to say so much having previously entreated his music master to condescend
to sing and play that night before the inner door for the amusement of the women the maestro suffered himself to be pressed very hard to do the thing he most desired but after much seeming reluctance he at last yielded to the solicitations of his esteemed pupil
in testimony of his grateful sense of the promised favour
or perhaps better towards midnight luis knew by the signals cautiously given at the turning box that the women were all there
complete in all its strings and well tuned the maestro asked how many were there to hear him
who was in bed with her husband this was not what loaysa wished for nevertheless
he touched the guitar softly and drew from it such tones as ravished the ears of his audience but who could describe the delight of the women when he sang pesame de ello and followed it up with the magic strains of the saraband then new in spain
there was not one of them that did not keep time to the music as if she were dancing like mad
keeping scouts on the watch to warn them if the old man awoke
and so put the climax to his success that they all eagerly begged the negro to tell them who was this marvellous musician luis replied that he was a poor beggar
but the most gallant and genteel man in all the back slums of seville they conjured the negro to contrive some means that they might see him and not to let him quit the house for a fortnight
they were curious to know how luis had managed to get him into the house but to this the negro made no reply for the rest he told them that if they wanted to see the maestro they might bore a small hole in the turning box
he would do his best loaysa then addressed them and offered them his services in such obliging and polite terms that they were sure such fine language never came out of the head of a poor beggar they entreated he would come the next night
and they would prevail on their lady to come down and hear him in spite of the light sleep of her lord and master the result not so much of his age as of his extreme jealousy loaysa replied that
he would give them a powder to put in his wine
it would not be a sleeping powder for him
and for my poor dear lady leonora his wife
never losing sight of her for a moment ah senor of my soul bring that powder and may god reward you with all the good you can desire go don't lose a moment
i will take it upon me
three glorious days and nights they would be for us well i'll bring it then
it is of such a nature that it does no harm to the person who takes it the only effect of it being to cause a most profound sleep they all entreated him to bring it without delay and then they took their leave of him
after agreeing that on the following night they would make a hole in the turning box with a gimlet and that they would try and persuade their mistress to come down by this time it was nearly daylight yet the negro wished to take a lesson
loaysa complied with his desire and assured him that among all the pupils he had ever taught he had not known one with a finer ear and yet the poor negro could never to the end of his days have learned the gamut
loaysa's friends took care to come at night to carrizales door to see if their friend had any instructions to give them or wanted anything on the second night when they had made him aware of their presence by a preconcerted signal
he gave them through the key hole a brief account of the prosperous beginning he had made and begged they would try and get him something to be given to carrizales to make him sleep he had heard he said that there were powders which produced that effect
they told him they had a friend a physician
it was a brilliant day a hundred tints glistened on the white ground and the iron bars of the garden railing
gabriel andersen turned his steps toward the fringe of blue lace for a tramp in the woods another spring in my life he said breathing deep and peering up at the heavens through his spectacles andersen was rather given to sentimental poetising
he walked with his hands folded behind him dangling his cane he had gone but a few paces when he noticed a group of soldiers and horses on the road beyond the garden rail their drab uniforms stood out dully against the white of the snow
but their swords and horses coats tossed back the light their bowed cavalry legs moved awkwardly on the snow andersen wondered what they were doing there suddenly the nature of their business flashed upon him it was an ugly errand they were upon
an instinct rather that his reason told him
and the same instinct told him he must conceal himself from the soldiers he turned to the left quickly dropped on his knees and crawled on the soft thawing crackling snow to a low haystack from behind which by craning his neck he could watch what the soldiers were doing
there were twelve of them one a stocky young officer in a grey cloak caught in prettily at the waist by a silver belt his face was so red that even at that distance andersen caught the odd whitish gleam of his light
the broken tones of his raucous voice reached distinctly to where the teacher listening intently lay hidden i know what i am about i don't need anybody's advice the officer cried
he clapped his arms akimbo and looked down at some one among the group of bustling soldiers i'll show you how to be a rebel you damned skunk andersen's heart beat fast good heavens he thought is it possible his head grew chill as if struck by a cold wave
officer a quiet restrained yet distinct voice came from among the soldiers you have no right it's for the court to decide you aren't a judge it's plain murder not silence thundered the officer his voice choking with rage i'll give you a court
he put the spurs to his horse and rode away gabriel andersen mechanically observed how carefully the horse picked its way placing its feet daintily as if for the steps of a minuet its ears were pricked to catch every sound
there was momentary bustle and excitement among the soldiers then they dispersed in different directions leaving three persons in black behind two tall men and one very short and frail andersen could see the hair of the short one's head
it was very light and he saw his rosy ears sticking out on each side now he fully understood what was to happen but it was a thing so out of the ordinary so horrible that he fancied he was dreaming
it's so bright so beautiful the snow the field the woods the sky the breath of spring is upon everything yet people are going to be killed how can it be impossible so his thoughts ran in confusion
he had the sensation of a man suddenly gone insane who finds he sees hears and feels what he is not accustomed to and ought not hear see and feel the three men in black stood next to one another hard by the railing
two quite close together the short one some distance away officer one of them cried in a desperate voice andersen could not see which it was god sees us officer eight soldiers dismounted quickly
their spurs and sabres catching awkwardly evidently they were in a hurry as if doing a thief's job several seconds passed in silence until the soldiers placed themselves in a row a few feet from the black figures and levelled their guns
in doing so one soldier knocked his cap from his head he picked it up and put it on again without brushing off the wet snow the officer's mount still kept dancing on one spot with his ears pricked while the other horses also with sharp ears erect to catch every sound
stood motionless looking at the men in black their long wise heads inclined to one side spare the boy at least another voice suddenly pierced the air why kill a child damn you what has the child done
thundered the officer drowning the other voice his face turned as scarlet as a piece of red flannel there followed a scene savage and repulsive in its gruesomeness the short figure in black with the light hair and the rosy ears
uttered a wild shriek in a shrill child's tones and reeled to one side instantly it was caught up by two or three soldiers but the boy began to struggle and two more soldiers ran up ow ow ow ow the boy cried
let me go let me go ow ow his shrill voice cut the air like the yell of a stuck porkling not quite done to death suddenly he grew quiet some one must have struck him an unexpected oppressive silence ensued
the boy was being pushed forward then there came a deafening report andersen started back all in a tremble he saw distinctly yet vaguely as in a dream the dropping of two dark bodies the flash of pale sparks
and a light smoke rising in the clean bright atmosphere he saw the soldiers hastily mounting their horses without even glancing at the bodies he saw them galloping along the muddy road their arms clanking their horses hoofs clattering he saw all this
himself now standing in the middle of the road not knowing when and why he had jumped from behind the haystack he was deathly pale his face was covered with dank sweat his body was aquiver a physical sadness smote and tortured him
he could not make out the nature of the feeling it was akin to extreme sickness though far more nauseating and terrible after the soldiers had disappeared beyond the bend toward the woods people came hurrying to the spot of the shooting
though till then not a soul had been in sight the bodies lay at the roadside on the other side of the railing where the snow was clean brittle and untrampled and glistened cheerfully in the bright atmosphere there were three dead bodies two men and a boy
the boy lay with his long soft neck stretched on the snow the face of the man next to the boy was invisible he had fallen face downward in a pool of blood the third was a big man with a black beard and huge muscular arms
he lay stretched out to the full length of his big body his arms extended over a large area of blood stained snow the three men who had been shot lay black against the white snow motionless
from afar no one could have told the terror that was in their immobility as they lay there at the edge of the narrow road crowded with people that night gabriel andersen in his little room in the schoolhouse did not write poems as usual
he stood at the window and looked at the distant pale disk of the moon in the misty blue sky and thought and his thoughts were confused gloomy and heavy as if a cloud had descended upon his brain indistinctly outlined in the dull moonlight
he saw the dark railing the trees the empty garden it seemed to him that he beheld them
looking at the far off cold moon with their dead white eyes as he with his living eyes the time will come some day he thought when the killing of people by others will be an utter impossibility
the time will come when even the soldiers and officers who killed these three men will realise what they have done and will understand that what they killed them for is just as necessary important and dear to them to the officers and soldiers as to those whom they killed
yes he said aloud and solemnly his eyes moistening that time will come they will understand and the pale disk of the moon was blotted out by the moisture in his eyes
a large pity pierced his heart for the three victims whose eyes looked at the moon sad and unseeing a feeling of rage cut him as with a sharp knife and took possession of him but gabriel andersen quieted his heart
whispering softly they know not what they do and this old and ready phrase gave him the strength to stifle his rage and indignation two
the day was as bright and white but the spring was already advanced the wet soil smelt of spring clear cold water ran everywhere from under the loose thawing snow the branches of the trees were springy and elastic
yet the clearness and the joy of the spring day were not in the village they were somewhere outside the village where there were no people in the fields the woods and the mountains in the village the air was stifling heavy and terrible as in a nightmare
gabriel andersen stood in the road near a crowd of dark sad absent minded people and craned his neck to see the preparations for the flogging of seven peasants they stood in the thawing snow
and gabriel andersen could not persuade himself that they were people whom he had long known and understood by that which was about to happen to them
they were separated from all the rest of the world and so were unable to feel what he gabriel andersen felt just as he was unable to feel what they felt round them were the soldiers confidently and beautifully mounted on high upon their large steeds
who tossed their wise heads and turned their dappled wooden faces slowly from side to side looking contemptuously at him gabriel andersen who was soon to behold this horror this disgrace and would do nothing would not dare to do anything
so it seemed to gabriel andersen
they took the first peasant gabriel andersen saw his strange imploring hopeless look his lips moved but no sound was heard and his eyes wandered there was a bright gleam in them as in the eyes of a madman
his mind it was evident was no longer able to comprehend what was happening
the large red faced soldier in a red cap pushed toward him looked down at his body with seeming delight and then cried in a clear voice well let her go with god's blessing andersen seemed not to see the soldiers the sky the horses or the crowd
he did not feel the cold the terror or the shame he did not hear the swish of the knout in the air or the savage howl of pain and despair he only saw the bare back of a man's body swelling up and covered over evenly with
white and purple stripes gradually the bare back lost the semblance of human flesh the blood oozed and squirted forming patches drops and rivulets which ran down on the white thawing snow
terror gripped the soul of gabriel andersen as he thought of the moment when the man would rise and face all the people
and reduced to a bloody pulp he closed his eyes when he opened them he saw four soldiers in uniform and red hats forcing another man down on the snow his back bared just as shamefully terribly and absurdly a ludicrously tragic sight
then came the third the fourth and so on to the end and gabriel andersen stood on the wet thawing snow craning his neck trembling and stuttering though he did not say a word dank sweat poured from his body
a sense of shame permeated his whole being it was a humiliating feeling having to escape being noticed so that they should not catch him and lay him there on the snow and strip him bare him gabriel andersen the soldiers pressed and crowded
the horses tossed their heads the knout swished in the air and the bare shamed human flesh swelled up tore ran over with blood and curled like a snake oaths wild shrieks rained upon the village through the clean white air of that spring day
andersen now saw five men's faces at the steps of the town hall the faces of those men who had already undergone their shame he quickly turned his eyes away after seeing this a man must die he thought
three there were seventeen of them fifteen soldiers a subaltern and a young beardless officer the officer lay in front of the fire looking intently into the flames
and occasionally stumbled across the logs sticking out from the blazing fire gabriel andersen wearing an overcoat and carrying his cane behind his back approached them the subaltern a stout fellow with a moustache
who are you what do you want he asked excitedly from his tone it was evident that the soldiers feared everybody in that district
officer he said there is a man here i don't know the officer looked at andersen without speaking officer said andersen in a thin strained voice my name is michelson
i am a business man here and i am going to the village on business i was afraid i might be mistaken for some one else you know then what are you nosing about here for the officer said angrily and turned away a business man sneered a soldier
he ought to be searched this business man ought so as not to be knocking about at night a good one in the jaw is what he needs he's a suspicious character officer said the subaltern don't you think we'd better arrest him what don't
i'm sick of them damn em gabriel andersen stood there without saying anything his eyes flashed strangely in the dark by the firelight and it was strange to see his short substantial clean neat figure in the field at night among the soldiers
with his overcoat and cane and glasses glistening in the firelight the soldiers left him and walked away gabriel andersen remained standing for a while then he turned and left rapidly disappearing in the darkness
the night was drawing to a close the air turned chilly and the tops of the bushes defined themselves more clearly in the dark gabriel andersen went again to the military post but this time he hid
crouching low as he made his way under the cover of the bushes behind him people moved about quietly and carefully bending the bushes silent as shadows next to gabriel on his right walked a tall man with a revolver in his hand
the figure of a soldier on the hill outlined itself strangely unexpectedly not where they had been looking for it it was faintly illumined
gabriel andersen recognised the soldier it was the one who had proposed that he should be searched nothing stirred in andersen's heart his face was cold and motionless as of a man who is asleep round the fire the soldiers lay stretched out sleeping
all except the subaltern who sat with his head drooping over his knees the tall thin man on andersen's right raised the revolver and pulled the trigger a momentary blinding flash a deafening report
andersen saw the guard lift his hands and then sit down on the ground clasping his bosom from all directions short crackling sparks flashed up which combined into one riving roar the subaltern jumped up and dropped straight into the fire
grey soldiers figures moved about in all directions like apparitions throwing up their hands and falling and writhing on the black earth the young officer ran past andersen fluttering his hands like some strange frightened bird andersen
as if he were thinking of something else raised his cane with all his strength he hit the officer on the head each blow descending with a dull ugly thud the officer reeled in a circle struck a bush and sat down after the second blow
the officer sank together in a heap and lunged with great force head foremost on the ground his legs twitched for a while then he curled up quietly the shots ceased black men with white faces
ghostly grey in the dark moved about the dead bodies of the soldiers taking away their arms and ammunition andersen watched all this with a cold attentive stare when all was over he went up
took hold of the burned subaltern's legs and tried to remove the body from the fire but it was too heavy for him and he let it go
he thought of how he gabriel andersen with his spectacles cane overcoat and poems had lied and betrayed fifteen men he thought it was terrible yet there was neither pity shame nor regret in his heart were he to be set free
he knew that he gabriel andersen with the spectacles and poems would go straightway and do it again he tried to examine himself to see what was going on inside his soul but his thoughts were heavy and confused
for some reason it was more painful for him to think of the three men lying on the snow looking at the pale disk of the far off moon with their dead unseeing eyes than of the murdered officer whom he had struck two dry ugly blows on the head
of his own death he did not think it seemed to him that he had done with everything long long ago something had died had gone out and left him empty and he must not think about it
and when they grabbed him by the shoulder and he rose and they quickly led him through the garden where the cabbages raised their dry heads he could not formulate a single thought he was conducted to the road and placed at the railing with his back to one of the iron bars
he fixed his spectacles put his hands behind him and stood there with his neat stocky body his head slightly inclined to one side
chest and stomach and pale faces with trembling lips he distinctly saw how one barrel levelled at his forehead suddenly dropped something strange and incomprehensible as if no longer of this world no longer earthly
passed through andersen's mind he straightened himself to the full height of his short body and threw back his head in simple pride a strange indistinct sense of cleanness strength and pride filled his soul and everything
the sun and the sky and the people and the field and death seemed to him insignificant remote and useless the bullets hit him in the chest in the left eye in the stomach went through his clean coat buttoned all the way up
his glasses shivered into bits he uttered a shriek circled round and fell with his face against one of the iron bars
he clawed the ground with his outstretched hands as if trying to support himself the officer who had turned green rushed toward him and senselessly thrust the revolver against his neck and fired twice andersen stretched out on the ground
the whole of the huge stone built town breathed out heat like a glowing furnace the glare of the white walled house was insufferable the asphalt pavements grew soft and burned the feet
pitiful and weary they too seemed hot the sea pale in the sunlight lay heavy and immobile as one dead over the streets hung a white dust
in the foyer of one of the private theatres a small committee of local barristers who had undertaken to conduct the cases of those who had suffered in the last pogrom against the jews was reaching the end of its daily task there were nineteen of them
all juniors young progressive and conscientious men the sitting was without formality and white suits of duck flannel and alpaca were in the majority they sat anywhere at little marble tables and the chairman stood in front of an empty counter
the barristers were quite exhausted by the heat which poured in through the windows with the dazzling sunlight and the noise of the streets
a tall young man with a fair moustache and thin hair was in the chair he was dreaming voluptuously how he would be off in an instant on his new bought bicycle to the bungalow he would undress quickly and without waiting to cool still bathed in sweat
would fling himself into the clear cold sweet smelling sea his whole body was enervated and tense thrilled by the thought impatiently moving the papers before him he spoke in a drowsy voice
his youngest colleague a short stout karaite very black and lively said in a whisper so that every one could hear
the chairman gave him a stern side glance but could not restrain a smile
when the doorkeeper who stood at the entrance to the theatre suddenly moved forward and said
sir they want to come in the chairman looked impatiently round the company
let em go to the devil phew it's like boiling pitch
then bring me a vichy please but it must be cold the porter opened the door and called down the corridor come in they say you may then seven of the most surprising and unexpected individuals filed into the foyer
first appeared a full grown confident man in a smart suit of the colour of dry sea sand in a magnificent pink shirt with white stripes and a crimson rose in his buttonhole from the front his head looked like an upright bean
from the side like a horizontal bean
he wore dark blue pince nez on his nose on his hands straw coloured gloves in his left hand he held a black walking stick with a silver mount in his right a light blue handkerchief
the other six produced a strange chaotic incongruous impression exactly as though they had all hastily pooled not merely their clothes but their hands feet and heads as well
there was a man with the splendid profile of a roman senator dressed in rags and tatters
here were the unbalanced faces of the criminal type but looking with a confidence that nothing could shake all these men in spite of their apparent youth evidently possessed a large experience of life an easy manner a bold approach
and some hidden suspicious cunning the gentleman in the sandy suit bowed just his head neatly and easily and said with a half question in his voice mister chairman yes i am the chairman what is your business
the gentleman began in a quiet voice and turned round to indicate his companions we come as delegates from the united rostov kharkov and odessa nikolayev association of thieves
the barristers began to shift in their seats the chairman flung himself back and opened his eyes wide association of what he said perplexed the association of thieves the gentleman in the sandy suit coolly repeated
very pleased the chairman said uncertainly thank you all seven of us are ordinary thieves naturally of different departments
the association has authorised us to put before your esteemed committee the gentleman again made an elegant bow our respectful demand for assistance i don't quite understand quite frankly what is the connection
the chairman waved his hands helplessly however please go on the matter about which we have the courage and the honour to apply to you gentlemen is very clear very simple and very brief
the orator expectorated slightly and glanced at his superb gold watch
that among the instigators of the pogrom who were paid and organised by the police the dregs of society consisting of drunkards tramps souteneurs and hooligans from the slums thieves were also to be found at first we were silent
but finally we considered ourselves under the necessity of protesting against such an unjust and serious accusation before the face of the whole of intellectual society
the situation of this enemy of society when he is accused wholesale of an offence which he not only never committed but which he is ready to resist with the whole strength of his soul
it goes without saying that he will feel the outrage of such an injustice more keenly than a normal average fortunate citizen now we declare that the accusation brought against us is utterly devoid of all basis
if the honourable committee will kindly listen proceed said the chairman please do please was heard from the barristers now animated i offer you my sincere thanks in the name of all my comrades believe me
you will never repent your attention
well let us say slippery but nevertheless difficult profession so we begin as giraldoni sings in the prologue to pagliacci but first i would ask your permission mister chairman to quench my thirst a little porter
bring me a lemonade and a glass of english bitter there's a good fellow
nor of its social importance doubtless you know better than i the striking and brilliant paradox of proudhon
a paradox if you like but one that has never yet been refuted by the sermons of cowardly bourgeois or fat priests for instance a father accumulates a million by energetic and clever exploitation and leaves it to his son
a rickety lazy ignorant degenerate idiot a brainless maggot a true parasite potentially a million rubles is a million working days the absolutely irrational right to labour
why what is the ground of reason utterly unknown then why not agree with the proposition gentlemen that our profession is to some extent as it were a correction of the excessive accumulation of values in the hands of individuals
and serves as a protest against all the hardships abominations arbitrariness violence and negligence of the human personality against all the monstrosities created by the bourgeois capitalistic organisation of modern society
sooner or later
alas we will disappear from the face of the earth we
excuse me gentlemen here my good man take this
when you go out shut the door close behind you very good your excellency the porter bawled in jest
however let us leave aside the philosophical social and economic aspects of the question i do not wish to fatigue your attention i must nevertheless point out that our profession
concerning which the great karamzin wrote with such stupendous and fiery fascination gentlemen nothing is further from my intention than to trifle with you and waste your precious time with idle paradoxes but i cannot avoid expounding my idea briefly
to an outsider's ear it sounds absurdly wild and ridiculous to speak of the vocation of a thief however i venture to assure you that this vocation is a reality there are men who possess a peculiarly strong visual memory
presence of mind dexterity of hand and above all a subtle sense of touch who are as it were born into god's world for the sole and special purpose of becoming distinguished card sharpers
the grass was wet as verkan vall who reminded himself that here he was called richard lee crossed the yard from the farmhouse to the ramshackle barn in the early autumn darkness
it had been raining that morning when the strato rocket from dhergabar had landed him at the hagraban synthetics works on the first level unaffected by the probabilities of human history the same rain had been coming down on the old kinchwalter farm near rutter's fort on the fourth level
the woods would be wet muffling his quarry's footsteps and canceling his only advantage over the night prowler he hunted he had no idea however of postponing the hunt if anything the rain had made it all the more imperative that the nighthound be killed at once
at this season a falling temperature would speedily follow the nighthound a creature of the hot venus marshes would suffer from the cold and taught by years of domestication to find warmth among human habitations it would invade some isolated farmhouse or worse
one of the little valley villages if it were not killed tonight the incident he had come to prevent would certainly occur going to the barn he spread an old horse blanket on the seat of the jeep laid his rifle on it and then backed the jeep outside
then he took off his coat removing his pipe and tobacco from the pockets and spread it on the wet grass he unwrapped a package and took out a small plastic spray gun he had brought with him from the first level
the scent of the giant poison roach of venus the one creature for which the nighthound bore an inborn implacable hatred it was because of this compulsive urge to attack and kill the deadly poison roach that the first human settlers on venus long millennia ago
had domesticated the ugly and savage nighthound he remembered that the gavran family derived their title from their vast venus hotlands estates that gavran sarn the man who had brought this thing to the fourth level had been born on the inner planet
when verkan vall donned that coat he would become his own living bait for the murderous fury of the creature he sought at the moment mastering his queasiness and putting on the coat he objected less to that danger than to the hideous stench of the scent
to obtain which a valuable specimen had been sacrificed at the dhergabar museum of extraterrestrial zoology the evening before carrying the wrapper and the spray gun to an outside fireplace he snapped his lighter to them and tossed them in
they were highly inflammable blazing up and vanishing in a moment he tested the electric headlamp on the front of his cap checked his rifle drew the heavy revolver an authentic product of his line of operation and flipped the cylinder out and in again
then he got into the jeep and drove away for half an hour he drove quickly along the valley roads now and then he passed farmhouses and dogs puzzled and angered by the alien scent his coat bore barked furiously
at length he turned into a back road and from this to the barely discernible trace of an old log road the rain had stopped and in order to be ready to fire in any direction at any time he had removed the top of the jeep now he had to crouch below the windshield to avoid overhanging branches
he was driving slowly now laying behind him a reeking trail of scent there had been another stock killing the night before while he had been on the first level the locality of this latest depredation had confirmed his estimate of the beast's probable movements
he was certain that it was somewhere near sooner or later it would pick up the scent finally he stopped snapping out his lights he had chosen this spot carefully while studying the geological survey map that afternoon
he was on the grade of an old railroad line now abandoned and its track long removed which had served the logging operations of fifty years ago on one side the mountain slanted sharply upward on the other it fell away sharply
he would get out on that side if the nighthound were above him the jeep would protect him when it charged he got to the ground thumbing off the safety of his rifle and an instant later he knew that he had made a mistake which could easily cost him his life
a mistake from which neither his comprehensive logic nor his hypnotically acquired knowledge of the beast's habits had saved him as he stepped to the ground facing toward the front of the jeep he heard a low whining cry behind him and a rush of padded feet
he whirled snapping on the headlamp with his left hand and thrusting out his rifle pistol wise in his right
its talon tipped fore paws extended he fired and the bullet went wild the next instant the rifle was knocked from his hand instinctively he flung up his left arm to shield his eyes
claws raked his left arm and shoulder something struck him heavily along the left side and his cap light went out as he dropped and rolled under the jeep drawing in his legs and fumbling under his coat for the revolver in that instant he knew what had gone wrong his plan had been entirely too much of a success
the nighthound had winded him as he had driven up the old railroad grade and had followed its best running speed had been just good enough to keep it a hundred or so feet behind the jeep and the motor noise had covered the padding of its feet
while he was still rolling under his jeep his mind had been busy with plans to retrieve the situation something touched the heel of one boot and he froze his leg into immobility at the same time trying to get the big smith and wesson free
the shoulder holster he found was badly torn though made of the heaviest skirting leather and the spring which retained the weapon in place had been wrenched and bent until he needed both hands to draw the eight inch slashing claw of the nighthound's right intermediary limb had raked him
the nighthound was prowling around the jeep whining frantically it was badly confused it could see quite well even in the close darkness of the starless night its eyes were of a nature capable of perceiving infrared radiations as light
was quite hot had he been standing alone especially on this raw chilly night verkan vall's own body heat would have lighted him up like a jack o' lantern now however the hot engine above him masked his own radiations
moreover the poison roach scent on his coat was coming up through the floor board and mingling with the scent on the seat yet the nighthound couldn't find the two and a half foot insectlike thing that should have been producing it
verkan vall lay motionless wondering how long the next move would be in coming then he heard a thud above him
hope it gets a paw full of seat springs verkan vall commented mentally he had already found a stone about the size of his two fists and another slightly smaller
now he slipped his revolver into his waist belt and writhed out of the coat shedding the ruined shoulder holster at the same time wriggling on the flat of his back he squirmed between the rear wheels until he was able to sit up behind the jeep
then swinging the weighted coat he flung it forward over the nighthound and the jeep itself at the same time drawing his revolver immediately the nighthound
at once verkan vall swarmed into the jeep and snapped on the lights his stratagem had succeeded beautifully the stinking coat had landed on the top of a small bush about ten feet in front of the jeep and ten feet from the ground
the nighthound erect on its haunches was reaching out with its front paws to drag it down and slashing angrily at it with its single clawed intermediary limbs
the paratimer centered them on the base of the creature's spine just above its secondary shoulders and carefully squeezed the trigger
recocking the revolver verkan vall waited for an instant then nodded in satisfaction the beast's spine had been smashed and its hind quarters and even its intermediary fighting limbs had been paralyzed
puffin by way of keeping up the comedy of roman roads had brought a map of the district across from his house but the more essential part of his equipment for this studious evening was a bottle of whisky originally the host had provided whisky for himself and his guest at these pleasant chats
but there were undeniable objections to this plan because the guest always proved unusually thirsty which tempted his host to keep pace with him while if they both drank at their own expense the causes of economy and abstemiousness had a better chance also
puffin enriched his with lemons and sugar in a large one so that nobody could really tell if equality as well as fraternity was realized but if each brought his own bottle it had been a trying day and the major was very lame
a drenching storm had come up during their golf while they were far from the club house and puffin
he was perfectly willing to be paid his half crown and go home but major flint remembering that puffin's game usually went to pieces if it rained had rejected this proposal with the scorn that it deserved there had been other disagreeable incidents as well
his driver slippery from rain had flown out of the major's hands on the twelfth tee and had shot like a streamer of the northern morn
the ground was greasy with moisture and three holes farther on puffin had fallen flat on his face instead of lashing his fifth shot home on to the green as he had intended they had given each other stymies and each had holed his opponent's ball by mistake
they had wrangled over the correct procedure if you lay in a rabbit scrape or on the tram lines the major had lost a new ball there was a mushroom on one of the greens between puffin's ball and the hole
all these untoward incidents had come crowding in together and from the major's point of view the worst of them all had been the collective incident that puffin so far from being put off by the rain had in spite of mushroom and falling down
played with a steadiness of which he was usually quite incapable
was growing irritated with his companion's ill temper and was half blinded by wood smoke he wiped his streaming eyes you should get your chimney swept he observed major flint had put his handkerchief over his face to keep the wood smoke out of his eyes he blew it off with a loud indignant puff
oh ah indeed he said puffin was rather taken aback by the violence of these interjections they dripped with angry sarcasm oh well no offence he said a man said the major impersonally makes an offensive remark and says no offence
if your own fireside suits you better than mine captain puffin all i can say is that you're at liberty to enjoy it this was all rather irregular
puffin plucked and proffered an olive
there's your handkerchief he said picking it up now let's have one of our comfortable talks hot glass of grog and a chat over the fire that's the best thing after such a wetting as we got this afternoon i'll take a slice of lemon if you'll be so good as to give it me and a lump of sugar
the major got up and limped to his cupboard it struck him precisely at that moment that puffin scored considerably over lemons and sugar because he was supplied with them gratis every other night whereas he himself when puffin's guest took nothing off his host but hot water
i hardly know whether there's a lemon left he grumbled i must lay in a store of lemons as for sugar
amusing incident the other day he said brightly
the old lady didn't like it don't suppose the poor of the parish will see much of that corned beef the major became dignified pardon me he said
i take it that her statement is correct i expect others of my friends while they are in my presence to do the same i have the honour to give you a lemon captain puffin and a slice of sugar i should say a lump of sugar
this dignified and lofty mood was often one of the aftereffects of an unsuccessful game of golf it generally yielded quite quickly to a little stimulant puffin filled his glass from the bottle and the kettle while his friend put his handkerchief again over his face
well i shall just have my grog before i turn in he observed according to custom aren't you going to join me major presently sir said the major puffin knocked out the consumed cinders in his pipe against the edge of the fender
major flint apparently was waiting for this for he withdrew his handkerchief and closely watched the process a minute piece of ash fell from puffin's pipe on to the hearthrug and he jumped to his feet and removed it very carefully with the shovel i have your permission i hope he said witheringly
certainly certainly said puffin now get your glass major you'll feel better in a minute or two
he gave a lamentable cry when he beheld it but i got that bottle in only the day before yesterday he shouted and there's hardly a drink left in it well you did yourself pretty well last night said puffin
those small glasses of yours if frequently filled up empty a bottle quicker than you seem to realize motives of policy prevented the major from receiving this with the resentment that was proper to it and his face cleared
well you'll have to let me borrow from you to night he said genially as he poured the rest of the contents of his bottle into the glass ah that's more the ticket
the prospect of sponging on puffin was most exhilarating and he put his large slippered feet on to the fender yes indeed that was a highly amusing incident about miss mapp's cupboard he said and wasn't missus plaistow down on her like a knife about it
our fair friends you know have a pretty sharp eye for each other's little failings they've no sooner finished one squabble than they begin another the pert little fairies they can't sit and enjoy themselves like two old cronies i could tell you of and feel at peace with all the world
he finished his glass at a gulp and seemed much surprised to find it empty i'll be borrowing a drop from you old friend he said
be careful not to inflame it said puffin thank ye for the warning it's this beastly climate that touches it up a winter in england adds years on to a man's life unless he takes care of himself
have some more sugar before long the major's hand was moving slowly and instinctively towards puffin's whisky bottle again i reckon that big glass of yours puffin he said holds between three and a half times to four times what my little tumbler holds
oh come come said the major three and a half to four times i should say repeated puffin you won't find i'm far out
on the far side of his chair this second tumbler usually marked the most convivial period of the evening
and those being disposed of they very contentedly talked through their hats about past prowesses and took a rosy view of the youth and energy which still beat in their vigorous pulses they would begin perhaps by extolling each other
puffin when informed that his friend would be fifty four next birthday flatly refused without offence to believe it and indeed he was quite right
because the major was in reality fifty six in turn major flint would say that his friend had the figure of a boy of twenty which caused puffin presently to feel a little cramped and to wander negligently in front of the big looking glass between the windows
for the next half hour they would chiefly talk about themselves in a pleasant glow of self satisfaction major flint looking at the various implements and trophies that adorned the room would suggest putting a sporting challenge in the times
i've half a mind to do it retired major of his majesty's forces the king god bless him and he took a substantial sip retired major aged fifty four challenges any gentleman of fifty years or over forty said puffin sycophantically
as he thought over what he would say about himself when the old man had finished well we'll halve it we'll say forty five to please you puffin let's see where had i got to
a game of golf eighteen holes in the afternoon and
ha ha i shouldn't feel much anxiety as to the result my confounded leg said puffin but i know a retired captain from his majesty's merchant service the king god bless him aged fifty ho ho fifty indeed
said the major thinking to himself that a dried up little man like puffin might be as old as an egyptian mummy who can tell the age of a kipper not a day less major retired captain aged fifty who'll take on all comers of forty two and over at a steeplechase
round of golf billiards match hopping match
no objection gentlemen then carried mem con this gaseous mood athletic amatory or otherwise the amatory ones were the worst usually faded slowly like the light from the setting sun or an exhausted coal in the grate
about the end of puffin's second tumbler and the gentlemen after that were usually somnolent but occasionally laid the foundation for some disagreement next day which they were too sleepy to go into now major flint by this time would have had some five small glasses of whisky
equivalent as he bitterly observed to one in prewar days and as he measured his next with extreme care and a slightly jerky movement would announce it as being his night cap though you would have thought he had plenty of night caps on already
puffin correspondingly took a thimbleful more the thimble apparently belonging to some housewife of anak and after another half hour of sudden single snores and startings awake again
of pipes frequently lit and immediately going out the guest still perfectly capable of coherent speech and voluntary motion in the required direction would stumble across the dark cobbles to his house
the two were perfectly well aware of the sympathetic interest that old mappy took in all that concerned them and that she had an eye on their evening sances
was evidenced by the frequency with which the corner of her blind in the window of the garden room was raised between say half past nine and eleven at night they had often watched with giggles the pencil of light that escaped obscured at the lower end by the
outline of old mappy's head and occasionally drank to the guardian angel guardian angel in answer to direct inquiries had been told by major benjy during the last month that he worked at his diaries on three nights in the week and went to bed early on the others to the vast improvement of his mental grasp
and on sunday night dear major benjy asked old mappy in the character of guardian angel i don't think you knew my beloved my revered mother miss elizabeth said major benjy i spend sunday evening as well well
the very next sunday evening guardian angel had heard the sound of singing she could not catch the words and only fragments of the tune which reminded her of the roseate morn hath passed away
and blamed herself very much for ever having thought that dear major benjy she peeped out of her window when she had extinguished her light but fortunately the singing had ceased to night however the epoch of puffin's second big tumbler was not accompanied by harmonious developments
major benjy was determined to make the most of this unique opportunity of drinking his friend's whisky and whether puffin put the bottle on the farther side of him or under his chair or under the table he came padding round in his slippers and standing near the ambush while he tried to interest his friend in tales of love or tiger
when he mistakenly thought he had done so he hastily refilled his glass taking unusually stiff doses for fear of not getting another opportunity and altogether omitting to ask puffin's leave for these maraudings
acting on the instinct of the polar bear who eats her babies for fear that anybody else should get them surreptitiously
and filled it up to the top with hot water making a mixture of extraordinary power soon after this major flint came rambling round the table again
amorous reminiscences to night had been the accompaniment to puffin's second tumbler devilish fine woman she was he said and that was the last benjamin flint ever saw of her she went up to the hills next morning
but the last you saw of her just now was on the deck of the p and o at bombay objected puffin or did she go up to the hills on the deck of the p and o wonderful line no sir said benjamin flint that was helen
i don't know if i told you by gad i've kicked the bottle over no idea you'd put it there hope the cork's in no harm if it isn't said puffin beginning on his third most fiery glass the strength of it rather astonished him you don't mean to say it's empty asked major flint why just now there was close on a quarter of a bottle left
as much as that asked puffin glad to hear it not a drop less you don't mean to say well if you can drink that and can say hippopotamus afterwards i should put that among your challenges to men of four hundred and two i should say forty two
it's a fine thing to have a strong head though if i drank what you've got in your glass i should be tipsy sir puffin laughed in his irritating falsetto manner good thing that it's in my glass then and not your glass he said and lemme tell you major
in case you don't know it that when i've drunk every drop of this and sucked the lemon you'll have had far more out of my bottle this evening than i have my usual twice and and my usual night cap as you say is what's my ration and i've had no more than my ration
eight bells and a pretty good ration you've got there said the baffled major without your usual twice puffin was beginning to be aware of that as he swallowed the fiery mixture
was clear to him among so much that was dim owing to the wood smoke that the major would miss a good many drives to morrow morning and whose whisky is it he said gulping down the fiery stuff i know whose it's going to be said the other
major flint was conscious of an
it pleased him to think that he had drunk so much of somebody else's whisky but he felt that he ought to be angry that's a very unmentionable sor of thing to say he remarked an if it wasn't for the sacred claims of hospitality
puffin finished his glass at a gulp and rose to his feet pologies be blowed he said hittopopamus
of course i was hippot
pleasant old boy and as for the lemon you lent me well i don't want it any more have a suck at it ole fellow i don't want it any more the major turned purple in the face made a course for the door like a knight's move at chess a long step in one direction and a short one at right angles to the first and opened it
captain puffin stood for a moment wreathed in smiles and fingering the slice of lemon which he had meant playfully to throw at his friend but his smile faded
and by some sort of telepathic perception he realized how much more decorous it was to say or better to indicate goodnight in a dignified manner than to throw lemons about he walked in dots and dashes like a morse code out of the room bestowing a naval salute on the major as he passed
then captain puffin found his hat and coat without much difficulty and marched out of the house slamming the door behind him with a bang that echoed down the street and made miss mapp dream about a thunderstorm he let himself into his own house and bent down before his expired fire
which he tried to blow into life again this was unsuccessful and he breathed in a quantity of wood ash he sat down by his table and began to think things out
which seemed to produce much the same effect as intoxication allowing for that he was conscious that he was extremely angry about something and had a firm idea that the major was very angry too
all been about he vainly asked himself
but whichever it was a letter had been slipped into his box and he brought it in the gum on the envelope was still wet which saved trouble in opening it inside was a half sheet containing but a few words this curt epistle ran as follows sir
my seconds will wait on you in the course of to morrow morning your faithful obedient servant benjamin flint captain puffin
somewhere below his courage and his calm was an appalling sense of misgiving that he successfully stifled
insults blood seconds won't have to wait a second better get a good sleep
however a good fairy who presided at his birth assured his mother that though ugly he would have so much sense and wit that he would never be disagreeable moreover she bestowed on him the power of communicating these gifts
to the person he should love best in the world at this the queen was a little comforted and became still more so when as soon as he could speak the infant began to say such pretty and clever things that everybody was charmed with him
had two little daughters twins at whose birth the same fairy presided the elder twin was more beautiful than the day the younger so extremely ugly that the mother's extravagant joy in the first
while the other would grow up so clever and charming that nobody would miss her want of beauty heaven grant it sighed the queen but are there no means of giving a little sense to the one who is so beautiful
i can do nothing for her madam returned the fairy nothing as regards her own fortunes but i grant her the power of making the person who best pleases her as handsome as herself
the one became uglier and the other more stupid day by day unlucky fair one she never had a word to say for herself or else it was the silliest word imaginable
and she was so awkward that she could not place four teacups in a row without breaking at least one of them nor drink a glass of water without spilling half of it over her clothes beauty is a great charm
yet whenever the sisters went out together those who were attracted by the elder's lovely face in less than half an hour were sure to be seen at the side of the younger laughing at her witty and pleasant sayings
she saw coming towards her a little man very ugly but magnificently dressed who should this be but prince riquet with the tuft he had seen her portrait had fallen desperately in love with her
and secretly quitted his father's kingdom that he might have the pleasure of meeting her delighted to find her alone he came forward with all the respect and politeness imaginable but he could not help noticing how very melancholy she was
and that all the elegant compliments he made her did not seem to affect her in the least i cannot comprehend madam said he how so charming and lovely a lady can be so very sad
never did i see anyone who could at all compare with you that's all you know said the princess and stopped beauty continued the prince sighing is so great an advantage that if one possessed it
one would never trouble oneself about anything else
madam said riquet politely though her speech was not exactly civil nothing shows intellect so much as the modesty of believing one does not possess it
for i have the power of making the person i love best as clever as i please i will do it provided you consent to marry me the princess stood dumb with astonishment she
now the young lady was so stupid that she thought a year's end was a long way off so long that it seemed as if it might not come at all or something might happen between whiles
and she had such a longing to be clever and admired that she thought at all risks she would accept the chance of becoming so
no sooner had she said it than she felt herself quite another being she found she could at once say anything she chose and say it in the most graceful and brilliant way she began a lively conversation with prince riquet
princes came in throngs to ask in marriage this wonderful princess who was as clever as she was beautiful but she found none to suit her probably because the more sense a lady has the more difficult she is to please
as for her promise to riquet with the tuft being given in the days when she was so dull and stupid it now never once came into her head until one day being quite perplexed by her numerous suitors
she went to take a solitary walk and think the matter over when by chance she came into the same wood where she had met the prince
fetch me that spit cried one put some more wood on that fire said another and by and by the earth opened showing a great kitchen filled with cooks cooking a splendid banquet they were all working merrily at their several duties
and singing together in the most lively chorus
if you please madam replied the head cook politely we are cooking the wedding dinner of prince riquet with the tuft who is to be married to morrow to morrow cried the princess
all at once recollecting her promise at which she was so frightened that she thought she should have fallen to the earth greater still was her alarm when at only a few steps distance she beheld riquet dressed splendidly like a prince and a bridegroom
said the lady frankly i must confess that such was not my intention and i fear i shall never be able to do as you desire you surprise me madam i can well believe it
and if i had to do with a brute instead of a gentleman of sense and feeling i should be very uneasy returned she but since i speak with the cleverest man in the world i am sure he will hear reason and will not bind me
now a sensible woman to a promise i made when i was only a fool if i were a fool myself madam i might well complain of your broken promise and being as you say a man of sense
should i not complain of what takes away all the happiness of my life tell me candidly is there anything in me except my ugliness which displeases you do you object to my birth my temper my manners
no truly replied the princess i like everything in you except and she hesitated courteously except your appearance then madam i need not lose my happiness
for if i have the gift of making clever whosoever i love best you also are able to make the person you prefer as handsome as ever you please could you love me enough to do that i think i could said the princess
and her heart being greatly softened towards him she wished that he might become the handsomest prince in all the world
no sooner had she done so than riquet with the tuft appeared in her eyes the most elegant young man she had ever seen ill natured people have said that this was no fairy gift but that love created the change
they declare that the princess when she thought over her lover's perseverance patience good humour and discretion and counted his numerous fine qualities of mind and disposition saw no longer the deformity of his body
seemed always looking on all sides for her in token of his violent love and his great red nose gave him an air very martial and heroic however this may be it is certain that the princess married him
there was once a very rich merchant who had six children three boys and three girls as he was himself a man of great sense he spared no expense for their education the three daughters were all handsome
indeed she was so very beautiful that in her childhood every one called her the little beauty and being equally lovely when she was grown up nobody called her by any other name which made her sisters very jealous of her
this youngest daughter was not only more handsome than her sisters but also was better tempered the two eldest were vain of their wealth and position they gave themselves a thousand airs and refused to visit other merchants daughters
nor would they condescend to be seen except with persons of quality they went every day to balls plays and public walks and always made game of their youngest sister for spending her time in reading or other useful employments
as it was well known that these young ladies would have large fortunes many great merchants wished to get them for wives
but the two eldest always answered that for their parts they had no thoughts of marrying any one below a duke or an earl at least beauty had quite as many offers as her sisters but she always answered with the greatest civility
my children we must now go and dwell in the cottage and try to get a living by labour for we have no other means of support
the two eldest replied that they did not know how to work and would not leave town for they had lovers enough who would be glad to marry them though they had no longer any fortune but in this they were mistaken
for when the lovers heard what had happened they said the girls were so proud and ill tempered that all we wanted was their fortune we are not sorry at all to see their pride brought down
but beauty still refused and said she could not think of leaving her poor father in this trouble at first beauty could not help sometimes crying in secret for the hardships she was now obliged to suffer but in a very short time she said to herself
all the crying in the world will do me no good so i will try to be happy without a fortune when they had removed to their cottage the merchant and his three sons employed themselves in ploughing and sowing the fields and working in the garden
and thought it no hardship indeed the work greatly benefited her health when she had done she used to amuse herself with reading playing her music or singing while she spun but her two sisters were at a loss what to do to pass the time away
they had their breakfast in bed and did not rise till ten o'clock then they commonly walked out but always found themselves very soon tired when they would often sit down under a shady tree and grieve for the loss of their carriage and fine clothes
and say to each other what a mean spirited poor stupid creature our young sister is to be so content with this low way of life but their father thought differently and loved and admired his youngest child more than ever
after they had lived in this manner about a year the merchant received a letter which informed him that one of his richest ships which he thought was lost had just come into port this news made the two eldest sisters almost mad with joy
but beauty asked for nothing for she thought in herself that all the ship was worth would hardly buy everything her sisters wished for beauty said the merchant how comes it that you ask for nothing what can i bring you my child
since you are so kind as to think of me dear father she answered i should be glad if you would bring me a rose for we have none in our garden now beauty did not indeed wish for a rose
otherwise they would have said she wanted her father to praise her for desiring nothing the merchant took his leave of them and set out on his journey but when he got to the ship some persons went to law with him about the cargo
and after a deal of trouble he came back to his cottage as poor as he had left it when he was within thirty miles of his home and thinking of the joy of again meeting his children he lost his way in the midst of a dense forest
it rained and snowed very hard and besides the wind was so high as to throw him twice from his horse night came on and he feared he should die of cold and hunger or be torn to pieces by the wolves that he heard howling round him
all at once he cast his eyes towards a long avenue and saw at the end a light but it seemed a great way off he made the best of his way towards it and found that it came from a splendid palace
the windows of which were all blazing with light it had great bronze gates standing wide open and fine court yards through which the merchant passed but not a living soul was to be seen
there were stables too which his poor starved horse less scrupulous than himself entered at once and took a good meal of oats and hay his master then tied him up and walked towards the entrance hall
but still without seeing a single creature he went on to a large dining parlour where he found a good fire and a table covered with some very nice dishes but only one plate with a knife and fork
as the snow and rain had wetted him to the skin he went up to the fire to dry himself i hope said he the master of the house or his servants will excuse me
helped himself to a chicken and to a few glasses of wine yet all the time trembling with fear he sat till the clock struck twelve and then taking courage began to think he might as well look about him
so he opened a door at the end of the hall and went through it into a very grand room in which there was a fine bed and as he was feeling very weary he shut the door took off his clothes and got into it
it was ten o'clock in the morning before he awoke when he was amazed to see a handsome new suit of clothes laid ready for him instead of his own which were all torn and spoiled to be sure said he to himself
this place belongs to some good fairy who has taken pity on my ill luck he looked out of the window and instead of the snow covered wood where he had lost himself the previous night he saw the most charming arbours covered with all kinds of flowers
returning to the hall where he had supped he found a breakfast table ready prepared indeed my good fairy said the merchant aloud i am vastly obliged to you for your kind care of me he then made a hearty breakfast
took his hat and was going to the stable to pay his horse a visit but as he passed under one of the arbours which was loaded with roses he thought of what beauty had asked him to bring back to her and so he took a bunch of roses to carry home
at the same moment he heard a loud noise and saw coming towards him a beast so frightful to look at that he was ready to faint with fear
the merchant fell on his knees and clasping his hands said sir i humbly beg your pardon i did not think it would offend you to gather a rose for one of my daughters who had entreated me to bring her one home
do not kill me my lord
but a beast replied the monster
you tell me that you have daughters now i suffer you to escape if one of them will come and die in your stead if not promise that you will yourself return in three months to be dealt with as i may choose
the tender hearted merchant had no thoughts of letting any one of his daughters die for his sake but he knew that if he seemed to accept the beast's terms he should at least have the pleasure of seeing them once again
he filled the chest with them to the very brim locked it and mounting his horse left the palace as sorrowful as he had been glad when he first beheld it the horse took a path across the forest of his own accord
i am old and cannot expect to live much longer so i shall but give up a few years of my life and shall only grieve for the sake of my children never father cried beauty
if you go back to the palace you cannot hinder my going after you though young i am not over fond of life and i would much rather be eaten up by the monster than die of grief for your loss
the merchant in vain tried to reason with beauty who still obstinately kept to her purpose which in truth made her two sisters glad for they were jealous of her because everybody loved her
the merchant was so grieved at the thoughts of losing his child that he never once thought of the chest filled with gold but at night to his great surprise he found it standing by his bedside
he said nothing about his riches to his eldest daughters
but he told beauty his secret and she then said that while he was away
who had fallen in love with her two sisters she entreated her father to marry them without delay for she was so sweet natured she only wished them to be happy three months went by
only too fast and then the merchant and beauty got ready to set out for the palace of the beast upon this the two sisters rubbed their eyes with an onion to make believe they were crying both the merchant and his sons cried in earnest
only beauty shed no tears they reached the palace in a very few hours and the horse without bidding went into the same stable as before the merchant and beauty walked towards the large hall
where they found a table covered with every dainty and two plates laid ready the merchant had very little appetite but beauty that she might the better hide her grief placed herself at the table and helped her father
she then began to eat herself and thought all the time that to be sure the beast had a mind to fatten her before he ate her up since he had provided such good cheer for her when they had done their supper they heard a great noise
and the good old man began to bid his poor child farewell for he knew it was the beast coming to them when beauty first saw that frightful form she was very much terrified but tried to hide her fear
the creature walked up to her and eyed her all over then asked her in a dreadful voice if she had come quite of her own accord yes said beauty then you are a good girl and i am very much obliged to you
she answered as the monster shuffled out of the room ah my dear child said the merchant kissing his daughter i am half dead already at the thought of leaving you with this dreadful beast you shall go back
and let me stay in your place no said beauty boldly i will never agree to that you must go home to morrow morning they then wished each other good night
and went to bed both of them thinking they should not be able to close their eyes but as soon as ever they had lain down they fell into a deep sleep
beauty dreamed that a lady came up to her who said
do not be afraid of anything
as soon as beauty awoke she told her father this dream but though it gave him some comfort he was a long time before he could be persuaded to leave the palace at last beauty succeeded in getting him safely away
when her father was out of sight poor beauty began to weep sorely still having naturally a courageous spirit she soon resolved not to make her sad case still worse by sorrow which she knew was vain
but to wait and be patient she walked about to take a view of all the palace and the elegance of every part of it much charmed her but what was her surprise when she came to a door on which was written beauty's room
she opened it in haste and her eyes were dazzled by the splendour and taste of the apartment what made her wonder more than all the rest was a large library filled with books a harpsichord
beauteous lady dry your tears here's no cause for sighs or fears
for you command and i obey alas said she sighing i wish i could only command a sight of my poor father and to know what he is doing at this moment
just then by chance she cast her eyes on a looking glass that stood near her and in it she saw a picture of her old home and her father riding mournfully up to the door her sisters came out to meet him
and although they tried to look sorry
in a short time all this picture disappeared but it caused beauty to think that the beast besides being very powerful was also very kind about the middle of the day she found a table laid ready for her
and a sweet concert of music played all the time she was dining without her seeing anybody but at supper when she was going to seat herself at table she heard the noise of the beast and could not help trembling with fear
beauty said he will you give me leave to see you sup that is as you please answered she very much afraid not in the least said the beast you alone command in this place
if you should not like my company you need only say so
but tell me beauty do you not think me very ugly why yes said she for i cannot tell a falsehood but then i think you are very good am i sadly replied the beast
at which kindly speech the beast looked pleased and replied not without an awkward sort of politeness pray do not let me detain you from supper
and be sure that you are well served all you see is your own and i should be deeply grieved if you wanted for any thing you are very kind so kind that i almost forgot you are so ugly
it is better of the two to have the heart of a man and the form of a monster i would thank you beauty for this speech but i am too senseless to say anything that would please you returned the beast in a melancholy voice
he terrified her more than ever by saying abruptly in his gruff voice beauty will you marry me now beauty frightened as she was would speak only the exact truth besides her father had told her that the beast liked only to have the truth spoken to him
oh said she what a sad thing it is that he should be so very frightful since he is so good tempered beauty lived three months in this palace very well pleased
instead of dreading the time of his coming she soon began continually looking at her watch to see if it were nine o'clock
one thing only vexed her which was that every night before he went away he always made it a rule to ask her if she would be his wife
at last one night she said to him you wound me greatly beast by forcing me to refuse you so often
but i must tell you plainly that i do not think it will ever happen i shall always be your friend so try to let that content you i must sighed the beast for i know well enough how frightful i am
that if you do not give me leave to visit him i shall break my heart i would rather break mine beauty answered the beast i will send you to your father's cottage you shall stay there and your poor beast shall die of sorrow
no said beauty crying i love you too well to be the cause of your death i promise to return in a week you have shown me that my sisters are married and my brothers are gone for soldiers so that my father is left all alone
good bye beauty the beast sighed as he said these words and beauty went to bed very sorry to see him so much grieved when she awoke in the morning she found herself in her father's cottage
she rang a bell that was at her bedside and a servant entered but as soon as she saw beauty the woman gave a loud shriek upon which the merchant ran upstairs and when he beheld his daughter he ran to her and kissed her a hundred times
at last beauty began to remember that she had brought no clothes with her to put on
trimmed all over with gold and adorned with pearls and diamonds beauty in her own mind thanked the beast for his kindness and put on the plainest gown she could find among them all
she then desired the servant to lay the rest aside for she intended to give them to her sisters but as soon as she had spoken these words the chest was gone out of sight in a moment
her father then suggested perhaps the beast chose for her to keep them all for herself and as soon as he had said this
while beauty was dressing herself a servant brought word to her that her sisters were come with their husbands to pay her a visit they both lived unhappily with the gentlemen they had married the husband of the eldest was very handsome
but was so proud of this that he thought of nothing else from morning till night and did not care a pin for the beauty of his wife the second had married a man of great learning but he made no use of it except to torment and affront all his friends
and his wife more than any of them the two sisters were ready to burst with spite when they saw beauty dressed like a princess and looking so very charming all the kindness that she showed them was of no use
for they were vexed more than ever when she told them how happy she lived at the palace of the beast
thought of answered the other but to do this we must pretend to be very kind they then went to join her in the cottage where they showed her so much false love that beauty could not help crying for joy
when the week was ended the two sisters began to pretend such grief at the thought of her leaving them that she agreed to stay a week more
among all the grand and clever people she saw she found nobody who was half so sensible so affectionate so thoughtful or so kind the tenth night of her being at the cottage she dreamed she was in the garden of the palace
that the beast lay dying on a grass plot and with his last breath put her in mind of her promise and laid his death to her forsaking him beauty awoke in a great fright and burst into tears
i am sure i should be more happy with him than my sisters are with their husbands he shall not be wretched any longer on my account for i should do nothing but blame myself all the rest of my life she then rose put her ring on the table
got into bed again and soon fell asleep in the morning she with joy found herself in the palace of the beast she dressed herself very carefully that she might please him the better and thought she had never known a day pass away so slowly
rushed to the grass plot and there saw him lying apparently dead beside the fountain forgetting all his ugliness
she threw herself upon his body and finding his heart still beat she fetched some water and sprinkled it over him weeping and sobbing the while the beast opened his eyes you forgot your promise beauty and so i determined to die
for i could not live without you i have starved myself to death but i shall die content since i have seen your face once more no dear beast cried beauty passionately you shall not die you shall live to be my husband
i thought it was only friendship i felt for you but now i know it was love the moment beauty had spoken these words the palace was suddenly lighted up and all kinds of rejoicings were heard around them none which she noticed
but hung over her dear beast with the utmost tenderness at last unable to restrain herself she dropped her head over her hands covered her eyes and cried for joy
and when she looked up again the beast was gone in his stead she saw at her feet a handsome graceful young prince who thanked her with the tenderest expressions for having freed him from enchantment
you alone dearest beauty judged me neither by my looks nor by my talents but by my heart alone take it then and all that i have besides for all is yours
beauty full of surprise but very happy suffered the prince to lead her to his palace where she found her father and sisters who had been brought there by the fairy lady whom she had seen in a dream the first night she came
beauty said the fairy you have chosen well and you have your reward for a true heart is better than either good looks or clever brains as for you ladies and she turned to the two elder sisters
i know all your ill deeds but i have no worse punishment for you than to see your sister happy
she was such a mixture of contradictory impulses and rapid transitions and was so full of whims and caprice the inevitable outgrowth of her blood her rank and the adulation amid which she had always lived that i could not predict for a day ahead her attitude toward any one
she had never shown so great favor to any man as to brandon but just how much of her condescension was a mere whim growing out of the impulse of the moment and subject to reaction i could not tell i believed however
that brandon stood upon a firmer foundation with this changing shifting quicksand of a girl than with either of their majesties in fact i thought he rested upon her heart itself but to guess correctly what a girl of that sort will do or think
or feel would require inspiration of course most of the entertainments given by the king and queen included as guests nearly all the court but mary often had little fetes and dancing parties which were smaller more select and informal
these parties were really with the consent and encouragement of the king to avoid the responsibility of not inviting everybody the larger affairs were very dull and smaller ones might give offense to those who were left out the latter therefore
were turned over to mary who cared very little who was offended or who was not and invitations to them were highly valued one afternoon a day or two after brandon's presentation a message arrived from mary notifying me that she would have a little fete
that evening in one of the smaller halls and directing me to be there as master of the dance accompanying the message was a note from no less a person than the princess herself inviting brandon this was an honor indeed
an autograph invitation from the hand of mary but the masterful rascal did not seem to consider it anything unusual and when i handed him the note upon his return from the hunt he simply read it carelessly over once tore it in pieces and tossed it away
i believe the duke of buckingham would have given ten thousand crowns to receive such a note and would doubtless have shown it to half the court in triumphant confidence before the middle of the night to this great captain of the guard it was but a scrap of paper
he was glad to have it nevertheless and with all his self restraint and stoicism could not conceal his pleasure brandon at once accepted the invitation in a personal note to the princess the boldness of this actually took my breath
as you must know by this time her dignity royal was subject to alarms and quite her most troublesome attribute very apt to receive damage in her relations with brandon mary did not destroy brandon's note
despite the fact that her sense of dignity had been disturbed by it but after she had read it slipped off into her private room read it again and put it on her escritoire soon she picked it up reread it and after a little hesitation put it in her pocket
it remained in the pocket for a moment or two when out it came for another perusal and then she unfastened her bodice and put it in her bosom mary had been so intent upon what she was doing that she had not seen jane who was sitting quietly in the window
and when she turned and saw her she was so angry she snatched the note from her bosom and threw it upon the floor stamping her foot in embarrassment and rage how dare you watch me hussy she cried you lurk around as still as the grave
and i have to look into every nook and corner wherever i go or have you spying on me i did not spy upon you lady mary
i want you to be less silent after this do you hear cough or sing or stumble
jane rose picked up the note and offered it to her mistress who snatched it with one hand while she gave her a sharp slap with the other jane ran out and mary full of anger and shame slammed the door and locked it
the note being the cause of all the trouble she impatiently threw to the floor again and went over to the window bench where she threw herself down to pout in the course of five minutes she turned her head for one fleeting instant and looked at the note and then after a little hesitation
going back to the light at the window
and then read it once twice thrice the third time brought the smile and the note nestled in the bosom again jane did not come off so well for her mistress did not speak to her until she called her in that evening to make her toilet
by that time mary had forgotten about the note in her bosom so when jane began to array her for the dance it fell to the floor whereupon both girls broke into a laugh and jane kissed mary's bare shoulder and mary kissed the top of jane's head and they were friends again
so brandon accepted mary's invitation and went to mary's dance but his going
and this was the way of it these parties of mary's had been going on once or twice a week during the entire winter and spring and usually included the same persons it was a sort of coterie
strange as it may seem uninvited persons often attempted to force themselves in and all sorts of schemes and maneuvers were adopted to gain admission to prevent this two guardsmen
modesty i might say neither thrives nor is useful at court when brandon presented himself at the door his entrance was barred but he quickly pushed aside the halberds and entered the duke of buckingham
a proud self important individual was standing near the door and saw it all now buckingham was one of those unfortunate persons who never lose an opportunity to make a mistake and being anxious to display his zeal on behalf of the princess
stepped up to prevent brandon's entrance sir you will have to move out of this he said pompously you are not at a jousting bout you have made a mistake and have come to the wrong place
my lord of buckingham is pleased to make rather more of an ass of himself than usual this evening replied brandon with a smile as he started across the room to mary whose eye he had caught she had seen and heard it all but instead of coming to his relief
stood there laughing to herself at this buckingham grew furious and ran around ahead of brandon valiantly drawing his sword now by heaven fellow make but another step and i will run you through he said i saw it all
but could hardly realize what was going on it came so quickly and was over so soon like a flash brandon's sword was out of its sheath and buckingham's blade was flying toward the ceiling brandon's sword was sheathed again so quickly that one could hardly believe it had been out at all
and picking up buckingham's he said with a half smothered laugh my lord has dropped his sword he then broke its point with his heel against the hard floor saying i will dull the point lest my lord being unaccustomed to its use wound himself
this brought peals of laughter from everybody including the king mary laughed also but as brandon was handing buckingham his blade came up and demanded my lord is this the way you take it upon yourself to receive my guests
who appointed you let me ask to guard my door we shall have to omit your name from our next list unless you take a few lessons in good manners this was striking him hard and the quality of the man will at once appear plain to you
but clung to the girl's skirts all the more tenaciously turning to brandon the princess said master brandon i am glad to see you and regret exceedingly that our friend of buckingham should so thirst for your blood
she then led him to the king and queen to whom he made his bow
mary again alluded to the skirmish at the door and said laughingly i would have come to your help but i knew you were amply able to take care of yourself i was sure you would worst the duke in some way it was better than a mummery and i was glad to see it i do not like him
the king did not open these private balls as he was supposed at least not to be their patron and the queen who was considerably older than henry was averse to such things so the princess opened her own balls
dancing for a few minutes with the floor entirely to herself and partner it was the honor of the evening to open the ball with her and quite curious to see how men put themselves in her way and stood so as to be easily observed and perchance chosen
brandon after leaving mary had drifted into a corner of the room back of a group of people and was talking to wolsey who was always very friendly to him and to master cavendish a quaint quiet easy little man full of learning and kindness
and a warm friend to the princess mary it was time to open the ball and from my place in the musicians gallery i could see mary moving about among the guests evidently looking for a partner
while the men resorted to some very transparent and amusing expedients to attract her attention the princess however took none of the bidders and soon i noticed
something told me she was going to ask him to open the dance and i regretted it because i knew it would set every nobleman in the house against him they being very jealous of the low born favorites as they called the untitled friends of royalty
sure enough i was right mary at once began to make her way over to the corner and i heard her say master brandon will you dance with me it was done prettily
in place of the old time confidence strongly tinged with arrogance she was almost shy and blushed and stammered with quick coming breath like a burgher maid before her new found gallant at once the courtiers made way for her and out she walked
leading brandon by the hand upon her lips and in her eyes was a rare triumphant smile as if to say look at this handsome new trophy of my bow and spear i was surprised and alarmed when mary chose brandon
but when i turned to the musicians to direct their play imagine if you can my surprise when the leader said master we have our orders for the first dance from the princess imagine also if you can
my double surprise and alarm nay almost my terror when the band struck up jane's sailor lass i saw the look of surprise and inquiry which brandon gave mary standing there demurely by his side when he first heard the music
and i heard her nervous little laugh as she nodded her head yes and stepped closer to him to take position for the dance the next moment she was in brandon's arms flying like a sylph about the room a buzz of astonishment and delight
greeted them before they were half way around and then a great clapping of hands in which the king himself joined it was a lovely sight although i think a graceful woman is more beautiful in la galliard than any other dance
or in fact any other situation in which she can place herself after a little time the dowager duchess of kent first lady in waiting to the queen presented herself at the musicians gallery and said that her majesty
had ordered the music stopped and the musicians of course ceased playing at once mary thereupon turned quickly to me master are our musicians weary that they stop before we are through the queen answered for me in a high voiced spanish accent
i ordered the music stopped i will not permit such an indecent exhibition to go on longer fire sprang to mary's eyes and she exclaimed if your majesty does not like the way we do and dance at my balls you can retire as soon as you see fit
your face is a kill mirth anyway it never took long to rouse her ladyship the queen turned to henry who was laughing and angrily demanded will your majesty permit me to be thus insulted in your very presence
you got yourself into it get out of it as best you can i have often told you to let her alone she has sharp claws the king was really tired of catherine's sour frown before he married her it was her dower of spanish gold
that brought her a second tudor husband shall i not have what music and dances i want at my own balls asked the princess that you shall sister mine that you shall
go on master and if the girl likes to dance that way in god's name let her have her wish it will never hurt her we will learn it ourself and will wear the ladies out a dancing after mary had finished the opening dance
there was a great demand for instruction the king asked brandon to teach him the steps which he soon learned to perform with a grace perhaps equaled by no living creature other than a fat brown bear the ladies were at first a little shy
and inclined to stand at arm's length but mary had set the fashion and the others soon followed i had taken a fiddler to my room and had learned the dance from brandon and was able to teach it also though i lacked practice to make my step perfect
the princess had needed no practice but had danced beautifully from the first her strong young limbs and supple body taking as naturally to anything requiring grace of movement as a cygnet to water this thought i
is my opportunity to teach jane the new dance i wanted to go to her first but was afraid or for some reason did not and took several other ladies as they came after i had shown the step to them i sought out my sweetheart
jane was not a prude but i honestly believe she was the most provoking girl that ever lived i never had succeeded in holding her hand even the smallest part of an instant and yet i was sure she liked me very much almost sure she loved me
she feared i might unhinge it and carry it away or something of that sort i suppose when i went up and asked her to let me teach her the new dance she said i thank you edwin but there are others who are more anxious to learn than i
and you had better teach them first but i want to teach you when i wish to teach them i will go to them you did go to several others before you thought of coming to me answered jane pretending to be piqued
now that was the unkindest thing i ever knew a girl to do refuse me what she knew i so wanted and then put the refusal on the pretended ground that i did not care much about it i so told her and she saw she had carried things too far
and that i was growing angry in earnest she then made another false though somewhat flattering excuse i could not bear to go through that dance before so large a company i should not object so much if no one else could see
that is with you edwin edwin oh so soft and sweet the little jade to think that she could hoodwink me so easily and talk me into a good humor with her soft purring edwin i saw through it all quickly enough
and left her without another word in a few minutes she went into an adjoining room where i knew she was alone the door was open and the music could be heard there so i followed my lady there is no one to see us here
i can teach you now if you wish said i she saw she was cornered and replied with a toss of her saucy little head but what if i do not wish now this was more than i could endure with patience so i answered my young lady
you shall ask me before i teach you there are others who can dance it much better than you she returned without looking at me if you allow another to teach you that dance i responded you will have seen the last of me
she had made me angry and i did not speak to her for more than a week when i did but i will tell you of that later on there was one thing about jane and the new step
and foolish as my feeling may have been i could not bear the thought of her doing it i resolved that if she permitted another man to teach her that dance it should be all over between us
that of losing jane and it came like a very stroke upon my heart i would think of her sweet little form so compact and graceful of her gray calm eyes so full of purity and mischief of her fair oval face almost pale
and wonder if i could live without the hope of her i determined however that if she learned the new dance with any other man i would throw that hope to the winds whether i lived or died saint george i believe i should have died
the evening was devoted to learning the new dance and i saw mary busily engaged imparting information among the ladies as we were about to disperse i heard her say to brandon you have greatly pleased the king
by bringing him a new amusement he asked me where i learned it and i told him you had taught it to caskoden and that i had it from him i told caskoden so that he can tell the same story oh but that is not true
don't you think you should have told him the truth or have evaded it in some way asked brandon who was really a great lover of the truth when possible but who i fear on this occasion wished to appear more truthful than he really was
if a man is to a woman's taste and she is inclined to him he lays up great stores in her heart by making her think him good and shameful impositions are often practiced to this end mary flushed a little and answered i can't help it
you do not know had i told henry that we four had enjoyed such a famous time in my rooms he would have been very angry and and you might have been the sufferer but might you not have compromised matters by going around the truth some way
and leaving the impression that others were of the party that evening that was a mistake for it gave mary an opportunity to retaliate the best way to go around the truth as you call it is by a direct lie my lie was no worse than yours
but i did not stop to argue about such matters there is something else i wished to say i want to tell you that you have greatly pleased the king with the new dance now teach him honor and ruff and your fortune is made he has had some jews and lombards
in of late to teach him new games at cards but yours is worth all of them then somewhat hastily and irrelevantly i did not dance the new dance with any other gentleman but i suppose you did not notice it
wolf takes vengeance upon his people from that hour was born in roderick drew's breast a strange imperishable desire willingly at this moment would he have given up the winter trapping to have pursued that golden ignis fatuus of all ages
the lure of gold to him the story of the old cabin the skeletons and the treasure of the buckskin bag was complete those skeletons had once been men they had found a mine
and that treasure ground was somewhere near
in a flash he had solved that mystery the men had just begun to gather their treasure when they had fought what was more logical than that one day two three
mukoki had grinned and shrugged his shoulders with an air of stupendous doubt when rod had told him that the gold lay between the mountains so now the youth kept his thoughts to himself it was a silent trail home
rod's mind was too active in its new channel and he was too deeply absorbed in impressing upon his memory certain landmarks which they passed to ask questions and mukoki with the natural taciturnity of his race
seldom found occasion to break into conversation unless spoken to first although his eyes were constantly on the alert rod could see no way in which a descent could be made into the chasm from the ridge they were on
sunless gulch at his first opportunity he had no doubt that wabi would join in the adventure
he was reasonably sure that from somewhere on the opposite ridge a descent could be made into it wabi was in camp when they arrived
the birds were already cleaned for their early supper and a thick slice of venison steak was added to the menu during the preparation of the meal
but wabi betrayed only passing flashes of interest at times he seemed strangely preoccupied and would stand in an idle contemplative mood
or the stove finally after arousing himself from one of these momentary spells he pulled a brass shell from his pocket and held it out to the old indian see here he said
mukoki clutched at the shell as though it had been another newly found nugget of gold the shell was empty the lettering on the rim was still very distinct
why that's a shell from rod's gun
and it's an auto loading shell there are only three guns like that in this country i've got one mukoki has another and you lost the third in your fight with the woongas
the venison had begun to burn and mukoki quickly transferred it to the table without a word the three sat down to their meal that means the woongas are on our trail declared rod presently
it certainly is proof that they are or have been quite recently on this side of the mountain but i don't believe they know we are here the trail i struck was about five miles from camp it was at least two days old three indians on snow shoes were traveling north
i followed back on their trail and found after a time that the indians had come from the north which leads me to believe that they were simply on a hunting expedition cut a circle southward and then returned to their camp i don't believe they will come farther south but we must keep our eyes open
wabi's description of the manner in which the strange trail turned gave great satisfaction to mukoki who nodded affirmatively when the young hunter expressed it as his belief that the woongas would not come so far as their camp
but the discovery of their presence chilled the buoyant spirits of the hunters there was however a new spice of adventure lurking in this possible peril that was not altogether displeasing
and by the time the meal was at an end something like a plan of campaign had been formed the hunters would not wait to be attacked and then act in self defense possibly at a disadvantage they would be constantly on the lookout for the woongas
and if a fresh trail or a camp was found they would begin the man hunt themselves the sun was just beginning to sink behind the distant hills in the southwest when the hunters again left camp wolf had received nothing to eat since the previous night
and with increasing hunger the fiery impatience lurking in his eyes and the restlessness of his movements became more noticeable mukoki called attention to these symptoms with a gloating satisfaction the gloom of early evening was enveloping
the wilderness by the time the three wolf hunters reached the swamp in which rod had slain the buck while he carried the guns and packs mukoki and wabigoon dragged the buck between them to the huge flat top rock
several saplings were cut and by means of a long rope of babeesh the deer was dragged up the side of the rock until it rested securely upon the flat space from the dead buck's neck the babeesh rope was now stretched across the intervening space between the rock
and the clump of cedars in which the hunters were to conceal themselves in two of these cedars at a distance of a dozen feet from the ground were quickly made three platforms of saplings upon which the ambushed watchers could comfortably seat themselves
by the time complete darkness had fallen the trap was finished with the exception of a detail which rod followed with great interest from inside his clothes where it had been kept warm by his body mukoki produced the flask of blood
the remainder he distributed drop by drop in trails running toward the swamp and plains there still remained three hours before the moon would be up and the hunters now joined wolf who had been fastened half way up the ridge
in the shelter of a big rock a small fire was built and during their long wait the hunters passed the time away by broiling and eating chunks of venison
it was nine o'clock before the moon rose above the edge of the wilderness this great orb of the northern night seemed to hold a never ending fascination for rod
it crept above the forests a glowing throbbing ball of red quivering and palpitating
it was then that the whole world was lighted up under it it was then that mukoki speaking softly beckoned the others to follow him and with wolf at his side went down the ridge
making a circuit around the back of the rock mukoki paused near a small sapling twenty yards from the dead buck and secured wolf by his babeesh thong
hardly had he done so when the animal began to exhibit signs of excitement he trotted about nervously sniffing the air gathering the wind from every direction and his jaws dropped with a snarling whine
then he struck one of the clots of blood in the snow come whispered wabi pulling at rod's sleeve come quietly they slipped back among the shadows of the spruce and watched wolf in unbroken silence
the animal now stood rigidly over the blood clot his head was level with his quivering back his ears half aslant his nostrils pointing to a strange thrilling scent that came to him from somewhere out there in the moonlight
once more the instinct of his breed was flooding the soul of the captive wolf there was the odor of blood in his widening nostrils it was not the blood of the camp of the slaughtered game dragged in by human hands before his eyes
it was the blood of the chase a flashing memory of his captors turned the animal's head for an instant in backward inspection they were gone he could neither hear nor see them
the strange scent the game scent that was coming to him more clearly every instant he crunched about cautiously in the snow he found other spots of blood and to the watchers there came a low
long whine that seemed about to end in the wolf song the blood trails were leading him away toward the game scent and he tugged viciously at the babeesh that held him captive gnawing at it vainly like an angry dog
forgetting what experience had taught him many times before each moment added to his excitement he ran about the sapling gulped mouthfuls of the bloody snow
and each time he paused for a moment with his open dripping jaws held toward the dead buck on the rock the game was very near brute sense told him that
kill kill he made another effort tore up the snow in his frantic endeavors to free himself to break loose to follow in the wild glad cry of freed savagery in the calling of his people he failed again
panting whining in piteous helplessness then he settled upon his haunches at the end of his babeesh thong
there came then a low whining wail like the beginning of the death song of a husky dog a wail that grew in length and in strength and in volume until it rose weirdly among the mountains
and swept far out over the plains the hunt call of the wolf on the trail which calls to him the famished gray gaunt outlaws of the wilderness as the bugler's notes call his fellows on the field of battle
three times that blood thrilling cry went up from the captive wolf's throat and before those cries had died away the three hunters were perched upon their platforms among the spruce there followed now
the ominous waiting silence of an awakened wilderness rod could hear his heart throbbing within him he forgot the intense cold his nerves tingled he looked out over the endless plains white and mysteriously beautiful as they lay
bathed in the glow of the moon and wabi knew more than he what was happening all over that wild desolation the call of the wolf had carried its meaning down there where a lake lay silent in its winter sleep
and here and there in that world of wild things the gaunt hungry people of wolf's blood stopped in their trails and turned their heads toward the signal that was coming in wailing echoes to their ears
and then the silence was broken from afar it might have been a mile away there came an answering cry and at that cry the wolf at the end of his babeesh thong settled upon his haunches again
and sent back the call that comes only when there is blood upon the trail or when near the killing time there was not the rustle of a bough not a word spoken by the silent watchers in the spruce
mukoki had slipped back and half lay across his support in shooting attitude wabi had braced a foot and his rifle was half to his shoulder leveled over a knee
aiming through a crotch that gave a rest to his arm in a few moments there came again the howl of the distant wolf on the plains and this time it was joined by another away to the westward and after that
for the first time rod and wabi heard the gloating chuckle of mukoki in his spruce a dozen feet away at the increasing responses of his brethren wolf became more frantic in his efforts
the scent of fresh blood and of wounded game was becoming maddening to the captive but his frenzy no longer betrayed itself in futile efforts to escape from the babeesh thong wolf knew that his cries were assembling the hunt pack
and there were now only momentary rests between the deep throated exhortations which he sent in all directions into the night suddenly almost from the swamp itself there came a quick excited yelping reply
and wabi gripped rod by the arm he has struck the place where you killed the buck he whispered
and a moment later the watchers saw a gaunt shadow form running swiftly over the snow toward wolf for an instant as the two beasts of prey met there fell a silence then both animals joined in the wailing hunt pack cry
to the still more thrilling signal that told the gathering pack of game at bay swiftly the wolves closed in from over the edge of the mountain one came and joined the wolf at the rock without the hunters seeing his approach
from out of the swamp there came a pack of three and now about the rock there grew a maddened yelping horde clambering and scrambling and fighting in their efforts to climb up to the game that was so near and yet beyond their reach
and sixty feet away wolf crouched watching the gathering of his clan helpless panting from his choking efforts to free himself and quieting gradually quieting until
in sullen silence he looked upon the scene as though he knew the moment was very near when that thrilling spectacle would be changed into a scene of direst tragedy
and it was mukoki who had first said that this was the vengeance of wolf upon his people from mukoki there now came a faint hissing warning and wabi threw his rifle to his shoulder
and could feel the animal slowly slipping from the flat ledge a moment more and the buck tumbled down in the midst of the waiting pack as flies gather upon a lump of sugar the famished animals now crowded and crushed and fought over the deer's body
and as they came thus together there sounded the quick sharp signal to fire from mukoki for five seconds the edge of the spruce was a blaze of death dealing flashes
and the deafening reports of the two rifles and the big colt drowned the cries and struggles of the animals when those five seconds were over fifteen shots had been fired and five seconds later
the vast beautiful silence of the wilderness night had fallen again about the rock was the silence of death broken only faintly by the last gasping throes of the animals that lay dying in the snow
in the trees there sounded the metallic clink of loading shells wabi spoke first i believe we did a good job mukoki mukoki's reply was to slip down his tree
the others followed and hastened across to the rock five bodies lay motionless in the snow a sixth was dragging himself around the side of the rock and mukoki attacked it with his belt ax still a seventh had run for a dozen rods
dragging the wolf with them mukoki was standing as rigid as a statue in the moonlight his face turned into the north he pointed one arm far out over the plains and said without turning his head see
far out in that silent desolation the hunters saw a lurid flash of flame it climbed up and up until it filled the night above it with a dull glow a single unbroken stream of fire
that rose far above the swamps and forests of the plains that's a burning jackpine said wabigoon burning jackpine agreed the old warrior then he added
the king said you can go home now i have no further need for you i can only pay those who serve me the soldier did not know what to do for a living and he went sadly away he walked all day till he reached a wood
where in the distance he saw a light on approaching it he found a house inhabited by a witch pray give me shelter for the night and something to eat and drink he said or i shall perish oh ho she said
who gives anything to a runaway soldier i should like to know but i will be merciful and take you in if you will do something for me what is it asked the soldier i want you to dig up my garden to morrow
i see said the witch that you can do no more this evening i will keep you one night more and to morrow you shall split up some logs for firewood the soldier took the whole day over this task and in the evening the witch proposed that he should again
stay another night you shall only have a very light task to morrow she said there is an old dry well behind my house my light which burns blue and never goes out has fallen into it and i want you to bring it back
but when he was near the top the witch put out her hand and wanted to take it from him but he seeing her evil designs said no
both feet safe on dry land again the witch flew into a passion let him fall back into the well again and went away
and the blue light burnt as brightly as ever but what was the good of that he saw that he could not escape death he sat for some time feeling very sad then
this will be my last pleasure he thought
a tiny black man appeared before him and asked what orders master
the soldier asked in amazement i must do anything that you command said the little man
the little man took him by the hand and led him through an underground passage but the soldier did not forget to take the blue light with him
when they reached the top he said to the little man now go bind the witch and take her before the judge before long she came by riding at a furious pace on a tom cat and screaming at the top of her voice
the little man soon after appeared and said everything is done as you commanded and the witch hangs on the gallows what further orders have you master nothing at this moment answered the soldier you can go home only be at hand when i call you only have to light your pipe at the blue light
and i will make her do menial service for me it is an easy enough thing for me to do said the little man but it will be a bad business for you if it comes out as the clock struck twelve the door sprang open and the little man bore the maiden in
ah ha there you are cried the soldier set about your work at once fetch the broom and sweep the floor
then he threw them at her and made her pick them up and clean them she did everything he ordered without resistance silently and with half shut eyes at the first cock crow the little man carried her away to the royal palace
an extraordinary dream i was carried through the streets at lightning speed and taken to the room of a soldier whom i had to serve as a maid and do all kinds of menial work
clean his boots of course it was only a dream and yet i am as tired this morning as if i had done it all the dream could not have been true said the king but i will give you a piece of advice fill your pocket with peas
and cut a little hole in it then if you are carried away again they will drop out and leave a track on the road when the king said this the little man was standing by invisible and heard it all at night when he again carried off the princess
the peas certainly fell out of her pocket but they were useless to trace her by for the cunning little man had scattered peas all over the streets again the princess had to perform her menial duties till cock crow the next morning the king sent out people who were
i shall be sure to find it the little man heard this plan also and when the soldier told him to bring the princess again he advised him to put it off he said he knew no further means against their craftiness and if the shoe were found
it would be very dangerous for his master
and for the third time the princess was brought and made to work like a servant but before leaving she hid one of her shoes under the bed next morning the king ordered the whole town to be searched for his daughter's shoe and it was soon found in the soldier's room
had gone outside the gates but before long
the blue light and his gold
and summoned the little man don't be afraid he said to his master go where they take you and let what will happen only take the blue light with you next day a trial was held
the judge sentenced him to death when he was led out to execution he asked a last favour of the king what is your wish asked the king that i may smoke a last pipe
but don't imagine that i will therefore grant you your life then the soldier drew out his pipe and lighted it at the blue light as soon as a few rings of smoke arose the little man appeared with a little cudgel in his hand and said what is my master's command
and do not spare the king either for all his cruelty to me then the little man flew about like lightning zig zag hither and thither and whomever he touched with his cudgel fell to the ground and dared not move
the king was now seized with alarm and begging on his knees that his life might be spared he rendered up his kingdom
the water of life there was once a king who was so ill that it was thought impossible his life could be saved he had three sons and they were all in great distress on his account and they went into the castle gardens and wept at the thought that he must die
an old man came up to them and asked the cause of their grief they told him that their father was dying and nothing could save him the old man said there is only one remedy which i know it is the water of life if he drinks of it he will recover
the prince thought if i bring this water i shall be the favourite and i shall inherit the kingdom so he set off and when he had ridden some distance he came upon a dwarf standing in the road who cried whither away so fast
stupid little fellow said the prince proudly what business is it of yours and rode on the little man was very angry and made an evil vow soon after
jammed in the sick king waited a long time for him but he never came back then the second son said father let me go and find the water of life thinking if my brother is dead i shall have the kingdom
the king at first refused to let him go but at last he gave his consent so the prince started on the same road as his brother and met the same dwarf who stopped him and asked where he was going in such a hurry little snippet what does it matter to you he said
and rode away without looking back but the dwarf cast a spell over him and he too got into a narrow gorge like his brother
this is what happens to the haughty as the second son also stayed away the youngest one offered to go and fetch the water of life and at last the king was obliged to let him go
when he met the dwarf and he asked him where he was hurrying to he stopped and said i am searching for the water of life because my father is dying do you know where it is to be found no said the prince
as you have spoken pleasantly to me and not been haughty like your false brothers i will help you
it flows from a fountain in the courtyard of an enchanted castle but you will never get in unless i give you an iron rod and two loaves of bread with the rod strike three times on the iron gate of the castle and it will spring open
and you will be shut in the prince thanked him took the rod and the loaves and set off when he reached the castle all was just as the dwarf had said at the third knock the gate flew open and when he had pacified the lions with the loaves
he walked into the castle in the great hall he found several enchanted princes and he took the rings from their fingers he also took a sword and a loaf which were lying by them on passing into the next room he found a beautiful maiden
she embraced him and said that he had saved her and should have the whole of her kingdom and if he would come back in a year she would marry him she also told him where to find the fountain with the enchanted water but she said he must make haste to get out of the castle before the clock struck twelve
then he went on and came to a room where there was a beautiful bed freshly made and as he was very tired he thought he would take a little rest so he lay down and fell asleep when he woke it was striking a quarter to twelve
he sprang up in a fright and ran to the fountain and took some of the water in a cup which was lying near and then hurried away the clock struck just as he reached the iron gate and it banged so quickly that it took off a bit of his heel
and hastened on his homeward journey he again passed the dwarf who said when he saw the sword and the loaf those things will be of much service to you you will be able to strike down whole armies with the sword and the loaf will never come to an end
the prince did not want to go home without his brothers and he said good dwarf
brought a goblet full with him how he had released a beautiful princess who would wait a year for him and then marry him and he would become a great prince then they rode away together and came to a land where famine and war were raging the king thought
he would be utterly ruined so great was the destitution the prince went to him and gave him the loaf and with it he fed and satisfied his whole kingdom the prince also gave him his sword and he smote the whole army of his enemies with it
and then he was able to live in peace and quiet then the prince took back his sword and his loaf and the three brothers rode on but they had to pass through two more countries where war and famine were raging
and each time the prince gave his sword and his loaf to the king and in this way he saved three kingdoms after that they took a ship and crossed the sea during the passage the two elder brothers said to each other
our youngest brother found the water of life and we did not so our father will give him the kingdom which we ought to have and he will take away our fortune from us this thought made them very vindictive and they made up their minds to get rid of him
they waited till he was asleep and then they emptied the water of life from his goblet and took it themselves and filled up his cup with salt sea water as soon as they got home the youngest prince took his goblet to the king
so that he might drink of the water which was to make him well but after drinking only a few drops of the sea water he became more ill than ever as he was bewailing himself
his two elder sons came to him and accused the youngest of trying to poison him and said that they had the real water of life and gave him some no sooner had he drunk it than he felt better and he soon became as strong
then the two went to their youngest brother and mocked him saying it was you who found the water of life you had all the trouble while we have the reward you should have been wiser and kept your eyes open
your only chance is to keep silence the old king was very angry with his youngest son thinking that he had tried to take his life so he had the court assembled to give judgment upon him and it was decided that he must be secretly got out of the way
one day when the prince was going out hunting thinking no evil the king's huntsman was ordered to go with him seeing the huntsman look sad the prince said to him my good huntsman what is the matter with you the huntsman answered
the prince said say it out whatever it is i will forgive you alas said the huntsman i am to shoot you dead it is the king's command the prince was horror stricken and said dear huntsman do not kill me give me my life
let me have your dress and you shall have my royal robes the huntsman said i will gladly do so
so they changed clothes and the huntsman went home but the prince wandered away into the forest after a time three wagon loads of gold and precious stones came to the king for his youngest son
and his miraculous loaf and who now wished to show their gratitude then the old king thought
and said to his people if only he were still alive how sorry i am that i ordered him to be killed he is still alive said the huntsman i could not find it in my heart to carry out your commands
what had taken place a load fell from the king's heart on hearing the good news and he sent out a proclamation to all parts of his kingdom that his son was to come home
in the meantime the princess had caused a road to be made of pure shining gold leading to her castle
and they were to admit him but any one who came either on one side of the road or the other would not be the right one and he was not to be let in when the year had almost passed the eldest prince thought that he would hurry to the princess
and by giving himself out as her deliverer would gain a wife and a kingdom as well so he rode away
so he turned aside and rode to the right of it but when he reached the gate the people told him that he was not the true bridegroom and he had to go away soon after the second prince came and when he saw the golden road
he thought it would be a thousand pities for his horse to tread upon it
but when he reached the gate he was also told that he was not the true bridegroom and like his brother was turned away when the year had quite come to an end the third prince came out of the wood to ride to his beloved
their marriage was celebrated without delay and with much rejoicing when it was over she told him that his father had called him back and forgiven him so he went to him and told him everything
how his brothers had deceived him and how they had forced him to keep silence
chapter eight the sun was low down in the west and shining through and under the great oak and beech trees so that everything seemed to be turned to orange and gold it was the outlaws supper time
the sun being their clock in the forest and the men were gathering together to enjoy their second great meal of the day the other being breakfast after having which they always separated to go hunting through the woods to bring in the provisions for the next day
robin hood's men then were scattered about under the shade of a huge spreading oak tree waiting for the roast venison which sent a very pleasant odor from the glowing fire of oak wood
little john was there lying down smiling and contented after a hard day's hunting listening to young robin who was displaying the treasures he had brought in that day and telling his great companion where he had found them
there were flowers for maid marian because she was fond of the purple and yellow loosestrife and long thick reeds in a bundle you can make me some arrows of those said robin and i've found a young yew tree with a bough quite straight
you must cut that down and dry it to make me a bigger bow this one is not strong enough very well big one said little john smiling and stretching out his hand to smooth the boy's curly brown hair anything else for me to do oh yes lots of things
only i can't think of them yet look here i found these the boy took some round prickly husks out of his pocket chestnuts eating ones
said little john but they're no good look he tore one of the husks open and laid bare the rich brown nut but it was as he said good for nothing there being no hard sweet kernel within nothing but soft pithy woolly stuff
no good at all continued the great forester but i'll show you a tree which bears good ones
and then the pigs get them said robin then you must get up before the pigs and be first halloa what now for a horn was blown at a distance and the men under the great oak tree sprang to their feet
while robin hood came out to see what the signal meant young robin who was now quite accustomed to the foresters ways caught up his bow like the rest and stood looking eagerly in the direction from which the cheery sounding notes of the horn were blown he had not long to wait
for half a dozen of the merry men in green came marching towards them with a couple of prisoners each having his hands fastened behind him with a bow string and a broad bandage tied over his eyes so that they should not know their way again to the outlaws stronghold
prisoners said young robin poor men too grumbled little john then you'll give them their supper and send them away to morrow morning said young robin i suppose so said little john
but i don't know what made our fellows bring them in let's go and see said young robin little john followed as the boy marched off bow in hand to where robin hood was standing waiting to hear what his men had to say about the prisoners they had brought in
and as they drew near the boy saw that one was a homely poor looking man with round shoulders the other well dressed in sad colored clothes and thin and bent but the boy could see little more for the broad bandage
which nearly covered the prisoner's face and was tied tightly behind over his long gray hair while his gray beard hung down low young robin looked pityingly at this prisoner and a longing came over him to loosen the thong which tied his hands tightly behind him
but just then robin hood cried
the bowed down gray haired prisoner rose erect at this and cried is that robin hood who speaks before the outlaw could answer he was stopped by a cry from the boy
as he reached up to tear the bandage from the face bending over him and then darted round to begin sawing at the thong which held his father's hands little john took a step or two forward to help the boy but robin hood held up his hand to keep him back
and a dead silence fell upon the great group of foresters who had pressed forward and who eagerly watched the scene before them in the soft amber sunshine which came slanting through the trees
and many moments had not elapsed before the prisoner's hands were free and as if seeing no one but the little forester before him in green and quite regardless of all around he dropped upon his knees clasped the boy to his breast and softly whispered the words thank god
young robin's arms were tightly round his father's neck by this time and he was kissing the care worn face again and again they didn't know who you were father they didn't know who you were cried the boy passionately
as if asking his father's pardon for the outrage committed upon him no rob said the sheriff in a choking voice they did not know who i was but you know your poor old father again
yes yes my boy a long long year of misery and sorrow but i have found you now at last oh i am glad cried the boy struggling free
and catching his father's hand to lead him towards where robin hood and marian were standing wet eyed looking on this is my father cried the boy proudly this is robin hood the captain father he continued and the sheriff bowed gravely
and this is maid marian who has been so good to me the sheriff bowed slowly and gravely as if to the greatest lady in the land and then the boy dragged at his father's hand
and completed his great follower's confusion
i can shoot with bow and arrow now and sound my horn hark the boy clapped his horn to his lips and blew a few cheery notes which ran echoing down the forest glades and the men assembled gave a hearty cheer
you're welcome to the woodlands master sheriff said robin hood advancing now with extended hand do not take this as the outlaw's hand nor extend yours as the sheriff but let it be the grasp of two englishmen one of whom receives a guest
i thank you sir said the sheriff slowly i can give you nothing but thanks for after a year of sorrow i find my child is after all alive and well and i hope not worse than when accident brought him into our hands what do you say
do you find him changed bigger and stronger said the sheriff drawing the boy closer to him while the little fellow clung to his hand our woodland life and i warrant you master sheriff that he is none the worse
here little namesake speak out and let your father know you have been a good boy ever since you came here to stay young robin was silent and looked from one to the other in a curiously abashed fashion well boy why don't you speak cried robin hood merrily
i want master sheriff to hear that we have not spoiled you come tell him you have always been a good boy haven't you young robin hung his head no he said slowly
with his brow wrinkled up his head hanging and one foot scraping softly at the mossy grass no not always little john burst into a tremendous roar of laughter and began to stamp about
with the result that young robin made a dash at him and tried vainly to climb up and clap his hand over the great fellow's lips don't don't tell cried the boy ran at me only yesterday cried little john and began to thrash me in a passion
don't tell tales out of school little john cried robin hood laughing there rob you must forgive him we're none of us perfect master sheriff and if your little fellow had been quite so
i don't think that we should all to a man here have loved him half so well but come
but sir i have come humbly to you now
my prisoner if you had come amongst us with your posse of armed men sir said robin hood proudly as it is master sheriff you come here alone with your guide and i bid you welcome to our greenwood home
fate made me what i am the sheriff's enemy but the gentle visitor's friend come rob my boy show your father where he can take away the travel stains and then bring him to our humble board
and all were gathered together to bid him farewell and see him safely with his father on the road but not as the sheriff had come wearily and on foot for half a dozen of the best mules were forthcoming and the guests were to ride back on their journey home
who does not know how hard it is to say good bye young robin did not till the time had come he awoke that morning joyful and eager to start for it was to go back home in company with the father whom he loved
but when the time came he had to learn how tightly so many of his little heartstrings had taken hold of the life under the greenwood tree everything about him had grown dear and there was almost a mule load of treasures and pets of his own collecting that could not be left behind
and when they had been carefully packed in panniers by little john and one of the men there was the task of bidding them all good bye and then those two words grew harder every time but he spoke out manfully and well in spite of a choking sensation till nearly the last
and you'll take care of my pet fawn for me little john and always remember to feed it well and don't forget the dog and that dormouse we couldn't find so that i can have it when i come back and croak
what was that it was a peculiar sound made up in the air by little john and that did it for when young robin looked up in astonishment it was to see the great fellow's face all puckered up and yes
there were two great tears rolling down his cheeks as he caught the boy in his arms and kissed him and so it was that when young robin ran to bid maid marian good bye he could no longer hold it back
as he clasped his arms about her neck and kissed her passionately again and again the sobs came fast but the word good bye would not come at all and when they rode away the boy dared not look back for fear the men should see his red and swollen eyes
so he only waved his hat and kept waving it to the last but he was to see some of his friends again for about a year after the sheriff of nottingham had the strangest visitors of his life time at his house and young robin enjoyed the task of welcoming them
for as one old history says robin hood was forgiven and restored by the king to his rightful possessions and then it was that he was gladly welcomed by the sheriff who said he was honored by the visit of the nobleman and his lady
they were still robin hood and maid marian to him
it is not nice to be pitched by a man off a horse's back on to the top of your head
but he did not seem to be entirely alone there in the dense forest for there was another young robin with large eyes and a speckled jacket sitting upon a twig and watching him intently
some of which were bleeding then he listened and fancied that he heard shouting with the trampling of mules and the breaking of twigs but he was giddy and puzzled and after struggling through some undergrowth he sat down upon what looked like a green velvet cushion
and now it was perfectly quiet and it seemed restful after being shaken and jerked about on the horse's back robin was tired too and the dull half stupefied state of his brain stopped him from being startled by his strange position
his head ached though and it seemed nice to rest it
and then he could see nothing think nothing then he could think though he still could not see for it was very dark and silent and strange
and for some minutes he could not understand why he was out there on the moss instead of being in aunt hester's house at elton or at home in nottingham town but he understood it all at once recollecting what had taken place
it was startling too when from close at hand someone seemed to begin questioning him strangely by calling out whoo who who who but at the end of a minute or two he knew it was an owl
and soon after he was fast asleep and did not think again till the sun was shining brightly and he sat up waiting for old david to come and pull him up on the horse again robin waited for he was afraid to move
if i begin to wander about he said to himself david will not find me and he will go home and tell father i'm lost when all the time he threw me off the horse because he was afraid and wanted to save himself so the boy sat still
waiting to be fetched the robin came and looked at him again as if wondering that he did not pull up flowers by the roots and dig so that worms and grubs might be found and finally flitted away then all at once there was the pattering of feet
and half a dozen deer came into sight with soft dappled coats and one of them with large flat pointed horns but at the first movement robin made they dashed off among the trees in a series of bounds then there was another long pause
and robin was thinking how hungry he was when something dropped close to him with a loud rap and looking up sharply he caught sight of a little keen eyed bushy tailed animal looking down from a great branch as if in search of something it had let fall
squirrel said robin aloud and the animal heard and saw him at the same moment showing its annoyance at the presence of an intruder directly for it began to switch its tail and scold after its fashion loudly
its utterances seeming like a repetition of the word chop more or less quickly made finding its scolding to be in vain and that the boy would not go the squirrel did the next best thing bounded along from bough to bough while after waiting wearily in the hope of seeing david
the boy began to look round this tree and the next and finally made his way some little distance farther into the forest
by the noisy party of jays that had been disturbed in their happy solitude to robin it was just as if the first one had cried hoi i say here's a boy and weary with waiting and hungry as he was
the constant harsh shouting irritated the little fellow so that he hurried away followed by quite a burst of what seemed to be mocking cries with the intention of finding the track leading across the forest but he had not gone far before he found himself in an open glade
dotted with beautiful great oak trees and nearly covered with the broad leaves of the bracken which were agitated by something passing through and beneath giving forth a grunting sound
wonderfully like that of a dog this was taken up directly by the other members of the drove who with a great deal of barking and grunting came on to the attack for they did not confine themselves to threatening their life in the forest making them fierce enough to be dangerous
robin's first thought was to run away but he knew that four legs are better than two for getting over the ground and felt that the drove would attack him more fiercely if they saw that he was afraid
so he obeyed his third notion which was to jump to where a big piece of dead wood lay pick it up and hit the foremost pig across the nose with it that blow did wonders it made the black pig which received it utter a dismal squeal
and its companions stop and stand barking and snapping all around him but the blow broke the piece of dead wood in two and the fierce little animals were coming on again when a voice cried hi you knocking our tigs about
kicking first at one and then at another banging them with a long hooked stick he held and making them run squealing in all directions
cried the boy sharply as he stared hard at the strange visitor to the forest
and finished by saying i'm so hungry and i want to go home where can i get some breakfast dunno said the boy have some of these he took a handful of acorns from a dirty satchel and held them out
robin catching at them eagerly putting one between his white teeth and biting it but only to make a face full of disgust it's bitter he said it's not good to eat
where can i get some the boy shook his head where do you live asked robin along o master where's that the boy shook his head and stared at the cap and feather one of his hands opening and shutting will you show me the way home then
the boy shook his head again
and a strip of cow skin for a belt to hold it in i could show you where to get something he said at last well show me cried robin
give you my clothes said robin wonderingly i can't do that then i shall take em said the boy in a husky growl i'm so hungry cried robin
show me where to get something and i'll give you my cap and feather i wants the jacket too said the boy i tell you i can't give you that cried robin then i means to take it robin shrank away and the boy turned upon him fiercely
none of that he cried see this here stick if you was to try to run away i should send it spinning after you and it would break your legs and knock you down and i could send the tigs after you and they'd soon bring you back robin drew a deep breath
he felt hot and his hands clenched as he longed to strike out at his tyrant but the young swineherd was big and strong
then there was a pause robin stood hot excited and panting the herd boy threw himself down on his chest rested his chin upon his hands as he stared fiercely at robin and kicked his feet up and down
while the pigs roamed here and there nuzzling the fallen acorns out from the bracken and crunching them up loudly robin wanted to run
and all at the same time for his strongest desire just then was to fight his tyrant and for some minutes neither spoke at last the big boy said in a low growling way now then are you going to give me them things
no said robin through his set teeth and again there was silence you give em to me and i'll show you the way to where they live and they'll give you roast deer and roast pig p'raps for two of ourn's gone
and he wales me with a strap because i let them take the pigs and next time he counts em there's more than there was before but he's whipped me all the same
i won't give them to you i can't i mustn't cried robin passionately the boy said nothing but looked away at his pigs two of which were fighting ah would you he cried
and he made believe to rush at them with his big hook handled stick robin was thrown off his guard and before he was aware of it the boy made a side leap and dropping his stick seized him threw him over on his back and sat astride upon his chest
now won't you give em to me cried the herd boy and he whipped off the cap and threw it to a little distance with the result that half a dozen pigs rushed at it and as he made a brave fight to get rid of his enemy
the last that robin saw of his velvet cap and plume was that one black pig tore out the feather while another was champing the velvet in his mouth it was a brave fight but all in vain and a few minutes later the boy was standing triumphantly over poor robin
with the gay jerkin rolled up under his arm and the little fellow struggled to his feet in his trunk hose and white linen shirt hot angry and torn and wishing with all his might that he were as big and strong as the tyrant who had mastered him
i told yer i would said the young ruffian with a grin you should ha given em to me at first
in his anger and shame robin felt that he wanted no food now only to go and hide himself away among the trees but his enemy's next words had their effect you didn't want this here he said
better nor i have there go straight on there and i'll show yer d'yer hear i don't want to go now said robin fiercely oh don't yer then i do you're agoing afore i makes yer and when they've give yer a lot
you're going to eat part and bring some to me so's i can help eat the rest you bring a lot mind cause i can eat ever so much now then go on
you go first what and master come p'raps and find me gone likely he'd give me the strap again there get on robin winced
voices were heard and the boy stopped you go straight along there he said and i'll wait no you go said robin you know them oh yes and them want some more pigs want me to be leathered again
the baron goes to petersburgh and converses with the empress persuades the russians and turks to cease cutting one another's throats and in concert cut a canal across the isthmus of suez the baron discovers the alexandrine library
and meets with hermes trismegistus
and challenges tippoo sahib to single combat they fight the baron receives some wounds to his face but at last vanquishes the tyrant the baron returns to europe and raises the hull of the royal george
seized with a fury of canal cutting i took it in my head to form an immediate communication between the mediterranean and the red sea and therefore set out for petersburgh the sanguinary ambition of the empress would not listen to my proposals
until i took a private opportunity taking a cup of coffee with her majesty to tell her that i would absolutely sacrifice myself for the general good of mankind and if she would accede to my proposals would
on the completion of the canal ipso facto give her my hand in marriage my dear dear baron said she i accede to everything you please and agree to make peace with the porte on the conditions you mention
and added she rising with all the majesty of the czarina empress of half the world be it known to all subjects that we ordain these conditions for such is our royal will and pleasure
and there united my forces with a million of turks armed with shovels and pickaxes they did not come to cut each other's throats but for their mutual interest to facilitate commerce and civilisation
and pour all the wealth of india by a new channel into europe my brave fellows said i consider the immense labour of the chinese to build their celebrated wall
think of what superior benefit to mankind is our present undertaking persevere and fortune will second your endeavours remember it is munchausen who leads you on and be convinced of success
saying these words i drove my chariot with all my might in my former track that vestige mentioned by the baron de tott and when i was advanced considerably i felt my chariot sinking under me
i attempted to drive on but the ground or rather immense vault giving way my chariot and all went down precipitately stunned by the fall it was some moments before i could recollect myself when at length to my amazement
i perceived myself fallen into the alexandrine library overwhelmed in an ocean of books thousands of volumes came tumbling on my head amidst the ruins of that part of the vault through which my chariot had descended
beneath a heap of learning however i contrived to extricate myself and advanced with awful admiration through the vast avenues of the library i perceived on every side innumerable volumes and repositories of ancient learning
and all the science of the antediluvian world here i met with hermes trismegistus and a parcel of old philosophers
debating upon the politics and learning of their days i gave them inexpressible delight in telling them in a few words all the discoveries of newton and the history of the world since their time
these gentry on the contrary told me a thousand stories of antiquity that some of our antiquarians would give their very eyes to hear in short i ordered the library to be preserved
and i intend making a present of it as soon as it arrives in england to the royal society together with hermes trismegistus
in which i keep these extraordinary creatures and feed them with bread and honey as they seem to believe in a kind of doctrine of
hermes trismegistus especially is a most antique looking being with a beard half a yard long covered with a robe of golden embroidery
having made a track with my chariot from sea to sea i ordered my turks and russians to begin and in a few hours we had the pleasure of seeing a fleet of british east indiamen in full sail through the canal
on which i resolved to go to india and encounter the tyrant i travelled down the red sea to madras and at the head of a few sepoys and europeans
i challenged him to mortal combat and mounted on my steed rode up to the walls of the fortress amidst a storm of shells and cannon balls
and throwing them against the fortress demolished the strongest ramparts of the place i took my mark so direct
and one time perceiving a tremendous piece of artillery pointed against me and knowing the ball must be so great it would certainly stun me i took a small cannon ball and just as i perceived the engineer going to order them to fire
and opening his mouth to give the word of command i took aim and drove my ball precisely down his throat tippoo fearing that all would be lost that a general and successful storm would ensue if i continued to batter the place
came forth upon his elephant to fight me i saluted him and insisted he should fire first tippoo though a barbarian was not deficient in politeness and declined the compliment upon which i took off my hat and bowing
told him it was an advantage munchausen should never be said to accept from so gallant a warrior on which tippoo instantly discharged his carbine the ball from which hitting my horse's ear made him plunge with rage and indignation
in return i discharged my pistol at tippoo and shot off his turban he had a small field piece mounted with him on his elephant which he then discharged at me and the grape shot coming in a shower
rattled in the laurels that covered and shaded me all over and remained pendant like berries on the branches
took the proboscis of his elephant
until i at length dismounted him nothing could equal the rage of the barbarian finding himself thrown from his elephant he rose in a fit of despair
but i scorned to fight him at so great a disadvantage on his side and directly dismounted to fight him hand to hand
he parried my blows
the first blow of his sabre i received upon the bridge of my nose and but for the bony firmness of that part of my face it would have descended to my mouth i still bear the mark upon my nose he next made a furious blow at my head but i parrying
deadened the force of his sabre so that i received but one scar on my forehead and at the same instant by a blow of my sword cut off his arm and his hand and sabre fell to the earth he tottered for some paces and dropped at the foot of his elephant
that sagacious animal seeing the danger of his master endeavoured to protect him by flourishing his proboscis round the head of the sultan fearless i advanced against the elephant desirous to take alive the haughty tippoo sahib
but he drew a pistol from his belt and discharged it full in my face as i rushed upon him which did me no further harm than wound my cheek bone which disfigures me somewhat under my left eye
i could not withstand the rage and impulse of that moment and with one blow of my sword separated his head from his body i returned overland from india to europe with admirable velocity
nor can you expect to hear of it for a considerable time i simply relate the encounter as it happened between the sultan and me and if there be any one who doubts the truth of what i say he is an infidel and i will fight him at any time and place
and with any weapon he pleases hearing so many persons talk about raising the royal george i began to take pity on that fine old ruin of british plank and determined to have her up
i was sensible of the failure of the various means hitherto employed for the purpose and therefore inclined to try a method different from any before attempted i got an immense balloon made of the toughest sail cloth
and having descended in my diving bell and properly secured the hull with enormous cables i ascended to the surface and fastened my cables to the balloon prodigious multitudes were assembled to behold the elevation of the royal george
and as soon as i began to fill my balloon with inflammable air the vessel evidently began to move but when my balloon was completely filled she carried up the royal george with the greatest rapidity
the vessel appearing on the surface occasioned a universal shout of triumph from the millions assembled on the occasion still the balloon continued ascending trailing the hull after like a lantern at the tail of a kite
and in a few minutes appeared floating among the clouds it was then the opinion of many philosophers that it would be more difficult to get her down then it had been to draw her up
but i convinced them to the contrary by taking my aim so exactly with a twelve pounder that i brought her down in an instant i considered that if i should break the balloon with a cannon ball while she remained with the vessel over the land the fall
and which in its fall might crush some of the multitude therefore i thought it safer to take my aim when the balloon was over the sea and pointing my twelve pounder drove the ball right through the balloon
on which the inflammable air rushed out with great force and the royal george descended like a falling star into the very spot from whence she had been taken there she still remains
where the oxus ripples by grimly spake atulla khan love hath made this thing a man
if you go straight away from levees and government house lists past trades balls far beyond everything and everybody you ever knew in your respectable life you cross in time the border line
it would be easier to talk to a new made duchess on the spur of the moment than to the borderline folk without violating some of their conventions or hurting their feelings the black and the white mix very quaintly in their ways
sometimes the white shows in spurts of fierce childish pride which is pride of race run crooked and sometimes the black in still fiercer abasement and humility half heathenish customs and strange unaccountable impulses to crime
one of these days this people understand they are far lower than the class whence derozio the man who imitated byron sprung will turn out a writer or a poet and then we shall know how they live and what they feel
in the meantime any stories about them cannot be absolutely correct in fact or inference miss vezzis came from across the borderline to look after some children who belonged to a lady until a regularly ordained nurse could come out
it never struck her that miss vezzis had her own life to lead and her own affairs to worry over and that these affairs were the most important things in the world to miss vezzis very few mistresses admit this sort of reasoning
hideously ugly she wore cotton print gowns and bulged shoes and when she lost her temper with the children she abused them in the language of the borderline which is part english part portuguese and part native
she was not attractive but she had her pride and she preferred being called miss vezzis
who lived for the most part on an old cane chair in a greasy tussur silk dressing gown and a big rabbit warren of a house full of vezzises pereiras ribieras lisboas and gansalveses and a floating population of loafers
besides fragments of the day's bazar garlic stale incense clothes thrown on the floor petticoats hung on strings for screens old bottles pewter crucifixes dried immortelles
pariah puppies plaster images of the virgin and hats without crowns miss vezzis drew twenty rupees a month for acting as nurse and she squabbled weekly with her mamma as to the percentage to be given towards housekeeping when the quarrel was over
michele d'cruze used to shamble across the low mud wall of the compound and make love to miss vezzis after the fashion of the borderline which is hedged about with much ceremony
but he had his pride he would not be seen smoking a huqa for anything and he looked down on natives as only a man with seven eighths native blood in his veins can the vezzis family had their pride too they traced their descent from a mythical plate layer
who had worked on the sone bridge when railways were new in india and they valued their english origin
the fact that he was in government employ made missus vezzis lenient to the shortcomings of his ancestors there was a compromising legend dom anna the tailor brought it from poonani
that a black jew of cochin had once married into the d'cruze family while it was an open secret that an uncle of missus d'cruze was at that very time doing menial work connected with cooking for a club in southern india
he sent missus d'cruze seven rupees eight annas a month but she felt the disgrace to the family very keenly all the same however in the course of a few sundays missus vezzis brought herself to overlook these blemishes
and gave her consent to the marriage of her daughter with michele on condition that michele should have at least fifty rupees a month to start married life upon
for across the borderline people take a pride in marrying when they please not when they can having regard to his departmental prospects miss vezzis might as well have asked michele to go away and come back with the moon in his pocket
but michele was deeply in love with miss vezzis and that helped him to endure he accompanied miss vezzis to mass one sunday and after mass walking home through the hot stale dust with her hand in his he swore by several saints whose names would not interest you
never to forget miss vezzis and she swore by her honor and the saints the oath runs rather curiously
whatever the name of the she saint is and so forth ending with a kiss on the forehead a kiss on the left cheek and a kiss on the mouth never to forget michele next week michele was transferred
and miss vezzis dropped tears upon the window sash of the intermediate compartment
if you look at the telegraph map of india you will see a long line skirting the coast from backergunge to madras michele was ordered to tibasu a little sub office one third down this line
to send messages on from berhampur to chicacola and to think of miss vezzis and his chances of getting fifty rupees a month out of office hours he had the noise of the bay of bengal and a bengali babu for company nothing more
he sent foolish letters with crosses tucked inside the flaps of the envelopes to miss vezzis when he had been at tibasu for nearly three weeks his chance came never forget that unless the outward and visible signs of our authority
are always before a native he is as incapable as a child of understanding what authority means or where is the danger of disobeying it tibasu was a forgotten little place with a few orissa mohamedans in it
these hearing nothing of the collector sahib for some time and heartily despising the hindu sub judge arranged to start a little mohurrum riot of their own but the hindus turned out and broke their heads when finding lawlessness pleasant
hindus and mahomedans together raised an aimless sort of donnybrook just to see how far they could go they looted each other's shops and paid off private grudges in the regular way it was a nasty little riot but not worth putting in the newspapers
michele was working in his office when he heard the sound that a man never forgets all his life the ah yah of an angry crowd when that sound drops about three tones and changes to a thick droning ut
the man who hears it had better go away if he is alone the native police inspector ran in and told michele that the town was in an uproar and coming to wreck the telegraph office the babu put on his cap and quietly dropped out of the window
while the police inspector afraid but obeying the old race instinct which recognizes a drop of white blood as far as it can be diluted said what orders does the sahib give the sahib decided michele
though horribly frightened he felt that for the hour he the man with the cochin jew and the menial uncle in his pedigree was the only representative of english authority in the place then he thought of miss vezzis and the fifty rupees
and took the situation on himself there were seven native policemen in tibasu and four crazy smooth bore muskets among them all the men were gray with fear but not beyond leading
michele dropped the key of the telegraph instrument and went out at the head of his army to meet the mob as the shouting crew came round a corner of the road he dropped and fired the men behind him loosing instinctively at the same time
the whole crowd curs to the backbone yelled and ran leaving one man dead and another dying in the road michele was sweating with fear but he kept his weakness under and went down into the town past the house where the sub judge had barricaded himself
the streets were empty tibasu was more frightened than michele for the mob had been taken at the right time michele returned to the telegraph office
and sent a message to chicacola asking for help before an answer came he received a deputation of the elders of tibasu telling him that the sub judge said his actions generally were unconstitional and trying to bully him
but the heart of michele d'cruze was big and white in his breast because of his love for miss vezzis the nurse girl and because he had tasted for the first time responsibility and success those two make an intoxicating drink
michele answered that the sub judge might say what he pleased but until the assistant collector came the telegraph signaller was the government of india in tibasu and the elders of the town would be held accountable for further rioting
then they bowed their heads and said show mercy or words to that effect and went back in great fear each accusing the other of having begun the rioting early in the dawn after a night's patrol with his seven policemen
michele went down the road musket in hand to meet the assistant collector who had ridden in to quell tibasu but in the presence of this young englishman
michele felt himself slipping back more and more into the native and the tale of the tibasu riots ended with the strain on the teller in an hysterical outburst of tears bred by sorrow that he had killed a man
and childish anger that his tongue could not do justice to his great deeds it was the white drop in michele's veins dying out though he did not know it but the englishman understood and after he had schooled those men of tibasu
and had conferred with the sub judge till that excellent official turned green he found time to draught an official letter describing the conduct of michele which letter filtered through the proper channels and ended in the transfer of michele up country once more
on the imperial salary of sixty six rupees a month so he and miss vezzis were married with great state and ancientry and now there are several little d'cruzes sprawling about the verandahs of the central telegraph office
but if the whole revenue of the department he serves were to be his reward michele could never never repeat what he did at tibasu for the sake of miss vezzis the nurse girl which proves that when a man does good work out of all proportion to his pay
the unedited autobiography of private ortheris if there was one thing on which golightly prided himself more than another it was looking like an officer and a gentleman he said it was for the honor of the service that he attired himself so elaborately
there was no harm about golightly not an ounce he recognized a horse when he saw one and could do more than fill a cantle he played a very fair game at billiards and was a sound man at the whist table
everyone liked him and nobody ever dreamed of seeing him handcuffed on a station platform as a deserter but this sad thing happened he was going down from dalhousie at the end of his leave riding down
it was fairly warm at dalhousie and knowing what to expect below he descended in a new khaki suit tight fitting of a delicate olive green a peacock blue tie white collar and a snowy white solah helmet
he prided himself on looking neat even when he was riding post he did look neat and he was so deeply concerned about his appearance before he started that he quite forgot to take anything but some small change with him
he left all his notes at the hotel his servants had gone down the road before him to be ready in waiting at pathankote with a change of gear that was what he called travelling in light marching order
he was proud of his faculty of organization what we call bundobust twenty two miles out of dalhousie it began to rain not a mere hill shower but a good tepid monsoonish downpour
golightly bustled on wishing that he had brought an umbrella the dust on the roads turned into mud and the pony mired a good deal so did golightly's khaki gaiters but he kept on steadily and tried to think how pleasant the coolth was
his next pony was rather a brute at starting and golightly's hands being slippery with the rain contrived to get rid of golightly at a corner he chased the animal caught it and went ahead briskly
the spill had not improved his clothes or his temper and he had lost one spur he kept the other one employed by the time that stage was ended the pony had had as much exercise as he wanted
and in spite of the rain golightly was sweating freely at the end of another miserable half hour golightly found the world disappear before his eyes in clammy pulp
the rain had turned the pith of his huge and snowy solah topee into an evil smelling dough and it had closed on his head like a half opened mushroom also the green lining was beginning to run
golightly did not say anything worth recording here he tore off and squeezed up as much of the brim as was in his eyes and ploughed on the back of the helmet was flapping on his neck and the sides stuck to his ears
but the leather band and green lining kept things roughly together so that the hat did not actually melt away where it flapped presently the pulp and the green stuff made a sort of slimy mildew which ran over golightly in several directions
the khaki color ran too it was really shockingly bad dye and sections of golightly were brown and patches were violet and contours were ochre and streaks were ruddy red and blotches were nearly white
according to the nature and peculiarities of the dye
became thoroughly mixed the effect was
near dhar the rain stopped and the evening sun came out and dried him up slightly it fixed the colors too three miles from pathankote the last pony fell dead lame and golightly was forced to walk
he pushed on into pathankote to find his servants he did not know then that his khitmatgar had stopped by the roadside to get drunk and would come on the next day saying that he had sprained his ankle
when he got into pathankote he couldn't find his servants his boots were stiff and ropy with mud and there were large quantities of dirt about his body the blue tie had run as much as the khaki so he took it off with the collar and threw it away
then he said something about servants generally and tried to get a peg he paid eight annas for the drink and this revealed to him that he had only six annas more in his pocket or in the world as he stood at that hour
he went to the station master to negotiate for a first class ticket to khasa where he was stationed the booking clerk said something to the station master the station master said something to the telegraph clerk
they asked him to wait for half an hour while they telegraphed to umritsar for authority so he waited and four constables came and grouped themselves picturesquely round him just as he was preparing to ask them to go away the station master said that
he would give the sahib a ticket to umritsar
golightly stepped inside and the next thing he knew was that a constable was attached to each of his legs and arms while the station master was trying to cram a mailbag over his head
there was a very fair scuffle all round the booking office and golightly received a nasty cut over his eye through falling against a table but the constables were too much for him and they and the station master handcuffed him securely
as soon as the mail bag was slipped he began expressing his opinions and the head constable said without doubt this is the soldier englishman we required listen to the abuse
the station master told him he was
no marks on the body who had deserted a fortnight ago
he said that no lieutenant could look such a ruffian as did golightly and that his instructions were to send his capture under proper escort to umritsar golightly was feeling very damp and uncomfortable and the language he used was not fit for publication
even in an expurgated form the four constables saw him safe to umritsar in an intermediate compartment and he spent the four hour journey in abusing them as fluently as his knowledge of the vernaculars allowed
at umritsar he was bundled out on the platform into the arms of a corporal
golightly drew himself up and tried to carry off matters jauntily he did not feel too jaunty in handcuffs with four constables behind him and the blood from the cut on his forehead stiffening on his left cheek the corporal was not jocular either
golightly got as far as this is a very absurd mistake my men when the corporal told him to stow his lip and come along golightly did not want to come along he desired to stop and explain
he explained very well indeed until the corporal cut in with you
bloom in fine orficer you are i know your regiment
you're a black shame to the service golightly kept his temper and began explaining all over again from the beginning then he was marched out of the rain into the refreshment room and told not to make a qualified fool of himself
the men were going to run him up to fort govindghar and running up is a performance almost as undignified as the frog march golightly was nearly hysterical with rage and the chill and the mistake and the handcuffs and the headache that the cut on his forehead had given him
he really laid himself out to express what was in his mind when he had quite finished and his throat was feeling dry one of the men said i've eard a few beggars in the click blind stiff and crack on a bit
but i've never eard any one to touch this ere orficer they were not angry with him they rather admired him they had some beer at the refreshment room and offered golightly some too because he had swore won'erful
they asked him to tell them all about the adventures of private john binkle while he was loose on the countryside and that made golightly wilder than ever
now the butt of a martini in the small of your back hurts a great deal and rotten rain soaked khaki tears easily when two men are jerking at your collar golightly rose from the floor feeling very sick and giddy
with his shirt ripped open all down his breast and nearly all down his back he yielded to his luck and at that point the down train from lahore came in carrying one of golightly's majors this is the major's evidence in full
there was the sound of a scuffle in the second class refreshment room so i went in and saw the most villainous loafer that i ever set eyes on his boots and breeches were plastered with mud and beer stains he wore a muddy white dunghill sort of thing on his head
and it hung down in slips on his shoulders which were a good deal scratched he was half in and half out of a shirt as nearly in two pieces as it could be and he was begging the guard to look at the name on the tail of it as he had rucked the shirt all over his head i couldn't at first see who he was but
from the way he swore while he wrestled with his rags
and some green war paint on the face and some violet stripes round the neck i saw that it was golightly he was very glad to see me said the major
and he hoped i would not tell the mess about it i didn't but you can if you like now that golightly has gone home golightly spent the greater part of that summer in trying to get the corporal and the two soldiers tried by court martial
the same subject continued the idea of restraining the legislative authority in regard to the common defense considered for the independent journal wednesday december twenty sixth seventeen eighty seven
hamilton to the people of the state of new york
our own experience has corroborated the lessons taught by the examples of other nations that emergencies of this sort will sometimes arise in all societies however constituted
that seditions and insurrections are unhappily maladies as inseparable from the body politic as tumors and eruptions from the natural body that the idea of governing at all times by the simple force of law
which we have been told is the only admissible principle of republican government has no place but in the reveries of those political doctors whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction
should such emergencies at any time happen under the national government there could be no remedy but force the means to be employed must be proportioned to the extent of the mischief if it should be a slight commotion in a small part of a state
an insurrection whatever may be its immediate cause eventually endangers all government regard to the public peace if not to the rights of the union would engage the citizens to whom the contagion had not communicated itself to oppose the insurgents
it were irrational to believe that they would be disinclined to its support if on the contrary the insurrection should pervade a whole state or a principal part of it the employment of a different kind of force might become unavoidable
it appears that massachusetts found it necessary to raise troops for repressing the disorders within that state that pennsylvania from the mere apprehension of commotions among a part of her citizens has thought proper to have recourse to the same measure
could she have hoped for success in such an enterprise from the efforts of the militia alone
if it must then be admitted that the necessity of recurring to a force different from the militia in cases of this extraordinary nature is applicable to the state governments themselves why should the possibility
that the national government might be under a like necessity in similar extremities be made an objection to its existence is it not surprising that men who declare an attachment to the union in the abstract should urge as an objection to the proposed constitution
what applies with tenfold weight to the plan for which they contend and what as far as it has any foundation in truth is an inevitable consequence of civil society upon an enlarged scale
who would not prefer that possibility to the unceasing agitations and frequent revolutions which are the continual scourges of petty republics let us pursue this examination in another light suppose in lieu of one general system
would not the same difficulty oppose itself to the operations of either of these confederacies would not each of them be exposed to the same casualties
and when these happened be obliged to have recourse to the same expedients for upholding its authority which are objected to in a government for all the states would the militia in this supposition
all candid and intelligent men must upon due consideration acknowledge that the principle of the objection is equally applicable to either of the two cases and that whether we have one government for all the states or different governments for different parcels of them
which amount to insurrections and rebellions independent of all other reasonings upon the subject
to say that the whole power of the proposed government is to be in the hands of the representatives of the people this is the essential and after all only efficacious security for the rights and privileges of the people which is attainable in civil society
the representatives of the people betray their constituents there is then no resource left but in the exertion of that original right of self defense which is paramount to all positive forms of government
and which against the usurpations of the national rulers may be exerted with infinitely better prospect of success than against those of the rulers of an individual state in a single state if the persons intrusted with supreme power become usurpers
the different parcels subdivisions or districts of which it consists
without concert without system without resource except in their courage and despair the usurpers clothed with the forms of legal authority can too often crush the opposition in embryo the smaller the extent of the territory
the more difficult will it be for the people to form a regular or systematic plan of opposition
intelligence can be more speedily obtained of their preparations and movements and the military force in the possession of the usurpers can be more rapidly directed against the part where the opposition has begun
provided the citizens understand their rights and are disposed to defend them the natural strength of the people in a large community
to establish a tyranny but in a confederacy the people without exaggeration may be said to be entirely the masters of their own fate power being almost always the rival of power
the people by throwing themselves into either scale will infallibly make it preponderate if their rights are invaded by either
which can never be too highly prized it may safely be received as an axiom in our political system that the state governments will in all possible contingencies afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority
projects of usurpation cannot be masked under pretenses so likely to escape the penetration of select bodies of men as of the people at large the legislatures will have better means of information they can discover the danger at a distance
and the confidence of the people they can at once adopt a regular plan of opposition in which they can combine all the resources of the community they can readily communicate with each other in the different states and unite their common forces for the protection of their common liberty
the great extent of the country is a further security we have already experienced its utility against the attacks of a foreign power and it would have precisely the same effect against the enterprises of ambitious rulers in the national councils
if the federal army should be able to quell the resistance of one state the distant states would have it in their power to make head with fresh forces the advantages obtained in one place must be abandoned to subdue the opposition in others
and the moment the part which had been reduced to submission was left to itself its efforts would be renewed and its resistance revive we should recollect
that the extent of the military force must at all events be regulated by the resources of the country for a long time to come it will not be possible to maintain a large army
john ferrier talks with the prophet three weeks had passed since jefferson hope and his comrades had departed from salt lake city john ferrier's heart was sore within him when he thought of the young man's return and of the impending loss of his adopted child
yet her bright and happy face reconciled him to the arrangement more than any argument could have done he had always determined deep down in his resolute heart
such a marriage he regarded as no marriage at all but as a shame and a disgrace whatever he might think of the mormon doctrines upon that one point he was inflexible
he had to seal his mouth on the subject however for to express an unorthodox opinion was a dangerous matter in those days in the land of the saints yes a dangerous matter so dangerous that even the most saintly dared only whisper their religious opinions with bated breath
lest something which fell from their lips might be misconstrued and bring down a swift retribution upon them the victims of persecution had now turned persecutors on their own account and persecutors of the most terrible description not the inquisition of seville nor the german vehm gericht
nor the secret societies of italy were ever able to put a more formidable machinery in motion than that which cast a cloud over the state of utah its invisibility and the mystery which was attached to it made this organization doubly terrible it appeared to be omniscient and omnipotent
and yet was neither seen nor heard the man who held out against the church vanished away and none knew whither he had gone or what had befallen him his wife and his children awaited him at home but no father ever returned to tell them how he had fared at the hands of his secret judges
a rash word or a hasty act was followed by annihilation and yet none knew what the nature might be of this terrible power which was suspended over them no wonder that men went about in fear and trembling and that even in the heart of the wilderness they dared not whisper the doubts which oppressed them
wished afterwards to pervert or to abandon it soon however it took a wider range the supply of adult women was running short and polygamy without a female population on which to draw was a barren doctrine indeed
rumours of murdered immigrants and rifled camps in regions where indians had never been seen fresh women appeared in the harems of the elders women who pined and wept and bore upon their faces the traces of an unextinguishable horror
belated wanderers upon the mountains spoke of gangs of armed men masked stealthy and noiseless who flitted by them in the darkness these tales and rumours took substance and shape and were corroborated and re corroborated until they resolved themselves into a definite name
to this day in the lonely ranches of the west the name of the danite band or the avenging angels is a sinister and an ill omened one fuller knowledge of the organization which produced such terrible results served to increase rather than to lessen the horror which it inspired in the minds of men
none knew who belonged to this ruthless society the names of the participators in the deeds of blood and violence done under the name of religion were kept profoundly secret the very friend to whom you communicated your misgivings as to the prophet and his mission
might be one of those who would come forth at night with fire and sword to exact a terrible reparation hence every man feared his neighbour and none spoke of the things which were nearest his heart one fine morning john ferrier was about to set out to his wheatfields
when he heard the click of the latch and looking through the window saw a stout sandy haired middle aged man coming up the pathway his heart leapt to his mouth for this was none other than the great brigham young himself full of trepidation for he knew that such a visit boded him little good
ferrier ran to the door to greet the mormon chief the latter however received his salutations coldly and followed him with a stern face into the sitting room brother ferrier he said taking a seat and eyeing the farmer keenly from under his light coloured eyelashes
the true believers have been good friends to you we picked you up when you were starving in the desert we shared our food with you led you safe to the chosen valley gave you a goodly share of land and allowed you to wax rich under our protection is not this so
it is so answered john ferrier in return for all this we asked but one condition that was that you should embrace the true faith and conform in every way to its usages this you promised to do and this if common report says truly you have neglected
and how have i neglected it asked ferrier throwing out his hands in expostulation have i not given to the common fund have i not attended at the temple have i not where are your wives asked young looking round him call them in that i may greet them
it is true that i have not married ferrier answered but women were few and there were many who had better claims than i i was not a lonely man i had my daughter to attend to my wants it is of that daughter that i would speak to you said the leader of the mormons
this must be the gossip of idle tongues what is the thirteenth rule in the code of the sainted joseph smith
this being so it is impossible that you who profess the holy creed should suffer your daughter to violate it john ferrier made no answer but he played nervously with his riding whip
she shall have a month to choose said young rising from his seat at the end of that time she shall give her answer he was passing through the door when he turned with flushed face and flashing eyes it were better for you john ferrier he thundered
that you and she were now lying blanched skeletons upon the sierra blanco than that you should put your weak wills against the orders of the holy four with a threatening gesture of his hand he turned from the door and ferrier heard his heavy step scrunching along the shingly path
he was still sitting with his elbows upon his knees considering how he should broach the matter to his daughter when a soft hand was laid upon his and looking up he saw her standing beside him one glance at her pale frightened face showed him that she had heard what had passed
i could not help it she said in answer to his look his voice rang through the house oh father father what shall we do don't you scare yourself he answered drawing her to him and passing his broad rough hand caressingly over her chestnut hair
we'll fix it up somehow or another you don't find your fancy kind o lessening for this chap do you
no of course not i shouldn't care to hear you say you did
there's a party starting for nevada to morrow and i'll manage to send him a message letting him know the hole we are in
lucy laughed through her tears at her father's description when he comes he will advise us for the best but it is for you that i am frightened dear one hears one hears such dreadful stories about those who oppose the prophet something terrible always happens to them
but we haven't opposed him yet her father answered it will be time to look out for squalls when we do we have a clear month before us at the end of that i guess we had best shin out of utah leave utah that's about the size of it
but the farm we will raise as much as we can in money and let the rest go
i don't care about knuckling under to any man as these folk do to their darned prophet i'm a free born american and it's all new to me guess i'm too old to learn if he comes browsing about this farm he might chance to run up against a charge of buckshot travelling in the opposite direction
but they won't let us leave his daughter objected wait till jefferson comes and we'll soon manage that in the meantime don't you fret yourself my dearie and don't get your eyes swelled up else he'll be walking into me when he sees you
john ferrier uttered these consoling remarks in a very confident tone
were nerve racking for all concerned held by missus jane's insistence that they weren't sure yet that the thing was true the family steadfastly refused to give out any definite information even the eager harriet yielded to jane on this point
acknowledging that it would be mortifying of course if they should talk and nothing came of it their enigmatic answers to questions and their expressive shrugs and smiles however were almost as exciting as the rumors themselves
and the blaisdells became at once a veritable storm center of surmises and gossip a state of affairs not at all unpleasing to some of them missus harriet in particular miss maggie duff however was not so well pleased
to mister smith one day she freed her mind and miss maggie so seldom freed her mind that mister smith was not a little surprised i wish she began i do wish that if that chicago lawyer is coming he'd come and get done with it
certainly the present state of affairs is almost unbearable it does make it all the harder for you to have it drag along like this doesn't it murmured mister smith uneasily for me that you are not included in the bequest i mean
she gave an impatient gesture i didn't mean that i wasn't thinking of myself besides as i've told you before there is no earthly reason why i should have been included
it's the delay i mean for the blaisdells for the whole town for that matter this eternal did you know and they say is getting on my nerves why miss maggie i didn't suppose you had any nerves bantered the man
she threw him an expressive glance haven't i she retorted then again she gave the impatient gesture but even the gossip and the questioning aren't the worst it's the family themselves
between hattie's pulling one way and jane the other i feel like a bone between two quarrelsome puppies hattie is already house hunting on the sly and she's bought bessie an expensive watch and a string of gold beads
jane on the other hand insists that mister fulton will come back and claim the money so she's running her house now on the principle that she's lost a hundred thousand dollars and so must economize in every possible way you can imagine it
i don't have to imagine it murmured the man miss maggie laughed i forgot of course you don't you do live there don't you but that isn't all flora poor soul went into a restaurant the other day and ordered roast turkey
and now she's worrying for fear the money won't come and justify her extravagance mellicent with implicit faith that the hundred thousand is coming wants to wear her best frocks every day and as if she were not already quite excited enough young pennock
has very obviously begun to sit up and take notice you don't mean he is trying to come back so soon disbelieved mister smith well he's evidently caught the glitter of the gold from afar smiled miss maggie at all events he's taking notice
and miss mellicent there was a note of anxiety in mister smith's voice doesn't see him apparently but she comes and tells me his every last move and he's making quite a number of them just now
so i think she does see a little the young rascal but she doesn't care i think not really
she's just excited now as any young girl would be and i'm afraid she's taking a little wicked pleasure in not seeing him humph i can imagine it chuckled mister smith but it's all bad this delay
chafed miss maggie again don't you see it's neither one thing nor another that's why i do wish that lawyer would come if he's coming i reckon he'll be here before long murmured mister smith with an elaborately casual air
but i wish you were coming in on the deal his kindly eyes were gazing straight into her face now she shook her head i'm a duff not a blaisdell except when they want she bit her lip
a confused red suffused her face i mean i'm not a blaisdell at all she finished hastily humph that's exactly it mister smith was sitting energetically erect you're not a blaisdell except when they want something of you
oh please i didn't mean to say i didn't say that cried miss maggie in very genuine distress no i know you didn't but i did flared the man miss maggie it's a downright shame the way they impose on you sometimes
nonsense i like to have them i mean i like to do what i can for them she corrected hastily laughing in spite of herself you like to get all tired out i suppose i get rested afterward
and it doesn't matter anyway of course he gibed not a bit she smiled yes i suspected that mister smith was still sitting erect still speaking with grim terseness
doctrine that it doesn't matter doctrine of yours i tell you it's very pernicious very i don't approve of it at all there was a moment's silence no miss maggie said then demurely
oh well it doesn't matter if you don't he caught the twinkle in her eyes and threw up his hands despairingly you are incorrigible with a sudden businesslike air of determination miss maggie faced him
just what is the matter with that doctrine please and what do you mean she smiled i mean that things do matter and that we merely shut our eyes to the real facts in the case when we say that they don't war death sin evil
the world is full of them and they do matter they do matter indeed miss maggie was speaking very gravely now they matter woefully i never say it doesn't matter to war or death or sin or evil but there are other things
but the other things matter too interrupted the man irritably right here and now it matters that you don't share in the money it matters that you slave half your time for a father who doesn't anywhere near appreciate you
it matters that you slave the rest of the time for every tom and dick and harry and jane and mehitable in hillerton that has run a sliver under a thumb either literally or metaphorically it matters that
i do too it's you who don't know what you are saying but pray what would you have me say she smiled i'd have you say it does matter and i'd have you insist on having your rights every time
and what if i had she retaliated sharply my rights indeed the man fell back so sudden and so astounding was the change that had come to the woman opposite him
she was leaning forward in her chair her lips trembling her eyes a smouldering flame what if i had insisted on my rights all the way up she quivered
would i have come home that first time from college would i have stepped into mother blaisdell's shoes and kept the house would i have swept and baked and washed and ironed day in and day out to make a home for father and for jim and frank and flora
would i have come back again and again when my beloved books were calling calling always calling would i have seen other girls love and marry and go to homes of their own while i oh what am i saying what am i saying she choked
covering her eyes with the back of her hand and turning her face away please if you can forget what i said indeed i never broke out like that before i am so ashamed
and i can't think why i should have been so so wild it was just something that you said about my rights i think you see all my life i've just had to learn to say it doesn't matter
when there were so many things i wanted to do and couldn't and don't you see i found out after a while that it didn't really matter half so much college and my own little wants and wishes as that i should do what i had to do
willingly and pleasantly at home but good heavens how could you keep from tearing round and throwing things i couldn't all the time i i smashed a bowl once and two cups she laughed shamefacedly
and met his eyes now but i soon found that it didn't make me or anybody else any happier and that it didn't help things at all so i tried to do the other way and now please please say you'll forget all this what i've been saying
indeed mister smith i am very much ashamed forget it mister smith turned on his heel and marched up and down the room again confound that man what man mister stanley g fulton if you must know for not giving you any of that money
money money money miss maggie threw out both her hands with a gesture of repulsion if i've heard that word once i've heard it a hundred times in the last week sometimes i wish i might never hear it again
you don't want to be deaf do you well you'd have to be to escape hearing that word i suppose so but again she threw out her hands you don't mean mister smith was regarding her with curious interest
she hesitated then she sighed oh yes of course we all want money we have to have money too but i don't think it's everything in the world by any means you don't think it brings happiness then
sometimes sometimes not most of er us would be willing to take the risk most of us would
don't you think this money is going to bring happiness to them there was no answer miss maggie seemed to be thinking miss maggie exclaimed mister smith with a concern all out of proportion to his supposed interest in the matter
you don't mean to say you don't think this money is going to bring them happiness miss maggie laughed a little oh no this money'll bring them happiness all right of course particularly to some of them
but i was just wondering if you don't know how to spend five dollars so as to get the most out of it
chapter eleven santa claus arrives it was not long after this that mister smith found a tall gray haired man with keen gray eyes talking with missus jane blaisdell and mellicent in the front room over the grocery store well began mister smith
a joyful light of recognition in his eyes then suddenly he stooped and picked up something from the floor when he came upright his face was very red he did not look at the tall gray haired man again as he advanced into the room mellicent turned to him eagerly
oh mister smith it's the lawyer he's come and it's true it is true this is mister smith mister norton murmured missus jane blaisdell to the keen eyed man who also for no apparent reason had grown very red
mister smith's a blaisdell too distant you know he's doing a blaisdell book indeed how interesting how are you mister smith
so you're a blaisdell too are you
but not near enough to come in on the money of course explained missus jane
oh i see so he isn't near enough to come in on the money this time it was the lawyer who was smiling straight into mister smith's eyes but he did not smile for long a sudden question from mellicent seemed to freeze the smile on his lips
mister norton please what was mister stanley g fulton like she begged why er you must have seen his pictures in the papers stammered the lawyer yes what was he like do tell us urged mister smith with a bland smile as he seated himself why er
the lawyer came to a still more unhappy pause of course we've seen his pictures broke in mellicent but those don't tell us anything and you knew him so won't you tell us what he was like please while we're waiting for father to come up was he nice and jolly or was he stiff and haughty what was he like
yes what was he like coaxed mister smith again mister smith for some reason seemed to be highly amused the lawyer lifted his head suddenly an odd flash came to his eyes like oh just an ordinary man you know somewhat conceited of course
a queer little half gasp came from mister smith but the lawyer was not looking at mister smith eccentric you've heard that probably and he has done crazy things and no mistake of course with his money and position
mister smith gave a real gasp this time and missus jane blaisdell ejaculated there i told you so i knew something was wrong and now he'll come back and claim the money you see if he don't and if we've gone and spent any of it
give yourself no uneasiness on that score madam the lawyer assured her gravely i think i can safely guarantee he will not do that then you think he's dead
dead or alive he has no further power over that money now
it is yours bowed the lawyer but mister smith says we've probably got to pay a tax on it thrust in missus jane in a worried voice
and isn't there any way we can save doing that before mister norton could answer a heavy step down the hall heralded mister frank blaisdell's advance and in the ensuing confusion of his arrival mister smith slipped away
but afterwards she concluded she must have been mistaken for the two men appeared to become at once the best of friends mister norton remained in town several days and frequently she saw him and mister smith chatting pleasantly together or starting off apparently for a walk
mellicent was very sure therefore that she must have been mistaken in thinking she had heard mister smith utter so remarkable an exclamation as he left the room that first day
during the stay of mister norton in hillerton and for some days afterward the blaisdells were too absorbed in the mere details of acquiring and temporarily investing their wealth to pay attention to anything else
finding a place to put it as miss flora breathlessly termed it missus hattie said that for her part she should like to leave their share all in the bank
then she'd have it to spend whenever she wanted it she yielded to the shocked protestations of the others however and finally consented that her husband should invest a large part of it in the bonds he so wanted leaving a generous sum in the bank in her own name
she was assured that the bonds were just as good as money anyway as they were the kind that were readily convertible into cash missus jane when she understood the matter was for investing every cent of theirs where it would draw the largest interest possible
missus jane had never before known very much about interest and she was fascinated with its delightful possibilities she spent whole days joyfully figuring percentages and was awakened from her happy absorption
only by the unpleasant realization that her husband was not in sympathy with her ideas at all he said that the money was his not hers and that for once in his life he was going to have his way
his way in this case proved to be the prompt buying out of the competing grocery on the other corner and the establishing of good sized bank account the rest of the money he said jane might invest for a hundred per cent if she wanted to
jane was pleased to this extent and asked if it were possible that she could get such a splendid rate as one hundred per cent she had not figured on that she was not so pleased later when mister norton and the bankers told her what she could get with safety
and she was very angry because they finally appealed to her husband and she was obliged to content herself with a paltry five or six per cent
she told flora that she ought to thank her stars that she had the money herself in her own name to do just as she pleased with without any old fogy men bossing her but flora only shivered and said mercy me and that for her part she wished she didn't have to say what to do with it
and she supposed she would buy things with it after a while when she got used to it and was not afraid to spend it miss flora was indeed quite breathless most of the time these days
and she showed herself eager always to take their advice but she wished they would not ask her opinion she was always afraid to give it and she didn't have one anyway only she did worry of course
it was so comforting always to see them smile and hear them say perfectly my dear miss flora perfectly give yourself no uneasiness to be sure one day the big fat man not mister chalmers did snap out
no madam only the lord almighty can guarantee a government bond the whole country may be blown to atoms by a volcano to morrow morning she was startled terribly startled
but she saw at once of course that it must be just his way of joking for of course there wasn't any volcano big enough to blow up the whole united states
she never liked that fat man again after that she always talked to mister chalmers or to the other man with a wart on his nose miss flora had never had a check book before but she tried very hard to learn how to use it and to show herself not too stupid
she was glad there were such a lot of checks in the book but she didn't believe she'd ever spend them all such a lot of money she had had a savings bank book to be sure but she not been able to put anything in the bank for a long time and she had been worrying a good deal lately for fear she would have to draw some out business had been so dull
they told her that she could have all the money she wanted by just filling out one of the little slips in her check book the way they had told her to do it and taking it to mister chalmers's bank that there were a good many thousand dollars there waiting for her to spend just as she liked
and that when they were gone mister chalmers would tell her how to sell some of her bonds and get more it seemed very wonderful there were other things too that they had told her too many for her to remember something about interest and things called coupons that must be cut off the bonds at certain times
she tried to remember it all but mister chalmers had been very kind and had told her not to fret he would help her when the time came meanwhile he had rented her a nice tin box that pulled out like a drawer in the safety deposit vault under the bank
where she could keep her bonds and all the other papers such a lot of them that mister chalmers told her she must keep very carefully but it was all so new and complicated and everybody was always talking at once so no wonder indeed that miss flora was quite breathless with it all
they became suddenly aware of the attention hillerton was paying to them the whole town was agog the grocery store the residence of frank blaisdell and miss flora's humble cottage might be found at nearly any daylight hour with from one to a dozen curious eyed gazers on the sidewalk before them
the town paper had contained an elaborate account of the bequest and the remarkable circumstances attending it and hillerton became the mecca of wandering automobiles for miles around big metropolitan dailies got wind of the affair recognized the magic name of stanley g fulton
and sent reporters post haste to hillerton speculation as to whether the multi millionaire was really dead was prevalent everywhere and a search for some clue to his reported south american exploring expedition was undertaken in several quarters
various rumors concerning the expedition appeared immediately but none of them seemed to have any really solid foundation interviews with the great law firm having the handling of mister fulton's affairs were printed but even here little could be learned save the mere fact of the letter of instructions
upon which they had acted according to directions and the other fact that there still remained one more packet understood to be the last will and testament to be opened in two years time if mister fulton remained unheard from
the lawyers were bland and courteous but they really had nothing to say they declared beyond the already published facts in hillerton the blaisdells accepted this notoriety with characteristic variation
miss flora after cordially welcoming one nice young man and telling him all about how strange and wonderful it was and how frightened she felt was so shocked and distressed to find all that she said and a great deal that she did not say
staring at her from the first page of a big newspaper that she forthwith barred her doors and refused to open them till she satisfied herself by surreptitious peeps through the blinds that it was only a neighbor who was knocking for admittance
an offer of marriage from a western ranchman and another from a vermont farmer both entire strangers did not tend to lessen her perturbation of mind frank at the grocery store rather welcomed questioners so long as there was a hope of turning them into customers
but his wife and mellicent showed almost as much terror of them as did miss flora herself james blaisdell and fred stoically endured such as refused to be silenced by their brusque non committalism
of them all perhaps missus hattie was the only one that found in it any real joy and comfort even bessie excited and interested as she was failed to respond with quite the enthusiasm that her mother showed
missus hattie saw every reporter talked freely of dear cousin stanley and his wonderful generosity and explained that she would go into mourning of course if she knew he was really dead
she sat for two new portraits for newspaper use besides graciously posing for staff photographers whenever requested to do so
mister smith these days was keeping rather closely to his work especially when reporters were in evidence he had been heard to remark indeed that he had no use for reporters
certainly he fought shy of those investigating the fulton blaisdell legacy he read the newspaper accounts though most attentively particularly the ones from chicago that mister norton kindly sent him sometimes it was in one of these papers that he found this paragraph
the bequests have been paid the blaisdells are reveling in their new wealth and mister fulton is still unheard from there is nothing now to do but to await the opening of the second mysterious packet two years hence this it is understood is the final disposition of his estate
and if he is really dead such will doubtless prove to be the case there are those however who remembering the multi millionaire's well known eccentricities are suspecting him of living in quiet retirement somewhere laughing in his sleeve at the tempest in the teapot that he has created
and that long before the two years are up he will be back on chicago's streets debonair and smiling as ever the fact that so little can be found in regard to the south american exploring expedition might give color to this suspicion
mister smith did not show this paragraph to the blaisdells he destroyed the paper containing it indeed promptly and effectually with a furtive glance over his shoulder as he did so it was at about this time too that mister smith began to complain of his eyes and to wear smoked glasses
he said he found the new snow glaring but you look so funny mister smith said benny the first time he saw him why i didn't hardly know you didn't you benny asked mister smith with suddenly a beaming countenance oh well that doesn't matter does it
the little girl laughed quietly as she watched them they are so happy they love this pleasant summer time as much as i do she said to herself but the moment she heard her mother's voice
she turned quickly toward the house without stopping a moment longer to see whether her pet hen biddy wee or cross old yellow legs got the most dinner mari never in her life thought of answering her parents by saying
or i'll come in a moment mari lives in norway and norwegian parents train their children to obey without delay the little girl was only too glad to come now however
her mother had promised she should learn to make flat bread to day she was pleased that she was old enough to be trusted with this important work why she could keep house alone when she had mastered this necessary art
and her mother could leave her in charge mari remembers when she was such a tiny tot that her head barely reached above the table even then she loved to watch her mother
as she sat at the big moulding board rolling out the dough until it was nearly as thin as paper this dough was made of barley meal
it was rolled out into sheets almost as wide as the table itself for each cake must be about a half yard across
then came the cooking the cake was lifted from the board to a hot flat stone on the fireplace where it was quickly baked how fast the pile grew and how skilful mother always was
she never seemed to burn or break a single cake wherever you go in mari's country you will find flat bread you can eat quantities of it if you like yet somehow
it will not easily check your hunger and it gives little strength now dear be careful not to get a grain of dust on the floor said her mother as mari stood at the table ready for directions
the child looked very pretty with her long light hair hanging down her back in two braids the snowy kerchief was tied under her chin just as it was when she came in from the farm yard
she had no need to put on an apron before beginning her work for she already wore one she was never without it in fact and hardly thought herself dressed in the morning
until her apron had been fastened around her plump little waist her cheeks looked rosy enough to kiss but such a thing seldom happened
shake hands with the baby and the children they would say but please don't kiss them they are wise in this don't you think so before mari had rolled out six cakes her cheeks grew rosier yet
it was hard work although it had seemed easy enough when mother was doing it the first three cakes had to be rolled over and over again because they would stick to the board
then the lifting was not such a simple thing as mari had supposed before she came to do it herself but she kept trying
her mother was very patient and encouraged her with loving smiles and kind words at last the little girl made a really good cake and landed it all by herself on the stone
without doubling or even wrinkling it good good said her mother you will soon be a real helper mari but now you have worked long enough for the first time i will finish the baking while you take the baby and give him an airing
and where was the baby bless him mari knew for she went at once to the other side of the room where a pole was fastened into the wall a big basket was hanging down from the end of this pole
and in the basket was a little blue eyed baby cooing softly to himself mari's mother was a very busy woman there was always something to do either inside the house or out of doors
she had very little time for holding a baby so when mari and her brothers were away at school and mother was left alone that dear little rosy cheeked fellow sometimes began to cry in a very lively manner
the cooking and the cheese making and the spinning must go on just the same and time could not be spent in holding a baby but he must be amused in some way so the strong pole was fastened into the wall
and the cradle attached to the end do you wonder what fun there could be in staying up in that basket hour after hour the baby enjoyed it
as long as he kept awake he could and did bob up and down that was amusement enough he was glad to see mari now she was a perfect little mother
and soon had his hood and cloak fastened on they were hardly needed for he was already done up in so many garments it didn't seem possible he could be cold wherever he went
the living room where mari had been working was large and high the beams were dark with age
was the big fireplace where all the cooking was done during the long winter evenings the family and servants sat in front of the blazing logs and told stories of the famous sea captains of the olden times
in whom mari firmly believed her mother laughed at the idea of these wonderful creatures yet after all it was not more than a hundred years ago that they seemed real to many grown up people
wonderful creatures who made themselves seen from time to time dwelt in the mountains the fields and the rivers this is what mari's great grandma had believed and was she not a sensible woman
it is no wonder therefore that our little cousin loved to think that these beings were still real when she went to sleep at night she often dreamed of the gnomes who live far down in the earth
or the giants who once dwelt among the mountains when she was very little she sometimes waked up from such dreams with a shiver o don't let the cruel giant get me she would cry
then she would jump out of her own little cot into the big bed of her parents she felt quite safe as soon as her mother's loving arms held her tightly and she was sound asleep again in a minute
that big bed certainly looked strong enough to be a fortress against the giants or any other of the wonderful creatures of fairy world it stood in the corner of the living room
where mari's mother worked all day and where the family ate and sat it was so high that even grown people did not get into it without climbing up the steps at one side it had a wooden top
which made it seem like a little house it was not as long as bedsteads in other countries no grown person could stretch out in it to his full length he must bend his knees or curl himself up in some way
all norwegian bedsteads are made in this way so they became used to it as they grew up but sometimes english travellers had stayed at the farmhouse all night when they had been overtaken by a storm
they would be sure to get up in the morning complaining they would say o yes this country of norway is very beautiful but why don't you have beds long enough for people to sleep in with comfort
the farm where mari lives lies in a narrow valley half a mile from the sea the cold winter winds are kept off by the mountain which stands behind the houses
yet i spoke of houses this is because the little girl's home is made up of several different houses instead of one large farmhouse such as one sees in america
he settled here when he was a young man mari's mother came here to live when they were married at that time there was but one house it contained the living room and the storeroom after a while another house was built close by
for there is no store within many miles of the farm mari's mother never says come my child run down the road and buy me five pounds of sugar or hurry dear go and get two pounds of steak for dinner
it would be useless for her to think of doing such a thing all the provisions the family may need must be obtained in large quantities from the distant city unless they are raised here on the farm
the storehouse was built very carefully it was raised higher than the other buildings so that rats and other wild creatures should have hard work to reach the supplies
there is not a great deal on hand now for it is summer time but in the autumn the bins will be full of vegetables and large quantities of fish and meats will hang from the rafters
she could go to spanish johnny's and sing part songs with the mexicans and nobody objected thea was still under the first excitement of teaching and was terribly in earnest about it
if a pupil did not get on well she fumed and fretted she counted until she was hoarse she listened to scales in her sleep wunsch had taught only one pupil seriously but thea taught
twenty the duller they were the more furiously she poked and prodded them with the little girls she was nearly always patient but with pupils older than herself she sometimes lost her temper
one of her mistakes was to let herself in for a calling down from missus livery johnson that lady appeared at the kronborgs one morning and announced that she would allow no girl to stamp her foot at her daughter grace
she added that thea's bad manners with the older girls were being talked about all over town and that if her temper did not speedily improve she would lose all her advanced pupils
thea was frightened she felt she could never bear the disgrace if such a thing happened besides what would her father say after he had gone to the expense of building an addition to the house
missus johnson demanded an apology to grace thea said she was willing to make it missus johnson said that hereafter since she had taken lessons of the best piano teacher in grinnell iowa
she herself would decide what pieces grace should study thea readily consented to that and missus johnson rustled away to tell a neighbor woman that thea kronborg could be meek enough when you went at her right
thea was telling ray about this unpleasant encounter as they were driving out to the sand hills the next sunday she was stuffing you all right thee ray reassured her
there's no general dissatisfaction among your scholars she just wanted to get in a knock
i talked to the piano tuner the last time he was here and he said all the people he tuned for expressed themselves very favorably about your teaching i wish you didn't take so much pains with them myself
but i have to ray they're all so dumb they've got no ambition thea exclaimed irritably jenny smiley is the only one who isn't stupid she can read pretty well
and she has such good hands but she don't care a rap about it she has no pride ray's face was full of complacent satisfaction as he glanced sidewise at thea
but she was looking off intently into the mirage at one of those mammoth cattle that are nearly always reflected there do you find it easier to teach in your new room he asked yes i'm not interrupted so much
that's always the night anna chooses to go to bed early it's a darned shame thee you didn't cop that room for yourself i'm sore at the padre about that he ought to give you that room
you could fix it up so pretty i didn't want it honest i didn't father would have let me have it i like my own room better somehow i can think better in a little room
besides up there i am away from everybody and i can read as late as i please and nobody nags me a growing girl needs lots of sleep ray providently remarked
thea moved restlessly on the buggy cushions they need other things more she muttered oh i forgot i brought something to show you look here it came on my birthday
wasn't it nice of him to remember she took from her pocket a postcard bent in the middle and folded and handed it to ray on it was a white dove perched on a wreath of very blue forget me nots
and birthday greetings in gold letters under this was written from a wunsch ray turned the card over examined the postmark and then began to laugh concord
kansas he has my sympathy why is that a poor town it's the jumping off place no town at all some houses dumped down in the middle of a cornfield
you get lost in the corn not even a saloon to keep things going sell whiskey without a license at the butcher shop beer on ice with the liver and beefsteak
i wouldn't stay there over sunday for a ten dollar bill oh dear what do you suppose he's doing there maybe he just stopped off there a few days to tune pianos thea suggested hopefully
ray gave her back the card he's headed in the wrong direction what does he want to get back into a grass country for now there are lots of good live towns down on the santa fe
and everybody down there is musical he could always get a job playing in saloons if he was dead broke i've figured out that i've got no years of my life to waste in a methodist country where they raise pork
we must stop on our way back and show this card to missus kohler she misses him so by the way thee
fritz tells me he has to wait till two o'clock for his sunday dinner these days the church people ought to give you credit for that when they go for you thea shook her head and spoke in a tone of resignation
they'll always go for me just as they did for wunsch it wasn't because he drank they went for him not really it was something else
and go to chicago and take some lessons
that's what they like i'll never have money enough to go to chicago mother meant to lend me some i think but now they've got hard times back in nebraska
and her farm don't bring her in anything takes all the tenant can raise to pay the taxes don't let's talk about that you promised to tell me about the play you went to see in denver
any one would have liked to hear ray's simple and clear account of the performance he had seen at the tabor grand opera house maggie mitchell in little barefoot
and any one would have liked to watch his kind face ray looked his best out of doors when his thick red hands were covered by gloves
and the dull red of his sunburned face somehow seemed right in the light and wind he looked better too with his hat on his hair was thin and dry with no particular color or character
regular willy boy hair as he himself described it
and who have been accustomed to train their vision upon distant objects ray realized that thea's life was dull and exacting and that she missed wunsch he knew she worked hard
that she put up with a great many little annoyances and that her duties as a teacher separated her more than ever from the boys and girls of her own age he did everything he could to provide recreation for her
from denver and kept his eyes and ears open for anything that might interest her he was of course living for thea he had thought it all out carefully and had made up his mind
just when he would speak to her when she was seventeen then he would tell her his plan and ask her to marry him he would be willing to wait two or even three years until she was twenty
if she thought best by that time he would surely have got in on something copper oil gold silver sheep something
meanwhile it was pleasure enough to feel that she depended on him more and more that she leaned upon his steady kindness he never broke faith with himself about her he never hinted to her of his hopes for the future
never suggested that she might be more intimately confidential with him or talked to her of the thing he thought about so constantly he had the chivalry which is perhaps the proudest possession of his race
he had never embarrassed her by so much as a glance sometimes when they drove out to the sand hills he let his left arm lie along the back of the buggy seat but it never came any nearer to thea than that never touched her
he often turned to her a face full of pride and frank admiration but his glance was never so intimate or so penetrating as doctor archie's his blue eyes were clear and shallow friendly
uninquiring he rested thea because he was so different because though he often told her interesting things he never set lively fancies going in her head because he never misunderstood her
and at eight years of age was put to a grammar school his readiness in learning and his attention to study confirmed the first intention of his parents
the plan also met with the approbation of his uncle benjamin who promised to give him some volumes of sermons that he had taken down in short hand
though he had risen to the head of his class and promised to be a very fine scholar
and could not carry him through a course of college education he accordingly changed his first purpose and sent benjamin to a school for writing and arithmetic kept by mister george
being mild and kind to his scholars but very successful in teaching them benjamin learned to write a good hand in a short time but he could not manage arithmetic so easily
at ten years of age he was taken from school to help his father in the business of a tallow chandler and was employed in cutting the wick for the candles going errands
and had a strong inclination to go to sea but his father opposed his wishes in this respect and determined to keep him at home the house in which he lived happened to be near the water
and benjamin was always playing with boats and swimming when sailing with other boys he was usually the leader
which bounded part of the mill pond on the edge of which the boys used to stand to fish for minnows they had trampled it so much however as to make it a mere quagmire franklin proposed to his friends to build a wharf there
for them to stand upon and showed them a large heap of stones which were intended for a new house near the marsh
and they worked diligently like so many emmets sometimes two or three to a stone till they had brought them all to make their little wharf on the next morning the workmen were surprised on missing the stones
the authors of the removal were detected complained of and punished by their parents franklin attempted to show the usefulness of their work but his father took that occasion to convince him
his brother john who had also been brought up to the trade had left his father married and set up for himself in rhode island
there was now every appearance that benjamin was destined to become a tallow chandler as his dislike to the trade continued his father was afraid that if he did not put benjamin to one that was more agreeable
he would run away and go to sea as an elder brother of his had done in consequence of this apprehension he used to take him to walk to see joiners bricklayers turners
determined on the cutler's trade and placed him for some days on trial with his cousin samuel who was bred to that trade in london and had just established himself in boston
it was then usual to ask a sum of money for receiving an apprentice and the cutler charged so much for taking benjamin that his father was displeased
benjamin had been passionately fond of reading and all the money that he could get was laid out in purchasing books he was very fond of voyages and travels
and stories of the strange people and customs they met with
were the works of a famous old english writer named john bunyan these he afterwards sold in order to purchase some volumes of historical collections
his father's library consisted principally of works on divinity
beside these there was a book by de foe the author of robinson crusoe and another called an essay to do good by doctor mather
though he had already one son in that employment in seventeen seventeen this son returned from england with a press and letters to set up his business in boston
benjamin liked this trade much better than that of his father but still had a desire to go to sea to prevent this step
as the event on which it was founded had recently occurred and made a great deal of noise this success flattered his vanity very much but his father discouraged him by criticising his ballads and telling him
and led him to devote more time and care to prose compositions he was at this time intimately acquainted with another lad very fond of books named john collins
they sometimes discussed different questions together and had become very apt
and their abilities for these studies as they parted without settling the point and were not to see one another again for a long time franklin sat down to put his arguments in writing
when the father of franklin happened to find the papers and read them without entering into the subject in dispute he took occasion to talk to him about his manner of writing
he marked the defects in his expressions and in the arrangement of his sentences but gave him the credit of spelling and pointing with great correctness
he bought it read it over and over and was much delighted with it this book was now his continual study and he himself tried to write as much as possible in its very pleasant
and popular style the improvement which he made was encouraging
become a good english writer
the cause of which was as follows when he ran away from mistletoe as he certainly did he had thought much about that journey home in the carriage and was quite aware that he had made an ass of himself
his neighbour had said some word to him in joke as to his attachment to miss trefoil and after the ladies had left the room another neighbour of the other sex had hoped that he had had a pleasant time on the road
again in the drawing room it had seemed to him that he was observed he could not refrain from saying a few words to arabella as she lay on the sofa not to do so after what had occurred would have been in itself peculiar but when he did so
some other man who was near her made way for him as though she were acknowledged to be altogether his property and then the duchess had striven to catch him and lead him into special conversation when this attempt was made
he decided that he must at once retreat or else make up his mind to marry the young lady and therefore he retreated he breakfasted that morning at the inn at stamford and as he smoked his cigar afterwards
he positively resolved that he would under no circumstances marry arabella trefoil he was being hunted and run down and with the instinct of all animals that are hunted he prepared himself for escape
it might be said no doubt would be said that he behaved badly that would be said because it would not be open to him to tell the truth the lady in such a case can always tell her story
with what exaggeration she may please to give and can complain the man never can do so
she would fall into my arms she would embrace me she persisted in asking me whether i loved her though a man have to be shot for it or kicked for it or even though he have to endure perpetual scorn for it
he cannot say that let it be ever so true and yet is a man to be forced into a marriage which he despises he would not be forced into the marriage and the sooner he retreated
the less would be the metaphorical shooting and kicking and the real scorn he must get out of it as best he could but that he would get out of it he was quite determined
that afternoon he reached mister surbiton's house as did also captain battersby and his horses grooms and other belongings when there he received a lot of letters and
inquiring as to a certain hiring of rooms and preparation for a dinner or dinners which had been spoken of in reference to a final shooting decreed to take place in the neighbourhood of dillsborough in the last week of january
such things were often planned by lord rufford and afterwards forgotten or neglected
he had not intended to go to mistletoe nor to stay so long with his friend surbiton but now he almost thought that it would be better for him to be back at rufford hall where at present his sister was staying with her husband sir george penwether
his old friend tom surbiton said a few words to him which had the effect of sending him back to rufford they had sat out the rest of the men who formed the party and were alone in the smoking room so you're going to marry miss trefoil said tom surbiton
who perhaps of all his friends was the most intimate who says so i am saying so at present you are not saying it on your own authority you have never seen me and miss trefoil in a room together
of course such a thing cannot be arranged without being talked about it has not been arranged if you don't mean to have it arranged you had better look to it i am speaking in earnest rufford i am not going to give up authorities indeed if i did
very servants suppose that they know it and there isn't a groom or horseboy about who isn't in his heart
i'll tell you what it is tom well what is it if this had come from any other man than yourself i should quarrel with him i am not engaged to the young lady nor have i done anything to warrant anybody in saying so
then i may contradict it i don't want you either to contradict it or affirm it it would be an impertinence to the young lady if i were to instruct any one to contradict such a report but as a fact i am not engaged to marry miss trefoil
nor is there the slightest chance that i ever shall be so engaged so saying he took up his candlestick and walked off early on the next morning he saw his friend and made some sort of laughing apology for his heat on the previous evening
it is so d hard when these kind of things are said because a man has lent a young lady a horse however tom between you and me the thing is a lie i am very glad to hear it said tom
and now i want you to come over to rufford on the twenty eighth then he explained the details of his proposed party and got his friend to promise that he would come he also made it understood that he was going home at once
there were a hundred things he said which made it necessary
and lord rufford left his friend on that day and went up to london on his road to rufford he was certainly disturbed in his mind foreseeing that there might be much difficulty in his way
he remembered with fair accuracy all that had occurred during the journey from stamford to mistletoe he felt assured that up to that time he had said nothing which could be taken to mean a real declaration of love all that at rufford had been nothing
in the carriage she had asked him whether he loved her and he had said that he did he had also declared that he would do anything in his power to make her happy was a man to be bound to marry a girl because of such a scene as that there was however
nothing for him to do except to keep out of the girl's way if she took any steps then he must act but as he thought of it he swore to himself that nothing should induce him to marry her
he remained a couple of days in town and reached rufford hall on the monday just a week from the day of that fatal meet at peltry there he found sir george and his sister and miss penge and spent his first evening in quiet
he invited hampton to shoot with him surbiton and battersby were coming and his brother in law not wishing to have less than six guns he asked hampton how he could make up his party morton doesn't shoot he said and is as stiff as a post
i'm sick of both the botseys continued the lord thinking more of his party than of mister morton's health purefoy is still sulky with me because he killed poor old caneback then hampton suggested that if he would ask
it might be the means of saving that unfortunate young man's life the story of his unrequited love was known to every one at dillsborough and it was now told to lord rufford he is not half a bad fellow said hampton
and quite as much like a gentleman as either of the botseys i shall be delighted to save the life of so good a man on such easy terms said the lord then and there with a pencil on the back of an old letter
he wrote a line to larry asking him to shoot on next saturday and to dine with him afterwards at the bush that evening on his return home he found both the letters from arabella as it happened he read them in the order in which they had been written
first the laughing letter and then the one that was declared to be serious the earlier of the two did not annoy him much it contained hardly more than those former letters which had induced him to go to mistletoe
but the second letter opened up her entire strategy she had told the duchess that she was engaged to him and the duchess of course would have told the duke and now she wrote to him asking him to acknowledge the engagement in black and white
the first letter he might have ignored he might have left it unanswered without gross misconduct but the second letter which she herself had declared to be a serious epistle was one which he could not neglect
now had come his difficulty what must he do how should he answer it was it imperative on him to write the words with his own hand would it be possible that he should get his sister to undertake the commission
he said nothing about it to any one for four and twenty hours but he passed those hours in much discomfort it did seem so hard to him that because he had been forced to carry a lady home from hunting in a postchaise
that he should be driven to such straits as this the girl was evidently prepared to make a fight of it there would be the duke and the duchess and that prig mistletoe and that idle ass lord augustus
and that venomous old woman her mother all at him he almost doubted whether a shooting excursion in central africa or a visit to the pampas would not be the best thing for him but still
though he should resolve to pass five years among the andes he must answer the lady's letter before he went then he made up his mind that he would tell everything to his brother in law as far as everything can be told in such a matter
sir george was near fifty full fifteen years older than his wife who was again older than her brother he was a man of moderate wealth very much respected and supposed to be possessed of almost infinite wisdom
he was one of those few human beings who seem never to make a mistake whatever he put his hand to came out well and yet everybody liked him his brother in law was a little afraid of him but yet was always glad to see him
he kept an excellent house in london but having no country house of his own passed much of his time at rufford hall when the owner was not there
sir george was much attached to him and always ready to help him in his difficulties penwether said the lord i have got myself into an awful scrape i am sorry to hear it a woman i suppose oh yes
i never gamble and therefore no other scrape can be awful a young lady wants to marry me that is not unnatural but i am quite determined let the result be what it may that i won't marry the young lady
is the young lady miss trefoil i did not mean to mention any name till i was sure it might be necessary but it is miss trefoil eleanor had told me something of it
the young lady was here with her mother and for the matter of that with a gentleman to whom she was certainly engaged but nothing particular occurred here that unfortunate ball was going on when poor caneback was dying
but i met her since that at mistletoe i can hardly advise you know unless you tell me everything then lord rufford began these kind of things are sometimes deuced hard upon a man
of course if a man were a saint or a philosopher or a joseph he wouldn't get into such scrapes and perhaps every man ought to be something of that sort
but i don't know how a man is to do it unless it's born with him a little prudence i should say you might as well tell a fellow that it is his duty to be six feet high but what have you said to the young lady
or what has she said to you there has been a great deal more of the latter than the former i say so to you but of course it is not to be said that i have said so i cannot go forth to the world complaining of a young lady's conduct to me
it is a matter in which a man must not tell the truth but what is the truth she writes me word to say that she has told all her friends that i am engaged to her
and kindly presses me to make good her assurances by becoming so and what has passed between you a fainting fit in a carriage and half a dozen kisses nothing more nothing more that is material
of course one cannot tell it all down to each mawkish word of humbugging sentiment there are her letters and what i want you to remember is that i never asked her to be my wife and that no consideration on earth shall induce me to become her husband
though all the duchesses in england were to persecute me to the death i mean to stick to that then sir george read the letters and handed them back she seems to me said he to have more wit about her
than any of the family that i have had the honour of meeting she has wit enough and pluck too you have never said a word to her to encourage these hopes my dear penwether
don't you know that if a man with a large income says to a girl like that that the sun shines he encourages hope i understand that well enough i am a rich man with a title and a big house and a great command of luxuries
there are so many young ladies who would also like to be rich and to have a title and a big house and a command of luxuries one sometimes feels oneself like a carcase in the midst of vultures marry after a proper fashion
and you'll get rid of all that i'll think about it but in the meantime what can i say to this young woman when i acknowledge that i kissed her of course i encouraged hopes no doubt
but saint anthony would have had to kiss this young woman if she had made her attack upon him as she did on me and after all a kiss doesn't go for everything these are things penwether that must not be inquired into too curiously
but i won't marry her though it were a score of kisses and now what must i do sir george said that he would take till the next morning to think about it
his christmas gift the prisoner will stand droned out the clerk in the court of general sessions filippo portoghese you are convicted of assault with intent to kill
a sallow man with a hopeless look in his heavy eyes rose slowly in his seat and stood facing the judge there was a pause in the hum and bustle of the court as men turned to watch the prisoner he did not look like a man who would take a neighbor's life
and yet so nearly had he done so of set purpose it had been abundantly proved that his victim would carry the disfiguring scar of the bullet to the end of his life and only by what seemed an almost miraculous chance had escaped death
the story as told by witnesses and substantially uncontradicted was this portoghese and vito ammella whom he shot were neighbors under the same roof ammella kept the grocery on the ground floor
portoghese lived upstairs in the tenement he was a prosperous peaceful man with a family of bright children with whom he romped and played happily when home from his barber shop
the black hand fixed its evil eye upon the family group and saw its chance one day a letter came demanding a thousand dollars portoghese put it aside with the comment that this was new york not italy
other letters followed threatening harm to his children portoghese paid no attention but his wife worried one day the baby little vito was missing and in hysterics she ran to her husband's shop
crying that the black hand had stolen the child the barber hurried home and sought high and low at last he came upon the child sitting on ammella's doorstep he had wandered away and brought up at the grocery asked where he had been
the child pointed to the store portoghese flew in and demanded to know what ammella was doing with his boy the grocer was in a bad humor and swore at him there was an altercation and ammella attacked the barber with a broom beating him
and driving him away from his door black with anger portoghese ran to his room and returned with a revolver in the fight that followed he shot ammella through the head he was arrested and thrown into jail
in the hospital the grocer hovered between life and death for many weeks portoghese lay in the tombs awaiting trial for more than a year believing still that he was the victim of a black hand conspiracy when at last the trial came on his savings were all gone
and of the once prosperous and happy man only a shadow was left he sat in the court room and listened in moody silence to the witnesses who told how he had unjustly suspected and nearly murdered his friend he was speedily convicted
and the day of his sentence was fixed for christmas eve it was certain that it would go hard with him the italians were too prone to shoot and stab said the newspapers and the judges were showing no mercy the witnesses had told the truth
but there were some things they did not know and that did not get into the evidence the prisoner's wife was ill from grief and want their savings of years gone to lawyer's fees they were on the verge of starvation the children were hungry
with the bells ringing in the glad holiday they were facing bitter homelessness in the winter streets for the rent was in arrears and the landlord would not wait and papa away now for the second christmas and maybe for many yet to come ten
the lawyer and jury had said this was new york not italy in the tombs the prisoner said it over to himself bitterly he had thought only of defending his own
so now he stood looking the judge and the jury in the face yet hardly seeing them he saw only the prison gates opening for him and the gray walls shutting him out from his wife and little ones for how many christmases was it
one two three he fell to counting them over mentally and did not hear when his lawyer whispered and nudged him with his elbow the clerk repeated his question but he merely shook his head
what should he have to say had he not said it to these men and they did not believe him about little vito who was lost and his wife who cried her eyes out because of the black hand letters
and we should have no unkind thoughts i have none against filippo here and i ask you to let him go it grew very still in the court room as he spoke and paused for an answer lawyers looked up from their briefs in astonishment
the jurymen in the box leaned forward and regarded the convicted man and his victim with rapt attention such a plea had not been heard in that place before portoghese stood mute the voice sounded strange and far away to him
he felt a hand upon his shoulder that was the hand of a friend and shifted his feet uncertainly but made no response the gray haired judge regarded the two gravely but kindly your wish comes from a kind heart
he said but this man has been convicted
there is nothing in it that allows us to let a guilty man go free the jurymen whispered together and one of them arose your honor he said
came into the world at christmas that we love one another these men would obey it will you not let them the jury pray as one man that you let mercy go before justice on this holy eve
a smile lit up judge o'sullivan's face filippo portoghese he said you are a very fortunate man the law bids me send you to prison for ten years and but for a miraculous chance
would have condemned you to death but the man you maimed for life pleads for you and the jury that convicted you begs that you go free the court remembers what you have suffered and it knows the plight of your family
go then to your home and to you gentlemen a happy holiday such as you have given him and his this court stands adjourned the voice of the crier was lost in a storm of applause
the jury rose to their feet and cheered judge complainant and defendant portoghese who had stood as one dazed raised eyes that brimmed with tears to the bench and to his old neighbor he understood at last
ammella threw his arm around him and kissed him on both cheeks his disfigured face beaming with joy one of the jurymen a jew put his hand impulsively in his pocket emptied it into his hat
and passed the hat to his neighbor all the others followed his example
two hundred eleven on the extinction of the venetian republic once did she hold the gorgeous east in fee
and was the safeguard of the west the worth of venice did not fall below her birth venice the eldest child of liberty
no guile seduced no force could violate and when she took unto herself a mate she must espouse the everlasting sea and what if she had seen those glories fade
those titles vanish and that strength decay yet shall some tribute of regret be paid when her long life hath reach'd its final day men are we
and must grieve when even the shade of that which once was great has pass'd away
o friend i know not which way i must look for comfort being as i am opprest to think that now our life is only drest for show
mean handiwork of craftsman cook or groom we must run glittering like a brook in the open sunshine or we are unblest the wealthiest man among us is the best
no grandeur now in nature or in book delights us rapine avarice expense this is idolatry and these we adore
plain living and high thinking are no more the homely beauty of the good old cause is gone our peace our fearful innocence and pure religion breathing household laws
the same milton thou shouldst be living at this hour england hath need of thee she is a fen of stagnant waters
altar sword and pen fireside the heroic wealth of hall and bower have forfeited their ancient english dower of inward happiness we are selfish men
o raise us up return to us again and give us manners virtue freedom power thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea
pure as the naked heavens majestic free so didst thou travel on life's common way in cheerful godliness and yet thy heart the lowliest duties on herself did lay
when i have borne in memory what has tamed great nations how ennobling thoughts depart when men change swords for ledgers and desert the student's bower for gold
some fears unnamed i had my country am i to be blamed now when i think of thee and what thou art verily in the bottom of my heart of those unfilial fears i am ashamed
for dearly must we prize thee we who find in thee a bulwark of the cause of men
what wonder if a poet now and then among the many movements of his mind felt for thee as a lover or a child
two hundred fifteen hohenlinden on linden when the sun was low all bloodless lay the untrodden snow
and dark as winter was the flow of iser rolling rapidly but linden saw another sight when the drum beat at dead of night
commanding fires of death to light the darkness of her scenery by torch and trumpet fast array'd each horseman drew his battle blade
and furious every charger neigh'd to join the dreadful revelry then shook the hills with thunder riven then rush'd the steed to battle driven
and louder than the bolts of heaven far flash'd the red artillery but redder yet that light shall glow
and bloodier yet the torrent flow of iser rolling rapidly tis morn but scarce yon level sun can pierce the war clouds rolling dun
where furious frank and fiery hun shout in their sulphurous canopy the combat deepens on ye brave who rush to glory or the grave
wave munich all thy banners wave and charge with all thy chivalry few few shall part where many meet the snow shall be their winding sheet
and every turf beneath their feet shall be a soldier's sepulchre
two hundred sixteen after blenheim it was a summer evening old kaspar's work was done
and he before his cottage door was sitting in the sun and by him sported on the green his little grandchild wilhelmine she saw her brother peterkin
roll something large and round which he beside the rivulet in playing there had found he came to ask what he had found that was so large and smooth and round
old kaspar took it from the boy who stood expectant by and then the old man shook his head and with a natural sigh tis some poor fellow's skull said he
who fell in the great victory i find then in the garden for there's many here about and often when i go to plough the ploughshare turns them out
for many thousand men said he were slain in that great victory now tell us what twas all about young peterkin he cries and little wilhelmine looks up with wonder waiting eyes
now tell us all about the war and what they fought each other for it was the english kaspar cried who put the french to rout but what they fought each other for i could not well make out
but every body said quoth he that twas a famous victory
yon little stream hard by they burnt his dwelling to the ground and he was forced to fly so with his wife and child he fled nor had he where to rest his head
with fire and sword the country round was wasted far and wide and many a childing mother then and newborn baby died but things like that you know must be
at every famous victory they say it was a shocking sight after the field was won for many thousand bodies here lay rotting in the sun
but things like that you know must be after a famous victory great praise the duke of marlbro won and our good prince eugene why
twas a very wicked thing said little wilhelmine nay nay my little girl quoth he it was a famous victory and every body praised the duke
who this great fight did win but what good came of it at last quoth little peterkin why that i cannot tell said he but twas a famous victory
two hundred seventeen pro patria mori when he who adores thee has left but the name
of his fault and his sorrows behind o say wilt thou weep when they darken the fame
yes weep and however my foes may condemn thy tears shall efface their decree for heaven can witness though guilty to them i have been but too faithful to thee
with thee were the dreams of my earliest love every thought of my reason was thine in my last humble prayer to the spirit above thy name shall be mingled with mine
o blest are the lovers and friends who shall live the days of thy glory to see but the next dearest blessing that heaven can give is the pride of thus dying for thee
two hundred eighteen the burial of sir john moore at corunna not a drum was heard not a funeral note
as his corpse to the rampart we hurried not a soldier discharged his farewell shot o'er the grave where our hero we buried we buried him darkly at dead of night
the sods with our bayonets turning by the struggling moonbeam's misty light and the lantern dimly burning no useless coffin enclosed his breast
not in sheet or in shroud we wound him but he lay like a warrior taking his rest with his martial cloak around him few and short were the prayers we said and we spoke not a word of sorrow
but we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead and we bitterly thought of the morrow we thought as we hollow'd his narrow bed and smooth'd down his lonely pillow
and we far away on the billow lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone
but little he'll reck if they let him sleep on in the grave where a briton has laid him but half of our heavy task was done when the clock struck the hour for retiring
and we heard the distant and random gun that the foe was sullenly firing slowly and sadly we laid him down from the field of his fame fresh and gory
we carved not a line and we raised not a stone
italia o italia thou who hast the fatal gift of beauty which became a funeral dower of present woes and past
on thy sweet brow is sorrow ploughed by shame
still untired would not be seen the armed torrents poured down the deep alps nor would the hostile horde of many nationed spoilers from the po
the friend of tully as my bark did skim the bright blue waters with a fanning wind came megara before me and behind a egina lay piraeus on the right
and corinth on the left i lay reclined along the prow and saw all these unite in ruin
but upreared barbaric dwellings on their shattered site which only make more mourned and more endeared the few last rays of their far scattered light
of perished states he mourned in their decline
all that was of then destruction is and now alas rome rome imperial bows her to the storm in the same dust and blackness and we pass
and is still our guide parent of our religion whom the wide nations have knelt to for the keys of heaven europe repentant of her parricide shall yet redeem thee and
all backward driven roll the barbarian tide
where the etrurian athens claims and keeps a softer feeling for her fairy halls girt by her theatre of hills she reaps her corn and wine and oil
which beheld instils part of its immortality the veil of heaven is half undrawn within the pale we stand and in that form and face behold what mind can make
when nature's self would fail and to the fond idolaters of old
and know not where dazzled and drunk with beauty till the heart reels with its fulness there for ever there chained to the chariot of triumphal art
we stand as captives and would not depart away there need no words nor terms precise the paltry jargon of the marble mart
where pedantry gulls folly we have eyes blood pulse and breast confirm
deeply blest anchises or in all thy perfect goddess ship when lies before thee
laid on thy lap his eyes to thee upturn feeding on thy sweet cheek while thy lips are with lava kisses melting while they burn showered on his eyelids brow and mouth
their full divinity inadequate that feeling to express or to improve the gods become as mortals and man's fate has moments like their brightest
but the weight of earth recoils upon us let it go we can recall such visions and create from what has been or might be things which grow into thy statue's form
the artist and his ape to teach and tell how well his connoisseurship understands the graceful bend and the voluptuous swell let these describe the undescribable
i would not their vile breath should crisp the stream wherein that image shall for ever dwell the unruffled mirror of the loveliest dream
ashes which make it holier
e'en in itself an immortality though there were nothing save the past and this the particle of those sublimities which have relapsed to chaos
here repose angelo's alfieri's bones and his the starry galileo with his woes
which like the elements might furnish forth creation italy time which hath wronged thee with ten thousand rents of thine imperial garment shall deny
spirits which soar from ruin thy decay is still impregnate with divinity which gilds it with revivifying ray such as the great of yore
dante and petrarch and scarce less than they the bard of prose creative spirit he of the hundred tales of love where did they lay their bones
distinguished from our common clay in death as life are they resolved to dust and have their country's marbles nought to say could not her quarries furnish forth one bust
did they not to her breast their filial earth entrust
dante sleeps afar like scipio buried by the upbraiding shore
proscribed the bard whose name for evermore their children's children would in vain adore with the remorse of ages and the crown
must bear the hyaena bigots wrong
nor claim a passing sigh
yet for this want more noted as of yore the caesar's pageant shorn of brutus bust did but of rome's best son remind her more happier ravenna on thy hoary shore
fortress of falling empire honoured sleeps the immortal exile arqua too her store of tuneful relics proudly claims and keeps
a palace and a prison on each hand i saw from out the wave her structures rise as from the stroke of the enchanter's wand a thousand years their cloudy wings expand
around me and a dying glory smiles o'er the far times when many a subject land looked to the winged lion's marble piles where venice sate in state
rising with her tiara of proud towers at airy distance with majestic motion a ruler of the waters and their powers
and such she was her daughters had their dowers from spoils of nations and the exhaustless east poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers in purple was she robed
and silent rows the songless gondolier her palaces are crumbling to the shore and music meets not always now the ear those days are gone but beauty still is here
states fall arts fade
nor yet forget how venice once was dear the pleasant place of all festivity
her name in story and her long array of mighty shadows whose dim forms despond above the dogeless city's vanished sway ours is a trophy which will not decay with the rialto
essentially immortal they create and multiply in us a brighter ray and more beloved existence that which fate prohibits to dull life in this our state
of mortal bondage by these spirits supplied first exiles then replaces what we hate watering the heart whose early flowers have died and with a fresher growth
the first from hope the last from vacancy and this worn feeling peoples many a page and may be that which grows beneath mine eye yet there are things whose strong reality
outshines our fairy land
more beautiful than our fantastic sky
but let them go they came like truth and disappeared like dreams and whatsoe'er they were are now but so i could replace them if i would still teems my mind with many a form which aptly seems
such as i sought for and at moments found let these too go for waking reason deems such overweening phantasies unsound and other voices speak
to the mind which is itself no changes bring surprise nor is it harsh to make nor hard to find a country with ay or without mankind
yet was i born where men are proud to be not without cause and should i leave behind the inviolate island of the sage and free and seek me out a home
and should i lay my ashes in a soil which is not mine my spirit shall resume it if we may unbodied choose a sanctuary i twine my hopes of being remembered in my line with my land's language
if too fond and far these aspirations in their scope incline if my fame should be as my fortunes are of hasty growth and blight
my name from out the temple where the dead are honoured by the nations let it be and light the laurels on a loftier head and be the spartan's epitaph on me
sparta hath many a worthier son than he
the thorns which i have reaped are of the tree i planted they have torn me and i bleed i should have known what fruit
and annual marriage now no more renewed the bucentaur lies rotting unrestored neglected garment of her widowhood saint mark yet sees his lion where he stood
stand but in mockery of his withered power over the proud place where an emperor sued and monarchs gazed and envied in the hour when venice was a queen
an emperor tramples where an emperor knelt kingdoms are shrunk to provinces and chains clank over sceptred cities nations melt from power's high pinnacle when they have felt
the sunshine for a while and downward go like lauwine loosened from the mountain's belt oh for one hour of blind old dandolo the octogenarian chief
their gilded collars glittering in the sun but is not doria's menace come to pass are they not bridled venice lost and won her thirteen hundred years of freedom done
better be whelmed beneath the waves and shun even in destruction's depth her foreign foes from whom submission wrings an infamous repose
her very byword sprung from victory the planter of the lion which through fire
though making many slaves herself still free and europe's bulwark gainst the ottomite witness troy's rival candia
vouch it ye immortal waves that saw lepanto's fight for ye are names no time
of her dead doges are declined to dust but where they dwelt the vast and sumptuous pile bespeaks the pageant of their splendid trust their sceptre broken and their sword in rust
have yielded to the stranger empty halls thin streets and foreign aspects such as must too oft remind her who and what enthrals
and fettered thousands bore the yoke of war redemption rose up in the attic muse her voice their only ransom from afar see as they chant the tragic hymn the car
of the o'ermastered victor stops the reins
thy love of tasso should have cut the knot which ties thee to thy tyrants and thy lot is shameful to the nations
in the fall of venice think of thine
she to me was as a fairy city of the heart rising like water columns from the sea of joy the sojourn and of wealth the mart and otway radcliffe schiller
shakspeare's art had stamped her image in me and e e n so although i found her thus we did not part perchance e e n dearer in her day of woe
than when she was a boast a marvel
and of the present there is still for eye and thought and meditation chastened down enough and more it may be than i hoped or sought
it is above thirty years since i commenced my agitation in britannula we were a small people and had not then been blessed by separation but we were i think peculiarly intelligent
we were the very cream as it were that had been skimmed from the milk pail of the people of a wider colony themselves gifted with more than ordinary intelligence we were the elite of the selected population of new zealand
i think i may say that no race so well informed ever before set itself down to form a new nation i am now nearly sixty years old very nearly fit for the college which
alas will never be open for me and i was nearly thirty when i began to be in earnest as to the fixed period at that time my dearest friend and most trusted coadjutor was gabriel crasweller
he was ten years my senior then and is now therefore fit for deposition in the college were the college there to receive him he was one of those who brought with them merino sheep into the colony
at great labour and expense he exported from new zealand a small flock of choice animals with which he was successful from the first he took possession of the lands of little christchurch five or six miles from gladstonopolis and showed great judgment in the selection
a prettier spot as it turned out for the fattening of both beef and mutton and for the growth of wool it would have been impossible to have found everything that human nature wants was there at little christchurch
the streams which watered the land were bright and rapid and always running the grasses were peculiarly rich and the old english fruit trees which we had brought with us from new zealand throve there with an exuberant fertility of which the mother country
i am told knows nothing he had imported pheasants eggs and salmon spawn and young deer and black cock and grouse and those beautiful little alderney cows no bigger than good sized dogs which when milked give nothing but cream
all these things throve with him uncommonly so that it may be declared of him that his lines had fallen in pleasant places but he had no son and therefore in discussing with him as i did daily the question of the fixed period
i promised him that it should be my lot to deposit him in the sacred college when the day of his withdrawal should have come he had been married before we left new zealand and was childless when he made for himself and his wife his homestead at little christchurch but there
when i promised to him that last act of friendship that it might become the duty of that child's husband to do for him with filial reverence the loving work which i had undertaken to perform
many and most interesting were the conversations held between crasweller and myself on the great subject which filled our hearts
he undoubtedly was sympathetic and took delight in expatiating on all those benefits that would come to the world from the race of mankind which knew nothing of the debility of old age he saw the beauty of the theory as well as did i myself
and would speak often of the weakness of that pretended tenderness which would fear to commence a new operation in regard to the feelings of the men and women of the old world can any man love another better than i do you i would say to him with energy
and yet would i scruple for a moment to deposit you in the college when the day had come i should lead you in with that perfect reverence which it is impossible that the young should feel for the old when they become feeble and incapable i doubt now
whether he relished these allusions to his own seclusion he would run away from his own individual case and generalise widely about some future time and when the time for voting came he certainly did vote for seventy five but i took no offence at his vote
gabriel crasweller was almost my dearest friend and as his girl grew up it was a matter of regret to me that my only son was not quite old enough to be her husband eva crasweller was i think the most perfect piece i ever beheld
of youthful feminine beauty i have not yet seen those english beauties of which so much is said in their own romances but whom the young men from new york and san francisco who make their way to gladstonopolis do not seem to admire very much
eva was perfect in symmetry in features in complexion and in simplicity of manners all languages are the same to her but that accomplishment has become so common in britannula that but little is thought of it
or the more perfect melpomeneon it was wonderful to hear the way with which she expressed herself at the meeting held about the rising buildings of the college when she was only sixteen but i think she touched me most with just a roly poly pudding
which she made with her own fair hands for our dinner one sunday at little christchurch and once when i saw her by chance take a kiss from her lover behind the door i felt that it was a pity indeed that a man should ever become old
perhaps however in the eyes of some her brightest charm lay in the wealth which her father possessed his sheep had greatly increased in number
the valleys were filled with his cattle and he could always sell his salmon for half a crown a pound and his pheasants for seven and sixpence a brace everything had thriven with crasweller and everything must belong to eva as soon as he should have been led into the college
eva's mother was now dead and no other child had been born
he was an older man by ten years than either of his partners but yet grundle's eldest son abraham was older than eva when crasweller lent his money to the firm it was soon known who was to be the happiest man in the empire it was young abraham
by whom eva was kissed behind the door that sunday when we ate the roly poly pudding then she came into the room and with her eyes raised to heaven and with a halo of glory almost round her head as she poured forth her voice
she touched the mousometor and gave us the old hundredth psalm she was a fine girl at all points and had been quite alive to the dawn of the fixed period system but at this time on the memorable occasion of the eating of that dinner
it first began to strike me that my friend crasweller was getting very near his fixed period and it occurred to me to ask myself questions as to what might be the daughter's wishes it was the state of her feelings rather
that would push itself into my mind quite lately he had said nothing about it nor had she on that sunday morning
for crasweller had stuck to the old habit of saying his prayers in a special place on a special day i had discussed the matter with young grundle nobody had been into the college as yet three or four had died naturally but crasweller was about to be the first
we were arranging that he should be attended by pleasant visitors till within the last week or two and i was making special allusion to the law which required that he should abandon all control of his property immediately on his entering the college i suppose he would do that
said grundle expressing considerable interest by the tone of his voice oh certainly said i he must do that in accordance with the law but he can make his will up to the very moment in which he is deposited he had then about twelve months to run
we had already introduced the habit of tattooing on the backs of the babies the day on which they were born
some there were who would not submit on behalf of themselves or their children and we did look forward to some little confusion in this matter a register had of course been commenced and there were already those who refused to state their exact ages
but i had been long on the lookout for this and had a little book of my own in which were inscribed the periods of all those who had come to britannula with us
the births as they occurred the reader will see how important as time went on it would become to have an accurate record and i already then feared that there might be some want of fidelity after i myself had been deposited
but my friend crasweller was the first on the list and there was no doubt in the empire as to the exact day on which he was born all britannula knew that he would be the first and that he was to be deposited on the thirteenth of june nineteen eighty
in conversation with my friend
to the happy day as i used to call it before i became acquainted with his actual feelings and he never ventured to deny that on that day he would become sixty seven i have attempted to describe his daughter eva
and i must say a word as to the personal qualities of her father he too was a remarkably handsome man and though his hair was beautifully white had fewer of the symptoms of age than any old man i had before known he was tall
robust and broad and there was no beginning even of a stoop about him he spoke always clearly and audibly and he was known for the firm voice with which he would perform occasionally at some of our decimal readings
we had fixed our price at a decimal in order that the sum so raised might be used for the ornamentation of the college our population at gladstonopolis was so thriving that we found it as easy to collect ten pennies as one
at these readings gabriel crasweller was the favourite performer and it had begun to be whispered
that crasweller should not be deposited because of the beauty of his voice and then the difficulty was somewhat increased by the care and precision with which he attended to his own business
and the marking of his bales it would be a pity said to me a britannulist one day a man younger than myself to lock up old crasweller and let the business go into the hands of young grundle young grundle will never know half as much about sheep
very angry according to this man's feelings the whole system was to be made to suit itself to the peculiarities of one individual constitution
i had felt it to be essentially necessary so to maintain the dignity of the ceremony as to make it appear as unlike an execution as possible and this depositing of crasweller was to be the first and should
according to my own intentions be attended with a peculiar grace and reverence i don't know what you call locking up said i angrily had mister crasweller been about to be dragged to a felon's prison
you could not have used more opprobrious language and as to putting an end to him you must i think be ignorant of the method proposed for adding honour and glory to the last moments in this world of those dear friends whose happy lot
it will be to be withdrawn from the world's troubles amidst the love and veneration of their fellow subjects as to the actual mode of transition
at last been decided that certain veins should be opened while the departing one should under the influence of morphine be gently entranced within a warm bath i as president of the empire
had agreed to use the lancet in the first two or three cases thereby intending to increase the honours conferred under these circumstances i did feel the sting bitterly when he spoke of my putting an end to him
but you have not i said at all realised the feeling of the ceremony a few ill spoken words such as these you have just uttered will do us more harm in the minds of many than all your voting will have done good
in answer to this he merely repeated his observation that crasweller was a very bad specimen to begin with he has got ten years of work in him said my friend and yet you intend to make away with him without the slightest compunction
make away with him what an expression to use and this from the mouth of one who had been a determined fixed periodist it angered me to think that men should be so little reasonable as to draw deductions as to an entire system
from a single instance crasweller might in truth be strong and hearty at the fixed period but that period had been chosen with reference to the community at large and what though he might have to depart a year or two before he was worn out
still he would do so with everything around him to make him happy and would depart before he had ever known the agony of a headache looking at the entire question with the eyes of reason
i could not but tell myself that a better example of a triumphant beginning to our system could not have been found but yet there was in it something unfortunate had our first hero been compelled to abandon his business by old age
had he become doting over its details parsimonious or extravagant or even short sighted in his speculations public feeling than which nothing is more ignorant would have risen in favour of the fixed period how true is the president's reasoning
but everything he did seemed to prosper and it occurred to me at last that he forced himself into abnormal sprightliness with a view of bringing disgrace upon the law of the fixed period if there were any such feeling i regard it
abraham grundle came to me at the executive hall and said that he had a few things to discuss with me of importance abraham was a good looking young man with black hair and bright eyes and a remarkably handsome moustache and he was one
well inclined to business in whose hands the firm of grundle grabbe and crasweller was likely to thrive but i myself had never liked him much i had thought him
to be a little wanting in that reverence which he owed to his elders and to be moreover somewhat over fond of money it had leaked out that though he was no doubt attached to eva crasweller he had thought quite as much
of little christchurch and though he could kiss eva behind the door after the ways of young men still he was more intent on the fleeces than on her lips
he began upon a subject that disturbs my conscience very much your conscience said i yes mister president i believe you're aware that i am engaged to marry miss crasweller it may be as well to explain here
as fine a boy as ever delighted a mother's eye was only two years younger than eva and that my wife missus neverbend had of late got it into her head that he was quite old enough to marry the girl it was in vain
he had been colonel of the curriculum as they now call the head boy but eva had not then cared for colonels of curriculums but had thought more of young grundle's moustache my wife declared that all that was altered
that jack was in fact a much more manly fellow than abraham with his shiny bit of beard
we should find that eva thought so in answer to this i bade her hold her tongue and remember that in britannula a promise was always held to be as good as a bond i suppose a young woman may change her mind
in britannula as well as elsewhere said my wife i turned all this over in my mind because the slopes of little christchurch are very alluring and they would all belong to eva so soon and then it would be well
as i was about to perform for crasweller so important a portion of his final ceremony our close intimacy should be drawn still nearer by a family connection i did think of it but then it occurred to me that the girl's engagement to young grundle
oh yes said i to the young man i am aware that there is an understanding to that effect between you and eva's father and between me and eva i can assure you having observed the kiss behind the door on the previous day
continued abraham and i had always thought that it was to take place at once so that eva might get used to her new life before her papa was deposited to this i merely bowed my head as though to signify that it was a matter with which i was not personally concerned
i had taken it for granted that my old friend would like to see his daughter settled and little christchurch put into his daughter's hands before he should bid adieu to his own sublunary affairs i remarked when i found that he paused
i and father and grabbe and postlecott our chief clerk
just at present to see how crasweller bears it what has all that to do with eva's marriage i suppose i might marry her but he hasn't made any will what does that matter there is nobody to interfere with eva but he might go off mister neverbend
and to leave some one to manage the property for him what could you do that's what i want to know the law says that he shall be deposited on a certain day he will become as nobody in the eye of the law said i with all the authority of a president
but if he and his daughter have understood each other and if some deed be forthcoming by which little christchurch shall have been left to trustees and if he goes on living at sydney
where should i be then in that case said i having taken two or three minutes for consideration in that case i presume the property would be confiscated by law and would go to his natural heir
now if his natural heir be then your wife it will be just the same as though the property were yours young grundle shook his head i don't know what more you would want at any rate there is no more for you to get
i confess that at that moment the idea of my boy's chance of succeeding with the heiress did present itself to my mind according to what my wife had said jack would have jumped at the girl with just what she stood up in and had sworn to his mother
when he had been told that morning about the kiss behind the door that he would knock that brute's head off his shoulders before many days were gone by
it appeared to me that little christchurch would in that case be quite safe let crasweller be deposited or run away to sydney you do not know for certain about the confiscation of the property said abraham
i've told you as much mister grundle as it is fit that you should know i replied with severity for the absolute condition of the law you must look in the statute book and not come to the president of the empire
abraham grundle then departed i had assumed an angry air as though i were offended with him for troubling me on a matter by referring simply to an individual but he had in truth
given rise to very serious and solemn thoughts could it be that crasweller my own confidential friend the man to whom i had trusted the very secrets of my soul on this important matter
could it be that he should be unwilling to be deposited when the day had come could it be that he should be anxious to fly from his country and her laws just as the time had arrived when those laws might operate upon him for the benefit of that country
i could not think that he was so vain so greedy so selfish and so unpatriotic but this was not all should he attempt to fly could we prevent his flying and
if he did fly what step should we take next the government of new south wales was hostile to us on the very matter of the fixed period and certainly would not surrender him in obedience to any law of extradition and
he might leave his property to trustees who would manage it on his behalf although as far as britannula was concerned he would be beyond the reach of law and regarded even as being without the pale of life and if he
the first of the fixed periodists were to run away the fashion of so running would become common we should thus be rid of our old men and our object would be so far attained but looking forward
it would be almost impossible to carry out the law with reference to those who should have no such means but that which vexed me most was that gabriel crasweller should desire to escape that he
should be anxious to throw over the whole system to preserve the poor remnant of his life if he would do so who could be expected to abstain if he should prove false when the moment came who would prove true
and he the first
young grundle had now left me and as i sat thinking of it i was for a moment tempted to abandon the fixed period altogether but as i remained there in silent meditation better thoughts came to me
had i dared to regard myself as the foremost spirit of my age and should i thus be turned back by the human weakness of one poor creature who had not sufficiently collected the strength of his heart to be able to look death in the face and to laugh him down
it was a difficulty a difficulty the more it might be the crushing difficulty which would put an end to the system as far as my existence was concerned but i bethought me how many early reformers had perished in their efforts
and how seldom it had been given to the first man to scale the walls of prejudice and force himself into the citadel of reason but they had not yielded when things had gone against them and though they had not brought their visions down to the palpable touch of humanity
still they had persevered and their efforts had not been altogether lost to the world so it shall be with me said i though i may never live to deposit a human being within that sanctuary and though
i may be doomed by the foolish prejudice of men to drag out a miserable existence amidst the sorrows and weakness of old age though it may never be given to me to feel the ineffable comforts of a triumphant deposition still
my name will be handed down to coming ages and i shall be spoken of as the first who endeavoured to save grey hairs from being brought with sorrow to the grave i am now writing on board h m gunboat john bright
for the tyrannical slaves of a modern monarch have taken me in the flesh and are carrying me off to england so that as they say all that nonsense of a fixed period may die away in britannula they think poor
ignorant fighting men that such a theory can be made to perish because one individual shall have been mastered but no the idea will still live and in ages to come men will prosper and be strong
and thrive unpolluted by the greed and cowardice of second childhood because john neverbend was at one time president of britannula it occurred to me then
that it would be well that i should see crasweller and talk to him freely on the subject it had sometimes been that by my strength i had reinvigorated his halting courage
this suggestion that he might run away as the day of his deposition drew nigh or rather that others might run away had been the subject of some conversation between him and me how will it be he had said if they mizzle
he had intended to allude to the possible premature departure of those who were about to be deposited men will never be so weak i said i suppose you'd take all their property every stick of it
but property is a thing which can be conveyed away we should keep a sharp look out upon themselves there might be a writ you know
if we are driven to a pinch that will be the last thing to do but i should be sorry to be driven to express my fear of human weakness by any general measure of that kind it would be tantamount to an accusation of cowardice against the whole empire
crasweller had only shaken his head but i had understood him to shake it on the part of the human race generally
by j j hooper until simon entered his seventeenth year he lived with his father an old hard shell baptist preacher who though very pious and remarkably austere was very avaricious
the old man reared his boy or endeavored to do so according to the strictest requisitions of the moral law but he lived at the time to which we refer in middle georgia which was then newly settled
and simon whose wits were always too sharp for his father's contrived to contract all the coarse vices incident to such a region he stole his mother's roosters to fight them at bob smith's grocery
and his father's plow horses to enter them in quarter matches at the same place he pitched dollars with bob smith himself and could beat him into doll rags whenever it came to a measurement to crown his accomplishments
simon was tip top at the game of old sledge which was the fashionable game of that era and was early initiated in the mysteries of stocking the papers
the vicious habits of simon were of course a sore trouble to his father elder jedediah he reasoned he counseled he remonstrated and he lashed but simon was an incorrigible irreclaimable devil
one day the simple minded old man returned rather unexpectedly to the field where he had left simon and ben and a negro boy named bill at work ben was still following his plow but simon and bill were in a fence corner
very earnestly engaged at seven up of course the game was instantly suspended as soon as they spied the old man sixty or seventy yards off striding towards them it was evidently a gone case with simon and bill
and besides with the hand i helt when we quit i should a beat you and won it all any way well but mass simon we nebber finish de game and de rule
don't you see daddy's right down upon us with an armful of hickories i tell you i helt nothin but trumps and could a beat the horns off a billy goat don't that satisfy you
about this time a thought struck simon and in a low tone for by this time the reverend jedediah was close at hand he continued but may be daddy don't know
right down sure what we've been doin let's try him with a lie
let's tell him we've been playin mumble peg
all this was settled and a pig driven into the ground slyly and hurriedly between simon's legs as he sat on the ground just as the old man reached the spot
several neatly trimmed sprouts of formidable length while in his left hand he held one which he was intently engaged in divesting of its superfluous twigs
what saith the scriptur simon
and so forth and so on what in the round creation of the yearth have you and that nigger been a doin bill shook with fear but simon was cool as a cucumber
and answered his father to the effect that they had been wasting a little time in the game of mumble peg mumble peg mumble peg repeated old mister suggs what's that
simon explained the process of rooting for the peg how the operator got upon his knees keeping his arms stiff by his sides leaned forward and extracted the peg with his teeth
so you git upon your knees do you to pull up that nasty little stick you'd better git upon em to ask mercy for your sinful souls and for a dyin world
but let's see one o you git the peg up now the first impulse of our hero was to volunteer to gratify the curiosity of his worthy sire but a glance at the old man's countenance changed his notion
and he remarked that bill was a long ways the best hand bill who did not deem simon's modesty an omen very favorable to himself was inclined to reciprocate compliments with his young master
but a gesture of impatience from the old man set him instantly upon his knees and bending forward he essayed to lay hold with his teeth of the peg
very wickedly pushed a half inch further down just as the breeches and hide of the boy were stretched to the uttermost
with both hands upon the precise spot where the tension was greatest with a loud yell bill plunged forward upsetting simon and rolled in the grass rubbing the castigated part with fearful energy
simon though overthrown was unhurt and he was mentally complimenting himself upon the sagacity which had prevented his illustrating the game of mumble peg for the paternal amusement
when his attention was arrested by the old man's stooping to pick up something what is it a card upon which simon had been sitting
and which therefore had not gone with the rest of the pack into his pocket
cards and though he decidedly inclined to the opinion that this was one he was by no means certain of the fact had simon known this he would certainly have escaped
which is always worn by the interrogator who does not desire or expect to increase his knowledge by his questions asked what's this simon the jack a dimunts promptly responded simon
in an ironically affectionate tone of voice
nothin ain't trumps now said simon who misapprehended his father's meaning but clubs was
they had then most unquestionably been throwing cards the scoundrels
to the mulberry with both on ye in a hurry said the old man sternly but the lads were not disposed to be in a hurry for the mulberry was the scene of all formal punishment administered during work hours in the field
and kicking at him so as almost to touch his coat tail with his shoe in this style they walked on to the mulberry tree in whose shade simon's brother ben was resting
it must not be supposed that during the walk to the place of punishment simon's mind was either inactive or engaged in suggesting the grimaces and contortions wherewith he was pantomimically expressing his irreverent sentiments toward his father
far from it the movements of his limbs and features were the mere workings of habit the self grinding of the corporeal machine for which his reasoning half was only remotely responsible
for while simon's person was thus on its own account making game of old jed'diah his wits in view of the anticipated flogging were dashing
springing bounding darting about in hot chase of some expedient suitable to the necessities of the case much after the manner in which puss
when betty armed with the broom and hotly seeking vengeance for pantry robbed or bed defiled has closed upon her the garret doors and windows attempts all sorts of impossible exits
to come down at last in the corner with panting side and glaring eye exhausted and defenseless our unfortunate hero
he stood with a dogged look awaiting the issue the old man suggs made no remark to any one while he was sizing up bill a process which though by no means novel to simon
seemed to excite in him a sort of painful interest he watched it closely as if endeavoring to learn the precise fashion of his father's knot and when at last bill was swung up a tiptoe to a limb
and the whipping commenced simon's eye followed every movement of his father's arm and as each blow descended upon the bare shoulders of his sable friend
i wish she was here to hold daddy off
how she would cling to the old fellow's coat tail
why so simon
and you've never been nowhars if i was to turn you off you'd starve in a week i wish you'd try me said simon and jist see i'd win more money in a week than you can make in a year
there ain't nobody round here kin make seed corn off o me at cards i'm rale smart he added with great emphasis simon simon
you crack brained creetur you and don't you know that them that plays cards always loses their money and who wins it all then daddy asked simon shet your mouth you imperdent slack jawed dog
your daddy's a tryin to give you some good advice and you a pickin up his words that way i knowed a young man once when i lived in ogletharp as went down to augusty and sold a hundred dollars worth of cotton for his daddy
and the very first night he was with em they got every cent of his money they couldn't get my money in a week said simon anybody can git these here green feller's money
what saith the scriptur
hence simon you're a poor misubble fool so cross your hands you'd jist as well not daddy i tell you i'm gwine to follow playin cards for a livin and what's the use o bangin a feller about it
his consideration among his neighbors was considerably increased by the circumstance as he had all the benefit of the popular inference that no man
that an individual who had never seen any collection of human habitations larger than a log house village an individual in short no other or better than bob smith
should venture to express an opinion concerning the manners customs or anything else appertaining to or in any wise connected with
there were two propositions which witnessed their own truth to the mind of mister suggs the one was that a man who had never been at augusta could not know anything about that city
au fait upon all subjects whatsoever it was therefore in a tone of mingled indignation and contempt that he replied to the last remark of simon bob smith
and who's bob smith much does bob smith know about augusty he's been thar i reckon slipped off yerly some mornin when nobody warn't noticin
if he was only to see one of them fine gentlemen in augusty with his fine broadcloth and bell crown hat
he'd take to the woods and kill himself a runnin bob smith that's whar all your devilment comes from simon bob smith's as good as anybody else i judge
and a heap smarter than some he showed me how to cut jack continued simon and that's more nor some people can do if they have been to augusty if bob smith kin do it said the old man i kin too
if it's book knowledge or plain sense and bob kin do it
is it any ways similyar to the rule of three simon
drawing a pack from his pocket to explain now daddy he proceeded
if you'll take the pack and mix em all up together i'll take off a passel from the top and the bottom one of them i take off will be one of the jacks
me to mix em fust said old jed'diah yes and you not to see but the back of the top one when you go to cut as you call it jist so daddy
more alike nor cow peas said simon it can't be done simon observed the old man with great solemnity bob smith kin do it and so kin i
thar ain't a man in augusty nor on top of the yearth that kin do it daddy said our hero
bet did you says
that's been in the lord's sarvice these twenty years me bet you nasty sassy triflin ugly i didn't go to say that daddy that warn't what i meant adzactly
i'd give you all this here silver ef i didn't that's all to be sure i allers knowed you wouldn't bet
in an old leathern pouch for inspection he also mentally compared that sum with an imaginary one the supposed value of a certain indian pony called bunch
he murmured to himself
so there's no resk what makes bettin the resk it's a one sided business and i'll jist let him give me all his money
will you stand it daddy asked simon by way of waking the old man up
simon replied the old man i agree to it your old daddy is in a close place about payin for his land and this here money
it's jist eleven dollars lacking of twenty five cents will help out mightily but mind simon ef anything's said about this hereafter remember you give me the money very well daddy
give me them fix ments simon our hero handed the cards to his father who dropping the plow line with which he had intended to tie simon's hands turned his back to that individual
in order to prevent his witnessing the operation of mixing he then sat down and
making however an exceedingly awkward job of it restive kings and queens jumped from his hands or obstinately refused to slide into the company of the rest of the pack
occasionally a sprightly knave would insist on facing his neighbor or pressing his edge against another's half double himself up and then skip away
while heavy drops burst from his forehead and ran down his cheeks all of a sudden an idea quick and penetrating as a rifle ball seemed to have entered the cranium of the old man he chuckled
audibly the devil had suggested to mister suggs an impromptu stock which would place the chances of simon already sufficiently slim in the old man's opinion without the range of possibility
when he should cut our hero who was quietly looking over his father's shoulders all the time did not seem alarmed by this disposition of the cards on the contrary he smiled
as if he felt perfectly confident of success in spite of it now daddy said simon when his father had announced himself ready narry one of us
if we do it'll spile the conjuration very well
to be sure to be sure
simon walked up close to his father and placed his hand on the pack
during which a close observer might have detected a suspicious working of the wrist of the hand on the cards but
wake snakes
rise jack said simon cutting half a dozen cards from the top of the pack and presenting the face of the bottom one for the inspection of his father it was the jack of hearts
well how in the round creation of the ben did you ever
and mister suggs groaned in very bitterness you never seed nothin like that in augusty did ye daddy asked simon with a malicious wink at ben simon how
do it daddy do it tain't nothin
he bestowed upon him the impracticable pony bunch jist so daddy jist so i'll witness that
old trailler jumps up gethers the bacon and darts
so as twould cut your interls into chitlins that's about the way you give bunch to simon oh shuh ben remarked simon i wouldn't run on that way daddy couldn't help it it was predestinated whom he hath he will you know
and the rascal pulled down the under lid of his left eye at his brother then addressing his father he asked war'n't it daddy to be sure to be sure all fixed aforehand
didn't i tell you so ben said simon i knowed it was all fixed aforehand and he laughed until he was purple in the face what's in ye
oh it's so funny
prevented his making any discoveries he fell into a brown study and no further allusion was made to the matter it was evident to our hero that his father intended he should remain but
one more night beneath the paternal roof what mattered it to simon he went home at night curried and fed bunch
he was the fastest piece of hossflesh accordin to size that ever shaded the yearth and then busied himself in preparing for an early start on the morrow
old mister suggs big red rooster had hardly ceased crowing in announcement of the coming dawn when simon mounted the intractable bunch both were in high spirits
our hero at the idea of unrestrained license in future
of a portion of his master's deviltry simon raised himself in the stirrups yelled a tolerably fair imitation of the creek war whoop and shouted i'm off old stud
remember the jack a hearts bunch shook his little head tucked down his tail ran sideways as if going to fall
an interesting ghost
it is with the greatest difficulty said doctor watson that i force myself to believe that what i am about to relate to you did not actually happen
it seemed to me that i was as wide awake as i am at this present moment and impossible that the strange series of incidents could be due entirely to mental disturbances i went home and went to bed
after first taking the powder and i think i went to sleep how long i slept i do not know but i was startled at finding myself floating about the room with much the same feeling as one has when floating in water
my motion seemed to be governed entirely by my will if i glanced at anything in the room i would float towards it imagine my astonishment at seeing my body lying in the bed apparently sound asleep
immediately i found myself in the hospital ward doctor ford and two nurses were standing by a cot at the north end
moribund said a voice i'm afraid so i answered i turned and saw an elderly gentleman dressed in the costume of the last century floating beside me
sad is it not people still die i see in spite of the wonderful advance in the science of medicine since my day were you a doctor when alive i asked
well i was called one and received the regular license to kill or cure i regret to say that i have since learned that i killed a great many more than i cured the trouble is after you are dead
your patients know this as well as you do and say unkind things even to night i received word from a former patient of mine and a ghost who ought to know better to the effect that he intended to hunt me up and punch my head
i treated him for renal colic and he died of appendicitis
i asked heart disease and let me tell you that was a great deal nearer to it than some of you chaps get nowadays you are not complimentary i said coldly
perhaps not but if you think my criticisms harsh and uncalled for let us get down to cold facts did it ever occur to you how very few people live to be even one hundred and twenty five years old
you surely will admit that there is no reason why a man should not live to that age barring accidents we know that in bible times there were lots of old fellows who passed their three hundredth birthday and
there is one thing in its favor however and that is that he made it an even nine hundred and ninety nine and not one thousand of course you know there are plenty of people living to day who are over one hundred years old
most of them however live in bulgaria mexico or some out of the way place and are so poor that they have to live abstemiously then you consider the secret of longevity to be a matter of diet
said i partly that and partly proper care of the nervous system but come downstairs
you must understand that all diseases are caused by germs microscopic bugs and plants you know many of them so small that they are invisible to an ordinary microscope or if seen at all are not recognized
there are thousands and thousands of them and each and every one has its mission in life and preys upon and destroys other germs now the human body is constantly getting a lot of germs inside of it which do not belong there
some are taken in by the lungs while floating in the air
these germs are met by their natural enemies which live in man's blood his body guard as it were and are destroyed but if the attacking army is very large
then the invaders flourish establish themselves and wax powerful and strong and the man becomes what is called sick come he said rising abruptly
and throwing the unconsumed end of his cigarette into the fireplace come with me to the laboratory and i will show you in about two minutes more than i could explain if i talked for years and a great deal more satisfactorily
we floated down to the laboratory and the ghost took from the shelf a wide mouthed bottle and held it up to the light
here he said we have a culture you of course understand how the germs of disease are cultivated for experimental use it is needless for me to explain to you
that certain media are used for these cultures such as milk beef broth et cetera here we have the germ of diphtheria here of tuberculosis here of typhoid fever et cetera
how they would wiggle but if the drop of blood was from a typhoid patient they won't wiggle very long as you know see this blunt headed chap which we have to stain to see properly even with this wonderful microscope
that is our old friend the bacillus of tuberculosis but unless you see the patient first i do not believe you could distinguish him from the leprosy bug these are known germs
but look through the glass at this drop and you will see some bugs worth seeing although the medical fraternity have not as yet discovered their value
although they admit some of them move a little how astonished they would be if they could look through this glass see that chap with green hind legs he preys on the typhoid germ and when they discover this
physicians will simply inoculate the patient with a lot of these little chaps with the green legs and they will do the rest here is a germ with yellow stripes which looks a little like a diminutive potato bug
he is the deadly enemy of the bug of consumption and will attack and kill him on every possible occasion they are about evenly matched but i think the little striped chap is a bit the better
another ghost and myself made a match the other night seven battles the result to decide the championship a sort of a bugging main as it were i won the first six matches were even we won three each
the one with the fourth hind leg gone but how i asked are you going to prevent people from dying of old age
of course they will die of old age but there is no such thing as old age under one hundred and fifty years what you call old age is not old age at all there are two kinds of old age or senility
old age properly speaking results from a distinct modification of the nervous tissues and a hardening of the arteries the former caused by unnatural conditions nervous strain and dissipation and the latter from over feeding and drinking
the trouble with the ordinary man is that he absorbs great quantities of nitrogenous foods instead of making his diet one of nuts fruit milk et cetera
in comparatively young men of the present age there is often a decided modification of the nervous tissues with symptoms resembling those in neurasthenia in such cases galvanic treatment will restore the centres to their normal condition
you will therefore i think admit
say two hundred years you mean i said when we have learned to combat the various disease germs by pitting against them their natural enemies
i can however float over the bar and inhale the pleasing odors arising from the various concoctions served to the guests and in my ethereal condition i enjoy the odors and am affected by them as much as if i were really drinking the liquid
we floated from the house and down town until we reached the brilliantly lighted waldorf hotel there were many people in the bar room and the medical shade and myself floating about over the different tables inhaled with decided enjoyment
the delicate aroma of the various mixed drinks so dear to the present generation to my annoyance my shade companion soon began to sing he was evidently affected by the odors which had passed through him
his manner became familiar and i had great difficulty in keeping him from kicking the glasses off the tables at last i succeeded in getting him out of the room and it was time
for as we floated into the street he began shouting in a most uproarious manner and i was afraid that we should be arrested for disturbing the peace be quiet i beg of you i pleaded see that policeman on the opposite side of the street
policeman hiccoughed the shade what the devil do i care for a policeman watch me go over and punch him in the stomach in spite of all i could do to prevent him he started straight for the officer
who was standing all unconscious on the corner watching a pretty girl who was looking into one of the brilliantly lighted store windows now was my time to rid myself of this most undesirable companion and i wished myself in my own room
instantly i found myself floating about over my bed and there was my body sleeping as peacefully as ever i was somewhat tired but i remembered our contract to write down the result of our experiences
and immediately sat down to do it after i had written it i read it over carefully to see if i had overlooked anything and then wished myself in bed and asleep the next thing i knew
it was broad daylight there on my writing table were the pages of manuscript which i had written they were real enough whether the rest was a dream
from that time out we was with him most all the time and one or t'other of us slept in his upper berth he said he had been so lonesome and it was such a comfort to him to have company and somebody to talk to in his troubles
we was in a sweat to find out what his secret was but tom said the best way was not to seem anxious then likely he would drop into it himself in one of his talks but if we got to asking questions he would get suspicious and shet up his shell
it turned out just so it warn't no trouble to see that he wanted to talk about it but always along at first he would scare away from it when he got on the very edge of it and go to talking about something else
the way it come about was this he got to asking us kind of indifferent like about the passengers down on deck we told him about them but he warn't satisfied we warn't particular enough he told us to describe them better tom done it at last
when tom was describing one of the roughest and raggedest ones he gave a shiver and a gasp and says
that's one of them they're aboard sure i just knowed it i sort of hoped i had got away but i never believed it go on presently when tom was describing another mangy rough deck passenger
he give that shiver again and says that's him that's the other one
a good black stormy night and i could get ashore you see they've got spies on me they've got a right to come up and buy drinks at the bar yonder forrard and they take that chance to bribe somebody to keep watch on me porter or boots or somebody
if i was to slip ashore without anybody seeing me they would know it inside of an hour so then he got to wandering along and pretty soon sure enough he was telling he was poking along through his ups and downs and
when he come to that place he went right along he says it was a confidence game we played it on a julery shop in saint louis what we was after was a couple of noble big di'monds as big as hazel nuts which everybody was running to see
we was dressed up fine and we played it on them in broad daylight we ordered the di'monds sent to the hotel for us to see if we wanted to buy and when we was examining them we had paste counterfeits all ready and
them was the things that went back to the shop when we said the water wasn't quite fine enough for twelve thousand dollars twelve thousand dollars tom says was they really worth all that money do you reckon every cent of it and
you fellows got away with them as easy as nothing i don't reckon the julery people know they've been robbed yet
where we'd go one was for going one way one another so we throwed up heads or tails and the upper mississippi won we done up the di'monds in a paper and put our names on it and put it in the keep of the hotel clerk
and told him not to ever let either of us have it again without the others was on hand to see it done then we went down town each by his own self because i reckon maybe we all had the same notion i don't know for certain but i reckon maybe we had
what notion tom says to rob the others what one take everything after all of you had helped to get it cert'nly it disgusted tom sawyer and he said it was the orneriest low downest thing he ever heard of
but jake dunlap said it warn't unusual in the profession said when a person was in that line of business he'd got to look out for his own intrust there warn't nobody else going to do it for him and then he went on he says you see the trouble was
you couldn't divide up two di'monds amongst three if there'd been three but never mind about that there warn't three i loafed along the back streets studying and studying and i says to myself i'll hog them di'monds the first chance i get and i'll have a disguise all ready
and i'll give the boys the slip and when i'm safe away i'll put it on and then let them find me if they can so i got the false whiskers and the goggles and this countrified suit of clothes and fetched them along back in a hand bag
and when i was passing a shop where they sell all sorts of things i got a glimpse of one of my pals through the window it was bud dixon i was glad you bet i says to myself i'll see what he buys so i kept shady and watched
whiskers said i no goggles no oh keep still huck finn can't you you're only just hendering all you can what was it he bought jake you'd never guess in the world
it was only just a screwdriver just a wee little bit of a screwdriver well i declare
that's what i thought it was curious it clean stumped me i says to myself what can he want with that thing well when he come out i stood back out of sight and then tracked him to a second hand slop shop
and see him buy a red flannel shirt and some old ragged clothes just the ones he's got on now as you've described then i went down to the wharf and hid my things aboard the up river boat that we had picked out and then started back and had another streak of luck
i seen our other pal lay in his stock of old rusty second handers we got the di'monds and went aboard the boat but now we was up a stump for we couldn't go to bed we had to set up and watch one another pity that was
pity to put that kind of a strain on us because there was bad blood between us from a couple of weeks back and we was only friends in the way of business bad anyway
first we had supper and then tramped up and down the deck together smoking till most midnight then we went and set down in my stateroom and locked the doors and looked in the piece of paper to see if the di'monds was all right then laid it on the lower berth right in full sight
and there we set and set
at last bud dixon he dropped off as soon as he was snoring a good regular gait that was likely to last and had his chin on his breast and looked permanent hal clayton nodded towards the di'monds and then towards the outside door and i understood
i reached and got the paper and then we stood up and waited perfectly still bud never stirred i turned the key of the outside door very soft and slow then turned the knob the same way and we went tiptoeing out onto the guard
and shut the door very soft and gentle there warn't nobody stirring anywhere and the boat was slipping along swift and steady through the big water in the smoky moonlight we never said a word but went straight up onto the hurricane deck and plumb back aft
and set down on the end of the sky light both of us knowed what that meant without having to explain to one another bud dixon would wake up and miss the swag and would come straight for us for he ain't afeard of anything or anybody that man ain't he would come and we would heave him overboard
or get killed trying it made me shiver because i ain't as brave as some people but if i showed the white feather well i knowed better than do that i kind of hoped the boat would land somers and we could skip ashore and not have to run the risk of this row
i was so scared of bud dixon but she was an upper river tub and there warn't no real chance of that well the time strung along and along and that fellow never come why it strung along till dawn begun to break and still he never come thunder i says
ain't it suspicious land hal says do you reckon he's playing us open the paper i done it and by gracious there warn't anything in it but a couple of little pieces of loaf sugar that's the reason he could set there and snooze all night so comfortable
smart well i reckon he had had them two papers all fixed and ready and he had put one of them in place of t'other right under our noses we felt pretty cheap but the thing to do straight off was to make a plan and we done it we would do up the paper again
just as it was and slip in very elaborate and soft and lay it on the bunk again and let on we didn't know about any trick and hadn't any idea he was a laughing at us behind them bogus snores of his'n and we would stick by him
and the first night we was ashore we would get him drunk and search him and get the di'monds and do for him too if it warn't too risky if we got the swag we'd got to do for him or he would hunt us down and do for us sure but i didn't have no real hope
i knowed we could get him drunk he was always ready for that but what's the good of it you might search him a year and never find well right there i catched my breath and broke off my thought for an idea went ripping through my head that tore my brains to rags
and land but i felt gay and good you see i had had my boots off to unswell my feet and just then i took up one of them to put it on and i catched a glimpse of the heel bottom and it just took my breath away
you remember about that puzzlesome little screwdriver you bet i do says tom all excited well when i catched that glimpse of that boot heel the idea that went smashing through my head was i know where he's hid the di'monds
you look at this boot heel now see it's bottomed with a steel plate and the plate is fastened on with little screws now there wasn't a screw about that feller anywhere but in his boot heels so if he needed a screwdriver i reckoned i knowed why
well i got my boots on and we went down and slipped in and laid the paper of sugar on the berth and sat down soft and sheepish and went to listening to bud dixon snore hal clayton dropped off pretty soon but i didn't
i wasn't ever so wide awake in my life i was spying out from under the shade of my hat brim searching the floor for leather it took me a long time and i begun to think maybe my guess was wrong but at last i struck it it laid over by the bulkhead
and was nearly the color of the carpet it was a little round plug about as thick as the end of your little finger and i says to myself there's a di'mond in the nest you've come from before long i spied out the plug's mate
think of the smartness and coolness of that blatherskite he put up that scheme on us and reasoned out what we would do and we went ahead and done it perfectly exact like a couple of pudd'nheads
strange as the incidents of this story are they are not inventions but facts even to the public confession of the accused
and transfer the scenes to america i have added some details but only a couple of them are important ones m t well it was the next spring after me and tom sawyer set our old nigger jim free
the time he was chained up for a runaway slave down there on tom's uncle silas's farm in arkansaw the frost was working out of the ground and out of the air too and it was getting closer and closer onto barefoot time every day
and next it would be marble time and next mumbletypeg and next tops and hoops and next kites and then right away it would be summer and going in a swimming it just makes a boy homesick to look ahead like that and
see how far off summer is yes and it sets him to sighing and saddening around and there's something the matter with him
and sets there and looks away off on the big mississippi down there a reaching miles and miles around the points where the timber looks smoky and dim it's so far off and still and everything's so solemn it seems like everybody you've loved is dead and gone
and you most wish you was dead and gone too and done with it all don't you know what that is it's spring fever that is what the name of it is and when you've got it you want oh you don't quite know what it is you do want
get away from the same old tedious things you're so used to seeing and so tired of and set something new that is the idea
you'll put up with considerable less you'll go anywhere you can go just so as to get away and be thankful of the chance too well me and tom sawyer had the spring fever and had it bad too
as he said his aunt polly wouldn't let him quit school and go traipsing off somers wasting time so we was pretty blue
tom i reckon you've got to pack up and go down to arkansaw your aunt sally wants you i most jumped out of my skin for joy i reckoned tom would fly at his aunt and hug her head off but if you believe me
he set there like a rock and never said a word it made me fit to cry to see him act so foolish with such a noble chance as this opening up why we might lose it if he didn't speak up and show he was thankful and grateful
but he set there and studied and studied till i was that distressed i didn't know what to do then he says very ca'm and i could a shot him for it well he says i'm right down sorry aunt polly but i reckon i got to be excused
for the present his aunt polly was knocked so stupid and so mad at the cold impudence of it that she couldn't say a word for as much as a half a minute and this gave me a chance to nudge tom and whisper
sp'iling such a noble chance as this and throwing it away but he warn't disturbed he mumbled back huck finn do you want me to
why she'd begin to doubt right away and imagine a lot of sicknesses and dangers and objections and first you know she'd take it all back you lemme alone i reckon i know how to work her now i never would a thought of that but he was right
tom sawyer was always right the levelest head i ever see and always at himself and ready for anything you might spring on him by this time his aunt polly was all straight again and she let fly
with a hickory she hit his head a thump with her thimble as we dodged by and he let on to be whimpering as we struck for the stairs up in his room he hugged me he was so out of his head for gladness because he was going traveling and he says
before we get away she'll wish she hadn't let me go but she won't know any way to get around it now after what she's said her pride won't let her take it back tom was packed in ten minutes all except what his aunt and mary would finish up for him
then we waited ten more for her to get cooled down and sweet and gentle again for tom said it took her ten minutes to unruffle in times when half of her feathers was up but twenty when they was all up and this was one of the times when
they was all up then we went down being in a sweat to know what the letter said she was setting there in a brown study with it laying in her lap we set down and she says they're in considerable trouble down there
much of that they'll get out of you and huck finn i reckon there's a neighbor named brace dunlap that's been wanting to marry their benny for three months and at last they told him point blank and once for all he couldn't so he has soured on them
and they're worried about it i reckon he's somebody they think they better be on the good side of for they've tried to please him by hiring his no account brother to help on the farm when they can't hardly afford it and don't want him around anyhow
who are the dunlaps they live about a mile from uncle silas's place aunt polly all the farmers live about a mile apart down there and brace dunlap is a long sight richer than any of the others and owns a whole grist of niggers
he's a widower thirty six years old without any children and is proud of his money and overbearing and everybody is a little afraid of him i judge he thought he could
and it must have set him back a good deal when he found he couldn't get benny why benny's only half as old as he is and just as sweet and lovely as well you've seen her poor old uncle silas why it's pitiful
him trying to curry favor that way so hard pushed and poor and yet hiring that useless jubiter dunlap to please his ornery brother what a name jubiter where'd he get
i reckon they've forgot his real name long before this he's twenty seven now and has had it ever since the first time he ever went in swimming
the school teacher seen a round brown mole the size of a dime on his left leg above his knee and four little bits of moles around it when he was naked and he said it minded him of jubiter and his moons
and he's jubiter yet he's tall and lazy and sly and sneaky and ruther cowardly too but kind of good natured and wears long brown hair and no beard and hasn't got a cent and brace boards him for nothing
and gives him his old clothes to wear and despises him jubiter is a twin what's t'other twin like just exactly like jubiter so they say used to was anyway but he hain't been seen for seven years
he got to robbing when he was nineteen or twenty and they jailed him but he broke jail and got away up north here somers they used to hear about him robbing and burglaring now and then but that was years ago he's dead now at least that's what they say
they don't hear about him any more what was his name jake
the old lady was thinking at last she says the thing that is mostly worrying your aunt sally is the tempers that that man jubiter gets your uncle into tom was astonished and so was i tom says tempers
uncle silas land you must be joking i didn't know he had any temper works him up into perfect rages your aunt sally says says he acts as if he would really hit the man sometimes aunt polly it beats anything i ever heard of
why he's just as gentle as mush well she's worried anyway says your uncle silas is like a changed man on account of all this quarreling and the neighbors talk about it and lay all the blame on your uncle of course because he's a preacher
your aunt sally says he hates to go into the pulpit he's so ashamed
and he ain't as popular now as he used to was well ain't it strange why aunt polly he was always so good and kind and moony and absent minded and chuckle headed and lovable why he was just an angel
his six elder sons did likewise and all were famed for their knightly prowess but the mother sat at home sad of mood for she hated war and would rather have had her lord and her six tall sons about her in the home
and in her heart she resolved that she would plead with evroc to let her have her little son perceval to be a clerk or a learned bard so that he should stay at home with her and run no risk of death the sorrow she was ever dreading smote her at length
for a messenger came one day saying that earl evroc her lord had been slain at bamborough in a mighty melee between some of the best and most valiant knights of logres and alban and two tall sons with him as the years passed
two others were slain by the shores of humber repelling a horde of fair haired saxon raiders and the other was killed at a ford where he had kept at bay six bandit knights
then in her grief the widow dame resolved that she would fly with her little son and make a home for him in some wilderness where never sounds or sights of war or death would come where knights would be unknown
and thus did she do and she left the hall where she had lived and removed to the deserts and wastes of the wilderness and took with her only her women and a few boys and spiritless men
or to think of fighting thus she reared the only son left to her teaching him all manner of nobleness in thought and action and in learning but never suffering him to see a weapon
he grew up loving all noble things gentle of speech and bearing but quick to anger at evil or mean actions merciful of weak things and full of pity and tenderness yet was he also very strong of body fleet of foot quick of eye and hand
daily he went to divert himself in the great dark forest that climbed the high mountains beside his home or he roamed the wide rolling moors and he practised much with the throwing of stones and sticks so that with a stick he could hit a small mark at a great distance
and near them stood two hinds the boy wondered greatly to see the two deer which had no horns while the goats had two each
he thought he would please his mother if he caught them so that they should not escape again and by his great activity and swiftness he ran the two deer down till they were spent and then he took them and shut them up in the goat house in the forest going home he told his mother and her servants what he had done
and they went to see and marvelled that he could catch such fleet creatures as the wild red deer once he overheard his mother say that she yearned for fresh venison
always perceval had wondered what the little dark man did whom they called the hunter who was always so secret
and went into the forest as tod had told him and seeing a deer he hurled a stick at it and slew it and then he brought it home the countess was greatly wroth that tod had taught him how to slay and she said that never more should the dwarf serve her and tod wept
but when he was well again the countess would not suffer him to stay but said he should leave the hall and never come there again she commanded perceval never to slay any more living things and the lad promised but hard was it to keep his word
when he was in the forest and saw the wild things passing through the brakes once as he strayed deep in the wood he came upon a wide glade or laund with two green hillocks in the middle thereof and feeding upon the grass was a great buck
perceval wondered at this beast being thus adorned and went up to it to stroke it but the buck was fierce and would have gored him with its horns but perceval seized them and after a great struggle he threw the animal and held it down and in his wrath
with that a swarm of little angry trolls poured from the hollow hillocks with great cries
but suddenly tod ran among them and commanded them to release him and in the end tod who came himself of the troll folk made the little people pass the words of peace and friendship with perceval and ever after that the boy went with the trolls and sported with them in wrestling running and other games
and the spirits that haunt waste places and standing stones and how to put to naught the power of witches and wizards tod ever bade them treat the young lord with reverence for this is he who shall do great deeds he said he shall be a stainless knight
who shall gain from evil the greatest strength and if god wills he shall beat down the evil powers in this land
though he was very content to have the trolls for his friends one day perceval was in the forest far up the mountain
and went straight as the flight of a wild duck right across the moor and never swerved by the hills or pools but went over everything in its way and as he stood marvelling what mighty men had builded it he heard a strange rattling sound behind him and turning
he saw three men on horseback and the sun shone from them as he had seen it shine from the first horseman the foremost checked his horse beside perceval and said tell me good soul sawest thou a knight pass this way either this day or yesterday
i know not what a knight is answered perceval such a one as i said the horseman smiling good naturedly for it was sir owen one of king arthur's knights
i will answer gladly said sir owen smiling yet wondering at the fearless and noble air of this youth in so wild a waste what is this asked perceval and pulled the skirt of the hauberk it is a dress made of rings of steel answered sir owen
which i put on to turn the swords of those i fight and what is it to fight what strange youth art thou asked sir owen to fight is to do battle with spears or swords so that you would slay the man that would slay you
many other questions the youth asked eagerly as to the arms they bore and the accoutrements and their uses and at length he said sirs i thank you for your courtesy go forward swiftly for i saw such a one as ye go by here but two hours ago
and he flashed in the sun as he rode swiftly and now i will be as one of you
and mother i will be a knight also with a great shriek his mother swooned away and the women turned him from the room and said he had slain his mother much grieved was perceval that he had hurt his mother and so taking his store of pointed sticks
he went off into the forest and strayed there a long time torn between his love for his mother and the strange restlessness which the sight of the three warriors had caused in him as he wandered troubled his quick ear caught the clang of metal though he knew not what it was
and swiftly he ran towards the sound a long way until he came into a clearing and found two knights on horseback doing mighty battle one bore a red shield and the other a green one he looked eagerly at this strange sight and the blood sang in his veins
and then he saw that the green knight was of slighter frame than the other and was weakening before the strokes of the red knight full of anger at the sight perceval launched one of his hard wood javelins at the red knight with such force did it go and so true was the aim
and entered between the neck and the head and the red knight swayed and then clattered to the ground dead the green knight came and thanked perceval for thus saving his life are knights then so easy to slay asked the lad methought that none might pierce through the hauberk of a knight
but the lad would not have it though he longed greatly to possess it and the green knight took it with him then perceval went home sad yet wild with wonder at what he had done he found his mother well again but very sorrowful and for fear of giving her pain he did not tell her of the knight he had slain
she called him to her and said dear son of mine it seems i may not keep thy fate from thee the blood of thy warlike generations before thee may not be quenched
dear son dost thou desire to ride forth into the world yes mother of a truth said perceval i shall not be happy more until i go go forward then she said weeping and god be with thee my dear son and as i have no man who is strong of his hands thou must go alone
but make all the haste ye may to the court of king arthur at caerleon upon usk
and the king will give thee knighthood and wherever thou seest a church go kneel and repeat thy prayers therein and if thou hearest an outcry go quickly and defend the weak the poor and the unprotected and be ever tender towards women my son
and remember that thy mother loves thee and prays for thy stay in health and life and come thou to see me within a little while
but would remember all the nobleness of her teaching also that he would return to see her within a little while perceval went to the stable and took a bony piebald horse which seemed the strongest
while he was yet but a little way from the court of king arthur a stranger knight tall and big in black armour had ridden into the hall where sat gwenevere the queen with a few of the younger knights and her women the page of the chamber was serving the queen with wine in a golden goblet richly wrought
which lancelot had taken from a knight whom he had lately slain the stranger knight had alighted before the chair of gwenevere and all had seen that full of rage and pride was his look
and if any of you knights here desire to wrest this goblet from me or to avenge the insult i have done your queen
like sir garlon whom balin slew he fought with evil magic
and the old and mouldy jerkin upon the youth the knights and others broke forth in excessive laughter
and perceval looked about and saw a knight more richly dressed than the others and turning to kay he said tell me tall man is that king arthur yonder what wouldst thou with arthur knave asked kay angrily my mother told me to seek king arthur responded perceval
and he will give me the honour of knighthood by my faith thou farmer's churl said kay thou art richly equipped indeed with horse and arms to have that honour thereupon the others shouted with laughter and commenced to throw sticks at perceval or the bones left by the dogs upon the floor
then a dwarf pressed forward between the laughing crowd and saluted perceval and the lad rejoiced to recognise him it was tod who had been his friend among the trolls of the mountains and with tod was his wife they had come to the court of arthur
and the king of his kindness had granted it them but by reason of the prophecy which the trolls knew of concerning the great renown which perceval was to gain they had been dumb of speech since they had last seen the young man
and they ran and kissed his feet and cried together the welcome of heaven be unto thee goodly perceval son of earl evroc chief of warriors art thou and stainless flower of knighthood truly said kay wrathfully
to remain a year mute at king arthur's court and now before the face of goodly knights to acclaim this churl with the mouldy coat chief of warriors and flower of knighthood in his rage he beat tod the dwarf such a blow that the poor troll fell senseless to the ground
and the troll wife he kicked so that she was dashed among the dogs who bit her tall man said perceval and men marvelled to see the high look on his face and the cold scorn in his eyes i will have vengeance on thee for the insult and ill treatment thou hast done these two poor dwarfs
i will do so angry man said perceval
going to the meadow beside the ford he saw a knight riding up and down proud of his strength and valour tell me fellow said the knight who bore on his shield the device of a black tower on a red field didst thou see any one coming after me from the court yonder
the tall man that was there said perceval bade me to come to thee and i am to overthrow thee and to take from thee the goblet and as for thy horse and thy arms i am to have them myself silence prating fool shouted the knight
go back to the court and tell arthur to come himself or to send a champion to fight me or i will not wait and great will be his shame by my faith said perceval whether thou art willing or unwilling it is i that will have thy horse and arms and the goblet
and he prepared to throw his javelin sticks in a proud rage the knight ran at him with uplifted lance and struck him a violent blow with the shaft between the neck and the shoulder
that was as shrewd a blow as any the trolls gave me when they taught me their staff play but now i will play with thee in my own way thereupon he threw one of the pointed sticks at the knight with such force and with such sureness of aim that it went in between the bars of his vizor
and pierced the eye and entered into the brain of the knight whereupon he fell from his horse lifeless and it befell that a little while after perceval had left the court sir owen came in and was told of the shameful wrong put upon the queen by the unknown knight and how sir kay had sent a mad boy after the knight to slay him
now by my troth said owen to kay thou wert a fool to send that foolish lad after the strong knight for either he will be overthrown and the knight will think he is truly the champion sent on behalf of the queen whom the knight so evilly treated and so an eternal disgrace will light on arthur and all of us
or if he is slain the disgrace will be the same and the mad young man's life will be thrown away thereupon sir owen made all haste and rode swiftly to the meadow armed
what do you there tall youth this iron coat said perceval stopping as he spoke will never come off him owen alighted marvelling and went to the knight and found that he was dead and saw the manner of his death and marvelled the more he unloosed the knight's armour and gave it to perceval
here good soul he said are horse and armour for thee and well hast thou merited them since thou unarmed hast slain so powerful a knight as this
i will be his man to slay all oppressors to succour the weak and the wronged
to revenge upon him the wrong he did to my friends tod the dwarf and his wife and with this perceval said farewell and rode off
men marvelled who the strange young man could be and many sought tod and his wife to question them but nowhere could they be found greater still was their marvelling when as the weeks passed knights came and yielded themselves to king arthur
and yielded themselves up to him and his mercy the king and all his court reproved kay for his churlish manner and for his having driven so splendid a youth from the court and perceval rode ever forward he came one day towards the gloaming to a lonely wood in the fenlands
where the wind shivered like the breath of ghosts among the leaves and there was not a track or trace of man or beast and no birds piped and soon as the wind shrilled and the rain began to beat down like thin grey spears he saw a vast castle rise before him and when he made his way towards the gate
he found the way so overgrown with weeds that hardly could he push his horse between them and on the very threshold the grass grew thick and high as if the door had not been opened for a hundred winters he battered on the door with the butt of his lance
and long he waited while the cold rain drove and the wind snarled after a little while a voice came from above the gateway and glancing up he saw a damsel looking through an opening in the battlements choose thou chieftain said she whether i shall open unto thee without announcing thee
say that i am here said perceval and if she will not house me for the night
soon the maiden came back and opened the door for him and his horse she led into the stable where she fed it and perceval she brought into the hall
he thought he had never seen another of so fair an aspect she had an old garment of satin upon her which had once been rich but was now frayed and tattered and fairer was her skin than the bloom of the rose and her hair and eyebrows were like the sloe for blackness and on her cheeks was the redness of poppies
and he thought that though she was very beautiful
when perceval went towards the dais of the hall he saw a tall and stately lady in the high seat old of years and reverend of aspect though sorrowful several handmaids sat beside her sad of face and tattered of dress
then they sat at meat and gave the young man the best cheer that they had when it was time to go to rest the lady said
tell me said perceval what is this castle and what is the doom you speak of this castle is named the castle of weeds replied the lady
and he was a bold and very valiant man and he slew maelond the eldest son of domna the great witch of glaive and ever thereafter things were not well with him for she and her eight evil sisters laid a curse upon him and that in spite of this that he slew maelond in fair fight
for all that he was a false and powerful wizard
when he was worn with a strange sickness and as he lay on his deathbed
this maiden here when she shall be full twice nine years of age and she will be of that age ere dawn to morrow morn and at the hour will the fierce domna and her fearful sisters come and with tortures slay all that are herein and take my dear daughter angharad and use her cruelly
the maiden who had opened to perceval was that daughter and she laughed harshly as her mother spoke fear not for me mother she cried
as i have pined these ten years with thee the lady looked sadly upon her as she heard her words
if it be thus fated he said i will go with thee
nor to her daughter nor to any that belong to them it shall be so said the witch if when the time comes thou art strong enough to overcome my power but if thou failest angharad is mine to do with as i will
and of angharad and the lady thanked him with tears for saving their lives but the girl was cold and scornful and said no word of thanks
and while he lived with them they strove to bend him to their wills for they saw how great a knight he would become in prowess and in knightly deeds they tempted him every hour and every day telling him what earthly power what riches and what great dominions would be his
if he would but swear fealty to the chief witch domna and fight for her against king arthur and his proud knights perceval prayed daily for strength to withstand the poison of their tongues
and thought much of his widowed mother in her lonely home in the northern wastes and of the promise he had made her sometimes he thought of angharad how beautiful she was and how sad it was that she had so cold a heart and was so cruel in her words anon the witch domna came to him
would become the prey of the witches and greater power of evil would they have in the world than ever before then she gave him a horse and a full suit of black armour so perceval took the horse and armed himself and rode forth and anon he came to a hermit's cell beside a ruined chapel and he alighted and went into the chapel
prayerfully he gave his arms to the service of god and devoted them one by one to do only knightly and pure deeds to rescue the oppressed and the weak to put down the proud and to cherish the humble and as he ended praying the armour stirred of itself and though it had been black before
now did the darkness fade from it and it all became a pure white while he marvelled a faint light glowed over hauberk helm shield sword and lance and there was an exceeding sweet savour wafted through the place and ghostily as in a silver mist
he saw above the altar the likeness of a spear and beside it a dish or salver and at the wondrous sight his breath stayed on his lips then slowly the vision faded from his sight
and he rode forth and thought to go towards camelot where was the court of king arthur but he felt that some power drew him aside through the desolate ways of a hoar forest where all the trees were ancient and big and all bearded with long moss
in a little while he saw a vast castle reared upon a rock in the midst of the forest he rode up to it and marvelled that it was all so quiet then he beat upon the door with the butt of his lance and the door opened and he entered into the wide dark hall
on the pallets under the wall he saw men lying as if dead
old and white but richly clothed and he seemed dead like all the rest all were clad in garments of an ancient kind as if they had lived and died a thousand years agone
on the floor about the wide heap of ashes where the fire had burned the hounds still lay as if asleep and on the posts the hawks sat stiff upon their perches much did perceval marvel at this strange sight but most of all he marvelled to see where a shaft of light from a narrow window
gleamed across the hall full upon a shield hung on the fire pillar beside the high seat in which the king sat like one dead perceval caused his horse to pick its way through the hall and he approached the shield and he saw that it was of shining white but whiter than the whiteness of his own
and in the centre thereof was a heart as he sat looking thereat he marvelled to see that the heart seemed to stir as if it were alive and began to throb and move as if it beat then the whiteness of the shield began to dazzle like to a light that mortal eyes could not bear
a great sigh arose from within the hall as if at one time many sleepers awoke and looking round he saw how all the men that had seemed dead were now on their knees with bent heads and folded hands as if in prayer the king in the high seat stirred and sat upright
and looked at perceval with a most sweet smile
and now is my watch and ward all ended and with these my faithful companions may i go tell me sir said perceval what means this i am marius said the king and i was that roman soldier who took pity of the gentle saviour dying in his agony upon the rood
and i helped to take him from the cross for my pity did god whom till then i had not known deal with me in marvellous wise and this shield was mine and a holy hermit in a desert of syria did bless it and prophesy concerning it and me
i came to this land of britain when it was full of evil men warring fiercely together and all in heathen darkness i preached the word of christ i and my fellows that came with me until the heathens rose up and would slay me and by that time i was wearied and very old and wished to die
yet i sorrowed wondering whether god would do naught to rescue these people from this slavery to the old evil law then a man of god came to me at night a man of marvel and he caused this castle to be builded in this ancient wood
for said he thou hast earned thy sleep and others shall carry on thy work and reveal the mercy of god and his christ to these poor heathens and they shall turn to god wholly
but when in the distant future men's hearts are turning to evil again
to ward him in the great battle against evil
go then thou good knight went on king marius fight the good fight against that thing of evil whom the good man spoke of and may my shield encompass thee and ever guard thee perceval took the shield and left his own turning he rode back between lines of silent forms bent in prayer
he went forth into the forest some little way and heard from the castle the singing of a joyful hymn and looking back he saw that the castle had vanished but still above him and about him was the sound of singing of a sweetness indescribable
as if they sang who had gained all that they desired then perceval rode forward till it was night
so he abode in the forest that night and when he had prayed he slept beside his good horse until it was day
yet marvel it was to see that the trees in that hoar wood did not wave their branches but all were still then he was aware of a sweet savour which surrounded him and anon a gentle voice spoke out of the darkness fair white knight said the voice
and to make them cleave to the old law with its cruelty and evil tortures and there at the castle of the circlet thou shalt fight a battle for the saviour of the world
but in thy purity thy humility is thy strength fare thee well much moved at these words perceval knelt and prayed and then as the dawn filtered through the trees he mounted his horse and began his long journey to the north
on the seventh day he crossed a plain and saw far in the north where the smoke as of fires rose into the clouds and here and there he saw the fierce red gleam of flames and he passed through a ford and then he entered a land all black and desolate
with the bodies of the dead beside the way unburied and the houses all broken or burned in other places the grass and weeds grew over the hearths of desolated homes and wild beasts made their lairs where homely folk seemed lately to have lived their simple happy lives
no man or child could be seen anywhere to ask what all this might mean but one day as he walked his horse beside a brook over the long grass he came upon a poor half starved peasant
and the man knelt before him and bared his breast and said strike sir knight and end my misery but perceval raised him in his arms and kissed him and gave him bread and wine from his scrip and when the poor man was revived perceval asked him what his words meant
ah sir white knight said the man whose tears fell as he spoke surely thou art an angel of heaven not of the pit such as have ravened and slaughtered throughout this fair land since good king pellam was struck by the dolorous stroke that balin made
for of that stroke came all our misery the sacred relics of the crucifixion fled our land our king sickened of a malady that naught could heal our crops rotted and our cattle died yet did some among us strive to live and do as brave men should in all adversity
the knight of the dragon and he willed that all should scorn and despise the good christ and should turn to the old gods of the standing stones and the oaken groves and those that would not he slew
and their folk he trampled underfoot and their herds and fields he destroyed and desolated and i fair lord have lost my dear wife and my wee bairns and i wonder why i fled and kept my life remembering all i have lost take heart said perceval
and remember that it is god his mercy that chastiseth and that while thou hast life thou hast hope it is a man's duty a man's nobility to bear sorrows bravely and still to work to do all and to achieve
i think god will not long let this evil knight oppress and slay in his good time he will cut him down fair sir said the peasant i thank thee for thy cheer and i will take heart and trust in god's good time and perceval rode forward through the blackened land
anon he came to the edge of a plain and saw a great castle in the distance and there came to him a damsel weeping and when he craved of her to tell him why she mourned she stayed and looked at him as if astounded then she cried with a great cry of joy
oh tell me fair sir who art thou thou hast the white armour which it was foretold the spotless knight should wear
i know not what you say replied perceval but my name is perceval son of evroc and i seek the wicked knight that doeth all this evil then thou art the white knight said the damsel and now i pray that god aid thee for my lady and all this poor land have need of thee
come thou to my mistress the lady of the chaplet therewith she led him to the castle and the lady thereof came out to him she was of a sad countenance but of a great beauty though poorly clothed fair sir she said my maiden hath told me who thou art
and i sorrow that one so noble as thou seemest shall essay to overcome the fiend knight of the dragon yet if thou shouldst prevail all men in this tortured land will bless thee and i not the least for daily doth the evil knight slay my poor knights
and cometh and casteth their blackened and burned bodies before my hall and many of my poor folk hath he slain or enslaved and others hath he caused to follow his evil worship and many of my rich and fair lands hath he wrested from me therefore fair lady said perceval
i would seek him without delay for to essay the force of my body upon him by the grace of god and shouldst thou conquer said the lady with the fiend's death the hallowed relics which king pellam guarded shall return to bless this land now therefore go ye towards the burnt land beyond the brook
perceval went forward across the plain to a brook
and the trees were charred and black here and there lay pieces of armour red and rusted as if they had been in a fierce fire and in one place was the body of a knight freshly slain and he was charred and black then as perceval looked about him he saw the dark hole of a cave in a bank beside the hollow
whose eyes flashed as with fire and whose nostrils jetted hot vapours ha thou christian cried the knight in a horrible voice what dost thou here wouldst thou have thy pretty white armour charred and blackened and thyself killed by my dragon's power
then perceval saw how the boss of the black knight's shield was the head of a dragon its forked tongue writhing its teeth gnashing and its eyes so red and fiendish that no mortal unless by god's aid could look on it and live from its mouth came a blinding flash as of lightning
and beat at perceval but he held up his shield of the throbbing heart and with angry shrieks the black knight perceived that the lightning could not touch the shield then from his side the evil knight tore his sword and it flamed red as if it was heated in a fierce furnace
but the white knight warded off the blows with his shield which the flaming sword had no power to harm then did the black knight marvel greatly for never had a knight however skilled withstood him for either the lightning of the dragon shield had burnt him
and by this he knew that this knight was perceval thou knowest not who it is thou fightest said the black knight with a scornful laugh
for know ye that i am a fosterling of domna the witch
then perceval knew that this indeed was the fight which domna had foretold and that if he failed in this ruin and sorrow would be the lot of many and perceval began to thrust and strike full valorously and skilfully but naught seemed to avail him
thus for a long time they went about thrusting and striking always the strength of the black knight seemed as unwearied as that of a demon while perceval felt his arm weaken as much from the great strokes he gave as from the burning fires that darted at him from the dragon shield
then perceval cried in prayer for aid and asked that if christ would have this land saved for his glory strength should be given him to slay this fiendish oppressor forthwith strength seemed to nerve his arm mightily and lifting his sword he struck at the shield of the knight and so vehement was the blow
that he cut down the shield even to the head of the dragon feeling the wound the dragon gave forth a great flame and perceval wondered to see that now his own sword burned as if on fire then while the black knight marvelled at this stroke
perceval struck at him more fiercely and beat in the other's helm so that the fiend knight bent and swayed in his saddle but recovering
ere the other could withdraw himself perceval thrust his sword to the hilt into the loathsome throat of the dragon thereupon the dragon gave so terrible a cry that the earth seemed to shake with the horror of it and in its wrath and pain the dragon's head turned upon the black knight its master
perceval dizzy and weak from the battle alighted from his horse and went towards the knight
but suddenly he swooned and fell and his consciousness went from him when perceval came to his senses again
and the rough walls of a room were about him while above him was the window as it seemed of an abbey or convent and he was so weak he could not lift his hand
where am i now god be praised said tod and smiled joyfully for the nuns feared ye might not win through the poison of your wound which the dragon knight did give you twas i who had followed you lord since that you did leave the hold of the witches and when you swooned i brought you here
to the convent of the white nuns and now that i know ye live i go to your lady mother to tell her the good news for she is weary to know tidings of you
when tod had left him there came a nun to him and he knew her for angharad who had been so proud and scornful when he left her at the castle of weeds and he asked her how she had fared and why she was a nun to repent me of my evil mind she said
for when you left us i did not in my heart thank ye that you had saved my mother and me from death and worse and the witches came to me and tempted me with riches and power even as they were tempting you while you were with them i heard how you withstood them and i scorned you and hated you
and said you would yield some day and then you left the witches having learned all their strong powers yet having withstood them and i marvelled much i heard men say you were one of three stainless knights of the world that should achieve the holy graal because of your great humility and purity
and that great honour and glory would be yours because you put not your trust in your own strength then i repented and would not listen to the evil women but they followed me whispering and tempting and then for terror i sought a holy hermit and he brought me here
but the impression produced by the demonstration was lost as soon as it was reported from the front that the revolutionary army had advanced to attack the enemy on the very day that the workingmen and the petrograd garrison demanded the publication of the secret treaties
and an open offer of peace kerensky flung the revolutionary troops into battle this was no mere coincidence to be sure the projectors had everything prepared in advance and the time of attack was determined not by military
but by political considerations on the nineteenth of june there was a so called patriotic demonstration in the streets of petrograd the nevsky prospect
was studded with excited groups in which army officers journalists and well dressed ladies were carrying on a bitter campaign against the bolsheviki the first reports of the military drive were favorable the leading liberal papers
considered that the principal aim had been attained
regardless of its ultimate military results would deal a mortal blow to the revolution restore the army's former discipline and assure the liberal bourgeoisie of a commanding position in the affairs of the government we however
indicated to the bourgeoisie a different line of future events
a few days before the drive we declared that the military advance would inevitably destroy all the internal ties within the army set up its various parts one against the other and turn the scales heavily in favor of the counter revolutionary elements
since it would be impossible to maintain discipline in a demoralized army an army devoid of controlling ideas without recourse to severe repressive measures in other words we foretold in this declaration
those results which later came to be known collectively under the name of kornilovism we believed that the greatest danger threatened the revolution in either case whether the drive proved successful which we did not expect or met with failure
which seemed to us almost inevitable a successful military advance would have united the middle class and the bourgeoisie in their common chauvinistic tendencies thus isolating the revolutionary proletariat
an unsuccessful drive was likely to demoralize the army completely to involve a general retreat and the loss of much additional territory and to bring disgust and disappointment to the people events took the latter course
the news of victory did not last long it was soon replaced by gloomy reports of the refusal of many regiments to support the advancing columns of the great losses in commanding officers who sometimes composed the whole of the attacking units et cetera
in view of its great historical significance we append an extract from the document issued by our party in the all russian council of soviets on the third of june nineteen seventeen just two weeks before the drive
we deem it necessary to present as the first order of the day a question on whose solution depend not only all the other measures to be adopted by the council but actually and literally the fate of the whole russian revolution
the question of the military drive which is being planned for the immediate future having put the people and the army which does not know in the name of what international ends it is called upon to shed its blood face to face with the impending attack
with all its consequences the counter revolutionary circles of russia are counting on the fact that this drive will necessitate a concentration of power in the hands of the military diplomatic and capitalistic groups
affiliated with english french and american imperialism and thus free them from the necessity of reckoning later with the organized will of russian democracy the secret counter revolutionary instigators of the drive
are consciously trying to play on the demoralization in the army brought about by the internal and international situation of the country and to this end are inspiring the discouraged elements with the fallacious idea that the very fact of a drive can rehabilitate the army
and by this mechanical means hide the lack of a definite program for liquidating the war at the same time it is clear that such an advance cannot but completely disorganize the army by setting up its various units one against the other
the military events were developing amid ever increasing difficulties in the internal life of the nation with regard to the land question industrial life and national relations the coalition government did not take a single resolute step forward
the food and transportation situations were becoming more and more disorganized local clashes were growing more frequent the socialistic ministers were exhorting the masses to be patient all decisions and measures
including the calling of the constituent assembly were being postponed the insolvency and the instability of the coalition regime were obvious there were two possible ways out
to drive the bourgeoisie out of power and promote the aims of the revolution or to adopt the policy of bridling the people by resorting to repressive measures
clung to a middle course and only muddled matters the more
understood that the unsuccessful military advance of june eighteenth might deal a blow not only to the revolution but also to the government temporarily they threw the whole weight of responsibility upon their allies to the left
on the second of july came a crisis in the ministry the immediate cause of which was the ukrainian question
from various points at the front came delegates and private individuals telling of the chaos which reigned in the army as a result of the advance the so called government press demanded severe repressions
such demands frequently came from the so called socialistic papers also kerensky more and more openly went over to the side of the cadets and the cadet generals who had manifested not only their hatred of revolution
but also their bitter enmity toward revolutionary parties in general the allied ambassadors were pressing the government with the demand that army discipline be restored and the advance continued the greatest panic prevailed in government circles
while among the workingmen much discontent had accumulated which craved for outward expression avail yourselves of the resignations of the cadet ministers
to the socialist revolutionists and mensheviki in control of the soviet parties
the soviet ministers came to report a new crisis in the government we were intensely interested to learn what position they would take now that they had actually gone to pieces under the great ordeals arising from coalition policies
that those concessions which he and tereshchenko had made to the kiev rada did not by any means signify a dismemberment of the country and that this therefore did not give the cadets any good reason for leaving the ministry
doctrinairism of failing to understand the necessity for compromising with the ukrainians et cetera et cetera the total impression was pitiful in the extreme the hopeless doctrinaire of the coalition government
was hurling the charge of doctrinairism against the crafty capitalist politicians who seized upon the first suitable excuse for compelling their political clerks to repent of the decisive turn they had given
after all the preceding experience of the coalition there would seem to be but one way out of the difficulty to break with the cadets and set up a soviet government the relative forces within the soviets
were such at the time that the soviet's power as a political party would fall naturally into the hands of the social revolutionists and the mensheviki we deliberately faced the situation thanks to the possibility of reelections at any time
the mechanism of the soviets assured a sufficiently exact reflection of the progressive shift toward the left in the masses of workers and soldiers after the break of the coalition with the bourgeoisie the radical tendencies should we expected
receive a greater following in the soviet organizations under such circumstances the proletariat's struggle for power would naturally move in the channel of soviet organizations and could take a more normal course
having broken with the bourgeoisie the middle class democracy would itself fall under their ban and would be compelled to seek a closer union with the socialistic proletariat in this way
of the middle class democratic elements would be overcome sooner or later by the working masses with the help of our criticism this is the reason why we demanded that the leading soviet parties in which we had no real confidence
and we frankly said so should take the governing power into their own hands but even after the ministerial crisis of the second of july
and his adherents did not abandon the coalition idea they explained in the executive committee that the leading cadets were indeed demoralized by doctrinairism and even by counter revolutionism but that in the provinces
there were still many bourgeois elements which could still go hand in hand with the revolutionary democrats and that in order to make sure of their co operation it was necessary to attract representatives of the bourgeoisie into the membership of the new ministry
dan already entertained hopes of a radical democratic party to be hastily built up at the time by a few pro democratic politicians the report that the coalition government had been broken up
only to be replaced by a new coalition spread rapidly through petrograd and provoked a storm of indignation among the workingmen and soldiers everywhere
chapter three how do sir risdon the speaker was a curious looking man of fifty rough sunburned and evidently as keen as a well worn knife he was dressed like a farmer
who had taken to fishing or like a fisherman who had taken to farming and his nautical appearance seemed strange to a man who was leading a very meditative grey horse attached to a heavy cart
made more weighty by the greatcoat of caked mud the vehicle wore
though its only pretensions to being a road was that it led from shackle's farm to the fields which bordered the cliff and consisted of two deep channels made by the farm tumbril wheels
and a shallow track formed by horses hoofs the said channels being more often full of water than of mud and boasting the quality of never even in the hottest weather being dry
the person blenheim shackle farmer and fisher in his canvas sailor's breeches big boots striped shirt and red tassel cap had accosted was a tall thin aristocratic looking gentleman
in a broad skirted shabby brown velvet coat who was daintily picking his way cane in hand over the soft turf of the field
but sufficiently awake to what was around to make him stoop from time to time to pick up a glistening white topped mushroom
ah master shackle he said starting slightly on being addressed well thank you a lovely morning indeed
i have picked a few said the tall thin gentleman colouring slightly i beg your pardon master shackle for doing so i ought to have asked your leave
not a bit said the fisher farmer with a chuckle you're welcome squire i thank you master shackle i thank you warmly you see her ladyship is very fond
ay to be sure said shackle
and precious glad to get them
would you like to see continued the tall thin gentleman raising the flap of one of his salt box pockets i don't want to see growled the other as he stood patting the neck of his old grey horse been to the cliff edge
i yes master shackle see the cutter i think i saw a small vessel lying some distance off with white sails that's the white hawk luff brough
and i wanted to speak to you sir risdon the gentleman started not about
it was about that man said the other don't shy at it like a horse at a blue bogey in a windy lane but i told you man last time that i would have no more to do with that wretched smuggling don't call things by ugly names
and had to be checked not the king's laws but the laws of that dutchman who has come and stuck himself on the throne
why sir you ought to take a pleasure in breaking his laws after the way he has robbed you and turned you from a real gentleman into a poor hard pressed country squire who hush hush master shackle said the tall gentleman huskily
don't rake up my misfortunes not i sir risdon i'm full o sorrow and respect for a noble gentleman who has suffered for the cause of the real king who when he comes will set us all right
ah master shackle i'm losing heart nay don't do that sir risdon and as to a few mushrooms why you're welcome enough and i'd often be sending a chicken or a few eggs or a kit o butter
only we're feared her ladyship might think it rude
and i shall never be able to repay you tchah who wants repaying sir risdon we have plenty at the farm
as i was out in my little lugger and we'd took a lot o mackrel ram i says to my boy ramillies think sir risdon would mind if i sent him a few fish up to the hoze
they don't want us to send them fish my lady's too proud
it's a pity too the latter continued specially as we often have so much fish we puts it on the land
and let me have your bill by and by i should be gratified on'y too glad sir risdon i will think any one's been telling tales tales bout us sir risdon
you see the revenue cutter's hanging about here a deal and it looks bad surely no one would betray you master shackle hope not sir risdon
there's a three masted lugger coming over from ushant and she may be in to night there's some nice thick fogs about now and it's a quiet sea your cellars are quite empty i s'pose
the last remark came so quickly that the hearer started and made no reply you see sir risdon we might run the cargo and stow it all up at my place for we've plenty o room
but if they got an idea of it aboard the cutter she'd land some men somehow and come and search me but they wouldn't dare to come and search you i've got a bad character but you haven't
the lads could run it up the valley and down into your cellar sir risdon whispered the man as if afraid that the old grey horse would hear nobody would be a bit the wiser and you'd be doing a neighbour a good turn
i i cannot master shackle it is against the law
you will sir risdon no no i dare not and it gives a neighbour a chance to beg your acceptance of a little drop o real cognac sir risdon so good in case o sickness
and a bit of prime tay such as would please her ladyship then think how pleasant a pipe is sir risdon
and a length or two of french silk master shackle master shackle cried the tall thin baronet piteously how can you tempt a poor suffering gentleman like this
i tell you it's safe enough you've only to leave your side door open and go to bed that's all but i shall be as guilty as you guilty the man laughed
never feel shamed to look my boy ramillies in the face if a bit o smuggling was wrong sir risdon think i'd do it no sir i think o them as was before me my father was in marlborough's wars
but i shall be afraid to look in the face of my dear child
i don believe she'd like her father to miss getting a lot of things that would be good for him and your madam there sir risdon don't say another word about it
leave the door open and go to bed you shan't hear anybody come or go away and you're not obliged to look in the cellars for a few days
the rats tell em to take no notice sir risdon good day sir risdon that's settled then
this once only master shackle thank ye sir risdon said the man jee dutchman the horse tugged at the tumbril and sir risdon went thoughtfully along the field toward a clump of trees lying in a hollow
while master shackle went on chuckling to himself couldn't say me nay poor fellow half starved they are sometimes
hope he won't them cellars are too vallyble hallo what now
been looking at the cutter father oh she don't want no looking at who brought those cows down here jemmy dadd he's a fool we shall be having some of em going over the cliff
and take two rolls of butter a bit of honey and a couple of chickens up to the hoze yes father
yes father but well think the lugger will come to night no i don't think anything and don't you will you keep that rattle tongue of yours quiet
want to grow into a jemmy dadd no father then be off
chapter nine wreckage and now comes the strangest thing in my story yet perhaps it is not altogether strange i remember clearly and coldly and vividly
all that i did that day until the time that i stood weeping and praising god upon the summit of primrose hill and then i forget of the next three days i know nothing i have learned since that so far from my being the first discoverer of the martian overthrow
several such wanderers as myself had already discovered this on the previous night one man the first had gone to saint martin's le grand and while i sheltered in the cabmen's hut had contrived to telegraph to paris
thence the joyful news had flashed all over the world a thousand cities chilled by ghastly apprehensions suddenly flashed into frantic illuminations they knew of it in dublin edinburgh manchester birmingham
at the time when i stood upon the verge of the pit already men weeping with joy as i have heard shouting and staying their work to shake hands and shout were making up trains even as near as crewe to descend upon london
the church bells that had ceased a fortnight since suddenly caught the news until all england was bell ringing men on cycles lean faced unkempt scorched along every country lane shouting of unhoped deliverance
shouting to gaunt staring figures of despair and for the food across the channel across the irish sea across the atlantic corn bread and meat were tearing to our relief all the shipping in the world seemed going londonward in those days
but of all this i have no memory i drifted a demented man i found myself in a house of kindly people who had found me on the third day wandering weeping and raving through the streets of saint john's wood
they have told me since that i was singing some insane doggerel about the last man left alive hurrah the last man left alive
these people whose name much as i would like to express my gratitude to them i may not even give here nevertheless cumbered themselves with me sheltered me and protected me from myself
apparently they had learned something of my story from me during the days of my lapse very gently when my mind was assured again did they break to me what they had learned of the fate of leatherhead
two days after i was imprisoned it had been destroyed with every soul in it by a martian he had swept it out of existence as it seemed without any provocation as a boy might crush an ant hill
in the mere wantonness of power i was a lonely man and they were very kind to me i was a lonely man and a sad one and they bore with me i remained with them four days after my recovery
all that time i felt a vague a growing craving to look once more on whatever remained of the little life that seemed so happy and bright in my past it was a mere hopeless desire to feast upon my misery they dissuaded me
they did all they could to divert me from this morbidity but at last i could resist the impulse no longer and promising faithfully to return to them and parting as i will confess from these four day friends with tears
i went out again into the streets that had lately been so dark and strange and empty already they were busy with returning people in places even there were shops open and i saw a drinking fountain running water
i remember how mockingly bright the day seemed as i went back on my melancholy pilgrimage to the little house at woking how busy the streets and vivid the moving life about me so many people were abroad everywhere busied in a thousand activities
that it seemed incredible that any great proportion of the population could have been slain but then i noticed how yellow were the skins of the people i met how shaggy the hair of the men how large and bright their eyes
and that every other man still wore his dirty rags their faces seemed all with one of two expressions a leaping exultation and energy or a grim resolution save for the expression of the faces
london seemed a city of tramps the vestries were indiscriminately distributing bread sent us by the french government the ribs of the few horses showed dismally haggard special constables with white badges stood at the corners of every street
i saw little of the mischief wrought by the martians until i reached wellington street and there i saw the red weed clambering over the buttresses of waterloo bridge at the corner of the bridge too i saw one of the common contrasts of that grotesque time
transfixed by a stick that kept it in place it was the placard of the first newspaper to resume publication the daily mail i bought a copy for a blackened shilling i found in my pocket
but the solitary compositor who did the thing had amused himself by making a grotesque scheme of advertisement stereo on the back page the matter he printed was emotional the news organisation had not as yet found its way back
i learned nothing fresh except that already in one week the examination of the martian mechanisms had yielded astonishing results among other things the article assured me what i did not believe at the time that the secret of flying was discovered
at waterloo i found the free trains that were taking people to their homes the first rush was already over there were few people in the train and i was in no mood for casual conversation i got a compartment to myself
and sat with folded arms looking greyly at the sunlit devastation that flowed past the windows and just outside the terminus the train jolted over temporary rails and on either side of the railway the houses were blackened ruins
to clapham junction the face of london was grimy with powder of the black smoke in spite of two days of thunderstorms and rain and at clapham junction the line had been wrecked again there were hundreds of out of work clerks and shopmen
working side by side with the customary navvies and we were jolted over a hasty relaying all down the line from there the aspect of the country was gaunt and unfamiliar wimbledon particularly had suffered
walton by virtue of its unburned pine woods seemed the least hurt of any place along the line
in appearance between butcher's meat and pickled cabbage the surrey pine woods were too dry however for the festoons of the red climber beyond wimbledon within sight of the line in certain nursery grounds
were the heaped masses of earth about the sixth cylinder a number of people were standing about it and some sappers were busy in the midst of it
the nursery grounds were everywhere crimson with the weed
and very painful to the eye
to the blue green softness of the eastward hills the line on the london side of woking station was still undergoing repair so i descended at byfleet station and took the road to maybury
and on by the spot where the martian had appeared to me in the thunderstorm here moved by curiosity i turned aside to find among a tangle of red fronds the warped and broken dog cart
for a time i stood regarding these vestiges then i returned through the pine wood neck high with red weed here and there to find the landlord of the spotted dog had already found burial and so came home past the college arms
a man standing at an open cottage door greeted me by name as i passed i looked at my house with a quick flash of hope that faded immediately the door had been forced it was unfast and was opening slowly as i approached
it slammed again the curtains of my study fluttered out of the open window from which i and the artilleryman had watched the dawn no one had closed it since the smashed bushes were just as i had left them nearly four weeks ago
i stumbled into the hall and the house felt empty the stair carpet was ruffled and discoloured where i had crouched soaked to the skin from the thunderstorm the night of the catastrophe
our muddy footsteps i saw still went up the stairs i followed them to my study and found lying on my writing table still with the selenite paper weight upon it the sheet of work i had left on the afternoon of the opening of the cylinder
for a space i stood reading over my abandoned arguments it was a paper on the probable development of moral ideas with the development of the civilising process and the last sentence was the opening of a prophecy
the sentence ended abruptly i remembered my inability to fix my mind that morning scarcely a month gone by and how i had broken off to get my daily chronicle from the newsboy i remembered how i went down to the garden gate as he came along
there were the mutton and the bread both far gone now in decay and a beer bottle overturned just as i and the artilleryman had left them my home was desolate i perceived the folly of the faint hope i had cherished so long
and then a strange thing occurred it is no use said a voice the house is deserted no one has been here these ten days do not stay here to torment yourself no one escaped but you
i was startled had i spoken my thought aloud i turned and the french window was open behind me i made a step to it and stood looking out and there
amazed and afraid even as i stood amazed and afraid were my cousin and my wife my wife white and tearless she gave a faint cry i came she said
the author of black forest village stories and on the heights stands out in honorable individuality among modern german novelists
even if the latest fashions in fiction make his work already a little antiquated auerbach's biography is one of industry rather than of incident his birth was humble his life was long
he wrote voluminously and was widely popular to be half forgotten within a decade after his death he may perhaps be reckoned the founder of a contemporary german school of tendenz novel writers
a school now so much diminished that spielhagen who however wears auerbach's mantle with a difference is its only survivor of jewish parentage his birthplace being
nordstetten wuertemberg eighteen twelve auerbach drifted from preparation for the synagogue toward law philosophy and literature the study of spinoza whose works he translated
gave form to his convictions concerning human life it led him to spend his literary talents on materials so various as the homely simplicity of peasant scenes and peasant souls on the one hand
and on the other the popularization of a high social and ethical philosophy specially inculcated through his larger fictions his college education was obtained at tuebingen munich and heidelberg
necessity rather than ambition prompted him to write and he wrote as long as he lived a partial list of his works begins with a pseudonymous life of frederick the great
eighteen thirty seven afterward supplemented with ein denkerleben a thinker's life dichter und kaufman poet and merchant eighteen thirty nine stories belonging to the ghetto series
the translation in five volumes of spinoza's philosophy with a critical biography eighteen forty one and in eighteen forty two another work intended to popularize philosophy
schwarzwaelder dorfgeschichten black forest village stories followed by a second group in eighteen forty eight these won instant and wide favor and were widely translated
they rank among the author's most pleasing and successful productions stamped as they are with that truth which a writer like auerbach or a painter like defregger or schmidt
can express when sitting down to deal with the scenes and folk which from early youth have been photographed upon his heart and memory in eighteen fifty six there followed in the same descriptive field his
little barefoot joseph im schnee joseph in the snow eighteen sixty one and edelweiss eighteen sixty one his writings of this date
tales sketches journalistic political and dramatic and other papers reveal auerbach's varying moods or enthusiasms chronicle his residence in different german or austrian cities
and are comparatively insignificant among his forty or more volumes nor is much to be said of his first long fiction
but with auf der hoehe on the heights a philosophic romance of court life in the capital and the royal country seat of a considerable german kingdom by no means merely imaginary
inwoven with a minute study of peasant life and character auerbach's popular reputation was established his plan of making ethics the chief end of a novel
was here exhibited at its best he never again showed the same force of conception which got his imperfect literary art forgiven
another long novel not less doctrinaire in scope but dealing with quite different materials and problems das landhaus am rhein the villa on the rhine was issued in eighteen sixty eight
and was followed by waldfried a long patriotic and on the whole inert study of a german family from eighteen forty eight until the close of the franco prussian war
in spite of his untiring industry auerbach produced little more of consequence though he wrote a new series of black forest sketches nach dreissig jahren
after thirty years eighteen seventy six der forstmeister the head forester eighteen seventy nine and brigitta eighteen eighty
the close of his life was much embittered by the growth of the anti semitic
he died at cannes france in eighteen eighty two on the heights is doubtless auerbach's best representative the villa on the rhine is in a lower key with less appealing types
and less attractive local color moreover it is weighted with more philosophizing and its movement is slower in on the heights the emotional situations are strong
in spite of sentimentality a true feeling animates its technique the atmosphere of a german royal residence as he reveals it appears almost as heavy as the real thing
grandmother in the family are admirable delineations the heroine irma
is genuinely human the story of her abrupt atonement for a lapse from her better self the gradual process of her fantastic expiation and of her self redemption
through the deliberate sacrifice of all that belongs to her treacherous past her successful struggle into a high ethical life and knowledge of herself
the element which gives the book its force offer much that is consistent and appealing and elevating to the conscience auerbach
offers too many types to study and interests to follow and betrays a want of perspective in its construction but in spite of all its defects it is a novel that should not be forgotten
for reflective readers it will always hold a charm and its latent strength is proved by its triumph over its own faults
in black forest village stories one saturday afternoon the busy sound of hammer and adze was heard on the green hill top which served the good folks of nordstetten
as their open air gathering place valentine the carpenter with his two sons was making a scaffolding designed to serve no less a purpose than that of an altar and a pulpit gregory
the son of christian the tailor was to officiate at his first mass and preach his first sermon
valentine's youngest son a child of six years of age assisted his father with a mien which betokened that he considered his services indispensable with his bare head and feet
he ran up and down the timbers as nimbly as a squirrel when a beam was being lifted he cried pry under as lustily as any one put his shoulder to the crowbar
and puffed as if nine tenths of the weight fell upon him valentine liked to see his little boy employed he would tell him to wind the twine on the reel to carry the tools where they were wanted
or to rake the chips into a heap
with the zeal and devotion of a self sacrificing patriot once when he perched upon the end of a plank for the purpose of weighing it down the motion of the saw shook his every limb
and made him laugh aloud in spite of himself he would have fallen off but for the eagerness with which he held on to his position and endeavored to perform his task in the most workmanlike manner
at last the scaffolding was finished lewis the saddler was ready to nail down the carpets and hanging
but being gruffly repelled he sat down upon his heap of chips and looked at the mountains behind which the sun was setting in a sea of fire his father's whistle aroused him and he ran to his side
i wish i was in hochdorf why because it's so near to heaven and i should like to climb up once you silly boy it only seems as if heaven began there
from hochdorf it is a long way to stuttgart and from there it is a long way to heaven yet how long well you can't get there until you die
leading his little son with one hand and carrying his tools in the other valentine passed through the village washing and scouring was going on everywhere and chairs and tables stood before the houses
for every family expected visitors for the great occasion of the morrow as valentine passed christian the tailor's he held his hand to his cap
prepared to take it off if anybody should look out but nobody did so the place was silent as a cloister some farmers wives were going in carrying bowls covered with their aprons
while others passed out with empty bowls under their arms they nodded to each other without speaking they had brought wedding presents for the young clergyman who was to be married to his bride the church
as the vesper bell rang valentine released the hand of his son who quickly folded his hands valentine also brought his hands together over his heavy tools and said an ave
next morning a clear bright day rose upon the village
with buttons which he took for silver and a newly washed pair of leathern breeches he was to carry the crucifix gretchen ivo's eldest sister took him by the hand and led him into the street
so as to have room in the house having enjoined upon him by no means to go back she returned hastily wherever he came he found the men standing in knots in the road they were but
half dressed for the festival having no coats on
and with their hair half untied
he would have been delighted to have appeared like the grown folks first in negligee and then in full dress amid the tolling of bells and the clang of trumpets but he did not dare to return or even to sit down anywhere
wagon after wagon rumbled in bringing farmers and farmers wives from abroad at the houses people welcomed them and brought chairs to assist them in getting down
all the world looked as exultingly quiet and glad
and was returning after a victory from the church to the hill top the road was strewn with flowers and grass which sent forth aromatic odors the squire was seen coming out of christian the tailor's
and only covered his head when he found himself in the middle of the street soges had a new sword brightly japanned and glittering in the sun the squire's wife soon followed
leading her daughter barbara who was but six years old by the hand barbara was dressed in bridal array she wore the veil and the wreath upon her head and a beautiful gown
as an immaculate virgin she was intended to represent the bride of the young clergyman the church at the first sound of the bell the people in shirt sleeves disappeared as if by magic
they retired to their houses to finish their toilet
amid the ringing of all the bells the procession at last issued from the church door the pennons waved the band of music brought from horb struck up
and the audible prayers of the men and women mingled with the sound
took the lead carrying the crucifix on the hill the altar was finely decorated the chalices and the lamps and the spangled dresses of the saints flashed in the sun and the throng of worshipers covered the common
and the adjoining fields as far as the eye could reach
meaning the young clergyman who in his gold laced robe and bare head crowned with a golden wreath ascended the steps of the altar with pale and sober mien
bowing low as the music swelled and folding his small white hands upon his breast the squire's barbara who carried a burning taper wreathed with rosemary had gone before him
and took her stand at the side of the altar the mass began and at the tinkling of the bell all fell upon their faces and not a sound would have been heard had not a flight of pigeons passed directly over the altar
with that fluttering and chirping noise which always accompanies their motion through the air
for he knew that the holy ghost was descending to effect the mysterious transubstantiation of the wine into blood and the bread into flesh and that no mortal eye can look upon him
without being struck with blindness the chaplain of horb now entered the pulpit and solemnly addressed the permitiant then the latter took his place
with his right arm resting on his knee and his chin upon his hand he listened attentively he understood little of the sermon but his eyes hung upon the preacher's lips and his mind followed his intentions
if not his thoughts when the procession returned to the church amid the renewed peal of the bells and triumphant strains of music
he felt as if new strength had been given him to carry his god before him as the crowd dispersed every one spoke in raptures of the gentleman and of the happiness of the parents of such a son
christian the tailor and his wife came down the covered stairs of the church hill in superior bliss ordinarily they attracted little attention in the village but on this occasion all crowded around them
with the greatest reverence to present their congratulations the young clergyman's mother returned thanks with tearful eyes
who had come over from rexingen say that gregory's parents were now obliged to address their son with the formal pronoun they by which strangers and great personages are spoken to
instead of the simple thee and thou by which german villagers converse with each other is that so mother he asked of course was the answer he's more than other folks now
with all their enthusiasm the good people did not forget the pecuniary advantage gained by christian the tailor it was said that he need take no further trouble all his life cordele
gregory's sister was to be her brother's housekeeper
is this what you were so anxious to say why we understood six weeks since that you meant to leave deerbrook in a fortnight that is all so i did but my mother is kind enough to be pleased that i am staying longer
right that you do and that is the reason why mister rowland and i the reason why rowland and i agree so well interrupted the brother yes that is one reason among many rowland's wish is to see the old lady happy
too long a time she will not tell you but you have no idea how low she is for some time after you go away if you have stayed more than a few days from exhaustion from pure exhaustion ah you do not perceive it
because the excitement keeps her up while you are here and she naturally makes an effort you know but if you were to see her as we do after you are gone you cannot think how it sets the greys talking about her low spirits
poor soul i wish i could be always with her i will try whether i cannot for some time to come at least but sister how does it happen that neither you nor rowland
we knew it was an unavoidable evil you cannot always be here
that is an unavoidable evil and always will be sister while i have a good old mother living here my dear philip how you do misunderstand one i never heard anything so odd
have you not been giving me to understand all this time that you do not wish to have me here that you want me to go away if not this i do not know what you have been talking about what an idea my only brother what can you be thinking of
why upon earth should i wish you anywhere else that you may manage my mother and her affairs all your own way i imagine missus rowland had nothing to oppose to this plain speech
then supposing i am happiest here we are all satisfied and uncle philip would have made a diversion from the path to give george his favourite swing quite up to the second branch of the great pear tree pray let george swing himself for once brother
as for your always remaining here as you kindly hinted just now i did not mean to hint said philip
well well we all know how to appreciate the kindness of your intentions i am sure but your happiness must not be sacrificed to the good of any of us here we can take care of one another but as it is impossible
we must not be selfish and detain you among us when you should be creating an interest elsewhere mister rowland and i are extremely anxious to see you happily married brother and indeed we feel it is time you were thinking about it
i am glad of that sister i am somewhat of the same opinion myself i rejoice to hear it replied the lady in a rather uneasy tone
under the seal of secrecy ah sister i have had many an hour's amusement at your schemes on my behalf about caroline buchanan i have been quite out i see
when do you go to the bruces to make the visit you were disappointed of at christmas when they return from the continent where they are gone for three years miss mary is out of reach for three years sister out of reach
you speak as if paris or rome if you will was in australia and even in australia one can hardly speak of people being out of reach if one wishes to overtake them said mister enderby whereas
i cannot stand and hear the young ladies of my acquaintance catalogued as a speculation for my advantage i could not look them in the face again after having permitted it there is somebody in the schoolroom i declare cried the lady
as if astonished and she stood looking from afar at the summer house in which three heads were distinctly visible were you not aware of that before did you suppose i was asleep there or writing poetry all alone or what
the miss ibbotsons are there and miss young you remind me said the lady
my dear brother you should have some compassion
was that the young ladies should have compassion upon me one philip the right one but you really have no mercy you are too modest to be aware of the mischief you may be doing but let me entreat you not to turn the head of a girl
whom you cannot possibly think seriously of whom do you mean you may be making even more mischief than flattering the poor girl with vain hopes if you once let it get into the heads of the greys
that any one belonging to us could think of marrying into their connection you do not know the trouble you will impose upon mister rowland and me does rowland say so does he say so one would think dear me brother
there is nothing one might not think from your manner you terrify me have you a pocket mirror about you asked philip i should like to see what this terrible manner of mine is like now pray no joking philip
girls seem to think that beauty is everything continued the angry lady
and if you fall into the trap you will not deserve any consideration from me i have let you lay down the law to me sister in your own way because i know your way say what you please to me of myself and my affairs
and a joke is the worst that will come of it but i tell you gravely that i will not hear of traps i will not hear imputations like those you have just spoken against these young ladies or their connections without rebuke
you can know nothing of the miss ibbotsons which can justify this conversation i shall soon believe you are in love cried the lady in high resentment only take care what grounds you go upon
before you speak and act sister in my turn i give you fair warning how you take any measures against them
without being quite sure what you are about you do not say now that you do not mean to have that girl cried missus rowland fixing her fiery eyes upon her brother's face why should i you have not set about
obtaining my confidence in any way which could succeed if i am in love it would not be easy to own it upon such unwarrantable pressure if i am not in love ah if you are not in that case
i am disinclined to make my not caring for them the condition on which those young ladies may receive your civilities these civilities are due to them whatever i may feel or intend and my respect for them
is such that i shall keep my mind to myself at least said the lady somewhat humbled do not be so much with them for my sake do not go into the schoolroom again
but i must go at this moment not to sit down not to speak five words however but only to get my hat i have to go into the village on an errand for the children can i do anything for you in the village
she thinks only of hester it is plain thought he if i am to have any more lectures and advice i hope they will proceed on the same supposition
and so plunging poor priscilla into hysterics i can bear her interference as long as margaret's name is not on her lips the moment she casts an evil eye on her i shall speak to rowland which i had much rather avoid
from my own sister no no better keep her out of suspicion
hester has plenty of friends to stand by her the greys are so proud of her beauty they have no eyes or ears but for her people who meddle with concerns they have no business with are strangely blind
from running away with notions of their own
at once perhaps in emulation of missus grey missus grey has clearly given hester to hope in her own mind i rather think hope would be obliged to her if she would not show so plainly what is in her thoughts i fear so
i may be jealous but i am afraid hope and i are too much of the same mind about these girls i will stand up for missus grey as long as i live if she proves right here she shall wink and nod for evermore and i will justify her
now how will she look up as i go in his vision of margaret's looks remained a vision no one was in the schoolroom but miss young writing a letter they are not here said mister enderby
no they are gone with missus grey into the village i believe oh well i only came for my hat
no i thank you then i will not interrupt your letter any longer good morning
when maria had done leaning back in her chair
she was disturbed by painful sounds from missus rowland's garden
were now pronounced to be naughty wilful mischievous and finally to be combined together to break their mamma's heart it was clear that they were receiving the discharge of the wrath which was caused by somebody else
by some other such simple means what a life of discipline this is thought maria we all have it sooner or later these poor children are beginning early if one can but help them through it there
or another about una and her lion at the well known sound of miss young's lame step the little ones all came about her one ashamed face was hid on her shoulder
an accident and its consequences toby's experience in the evening was very similar to that of the afternoon save that he was so fortunate as not to take any more bad money in payment for his goods
though he was very careful not to say anything about it but made toby believe that he was doing only about half as much work as he ought to do toby's private hoard of money was increased that evening by presents
ninety cents and he began to look upon himself as almost a rich man when the performance was nearly over mister jacobs called to him to help in packing up and by the time the last spectator had left the tent
to pay a visit to his friends the skeleton and the fat woman and to that end started toward the place where their tent had been standing but to his sorrow he found that it was already being taken down
but failing in that he went hastily back to the monkeys cage old ben was there getting things ready for a start
and toby had no difficulty in calling the aged monkey up to the bars he held one of the fat woman's doughnuts in his hand and said as he passed it through to the animal i thought perhaps you might be hungry mister stubbs
and this is some of what the skeleton's wife give me i hain't got very much time to talk with you now but the first chance i can get away to morrow
the monkey had taken the doughnut in his hand like paws and was tearing it to pieces eating small portions of it very rapidly don't hurry yourself said toby warningly for uncle dan'l always told me the worst thing a feller could do
was to eat fast if you want any more
from the look on his face toby confidently believed the monkey was about to make some reply but just then ben shut up the sides separating toby and mister stubbs and the order was given to start toby clambered up on to the high seat
ben followed him and in another instant the team was moving along slowly down the dusty road preceded and followed by the many wagons with their tiny swinging lights well said ben
and felt that he could indulge in a little conversation how did you get along to day toby related all of his movements and gave the driver a faithful account of all that had happened to him concluding his story by saying
to mister stubbs to whom asked ben in surprise to mister stubbs the old fellow here in the cart you know
toby heard a sort of gurgling sound saw the driver's body sway back and forth in a trembling way and was just becoming thoroughly alarmed when he thought of the previous night and understood that ben was only laughing
in his own peculiar way how did you know his name was stubbs asked ben after he had recovered his breath
ben looked at toby earnestly for a moment acting all the time as if he wanted to laugh again but didn't dare to for fear he might burst a blood vessel and then he said as he patted him on the shoulder
well you are the queerest little fish that i ever saw in all my travels
i'm sure he does said toby positively
but he knows everything i tell him do you suppose he could talk if he tried to look here mister toby tyler and ben turned half around in his seat and looked toby full in the face so as to give more emphasis to his words
are you heathen enough to think that that monkey could talk if he wanted to i know i hain't a heathen said toby thoughtfully for if i had been
but i never saw anybody like this old mister stubbs before an i thought he could talk if he wanted to just as the living skeleton does or his wife anyhow mister stubbs winks at me
look here my son said ben in a most fatherly fashion monkeys hain't anything but beasts
never i've been in a circus man an boy nigh on to forty years an i never seen nothin in a monkey more'n any other beast except their awful mischiefness
well said toby still unconvinced i believe mister stubbs knows what i say to him anyway now don't be foolish toby pleaded ben you can't show me one thing that a monkey ever did because you told him to
just at that moment toby felt some one pulling at the back of his coat and looking round he saw it was a little brown hand
and put it into the tiny hand which was immediately withdrawn
said ben in a matter of fact tone i've had em pull my coat in the night till they made me as nervous as ever any old woman was you see toby my boy monkeys is monkeys
for it's a mistake you think this old monkey in here knows what you say why that's just the cuteness of the old fellow he watches you to see if he can't do just as you do an that's all there is about it
and he would have believed all that had been said if just at that moment he had not seen that brown hand reaching through the hole to clutch him again by the coat the action seemed so natural
so like a hungry boy who gropes in the dark pantry for something to eat
at his disposal to persuade toby that his mister stubbs could not understand all that was said to him toby put another doughnut in the outstretched hand and then sat silently as if in a brown study
without uttering a sound a favorite amusement of his and toby's thoughts were far away in the humble home he had scorned with uncle daniel whose virtues had increased in his esteem with every mile of distance
which had been put between them and whose faults had decreased in a corresponding ratio
and his eyes were almost closed in slumber when he was startled by a crashing sound was conscious of a feeling of being hurled from his seat by some great force and then he lay senseless by the side of the road
while the wagon became a perfect wreck from out of which a small army of monkeys was escaping ben's experienced ear had told him at the first crash that his wagon was breaking down
and without having time to warn toby of his peril he had leaped clear of the wreck keeping his horses under perfect control and thus averting more trouble it was the breaking of one of the axles which toby had heard
toby's aged friend started for the woods in such a direction as to bring him directly before the boy's insensible form the monkey on coming up to toby stopped
he had fallen upon a mud bank and was only stunned for the moment having received no serious bruises the attentions bestowed upon him by the monkey served the purpose of bringing him to his senses
than old ben was to persuade the boy that monkeys did not possess reasoning faculties the monkey was busy at toby's ears nose and mouth as monkeys will do when they get an opportunity
and the expression of its face was as grave as possible toby firmly believed that the monkey's face showed sorrow at his fall and he imagined that the attentions which were bestowed upon him
were for the purpose of learning whether he had been injured or not don't worry mister stubbs said toby anxious to reassure his friend
i didn't get hurt any but i would like to know how i got way over here it really seemed as if the monkey was pleased to know that his little friend was not hurt for he seated himself on his haunches and his face expressed
the liveliest pleasure that toby was well again or at least that was how the boy interpreted the look by this time the news of the accident had been shouted ahead from one team to the other
and knew that those little dusky forms were the other occupants of the cage escaping to the woods see there mister stubbs see there he exclaimed pointing toward the fugitives they're all going off into the woods
and then started off in vigorous pursuit now he's gone too said toby disconsolately believing the old fellow had run away from him
and she was soon home again and relating the circumstances to hester by the fireside
could not efface from her mind what she had seen nor could hester help listening though full of anxiety about her husband miss miskin was prevailed upon to leave her room at the last i suppose scarcely
poor nanny was supporting her mistress's head when i went in and she said with tears that there was no depending on any one but us they both looked glad enough to see me but then
nothing would satisfy missus howell but that i should warm myself and be seated to the last and she offered you some cherry bounce i suppose yes just as usual then she told me that it would be as well to mention now
in case she should grow worse and be in any danger that she should be gratified if you and i would select each a rug or screen pattern from her stock
and she begged earnestly to see miss miskin and then she came i suppose not she she would not come till her friend sent a message threatening to haunt her if she did not did you carry the message
no but nanny did and i thought with hearty good will miss miskin came trembling but too much frightened to cry she would not approach nearer than the doorway
she was receiving directions about the shop and the stock
so as to be in any danger and yet doctor levitt thought he had told her plainly enough what he thought of her state this morning and was she aware at last or did she go off unconsciously i think she was aware
that selfish wretch miss miskin it was very moving i assure you to hear not one word of reproach or even notice of miss miskin's desertion in this illness what was said was common place enough
but every word was kind i have it all i took it down with my pencil behind the curtain for i was sure miss miskin would never remember it missus howell went on till she came to directions about the bullfinch
that her poor dear howell used to laugh to see perched upon her nightcap of a morning and then she grew unintelligible i thought she was only fainting but while we were trying to revive her
shut the door and made her escape her friend looked that way once more and said that we had all been very good to her she mentioned her husband as i told you and then died very quietly miss miskin knows of course
she exclaimed a great deal about how good we all were
and said she was sure i was too kind to think of leaving her in the house with the corpse with only nanny when i declined passing the night there she comforted herself with thinking aloud that her friend would not haunt her certainly would not haunt her
in case of her having caught it after all by going into the room what an end to a sentimental friendship of so many years i rather expect to hear in the morning that she has taken refuge in some neighbour's house
and left nanny alone with the corpse to night my husband's knock cried hester starting up how is your headache love asked she anxiously as she met him at the room door gone quite gone he replied
i must step down into the surgery for a minute about this poor little girl's medicine and then i have a great deal to tell you the sisters sat in perfect silence till his return matilda said margaret looking up at her brother
she is very ill not likely to be better and poor missus howell is gone said hester what a sweep it is did you hear love missus howell is dead
i hear it is a terrible destruction that we have witnessed but i trust it is nearly over i know of only one or two cases of danger now besides this little girl's poor matilda but we have little thought to spare
if i did not know that margaret is ready for whatever may betide he continued fixing his benevolent gaze upon her and if moreover i were not afraid that some one would be coming to tell my news if i do not get it out at once
i should hesitate about saying what i have to say philip has been explaining he is coming said margaret with such calmness as she could command enderby is coming and some one else whose explanations are more to the purpose
your questions are reasonable enough love and yet they cannot be answered your doubts of enderby are reasonable enough and yet i declare to you that he is in my eyes almost if not quite blameless thank you brother
said margaret looking up with swimming eyes there is one great point to be settled resumed hope and that is whether you will both be content to bury in silence the subject of this quarrel from this hour relying upon my testimony and missus rowland's
oh edward do not put your name and hers together for enderby's justification and for margaret's sake my name shall be joined with the arch fiend's if necessary my love you must as i was saying
rely upon the testimony of those who know the whole that enderby's conduct throughout has been if not the very wisest and best perfectly natural and consistent with the love for margaret which he has cherished to this hour
i knew it murmured margaret he will himself disclose as much as he thinks proper when he comes but he comes full of fear and doubt about his reception margaret hung her head
feeling that it was well she was reminded what reason there was for his coming with doubt and trembling in his heart as he comes full of fear and doubt resumed hope i must tell you first that he never received your last letter margaret
margaret covered her face with her hands then suddenly looking up she cried did she read it no she says she dared not why margaret you seem sorry that she did not
i have no doubt she thought so too
yes it was a cruel injury margaret can you forgive it do you think not to night said hester do not ask it of her to night i believe i may ask it at this very moment the happy can forgive
is it not so margaret for myself i could and i do brother i would go now and nurse her child and comfort her but but you cannot forgive the wretchedness she has caused to philip well if you each forgive her for your own part
there is a chance that she may yet lift up her humbled head what possessed her to hate us so said hester her hatred to us is the result of long habits of ill will of selfish pride and of low pertinacity about small objects
as she regarded it her dislike grew into a passion of hatred under the influence of this passion
more and more that would suit her purposes till she has found herself sunk in an abyss of guilt i really believe she was not fully aware of her situation till her misery of to day revealed it to her poor thing said margaret
is there nothing we can do to help her we will ask enderby
the dislikes of low and selfish minds generally bear very much the character of hers though they may not be pampered by circumstances into such a luxuriance as in this case in a city
missus rowland might have been an ordinary spiteful fine lady in such a place as deerbrook and with a family of rivals cousins incessantly before her eyes to exercise her passions upon she has ended in being
what she is said margaret as hope stopped for a word margaret is less surprised than you expected is she not said hester you did not suppose that she would sit and listen
as she does to your analysis of missus rowland but if the truth were known she carries a prophecy about her on her finger i have no doubt she has been expecting this very news ever since she recovered her ring yes or no margaret
i should rather say she has carried a prophecy in her heart all these long months said hope of which that on her finger is only the symbol however it may be said hester it has prepared a reception for mister enderby
morris a good fire in the breakfast room immediately within the hour philip and margaret were by that fireside finally wedded in heart and soul it was astonishing how little explanation was needed
when margaret had once been told in addition to the fact of her letter having been destroyed that she was declared to have made missus enderby the depository of her confidence about a prior attachment there was however
as much to relate as there was little to explain how enderby's heart burned within him when in sporting with the idea of a prior attachment it came out what margaret had felt at the moment of his intrusion upon the conference with hope
of which he had since as at the time been so jealous the amusement on her own part and the joy on hester's which she was trying to conceal by her downcast looks how his soul melted within him
when she owned her momentary regret at being saved from under the ice and the consolation and stimulus she had derived from her brother's expression of affection for her on the spot how clear how true a refutation
and how strangely had the facts been distorted by a prejudiced imagination how sweet in the telling was the story of the ring so sad in the experience and the recountings of the times
but for this sickness would they have met should they ever have understood each other again this was a speculation on which they could not dwell it led them too near the verge of the grave which was yawning for matilda
to forget the causes and the history of their woes and the wretched lady who in the midst of her grief and terror for her child trembled at home at the image of the lovers she had injured was to those lovers in their happiness much as if she had never existed
missus howell said margaret hearing her sister mention their departed neighbour after philip was gone is it possible that it was this very afternoon that i saw that poor woman die even so dear
margaret's blush said
chapter twenty the dark maiden layelah layelah at length began to make pointed remarks about almah
she loves you said she and you love her how is it that you do not give each other up i would die rather than give up almah said i layelah smiled that sounds strange to the kosekin said she
for here to give up your love and to die are both esteemed the greatest possible blessings but almah should give you up it is the women with us who make the beginning women generally fall in love first and it is expected that they will tell their love first
the delicacy of a woman's feelings makes this natural for if a man tells his love to a woman who does not love him it shocks her modesty while if a woman tells a man he has no modesty to shock that is strange said i
but suppose the man does not love the woman why no woman wants to be loved she only wants to love at this i felt somewhat bewildered that said layelah is unrequited love which is the chief blessing here
though for my part i am a philosopher and would wish when i love to be loved in return and then said i if so would you give up your lover in accordance with the custom of your country
layelah's dark eyes rested on me for a moment with a glance of intense earnestness and profound meaning she drew a long breath and then said in a low tremulous voice never layelah was constantly with me
and at length used to come at an earlier time when almah was present her manner toward almah was full of the usual kosekin courtesy and gracious cordiality
she was still intent upon learning from me the manners customs and principles of action of the race to which i belonged she had an insatiable thirst for knowledge and her curiosity extended to all of those great inventions which are the wonder of christendom
locomotives and steamboats were described to her under the names of horses of fire and ships of fire printing was letters of power the electric telegraph messages of lightning the organ lute of giants and so on
yet in spite of the eagerness with which she made her inquiries and the diligence with which she noted all down i could see that there was in her mind something lying beneath it all a far more earnest purpose and a far more personal one than the pursuit of useful knowledge
layelah was watchful of almah she seemed studying her to see how far this woman of another race differed from the kosekin she would often turn from me and talk with almah for a long time questioning her about her people and their ways
almah's manner was somewhat reserved and it was rendered somewhat more so from the fact that her mind was always full of the prospect of our impending doom each jom as it came and went brought us nearer to that awful time
and the hour was surely coming when we should be taken to the outer square and to the top of the pyramid of sacrifice once layelah sat for some time silent and involved in thought at length she began to speak to me
almah said she is very different from us she loves you and you love her she ought to give you up almah you ought to give up atam or since you love him almah looked confused
and made some reply to the effect that she belonged to a different race with different customs but you should follow our customs you are one of us now you can easily find another who will take him almah threw a piteous glance at me and said nothing
i said layelah will take him she spoke these words with an air of magnanimity as though putting it in the light of a favor to almah but almah did not make any reply and after some silence layelah spoke of something else
not long after we were alone together and layelah returned to the subject she referred to almah's want of sympathy with the manners of the kosekin and asserted that she ought to aim after a separation i love her said i with great warmth
and will never give her up but she must give you up it is the woman's place to take the first step i should be willing to take you as layelah said this
as if anxious to see how i accepted this offer it was for me a most embarrassing moment i loved almah but layelah also was most agreeable and i liked her very much indeed so much so that i could not bear to say anything that might hurt her feelings
among all the kosekin there was not one who was not infinitely inferior to her in my eyes still i loved almah and i told her so again thinking that in this way i might repel her without giving offence
but layelah was quite ready with her reply if you love almah said she that is the very reason why you should marry me this made me feel more embarrassed than ever
i stammered something about my own feelings the manners and customs of my race and the fear that i had of acting against my own principles besides i added i'm afraid it would make you unhappy oh no said layelah briskly
on the contrary it would make me very happy indeed i began to be more and more aghast at this tremendous frankness and was utterly at a loss what to say my father continued layelah is different from the other kosekin
and so am i i seek requital for love and do not think it an evil a sudden thought now suggested itself and i caught at it as a last resort you have said i
some lover among the kosekin why do you not marry him layelah smiled i have no lover that i love said she among the kosekin my feeble effort was thus a miserable failure
i was about saying something concerning the kosekin alphabet or something else of an equally appropriate nature when she prevented me atam or said she in a low voice layelah said i with my mind full of confusion
i love you she sat looking at me with her beautiful face all aglow her dark eyes fixed on mine with an intense and eager gaze i looked at her and said not one single word layelah was the first to break the awkward silence
but say do you not love me you smile at me you meet me always when i come with warm greetings and you seem to enjoy yourself in my society say atam or do you not love me
the fact is i did like layelah very much indeed and i wanted to tell her so but my ignorance of the language did not allow me to observe those nice distinctions of meaning which exist between the words like and love
i knew no other word than the one kosekin word meaning love and could not think of any meaning like it was therefore a very trying position for me dear layelah said i floundering and stammering in my confusion
i love you i but here i was interrupted without waiting for any further words the beautiful creature flung her arms around me and clung to me with a fond embrace as for me i was utterly confounded bewildered and desperate
i thought of my darling almah whom alone i loved it seemed at that moment as though i was not only false to her but as if i was even endangering her life
dear layelah said i as i sat with her arms around me and with my own around her slender waist i do not want to hurt your feelings
here again i was overwhelmed but i still persisted in my effort dear layelah said i i love almah most dearly and most tenderly oh atam or why speak of that i know it well
and so by our kosekin law you give her up among us lovers never marry so you take me your own layelah and you will have me for your bride and my love for you is ten thousand times stronger than that of the cold and melancholy almah
she may marry my papa this suggestion filled me with dismay oh no said i never never will i give up almah certainly not said layelah you do not give her up she gives you up
she never will said i oh yes said layelah i will tell her that you wish it i do not wish it said i i love her and will never give her up it's all the same said layelah you cannot marry her at all
no one will marry you you and almah are victims and the state has given you the matchless honor of death
but illustrious victims who love cannot marry
i need not say that all this was excessively embarrassing i was certainly fond of layelah and liked her too much to hurt her feelings had i been one of the kosekin i might perhaps have managed better but being a european
a man of the aryan race being such and sitting there with the beautiful layelah lavishing all her affections upon me why it stands to reason that i could not have the heart to wound her feelings in any way i was taken at an utter disadvantage
never in my life had i heard of women taking the initiative layelah had proposed to me she would not listen to refusal and i had not the heart to wound her i had made all the fight i could by persisting in asserting my love for almah
but all my assertions were brushed lightly aside as trivial things let any gentleman put himself in my situation and ask himself what he would do what would he do if such a thing could happen to him at home but there such a thing could not happen
and so there is no use in supposing an impossible case at any rate i think i deserve sympathy who could keep his presence of mind under such circumstances with us a young lady who loves one man can easily repel another suitor
but here it was very different for how could i repel layelah could i turn upon her and say unhand me could i say away i am another's of course i couldn't and what's worse
the fact is it doesn't do for women to take the initiative it's not fair i had stood a good deal among the kosekin their love of darkness their passion for death their contempt of riches their yearning after unrequited love
their human sacrifices their cannibalism all had more or less become familiar to me
but now when it came to this that a woman should propose to a man it really was more than a fellow could stand i felt this at that moment very forcibly but then the worst of it was that layelah was so confoundedly pretty
and had such a nice way with her that hang me if i knew what to say meanwhile layelah was not silent she had all her wits about her dear papa said she would make such a nice husband for almah he is a widower you know
i could easily persuade him to marry her he always does whatever i ask him to do but victims cannot marry you said no said layelah sweetly they cannot marry one another but almah may marry dear papa
at this i started away no said i indignantly it won't be nice i'm engaged to be married to almah and i'm not going to give her up oh but she gives you up you know said layelah quietly
well but i'm not going to be given up why how unreasonable you are you foolish boy said layelah in her most caressing manner you have nothing at all to do with it at this i was in fresh despair
and then a new thought came which i seized upon see here said i why can't i marry both of you i'm engaged to almah and i love her better than all the world let me marry her and you too
at this layelah laughed long and merrily peal after peal of laughter musical and most merry burst from her it was contagious i could not help joining in and so we both sat laughing
it was a long time before we regained our self control why that's downright bigamy exclaimed layelah with fresh laughter
and so she went off again in fresh peals of laughter it was evident that my proposal was not at all shocking but simply comical ridiculous and inconceivable in its absurdity it was to her what the remark of some despairing beauty would be among us who
when pressed by two lovers should express a confused willingness to marry both it was evident that layelah accepted it as a ludicrous jest laughter was all very well of course but i was serious and felt that i ought not to part with layelah without some better understanding
and so i once more made an effort all this said i in a mournful tone is a mere mockery what have i to say about love and marriage if you loved me as you say you would not laugh but weep you forget what i am
what am i a victim and doomed doomed to a hideous fate a fate of horror unutterable you cannot even begin to imagine the anguish with which i look forward to that fate which impends over me and almah marriage idle word
what have i to do with marriage what has almah there is only one marriage before us the dread marriage with death why talk of love to the dying
and after that there remains the hideous mista kosek at this layelah sprang up with her whole face and attitude full of life and energy i know i know said she quickly i have arranged for all your life shall be saved
do you think that i have consented to your death never you are mine i will save you i will show you what we can do you shall escape can you really save me i cried i can what in spite of the whole nation
layelah laughed scornfully i can save you said she we can fly there are other nations beside ours we can find some land among the gojin where we can live in peace the gojin are not like us but almah said i
the face of layelah clouded i can only save you said she then i will stay and die with almah said i obstinately what said layelah do you not fear death of course i do said i
but i'd rather die than lose almah but it's impossible to save both of you then leave me and save almah said i what would you give up your life for almah yes and a thousand lives said i
why said layelah now you talk just like the kosekin you might as well be one of us you love death for the sake of almah why not be more like the kosekin and seek after a separation from almah layelah was not at all offended at my declaration of love for almah
there was no sunshine upon laura dunbar's wedding morning the wintry sky was low and dark as if the heavens had been coming gradually down to crush this wicked earth the damp fog the slow
drizzling rain shut out the fair landscape upon which the banker's daughter had been wont to look from the pleasant cushioned seat in the deep bay window of her dressing room the broad lawn was soddened by that perpetual rain
the incessant rain drops dripped from the low branches of the black spreading cedars of lebanon the smooth beads of water ran off the shining laurel leaves the rhododendrons the feathery furze
everything was obscured by that cruel rain the water gushed out of the quaint dragons mouths ranged along the parapet of the abbey roof it dripped from every stone coping and abutment from window ledge and porch from gable end and sheltering ivy
the rain was everywhere and the incessant pitter patter of the drops beating against the windows of the abbey made a dismal sound
which to day had the sound of human voices now moaning drearily with a long low wailing murmur now shrieking in the shrilly tones of an angry vixen
she was a petted heiress remember and the world had gone so smoothly with her hitherto that perhaps she scarcely endured calamity or contradiction with so good a grace as she might have done had she been a little nearer perfection
she was hardly better than a child as yet with all a child's ignorant hopefulness and blind trust in the unknown future she was a pampered child and she expected to have life made very smooth for her
missus madden was bustling about arranging her young mistress's breakfast upon a little table near the blazing fire laura had just emerged from her bath room and had put on a loose dressing gown of wadded blue silk prior to the grand ceremonial of the wedding toilet
which was not to take place until after breakfast i think miss dunbar looked lovelier in this deshabille than many a bride in her lace and orange blossoms the girl's long golden hair wet from the bath hung in rippling confusion about her fresh young face
two little feet carelessly thrust into blue morocco slippers peeped out from amongst the folds of miss dunbar's dressing gown and one coquettish scarlet heel tapped impatiently upon the floor as the young lady watched that provoking rain
what a wretched morning she said well miss laura it is rather wet replied missus madden in a conciliating tone rather wet echoed laura with an air of vexation
lor miss laura rejoined the sympathetic madden
only such young ladies as you don't often come across em talk of being born with a silver spoon in your mouth miss laura i do think as you must have come into this mortal spear with a whole service of gold plate
and don't you fret your precious heart my blessed miss laura if the rain is contrairy
but what's a little rain more or less to you miss laura when you've got more carriages to ride in than if you was a princess in a fairy tale which i think the princess baltroubadore
must have had no carriage whatever or she wouldn't have gone walkin to the baths never you mind the rain miss laura but it's a bad omen isn't it elizabeth asked laura dunbar
exclaimed missus madden why
a deal it matters to such as you miss laura if all the cats and dogs as ever was come down out of the heavens this blessed day but though honest hearted elizabeth madden did her best to comfort her young mistress after her own simple fashion
she was not herself altogether satisfied the low brooding sky the dark and murky atmosphere
of the gayest reveller in all the universe in spite of ourselves we are the slaves of atmospheric influences and we cannot feel very light hearted or happy upon black wintry days when the lowering heavens seem to frown upon our hopes when
in the darkening of the earthly prospect we fancy that we see a shadowy curtain closing round an unknown future laura felt something of this for she said by and by half impatiently half mournfully
what is the matter with me elizabeth has all the world changed since yesterday when i drove home with papa after the races yesterday everything upon earth seemed so bright and beautiful
such an overpowering sense of joy was in my heart that i could scarcely believe it was winter and that it was only the fading november sunshine that lit up the sky all my future life seemed spread before me like an endless series of beautiful pictures
pictures in which i could see philip and myself always together always happy to day to day oh how different everything is exclaimed laura with a little shudder
the sky that shuts in the lawn yonder seems to shut in my life with it i can't look forward if i was going to be parted from philip to day instead of married to him i don't think i could feel more miserable than i feel now why is it elizabeth dear
my goodness gracious me cried missus madden how should i tell my precious pet you talk just like a poetry book and how can i answer you unless i was another poetry book come and have your breakfast do
and try a new laid egg new laid eggs is good for the spirits my poppet laura dunbar seated herself in the comfortable arm chair between the fireplace and the little breakfast table
she made a sort of pretence at eating just to please her old nurse who fidgeted about the room now stopping by laura's chair and urging her to take this that or the other now running to the dressing table to make some new arrangement about the all important wedding toilet now looking out of the window
was going to clear up it's breaking up above the elms yonder miss laura elizabeth said
leastways if it ain't quite blue it's a much lighter black than the rest of the sky and that's something eat a bit of perrigorge pie
miss laura do now you'll be ready to drop with feelin faint when you get to the altar rails if you persist on bein married on a empty stummick miss laura it's a moriel impossible as you can look your best my precious love if you enter the church in a state of starvation
just like one of them respectable beggars wot pins a piece of paper on their weskits with
and stands at the foot of one of the bridges on the surrey side of the water and i shouldn't think as you would wish to look like that miss laura on your wedding day i shouldn't if i was goin to be own wife to a baronet
laura dunbar took very little notice of her nurse's rambling discourse and i am fain to confess that upon this occasion missus madden talked rather more for the sake of talking than from any overflow of animal spirits
the good creature felt the influence of the cold wet cheerless morning quite as keenly as her mistress missus madden was superstitious as most ignorant and simple minded people generally are more or less superstition is after all only a dim
except in such very hard practical minds as are incapable of believing in anything not even in heaven itself
came in presently looking very pretty in blue silk and white lace she looked very happy in spite of the bad weather and miss dunbar suffered herself to be comforted by her half sister the two girls sat at the table by the fire and breakfasted or pretended to breakfast together
i've just been to see lizzie and ellen dora said presently they wouldn't come in here till they were dressed and they've had their hair screwed up in hair pins all night to make it wave and now it's a wet day their hair won't wave after all and their maid's going to pinch it with the fire irons the tongs i suppose
and could afford to laugh at beauty that was obliged to adorn itself by means of hair pins and tongs
and the special friends of miss dunbar they had come to maudesley to act as her bridesmaids according to that favourite promise which young ladies so often make to each other and so very often break laura did not appear to take much interest in the miss melvilles hair
she was very meditative about something but her meditations must have been of a pleasant nature for there was a smile upon her face dora she said by and by do you know i've been thinking about something about what dear don't you know that old saying about one wedding making many
what of that laura dear she asked very innocently i've been thinking that perhaps another wedding may follow mine oh dora i can't help saying it i should be so happy if arthur lovell and you were to marry
oh laura she said that's quite impossible but miss dunbar shook her head i shall live in the hope of it notwithstanding she said i love arthur almost as much or perhaps quite as much as if he were my brother
the two girls might have sat talking for some time longer but they were interrupted by miss dunbar's old nurse who never for a moment lost sight of the serious business of the day
but my young lady isn't half dressed yet and now come along miss laura and have your hair done if you mean to have any back hair at all to day it's past nine o'clock and you're to be at the church at eleven
and papa is to give me away murmured laura in a low voice as she seated herself before the dressing table i wish he loved me better
chapter eight the first stage on the journey home joseph wilmot obeyed his old master and ordered a very excellent luncheon which was served in the best style of the dolphin
and a sojourn at the dolphin is almost a recompense for the pains and penalties of the voyage home from india mister dunbar from the sublime height of his own grandeur
stooped to be very friendly with his old valet and insisted upon joseph's sitting down with him at the well spread table but although the anglo indian did ample justice to the luncheon and washed down a spatchcock and a lobster salad with several glasses of iced moselle
and sat for the best part of the time crumbling his bread in a strange absent manner and watching his companion's face
and then in a constrained half mechanical way which might have excited the wonder of any one less supremely indifferent than henry dunbar to the feelings of his fellow creatures the anglo indian finished his luncheon left the table and walked to the window
but joseph wilmot still sat with a full glass before him the sparkling bubbles had vanished from the clear amber wine
he seemed to have no appreciation of the vintage he sat with his head bent and his elbow on his knee brooding brooding brooding henry dunbar amused himself for about ten minutes looking out at the busy street
and then turned away from the window and looked at his old valet he had been accustomed five and thirty years ago to be familiar with the man and to make a confidant and companion of him and he fell into the same manner now naturally as if the five and thirty years had never been
as if joseph wilmot had never been wronged by him he fell into the old way and treated his companion with that haughty affability which a monarch may be supposed to exhibit towards his prime favourite drink your wine wilmot he exclaimed
don't sit meditating there as if you were a great speculator brooding over the stagnation of the money market i want bright looks man to welcome me back to my native country i've seen dark faces enough out yonder and i want to see smiling and pleasanter faces here
you look as black as if you had committed a murder or were plotting one the outcast smiled i've so much reason to look cheerful haven't i he said
i've such a pleasant life before me and such agreeable recollections to look back upon a man's memory seems to me like a book of pictures that he must be continually looking at whether he will or not and if the pictures are horrible if he shudders as he looks at them
if the sight of them is worse than the pain of death to him he must look nevertheless i read a story the other day at least my girl was reading it to me poor child she tries to soften me with these things sometimes and the man who wrote the story said it was well for the most miserable of us to pray
lord keep my memory green but what if the memory is a record of crime mister dunbar can we pray that those memories may be kept green wouldn't it be better to pray that our brains and hearts may wither leaving us no power to look back upon the past
every day and every hour i have remembered it my memory is as fresh to day as it was four and thirty years ago when my wrongs were only a twelvemonth old
he had not looked at the anglo indian he had not changed his attitude he had spoken with his head still bent and his eyes fixed upon the ground mister dunbar had gone back to the window and had resumed his contemplation of the street
but he turned round with a gesture of angry impatience as joseph wilmot finished speaking now listen to me wilmot he said
if the firm in saint gundolph lane sent you down here to annoy and insult me directly i set foot upon british ground they have chosen a very nice way of testifying their respect for their chief and they have made a mistake which they shall repent having made sooner or later
if you think to make a fool of me by any maudlin sentimentality you make a still greater mistake i give you fair warning if you expect any advantage from me you must make yourself agreeable to me
if you choose to make yourself useful you can stay if you don't choose to do so the sooner you leave this room the better for yourself if you wish to escape the humiliation of being turned out by the waiter at the end of this speech joseph wilmot looked up for the first time
he was very pale and there were strange hard lines about his compressed lips and a new light in his eyes i am a poor weak fool he said quietly
but i'll not annoy you again i'm quite ready to make myself useful in any way you may require
henry dunbar studied it there is no express before ten o'clock at night he said and i don't care about travelling by a slow train what am i to do with myself in the interim he was silent for a few moments turning over the leaves of bradshaw's guide and thinking
how far is it from here to winchester he asked presently ten miles or thereabouts i believe joseph answered ten miles very well then wilmot i'll tell you what i'll do i've a friend in the neighbourhood of winchester an old college companion
if you'll order a carriage and pair to be got ready immediately we'll drive over to winchester i'll go and see my old friend michael marston we'll dine at the george and go up to london by the express which leaves winchester at a quarter past ten go and order the carriage and lose no time about it that's a good fellow
it was three o'clock when the carriage drove away from the entrance of the dolphin hotel it wanted five minutes to four when mister dunbar and his companion entered the handsome hall of the george throughout the drive the banker had been in very excellent spirits smoking cheroots and admiring the lovely english landscape
the spreading pastures the glimpses of woodland the hills beyond the grey cathedral city purple in the distance he had talked a good deal making himself very familiar with his humble friend but he had not talked so much or so loudly as joseph wilmot
all gloomy memories seemed to have melted away from this man's mind his former moody silence had been succeeded by a manner that was almost unnaturally gay a close observer would have detected that his laugh was a little forced his loudest merriment wanting in geniality
people in calcutta who courted and admired the rich banker had been wont to praise the aristocratic ease of his manner which was not often disturbed by any vulgar demonstration of his own emotions and very rarely ruffled by any sympathy with the joys or pity for the sorrows of his fellow creatures
his companion's ready wit and knowledge of the world the very worst part of the world unhappily amused the languid anglo indian and by the time the travellers reached winchester they were on excellent terms with each other
joseph wilmot was thoroughly at home with his patron and as the two men were dressed in the same fashion and had pretty much the same nonchalance of manner it would have been very difficult for a stranger to have discovered which was the servant and which the master one of them ordered dinner for eight o'clock
the best dinner the house could provide the luggage was taken up to a private room and the two men walked away from the hotel arm in arm they walked under the shadow of a low stone colonnade and then turned aside by the market place and made their way into the precincts of the cathedral
there are quaint old courtyards and shadowy quadrangles hereabouts there are pleasant gardens where the flowers seem to grow brighter in the sanctified shade than other flowers that flaunt in the unhallowed sunshine there are low old fashioned houses with tudor windows and ponderous porches
grey gables crowned with yellow stone moss high garden walls queer nooks and corners deep window seats in painted oriels great oaken beams supporting low dark ceilings heavy clusters of chimneys half borne down by the weight of the ivy that clings about them
and over all the shadow of the great cathedral broods like a sheltering wing preserving the cool quiet of these cosy sanctuaries beyond this holy shelter
now hiding in dim groves of spreading elms now creeping from the darkness with a murmuring voice and stealthy gliding motion to change its very nature and become the noisiest brook that ever babbled over sunlit pebbles on its way to the blue sea
in one of the grey stone quadrangles close under the cathedral wall the two men still arm in arm stopped to make an inquiry about mister michael marston of the ferns saint cross
alas ben bolt it is a fine thing to sail away to foreign shores and prosper there but it is not so pleasant to come home and hear that alice is dead and buried that of all your old companions there is only one left to greet you
mister michael marston had been dead more than ten years his widow an elderly lady was still living at the ferns this was the information which the two men obtained from a verger whom they found prowling about the quadrangle very little was said
one of the men asked the necessary questions but neither of them expressed either regret or surprise
the verger who was elderly and slow called after them in a feeble voice as they went away maybe you'd like to see the cathedral gentlemen it's well worth seeing but he received no answer
under the shadow of a moss grown wall across a patch of meadow land and away into the holy quiet of a grove a serene stillness reigned beneath the shelter of the spreading branches the winding streamlet rippled along amidst wild flowers and trembling rushes
the ground beneath the feet of these two idle wanderers was a soft bed of moss and rarely trodden grass it was a lonely place this grove for it lay between the meadows and the high road feeble old pensioners from saint cross came here sometimes but not often
the loveliest spots on earth are those where man seldom comes this spot was most lovely because of its solitude only the gentle waving of the leaves the long melodious note of a lonely bird and the low whisper of the streamlet broke the silence
chapter twenty seven clement austin's wooing for the third time margaret wilmot was disappointed in the hope of seeing henry dunbar clement austin had on the previous evening told her of the banker's intended visit to the office in saint gundolph lane
and the young music mistress had made hasty arrangements for the postponement of her usual duties in order that she might go to the city to see henry dunbar he will not dare to refuse you clement austin said
he must have known that at winchester and yet he avoided me there answered margaret wilmot he must have known it when he refused to see me in portland place he will refuse to see me to day if i ask for an interview with him
my only chance will be the chance of an accidental meeting with him do you think that you can arrange this for me mister austin clement austin readily promised to bring about an apparently accidental meeting between margaret and mister dunbar
and this is how it was that joseph wilmot's daughter had waited in the office in saint gundolph lane she had arrived only five minutes after mister dunbar entered the banking house and she waited very patiently very resolutely in the hope that when henry dunbar returned to his carriage
she might snatch the opportunity of speaking to him of seeing his face and discovering whether he was guilty or not she clung to the idea that some indefinable expression of his countenance would reveal the fact of his guilt or innocence
but she could not dispossess herself of the belief that he was guilty what other reason could there be for his persistent avoidance of her but for the third time she was baffled and she went home very despondently haunted by the image of her dead father
while henry dunbar went back to the clarendon in a common hack cab which he picked up in cornhill margaret wilmot found one of her pupils waiting in the pretty little parlour in the cottage at clapham
very badly played keeping sharp watch upon the pupil's fingers for an hour or so before she was free to think her own thoughts margaret was very glad when the lesson was over
shape of the fashionable winter mantle or the popular novel of the month
drew on her gloves settled her bonnet before the glass over the mantel piece and tripped away margaret sat by the little round table with an open book before her but she could not read though the volume was one that had been lent her by clement
and though she took a peculiar pleasure in reading any book that was a favourite of his she did not read she only sat with her eyes fixed and her face very pale in the dim light of two candles that flickered in the draught from the window she was aroused from her despondent reverie
by a double knock at the door below and presently the neat little maid servant ushered mister austin into the room margaret started up a little confused at the advent of this unexpected visitor it was the first time that clement had ever called upon her alone he had often been her guest but until to night
oh no not at all answered margaret i was sitting here quite idle thinking thinking of your failure of to day i suppose yes there was a pause during which margaret seated herself once more by the little table
while clement austin walked up and down the room thinking
i cannot but believe that murder will out somehow or other sooner or later but i think that in this business the police have been culpably supine it seems as if they feared to handle the case to closely lest the clue they followed should lead them to henry dunbar
you think they have been bribed no i don't think that there seems to be a popular belief all over the world that a man with a million of money can do no wrong i don't believe the police have been culpable
they have only been faint hearted they have suffered themselves to be discouraged by the difficulties of the case other crimes have been committed other work has arisen for them to do and they have been obliged to abandon an investigation which seemed hopeless
this is how criminals escape this is how murderers are suffered to be at large not because discovery is impossible but because it can only be effected by a slow and wearisome process in which so few men have courage to persevere
while the country is ringing with the record of a great crime while the murderer is on his guard night and day waking and sleeping the police watch and work but by and by when the crime is half forgotten when security has made the criminal careless when the chances of detection are ten fold
the police have grown tired and there is no eye to watch the guilty man's movements i know nothing of the science of detection margaret but i believe that henry dunbar was the murderer of your father and i will do my uttermost with god's help to bring this crime home to him
the girl's eyes flashed with a proud light as clement austin finished speaking will you do this she said will you bring to light the mystery of my father's death will you bring punishment upon his murderer
however base but surely it would be more horrible if i were content to let my father's murder remain unavenged my poor father if he had been a good man
but he was not a good man he was not a good man let him have been what he may margaret his murderer shall not go unpunished if i can aid the cause of justice said clement austin but it was not to say this alone that i came here to night margaret
i have something more to say to you there was a tenderness in the cashier's voice as he said these last words that brought the blushes back to margaret's pale cheeks you know that i love you margaret clement said in a low earnest voice
you must know that i love you or if you do not
i have loved you from the first dear yes from the very first summer twilight in which i saw your pale pensive face in the dusky little garden at wandsworth the tender interest which i then felt in you was the first mysterious dawn of love though i
in my infinite wisdom put it down to an artistic admiration for your peculiar beauty
until it leads me here to night to tell you all
ah margaret you must have known my love all along you would have banished me had you felt that my love was hopeless
margaret looked up at her lover with a frightened face had she done wrong then to be happy in his society if she did not love him if she did not love him but surely this sudden thrill of triumph and delight which filled her breast as clement spoke to her
must be in some degree akin to love yes she loved him but the bright things of this world were not for her love and duty fought for the mastery of her pure soul and duty was the conqueror oh clement she said do you forget who i am
a letter addressed to my father when he was a transported felon suffering the penalty of his crime do you forget who i am and the taint that is in my blood the disgrace that stains my name i am proud to think that you have loved me clement austin
but i am no fitting wife for you you are a noble true hearted woman margaret and as such you are a fitting wife for a king besides
margaret my mother loves you and she knows that you are the woman i seek to win as my wife forget the taint upon your dead father's name as freely as i forget it dearest and only answer me one question is my love hopeless
i will never consent to be your wife mister austin margaret answered in a low voice because you do not love me
that is no answer to my question margaret said clement austin seating himself by her side and taking both her hands in his i must ask you to look me full in the face miss wilmot he added laughingly drawing her towards him as he spoke
for i begin to fancy you're addicted to prevarication look me in the face madge darling and tell me that you love me but the blushing face would not be turned towards his own margaret's head was still averted
don't ask me she pleaded don't ask me the day would come when you would regret your choice i could not endure that it would be too bitter you have been very kind to me
haven't i run all over clapham brixton and wandsworth to say nothing of an occasional incursion upon putney in order to procure you half a dozen pupils and the very first favour i demand of you
he waited for a few moments in the hope that margaret would say something but her face was still averted and the trembling hand which mister austin was holding struggled to release itself from his grasp margaret he said very gravely
in that case i fully deserve to be disappointed however bitter the disappointment may be if i have been wrong margaret
your gentle words for pity's sake tell me that it is so and i will forgive you for having involuntarily deceived me and will try to cure myself of my folly but i will not leave this room i will not abandon the dear hope that has brought me here to night
until you tell me plainly that you do not love me speak margaret and speak fearlessly but margaret was still silent only in the silence clement austin heard a low sobbing sound
margaret darling you are crying
and i will not leave this room except as your plighted husband heaven help me murmured joseph wilmot's daughter
section one it falls to few of us to interview our better selves my utopian self is of course my better self according to my best endeavours
and i must confess myself fully alive to the difficulties of the situation when i came to this utopia i had no thought of any such intimate self examination the whole fabric of that other universe sways for a moment as i come into his room
i am trembling a figure rather taller than myself stands against the light he comes towards me and i as i advance to meet him stumble against a chair then still without a word we are clasping hands
i stand now so that the light falls upon him and i can see his face better he is a little taller than i younger looking and sounder looking
his training has been subtly finer than mine he has made himself a better face than mine these things i might have counted upon
i can fancy he winces with a twinge of sympathetic understanding at my manifest inferiority indeed i come trailing clouds of earthly confusion and weakness i bear upon me all the defects of my world
the proper utopian clothing for grave men and his face is clean shaven we forget to speak at first in the intensity of our mutual inspection
and look about a little disconcerted because there is no fireplace for me to put my back against or hearthrug to stand upon he pushes me a chair into which i plump and we hang over an immensity of conversational possibilities
i say i plunge what do you think of me you don't think i'm an impostor not now that i have seen you no am i so like you
like me and your story exactly you haven't any doubt left i ask not in the least since i saw you enter you come from the world beyond sirius twin to this eh
and you don't want to know how i got here i've ceased even to wonder how i got here
he leans back in his chair and i in mine and the absurd parody of our attitude strikes us both well we say simultaneously and laugh together i will confess this meeting is more difficult even than i anticipated
section two our conversation at that first encounter would do very little to develop the modern utopia in my mind inevitably it would be personal and emotional he would tell me how he stood in his world
and i how i stood in mine i should have to tell him things i should have to explain things no the conversation would contribute nothing to a modern utopia and so i leave it out section three
but i should go back to my botanist in a state of emotional relaxation at first i should not heed the fact that he too had been in some manner stirred i have seen him i should say needlessly
i saw her he explains saw her i'm certain it was her certain
and before i had recovered from my amazement she had gone but it was mary he takes my arm you know i did not understand this he says i did not really understand that when you said utopia you meant i was to meet her in happiness
i didn't it works out at that you haven't met her yet i shall it makes everything different
probably i should swear at that what he says nothing but you spoke i was purring i'm a gradgrind it's quite right anything you can say about herbert spencer vivisectors
to lift saluting pinnacles against the clear evening sky
see that it is different from anything in your world it lacks the kindly humanity of a red brick queen anne villa residence with its gables and bulges and bow windows and its stained glass fanlight and so forth
it lacks the self complacent unreasonableness of board of works classicism there's something in its proportions as though someone with brains had taken a lot of care to get it quite right someone who not only knew what metal can do but what a university ought to be
somebody who had found the gothic spirit enchanted petrified in a cathedral and had set it free but what has this he asks to do with her very much i say
this is not the same world if she is here she will be younger in spirit and wiser she will be in many ways more refined no one he begins with a note of indignation no no she couldn't be
i was wrong there but she will be different grant that at any rate when you go forward to speak to her she may not remember
and she may have other memories of things that down there haven't happened you noted her costume she wasn't by any chance one of the samurai he answers with a note of satisfaction no
she wore a womanly dress of greyish green probably under the lesser rule
she wasn't one of the samurai and after all you know i keep on reminding you and you keep on losing touch with the fact that this world contains your double
he pales and his countenance is disturbed thank heaven i've touched him at last this world contains your double but conceivably everything may be different here the whole romantic story may have run a different course
it was as it was in our world by the accidents of custom and proximity adolescence is a defenceless plastic period you are a man to form great affections noble great affections
you might have met anyone almost at that season and formed the same attachment for a time he is perplexed and troubled by this suggestion no he says a little doubtfully no it was herself then emphatically
no section four for a time we say no more and i fall musing about my strange encounter with my utopian double i think of the confessions i have just made to him the strange admissions both to him and myself
there are things that happened to me in my adolescence that no discipline of reason will ever bring to a just proportion for me the first humiliations i was made to suffer
the dull base caste of my little personal tragi comedy i have ostensibly forgiven i have for the most part forgotten
there it is and these detestable people blot out the stars for me
but for a little while those squalid memories will not sink back into the deeps we lean side by side over our balcony lost in such egotistical absorptions
and i know what it means to be untempered here is a world and a glorious world and it is for me to take hold of it to have to do with it here and now and behold i can only think that i am burnt and scarred and there rankles that wretched piece of business
the mean unimaginative triumph of my antagonist i wonder how many men have any real freedom of mind are in truth unhampered by such associations to whom all that is great and noble in life does not at times at least if not always
the botanist beside me dreams i know of vindications for that woman all this world before us and its order and liberty are no more than a painted scene before which he is to meet her at last freed from that scoundrel
he expects that scoundrel really to be present and as it were writhing under their feet i wonder if that man was a scoundrel he has gone wrong on earth no doubt has failed and degenerated but what was it sent him wrong was his failure inherent
or did some net of cross purposes tangle about his feet suppose he is not a failure in utopia
he with his vaguer mind can overlook spite of my ruthless reminders all that would mar his vague anticipations that too if i suggested it he would overcome and disregard
amazing that is to me he hates the idea of meeting his double and consequently so soon as i cease to speak of that with scarcely an effort of his will it fades again from his mind
and here am i near fallen into the same way of dealing
it was scarce an hour after this that the footmen of thiodolf came out of the thicket road on to the meadow of the bearings there saw they men gathered on a rising ground
and they came up to them and saw how some of them were looking with troubled faces towards the ford and what lay beyond it and some toward the wood and the coming of thiodolf
the first told how otter had been compelled in a manner to fall on the romans along with the riders of the bearings and the wormings and the second who had but just then come told how the markmen had been worsted by the romans
but led the whole host straightway down to the ford lest the remnant of otter's men should be driven down there and the romans should hold the western bank against him at the ford there was none to withstand them
nor indeed any man at all for the men whom otter had set there when they heard that the battle had gone against their kindred had ridden their ways to join them
he and his in good order all afoot he like to the others but for him he was clad in the dwarf wrought hauberk but was unhelmeted and bare no shield
but he did not look as joyous as his wont was in going down to the battle now they had gone but a short way from the ford before the noise of the fight and the blowing of horns came down the wind to them
but it was a little way further before they saw the fray with their eyes because the ground fell away from the river somewhat at first
but when they were come to the top of the next swelling of the ground they beheld from thence what they had to deal with for there round about a ground of vantage was the field black with the roman host
and in the midst of it was a tangle of struggling men and tossing spears and glittering swords so when they beheld the battle of their kindred they gave a great shout and hastened onward the faster
and now even as they who were on the outward edge of the array and could see what was toward were looking on the battle with eager eyes there came an answering shout down the wind which they knew for the voice of the goths amid the foemen
and then they saw how the ring of the romans shook and parted and their array fell back and lo the company of the markmen standing stoutly together though sorely minished and sure it was that they had not fled or been scattered
in one band for there were no men straggling towards the ford though many masterless horses ran here and there about the meadow now therefore none doubted but that they would deliver their friends from the romans and overthrow the foemen
but now befel a wonder a strange thing to tell of the romans soon perceived what was adoing whereupon the half of them turned about to face the new comers while the other half still withstood the company of otter
till it was hard on the place where it should spread itself out to storm down on the foe and the goths beset by the romans made them ready to fall on from their side
and all men looking for the token and sign to fall on but even as he lifted up throng plough to give that sign a cloud came over his eyes and he saw nought of all that was before him and he staggered back as one who hath gotten a deadly stroke
and so fell swooning to the earth though none had smitten him then stayed was the wedge array even at the very point of onset and the hearts of the goths sank for they deemed that their leader was slain
and those who were nearest to him raised him up and bore him hastily aback out of the battle and the romans also had beheld him fall and they also deemed him dead or sore hurt and shouted for joy and loitered not
but stormed forth on the wedge array like valiant men for it must be told that they who erst out numbered the company of otter were now much out numbered but they deemed it might well be that they could dismay the goths since they had been stayed by the fall of their leader
and otter's company were wearied with sore fighting against a great host nevertheless these last
fell on with such exceeding fury that they drove the romans who faced them back on those who had set on the wedge array which also stood fast undismayed for he who stood next to thiodolf a man big of body and stout of heart
but there was no otter there and many another man was gone
these stormed on so fiercely that they cleft their way through all and joined themselves to their kindred and the battle was renewed in the wolfing meadow but the romans had this gain
that thiodolf's men had let go their occasion for falling on the romans with their line spread out so that every man might use his weapons yet were the goths strong both in valiancy and in numbers nor might the romans break into their array
and sweinbiorn of the bearings that they seemed to the romans but a feeble band easy to overcome so fought they in the wolfing meadow in the fifth hour after high noon and neither yielded to the other
round whose bole clung flocks of wool from the sheep that drew around it in the hot summer tide and rubbed themselves against it and the ground was trodden bare of grass round the bole and close to the trunk was worn into a kind of trench
and they wondered that no blood came from him
swimming in the river going a hunting with the elder carles and especially he deemed that he was in the company of one old man who had taught him both wood craft and the handling of weapons and fair at first was his dream of his doings with this man
and telling thiodolf in what wise it was best to go about to get the wind of a hart but all the while there was going on the thunder of a great gale of wind through the woodland boughs even as the drone of a bag pipe cleaves to the tune
though the wind stirred his hair and his raiment as they did before therewith a great pang smote thiodolf in his dream
and he strove and struggled and lo the wild wood was gone and a white light empty of all vision was before him and as he moved his head this became the wolfing meadow as he had known it so long and thereat a soft pleasure and joy took hold of him
so he stood up and looked about and around him was a ring of the sorrowful faces of the warriors who had deemed that he was hurt deadly though no hurt could they find upon him
but the dwarf wrought hauberk lay upon the ground beside him for they had taken it off him to look for his hurts so he looked into their faces and said what aileth you ye men i am alive and unhurt what hath betided
and one said art thou verily alive or a man come back from the dead we saw thee fall as thou wentest leading us against the foe as if thou hadst been smitten by a thunder bolt and we deemed thee dead or grievously hurt
said an old warrior if that be so thiodolf wilt thou blench twice is not once enough now let us go back to the hard handplay and if thou wilt smite thyself after the battle when we have once more had a man's help of thee
therewith he held out throng plough to him by the point
let us hasten while the gods will have it so and while they are still suffering me to strike a stroke for the kindred and therewith he brandished throng plough and went forth toward the battle and the heart grew hot within him
and the joy of waking life came back to him the joy which but erewhile he had given to a mere dream but the old man who had rebuked him stooped down and lifted the hauberk from the ground and cried out after him
the romans giving back before the goths and the goths following up the chase but slowly and steadily then thiodolf heeded nothing save the battle but ran forward hastily
and those warriors followed him the old man last of all holding the hauberk in his hand and muttering so fares hot blood to the glooming and the world beneath the grass and the fruit of the wolfings orchard in a flash from the world must pass
and the old man who had rebuked thiodolf and who was jorund of the wolfings came up to him and reached out to him the hauberk and he did it on scarce heeding for all his heart and soul was turned toward the battle of the romans and what they were a doing
and he saw that they were falling back in good order as men out numbered but undismayed so he gathered all his men together and ordered them afresh for they were somewhat disarrayed with the fray and the chase
and now he no longer ordered them in the wedge array but in a line here three deep here five deep or more for the foes were hard at hand and outnumbered and so far overcome that he and all men deemed it a little matter to give these their last overthrow
and then onward to wolf stead to storm on what was left there and purge the house of the foemen howbeit thiodolf bethought him that succour might come to the romans from their main battle
but the thought was dim within him for once more since he had gotten the hauberk on him the earth was wavering and dream like he looked about him
and hoped for nothing save the victory but now indeed the wood sun seemed to him to be beside him and not against his will as one besetting and hindering him but as though his own longing had drawn her thither and would not let her depart
for the rest he seemed to be in a dream indeed and as men do in dreams to be for ever striving to be doing something of more moment than anything which he did but which he must ever leave undone
and as the dream gathered and thickened about him the foe before him changed to his eyes and seemed no longer the stern brown skinned smooth faced men under their crested iron helms with their iron covered shields before them
thus tarried the kindreds awhile
but as for the romans they had now stayed and were facing their foes again and that on a vantage ground since the field sloped up toward the wolfing dwelling and they gathered heart when they saw that the goths tarried and forbore them
but the sun was sinking and the evening was hard at hand so at last thiodolf led forward with throng plough held aloft in his right hand but his left hand he held out by his side as though he were leading someone along and as he went he muttered
that we may be alone and take pleasure each in each amidst of the flowers and the sun now as the two hosts drew near to one another again came the sound of trumpets afar off
and men knew that this would be succour coming to the romans from their main battle and the romans thereon shouted for joy and the host of the kindreds might no longer forbear but rushed on fiercely against them
yet had he throng plough in his right hand and he muttered in his beard as he went smite before smite behind and smite on the right hand but never on the left
yet were many of the kindred anxious and troubled
and at last as the men of the kindreds were growing a wearied with fighting they heard those horns as it were in their very ears and the thunder of the tramp of footmen
then those they had been fighting with opened before them falling aside to the right and the left and the fresh men passing between them fell on the goths like the waters of a river when a sluice gate is opened
they came on in very good order never breaking their ranks but swift withal smiting and pushing before them and so brake through the array of the goth folk and drave them this way and that way down the slopes
yet still fought the warriors of the kindred most valiantly making stand and facing the foe again and again in knots of a score or two score or maybe ten score and though many a man was slain yet scarce any one before he had slain or hurt a roman
and some there were and they the oldest who fought as if they and the few about them were all the host that was left to the folk and heeded not that others were driven back or that the romans gathered about them cutting them off from all succour and aid
but went on smiting till they were felled with many strokes howbeit the array of the goths was broken and many were slain and perforce they must give back and it seemed as if they would be driven into the river and all be lost
but for thiodolf this befell him that at first when those fresh men fell on he seemed as it were to wake unto himself again and he cried aloud the cry of the wolf and thrust into the thickest of the fray and slew many and was hurt of none
and for a moment of time there was an empty space round about him such fear he cast even into the valiant hearts of the foemen but those who had time to see him as they stood by him noted that he was as pale as a dead man and his eyes set and staring
and so of a sudden while he stood thus threatening the ring of doubtful foemen the weakness took him again throng plough tumbled from his hand and he fell to earth as one dead
till he could do no more and some that there was a curse abroad that had fallen upon him and upon all the kindreds of the mark some thought him dead and some swooning but dead or alive the warriors would not leave their war duke among the foemen
and the romans might not break them into knots of desperate men any more
with a mind to make a stand for life or death on some vantage ground and so often turning upon the romans they came in array ever growing more solid to the rising ground looking one way over the ford and the other to the slopes where the battle had just been
there they faced the foe as men who may be slain but will be driven no further and what bowmen they had got spread out from their flanks and shot on the romans who had with them no light armed or slingers or bowmen for they had left them at wolf stead
for these had lost their leader either slain as some thought or as others thought banned from leadership by the gods and their host was heavy hearted and though it is like that they would have stood there till each had fallen over other yet was their hope grown dim
and the whole folk brought to a perilous and fearful pass for if these were slain or scattered there were no more but they and nought between fire and the sword and the people of the mark but once again the faint heart folly of the roman captain saved his foes
so now he ran his head into the other hedge
and that they were over big for him to meddle with true it is also that now dark night was coming on and the land was unknown to the romans who moreover trusted not wholly to the dastards of the goths who were their guides and scouts
furthermore the wood was at hand and they knew not what it held and with all this and above it all it is to be said that over them also had fallen a dread of some doom anear for those habitations amidst of the wild woods were terrible to them as they were dear to the goths
scarce a hill even nought but a gentle swelling of the earth they forebore them and raising up the whoop of victory drew slowly aback picking up their own dead and wounded and slaying the wounded markmen
and the ghost increased his pace then the man broke into a run with the ghost right on his heels mile after mile faster and faster
the ghost perched beside him on a large rock and boomed that was quite a run we had yes gasped the man
we're going to have another one our young american pessimists see man at the moment he drops beside the road and without further investigation
is something so characteristic of life that it belongs in the record i have at least a sneaking suspicion
that now and again there happens along a runner so staunch and courageous that he keeps up the fight until cock crow and thus escapes all the apparitions which would overthrow him
or some such name which carries with it the hint of wisdom and they are wise up to the very point of believing only the things they have seen however
i am not sure they are quite so wise when they go a notch beyond this and assert roundly that everything which they have seen is true for my own part i don't believe that white rabbits are actually born in high hats the truth is quicker than the eye
and he will upon request supply name address and telephone number to confound the doubters
wrote eugene o'neill when somebody objected that the heroine of diff'rent was not true this of course shifts the scope of the inquiry to the question how well does o'neill know his emmas
there was not a shadow of doubt in the mind of the person at the foot of the stairs that he had come upon an enemy all that is changed now
during the war for instance george sylvester viereck wrote a book to prove that every time roosevelt said viereck is an undesirable citizen or words to that effect
he was simply dissembling an admiration so great that it was shot through and through with ambivalent outbursts of hatred mister viereck may not have proved his case
but he did at least put his relations into debatable ground by shifting from philip conscious to philip subconscious in the new world of the psychoanalysts
there is confusion for the rationalist even though he is dealing with something so inferentially logical as a science for here with all its tangible symbols is a science which deals with things which cannot be seen or heard or touched
now wise men have come forward to say that the key to all the most important things in life lies in dreams of course the poets have known that for years but nobody paid any attention to them
because they only felt it and offered no papers to the medical journals it would be unfair to suggest that no dreamer is a pessimist the most prolific period of pessimism comes at twenty one or thereabouts
when the first attempt is made to translate dreams into reality an attempt by a person not over skillful in either language often it is made in college where a new freedom inspires a somewhat sudden and wholesale attempt
to put every vision to the test along about this time the young man finds that the romanticists have lied to him about love and he bounces all the way back to strindberg maybe he gets drunk for the first time
and learns that every english author from shakespeare to dickens has vastly overrated it for literary effect he follows the formulae of falstaff and instead of achieving a roaring joviality he goes to sleep personally
huck's corncob pipe had always seemed to me one of the most persuasive symbols of true enjoyment
looking at the towers of princeton and musing here was a new generation shouting the old cries learning the old creeds through a revery of long days and nights destined finally to go out into that dirty gray turmoil to follow love and pride a
new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success grown up to find all gods dead all wars fought all faiths in man shaken
nobody wrote as well as that in copeland's course at harvard but there was a pretty general agreement that life or rather life was a sham and a delusion
this was expressed in poems lamenting the fact that the oceans and the mountains were going to go on
generally he didn't give the oceans or the mountains very long either all the short stories were about murder and madness we cut our patterns into very definite conclusions because we were pessimists and sure of ourselves
it was the most logical of philosophies and disposed of all loose ends one of my pieces to polish off a theme on the futility of human wishes was about a man who went stark raving
and copeland sat in his chair and groaned and moaned which was his substitute for making little marks in red ink he had been reading sheridan's the critic to the class with the scene
in which the two faithless spanish lovers and the two nieces and the two uncles all try to kill each other at the same time and are thus thrown into the most terrific stalemate until the author's ingenious contrivance of a beefeater who cries
try to solve your problems without recourse to death madness or any other beefeater in the queen's name and it seems to me that the young pessimists generally speaking
have allowed themselves to be bound in a formula as tight as that which ever afflicted any pollyanna it isn't the somberness with which they imbue life which arouses our protest so much as the regularity
they paint life not only as a fake fight in which only one result is possible
my lady sweet arise my lady sweet arise with everything that pretty is my lady sweet arise arise arise it was morning and charmian was singing the pure rich notes floated in at my open lattice
and i heard the clatter of her pail as she went to fetch water from the brook wherefore i presently stepped out into the sunshine my coat and neckcloth across my arm to plunge my head and face into the brook and carry back the heavy bucket for her as was my custom
the water ran deep and very still just here overhung by ash and alder and willow whose slender curving branches formed a leafy bower wherein she half knelt half sat bending over to regard herself in the placid water
for a long moment she remained thus
i vow you are your enemies might almost call you strapping alack and then your complexion my dear your adorable complexion she went on with a rueful shake of her head
not that you need go breaking your heart over it for between you and me my dear i think it rather improves you the pity of it is that you have no one to appreciate you properly to render to your charms the homage they deserve no one not a soul my dear
your hermit bless you can see or think of nothing that exists out of a book which between you and me and the bucket yonder is perhaps just as well and yet heigho to be so lovely and so forlorn
indeed i could shed tears for you if it would not make your eyelids swell and your classic nose turn red here she sighed again and taking a tendril of hair between her fingers transformed it very cleverly into a small curl
yes your tan certainly becomes you my dear she went on nodding to her reflection not that he will ever notice dear heart no were you suddenly to turn as black as a hottentot before his very eyes he would go on serenely smoking his pipe and talk to you of epictetus
heighho sighing thus she broke off a spray of leaves and proceeded to twine them in among the lustrous coils of her hair bending over her reflection meanwhile and turning her head this way and that to note the effect
nodding at her image with a satisfied air that touch of green sets off your gipsy complexion admirably my dear i could positively kiss you i vow i could and i am hard to please saint anthony himself meeting you alone in the desert would at least have run away from you
but our philosopher will just glance at you with his slow grave smile and tell you in his solemn affable way that it is a very fine morning heigho here somewhat late in the day perhaps perceiving that i was playing eavesdropper
i moved cautiously away and taking up the pail returned to the cottage i now filled the kettle and set it upon the fire and proceeded to spread the cloth a luxurious institution of charmian's on which she insisted and to lay out the breakfast things
in the midst of which however chancing to fall into a reverie i became oblivious of all things till roused by a step behind me and turning beheld charmian standing with the glory of the sun about her like the spirit of summer herself
broad of hip and shoulder yet slender and long of limb all warmth and life and long soft curves from throat to ankle perfect with vigorous youth from the leaves that crowned her beauty to the foot that showed beneath her gown and as i gazed upon her silent and wondering lo
though her mouth was solemn yet there was laughter in her eyes as she spoke well sir have you no greeting for me it is a very fine morning said i and now the merriment overflowed her eyes and she laughed yet blushed a little too and
lowered her eyes from mine and said still laughing oh peter the teapot do mind the teapot teapot i repeated and then i saw that i still held it in my hand pray sir what might you be going to do with the teapot in one hand and that fork in the other
is that why you were standing there staring at the kettle while it boiled over i forgot all about the kettle said i so charmian took the teapot from me and set about brewing the tea singing merrily the while
anon she began to fry the bacon giving each individual slice its due amount of care and attention but her eyes chancing to meet mine the song died upon her lip her lashes flickered and fell while up from throat to brow there crept a slow hot wave of crimson
and in that moment i turned away and strode down to the brook now it happened that i came to that same spot where she had leaned and flinging myself down i fell to studying my reflection in the water even as she had done heretofore though i had paid scant heed to my appearance
i had been content in a certain impersonal sort of way had dressed in the fashion and taken advantage of such adornments as were in favor as much from habit as from any set design but now lying beside the brook with my chin propped in my hands
i began to study myself critically feature by feature as i had never dreamed of doing before mirrored in the clear waters i beheld a face lean and brown and with lank black hair eyes dark and of a strange brilliance looked at me from beneath a steep prominence of brow
i saw a somewhat high bridged nose with thin nervous nostrils a long cleft chin and a disdainful mouth truly a saturnine face cold and dark and unlovely and thus even as i gazed
and yet in that same moment i found myself sighing while i strove to lend some order to the wildness of my hair fool said i and plunged my head beneath the water
i saw that my hair was wilder than ever all rubbed into long elf locks straightway i lifted my hands and would have smoothed it somewhat but checked the impulse let be said i to myself turning away let be
i am as i am and shall be henceforth in very truth a village blacksmith and content so to be absolutely content at sight of me charmian burst out laughing the which though i had expected it angered me nevertheless
why peter she exclaimed you look like a very low fellow said i say a village blacksmith who has been at his ablutions if you only had rings in your ears and a scarf round your head
or like the man mina whose exploits the gazette is full of a spanish general i think a guerrilla leader said i taking my place at the table and a singularly cold blooded villain indeed i think it probable that we much resemble one another
avoided by the ignorant and regarded askance by the rest why peter said charmian regarding me with grave eyes what do you mean i mean that the country folk hereabout go out of their way to avoid crossing my path not that i suppose they ever heard of mina
but because of my looks your looks they think me possessed of the evil eye or some such folly may i cut you a piece of bread oh peter already by divers honest hearted rustics i am credited with having cast a deadly spell upon certain unfortunate pigs
with having fought hand to hand with the hosts of the nethermost pit and with having sold my soul to the devil may i trouble you to pass the butter oh peter how foolish of them and how excusable considering their ignorance and superstition said i
mine i am well aware is not a face to win me the heart of man woman or child they especially women and children share in common with dogs and horses
whereby they love or hate for the mere tone of a voice the glance of an eye
love or hate once given the prejudice for or against is seldom wholly overcome indeed said charmian i believe in first impressions being a woman said i being a woman she nodded and the instinct of dog and child and woman has often proved true in the end
surely instinct is always true said i i'd thank you for another cup of tea yet strangely enough dogs generally make friends with me very readily and the few children to whom i've spoken have neither screamed nor run away from me
still as i said before i am aware that my looks are scarcely calculated to gain the love of man woman or child not that it matters greatly seeing that i am likely to hold very little converse with either there is one woman peter
and who is doubtless weary enough of it all more especially of epictetus and trojan helen two lumps of sugar peter thank you women are very like flowers i began that is a very profound remark sir more especially coming from one who has studied and knows
womankind so deeply and it is a pity that they should be allowed to waste their sweetness on the desert air and philosophical blacksmiths peter more so if they be poor blacksmiths i said philosophical peter
you probably find your situation horribly lonely here i went on after a pause yes it's nice and lonely peter and undoubtedly this cottage is very poor and mean and er humble charmian smiled and shook her head
is it so very clumsily dressed sir no no said i hastily indeed i was thinking well peter that it was very beautiful why you told me that last night come what do you think of it this morning with those leaves in it it is
even more so charmian laughed and rising swept me a stately curtesy after all sir we find there be exceptions to every rule you mean even blacksmiths and in a while having finished my breakfast i rose
and taking my hat bade charmian good morning and so came to the door but on the threshold i turned and looked back at her she had risen and stood leaning with one hand on the table now in the other she held the breadknife and her eyes were upon mine and lo wonder of wonders
once again but this time sudden and swift up from the round full column of her throat up over cheek and brow there rushed that vivid tide of color her eyes grew suddenly deep and soft and then were hidden neath her lashes
and in that same moment the knife slipped from her grasp and falling point downwards stood quivering in the floor between us an ugly thing that gleamed evilly was this an omen a sign vouchsafed of that which dark and terrible
o blind and more than blind almost before it had ceased to quiver i stooped and plucking it from the floor gave it into her hand now as i did so her fingers touched mine
kissed them quick and fierce and so turned and hurried upon my way yet as i went i found that the knife had cut my chin and that i was bleeding
surely this was a warning an omen to heed to shiver over despite the warm sun
in this way they would sometimes get pieces of robes wornout moccasins with holes in them and bits of meat now it happened one day after the tribe had moved away from the camp that this old woman and her boy were following along the trail behind the rest
when they came to a miserable old wornout dun horse which they supposed had been abandoned by some indians he was thin and exhausted was blind of one eye had a bad sore back and one of his forelegs was very much swollen
in fact he was so worthless that none of the pawnees had been willing to take the trouble to try to drive him along with them but when the old woman and her boy came along the boy said come now we will take this old horse for we can make him carry our pack
so the old woman put her pack on the horse and drove him along but he limped and could only go very slowly two the tribe moved up on the north platte until they came to court house rock
the two poor indians followed them and camped with the others one day while they were here the young men who had been sent out to look for buffalo came hurrying into camp and told the chiefs that a large herd of buffalo were near and that among them was a spotted calf
and when he heard about the spotted calf he ordered his old crier to go about through the village and call out that the man who killed the spotted calf should have his daughter for his wife for a spotted robe
big medicine the buffalo were feeding about four miles from the village and the chiefs decided that the charge should be made from there in this way the man who had the fastest horse would be the most likely to kill the calf
then all the warriors and the young men picked out their best and fastest horses and made ready to start among those who prepared for the charge was the poor boy on the old dun horse but when they saw him all the rich young braves on their fast horses pointed at him and said oh see
there is the horse that is going to catch the spotted calf and they laughed at him so that the poor boy was ashamed and rode off to one side of the crowd where he could not hear their jokes and laughter
he said take me down the creek and plaster me all over with mud cover my head and neck and body and legs when the boy heard the horse speak he was afraid but he did as he was told then the horse said now mount
but do not ride back to the warriors who laugh at you because you have such a poor horse stay right here until the word is given to charge so the boy stayed there and presently all the fine horses were drawn up in line and pranced about
and were so eager to go that their riders could hardly hold them in and at last the old crier gave the word loo ah go then the pawnees all leaned forward on their horses and yelled and away they went
suddenly away off to the right was seen the old dun horse he did not seem to run he seemed to sail along like a bird he passed all the fastest horses and in a moment he was among the buffalo first he picked out the spotted calf
and charging up alongside of it u ra rish straight flew the arrow the calf fell the boy drew another arrow and killed a fat cow that was running by then he dismounted and began to skin the calf before any of the other warriors had come up
but when the rider got off the old dun horse how changed he was he pranced about and would hardly stand still near the dead buffalo his back was all right again his legs were well and fine and both his eyes were clear and bright
the boy skinned the calf and the cow that he had killed and then he packed all the meat on the horse and put the spotted robe on top of the load and started back to the camp on foot leading the dun horse but even with this heavy load the horse pranced all the time and was scared at everything he saw
on the way to camp one of the rich young chiefs of the tribe rode up by the boy and offered him twelve good horses for the spotted robe
but the boy laughed at him and would not sell the robe now while the boy walked to the camp leading the dun horse most of the warriors rode back and one of those that came first to the village went to the old woman and said to her your grandson has killed the spotted calf
and the old woman said why do you come to tell me this you ought to be ashamed to make fun of my boy because he is poor
and then he rode away after a little while another brave rode up to the old woman and said to her your grandson has killed the spotted calf then the old woman began to cry she felt so badly because every one made fun of her boy because he was poor
pretty soon the boy came along leading the horse up to the lodge where he and his grandmother lived it was a little lodge just big enough for two
and was tied together with strings of rawhide and sinew it was the meanest and worst lodge in the village
she was very surprised the boy said to her here i have brought you plenty of meat to eat and here is a robe that you may have for yourself take the meat off the horse then the old woman laughed for her heart was glad
but when she went to take the meat from the horse's back he snorted and jumped about and acted like a wild horse the old woman looked at him in wonder and could hardly believe that it was the same horse so the boy had to take off the meat for the horse would not let the old woman come near him
three that night the horse spoke again to the boy and said wa ti hes chah' ra rat wa ta tomorrow the sioux are coming a large war party they will attack the village and you will have a great battle now
when the sioux are all drawn up in line of battle and are all ready to fight
and up to their head chief their greatest warrior and count coup on him and kill him and then ride back do this four times and count coup on four of the bravest sioux and kill them but don't go again
if you go the fifth time maybe you will be killed or else you will lose me
so the boy promised the next day it happened as the horse had said and the sioux came down and formed in line of battle then the boy took his bow and arrows and jumped on the dun horse and charged into the midst of them and when the sioux saw that he was going to strike their head chief
and the arrows flew so thickly across each other that they darkened the sky but none of them hit the boy and he counted coup on the chief and killed him and then rode back after that he charged again among the sioux where they were gathered thickest
and counted coup on their bravest warrior and killed him and then twice more until he had gone four times as the horse had told him but the sioux and the pawnees kept on fighting and the boy stood around and watched the battle and at last he said to himself i have been four times
and have killed four sioux and i am all right i am not hurt anywhere why may i not go again so he jumped on the dun horse and charged again but when he got among the sioux one sioux warrior drew an arrow and shot the arrow struck the dun horse behind the forelegs
and pierced him through and the horse fell down dead but the boy jumped off and fought his way through the sioux and ran away as fast as he could to the pawnees now as soon as the horse was killed the sioux said to each other this horse was like a man he was brave he was not like a horse
and they took their knives and hatchets and hacked the dun horse and gashed his flesh and cut him into small pieces the pawnees and sioux fought all day long but toward night the sioux broke and fled
and after the fight was over he went out from the village to where it had taken place to mourn for his horse he went to the spot where the horse lay and gathered up all the pieces of flesh which the sioux had cut off and the legs and the hoofs and put them all together in a pile
then he went off to the top of a hill near by and sat down and drew his robe over his head and began to mourn for his horse as he sat there he heard a great wind storm coming up and it passed over him with a loud rushing sound and after the wind came a rain
the boy looked down from where he sat to the pile of flesh and bones which was all that was left of his horse and he could just see it through the rain and the rain passed by and his heart was very heavy and he kept on mourning and pretty soon came another rushing wind and after it a rain
and as he looked through the driving rain toward the spot where the pieces lay he thought that they seemed to come together and take shape and that the pile looked like a horse lying down but he could not see well for the thick rain after this came a third storm like the others
and now when he looked toward the horse he thought he saw its tail move from side to side two or three times and that it lifted its head from the ground the boy was afraid and wanted to run away but he stayed and as he waited there came another storm
and while the rain fell looking through the rain the boy saw the horse raise himself up on his forelegs and look about then the dun horse stood up
the boy left the place where he had been sitting on the hilltop and went down to him
you have seen how it has been this day and from this you may know how it will be after this but ti ra' wa has been good and has let me come back to you after this do what i tell you not any more not any less
then the horse said now lead me off far away from the camp behind that big hill and leave me there to night and in the morning come for me and the boy did as he was told
much more handsome than any horse in the tribe that night the dun horse told the boy to take him again to the place behind the big hill and to come for him the next morning and when the boy went for him again
and so for ten nights he left the horse among the hills and each morning he found a different coloured horse a bay a roan a gray a blue a spotted horse and all of them finer than any horses that the pawnees had ever had in their tribe before
now the boy was rich and he married the beautiful daughter of the head chief and when he became older he was made head chief himself he had many children by his beautiful wife and one day when his oldest boy died he wrapped him in the spotted calf robe and buried him in it
he always took good care of his old grandmother and kept her in his own lodge until she died
although ann maples was not so very talkative it would be romantic to suppose that missus shelfer had failed to learn my entire history so far at least as her cousin knew it having now disposed of one grove street
i was about to try the same rude tactics with another viz that in hackney when my landlady gave a little nervous knock and hurried into the room oh miss vaughan is it about them willains you are wandering about and taking on so and frightening all of us nearly to death
missus shelfer i shall feel obliged by your leaving me to manage my own affairs bless you miss so i will i wouldn't have them on my mind for the bank of england and guildhall paved with lombard street and so i told charley last night
right my good friend quite right you may depend upon it here she tapped her forehead and looked mysterious
and with that i was going away no no to be sure not only listen to me miss one minute and i knows more about willains a deal more than you do of course miss why ever since that rogue who come to miss minto's with brandyballs and rabbitskins on a stick once more missus shelfer
i have no time to spare for gossip gossip no no miss vaughan if you ever heard any one say patty shelfer was a gossip
good bye missus shelfer no no one minute miss vaughan you are always in such a hurry what charley and me was talking about last night was this my uncle john a very high class man first rate first rate miss vaughan
has been for ever so long in the detective police there's nothing he don't know of what goes on in london from the rats as comes up the drain pipes to the queen getting up on her throne a wonderful man he is i said t'other day is he like you missus shelfer
but if you'll only put off going again till to morrow he'll be here this very night about the plate they stole in the square and i'm sure you can't do better than hear what he thinks about you he'll be sure to know all that was done at the time
what that is i don't know it's a kind of tobacco charley says that they smokes in the queen's pipe but i think it's the convicts as returns from botany bay well missus shelfer
but i can't bear the idea of coming before the police again with a matter in which they failed so signally but you know my good friend it need not be put on the books at all he'll tell us what he thinks of it private like and for the love of the thing
if i see him at all i must beg to see him alone to be sure my good friend quite right miss vaughan quite right i'm sure i would rather have the plumber's ladle put to my ear than one of them horrible secrets missus shelfer have i told you any now remember
if you ever again allude to this subject before me i leave your house that day you ought to know better missus shelfer you are quite right miss vaughan
that you did away she went smoothing her apron patting the fray of her hair for she never wore side combs and mumbling down the stairs quite right my good friend quite right i ought to have knowed better poor thing
she brought up my dinner and tea without a single word but with many sly glances at me from her quick grey eyes once or twice she was at the point of speaking and the dry smile she always spoke with fluttered upon her face
but she closed her lips firmly and even bit them to keep herself in i could scarcely help laughing for i liked the odd little thing but she was so free with her tongue that the lesson was sadly wanted late in the evening she came to say that inspector cutting was there and would come up if i wished it
upon my request he came and one look was enough to show that his niece had not misdescribed him
with nothing remarkable in his features except the clear cast of his forehead and the firm set of his mouth but the quick intelligence that shot from his eyes made it seem waste of time to finish telling him anything for this reason polite though he was
it was something like shooting at divers as my father used to describe it for whom the flash of the gun is enough yet he never once stopped or hurried me until my tale was done and all my thoughts laid bare then he asked to see all my relics and vestiges of the deed
even my gordit did not escape him l d o he said shortly do you speak italian i can read it but not speak it
there are plenty beginning with both
when all my particulars had been told and all my evidence shown i asked with breathless interest for my confidence in him grew fast what his opinion was allow me young lady to put a few questions to you on matters you have not mentioned forgive me if they pain you
i believe you feel that they will not be impertinent i promised to answer without reserve what was your mother's personal appearance most winning and delicate how old was she at the time of her marriage twenty one i believe how old was your father then twenty five
how many years were they married sixteen exactly when did your guardian first leave england in the course of a year or two after the marriage had there been any misunderstanding between him and your father none that i ever heard of
did your father at any time travel on the continent only in switzerland and part of italy during his wedding tour your guardian returned i believe at intervals to england i had never told him this yes
did he visit then at vaughan park not once within my memory thank you i will ask no more it is a strange story but i have known several much more strange of one thing be assured i shall catch the criminal i need not tell you that i heard much of this case at the time
were you sent down to gloucestershire no if i had been well i will not say but i was not then in my present position
pray keep me no more in suspense tell me what you think that i must not do or you should know it at once for my opinion is formed
oh i cried in my disappointment i wish i had never seen you
and some day you will rejoice that you did so one piece of advice i will give you change your name immediately before even the tradesmen about here know it change my name inspector cutting do you think i am ashamed of my name certainly not you have shown great intelligence when a mere child
exert but a little now and you will see the good sense or rather the necessity of my recommendation when you have gained your object you may resume your name with pride you have given your information miss vaughan as clearly as ever i knew a female give it
if i detest anything in the way of small things it is to be called a female so i said coldly inspector cutting i thank you for the compliment it would be strange indeed if i could not tell with precision what i have thought of all my life excuse me miss
it would not be strange at all in a female and now i will wish you good night you shall hear from me when needful meanwhile i will take charge of these articles he began in the coolest manner to pack up my sacred relics dagger casts and all indeed you won't i cried
what are you thinking of he went on with his packing i saw he was resolute so was i i sprang to the door locked it and put the key in my pocket he said nothing but smiled now i exclaimed in triumph you cannot take those away unless you dare to outrage a young lady
i was wholly mistaken he passed by without touching me drew some instrument from his waistcoat pocket and the door stood open before him all my treasures were in his left hand i flew at and snatched them and then let go with a scream
a gush of blood poured from my hand he had taken the dagger folded in paper only and i was cut to the bone i sank on a chair and fainted when i came to myself missus shelfer was kneeling before me with her feet in a basin of water
while two other basins and numberless towels were round missus shelfer was rubbing my other hand and crying and talking desperately about her bad luck that day and a man with eyes crossed whom she had met in the morning in the background stood mister shelfer himself whom i had hitherto failed to see
and seemed wholly undisturbed all right old ooman he said deliberately through his nose as he saw that i perceived him she'll do now if you don't make too much rumpus and with that he disappeared and i had time to pity myself
the hand the poor farmer used so to admire and which i was proud of no doubt in my way lay in a dishcloth covered and oozing with blood but my relics were on the table all safe a quick step was heard on the stairs and inspector cutting came in
now hold her arm up patty as high as you can i never knew arnica fail my hand was put into the water and the bleeding was stanched in a minute or two however he kept it there for a quarter of an hour till it was quite benumbed now you may look at your hand miss vaughan
it will not be disfigured at all there will be no inflammation patty fetch me some cambric and the best lard put the young lady to bed at once and prop her arm up a little i looked at my hand and found three parallel gashes across it for every edge of the weapon was keen
but only one wound was deep viz that across the palm which was very deep under the thumb i have the mark of it still all the wounds were edged with a narrow yellow line inspector cutting i cried
no power will move me from here until you promise not to steal my property stealing it is and nothing else you have no warrant and my information to you was wholly unofficial the last word seemed to move him they all like big words however clear headed they are
miss vaughan under these special circumstances i will promise what you require upon condition that you give me accurate drawings for i see that you can make them certainly when my hand is well enough believe me i am deeply concerned at what has occurred but the fault was all your own
how dare you obstruct the police but i wish some of my fellows had only half your spirit a little more experience and nothing will escape you come miss vaughan though you are a lady or rather because you are one give me your left hand in token that you forgive me
i did so with all my heart i liked him much better since i had defeated him and i saw that it was well worth the pain for he would do his utmost to make amends he wished me good night with a most respectful bow i will come and inquire how you are to morrow miss vaughan
patty quiet and coolness and change the lard frequently no doctor if you please and above all hold your queer little tongue never fear me uncle john you are right my good friend it is a little tongue but no queerer than my neighbours
an entire colony of those strange little people the orange dwellers were killed in our town yesterday morning and not a newspaper reporter found it out just one of the orange dwellers escaped
and as mary and i were the means of saving his life and are taking care of him as well as we can mary has him now on a small piece of orange rind in a pill box
some of the orange dwellers live in mexico some live in florida and some in california in fact they are to be found wherever oranges grow of course you have guessed already that the orange dwellers are not human beings
they are not really people they are insects
and with whom we became very well acquainted
which is citrinus the oranges on which citrinus and a great many of his brothers and sisters and cousins lived grew in mexico and when these oranges were ripe they were gathered and packed into boxes and sent to our town
imagine if you can the fearful strangeness of it to have one's world plucked from its place in space wrapped up in tissue paper and packed into a great box with a lot of other worlds
then sent off through space to some other place where enormous giants were waiting impatiently for breakfast when citrinus's world reached our town one of these giants who is my brother took it up and saying
straightway began unwittingly to kill all of the orange dwellers on it by vigorously rubbing and scraping it
that is all an orange dweller seems to be when carelessly looked at simply a little circular scale like blackish or reddish brown speck on the shining surface of the orange his world you can find the orange dwellers almost any morning at breakfast
when my brother began to scrape off the specks i hastily interfered but only in time to save one of the little people citrinus whom as i have said mary has since faithfully cared for
for he has lived already nearly three months
but he has had time enough to tell me a great deal about his life and as it is such a curious story and is undoubtedly true i venture to repeat it here to you as a matter of fact i must confess
still mary says that of course citrinus can talk
simply a reddish brown circular speck on the bright green orange leaf and because she couldn't walk she had to get all her food in a peculiar way she had a long that is long for such a tiny creature slender
pointed hollow beak or sucking tube which she thrust right into the tender orange leaf and through which she sucked up the rich sap or juice which kept flowing into the leaf from the twig it hung on
she had thus a constant supply of food always ready and convenient whenever she was hungry she simply sucked orange sap into her mouth until she was satisfied this is the way all the orange dwellers get their food
the very youngest of the family being able to take care of itself from the day of its birth they never taste any other kind of food but the juice from the leaf or twig or golden orange on which they live
citrinus is one of a large number of brothers and sisters more than fifty indeed
before laying the eggs citrinus's mother
over her back and after the eggs were laid she soon died and her body shriveled up leaving the eggs safely housed under the waxen roof when the baby orange dwellers were hatched
each had six legs and a delicate little sucking beak projecting from his small plump body citrinus and his brothers and sisters scrambled out from under the wax shell
first however each thrust his beak into the leaf and took a good drink of sap then they were ready to begin their journeying but a terrible thing happened
just as citrinus was pulling his beak out of the soft leaf he saw a great six legged beast in shape like a turtle with shining red and black back and fearful snapping jaws on each side of its head
which it moved slowly from side to side it had an immense eye which looked like a hemispherical window with hundreds of panes of glass in it the beast's legs were large and powerful
and on each foot there were two claws each of them as long as the whole body of citrinus truly this was an appalling sight
which unfortunately wasn't very fast the beast leisurely caught up in its great jaws one after another of citrinus's brothers and sisters and crushed and tore their tender bodies to pieces and ate them
now this beast which seemed so large to citrinus was what is to us a very small and pretty insect one of the lady bird beetles
and instead of being sorry for its victims we are glad it eats them this seems very cruel indeed but there are so many many millions of the orange dwellers all sucking the juice of orange trees that although they are so small
and each one drinks so little sap yet altogether they do a great amount of damage to the orange trees often killing all the trees in a large orchard so the lady birds are a great help to the orange growers
little citrinus escaped from the beetle by crawling into a small dark hole in the surface of the leaf
with the struggle for life which is going on so bitterly among the people of his kind the insects for although there would seem to be enough plants and trees to serve as food for all of them
many insects find it easier or prefer to eat other insects than to live on plant food
we call them injurious insects while we call the insect eating kinds beneficial insects because they destroy the injurious insects but little citrinus didn't look at the matter at all in this light he thought the lady bird beetle
a very cruel and wicked being and resolved to warn every orange dweller he met in his travels to beware of the cruel turtle shaped beast with the shining black and red back
he met many other orange dwellers whom he would have told all about the beetle but he found that all of them had had experiences as sad as his in fact he soon learned that of all the orange dwellers who are born
who pursue them and he was highly indignant when one shrewd orange dweller told him that it really was a good thing for the race of orange dwellers that so many of them were killed for the shrewd orange dweller said
if all of us who are born should live and have families and not die until old age came on there would soon be so many of us that we should eat all the orange trees in the world and then we should all starve to death and this is quite true
finally citrinus came to a remarkable being a very beautiful being indeed it had two long slender waving feelers on its head four large ball shaped eyes and strangest of all
this beautiful creature greeted citrinus kindly and asked him where he was going citrinus who was at first a little afraid of the strange creature was reassured by its kind greeting and answered simply i don't know
my brothers and sisters were all eaten by the beetle my father and mother i have never seen and no one has told me where to go the stranger smiled a little sadly and said
that is the common story among us orange dwellers our fathers and mothers always die before we are born
yes before my little orange dweller children are born what cried citrinus are you an orange dweller you who are so different from me indeed i am replied the gauzy winged creature
i am an old orange dweller
i know it seems strange to you he continued noticing the look of astonishment on citrinus's face but some day you will look just like me you will have wings and be able to fly and will have long feelers on your head
to hear and to smell with and big eyes to see all around you with you will have some strange experiences though before you become like me but as i had started to say we fathers and the mothers too for that matter
now i shall probably die to morrow or next day because i have lived three days already and that is a long time to live without eating
could hardly believe his senses it was so wonderful
urged citrinus who felt very badly to think of any one's going without food for three days he always took a drink of sap every few minutes why how absurd
don't you see i have nothing to eat with no sucking beak no mouth at all when i get my wings and my four eyes i lose my mouth and can't eat or drink any more this was incredible
he saw it was perfectly true he had no mouth citrinus gently waved his little sucking beak to be sure he still had it suddenly he began to cry a sad thought had come to him
and did my mother starve to death too he sobbed not at all little one rather impatiently exclaimed the other little citrinus seemed to know so very little indeed your mother was not at all like me
when she was full grown she had no wings no legs and no eyes but she had a very long beak and could suck up a great deal of orange sap if you will listen and not interrupt i will tell you how we orange dwellers grow
when we are hatched from our eggs we are all alike brothers and sisters we each have a plump little body six legs two eyes and a sucking beak to get food with we walk about for a few days
and finally stop on some nice green leaf or juicy orange and stick our beaks far in and go to sleep or do something very like it we never walk about any more indeed
but live all the rest of your life and die here however i am getting too far along in my story while we are asleep we shed all of our skin
and put it on our backs together with some wax
while shedding our skin we make a great change in our bodies we lose our legs so we simply remain where we went to sleep with our beaks stuck into the leaf sucking the sap
for this time we lose our sucking beaks but we regain our six legs and in addition we get a second pair of eyes we find on our heads a pair of long slender hairy feelers
looking just as i do now our sisters though when they shed their skins the second time make no change in their bodies except to grow larger they remain with their sucking beaks thrust into the leaf
they keep increasing the size of the wax scale or shell over their backs
now they look just as your mother did from above
where the folded up cast skins are underneath the scale lies the orange dweller with its sucking beak stuck into the sap but with no legs or wings or long hairy feelers after a while
she lays a lot of eggs under her body and then dies and soon the new family is born now this is the way we grow and all of the wonderful things which have happened to me will happen to you if the beetle does not get you
with that the winged orange dweller flew away and little citrinus was left alone wondering over the strange story after taking a drink of sap from the leaf on which he was standing
he wandered aimlessly about until he came to a large yellow ball hanging from the branch which gave out a delightful odor scrambling down the slender stem by which it was suspended
he walked out on to the shining surface of the orange for of course that is what the yellow ball was he tried a drink of sap from the ball and found it delicious he decided to stay on the ball
the more readily as he was getting rather tired with his long traveling and a sort of sleepy feeling was coming over him so thrusting his beak far into the ball
how long he slept he doesn't know but when he awoke he could hardly believe his senses he had no legs and on his back there was a thin shell of wax and a little packet he realized too
that he was bigger than he was before he went to sleep then
and he knew that the stranger had told the truth
it would be very pleasant to have wings and fly about wherever he wished to see the world suddenly a great shock came his world trembled
started to move swiftly through space then came a stop a series of shocks
and then a filmy white cloud settled down over it all shutting out the sunlight and the blue sky finally there came a few more shocks and wrenches and then total darkness and silence citrinus
and now he felt thankful that he had come alive through these series of world catastrophes and convulsions and still had all the food he could possibly use after a few days
had traveled a thousand miles the sunlight came again and soon after came that greatest danger of all that danger
this incident served henry as a pretence for his severity
deeming his throne now entirely secure paid him rather the greater deference and attention
and offered to hold henry's stirrup a mark of condescension which that prince would not admit of he called the king father patron protector
and by his whole behavior expressed a strong desire of conciliating the friendship of england the duke of orleans had succeeded to the crown of france
and subdued the duchy of milan
philip's father as well as in ferdinand his father in law by the counsel therefore of these monarchs
whom they regarded as the chief counterpoise to the greatness of france no particular plan however
all passed in general professions of affection and regard at least in remote projects of a closer union by the future intermarriages of their children
and to lead in person his forces against the infidels the general frenzy for crusades was now entirely exhausted in europe but it was still thought a necessary piece of decency to pretend zeal for those pious enterprises
which rendered it inconvenient for him to expose his person in defence of the christian cause he promised however
and rather than the pope should go alone to the holy wars unaccompanied by any monarch he even promised to overlook all other considerations and to attend him in person he only required as a necessary condition that all differences
should previously be adjusted among christian princes and that some seaport towns in italy should be consigned to him for his retreat and security it was easy to conclude that henry had determined not to intermeddle in any war against the turk
but as a great name without any real assistance is sometimes of service the knights of rhodes who were at that time esteemed the bulwark of christendom chose the king protector of their order
there was also a remarkable similarity of character between these two princes both were full of craft intrigue and design and though a resemblance of this nature be a slender foundation for confidence and amity
where the interests of the parties in the least interfere such was the situation of henry and ferdinand that no jealousy ever on any occasion arose between them the king had now the satisfaction of completing a marriage
between arthur prince of wales and the infanta catharine fourth daughter of ferdinand and isabella he near sixteen years of age she eighteen but this marriage proved in the issue unprosperous
the young prince a few months after
desirous to continue his alliance with spain and also unwilling to restore catharine's dowry which was two hundred thousand ducats obliged his second son henry whom he created prince of wales to be contracted to the infanta
the prince made all the opposition of which a youth of twelve years of age was capable but as the king persisted in his resolution the espousals were at length by means of the pope's dispensation
contracted between the parties an event which was afterwards attended with the most important consequences the same year another marriage was celebrated which was also in the next age productive of great events
the marriage of margaret the king's eldest daughter with james king of scotland this alliance had been negotiated during three years though interrupted by several broils and henry hoped
to remove all source of discord with that neighboring kingdom by whose animosity england had so often been infested when this marriage was deliberated on in the english council some objected that england might
by means of that alliance fall under the dominion of scotland no replied henry scotland in that event
these prosperous incidents the king met with a domestic calamity which made not such impression on him as it merited
and the infant did not long survive her this princess was deservedly a favorite of the nation and the general affection for her increased on account of the harsh treatment
which it was thought she met with from her consort the situation of the king's affairs both at home and abroad
all the efforts of the european princes both in war and negotiation were turned to the side of italy
yet interested him so little as never to touch him with concern or anxiety his close connections with spain and scotland
and his continued successes over domestic enemies
had reduced the people to entire submission and obedience uncontrolled therefore by apprehension or opposition of any kind he gave full scope to his natural propensity
perfectly qualified to second his rapacious and tyrannical inclinations and to prey upon his defenceless people these instruments of oppression were both lawyers the first of mean birth of brutal manners
of an unrelenting temper the second better born better educated and better bred but equally unjust severe and inflexible by their knowledge in law these men were qualified to pervert the forms of justice
to the oppression of the innocent and the formidable authority of the king supported them in all their iniquities it was their usual practice at first
to observe so far the appearance of law as to give indictments to those whom they intended to oppress upon which the persons were committed to prison but never brought to trial and were at length obliged in order to recover their liberty
to pay heavy fines and ransoms which were called mitigations and compositions by degrees the very appearance of law was neglected
being browbeaten by these oppressors nay fined imprisoned and punished if they gave sentence against the inclination of the ministers the whole system of the feudal law which still prevailed was turned
even the king's wards after they came of age were not suffered to enter into possession of their lands without paying exorbitant fines men were also harassed with informations of intrusion upon scarce colorable titles
when an outlawry in a personal action was issued against any man he was not allowed to purchase his charter of pardon except on the payment of a great sum and if he refused the composition required of him
the strict law which in such cases allows forfeiture of goods was rigorously insisted on nay
the half of men's lands and rents were seized during two years as a penalty in case of outlawry but the chief means of oppression employed by these ministers
which without consideration of rank quality or services
rigidly put in execution against all men spies informers and inquisitors were rewarded and encouraged in every quarter of the kingdom and no difference was made whether the statute were beneficial or hurtful
recent or obsolete possible or impossible to be executed the sole end of the king and his ministers was to amass money and bring every one under the lash of their authority
through the prevalence of such an arbitrary and iniquitous administration the english it may safely be affirmed
had the king been empowered to levy general taxes at pleasure he would naturally have abstained from these oppressive expedients which destroyed all security in private property
and begat a universal diffidence throughout the nation in vain
was so overawed that at this very time
the commons chose dudley their speaker the very man who was the chief instrument of his iniquities and though the king was known to be immensely opulent
which engaged his attention and was even the object of his anxiety and concern isabella
died about this time and it was foreseen that by this incident
her husband would be much affected the king was not only attentive to the fate of his ally and watchful lest
he also considered the similarity of his own situation with that of ferdinand and regarded the issue of these transactions as a precedent for himself joan the daughter of ferdinand by isabella
and being in right of her mother
seemed entitled to dispute with ferdinand the present possession of that kingdom henry knew that notwithstanding his own pretensions by the house of lancaster
the greater part of the nation was convinced of the superiority of his wife's title
might be tempted by ambition to lay immediate claim to the crown by his perpetual attention to depress the partisans of the york family
and of taking every advantage which his oppressive government should give his enemies against him and
and governed a kingdom more turbulent and unruly
than the transactions in spain ferdinand as well as henry had become very unpopular and from a like cause his former exactions and impositions
the archduke now king of castile attended by his consort embarked for spain during the winter season but meeting with a violent tempest in the channel was obliged to take shelter in the harbor of weymouth
sir john trenchard a gentleman of authority in the county of dorset hearing of a fleet upon the coast had assembled some forces and being joined by sir john cary who was also at the head of an armed body
he came to that town finding that philip in order to relieve his sickness and fatigue was already come ashore
to inform the court of this important incident the king sent in all haste the earl of arundel to compliment philip on his arrival in england and to inform him that he intended to pay him a visit in person
and to give him a suitable reception in his dominions philip knew that he could not now depart without the king's consent and therefore for the sake of despatch
and to have an interview with him at windsor henry received him with all the magnificence possible and with all the seeming cordiality but he resolved notwithstanding
edmond de la pole earl of suffolk
had some years before killed a man in a sudden fit of passion and had been obliged to apply to the king for a remission of the crime the king had granted his request but being little indulgent to all persons connected with the house of york
to appear openly in court and plead his pardon suffolk more resenting the affront than grateful for the favor had fled into flanders and taken shelter with his aunt the duchess of burgundy
he returned to england and obtained a new pardon actuated however
and uneasy from debts which he had contracted by his great expense at prince arthur's wedding he again made an elopement into flanders the king
neglected not this incident which might become of importance and he employed
he directed sir robert curson governor of the castle of hammes to desert his charge and to insinuate himself into the confidence of suffolk by making him a tender of his services
upon information secretly conveyed by curson
and married to the lady catharine sister of the queen william de la pole brother to the earl of suffolk
and sir james windham with some persons of inferior quality and he committed them to custody lord abergavenny and sir thomas green were also apprehended but were soon after released from their confinement
courtney was attainted and though not executed he recovered not his liberty during the king's lifetime
fell upon sir james windham and sir james tyrrel who were brought to their trial condemned and executed the fate of the latter gave general satisfaction on account of his participation in the murder of the young princes
henry in order to remove all suspicion
together with suffolk himself for his pretended rebellion but after that traitor had performed all the services expected from him
finding that even the duchess of burgundy tired with so many fruitless attempts had become indifferent to his cause fled secretly into france thence into germany
and returned at last into the low countries where he was protected though not countenanced by philip then in close alliance with the king
henry neglected not the present opportunity of complaining to his guest of the reception which suffolk had met with in his dominions
had set you far above apprehensions from any person of so little consequence but to give you satisfaction i shall banish him
i expect that you will carry your complaisance further said the king i desire to have suffolk put into my hands where alone i can depend upon his submission and obedience
that measure said philip will reflect dishonor upon you as well as myself
then the matter is at an end replied the king for i will take that dishonor upon me and so your honor is saved
daughter of maximilian and sister of philip but the decline of his health put an end to all such thoughts
which the iniquities and severities of his reign rendered a very dismal prospect to him to allay the terrors under which he labored
to make atonement for his crimes and to purchase by the sacrifice of part of his ill gotten treasures a reconciliation with his offended maker
but not sufficient to make him stop the rapacious hand of those oppressors sir william capel was again fined two thousand pounds under some frivolous pretence and was committed to the tower for daring to murmur against the iniquity
in his veins ran blood of that stupid race of docile folk who inhabit the place called gosh sad gosh where the tall trees sigh
gods of the gloaming who ride on the breeze stooping to heaften the birds and the trees but each dull glug sits down by his door and mutters tis windy and nothing more like the long dead glugs in the days of yore
but folk not prejudiced saw the glug as his nurse remarked in the cut of his mug for he had their hair and he had their eyes and the glug expression of pained surprise and their predilection for pumpkin pies
and his parents claims were a deal denied by his maiden aunt on his mother's side
parental blither she said quite flat he's an average glug and he's red and fat and exceedingly fat and red at that but the father joi when he gazed on sym dreamed great and wonderful things for him
said he if the mind of a glug could wake then oh what a wonderful glug he'd make we shall teach this laddie to play life's game with a different mind and a definite aim a glug in appearance yet not the same
but the practical aunt said fudge you fool we'll pack up his dinner and send him to school he shall learn about two times and parsing and capes and how to make money with inches on tapes we'll apprentice him then to the drapery trade
where i've heard it reported large profits are made besides he can sell us cheap buttons and braid so poor young sym he was sent to school where the first thing taught is the golden rule do unto others the teacher said
then suddenly stopped and scratched his head you may look up the rest in a book said he at present it doesn't occur to me but do it whatever it happens to be and now said the teacher the day's task brings consideration of practical things
if a man makes a profit of fifteen pounds on one week's takings from two milk rounds how many and sym went dreaming away to the sunlit lands where the field mice play
he walked in the welcoming fields alone while from far far away came the pedagogue's drone if a man makes multiply abstract nouns from b take population of towns
rods poles or perches derived from greek oh the hawthorn buds came out this week and robins are nesting down by the creek so sym was head of his class not once and his aunt repeatedly dubbed him dunce but
give him a chance said his father joi his head is abnormally large for a boy but his aunt said piffie it's crammed with bosh why he don't know the rivers and mountains of gosh nor the names of the nephews of good king splosh in gosh
and copies his washing bill into a book
ah he's getting sense say the elderly folk but sym
said his aunt lawk a mussy what's wrong with the lad he romps with the puppies and talks to the ants and keeps his loose change in his second best pants and stumbles all over my cauliflower plants there is wisdom in that laughed the father joi
but the aunt said toity and drat the boy he shall play said the father some noble part who knows but it may be in letters or art tis a dignified business to make folk think but the aunt cried what go messing with ink and smear all his fingers and take to drink
paint hussies and cows and end in the clink so the argument ran but one bright spring day sym settled it all in his own strange way tis a tramp he announced i've decided to be and i start next monday at twenty to three
when the aunt recovered she screamed a tramp a low lived pilfering idle scamp who steals people's washing and sleeps in the damp sharp to the hour sym was ready and dressed young birds sighed the father must go from the nest
when the green moss covers those stones you tread when the green grass whispers above my head mark well wherever your path may turn they have reached the valley of peace who learn that wise hearts cherish what fools may spurn
so sym went off and a year ran by and the father said with a smile masked sigh it is meet that the young should leave the nest said the aunt don't spill that soup on your vest
but under a hedge by a flowering peach a youth with a little blue wren held speech with his back to a tree and his feet in the grass
now teach me little blue wren said he tis you can unravel this riddle for me i am mazed by the gifts of this kindly earth which of them all has the greatest worth he flirted his tail as he answered then
why sunlight and worms said the little blue wren six the end of joi they climbed the trees
this climbing habit was old so old that even the cheeses could not have told when the past glug people first began to give their lives to the climbing plan and the legend ran that the art was old as the mind of man and even the mountains old and hoar
and they tell of a perfectly easy way for yesterday's glug is the glug of to day and they climb the trees when the thunder rolls to solemnly salve their shop worn souls for they fear the coals that threaten to frizzle their shop worn souls
they climbed the trees tis a bootless task to say so over again or ask the cause of it all or the reason why they never felt happier up on high for joi asked why and joi was a fool and never a glug of the fine old school
and treating foes with the calm contempt of the one who knows and every spider who heaves a line and trusts to his luck when the day is fine
he knows the glugs quite well by sight you can never mistake them he will say for they always act in a gluglike way and they climb the trees when the glass points fair with circumspection and proper care
for they fear to tear the very expensive clothes they wear but joi was a glug with a twisted mind of the nasty meditative kind
and dared to muse on the acts of splosh
why climb said he when you reach the top there's nowhere to go and you have to stop unless you drop and the higher you are the worse you flop and every cricket that chirps at eve and scoffs at the folly of fools who grieve
for why they say in the land of gosh there is no one else who will bow to splosh and they climb the trees when the rain pelts down and feeds the gutters that thread the town for they fear to drown when floods are frothy and waters brown
let's stay on the ground and kill king splosh but splosh the king
who climbed a tree when the weather was calm and they hanged poor joi on a snufflebust palm then they sang a psalm did those pious glugs neath the snufflebust palm and every bee that kisses a flow'r
and every blossom born for an hour and every bird on its gladsome flight all know the glugs quite well by sight for they say tis a simple test we've got if you know one glug why you know the lot
then splosh the king rose up and said it's not polite but he's safer dead and there's not much room in the land of gosh for a glug named joi and a king called splosh and every glug flung high his hat and cried
we're glugs and you can't change that so they climbed the trees since the weather was cold while the brazen bell of the city tolled and tolled and told the fate of a glug who was over bold
and every cloud that sails the blue and every dancing sunbeam too and every sparkling dewdrop bright all know the glugs quite well by sight we tell say they
for any old glug is like the rest and they climb the trees when there's weather about in a general way as a cure for gout tho some folks doubt if the climbing habit is good for gout so joi was hanged and his race was run
and the glugs were tickled with what they'd done and after that if a day should come when a glug felt extra specially glum he'd call his children around his knee and tell that tale with a chuckle of glee and should a little glug girl or boy see naught of a joke in the fate of joi
then he'd employ stern measures with such little girl or boy but every dawn that paints the sky and every splendid noontide high all know the glugs so well so well tis an easy matter and plain to tell
the stones of gosh now here is a tale of the glugs of gosh and a wonderful tale i ween of the glugs of gosh and their great king splosh and tush his virtuous queen
and here is a tale of the crafty ogs in their neighbouring land of podge of their sayings and doings and plottings and brewings and something about sir stodge wise to profundity stout to rotundity that was the knight sir stodge
oh the king was rich and the queen was fair and they made a very respectable pair and whenever a glug in that peaceful land did anything no one could understand the knight sir stodge he looked in a book and charged that glug with a crime called crook
and frequently asked a deposit in cash then every glug he went home to his rest with his head in a bag and his toes to the west for they knew it was best since their grandpas slept with their toes to the west
but all of the tale that is so far told has nothing whatever to do with the ogs of podge and their crafty dodge and the trade in pickles and glue to trade with the glugs came the ogs to gosh and they said in seductive tones
we'll sell you pianers and pickels and spanners for seventeen shiploads of stones smooth uns or nobbly uns firm uns or wobbly uns all we ask is stones
for that grocer of ours in the light brown hat asks two and eleven for pickles like that
said the knight sir stodge as he opened his book when the goods were cheap then the goods we took so they fined the glug with the wart on his nose for wearing a wart with his everyday clothes and the goods were brought home thro a glug named ghones
and the ogs went home with their loads of stones which they landed with glee in the land of podge do you notice the dodge not yet did the glugs nor the knight sir stodge
in the following summer the ogs came back with a cargo of eight day clocks and hand painted screens and sewing machines and mangles and scissors and socks and they said for these excellent things we bring we are ready to take more stones
and in bricks or road metal for goods you will settle indented by your mister ghones cried the glugs praisingly why how amazingly smart of industrious ghones
and the king said hum and the queen said o o that curtain what a bee ootiful blue but a glug stood up with some very large ears and said
or our industries soon will be gone to the dogs and the king said bosh you're un gluggish and rude and the queen said what an absurd attitude then the glugs cried down with political quacks how did our grandpas look at a tax so the knight sir stodge
he opened his book no tax said he wherever i look then they fined the glug with the prominent ears for being old fashioned by several years and the ogs went home with the stones full steam did you notice the scheme
nor yet did the glugs in their dreamiest dreams
with buttons and hooks and medical books and rotary engines and rum large cases with labels occasional tables hair tonic and fiddles and phones and the glugs while copncealing their joy in the dealing paid promptly in nothing but stones
why it was screamingly laughable seemingly asking for nothing but stones and the king said haw and the queen said oh our drawing room now is a heavenly show of large overmantels and whatnots and chairs
and a statue of splosh at the head of the stairs but a glug stood up with a cast in his eye and he said far too many baubles we buy with all the gosh factories closing their doors and importers warehouses lining our shores
but the glugs cried down with such meddlesome fools what did our grandpas lay down in their rules and the knight sir stodge he opened his book to cheapness he said was the road they took
then every glug who was not too fat turned seventeen handsprings and jumped on his hat they fined the glug with the cast in his eye for looking both ways which he did not deny and for having no visible precedent which is a crime in the poor and a fault in the rich
so the glugs continued with greed and glee to buy cheap clothing and pills and tea till every glug in the land of gosh owned three clean shirts and a fourth in the wash but they all grew idle and fond of ease and easy to swindle and hard to please
and the voice of joi was a lonely voice when he railed at gosh for its foolish choice but the great king grinned and the good queen gushed as the goods of the ogs were madly rushed and the knight sir stodge with a wave of his hand
declared it a happy and prosperous land
four sym the son of joi now joi the rebel he had a son in far far gosh where the tall trees wave said joi
to spurn the law of the knight sir stodge and end the rule of the great king splosh who shall warn the glugs of their crafty dodge and at last bring peace sweet peace to gosh
the glugs shall know what the wild things know said he wherever the broad fields smile they shall walk with clean minds free of guile they shall scoff aloud at the call of greed and turn to their labours and never heed
and there came to the wondering mind of him long thoughts of the riddle that vexes youth and father he said in the mart's loud din is there aught of pleasure do some find joy but his father tilted the beardless chin
and looked in the eyes of the questing boy said he whenever the fields are green lie still where the wild rose fashions a screen
and know what they profit who trade with hate said he whenever the great skies spread in the beckoning vastness overhead a tent for the blue wren building a nest then down in the heart of you learn what's best
and there came to sym as he walked afield deep thoughts of the world and the folk of gosh
is it meet he asked that a soul should crawl to a purple robe or a gilded chair
and stooped to a rose bush flowering there said he whenever a bursting bloom looks up to the sun may a soul find room for a measure of awe at the wondrous birth of one more treasure to this glad earth said he
whenever a dewdrop clings to a gossamer thread and glitters and swings deep in humility bow your head to a thing for a blundering rnortal's dread and there came to sym in his later youth with the first clear glance in the face of guile
thirst for knowledge and thoughts of truth of gilded baubles and things worth while and he said there is much that a glug should know but his mind is clouded his years are few
said he whenever the west wind stirs and birds in feathers and beasts in furs steal out to dance in the glade lie still
know of their folly who fear to die new interest came to the mind of sym as midst his fellows he lived and toiled but the ways of the glug folk puzzled him for some won honour while some were foiled
yet all were filled with a vague unrest as they climbed their trees in an endless search but joi the father he mocked their quest when he marked a glug on his hard won perch said he
whenever these tales are heard of the feasible dog or the guffer bird then laugh and laugh till the fat tears roll to the roots of the joy bush deep in your soul when you see them squat on the tree tops high scanning for ever that heedless sky
lie flat on your back on the good green earth and roar till the great vault echoes your mirth as he walked in the city to sym there came sounds envenomed with fear and hate
shouts of anger and words of shame as glug blamed glug for his woeful state this blame said sym is it mortal's right to blame his fellow for aught he be
do we blame the night when darkness gathers and none can see said he whenever there springs from earth a plant all crooked and marred at birth shall we unlearned in the gardener's scheme blame plant or earth for the faults that seem
said he whenever your wondering eyes look out on the glory of earth and skies shall you mid the blessing of fields a bloom fling blame at the blind man prisoned in gloom so joi had a son
and his name was sym far from the ken of the great king splosh and small was the glugs regard of him mooning along in the streets of gosh
here cried alice quite forgetting in the flurry of the moment how large she had grown in the last few minutes
that she tipped over the jury box with the edge of her skirt upsetting all the jurymen on to the heads of the crowd below and there they lay sprawling about
oh i beg your pardon she exclaimed in a tone of great dismay and began picking them up again as quickly as she could for the accident of the goldfish kept running in her head and she had a vague sort of idea that they must be collected at once and put back into the jury box or they would die
the trial cannot proceed said the king in a very grave voice until all the jurymen are back in their proper places all he repeated with great emphasis looking hard at alice
alice looked at the jury box and saw that in her haste
being quite unable to move she soon got it out again and put it right not that it signifies much she said to herself
as soon as the jury had a little recovered from the shock of being upset and their slates and pencils had been found and handed back to them they set to work very diligently to write out a history of the accident all except the lizard
who seemed too much overcome to do anything but sit with its mouth open gazing up into the roof of the court
the king said to alice nothing said alice nothing whatever persisted the king nothing whatever said alice that's very important the king said turning to the jury
they were just beginning to write this down on their slates when the white rabbit interrupted
the king hastily said and went on to himself in an undertone important unimportant unimportant important as if he were trying which word sounded best some of the jury wrote it down important and some unimportant
alice could see this as she was near enough to look over their slates but
rule forty two all persons more than a mile high to leave the court everybody looked at alice i'm not a mile high said alice you are said the king nearly two miles high added the queen
well i shan't go at any rate said alice besides that's not a regular rule you invented it just now it's the oldest rule in the book said the king
said alice the king turned pale and shut his note book hastily consider your verdict he said to the jury in a low trembling voice there's more evidence to come yet please your majesty said the white rabbit jumping up in a great hurry
what's in it said the queen i haven't opened it yet said the white rabbit but it seems to be a letter written by the prisoner to to somebody
unless it was written to nobody which isn't usual you know who is it directed to said one of the jurymen it isn't directed at all said the white rabbit in fact there's nothing written on the outside
he unfolded the paper as he spoke and added it isn't a letter after all it's a set of verses are they in the prisoner's handwriting asked another of the jurymen no they're not said the white rabbit
and that's the queerest thing about it the jury all looked puzzled he must have imitated somebody else's hand said the king the jury all brightened up again please your majesty said the knave i didn't write it and they can't prove i did
there's no name signed at the end if you didn't sign it said the king that only makes the matter worse you must have meant some mischief
there was a general clapping of hands at this it was the first really clever thing the king had said that day that proves his guilt said the queen it proves nothing of the sort said alice
read them said the king the white rabbit put on his spectacles where shall i begin please your majesty he asked begin at the beginning the king said gravely and go on till you come to the end then stop
these were the verses the white rabbit read they told me you had been to her and mentioned me to him she gave me a good character but said i could not swim he sent them word i had not gone we know it to be true
what would become of you i gave her one they gave him two you gave us three or more they all returned from him to you though they were mine before if i or she should chance to be involved in this affair
he trusts to you to set them free exactly as we were my notion was that you had been before she had this fit an obstacle that came between him and ourselves and it
don't let him know she liked them best for this must ever be a secret kept from all the rest between yourself and me that's the most important piece of evidence we've heard yet said the king rubbing his hands
if any one of them can explain it said alice
that she wasn't a bit afraid of interrupting him i'll give him sixpence i don't believe there's an atom of meaning in it the jury all wrote down on their slates she doesn't believe there's an atom of meaning in it but none of them attempted to explain the paper
if there's no meaning in it said the king that saves a world of trouble you know as we needn't try to find any and yet i don't know he went on spreading out the verses on his knee
i seem to see some meaning in them after all
you can't swim can you he added turning to the knave the knave shook his head sadly do i look like it he said which he certainly did not being made entirely of cardboard
we know it to be true that's the jury of course i gave her one they gave him two why that must be what he did with the tarts you know but it goes on they all returned from him to you said alice why
there they are said the king triumphantly pointing to the tarts on the table nothing can be clearer than that then again
you never had fits my dear i think he said to the queen never said the queen furiously throwing an inkstand at the lizard as she spoke the unfortunate little bill had left off writing on his slate with one finger
but he now hastily began again using the ink that was trickling down his face as long as it lasted then the words don't fit you said the king looking round the court with a smile there was a dead silence
and everybody laughed let the jury consider their verdict the king said for about the twentieth time that day no no said the queen sentence first verdict afterwards
stuff and nonsense said alice loudly the idea of having the sentence first hold your tongue said the queen turning purple i won't said alice off with her head
nobody moved who cares for you said alice she had grown to her full size by this time you're nothing but a pack of cards at this the whole pack rose up into the air and came flying down upon her she gave a little scream
half of fright and half of anger and tried to beat them off and found herself lying on the bank with her head in the lap of her sister who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face wake up alice dear said her sister
why what a long sleep you've had oh i've had such a curious dream said alice and she told her sister as well as she could remember them
her sister kissed her and said it was a curious dream dear certainly
so alice got up and ran off thinking while she ran as well she might what a wonderful dream it had been but her sister sat still just as she left her leaning her head on her hand
and thinking of little alice and all her wonderful adventures till she too began dreaming
and this was her dream first she dreamed of little alice herself and once again the tiny hands were clasped upon her knee and the bright eager eyes were looking up into hers she could hear the very tones of her voice
and see that queer little toss of her head to keep back the wandering hair that would always get into her eyes and still as she listened or seemed to listen the whole place around her became alive with the strange creatures of her little sister's dream
the long grass rustled at her feet as the white rabbit hurried by the frightened mouse splashed his way through the neighbouring pool she could hear the rattle of the teacups as the march hare and his friends shared their never ending meal and the shrill voice of the queen
ordering off her unfortunate guests to execution once more the pig baby was sneezing on the duchess's knee while plates and dishes crashed around it once more the shriek of the gryphon the squeaking of the lizard's slate pencil
and the choking of the suppressed guinea pigs filled the air mixed up with the distant sobs of the miserable mock turtle so she sat on with closed eyes and half believed herself in wonderland though she knew she had but to open them again
and all would change to dull reality the grass would be only rustling in the wind and the pool rippling to the waving of the reeds the rattling teacups would change to tinkling sheep bells and the queen's shrill cries to the voice of the shepherd boy
and the sneeze of the baby the shriek of the gryphon and all the other queer noises would change she knew to the confused clamour of the busy farm yard while the lowing of the cattle in the distance would take the place of the mock turtle's heavy sobs
lastly she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would in the after time be herself a grown woman and how she would keep through all her riper years the simple and loving heart of her childhood
and how she would gather about her other little children and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale perhaps even with the dream of wonderland of long ago and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows
and find a pleasure in all their simple joys
is that these faculties always work under the influence of something which stimulates them and this stimulus may come either from without through the external senses or from within by the consciousness of something not perceptible on the physical plane
now the recognition of these interior sources of stimulus to our mental faculties is an important branch of mental science because the mental action thus set up works just as accurately through the physical correspondences
as those which start from the recognition of external facts and therefore the control and right direction of these inner perceptions is a matter of the first moment the faculties most immediately concerned are the intuition and the imagination
but it is at first difficult to see how the intuition which is entirely spontaneous can be brought under the control of the will of course the spontaneousness of the intuition cannot in any way be interfered with for if it ceased to act spontaneously
and therefore for it to cease to act spontaneously would be for it to cease to act at all but the experience of a long succession of observers
and the choice of the general direction is determined by the will of the individual it will be found that the intuition works most readily in respect to those subjects which most habitually occupy our thought
and according to the physiological correspondences which we have been considering this might be accounted for on the physical plane by the formation of brain channels specially adapted for the induction
in the molecular system of vibrations corresponding to the particular class of ideas in question but of course we must remember that the ideas themselves are not caused by the molecular changes but on the contrary are the cause of them
and it is in this translation of thought action into physical action that we are brought face to face with the eternal mystery of the descent of spirit into matter and that though we may trace matter through successive degrees of refinement till it becomes what
however delicately etheric the substance its movement commences by the vibration of its particles and a vibration is a wave having a certain length amplitude and periodicity
and as soon as we are dealing with anything capable of the conception of measurement we may be quite certain that we are not dealing with spirit but only with one of its vehicles therefore although we may push our analysis of matter further and ever further back
therefore we must not attribute the origination of ideas to molecular displacement in the brain though by the reaction of the physical upon the mental which i have spoken of above the formation of thought channels in the grey matter of the brain
may tend to facilitate the reception of certain ideas some people are actually conscious of the action of the upper portion of the brain during the influx of an intuition the sensation being that of a sort of expansion in that brain area
which might be compared to the opening of a valve or door but all attempts to induce the inflow of intuitive ideas
should be discouraged as likely to prove injurious to the brain i believe some oriental systems advocate this method but we may well trust the mind to regulate the action of its physical channels in a manner suitable to its own requirements
the fact however remains that the intuition works most freely in that direction in which we most habitually concentrate our thought and in practice it will be found that the best way to cultivate the intuition in any particular direction
is to meditate upon the abstract principles of that particular class of subjects rather than only to consider particular cases perhaps the reason is that particular cases have to do with specific phenomena that is with the law working under certain limiting conditions
whereas the principles of the law are not limited by local conditions and so habitual meditation on them sets our intuition free to range in an infinitude where the conception of antecedent conditions does not limit it
anyway whatever may be the theoretical explanation you will find that the clear grasp of abstract principles in any direction has a wonderfully quickening effect upon the intuition in that particular direction
the importance of recognizing our power of thus giving direction to the intuition cannot be exaggerated for if the mind is attuned to sympathy with the highest phases of spirit this power opens the door to limitless possibilities of knowledge
in its highest workings intuition becomes inspiration and certain great records of fundamental truths and supreme mysteries which have come down to us from thousands of generations bequeathed by deep thinkers of old
coupled with a reverent worship of it opened the door through their intuitive faculty to the most sublime inspirations regarding the supreme truths of the universe both with respect to the evolution of the cosmos
among such records explanatory of the supreme mysteries three stand out pre eminent all bearing witness to the same one truth and each throwing light upon the other and these three are the bible the great pyramid
and the pack of cards a curious combination some will think but i hope in another volume of this series to be able to justify my present statement i allude to these three records here because the unity of principle which they exhibit
very closely allied to the intuition is the faculty of imagination this does not mean mere fancies which we dismiss without further consideration but our power of forming mental images upon which we dwell these
as i have said in the earlier part of this book form a nucleus which on its own plane calls into action the universal law of attraction thus giving rise to the principle of growth the relation of the intuition to the imagination
is that the intuition grasps an idea from the great universal mind in which all things subsist as potentials and presents it to the imagination in its essence rather than in a definite form and then our image building faculty gives it a clear and definite form
which it presents before the mental vision and which we then vivify by letting our thought dwell upon it thus infusing our own personality into it and so providing that personal element through which the specific action of the universal law
depends on our own will and our exercise of our will depends on our belief in our power to use it so as to disperse or consolidate a given mental image and finally our belief in our power to do this
depends on our recognition of our relation to god who is the source of all power for it is an invariable truth that our life will take its whole form tone and color from our conception of god whether that conception be positive or negative
and the sequence by which it does so is that now given in this way then our intuition is related to our imagination and this relation has its physiological correspondence
which having its commencement in the higher or ideal portion of the brain flows through the voluntary nervous system the physical channel of objective mind returning through the sympathetic system the physical channel of subjective mind
thus completing the circuit and being then restored to the frontal brain where it is consciously modelled into clear cut forms suited to a specific purpose in all this the power of the will as regulating the action both of the intuition and the imagination
must never be lost sight of for without such a central controlling power we should lose all sense of individuality and hence the ultimate aim of the evolutionary process
is to evolve individual wills actuated by such beneficence and enlightenment as shall make them fitting vehicles for the outflowing of the supreme spirit which has hitherto created cosmically and can now carry on the creative process to its highest stages
only through conscious union with the individual for this is the only possible solution of the great problem how can the universal mind act in all its fulness upon the plane of the individual and particular
this is the ultimate of evolution and the successful evolution of the individual depends on his recognizing this ultimate and working towards it
as it exists in us primary causation is the power to initiate a train of causation directed to an individual purpose as the power of initiating a fresh sequence of cause and effect it is first cause
and as referring to an individual purpose it is relative and it may therefore be spoken of as relative first cause
the understanding and use of this power is the whole object of mental science and it is therefore necessary that the student should clearly see the relation between causes and conditions a simple illustration will go further for this purpose
than any elaborate explanation if a lighted candle is brought into a room
it becomes dark again now the illumination and the darkness are both conditions the one positive resulting from the presence of the light and the other negative resulting from its absence from this simple example
we therefore see that every positive condition has an exactly opposite negative condition corresponding to it and that this correspondence results from their being related to the same cause the one positively and the other negatively
is never primary cause and the primary cause of any series can never be negative for negation is the condition which arises from the absence of active causation this should be thoroughly understood as it is the philosophic basis of all those denials
so long as we judge only from the information conveyed to us by the outward senses we are working on the plane of secondary causation and see nothing but a succession of conditions forming part of an endless train of antecedent conditions
coming out of the past and stretching away into the future and from this point of view we are under the rule of an iron destiny
is to be found within ourselves it is the region of pure ideas and it is for this reason that i have laid stress on the two aspects of spirit as pure thought and manifested form
the thought image or ideal pattern of a thing is the first cause relatively to that thing it is the substance of that thing untrammelled by any antecedent conditions if we realize
that all visible things must have their origin in spirit then the whole creation around us is the standing evidence that the starting point of all things is in thought images or ideas
can be conceived of spirit prior to its manifestation in matter if then this is spirit's modus operandi for self expression we have only to transfer this conception from the scale of cosmic spirit working on the plane of the universal
to that of individualized spirit working on the plane of the particular
is setting first cause in motion with regard to this specific object
and in the particular the difference is only a difference of scale but the power itself is identical we must therefore always be very clear as to whether we are consciously using first cause or not note the word consciously because
whether consciously or unconsciously we are always using first cause and it was for this reason i emphasized the fact that the universal mind is purely subjective and therefore bound by the laws which apply to subjective mind on whatever scale
hence we are always impressing some sort of ideas upon it whether we are aware of the fact or not and all our existing limitations result from our having habitually impressed upon it that idea of limitation
and regard the ideal as the real and the outward manifestation as a mere reflection which must change with every change of the object which casts it for these reasons it is essential to know whether we are consciously making use of first cause
we have descended to the level of secondary causation which is the region of doubts fears and limitations all of which we are impressing upon the universal subjective mind with the inevitable result that it will build up corresponding external conditions
but if we realize that the region of secondary causes is the region of mere reflections we shall not think of our purpose as contingent on any conditions whatever but shall know that by forming the idea of it in the absolute
and maintaining that idea we have shaped the first cause into the desired form and can await the result with cheerful expectancy it is here that we find the importance of realizing spirit's independence of time and space
as already accomplished on the spiritual plane as the indispensable condition of fulfilment in the visible and concrete when this is properly understood any anxious thought as to the means to be employed in the accomplishment of our purposes
is seen to be quite unnecessary if the end is already secured then it follows that all the steps leading to it are secured also
and then we have to work upon them not with fear doubt or feverish excitement but calmly and joyously because we know that the end is already secured and that our reasonable use of such means as present themselves
in the desired direction is only one portion of a much larger co ordinated movement the final result of which admits of no doubt mental science does not offer a premium to idleness but it takes all work out of the region of anxiety and toil
by assuring the worker of the success of his labour if not in the precise form he anticipated then in some other still better suited to his requirements but suppose when we reach a point where some momentous decision has to be made
we happen to decide wrongly on the hypothesis that the end is already secured you cannot decide wrongly your right decision is as much one of the necessary steps in the accomplishment of the end as any of the other conditions leading up to it
and therefore while being careful to avoid rash action we may make sure that the same law which is controlling the rest of the circumstances in the right direction will influence our judgment in that direction also
to get good results we must properly understand our relation to the great impersonal power we are using it is intelligent and we are intelligent and the two intelligences must co operate we must not fly in the face of the law by expecting it to do for us
with the knowledge that it is acting as the instrument of a greater intelligence and because we have this knowledge we may and should cease from all anxiety as to the final result in actual practice we must first form the ideal conception of our object
and then affirm that our knowledge of the law is sufficient reason for a calm expectation of a corresponding result
if we do not at once see them let us rest content with the knowledge that the spiritual prototype is already in existence and wait till some circumstance pointing in the desired direction begins to show itself it may be a very small circumstance
but it is the direction and not the magnitude which is to be taken into consideration as soon as we see it we should regard it as the first sprouting of the seed we have sown in the absolute and do calmly and without excitement
whatever the circumstances may seem to require and then later on we shall see that this doing will in turn lead to further circumstances in the same direction until we find ourselves conducted step by step to the accomplishment of our object
up to this point it has been necessary to lay the foundations of the science by the statement of highly abstract general principles which we have reached by purely metaphysical reasoning we now pass on to the consideration of certain natural laws
which have been established by a long series of experiments and observations the full meaning and importance of which will become clear when we see their application to the general principles which have hitherto occupied our attention the phenomena of hypnosis
are now so fully recognized as established scientific facts that it is quite superfluous to discuss the question of their credibility two great medical schools have been founded upon them and in some countries
they have become the subject of special legislation the question before us at the present day is not as to the credibility of the facts but as to the proper inferences to be drawn from them and a correct apprehension of these inferences
is one of the most valuable aids to the mental scientist for it confirms the conclusions of purely a priori reasoning by an array of experimental instances which places the correctness of those conclusions beyond doubt the great truth
which the science of hypnotism has brought to light is the dual nature of the human mind much conflict exists between different writers as to whether this duality results from the presence of two actually separate minds in the one man
or in the action of the same mind in the employment of different functions this is one of those distinctions without a difference which are so prolific a source of hindrance to the opening out of truth
on the thread of his one individuality and each adapted to a particular use or as varied functions of a single mind in either case we are dealing with a single individuality and how we may picture the wheel work of the mental mechanism
home to us most clearly therefore as a matter of convenience i shall in these lectures speak of this dual action as though it proceeded from two minds an outer and an inner
some of them men of world wide reputation has fully established certain remarkable differences between the action of the subjective and that of the objective mind which may be briefly stated as follows
the subjective mind is only able to reason deductively and not inductively while the objective mind can do both deductive reasoning is the pure syllogism which shows why a third proposition must necessarily result
whether the two initial statements are true or not to determine this is the province of inductive reasoning which draws its conclusions from the observation of a series of facts the relation of the two modes of reasoning is that
first by observing a sufficient number of instances we inductively reach the conclusion that a certain principle is of general application and then we enter upon the deductive process by assuming the truth of this principle
and determining what result must follow in a particular case on the hypothesis of its truth thus deductive reasoning proceeds on the assumption of the correctness of certain hypotheses or suppositions with which it sets out
it is not concerned with the truth or falsity of those suppositions but only with the question as to what results must necessarily follow supposing them to be true inductive reasoning on the other hand
is the process by which we compare a number of separate instances with one another until we see the common factor that gives rise to them all induction proceeds by the comparison of facts and deduction by the application of universal principles
which are necessary to the inductive process but will accept any suggestion however false but having once accepted any suggestion it is strictly logical in deducing the proper conclusions from it
as a consequence of this it follows that the subjective mind is entirely under the control of the objective mind with the utmost fidelity it reproduces and works out to its final consequences whatever the objective mind impresses upon it
and the facts of hypnotism show that ideas can be impressed on the subjective mind by the objective mind of another as well as by that of its own individuality this is a most important point for it is on this amenability to suggestion by the thought of another
he is a swimmer breasting the waves a bird flying in the air a soldier in the tumult of battle an indian stealthily tracking his victim in short for the time being
by the will of the operator and acts the part with inimitable accuracy but the experiments of hypnotism go further than this and show the existence in the subjective mind
through the medium of the physical senses powers of thought reading of thought transference of clairvoyance and the like all of which are frequently manifested when the patient is brought into the higher mesmeric state
that the control must be our own and not that of any external intelligence whether in the flesh or out of it but perhaps the most important fact which hypnotic experiments have demonstrated is that the subjective mind is the builder of the body
the subjective entity in the patient is able to diagnose the character of the disease from which he is suffering and to point out suitable remedies indicating a physiological knowledge exceeding that of the most highly trained physicians
and also a knowledge of the correspondences between diseased conditions of the bodily organs and the material remedies which can afford relief and from this it is but a step further to those numerous instances
in which it entirely dispenses with the use of material remedies and itself works directly on the organism so that complete restoration to health follows as the result of the suggestions of perfect soundness
made by the operator to the patient while in the hypnotic state
proceeds from its association with the particular objective mind of its own individuality whatever personality the objective mind impresses upon it that personality it assumes and acts up to and since it is the builder of the body
these two laws of the subjective mind form the foundation of the axiom that our body represents the aggregate of our beliefs if our fixed belief is that the body is subject to all sorts of influences beyond our control and that this that
or the other symptom shows that such an uncontrollable influence is at work upon us then this belief is impressed upon the subjective mind which by the law of its nature accepts it without question
and proceeds to fashion bodily conditions in accordance with this belief again if our fixed belief is that certain material remedies are the only means of cure then we find in this belief the foundation of all medicine
there is nothing unsound in the theory of medicine it is the strictly logical correspondence with the measure of knowledge which those who rely on it are as yet able to assimilate and it acts accurately in accordance with their belief
that in a large number of cases medicine will do good but also in many instances it fails therefore for those who have not yet reached a more interior perception of the law of nature the healing agency of medicine is a most valuable aid
to the alleviation of physical maladies the error to be combated is not the belief that in its own way medicine is capable of doing good but the belief that there is no higher or better way then on the same principle
and that the body is subject to no influences except those which reach it through the subjective mind then what we have to do is to impress this upon the subjective mind and habitually think of it as a fountain of perpetual life
in the most complete independence of any influences of any sort save those of our own desire impressed upon our own subjective mind by our own thought when once we fully grasp these considerations
we shall see that it is just as easy to externalize healthy conditions of body as the contrary practically the process amounts to a belief in our own power of life and since this belief
if it be thoroughly domiciled within us will necessarily produce a correspondingly healthy body we should spare no pains to convince ourselves that there are sound and reasonable grounds for holding it
in the meantime gavroche had had an adventure gavroche after having conscientiously stoned the lantern
his face an inexhaustible repertory of masks produced grimaces more convulsing and more fantastic than the rents of a cloth torn in a high gale unfortunately as he was alone and as it was night
this was neither seen nor even visible such wastes of riches do occur all at once he stopped short let us interrupt the romance said he his feline eye had just descried
who was sleeping therein the shafts of the cart rested on the pavement and the auvergnat's head was supported against the front of the cart his body was coiled up on this inclined plane and his feet touched the ground gavroche
with his experience of the things of this world recognized a drunken man he was some corner errand man who had drunk too much
that's what the summer nights are good for we'll take the cart for the republic and leave the auvergnat for the monarchy his mind had just been illuminated by this flash of light how bully that cart would look on our barricade the auvergnat was snoring
gavroche gently tugged at the cart from behind and at the auvergnat from the front that is to say by the feet
the imperturbable auvergnat was reposing flat on the pavement the cart was free gavroche habituated to facing the unexpected in all quarters had everything about him he fumbled in one of his pockets
and pulled from it a scrap of paper and a bit of red pencil filched from some carpenter he wrote french republic received thy cart and he signed it gavroche that done
he put the paper in the pocket of the still snoring auvergnat's velvet vest seized the cart shafts in both hands
this post was occupied by the national guards of the suburbs the squad began to wake up and heads were raised from camp beds two street lanterns broken in succession
that ditty sung at the top of the lungs this was a great deal for those cowardly streets which desire to go to sleep at sunset and which put the extinguisher on their candles at such an early hour for the last hour
the uproar of a fly in a bottle the sergeant of the banlieue lent an ear he waited he was a prudent man the mad rattle of the cart filled to overflowing the possible measure of waiting
and decided the sergeant to make a reconnaisance there's a whole band of them there said he
and that it was stalking abroad through the quarter and the sergeant ventured out of the post with cautious tread all at once gavroche pushing his cart in front of him and at the very moment when he was about to turn into the rue des vielles haudriettes
found himself face to face with a uniform a shako a plume and a gun for the second time he stopped short hullo said he it's him good day public order
gavroche's amazement was always brief and speedily thawed where are you going you rascal shouted the sergeant citizen retorted gavroche i haven't called you bourgeois yet
you ought to sell all your hair at a hundred francs apiece that would yield you five hundred francs where are you going where are you going where are you going bandit gavroche retorted again
the sergeant lowered his bayonet will you tell me where you are going you wretch general said gavroche
to arms shouted the sergeant the master stroke of strong men consists in saving themselves
gavroche took in the whole situation at a glance it was the cart which had told against him it was the cart's place to protect him at the moment when the sergeant was on the point of making his descent on gavroche the cart
the men of the post had rushed out pell mell at the sergeant's shout the shot brought on a general random discharge after which they reloaded their weapons and began again this blind man's buff musketry lasted for a quarter of an hour
and killed several panes of glass in the meanwhile gavroche
and seated himself panting on the stone post
an imperious gesture in which parisian street urchindom has condensed french irony and which is evidently efficacious since it has already lasted half a century this gayety was troubled by one bitter reflection
the drunken man was taken prisoner the first was put in the pound the second was later on somewhat harassed before the councils of war as an accomplice the public ministry of the day proved its indefatigable zeal in the defence of society in this instance
wrote two business letters and walked over to the granaries cattle yards and stables before dinner having taken precautions against the general drunkenness to be expected on the morrow because it was a great saint's day he returned to dinner and without having time for a private talk with his wife
sat down at the long table laid for twenty persons at which the whole household had assembled at that table were his mother his mother's old lady companion belova his wife their three children with their governess and tutor
his wife's nephew with his tutor sonya denisov natasha her three children their governess and old michael ivanovich the late prince's architect who was living on in retirement at bald hills countess mary sat at the other end of the table
from the rapid manner in which after taking up his table napkin he pushed back the tumbler and wineglass standing before him that he was out of humor as was sometimes the case when he came in to dinner straight from the farm especially before the soup
countess mary well knew that mood of his
but today
she again inquired whether everything was going well on the farm her unnatural tone made him wince unpleasantly and he replied hastily then i'm not mistaken thought countess mary why is he cross with me
she concluded from his tone that he was vexed with her and wished to end the conversation she knew her remarks sounded unnatural but could not refrain from asking some more questions thanks to denisov the conversation at table soon became general and lively
and she did not talk to her husband when they left the table and went as usual to thank the old countess countess mary held out her hand and kissed her husband and asked him why he was angry with her you always have such strange fancies
he replied but the word always seemed to her to imply
nicholas and his wife lived together so happily that even sonya and the old countess who felt jealous and would have liked them to disagree could find nothing to reproach them with but even they had their moments of antagonism occasionally
and it was always just after they had been happiest together they suddenly had a feeling of estrangement and hostility which occurred most frequently during countess mary's pregnancies and this was such a time
it seemed to countess mary that he did it on purpose to vex her i have been on my feet since six this morning tomorrow i shall have to suffer so today i'll go and rest and without a word to his wife
he went to the little sitting room and lay down on the sofa that's always the way thought countess mary
especially when i am in this condition she looked down at her expanded figure and in the glass at her pale sallow emaciated face in which her eyes now looked larger than ever and everything annoyed her
denisov's shouting and laughter natasha's talk and especially a quick glance sonya gave her sonya was always the first excuse countess mary found for feeling irritated
the children were playing at going to moscow in a carriage made of chairs and invited her to go with them she sat down and played with them a little
but the thought of her husband and his unreasonable crossness worried her she got up and walking on tiptoe with difficulty went to the small sitting room perhaps he is not asleep
little andrew her eldest boy imitating his mother followed her on tiptoe she did not notice him mary dear i think he is asleep he was so tired said sonya meeting her in the large sitting room
it seemed to countess mary that she crossed her path everywhere andrew may wake him countess mary looked round saw little andrew following her felt that sonya was right and for that very reason flushed
and with evident difficulty refrained from saying something harsh she made no reply but to avoid obeying sonya beckoned to andrew to follow her quietly and went to the door sonya went away by another door
from the room in which nicholas was sleeping came the sound of his even breathing every slightest tone of which was familiar to his wife as she listened to it she saw before her his smooth handsome forehead his mustache
and his whole face as she had so often seen it in the stillness of the night when he slept nicholas suddenly moved and cleared his throat and at that moment little andrew shouted from outside the door papa mamma's standing here
countess mary turned pale with fright and made signs to the boy he grew silent and quiet ensued for a moment terrible to countess mary
then through the door she heard nicholas clearing his throat again and stirring and his voice said crossly i can't get a moment's peace mary is that you why did you bring him here i only came in to look and did not notice
forgive me nicholas coughed and said no more countess mary moved away from the door and took the boy back to the nursery five minutes later little black eyed three year old natasha her father's pet
and mamma was in the sitting room ran to her father unobserved by her mother the dark eyed little girl boldly opened the creaking door went up to the sofa with energetic steps of her sturdy little legs and having examined the position of her father
who was asleep with his back to her rose on tiptoe and kissed the hand which lay under his head
come in mary he said to his wife she went in and sat down by her husband
i just looked in holding his little girl with one arm nicholas glanced at his wife and seeing her guilty expression put his other arm around her and kissed her hair may i kiss mamma he asked natasha natasha smiled bashfully again she commanded
i don't know why you think i am cross said nicholas replying to the question he knew was in his wife's mind you have no idea how unhappy how lonely i feel when you are like that it always seems to me mary
don't talk nonsense you ought to be ashamed of yourself he said gaily it seems to be that you can't love me that i am so plain always and now
in this cond oh how absurd you are it is not beauty that endears it's love that makes us see beauty it is only malvinas and women of that kind who are loved for their beauty but do i love my wife i don't love her but i don't know how to put it
without you or when something comes between us like this i seem lost and can't do anything now do i love my finger i don't love it but just try to cut it off i'm not like that myself but i understand so
you're not angry with me awfully angry he said smiling and getting up and smoothing his hair he began to pace the room do you know mary what i've been thinking
countess mary listened till he had finished made some remark and in her turn began thinking aloud her thoughts were about the children you can see the woman in her already she said in french pointing to little natasha you reproach us women with being illogical
here is our logic i say papa wants to sleep but she says no he's laughing and she was right said countess mary with a happy smile yes yes and nicholas taking his little daughter in his strong hand lifted her high
and paced the room with her there was an expression of carefree happiness on the faces of both father and daughter but you know you may be unfair
his wife whispered in french yes but what am i to do i try not to show at that moment they heard the sound of the door pulley and footsteps in the hall and anteroom as if someone had arrived somebody has come i am sure it is pierre
i will go and see said countess mary and left the room in her absence nicholas allowed himself to give his little daughter a gallop round the room out of breath he took the laughing child quickly from his shoulder and pressed her to his heart
his capers reminded him of dancing and looking at the child's round happy little face he thought of what she would be like when he was an old man taking her into society and dancing the mazurka with her as his old father had danced daniel cooper with his daughter
it is he it is he nicholas said countess mary re entering the room a few minutes later now our natasha has come to life you should have seen her ecstasy and how he caught it for having stayed away so long well come along now quick quick it's time you two were parted
she added looking smilingly at the little girl who clung to her father nicholas went out holding the child by the hand countess mary remained in the sitting room i should never never have believed that one could be so happy she whispered to herself
people in this world are being coaxed when it's a club they need here are two things any man can find in the dark a carpet tack and a limburger sandwich handsome is as handsome does them
the motto of the bunco steerer h the eighth letter of the alphabet which is all broken up because englishmen have dropped it so often
an exclamation of surprise used in connection with other dark blue words when you step on a tack
the fur that pays a temporary visit to a man's head for the purpose of
hard job trying to live without working hard work the sugar of life
a lack of knowledge for instance the man who never heard of a microbe sometimes has the colic but he never gets appendicitis milton page seven impossibility
a lazy man just before he becomes a loafer irony of fate a man with an invitation to a beefsteak dinner who has to stay home because his wife has acute indigestion indian commissioner
and running the remorseless horse clippers over the wild foliage
and no doubt the indians will take kindly to the barbers and pay them much attention
in the dramatic language of the plains biff hawkins of spotted dog idaho
which a loving government at washington has placed at intervals along the border of the indian reservation what is it mike said sniffles the barber hist again that ominous word and mike pointed feverishly at the distant horizon
onward onward onward remorseless as a gas bill the indian came onward to the barber shop sniffles the barber jumped quickly into his armor plated working clothes and mike with a sad smile of farewell
crawled into the cyclone cellar and closed the steel doors the indian entered the barber shop you are next said sniffles politely i know it said the indian but i was put next only an hour ago hence the delay the bay rum please
you want it for the hair inquired the barber no i want it for a souse said the indian get in the chair please said the barber man behind the snip snap speaks foolish said the indian i am not for a hair cut
i am for that bay rum idea heap thirst don't keep me waiting
what is your name he said painfully man afraid of a shampoo
said the barber wishing to avoid bloodshed paleface give me heap pain said man afraid of a shampoo fiercely sniffles the barber trembled and believed him ugh said the indian ugh
jockey a hero or a slob it all together depends on where the horse finishes joke something that's extremely clever
flattery with a smile on its face jolt the thing a man gets who thinks he knows it all joy gladness with the lid off jug
valor meets odds or perils with courageous action
prowess has power adapted to the need dauntless valor is often vain against superior prowess courage is a nobler word than bravery involving more of the deep spiritual and enduring elements of character
such an appreciation of peril as would extinguish bravery may only intensify courage which is resistant and self conquering courage applies to matters in regard to which valor and prowess can have no place as submission to a surgical operation
or the facing of censure or detraction for conscience sake compare brave fortitude antonyms cowardice cowardliness effeminacy fear pusillanimity timidity prudence synonyms
inclining to caution and frugality in practical affairs care may respect only the present prudence and providence look far ahead and sacrifice the present to the future prudence watching saving guarding providence planning doing preparing
and perhaps expending largely to meet the future demand frugality is in many cases one form of prudence in a besieged city prudence will reduce the rations providence will strain every nerve to introduce supplies and to raise the siege foresight
merely sees the future and may even lead to the recklessness and desperation to which prudence and providence are so strongly opposed forethought is thinking in accordance with wise views of the future and is nearly equivalent to providence
we speak of man's forethought god's providence compare care frugality wisdom
synonyms acquire
buy and purchase are close synonyms
and do not dispose of it compare business get price sale antonyms barter dispose of exchange put to sale sell prepositions purchase at a price at a public sale
of or from a person for cash with money on time pure synonyms
material substances are called pure in the strict sense when free from foreign admixture of any kind as pure oxygen the word is often used to signify free from any defiling or objectionable admixture the original sense
we speak of water as pure when it is bright clear and refreshing tho it may contain mineral salts in solution in the medical and chemical sense only distilled water aqua pura is pure in moral and religious use pure is a strong word
denoting positive excellence of a high order one is innocent who knows nothing of evil and has experienced no touch of temptation one is pure who with knowledge of evil and exposure to temptation keeps heart and soul unstained virtuous refers primarily to right action
pure to right feeling and motives as blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god
fine innocent antonyms adulterated foul
unclean put synonyms deposit lay place set put is the most general term for bringing an object to some point or within some space however exactly or loosely we may put a horse in a pasture
or put a bullet in a rifle or into an enemy place denotes more careful movement and more exact location as to place a crown on one's head or a garrison in a city to lay is to place in a horizontal position to set is to place in an upright position
we lay a cloth and set a dish upon a table to deposit is to put in a place of security for future use as to deposit money in a bank the original sense to lay down or let down quietly is also common as the stream deposits
sediment queer synonyms
is unmated as an odd shoe and so uneven as an odd number singular is alone of its kind as the singular number what is singular is odd but what is odd may not be singular as a drawerful of odd gloves
a strange thing is something hitherto unknown in fact or in cause a singular coincidence is one the happening of which is unusual a strange coincidence is one the cause of which is hard to explain that which is peculiar belongs especially to a person as his own
as israel was called jehovah's peculiar people
especially chosen and cherished by him in its ordinary use there is the implication that the thing peculiar to one is not common to the majority nor quite approved by them though it may be shared by many as the shakers are peculiar eccentric is off or aside from the center
and so off or aside from the ordinary and what is considered the normal course as genius is commonly eccentric eccentric is a higher and more respectful word than odd or queer erratic signifies wandering a stronger and more censorious term than eccentric
queer is transverse or oblique aside from the common in a way that is comical or perhaps slightly ridiculous quaint denotes that which is pleasingly odd and fanciful often with something of the antique as the quaint architecture of medieval towns
that which is funny is calculated to provoke laughter that which is droll is more quietly amusing that which is grotesque in the material sense is irregular or misshapen in form or outline or ill proportioned so as to be somewhat ridiculous the french bizarre
is practically equivalent to grotesque antonyms
quicken synonyms accelerate
to quicken in the sense here considered is to increase speed move or cause to move more rapidly as through more space or with a greater number of motions in the same time to accelerate is to increase the speed of action or of motion
a motion whose speed increases upon itself is said to be accelerated as the motion of a falling body which becomes swifter with every second of time to accelerate any work is to hasten it toward a finish commonly by quickening all its operations in orderly unity toward the result
to despatch is to do and be done with to get a thing off one's hands to despatch an enemy is to kill him outright and quickly to despatch a messenger is to send him in haste to despatch a business is to bring it quickly to an end despatch is commonly used of single items
to promote a cause is in any way to bring it forward advance it in power prominence et cetera to speed is really to secure swiftness to hasten is to attempt it whether successfully or unsuccessfully hurry always indicates something of confusion
the hurried man forgets dignity appearance comfort courtesy everything but speed he may forget something vital to the matter in hand yet because reckless haste may attain the great object of speed hurry has come to be the colloquial and popular word for acting quickly
to facilitate is to quicken by making easy to expedite is to quicken by removing hindrances a good general will improve roads to facilitate the movements of troops hasten supplies and perfect discipline to promote the general efficiency of the force despatch details of business expedite all preparations
in order to accelerate the advance and victory of his army antonyms check clog delay drag hinder impede obstruct retard quote synonyms cite
to quote is to give an author's words either exactly as in direct quotation or in substance as in indirect quotation to cite is etymologically to call up a passage as a witness is summoned in citing a passage its exact location by chapter
in quoting the location may or may not be given but the words or substance of the passage must be given in citing neither the author's words nor his thought may be given but simply the reference to the location where they may be found to quote in the proper sense
is to give credit to the author whose words are employed to paraphrase
and the order of statement but changing the language and commonly interweaving more or less explanatory matter as if part of the original writing one may paraphrase a work with worthy motive for homiletic devotional or other purposes as in the metrical versions of the psalms
or he may plagiarize atrociously in the form of paraphrase appropriating all that is valuable in another's thought with the hope of escaping detection by change of phrase to plagiarize is to quote without credit appropriating another's words or thought as one's own
to recite or repeat is usually to quote orally tho recite is applied in legal phrase to a particular statement of facts which is not a quotation
it was very late according to the monastery ideas when alyosha returned to the hermitage the door keeper let him in by a special entrance it had struck nine o'clock the hour of rest and repose after a day of such agitation for all
alyosha timidly opened the door and went into the elder's cell where his coffin was now standing there was no one in the cell but father paissy reading the gospel in solitude over the coffin
and the young novice porfiry who exhausted by the previous night's conversation and the disturbing incidents of the day was sleeping the deep sound sleep of youth on the floor of the other room though father paissy heard alyosha come in
he did not even look in his direction alyosha turned to the right from the door to the corner fell on his knees and began to pray his soul was overflowing but with mingled feelings no single sensation stood out distinctly
on the contrary one drove out another in a slow continual rotation but there was a sweetness in his heart and strange to say alyosha was not surprised at it
again he saw that coffin before him the hidden dead figure so precious to him but the weeping and poignant grief of the morning was no longer aching in his soul as soon as he came in he fell down before the coffin as before a holy shrine
but joy joy was glowing in his mind and in his heart the one window of the cell was open the air was fresh and cool so the smell must have become stronger if they opened the window thought alyosha
but even this thought of the smell of corruption which had seemed to him so awful and humiliating a few hours before no longer made him feel miserable or indignant he began quietly praying but he soon felt that he was praying almost mechanically
fragments of thought floated through his soul flashed like stars and went out again at once to be succeeded by others but yet there was reigning in his soul a sense of the wholeness of things something steadfast and comforting and he was aware of it himself
sometimes he began praying ardently he longed to pour out his thankfulness and love but when he had begun to pray he passed suddenly to something else and sank into thought forgetting both the prayer
and what had interrupted it he began listening to what father paissy was reading but worn out with exhaustion he gradually began to doze and the third day there was a marriage in cana of galilee read father paissy and the mother of jesus was there
marriage what's that a marriage floated whirling through alyosha's mind there is happiness for her too
well tragic phrases should be forgiven they must be tragic phrases comfort the heart without them sorrow would be too heavy for men to bear
rakitin has gone off to the back alley as long as rakitin broods over his wrongs he will always go off to the back alley but the high road the road is wide and straight and bright as crystal
being read and when they wanted wine the mother of jesus saith unto him they have no wine alyosha heard
that miracle ah that sweet miracle it was not men's grief but their joy christ visited he worked his first miracle to help men's gladness
he who loves men loves their gladness too he was always repeating that it was one of his leading ideas there's no living without joy mitya says
what has it to do with thee or me
his mother saith unto the servants whatsoever he saith unto you
the historians write that in those days the people living about the lake of gennesaret were the poorest that can possibly be imagined and another great heart that other great being his mother knew that he had come not only to make his great terrible sacrifice
she knew that his heart was open even to the simple artless merrymaking of some obscure and unlearned people who had warmly bidden him to their poor wedding
and indeed was it to make wine abundant at poor weddings he had come down to earth and yet he went and did as she asked him
jesus saith unto them fill the waterpots with water and they filled them up to the brim and he saith unto them draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast and they bare it when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine
and knew not whence it was but the servants which drew the water knew the governor of the feast called the bridegroom and saith unto him every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine and when men have well drunk that which is worse
but thou hast kept the good wine until now but what's this what's this why is the room growing wider ah yes it's the marriage the wedding yes of course
when the visitors had gathered about him his face was uncovered his eyes were shining how was this then he too had been called to the feast he too at the marriage of cana in galilee yes my dear i am called too called and bidden
he heard a soft voice saying over him why have you hidden yourself here out of sight you come and join us too it was his voice the voice of father zossima and it must be he since he called him
the elder raised alyosha by the hand and he rose from his knees we are rejoicing the little thin old man went on we are drinking the new wine the wine of new great gladness do you see how many guests here are the bride and bridegroom
and many here have given only an onion each only one little onion what are all our deeds and you my gentle one you my kind boy you too have known how to give a famished woman an onion to day
do you see him i am afraid i dare not look whispered alyosha do not fear him he is terrible in his greatness awful in his sublimity but infinitely merciful
he has made himself like unto us from love and rejoices with us he is changing the water into wine that the gladness of the guests may not be cut short he is expecting new guests he is calling new ones unceasingly for ever and ever
there they are bringing new wine do you see they are bringing the vessels something glowed in alyosha's heart something filled it till it ached tears of rapture rose from his soul he stretched out his hands uttered a cry and waked up again the coffin
the open window and the soft solemn distinct reading of the gospel but alyosha did not listen to the reading
but now he was on his feet and suddenly as though thrown forward
his shoulder brushed against father paissy without his noticing it father paissy raised his eyes for an instant from his book but looked away again at once seeing that something strange was happening to the boy alyosha gazed for half a minute at the coffin at the covered motionless dead man that lay in the coffin
he had only just been hearing his voice
still expecting other words but suddenly he turned sharply and went out of the cell he did not stop on the steps either but went quickly down his soul overflowing with rapture yearned for freedom space openness
the vault of heaven full of soft shining stars stretched vast and fathomless above him the milky way ran in two pale streams from the zenith to the horizon the fresh motionless still night enfolded the earth the white towers and golden domes of the cathedral
gleamed out against the sapphire sky the gorgeous autumn flowers in the beds round the house were slumbering till morning the silence of earth seemed to melt into the silence of the heavens the mystery of earth was one with the mystery of the stars
alyosha stood gazed and suddenly threw himself down on the earth he did not know why he embraced it he could not have told why he longed so irresistibly to kiss it to kiss it all but he kissed it weeping sobbing and watering it with his tears
and vowed passionately to love it to love it for ever and ever water the earth with the tears of your joy and love those tears echoed in his soul what was he weeping over oh
in his rapture he was weeping even over those stars which were shining to him from the abyss of space and he was not ashamed of that ecstasy there seemed to be threads from all those innumerable worlds of god linking his soul to them and
it was trembling all over in contact with other worlds he longed to forgive every one and for everything and to beg forgiveness oh not for himself but for all men for all and for everything and others are praying for me too
echoed again in his soul but with every instant he felt clearly and as it were tangibly that something firm and unshakable as that vault of heaven had entered into his soul it was as though some idea had seized the sovereignty of his mind
and it was for all his life and for ever and ever he had fallen on the earth a weak boy but he rose up a resolute champion and he knew and felt it suddenly at the very moment of his ecstasy
when raggedy andy was first brought to the nursery
raggedy andy did not speak all day but he smiled pleasantly to all the other dolls there was raggedy ann the french doll henny the little dutch doll uncle clem
and a few others some of the dolls were without arms and legs one had a cracked head she was a nice doll though and the others all liked her very much
all of them had cried the night susan that was her name fell off the toy box and cracked her china head raggedy andy did not speak all day
but there was really nothing strange about this fact after all none of the other dolls spoke all day either marcella had played in the nursery all day and of course they did not speak in front of her
marcella thought they did though and often had them saying things which they really were not even thinking of for instance when marcella served water with sugar in it and little oyster crackers for tea
raggedy andy was thinking of raggedy ann and the french doll was thinking of one time when fido was lost marcella took the french doll's hand and passed a cup of tea to raggedy andy and said
mister raggedy andy will you have another cup of tea as if the french doll was talking and then marcella answered for raggedy andy oh yes thank you it is so delicious
neither the french doll nor raggedy andy knew what was going on for they were thinking real hard to themselves
marcella drank it instead perhaps this was just as well for most of the dolls were moist inside from the tea of the day before marcella did not always drink all of the tea
often she poured a little down their mouths sugar and water if taken in small quantities would not give the dolls colic marcella would tell them
and found the dolls with sweets upon their faces really fido was quite a help in this way but he often missed the corners of their eyes and the backs of their necks where the tea would run and get sticky
but he did his best and saved his little mistress a lot of work no raggedy andy did not speak he merely thought a great deal
did not really know how long raggedy andy and she had been rag dolls if raggedy ann had a pencil in her rag hand and marcella guided it for her raggedy ann
but he did not even fidget of course he fell out of his chair once and his shoe button eyes went click against the floor but it wasn't his fault raggedy andy was so loppy
he could hardly be placed in a chair so that he would stay and marcella jiggled the table
you see how easy it is to pass over the little bumps of life if we are happy inside and so raggedy andy was quiet all day and so the day finally passed
raggedy andy was given one of uncle clem's clean white nighties and shared uncle clem's bed marcella kissed them all good night and left them to sleep until morning
all the dollies jumped out of their beds
have always liked each other oh
the dollies all answered we love raggedy ann because she is so kindly and happy and we know we shall like you too for you talk like raggedy ann and have the same cheery smile
now that we know each other so well what do you say to a game uncle clem raggedy andy cried as he caught uncle clem and danced about the floor henny the dutch doll
raggedy andy replied for there was always a nest of mice down in the corner of the trunk cute little mama and daddy mice
and when the mama and daddy mice were away i used to cuddle the tiny little baby mice no wonder you were never lonesome said uncle clem who was very kind
and loved everybody and everything
but it is far more pleasant to be out again and living here with all you nice friends said raggedy andy and all the dolls thought so too
and keeps it creeping from the house and slinking off like a thief groping with his hands when first he got into the street as if he were a blind man
and looking often over his shoulder while he hurried away as though he were followed in imagination or reality by someone anxious to question or detain him ralph nickleby left the city behind him
and took the road to his own home the night was dark and a cold wind blew
black gloomy mass that seemed to follow him not hurrying in the wild chase with the others but lingering sullenly behind and gliding darkly and stealthily on he often looked back at this
to tell that they had sprung from paupers bodies and had struck their roots in the graves of men sodden while alive in steaming courts and drunken hungry dens
and here in truth they lay parted from the living by a little earth and a board or two lay thick and close corrupting in body as they had in mind
a dense and squalid crowd here they lay cheek by jowl with life no deeper down than the feet of the throng that passed there every day and piled high as their throats
here they lay a grisly family all these dear departed brothers and sisters of the ruddy clergyman who did his task so speedily when they were hidden in the ground
as he passed here ralph called to mind that he had been one of a jury long before on the body of a man who had cut his throat
he could not tell how he came to recollect it now when he had so often passed and never thought about him or how it was that he felt an interest in the circumstance but he did both and stopping
some fellows full of drink followed by others who were remonstrating with them and urging them to go home in quiet they were in high good humour and one of them a little weazen hump backed man
began to dance he was a grotesque fantastic figure and the few bystanders laughed ralph himself was moved to mirth and echoed the laugh of one who stood near
and how he looked and what had led him to do it
the figure of some goblin he had once seen chalked upon a door but as he drew nearer and nearer home he forgot it again and began to think how very dull and solitary the house would be inside
this feeling became so strong at last that when he reached his own door he could hardly make up his mind to turn the key and open it when he had done that and gone into the passage
he felt as though to shut it again would be to shut out the world but he let it go and it closed with a loud noise there was no light how very dreary cold
and still it was shivering from head to foot he made his way upstairs into the room where he had been last disturbed he had made a kind of compact with himself
that he would not think of what had happened until he got home he was at home now and suffered himself to consider it his own child his own child
he never doubted the tale he felt it was true knew it as well now as if he had been privy to it all along his own child and dead too
loving him and looking upon him as something like an angel that was the worst they had all turned from him
his companion abroad and beyond his reach ten thousand pounds gone at one blow his plot with gride overset at the very moment of triumph his after schemes discovered
himself in danger the object of his persecution and nicholas's love his own wretched boy everything crumbled and fallen upon him
and grovelling in the dust if he had known his child to be alive
and he had grown up beneath his eye he might have been a careless indifferent rough harsh father like enough he felt that but the thought would come that he might have been otherwise
and that his son might have been a comfort to him and they two happy together he began to think now
hard man he was he seemed to remember a time when he was not quite so rough and obdurate and almost thought that he had first hated nicholas
and perhaps like the stripling who had brought dishonour and loss of fortune on his head but one tender thought or one of natural regret in his whirlwind of passion and remorse
was as a drop of calm water in a stormy maddened sea his hatred of nicholas had been fed upon his own defeat nourished on his interference with his schemes
fattened upon his old defiance and success there were reasons for its increase it had grown and strengthened gradually now it attained a height which was sheer wild lunacy
of all others should have been the hands to rescue his miserable child that he should have been his protector and faithful friend that he should have shown him that love and tenderness which from the wretched moment of his birth he had never known
that he should have taught him to hate his own parent and execrate his very name that he should now know and feel all this and triumph in the recollection
and madness to the usurer's heart the dead boy's love for nicholas and the attachment of nicholas to him was insupportable agony the picture of his deathbed
with nicholas at his side tending and supporting him and he breathing out his thanks and expiring in his arms when he would have had them mortal enemies and hating each other to the last drove him frantic
he gnashed his teeth and smote the air and looking wildly round with eyes which gleamed through the darkness cried aloud i am trampled down and ruined the wretch told me true
the night has come is there no way to rob them of further triumph and spurn their mercy and compassion is there no devil to help me swiftly there glided again into his brain
the figure he had raised that night it seemed to lie before him the head was covered now so it was when he first saw it the rigid upturned marble feet too he remembered well
he spoke no more but after a pause softly groped his way out of the room and up the echoing stairs up to the top to the front garret where he closed the door behind him
and remained it was a mere lumber room now but it yet contained an old dismantled bedstead the one on which his son had slept
for no other had ever been there he avoided it hastily and sat down as far from it as he could the weakened glare of the lights in the street below shining through the window which had no blind or curtain to intercept it
and dragging thither an old chest upon which he had been seated mounted on it and felt along the wall above his head with both hands at length they touched a large iron hook firmly driven into one of the beams
after a little hesitation he opened the window and demanded who it was i want mister nickleby replied a voice
that's not mister nickleby's voice surely was the rejoinder it was not like it but it was ralph who spoke and so he said
the voice made answer that the twin brothers wished to know whether the man whom he had seen that night was to be detained and that although it was now midnight they had sent in their anxiety to do right yes
cried ralph detain him till tomorrow then let them bring him here him and my nephew and come themselves and be sure that i will be ready to receive them at what hour
asked the voice at any hour replied ralph fiercely in the afternoon tell them at any hour at any minute all times will be alike to me
he listened to the man's retreating footsteps until the sound had passed and then gazing up into the sky saw or thought he saw the same black cloud
and which now appeared to hover directly above the house
and the restless nights the dreams
the sound of a deep bell came along the wind one
and marriages that are made in hell and toll ruefully for the dead whose shoes are worn already
with a wild look around in which frenzy hatred and despair were horribly mingled he shook his clenched hand at the sky above him which was still dark and threatening and closed the window
but no hand was there and it opened no more how's this cried one the gentleman say they can't make anybody hear
said another for he spoke to somebody out of that window upstairs they were a little knot of men and the window being mentioned went out into the road to look up at it
this occasioned their observing that the house was still close shut as the housekeeper had said she had left it on the previous night and led to a great many suggestions which terminated
in two or three of the boldest getting round to the back and so entering by a window while the others remained outside in impatient expectation they looked into all the rooms below opening the shutters as they went
to admit the fading light and still finding nobody and everything quiet and in its place doubted whether they should go farther
and that it was there he had been last seen they agreed to look there too and went up softly for the mystery and silence made them timid
after they had stood for an instant on the landing eyeing each other he who had proposed their carrying the search so far turned the handle of the door and pushing it open
he had torn a rope from one of the old trunks and hung himself on an iron hook immediately below the trap door in the ceiling in the very place
to which the eyes of his son a lonely desolate little creature had so often been directed in childish terror
the close of the performance left them both curiously tongue tied they waited until the theatre was half empty before they left their seats then they joined the little throng of stragglers at the end
she laughed not quite naturally she was unexpectedly impressed so you're a genius after all she went on sometimes i wondered but never mind that now
up in the balcony an orchestra was playing light music and a little crowd of people were all the time streaming through the doors beatrice settled herself down with an air of content
few of the people were in evening dress and the tone of the place was essentially democratic philip who had learnt a little about american dishes gave an order
we generally go further up town he admitted unthinkingly she set her glass down quickly so you do take her out do you she asked coldly
you'd have been with her to night perhaps if i hadn't been here very likely she was half inclined to rally him behind it all a little annoyed you're a nice sort of person
and then as the time passed on well you came to be my only solace against the wretchedness of that life she nodded appreciatively
but it was all so hopeless wasn't it you could barely keep yourself from starving and i oh the misery of that awful detton magna and teaching those wretched children
the bad language the ugly sordidness with which the place reeked
it's a corner of the world i never want to see again i'd rather find hell have you ordered any wine philip i want to forget
and summoned a waiter she watched it being opened and their glasses filled this is like one of our fairy stories of the old days isn't it she said well i drink to you philip
here's success to our new lives she raised her glass and drained it a woman had entered who reminded him of elizabeth and his eyes had wandered away for a moment as beatrice pledged him
and what we used to mean to one another let us try and believe she added a little wistfully that one of those dreams of ours which we used to set floating like bubbles has come true
ought it he answered grimly there are times when i've found it difficult enough she laughed and looked about her
he realised suddenly that she was still very attractive with her rather insolent mouth her clear eyes her silky hair with the little fringe people as they passed paid her some attention
and she was frankly curious about everybody well she went on presently thank heavens i have plenty of will power i remember nothing
i am going to tell myself that an uncle in australia has died and left me money and so we are here in new york to spend it to morrow i am going to begin i shall buy clothes
and hats you won't know me to morrow evening philip his heart sank to morrow evening but beatrice he expostulated
you haven't a friend in the city what friends have i in england she retorted not
i may just as well start a new life in a new country it seems bright enough here and
i shall move to a different sort of hotel to morrow you must help me choose one and as to friends she whispered looking up at him with a little provocative gleam in her eyes don't you count
can't you do what i am going to do philip can't you draw down that curtain he shivered i can't he muttered a waiter brought their first course
and she at once evinced interest in her food she returned to the subject however later on after she had drunk another glass of wine you're a silly old thing you know she declared
you found the courage somehow to break away from that loathsome existence you had more courage even than i because you ran a risk i never did but here you are
free with the whole world before you and your last danger disappearing with the knowledge that i am ready to be your friend and am sensible about everything that has happened
this ought to be an immense relief to you philip you ought to be the happiest man on earth and there you sit looking like a death's head
her eyes were bright her cheeks delicately pink
at the bottom of my heart i rather admire you for what you did don't you want your reward
don't be a goose she exclaimed at last of course you want your reward and of course you'll have it some day you've always lived with your head partly in the clouds
and it's always been my task to pull you down to earth i suppose i shall have to do the same again but to night i haven't patience i feel suddenly gay you are so nice looking philip
but you'd look ten times nicer still if you'd only smile once or twice and look as though you were glad the whole thing was a nightmare to him the horror of it was in his blood
yet he did his best to obey plain speaking just then was impossible he drank glass after glass of wine and called for liqueurs she held his fingers for a moment under the table
we are only human and did suffer so you know she went on you were made for the things that are coming to us you've improved already ever so much
we must alter all that dear tell me how it is that with all your success you haven't been happy
he answered harshly only a few hours before you came i was in hell then you had better make up your mind she told him firmly that you are going to climb up out of there
you can't alter the past you can't alter even the smallest detail of its setting just as inevitably as our lives come and go so what has happened is finished with unchangeable
i am moody though and that's almost as bad
mister dane is going to be very disappointed when i tell him that i never saw you before in my life don't you love the music listen to that waltz
that was written for happy people philip
i can't realise anything i feel as though the gates of some great prison had been thrown wide open
within reach waiting i am glad
but i know now what it was that made life so appalling tell me am i still nice to look at of course you are he assured her
can't you understand that by the way people notice you she strummed upon the table with her fingers her whole body seemed to be moving to the music she nodded several times
i don't want them to notice me philip she murmured i want you to look just for a moment as though you thought me the only person in the world
as you did once you know he did his best to be responsive
nevertheless she was tolerant with his shortcomings they sat there until nearly three o'clock it was she at last who rose reluctantly to her feet
i want to go whilst the memory of it all is wonderful she declared come
she waited for a moment then she leaned back amongst the cushions philip she asked quietly has this elizabeth dalstan been letting you make love to her
please don't speak of miss dalstan like that he begged answer my question she insisted miss dalstan has been very kind to me he admitted slowly
he answered bravely and in a different fashion in the darkness of the cab it seemed to him that her face had grown whiter her arm remained within his
but it clasped him no longer her body seemed to have become limp even her voice firm though it was seemed pitched in a different key
then we will talk i want more than just that money i am lonely and do you know philip i believe that i must have cared for you all the time
shall i have to say it dear i want you to marry me
you robbed me of the man who was bringing me to america who would have married me some day i suppose well you must pay do you see and in my way
you want me to marry you he demanded simply marry you
you couldn't loathe me could you she begged the thought of those long days we spent together in our prison house would rise up and forbid it kiss me
her lips sought his in vain he pushed her away
he exclaimed there is another woman whom i have kissed
and i am lonely
he kissed her upon the cheek she pulled down her veil the cab had stopped before the door of her hotel
she whispered holding his hand for a moment as he rang the bell for her you are safe remember
chapter nineteen diamond's friends one day when old diamond was standing with his nose in his bag between pall mall and cockspur street
and his master was reading the newspaper on the box of his cab which was the last of a good many in the row little diamond got down for a run for his legs were getting cramped with sitting
and first of all he strolled with his hands in his pockets up to the crossing where the girl and her broom were to be found in all weathers just as he was going to speak to her a tall gentleman stepped upon the crossing
he was pleased to find it so clean for the streets were muddy and he had nice boots on
but when she gave him a sweet smile in return and made him a pretty courtesy he looked at her again and said
paradise row she answered
whom do you live with he asked my wicked old grannie she replied you shouldn't call your grannie wicked said the gentleman
said the girl looking up confidently in his face if you don't believe me you can come and take a look at her the words sounded rude but the girl's face looked so simple that the gentleman saw she did not mean to be rude
and became still more interested in her still you
he insisted shouldn't i everybody calls her wicked old grannie
she's so old now how she do make them laugh to be sure
the gentleman looked very grave to hear her for he was sorry that such a nice little girl should be in such bad keeping but he did not know what to say next
please sir said diamond her grannie's very cruel to her sometimes and shuts her out in the streets at night if she happens to be late is this your brother asked the gentleman of the girl no sir
how does he know your grandmother then he does not look like one of her sort
he's a good boy quite here she tapped her forehead with her finger in a significant manner
god's baby she whispered he's not right in the head you know a tile loose still diamond though he heard every word and understood it too kept on smiling what could it matter what people called him so long as he did nothing
he ought not to do and besides god's baby was surely the best of names well my little man and what can you do asked the gentleman turning towards him just for the sake of saying something
drive a cab said diamond good and what else he continued for
as a sign of silliness and wished to be kind to the poor little fellow nurse a baby said diamond well and what else clean father's boots and make him a bit of toast for his tea
said the gentleman what else can you do not much that i know of said diamond
except somebody puts me on his back
can you read
they're going to teach me some day soon
please sir where am i to come asked diamond who was too much a man of the world not to know that he must have the gentleman's address before he could go and see him you're no such silly thought he
as he put his hand in his pocket and brought out a card there he said your father will be able to read that and tell you where to go yes sir thank you sir said diamond and put the card in his pocket
the gentleman walked away but turning round a few paces off saw diamond give his penny to the girl and walking slower heard him say
and you've got nothing but a wicked old grannie you may have my penny
but you don't want it
diamond obeyed and got up again upon the box
asked diamond well
the more the better you know just let me count said diamond and he took his hands from his pockets and spreading out the fingers of his left hand began to count beginning at the thumb
never looks at you and when diamond's out of the shafts it's nobody then there's the man that drinks next door and his wife and his baby they're no friends of mine said his father well they're friends of mine said diamond
his father laughed much good they'll do you he said
returned diamond well go on said his father then there's jack and mister stonecrop and
missus crump and then there's the clergyman that spoke to me in the garden that day the tree was blown down what's his name i don't know his name where does he live i don't know
his father laughed again why child you're just counting everybody you know that don't make em friends don't it i thought it did well but
they can't help themselves then if they would if i choose to be their friend you know they can't prevent me then there's that girl at the crossing a fine set of friends you do have to be sure diamond surely she's a friend anyhow father
his father was silent for he saw that diamond was right and
diamond went on if he do as he say
chapter twenty diamond learns to read the question of the tall gentleman as to whether diamond could read or not set his father thinking it was high time he could
and as soon as old diamond was suppered and bedded he began the task that very night but it was not much of a task to diamond for his father took
for his lesson book those very rhymes his mother had picked up on the sea shore and as diamond was not beginning too soon he learned very fast indeed within a month he was able to spell out most of the verses for himself
but he had never come upon the poem he thought he had heard his mother read from it that day he had looked through and through the book several times after he knew the letters and a few words fancying he could tell the look of it
but had always failed to find one more like it than another so he wisely gave up the search till he could really read then he resolved to begin at the beginning and read them all straight through
this took him nearly a fortnight when he had almost reached the end he came upon the following verses which took his fancy much although they were certainly not very like those he was in search of
little boy blue little boy blue lost his way in a wood sing apples and cherries roses and honey he said i would not go back if i could it's all so jolly and funny
he sang this wood is all my own apples and cherries roses and honey so here i'll sit like a king on my throne
a little snake crept out of the tree apples and cherries roses and honey lie down at my feet little snake said he all so jolly and funny a little bird sang in the tree overhead
apples and cherries roses and honey come and sing your song on my finger instead all so jolly and funny the snake coiled up and the bird flew down
and sang him the song of birdie brown little boy blue found it tiresome to sit and he thought he had better walk on a bit so up he got his way to take and he said come along little bird and snake
and waves of snake o'er the damp leaves passed and the snake went first and birdie brown last by boy blue's head with flutter and dart flew birdie brown with its song in its heart
he came where the apples grew red and sweet tree drop me an apple down at my feet he came where the cherries hung plump and red come to my mouth sweet kisses he said
and the boughs bow down and the apples they dapple the grass too many for him to grapple and the cheeriest cherries with never a miss fall to his mouth each a full grown kiss
he met a little brook singing a song he said little brook you are going wrong you must follow me follow me follow i say do as i tell you and come this way
leaped from its bed and after him took
and every creature low down below he called and the creatures obeyed the call took their legs and their wings and followed him all squirrels that carried their tails like a sack
each on his own little humpy brown back householder snails and slugs all tails and butterflies flutterbies ships all sails and weasels and ousels and mice and larks
all went running and creeping and flowing after the merry boy fluttering and going the dappled fawns fawning the fallow deer following the swallows and flies flying and swallowing cockchafers henchafers cockioli birds
the spider forgot and followed him spinning and lost all his thread from end to beginning the gay wasp forgot his rings and his waist he never had made such undignified haste
the dragon flies melted to mist with their hurrying the mole in his moleskins left his barrowing burrowing
but little boy blue was not content calling for followers still as he went blowing his horn and beating his drum and crying aloud come all of you come he said to the shadows come after me
and the shadows began to flicker and flee and they flew through the wood all flattering and fluttering over the dead leaves flickering and muttering and he said to the wind come follow come follow
with whistle and pipe and rustle and hollo and the wind wound round at his desire as if he had been the gold cock on the spire and the cock itself flew down from the church
and left the farmers all in the lurch they run and they fly they creep and they come everything everything all and some the very trees they tugged at their roots only their feet
were too fast in their boots after him leaning and straining and bending as on through their boles he kept walking and wending till out of the wood he burst on a lea
and then they rose up with a leafy hiss and stood as if nothing had been amiss little boy blue sat down on a stone and the creatures came round him every one
and he said to the clouds i want you there and down they sank through the thin blue air and he said to the sunset far in the west come here i want you
i know best and the sunset came and stood up on the wold
then little boy blue began to ponder what's to be done with them all i wonder then little boy blue he said quite low what to do with you all i am sure i don't know
the snake sneaked close round birdie brown flew the brook sat up like a snake on its tail and the wind came up with a what will you wail
the mole opened his very eyes and glared and for rats and bats and the world and his wife little boy blue was afraid of his life then birdie brown began to sing and what he sang was the very thing
i'm sure i don't want you get away do
us some work or else we stay oh
with sob and with sigh said little boy blue and began to cry but before he got far he thought of a thing and up he stood
said the brook as it sank and turned and ran
fled the shadows like ghosts if we stay we shall all be missed from our posts said the wind with a voice that had changed its cheer i was just going there when you brought me here
said the sack backed squirrel and he turned his sack with a swing and a swirl said the cock of the spire
said the brook running faster i run through his garden said the mole two hundred worms there i caught em last year and i'm going again next autumn said they all if that's where you want us to steer for
what in earth or in water did you bring us here for never you mind said little boy blue that's what i tell you if that you won't do i'll get up at once and go home without you i think i will
i begin to doubt you he rose and up rose the snake on its tail and hissed three times half a hiss half a wail little boy blue he tried to go past him but wherever he turned
sat the snake and faced him if you don't get out of my way he said i tell you snake i will break your head
powder and arms the hispaniola lay some way out and we went under the figureheads and round the sterns of many other ships
and their cables sometimes grated underneath our keel and sometimes swung above us at last however we got alongside and were met and saluted as we stepped aboard by the mate
mister arrow a brown old sailor with earrings in his ears and a squint he and the squire were very thick and friendly
but i soon observed that things were not the same between mister trelawney and the captain this last was a sharp looking man who seemed angry with everything on board
and was soon to tell us why for we had hardly got down into the cabin when a sailor followed us captain smollett sir axing to speak with you
all shipshape and seaworthy well sir said the captain better speak plain i believe even at the risk of offence i don't like this cruise
i don't like the men and i don't like my officer that's short and sweet perhaps sir you don't like the ship inquired the squire very angry as i could see
not having seen her tried said the captain she seems a clever craft more i can't say possibly sir you may not like your employer either says the squire
but here doctor livesey cut in stay a bit said he stay a bit no use of such questions as that but to produce ill feeling
the captain has said too much or he has said too little and i'm bound to say that i require an explanation of his words you don't you say like this cruise now why
i was engaged sir on what we call sealed orders to sail this ship for that gentleman where he should bid me said the captain so far so good
but now i find that every man before the mast knows more than i do i don't call that fair now do you no said doctor livesey i don't
next said the captain i learn we are going after treasure hear it from my own hands mind you now treasure is ticklish work
i don't like treasure voyages on any account and i don't like them above all when they are secret and when begging your pardon mister trelawney the secret has been told to the parrot
silver's parrot asked the squire it's a way of speaking said the captain blabbed i mean it's my belief neither of you gentlemen know what you are about
but i'll tell you my way of it life or death and a close run that is all clear and i dare say true enough replied doctor livesey we take the risk
but we are not so ignorant as you believe us next you say you don't like the crew are they not good seamen i don't like them sir returned captain smollett
and i think i should have had the choosing of my own hands if you go to that perhaps you should replied the doctor my friend should perhaps have taken you along with him
but the slight if there be one was unintentional and you don't like mister arrow i don't sir i believe he's a good seaman but he's too free with the crew to be a good officer
a mate should keep himself to himself shouldn't drink with the men before the mast do you mean he drinks cried the squire no sir replied the captain
only that he's too familiar well now and the short and long of it captain asked the doctor tell us what you want well gentlemen
are you determined to go on this cruise like iron answered the squire very good said the captain then as you've heard me very patiently
saying things that i could not prove hear me a few words more they are putting the powder and the arms in the fore hold now you have a good place under the cabin why not put them there
first point then you are bringing four of your own people with you and they tell me some of them are to be berthed forward why not give them the berths here beside the cabin
second point any more asked mister trelawney one more said the captain there's been too much blabbing already
far too much agreed the doctor i'll tell you what i've heard myself continued captain smollett that you have a map of an island
that there's crosses on the map to show where treasure is and that the island lies and then he named the latitude and longitude exactly
i never told that cried the squire to a soul the hands know it sir returned the captain livesey that must have been you or hawkins
cried the squire it doesn't much matter who it was replied the doctor and i could see that neither he nor the captain paid much regard to mister trelawney's protestations
neither did i to be sure he was so loose a talker yet in this case i believe he was really right and that nobody had told the situation of the island
well gentlemen continued the captain i don't know who has this map but i make it a point it shall be kept secret even from me and mister arrow
otherwise i would ask you to let me resign i see said the doctor you wish us to keep this matter dark
and to make a garrison of the stern part of the ship manned with my friend's own people and provided with all the arms and powder on board in other words you fear a mutiny
sir said captain smollett with no intention to take offence i deny your right to put words into my mouth no captain sir
would be justified in going to sea at all if he had ground enough to say that as for mister arrow i believe him thoroughly honest some of the men are the same
all may be for what i know but i am responsible for the ship's safety and the life of every man jack aboard of her i see things going as i think
not quite right and i ask you to take certain precautions or let me resign my berth and that's all
captain smollett began the doctor with a smile did ever you hear the fable of the mountain and the mouse you'll excuse me i dare say
but you remind me of that fable when you came in here i'll stake my wig you meant more than this doctor said the captain you are smart
when i came in here i meant to get discharged i had no thought that mister trelawney would hear a word no more i would cried the squire
had livesey not been here i should have seen you to the deuce as it is i have heard you i will do as you desire but i think the worse of you
that's as you please sir said the captain you'll find i do my duty and with that he took his leave
trelawney said the doctor contrary to all my notions i believed you have managed to get two honest men on board with you that man
and john silver silver if you like cried the squire but as for that intolerable humbug i declare i think his conduct unmanly unsailorly
and downright un english well says the doctor we shall see
the new arrangement was quite to my liking the whole schooner had been overhauled six berths had been made astern out of what had been the after part of the main hold
and this set of cabins was only joined to the galley and forecastle by a sparred passage on the port side it had been originally meant that the captain mister arrow hunter
joyce the doctor and the squire were to occupy these six berths now redruth and i were to get two of them and mister arrow and the captain were to sleep on deck in the companion
very low it was still of course but there was room to swing two hammocks and even the mate seemed pleased with the arrangement
even he perhaps had been doubtful as to the crew but that is only guess for as you shall hear we had not long the benefit of his opinion
we were all hard at work changing the powder and the berths when the last man or two and long john along with them came off in a shore boat
the cook came up the side like a monkey for cleverness and as soon as he saw what was doing so ho mates says he what's this
we're a changing of the powder jack answers one why by the powers cried long john if we do we'll miss the morning tide
my orders said the captain shortly you may go below my man hands will want supper aye aye sir answered the cook
and touching his forelock he disappeared at once in the direction of his galley that's a good man captain said the doctor very likely sir replied captain smollett
easy with that men easy he ran on to the fellows who were shifting the powder and then suddenly observing me examining the swivel we carried amidships a long brass nine
here you ship's boy he cried out o that off with you to the cook and get some work and then as i was hurrying off i heard him say quite loudly to the doctor
i'll have no favourites on my ship i assure you i was quite of the squire's way of thinking and hated the captain deeply
and boatfuls of the squire's friends mister blandly and the like coming off to wish him a good voyage and a safe return we never had a night at the admiral benbow when i had half the work
and i was dog tired when a little before dawn the boatswain sounded his pipe and the crew began to man the capstan bars i might have been twice as weary
yet i would not have left the deck all was so new and interesting to me the brief commands the shrill note of the whistle the men bustling to their places in the glimmer of the ship's lanterns
now barbecue tip us a stave cried one voice the old one cried another aye aye mates said long john
who was standing by with his crutch under his arm and at once broke out in the air and words i knew so well fifteen men on the dead man's chest
yo ho ho and a bottle of rum and at the third ho drove the bars before them with a will
even at that exciting moment it carried me back to the old admiral benbow in a second and i seemed to hear the voice of the captain piping in the chorus
but soon the anchor was short up soon it was hanging dripping at the bows soon the sails began to draw and the land and shipping to flit by on either side
and before i could lie down to snatch an hour of slumber the hispaniola had begun her voyage to the isle of treasure i am not going to relate
that voyage in detail it was fairly prosperous the ship proved to be a good ship the crew were capable seamen and the captain thoroughly understood his business
but before we came the length of treasure island two or three things had happened which require to be known mister arrow first of all
turned out even worse than the captain had feared he had no command among the men and people did what they pleased with him but that was by no means the worst of it
for after a day or two at sea he began to appear on deck with hazy eye red cheeks stuttering tongue and other marks of drunkenness
time after time he was ordered below in disgrace sometimes he fell and cut himself sometimes he lay all day long in his little bunk at one side of the companion
sometimes for a day or two he would be almost sober and attend to his work at least passably in the meantime we could never make out where he got the drink
that was the ship's mystery watch him as we pleased we could do nothing to solve it and when we asked him to his face he would only laugh if he were drunk
and if he were sober deny solemnly that he ever tasted anything but water he was not only useless as an officer and a bad influence amongst the men
but it was plain that at this rate he must soon kill himself outright so nobody was much surprised nor very sorry when one dark night
with a head sea he disappeared entirely and was seen no more overboard said the captain well gentlemen
that saves the trouble of putting him in irons but there we were without a mate and it was necessary of course to advance one of the men the boatswain
job anderson was the likeliest man aboard and though he kept his old title he served in a way as mate mister trelawney had followed the sea and his knowledge made him very useful
for he often took a watch himself in easy weather and the coxswain israel hands was a careful wily old experienced seaman
who could be trusted at a pinch with almost anything he was a great confidant of long john silver and so the mention of his name
of our ship's cook barbecue as the men called him aboard ship he carried his crutch by a lanyard round his neck to have both hands as free as possible
it was something to see him wedge the foot of the crutch against a bulkhead and propped against it yielding to every movement of the ship
still more strange was it to see him in the heaviest of weather cross the deck he had a line or two rigged up to help him across the widest spaces long john's earrings they were called
and he would hand himself from one place to another now using the crutch now trailing it alongside by the lanyard as quickly as another man could walk
yet some of the men who had sailed with him before expressed their pity to see him so reduced he's no common man barbecue said the coxswain to me
he had good schooling in his young days and can speak like a book when so minded and brave a lion's nothing alongside of long john i seen him grapple four and knock their heads together
him unarmed all the crew respected and even obeyed him he had a way of talking to each and doing everybody some particular service
to me he was unweariedly kind and always glad to see me in the galley which he kept as clean as a new pin the dishes hanging up burnished and his parrot in a cage in one corner
come away hawkins he would say come and have a yarn with john nobody more welcome than yourself my son sit you down and hear the news
pieces of eight pieces of eight till you wondered that it was not out of breath or till john threw his handkerchief over the cage now that bird he would say
is maybe two hundred years old hawkins they live forever mostly and if anybody's seen more wickedness it must be the devil himself
she's sailed with england the great cap'n england the pirate she's been at madagascar
and surinam and providence and portobello she was at the fishing up of the wrecked plate ships it's there she learned pieces of eight and little wonder
three hundred and fifty thousand of em hawkins she was at the boarding of the viceroy of the indies out of goa she was
but you smelt powder
stand by to go about the parrot would scream ah she's a handsome craft she is the cook would say and give her sugar from his pocket
and then the bird would peck at the bars and swear straight on passing belief for wickedness there john would add you can't touch pitch and not be mucked lad
here's this poor old innocent bird o mine swearing blue fire and none the wiser you may lay to that she would swear the same in a manner of speaking before chaplain
and john would touch his forelock with a solemn way he had that made me think he was the best of men
in the meantime the squire and captain smollett were still on pretty distant terms with one another the squire made no bones about the matter he despised the captain
the captain on his part never spoke but when he was spoken to and then sharp and short and dry and not a word wasted he owned when driven into a corner
that he seemed to have been wrong about the crew that some of them were as brisk as he wanted to see and all had behaved fairly well as for the ship
he had taken a downright fancy to her she'll lie a point nearer the wind than a man has a right to expect of his own married wife sir but he would add all i say is
we're not home again and i don't like the cruise the squire at this would turn away and march up and down the deck chin in air
a trifle more of that man he would say and i shall explode we had some heavy weather
which only proved the qualities of the hispaniola every man on board seemed well content and they must have been hard to please if they had been otherwise
double grog was going on the least excuse there was duff on odd days as for instance if the squire heard it was any man's birthday and always a barrel of apples standing broached in the waist
for anyone to help himself that had a fancy never knew good come of it yet the captain said to doctor livesey spoil forecastle hands make devils that's my belief
but good did come of the apple barrel as you shall hear for if it had not been for that we should have had no note of warning and might all have perished
by the hand of treachery this was how it came about we had run up the trades to get the wind of the island we were after
i am not allowed to be more plain and now we were running down for it with a bright lookout day and night it was about the last day of our outward voyage by the largest computation
some time that night or at latest before noon of the morrow we should sight the treasure island
the hispaniola rolled steadily dipping her bowsprit now and then with a whiff of spray all was drawing alow and aloft everyone was in the bravest spirits
because we were now so near an end of the first part of our adventure
when all my work was over and i was on my way to my berth it occurred to me that i should like an apple i ran on deck the watch was all forward looking out for the island
the man at the helm was watching the luff of the sail and whistling away gently to himself and that was the only sound excepting the swish of the sea against the bows and around the sides of the ship
in i got bodily into the apple barrel and found there was scarce an apple left but sitting down there in the dark
what with the sound of the waters and the rocking movement of the ship i had either fallen asleep or was on the point of doing so when a heavy man sat down with rather a clash close by
the barrel shook as he leaned his shoulders against it and i was just about to jump up when the man began to speak it was silver's voice
and before i had heard a dozen words i would not have shown myself for all the world but lay there
trembling and listening in the extreme of fear and curiosity for from these dozen words i understood that the lives of all the honest men aboard
and then northerly through several lakes now under the names of the chambezi then as the luapula and then as the lualaba and that it still continued its flow towards the north for over seven degrees livingstone became firmly of the opinion that the river whose current he followed was the egyptian nile
sick toilings and difficulties to all entreaties to come home to all the glowing temptations which home and innumerable friends offer he returns the determined answer no
and that is his ability to withstand the dreadful climate of central africa and the consistent energy with which he follows up his explorations his consistent energy is native to him and to his race
he is a very fine example of the perseverance doggedness and tenacity which characterise the anglo saxon spirit
the second day after my arrival in ujiji i asked the doctor if he did not feel a desire sometimes to visit his country
it only requires six or seven months more to trace the true source that i have discovered with petherick's branch of the white nile or with the albert n'yanza of sir samuel baker which is the lake called by the natives
and why i asked did you come so far back without finishing the task which you say you have got to do simply because i was forced my men would not budge a step forward they mutinied and formed a secret resolution
if i still insisted upon going on to raise a disturbance in the country and after they had effected it to abandon me in which case i should have been killed it was dangerous to go any further i had explored six hundred miles of the watershed had traced all the principal streams
which discharge their waters into the central line of drainage but when about starting to explore the last hundred miles the hearts of my people failed them and they set about frustrating me in every possible way now having returned seven hundred miles to get a new supply of stores
and another escort i find myself destitute of even the means to live but for a few weeks and sick in mind and body here i may pause to ask any brave man how he would have comported himself in such a crisis
many would have been in exceeding hurry to get home to tell the news of the continued explorations and discoveries
enough surely had been accomplished towards the solution of the problem that had exercised the minds of his scientific associates of the royal geograpical society it was no negative exploration it was hard earnest labor of years
self abnegation enduring patience and exalted fortitude such as ordinary men fail to exhibit
to tell the news to the geographical world then had returned to discover moero and run away again then went back once more only to discover kamolondo and to race back again this would not be in accordance with livingstone's character
he must not only discover the chambezi lake bangweolo luapula river lake moero lualaba river and lake kamolondo
had he followed the example of ordinary explorers he would have been running backwards and forwards to tell the news instead of exploring
they are no few months explorations that form the contents of his books his missionary travels embraces a period of sixteen years
five years and if the great traveller lives to come home his third book the grandest of all must contain the records of eight or nine years it is a principle with livingstone to do well what he undertakes to do and in the consciousness that he is doing it despite the yearning for his home
which is sometimes overpowering he finds to a certain extent contentment if not happiness to men differently constituted
yet livingstone's mind can find pleasure and food for philosophic studies the wonders of primeval nature the great forests and sublime mountains the perennial streams and sources of the great lakes the marvels of the earth
the splendors of the tropic sky by day and by night all terrestrial and celestial phenomena are manna to a man of such self abnegation and devoted philanthropic spirit he can be charmed with the primitive simplicity of
ethiop's dusky children with whom he has spent so many years of his life he has a sturdy faith in their capabilities sees virtue in them where others see nothing but savagery
and wherever he has gone among them he has sought to elevate a people that were apparently forgotten of god and christian man one night i took out my note book and prepared to take down from his own lips what he had to say about his travels and unhesitatingly
he related his experiences of which the following is a summary doctor david livingstone left the island of zanzibar in march eighteen sixty six on the seventh of the following month he departed from
for the interior with an expedition consisting of twelve sepoys from bombay nine men from johanna
taking them as an experiment six camels three buffaloes two mules and three donkeys he had thus thirty men with him twelve of whom viz the sepoys were to act as guards for the expedition
they were mostly armed with the enfield rifles presented to the doctor by the bombay government the baggage of the expedition consisted of ten bales of cloth and two bags of beads
which were to serve as the currency by which they would be enabled to purchase the necessaries of life in the countries the doctor intended to visit besides the cumbrous moneys they carried several boxes of instruments such as chronometers air thermometers sextant and artificial horizon
boxes containing clothes medicines and personal necessaries the expedition travelled up the left bank of the rovuma river a route
for miles livingstone and his party had to cut their way with their axes through the dense and almost impenetrable jungles which lined the river's banks the road was a mere footpath leading in the most erratic fashion into and through the dense vegetation
seeking the easiest outlet from it without any regard to the course it ran
were able to proceed easily enough but the camels on account of their enormous height could not advance a step without the axes of the party clearing the way these tools of foresters were almost always required
but the advance of the expedition was often retarded by the unwillingness of the sepoys and johanna men to work soon after the departure of the expedition from the coast
the murmurings and complaints of these men began and upon every occasion and at every opportunity they evinced a decided hostility to an advance in order to prevent the progress of the doctor and in hopes that it would compel him to return to the coast these
men so cruelly treated the animals that before long there was not one left alive but as this scheme failed they set about instigating the natives against the white men whom they accused most wantonly of strange practices
as this plan was most likely to succeed and as it was dangerous to have such men with him the doctor arrived at the conclusion
but not without having first furnished them with the means of subsistence on their journey to the coast these men were such a disreputable set that the natives spoke of them as the doctor's slaves one of their worst sins was the custom of giving their guns and ammunition
to carry to the first woman or boy they met whom they impressed for that purpose by such threats or promises as they were totally unable to perform and unwarranted in making an hour's marching was sufficient to fatigue them
after which they lay down on the road to bewail their hard fate and concoct new schemes to frustrate their leader's purposes towards night they generally made their appearance at the camping ground with the looks of half dead men
such men naturally made but a poor escort for had the party been attacked by a wandering tribe of natives of any strength the doctor could have made no defence and no other alternative would have been left to him but to surrender and be ruined
the doctor and his little party arrived on the eighteenth july eighteen sixty six at a village belonging to a chief of the wahiyou
the territory lying between the rovuma river and this wahiyou village was an uninhabited wilderness during the transit of which livingstone and his expedition suffered considerably from hunger and desertion of men early in august eighteen sixty six the doctor came to the country of mponda
on the road thither two of the liberated slaves deserted him here also wekotani a protege of the doctor insisted upon his discharge
that he had found his brother he also stated that his family lived on the east side of the nyassa lake
perceiving that wekotani was unwilling to go with him further the doctor took him to mponda who now saw and heard of him for the first time and having furnished the ungrateful boy with enough cloth and beads to keep him until his big brother should call for him left him with the chief
after first assuring himself that he would receive honourable treatment from him the doctor also gave wekotanti writing paper as
where he had been put to school so that should he at any time feel disposed
the doctor further enjoined him not to join in any of the slave raids usually made by his countrymen the men of nyassa on their neighbours upon finding that his application for a discharge was successful
wekotani endeavoured to induce chumah another protege of the doctor's and a companion or chum of wekotani to leave the doctor's service and proceed with him promising as a bribe a wife and plenty of pombe from his big brother
chumah upon referring the matter to the doctor was advised not to go as he the doctor strongly suspected that wekotani wanted only to make him his slave chumah wisely withdrew from his tempter from mponda's the doctor proceeded to the heel of the nyassa
with his usual kindness he stayed at this chief's village to treat his malady
musa however for his own reasons which will appear presently eagerly listened to the arab's tale and gave full credence to it having well digested its horrible details he came to the doctor to give him the full benefit of what he had heard with such willing ears
the traveller patiently listened to the narrative which lost nothing of its portentous significance through musa's relation
yes answered musa readily he tell me true true i ask him good and he tell me true true
they would have murdered him but suggested in order to allay the fears of his moslem subordinate that they should both proceed to the chief with whom they were staying who being a sensible man would be able to advise them as to the probability or improbability of the tale being correct together they proceeded to the babisa chief
who when he had heard the arab's story unhesitatingly denounced the arab as a liar and his story without the least foundation in fact giving as a reason that if the mazitu had been lately in that vicinity
but musa broke out with no no doctor no no no i no want to go to mazitu i no want mazitu to kill me i want to see my father my mother my child in johanna i want no mazitu these are musa's words
ipsissima verba to which the doctor replied i don't want the mazitu to kill me either but as you are afraid of them i promise to go straight west until we get far past the beat of the mazitu musa was not satisfied but kept moaning and sorrowing saying
if we had two hundred guns with us i would go but our small party of men they will attack by night and kill all the doctor repeated his promise but i will not go near them i will go west as soon as he turned his face westward musa and the johanna men ran away in a body
the doctor says in commenting upon musa's conduct that he felt strongly tempted to shoot musa and another ringleader but was nevertheless glad that he did not soil his hands with their vile blood a day or two afterwards another of his men simon price by name
but compelled by the scant number of his people to repress all such tendencies to desertion and faint heartedness the doctor silenced him at once and sternly forbade him to utter the name of the mazitu any more had the natives not assisted him
fortunately as the doctor says with unction i was in a country now after leaving the shores of nyassa which the foot of the slave trader has not trod it was a new and virgin land and of course as i have always found in such cases the natives were really good and hospitable
in many other ways the traveller in his extremity was kindly treated by the yet unsophisticated and innocent natives on leaving this hospitable region in the early part of december eighteen sixty six
the doctor entered a country where the mazitu had exercised their customary marauding propensities the land was swept clean of provisions and cattle
they had recourse to the wild fruits which some parts of the country furnished at intervals the condition of the hard pressed band was made worse by the heartless desertion of some of its members
the portuguese traveller cazembe is a most intelligent prince he is a tall stalwart man who wears a peculiar kind of dress made of crimson print in the form of a prodigious kilt
surrounded by his chiefs and body guards a chief who had been deputed by the king and elders to discover all about the white man
he had heard that the white man had come to look for waters for rivers and seas though he could not understand what the white man could want with such things he had no doubt that the object was good
and where he thought of going the doctor replied that he had thought of proceeding south as he had heard of lakes and rivers being in that direction
there is plenty of large water in this neighbourhood
through his country undisturbed and unmolested he was the first englishman he had seen he said and he liked him shortly after his introduction to the king the queen entered the large house surrounded by a body guard of amazons with spears
she was a fine tall handsome young woman and evidently thought she was about to make an impression upon the rustic white man
and was armed with a ponderous spear but her appearance so different from what the doctor had imagined caused him to laugh which entirely spoiled the effect intended for the laugh of the doctor was so contagious that she herself was the first to imitate it
and the amazons courtier like followed suit
but livingstone will have much to say about his reception at this court
soon after his arrival in the country of lunda or londa
which was quite an important stream the similarity of the name with that large and noble river south which will be for ever connected with his name misled livingstone at that time and he accordingly did not pay to it the attention it deserved
and consequently had no bearing or connection with the sources of the river of egypt of which he was in search
and intrigues as usual only in the very highest circles were attempts made to keep in mind the difficulties of the actual position stories were whispered of how differently the two empresses behaved in these difficult circumstances the empress marya concerned for the welfare of the charitable and educational institutions under her patronage
and the things belonging to these institutions had already been packed up the empress elisabeth however when asked what instructions she would be pleased to give with her characteristic russian patriotism had replied that she could give no directions about state institutions for that was the affair of the sovereign
but as far as she personally was concerned she would be the last to quit petersburg at anna pavlovna's on the twenty sixth of august the very day of the battle of borodino there was a soiree the chief feature of which was to be the reading of a letter from his lordship the bishop
it was regarded as a model of ecclesiastical patriotic eloquence
alternating between a despairing wail and a tender murmur
this reading as was always the case at anna pavlovna's soirees had a political significance that evening she expected several important personages who had to be made ashamed of their visits to the french theater and aroused to a patriotic temper
a good many people had already arrived but anna pavlovna not yet seeing all those whom she wanted in her drawing room did not let the reading begin but wound up the springs of a general conversation
the news of the day in petersburg was the illness of countess bezukhova she had fallen ill unexpectedly a few days previously had missed several gatherings of which she was usually ornament
and instead of the celebrated petersburg doctors who usually attended her had entrusted herself to some italian doctor who was treating her in some new and unusual way
and that the italian's cure consisted in removing such inconvenience but in anna pavlovna's presence no one dared to think of this or even appear to know it they say the poor countess is very ill the doctor says it is angina pectoris angina oh that's a terrible illness
and the word angina was repeated with great satisfaction the count is pathetic they say he cried like a child when the doctor told him the case was dangerous oh it would be a terrible loss she is an enchanting woman you are speaking of the poor countess said anna pavlovna coming up just then
i sent to ask for news and hear that she is a little better oh she is certainly the most charming woman in the world she went on with a smile at her own enthusiasm
she is very unfortunate added anna pavlovna
your information may be better than mine anna pavlovna suddenly and venomously retorted on the inexperienced young man
he is private physician to the queen of spain and having thus demolished the young man anna pavlovna turned to another group where bilibin
was talking about the austrians having wrinkled up his face he was evidently preparing to smooth it out again and utter one of his mots i think it is delightful he said referring to a diplomatic note that had been sent to vienna with some austrian banners captured from the french by wittgenstein
what what's that asked anna pavlovna securing silence for the mot which she had heard before
friendly banners gone astray and found on a wrong path and his brow became smooth again charming charming observed prince vasili the path to warsaw perhaps prince hippolyte remarked loudly and unexpectedly everybody looked at him understanding what he meant
prince hippolyte himself glanced around with amused surprise he knew no more than the others what his words meant during his diplomatic career he had more than once noticed that such utterances were received as very witty and at every opportunity he uttered in that way
the first words that entered his head it may turn out very well he thought but if not
but no one said anything moscow our ancient capital the new jerusalem receives her christ he placed a sudden emphasis on the word her as a mother receives her zealous sons into her arms
and through the gathering mists foreseeing the brilliant glory of thy rule sings in exultation hosanna blessed is he that cometh
bilibin attentively examined his nails and many of those present appeared intimidated as if asking in what they were to blame anna pavlovna whispered the next words in advance like an old woman muttering the prayer at communion let the bold and insolent goliath she whispered
let the bold and insolent goliath from the borders of france encompass the realms of russia with death bearing terrors
shall suddenly smite his head in his bloodthirsty pride this icon of the venerable sergius the servant of god and zealous champion of old of our country's weal is offered to your imperial majesty
i grieve that my waning strength prevents rejoicing in the sight of your most gracious presence
you ought to be very rich mister caudle i wonder who'd lend you five pounds but so it is a wife may work and may slave ha dear the many things that might have been done with five pounds as if people picked up money in the street
but you always were a fool mister caudle i've wanted a black satin gown these three years and that five pounds would have entirely bought it but it's no matter how i go not at all everybody says i don't dress as becomes your wife
and i don't but what's that to you mister caudle nothing oh no you can have fine feelings for everybody but those belonging to you i wish people knew you as i do that's all you like to be called liberal and your poor family pays for it
all the girls want bonnets and where they're to come from i can't tell half five pounds would have bought em but now they must go without
perhaps you don't know that jack this morning knocked his shuttlecock through his bedroom window i was going to send for the glazier to mend it but after you lent that five pounds i was sure we couldn't afford it oh no
the window must go as it is and pretty weather for a dear child to sleep with a broken window he's got a cold already on his lungs and i shouldn't at all wonder if that broken window settled him
if the dear boy dies his death will be upon his father's head for i'm sure we can't now pay to mend windows we might though and do a good many more things too if people didn't throw away their five pounds
next tuesday the fire insurance is due i should like to know how it's to be paid why it can't be paid at all that five pounds would have more than done it and now insurance is out of the question
and there never were so many fires as there are now i shall never close my eyes all night but what's that to you so people can call you liberal mister caudle your wife and children may all be burnt alive in their beds
and after we've insured for so many years but how i should like to know are people to insure who make ducks and drakes of their five pounds i did think we might go to margate this summer
there's poor little caroline i'm sure she wants the sea but no dear creature she must stop at home all of us must stop at home she'll go into a consumption there's no doubt of that yes sweet little angel
i've made up my mind to lose her now the child might have been saved but people can't save their children and throw away their five pounds too i wonder where poor little mopsy is
you know i never let it go into the street for fear it should be bit by some mad dog and come home and bite all the children it wouldn't now at all astonish me if the animal was to come back with the hydrophobia
however what's your family to you so you can play the liberal creature with five pounds do you hear that shutter how it's banging to and fro yes i know what it wants as well as you it wants a new fastening
i was going to send for the blacksmith to day but now it's out of the question now it must bang of nights since you've thrown away five pounds ha there's the soot falling down the chimney if i hate the smell of anything it's the smell of soot and you know it
but what are my feelings to you sweep the chimney yes it's all very fine to say sweep the chimney but how are chimneys to be swept how are they to be paid for by people who don't take care of their five pounds
if they were to drag only you out of bed it would be no matter set a trap for them yes
but how are people to afford mouse traps when every day they lose five pounds hark i'm sure there's a noise downstairs it wouldn't at all surprise me if there were thieves in the house well
it may be the cat but thieves are pretty sure to come in some night there's a wretched fastening to the back door but these are not times to afford bolts and bars when people won't take care of their five pounds
mary anne ought to have gone to the dentist's to morrow she wants three teeth taken out now it can't be done three teeth that quite disfigure the child's mouth but there they must stop and spoil the sweetest face that was ever made
now when she grows up who'll have her nobody we shall die and leave her alone and unprotected in the world
and thus comments caudle according to my wife she dear soul couldn't have a satin gown the girls couldn't have new bonnets the water rate must stand over
jack must get his death through a broken window our fire insurance couldn't be paid so that we should all fall victims to the devouring element we couldn't go to margate and caroline would go to an early grave
the dog would come home and bite us all mad the shutter would go banging for ever the soot would always fall the mice never let us have a wink of sleep thieves be always breaking in the house our dear mary anne be for ever left an unprotected maid
it's enough for a wife to sit like cinderella by the ashes whilst her husband can go drinking and singing at a tavern you never sing how do i know you never sing
and now i suppose it will be the tavern every night if you think i'm going to sit up for you mister caudle you're very much mistaken no and i'm not going to get out of my warm bed to let you in either
if you go among people who do smoke you're just as bad or worse you might as well smoke indeed better better smoke yourself than come home with other people's smoke all in your hair and whiskers i never knew any good come to a man who went to a tavern
nice companions he picks up there yes people who make it a boast to treat their wives like slaves and ruin their families there's that wretch harry prettyman see what he's come to he doesn't get home now till two in the morning
and then in what a state he begins quarrelling with the door mat that his poor wife may be afraid to speak to him a mean wretch but don't you think i'll be like missus prettyman no i wouldn't put up with it from the best man that ever trod
you'll not make me afraid to speak to you however you may swear at the door mat no mister caudle that you won't you don't intend to stay out till two in the morning how do you know what you'll do when you get among such people
they never think of their poor wives who are grieving and wearing themselves out at home a nice headache you'll have to morrow morning or rather this morning for it must be past twelve you won't have a headache
it's very well for you to say so but i know you will and then you may nurse yourself for me ha that filthy tobacco again no i shall not go to sleep like a good soul
yes mister caudle you'll be nice and ill in the morning but don't you think i'm going to let you have your breakfast in bed like missus prettyman i'll not be such a fool no nor i won't have discredit brought upon the house by sending for soda water early
for all the neighbourhood to say caudle was drunk last night no i've some regard for the dear children if you haven't no nor you shan't have broth for dinner not a neck of mutton crosses my threshold i can tell you
you won't want soda and you won't want broth all the better you wouldn't get em if you did i can assure you dear dear dear that filthy tobacco i'm sure it's enough to make me as bad as you are
talking about getting divorced i'm sure tobacco ought to be good grounds how little does a woman think when she marries that she gives herself up to be poisoned you men contrive to have it all of your own side you do
now if i was to go and leave you and the children a pretty noise there'd be you however can go and smoke no end of pipes and you didn't smoke it's all the same mister caudle if you go among smoking people folks are known by their company
you'll be coming home tipsy every night and tumbling down and breaking your leg and putting out your shoulder and bringing all sorts of disgrace and expense upon us
and be knocking down some of the police and then i know what will follow it must follow yes you'll be sent for a month or six weeks to the treadmill pretty thing that for a respectable tradesman mister caudle to be put upon the treadmill with
all sorts of thieves and vagabonds and there again that horrible tobacco and riffraff of every kind i should like to know how your children are to hold up their heads after their father has been upon the treadmill
no i won't go to sleep and i'm not talking of what's impossible i know it will all happen every bit of it if it wasn't for the dear children you might be ruined and i wouldn't so much as speak about it but
oh dear dear at least you might go where they smoke good tobacco but i can't forget that i'm their mother at least they shall have one parent taverns never did a man go to a tavern who didn't die a beggar
and how your pot companions will laugh at you when they see your name in the gazette for it must happen your business is sure to fall off for what respectable people will buy toys for their children of a drunkard
you're not a drunkard no but you will be it's all the same you've begun by staying out till midnight by and by twill be all night but don't you think mister caudle you shall ever have a key i know you
yes you'd do exactly like that prettyman and what did he do only last wednesday why he let himself in about four in the morning and brought home with him his pot companion puffy his dear wife woke at six
and saw prettyman's dirty boots at her bedside and where was the wretch her husband why he was drinking downstairs swilling yes worse than a midnight robber he'd taken the keys out of his dear wife's pockets ha
and had got at the brandy a pretty thing for a wife to wake at six in the morning and instead of her husband to see his dirty boots but i'll not be made your victim mister caudle not i you shall never get at my keys
for they shall lie under my pillow under my own head mister caudle
well if a woman hadn't better be in her grave than be married that is if she can't be married to a decent man no i don't care if you are tired i shan't let you go to sleep no and i won't say what i have to say in the morning i'll say it now
it's now half past twelve and expect i'm to hold my tongue and let you go to sleep what next i wonder a woman had better be sold for a slave at once and so you've gone and joined a club the skylarks indeed
a pretty skylark you'll make of yourself but i won't stay and be ruined by you no i'm determined on that i'll go and take the dear children and you may get who you like to keep your house
how any decent man can go and spend his nights in a tavern oh yes mister caudle i daresay you do go for rational conversation
i should like to know how many of you would care for what you call rational conversation if you had it without your filthy brandy and water yes and your more filthy tobacco smoke
i'm sure the last time you came home i had the headache for a week but i know who it is who's taking you to destruction it's that brute prettyman he has broken his own poor wife's heart and now he wants to
but don't you think it mister caudle i'll not have my peace of mind destroyed by the best man that ever trod oh yes i know you don't care so long as you can appear well to all the world but the world little thinks how you behave to me
that i'm determined how any man can leave his own happy fireside to go and sit and smoke and drink and talk with people who wouldn't one of em lift a finger to save him from hanging how any man can leave his wife and a good wife too though i say it
for a parcel of pot companions oh it's disgraceful mister caudle it's unfeeling no man who had the least love for his wife could do it and i suppose this is to be the case every saturday
but i know what i'll do i know it's no use mister caudle your calling me a good creature i'm not such a fool as to be coaxed in that way no if you want to go to sleep you should come home in christian time not at half past twelve
there was a time when you were as regular at your fireside as the kettle that was when you were a decent man and didn't go amongst heaven knows who drinking and smoking and making what you think your jokes
i never heard any good come to a man who cared about jokes no respectable tradesman does but i know what i'll do i'll scare away your skylarks the house serves liquor after twelve of a saturday
and if i don't write to the magistrates and have the licence taken away i'm not lying in this bed this night yes you may call me a foolish woman but no mister caudle no it's you who are the foolish man
or worse than a foolish man you're a wicked one if you were to die to morrow and people who go to public houses do all they can to shorten their lives i should like to know who would write upon your tombstone
a tender husband and an affectionate father i i'd have no such falsehoods told of you i can assure you going and spending your money and nonsense don't tell me no if you were ten times to swear it
i wouldn't believe that you only spent eighteenpence on a saturday you can't be all those hours and only spend eighteenpence i know better i'm not quite a fool mister caudle a great deal you could have for eighteenpence
the more shame for em skylarks indeed they should call themselves vultures for they can only do as they do by eating up their innocent wives and children eighteenpence a week and if it was only that
do you know what fifty two eighteenpences come to in a year
buy myself a pin cushion though i've wanted one these six months
there's the girls too the things they want they're never dressed like other people's children but it's all the same to their father oh yes so he can go with his skylarks they may wear sackcloth for pinafores and packthread for garters
you'd better not let that mister prettyman come here that's all or rather you'd better bring him once yes i should like to see him he wouldn't forget it
a man who i may say lives and moves only in a spittoon a man who has a pipe in his mouth as constant as his front teeth
no mister caudle no it's no use your telling me to go to sleep for i won't go to sleep indeed i'm sure it's almost time to get up i hardly know what's the use of coming to bed at all now
the skylarks indeed i suppose you'll be buying a little warbler and at your time of life be trying to sing the peacocks will sing next a pretty name you'll get in the neighbourhood and
you don't see it's red no i daresay not but i see it i see a great many things you don't and so you'll go on in a little time with your brandy and water don't tell me that you only take two small glasses
in a little time you'll have a face all over as if it was made of red currant jam and i should like to know who's to endure you then i won't and so don't think it don't come to me nice habits men learn at clubs
there's joskins he was a decent creature once and now i'm told he has more than once boxed his wife's ears he's a skylark too and i suppose some day you'll be trying to box my ears don't attempt it mister caudle i say don't attempt it
yes it's all very well for you to say you don't mean it but i only say again don't attempt it
going and sitting for four hours at a tavern what men unless they had their wives with them can find to talk about i can't think no good of course
he was perhaps in more respects than one all ears and these ears missus caudle his lawful wedded wife as she would ever and anon impress upon him for she was not a woman to wear chains without shaking them
took whole and sole possession of they were her entire property as expressly made to convey to caudle's brain the stream of wisdom that continually flowed from the lips of his wife
as was the tin funnel through which missus caudle in vintage time bottled her elder wine there was however this difference between the wisdom and the wine the wine was always sugared
the wisdom never it was expressed crude from the heart of missus caudle who doubtless trusted to the sweetness of her husband's disposition to make it agree with him
philosophers have debated whether morning or night is most conducive to the strongest and clearest moral impressions the grecian sage confessed that his labours smelt of the lamp
in like manner did missus caudle's wisdom smell of the rushlight she knew that her husband was too much distracted by his business
to digest her lessons in the broad day besides she could never make sure of him he was always liable to be summoned to the shop now
from eleven at night until seven in the morning there was no retreat for him he was compelled to lie and listen perhaps there was little magnanimity in this on the part of missus caudle
besides missus caudle copied very ancient and classic authority
so was missus caudle like the owl she hooted only at night mister caudle was blessed with an indomitable constitution one fact will prove the truth of this
he lived thirty years with missus caudle surviving her yes it took thirty years for missus caudle to lecture and dilate upon the joys griefs duties and vicissitudes comprised within that seemingly small circle
the wedding ring we say seemingly small for the thing as viewed by the vulgar naked eye is a tiny hoop made for the third feminine finger
alack like the ring of saturn for good or evil it circles a whole world or to take a less gigantic figure it compasses a vast region it may be arabia felix
and it may be arabia petrea a lemon hearted cynic might liken the wedding ring to an ancient circus in which wild animals clawed one another for the sport of lookers on
perish the hyperbole we would rather compare it to an elfin ring in which dancing fairies made the sweetest music for infirm humanity manifold are the uses of rings
even swine are tamed by them you will see a vagrant hilarious devastating porker a full blooded fellow that would bleed into many many fathoms of black pudding you will see him escaped from his proper home straying in a neighbour's garden
how he tramples upon the heart's ease how with quivering snout he roots up lilies odoriferous bulbs here he gives a reckless snatch at thyme and marjoram and here he munches violets and gilly flowers
at length the marauder is detected seized by his owner and driven beaten home to make the porker less dangerous it is determined that he shall be ringed the sentence is pronounced execution ordered
listen to his screams would you not think the knife was in his throat and yet they're only boring through his nose hence for all future time the porker behaves himself with a sort of forced propriety
for in either nostril he carries a ring it is for the greatness of humanity a saddening thought that sometimes men must be treated no better than pigs
but mister job caudle was not of these men marriage to him was not made a necessity no for him call it if you will a happy chance a golden accident it is however enough for us to know that he was married
and was therefore made the recipient of a wife's wisdom missus caudle like mahomet's dove continually pecked at the good man's ears and it is a happiness to learn from what he left behind
that he had hived all her sayings in his brain and further that he employed the mellow evening of his life to put such sayings down that in due season they might be enshrined in imperishable type
he was in the ripe fulness of fifty seven for three hours at least after he went to bed such slaves are we to habit he could not close an eye his wife still talked at his side
true it was she was dead and decently interred his mind it was a comfort to know it could not wander on this point this he knew nevertheless his wife was with him
the ghost of her tongue still talked as in the life and again and again did job caudle hear the monitions of bygone years at times so loud so lively so real were the sounds that job with a cold chill
doubted if he were really widowed and then with the movement of an arm a foot he would assure himself that he was alone in his holland nevertheless the talk continued it was terrible to be thus haunted by a voice
to have advice commands remonstrance all sorts of saws and adages still poured upon him and no visible wife now did the voice speak from the curtains now from the tester and now did it whisper to job from the very pillow that he pressed
it's a dreadful thing that her tongue should walk in this manner said job and then he thought confusedly of exorcism or at least of counsel from the parish priest
whether job followed his own brain or the wise direction of another we know not but he resolved every night to commit to paper one curtain lecture of his late wife
the employment would possibly lay the ghost that haunted him it was her dear tongue that cried for justice and when thus satisfied it might possibly rest in quiet and so it happened
job faithfully chronicled all his late wife's lectures the ghost of her tongue was thenceforth silent and job slept all his after nights in peace when job died a small packet of papers was found inscribed as follows
curtain lectures delivered in the course of thirty years by missus margaret caudle and suffered by job her husband that mister caudle had his eye upon the future printer is made pretty probable
by the fact that in most places he had affixed the text
chapter thirty five getting aroused how's the boy gittin on davis asked farmer john field as he watched his son marshall waiting upon a customer
marshall is a good steady boy all right
he weren't cut out for a merchant take him back to the farm john and teach him how to milk cows if marshall field had remained as clerk in deacon davis's store in pittsfield massachusetts
where he got his first position he could never have become one of the world's merchant princes but when he went to chicago and saw the marvelous examples around him of poor boys who had won success
it aroused his ambition and fired him with the determination to be a great merchant himself if others can do such wonderful things he asked himself why cannot i
of course there was the making of a great merchant in mister field from the start but circumstances an ambition arousing environment had a great deal to do with stimulating
his latent energy and bringing out his reserve force it is doubtful if he would have climbed so rapidly in any other place than chicago in eighteen fifty six when young field went there
this marvelous city was just starting on its unparalleled career it had then only about eighty five thousand inhabitants a few years before it had been a mere indian trading village
but the city grew by leaps and bounds and always beat the predictions of its most sanguine inhabitants success was in the air everybody felt that there were great
is a quality born within us that it is not susceptible to improvement that it is something thrust upon us which will take care of itself but it is a passion that responds very quickly to cultivation
it will not keep sharp and defined our faculties become dull and soon lose their power if they are not exercised
to remain fresh and vigorous through years of inactivity indolence or indifference if we constantly allow opportunities to slip by us without making any attempt to grasp them our inclination
will grow duller and weaker what i most need as emerson says is somebody to make me do what i can to do what i can that is my problem
not what a napoleon or a lincoln could do but what i can do it makes all the difference in the world to me whether i bring out the best thing in me or the worst
they have developed only a small percentage of their success possibilities they are still in a dormant state the best thing in them lies so deep that it has never been awakened
when we meet these people we feel conscious that they have a great deal of latent power that has never been exercised great possibilities of usefulness and of achievement are all unconsciously
going to waste within them some time ago there appeared in the newspapers an account of a girl who had reached the age of fifteen years and yet had only attained the mental development of a small child
only a few things interested her she was dreamy inactive and indifferent to everything around her most of the time until one day while listening to a hand organ on the street
she suddenly awakened to full consciousness she came to herself her faculties were aroused and in a few days she leaped forward years in her development almost in a day
she passed from childhood to budding womanhood most of us have an enormous amount of power of latent force slumbering within us as it slumbered in this girl which could do marvels
the judge of the municipal court in a flourishing western city one of the most highly esteemed jurists in his state was in middle life before his latent power was aroused
an illiterate blacksmith he is now sixty the owner of the finest library in his city with the reputation of being its best read man and one
whose highest endeavor is to help his fellow man what caused the revolution in his life the hearing of a single lecture on the value of education
this was what stirred the slumbering power within him awakened his ambition and set his feet in the path of self development
i have known several men who never realized their possibilities until they reached middle life then they were suddenly aroused as if from a long sleep by reading some inspiring
stimulating book by listening to a sermon or a lecture or by meeting some friend someone with high ideals who understood believed in and encouraged them
whether you are with people who are watching for ability in you people who believe in encourage and praise you or whether you are with those who are forever breaking your idols blasting your hopes
removing a boy or girl from improper environment is the first step in his or her reclamation the new york society for the prevention of cruelty to children
involving the social and moral welfare of over half a million of children has also come to the conclusion that environment is stronger than heredity even the strongest of us
are not beyond the reach of our environment no matter how independent strong willed and determined our nature we are constantly being modified by our surroundings take the best born child
it will of course become brutal the story is told of a well born child who being lost or abandoned as an infant was suckled by a wolf with her own young ones and who actually took on
we naturally follow the examples about us and as a rule we rise or fall according to the strongest current in which we live the poet's i am a part of all that i have met
is not a mere poetic flight of fancy it is an absolute truth everything every sermon or lecture or conversation you have heard
modified somewhat from what you were before just as beecher was never the same man after reading ruskin some years ago a party of russian workmen
in order that they might acquire american methods and catch the american spirit within six months the russians had become almost the equals of the american artisans among whom they worked they had developed ambition
had sunk to sleep again our indian schools sometimes publish side by side photographs of the indian youths as they come from the reservation and as they look when they are graduated
well dressed intelligent with the fire of ambition in their eyes we predict great things for them but the majority of those who go back to their tribes
if you interview the great army of failures you will find that multitudes have failed because they never got into a stimulating encouraging environment because their ambition was never aroused or because
they were not strong enough to rally under depressing discouraging or vicious surroundings most of the people we find in prisons and poor houses are pitiable examples of the influence of an environment
which appealed to the worst instead of to the best in them whatever you do in life make any sacrifice necessary to keep in an ambition arousing atmosphere
an environment that will stimulate you to self development keep close to people who understand you who believe in you who will help you to discover yourself and encourage you
to make the most of yourself this may make all the difference to you between a grand success and a mediocre existence stick to those who are trying to do something and to be somebody in the world
people of high aims lofty ambition keep close to those who are dead in earnest ambition is contagious you will catch the spirit that dominates in your environment
there is a great power in a battery of individuals who are struggling for the achievement of high aims a great magnetic force which will help you to attract the object of your ambition it is very stimulating to be with people
whose aspirations run parallel with your own if you lack energy if you are naturally lazy indolent or inclined to take it easy you will be urged forward by the constant prodding
i can repeat over to men and women you have done such good to me i would do the same to you i will recruit for myself and you as i go
wrote it with his tongue in his cheek a dash of vitriol in the ink and with a pen that scratched and the first critic who seemed to place a just estimate on the work was mister zangwill he who has no christian name
writ de lunatico inquirendo against his jewish brother on the ground that the first symptom of insanity is often the delusion that others are insane and this being so
was not a safe subject to be at large
forty thousand dollars no wonder is it that with pockets full to bursting
whenever he thinks of how he has worked the world if doctor talmage is the barnum of theology surely we may call
seemingly written in collaboration with jules verne and mark twain would be cheap for a dollar but what i object to is professor hermann's disciples posing as sure enough materializing mediums
and professor lombroso's followers calling themselves scientists when each goes forth without scrip or purse with no other purpose than to supply themselves with both
yet it was barnum himself who said that the public delights in being humbugged
without paying for the privilege nordau's success hinged on his audacious assumption that the public knew nothing of the law of antithesis yet plato explained that the opposites of things look alike
and sometimes are alike and that was quite a while ago the multitude answered thou hast a devil many of them said he hath a devil and is mad festus said with a loud voice
more throaty than that of festus mad whitman was mad beyond the cavil of a doubt in eighteen hundred sixty two lincoln looking out of a window
before lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed on one of the streets of washington saw a workingman in shirt sleeves go by turning to a friend the president said there goes a man
lincoln in his early days was a workingman and an athlete and he never quite got the idea out of his head and i am glad that he was still a hewer of wood
he once told george william curtis that he more than half expected yet to go back to the farm and earn his daily bread by the work that his hands found to do he dreamed of it nights
and whenever he saw a splendid toiler he felt like hailing the man as brother and striking hands with him when lincoln saw whitman strolling majestically past he took him for a stevedore
or possibly the foreman of a construction gang whitman was fifty one years old then his long flowing beard was snow white and the shock that covered his jove like head was iron gray
his form was that of an apollo who had arrived at years of discretion he weighed an even two hundred pounds and was just six feet high his plain check cotton shirt was open at the throat to the breast
whitman used no tobacco neither did he apply hot and rebellious liquors to his blood and with unblushing forehead woo the means of debility and disease up to his fifty third year he had never known a sick day
although at thirty his hair had begun to whiten he had the look of age in his youth and the look of youth in his age that often marks the exceptional man but at fifty three his splendid health was crowded to the breaking strain
how through caring for wounded sick and dying men
day after day through the long silent watches of the night from eighteen hundred sixty four to the day of his death in eighteen hundred ninety two he was physically a man in ruins
but he did not wither at the top through it all he held the healthy optimism of boyhood carrying with him the perfume of the morning and the lavish heart of youth doctor bucke who was superintendent
of a hospital for the insane for fifteen years and the intimate friend of whitman all the time has said his build his stature his exceptional health of mind and body
the size and form of his features his cleanliness of mind and body the grace of his movements and gestures the grandeur and especially the magnetism of his presence the charm of his voice
his entire unresentfulness under whatever provocation his liberality his universal sympathy with humanity in all ages and lands his broad tolerance his catholic friendliness
he had no quarrel with the world and he did not wax rich one thing thou lackest o walt whitman we might have said to the poet you are not a financier he died poor
save on change when the children of count tolstoy endeavored to have him adjudged insane
a man who gives away his money is not necessarily more foolish than he who saves it and with horace l traubel i assert that whitman was the sanest man i ever saw
there was a quality in the man peculiarly universal a strong virile poise that asked for nothing but took what it needed he loved men as brothers yet his brothers after the flesh
understood him not he loved children they turned to him instinctively but he had no children of his own he loved women and yet this strongly sexed and manly man never loved a woman
and i might here say as philip gilbert hamerton said of turner he was lamentably unfortunate in this throughout his whole life he never came under the ennobling and refining influence
all the tender sentimentality we throw around a place is the result of the sacred thought that we live there with some one else it is
the home is a tryst the place where we retire and shut the world out lovers make a home just as birds make a nest and unless a man knows the spell of the divine passion
i hardly see how he can have a home at all he only rents a room camden is separated from the city of philadelphia by the delaware river camden lies low and flat
a great sandy monotonous waste of straggling buildings here and there are straight rows of cheap houses evidently erected by staid broad brimmed speculators from across the river
with eyes on the main chance but they reckoned ill
some of these houses have marble steps and white barn like shutters that might withstand a siege when a funeral takes place in one of these houses the shutters are tied with strips of mournful black alpaca for a year and a day
engineers dockmen express drivers and mechanics largely make up the citizens of camden of course camden has its smug corner where prosperous merchants most do congregate
and have window boxes and a piano and veranda chairs and terra cotta statuary but for the most part the houses of camden are rented and rented cheap
stringers and posts mark the place where proud picket fences once stood the pickets having gone for kindling long ago in the warm summer evenings men in shirt sleeves sit on the front steps and stolidly smoke
parallel with mickle street a block away are railway tracks there noisy switch engines that never keep sabbath puff back and forth day and night
sending showers of soot and smoke when the wind is right and it usually is
where according to john addington symonds and william michael rossetti lived the mightiest seer of the century
chapter nineteen self consciousness and timidity foes to success timid shy people are morbidly self conscious they think too much about themselves
their thoughts are always turned inward they are always analyzing dissecting themselves wondering how they appear and what people think of them if these people could only forget themselves and think of others
they would be surprised to see what freedom ease and grace they would gain what success in life they would achieve timidity shyness and self consciousness
only to learn our strength fatal if we dwell upon our weaknesses thousands of young people are held back from undertaking what they long to do
their super sensitiveness makes cowards of them over sensitiveness whether in man or woman is really an exaggerated form of self consciousness it is far removed from conceit
or self esteem yet it causes one's personality to overshadow everything else a sensitive person feels that whatever he does wherever he goes or whatever he says
he is the center of observation he imagines that people are criticizing his movements making fun at his expense or analyzing his character when they are probably not thinking of him at all
when he thinks they are aiming remarks at him putting slights upon him or trying to hold him up to the ridicule of others they may not be even conscious of his presence
morbid sensitiveness requires heroic treatment a sufferer who wishes to overcome it must take himself in hand
as determinedly as he would if he wished to get control of a quick temper or to rid himself of a habit of lying or stealing or drinking or any other defect which prevented
his being a whole man what shall i do to get rid of it asks a victim think less of yourself and more of others mingle freely with people become interested
in things outside of yourself do not brood over what is said to you or analyze every simple remark until you magnify it into something of the greatest importance do not have such a low and unjust estimate of people
as to think they are bent on nothing but hurting the feelings of others and depreciating and making light of them on every possible occasion a man who appreciates himself at his true value
and who gives his neighbors credit for being at least as good as he is cannot be a victim of over sensitiveness one of the best schools for a sensitive boy is a large business house
he will realize that he must be a man and give and take with the others or get out he will be ashamed to play cry baby every time he feels hurt
but will make up his mind to grin and bear it working in competition with other people and seeing that exactly the same treatment is given to those above him as to himself takes the nonsense out of him
he begins to see that the world is too busy to bother itself especially about him and that even when people look at him they are not usually thinking of him
of over refined sensibilities oftentimes when boys enter college as freshmen they are so touchy that their sense of honor is constantly being hurt and their pride stung
by the unconscious thrusts of classmates and companions but after they have been in college a term
but good humored manner by youths of their own age they realize that it would be the most foolish thing in the world to betray resentment if one shows that he is hurt he knows that he will be called the class booby
and teased unmercifully so he is simply forced to drop his foolish sensitiveness thousands of people are out of positions and cannot keep places when they get them because of this weakness
many a good business man has been kept back or even ruined by his quickness to take offense or to resent a fancied slight there is many a clergyman well educated and able
who is so sensitive that he can not keep a pastorate long from his distorted viewpoint
saying and thinking unkind things
calculated to injure him in the eyes of the congregation many schoolteachers are great sufferers from over sensitiveness remarks of parents or school committees
are usually very sensitive i have in mind a very strong vigorous editorial writer
or a daily paper he is cut to the very quick by the slightest criticism and regards every suggestion for the improvement of his work as a personal affront he always carries about an injured air
a feeling that he has been imposed upon which greatly detracts from an otherwise agreeable personality the great majority of people no matter how rough in manner or bearing are kind hearted and would much rather help
than hinder a fellowbeing but they have all they can do to attend to their own affairs
the nature and feeling of those whom they meet in the course of their daily business in the busy world of affairs it is give and take touch and go and those who expect to get on
must rid themselves of all morbid sensitiveness if they do not they doom themselves to unhappiness and failure self consciousness is a foe to greatness in every line of endeavor
until he feels that he is a part of something greater than himself until he surrenders to that greater principle some of our best writers never found themselves never touched their power
until they forgot their rules for construction their grammar their rhetorical arrangement by losing themselves in their subject then they found their style
it is when a writer is so completely carried away with his subject that he cannot help writing
no orator has ever electrified an audience while he was thinking of his style or was conscious of his rhetoric or trying to apply the conventional rules of oratory it is when the orator's soul
is on fire with his theme and he forgets his audience forgets everything but his subject that he really does a great thing no painter ever did a great masterpiece
when trying to keep all the rules of his profession the laws of drawing of perspective the science of color in his mind everything must be swallowed up in his zeal
fused in the fire of his genius then and then only can he really create no singer ever captivated her audience until she forgot herself
until she was lost in her song could anything be more foolish and short sighted than to allow a morbid sensitiveness to interfere with one's advancement in life
capable of filling a superior position who has been kept in a very ordinary situation for years simply because of her morbid sensitiveness she takes it for granted
that if any criticism is made in the department where she works it is intended for her and she flies off the handle
that he is obliged to be on his guard every moment lest he wound him or touch a sore spot it makes an employer very uncomfortable to feel that those about him are carrying around an injured air
without ever intending it a man wants to feel that his employees understand him and that they take into consideration the thousand and one little vexations and happenings which are extremely trying
and that if he does not happen to approach them with a smiling face with consideration and friendliness in his words or commands they will not take offense they will think of his troubles not their own
if they are wise they will forget self and contribute their zeal
at last the preparations were complete
on the eighth of march general taylor had an army of not more than three thousand men one battery the siege guns and all the convalescent troops were sent on by water
to look after public property and to take care of those who were too sick to be removed the remainder of the army probably not more than twenty five hundred men was divided into three brigades
with the cavalry independent colonel twiggs with seven companies of dragoons and a battery of light artillery moved on the eighth he was followed
in view of the immense bodies of men moved on the same day over narrow roads through dense forests and across large streams in our late war
it seems strange now that a body of less than three thousand men
general taylor was opposed to anything like plundering by the troops and in this instance i doubt not he looked upon the enemy as the aggrieved party
and was not willing to injure them further than his instructions from washington demanded his orders to the troops enjoined scrupulous regard for the rights of all peaceable persons and the payment
when it did not interfere with their military duties as already related having lost my five or six dollars worth of horses but a short time before
i determined not to get another but to make the journey on foot my company commander captain mc call had two good american horses of considerably more value in that country where native horses were cheap
than they were in the states he used one himself and wanted the other for his servant he was quite anxious to know whether i did not intend to get me another horse before the march began
i told him no i belonged to a foot regiment i did not understand the object of his solicitude at the time but when we were about to start he said there grant is a horse for you
i found that he could not bear the idea of his servant riding on a long march while his lieutenant went a foot he had found a mustang a three year old colt
only recently captured which had been purchased by one of the colored servants with the regiment for the sum of three dollars it was probably the only horse at corpus christi
that could have been purchased just then for any reasonable price five dollars sixty six and two thirds per cent advance induced the owner to part with the mustang
i was sorry to take him because i really felt that belonging to a foot regiment it was my duty to march with the men but i saw the captain's earnestness in the matter and accepted the horse for the trip
the day we started was the first time the horse had ever been under saddle i had however but little difficulty in breaking him though for the first day there were frequent disagreements between us
as to which way we should go and sometimes whether we should go at all at no time during the day could i choose exactly the part of the column i would march with
but after that i had as tractable a horse as any with the army and there was none that stood the trip better he never ate a mouthful of food on the journey except the grass he could pick
within the length of his picket rope a few days out from corpus christi the immense herd of wild horses that ranged at that time
and but a few miles off it was the very band from which the horse i was riding had been captured but a few weeks before the column was halted for a rest and a number of officers myself among them
rode out two or three miles to the right to see the extent of the herd the country was a rolling prairie and from the higher ground the vision was obstructed only by the earth's curvature
as far as the eye could reach to our right the herd extended to the left it extended equally there was no estimating the number of animals in it i have no idea
that they could all have been corralled in the state of rhode island or delaware at one time if they had been they would have been so thick that the pasturage would have given out the first day people
who saw the southern herd of buffalo fifteen or twenty years ago can appreciate the size of the texas band of wild horses in eighteen forty six at the point where the army struck the little colorado river
the stream was quite wide and of sufficient depth for navigation the water was brackish and the banks were fringed with timber here the whole army concentrated before attempting to cross
the army was not accompanied by a pontoon train and at that time the troops were not instructed in bridge building to add to the embarrassment of the situation the army was here for the first time threatened
with opposition buglers concealed from our view by the brush on the opposite side sounded the assembly and other military calls
if the troops were in proportion to the noise they were sufficient to devour general taylor and his army
in watching the movements of the invader
and all opposition was soon dispersed i do not remember that a single shot was fired the troops waded the stream which was up to their necks in the deepest part
teams were crossed by attaching a long rope to the end of the wagon tongue passing it between the two swing mules and by the side of the leader
hitching his bridle as well as the bridle of the mules in rear to it and carrying the end to men on the opposite shore
the bank down to the water was steep on both sides a rope long enough to cross the river therefore was attached to the back axle of the wagon and men behind would hold the rope
to prevent the wagon beating the mules into the water this latter rope also served the purpose of bringing the end of the forward one back to be used over again
to swim the little mexican mules which the army was then using but they and the wagons were pulled through so fast by the men at the end of the rope ahead that no time was left them to show their obstinacy
in this manner the artillery and transportation of the army of occupation crossed the colorado river about the middle of the month of march
opposite the city of matamoras and almost under the guns of a small fort at the lower end of the town there was not at that time a single habitation from corpus christi
the limits of camp they captured two companies of dragoons commanded by captains thornton and hardee the latter figured as a general in the late war on the confederate side
of the fourth infantry was killed while out with a small detachment and major cross the assistant quartermaster general had also been killed not far from camp there was no base of supplies nearer
than point isabel on the coast north of the mouth of the rio grande and
the enemy if the mexicans could be called such at this time when no war had been declared hovered about in such numbers that it was not safe to send a wagon train after supplies with any escort that could be spared
less than three thousand men he had however a few more troops at point isabel or brazos santiago the supplies brought from corpus christi in wagons were running short
work was therefore pushed with great vigor on the defences to enable the minimum number of troops to hold the fort all the men who could be employed were kept at work from early dawn until darkness closed the labors of the day
with all this the fort was not completed until the supplies grew so short that further delay in obtaining more could not be thought of
by the latter part of april the work was in a partially defensible condition and the seventh infantry major jacob brown commanding was marched in to garrison it with some few pieces of artillery
all the supplies on hand with the exception of enough to carry the rest of the army to point isabel were left with the garrison and the march was commenced with the remainder of the command every wagon being taken with the army
as to avoid schofield thereby turning his position hood had with him three infantry corps commanded respectively by stephen d lee stewart and cheatham
these with his cavalry numbered about forty five thousand men schofield had of
for schofield to watch the movements of the enemy but not to fight a battle if he could avoid it but to fall back in case of an advance on nashville and to fight the enemy as he fell back
so as to retard the enemy's movements until he could be reinforced by thomas himself as soon as schofield saw this movement of hood's he sent his trains to the rear
but did not fall back himself until the twenty first and then only to columbia at columbia there was a slight skirmish but no battle from this place schofield then retreated to franklin
he had sent his wagons in advance and stanley had gone with them with two divisions to protect them cheatham's corps of hood's army pursued the wagon train and went into camp at spring hill
for the night of the twenty ninth schofield retreating from columbia on the twenty ninth passed spring hill where cheatham was bivouacked during the night without molestation though within half a mile of where the confederates were encamped
on the morning of the thirtieth he had arrived at franklin hood followed closely and reached franklin in time to make an attack the same day the fight was very desperate and sanguinary
the confederate generals led their men in the repeated charges and the loss among them was of unusual proportions this fighting continued with great severity until long after the night closed in
when the confederates drew off general stanley who commanded two divisions of the union troops and whose troops bore the brunt of the battle was wounded in the fight but maintained his position
the enemy's loss at franklin according to thomas's report was one thousand seven hundred fifty buried upon the field by our troops three thousand eight hundred in the hospital
and one thousand one hundred four captured and missing thomas made no effort to reinforce schofield at franklin as it seemed to me at the time he should have done
and fight out the battle there he simply ordered schofield to continue his retreat to nashville which the latter did during that night and the next day thomas in the meantime
was making his preparations to receive hood the road to chattanooga was still well guarded with strong garrisons at murfreesboro stevenson bridgeport and chattanooga
thomas had previously given up decatur and had been reinforced by a j smith's two divisions just returned from missouri he also had steedman's division and r s granger's
which he had drawn from the front his quartermaster's men about ten thousand in number had been organized and armed under the command of the chief quartermaster general j l donaldson
and placed in the fortifications under the general supervision of general z b tower of the united states engineers
hood was allowed to move upon nashville and to invest that place almost without interference thomas was strongly fortified in his position
so that he would have been safe against the attack of hood he had troops enough even to annihilate him in the open field to me his delay was unaccountable
sitting there and permitting himself to be invested so that in the end to raise the siege he would have to fight the enemy strongly posted behind fortifications it is true the weather was very bad
the rain was falling and freezing as it fell so that the ground was covered with a sheet of ice that made it very difficult to move but i was afraid that the enemy would find means of moving
elude thomas and manage to get north of the cumberland river if he did this i apprehended most serious results from the campaign in the north
and was afraid we might even have to send troops from the east to head him off if he got there general thomas's movements being always so deliberate and so slow though
defence i consequently
the country was alarmed the administration was alarmed and i was alarmed lest the very thing would take place which i have just described that is hood would get north
it was all without avail further than to elicit dispatches from thomas saying that he was getting ready to move as soon as he could that he was making preparations et cetera
at last i had to say to general thomas that i should be obliged to remove him unless he acted promptly he replied that he was very sorry but he would move as soon as he could general logan
happening to visit city point about that time and knowing him as a prompt gallant and efficient officer i gave him an order to proceed to nashville to relieve thomas i directed him however
not to deliver the order or publish it until he reached there and if thomas had moved then not to deliver it at all but communicate with me by telegraph after logan started
in thinking over the situation i became restless and concluded to go myself i went as far as washington city when a dispatch was received from general thomas announcing his readiness at last to move
and designating the time of his movement i concluded to wait until that time he did move and was successful from the start this was on the fifteenth of december
general logan was at louisville at the time this movement was made and telegraphed the fact to washington and proceeded no farther himself the battle during the fifteenth was severe
but favorable to the union troops and continued until night closed in upon the combat the next day the battle was renewed after a successful assault upon hood's men in their intrenchments
the enemy fled in disorder routed and broken leaving their dead their artillery and small arms in great numbers on the field besides the wounded that were captured our cavalry had fought on foot as infantry
by the granny white road but too much time was consumed in getting started they had got but a few miles beyond the scene of the battle when they found the enemy's cavalry dismounted and behind intrenchments
covering the road on which they were advancing here another battle ensued our men dismounting and fighting on foot in which the confederates were again routed and driven in great disorder
our cavalry then went into bivouac and renewed the pursuit on the following morning they were too late the enemy already had possession of franklin and was beyond them
it now became a chase in which the confederates had the lead our troops continued the pursuit to within a few miles of columbia where they found the rebels had destroyed the railroad bridge
the heavy rains of a few days before had swelled the stream into a mad torrent impassable except on bridges unfortunately either through a mistake in the wording of the order or otherwise
the pontoon bridge which was to have been sent by rail out to franklin to be taken thence with the pursuing column had gone toward chattanooga
on the nineteenth of september
to reinforce buell this threw the army at my command still more on the defensive the memphis and charleston railroad was abandoned except at corinth
and small forces were left at chewalla and grand junction soon afterwards the latter of these two places was given up and bolivar became our most advanced position on the mississippi central railroad
our cavalry was kept well to the front and frequent expeditions were sent out to watch the movements of the enemy we were in a country where nearly all the people except the negroes
we on the contrary had to go after our information in force and then often returned without it
bolivar was threatened by a large force from south of grand junction supposed to be twenty regiments of infantry with cavalry and artillery i reinforced bolivar
and went to jackson in person to superintend the movement of troops to whatever point the attack might be made upon the troops from corinth were brought up in time to repel the threatened movement without a battle our cavalry
on the thirtieth i found that van dorn was apparently endeavoring to strike the mississippi river above memphis at the same time other points within my command were so threatened
that it was impossible to concentrate a force to drive him away there was at this juncture a large union force at helena arkansas which had it been within my command
i could have ordered across the river to attack and break up the mississippi central railroad far to the south this would not only have called van dorn back but would have compelled the retention of a large rebel force
far to the south to prevent a repetition of such raids on the enemy's line of supplies geographical lines between the commands during the rebellion were not always well chosen
or they were too rigidly adhered to van dorn did not attempt to get upon the line above memphis as had apparently been his intention he was simply covering a deeper design
one much more important to his cause by the first of october it was fully apparent that corinth was to be attacked with great force and determination
and rust had joined their strength for this purpose there was some skirmishing outside of corinth
the rebels massed in the north west angle
and all possible reinforcements any fresh troops for us must come by a circuitous route
i ordered general mc pherson who was at jackson to join rosecrans at corinth with reinforcements picked up along the line of the railroad equal to a brigade hurlbut had been ordered from bolivar
to march for the same destination and as van dorn was coming upon corinth from the north west some of his men fell in
hoping no doubt to capture rosecrans before his reinforcements could come up in that case the enemy himself could have occupied the defences of corinth and held at bay all the union troops that arrived
in fact he could have taken the offensive against the reinforcements with three or four times their number and still left a sufficient garrison in the works about corinth to hold them he came near success
some of his troops penetrating the national lines at least once but the works that were built after halleck's departure enabled rosecrans to hold his position until the troops of both mc pherson and hurlbut approached
towards the rebel front and rear the enemy was finally driven back with great slaughter all their charges made with great gallantry were repulsed the loss on our side was heavy
but nothing to compare with van dorn's mc pherson came up with the train of cars bearing his command as close to the enemy as was prudent debarked on the rebel flank and got in to the support of rosecrans
just after the repulse his approach as well as that of hurlbut was known to the enemy and had a moral effect general rosecrans however
failed to follow up the victory although i had given specific orders in advance of the battle for him to pursue the moment the enemy was repelled he did not do so and i repeated the order after the battle
in the first order he was notified that the force of four thousand men which was going to his assistance would be in great peril if the enemy was not pursued general ord
had joined hurlbut on the fourth and being senior took command of his troops this force encountered the head of van dorn's retreating column just as it was crossing the hatchie
by a bridge some ten miles out from corinth the bottom land here was swampy and bad for the operations of troops making a good place
ord followed and met the main force he was too weak in numbers to assault but he held the bridge and compelled the enemy to resume his retreat by another bridge higher up the stream ord was wounded in this engagement
and the command devolved on hurlbut rosecrans did not start in pursuit till the morning of the fifth and then took the wrong road
moving in the enemy's country he travelled with a wagon train to carry his provisions and munitions of war his march was therefore slower than that of the enemy who was moving towards his supplies
two or three hours of pursuit on the day of battle without anything except what the men carried on their persons would have been worth more than any pursuit commenced the next day could have possibly been
even when he did start if rosecrans had followed the route taken by the enemy he would have come upon van dorn in a swamp with a stream in front and ord holding the only bridge
instead of west and after having marched as far as the enemy had moved to get to the hatchie he was as far from battle as when he started hurlbut had not the numbers to meet any such force as van dorn's
if they had been in any mood for fighting and he might have been in great peril i now regarded the time to accomplish anything by pursuit as past and after rosecrans reached jonesboro
i ordered him to return he kept on to ripley however and was persistent in wanting to go farther i thereupon ordered him to halt
who allowed me to exercise my judgment in the matter but inquired why not pursue upon this i ordered rosecrans back had he gone much farther he would have met a greater force than van dorn had at corinth
and behind intrenchments or on chosen ground and the probabilities are he would have lost his army the battle of corinth was bloody
the enemy lost many more
among the killed on our side was general hackelman general oglesby was badly it was for some time supposed mortally wounded i received a congratulatory letter from the president
and felt by him much more than it was appreciated at the north the battle relieved me
and soon after receiving reinforcements i suggested to the general in chief a forward movement against vicksburg
of pemberton's being in command at holly springs and much reinforced by conscripts and troops from alabama and texas the same day general rosecrans was relieved from duty with my command and shortly after
he succeeded buell in the command of the army in middle tennessee i was delighted at the promotion of general rosecrans to a separate command because i still believed
that when independent of an immediate superior the qualities which i at that time credited him with possessing would show themselves as a subordinate i found that i could not make him do as i wished
and had determined to relieve him from duty that very day at the close of the operations just described my force in round numbers was forty eight thousand five hundred
of these four thousand eight hundred were in kentucky and illinois seven thousand in memphis nineteen thousand two hundred from mound city south and seventeen thousand five hundred at corinth
and organize troops to be used in opening the mississippi these new levies with other reinforcements now began to come in on the twenty fifth of october i was placed in command of the department of the tennessee
i was prepared to take the initiative this was a great relief after the two and a half months of continued defence over a large district of country
and where nearly every citizen was an enemy ready to give information of our every move i have described very imperfectly a few of the battles and skirmishes that took place during this time
to describe all would take more space than i can allot to the purpose to make special mention of all the officers and troops who distinguished themselves
the woodpigeon the woodpigeon is many things to many men to the farmer who has some claim to priority of verdict it is a curse even as the rabbit in australia the lemming in norway
or the locust in algeria the tiller of the soil whose business brings him in open competition with the natural appetites of such voracious birds beasts or insects
regards his rivals from a standpoint which has no room for sentiment and the woodpigeons are to our farmers particularly in the well wooded districts of the west country
something to be destroyed it is this attitude of the farmer which makes the woodpigeon pre eminently the bird of february all through the shooting season just ended
when other shooting is at an end and the coverts no longer echo the fusillade of the past four months that the farmers furious at the sight of green root crops grazed as close as by sheep and of young clover
dug up over every acre of their tilling welcome the co operation of sportsmen glad to use up the balance of their cartridges
these gatherings have during the past five years become an annual function in parts of devonshire and the neighbouring counties and if the bag is somewhat small in proportion to the guns engaged
a wholesome spirit of sport informs those who take part and there is a curiously utilitarian atmosphere about the proceedings everyone seems conscious that
in place of the usual idle pleasure of the covert side or among the turnips he is out for a purpose not merely killing birds that have been reared to make his holiday but actually helping the farmers in their fight against nature
as moreover recent scares of an epidemic not unlike diphtheria have precluded the use of the birds for table purposes the powder is burnt with no thought of the pot the usual plan
is to divide the guns in small parties and to post these in neighbouring plantations or lining hedges overlooking these spinneys at a given signal the firing commences and is kept up for several hours
a number of the marauders being killed and the rest so harried that many of them must leave the neighbourhood only to find a similar warm welcome across the border some such concerted attack has of late years
the wanderings of these birds are for the most part restricted to these islands and are mere food forays like those which cause locusts to desert a district that they have stripped bare for pastures new
at the same time it seems to be beyond all doubt the fact that huge flocks of woodpigeons reach our shores annually from scandinavia and their inroads have had such serious results
that it is only by joint action that their numbers can be kept under for such work february is obviously the month not only because most of their damage to the growing crops and seeds is accomplished at this season
but also because large numbers of gunners no longer able to shoot game are thus at the disposal of the farmers and only too glad to prolong their shooting for a few weeks to such good purpose
many birds are greedy the cormorant has a higher reputation of the sort to live up to than even the hog and some of the hornbills though less familiar are endowed with gargantuan appetites
yet the ringdove could probably vie with any of them mister harting mentions having found in the crop of one of these birds
thirty three acorns and forty four beech nuts while no fewer than one hundred thirty nine of the latter were taken together with other food remains from another
it is no uncommon experience to see the crop of a woodpigeon that is brought down from a great height burst on reaching the earth with a report like that of a pistol
and scatter its undigested contents broadcast little wonder then that the farmers welcome the slaughter of so formidable a competitor it is one of their biggest customers and pays nothing for their produce
one told me not long ago that the woodpigeons had got at a little patch of young rape only a few acres in all which had been uncovered by the drifting snow and had laid it as bare as if the earth had never been planted
seeing what hearty meals the woodpigeon makes it is not surprising that it should sometimes throw up pellets of undigested material this is not however a regular habit as in the case of hawks and owls
pigeons digest their food with the aid of a secretion in the crop and it is on this soft material popularly known as pigeons milk that they feed their nestlings
this method suggests analogy to that of the petrels which rear their young on fish oil partly digested after the same fashion indeed all the pigeons are devoted parents
though the majority build only a very pretentious platform of sticks for the two eggs they sit very close and feed the young ones untiringly some of the pigeons of australia indeed go even further
not only do they build a much more substantial nest of leafy twigs but the male bird actually sits throughout the day such
australia with the neighbouring islands must be a perfect paradise for pigeons since about half of the species known to science occur in that region only
the wonga wonga and bronze wing and great fruit pigeons are like the bald pates of jamaica all favourite birds with sportsmen and some of the birds are far more brightly coloured than ours
it is however noticeable that even the gayest queensland species with wings shot with every prismatic hue are dull looking birds seen from above and the late doctor a r wallace regarded this
as affording protection against keen eyed hawks on the forage his ingenious theory receives support from the well known fact that in many of the islands where pigeons are even more plentiful
but where also hawks are few the former wear bright clothes on their back as well the woodpigeon has many names in rural england
that by which it is referred to in the foregoing notes is not perhaps the most satisfactory since with the possible exception of the smaller stock dove which lays its eggs in rabbit burrows and the rock dove
all the members of the family need trees if only to roost and nest in a more descriptive name is that of ringdove easily explained by the white collar
but the bird is also known as cushat queest or even culver the last named however which will be familiar to readers of tennyson probably alludes specifically to the rock dove
as it undoubtedly gave its name to culver cliff a prominent landmark in the isle of wight where these birds have at all times been sparingly in evidence
the ringdove occasionally rears a nestling in captivity but it does not seem at any time of life to prove a very attractive pet white found it strangely ferocious
and another writer describes it as listless and uninteresting the only notable success on record is that scored by saint john who set some of the eggs under a tame pigeon
and secured one survivor that appears to have grown quite tame but was unfortunately eaten by a hawk at any rate it did its kind good service by enlisting on their side the pen of the most ardent apologist they have ever had
yet however true his eloquent plea may have been in respect of his native lothian there would be some difficulty in persuading south country agriculturists of the woodpigeon's hidden virtues
to those however who do not sow that they may reap the subject of these remarks has irresistible charm there is doubtless monotony in its cooing
yet heard in a still plantation of firs with no other sound than perhaps the distant call of a shepherd or barking of a farm dog it is a music singularly in harmony with the peaceful scene
the arrowy flight of these birds when they come in from the fields at sundown and fall like rushing waters on the tree tops is an even more memorable sound to the sportsman above all
the woodpigeon shows itself a splendid bird of freedom more cunning than any hand reared game bird swifter on the wing than any other purely wild bird a welcome addition to the bag because it is hard to shoot in the open
you proceed to give me not the ramifications of the case but the case itself you have repeatedly spoken of the murder having taken place in some place which is difficult of access and under most mystifying circumstances
now if you don't mind i should like to hear what those circumstances are all right old chap i'll give you the details as briefly as possible
in the first place you must know that heatherington hall is a very ancient place dating back indeed to those pleasant times when a nobleman's home had to be something of a fortress as well
if he didn't want to wake up some fine morning and find his place sacked his roof burnt over his head and himself and his lady either held for ransom or freed from any possibility of having headaches thereafter
was the usual means of defence adopted you'll see dozens of them in suffolk dear chap but whether for reasons of economy or merely to carry out some theory of his own
the first lord of heatherington hall did not stick to the general plan in brief instead of building a tall tower rising from the ground itself
he chose to erect upon the roof of the west wing of the building a lower but more commodious one than was customary
its circumference was twice as great and by reason of the double supply of bowman's slits equally as effective in withstanding a siege
and indeed doubly difficult to assault as before an invading force could get to the door of the place it would have to fight its way up through the main building to reach the level of it
now owing to the peculiarity of its construction it is not more than eighteen feet high the fact that it contained but one circular room and all those bowman slits in the walls of it
this unusual tower gained an equally unusual name for itself and became known everywhere as the stone drum of heatherington
and is even mentioned by that name in the inquisitio eliensis of the domesday book
i see said cleek with an amused twinkle in his eye you are getting on mister narkom we shall have you lecturing on archaeology one of these fine days
but to return to our mutton or rather our stone drum was it in that place then that the murder was committed yes
it is one of the few very few parts of the building to which mister jefferson p drake did nothing in the way of modernizing and added nothing in the way of improvements
that probably was because as it stood it offered him a quiet secluded and exclusive retreat for the carrying on of his experiments for wealth had brought with it no inclination to retire
and he remained to the last in the lists of the world's active forces
but conducted most of his experiments in the daytime but last night was an exception
it may be that the news of his son's appeal to the lodgekeeper that afternoon had upset him for he was restless and preoccupied all the evening lord fallowfield says
in these days no american gentleman with any pretence to distinction whatsoever would be without one go on please his japanese valet carried up the ice water and then what
then he suddenly announced his intention of going into the stone drum and working for a few hours lord fallowfield it appears tried his best to dissuade him but to no purpose
why did he do that or don't you know yes i asked that very question myself i was told that it was because his lordship saw very plainly that he was labouring under strong mental excitement
and he thought that rest would be the best thing for him in the circumstances then too his lordship and he are warmly attached to each other in fact the earl was as fond of him as if he had been a brother
as well he ought to be by james when you recollect that before he got the idea into his head of marrying his son to lady marjorie he added a codicil to his will bequeathing the place to lord fallowfield
together with all the acres and acres of land he had added to it and all the art treasures he had collected absolutely free from death duties oho said cleek then smiled and pinched his chin and said no more
and that nothing was wanting that might tend to the comfort and convenience of a night worker when there was nothing more that could be done the valet was dismissed his lordship said good night to his friend and left him there alone
hearing as he passed along the railed walk over the roof of the wing to the building proper a matter of some twenty odd feet the sound of the bolt being shot the bar put on and the key being turned as mister drake locked himself in
at seven o'clock this morning the valet going to his master's room with his shaving water found that he had never gone to bed at all
and on hastening to the stone drum found that a light was still burning within and faintly illuminating the bowman's slits but although he knocked on the door and called again and again to his master he could get no answer
alarmed he aroused the entire household but despite the fact that a dozen persons endeavoured to get word from the man within not so much as a whisper rewarded them
the bolt was still shot the bar still on the key still turned on the inner side of the door so they could force no entry to the place
and it was never until the village blacksmith had been called in and his sledge had battered down the age weakened masonry in which that door was set
that any man knew for certain what that burning light and that unbroken silence portended
when however they finally got into the place there lay the once famous inventor at full length on the oaken floor close to the barred door as dead as george washington
and with never a sign of what killed him either on the body or in any part of the place yet the first look at his distorted features was sufficient to prove that he had died in agony
and the position of the corpse showed clearly that when the end came he was endeavouring to get to the door heart failure possibly said cleek not a hope of it replied narkom
a doctor was sent for immediately fortunately one of the most famous surgeons in england happened to be in the neighbourhood at the time
he is willing so young mister drake tells me to stake his professional reputation that the man's heart was as sound as a guinea that he had not imbibed one drop of anything poisonous
that he had not been asphyxiated as of course he couldn't have been for the bowman's slits in the wall gave free ventilation to the place if nothing more
that he had not been shot stabbed or bludgeoned but nevertheless he had died by violence and that violence was not and could not be attributed to suicide for there was everything to prove to the contrary
in short that whatever had attacked him had done so unexpectedly and while he was busy at his work table for there was the chair lying on its back before it just as it had fallen over when he jumped up from his seat
and there on the working plan he was drawing up was the pen lying on a blob of india ink just as it had dropped from his hand when he was stricken
some murderous force had entered that room and passed out of it again leaving the door barred bolted and locked upon the inside
some weapon had been used and yet no weapon was there and no trace upon the body to indicate what its character might be
indeed everything in the room was precisely as it had been when lord fallowfield walked out last night and left him
beyond the fact of the overturned chair and a little puddle of clear water lying about a yard or so from the work table and owing to the waxing and polishing not yet absorbed by the wood of the floor
the doctor took a small sample of that water and analyzed it it was simply plain everyday common or garden pure water and nothing more
without the slightest trace of any foreign matter or of any poisonous substance in it whatsoever there old chap that's the case' that's the little riddle you're asked to come down and solve
and the doctor
and if ever a living creature served to illustrate the converse to the proverbial dog with a bad name that creature is the companionable little bird that we peculiarly associate with christmas
traditionally the robin is a gentle little fellow of pious associations and with a tender fancy for covering the unburied dead with leaves but in real life he is a little fire eater
always ready to pick a quarrel with his less pugnacious neighbours yet so persistently does his good name cling that while ever ready to condemn the aggressive sparrow for the same fault
all of us have a good word for the robin and in few of our wild birds are character and reputation so divergent
surely however the most interesting aspect of this familiar bird is its tameness not to say attachment to ourselves
and so marked is its complete absence of fear that it is a wild bird in name only and indeed few cage birds are ever so bold as to perch on the gardener's spade on the look out for the worms
as he turns them up from the damp soil
and those dialectical people who ask whether we are kind to the robin because it trusts us or whether on the other hand it trusts us because we are kind to it ask a foolish question
that raises a wholly unnecessary confusion between cause and effect it is a question that those at any rate who have seen the bird in countries where it is treated differently will have no difficulty whatever in answering
for such a distinction would exclude the greater part of ireland where as it happens the bird is as safe from persecution as in britain since the superstitious peasants firmly believe that anyone killing a spiddog will be punished by a lump
growing on the palm of his hand the untoward fate of the robin in latin countries bordering the mediterranean has nothing to do with religion but is merely the result of a pernicious habit of killing all manner of small birds for the table
the sight of rows of dead robins laid out on poulterers stalls in the markets of italy and southern france inspires such righteous indignation in british tourists
as to make them forget for the moment that larks are exposed in the same way in bond street and at leadenhall in italy and provence taught by sad experience the robin is as shy as any other small bird
it has learnt its lesson like the robins in the north but the lesson is different the most friendly robin i ever remember meeting with out of england was in a garden attached to a cafe in trebizond
where hopping round my chair and picking up crumbs it made me feel curiously at home similar treatment of other wild birds would in time produce the same result and even the suspicious starling and stand off rook
might be taught to forget their fear of us the robin feeding less on fruit and grain than on worms and insects has not made an enemy of the farmer or gardener
the common too common sparrow is another fearless neighbour but its freedom from persecution of late somewhat threatened by sparrow clubs is due less to affection
than to the futility of making any impression on such hordes as infest our streets no act of the robin's more forcibly illustrates its trust in man
than the manner in which at a season when all animals are abnormally shy and suspicious it makes its nest not only near our dwellings but actually in many cases under the same roof as ourselves
letterboxes flowerpots old boots and bookshelves have all done duty and i even remember a pair of robins many years ago in kent bringing up two broods in an old rat trap
which fortunately too rusty to act was still set and baited with a withered piece of bacon pages might be filled with the mere enumeration of curious and eccentric nesting sites
chosen by this fearless bird but a single proof of its indifference to the presence of man during the time of incubation may be cited from the ms notebooks of the second earl of malmesbury
which i have read in the library at heron court it seems that while the east wing of that pleasant mansion was being built a pair of robins having successfully brought up one family in one of the unfinished rooms
actually reared a second brood in a hole made for a scaffold pole though the sitting bird being immediately beneath a plank on which the plasterers stood at work was repeatedly splashed with mortar
the egg of the robin is subject to considerable variety of type i think it was the late lord lilford who speaking on the subject of a bill for the protection of wild birds eggs
then before the house of lords gave it as his belief that no ornithologist of repute would swear to the name of a single british bird's egg without positively seeing one or other of the parent birds fly off the nest
this was perhaps a little overstating the difficulty of evidence
since any schoolboy with a fancy for birds nesting might without hesitation identify such pronounced types as those of the chaffinch with its purple blotches the song thrush with its black spots on a blue ground
or the nightingale which resembles a miniature olive eggs on the other hand like those of the house sparrow redshank and some of the smaller warblers
are so easily confused with those of allied species that lord lilford's caution is by no means superfluous ordinarily speaking the robin's egg is white with red spots at one end
but i remember taking at bexley nearly thirty years ago an immaculate one of coffee colour as the robin is a favourite foster parent with cuckoos my first thought
was that this might be an unusually small egg of the parasitic bird which was very plentiful thereabouts it so happened however that three days after i had abstracted the first and only egg i took from that nest
there was a second of the same type and much as i would have liked this also for my collection i left it in the nest so as to set all doubts at rest my moderation was rewarded
for no one else found the nest and in due course the coffee coloured egg produced a robin like the rest the robin is anything but a gregarious bird
its fighting temper doubtless leads it to keep its own company and we rarely see more than one singing on the same bush or seeking for food on the same lawn yet though it is with us all the year
it is known to perform migrations within these islands and possibly also overseas chiefly connected with commissariat difficulties and it is probable that on such occasions many robins may travel in company
though i have not been so fortunate as to come across them in their pilgrimage equally interesting however is the habit which the bird has in devonshire of occasionally going down to the rocks on the seashore
as i have often noticed in the neighbourhood of teignmouth and torquay what manner of food the redbreast may find in such surroundings is a mystery
but there it certainly spends some of its time bobbing at the edge of the rock pools in much the same fashion as the dipper on inland waters
young robins are turned adrift at an early age to look after themselves a result of the parent bird always rearing two families in the year and in many cases even three so that they have not too much
time to devote to the upbringing of each another consequence of this prolific habit is that the robin has to make its nest earlier than most of our wild birds and its nest has in fact been found near torquay
during the first week of january it has long been the pardonable fancy of englishmen exiled to new homes under the palms or pines in the scorching tropical sun
or in the biting northern blast to misname all manner of conspicuous birds after well remembered kinds left at home in the woods and fields of the old country
and several of them bear little likeness to the original in new south wales i remember being shown a robin which though perhaps a little smaller
was as big as a thrush yet it had the red breast by which particularly conspicuous against a background of snow this popular little bird is always recognisable the male as well as the female
the stagnation of a bank we couldn't stand for our riot blood was surging and we didn't need much urging to excitements and excesses that are banned so we took to wine and drink and other things and the devil in us struggled to be free
till our friends rose up in wrath and they pointed out the path and they paid our debts and packed us o'er the sea
to the larger lands that lure a man to roam and we took the chance they gave of a far and foreign grave and we bade goodbye for evermore to home and some of us are climbing on the peak and some of us are camping on the plain
by pine and palm you'll find us with never claim to bind us by track and trail you'll meet us once again we are fated serfs to freedom sky and sea we have failed where slummy cities overflow
but the stranger ways of earth know our pride and know our worth and we go into the dark as fighters go yes we go into the night as brave men go though our faces they be often streaked with woe yet we're hard as cats to kill
and our hearts are reckless still and we've danced with death a dozen times or so
and you'll find us herding cattle in the south we like strong drink and fun and when the race is run we often die with curses in our mouth we are wild as colts unbroke but never mean
of our sins we've shoulders broad to bear the blame but we'll never stay in town and we'll never settle down and we'll never have an object or an aim
and life will always seem a careless game and they'd better far forget those who say they love us yet forget
new year's eve it's cruel cold on the water front silent and dark and drear only the black tide weltering only the hissing snow
and i alone like a storm tossed wreck on this night of the glad new year shuffling along in the icy wind ghastly and gaunt and slow they're playing a tune in mc guffy's saloon and it's cheery and bright in there
god but i'm weak since the bitter dawn and never a bite of food
i mustn't give way to despair perhaps i can bum a little booze if the boys are feeling good
well thankee kindly sir i don't mind if i do a drivelling dirty gin joint fiend the butt of the bar room joke sunk and sodden and hopeless another well here's to you
mc guffy is showing a bunch of the boys how bob fitzsimmons hit the barman is talking of tammany hall and why the ward boss got fired i'll just sneak into a corner and they'll let me alone a bit
the room is reeling round and round o god but i'm tired i'm tired roses she wore on her breast that night
the witching strain of a waltz by strauss came up to our cool retreat
then sudden the laughter died on her lips and lowly she bent her head and oh there came in the deep dark eyes a look that was heaven to see and the moments went and i waited there and never a word was said
and she plucked from her bosom a rose of red and shyly gave it to me then the music swelled to a crash of joy and the lights blazed up like day and i held her fast to my throbbing heart and i kissed her bonny brow
she is mine she is mine for evermore the violins seemed to say and the bells were ringing the new year in o god i can hear them now don't you remember that long last waltz with its sobbing sad refrain
don't you remember that last goodbye and the dear eyes dim with tears don't you remember that golden dream
of lives that would blend like an angel song
ethel forgive forgive the red red rose is faded now and it's fifty years ago twere better to die a thousand deaths than live each day as i live
hark oh hark i can hear the bells look i can see her there fair as a dream but it fades and now i can hear the dreadful hum of the crowded court see the judge looks down
not guilty my lord i swear the bells i can hear the bells again ethel i come i come rouse up old man it's twelve o'clock you can't sleep here you know say ain't you got no sentiment
lift up your muddled head have a drink to the glad new year a drop before you go you darned old dirty hobo my god here boys he's dead
say you've struck a heap of trouble bust in business lost your wife no one cares a cent about you you don't care a cent for life hard luck has of hope bereft you health is failing
wish you'd die why you've still the sunshine left you and the big blue sky
earth so smiling way out yonder sun so bright it dazzles you birds a singing flowers a flinging all their fragrance on the breeze dancing shadows green still meadows don't you mope
you've still got these these and none can take them from you these and none can weigh their worth what you're tired and broke and beaten why you're rich you've got the earth yes
if you're a tramp in tatters while the blue sky bends above you've got nearly all that matters you've got god and god is love premonition
twas a year ago and the moon was bright oh i remember so well so well
and sudden the moon grew strangely dull and sudden my love had taken wing i looked on the face of a grinning skull
a gibbous moon like a ghost of woe
it's strange you know the tramps can you recall dear comrade when we tramped god's land together
when we drank and fought and lusted as we mocked at tie and tether along the road to anywhere the wide world at our feet along the road to anywhere when each day had its story
when time was yet our vassal and life's jest was still unstale
along the road to anywhere we watched the sunsets pale alas the road to anywhere is pitfalled with disaster there's hunger want and weariness yet o we loved it so
and no man was our master and no man guessed what dreams were ours as swinging heel and toe we tramped the road to anywhere the magic road to anywhere the tragic road to anywhere such dear dim years ago
you who have lived in the land you who have trusted the trail you who are strong to withstand you who are swift to assail
vintage of desperate years hard as a harlot's smile
little of joy or mirth little of ease i sing sagas of men of earth humanly suffering such as you all have done savagely faring forth sons of the midnight sun argonauts of the north
far in the land god forgot glimmers the lure of your trail still in your lust are you taught even to win is to fail still must you follow and fight under the vampire wing there in the long long night
hoping and vanquishing husbandmen of the wild reaping a barren gain scourged by desire reconciled unto disaster and pain these my songs are for you you who are seared with the brand
we sleep in the sleep of ages the bleak barbarian pines the grey moss drapes us like sages and closer we lock our lines
where never a sunbeam shines on the flanks of the storm gored ridges are our black battalions massed we surge in a host to the sullen coast and we sing in the ocean blast
from empire of sea to empire of snow we grip our empire fast to the niggard lands were we driven twixt desert and foe are we penned to us was the northland given ours to stronghold and defend
ours till the world be riven in the crash of the utter end ours from the bleak beginning through the aeons of death like sleep ours from the shock when the naked rock was hurled from the hissing deep
ours through the twilight ages of weary glacier creep wind of the east wind of the west wandering to and fro chant your songs in our topmost boughs that the sons of men may know
the peerless pine was the first to come and the pine will be last to go we pillar the halls of perfumed gloom we plume where the eagles soar the north wind swoops from the brooding pole
and our ancients crash and roar but where one falls from the crumbling walls shoots up a hardy score we spring from the gloom of the canyon's womb in the valley's lap we lie
from the white foam fringe where the breakers cringe to the peaks that tusk the sky we climb and we peer in the crag locked mere that gleams like a golden eye
gain to the verge of the hog back ridge where the vision ranges free pines and pines and the shadow of pines as far as the eye can see a steadfast legion of stalwart knights in dominant empery
shall we not staunchly stand even as now forever wards of the wilder strand sentinels of the stillness lords of the last lone land the harpy
there was a woman and she was wise woefully wise was she she was old so old yet her years all told were but a score and three
there is no hope for such as i on earth nor yet in heaven unloved i live unloved i die unpitied unforgiven
unhallowed and unshriven i paint my cheeks for they are white and cheeks of chalk men hate mine eyes with wine i make to shine that men may seek and sate with overhead a lamp of red
until they come the nightly scum with drunken eyes aflame your sweethearts sons ye scornful ones
the gods ye see are brutes to me and so i play my game for life is not the thing we thought and not the thing we plan and woman in a bitter world must do the best she can must yield the stroke and bear the yoke and serve the will of man
must serve his need and ever feed the flame of his desire though be she loved for love alone or be she loved for hire for every man since life began is tainted with the mire and though you know he love you so and set you on love's throne
lest you be left as i was left attainted and alone from love's close kiss to hell's abyss is one sheer flight i trow and wedding ring and bridal bell are will o' wisps of woe
and tis not wise to love too well and this all women know wherefore the wolf pack having gorged upon the lamb their prey with siren smile and serpent guile i make the wolf pack pay
with velvet paws and flensing claws a tigress roused to slay one who in youth sought truest truth and found a devil's lies a symbol of the sin of man a human sacrifice
yet shall i blame on man the shame could it be otherwise was i not born to walk in scorn where others walk in pride the maker marred and evil starred i drift upon his tide
and he alone shall judge his own so i his judgment bide fate has written a tragedy its name is the human heart the theatre is the house of life woman the mummer's part
the devil enters the prompter's box and the play is ready to start the lure of little voices there's a cry from out the loneliness oh listen honey listen
do you hear it do you fear it you're a holding of me so you're a sobbing in your sleep dear and your lashes how they glisten do you hear the little voices all a begging me to go all a begging me to leave you
day and night they're pleading praying on the north wind on the west wind from the peak and from the plain night and day they never leave me do you know what they are saying he was ours before you got him and we want him once again
yes they're wanting me they're haunting me the awful lonely places they're whining and they're whimpering as if each had a soul they're calling from the wilderness the vast and god like spaces
the stark and sullen solitudes that sentinel the pole they miss my little camp fires ever brightly bravely gleaming in the womb of desolation where was never man before as comradeless i sought them
lion hearted loving dreaming and they hailed me as a comrade and they loved me evermore and now they're all a crying
my heart is aching aching but i hear them sleeping waking it's the lure of little voices it's the mandate of the wild i'm afraid to tell you honey i can take no bitter leaving
but softly in the sleep time from your love i'll steal away oh it's cruel dearie cruel and it's god knows how i'm grieving but his loneliness is calling and he knows i must obey
the song of the wage slave when the long long day is over and the big boss gives me my pay i hope that it won't be hell fire as some of the parsons say
and i hope that it won't be heaven with some of the parsons i've met all i want is just quiet just to rest and forget look at my face toil furrowed look at my calloused hands master i've done thy bidding
wrought in thy many lands wrought for the little masters big bellied they be and rich
i have used the strength thou hast given thou knowest i did not shirk threescore years of labour thine be the long day's work and now big master
thou knowest my sins are many and often i've played the fool whiskey and cards and women they made me the devil's tool i was just like a child with money i flung it away with a curse
feasting a fawning parasite or glutting a harlot's purse
back to the mill or the mine i the worker of workers everything in my line everything hard but headwork i'd no more brains than a kid
doing as i was bid living in camps with men folk a lonely and loveless life never knew kiss of sweetheart never caress of wife
and they were so far above yet i'd gladly have gone to the gallows for one little look of love i with the strength of two men savage and shy and wild
and the sweet warm kiss of a child well tis thy world and thou knowest
i the primitive toiler half naked and grimed to the eyes sweating it deep in their ditches swining it stark in their styes hulling down forests before me spanning tumultuous streams
palaces fairer than dreams boring the rock to the ore bed driving the road through the fen resolute dumb uncomplaining a man in a world of men master i've filled my contract
wrought in thy many lands not by my sins wilt thou judge me but by the work of my hands master i've done thy bidding and the light is low in the west
and the long long shift is over master i've earned it rest grin if you're up against a bruiser and you're getting knocked about
grin if you're feeling pretty groggy and you're licked beyond a doubt grin don't let him see you're funking let him know with every clout
though your face is battered to a pulp your blooming heart is stout just stand upon your pins until the beggar knocks you out and grin this life's a bally battle
and the same advice holds true of grin if you're up against it badly then it's only one on you so grin if the future's black as thunder
just cultivate a cast iron smile of joy the whole day through if they call you little sunshine wish that they'd no troubles too you may grin rise up in the morning with the will that smooth or rough
you'll grin sink to sleep at midnight and although you're feeling tough yet grin there's nothing gained by whining and you're not that kind of stuff you're a fighter from away back and you won't take a rebuff
i haled me a woman from the street shameless but oh so fair i bade her sit in the model's seat and i painted her sitting there
i painted a babe at her breast i painted her as she might have been if the worst had been the best she laughed at my picture and went away then came with a knowing nod a connoisseur and i heard him say
tis mary the mother of god so i painted a halo round her hair and i sold her and took my fee and she hangs in the church of saint hilaire where you and all may see
unforgotten i know a garden where the lilies gleam and one who lingers in the sunshine there she is than white stoled lily far more fair
i know a garret cold and dark and drear and one who toils and toils with tireless pen until his brave sad eyes grow weary then he seeks the stars pale silent as a seer
and ah it's strange for desolate and dim between these two there rolls an ocean wide yet he is in the garden by her side and she is in the garret there with him
the reckoning it's fine to have a blow out in a fancy restaurant with terrapin and canvas back and all the wine you want to enjoy the flowers and music
watch the pretty women pass smoke a choice cigar and sip the wealthy water in your glass it's bully in a high toned joint to eat and drink your fill but it's quite another matter when you pay the bill
it's great to go out every night on fun or pleasure bent to wear your glad rags always and to never save a cent to drift along regardless have a good time every trip
to hit the high spots sometimes and to let your chances slip to know you're acting foolish yet to go on fooling still till nature calls a show down and you pay the bill time has got a little bill
get wise while yet you may for the debit side's increasing in a most alarming way the things you had no right to do the things you should have done they're all put down it's up to you to pay for every one so eat drink and be merry
have a good time if you will but god help you when the time comes and you foot the bill quatrains one said thy life is thine to make or mar
to flicker feebly or to soar a star it lies with thee the choice is thine is thine to hit the ties or drive thy auto car
the choice is mine ah no we all were made or marred long long ago the parts are written hear the super wail who is stage managing this cosmic show
blind fools of fate and slaves of circumstance life is a fiddler and we all must dance from gloom where mocks that will o' wisp freewill i heard a voice cry say give us a chance
chance oh there is no chance the scene is set up with the curtain
the gods will work the wires they've got it all down fine you bet you bet it's all decreed the mighty earthquake crash the countless constellations wheel and flash
the rise and fall of empires war's red tide the composition of your dinner hash there's no haphazard in this world of ours cause and effect are grim relentless powers they rule the world
a king was shot last night last night i held the joker and both bowers from out the mesh of fate our heads we thrust we can't do what we would but what we must heredity has got us in a cinch
hark to the song where spheral voices blend there's no beginning never will be end it makes us nutty hang the astral chimes the table's spread come
the men that don't fit in there's a race of men that don't fit in a race that can't stay still
and they roam the world at will they range the field and they rove the flood and they climb the mountain's crest theirs is the curse of the gipsy blood and they don't know how to rest if they just went straight they might go far
they are strong and brave and true but they're always tired of the things that are and they want the strange and new they say could i find my proper groove what a deep mark i would make
so they chop and change and each fresh move is only a fresh mistake and each forgets as he strips and runs with a brilliant fitful pace it's the steady quiet plodding ones who win in the lifelong race
and each forgets that his youth has fled forgets that his prime is past till he stands one day with a hope that's dead in the glare of the truth at last he has failed he has failed he has missed his chance
he has just done things by half life's been a jolly good joke on him and now is the time to laugh ha ha he is one of the legion lost he was never meant to win
he's a rolling stone and it's bred in the bone he's a man who won't fit in music in the bush
and in the west all tremulous a star and soothing sweet she hears the mellow tune of cow bells jangled in the fields afar quite listless for her daily stent is done
she stands sad exile at her rose wreathed door and sends her love eternal with the sun that goes to gild the land she'll see no more the grave gaunt pines imprison her sad gaze
all still the sky and darkling drearily she feels the chilly breath of dear dead days come sifting through the alders eerily oh how the roses riot in their bloom
the curtains stir as with an ancient pain her old piano gleams from out the gloom and waits and waits her tender touch in vain but now her hands like moonlight brush the keys
with velvet grace melodious delight and now a sad refrain from overseas goes sobbing on the bosom of the night and now she sings o singer in the gloom
voicing a sorrow we can ne'er express here in the farness where we few have room
our hearts will echo till they beat no more that song of sadness and of motherland and stretched in deathless love to england's shore some day she'll hearken and she'll understand
a prima donna in the shining past but now a mother growing old and grey she thinks of how she held a people fast in thrall and gleaned the triumphs of a day
she sees a sea of faces like a dream she sees herself a queen of song once more she sees lips part in rapture eyes agleam she sings as never once she sang before
she sings a wild sweet song that throbs with pain the added pain of life that transcends art a song of home a deep celestial strain
the glorious swan song of a dying heart a lame tramp comes along the railway track a grizzled dog whose day is nearly done he passes pauses then comes slowly back
and listens there an audience of one she sings her golden voice is passion fraught as when she charmed a thousand eager ears he listens trembling and she knows it not
and down his hollow cheeks roll bitter tears she ceases and is still as if to pray there is no sound the stars are all alight only a wretch who stumbles on his way
only a vagrant sobbing in the night the rhyme of the remittance man there's a four pronged buck a swinging in the shadow of my cabin and it roamed the velvet valley till to day
now i've had my lazy supper and the level sun is gleaming on the water where the silver salmon play and i light my little corn cob and i linger softly dreaming in the twilight of a land that's far away
far away so faint and far is flaming london fevered paris that i fancy i have gained another star far away the din and hurry far away the sin and worry far away
god knows they cannot be too far gilded galley slaves of mammon how my purse proud brothers taunt me i might have been as well to do as they had i clutched like them my chances learned their wisdom
crushed my fancies starved my soul and gone to business every day well the cherry bends with blossom and the vivid grass is springing and the star like lily nestles in the green
and it doesn't matter what i might have been while above the scented pine gloom piling heights of golden glory the sun god paints his canvas in the west i can couch me deep in clover
i can listen to the story of the lazy lapping water it is best
and the frozen snow betrays the panther's track and the robin greets the dayspring with the rapture of a lover i am happy and i'll nevermore go back for i know i'd just be longing for the little old log cabin
with the morning glory clinging to the door till i loathed the city places cursed the care on all the faces
so send me far from lombard street and write me down a failure put a little in my purse and leave me free say
is one of us no longer let him be
by the trails my feet have broken the dizzy peaks i've scaled the camp fire's glow by the lonely seas i've sailed in
yea the final word is spoken i am signed and sealed to nature
guess yer huggin the truth pooty clus fer wunst major replied the squire
ez lightnin is to kill a crow roostin on the north pole
an i hain't never seen it an that thing
i s'pose if we'd ha had gas here a good many fellers with balloons
an showed us a balloon raisin ev'ry now an then them must be lucky deestric's that's got gas an i'd like to hev somebody strike it round here some'rs
fore i turn my toes up but that's bout ez liable to happen ez it is fer to go out an find a silver dollar rollin up hill an my name gouged in it don't ye be so consarned sure o that squire
said the old settler mysteriously and with a knowing shake of his head
i hain't been only thinkin
ez i tol ye at the time squire i got the tip ten year ago this month
wouldn't hev no live stock left to pervide pork an beef fer his winterin over
i shouldered my gun an went up to steve's to hev some fun with bruin an to save steve's stock an
he's a rip snorter
b'ars is nuts fer me
gulley and were waitin fer me with his jaws wide open i unslung my gun an takin aim at one o the b'ar's forepaws thought i'd wing him an make him come away from the edge o the gulley fore i tackled him
the ball hit the paw
but he throw'd em up too fur an he fell over back'rd an went head foremost inter the gulley
an the walls is ez steep ez the side of a house i went up to the edge an looked over
whar them queer cracks is in the ground an he were a howlin like a hurricane and kickin like a mule ther he laid
ez i see my meat a layin at the bottom o that gulley an the crows a getherin to hev a picnic with it
an i were jist about to roll and tumble an slide down the side o that gulley
he didn't howl so much and his kicks wa'n't so vicious
and swung an bobbed in the air they kep raisin higher an higher till the b'ar were act'ally standin on his head
the sight was so oncommon out o the reg'lar way b'ars has o actin that it seemed skeery
an come a floatin up outen the gulley fer all the world ez if
the b'ar come up'ards tail foremost an i noticed th't he looked consid'able puffed out like
i could feel my eyes begin to bulge an my knees to shake like a jumpin jack's but i couldn't move no more'n a stun wall kin an thar i stood on the edge o the gulley starin at the b'ar ez it sailed on up to'rd me
the b'ar were making a desper't effort to git itself back to its nat'ral p'sition on all fours
an up he sailed tail foremost an lookin ez if he were gointer bust the next minute he were swelled out so ez the b'ar bobbed up and passed by me i could ha reached out an grabbed him by the paw
an i think he wanted me to the way he acted but i couldn't ha made a move to stop him not if he'd ha ben my gran'mother the b'ar sailed on above me
it was a skeert look an a look that seemed to say th't it were all my fault an th't i'd be sorry fer it some time the b'ar squirmed an struggled agin comin to setch an onheerdon end but up'ard he went tail foremost
i rammed a load inter my rifle wrappin the ball with a big piece o dry linen not havin time to tear it to the right size then i took aim an let her go
fast ez the ball went i could see that the linen round it had been sot on fire by the powder the ball overtook the b'ar and bored a hole in his side then the funniest thing of all happened
ye said i were a liar but sence i've been a thinkin an recollectin squire i don't hold no gredge the myst'ry's plain ez day now
than what said the squire than what exclaimed the old settler
wen that b'ar tumbled to the bottom that day he fell on his face he were hurt so th't he couldn't get up o course the gas didn't shut itself off but kep on a leakin
till he had to float an away he sailed up an up an up wen i fired at the b'ar ez he was floatin to'ard the clouds the linen on the bullet carried fire with it
the burnin linen sot it on fire
so ye see squire i wa'n't no liar an the chances is all in favor
afore ye turn up yer toes the squire gazed at the old settler in silent amazement for a minute or more
the old coat of dreams a prologue people in london not merely literary folk but even those higher social circles to which a certain publisher whose name
or race it is hardly fair to mention had so obsequiously climbed often wondered whence had come the wealth that enabled him to maintain such an establishment give such elaborate parties
have so many automobiles and generally make all that display which is so convincing to the modern mind of course they were not seriously concerned because so long as it is a party
and the chef is paid so much and the wines are as old as they should be not even the rarest blossom on the most ancient and distinguished genealogical tree cares whose party it is
or indeed with whom she dances there is only one democracy and that is controlled by gentlemen with names that hardly sound beautiful enough to mention in fairy tales
that democracy of money to which the fairest flower of our aristocracy now bows her coroneted head strange
therefore all sorts of distinguished and beautiful people came to the publisher's parties it would have made no difference really to their hard hearts
could they have known where all the champagne and conservatories and music came from they would have gone on dancing all the same
yet it may interest a sad heart here and there to know how it was that that publisher whose name i forget but whose nose i can never forget was able to pay for all that music and dancing
strange flowers and enchanted food none of which he of course understood aristocrats in london of course know nothing of a northern district of new york city called harlem
with so many streets that a learned arithmetician would be needed to number them a district which at the first call of spring becomes vocal with children on door steps and venders of every vegetable in every language
in this district too you hear strange trumpets blow announcing knife and scissors grinders and strange bells ringing from strings suspended across carts whose merchandise
is bottles and old newspapers you will hear too just when the indomitable sweet smells from the terrible eternal spring are blowing in at your window
and the murmur of rich happy people going away is heard in the land a raucous cry in the hot street a cry full of melancholy even despair it goes something like this
well it was just then that a young poet living in one of those highly arithmetical streets was wondering as all the sad spring murmur came to his ears
how he could possibly buy a rose for the bosom of his sweetheart with whom he was to dance that night at a local ball everything he had in the world had gone he had sold everything
except his poems all his precious books had gone sad one by one little paintings that once made his walls seem like the louvre had gone
all his old silver spoons and all the little intaglios he loved so well and yes he had even sold the old copper chest of the renaissance all studded nails
with three locks in which well all had gone only where was that rose for the bosom of his sweetheart where was it growing where and how was it to be bought
just as he was at his wit's end he heard a cry through the window it had meant nothing to him before now strange as it may sound it meant a rose cash clo
he had an old dress suit in his wardrobe perhaps that would buy a rose so leaning through the window he called down to the voice to come up the gentleman from palestine came up
it would be easy to describe the contempt with which he surveyed the distinguished though somewhat ancient garments thus offered to him in exchange for a rose how he affected to
examine linings and seams knowing all the time the distinguished tailor that had made them and what a bargain he was about to drive of course they weren't well really
the poet wondered a moment about the cost of a rose are they worth the price of a rose he asked
the gentleman from palestine didn't of course understand you see said he finally i'd like to give you more but
honestly i don't really care about them at all but really
and he eyed the poet's clothes with contempt a dollar seventy five said the poet standing firm all right at last said the gentleman from palestine
but i don't see where i am to make any profit however
then the poet bowed him out gently saying in his heart now i can buy my rose when the palestinian dealer in old dress suits went home
after sadly leaving behind him that dollar seventy five he made an astonishing discovery in the necessary process of re examining the goods
something fell out of one of the pockets something the poet after his nature had quite forgotten the old clothes man now a publisher
picked them up from the floor and gazed at them in delight the poet in his grandiose carelessness had forgotten to empty his pockets
of various old dreams now to be fair to the gentleman from palestine he belonged to a race that loves dreams and to do him justice
of the poor poet's clothes as he sat cross legged on the floor and read the dreams that had fallen from the pocket of the poet's old dress suit he read on and read on
and laughed and cried such a curious treasure trove such an odd medley of fairy tales and fables and poems had fallen out of the poet's pocket
and it was only later that the thought came to him that he might change from an old clothes man into a publisher of dreams now
by the sophisticated eye a woman's age can be told
than her real age or hesitates to tell with entire frankness the number of years that have passed over her head
while very young and the manner of arranging it is one of the distinctive marks of the age of the child
until at sixty or seventy it is not more than a few inches in width the number size and variety of ornamental hairpins and the tortoise shell comb worn in front all vary with the age
as the time when she will attain freedom from her life long service to those about her will be in the position of adviser of her sons and director of her daughters in law will be a person of much consideration in the family
privileged to amuse herself in various ways to speak her own mind on most subjects and to be waited upon and cared for by children and grandchildren in return for her long years of faithful service in the household
she will doubtless perform many light tasks for the general good will seldom sit idle by herself but will help about the sewing and mending
tell stories to her grandchildren after their lessons are learned give the benefit of her years of experience to the young people who are still bearing the heat and burden of the day
and by her prayers and visits to the temple at stated seasons will secure the favor of the gods for the whole family as well as make her own preparations for entry into the great unknown toward which she is rapidly drifting
as she bears all things endures all things suffers long and is kind as she serves her mother in law manages her husband's household cares for her babies the thought that cheers and encourages her in her busy and not too happy life is the thought of the sunny calm of old age
when she can lay her burdens and cares on younger shoulders and bask in the warmth and sunshine which this indian summer of her life will bring to her in the code of morals of the japanese obedience to father husband or son
but the obedience and respect of children both male and female to their parents also occupies a prominent position in their ethical system hence in this latter stage of a woman's career the obedience expected of her is often only nominal
and in any case is not so absolute and unquestioning as that of the early period and the consideration and respect that a son is bound to show to his mother necessitates a care of her comfort
and a consultation of her wishes that renders her position one of much greater freedom than can be obtained by any woman earlier in life she has besides reached an age when she is not expected to remain at home and she may go out into the streets
to the theatre or other shows without the least restraint or fear of losing her dignity a japanese woman loses her beauty early at thirty five her fresh color is usually entirely gone her eyes have begun to sink a little in their sockets
have given place to an absolute leanness her abundant black hair has grown thin and much care and anxiety have given her face
one seldom sees a face that indicates a soured temper or a cross disposition
and disappointment patiently and sweetly borne the lips never forget to smile the voice remains always cheerful and sympathetic never grows peevish and worried
but youth with its hopeful outlook its plans and its ambitions gives way to age with its peaceful waiting for the end with only a brief struggle for its place and the woman of thirty five is just at the point when she has bid good by to her youth
and having little to hope for in her middle life is doing her work faithfully and looking forward to an old age of privilege and authority the mistress of her son's house and the ruler of the little domain of home
but i have spoken so far only of those happy women whose sons grow to maturity and who manage to evade the dangerous reefs of divorce upon which so many lives are shipwrecked
but who have in old age to live as dependents upon their brothers or nephews even these who in this country often lead hard and unrewarded lives of toil among their happier relatives find in old age a pleasanter lot than that of youth
many such old ladies i have met
but whose cheerful wrinkled faces and happy childlike ways have given one a feeling of pleasure that the sorrow is past and peace and rest have come to their declining years fulfilling what little household tasks they can
respected and self respecting members of the household
but both alike find a peaceful shelter in the homes of those nearest and dearest to them one of the happiest old ladies i have ever seen was one who had had a rough and stormy life
the mother of many children most of whom had died in infancy she was at last left childless and a widow in her children's death the last tie that bound her to her husband's family was broken and
rather than be a burden to them she made her home for many years with her own younger brother taking up again the many cares and duties of a mother's life in sharing with the mother the bringing up of a large family of children one by one from the oldest to the youngest
each has learned to love the old aunty to be lulled asleep on her back
the drives and walks enjoyed in her company the toys and candies that came out unexpectedly from the depths of mysterious drawers to comfort many an hour of childish grief
that was years ago and the old aunty's hard times are nearly over hale and hearty at three score years and ten she has seen these children grow up one by one until now some have gone to new homes of their own her bent form and wrinkled face
are ever welcome to her children hers by the right of years of patient care and toil for them they now in their turn enjoy giving her pleasure and return to her all the love she has lavished upon them it is a joy to see her childlike pride and confidence in them all
and to know that they have filled the place left vacant by the dead with whom had died all her hopes of earthly happiness the old women of japan how their withered faces bent frames and shrunken yellow hands abide in one's memory
one seldom sees among them what we would call beauty for the almost universal shrinking with age that takes place among the japanese covers the face with multitudinous wrinkles
for the skin which in youth is usually brightened by red cheeks and glossy black hair in old age when color leaves cheek and hair has a curiously yellow and parchment like look but with all their wrinkles and ugliness
there is a peculiar charm about the old women of japan in t o ky o when the grass grows long upon your lawn and you send to the gardener to come and cut it no boy with patent lawn mower nor stalwart countryman with scythe and sickle answers your summons
but some morning you awake to find your lawn covered with old women
with an enormous pair of shears the old ladies clip and chatter cheerfully all day long until the lawn is as smooth as velvet under their careful cutting an occasional rest under a tree for pipes and tea
is the time for much cheerful talk and gossip but the work though done slowly and with due attention to the comfort of the worker is well done and certainly accomplished as rapidly as any one could expect of laborers who earn only from eight to twelve cents a day
another employment for this same class of laborers is the picking of moss and grass from the crevices of the great walls that inclose the moats and embankments of the capital mounted on little ladders
they pick and scrape with knives until the wall is clear and fresh with no insidious growth to push the great uncemented stones out of their places in contrast with these humble but cheerful toilers may be mentioned another class of women
dressed in rags and with covered heads and faces they wander about the streets playing the samisen outside the latticed windows and singing with cracked voices some wailing melody as they go from house to house gaining a miserable
pittance by their weird music they seem the embodiment of all that is hopeless and broken hearted
who danced and sang through the brief summer to come wailing and wretched seeking aid from her thriftier neighbor when at last the winter closed in upon her
trotting about with a yoke over her shoulders from which are suspended two swinging baskets filled with fresh vegetables
another picture comes to me too a picture of one whose memory is an inspiring thought to the many who have the honor to call her mother a stately old lady left a widow many years ago
before the recent changes had wrought havoc preparatory to further progress she seemed always to me the model of a mother of the old school herself a woman of thorough classical education
her example and teaching were to both sons and daughters a constant inspiration and in her old age she found herself the honored head of a family well known in the arts of war and peace a goodly company of sons and daughters
every one of them heirs of her spirit and of her intellect though conservative herself and always clinging to the old customs
tried by war by siege by banishment by danger and sufferings of all kinds
of prosperity among children of whom she might well be proud keeping her physical vigor to the end and dying at last after an illness of only two days her spirit passed out into the great unknown ready to meet its dangers as bravely
as she had met those of earth or to enjoy its rest as sweetly and appreciatively as she had enjoyed that of her old age in the house of her oldest son my acquaintance with her was limited by our lack of common language
but was a most admiring and appreciative one on my side
that upon my last meeting with her two weeks before her death she gave me her wrinkled but still beautiful and delicately shaped hand at parting a deference to foreign customs that she only paid upon special occasions
two weeks later amid such rain as japanese skies know all too well how to let fall i attended her funeral at the cemetery of aoyama
the cemetery chapel was crowded but a place was reserved for me on account of special ties that bound me to the family just behind the long line of white robed mourners
and by the buddhist ceremonial she was buried the chanted ritual
the relatives arose one by one
then bowing again retired to their places slowly and solemnly from the tall soldier son his hair already streaked with gray
and after the relatives the guests
stepped forward and performed the same ceremony before leaving the room what the meaning of the rite was i did not know whether a worship of strange gods or no but to me as i performed the act
it only signified the honor in which i held the memory of a heroic woman who had done well her part in the world according to the light that god had given her japanese art loves to picture the old woman with her kindly wrinkled face
leaving out no wrinkle of them all but giving with equal truthfulness the charm of expression that one finds in them
for only by long life can a woman attain the greatest honor and happiness we often exclaim in impatience at the thought of the weakness and dependence of old age and pray that we may die in the fullness of our powers before the decay
of advancing years has made us a burden upon our friends but in japan dependence is the lot of woman and the dependence of old age is that which is most respected and considered an aged parent is never a burden
and if times are hard and food and other comforts are scarce the children as a matter of course deprive themselves and their children to give ungrudgingly to their old father and mother faults there are many in the japanese social system
but ingratitude to parents or disrespect to the aged must not be named among them and young america may learn a salutary lesson by the study of the place that old people occupy in the home
it is not only for the women of japan but for the men as well that old age is a time of peace and happiness when a man reaches the age of fifty or thereabouts often while apparently in the height of his vigor he gives up his work or business and retires leaving all the property
and income to the care of his eldest son upon whom he becomes entirely dependent for his support
this support is never begrudged him for the care of parents by their children is as much a matter of course in japan as the care of children by those who give them birth a man thus rarely makes provision for the future
and looks with scorn on foreign customs which seem to betoken a fear lest in old age ungrateful children may neglect their parents and cast them aside the feeling so strong in america that dependence is of itself irksome and a thing to be dreaded
is altogether strange to the japanese mind
and independent home of his own and to support her and her children by his own labor or on his own income but he takes her to his father's house and thinks it no shame that his family live upon his parents but in return when the parents wish to retire from active life
for it is given freely to the time honored european belief that a young man must be independent and enterprising in early life in order to lay by for old age the japanese will answer that children in japan are taught to love their parents
rather than ease and luxury and that care for the future is not the necessity that it is in europe and america where money
this habit of thought may account for the utter want of provision for the future and the disregard for things pertaining to the accumulation of wealth which often strikes curiously the foreigner in japan
a japanese considers his provision for the future made when he has brought up and educated for usefulness a large family of children he invests his capital in their support and education secure of bountiful returns in their gratitude and care for his old age
it is hard for the men of old japan to understand the rush and struggle for riches in america a struggle that too often leaves not a pause for rest or quiet pleasure
the cares of the world to have a few years of calm and peace undisturbed by responsibilities or cares for outside matters
if he be an artist or a poet he may uninterrupted spend his days with his beloved art if he is fond of the ceremonial tea
and even if he has none of these higher tastes he will always have congenial friends who are ready to share
to join in a quiet smoke over the hibachi or to play the deep engrossing game of go or shogi
cared for and protected by them sometimes there will be a separate suite of rooms provided for them sometimes a little house away from the noises of the household
in any case as long as they live they will spend their days in quiet and peace
children are a burden said the tailor as he sat on his bench stitching away children are a blessing said the kind lady in the window it was the tailor's mother who spoke
she was a very old woman and nearly helpless all day she sat in a large armchair knitting rugs what have my two lads ever done to help me
continued the tailor sadly they do nothing but play if i send tommy on an errand he loiters if i ask him to work he does it so unwillingly that i would rather do it myself
since their mother died i have indeed had a hard time at this moment the two boys came in their arms full of moss which they dropped on the floor
asked tommy no my child only some bread for breakfast to morrow oh grandmother we are so hungry and the boy's eyes filled
with tears what can i do
what was he like
early in the morning before any one in the house was awake and lighted the fire and swept the room and set out the breakfast he never would be seen and was off before they could catch him
but they often heard him laughing and playing about the house did they give him any wages grandmother
i do not when i was young many people used to go to see the old owl at moon rise and ask her what they wanted to know
cried tommy so do i said johnny will you let us set out a pan of water for the brownie father asked tommy
you may set out what you like my lad but you must go to bed now the boys brought out a pan of water then they climbed the ladder to the loft over the kitchen
johnny was soon in the land of dreams but tommy
it may be the old owl herself
two
tommy opened his eyes and ran to the window
thought tommy he ran to a big tree and looked up
and think of a word which rhymes with elf and makes the charm complete tommy knew the place very well he ran to the north side of the pond
he repeated the charm
asked johnny it is all just as i tell you and if we don't want to be boggarts we must get up and go to work
said tommy and you johnny can dig some potatoes to roast for breakfast they swept the room and laid the table just as they were putting the potatoes in a dish they heard footsteps
there's father
morning after morning he had found an untidy room and an empty table but now when he entered the kitchen he looked around in great surprise
he put his hand out to the fire to see if it was really warm he touched the potatoes and looked at the neat room
there was great excitement in the small house but the boys said nothing all day the tailor talked about the brownie
of little people he said but this is wonderful to come and do the work for a pan of cold water who would have believed it
the boys said nothing until they were both in bed then tommy said the old owl was right
but i don't like to have father thinking that we are still idle i wish he knew that we are the brownies so do i said johnny
day after day went by and still the boys rose early and each day they found more and more to do the brownies were the joy of the tailor's life
one day a message came for the tailor to go to a farmhouse several miles away the farmer gave him an order for a suit of clothes and paid him at once
full of joy at his good fortune he hurried home as he came near the house he saw that the garden had been weeded it's that brownie he said
and i shall make a suit of clothes for him
not if the clothes are a good fit mother i shall measure them by tommy
at last a fine new suit with brass buttons was finished and laid out for the brownie
said tommy when he came down in the morning i'll try them on the tailor rose earlier than usual that day for he wished to catch a glimpse of the brownies
he went softly downstairs there was johnny sweeping the floor and tommy trying on the new suit
only brownies father said tommy
said the boys who gets breakfast and puts things in order
and we are sorry that we were boggarts so long the father was delighted to find how helpful his boys had become the grandmother however
could hardly believe that a real brownie had not been in the house but as she sat in her chair day after day watching the boys at their work
and where have you been my mary and where have you been from me i've been to the top of the caldon low the midsummer night to see and what did you see my mary
all up on the caldon low i saw the glad sunshine come down and i saw the merry winds blow
i heard the drops of the water made
for you must have seen the fairies last night on the caldon low then take me on your knee mother and listen mother of mine a hundred fairies danced last night
and the harpers they were nine and their harp strings rung so merrily to their dancing feet so small but oh the words of their talking were merrier far than all
and what were the words my mary that then you heard them say i'll tell you all my mother
some of them played with the water and rolled it down the hill
ever since the first of may and a busy man will the miller be at dawning of the day oh the miller how he will laugh
and then outspoke a brownie with a long beard on his chin i have spun up all the tow said he and i want some more to spin i've spun a
piece of hempen cloth and i want to spin another a little sheet for mary's bed and an apron for her mother
there was no one left but me and on the top of the caldon low the
and nothing i saw but the mossy stones
i heard afar below how busy the jolly miller was and how the wheel did go and i peeped into the widow's field and sure enough were seen the yellow ears of the mildewed corn
all standing stout and green and down by the weaver's croft i stole
there is no possibility of escaping from this jacob had not yet found his true level in the presence of god and therefore god uses circumstances to chasten and break him down this is the real secret of much
if therefore i have not reached the end of my flesh in the deep and positive experience of my soul it is morally impossible that i can have any thing like a just apprehension of god's character
but i must in some way or other be conducted to the true measure of nature to accomplish this end the lord makes use of various agencies which
are only effectual when used by him for the purpose of disclosing in our view the true character of all that is in our hearts
yet we do not understand his voice or take our true place in his presence the lord is in this place and i knew it not how dreadful is this place jacob learnt nothing by all this
and it therefore needed twenty years of terrible schooling and that too in a school marvellously adapted to his flesh and even that as we shall see was not sufficient to break him down
however it is remarkable to see how he gets back into an atmosphere so entirely suited to his moral constitution the bargain making jacob meets with the bargain making laban and they are both seen as it were straining every nerve to outwit each other
nor can we wonder at laban for he had never been at bethel he had seen no open heaven with a ladder reaching from thence to earth he had heard no magnificent promises from the lips of jehovah securing to him all the land of canaan
with a countless seed no marvel therefore that he should exhibit a grasping grovelling spirit he had no other resource it is useless to expect from worldly men aught but a worldly spirit and worldly principles and ways
they have gotten naught superior and you cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean but to find jacob after all he had seen and heard at bethel struggling with a man of the world and endeavoring by such means to accumulate property
is peculiarly humbling and yet alas it is no uncommon thing to find the children of god thus forgetting their high destinies and heavenly inheritance and descending into the arena with the children of this world
indeed to such an extent is this true in many instances that it is often hard to trace a single evidence of that principle which saint john tells us overcometh the world looking at jacob and laban
and judging of them upon natural principles it would be hard to trace any difference one should get behind the scenes and enter into god's thoughts about both in order to see how widely they differed but it was god that had made them to differ not jacob
which god has afore prepared unto glory while the latter are the vessels of wrath fitted not by god but by sin to destruction
this makes a very serious difference the jacobs and the labans differ materially and have differed and will differ forever though the former may so sadly fail in the realization and practical exhibition of their true character and dignity
now in jacob's case as set forth in the three chapters now before us all his toiling and working like his wretched bargain before is the result of his ignorance of god's grace
and his inability to put implicit confidence in god's promise the man that could say after a most unqualified promise from god to give him the whole land of canaan
could have had but a very faint apprehension of who god was or what his promise was either and because of this we see him seeking to do the best he can for himself this is always the way when grace is not understood
the principles of grace may be professed but the real measure of our experience of the power of grace is quite another thing one would have imagined that jacob's vision had told him a tale of grace but god's revelation at bethel
and jacob's actings at haran are two very different things yet the latter tell out what was jacob's sense of the former character and conduct prove the real measure of the soul's experience and conviction whatever the profession may be
and therefore he was ignorant of grace and he proved his ignorance by measuring himself with laban and adopting his maxims and ways one cannot help remarking the fact that inasmuch as jacob failed to learn and judge
the inherent character of his flesh before god therefore he was in the providence of god led into the very sphere in which that character was fully exhibited in its broadest lines he was conducted to haran the country of laban and rebekah
the very school from whence those principles in which he was such a remarkable adept had emanated and where they were taught exhibited and maintained if one wanted to learn what god was he should go to bethel
if to learn what man was he should go to haran but jacob had failed to take in god's revelation of himself at bethel and he therefore went to haran and there showed what he was and oh what scrambling and scraping
what shuffling and shifting there is no holy and elevated confidence in god no simply looking to and waiting on him true god was with jacob for nothing can hinder the outshinings of divine grace
moreover jacob in a measure owns god's presence and faithfulness still nothing can be done without a scheme and a plan jacob cannot allow god to settle the question as to his wives and his wages
but seeks to settle all by his own cunning and management in short it is the supplanter throughout let the reader turn for example
and say where he can find a more masterly piece of cunning it is verily a perfect picture of jacob in place of allowing god to multiply the ringstraked speckled and spotted cattle as he most assuredly would have done had he been trusted
so in all his actings during his twenty years sojourn with laban and finally he most characteristically steals away thus maintaining in every thing his consistency with himself
now it is in tracing out jacob's real character from stage to stage of his extraordinary history that one gets a wondrous view of divine grace none but god could have borne with such an one as none but god would have taken such an one up
grace begins at the very lowest point it takes up man as he is and deals with him in the full intelligence of what he is it is of the very last importance to understand this feature of grace at one's first starting
it enables us to bear with steadiness of heart the after discoveries of personal vileness which so frequently shake the confidence and disturb the peace of the children of god many there are who at first fail in the full apprehension of the utter ruin of nature
as looked at in god's presence though their hearts have been attracted by the grace of god and their consciences tranquillized in some degree by the application of the blood of christ hence as they get on in their course
they begin to make deeper discoveries of the evil within and being deficient in their apprehensions of god's grace and the extent and efficacy of the sacrifice of christ they immediately raise a question as to their being children of god at all
thus they are taken off christ and thrown on themselves and then they either betake themselves to ordinances in order to keep up their tone of devotion or else fall back into thorough worldliness and carnality
these are disastrous consequences and all the result of not having the heart established in grace it is this that renders the study of jacob's history so profoundly interesting
the very thing above all others which god desires to give
for alas he knows too well there is but to be told there is no sin on him and that moreover in god's sight on the simple ground of christ's perfect sacrifice must infallibly set his heart and conscience at rest had god taken up esau
we should not have had by any means such a blessed display of grace for this reason that he does not appear before us in the unamiable light in which we see jacob the more man sinks the more god's grace rises
as my debt rises in my estimation from the fifty pence up to the five hundred so my sense of grace rises also my experience of that love which when we had nothing to pay could frankly forgive us all
chapter fourteen we are here presented with an historic record of the revolt of five kings from under the hand of chedorlaomer and a battle consequent thereon
the spirit of god can occupy himself with the movements of kings and their armies when such movements are in anywise connected with the people of god in the present case
abraham personally had nothing whatever to do with the revolt or its consequences his tent and altar were not likely to furnish an occasion for the declaration of war
the proper portion of a heavenly man could never by any possibility tempt the cupidity nor excite the ambition of the kings and conquerors of this world however although abraham was not affected by the battle of
four kings with five yet lot was his position was such as to involve him in the whole affair so long as we are enabled through grace to pursue the path of simple faith
we shall be thrown completely outside the range of this world's circumstances but if we abandon our high and holy position as those whose citizenship is in heaven and seek a name a place and a portion in the earth
lot had taken up his abode in the plains of sodom and was therefore deeply and sensibly affected by the wars of sodom it must ever be thus
he can never do so without serious damage to his own soul as well as to the testimony with which he is entrusted what testimony was lot in sodom a very feeble one indeed if one at all
the very fact of his settling himself there was the death blow to his testimony to have spoken a word against sodom and its ways would have been to condemn himself for why was he there but in truth
it does not by any means appear that to testify for god formed any part of his object in pitching his tent toward sodom personal and family interests seem to have been the leading springs of action in his heart and though as peter tells us
his righteous soul was vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked from day to day yet had he but little power to act against it even if inclined so to do it is important in a practical point of view
to see that we cannot be governed by two objects at the same time for example i cannot have before my mind as objects my worldly interests and the interests of the gospel of christ if i go to a town for the purpose of setting up in business
then clearly business is my object and not the gospel i may no doubt propose to myself both to attend to business and to preach the gospel as well but all the while either one or the other must be my object
it is not that a servant of christ may not most blessedly and effectually preach the gospel and attend to business also he assuredly may but in such a case the gospel will be his object and not business
paul preached the gospel and made tents but the gospel was his object and not tent making if i make business my object the gospel preaching will speedily prove to be formal and unprofitable work
the heart is very treacherous and it is often truly astonishing to see how it deceives us when we desire to gain some special point it will furnish in abundance the most plausible reasons
while the eyes of our understanding are so blinded by self interest or unjudged wilfulness as to be incapable of detecting their plausibility how frequently do we hear persons defending a continuance in a position
which they admit to be wrong on the plea that they thereby enjoy a wider sphere of usefulness to all such reasoning samuel furnishes a pointed and powerful reply
to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams which was abraham or lot able to do the more good does not the history of those two men prove beyond a question
that the most effectual way to serve the world is to be faithful to it by separating from and testifying against it but be it remembered that genuine separation from the world can only be the result of communion with god
i may seclude myself from the world and constitute myself the centre of my being like a monk or a cynic but separation to god is a totally different thing the one chills and contracts the other warms and expands
that drives us in upon ourselves this draws us out in love and interest for others that makes self and its interests our centre this makes god and his glory our centre thus in abraham's case
we see that the very fact of his separation enabled him to render effectual service to one who had involved himself in trouble by his worldly ways when abraham heard that his brother was taken captive he armed his trained servants
born in his own house three hundred and eighteen and pursued them unto dan and he brought back all the goods and also brought again his brother lot and his goods and the women also and the people lot was abraham's brother after all
and brotherly love must act a brother is born for adversity and it often happens that a season of adversity softens the heart and renders it susceptible of kindness even from one with whom we have had to part company
and it is remarkable that while in verse twelve we read they took lot abraham's brother's son yet in verse fourteen we read when abram heard that his brother was taken captive the claims of a brother's trouble are answered by the affections of a brother's heart
this is divine genuine faith while it always renders us independent never renders us indifferent it will never wrap itself up in its fleece while a brother shivers in the cold
it purifies the heart it works by love and it overcomes the world and all these results of faith are beautifully exhibited in abraham on this occasion his heart was purified from sodom's pollutions
he manifested genuine love to lot his brother and finally he was completely victorious over the kings such are the precious fruits of faith that heavenly christ honoring principle
however the man of faith is not exempt from the assaults of the enemy and it frequently happens that immediately after a victory one has to encounter a fresh temptation thus it was with abraham
the king of sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of chedorlaomer and of the kings that were with him there was evidently a very deep and insidious design of the enemy in this movement the king of sodom
presents a very different thought and exhibits a very different phase of the enemy's power from what we have in chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him in the former we have rather the hiss of the serpent in the latter the roar of the lion
but whether it were the serpent or the lion the lord's grace was amply sufficient and most seasonably was this grace ministered to the lord's servant at the exact moment of need
and melchizedek king of salem brought forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the most high god and he blessed him and said
and blessed be the most high god which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand we have here to remark first the peculiar point at which melchizedek enters the scene and secondly the double effect of his ministry
he did not come forth when abraham was in pursuit of chedorlaomer but when the king of sodom was in pursuit of abraham this makes a great moral difference a deeper character of communion was needed to meet the deeper character of conflict
and then as to the ministry the bread and wine refreshed abraham's spirit after his conflict with chedorlaomer while the benediction prepared his heart for his conflict with the king of sodom abraham was a conqueror
and yet he was about to be a combatant and the royal priest refreshed the conqueror's spirit and fortified the combatant's heart it is peculiarly sweet to observe the manner in which melchizedek introduces god to the thoughts of abraham
he calls him the most high god
and not only so but pronounces abraham blessed of that same god this was effectually preparing him for the king of sodom a man who was blessed of god did not need to take aught from the enemy
and if the possessor of heaven and earth filled his vision the goods of sodom could have but little attraction hence as might be expected when the king of sodom made his proposal give me the persons and take the goods to thyself
abraham replies i have lift up my hand unto the lord the most high god the possessor of heaven and earth that i will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet and that i will not take any thing that is thine lest thou shouldest say
abraham refuses to be enriched by the king of sodom how could he think of delivering lot from the power of the world if he himself were governed thereby the only true way in which to deliver another
is to be thoroughly delivered myself so long as i am in the fire it is quite impossible i can pluck another out of it the path of separation is the path of power as it is also the path of peace and blessedness
the world in all its various forms is the great instrument of which satan makes use in order to weaken the hands and alienate the affections of the servants of christ but blessed be god when the heart is true to him
he always comes in to cheer to strengthen and to fortify at the right time the eyes of the lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him
and our fingers to fight and finally he will bruise satan under our feet shortly all this is unspeakably comforting to a heart sincerely desirous of making way against the world the flesh and the devil
to all who love and relish the simple gospel of the grace of god i would earnestly recommend the following notes on the book of genesis they are characterized by a deep toned evangelical spirit
i can speak as one who has found profit therefrom man's complete ruin in sin and god's perfect remedy in christ are fully clearly and often strikingly presented especially in the earlier chapters
to christ's servants in the gospel sound forcible statements as to what sin is and what grace is are deeply valuable in the present time when so much that is merely superficial is abroad
the gospel of christ as perfectly meeting man's nature condition and character is comparatively little known and less proclaimed hence the numerous doubts fears and unsettled questions which fill the hearts
and perplex the consciences of many of god's dear children until the soul is led to see that the entire question of sin and the claims of divine holiness were all and forever settled on the cross
but the one perfect sacrifice of christ offered to god for us on the cross for even christ our passover is sacrificed for us
there and there alone it will find a perfect answer to its every claim because there it will find through believing all ground of doubt and fear removed the whole question of sin eternally settled
every divine requirement fully met and a solid foundation laid for present settled peace in the presence of divine holiness christ delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification
settles every thing the moment we believe the gospel we are saved and ought to be divinely happy he that believeth on the son hath everlasting life
we see the greatness of god's love to the sinner in his judgment of sin in the person of his own dear son on the cross there god in perfect grace to us
dealt with sin according to his infinite holiness and justice he went down to the depths of our ruin and all our sin measured it
by shedding the precious blood of the spotless victim he condemned sin in the flesh that is he there condemned the evil root of sin which is in our flesh our carnal nature
but he also made an end of sins of the actual sins of every believer thus between god and christ alone the entire question of sin was gone into and finally settled on the cross
simon peter said unto him lord whither goest thou jesus answered him whither i go thou canst not follow me now
just as abraham and isaac were alone on the top of the mountain in the land of moriah so were god and christ alone amidst the solemnities and solitudes of calvary the only part we had in the cross was
that our sins were there jesus alone bore the full weight of their judgment
whenever this blessed truth is learnt from god's own word and maintained in the soul by faith through the power of the holy ghost all is peace joy and victory
it takes the believer completely away from himself from his doubts fears and questions and his eye now gazes on one who by his finished work has laid the foundation of divine and everlasting righteousness
and who is now at the right hand of the majesty in the highest as the perfect definition of every true believer with him with him alone the believer's heart is now to be occupied
faith is fully assured that when god puts away sin it must be put away entirely that when jesus exclaimed it is finished the work was done
god was glorified the sinner saved the whole power of satan completely destroyed and peace established on the most solid basis hence we find the god of peace brought again from the dead our lord jesus
that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant he was the god of judgment at the cross he is the god of peace at the opening grave every enemy has been vanquished
and eternal peace proclaimed through the blood of his cross he was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father he rose in the power of an endless life and associates every believer with himself
in the power of that life in resurrection having been cleansed by his blood they are accepted in his person
jesus having thus fully accomplished the work that was given him to do and gone up on high the holy ghost came down as a witness to us that redemption was finished the believer perfected forever
and christ glorified in heaven the apostles then began to publish the glad tidings of salvation to the chief of sinners the subject of their preaching was jesus and the resurrection
and all who believed on him as risen and glorified were immediately and eternally saved and this is the record that god hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his son
he that hath the son hath life and he that hath not the son of god hath not life
there is no blessing outside of or apart from the person of christ the heavenly man for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily ever since that time god has been placing before the sinner
in connection with his gospel a risen living christ as the alone object of faith and the end of the law for righteousness
when the eye is kept on this heavenly christ all is light joy and peace but if it be turned in on self and occupied with what it finds there and what it feels
or with any thing whatever that may come between the heart and christ all will be darkness uncertainty and unhappiness in the soul oh how blessedly simple is the gospel of the grace of god
the burden of its message to the lost sinner is come for all things are now ready the question of sin is not raised grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by jesus christ our lord
christ having perfectly satisfied god about sin the only question now between god and your heart is this are you perfectly satisfied with his christ as the alone portion of your soul
this is the one grand question of the gospel christ has settled every other to the glory of god and now the father is going to make a marriage for his son to honor exalt and glorify him
is your heart in full harmony with god's on this point work is not required at your hands strength is not needed fruit is not demanded god has provided every thing and prepared every thing it is all grace
the pure grace of god only believe come for all things are now ready the marriage supper the wedding garment royal honors the father's presence fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore
all are ready ready now ready to be revealed dear reader are you ready oh solemn question are you ready have you believed the message have you embraced the son
the table is spread the house is filling fast yet there is room
behold the bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage
the contents are varied highly instructive and most precious to the student of god's entire book these notes are again laid at the master's feet in earnest prayer that he would take them up and send them forth
under the stamp of his own divine approval amen a m london prefatory note to the fourth edition
i cannot suffer this fourth edition to go forth without an expression of heartfelt thankfulness to the lord for his goodness in making use of such a feeble instrumentality for the profit of souls
it is an unspeakable privilege to be permitted in any small degree to minister to the souls of those who are so precious to christ lovest thou me feed my sheep
such were the touching words of the departing shepherd and assuredly when they fall powerfully upon the heart they must rouse all the energies of one's moral being to carry out in every possible way the gracious desire breathed therein
to gather and to feed the lambs and sheep of the flock of christ are the most exalted services in which any one can be engaged not a single honest effort put forth for the achievement of such noble ends will be forgotten
in that day when the chief shepherd shall appear
and as the clock a street or two away had struck seven he had stood his hands folded on his stick first curious then expectant
oddly satisfied in his memory the clock had a peculiar chime a rather elaborate one ending inconclusively on the dominant and followed after an unusually long interval by the stroke of the hour itself
not until its last vibration had become too subtle for his ear had romarin resumed the occupation that the pealing of the hour had interrupted it was an occupation that especially tended to abstraction of mind
the noting in detail of the little things of the street that he had forgotten with such completeness
now that his eyes rested on them again the shape of a doorknocker the grouping of an old chimney stack the crack still there in a flagstone somewhere deep in the past these things had associations
but they lay very deep and the disturbing of them gave romarin a curious desolate feeling as of returning to things he had long out grown but
the sluggish memories roused more and more and for each bit of the old that reasserted itself scores of yards of the new seemed to disappear new shop frontages went a wall
brought up flush where formerly a recess had been became the recess once more the intermittent electric sign at the street's end that wrote in green and crimson the name of a whiskey across a lamp lit facade ceased to worry his eyes
and the unfamiliar new front of the little restaurant he was passing and repassing took on its old and well known aspect again seven o'clock he had thought in dismissing his hansom
that it had been later his appointment was not until a quarter past
seeing who his guest was it would be better to wait at the door
where men were moving flats of scenery from a back door of the new theatre into a sort of tumbril the theatre was twenty years old but to romarin it was the new theatre
there had been no theatre there in his day in his day his day had been twice twenty years before
he had not forty years ago been the famous painter honoured decorated taken by the arm by monarchs
wild and raw as any with that tranquil and urbane philosophy that had made his success still in abeyance within him as his eyes had rested on the doorknocker next to the restaurant a smile had crossed his face
how had that door knocker come to be left by the old crowd that had wrenched off so many others by what accident had that survived to bring back all the old life now so oddly he stood
again smiling his hands folded on his stick
and had had it engraved to my friend romarin you oughtn't to be here you know he said to the door knocker if i didn't get you marsden ought to have done so
it was marsden whom romarin had come to meet marsden of whom
marsden was the only man in the world between whom and himself lay as much as the shadow of an enmity and even that faint shadow was now passing one does not guard for forty years
animosities that take their rise in quick outbreaks of the young blood and now that romarin came to think of it he hadn't really hated marsden for more than a few months it had been within those very doors
romarin was passing the restaurant again that there had been that quick blow about a girl
and romarin was now sixty four and marsden must be a year older and the girl who knew probably dead long ago yes time heals these things thank god
and romarin had felt a genuine flush of pleasure when marsden had accepted his invitation to dinner but romarin looked at his watch again it was rather like marsden to be late
regardless of inconvenience to others but doubtless he had had to walk if all reports were true marsden
in the way of worldly success and romarin sorry to hear it had wished he could give him a leg up
and romarin honoured and successful yet knew that he had been one of the lucky ones but it was just like marsden to be late for all that at first
romarin did not recognise him when he turned the corner of the street and walked towards him he hadn't made up his mind beforehand exactly how he had expected marsden to look
was not the short stubble of grey beard
it was not the figure nor carriage clothes alter that and the clothes of the man who was advancing to meet romarin were to put it bluntly shabby nor was it but romarin did not know what it was in the advancing figure that
he was already within half a dozen yards of the men who were moving the scenery from the theatre into the tumbril and one of the workmen put up his hand as the edge of a fresh wing appeared
but at the sound of his voice the same thing happened that had happened when the clock had struck seven romarin found himself suddenly expectant attentive and then again curiously satisfied in his memory
marsden's voice at least had not changed it was as in the old days a little envious sarcastic accepting lower interpretations somewhat willingly somewhat grudging of better ones
the grouping of the chimney stack and the crack in the flagstone had begun
my marsden's voice sounded across the group of scene shifters a mo if you please guv'nor said another voice for a moment the painted wing shut them off from one another
in that moment romarin's accident befell him
there are no other terms to relate it in it is a decoded cipher which can be restored to its cryptic form as romarin subsequently restored it as the painter took marsden's arm and entered the restaurant he noticed
its inside was entirely new its cheap glittering wall mirrors that gave a false impression of the actual size of the place its loves and shepherdesses painted in the style of the carts of the vendors of ice cream
might all have been matched in a dozen similar establishments within hail of a cab whistle its gelatine written menu cards announced that one might dine there a la carte or
he made a gesture to the waiter who advanced to help him on with his coat that marsden was to be assisted first but marsden with a grunted all right had already helped himself a glimpse of the interior of the coat told romarin
why marsden kept waiters at arm's length a little twinge of compunction
they sat down at a corner table not far from the slowly moving four bladed propeller now we can talk romarin said i'm glad glad to see you again marsden
it was a peculiarly vicious face that he saw corrugated about the brows and with stiff iron grey hair untrimmed about the ears
accentuated by the passage of time romarin's own brow was high and bald and benign and his beard was like a broad shield of silver you're glad are you said marsden
as they sat down facing one another well i'm glad to be seen with you it'll revive my credit a bit there's a fellow across there has recognised you already by your photographs in the papers i assume i may
he made a little upward movement of his hand it was a gin and bitters marsden assumed he might have romarin ordered it he himself did not take one marsden tossed down the aperitif at one gulp
then he reached for his roll pulled it to pieces and romarin remembered how in the old days marsden had always eaten bread like that began to throw bullets of bread into his mouth
formerly this habit had irritated romarin intensely now well well life uses some of us better than others small blame to these if they throw up the struggle marsden poor devil
looked suspiciously across the glass with the dregs of the gin and bitters
eh he said i say romarin don't let's go grave digging among memories merely for the sake of making conversation
but i'm not in the habit of wasting much time over mine might as well be making new ones i'll drink whiskey and soda it was brought a large one and marsden nodding took a deep gulp health
he said thanks said romarin instantly noting that the monosyllable which matched the other's in curtness was not at all the reply he had intended thank you yours he amended
and a short pause followed in which fish was brought this was not what romarin had hoped for
yet if marsden did not wish to talk it was difficult not to defer to his wish
but marsden's prompt pointing out of this was not encouraging now that he came to think of it
he only knew that this creed of romanticism whatever it was had been worn rather challengingly a chip on the shoulder to be knocked off at some peril or other
the point was that the conversation had begun not very happily and must be mended at once if at all to mend it romarin leaned across the table be as friendly as i am marsden he said i think
pardon me that if our positions were reversed and i saw in you the sincere desire to help that i have i'd take it in the right way again marsden looked suspiciously at him to help
how to help he demanded that's what i should like you to tell me but i suppose for example you still work oh my work
try again romarin you don't do any come i'm no bad friend to my friends and you'll find me especially so but marsden put up his hand not quite so quickly
he said let's see what you mean by help first do you really mean that you want me to borrow money from you that's help as i understand it nowadays then you've changed said romarin wondering
however in his secret heart whether marsden had changed very much in that respect after all marsden gave a short honk of a laugh you didn't suppose i hadn't changed did you then he leaned suddenly forward
this is rather a mistake romarin rather a mistake he said what is
romarin sighed i had hoped not he said marsden leaned forward again with another gesture romarin remembered very well dinner knife in hand
edge and palm upwards punctuating and expounding with the point i tell you it's a mistake he said knife and hand balanced you can't reopen things like this you don't really want to reopen them you only want to reopen certain of them
to approve and disapprove
you didn't altogether dislike i can't for the life of me think what it was by the way and you want to lay stress on that and to sink the rest well you can't i won't let you i'll not submit my life to you like that
and i'd like another drink he put the knife down with a little clap as romarin beckoned to the waiter there was distress on romarin's face he was not conscious of having adopted a superior attitude
but again he told himself that he must make allowances men who don't come off in life's struggle are apt to be touchy and he was after all the same old marsden the man with whom
he desired to be at peace are you quite fair to me he asked presently in a low voice
and he indicated with the knife the mirror at the end of the table you know you've done well and i to all appearances haven't you can't look at that glass and not know it but i've followed the line of my development too no less logically than you
more i'm proud of it at least there's been singleness of intention about it so i think i'm strictly fair in pointing that out when you talk about helping me perhaps so perhaps so
romarin agreed a little sadly it's your tone more than anything else that makes things a little difficult believe me i've no end in my mind except pure friendliness
said marsden a long no that seemed to deliberate to examine and finally to admit
i believe that and you usually get what you set out for oh yes i've watched your rise i've made a point of watching it it's been a bit at a time but you've got there you're that sort it's
on your forehead your destiny romarin smiled hallo that's new isn't it he said it wasn't your habit to talk much about destiny if i remember rightly
with always the suspicion not far away that you did things more from theoretical conviction than real impulse after all
went somewhere near home marsden was scraping together with the edge of his knife the crumbs of his broken roll he scraped them into a little square and then trimmed the corners
did he look surlily up let it rest romarin
if i begin to talk like that too we shall only cut one another up clink glasses there and let it alone mechanically romarin clinked but his bald brow was perplexed cut one another up
he repeated yes let it alone cut one another up he repeated once more you puzzle me entirely well perhaps i'm altogether wrong
i only wanted to warn you that i've dared a good many things in my time now drop it romarin had fine brown eyes under oriental arched brows again they noted the singularly vicious look of the man opposite
drop it he said slowly no let's go on
i'd much rather have another drink in peace and quietness waiter
you're a perverse devil still was romarin's thought marsden's apparently was of nothing but the whiskey and soda the waiter had gone to fetch romarin was inclined to look askance at a man
who could follow up a gin and bitters with three or four whiskeys and soda without turning a hair it argued the seasoned cask marsden
and was already mixing himself another stiff peg well he said since you will have it so to the old days to the old days said romarin
watching him gulp it down queer looking back across all that time at em isn't it how do you feel about it in a mixed
the usual thing pleasure and regret mingled oh you have regrets have you for certain things yes not let me say my turn up with you marsden he laughed
i've only the vaguest idea marsden gave him a long look that all
that romantic soap bubble of yours was really at the bottom of it i suspect tell me he smiled did you really suppose life could be lived on those mad lines you used to lay down
my life said marsden calmly has been not literally literally you mean to say that you haven't outgrown that i hope not
romarin had thrown up his handsome head well well he murmured incredulously why well well marsden demanded but of course you never did and never will know what i meant
by romance no i can't say that i did but as i conceived it it was something that began in appetite and ended in diabetes
marsden inquired picking up a chicken bone highly unphilosophic said romarin shaking his head h m grunted marsden stripping the bone well i grant it pays in a different way
it does pay then romarin asked oh yes it pays
it was one frequented by young artists musicians journalists and the clingers to the rather frayed fringes of the arts from time to time heads were turned to look at romarin's portly and handsome figure which the press
the regent street photographic establishments and the academy supplements had made well known
the wind would chill the marrow in your bones winter'll be here before you know it that's so assented missus march
winter is real pleasant when it does come but i must say i don't fancy these betwixt and between days much
you look real blue i feel so too lawful heart but this is comfort this chimney corner of yours anna is the cosiest spot in the world when did you get home from maitland asked missus march
and how did you leave emily and the children missus stapp took this trio of interrogations in calm detail i came home saturday she said as she unrolled her knitting nice wet day it was too
yes i enjoyed myself pretty well
such rampageous young ones i never saw
but lawful heart anna don't mind about my little affairs
i couldn't believe but what he was joking at first you should have seen peter
i declare i thought the chimney was afire theodosia theodosia he shouted anna march has had a fortune left her by her brother in australy
peter's real neat as men go but lawful heart such a mess as he makes of housekeeping i didn't know you had a brother living no more did i theodosia i thought as
and four weeks ago i got a letter from a firm of lawyers in melbourne australia saying that my brother charles bennett had died and left all his fortune to me i couldn't believe it at first but they sent me some things of his that he had when he left home
but whether charles did sail in the helen ray or
i don't know and it isn't likely i ever will well
at first i felt as if it were awful of me to be glad when it came to me by my brother's death but i mourned for poor charles forty years ago and i can't sense that he has only just died not but what i'd rather have seen him come home alive than
have all the money in the world but it has come about otherwise and as the money is lawfully mine i may as well feel pleased about it and you've bought the carroll place said missus stapp with the freedom of a privileged friend
whatever made you do it i'm sure you are as cosy here as need be and nobody but yourself isn't this house big enough for you no it isn't all my life i've been hankering for a good big roomy house and all my life
little boxes of places not big enough to turn round in i've been contented and
but now that i can afford it i mean to have a house that will suit me the carroll house is just what i want for all it is a little old fashioned i've always had a notion of that house although i never expected to own it any more than the moon
it's a real handsome place
but i expect it will need a lot of fixing up
in about three weeks if all goes well i'm having it all painted and done over inside the outside can wait until the spring it's queer how things come about
and a cruel light flickered in her dark brown eyes i'll not forget lou carroll as long as i live she is the only person in this world i ever hated i suppose it is sinful to say it but i hate her still and always will
i never liked her myself admitted missus stapp she thought herself above us all well for that matter i suppose she was but she needn't have rubbed it in so well she might have been above me
but she wasn't above twitting and snubbing me every chance she got
i'll never forgive her for it i was at a party and she was there too
he was a handsome young fellow and lou had a liking for him so all the girls said but he never looked at her that night and he kept by me the whole time it made lou furious and at last
and said miss bennett mother told me to tell you
they needn't expect to get it oh how badly i felt mother and i were
but we had feelings just like other people and to be insulted like that before trenham manning i just burst out crying then and there
i couldn't help it that stings me yet if i was ever to get a chance to pay lou carroll out for that i'd take it without any compunction
protested missus stapp feebly perhaps so but it's the way i feel
i guess lou carroll is my wicked streak i haven't seen or heard of her for years ever since she married that worthless dency baxter and went away she may be dead for all i know i don't expect ever to have a chance to pay her out
but mark what i say theodosia if i ever have i will missus march snipped off her thread as if she challenged the world missus stapp felt uncomfortable over the unusual display of feeling she had evoked
in three weeks time
and the old carroll house blossomed out into renewed splendour theodosia stapp
was in a rapture of admiration you have a lovely home now anna i used to think it fine enough in the carrolls time but it wasn't as grand as this and that reminds me i have something to tell you but
you remember the last day i was to see you we were talking of lou carroll well
and who should sail in but missus joel kent from oriental you know missus joel sarah chapple that was she and her man keep a little hotel up at oriental they're not very well off she is a cousin of old missus carroll but
well missus joel and i had a chat she told me all her troubles she always has lots of them sarah was always of a grumbling turn and she had a brand new stock of them this time
lou carroll or missus baxter i suppose i should say is up there at joel kent's at oriental dying of consumption leastwise missus joel says she is lou carroll dying at oriental
cried missus march yes she came there from goodness knows where about a month ago
for all she expected of it her husband is dead and i guess he led her a life of it when he was alive
i gather from what missus joel said
and has an awful hankering to get home here to this very house
and all just the same as it used to be i guess she is a sight of trouble and missus joel ain't the woman to like that but there she has to work most awful hard
i guess you've got your revenge anna without lifting a finger to get it think of lou carroll coming to that the next day was cold and raw the ragged bare trees in the old carroll grounds shook
now and then a drifting scud of rain dashed across the windows missus march looked out with a shiver and turned thankfully
and went to see as she opened it a savage swirl of damp wind rushed in and
seemed to cower before its fury
whose emaciated face wore a piteous expression as she lifted it to missus march
she said with a feeble attempt at dignity i am missus baxter i
i thought i'd walk over today and see my old home a fit of coughing interrupted her words and she trembled like a leaf gracious me exclaimed missus march blankly
and if you're not wet to the skin
let me take your bonnet and shawl i must run right out to tell hannah to get you a hot drink you are very kind whispered the other i don't know you but
she was a missus bennett and she had a daughter anna do you know what became of her i forget i forget everything now my name is march
said missus march briefly ignoring the question i don't suppose you ever heard it before she wrapped her own warm shawl about the other woman's thin shoulders then she hastened to the kitchen and soon returned carrying a tray of food and a steaming hot drink
she wheeled a small table up to her visitor's side and said very kindly now take a bite my dear
it is a dreadful day for you to be out why on earth didn't joel kent drive you over they didn't know i was coming whispered missus baxter anxiously i i ran away
but i wanted to come so much it is so nice to be home again
at moments she seemed to fancy herself back in the past again once or twice she called missus march mother presently a sharp knock was heard at the hall door
in the porch stood theodosia stapp and a woman whom missus march did not at first glance recognize a tall aggressive looking person whose sharp black eyes darted in past missus march
lawful heart
we're looking for missus baxter she has run away and we thought perhaps she came here did she
said missus march quietly didn't i say so demanded missus kent turning to missus stapp
she slipped away this morning when i was busy in the kitchen
i dunno how she did it i don't believe she's half as sick as she pretends well i've got my wagon out here missus march and i'll be much obliged if you'll tell her i'm here to take her home
i don't see that there is any call for a scene said missus march firmly the poor woman has just got here and she thinks she has got home she might as well think so if it is of any comfort to her you'd better leave her here
theodosia gave a stifled gasp of amazement but missus march went serenely on
if ever i saw death in a woman's face it
but missus kent declined i've got to hurry home straight off and get the men's suppers such a scamper to have over that woman i'm sure i'm thankful you're willing to let her stay for she'd never be contented anywhere else
and so this is your revenge anna march said the latter solemnly do you remember what you said to me about her yes i do theodosia and i thought i meant every word of it but i guess my wicked streak
ran out just when i needed it to depend on besides you see i've thought of lou carroll all these years as she was when i knew her handsome and saucy and proud but that poor creature in there isn't any more like the lou carroll i knew than you are not a mite
well no not just now she wouldn't know me and
i must go and tell peter about it and i'll send up
missus march looked at the hollow hectic cheeks and the changed
poor lou
don't you kill me i am no common flounder i am an enchanted prince what good will it do you to kill me i sha'n't be good to eat put me back into the water and leave me to swim about well
said the fisherman you need not make so many words about it i am quite ready to put back a flounder that can talk and so saying he put back the flounder into the shining water and it sank down to the bottom
leaving a streak of blood behind it then the fisherman got up and went back to his wife in the hovel husband she said hast thou caught nothing to day no said the man
all i caught was one flounder and he said he was an enchanted prince so i let him go swim again didst thou not wish for anything then asked the good wife no said the man what was there to wish for
alas said the man what am i to go back there for well said the woman it was thou who caught him and let him go again for certain he will do that for thee be off now
the man was still not very willing to go but he did not want to vex his wife and at last he went back to the sea he found the sea no longer bright and shining but dull and green he stood by it and said
hearken unto me my wife ilsebil will have her own way whatever i wish whatever i say the flounder came swimming up and said well what do you want
she took him by the hand and said come and look in here isn't this much better they went inside and found a pretty sitting room and a bedroom with a bed in it a kitchen
and a larder furnished with everything of the best in tin and brass and every possible requisite outside there was a little yard with chickens and ducks and a little garden full of vegetables and fruit look
said the woman is not this nice yes said the man and so let it remain we can live here very happily we will see about that said the woman and with that they ate something and went to bed
everything went well for a week or more and then said the wife listen husband this cottage is too cramped and the garden is too small the flounder might have given us a bigger house i want to live in a big stone castle
go to the flounder and tell him to give us a castle alas wife said the man the cottage is good enough for us what should we do with a castle never mind said his wife
do thou but go to the flounder and he will manage it nay wife said the man the flounder gave us the cottage i don't want to go back as likely as not he'll be angry go all the same said the woman
he can do it easily enough and willingly into the bargain just go the man's heart was heavy and he was very unwilling to go he said to himself it's not right but at last he went
he found the sea was no longer green it was still calm but dark violet and gray he stood by it and said flounder flounder in the sea prythee hearken unto me
whatever i say now what do you want said the flounder alas said the man half scared my wife wants a big stone castle go home again said the flounder
she is standing at the door of it then the man went away thinking he would find no house but when he got back he found a great stone palace and his wife standing at the top of the steps waiting to go in
she took him by the hand and said come in with me with that they went in and found a great hall paved with marble slabs and numbers of servants in attendance who opened the great doors for them the walls were hung with beautiful tapestries
outside the house there was a great courtyard with stabling for horses and cows and many fine carriages beyond this there was a great garden filled with the loveliest flowers and fine fruit trees
and in it were stags and hinds and hares and everything of the kind one could wish for now said the woman is not this worth having oh yes said the man and so let it remain
we will live in this beautiful palace and be content we will think about that said his wife and sleep upon it with that they went to bed next morning the wife woke up first
day was just dawning and from her bed she could see the beautiful country around her her husband was still asleep but she pushed him with her elbow and said husband get up and peep out of the window see here now
could we not be king over all this land go to the flounder we will be king alas wife said the man what should we be king for i don't want to be king ah said his wife
if thou wilt not be king i will go to the flounder i will be king alas wife said the man whatever dost thou want to be king for i don't like to tell him
why not said the woman go thou must i will be king so the man went but he was quite sad because his wife would be king it is not right he said
it is not right when he reached the sea he found it dark gray and rough and evil smelling he stood there and said flounder flounder in the sea prythee hearken unto me
my wife ilsebil will have her own way whatever i wish whatever i say now what does she want said the flounder alas said the man she wants to be king now
there was a sentry at the door and numbers of soldiers were playing drums and trumpets as soon as he got inside the house he found everything was marble and gold and the hangings were of velvet with great golden tassels
the doors of the saloon were thrown wide open and he saw the whole court assembled his wife was sitting on a lofty throne of gold and diamonds she wore a golden crown and carried in one hand a scepter of pure gold
she said now i am king he stood looking at her for some time and then he said ah wife it is a fine thing for thee to be king now we will not wish to be anything more
but i must also be emperor alas wife said the man why dost thou now want to be emperor husband she answered go to the flounder
and thou art but my husband to him thou must go and that right quickly if he can make a king he can also make an emperor emperor i will be so quickly go he had to go
but he was quite frightened and as he went he thought this won't end well emperor is too shameless the flounder will make an end of the whole thing with that he came to the sea
but now he found it quite black and heaving up from below in great waves it tossed to and fro and a sharp wind blew over it and the man trembled so he stood there and said flounder flounder in the sea
my wife wants to be emperor go back said the flounder she is emperor so the man went back and when he got to the door he found that the whole palace was made of polished marble
with alabaster figures and golden decorations soldiers marched up and down before the doors blowing their trumpets and beating their drums inside the palace counts barons and dukes walked about as attendants
and they opened to him the doors which were of pure gold he went in and saw his wife sitting on a huge throne made of solid gold
she had on her head a great golden crown set with diamonds three yards high in one hand she held the scepter and in the other the ball of empire on each side of her stood the gentlemen at arms in two rows
each one a little smaller than the other from giants two miles high down to the tiniest dwarf no bigger than my little finger she was surrounded by princes and dukes her husband stood still and said
wife art thou now emperor yes said she now i am emperor then he looked at her for some time and said alas wife how much better off art thou for being emperor
husband she said what art thou standing there for now i am emperor i mean to be pope go back to the flounder alas wife said the man
what wilt thou not want pope thou canst not be there is only one pope in christendom that's more than the flounder can do husband she said
so go at once i must be pope this very day no wife he said i dare not tell him it's no good it's too monstrous altogether the flounder cannot make thee pope husband said the woman
don't talk nonsense if he can make an emperor he can make a pope go immediately i am emperor and thou art but my husband and thou must obey so he was frightened and went but he was quite dazed
he shivered and shook and his knees trembled a great wind arose over the land the clouds flew across the sky and it grew as dark as night the leaves fell from the trees and the water foamed and dashed upon the shore
in the distance the ships were being tossed to and fro on the waves and he heard them firing signals of distress there was still a little patch of blue in the sky among the dark clouds but toward the south they were red and heavy
as in a bad storm in despair he stood and said flounder flounder in the sea prythee hearken unto me my wife ilsebil will have her own way whatever i wish whatever i say
and he found a great church surrounded with palaces he pressed through the crowd
and his wife entirely clad in gold was sitting on a still higher throne with three golden crowns upon her head and she was surrounded with priestly state on each side of her were two rows of candles
the biggest as thick as a tower down to the tiniest little taper kings and emperors were on their knees before her kissing her shoe wife said the man looking at her art thou now pope
yes said she now i am pope so there he stood gazing at her and it was like looking at a shining sun alas wife he said art thou better off for being pope
at first she sat as stiff as a post without stirring then he said now wife be content with being pope higher thou canst not go
i will think about that said the woman and with that they both went to bed still she was not content and could not sleep for her inordinate desires
the man slept well and soundly for he had walked about a great deal in the day but his wife could think of nothing but what further grandeur she could demand when the dawn reddened the sky she raised herself up in bed
and looked out of the window and when she saw the sun rise she said ha can i not cause the sun and the moon to rise husband she cried digging her elbow into his side wake up and go to the flounder
i will be lord of the universe her husband who was still more than half asleep was so shocked that he fell out of bed he thought he must have heard wrong he rubbed his eyes and said alas wife
she said if i cannot be lord of the universe and cause the sun and moon to set and rise i shall not be able to bear it i shall never have another happy moment she looked at him so wildly that it caused a shudder to run through him
then she flew into a terrible rage her hair stood on end she panted for breath and screamed i won't bear it any longer wilt thou go then he pulled on his trousers and tore away like a madman
such a storm was raging that he could hardly keep his feet houses and trees quivered and swayed mountains trembled and the rocks rolled into the sea the sky was pitchy black it thundered and lightened
and the sea ran in black waves mountains high crested with white foam he shrieked out but could hardly make himself heard flounder flounder in the sea prythee hearken unto me
my wife ilsebil will have her own way whatever i wish whatever i say now what does she want asked the flounder alas he said she wants to be lord of the universe
the flakes of snow were falling like feathers from the sky a queen sat at a window sewing and the frame of the window was made of black ebony as she was sewing and looking out of the window at the snow she pricked her finger with the needle
and three drops of blood fell upon the snow and the red looked pretty upon the white snow and she thought to herself would that i had a child as white as snow as red as blood and as black as the wood of the window frame
a year after the king took to himself another wife she was beautiful but proud and she could not bear to have any one else more beautiful she had a wonderful looking glass and when she stood in front of it
and looked at herself in it and said looking glass looking glass on the wall who in this land is the fairest of all the looking glass answered
at last she was well pleased for she knew the looking glass spoke the truth now snow white grew up and became more and more beautiful and when she was seven years old she was as beautiful as the day
and more beautiful than the queen herself and once when the queen asked her looking glass looking glass looking glass on the wall
it answered thou art fairer than all who are here lady queen but more beautiful by far is snow white i ween then the queen was angry and turned green with envy from that hour whenever she looked at snow white
her breath came and went she hated the girl so much and envy grew higher and higher in her heart like a weed so that she had no peace day or night she called a huntsman and said take the child away into the wood
i will no longer have her in my sight kill her and bring me back her heart as a token the huntsman did as he was told and took her away but when he had drawn his knife and was about to pierce snow white's little heart
she began to weep and said ah dear huntsman leave me my life i will run away into the wild wood and never come home again and as she was so beautiful
the huntsman had pity on her and said run away then you poor child the wild beasts will soon kill her thought he and yet it seemed as if a stone had been rolled from his heart since it was no longer needful for him to kill her
as a young boar just then came running by he stabbed it and cut out its heart and took it to the queen as a proof that the child was dead the cook had to salt this and the wicked queen ate it and thought she had eaten the heart of snow white
but now the poor child was all alone in the great wood and so afraid that she started at every bush and did not know what to do then she began to run and ran over sharp stones and through thorns
and the wild beasts ran past her but did her no harm she ran as long as her feet would go until it was almost evening then she saw a little cottage and went into it to rest herself everything in the cottage was small
but neater and cleaner than can be told there was a table on which was a white cover and seven little plates and by each plate was a little spoon there were seven little knives and forks and seven little mugs
against the wall stood seven little beds side by side covered with snow white coverlets little snow white was so hungry and thirsty that she ate some fruit and bread from each plate and drank a drop of milk out of each mug
for she did not wish to take all from one only then as she was so tired she lay down on one of the little beds but none of them suited her one was too long another too short
but at last she found the seventh one was just right and so she stayed in it said her prayers and went to sleep when it was quite dark the owners of the cottage came back
they were seven dwarfs who dug in the hills for gold they lit their seven candles and as it was now light within the cottage they could see that some one had been there for everything was not in the same order in which they had left it
the first said who has been sitting on my chair the second who has been eating off my plate the third who has been taking some of my bread the fourth
who has been eating my fruit the fifth who has been using my fork the sixth who has been cutting with my knife the seventh who has been drinking out of my mug
then the first looked round and saw that there was a little hole in his bed and he said who has been getting into my bed the others came up and each called out somebody has been lying in my bed too
but the seventh when he looked at his bed saw little snow white who was lying asleep there and he called the others who came running up and they cried out with wonder and brought their seven little candles and let the light fall on little snow white
oh heavens oh heavens cried they what a lovely child and they were so glad that they did not wake her but let her sleep on in the bed and the seventh dwarf slept with the others one hour with each
how have you come to our house said the dwarfs then she told them that the queen had wished to have her killed but that the huntsman had spared her life she had run for the whole day until at last she had found their house
said snow white with all my heart and she stayed with them she kept the house in order for them in the mornings they went to the hills and looked for gold in the evenings they came back and then their supper had to be ready
the girl was alone the whole day so the good dwarfs warned her and said beware of the queen she will soon know that you are here be sure to let no one come in but the queen
thinking she had eaten snow white's heart began to suppose she was again the first and most beautiful person in the world and she went to her looking glass and said looking glass looking glass on the wall
and the glass answered o queen thou art fairest of all i see but over the hills where the seven dwarfs dwell snow white is still alive and well and no one else is so fair as she
and so she thought and thought again how she might kill snow white for so long as she was not the fairest in the whole land envy let her have no rest and when she had at last thought of something to do
she painted her face and dressed herself like an old peddler woman and no one could have known her then she went over the seven hills to the seven dwarfs and knocked at the door and cried pretty things to sell very cheap very cheap
and let herself be laced with the new laces but the old woman laced so quickly and laced so tightly that snow white lost her breath and fell down as if dead now i am the most beautiful
said the queen to herself and ran away not long after in the evening the seven dwarfs came home but how shocked they were when they saw their dear little snow white lying on the ground she did not stir or move
and seemed to be dead they lifted her up and as they saw that she was laced too tightly they cut the laces then she began to breathe a little
when the dwarfs heard what had happened they said the old peddler woman was no one else than the wicked queen take care and let no one come in when we are not with you but the wicked woman when she was at home again
went in front of the glass and asked looking glass looking glass on the wall
and it answered as before o queen thou art fairest of all i see but over the hills where the seven dwarfs dwell snow white is still alive and well and no one else is so fair as she
when she heard that all her blood rushed to her heart with fear for she saw plainly that little snow white was again alive but now she said i will think of something that shall put an end to you
and so she made a comb that was full of poison then she took the shape of another old woman so she went over the seven hills to the seven dwarfs knocked at the door and cried good things to sell cheap cheap
little snow white looked out and said go away i cannot let any one come in i suppose you can look said the old woman and pulled the comb out and held it up
it pleased the girl so well that she let herself be coaxed and opened the door when they had made a bargain the old woman said now i will comb you properly for once poor little snow white had no fear
and let the old woman do as she pleased but hardly had she put the comb in her hair than the poison worked and the girl fell down senseless you piece of beauty said the wicked woman you are done for now
and she went away but as good luck would have it it was almost evening and the seven dwarfs soon came home when they saw snow white lying as if dead upon the ground they knew at once the queen had been there and they looked and found the comb
scarcely had they taken it out when snow white came to herself and told them what had happened then they warned her once more to be upon her guard and to open the door to no one the queen at home went in front of the glass and said
looking glass looking glass on the wall who in this land is the fairest of all then it answered as before o queen thou art fairest of all i see but over the hills where the seven dwarfs dwell
even if it costs me my life she went into a quiet secret lonely room where no one ever came and there she made an apple full of poison it was white with a red cheek so that every one who saw it longed for it
but whoever ate a piece of it must surely die when the apple was ready she painted her face and dressed herself up as a country woman and so she went over the seven hills to the seven dwarfs she knocked at the door
snow white put her head out of the window and said i cannot let any one in the seven dwarfs have told me not to it is all the same to me said the woman i shall soon get rid of my apples there
you eat the red cheek and i will eat the white the apple was so cunningly made that only the red cheek was poisoned snow white longed for the fine apple and when she saw that the woman ate part of it she could stand it no longer
and stretched out her hand and took the other half but hardly had she a bit of it in her mouth when she fell down dead then the queen looked at her with a dreadful look and laughed aloud and said
white as snow red as blood black as ebony wood this time the dwarfs cannot wake you up again and when she asked of the looking glass at home looking glass looking glass on the wall
it answered at last o queen in this land thou art fairest of all then her envious heart had rest so far as an envious heart can have rest
but it was all of no use the poor child was dead and stayed dead they laid her upon a bier and all seven of them sat round it and wept for her and wept three whole days
and they laid her in it and wrote her name upon it in golden letters and that she was a king's daughter then they put the coffin out upon the hill and one of them always stayed by it and watched it and birds came too and wept for snow white
first an owl then a raven and last a dove and now snow white lay a long long time in the coffin and she did not change but looked as if she were asleep for she was as white as snow
as red as blood and her hair was as black as ebony it happened that a king's son came into the wood and went to the dwarfs house to spend the night he saw the coffin on the hill and the beautiful snow white within it
and read what was written upon it in golden letters then he said to the dwarfs let me have the coffin i will give you whatever you want for it but the dwarfs answered we will not part with it for all the gold in the world
then he said let me have it as a gift for i cannot live without seeing snow white i will honor and prize her as the dearest thing i have as he spoke in this way the good dwarfs took pity upon him
and gave him the coffin and now the king's son had it carried away by his servants on their shoulders and it happened that they stumbled over a tree stump and with the shock the piece of apple which snow white had bitten off came out of her throat
and before long she opened her eyes lifted up the lid of the coffin sat up and was once more alive oh heavens where am i she cried the king's son full of joy said
you are with me and told her what had happened and said i love you more than everything in the world come with me to my father's palace you shall be my wife snow white was willing and went with him
the glass answered o queen of all here the fairest art thou but the young queen is fairer by far i trow
then the wicked woman gave a scream and was so wretched so utterly wretched that she knew not what to do at first she would not go to the wedding at all but she had no peace and must go to see the young queen
and when she went in she knew snow white and she stood still with rage and fear and could not stir but iron slippers had already been put upon the fire and they were brought in with tongs and set before her
but in the morning you will find under your pillow a mirror a red kerchief
by it you will find a stream go along it till you come to its fountain head there you will find a damsel as bright as the sun with her hair hanging down over her back be on your guard that the ferocious she dragon do not coil round you
for if you converse with her she will poison you and turn you into a fish or something else and will then devour you but if she bids you examine her head examine it and as you turn over her hair look and you will find one hair as red as blood
pull it out and run back again then if she suspects and begins to run after you
then the kerchief and lastly the mirror
and you will thus enrich yourself and maintain your children when the poor man awoke he found everything under his pillow just as the child had told him in his sleep and then he went to the hill when there he found the stream
went on and on alongside of it till he came to the fountain head having looked about him to see where the damsel was
like sunbeams threaded on a needle and she was embroidering at a frame on stuff the threads of which were young men's hair as soon as he saw her he made a reverence to her
whence are you unknown young man but he held his tongue she questioned him again who are you why have you come
but he was as mute as a stone making signs with his hands as if he were deaf and wanted help then she told him to sit down on her skirt he did not wait for any more orders but sat down and she bent down her head to him that he might examine it
turning over the hair of her head as if to examine it he was not long in finding that red hair and separated it from the other hair
she noticed it and ran at his heels full speed after him he looked round
threw as he was told the embroidered pocket handkerchief on the way and when she saw the pocket handkerchief she stooped and began to overhaul it in every direction admiring the embroidery till he had got a good way off
then the damsel placed the pocket handkerchief in her bosom
and she again occupied herself admiring and gazing till the poor man had again got a good way off then the damsel became exasperated and threw both the pocket handkerchief and the kerchief on the way and ran after him in pursuit
when the damsel came to the mirror the like of which she had never seen before
and the man got so far off that she was no longer able to overtake him when she saw that she could not catch him she turned back and the man reached his home safe and sound after arriving at his home he showed his wife the hair and told her all that had happened to him
a crowd of all sorts of people and merchants collected round him one offered a sequin another two and so on higher and higher till they came to a hundred gold sequins just then the emperor heard of the hair
seventeen sixty five eighteen fifteen
twisting conestoga river in eastern pennsylvania
by the side of one of them lay a great pile of narrow pasteboard tubes each about two feet long and in front of this same small boy stood a keg filled with what looked like black sand each of the group was busy working with one of the pasteboard tubes
and from time to time dropping small colored balls into the tubes at various layers of the sand these balls came from a box that was guarded by the same boy who had charge of the tubes and the keg and he dealt them out to the others with continual words of caution
be careful of that one george he said handing him one of the colored balls
but they'll burn splendidly and make a great show when they go off how do you stop the candle when all the balls and powder are in rob asked another boy see this way
he added proudly as he laid the rocket beside the keg of powder
looking admiringly at the lad of fourteen who had just spoken i knew something had to be done said robert
and so i thought things over last night and worked out a way of making these rockets they'll be much grander than last year's candle parade they wouldn't let us light the streets so we'll light the skies
could be in lancaster to morrow night just before the warm sun dropped behind the tops of the walnut grove beyond the river the work was done
they had all been born and brought up near the winding conestoga and had fished in it and swam in it ever since they could remember the next evening the boys of lancaster sprang a surprise on that quiet but patriotic town
the authorities had forbidden the burning of candles on account of the scarcity caused by the war of independence and every one expected that second fourth of july to pass off as quietly as any other day
but at dusk all the boys gathered at rob fulton's house just outside town
it took only a few minutes to gather enough wood in the centre of the square for a gigantic bonfire
the astonished people heard one dull thudding report after another
were the questions that went through the watching crowds and it was not long before the answer traveled from mouth to mouth it's one of rob fulton's inventions he read about making them in some book
nodded his head when he heard this news
i might have known it was young rob i've never known such a boy for making things his schoolmaster told me the other day that when he was only ten he made his own lead pencils picking up any bits of sheet lead which happened to come his way
that were as good as any in the school the fireworks were a great success for the better part of an hour they held the attention of lancaster
had been splendidly kept for a day or two rob fulton was an important personage then he dropped back into the ranks with his schoolmates
and this cumbersome craft they had to pole from place to place
and there hammer and saw and plane to their hearts content gradually the boat took shape under their hands
could make both wheels revolve by turning the crank
in a crotch at the stern to steer the craft
yet even when the boat was finished the two other boys were very doubtful whether such a strange looking object would really work robert himself had no doubts upon that score
the miniature side paddle river boat was christened the george washington
they turned easily and the boat pulled steadily out from shore
it was a proud moment for the young inventor as they went down the river and passed people on the banks he could not help laughing as he saw the surprise on their faces
the lancaster schoolmaster heard of the boat and said to a friend take my word for it
and he doesn't know what it means to be discouraged
that's the sort of boy he is
and as soon as his boat had proved itself successful he planned a new type of gun and supplied some lancaster gunsmiths with complete drawings for the whole stock lock and barrel and made estimates of range that proved correct when the gun was finished
but rob fulton had remarkable talents in more lines than one his playmates had nicknamed him quicksilver bob because he was so fond of buying that glittering metal
for he could turn from one occupation to another
one of whom was the famous major andre
in seventeen seventy seven the continental congress had held its sessions in the old court house there and during the whole time of the war the town was famous
large quantities in the autumn of seventeen seventy five major andre who had been captured
was brought to lancaster for safe keeping he was allowed certain liberty on parole
major andre was very fond of sketching and spent much of his time in the fields painting pictures of the picturesque little village no sooner had rob fulton heard of the english major's skill
no sooner had young fulton seen them
the revolution had made it very difficult to obtain painting materials from abroad and almost all the paints the boys used were home made fulton now began to study the making of colors and in a very short time was able to add to his stock
wherever he went the young inventor and painter was popular in the near neighborhood of his home there were several factories making arms and ammunition for the war
quicksilver bob was allowed to come and go as he would
and these occupied square huts built of mud and sod
and whenever they were free from school during that time
fulton drew countless pictures of them
but many faithful copies of what he saw when they were finished these pictures were in great demand and some of them were carried as far
found him very hard to put up with at certain times
he was quite as likely to stop and work it out as not
seizing a rod he told robert to hold out his hand and gave him a caning there he exclaimed i hope that will make you do something
and not into my knuckles it was very hard for the teacher to do much with such a lad
i could see the sun out at one or two holes but mostly it was big trees all about and gloomy in there amongst them there was freckled places on the ground where the light sifted down through the leaves
and the freckled places swapped about a little showing there was a little breeze up there a couple of squirrels set on a limb and jabbered at me very friendly
well i was dozing off again when i thinks i hears a deep sound of boom away up the river i rouses up and rests on my elbow and listens pretty soon i hears it again
i hopped up and went and looked out at a hole in the leaves and i see a bunch of smoke laying on the water
and there was the ferryboat full of people floating along down i knowed what was the matter now boom i see the white smoke squirt out of the ferryboat's side you see they was firing cannon over the water
trying to make my carcass come to the top i was pretty hungry
so i set there and watched the cannon smoke and listened to the boom the river was a mile wide there and it
if i only had a bite to eat well then i happened to think how they always put quicksilver in loaves of bread and float them off because they always go right to the drownded carcass and stop there so says i
i'll keep a lookout and if any of them's floating around after me i'll give them a show i changed to the illinois edge of the island to see what luck i could have and i warn't disappointed
a big double loaf come along and i most got it with a long stick but my foot slipped and she floated out further of course i was where the current set in the closest to the shore i knowed enough for that
but by and by along comes another one and this time i won i took out the plug and shook out the little dab of quicksilver and set my teeth in it was baker's bread
i got a good place amongst the leaves and set there on a log munching the bread and watching the ferry boat and very well satisfied and then something struck me i says
now i reckon the widow or the parson or somebody prayed that this bread would find me and here it has gone and done it so there ain't no doubt but there is something in that thingthat
there's something in it when a body like the widow or the parson prays but it don't work for me and i reckon it don't work for only just the right kind i lit a pipe and had a good long smoke and went on watching
the ferryboat was floating with the current and i allowed i'd have a chance to see who was aboard when she come along because she would come in close where the bread did when she'd got pretty well along down towards me
i put out my pipe and went to where i fished out the bread and laid down behind a log on the bank in a little open place where the log forked i could peep through
by and by she come along and she drifted in so close that they could a run out a plank and walked ashore most everybody was on the boat
pap and judge thatcher and bessie thatcher and jo harper and tom sawyer and his old aunt polly and sid and mary and plenty more everybody was talking about the murder but the captain broke in and says
look sharp now the current sets in the closest here and maybe he's washed ashore and got tangled amongst the brush at the water's edge i hope so anyway i didn't hope so
they all crowded up and leaned over the rails nearly in my face and kept still watching with all their might i could see them first rate but they couldn't see me then the captain sung out stand away
and the cannon let off such a blast right before me
and pretty near blind with the smoke and i judged i was gone
i reckon they'd a got the corpse they was after well i see i warn't hurt thanks to goodness the boat floated on and went out of sight around the shoulder of the island i could hear the booming now and then
further and further off and by and by after an hour i didn't hear it no more the island was three mile long i judged they had got to the foot and was giving it up but they didn't yet a while
they turned around the foot of the island and started up the channel on the missouri side under steam and booming once in a while as they went i crossed over to that side and watched them
when they got abreast the head of the island they quit shooting and dropped over to the missouri shore and went home to the town i knowed i was all right now nobody else would come a hunting after me
i got my traps out of the canoe and made me a nice camp in the thick woods i made a kind of a tent out of my blankets to put my things under so the rain couldn't get at them i catched a catfish and haggled him open with my saw
and towards sundown i started my camp fire and had supper then i set out a line to catch some fish for breakfast when it was dark i set by my camp fire smoking and feeling pretty well satisfied
but by and by it got sort of lonesome and so i went and set on the bank and listened to the current swashing along and counted the stars and drift logs and rafts that come down and then went to bed
you can't stay so you soon get over it and so for three days and nights no differencejust the same thing but the next day i went exploring around down through the island i was boss of it
it all belonged to me so to say and i wanted to know all about it but mainly i wanted to put in the time i found plenty strawberries ripe and prime and green summer grapes and green razberries and the green blackberries was just beginning to show
they would all come handy by and by i judged well i went fooling along in the deep woods till i judged i warn't far from the foot of the island i had my gun along but i hadn't shot nothing
it was for protection thought i would kill some game nigh home about this time i mighty near stepped on a good sized snake and it went sliding off through the grass and flowers and i after it trying to get a shot at it
i clipped along and all of a sudden i bounded right on to the ashes of a camp fire that was still smoking my heart jumped up amongst my lungs
but uncocked my gun and went sneaking back on my tiptoes
every now and then i stopped a second amongst the thick leaves and listened but my breath come so hard i couldn't hear nothing else i slunk along another piece further then listened again and so on and so on
if i see a stump i took it for a man if i trod on a stick and broke it it made me feel like a person had cut one of my breaths in two and i only got half and the short half too when i got to camp i warn't feeling very brash
there warn't much sand in my craw but i says this ain't no time to be fooling around
so as to have them out of sight and i put out the fire and scattered the ashes around to look like an old last year's camp and then clumb a tree i reckon i was up in the tree two hours but i didn't see nothing
i didn't hear nothing i only thought i heard and seen as much as a thousand things well i couldn't stay up there forever so at last i got down but i kept in the thick woods and on the lookout all the time
all i could get to eat was berries and what was left over from breakfast by the time it was night i was pretty hungry so when it was good and dark i slid out from shore before moonrise and paddled over to the illinois bankabout
i went out in the woods and cooked a supper and i had about made up my mind i would stay there all night when i hear a plunkety plunk plunkety plunk and says to myself
and next i hear people's voices
creeping through the woods to see what i could find out i hadn't got far when i hear a man say we better camp here if we can find a good place
let's look around i didn't wait but shoved out and paddled away easy i tied up in the old place and reckoned i would sleep in the canoe i didn't sleep much i couldn't somehow for thinking and every time i waked up
i thought somebody had me by the neck so the sleep didn't do me no good by and by i says to myself i can't live this way i'm a going to find out who it is that's here on the island with me
i'll find it out or bust well i felt better right off so i took my paddle and slid out from shore just a step or two and then let the canoe drop along down amongst the shadows
i poked along well on to an hour everything still as rocks and sound asleep well by this time i was most down to the foot of the island a little ripply cool breeze begun to blow
and that was as good as saying the night was about done
then i got my gun and slipped out and into the edge of the woods i sat down there on a log and looked out through the leaves i see the moon go off watch and the darkness begin to blanket the river
but i hadn't no luck somehow i couldn't seem to find the place but by and by sure enough i catched a glimpse of fire away through the trees i went for it cautious and slow
by and by i was close enough to have a look and there laid a man on the ground it most give me the fan tods he had a blanket around his head and his head was nearly in the fire
i set there behind a clump of bushes in about six foot of him and kept my eyes on him steady it was getting gray daylight now pretty soon he gapped and stretched himself and hove off the blanket
and it was miss watson's jim i bet i was glad to see him i says hello jim
i warn't long making him understand i warn't dead i was ever so glad to see jim i warn't lonesome now i told him i warn't afraid of him telling the people where i was i talked along
but he only set there and looked at me never said nothing then i says it's good daylight
make up your camp fire good
why how long you been on the island jim
what all that time yesindeedy and ain't you had nothing but that kind of rubbage to eat no sahnuffn else well you must be most starved ain't you
i reck'n i could eat a hoss i think i could
since the night i got killed no
but you got a gun oh yes you got a gun dat's good
and while he built a fire in a grassy open place amongst the trees i fetched meal and bacon and coffee and coffee pot and frying pan and sugar and tin cups
because he reckoned it was all done with witchcraft i catched a good big catfish too and jim cleaned him with his knife and fried him when breakfast was ready we lolled on the grass and eat it smoking hot
jim laid it in with all his might for he was most about starved then when we had got pretty well stuffed we laid off and lazied by and by jim says but looky here huck
who wuz it dat uz killed in dat shanty ef it warn't you then i told him the whole thing and he said it was smart he said tom sawyer couldn't get up no better plan than what i had then i says
how do you come to be here jim
he looked pretty uneasy and didn't say nothing for a minute then he says maybe i better not tell why jim well dey's reasons
but you wouldn tell on me ef i uz to tell you would you huck blamed if i would jim well i b'lieve you huck i i run off jim but mind you said you wouldn tellyou
know you said you wouldn tell huck well i did i said i wouldn't and i'll stick to it honest injun i will people would call me a low down abolitionist and despise me for keeping mumbut
well you see
ole missusdat's miss watsonshe
pooty rough but she awluz said she wouldn sell me down to orleans
well one night i creeps to de do pooty late en de do warn't quite shet en i hear old missus tell de widder
she couldn resis de widder she try to git her to say she wouldn do it
i lit out mighty quick i tell you i tuck out en shin down de hill
som'ers bove de town but dey wuz people a stirring yit so i hid in de ole tumble down cooper shop on de bank to wait for everybody to go way well i wuz dah all night
long bout six in de mawnin skifts begin to go by en bout eight er nine every skift dat went long wuz talkin
but i ain't no mo now
bekase i knowed ole missus en de widder wuz goin to start to de camp meet'n right arter breakfas en be gone all day en dey knows i goes off wid de cattle
en so dey wouldn miss me
soon as de ole folks uz out'n de way well when it come dark i tuck out up de river road en went bout two mile er more to whah dey warn't no houses
de dogs ud track me ef i stole a skift to cross over dey'd miss dat skift you see
it doan make no track
en got in mongst de drift wood en kep my head down low
so i clumb up en laid down on de planks
de river wuz a risin en dey wuz a good current so i reck'n'd at by fo in de mawnin i'd be twenty five mile down de river en den i'd slip in jis b'fo daylight en swim asho
but i didn have no luck when we uz mos down to de head er de islan a man begin to come aft wid de lantern
well i had a notion i could lan mos anywhers but i couldn'tbank too bluff
i had my pipe en a plug er dog leg en some matches in my cap en dey warn't wet
and so you ain't had no meat nor bread to eat all this time why didn't you get mud turkles
you can't slip up on um en grab um en how's a body gwyne to hit um wid a rock how could a body do it in de night en i warn't gwyne to show mysef on de bank in de daytime well that's so
he said it was a sign when young chickens flew that way and so he reckoned it was the same way when young birds done it i was going to catch some of them but jim wouldn't let me he said it was death
he said his father laid mighty sick once and some of them catched a bird and his old granny said his father would die and he did and jim said you mustn't count the things you are going to cook for dinner because that would bring bad luck
the same if you shook the table cloth after sundown and he said if a man owned a beehive and that man died the bees must be told about it before sun up next morning or else the bees would all weaken down and quit work and die
jim said bees wouldn't sting idiots but i didn't believe that because i had tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn't sting me i had heard about some of these things before but not all of them
he said he knowed most everything i said it looked to me like all the signs was about bad luck and so i asked him if there warn't any good luck signs he says
want to keep it off and he said
well dey's some use in a sign like dat kase it's so fur ahead you see
have you got hairy arms and a hairy breast jim
don't you see i has well are you rich no
but i tuck to specalat'n en got busted out what did you speculate in jim well fust i tackled stock what kind of stock why
live stockcattle you know i put ten dollars in a cow
so you lost the ten dollars no i didn't lose it all i on'y los bout nine of it i sole de hide en taller for a dollar en ten cents
you had five dollars and ten cents left did you speculate any more yes you know that one laigged nigger dat b'longs to old misto bradish well
he sot up a bank en say anybody dat put in a dollar would git fo dollars mo at de en er de year well all de niggers went in but dey didn't have much i wuz de on'y one dat had much
so i stuck out for mo dan fo dollars en i said f i didn git it i'd start a bank mysef well
so he say i could put in my five dollars en he pay me thirty five at de en er de year so i done it
dey wuz a nigger name bob dat had ketched a wood flat en his marster didn know it en i bought it off'n him en told him to take de thirty five dollars
but somebody stole de wood flat dat night en nex day de one laigged nigger say de bank's busted
what did you do with the ten cents jim
balum's ass dey call him for short he's one er dem chuckleheads you know but he's lucky dey say en i see i warn't lucky
dat whoever give to de po
a half mile on high and all of two thousand feet across ran the circular lip of its vast rim above it was a circle of white and glaring sky in whose center flamed the sun and instantly
before my vision could grasp a tithe of that panorama i knew that this place was the very heart of the city its vital ganglion its soul around the crater lip were poised thousands of concave disks vernal green
enormous they were like a border of gigantic upthrust shields and within each emblazoned like a shield's device was a blinding flower of flame the reflected dilated face of the sun below this diadem
hung pendent clusters of other disks swarmed like the globular hiving of the constellation hercules captured stars and each of these prisoned the image of our sun a hundred feet below us was the crater floor up from it
thrust a mountainous forest of the pallidly radiant cones bristling prodigious tier upon tier thicket upon thicket phalanx upon phalanx they climbed up and up pyramidically they flung their spiked hosts
they drew together two thousand feet above us clustering close about the foot of a single huge spire which thrust itself skyward above them the crest of this spire was truncated from its shorn tip radiated scores of long and slender spokes
holding in place a thousand feet wide wheel of wan green disks whose concave surfaces unlike those smooth ones girding the crater were curiously faceted this amazing structure rested upon a myriad footed base of crystal
but it was in size to that as as leviathan to a minnow from it streamed the same baffling suggestion of invincible force transmuted into matter energy coalesced into the tangible power made concentrate in the vestments of substance
half way between crater lip and floor began the hordes of the metal people in colossal animate cheveau de frise of hundred foot girders they thrust themselves out from the curving walls walls i knew
as alive as they from these brobdignagian beams they swung in ropes and clusters spheres and cubes studded as thickly with the pyramids as ever titan's mace with spikes group after bizarre group they dropped pendulous
coppices of slender columns of thistled globes sprang up to meet the festooned joists between the girders they draped themselves in long stellated garlands grouped themselves in innumerable kaleidoscopic patterns
they clicked into place around the golden turret in which we crouched in fantastic arrases they swayed in front of us now hiding by now revealing through their quicksilver interweavings the mounts of the cones
and steadily those flowing in below added to their multitudes gliding up cable and pillar building out still further the living girders stringing themselves upon living festoon and living garland weaving in among them
changing their shapes rewriting their symbols they swung and threaded swiftly in shifting arabesque in gothic traceries in lace like fantasies utterly bizarre
crystalline geometric always abruptly their movement ceased so abruptly that the stoppage of all the ordered turmoil had the quality of appalling silence
an unimaginable tapestry bedight with incredible broidery the metal people draped the vast cup pillared it as though it were a temple garnished it with their bodies as though it were a shrine across the floor toward the cones
in shape only a globe like all its kind yet it was invested with power it radiated power as a star does light was clothed in unseen garments of supernal force in its wake drifted two great pyramids
after them ten spheres but little smaller than the shape which led
on they swept until they reached the base of the cones they paused at the edge of the crystal tabling they turned there was a flashing as of a meteor bursting the globe had opened into that splendor of jewel fires
before which had floated norhala and ruth i saw again the luminous ovals of sapphire studding its golden zone the mystic rose of pulsing petal flame the still core of incandescent ruby that was the heart of that rose
strangely i felt my own heart veer toward this thing bowing before its beauty and its strength almost worshiping a shock of revulsion went through me i shot a quick half frightened glance at drake
he was crouching dangerously close to the lip of the ledge hands clasped and knuckles white with the intensity of his grip eyes rapt staring upon the verge of worship even as i had been drake
i thrust my elbow into his side brutally none of that remember you're human guard yourself man guard yourself what he muttered then abruptly how did you know i felt it myself i answered
for god's sake dick hold fast to yourself remember ruth he shook his head violently as though to be rid of some clinging cloying thing i'll not forget again he said
he huddled down once more close to the edge of the shelf peering over no one of the metal people had moved the silence the stillness was unbroken now the flanking pyramids shot forth into twin stars
blazing with violet luminescences and one by one after them the ten lesser spheres expanded into flaming orbs beautiful they were but far less glorious than that disk of whom they were the counselors ministers what
there came a little wailing far away it was and far nearer it drew was that a tremor that passed through the crowded crater a quick pulse of eagerness hungry
whispered drake they're hungry closer was the wailing again that faint tremor quivered over the place and now i caught it a quick and avid pulsing hungry
whispered drake again like a lot of lions with the keeper coming along with meat the wailing was below us i felt not a quiver this time but an unmistakable shock pass through the horde it throbbed and passed
into the field of our vision up to the flaming disk rushed an immense cube thrice the height of a tall man as i think i have noted before when it unfolded its radiance was that shape of mingled beauty and power
i call the metal emperor yet this thing eclipsed it black uncompromising in some indefinable way brutal its square bulk blotted out the disk's effulgence shrouded it
and a shadow seemed to fall upon the crater the violet fires of the flanking stars pulsed out watchfully threateningly for only an instant the darkening block loomed against the disk blackened it
there came another meteor burst of light where the cube had been was now a tremendous fiery cross a cross inverted its upper arm arose to twice the length either of its horizontals or the square that was its foot
in its opening it must have turned for its face was toward us and away from the cones its body hid the disk and almost all the surfaces of the two watchful stars
eighty feet at least in height this cruciform shape stood it flamed and flickered with angry smoky crimsons and scarlets with sullen orange glowings and glitterings of sulphurous yellows
no trace of the pulsing mystic rose no shadow of jubilant sapphire no purple royal no tender merciful greens nor gracious opalescences nothing even of the blasting violet of the stars
all angry smoky reds and ochres the cross blazed forth
something real something cruel something nearer to earth closer to man the keeper of the cones and the metal emperor muttered drake i begin to get it yes i begin to get ventnor
once more the pulse the avid throbbing shook the crater
the silence the keeper turned i saw its palely lustrous blue metallic back i drew out my little field glasses focussed them the cross slipped sidewise past the disk its courtiers its stellated guardians
as it went by they swung about with it ever facing it and now at last was clear a thing that had puzzled greatly the mechanism of that opening process by which sphere became oval disk
pyramid a four pointed star and as i had glimpsed in the play of the little things about norhala could see now so plainly in the keeper the blocks took this inverted cruciform shape the metal people
were hollow hollow metal boxes in their enclosing sides dwelt all their vitality their powers themselves and those sides were everything that they were
folded the oval disk became the sphere the four points of the star the square from which those points radiated shutting became the pyramid the six faces of the cubes were when opened the inverted cross
nor were these flexible mobile walls massive they were indeed considering the apparent mass of the metal folk most astonishingly fragile those of the keeper despite its eighty feet of height could not have been more than a yard in thickness
at the edges i thought i could see groovings noted the same appearances at the outlines of the stars seen sidewise the body of the metal emperor showed as a convexity its surface smooth with a suggestion of transparency
was this mountain of cones then actually a shrine an idol of the metal people their god the oblong that was the upper half of the cruciform shape extended now at right angles to the horizontal arms
it hovered a rectangle forty feet long as many feet over the floor at the base of the crystal pedestal it bent again this time from the hinge that held the outstretched arms to the base and now it was a huge truncated cross
a t shaped figure hovering only twenty feet above the pave down from the keeper
serpentine whiplike silvery white they were dyed with the scarlet and orange flaming of the surface now hidden from my eyes reflected those sullen and angry gleamings vermiceous coiling
they seemed to drop from every inch of the overhanging planes something there was beneath them something like an immense and luminous tablet the tentacles were moving over it pressing here thrusting there
turning pushing manipulating a shuddering passed through the crowding cones i saw the tremor shake their bristling hosts oscillate the great spire set the faceted disks quivering the trembling grew
a vibration in every separate cone that became even more rapid there was a faint curiously oppressive humming like the distant echo of a tempest in chaos faster ever faster grew the vibration
now the sharp outlines of the cones were dissolving and now they were gone the mount of the cones had become a mighty pyramid of pale green radiance one tremendous pallid flame of which the spire was the tongue
out from the disked wheel at its shorn tip gushed a flood of light light that gathered itself from the leaping radiance below it the tentacles of the keeper moved more swiftly over the enigmatic tablet
writhing cloudily confusedly rapid the faceted disks wavered turned upward the wheel began to whirl faster faster up from that flaming circle out into the sky
leaped a thick pale green column of intensest light with prodigious speed as compact as water concentrate it struck straight out toward the face of the sun it thrust up with the speed of light
the speed of light a thought came to me incredible i believed it even as i reacted to it my pulse is uniformly seventy to the minute i sought my wrist found the artery
made allowance for its possible acceleration began to count what's the matter asked drake take my glasses i muttered trying to keep up while speaking my tally matches in my pocket smoke the lenses i want to look at sun
with a look of stupefied amazement which at another time i would have found laughable he obeyed hold them to my eyes i ordered three minutes had gone by there it was
that for which i sought clear through the darkened lenses i could see the sun spot high up on the northern most limb of the sun
an unthinkably huge dynamo pouring its floods of electro magnetism upon all the circling planets that solar crater which we now know was when at its maximum all of one hundred and fifty thousand miles across
the great sun spot of the summer of nineteen nineteen the most enormous ever recorded by astronomical science five minutes had gone by common sense whispered to me there was no use keeping my eyes fixed to the glasses
even if that thought were true even if that pillar of radiance were a messenger an earth hurled bolt flying to the sun through atmosphere and outer space with the speed of light even if it were this stupendous creation of these things still
between eight and nine minutes must elapse before it could reach the orb and as many minutes must go by before the image of whatever its impact might produce upon the sun could pass back over the bridge of light spanning the ninety millions of miles between it and us and after all
did not that hypothesis belong to the utterly impossible even were it so what was it that the metal monster expected to follow this radiant shaft colossal as it was to us
what possible effect could that spear have upon the solar forces and yet and yet a gnat's bite can drive an elephant mad and nature's balance is delicate
and what great happenings may follow the slightest disturbance of her infinitely sensitive her complex equilibrium it might be it might be eight minutes had passed take the glasses i bade drake
look up at the sun spot the big one i see it he had obeyed me what of it nine minutes the shaft if i were right had by now touched the sun what was to follow
i don't get you at all said drake and lowered the glasses ten minutes
gasped drake i peered down then almost forgot to count
was shrunken the pillar of radiance had not lessened but the mechanism that was its source had retreated whole yards within the field of its crystal base and the metal emperor dulled and faint were his fires dimmed his splendors
and fainter still were the violet luminescences of the watching stars the shimmering livery of his court the keeper of the cones were not its outstretched planes hovering lower and lower over the gleaming tablet its tentacles moving aimlessly feebly
i had a sense of force being withdrawn from all about me it was as though all the city were being drained of life as though vitality were being sucked from it to feed this pyramid of radiance
drained from it to forge the thrusting spear piercing sunward the metal people seemed to hang limply inert the living girders seemed to sag the living columns to bend to droop and to sway
twelve minutes with a nerve racking crash one of the laden beams fell dragging down with it others bending shattering in its fall a thicket of the horned columns behind us
dying something of that hellish loneliness that demoniac desire for immolation that had assailed us in the haunted hollow of the ruins began to creep over me the crowded crater was fainting the life was going out of the city
its magnetic life draining into the shaft of green fire duller grew the metal emperor's glories fourteen minutes goodwin cried drake the life's going out of these things
going out with that ray they're shooting fifteen minutes i watched the tentacles of the keeper grope over the tablet abruptly the flaming pyramid darkened went out
the radiant pillar hurtled upward like a thunder bolt vanished in space before us stood the mount of cones shrunken to a sixth of its former size sixteen minutes all about the crater lip
the ringed shields tilted thrust themselves on high as though behind each was an eager lifting arm below them the hived clusters of disks changed from globules into wide coronets
seventeen minutes i dropped my wrist seized the glasses from drake raised them to the sun for a moment i saw nothing then a tiny spot of white
incandescence shone forth at the lower edge of the great spot it grew into a point of radiance dazzling even through the shadowed lenses i rubbed my eyes looked again it was still there larger
blazing with an ever increasing and intolerable intensity i handed the glasses to drake silently i see it he muttered i see it and that did it that goodwin
goodwin the spot it's widening it's widening i snatched the glasses from him i caught again the dazzling flashing
change to this day i do not know
perhaps it was not it may be that under that finger of force that spear of light that wound in the side of our sun had opened further that the sun had winced i do not to this day know but whether it had or not
still shone the intolerably brilliant light and miracle enough that was for me twenty minutes subconsciously i had gone on counting twenty minutes about the cratered girdle of the upthrust shields
a glimmering mistiness was gathering a translucent mist beryl pale and beryl clear in a heart beat it had thickened into a vast and vaporous ring through whose swarms of corpuscles the sun's reflected image
upon each disk shone clear as though seen through clouds of transparent atoms of aquamarine again the filaments of the keeper moved feebly
brilliant ever more brilliant waxed the fast thickening mists abruptly and again as one the disks began to revolve from every concave surface
from the surfaces of the huge circlets below them flashed out a stream of green fire green as the fire of green life itself corpuscular spun of uncounted rushing dazzling ions
the great rays struck across impinged upon the thousand foot wheel that crowned the cones set it whirling over it i saw form a limpid cloud of the brilliant vapors whence came these sparkling nebulosities
these mists of light it was as though the clustered spinning disks reached into the shadowless air sucked from it some unseen rhythmic energy and transformed it into this visible coruscating flood for now it was a flood
down from the immense wheel came pouring cataracts of green fires they cascaded over the cones deluged them engulfed them beneath that radiant inundation the cones grew perceptibly their volume increased
as though they gorged themselves upon the light no it was as though the corpuscles flew to them coalesced and built themselves into the structure out and further out upon the base of crystal they crept and higher and higher soared their tips
thrusting ever thrusting upward toward the whirling wheel that fed them
uncoiling eagerly avidly through the twenty feet of space between their source and the enigmatic mechanism they manipulated the crater's disks tilted downward into the vast hollow shot their jets of green radiance
drenching the metal hordes splashing from the polished walls wherever the metal hordes had left those living walls exposed all about us was a trembling an accelerating pulse of life colossal
rhythmic ever quicker ever more powerfully that pulse throbbed a prodigious vibration monstrously alive feeding whispered drake feeding feeding on the sun
faster danced the radiant beams the crater was a cauldron of green fires through which the conical rays angled and interwove crossed and mingled and where they mingled where they crossed flamed out suddenly immense rayless orbs
palpitant for an instant then dissolving in spiralling feathery spray of pallid emerald incandescences stronger and stronger beat the pulse of returning life a jetting stream struck squarely upon the metal emperor
out blazed his splendors jubilant his golden zodiac no longer tarnished and dull ran with sun flames the wondrous rose was a racing lambent miracle up snapped the keeper towered behind him
all flickering scarlets and leaping yellows no longer wrathful or sullen the place dripped radiance was filling like a chrisom with radiance us too the sparkling mists bathed
i was conscious of a curiously wild exhilaration a quickening of the pulse an abnormally rapid breathing i stooped to touch drake sparks leaped from my outstretched fingers great green sparks
that crackled as they impacted upon him he gave them no heed but stared with fascinated eyes upon the crater now from every side broke a tempest of gem fires from every girder and column
from every arras pendent and looping burst diamond glitterings ruby luminescences lanced flames of molten emerald and sapphires flashings of amethyst and opal meteoric iridescences
dazzling spectrums the hollow was a cave of some aladdin of the titans ablaze with enchanted hoards
gems in which imprisoned hosts of the jinns of light beat sparkling against their crystal walls to escape i thrust the fantasies from me fantastic enough was this reality globe and pyramid
and cube of the metal people opening wide bathing in drinking from the radiant maelstrom that faster and ever faster swirled about them feeding it was drake's awed voice
the circling shields were raising themselves lifting themselves higher above the crater lip into the crowded cylinder came now only the rays from the high circlets the streams from the huge wheel above the still growing cones
up and up the shields rose but by what mechanism raised i could not see their motion ceased in all their thousands they turned over the city's top and out into the oval valley they poured their torrents of light
flooding it deluging it even as they had this pit that was the city's heart feeding i knew those other metal hordes without and as though in answer sweeping down upon us through the circles of open sky
a clamor poured if we'd but known drake's voice came to me thin and unreal through the tumult it's what ventnor meant if we had got down there when they were so weak
if we could have handled the keeper we could have smashed that plate that works the cones we could have killed them there are other cones i cried back to him no he shook his head this is the master machine it's what ventnor meant
when he said to strike through the sun and we've lost the chance louder grew the hurricane without and now within began its mate through the mists flashed linked tempests of lightnings bolt upon javelin bolt and ever more thickly
lightnings green as the mists themselves lightning bolts of destroying violets searing scarlets tearing chains of withering yellows globes of exploding multicolored electric incandescences
the crater was threaded with the lightnings of the metal people was broidered with them was a pit woven with vast and changing patterns of electric flame what was it that drake had said
destroyed them things that could thrust their will and power up through ninety million miles of space and suck from the sun the honey of power
destroy things that could feed their own life into a machine to draw back from the sun a greater life things that could forge of their strength a spear
which piercing the side of the sun sent gushing back upon them a tenfold nay a thousandfold strength destroy this city that was one vast and living dynamo feeding upon the magnetic life of earth and sun
destroying like armored gods roaring at sword play in a hundred valhallas like the war drums of battling universe like the smitings of warring suns and all the city was throbbing
beating with a gigantic pulse of life was fed and drunken with life i felt that pulsing become my own i echoed to it throbbed in unison i saw drake outlined in flame
i thought i saw norhala floating clothed in shouting flailing fires i strove to call out to her by me slipped the body of drake
lay flaming at my feet upon the narrow ledge there was a roaring within my head louder far louder than that which beat against my ears something was drawing me forth
into unimaginable depths of blackness something was hurling me out into those cold depths of space that alone could darken the fires that encircled me the fires of which i was becoming a part
i felt myself leap outward outward and outward into
and the wreck of the eagle isn't near enough for me to get anything from the ship still i ought to be thankful i'm not drowned or eaten by a shark bob was tired after his long swim
and stretched out under the trees on the grass to rest it was already beginning to get much warmer
seemingly from beneath the ocean wonder if i'm going to find anything to eat here the boy thought doesn't look as if any one lived here i'll have to take a look around it's going to be very lonesome here
i wonder if any ships ever pass this place there were so many questions that needed answering he did not know where to stop asking them of himself but he decided the first and best thing to do
would be to get off his wet clothes not that he was afraid of taking cold but he knew he would be more comfortable in dry garments so taking everything out of his pockets which was no small operation by the way
as bob was a typical boy he stripped himself of his heavier garments and hung them on tree limbs to dry now if i could find something to eat i'd be right in it at least for a while thought the castaway
as he walked around on the warm grass and i need a drink for i swallowed a lot of salt water and i'm as dry as a powder horn he looked out on the ocean but not a trace of a boat was visible
bob walked some distance from where he had landed keeping a sharp lookout for a spring of water
and he began to think he would have to dig a little well near shore with clam shells as he had read of shipwrecked sailors doing but fortunately he was not forced to this as he penetrated a little way into the wood
that sounds good he remarked stepping cautiously because of his bare feet he went on a little farther and presently saw a small waterfall caused by a stream tumbling over a little ledge of rocks
and splashing into a pool below that looks better than it sounds thought bob and a moment later he was drinking his fill
he went on glancing at the pool guess i'll try it bob was fond of hunting and fishing and knew considerable about wood lore searching under the stones he soon found some worms
and tossing one into the middle of the pool he saw a hungry fish rise to it now if i had a pole hook and line
he went on to himself i have the line all right and i ought to have a hook in one of my pockets i generally do as for a pole i can easily cut one
it did not take him long to discover that he had a stout cord that would answer for a line
with his knife he cut a pole and baiting the hook with a worm he cast in probably no one unless it might have been some unfortunate castaway in years gone by had ever angled in that pool
the fish at once rose to the bait
now to cook them he said to himself lucky i bought a water proof match box before i started on this voyage i can now make a fire bob went back to the place he called home
where he had first landed and looked in the water tight match box
to his delight the little fire sticks were not harmed by his bath he only wished he had more of them finding his clothes were now nearly dry he put part of them on and proceeded to kindle a fire
then he cleaned the fish and set them to broil by the simple process of hanging them in front of the fire on a pointed stick one end of which was thrust into the ground that smells good exclaimed bob
as the fish began to brown but i almost forgot there's plenty of fruit to be had
i'll not starve here as long as i have fruit and fish he gathered some things that looked a cross between an orange and a tangerine and ate several finding them delicious
bob preparing to eat his odd breakfast was suddenly startled by a groan it seemed to come from behind a pile of rocks off to the left i wonder what that was thought bob an animal or a human being
i wonder if there are any south sea natives on this island he put down his fish on some big green leaves he had plucked for plates and went toward the rocks
he exclaimed he too must have fallen overboard and been washed ashore but he seems to be hurt the man's eyes were closed and he was scarcely breathing he's dying thought bob his heart beating hard
then thinking perhaps the man might be partly drowned the young castaway began to put into operation as much of the directions as he remembered for restoring partially drowned persons to life
he had not worked long before he saw mister tarbill's eyes open then the nervous passenger began to breathe better where where am i he asked faintly you're safe replied bob on an island with me
but where is the captain and the others boat foundered wave washed over it soon after you fell overboard no chance to get life preservers it was every one for himself are they drowned
i don't know oh it is terrible i swam as long as i could then i seemed to be sinking you're all right now said bob cheerfully you're just in time to have some breakfast
he helped mister tarbill to his feet the nervous man seemed to recover rapidly and when at bob's suggestion he had taken off most of his wet clothes and was drying out near the fire
those fish smell fine he said
i'm not sure replied bob
the meat looks nice and white
i'll warm them again he put them once more on the pointed sticks near the fire and when they were sizzling he laid them on the green leaves then with sticks for knives and forks the two castaways made a fairly good meal
said the nervous man as he began to dress in his dry clothes after the breakfast this has been a terrible experience for me i guess it has admitted bob and for all of us i wish i knew what has happened to the captain and the others
our boat was swamped by a big wave said mister tarbill and suddenly we were all thrown into the water that is the last i remember perhaps the captain and some of the crew may have swum ashore
i hope so we'll search for them i guess we're in for a long stay have we got to remain here demanded mister tarbill i don't see what else there is to do replied bob
we haven't any boat we can't walk on the water
oh dear exclaimed the nervous man
bob thought he might at least be thankful that his life was spared and that he was not where he would starve but the lad concluded it would be wise to say nothing
he resolved to act wisely and cautiously for there was no telling how long they would have to live on the island with the boy in the lead the two started off the sun was now hot and strong
and they found it advisable to keep in the shade of the woods as much as possible bob saw a big turtle crawling down the beach toward the water and knowing the flesh was good for food he ran forward to catch it
he was too late however and when he turned with a feeling of disappointment
bob was surprised to hear the man utter an exclamation he had come to a halt near a pile of rocks and was looking over the tops what's the matter asked the boy
let me take a look proposed bob cautiously he went forward gave one glance at the figures to which mister tarbill pointed
hurrah he shouted
the genial idiot
he discusses maxims and proverbs good cried the idiot from behind the voluminous folds of the magazine section of his sunday newspaper here's a man after my own heart
professor duff of glasgow university
that the maxims and proverbs of our forefathers are largely hocus pocus and buncombe i've always maintained that myself from the moment i had my first copy book lesson in which i had to scrawl the line
it's a long lane that has no turning twenty four times
i forget just how it goes what tommy rot that is well i don't know about that mister idiot said mister whitechoker tapping his fingers together reflectively
are instilled into the minds of the young by the old proverbs and maxims that remain with them forever
than in the original model the leg that's never pulled doesn't go short in a stringent financial market and a courtship without a kiss even if it lasted only five minutes
said mister whitechoker perhaps after all the idea is ill expressed in the original perfectly correct said the idiot but even then what
suppose they had put the thing right in the beginning and said it's a long lane that has no ending what's the use of putting a thing like that in a copy book
why not tell him it's a long well that has no bottom or a long dog that has no wagging or a long railroad that has no terminal facilities oh well interposed the bibliomaniac
there are plenty of others and the way they refute one another is to me a constant source of delight said the idiot there's procrastination is the thief of time for instance
that's a clear injunction to youth to get up and hustle and he starts in with all the impulsiveness of youth and the first thing he knows bang he runs slap into look before you leap or second thoughts are best
what superior claims the second thought has over the first or the seventy seventh thought that it should become axiomatic i vow i can't see if it's morality you're after i am dead against the teachings of that proverb
the second thought is the open door to duplicity when it comes to a question of morals
why his shirt is wet his first thought is naturally
why because it fell into the pond but second thought comes along with visions of hard spanking and a supperless bed in store for him and suggests the idea that there was a leak in the sunday school roof right over the place where i was sitting or
i sat down on the teacher's glass of water that's the sort of thing second thought does in the matter of morals i admit of course that there are times when second thoughts are better than first ones for instance if your first thought is to name the baby jimmie and jimmie turns out to be a girl
but it is not always so and i object to the nerve of the broad general statement that it is so sometimes fifth thoughts are best in science i guess you'll find that the man who thinks the seven hundred and ninety seventh thought
along certain lines has got the last and best end of it and so it goes
but your self sufficient old proverb maker falls back behind the impenetrable wall of his own conceit
and we like a flock of sheep follow this leader and go blatting that sentiment down through the ages
by the sum total of human experience well you needn't get mad about it said the lawyer i never said it so you can't blame me still there are some proverbs said mister whitechoker blandly
that we may not so summarily dismiss take for instance you never miss the water till the well runs dry one of the worst of the lot mister whitechoker said the idiot i've missed the water lots of times when the well was full as ever
you miss the water when the pipes freeze up don't you you or rather i i sometimes miss the water like time at five o'clock in the morning after a pleasant evening with some jovial friends when there's no end of it in the well
but not a drop within reach of my fevered hand and i haven't the energy to grope my way down stairs to the ice pitcher there's more water in that proverb than tangible assets from the standpoint of veracity that's one of the most immoral proverbs of the lot
as a rule these days you never find the water till the well has been pumped dry and put in the hands of a receiver for the benefit of the bond holders fact is all these water proverbs are to be regarded with suspicion
well said the idiot there's one and it's the nerviest of em all
hill ask any man in wall street how high the water has run up in the last five years and see what he tells you and then you may drive a horse to water but you cannot make him drink is another choice specimen of the waterbury school of philosophy
and such drinkers as they have become it's really awful if i knew the name of that particular maximilian who invented those water proverbs i'd do my best to have him indicted for doing business without a license
it is too bad said the idiot and i am just as sorry about it as you are but after all the wisdom of the ancients wise and wisdomatic as it was should not be permitted to put at nought all modern thought
why not adapt the wisdom of the ancients to modern conditions
and i know of no better outlet for reform than in these self same spencerian proverbs
now in the writing lessons why not adapt your means to your ends why make a beginner in penmanship write over and over again a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush which it isn't by the way
to a man who is a good shot when you can bear in on his mind that a dot on the i is worth two on the t or for the instruction of your school teachers why don't you get up a proverb like it's a long lesson that has no learning
or if you are interested in having your boy brought up to the strenuous life why don't you have him make sixty copies of the aphorism a punch in the solar is worth six on the nose
you tell your children never to whistle until they are out of the woods now where in the name of all that's lovely should a boy whistle if not in the woods
that's where the wind whistles if nature whistles anywhere
woods were made for whistling and any man who ever sat over a big log fire in camp or in library who has not noticed that the logs themselves whistle constantly well he is a pachyderm
well as far as i can reach a conclusion from all that you have said
and that you think they should be revised exactly said the idiot it's a splendid idea said mister brief but after all you've got to have something to begin on
certainly said the idiot here is a list of them and as he rose up to depart he handed mister brief a paper on which he had written as follows you never find the water till the stock falls off twenty points
a stitch in time saves nothing at all at present tailors rates you look after the pennies somebody else will deposit the pounds it's a long heiress that knows no yearning
second thoughts are always second procrastination is the theme of gossips never put off to day what you can put on day after to morrow
sufficient unto the day are the obligations of last month one good swat deserves another by jove said mister brief as he read them off
you can't go back on any of em can you no said the bibliomaniac
the eagle sails bob had often been on railroad journeys so there was nothing especially interesting about the first part of his trip
as the train sped on out of the village seemed full of delight to him well i s'pose you've been pretty steady since i've been gone haven't you bob asked the captain following a rather long pause
well pretty good i guess i only played one joke what was it bob related the circumstances of the step ladder the cook and the hired man hum
yes replied bob trying not to chuckle at the recollection hum remarked the captain again and he seemed to be having some difficulty with his breathing bob wondered if his friend was choking he was so very red in the face
but he did not know that the mariner was trying hard not to laugh the thought of the sight of the pair tangled up in the step ladder was too much for him
in his reckless ways by showing enough interest to laugh by the way went on the captain suddenly becoming rather solemn i s'pose you've learned the principal parts of the ship by now by names yes sir but i'm afraid i've got lots yet to learn
you know about as much how to sail a ship
captain spark believed in making boys know their place
still he was determined to reform him if it was possible
asked bob as he thought of the secret map captain obed had given him it all depends on what weather we have why here's something a friend of mine gave me said bob pulling out the wrinkled piece of parchment
he says there is treasure buried on an island in the southern pacific treasure
he remarked handing the parchment back
a joke yes that's a map sure enough but no sailor could ever find the island by those directions why not i said he never could
why look bob whoever made this map only marked the location of the island by degrees
every circle is divided into three hundred and sixty degrees and as the earth is round it follows that a circle drawn around it would be the same each degree therefore means a distance at the equator of about seventy miles
so unless whoever drew this map is positive that the island is exactly at the intersection of the degrees of latitude and longitude which you have given me it might be seventy miles one way or the other off from the location given here
besides the map only states that the location is about right i guess we'll never find that treasure bob i don't believe it's there would you think it worth trying for
i might have to sail around for a week merely to locate the island and the chances would be i'd miss it then if i did find it
i don't take any stock in those captain kidd yarns there's too many of em being spun by retired sailors if captain kidd had any money he took good care of it you can wager besides i haven't any time to fool around looking for an island
i have to get my cargo to port on time bob was a little disappointed that he could not take part in a search for captain obed's treasure but he reflected that what captain spark said was probably right resides
the aged man's mind was not to be depended on during the remainder of the journey by rail captain spark gave bob some good advice as to how to conduct himself while aboard the ship
he imparted some useful information concerning navigation and promised to show bob more about it after they had sailed i'm anxious to get out on deep water said the mariner i don't like this city life
there are too many risks in it in due time they arrived at the seaport town and having seen that bob's baggage would be transported to the dock captain spark led the way to where the eagle was waiting the hoisting of her white sails
to catch the ocean breezes the ship was a large one square rigged and had three masts it being of good tonnage
and this had caused a little delay not all the freight was aboard yet well mister carr how are things moving asked the captain of a tall thin man who stood near the gangway as he and bob went up the plank
by the way let me introduce a friend of mine this is bob henderson his mother is a relative of mine and bob is taking a voyage for his health bob this is my first mate mister carr he looks healthy enough
remarked the first mate as he cordially shook hands with bob things are not always what they look like replied the captain with a smile bob found matters rather too lively for him ashore and his folks think it will quiet him down to go with me
i see replied mister carr in answer to his commander's sly wink he now understood something of the situation i'll leave you here a while went on the commander to the boy
you can look about a bit while i go below and work on my manifest mister carr will tell you anything you want to know but bob was so interested in watching the sailors at work stowing away the cargo while others were cleaning various parts of the ship
that he did not ask many questions all the rest of that day the loading went on bob and the captain went ashore for their meals
but bob spent that night in his bunk
and by noon all the cargo was stowed away captain spark was below in his cabin making out the final papers and waiting for his clearance documents from the harbor master mister carr and his assistants were busy getting the eagle ready to sail
while bob stood near the rail watching with curious eyes everything that was going on while he stood there he saw a short stout pale faced man coming up the gangplank the man carried a valise in each hand
now my man be very careful of that trunk urged the short stout pale man don't drop it for the world i'm not going to sir
don't do that exclaimed the nervous man you might drop it and something would break all right sir very well sir and once more the longshoreman made as if to touch his hat
there you go again cried the man in rather whining tones don't do it i say there keep your hands on the trunk seeing that this last order was obeyed the nervous man advanced up the gangplank he came on deck
set his two valises very carefully down
i don't want any mistake made i don't see the name on it anywhere it is on the bows and under the stern bob rather prided himself on this nautical knowledge hum
yes sir positive a distant relative of my mother is the captain is it captain spark yes sir are you sure i don't want to be on the wrong ship
i came on board with him are you going to sail on the ship asked bob politely i expect to if this is the right vessel i wish i was sure perhaps you might be mistaken and he glanced nervously around no i am positive
there is captain spark now he added as the commander came up a companionway oh yes i shall speak to him the nervous man started off just then captain spark having received his clearance papers by messenger
gave orders to cast off the eagle was about to sail
called the first mate the longshoreman started down the gangplank which was about to be hauled in wait i must pay you called the nervous passenger turning back toward the man who had brought his trunk aboard the longshoreman waited
cast off that stern line shouted the captain oh dear i wish i was sure this was the eagle spoke the nervous passenger it is bob assured him smiling at the man's manner
first he would advance a little way toward the captain intending to ask him the momentous question then he would turn toward the longshoreman who was waiting for his money lively with that gangplank now ordered the commander
oh if i have made a mistake and gotten on the wrong ship it will be terrible murmured the man why don't you throw off that stern line again shouted the captain what shall i do exclaimed the nervous man
here's a dollar never mind the change all ashore that's going ashore yelled mister carr again up came the gangplank the longshoreman leaped over the side of the ship and landed on the dock
there was a puffing from the tug that had been engaged to pull the eagle out into the channel are you sure this is the right ship appealed the man to bob once more
too late how what do you mean
in china you must know the emperor is a chinaman and all whom he has about him are chinamen too it happened a good many years ago but that's just why it's worth while to hear the story before it is forgotten
the emperor's palace was the most splendid in the world it was made wholly of fine porcelain very costly but so brittle and so hard to handle that one had to take care how one touched it in the garden
were to be seen the most wonderful flowers and to the prettiest of them silver bells were tied which tinkled so that nobody should pass by without noticing the flowers yes everything in the emperor's garden was nicely set out
and it reached so far that the gardener himself did not know where the end was if a man went on and on he came into a glorious forest with high trees and deep lakes the wood went straight down to the sea
which was blue and deep great ships could sail to and fro beneath the branches of the trees and in the trees lived a nightingale which sang so finely that even the poor fisherman who had many other things to do
stopped still and listened when he had gone out at night to throw out his nets
how beautiful that is he said but he had to attend to his work and so he forgot the bird but the next night when the bird sang again and the fisherman heard it he said as before how beautiful that is
from all the countries of the world travelers came to the city of the emperor and admired it and the palace and the garden but when they heard the nightingale they all said that is the best of all
and the travelers told of it when they came home and the learned men wrote many books about the town the palace and the garden but they did not forget the nightingale that was spoken of most of all
and all those who were poets wrote great poems about the nightingale in the wood by the deep lake the books went all over the world and a few of them once came to the emperor he sat in his golden chair and read and read
every moment he nodded his head for it pleased him to hear the fine things that were said about the city the palace and the garden but the nightingale is the best of all it stood written there
i don't know that at all is there such a bird in my empire and in my garden to boot i've never heard of that one has to read about such things hereupon he called his cavalier
who was so grand that if any one lower in rank than he dared to speak to him or to ask him any question
nothing there is said to be a strange bird here called a nightingale said the emperor they say it is the best thing in all my great empire why has no one ever told me anything about it
i have never heard it named replied the cavalier it has never been presented at court i command that it shall come here this evening and sing before me said the emperor all the world knows what i have and i do not know it myself
i have never heard it mentioned said the cavalier i will seek for it i will find it but where was it to be found
and the cavalier ran back to the emperor and said that it must be a fable made up by those who write books your imperial majesty must not believe what is written it is fiction and something that they call the black art
but the book in which i read this said the emperor was sent to me by the high and mighty emperor of japan and so it cannot be a falsehood i will hear the nightingale it must be here this evening
it has my high favor and if it does not come
and again he ran up and down all the stairs and through all the halls and passages and half the court ran with him
there was a great inquiry after the wonderful nightingale which all the world knew but not the people at court
every evening i get leave to carry my poor sick mother the scraps from the table she lives down by the beach and when i get back and am tired and rest in the wood then i hear the nightingale sing and then the tears come into my eyes
little kitchen girl said the cavalier i will get you a fixed place in the kitchen with leave to see the emperor dine if you will lead us to the nightingale
so they all went out into the wood where the nightingale was wont to sing half the court went out when they were on the way a cow began to low oh cried the court pages now we have it
those are cows mooing said the little kitchen girl we are a long way from the place yet now the frogs began to croak in the marsh glorious said the chinese court preacher now i hear it
those are frogs said the little kitchen maid but now i think we shall soon hear it
listen listen and yonder it sits and she pointed to a little gray bird up in the boughs is it possible cried the cavalier
it must certainly have lost its color at seeing so many famous people around little nightingale called the little kitchen maid quite loudly our gracious emperor wishes you to sing before him
and sang so that it was a joy to hear it it sounds just like glass bells said the cavalier and look
it's wonderful that we should never have heard it before that bird will be a great success at court shall i sing once more before the emperor asked the nightingale for it thought the emperor was present
my excellent little nightingale said the cavalier i have great pleasure in inviting you to a court festival this evening when you shall charm his imperial majesty with your beautiful singing
my song sounds best in the greenwood replied the nightingale still it came willingly when it heard what the emperor wished
the most glorious flowers which could ring clearly had been placed in the halls there was a running to and fro and a draught of air but all the bells rang so exactly together that one could not hear any noise
as she had now received the title of a real cook maid
and the nightingale sang so gloriously that the tears came into the emperor's eyes and the tears ran down over his cheeks and then the nightingale sang still more sweetly
and he said the nightingale should have his golden slipper to wear round its neck but the nightingale thanked him
i have seen tears in the emperor's eyes that is the real treasure to me an emperor's tears have a strange power i am paid enough then it sang again with a sweet glorious voice
that's the most lovely way of making love i ever saw said the ladies who stood round about and then they took water in their mouths to gurgle when any one spoke to them they thought they should be nightingales too
and the lackeys and maids let it be known that they were pleased too and that was saying a good deal for they are the hardest of all to please in short the nightingale made a real hit
it was now to remain at court to have its own cage with freedom to go out twice every day and once at night it had twelve servants and they all had a silken string tied to the bird's leg which they held very tight
there was really no pleasure in going out the whole city spoke of the wonderful bird and when two people met one said nothing but nightin and the other said gale and then they sighed and understood one another
eleven storekeepers children were named after the bird but not one of them could sing a note
one day a large parcel came to the emperor on which was written the nightingale here we have a new book about this famous bird said the emperor but it was not a book
it was a little work of art that lay in a box a toy nightingale which was to sing like a live one but it was all covered with diamonds rubies and sapphires
so soon as the toy bird was wound up he could sing one of the pieces that the real one sang and then his tail moved up and down and shone with silver and gold round his neck hung a little ribbon and on that was written
the emperor of japan's nightingale is poor beside that of the emperor in china that is capital said they all
three and thirty times over did it sing the same piece and yet was not tired the people would gladly have heard it again but the emperor said that the living nightingale ought to sing a little something but where was it
no one had noticed that it had flown away out of the open window back to its green woods but what is become of it asked the emperor then all the courtiers scolded and thought the nightingale was a very thankless creature
and so the toy bird had to sing again and this was the thirty fourth time they had listened to the same piece for all that they did not know it quite by heart for it was so very difficult and the play master praised the bird highly
yes he declared that it was better than the real nightingale not only in its feathers and its many beautiful diamonds but inside as well for you see ladies and gentlemen and above all your imperial majesty
but in this toy bird everything is settled it is just so and not any other way one can explain it one can open it and can show how much thought went to making it
where the waltzes come from how they go and how one follows another those are quite our own ideas they all said and the play master got leave to show the bird to the people on the next sunday the people were to hear it sing too said the emperor
and they did hear it and were as much pleased as if they had all had tea for that's quite the chinese fashion and they all said oh and held their forefingers up in the air and nodded but the poor fisherman who had heard the real nightingale said
the real nightingale was exiled from the land and empire the toy bird had its place on a silken cushion close to the emperor's bed all the presents it had received gold and precious stones
were ranged about it in title it had come to be high imperial after dinner singer and in rank it was number one on the left hand for the emperor reckoned that side the most important on which the heart is placed
and even in an emperor the heart is on the left side
and said this was just as good as before and so of course it was as good as before
five years had gone by and a real grief came upon the whole nation the chinese were really fond of their emperor and now he was sick and could not it was said live much longer
already a new emperor had been chosen and the people stood out in the street and asked the cavalier how their old emperor did
cold and pale lay the emperor in his great gorgeous bed the whole court thought him dead and each one ran to pay respect to the new ruler the chamberlains ran out to talk it over
and the ladies' maids had a great coffee party
cloth had been laid down so that no one could be heard go by and therefore it was quiet there quite quiet but the emperor was not dead yet
stiff and pale he lay on the gorgeous bed with the long velvet curtains and the heavy gold tassels high up a window stood open and the moon shone in upon the emperor and the toy bird
the poor emperor could scarcely breathe it was just as if something lay upon his breast he opened his eyes and then he saw that it was death who sat upon his breast and had put on his golden crown
and held in one hand the emperor's sword and in the other his beautiful banner and all around from among the folds of the splendid velvet curtains strange heads peered forth a few very ugly
the rest quite lovely and mild these were all the emperor's bad and good deeds that stood before him now that death sat upon his heart do you remember this whispered one to the other do you remember that
so that i need not hear all they say and they kept on and death nodded like a chinaman to all they said music music cried the emperor
no one was there to wind him up and he could not sing without that but death kept on staring at the emperor with his great hollow eyes and it was quiet fearfully quiet then there sounded
close by the window the most lovely song it was the little live nightingale that sat outside on a spray it had heard of the emperor's need and had come to sing to him of trust and hope
and as it sang the spectres grew paler and paler the blood ran more and more quickly through the emperor's weak limbs and death himself listened and said go on little nightingale go on but will you give me that splendid golden sword
will you give me the emperor's crown and death gave up each of these treasures for a song and the nightingale sang on and on it sang of the quiet churchyard where the white roses grow
where the elder blossom smells sweet and where the fresh grass is wet with the tears of mourners then death felt a longing to see his garden and floated out at the window in the form of a cold white mist
thanks thanks said the emperor you heavenly little bird i know you well i drove you from my land and empire and yet you have charmed away the evil faces from my bed
and driven death from my heart how can i pay you you have paid me replied the nightingale i drew tears from your eyes the first time i sang i shall never forget that
those are the jewels that make a singer's heart glad but now sleep and grow fresh and strong again i will sing you something and it sang and the emperor fell into a sweet sleep
ah how mild and refreshing that sleep was the sun shone upon him through the windows when he awoke strong and sound not one of his servants had yet come back for they all thought that he was dead
but the nightingale still sat beside him and sang you must always stay with me said the emperor you shall sing as you please and i'll break the toy bird into a thousand pieces not so replied the nightingale
it did well as long as it could keep it as you have done till now i cannot build my nest in the palace to dwell in it but let me come when i feel the wish
so that you may be glad and thoughtful at once i will sing of those who are happy and of those who suffer i will sing of good and of evil that remain hidden round about you the little singing bird flies far around
to the poor fisherman to the peasant's roof to every one who dwells far away from you and from your court i love your heart more than your crown and yet the crown has an air of sanctity about it i will come and sing to you
but one thing you must promise me everything said the emperor and he stood there in his royal robes which he had put on himself and pressed the sword which was heavy with gold to his heart one thing i beg of you
that you have a little bird who tells you everything then all will go well
the lynnfield people shrugged their shoulders and said he might have picked out somebody a little younger and prettier but then of course bessy was well off a two hundred acre farm and a substantial bank account were worth going in for
trust an eastman for knowing upon which side his bread was buttered lawrence was only twenty and looked even younger owing to his smooth boyish face curly hair and half girlish bloom
bessy houghton was in reality no more than twenty five but lynnfield people had the impression that she was past thirty she had always been older than her years
a quiet reserved girl who dressed plainly and never went about with other young people her mother had died when bessy was very young
when she was twenty her father died and bessy was his sole heir she kept the farm and took the reins of government in her own capable hands she made a success of it too which was more than many a man in lynnfield had done
bessy had never had a lover
and passed for an old maid when her contemporaries were in the flush of social success and bloom missus eastman lawrence's mother was a widow with two sons george the older was the mother's favourite
and the property had been willed to him by his father to lawrence had been left the few hundreds in the bank he stayed at home and hired himself to george thereby adding slowly to his small hoard
he had his eye on a farm in lynnfield but he was as yet a mere boy and his plans for the future were very vague until he fell in love
in reality nobody was more surprised over this than lawrence himself it had certainly been the last thing in his thoughts on the dark damp night when he had overtaken bessy walking home alone from prayer meeting and had offered to drive her the rest of the way
at first she was very silent and lawrence who was a bashful lad at the best of times felt tongue tied and uncomfortable but presently bessy pitying his evident embarrassment began to talk to him
she could talk well and lawrence found himself entering easily into the spirit of her piquant speeches
he had certainly never guessed that she could be such good company she was very different from the other girls he knew but he decided that he liked the difference are you going to the party at baileys tomorrow night he asked
as he helped her to alight at her door i don't know she answered i'm invited
and parties have never been very much in my line there was a wistful note in her voice and lawrence detecting it said hurriedly not giving himself time to get frightened oh you'd better go to this one and if you like
i'll call around and take you he wondered if she would think him very presumptuous he thought her voice sounded colder as she said i am afraid that it would be too much trouble for you it wouldn't be any trouble at all
he stammered i'll be very pleased to take you in the end bessy had consented to go and the next evening lawrence called for her in the rose red autumn dusk
she was dressed in what was for her unusual elegance and lawrence wondered why
her figure was strikingly symmetrical and softly curved her abundant dark brown hair instead of being parted plainly and drawn back into a prim coil as usual was dressed high on her head
and a creamy rose nestled amid the becoming puffs and waves she wore black as she usually did but it was a lustrous black silk simply and fashionably made
with frost like frills of lace at her firm round throat and dainty wrists her cheeks were delicately flushed and her wood brown eyes were sparkling under her long lashes
she offered him a half opened bud for his coat and pinned it on for him as he looked down at her he noticed what a sweet mouth she had full and red with a half child like curve
made quite a sensation at that festal scene people nodded and winked and wondered
milly as was well known had a liking for lawrence herself lawrence began to go with bessy houghton regularly after that
in his single mindedness he never feared that bessy would misjudge his motives or imagine him to be prompted by mercenary designs he never thought of her riches himself and it never occurred to him that she would suppose he did
he soon realized that he loved her and he ventured to hope timidly that she loved him in return she was always rather reserved but the few favours that meant nothing from other girls meant a great deal from bessy
the evenings he spent with her in her pretty sitting room their moonlight drives over long satin smooth stretches of snowy roads and their walks home from church and prayer meeting under the winter stars
were all so many moments of supreme happiness to lawrence matters had gone thus far before missus eastman got her eyes opened at missus tom bailey's quilting party
and who would certainly throw him over in the end
missus eastman was a proud woman and a determined one
and she went home from the quilting resolved to put an instant stop to all such nonsense
as she entered the small kitchen where george eastman was lounging by the fire out in the stable grooming up lady grey responded her older son sulkily
said missus eastman grimly
george eastman muttered something inaudible as the door closed behind her he was a short thickset man not in the least like lawrence who was ten years his junior two years previously
and her decided repulse of his advances was a remembrance that made him grit his teeth yet he had hated her bitterly ever since lawrence was brushing his pet mare's coat until it shone like satin and whistling
annie laurie until the rafters rang bessy had sung it for him the night before
with her favourite laces at wrist and throat and a white rose in her hair which was dressed in the high becoming knot she had always worn
she had played and sung many of the sweet old scotch ballads for him and when she had gone to the door with him
emboldened by the look in her brown eyes he had stooped and kissed her then he had stepped back
and only blushed hotly crimson she must care for him he thought happily or else she would have been angry when his mother came in at the stable door her face was hard and uncompromising lawrie
come now don't quiz a fellow too close
lawrence looked as if his mother had struck him a blow in the face a dull purplish flush crept over his brow this is some of george's work he broke out fiercely he's been setting you on me has he
yes he's jealous he wanted bessy himself but she would not look at him he thinks nobody knows it but i do bessy marry him it's very likely
and if she would she is too old for you
said lawrence flatly i don't care what anybody says you needn't worry over me i can take care of myself missus eastman looked blankly at her son he had never defied or disobeyed her in his life before
she had supposed her word would be law rebellion was something she had not dreamed of her lips tightened ominously and her eyes narrowed
she said in a voice that trembled with anger bessy houghton laughs at you everywhere
is that true mother he asked huskily
she drew her shawl about her pale malicious face and left him with a parting glance of contempt i guess that'll settle him she thought grimly
alone in the stable
he had implicit faith in his mother and the stab had gone straight to his heart
for his well known footfall on the verandah the next night lawrence went home with milly fiske from prayer meeting
as she came down the steps of the little church bessy walked home alone
and in the mirror over the mantel she saw her own pale face with its tragic pain stricken eyes annie hillis her help was out she was alone in the big house with her misery and despair
and flung herself on the bed in the chill moonlight it is all over she said dully all night she lay there fighting with her pain
in the wan grey morning she looked at her mirrored self with pitying scorn at the pallid face the lifeless features the dispirited eyes with their bluish circles
what a fool i have been to imagine he could care for me she said bitterly
she thought of that kiss with a pitiful shame she hated herself for the weakness that could not check her tears her lonely life had been brightened by the companionship of her young lover the youth
and girlhood of which fate had cheated her had come to her with love the future had looked rosy with promise now it had darkened with dourness and greyness
maggie hatfield came that day to sew bessy had intended to have a dark blue silk made up and an evening waist of pale pink cashmere she had expected to wear the latter at a party which was to come off a fortnight later
and she had got it to please lawrence because he had told her that pink was his favourite colour she would have neither it nor the silk made up now she put them both away
and instead brought out an ugly pattern of snuff brown stuff bought years before and never used
asked the dressmaker aren't you going to have it for the party no i'm not going to have it made up at all said bessy listlessly it's too gay for me i was foolish to think it would ever suit me
this brown will do for a spring suit it doesn't make much difference what i wear maggie hatfield
looked at her curiously wondering what lawrence eastman could see in her to be as crazy about her as some people said he was bessy was looking her oldest and plainest just then
with her hair combed severely back from her pale dispirited face it must be her money he is after
for the most part lynnfield people believed that bessy had thrown lawrence over this opinion was borne out by his woebegone appearance he was thin and pale his face had lost its youthful curves and looked hard and mature
he was moody and taciturn and his speech and manner were marked by a new cynicism in april
he was over fifty and had never been a handsome man in his best days but lynnfield oracles opined that bessy would take him she couldn't
expect to do any better they said and she was looking terribly old and dowdy all at once in june maggie hatfield went to the eastmans to sew the first bit of news she imparted to missus eastman
at least he didn't come to see her any more missus eastman twitched her thread viciously
she said sharply she thinks nobody is good enough for her
lawrence got some silly boy notion into his head last winter but i soon put a stop to that
i was up there the morning after that prayer meeting night people talked so much of
so i put my foot down in time lawrence sulked for a spell of course
as a spoiled baby ever since well i dare say you're right assented the dressmaker
she's so quiet it is hard to tell she never says a word about herself there was an unsuspected listener to this conversation lawrence had come in from the field for a drink and was standing in the open kitchen doorway
within easy earshot of the women's shrill tones he had never doubted his mother's word at any time in his life
why thank you that was all i wanted to know said lawrence ignoring her question and disappearing as suddenly as he had come that evening at moonrise he passed through the kitchen dressed in his sunday best
she asked querulously lawrence looked her squarely in the face with accusing eyes before which her own quailed
he said sternly and to ask her pardon for believing the lie that has kept us apart so long missus eastman flushed crimson and opened her lips to speak but something in lawrence's grave white face silenced her
she turned away without a word knowing in her secret soul that her youngest born was lost to her forever lawrence found bessy in the orchard under apple trees that were pyramids of pearly bloom
she looked at him through the twilight with reproach and aloofness in her eyes but he put out his hands and caught her reluctant ones in a masterful grasp listen to me bessy don't condemn me before you've heard me
i've been to blame for believing falsehoods about you but i believe them no longer and i've come to ask you to forgive me he told his story simply and straightforwardly in strict justice he could not keep his mother's name out of it
perhaps bessy understood none the less she knew what missus eastman's reputation in lynnfield was you might have had a little more faith in me she cried reproachfully i know i know
but i was beside myself with pain and wretchedness oh bessy won't you forgive me i love you so if you send me away i'll go to the dogs forgive me bessy and she
did forgive him i've loved you from the first lawrence she said
in camp on the desert august twenty fourth nineteen fourteen dear missus coney at last we are off i am powerfully glad i shall have to enjoy this trip for us both
you see how greedy i am for new experiences i have never been on a prolonged hunt before so i am looking forward to a heap of fun i hardly know what to do about writing but shall try to write every two days
i want you to have as much of this trip as i can put on paper so we will begin at the start to begin with we were all to meet at green river to start the twentieth
but a professor coming from somewhere in the east delayed us a day and also some of the party changed their plans that reduced our number but not our enthusiasm
a few days before we left the ranch i telephoned missus louderer and tried to persuade her to go along but she replied for why should i go vat iss it to freeze i can sleep out on some rocks here
and with a stick i can beat the sage bush which will give me the smell you will smell of the outside and for the game i can have a beef kill which iss better to eat as elk i love missus louderer dearly
but she is absolutely devoid of imagination and her matter of factness is mighty trying sometimes however she sent me a bottle of goose grease to ward off colds from the kinder
i tried missus o'shaughnessy but she was plumb aggravating and non committal and it seemed when we got to green river that i would be the only woman in the party
besides all the others were strangers to me except young mister haynes who was organizing the hunt really the prospect didn't seem so joyous the afternoon before we were to start i went with mister stewart and mister haynes to meet the train
we were expecting the professor but the only passenger who got off was a slight gray eyed girl she looked about her uncertainly for a moment and then went into the depot while we returned to the hotel
just as i started up the steps my eyes were gladdened by the sight of missus o'shaughnessy in her buckboard trotting merrily up the street she waved her hand to us and drove up
clyde took her team to the livery barn and she came up to my room with me it's going with you i am she began ye'll need somebody to keep yez straight and to sew up the holes ye'll be shooting into each other
we went down to supper we were all seated at one table and there was yet an empty place
but soon the girl we had seen get off the train came and seated herself in it can any of you tell me how to get to kendall wyoming she asked i didn't know nor did clyde
but missus o'shaughnessy knew so she answered kendall is in the forest reserve up north it is two hundred miles from here and half of the distance is across desert but they have an automobile route as far as pinedale
you could get that far on the auto stage after that i suppose you could get some one to take you on thank you said the girl my name is elizabeth hull
i am alone in the world and i am not expected at kendall so i am obliged to ask and to take care of myself missus o'shaughnessy at once mentioned her own name and introduced the rest of us
after supper miss hull and missus o'shaughnessy had a long talk i was not much surprised when missus o'shaughnessy came in to tell me that she was going to take the girl along because she said kendall is on our way
and it's glad i am to help a lone girl did you notice the freckles of her sure her forbears hailed from killarney so early next morning we were astir
we had outfitted in green river so the wagons were already loaded i had rather dreaded the professor i had pictured to myself a very dignified bespectacled person and i mentally stood in awe of his great learning
imagine my surprise when a boyish laughing young man introduced himself as professor glenholdt he was so jolly so unaffected
and so altogether likable that my fear vanished and i enjoyed the prospect of his company mister haynes and his friend mister struble on their wagon led the way then we followed
and after us came missus o'shaughnessy and miss hull brought up the rear with the professor riding horseback beside first one wagon and then another so we set out
there was a great jangling and banging for our tin camp stoves kept the noise going neither the children nor i can ride under cover on a wagon we get so sick
so there we were perched high up on great rolls of bedding and a tent i reckon we looked funny to the onlookers looking on as we clattered down the street but we were off and that meant a heap
all the morning our way lay up the beautiful river past the great red cliffs and through tiny green parks but just before noon the road wound itself up on to the mesa
which is really the beginning of the desert we crowded into the shadow of the wagons to eat our midday meal but we could not stop long because it was twenty eight miles to where we could get water for the horses
when we should camp that night so we wasted no time shortly after noon we could see white clouds of alkali dust ahead by and by we came up with the dust raisers
the children and i had got into the buckboard with missus o'shaughnessy and miss hull so as to ride easier and be able to gossip and we had driven ahead of the wagons so as to avoid the stinging dust
that he was a westerner we knew by his cowboy hat and boots that she was an easterner by her not knowing how to dress for the ride across the desert
she wore a foolish little chiffon hat which the alkali dust had ruined and all the rest of her clothes matched
but over them the enterprising young man had raised one of those big old sunshades that had lettering on them it kept wobbling about in the socket he had improvised one minute we could see tea
their sunshade kept revolving about that way and sometimes their heads revolved a little bit too
will ye tell me something oh yes they would then she said which of you are tea and which coffee their answer was to drive up faster and stir up a powerful lot of dust
they kept pretty well ahead after that but at sundown we came up with them at the well where we were to camp this well had been sunk by the county for the convenience of travelers
and we were mighty thankful to find it it came out that our young couple were bride and groom they had never seen each other until the night before having met through a matrimonial paper
they had met in green river and were married that morning and the young husband was taking her away up to pinedale to his ranch they must have been ideally happy for they had forgotten their mess box and had only a light lunch
they had only their lap robe for bedding they were in a predicament but the girl's chief concern was lest honey bug should let the wolves get her though it is scorching hot on the desert by day the nights are keenly cool
and i was wondering how they would manage with only their lap robe when missus o'shaughnessy who cannot hold malice made a round of the camp getting a blanket here and a coat there until she had enough to make them comfortable
then she invited them to take their meals with us until they could get to where they could help themselves i think we all enjoyed camp that night for we were all tired we were in a shallow little canyon
not a tree not even a bush except sage brush luckily there was plenty of that so we had roaring fires we sat around the fire talking as the blue shadows faded into gray dusk and the big stars came out
the newly weds were as the bride put it so full of happiness they had nothing to put it in certainly their spirits overflowed they were eager to talk of themselves and we didn't mind listening
they are mister and missus tom burney she is the oldest of a large family of children and has had to work out ever since she was big enough to get a job
the people she had worked for rather frowned upon any matrimonial ventures and as no provision was made for help entertaining company she had never had a beau
she answered and they corresponded for several months we were just in time to catch it as mister haynes who is a confirmed bachelor disgustedly remarked personally i am glad
i like them much better than i thought i should when they were raising so much dust so unnecessarily i must close this letter as i see the men are about ready to start
the children are standing the trip well except that robert is a little sun blistered did i tell you we left junior with his grandmother even though i have the other three my heart is hungry for my big boy
in camp august thirty first nineteen fourteen dear missus coney we are across the desert and camped for a few days fishing on a shady bowery little stream
we have had two frosty nights and there are trembling golden groves on every hand four men joined us at newfork and the bachelors have gone on
but mister stewart wanted to rest the beasties and we all wanted to fish so we camped for a day or two the twenty eighth was the warmest day we have had the most disagreeable in every way
not a breath of air stirred except an occasional whirlwind which was hot and threw sand and dust over us we could see the heat glimmering and not a tree nor a green spot the mountains looked no nearer
i am afraid we all rather wished we were at home
water was getting very scarce so the men wanted to reach by noon a long low valley they knew of for sometimes water could be found in a buried river bed there and they hoped to find enough for the horses
but a little after noon we came to the spot and only dry glistening sand met our eyes the men emptied the water bags for the horses they all had a little water
we had to be saving so none of us washed our dust grimed faces we were sitting in the scant shadow of the wagons eating our dinner when we were startled to see a tall bare headed man
come racing down the draw his clothes and shoes were in tatters there were great blisters on his arms and shoulders where the sun had burned him his eyes were swollen and red and his lips were cracked and bloody
his hair was so white and so dusty that altogether he was a pitiful looking object he greeted us pleasantly and said that his name was olaf swanson and that he was a sheep herder that he had seen us and had come to ask for a little smoking
by that he meant tobacco missus o'shaughnessy was eyeing him very closely she asked him when he had eaten that morning he said she asked him what he had eaten
he told her cactus balls and a little rabbit i saw her exchange glances with professor glenholdt and she left her dinner to get out her war bag she called olaf aside and gently dressed his blisters with listerine
after she had helped him to clean his mouth she said to him now olaf sit by me and eat show me how much you can eat then tell me what you mean by saying you are a sheep herder
don't you think we know there will be no sheep on the desert before there is snow to make water for them i am what i say i am he said i am not herding now because sorrow has drove me to dig wells
it is sorrow for horses have you not seen their bones every mile or so along this road them's markers every pile of bones marks where man's most faithful friend has laid down at last
most of em died in the harness and for want of water i killed a horse once i was trying to have a good time i had been out with sheep for months and hadn't seen any one but my pardner
we planned to have a rippin good time when we took the sheep in off the summer range and drew our pay you don't know how people hungry a man gets livin out so my pardner and me layed out to have one spree
we had a neat little bunch of money but when we got to town we felt lost as sheep we didn't know nobody but the bartender we kept taking a drink now and then just so as to have him to talk to
finally he told us there was going to be a dance that night so we asked around and found we could get tickets for two dollars each sam said he'd like to go we bought tickets
somehow or another they knew us for sheep herders and every once in a while somebody would baa baa at us we had a couple of dances but after that we couldn't get a pardner
after midnight things begun to get pretty noisy sam and me was settin wonderin if we were havin a good time when a fellow stepped on sam's foot and said baa
i rose up and was goin to smash him but sam collared me and said let's get away from here olaf before trouble breaks out
we were pretty near the door when a man put his hand to his nose and baa ed i knocked him down and before you could bat your eye everybody was fightin we couldn't get out so we backed into a corner
and every man my fist hit rested on the floor till somebody helped him away
we were away out on the desert not far from north pilot butte poor sam couldn't speak i got him off poor old pinto and took off the saddle for a pillow for him i hung the saddle blanket on a greasewood
so as to shade his face then i got on my own poor horse poor old billy and started to hunt help i rode and rode i was tryin to find some outfit
when billy lagged i beat him on you see i was thinking of sam
stepped into a badger hole i thought but he kept staggerin i fell off on one side just as he pitched forward he tried and tried to get up i stayed till he died then i kept walking
i don't know what became of sam i don't know what became of me but i do know i am going to dig wells all over this desert until every thirsty horse can have water all the time he had been eating just pickles
when he finished his story he ate faster by now we all knew he was demented the men tried to coax him to go on with us so that they could turn him over to the authorities but he said he must be digging
at last it was decided to send some one back for him mister struble was unwilling to leave him but the man would not be persuaded suddenly he gathered up his smoking and some food
and ran back up the draw we had to go on of course all that afternoon our road lay along the buried river i don't mean dry river
sand had blown into the river until the water was buried water was only a few feet down and the banks were clearly defined sometimes we came to a small dirty puddle but it was so alkaline that nothing could drink it
the story we had heard had saddened us all and we were sorry for our horses poor little elizabeth hull wept she said the west was so big and bare and she was so alone and so sad she just had to cry
about sundown we came to a ranch and were made welcome by one timothy hobbs owner of the place the dwelling and the stables were a collection of low brown houses made of logs and daubed with mud
fields of shocked grain made a very prosperous looking background a belled cow led a bunch of sleek cattle home over the sand dunes
the cattle came and drank at the trough the bell making a pleasant sound in the twilight the men told mister hobbs about the man we saw oh yes he said that is crazy olaf
he has been that way for twenty years spends his time digging wells but he never gets any water and the sand caves in almost as fast as he can get it out then he launched upon a recital of how he got sweet water
by piping past the alkali strata i kept hoping he would tell how olaf was kept and who was responsible for him but he never told he invited us to prepare our supper in his kitchen
and as it was late and wood was scarce we were glad to accept he bustled about helping us adding such dainties as fresh milk butter and eggs to our menu
he is a rather stout little man with merry gray eyes and brown hair beginning to gray he wore a red shirt and blue overalls and he wiped his butcher's knife impartially on the legs of his overalls or his towel
just whichever was handiest as he hurried about cutting our bacon and opening cans for us missus o'shaughnessy and he got on famously after supper while she and elizabeth washed the dishes
she asked him why he didn't get married and have some one to look after him and his cabin i don't have time he answered i came west eighteen years ago to make a start and a home for jennie and me
but i can't find time to go back and get her in the summer i have to hustle to make the hay and grain and i have to stay and feed the stock all the rest of the time you write her once in a while don't you asked missus o'shaughnessy
yes he said i wrote her two years ago come april then i was so busy i didn't go to town till i went for my year's supplies i went to the post office and sure enough there was a letter for me
been waitin for me for six months you see the postmaster knows me and never would send a letter back i set down there right in the office and answered it i told her how it was
told her i was coming after her soon as i could find time you see she refuses to come to me cause i am so far from the railroad and she is afraid of indians and wild animals
have you got your answer asked elizabeth no he said i ain't had time yet to go but i kind of wish somebody would think to bring the mail not many people pass here
only when the open season takes hunters to the mountains when you people come back will you stop and ask for the mail for me
however not one of them was very hungry the poor cat felt very weak and he was able to eat only thirty five mullets with tomato sauce and four portions of tripe with cheese moreover
as he was so in need of strength he had to have four more helpings of butter and cheese the fox after a great deal of coaxing tried his best to eat a little the doctor had put him on a diet and he had to be satisfied with a small hare
dressed with a dozen young and tender spring chickens after the hare he ordered some partridges a few pheasants a couple of rabbits and a dozen frogs and lizards that was all he felt ill he said and could not eat another bite
pinocchio ate least of all he asked for a bite of bread and a few nuts and then hardly touched them the poor fellow with his mind on the field of wonders was suffering from a gold piece indigestion
before starting out we'll take a little nap remember to call us at midnight sharp for we must continue on our journey yes sir answered the innkeeper winking in a knowing way at the fox and the cat as if to say i understand
as soon as pinocchio was in bed he fell fast asleep and began to dream he dreamed he was in the middle of a field the field was full of vines heavy with grapes
the grapes were no other than gold coins which tinkled merrily as they swayed in the wind they seemed to say
just as pinocchio stretched out his hand to take a handful of them he was awakened by three loud knocks at the door it was the innkeeper who had come to tell him that midnight had struck are my friends ready the marionette asked him
indeed yes they went two hours ago why in such a hurry unfortunately the cat received a telegram which said that his first born was suffering from chilblains and was on the point of death
how could they do such a thing being people of great refinement they did not want to offend you so deeply as not to allow you the honor of paying the bill too bad
where did my good friends say they would wait for me he added
pinocchio paid a gold piece for the three suppers and started on his way toward the field that was to make him a rich man he walked on not knowing where he was going for it was dark so dark that not a thing was visible
round about him not a leaf stirred a few bats skimmed his nose now and again and scared him half to death
who goes there who goes as he walked pinocchio noticed a tiny insect glimmering on the trunk of a tree a small being that glowed with a pale soft light who are you he asked i am the ghost of the talking cricket
answered the little being in a faint voice that sounded as if it came from a far away world what do you want asked the marionette i want to give you a few words of good advice
return home and give the four gold pieces you have left to your poor old father who is weeping because he has not seen you for many a day tomorrow my father will be a rich man for these four gold pieces will become two thousand
don't listen to those who promise you wealth overnight my boy as a rule they are either fools or swindlers listen to me and go home
the hour is late i want to go on the night is very dark i want to go on the road is dangerous i want to go on
remember that boys who insist on having their own way sooner or later come to grief the same nonsense good by cricket good night pinocchio and may heaven preserve you from the assassins there was silence for a minute
said the countess without replying to the question no madame replied monte cristo but you see i make no resistance we are going to the greenhouse that you see at the other end of the grove
the count looked at mercedes as if to interrogate her but she continued to walk on in silence and he refrained from speaking
they reached the building ornamented with magnificent fruits which ripen at the beginning of july in the artificial temperature which takes the place of the sun so frequently absent in our climate the countess left the arm of monte cristo
and gathered a bunch of muscatel grapes see count she said with a smile so sad in its expression that one could almost detect the tears on her eyelids see our french grapes are not to be compared i know with yours of sicily and cyprus
but stepped back do you refuse said mercedes in a tremulous voice pray excuse me madame replied monte cristo but i never eat muscatel grapes mercedes let them fall and sighed
a magnificent peach was hanging against an adjoining wall ripened by the same artificial heat mercedes drew near and plucked the fruit take this peach then she said the count again refused what again
she exclaimed in so plaintive an accent that it seemed to stifle a sob really you pain me a long silence followed the peach like the grapes fell to the ground count added mercedes with a supplicating glance
there is a beautiful arabian custom which makes eternal friends of those who have together eaten bread and salt under the same roof i know it madame replied the count but we are in france and not in arabia
and in france eternal friendships are as rare as the custom of dividing bread and salt with one another but said the countess breathlessly with her eyes fixed on monte cristo whose arm she convulsively pressed with both hands we are friends are we not
the count became pale as death the blood rushed to his heart and then again rising dyed his cheeks with crimson his eyes swam like those of a man suddenly dazzled certainly we are friends he replied why should we not be
the answer was so little like the one mercedes desired that she turned away to give vent to a sigh which sounded more like a groan thank you she said and they walked on again
they went the whole length of the garden without uttering a word sir suddenly exclaimed the countess after their walk had continued ten minutes in silence is it true that you have seen so much travelled so far and suffered so deeply
i have suffered deeply madame answered monte cristo but now you are happy doubtless replied the count since no one hears me complain and your present happiness has it softened your heart
my present happiness equals my past misery said the count are you not married asked the countess i married exclaimed monte cristo shuddering
no one told me you were
she is a slave whom i bought at constantinople madame the daughter of a prince i have adopted her as my daughter having no one else to love in the world you live alone then i do you have no sister no son
no father i have no one how can you exist thus without any one to attach you to life it is not my fault madame at malta i loved a young girl was on the point of marrying her
when war came and carried me away i thought she loved me well enough to wait for me and even to remain faithful to my memory when i returned she was married this is the history of most men who have passed twenty years of age
perhaps my heart was weaker than the hearts of most men and i suffered more than they would have done in my place that is all the countess stopped for a moment as if gasping for breath yes she said
one can only love once and did you ever see her again never never i never returned to the country where she lived to malta yes malta she is then now at malta i think so
and have you forgiven her for all she has made you suffer her yes but only her
i hate them not at all why should i the countess placed herself before monte cristo still holding in her hand a portion of the perfumed grapes take some she said
madame i never eat muscatel grapes replied monte cristo as if the subject had not been mentioned before the countess dashed the grapes into the nearest thicket with a gesture of despair inflexible man she murmured
monte cristo remained as unmoved as if the reproach had not been addressed to him albert at this moment ran in oh mother he exclaimed such a misfortune has happened what what has happened asked the countess
as though awakening from a sleep to the realities of life did you say a misfortune indeed i should expect misfortunes
well he comes to fetch his wife and daughter why so
madame de villefort who was in very good spirits would neither believe nor think of the misfortune but mademoiselle valentine at the first words guessed the whole truth notwithstanding all the precautions of her father the blow struck her like a thunderbolt
do not my mother and you agree asked albert astonished on the contrary replied the count did you not hear her declare that we were friends they re entered the drawing room
instead of returning directly home
this time he had decided to relate all that had passed
when d'artagnan had finished he said hum all this savors of his eminence a league off but what is to be done said d'artagnan nothing absolutely nothing at present but quitting paris as i told you as soon as possible
i will see the queen i will relate to her the details of the disappearance of this poor woman of which she is no doubt ignorant these details will guide her on her part and on your return i shall perhaps have some good news to tell you rely on me
in fact in addition to that yellow sickly paleness which indicates the insinuation of the bile in the blood and which might besides be accidental
d'artagnan remarked something perfidiously significant in the play of the wrinkled features of his countenance a rogue does not laugh in the same way that an honest man does a hypocrite does not shed the tears of a man of good faith
all falsehood is a mask and however well made the mask may be with a little attention we may always succeed in distinguishing it from the true face
well young man said he we appear to pass rather gay nights seven o'clock in the morning peste you seem to reverse ordinary customs and come home at the hour when other people are going out
no one can reproach you for anything of the kind monsieur bonacieux said the young man you are a model for regular people it is true that when a man possesses a young and pretty wife he has no need to seek happiness elsewhere
happiness comes to meet him does it not monsieur bonacieux bonacieux became as pale as death and grinned a ghastly smile ah ah said bonacieux you are a jocular companion
d'artagnan glanced down at his boots all covered with mud but that same glance fell upon the shoes and stockings of the mercer and it might have been said they had been dipped in the same mud heap both were stained with splashes of mud of the same appearance
then a sudden idea crossed the mind of d'artagnan that little stout man short and elderly that sort of lackey dressed in dark clothes treated without ceremony by the men wearing swords who composed the escort
was bonacieux himself the husband had presided at the abduction of his wife a terrible inclination seized d'artagnan to grasp the mercer by the throat and strangle him but as we have said
that bonacieux was terrified at it and he endeavored to draw back a step or two but as he was standing before the half of the door which was shut the obstacle compelled him to keep his place
ah but you are joking my worthy man said d'artagnan it appears to me that if my boots need a sponge your stockings and shoes stand in equal need of a brush may you not have been philandering a little also monsieur bonacieux
that's unpardonable in a man of your age and who besides has such a pretty wife as yours oh lord no
the place named by bonacieux as that which had been the object of his journey was a fresh proof in support of the suspicions d'artagnan had conceived
this probability afforded him his first consolation if bonacieux knew where his wife was one might by extreme means force the mercer to open his teeth and let his secret escape
pardon my dear monsieur bonacieux if i don't stand upon ceremony said d'artagnan but nothing makes one so thirsty as want of sleep i am parched with thirst
allow me to take a glass of water in your apartment you know that is never refused among neighbors without waiting for the permission of his host d'artagnan went quickly into the house and cast a rapid glance at the bed it had not been used
thanks monsieur bonacieux said d'artagnan emptying his glass that is all i wanted of you i will now go up into my apartment i will make planchet brush my boots and when he has done i will if you like send him to you to brush your shoes
he found planchet in a great fright ah monsieur
i thought you would never come in what's the matter now planchet demanded d'artagnan oh i give you a hundred i give you a thousand times to guess monsieur the visit i received in your absence when about half an hour ago while you were at monsieur de treville's
who has been here come speak monsieur de cavois
the falsehood would then lie at my door and as i am not a gentleman i may be allowed to lie
the host on seeing a young man followed by a lackey with two extra horses advanced respectfully to the door now as they had already traveled eleven leagues d'artagnan thought it time to stop
without asking information of any kind alighted commended the horses to the care of his lackey
and desired the host to bring him a bottle of his best wine and as good a breakfast as possible a desire which further corroborated the high opinion the innkeeper had formed of the traveler at first sight
d'artagnan was therefore served with miraculous celerity the regiment of the guards was recruited among the first gentlemen of the kingdom and d'artagnan followed by a lackey and traveling with four magnificent horses
despite the simplicity of his uniform could not fail to make a sensation the host desired himself to serve him
and commenced the following conversation my faith my good host said d'artagnan filling the two glasses
but what shall we drink to so as to avoid wounding any susceptibility let us drink to the prosperity of your establishment
your lordship does me much honor said the host and i thank you sincerely for your kind wish but don't mistake said d'artagnan there is more selfishness in my toast than perhaps you may think
now i travel a great deal particularly on this road and i wish to see all innkeepers making a fortune it seems to me said the host that this is not the first time i have had the honor of seeing monsieur bah i have passed perhaps ten times through chantilly
why i was here only ten or twelve days ago i was conducting some friends musketeers one of whom by the by had a dispute with a stranger
exactly so said the host i remember it perfectly it is not monsieur porthos that your lordship means yes that is my companion's name my god my dear host tell me if anything has happened to him
your lordship must have observed that he could not continue his journey why to be sure he promised to rejoin us and we have seen nothing of him he has done us the honor to remain here what he had done you the honor to remain here
yes monsieur in this house and we are even a little uneasy on what account of certain expenses he has contracted well but whatever expenses he may have incurred i am sure he is in a condition to pay them
ah monsieur you infuse genuine balm into my blood we have made considerable advances and this very morning the surgeon declared that if monsieur porthos did not pay him he should look to me as it was i who had sent for him porthos is wounded then
i cannot tell you monsieur what you cannot tell me surely you ought to be able to tell me better than any other person yes but in our situation we must not say all we know particularly as we have been warned that our ears should answer for our tongues
well can i see porthos certainly monsieur take the stairs on your right go up the first flight and knock at number one only warn him that it is you why should i do that
i took advantage of the journey of one of my lads to paris
this was fulfilling the intentions of monsieur porthos who had desired us to be so careful of this letter was it not nearly so well monsieur do you know who this great lady is no i have heard porthos speak of her
that's all do you know who this pretended duchess is i repeat to you i don't know her
who although she is at least fifty still gives herself jealous airs
because she flew into a great passion on receiving the letter
and that she was sure it was for some woman he had received this wound has he been wounded then oh good lord
you said that porthos had received a sword cut yes but he has forbidden me so strictly to say so and why so zounds monsieur because he had boasted that he would perforate the stranger with whom you left him in dispute
whereas the stranger on the contrary in spite of all his rodomontades quickly threw him on his back as monsieur porthos is a very boastful man he insists that nobody shall know he has received this wound except the duchess
it is a wound that confines him to his bed ah and a master stroke too i assure you your friend's soul must stick tight to his body were you there then
monsieur i followed them from curiosity so that i saw the combat without the combatants seeing me and what took place oh the affair was not long i assure you they placed themselves on guard
the stranger placed the point of his sword at his throat and monsieur porthos finding himself at the mercy of his adversary acknowledged himself conquered
he assisted him to rise brought him back to the hotel mounted his horse and disappeared so it was with monsieur d'artagnan this stranger meant to quarrel it appears so
no i never saw him until that moment and have not seen him since very well i know all that i wish to know porthos's chamber is you say on the first story number one
don't be afraid he is not so much of a devil as he appears
at the top of the stairs upon the most conspicuous door of the corridor was traced in black ink a gigantic number one d'artagnan knocked and upon the bidding to come in which came from inside he entered the chamber
while a spit loaded with partridges was turning before the fire and on each side of a large chimneypiece over two chafing dishes were boiling two stewpans from which exhaled a double odor of rabbit and fish stews
rejoicing to the smell in addition to this he perceived that the top of a wardrobe and the marble of a commode were covered with empty bottles at the sight of his friend porthos uttered a loud cry of joy
added he looking at d'artagnan with a certain degree of uneasiness you know what has happened to me no
porthos seemed to breathe more freely and what has happened to you my dear porthos continued d'artagnan why on making a thrust at my adversary whom i had already hit three times and whom i meant to finish with the fourth
i put my foot on a stone slipped and strained my knee truly honor
and what has became of him oh i don't know he had enough and set off without waiting for the rest but you my dear d'artagnan what has happened to you so that this strain of the knee continued d'artagnan my dear porthos keeps you in bed
my god that's all i shall be about again in a few days why did you not have yourself conveyed to paris you must be cruelly bored here that was my intention but my dear friend i have one thing to confess to you what's that
it is that as i was cruelly bored as you say and as i had the seventy five pistoles in my pocket which you had distributed to me in order to amuse myself i invited a gentleman who was traveling this way to walk up and proposed a cast of dice
he accepted my challenge and my faith my seventy five pistoles passed from my pocket to his without reckoning my horse which he won into the bargain but you my dear d'artagnan what can you expect my dear porthos
a man is not privileged in all ways said d'artagnan you know the proverb unlucky at play lucky in love
what consequence can the reverses of fortune be to you have you not happy rogue that you are
well you see my dear d'artagnan with what ill luck i play replied porthos with the most careless air in the world i wrote to her to send me fifty louis or so
well she must be at her country seat for she has not answered me truly no so i yesterday addressed another epistle to her still more pressing than the first
but you are here my dear fellow let us speak of you i confess i began to be very uneasy on your account but your host behaves very well toward you as it appears my dear porthos
so so replied porthos only three or four days ago the impertinent jackanapes gave me his bill and i was forced to turn both him and his bill out of the door so that i am here
and yet said d'artagnan laughing it appears to me that from time to time you must make sorties and he again pointed to the bottles and the stewpans not i unfortunately said porthos this miserable strain confines me to my bed
but mousqueton forages and brings in provisions friend mousqueton you see that we have a reinforcement and we must have an increase of supplies mousqueton said d'artagnan you must render me a service what monsieur
you must give your recipe to planchet i may be besieged in my turn and i shall not be sorry for him to be able to let me enjoy the same advantages with which you gratify your master lord monsieur there is nothing more easy said mousqueton with a modest air
i was brought up in the country and my father in his leisure time was something of a poacher
monsieur he carried on a trade which i have always thought satisfactory which
he adopted a mixed belief which permitted him to be sometimes catholic sometimes a huguenot
the protestant religion immediately prevailed in his mind he lowered his gun in the direction of the traveler then when he was within ten paces of him he commenced a conversation which almost always ended by the traveler's abandoning his purse to save his life it goes without saying
that when he saw a huguenot coming he felt himself filled with such ardent catholic zeal
that he could not understand how a quarter of an hour before he had been able to have any doubts upon the superiority of our holy religion for my part monsieur i am catholic my father faithful to his principles having made my elder brother a huguenot
and what was the end of this worthy man asked d'artagnan oh of the most unfortunate kind monsieur one day he was surprised in a lonely road between a huguenot and a catholic with both of whom he had before had business
and who both knew him again so they united against him and hanged him on a tree
said d'artagnan we let them tell their story out replied mousqueton then as in leaving the cabaret they took different directions
and i on that of the huguenot two hours after all was over we had done the business of both admiring the foresight of our poor father who had taken the precaution to bring each of us up in a different religion well
i must allow as you say your father was a very intelligent fellow and you say in his leisure moments the worthy man was a poacher yes monsieur and it was he who taught me to lay a snare and ground a line the consequence is that when i saw our laborers
i had recourse to a little of my old trade while walking near the wood of monsieur le prince i laid a few snare in the runs and while reclining on the banks of his highness's pieces of water i slipped a few lines into his fish ponds so that now thanks be to god
all light wholesome food suitable for the sick but the wine said d'artagnan who furnishes the wine your host that is to say yes and no how yes and no
he furnishes it it is true but he does not know that he has that honor explain yourself mousqueton your conversation is full of instructive things that is it monsieur
it has so chanced that i met with a spaniard in my peregrinations who had seen many countries and among them the new world what connection can the new world have with the bottles which are on the commode and the wardrobe patience monsieur everything will come in its turn
this lackey was my compatriot and we became the more intimate from there being many resemblances of character between us we loved sporting of all kinds better than anything so that he related to me how in the plains of the pampas the natives hunt the tiger and the wild bull
my friend placed a bottle at the distance of thirty paces and at each cast he caught the neck of the bottle in his running noose i practiced this exercise and as nature has endowed me with some faculties at this day i can throw the lasso with any man in the world well
our host has a well furnished cellar the key of which never leaves him only this cellar has a ventilating hole now through this ventilating hole i throw my lasso and as i now know in which part of the cellar is the best wine that's my point for sport
well said porthos arrange the table mousqueton
willingly said d'artagnan while porthos and mousqueton were breakfasting with the appetites of convalescents and with that brotherly cordiality which unites men in misfortune d'artagnan related how aramis being wounded was obliged to stop at crevecoeur
but there the confidence of d'artagnan stopped he only added that on his return from great britain he had brought back four magnificent horses
a great celebrator by bill nye
the former home of thomas jefferson also his grave monticello is about an hour's ride from charlottesville by diligence one rides over a road constructed of rip raps and broken stone
of a long waisted man chafe against his ears i have decided that the site for my grave shall be at the end of a trunk line somewhere and i will endow a droska to carry passengers to and from said grave
whatever my life may have been and however short i may have fallen in my great struggle for a generous recognition by the american people i propose to place my grave within reach of all
monticello is reached by a circuitous route to the top of a beautiful hill on the crest of which rests the brick house where mister jefferson lived you enter a lodge gate in charge of a venerable negro to whom you pay two bits apiece for admission
it just goes toward it however it don't quite get there i judge for the roads are still appealing for aid perhaps the negro can tell how far it gets up through a neglected thicket of virginia shrubs and
ill kempt trees you drive to the house it is a house that would readily command seven hundred fifty dollars with queer porches to it and large airy windows the top of the whole hill was graded level or terraced
and an enormous quantity of work must have been required to do it but jefferson did not care he did not care for fatigue with two hundred slaves of his own and a dowry of three hundred more which was poured into his coffers by his marriage
jeff did not care how much toil it took to polish off the top of a bluff or how much the sweat stood out on the brow of a hill jefferson wrote the declaration of independence he sent it to one of the magazines but it was returned as not available
bosom board on the right arm upon which jefferson used to rest his declaration of independence
there is also an old gig stored in the house
this is untrue but it goes with the place it takes from eight thirty a m until noon to ride this distance on a fast train and in a much more direct line than the old wagon road ran
it is now under the management of a classical janitor who has a tinge of negro blood in his veins mixed with the rich castilian blood of somebody else he has been at the head of the university of virginia for over forty years
bringing in the coals and exercising a general oversight over the curriculum and other furniture he is a modest man with a tendency toward the classical in his researches he took us up on the roof showed us the outlying country and jarred our ear drums
with the big bell mister estes who has general charge of monticello called montechello said that mister jefferson used to sit on his front porch with a powerful glass
and if the workmen undertook to smuggle in a soft brick mister jefferson five or six miles away detected it and bounding lightly into his saddle he rode down there to charlottesville and clubbed the bricklayers until they were glad to pull down the wall
to that brick and take it out again this story is what made me speak of that section a few minutes ago as an outlying country the other day charles l seigel told us the confederate version of an attack on fort moultrie during the
which has never been printed mister seigel was a german confederate and early in the fight was quartered in company with others at the moultrie house a seaside hotel the guests having deserted the building
so that they would not forget that war was a serious matter nobody used them but they were there all the same
sorrowful little light blue mammal with a tinge of bitter melancholy in his voice he used to dwell on the past a good deal and at night he would refer to it in tones that were choked with emotion
the boys caught him one evening as the gloaming began to arrange itself and threw him down on the green grass they next pulled a straw bed over his head and inserted him in it completely cutting holes for his legs
then they tied a string of sleigh bells to his tail and hit him a smart stinging blow with a black snake
the darkness of the night the rattle of hoofs the clash of the bells the quick challenge of the guard the failure to give the countersign the sharp volley of the sentinels and the wild cry to arms followed in rapid succession
the tocsin sounded also the slogan the culverin ukase and door tender were all fired huge beacons of fat pine were lighted along the beach the whole slumbering host sprang to arms
and the crack of the musket was heard through the intense darkness in the morning the enemy was found intrenched in a mud hole south of the fort with his clean new straw tick spattered with clay and a wildly disheveled tail
on board the richmond train not long ago a man lost his hat as we pulled out of petersburg and it fell by the side of the track the train was just moving slowly away from the station so he had a chance to jump off and run back after it
he got the hat but not till we had placed seven or eight miles between us and him we could not help feeling sorry for him because very likely his hat had an embroidered hat band in it presented by one dearer to him than life itself
and so we worked up quite a feeling for him though of course he was very foolish to lose his train just for a hat even if it did have the needle work of his heart's idol in it later i was surprised to see the same man in columbia south carolina
and he then told me this sad story i started out a month ago to take a little trip of a few weeks and the first day was very very happily spent in scrutinizing nature and scanning the faces of those i saw
on the second day out i ran across a young man whom i had known slightly before and who is engaged in the business of being a companionable fellow and the life of the party that is about all the business he has he knows a great many people
and his circle of acquaintances is getting larger all the time he is proud of the enormous quantity of friendship he has acquired he says he can't get on a train or visit any town in the union that he doesn't find a friend
he is full of stories and witticisms and explains the plays to theater parties he has seen a great deal of life and is a keen critic
if he had been one of the ephesians he would have criticized paul's gestures and said paul i like your epistles a heap better than i do your appearance on the platform you express yourself well enough with your pen
were disappointed in you and we lost money on you well he joined me and finding out where i was going he decided to go also
he went along to explain things to me and talk to me when i wanted to sleep or read the newspaper he introduced me to large numbers of people whom i did not want to meet took me to see things i didn't want to see
he multiplied misery by throwing uncongenial people together and then said
everywhere he met more new people with whom he had an acquaintance he shook hands with them and called them by their first names and felt in their pockets for cigars
he was just bubbling over with mirth and laughed all the time being so offensively joyous in fact that when he went into a car he attracted general attention which suited him first rate
that made him more or less feared by the administration he was acquainted with a thousand little vices of all our public men which virtually placed them in his power he knew how the president conducted himself at home and was on to everything in public life
well he shook hands with the president and introduced me i could see that the president was thinking about something else though and so i came away without really feeling that i knew him very well
then we visited the departments and i can see now that i hurt myself by being towed around by this man he was so free and so joyous and so bubbling that wherever we went i could hear the key grate in the lock after we passed out of the door
he started south with me he was going to show me all the battle fields and introduce me into society i bought some strychnine in washington and put it in his buckwheat cakes but they got cold and he sent them back i did not know what to do and was almost wild
for his pleasure either at petersburg i was told that the train going the other way would meet us
he'll make thy foolish bones go without flesh in a fortnight and thy soul walk without a body a sennight after shirley
an honest notary public the descendant of a very ancient and broken down family and the occupant of one of those old weather beaten tenements which remind you of the times of your great grandfather
he was a man of an unoffending quiet disposition the father of a family
the hen over crowed the cock and the neighbors when they spake of the notary shrugged their shoulders and exclaimed poor fellow his spurs want sharpening in fine you understand me gentlemen he was hen pecked
well
and at length discovered a place of rest far beyond the cares and clamors of domestic life this was a little cafe estaminet a short way out of the city whither he repaired every evening to smoke his pipe drink sugar water
and play his favorite game of domino there he met the boon companions he most loved heard all the floating chitchat of the day laughed when he was in merry mood found consolation when he was sad
and at all times gave vent to his opinions without fear of being snubbed short by a flat contradiction now the notary's bosom friend was a dealer in claret and cognac
who lived about a league from the city and always passed his evenings at the estaminet he was a gross corpulent fellow raised from a full blooded gascon breed and sired by a comic actor of some reputation in his way
he was remarkable for nothing but his good humor his love of cards and a strong propensity to test the quality of his own liquors by comparing them with those sold at other places
as evil communications corrupt good manners the bad practices of the wine dealer won insensibly upon the worthy notary and before he was aware of it he found himself weaned from domino and sugar water
indeed it not unfrequently happened that after a long session at the estaminet the two friends grew so urbane
in friendly dispute which should conduct the other home though this course of life agreed well enough with the sluggish phlegmatic temperament of the wine dealer
it soon began to play the very deuse with the more sensitive organization of the notary and finally put his nervous system completely out of tune he lost his appetite became gaunt and haggard
legions of blue devils haunted him by day and by night strange faces peeped through his bed curtains and the nightmare snorted in his ear the worse he grew the more he smoked and tippled
and the more he smoked and tippled why as a matter of course the worse he grew
she made the house too hot for him he retreated to the tavern she broke his long stemmed pipes upon the andirons he substituted a short stemmed one which for safe keeping he carried in his waistcoat pocket
thus the unhappy notary ran gradually down at the heel what with his bad habits and his domestic grievances he became completely hipped he imagined that he was going to die and suffered in quick succession
all the diseases that ever beset mortal man every shooting pain was an alarming symptom every uneasy feeling after dinner a sure prognostic of some mortal disease in vain did his friends endeavor to reason
and then to laugh him out of his strange whims for when did ever jest or reason cure a sick imagination his only answer was do let me alone i know better than you what ails me well gentlemen
things were in this state when one afternoon in december as he sat moping in his office wrapped in an overcoat with a cap on his head and his feet thrust into a pair of furred slippers a cabriolet stopped at the door
and a loud knocking without aroused him from his gloomy revery it was a message from his friend the wine dealer who had been suddenly attacked with a violent fever and growing worse and worse had now sent in the greatest haste for the notary
to draw up his last will and testament the case was urgent and admitted neither excuse nor delay and the notary tying a handkerchief round his face and buttoning up to the chin jumped into the cabriolet and suffered himself
to be driven to the wine dealer's house when he arrived he found everything in the greatest confusion on entering the house he ran against the apothecary who was coming down stairs with a face as long as your arm
running up and down and wringing her hands for fear that the good man should die without making his will he soon reached the chamber of his sick friend and found him tossing about in a paroxysm of fever and calling aloud for a draught of cold water
the notary shook his head he thought this a fatal symptom for ten years back the wine dealer had been suffering under a species of hydrophobia which seemed suddenly to have left him
when the sick man saw who stood by his bedside he stretched out his hand and exclaimed ah my dear friend have you come at last you see it is all over with me
you have arrived just in time to draw up that that passport of mine
how hot it is here water water water will nobody give me a drop of cold water
as the case was an urgent one the notary made no delay in getting his papers in readiness and in a short time the last will and testament of the wine dealer was drawn up in due form the notary guiding the sick man's hand as he scrawled his signature at the bottom
the phrases of the credo and paternoster with the shibboleth of the dram shop and the card table
at the fearful scene that was passing before him and now and then striving to keep up his courage by a glass of cognac already his fears were on the alert and the idea of contagion flitted to and fro through his mind
and began to prepare for returning home at that moment the apothecary turned round to him and said dreadful sickly time this the disorder seems to be spreading what disorder exclaimed the notary with a movement of surprise
two died yesterday and three to day continued the apothecary without answering the question very sickly time sir very but what disorder is it what
what disease why scarlet fever to be sure and is it contagious certainly then i am a dead man exclaimed the notary putting his pipe into his waistcoat pocket
and beginning to walk up and down the room in despair i am a dead man now don't deceive me don't will you
a sharp burning pain in the right side said the apothecary
in vain did the housekeeper and the apothecary strive to pacify him he was not a man to be reasoned with he answered that he knew his own constitution better than they did and insisted upon going home without delay
nothing in the world but to take the apothecary's horse which stood hitched at the door patiently waiting his master's will well gentlemen as there was no remedy our notary mounted
upon his homeward journey the night was cold and gusty and the wind right in his teeth overhead the leaden clouds were beating to and fro and through them the newly risen moon seemed to be tossing
now swallowed up in a huge billow of cloud and now lifted upon its bosom and dashed with silvery spray the trees by the road side groaned with a sound of evil omen and before him lay three mortal miles
beset with a thousand imaginary perils obedient to the whip and spur the steed leaped forward by fits and starts now dashing away in a tremendous gallop and now relaxing into a long hard trot while the rider
filled with symptoms of disease and dire presentiments of death urged him on as if he were fleeing before the pestilence in this way by dint of whistling and shouting and beating right and left one mile of the fatal three was safely passed
the apprehensions of the notary had so far subsided that he even suffered the poor horse to walk up hill but these apprehensions were suddenly revived again with tenfold violence by a sharp pain in the right side which seemed to pierce him like a needle
it is upon me at last groaned the fear stricken man heaven be merciful to me the greatest of sinners and must i die in a ditch after all he get up get up and away went horse and rider at full speed
hurry scurry up hill and down panting and blowing like a whirlwind at every leap the pain in the rider's side seemed to increase at first it was a little point like the prick of a needle then it spread to the size of a half franc piece
then covered a place as large as the palm of your hand it gained upon him fast the poor man groaned aloud in agony faster and faster sped the horse over the frozen ground farther and farther spread the pain over his side to complete the dismal picture the storm commenced
but snow and rain and cold were naught to him for though his arms and legs were frozen to icicles he felt it not the fatal symptom was upon him he was doomed to die not of cold but of scarlet fever
at length he knew not how more dead than alive he reached the gate of the city a band of ill bred dogs that were serenading at a corner of the street seeing the notary dash by joined in the hue and cry and ran barking and yelping at his heels
it was now late at night and only here and there a solitary lamp twinkled from an upper story but on went the notary
the good woman came to the window alarmed at such a knocking and howling and clattering at her door so late at night and the notary was too deeply absorbed in his own sorrows to observe that the lamp cast the shadow of two heads on the window curtain
let me in let me in quick quick he exclaimed almost breathless from terror and fatigue who are you that come to disturb a lone woman at this hour of the night cried a sharp voice from above
quick i beseech you for i am dying here in the street after a few moments of delay and a few more words of parley the door was opened and the notary stalked into his domicile pale and haggard in aspect and as stiff and straight as a ghost
cased from head to heel in an armor of ice as the glare of the lamp fell upon him he looked like a knight errant mailed in steel but in one place his armor was broken on his right side was a circular spot
as large as the crown of your hat and about as black my dear wife he exclaimed with more tenderness than he had exhibited for many years
my hours are numbered i am a dead man alarmed at these exclamations his wife stripped off his overcoat
it was the notary's pipe he placed his hand upon his side and lo it was bare to the skin coat waistcoat and linen were burnt through and through
the mystery was soon explained symptom and all the notary had put his pipe into his pocket without knocking out the ashes and so my story ends
that is all well what does your story prove that is more than i can tell all i know is that the story is true
yes he died afterwards replied the story teller rather annoyed by the question
he sesso kase he'z gittin mighty feerd dat tarr'pin gwine fin out his fedders wuz gone
an sho nuff twuz jes lak mistah tarr'pin's voice den tarr'pin try ter whustle back but lo beholst you his voice clean gone nuttin lef but a li'l hiss
co'se de wolfs tucken de dyar up
the real diary of a real boy by henry a shute
went to church in the morning the fernace was all write mister lennard preeched about loving our ennymies and told every one if he had any angry feelings towards ennyone to go to him and shake hands and see how much better you wood feel
with lizzie towle ed towles sister he woodent speak to me for two days and when we made up he treated me to ice cream with two spoons and he let me dip twice to his once he took pretty big dips to make up
beany is mad if enny of the fellers go with lizzie towle
but after church went up to micky gould who was going to fite me behind the school house and said
and the fellers all hollered hit him micky paist him skinny and mister purington pewts father pulled us apart
and stay there all the afternoon for fiting
he let me get up at supper time
went to a sunday school concert in the evening
they was a lot of people sung together and mister gale beat time charlie gerish played the violin and miss packard sung
father felt pretty big and to hear him talk you wood think he did the singing he give them ten cents apeace
went to a corcus last night me and beany were in the hall in the afternoon helping bob carter sprinkle the floor and put on the sordust the floor was all shiny with wax and aufully slipery
so bob got us to put on some water to take off the shiny wax well write in front of the platform there is a low platform where they get up to put in their votes and then step down and beany said dont put any water there only jest dry sordust
well that night we went erly to see the fun gim luverin got up and said there was one man which was the oldest voter in town and he ought to vote the first
ann pollard then old mister pollard got up and put in his vote and when he stepped down his heels flew up and he went down whak on the back of his head and two men lifted him up and lugged him to a seat
terrible and me and beany nearly died we laffed so
awful whang and when got up in the hall they were lugging old mister stickney off to die and they put water on his head and lugged him home in a hack
gosh you aught to have seen him
bugging rite out as big as hens eggs and he was jest a going to dive for my dead body
he dident say anything for a minute only he drawed in a long breth then he began to look foolish and then mad and then he turned and started to slosh back to the bank where he slipped and went in all over when he got to the bank he was pretty mad and yelled for me to come out
johnny heeld a student came to me and wanted me to carry some tickets to a dance round to the girls in the town there was about one hundred of them
so when went over to hemlock side to give one
they was auful glad to get them too and said they would go to the dance
gess the head girls wont want to tell on me another time june twenty third
the cook house stood at some little distance from the big house and every evening after supper it was full of light and noise and laughter
and maintained there was nothing stove cooked that could hope to rival the rich and nutty flavor of ash cake or greens
the noise and laughter came from a circle of dusky and admiring friends
and though hunchbacked and homely had nevertheless had her pick as she was fond of boasting of the likeliest looking men on the place and though she had been twice wedded and twice widowed
aspirants were not wanting for the position now vacant for a third time
the burly young ox cart driver on his knees pleading very earnestly with the elderly and humpbacked little cook while dinner simmered on and on unnoticed and forgotten
these things were apt to happen at any time or place
and no one could with any show of reason expect her not to pay attention to him she ruled everybody her white folks included
unless she was one of those commanding spirits and born leaders who sometimes appear even in the humblest walks of life it is possible that her uncommonly strong will compelled the affections of her male admirers
but it is also possible that she condescended to flatter and it is certain that she fed them well one night between supper and bedtime the children heard the sound of a banjo proceeding from the cook house
the sound of patting and the thud of feet keeping time to the music drew them irresistibly aunt nancy was there in the circle about the embers as was also her old time foe aunt phrony
and the banjo was in the hands of tim a plow boy celebrated as being the best picker for miles around
whose hopes she could not have entirely quenched
aunt nancy looked as if she were feeling around in the dusk of half forgotten things for a dimly remembered story
which might please the company if they were not too hard to suit
mistress alice was there quiet as ever yet paler and thinner than in former years mistress babington herself had gone back to her family last year
and his silence as to his own identity extraordinary care too was observed by his friends who had learned by now to call him even in private by his alias and it appeared certain
the man of god as like other priests he was commonly called amongst the catholics had any connection whatever with the hawking hunting and hard riding lover of mistress manners it was known indeed
to send him to derbyshire since this would be the very last place in which he would be looked for he had avoided matstead then riding through it once only by night with strange emotions and had spent most of his time in the south of derbyshire
crossing more than once over into stafford and chester and returning to padley or to booth's edge once in every three or four months he had learned a hundred lessons in these wanderings of his
the news that he had now brought with him was of the worst he had heard from catholics in derby that mister simpson returned again after his banishment recaptured a month or two ago
declaring that he had done all that a man could do
and that there was some limit after all to what god almighty should demand marjorie had cried out just now driven beyond herself at the thought of what all this must mean for the catholics of the countryside
had cried out that it was impossible that such a man as mister simpson could fall that the ruin it would bring upon the faith must be proportionate to the influence he already had won throughout the country by his years of labour
had so far evaded grave suspicion rendered it one of the greatest safeguards that the hunted catholics possessed that the work she was doing by her organization of messengers and letters must not be risked even for the sake of a matter like this she had given in at last
but her spirit seemed broken altogether two
mistress manners he said you remember my speaking to you after fotheringay of a fellow of my lord shrewsbury's who honoured me with his suspicions she nodded i have never set eyes on him from that day to this to this he added
well i stopped to speak with these two the young man hath left mister melville's service a while back it seems and is to try his fortune in france
when who should come by but a party of men and my lord shrewsbury in the midst riding with mister roger columbell and immediately behind them my friend of the new inn of fotheringay it was all the ill fortune in the world that it should be at such moment
if he had seen me alone he would have thought no more of me
it was the very question i put to myself said robin and i took the liberty of seeing where they went they went to mister columbell's own house and indoors of it the serving men held the horses at the door i watched them awhile from mister biddell's window
robin laughed i had forgotten myself for once why yes
but to have had strange business at fotheringay a year ago is a suspicious circumstance and mister alban broke in the old man you had best do nothing at all you were not followed from derby you are as safe in padley or here as you could be anywhere in england
all that you had best do is to remain here a week or two and not go down to derby again for the present i think that showing of yourself openly in towns hath its dangers as well as its safeguards mister john glanced round marjorie bowed her head in assent
i will do precisely as you say said robin easily and now for the news of her grace's servants he had already again and again told the tale of fotheringay so far as he had seen it in this very parlour
and had been forced along partly with his will and partly against it right through the great doors into the very place where the queen had suffered
the great hall hung with black throughout the raised scaffold at the further end beside the fire that blazed on the wide hearth the queen's servants being led away half swooning as he came in the dress of velvet the straw and the bloody sawdust
the beads and all the other pitiful relics being heaped upon the fire as he stood there in the struggling mob and above all the fallen body in its short skirt and bodice lying there where it fell beside the low black block
he had told all this as he had seen it for himself until the sheriff's men drove them all forth again into the court and he had told too of all that he had heard afterwards
and the imprisoned watchers had been allowed to leave the castle how the little dog that he had heard wailing had leapt out as the head fell at the third stroke so that he was all bathed in his mistress blood one of the very spaniels no doubt which he himself had seen at chartley
how the dog was taken away and washed and given afterwards into mister melville's charge how the body and the head had been taken upstairs had been roughly embalmed and laid in a locked chamber how her servants had been found peeping through the keyhole
and praying aloud there till sir amyas had had the hole stopped up
had been permitted to say in the queen's oratory on the morning after and of the oath that he had been forced to take that he would not say it again of the destruction of the oratory and the confiscation of the altar furniture and vestments all this he had told little by little
and of the queen's noble bearing upon the scaffold her utter fearlessness her protestations that she died for her religion and for that only and of the pesterings of doctor fletcher dean of peterborough who had at last given over in despair and prayed instead
was mister davison's fault for doing as she told him and of her accusations accusations that deceived no man against those who had served her of the fires made in the streets of all great towns as a mark of official rejoicing over mary's death
and of the pitiful restitution made by the great funeral in peterborough six months after and the royal escutcheons and the tapers and the hearse and all the rest of the lying pretences
well it was all over and now he told them of what he had heard to day from young merton in derby of how nau mary's french secretary
had been rewarded also by elizabeth and that the nature of his services was unmistakable while all the rest of them who had refused utterly to take any part in the insolent mourning at peterborough either in the cathedral or at the banquet
had fallen under her grace's displeasure so that some of them even now were scarcely out of ward mister bourgoign
to their graces of france and had most wisely remained there ever since so the party sat round the fire in the same little parlour where they had sat so often before
and robin after telling his tale answered question after question till silence fell and all sat motionless thinking of the woman who while dead yet spoke then mister john stood up clapped the priest on the back
and said that they two must be off to padley for the night three
if you please sir she said to mister john one of your men is come up from padley
once marjorie went to the door and listened but there was only the faint wail of the winter wind up the stairs to be heard then
we poor papists are in trouble again he said mistress manners you must let us stay here all night if you will
it is my son that is behind it he said i had wondered we had not had news of him there is to be a general search for seminarists in the high peak he glanced at robin by order of my lord shrewsbury
thomas knows that i am at padley and that mister eyre will come in there for candlemas the day after to morrow in that i recognize my son's knowledge well i will dispatch my man who brought the news to mister eyre to bid him to avoid the place and we two mister alban and myself
will make our way across the border into stafford there are none others coming to padley to morrow asked marjorie none that i know of they will come in sometimes without warning but i cannot help that
mister fenton will be at tansley he told me so how did the news come asked robin it seems that the preacher walton in derby hath been warned that we shall be delivered to him two days hence it was his servant that told one of mine
yet he would seem to have failed
she calculated almost without mistake as was afterwards shown not only which priests were in derbyshire but within a very few miles of where they would be and at what time she showed half smiling
explaining the plan by which each priest if he desired
she lamented however the fewness of the priests and attributed to this the growing laxity of many families living it might be in upland farms or in inaccessible places
before midnight therefore the two travellers had complete directions for their journey as well as papers to help their memories as to where the news was to be left and at last mister john stood up and stretched himself we must go to bed he said
you must keep him to his route
they judged it better therefore as marjorie said in her letter to feign unconsciousness of any charge against them since there was no priest in the house who could incriminate them all this the travellers learned for the first time at langley
mister columbell himself came with a score of men and surrounded the house very early having set watchers all in place the evening before they had made certain they should catch the master and at least a priest or two
but i have very heavy news for all that for there had come to the house after dark mister anthony fitz herbert with two of his sisters missus thomas fitz herbert and mister fenton himself
and that his own taking he puts down to his brother's account as yourself sir also did the men did no great harm in padley beyond breaking a panel or two
and they found none of the hiding holes which is good news the rest of the party they let go free again for the present i have another piece of bad news too which is no more than what we had looked for
and bring him to a better mind so that he hath not yet denied our lord even though he hath promised to do so may god comfort and console you mister fitz herbert for this news of mister anthony that i send
the letter ended with messages to the party with instructions for their way of return if they should come within the next week and with the explanation given above of the series of misfortunes by which any came to be at padley that night
the former blows prepare him and dull his nerves for the later which i take it is part of god's mercy well mister alban my father hath been in prison a great while now my son thomas is a traitor and a sworn man of her grace
more than the pain i have in thinking on his sufferings the one may perhaps atone for the sins of the other and yet help him to repentance life here at langley was more encouraging than the furtive existence necessary in the north of derbyshire
mister bassett had a confident way with him that was like wine to fainting hearts and he had every reason to be confident since up to the present beyond being forced to pay the usual fines for recusancy he had scarcely been troubled at all
and lived in considerable prosperity having even been sheriff of stafford in virtue of his other estates at blore his house at langley was a great one standing in a park and showing no signs of poverty his servants were largely catholic
he entertained priests and refugees of all kinds freely although discreetly and he laughed at the notion that the persecution could be
i have no taste to be a spanish subject why nor have i but the king of spain will but sail away again when he hath made terms against the privateers
and lo when we looked again the bag was gone
certainly he was an inspiriting man with a loud bark of his own but robin imagined that he would not bite too cruelly for all that but he saw another side of him presently
what was that matter of mister sutton the priest who was executed in stafford last year asked mister john suddenly
his eyes became pin points under his grey eyebrows and his mouth tightened what of him he said it was reported that you might have stayed the execution and would not i did not believe a word of it it is true said mister bassett sharply
at least a portion of it true listen cried the other suddenly and tell me what you would have done mister sutton was taken and was banished and came back again as any worthy priest would do then he was taken again and condemned
then as i would never have any part in the death of a priest for his religion another was appointed to carry the execution through
and of houses where he had said mass and i know not what else
now i knew that i could not save his life altogether that was forfeited and there could be no forgiveness all that i might do was to respite him for a little
that he might damn his own soul eternally
i sent the messenger away again and said that i would listen to no such tales and mister sutton died like a good priest three days after repenting i doubt not bitterly of the weakness into which he had fallen now sir what would you have done in my place
two the evening before the two left for the north again mister bassett took them both into his own study it was a little room opening out of his bedroom
any room in the world a shelf ran round the room high on the wall and was piled with manuscripts to the ceiling beneath the book shelves that ran nearly round the room were packed with volumes
robin looked round him in wonder he had no idea that his host was a man of such learning all the books are ranged in their proper places went on the other
i could put my finger on any of them blind fold but this is the shelf i wished you to see he took him to one that was behind the door holding up the candle that he might see the shelf had a box or two on it besides books
and these he opened and set on the table robin looked in as he was told but could understand nothing that he saw in one was a round ball of crystal on a little gold stand wrapped round in velvet
he inspected them gravely but was not invited to touch them then his host touched him on the breast with one finger and recoiled smiling this is my magic he said john here does not like it
neither did poor mister fenton when he was here but i hold there is no harm in such things if one does but observe caution
inquired the priest curiously for he was not sure whether the man was serious well sir i hold that god has written his will in the stars and in the burning of herbs and in the shining of the sun and such things there is no black magic here
but just as we read in the sky at morning if it be red or yellow whether it will be foul or fair so i hold that god has written other secrets of his in other things and that by observing them and judging rightly we may guess what he has in store
i knew that a prince
and i would have you notice that here are mister fitz herbert and your reverence too fleeing for your lives and here sit i safe at home and all as i hold because i have been able to observe by my magic what is to come to pass
but that strikes at the doctrine of free will cried the priest no sir i think it does not god's foreknowledge doth not hinder the use of our free will which is a mystery no doubt yet none the less true
then why should god's foreknowledge any more hinder our free will when he chooses to communicate it to us robin was silent
except from his theological reading yet he felt uneasy the other said nothing and the stars too he asked
i do not hold that we are so ruled by these that we have no action of our own any more than we are compelled to be wet through by rain or scorched by the sun we may always come into a house or shelter beneath a tree and thus escape them so too i hold with the stars
robin looked round the room it was dark outside long ago they had supped at sunset and sat for half an hour over their banquet of sweetmeats and wine before coming upstairs and the room too was as dark as night
except where far off in the west beyond the tall trees of the park a few red streaks lingered he felt oppressed and miserable
yet he did not know what to say mister john had wandered off to one of the windows and was humming uneasily to himself then suddenly an intense curiosity overcame him his life was a strange and perilous one
he carried it in his hand every day in the morning he could not be sure but that he would be fleeing before evening as he fell asleep he could not be sure that he would not be awakened to a new dream
which in spite of his courage had come down on him sometimes in some lonely farm perhaps where flight would be impossible or in what was far more dangerous in some crowded inn where every movement was known
these had passed he thought never to come back but in that little book lined room with these curious things in boxes on the table and his merry host peering at him gravely and the still evening outside
with the knowledge that to morrow he was to ride back to his own country whence he had fled for fear of his life six weeks ago
chapter one luckenough
stands the ancient manor house of luckenough the traditions of the neighborhood assert the origin of the manor and its quaint happy and not unmusical name to have been briefly this
passed through a life of the most wonderful vicissitudes wonderful even for those days of romance and adventure
initiated into warfare in the third and buried in the fourth in his boyhood he was the friend and pupil of guy fawkes he engaged in the gunpowder plot
he escaped to spanish america where he led for years a sort of buccaneer life
and then followed years of military service wherever his hireling sword was needed but the soldier of fortune was ill paid by his mistress his misfortunes were as proverbial as his bravery
or as his energetic complaints of ill luck could make them he had drawn his sword in almost every quarrel of his time on every battlefield in europe to find himself at the end of his military career no richer than he was at its beginning
save in wounds and scars honor and glory and a wife and son it was at this point of his life that he met with leonard calvert and embarked with him for maryland where he afterwards received from the lord proprietary the grant of the manor aforesaid
he was so pleased with the beauty grandeur richness and promise of the place
and he remained still smiling as in delighted visions until one of his friends spoke and said well comrade is this luck enough yaw mine frient
cordially grasping the hand of his companion dish ish loke enough different constructions have been put upon this simple answer first that lukkinnuf was the original indian name of the tract
secondly that alexander kalouga christened his manor in honor of loekenoff the native village of his wife the heroic marie zelenski the companion of all his campaigns and voyages
thirdly that the grateful and happy soldier had only meant to express his perfect satisfaction with his fortune and to say yes this is luck enough luck enough to repay me for all the past
at fifteen he began to weary of the tedium of luckenough varied only by the restraint of the academy during term
broke through the reins of domestic government escaped to baltimore
until the breaking out of the revolutionary war when he took service with paul jones the american sea king
he performed miracles of valor
and finally was permitted to retire with a bullet lodged under his shoulder blade a piece of silver trepanned in the top of his skull a deep sword cut across his face from the right temple over his nose to the left cheek and with the honorary title of commodore
he was a perfect beauty about this time no doubt but that did not prevent him from receiving the hand of his cousin henrietta kalouga who had waited for him many a weary year no children blessed his late marriage
and as year after year passed until himself and his wife were well stricken in years people who never lost interest in the great estate
nickolas waugh would bequeath the manor of luckenough his choice fell at length upon his orphan grandniece the beautiful edith lance whom he took from the catholic orphan asylum where she had found refuge since the death of her parents
and when at the call of social duty she did go into company she exercised a refining and subduing influence involuntary as it was potent yet in that lovely fragile form in that dreaming poetical soul
lay undeveloped a latent power of heroism soon to be aroused into action darling of all hearts and eyes edith had been at home a year
maryland as usual contributed her large proportion of volunteers to the defense of the country all men capable of bearing arms rapidly mustered into companies and hastened to put themselves at the disposal of the government
the lower counties of maryland were left comparatively unprotected old men women children and negroes were all that remained in charge of the farms and plantations
yet remote from the scenes of conflict and hitherto undisturbed by the convulsions of the great world they reposed in fancied safety and never thought of such unprecedented misfortunes as the evils of the war penetrating to their quiet homes
but their rest of security was broken by a tremendous shock the british fleet under admiral sir a cockburn suddenly entered the chesapeake and the quiet lonely shores of the bay
became the scene of a warfare scarcely paralleled in atrocity in ancient or modern times if among the marauding band of licensed pirates and assassins there was one name more dreaded more loathed and accursed than the rest
it was that of the brutal and ferocious thorg the frequent leader of foraging parties the unsparing destroyer of womanhood infancy and age the jackal and purveyor of admiral cockburn if anywhere there was a beautiful woman unprotected
or a rich plantation house ill defended this jackal was sure to scent out the game for his master the lion and many were the comely maidens and youthful wives seized and carried off by this monster the patuxent and the wicomico
the inhabitants reposed in the fancied security of their isolation and unimportance the business of life went on faintly and sorrowfully to be sure but still went on the village shops at b and c were kept open
though tended chiefly by women and boys
or played at forming juvenile military companies the farms and plantations were cultivated chiefly under the direction of ladies whose husbands sons and brothers were absent with the army no one thought of danger to saint mary's
most terrible was the awakening from this dream of safety when on the morning of the seventeenth of august the division under the command of admiral cockburn the most dreaded and abhorred of all was seen to enter the mouth of the patuxent
in full sail for benedict nearly all the able bodied men were absent with the army at the time
women infants and negroes a universal panic seized the neighborhood and nothing occurred to the defenseless people but instant flight females and children were hastily put into carriages the most valuable items of plate or money hastily packed up
negroes mustered and the whole caravan put upon a hurried march for prince george's montgomery or other upper counties of the state with very few exceptions the farms and plantations were evacuated and left to the mercy of the invaders
at sunrise all was noise bustle and confusion at luckenough the lawn was filled with baggage wagons horses mules cows oxen sheep swine
baskets of poultry barrels of provisions boxes of property and men and maid servants hurrying wildly about among them carrying trunks and parcels loading carts tackling harness
marshaling cattle and making other preparations for a rapid retreat toward commodore waugh's patrimonial estate in montgomery county edith was placed upon her pony and attended by her old maid jenny and her old groom oliver
commodore and missus waugh entered the family carriage which they pretty well filled up missus waugh's woman sat upon the box behind and the commodore's man drove the coach and the whole family party set forward on their journey
before they could reach montgomery she should proceed to hay hill a plantation near the line of charles county owned by colonel fairlie whose young daughter fanny recently made a bride had been the schoolmate of edith
here at the fork the party halted to take leave commodore waugh called his niece to ride up to the carriage window and gave her many messages for colonel fairlie for fanny and for fanny's young bridegroom
so argued commodore waugh
this pleasant road ran along the side of a purling brook under the shadow of the great trees that skirted the forest
or listening to the merry carols of the birds or noticing the speckled fish that gamboled through the dark glimmering stream or reverting to the subject of her last reading but beneath all this childish play of fancy one grave sorrowful thought
lay heavy upon edith's tender heart it was the thought of poor old luckenough deserted at its utmost need to the ravages of the foe then came the question if it were not possible in case of the house being attacked to save it even for her to save it
while these things were brewing in edith's mind she rode slowly and more slowly until at length her pony stopped then she noticed for the first time the heavy downcast looks of her attendants what is the matter she asked
oh miss edith don't ask me honey don't ain't we dem got to go back to de house and stay dar by our two selves arter we see you safe said jenny crying no what you two alone
exclaimed edith looking from one to the other yes miss edith
an if de british do come dar and burn de house
sobbed jenny now completely broken down by her terrors
edith passed her slender fingers through her curls stringing them out as was her way when absent in thought she was turning the whole matter over in her mind she might possibly save the mansion though these two old people were not likely to be able to do so
on the contrary their ludicrous terrors would tend to stimulate the wanton cruelty of the marauders to destroy them with the house edith suddenly took her resolution and turned her horse's head directing her attendants to follow
asked her groom oliver now speaking for the first time back to luckenough
back to luckenough to guard the dear old house and take care of you two
what'll come o you what the master in heaven wills lord lord miss edy ole marse ill kill we dem what ill old marse say what
if i meet the enemy and save the house they will say that edith lance is a heroine
but if i fail and lose my life they will say that edith was a cracked brained girl who deserved her fate and that they had always predicted she would come to a bad end better go on to hay hill miss edy deed fore marster better go to hay hill
we will return to luckenough the arguments of the old negroes waxed fainter and fewer they felt a vague but potent confidence in edith and her abilities and a sense of protection in her presence from which they were loth to part
the sun was high when they entered the forest shades again see said edith to her companions
i cannot even imagine danger edith on reaching luckenough retired to bed and addressed herself to sleep it was in vain her nerves were fearfully excited in vain she tried to combat her terrors they completely overmastered her
she was violently shocked out of a fitful doze old jenny stood over her lifting her up shaking her and shouting in her ears miss edith miss edith they are here they are here
in the room stood old oliver gray with terror while all the dogs on the premises were barking madly and a noisy party at the front was trying to force an entrance violent knocking and shaking at the outer door and the sound of voices
open open let us in for god's sake let us in
they plead they do not threaten go and unbar the door oliver said edith reluctantly and cautiously the old man obeyed light another candle jenny that is dying in its socket it will be out in a minute
but only succeeded in putting out the expiring light the sound of the unbarring of the door had deprived her of the last remnant of self control
written during a friday and saturday in august nineteen eleven
where his flowers are made of iron and his trees are made of stone and his hives are full of thunder and the lightning leaps and kills for the mills of god grind slowly and he works with other mills
and he missed the throb and leap the noise of all the sleepless creatures singing him to sleep and he said a screw has fallen or a bolt has slipped aside
call upon the wheels master call upon the wheels we are taking rest master finding how it feels strict the law of thine and mine theft we ever shun all the wheels are thine master
tell the wheels to run yea the wheels are mighty gods set them going then we are only men master have you heard of men o they live on earth like fishes
and a gasp is all their breath god for empty honours only gave them death and scorn of death and you walk the worms for carpet and you tread a stone that squeals only
god that made them worms did not make them wheels man shall shut his heart against you
man who wills the thing he wants not the intolerable thing once he likes his empty belly better than your empty head earth and heaven are dumb before him he is stronger than the dead
call upon the wheels master call upon the wheels steel is beneath your hand stone beneath your heels steel will never laugh aloud hearing what we heard
stone will never break its heart mad with hope deferred men of tact that arbitrate slow reform that heals save the stinking grease master save it for the wheels
we have naught to give or hold even while the baby came alive the rotten sticks were sold the savage knows a cavern and the peasants keep a plot
lo we have them not not a scrap of earth where ants could lay their eggs only this poor lump of earth that walks about on legs only this poor wandering mansion
only these two walking trees only hands and hearts and stomachs what have you to do with these you have engines big and burnished
tall beyond our fathers ken why should you make peace and traffic with such feeble folk as men call upon the wheels master call upon the wheels
they are deaf to demagogues deaf to crude appeals are our hands our own master how the doctors doubt are our legs our own master wheels can run without
they will understand all the wheels are loyal see how still they stand
and he called the wheels to run and the eyes of him were hateful eyes the lips of him were curled and he called upon his father that is lord below the world sitting in the gate of treason
in the gate of broken seals bend and bind them bend and bind them bend and bind them into wheels then once more in all my garden there may swing and sound and sweep
that sing the soul to sleep call upon the wheels master call upon the wheels weary grow the holidays when you miss the meals through the gate of treason through the gate within
cometh fear and greed of fame cometh deadly sin if a man grow faint master take him ere he kneels
natty of blue point natty miller strolled down to the wharf where bliss ford was tying up the cockawee bliss was scowling darkly at the boat a trim new one painted white
whose furled sails seemed unaccountably wet and whose glistening interior likewise dripped with moisture
as natty drew near might as well split her up for kindlings bliss said jake mc laren you'll never get men to sail in her it passed the first time seeing as only young johnson was skipper
but when a boat turns turtle with captain frank in command there's something serious wrong with her what's up asked natty the cockawee upset out in the bay again this morning answered will scott
that's the second time the grey gull picked up the men and towed her in it's no use trying to sail her lobstermen ain't going to risk their lives in a boat like that how's things over at blue point natty
pretty well responded natty laconically natty never wasted words
but he was much given to thinking he was rather undersized and insignificant looking but there were a few boys of his own age on the mainland who knew that natty had muscles has everett heard anything from ottawa about the lighthouse business yet asked will
natty shook his head think he's any chance of getting the app'intment queried adam lewis not the ghost of a chance said cooper creasy decidedly
er rather his father was a tory's son
mister barr says that everett is too young to be trusted in such a responsible position quoted natty gravely cooper shrugged his shoulders
eighteen is kind of green but everybody knows that ev's been the real lighthouse keeper for two years since your father took sick irving elliott wants that light has wanted it for years and he's a pretty strong pull at headquarters that's what
barr owes him something for years of hard work at elections i ain't saying anything against elliott either he's a good man but your father's son ought to have that light as sure as he won't get it that's what
which were apt to excite him i'm going for one said adam
give you a chance down to the station natty if you want one natty shook his head not going he said briefly you should celebrate victoria day said adam patriotically twenty fourth o may's the queen's birthday
the good old queen is dead but the day's been app'inted a national holiday in honour of her memory and you should celebrate it becoming natty boy ev and i can't both go and he's going explained natty
prue and i'll stay home to light up must be getting back now looks squally i misdoubt if we'll have queen's weather tomorrow said cooper squinting critically at the sky looks like a northeast blow that's what
there goes bliss striding off and looking pretty mad the cockawee's a dead loss to him that's what nat's off he knows how to handle a boat middling well too
not much to him i reckon natty had cast loose in his boat the merry maid and hoisted his sail in a few minutes he was skimming gaily down the bay the wind was fair and piping and the merry maid went like a bird
natty at the rudder steered for blue point island a reflective frown on his face he was feeling in no mood for victoria day sports in a very short time he and ev and prue
must leave blue point lighthouse where they had lived all their lives to natty it seemed as if the end of all things would come then where would life be worth living away from lonely windy blue point island
david miller had died the preceding winter after a long illness
his three children had been born and brought up there and there four years ago the mother had died but womanly little prue had taken her place well and the boys were devoted to their sister when their father died
everett had applied for the position of lighthouse keeper the matter was not yet publicly decided but old cooper creasy had sized the situation up accurately the millers had no real hope that everett would be appointed
victoria day while not absolutely stormy
a choppy northeast wind blew up the bay and the water was rough enough the sky was overcast with clouds and the may air was raw and chilly at blue point the millers were early astir
for if everett wanted to sail over to the mainland in time to catch the excursion train no morning naps were permissible he was going alone since only one of the boys could go natty had insisted that it should be everett
and prue had elected to stay home with natty prue had small heart for victoria day that year she did not feel even a thrill of enthusiasm when natty hoisted a flag and wreathed the queen's picture with creeping spruce
prue felt as badly about leaving blue point island as the boys did the day passed slowly in the afternoon the wind fell away to a dead calm but there was still a heavy swell on
and shortly before sunset a fog came creeping up from the east and spread over the bay and islands so thick and white that prue and natty could not even see little bear island on the right i'm glad everett isn't coming back tonight said prue
he could never find his way cross the harbour in that fog isn't it thick though said natty the light won't show far tonight at sunset they lighted the great lamps and then settled down to an evening of reading
but it was not long before natty looked up from his book to say hello prue what was that thought i heard a noise so did i
they hurried to the door which looked out on the harbour the night owing to the fog was dark with a darkness that seemed almost tangible from somewhere out of that darkness came a muffled shouting
like that of a person in distress prue there's somebody in trouble out there exclaimed natty oh it's surely never ev cried prue natty shook his head don't think so
ev had no intention of coming back tonight get that lantern prue i must go and see what and who it is oh natty you mustn't cried prue in distress there's a heavy swell on yet and the fog oh if you get lost
i'll not get lost and i must go prue maybe somebody is drowning out there it's not ev of course
prue with set face had brought the lantern resolutely choking back the words of fear and protest that rushed to her lips they hurried down to the shore and natty sprang into the little skiff he used for rowing
he hastily lashed the lantern in the stern cast loose the painter and lifted the oars i'll be back as soon as possible he called to prue wait here for me in a minute the shore was out of sight and natty found himself alone in the black fog
which already were becoming fainter they seemed to come from the direction of little bear and thither natty rowed it was a tough pull and the water was rough enough for the little dory
but natty had been at home with the oars from babyhood and his long training and tough sinews stood him in good stead now steadily and intrepidly he rowed along
the water grew rougher as he passed out from the shelter of blue point into the channel between the latter and little bear the cries were becoming very faint what if he should be too late
he bent to the oars with all his energy presently by the smoother water he knew he must be in the lea of little bear the cries sounded nearer he must already have rowed nearly a mile
the next minute he shot around a small headland and right before him dimly visible in the faint light cast by the lantern through the fog was an upturned boat with two men clinging to it one on each side evidently almost exhausted
knowing that he must be wary lest the grip of the drowning man overturn his own light skiff let go when i say he shouted and don't grab anything do you hear don't grab now let go
the next minute the man lay in the dory dragged over the stern by netty's grip on his collar lie still ordered natty clutching the oars to row around the overturned boat amid the swirl of water about her
was a task that taxed netty's skill and strength to the utmost the other man was dragged in over the bow and with a gasp of relief natty pulled away from the sinking boat once clear of her he could not row for a few minutes
he was shaking from head to foot with the reaction from tremendous effort and strain this'll never do he muttered i'm not going to be a baby now but will i ever be able to row back presently however
he was able to grip his oars again and pull for the lighthouse whose beacon loomed dimly through the fog like a great blur of whiter mist the men obedient to his orders lay quietly where he had placed them and before long
natty was back again at the lighthouse landing where prue was waiting wild with anxiety
and prue flew about to prepare hot drinks to think that that child saved us exclaimed one of the men
you have another brother i think oh yes everett but he is away explained prue we heard your shouts and natty insisted on going at once to your rescue well he came just in time
i couldn't have held on another minute was so done up i couldn't have moved or spoken all the way here even if he hadn't commanded me to keep perfectly still natty returned at this moment and exclaimed why it is mister barr
i didn't recognize you before barr it is young man this gentleman is my friend mister blackmore we have been celebrating victoria day by a shooting tramp over little bear we hired a boat from ford at the harbour head this morning
the cockawee he called her and sailed over i don't know much about running a boat but blackmore here thinks he does we were at the other side of the island when the fog came up we hurried across it
we sailed around the point and then the boat just simply upset don't know why but i know why interrupted natty indignantly that cockawee does nothing but upset
ford was a rascal to let her to you he might have known what would happen why why it was almost murder to let you go i thought there must be something queer about her declared mister blackmore
i do know how to handle a boat despite my friend's gibe
that ford ought to be horsewhipped thanks to prue's stinging hot decoctions of black currant drink the two gentlemen were no worse for their drenching and exposure and the next morning
natty took them to the mainland in the merry maid when he parted with them mister barr shook his hand heartily and said thank you my boy you're a plucky youngster and a skilful one too
tell your brother that if i can get the blue point lighthouse berth for him i will and as for yourself
two weeks later everett received an official document formally appointing him keeper of blue point island light
where it was joyfully received among the fishermen only right and fair said cooper creasy blue point without a miller to light up wouldn't seem the thing at all that's what and it's nothing but ev's doo
said adam perpetrating a very poor pun and being immensely applauded therefor it keyed will scott up to rival adam you said that irving had a pull and the millers hadn't he said jocularly
but it looks as if twas natty's pull did the business after all his pull over to bear island and back it was about a miracle that a boy could do what he did on such a night said charles macey where's ford asked natty uncomfortably
he hated to have his exploit talked about ford has cleared out said cooper gone down to summerside to go into tobe meekins's factory there best thing he could do that's what folks here hadn't no use for him
after letting that death trap to them two men even if they was lib'rals the cockawee druv ashore on little bear and there she's going to remain i guess d'ye want a berth in my mackerel boat this summer natty
i do said natty but i thought you said you were full i guess i can make room for you said cooper a boy with such grit and muscle ain't to be allowed to go to seed on blue point that's what yesser we'll make room for you
could not fairly be expected to march up to visible musket mouths we cared not much about drilling our forces only to teach them to hold a musket so far as we could supply that weapon to those with the cleverest
eyes and to give them familiarity with the noise it made in exploding and we fixed upon friday night for our venture because the moon would be at the full and our powder was coming from dulverton on the friday afternoon
uncle reuben did not mean to expose himself to shooting his time of life for risk of life being now well over and the residue too valuable
but his counsels and his influence and above all his warehousemen well practised in beating carpets were of true service to us his miners also did great wonders
we were to fall to ostensibly at the doone gate which was impregnable now but in reality upon their rear
for i had chosen twenty young fellows
and some of other vocations
upon the whole i rejoiced that lorna was not present now it must have been irksome to her feelings to have all her kindred and old associates much as she kept aloof from them
put to death without ceremony
for all of us were resolved this time to have no more shilly shallying but to go through with a nasty business in the style of honest englishmen when the question comes to your life or mine
there was scarcely any one who had not to complain of a hayrick and what surprised me then not now was that the men least injured made the greatest push concerning it but be the wrong too great to speak of
the moon was lifting well above the shoulder of the uplands when we the chosen band set forth having the short cut along the valleys to foot of the bagworthy water and therefore having allowed the rest an hour
and that was the place where i had been used to sit and to watch for lorna and john fry was to fire his gun
and the white fog trembling in chords and columns like a silver harp of the meadows and then the moon drew up the fogs and scarfed herself in white with them and so being proud gleamed upon the water
like a bride at her looking glass and yet there was no sound of either john fry or his blunderbuss i began to think that the worthy john being out of all danger and having brought a counterpane
because one of the children had a cold must veritably have gone to sleep
as might be the will of god so that he were comfortable but herein i did wrong to john and am ready to acknowledge it for suddenly the most awful noise that anything short of thunder could make
came down among the rocks and went and hung upon the corners
and lay your quarter staffs across my lads and keep your guns pointing to heaven lest haply we shoot one another
said an oldish chap but as tough as leather and esteemed a wit for his dryness you come next to me old ike you be enough to dry up the waters now remember all lean well forward
if any man throws his weight back down he goes and perhaps he may never get up again and most likely he will shoot himself i was still more afraid of their shooting me for my chief alarm in
this steep ascent was neither of the water nor of the rocks but of the loaded guns we bore if any man slipped off might go his gun
apprehend for this cause i had debated with uncle ben and with cousin tom as to the expediency of our climbing with guns unloaded but they not being in the way themselves
assured me that there was nothing to fear except through uncommon clumsiness and that as for charging our guns at the top even veteran troops could scarcely be trusted to perform it properly in the hurry
and the darkness and the noise of fighting before them however thank god though a gun went off no one was any the worse for it neither did the doones notice it
in the thick of the firing in front of them for the orders to those of the sham attack conducted by tom faggus
or any one else of our presence was the blazing of the log wood house where lived that villain carver it was my especial privilege to set this house on fire
no other hand but mine should lay a brand or strike steel on flint for it i had made all preparations carefully for
when i saw the home of that man who had fired so many houses having its turn of smoke and blaze and of crackling fury we took good care however
and perhaps that had something to do with his taking the loss of lorna so easily
as i saved him a fair and handsome little fellow whom if carver doone could love anything on earth beside his wretched self he did love the boy climbed on my back and rode and much as i hated his father
and to come and fight a hundred of us in the smoke and rush and fire they believed that we were a hundred and away they ran in consternation to the battle at the doone gate
we heard them shrieking as they went a hundred soldiers
presently just as i expected back came the warriors of the doones leaving but two or three at the gate and burning with wrath to crush under foot the presumptuous clowns in their valley just then
the waxing fire leaped above the red crest of the cliffs and danced on the pillars of the forest and lapped like a tide on the stones of the slope all the valley flowed with light and the limpid waters reddened and the fair young women shone
a finer dozen of young men could not have been found in the world perhaps nor a braver nor a viler one seeing how few there were of them
i was very loath to fire although i covered the leader who appeared to be dashing charley for they were at easy distance now brightly shone by the fire light yet ignorant where to look for us
i thought that we might take them prisoners
the men who had robbed them of home or of love and the chance was too much for their charity
all the rest of the doones leaped at us like so many demons
not seeing us well among the hazel bushes and then they clubbed their muskets or drew their swords as might be and furiously drove at us
for my part admiring their courage greatly and counting it slur upon manliness that two should be down upon one so i withheld my hand awhile for i cared to meet none but carver
and he was not among them the whirl and hurry of this fight and the hard blows raining down for now all guns were empty
and that was christopher badcock
his life to get charley's how he had found out none may tell both being dead so long ago but at any rate he had found out that charley was the man who had robbed him of his wife and honour
but charleworth doone was beside him and according to cast of dice she fell to charley's share
as when poor kit badcock spied charley coming towards us we had thought this man a patient fool a philosopher of a little sort or one who could feel nothing and his quiet manner of going about
and the gentleness of his answers when some brutes asked him where his wife was
would turn the mild cheek to everything
kit went up to charleworth doone as if to some inheritance and took his seisin of right upon him being himself a powerful man and begged a word aside with him
all i know is that without weapon each man killed the other and margery badcock came and wept and hung upon her poor husband and died that summer of heart disease
now for these and other things whereof i could tell a thousand was the reckoning come that night and not a line we missed of it soon as our bad blood was up i like not to tell of slaughter
how to get out of chancery things at this time so befell me that i cannot tell one half but am like a boy who has left his lesson to the master's very footfall unready
except with false excuses and as this makes no good work so i lament upon my lingering in the times when i might have got through a good page but went astray after trifles however
every man must do according to his intellect and looking at the easy manner of my constitution i think that most men will regard me with pity and goodwill for trying more than with contempt and wrath for having tried unworthily
even as in the wrestling ring whatever man did his best and made an honest conflict i always laid him down with softness easing off his dusty fall but the thing which next betided me
in wonderful health and spirits and as glad as a bird to get back again it would have done any one good for a twelve month to behold her face and doings and her beaming eyes and smile
all the house was full of brightness as if the sun had come over the hill and lorna were his mirror
and looked at her and even lizzie's eyes must dance to the freshness and joy of her beauty as for me you might call me mad
and kissed mother fry till she made at me with the sugar nippers what a quantity of things lorna had to tell us and yet how often we stopped her mouth at least mother i mean and lizzie
and she quite as often would stop her own running up in her joy to some one of us and then there arose the eating business which people now call refreshment
days of our language for how was it possible that our lorna could have come all that way
without being terribly hungry oh i do love it all so much said lorna now for the fiftieth time and not meaning only the victuals the scent of the
gorse on the moors drove me wild and the primroses under the hedges i am sure i was meant for a farmer's i mean for a farm house life dear lizzie' for lizzie was looking saucily
and for writing despatches of victory and now
but my resolution fails me i am my own mistress what think you of that mother i am my own mistress then you shall not be so long cried i
and beyond doubt a true one but surely unusual at this stage and a little premature john however what must be must be and with tears springing out of smiles
she fell on my breast and cried a bit when i came to smoke a pipe over it after the rest were gone to bed i could hardly believe in my good luck for here was i without any merit except of bodily power
which surely is no commendation so placed that the noblest man in england might envy me and be vexed with me for the noblest lady in all the land and the purest and the sweetest hung upon my heart
as if there was none to equal it i dwelled upon this matter long and very severely while i smoked a new tobacco brought by my own lorna for me and next to herself most delicious
the smoke curled away i thought surely this is too fine to last for a man who never deserved it seeing no way out of this i resolved to place my faith in god
having lorna under it in the morning lorna was ready to tell her story and we to
and she wore a dress of most simple stuff and yet perfectly wonderful by means of the shape and her figure lizzie was wild with jealousy as might be expected though never would annie have been so
and was never quite brisk unless the question were about myself she had seen a great deal of trouble and grief begins to close on people as their power of life declines
we said that she was hard of hearing but my opinion was that seeing me inclined for marriage made her think of my father and so perhaps a little too much
anyhow she was the very best of mothers and would smile and command herself and be or try to believe herself as happy as could be in the doings of the younger folk
and her own skill in detecting them yet with the wisdom of age renouncing any opinion upon the matter
and her knowledge of my heart was not to be checked by any thoughts of haply coming evil in the morning she was up even sooner than i was and through all the corners of the hens remembering every one of them i caught her
to be loved by a virtuous
and to love her with all one's heart neither was my pride diminished when i found what she had done only from her love of me earl brandir's ancient steward
especially after he had seen our simple house and manners on the other hand lorna considered him a worthy but foolish old gentleman to whom true happiness meant no more than money and high position these two last
and the greatest money taker in the kingdom next to the king and queen of course who had due pre eminence and had taught the maids of honour was generally acknowledged to be the lord chief justice jeffreys
with triumph and great glory after hanging every man who was too poor to help it he pleased his gracious majesty so purely with the description of their delightful agonies that the king exclaimed
for at this time earl brandir died being taken with gout in the heart soon after i left london lorna was very sorry for him but as he had never been able to hear one tone of her sweet silvery voice
now the lady lorna dugal appeared to lord chancellor jeffreys so exceeding wealthy a ward that the lock would pay for turning therefore he came of his own accord to visit her
and to treat with her having heard for the man was as big a gossip as never cared for anybody yet loved to know all about everybody that this wealthy and beautiful maiden
would not listen to any young lord having pledged her faith to the plain john ridd thereupon our lorna managed so to hold out golden hopes to the lord high chancellor
the amount of which i will not mention because of his kindness towards me he gave to his fair ward permission
and regarding me as a good catholic being moved moreover by the queen who desired to please lorna consented without much hesitation upon the understanding that lorna when she became of full age and the mistress of her property
inasmuch however as king james was driven out of his kingdom before this arrangement could take effect and another king succeeded who desired not the promotion of the catholic religion neither hankered after subsidies
and i replied with the greatest warmth and a readiness to worship her that this was exactly what i longed for but had never dared to propose it but dear mother looked most exceeding grave and said that
and who could tell in three years time what might happen to all or any of us why perhaps his farm would be for sale and perhaps lady lorna's estates in scotland would fetch enough money to buy it
and so throw the two farms into one and save all the trouble about the brook as my poor father had longed to do many and many a time but not having a title could not do all quite as he wanted
just suited for change of diet to our sheep as well as large cattle and beside this even with all annie's skill and of course yet more now she was gone their butter would always command in the market from
as i heartily hoped he might
chapter thirty five ruth is not like lorna although by our mother's reluctant consent a large part of the obstacles between annie and her lover appeared to be removed
as she said to leave me to my own good sense and honour only begging me always to tell her of my intention beforehand
and on that account i promised instead
she was full of plans for fetching lorna in some wonderful manner out of the power of the doones entirely and into her own hands where she was to remain for at least a twelve month
all mother and annie could teach her of dairy business and farm house life and the best mode of packing butter and all this arose from my happening to say without meaning anything how the poor dear had longed for quiet
when i think of thy loving kindness warmth and romantic innocence as to stealing my beloved from that vile glen doone the deed itself was not impossible nor beyond my daring but in the first place would she come
leaving her old grandfather to die without her tendence and even if through fear of carver and that wicked counsellor she should consent to fly would it be possible to keep her without a regiment of soldiers
would not the doones at once ride forth to scour the country for their queen and finding her as they must do
as mother unwisely hinted
although of inferior blood who would be daily at my elbow i am not sure but what dear mother herself would have been disappointed
and my disdain and indignation at the mere suggestion did not so much displease her for she only smiled and answered well it is not for me to say
that his pet scheme should miscarry he who called my boy a coward
risking his life daily there without a word to any one how glad i am that you will not have for all her miserable money
she turned
huckaback herself white and sad and looking steadily at my mother's face which became as red as a plum while her breath deserted her
i knew not that you regarded me with so much contempt on that account neither have you told my grandfather at least within my hearing that he was an insolent old miser when i return to dulverton
any schemes you may have upon his property i thank you all for your kindness to me which has been very great
expect i will only add for your further guidance
she gave me a glance which i scarcely knew what to do
upright as he is would leave me without a shilling
impudent little dwarf said my mother recovering her breath after ever so long oh john how thankful you ought to be
well i am sure said annie throwing her arms around poor mother
i never admired ruth huckaback half or a quarter so much before she is rare stuff i would have been glad to have married her to morrow
i had never seen my lorna
i never can be thankful enough to darling lorna for saving me did you see how her eyes flashed that i did and very fine they were now nine maidens out of ten would have feigned
and have borne black malice in their hearts come annie now would not you have done so i think said annie although of course i cannot tell you know john
that i should have been ashamed at hearing what was never meant for me and should have been almost as angry with myself as anybody
little maiden never yet had right upon her side
i might have said the same thing myself and she was hard upon you mother dear after this we said no more at least about that matter and little ruth
the next morning left us in spite of all that we could do she vowed an everlasting friendship to my younger sister eliza but she looked at annie with some resentment
and then i left her with john fry not wishing to be too particular after all the talk about her money
whose self love was outraged with spirit i mean and proper pride and yet with a great endeavour to forgive which is meseems the hardest of all things to a woman
outside of her own family after this for another month nothing worthy of notice happened except of course that i found it needful according to the strictest good sense and honour
to visit lorna immediately after my discourse with mother and to tell her all about it my beauty gave me one sweet kiss with all her heart as she always did when she kissed at all
and i begged for one more to take to our mother and before leaving i obtained it it is not for me to tell all she said even supposing what is not likely that any one cared to know it
all the crime and outrage wrought by my reckless family it ever can be meant for me to settle down to peace and comfort in a simple household with all my heart i long for home any home
to those used to it would seem a paradise to me if only free from brawl and tumult and such as i could call my own but even if god would allow me this in lieu of my wild inheritance
and never will again
she only answered with a bright blush that while her grandfather was living she would never leave him
this was too plain to be denied and seeing my dejection at it she told me bravely that we must hope for better times if possible and asked how long i would wait for her
not a day if i had my will i answered very warmly at which she turned away confused and would not look at me for awhile but all my life i went on to say
if my fortune is so ill and how long would you wait for me lorna
with a smile which was brighter to me than the brightest wit could be and now she continued you bound me john with a very beautiful ring to you and when i dare not wear it
but i will bind you to me you dearest
what a queer old thing there are some ancient marks upon it very grotesque and wonderful it looks like a cat in a tree almost but never mind what it looks like
which my grandfather found them taking away and very soon made them give back again ever since i can remember and long before that as some woman told me now you seem very
greatly amazed pray what thinks my lord of it that is worth fifty of the pearl thing which i gave you you darling and that i will not take it from you
that is all i will have nothing to do with a gentleman' no gentleman dear a yeoman very well a yeoman nothing to do with a yeoman who will not accept my love gage
so if you please give it back again and take your lovely ring back she looked at me in such a manner half in earnest half in jest and three times three in love
that in spite of all good resolutions and her own faint protest i was forced to abandon all firm ideas and kiss her till she was quite ashamed and her head hung on my bosom with the night
then i placed the pearl ring back on the soft elastic bend of the finger she held up to scold me and on my own smallest finger drew the heavy hoop she had given me
i considered this with satisfaction until my darling recovered herself
to keep her if i could from chiding me mistress lorna this is not the ring of any giant it is nothing more nor less than a very ancient thumb ring
such as once in my father's time was ploughed up out of the ground in our farm and sent to learned doctors who told us all about it but kept the ring for their trouble i will accept it
my own one love and it shall go to my grave with me and so it shall unless there be villains who would dare to rob the dead now i have spoken about this ring
and it became john ridd's delight all this or at least great part of it i told my mother truly according to my promise
and she was greatly pleased with lorna for having been so good to me and for speaking so very sensibly and then she looked at the great gold ring
only she was quite certain as indeed i myself was that it must have belonged to an ancient race of great consideration and high rank in their time upon which i was for taking it off
it should be degraded by a common farmer's finger
if the common farmer had won the great lady of the ancient race what were rings and old world trinkets when compared to the living jewel being quite of her opinion in this
and loving the ring which had no gem in it as the token of my priceless gem i resolved to wear it at any cost except when i should be ploughing or doing things likely to break it although
for a length of time upon my great hard working hand and before i got used to my ring or people could think that it belonged to me plain and ungarnished though it was
i had never seen her since but she had communicated with mister peggotty on several occasions nothing had come of her zealous intervention nor could i infer from what he told me that any clue had been obtained for a moment to emily's fate
i confess that i began to despair of her recovery and gradually to sink deeper and deeper into the belief that she was dead his conviction remained unchanged so far as i know and i believe his honest heart was transparent to me he never wavered again
in his solemn certainty of finding her his patience never tired and although i trembled for the agony it might one day be to him to have his strong assurance shivered at a blow there was something so religious in it so affectingly expressive
of its anchor being in the purest depths of his fine nature that the respect and honour in which i held him were exalted every day his was not a lazy trustfulness that hoped and did no more he had been a man of sturdy action all his life
and he knew that in all things wherein he wanted help he must do his own part faithfully and help himself i have known him set out in the night on a misgiving that the light might not be by some accident in the window of the old boat and walk to yarmouth
i have known him on reading something in the newspaper that might apply to her take up his stick and go forth on a journey of three or four score miles he made his way by sea to naples and back after hearing the narrative to which miss dartle had assisted me
all his journeys were ruggedly performed for he was always steadfast in a purpose of saving money for emily's sake when she should be found
i never heard him say he was fatigued or out of heart
i fancy his figure before me now standing near her sofa with his rough cap in his hand and the blue eyes of my child wife raised with a timid wonder to his face sometimes of an evening about twilight when he came to talk with me
i would induce him to smoke his pipe in the garden as we slowly paced to and fro together and then the picture of his deserted home and the comfortable air it used to have in my childish eyes of an evening when the fire was burning and the wind moaning round it came most vividly into my mind
one evening at this hour he told me that he had found martha waiting near his lodging on the preceding night when he came out and that she had asked him not to leave london on any account
did she tell you why i inquired i asked her mas'r davy he replied but it is but few words as she ever says
did she say when you might expect to see her again i demanded
i asked that too but it was more she said than she could tell as i had long forborne to encourage him with hopes that hung on threads
than that i supposed he would see her soon such speculations as it engendered within me i kept to myself and those were faint enough i was walking alone in the garden one evening about a fortnight afterwards i remember that evening well
it was the second in mister micawber's week of suspense there had been rain all day and there was a damp feeling in the air the leaves were thick upon the trees and heavy with wet but the rain had ceased though the sky was still dark and the hopeful birds were singing cheerfully
as i walked to and fro in the garden and the twilight began to close around me their little voices were hushed and that peculiar silence which belongs to such an evening in the country when the lightest trees are quite still save for the occasional droppings from their boughs prevailed
there was a little green perspective of trellis work and ivy at the side of our cottage through which i could see from the garden where i was walking into the road before the house
as i was thinking of many things and i saw a figure beyond dressed in a plain cloak it was bending eagerly towards me and beckoning
can you come with me she inquired in an agitated whisper i have been to him and he is not at home i wrote down where he was to come and left it on his table with my own hand they said he would not be out long i have tidings for him can you come directly
my answer was to pass out at the gate immediately she made a hasty gesture with her hand as if to entreat my patience and my silence and turned towards london whence as her dress betokened
i asked her if that were not our destination on her motioning yes with the same hasty gesture as before i stopped an empty coach that was coming by and we got into it when i asked her where the coachman was to drive she answered anywhere near golden square and quick
then shrunk into a corner with one trembling hand before her face and the other making the former gesture as if she could not bear a voice now much disturbed and dazzled with conflicting gleams of hope and dread i looked at her for some explanation
and feeling that it was my own natural inclination too at such a time i did not attempt to break the silence we proceeded without a word being spoken sometimes she glanced out of the window as though she thought we were going slowly though indeed we were going fast
but otherwise remained exactly as at first we alighted at one of the entrances to the square she had mentioned where i directed the coach to wait not knowing but that we might have some occasion for it she laid her hand on my arm and hurried me on to one of the sombre streets of which there are several in that part
where the houses were once fair dwellings in the occupation of single families but have and had long degenerated into poor lodgings let off in rooms entering at the open door of one of these and releasing my arm she beckoned me to follow her up the common staircase
which was like a tributary channel to the street the house swarmed with inmates as we went up doors of rooms were opened and people's heads put out and we passed other people on the stairs who were coming down
and we seemed to have attracted their curiosity for these were principally the observers who looked out of their doors it was a broad panelled staircase with massive balustrades of some dark wood cornices above the doors ornamented with carved fruit and flowers and broad seats in the windows
but all these tokens of past grandeur were miserably decayed and dirty rot damp and age had weakened the flooring which in many places was unsound and even unsafe some attempts had been made i noticed to infuse new blood into this dwindling frame
by repairing the costly old wood work here and there with common deal but it was like the marriage of a reduced old noble to a plebeian pauper and each party to the ill assorted union shrunk away from the other several of the back windows on the staircase
had been darkened or wholly blocked up in those that remained there was scarcely any glass and through the crumbling frames by which the bad air seemed always to come in and never to go out i saw through other glassless windows into other houses in a similar condition
and looked giddily down into a wretched yard which was the common dust heap of the mansion we proceeded to the top storey of the house two or three times by the way i thought i observed in the indistinct light the skirts of a female figure going up before us
as we turned to ascend the last flight of stairs between us and the roof we caught a full view of this figure pausing for a moment at a door then it turned the handle and went in what's this said martha in a whisper she has gone into my room i don't know her i knew her
i had recognized her with amazement for miss dartle i said something to the effect that it was a lady whom i had seen before in a few words to my conductress and had scarcely done so when we heard her voice in the room though not from where we stood what she was saying
martha with an astonished look repeated her former action and softly led me up the stairs and then by a little back door which seemed to have no lock and which she pushed open with a touch into a small empty garret with a low sloping roof
little better than a cupboard between this and the room she had called hers there was a small door of communication standing partly open here we stopped breathless with our ascent and she placed her hand lightly on my lips i could only see of the room beyond
that it was pretty large that there was a bed in it and that there were some common pictures of ships upon the walls i could not see miss dartle or the person whom we had heard her address certainly my companion could not for my position was the best a dead silence prevailed for some moments
martha kept one hand on my lips and raised the other in a listening attitude it matters little to me her not being at home said rosa dartle haughtily i know nothing of her it is you i come to see me replied a soft voice
at the sound of it a thrill went through my frame for it was emily's yes returned miss dartle i have come to look at you what you are not ashamed of the face that has done so much the resolute and unrelenting hatred of her tone
its cold stern sharpness and its mastered rage presented her before me as if i had seen her standing in the light i saw the flashing black eyes and the passion wasted figure and i saw the scar with its white track cutting through her lips
quivering and throbbing as she spoke i have come to see she said james steerforth's fancy the girl who ran away with him and is the town talk of the commonest people of her native place the bold flaunting practised companion
of persons like james steerforth i want to know what such a thing is like there was a rustle as if the unhappy girl on whom she heaped these taunts ran towards the door and the speaker swiftly interposed herself before it it was succeeded by a moment's pause
when miss dartle spoke again it was through her set teeth and with a stamp upon the ground stay there she said or i'll proclaim you to the house and the whole street if you try to evade me i'll stop you if it's by the hair
and raise the very stones against you a frightened murmur was the only reply that reached my ears a silence succeeded i did not know what to do much as i desired to put an end to the interview i felt that i had no right to present myself
that it was for mister peggotty alone to see her and recover her would he never come i thought impatiently so said rosa dartle with a contemptuous laugh i see her at last why
he was a poor creature to be taken by that delicate mock modesty and that hanging head oh for heaven's sake spare me exclaimed emily whoever you are you know my pitiable story and for heaven's sake spare me if you would be spared yourself
if i would be spared returned the other fiercely what is there in common between us do you think nothing but our sex said emily with a burst of tears and that said rosa dartle is so strong a claim preferred by one so infamous
it would freeze it up our sex you are an honour to our sex i have deserved this said emily but it's dreadful dear dear lady think what i have suffered and how i am fallen oh martha come back oh home home
being now between me and the light i could see her curled lip and her cruel eyes intently fixed on one place with a greedy triumph listen to what i say she said and reserve your false arts for your dupes do you hope to move me by your tears
no more than you could charm me by your smiles you purchased slave oh have some mercy on me cried emily show me some compassion or i shall die mad it would be no great penance said rosa dartle for your crimes do you know what you have done
do you ever think of the home you have laid waste oh is there ever night or day when i don't think of it cried emily and now i could just see her on her knees with her head thrown back her pale face looking upward
her hands wildly clasped and held out and her hair streaming about her
when it hasn't been before me just as it used to be in the lost days
oh home home oh dear dear uncle if you ever could have known the agony your love would cause me when i fell away from good
at least once in my life that i might have had some comfort i have none none no comfort upon earth for all of them were always fond of me she dropped on her face before the imperious figure in the chair
with an imploring effort to clasp the skirt of her dress rosa dartle sat looking down upon her as inflexible as a figure of brass her lips were tightly compressed as if she knew that she must keep a strong constraint upon herself
i write what i sincerely believe or she would be tempted to strike the beautiful form with her foot i saw her distinctly and the whole power of her face and character seemed forced into that expression would he never come
the miserable vanity of these earth worms she said
or suppose you could do any harm to that low place which money would not pay for and handsomely your home you were a part of the trade of your home
oh not that cried emily say anything of me but don't visit my disgrace and shame more than i have done on folks who are as honourable as you have some respect for them as you are a lady if you have no mercy for me
i speak she said not deigning to take any heed of this appeal and drawing away her dress from the contamination of emily's touch i speak of his home where i live here she said stretching out her hand with her contemptuous laugh
and looking down upon the prostrate girl is a worthy cause of division between lady mother and gentleman son of grief in a house where she wouldn't have been admitted as a kitchen girl of anger and repining and reproach this piece of pollution picked up from the water side
no no cried emily clasping her hands together when he first came into my way that the day had never dawned upon me and he had met me being carried to my grave i had been brought up as virtuous as you or any lady
and was going to be the wife of as good a man as you or any lady in the world can ever marry if you live in his home and know him you know perhaps what his power with a weak vain girl might be i don't defend myself but i know well and he knows well
and his mind is troubled with it that he used all his power to deceive me and that i believed him trusted him and loved him rosa dartle sprang up from her seat recoiled
and in recoiling struck at her with a face of such malignity so darkened and disfigured by passion that i had almost thrown myself between them the blow which had no aim fell upon the air as she now stood panting looking at her with the utmost detestation
that she was capable of expressing and trembling from head to foot with rage and scorn i thought i had never seen such a sight and never could see such another you love him you she cried with her clenched hand quivering
to stab the object of her wrath emily had shrunk out of my view there was no reply and tell that to me she added with your shameful lips
if i could order it to be done i would have this girl whipped to death and so she would i have no doubt i would not have trusted her with the rack itself while that furious look lasted she slowly very slowly
broke into a laugh and pointed at emily with her hand
she love she said that carrion and he ever cared for her she'd tell me ha ha the liars that these traders are her mockery was worse than her undisguised rage of the two
but when she suffered it to break loose it was only for a moment she had chained it up again
she subdued it to herself i came here you pure fountain of love she said to see as i began by telling you what such a thing as you was like i was curious i am satisfied
also to tell you that you had best seek that home of yours with all speed and hide your head among those excellent people who are expecting you and whom your money will console when it's all gone you can believe and trust and love again you know
i thought you a broken toy that had lasted its time a worthless spangle that was tarnished and thrown away but finding you true gold a very lady and an ill used innocent with a fresh heart full of love and trustfulness
which you look like and is quite consistent with your story i have something more to say attend to it for what i say i'll do
what i say i mean to do her rage got the better of her again for a moment but it passed over her face like a spasm and left her smiling hide yourself she pursued if not at home somewhere let it be somewhere beyond reach
in some obscure life or better still in some obscure death i wonder if your loving heart will not break you have found no way of helping it to be still i have heard of such means sometimes i believe they may be easily found
a low crying on the part of emily interrupted her here she stopped and listened to it as if it were music i am of a strange nature perhaps rosa dartle went on but i can't breathe freely in the air you breathe i find it sickly
if you live here tomorrow i'll have your story and your character proclaimed on the common stair there are decent women in the house i am told and it is a pity such a light as you should be among them and concealed if leaving here
you seek any refuge in this town in any character but your true one which you are welcome to bear without molestation from me the same service shall be done you if i hear of your retreat
being assisted by a gentleman who not long ago aspired to the favour of your hand i am sanguine as to that would he never never come how long was i to bear this how long could i bear it
oh me oh me exclaimed the wretched emily in a tone that might have touched the hardest heart i should have thought but there was no relenting in rosa dartle's smile
do returned the other live happy in your own reflections consecrate your existence to the recollection of james steerforth's tenderness
would he not or to feeling grateful to the upright and deserving creature
or if those proud remembrances and the consciousness of your own virtues and the honourable position to which they have raised you in the eyes of everything that wears the human shape will not sustain you marry that good man and be happy in his condescension
if this will not do either die there are doorways and dust heaps for such deaths and such despair find one and take your flight to heaven i heard a distant foot upon the stairs i knew it i was certain
it was his thank god she moved slowly from before the door when she said this and passed out of my sight but mark she added slowly and sternly opening the other door to go away i am resolved for reasons that i have and hatreds that i entertain
to cast you out unless you withdraw from my reach altogether or drop your pretty mask this is what i had to say and what i say i mean to do the foot upon the stairs came nearer nearer passed her as she went down
rushed into the room uncle a fearful cry followed the word i paused a moment and looking in saw him supporting her insensible figure in his arms he gazed for a few seconds in the face then stooped to kiss it oh how tenderly
and drew a handkerchief before it mas'r davy he said in a low tremulous voice when it was covered i thank my heav'nly father as my dream's come true
in his own ways to my darling with those words he took her up in his arms and with the veiled face lying on his bosom and addressed towards his own
midnight visitors miss garland and loveday walked leisurely to the inn and called for horse and gig while the hostler was bringing it round the landlord who knew bob and his family well spoke to him quietly in the passage
with an admiring glance at bob's costume the black diamond said bob and anne turned pale she hove in sight just after dark and at nine o'clock a boat having more than a dozen marines on board with cloaks on rowed into harbour bob reflected
depend upon it he said they won't know you will they bob said anne anxiously they certainly won't know him for a seaman now remarked the landlord laughing and again surveying bob up and down but if i was you two i should drive home
along straight and quiet and be very busy in the mill all to morrow mister loveday they drove away and when they had got onward out of the town anne strained her eyes wistfully towards portland
lights nearer at hand they can't make you go now you are a gentleman tradesman can they she asked
i have often said i ought to volunteer and not care about me at all it is just that that keeps me at home i won't leave you if i can help it it cannot make such a vast difference to the country whether one man goes or stays
and not mind us at all bob put a period to her speech by a mark of affection to which history affords many parallels in every age she said no more about the black diamond but whenever they ascended a hill she turned her head to look at the lights in portland roads
and the grey expanse of intervening sea
and would not leave her if he could help it the remark required some qualification that anne was charming and loving enough to chain him anywhere was true but he had begun to find the mill work terribly irksome at times
which ill became him he had yawned thought wistfully of the old pea jacket and the waters of the deep blue sea his dread of displeasing his father by showing anything of this change of sentiment was great yet he might have braved it
was dependent entirely upon his adherence to the mill business even were his father indifferent missus loveday would never intrust her only daughter to the hands of a husband who would be away from home five sixths of his time
but though apart from anne he was not averse to seafaring in itself to be smuggled thither by the machinery of a press gang was intolerable and the process of seizing stunning pinioning and carrying off unwilling hands
was one which bob as a man had always determined to hold out against to the utmost of his power hence as they went towards home he frequently listened for sounds behind him but hearing none he assured his sweetheart that they were safe for that night at least the mill was still going when they arrived
though old mister loveday was not to be seen he had retired as soon as he heard the horse's hoofs in the lane
when the elder would rise and bob withdraw to bed a frequent arrangement between them since bob had taken the place of grinder having reached the privacy of her own room anne threw open the window for she had not the slightest intention of going to bed just yet
the tale of the black diamond had disturbed her by a slow insidious process that was worse than sudden fright her window looked into the court before the house now wrapped in the shadow of the trees and the hill and she leaned upon its sill listening intently
she could have heard any strange sound distinctly enough in one direction but in the other all low noises were absorbed in the patter of the mill and the rush of water down the race however what she heard came from the hitherto silent side
and was intelligible in a moment as being the footsteps of men she tried to think they were some late stragglers from budmouth alas no the tramp was too regular for that of villagers she hastily turned extinguished the candle and listened again as they were on the main road
or even noticing that such an entrance existed in this again she was disappointed they crossed into the front without a pause the pulsations of her heart became a turmoil now
the younger of the two millers loveday being never seen now in any garb which could suggest that he was other than a miller pure like his father one of the men spoke i am not sure that we are in the right place he said this is a mill anyhow said another
there's lots about here then come this way a moment with your light two of the group went towards the cart house on the opposite side of the yard and when they reached it a dark lantern was opened the rays being directed upon the front of the miller's waggon
loveday and son overcombe mill continued the man reading from the waggon son you see is lately painted in that's our man
he moved to turn off the light but before he had done so it flashed over the forms of the speakers and revealed a sergeant a naval officer and a file of marines anne waited to see no more when bob stayed up to grind as he was doing to night
he often sat in his room instead of remaining all the time in the mill and this room was an isolated chamber over the bakehouse which could not be reached without going downstairs and ascending the step ladder that served for his staircase
his window faced towards the garden and hence the light could not as yet have been seen by the press gang bob dear bob she said through the keyhole
why said bob leisurely knocking the ashes from the pipe he had been smoking the press gang they have come by god
anne scarcely knowing what she did descended the ladder and ran to the back door hastily unbolting it to save bob's time and gently opening it in readiness for him she had no sooner done this than she felt hands laid upon her shoulder from without and a voice exclaiming
quite an obleeging young man though the hands held her rather roughly anne did not mind for herself and turning she cried desperately in tones intended to reach bob's ears they are at the back door try the front but inexperienced miss garland
little knew the shrewd habits of the gentlemen she had to deal with who well used to this sort of pastime had already posted themselves at every outlet from the premises bring the lantern shouted the fellow who held her
i half thought so here is a way in he continued to his comrades hastening to the foot of the ladder which led to bob's room what d'ye want said bob quietly opening the door and showing himself still radiant in the full dress that he had worn with such effect at the theatre royal
which he had been about to change for his mill suit when anne gave the alarm this gentleman can't be the right one observed a marine rather impressed by bob's appearance yes yes that's the man said the sergeant now take it quietly my young cock o' wax
you look as if you meant to and tis wise of ye
only aboard the black diamond if you choose to take the bounty and come voluntarily you'll be allowed to go ashore whenever your ship's in port if you don't and we've got to pinion ye
as you must come willy nilly you'll do the first if you've any brains whatever bob's temper began to rise don't you talk so large about your pinioning my man when i've settled now or never young blow hard interrupted his informant
come what jabber is this going on said the lieutenant stepping forward bring your man
in spite of the darkness they began to scramble up the ladder bob thereupon shut the door which being but of slight construction was as he knew only a momentary defence
and spring across into the apple tree growing without he alighted without much hurt beyond a few scratches from the boughs a shower of falling apples testifying to the force of his leap
who had seen bob's figure flying like a raven's across the sky there was stillness for a moment in the tree then the fugitive made haste to climb out upon a low hanging branch towards the garden at which the men beneath all rushed in that direction to catch him as he dropped saying
you may as well come down old boy twas a spry jump and we give ye credit for t the latter movement of loveday had been a mere feint partly hidden by the leaves he glided back to the other part of the tree from whence it was easy to jump upon a thatch covered out house
this intention they did not appear to suspect which gave him the opportunity of sliding down the slope
he's here he's here the men exclaimed running back from the tree by this time they had obtained another light and pursued him closely along the back quarters of the mill
bob had entered the lower room seized hold of the chain by which the flour sacks were hoisted from story to story by connexion with the mill wheel and pulled the rope that hung alongside for the purpose of throwing it into gear
the foremost pursuers arrived just in time to see captain bob's legs and shoe buckles vanishing through the trap door in the joists overhead his person having been whirled up by the machinery like any bag of flour and the trap falling to behind him
he's gone up by the hoist said the sergeant running up the ladder in the corner to the next floor and elevating the light just in time to see bob's suspended figure ascending in the same way through the same sort of
the second trap also fell together behind him and he was lost to view as before it was more difficult to follow now there was only a flimsy little ladder and the men ascended cautiously when they stepped out upon the loft it was empty
he must ha let go here said one of the marines who knew more about mills than the others if he had held fast a moment longer
they looked up the hook by which bob had held on had ascended to the roof and was winding round the cylinder nothing was visible elsewhere but boarded divisions like the stalls of a stable on each side of the stage they stood upon
these compartments being more or less heaped up with wheat and barley in the grain perhaps he's buried himself in the corn the whole crew jumped into the corn bins and stirred about their yellow contents but neither arm leg nor coat tail was uncovered
they removed sacks peeped among the rafters of the roof but to no purpose the lieutenant began to fume at the loss of time what cursed fools to let the man go why look here what's this he had opened the door by which sacks were taken in from waggons without
and dangling from the cat head projecting above it was the rope used in lifting them there's the way he went down the officer continued the man's gone amidst mumblings and curses the gang descended the pair of ladders and came into the open air but captain bob was nowhere to be seen
your son is a clever fellow miller said the lieutenant
i have no doubt that he's in the house he may be and he may not
i do not and if i did i shouldn't tell naturally i heard steps beating up the road sir said the sergeant
while they were pausing to decide which course to take one of the soldiers held up the light a black object was discernible upon the ground before them and they found it to be a hat the hat of bob loveday we are on the track cried the sergeant deciding for this direction
they tore on rapidly and the footsteps previously heard became audible again increasing in clearness which told that they gained upon the fugitive who in another five minutes stopped and turned the rays of the candle fell upon anne
what do you want she said showing her frightened face
a message arrived asking them to attend at the theatre on the coming evening with the added request that they would dress in their gayest clothes to do justice to the places taken
bob having clothed himself in a splendid suit recently purchased as an attempt to bring himself nearer to anne's style when they appeared in public together as finished off by this dashing and really fashionable attire he was the perfection of a beau in the dog days pantaloons and boots of the newest make
yards and yards of muslin wound round his neck forming a sort of asylum for the lower part of his face two fancy waistcoats and coat buttons like circular shaving glasses the absurd extreme of female fashion which was to wear muslin dresses in january
who wore clothes enough in august to melt them nobody would have guessed from bob's presentation now that he had ever been aloft on a dark night in the atlantic or knew the hundred ingenuities that could be performed with a rope's end and a marline spike as well as his mother tongue
it was a day of days anne wore her celebrated celestial blue pelisse her leghorn hat and her muslin dress with the waist under the arms
the latter being decorated with excellent honiton lace bought of the woman who travelled from that place to overcombe and its neighbourhood with a basketful of her own manufacture and a cushion on which she worked by the wayside john met the lovers at the inn outside the town
and after stabling the horse they entered the town together the trumpet major informing them that the watering place had never been so full before that the court the prince of wales and everybody of consequence was there and that an attic could scarcely be got for money
the king had gone for a cruise in his yacht and they would be in time to see him land then drums and fifes were heard and in a minute or two they saw sergeant stanner advancing along the street with a firm countenance
fiery poll and rigid staring eyes in front of his recruiting party the sergeant's sword was drawn and at intervals of two or three inches along its shining blade were impaled fluttering one pound notes to express the lavish bounty that was offered
he gave a stern suppressed nod of friendship to our people and passed by next they came up to a waggon bowered over with leaves and flowers so that the men inside could hardly be seen come to see the king hip hip hurrah cried a voice within
and turning they saw through the leaves the nose and face of cripplestraw the waggon contained all derriman's workpeople is your master here said john no trumpet major sir but young maister is coming to fetch us at nine o'clock in case we should be too blind to drive home
o where is he now never mind said anne impatiently at which the trumpet major obediently moved on by the time they reached the pier it was six o'clock the royal yacht was returning a fact announced by the ships in the harbour firing a salute
the king came ashore with his hat in his hand and returned the salutations of the well dressed crowd in his old indiscriminate fashion while this cheering and waving of handkerchiefs was going on
as if she were a delicate piece of statuary that a push might damage soon the king had passed and receiving the military salutes of the piquet joined the queen and princesses at gloucester lodge the homely house of red brick in which he unostentatiously resided
as there was yet some little time before the theatre would open
they returned to gloucester lodge whence the king and other members of his family now reappeared and drove at a slow trot round to the theatre in carriages drawn by the hanoverian white horses that were so well known in the town at this date
when anne and bob entered the theatre they found that john had taken excellent places and concluded that he had got them for nothing through the influence of the lady of his choice as a matter of fact he had paid full prices for those two seats like any other outsider
and even then had a difficulty in getting them it being a king's night when they were settled he himself retired to an obscure part of the pit from which the stage was scarcely visible we can see beautifully said bob in an aristocratic voice
as he took a delicate pinch of snuff and drew out the magnificent pocket handkerchief brought home from the east for such occasions but i am afraid poor john can't see at all but we can see him replied anne and notice by his face which of them
it is he is so charmed with the light of that corner candle falls right upon his cheek by this time the king had appeared in his place which was overhung by a canopy of crimson satin fringed with gold
about twenty places were occupied by the royal family and suite and beyond them was a crowd of powdered and glittering personages of fashion completely filling the centre of the little building though the king so frequently patronized the local stage during these years that the crush was not inconvenient
to night it was one of colman's who at this time enjoyed great popularity and mister bannister supported the leading character anne with her hand privately clasped in bob's and looking as if she did not know it
she had not long to wait when a certain one of the subordinate ladies of the comedy entered on the stage the trumpet major in his corner not only looked conscious but started and gazed with parted lips this must be the one whispered anne quickly
see he is agitated she turned to bob but at the same moment his hand convulsively closed upon hers as he too strangely fixed his eyes upon the newly entered lady what is it
anne looked from one to the other without regarding the stage at all her answer came in the voice of the actress who now spoke for the first time the accents were those of miss matilda johnson one thought rushed into both their minds on the instant
and bob was the first to utter it what is she the woman of his choice after all if so it is a dreadful thing murmured anne but as may be imagined the unfortunate john was as much surprised by this rencounter as the other two
until this moment he had been in utter ignorance of the theatrical company and all that pertained to it moreover much as he knew of miss johnson he was not aware that she had ever been trained in her youth as an actress
the trumpet major though not prominently seated had been seen by matilda already who had observed still more plainly her old betrothed and anne in the other part of the house john was not concerned on his own account at
being face to face with her but at the extraordinary suspicion that this conjuncture must revive in the minds of his best beloved friends after some moments of pained reflection he tapped his knee gad i won't explain it shall go as it is
he said let them think her mine
had personal prominence in the scene been at this moment proportioned to intentness of feeling the whole audience regal and otherwise would have faded into an indistinct mist of background leaving as the sole emergent and telling figures bob and anne at one point
but fortunately the deadlock of awkward suspense into which all four had fallen was terminated by an accident a messenger entered the king's box with despatches there was an instant pause in the performance
the despatch box being opened the king read for a few moments with great interest the eyes of the whole house including those of anne garland being anxiously fixed upon his face for terrible events
fell as unexpectedly as thunderbolts at this critical time of our history the king at length beckoned to lord who was immediately behind him the play was again stopped and the contents of the despatch were publicly communicated to the audience
sir robert calder cruising off finisterre had come in sight of villeneuve and made the signal for action which though checked by the weather had resulted in the capture of two spanish line of battle ships
the news was received with truly national feeling if noise might be taken as an index of patriotism rule britannia was called for and sung by the whole house but the importance of the event was far from being recognized at this time
and bob loveday as he sat there and heard it had very little conception how it would bear upon his destiny this parenthetic excitement diverted for a few minutes the eyes of bob and anne from the trumpet major and when the play proceeded and they looked back to his corner he was gone
he's just slipped round to talk to her behind the scenes said bob knowingly shall we go too and tease him for a sly dog no i would rather not shall we go home then not unless her presence is too much for you
ah there she is again they sat on and listened to matilda's speeches which she delivered with such delightful coolness that they soon began to considerably interest one of the party
well what a nerve the young woman has he said at last in tones of admiration and gazing at miss johnson with all his might after all jack's taste is not so bad she's really deuced clever bob i'll go home if you wish to said anne quickly
o no let us see how she fleets herself off that bit of a scrape she's playing at now well what a hand she is at it to be sure anne said no more but waited on supremely uncomfortable and almost tearful
she began to feel that she did not like life particularly well it was too complicated she saw nothing of the scene and only longed to get away and to get bob away with her at last the curtain fell on the final act and then began the farce of no song no supper
matilda did not appear in this piece and anne again inquired if they should go home this time bob agreed and taking her under his care with redoubled affection to make up for the species of coma which had seized upon his heart for a time he quietly accompanied her out of the house
when they emerged upon the esplanade the august moon was shining across the sea from the direction of saint aldhelm's head bob unconsciously loitered and turned towards the pier reaching the end of the promenade they surveyed the quivering waters in silence for some time
and swept forward into the harbour what boat is that said anne it seems to be some frigate lying in the roads said bob carelessly as he brought anne round with a gentle pressure of his arm and bent his steps towards the homeward end of the town
meanwhile miss johnson having finished her duties for that evening rapidly changed her dress and went out likewise the prominent position which anne and captain bob had occupied side by side in the theatre
left her no alternative but to suppose that the situation was arranged by bob as a species of defiance to herself and her heart such as it was became proportionately embittered against him
in spite of the rise in her fortunes miss johnson still remembered and always would remember her humiliating departure from overcombe and it had been to her even a more grievous thing that bob had acquiesced in his brother's ruling than that john had determined it
at the time of setting out she was sustained by a firm faith that bob would follow her and nullify his brother's scheme but though she waited bob never came she passed along by the houses facing the sea and scanned the shore
the footway and the open road close to her which illuminated by the slanting moon to a great brightness sparkled with minute facets of crystallized salts from the water sprinkled there during the day the promenaders at the further edge appeared in dark profiles
and beyond them was the grey sea parted into two masses by the tapering braid of moonlight across the waves two forms crossed this line at a startling nearness to her she marked them at once as anne and bob loveday they were walking slowly
don't you remember ma'am we walked some way together towards overcombe earlier in the summer matilda looked more closely and perceived that the speaker was derriman in plain clothes he continued you are one of the ladies of the theatre i know
may i ask why you said in such a queer way that you loved that couple in a queer way well as if you hated them i don't mind your knowing that i have good reason to hate them you do too it seems that man said festus savagely
came to me one night about that very woman insulted me before i could put myself on my guard and ran away before i could come up with him and avenge myself the woman tricks me at every turn i want to part em then why don't you there's a splendid opportunity
do you see that soldier walking along he's a marine he looks into the gallery of the theatre every night and he's in connexion with the press gang that came ashore just now from the frigate lying in portland roads they are often here for men yes
our boatmen dread em well we have only to tell him that loveday is a seaman to be clear of him this very night done said festus take my arm and come this way they walked across to the footway fine night sergeant it is sir
looking for hands i suppose it is not to be known sir we don't begin till half past ten it is a pity you don't begin now i could show ee excellent game what
that little nest of fellows at the old rooms in cove row i have just heard of em no come here festus with miss johnson on his arm led the sergeant quickly along the parade
and by the time they reached the narrows the lovers who walked but slowly were visible in front of them there's your man he said that buck in pantaloons and half boots a looking like a squire twelve months ago he was mate of the brig pewit
but his father has made money and keeps him at home faith now you tell of it there's a hint of sea legs about him what's the young beau's name don't tell whispered matilda
but festus had already said robert loveday son of the miller at overcombe you may find several likely fellows in that neighbourhood
i wish you had not told said matilda tearfully she's the worst dash my eyes now listen to that why you chicken hearted old stager you was as well agreed as i come now hasn't he used you badly
matilda's acrimony returned
miss clarissa harlowe to miss howe ivy summer house eleven o'clock he has not yet got my letter
that i might have time for the intended interview and had hit upon an expedient which i believe would have done came my aunt and furnished me with a much better she saw my little table covered preparative to my solitary dinner and hoped she told me that this would be the last day
that my friends would be deprived of my company at table you may believe my dear that the thoughts of meeting mister lovelace for fear of being discovered together with the contents of my cousin dolly's letter gave me great and visible emotions she took notice of them
why these sighs why these heavings here said she patting my neck o my dear niece who would have thought so much natural sweetness could be so very unpersuadable i could not answer her and she proceeded i am come i doubt upon a very unwelcome errand
some things have been told us yesterday which came from the mouth of one of the most desperate and insolent men in the world convince your father and all of us that you still find means to write out of the house mister lovelace knows every thing that is done here and that as soon as done
it will be the better taken if you give me cheerfully your keys i hope my dear you won't dispute it your desire of dining in this place was the more readily complied with for the sake of such an opportunity
i thought myself very lucky to be so well prepared by my cousin dolly's means for this search but yet i artfully made some scruples and not a few complaints of this treatment after which i not only gave her the keys of all but even officiously emptied my pockets before her
it being she said his custom boastingly to prate to his very servants of his intentions in particular cases she added that deep as he was thought to be my brother was as deep as he and fairly too hard for him at his own weapons as one day it would be found
i knew not i said the meaning of these dark hints i thought the cunning she hinted at on both sides called rather for contempt than applause i myself might have been put upon artifices which my heart disdained to practise had i given way to the resentment which i was bold to say
was much more justifiable than the actions that occasioned it that it was evident to me from what she had said that their present suspicions of me were partly owing to this supposed superior cunning of my brother and partly to the consciousness that the usage i met with might naturally produce a reason for such suspicions
that it was very unhappy for me to be made the butt of my brother's wit that it would have been more to his praise to have aimed at shewing a kind heart than a cunning head that nevertheless i wished he knew himself as well as i imagined i knew him and he would then have less conceit of his abilities
which abilities would in my opinion be less thought of if his power to do ill offices were not much greater than they i was vexed i could not help making this reflection the dupe the other too probably makes of him through his own spy deserved it
but i so little approve of this low art in either that were i but tolerably used the vileness of that man that joseph leman should be inquired into she was sorry she said to find that i thought so disparagingly of my brother he was a young man both of learning and parts
learning enough i said to make him vain of it among us women but not of parts sufficient to make his learning valuable either to himself or to any body else she wished indeed that he had more good nature
but she feared that i had too great an opinion of somebody else to think so well of my brother as a sister ought since between the two there was a sort of rivalry as to abilities that made them hate one another rivalry madam said i if that be the case or whether it be or not
i wish they both understood better than either of them seem to do what it becomes gentlemen and men of liberal education to be and to do neither of them then would glory in what they ought to be ashamed of
but waving this subject it was not impossible i said that they might find a little of my writing and a pen or two and a little ink hated art or rather hateful the necessity for it as i was not permitted to go up to put them out of the way but if they did i must be contented
and i assured her that take what time they pleased i would not go in to disturb them but would be either in or near the garden in this summer house or in the cedar one or about my poultry yard or near the great cascade till i was ordered to return to my prison with like cunning i said
i supposed the unkind search would not be made till the servants had dined because i doubted not that the pert betty barnes who knew all the corners of my apartment and closet would be employed in it she hoped she said that nothing could be found that would give a handle against me for she would assure me
the motives to the search on my mother's part especially were that she hoped to find reason rather to acquit than to blame me
or wednesday morning with temper with tenderness i should rather say said she for he is resolved to do so if no new offence be given ah madam said i why that ah madam and shaking your head so significantly
i wish madam that i may not have more reason to dread my father's continued displeasure than to hope for his returning tenderness you don't know my dear things may take a turn things may not be so bad as you fear dearest madam
have you any consolation to give me why my dear it is possible that you may be more compliable than you have been why raised you my hopes madam
cruel to a niece who truly honours her i may tell you more perhaps said she but in confidence absolute confidence if the inquiry within came out in your favour
some papers they will find i doubt but i must take consequences my brother and sister will be at hand with their good natured constructions
i hope i earnestly hope that nothing can be found that will impeach your discretion and then but i may say too much and away she went having added to my perplexity but i now can think of nothing but this interview would to heaven it were over
to meet to quarrel but let him take what measures he will i will not stay a moment with him if he be not quite calm and resigned don't you see how crooked some of my lines are don't you see how some of the letters stagger more than others that is when this interview is more in my head than in my subject
but after all should i ought i to meet him how have i taken it for granted that i should i wish there were time to take your advice yet you are so loth to speak quite out but that i owe as you own to the difficulty of my situation
i should have mentioned that in the course of this conversation i besought my aunt to stand my friend and to put in a word for me on my approaching trial and to endeavour to procure me time for consideration if i could obtain nothing else she told me that after the ceremony was performed
odious confirmation of a hint in my cousin dolly's letter i should have what time i pleased to reconcile myself to my lot before cohabitation this put me out of all patience she requested of me in her turn she said that i would resolve to meet them all with cheerful duty
and with a spirit of absolute acquiescence it was in my power to make them all happy and how joyful would it be to her she said to see my father my mother my uncles my brother my sister all embracing me with raptures and folding me in turns to their fond hearts
will you doubt my dear that my next trial will be the most affecting that i have yet had my aunt set forth all this in so strong a light and i was so particularly touched on my cousin dolly's account that impatient as i was just before i was greatly moved
yet could only shew by my sighs and my tears how desirable such an event would be to me could it be brought about upon conditions with which it was possible for me to comply here comes betty barnes with my dinner the wench is gone the time of meeting is at hand
o that he may not come but should i or should i not meet him how i question without possibility of a timely answer betty according to my leading hint to my aunt boasted to me that she was to be employed as she called it after she had eat her own dinner
she should be sorry she told me to have me found out yet twould be all for my good i should have it in my power to be forgiven for all at once before wednesday night the confident creature then to stifle a laugh put a corner of her apron in her mouth and went to the door
and on her return to take away as i angrily bid her she begged my excuse but but and then the saucy creature laughed again she could not help it to think how i had drawn myself in by my summer house dinnering since it had given so fine an opportunity
by way of surprise to look into all my private hoards she thought something was in the wind when my brother came into my dining here so readily her young master was too hard for every body squire lovelace himself was nothing at all at a quick thought to her young master
my aunt mentioned mister lovelace's boasting behaviour to his servants perhaps he may be so mean but as to my brother he always took a pride in making himself appear to be a man of parts and learning to our own servants pride and meanness i have often thought are as nearly allied
and as close borderers upon each other as the poet tells us wit and madness are but why do i trouble you and myself at such a crisis with these impertinences yet i would forget if i could the nearest evil the interview
because my apprehensions increasing as the hour is at hand i should were my intentions to be engrossed by them be unfit to see him if he does come and then he will have too much advantage over me as he will have seeming reason to reproach me with change of resolution
the upbraider you know my dear is in some sense a superior while the upbraided if with reason upbraided must make a figure as spiritless as conscious i know that this wretch will if he can be his own judge and mine too but the latter he shall not be
i dare say we shall be all to pieces but i don't care for that it would be hard if i who have held it out so sturdily to my father and uncles should not but he is at the garden door i was mistaken
how many noises unlike be made like to what one fears why flutters the fool so i will hasten to deposit this then i will for the last time go to the usual place in hopes to find that he has got my letter if he has i will not meet him
if he has not i will take it back and shew him what i have written that will break the ice as i may say and save me much circumlocution and reasoning and a steady adherence to that my written mind is all that will be necessary the interview must be as short as possible
for should it be discovered it would furnish a new and strong pretence for the intended evil of wednesday next perhaps i shall not be able to write again one while perhaps not till i am the miserable property of that solmes but that shall never never be while i have my senses
if your servant find nothing from me by wednesday morning you may then conclude that i can neither write to you nor receive your favours in that case pity and pray for me my beloved friend
and is ever bred in rivers relating to the sea yet so high or far from it as admits of no tincture of salt or brackishness
in the month of august some say that then they dig a hole or grave in a safe place in the gravel and there place their eggs or spawn after the melter has done his natural office and then hide it most cunningly
and cover it over with gravel and stones and then leave it to their creator's protection who by a gentle heat which he infuses into that cold element makes it brood and beget life in the spawn and to become samlets early in the spring next following
the salmons having spent their appointed time and done this natural duty in the fresh waters they then haste to the sea before winter both the melter and spawner but if they be stops by flood gates or weirs or lost in the fresh waters
then those so left behind by degrees grow sick and lean and unseasonable and kipper that is to say have bony gristles grow out of their lower chaps not unlike a hawk's beak which hinders their feeding and in time such fish so left behind
pine away and die tis observed that he may live thus one year from the sea but he then grows insipid and tasteless and loses both his blood and strength and pines and dies the second year and tis noted that those little salmons called skeggers
which abound in many rivers relating to the sea are bred by such sick salmons that might not go to the sea and that though they abound yet they never thrive to any considerable bigness but if the old salmon gets to the sea then that gristle which shews him to be kipper
wears away or is cast off as the eagle is said to cast his bill and he recovers his strength and comes next summer to the same river if it be possible to enjoy the former pleasures that there possess him for as one has wittily observed
he has like some persons of honour and riches which have both their winter and summer houses the fresh rivers for summer and the salt water for winter to spend his life in which is not as sir francis bacon hath observed in his history of life and death above ten years
and it is to be observed that though the salmon does grow big in the sea yet he grows not fat but in fresh rivers and it is observed that the farther they get from the sea they be both the fatter and better
next i shall tell you that though they make very hard shift to get out of the fresh rivers into the sea yet they will make harder shift to get out of the salt into the fresh rivers to spawn or possess the pleasures that they have formerly found in them
or stops in the water even to a height beyond common belief gesner speaks of such places as are known to be above eight feet high above water and our camden mentions in his britannia the like wonder to be in pembrokeshire
where the river tivy falls into the sea and that the fall is so downright and so high that the people stand and wonder at the strength and sleight by which they see the salmon use to get out of the sea into the said river and the manner and height of the place is so notable
that it is known far by the name of the salmon leap concerning which take this also out of michael drayton my honest old friend as he tells it you in his polyolbion and when the salmon seeks a fresher stream to find
which hither from the sea comes yearly by his kind as he towards season grows and stems the watry tract where tivy falling down makes an high cataract forc'd by the rising rocks that there her course oppose as tho within her bounds they meant her to inclose
here when the labouring fish does at the foot arrive and finds that by his strength he does but vainly strive his tail takes in his mouth and bending like a bow that's to full compass drawn aloft himself doth throw then springing at his height
as doth a little wand that bended end to end and started from man's hand far off itself doth cast so does that salmon vault and if at first he fail his second summersault he instantly essays and from his nimble ring
this michael drayton tells you of this leap or summersault of the salmon and next i shall tell you that it is observed by gesner and others that there is no better salmon than in england and that though some of our northern counties have as fat
it is said that after he is got into the sea he becomes from a samlet not so big as a gudgeon to be a salmon in as short a time as a gosling becomes to be a goose much of this has been observed by tying a riband or some known tape or thread
in the tail of some young salmons which have been taken in weirs as they have swimmed towards the salt water and then by taking a part of them again with the known mark at the same place at their return from the sea which is usually about six months after
and the like experiment hath been tried upon young swallows who have after six months absence been observed to return to the same chimney there to make their nests and habitations for the summer following which has inclined many to think
that every salmon usually returns to the same river in which it was bred as young pigeons taken out of the same dovecote have also been observed to do and you are yet to observe further that the he salmon is usually bigger than the spawner and that he is more kipper
and less able to endure a winter in the fresh water than the she is yet she is at that time of looking less kipper and better as watry and as bad meat and yet you are to observe that as there is no general rule without an exception
so there are some few rivers in this nation that have trouts and salmon in season in winter as tis certain there be in the river wye in monmouthshire where they be in season as camden observes from september till april
but my scholar the observation of this and many other things i must in manners omit because they will prove too large for our narrow compass of time and therefore
how to fish for this salmon and for that first you shall observe that usually he stays not long in a place as trouts will but as i said covets still to go nearer the spring head and that he does not as the trout and many other fish
and then most usually at a lob or garden worm which should be well scoured
kept seven or eight days in moss before you fish with them and if you double your time of eight into sixteen twenty or more days it is still the better for the worms will still be clearer tougher and more lively
and continue so longer upon your hook and they may be kept longer by keeping them cool and in fresh moss and some advise to put camphire into it note also that many used to fish for a salmon with a ring of wire on the top of their rod
now with god a noted fisher both for trout and salmon and have observed that he would usually take three or four worms out of his bag and put them into a little box in his pocket
half an hour or more before he would bait his hook with them i have asked him his reason and he has replied he did but pick the best out to be in readiness against he baited his hook the next time but he has been observed both by others and myself
to catch more fish than i or any other body that has ever gone a fishing with him could do and especially salmons
that the box in which he put those worms was anointed with a drop or two or three of the oil of ivy berries made by expression or infusion and told that by the worms remaining in that box an hour or a like time they had incorporated a kind of smell
that was irresistibly attractive enough to force any fish within the smell of them to bite this i heard not long since from a friend but have not tried it yet i grant it probable and refer my reader to sir francis bacon's natural history
where he proves fishes may hear and doubtless can more probably smell and i am certain gesner says the otter can smell in the water and i know not but that fish may do so too tis left for a lover of angling
or any that desires to improve that art to try this conclusion i shall also impart two other experiments but not tried by myself which i will deliver in the same words that they were given me by an excellent angler and a very friend in writing
mixed with turpentine and hive honey and anoint your bait therewith and it will doubtless draw the fish to it the other is this vulnera hederae grandissimae inflicta sudant balsamum oleo gelato
tis supremely sweet to any fish and yet assa foetida may do the like but in these i have no great faith yet grant it probable and have had from some chymical men namely from sir george hastings and others
an affirmation of them to be very advantageous
especially not in this place i might here before i take my leave of the salmon tell you that there is more than one sort of them as namely
and another called in some places a samlet or by some a skegger but these and others which i forbear to name may be fish of another kind and differ as we know a herring and a pilchard do which i think are as different as the rivers in which they breed
and must by me be left to the disquisitions of men of more leisure and of greater abilities than i profess myself to have and lastly i am to borrow so much of your promised patience as to tell you
that the trout or salmon being in season have at their first taking out of the water which continues during life their bodies adorned
hasty censures do indeed subject themselves to the charge of variableness and inconsistency in judgment and so they ought for if you even you my dear were so loth to own a mistake as in the instance before us you pretend you were
i believe i should not have loved you so well as i really do love you nor could you in that case have so frankly thrown the reflection i hint at upon yourself have not your mind been one of the most ingenuous that ever woman boasted mister lovelace has faults enow to deserve very severe censure
although he be not guilty of this if i were upon such terms with him as he could wish me to be i should give him such a hint that this treacherous joseph leman cannot be so much attached to him as perhaps he thinks him to be if it were he would not have been so ready to report to his disadvantage
and to betty barnes too this slight affair of the pretty rustic joseph has engaged betty to secrecy promising to let her and her young master to know more when he knows the whole of the matter and this hinders her from mentioning it as she is nevertheless agog to do
to my sister or brother and then she does not choose to disoblige joseph for although she pretends to look above him she listens i believe to some love stories he tells her women having it not in their power to begin a courtship some of them very frequently i believe
lend an ear where their hearts incline not but to say no more of these low people neither of whom i think tolerably of i must needs own that as i should for ever have despised this man had he been capable of such a vile intrigue in his way to harlowe place
would it not have had such an effect upon you then the real generosity of the act i protest my beloved friend if he would be good for the rest of his life from this time i would forgive him a great many of his past errors were it only for the demonstration he has given in this
that he is capable of so good and bountiful a manner of thinking you may believe i made no scruple to open his letter after the receipt of your second on this subject nor shall i of answering it as i have no reason to find fault with it an article in his favour procured him however
so much the easier i must own by way of amends for the undue displeasure i took against him though he knows it not is it lucky enough that this matter was cleared up to me by your friendly diligence so soon for had i written before it was it would have been to reinforce my dismission of him
come for my letter in person and the forward creature labours the point as if he thought i should be uneasy that he did not i am indeed sorry he should be ill on my account and i will allow that the suspense he has been in for some time past must have been vexatious enough
to so impatient a spirit but all is owing originally to himself you will find him in the presumption of being forgiven full of contrivances and expedients for my escaping my threatened compulsion i have always said that next to being without fault
that his humility is humility or even an humility upon such conviction as one should be pleased with to be sure he is far from being a polite man yet is not directly and characteristically as i may say unpolite
but his is such a sort of politeness as has by a carelessness founded on very early indulgence and perhaps on too much success in riper years and an arrogance built upon both grown into assuredness
and of course i may say into indelicacy the distance you recommend at which to keep these men is certainly right in the main familiarity destroys reverence but with whom not with those surely who are prudent grateful and generous
but it is very difficult for persons who would avoid running into one extreme to keep clear of another hence mister lovelace perhaps thinks it the mark of a great spirit to humour his pride though at the expense of his politeness but can the man be a deep man
who knows not how to make such distinctions as a person of but moderate parts cannot miss he complains heavily of my readiness to take mortal offence at him and to dismiss him for ever it is a high conduct he says he must be frank enough to tell me
a conduct that must be very far from contributing to allay his apprehensions of the possibility that i may be prosecuted into my relations measures in behalf of mister solmes you will see how he puts his present and his future happiness with regard to both worlds entirely upon me
the ardour with which he vows and promises i think the heart only can dictate how else can one guess at a man's heart
that he has already heard of the interview i am to have with mister solmes and with what vehemence and anguish he expresses himself on the occasion i intend to take proper notice of the ignoble means he stoops to to come at his early intelligence of our family if persons pretending to principle
bear not their testimony against unprincipled actions what check can they have you will see how passionately he presses me to oblige him with a few lines before the interview between mister solmes and me takes place if as he says it must take place to confirm his hope
that i have no view in my present displeasure against him to give encouragement to solmes an apprehension he says that he must be excused for repeating especially as the interview is a favour granted to that man which i have refused to him since as he infers
were it not with such an expectation why should my friends press it i have written and to this effect that i had never intended to write another line to a man who could take upon himself to reflect upon my sex and myself for having thought fit to make use of my own judgment
i tell him that i have submitted to the interview with mister solmes purely as an act of duty to shew my friends that i will comply with their commands as far as i can and that i hope when mister solmes himself shall see how determined i am he will cease to prosecute a suit
in which it is impossible he should succeed with my consent i assure him that my aversion to mister solmes is too sincere to permit me to doubt myself on this occasion but nevertheless he must not imagine that my rejecting of mister solmes is in favour to him
that i value my freedom and independency too much if my friends will but leave me to my own judgment to give them up to a man so uncontroulable and who shews me beforehand what i have to expect from him were i in his power
and no more than an attempt to justify one meanness by another there is i observe to him a right and a wrong in every thing let people put what glosses they please upon their action to condemn a deviation and to follow it by as great a one what i ask him is this
but propagating a general corruption a stand must be made somebody turn round the evil as many as may or virtue will be lost and shall it not be i a worthy mind would ask that shall make this stand i leave him to judge whether his be a worthy one
tried by this rule and whether knowing the impetuosity of his own disposition and the improbability there is that my father and family will ever be reconciled to him
these spots and blemishes i further tell him give me not earnestness enough for any sake but his own to wish him in a juster and nobler train of thinking and acting for that i truly despised many of the ways he allows himself in our minds are therefore infinitely different
and as to his professions of reformation i must tell him that profuse acknowledgements without amendment are but to me as so many anticipating concessions which he may find much easier to make thane either to defend himself or amend his errors
and so i have by betty and she by my brother with the weak and wanton airs he gives himself of declaiming against matrimony i severely reprehend him on this occasion and ask him with what view he can take so witless so despicable a liberty
in which only the most abandoned of men allow themselves and yet presume to address me i tell him that if i am obliged to go to my uncle antony's it is not to be inferred that i must therefore necessarily be mister solmes's wife
that the same exceptions lie so strongly against my quitting a house to which i shall be forcibly carried as if i left my father's house and at the worst i may be able to keep them in suspense till my cousin morden comes who will have a right to put me in possession of my grandfather's estate
if i insist upon it this i doubt is somewhat of an artifice which can only be excusable as it is principally designed to keep him out of mischief for i have but little hope if carried thither whether sensible or senseless absolutely if i am left to the mercy of my brother and sister
but they will endeavour to force the solemn obligation upon me otherwise were there but any prospect of avoiding this by delaying or even by taking things to make me ill if nothing else would do till my cousin comes i hope i should not think of leaving even my uncle's house
for i should not know how to square it to my own principles to dispense with the duty i owe to my father wherever it shall be his will to place me but while you give me the charming hope that in order to avoid one man i shall not be under the necessity of throwing myself upon the friends of the other
i think my case not desperate i see not any of my family nor hear from them in any way of kindness this looks as if they themselves expected no great matters from the tuesday's conference which makes my heart flutter every time i think of it
my uncle antony's presence on the occasion i do not much like but i had rather meet him than my brother or sister yet my uncle is very impetuous i can't think mister lovelace can be much more so
at least he cannot look angry as my uncle with his harder features can these sea prospered gentlemen as my uncle has often made me think not used to any but elemental controul and even ready to buffet that bluster often as violently as the winds they are accustomed to be angry at
who have nothing to do but to fall in with a choice your mother has made for you to which you have not nor can have a just objection except the frowardness of our sex as our free censurers would perhaps take the liberty to say makes it one that the choice was your mother's at first hand
perverse nature we know loves not to be prescribed to although youth is not so well qualified either by sedateness or experience to choose for itself to know your own happiness and that it is now
nor to leave it to after reflection to look back upon the preferable past with a heavy and self accusing heart that you did not choose it when you might have chosen it is all that is necessary to complete your felicity and this power is wished you by
a rival grecian state and that three hundred men had saved their lives in flight the news was brought at the moment when some great festival was being celebrated in the city
and the women were forbidden to mourn but the mother of eucrates could not at first hide her grief
why should she be sorrowful her son has died bravely if he had disgraced himself by flight then only would she have the right to mourn the old man phidon came in to see her and found her spinning busily engaged at her work it is true
but with tears in her saddened eyes he was a very stern old man
ione he said not one single tear should course down your cheeks not one single pang of grief should assail your heart i it is who should weep i it is who should mourn
he lives and by living he has brought dishonour and shame on his family how can i meet him what can i say to him nay i will not look upon his face i will not vouchsafe one word of greeting to him
his father was the glory of my life but he is the soul of its shame the gods have been cruel to me in my old age but they have been merciful to you ione for your son death with honour
life with dishonour his father won the crown of wild olive in the olympic games and earned the right of fighting by the king's side and died there and i was proud of him
ione knew well that here was a grief far greater than her own loss of her beloved son she brushed her last tear aside and tried to comfort old phidon
had been friends together ever since they were children and in the days gone by
and would hear no word of comfort though as the days went by it seemed to ease his stern spirit to sit beside her and watch her at her work
and urge him not to be over hard on the lad when he returned you must pardon him phidon she said perchance he will live to do great things for sparta but the old man said proudly nay ione
and it was in vain that ione pleaded for the friend of eucrates
full of these thoughts and haunted by phidon's unyielding severity she had a strange dream one night she dreamed that king agesilaus was willing to pardon all those three hundred soldiers who had fled from the field of leuctra
but that phidon interposed and standing in the public assembly gave his vote against the pardon
he said it may be that you are right ione it may be that the gods will yet give him some great and glorious chance i will steel my heart to receive him so ione triumphed at last
and truly her dream would seem to have been some kind of divination for two or three days afterwards a decree was proposed by the king and passed in the assembly to the effect that all those who had fled from the field of leuctra were to be pardoned and received home without dishonour ordinarily
all survivors of a defeat were subject to penalties of civil offence and so this was quite an unusual proceeding but no doubt it was thought dangerous to take stern measures against such a large number of spartan citizens well whatever the reason was
there were many glad hearts in sparta that day and old phidon himself owned in secret to ione that he longed to see callias once more for i must needs forgive him wholeheartedly he said since sparta has forgiven him
that would have been my glory as soon as news had come of the defeat of the spartan army the whole remaining military force of sparta was sent to the rescue and after some time returned to sparta bringing back the survivors from the disastrous field of leuctra
but ione sat at home spinning there were no tears in her eyes now and her countenance was lit up by a calm pride she had learnt to be glad that she had no one to meet that day suddenly the door opened and phidon came in
his manner was strangely excited
could there have been some mistake i wonder is it possible that at that moment there came a loud knock at the door and ione opened it to timotheus a neighbour's son greetings to the mother of eucrates he said as he stood before ione i am from leuctra
i saw eucrates fighting in the thickest of the fray i saw him fall and there fell another by his side fighting as gallantly as he his comrade in death as well as in life and who was it that died with my brave son
answered the young man farewell honoured mother of eucrates i must go and seek phidon to tell him but phidon rose to his full height
phidon has heard the news he said and he thanks the gods for this crowning mercy
then turning to ione he said now we can think of them together and share our pride in them ione for one fleeting moment ione saw a vision of her young fair son falling before the foe
the reverend silas and the military attache colonel papillon they paused for a moment outside the station while the baggage was being got together
but you must hurry up and drive straight across paris to the nord i suppose he can go jack certainly as he has promised to return if called upon and mister collingham promptly took advantage of the permission
went on the attache i shall go to the club first get a room dress and all that then call at the hotel madagascar there is a lady there one of our party in fact and i should like to ask after her she may be glad of my services
english is there anything we can do for her yes she is an englishwoman
the contessa di castagneto oh but i know her said papillon i remember her in rome two or three years ago a deuced pretty woman very much admired but she was in deep mourning then and went out very little
i wished she had gone out more there were lots of men ready to fall at her feet you were in rome then some time back did you ever come across a man there quadling the banker of course i did constantly
he was a good deal about a rather free living self indulgent sort of chap
and did she encourage him lord how can i tell who shall say how a woman's fancy falls it might have suited her too
of course we know better than that now why now haven't you heard it was in the figaro yesterday and in all the paris papers quadling's bank has gone to smash he has bolted with all the ready he could lay hands upon he didn't get far then
cried sir charles you look surprised jack didn't they tell you this quadling was the man murdered in the sleeping car it was no doubt for the money he carried with him was it quadling my word what a terrible nemesis well
nil nisi bonum but i never thought much of the chap and your friend the countess has had an escape but now sir i must be moving my engagement is for twelve noon if you want me
but let us arrange to meet this evening eh
then colonel papillon rode off and the general was driven to the boulevard des capucines having much to occupy his thoughts by the way it did not greatly please him to have this story of the countess's relations with quadling as first hinted at by the police
endorsed now by his friend papillon clearly she had kept up her acquaintance her intimacy to the very last why otherwise should she have received him alone been closeted with him for an hour or more on the very eve of his flight
it was a clandestine acquaintance too or seemed so for sir charles although a frequent visitor at her house had never met quadling there
and yet what after all did it matter to him a good deal really more than he chose to admit to himself even now when closely questioning his secret heart the fact was the countess had made a very strong impression on him from the first
he had admired her greatly during the past winter at rome but then it was only a passing fancy as he thought
only now when he had shared a serious trouble with her had passed through common difficulties and dangers he was finding what accident may do how it may fan a first liking into a stronger flame
it was absurd of course he was fifty one he had weathered many trifling affairs of the heart and here he was bowled over at last and by a woman he was not certain was entitled to his respect what was he to do
the answer came at once and unhesitatingly as it would to any other honest chivalrous gentleman by george i'll stick to her through thick and thin i'll trust her whatever happens or has happened come what may
such a woman as that is above suspicion she must be straight i should be a beast and a blackguard double distilled to think anything else i am sure she can put all right with a word can explain everything when she chooses
i will wait till she does thus fortified and decided sir charles took his way to the hotel madagascar about noon at the desk he inquired for the countess and begged that his card might be sent up to her the man looked at it
then at the visitor as he stood there waiting rather impatiently then again at the card at last he walked out and across the inner courtyard of the hotel to the office presently the manager came back bowing low and holding the card in his hand
began a desultory conversation yes yes cried the general angrily cutting short all references to the weather and the number of english visitors in paris but be so good as to let madame la comtesse know that i have called ah to be sure
she is indisposed i believe at any rate she does not receive to day as to that we shall see i will take no answer except direct from her take or send up my card without further delay i insist do you hear
said the general so fiercely that the manager turned tail and fled up stairs perhaps he yielded his ground the more readily that he saw over the general's shoulder the figure of galipaud the detective looming in the archway
as it was not advisable to have the inspector hanging about the courtyard of the hotel the clerk or the manager should keep watch over the countess and detain any visitors who might call upon her galipaud had taken post at a wine shop over the way and was to be summoned whenever his presence was thought necessary
there he was now standing just behind the general and for the present unseen by him
he held the usual blue envelope in his hand and called out the name on the address castagneto contessa castagneto
pardon me cried sir charles promptly interposing and understanding the situation at a glance
give me the telegram galipaud would have disputed the point when the general who had already recognized him said quietly no no inspector you have no earthly right to it i guess why you are here but you are not entitled to interfere with private correspondence
stand back and seeing the detective hesitate he added peremptorily
the manager now returned and admitted that madame la comtesse would receive her visitor a few seconds more and the general was admitted into her presence how truly kind of you to call
she said at once coming up to him with both hands outstretched and frank gladness in her eyes yes she was very attractive in her plain dark travelling dress draping her tall graceful figure her beautiful pale face was enhanced by the rich tones of her dark brown wavy hair
while just a narrow band of white muslin at her wrists and neck set off the dazzling clearness of her skin of course i came i thought you might want me or might like to know the latest news he answered as he held her hands in his for a few seconds longer than was perhaps absolutely necessary
oh do tell me is there anything fresh there was a flash of crimson colour in her cheek which faded almost instantly this much they have found out who the man was really
it may surprise you shock you to hear i think you knew him nothing can well shock me now
who do they think it is a mister quadling a banker who is supposed to have absconded from rome she received the news so impassively with such strange self possession that for a moment he was disappointed in her but then
quick to excuse he suggested you may have already heard
but you knew him certainly they were my bankers much to my sorrow
interrupted the general hastily and somewhat uneasily to be sure the man told me of it himself
that creature the contempt in her tone was immeasurable i had heard well some one said that speak out general i shall not be offended i know what you mean it is perfectly true that the man once presumed to pester me with his attentions but
i would as soon have looked at a courier or a cook and now there was a pause the general felt on delicate ground he could ask no questions anything more must come from the countess herself
but let me tell you what his offer was i don't know why i listened to it i ought to have at once informed the police i wish i had
every villain gets his deserts in the long run she said with bitter sententiousness and this mister quadling is but wait you shall know him better he came to me to propose what do you think that he his bank i mean
should secretly repay me the amount of my deposit all the money i had in it to join me in his fraud in fact the scoundrel upon my word he has been well served and that was the last you saw of him i saw him on the journey
at turin at modane at
half grief half dread i cannot tell you i am obliged to i i then do not say another word he said promptly there are other things but my lips are sealed at least for the present you do not will not think any worse of me
she laid her hand gently on his arm and his closed over it with such evident good will that a blush crimsoned her cheek it still hung there and deepened when he said warmly as if anything could make me do that don't you know
you may not but let me assure you countess that nothing could happen to shake me in the high opinion i have of you come what may i shall trust you believe in you think well of you always how sweet of you to say that and now of all times
she murmured quite softly and looking up for the first time shyly to meet his eyes her hand was still on his arm covered by his and she nestled so close to him that it was easy natural indeed
for him to slip his other arm around her waist and draw her to him and now of all times may i say one word more he whispered in her ear will you give me the right to shelter and protect you to stand by you share your troubles
or keep them from you no no no indeed not now she looked up appealingly the tears brimming up in her bright eyes i cannot will not accept this sacrifice
you are only speaking out of your true hearted chivalry you must not join yourself to me you must not involve yourself he stopped her protests by the oldest and most effectual method known in such cases
that first sweet kiss sealed the compact so quickly entered into between them and after that she surrendered at discretion there was no more hesitation or reluctance she accepted his love as he had offered it
freely with whole heart and soul crept up under his sheltering wing like a storm beaten dove reentering the nest and there cooing softly my knight my own true knight and lord yielded herself willingly and unquestioningly to his tender caresses
chapter thirty seven the supper room it was rather trying in this state of things to receive from the triumphant baronet with only a parenthetical dear lake i beg your pardon a rough knock on the elbow of the hand that held his glass
his smile grew a little stranger and his face a degree whiter as he set down his glass quietly glided a little away and brushed off with his handkerchief the aspersion which his coat had suffered
in a few minutes more miss brandon had left the supper room leaning upon lord chelford's arm and sir harry remained with a glass of pink champagne such as young fellows drink with a faith and comfort so wonderful
at balls and fetes champetres sir harry bracton was already chaffing a bit as he expressed it with the young lady who assisted in dispensing the good things across the supper table
and was just calling up her blushes by a pretty parallel between her eyes and the sparkling quality of his glass and telling her her mamma must have been sweetly pretty
but during an absence mark wylder's suit grew up and prospered and sir harry bracton acquiesced and to say truth the matter troubled his manly breast but little he had hardly expected to see her here in this rollicking rustic gathering
she was he thought even more lovely than he remembered her beauty sometimes seen again does excel our recollections of it wylder had gone off the scene as mister carlyle says into infinite space
and so all things favouring the old flame blazed up wildly and the young gentleman was more in love then and for some weeks after the ball than perhaps he had ever been before
are churlish and ferocious over their loves as certain brutes are over their victuals in one of these tender paroxysms when in the presence of his dulcinea
the young baronet was always hot short and saucy with his own sex and when his jealousy was ever so little touched positively impertinent he perceived what other people did not
and brooded over it every now and then when the pale face of the captain crossed his eye and two or three times when the beautiful young lady's attention seemed unaccountably to wander from his agreeable conversation
he thought he detected her haughty eye moving in the same direction so he looked that way too and although he could see nothing noticeable in stanley's demeanour he could have felt it in his heart to box his ears
therefore i don't think he was quite so careful as he might have been to spare lake that jolt upon the elbow which coming from a rival in a moment of public triumph was not altogether easy to bear like a christian
and he looked half asleep do pray uncle lake i should like it so and the baronet who was i am afraid what some people would term perhaps vulgar winked over his glass at the blooming confectioner
looked superciliously upon sir harry who was not to be deterred by the drowsy gaze of contempt with which the captain retorted his angry chaff poor uncle died of love or chicken pox or something at forty
you're not ailing nunkie are you you do look wofully sick though too bad to lose a second uncle at the same early age
my sense and decency with a request that you will use them for my sake you're a devilish witty fellow lake take care your wit don't get you into trouble said the baronet chuckling and growing angrier
demanded sir harry his face very red and only the ghost of his smile grinning there i think you'd better of course it is quite easy the baronet was smiling his best with a very red face
and that unpleasant uncertainty in his contracted eyes which accompanies suppressed rage as easy as that said lake chucking a little bunch of grapes full into sir harry bracton's handsome face
lake recoiled a step his face blanched as white as the cloth his left arm lifted and his right hand grasping the haft of a table knife there was just a second in which the athletic baronet stood as it were breathless and incredulous
and then his herculean fist whirled in the air with a most unseemly oath the girl screamed and a crash of glass and crockery whisked away by their coats resounded on the ground a chair between lake and sir harry
impeded the baronet's stride and his uplifted arm was caught by a gentleman in moustache who held so fast that there was no chance of shaking it loose d it bracton d you
i say settle it quietly here i am
glowering furiously at lake who confronted him in the same attitude a couple of yards away you'll hear and he turned away
i am at the brandon arms till to morrow said lake with white lips very quietly to the gentleman in moustaches who bowed slightly and walked out of the room with sir harry
lake poured out some sherry in a tumbler and drank it off he was a little bit stunned i think in his new situation except for the waiters and the actors in it
lake stared at the frightened girl in his fierce abstraction then with his wild gaze he followed the line of his adversary's retreat and shook his ears slightly like a man at whose hair a wasp has buzzed
thank you said he to the maid suddenly recollecting himself with a sort of smile that will do what confounded nonsense he'll be quite cool again in five minutes never mind
and lake pulled on his white glove glancing down the file of silent waiters some looking frightened and some reserved in white ties and waistcoats and he glided out of the room his mind somewhere else
like a somnambulist it was not perfectly clear to the gentlemen and ladies in charge of the ices chickens and champagne between which of the three swells who had just left the room the quarrel was it had come so suddenly
and was over so quickly like a clap of thunder some had not seen any and others only a bit of it
rachel beheld the things which were coming to pass like an awful dream she had begun to think and not without evidence that dorcas for some cause or caprice had ceased to think of stanley as she once did
and the announcement without preparation or apparent courtship that her brother had actually won this great and beautiful heiress and that just emerged from the shades of death
was about to take his place among the magnates of the county and no doubt to enter himself for the bold and splendid game of ambition the stakes of which were now in his hand towered before her like an incredible and disastrous
illusion of magic stanley's uneasiness lest rachel's conduct should compromise them increased he grew more nervous about the relations between him and mark wylder
in proportion as the world grew more splendid and prosperous for him where is the woman who will patiently acquiesce in the reserve of her husband who shares his confidence with another
how often had stanley lake sworn to her there was no secret that he knew nothing of mark wylder beyond the charge of his money and making a small payment to an old missus dutton in london by his direction
and that beyond this he was as absolutely in the dark as she or chelford what then did rachel mean by all that escaped her when he was in danger how the could he tell
she is very charming and clever of course so long as she speaks of the kind of thing she understands but when she tries to talk of serious business
she certainly does talk such nonsense she can't reason she runs away with things it is the most tiresome thing you can conceive but you have not said stanley that she does not suspect the truth
of course i say it i have said it i swear it if you like
upon my honour and soul i know no more of his movements plans or motives than you do if you reflect you must see it
even larkin his own lawyer is in the dark rachel knows all this i have told her fifty times over and she seems to give way at the moment indeed the thing is too plain to be resisted
and by the time i see her next her old fancy possesses her i can't help it because with more reluctance than i can tell i at length consent at larkin's entreaty i may say to bank and fund his money
but dorcas's mind retained its first impression sometimes his plausibilities his vehemence and his vows disturbed it for a time but there it remained like the picture of a camera obscura
into which a momentary light has been admitted unseen for a second but the images return with the darkness and group themselves in their old colours and places again whatever it was rachel probably knew it
there was a painful confidence between them and there was growing in dorcas's mind a feeling towards rachel which her pride forbade her to define she did not like stanley's stealthy visits to redman's farm
she did not like his moods or looks after those visits of which he thought she knew nothing she did not know whether to be pleased or sorry that rachel had refused to reside at brandon
and rachel so earnest what was this secret how dared her husband mask from her what he confided to another how dared rachel confer with him influence him perhaps under her very eye
walking before the windows of brandon that brandon which was hers and to which she had taken stanley passing her gate a poor and tired wayfarer of the world and made him what oh mad caprice
oh fit retribution a wild voice was talking this way to and fro and up and down in the chambers of memory but she would not let it speak from her proud lips
she smiled and to outward seeming was the same but rachel felt that the fashion of her countenance towards her was changed since her marriage she had not hinted to rachel the subject of their old conversations
burning beneath her feeling about it was now a deep rooted anger and jealousy still she was stanley's sister and to be treated accordingly the whole household greeted her with proper respect and dorcas met her graciously
and with all the externals of kindness the change was so little that i do not think any but she and rachel saw it and yet it was immense there was a dark room a sort of ante room to the library
with only two tall and narrow windows and hung with old dutch tapestries representing the battles and sieges of men in periwigs pikemen dragoons in buff coats and musketeers with matchlocks
the door of the library opened and she was a little surprised to see stanley enter why stanley they told me you were gone to naunton
somehow he was not very well pleased to see her i think you'll find dorcas in the drawing room or else in the conservatory he added i am glad stanley i happened to meet you
you can if you please do a great deal in a moment certainly but i may repent it afterwards stanley you may regret postponing it much more you have no idea rachel how very tiresome you've grown
yes stanley i can quite understand it it would have been better for you perhaps for myself i had died long ago well that is another thing but in the meantime i assure you rachel you
stanley lake was growing angry yes stanley
what is he to do rachel said dorcas standing near the door it was a very awkward pause the splendid young bride was the only person on the stage who looked very much as usual
stanley turned his pale glare of fury from rachel to dorcas and dorcas said again what is it rachel darling rachel with a bright blush on her cheeks stepped quickly up to her put her arms about her neck and kissed her
and over her shoulder she cried to her brother tell her stanley and so she quickly left the room and was gone well dorkie love what's the matter said stanley sharply at last breaking the silence
you perhaps can tell answered she coldly you have frightened rachel out of the room for one thing answered he with a sneer i simply asked her what she urged you to do i think i have a claim to know
and because she can't persuade me to accept her views of what is christian and sensible she threatens to go mad i think that is her phrase i don't think rachel is a fool said dorcas quietly her eye still upon stanley
when she pleases to exert her good sense but she can when she pleases both talk and act like a fool and pray what does she want you to do stanley the merest nonsense but what is it
and i have half a dozen letters to write and really if i were to stay here and try to explain i very much doubt whether i could why don't you ask her if she has any clear ideas on the subject i don't see why she should not tell you
for my part i doubt if she understands herself i certainly don't dorcas smiled bitterly mystery already mystery from the first i am to know nothing of your secrets
and therefore which i have a right to know and my entering the room is the signal for silence a guilty silence for departure and for equivocation
beware i may entrench myself in that isolation you are choosing your confidant and excluding me rest assured you shall have no confidence of mine while you do so
stanley lake looked at her with a gaze at once peevish and inquisitive you take a wonderfully serious view of rachel's nonsense i do
certainly you women have a marvellous talent for making mountains of molehills you and radie are adepts in the art
come now dorkie be a good girl you must not look so vexed i'm not vexed what then i'm only thinking she said this with the same bitter smile
stanley lake looked for a moment disposed to break into one of his furies but instead he only laughed his unpleasant laugh well i'm thinking too and i find it quite possible to be vexed at the same time i assure you dorcas
i really am busy and it is too bad to have one's time wasted in solemn lectures about stuff and nonsense do make rachel explain herself if she can i have no objection i assure you
but i must be permitted to decline undertaking to interpret that oracle and so saying stanley lake glided into the library and shut the door with an angry clap dorcas did not deign to look after him
she had heard his farewell address looking from the window at the towering and sombre clumps of her ancestral trees pale proud with perhaps a peculiar gleam of resentment or malignity
in her exquisite features so she stood looking forth on her noble possessions on terraces
chapter thirty six the ball room rachel lake standing by the piano turned over the leaves of the volume of moore's melodies from which the artist in black whiskers and white waistcoat
had just entertained his noble patroness and his audience everyone has experienced i suppose for a few wonderful moments now and then a glow of seemingly causeless happiness
are glorified peace and sunlight rest on everything the spirit of music and love is in the air and the heart itself sings for joy in the light of this celestial illusion she stood now by the piano
turning over the pages of poor tom moore as i have said when a low pleasant voice near her said i was so glad to see that dorcas had prevailed and that you were here
we both agreed that you are too much a recluse in that der frieschutz glen at least for your friends pleasure and owe it to us all to appear now and then in this upper world
excelsior miss lake interposed dapper little mister buttle with a smirk i think this little bit of music it was got up you know by that old quiz dowager lady chelford
miss lake don't you poor mister buttle did not know lord chelford
he hurt his brother chelford turned away and bowed and smiled to one or two friends at the other side of the room yes the music was very pretty and some of the songs were quite charmingly sung i agree with you
we are very much obliged to lady chelford that is her son lord chelford oh said buttle whose smirk vanished on the instant in a very red and dismal vacancy i
he'll think me shockingly rude and in a minute more buttle was gone miss lake again looked down upon the page and as she did so lord chelford turned and said you are a worshipper of tom moore miss lake
an admirer perhaps certainly no worshipper yet i can't say perhaps i do worship but if so it is a worship strangely mixed with contempt and she laughed a little
to the lords of creation and which we of the weaker sex have no right to practise
i dare say all women are irony is the weapon of cowardice and cowardice the vice of weakness
and her eyes flashed with a dark and angry meaning among the crowd at the other end of the room as if for a second or two following an object to whom in some way the statement applied
the strange bitterness of her tone though it was low enough and something wild suffering and revengeful in her look though but momentary and hardly definable did not escape lord chelford
and i do think if people had no reserves they would be very uninteresting he added she was looking with a strange light upon her face a smile perhaps
now i can't tell miss lake as you look on tom moore there and i try to read your smile whether you happen at this particular moment to adore or despise him moore's is a daring morality
what do you think for instance of these lines she said touching the verse with her bouquet lord chelford read i ask not i know not if guilt's in thy heart i but know that i love thee
whatever thou art he laughed very passionate but hardly respectable i once knew he continued a little more gravely a marriage made upon that principle and not very audaciously either
she paused for a moment holding her bouquet drooping towards the floor and looking with her clouded eyes down down through it and then she looked up suddenly with an odd fierce smile and she said bitterly enough
i could love no other way because i suppose love to be a madness
and i admire moore for that flash of the fallen angelic it is the sentiment of a hero and a madman too base and too noble for this cool wise world she was already moving away
nebulous in hovering folds of snowy muslin and she floated down like a cloud upon the ottoman beside old lady sarah and smiled and leaned towards her and talked in her sweet low distinct accents
indefatigable smiles stood and conversed with her with that jaunty swagger of his his weight now on this side now on that squaring his elbows like a crack whip with four in hand and wagging his perfumed tresses
boisterous rollicking beaming with immeasurable self complacency stanley lake left old lady chelford's side and glided to that of dorcas brandon will you dance this set
are you engaged miss brandon he said in low eager tones yes to both questions answered she with the faintest gleam of the conventional smile and looking now gravely again at her bouquet
well the next possibly i hope i never do that said the apathetic beauty serenely stanley looked as if he did not quite understand and there was a little silence i mean
i never engage myself beyond one dance i hope you do not think it rude but i never do miss brandon can make what laws she pleases for all here and for some of us everywhere he replied
with a mortified smile and a bow at that moment sir harry bracton arrived to claim her
elderly and sentimental and in no great request timidly said in a gobbling confidential whisper what a handsome couple they do make does not it quite realise your conception captain lake
and his fair helen so stately his form and so lovely her face you remember that never a hall such a galliard did grace is not it so it is really
it did not strike me and that one cup of wine you recollect which the hero drank and i dare say it made young lochinvar a little noisy and swaggering when he proposed treading the measure is not that the phrase yes really
would be sure to report her elegant little compliment in the proper quarters and that her incense had not missed fire
when miss brandon returned lake was unfortunately on duty beside old lady chelford whom it was important to propitiate and who was in the middle of a story an extraordinary favour from her ladyship
and he had the vexation to see lord chelford palpably engaging miss brandon for the next dance when she returned she was a little tired and doubtful whether she would dance any more certainly not the next dance
so the captain had to assist at the dowager lady's supper and not only so but in some sort at her digestion also which she chose should take place for some ten minutes in the chair that she occupied at the supper table
when he escaped miss brandon was engaged once more and to sir harry bracton for a second time and moreover when he again essayed his suit
the young lady had peremptorily made up her mind to dance no more that night how can dorcas endure that man thought rachel
and is not he vulgar too but dorcas was not demonstrative her likings and dislikings were always more or less enigmatical still rachel lake fancied that she detected signs
not only of tolerance but of positive liking in her haughty cousin's demeanour and wondered after all whether dorcas was beginning to like sir harry bracton dorcas had always puzzled her
not indeed so much latterly but this night the mystery began to darken once more twice for a moment their eyes met but only for a moment rachel knew that a tragedy might be at that instant
and under the influence of that very spectacle gathering its thunders silently in another part of the room where she saw stanley's pale peculiar face
she perfectly well knew that nothing of it escaped him the sight of that pale face was a cold pang at her heart a face prophetic of evil at sight of which the dark curtain which hid futurity
seemed to sway and tremble as if a hand from behind was on the point of drawing it rachel sighed profoundly and her eyes looked sadly through her bouquet on the floor
i'm very glad you came radie said a sweet voice which somehow made her shiver close to her ear this kind of thing will do you good and you really wanted a little fillip
shall i take you to the supper room no stanley thank you i prefer remaining have you observed how dorcas has treated me this evening no stanley nothing unusual is there
glancing uneasily round lest they should be overheard
i almost fancy these gylingden people dull as they are
i sha'n't trouble gylingden or her after to morrow rachel glanced quickly at him he was deadly pale with his faint unpleasant smile and he returned her glance for a second wildly
and then dropped his eyes to the ground i told you he resumed again after a short pause and commencing with a gentle laugh that she liked that fellow bracton you did say something i think of that
some time since said rachel
we both know dorcas very well she is not like other girls she does not encourage fellows as they do but if she did not like bracton very well indeed she would send him about his business she has danced with him twice
on the contrary and has suffered his agreeable conversation all the evening and that from dorcas brandon means you know everything i don't know that it means anything
i don't see why it should but i am very certain said rachel who in the midst of this crowded gossiping ball room was talking much more freely to stanley and also strange to say in more sisterly fashion
than she would have done in the little parlour of redman's farm
it will prevent more ruin than perhaps either of us anticipates and stanley she added in a whisper looking full in his eyes which were raised for a moment to hers it is hardly credible
and were then lowered instantly to the floor she has been very rude to me to night and you have not been or tried to be of any earthly use to me
i perfectly know what i'm about you don't seem to be dancing i have not either we have both got something more serious i fancy to think of and stanley lake glided slowly away
chapter six the mystery deepens from the langmore mansion adam adams went to town and at the morgue made a careful inspection of the pair who had been the victims of the tragedy
this critical examination brought nothing new to light and he turned away from the place with something of disappointment i'll take a look around that brook again and see if that strange man is anywhere in sight he told himself and got back to the vicinity without delay
fortune favored him for once for scarcely had he reached the back of the langmore mansion when he saw the stranger leap the brook again and come up towards the house just in time murmured the detective he shall not slip me again in a hurry
it was now growing dark especially under the trees which surrounded the mansion at length the fellow gained a point almost under one of the library windows he gazed around sharply and then appeared to be searching for something on the ground
the detective saw him start to pick something up but at that moment the side door of the mansion opened and the policeman came out
demanded the officer oh that's all right was the low answer don't mind me but what are you doing here just looking around that's all you haven't any right in this yard i think i have who are you
my name is watkins jack watkins and then some words followed which adam adams did not catch oh then i suppose that makes a difference
no i don't want to see the girl but i'll come into the house answered the strange man and walked up the piazza steps and into the mansion with the policeman by his side
as soon as the fellow was ought of sight adam adams drew closer and looked under the bushes where the other had been searching at first he saw nothing but then his keen eye detected a bit of paper caught at the foot of some shrubbery
more documentary evidence perhaps he murmured as he shoved the paper into his pocket i wonder if this connects with the piece i found under the safe he approached the window the blinds of which were closed and peered through the slats
a light had been lit and the policeman and the stranger had just entered the room i don't think you'll find much to interest you said the officer all of the others have hunted around and they didn't find much
the stranger walked around the apartment slowly and then sank into an armchair sit down and have a smoke with me he said pulling out his cigar case you've got a long night before you i am not going to stay up all night
the women folks and me are going to take turns they should have sent another man here but the chief couldn't spare him two of the men being sick cigars were lit and the pair smoked away for several minutes talking of the case in all of its details
evidently the stranger agreed with the general public regarding margaret langmore's guilt of course she'll put on a good front
she's that sort so i've heard what does her stepbrother say about it not much now at first he didn't think her guilty but after he talked with me and the women folks he changed his mind i reckon
it's a blow to him for he thought a good deal of the old lady mister sudley came a call from the hallway mister sudley where are you it was one of the women who was calling and laying down his cigar the policeman left the library to see what she wanted
the door had scarcely closed on the officer when the demeanor of the other man changed he arose looked into the dining room and listened at the hall doorway for a second then he recrossed the apartment and knelt before the safe
adam adams heard him mutter something to himself as he twirled around the knob of the combination
but the third effort was successful but before he could do more than glance into the strong box there was a noise in the hallway instantly he shut the door again dropped into his chair and resumed his smoking women folks are a regular nuisance
was the policeman's comment on coming back want you to do this and then that keep you on the go all the time i'm tired of it take my advice and don't marry was the rejoinder with a laugh too late i've got a wife and five children already
why er i suppose so the stranger hesitated i'll have to be going pretty soon going to stay in this room all night no i'm going to lock up and go upstairs that's right nothing like resting on a good bed
i don't think the girl will try to run away she can't we're watching her too closely the pair left the library scarcely had they gone when adam adams opened one of the blinds made a quick leap and came inside
that fellow will bear watching no matter who he claims to be the detective told himself but there is no use of following him now for he will be back sooner or later he did not open this safe for nothing
with the policeman and the stranger gone the lower portion of the mansion appeared deserted
as he had anticipated the door now came open with ease the detective felt that he was in a ticklish position had he a right to examine the contents of this strong box if discovered by any one what would be the outcome
even the fact that he was in a way connected with the law might not clear him but he felt he must take some risks he knew the sentiment against margaret langmore and knew that sentiment in a country place is almost equal to a conviction
the coroner had convinced himself that the girl was guilty and would go to any extremity to prove the correctness of his theory the safe was divided into several compartments and on one side was a set of three metallic drawers
the open side contained several account books and legal and patent papers the top drawer contained some old jewelry and a gold watch the middle drawer some bank bills not over a hundred dollars all told the bottom drawer was locked
but the key for it lay in the middle drawer so adam adams opened the receptacle with ease as he did so a cry of astonishment came to his lips and he repressed it with difficulty
the drawer was packed with new and crisp one hundred dollar bills all on the same bank the excelsior national of new york city there were thirty of the bills and evidently not one of them had been in circulation
the detective started as he took them up held them to the somewhat dim light and started again he paused for a moment as if deciding a weighty question then he placed the package of bank bills in the inner pocket of his coat
these have no right to be here he muttered the only place for them is in the hands of the federal authorities under the bills lay several legal documents one was labeled
mortgage of matlock styles to barry s langmore eight thousand dollars there were likewise two other mortgages between the same parties one for three thousand dollars and the other for five thousand dollars
whoever matlock styles is he evidently owes the langmore estate sixteen thousand dollars the detective told himself that is if the obligations have not been cancelled i wonder what the mortgages were doing in with those bills
mister adams a soft call from the window made the detective turn swiftly to his surprise he saw raymond case peering at him through the blinds the young man's face showed his perplexity what brought you
he did not relish being caught off his guard i couldn't think of going to bed at the hotel i was so upset i thought if i came over here i might discover something of value or help you in some way
i see you've managed to get that safe open it was certainly a clever piece of work as it happens opening the safe was not my work was the answer another man opened it and i took the liberty of looking inside but i can't talk about that here
wait a minute and i'll join you outside adam adams swung the door of the safe open once more as he surmised the combination could be set to a new series of numbers with ease he fixed it to correspond with the numbers of his own office safe then closed the door
gave the knob a twirl and hurried from the room by the same opening by which he had entered when i first came up i thought somebody was robbing the safe said raymond case when the pair were at a distance from the house what did you see me do
oh i know it must be all right mister adams but it looked queer i took them for safe keeping look at them for a moment i'll strike a match behind this clump of trees count them over too it may be as well to have a witness for this
raymond case took the crisp bills and did as requested three thousand dollars he said all brand new bills and each for a hundred dollars exactly and each on the same bank so they are
that's rather odd isn't it and all of the same serial number gracious mister adams wait mister case i am going to trust you even as you have trusted me i want you to keep this a secret certainly but
chapter nine on the train this is clearing itself by growing more complicated such was the deduction of the detective after he had reviewed the situation carefully
was it possible that the son of the woman who had been murdered was guilty of the double tragedy he remembered what he had been told about tom ostrello and his wayward brother dick
and how mother and son had had an exciting meeting on the day previous to the tragedy i rather think it will pay to investigate a little further along this line thought adam adams
more than likely he came here for money either for himself or his brother dick if his mother did not have it and wanted it she would have to go to mister langmore for it that might cause a bitterness all around or again
he might have thought that if his step father were dead his mother would inherit his money and so plotted one murder which when he was discovered ended in a second it will do no harm to have a talk with this young man
he reached the langmore mansion once more to find that tom ostrello had departed for the city on necessary business but was coming back before night then at the hotel he found a message from his own office calling him to new york
not for long i'll be back to night or to morrow anything new nothing worth talking about yet i must hurry to catch the train
i am waiting for the inquest it will be a terrible trial for margaret and the young man's face showed his concern tell her for me to make the best of it answered adam adams and hurried to the depot
the train was just coming in and he saw tom ostrello get on board and he entered the car directly behind the commercial traveler the young man passed through to the smoker and the detective did the same
two seats were vacant directly across the aisle from each other and each took one presently ostrello looked at adam adams and started slightly and then bowed excuse me but i think i saw you up to the langmore house he began
yes i called on miss langmore i believe you are missus langmore's son yes come over won't you ostrello moved towards the window of the car i've got to have a smoke to quiet my nerves i'm so upset will you have one
and he presented a case full of choice havana cigars it must have upset you it's enough to upset anybody answered adam adams as they lit up it's a fearful happening fearful you are acting for margaret i heard
yes if there is a chance to do anything do you know anything of the tragedy not a thing outside of what i have heard when i got the telegram i was fairly stunned but let me tell you one thing well
i don't think margaret is guilty a girl like her couldn't do such a cold blooded deed
it would take a hardened criminal to do such a thing
what is your theory of the murders i hardly know what to think if the house had been robbed i would say tramps did it but how i don't know excepting the er both were smothered
but let us change the subject it breaks me all up to think about it i thought a whole lot of my mother where is your brother i don't know exactly he was in los angeles the last i heard of him
i have sent messages to half a dozen places but so far have received no reply he is a commercial traveler like yourself he was up to two weeks ago
he's a rolling stone and that is why i can't just locate him do you represent a paint house too questioned adam adams after a pause during which he appeared to enjoy the really fragrant havana tom ostrello had tended him
no i'm with a drug house and have been for four years one of the best in the country alexander and company of rochester new york i am their salesman for new york and the eastern states we make some of the most noted preparations in the trade
alexander and company of rochester mused adam adams thinking of the bit of paper he had picked up from under the safe i believe i have seen their place let me see what street is it on
wadley street and runs through to hill a fine six story concern with a laboratory that is second to none yes i remember it now i suppose you must have a pretty good position with them
fair i think they ought to raise my salary answered tom ostrello he stretched himself i feel sleepy didn't get a wink last night
i don't blame you answered adam adams with a quiet smile
and thus the remainder of the trip to the city passed
tom ostrello represented the very drug firm whose advertisement had appeared in part on the bit of paper picked up from under the library safe and he was there hunting for something thought the detective
was it for that bit of paper or for the something that he secured in his mother's room at the depot the pair separated adam adams lost no time in visiting his office where his assistant awaited him anxiously well letty how are you this morning
he said pleasantly as he dropped into his chair he gave the girl a bright smile and she smiled in return letty bernard was an orphan the daughter of one of his former friends and he took a fatherly interest in her
she lived with a second cousin but wished to be independent and so the detective had given her the position in his office a place she filled with credit
the chief asked me to give you these papers said the assistant you are to sign all three um then that's the end of the soper case anything else glackey was in
he told me he had tracked the german and would report in full by to morrow he thinks you were right and the german is the man what else a missus caven demuth was here
great scott dogs she said her pet cocker spaniel had disappeared and she was willing to spend five hundred dollars on finding him i am no dog detective send her to mc mommie
i sent her to police headquarters and is that all mister folett telegraphed that he would be here at ten it's after that now it's nearly noon you can go to lunch if you wish
hullo it's mister folett now be back in an hour yes uncle adam answered the girl she always called him uncle since he had taken such an interest in her she went out as the caller entered and left the two men talking over a business matter
he procured a lunch and then took a subway train halfway uptown he walked two blocks westward and ascended the steps of a fine brown stone residence he asked for doctor calkey and was ushered into a private den where the doctor
a tall spare man of sixty soon joined him my good friend adams cried the doctor shaking hands warmly where have you kept yourself
i have missed you so much and the comforting smokes we had together why did you desert me you knew i could not come to you that i never go out and you do not bring any business to me i had none to bring and i have been very busy
but i have missed our meetings i must confess ah i am glad to learn i was not entirely forgotten and you have been busy and still nothing for rudolph calkey to do nothing to analyze nothing to dissect i've got a knot now for you good good
i trust it is a good complication i love them so there is such a satisfaction when the end is reached but not yet no not yet a glass of wine first something prime i imported it myself so that i would know what i am getting
the wine was soon forthcoming and then a cigar for the detective and a pipe for the doctor at last the latter threw himself into an old easy chair and gazed at his caller expectantly i am ready to untie the knot he said
he wore an old rusty black coat and a soft hat with a hole in it his face was tanned and partly covered with a beard the man was acting in a manner to excite anybody's curiosity he carried a stick in his hand and was poking around in the water with it
straining his eyes adam adams saw a strip of white floating on the water once or twice it disappeared finally the end of the strip caught on an overhanging bush and then the strange man withdrew his cane from the brook
as he turned around the detective dodged out of sight apparently satisfied that he was not observed the strange man leaned down at the bank of the brook took something from his pocket and placed it down on the moist dirt
then he took another object from his pocket and repeated the operation can they be shoes he has in his hands mused the detective and if they are what is he doing with them
hearing the slamming of a door at the mansion adam adams drew still further back among the bushes a minute later he saw the man make a long leap clear the brook and hurry away among the trees and brushwood on the other side
humph perhaps this is worth investigating mused the detective and made his way to the spot the strange individual had occupied on the bank of the brook he saw the marks of the man's broad shoes
and also some prints made by smaller shoes the latter prints were irregular and at once arrested the detective's attention he smiled grimly to himself clue number one he muttered adam adams looked around in the water
soon he came upon the strip of white and pulling on it brought to light a white silk shirtwaist torn to ribbons in front and at one sleeve he wrung the water and mud from the garment and examined it
inside of the collar band were the initials m a l margaret a langmore he murmured those initials are hers if the shirtwaist was hers how did that fellow get possession of it and did he place it here or find it here
drying the garment as much as possible he placed it in his pocket and continued his search around the vicinity he spent fully an hour in the locality and then walked back the way he had come and into the mansion
there he found thomas ostrello in conversation with the policeman it is a terrible blow to me the commercial traveler was saying
if i had remained here over night it might not have occurred at all well that's the way things happen answered the policeman once i was at one end of my beat when a thief broke into a store at the other end and stole sixteen dollars and two hams
and i suppose they blamed you for it sure they did i was laid off for a week without pay if anything happens it is always the poor copper who is to blame well the family are not blaming you for this they can't
especially as they've got the person who did the deed at this thomas ostrello shrugged his shoulders i don't know about that you don't no i'd hate to believe any girl could do such a fearful thing as this the commercial traveler paused
i'm going to take a look around i suppose it's all right certainly mister ostrello answered the policeman and then the commercial man stepped into the library closing the door after him adam adams had passed into the dining room just back of the library
but had heard what was said now looking through the doorway which had a sliding door and a heavy curtain the latter partly drawn he saw the man glance around hurriedly moving from one object to another in the library
and even into the various bookcases
and tried the knob of the combination half a dozen times he is more than ordinarily interested reasoned the detective but then it was his own mother who was murdered
the commercial man continued his search until he had covered every object in the room several times he even looked behind the pictures and into the drawer of the table something which had escaped the coroner's eye when sealing up the desk
adam adams saw him shake his head in despair he took a turn up and down the apartment and clenched his hands nervously gone he muttered to himself what could have become of it
he drew from his pocket a notebook he carried and studied several items carefully a long sigh escaped from his lips as he restored the notebook to his pocket
as the commercial traveler moved toward the dining room the detective stepped into a side apartment used in the winter as a conservatory he saw thomas ostrello make an examination of several places including a sideboard
then the woman who had been placed in charge of the downstairs portion of the mansion entered won't you have a bite to eat mister ostrello she asked perhaps so later on i do not feel like eating now can i take a look at my mother's room
why yes i suppose you know where it is certainly i often visited her there when she was not feeling well he passed out without another word and was soon mounting the heavily carpeted stairs once in the room he closed the door tightly
coming up softly after him adam adams tried the door and found it locked more interested than ever the detective just avoiding missus morse who was passing through the hallway slipped into the adjoining room and finding as he had imagined
a door between the two applied his eye to the keyhole this might mean nothing and it might mean everything he saw missus langmore's son moving around the dressing room precisely as he had moved around the library
he heard the bureau drawers opened and shut and then heard the squeak of a small writing desk that stood in a corner as the leaf was turned down then came a rattle of papers and a sudden subdued exclamation
the desk was closed again and the man came out of the room leaving the hall door partly open whatever he was looking for he must have found it reasoned the detective now what was it
he waited in the hallway and heard thomas ostrello enter the dining room a minute later came the rattle of dishes then missus morse confronted him back again i see she said rather sharply
yes i wish to have another talk with miss langmore he returned and brushing her aside knocked on the girl's door and was admitted the woman pursed up her lips how very important some of those city lawyers are she muttered
think they know it all i guess well he'll have a job clearing her if what coroner busby says is true oh i did not know you were coming back exclaimed margaret has anything happened
is it yours oh certainly but where did it come from and it is all torn too it was almost new when i had it on last when was that the girl thought for a moment and then turned pale on the morning that that
that the tragedy occurred yes i don't know what made me put it on but i did and when did you take it off why let me see some time in the afternoon i think i i fainted and it got dirty
and so i put on another and threw this in the clothes closet are you certain you put it in the clothes closet positive where did you find it never mind that just now
i do but why will you kindly see if all of your shoes are there the girl ran over opened the closet door and began an immediate examination one pair is missing a pair i use a great deal too she said a minute later
oh mister adams what does this mean
while you are at it you might let me know if anything else is missing margaret began a close examination of everything in the closet the detective watching her as keenly as he had before she is either innocent or else the greatest actress i've ever met
was his mental conclusion i think her innocent but the best of us get tripped up at times if she is innocent that evidence was manufactured to prove her guilty
i might have learned something worth knowing nothing else seems to be missing announced the girl at length very well then don't waste time by searching further by the way did you know mister thomas ostrello had arrived
yes i told raymond to telegraph for him he used to call quite often to see his mother what about the other son dick i do not know where he is didn't he come here he came once
but he is a dissipated young man and i do not think my stepmother cared much for him but she did think a good deal of the one who is now downstairs yes although they occasionally had their quarrels just as we had ours
tom would plead for his brother dick who seemed to be always wanting money once my father took a hand and said his wife shouldn't give dick a cent more as he only squandered it that made tom angry
and after that when tom came he would ask to see only his mother although he and i remained on fairly good terms tom was here the day before the tragedy yes i think he came to see his mother about some private business
they had a long talk in her room and she seemed to be quite excited when he went away i don't know what it was all about but mister adams are you not hungry and won't you have a lunch thanks i'll take a bite
the lunch was served in margaret's apartment and the detective did ample justice to it for he never allowed business to interfere with his appetite as he ate the girl watched him curiously mister adams she said presently
the men going about in wonderful disguises and the like and doing marvelous things and yet i know you have a wonderful reputation raymond told me about it at that he smiled broadly wonderful disguises eh
well i use them when i think them necessary and not otherwise when i started out years ago i used a great many more than i do now to me a mystery of this sort is a good deal like a cut up picture that you give a child to put together
first you want to make sure you have all the pieces and then you want to sit down put on your thinking cap and match the pieces together to you this is an awful tragedy his tone softened greatly
to me it is another case nothing more work such as i have done is bound to harden a fellow
but i feel for you and you have my sympathy and you will aid me you said you would she pleaded i am going to do what i can
some of them are covered by insurance which will be paid the rest is gone
she has left lessons the risk of running the northern course when it is menaced by icebergs is revealed the cruelty of sending a ship to sea without enough life boats and life rafts to hold her company is exhibited and underlined in black
she has left sorrows hundreds of human hearts and homes are in mourning for the loss of dear companions and friends
it is an evidence of the divine in humanity why should we care there is no reason in the world unless there is something in us that is different from lime and carbon and phosphorus something that makes us mortals able to suffer together
for we have all of us an human heart but there is more than this harvest of debts and lessons and sorrows in the tragedy of the sinking of the titanic there is a great ideal
it is clearly outlined and set before the mind and heart of the modern world to approve and follow or to despise and reject it is women and children first whatever happened on that dreadful april night among the arctic ice
certainly that was the order given by the brave and steadfast captain certainly that was the law obeyed by the men on the doomed ship but why there is no statute or enactment of any nation to enforce such an order
there is no trace of such a rule to be found in the history of ancient civilizations there is no authority for it among the heathen races to day on a chinese ship if we may believe the report of an official representative
the rule would have been men first children next and women last there is certainly no argument against this barbaric rule on physical or material grounds on the average a man is stronger than a woman he is worth more than a woman
he has a longer prospect of life than a woman there is no reason in all the range of physical and economic science no reason in all the philosophy of the superman why he should give his place in the life boat to a woman
it comes from god through the faith of jesus of nazareth it is the ideal of self sacrifice it is the rule that the strong ought to bear the infirmities of those that are weak
greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends it needs a tragic catastrophe like the wreck of the titanic to bring out the absolute contradiction between this ideal
and all the counsels of materialism and selfish expediency i do not say that the germ of this ideal may not be found in other religions i do not say that they are against it i do not ask any man to accept my theology
the ideal which animates the rule of women and children first is in essential harmony with the spirit of christ if what he said about our father in heaven is true this ideal is supremely reasonable
number of life boats and rafts twenty capacity of each life boat fifty passengers and crew of eight
number of life boats wrecked in launching four capacity of life boats safely launched nine hundred twenty eight total number of persons taken in life boats seven hundred eleven
number who died in life boats six total number saved seven hundred five total number of titanic's company lost
two official warnings had been received defining the position of the ice fields it had been calculated on the titanic that she would reach the ice fields about eleven o'clock sunday night
at that time the ship was driving at a speed of twenty one to twenty three knots or about twenty six miles an hour there had been no details of seamen assigned to each boat some of the boats left the ship without seamen enough to man the oars
some of the boats were not more than half full of passengers the boats had no provisions some of them had no water stored some were without sail equipment or compasses in some boats which carried sails wrapped and bound
admiral of the white star fleet went down with his ship chapter one first news of the greatest marine disaster in history the titanic in collision but everybody safe
another triumph set down to wireless telegraphy the world goes to sleep peacefully the sad awakening like a bolt out of a clear sky came the wireless message on monday april fifteenth nineteen twelve
that on sunday night the great titanic on her maiden voyage across the atlantic had struck a gigantic iceberg but that all the passengers were saved the ship had signaled her distress and another victory was set down to wireless
twenty one hundred lives saved additional news was soon received that the ship had collided with a mountain of ice in the north atlantic off cape race newfoundland
and that the steamers towing her were trying to get her into shoal water near cape race for the purpose of beaching her wireless despatches up to noon monday showed that the passengers of the titanic were being transferred aboard the steamer carpathia
which left new york april thirteenth for naples twenty boat loads of the titanic's passengers were said to have been transferred to the carpathia then and allowing forty to sixty persons as the capacity of each life boat
some eight hundred or twelve hundred persons had already been transferred from the damaged liner to the carpathia they were reported as being taken to halifax whence they would be sent by train to new york
was said to be close at hand and assisting in the work of rescue the baltic virginian and olympic were also near the scene according to the information received by wireless while badly damaged the giant vessel was reported as still afloat but
whether she could reach port or shoal water was uncertain the white star officials declared that the titanic was in no immediate danger of sinking because of her numerous water tight compartments while we are still lacking definite information
mister franklin vice president of the white star line said later in the afternoon we believe the titanic's passengers will reach halifax wednesday evening we have received no further word from captain haddock of the olympic or
from any of the ships in the vicinity but are confident that there will be no loss of life with the understanding that the survivors would be taken to halifax the line arranged to have thirty pullman cars two diners and many passenger coaches leave boston monday night
monday night the world slept in peace and assurance a wireless message had finally been received reading all titanic's passengers safe
it was not until nearly a week later that the fact was discovered that this message had been wrongly received in the confusion of messages flashing through the air and that in reality the message should have read
are all titanic's passengers safe
justin peabody had once faithfully struggled with the practical difficulties of life in edgewood or so he had thought in those old days of which nancy wentworth was thinking as she wiped the paint of the peabody pew
work in the mills did not attract him he had no capital to invest in a stock of goods for store keeping school teaching offered him only a pittance there remained then only the farm if he were to stay at home and keep his mother company
justin don't seem to take no holt of things said the neighbours good heavens
and the elements however much they might seem to favour his neighbours seldom smiled on his enterprises the crows liked justin's corn better than any other in edgewood it had a richness peculiar to itself
justin could explain the attitude of caterpillars worms grasshoppers and potato bugs toward him only by assuming that he attracted them as the magnet in the toy boxes attracts the miniature fishes land of liberty
look at em congregate ejaculated jabe slocum when he was called in for consultation now if you'd gone in for breedin insecks you could be as proud as cuffy an exhibit em at the county fair
they'd give yer prizes for size an numbers an speed i guess why say they're real crowded for room the plants ain't give em enough leaves to roost on have you tried bug death
it acts like a tonic on them said justin gloomily
now mine can't abide the sight nor smell of it what bout paris green they thrive on it it's as good as an appetizer
justin did just that as a matter of fact a year or two later but stock that has within itself the power of being live has also rare qualifications for being dead when occasion suits
and it generally did suit justin's stock it proved prone not only to all the general diseases that cattle flesh is heir to but was capable even of suicide at least it is true
that two valuable jersey calves tied to stakes on the hillside had flung themselves violently down the bank and strangled themselves with their own ropes in a manner which seemed to show that they found no pleasure in existence at all events on the peabody farm
these were some of the little tragedies that had sickened young justin peabody with life in edgewood and nancy wentworth even then realized some of them and sympathized without speaking in a girl's poor helpless way
missus simpson had washed the floor in the right wing of the church and nancy had cleaned all the paint now she sat in the old peabody pew darning the forlorn faded cushion with grey carpet thread thread as grey as her own life
and two of the women were beginning preparations for the basket luncheons nancy's needle was no busier than her memory long years ago she had often sat in the peabody pew sometimes at first as a girl of sixteen when asked by esther
and then on coming home from school at eighteen finished she had been invited now and again by missus peabody herself on those sundays when her own invalid mother had not attended service those were wonderful sundays
sundays of quiet trembling peace and maiden joy justin sat beside her and she had been sure then but had long since grown to doubt the evidence of her senses that he too
vibrated with pleasure at the nearness was there not a summer morning when his hand touched her white lace mitt as they held the hymn book together and the lines of the rise my soul and stretch thy wings thy better portion trace
became blurred on the page and melted into something indistinguishable for a full minute or two afterward were there not looks and looks and looks or had she some misleading trick of vision in those days
justin's dark handsome profile rose before her the level brows and fine lashes the well cut nose and lovable mouth the peabody mouth and chin somewhat too sweet and pliant for strength perhaps
then the eyes turned to hers in the old way just for a fleeting glance as they had so often done at prayer meeting or sociable or sunday service was it not a man's heart she had seen in them
and oh if she could only be sure that her own woman's heart had not looked out from hers drawn from its maiden shelter in spite of all her wish to keep it hidden
then followed two dreary years of indecision and suspense when justin's eyes met hers less freely when his looks were always gloomy and anxious when affairs at the peabody farm grew worse and worse
when his mother followed her husband the old deacon and her daughter esther to the burying ground in the churchyard then the end of all things came the end of the world for nancy
justin's departure for the west in a very frenzy of discouragement over the narrowness and limitation and injustice of his lot over the rockiness and barrenness and unkindness of the new england soil over the general bitterness of fate
and the bludgeonings of chance he was a failure born of a family of failures if the world owed him a living he had yet to find the method by which it could be earned all this he thought and uttered and much more of the same sort
in these days of humbled pride self was paramount though it was a self he despised there was no time for love who was he for a girl to lean upon he who could not stand erect himself
he bade a stiff good bye to his neighbours and to nancy he vouchsafed little more a handshake with no thrill of love in it such as might have furnished her palm at least some memories to dwell upon
a few stilted words of leave taking a halting meaningless sentence or two about his botch of life then he walked away from the wentworth doorstep but half way down the garden path
where the shrivelled hollyhocks stood like sentinels did a wave of something different sweep over him a wave of the boyish irresponsible past when his heart had wings and could fly without fear to its mate
a wave of the past that was rushing through nancy's mind well nigh burying her in its bitter sweet waters for he lifted his head and suddenly retracing his steps he came toward her and taking her hand again
said forlornly you'll see me back when my luck turns nancy nancy knew that the words might mean little or much according to the manner in which they were uttered but to her hurt pride and sore shamed woman instinct
they were a promise simply because there was a choking sound in justin's voice and tears in justin's eyes you'll see me back when my luck turns nancy this was the phrase upon which she had lived for more than ten years
nancy had once heard the old parson say ages ago that the whole purpose of life was the growth of the soul that we eat sleep clothe ourselves work love
all to give the soul another day month year in which to develop she used to wonder if her soul could be growing in the monotonous round of her dull duties and her duller pleasures she did not confess it even to herself
nevertheless she knew that she worked ate slept to live until justin's luck turned her love had lain in her heart a bird without a song year after year her mother had dwelt by her side and never guessed
the neighbours also lynx eyed and curious had never suspected if she had suffered no one in edgewood was any the wiser for the maiden heart is not commonly worn on the sleeve in new england
if she had been openly pledged to justin peabody she could have waited twice ten years with a decent show of self respect for long engagements were viewed rather as a matter of course in that neighbourhood
the endless months had gone on since that grey november day when justin had said good bye it had been just before thanksgiving and she went to church with an aching and ungrateful heart
the parson read from the eighth chapter of saint matthew a most unexpected selection for that holiday if you can't find anything else to be thankful for he cried go home and be thankful you are not a leper
nancy took the drastic counsel away from the church with her and it was many a year before she could manage to add to this slender store anything to increase her gratitude for mercies given
though all the time she was outwardly busy cheerful and helpful justin had once come back to edgewood and it was the bitterest drop in her cup of bitterness that she was spending that winter in berwick
with the butt of this he struck crusoe a blow on the head that sent him sprawling on the grass the rest of the savages as we have seen continued in pursuit of dick until he leaped into the river then they returned took the saddle and bridle off his dead horse
and rejoined their comrades here they held a court martial on crusoe who was now bound foot and muzzle with cords some were for killing him others who admired his noble appearance immense size and courage
thought it would be well to carry him to their village and keep him there was a pretty violent dispute on the subject but at length it was agreed that they should spare his life in the mean time and perhaps have a dog dance round him when they got to their wigwams
this dance of which crusoe was to be the chief though passive performer is peculiar to some of the tribes east of the rocky mountains and consists in killing a dog and cutting out its liver
which is afterwards sliced into shreds or strings and hung on a pole about the height of a man's head a band of warriors then come and dance wildly round this pole and each one
in succession goes up to the raw liver and bites a piece off it without however putting his hands near it such is the dog dance and to such was poor crusoe destined by his fierce captors
but crusoe was much too clever a dog to be disposed of in so disgusting a manner he had privately resolved in his own mind that he would escape but the hopelessness of his ever carrying that resolution into effect
and his four paws were tied together in a bunch as he hung suspended across the saddle of one of the savages this particular party of indians who had followed dick varley determined not to wait for the return of their comrades who were in pursuit of the other two hunters
but to go straight home so for several days they galloped away over the prairie at nights when they encamped crusoe was thrown on the ground like a piece of old lumber and left to lie there with a mere scrap of food till morning
when he was again thrown across the horse of his captor and carried on when the village was reached he was thrown again on the ground and would certainly have been torn to pieces in five minutes by the indian curs which came howling round him
had not an old woman come to the rescue and driven them away
or rather to stagger she dragged him to her tent and undoing the line that fastened his mouth offered him a bone although lying in a position that was unfavourable for eating purposes crusoe opened his jaws and took it
an awful crash was followed by two crunches and it was gone and crusoe looked up in the old squaw's face with a look that said plainly
but he coughed after it and it was well he didn't choke after this the squaw left him and crusoe spent the remainder of that night gnawing the cords that bound him
so diligent was he that he was free before morning and walked deliberately out of the tent then he shook himself and with a yell that one might have fancied was intended for defiance he bounded joyfully away and was soon out of sight
to a dog with a good appetite which had been on short allowance for several days the mouthful given to him by the old squaw was a mere nothing all that day he kept bounding over the plain from bluff to bluff in search of something to eat
but found nothing until dusk when he pounced suddenly and most unexpectedly on a prairie hen fast asleep in one moment its life was gone in less than a minute its body was gone too feathers and bones and all
down crusoe's ravenous throat on the identical spot crusoe lay down and slept like a top for four hours
and flew straight over the prairie to the spot where he had had the scuffle with the indian he came to the edge of the river took precisely the same leap that his master had done before him
and came out on the other side a good deal higher up than dick had done for the dog had no savages to dodge and was as we have said before a powerful swimmer it cost him a good deal of running about to find the trail
and it was nearly dark before he resumed his journey then putting his keen nose to the ground he ran step by step over dick's track and at last found him as we have shown on the banks of the salt creek
it is quite impossible to describe the intense joy which filled dick's heart on again beholding his favourite
this was a consummation that took crusoe quite aback never having seen his master in such a state before he seemed to think at first that he was playing some trick for he bounded round him and barked and wagged his tail
but as dick lay quite still and motionless he went forward with a look of alarm snuffed him once or twice and whined piteously then he raised his nose in the air and uttered a long melancholy wail the cry seemed to revive dick
for he moved and with some difficulty sat up to the dog's evident relief there is no doubt whatever that crusoe learned an erroneous lesson that day and was firmly convinced thenceforth that the best cure for a fainting fit is a melancholy yell
crusoe said dick in a feeble voice dear good pup
he crawled as he spoke down to the water's edge where there was a level patch of dry sand
said dick pointing to the sand crusoe looked at him in surprise as well he might for he had never heard the word dig in all his life before dick pondered a minute
he turned up a little of the sand with his fingers
so without a moment's delay he commenced to dig down into the sand every now and then stopping for a moment and shoving in his nose and snuffing interrogatively as if he fully expected to find a buffalo at the bottom of it then he would resume again
while the sand flew out between his hind legs in a continuous shower when the sand accumulated so much behind him as to impede his motions he scraped it out of his way and set to work again with tenfold earnestness
after a good while he paused and looked up at dick with an it won't do i fear there's nothing here expression on his face
and went at it again tooth and nail harder than ever
the bottom appeared slightly damp hope now reanimated dick varley and by various devices he succeeded in getting the dog to scrape away a sort of tunnel from the hole into which he might roll himself and put down his lips to drink when the water should rise high enough
drop by drop and while he gazed he fell into a troubled restless slumber and dreamed that crusoe's return was a dream and that he was alone again perishing for want of water when he awakened
it was brackish but drinkable and as dick drank deeply of it he esteemed it at that moment better than nectar here he lay for half an hour alternately drinking and gazing in surprise
the same afternoon crusoe in a private hunting excursion of his own discovered and caught a prairie hen which he quietly proceeded to devour on the spot when dick who saw what had occurred
he did not merely answer at once to the call he sprang to it leaving the prairie hen untasted fetch it pup cried dick eagerly as the dog came up in a few moments the hen was at his feet
dick's circumstances could not brook the delay of cookery he gashed the bird with his knife and drank the blood and then gave the flesh to the dog while he crept to the pool again for another draught ah think not reader
that although we have treated this subject in a slight vein of pleasantry because it ended well that therefore our tale is pure fiction not only are indians glad to satisfy the urgent cravings of hunger with raw flesh but many civilised men and delicately nurtured
have done the same ay and doubtless will do the same again as long as enterprising and fearless men shall go forth to dare the dangers of flood and field in the wild places of our wonderful world
the two sailors while rick
poor ruddy himself was not having a very good time he had been lifted out of the junk wagon by matt stanton the ragged sailor who had stolen ruddy away for luck as he called it
and ruddy was half dragged along the road by a rope the sailor had tied around his neck ruddy growled and whined and whimpered if he could have talked man language instead of only in dog fashion he would have said
you are almost choking me
of course i don't want to come with you for i don't like you i like rick the boy best but
even if we don't like it but oh dear how i wish i were back with rick
he gave a little joyous bark
but the sailor was not quite as bad as that he rather cared for the dog in a way though he did not know how to be really kind to animals some men and boys are that way and i am sorry for them
it is wonderful to know how to love animals and have them care for you
and ruddy whimpered and did not bark again first thing i know you'll be bringing a crowd around us and somebody may take you away from me grumbled the ragged man
and the only reason ruddy had barked half joyously when he smelled the woods
come along now growled the sailor and again he jerked on the rope around ruddy's neck
he asked of the junk man
we'll of come to the house in a minute he looked behind him as if to make sure no one was following and then added in a whisper my friend
he doesn't of want anybody to know he's there
well i've done that myself they walked on a little farther the sailor still dragging ruddy along and at last the two men pushed their way through some bushes and came to an old tumble down house
that did not seem a much better place to sleep in
here we are said ike stein the junk man here we are the sailor looked about him shook his head once or twice and then said
and ruddy looked up and wagged his tail just a little for these were the first kind words the sailor had spoken to him
well i don't see him
answered the junk man now we of are hungry
sam a bone a bone for the dog
was the answer well give ruddy a ten cent bone exclaimed the sailor here's your money
he fished up a dime which he threw to the junk man's friend the second ragged man whose name was sam went into his house and came out with a bone which he threw down in front of ruddy who by this time had been tied to a post in the yard
hum mumbled the sailor as he looked at the bone it's a good thing i bought a ten cent one
well now the dog's eatin let's us eat right away promised sam and he led the way into the house mind you
growled the sailor shaking his finger at ruddy the poor dog smelling a little good meat on the bone had lain down with it between his fore paws and was gnawing it he had no intention of running away just then
he was too hungry and this was his supper it was not like the good supper he would have had at home in his kennel where rick always fed him but it must answer now
sailor matt stanton looked around the old ramshackle house as he and the junk man entered
sam levy was in the junk business also only he bought the things the other men gathered up in their wagons and sold them to the larger dealers in bottles rags and paper
he was a wholesale junk dealer and the others were retailers you might say the three men went to the kitchen of the old house and sam began to cook a meal
instantly the three men looked around and sam stopped rattling the long handled spoon somebody's comin whispered ike stein
man goes to man cry the challenge through the jungle he that was our brother goes away hear now and judge o ye people of the jungle answer who shall turn him who shall stay man goes to man
he is weeping in the jungle he that was our brother sorrows sore man goes to man oh we loved him in the jungle
the second year after the great fight with red dog and the death of akela mowgli must have been nearly seventeen years old he looked older for hard exercise the best of good eating and baths whenever he felt in the least hot or dusty
had given him strength and growth far beyond his age he could swing by one hand from a top branch for half an hour at a time when he had occasion to look along the tree roads he could stop a young buck in mid gallop and throw him sideways by the head
and when he moved quietly on his own affairs the mere whisper of his coming cleared the wood paths and yet the look in his eyes was always gentle even when he fought his eyes never blazed as bagheera's did they only grew more and more interested and excited
and that was one of the things that bagheera himself did not understand he asked mowgli about it and the boy laughed and said when i miss the kill i am angry when i must go empty for two days i am very angry do not my eyes talk then
the mouth is hungry said bagheera but the eyes say nothing hunting eating or swimming it is all one like a stone in wet or dry weather mowgli looked at him lazily from under his long eyelashes and as usual
the panther's head dropped bagheera knew his master they were lying out far up the side of a hill overlooking the waingunga and the morning mists hung below them in bands of white and green
as the sun rose it changed into bubbling seas of red gold churned off and let the low rays stripe the dried grass on which mowgli and bagheera were resting it was the end of the cold weather
a little leaf tap tap tapped furiously against a twig as a single leaf caught in a current will it roused bagheera for he snuffed the morning air with a deep hollow cough threw himself on his back and struck with his fore paws at the nodding leaf above
the year turns he said the jungle goes forward the time of new talk is near that leaf knows it is very good the grass is dry mowgli answered pulling up a tuft even eye of the spring
that is a little trumpet shaped waxy red flower that runs in and out among the grasses even eye of the spring is shut and bagheera is it well for the black panther so to lie on his back and beat with his paws in the air
said bagheera he seemed to be thinking of other things i say is it well for the black panther so to mouth and cough and howl and roll remember
thou and i indeed yes i hear man cub bagheera rolled over hurriedly and sat up the dust on his ragged black flanks he was just casting his winter coat we be surely the masters of the jungle
who is so strong as mowgli who so wise there was a curious drawl in the voice that made mowgli turn to see whether by any chance the black panther were making fun of him for the jungle is full of words that sound like one thing but mean another
i said we be beyond question the masters of the jungle bagheera repeated have i done wrong i did not know that the man cub no longer lay upon the ground does he fly then
mowgli sat with his elbows on his knees looking out across the valley at the daylight somewhere down in the woods below a bird was trying over in a husky reedy voice the first few notes of his spring song it was no more than a shadow of the liquid tumbling call
he would be pouring later but bagheera heard it i said the time of new talk is near growled the panther switching his tail i hear mowgli answered bagheera why dost thou shake all over the sun is warm
he has not forgotten now i too must remember my song and he began purring and crooning to himself harking back dissatisfied again and again there is no game afoot said mowgli
little brother are both thine ears stopped that is no killing word but my song that i make ready against the need
i shall know when the time of new talk is here
mowgli spoke rather savagely but indeed little brother bagheera began we do not always i say ye do said mowgli shooting out his forefinger angrily ye do run away and i
who am the master of the jungle must needs walk alone how was it last season when i would gather sugar cane from the fields of a man pack i sent a runner i sent thee to hathi bidding him to come upon such a night and pluck the sweet grass for me with his trunk
he came only two nights later said bagheera cowering a little and of that long sweet grass that pleased thee so he gathered more than any man cub could eat in all the nights of the rains that was no fault of mine he did not come upon the night when i sent him the word
no he was trumpeting and running and roaring through the valleys in the moonlight his trail was like the trail of three elephants for he would not hide among the trees he danced in the moonlight before the houses of the man pack i saw him
and yet he would not come to me and i am the master of the jungle it was the time of new talk said the panther always very humble perhaps little brother thou didst not that time call him by a master word listen to ferao and be glad
he lay back with his head on his arms his eyes shut i do not know nor do i care he said sleepily let us sleep bagheera my stomach is heavy in me make me a rest for my head the panther lay down again with a sigh
because he could hear ferao practising and repractising his song against the springtime of new talk as they say in an indian jungle the seasons slide one into the other almost without division there seem to be only two the wet and the dry
you will find all four going round in their regular ring spring is the most wonderful because she has not to cover a clean bare field with new leaves and flowers
over surviving raffle of half green things which the gentle winter has suffered to live and to make the partly dressed stale earth feel new and young once more and this she does so well that there is no spring in the world like the jungle spring
there is one day when all things are tired and the very smells as they drift on the heavy air are old and used one cannot explain this but it feels so
to the eye nothing whatever has changed when all the smells are new and delightful and the whiskers of the jungle people quiver to their roots and the winter hair comes away from their sides in long draggled locks
that you can almost hear and under this noise runs day and night a deep hum that is the noise of the spring a vibrating boom which is neither bees nor falling water nor the wind in tree tops but the purring of the warm happy world
up to this year mowgli had always delighted in the turn of the seasons it was he who generally saw the first eye of the spring deep down among the grasses and the first bank of spring clouds which are like nothing else in the jungle
his voice could be heard in all sorts of wet star lighted blossoming places helping the big frogs through their choruses or mocking the little upside down owls that hoot through the white nights like all his people spring was the season he chose for his flittings
moving for the mere joy of rushing through the warm air thirty forty or fifty miles between twilight and the morning star
the four did not follow him on these wild ringings of the jungle but went off to sing songs with other wolves the jungle people are very busy in the spring and mowgli could hear them grunting and screaming and whistling according to their kind
their voices then are different from their voices at other times of the year and that is one of the reasons why spring in the jungle is called the time of new talk but that spring as he told bagheera his stomach was changed in him ever since the bamboo shoots turned spotty brown
and mor the peacock blazing in bronze and blue and gold cried it aloud all along the misty woods and mowgli opened his mouth to send on the cry the words choked between his teeth and a feeling came over him that began at his toes and ended in his hair
a feeling of pure unhappiness so that he looked himself over to be sure that he had not trod on a thorn mor cried the new smells the other birds took it over and from the rocks by the waingunga he heard bagheera's hoarse scream
something between the scream of an eagle and the neighing of a horse there was a yelling and scattering of bandar log in the new budding branches above and there stood mowgli his chest filled to answer mor sinking in little gasps as the breath was driven out of it by this unhappiness
the smells have changed screamed mor good hunting little brother where is thy answer little brother good hunting whistled chil the kite and his mate swooping down together the two
baffed under mowgli's nose so close that a pinch of downy white feathers brushed away a light spring rain
drove across the jungle in a belt half a mile wide left the new leaves wet and nodding behind and died out in a double rainbow and a light roll of thunder the spring hum broke out for a minute and was silent
all except mowgli i have eaten good food he said to himself i have drunk good water nor does my throat burn and grow small as it did when i bit the blue spotted root that o o the turtle said was clean food but my stomach is heavy
and i have given very bad talk to bagheera and others people of the jungle and my people now too i am hot and now i am cold and now i am neither hot nor cold but angry with that which i cannot see
they were far beyond earshot singing over the spring songs the moon and sambhur songs with the wolves of the pack
of the little spotted tree cat winding in and out among the branches for early birds nests at this he shook all over with rage and half drew his knife then he became very haughty though there was no one to see him and stalked severely down the hillside
chin up and eyebrows down but never a single one of his people asked him a question for they were all too busy with their own affairs yes said mowgli to himself though in his heart he knew that he had no reason let the red dhole come from the dekkan
or the red flower dance among the bamboos and all the jungle runs whining to mowgli calling him great elephant names but now
the jungle goes mad as tabaqui by the bull that bought me
be silent what do ye here a couple of young wolves of the pack were cantering down a path looking for open ground in which to fight you will remember that the law of the jungle forbids fighting where the pack can see
their neck bristles were as stiff as wire and they bayed furiously crouching for the first grapple mowgli leaped forward caught one outstretched throat in either hand
before interfered with a spring fight the two leaped forward and dashed him aside and without word to waste rolled over and over close locked mowgli was on his feet almost before he fell his knife and his white teeth were bared
and at that minute he would have killed both for no reason but that they were fighting when he wished them to be quiet although every wolf has full right under the law to fight he danced round them with lowered shoulders and quivering hand ready to send in a double blow when the first flurry of the scuffle should be over
the knife point lowered and he sheathed the knife and watched i have surely eaten poison he sighed at last since i broke up the council with the red flower since i killed shere khan none of the pack could fling me aside
and these be only tail wolves in the pack little hunters my strength is gone from me and presently i shall die oh mowgli why dost thou not kill them both the fight went on till one wolf ran away
and mowgli was left alone on the torn and bloody ground looking now at his knife and now at his legs and arms while the feeling of unhappiness he had never known before covered him as water covers a log he killed early that evening and ate but little
so as to be in good fettle for his spring running and he ate alone because all the jungle people were away singing or fighting it was a perfect white night as they call it all green things seemed to have made a month's growth since the morning
the branch that was yellow leaved the day before dripped sap when mowgli broke it the mosses curled deep and warm over his feet the young grass had no cutting edges and all the voices of the jungle boomed like one deep harp string touched by the moon
the moon of new talk who splashed her light full on rock and pool slipped it between trunk and creeper and sifted it through a million leaves forgetting his unhappiness mowgli sang aloud with pure delight as he settled into his stride
it was more like flying than anything else for he had chosen the long downward slope that leads to the northern marshes through the heart of the main jungle where the springy ground deadened the fall of his feet
but mowgli's muscles trained by years of experience bore him up as though he were a feather when a rotten log or a hidden stone turned under his foot he saved himself never checking his pace without effort and without thought
and seemed to float rather than to climb up into the thin branches whence he would follow a tree road till his mood changed and he shot downward in a long leafy curve to the levels again
there were still hot hollows surrounded by wet rocks where he could hardly breathe for the heavy scents of the night flowers and the bloom along the creeper buds dark avenues where the moonlight lay in belts as regular as checkered marbles in a church aisle
thickets where the wet young growth stood breast high about him and threw its arms round his waist and hilltops crowned with broken rock where he leaped from stone to stone above the lairs of the frightened little foxes he would hear very faint and far off
the chug drug of a boar sharpening his tusks on a bole and would come across the great gray brute all alone scribing and rending the bark of a tall tree
or he would turn aside to the sound of clashing horns and hissing grunts and dash past a couple of furious sambhur staggering to and fro with lowered heads striped with blood that showed black in the moonlight
or at some rushing ford he would hear jacala the crocodile bellowing like a bull or disturb a twined knot of the poison people but before they could strike he would be away and across the glistening shingle and deep in the jungle again so he ran
sometimes shouting sometimes singing to himself the happiest thing in all the jungle that night till the smell of the flowers warned him that he was near the marshes and those lay far beyond his farthest hunting grounds here again
a man trained man would have sunk overhead in three strides but mowgli's feet had eyes in them and they passed him from tussock to tussock and clump to quaking clump without asking help from the eyes in his head
the marsh was awake all round him for in the spring the bird people sleep very lightly and companies of them were coming or going the night through but no one took any notice of mowgli sitting among the tall reeds humming songs without words and looking at the soles of his hard brown feet
in case of neglected thorns all his unhappiness seemed to have been left behind in his own jungle and he was just beginning a full throat song when it came back again ten times worse than before this time mowgli was frightened it is here also
and he looked over his shoulder to see whether the it were not standing behind him there is no one here the night noises of the marsh went on but never a bird or beast spoke to him and the new feeling of misery grew i have surely eaten poison
he said in an awe stricken voice it must be that carelessly i have eaten poison and my strength is going from me i was afraid and yet it was not i that was afraid mowgli was afraid when the two wolves fought
that is true sign i have eaten poison but what do they care in the jungle they sing and howl and fight and run in companies under the moon and i hai mai i am dying in the marshes of that poison which i have eaten
he was so sorry for himself that he nearly wept and after he went on they will find me lying in the black water nay i will go back to my own jungle and i will die upon the council rock and bagheera whom i love
if he is not screaming in the valley bagheera perhaps may watch by what is left for a little lest chil use me as he used akela a large warm tear splashed down on his knee and miserable as he was
mowgli felt happy that he was so miserable if you can understand that upside down sort of happiness as chil the kite used akela he repeated on the night i saved the pack from red dog he was quiet for a little
thinking of the last words of the lone wolf which you of course remember now akela said to me many foolish things before he died for when we die our stomachs change he said none the less i am of the jungle
in his excitement as he remembered the fight on waingunga bank he shouted the last words aloud and a wild buffalo cow among the reeds sprang to her knees snorting man
oh mowgli is it danger lowed mysa oh mowgli is it danger the boy called back mockingly that is all mysa thinks for is it danger
but for mowgli who goes to and fro in the jungle by night watching what do ye care how loud he cries said the cow
having torn up the grass know not how to eat it for less than this
and ridden him through the swamp on a rush halter he stretched a hand to break one of the feathery reeds but drew it back with a sigh mysa went on steadily chewing the cud and the long grass ripped where the cow grazed
i will not die here he said angrily mysa
who is of one blood with jacala and the pig would see me let us go beyond the swamp and see what comes never have i run such a spring running hot and cold together up mowgli
the great dripping bull broke out of his wallow like a shell exploding while mowgli laughed till he sat down
wolf thou the bull snorted stamping in the mud all the jungle knows thou wast a herder of tame cattle such a man's brat as shouts in the dust by the crops yonder thou of the jungle
what hunter would have crawled like a snake among the leeches and for a muddy jest a jackal's jest have shamed me before my cow come to firm ground and i will i will
mysa frothed at the mouth for mysa has nearly the worst temper of any one in the jungle mowgli watched him puff and blow with eyes that never changed
what man pack lair here by the marshes
this is new jungle to me go north then roared the angry bull for mowgli had pricked him rather sharply it was a naked cow herd's jest go and tell them at the village at the foot of the marsh the man pack do not love jungle tales
nor do i think mysa that a scratch more or less on thy hide is any matter for a council but i will go and look at this village yes i will go softly now
with heavy sluggish engines i panted down and came to rest in the dull yellow glow of the field lights a new world here the field was flat caked ooze
i could see the dull lights of the settlement blurred by the gathered night vapors the field operator shut off his permission signal and came forward he was a squat heavy set fellow in wide trousers
the sweat streamed from his forehead this oppressive heat
of the newly fashioned lowland design what few weapons i dared carry were carefully concealed no alien could enter nareda bearing anything resembling a lethal weapon my wide thick soled shoes did not look suspicious for one who planned much walking
on the caked lowland ooze but those fat soles were cleverly fashioned to hide a long keen knife blade like a dirk i could lift a foot and get the knife out of its hidden compartment with fair speed this i had in one shoe in the other
with its attendant individual audiophone transmitter and receiver a miracle of smallness these tiny contrivances with batteries wires
once past this field inspection i would rig it for use under my shirt strapped around my chest and i had some colored magnesium flares the field operator came panting who are you philip grant from great new york
but i got by you have no documents
they would care for it they told me the price swindlingly exorbitant for the unwary traveller who might wander down here all correct i said cheerfully and half that much more for you and your men if you give me good service
where can i have a room and meals spawn said the operator he is the best fat bellied from his own good cooking take him there hugo i had a gold coin instantly ready and with a few additional directions regarding my flyer
i started off it had been hot and oppressive standing in the field it was infinitely worse climbing the mud slope into the village
shouldered my bag and seemed not to notice the effort we passed occasional tube lights strung on poles they illumined the heavy rounded crags a tumbled region this slope which once was the ocean floor twenty thousand feet below the surface
rifts were here like gulleys
and there were caves and crevices in which deep sea fish once had lurked for ten minutes or so we climbed it was past the midnight hour the village was asleep we entered its outposts the houses were small structures of clay in the gloom
they looked like drab little beehives set in unplanned groups with paths for streets wandering between them then we came to a more prosperous neighborhood the street widened and straightened the clay houses still with rounded dome like tops stood back from the road
the windows and doors were like round finger holes plugged in the clay by a giant hand occasionally the windows dimly lighted stared like sleeping giant eyes there were flowers in all the more pretentious private gardens
their perfume hanging in the heavy night air lay on the village making one forget the over curtain of stenching mist down by the shore of the nares sea
the street lined in one place by arching giant fronds drowsing and nodding overhead
much further hugo no we are here he turned abruptly into a gateway
the news of my coming had preceded me a front room was lighted my host was waiting
he vanished i fronted my host this jacob spawn strange fate that should have led me to spawn and to little jetta spawn was a fat bellied dutchman as the field attendant had said
a fellow of perhaps fifty five with sparse gray hair and a heavy jowled smooth shaved face from which his small eyes peered stolidly at me he laid aside a huge old fashioned calabash pipe and offered a pudgy hand
welcome young man to nareda seldom do we see strangers the meal which he presently cooked and served me himself was lavishly done he spoke good english but slowly heavily with the guttural intonation of his race
he sat across the table from me puffing his pipe while i ate what brings you here young lad a week you say or more i don't know i'm looking for oil there should be petroleum beneath these rocks for an hour i avoided his prying questions
it might have been a cookery of the highlands there was a table with its tube light the chairs his electron stove
i recall that it seemed to me a woman's hand must be here but i saw no woman
the kitchen adjoined an interior back garden i could see it through the opened door oval a dim space of flowers a little path to a pergola an adobe fountain
it was a sort of spanish patio out there partially enclosed by the wings of the house moonlight was struggling into it and as i gazed idly i thought i saw a figure lurking someone watching us
i thought so a slight half grown boy
made visible in a patch of moonlight as he moved away and entered the dark opposite wing of the house i did not see the boy's figure again and
it was in another wing of the house it had a window facing the front and a window and door back to this same patio
sleep well meester grant my bag was here on the table under an electrolier shall i call you yes i said early he lingered a moment i was opening my bag i flung it wide under his gaze well
good night i shall be very comfortable thanks good night he said he went out the patio door i watched his figure cross the moonlit path and enter the kitchen the noise of his puttering there sounded for a time
then the light went out and the house and garden fell into silence i closed my doors they sealed on the inside and i fastened them securely then i fastened the transparent window panes i did not undress but lay on the bed in the dark i was tired
i realized it now but sleep would not come i am no believer in occultism but there are premonitions which one cannot deny it seemed now as i lay there in the dark that i had every reason to be perturbed yet i could not think why
and adjusted the wires and diaphragms of the ether wave mechanism when in place it was all concealed under my shirt as i switched it on the electrodes against my flesh tingled a little but it was absolutely soundless and one gets used to the tingle
a slight noise forced itself on me a scratching a tap something outside my window spawn come back to peer in at me i slipped noiselessly from the bed the sound had come from the window which faced the patio
the room over by the bed was wholly dark the moonlight outside showed the patio window as a dimly illumined oval for a moment i crouched on the floor by the bed no sound the silence of the lowlands is as heavy and oppressive as its air
i felt as though my heart were audible i lifted my foot extracted my dirk it opened into a very businesslike steel blade of a good twelve inch length i bared the blade
the click of it leaving the flat hollow handle sounded loud in the stillness of the room a moment
jetta of the lowlands beginning a three part novel by ray cummings foreword
worn and rounded crags bloated mud plains noisome reaches of ooze which once
as mount everest towers above it aeroplanes would fly down into them and i can imagine the settlement of these vast new realms
born of man's indomitable will to conquer every adverse condition of inhospitable nature a novel setting for a story of adventure it seems so to me can you say that the oceans will never drain of their water that an earthquake will not open a rift some day in the future and lower the water
into subterranean caverns the volume of water of all the oceans is no more to the volume of the earth than a tissue paper wrapping on an orange is it too great a fantasy why
reading the facts of what happened in nineteen twenty nine it is already prognosticated the fishing banks off the coast of newfoundland have suddenly sunk cable ships repairing a broken cable snapped by the earthquake of november eighteenth nineteen twenty nine
report that for distances of a hundred miles on the grand banks the cables have disappeared into unfathomable depths and before the subterranean cataclysm they were within six hundred feet of the surface
ten thousand square miles dropped out of the bottom of the ocean fact not fancy and so
twenty thousand feet below the zero height the setting for a tale of adventure the romance of the mist shrouded deeps and the romance of little jetta chapter one the secret mission
i was twenty five years of age that may evening of twenty twenty when they sent me south into the lowlands i had been in the national detective service bureau and then was transferred to the customs department atlantic lowlands branch i went alone it was best my commander thought
an assignment needing diplomacy rather than a show of force it was nine p m when i catapulted from the little stage of long island airport a fair moonlit evening a moon just beyond the full rising to pale the eastern stars
i climbed about a thousand feet swung over the headlands of the hook and keeping in the thousand foot local lane took my course my destination lay some thirteen hundred miles southeast of great new york i could do a good normal three ninety in this fleet little wasp
the thousand foot lane had a southward drift this night i was making now well over four hundred i would reach nareda soon after midnight the continental shelf slid beneath me dropping away as my course took me further from the highland borders
the lowlands lay patched with inky shadows and splashes of moonlight domes with upstanding rounded heads plateaus of naked black rock ten thousand feet below the zero height trenches like valleys ridged and pitted naked in places
like a pockmarked lunar landscape or again
dark curtain of sluggish cloud with moonlight tinging its edges pallid green to my left eastward toward the great basin of the mid atlantic lowlands there was always a steady downward slope
spilling into a trench low lying land locked little seas canyons some of them dry
its surface lay fifteen thousand feet below the zero height its depth in places was a full three thousand it was clear of mist to night the moonlight shimmered on its rippled surface
there was nothing of this flight novel to me i had frequently flown over the lowlands
but never upon such a mission as was taking me there now i was headed for nareda capital village of the tiny lowland republic of nareda which only five years ago
santo domingo and porto rico a few hundred miles of tumbled lowlands embracing the turgid nares sea whose bottom is the lowest point of all the western hemisphere some thirty thousand feet below the zero height
the village of nareda is far down indeed i had never been there
at minus twenty thousand feet with the mona valley behind it like a gash in the steep upward slopes to the highlands of porto rico and haiti nareda has a mixed population of typical lowland adventures among which the hardy dutch predominate
to give it national identity and out of this had arisen my mission now mercury the quicksilver of commerce so recently come to tremendous value through its universal use in the new antiseptics
which bid fair to check all human disease was being produced in nareda the import duty into the united states was being paid openly enough but nevertheless hanley's agents believed that smuggling was taking place
it was to investigate this condition that hanley was sending me i had introduction to the nareda government officials i was to consult with hanley by ether phone in seeking the hidden source of the contraband quicksilver but in the main
to use my own judgment a mission of diplomacy i had no mind to pry openly among the people of these lowland depths looking for smugglers i might indeed find them too unexpectedly
over curious strangers are not welcomed by the lowlanders many have gone into the depths and have never returned i was above the nares sea by midnight
twenty one thousand feet below me lay the black expanse of water the moon had climbed well toward the zenith now its silver shafts penetrated the hanging mist stratas the surface of the nares sea was visible dark and sullen looking
i shifted the angles of incidence of the wings re set my propeller angles and made the necessary carburetor adjustments switching on the supercharger which would supply air at normal zero height pressure to the carburetors throughout my descent i swung over nareda
the lights of the little village far down dwarfed by distance showed like bleary winking eyes through the mists the jagged recesses of the mona valley were dark with shadow the nares sea lay like some black monster asleep
and slowly heavily panting moonlight was over me with stars and fleecy white clouds calm placid atmospheric night was up here but beneath it all seemed so mysterious fantastic sinister
for she ran only a few steps then turned and stood peering the moonlight slanted over the western roof of the building and fell on her a slight boyish figure in short tattered trousers and a boy's shirt open at her slim rounded throat
the moonlight gleamed on the white shirt fabric to show it torn and ragged her arms were upraised her head with clustering flying dark curls was tilted as though listening for a sound from me a shy wild creature
drawn to my window tapping to awaken me then frightened at what she had done i opened the garden door she did not move
the moonlight was on me as i stood there i was conscious of its etching me with its silver sheen and twenty feet from me this girl stood and gazed with startled eyes and parted lips and white limbs trembling like a frightened animal
the patio was very silent the heavy arching fronds stirred slightly with a vague night breeze the moonlight threw a lacy dark pattern of them on the gray stone path the fountain bowl gleamed white in the moonlight behind the girl
a magic moment unforgettable it comes to some of us just once but to all of us it comes i stood with its spell upon me then i heard my voice tense but softly raised
who are you it frightened her
i ran and caught her at the doorway of the flowered pergola she stood trembling as i seized her arms but the timorous smile remained and her eyes upraised to mine glowed with misty starlight who are you
this time she answered me i am called jetta it seemed that from her white forearm within my grasp a magic current swept from her to me and back again we humans for all our clamoring boasting intellectuality
are no more than puppets in nature's hands are you spawn's daughter yes i saw you a while ago when i was having my meal yes i was watching you
he may be watching us now no he is sleeping
i could indeed the silence of the garden was broken now by a distant choking snore we both laughed she sat on the little mossy seat in the pergola doorway and on the side away from the snore i had the wit to be sure of that
i think that what we said sitting there with the slanting moonlight on us could not have amounted to much yet for us it was so important vital building memories which i knew
we would never forget i will be here a week jetta i want i want very much to know you
i can look at the pictures oh i see a traveler gave them to me i've got them hidden but he was an old man all men seem to be old except those in the pictures and you philip i laughed
well that's too bad i'm mighty glad i'm young ah in that moment with blessed youth surging in my veins i was glad indeed young i don't remember ever seeing anyone like you the man i am to marry is not like you he is old like father
i drew back from her startled marry yes when i am seventeen the law of nareda
in a month i am seventeen
not a ragged boy forbidden to show myself and i was barely touching her it seemed as though something some vision of happiness which had been given me were fading were being snatched away i was conscious of my hand moving to touch hers
i have tried not to it frightened me until to night she pushed me gently away don't let's not talk of him i'd rather not but why are you dressed as a boy i gazed at her slim but rounded figure in tattered boy's garb
but the woman's lines were unmistakable and her face with clustering curls gentle girlhood a face of dark wild beauty my father hates women he says they are all bad
it is a sin to wear woman's finery or it breeds sin in women let's not talk of that philip tell me
yes i said and began telling her about them the witching of this moonlit garden but the moon had presently sunk and to the east the stars were fading philip look why it's dawn already i've got to leave you i held her just a moment by the hand
she was gone into a doorway of the opposite wing the silent empty garden sounded with the distant reassuring snores of the still sleeping spawn i went back to my room and lay on my bed
and drifted off on a sea of magic memories the world my world before this night now seemed to have been so drab empty lifeless but now there was pulsing living magic in it for me i drifted into sleep
the tabernacle unlocked romola was waked by a tap at the door the cold light of early morning was in the room and maso was come for the travelling wallet
the old man could not help starting when she opened the door and showed him
he had been used to crowned with the brightness of her hair the thick folds of the grey mantle
said romola trying to speak in the calmest voice and make the old man easy here is the wallet quite ready you will go on quietly and i shall not be far behind you
when you get out of the gates you may go more slowly for i shall perhaps join you before you get to trespiano she closed the door behind him
it was the original key of the little painted tabernacle tito had forgotten to drown it in the arno
one day long after their marriage romola had found it there and had put it by without using it
had been moved to the side of the room close to one of the windows where the pale morning light fell upon it
the triumphant bacchus with his clusters and his vine clad spear
and the rippled sea all encircled by a flowery border like a bower of paradise
with new bitterness and repulsion they seemed a more pitiable mockery than ever on this chill morning when she had waked up to wander in loneliness they had been no tomb of sorrow
but a lying screen foolish ariadne with her gaze of love as if that bright face with its hyacinthine curls like tendrils among the vines
she would look strange among the vines and the roses now she took up the mirror and looked at herself once more
in this morning light that she laid it down again with a sense of shrinking almost as strong as that with which she had turned from the joyous ariadne the recognition of her own face
with the cowl about it brought back the dread lest she should be drawn at last into fellowship
who had been her contempt from childhood till now
and took out the crucifix without looking at it then
hung the crucifix round her neck and hid it in the bosom of her mantle for dino's sake she said to herself
the first said tito my love for you is dead and therefore so far as i was yours i too am dead
that would bring you no happiness the romola you married can never return i need explain nothing to you after the words i uttered to you the last time we spoke long together
if you supposed them to be words of transient anger
i think you will fulfil my wish that my bridal chest should be sent to my godfather who gave it me it contains my wedding clothes and the portraits and other relics of my father and mother
she folded the ring inside this letter and wrote tito's name outside the next letter was to bernardo del nero dearest godfather if i could have been any good to your life by staying
but now i am gone do not ask the reason and if you love my father try to prevent any one from seeking me i could not bear my life at florence i cannot bear to tell any one why
help to cover my lot in silence i have asked that my bridal chest should be sent to you when you open it you will know the reason
and ask her to forgive me for not saying any words of parting to her farewell my second father the best thing i have in life
that everything was done she was ready now to depart no one was stirring in the house
yet she enjoyed
of the swift movement which was like a chained up resolution set free at last
she felt less that santa croce was in her sight than that the yellow streak of morning which parted the grey was getting broader and broader and that
and then along by the walls to the porta san gallo from which she must leave the city and this road carried her by the piazza di santa croco
the thought that any eyes might be turned on her
degraded even by that act
from which she was helplessly suffering but there was no sign
this tall grey sister with the firm step and proud attitude of the cowled head her road lay aloof from the stir of early traffic and when she reached the porta san gallo
it was easy to pass while a dispute was going forward about the toll for panniers of eggs
which were just entering out once past the houses of the borgo she would be beyond the last fringe of florence
she would no more feel the breath
no longer feel the breath of an odious mind
the bare wintry morning the chill air were welcome in their severity the leafless trees the sombre hills
were not haunted by the gods of beauty and joy whose worship she had forsaken for ever but presently
and shadows were thrown across the road it seemed that the sun was going to chase away the greyness the light is perhaps never felt more strongly as a divine presence
stirring all those inarticulate sensibilities which are our deepest life than in these moments when it instantaneously awakens the shadows a certain awe
which inevitably accompanied this most momentous act of her life became a more conscious element in romola's feeling
in the sudden presence of the impalpable golden glory and the long shadow of herself that was not to be escaped hitherto
she had met no one but an occasional contadino with mules and the many turnings of the road on the level prevented her from seeing that maso was not very far ahead of her
and was on rising ground she lifted up the hanging roof of her cowl and looked eagerly before her the cowl was dropped again immediately she had seen not maso but two monks
who were approaching within a few yards of her
of her eyes and for the last few moments she had been looking at nothing but the brightness on the path and at her own shadow tall and shrouded like a dread spectre
she wished now that she had not looked up
they might expect some pious passwords of which she knew nothing
of unconsciousness till she had seen the skirts of the black mantles pass by her the encounter had made her heart beat disagreeably for romola had an uneasiness in her religious disguise
which was made more distinct by a special effort to appear unconscious under actual glances but the black skirts would be gone the faster because they were going down hill
and seeing a great flat stone against a cypress that rose from a projecting green bank she yielded to the desire which the slight shock had given her to sit down and rest
she turned her back on florence not meaning to look at it till the monks were quite out of sight and raising the edge of her cowl again when she had seated herself
she discerned maso and the mules at a distance where it was not hopeless for her to overtake them as the old man would probably linger in expectation of her
alice insisted on being left up in the churchyard urging that she wanted to think about it all
if she were to walk down with her lover to the hotel to this he made no objection and on reaching the inn met mister palliser in the hall mister palliser was already inspecting the arrangement of certain large trunks which had been brought down stairs
and was preparing for their departure he was going about the house with a nervous solicitude to do something and was flattering himself that he was of use as he could not be chancellor of the exchequer and as
by the nature of his disposition some employment was necessary to him he was looking to the cording of the boxes good morning good morning he said to grey hardly looking at him as though time were too precious with him to allow of his turning his eyes upon his friend
perhaps you'll come with me to this proposition mister grey assented sometimes you know continued mister palliser the springs of the carriages are so very rough then in a very few words
mister grey told him what had been his own morning's work he hated secrets and secrecy and as the pallisers knew well what had brought him upon their track it was he thought well that they should know that he had been successful
mister palliser congratulated him very cordially and then running up stairs for his gloves or his stick or more probably that he might give his wife one other caution as to her care of herself
he told her also that alice had yielded at last of course she has said lady glencora i really didn't think she would said he that's because you don't understand things of that sort said his wife
then the caution was repeated the mother of the future duke was kissed and mister palliser went off on his mission about the carriage its cushions and its springs in the course of their walk mister palliser suggested that
as things were settled so pleasantly mister grey might as well return with them to england and to this suggestion mister grey assented alice remained alone for nearly an hour
no one disturbed her in the churchyard no steps were heard along the tombstones no voice sounded through the cloisters she was left in perfect solitude to think of the past and form her plans of the future was she happy
now that the manner of her life to come was thus settled for her that all further question as to the disposal of herself was taken out of her hands and that her marriage with a man she loved was so firmly arranged that no further folly of her own could disarrange it
she was happy though she was slow to confess her happiness to herself she was happy and she was resolute in this that she would now do all she could to make him happy also and there must now she acknowledged
be an end to her pride to that pride which had hitherto taught her to think that she could more wisely follow her own guidance than that of any other who might claim to guide her she knew now that she must follow his guidance
she had found her master as we sometimes say and laughed to herself with a little inward laughter as she confessed that it was so she was from henceforth altogether in his hands
if he chose to tell her that they were to be married at michaelmas or at christmas or on lady day they would of course be married accordingly she had taken her fling at having her own will
and she and all her friends had seen what had come of it she had assumed the command of the ship and had thrown it upon the rocks and she felt that she never ought to take the captain's place again
it was well for her that he who was to be captain was one whom she respected as thoroughly as she loved him she would write to her father at once to her father and lady macleod and would confess everything
she felt that she owed it to them that they should be told by herself that they had been right and that she had been wrong hitherto she had not mentioned to either of them the fact that mister grey was with them in switzerland and then
what must she do as to lady midlothian as to lady midlothian she would do nothing lady midlothian of course would triumph would jump upon her as lady glencora had once expressed it
with very triumphant heels would try to patronize her or which would be almost worse would make a parade of her forgiveness but she would have nothing to do with lady midlothian unless indeed
mister grey should order it then she laughed at herself again with that inward laughter and rising from her seat proceeded to walk down the hill to the hotel vanquished at last said lady glencora as alice entered the room
yes vanquished if you like to call it so said alice it is not what i call it but what you feel it said the other do you think that i don't know you well enough to be sure that you regard yourself now
as an unfortunate prisoner as a captive taken in war to be led away in triumph without any hope of a ransom i know that it is quite a misery to you that you should be made a happy woman of at last
of course i knew that was the way you would treat me in what way would you have me treat you if i were to hug you with joy and tell you how good he is and how fortunate you are if i were to praise him
and bid you triumph in your success as might be expected on such an occasion you would put on a long face at once and tell me that though the thing is to be
don't i know you alice i shouldn't have said that not now i believe in my heart you would that or something like it but i do wish you joy all the same and you may say what you please
no i shall not go back again i would join with lady midlothian in putting you into a madhouse if you did but i am so glad i am indeed i was afraid to the last terribly afraid
you are so hard and so proud i don't mean hard to me dear
but you are hard to yourself and upon my word you have been hard to him what a deal you will have to make up to him i feel that i ought to stand before him always as a penitent in a white sheet
he will like it better i dare say if you will sit upon his knee some penitents do you know and how happy you will be he'll never explain the sugar duties to you and there'll be no mister bott at nethercoats
they sat together the whole morning while mister palliser was seeing to the springs and cushions
as she did so her friend enjoyed it with her and at last they had something of the comfort and excitement which such an occasion should give i'll tell you what alice you shall come and be married at matching in august or perhaps september
that's the only way in which i can be present and if we can bespeak some sun we'll have the breakfast out in the ruins on the following morning they all started together a first class compartment having been taken for the palliser family
and a second class compartment close to them for the palliser servants mister palliser as he slowly handed his wife in was a triumphant man as was also mister grey as he handed in his lady love
though in a manner much less manifest we may say that both the gentlemen had been very fortunate while at lucerne mister palliser had come abroad with a feeling that all the world had been cut from under his feet
a great change was needed for his wife and he had acknowledged at once that everything must be made to yield to that necessity he certainly had his reward now in his triumphant return
terrible troubles had afflicted him as he went which seemed now to have dissipated themselves altogether when he thought of burgo fitzgerald he remembered him only as a poor unfortunate fellow
for whom he should be glad to do something if the doing of anything were only in his power and he had in his pocket a letter which he had that morning received from the duke of saint bungay marked private and confidential
which was in its nature very private and confidential and in which he was told that lord brock and mister finespun were totally at variance about french wines mister finespun wanted to do something now in the recess
to send some political agent over to france to which lord brock would not agree and no one knew what would be the consequence of this disagreement here might be another chance if only mister palliser could give up his winter in italy
mister palliser as he took his place opposite his wife was very triumphant and mister grey was triumphant as he placed himself gently in his seat opposite to alice
he seemed to assume no right as he took that position apparently because it was the one which came naturally to his lot
simply by seeing his arrangements for her comfort he made no loud assertion as to his property and his rights as some men do he was quiet and subdued in his joy but not the less was he triumphant
from the day on which alice had accepted his first offer nay from an earlier day than that from the day on which he had first resolved to make it down to the present hour he had never been stirred from his purpose
by every word that he had said and by every act that he had done he had shown himself to be unmoved by that episode in their joint lives which alice's other friends had regarded as so fatal
when she first rejected him he would not take his rejection when she told him that she intended to marry her cousin he silently declined to believe that such marriage would ever take place he had never given her up for a day
and now the event proved that he had been right
he was close to her as she stood there so close that putting out her hand for his she was able to take it and press it closely you are thinking of something alice he said what is it it was here
she said here on this very balcony that i first rebelled against you
i could go from vienna to london without feeling it she said with indignation
mister palliser had been afraid to be imperious and therefore immediately on his arrival at one of the stations in basle he had posted across the town in the heat and the dust
i've a particular favour to ask of you lady glencora said to her husband as soon as they were alone together
mister palliser declared that he would grant her any particular favour only premising that he was not to be supposed to have thereby committed himself to any engagement under which his wife should have authority to take any exertion upon herself
i wish i were a milkmaid said lady glencora but you are not a milkmaid my dear you haven't been brought up like a milkmaid but what was the favour if she would only ask for jewels
though they were the grand duchess's diamond eardrops he would endeavour to get them for her if she would have quaffed molten pearls like cleopatra he would have procured the beverage
having first fortified himself with a medical opinion as to the fitness of the drink for a lady in her condition there was no expenditure that he would not willingly incur for her nothing costly that he would grudge
but when she asked for a favour he was always afraid of an imprudence
and her request was at last of this nature i want you to take me up to the gambling rooms
said mister palliser in dismay yes plantagenet the gambling rooms if you had been with me before i should not have made a fool of myself by putting my piece of money on the table i want to see the place but then i saw nothing
because i was so frightened when i found that i was winning mister palliser was aware that all the world of baden or rather the world of the strangers at baden assembles itself in those salons
it may be also that he himself was curious to see how men looked when they lost their own money or won that of others he knew how a minister looked when he lost or gained a tax
he was familiar with millions and tens of millions in a committee of the whole house he knew the excitement of a near division upon the estimates but he had never yet seen a poor man stake his last napoleon
and rake back from off the table a small hatful of gold a little exercise after an early dinner was he had been told good for his wife and he agreed therefore that on their second evening at baden
they would all walk up and see the play perhaps i shall get back my napoleon said glencora to alice and perhaps i shall be forgiven when somebody sees how difficult it is to manage you said alice looking at mister palliser
she isn't in earnest said mister palliser almost fearing the result of the experiment i don't know that said lady glencora they started together mister palliser with his wife
and mister grey with alice on his arm and found all the tables at work they at first walked through the different rooms whispering to each other their comments on the people that they saw
and listening to the quick low monotonous words of the croupiers as they arranged and presided over the games each table was closely surrounded by its own crowd made up of players embryo players and simple lookers on
but this was not enough for lady glencora she was anxious to know what these men and women were doing to see whether the croupiers wore horns on their heads and were devils indeed
and of those who were triumphant to know how the thing was done and to learn something of that lesson in life let us stand here a moment she said to her husband arresting him at one corner of the table which had the greatest crowd
we shall be able to see in a few minutes so he stood with her there giving way to alice who went in front with his wife and in a minute or two an aperture was made so that they could all see the marked cloth and the money lying about
and the rakes on the table and the croupier skilfully dealing his cards and more interesting than all the rest the faces of those who were playing grey looked on over alice's shoulder very attentively
but both of them kept their eyes upon the ministers of the work alice and glencora did the same at first but as they gained courage they glanced round upon the gamblers it was a long table having of course
four corners and at the corner appropriated by them they were partly opposite to the man who dealt the cards the corner answering to theirs at the other end was the part of the table most removed from their sight
and that on which their eyes fell last as lady glencora stood she could hardly see indeed at first she could not see
mister palliser who was behind her could not see them at all but to alice and to mister grey had he cared about it every face at the table was visible except the faces of those who were immediately close to them
before long alice's attention was riveted on the action and countenance of one young man who sat at that other corner he was leaning at first listlessly over the table dressed in a velveteen jacket
and with his round topped hat brought far over his eyes so that she could not fully see his face but she had hardly begun to observe him before he threw back his hat and taking some pieces of gold from under his left hand
which lay upon the table pushed three or four of them on to one of the divisions marked on the cloth he seemed to show no care as others did as to the special spot which they should occupy many were very particular in this respect
placing their ventures on the lines so as to share the fortunes of two compartments or sometimes of four or they divided their coins taking three or four numbers selecting the numbers with almost grotesque attention to some imagined rule of their own
but this man let his gold go all together and left it where his half stretched rake deposited it by chance alice could not but look at his face his eyes she could see were bloodshot and his hair
when he pushed back his hat was rough and dishevelled but still there was that in his face which no woman could see and not regard it was a face which at once prepossessed her in his favour as it had always prepossessed all others
on this occasion he had won his money and alice saw him drag it in as lazily as he had pushed it out do you see that little frenchman said lady glencora he has just made half a napoleon and has walked off with it isn't it interesting
i could stay here all the night then she turned round to whisper something to her husband and alice's eyes again fell on the face of the man at the other end of the table after he had won his money he had allowed the game to go on for a turn
without any action on his part the gold again went under his hand and he lounged forward with his hat over his eyes one of the croupiers had said a word as though calling his attention to the game but he had merely shaken his head
but when the fate of the next turn had been decided he again roused himself and on this occasion as far as alice could see pushed his whole stock forward with the rake there was a little mass of gold and from his manner of placing it
all might see that he left its position to chance one piece had got beyond its boundary and the croupier pushed it back with some half expressed inquiry as to his correctness all right
then lady glencora started and clutched alice's arm with her hand mister palliser was explaining to mister grey behind them something about german finance as connected with gambling tables and did not hear the voice or see his wife's motion
i need hardly tell the reader that the gambler was burgo fitzgerald but lady glencora said not a word not as yet she looked forward very gently but still with eager eyes
till she could just see the face she knew so well his hat was now pushed back and his countenance had lost its listlessness he watched narrowly the face of the man as he told out the amount of the cards as they were dealt
he did not try to hide his anxiety and when after the telling of some six or seven cards he heard a certain number named and a certain colour called he made some exclamation which even glencora could not hear
and then another croupier put down close to burgo's money certain rolls of gold done up in paper and also certain loose napoleons why doesn't he take it said lady glencora he is taking it said alice
not at all knowing the cause of her cousin's anxiety burgo had paused a moment and then prepared to rake the money to him but as he did so he changed his mind and pushed it all back again now on this occasion
being very careful to place it on its former spot both alice and glencora could see that a man at his elbow was dissuading him had even attempted to stop the arm which held the rake
but burgo shook him off speaking to him some word roughly and then again he steadied the rolls upon their appointed place the croupier who had paused for a moment now went on quickly with his cards
and in two minutes the fate of burgo's wealth was decided it was all drawn back by the croupier's unimpassioned rake and the rolls of gold were restored to the tray from whence they had been taken
burgo looked up and smiled at them all round the table by this time most of those who stood around were looking at him he was a man who gathered eyes upon him wherever he might be
and on the last occasion the amount staked had been considerable he knew that men and women were looking at him and therefore he smiled faintly as he turned his eyes round the table then he got up and putting his hands in his trousers pockets
whistled as he walked away his companion followed him and laid a hand upon his shoulder but burgo shook him off and would not turn round he shook him off and walked on whistling the length of the whole salon
alice said lady glencora it is burgo fitzgerald mister palliser had gone so deep into that question of german finance that he had not at all noticed the gambler alice what can we do for him
it is burgo said lady glencora many eyes were now watching him used as he was to the world and to misfortune he was not successful in his attempt to bear his loss with a show of indifference
the motion of his head the position of his hands the tone of his whistling all told the tale even the unimpassioned croupiers furtively cast an eye after him
and a very big guard in a cocked hat and uniform and sword who hitherto had hardly been awake seemed evidently to be interested by his movements if there is to be a tragedy at these places and tragedies will sometimes occur
it is always as well that the tragic scene should be as far removed as possible from the salons in order that the public eye should not suffer lady glencora and alice had left their places and had shrunk back almost behind a pillar
is it he in truth alice asked in very truth said glencora what can i do can i do anything look at him alice
burgo conscious that he was the regarded of all eyes turned round upon his heel and again walked the length of the salon he knew well that he had not a franc left in his possession
his companion whoever he might be had slunk away from him not caring to share the notoriety which now attended him what shall i do alice said lady glencora with her eyes still fixed on him who had been her lover
tell mister palliser whispered alice
and took him away from mister grey rapidly she told her story with such rapidity that mister palliser could hardly get in a word do something for him do do unless i know that something is done i shall die you needn't be afraid
i'm not afraid said mister palliser lady glencora as she went on quickly got hold of her husband's hand and caressed it you are so good said she
i will go home with mister grey i will be ever so good i will indeed you know what he'll want and for my sake you'll let him have it but don't let him gamble if you could only get him home to england and then do something
you owe him something plantagenet do you not if money can do anything he shall have it god bless you dearest i shall never see him again but if you could save him
go go she pushed him forward and then retreating put her arm within mister grey's still keeping her eye upon her husband burgo when he first got to the door leading out of the salon had paused a moment and turning round
had encountered the big gendarme close to him well old buffer what do you want said he accosting the man in english the big gendarme simply walked on through the door and said nothing then burgo also passed out
and mister palliser quickly went after him they were now in the large front salon from whence the chief door of the building opened out upon the steps through this door burgo went without pausing and mister palliser went after him
they both walked to the end of the row of buildings and then burgo leaving the broad way turned into a little path which led up through the trees to the hills that hillside among the trees is a popular resort at baden during the day
but now at nine in the evening it was deserted palliser did not press on the other man but followed him and did not accost burgo till he had thrown himself on the grass beneath a tree
we will go home mister palliser has something to do said lady glencora to mister grey as soon as the two men had disappeared from her sight is that a friend of mister palliser said mister grey yes
that is he knows him and is interested about him
oh mister grey you must not ask any questions he mister palliser will tell you everything when he sees you that is if there is anything to be told then they all went home and soon separated for the night
of course i shall sit up for him said lady glencora to alice but i will do it in my own room you can tell mister grey if you like but alice told nothing to mister grey
matthew matthew what is the matter matthew are you sick it was marilla who spoke alarm in every jerky word anne came through the hall her hands full of white narcissus it was long before anne could love the sight or odor of white narcissus again
in time to hear her and to see matthew standing in the porch doorway a folded paper in his hand and his face strangely drawn and gray anne dropped her flowers and sprang across the kitchen to him at the same moment as marilla
matthew had fallen across the threshold he's fainted gasped marilla anne run for martin quick quick he's at the barn
calling at orchard slope on his way to send mister and missus barry over missus lynde who was there on an errand came too they found anne and marilla distractedly trying to restore matthew to consciousness
she looked at their anxious faces sorrowfully and the tears came into her eyes oh marilla she said gravely i don't think we can do anything for him missus lynde you don't think you can't think matthew is is
anne could not say the dreadful word she turned sick and pallid child yes i'm afraid of it look at his face when you've seen that look as often as i have you'll know what it means
anne looked at the still face and there beheld the seal of the great presence when the doctor came he said that death had been instantaneous and probably painless caused in all likelihood by some sudden shock
the secret of the shock was discovered to be in the paper matthew had held and which martin had brought from the office that morning it contained an account of the failure of the abbey bank
for the first time shy quiet matthew cuthbert was a person of central importance the white majesty of death had fallen on him and set him apart as one crowned when the calm night came softly down over green gables the old house was hushed and tranquil
in the parlor lay matthew cuthbert in his coffin
there were flowers about him sweet old fashioned flowers which his mother had planted in the homestead garden in her bridal days and for which matthew had always had a secret wordless love anne had gathered them and brought them to him
her anguished tearless eyes burning in her white face it was the last thing she could do for him the barrys and missus lynde stayed with them that night
thank you diana anne looked earnestly into her friend's face
i'm not afraid i haven't been alone one minute since it happened and i want to be
i can't realize it half the time it seems to me that matthew can't be dead and the other half it seems as if he must have been dead for a long time
diana did not quite understand
anne hoped that the tears would come in solitude it seemed to her a terrible thing that she could not shed a tear for matthew whom she had loved so much and who had been so kind to her
but no tears came at first even when she knelt by her window in the darkness and prayed looking up to the stars beyond the hills
that kept on aching until she fell asleep worn out with the day's pain and excitement
and the recollection of the day came over her like a wave of sorrow she could see matthew's face smiling at her as he had smiled
she could hear his voice saying my girl my girl that i'm proud of then the tears came and anne wept her heart out marilla heard her and crept in to comfort her there there don't cry so dearie it can't bring him back it
it isn't right to cry so i knew that today but i couldn't help it then he'd always been such a good kind brother to me but god knows best oh just let me cry marilla sobbed anne
i couldn't have diana stay she's good and kind and sweet but it's not her sorrow she's outside of it and she couldn't come close enough to my heart to help me it's our sorrow yours and mine oh marilla what will we do without him we've got each other anne
i don't know what i'd do if you weren't here if you'd never come
i want to tell you now when i can it's never been easy for me to say things out of my heart but at times like this it's easier i love you as dear as if you were my own flesh and blood
two days afterwards they carried matthew cuthbert over his homestead threshold
and then avonlea settled back to its usual placidity and even at green gables affairs slipped into their old groove and work was done and duties fulfilled with regularity as before although always with the aching sense of loss in all familiar things anne
that they could go on in the old way without matthew she felt something like shame and remorse when she discovered that the sunrises behind the firs and the pale pink buds opening in the garden gave her the old inrush of gladness when she saw them
had lost none of its power to please her fancy and thrill her heart
it seems like disloyalty to matthew somehow to find pleasure in these things now that he has gone she said wistfully to missus allan one evening when they were together in the manse garden i miss him so much all the time and yet missus allan
and it somehow seems as if i oughtn't to when matthew was here he liked to hear you laugh and he liked to know that you found pleasure in the pleasant things around you said missus allan gently
and he likes to know it just the same i am sure we should not shut our hearts against the healing influences that nature offers us but i can understand your feeling i think we all experience the same thing we resent the thought that anything can please us when someone we love is no longer here
when we find our interest in life returning to us i was down to the graveyard to plant a rosebush on matthew's grave this afternoon said anne dreamily i took a slip of the little white scotch rosebush his mother brought out from scotland long ago
as if i were doing something that must please him in taking it there to be near him i hope he has roses like them in heaven
i must go home now marilla is all alone and she gets lonely at twilight
when you go away again to college said missus allan anne did not reply she said good night and went slowly back to green gables
with hints of sea sunsets in its smooth inner convolutions
but the dragon was not alone naughty it was big and fierce and strong and did not want to be destroyed at all
they are by nature thick skinned and tough as doubtless every one has heard
forgetful of the respect due to a crowned king the wicked dragon presently opening wide its jaws and bit his majesty's head clean off his body
so he turned and tried to find his way back to his people
furthermore he could not tell in which direction he was going which is an unpleasant feeling under any circumstances
at last some of the people came to see if the king had succeeded in destroying the dragon and found their monarch running around in a circle bumping into trees and rocks but not getting a step nearer home so they took his hand
were all exceedingly pretty girls and so it was not long before one man made a very nice head out of candy and brought it to the king it did not look exactly like the old head but the efface was very sweet nevertheless so the king put it on
the young man had put a pair of glass eyes in the head with which the king could see very well after he got used to them
and they were married amid great rejoicing but a few days afterward the king was caught out in a rainstorm and before he could get home his new head had melted in the great shower of lemonade that fell only the glass eyes were left
and these he put in his pocket and went sorrowfully to tell the queen of his new misfortune
which the monarch felt very light headed and when the birds saw the bread they flew down from the trees
again the good king was forced to go home to the queen without a head
between his thumbs and fingers the glass eyes that they might guide his footsteps this as you may imagine made his majesty look rather undignified
it was neatly carved besides being solid and durable moreover it fitted the monarch's neck to the t so the king rummaged in his pocket and found the glass eyes and when these were put in the new head the king announced his satisfaction
but the glass eyes twinkled merrily and every one knew
then the king sent word to the wood chopper to come to the palace and take his pick of the princesses and preparations were at once begun for the wedding but the wood chopper on his way to the court unfortunately passed by the dwelling of the purple dragon and stopped to speak to the monster
now it seems that when the dragon had swallowed the king's head the unusual meal made the beast ill it was more accustomed to berries and caramels for dinner than to heads and the sharp points of the king's crown which was firmly fastened to the head pricked the dragon's stomach and made the creature miserable
step into my parlor and rest yourself said the dragon politely wicked people are most polite when they mean mischief thank you i'll stop for a few minutes replied the wood chopper
but i can not stay long as i am expected at court when he had entered the parlor the dragon suddenly opened its mouth and snapped off the poor wood chopper's head
go home and claim your wife and your kingdom
he looked in the mirror and seeing the king made a low bow then the king's head thought who am i bowing to there is no one greater than the king and so at once there began a conflict between the wood chopper's heart and the king's head
when the poor man neared the town the people ran out and said why this is the king come back again all hail your majesty
returned the wood chopper i am only a poor man with the king's head on my shoulders you can easily see it isn't mine for it's crooked the dragon didn't glue it on straight
locked up in the dragon's cupboard replied the poor fellow beginning to weep here cried the king's head
well see that you don't returned the head more cheerfully
i'm sorry sighed the queen for i like to kiss the real head best and so you shall said the king's head i don't approve your kissing that wooden head at all the poor lady looked from one to the other in perplexity
why don't you trade heads she asked just the thing cried the king
the wood chopper however did not even smile he couldn't because of the wooden face
bring hither the princesses commanded the king
i promised him one of my daughters he argued and a king never breaks his word but he hadn't a wooden head then explained one of the girls
she would call her husband a blockhead a term almost certain to cause trouble in any family
the wood chopper was a brave man
the wooden head came off at once and the dragon's long sharp teeth got stuck in the wood and would not come out again so the monster was unable to do anything but flop its tail and groan the wood chopper now ran to the cupboard took out his head and placed it upon his shoulders where it belonged
but it surprised him that ozma also knew it he wondered how she had found out so soon that he had picked the six leaved clover he handed his basket to scraps and said
the shaggy man had been gazing earnestly in the boy's face uncertain whether to defend him or not
the shaggy man was greatly surprised and grieved but he knew that ozma never made mistakes and so ojo must really have broken the law of oz
and into a little room built in the wall here sat a jolly little man richly dressed in green and having around his neck a heavy gold chain to which a number of great golden keys were attached
listen he said holding up his hand for silence
it's in patch time which is much superior to rag time and i've composed it in honor of the patchwork girl who has just arrived
it's my business to know who's coming for i'm the guardian of the gate keep quiet while i play you the speckled alligator it wasn't a very bad tune nor a very good one but all listened respectfully while he shut his eyes and swayed his head from side to side
when it was all over the soldier with the green whiskers said guardian i have here a prisoner good gracious a prisoner cried the little man jumping up from his chair which one not the shaggy man no this boy
ah i hope his fault is as small as himself said the guardian of the gate but what can he have done and what made him do it can't say replied the soldier all i know is that he has broken the law
in this attire the boy presented a very quaint appearance
the shaggy man said to scraps i think i shall take you directly to dorothy as the scarecrow advised and the glass cat and the woozy may come with us
asked scraps that i cannot tell since i came to the land of oz no one has ever been arrested or imprisoned until ojo broke the law
the shaggy man made no reply to this speech
they soon separated from the munchkin boy who was led by the soldier with the green whiskers down a side street toward the prison
but that did not alter the fact that he had committed a fault
but the more he thought about the unjust treatment he had received unjust merely because he considered it so the more he resented his arrest blaming ozma for making foolish laws and then punishing folks who broke them only a six leaved clover
a tiny green plant growing neglected and trampled under foot what harm could there be in picking it ojo began to think ozma must be a very bad and oppressive ruler for such a lovely fairyland as oz
but how could they the little munchkin boy was so busy thinking these things
whenever they met any of the happy smiling people
it was a pretty house neatly painted and with many windows before it was a garden filled with blooming flowers the soldier with the green whiskers led ojo up the gravel path to the front door on which he knocked
goodness me a prisoner at last
the size doesn't matter tollydiggle my dear the fact remains that he is a prisoner said the soldier and this being the prison
come in then and i'll give you a receipt for him
the boy on his part was gazing around him in amazement for never had he dreamed of such a magnificent apartment as this in which he stood
in one place a case filled with books
asked the boy pleadingly why this is your prison replied tollydiggle and in me behold your jailor take off those handcuffs soldier for it is impossible for anyone to escape from this house
and spread a cloth on one of the tables
tollydiggle sat near him while he ate sewing on some fancy work she held in her lap
is this really a prison he asked when she had finished reading indeed it is she replied
bless the child of course then why is the prison so fine and why are you so kind to me he earnestly asked
he is unfortunate in two ways because he has done something wrong and because he is deprived of his liberty
therefore she puts him in prison to make him strong and brave when that is accomplished he is no longer a prisoner but a good and loyal citizen and everyone is glad that he is now strong enough to resist doing wrong
ojo thought this over very carefully i had an idea said he that prisoners were always treated harshly to punish them
the patchwork girl was the most curious of all and dorothy was uncertain at first whether scraps was really alive or only a dream or a nightmare toto her dog slowly uncurled himself and going to the patchwork girl sniffed at her inquiringly
who me asked scraps looking around the pretty room instead of at the girl oh i came from a bed quilt i guess that's what they say anyhow some call it a crazy quilt and some a patchwork quilt but my name is scraps
and now you know all about me not quite all
i wish you'd tell me how you came to be alive that's an easy job said scraps sitting upon a big upholstered chair and making the springs bounce her up and down margolotte wanted a slave so she made me out of an old bed quilt she didn't use cotton stuffing
suspender button eyes red velvet tongue pearl beads for teeth the crooked magician made a powder of life sprinkled me with it and here i am perhaps you've noticed my different colors a very refined and educated gentleman
and i believe it oh have you met our scarecrow then asked dorothy a little puzzled to understand the brief history related yes isn't he jolly
but i'm sorry to hear all this bout the crooked magician
explained bungle who was keeping at a respectful distance from the little black dog dear me said dorothy i hadn't noticed you before are
i'm glass and transparent too which is more than can be said of some folks
is that so come over here and let me see the glass cat hesitated eyeing the dog
beast why that's my dog toto
why doesn't he say anything asked bungle he can't talk not being a fairy dog explained dorothy he's just a common united states dog but that's a good deal and i understand him and he understands me
and he looked up into her face as if he had understood every word she had said this cat toto she said to him is made of glass so you mustn't bother it or chase it any more than you do my pink kitten it's prob'ly brittle and might break if it bumped against anything
that she ventured to come close to dorothy
this was really interesting but when dorothy patted the cat she found the glass cold and hard and unresponsive so she decided at once that bungle would never do for a pet what do you know about the crooked magician who lives on the mountain asked dorothy
he made me replied the cat so i know all about him the patchwork girl is new three or four days old
and he made me out of glass because the meat cats drink too much milk he also made scraps come to life so she could do the housework for his wife margolotte then why did you both leave him asked dorothy
i think you'd better let me explain that interrupted the shaggy man and then he told dorothy all of ojo's story
then he related how the boy had started out in search of the things needed to make the magic charm which would restore the unfortunates to life and how he had found the woozy and taken him along because he could not pull the three hairs out of its tail
what do you s'pose he's done she asked i fear he has picked a six leaved clover answered the shaggy man sadly i did not see him do it and i warned him that to do so was against the law but perhaps that is what he did nevertheless
i'm sorry bout that said dorothy gravely
cept this patchwork girl the woozy and the glass cat don't mention it said scraps that's no affair of mine margolotte and unc nunkie are perfect strangers to me for the moment i came to life they came to marble i see
remarked dorothy with a sigh of regret the woman forgot to give you a heart
it makes a person feel sad or sorry or devoted or sympathetic
but i don't imagine i shall let it bother me about helping unc nunkie and margolotte that's a pretty hard heart of yours said dorothy and the woozy of course
and by and by ojo came and did help me so i'm willing to help his uncle
you're not pretty she said but i like you what are you able to do anything special
i don't see as fireworks could help ojo's uncle remarked dorothy can you do anything else
then he turned to dorothy and added what will become of the munchkin boy i don't know she said shaking her head thoughtfully
since i knew anything about the place
she had carried ojo's basket in her hand until now when she decided to see what was inside it she found the bread and cheese which she had no use for and the bundle of charms which were curious but quite a mystery to her
then turning these over she came upon the six leaved clover which the boy had plucked scraps was quick witted and although she had no heart she recognized the fact that ojo was her first friend she knew at once that because the boy had taken the clover he had been imprisoned
then she came forward and said to dorothy i wouldn't care to help ojo's uncle but i will help ojo he did not break the law no one can prove he did and that green whiskered soldier had no right to arrest him
the gesture had acted on darrow's numb feelings as the glow of the fire acted on his circulation and when he had asked aren't your feet wet too and after frank inspection of a stout shod sole she had answered cheerfully
oh missus murrett's was it there he remembered her now of course remembered her as one of the shadowy sidling presences in the background of that awful house in chelsea
one of the dumb appendages of the shrieking unescapable missus murrett into whose talons he had fallen in the course of his head long pursuit of lady ulrica crispin
i used to pass you on the stairs she reminded him yes
the hair stood up from her forehead in a boyish elf lock
but of course you wouldn't remember me she was saying my name is viner sophy viner
she shook her head no not even that only her reader her reader do you mean to say she ever reads
dear no but i wrote notes and made up the visiting book and walked the dogs and saw bores for her darrow groaned that must have been rather bad
that you put it all in the past tense
yes all is at an end between us we've just parted in tears but not in silence just parted
ever since you used to come there to see lady ulrica does it seem to you so awfully long ago
he had really been getting to like her had recovered under the candid approval of her eye his usual sense of being a personable young man with all the privileges pertaining to the state instead of the anonymous rag of humanity
it annoyed him at that particular moment to be reminded that naturalness is not always consonant with taste she seemed to guess his thought
she asked leaning over the table to pour herself a second cup of tea he liked her quickness at any rate it's better he laughed than your thinking i came for missus murrett
it was always for something else the music or the cook when there was a good one or the other people generally one of the other people i see
now with a pair of them looking into his
who was there in your time missus bolt and mademoiselle and professor didymus and the polish countess
accused her of hypnotizing the professor but of course you don't remember we were all invisible to you but we could see and we all used to wonder about you
what about me well whether it was you or she who he winced but hid his disapproval it made the time pass to listen to her and what if one may ask was your conclusion
but professor didymus and jimmy brance especially jimmy just a moment who on earth is jimmy brance
she let her amused scrutiny dwell on him but how could you she was false from head to foot
she often used to come to my room after tennis or to touch up in the evenings when they were going on and i assure you
in fact i used to say to jimmy just to make him wild
you like there's nothing wrong because i know she'd never dare un she broke the word in two and her quick blush made her face like a shallow petalled rose
the situation was saved for darrow
of course she gasped through her laughter i only said it to tease jimmy her amusement obscurely annoyed him oh you're all alike he exclaimed moved by an unaccountable sense of disappointment
you say that because you think i'm spiteful and envious yes i was envious of lady ulrica oh
clothes and fun and motors and admiration and yachting and paris why paris alone would be enough
one looks in one's glass after all
but his sense of her words was lost in the surprise of her face under the flying clouds of her excitement it was no longer a shallow flower cup but a darkening gleaming mirror that might give back strange depths of feeling the girl had stuff in her he saw it
and she seemed to catch the perception in his eyes that's the kind of education i got at missus murrett's and i never had any other she said with a shrug good lord were you there so long
well thank god you're out of it now again a just perceptible shadow crossed her face yes i'm out of it now fast enough
she brooded a moment behind drooped lids then with a touch of hauteur i'm going to paris to study for the stage the stage darrow stared at her dismayed all his confused contradictory impressions assumed a new aspect
at this announcement and to hide his surprise he added lightly ah then you will have paris after all
it's not indeed real compassion prompted him to continue have you any any influence you can count on she gave a somewhat flippant little laugh none but my own i've never had any other to count on
he passed over the obvious reply but have you any idea how the profession is over crowded i know i'm trite i've a very clear idea but i couldn't go on as i was
you'd stuck it out longer than any of the others couldn't you at least have held on till you were sure of some kind of an opening
at knob creek the boy began to go to an a b c school his first teacher was zachariah riney of course there were no regular schools in the backwoods then when a man who knew enough happened to come along
especially if he had nothing else to do he tried to teach the children of the pioneers in a poor log schoolhouse it is not likely that little abe went to school more than a few weeks at this time for he never had a year's schooling in his life
there was another teacher afterward at knob creek a man named caleb hazel little is known of either of these teachers except that he taught little abe lincoln if their pupil had not become famous
the men and their schools would never have been mentioned in history an old man named austin gollaher used to like to tell of the days when he and little abe went to school together he said
abe was an unusually bright boy at school and made splendid progress in his studies indeed he learned faster than any of his schoolmates though so young he studied very hard
although nancy lincoln insisted on sending the children to school when there was any
just as she had taught his father to write his own name she told them bible stories and such others as she had picked up in her barren backwoods life she and her husband were too religious to believe in telling their children fairy tales
the best thing of all was the reading of the pilgrim's progress during the long winter evenings after the wood was brought in and father tom had set his traps and done his other work for the night nancy's voice was low
with soft southern tones and accents tom and the children enjoyed the story of christian's pilgrimage from the city of destruction to the celestial city the more because of her love for the story she was reading to them
as they lay on bearskin rugs before the blazing fire abe was only six but he was a thoughtful boy he tried to think of some way to show his gratitude to his mother for giving them so much pleasure
a happy thought came to him he would cut off some spicewood branches hack them up on a log and secrete them behind the cabin then when the mother was ready to read again and sarah and the father were sitting and lying before the fire
he brought in the hidden branches and threw them on a few twigs at a time to the surprise of the others it worked like a charm the spicewood boughs not only added to the brightness of the scene but filled the whole house
with the sweet smelling savour of a little boy's love and gratitude no one can fathom the pleasure of that precious memory throughout those four lives as the story of great heart and christiana followed christian along the path
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day while the father and sister were delighted with the crackle sparkle and pleasant aroma of the bits of spicewood as abe tossed them upon the fire
no one could appreciate the thoughtful act of the boy so much as his mother it would be strange if her eyes did not fill
but that was not the sort of thing the fondest mother could speak of little did nancy dream that in reading to her son of the devotion of great heart to his charges she was fostering a spirit in her little son
that would help him make the noble pilgrimage from their hovel to the highest home in the land where another president of the united states would refer to him as the great heart of the white house
it would have seemed to her too good to be true but in the centuries following the humble yet beautiful career of the backwoods boy from the hut to the white house history keeps the whole world saying with bated breath the half was never told
an old man's story of saving abraham lincoln's life austin gollaher grown to manhood still living in his old log cabin near the lincoln house in knob creek
nearly twenty years after lincoln's assassination and gave the following account of an adventure he had with the little lincoln boy i once saved lincoln's life we had been going to school together one year
but the next year we had no school because there were so few scholars to attend there being only about twenty in the school the year before consequently abe and i had not much to do but as we did not go to school and our mothers were strict with us
we did not get to see each other very often one sunday morning my mother waked me up early saying she was going to see missus lincoln and that i could go along glad of the chance i was soon dressed and ready to go
after my mother and i got there abe and i played all through the day while we were wandering up and down the little stream called knob creek abe said right up there' pointing to the east
let's go over the stream was too wide for us to jump across finally we saw a foot log and decided to try it it was narrow but abe said let's coon it i went first and reached the other side all right
abe went about half way across when he got scared and began trembling i hollered to him don't look down nor up nor sideways but look right at me and hold on tight but he fell off into the creek and as the water was about seven or eight feet deep
i could not swim and neither could abe i knew it would do no good for me to go in after him so i got a stick a long water sprout and held it out to him he came up grabbing with both hands and i put the stick into his hands
he clung to it and i pulled him out on the bank almost dead i got him by the arms and shook him well and then i rolled him on the ground when the water poured out of his mouth he was all right very soon
we promised each other that we would never tell anybody about it and never did for years i never told any one of it till after lincoln was killed abraham lincoln's parents
were religious in their simple way the boy was brought up to believe in the care of the father in heaven over the affairs of this life the family attended camp meetings and preaching services
which were great events because few and far between in those primitive days abe used afterward to get his playmates together and preach to them in a way that sometimes frightened them and made them cry
no doubt young lincoln learned more that was useful to him in after life from the wandering preachers of his day than he did of his teachers during the few months that he was permitted to go to school but his best teacher was his mother
or exhorter like peter cartwright the backwoods preacher nancy hanks lincoln builded better than she knew she would have been satisfied with a cabin life for her son
she little knew that by her own life and teaching she was raising up the greatest man of his age and one of the grandest men in all history to become the ruler of the greatest nation that the world has ever seen
she did her duty by her little boy and he honored her always during her life and afterward no wonder he once exclaimed when he thought of her all i am or hope to be i owe to my sainted mother
without a word and fastened it to a ring in the wall where four or five other horses were standing i rather wonder you are not afraid of drawing attention by riding on horseback to a house in such a quarter
we dare not meet secretly you know the city is full of spies and doubtless the movements of all known to be hostile to hanno and his party are watched therefore we thought it best to meet here
we have caused it to be whispered as a secret in the neighbourhood that the house has been taken as a place where we can gamble free from the presence of our elders therefore the only comments we excite is there go those young fools who are ruining themselves
it is only because you are on horseback that i have come round to this gate had you come on foot we should have entered by the front fortunately there are among us many who are deemed to be mere pleasure seekers men who wager fortunes on their horses
who are given to banquets or whose lives seem to be passed in luxury and indolence but who at heart are as earnest in the cause of carthage as i am the presence of such men among us gives a probability to the tale that this is a gambling house
were we all of my stamp men known to be utterly hostile to hanno and his party suspicion would fall upon our meetings at once but here we are as he spoke he drew aside some heavy curtains
and entered a large room some ten or twelve young men were assembled there they looked up in surprise as giscon entered followed by his companion i have brought a recruit giscon said
one whom all of you know by repute if not personally it is malchus the son of general hamilcar he is young to be engaged in a business like ours but i have been with him in a campaign and can answer for him he is brave
ready thoughtful and trustworthy he loves his country and hates her tyrants i can guarantee that he will do nothing imprudent but can be trusted as one of ourselves being young
he will have the advantage of being less likely to be watched and may be doubly useful he is ready to take the oath of our society as giscon was the leading spirit of the band his recommendation was taken as amply sufficient
the young men rose and formed in a circle round malchus all drew their daggers and one whom malchus recognized with a momentary feeling of surprise as carthalon whom adherbal had pointed out at the barcine club
as one who thought only of horse racing said do you swear by moloch and astarte to be true to this society to devote yourself to the destruction of the oppressors of carthage to carry out all measures which may be determined upon
even at the certain risk of your life and to suffer yourself to be torn to pieces by the torture rather than reveal aught that passes within these walls that i swear solemnly malchus said i need not say
carthalon said carelessly that the punishment of the violation of the oath is death it is so put in our rules but we are all nobles of carthage and nobles do not break their oaths so we can let that pass
when a man's word is good enough to make him beggar himself in order to discharge a wager he can be trusted to keep his word in a matter which concerns the lives of a score of his fellows and now that this business is arranged we can go on with our talk
but first let us have some wine for all this talking is thirsty work at best the young men threw themselves upon the couches around the room and while slaves brought round wine
the respective merits of the reigning beauties of carthage and other similar topics and malchus who was impressed with the serious nature of the secret conspiracy which he had just sworn to aid could not help being surprised at the careless gaiety of the young men
although engaged in a conspiracy in which they risked their lives it was not until some minutes after the slaves had left the apartment that the light talk and banter ceased as giscon rose and said now to business
who took a lead in stirring up his fellows to declare for hannibal has been decoyed away from his home and murdered his body has been found floating in the lake strangled this is the nineteenth in the course of a week
these acts are spreading terror among the working classes and unless they are put a stop to we can no longer expect assistance from them that these deeds are the work of the officials of the tribunals we have no doubt the sooner we strike the better
matters are getting ripe i have eight men sworn into my section among the weavers
to raise a section among the fishermen the sons of the man just murdered should form a nucleus we agreed from the first that three hundred resolute men besides ourselves were required and that each of us should raise a section of ten
malchus brings up our number here to thirty and when all the sections are filled up we shall be ready for action failure ought to be impossible the houses of hanno and thirty of his party will be attacked and the tyrants slain
before any alarm can be given another thirty at least should be slain before the town is fairly aroused maybe each section can undertake three if our plans are well laid and each chooses for attack three living near each other
we have not yet settled whether it will be better to separate when this is done content with the first blow against our tyrants or to prepare beforehand for a popular rising to place ourselves at the head of the populace
and to make a clean sweep of the judges and the leaders of hanno's party giscon spoke in an ordinary matter of fact tone as if he were discussing the arrangements of a party of pleasure but malchus could scarcely repress a movement of anxiety
as he heard this proposal for the wholesale destruction of the leading men of carthage the council thus opened was continued for three hours most of those present spoke but to the surprise of malchus
there was an entire absence of that gloom and mystery with which the idea of a state conspiracy was associated in his mind the young men discussed it earnestly indeed
as to the respective merits of two horses they laughed joked offered and accepted wagers and took the whole matter with a lightness of heart which malchus imitated to the best of his power but which he was very far from feeling
and yet he felt that beneath all this levity his companions were perfectly in earnest in their plans
in which the odds against them were overwhelming and great even giscon generally grave and gloomy was as light hearted as the rest the aristocracy of carthage were
from tradition training and habit brave to excess just as centuries later the noblesse of france chatted gaily on the tumbril on their way to execution and offered each other their snuff boxes on the scaffold
so these young aristocrats of carthage smiled and jested though well aware that they were risking their lives no decision was arrived at for this could only be decided upon at a special meeting
at which all the members of the society would be present among those now in council opinions were nearly equally divided the one party urged that did they take steps to prepare the populace for a rising
a rumour would be sure to meet the ears of their opponents and they would be on their guard whereas if they scattered quickly after each section had slain two of their tyrants the operation might be repeated until all the influential men of hanno's faction had been removed
in reply to these arguments the other party urged that delays were always dangerous that huge rewards would be offered after the first attempts that some of the men of the sections might turn traitors
that hanno's party would be on their guard in future and that the judges would effect wholesale arrests and executions whereas were the populace appealed to in the midst of the excitement which would be caused
by the death of hanno and his principal adherents the people would rise and finish with their tyrants after all who wished to speak on the subject had given their opinions they proceeded to details
each gave a statement of the number of men enrolled in his section with a few words as to the disposition of each almost without an exception each of these men was animated with a sense of private wrong some had lost near relatives
executed for some trifling offence by the tribunals some had been ruined by the extortion of the tax gatherers all were stated to be ready to give their lives for vengeance
it is their own wrongs and not the injuries of carthage which they would avenge but we must take them as we find them one cannot expect any deep feeling of patriotism on the part of the masses who it must be owned have no very great reason
to feel any lively interest in the glories of the republic so that they eat and drink sufficiently and can earn their living it matters not very greatly to them whether carthage is great and glorious or humbled and defeated but this will not always be so
when we have succeeded in ridding carthage of her tyrants we must next do all we can so to raise the condition of the common people that they may feel that they too have a common interest in the fate of our country i should not of course propose giving to them a vote
would be the height of madness the affairs of state the government of the country the making of the laws must be solely in the hands of those fitted for the task of the men who by education by birth by position
by study and by leisure have prepared their minds for such a charge
the judges should be impartial and incorruptible every man should have his rights and his privileges then each man feeling an interest in the stability of the state would be ready to bear arms in its defence
and carthage instead of being dependent entirely upon her tributaries and mercenaries would be able to place a great army in the field by her own unaided exertions the barbarian tribes would cease to revolt
knowing that success would be hopeless and as we should be strong at home we should be respected abroad and might view without apprehension the rising power of rome there is plenty of room for both of us
for us africa and spain for her all the rest of europe and as much of asia as she cares to take we could look without jealousy at each other's greatness each secure in his own strength and power
yes there may be a grand future before carthage yet the meeting now broke up
to see the sacrifices you know there is a grand function today to propitiate moloch and to pray for victory for our arms no malchus said with a shudder
but these terrible rites frighten me i was taken once by my father and i then swore that never again unless it be absolutely necessary for me in the performance of public office will i be present at such a scene
for weeks afterwards i scarcely slept day and night there was before me that terrible brazen image of moloch
i woke bathed in perspiration as i heard the screams of the infants as they were dropped into those huge hands heated to redness stretched out to receive them
then there was the slaughter of a score of captives taken in war i see them now standing pale and stern with their eyes directed to the brazen image which was soon to be sprinkled with their blood while the priests in their scarlet robes
with the sacrificial knives in hand approached them i saw no more for i shut my eyes till all was over i tell you again giscon i do not believe the gods are so cruel why should the gods of phoenicia and carthage alone demand blood
those of greece and rome are not so bloodthirsty and yet mars gives as many victories to the roman arms as moloch does to ours blaspheme not the gods malchus giscon said gloomily
you may be sure that the wreath of a conquering general will never be placed around your brow if you honour them not if honouring them means approval of shedding the blood of infants and captives i will renounce all hopes of obtaining victory by their aid
had i known that you were a scorner of the gods i would not have asked you to join in our enterprise no good fortune can be expected to attend our efforts unless we have the help of the gods the matter is easily mended giscon malchus said calmly
so far i have taken no step towards carrying out your plans
therefore no harm can yet have been done strike my name off the list and forget that i have been with you you have my oath that i will say nought of anything that i have heard you can well make some excuse to your comrades
tell them for example that though i fear not for myself i thought that being the son of hamilcar i had no right to involve his name and family in such an enterprise unless by his orders
yes it were better so giscon said after a pause i dare not continue the enterprise with one who condemns the gods among us it would be to court failure i did not dream of this
i am neither a condemner nor a spurner malchus said indignantly i say only that i believe you worship them wrongfully that you do them injustice i say it is impossible that the gods who rule the world
can have pleasure in the screams of dying infants or the groans of slaughtered men giscon placed his hand to his ears as if to shut out such blasphemy and hurried away
while malchus mounting his horse rode out slowly and thoughtfully to his father's villa he was not at heart sorry that he was freed from this association into which without knowing the measures by which it intended to carry out its aims
he was ready for armed insurrection against the tyrants of carthage but he revolted from the thought of this plan for a midnight massacre
he felt too that the reason which he had given giscon was a valid one he had no right
did it fail and were he found to be among the conspirators hanno and his associates would be sure to seize the fact as a pretext for assailing hamilcar
and that he was in fact but the representative of his family in the design for overthrowing the constitution of the republic fortunately for malchus a few days later orders were given for the instant embarkation
of a portion of the reinforcements destined for hannibal hamilcar was to proceed in command of them and busied with his preparation for the start malchus thought little more of the conspiracy which was brewing
thirty large merchant ships were hired to convey the troops who numbered six thousand these were principally libyan footmen the main body with the numidian horse
at last the day for embarkation arrived and the troops defiled through the temple of moloch where sacrifices were offered up for the success of the enterprise malchus under the pretense that something was not ready at the last moment lingered at home
this body all composed of young men of the best families of carthage
the scene was a busy one the docks of carthage were extensive
so that the troops could march on board a great crowd of the populace had assembled to view the embarkation these were with difficulty kept from crowding the troops and impeding their movement by a cordon of soldiers
as the troops marched on to the quay they were formed up in parties by the side of the ships which were to convey them very different was the demeanour of the men of the different nationalities the libyans were stern and silent
they were part of the contingent which their state was bound to furnish to carthage and went unwillingly cursing in their hearts the power which tore them from their homes to fight in a war in which they had neither concern nor interest
near them were a body of garamantes wrapped in the long bernous which then as now was the garb of the children of the desert tall swarthy figures these lissome and agile with every muscle standing out clear through the brown skin
strange as must have been the scene to them there was no wonder expressed in the keen glances which they shot around them from underneath their dark eyebrows silent and taciturn
scarce a word was to be heard among them as they stood awaiting the orders to embark they were there unwillingly and their hearts were far away in the distant desert but none the less would they be willing to fight when the time came
terrible foes these would be in a night attack with their stealthy tiger like tread their gleaming vengeful eyes and their cruel mouths
with their cloaks of lion skin and the gaudy feathers fastened in a fillet round their heads their black faces were alive with merriment and wonder everything was new and extraordinary to them the sea the ships the mighty city
the gathered crowd all excited their astonishment and their white teeth glistened as they chatted incessantly with a very babel of laughter and noise not less light hearted were the chosen band of young nobles grouped by the general's ship
their horses were held in ranks behind them for the last time by their slaves for in future they would have to attend to them themselves and as they gathered in groups they laughed and jested over the last scandal in carthage
the play which had been produced the night before at the theatre or the horse race which was to be run on the following day as to the desperate work on which they were to be engaged for it was whispered that hannibal had in preparation some mighty enterprise
it troubled them not at all nor the thought that many of them might never look on carthage again in their hearts perhaps some of them like malchus were thinking sadly of the partings they had just gone through with those they loved
but no signs of such thoughts were apparent in their faces or conversation presently a blast of trumpets sounded and the babel of voices was hushed as if by magic the soldiers fell into military order and stood motionless
asking questions of the captains of the ships as to their store of provisions and water receiving from the officers charged with that duty the lists of the war machines and stores which were stored away in the hulls
and having assured himself that everything was in order he gave the signal to his trumpeter who again blew a long and piercing blast the work of embarkation at once commenced
half of these were stored away in the hold of the general's ship
the soldiers who had kept back the crowd were withdrawn and the carthaginians thronged down on to the quay a small space was still kept clear on the wharf by whose side the admiral's ship was lying and here was gathered a throng of the aristocracy of the city
to see the last of their sons and relatives of the guard having seen their horses safely stowed below the young men crowded to the side of the ship to exchange adieus with their friends the parting was a brief one for the wind was fair
and the general anxious to be well out of the bay before nightfall therefore the signal was hoisted numbers of slaves seized the hawsers of the ships and towed them along through the narrow passage which connected the docks with the sea
a shout of adieu rose from the crowd the sails were hoisted and the fleet proceeded on its way the arrangements for the comfort of the troops at sea were simple and primitive each man shifted for himself
the whole space below was occupied by cargo or horses the troops lived and slept on deck here on wide flat stones they cooked their meals whiled away the day by games of chance
alas that his had not been a more guileless eve the love making was patent to every one and the family at the farm wondered where it would end mark brace was truly sorry that earle had set his heart on the lovely fantastic doris and yet
honest man he did not wonder that any young fellow should be beguiled by so fair a face and he could not but be heartily amused at the queenly airs with which the farm foundling believing herself a tenant farmer's child received the homage of earle moray
poet and gentleman owner of the little estate of lindenholm good patty brace was on her part greatly perplexed with woman's keen intuition in love she perceived the intense sincerity of earle's passion for doris
and saw as well that doris was entirely without heart for him the girl admired him loved his flattery desired to be some one's chief object but would have tossed him aside as easily as an old glove if a more dashing adorer had made his appearance
besides if doris gave consent to earle's wooing would missus moray be well pleased with her son's choice missus moray of lindenholm was a thoroughly practical woman and would see at a glance that the idle young beauty would be a very unreliable wife for any man
especially for one of moderate means what fools men are in love matters quoth patty to herself at least most men with a thought backward to mark's sensible choosing this dreamer and verse writer would have done well to choose our mattie
who would help him on and make him happy his life long but doris is only fit to marry a lord as no doubt she sprung from a lord but where a lord is to come from as a suitor goodness knows not i and of all who saw the summer wooing
mattie was the most deeply touched but gave no sign when she felt the sharpness of the pain when doris asserted empire over earle then mattie first guessed that she had set her love upon him and she gave herself the task of rooting out lover's love
and planting sisterly affection in its stead her gentle face grew graver her soft brown eyes had a more wistful light but not a thought of jealousy or anger or envy
god was good to mattie in that no ill weeds throve in her maiden soul doris did not find the sweetness she had expected in tormenting her for mattie gave no signs of torment rather for earle than for herself she was sad
and that with reason it is sad to see a young man love absorbingly madly giving up all for love doris became his one idea even his mother while she knew he was attracted by a pretty daughter of mark brace
did not guess his infatuation scarcely an hour in the day were the young pair parted earle had told doris of the poet's old recipe for a lovely complexion washing in morning dew and doris to preserve the most exquisite complexion in the world
went out when the sun rose to bathe her cheeks and brow with the other lilies and roses in the dews of the dawning earle met her and rambled with her through flowery lanes when his supposed studies in farming began
he was rather lounging at the feet of doris than learning of mark brace yet so eagerly did he hurry off to the farm that his mother blessed his unwonted attention to his duty he dined at home not to leave his mother lonely then off again
and his farm studies consisted in reading poetry or tales to doris under trees or wandering far into the gloaming with her in brackenside garden his heart poured itself out in herrick's grand old song to anthea
thou art my life my soul my heart the very eyes of me thou hast command of every part to live and die for thee his rich young voice rolled forth these words with deep feeling doris laughed at the song at first
but his earnestness in singing it touched her a very little i shall always think of you when i hear that song she said think of me yes but if it means that we are to be parted and you think just to remember doris i should die
he was fervid handsome romantic brilliant in love's first golden glow hard to resist she smiled at him let us fancy we will not be parted she said sweetly
earle came hurrying up one day after dinner now for a long evening in the garden he cried i have brought a new drama the poetry is exquisite we will sit in the arbor under the honeysuckle
and while the summer wind is full of the breath of flowers i will read you the sweeter breathing of a poet's soul come doris come mattie let us off to the garden mattie's face flushed with joy it was so sweet to find some pleasure she could share with him
his voice was full of fire and music mattie listened entranced doris half forgot her favorite dreams of herself in gorgeous crowds the center of admiration the gloaming fell as he read the last lines
it is beautiful in its poetry said mattie but not in its idea i cannot love the heroine though her face is fair beauty should be united to goodness and goodness has not this cruel pride
to think of a woman who would let a brave man die or risk death to win a smile i always hated the lady who threw the glove and i think the knight served her well to leave her when he returned the glove for she had no idea of true love
beauty has a right to all triumphs cried doris and men have always been ready to die for beauty's smile a good man's life is worth more than any woman's smile said mattie the man's life the woman's life are heaven's gifts
to be spent in doing good we have no right to throw them idly away or demand their sacrifice i never liked these stories of wasted affection they are too pitiful to give all and get nothing is a cruel fate
oh you little silly country girl laughed doris you do not think that beautiful women are queens and hearts are their rightful kingdom and they can get as many as they like and do what they please with them you talk to amuse yourself said earle
that sweet smile and voice fit your cruel words as little as they would suit an executioner's sword what is slaying by treachery in love better than murder asked mattie eagerly
it is a very exciting piquant interesting form of murder retorted her wicked little sister how can any one enjoy giving pain cried mattie i have read of such women but to me they seem true demons however fair think of destroying hope
life genius morals for what for amusement and yet these sons all had mothers you are in earnest mattie said earle admiringly i feel in earnest said mattie passionately
pshaw there is much spider and fly in men and women laughed doris women weave silvery nets in the sun and the silly men walk straight in who's to blame you talk like a worn out french cynic cried mattie
well who is to blame persisted doris pretty women for just amusing themselves according to their natures or silly men for walking into danger being warned it should not be a woman's nature to set traps for hearts or souls
you know better doris urged mattie if i could be rich and great and go to london and live in society you'd see if i would do better retorted doris you two remind me of verses of a poem on two sisters said earle their lives lay far apart
one sought the gilded world and there became a being fit to startle and surprise till men moved to the echoes of her name and bowed beneath the magic of her eyes
but she the other with a happier choice dwelt mong the breezes of her native fields laughed with the brooks and saw the flowers rejoice brimmed with all sweetness that the summer yields that then is mattie
mattie looked up in gratified surprise if you are complimenting mattie i won't stay and hear it i reign alone cried doris half laughing half petulant
it was often so when she had sunned earle with her smiles she withdrew her presence or changed smiles to frowns so he was never cloyed with too much sweetness when doris withdrew in vain he sang under the window or sent her love full notes
a wasted warning while earle moray watched doris and lost himself in delicious fancies of a soul fair as the body that shrined it doris on her part gazed on him with awakening interest
she had expected to see a young countryman a rhymster who believed himself a poet one with whom she could flirt to pass away the time and to keep in practice not this gentleman in air and dress with the cultivated musical voice the noble face
the truthful earnest eye said doris in her heart i did not know that little dairy maid mattie had such good taste and in proportion as the value of mattie's love increased before her so increased her joy in winning it away
not that doris had any malice toward mattie personally but she had a freakish love of triumphing in the discomfiture of others slowly she yielded to the fascination of earle's presence she told herself that the detestable country could be endurable
with him to play lover at her feet to her mentally arraigning the detestable country spoke earle i love this scene fairer is hardly found in any book of nature what is more lovely more suggestive
than a wheat field with golden sheaves i am a true child of the cities said doris despite my country birth and rural name i was just thinking how superior are the attractions of paved streets filled with men and women
and lined with glittering windows but if you will tell me some of the suggestions of the wheat field no doubt i shall learn from you to think differently how charming was this docile frankness it suggests earth's millions filled daily with bread
it suggests that gracious providence by long and lovely processes forestalling man's needs
of ruth gleaning in the field of boaz the stories of ruth rebecca and esther were the three bible stories that doris knew the face of doris lighted as she answered oh i like that i have imagined boaz tall grave stately dark
and ruth young and fair and tender i cannot quite fancy how naomi looked like other old women with a sad history i suppose but the words are lovely whither thou goest i will go thy people shall be my people
and thy god my god his voice took a deep passionate tone and his eyes filled with the light of love mattie says you are a poet cried doris are you i wish i could say i am time will prove me
i have the poet's longing shall i ever reach the poet's utterance why i think you have it now said doris sweetly it is because you inspire me perhaps as i came toward you i wondered whether you were tennyson's dora
or the gardener's daughter oh neither i am very different they were content with trees and flowers and humble ways was it not dora who dwelt unmarried till her death i shall not do that i shall marry and fly from the country side
i can live among people in the city what cannot you live the truest life where wind and rain and water fall and birds make music the flowers mark the sweet procession of seasons all is calm and security and innocence
tell me said doris bending forward glee in her sapphire eyes her small hand thrilling him as she touched his arm
are you content do you not long for fame to sway your fellows to be rich to make money oh money is the lowest of all objects what is money to love demanded earle money just as metal may be a low object
but money as money as getting what we want most is a high object think of what it can buy think of gorgeous pictures lighting your walls with beauty of flashing jewels and gleaming marbles
not stuffy little farm houses with windows under the eaves tell me are you content will you live and die a farmer is not this money a thing worth winning to lay at the feet of love will you not spread the wings of your soul for a wider life
have you not ambition yes cried earle i have ambition the dimpling smile showed the shining pearly line of little teeth the soft fingers of the little hand touched his hand as she withdrew them
and leaning back against her oak tree she laughed joyously i have found a fellow sinner ambition can be noble rather than evil and to aspire is not to sin
who could help being ambitious with you as the apostle of ambition you enforce with your beauty each word that you utter you think me beautiful
in sweetest wonderment as if she had not studied dress look pose gesture minutely to enhance her wonderful and rich endowments of nature words cannot tell how fair a verse keeps singing through my brain
it is this and she my doris whose lap incloses wild summer roses of sweet perfume the while i sued her smiled and hearkened till daylight darkened from glow to gloom
ah this was something like thought doris to be wooed and flattered in poetry she dropped her dainty lids the rose pink deepened in her cheeks and she gave a slow sweet sigh did you make that poetry
the world should hear of you the world oh rare delight had she not dreamed of driving men mad for love of making poets sing and artists paint her charms and these conquests were begun she looked up archly
she knew when to check the tides of enthusiasm and adoration that they might grow stronger for the repression away with poetry my singer here comes prose over the field toward them strode honest mark brace
looking for his neophyte in rural toils mark's round face was crimson with heat and exertion but a broad smile responded to the pretty picture these two young lovers made under the tree he cried heartily a deal you are learning this morning master earle
will you put off your lessons in wheat stacking till next year lindenholm farm at this rate will be a model farm to the county when the madam turns it over to you i was not in working humor said earle work won't wait for humors quoth mark
i don't doubt your sister is making butter and your mother cooking dinner while you are playing shepherdess under a tree do i look as if i could work laughed doris springing to her feet and extending a wee rose leaf hand i am only for ornament not use
but i will leave mister moray for evil communications corrupt good manners and i have made him lazy good bye poet blessings brighten as they take their flight so i expect to look more and more charming as i depart homeward
the minx knew that she had done enough that day to turn earle moray's head and it would be well to let the effect deepen in absence she danced off homeward and earle whispered under his breath against her ankles as she trod the lucky buttercups did nod
i leaned upon the gate to see the sweet thing looked but did not speak a dimple came in either cheek and all my heart was gone from me mark brace looked after his fairy changeling in dire perplexity
to him work honest labor winning bread from the soil was noble and happy in all the words of doris rang some delicate undertone of irony and scorn of what he most esteemed fair fair indeed
but was it not selfish of her to let those whom she deemed her blood work and she stay idle yes there was the hundred pounds and she was not really their blood but of some idle never toiling strain
more and more his hands were bound concerning the beauty as she grew up in his care he wished he could explain her to moray but he could not honor held him to silence he could warn he spoke suddenly laying a hand on the lad's arm
earle i like you vastly you are honest good a gentleman i should be sorry indeed to see you giving your time and mind and setting your heart on that pretty idle lass of mine sorry mark why sorry
she is sweet and lovely if it were mattie now said honest mark speaking not as a father or match maker but as a man well and good i'd not say a word a man's heart may rest in mattie heaven bless her
but doris is of quite a different strain in her there is no rest one could never find rest in her never never earle tried to smile but the words struck home and were fixed in his heart beside the thought of doris
meanwhile doris danced off home and framed her lovely countenance in the vines about the kitchen window and what have you been doing asked patty reprovingly turning earle moray's head responded doris promptly
poet and gentleman i sat with doris beloved maiden her lap was laden with wreathed flowers i sat and wooed her through sunlight wheeling and shadows stealing for hours and hours
rose the sun over an idyllic day the white clouds floated softly over the summer blue the poppies blazed in scarlet splendor through the grass the bearded barley stood in sheaves
and through the meadows of brackenside that prosperous farmer mark brace led his men to their work earle moray whose mother looked on poesy as the macadamizing of the road to ruin
and desired nothing better for her son than the safe estate and healthful honest life of a farmer had come to take a lesson in stacking corn it is true that farm work was not especially attractive to earle the poet
but pleasing his mother was attractive to earle the son the friendship of honest mark was attractive to earle the man and earle had common sense to know
therefore came earle to his lesson my sister has come said mattie meeting him with a boding heart
her face is a poem her voice and laugh are poems and where is the phoenix of girls demanded earle down there under the great elm watching the reapers i will introduce you to her said mattie who thought this fatal introduction
should be well over with the sooner the better perhaps doris was in a less impish mood to day frank mattie did not dream how doris had meditated all the morning on the new situation and had dressed for conquest
in rustic surroundings she would play the rural queen her dress was a simple print a white ground with little green sprays of maiden hair traced on it at her neck a knot of pale green through which was carelessly drawn a flower
in her gleaming hair a cluster of hop blossoms her wide straw hat at her feet was trimmed with a wreath of hop vine over her shoulders fell her wonderful hair she held a book in her lap one white hand rested on the page
the other brushed back a truant curl and she lifted her lovely eyes in innocent pleased expectation as mattie and earle drew near the heart of earle moray stood still with surprise
then it leaped as if it would break its bounds and a flood of passionate admiration fired his whole being oh how divine a thing she was this naiad in the meadow land all poetry should wait as handmaid at her feet
why was one born to sing unless to sing those shining eyes those dimpling smiles that flush of dawn upon her cheeks well becoming the young morning of her maiden life oh daughter of the gods of hellas
oh being fit to startle and surprise looking at her this boy poet whose soul had until now only stirred in its sleep and murmured in its dreams awoke to full and perfect life
mattie looked into his flushing face his kindling eyes and saw that words if she had dared to utter them would now be fruitless to warn him of doris she could only in her secret soul hope that doris was less cruel than she had said
and so send up in silence to the ear of heaven that prayer god save earle moray earle looked at her mattie what is on your mind do you want to say something to me no yes
only that you must remember that my sister is only a child and takes nothing seriously you will not mind any nonsense that she says surely she will speak as she looks like an angel
they drew near the elm with what consummate art were the violet eyes drawn down from contemplation of their native skies to comprehension of earth's lower things
did doris greet mattie and the gentleman poet she saw the flush on his cheek the ardent flame lighting his dark eyes she said to herself i shall have no trouble here he is at my feet already
thank fortune the man is handsome and what an air he has i shall not waste time on him as it would be wasted on a clod hopper he will be good practice for better times
ah she said as earle asked permission to sit on the grass at her feet i don't know that you belong there are you a worker or an idler mattie is a worker if you are industrious and good you must go with her or my father
i am an idler if you are naughty and idle you belong with me i am of still a third class i am a dreamer here let me sit and dream of heaven mattie turned away fearful and sick of heart
the mischief was done dreaming is even better than idling said doris and here is a real land of dreams see how the poppies bend sleepy with sunshine the sunshine is a flood of refined gold
the bees fly slowly drunk with perfume the butterflies drift up and down like beautiful happy aimless thoughts let us dream and live to be happy one could not do better cried earle
here shall be our lotus land and you are a fit genius for the place miss brace now at the very beginning i must make a treaty with you are you coming here often i hope so then unless i am to hate you on the spot
you must not call me miss brace i detest the name if there is one name above another that i hate it is that name brace it is so common so mean a wretched monosyllable
but you would grace any name cried earle i don't mean to grace that very long exclaimed doris earle opened his eyes in uncontrollable amazement you don't know what it is to suffer from a wretched short commonplace name
look at me and consider that i am called above all things doris brace horrors now your name is fairly good earle moray there is a savor of gentility of blood of breeding about that
you can venture to rise with such a name i can only rise by dropping mine and that i mean to do earle laughed this was after all the pretty captious nonsense of a little child but doris is a sweet name
it fits this sweet home like landscape doris the lovely shepherdess has been sung and painted for centuries but i have no genius for woods or fields and i am afraid of sheep
however miss doris is better than miss brace she reached for a poppy growing in the grass and the book fell from her knee earle picked it up and saw what it was this he exclaimed in genuine consternation
now doris absolutely lacked the moral sense that would make her ashamed of the book or revolt at anything she found therein but she had native wit and she saw that she was on the point of instantly losing caste with earle moray on account of this literature
she said with enchanting simplicity i bought it on the train late yesterday and since i came out here i have been too happy to read it isn't it a nice book i should say not said earle how do you know unless you have read it
i know the author's reputation and then the title dear me and so i must not read it and my one and six pence gone whenever i try to do particularly right i do wrong unlucky isn't it
now the last word my french teacher said to me was by all means keep up your french you have such a beautiful accent earle looked relieved here was an explanation of exquisite simplicity there was no spot on this sweet stainless lily
mattie came back doris mother thinks you had better unpack your trunk your dresses will be rumpled lying in it so long you unpack it like a dear i shall ruin my things taking them out
and then i can't go in it is so lovely out of doors did you not put the things in to begin with asked mattie no dear one of the girls did the girls loved to wait on me mattie this with sweet reproach
but mother thinks you are keeping earle from work go away earle said doris giving him a dainty little push if you stay idle here i am to be called in and set to work after that stuffy old school this four years i cannot stay indoors
go mattie and tell mother if she insists on my coming in i shall appeal at once to my fairy godmother to turn me into a butterfly mattie walked slowly away that's all right said doris with satisfaction they all end by letting me have my own way
and how does that work well don't you suppose it is always a very nice way it must be indeed said earle heartily he thought to himself that so charming a form must shrine only the tenderest of hearts
the sweetest of souls and her way must always be a good way the girl was infinitely more lovely than one could look for in the child of mark and patty brace the sister of gentle mattie but being the child of mark and patty
and sister of mattie she must be a sharer in their goodness that sterling honesty that generous unselfishness that made these three everywhere beloved and respected patterns of domestic and neighborly virtues
chapter one in which captain booth begins to relate his history the tea table being removed and mister booth and the lady left alone he proceeded as follows since you desire madam to know the particulars of my courtship
to that best and dearest of women whom i afterwards married i will endeavour to recollect them as well as i can at least all those incidents which are most worth relating to you if the vulgar opinion of the fatality in marriage had ever any foundation
it surely appeared in my marriage with my amelia i knew her in the first dawn of her beauty and i believe madam she had as much as ever fell to the share of a woman but though i always admired her it was long without any spark of love
perhaps the general admiration which at that time pursued her the respect paid her by persons of the highest rank and the numberless addresses which were made her by men of great fortune
prevented my aspiring at the possession of those charms which seemed so absolutely out of my reach however it was i assure you the accident which deprived her of the admiration of others made the first great impression on my heart in her favour
the injury done to her beauty by the overturning of a chaise by which as you may well remember her lovely nose was beat all to pieces gave me an assurance that the woman who had been so much adored for the charms of her person deserved a much higher adoration to be paid to her mind
for that she was in the latter respect infinitely more superior to the rest of her sex than she had ever been in the former i admire your taste extremely cried the lady i remember perfectly well the great heroism with which your amelia bore that misfortune
good heavens madam answered he what a magnanimity of mind did her behaviour demonstrate if the world have extolled the firmness of soul in a man who can support the loss of fortune of a general who can be composed after the loss of a victory
with what astonishment ought we to behold with what praises to honour a young lady who can with patience and resignation submit to the loss of exquisite beauty in other words to the loss of fortune power glory
everything which human nature is apt to court and rejoice in what must be the mind which can bear to be deprived of all these in a moment and by an unfortunate trifling accident which could support all this together with the most exquisite torments of body
and with dignity with resignation without complaining almost without a tear undergo the most painful and dreadful operations of surgery in such a situation here he stopt and a torrent of tears gushed from his eyes
such tears are apt to flow from a truly noble heart at the hearing of anything surprisingly great and glorious as soon as he was able he again proceeded thus would you think miss matthews that the misfortune of my amelia was capable of any aggravation i assure you
with a circumstance which outweighed all the other ingredients this was the cruel insults she received from some of her most intimate acquaintance several of whom after many distortions and grimaces have turned their heads aside unable to support their secret triumph
and burst into a loud laugh in her hearing good heavens cried miss matthews what detestable actions will this contemptible passion of envy prevail on our sex to commit an occasion of this kind as she hath since told me
made the first impression on her gentle heart in my favour i was one day in company with several young ladies or rather young devils where poor amelia's accident was the subject of much mirth and pleasantry
one of these said she hoped miss would not hold her head so high for the future another answered i do not know madam what she may do with her head but i am convinced she will never more turn up her nose at her betters another cried
what a very proper match might now be made between amelia and a certain captain who had unfortunately received an injury in the same part though from no shameful cause many other sarcasms were thrown out very unworthy to be repeated
i was hurt with perceiving so much malice in human shape and cried out very bluntly indeed ladies you need not express such satisfaction at poor miss emily's accident for she will still be the handsomest woman in england
this speech of mine was afterwards variously repeated by some to my honour and by others represented in a contrary light indeed it was often reported to be much ruder than it was however it at length reached amelia's ears she said she was very much obliged to me
since i could have so much compassion for her as to be rude to a lady on her account about a month after the accident when amelia began to see company in a mask i had the honour to drink tea with her
perhaps mister booth you will as little know me when my mask is off as when it is on and at the same instant unmasked the surgeon's skill was the least i considered a thousand tender ideas rushed all at once on my mind
i was unable to contain myself and eagerly kissing her hand i cried upon my soul madam
nothing more remarkable passed at this visit but i sincerely believe we were neither of us hereafter indifferent to each other many months however passed after this before i ever thought seriously of making her my wife
not that i wanted sufficient love for amelia indeed it arose from the vast affection i bore her i considered my own as a desperate fortune hers as entirely dependent on her mother who was a woman you know of violent passions
and very unlikely to consent to a match so highly contrary to the interest of her daughter the more i loved amelia the more firmly i resolved within myself never to propose love to her seriously such a dupe was my understanding to my heart
and so foolishly did i imagine i could be master of a flame to which i was every day adding fuel o miss matthews we have heard of men entirely masters of their passions and of hearts which can carry this fire in them and conceal it at their pleasure
perhaps there may be such but if there are those hearts may be compared i believe to damps in which it is more difficult to keep fire alive than to prevent its blazing in mine it was placed in the midst of combustible matter after several visits
in which looks and sighs had been interchanged on both sides but without the least mention of passion in private one day the discourse between us when alone happened to turn on love i say happened for i protest it was not designed on my side
and i am as firmly convinced not on hers i was now no longer master of myself i declared myself the most wretched of all martyrs to this tender passion that i had long concealed it from its object at length
after mentioning many particulars suppressing however those which must have necessarily brought it home to amelia i concluded with begging her to be the confidante of my amour and to give me her advice on that occasion amelia o i shall never forget the dear perturbation
appeared all confusion at this instant she trembled turned pale and discovered how well she understood me by a thousand more symptoms than i could take notice of in a state of mind so very little different from her own at last with faltering accents
she said i had made a very ill choice of a counsellor in a matter in which she was so ignorant adding at last i believe mister booth you gentlemen want very little advice in these affairs which you all understand better than we do
i will relate no more of our conversation at present indeed i am afraid i tire you with too many particulars o no answered she
tell me everything you said or did if you can remember it
chapter ten table talk consisting of a facetious discourse that passed in the prison there were assembled at the table the governor of these not improperly called infernal regions the lieutenant governor vulgarly named the first turnkey
miss matthews mister booth mister robinson the gambler several other prisoners of both sexes and one murphy an attorney the governor took the first opportunity to bring the affair of miss matthews upon the carpet
and then turning to murphy he said
he is i believe the best man in england at a defence i have known him often succeed against the most positive evidence
come madam do not be discouraged a bit of manslaughter and cold iron i hope will be the worst or perhaps we may come off better with a slice of chance medley or se defendendo i am very ignorant of the law sir cries the lady yes madam answered murphy
it can't be expected you should understand it there are very few of us who profess it that understand the whole nor is it necessary we should there is a great deal of rubbish of little use about indictments and abatements and bars and ejectments and trovers and such stuff
with which people cram their heads to little purpose the chapter of evidence is the main business that is the sheet anchor that is the rudder which brings the vessel safe in portum
you are much too learned i assure you for my understanding tace madam answered murphy is latin for a candle i commend your prudence i shall know the particulars of your case when we are alone
i hope the lady said robinson hath no suspicion of any person here i hope we are all persons of honour at this table d n my eyes answered a well dressed woman i can answer for myself and the other ladies
i scorn to rap footnote a cant word meaning to swear or rather to perjure yourself against any lady d n me madam cried another female i honour what you have done i once put a knife into a cull myself
so my service to you madam and i wish you may come off with se diffidendo with all my heart i beg good woman said miss matthews you would talk on some other subject and give yourself no concern about my affairs
so pray do not press her nay i value the lady's acquaintance no more than she values mine cries the first woman who spoke i have kept as good company as the lady i believe every day in the week good woman i don't use to be so treated
good woman the lady's a whore as well as myself and though i am sent hither to mill doll d n my eyes i have money enough to buy it off as well as the lady herself action might perhaps soon have ensued this speech had not the keeper interposed his authority
and put an end to any further dispute soon after which the company broke up and none but himself mister murphy captain booth and miss matthews remained together
began to open her case to mister murphy whom she admitted to be her solicitor though she still declared she was indifferent as to the event of the trial mister murphy having heard all the particulars with which the reader is already acquainted as far as related to the murder shook his head and said
there is but one circumstance madam which i wish was out of the case and that we must put out of it i mean the carrying the penknife drawn into the room with you for that seems to imply malice prepensive as we call it in the law
this circumstance therefore must not appear against you and if the servant who was in the room observed this he must be bought off at all hazards all here you say are friends
therefore i tell you openly you must furnish me with money sufficient for this purpose malice is all we have to guard against i would not presume sir cries booth to inform you in the law but i have heard in case of stabbing
and it is capital though no malice appears you say true sir answered murphy a man may be indicted contra formam statutis and that method i allow you requires no malice i presume you are a lawyer sir
no indeed sir answered booth i know nothing of the law then sir i will tell you
and then what we have to guard against is having struck the first blow pox on't it is unlucky this was done in a room if it had been in the street we could have had five or six witnesses to have proved the first blow
the safest way is to furnish me with money enough to offer him a good round sum at once and i think it is for your good i speak fifty pounds is the least than can be offered him i do assure you i would offer him no less was it my own case
and do you think sir said she that i would save my life at the expense of hiring another to perjure himself ay surely do i cries murphy for where is the fault admitting there is some fault in perjury as you call it
and to be sure it is such a matter as every man would rather wish to avoid than not and yet as it may be managed there is not so much as some people are apt to imagine in it for he need not kiss the book and then pray where's the perjury
i am sure a man must be a very bad christian himself who would not do so much as that to save the life of any christian whatever much more of so pretty a lady indeed madam if we can make out but a tolerable case
the latter part of this speech notwithstanding the mouth it came from caused miss matthews to suppress much of the indignation which began to arise at the former and she answered with a smile
but we need argue no longer concerning them for if fifty pounds would save my life i assure you i could not command that sum the little money i have in my pocket is all i can call my own and i apprehend in the situation i am in
come come madam cries murphy life is sweet let me tell you and never sweeter than when we are near losing it
who when business began to thicken a little upon him hath changed his note it is no time to be saving in your condition the keeper who after the liberality of miss matthews and on seeing a purse of guineas in her hand had conceived a great opinion of her wealth
no sooner heard that the sum which he had in intention intirely confiscated for his own use
to be sure cries he mister murphy life is sweet as you say that must be acknowledged to be sure life is sweet but sweet as it is no persons can advance more than they are worth to save it and indeed if the lady can command no more money than that little she mentions
which is certainly a very dreadful crime and though the not kissing the book doth as you say make a great deal of difference and if a man had a great while to live and repent perhaps he might swallow it well enough
the first persons whom they passed by were three men in fetters who were enjoying themselves very merrily over a bottle of wine and a pipe of tobacco these mister robinson informed his friend were three street robbers and were all certain of being hanged the ensuing sessions
so inconsiderable an object said he is misery to light minds when it is at any distance a little farther they beheld a man prostrate on the ground whose heavy groans and frantic actions plainly indicated the highest disorder of mind
this person was it seems committed for a small felony and his wife who then lay in upon hearing the news had thrown herself from a window two pair of stairs high by which means he had in all probability lost both her and his child
a very pretty girl then advanced towards them whose beauty mister booth could not help admiring the moment he saw her declaring at the same time he thought she had great innocence in her countenance robinson said she was committed thither as an idle and disorderly person and a common street walker
as she past by mister booth she damned his eyes and discharged a volley of words every one of which was too indecent to be repeated they now beheld a little creature sitting by herself in a corner and crying bitterly this girl mister robinson said
was committed because her father in law who was in the grenadier guards had sworn that he was afraid of his life or of some bodily harm which she would do him and she could get no sureties for keeping the peace for which reason justice thrasher had committed her to prison
a great noise now arose occasioned by the prisoners all flocking to see a fellow whipt for petty larceny to which he was condemned by the court of quarter sessions but this soon ended in the disappointment of the spectators for the fellow after being stript having advanced another sixpence
was discharged untouched this was immediately followed by another bustle blear eyed moll and several of her companions having got possession of a man who was committed for certain odious unmanlike practices not fit to be named were giving him various kinds of discipline
and would probably have put an end to him had he not been rescued out of their hands by authority when this bustle was a little allayed mister booth took notice of a young woman in rags sitting on the ground and supporting the head of an old man in her lap who appeared to be giving up the ghost
these mister robinson informed him were father and daughter that the latter was committed for stealing a loaf in order to support the former and the former for receiving it knowing it to be stolen a well drest man then walked surlily by them
whom mister robinson reported to have been committed on an indictment found against him for a most horrid perjury but says he we expect him to be bailed today good heaven cries booth can such villains find bail
and is no person charitable enough to bail that poor father and daughter oh sir answered robinson the offence of the daughter being felony is held not to be bailable in law whereas perjury is a misdemeanor only
nay of all perjuries that of which this man is indicted is the worst for it was with an intention of taking away the life of an innocent person by form of law as to perjuries in civil matters they are not so very criminal they are not said booth and yet even these are a most
flagitious offence and worthy the highest punishment surely they ought to be distinguished answered robinson from the others
compared to taking away his life and his reputation and ruining his family into the bargain
however at present the punishment of all perjury is only pillory and transportation for seven years and as it is a traversable and bailable offence methods are found to escape any punishment at all footnote
the trial is so long postponed and the costs are so highly encreased that prosecutors are often tired out and some incapacitated from pursuing verbum sapienti booth exprest great astonishment at this
this was a wretch almost naked and who bore in his countenance joined to an appearance of honesty the marks of poverty hunger and disease he had moreover a wooden leg and two or three scars on his forehead
the case of this poor man is indeed unhappy enough said robinson he hath served his country lost his limb and received several wounds at the siege of gibraltar when he was discharged from the hospital abroad he came over to get into that of chelsea
but could not immediately as none of his officers were then in england in the mean time he was one day apprehended and committed hither on suspicion of stealing three herrings from a fishmonger he was tried several months ago for this offence and acquitted indeed
his innocence manifestly appeared at the trial but he was brought back again for his fees and here he hath lain ever since booth exprest great horror at this account
he would pay his fees for him but added that he was not possessed of a single farthing in the world robinson hesitated a moment and then said with a smile
it will serve to pass a tedious hour and may divert your thoughts from more unpleasant speculations
yet he was not so egregiously addicted to that vice as to be tempted by the shabby plight of robinson who had if i may so express myself no charms for a gamester
if he had however any such inclinations he had no opportunity to follow them for before he could make any answer to robinson's proposal a strapping wench came up to booth
and taking hold of his arm asked him to walk aside with her saying what a pox are you such a fresh cull that you do not know this fellow why he is a gambler and committed for cheating at play there is not such a pickpocket in the whole quad footnote
a scene of altercation now ensued between robinson and the lady which ended in a bout at fisticuffs in which the lady was greatly superior to the philosopher while the two combatants were engaged a grave looking man rather better drest than the majority of the company
came up to mister booth and taking him aside said i am sorry sir to see a gentleman as you appear to be in such intimacy with that rascal who makes no scruple of disowning all revealed religion as for crimes they are human errors and signify but little
nay perhaps the worse a man is by nature the more room there is for grace
whatever your crime be therefore i would not have you despair but rather rejoice at it for perhaps it may be the means of your being called he ran on for a considerable time with this cant without waiting for an answer and ended in declaring himself a methodist
just as the methodist had finished his discourse
she was genteel and well drest
than she asked with a commanding voice for the keeper and when he arrived she said to him well sir whither am i to be conducted i hope i am not to take up my lodging with these creatures the keeper answered with a kind of surly respect
madam we have rooms for those who can afford to pay for them at these words she pulled a handsome purse from her pocket in which many guineas chinked saying with an air of indignation that she was not come thither on account of poverty
the keeper no sooner viewed the purse than his features became all softened in an instant and with all the courtesy of which he was master he desired the lady to walk with him assuring her that she should have the best apartment in his house mister booth was now left alone
having as the phrase of the sect is searched him to the bottom
booth was standing near the gate of the prison when the young lady above mentioned was introduced into the yard he viewed her features very attentively and was persuaded that he knew her
to which he was answered that her name was not matthews but vincent and that she was committed for murder the latter part of this information made mister booth suspect his memory more than the former
for it was very possible that she might have changed her name but he hardly thought she could so far have changed her nature as to be guilty of a crime so very incongruous with her former gentle manners for miss matthews had both the birth and education of a gentlewoman
concerning another great modern writer paul verlaine the first of modern french poets it seems possible to speak with less hesitation a man who possessed in fullest measure the irresponsible impressionability of genius verlaine as his work shows and as he himself admitted
all his life oscillated between normal and homosexual love at one period attracted to women at another to men he was without doubt it seems to me bisexual an early connection with another young poet arthur rimbaud
in after years he gave expression to the exalted passion of this relationship
in laeti et errabundi published in the volume entitled
and in later poems he has told of less passionate and less sensual relationships which yet were more than friendship for instance
there is one other phenomenon which may be mentioned this is the alleged fact that while the phenomena exist to some extent everywhere we seem to find a special proclivity to homosexuality whether or not involving a greater frequency of congenital inversion is not usually clear
which in this respect is held to be distinct from northern italy
it is not very easy to say it must be remembered that in dealing with a northern country like england homosexual phenomena do not present themselves in the same way as they do in southern italy today or in ancient greece
in greece the homosexual impulse was recognized and idealized a man could be an open homosexual lover and yet like epaminondas be a great and honored citizen of his country
and sometimes as even specially honorable
it requires a very strong impetus to go against this compact social force which on every side constrains the individual into the paths of heterosexual love that impetus in a well bred individual who leads the normal life of his fellow men
and who feels the ordinary degree of respect for the social feeling surrounding him can only be supplied by a fundamental usually it is probable inborn perversion of the sexual instinct rendering the individual organically abnormal
it is with this fundamental abnormality usually called sexual inversion that we shall here be concerned there is no evidence to show that homosexuality in greece was a congenital perversion
parmenides it was hereditary aristotle also in his fragment on physical love though treating the whole matter with indulgence seems to have distinguished abnormal congenital homosexuality from acquired homosexual vice
doubtless in a certain proportion of cases the impulse was organic and it may well be that there was an organic and racial predisposition to homosexuality among the greeks or at all events the dorians
but the state of social feeling however it originated induced a large proportion of the ordinary population to adopt homosexuality as a fashion or it may be said the environment was peculiarly favorable to the development of latent homosexual tendencies
so that any given number of homosexual persons among the greeks would have presented a far smaller proportion of constitutionally abnormal individuals than a like number in england in a similar manner though i do not regard the analogy as complete
infanticide or the exposition of children was practised in some of the early greek states by parents who were completely healthy and normal in england a married woman who destroys her child is in nearly every case demonstrably diseased or abnormal
for this reason i am unable to see that homosexuality in ancient greece while of great interest as a social and psychological problem throws light on sexual inversion as we know it in england or the united states
concerning the wide prevalence of sexual inversion and of homosexual phenomena generally there can be no manner of doubt this question has been most fully investigated in germany
in berlin moll states that he has himself seen between six hundred and seven hundred homosexual persons and heard of some two hundred fifty to three hundred fifty others hirschfeld states that he has known over ten thousand homosexual persons
there are i am informed several large cafes in berlin which are almost exclusively patronized by inverts who come here to flirt and make acquaintances as these cafes are frequented by male street prostitutes
the invert risks being blackmailed or robbed if he goes home or to a hotel with a cafe acquaintance
small and unpretentious bar rooms which are really male brothels
these places are regarded by inverts as very safe as the proprietors insist on good order and allow no extortion while the police though of course aware of their existence never interfere
there is some reason for believing that homosexuality is especially prominent in germany and among germans i have elsewhere referred to the highly emotional and sentimental traits which have frequently marked german friendships
germany is the only country in which there is a definite and well supported movement for the defense and social rehabilitation of inverts the study of sexual inversion began in germany
and the scientific and literary publications dealing with homosexuality issued from the german press probably surpass in quantity and importance those issued from all other countries put together the homosexual tendencies of germans outside germany
have been noted in various countries among my english cases i have found that a strain of german blood occurs much more frequently than we are entitled to expect parisian prostitutes are said to be aware of the homosexual tastes of germans
it is significant that as a german invert familiar with turkey informed naecke at constantinople the procurers who naturally supply girls as well as youths regard germans and austrians as more tending to homosexuality than the foreigners from any other land
germans usually deny however that there is any special german proclivity to inversion and it would not appear that such statistics as are available though all such statistics cannot be regarded as more than approximations show any pronounced predominance of inversion among germans
and more especially in different occupations from one to ten per cent but the average when the individuals belonging to a large number of groups are combined is generally found to be rather over two per cent
and a japanese group comes out near to the general average for the whole
is unable to accept this view
especially in the cavalry less so in the infantry in the french army generally he finds it rare as also in the general population
and in the latin countries generally than in teutonic and slavonic lands
it is possible that the undoubted fact that homosexuality is less conspicuous in france and the other latin countries than in teutonic lands
but mainly to general difference in temperament
while at the same time inverts in france have much less occasion than in germany to proclaim their legal grievances apart from such considerations as these it seems very doubtful whether inborn inversion is in any considerable degree rarer in france than in germany
in england its manifestations are well marked for those whose eyes have once been opened the manifestations are of the same character as those in germany modified by social and national differences and especially by the greater reserve
hirschfeld though so acute and experienced in the investigation of homosexuality states that when visiting philadelphia and boston he could scarcely detect any evidence of homosexuality
that its extension in both cities is colossal there have been numerous criminal cases and scandals in the united states in which homosexuality has come to the surface
in the states seem to be in a large proportion associated with homosexuality
and this is sometimes attributed to the oscar wilde case
may have brought conviction of their perversion to many inverts who were before only vaguely conscious of their abnormality and paradoxical though it may seem have imparted greater courage to others
rather one may say the development of urban life renders easier the exhibition and satisfaction
regarding the proportion of inverts among the general population
and moreover he is sometimes apt to overestimate the number of inverts through the misinterpretation of small indications that are not always conclusive
the estimate of the ordinary normal person feeling the ordinary disgust toward abnormal phenomena is also misleading because his homosexual acquaintances are careful not to inform him concerning their proclivities
a writer who has studied the phenomena of homosexuality is apt to be misguided in the same way as the invert himself and to overestimate the prevalence of the perversion
striving to put aside this source of fallacy and only considering those individuals with whom i have been brought in contact by the ordinary circumstances of life and with whose modes of feeling i am acquainted i am still led to the conclusion that the proportion is considerable
among the professional and most cultured element of the middle class in england there must be a distinct percentage of inverts which may sometimes be as much as five per cent though such estimates must always be hazardous
though here the phenomena are less definite and deep seated this seems to be a moderate estimate for this class which includes however it must be remembered a considerable proportion of individuals who are somewhat abnormal in other respects
the next case is interesting as showing the mental and emotional development in a very radical case of sexual inversion
of independent means aged forty nine his father and his father's family were robust healthy and prolific on his mother's side phthisis insanity and eccentricity are traceable
he belongs to a large family some of whom died in early childhood and at birth while others are normal
excessive shyness and religious disquietude
the nursery maid sniggered and he felt that there must be something peculiar about the penis
and the nurse powdered it before he went to sleep there was no transition from this to self abuse about the same time he became subject to curious half waking dreams in these he imagined himself the servant of several adult naked sailors
he crouched between their thighs and called himself their dirty pig and by their orders he performed services for their genitals and buttocks which he contemplated and handled with relish at about the same period when these visions began to come to him
he casually heard that a man used to come and expose his person before the window of a room where the maids sat this troubled him vaguely
after they had slept together the feeling of the penis pleased him when sleeping with another cousin they used to lie with hands outstretched to cover each other's penis or nates he preferred the nates but his cousin the penis
neither of these cousins was homosexual and there was no attempt at mutual masturbation he was in the habit of playing with five male cousins one of these boys was unpopular with the others and they invented a method of punishing him for supposed offenses
they sat around the room on chairs each with his penis exposed and the boy to be punished went around the room on his knees and took each penis into his mouth in turn this was supposed to humiliate him it did not lead to masturbation
on one occasion the child accidentally observed a boy who sat next to him in school playing with his penis and caressing it this gave him a powerful uneasy sensation
with regard to all these points the subject observes that none of the boys with whom he was connected at this period and who were exposed to precisely the same influences became homosexual he was himself from the first indifferent to the opposite sex
in early childhood and up to the age of thirteen he had frequent opportunities of closely inspecting the sexual organs of girls his playfellows these roused no sexual excitement on the contrary the smell of the female parts affected him disagreeably
when he once saw a schoolfellow copulating with a little girl it gave him a sense of mystical horror nor did the sight of the male organs arouse any particular sensations he is however of opinion that living with his sisters in childhood
he felt more curious about his own sex as being more remote from him he showed no effeminacy in his preferences for games or work he went to a public school here he was provoked by boy friends to masturbate but though he often saw the act in process
it only inspired him with a sense of indecency in his fifteenth year puberty commenced with nocturnal emissions and at the same time he began to masturbate and continued to do so about once a week or once a fortnight during a period of eight months
always with a feeling that that was a poor satisfaction and repulsive his thoughts were not directed either to males or females while masturbating he spoke to his father about these signs of puberty and by his father's advice he entirely abandoned onanism
he thinks this treatment exaggerated his neurosis all this time no kind of sexual feeling for girls made itself felt he could not understand what his schoolfellows found in women or the stories they told about wantonness and delight of coitus
his old dreams about the sailors had disappeared but now he enjoyed visions of beautiful young men and exquisite statues he often shed tears when he thought of them these dreams persisted for years but another kind gradually usurped their place to some extent
these second visions took the form of the large erect organs of naked young grooms or peasants these gross visions offended his taste and hurt him though at the same time they evoked a strong active desire for possession he took a strange poetic pleasure in the ideal form
but the seminal losses which accompanied both kinds of dreams were a perpetual source of misery to him there is no doubt that at this time that is between the fifteenth and seventeenth years a homosexual diathesis had become established
and he thinks that he might have brought himself to indulge freely in purely sexual pleasure with women if he made their first acquaintance in a male costume as
court pages young halberdiers as it is only when so clothed that women on the stage or in the ball room have excited him his ideal of morality and fear of venereal infection more than physical incapacity kept him what is called chaste
he never dreamed of women never sought their society never felt the slightest sexual excitement in their presence never idealized them esthetically he thought them far less beautiful than men statues and pictures of naked women had no attraction for him
while all objects of art which represented handsome males deeply stirred him it was in his eighteenth year that an event occurred which he regards as decisive in his development he read plato a new world opened
next year he formed a passionate but pure friendship with a boy of fifteen
extreme agitation and aching pleasure but not ejaculation through four years he never saw the boy naked or touched him pruriently only twice he kissed him he says that these two kisses were the most perfect joys he ever felt
his father now became seriously anxious both about his health and his reputation he warned him of the social and legal dangers attending his temperament but he did not encourage him to try coitus with women
a period of great pain and anxiety now opened for him but his neurasthenia increased he suffered from insomnia obscure cerebral discomfort stammering chronic conjunctivitis inability to concentrate his attention and dejection
meanwhile his homosexual emotions strengthened and assumed a more sensual character he abstained from indulging them as also from onanism
but he was often forced with shame and reluctance to frequent places baths urinaries and so forth where there were opportunities of seeing naked men having no passion for women it was easy to avoid them yet they inspired him with no exact horror
he used to dream of finding an exit from his painful situation by cohabitation with some coarse boyish girl of the people
he sought the society of distinguished women once he coaxed up a romantic affection for a young girl of fifteen which came to nothing probably because the girl felt the want of absolute passion in his wooing
she excited his imagination and he really loved her but she did not even in the closest contact stimulate his sexual appetite once when he kissed her just after she had risen from bed in the morning a curious physical repugnance came over him
attended with a sad feeling of disappointment he was strongly advised to marry by physicians at last he did so
owing to this cause his physical mental and moral discomfort became acute his health gave way at about the age of thirty unable to endure his position any longer he at last yielded to his sexual inclinations
as he began to do this he also began to regain calm and comparative health he formed a close alliance with a youth of nineteen this liaison was largely sentimental and marked by a kind of etherealized sensuality
it involved no sexual acts beyond kissing naked contact and rare involuntary emissions about the age of thirty six he began freely to follow homosexual inclinations after this he rapidly recovered his health
the neurotic disturbances subsided he has always loved men younger than himself at about the age of twenty seven he had begun to admire young soldiers
since he yielded freely to his inclinations the men he has sought are invariably persons of a lower social rank than his own he carried on one liaison continuously for twelve years it began without passion on the friend's side but gradually grew to nearly equal strength on both sides
he is not attracted by uniforms but seeks some uncontaminated child of nature the methods of satisfaction have varied with the phases of his passion at first they were romantic and platonic when a hand touch a rare kiss or mere presence sufficed
in the second period sleeping side by side inspection of the naked body of the loved man embracements and occasional emissions after prolonged contact in the third period the gratification became more frankly sensual it took every shape
mutual masturbation intercrural coitus fellatio irrumatio and occasionally active pedicatio always according to the inclination or concession of the beloved male he himself always plays the active masculine part
he never yields himself to the other and he asserts that he never has the joy of finding himself desired with ardor equal to his own he does not shrink from passive pedicatio but it is never demanded of him
coitus with males as above described always seems to him healthy and natural it leaves a deep sense of well being and has cemented durable friendships he has always sought to form permanent ties with the men whom he has adored so excessively
he is of medium height not robust but with great nervous energy with strong power of will and self control able to resist fatigue and changes of external circumstances
in boyhood he had no liking for female occupations or for the society of girls preferring study and solitude he avoided games and the noisy occupations of boys but was only non masculine in his indifference to sport
was never feminine in dress or habit he never succeeded in his attempts to whistle he is a great smoker and has at times drunk much he likes riding skating and climbing but is a poor horseman and is clumsy with his hands
he has no capacity for the fine arts and music though much interested in them and is a prolific author he has suffered extremely throughout life owing to his sense of the difference between himself and normal human beings
no pleasure he has enjoyed he declares can equal a thousandth part of the pain caused by the internal consciousness of pariahdom the utmost he can plead in his own defense he admits is irresponsibility
for he acknowledges that his impulse may be morbid but he feels absolutely certain that in early life his health was ruined and his moral repose destroyed owing to the perpetual conflict with his own inborn nature and that relief and strength came with indulgence
although he always has before him the terror of discovery he is convinced that his sexual dealings with men have been thoroughly wholesome to himself largely increasing his physical moral and intellectual energy and not injurious to others
he has no sense whatever of moral wrong in his actions and he regards the attitude of society toward those in his position as utterly unjust and founded on false principles the next case is like the foregoing that of a successful man of letters
he belongs to a family who are all healthy and have shown marked ability in different intellectual departments
which i regard as of very great interest not only as a contribution to the psychology of inversion but to the embryology of the sexual emotions generally we here see described in an unduly precocious and hyperesthetic form
ideas and feelings which in a slighter and more fragmentary shape may be paralleled in the early experiences of many normal men and women but it must be rare to find so many points in sexual psychology so definitely illustrated in a single child
some centuries at least inquisitive observers here and there have thought they found reason to believe that men as well as women present various signs of a menstrual physiological cycle it would be possible to collect a number of opinions in favor of such a monthly physiological periodicity in men
precise evidence however is for the most part lacking men have expended infinite ingenuity in establishing the remote rhythms of the solar system and the periodicity of comets
yet the task of summarizing the whole of our knowledge regarding these mysterious revolutions is even to day no heavy one as to the existence of a monthly cycle in the sexual instincts of men with a single exception
although that evidence will not suffice to settle the question finally the great italian physician sanctorius who was in so many ways the precursor of our modern methods of physiological research by the means of instruments of precision
was the first so far as i am aware to suggest a monthly cycle of the organism in men he had carefully studied the weight of the body with reference to the amount of excretions
and believed that a monthly increase in weight to the amount of one or two pounds occurred in men followed by a critical discharge of urine
he insisted that there is a monthly critical period more marked in nervous people than in others and that at this time the complexion becomes dull the breath stronger digestion more laborious while there is sometimes disturbance of the urine together with general malaise
in which the temper takes part ideas are formed with more difficulty and there is a tendency to melancholy with unusual irascibility and mental inertia lasting a few days more recently stephenson who established the cyclical wave theory of menstruation
put forth the view a few years ago that there are menstrual periods in men giving the following reasons one males are rudimentary females two in all males of mammals a rudimentary masculine uterus
but although he had written a letter to the lancet asking medical men to supply him with evidence bearing on this question it can scarcely be said that he has brought forward much evidence of a convincing kind and such as he has brought forward is purely pathological
he believes however that we may accept a monthly cycle in men we may he concludes regard the human being both male and female as the subject of a monthly pulsation which begins with the beginning of life and continues till death
menstruation being regarded as a function accidentally ingrafted upon this primordial rhythm
it is not unreasonable to argue that the possibility of such a menstrual cycle is increased if we can believe that in women also the menstrual cycle persists even when its outward manifestations no longer occur
it was an ignored or unknown fact of recent years however many writers especially alienists have stated their conviction that sexual desire in men tends to be heightened at approximately monthly intervals though they have not always been able to give definite evidence in support of their statements
the nisus generativus is greatly increased and he says that if in that condition he has full and free seminal emissions during sleep the excitement passes off if not it goes on
and a very long walk sometimes does the same when the excitement gets to a height it is always followed by about a week of stupid depression in the same article clouston remarks i have for a long time been impressed with the relationship of the mental and bodily alternations
and periodicities in insanity to the great physiological alternations and periodicities and i have generally been led to the conclusion that they are the same in all essential respects and only differ in degree of intensity or duration
by far the majority of the cases in women follow the law of the menstrual and sexual periodicity the majority of the cases in men follow the law of the more irregular periodicities of the nisus generativus in that sex
many of the cases in both sexes follow the seasonal periodicity which perhaps in man is merely a reversion to the seasonal generative activities of the majority of the lower animals
forty six per cent of females and forty per cent of males showed periodicity diurnal monthly seasonal or annual and more marked in women than in men and in mania than in melancholia and adds
but never became intense
and with so powerful a rhythm already stamped upon its nervous organization to be peculiarly apt to display a menstrual rhythm under the stress of abnormal conditions
i am able to present a case in which such a periodicity seems to be indicated it is that of a gentleman who suffered severely for some years before his death from valvular disease of the heart with a tendency to pulmonary congestion and attacks of cardiac asthma
the periods were not quite regular but show a curious tendency to recur at about thirty days interval a few days before the end of every month it was during one of these attacks that he finally died
there was also a tendency to minor attacks about ten days after the major attacks
a six weekly period in one case and notably in hemicrania or migraine by harry campbell osler et cetera
chapter four i suppose it was an hour poor dear james is the worthiest soul but he has no more brains than a pin the small kind of pin that you get in change for a farthing
james always seemed to me a good footman rupert he is an admirable footman i haven't a word to say against him in that capacity
he does his duties with the beautiful regularity of an automatic machine but move james from his own dear little beaten track and he is lost hopelessly irrevocably lost
what beaten track has he left and why is he rousing your ladyship's wrath lady cicely redesdale
and glanced up at her tall cousin with one of her gay little laughs rupert mernside the son of her mother's sister
and from their earliest youth there had existed between them a frank camaraderie which had never degenerated into flirtation or drifted into any sentimental relationship
cicely was in the habit of saying that rupert was the person of all others from whom she would not only ask but take advice because his judgment was so sound
this opinion of him had been endorsed by her late husband who had only qualified it with one limitation rupert's got as sound and balanced a mind as any man could wish for
but once let the right woman get hold of him and she will twist him round her little finger those words of her husband recurred to cicely now as she lifted her eyes from their contemplation of her own
dainty shoes and looked up into rupert's rugged face i should rather like to see a woman twist you round her little finger she said irrelevantly a woman
me what on earth have a woman and i got to do with james's delinquencies there is method in my madness but the lane that led from james to your little finger
and the not impossible she is so long that i can't take you back along its windings it all comes of the power of association i shall have baba taught everything by association
i am planning a scheme of education that where does james come in to the plan for baba's education rupert contrived to ask his grey eyes shining a whimsical smile playing round his mouth oh
my dear boy i had completely forgotten james though talking of baba would soon have reminded me of him poor silly thing
well the door was open i suppose the outside world looked rather fascinating and mysterious and she has no nurse just now you know so there was no one with her and of course jane
the nursery maid was fetching something from the kitchen and well the long and the short of it was that baba ran out into the street and was promptly swallowed up by the fog my dear cicely
providentially as i now consider it i was out i had an early appointment with mathilde your dressmaker my dressmaker wasn't it kind of luck
or whatever it is to let it all happen when i wasn't there rupert if i had been at home and they told me baba was lost i should have gone straight off my head
was the dry retort you have never been a mother you don't know what a mother feels like about her only child cicely said with an attempt at dignity that sat quaintly upon her small person
and drew an amused laugh from her cousin i believe it would kill me if anything really happened to baba she went on more gravely you think i'm just a silly frivolous thing but baba is all the world to me
i know dear i know quite well rupert answered kindly and nobody could think you silly but go on and tell me what happened two days ago we haven't got to james's shortcomings yet
baba ran out into the square
then when that goose of a jane came back from her wanderings in the kitchen she found the nurseries empty and baba nowhere to be found there was a tremendous hue and cry the servants seem to have been on the verge of distraction
and ran off in all directions like frightened hens leaving james on guard at the door and after a few minutes when the fog lifted james caught sight of baba in a strange girl's arms
evidently quite at home with her and very happy you know baba's ducky way of making friends with everybody james flew out seized baba seems to have thanked her rescuer
oh i don't know when i asked james he could only say well my lady she seemed a nice respectable young person
he further volunteered that she was rather shabbily dressed and i can't bear to think that she went away with no thanks from me and with no reward
rupert smiled down into his cousin's pretty eager face
there are still some disinterested people left in the world
to rescue from the dangers of a fog she looked so fetching that morning too i came in just after she was brought back and there she was the little monkey
in her red cloak which she had found in the hall where needless to say it ought not to have been with no hat and all her curls in a delicious tangle
her face so soft and pink and her eyes shining she looked a delectable baby but rupert
only think what might have happened if some horrible person had found her my pretty baby and cicely's face grew suddenly white and grave whilst she shivered at the picture conjured up by her own mind
i asked james why he hadn't told the young person to give him her name and address and he could only say feebly that it never crossed his mind
you could advertise for the young lady if you really want to find her an advertisement in some leading paper should unearth her for you perhaps too if she was shabbily dressed
oh rupert
do advertise for me i can't bear to think that a girl may be in difficulties when i have more money than i know what to do with
yes of course i don't know what i should do without you she continued looking at him gravely but with no hint of coquettishness in her glance
i do miss john so dreadfully i do want a man to help me and advise me you can have me whenever you want me her cousin answered with equal gravity knowing that her words
for something more lover like on cicely's lips held merely their surface meaning no more i always hope that some day you will marry again rupert went on with brotherly frankness
you have been alone three years now your great property is a big handful for a woman to manage
john never thought of anything but my happiness was the gentle answer i don't think any girl ever had a better dearer husband people thought perhaps you thought so
too that i just married him for his money it wasn't true at first quite at first when father showed me what a huge difference it would make to them all if i married a millionaire
i did think more of john's fortune than of himself but it was only quite at first after that i knew
i would rather live in a cottage with him than in a palace with anybody else i don't think i shall marry again
bright head a new reverence stirring within him for the little cousin
here you are more than thirty five and not one single woman's name has ever been mentioned in connection with yours for which mercy let us be humbly and devoutly thankful
her cousin answered laughing though how sincere was his thankfulness only his own heart knew and into that heart there flashed as he spoke the vision of a white face and dark eyes
deep with unfathomable mystery if i don't want to marry why hustle me into the holy estate
now you are flippant as if you would be marrying lightly or
if you wait until you are within five years of forty before choosing a wife
with a view to matrimony rupert ended the sentence punctuating his words with a laugh let me recommend you to study the matrimonial columns of some of the papers
you will possibly find an eligible husband there for some of your charming girls rupert don't be so incorrigibly low and horrid as if any girl with a rag of decency or self respect
would answer one of those advertisements why men who advertise for wives can only be seedy adventurers the sort of person one reads of in books and never meets in real life
seedy sort of adventurers rupert repeated slowly turning as if by chance to survey his own reflection in the mirror over the mantelpiece
and then some poor girl takes the wretched creature seriously and thinks he means his stupid joke i should despise a girl who answered such an advertisement but i should much more despise the man who inserted it
don't scorn them too much everybody has different ideals and it takes all sorts to make a world your sort don't advertise for husbands and wives
but our section of society is not so faultless that we can afford to throw stones even at people who marry through a matrimonial bureau
not lower than displaying your daughters in the best market
rupert answered sternly not lower than running a man to earth as shoals of women do and do it without an ounce of shame but
perhaps
a lot of women wrote and proposed to him yes actually wrote and offered to marry him he told me so himself and those were women of your class well born and well educated
well we have the consolation of knowing that he refused the lot horrid beasts no wonder you men lose your respect for women if you think we are all capable of doing that sort of thing
we don't think so rupert's contemptuous tones grew gentle again we know the difference between the womanly woman and the others thank god there are plenty of the right sort left
and rupert stooped suddenly and took his cousin's two small hands into his you aren't going she exclaimed i wanted you to see baba and there are thousands of things i meant to say to you
so sorry but the thousands of things must be postponed i have an appointment at five and i must keep it you will advertise for the young person yes
i won't forget the young person' and by the way cicely a slight trace of embarrassment showed on his face didn't you tell me you wanted to find a sort of nursery governess for baba
certainly i do but my dear boy what do you know about nursery governesses i don't know anything about them was the reply
but cicely's quick eyes still noted embarrassment in both voice and manner but i heard the other day of a girl who who might be wanting a post a girl who might be wanting a post
cicely exclaimed mockingly the person i engage for baba would have to be somebody much less vague than that and she must have unimpeachable references
unimpeachable references mernside reflected as he left his cousin's house and side by side with cicely's words
words written in a clear girlish hand that had an odd character of its own i cannot find work and i need a home very much probably she is quite impossible
his reflections ran on cicely had a good deal of right on her side when she talked about shop girls and matrimonial advertisements i daresay i shall find c m belongs to that class of girl
and if so what am i going to do about her ah well margaret will help
to the small white house in bayswater but as he pushed open the familiar gate and walked up the garden path a shock of surprise awaited him
the blinds of the room to the right of the front door were pulled down and his repeated ringing of the bell brought no response from within the bell clanged in the kitchen regions its echoes dying away forlornly
but no footstep sounded in the hall no hand lifted the latch of the door and as he stepped back and looked up at the house rupert saw that no smoke was coming from the chimneys
a sick fear smote at his heart what had happened what could have happened the day before he had been here
the blinds were now so closely drawn she had seemed tired it was true but not more tired than he had often seen her and he had no reason to suppose that she was more ill than usual
she was always fragile he was accustomed to find her one week on the sofa another week sufficiently strong to be moving about the room and even going out of doors
but that her house should be barred and bolted against him was inexplicable he felt as though the ground had been cut away from under his feet as if the very foundations of his life had been shaken why
to day was the day she had herself fixed for his interview in her house with the girl of the advertisement margaret had arranged the hour it was by her suggestion that he had written to c m
and now he found the house locked up and apparently empty with no word of explanation or apology could margaret have been suddenly taken ill if so why had she not let him know yet
if she was ill she would be in the house and elizabeth with her somebody would have answered his ringing which had grown more and more imperative as each ring remained unanswered could she have gone away
gone away without letting him have the slightest hint of her intended going was that more conceivable than his theory of sudden illness again sick dismay knocked at the door of his heart
and with it came a wave of hot anger against margaret surely his years of faithful devotion of willing service had entitled him to more consideration than this at her hands
he had made few demands upon her but this sudden and unexplained disappearance was a strain which even the merest friendship should not be called upon to bear once again he pealed the bell
and even knocked vigorously at the knocker but neither sound produced the slightest effect
i'm sure i beg your parding sir she panted just like my luck to a popped out for a minute twice in the afternoon and each time somebody called are you in charge of this house
rupert asked his own agitation making him speak more sternly than the occasion quite warranted yes sir and i'm truly sorry sir the woman whimpered wiping her much heated face with a grimy apron
come here yesterday i did all of a sudden
her maid going away unexpected
my son jem i says yes yes rupert interrupted impatiently but where is missus stanforth did she leave any message any note
did she tell you to say anything to people who called lor no sir went off in a hurry and didn't leave no messages nor nothin
and there i run back a half an our ago
rupert again broke into her stream of words pore young thing she did seem upset over it too said she was expected
seemed to strike er all of an eap
she says quite urt like well i s'pose it was an oax them was er very words i suppose you explained to her that the lady had gone away unexpectedly
rupert exclaimed with growing irritation you didn't let the young lady think she had been brought here for a joke well o course sir i didn't know nothin about it
if you ask me i should say there was somethin queer in tellin somebody to come to an ouse at five o'clock and then for the ouse to be shut up which i should say it was a pore joke meself she says
ain't mister mernside ere and i says i don't know nothin about nobody o that name
and so rupert uttered a smothered oath then mastered himself and asked more quietly and how long has the young lady been gone best part of a quarter of a hour
quiet young lady she was too dressed very plain you might say shabby
lor it do seem strange
on the following afternoon his steps again turned towards missus nairne's house and why he assured himself that it would be kind to cicely to go to see baba again
and take the latest tidings of the child back to her mother he only knew that he had a great desire to sit quietly in that firelit room again
to feel the sense of peace and home like tranquillity that seemed to hover about it he only felt that in some inexplicable fashion baba's new nurse
rested him that her simplicity and some child like quality in her
women had played no part in his life until one woman had played an overmastering one and all that his passionate adoration of margaret stanforth had cost and was costing him
gave an added charm to a nature devoid of all subtlety simple and serene across the stretch of years between them he regarded christina as little more than a child
world weary soul can find most comfort and as mernside for the second time sat in the old fashioned sitting room and had tea with christina and her small charge
he felt that in some indefinable fashion
that chafed his soul she showed no traces of her embarrassment of the previous day night had brought its own counsels
after all she reflected philosophically
only something silly and it is all over now probably he has forgotten all about the stupid girl who wrote him that letter and anyhow he doesn't think about me at all excepting
as baba's nurse so it would be foolish to make a fuss having come to this determination christina with characteristic good sense
and if the two showed their pleasure in different ways it was none the less patent to their visitor that the little nurse with her big green eyes and dusky cloud of hair
took as much pleasure in his coming as did the golden haired baby and it gave him an odd glow of satisfaction to see her eyes brighten as he talked
rupert when he chose could talk well and interestingly he had travelled over the greater part of the world and in the course of his travels had used eyes and ears to good purpose
and to christina the little travelled to christina the whole sum of whose existence had been divided between
and strange uncouth peoples was breathlessly interesting and entrancing sitting there in the firelight baba nestled closely in his arms christina seated opposite to him
her chin propped on her hands her eager eyes following his every word
that surprised himself
that the flow of his eloquence suddenly ceased it was there in that garden of the desert that he had first met margaret the girl's gently asked question
for some inexplicable reason brought back to him
the afternoon when the woman who ever since had dominated his whole existence had first come into his life overhead the deep pure depths of the bluest sky he had ever seen
against its blue stately palms that waved their fan like leaves with the soft rustling sounds that only belong to the palm trees and there in the sunlight
her white gown falling about her margaret had stood her dark eyes turned towards the all surrounding desert how or why they had begun to speak he could not now recall
but from that first speech of fellow countrymen in a far off land they had passed into acquaintanceship and from that by easy stages to the friendship which he had implored her to give him
well at least in the years that followed he had been able to serve her to help her to ease some of the burden of her life
that burden of which he himself knew so little and to have served her was something for which to be thankful if only there was the bitterness
in this strange mysterious fashion leaving him ignorant of her whereabouts and of all that concerned her if only she had trusted him more if only
with a start he roused himself to realise that christina's eyes were watching him with a certain shy wonder and remembering that he had broken off his conversation almost in the middle of a sentence he looked at her
with a smile of apology do please forgive me he said your mention of biskra brought back so many pictures of the past and
baba likes pictures the child murmured drowsily perhaps baba would like the picture i saw her cousin answered feeling an odd compulsion to speak of what was in his thoughts
a picture of palm trees and a princess in a white gown who walked amongst them and was the princess like christina
baba all at once pulled herself into an upright position on his knee and looked earnestly into his face tell baba if that princess was like mine own pretty lady
the eyes of the two elders met and christina laughed confusedly baba sees the people she loves through very rosy spectacles she said and rupert smiled
whilst baba's insistent voice repeated tell if the princess in the white frock was like christina no no not at all like her rupert began
his eyes glancing at the bent dark head opposite to him at the clear whiteness of the cheeks into which the colour was flushing so becomingly at the deep green of her eyes
the red line of her lips no the princess was at least he broke off suddenly and looked more narrowly at the girl
and what an extraordinary hallucination
but at that moment your princess and mine little baba had a queer fantastic likeness to one another christina looked up at him sharply
surprise the predominating expression on her face but before she could speak
just tell baba zackly zackly what the princess in the white frock was like
again rupert felt impelled to speak
which if he had considered the matter would greatly have surprised him she was tall he answered very tall and very stately
as stately as one of the palm trees under which she stood and her face was white like her gown only it was not white as sick people are white but like the whiteness of a rose
very clear and pure and her hair was black black as a raven's wing his voice grew dreamy he seemed to have forgotten his listeners and merely to be thinking aloud
and her eyes were deep and dark fathomless wells of colour and very sad christina drew in her breath quickly and leant forward an eager look on her face i
the man's voice continued they held so much
the princess
the same subject continued the total number of the house of representatives for the independent journal saturday february sixteenth seventeen eighty eight madison to the people of the state of new york
the second charge against the house of representatives is that it will be too small to possess a due knowledge of the interests of its constituents
as this objection evidently proceeds from a comparison of the proposed number of representatives with the great extent of the united states the number of their inhabitants and the diversity of their interests
without taking into view at the same time the circumstances which will distinguish the congress from other legislative bodies the best answer that can be given to it will be a brief explanation of these peculiarities
it is a sound and important principle that the representative ought to be acquainted with the interests and circumstances of his constituents but this principle can extend no further than to those circumstances and interests
to which the authority and care of the representative relate an ignorance of a variety of minute and particular objects which do not lie within the compass of legislation is consistent with every attribute necessary to a due performance of the legislative trust
in determining the extent of information required in the exercise of a particular authority recourse then must be had to the objects within the purview of that authority what are to be the objects of federal legislation
those which are of most importance and which seem most to require local knowledge are commerce taxation and the militia a proper regulation of commerce requires much information as has been elsewhere remarked
but as far as this information relates to the laws and local situation of each individual state a very few representatives would be very sufficient vehicles of it to the federal councils taxation will consist in a great measure
of duties which will be involved in the regulation of commerce so far the preceding remark is applicable to this object as far as it may consist of internal collections a more diffusive knowledge of the circumstances of the state may be necessary
but will not this also be possessed in sufficient degree by a very few intelligent men diffusively elected within the state divide the largest state into ten or twelve districts
and it will be found that there will be no peculiar local interests in either which will not be within the knowledge of the representative of the district besides this source of information the laws of the state framed by representatives from every part of it
will be almost of themselves a sufficient guide in every state there have been made and must continue to be made regulations on this subject which will in many cases leave little more to be done by the federal legislature
than to review the different laws and reduce them in one general act a skillful individual in his closet with all the local codes before him might compile a law on some subjects of taxation for the whole union
without any aid from oral information and it may be expected that whenever internal taxes may be necessary and particularly in cases requiring uniformity throughout the states the more simple objects will be preferred
to be fully sensible of the facility which will be given to this branch of federal legislation by the assistance of the state codes we need only suppose for a moment that this or any other state were divided into a number of parts
each having and exercising within itself a power of local legislation is it not evident that a degree of local information and preparatory labor would be found in the several volumes of their proceedings
the federal councils will derive great advantage from another circumstance the representatives of each state will not only bring with them a considerable knowledge of its laws and a local knowledge of their respective districts
but will probably in all cases have been members and may even at the very time be members of the state legislature where all the local information and interests of the state are assembled
and from whence they may easily be conveyed by a very few hands into the legislature of the united states
the observations made on the subject of taxation apply with greater force to the case of the militia for however different the rules of discipline may be in different states they are the same throughout each particular state
and depend on circumstances which can differ but little in different parts of the same state
the general face of the country whether mountainous or level most fit for the operations of infantry or cavalry is almost the only consideration of this nature that can occur the art of war teaches general principles of organization movement and discipline
does not in any respect contradict what was urged on another occasion with regard to the extensive information
and the time that might be necessary for acquiring it this information so far as it may relate to local objects is rendered necessary and difficult not by a difference of laws and local circumstances within a single state
but of those among different states taking each state by itself its laws are the same and its interests but little diversified a few men therefore will possess all the knowledge requisite for a proper representation of them
were the interests and affairs of each individual state perfectly simple and uniform a knowledge of them in one part would involve a knowledge of them in every other and the whole state might be competently represented by a single member taken from any part of it
on a comparison of the different states together we find a great dissimilarity in their laws and in many other circumstances connected with the objects of federal legislation with all of which the federal representatives ought to have some acquaintance
whilst a few representatives therefore from each state may bring with them a due knowledge of their own state every representative will have much information to acquire concerning all the other states the changes of time
as was formerly remarked on the comparative situation of the different states will have an assimilating effect the effect of time on the internal affairs of the states taken singly will be just the contrary
at present some of the states are little more than a society of husbandmen few of them have made much progress in those branches of industry which give a variety and complexity to the affairs of a nation these however
will in all of them be the fruits of a more advanced population and will require on the part of each state a fuller representation
the foresight of the convention has accordingly taken care that the progress of population may be accompanied with a proper increase of the representative branch of the government the experience of great britain
which presents to mankind so many political lessons both of the monitory and exemplary kind and which has been frequently consulted in the course of these inquiries corroborates the result of the reflections which we have just made
the number of inhabitants in the two kingdoms of england and scotland cannot be stated at less than eight millions the representatives of these eight millions in the house of commons amount to five hundred and fifty eight
of this number one ninth are elected by three hundred and sixty four persons and one half by five thousand seven hundred and twenty three persons
it cannot be supposed that the half thus elected and who do not even reside among the people at large can add any thing either to the security of the people against the government or to the knowledge of their circumstances and interests in the legislative councils
on the contrary it is notorious that they are more frequently the representatives and instruments of the executive magistrate than the guardians and advocates of the popular rights
they might therefore with great propriety be considered as something more than a mere deduction from the real representatives of the nation we will however consider them in this light alone
and will not extend the deduction to a considerable number of others who do not reside among their constitutents are very faintly connected with them and have very little particular knowledge of their affairs with all these concessions
two hundred and seventy nine persons only will be the depository of the safety interest and happiness of eight millions that is to say
of twenty eight thousand six hundred and seventy constitutents in an assembly exposed to the whole force of executive influence and extending its authority to every object of legislation within a nation whose affairs
are in the highest degree diversified and complicated yet it is very certain not only that a valuable portion of freedom has been preserved under all these circumstances but that the defects in the british code are chargeable in a very small proportion
she used to visit the ruins chiefly because they offered an excuse for talking about other matters than the love affairs of the ladies of florence as to which her companion was never weary of offering information
and exclaim that everything was most interesting it was in this manner that she had hitherto examined the coliseum to the infinite regret of her niece who with all the respect that she owed her could not see why she should not descend from the vehicle and enter the building
pansy had so little chance to ramble that her view of the case was not wholly disinterested it may be divined that she had a secret hope that
when the windy month expressed itself in occasional puffs of spring the three ladies went into the coliseum together but isabel left her companions to wander over the place she had often ascended to those desolate ledges from which the roman crowd used to bellow applause
it made an intermission too for the countess often asked more from one's attention than she gave in return
while pansy guided her undiscriminating aunt to the steep brick staircase at the foot of which the custodian unlocks the tall wooden gate the great enclosure was half in shadow
here and there wandered a peasant or a tourist looking up at the far sky line where in the clear stillness a multitude of swallows kept circling and plunging isabel presently became aware that one of the other visitors
planted in the middle of the arena had turned his attention to her own person and was looking at her with a certain little poise of the head which she had some weeks before perceived to be characteristic of baffled but indestructible purpose
such an attitude to day could belong only to mister edward rosier and this gentleman proved in fact to have been considering the question of speaking to her when he had assured himself that she was unaccompanied he drew near
remarking that though she would not answer his letters she would perhaps not wholly close her ears to his spoken eloquence she replied that her stepdaughter was close at hand
whereupon he took out his watch and sat down upon a broken block it's very soon told said edward rosier i've sold all my bibelots isabel gave instinctively an exclamation of horror
it was as if he had told her he had had all his teeth drawn i've sold them by auction at the hotel drouot he went on the sale took place three days ago and they've telegraphed me the result it's magnificent i'm glad to hear it
but i wish you had kept your pretty things i have the money instead
will mister osmond think me rich enough now is it for that you did it isabel asked gently for what else in the world could it be that's the only thing i think of i went to paris and made my arrangements i couldn't stop for the sale
he'll say now that you're not wise said isabel as if gilbert osmond had never said this before rosier gave her a sharp look do you mean that without my bibelots i'm nothing
that's what they told me in paris oh they were very frank about it but they hadn't seen her my dear friend you deserve to succeed said isabel very kindly you say that so sadly that it's the same as if you said i shouldn't
one or two persons still have the perversity to think him diminutive i know what happened here while i was away he went on what does mister osmond expect after she has refused lord warburton
that she'll marry another nobleman what other nobleman one that he'll pick out rosier slowly got up putting his watch into his waistcoat pocket you're laughing at some one
but this time i don't think it's at me i didn't mean to laugh said isabel i laugh very seldom now you had better go away i feel very safe rosier declared without moving this might be
but it evidently made him feel more so to make the announcement in rather a loud voice balancing himself a little complacently on his toes and looking all round the coliseum as if it were filled with an audience suddenly isabel saw him change colour
in a voice strangely at variance with the announcement i have just quoted and then he added eagerly like a man who in the midst of his misery is seized by a happy thought is that lady the countess gemini i've a great desire to be presented to her
isabel looked at him a moment she has no influence with her brother
with an animation partly due perhaps to the fact that she perceived her sister in law to be engaged in conversation with a very pretty young man i'm glad you've kept your enamels
and she went on without a murmur without faltering or glancing back isabel however allowing herself this last liberty
he had removed his hat and was bowing and smiling he had evidently introduced himself while the countess's expressive back displayed to isabel's eye a gracious inclination
for isabel and pansy took their places again in the carriage pansy who faced her stepmother at first kept her eyes fixed on her lap then she raised them and rested them on isabel's there shone out of each of them a little melancholy ray
a spark of timid passion which touched isabel to the heart at the same time a wave of envy passed over her soul as she compared the tremulous longing the definite ideal
never mind pansy answered in the tone of eager apology and then there was a silence the countess was a long time coming did you show your aunt everything and did she enjoy it isabel asked at last yes i showed her everything
i think she was very much pleased and you're not tired i hope oh no thank you i'm not tired the countess still remained behind so that isabel requested the footman to go into the coliseum and tell her they were waiting he presently returned with the announcement
that the signora contessa begged them not to wait she would come home in a cab about a week after this lady's quick sympathies had enlisted themselves with mister rosier isabel going rather late to dress for dinner found pansy sitting in her room
it will be the last for some time her voice was strange and her eyes widely opened had an excited frightened look you're not going away isabel exclaimed i'm going to the convent to the convent
because papa thinks it best he says a young girl's better every now and then for making a little retreat
this is just a chance for a little seclusion a little reflexion pansy spoke in short detached sentences
and then she added with a triumph of self control i think papa's right i've been so much in the world this winter her announcement had a strange effect on isabel it seemed to carry a larger meaning than the girl herself knew
when was this decided she asked i've heard nothing of it papa told me half an hour ago he thought it better it shouldn't be too much talked about in advance madame catherine's to come for me at a quarter past seven
it's only for a few weeks i'm sure it will be very good i shall find all those ladies who used to be so kind to me and i shall see the little girls who are being educated
and i'm also very fond of mother catherine i shall be very quiet and think a great deal isabel listened to her holding her breath she was almost awe struck
ah come and see me soon cried pansy
and had departed again with the signorina on going to the drawing room before dinner she found the countess gemini alone and this lady characterised the incident by exclaiming with a wonderful toss of the head
but if it was an affectation she was at a loss to see what her husband affected she could only dimly perceive that he had more traditions than she supposed it had become her habit to be so careful as to what she said to him that
to allude to his daughter's sudden departure she spoke of it only after they were seated at table but she had forbidden herself ever to ask osmond a question all she could do was to make a declaration and there was one that came very naturally
i shall miss pansy very much
with his head inclined a little at the basket of flowers in the middle of the table ah yes he said at last i had thought of that you must go and see her you know but not too often i dare say you wonder why i sent her to the good sisters
it doesn't matter don't trouble yourself about it that's why i had not spoken of it i didn't believe you would enter into it but i've always had the idea
with the manners of the present time she is liable to become so dusty and crumpled pansy's a little dusty a little dishevelled she has knocked about too much this bustling pushing rabble that calls itself society
one should take her out of it occasionally convents are very quiet very convenient very salutary i like to think of her there in the old garden under the arcade among those tranquil virtuous women many of them are gentlewomen born
several of them are noble she will have her books and her drawing she will have her piano i've made the most liberal arrangements there is to be nothing ascetic
and there's something i want her to think about osmond spoke deliberately reasonably still with his head on one side as if he were looking at the basket of flowers his tone however
was that of a man not so much offering an explanation as putting a thing into words almost into pictures to see himself how it would look he considered a while the picture he had evoked and seemed greatly pleased with it and then he went on
the catholics are very wise after all the convent is a great institution we can't do without it it corresponds to an essential need in families
she found it indeed intensely interesting it seemed to show her how far her husband's desire to be effective was capable of going
she could not understand his purpose no not wholly but she understood it better than he supposed or desired inasmuch as she was convinced that the whole proceeding was an elaborate mystification addressed to herself and destined to act upon her imagination
something unexpected and refined to mark the difference between his sympathies and her own and show that if he regarded his daughter as a precious work of art it was natural he should be more and more careful about the finishing touches
if he wished to be effective he had succeeded the incident struck a chill into isabel's heart pansy had known the convent in her childhood and had found a happy home there she was fond of the good sisters who were very fond of her
the old protestant tradition had never faded from isabel's imagination and as her thoughts attached themselves to this striking example of her husband's genius she sat looking like him at the basket of flowers
the countess too apparently had been thinking the thing out
it's very absurd my dear osmond she said to invent so many pretty reasons for poor pansy's banishment why don't you say at once that you want to get her out of my way haven't you discovered that i think very well of mister rosier i do indeed
he has made me believe in true love i never did before of course you've made up your mind that with those convictions i'm dreadful company for pansy osmond took a sip of a glass of wine he looked perfectly good humoured
my dear amy he answered smiling as if he were uttering a piece of gallantry
three weeks later when dorlcote mill was at its prettiest moment in all the year the great chestnuts in blossom and the grass all deep and daisied
let the rooms be as bare and the hearts as sad as they might inside there is a very pleasant light in tom's blue gray eyes as he glances at the house windows that fold in his brow never disappears but it is not unbecoming
it seems to imply a strength of will that may possibly be without harshness when the eyes and mouth have their gentlest expression his firm step becomes quicker and the corners of his mouth rebel against the compression which is meant to forbid a smile
the eyes in the parlor were not turned toward the bridge just then and the group there was sitting in unexpectant silence mister tulliver in his arm chair tired with a long ride and ruminating with a worn look fixed chiefly on maggie
who was bending over her sewing while her mother was making the tea they all looked up with surprise when they heard the well known foot why what's up now tom said his father you're a bit earlier than usual oh there was nothing more for me to do so i came away
father said tom when they had finished tea do you know exactly how much money there is in the tin box only a hundred and ninety three pound said mister tulliver you've brought less o late but young fellows like to have their own way with their money
though i didn't do as i liked before i was of age he spoke with rather timid discontent are you quite sure that's the sum father said tom i wish you would take the trouble to fetch the tin box down
i think you have perhaps made a mistake how should i make a mistake said his father sharply i've counted it often enough but i can fetch it if you won't believe me it was always an incident mister tulliver liked in his gloomy life to fetch the tin box and count the money
don't go out of the room mother said tom as he saw her moving when his father was gone upstairs and isn't maggie to go said missus tulliver because somebody must take away the things just as she likes said tom indifferently
that was a cutting word to maggie her heart had leaped with the sudden conviction that tom was going to tell their father the debts could be paid and tom would have let her be absent when that news was told but she carried away the tray and came back immediately
the mother and maggie sat at the other end of the table the one in blank patience the other in palpitating expectation mister tulliver counted out the money setting it in order on the table and then said glancing sharply at tom there now
you see i was right enough he paused looking at the money with bitter despondency there's more nor three hundred wanting it'll be a fine while before i can save that losing that forty two pound wi the corn was a sore job
this world's been too many for me it's took four year to lay this by it's much if i'm above ground for another four year i must trusten to you to pay em he went on with a trembling voice
but you're like enough to bury me first he looked up in tom's face with a querulous desire for some assurance no father said tom speaking with energetic decision though there was tremor discernible in his voice too
you will live to see the debts all paid you shall pay them with your own hand his tone implied something more than mere hopefulness or resolution a slight electric shock seemed to pass through mister tulliver
and he kept his eyes fixed on tom with a look of eager inquiry while maggie unable to restrain herself rushed to her father's side and knelt down by him tom was silent a little while before he went on
a good while ago my uncle glegg lent me a little money to trade with and that has answered i have three hundred and twenty pounds in the bank his mother's arms were round his neck as soon as the last words were uttered and she said half crying
but his father was silent the flood of emotion hemmed in all power of speech both tom and maggie were struck with fear lest the shock of joy might even be fatal but the blessed relief of tears came the broad chest heaved the muscles of the face gave way
and the gray haired man burst into loud sobs the fit of weeping gradually subsided and he sat quiet recovering the regularity of his breathing at last he looked up at his wife and said in a gentle tone bessy you must come and kiss me now
you shall see it to morrow father said tom
and he has ordered a dinner for them at two o'clock my uncle glegg and he will both be there it was advertised in the messenger on saturday then wakem knows on't said mister tulliver his eye kindling with triumphant fire
ah he went on with a long drawn guttural enunciation taking out his snuff box the only luxury he had left himself and tapping it with something of his old air of defiance i'll get from under his thumb now though i must leave the old mill
i'stead o that poor crooked creatur you'll prosper the world my lad you'll maybe see the day when wakem and his son ull be a round or two below you you'll like enough be ta'en into partnership as your uncle deane was before you
and then there's nothing to hinder your getting rich and if ever you're rich enough mind this
mister tulliver threw himself back in his chair his mind which had so long been the home of nothing but bitter discontent and foreboding suddenly filled by the magic of joy with visions of good fortune
but some subtle influence prevented him from foreseeing the good fortune as happening to himself shake hands wi me my lad he said suddenly putting out his hand it's a great thing when a man can be proud as he's got a good son i've had that luck
tom never lived to taste another moment so delicious as that and maggie couldn't help forgetting her own grievances tom was good and in the sweet humility that springs in us all in moments of true admiration and gratitude
she felt that the faults he had to pardon in her had never been redeemed as his faults were she felt no jealousy this evening that for the first time she seemed to be thrown into the background in her father's mind there was much more talk before bedtime
and bob jakin's part in the business threw him into peculiar outbursts of sympathy with the triumphant knowingness of that remarkable packman bob's juvenile history so far as it had come under mister tulliver's knowledge
was recalled with that sense of astonishing promise it displayed which is observable in all reminiscences of the childhood of great men
it was well that there was this interest of narrative to keep under the vague but fierce sense of triumph over wakem which would otherwise have been the channel his joy would have rushed into with dangerous force even as it was
that feeling from time to time gave threats of its ultimate mastery in sudden bursts of irrelevant exclamation it was long before mister tulliver got to sleep that night and the sleep when it came was filled with vivid dreams at half past five o'clock in the morning
when missus tulliver was already rising he alarmed her by starting up with a sort of smothered shout and looking round in a bewildered way at the walls of the bedroom what's the matter mister tulliver said his wife he looked at her still with a puzzled expression
mister tulliver was an essentially sober man able to take his glass and not averse to it but never exceeding the bounds of moderation he had naturally an active hotspur temperament which did not crave liquid fire to set it aglow
his impetuosity was usually equal to an exciting occasion without any such reinforcements and his desire for the brandy and water implied that the too sudden joy had fallen with a dangerous shock on a frame depressed by four years of gloom and unaccustomed hard fare
but that first doubtful tottering moment passed he seemed to gather strength with his gathering excitement and the next day when he was seated at table with his creditors
his eye kindling and his cheek flushed with the consciousness that he was about to make an honorable figure once more he looked more like the proud confident warm hearted and warm tempered tulliver of old times than might have seemed possible to any one who had met him a week before
riding along as had been his wont for the last four years since the sense of failure and debt had been upon him with his head hanging down casting brief unwilling looks on those who forced themselves on his notice he made his speech
but the streak of irritation and hostile triumph seemed to melt for a little while into purer fatherly pride and pleasure when tom's health having been proposed
and uncle deane having taken occasion to say a few words of eulogy on his general character and conduct tom himself got up and made the single speech of his life it could hardly have been briefer he thanked the gentlemen for the honor they had done him
he was glad that he had been able to help his father in proving his integrity and regaining his honest name and for his own part he hoped he should never undo that work and disgrace that name but the applause that followed was so great
and tom looked so gentlemanly as well as tall and straight that mister tulliver remarked in an explanatory manner to his friends on his right and left that he had spent a deal of money on his son's education
the party broke up in very sober fashion at five o'clock tom remained in saint ogg's to attend to some business and mister tulliver mounted his horse to go home and describe the memorable things that had been said and done
and set his mind at work in an irritating way perhaps wakem was gone out of town to day on purpose to avoid seeing or hearing anything of an honorable action which might well cause him some unpleasant twinges if wakem were to meet him then
mister tulliver would look straight at him and the rascal would perhaps be forsaken a little by his cool domineering impudence he would know by and by that an honest man was not going to serve him any longer
near enough to see a well known figure coming out of them on a fine black horse they met about fifty yards from the gates
oh said tulliver suddenly boiling up get somebody else to farm for you then as'll ask you to teach him you have been drinking i suppose said wakem
really believing that this was the meaning of tulliver's flushed face and sparkling eyes no i've not been drinking said tulliver i want no drinking to help me make up my mind as i'll serve no longer under a scoundrel very well
you may leave my premises to morrow then hold your insolent tongue and let me pass tulliver was backing his horse across the road to hem wakem in no i sha'n't let you pass said tulliver getting fiercer i shall tell you what i think of you first
wakem had had the presence of mind to loose the bridle at once and as the horse only staggered a few paces and then stood still he might have risen and remounted without more inconvenience than a bruise and a shake but before he could rise tulliver was off his horse too
the sight of the long hated predominant man down and in his power threw him into a frenzy of triumphant vengeance which seemed to give him preternatural agility and strength
who was in the act of trying to recover his feet grasped him by the left arm so as to press wakem's whole weight on the right arm which rested on the ground and flogged him fiercely across the back with his riding whip wakem shouted for help but no help came
suddenly wakem felt something had arrested mister tulliver's arm for the flogging ceased and the grasp on his own arm was relaxed get away with you go said tulliver angrily but it was not to wakem that he spoke
then he turned toward the miller and said with white rage you'll suffer for this sir your daughter is a witness that you've assaulted me i don't care said mister tulliver in a thick fierce voice go and show your back and tell em i thrashed you
ride my horse home with me said wakem to luke by the tofton ferry not through the town father come in said maggie imploringly then seeing that wakem had ridden off and that no further violence was possible
she slackened her hold and burst into hysteric sobs while poor missus tulliver stood by in silence quivering with fear but maggie became conscious that as she was slackening her hold her father was beginning to grasp her and lean on her
the surprise checked her sobs i feel ill faintish he said help me in bessy i'm giddy i've a pain the head he walked in slowly propped by his wife and daughter and tottered into his arm chair
go and seek for somebody to fetch the doctor he looked up at her with full comprehension and said doctor no no doctor it's my head that's all help me to bed
sad ending to the day that had risen on them all like a beginning of better times but mingled seed must bear a mingled crop in half an hour after his father had lain down tom came home
bob jakin was with him come to congratulate the old master not without some excusable pride that he had had his share in bringing about mister tom's good luck and tom had thought his father would like nothing better as a finish to the day than a talk with bob
but now tom could only spend the evening in gloomy expectation of the unpleasant consequences that must follow on this mad outbreak of his father's long smothered hate after the painful news had been told he sat in silence
tom was dejected by the thought that his exemplary effort must always be baffled by the wrong doing of others maggie was living through over and over again
with a vague shuddering foreboding of wretched scenes to come not one of the three felt any particular alarm about mister tulliver's health the symptoms did not recall his former dangerous attack
tired out by his active day fell asleep soon and slept soundly it seemed to him as if he had only just come to bed when he waked to see his mother standing by him in the gray light of early morning my boy you must get up this minute
i've sent for the doctor and your father wants you and maggie to come to him is he worse mother he's been very ill all night with his head
he only said suddenly bessy fetch the boy and girl tell em to make haste maggie and tom threw on their clothes hastily in the chill gray light and reached their father's room almost at the same moment
he was watching for them with an expression of pain on his brow but with sharpened anxious consciousness in his eyes missus tulliver stood at the foot of the bed frightened and trembling looking worn and aged from disturbed rest
maggie was at the bedside first but her father's glance was toward tom who came and stood next to her tom my lad it's come upon me as i sha'n't get up again this world's been too many for me my lad
but you've done what you could to make things a bit even shake hands wi me again my lad before i go away from you the father and son clasped hands
then tom said trying to speak firmly have you any wish father that i can fulfil when ay my lad you'll try and get the old mill back yes father and there's your mother
you'll try and make her amends all you can for my bad luck and there's the little wench the father turned his eyes on maggie with a still more eager look while she with a bursting heart
sank on her knees to be closer to the dear time worn face which had been present with her through long years as the sign of her deepest love and hardest trial you must take care of her tom don't you fret my wench
there'll come somebody as'll love you and take your part and you must be good to her my lad i was good to my sister kiss me maggie come bessy you'll manage to pay for a brick grave tom so as your mother and me can lie together
he looked away from them all when he had said this and lay silent for some minutes
the morning light was growing clearer for them and they could see the heaviness gathering in his face and the dulness in his eyes but at last he looked toward tom and said i had my turn i beat him that was nothing but fair
i never wanted anything but what was fair but father dear father said maggie an unspeakable anxiety predominating over her grief you forgive him you forgive every one now
he did not move his eyes to look at her but he said no my wench i don't forgive him what's forgiving to do i can't love a raskill his voice had become thicker
his hands moved uneasily as if he wanted them to remove some obstruction that weighed upon him two or three times there fell from him some broken words this world's too many honest man puzzling
soon they merged into mere mutterings the eyes had ceased to discern and then came the final silence but not of death for an hour or more the chest heaved the loud hard breathing continued
getting gradually slower as the cold dews gathered on the brow at last there was total stillness and poor tulliver's dimly lighted soul had forever ceased to be vexed with the painful riddle of this world help was come now
luke and his wife were there and mister turnbull had arrived too late for everything but to say this is death tom and maggie went downstairs together into the room where their father's place was empty their eyes turned to the same spot
and maggie spoke tom forgive me let us always love each other
progress and endowment the moving picture goes almost as far as journalism into the social fabric in some ways further in others soon no doubt many a little town will have its photographic news press
we have already the weekly world news films from the big centres with local journalism will come devices for advertising home enterprises some staple products will be made attractive
by having film actors show their uses the motion pictures will be in the public schools to stay text books in geography history zoology botany physiology and other sciences
will be illustrated by standardized films along with these changes there will be available at certain centres collections of films equivalent to the standard dictionary and the encyclopaedia britannica
and sooner or later we will have a straight out capture of a complete film expression by the serious forces of civilization the merely impudent motion picture will be relegated to the leisure hours with yellow journalism
photoplay libraries are inevitable as active if not as multitudinous as the book circulating libraries the oncoming machinery and expense of the motion picture is immense where will the money come from no one knows
what the people want they will get the race of man cannot afford automobiles but has them nevertheless we cannot run away into non automobile existence or non steam engine or non movie life long at a time
we must conquer this thing while the more stately scientific and educational aspects just enumerated are slowly on their way the artists must be up and about their ameliorative work
every considerable effort to develop a noble idiom will count in the final result
made possible the language of the bible shakespeare and milton we are perfecting a medium to be used as long as chinese ideographs have been it will no doubt like the chinese language
record in the end massive and classical treatises imperial chronicles law codes traditions and religious admonitions
not necessarily the photoplay a much more limited thing a form of art what shall be done in especial by this generation of idealists whose flags rise and go down
whose battle line wavers and breaks a thousand times what is the high quixotic splendid call we know of a group of public spirited people who advocate in endowed films safety first
another that champions total abstinence often their work seems lost in the mass of commercial production but it is a good beginning
and at the end put on the market a production that backs up their particular idea there are certain terms between the owners of the film and the proprietors of the studio for the division of the income the profits of the cult being spent on further propaganda
the product need not necessarily be the type outlined in chapter two the photoplay of action often some other sort might establish the cause more deeply
but most of the propaganda films are of the action variety because of the dynamic character of the people who produce them fired by fanatic zeal the auto speeds faster the rescuing hero runs harder
the stern policeman and sheriff become more jumpy all that the audience may be converted here if anywhere meditation on the actual resources of charm and force in the art is a fitting thing
the crusader should realize that it is not a good action play nor even a good argument unless it is indeed the winged victory sort the gods are not always on the side of those who throw fits
there is here appended a newspaper description of a crusading film that despite the implications of the notice has many passages of charm it is two thirds action photoplay one third intimate and friendly the notice does not imply
that at times the story takes pains to be gentle this bit of writing is all too typical of film journalism
not only as an argument for suffrage but as a play with a story a punch and a mission your girl and mine is produced under the direction of the national woman's suffrage association at the capitol to day
olive wyndham forsook the legitimate stage for the time to pose as the heroine of the play katherine kaelred leading lady of joseph and his brethren took the part of a woman lawyer battling for the right
sydney booth of the yellow ticket company posed as the hero of the experiment john charles and katharine henry played the villain and the honest working girl about three hundred secondaries were engaged along with the principals
it is melodrama of the most thrilling sort in spite of the fact that there is a moral concealed in the very title of the play
but who is worried by a moral in a play which has an exciting hand to hand fight between a man and a woman in one of the earliest acts when the quick march of events ranges from a wedding to a murder
and an automobile abduction scene that breaks all former speed records the cause comes in most symbolically and poetically a symbolic figure that fades out at critical periods in the plot doctor anna howard shaw
the famous suffrage leader appears personally in the film your girl and mine is a big play with a big mission built on a big scale it is a whole evening's entertainment and a very interesting evening at that
here endeth the newspaper notice compare it with the biograph advertisement of judith in chapter six there is nothing in the film that rasps like this account of it the clipping serves to give the street atmosphere
through which our woman's suffrage joan of arcs move to conquest and glory with unstained banners the obvious amendments to the production as an instrument of persuasion are two firstly there should be five reels instead of six
every scene shortened a bit to bring this result secondly the lieutenant governor of the state who is the rudolf rassendyll of the production
we are jerked into admiration of him rather than ensnared but after that the gentleman behaves more handsomely than any of the distinguished lieutenant governors in real life the present writer happens to remember
the figure of aunt jane the queenly serious woman of affairs is one to admire and love her effectiveness without excess or strain is in itself an argument for giving woman the vote
the newspaper notice does not state the facts in saying the symbolical figure fades out at critical periods in the plot on the contrary she appears at critical periods clothed in white solemn and royal
she comes into the groups with an adequate allurement pointing the moral of each situation while she shines brightest the two children for whom the contest is fought are winsome little girls by the side of their mother in the garden
or in the nursery they are a potent argument for the natural rights of femininity the film is by no means ultra aesthetic the implications of the clipping are correct to that degree
but the resources of beauty within the ready command of the advising professional producer are used by the women for all they are worth it could not be asked of them that they evolve technical novelties
yet the figures of aunt jane and the goddess of suffrage are something new in their fashion aunt jane is a spiritual sister to that unprecedented woman jane addams who went to the hague conference for peace in the midst of war
the future will not forget aunt jane does justice to that breed of women amid the sweetness and flowers and mere scenario perils of the photoplay story the presence of the votes for women figure is the beginning of a line of
photoplay goddesses that serious propaganda in the new medium will make part of the american spiritual hierarchy
described in the chapter on architecture in motion a kindred divinity is presumed to stand by the side of the statue when it first reaches the earth
high minded graduates of university courses in sociology and schools of philanthropy devout readers of the survey the chicago public the masses the new republic la follette's
are going to advocate increasingly their varied and sometimes contradictory causes in films these will generally be produced by heroic exertions in the studio and much passing of the subscription paper outside then there are endowments already in existence
that will no doubt be diverted to the photoplay channel in every state house and in washington d c increasing quantities of dead printed matter have been turned out year after year they have served to kindle various furnaces and feed the paper mills a second time
many of these routine reports will remain in innocuous desuetude but one fourth of them perhaps are capable of being embodied in films if they are scientific demonstrations
brothers of the film your girl and mine the appropriations for public printing should include such work hereafter the scientific museums distribute routine pamphlets that would set the whole world right on certain points if they were but read by said world
let them be filmed and started whatever the congressman is permitted to frank to his constituency let him send in the motion picture form when it is the expedient and expressive way when men work for the high degrees in the universities
they labor on a piece of literary conspiracy called a thesis which no one outside the university hears of again the gist of this research work that is dead to the democracy through the university merits of thoroughness
moderation of statement and final touch of discovery would have a chance to live and grip the people in a motion picture transcript if not a photoplay it would be university extension
he would have a chance to reflect credit on the university even as much as a foot ball player large undertakings might be under way like those described in the chapter on architecture in motion
but these would require much more than the ordinary outlay for thesis work less perhaps than is taken for athletics lyman howe and several other world explorers have already set the pace in the more human side of the educative film
the list of mister howe's offerings from the first would reveal many a one that would have run the gantlet of a university department he points out a new direction for old energies whereby professors may become citizens
let the cave man reader of picture writing be allowed to ponder over scientific truth he is at present the victim of the alleged truth of the specious and sentimental variety of photograph
it gives the precise edges of the coat or collar of the smirking masher and the exact fibre in the dress of the jumping jack the eye grows weary of sharp points and hard edges that mean nothing
all this idiotic precision is going to waste it should be enlisted in the cause of science and abated everywhere else the edges in art are as mysterious as in science they are exact
some of the higher forms of the intimate moving picture play should be endowed by local coteries representing their particular region every community of fifty thousand has its group of the cultured who have heretofore studied
and imitated things done in the big cities some of these coteries will in exceptional cases become creative and begin to express their habitation and name the intimate photoplay is capable of that delicacy and that informality
which should characterize neighborhood enterprises the plays could be acted by the group who season after season have secured the opera house for the annual amateur show other dramatic ability could be found in the high schools
there is enough talent in any place to make an artistic revolution if once that region is aflame with a common vision the spirit that made the irish players all so racy of the soil can also move the company of local photoplayers in topeka or
indianapolis or denver then let them speak for their town not only in great occasional enterprises but steadily in little fancies genre pictures developing a technique that will finally make magnificence possible
there was given not long ago at the illinois country club here a performance of the yellow jacket by the coburn players it at once seemed an integral part of this chapter the two flags used for a chariot the bamboo poles for oars
the red sack for a decapitated head et cetera were all convincing through a direct resemblance as well as the passionate acting they suggest a possible type of hieroglyphics to be developed by the leader of the local group
let the enthusiast study this westernized chinese play for primitive representative methods it can be found in book form a most readable work
the resemblance between the stage property and the thing represented is fairly close the moving flags on each side of the actor suggest the actual color and progress of the chariot and abstractly suggest its magnificence
the red sack used for a bloody head has at least the color and size of one the dressed up block of wood used for a child is the length of an infant of the age described and wears the general costume thereof
the farmer's hoe though exaggerated is still an agricultural implement the evening's list of properties is economical filling one wagon rather than three photographic realism is splendidly put to rout by powerful representation
when the villager desires to embody some episode that if realistically given would require a setting beyond the means of the available endowment and does not like the near egyptian method let him evolve his near chinese set of symbols
the yellow jacket was written after long familiarity with the chinese theatre in san francisco the play is a glory to that city as well as to hazelton and benrimo but every town in the united states has something as striking as the chinese theatre
to the man who keeps the eye of his soul open it has its ministerial association its boys secret society its red eyed political gang its grubby justice of the peace court its free school for the teaching of hebrew
its snobbish chapel its fire engine house its milliner's shop all these could be made visible in photoplays as flies are preserved in amber edgar lee masters looked about him and discovered the village graveyard
and made it as wonderful as noah's ark or adam naming the animals by supplying honest inscriptions to the headstones such stories can be told by the chinese theatrical system as well as many different films could be included under the general title
seven old families and why they went to smash or a less ominous series would be seven victorious souls for there are triumphs every day under the drab monotony of an apparently defeated town conquests worthy of the waving of sun banners
above all the yellow jacket points a moral for this chapter because there was conscience behind it first the rectitude of the chinese actors of san francisco who kept the dramatic tradition alive a tradition that was bequeathed from the ancient generations
then the artistic integrity of the men who readapted the tradition for western consumption and their religious attitude that kept the high teaching and devout feeling for human life intact in the play then the zeal of the drama league that indorsed it for the country
then the earnest work of the coburn players who embodied it devoutly so that the whole company became dear friends forever by some such ladder of conscience as this can the local scenario be endowed written acted
filmed and made a real part of the community life the yellow jacket was a drama not a photoplay this chapter does not urge that it be readapted for a photoplay in san francisco or anywhere else
but a kindred painting in motion something as beautiful and worthy and intimate in strictly photoplay terms might well be the flower of the work of the local groups of film actors harriet monroe's magazine poetry chicago
has given us a new sect the imagists ezra pound richard aldington john gould fletcher amy lowell f s flint d h lawrence and others they are gathering followers and imitators
to these followers i would say the imagist impulse need not be confined to verse why would you be imitators of these leaders when you might be creators in a new medium there is a clear parallelism between their point of view in verse
and the intimate and friendly photoplay especially when it is developed from the standpoint of the last part of chapter nine space measured without sound plus time measured without sound
there is no clan to day more purely devoted to art for art's sake than the imagist clan an imagist film would offer a noble challenge to the overstrained emotion the over loaded splendor the mere repetition
of what are at present the finest photoplays now even the masterpieces are incontinent except for some of the old one reel biographs of griffith's beginning there is nothing of doric restraint from the best to the worst
read some of the poems of the people listed above then imagine the same moods in the films imagist photoplays would be japanese prints taking on life animated japanese paintings
pompeian mosaics in kaleidoscopic but logical succession beardsley drawings made into actors and scenery greek vase paintings in motion scarcely a photoplay but hints at the imagists in one scene
then the illusion is lost in the next turn of the reel perhaps it would be a sound observance to confine this form of motion picture to a half reel or quarter reel just as the imagist poem is generally a half or quarter page a series of them
could fill a special evening the imagists are colorists some people do not consider that photographic black white and gray are color but here for instance are seven colors which the imagists might use
two the whiteness of swans in a gentle shadow three the color of a sunburned man in the light four his color in a gentle shadow five his color in a deeper shadow six the blackness of black velvet in the light
seven the blackness of black velvet in a deep shadow and to use these colors with definite steps from one to the other does not militate against an artistic mystery of edge and softness in the flow of line
there is a list of possible imagist textures which is only limited by the number of things to be seen in the world probably only seven or ten would be used in one scheme and the same list kept through one production
the imagist photoplay will put discipline into the inner ranks of the enlightened and remind the sculptors painters and architects of the movies that there is a continence even beyond sculpture and that seas of realism
may not have the power of a little well considered elimination the use of the scientific film by established institutions like schools and state governments has been discussed
let the church also in her own way avail herself of the motion picture whole heartedly as in mediaeval time she took over the marvel of italian painting there was a stage in her history when religious representation was by byzantine mosaics noble in color
having an architectural use but curious indeed to behold from the standpoint of those who crave a sensitive emotional record
giving these formulas a touch of life were hailed with joy by all italy
she has taken over in the course of history for her glory miracle plays romanesque and gothic architecture stained glass windows and the music of saint cecilia's organ why not this new splendor
the cathedral of saint john the divine on morningside heights should establish in its crypt motion pictures as thoroughly considered as the lines of that building if possible designed by the architects thereof with the same sense of permanency
but a steady church patronage of the most skilful and original motion picture artists let the church follow the precedent which finally gave us fra angelico botticelli andrea del sarto leonardo da vinci raphael michelangelo correggio titian
who will endow the successors of the present woman's suffrage film and other great crusading films who will see that the public documents and university researches take on the form of motion pictures
who will endow the local photoplay and the imagist photoplay
not one halfpenny said mister pickwick firmly not one halfpenny hooroar for the principle as the money lender said ven he vouldn't renew the bill observed mister weller who was clearing away the breakfast things sam said mister pickwick
have the goodness to step downstairs cert'nly sir replied mister weller and acting on mister pickwick's gentle hint sam retired no perker said mister pickwick with great seriousness of manner
my friends here have endeavoured to dissuade me from this determination but without avail i shall employ myself as usual until the opposite party have the power of issuing a legal process of execution against me and if they are vile enough to avail themselves of it and to arrest my person
i shall yield myself up with perfect cheerfulness and content of heart when can they do this they can issue execution my dear sir for the amount of the damages and taxed costs next term replied perker just two months hence my dear sir
very good said mister pickwick until that time my dear fellow let me hear no more of the matter and now continued mister pickwick looking round on his friends with a good humoured smile and a sparkle in the eye which no spectacles could dim or conceal
the only question is where shall we go next mister tupman and mister snodgrass were too much affected by their friend's heroism to offer any reply
so mister pickwick paused in vain well said that gentleman if you leave me to suggest our destination i say bath i think none of us have ever been there
who considered it extremely probable that if mister pickwick saw a little change and gaiety he would be inclined to think better of his determination and worse of a debtor's prison
there were just two places to be had inside and just three to be had out so sam weller booked for them all and having exchanged a few compliments with the booking office clerk on the subject of a pewter half crown which was tendered him as a portion of his change
walked back to the george and vulture where he was pretty busily employed until bed time in reducing clothes and linen into the smallest possible compass and exerting his mechanical genius in constructing a variety of ingenious devices for keeping the lids on boxes which had neither locks nor hinges
the horses in the stages that were going out and had come through the city were smoking so that the outside passengers were invisible the newspaper sellers looked moist and smelled mouldy
the jews with the fifty bladed penknives shut them up in despair the men with the pocket books made pocket books of them watch guards and toasting forks were alike at a discount and pencil cases and sponges were a drug in the market
leaving sam weller to rescue the luggage from the seven or eight porters who flung themselves savagely upon it the moment the coach stopped and finding that they were about twenty minutes too early mister pickwick and his friends went for shelter into the travellers room
the last resource of human dejection the travellers room at the white horse cellar is of course uncomfortable
a looking glass and a live waiter
one of these boxes was occupied on this particular occasion by a stern eyed man of about five and forty who had a bald and glossy forehead with a good deal of black hair at the sides and back of his head and large black whiskers
he was buttoned up to the chin in a brown coat and had a large sealskin travelling cap and a greatcoat and cloak lying on the seat beside him
which was very dignified and having scrutinised that gentleman and his companions to his entire satisfaction hummed a tune
but it wouldn't do waiter said the gentleman with the whiskers sir replied a man with a dirty complexion and a towel of the same emerging from the kennel before mentioned some more toast yes sir
and pending the arrival of the toast advanced to the front of the fire and taking his coat tails under his arms looked at his boots and ruminated i wonder whereabouts in bath this coach puts up said mister pickwick mildly addressing mister winkle hum eh what's that
said the strange man i made an observation to my friend sir replied mister pickwick always ready to enter into conversation i wondered at what house the bath coach put up perhaps you can inform me are you going to bath said the strange man
no not all of you said the strange man emphatically i've taken two places if they try to squeeze six people into an infernal box that only holds four i'll take a post chaise and bring an action i've paid my fare it won't do
i know these things have been done i know they are done every day
those who know me best best know it crush me here the fierce gentleman rang the bell with great violence and told the waiter he'd better bring the toast in five seconds or he'd know the reason why my good sir said mister pickwick
you will allow me to observe that this is a very unnecessary display of excitement i have only taken places inside for two i am glad to hear it said the fierce man i withdraw my expressions
there's my card give me your acquaintance with great pleasure sir replied mister pickwick we are to be fellow travellers and i hope we shall find each other's society mutually agreeable i hope we shall said the fierce gentleman
i know we shall i like your looks they please me gentlemen your hands and names know me of course an interchange of friendly salutations followed this gracious speech and the fierce gentleman immediately proceeded to inform the friends in the same short abrupt
jerking sentences that his name was dowler that he was going to bath on pleasure that he was formerly in the army that he had now set up in business as a gentleman that he lived upon the profits
and that the individual for whom the second place was taken was a personage no less illustrious than missus dowler his lady wife she's a fine woman said mister dowler i am proud of her i have reason i hope i shall have the pleasure of judging said mister pickwick with a smile
you shall replied dowler she shall know you she shall esteem you i courted her under singular circumstances i won her through a rash vow thus i saw her i loved her i proposed she refused me you love another
spare my blushes i know him you do very good if he remains here i'll skin him lord bless me exclaimed mister pickwick involuntarily did you skin the gentleman sir inquired mister winkle with a very pale face i wrote him a note
i said it was a painful thing and so it was certainly interposed mister winkle i said i had pledged my word as a gentleman to skin him my character was at stake i had no alternative as an officer in his majesty's service i was bound to skin him
i regretted the necessity but it must be done he was open to conviction he saw that the rules of the service were imperative he fled i married her here's the coach that's her head
mister dowler paid his bill and hurried out with his travelling cap coat and cloak and mister pickwick and his friends followed to secure their places
when sam weller came up to his master and whispering in his ear begged to speak to him with an air of the deepest mystery well sam said mister pickwick what's the matter now here's rayther a rum go sir replied sam what inquired mister pickwick
this here sir rejoined sam
how is that sam said mister pickwick aren't the names down on the way bill the names is not only down on the vay bill sir replied sam but they've painted vun on em up
and there sure enough in gilt letters of a goodly size was the magic name of pickwick dear me exclaimed mister pickwick quite staggered by the coincidence what a very extraordinary thing
yes but that ain't all said sam again directing his master's attention to the coach door
it's odd enough certainly sam said mister pickwick but if we stand talking here we shall lose our places
done said mister pickwick what should be done
certainly not replied mister pickwick eagerly not on any account jump up to your seat directly i am wery much afeered muttered sam to himself as he turned away that somethin queer's come over the governor or he'd never ha stood this so quiet
i hope that ere trial hasn't broke his spirit but it looks bad wery bad
so what between mister dowler's stories and missus dowler's charms
the insides contrived to be very companionable all the way the outsides did as outsides always do
there was one young gentleman in an india rubber cloak who smoked cigars all day and there was another young gentleman in a parody upon a greatcoat who lighted a good many and feeling obviously unsettled after the second whiff threw them away when he thought nobody was looking at him
and an old one behind who was familiar with farming there was a constant succession of christian names in smock frocks and white coats who were invited to have a lift by the guard and who knew every horse and hostler on the road and off it and there was a dinner
which would have been cheap at half a crown a mouth if any moderate number of mouths could have eaten it in the time and at seven o'clock p m mister pickwick and his friends and mister dowler and his wife respectively retired to their private sitting rooms at the white hart hotel
opposite the great pump room bath where the waiters from their costume might be mistaken for westminster boys only they destroy the illusion by behaving themselves much better breakfast had scarcely been cleared away on the succeeding morning when a waiter brought in mister dowler's card
the friend was a charming young man of not much more than fifty dressed in a very bright blue coat with resplendent buttons black trousers and the thinnest possible pair of highly polished boots a gold eye glass was suspended from his neck by a short broad black ribbon
a gold snuff box was lightly clasped in his left hand gold rings innumerable glittered on his fingers and a large diamond pin set in gold glistened in his shirt frill he had a gold watch and a gold curb chain with large gold seals
his features were contracted into a perpetual smile and his teeth were in such perfect order that it was difficult at a small distance to tell the real from the false mister pickwick said mister dowler my friend angelo cyrus bantam esquire m c
bantam mister pickwick know each other
this is indeed an acquisition
it is long very long mister pickwick since you drank the waters it appears an age mister pickwick re markable such were the expressions with which angelo cyrus bantam esquire m c took mister pickwick's hand
as if he really could not make up his mind to the trial of letting it go again it is a very long time since i drank the waters certainly replied mister pickwick for to the best of my knowledge i was never here before
to my shame i must say that i am perfectly serious rejoined mister pickwick i really never was here before oh i see exclaimed the grand master looking extremely pleased yes yes good good better and better you are the gentleman of whom we have heard
reports of the trial in those confounded papers thought mister pickwick they have heard all about me you are the gentleman residing on clapham green resumed bantam who lost the use of his limbs from imprudently taking cold after port wine
who could not be moved in consequence of acute suffering and who had the water from the king's bath bottled at one hundred and three degrees and sent by wagon to his bedroom in town where he bathed sneezed and the same day recovered very remarkable
mister pickwick acknowledged the compliment which the supposition implied but had the self denial to repudiate it notwithstanding and taking advantage of a moment's silence on the part of the m c begged to introduce his friends mister tupman mister winkle and mister snodgrass
an introduction which overwhelmed the m c with delight and honour bantam said mister dowler mister pickwick and his friends are strangers they must put their names down where's the book the register of the distinguished visitors in ba ath will be at the pump room this morning at two o'clock replied the m c
i will rejoined dowler this is a long call
are moments snatched from paradise rendered bewitching by music beauty elegance fashion etiquette and and above all by the absence of tradespeople who are quite inconsistent with paradise
and who have an amalgamation of themselves at the guildhall every fortnight which is to say the least remarkable good bye good bye and protesting all the way downstairs that he was most satisfied and most delighted and most overpowered and most flattered
angelo cyrus bantam esquire m c stepped into a very elegant chariot that waited at the door and rattled off at the appointed hour mister pickwick and his friends escorted by dowler repaired to the assembly rooms and wrote their names down in the book
an instance of condescension at which angelo bantam was even more overpowered than before tickets of admission to that evening's assembly were to have been prepared for the whole party but as they were not ready mister pickwick undertook despite all the protestations to the contrary of angelo bantam
to send sam for them at four o'clock in the afternoon to the m c s house in queen square having taken a short walk through the city and arrived at the unanimous conclusion that park street was very much like the perpendicular streets a man sees in a dream which he cannot get up for the life of him
they returned to the white hart and despatched sam on the errand to which his master had pledged him sam weller put on his hat in a very easy and graceful manner and thrusting his hands in his waistcoat pockets walked with great deliberation to queen square
as arranged with entirely new movements for that noble instrument the organ either mouth or barrel arriving at the number in queen square to which he had been directed he left off whistling and gave a cheerful knock
which was instantaneously answered by a powdered headed footman in gorgeous livery and of symmetrical stature is this here mister bantam's old feller
inquired sam weller nothing abashed by the blaze of splendour which burst upon his sight in the person of the powdered headed footman with the gorgeous livery why young man was the haughty inquiry of the powdered headed footman
cos if it is jist you step in to him with that ere card and say mister veller's a waitin will you said sam and saying it he very coolly walked into the hall and sat down the powdered headed footman slammed the door very hard and scowled very grandly
i've had my dinner you dine early sir said the powdered headed footman i find i gets on better at supper when i does replied sam have you been long in bath sir inquired the powdered headed footman i have not had the pleasure of hearing of you before
for me and the other fash'nables only come last night nice place sir said the powdered headed footman seems so observed sam pleasant society sir remarked the powdered headed footman very agreeable servants sir
oh very much so indeed sir said the powdered headed footman taking sam's remarks as a high compliment very much so indeed do you do anything in this way sir inquired the tall footman producing a small snuff box with a fox's head on the top of it
and hastening with a humble countenance to mister bantam's study by the bye who ever knew a man who never read or wrote either who hadn't got some small back parlour which he would call a study there is the answer sir
i hope we shall meet again sir said the powdered headed footman rubbing his hands and following sam out to the door step you are wery obligin sir replied sam now don't allow yourself to be fatigued beyond your powers
consider what you owe to society and don't let yourself be injured by too much work for the sake o your feller creeturs keep yourself as quiet as you can only think what a loss you would be with these pathetic words sam weller departed
and with an expression of countenance which seemed to denote that he was greatly amused with something or other walked merrily away
the master of the ceremonies emerged from his chariot at the door of the assembly rooms in the same wig the same teeth the same eye glass the same watch and seals the same rings the same shirt pin and the same cane
the only observable alterations in his appearance were that he wore a brighter blue coat with a white silk lining black tights black silk stockings and pumps and a white waistcoat and was if possible just a thought more scented
dresses rustled feathers waved lights shone and jewels sparkled there was the music not of the quadrille band for it had not yet commenced
low and gentle but very pleasant to hear in a female voice whether in bath or elsewhere
than it was replaced by another as dainty and bewitching in the tea room and hovering round the card tables were a vast number of queer old ladies and decrepit old gentlemen discussing all the small talk and scandal of the day with a relish and gusto which sufficiently bespoke
but failing not from time to time to cast an anxious sidelong glance upon their daughters who remembering the maternal injunction to make the best use of their youth had already commenced incipient flirtations in the mislaying scarves
putting on gloves setting down cups and so forth
displaying various varieties of puppyism and stupidity amusing all sensible people near them with their folly and conceit and happily thinking themselves the objects of general admiration a wise and merciful dispensation which no good man will quarrel with
and lastly seated on some of the back benches where they had already taken up their positions for the evening were divers unmarried ladies past their grand climacteric who
not dancing because there were no partners for them and not playing cards lest they should be set down as irretrievably single were in the favourable situation of being able to abuse everybody without reflecting on themselves in short they could abuse everybody because everybody was there
girandoles and wax candles and in all parts of the scene gliding from spot to spot in silent softness
stop in the tea room take your sixpenn'orth then lay on hot water and call it tea drink it said mister dowler in a loud voice directing mister pickwick who advanced at the head of the little party with missus dowler on his arm
into the tea room mister pickwick turned and catching sight of him mister bantam corkscrewed his way through the crowd and welcomed him with ecstasy my dear sir i am highly honoured
anybody here inquired dowler suspiciously anybody
the fat old lady inquired mister pickwick innocently
is it indeed said mister pickwick
hush draw a little nearer mister pickwick you see the splendidly dressed young man coming this way
you don't say so said mister pickwick yes you'll hear his voice in a moment mister pickwick
his bosom friend how do you do my lord
lordship it is very warm my lord replied the m c confounded assented the honourable mister crushton
and mister crushton had been reflecting what subject his lordship could talk about best
a mail cart what an excellent idea re markable gwacious heavens said his lordship
added his lordship i dwove it over to bwistol the other morning in a cwimson coat with two servants widing a quarter of a mile behind
to know if i wasn't the post glorwious glorwious at this anecdote his lordship laughed very heartily as did the listeners of course
so i should think rejoined mister pickwick drily
angelo bantam rejoined mister pickwick and led him into the card room just at the very moment of their entrance the dowager lady snuphanuph and two other ladies of an ancient and whist like appearance were hovering over an unoccupied card table
and they no sooner set eyes upon mister pickwick under the convoy of angelo bantam than they exchanged glances with each other seeing that he was precisely the very person they wanted to make up the rubber
mister pickwick happened to be looking another way at the moment so her ladyship nodded her head towards him and frowned expressively my friend mister pickwick my lady will be most happy i am sure remarkably so said the m c taking the hint
mister pickwick lady snuphanuph missus colonel wugsby miss bolo mister pickwick bowed to each of the ladies and finding escape impossible cut mister pickwick and miss bolo against lady snuphanuph and missus colonel wugsby
as the trump card was turned up at the commencement of the second deal two young ladies hurried into the room and took their stations on either side of missus colonel wugsby's chair where they waited patiently until the hand was over
now jane said missus colonel wugsby turning to one of the girls what is it i came to ask ma whether i might dance with the youngest mister crawley whispered the prettier and younger of the two
good god jane how can you think of such things replied the mamma indignantly haven't you repeatedly heard that his father has eight hundred a year which dies with him i am ashamed of you not on any account
ma whispered the other who was much older than her sister and very insipid and artificial
you're a sweet pet my love replied missus colonel wugsby tapping her daughter's cheek with her fan and are always to be trusted he's immensely rich my dear bless you with these words missus colonel wugsby kissed her eldest daughter most affectionately
and frowning in a warning manner upon the other sorted her cards poor mister pickwick he had never played with three thorough paced female card players before they were so desperately sharp that they quite frightened him
if he played a wrong card miss bolo looked a small armoury of daggers if he stopped to consider which was the right one lady snuphanuph would throw herself back in her chair and smile with a mingled glance of impatience and pity
to missus colonel wugsby at which missus colonel wugsby would shrug up her shoulders and cough as much as to say she wondered whether he ever would begin
why mister pickwick had not returned that diamond or led the club or roughed the spade or finessed the heart or led through the honour or brought out the ace or played up to the king or some such thing
and in reply to all these grave charges mister pickwick would be wholly unable to plead any justification whatever having by this time forgotten all about the game people came and looked on too which made mister pickwick nervous
besides all this there was a great deal of distracting conversation near the table between angelo bantam and the two misses matinter who being single and singular paid great court to the master of the ceremonies in the hope of getting a stray partner now and then
the cards were against him also and when they left off at ten minutes past eleven miss bolo rose from the table considerably agitated and went straight home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair
the next sunday adam joined the poysers on their way out of church hoping for an invitation to go home with them
come you'll go on with us adam mister poyser said when they reached the turning and as soon as they were in the fields adam ventured to offer his arm to hetty the children soon gave them an opportunity of lingering behind a little and then adam said
will you contrive for me to walk out in the garden a bit with you this evening if it keeps fine hetty i've something partic'lar to talk to you about
she was really as anxious as adam was that she should have some private talk with him she wondered what he thought of her and arthur he must have seen them kissing she knew but she had no conception of the scene that had taken place between arthur and adam
for she had trembled when she found he was going home with them lest he should mean to tell
she should learn what he thought and what he meant to do she felt a certain confidence that she could persuade him not to do anything she did not want him to do she could perhaps even make him believe that she didn't care for arthur
and as long as adam thought there was any hope of her having him he would do just what she liked she knew besides she must go on seeming to encourage adam lest her uncle and aunt should be angry and suspect her of having some secret lover
hetty's little brain was busy with this combination as she hung on adam's arm and said yes or no to some slight observations of his
he would nevertheless be glad of a little reasonable talk about business the while and for his own part he was curious to hear the most recent news about the chase farm so through the rest of the walk he claimed adam's conversation for himself
who applies her refined intellect to the problem of committing indiscretions without compromising herself perhaps the resemblance was not much the less because hetty felt very unhappy all the while the parting with arthur was a double pain to her
she clung to the comforting hopeful words arthur had uttered in their last meeting
but the uncertainty of the future the possibilities to which she could give no shape began to press upon her like the invisible weight of air she was alone on her little island of dreams and all around her was the dark unknown water where arthur was gone
she could gather no elation of spirits now by looking forward but only by looking backward to build confidence on past words and caresses but occasionally since thursday evening her dim anxieties had been almost lost behind the more definite fear
that adam might betray what he knew to her uncle and aunt and his sudden proposition to talk with her alone had set her thoughts to work in a new way
and after tea when the boys were going into the garden and totty begged to go with them
with and totty was watching them with a puppylike air of contemplation it was but a short time hardly two months since adam had had his mind filled with delicious hopes as he stood by hetty's side in this garden
the remembrance of that scene had often been with him since thursday evening
the red bunches hetty's sweet blush it came importunately now on this sad evening with the low hanging clouds but he tried to suppress it lest some emotion should impel him to say more than was needful for hetty's sake
after what i saw on thursday night hetty he began you won't think me making too free in what i'm going to say if you was being courted by any man as ud make you his wife and i'd known you was fond of him and meant to have him
but when i see you're being made love to by a gentleman as can never marry you and doesna think o marrying you i feel bound t interfere for you i can't speak about it to them as are the place o your parents for that might bring worse trouble than's needful
adam's words relieved one of hetty's fears but they also carried a meaning which sickened her with a strengthened foreboding she was pale and trembling and yet she would have angrily contradicted adam if she had dared to betray her feelings
but she was silent you're so young you know hetty he went on almost tenderly
adam paused and looked at hetty who was plucking the leaves from the filbert trees and tearing them up in her hand her little plans and preconcerted speeches had all forsaken her like an ill learnt lesson under the terrible agitation produced by adam's words
there was a cruel force in their calm certainty which threatened to grapple and crush her flimsy hopes and fancies
but the determination to conceal what she felt still governed her it was nothing more than a blind prompting now for she was unable to calculate the effect of her words you've no right to say as i love him she said faintly but impetuously plucking another rough leaf and tearing it up
she was very beautiful in her paleness and agitation with her dark childish eyes dilated and her breath shorter than usual adam's heart yearned over her as he looked at her
but comfort her and soothe her and save her from this pain if he had but some sort of strength that would enable him to rescue her poor troubled mind as he would have rescued her body in the face of all danger
i doubt it must be so hetty he said tenderly for i canna believe you'd let any man kiss you by yourselves
when he knew he could never make you the right amends he's been trifling with you and making a plaything of you and caring nothing about you as a man ought to care yes he does care for me i know better nor you hetty burst out
everything was forgotten but the pain and anger she felt at adam's words nay hetty said adam if he'd cared for you rightly he'd never ha behaved so he told me himself he meant nothing by his kissing and presents
but i know better nor that i can't help thinking as you've been trusting to his loving you well enough to marry you for all he's a gentleman
for fear you should be deceiving yourself it's never entered his head the thought o marrying you how do you know how durst you say so said hetty pausing in her walk and trembling the terrible decision of adam's tone shook her with fear
perhaps you can't believe me hetty because you think too well of him because you think he loves you better than he does but i've got a letter my pocket as he wrote himself for me to give you i've not read the letter but he says he's told you the truth in it
hetty said nothing she felt a revival of hope at the mention of a letter which adam had not read there would be something quite different in it from what he thought adam took out the letter but he held it in his hand still while he said in a tone of tender entreaty
and think there's nobody but me knows about this and i'll take care of you as if i was your brother you're the same as ever to me for i don't believe you've done any wrong knowingly hetty had laid her hand on the letter but adam did not loose it till he had done speaking
she took no notice of what he said she had not listened
you're in the right not to read it just yet said adam read it when you're by yourself but stay out a little bit longer and let us call the children you look so white and ill your aunt may take notice of it hetty heard the warning
it recalled to her the necessity of rallying her native powers of concealment which had half given way under the shock of adam's words and she had the letter in her pocket she was sure there was comfort in that letter in spite of adam
because she had been obliged to throw away an unripe apple that she had set her small teeth in hegh totty said adam come and ride on my shoulder ever so high you'll touch the tops o the trees
what right had lord dawlish to look down his nose and murmur
when she asked him a question as if she had suggested that he should commit some crime
as if he were a superior being of some kind governed by codes which she could not be expected to understand
so what was the good of looking shocked and saying
the omnibus rolled on towards west kensington claire hated the place with the bitter hate of one who had read society novels and yearned for grosvenor square and butlers and a general atmosphere of soft cushions and pink shaded lights
and maids to do one's hair she hated the cheap furniture of the little parlour the penetrating contralto of the cook singing hymns in the kitchen and the ubiquitousness of her small brother he was only ten and small for his age
while making a nerve racking noise in another it was percy who greeted her to day as she entered the flat halloa claire i say claire there's a letter for you it came by the second post
i say claire it's got an american stamp on it can i have it claire i haven't got one in my collection his sister regarded him broodingly for goodness sake don't bellow like that she said of course you can have the stamp i don't want it
claire took the envelope from him extracted the letter and handed back the envelope percy vanished into the dining room with a shattering squeal of pleasure a voice spoke from behind a half opened door
is that you claire yes mother i've come back to pack they want me to go to southampton to night to take up claudia winslow's part what train are you catching
i'm going to hurry said claire clenching her fists as two simultaneous bursts of song in different keys and varying tempos
a girl has to be in a sunnier mood than she was to bear up without wincing under the infliction of a duet consisting of the rock of ages and waiting for the robert e lee assuredly claire proposed to hurry
she meant to get her packing done in record time and escape from this place she went into her bedroom and began to throw things untidily into her trunk
a glance had told her that it was from her friend polly countess of wetherby
polly davis now married for better or for worse to that curious invertebrate person algie wetherby was the only real friend claire had made on the stage a sort of shivering gentility
had kept her aloof from the rest of her fellow workers but it took more than a shivering gentility to stave off polly claire had passed through the various stages of intimacy with her
it was a long letter too long to be read until she was at leisure and written in a straggling hand that made reading difficult she was mildly surprised that polly should have written her for she had been back in america a year or more now
and this was her first letter polly had a warm heart and did not forget her friends but she was not a good correspondent the need of getting her things ready at once drove the letter from claire's mind she was in the train on her way to southampton
before she remembered its existence it was dated from new york my dear old claire is this really my first letter to you isn't that awful gee a lot's happened since i saw you last i must tell you
first about my hit some hit claire old girl i own new york
i'm doing barefoot dancing
and went so big that my agent shifted me to the restaurants and they have to call out the police reserves to handle the crowd you can't get a table at reigelheimer's which is my pitch
unless you tip the head waiter a small fortune and promise to mail him your clothes when you get home i dance during supper with nothing on my feet and not much anywhere else and it takes three vans to carry my salary to the bank
of course it's the title that does it lady pauline wetherby algie says it oughtn't to be that because i'm not the daughter of a duke
i was born in carbondale illinois but that doesn't matter i'm an english countess doing barefoot dancing to work off the mortgage on the ancestral castle and they eat me take it from me claire i'm a riot well that's that
what i am really writing about is to tell you that you have got to come over here i've taken a house at brookport on long island for the summer you can stay with me till the fall and then i can easily get you a good job in new york
i have some pull these days believe me not that you'll need my help
i showed one of them that photograph you gave me and he went up in the air they pay twice as big salaries over here you know as in england so come by the next boat claire darling you must come i'm wretched algie has got my goat the worst way
if you don't know what that means it means that he's behaving like a perfect pig i hardly know where to begin well it was this way directly i made my hit my press agent a real bright man named sherriff got busy of course interviews you know
and how i preserve my beauty and all that sort of thing well one thing he made me do was to buy a snake and a monkey roscoe sherriff is crazy about animals as aids to advertisement he says an animal story is the thing he does best so i bought them
algie kicked from the first i ought to tell you that since we left england
painting footling little pictures and has got the artistic temperament badly
and now it's pictures i don't mind his painting it gives him something to do and keeps him out of mischief he has a studio down in washington square and is perfectly happy messing about there all day everything would be fine if he didn't think it necessary
to tack on the artistic temperament to his painting he's developed the idea that he has nerves and everything upsets them things came to a head this morning at breakfast clarence my snake
has the cutest way of climbing up the leg of the table
struck him a violent blow on the nose with a teaspoon then he turned to me very pale and said pauline this must end the time has come to speak up a nervous highly strung man like myself should not and must not be called upon to live in a house
where he is constantly meeting snakes and monkeys without warning choose between me and
would you believe it algie walked straight out of the house still holding the teaspoon and has not returned later in the day he called me up on the phone and said that
he declined to cross the threshold again until i had got rid of eustace and clarence i tried to reason with him
for the last person roscoe sherriff handled an emotional actress named devenish had to keep a young puma but he wouldn't listen and the end of it was that he rang off
leaving southampton on the twenty fourth of this month
darling claire do come or i know i shall weaken and yield to algie's outrageous demands for
i love him dearly your affectionate polly wetherby claire sank back against the cushioned seat
of all the things which would have chimed in with her discontented mood at that moment a sudden flight to america was the most alluring only one consideration held her back she had not the money for her fare
polly might have thought of that she reflected bitterly she took the letter up again and saw that on the last page there was a postscript p s i don't know how you are fixed for money old girl
but if things are the same with you as in the old days you can't be rolling
come right over an hour later the manager of the southampton branch of the white star line was dazzled by an apparition a beautiful girl who burst in upon him with flushed face and shining eyes demanding a berth on the steamship atlantic
and talking about a lady wetherby ten minutes later her passage secured claire was walking to the local theatre to inform those in charge of the destinies of the girl and the artist number one company that they must look elsewhere for a substitute for miss claudia winslow
then she went back to her hotel to write a letter home notifying her mother of her plans she looked at her watch it was six o'clock back in west kensington a rich smell of dinner would be floating through the flat the cook
watching the boiling cabbage would be singing a few more years shall roll her mother would be sighing and her little brother percy would be employed upon some
though one could be certain that it would be something involving a deafening noise claire
pastures new steve had arrived at the connecticut shack in the early dawn of the day which had been so eventful to most of his friends and acquaintances william bannister's interest in the drive at first acute
from which the stopping of the car did not awaken him steve jumped down and stretched himself there was a wonderful freshness in the air which made him forget for a moment his desire for repose he looked about him breathing deep draughts of its coolness
the robins which though not so well advertised rise just as punctually as the lark were beginning to sing as they made their simple toilets before setting out to attend to the early worm
the sky to the east was a delicate blend of pinks and greens and yellows with a hint of blue behind the grey which was still the prevailing note a vaguely sentimental mood came upon steve
in his heart he knew perfectly well that he could never be happy for any length of time out of sight and hearing of broadway cars but at that moment such was the magic of the dawn he felt a longing to settle down in the country and pass the rest of his days a simple farmer
with beard unchecked by razor
while mamie in a cotton frock called cheerfully to him to come in because breakfast was ready and getting cold mamie ah his sigh turned into a yawn
he realized with the abruptness which comes to a man who stands alone with nature in the small hours that he was very sleepy the excitement which had sustained him till now had begun to ebb the free life of the bearded farmer
seemed suddenly less attractive bed was what he wanted now not nature
the white hope gurgled drowsily but did not wake steve carried him on to the porch and laid him down then he turned his attention to the problem of effecting an entry once an honest man has taken to amateur burgling he soon picks up the tricks of it
to open his knife and shoot back the catch of the nearest window
he climbed in and unlocked the front door then he carried his young charge into the sitting room and laid him down on a chair
bed steve's faculties were rapidly becoming numb with approaching sleep but he roused himself to face certain details of the country life which till now had escaped him
his earnest concentration on the main plank of his platform the spiriting away of william bannister had caused him to overlook the fact that no preparations had been made to welcome him on his arrival at his destination
hit the hay there was the white hope's bed to be made and by the way of a preliminary to that sheets must be found and blankets
yawning wearily he set out on his search he found sheets but mistrusted them they might or might not be perfectly dry he did not care to risk his godson's valuable health in the experiment
a hazy notion that blankets were always safe restored his spirits and he became cheerful on reflecting that a child with william bannister's gift for sleep would not be likely to notice the absence of linen in his bed the couch which he finally passed adequate
would have caused lora delane porter's hair to stand erect but it satisfied steve he went downstairs and returning with william bannister placed him carefully on it and tucked him in the white hope slept on having assured himself that all was well
steve made up a similar nest for himself and removing his coat and shoes crawled under the blankets five minutes later rhythmical snores proclaimed the fact that nature had triumphed over all the discomforts of one of the worst made beds in connecticut
the sun was high when steve woke he rose stiffly and went into the other room william bannister still slept steve regarded him admiringly for the dormouse act he mused
that kid certainly stands alone you got to hand it to him
that he had not planned out this expedition with that thoroughness which marks the great general
he said and while i'm there maybe i'd better send kirk a wire and i reckon i'll have to take the kid if he wakes up and finds me gone he'll throw fits up you get squire
he kneaded the recumbent form of his godson with a large hand until he had massaged out of him the last remains of his great sleep it took some time but it was effective the white hope sat up full of life and energy
he inspected steve gravely for a moment endeavouring to place him hello steve he said at length hello kid where am i in the country in connecticut what's necticut
this is where we are where are we here in connecticut why steve raised a protesting hand not so early in the day kid not before breakfast he pleaded honest i'm not strong enough
it ain't as if we was a vaudeville team that had got to rehearse what's rehearse steve changed the subject say kid ain't you feeling like you could bite into something
he went on quickly as his godson opened his mouth to speak
it's one way of fixing em what's fixing inquired william bannister brightly steve sighed when he spoke he was calm but determined that'll be all the dialogue for the present he said we'll play the rest of our act in dumb show get a move on you
the automobile the car the chug chug wagon the thing we came here in
and we'll scare up some breakfast steve's ignorance of the locality in which he found himself was complete but he had a general impression that farmers as a class were people who delighted in providing breakfasts for the needy if the needy possessed the necessary price
and drove slowly along the roads with his eyes open for signs of life he found a suitable farm
his surmise as to the hospitality of farmers proved correct and presently they were sitting down to a breakfast which it did his famished soul good to contemplate william bannister seemed less enthusiastic
steve having disposed of two eggs in quick succession
and found him eyeing a bowl of bread and milk in a sort of frozen horror
he asked get busy no paper said william bannister for the love of pete
no paper repeated the white hope firmly steve regarded him thoughtfully i didn't have this trip planned out right he said regretfully i ought to have got mamie to come along
got next to your meanings in a second i pass
what's all this about paper aunty lora says not to eat bread that doesn't come wrapped up in paper said the white hope becoming surprisingly lucid mamie undoes it out of crinkly paper i get you
they feed you rolls at home wrapped up in tissue paper is that it what's tissue same as crinkly well see here you remember what we was talking about last night about germs yes well
that's one thing germs never do eat bread out of crinkly paper
you do what i tell you and you can't go wrong if you're going to be a regular germ
milk the quickest you can get me
william bannister made no more objections he attacked his meal with an easy conscience
with a deep sigh of repletion steve meanwhile had entered into conversation with the lady of the house say
sure i have said the hostess proudly
his name's jim fine
jim sounds pretty good to me about the same age as this one for the lord's sake
i thought from the way you spoke he was a regular kid know any one in these parts who's got something about the same weight as this one the farmer's wife reflected kids is pretty scarce round here she said i reckon you won't get one that i knows of
there's that tom whiting but he's a bad boy he ain't been raised right what's the matter with him
but his father used to be a low prize fighter and you know what they are steve nodded sympathetically
he's a bad boy well
they live in the cottage by the big house you can see through them trees his pop looks after mister wilson's prize dawgs that's his job what's wilson asked the white hope coming out of his stupor
he's one of them rich new yawkers he has his summer place here
he's not used to country life come along
and the dear people don't quite understand what to do with it
round which the militia of the country will rally and from which they will get a stiffening in time of danger yet other people consider that the army should be built like a pair of lazy tongs on the principle of elasticity and extension
so that in time of need it may fill up its skeleton battalions and empty saddle troops this is real wisdom be cause the american army as at present constituted is made up of twenty five regiments infantry ten companies each
ten regiments cavalry twelve companies each five regiments artillery twelve companies each now there is a notion in the air to reorganize the service on these lines eighteen regiments infantry at four battalions four companies each
third battalion skeleton fourth on paper eight regiments cavalry at four battalions four troops each third battalion skeleton fourth on paper five regiments artillery at four battalions four companies each third battalion skeleton fourth on paper
observe the beauty of this business the third battalion will have its officers but no men the fourth will probably have a rendezvous and some equipment it is not contemplated to give it anything more definite at present
we get an army of fifty thousand men which
to the huge delight of the officers the military needs of the states be three a frontier warfare
and in the nature of things growing less arduous year by year b internal riots and commotions which rise up like a dust devil whirl furiously and die out long before the authorities at washington could begin to fill up even the third skeleton battalions
much less hunt about for material for the fourth
in which as the case in the affair of the north and south the regular army would be swamped in the mass of militia and armed volunteers would turn the land into a hell yet the authorities persist in regarding an external war
would be capable of heaving a shovelful of mud into the atlantic in the hope of filling it up consequently the authorities are fascinated with the idea of the sliding scale or concertina army this is an hereditary instinct for you know that when we english have got together two companies one machine gun a sick bullock
forty generals and a mass of w o forms we say we possess an army corps capable of indefinite extension the american army is a beautiful little army some day when all the indians are happily dead or drunk
it ought to make the finest scientific and survey corps that the world has ever seen it does excellent work now but there is this defect in its nature it is officered as you know from west point the mischief of it is
a boy goes up to that institution gets his pass and returns to civil life so they tell me with a dangerous knowledge that he is a suckling von moltke and may apply his learning when occasion offers given trouble that man will be a nuisance
because he is a hideously versatile american to begin with
and with all the racial disregard for human life to back him through any demi semi professional generalship
men engaged in a conflict with police or jails
and get heavily shot in a sort of cheap half constructed warfare instead of being decently scared by the appearance of the military this sort of arrangement does not seem wise
the bond between the states is of an amazing tenuity so long as they do not absolutely march into the district of columbia sit on the washington statues and invent a flag of their own
they can legislate lynch hunt negroes through swamps divorce railroad and rampage as much as ever they choose they do not need knowledge of their own military strength to back their genial lawlessness that regular army
which is a dear little army should be kept to itself blooded on detachment duty turned into the paths of science and now and again assembled at feasts of free masons and so forth it is too tiny to be a political power
the immortal wreck of the grand army of the republic is a political power of the largest and most unblushing description it ought not to help to lay the foundations of an amateur military power that is blind and irresponsible
by great good luck the evil minded train already delayed twelve hours by a burned bridge brought me to the city on a saturday
by way of that valley which the mormons over their efforts had caused to blossom like the rose twelve hours previously i had entered into a new world where in conversation every one was either a mormon or a gentile
it is not seemly for a free and independent citizen to dub himself a gentile but the mayor of ogden which is the gentile city of the valley told me that there must be some distinction between the two flocks long before the fruit orchards of logan
or the shining levels of the salt lake had been reached that mayor himself a gentile and one renowned for his dealings with the mormons told me that the great question of the existence of the power within the power
was being gradually solved by the ballot and by education all the beauty of the valley could not make me forget it and the valley is very fair bench after bench of land
flat as a table against the flanks of the ringing hills marks where the salt lake rested for awhile in its collapse
there are the makings of a very fine creed about mormonism to begin with the church is rather more absolute than that of rome drop the polygamy plank in the platform
but on the other hand deal lightly with certain forms of excess keep the quality of the recruit down to the low mental level and see that the best of all the agricultural science available is in the hands of the elders and there
you have a first class engine for pioneer work the tawdry mysticism and the borrowing from freemasonry serve the low caste swede and dane the welshman and the cornish cotter just as well as a highly organized heaven
then i went about the streets and peeped into people's front windows and the decorations upon the tables were after the manner of the year eighteen fifty main street was full of country folk from the desert
come in to trade with the zion mercantile co operative institute the church i fancy looks after the finances of this thing and it consequently pays good dividends the faces of the women were not lovely in deed
but for the certainty that ugly persons are just as irrational in the matter of undivided love as the beautiful it seems that polygamy was a blessed institution for the women and that only the dread threats of the spiritual power
could drive the hulking board faced men into it the women wore hideous garments and the men appeared to be tied up with strings
and on sunday go to the praying place i tried to talk to a few of them but they spoke strange tongues and stared and behaved like cows yet one woman and not an altogether ugly one
confided to me that she hated the idea of salt lake city being turned into a show place for the amusement of the gentiles
the dropped h betrayed her and when did you leave england i said summer of eighty four
and we was very poor now we're better off my father an mother an me then you like the state she misunderstood at first oh i ain't livin in the state of polygamy not me yet i ain't married i like where i am
i've got things o my own and some land but i suppose you will not me
it's the elders business an between you an me i don't think it's going on much longer
the swedes they think it his i know it hisn't but you've got your land all right oh yes we've got our land an we never say aught against polygamy o course
on a table land overlooking all the city
the state of utah can do nearly anything it pleases until that much to be desired hour when the gentile vote shall quietly swamp out mormonism but the garrison is kept there in case of accidents the big
shark mouthed pig eared heavy boned farmers sometimes take to their creed with wildest fanaticism and in past years have made life excessively unpleasant for the gentile when he was few in the land
but to day so far from killing openly or secretly or burning gentile farms it is all the mormon dare do to feebly try to boycott the interloper
and in the tabernacle on a sunday the preachers follow suit when i went there
a man rose up and told them that they were the chosen of god the elect of israel that they were to obey their priests and that there was a good time coming i fancy that they had
heard all this before so many times it produced no impression whatever even as the sublimest mysteries of another faith lose salt through constant iteration
gertrude was locked in her room with a headache and i had luncheon alone mister harton the lawyer was a little thin man and he looked as if he did not relish his business that day this is very unfortunate miss innes he said
no doubt i said absently mister harton i am going to ask you some questions and i hope you will answer them
because i and my family are just now in a most ambiguous position i don't know whether he understood me or not he took of his glasses and wiped them
for two years he had lived in town
to be perfectly frank miss innes
he had been staying at the club house across the valley for the last week jarvis tells me but that only explains how he came here not why it is a most unfortunate family he shook his head despondently
and i felt that this dried up little man was the repository of much that he had not told me
a soft hat lay beside it and the collar of the dinner coat was still turned up the handsome dissipated face of arnold armstrong purged of its ugly lines was now only pathetic as we went in missus watson appeared at the card room door
come in missus watson the lawyer said but she shook her head and withdrew she was the only one in the house who seemed to regret the dead man
if i could only have seen halsey coming at his usual hare brained clip up the drive if i could have heard the throb of the motor i would have felt that my troubles were over but there was nothing to be seen the countryside lay sunny and quiet
in its peaceful sunday afternoon calm and far down the drive mister jamieson was walking slowly stooping now and then as if to examine the road when i went back mister harton was furtively wiping his eyes
the second missus armstrong had been a widow with a child a little girl this child now perhaps twenty was louise armstrong having taken her stepfather's name and was at present in california with the family
sad part of my errand here to day is to see if you will relinquish your lease here in their favor we would better wait and see if they wish to come i said it seems unlikely and my town house is being remodeled at that he let the matter drop
but it came up unpleasantly enough later at six o'clock the body was taken away and at seven thirty after an early dinner mister harton went
sit down i said grimly have you found a clue that will incriminate me mister jamieson he had the grace to look uncomfortable no he said if you had killed mister armstrong you would have left no clues
you would have had too much intelligence
i have been to the club house he said and among mister armstrong's effects i found these one is curious the other is puzzling the first was a sheet of club note paper on which was written over and over the name halsey b innes
it was halsey's flowing signature to a dot but it lacked halsey's ease the ones toward the bottom of the sheet were much better than the top ones mister jamieson smiled at my face his old tricks he said
that one is merely curious this one as i said before is puzzling
in one of the rooms chimney that was all well i said looking up there is nothing in that is there
becoming an object of suspicion there is little in the paper itself he admitted
he never built a house you may be sure of that if it is this house it may mean anything from a secret room to an extra bath room i said scornfully haven't you a thumb print too i have he said with a smile
and the print of a foot in a tulip bed and a number of other things the oddest part is miss innes that the thumb mark is probably yours and the footprint certainly his audacity was the only thing that saved me his amused smile put me on my mettle
and i ripped out a perfectly good scallop before i answered why did i step into the tulip bed i asked with interest you picked up something he said good humoredly which you are going to tell me about later
with this remarkable insight of yours i wish you would tell me
i am going to tell you that when you tell me what you picked up in the tulip bed
we were only measuring weapons then he smiled a little and got up
you might think over my offer in the meantime he went on through the drawing room and i listened to his footsteps growing gradually fainter i dropped my pretense at knitting and leaning back i thought over the last forty eight hours
here was i rachel innes spinster a granddaughter of old john innes of revolutionary days a d a r a colonial dame mixed up with a vulgar and revolting crime and even attempting to hoodwink the law
certainly i had left the straight and narrow way i was roused by hearing mister jamieson coming rapidly back through the drawing room he stopped at the door miss innes he said quickly will you come with me and light the east corridor
i spoke instead of an answer whoever it was turned and ran up i followed it was dark but as i turned the corner at the top a figure darted through this door and closed it
we were in the upper hall now
you would better wait in your own room trembling as i was i was determined to see that door opened i hardly knew what i feared but so many terrible and inexplicable things had happened that suspense was worse than certainty
i am perfectly cool i said and i am going to remain here the lights flashed up along
the circular staircase wound its way up as if it had been an afterthought of the architect and just around the corner
was the door mister jamieson had indicated i was still unfamiliar with the house and i did not remember the door my heart was thumping wildly in my ears but i nodded to him to go ahead i was perhaps eight or ten feet away
and then he threw the bolt back come out
then i think he had a revolver but i am not sure he stepped aside and threw the door open from where i stood i could not see beyond the door but i saw mister jamieson's face change and heard him mutter something then he bolted down the stairs three at a time
it seemed at first to be a closet empty
to stop with a shudder where the floor should have been was black void and darkness from which came the indescribable damp smell of the cellars
six months later t x meredith was laboriously tracing an elusive line which occurred on an ordnance map of sussex when the chief commissioner announced himself sir george described t x as the most wholesome corrective a public official could have
and never missed an opportunity of meeting his subordinate as he said for this reason
the lesson this morning said t x without looking up is maps sir george passed behind his assistant and looked over his shoulder that is a very old map you have got there he said
eighteen seventy six it shows the course of a number of interesting little streams in this neighbourhood which have been lost sight of for one reason or the other by the gentleman who made the survey at a later period i am perfectly sure
that in one of these streams i shall find what i am seeking you haven't given up hope then in regard to lexman i shall never give up hope said t x until i am dead and possibly not then let me see what did he get fifteen years
t x made a noise which might be taken to indicate his assent to the statement i suppose you know that gentleman has made a very heroic attempt to get you fired he said
what did he do see ministers and people he did said sir george he's a silly ass responded t x i can understand all that the chief commissioner turned round but what i cannot understand is your apology to him
there are so many things you don't understand sir george said t x tartly that i despair of ever cataloguing them you are an insolent cub growled his chief come to lunch where will you take me asked t x cautiously
and the gratification he strove so desperately to disguise kara was a vain man immensely conscious of his good looks conscious of his wealth
t x had accepted an invitation to stay a weekend at kara's little place in the country
that the heart could desire in the way of fellowship eminent politicians who might conceivably be of service to an ambitious young assistant commissioner of police beautiful ladies to interest and amuse him kara had even gone to the length of engaging a theatrical company to play
sweet lavender and for this purpose the big ballroom at hever court had been transformed into a theatre as he was undressing for bed that night t x remembered that he had mentioned to kara that sweet lavender was his favorite play
and he realized that the entertainment was got up especially for his benefit in a score of other ways kara had endeavoured to consolidate the friendship he gave the young commissioner advice about a railway company which was operating in asia minor
and had taken a flat for grace lexman she had a small income of her own and this added to the large royalties which came to her as she was bitterly conscious in increasing volume
he was in debt to the man he killed his story of threatening letters was not substantiated the revolver which he said had been flourished at him had never been found
john lexman would be pardoned every stream in the neighbourhood had been dragged in one case a small river had been dammed and the bed had been carefully dried and sifted but there was no trace of the weapon and t x had tried methods more effective and certainly less legal
and he was armed with such indisputable authority that he was permitted to penetrate to kara's private room in order to examine certain fitments kara returning next day thought no more of the matter when it was reported to him
as it happened most of kara's valuable and confidential possessions were at the bank in a fret of panic and at considerable cost he had the safe removed and another put in its place of such potency
that the makers offered to indemnify him against any loss from burglary t x finished his work washed his hands and was drying them when mansus came bursting into the room it was not usual for mansus to burst into anywhere
he was a slow methodical painstaking man with a deliberate and an official manner what's the matter asked t x quickly we didn't search vassalaro's lodgings cried mansus breathlessly it just occurred to me as i was coming over westminster bridge
i was on top of a bus wake up said t x you're amongst friends and cut all that bus stuff out of course we searched vassalaro's lodgings no we didn't sir said the other triumphantly he lived in great james street
he lived in the adelphi corrected t x there were two places where he lived said mansus when did you learn this asked his chief dropping his flippancy
and naturally i pricked up my ears it was very unnatural but proceed said t x one of the men a very respectable person said
what do you think i ought to do and you said suggested the other
i am a police officer and i want you to come along with me and of course he shut up and would not say another word said t x that's true sir said mansus but after awhile i got him to talk
he had a good reason for keeping two addresses by all accounts t x nodded wisely what was her name he asked he had a wife said the other
he used the adelphi address for business purposes
ten minutes later the two officers were in the somewhat gloomy apartments which vassalaro had occupied the landlord explained that most of the furniture was his
he added somewhat unnecessarily that the late tenant owed him six months rent
a small writing bureau a secretaire bookcase and a few clothes the secretaire was locked as was the writing bureau the tin box which had little or nothing of interest was unfastened the other locks needed very little attention
without any difficulty mansus opened both the leaf of the bureau when let down formed the desk and piled up inside was a whole mass of letters opened and unopened accounts note books and all the paraphernalia which an untidy man collects
letter by letter t x went through the accumulation without finding anything to help him then his eye was attracted by a small tin case thrust into one of the oblong pigeon holes at the back of the desk
it made a very interesting story when it was told with all the details
and who was said to be so fine and handsome a little fellow
and saying that he was the real lord fauntleroy and must have his rights all these things were talked about and written about and caused a tremendous sensation and then there came the rumor that the earl of dorincourt was not satisfied with the turn
affairs had taken and would perhaps contest the claim by law and the matter might end with a wonderful trial
on market days people stood in groups and talked and wondered what would be done the farmers wives invited one another to tea that they might tell one another all they had heard and all they thought and all they thought other people thought
they related wonderful anecdotes about the earl's rage and his determination not to acknowledge the new lord fauntleroy and his hatred of the woman who was the claimant's mother but of course it was missus dibble who could tell the most and who was more in demand than ever
from her child for he's got that fond of him an that set on him an that proud of him as he's a'most drove mad by what's happened an what's more this new one's no lady
she's a bold faced black eyed thing as mister thomas says no gentleman in livery
an you might have knocked me down with a feather when jane brought the news in fact there was excitement everywhere at the castle in the library where the earl and mister havisham sat and talked
and the other men and women servants gossiped and exclaimed at all times of the day and in the stables where wilkins went about his work in a quite depressed state of mind and groomed the brown pony more beautifully than ever and said mournfully to the coachman that
he never taught a young gen'leman to ride as took to it more nat'ral
he was a one as it were some pleasure to ride behind
that person was the little lord fauntleroy who was said not to be lord fauntleroy at all
of affairs had been explained to him he had felt some little anxiousness and perplexity it is true but its foundation was not in baffled ambition while the earl told him what had happened
as he so often did when he was listening to anything interesting and by the time the story was finished he looked quite sober it makes me feel very queer he said it makes me feel queer
the earl looked at the boy in silence it made him feel queer too queerer than he had ever felt in his whole life and he felt more queer still
will they take dearest's house from her and her carriage cedric asked in a rather unsteady anxious little voice no said the earl decidedly in quite a loud voice in fact they can take nothing from her
ah said cedric with evident relief can't they then he looked up at his grandfather and there was a wistful shade in his eyes and they looked very big and soft that other boy he said rather tremulously he will have to
no answered the earl and he said it so fiercely and loudly that cedric quite jumped no he exclaimed in wonderment won't he i thought he stood up from his stool quite suddenly shall i be your boy
even if i'm not going to be an earl he said shall i be your boy just as i was before and his flushed little face was all alight with eagerness how the old earl did look at him from head to foot to be sure how his great shaggy brows
did draw themselves together and how queerly his deep eyes shone under them how very queerly
almost shaky and a little broken and hoarse
and by george sometimes i feel
cedric's face turned red to the roots of his hair it turned red with relief and pleasure
do you he said well then i don't care about the earl part at all i don't care whether i'm an earl or not i thought you see
would have to be your boy too and and i couldn't be
the earl put his hand on his shoulder and drew him nearer they shall take nothing from you that i can hold for you he said drawing his breath hard i won't believe yet that they can take anything from you you were made for the place and
and perhaps he was he had never before known how deep a hold
he had never seen his strength and good qualities and beauty as he seemed to see them now to his obstinate nature it seemed impossible more than impossible
within a few days after she had seen mister havisham the woman who claimed to be lady fauntleroy presented herself at the castle and brought her child with her she was sent away the earl would not see her she was told by the footman at the door
the one at the lodge added thomas loftily merican or no merican
the woman drove away the look on her handsome common face half frightened half fierce mister havisham had noticed during his interviews with her that though she had a passionate temper and a coarse insolent manner
she was neither so clever nor so bold as she meant to be she seemed sometimes to be almost overwhelmed by the position in which she had placed herself it was as if she had not expected to meet with such opposition she is evidently
the lawyer said to missus errol a person from the lower walks of life she is uneducated and untrained in everything and quite unused to meeting people like ourselves on any terms of equality she does not know what to do her visit to the castle
quite cowed her she was infuriated but she was cowed the earl would not receive her but i advised him to go with me to the dorincourt arms where she is staying when she saw him enter the room she turned white
the fact was that the earl had stalked into the room and stood looking like a venerable aristocratic giant staring at the woman from under his beetling brows and not condescending a word he simply stared at her taking her in from head to foot
as if she were some repulsive curiosity he let her talk and demand until she was tired without himself uttering a word and then he said
in that case your boy is lord fauntleroy the matter will be sifted to the bottom you may rest assured if your claims are proved you will be provided for
not many days after that a visitor was announced to missus errol who was writing in her little morning room the maid who brought the message looked rather excited her eyes were quite round with amazement in fact
a very tall majestic looking old man was standing on the tiger skin rug he had a handsome grim old face
they were so like the big affectionate childish eyes he had seen uplifted to his own so often every day during the last few months
the boy is very like you he said abruptly it has been often said so my lord she replied but i have been glad to think him like his father also
as lady lorridaile had told him her voice was very sweet
missus errol began and he has told me of the claims which have been made i have come to tell you said the earl that they will be investigated and contested if a contest can be made i have come to tell you that the boy shall be defended with all the power of the law
his rights the soft voice interrupted him he must have nothing that is not his by right even if the law can give it to him she said unfortunately the law can not said the earl if it could it should
this outrageous woman and her child perhaps she cares for him as much as i care for cedric my lord said little missus errol and if she was your eldest son's wife her son is lord fauntleroy and mine is not
she was no more afraid of him than cedric had been and she looked at him just as cedric would have looked and he having been an old tyrant all his life was privately pleased by it people so seldom dared to
i suppose he said scowling slightly that you would much prefer that he should not be the earl of dorincourt her fair young face flushed it is a very magnificent thing to be the earl of dorincourt my lord she said
i know that but i care most that he should be what his father was brave and just and true always
said his lordship sardonically i have not had the pleasure of knowing his grandfather replied missus errol but i know my little boy believes she stopped short a moment looking quietly into his face and then she added
well said my lord brusquely there are few women who would not have told him he suddenly began to walk up and down the room pulling his great mustache more violently than ever yes he is fond of me he said and i am fond of him
i can't say i ever was fond of anything before i am fond of him he pleased me from the first i am an old man and was tired of my life he has given me something to live for i am proud of him
he came back and stood before missus errol i am miserable he said miserable he looked as if he was even his pride could not keep his voice steady or his hands from shaking for a moment it almost seemed
you are like the boy and the boy is the first object in my life i am miserable
that missus errol was touched to the heart
you have been so much troubled that you are very tired and you need all your strength it was just as new to him to be spoken to and cared for in that gentle simple way as it was to be contradicted he was reminded of the boy again
and he actually did as she asked him perhaps his disappointment and wretchedness were good discipline for him if he had not been wretched he might have continued to hate her
and then he talked still more whatever happens he said the boy shall be provided for he shall be taken care of now and in the future
do you like the house he demanded very much she answered
as often as you wish my lord she replied
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t x came from downing street at eleven o'clock one night and his heart was filled with joy and gratitude he swung his stick to the common danger of the public but the policeman on point duty at the end of the street
recognized and saluted him did not think it fit to issue any official warning he ran up the stairs to his office and found mansus reading the evening paper my poor dumb beast said t x
where did you get that ridiculous name by the way m or n replied mansus laconically i repeat that there is the dawn of an intellect in you said t x offensively
he became more serious as he took from a pocket inside his waistcoat a long blue envelope containing the paper which had cost him so much to secure finding the revolver was a master stroke of yours mansus he said and he was in earnest as he spoke
the man coloured with pleasure for the subordinates of t x loved him and a word of praise was almost equal to promotion it was on the advice of mansus that the road from london to lewes had been carefully covered and such streams as passed beneath that road had been searched
obviously the gift of one brigand to another was t x s comment armed with this his task would have been fairly easy but when to this evidence he added a rough draft of the threatening letter
the case was complete but what clinched the matter was the finding of a wad of that peculiar chemical paper
and the home secretary by simply exposing them for a few seconds to the light of an electric lamp instantly it had filled the home secretary's office with a pungent and most disagreeable smoke for which he was heartily cursed by his superiors
but it had rounded off the argument he looked at his watch
i don't think any hour would be too late suggested mansus you shall come and chaperon me said his superior but a disappointment awaited missus lexman was not in
and neither the ringing at her electric bell nor vigorous applications to the knocker brought any response the hall porter of the flats where she lived was under the impression that missus lexman had gone out of town she frequently went out on saturdays and returned on the monday
and he thought occasionally on tuesdays it happened that this particular night was a monday night and t x was faced with a dilemma the night porter
thought that the day porter might know more and aroused him from his sleep yes missus lexman had gone she went on the sunday an unusual day to pay a week end visit
nobody outside the office said mansus unless unless unless what asked the other irritably don't be a jimp mansus get it off your mind what is it i am wondering said mansus slowly
if the landlord at great james street said anything he knows we have made a search we can easily find that out said t x they hailed a taxi and drove to great james street that respectable thoroughfare was wrapped in sleep
recognizing t x he checked his sarcasm which he had prepared for a keyless lodger
what like of man was he asked t x the brief description the man gave sent a cold chill to the commissioner's heart
remembering that his predecessor had lost his job from a too confiding friendliness
he did not know when mister kara would return perhaps it would be a long time and perhaps a short time he might come back that night or he might not you are wasting your young life said t x bitterly you ought to be a fortune teller
this settles the matter he said in the cab on the way back find out the first train for tavistock in the morning and wire the george hotel to have a car waiting
too late he said unless you can invent a method of getting from here to paddington in about fifty seconds the morning journey to devonshire was a dispiriting one despite the fineness of the day t x had an uncomfortable sense that something distressing had happened
as they spun down to the valley of the dart mansus touched his arm look at that he said and pointed to the blue heavens where a mile above their heads a white winged aeroplane looking no larger than a very distant dragon fly shimmered in the sunlight
when he was held up by an armed guard a glance at his card was enough to pass him what is the matter he asked a prisoner has escaped said the sentry escaped by aeroplane asked t x i don't know anything about aeroplanes sir
all i know is that one of the working party got away the car came to the gates of the prison and t x sprang out followed by his assistant he had no difficulty in finding the governor a greatly perturbed man for an escape is a very serious matter
the official was inclined to be brusque in his manner but again the magic card produced a soothing effect i am rather rattled said the governor one of my men has got away i suppose you know that
this is an order for the release of john lexman convicted under sentence of fifteen years penal servitude the governor looked at it
nor to my fowling net will one return is the thing ever ours we cannot keep but their souls go not out into the deep what matter if with changed song they come back
old strength nor yet fresh beauty shall they lack
gloriously wasteful o my lord art thou sunset faints after sunset into the night splendorously dying from thy window sill
for ever sad our poverty doth bow before the riches of thy making might sweep from thy space thy systems at thy will in thee the sun sets every sunset still
and in the perfect time o perfect god when we are in our home our natal home when joy shall carry every sacred load and from its life and peace no heart shall roam
what if thou make us able to make like thee to light with moons to clothe with greenery to hang gold sunsets o'er a rose and purple sea
then to his neighbour one may call out come brother come hither i would show you a thing and lo a vision of his imagining informed of thought
which else had rested dumb before the neighbour's truth delighted eyes in the great
and two hearts each to each the closer cling five we make but thou art the creating core whatever thing i dream invent or feel
thou art the heart of it the atmosphere thou art inside all love man ever bore yea
because thou first art love self caused essential mere six this day be with me lord when i go forth
be nearer to me than i am able to ask in merriment in converse or in task walking the street listening to men of worth or greeting such
as only talk and bask be thy thought still my waiting soul around and if he come i shall be watching found
i always seem to leave some better thing
the worse i drop that i the better find the best is only in thy perfect mind fallen threads
i will not search for i will weave who makes the mill wheel backward strike to grind eight be with me lord keep me beyond all prayers
for more than all my prayers my need of thee and thou beyond all need all unknown cares what the heart's dear imagination dares
thou dost transcend in measureless majesty all prayers in one my god be unto me thy own eternal self absolutely
where should the unknown treasures of the truth lie but there whence the truth comes out the most in the son of man folded in love and ruth fair shore we see
fair ocean but behind lie infinite reaches bathing many a coast the human thought of the eternal mind pulsed by a living tide blown by a living wind ten
thou healthful father art the ancient of days and jesus is the eternal youth of thee our old age is the scorching of the bush by life's indwelling
incorruptible blaze o life burn at this feeble shell of me
flap out my psyche wings and to thee rush eleven
or lie long hours aeonian yet betwixt this hunger in me and the father's heart it shall be good how ever and not ill
of things and thoughts even now thou art my next sole neighbour and no space between thou art and yet art drawing nearer nearer still twelve
therefore my brothers therefore sisters dear however i troubled or selfish fail in tenderness or grace or service clear
i every moment draw to you more near god in us from our hearts veil after veil keeps lifting till we see with his own sight and all together
run in unity's delight thirteen
not of the precious streams that towards me move but of the indwelling outgoing fountain store than mine oh
therefore the more with mary at thy feet i must sit worshipping that in my core thy words may fan to a flame the low primeval heat fourteen
oh my beloved gone to heaven from me i would be rich in love to heap you with love i long to love you sweet ones perfectly like god
who sees no spanning vault above no earth below and feels no circling air infinitely no boundary anywhere
fifteen ah say not tis but perfect self i want
that self is fit to live whose perfectness is still itself to scant which never longs to have but still to give a self i must have or not be at all
love give me a self self giving or let me fall to endless darkness back and free me from life's thrall sixteen back said i
whither back how to the dark from no dark came i but the depths of light from the sun heart i came of love a spark what should i do but love with all my might
to die of love severe and pure and stark were scarcely loss to lord a loveless height that were a living death damnation's positive night seventeen
but love is life to die of love is then the only pass to higher life than this all love is death to loving living men all deaths are leaps across clefts to the abyss
our life is the broken current lord of thine flashing from morn to morn with conscious shine then first by willing death self made then life divine eighteen
i love you my sweet children who are gone into another mansion but i know i love you not as i shall love you yet i love you sweet dead children there are none
whose hearts more truly on your hearts are set yet should i die of grief to love you only so
i am but as a beast before thee lord great poet king i thank thee for the word leave not thy son half made in beastly guise
less than a man with more than human cries an unshaped thing in which thyself cries out finish me father now i am but a doubt
twenty let my soul talk to thee in ordered words o king of kings o lord of only lords when i am thinking thee within my heart
from the broken reflex be not far apart
come nearer lord and smooth the wrinkled coil
o lord when i do think of my departed i think of thee who art the death of parting of him who crying father breathed his last then radiant from the sepulchre upstarted
even then i think thy hands and feet kept smarting with us the bitterness of death is past but by the feet he still doth hold us fast
therefore our hands thy feet do hold as fast we pray not to be spared the sorest pang but only be thou with us to the last let not our heart be troubled at the clang
of hammer and nails nor dread the spear's keen fang nor the ghast sickening that comes of pain nor yet the last clutch of the banished brain
lord pity us we have no making power then give us making will adopting thine make make and make us temper and refine be in us patience
neither to start nor cower christ if thou be not with us not by sign but presence actual as the wounds that bleed we shall not bear it but shall die indeed
twenty four o christ have pity on all men when they come unto the border haunted of dismay when that they know not draweth very near
the other thing the opposite of day formless and ghastly sick and gaping dumb before which even love doth lose his cheer o radiant christ remember then thy fear twenty five
be by me lord this day thou know'st i mean lord make me mind thee i herewith forestall my own forgetfulness when i stoop to glean the corn of earth
which yet thy hand lets fall be for me then against myself oh lean over me then when i invert my cup take me if by the hair and lift me up twenty six
lord of essential life help me to die to will to die is one with highest life the mightiest act that to will's hand doth lie born of god's essence and
of man's hard strife god give me strength my evil self to kill and die into the heaven of thy pure will then shall this body's death be very tolerable
twenty seven as to our mothers came help in our birth not lost in lifing us but saved and blest self bearing self although right sorely prest
shall nothing lose but die and be at rest in life eternal beyond all care and dearth god born then truly a man does no more ill
twenty eight as our dear animals do suffer less because their pain spreads neither right nor left
our suffering sore by faith shall be bereft of all dismay and every weak excess his presence shall be better in our pain than even self absence to the weaker brain
twenty nine
he prayed was heard what cup was it that passed away from him sure not the death cup now filled to the brim there was no quailing in the awful word he still was king of kings
of lords the lord he feared lest in the suffering waste and grim his faith might grow too faint and sickly dim thirty
thy mind my master i will dare explore what we are told that we are meant to know into thy soul i search yet more and more
led by the lamp of my desire and woe if thee my lord i may not understand i am a wanderer in a houseless land a weeping thirst by hot winds ever fanned
therefore i look again and think i see that when at last he did cry out my god
the light on the big dipper don't let nellie run out of doors mary margaret and be careful of the fire mary margaret i expect we'll be back pretty soon after dark so don't be lonesome mary margaret
mary margaret laughed and switched her long thick braid of black hair from one shoulder to the other no fear of my being lonesome mother campbell i'll be just as careful as can be and there are so many things to be done
nellie and i will have just the nicest kind of a time i won't get lonesome but if i should feel just tempted to i'll think father is on his way home he will soon be here
don't you worry mother campbell mother campbell smiled
little ah that was just the trouble careful and steady and prudent as mary margaret might be she was only twelve years old after all
and there would not be another soul besides her and nellie on the little dipper that whole day missus campbell felt that she hardly dared to go away under such circumstances and yet she must dare it
oscar bryan had sailed over from the mainland the evening before with word that her sister nan her only sister who lived in cartonville was ill and about to undergo a serious operation
and uncle martin was waiting with his boat to take her over to the mainland to catch the morning train for cartonville if five year old nellie had been quite well missus campbell would have taken both her
and mary margaret and locked up the house but nellie had a very bad cold and was quite unfit to go sailing across the harbour on a raw chilly november day so there was nothing to do but leave mary margaret in charge
and mary margaret was quite pleased at the prospect you know mother campbell i'm not afraid of anything except tramps and no tramps ever come to the dippers you see what an advantage it is to live on an island
there uncle martin is waving run along little mother mary margaret watched the boat out of sight from the window
it was rather nice to be left in sole charge like this it made you feel so important and grown up she would do everything very nicely and mother would see when she came back what a good housekeeper her daughter was
mary margaret and nellie and missus campbell had been living on the little dipper ever since the preceding april before that they had always lived in their own cosy home
at the harbour head but in april captain campbell had sailed in the two sisters for a long voyage and before he went missus campbell's brother martin clowe had come to them with a proposition
and he wanted his sister to go and keep house for him while her husband was away after some discussion it was so arranged and missus campbell and her two girls moved to the little dipper it was not a lonesome place then
for the lobstermen and their families lived on it and boats were constantly sailing to and fro between it and the mainland mary margaret enjoyed her summer greatly she bathed and sailed and roamed over the rocks and on fine days
her uncle george who kept the lighthouse on the big dipper and lived there all alone often came over and took her across to the big dipper mary margaret thought the lighthouse was a wonderful place uncle george
taught her how to light the lamps and manage the light when the lobster season dosed the men took up codfishing and carried this on till october when they all moved back to the mainland but uncle martin was building a house for himself at harbour head
and did not wish to move until the ice formed over the bay because it would then be so much easier to transport his goods and chattels so the campbells stayed with him until the captain should return mary margaret found plenty to do that day
and wasn't a bit lonesome but when evening came she didn't feel quite so cheerful nellie had fallen asleep and there wasn't another living creature
besides it looked like a storm the harbour was glassy calm but the sky was very black and dour in the northeast like snow thought weather wise mary margaret
and she wished the lighthouse star would gleam out on the big dipper it would seem like the bright eye of a steady old friend mary margaret always watched for it every night just as soon as the sun went down
the big lighthouse star would flash goldenly out in the northeastern sky i'll sit down by the window and watch for it said mary margaret to herself then when it is lighted i'll get up a nice warm supper for mother
and uncle martin mary margaret sat down by the kitchen window to watch minute after minute passed but no light flashed out on the big dipper what was the matter mary margaret began to feel uneasy
it was too cloudy to tell just when the sun had set but she was sure it must be down for it was quite dark in the house she lighted a lamp got the almanac and hunted out the exact time of sunsetting the sun had been down fifteen minutes
and there was no light on the big dipper mary margaret felt alarmed and anxious what was wrong at the big dipper was uncle george away or had something happened to him mary margaret was sure he had never forgotten
fifteen minutes longer did mary margaret watch restlessly at the window then she concluded that something was desperately wrong somewhere it was half an hour after sunset and the big dipper light the most important one along the whole coast was not lighted
what would she do what could she do the answer came swift and dear into mary margaret's steady sensible little mind she must go to the big dipper and light the lamps but could she
difficulties came crowding thick and fast into her thoughts it was going to snow the soft broad flakes were falling already could she row the two miles to the big dipper in the darkness and the snow
if she could dare she leave nellie all alone in the house oh she couldn't somebody at the harbour head would surely notice that the big dipper light was unlighted and would go over to investigate the cause but suppose they shouldn't
if the snow came thicker they might never notice the absence of the light and suppose there was a ship away out there as there nearly always was with the dangerous rocks and shoals of the outer harbour to pass
with precious lives on board and no guiding beacon on the big dipper mary margaret hesitated no longer she must go bravely briskly and thoughtfully she made her preparations first the fire was banked and the draughts dosed
then the blackness of the big dipper confirmed her resolution she must go nellie was really quite safe and comfortable it would not hurt her to cry a little and it might hurt somebody a great deal if the big dipper light failed setting her lips firmly
mary margaret ran down to the shore like all the harbour girls mary margaret could row a boat from the time she was nine years old nevertheless her heart almost failed her as she got into the little dory
and rowed out the snow was getting thick could she pull across those black two miles between the dippers before it got so much thicker that she would lose her way well she must risk it she had set the light in the kitchen window
she must keep it fair behind her and then she would land on the lighthouse beach with a murmured prayer for help and guidance she pulled staunchly away
finally the kitchen light was hidden in it for a moment mary margaret's heart sank in despair the next it gave a joyful bound for turning she saw the dark tower of the lighthouse directly behind her
by the aid of her lantern she rowed to the landing sprang out and made her boat fast a minute later she was in the lighthouse kitchen the door leading to the tower stairs was open and at the foot of the stairs lay uncle george limp and white
oh uncle george gasped mary margaret what is the matter what has happened mary margaret thank god
who's with you nobody
mother and uncle martin are away you don't mean to say you rowed yourself over here alone in the dark and snow well you are the pluckiest little girl about this harbour it's a mercy i've showed you how to manage the light
run up and start it at once don't mind about me i tumbled down those pesky stairs like the awkward old fool i am and i've broke my leg and hurt my back so bad i can't crawl an inch
i've been lying here for three mortal hours and they've seemed like three years hurry with the light mary margaret mary margaret hurried
soon the big dipper light was once more gleaming cheerfully athwart the stormy harbour then she ran back to her uncle there was not much she could do for him beyond covering him warmly with quilts placing a pillow under his head
and brewing him a hot drink of tea i left a note for mother telling her where i'd gone uncle george so i'm sure uncle martin will come right over as soon as they get home he'll have to hurry it's blowing up now
hear it and snowing thick if your mother and martin haven't left the harbour head before this they won't leave it tonight but anyhow the light is lit i don't mind my getting smashed up compared to that
i thought i'd go crazy lying here picturing to myself a vessel out on the reefs
and the dark possibility of her mother and uncle martin being out in the storm felt almost distracted but the morning came at last as mornings blessedly will
be the nights never so long and anxious and it dawned fine and clear over a white world mary margaret ran to the shore and gazed eagerly across at the little dipper no smoke was visible from uncle martin's house
who was raving wildly and yet it was necessary to obtain assistance somehow suddenly she remembered the distress signal she must hoist it how fortunate that uncle george had once shown her how ten minutes later there was a commotion over at harbour head
although it seemed long enough to mary margaret a boat came sailing over to the big dipper
who gasped out a rather disjointed story of a light that hadn't been lighted and an uncle with a broken leg and a sister tied in her chair
and would they please see to uncle george at once for she must go straight over to the other dipper one of the men rowed her over but before they were halfway there another boat went sailing across the harbour
and mary margaret saw a woman and two men land from it and hurry up to the house that is mother and uncle martin but who can the other man be wondered mary margaret
where she had been found fast asleep was in the arms of a great big brown bewhiskered man mary margaret just gave one look at the man then she flew across the room with a cry of delight father for ten minutes
not one intelligible word was said what with laughing and crying and kissing
now do explain somebody tell me how it all happened
said her mother it would have been madness to try to cross in the storm although i was nearly wild thinking of you two children it's well i didn't know the whole truth or i'd have been simply frantic
we stayed at the head all night and first thing this morning came your father
not a light to be seen and beginning to snow we didn't know where we were and i was terribly worried when all at once the big dipper light i'd been looking for so vainly flashed out and everything was all right in a moment
but mary margaret if that light hadn't appeared we'd never have got in past the reefs you've saved your father's ship and all the lives in her my brave little girl oh
oh i'm so thankful i went over and i had to tie nellie in her chair mother there was no other way uncle george broke his leg and is very sick this morning
and there's no breakfast ready for anyone and the fire black out but that doesn't matter when father is safe and oh i'm so tired
oh mighty sultan my wife is dead that is bad news replied the sultan i must get you another wife and he bade his grand vizir send for the sultana this poor abu nowas has lost his wife
said he when she entered the hall oh then we must get him another answered the sultana i have a girl that will suit him exactly and clapped her hands loudly at this signal
a maiden appeared and stood before her i have got a husband for you said the sultana who is he asked the girl abu nowas the jester replied the sultana i will take him
answered the maiden and as abu nowas made no objection it was all arranged the sultana had the most beautiful clothes made for the bride and the sultan gave the bridegroom his wedding suit
and a thousand gold pieces into the bargain and soft carpets for the house so abu nowas took his wife home and for some time they were very happy and spent the money freely
which the sultan had given them never thinking what they should do for more when that was gone but come to an end it did and they had to sell
till at length nothing was left but a cloak apiece and one blanket to cover them we have run through our fortune said abu nowas what are we to do now i am afraid to go back to the sultan for he will command his servants
to turn me from the door but you shall return to your mistress and throw yourself at her feet and weep and perhaps she will help us oh you had much better go said the wife i shall not know what to say
i will ask to be admitted to the sultan's presence
and that i have no money for her burial
yes that is a good plan said the wife and abu nowas set out the sultan was sitting in the hall of justice when abu nowas entered his eyes streaming with tears
for he had rubbed some pepper into them they smarted dreadfully and he could hardly see to walk straight and everyone wondered what was the matter with him abu nowas what has happened cried the sultan
my wife is dead wept he we must all die answered the sultan but this was not the reply for which abu nowas had hoped true o sultan but i have neither shroud to wrap her in
nor money to bury her with went on abu nowas in no wise abashed by the way the sultan had received his news well give him a hundred pieces of gold said the sultan turning to the grand vizir
and when the money was counted out abu nowas bowed low and left the hall his tears still flowing but with joy in his heart have you got anything
yes a hundred gold pieces said he throwing down the bag but that will not last us any time now you must go to the sultana clothed in sackcloth and robes of mourning and tell her that your husband
abu nowas is dead and you have no money for his burial when she hears that
before he died he sold everything the wife did as she was told and wrapping herself in sackcloth went up to the sultana's own palace and as she was known to have been one of subida's favourite attendants
what is the matter inquired the sultana at the sight of the dismal figure my husband lies dead at home and he has spent all our money and sold everything and i have nothing left to bury him with
sobbed the wife then subida took up a purse containing two hundred gold pieces and said your husband served us long and faithfully you must see that he has a fine funeral
the wife took the money and kissing the feet of the sultana she joyfully hastened home they spent some happy hours planning how they should spend it and thinking how clever they had been
when the sultan goes this evening to subida's palace said abu nowas she will be sure to tell him that abu nowas is dead not abu nowas it is his wife he will reply
oh if they only knew how angry they would be as abu nowas had foreseen the sultan went in the evening after his business was over to pay his usual visit to the sultana
poor abu nowas is dead said subida when he entered the room
answered the sultan no really you are quite wrong she came to tell me herself only a couple of hours ago replied subida and as he had spent all their money i gave her something to bury him with
you must be dreaming exclaimed the sultan soon after midday abu nowas came into the hall his eyes streaming with tears and when i asked him the reason he answered that his wife was dead
for a long time they talked and neither would listen to the other till the sultan sent for the door keeper and bade him go instantly to the house of abu nowas and see if it was the man or his wife who was dead
but abu nowas happened to be sitting with his wife behind the latticed window which looked on the street and he saw the man coming and sprang up at once there is the sultan's door keeper
and in a moment the wife was stretched out stiffly with a linen sheet spread across her like a corpse she was only just in time for the sheet was hardly drawn across her when the door opened and the porter came in
has anything happened asked he my poor wife is dead replied abu nowas look she is laid out here and the porter approached the bed which was in a corner of the room and saw the stiff form lying underneath
we must all die said he and went back to the sultan well have you found out which of them is dead asked the sultan yes noble sultan it is the wife replied the porter
he only says that to please you cried subida in a rage and calling to her chamberlain she ordered him to go at once to the dwelling of abu nowas and see which of the two was dead and be sure you tell the truth about it added she
or it will be the worse for you as her chamberlain drew near the house abu nowas caught sight of him there is the sultana's chamberlain he exclaimed in a fright now it is my turn to die be quick and spread the sheet over me
and he laid himself on the bed and held his breath when the chamberlain came in what are you weeping for asked the man finding the wife in tears my husband is dead answered she pointing to the bed
and the chamberlain drew back the sheet and beheld abu nowas lying stiff and motionless then he gently replaced the sheet and returned to the palace well have you found out this time asked the sultan my lord
it is the husband who is dead but i tell you he was with me only a few hours ago cried the sultan angrily i must get to the bottom of this before i sleep let my golden coach be brought round at once
the coach was before the door in another five minutes and the sultan and sultana both got in abu nowas had ceased being a dead man and was looking into the street when he saw the coach coming
quick quick he called to his wife the sultan will be here directly and we must both be dead to receive him so they laid themselves down and spread the sheet over them and held their breath
and he went up to the bed and found the corpses stiff and motionless i would give a thousand gold pieces to anyone who would tell me the truth about this cried he
abu nowas sat up give them to me then said he holding out his hand you cannot give them to anyone who needs them more
by virtue of the world wide freemasonry which christianity had for the first time on earth established found himself in five minutes awaiting the summons of the most powerful man south of the mediterranean
a curtain hung across the door of the inner chamber through which philammon could hear plainly the steps of some one walking up and down hurriedly and fiercely they will drive me to it at last burst out a deep sonorous voice
they will drive me to it their blood be on their own head it is not enough for them to blaspheme god and his church
but they must deliver my clergy into the hands of the tyrant it was so even in the apostles time suggested a softer but far more unpleasant voice then it shall be so no longer god has given me the power to stop them
and god do so to me and more also if i do not use that power to morrow i sweep out this augean stable of villainy
i am afraid such a judgment however righteous might offend his excellency his excellency his tyranny why does orestes truckle to these circumcised but because they lend money to him and to his creatures
he would keep up a den of fiends in alexandria if they would do as much for him and then to play them off against me and mine
have they not cause enough the sooner i remove one of their temptations the better let the other tempter beware lest his judgment be at hand the prefect your holiness asked the other voice slily
at this juncture philammon thinking perhaps that he had already heard too much notified his presence by some slight noise at which the secretary as he seemed to be
and somewhat sharply demanded his business the names of pambo and arsenius however seemed to pacify him at once and the trembling youth was ushered into the presence of him who in reality though not in name
sat on the throne of the pharaohs not indeed in their outward pomp the furniture of the chamber was but a grade above that of the artisan's the dress of the great man was coarse and simple if personal vanity peeped out anywhere
it was in the careful arrangement of the bushy beard and of the few curling locks which the tonsure had spared but the height and majesty of his figure the stern and massive beauty of his features the flashing eye curling lip and projecting brow
all marked him as one born to command as the youth entered cyril stopped short in his walk and looking him through and through with a glance which burnt upon his cheeks like fire
and made him all but wish the kindly earth would open and hide him took the letters read them and then began philammon
if so you have also learned to rule your father abbot has transferred you to my tutelage you are now to obey me and i will well said go to that window then and leap into the court
philammon walked to it and opened it the pavement was fully twenty feet below but his business was to obey and not take measurements there was a flower in the vase upon the sill he quietly removed it
and in an instant more would have leapt for life or death when cyril's voice thundered stop the lad will pass my peter i shall not be afraid now for the secrets which he may have overheard peter smiled assent
looking all the while as if he thought it a great pity that the young man had not been allowed to put talebearing out of his own power by breaking his neck you wish to see the world perhaps you have seen something of it to day
i saw the murder then you saw what you came hither to see what the world is and what justice and mercy it can deal out you would not dislike to see god's reprisals to man's tyranny or to be a fellow worker with god therein
if i judge rightly by your looks i would avenge that man ah my
and his fate is the portent of portents to you now
till you have gone with ezekiel into the inner chambers of the devil's temple and you will see worse things than these women weeping for thammuz bemoaning the decay of an idolatry which they themselves disbelieve that too
at this moment a deacon entered your holiness the rabbis of the accursed nation are below at your summons we brought them in through the back gate for fear of right right an accident to them might have ruined us i shall not forget you
bring them up peter take this youth introduce him to the parabolani who will be the best man for him to work under the brother theopompus is especially sober and gentle cyril shook his head laughingly
go into the next room my son no peter put him under some fiery saint some true boanerges who will talk him down and work him to death and show him the best and worst of everything cleitophon will be the man now then
let me see my engagements five minutes for these jews orestes did not choose to frighten them let us see whether cyril cannot then an hour to look over the hospital accounts an hour for the schools
a half hour for the reserved cases of distress and another half hour for myself and then divine service see that the boy is there do bring in every one in their turn peter mine
so much time goes in hunting for this man and that man and life is too short for all that where are these jews and cyril plunged into the latter half of his day's work with that untiring energy self sacrifice and method which commanded for him
whereof the harbour panorama had been the bright one in squalid misery filth profligacy ignorance ferocity discontent neglected in body house and soul by the civil authorities
there they starved and rotted heap on heap the masses of the old greek population
among these fiercely perhaps and fanatically but still among them and for them laboured those district visitors night and day and so philammon toiled away with them carrying food and clothing
helping sick to the hospital and dead to the burial cleaning out the infected houses for the fever
and comforting the dying with the good news of forgiveness from above till the larger number had to return to evening service he however was kept by his superior watching at a sick bedside
and it was late at night before he got home and was reported to peter the reader
as indeed without the least thought of doing anything noble or self sacrificing he had truly done being a monk and so he threw himself on a truckle bed in one of the many cells which opened off a long corridor
and fell fast asleep in a minute he was just weltering about in a dreary dream jumble of goths dancing with district visitors pelagia as an angel with peacock's wings hypatia
when he was awakened by the tramp of hurried feet in the street outside and shouts which gradually as he became conscious shaped themselves into cries of
alexander's church is on fire help good christians fire help whereat he sat up in his truckle bed
tried to recollect where he was and having with some trouble succeeded threw on his sheepskin and jumped up to ask the news from the deacons and monks who were hurrying along the corridor outside yes alexander's church was on fire and down the stairs they poured
to the blaze of moon and starlight which flooded the street and walls and shining roofs hung back a moment that hesitation probably saved his life for in an instant he saw a dark figure spring out of the shadow
a long knife flashed across his eyes and a priest next to him
that start saved philammon quick as a cat he leapt upon him felled him to the earth with a single blow tore the dagger from his hand and sprang to his feet again
just in time to strike his new weapon full into the third pursuer's face the man put his hand to his head and recoiled against a fellow ruffian who was close on his heels
came from an unpractised hand or the young monk might have had more than one life to answer for as it was they turned and limped off cursing in an unknown tongue and philammon found himself triumphant and alone with the trembling negress and the prostrate ruffian who
the negress was kneeling under the gateway pouring out her simple thanks to heaven for this unexpected deliverance
and philammon was about to kneel too when a thought struck him and coolly despoiling the jew of his shawl and sash he handed them over to the poor negress considering them fairly enough as his own by right of conquest but
lo and behold as she was overwhelming him with thanks a fresh mob poured into the street from the upper end and were close on them before they were aware a flush of terror and despair and then a burst of joy as
by mingled moonlight and torchlight philammon descried priestly robes and in the forefront of the battle there being no apparent danger peter the reader who seemed to be anxious to prevent inquiry by beginning to talk as fast as possible
so he did said philammon dragging up his captive and here is his fellow scoundrel whereon the two worthies were speedily tied together by the elbows and the party
marched on once more in search of alexander's church and the supposed conflagration philammon looked round for the negress but she had vanished
to say anything about her yet he longed to see her again an interest even something like an affection had already sprung up in his heart toward the poor simple creature whom he had delivered from death
instead of thinking her ungrateful for not staying to tell what he had done for her he was thankful to her for having saved his blushes by disappearing so opportunely and he longed to tell her so to know if she was hurt to oh
only four days from the laura and a whole regiment of women acquaintances already true providence having sent into the world about as many women as men it maybe difficult to keep out of their way altogether
perhaps too providence may have intended them to be of some use to that other sex with whom it has so mixed them up don't argue poor philammon alexander's church is on fire forward
and so they hurried on a confused mass of monks and populace with their hapless prisoners in the centre who hauled cuffed questioned and cursed by twenty self elected inquisitors at once thought fit
either from jewish obstinacy or sheer bewilderment to give no account whatsoever of themselves as they turned the corner of a street the folding doors of a large gateway rolled open
a long line of glittering figures poured across the road dropped their spear butts on the pavement with a single rattle and remained motionless the front rank of the mob recoiled and an awe struck whisper ran through them the stationaries
who are they asked philammon in a whisper the soldiers the roman soldiers answered a whisperer to him philammon who was among the leaders had recoiled too he hardly knew why at that stern apparition
his next instinct was to press forward as close as he dared and these were roman soldiers the conquerors of the world
dimly heard of up there in the lonely laura roman soldiers and here he was face to face with them at last his curiosity received a sudden check however
as he found his arm seized by an officer as he took him to be from the gold ornaments on his helmet and cuirass who lifted his vine stock threateningly over the young monk's head and demanded what's all this about
why are you not quietly in your beds you alexandrian rascals alexander's church is on fire answered philammon thinking the shortest answer the wisest so much the better and the jews are murdering the christians
fight it out then turn in men it's only a riot and the steel clad apparition suddenly flashed round and vanished trampling and jingling into the dark jaws of the guardhouse gate while the stream its temporary barrier removed
rushed on wilder than ever philammon hurried on too with them not without a strange feeling of disappointment only a riot
peter was chuckling to his brothers over their cleverness in having kept the prisoners in the middle and stopped the rascals mouths till they were past the guard house a fine thing to boast of thought philammon
only a riot he and the corps of district visitors whom he fancied the most august body on earth and alexander's church christians murdered by jews
and all the rest of it was simply then not worth the notice of those forty men alone and secure in the sense of power and discipline among tens of thousands he hated them those soldiers was it because they were indifferent to the cause of which he
was inclined to think himself a not unimportant member on the strength of his late samsonic defeat of jewish persecutors at least he obeyed the little porter's advice and felt very small indeed and he felt smaller still
being young and alive to ridicule when at some sudden ebb or flow wave or wavelet of the babel sea which weltered up and down every street a shrill female voice informed them from an upper window that alexander's church was not on fire at all
that she had gone to the top of the house as they might have gone if they had not been fools et cetera et cetera and that it looked as safe and as ugly as ever wherewith a brickbat or two having been sent up in answer she shut the blinds
leaving them to halt inquire discover gradually and piecemeal after the method of mobs they had been following the nature of mobs that no one had seen the church on fire or seen any one else who had seen the same or even seen any light in the sky in any quarter
or knew who raised the cry or or in short alexander's church was two miles off if it was on fire it was either burnt down or saved by this time if not the night air was to say the least chilly
and whether it was or not there were ambuscades of jews satan only knew how strong in every street between them and it might it not be better to secure their two prisoners and then ask for further orders from the archbishop
till those of a contrary opinion began to find themselves left alone and having a strong dislike to jewish daggers were fain to follow the stream
in which one or two seeking shelter from the awful nothing in neighbouring houses were handed over to the watch as burglars and sent to the quarries accordingly they reached the serapeium and there
that alexander's church had never been on fire at all that the jews had murdered a thousand christians at least though three dead bodies including the poor priest who lay in the house within
were all of the thousand who had yet been seen and that the whole jews quarter was marching upon them at which news it was considered advisable to retreat into the archbishop's house as quickly as possible barricade the doors and prepare for a siege a work at which philammon performed prodigies tearing woodwork from the rooms and stones from the parapets
before it struck some of the more sober minded that it was as well to wait for some more decided demonstration of attack before incurring so heavy a carpenter's bill of repairs at last the heavy tramp of footsteps was heard coming down the street
and every window was crowded in an instant with eager heads while peter rushed downstairs to heat the large coppers having some experience in the defensive virtues of boiling water
thank heaven it was the soldiery
a thousand citizens murdered while you have been snoring and a volley of similar ejaculations greeted the soldiers as they passed and were answered by a cool
your perches and sleep you noisy chickens or we'll set the coop on fire about your ears a yell of defiance
all danger was now past and the cackling rose jubilant louder than ever and might have continued till daylight had not a window in the courtyard been suddenly thrown open and the awful voice of cyril commanded silence
he was sitting at his desk writing quietly small notes on slips of paper here is the youth who helped me to pursue the murderer and having outrun me was attacked by the prisoners said peter my hands are clean from blood
i thank the lord three set on me with daggers said philammon apologetically and i was forced to take this one's dagger away and beat off the two others with it cyril smiled and shook his head
so you ran away eh my worthy friend
cyril smiled again and why could not you run away boy
a poor black woman wounded and trodden down and i dare not leave her for she told me she was a christian right my son right i shall remember this what was her name
stay i think she said judith ah the wife of the porter who stands at the lecture room door which god confound a devout woman full of good works and sorely ill treated by her heathen husband peter
thou shalt go to her to morrow with the physician and see if she is in need of anything boy thou hast done well cyril never forgets now bring up those jews their rabbis were with me two hours ago promising peace
and this is the way they have kept their promise so be
what does that mean you rascals answer me as you value your lives you have no business with us we are jews and none of your people said one sulkily none of my people you have murdered my people none of my people
every soul in alexandria is mine if the kingdom of god means anything and you shall find it out i shall not argue with you my good friends anymore than i did with your rabbis take these fellows away peter and lock them up in the fuel cellar
and see that they are guarded if any man lets them go his life shall be for the life of them and the two worthies were led out now my brothers here are your orders
you will divide these notes among yourselves and distribute them to trusty and godly catholics in your districts wait one hour till the city be quiet and then start and raise the church i must have
outrage and murder only forbidden as i have said it god do so to me and more also if there be a jew left in alexandria by to morrow at noon go and the staff of orderlies filed out
samson jephtha judas maccabeus and all the worthies of the old testament and then started on their pacific errand philammon was about to follow them when cyril stopped him stay my son
three hours hence the sun rises and we go forth against the enemies of the lord philammon threw himself on the floor in a corner and slumbered like a child till he was awakened in the gray dawn by one of the parabolani
up boy and see what we can do
said cyril as he passed proudly out in full pontificals with a gorgeous retinue of priests and deacons
her watchwords such as the tyrants of the earth in their weakness and their divisions may envy and tremble at but cannot imitate could orestes raise in three hours thirty thousand men who would die for him
as we will for you shouted many voices say for the kingdom of god and he passed out
it is furthermore remarkable that though the two stories are distinct my own as it were and this other they equally began in a manner the first night of my acquaintance with frank saltram the night i came back from wimbledon
so agitated with a new sense of life that in london for the very thrill of it i could only walk home walking and swinging my stick i overtook at buckingham gate george gravener
and george gravener's story may be said to have begun with my making him as our paths lay together come home with me for a talk i duly remember let me parenthesise that it was still more that of another person
to a second chapter i had much to say to him none the less about my visit to the mulvilles whom he more indifferently knew and i was at any rate so amusing
that for long afterwards he never encountered me without asking for news of the old man of the sea i hadn't said mister saltram was old and it was to be seen that he was of an age to outweather george gravener
and gravener was staying at his brother's empty house in eaton square at cambridge five years before even in our devastating set his intellectual power had seemed to me almost awful
some one had once asked me privately with blanched cheeks what it was then that after all such a mind as that left standing it leaves itself i could recollect devoutly replying
i could smile at present for this remembrance
with the fact that save in the sense of being well set up on his legs george gravener had actually ceased to tower the universe he laid low had somehow bloomed again the usual eminences were visible
i wondered whether he had lost his humour or only dreadful thought had never had any not even when i had fancied him most aristophanesque what was the need of appealing to laughter however
i could enviously enquire where you might appeal so confidently to measurement mister saltram's queer figure his thick nose and hanging lip were fresh to me in the light of my old friend's fine cold symmetry
they presented mere success in amusing as the refuge of conscious ugliness already at hungry twenty six gravener looked as blank and parliamentary as if he were fifty and popular
in my scrap of a residence he had a worldling's eye for its futile conveniences but never a comrade's joke i sounded frank saltram in his ears a circumstance i mention in order to note that even then
i was surprised at his impatience of my enlivenment as he had never before heard of the personage it took indeed the form of impatience of the preposterous mulvilles his relation to whom like mine
had had its origin in an early a childish intimacy with the young adelaide the fruit of multiplied ties in the previous generation
i gained a friend but gravener practically lost one we reacted in different ways from the form taken by what he called their deplorable social action the form the term was also his of nasty second rate
gush i may have held in my for interieur that the good people at wimbledon were beautiful fools but when he sniffed at them i couldn't help taking the opposite line
for i already felt that even should we happen to agree it would always be for reasons that differed it came home to me that he was admirably british as without so much as a sociable sneer at my bookbinder
he turned away from the serried rows of my little french library of course i've never seen the fellow but it's clear enough he's a humbug clear enough is just what it isn't i replied if it only were
a long ache for final frivolous rest gravener was profound enough to remark after a moment that in the first place he couldn't be anything but a dissenter and when i answered that the very note of his fascination
was his extraordinary speculative breadth my friend retorted that there was no cad like your cultivated cad and that i might depend upon discovering since i had had the levity not already to have enquired
that my shining light proceeded a generation back from a methodist cheesemonger i confess i was struck with his insistence and i said after reflexion
asking the question mainly to lay him the trap of saying that it was because the poor man didn't dress for dinner he took an instant to circumvent my trap and come blandly out the other side
if i didn't reflect that they don't rave about me don't be too sure i'll grant that he's a gentleman gravener presently added if you'll admit that he's a scamp
my friend coloured at this but he didn't change the subject where did they pick him up i think they were struck with something he had published i can fancy the dreary thing i believe they found out he had all sorts of worries and difficulties
that of course wasn't to be endured so they jumped at the privilege of paying his debts i professed that i knew nothing about his debts and i reminded my visitor that though the dear mulvilles were angels they were neither idiots nor millionaires
what they mainly aimed at was reuniting mister saltram to his wife i was expecting to hear he has basely abandoned her gravener went on at this
i tried to recall exactly what missus mulville had told me
it's she who has left him
i can't no i really can't resist the impression that he's a big man i was already mastering to my shame perhaps be it said just the tone my old friend least liked it's doubtless only a trifle
why on what i began by boring you with his extraordinary mind
possibly in his writings but certainly in his talk which is far and away the richest i ever listened to and what's it all about my dear fellow don't ask me about everything i pursued
reminding myself of poor adelaide about his ideas of things i then more charitably added you must have heard him to know what i mean it's unlike anything that ever was heard i coloured i admit i overcharged a little
for such a picture was an anticipation of saltram's later development and still more of my fuller acquaintance with him however i really expressed a little lyrically perhaps my actual imagination of him
when i proceeded to declare that in a cloud of tradition of legend he might very well go down to posterity as the greatest of all great talkers before we parted
george gravener had wondered why such a row should be made about a chatterbox the more and why he should be pampered and pensioned the greater the wind bag the greater the calamity out of proportion to everything else on earth
had come to be this wagging of the tongue we were drenched with talk our wretched age was dying of it i differed from him here sincerely only going so far as to concede and gladly that we were drenched with sound
it was not however the mere speakers who were killing us it was the mere stammerers fine talk was as rare as it was refreshing the gift of the gods themselves
the one starry spangle on the ragged cloak of humanity how many men were there who rose to this privilege of how many masters of conversation could he boast the acquaintance dying of talk
why we were dying of the lack of it bad writing wasn't talk as many people seemed to think and even good wasn't always to be compared to it from the best talk indeed the best writing had something to learn
should be pointed at for having listened for having actually heard gravener who had glanced at his watch and discovered it was midnight found to all this a retort beautifully characteristic of him
there's one little fact to be borne in mind in the presence equally of the best talk and of the worst he looked in saying this as if he meant great things and i was sure he could only mean once more
that neither of them mattered if a man wasn't a real gentleman perhaps it was what he did mean he deprived me however of the exultation of being right by putting the truth in a slightly different way
the only thing that really counts for one's estimate of a person is his conduct he had his watch still in his palm and i reproached him with unfair play in having ascertained beforehand that it was now the hour
at which i always gave in my pleasantry so far failed to mollify him that he promptly added that to the rule he had just enunciated there was absolutely no exception none whatever none whatever
tradition saith sir norman kingsley's state of mind was decidedly depressed as the door shut violently he leaned against it and listened to his jailers place the great bars into their sockets and felt he was shut in
in the dreariest darkest dismalest disagreeablest place that it had ever been his misfortune to enter
she was sleeping the sleep of the just perhaps dreaming of him and little knowing that his head was to be cut off in half an hour in course of time morning would come it was not likely the ordinary course of nature would be cut off because he was
and looking a thousand times prettier than ever stand at the window and wait for him ah she might wait much good would it do her about that time he would probably be where it was a rather uncomfortable question but easily answered
and depressed him to a very desponding degree indeed he thought of ormiston and la masque no doubt they were billing and cooing in most approved fashion just then and never thinking of him though but for la masque and his own folly
he might have been half married by this time he thought of count l'estrange and master hubert
the other would and each being equally bad it was about a toss up in agony which got her he thought of queen miranda and of the adage put no trust in princes
more particularly such handsome human nature that she could figuratively speaking pat him on the back one moment and kick him to the scaffold the next he thought dejectedly what a fool he was ever to have come back
or even having come back not to have taken greater pains to stay up aloft instead of pitching abruptly head foremost into such a select company without an invitation he thought too what a cold damp unwholesome chamber they had lodged him in
and miasmatic fever if they would only let him live long enough to enjoy those blessings and this having brought him to the end of his melancholy meditation he began to reflect how he could best amuse himself in the interim
before quitting this vale of tears the candle was still blinking feebly on the floor shedding tears of wax in its feeble prostration and it suddenly reminded him of the dwarf's advice to examine his dark bower of repose
so he picked it up and snuffed it with his fingers and held it aloof much as robinson crusoe held the brand in the dark cavern with the dead goat in the velvet pall of blackness before alluded to its small wan ray pierced but a few inches
and only made the darkness visible but sir norman groped his way to the wall which he found to be all over green and noisome slime and broken out into a cold clammy perspiration as though it were at its last gasp
a fact which had his little friend known he would not have left it he managed to make the circuit of his prison which he found rather spacious and by no means uninhabited for the walls and floor were covered with fat black beetles whole families of which
interesting specimens of the insect world he crunched remorselessly under foot and massacred at every step and great depraved looking rats with flashing eyes and sinister teeth who made frantic dives and rushes at him
and bit at his jack boots with fierce fury these small quadrupeds reminded him forcibly of the dwarf especially in the region of the eyes and the general expression of countenance and he began to reflect that if the dwarf's soul
passed after death into the body of any other animal it would certainly be into that of a rat he had just come to this conclusion and was applying the flame of the candle to the nose of an inquisitive beetle
when it struck him he heard voices in altercation outside his door one clear ringing and imperious yet withal feminine was certainly not heard for the first time and the subdued and respectful voices that answered
were those of his guards after a moment he heard the sound of the withdrawing bolts and his heart beat fast surely his half hour had not already expired and if it had would she be the person to conduct him to death
the door opened a puff of wind extinguished his candle but not until he had caught the glimmer of jewels the shining of gold and the flutter of long black hair and then some one came in the door was closed
the bolts shot back and he was alone with miranda the queen there was no trouble about recognising her for she carried in her hand a small lamp which she held up between them that its rays might fall directly on both faces
each was rather white perhaps and one heart was going faster than it had ever gone before and that one was decidedly not the queen's she was dressed exactly as he had seen her in purple and ermine
in jewels and gold and strangely out of place she looked there in her splendid dress and splendid beauty among the black beetles and rats her face might have been a dead blank wall
or cut out of cold white stone for all it expressed and as she lightly held up her rich robes in one hand and in the other bore the light the dark shining eyes were fixed on his face
and were as barren of interest eagerness compassion tenderness or any other feeling as the shining black glass ones of a wax doll so they stood looking at each other for some ten seconds or so and then
still looking full at him miranda spoke and her voice was as clear and emotionless as her eyes well sir norman kingsley i have come to see you before you die
madame he stammered scarcely knowing what he said you are kind am i perhaps you forget i signed your death warrant probably it would have been at the risk of your own life to refuse
fifty death warrants now am i kind very likely it would have amounted to the same thing in the end they would kill me whether you signed it or not so what does it matter
which will be this night week and i would have incurred neither risk nor danger by refusing sir norman glanced round the dungeon and shrugged his shoulders i do not know that that prospect is much more inviting than the present one
even death is preferable to a week's imprisonment in a place like this
might have escaped madame look at this stone floor that stone roof these solid walls that barred and massive door reflect that i am some forty feet under ground cannot perform impossibilities
and then ask yourself how sir norman have you ever heard of good fairies visiting brave knights and setting them free sir norman smiled i am afraid the good fairies and brave knights
went the way of all flesh with king arthur's round table and even if they were in existence none of them would take the trouble to limp down so far to save such an unlucky dog as i then you forgive me for what i have done
your majesty
do not mock me here my majesty forsooth you have but fifteen minutes to live in this world sir norman and if you have no better way of spending them i will tell you a strange story my own and all about this place
madame there is nothing in the world i would like so much to hear you shall hear it then and it may beguile the last slow moments of time before you go out into eternity
she set her lamp down on the floor among the rats and beetles and stood watching the small red flame a moment with a gloomy downcast eye and sir norman gazing on the beautiful darkening face so like and yet so unlike leoline
meantime the half hour sped in the crimson court the last trial was over and lady castlemaine a slender little beauty of eighteen stood condemned to die
exclaimed the dwarf with sprightly animation and while i go to the cell you fair ladies and you my lord will seek the black chamber and await our coming there ordering one of his attendants to precede him with a light
the dwarf skipped jauntily away to gloat over his victim he reached the dungeon door which the guards with some trepidation in their countenance as they thought of what his highness would say when he found her majesty locked in with the prisoner
no sir norman kingsley obeyed the pleasant invitation and a dull echo from the darkness alone answered him there was a lamp burning on the floor and near it lay a form shining
and specked with white in the gloom he made for it between fear and fury but there was something red and slippery on the ground in which his foot slipped and he fell simultaneously there was a wild cry from the two guards and the attendant
that was echoed by a perfect screech of rage from the dwarf as on looking down he beheld queen miranda lying on the floor in the pool of blood and apparently quite dead
sighed missus bobbsey putting her arms closer about flossie i hope nothing more happens
the road is broad and smooth here and it can't be far to the beach here comes a carriage said bert as two pretty coach lights flashed through the trees hello there
well i declare said uncle william minturn jumping front his seat and beginning to help the stranded party we are all here began mister bobbsey but it was hard work to keep ourselves together
oh uncle william cried freddie put me in your carriage this one is breakin down every minute come right along my boy i'll fix you up first declared the uncle giving his little nephew a good hug as he placed him on the comfortable cushions inside the big carriage
there was not much chance for greetings as everybody was too anxious to get out of the old wagon so when all the boxes had been carefully put outside with the driver and all the passengers had taken their places on the long side seats
it was one of those large side seated carriages that uncle william had brought knowing he would have a big party to carry then with a sigh of relief missus bobbsey attempted to tell something of their experiences but how did you know where we were bert asked
then i found out that the train was late and we waited some more but when it came to be night and you had not arrived i set out looking for you
i happened to be near enough to the livery stable to hear some fellows talking about hank's breakdown with a big party aboard i knew then what had happened and sent dorothy home she had been out most of the afternoon waiting
got this carryall and here we are and uncle william only had to hint hurry up to his horses and away they went oh we did have the awfulest time insisted freddie i feel as if we hadn't seen a house in a whole year sighed little flossie
than a day since we started well you will be in aunt emily's arms in about
two minutes now declared uncle william as through the trees the lights from ocean cliff the minturn cottage could now be seen hello hello called voices from the veranda aunt emily and dorothy exclaimed bert and called back to them
and i don't know what we should have done in all our troubles if she had not
while they all made their way indoors oh nan cried dorothy hugging her cousin as tightly as ever she could i thought you would never come we were an awfully long time getting here nan answered returning her cousin's caress
but we had so many accidents nothing happened to your appetites i hope laughed uncle william as the dining room doors were swung open and a table laden with good things came into sight
i think i could eat said missus bobbsey then the mechanical piano player was started and the party made their way to the dining room
many and many a man has come to trouble so he will say by following his wife's advice this is how it was with a man of whom i shall tell you
there was once upon a time a fisherman who had fished all day long and had caught not so much as a sprat so at night there he sat by the fire rubbing his knees and warming his shins and waiting for supper that his wife was cooking for him
and his hunger was as sharp as vinegar and his temper hot enough to fry fat while he sat there grumbling and
trying to make himself comfortable and warm there suddenly came a knock at the door the good woman opened it and there stood an old man clad all in red from head to foot
and with a snowy beard at his chin as white as winter snow the fisherman's wife stood gaping and staring at the strange figure but the old man in red walked straight into the hut bring your nets fisherman said he and come with me
there is something that i want you to catch for me and if i have luck i will pay you for your fishing as never fisherman was paid before not i said the fisherman
but the fisherman's wife had listened to what the old man had said about paying for the job and she was of a different mind from her husband come said she the old man promises to pay you well this is not a chance to be lost i can tell you
and my advice to you is that you go the fisherman shook his head no he would not go he had said he would not and he would not but the wife only smiled and said again my advice to you is that you go
the fisherman grumbled and grumbled and swore that he would not go the wife said nothing but one thing she did not argue she did not lose her temper she only said to everything that he said my advice to you is that you go
said he spitting his words at her if you will drive me out into the night i suppose i will have to go and then he spoke the words that so many men say many a man has come to trouble by following his wife's advice
then down he took his fur cap and up he took his nets and off he and the old man marched through the moonlight their shadows bobbing along like black spiders behind them well on they went
out from the town and across the fields and through the woods until at last they came to a dreary lonesome desert where nothing was to be seen but gray rocks and weeds and thistles
well said the fisherman i have fished man and boy for forty seven years but never did i see as unlikely a place to catch anything as this but the old man said never a word first of all he drew a great circle with
strange figures marking it with his finger upon the ground then out from under his red gown he brought a tinder box and steel and a little silver casket covered all over with strange figures of serpents and dragons and what not
out of the box he took a gray powder which he flung upon the little blaze puff flash
presently there began a rumbling that sounded louder and louder and nearer and nearer until it roared and bellowed like thunder the earth rocked and swayed and the poor fisherman shook and trembled with fear till his teeth clattered in his head
then suddenly the roaring and bellowing ceased and all was as still as death though the darkness was as thick and black as ever now said the old magician for such he was
heed well what i tell you speak not a single word for if you do misfortune will be sure to happen ain't i to say anything said the fisherman no not even boo to a goose no well
that is pretty hard upon a man who likes to say his say said the fisherman and moreover said the old man i must blindfold you as well thereupon he took from his pocket a handkerchief and made ready to tie it about the fisherman's eyes
and ain't i to see anything at all said the fisherman no not even so much as a single feather no well then said the fisherman i wish i'd not come
but the old man tied the handkerchief tightly around his eyes and then he was as blind as a bat now said the old man throw your leg over what you feel and hold fast the fisherman reached down his hand and there felt the back of something rough and hairy he
flung his leg over it and whisk whizz off he shot through the air like a sky rocket nothing was left for him to do but grip tightly with hands and feet and to hold fast on they went and on they went until after a great while
whatever it was that was carrying him lit upon the ground and there the fisherman found himself standing for that which had brought him had gone the old man whipped the handkerchief off his eyes and there the fisherman found himself on the shores of the sea
where there was nothing to be seen but water upon one side and rocks and naked sand upon the other this is the place for you to cast your nets said the old magician for if we catch nothing here we catch nothing at all
the fisherman unrolled his nets and cast them and dragged them and then cast them and dragged them again but neither time caught so much as a herring but the third time
that he cast he found that he had caught something that weighed as heavy as lead he pulled and pulled until by and by he dragged the load ashore and what should it be but a great chest of wood blackened by the sea water
and covered with shells and green moss that was the very thing that the magician had come to fish for from his pouch the old man took a little golden key which he fitted into a key hole in the side of the chest
he threw back the lid the fisherman looked within and there was the prettiest little palace that man's eye ever beheld all made of mother of pearl and silver frosted as white as snow
for the palace instantly began to grow for all the world like a soap bubble until it stood in the moonlight gleaming and glistening like snow
the windows bright with the lights of a thousand wax tapers and the sound of music and voices and laughter coming from within hardly could the fisherman catch his breath from one strange thing when another happened
the old magician took off his clothes and his face yes his face for all the world as though it had been a mask and there stood as handsome and noble a young man as ever the light looked on then beckoning to the fisherman dumb with wonder
as he came the door swung open with a blaze of light and there stood hundreds of noblemen all clad in silks and satins and velvets who when they saw the magician bowed low before him as though he had been a king
leading the way they brought the two through halls and chambers and room after room each more magnificent than the other until they came to one that surpassed a hundredfold any of the others
at the farther end was a golden throne and upon it sat a lady more lovely and beautiful than a dream her eyes as bright as diamonds her cheeks like rose leaves and her hair like spun gold
she came half way down the steps of the throne to welcome the magician and when the two met they kissed one another before all those who were looking on then she brought him to the throne and seated him beside her and there they talked for a long time very earnestly
nobody said a word to the fisherman who stood staring about him like an owl i wonder said he to himself at last
if they will give a body a bite to eat by and by for to tell the truth the good supper that he had come away from at home had left a sharp hunger gnawing at his insides and he longed for something good and warm to fill the empty place but time passed
and not so much as a crust of bread was brought to stay his stomach by and by the clock struck twelve and then the two who sat upon the throne arose the beautiful lady took the magician by the hand and turning to those who stood around said in a loud voice
behold him who alone is worthy to possess the jewel of jewels unto him do i give it and with it all power of powers thereon she opened a golden casket that stood beside her
but what it was the fisherman could not guess and if you do not know i shall not tell you
she beckoned him and when he stood beside her two men came carrying a chest the chief treasurer opened it and it was full of bags of gold money how will you have it said the beautiful lady have what said the fisherman
have the pay for your labor said the beautiful lady i will said the fisherman promptly take it in my hat so be it said the beautiful lady she waved her hand and the chief treasurer
took a bag from the chest untied it and emptied a cataract of gold into the fur cap the fisherman had never seen so much wealth in all his life before and he stood like a man turned to stone is this all mine said the fisherman
it is said the beautiful lady then god bless your pretty eyes said the fisherman then the magician kissed the beautiful lady and beckoning to the fisherman left the throne room the same way that they had come
the noblemen in silks and satins and velvets marched ahead and back they went through the other apartments until at last they came to the door out they stepped and then what do you suppose happened
if the wonderful palace had grown like a bubble like a bubble it vanished there the two stood on the sea shore with nothing to be seen but rocks and sand and water and the starry sky overhead
the fisherman shook his cap of gold and it jingled and tinkled and was as heavy as lead if it was not all a dream he was rich for life but anyhow said he they might have given a body a bite to eat
the magician put on his red clothes and his face again making himself as hoary and as old as before he took out his flint and steel and his sticks of spice wood and his gray powder and made a great fire and smoke just as he had done before
then again he tied his handkerchief over the fisherman's eyes remember said he what i told you when we started upon our journey keep your mouth tight shut for if you utter so much as a single word you are a lost man
now throw your leg over what you feel and hold fast the fisherman had his net over one arm and his cap of gold in the other hand nevertheless there he felt the same hairy thing he had felt before
he flung his leg over it and away he was gone through the air like a sky rocket now he had grown somewhat used to strange things by this time so he began to think that he would like to see what sort of a creature it was upon which he was riding thus through the sky
so he contrived in spite of his net and cap to push up the handkerchief from over one eye out he peeped and then he saw as clear as day what the strange steed was
he was riding upon a he goat as black as night and in front of him was the magician riding upon just such another his great red robe fluttering out behind him in the moonlight like huge red wings great herring and little fishes roared the fisherman
instantly goats old man and all were gone like a flash down fell the fisherman through the empty sky whirling over and over and around and around like a frog he held tightly to his net but away flew his fur cap
the golden money falling in a shower like sparks of yellow light down he fell and down he fell until his head spun like a top by good luck his house was just below with its thatch of soft rushes into the very middle of it he tumbled
and right through the thatch bump into the room below the good wife was in bed snoring away for dear life but such a noise as the fisherman made coming into the house was enough to wake the dead up she jumped and there she sat staring and winking with sleep
there said the fisherman as he gathered himself up and rubbed his shoulder that is what comes of following a woman's advice all the good folk clapped their hands not so much because of the story itself but because it was a woman who told it
aye aye said the brave little tailor there is truth in what you tell fair lady and i like very well the way in which you have told it whose turn is it next said doctor faustus lighting a fresh pipe of tobacco
tis the turn of yonder old gentleman said the soldier who cheated the devil and he pointed with the stem of his pipe to the fisherman who unbottled the genie that king solomon had corked up and thrown into the sea every one else hath told a story and now it is his turn
i will not deny my friend that what you say is true and that it is my turn said the fisherman nor will i deny that i have already a story in my mind it is said he about a certain prince and of how he went through many and one adventures and at last discovered that which is
what their names were nobody knows
and these young people were famed throughout the whole kingdom for their wisdom and beauty there was only a year between them and they loved each other so much that they could do nothing apart
with servants and carriages and everything they could possibly want for many years they all lived happily together
promise me two things
one that if you marry again as indeed you must you will not choose as your wife a woman from some small state or distant island who knows nothing of the world and will be taken up with thoughts of her grandeur but rather
seek out a princess of some great kingdom who has been used to courts all her life and holds them at their true worth the other thing i have to ask is that you will never cease to watch over our children who will soon become your greatest joy
these were the queen's last words and a few hours later she was dead the king was so bowed down with sorrow that he would not attend even to the business of the kingdom and at last his prime minister had to tell him that the people were complaining
that they had nobody to right their wrongs you must rouse yourself sir went on the minister and put aside your own sorrows for the sake of your country you do not spare me answered the king but what you say is just and your counsel is good
i have heard that men say likewise that it will be for the good of my kingdom for me to marry again though my heart will never cease to be with my lost wife but it was her wish also therefore to you i entrust the duty of finding a lady fitted to share my throne
only see that she comes neither from a small town nor a remote island so an embassy was prepared with the minister at its head to visit the greatest courts in the world
but the vessel which carried them had not been gone many days when a thick fog came on and the captain could see neither to the right nor to the left for a whole month the ship drifted about in darkness
till at length the fog lifted and they beheld a cliff jutting out just in front on one side of the cliff lay a sheltered bay in which the vessel was soon anchored
the minister left the rest of his followers on board the ship and taking a small boat rowed himself to land in order to look about him and to find out if the island was really as deserted as it seemed he had not gone far when he heard the sound of music
and turning in its direction he saw a woman of marvellous beauty sitting on a low stool playing on a harp while a girl beside her sang the minister stopped and greeted the lady politely and she replied with friendliness asking him why he had come to such an out of the way place
in answer he told her of the object of his journey i am in the same state as your master replied the lady i was married to a mighty king who ruled over this land till vikings sea robbers came and slew him
and the daughter listened and said softly to her mother
answered the mother angrily giving her a pinch which was unseen by the minister what is your name madam asked he much touched by this sad story blauvor she replied and my daughter is called laufer and then she inquired the name of the minister and of the king his master
and even in much that men only were commonly taught what a wife she would make for the king thought the minister to himself and before long he had begged the honour of her hand for his master she declared at first that she was too unworthy to accept the position offered her
and that the minister would soon repent his choice but this only made him the more eager and in the end he gained her consent and prevailed on her to return with him at once to his own country the minister then conducted the mother and daughter back to the ship the anchor was raised the sails spread
and a fair wind was behind them now that the fog had lifted they could see as they looked back that except just along the shore the island was bare and deserted and not fit for men to live in but about that nobody cared
they had a quick voyage and in six days they reached the land and at once set out for the capital a messenger being sent on first by the minister to inform the king of what had happened when his majesty's eyes fell on the two beautiful women clad in dresses of gold and silver
he forgot his sorrows and ordered preparations for the wedding to be made without delay in his joy he never remembered to inquire in what kind of country the future queen had been found in fact his head was so turned by the beauty of the two ladies
that when the invitations were sent by his orders to all the great people in the kingdom he did not even recollect his two children who remained shut up in their own house after the marriage the king ceased to have any will of his own and did nothing without consulting his wife
she was present at all his councils and her opinion was asked before making peace or war but when a few months had passed the king began to have doubts as to whether the minister's choice had really been a wise one
they see a great deal more than they ever expected and soon it struck the king that the members of his court had a way of disappearing one after the other without any reason at first he had not paid much attention to the fact but merely appointed some fresh person to the vacant place
as however man after man vanished without leaving any trace he began to grow uncomfortable
things were in this state when one day his wife said to him that it was time for him to make a progress through his kingdom and see that his governors were not cheating him of the money that was his due
and you need not be anxious about going she added for i will rule the country while you are away as carefully as you could yourself the king had no great desire to undertake this journey but the queen's will was stronger than his
and he was too lazy to make a fight for it so he said nothing and set about his preparations ordering his finest ship to be ready to carry him round the coast still his heart was heavy and he felt uneasy though he could not have told why
and the night before he was to start he went to the children's palace to take leave of his son and daughter he had not seen them for some time and they gave him a warm welcome for they loved him dearly and he had always been kind to them
they had much to tell him but after a while he checked their merry talk and said if i should never come back from this journey i fear that it may not be safe for you to stay here so directly there are no more hopes of my return go instantly and take the road eastwards till you reach a high mountain
which you must cross once over the mountain keep along by the side of a little bay till you come to two trees one green and the other red standing in a thicket and so far back from the road that without looking for them you would never see them hide each in the trunk
of one of the trees and there you will be safe from all your enemies with these words the king bade them farewell and entered sadly into his ship for a few days the wind was fair and everything seemed going smoothly
in spite of the efforts of the frightened sailors the vessel was driven on the rocks and not a man on board was saved
in which he thought his father appeared to him in dripping clothes and taking the crown from his head laid it at his son's feet
hastily the prince awoke his sister lineik and they agreed that their father must be dead and that they must lose no time in obeying his orders and putting themselves in safety
so they collected their jewels and a few clothes and left the house without being observed by anyone they hurried on till they arrived at the mountain without once looking back
with an expression on her face which made her uglier than the ugliest old witch
till they reached the grove with the red and green trees into which they jumped and felt that at last they were safe now at that time there reigned over greece a king who was very rich and powerful although his name has somehow been forgotten he had two children
a son and a daughter who were more beautiful and accomplished than any greeks had been before and they were the pride of their father's heart the prince had no sooner grown out of boyhood than he prevailed on his father to make war during the summer months
when it was difficult to get food and horses in that wild country the army was dispersed and the prince returned home during one of these wars he had heard reports of the princess lineik's beauty
all this blauvor the queen found out by means of her black arts and when the prince drew near the capital she put a splendid dress on her own daughter and then went to meet her guest
she bade him welcome to her palace and when they had finished supper she told him of the loss of her husband and how there was no one left to govern the kingdom but herself but where is the princess lineik asked the prince when she had ended her tale
here answered the queen bringing forward the girl whom she had hitherto kept in the background the prince looked at her and was rather disappointed
for she saw what was passing in his mind she has never got over the loss of both father and mother that shows a good heart thought the prince and when she is happy her beauty will soon come back and without any further delay he begged the queen to consent to their betrothal
for the marriage must take place in his own country the queen was enchanted she had hardly expected to succeed so soon and she at once set about her preparations
was lineik they soon took leave of the queen and set sail in a splendid ship but in a short time a dense fog came on and in the dark the captain steered out of his course and they found themselves in a bay which was quite strange to all the crew
the prince ordered a boat to be lowered and went on shore to look about him and it was not long before he noticed the two beautiful trees quite different from any that grew in greece calling one of the sailors he bade him cut them down and carry them on board the ship this was done
and as the sky was now clear they put out to sea and arrived in greece without any more adventures the news that the prince had brought home a bride had gone before them and they were greeted with flowery arches and crowns of coloured lights the king and queen met them on the steps of the palace
the prince then went to his own rooms and ordered that the trees should be brought in to him the next morning the prince bade his attendants bring his future bride to his own apartments
and when she came he gave her silk which she was to weave into three robes one red one green and one blue and these must all be ready before the wedding the blue one was to be done first and the green last and this was to be the most splendid of all
for i will wear it at our marriage said he left alone laufer sat and stared at the heap of shining silk before her she did not know how to weave and burst into tears as she thought that everything would be discovered for lineik's skill in weaving was as famous as her beauty
as she sat with her face hidden and her body shaken by sobs
lineik my sister he called softly laufer is weeping help her i pray you have you forgotten the wrongs her mother did to us answered lineik and that it is owing to her that we are banished from home but she was not really unforgiving
and very soon she slid quietly out of her hiding place and taking the silk from laufer's hands began to weave it so quick and clever was she that the blue dress was not only woven but embroidered and lineik was safe back in her tree before the prince returned
it is the most beautiful work i have ever seen said he taking up a bit and i am sure that the red one will be still better because the stuff is richer and with a low bow he left the room laufer had hoped secretly that when the prince had seen the blue dress finished
he would have let her off the other two
again sigurd heard her and begged lineik to come to her help
mixing gold thread and precious stones till you could hardly see the red of the stuff when it was done she
but as the green robe must outshine the other two i will give you three days in which to finish it after it is ready we will be married at once now as he spoke
and perhaps lineik who had not forgotten the past either might have left her alone
to help just once more so lineik again slid out of her tree
and the moon's beams on the point of her needle and wove them into a pattern such as no man had ever seen but it took a long time and on the third morning
and she would have fallen had not the prince caught her i have thought for some time that all was not quite straight here said he tell me who you are and where you come from lineik then told her name and her story
when she had ended the prince turned angrily to laufer and declared that as a punishment for her wicked lies
but laufer fell at his feet and begged for mercy it was her mother's fault she said it was she and not i who passed me off as the princess lineik
on condition that lineik would consent to marry him not till my stepmother is dead
who had stolen her from a neighbouring palace and had brought her up as her daughter
it was she who had caused the disappearance of the courtiers
and marched upon the town where blauvor had her palace they came so suddenly that no one knew of it and if they had blauvor had eaten most of the strong men and others fearful of something they could not tell what had secretly left the place therefore she was easily captured
and the next day was beheaded in the market place afterwards the two princes marched back to greece lineik had no longer
it has been told how otter had sent the bearings
to the aid of thiodolf and his folk and these two were great kindreds and they being gone there abode with otter one man with another thralls and freemen scant three thousand men
that thiodolf and his men would soon return to them and in any case they said he lay between the romans and the mark
before they could be met in battle again for as aforesaid they were eager for the fray now it was in the cool of the evening two days after the battle on the ridge
two of the laxings and one of the shieldings and a grey old thrall of that same house were shooting a match with the bow driving their shafts at a rushen roundel hung on a pole which the old thrall had dight
and the mead horn went briskly from man to man
and a cry that a messenger was riding toward the burg thereat most men looked round toward the wood because their minds were set on fresh tidings from thiodolf's company but as it happened
and would speedily be amongst them so they wondered what the tidings might be but yet they did not break up the throng but abode in their places that they might receive the messenger more orderly and as the rider drew near
and drew rein there and lighted down slowly and painfully and when she was on the ground could scarce stand for stiffness and two or three of the swains drew near her to help her
of the wolfings for she was well known as a doughty woman then she said bring me to otter the war duke
since so many men are gathered together and meanwhile give me to drink for i am thirsty and weary
another reached to her the mead horn and she had scarce done her draught ere otter was there for they had found him at the gate of the burg he had many a time been in the wolfing hall so he knew her at once and said
for now presently shall the roman host be in mid mark then cried otter blow up the war horn get ye all to your weapons and be ready to leap on your horses and come ye to the thing in good order
therewith he led her to a grassy knoll that was hard by and set her down thereon and himself beside her and said speak now damsel and fear not for now shall one fate go over us all either
so she sent ten women and me the eleventh to the bearing dwelling and the road through the thicket aforesaid and we were to take of the bearing stay at homes whomso we would that were handy
and then all we to watch the ways for fear of the romans and methinks she has had some vision of their ways though mayhap not altogether clear anyhow
we came to the bearing dwellings and they gave us of their folk eight doughty women and two light foot lads and so we were twenty and one in all so then we did as the hall sun bade us and ordained a chain of watchers far up into the waste
and these were to sound a point of war upon their horns each to each till the sound thereof should come to us who lay with our horses hoppled ready beside us in the fair plain of the mark outside the thicket
and of the watches also came to us the last which had heard the sound amidst the thicket and said that it was certainly the sound of the goths horn and the note agreed on therefore i sent a messenger at once to the wolfing roof
to say what was toward but to thee i would not ride until i had made surer of the tidings so i waited awhile and then rode into the wild wood and a long tale i might make both of the waiting and the riding
that is to say six women who were come together after having blown their horns and fled though they should rather have abided in some lurking place
who had been one of the watch much further off and had spoken with the furthest of all which one had seen the faring of the roman host and that it was very great and no mere band of pillagers or of scouts
and she the fleer was at point to be taken and saw two taken indeed and haled off by the roman scourers of the wood but she escaped and so came to the others on the skirts of the thicket
and when they had new tidings to flee to wolf stead as occasion might serve them and for myself i tarried not but rode on the spur to tell thee
will take with them all that is not too hot or too heavy to carry and go their ways unto wolf stead and the tidings will go up and down the mark on both sides of the water so that whatever is of avail for defence
will gather there at our dwelling and if we fall
with that word she cast herself down on the grass by the mound side and was presently asleep for she was very weary but all the time she had been telling her tale
had the horn been sounding and there were now a many warriors gathered and more coming in every moment so otter stood up on the mound after he had bidden a man of his house to bring him his horse and war gear
till as might be said the whole host was gathered then he bade cry silence and spake sons of tyr now hath an host of the romans gotten into the mark a mighty host
but not so mighty that it may not be met few words are best let the steerings who are not many but are men well tried in war and wisdom abide in the burg along with the fighting thralls
save those that abide with the wains take horse and ride without delay and cross the water at battleford so that we may fall upon the foe before they come west of the water for as ye know
there is but one ford whereby a man wending straight from the bearings may cross mirkwood water and it is like that the foe will tarry at the bearing stead long enough to burn and pillage it so do ye order yourselves according to your kindreds
and then speedily shall he be with us geirbald i see thee come hither now geirbald stood amidst the shieldings and when otter had spoken he came forth bestriding a white horse and with his bow slung at his back
nor to heed anything but the trail of the foemen through the south eastern heaths of mirkwood whether other romans follow him or not whatever happens let him lead the goths by that road
which for him is the shortest towards the defence of the wolfing dwellings lo thou my ring for a token take it and depart in haste yet first take thy fellow viglund the woodman with thee lest if perchance one fall
the other may bear the message tarry not nor rest till thy word be said
and was blithe with all both old and young but as they were at the point of going she called to them and said tarry a little come ye all to the dais and hearken to me
and she stood in her place and spake
they said so will we and an old warrior hight sorli who sat in his chair no longer quite way worthy said hall sun this we looked for of thee
then she smiled and said will ye all do my bidding and they all cried out heartily yea hall sun that will we she said hearken then ye all know that east of mirkwood water
when ye come to the tofts of the bearings and their great roof the thicket behind them is close but that there is a wide way cut through it and often have i gone there if ye go by that way
and to bare places where the rocks crop up through the gravel and the woodland loam there breed the coneys without number and wild cats haunt the place for that sake and foxes
and all these have enough
beyond this place for a long way
but not many of either and here and there a hazel brake easy to thrust through then comes a space of oak trees scattered about the lovely wood lawn and then at last
the beech wood close above but clear beneath this i know well because i myself have gone so far and further and by this easy way have i gone so far to the south that i have come out into the fell country
that by this road easy to wend the romans should come into the mark for shall not those dastards and traitors
tell them hereof and will they not have heard of our thiodolf and this my holy namesake will they not therefore be saying to themselves go to now
why should we wrench the hinges off the door with plenteous labour when another door to the same chamber standeth open before us this house of the wolfings is the door to the treasure chamber of the markmen
let us fall on that at once rather than have many battles for other lesser matters and then at last have to fight for this also for having this we have all and they shall be our thralls and we may slaughter what we will
which is to watch diligently the ways of the wood the outgate to the mark and the places where the wood is thin and easy to travel on and ye shall bid them give you of their folk
now of these eleven i ordain hrosshild to be the leader and captain and to choose for her fellows
well nigh as strong as men clean limbed and tall tanned with sun and wind for all these were unwearied afield and oft would lie out a nights
and if ye be taken and it seem to you that ye may not bear the smart of the roman torments for they be wise in tormenting but will speak and bewray us under them then thrust this little edge tool into the place of your bodies
and so go to the gods with a good tale in your mouths so may the almighty god of earth speed you and the fathers of the kindred so she spoke
and they made no delay but each one took what axe or spear or sword she liked best and two had their bows and quivers of arrows and so all folk went forth from the hall
they saw a swift runner passing by those maidens just where the acres joined the meadow and he waved his hand aloft and shouted to them but stayed not his running for them but came up the lanes of the wheat at his swiftest
the swiftest footed of the wolfings and he gave a great shout as he came among them and he was dusty and way worn but eager
and cherish him in all ways but he cried out
to the speech hill first but even before that one word to thee hall sun saith thiodolf send ye watchers to look to the entrance into mid mark which is by the bearing dwelling
good is it when the thought of a friend stirreth betimes in one's own breast
or sawest thou not those ten women and hrosshild the eleventh as thou camest up into the acres
man woman and child fared with them and stood about the speech hill and the dogs went round about the edge of that assembly wandering in and out and sometimes looking hard on some one whom they knew best if he cried out aloud
but the men folk gave all their ears to hearkening and stood as close as they might
betwixt the openings of which the bracken grew exceeding tall when viglund who was very fine eared deemed that he heard a horse coming to meet them
but as the sound drew nearer and it was clearly the footsteps of a great horse
that he was of the bearings and so at last they knew him to be asbiorn of the said house a doughty man so they came forth to meet him and he drew rein when he saw armed men but presently beholding their faces he knew them and laughed on them
nay rather turn about with me or why are ye so grim of countenance our errand is no light one said geirbald but thou why art thou so merry i have seen the romans fall said he
so now is he hastening to fetch a compass and follow that road either to overtake them or prevent them and he biddeth otter tarry not but ride hard along the water to meet them if he may
or ever they have set their hands to the dwellings of my house and belike when i have done mine errand to otter i shall ride with him to look on these burners
now for your tidings fellows said geirbald our tidings are that both our errands are prevented and come to nought for otter hath not tarried but hath ridden with all his folk toward the stead of thine house
or else each go the road ordained for us said asbiorn to otter will i ride as i was bidden that i may look on the burning of our roof and avenge me of the romans afterwards
as for me ye must even lose a man's aid
and we wot surely of them our coming shall make him the speedier and the less like to turn back if any alien band shall follow after him what sayest thou viglund said viglund
even as thou geirbald but for myself i deem i may well turn back with asbiorn for i would serve the house in battle as soon as may be and maybe we shall slaughter these kites of the cities
said asbiorn geirbald knowest thou right well the ways through the wood
for i deem not but that he wendeth leisurely though always warily because he deemeth not that otter will ride before to morrow morning hearken viglund
where he is minded to wend to morrow betimes in the morning and if ye do your best ye shall be there before he is upon the road and sure it is that your tidings shall hasten him thou sayest sooth saith geirbald tarry we no longer
here sunder our ways farewell farewell said he and thou viglund take this word in parting that belike thou shalt yet see the romans
and strike a stroke and maybe be smitten for indeed they be most mighty warriors then made they no delay but rode their ways either side
and were out of the thick wood by day dawn and whereas they rode hard and viglund knew the ways well they came to mirkwood water before the day was old and saw that the host was stirring but not yet on the way and
or ever they came to the water's edge they were met by wolfkettle of the wolfings and hiarandi of the elkings and three others who were but just come from the place where the hurt men lay down in a dale near the great ridge
there had wolfkettle and hiarandi been tending toti of the beamings their fellow in arms who had been sorely hurt in the battle but was doing well and was like to live so when they saw the messengers they came up to them and hailed them and asked them
if the tidings were good or evil
said wolfkettle we will lead you to him he is on the east side of the water with all his host and they are hard on departing so they went down the ford which was not very deep and wolfkettle rode the ford behind geirbald
and another man behind viglund but hiarandi went afoot with the others beside the horses for he was a very tall man
but as they rode amidst the clear water wolfkettle lifted up his voice and sang white horse with what are ye laden as ye wade the shallows warm but with tidings of the battle and the fear of the fateful storm
and the face of the kite's nest showed pale and awful against a dark steely cloud and a few drops of rain pattered into the smooth water before them from a rag of the cloud flock right over head they were in mid stream now
and would fain know on what errand those were come
and turn thy face from beholding the shock of guilt with guilt stand still o blood of summer and let the harvest fade till there be nought but fallow
if it be but enough for our eyen to see the road of fight
till the joy of our hearts in battle bring back the day again as he spake that word
and they and the men who abode them on the bank shouted together for joy of fellowship and all tossed aloft their weapons the man who had ridden behind viglund slipped off on to the ground but wolfkettle abode in his place behind geirbald
so the messengers passed on and the others closed up round about them
on a rock beneath a sole ash tree the face of the kite's nest rising behind him on the other side of a bight of the river there he sat unhelmed with the dwarf wrought hauberk about him
holding throng plough in its sheath across his knees while he gave word to this and that man concerning the order of the host so when they were come thither the throng opened that the messengers might come forward
for by this time had many more drawn near to hearken what was toward there they sat on their horses the white and the grey and wolfkettle stood by geirbald's bridle rein for he had now lighted down and a little behind him his head towering over the others
the ragged cloud had drifted down south east now and the rain fell no more but the sun was still pale and clouded
what do ye sons of the war shield what tale is there to tell is the kindred fallen tangled in the grasp of the fallow hell crows the red cock over the homesteads have we met the foe too late
because we bear the message that the battle road ye take nor tarry for the thunder or the coming on of rain or the windy cloudy night tide lest your battle be but vain
seek thou the trail of the aliens of the cities of the south and thou shalt find it leading o'er the heaths to the beechen wood and thence to the stony places where the foxes find their food
said geirbald when last i looked upon otter all armed he rode the plain with his whole host clattering round him like the rush of the summer rain
to the right or the left they looked not but they rode through the dusk and the dark beholding nought before them but the dream of the foes in the mark so he went
and again it saith o war duke seek thou the bear's abode and tarry never a moment for ought that seems of worth for there shall ye find the sword edge and the flame of the foes of the earth tarry not thiodolf nor turn aback
though a new foe followeth on thine heels no need to question me more i have no more to tell save that a woman brought these tidings to us whom the hall sun had sent with others to watch the ways and some of them had seen the romans
but each man went about his business of looking to his war gear and gathering to the appointed place of his kindred
was close at hand so he bade him blow the war blast and all men knew the meaning of that voice of the horn and every man armed him in haste and they who had horses and these were but the bearings and the warnings saddled them and mounted
and from mouth to mouth went the word that the romans were gotten into mid mark and were burning the bearing abodes so speedily was the whole host ready for the way the wolfings at the head of all
when ye shall hold the aliens as the fishes in the net on the ridge ye slew a many but there came a many more from their strongholds by the water to their new built garth of war
and all these have been led by dastards o'er the way our feet must tread
but belike these are but the visions that to many a man shall come when he goeth adown to the battle and before him riseth high the wall of valiant foemen to hide all things anigh
that no work that we may win to morrow or the next day shall quench the markmen's kin on many a day hereafter shall their warriors carry shield on many a day their maidens shall drive the kine afield
so fell the whole host into due array and they were somewhat over three thousand warriors all good and tried men and meet to face the uttermost of battle in the open field so they went their ways with all the speed that footmen may
and in fair order and the sky cleared above their heads but the distant thunder still growled about the world geirbald and viglund joined themselves to the wolfings and went a foot along with wolfkettle
and up to the table and stood leaning on it with one hand his breast heaving with his last swift run then he spake presently i am gisli of the shieldings
otter sendeth me to the hall sun but on the way
or by lads a horseback both west and east of the water let her send the word as it seemeth to her whether she hath seen it or not
is over then a damsel brought him a horn of mead and let it come into his hand and he drank sighing with pleasure while the damsel for pleasure of him and his tidings laid her hand on his shoulder then he set down the horn and spake
we were all afoot for there is no wide way through the wood nor would we have it otherwise lest the foe find the thicket easy but many of us know the thicket and its ways so we made not the easy hard
as he said that word the carline who had drawn very near to him and was looking hard at his face turned and looked on the hall sun and stared at her till she reddened under those keen eyes
yet by his side was his mighty sword and we all knew it for throng plough and were glad of it and of him and the unfenced breast of the dauntless six hours we went spreading wide through the thicket
and we saw nought save here and there a roe and here and there a sounder of swine and coneys where it was opener and the sun shone and the grass grew for a little space
so came we unto where the thicket ended suddenly and there was a long glade of the wild wood all set about with great oak trees and grass thereunder which i knew well
and thereof the tale tells that it was a holy place of the folk who abided in these parts before the sons of the goths
so he drank of the horn and said it seemeth that fox had a deeming of the way the romans should come so now we abided in the thicket without that glade and lay quiet and hidden
spreading ourselves as much about that lawn of the oak trees as we might the while fox and three others
not long had they been gone ere we heard a war horn blow and it was none of our horns it was a long way off but we looked to our weapons for men are eager for the foe and the death that cometh when they lie hidden in the thicket
a while passed and again we heard the horn and it was nigher and had a marvellous voice then in a while was a little noise of men not their voices but footsteps going warily
through the brake to the south and twelve men came slowly and warily into that oak lawn and lo one of them was fox
and fox going between them as though he should be slain if he misled them and he and the eight abided there wisely and warily standing silently some six feet from each other moving scarce at all
but looking like images fashioned of brown copper and iron holding their casting spears which be marvellous heavy weapons and girt with the sax as they stood there
not out of earshot of a man speaking in his wonted voice our war duke made a sign to those about him and we spread very quietly to the right hand and the left of him once more and we drew as close as might be to the thicket's edge
maidens it were well that ye gave me to drink again for i am weary and my journey is done so again they brought him the horn and made much of him and he drank and then spake on now heard we the horn's voice again quite close
and it was sharp and shrill and nothing like to the roar of our battle horns still was the wood and no wind abroad not even down the oak lawn and we heard now the tramp of many men as they thrashed through the small wood
and bracken of the thicket way and those eight men and their leader came forward moving like one close up to the thicket where i lay just where the path passed into the thicket beset by the sons of the goths so near they were
that i could see the dints upon their armour and the strands of the wire on their sax handles down then bowed the tall bracken on the further side of the wood lawn the thicket crashed before the march of men and on they strode into the lawn
a goodly band wary alert and silent of cries but when they came into the lawn they spread out somewhat to their left hands that is to say on the west side for that way was the clear glade
but on the east the thicket came close up to them and edged them away therein lay the goths there they stayed awhile and spread out but a little as men marching not as men fighting
and another unarmed an old man bound and bleeding with these goths had the captain some converse and presently he cried out two or three words of welsh in a loud voice and the nine men who were ahead
shifted them somewhat away from us to lead down the glade westward the prey had come into the net but they had turned their faces toward the mouth of it then turned thiodolf swiftly to the man behind him who carried the war horn
and every man handled his weapons but that man understood and set the little end to his mouth and loud roared the horn of the markmen and neither friend nor foe misdoubted the tale thereof then leaped every man to his feet
no man forebore to shout each as he might
to right and left flashed throng plough while thiodolf himself scarce seemed to guide it men fell before him at once and close at his heels poured the wolfing kindred into the gap
and in a minute of time was he amidst of the throng and face to face with the gold dight captain what with the sweep of throng plough and the wolfing onrush there was space about him for a great stroke he gave a side long stroke to his right
all the four kindreds were on them now and amidst them and needs must they give way but stoutly they fought for surely no other warriors might have withstood that onslaught of the markmen for the twinkling of an eye
but not as dastards and had not thiodolf followed hard in the chase according to his wont they might even yet have made a fresh stand and spread from oak tree to oak tree across the glade but as it befel they might not get a fair offing
but the rest fled this way and that way into the thicket with whom were some of the burgundians so there they abide now as outcasts and men unholy to be slain as wild beasts one by one as we meet them
such then was the battle in mirkwood give me the mead horn that i may drink to the living and the dead and the memory of the dead and the deeds of the living that are to be so they brought him the horn
and we left them for the wolves to deal with and twenty five men of the romans we took alive to be for hostages if need should be and these did we shielding men who are not very many bring aback to the wain burg
taken from the coffer which was but seldom opened because the cloths it held were precious and they set a garland of green wheat ears on his head then they fell to and spread the feast in the hall
and they ate and drank and were merry but as for speeding the tidings the hall sun sent two women and two lads all a horseback to bear the words the women to remember the words which she taught them carefully
since she was so wise in the ancient lore but when they sought for her on all sides she was not to be found nor could anyone remember seeing her depart from the hall but
yet strange soundeth the precept die at the right time die at the right time so teacheth zarathustra to be sure he who never liveth at the right time
how could he ever die at the right time would that he might never be born thus do i advise the superfluous ones but even the superfluous ones make much ado about their death
and even the hollowest nut wanteth to be cracked every one regardeth dying as a great matter but as yet death is not a festival not yet have people learned to inaugurate the finest festivals
the consummating death i show unto you which becometh a stimulus and promise to the living his death dieth the consummating one triumphantly surrounded by hoping
and promising ones thus should one learn to die and there should be no festival at which such a dying one doth not consecrate the oaths of the living thus to die is best
the next best however is to die in battle and sacrifice a great soul but to the fighter equally hateful as to the victor is your grinning death which stealeth nigh like a thief
and yet cometh as master my death praise i unto you the voluntary death which cometh unto me because i want it and when shall i want it
he that hath a goal and an heir wanteth death at the right time for the goal and the heir and out of reverence for the goal and the heir he will hang up no more withered wreaths
in the sanctuary of life verily not the rope makers will i resemble they lengthen out their cord and thereby go ever backward many a one also waxeth too old for his truths and triumphs
a toothless mouth hath no longer the right to every truth and whoever wanteth to have fame must take leave of honour betimes and practise the difficult art of going at the right time
one must discontinue being feasted upon when one tasteth best that is known by those who want to be long loved sour apples are there no doubt
whose lot is to wait until the last day of autumn and at the same time they become ripe yellow and shrivelled in some ageth the heart first and in others the spirit
but the late young keep long young to many men life is a failure a poison worm gnaweth at their heart then let them see to it that their dying is all the more a success
many never become sweet they rot even in the summer it is cowardice that holdeth them fast to their branches far too many live and far too long hang they on their branches
would that a storm came and shook all this rottenness and worm eatenness from the tree would that there came preachers of speedy death
those would be the appropriate storms and agitators of the trees of life but i hear only slow death preached
ah ye preach patience with what is earthly this earthly is it that hath too much patience with you ye blasphemers verily
too early died that hebrew whom the preachers of slow death honour and to many hath it proved a calamity that he died too early as yet had he known only tears and the melancholy of the hebrews
together with the hatred of the good and just the hebrew jesus then was he seized with the longing for death had he but remained in the wilderness and far from the good and just
then perhaps would he have learned to live and love the earth and laughter also believe it my brethren he died too early he himself would have disavowed his doctrine had he attained to my age
noble enough was he to disavow but he was still immature immaturely loveth the youth and immaturely also hateth he man and earth
confined and awkward are still his soul and the wings of his spirit but in man there is more of the child than in the youth and less of melancholy better understandeth he about life and death
free for death and free in death a holy naysayer when there is no longer time for yea thus understandeth he about death and life
that your dying may not be a reproach to man and the earth my friends that do i solicit from the honey of your soul in your dying shall your spirit and your virtue
still shine like an evening after glow around the earth otherwise your dying hath been unsatisfactory thus will i die myself that ye friends may love the earth more for my sake
and earth will i again become to have rest in her that bore me verily a goal had zarathustra he threw his ball now be ye friends the heirs of my goal
to you throw i the golden ball best of all do i see you my friends throw the golden ball and so tarry i still a little while on the earth pardon me for it
thus spake zarathustra
the bite of the adder one day had zarathustra fallen asleep under a fig tree owing to the heat
and there came an adder and bit him in the neck so that zarathustra screamed with pain when he had taken his arm from his face he looked at the serpent and then did it recognise the eyes of zarathustra
wriggled awkwardly and tried to get away not at all said zarathustra as yet hast thou not received my thanks thou hast awakened me in time my journey is yet long
thy journey is short said the adder sadly my poison is fatal zarathustra smiled when did ever a dragon die of a serpent's poison said he
but take thy poison back thou art not rich enough to present it to me then fell the adder again on his neck and licked his wound
and what o zarathustra is the moral of thy story and zarathustra
thus the destroyer of morality the good and just call me my story is immoral when however ye have an enemy
then return him not good for evil for that would abash him but prove that he hath done something good to you and rather be angry than abash any one and when ye are cursed
it pleaseth me not that ye should then desire to bless rather curse a little also and should a great injustice befall you then
do quickly five small ones besides hideous to behold is he on whom injustice presseth alone did ye ever know this shared injustice is half justice
and he who can bear it shall take the injustice upon himself a small revenge is humaner than no revenge at all and if the punishment be not also a right and an honour to the transgressor
i do not like your punishing nobler is it to own oneself in the wrong than to establish one's right especially if one be in the right only one must be rich enough to do so
i do not like your cold justice out of the eye of your judges there always glanceth the executioner
tell me where find we justice which is love with seeing eyes devise me then the love which not only beareth all punishment but also all guilt
devise me then the justice which acquitteth every one except the judge and would ye hear this likewise to him who seeketh to be just from the heart
but how could i be just from the heart how can i give every one his own let this be enough for me i give unto every one mine own finally my brethren
guard against doing wrong to any anchorite how could an anchorite forget how could he requite like a deep well is an anchorite easy is it to throw in a stone
if it should sink to the bottom however tell me who will bring it out again guard against injuring the anchorite if ye have done so however well then kill him also
the bestowing virtue one when zarathustra had taken leave of the town to which his heart was attached the name of which is the pied cow
there followed him many people who called themselves his disciples and kept him company thus came they to a crossroad then zarathustra told them that he now wanted to go alone
for he was fond of going alone his disciples however presented him at his departure with a staff on the golden handle of which a serpent twined round the sun
zarathustra rejoiced on account of the staff and supported himself thereon then spake he thus to his disciples tell me pray
how came gold to the highest value because it is uncommon and unprofiting and beaming and soft in lustre
it always bestoweth itself only as image of the highest virtue came gold to the highest value goldlike beameth the glance of the bestower
gold lustre maketh peace between moon and sun uncommon is the highest virtue and unprofiting beaming is it and soft of lustre
a bestowing virtue is the highest virtue verily i divine you well my disciples ye strive like me for the bestowing virtue
what should ye have in common with cats and wolves it is your thirst to become sacrifices and gifts yourselves and therefore
have ye the thirst to accumulate all riches in your soul insatiably striveth your soul for treasures and jewels because your virtue is insatiable
in desiring to bestow ye constrain all things to flow towards you and into you so that they shall flow back again out of your fountain as the gifts of your love
verily an appropriator of all values must such bestowing love become but healthy and holy call i this selfishness another selfishness
is there an all too poor and hungry kind which would always steal the selfishness of the sick the sickly selfishness with the eye of the thief
it looketh upon all that is lustrous with the craving of hunger it measureth him who hath abundance and ever doth it prowl round the tables of bestowers
sickness speaketh in such craving and invisible degeneration of a sickly body speaketh the larcenous craving of this selfishness tell me my brother
what do we think bad and worst of all is it not degeneration and we always suspect degeneration when the bestowing soul is lacking upward
goeth our course from genera on to super genera but a horror to us is the degenerating sense which saith all for myself upward soareth our sense
thus is it a simile of our body a simile of an elevation such similes of elevations are the names of the virtues
thus goeth the body through history a becomer and fighter and the spirit what is it to the body its fights and victories herald its companion
and echo similes are all names of good and evil they do not speak out they only hint a fool who seeketh knowledge from them give heed my brethren
when your spirit would speak in similes there is the origin of your virtue elevated is then your body and raised up with its delight
enraptureth it the spirit so that it becometh creator and valuer and lover and everything's benefactor when your heart overfloweth broad and full like the river
a blessing and a danger to the lowlanders there is the origin of your virtue when ye are exalted above praise and blame and your will would command all things as a loving one's will
there is the origin of your virtue when ye despise pleasant things and the effeminate couch and cannot couch far enough from the effeminate there is the origin of your virtue
when ye are willers of one will and when that change of every need is needful to you there is the origin of your virtue verily a new good and evil is it verily
a new deep murmuring and the voice of a new fountain power is it this new virtue a ruling thought is it and around it a subtle soul a golden sun
with the serpent of knowledge around it two here paused zarathustra awhile and looked lovingly on his disciples then he continued to speak thus
and his voice had changed remain true to the earth my brethren with the power of your virtue let your bestowing love and your knowledge be devoted to be the meaning of the earth
thus do i pray and conjure you let it not fly away from the earthly and beat against eternal walls with its wings ah
there hath always been so much flown away virtue lead like me the flown away virtue back to the earth yea back to body and life
that it may give to the earth its meaning a human meaning a hundred times hitherto hath spirit as well as virtue flown away and blundered alas
in our body dwelleth still all this delusion and blundering body and will hath it there become a hundred times hitherto
yea an attempt hath man been alas much ignorance and error hath become embodied in us not only the rationality of millenniums
also their madness breaketh out in us dangerous is it to be an heir still fight we step by step with the giant chance and over all mankind
hath hitherto ruled nonsense the lack of sense let your spirit and your virtue be devoted to the sense of the earth my brethren let the value of everything be determined anew by you
therefore shall ye be fighters therefore shall ye be creators intelligently doth the body purify itself attempting with intelligence it exalteth itself
to the discerners all impulses sanctify themselves to the exalted the soul becometh joyful physician heal thyself then wilt thou also heal thy patient
who maketh himself whole a thousand paths are there which have never yet been trodden a thousand salubrities and hidden islands of life
unexhausted and undiscovered is still man and man's world awake and hearken ye lonesome ones from the future come winds with stealthy pinions and to fine ears
good tidings are proclaimed ye lonesome ones of to day ye seceding ones ye shall one day be a people out of you who have chosen yourselves
shall a chosen people arise and out of it the superman verily a place of healing shall the earth become and already is a new odour diffused around it
a salvation bringing odour and a new hope three when zarathustra had spoken these words he paused like one who had not said his last word
and long did he balance the staff doubtfully in his hand at last he spake thus and his voice had changed i now go alone my disciples ye also now go away and alone
so will i have it verily i advise you depart from me and guard yourselves against zarathustra and better still be ashamed of him perhaps he hath deceived you
the man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends one requiteth a teacher badly if one remain merely a scholar and why will ye not pluck at my wreath
ye venerate me but what if your veneration should some day collapse take heed lest a statue crush you ye say ye believe in zarathustra but of what account is zarathustra
ye are my believers but of what account are all believers ye had not yet sought yourselves then did ye find me so do all believers therefore
now do i bid you lose me and find yourselves and only when ye have all denied me will i return unto you verily with other eyes my brethren shall i then seek my lost ones
with another love shall i then love you and once again shall ye have become friends unto me and children of one hope then will i be with you for the third time
to celebrate the great noontide with you and it is the great noontide when man is in the middle of his course between animal and superman
and celebrateth his advance to the evening as his highest hope for it is the advance to a new morning at such time will the down goer bless himself
that he should be an over goer and the sun of his knowledge will be at noontide dead are all the gods
let this be our final will at the great noontide
chapter seven cousin helen's visit a little knot of the school girls were walking home together one afternoon in july as they neared doctor carr's gate maria fiske exclaimed
oh my she cried see what somebody's dropped i'm going to have it she stooped to pick it up but just as her fingers touched the stems the nosegay as if bewitched began to move
maria made a bewildered clutch the nosegay moved faster and at last vanished under the gate while a giggle sounded from the other side of the hedge did you see that shrieked maria
those flowers ran away of themselves nonsense said katy it's those absurd children then opening the gate she called john dorry come out and show yourselves
but nobody replied and no one could be seen the nosegay lay on the path however and picking it up katy exhibited to the girls a long end of black thread tied to the stems
that's a very favorite trick of johnnie's she said
here maria take em if you like though i don't think john's taste in bouquets is very good isn't it splendid to have vacation come said one of the bigger girls what are you all going to do we're going to the seaside
he'll take susie and me to niagara said maria i'm going to make my aunt a visit said alice blair
and tom that's my cousin says he'll teach me to row what are you going to do katy oh i don't know play round and have splendid times replied katy throwing her bag of books into the air and catching it again
but the other girls looked as if they didn't think this good fun at all and as if they were sorry for her and katy felt suddenly that her vacation wasn't going to be so pleasant as that of the rest
i wish papa would take us somewhere she said to clover as they walked up the gravel path all the other girls papas do he's too busy replied clover beside
i don't think any of the rest of the girls have half such good times as we ellen robbins says she'd give a million of dollars for such nice brothers and sisters as ours to play with and you know maria and susie have awful times at home
though they do go to places missus fiske is so particular she always says don't and they haven't got any yard to their house or anything i wouldn't change nor i said katy cheering up at these words of wisdom
oh isn't it lovely to think there won't be any school to morrow vacations are just splendid and she gave her bag another toss it fell to the ground with a crash there you've cracked your slate
said clover no matter i sha'n't want it again for eight weeks replied katy comfortably
they burst open the front door and raced up stairs crying hurrah hurrah vacation's begun aunt izzie vacation's begun then they stopped short
sounds of beating and dusting came from the spare room tables and chairs were standing about and a cot bed which seemed to be taking a walk all by itself had stopped short at the head of the stairs and barred the way
why how queer said katy trying to get by what can be going to happen oh there's aunt izzie aunt izzie who's coming what are you moving the things out of the blue room for oh gracious is that you
replied aunt izzie who looked very hot and flurried now children it's no use for you to stand there asking questions i haven't got time to answer them let the bedstead alone katy you'll push it into the wall there i told you so as katy gave an impatient shove
what a troublesome child you are go right down stairs both of you and don't come up this way again till after tea
just tell us what's going to happen and we will cried the children your cousin helen is coming to visit us said miss izzie curtly and disappeared into the blue room this was news indeed katy and clover
ran down stairs in great excitement and after consulting a little retired to the loft to talk it over in peace and quiet cousin helen coming it seemed as strange as if queen victoria gold crown and all
had invited herself to tea or as if some character out of a book robinson crusoe say or amy herbert had driven up with a trunk
for to the imaginations of the children cousin helen was as interesting and unreal as anybody in the fairy tales cinderella or blue beard or dear red riding hood herself only
there was a sort of mixture of sunday school book in their idea of her for cousin helen was very very good none of them had ever seen her philly said he was sure she hadn't any legs
because she never went away from home
all the time but the rest knew that this was because cousin helen was ill papa always went to visit her twice a year and he liked to talk to the children about her
katy and clover had played cousin helen so long that now they were frightened as well as glad at the idea of seeing the real one
asked clover not all the time replied katy because you know she'll get tired and have to take naps in the afternoons and then of course she reads the bible a great deal oh dear
how quiet we shall have to be i wonder how long she's going to stay
went on clover something like lucy in missus sherwood i guess with blue eyes and curls and a long straight nose and she'll keep her hands clasped so all the time and wear
frilled wrappers and lie on the sofa perfectly still and never smile but just look patient we'll have to take off our boots in the hall clover and go up stairs in stocking feet so as not to make a noise
all the time she stays won't it be funny giggled clover her sober little face growing bright at the idea of this variation on the hymns the time seemed very long till the next afternoon
when cousin helen was expected aunt izzie who was in a great excitement gave the children many orders about their behavior they were to do this and that and not to do the other dorry at last
announced that he wished cousin helen would just stay at home clover and elsie who had been thinking pretty much the same thing in private were glad to hear that she was on her way to a water cure and would stay only four days
five o'clock came they all sat on the steps waiting for the carriage at last it drove up papa was on the box he motioned the children to stand back then
he helped out a nice looking young woman who aunt izzie told them was cousin helen's nurse and then very carefully lifted cousin helen in his arms and brought her in oh there are the chicks
pleasant voice do set me down somewhere uncle i want to see them so much so papa put cousin helen on the hall sofa the nurse fetched a pillow and when she was made comfortable
he said indeed i do said the bright voice so this is katy
kissing her and this dear little elsie you all look as natural as possible just as if i had seen you before and she hugged them all round
relations but as if she had loved them and wanted them all her life there was something in cousin helen's face and manner which made the children at home with her at once even philly
who had backed away with his hands behind him after staring hard for a minute or two came up with a sort of rush to get his share of kissing still katy's first feeling was one of disappointment cousin helen was not at all
like lucy in missus sherwood's story her nose turned up the least bit in the world she had brown hair which didn't curl a brown skin and bright eyes which danced when she laughed or spoke her face was thin
but except for that you wouldn't have guessed that she was sick she didn't fold her hands and she didn't look patient but absolutely glad and merry her dress wasn't a frilled wrapper but a sort of loose travelling thing of pretty gray stuff
with a rose colored bow and bracelets and a round hat trimmed with a gray feather all katy's dreams about the saintly invalid seemed to take wings and fly away but the more she watched cousin helen
the more she seemed to like her and to feel as if she were nicer than the imaginary person which she and clover had invented she looks just like other people don't she
doubtfully only a great great deal prettier by and by papa carried cousin helen up stairs all the children wanted to go too but he told them she was tired and must rest
such a nice supper cold chicken and raspberries and cream and tea in a pretty pink and white china cup and such a snow white napkin as aunt izzie spread over the tray no indeed said aunt izzie
you'll drop it the first thing but katy's eyes begged so hard that doctor carr said yes let her izzie i like to see the girls useful so katy proud of the commission
took the tray and carried it carefully across the hall there was a bowl of flowers on the table as she passed she was struck with a bright idea she set down the tray and picking out a rose
laid it on the napkin besides the saucer of crimson raspberries it looked very pretty and katy smiled to herself with pleasure what are you stopping for
do be careful katy i really think bridget had better take it oh no no protested katy i'm most up already and she sped up stairs as fast as she could go luckless speed
when she tripped upon her boot lace which as usual was dangling made a misstep and stumbled she caught at the door to save herself the door flew open and katy with the tray cream raspberries rose and all
descended in a confused heap upon the carpet i told you so exclaimed aunt izzie from the bottom of the stairs katy never forgot how kind cousin helen was on this occasion she was in bed and was of course a good deal startled
at the sudden crash and tumble on her floor but after one little jump nothing could have been sweeter than the way in which she comforted poor crest fallen katy and made so merry over the accident that even aunt izzie almost forgot to scold
the broken dishes were piled up and the carpet made clean again while aunt izzie prepared another tray just as nice as the first please let katy bring it up pleaded cousin helen in her pleasant voice
i am sure she will be careful this time and katy i want just such another rose on the napkin i guess that was your doing wasn't it katy was careful this time all went well the tray
was placed safely on a little table beside the bed and katy sat watching cousin helen eat her supper with a warm loving feeling at her heart i think we are scarcely ever so grateful to people
as when they help us to get back our own self esteem cousin helen hadn't much appetite though she declared everything was delicious katy could see that she was very tired now she said
if you'll shake up this pillow so and move this other pillow a little i think i will settle myself to sleep
why katy dear you are a born nurse now kiss me good night to morrow we will have a nice talk katy went down stairs very happy
cousin helen's perfectly lovely she told clover and she's got on the most beautiful night gown all lace and ruffles it's just like a night gown in a book isn't it wicked to care about clothes when you're sick
questioned cecy i don't believe cousin helen could do anything wicked said katy i told ma that she had on bracelets and ma said she feared your cousin was a worldly person retorted cecy primming up her lips
i mean to ask cousin helen to morrow said katy next morning the children got up very early they were so glad that it was vacation if it hadn't been
for she didn't wake till late they grew so impatient of the delay and went up stairs so often to listen at the door and see if she were moving that aunt izzie finally had to order them off katy rebelled against this order a good deal
but she consoled herself by going into the garden and picking the prettiest flowers she could find to give to cousin helen the moment she should see her when aunt izzie let her go up cousin helen was lying on the sofa
all dressed for the day in a fresh blue muslin with blue ribbons and cunning bronze slippers with rosettes on the toes the sofa had been wheeled round with its back to the light there was a cushion
with a pretty fluted cover that katy had never seen before and several other things were scattered about which gave the room quite a different air all the house was neat but somehow aunt izzie's rooms never were pretty
children's eyes are quick to perceive such things and katy saw at once that the blue room had never looked like this cousin helen was white and tired but her eyes and smile were as bright as ever
she was delighted with the flowers which katy presented rather shyly oh how lovely she said i must put them in water right away katy dear don't you want to bring that little vase on the bureau and set it on this chair beside me and please
what a beauty cried katy as she lifted the graceful white cup swung on a gilt stand is it yours cousin helen yes it is my pet vase
it stands on a little table beside me at home and i fancied that the water cure would seem more home like if i had it with me there so i brought it along
does it seem queer that a vase should travel about in a trunk no said katy slowly i was only thinking cousin helen is it worldly to have pretty things when you're sick
cousin helen laughed heartily
cecy said so when i told her about your beautiful night gown cousin helen laughed again well she said i'll tell you what i think katy pretty things are no more worldly than ugly ones except
when they spoil us by making us vain or careless of the comfort of other people and sickness is such a disagreeable thing in itself that unless sick people take great pains
they soon grow to be eyesores to themselves and everybody about them i don't think it is possible for an invalid to be too particular and when one has the back ache and the head ache and the all over ache she added smiling
because of a ruffle more or less on one's night gown
then she began to arrange the flowers touching each separate one gently and as if she loved it what a queer noise she exclaimed suddenly stopping it was queer
a sort of snuffing and snorting sound as if a walrus or a sea horse were promenading up and down in the hall katy opened the door behold there were john and dorry
very red in the face from flattening their noses against the key hole in a vain attempt
and ready to receive company oh let them come in cried cousin helen from her sofa so they came in followed before long by clover and elsie such a merry morning as they had
cousin helen proved to possess a perfect genius for story telling and for suggesting games
aunt izzie dropping in about eleven o'clock found them having such a good time that almost before she knew it she was drawn into the game too nobody had ever heard of such a thing before
there sat aunt izzie on the floor with three long lamp lighters stuck in her hair playing i'm a genteel lady
that they could hardly attend to the game and were always forgetting how many horns they had clover privately thought that cousin helen must be a witch and papa when he came home at noon said almost the same thing
what have you been doing to them helen
aunt izzie's hair was half pulled down and philly was rolling over and over in convulsions of laughter but cousin helen said she hadn't done anything and pretty soon papa was on the floor too playing away as fast as the rest
i must put a stop to this he cried when everybody was tired of laughing and everybody's head was stuck as full of paper quills as a porcupine's back cousin helen will be worn out run away all of you and don't come near this door again till the clock strikes four
the children scuttled away like a brood of fowls all but katy oh papa i'll be so quiet she pleaded mightn't i stay just till the dinner bell rings
do let her said cousin helen so papa said yes katy sat on the floor holding cousin helen's hand and listening to her talk with papa it interested her
how is alex asked doctor carr at length quite well now replied cousin helen with one of her brightest looks he was run down and tired in the spring and we were a little anxious about him
but emma persuaded him to take a fortnight's vacation and he came back all right do you see them often almost every day
oh yes prettier i think she is a lovely little creature
alex tries to think that she looks a little as i used to but that is a compliment so great that i dare not appropriate it doctor carr stooped and kissed cousin helen as if he could not help it my dear child
he said that was all but something in the tone made katy curious
she said after dinner who is alex that you and cousin helen were talking about why katy what makes you want to know i can't exactly tell only cousin helen looked so and you kissed her
and i thought perhaps it was something interesting so it is said doctor carr drawing her on to his knee i've a mind to tell you about it katy because you're old enough to see how beautiful it is and wise enough i hope not to chatter
or ask questions alex is the name of somebody who long ago when cousin helen was well and strong she loved and expected to marry oh why didn't she
cried katy she met with a dreadful accident continued doctor carr for a long time they thought she would die then she grew slowly better and the doctors told her that she might live
a good many years but that she would have to lie on her sofa always and be helpless and a cripple alex felt dreadfully when he heard this he wanted to marry cousin helen just the same and be her nurse
and take care of her always but she would not consent she broke the engagement and told him that some day she hoped he would love somebody else well enough to marry her so after a good many years he did
and now he and his wife live next door to cousin helen and are her dearest friends their little girl is named helen all their plans are talked over with her and there is nobody in the world they think so much of
but doesn't it make cousin helen feel bad when she sees them walking about and enjoying themselves and she can't move asked katy no said doctor carr it doesn't because
cousin helen is half an angel already and loves other people better than herself i'm very glad she could come here for once she's an example to us all katy and i couldn't ask anything better
than to have my little girls take pattern after her it must be awful to be sick soliloquized katy after papa was gone why if i had to stay in bed a whole week i should die
poor katy it seemed to her as it does to almost all young people that there is nothing in the world so easy as to die the moment things go wrong this conversation with papa
made cousin helen doubly interesting in katy's eyes it was just like something in a book to be in the same house with the heroine of a love story so sad and sweet
the play that afternoon was much interrupted for every few minutes somebody had to run in and see if it wasn't four o'clock the instant the hour came all six children galloped up stairs
i think we'll tell stories this time said cousin helen so they told stories cousin helen's were the best of all there was one of them about a robber which sent delightful chills creeping down all their backs all but philly
i ain't afraid of robbers he declared strutting up and down when they come i shall just cut them in two with my sword which papa gave me they did come once i did cut them in two three five eleven of em you'll see
but that evening after the younger children were gone to bed and katy and clover were sitting in the blue room a lamentable howling was heard from the nursery clover ran to see what was the matter behold there was phil
sitting up in bed and crying for help there's robbers under the bed he sobbed ever so many robbers why no philly
there isn't anybody there yes there is i tell you declared phil holding her tight i heard one they were chewing my india rubbers poor little fellow said cousin helen when clover
having pacified phil came back to report it's a warning against robber stories but this one ended so well
by hook or by crook the children would get up stairs whenever aunt izzie went in she was sure to find them there just as close to cousin helen as they could get
we have only three or four days to be together she said let them come as much as they like it won't hurt me a bit little elsie clung with a passionate love to this new friend cousin helen had sharp eyes
she saw the wistful look in elsie's face at once and took special pains to be sweet and tender to her this preference made katy jealous she couldn't bear to share her cousin with anybody
when the last evening came and they went up after tea to the blue room cousin helen was opening a box
so you must choose in turn which you will take so they all chose in turn which hand will you have the right or the left and cousin helen with the air of a wise fairy
brought out from behind her pillow something pretty for each one first came a vase exactly like her own which katy had admired so much katy screamed with delight
she cried i'll keep it as long as i live and breathe if you do it'll be the first time you ever kept anything for a week without breaking it remarked aunt izzie next came a pretty purple pocket book for clover
it was just what she wanted for she had lost her porte monnaie then a cunning little locket on a bit of velvet ribbon which cousin helen tied round elsie's neck there's a piece of my hair in it she said
why elsie darling what's the matter don't cry so oh you're s o beautiful and
sobbed elsie and you're go o ing away dorry had a box of dominoes and john a solitaire board for phil there appeared a book the history
of the robber cat that will remind you of the night when the thieves came and chewed your india rubbers said cousin helen with a mischievous smile they all laughed phil loudest of all nobody was forgotten
there was a notebook for papa and a set of ivory tablets for aunt izzie even cecy was remembered her present was the book of golden deeds with all sorts of stories about boys and girls
who had done brave and good things she was almost too pleased to speak oh thank you cousin helen she said at last cecy wasn't a cousin but she and the carr children were in the habit of sharing their aunts and uncles
and relations generally as they did their other good things next day came the sad parting all the little ones stood at the gate to wave their pocket handkerchiefs as the carriage drove away when it was quite out of sight
katy rushed off to weep a little weep all by herself papa said he wished we were all like cousin helen she thought as she wiped her eyes and i mean to try
i'll study and keep my things in order and be ever so kind to the little ones dear me if only aunt izzie was cousin helen how easy it would be
without distinction provided they left him in peace as the greeks called the furies the beautiful the good the charming
like all the rest of the world
without which no one could exist at that time but he was neither a royalist a bonapartist a chartist an orleanist nor an anarchist he was a bouquinist a collector of old books
he did not understand how men could busy themselves with hating each other because of silly stuff like the charter democracy legitimacy monarchy the republic et cetera when there were in the world
all sorts of mosses grasses and shrubs which they might be looking at and heaps of folios
he took good care not to become useless having books did not prevent his reading being a botanist did not prevent his being a gardener when he made pontmercy's acquaintance
this sympathy had existed between the colonel and himself that what the colonel did for flowers he did for fruits
it is from one of his combinations apparently that the october mirabelle now celebrated and no less perfumed than the summer mirabelle owes its origin he went to mass rather from gentleness than from piety
and because as he loved the faces of men but hated their noise he found them assembled and silent only in church feeling that he must be something in the state he had chosen the career of warden
however he had never succeeded in loving any woman as much as a tulip bulb
he had long passed sixty when one day some one asked him have you never been married i have forgotten said he when it sometimes happened to him and to whom does it not happen to say oh
if i were only rich it was not when ogling a pretty girl as was the case with father gillenormand but when contemplating an old book he lived alone with an old housekeeper he was somewhat gouty
and when he was asleep his aged fingers stiffened with rheumatism lay crooked up in the folds of his sheets he had composed and published a flora of the environs of cauteretz with colored plates
a work which enjoyed a tolerable measure of esteem and which sold well people rang his bell
two or three times a day to ask for it he drew as much as two thousand francs a year from it this constituted nearly the whole of his fortune
he had had the talent to form for himself by dint of patience privations and time a precious collection of rare copies of every sort he never went out without a book under his arm and he often returned with two
the sole decoration of the four rooms on the ground floor which composed his lodgings consisted of framed herbariums and engravings of the old masters the sight of a sword or a gun chilled his blood
he had never approached a cannon in his life even at the invalides he had a passable stomach a brother who was a cure perfectly white hair no teeth either in his mouth or his mind
a trembling in every limb a picard accent
the air of an old sheep and he was easily frightened add to this that he had no other friendship no other acquaintance among the living
his servant was also a sort of innocent the poor good old woman was a spinster sultan her cat which might have mewed allegri's miserere in the sixtine chapel
had filled her heart and sufficed for the quantity of passion which existed in her none of her dreams had ever proceeded as far as man she had never been able to get further than her cat like him she had a mustache
her glory consisted in her caps which were always white she passed her time on sundays after mass in counting over the linen in her chest
she knew how to read
warmed his age without startling his timidity youth combined with gentleness produces on old people the effect of the sun without wind when marius was saturated with military glory with gunpowder
with marches and countermarches and with all those prodigious battles in which his father had given
the revolution of july brought a crisis to publishing in a period of embarrassment the first thing which does not sell is a flora the flora of the environs of cauteretz stopped short
weeks passed by without a single purchaser
monsieur said mother plutarque sadly it is the water carrier in short one day
abdicated the functions of warden
and installed himself in a little house on the rue montparnasse where however he remained but one quarter for two reasons in the first place the ground floor and the garden cost three hundred francs
and he dared not spend more than two hundred francs on his rent in the second being near faton's shooting gallery he could hear the pistol shots which was intolerable to him he carried off his flora his copper plates his herbariums
his portfolios and his books and established himself near the salpetriere in a sort of thatched cottage of the village of austerlitz where for fifty crowns a year he got three rooms and a garden enclosed by a hedge and containing a well
he took advantage of this removal to sell off nearly all his furniture on the day of his entrance into his new quarters he was very gay and drove the nails on which his engravings and herbariums were to hang with his own hands
dug in his garden the rest of the day and at night perceiving that mother plutarque had a melancholy air and was very thoughtful he tapped her on the shoulder and said to her with a smile we have the indigo only two visitors
were admitted to view the thatched cottage at austerlitz a brawling name which was to tell the truth extremely disagreeable to him however as we have just pointed out brains which are absorbed in some bit of wisdom or folly
or as it often happens in both at once are but slowly accessible to the things of actual life their own destiny is a far off thing to them there results from such concentration a passivity which
if it were the outcome of reasoning would resemble philosophy one declines descends trickles away even crumbles away and yet is hardly conscious of it one's self it always ends it is true in an awakening
but the awakening is tardy in the meantime it seems as though we held ourselves neutral in the game which is going on between our happiness and our unhappiness we are the stake and we look on at the game with indifference
it is thus that athwart the cloud which formed about him when all his hopes were extinguished one after the other
but profoundly serene his habits of mind had the regular swing of a pendulum once mounted on an illusion he went for a very long time even after the illusion had disappeared
a clock does not stop short at the precise moment when the key is lost
these pleasures were inexpensive and unexpected the merest chance furnished them one day mother plutarque was reading a romance in one corner of the room she was reading aloud finding that she understood better thus
to read aloud is to assure one's self of what one is reading there are people who read very loud and who have the appearance of giving themselves their word of honor as to what they are perusing
mother plutarque came to this phrase it was a question of an officer of dragoons and a beauty the beauty pouted and the dragoon here she interrupted herself to wipe her glasses
yes it is true that there was a dragon which from the depths of its cave spouted flame through his maw and set the heavens on fire many stars had already been consumed by this monster which besides had the claws of a tiger
bouddha went into its den and succeeded in converting the dragon that is a good book that you are reading mother plutarque there is no more beautiful legend in existence
chapter two embryonic formation of crimes in the incubation of prisons javert's triumph in the gorbeau hovel seemed complete but had not been so in the first place
and this constituted the principal anxiety javert had not taken the prisoner prisoner the assassinated man who flees is more suspicious than the assassin and it is probable that this personage
who had been so precious a capture for the ruffians would be no less fine a prize for the authorities and then
another opportunity of laying hands on that devil's dandy must be waited for montparnasse had in fact encountered eponine as she stood on the watch under the trees of the boulevard and had led her off
preferring to play nemorin with the daughter rather than schinderhannes with the father it was well that he did so he was free as for eponine javert had caused her to be seized a mediocre consolation
and finally on the way from the gorbeau house to la force one of the principal prisoners claquesous had been lost it was not known how this had been effected the police agents and the sergeants
could not understand it at all he had converted himself into vapor he had slipped through the handcuffs he had trickled through the crevices of the carriage
all that they were able to say was that on arriving at the prison there was no claquesous
had claquesous melted into the shadows like a snow flake in water had there been unavowed connivance of the police agents did this man belong to the double enigma of order and disorder
was he concentric with infraction and repression had this sphinx his fore paws in crime and his hind paws in authority javert did not accept such comminations and would have bristled up against such compromises
but his squad included other inspectors besides himself
although they were his subordinates in the secrets of the prefecture and claquesous had been such a villain that he might make a very good agent it is an excellent thing for ruffianism and an admirable thing for the police
to be on such intimate juggling terms with the night these double edged rascals do exist however that may be
javert appeared to be more irritated than amazed at this
javert attached very little importance to him moreover a lawyer can be hunted up at any time but was he a lawyer after all the investigation had begun the magistrate had thought it advisable
in the hope that he would chatter this man was brujon the long haired man of the rue du petit banquier he had been let loose in the charlemagne courtyard and the eyes of the watchers were fixed on him
this name of brujon is one of the souvenirs of la force in that hideous courtyard
the lion's ditch on that wall covered with scales and leprosy
near an old door of rusty iron which led to the ancient chapel of the ducal residence of la force
there could still be seen twelve years ago a sort of fortress roughly carved in the stone with a nail and beneath it this signature brujon eighteen eleven
the brujon of eighteen eleven was the father of the brujon of eighteen thirty two the latter of whom the reader caught but a glimpse at the gorbeau house
was a very cunning and very adroit young spark with a bewildered and plaintive air it was in consequence of this plaintive air that the magistrate had released him thinking him more useful in the charlemagne yard than in close confinement
robbers do not interrupt their profession because they are in the hands of justice they do not let themselves be put out by such a trifle as that to be in prison for one crime is no reason for not beginning on another crime
they are artists who have one picture in the salon and who toil none the less on a new work in their studios brujon seemed to be stupefied by prison he could sometimes be seen standing by the hour together
in front of the sutler's window in the charlemagne yard staring like an idiot at the sordid list of prices which began with garlic
cigar five centimes or he passed his time in trembling chattering his teeth saying that he had a fever and inquiring whether one of the eight and twenty beds in the fever ward was vacant
it was discovered that brujon that somnolent fellow had had three different commissions executed by the errand men of the establishment not under his own name but in the name of three of his comrades and they had cost him in all fifty sous
an exorbitant outlay which attracted the attention of the prison corporal inquiries were instituted and on consulting the tariff of commissions posted in the convict's parlor it was learned that the fifty sous could be analyzed as follows
three commissions one to the pantheon ten sous
twenty five sous this last was the dearest of the whole tariff now at the pantheon at the val de grace
were situated the domiciles of the three very redoubtable prowlers of the barriers kruideniers alias bizarre
upon whom the attention of the police was directed by this incident it was thought that these men were members of patron minette two of those leaders
it was supposed that the messages which had been addressed not to houses but to people who were waiting for them in the street must have contained information with regard to some crime that had been plotted they were in possession of other indications
they laid hand on the three prowlers and supposed that they had circumvented some one or other of brujon's machinations
one night as the superintendent of the watch
this was the means adopted to make sure that the watchmen performed their duties punctually every hour a chestnut must be dropped into all the boxes nailed to the doors of the dormitories a watchman looked through the peep hole of the dormitory
and beheld brujon sitting on his bed and writing something by the light of the hall lamp the guardian entered brujon was put in a solitary cell for a month but they were not able to seize what he had written
the police learned nothing further about it what is certain is that on the following morning a postilion was flung from the charlemagne yard into the lions ditch over the five story building which separated the two court yards
what prisoners call a postilion is a pellet of bread artistically moulded which is sent into ireland that is to say over the roofs of a prison from one courtyard to another etymology over england
from one land to another into ireland this little pellet falls in the yard the man who picks it up opens it and finds in it a note addressed to some prisoner in that yard if it is a prisoner who finds the treasure
he forwards the note to its destination if it is a keeper or one of the prisoners secretly sold who are called sheep in prisons and foxes in the galleys the note is taken to the office and handed over to the police
on this occasion the postilion reached its address although the person to whom it was addressed was at that moment in solitary confinement this person was no other than babet one of the four heads of patron minette
the postilion contained a roll of paper on which only these two lines were written babet
this is what brujon had written the night before in spite of male and female searchers babet managed to pass the note on from la force to the salpetriere to a good friend whom he had and who was shut up there
this woman in turn transmitted the note to another woman of her acquaintance a certain magnon who was strongly suspected by the police though not yet arrested this magnon whose name the reader has already seen
had relations with the thenardier which will be described in detail later on and she could by going to see eponine serve as a bridge between the salpetriere and les madelonettes
as proofs were wanting in the investigation directed against thenardier in the matter of his daughters
when eponine came out magnon who was watching the gate of the madelonettes handed her brujon's note to babet charging her to look into the matter
recognized the gate and the garden observed the house spied lurked and a few days later
a biscuit which magnon transmitted to babet's mistress in the salpetriere a biscuit in the shady symbolism of prisons signifies nothing to be done so that in less than a week from that time
as brujon and babet met in the circle of la force the one on his way to the examination the other on his way from it well asked brujon the rue p biscuit replied babet
thus did the foetus of crime engendered by brujon in la force miscarry this miscarriage had its consequences however which were perfectly distinct from brujon's programme the reader will see what they were
both parties had remained on the same terms without attempting to approach each other and without seeking to see each other besides what was the use of seeing each other marius was the brass vase while father gillenormand was the iron pot
we admit that marius was mistaken as to his grandfather's heart
and that that crusty harsh and smiling old fellow who cursed shouted and stormed and brandished his cane cherished for him at the most only that affection which is at once slight and severe of the dotards of comedy
marius was in error there are fathers who do not love their children there exists no grandfather who does not adore his grandson at bottom as we have said
he idolized him after his own fashion with an accompaniment of snappishness and boxes on the ear but this child once gone he felt a black void in his heart he would allow no one to mention the child to him
and all the while secretly regretted that he was so well obeyed at first
this terrorist this septembrist would return but the weeks passed by
the blood drinker did not make his appearance i could not do otherwise than turn him out said the grandfather to himself and he asked himself if the thing were to do over again would i do it
his pride instantly answered yes but his aged head which he shook in silence replied sadly no he had his hours of depression he missed marius old men need affection as they need the sun
it is warmth strong as his nature was the absence of marius had wrought some change in him
but he suffered he never inquired about him but he thought of him incessantly he lived in the marais in a more and more retired manner
but his merriment had a convulsive harshness and his violences always terminated in a sort of gentle and gloomy dejection he sometimes said oh
what a good box on the ear i would give him as for his aunt she thought too little to love much marius was no longer for her much more than a vague black form and she eventually came to occupy herself with him
much less than with the cat or the paroquet which she probably had what augmented father gillenormand's secret suffering was that he locked it all up within his breast and did not allow its existence to be divined
his sorrow was like those recently invented furnaces which consume their own smoke it sometimes happened that officious busybodies spoke to him of marius and asked him what is your grandson doing what has become of him
the old bourgeois replied with a sigh that he was a sad case and giving a fillip to his cuff if he wished to appear gay monsieur le baron de pontmercy is practising pettifogging in some corner or other
while the old man regretted marius applauded himself as is the case with all good hearted people misfortune had eradicated his bitterness
but he had set his mind on not receiving anything more from the man who had been unkind to his father this was the mitigated translation of his first indignation moreover he was happy at having suffered
and at suffering still it was for his father's sake the hardness of his life satisfied and pleased him he said to himself with a sort of joy that it was certainly the least he could do that it was an expiation that
had it not been for that he would have been punished in some other way
and such a father that it would not have been just that his father should have all the suffering and he none of it and that in any case
compared with the colonel's heroic life that in short the only way for him to approach his father and resemble him was to be brave in the face of indigence as the other had been valiant before the enemy
and that that was no doubt what the colonel had meant to imply by the words he will be worthy of it words which marius continued to wear not on his breast since the colonel's writing had disappeared but in his heart
and then on the day when his grandfather had turned him out of doors he had been only a child now he was a man he felt it misery we repeat had been good for him
poverty in youth when it succeeds has this magnificent property about it that it turns the whole will towards effort and the whole soul towards aspiration poverty instantly lays material life bare and renders it hideous
hence inexpressible bounds towards the ideal life the wealthy young man has a hundred coarse and brilliant distractions horse races hunting dogs tobacco gaming
occupations for the baser side of the soul
the poor young man wins his bread with difficulty he eats when he has eaten he has nothing more but meditation he goes to the spectacles which god furnishes gratis he gazes at the sky space the stars
flowers children the humanity among which he is suffering the creation amid which he beams he gazes so much on humanity that he perceives its soul he gazes upon creation to such an extent
that he beholds god he dreams he feels himself great he dreams on and feels himself tender from the egotism of the man who suffers he passes to the compassion of the man who meditates an admirable sentiment breaks forth in him
forgetfulness of self and pity for all as he thinks of the innumerable enjoyments which nature offers gives and lavishes to souls which stand open and refuses to souls that are closed he comes to pity
he the millionnaire of the mind the millionnaire of money all hatred departs from his heart in proportion as light penetrates his spirit and is he unhappy no the misery of a young man is never miserable
the first young lad who comes to hand however poor he may be with his strength his health his rapid walk his brilliant eyes his warmly circulating blood his black hair his red lips his white teeth his pure breath
will always arouse the envy of an aged emperor and then every morning he sets himself afresh to the task of earning his bread and while his hands earn his bread his dorsal column gains pride his brain gathers ideas
to contemplation to joys he beholds his feet set in afflictions in obstacles on the pavement in the nettles sometimes in the mire his head in the light he is firm serene
gentle peaceful attentive serious content with little kindly and he thanks god for having bestowed on him those two forms of riches which many a rich man lacks work which makes him free and thought which makes him dignified
to tell the truth he inclined a little too much to the side of contemplation from the day when he had succeeded in earning his living with some approach to certainty he had stopped thinking it good to be poor
and retrenching time from his work to give to thought that is to say he sometimes passed entire days in meditation absorbed engulfed like a visionary in the mute voluptuousness of ecstasy and inward radiance
he had thus propounded the problem of his life to toil as little as possible at material labor in order to toil as much as possible at the labor which is impalpable in other words to bestow a few hours on real life
and to cast the rest to the infinite as he believed that he lacked nothing he did not perceive that contemplation thus understood ends by becoming one of the forms of idleness that he was contenting himself with conquering the first necessities of life
and that he was resting from his labors too soon it was evident that for this energetic and enthusiastic nature this could only be a transitory state and that at the first shock against the inevitable complications of destiny
marius would awaken in the meantime although he was a lawyer and whatever father gillenormand thought about the matter he was not practising he was not even pettifogging meditation had turned him aside from pleading
to haunt attorneys to follow the court to hunt up cases what a bore why should he do it
the obscure and ill paid publishing establishment had come to mean for him a sure source of work which did not involve too much labor as we have explained and which sufficed for his wants
offered to take him into his own house to lodge him well to furnish him with regular occupation and to give him fifteen hundred francs a year to be well lodged fifteen hundred francs no doubt but renounce his liberty
a sort of hired man of letters
if he accepted his position would become both better and worse at the same time he acquired comfort and lost his dignity it was a fine and complete unhappiness converted into a repulsive and ridiculous state of torture
something like the case of a blind man who should recover the sight of one eye he refused
he owed to him the revolution which had taken place within him to him he was indebted for having known and loved his father he operated on me for a cataract he said
it was not however
he had enlightened marius by chance and without being aware of the fact as does a candle which some one brings he had been the candle and not the some one
of willing or of directing it
and no longer able to doubt whose garments they were with a gesture at once brief and imperative and without saying a word pointed to the door of the inn master nicless opened it ursus rushed out of the tavern
master nicless looked after him and saw ursus run as fast as his old legs would allow in the direction taken that morning by the wapentake who carried off gwynplaine a quarter of an hour afterwards
ursus out of breath reached the little street in which stood the back wicket of the southwark jail which he had already watched so many hours this alley was lonely enough at all hours but if dreary during the day it was portentous in the night
no one ventured through it after a certain hour it seemed as though people feared that the walls should close in and that if the prison or the cemetery took a fancy to embrace they should be crushed in their clasp such are the effects of darkness
the pollard willows of the ruelle vauvert in paris were thus ill famed it was said that during the night the stumps of those trees changed into great hands and caught hold of the passers by
by instinct the southwark folks shunned as we have already mentioned this alley between a prison and a churchyard formerly it had been barricaded during the night by an iron chain very uselessly
because the strongest chain which guarded the street was the terror it inspired ursus entered it resolutely what intention possessed him none he came into the alley to seek intelligence
was he going to knock at the gate of the jail certainly not such an expedient at once fearful and vain had no place in his brain to attempt to introduce himself to demand an explanation what folly
prisons do not open to those who wish to enter any more than to those who desire to get out their hinges never turn except by law ursus knew this
to see to see what nothing who can tell even to be opposite the gate through which gwynplaine had disappeared was something
sometimes the blackest and most rugged of walls whispers and some light escapes through a cranny a vague glimmering is now and then to be perceived through solid and sombre piles of building
even to examine the envelope of a fact may be to some purpose the instinct of us all is to leave between the fact which interests us and ourselves but the thinnest possible cover therefore it was that ursus returned to the alley
in which the lower entrance to the prison was situated just as he entered it he heard one stroke of the clock then a second hold thought he can it be midnight already
mechanically he set himself to count three four five he mused at what long intervals this clock strikes how slowly six
seven then he remarked what a melancholy sound eight nine ah nothing can be more natural it's dull work for a clock to live in a prison ten
besides there is the cemetery this clock sounds the hour to the living and eternity to the dead eleven alas to strike the hour to him who is not free is also to chronicle an eternity twelve
he paused yes it is midnight the clock struck a thirteenth stroke ursus shuddered thirteen then followed a fourteenth then a fifteenth
what can this mean the strokes continued at long intervals ursus listened it is not the striking of a clock it is the bell muta
no wonder i said how long it takes to strike midnight this clock does not strike it tolls what fearful thing is about to take place formerly all prisons and all monasteries had a bell called muta
reserved for melancholy occasions la muta the mute was a bell which struck very low as if doing its best not to be heard ursus had reached the corner which he had found so convenient for his watch
and whence he had been able during a great part of the day to keep his eye on the prison the strokes followed each other at lugubrious intervals a knell makes an ugly punctuation in space
it breaks the preoccupation of the mind into funereal paragraphs a knell like a man's death rattle notifies an agony if in the houses about the neighbourhood where a knell is tolled there are reveries straying in doubt
a vague reverie is a sort of refuge some indefinable diffuseness in anguish allows now and then a ray of hope to pierce through it a knell is precise and desolating
it concentrates this diffusion of thought and precipitates the vapours in which anxiety seeks to remain in suspense a knell speaks to each one in the sense of his own grief or of his own fear
tragic bell it concerns you it is a warning to you there is nothing so dreary as a monologue on which its cadence falls the even returns of sound seem to show a purpose
what is it that this hammer the bell forges on the anvil of thought ursus counted vaguely and without motive the tolling of the knell
feeling that his thoughts were sliding from him he made an effort not to let them slip into conjecture conjecture is an inclined plane on which we slip too far to be to our own advantage still what was the meaning of the bell
he looked through the darkness in the direction in which he knew the gate of the prison to be suddenly in that very spot which looked like a dark hole a redness showed the redness grew larger and became a light
there was no uncertainty about it it soon took a form and angles the gate of the jail had just turned on its hinges the glow painted the arch and the jambs of the door it was a yawning rather than an opening
a prison does not open it yawns perhaps from ennui through the gate passed a man with a torch in his hand the bell rang on ursus felt his attention fascinated by two objects he watched
his ear the knell his eye the torch behind the first man the gate which had been ajar enlarged the opening suddenly and allowed egress to two other men then to a fourth
this fourth was the wapentake clearly visible in the light of the torch in his grasp was his iron staff following the wapentake there filed and opened out below the gateway in order two by two
with the rigidity of a series of walking posts ranks of silent men this nocturnal procession stepped through the wicket in file like a procession of penitents without any solution of continuity
with a funereal care to make no noise gravely almost gently a serpent issues from its hole with similar precautions the torch threw out their profiles and attitudes into relief
fierce looks sullen attitudes ursus recognized the faces of the police who had that morning carried off gwynplaine there was no doubt about it they were the same they were reappearing
of course gwynplaine would also reappear they had led him to that place they would bring him back it was all quite clear ursus strained his eyes to the utmost would they set gwynplaine at liberty
the files of police flowed from the low arch very slowly and as it were drop by drop the toll of the bell was uninterrupted and seemed to mark their steps
on leaving the prison the procession turned their backs on ursus went to the right into the bend of the street opposite to that in which he was posted a second torch shone under the gateway announcing the end of the procession
ursus was now about to see what they were bringing with them the prisoner the man ursus was soon he thought to see gwynplaine that which they carried appeared it was a bier
four men carried a bier covered with black cloth behind them came a man with a shovel on his shoulder a third lighted torch held by a man reading a book probably the chaplain closed the procession
the bier followed the ranks of the police who had turned to the right just at that moment the head of the procession stopped ursus heard the grating of a key
opposite the prison in the low wall which ran along the other side of the street another opening was illuminated by a torch passing beneath it this gate over which a death's head was placed was that of the cemetery
the wapentake passed through it then the men then the second torch the procession decreased therein like a reptile entering his retreat the files of police penetrated into that other darkness which was beyond the gate
then the bier then the man with the spade then the chaplain with his torch and his book and the gate closed there was nothing left but a haze of light above the wall a muttering was heard
then some dull sounds doubtless the chaplain and the gravedigger the one throwing on the coffin some verses of scripture the other some clods of earth the muttering ceased the heavy sounds ceased
a movement was made the torches shone the wapentake reappeared holding high his weapon under the reopened gate of the cemetery then the chaplain with his book and the gravedigger with his spade
the cortege reappeared without the coffin the files of men crossed over in the same order with the same taciturnity and in the opposite direction the gate of the cemetery closed that of the prison opened
the obscurity of the passage became vaguely visible the solid and deep night of the jail was revealed to sight then the whole vision disappeared in the depths of shadow the knell ceased
all was locked in silence a sinister incarceration of shadows a vanished vision nothing more a passage of spectres which had disappeared
the logical arrangement of surmises builds up something which at least resembles evidence to the arrest of gwynplaine to the secret mode of his capture to the return of his garments by the police officer
to the death bell of the prison to which he had been conducted was now added or rather adjusted portentous circumstance a coffin carried to the grave he is dead
cried ursus he sank down upon a stone dead they have killed him gwynplaine my child
it is through excess of greatness that man reaches excess of misery as midnight tolled from saint paul's a man who had just crossed london bridge struck into the lanes of southwark
there were no lamps lighted it being at that time the custom in london as in paris to extinguish the public lamps at eleven o'clock that is to put them out just as they became necessary the streets were dark and deserted
when the lamps are out men stay in he whom we speak of advanced with hurried strides he was strangely dressed for walking at such an hour
a sword by his side a hat with white plumes and no cloak the watchmen as they saw him pass said it is a lord walking for a wager
the man was gwynplaine he was making his escape where was he he did not know we have said that the soul has its cyclones fearful whirlwinds in which heaven
it can no longer breathe truth it is crushed by things in which it does not believe nothingness becomes hurricane the firmament pales infinity is empty
the mind of the sufferer wanders away he feels himself dying he craves for a star what did gwynplaine feel a thirst
he felt but that to reach the green box again and the tadcaster inn with its sounds and light full of the cordial laughter of the people to find ursus and homo to see dea again
to re enter life disillusion like a bow shoots its arrow man towards the true gwynplaine hastened on he approached tarrinzeau field he walked no longer now he ran
his eyes pierced the darkness before him his glance preceded him eagerly seeking the harbour on the horizon what a moment for him when he should see the lighted windows of tadcaster inn he reached the bowling green
he turned the corner of the wall and saw before him at the other end of the field some distance off the inn the only house it may be remembered in the field where the fair was held he looked there was no light
nothing but a black mass he shuddered then he said to himself that it was late that the tavern was shut up that it was very natural that every one was asleep that he had only to awaken nicless or govicum
that he must go up to the inn and knock at the door he did so running no longer now but rushing he reached the inn breathless
it is when storm beaten and struggling in the invisible convulsions of the soul until he knows not whether he is in life or in death that all the delicacy of a man's affection for his loved ones being yet unimpaired
proves a heart true when all else is swallowed up tenderness still floats unshattered
he approached the inn with as little noise as possible he recognized the nook the old dog kennel where govicum used to sleep in it contiguous to the lower room was a window opening on to the field
gwynplaine tapped softly at the pane it would be enough to awaken govicum he thought there was no sound in govicum's room at his age said gwynplaine a boy sleeps soundly
with the back of his hand he knocked against the window gently nothing stirred he knocked louder twice still nothing stirred then feeling somewhat uneasy he went to the door of the inn and knocked
no one answered he reflected and began to feel a cold shudder come over him master nicless is old children sleep soundly and old men heavily courage louder
he had tapped he had knocked he had kicked the door now he flung himself against it this recalled to him a distant memory of weymouth
he battered the door again violently like a lord which alas he was the house remained silent he felt that he was losing his head he no longer thought of caution he shouted nicless
govicum at the same time he looked up at the windows to see if any candle was lighted but the inn was blank not a voice not a sound not a glimmer of light
he went to the gate and knocked at it kicked against it and shook it crying out wildly
homo the wolf did not bark a cold sweat stood in drops upon his brow he cast his eyes around the night was dark but there were stars enough to render the fair green visible
he saw a melancholy sight to him that everything on it had vanished there was not a single caravan the circus was gone not a tent not a booth not a cart remained
the strollers with their thousand noisy cries who had swarmed there had given place to a black and sullen void all were gone the madness of anxiety took possession of him
what did this mean what had happened was no one left could it be that life had crumbled away behind him what had happened to them all good heavens then he rushed like a tempest against the house
he struck the small door the gate the windows the window shutters the walls with fists and feet furious with terror and agony of mind he called nicless govicum fibi vinos ursus homo
he tried every shout and every sound against this wall at times he waited and listened but the house remained mute and dead then exasperated
he began again with blows shouts and repeated knockings re echoed all around it might have been thunder trying to awake the grave there is a certain stage of fright in which a man becomes terrible
he who fears everything fears nothing he would strike the sphynx he defies the unknown gwynplaine renewed the noise in every possible form stopping resuming unwearying in the shouts and appeals
by which he assailed the tragic silence he called a thousand times on the names of those who should have been there he shrieked out every name except that of dea a precaution of which he could not have explained the reason himself
but which instinct inspired even in his distraction having exhausted calls and cries nothing was left but to break in i must enter the house he said to himself but how
he broke a pane of glass in govicum's room by thrusting his hand through it tearing the flesh he drew the bolt of the sash and opened the window perceiving that his sword was in the way he tore it off angrily scabbard blade and belt
and flung it on the pavement then he raised himself by the inequalities in the wall and though the window was narrow he was able to pass through it he entered the inn govicum's bed dimly visible in its nook was there
but govicum was not in it if govicum was not in his bed it was evident that nicless could not be in his the whole house was dark he felt in that shadowy interior the mysterious immobility of emptiness
and that vague fear which signifies there is no one here gwynplaine convulsed with anxiety crossed the lower room knocking against the tables upsetting the earthenware throwing down the benches sweeping against the jugs
and striding over the furniture reached the door leading into the court and broke it open with one blow from his knee which sprung the lock the door turned on its hinges he looked into the court
when they had finished their song the girl in white went up to the prompter's box and a man with tight silk trousers over his stout legs and holding a plume and a dagger went up to her and began singing waving his arms about
first the man in the tight trousers sang alone then she sang then they both paused while the orchestra played and the man fingered the hand of the girl in white obviously awaiting the beat to start singing with her
they sang together and everyone in the theater began clapping and shouting while the man and woman on the stage who represented lovers began smiling spreading out their arms and bowing after her life in the country and in her present serious mood
all this seemed grotesque and amazing to natasha she could not follow the opera nor even listen to the music she saw only the painted cardboard and the queerly dressed men and women who moved spoke and sang so strangely in that brilliant light
she knew what it was all meant to represent but it was so pretentiously false and unnatural that she first felt ashamed for the actors and then amused at them she looked at the faces of the audience
seeking in them the same sense of ridicule and perplexity she herself experienced but they all seemed attentive to what was happening on the stage and expressed delight which to natasha seemed feigned i suppose it has to be like this she thought
she kept looking round in turn at the rows of pomaded heads in the stalls and then at the seminude women in the boxes especially at helene in the next box who apparently quite unclothed sat with a quiet tranquil smile
not taking her eyes off the stage and feeling the bright light that flooded the whole place and the warm air heated by the crowd natasha little by little began to pass into a state of intoxication she had not experienced for a long while
she did not realize who and where she was nor what was going on before her as she looked and thought the strangest fancies unexpectedly and disconnectedly passed through her mind
and singing the air the actress was singing then she wished to touch with her fan an old gentleman sitting not far from her
at a moment when all was quiet before the commencement of a song a door leading to the stalls on the side nearest the rostovs box creaked and the steps of a belated arrival were heard there's kuragin whispered shinshin
countess bezukhova turned smiling to the newcomer and natasha following the direction of that look saw an exceptionally handsome adjutant approaching their box with a self assured
this was anatole kuragin whom she had seen and noticed long ago at the ball in petersburg he was now in an adjutant's uniform with one epaulet and a shoulder knot he moved with a restrained swagger which would have been ridiculous had he not been so good looking
though the performance was proceeding he walked deliberately down the carpeted gangway his sword and spurs slightly jingling and his handsome perfumed head held high having looked at natasha he approached his sister
laid his well gloved hand on the edge of her box nodded to her and leaning forward asked a question with a motion toward natasha mais charmante said he evidently referring to natasha
who did not exactly hear his words but understood them from the movement of his lips then he took his place in the first row of the stalls and sat down beside dolokhov
nudging with his elbow in a friendly and offhand way that dolokhov whom others treated so fawningly he winked at him gaily smiled and rested his foot against the orchestra screen how like the brother is to the sister remarked the count
and how handsome they both are shinshin lowering his voice began to tell the count of some intrigue of kuragin's in moscow and natasha tried to overhear it just because he had said she was charmante the first act was over
in the stalls everyone began moving about going out and coming in boris came to the rostovs box received their congratulations very simply and raising his eyebrows with an absent minded smile conveyed to natasha and sonya
his fiancee's invitation to her wedding and went away natasha with a gay coquettish smile talked to him and congratulated on his approaching wedding that same boris with whom she had formerly been in love
everything seemed simple and natural the scantily clad helene smiled at everyone in the same way
helene's box was filled and surrounded from the stalls by the most distinguished and intellectual men who seemed to vie with one another in their wish to let everyone see that they knew her during the whole of that entr'acte
natasha knew he was talking about her and this afforded her pleasure she even turned so that he should see her profile in what she thought was its most becoming aspect before the beginning of the second act pierre appeared in the stalls
the rostovs had not seen him since their arrival his face looked sad and he had grown still stouter since natasha last saw him he passed up to the front rows not noticing anyone
anatole went up to him and began speaking to him looking at and indicating the rostovs box on seeing natasha pierre grew animated and hastily passing between the rows came toward their box
when he got there he leaned on his elbows and smiling talked to her for a long time while conversing with pierre natasha heard a man's voice in countess bezukhova's box and something told her it was kuragin she turned and their eyes met
almost smiling he gazed straight into her eyes with such an enraptured caressing look that it seemed strange to be so near him to look at him like that to be so sure he admired her and not to be acquainted with him in the second act
there was scenery representing tombstones there was a round hole in the canvas to represent the moon shades were raised over the footlights and from horns and contrabass came deep notes while many people appeared from right and left wearing black cloaks and holding
things like daggers in their hands they began waving their arms then some other people ran in and began dragging away the maiden who had been in white and was now in light blue they did not drag her away at once but sang with her for a long time
and then at last dragged her off and behind the scenes something metallic was struck three times and everyone knelt down and sang a prayer all these things were repeatedly interrupted by the enthusiastic shouts of the audience
during this act every time natasha looked toward the stalls she saw anatole kuragin with an arm thrown across the back of his chair staring at her she was pleased to see that he was captivated by her and it did not occur to her that there was anything wrong in it
when the second act was over countess bezukhova rose turned to the rostovs box her whole bosom completely exposed beckoned the old count with a gloved finger and paying no attention to those who had entered her box
began talking to him with an amiable smile do make me acquainted with your charming daughters said she the whole town is singing their praises and i don't even know them natasha rose and curtsied to the splendid countess
she was so pleased by praise from this brilliant beauty that she blushed with pleasure i want to become a moscovite too now said helene how is it you're not ashamed to bury such pearls in the country countess bezukhova quite deserved her reputation of being a fascinating woman
she could say what she did not think especially what was flattering quite simply and naturally dear count you must let me look after your daughters though i am not staying here long this time nor are you i will try to amuse them i have already heard much of you in petersburg
and wanted to get to know you said she to natasha with her stereotyped and lovely smile i had heard about you from my page drubetskoy have you heard he is getting married and also from my husband's friend bolkonski prince andrew bolkonski
she went on with special emphasis implying that she knew of his relation to natasha to get better acquainted she asked that one of the young ladies should come into her box for the rest of the performance
the scene of the third act represented a palace in which many candles were burning and pictures of knights with short beards hung on the walls
but could not refuse marya dmitrievna's kind offer which was intended expressly for her when she came ready dressed into the ballroom to await her father and looking in the large mirror there saw that she was pretty very pretty
she felt even more sad but it was a sweet tender sadness o god
but differently i would not be silly and afraid of things i would simply embrace him cling to him and make him look at me with those searching inquiring eyes with which he has so often looked at me and then i would make him laugh as he used to laugh
and his eyes how i see those eyes thought natasha and what do his father and sister matter to me i love him alone
no i had better not think of him not think of him but forget him quite forget him for the present i can't bear this waiting and i shall cry in a minute and she turned away from the glass making an effort not to cry
and how can sonya love nicholas so calmly and quietly and wait so long and so patiently thought she looking at sonya
no she's altogether different i can't natasha at that moment felt so softened and tender that it was not enough for her to love and know she was beloved she wanted now at once to embrace the man she loved to speak and hear from him words of love such as filled her heart
while she sat in the carriage beside her father pensively watching the lights of the street lamps flickering on the frozen window she felt still sadder and more in love and forgot where she was going and with whom having fallen into the line of carriages
the rostovs carriage drove up to the theater its wheels squeaking over the snow natasha and sonya holding up their dresses jumped out quickly the count got out helped by the footmen and passing among men and women who were entering and the program sellers
through the closed doors the music was already audible natasha your hair whispered sonya an attendant deferentially and quickly slipped before the ladies
the music sounded louder and through the door rows of brightly lit boxes in which ladies sat with bare arms and shoulders and noisy stalls brilliant with uniforms glittered before their eyes
a lady entering the next box shot a glance of feminine envy at natasha the curtain had not yet risen and the overture was being played natasha smoothing her gown went in with sonya
and sat down scanning the brilliant tiers of boxes opposite a sensation she had not experienced for a long time that of hundreds of eyes looking at her bare arms and neck suddenly affected her both agreeably and disagreeably
and called up a whole crowd of memories desires and emotions associated with that feeling the two remarkably pretty girls natasha and sonya with count rostov who had not been seen in moscow for a long time attracted general attention
moreover everybody knew vaguely of natasha's engagement to prince andrew and knew that the rostovs had lived in the country ever since and all looked with curiosity at a fiancee who was making one of the best matches in russia
natasha's looks as everyone told her had improved in the country and that evening thanks to her agitation she was particularly pretty she struck those who saw her by her fullness of life and beauty combined with her indifference to everything about her
her black eyes looked at the crowd without seeking anyone
lay on the velvet edge of the box while evidently unconsciously she opened and closed her hand in time to the music crumpling her program look there's alenina said sonya with her mother isn't it
dear me michael kirilovich has grown still stouter remarked the count look at our anna mikhaylovna what a headdress she has on
one can see at once that they're engaged drubetskoy has proposed oh yes i heard it today said shinshin coming into the rostovs box natasha looked in the direction in which her father's eyes were turned and saw julie sitting beside her mother
with a happy look on her face and a string of pearls round her thick red neck which natasha knew was covered with powder behind them wearing a smile and leaning over with an ear to julie's mouth was boris handsome smoothly brushed head
and said something smiling to his betrothed they are talking about us about me and him thought natasha and he no doubt is calming her jealousy of me they needn't trouble themselves
behind them sat anna mikhaylovna wearing a green headdress and with a happy look of resignation to the will of god on her face their box was pervaded by that atmosphere of an affianced couple which natasha knew so well and liked so much
what right has he not to wish to receive me into his family oh better not think of it not till he comes back she told herself and began looking at the faces some strange and some familiar in the stalls in the front in the very center
leaning back against the orchestra rail stood dolokhov in a persian dress his curly hair brushed up into a huge shock he stood in full view of the audience well aware that he was attracting everyone's attention
yet as much at ease as though he were in his own room around him thronged moscow's most brilliant young men whom he evidently dominated the count laughing nudged the blushing sonya and pointed to her former adorer
do you recognize him said he and where has he sprung from he asked turning to shinshin didn't he vanish somewhere
he was in the caucasus and ran away from there they say he has been acting as minister to some ruling prince in persia where he killed the shah's brother now all the moscow ladies are mad about him
it's dolokhov the persian that does it we never hear a word but dolokhov is mentioned they swear by him they offer him to you as they would a dish of choice sterlet dolokhov and anatole kuragin have turned all our ladies heads
a tall beautiful woman with a mass of plaited hair and much exposed plump white shoulders and neck round which she wore a double string of large pearls entered the adjoining box rustling her heavy silk dress
and took a long time settling into her place natasha involuntarily gazed at that neck those shoulders and pearls and coiffure and admired the beauty of the shoulders and the pearls while natasha was fixing her gaze on her for the second time
the lady looked round and meeting the count's eyes nodded to him and smiled she was the countess bezukhova pierre's wife and the count who knew everyone in society leaned over and spoke to her have
i'll call i'll call to kiss your hand i'm here on business and have brought my girls with me they say semenova acts marvelously count pierre never used to forget us is he here
and glanced attentively at natasha count rostov resumed his seat handsome isn't she he whispered to natasha wonderful answered natasha she's a woman one could easily fall in love with
and the conductor tapped with his stick some latecomers took their seats in the stalls and the curtain rose as soon as it rose everyone in the boxes and stalls became silent and all the men old and young in uniform and evening dress
turned their whole attention with eager curiosity to the stage
let me introduce my brother to you said helene her eyes shifting uneasily from natasha to anatole natasha turned her pretty little head toward the elegant young officer and smiled at him over her bare shoulder
anatole who was as handsome at close quarters as at a distance sat down beside her and told her he had long wished to have this happiness ever since the naryshkins ball in fact at which he had had the well remembered pleasure of seeing her
kuragin was much more sensible and simple with women than among men he talked boldly and naturally
that there was nothing formidable in this man about whom there was so much talk but that on the contrary
kuragin asked her opinion of the performance
you ought to take part in it it will be great fun we shall all meet at the karagins please come no really eh said he while saying this he never removed his smiling eyes from her face her neck and her bare arms
natasha knew for certain that he was enraptured by her this pleased her yet his presence made her feel constrained and oppressed when she was not looking at him she felt that he was looking at her shoulders and she involuntarily caught his eye
but looking into his eyes she was frightened realizing that there was not that barrier of modesty
when she turned away she feared he might seize her from behind by her bare arm and kiss her on the neck they spoke of most ordinary things yet she felt that they were closer to one another than she had ever been to any man
as if asking what it all meant but helene was engaged in conversation with a general and did not answer her look and her father's eyes said nothing but what they always said having a good time well i'm glad of it
during one of these moments of awkward silence when anatole's prominent eyes were gazing calmly and fixedly at her natasha
looking at her significantly you'll come to the costume tournament countess do come and putting out his hand to her bouquet and dropping his voice he added you will be the prettiest there do come dear countess and give me this flower as a pledge
but she felt that his incomprehensible words had an improper intention she did not know what to say and turned away as if she had not heard his remark but as soon as she had turned away she felt that he was there behind so close behind her
how is he now confused angry ought i to put it right she asked herself and she could not refrain from turning round she looked straight into his eyes and his nearness self assurance and the good natured tenderness of his smile vanquished her
she smiled just as he was doing gazing straight into his eyes and again she felt with horror that no barrier lay between him and her the curtain rose again anatole left the box serene and gay
natasha went back to her father in the other box now quite submissive to the world she found herself in all that was going on before her now seemed quite natural
or of life in the country did not once recur to her mind and were as if belonging to a remote past in the fourth act there was some sort of devil who sang waving his arm about till the boards were withdrawn from under him and he disappeared down below
that was the only part of the fourth act that natasha saw she felt agitated and tormented and the cause of this was kuragin whom she could not help watching
as they were leaving the theater anatole came up to them called their carriage and helped them in as he was putting natasha in he pressed her arm above the elbow agitated and flushed she turned round he was looking at her with glittering eyes smiling tenderly
only after she had reached home was natasha able clearly to think over what had happened to her and suddenly remembering prince andrew she was horrified and at tea to which all had sat down after the opera she gave a loud exclamation flushed and ran out of the room
o god i am lost she said to herself how could i let him she sat for a long time hiding her flushed face in her hands trying to realize what had happened to her but was unable either to understand what had happened or what she felt
everything seemed dark obscure and terrible there in that enormous illuminated theater where the bare legged duport in a tinsel decorated jacket jumped about to the music on wet boards and young girls and old men
it had all seemed clear and simple but now alone by herself it was incomprehensible what is it what was that terror i felt of him
only to the old countess at night in bed could natasha have told all she was feeling she knew that sonya with her severe and simple views would either not understand it at all or would be horrified at such a confession
so natasha tried to solve what was torturing her by herself am i spoiled for andrew's love or not she asked herself and with soothing irony replied what a fool i am to ask that what did happen to me nothing
i have done nothing i didn't lead him on at all nobody will know and i shall never see him again she told herself
and andrew can love me still but why still o god why isn't he here natasha quieted herself for a moment but again some instinct told her that though all this was true and though nothing had happened
yet the former purity of her love for prince andrew had perished
moncharmin's last phrase so dearly expressed the suspicion in which he now held his partner that it was bound to cause a stormy explanation at the end of which it was agreed that richard should yield to all moncharmin's wishes
with the object of helping him to discover the miscreant who was victimizing them
and those curious lapses from the dignity that might be expected of the managers it was arranged between richard and moncharmin first that richard should repeat the exact movements which he had made on the night of the disappearance of the first twenty thousand francs
got rid of her twenty thousand francs in the manager's coat tail pocket and disappeared or rather she was conjured away in accordance with the instructions received from moncharmin a few minutes earlier
thus making it impossible for her to communicate with her ghost
just as if he had that high and mighty minister the under secretary for fine arts before him only though these marks of politeness would have created no astonishment
bent his back before nobody and walked backward before nobody
moncharmin who had his own ideas did not want richard to come to him presently when the twenty thousand francs were gone and say perhaps it was the ambassador or the manager of the credit central or remy
the more so as at the time of the first scene as richard himself admitted
having begun by walking backward in order to bow richard continued to do so from prudence until he reached the passage leading to the offices of the management in this way he was constantly watched by moncharmin from behind
and himself kept an eye on any one approaching from the front once more this novel method of walking behind the scenes adopted by the managers of our national academy of music attracted attention
but the managers themselves thought of nothing but their twenty thousand francs on reaching the half dark passage richard said to moncharmin in a low voice i am sure that nobody has touched me
you had now better keep at some distance from me and watch me till i come to door of the office it is better not to arouse suspicion and we can see anything that happens but moncharmin replied
you walk ahead and i'll walk immediately behind you i won't leave you by a step but in that case exclaimed richard they will never steal our twenty thousand francs i should hope not indeed declared moncharmin
then what we are doing is absurd we are doing exactly what we did last time last time i joined you as you were leaving the stage and followed close behind you down this passage
that's true sighed richard shaking his head and passively obeying moncharmin two minutes later the joint managers locked themselves into their office moncharmin himself put the key in his pocket
we remained locked up like this last time he said until you left the opera to go home that's so no one came and disturbed us i suppose no one then said richard who was trying to collect his memory
then i must certainly have been robbed on my way home from the opera no said moncharmin in a drier tone than ever
for i dropped you in my cab the twenty thousand francs disappeared at your place there's not a shadow of a doubt about that it's incredible protested richard
i am sure of my servants and if one of them had done it he would have disappeared since moncharmin shrugged his shoulders as though to say that he did not wish to enter into details
and richard began to think that moncharmin was treating him in a very insupportable fashion moncharmin i've had enough of this richard i've had too much of it do you dare to suspect me
yes of a silly joke one doesn't joke with twenty thousand francs that's what i think declared moncharmin unfolding a newspaper and ostentatiously studying its contents what are you doing asked richard
are you going to read the paper next yes richard until i take you home like last time yes like last time richard snatched the paper from moncharmin's hands moncharmin stood up more irritated than ever
and found himself faced by an exasperated richard who crossing his arms on his chest said look here
you brought me home and if at the moment of parting i perceived that twenty thousand francs had disappeared from my coat pocket like last time and what might you think asked moncharmin crimson with rage
i might think that as you hadn't left me by a foot's breadth and as by your own wish you were the only one to approach me like last time
i might think that if that twenty thousand francs was no longer in my pocket it stood a very good chance of being in yours moncharmin leaped up at the suggestion oh he shouted a safety pin
a safety pin a safety pin you want to fasten me with a safety pin yes to fasten you to the twenty thousand francs then whether it's here or on the drive from here to your place or at your place
you will feel the hand that pulls at your pocket and you will see if it's mine oh so you're suspecting me now are you a safety pin
and that was the moment when moncharmin opened the door on the passage and shouted a safety pin somebody give me a safety pin and we also know how at the same moment remy who had no safety pin was received by moncharmin
while a boy procured the pin so eagerly longed for and what happened was this moncharmin first locked the door again then he knelt down behind richard's back i hope he said that the notes are still there
the real ones asked moncharmin resolved not to be had this time look for yourself said richard i refuse to touch them moncharmin took the envelope from richard's pocket and drew out the bank notes with a trembling hand
for this time in order frequently to make sure of the presence of the notes he had not sealed the envelope nor even fastened it he felt reassured on finding that they were all there and quite genuine he put them back in the tail pocket and pinned them with great care
while richard sitting at his writing table did not stir a little patience richard said moncharmin we have only a few minutes to wait the clock will soon strike twelve last time we left at the last stroke of twelve
oh i shall have all the patience necessary the time passed slow heavy mysterious stifling richard tried to laugh
just now don't you find something uncomfortable disquieting alarming in the atmosphere of this room you're quite right
said moncharmin who was really impressed the ghost continued richard in a low voice as though fearing lest he should be overheard by invisible ears the ghost suppose all the same it were a ghost who puts the magic envelopes on the table
who talks in box five who killed joseph buquet who unhooked the chandelier and who robs us for after all after all after all there is no one here except you and me
in the ghost at that moment the clock on the mantlepiece gave its warning click and the first stroke of twelve struck the two managers shuddered
the perspiration streamed from their foreheads the twelfth stroke sounded strangely in their ears when the clock stopped they gave a sigh and rose from their chairs i think we can go now said moncharmin
before we go do you mind if i look in your pocket but of course moncharmin you must well he asked as moncharmin was feeling at the pocket well i can feel the pin
of course as you said we can't be robbed without noticing it but moncharmin whose hands were still fumbling bellowed i can feel the pin but i can't feel the notes come no joking moncharmin this isn't the time for it
well feel for yourself richard tore off his coat the two managers turned the pocket inside out the pocket was empty and the curious thing was that the pin remained stuck in the same place
give me if you please my reward the master answered thou hast truly and faithfully served me as the service was so shall the reward be and he gave hans a piece of gold as big as his head
hans pulled out his handkerchief wrapped up the lump of gold in it and throwing it over his shoulder made his way home as he went on his way always putting one foot before the other he met a man galloping briskly along on a fine horse
ah said hans quite aloud what a capital thing it is to ride there you sit as comfortably as in a chair kicking against no stones saving your shoe leather and getting to your journey's end almost without knowing it
the horseman who heard this pulled up and cried hullo hans why do you trudge on foot because i must answered he for i have this big lump to carry home it is real gold you know
but all the same i can scarcely hold up my head it weighs so terribly on my shoulders i'll tell you what said the horseman we'll just exchange i'll give you my horse and you give me your lump of gold with all my heart said hans
he felt very downcast and said to the peasant
which kicks and throws one off so that one comes near to breaking one's neck you don't catch me on his back again now there's more sense in a cow like yours behind which you can walk in peace and quietness
besides having your butter milk and cheese every morning for certain
well said the peasant if it would give you so much pleasure i will exchange my cow for your horse hans gladly consented and the peasant flung himself on the horse and rode quickly off
hans drove the cow peacefully along thinking what a lucky fellow i am i have just to get a bit of bread and that isn't a difficult matter and then as often as i like i can eat my butter and cheese with it
if i am thirsty i just milk my cow and drink what more could i desire when he came to an inn he made a stop and in his great joy ate all the food he had with him right up both dinner and supper
with his two last farthings he bought himself half a glass of beer then he drove his cow towards his mother's village as the morning went on the more oppressive the heat became and hans found himself in a field some three miles long
then he felt so hot that his tongue was parched with thirst this is soon cured thought hans i have only to milk my cow drink and refresh myself he tied the cow to a withered tree
and as he had no pitcher he placed his leathern cap underneath her but in spite of all his trouble not a drop of milk could be got and he went to work so clumsily that the impatient brute gave him such a kick with her hind leg
that he was knocked over and quite dazed and for a long time did not know where he was luckily a butcher came by just then wheeling a young pig in a barrow what kind of joke is this cried he helping our friend hans to rise
hans told him what had happened the butcher passed him his bottle and said there drink and revive yourself that cow will never give any milk she is an old animal and at the best is only fit for the plow or the butcher
who would have thought it it is all right indeed when you can slaughter such a beast in your own house but i don't think much of cow's flesh it is not tender enough now if one had a young pig
that would taste far different to say nothing of the sausages listen hans said the butcher for your sake i will exchange and let you have my pig for your cow
may heaven reward your friendship said hans and at once gave him the cow the man untied the pig from the wheelbarrow
and gave the rope with which it was bound into hans's hand hans marched on thinking what a lucky fellow i am as soon as anything goes wrong something turns up and all's right again
just then up came a youth carrying a fine white goose under his arm they were friends and hans began to talk about his luck and how he always came off best in his exchanges
the youth told him he was taking the goose to a christening feast just hold it he continued seizing it by the wings and feel how heavy it is yet it was only fattened for eight weeks it will be a rich morsel when roasted
yes said hans weighing it with his hand it is certainly heavy but my pig is by no means to be despised meanwhile the lad was looking thoughtfully around shaking his head listen he said
i don't think it's all right about your pig in the village i have just come through one has lately been stolen from the magistrate's own sty i fear it is the one you have they have sent people out and it would be a bad business
if they found you with the pig the least they would do would be to throw you into jail our friend hans was downcast alas he cried help me in my need you know your way here better than i
i shall be running great risks said the youth but at least i will prevent your getting into trouble he took the rope in his hand and drove the pig quickly away down a by path and hans went on relieved of his sorrow
towards home with the goose under his arm what a lucky fellow i am he said to himself first i shall have a good roast then there is the quantity of dripping that will fall out which will keep me in bread and dripping for a quarter of a year
and lastly the splendid white feathers with which i will have my pillow stuffed then i shall fall asleep without rocking how glad my mother will be
when he was at length come to the village there stood in the street a scissors grinder with his truck his wheel hummed and he sang the while
you must be doing well since you are so merry over your grinding
a proper scissors grinder is the sort of man who whenever he puts his hand in his pocket finds money there but where have you bought that fine goose i did not buy it but exchanged it for my pig and the pig
i obtained him for a cow and the cow i had her for a horse and the horse for him i gave a lump of gold as big as my head and the gold
you have certainly done well for yourself each time said the scissors grinder if you could only hear money rattling in your pocket every time you got up your fortune would be made how shall i set about it said hans
you must become a grinder like me all you want is a grindstone the rest comes of itself i have one which is a little damaged indeed but for which i would ask nothing more than your goose would that suit you
how can you ask me answered hans i shall be the luckiest fellow on earth if i have money as often as i feel in my pocket what else shall i have to care about and he handed over the goose and took the grindstone in receipt
now said the grinder lifting up an ordinary heavy field stone which lay beside him there you have a capital stone which will be just the thing to hammer your old nails straight upon take it and lift it up carefully
hans raised the stone and marched on with a joyful heart his eyes shining with pleasure i must have been born lucky he cried out all that i desire comes to me as to a sunday child
meanwhile having been on his legs since daybreak he began to feel tired besides which he was tormented by hunger for he had eaten up all his provision in his joy over the exchange of the cow
at length he could only proceed with great trouble and must needs stop every minute the stones too crushed him terribly then he could not conceal the thought how nice it would be now to have nothing to carry
like a snail he crept up to a well wishing to rest himself and enjoy a refreshing drink in order not to spoil the stones in setting them down he laid them carefully on the ground one beside the other
and bent himself down to drink but by an accident he gave them a little push and both stones went splashing down hans when he saw them sinking in the depths of the well jumped up with joy
kneeled down and thanked god with tears in his eyes that he had shown him this grace and without troubling him to think what to do with them had relieved him of the heavy stones which would have been such a hindrance to him
chapter twenty in which fix comes face to face with phileas fogg while these events were passing at the opium house mister fogg unconscious of the danger he was in of losing the steamer
was quietly escorting aouda about the streets of the english quarter making the necessary purchases for the long voyage before them it was all very well for an englishman like mister fogg to make the tour of the world with a carpet bag
a lady could not be expected to travel comfortably under such conditions he acquitted his task with characteristic serenity and invariably replied to the remonstrances of his fair companion
who was confused by his patience and generosity it is in the interest of my journey a part of my programme the purchases made they returned to the hotel where they dined at a sumptuously served table d'hote after which aouda
shaking hands with her protector after the english fashion retired to her room for rest mister fogg absorbed himself throughout the evening in the perusal of the times and illustrated london news
had he been capable of being astonished at anything it would have been not to see his servant return at bedtime but knowing that the steamer was not to leave for yokohama until the next morning he did not disturb himself about the matter
calling aouda and sending for a palanquin it was then eight o'clock at half past nine it being then high tide the carnatic would leave the harbour mister fogg and aouda got into the palanquin
their luggage being brought after on a wheelbarrow
mister fogg then learned that the carnatic had sailed the evening before he had expected to find not only the steamer but his domestic and was forced to give up both but no sign of disappointment appeared on his face and he merely remarked to aouda
it is an accident madam nothing more at this moment a man who had been observing him attentively approached it was fix who bowing addressed mister fogg
were you not like me sir a passenger by the rangoon which arrived yesterday i was sir replied mister fogg coldly but i have not the honour pardon me i thought i should find your servant here
what responded fix feigning surprise is he not with you no said aouda he has not made his appearance since yesterday could he have gone on board the carnatic without us without you madam answered the detective
excuse me did you intend to sail in the carnatic yes sir so did i madam and i am excessively disappointed the carnatic its repairs being completed left hong kong twelve hours before the stated time without any notice being given
fix felt his heart leap for joy fogg detained at hong kong for a week there would be time for the warrant to arrive and fortune at last favoured the representative of the law
his horror may be imagined when he heard mister fogg say in his placid voice but there are other vessels besides the carnatic it seems to me in the harbour of hong kong
and offering his arm to aouda he directed his steps toward the docks in search of some craft about to start fix stupefied followed it seemed as if he were attached to mister fogg by an invisible thread
for three hours phileas fogg wandered about the docks with the determination if necessary to charter a vessel to carry him to yokohama but he could only find vessels which were loading or unloading and which could not therefore set sail
fix began to hope again but mister fogg far from being discouraged was continuing his search
is your honour looking for a boat have you a boat ready to sail
yes your honour will be satisfied with her is it for a sea excursion no for a voyage a voyage yes will you agree to take me to yokohama
the sailor leaned on the railing opened his eyes wide and said is your honour joking
and i must get to yokohama by the fourteenth at the latest to take the boat for san francisco i am sorry said the sailor but it is impossible i offer you a hundred pounds per day
and an additional reward of two hundred pounds if i reach yokohama in time are you in earnest very much so the pilot walked away a little distance and gazed out to sea
evidently struggling between the anxiety to gain a large sum and the fear of venturing so far
you would not be afraid would you madam not with you mister fogg was her answer the pilot now returned shuffling his hat in his hands well pilot said mister fogg well your honour replied he
besides we could not reach yokohama in time for it is sixteen hundred and sixty miles from hong kong only sixteen hundred said mister fogg
fix breathed more freely but added the pilot it might be arranged another way fix ceased to breathe at all how asked mister fogg
by going to nagasaki at the extreme south of japan or even to shanghai which is only eight hundred miles from here
which would be a great advantage as the currents run northward and would aid us pilot said mister fogg i must take the american steamer at yokohama and not at shanghai or nagasaki
why not returned the pilot the san francisco steamer does not start from yokohama it puts in at yokohama and nagasaki but it starts from shanghai
perfectly and when does the boat leave shanghai on the eleventh at seven in the evening we have therefore four days before us that is ninety six hours
and in that time if we had good luck and a south west wind and the sea was calm we could make those eight hundred miles to shanghai and you could go in an hour as soon as provisions could be got aboard and the sails put up
would you like some earnest money if it would not put your honour out here are two hundred pounds on account sir added phileas fogg turning to fix if you would like to take advantage
thanks sir i was about to ask the favour very well in half an hour we shall go on board
urged aouda who was much disturbed by the servant's disappearance i shall do all i can to find him replied phileas fogg
the others directed their course to the police station at hong kong
and left a sum of money to be spent in the search for him the same formalities having been gone through at the french consulate and the palanquin having stopped at the hotel for the luggage which had been sent back there they returned to the wharf
it was now three o'clock
the tankadere was a neat little craft of twenty tons as gracefully built as if she were a racing yacht her shining copper sheathing her galvanised iron work her deck white as ivory
betrayed the pride taken by john bunsby in making her presentable her two masts leaned a trifle backward she carried brigantine foresail storm jib and standing jib
and was well rigged for running before the wind and she seemed capable of brisk speed which indeed she had already proved by gaining several prizes in pilot boat races
the crew of the tankadere was composed of john bunsby the master and four hardy mariners who were familiar with the chinese seas john bunsby himself a man of forty five or thereabouts vigorous sunburnt
with a sprightly expression of the eye and energetic and self reliant countenance would have inspired confidence in the most timid
below deck was a square cabin of which the walls bulged out in the form of cots above a circular divan
i am sorry to have nothing better to offer you said mister fogg to fix who bowed without responding the detective had a feeling akin to humiliation in profiting by the kindness of mister fogg it's certain thought he
though rascal as he is he is a polite one the sails and the english flag were hoisted at ten minutes past three mister fogg and aouda who were seated on deck
whom he had so badly treated in this direction in which case an explanation the reverse of satisfactory to the detective must have ensued but the frenchman did not appear
and without doubt was still lying under the stupefying influence of the opium john bunsby master at length gave the order to start
chapter thirty five the reign of queen wilhelmina
the pierson borgesius ministry had not been long in office when queen wilhelmina attained her majority august thirty first eighteen ninety eight amidst public enthusiasm
dealt with many subjects of importance personal military service was at last after years of controversy enforced by law
attendance at school up to the age of thirteen was made obligatory
the year eighteen ninety nine was memorable for the meeting of the first peace congress
and lasted until june twenty ninth by the irony of events a few months later october tenth a war broke out in which the dutch people felt a great and sympathetic interest
between the two boer republics of south africa and great britain bitter feelings were aroused and the queen did but reflect the national sentiment when she personally received in the most friendly manner president krueger
who arrived in holland as a fugitive
and there was never any breach in the relations between great britain and the netherlands the marriage of queen wilhelmina on february seventh nineteen o one with prince henry of mecklenburg schwerin was welcomed by the people
as affording hopes for some years to be disappointed of the birth of an heir to the throne the elections of nineteen o one found the liberal ministry out of favour through the laws enforcing military service and obligatory attendance at school
had succeeded in uniting the three church groups the democratic anti revolutionaries the aristocratic historical christians both orthodox calvinists and the catholics of all sections into a christian coalition
in support of religious teaching in the schools the victory lay with the coalition
which was rejected by the first chamber a dissolution of this chamber led to the majority being reversed and the measure was passed another measure revised the mackay law and conferred a larger subsidy on private schools
the socialist party under the able leadership of troelstra had won several seats at the election and in nineteen o three a general strike was threatened unless the government conceded the demands of the socialist labour party
the threat was met with firmness an anti strike law was quickly passed the military was called out and the strike collapsed
and led to sanguinary reprisals on the part of the dutch soldiery
various attempts had been made in eighteen ninety five and eighteen ninety nine to introduce protectionist duties but unsuccessfully
found all the liberal groups united in a combined assault upon the christian coalition a severe electoral struggle ensued with the result that forty five liberals and seven socialists were returned against forty eight coalitionists
doctor kuyper resigned and a new ministry under the leadership of the moderate liberal de meester took its place the de meester government was however dependent upon the socialist vote
and possessed no independent majority in either chamber for the first time a ministry of agriculture industry and trade was created such an administration could only lead a precarious existence
th heemskerk undertook the task of forming a new cabinet from the anti revolutionary and catholic groups
he won a conclusive victory at the polls this victory was obtained by wholesale promises of social reforms including old age pensions and poor and sick relief as so often happens such a programme could not be carried into effect
without heavy expenditure and the means were not forthcoming to meet the demand a bill was introduced in august nineteen eleven by the finance minister doctor kolkmar
to increase considerably the existing duties and to extend largely the list of dutiable imports this bill led to a widespread agitation in the country and many petitions were presented against it
with the result that it was withdrawn a proposal made by this ministry in nineteen ten to spend thirty eight million florins on the fortification of flushing excited much adverse criticism in the press of belgium england and france
the object being to prevent the british fleet from seizing flushing in the event of the outbreak of an anglo german war the press agitation met however with no countenance on the part of responsible statesmen in any of the countries named
it led nevertheless to the abandonment of the original proposal and the passing of a bill in nineteen twelve for the improvement of the defences of the dutch sea ports generally
probably in no country has the principle of the swing of the pendulum been so systematically verified as it has in holland in recent times the returns were in nineteen thirteen church parties forty one
liberals of all groups thirty nine socialists fifteen the most striking change was the increase in the socialist vote their representation being more than doubled
with some difficulty doctor cort van den linden succeeded in forming a liberal ministry the outbreak of the great war in august nineteen fourteen
in a conflict which placed them in a most difficult and dangerous position one of the first questions on which they had to take a critical decision was the closing of the scheldt as soon as great britain declared war on germany august fourth
the liberal ministry at least deserves credit for having steered the country safely through perilous waters
there are heroisms all round us mister hungerton her father really was the most tactless person upon earth a fluffy
feathery untidy cockatoo of a man perfectly good natured but absolutely centered upon his own silly self if anything could have driven me from gladys it would have been the thought of such a father in law
i am convinced that he really believed in his heart that i came round to the chestnuts three days a week for the pleasure of his company
a subject upon which he was by way of being an authority for an hour or more that evening i listened to his monotonous chirrup about bad money driving out good the token value of silver
the depreciation of the rupee and the true standards of exchange suppose he cried with feeble violence that all the debts in the world were called up simultaneously
upon which he jumped from his chair reproved me for my habitual levity which made it impossible for him to discuss any reasonable subject in my presence and bounced off out of the room to dress for a masonic meeting
at last i was alone with gladys and the moment of fate had come all that evening i had felt like the soldier who awaits the signal which will send him on a forlorn hope hope of victory
and fear of repulse alternating in his mind she sat with that proud delicate profile of hers outlined against the red curtain how beautiful she was and yet how aloof
we had been friends quite good friends but never could i get beyond the same comradeship which i might have established with one of my fellow reporters upon the gazette perfectly frank perfectly kindly
and perfectly unsexual my instincts are all against a woman being too frank and at her ease with me it is no compliment to a man where the real sex feeling begins timidity and distrust are its companions
heritage from old wicked days when love and violence went often hand in hand the bent head the averted eye the faltering voice the wincing figure these
even in my short life i had learned as much as that
gladys was full of every womanly quality some judged her to be cold and hard but such a thought was treason that delicately bronzed skin
almost oriental in its coloring that raven hair the large liquid eyes the full but exquisite lips all the stigmata of passion were there
but i was sadly conscious that up to now i had never found the secret of drawing it forth however come what might i should have done with suspense and bring matters to a head to night she could but refuse me
so far my thoughts had carried me and i was about to break the long and uneasy silence when two critical dark eyes looked round at me and the proud head was shaken in smiling reproof
for things are so much nicer as they are i drew my chair a little nearer now
i asked in genuine wonder don't women always know do you suppose any woman in the world was ever taken unawares but oh ned our friendship has been so good and so pleasant
what a pity to spoil it don't you feel how splendid it is that a young man and a young woman should be able to talk face to face as we have talked i don't know gladys you see i can talk face to face with with the station master
i can't imagine how that official came into the matter but in he trotted and set us both laughing that does not satisfy me in the least i want my arms round you and your head on my breast and oh gladys i want
she had sprung from her chair as she saw signs that i proposed to demonstrate some of my wants you've spoiled everything ned she said it's all so beautiful and natural until this kind of thing comes in
why can't you control yourself
perhaps if both love it may be different i have never felt it but you must
one must wait till it comes but why can't you love me gladys is it my appearance or what she did unbend a little she put forward a hand such a gracious stooping attitude it was
and she pressed back my head then she looked into my upturned face with a very wistful smile no it isn't that she said at last you're not a conceited boy by nature
it's deeper my character she nodded severely what can i do to mend it do sit down and talk it over no really i won't if you'll only sit down she looked at me with a wondering distrust
which was much more to my mind than her whole hearted confidence how primitive and bestial it looks when you put it down in black and white and perhaps after all it is only a feeling peculiar to myself anyhow she sat down
now tell me what's amiss with me i'm in love with somebody else said she it was my turn to jump out of my chair
only an ideal i've never met the kind of man i mean tell me about him what does he look like oh he might look very much like you how dear of you to say that well
what is it that he does that i don't do just say the word teetotal vegetarian aeronaut theosophist superman i'll have a try at it gladys if you will only give me an idea what would please you
well in the first place i don't think my ideal would speak like that said she he would be a harder sterner man not so ready to adapt himself to a silly girl's whim but above all
who could look death in the face and have no fear of him a man of great deeds and strange experiences it is never a man that i should love
and lady stanley did you ever read the wonderful last chapter of that book about her husband these are the sort of men that a woman could worship with all her soul and yet be the greater not the less on account of her love
i gripped myself hard and went on with the argument we can't all be stanleys and burtons said i besides we don't get the chance at least i never had the chance if i did i should try to take it
but chances are all around you
there are heroisms all round us waiting to be done it's for men to do them and for women to reserve their love
look at that young frenchman who went up last week in a balloon it was blowing a gale of wind but because he was announced to go he insisted on starting
and he fell in the middle of russia that was the kind of man i mean think of the woman he loved and how other women must have envied her that's what i should like to be envied for my man i'd have done it to please you
but you shouldn't do it merely to please me you should do it because you can't help yourself because it's natural to you because the man in you is crying out for heroic expression now when you described the wigan coal explosion last month
could you not have gone down and helped those people in spite of the choke damp i did you never said so there was nothing worth bucking about i didn't know she looked at me with rather more interest
that was brave of you i had to if you want to write good copy you must be where the things are what a prosaic motive it seems to take all the romance out of it but still
whatever your motive i am glad that you went down that mine she gave me her hand but with such sweetness and dignity that i could only stoop and kiss it i dare say
i am merely a foolish woman with a young girl's fancies and yet it is so real with me so entirely part of my very self that i cannot help acting upon it if i marry i do want to marry a famous man
why should you not i cried it is women like you who brace men up give me a chance and see if i will take it besides as you say men ought to make their own chances and not wait until they are given look at clive
just a clerk and he conquered india by george i'll do something in the world yet she laughed at my sudden irish effervescence why not she said you have everything a man could have
youth health strength education energy i was sorry you spoke and now i am glad so glad if it wakens these thoughts in you and if i do
only i hadn't the heart to remind you some day perhaps
and so it was that i found myself that foggy november evening pursuing the camberwell tram with my heart glowing within me and with the eager determination that not another day should elapse
before i should find some deed which was worthy of my lady but who who in all this wide world could ever have imagined the incredible shape which that deed was to take or the strange steps by which i was led to the doing of it
and after all this opening chapter will seem to the reader to have nothing to do with my narrative and yet there would have been no narrative without it
for it is only when a man goes out into the world with the thought that there are heroisms all round him and with the desire all alive in his heart to follow any which may come within sight of him
into the wonderful mystic twilight land where lie the great adventures and the great rewards behold me then at the office of the daily gazette on the staff of which i was a most insignificant unit
with the settled determination that very night if possible to find the quest which should be worthy of my gladys
chapter three he is a perfectly impossible person my friend's fear or hope was not destined to be realized when i called on wednesday there was a letter with the west kensington postmark upon it
the contents were as follows enmore park w sir
you have ventured to use the word speculation with regard to my statement upon the subject of darwinism and i would call your attention to the fact that such a word in such a connection is offensive to a degree the context convinces me however
tactlessness than through malice so i am content to pass the matter by you quote an isolated sentence from my lecture and appear to have some difficulty in understanding it
but if it really needs amplification i shall consent to see you at the hour named though visits
as to your suggestion that i may modify my opinion i would have you know that it is not my habit to do so after a deliberate expression of my mature views you will kindly show the envelope of this letter to my man austin when you call
as he has to take every precaution to shield me from the intrusive rascals who call themselves journalists yours faithfully george edward challenger this was the letter that i read aloud to tarp henry
his only remark was
some people have such extraordinary notions of humor it was nearly half past ten before i had received my message but a taxicab took me round in good time for my appointment
it was an imposing porticoed house at which we stopped and the heavily curtained windows gave every indication of wealth upon the part of this formidable professor the door was opened by an odd swarthy dried up person of uncertain age
with a dark pilot jacket and brown leather gaiters i found afterwards that he was the chauffeur who filled the gaps left by a succession of fugitive butlers he looked me up and down with a searching light blue eye expected
he asked an appointment got your letter i produced the envelope right he seemed to be a person of few words following him down the passage i was suddenly interrupted by a small woman
who stepped out from what proved to be the dining room door she was a bright vivacious dark eyed lady more french than english in her type one moment she said you can wait austin step in here sir may i ask if you have met my husband before
no madam i have not had the honor then i apologize to you in advance i must tell you that he is a perfectly impossible person absolutely impossible if you are forewarned you will be the more ready to make allowances
it is most considerate of you madam get quickly out of the room if he seems inclined to be violent don't wait to argue with him several people have been injured through doing that afterwards there is a public scandal and it reflects upon me and all of us
i suppose it wasn't about south america you wanted to see him i could not lie to a lady dear me that is his most dangerous subject you won't believe a word he says i'm sure i don't wonder
but don't tell him so for it makes him very violent pretend to believe him and you may get through all right remember he believes it himself of that you may be assured a more honest man never lived
if you find him dangerous really dangerous ring the bell and hold him off until i come even at his worst i can usually control him with these encouraging words the lady handed me over to the taciturn austin
who had waited like a bronze statue of discretion during our short interview and i was conducted to the end of the passage there was a tap at a door a bull's bellow from within and i was face to face with the professor
he sat in a rotating chair behind a broad table which was covered with books maps and diagrams as i entered his seat spun round to face me his appearance made me gasp
it was his size which took one's breath away his size and his imposing presence his head was enormous
i am sure that his top hat
he had the face and beard which i associate with an assyrian bull the former florid
spade shaped and rippling down over his chest the hair was peculiar plastered down in front in a long curving wisp over his massive forehead the eyes were blue gray under great black tufts very clear
very critical and very masterful a huge spread of shoulders and a chest like a barrel were the other parts of him which appeared above the table save for two enormous hands covered with long black hair
this and a bellowing roaring rumbling voice made up my first impression of the notorious professor challenger well said he with a most insolent stare what now
i must keep up my deception for at least a little time longer otherwise here was evidently an end of the interview you were good enough to give me an appointment sir said i humbly producing his envelope
he took my letter from his desk and laid it out before him oh you are the young person who cannot understand plain english are you my general conclusions you are good enough to approve as i understand entirely sir entirely
i was very emphatic dear me that strengthens my position very much does it not your age and appearance make your support doubly valuable well at least you are better than that herd of swine in vienna
he glared at me as the present representative of the beast they seem to have behaved abominably said i i assure you that i can fight my own battles and that i have no possible need of your sympathy
put me alone sir and with my back to the wall g e c is happiest then well sir let us do what we can to curtail this visit which can hardly be agreeable to you and is inexpressibly irksome to me
there was a brutal directness about his methods which made evasion difficult
it had seemed simple enough at a distance oh my irish wits could they not help me now when i needed help so sorely he transfixed me with two sharp steely eyes come come he rumbled
i am of course a mere student said i with a fatuous smile hardly more i might say than an earnest inquirer at the same time it seemed to me that you were a little severe upon weissmann in this matter
has not the general evidence since that date tended to well to strengthen his position what evidence he spoke with a menacing calm well of course
i am aware that there is not any what you might call definite evidence i alluded merely to the trend of modern thought and the general scientific point of view if i might so express it he leaned forward with great earnestness
i suppose you are aware said he checking off points upon his fingers that the cranial index is a constant factor naturally said
why surely i cried and gloried in my own audacity but what does that prove
his head not higher than my shoulder a stunted hercules whose tremendous vitality had all run to depth breadth and brain gibberish he cried leaning forward with his fingers on the table and his face projecting
that's what i have been talking to you sir scientific gibberish did you think you could match cunning with me you with your walnut of a brain you think you are omnipotent you infernal scribblers don't you
that your praise can make a man and your blame can break him we must all bow to you and try to get a favorable word must we
you've got out of your station time was when your ears were clipped you've lost your sense of proportion swollen gas bags
there's one man who is still your master
forfeit my good mister malone i claim forfeit you have played a rather dangerous game and it strikes me that you have lost it look here sir said i backing to the door and opening it
you can be as abusive as you like but there is a limit you shall not assault me shall i not he was slowly advancing in a peculiarly menacing way
but he stopped now and put his big hands into the side pockets of a rather boyish short jacket which he wore i have thrown several of you out of the house you will be the fourth or fifth
now sir why should you not follow your brethren i rather think you must he resumed his unpleasant and stealthy advance pointing his toes as he walked like a dancing master
i could have bolted for the hall door but it would have been too ignominious besides a little glow of righteous anger was springing up within me i had been hopelessly in the wrong before but this man's menaces were putting me in the right
i'll trouble you to keep your hands off sir i'll not stand it dear me his black moustache lifted and a white fang twinkled in a sneer
be such a fool professor i cried what can you hope for i'm fifteen stone as hard as nails and play center three quarter every saturday for the london irish i'm not the man it was at that moment that he rushed me
we did a catharine wheel together down the passage somehow we gathered up a chair upon our way and bounded on with it towards the street
and that infernal chair radiated its legs all round us the watchful austin had thrown open the hall door we went with a back somersault down the front steps
i have seen the two macs attempt something of the kind at the halls but it appears to take some practise to do it without hurting oneself the chair went to matchwood at the bottom and we rolled apart into the gutter
he sprang to his feet waving his fists and wheezing like an asthmatic
he panted you infernal bully i cried as i gathered myself together then and there we should have tried the thing out
but fortunately i was rescued from an odious situation a policeman was beside us his notebook in his hand what's all this you ought to be ashamed said the policeman it was the most rational remark which i had heard in enmore park
well he insisted turning to me what is it then this man attacked me said i did you attack him asked the policeman the professor breathed hard and said nothing it's not the first time either
you were in trouble last month for the same thing you've blackened this young man's eye
i relented no said i i do not what's that said the policeman i was to blame myself i intruded upon him he gave me fair warning the policeman snapped up his notebook
don't let us have any more such goings on said he now then move on there move on this to a butcher's boy a maid and one or two loafers who had collected he clumped heavily down the street
driving this little flock before him the professor looked at me and there was something humorous at the back of his eyes come in said he i've not done with you yet
there was once a woman who had three daughters of whom the eldest was called little one eye because she had only one eye in the middle of her forehead and the second little two eyes because she had two eyes like other people and the youngest little three eyes
but because little two eyes did not look any different from other children
and they were as unkind to her as ever they could be it happened one day
but she was still quite hungry because her sisters had given her so little to eat so she sat down in the meadow and began to cry and she cried so much that two little brooks ran out of her eyes but when she looked up once in her grief
there stood a woman beside her who asked
and give me nothing to eat except what they leave to day they have given me so little that i am still quite hungry then the wise woman said little two eyes
little goat bleat little table appear and a beautifully spread table will stand before you with the most delicious food on it so that you can eat as much as you want and when you have had enough and don't want the little table any more
little goat bleat little table away and then it will vanish then the wise woman went away but little two eyes thought i must try at once if what she has told me is true for i am more hungry than ever and she said
little goat bleat little table appear and scarcely had she uttered the words when there stood a little table before her covered with a white cloth on which were arranged a plate
with a knife and fork and a silver spoon and the most beautiful dishes which were smoking hot as if they had just come out of the kitchen then little two eyes said the shortest grace she knew
and when she had had enough she said as the wise woman had told her little goat bleat little table away
that is a splendid way of housekeeping thought little two eyes and she was quite happy and contented
she found a little earthenware dish with the food that her sisters had thrown to her but she did not touch it the next day she went out again with her goat
the first and second times her sisters did not notice this but when it happened continually they remarked it and said something is the matter with little two eyes for she always leaves her food now and she used to gobble up all that was given her
she must have found other means of getting food so in order to get at the truth little one eye was told to go out with little two eyes when she drove the goat to pasture and to notice particularly what she got there and whether anyone brought her food and drink
now when little two eyes was setting out little one eye came up to her and said i will go into the field with you and see if you take good care of the goat and if you drive him properly to get grass but little two eyes saw what little one eye had in her mind
come little one eye we will sit down here and i will sing you something little one eye sat down
and by the hot day and as little two eyes went on singing little one eye are you awake little one eye are you asleep she shut her one eye and fell asleep when little two eyes saw that little one eye was asleep
and could find out nothing she said little goat bleat little table appear and sat down at her table and ate and drank as much as she wanted then she said again little goat bleat little table away
and in the twinkling of an eye all had vanished little two eyes then woke little one eye and said little one eye you meant to watch and instead you went to sleep
come we will go home so they went home and little two eyes again left her little dish untouched and little one eye could not tell her mother why she would not eat and said as an excuse i was so sleepy out of doors the next day
the mother said to little three eyes this time you shall go with little two eyes and watch whether she eats anything out in the fields and whether anyone brings her food and drink for eat and drink she must secretly so little three eyes
and if you drive him properly to get grass but little two eyes knew what little three eyes had in her mind
little three eyes are you awake but instead of singing as she ought to have done little three eyes are you asleep she sang without thinking little two eyes are you asleep she went on singing little three eyes are you awake little two eyes
did not fall asleep of course little three eyes shut that eye also out of cunning to look as if she were asleep but it was blinking and could see everything quite well and when little two eyes thought that little three eyes was sound asleep she said her rhyme
little goat bleat little table appear and ate and drank to her heart's content and then made the table go away again by saying little goat bleat little table away but little three eyes had seen everything
then little two eyes came to her and woke her and said well little three eyes have you been asleep you watch well come we will go home when they reached home little two eyes did not eat again and little three eyes said to the mother
i know now why that proud thing eats nothing when she says to the goat in the field little goat bleat little table appear
and when she has had enough she says little goat bleat little table away and everything disappears again i saw it all exactly she made two of my eyes go to sleep with a little rhyme
but the one in my forehead remained awake luckily then the envious mother cried out will you fare better than we do you shall not have the chance to do so again and she fetched a knife and killed the goat when little two eyes saw this
she went out full of grief and sat down in the meadow and wept bitter tears then again the wise woman stood before her and said little two eyes what are you crying for have i not reason to cry she answered
the goat which when i said the little rhyme spread the table so beautifully my mother has killed and now i must suffer hunger and want again the wise woman said little two eyes i will give you a good piece of advice
ask your sisters to give you the heart of the dead goat and bury it in the earth before the house door that will bring you good luck then she disappeared and little two eyes went home and said to her sisters dear sisters do give me something of my goat
i ask nothing better than its heart then they laughed and said you can have that if you want nothing more and little two eyes took the heart and buried it in the evening when all was quiet as the wise woman had told her before the house door
the next morning when they all awoke and came to the house door there stood a most wonderful tree
then the mother said to little one eye climb up my child and break us off the fruit from the tree little one eye climbed up but just when she was going to take hold of one of the golden apples the bough sprang out of her hands and this happened every time
so that she could not break off a single apple however hard she tried then the mother said little three eyes do you climb up you with your three eyes can see round better than little one eye so little one eye slid down and little three eyes climbed up
but she was not any more successful look round as she might the golden apples bent themselves back at last the mother got impatient and climbed up herself
but she was even less successful than little one eye and little three eyes in catching hold of the fruit and only grasped at the empty air then little two eyes said
perhaps i shall succeed better the sisters called out you with your two eyes will no doubt succeed but little two eyes climbed up and the golden apples did not jump away from her but behaved quite properly so that she could pluck them off one after the other
and brought a whole apron full down with her the mother took them from her and instead of behaving better to poor little two eyes as they ought to have done
it happened one day that when they were all standing together by the tree that a young knight came riding along be quick little two eyes cried the two sisters creep under this so that you shall not disgrace us
and they put over poor little two eyes as quickly as possible an empty cask which was standing close to the tree
when the knight who was a very handsome young man rode up he wondered to see the marvellous tree of gold and silver and said to the two sisters whose is this beautiful tree whoever will give me a twig of it shall have whatever she wants
then little one eye and little three eyes answered that the tree belonged to them and that they would certainly break him off a twig they gave themselves a great deal of trouble but in vain the twigs and fruit bent back every time from their hands
then the knight said it is very strange that the tree should belong to you
and while they were saying this little two eyes rolled a couple of golden apples from under the cask so that they lay at the knight's feet for she was angry with little one eye and little three eyes for not speaking the truth when the knight saw the apples he was astonished
and asked where they came from little one eye and little three eyes answered that they had another sister but she could not be seen because she had only two eyes like ordinary people but the knight demanded to see her and called out little two eyes come forth
then little two eyes came out from under the cask quite happily and the knight was astonished at her great beauty and said
yes answered little two eyes i can for the tree is mine so she climbed up and broke off a small branch with its silver leaves and golden fruit without any trouble and gave it to the knight then he said
i should be happy then the knight lifted little two eyes on his horse and took her home to his father's castle there he gave her beautiful clothes and food and drink and because he loved her so much he married her and the wedding was celebrated with great joy
when the handsome knight carried little two eyes away with him the two sisters envied her good luck at first but the wonderful tree is still with us after all they thought and although we cannot break any fruit from it everyone will stop and look at it
little two eyes lived happily for a long time once two poor women came to the castle to beg alms
jack my hedgehog there was once a farmer who lived in great comfort he had both lands and money but though he was so well off one thing was wanting to complete his happiness he had no children
many and many a time when he met other farmers at the nearest market town they would teaze him asking how it came about that he was childless at length he grew so angry that he exclaimed i must and will have a child of some sort or kind even should it only be a hedgehog
what's the use of making a fuss i suppose the creature must be christened
there is nothing we can possibly call him but jack my hedgehog replied the wife so they took him to be christened and the parson said
his father grew very tired of him and often wished him dead
some meat and a couple of big loaves for the house said she then he asked the maid what she wanted and she said a pair of slippers and some stockings lastly he said
daddy said he do bring me a bagpipe when the farmer came home he gave his wife and the maid the things they had asked for and then he went behind the stove and gave jack my hedgehog the bagpipes when jack had got his bagpipes he said
daddy do go to the smithy and have the house cock shod for me then i'll ride off and trouble you no more his father who was delighted at the prospect of getting rid of him had the cock shod and when it was ready jack my hedgehog mounted on its back and rode off to the forest
having reached the forest he made the cock fly up to the top of a very tall tree with him and there he sat looking after his pigs and donkeys and he sat on and on for several years till he had quite a big herd but all this time his father knew nothing about him
as he sat up in his tree he played away on his pipes and drew the loveliest music from them as he was playing one day a king who had lost his way happened to pass close by and hearing the music he was much surprised
and sent one of his servants to find out where it came from the man peered about but he could see nothing but a little creature which looked like a cock with a hedgehog sitting on it perched up in a tree the king desired the servant to ask the strange creature why it sat there
and if it knew the shortest way to his kingdom on this jack my hedgehog stepped down from his tree and said he would undertake to show the king his way home if the king on his part
would give him his written promise to let him have whatever first met him on his return the king thought to himself that's easy enough to promise the creature won't understand a word about it so i can just write what i choose
and when he had done jack my hedgehog pointed out the way and the king got safely home now when the king's daughter saw her father returning in the distance she was so delighted that she ran to meet him and threw herself into his arms
rode on a cock as though it had been a horse and it made lovely music but as it certainly could not read he had just written that he would not give it anything at all at this the princess was quite pleased and said how cleverly her father had managed for that of course
passed by with his servants and escort wondering how he could find his way home for the forest was very vast he too heard the music and told one of his men to find out whence it came the man came under the tree
and looking up to the top there he saw jack my hedgehog astride on the cock the servant asked jack what he was doing up there i'm minding my pigs and donkeys but what do you want was the reply then the servant told him they had lost their way and wanted some one to show it them
down came jack my hedgehog with his cock and told the old king he would show him the right way if he would solemnly promise to give him the first thing he met in front of his royal castle the king said yes and gave jack a written promise to that effect
then jack rode on in front pointing out the way and the king reached his own country in safety now he had an only daughter who was extremely beautiful and who delighted at her father's return ran to meet him threw her arms round his neck and kissed him heartily
then she asked where he had been wandering so long and he told her how he had lost his way and might never have reached home at all but for a strange creature half man half hedgehog which rode a cock and sat up in a tree making lovely music and which had shown him the right way
he also told her how he had been obliged to pledge his word to give the creature the first thing which met him outside his castle gate and he felt very sad at the thought that she had been the first thing to meet him but the princess comforted him
and said she should be quite willing to go with jack my hedgehog whenever he came to fetch her
jack my hedgehog continued to herd his pigs and they increased in number till there were so many that the forest seemed full of them so he made up his mind to live there no longer and sent a message to his father telling him to have all the stables and outhouses in the village cleared
as he was going to bring such an enormous herd that all who would might kill what they chose his father was much vexed at this news for he thought jack had died long ago jack my hedgehog mounted his cock and driving his pigs before him into the village
he let every one kill as many as they chose and such a hacking and hewing of pork went on as you might have heard for miles off then said jack daddy let the blacksmith shoe my cock once more
then i'll ride off and i promise you i'll never come back again as long as i live so the father had the cock shod and rejoiced at the idea of getting rid of his son then jack my hedgehog set off for the first kingdom
and there the king had given strict orders that if anyone should be seen riding a cock and carrying a bagpipe he was to be chased away and shot at and on no account to be allowed to enter the palace so when jack my hedgehog rode up
let himself down on the sill and called out that if he was not given what had been promised him both the king and his daughter should pay for it with their lives then the king coaxed and entreated his daughter to go with jack and so save both their lives
the princess dressed herself all in white
and jack my hedgehog with his cock and pipes took his place beside her they both took leave and the king fully expected never to set eyes on them again but matters turned out very differently from what he had expected for when they had got a certain distance from the town
jack tore all the princess's smart clothes off her and pricked her all over with his bristles saying that's what you get for treachery now go back i'll have no more to say to you and with that he hunted her home
and she felt she had been disgraced and put to shame till her life's end then jack my hedgehog rode on with his cock and bagpipes to the country of the second king to whom he had shown the way
now this king had given orders that in the event of jack's coming the guards were to present arms the people to cheer and he was to be conducted in triumph to the royal palace when the king's daughter saw jack my hedgehog she was a good deal startled
for he certainly was very peculiar looking but after all she considered that she had given her word and it couldn't be helped so she made jack welcome and they were betrothed to each other and at dinner he sat next her at the royal table and they ate and drank together
when they retired to rest the princess feared lest jack should kiss her because of his prickles but he told her not to be alarmed as no harm should befall her then he begged the old king to place a watch of four men just outside his bedroom door and to desire them to make a big fire
when he was about to lie down in bed he would creep out of his hedgehog skin and leave it lying at the bedside then the men must rush in throw the skin into the fire and stand by till it was entirely burnt up
took off his skin and left it at the foot of the bed the men rushed in quickly seized the skin and threw it on the fire
jack was released from his enchantment and lay in his bed a man from head to foot but quite black as though he had been severely scorched the king sent off for his physician in ordinary who washed jack all over with various essences and salves
so that he became white and was a remarkably handsome young man when the king's daughter saw him she was greatly pleased and next day the marriage ceremony was performed and the old king bestowed his kingdom on jack my hedgehog
after some years jack and his wife went to visit his father but the farmer did not recognize him and declared he had no son he had had one but that one was born with bristles like a hedgehog and had gone off into the wide world
the biter bit once upon a time there lived a man called simon who was very rich but at the same time as stingy and miserly as he could be he had a housekeeper called nina a
clever capable woman and as she did her work carefully and conscientiously her master had the greatest respect for her in his young days simon had been one of the gayest and most active youths of the neighbourhood but as he grew old and stiff he found it very difficult to walk
and his faithful servant urged him to get a horse so as to save his poor old bones at last simon gave way to the request and persuasive eloquence of his housekeeper and betook himself one day to the market where he had seen a mule which he thought would just suit him
and which he bought for seven gold pieces now it happened that there were three merry rascals hanging about the market place who much preferred living on other people's goods to working for their own living as soon as they saw that simon had bought a mule one of them said to his two boon companions
my friends this mule must be ours before we are many hours older but how shall we manage it asked one of them we must all three station ourselves at different intervals along the old man's homeward way and must each in his turn declare that the mule he has bought is a donkey
if we only stick to it you'll see the mule will soon be ours this proposal quite satisfied the others and they all separated as they had agreed now when simon came by the first rogue said to him god bless you my fine gentleman
thanks for your courtesy replied simon where have you been asked the thief to the market was the reply and what did you buy there continued the rogue this mule which mule
the one i'm sitting upon to be sure replied simon are you in earnest or only joking what do you mean because it seems to me you've got hold of a donkey and not of a mule a donkey rubbish screamed simon
and without another word he rode on his way after a few hundred yards he met the second confederate who addressed him good day dear sir where are you coming from from the market answered simon did things go pretty cheap asked the other
you don't mean to say so if a single other person tells me that i'll make him a present of the wretched animal with these words he continued his way and very soon met the third knave who said to him god bless you sir are you by any chance coming from the market
yes i am replied simon and what bargain did you drive there asked the cunning fellow i bought this mule on which i am riding a mule are you speaking seriously or do you wish to make a fool of me
you are the third person in the last two hours who has told me the same thing said simon but i couldn't believe it and dismounting from the mule he spoke keep the animal i make you a present of it the rascal took the beast
at least so he had been assured by several people he had met on the road and that in disgust he had at last given it away oh you simpleton cried nina didn't you see that they were only playing you a trick really i thought you'd have had more gumption than that
never mind replied simon i'll play them one worth two of that for depend upon it they won't be contented with having got the donkey out of me but they'll try by some new dodge to get something more or i'm much mistaken
now there lived in the village not far from simon's house a peasant who had two goats so alike in every respect that it was impossible to distinguish one from the other simon bought them both paid as small a price as he could for them
and leading them home with him he told nina to prepare a good meal as he was going to invite some friends to dinner he ordered her to roast some veal and to boil a pair of chickens and gave her some herbs to make a good savoury and told her to bake the best tart she could make
then he took one of the goats and tied it to a post in the courtyard and gave it some grass to eat but he bound a cord round the neck of the other goat and led it to the market
hardly had he arrived there than the three gentlemen who had got his mule perceived him and coming up to him said welcome mister simon what brings you here are you on the look out for a bargain i've come to get some provisions he answered
and to bake the best tart she can make have you followed me then go and heaven's blessing go with you as soon as it felt itself free the laden goat trotted off as quickly as it could and to this day nobody knows what became of it
they were not a little astonished at this for of course they thought it was the same goat that simon had sent home laden with provisions as soon as they reached the house mister simon said to his housekeeper well nina have you done what i told the goat to tell you to do
the artful woman who at once understood her master answered certainly i have the veal is roasted and the chickens boiled that's all right said simon when the three rogues saw the cooked meats and the tart in the oven and heard nina's words
they were nearly beside themselves with amazement and began to consult at once how they were to get the goat into their own possession at last towards the end of the meal having sought in vain for some cunning dodge to get the goat away from mister simon one of them said to him
the knaves who thought they were doing a capital piece of business paid down the fifty gold pieces at once and left the house quite happily leading the goat with them when they got home they said to their wives you needn't begin to cook the dinner to morrow till we send the provisions home
the following day they went to the market and bought chickens and other eatables and after they had packed them on the back of the goat which they had brought with them they told it all the dishes they wished their wives to prepare as soon as the goat felt itself free it ran as quickly as it could
and was very soon lost to sight and as far as i know was never heard of again when the dinner hour approached all three went home and asked their wives if the goat had returned with the necessary provisions and had told them what they wished prepared for their meal
oh you fools and blockheads cried their wives how could you ever believe for a moment that a goat would do the work of a servant maid you have been finely deceived for once in a way of course if you are always taking in other people your turn to be taken in comes too
and this time you've been made to look pretty foolish when the three comrades saw that mister simon had got the better of them and done them out of fifty gold pieces they flew into such a rage that they made up their minds to kill him and seizing their weapons for this purpose went to his house
but the sly old man who was terrified for his life that the three rogues might do him some harm was on his guard and said to his housekeeper nina take this bladder which is filled with blood and hide it under your cloak then when these thieves come
i'll lay all the blame on you and will pretend to be so angry with you that i will run at you with my knife and pierce the bladder with it then you must fall on the ground as if you were dead and leave the rest to me hardly had simon said these words when the three rogues appeared and fell on him to kill him
my friends called out simon to then what do you accuse me of i am in no way to blame perhaps my housekeeper has done you some injury of which i know nothing and with these words he turned on nina with his knife
and stuck it right into her so that he pierced the bladder filled with blood instantly the housekeeper fell down as if she were dead and the blood streamed all over the ground simon then pretended to be seized with remorse at the sight of this dreadful catastrophe
and cried out in a loud voice unhappy wretch that i am what have i done like a madman i have killed the woman who is the prop and stay of my old age how could i ever go on living without her then he seized a pipe
and when he had blown into it for some time nina sprang up alive and well the rogues were more amazed than ever they forgot their anger and buying the pipe for two hundred gold pieces they went joyfully home not long after this one of them quarrelled with his wife
and in his rage he thrust his knife into her breast so that she fell dead on the ground then he took simon's pipe and blew into it with all his might in the hopes of calling his wife back to life but he blew in vain for the poor soul was as dead as a door nail
the same thing happened to the third rogue so that they were now all three without wives full of wrath they ran to simon's house and refusing to listen to a word of explanation or excuse they seized the old man and put him into a sack
meaning to drown him in the neighbouring river on their way there however a sudden noise threw them into such a panic that they dropped the sack with simon in it and ran for their lives
who paused here and there by the wayside to browse on the tender grass he heard a pitiful voice wailing they insist on my taking her and i don't want her for i am too old and i really can't have her the shepherd was much startled
for he couldn't make out where these words which were repeated more than once came from and looked about him to the right and left at last he perceived the sack in which simon was hidden
and going up to it he opened it and discovered simon repeating his dismal complaint the shepherd asked him why he had been left there tied up in a sack simon replied that the king of the country had insisted on giving him one of his daughters as a wife
the simple minded shepherd who believed his story implicitly asked him do you think the king of the country would give his daughter to me yes certainly i know he would answered simon if you were tied up in this sack instead of me
then getting out of the sack he tied the confiding shepherd up in it instead and at his request fastened it securely and drove the sheep on himself an hour had scarcely passed when the three rogues returned to the place where they had left simon in the sack
and without opening it one of them seized it and threw it into the river and so the poor shepherd was drowned instead of mister simon the three rogues having wreaked their vengeance set out for home on their way they noticed a flock of sheep grazing not far from the road
they longed to steal a few of the lambs and approached the flock and were more than startled to recognise mister simon whom they had drowned in the river as the shepherd who was looking after the sheep they asked him how he had managed to get out of the river to which he replied
get along with you you are no better than silly donkeys without any sense if you had only drowned me in deeper water i would have returned with three times as many sheep when the three rogues heard this they said to him oh dear mister simon
do us the favour to tie us up in sacks and throw us into the river that we may give up our thieving ways and become the owners of flocks i am ready answered simon to do what you please there's nothing in the world i wouldn't do for you
and fastened them up so tightly that they couldn't get out and then he threw them all into the river
on sundays it was half past eight discipline and training had rendered it easy to observe rules at mister channing's or it may be better to say it had rendered them difficult to be disobeyed
at half past eight all were in the breakfast room dressed for the day when the hour for divine service arrived
her mob cap was of spotted instead of plain net and her check apron was replaced by a white one with great personal inconvenience and some pain for he was always worse in the morning
it had been his invariable custom to take the reading himself on sunday the little time he devoted to religion and he was unwilling to break through it breakfast over it was immediately entered upon and would be finished by ten o'clock
he did not preach a sermon
and the services they were about to enter upon very unwise had it been of mister channing to tire his children with a private service before the public service began breakfast on these mornings was always a longer meal than usual
there was no necessity to hurry over it in order to hasten to the various occupations of every day life it was taken leisurely amidst much pleasant social converse as they were assembling for breakfast on this morning arthur came in
it was so unusual for them to leave the house early on a sunday that mister channing looked at him with surprise i have been to see jenkins sir he explained in coming home last night i met mister hurst who told me he feared jenkins was getting worse
i would not go to see him then it might have been late to disturb him so i have been now and how is he inquired mister channing a great deal better replied arthur so much better that mister hurst says he may come
to the office to morrow should there be no relapse he enjoins strict quiet for to day and missus jenkins is determined that he shall have quiet
arthur added laughing she says he appeared ill last night only from the number of visitors he had seen they were coming in all day long and on friday besides why should people flock to see jenkins exclaimed tom he is nobody
that is just what missus jenkins said this morning returned arthur
the bishop's having been one of the sufferers has aroused the interest of helstonleigh i am very glad that jenkins is better observed mister charming so am i emphatically answered arthur
he was pretty sure tom had had no share in the exploit but he did not know about charley the dean preaches to day suddenly called out tom how do you know demanded annabel because i do
oracularly spoke tom will you condescend to inform me how you know it tom if you will not inform annabel asked mister channing tom laughed the dean began his close residence yesterday papa
therefore we know he will preach to day mister channing sighed he was debarred from attending the services and he felt the deprivation keenly when he found that any particularly eminent man was to fill the cathedral pulpit
the dean of helstonleigh was an admirable preacher oh exclaimed mister channing in the uncontrollable impulse of the moment if i could only regain health and strength
it will come james god willing said missus channing looking up hopefully from the cups she was filling what i have heard of doctor lamb's restoration has put new confidence into me
i think mister yorke intends to bring doctor lamb to see you this afternoon papa said constance i shall be glad to see him i shall be glad to hear the particulars of his case and its cure exclaimed mister channing with all conscious eagerness
did mister yorke tell you he should bring him to day constance yes papa doctor lamb intends to be at the cathedral for afternoon service and mister yorke said he would bring him here afterwards you must get him to take tea with us mary
certainly answered missus channing in six months from this james you may be as well and active as ever mister channing raised his hands as if warding off the words not of the words was he afraid but of the hopes they whispered
said hamish with his sunny smile you cannot help in it you know hamish
not you i heard you say so
returned hamish and if you will allow me the remark young lady i think it would better become a certain little girl not to chatter quite so much
was hamish speaking in jest or earnest with regard to the helping point of the affair a peculiar tone in his voice in spite of its lightness had struck both constance and arthur each being in the secret of his
more than want of funds the second bell was beginning to chime as the channings entered the cloister gates tom and charles had gone on before panting breathless almost knocking down annabel
came tod yorke terribly afraid of being marked late take care tod exclaimed hamish are you running for a wager don't keep me mister hamish channing
and gerald couldn't find his shirt he has had to come off in his dirty one with his waistcoat buttoned up won't my lady be in a rage when she sees him getting up and breakfasting were generally
bustling affairs at lady augusta's but the confusion of every day was as nothing compared with that of sunday master tod was wrong when he complained that he had not been called the servants had called both him and gerald who shared the same room
but for all the observance it obtained
to give the servants their due breakfast on this morning was on the table at nine
the maids meanwhile enjoyed their own leisurely breakfast in the kitchen regaling themselves with hot coffee poached eggs buttered toast and a dish of gossip at ten lady augusta who made a merit of always rising to breakfast on a sunday
entered the breakfast room in a dirty morning wrapper and rang the bell is nobody down cried she sharply i think not my lady
martha had been in once and had been scolded for her pains none of them ever will get up on a sunday morning added martha they say where's the good bring in breakfast
her coffee is always cold
the first to appear was the youngest child of all little frank the next his brother a year older they wore dirty collars and their hair was uncombed then came the girls caroline without a frock a shawl thrown on instead
lady augusta scolded them for their late appearance forgetting possibly that she herself set the example it is not much past ten said caroline we shall be in time for college it is nearly upon half past replied lady augusta
why do you come down in a petticoat caroline that stupid dressmaker has put no tape to my dress fretfully responded caroline
roland lounged in not more presentable than the rest why had lady augusta not brought them up to better habits why should they come down on a sunday morning more untidy than on other mornings
had you asked the question that on other mornings they must be ready to hasten to their daily occupations had sunday no occupation then did it deserve no marked deference
had i been lady augusta yorke i should have said to roland that morning when i saw his slip shod slippers and his collarless neck if you can show no respect for me show it for the day half past ten struck and lady augusta started up to fly to her own room
she had still much to do ere she could be presentable for college caroline followed fanny wondered what gerald and tod would do not yet down those boys will get a tanning to morrow from old pye
exclaimed roland remembering the time when tannings had been his portion for the same fault go and see what they are after martha they were after jumping up in alarm aroused by the college bell amidst wild confusion for nothing seemed to be at hand
with harsh reproaches to martha touching their shirts and socks and other articles of attire they scrambled downstairs somehow and flew out of the house on their way to the college schoolroom gerald drinking a freshly made scalding cup of coffee
tod cramming a thick piece of bread and butter into his pocket and trusting to some spare moment to eat it in all this was the usual scramble of sunday morning the yorkes did get to college somehow and there was an end of it
after the conclusion of the service as the congregation were dispersing mister galloway came up to arthur channing in the cloisters and drew him aside do you recollect taking the letters to the post on friday afternoon he inquired
who could not at the moment recollect much about that particular day's letters it was he who generally posted them for the office
the letter containing the bank note had been despatched to mister robert galloway at ventnor on the friday on the sunday morning while mister galloway was at breakfast a short answer was delivered to him from his cousin your letter has reached me
but not the note you must have omitted to enclose it was the news it contained relative to that particular point mister galloway knew that he had enclosed the note there was little doubt that both his clerks could testify that he had done so
how could it have been taken out again had it been abstracted while the letter was still in his office or on its way to the post or in its transmission to ventnor if in the office argued mister galloway it must have been done before i sealed it
if afterwards that seal must have been tampered with probably broken i'll drop a note to robert and ask the question he rose from his breakfast and penned a line to southampton where as he had reason to believe
it was not mister galloway's habit to write letters on a sunday but he considered that the present occasion justified the act i certainly enclosed the note in my letter he wrote send me word instantly whether the seal had been tampered with
i stamped it with my private seal mister robert galloway received this on the monday morning he did not wait for the post but forwarded the reply by telegraph
this was the despatch which you saw mister galloway receive in his office he went back into his private room carrying the despatch with him and there he sat down to think
from the very first he had not believed the fraud to lie with the post office for this reason had the note been taken out by one of its servants the letter would almost certainly not have reached its destination it would have disappeared with the note
he had cast a doubt upon whether arthur channing had posted the letters himself arthur assured him that he had done so and mister galloway believed him
the information that the seal of the letter was unbroken was now a further confirmation had he needed it at least it confirmed that the letter had not been opened after it left the office mister galloway perfectly remembered fastening down the letter
and so far as he believed that the abstraction had taken place between the time of his fastening down the envelope and of his sealing it who had done it i'll lay a guinea i know how it happened he exclaimed to himself
channing was at college i must have given him permission in a soft moment to take that organ or i should never have done it quitting the office daily and yorke in his indolent carelessness must have got gossiping outside leaving it
is hard to say who in the office this comes of poor jenkins's fall
send mister arthur channing in said mister galloway arthur entered in obedience mister galloway signed to him to close the door and then spoke this is an awkward business channing very awkward indeed sir
replied arthur at no loss to understand what mister galloway alluded to i do not see that it was possible for the note to have been taken from the letter except in its transmission through the post i tell you it was taken from it before it left this office
tartly returned mister galloway i have my reasons for the assertion did you see me put the bank note into the letter of course i did sir i was standing by when you did it i remained by you after bringing you the note from this room
i enclosed the note and fastened down the envelope said mister galloway pointing the feather of his quill pen at each proposition i did not seal it then because looking at mad nance hindered me and i went out
leaving the letter on jenkins's desk in your charge and yorke's yes sir i placed the letter in the rack in your room immediately afterwards and pray what loose acquaintances did you and yorke receive here that afternoon
i do not know when the office has been so free from callers no person whatever entered it except my brother hamish that's all nonsense said mister galloway you are getting to speak as incautiously as yorke
how can you tell who came here when you were at college yorke would be alone then no yorke was not arthur was beginning but he stopped suddenly and hesitated
he did not care to tell mister galloway that yorke had played truant all that afternoon mister galloway saw his hesitation and did not like it come what have you to conceal you and yorke held a levee here i suppose that's the fact
you had so many fellows in here gossiping that you don't know who may have meddled with the letter and when you were off to college they stayed on with yorke no sir
for one thing i did not take the organ that afternoon i went as usual but mister williams was there himself so i came back at once i was only away about ten minutes and how many did you find with yorke
stepped out to speak to some one just before i went to college replied arthur obliged to allude to it but determined to say as little as possible hamish was here sir you met him coming in as you were going out and i got him to stay in the office till i returned
pretty doings retorted mister galloway hindering the time of mister hamish channing that you and yorke may kick up your heels elsewhere nice trustworthy clerks both of you i was obliged to go to college sir said arthur in a tone of deprecation
was yorke obliged to go out i was back again very shortly i assure you sir said arthur passing over the remark and i did not leave the office again until you sent me to the post stop said mister galloway
let me clearly understand as i went out hamish came in then you say yorke went out and you to get to college left hamish keeping office did any one else come in besides hamish not any one
when i returned from college i inquired of hamish who had called and he said no one had called then lady augusta yorke drove up and hamish went away with her she was going to the missionary meeting
and you persist in saying that no one came in after that no one did come in sir very well send yorke to me
roland made his appearance a pen behind his ear and a ruler in his hand more show than work sarcastically exclaimed mister galloway now sir i have been questioning mister arthur channing about this unpleasant business
for i am determined to come to the bottom of it i can get nothing satisfactory from him so i must try what i can do with you have the goodness to tell me how you spent your time on friday afternoon on friday
began roland out of his wits with perplexity as to how he should conceal his afternoon's absence from mister galloway it's difficult to recollect what one does on one particular day
perhaps to begin with you can remember the circumstances of my enclosing the bank note in the letter i went into the other room to consult a bradshaw' i remember that quite well sir interrupted roland
and you put it into the envelope it was just before we were all called to the window by mad nance after that pursued mister galloway
and hamish channing came in who else came in i don't remember any one else answered roland wishing some one would come in then and stop the questioning no such luck however
how many people called in while channing was at college and you were keeping office demanded mister galloway roland fidgeted first on one leg then on the other he felt that it must all come out what a passion he'll go into with me thought roland
it is certain that no one can have touched the bank note in this office sir he said aloud those poor half starved postmen must have helped themselves to it when i ask for your opinion upon who has helped themselves to it it will be time enough to give it me
returned mister galloway drily i say that the money was taken from the letter before it left this office when it was under the charge of you and channing i hope you do not suspect us of taking it sir said roland going into a heat
could the bank note drop out of the letter of itself i suppose it could not sir good then it is my business to ascertain if i can how it did get out of it you have not answered my question who came into this office
while channing was at the cathedral on friday afternoon i declare nobody ever had such luck as i burst forth roland in a tone half comic half defiant as he felt he must make a merit of necessity and confess
last friday afternoon during channing's hour for college what not at all exclaimed mister galloway who had not suspected that yorke was absent so long as i say it's my luck to be found out
and i am sorry to say i was seduced into stopping out with him longer than i ought to have done mister galloway stared at roland at what time did you go out he asked just after you did sir the bell was going for college
and pray what time did you come in again well sir you saw me come in it was getting on for five o'clock do you mean to say you had not been in at all between those hours it was knivett's fault grumbled roland he kept me
mister galloway sat drumming on his desk apparently gazing at roland in reality thinking to hear that mister roland yorke had taken french leave for nearly a whole afternoon
just on the especial afternoon that he ought not to have taken it jenkins being away did not surprise him in the least it was very much in the line of the yorkes to do so
since he was sure to do it again the very next time the temptation offered itself failing temptation he would remain at his post steadily enough no it was not roland's escapade that mister galloway was considering
but the very narrow radius that the affair of the letter appeared to be drawing itself into if roland was absent he could not have had half the town in to chatter and if arthur channing asserted that none had been in mister galloway could give credence to arthur
but then how had the money disappeared who had taken it channing he called out loudly and sharply arthur who was preparing to attend the cathedral for the bell had rung out hastened in
how came you not to tell me when we were speaking of roland yorke's absence that he remained away all the afternoon questioned mister galloway
arthur was silent he glanced once at roland well cried mister galloway it was better for him to tell you himself sir as i conclude he has now done
the fact is you are two birds of a feather stormed mister galloway who when once roused which was not often would say anything that came uppermost just or unjust the one won't tell tales of the other if
the other would stick to it is it true sir that he was not at the office during my absence from it on friday afternoon he continued to arthur that is true
keep quiet roland yorke interrupted that gentleman i do not suspect you of taking it
you know for you call plenty of them friends but if you were absent yourself that suspicion falls to the ground again i say who can have taken the money
it is an utter impossibility that yorke could have taken it even were he capable of such a thing generously spoke arthur from the time you left the office yourself sir until after the letters were taken out of it to be posted he was away from it
just like him exclaimed mister galloway it must have been done while your brother hamish was waiting in the office we must ascertain from him who came in he told me no one came in repeated arthur rubbish
testily observed mister galloway some one must have come in some one with light fingers too the money could not go without hands you are off to college now i suppose channing yes sir when service is over
just go down as far as your brother's office and ask him about it he is as obstinate as any old adder exclaimed roland yorke to arthur when they left mister galloway alone the only possible way in which it can have gone is through that post office
the men have forked it as they did lady augusta's pills he says it was not the post office mused arthur he said as i understood that the telegraphic despatch proved to him that it had been taken out here
how could a despatch tell him who took it or who did not unless it was a despatch from those spirit rappers mesmerists or whatever they call themselves they profess to show you who your grandmother was if you don't know roland laughed as he spoke
arthur was not inclined for joking the affair perplexed him in no ordinary degree i wish mister galloway would mention his grounds for thinking the note was taken before it went to the post he said he ought to mention them cried roland fiercely
he says he learns by the despatch that the letter was not opened after it left this office now it is impossible that any despatch could tell him that
what did the despatch say who sent it would it afford you satisfaction to know mister roland and roland wheeled round with a start for it was the voice of mister galloway he had followed them into the front office and caught the latter part of the conversation
come sir he added i will teach you a lesson in caution when i have sealed letters that contained money after they were previously fastened down with gum
i have seen you throw your head back mister roland with that favourite scornful movement of yours as if gum did not stick them fast enough you have said in your heart but now the fact of my having sealed this letter in question
enables me to say that the letter was not opened after it left my hands the despatch you are so curious about was from my cousin telling me that the seal reached him intact
i did not know the letter was sealed remarked roland but that proves nothing sir they might melt the wax and seal it up again every one keeps a stamp of this sort he added stretching his hand out for the seal usually used in the office an ordinary cross barred wafer stamp
with my own private seal that alters the case of course said roland after a pause sir i wish you would set me to work to find out he impulsively continued i'd go to the post office and
and there make enough noise for ten and defeat your own ends interrupted mister galloway
chapter twenty three missus adair makes her apology within the drawing room at the pool
and already the carriage stood at the steps of guessens with his luggage strapped upon the roof and his servant waiting at the door
where missus adair stood at the top of the flight of steps durrance held out his hand to her but she turned to ethne and said i want to speak to colonel durrance before he goes very well
then we will say good bye here she added to durrance you will write from wiesbaden soon please the moment i arrive answered durrance he descended the steps with missus adair
the last scene of pretence had been acted out the months of tension and surveillance had come to an end and both were thankful for their release durrance showed that he was glad
even in the briskness of his walk as he crossed the lawn at missus adair's side she however lagged and when she spoke it was in a despondent voice
so you are going she said in two days time you will be at wiesbaden
at glenalla we shall all be scattered it will be lonely here she had had her way
she was no longer to be tortured by the sight of them and the sound of their voices but somehow her interference had brought her little satisfaction the house will seem very empty after you are all gone
she said and she turned at durrance's side and walked down with him into the garden we shall come back no doubt said durrance reassuringly
missus adair looked about her garden the flowers were gone and the sunlight clouds stretched across the sky overhead the green of the grass underfoot
was dull the stream ran grey in the gap between the trees and the leaves from the branches were blown russet and yellow about the lawns
how long shall you stay at wiesbaden she asked i can hardly tell but as long as it's advisable he answered that tells me nothing at all
durrance did not answer her and she resented his silence she knew nothing whatever of his plans
or to hold her to it and curiosity consumed her it might be a very long time before she saw him again and all that long time she must remain tortured with doubts
you distrust me she said defiantly and with a note of anger in her voice durrance answered her quite gently have i no reason to distrust you
why did you tell me of captain willoughby's coming why did you interfere i thought you ought to know but ethne wished the secret kept i am glad to know very glad
but after all you told me and you were ethne's friend yours too i hope missus adair answered and she exclaimed how could i go on keeping silence
no durrance might have understood but he had never given much thought to missus adair and she knew it the knowledge rankled within her and his simple
no stung her beyond bearing i spoke brutally didn't i she said i told you the truth as brutally as i could doesn't that help you to understand again durrance said
no and the monosyllable exasperated her out of all prudence and all at once she found herself speaking incoherently the things which she had thought and once she had begun she could not stop she stood
outside of herself and saw that her speech was madness yet she went on with it i told you the truth brutally on purpose
had you only the mind to see i wanted to hurt you
in the room talking together in the darkness
you and ethne in the room i alone upon the terrace i wonder whether it will always be so but you will not say you will not say
she struck her hands together with a gesture of despair but durrance had no words for her he walked silently along the garden path towards the stile and he quickened his pace a little
so that missus adair had to walk fast to keep up with him that quickening of the pace was a sort of answer but missus adair was not deterred by it her madness had taken hold of her
but she never cared more than as a friend cares just a mere friend and what's friendship worth she asked scornfully something surely said durrance
it does not prevent ethne from shrinking from her friend cried missus adair she shrinks from you shall i tell you why because you are blind she is afraid while i i will tell you the truth
i am glad when the news first came from wadi halfa that you were blind i was glad when i saw you in hill street i was glad ever since i have been glad quite glad
because i saw that she shrank from the beginning she shrank thinking how her life would be hampered and fettered and the scorn of missus adair's voice increased though her voice itself
was sunk to a whisper i am not afraid she said
passionately again and again i am not afraid i am not afraid to durrance it seemed that in all his experience
nothing so horrible had ever occurred as this outburst by the woman who was ethne's friend nothing so unforeseen
pity she went on that was all she wrote out of pity and having written she was afraid of what she had done and being afraid she had not courage to tell you
she was afraid you would not have blamed her if she had frankly admitted it
but she had not the courage durrance knew that there was another explanation of ethne's hesitations and timidities he knew too
that the other explanation was the true one but to morrow he himself would be gone from the salcombe estuary and ethne would be on her way to the irish channel and donegal
it was not worth while to argue against missus adair's slanders besides he was close upon the stile which separated the garden of the pool from the fields once across that stile
he would be free of missus adair he contented himself with saying quietly you are not just
at that simple utterance the madness of missus adair went from her she recognised the futility of all that she had said of her boastings of courage
of her detractions of ethne her words might be true or not they could achieve nothing durrance was always in the room with ethne never
upon the terrace with missus adair she became conscious of her degradation and she fell to excuses i am a bad woman i suppose but after all
i have not had the happiest of lives perhaps there is something to be said for me it sounded pitiful and weak even in her ears but they had reached the stile and durrance had turned towards her
she saw that his face lost something of its sternness he was standing quietly prepared now to listen to what she might wish to say he remembered that in the old days when he could see
with a dignity of carriage and a reticence of speech it seemed hardly possible
and the violence of the contrast made him ready to believe that there must be perhaps something to be said on her behalf will you tell me he said gently
was my mother's doing and no doubt she thought that she was acting for the very best she was securing for me a position of a kind and comfort and release from any danger of poverty
i accepted what she said blindly ignorantly i could hardly have refused indeed for my mother was an imperious woman and i was accustomed to obedience i did as she told me
and married dutifully the man whom she chose the case is common enough no doubt but its frequency does not make it easier of endurance but mister adair
said durrance after all i knew him he was older no doubt than you but he was kind i think too he cared for you yes
and he cared for me both things are true the knowledge that he did care for me was the one link if you understand at the beginning i was contented i suppose
i had a house in town and another here but it was dull and she stretched out her arms
dull it was do you know the little back streets in a manufacturing town rows of small houses side by side with nothing to relieve them of their ugly regularity each with the self same windows the self same door
the self same door step overhead a drift of smoke and every little green thing down to the plants in the window dirty and black the sort of street whence any crazy religious charlatan
who can promise a little colour to their grey lives can get as many votaries as he wants well when i thought over my life one of those little streets always came into my mind
there are women heaps of them no doubt to whom the management of a big house the season in london the ordinary round of visits are sufficient i worse luck
was not one of them dull you with your hundred thousand things to do cannot conceive how oppressively dull my life was and that was not all
she hesitated but she could not stop midway
she went on to the end i married as i say knowing nothing of the important things i believed at the first that mine was just the allotted life of all women
but i began soon to have my doubts i got to know that there was something more to be won out of existence than mere dulness at least that there was something more for others though not for me
one could not help learning that one passed a man and a woman riding together and one chanced to look into the woman's face as one passed or one saw perhaps the woman alone and talked with her for a little while
and from the happiness of her looks and voice one knew with absolute certainty that there was ever so much more only the chance of that ever so much more my mother had denied to me
all the sternness had now gone from durrance's face and missus adair was speaking with a great simplicity of the violence which she had used before
there was no longer any trace she did not appeal for pity she was not even excusing herself she was just telling her story quietly and gently
and then you came she continued i met you and met you again you went away upon your duties and you returned and i learnt now
not that there was ever so much more but just what that ever so much more was
of course denied to me however in spite of that i felt happier i thought that i should be quite content to have you for a friend to watch your progress
and to feel pride in it but you see
and you turned to her at once oh at once
in a very short while i was sad and sorry that you had ever come into my life i knew nothing of this said durrance i never suspected i am sorry
i took care you should not suspect said missus adair but i tried to keep you with all my wits i tried no match maker in the world ever worked so hard to bring two people together as i did
and mister feversham and i succeeded the statement came upon durrance with a shock he leaned back against the stile and could have laughed here
was the origin of the whole sad business
it is a trite reflection but the personal application of it is apt to take away the breath it was so with durrance as he thought himself backwards into those days when he had walked on his own path
heedless of the people with whom he came in touch never dreaming that they were at that moment influencing his life right up to his dying day feversham's disgrace and ruin ethne's years of unhappiness
the wearying pretences of the last few months all had their origin years ago when missus adair to keep durrance to herself threw feversham and ethne into each other's company
i succeeded continued missus adair you told me that i had succeeded one morning in the row how glad i was you did not notice it i am sure the next moment
you took all my gladness from me by telling me you were starting for the soudan you were away three years they were not happy years for me you came back
my husband was dead but ethne was free ethne refused you but you went blind and she claimed you you can see what ups and downs have fallen to me
i am very sorry said durrance missus adair was quite right he thought there was indeed something to be said on her behalf the world had gone rather hardly with her
he was able to realise what she had suffered since he was suffering in much the same way himself it was quite intelligible to him why she had betrayed ethne's secret that night upon the terrace
and he could not but be gentle with her i am very sorry missus adair he repeated lamely there was nothing more which he could find to say
she said and durrance climbed over the stile and crossed the fields to his house missus adair stood by that stile for a long while
after he had gone she had shot her bolt and hit no one but herself and the man for whom she cared she realised that distinctly she looked forward
a little too and she understood that if durrance did not after all keep ethne to her promise and marry her and go with her to her country he would come back to guessens
that reflection showed missus adair yet more clearly the folly of her outcry if she had only kept silence she would have had a very true and constant friend for her neighbour
it would have been a good deal but since she had spoken they could never meet without embarrassment and practise cordiality as they might there would always remain in their minds
the recollection of what she had said and he had listened to
found day and night again day and night again no stephen blackpool where was the man and why did he not come back
every night sissy went to rachaels lodging and sat with her in her small neat room all day rachael toiled as such people must toil whatever their anxieties
the smoke serpents were indifferent who was lost or found who turned out bad or good the melancholy mad elephants like the hard fact men abated nothing of their set routine whatever happened
day and night again day and night again the monotony was unbroken even stephen blackpools disappearance was falling into the general way and becoming as monotonous a wonder as any piece of machinery in coketown
i misdoubt said rachael if there is as many as twenty left in all this place who have any trust in the poor dear lad now she said it to sissy as they sat in her lodging
lighted only by the lamp at the street corner sissy had come there when it was already dark to await her return from work and they had since sat at the window where rachael had found her
wanting no brighter light to shine on their sorrowful talk if it hadnt been mercifully brought about that i was to have you to speak to pursued rachael times are when i think my mind would not have kept right
but i get hope and strength through you and you believe that though appearances may rise against him he will be proved clear i do believe so returned sissy with my whole heart i feel so certain rachael
that the confidence you hold in yours against all discouragement is not like to be wrong that i have no more doubt of him than if i had known him through as many years of trial as you have and i my dear said rachel with a tremble in her voice
have known him through them all to be according to his quiet ways so faithful to everything honest and good that if he was never to be heard of more and i was to live to be a hundred years old i could say with my last breath
god knows my heart i have never once left trusting stephen blackpool we all believe up at the lodge rachael that he will be freed from suspicion sooner or later the better i know it to be so believed there my dear
said rachael and the kinder i feel it that you come away from there purposely to comfort me and keep me company and be seen wi me when i am not yet free from all suspicion myself the more grieved i am
that i should ever have spoken those mistrusting words to the young lady and yet
now that you have brought us more together no but i cant at all times keep out of my mind her voice so sunk into a low and slow communing with herself
that sissy sitting by her side was obliged to listen with attention i cant at all times keep out of my mind mistrustings of some one i cant think who tis
but i mistrust that some one has put stephen out of the way i mistrust that by his coming back of his own accord and showing himself
stopped him and put him out of the way that is a dreadful thought said sissy turning pale it is a dreadful thought to think he may be murdered sissy shuddered and turned paler yet
when it makes its way into my mind dear said rachael and it will come sometimes though i do all i can to keep it out wi counting on to high numbers as i work and
saying over and over again pieces that i knew when i were a child i fall into such a wild hot hurry that however tired i am i want to walk fast miles and miles i must get the better of this before bed time
and in such a case there are many places on the road where he might stop but he is in none of them he has been sought for in all and hes not there true was sissys reluctant admission
hed walk the journey in two days if he was footsore and couldnt walk i sent him in the letter he got the money to ride lest he should have none of his own to spare
let us hope that to morrow will bring something better rachael come into the air her gentle hand adjusted rachaels shawl upon her shining black hair in the usual manner of her wearing it and they went out
the night being fine little knots of hands were here and there lingering at street corners but it was supper time with the greater part of them and there were but few people in the streets youre not so hurried now rachael and your hand is cooler
i get better dear if i can only walk and breathe a little fresh times when i cant i turn weak and confused but you must not begin to fail rachael for you may be wanted at any time to stand by stephen
to morrow is saturday if no news comes to morrow let us walk in the country on sunday morning and strengthen you for another week will you go yes dear they were by this time in the street where mister bounderbys house stood
the way to sissys destination led them past the door and they were going straight towards it some train had newly arrived in coketown which had put a number of vehicles in motion and scattered a considerable bustle about the town
several coaches were rattling before them and behind them as they approached mister bounderbys and one of the latter drew up with such briskness as they were in the act of passing the house that they looked round involuntarily
the bright gaslight over mister bounderbys steps showed them missus sparsit in the coach in an ecstasy of excitement struggling to open the door
its a coincidence exclaimed missus sparsit as she was released by the coachman its a providence come out maam then said missus sparsit to some one inside come out or well have you dragged out hereupon
no other than the mysterious old woman descended whom missus sparsit incontinently collared leave her alone everybody
come in maam or well have you dragged in the spectacle of a matron of classical deportment seizing an ancient woman by the throat and hauling her into a dwelling house
would have been under any circumstances sufficient temptation to all true english stragglers so blest as to witness it to force a way into that dwelling house and see the matter out but when the phenomenon was enhanced by the notoriety
and mystery by this time associated all over the town with the bank robbery it would have lured the stragglers in with an irresistible attraction though the roof had been expected to fall upon their heads accordingly the chance witnesses
closed in after sissy and rachael as they closed in after missus sparsit and her prize and the whole body made a disorderly irruption into mister bounderbys dining room where the people behind lost not a moments time in mounting on the chairs
to get the better of the people in front fetch mister bounderby down cried missus sparsit rachael young woman you know who this is its missus pegler said rachael i should think it is cried missus sparsit exulting
here old missus pegler muffling herself up and shrinking from observation whispered a word of entreaty dont tell me
mister bounderby now appeared accompanied by mister gradgrind and the whelp with whom he had been holding conference up stairs
mister bounderby looked more astonished than hospitable at sight of this uninvited party in his dining room
said he missus sparsit maam sir explained that worthy woman i trust it is my good fortune to produce a person you have much desired to find stimulated by my wish to relieve your mind sir
and connecting together such imperfect clues to the part of the country in which that person might be supposed to reside as have been afforded by the young woman rachael fortunately now present to identify
i have had the happiness to succeed and to bring that person with me i need not say most unwillingly on her part it has not been sir without some trouble that i have effected this but trouble in your service is to me a pleasure
and hunger thirst and cold a real gratification here missus sparsit ceased for mister bounderbys visage exhibited
an extraordinary combination of all possible colours and expressions of discomfiture as old missus pegler was disclosed to his view why what do you mean by this was his highly unexpected demand in great warmth
i ask you what do you mean by this missus sparsit maam sir exclaimed missus sparsit faintly
this allusion to her favourite feature overpowered missus sparsit she sat down stiffly in a chair
slowly grated her mittens against one another as if they were frozen too my dear josiah cried missus pegler trembling
its not my fault josiah
what did you let her bring you for
asked bounderby my own boy she threatened me that if i resisted her i should be brought by constables and it was better to come quietly than make that stir in such a
indeed indeed it is not my fault my
i have admired you at a distance and if i have come to town sometimes with long times between to take a proud peep at you
mister bounderby with his hands in his pockets walked in impatient mortification up and down at the side of the long dining table while the spectators greedily took in every syllable of missus peglers appeal
and at each succeeding syllable became more and more round eyed mister bounderby still walking up and down when missus pegler had done mister gradgrind addressed that maligned old lady
i am surprised madam he observed with severity that in your old age you have the face to claim mister bounderby for your son after your unnatural and inhuman treatment of him
dear repeated mister gradgrind yes dear in his self made prosperity madam i dare say not very dear however when you deserted him in his infancy and left him to the brutality of a drunken grandmother i
deserted my josiah cried missus pegler clasping her hands now lord forgive you sir for your wicked imaginations and for your scandal against the memory of my poor mother who died in my arms before josiah was born
may you repent of it sir and live to know better she was so very earnest and injured that mister gradgrind shocked by the possibility which dawned upon him said in a gentler tone
do you deny then madam that you left your son toto be brought up in the gutter josiah in the gutter exclaimed missus pegler no such a thing sir never for shame on you
my dear boy knows and will give you to know that though he come of humble parents he
and never thought it hardship on themselves to pinch a bit that he might write and cipher beautiful and ive his books at home to show it aye have i said missus pegler with indignant pride and my dear boy knows and will give you to know sir
that after his beloved father died when he was eight years old his mother too could pinch a bit as it was her duty and her pleasure and her pride to do it to help him out in life and put him prentice
and a steady lad he was and a kind master he had to lend him a hand and well he worked his own way forward to be rich and thriving
and make no boasts about him and not trouble him and i never have except with looking at him once a year when he has never knowed it and its right said poor old missus pegler in affectionate championship
that i should keep down in my own part and i have no doubts that if i was here i should do a many unbefitting things
and i can keep my pride in my josiah to myself and i can love for loves own sake and i am ashamed of you sir
and for shame upon you oh for shame to accuse me of being a bad mother to my son
the bystanders on and off the dining room chairs raised a murmur of sympathy with missus pegler and mister gradgrind felt himself innocently placed in a very distressing predicament when mister bounderby
who had never ceased walking up and down and had every moment swelled larger and larger and grown redder and redder stopped short i dont exactly know said mister bounderby how i come to be favoured with the attendance of the present company
but i dont inquire when theyre quite satisfied
whether theyre satisfied or not perhaps theyll be so good as to disperse
i have not undertaken to do it
therefore those who expect any explanation whatever upon that branch of the subject will be disappointedparticularly tom gradgrind and he cant know it too soon in reference to the bank robbery there has been a mistake made concerning my mother
if there hadnt been over officiousness it wouldnt have been made and i hate over officiousness at all times whether or no good evening although mister bounderby carried it off in these terms
holding the door open for the company to depart there was a blustering sheepishness upon him at once extremely crestfallen and superlatively absurd detected as the bully of humility
who had built his windy reputation upon lies and in his boastfulness had put the honest truth as far away from him as if he had advanced the mean claim there is no meaner to tack himself on to a pedigree he cut a most ridiculous figure
with the people filing off at the door he held who he knew would carry what had passed to the whole town to be given to the four winds he could not have looked a bully more shorn and forlorn if he had had his ears cropped
even that unlucky female missus sparsit
was not in so bad a plight as that remarkable man and self made humbug josiah bounderby of coketown rachael and sissy
leaving missus pegler to occupy a bed at her sons for that night walked together to the gate of stone lodge and there parted mister gradgrind joined them before they had gone very far and spoke with much interest of stephen blackpool
for whom he thought this signal failure of the suspicions against missus pegler was likely to work well as to the whelp throughout this scene as on all other late occasions he had stuck close to bounderby
he seemed to feel that as long as bounderby could make no discovery without his knowledge he was so far safe he never visited his sister and had only seen her once since she went home
that is to say on the night when he still stuck close to bounderby as already related there was one dim unformed fear lingering about his sisters mind to which she never gave utterance
which surrounded the graceless and ungrateful boy with a dreadful mystery the same dark possibility had presented itself in the same shapeless guise this very day to sissy when rachael spoke of some one
who would be confounded by stephens return having put him out of the way louisa had never spoken of harbouring any suspicion of her brother in connexion with the robbery
she and sissy had held no confidence on the subject save in that one interchange of looks when the unconscious father rested his gray head on his hand but it was understood between them and they both knew it
this other fear was so awful that it hovered about each of them like a ghostly shadow neither daring to think of its being near herself far less of its being near the other and still the forced spirit which the whelp had plucked up
throve with him if stephen blackpool was not the thief let him show himself why didnt he another night another day and night
fanny told him that she had heard from stratton two days since and that florence was well i liked her very much said mister saul so did we all she is coming here again in the autumn so it will not be very long before you see her again
how that may be i cannot tell but if you see her that will be of more consequence we shall all see her of course it was here in this lane that i was with her last and wished her good by
she did not tell you of my having parted with her then not especially that i remember ah you would have remembered if she had told you but she was quite right not to tell you
fanny was now a little confused so that she could not exactly calculate what all this meant mister saul walked on by her side and for some moments nothing was said
after a while he recurred again to his parting from florence i asked her advice on that occasion and she gave it me clearly with a clear purpose and an assured voice
i like a person who will do that you are sure then that you are getting the truth out of your friend even if it be a simple negative or a refusal to give any reply to the question asked florence burton is always clear in what she says
i had asked her if she thought that i might venture to hope for a more favorable answer if i urged my suit to you again she cannot have said yes to that mister saul she cannot have done so
she did not do so she simply bade me ask yourself and she was right on such a matter there is no one to whom i can with propriety address myself but to yourself therefore i now ask you the question
may i venture to have any hope his voice was so solemn and there was so much of eager seriousness in his face that fanny could not bring herself to answer him with quickness
the answer that was in her mind was in truth this how can you ask me to try to love a man who has but seventy pounds a year in the world while i myself have nothing but there was something in his demeanor
something that was almost grand in its gravity which made it quite impossible that she should speak to him in that tone but he having asked his question waited for an answer and she was well aware that the longer she delayed it
the weaker became the ground on which she was standing it is quite impossible she said at last if it really be so if you will say again that it is so after hearing me out to an end i will desist
in that case i will desist and leave you and leave clavering oh mister saul do not do that for papa's sake and because of the parish i would do much for your father and as to the parish i love it well
i do not think i can make you understand how well i love it it seems to me that i can never again have the same feeling for any place that i have for this there is not a house a field a green lane that is not dear to me
it is like a first love with some people a first love will come so strongly that it makes a renewal of the passion impossible he did not say that it would be so with himself but it seemed to her that he intended that she should so understand him
i do not see why you should leave clavering she said if you knew the nature of my regard for yourself you would see why it should be so i do not say that there ought to be any such necessity
if i were strong there would be no such need but i am weak weak in this and i could not hold myself under such control as is wanted for the work i have to do when he had spoken of his love for the place for the parish
he was calm and reasonable and tranquil and talked of his going away from her as he might have talked had some change of air been declared necessary for his health she felt that this was so and was almost angry with him
of course you must know what will be best for yourself she said yes i know now what i must do if such is to be your answer i have made up my mind as to that i cannot remain at clavering
if i am told that i may never hope that you will become my wife but mister saul
no they cannot be all important as regards my present happiness and rest in this world they will be so of course i know that nothing you can say or do will hurt me beyond that
but you might help me even to that further and greater bliss you might help me too in that as i also might help you but mister saul she began again
and then feeling that she must go on she forced herself to utter words which at the time she felt to be commonplace people cannot marry without an income
but independently of that might i hope she ventured for an instant to glance at his face and saw that his eyes were glistening with a wonderful brightness how can i answer you further
no miss clavering it is not reason enough if you were to tell me that you could never love me me personally that you could never regard me with affection that would be reason why i should desist why i should abandon all my hope here
and go away from clavering for ever nothing else can be reason enough my being poor ought not to make you throw me aside if you loved me
let me be ever so poor i do not like you the less because you are poor but do you like me at all can you bring yourself to love me would you make the effort if i had such an income as you thought necessary
i call upon you to answer me that question truly and if you tell me that it could be so i will not despair and i will not go away as he said this they came to a turn in the road
which brought the parsonage gate within their view fanny knew that she would leave him there and go in alone but she knew also that she must say something further to him before she could thus escape
she did not wish to give him an assurance of her positive indifference to him and still less did she wish to tell him that he might hope it could not be possible that such an engagement should be approved by her father
nor could she bring herself to think that she could be quite contented with a lover such as mister saul when he had first proposed to her she had almost ridiculed his proposition in her heart
and yet there was something in it also that touched her as being sublime the man was honest good and true perhaps the best and truest man that she had ever known
she could not bring herself to say to him any word that should banish him forever from the place he loved so well if you know your own heart well enough to answer me you should do so he went on to say if you do not say so
and i will be content to wait your own time it would be better mister saul that you should not think of this any more no miss clavering that would not be better not for me for it would prove me to be utterly heartless
but it is my one great hope as regards this world that i should have you at some future day as my own it may be that i am too prone to hope but surely if that were altogether beyond hope
they had now come to the gateway and he paused as she put her trembling hand upon the latch
then let it be so but miss clavering i shall not leave this place till you have said more than that and i will speak the truth to you even though it may offend you i have more of hope now than i have ever had before
more hope that you may possibly learn to love me in a few days i will ask you again whether i may be allowed to speak upon the subject to your father now i will say farewell and may god bless you
and remember this that my only earthly wish and ambition is in your hands then he went on his way toward his own lodgings and she entered the parsonage garden by herself
what should she now do and how should she carry herself
in what way should she answer that question she could not tell herself that she loved mister saul and yet if she surely did not love him if such love were impossible why had she not said as much to him
we however may declare that that inclination to ridicule his passion to think of him as a man who had no right to love was gone forever she conceded to him clearly that right
and knew that he had exercised it well she knew that he was good and true and honest and recognized in him also manly courage and spirited resolution she would not tell herself that it was impossible that she should love him
doubting unhappy and ill at ease to have such a secret long kept from her mother would make her life unendurable to her but she felt that in speaking to her mother only one aspect of the affair would be possible
michel had said a thousand things in favour of his niece and not a word to her prejudice but he had so spoken or had endeavoured so to speak as to make urmand understand that marie could only be won with difficulty
and that she was perhaps unaccountably averse to the idea of matrimony she is like a young filly you know that starts and plunges when she is touched he had said you think there is nobody else urmand had asked
then michel voss had answered with confidence i am sure there is nobody else
but when at supper he saw that the uncle was ruffled in his temper and sat silent with a black brow that madame voss was troubled in spirit and that marie dispensed her soup without vouchsafing a look to any one
he felt that it behoved him to do his best and he did it he talked freely to madame voss telling her the news from basle
and how flax was likely to be dearer than ever he had seen it and how the travelling english were fewer this year than usual to the great detriment of the innkeepers
speaking in a cheery tone and striving his best to dispel a black silence which on the present occasion would have been specially lugubrious upon the whole he did his work well and michel voss was aware of it
but marie bromar entertained no gentle thought respecting him he was not wanted there and he ought not to have come
nothing she declared to herself was meaner than a man who would go to a girl's parents or guardians for support
marie had promised that she would try but every feeling of her heart was against the struggle after supper michel with his young friend sat some time at the table
for the innkeeper had brought forth a bottle of his best burgundy in honour of the occasion when they had eaten their fruit madame voss left the room and michel and adrian were soon alone together say nothing to her till to morrow said michel in a low voice
i will not said adrian i do not wonder that she should be put out of face if she knows why i have come of course she knows give her to night and to morrow and we will see how it is to be
at this time marie was up stairs with the children resolute that nothing should induce her to go down till she should be sure that their visitor had gone to his chamber
there were many things about the house which it was her custom to see in their place before she went to her rest and nobody should say that she neglected her work because of this dressed up doll but she would wait till she was sure of him till she was sure of her uncle also
in her present frame of mind she could not have spoken to the doll with ordinary courtesy what she feared was that her uncle should seek her up stairs but michel had some idea that her part in the play was not an easy one and was minded to spare her for that night
but she had promised to try and she must be reminded of her promise hitherto she certainly had not tried hitherto she had been ill tempered petulant and almost rude he would not see her himself this evening but he would send a message to her by his wife
and as he spoke there certainly were no smiles on his own i suppose she is flurried said madame voss ah flurried that may do for to night i have been very good to her had she been my own i could not have been kinder
i have loved her just as if she were my own of course i look now for the obedience of a child she does not mean to be undutiful michel i do not know about meaning i like reality and i will have it too
i consulted herself and was more forbearing than most fathers would be i talked to her about it and she promised me that she would do her best to entertain the man now she receives him and me with an old frock and a sulky face who pays for her clothes
i am angry with her do not be angry with her i think i can understand why she did not put on another frock so can i understand i can understand well enough i am not a fool
does she think some count from paris is to come and fetch her nay michel i think she expects nothing of that sort
upon my word and honour i can't conceive what it is that she wants i can't indeed it was perhaps the fault of michel voss that he could not understand that a young woman should live in the same house with him and have a want which he did not conceive
poor marie all that she wanted now at this moment was to be let alone
madame voss in obedience to her husband's commands went up to marie and found her sitting in the children's room leaning with her head on her hand and her elbow on the table while the children were asleep around her
she was waiting till the house should be quiet so that she could go down and complete her work
never mind that to night marie o yes i will go down presently i should not be happy if the things were not put straight everything is about the house everywhere
no we need not be like pigs said madame voss
your uncle won't be up yet then she led the way and marie followed her your uncle is becoming angry marie because because why have i done anything to make him angry
i am not cross aunt josey i went on just the same as i always do
you gave him a sort of a promise and now he thinks that you are breaking it i gave him no promise said marie stoutly
how would the things go if i took to talking to the people and left everything to that little goose peter uncle michel is unreasonable and unkind he means to do the best by you in his power
then let him leave me alone i don't want anything to be done if i were his daughter he would not grudge me permission to stop at home in his house i don't want anything else i have never complained
but my dear it is time that you should be settled in the world i am settled i don't want any other settlement if they will only let me alone marie said madame voss after a short pause
is it that aunt josey that makes my uncle go on like this asked marie you do not answer me child
i do not know what answer you want when george was here i hardly spoke to him if uncle michel is afraid of me i will give him my solemn promise never to marry any one without his permission
george voss will never come back for you said madame voss he will come when i ask him said marie flashing round upon her aunt with all the fire of her bright eyes does any one say that i have done anything to bring him to me
if so it is false whoever says it i have done nothing he has gone away and let him stay i shall not send for him uncle michel need not be afraid of me because of george
by this time marie was speaking almost in a fury of passion and her aunt was almost subdued by her nobody is afraid of you marie she said nobody need be if they will let me alone i will do no harm to any one
why should i wish to be married if i liked him i would take him but i don't o aunt josey i thought you would be my friend i cannot be your friend marie if you oppose your uncle he has done everything for you and he must know best what is good for you
i care nothing for george said marie as she left the room nothing at all nothing about half an hour afterwards listening at her own door she heard the sound of her uncle's feet as he went to his room and knew that the house was quiet
then she crept forth and went about her business nobody should say that she neglected anything because of this unhappiness
she brushed the crumbs from the long table and smoothed the cloth for the next morning's breakfast she put away bottles and dishes and she locked up cupboards and saw that the windows and the doors were fastened then she went down to her books in the little office below stairs
in the performance of her daily duty there were entries to be made and figures to be adjusted which would have been done in the course of the evening had it not been that she had been driven upstairs by fear of her lover and her uncle but by the time that she took herself up to bed
nothing had been omitted and after the book was closed she sat there trying to resolve what she would do nothing had perhaps given her so sharp a pang as her aunt's assurance that george voss would not come back to her
as her aunt's suspicion that she was looking for his return it was not that she had been deserted but that others should be able to taunt her with her desolation
she had never whispered the name of george to any one since he had left granpere and she thought that she might have been spared this indignity if he fancies i want to interfere with him she said to herself thinking of her uncle and of her uncle's plans in reference to his son
then it occurred to her
she sat there thinking of it till the night was half spent and when she crept up cold to bed she had almost made up her mind that it would be best for her to do as her uncle wished as for loving the man that was out of the question
augustus has his own doubts that's an impertinent young puppy said septimus jones as soon as the fly which was to carry harry annesley to the station had left the hall door on the following morning
it may be presumed that mister jones would not thus have expressed himself unless his friend augustus scarborough had dropped certain words in conversation in regard to harry to the same effect
augustus scarborough had made up his mind looking at the matter all round that more was to be got by abusing harry than by praising him the young man has a good opinion of himself certainly
he thinks himself to be a deal better than anybody else continued jones whereas i for one don't see it and he has a way with him of pretending to be quite equal to his companions let them be who they may which to me is odious
he was down upon you and down upon your father of course your father has made a most fraudulent attempt but what the devil is it to him the other young man made no answer but only smiled
the opinion expressed by mister jones as to harry annesley had only been a reflex of that felt by augustus scarborough but the reflex as is always the case when the looking glass is true was correct
scarborough had known harry annesley for a long time as time is counted in early youth and had by degrees learned to hate him thoroughly
he was a little the elder and had at first thought to domineer over his friend but the friend had resisted and had struggled manfully to achieve what he considered an equality in friendship
now scarborough you may as well take it once for all that i am not going to be talked down if you want to talk a fellow down you can go to walker brown or green then when you are tired of the occupation you can come back to me
it was thus that annesley had been wont to address his friend but his friend had been anxious to talk down this special young man for special purposes and had been conscious of some weakness in the other's character which he thought entitled him to do so
but the weakness was not of that nature and he had failed then had come the rivalry between mountjoy and harry which had seemed to augustus to be the extreme of impudence from of old he had been taught to regard his brother mountjoy as the first of young men
among commoners the first in prospects and the first in rank and to him florence mountjoy had been allotted as a bride how he had himself learned first to envy and then to covet this allotted bride need not here be told
but by degrees it had come to pass that augustus had determined that his spendthrift brother should fall under his own power and that the bride should be the reward
and who was in no degree selfish should have loved her also must be left to explain itself as the girl's character shall be developed but florence mountjoy had now for many months been the cause of bitter dislike against poor harry in the mind of augustus scarborough
he understood much more clearly than his brother had done who it was that the girl really preferred he was ever conscious too of his own superiority
falsely conscious and did feel that if harry's character were really known no girl would in truth prefer him he could not quite see harry with florence's eyes nor could he see himself with any other eyes but his own
from that story told in the words of a drunken man a man drunk and bruised and bloody who clearly did not understand in one minute the words spoken in the last
then mountjoy had disappeared had disappeared as the reader will have understood with his brother's co operation and harry had not come forward
but afterward with the purpose of ascertaining why it was that harry had been so reticent then he had allured harry on to a direct lie and soon perceived that he could afterward use the secret for his own purpose
i think we shall have to see what that young man's about you know he said afterward to septimus jones yes yes certainly said septimus but septimus did not quite understand why it was that they should have to see what the young man was about
between you and me i think he means to interfere with me and i do not mean to stand his interference i should think not he must go back to buston among the bustonians or he and i will have a stand up fight of it
i rather like a stand up fight just so when a fellow's so bumptious as that he ought to be licked he has lied about mountjoy said augustus then jones waited to be told how it was that harry had lied
he was aware that there was some secret unknown to him and was anxious to be informed was harry aware of mountjoy's hiding place and if so how had he learned it why was it that harry should be acquainted with that which was dark to all the world besides
has he now and i don't mean to spare him i should think not then there was a pause at the end of which jones found himself driven to ask a question how has he lied
augustus smiled and shook his head from which the other man gathered that he was not now to be told the nature of the lie in question a fellow that lies like that said jones is not to be endured i do not mean to endure him
you have heard of a young lady named miss mountjoy a cousin of ours mountjoy's miss mountjoy suggested jones yes mountjoy's miss mountjoy that of course is over
mountjoy has brought himself to such a pass that he is not entitled to have a miss mountjoy any longer it seems the proper thing that she shall pass with the rest of the family property to the true heir you marry her
we need not talk about that just at present i don't know that i've made up my mind at any rate i do not intend that harry annesley shall have her i should think not
he's a pestilential cur that has got himself introduced into the family and the sooner we get quit of him the better i should think the young lady would hardly fancy him when she knows that he has lied like the very devil with the object of getting her former lover out of the way
and when the world comes to understand that harry annesley in the midst of all these inquiries knows all about poor mountjoy was the last to see him in london and has never come forward to say a word about him
then i think the world will be a little hard upon the immaculate harry annesley his own uncle has quarrelled with him already what uncle the gentleman down in hertfordshire on the strength of whose acres master harry is flaunting it about in idleness
i have my eyes open and can see as well as another when harry lectures me about my father and my father about me
i think he'll find that the garment is not altogether water tight then augustus finding that he had told as much as was needful to septimus jones left his friend and went about his own family business
on the next morning septimus jones took his departure and on the day following augustus followed him
well yes i suppose so a man has got so many things to look after which he can't attend to down here i don't know what they are but you understand it all i'm not going to ask you to stay
does it ever occur to you that you may never see me again what a question it's one that requires an answer at any rate it does occur to me but not at all as probable why not probable
because there's a telegraph wire from tretton to london and because the journey down here is very short it also occurs to me to think so from what has been said by sir william brodrick of course any man may die suddenly
especially when the surgeons have been at him you have your sister with you sir and she will be of more comfort to you than i can be your condition is in some respects an advantage to you
you are wrong there they have not done so nor should they though i were as strong as you what are mountjoy's creditors to me they have not a scrap of my handwriting in their possession
there is not one who can say that he has even a verbal promise from me they never came to me when they wanted to lend him money at fifty per cent did they ever hear me say that he was my heir perhaps not not one has ever heard it
but to you and to grey d the creditors what do i care for them though they be all ruined not in the least why do you talk to me about the creditors you at any rate know the truth
all the prisons of spain were thrown open and all the prisoners received their freedom as if the event the most honorable and most fortunate had happened to the monarchy
and every sumptuary law with regard to apparel was suspended during charles's residence in spain the infanta however was only shown to her lover in public the spanish ideas of decency being so strict
as not to allow of any further intercourse till the arrival of the dispensation the point of honor was carried so far by that generous people that no attempt was made on account of the advantage which they had acquired
of imposing any harder conditions of treaty their pious zeal only prompted them on one occasion to desire more concessions in the religious articles but upon the opposition of bristol accompanied with some reproaches
they immediately desisted the pope however hearing of the prince's arrival in madrid tacked some new clauses to the dispensation and it became necessary to transmit the articles to london that the king might ratify them
this treaty which was made public consisted of several articles chiefly regarding the exercise of the catholic religion by the infanta and her household
nothing could reasonably be found fault with except one article in which the king promised that the children should be educated by the princess till ten years of age this condition could not be insisted on
but with a view of seasoning their minds with catholic principles and though so tender an age seemed a sufficient security against theological prejudices yet the same reason which made the pope insert that article
a very civil letter from the pope he was induced to return a very civil answer
upon this event the nuncio refused to deliver the dispensation till it should be renewed by urban and that crafty pontiff delayed sending a new dispensation in hopes that during the prince's residence in spain
some expedient might be fallen upon to effect his conversion the king of england as well as the prince became impatient on the first hint charles obtained permission to return and philip graced his departure with all the circumstances
of elaborate civility and respect which had attended his reception he even erected a pillar on the spot where they took leave of each other as a monument of mutual friendship and the prince having sworn to the observance of all the articles
entered on his journey and embarked on board the english fleet at saint andero the character of charles composed of decency reserve modesty sobriety virtues so agreeable to the manners of the spaniards
the unparalleled confidence which he had reposed in their nation the romantic gallantry which he had practised towards the princess all these circumstances joined to his youth and advantageous figure had endeared him to the whole court of madrid
and had impressed the most favorable ideas of him but in the same proportion that the prince was beloved and esteemed was buckingham despised and hated his behavior composed of english familiarity and french vivacity
his sallies of passion his indecent freedoms with the prince his dissolute pleasures his arrogant impetuous temper which he neither could nor cared to disguise qualities like these could most of them be esteemed nowhere
but to the spaniards were the objects of peculiar aversion they could not conceal their surprise that such a youth could intrude into a negotiation now conducted to a period
that his own attachment to the spanish nation and to the king of spain was extreme that he would contribute to every measure which could cement the friendship between england and them and that his peculiar ambition would be to facilitate the prince's marriage with the infanta
but he added with a sincerity equally insolent and indiscreet with regard to you sir in particular you must not consider me as your friend but must ever expect from me all possible enmity and opposition
that he very willingly accepted of what was proffered him and on these terms the favorites parted buckingham sensible how odious he was become to the spaniards
of the infanta resolved to employ all his credit in order to prevent the marriage
from whom he had met with such generous treatment by what colors he could disguise the ingratitude and imprudence of such a measure these are totally unknown to us we may only conjecture that the many unavoidable causes of delay
which had so long prevented the arrival of the dispensation
it also appears that his impetuous and domineering character had acquired what it ever after maintained a total ascendant over the gentle and modest temper
he yielded to difficulties which he had not courage or strength of mind sufficient to overcome the prince therefore and buckingham on their arrival at london assumed entirely the direction of the negotiation
and it was their business to seek for pretences by which they could give a color to their intended breach of treaty
as a preliminary article to the conclusion of the marriage treaty he considered that this principality was now in the hands of the emperor and the duke of bavaria and that it was no longer in the king of spain's power by a single stroke of his pen
the strict alliance of spain with these princes would engage philip he thought to soften so disagreeable a demand by every art of negotiation and many articles must of necessity be adjusted
before such an important point could be effected it was sufficient in james's opinion if the sincerity of the spanish court could for the present be ascertained and dreading further delays of the marriage so long wished for
he was resolved to trust the palatine's full restoration to the event of future counsels and deliberations this whole system of negotiation buckingham now reversed
and he overturned every supposition upon which the treaty had hitherto been conducted after many fruitless artifices were employed to delay or prevent the espousals
the greatest interests of his master and of his country his had expected that the unbounded credit of that favorite would be employed to embroil the two nations determined however
to throw the blame of the rupture entirely on the english he delivered into bristol's hand a written promise
or by every other possible means and when he found that this concession gave no satisfaction he ordered the infanta to lay aside the title of princess of wales which she bore after the arrival of the dispensation from rome
and to drop the study of the english language any thinking that such rash counsels as now governed the court of england would not stop at the breach of the marriage treaty he ordered preparations for war immediately
to be made throughout all his dominions thus james having by means inexplicable from the ordinary rules of politics conducted so near an honorable period the marriage of his son and the restoration of his son in law
failed at last of his purpose by means equally unaccountable but though the expedients already used by buckingham were sufficiently inglorious both for himself and for the nation it was necessary for him ere he could fully effect his purpose
was obliged to concert new measures
whatever discouragements therefore he might receive from his ill agreement with former parliaments there was a necessity of summoning once more this assembly and it might be hoped that the spanish alliance which gave such umbrage
in his speech to the houses james dropped some hints of his cause of complaint against spain and he graciously condescended to ask the advice of parliament
and to throw on the court of spain the reproach of artifice and insincerity he said that after many years negotiation the king found not himself any nearer his purpose and that bristol had never brought the treaty beyond general professions and declarations
resolved at last to take a journey to madrid and put the matter to the utmost trial that he there found such artificial dealing as made him conclude all the steps taken towards the marriage to be false and deceitful
which had ever been regarded by the king as an essential preliminary was not seriously intended by spain and that after enduring much bad usage
or of restoring the elector palatine this narrative which considering the importance of the occasion and the solemnity of that assembly to which it was delivered deserves great blame
was yet vouched for truth by the prince of wales who was present and the king himself lent it indirectly his authority by telling the parliament that it was by his orders buckingham laid the whole affair before them
it is in vain to plead the youth and inexperience of charles
really led him into error and made him swallow all the falsities of buckingham and though the king was here hurried from his own measures
so long wished for of going to war with papists they little thought of future consequences but immediately advised the king to break off both treaties with spain as well that which regarded the marriage
as that for the restitution of the palatinate the people ever greedy of war till they suffer by it displayed their triumph at these violent measures by public bonfires and rejoicings and by insults on the spanish ministers
buckingham was now the favorite of the public and of the parliament sir edward coke in the house of commons called him the savior of the nation every place resounded with his praises and he himself intoxicated by a popularity
which he enjoyed so little time and which he so ill deserved violated all duty to his indulgent master and entered into cabals with the puritanical members
and besides supplies from time to time as they should become necessary he demanded a vote of six subsidies and twelve fifteenths as a proper stock before the commencement of hostilities
and that it was sufficient for him if the honor and security of the public were provided for to remove all suspicion he who had ever strenuously maintained his prerogative
now made an imprudent concession of which the consequences might have proved fatal to royal authority he voluntarily offered that the money voted should be paid to a committee of parliament
and should be issued by them without being intrusted to his management the commons willingly accepted of this concession so unusual in an english monarch they voted him only three subsidies and three fifteenths
advantage was also taken of the present good agreement between the king and parliament in order to pass the bill against monopolies which had formerly been encouraged by the king but which had failed by the rupture between him and the last house of commons
this bill was conceived in such terms as to render it merely declaratory and all monopolies were condemned as contrary to law and to the known liberties of the people
it was there supposed that every subject of england had entire power to dispose of his own actions provided he did no injury to any of his fellow subjects and that no prerogative of the king no power of any magistrate
the earl of middlesex had been raised by buckingham's interest from the rank of a london merchant to be treasurer of england and by his activity and address seemed not unworthy of that preferment
during the prince's residence in spain that favorite vowed revenge and employed all his credit among the commons to procure an impeachment of the treasurer the king was extremely dissatisfied with this measure
and prophesied to the prince and duke that they would live to have their fill of parliamentary prosecutions in a speech to the parliament he endeavored to apologize for middlesex and to soften the accusation against him
the charge however was still maintained by the commons and the treasurer was found guilty by the peers though the misdemeanors proved against him were neither numerous nor important
the accepting of two presents of five hundred pounds apiece for passing two patents was the article of greatest weight his sentence was to be fined fifty thousand pounds for the king's use and to suffer all the other penalties formerly inflicted upon bacon
this session an address was also made very disagreeable to the king craving the severe execution of the laws against catholics his answer was gracious and condescending
though he declared against persecution as being an improper measure for the suppression of any religion according to the received maxim that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church he also condemned an entire indulgence of the catholics
and seemed to represent a middle course as the most humane and most politic he went so far as even to affirm with an oath that he never had entertained any thoughts of granting a toleration to these religionists
the liberty of exercising their worship in private houses which he had secretly agreed to in the spanish treaty did not appear to him deserving that name and it was probably by means of this explication he thought that he had saved his honor
which he distinguished from a toleration
three james unable to resist so strong a combination as that of his people his parliament his son and his favorite had been compelled to embrace measures for which
from temper as well as judgment he had ever entertained a most settled aversion
and whom he considered as the author both of the prince's journey to spain and of the breach of the marriage treaty the arrival of bristol he impatiently longed for
and it was by the assistance of that minister whose wisdom he respected and whose views he approved that he hoped in time to extricate himself from his present difficulties during the prince's abode in spain
that able negotiator had ever opposed though unsuccessfully to the impetuous measures suggested by buckingham his own wise and well tempered counsels after charles's departure
he still upon the first appearance of a change of resolution interposed his advice and strenuously insisted on the sincerity of the spaniards in the conduct of the treaty as well as the advantages which england must reap from the completion of it
enraged to find that his successful labors should be rendered abortive by the levities and caprices of an insolent minion he would understand no hints
and nothing but express orders from his master could engage him to make that demand which he was sensible must put a final period to the treaty he was not therefore surprised to hear that buckingham had declared himself
his open enemy and on all occasions had thrown out many violent reflections against him nothing could be of greater consequence to buckingham than to keep bristol at a distance both from the king and the parliament
lest the power of truth enforced by so well informed a speaker should open scenes which were but suspected by the former and of which the latter had as yet entertained no manner of jealousy
he applied therefore to james whose weakness disguised to himself under the appearance of finesse and dissimulation was now become absolutely incurable
a warrant for sending bristol to the tower was issued immediately upon his arrival in england and though he was soon released from confinement yet orders were carried him from the king to retire to his country seat
and to abstain from all attendance in parliament he obeyed but loudly demanded an opportunity of justifying himself and of laying his whole conduct before his master on all occasions he protested his innocence
and threw on his enemy the blame of every miscarriage buckingham and at his instigation the prince declared that they would be reconciled to bristol if he would but acknowledge his errors and ill conduct
but the spirited nobleman jealous of his honor refused to buy favor at so high a price james had the equity to say that the insisting on that condition was a strain of unexampled tyranny but buckingham scrupled not to assert
with his usual presumption that neither the king the prince nor himself were as yet satisfied of bristol's innocence while the attachment of the prince to buckingham while the timidity of james or the shame of changing his favorite
kept the whole court in awe the spanish ambassador inoiosa endeavored to open the king's eyes and to cure his fears by instilling greater fears into him he privately slipped into his hand a paper and gave him a signal to read it alone
that the prince and buckingham had conspired together and had the whole court at their devotion that cabals among the popular leaders in parliament were carrying on to the extreme prejudice of his authority that the project was to confine him to some of his hunting seats
were founded on the system of enmity to the austrian family
the states of the united provinces were at this time governed by maurice and that aspiring prince sensible that his credit would languish during peace had on the expiration of the twelve years truce
renewed the war with the spanish monarchy his great capacity in the military art would have compensated the inferiority of his forces had not the spanish armies been commanded by spinola
a general equally renowned for conduct and more celebrated for enterprise and activity in such a situation nothing could be more welcome to the republic than the prospect of a rupture between james and the catholic king
and they flattered themselves as well from the natural union of interests between them and england as from the influence of the present conjuncture that powerful succors would soon march to their relief
accordingly an army of six thousand men was levied in england and sent over to holland commanded by four young noblemen essex oxford southampton and willoughby
who were ambitious of distinguishing themselves in so popular a cause and of acquiring military experience under so renowned a captain as maurice
the same allurements had not here place which had so long entangled him in the spanish negotiation the portion promised was much inferior and the peaceable restoration of the palatine could not thence be expected
but james was afraid lest his son should be altogether disappointed of a bride and therefore as soon as the french king demanded for the honor of his crown the same terms which had been granted to the spanish he was prevailed with to comply
and as the prince during his abode in spain had given a verbal promise to allow the infanta the education of her children till the age of thirteen this article was here inserted in the treaty
and to that imprudence is generally imputed the present distressed condition of his posterity the court of england however it must be confessed always pretended even in their memorials to the french court that all the favorable conditions granted to the catholics
and from his own incapacity for such a scene of action during the spanish negotiation heidelberg and manheim had been taken by the imperial forces and frankendale though the garrison was entirely english was closely besieged by them
after reiterated remonstrances from james spain interposed and procured a suspension of arms during eighteen months but as frankendale was the only place of frederic's ancient dominions which was still in his hands
and of leaving that state in security was unwilling that so important a fortress should remain in the possession of the enemy to compromise all differences it was agreed to sequestrate it into the hands of the infanta as a neutral person
upon condition that after the expiration of the truce it should be delivered to frederic though peace should not at that time be concluded between him and ferdinand after the unexpected rupture with spain the infanta
when james demanded the execution of the treaty offered him peaceable possession of frankendale and even promised a safe conduct for the garrison through the spanish netherlands but there was some territory of the empire interposed
and for passage over that territory no terms were stipulated by this chicane which certainly had not been employed
count mansfeldt was taken into pay and an english army of twelve thousand foot and two hundred horse was levied by a general press throughout the kingdom during the negotiation with france vast promises had been made
though in general terms by the french ministry not only that a free passage should be granted to the english troops
in england all these professions were hastily interpreted to be positive engagements the troops under mansfeldt's command were embarked at dover but upon sailing over to calais found no orders yet arrived for their admission
after waiting in vain during some time they were obliged to sail towards zealand where it had also been neglected to concert proper measures for their disembarkation and some scruples arose among the states on account of the scarcity of provisions
so long cooped up in narrow vessels half the army died while on board and the other half weakened by sickness
that reign was now drawing towards a conclusion with peace so successfully cultivated and so passionately loved by this monarch his life also terminated
and when encouraged by his courtiers with the common proverb that such a distemper during that season was health for a king he replied that the proverb was meant of a young king after some fits he found himself extremely weakened
and sent for the prince whom he exhorted to bear a tender affection for his wife but to preserve a constancy in religion to protect the church of england and to extend his care towards the unhappy family of the palatine
with decency and courage he prepared himself for his end and he expired on the twenty seventh of march after a reign over england of twenty two years and some days and in the fifty ninth year of his age
his generosity bordered on profusion his learning on pedantry his pacific disposition on pusillanimity his wisdom on cunning his friendship on light fancy and boyish fondness
while he imagined that he was only maintaining his own authority he may perhaps be suspected in a few of his actions and still more of his pretensions to have somewhat encroached on the liberties of his people
while he endeavored by an exact neutrality to acquire the good will of all his neighbors he was able to preserve fully the esteem and regard of none his capacity was considerable
but fitter to discourse on general maxims than to conduct any intricate business his intentions were just but more adapted to the conduct of private life than to the government of kingdoms
awkward in his person and ungainly in his manners he was ill qualified to command respect partial and undiscerning in his affections he was little fitted to acquire general love
of a feeble temper more than of a frail judgment exposed to our ridicule from his vanity but exempt from our hatred by his freedom from pride and arrogance and upon the whole it may be pronounced of his character
that all his qualities were sullied with weakness and embellished by humanity of political courage he certainly was destitute and thence chiefly is derived the strong prejudice which prevails against his personal bravery
an inference however which must be owned from general experience to be extremely fallacious he was only once married to anne of denmark who died on the third of march sixteen nineteen
in the forty fifth year of her age a woman eminent neither for her vices nor her virtues she loved shows and expensive amusements but possessed little taste in her pleasures a great comet appeared about the time of her death
and the vulgar esteemed it the prognostic of that event so considerable in their eyes are even the most insignificant princes he left only one son charles then in the twenty fifth year of his age
and one daughter elizabeth married to the elector palatine she was aged twenty nine years those alone remained of six legitimate children born to him he never had any illegitimate
and he never discovered any tendency even the smallest towards a passion for any mistress the archbishops of canterbury during this reign were whitgift who died in sixteen o four bancroft in sixteen ten
abbot who survived the king the chancellors lord ellesmore who resigned in sixteen seventeen bacon was first lord keeper till sixteen nineteen then was created chancellor and was displaced in sixteen twenty one
williams bishop of lincoln was created lord keeper in his place the high treasurers were the earl of dorset who died in sixteen o nine the earl of salisbury in sixteen twelve
lord mandeville resigned in sixteen twenty one the earl of middlesex displaced in sixteen twenty four the earl of marlborough succeeded the lord admirals were the earl of nottingham
who resigned in sixteen eighteen the earl afterwards duke of buckingham the secretaries of state were the earl of salisbury sir ralph winwood nanton calvert lord conway sir albertus moreton
were seventy eight temporal peers the numbers in the first parliament of charles were ninety seven consequently james during that period created nineteen new peerages above those that expired
the house of commons in the first parliament of this reign consisted of four hundred and sixty seven members it appears that four boroughs revived their charters which they had formerly neglected
chapter fourteen the house in jersey street as her listeners made no comment on miss tyler's accusation of missus vrain she paused only for a moment to recover her breath and was off again in full cry
with a budget of ancient gossip drawn from a very retentive memory of the way in which lydia treated her poor dear husband i know little cried the fair bella only this that she drove him out of the house by her scandalous conduct yes indeed
although you may not believe me di you were away in australia at the time but i kept a watch on lydia in your interest dear and our housemaid heard from your housemaid the most dreadful things why mister vrain remonstrated with lydia
and ordered count ferruci out of the house but lydia would not let him go and mister vrain left the house himself where did he go to miss tyler i don't know nobody knows but it is my opinion said the spinster with a significant look
but he was weak in the head poor man and i suppose let things go on when next i heard of him he was a corpse in geneva square but did my father tell his wife that he was in geneva square dearest di i can't say but i don't believe he had anything to do with her
after he left the house then if she did not know his whereabouts how could she kill him asked denzil pertinently brought to a point which she could not evade bella declined to answer this question
but tossed her head and bit her lip with a fine colour all her accusations of missus vrain had been made generally and as lucian noted were unsupported by fact from a legal point of view this spiteful gossip of a jealous woman was worth nothing
but in a broad sense it was certainly useful in showing the discord which had existed between vrain and his wife lucian saw that little good was to be gained from this prejudiced witness so thanking miss tyler
said diana hurriedly i want to ask you something bella would you mind leaving the room oh dear no burst out miss tyler annoyed at being excluded i've said all i have to say and anything i can do dearest di to assist you and mister
denzil in hanging that woman i miss tyler interrupted lucian sternly you must not speak so wildly for as yet there is nothing to prove that missus vrain is guilty she is guilty enough for me mister denzil
pretty reflected bella scornfully i never could see it myself a painted up minx dragged up from the gutter i wonder at your taste mister denzil indeed i do pretty the idea what fools men are i'm glad i never married one
sour grape sentiment and mark her disdain for lucian the fair bella took herself and her lean form
diana and the barrister were too deeply interested in their business to take much notice of bella's hysterical outburst but looked at one another gravely as she departed well mister denzil said the former repeating her earlier question
what is to be done now shall we see missus vrain not yet replied lucian quickly we must secure proofs of missus vrain's being in that yard before we can get any confession out of her if you will leave it in my hands miss vrain i shall call on missus bensusan
it is possible that she or her servant may know something
yes i think that is the next step to take but what am i to do in the meantime nothing if i were you i would not even see missus vrain i will not seek her voluntarily replied diana
that i am in england and may perhaps find out my address and call but if she does you may be sure that i will be most judicious in my remarks i leave all that to your discretion said denzil rising
good bye miss vrain as soon as i am in possession of any new evidence i shall call again good bye mister denzil
diana made this remark with so kindly a look so becoming a blush and so warm a pressure of the hand that lucian felt quite overcome and not trusting himself to speak
in spite of the gravity of the task in which he was concerned at that moment he thought more of diana's looks and speech
from these day dreams and with a stern determination addressed himself resolutely to the work in hand in this case the bitter came before the sweet but by accomplishing the desire of diana and solving the mystery of her father's death
lucian hoped to win not only her smiles but the more substantial reward of her heart and hand before calling on missus bensusan the barrister debated within himself as to whether it would not be judicious to call in again
the assistance of link and by telling him of the new evidence which had been found place him thereby in possession of new material to prosecute the case but link lately had taken so pessimistic a view of the matter
that lucian fancied he would scoff at his late discoveries and discourage him in prosecuting what seemed to be a fruitless quest denzil was anxious as diana's knight
it is true that he had no legal authority to make these inquiries and it was possible that missus bensusan might refuse to answer questions concerning her own business unsanctioned by law
lucian fancied that missus bensusan as a fat woman might only be good natured and timid he therefore dismissed all ideas of asking link to intervene and resolved to risk a personal interview with the tenant of the jersey street house
it would be time enough to invite link's assistance he thought when missus bensusan as yet an unknown quantity in the case proved obstinate in replying to his questions missus bensusan proved to be quite as stout as miss greeb had reported
a gigantically fat woman she made up in breadth what she lacked in length yet she seemed to have some activity about her too for she opened the door personally to lucian who was quite amazed when he beheld her monstrous bulk blocking up the doorway
her face was white and round like a pale moon
and on the whole appeared to be a timid lymphatic woman likely to answer any questions put to her in a sufficiently peremptory tone lucian foresaw that he was not likely to have much trouble with this mountain of flesh what might you be pleased to want sir
she asked lucian in the meekest of voices is it about the lodgings yes answered the barrister boldly for he guessed that missus bensusan would scuttle back into the house like a rabbit to its burrow did he speak too plainly at the outset that is
i wish to inquire about a friend of mine
yes a mister wrent
with mild surprise mister wrent left me shortly after christmas a kind gentleman but timid he excuse me interrupted lucian who wanted to get into the house but don't you think you could tell me about my friend in a more convenient situation
oh yes sir certainly sir wheezed missus bensusan rolling back up the narrow passage i beg your pardon sir for my forgetfulness but my head ain't what it ought to be i'm a lone widow sir and not over strong
as the lady's bulk gave the lie to her assertion however on diplomatic grounds he suppressed his mirth and followed his ponderous guide
that she almost filled it herself as he left the passage he saw a brilliant red head pop down the staircase leading to the basement but whether it was that of a man
still on recalling miss greeb's description of the bensusan household he concluded that the red head was the property of rhoda the sharp servant and argued from her appearance in the background and rapid disappearance that she was in the habit of listening to conversations
she was not meant to hear missus bensusan sat down on the sofa as being most accommodating to her bulk and cast a watery look around the small apartment which was furnished in that extraordinary fashion which seems to be the peculiar
characteristic of boarding houses the walls and carpet were patterned with glowing bunches of red roses the furniture was covered with stamped red velvet the ornaments consisted of shells
mats of berlin wool vases with dangling pendants of glass and such like elegant survivals of the early victorian epoch hideous as the apartment was it seemed to afford missus bensusan also a survival great pleasure
and she cast a complacent look around as lucian seated himself on an uncomfortable chair covered with an antimacassar
my rooms are most comfortable an much liked said missus bensusan sighing but i have not had many lodgers lately rhoda thinks it must be on account of that horrible murder
ah groaned the fat woman looking tearfully over her double chin
everybody has heard of it replied lucian and i was one of the first to hear since i live in
indeed sir grunted missus bensusan stiffening a little at the sound of a rival lodging house keeper's name then you are mister denzil the gentleman who occupies miss greeb's first floor front yes
about what sir said missus bensusan visibly alarmed concerning mister wrent you are a friend of his i said so missus bensusan but as a matter of fact i never set eyes on the gentleman in my life
missus bensusan gasped like a fish out of water and patted her fat breast with her fat hand as though to give herself courage it is not like a gentleman to say that another gentleman's his friend when he ain't she said with an attempt at dignity
very true answered lucian with great composure but you know the saying all is fair in love and war i will be plain with you missus bensusan he added i am here to seek possible evidence in connection with the murder
gave a kind of hoarse screech and stared at lucian in a horrified manner murder she repeated lord what mur that murder mister vrain mister vrain that murder she repeated over and over again
with another gasp missus bensusan threw up her fat hands and raised her eyes to the ceiling as i am a christian woman sir she cried i am as innocent as a babe unborn
asked lucian sharply of the murder wept missus bensusan now dissolved in tears rhoda said i don't want to hear what rhoda said interrupted lucian impatiently and i am not accusing you of the murder but
i won't contradict you sir it do and there is a passage leading from jersey street into your yard there is mister denzil it's useful for the trades people and i daresay useful to others said lucian drily
now missus bensusan do you know if any lady was in the habit of passing through that passage at night before missus bensusan could answer the door was dashed open and rhoda the red headed darted into the room
two quiet uneventful days and a complete return to routine
of the revived south polar times presented to me on midwinter day it is a very good little volume bound by day in a really charming cover of carved venesta wood and sealskin
of the greater number the editor has taken a statistical paper of my own on the plans for the southern journey and a well written serious article
the verse is mediocre
on the sleeping bag argument but an article entitled valhalla appears to me to be
at the gates proverbially guarded by saint peter the humour is really delicious and nowhere at all forced in the jokes of a small community it is rare to recognise one which would appeal to an outsider but some of the happier
witticisms of this article seem to me fit for wider circulation than our journal enjoys at present above all there is distinct literary merit in it a polish which leaves
i unhesitatingly attribute this effort to taylor
if they are right i shall have to own that my judgment of attributes is very much at fault i must find out
read church service as usual in afternoon walked up the ramp with wilson
i took the opportunity to warn wilson concerning the desirability
the weather has been very mysterious of late on the twenty third and twenty fourth it continuously threatened a blizzard but now the sky is clearing again with all signs of fine weather
with a clear sky it was quite twilighty at noon to day already such signs of day are inspiriting
the prophets predicted a blizzard after an hour or two the wind fell and we had a calm clear evening and night the blizzards proper seem to be always preceded by an overcast sky in accordance with simpson's theory
taylor gave a most interesting lecture on the physiographic features of the region traversed by his party in the autumn his mind is very luminous and clear
of view which was delightful the illustrative slides were made from debenham's photographs and many of them were quite beautiful ponting tells me that debenham knows quite a lot about photography and goes to work in quite the right way
the lecture being a precis of taylor's report there is no need to recapitulate its matter with the pictures it was startling to realise the very different extent to which
tributary glaciers have carved the channels in which they lie the canadian glacier lies dead but at grade it has cut a very deep channel
with practically no channel mention was made of the difference of water found in lake bonney by me in december nineteen o three and the western party in february nineteen eleven
it seems certain that water must go on accumulating in the lake during the two or three summer months
the winter's evaporation if it does evaporation becomes a matter of primary importance there was an excellent picture showing the find of sponges on the koettlitz glacier heaps of large sponges were found containing
corals and some shells all representative of present day fauna
there was a good deal of discussion on the point and no very satisfactory solution offered cannot help thinking that there is something in the thought that the glacier may have been weighted down
such speculations are interesting
and the people will have to drag two hundred fifty three
a big weight day has made an excellent little blubber lamp for lighting it has an annular wick and talc chimney a small circular plate over the wick conducts the heat down and raises the temperature of combustion
so that the result is a clear white flame we are certainly within measurable distance of using blubber in the most effective way for both heating and lighting and this is an advance
the crozier party departed this morning in good spirits their heavy load was distributed on two nine feet sledges ponting photographed them by flashlight and attempted to get a cinematograph picture by means of a flash candle
and there was not much surprise when the film proved a failure the three travellers found they could pull their load fairly easily on the sea ice
i'm afraid they will find much more difficulty on the barrier but there was nothing now to prevent them starting and off they went with helping contingent i went round the cape taylor and nelson
and report all well simpson meares and gran continued and have not yet returned gran just back on ski left party
says meares and simpson are returning on foot reports a bad bit of surface between tent island and glacier tongue it was well that the party had assistance to cross this this winter travel is a new and bold venture
but the right men have gone to attempt it all good luck go with them coal consumption bowers reports that present consumption midwinter
an occasional block is required
twenty and a half tons estimate eight tons to return of ship total estimate for year seventeen tons we should have thirteen or fourteen tons for next year
quotations on the flyleaf where the queen's law does not carry
rudyard kipling confident of his good intentions but doubtful of his fortitude so far as i can venture to offer an opinion on such a matter the purpose
of our being in existence the highest object that human beings can set before themselves
as the annihilation of the unknown but it is simply the unwearied endeavour to remove its boundaries a little further
the temperature has been hovering
with a clear sky at midday it was exceptionally light and even two hours after noon i was able to pick my way amongst the boulders of the ramp we miss the crozier party lectures have ceased during its absence
so that our life is very quiet thursday
seemed rather stuffy in the hut last night i found it difficult to sleep and noticed a good many others in like case i found the temperature was only
but that the small uptake on the stove pipe was closed
but don't quite know how to manage this
the wind and temperature curves show this sudden simultaneous change more clearly than usual the curious circumstance
but this was passed over to campbell it has not been an easy matter to manufacture one for our own use the wire from the bottom weight is led through a tube filled with paraffin as in discovery days
and kept tight by a counter weight after passage through a block on a stanchion rising six feet above the floe in his first instrument
the revolution of which actuated the pen of the recording drum this should have been successful
and the pulley backlash caused an unreliable record and this arrangement had to be abandoned the motion of the wire was then made to actuate the recorder through a hinged lever and this arrangement holds but days and even weeks have been lost in grappling
then when all seemed well
when we were considering the question of removing the whole apparatus to a more distant point a fresh crack appeared between it
and on this hinge the floe seems to be moving more freely
we are descending the scale of negative thirties and to day reached its limit
a simple arrangement up to the present he has used this near the cape there is little doubt however that the water movement is erratic and irregular inside the islands and i have been anxious to get
observations which will indicate the movement in the strait i went with him to day to find a crack which i thought must run to the north from
and found it to be an ideal place for such work a fracture in the ice sheet which is constantly opening and therefore always edged with thin ice have told day that i think a bottle
weighted so as to give it a small negative buoyancy and attached to a fine line
and would be much handier he now proposes to go one better and put an electric light in the bottle we found that our loose dogs had been attacking a seal and then came across a dead seal which had evidently been worried to death
saw more seal further to the north and this afternoon meares has killed a large one
it is good to find the seals so close but very annoying to find that the dogs have discovered their resting place the long spell of fine weather is very satisfactory saturday july one
we have designed new ski boots and i think they are going to be a success my object is to stick to the
one must wear finnesko on the barrier and with finnesko alone a loose binding is necessary for this we brought finon bindings consisting
with this arrangement one does not have good control of his ski and stands the chance
owing to the last consideration many had decided to go with toe strap alone as we did in the discovery this brought into my mind the possibility of using the iron cross bar and snap heel strap of the huitfeldt on a suitable overshoe
evans p o has arisen well to the occasion as a boot maker and has just completed a pair of shoes which are very nearly what we require the soles have two thicknesses of seal skin cured with alum stiffened
and raised at the heel on a block
so that shoe and finnesko together are less weight than a boot if we can perfect this arrangement it should be of the greatest use to us wright has been swinging the pendulum
in his cavern prodigious trouble has been taken to keep the time and this object has been immensely helped by the telephone communication between the cavern
the timekeeper is perfectly placed wright tells me that his ice platform proves to be five times as solid as the fixed piece of masonry used at potsdam the only difficulty is the low temperature which freezes his breath
on the glass window of the protecting dome i feel sure these gravity results are going to be very good the temperature has been hanging in the minus thirties all day with calm and clear sky but this evening
there was wind last night but this morning found a settled calm again
the moon is rising again it came over the shoulder of erebus about five p m in second quarter it will cross the meridian at night worse luck but such days as this will be pleasant even with a low moon
one is very glad to think the crozier party are having such a peaceful time sunday routine and nothing much to record
another quiet day the sky more suspicious in appearance thin stratus cloud forming and dissipating overhead curling stratus clouds over erebus wind at cape crozier seemed a possibility
our people have been far out on the floe it is cheerful to see the twinkling light of some worker at a water hole or hear the ring of distant voices or swish of ski
a day of blizzard and adventure the wind arose last night and although the temperature advanced a few degrees it remained at a very low point considering the strength of the wind
in the afternoon the wind modified slightly taylor and atkinson went up to the ramp thermometer screen after this entirely without my knowledge two adventurous spirits atkinson and gran
decided to start off over the floe making respectively
and south bay thermometers archibald and clarence
no more than two hundred or three hundred yards from the land and that it had taken him nearly an hour to get back again
and that it remained very thick all round with light snow falling although i felt somewhat annoyed i had no serious anxiety at this time and as several members came out of the hut
evans p o crean and keohane being anxious for a walk were sent to the north with a lantern whilst this desultory search proceeded the wind sprang up again from the south but with no great force
and meanwhile the sky showed signs of clearing and the moon appeared dimly through the drifting clouds with such a guide we momentarily looked for the return of our wanderer and with his continued absence our anxiety grew
at last there was no denying the possibility of a serious accident
i had by this time learnt that atkinson had left with comparatively light clothing and still worse with leather ski boots on his feet fortunately he had wind clothing
p o evans was away first with crean
and a flask of brandy his orders were to search the edge of the land
then to turn east along an open crack and follow it to inaccessible island
nelson forde and hooper left shortly after similarly equipped to follow the shore of the south bay in similar fashion then turn out to the razor back and search there
next wright gran and lashly set out for the bergs to look thoroughly about them and from thence pass round and examine inaccessible island after these parties got away meares and debenham started with a lantern to search to and fro
over the surface of our promontory simpson and oates went out in a
the archibald thermometer whilst ponting and taylor re examined the tide crack towards the barne glacier
at intervals upon its crest bundles of tow well soaked in petrol at length clissold and i were left alone in the hut and as the hours went by i grew ever more alarmed it was impossible for me to conceive how an
able man could have failed to return to the hut before this or by any means found shelter in such clothing in such weather atkinson had started for a point a little more than a mile away at
been five hours away what conclusion could be drawn
on open floe with no worse pitfall than a shallow crack or steep sided snow drift at least i could feel that every spot which was likely to be the scene of such an accident would be searched thus eleven o'clock came without change
and presently the adventure ended to my extreme relief when meares and debenham led our wanderer home he was badly frostbitten in the hand and less seriously on the face and though a good deal
confused as men always are on such occasions he was otherwise well his tale is confused but as far as one can gather
a little on one side on the bearing he had originally observed and after some time stumbled on an old fish trap hole which he knew to be two hundred yards from the cape
he made this two hundred yards in the direction he supposed correct and found nothing in such a situation
and so found his way to it the fact that he did not but attempted to wander straight on is clear evidence of the mental condition caused by that situation there can be no doubt that in a blizzard
a man has not only to safeguard the circulation in his limbs but must struggle with a sluggishness of brain
says he couldn't see a yard at this time fell often into the tide crack finally stopped under the lee of some rocks here got his hand frostbitten owing to difficulty of getting frozen mit on again
finally got it on started to dig a hole to wait in saw something of the moon and left the island lost the moon and wanted to go back could find nothing finally stumbled on another island perhaps the same one
waited again again saw the moon now clearing shaped some sort of course by it then saw flare on cape and came on rapidly says he shouted to someone on cape quite close to him greatly surprised not to get an answer
appreciating that it has been a close escape or that there would have been no escape had the blizzard continued the thought that it would return after a short lull was amongst the worst with me
two a m the search parties have returned and all is well again but we must have no more of these very unnecessary escapades
christianity misunderstood by believers meaning of christian doctrine understood by a minority has become completely incomprehensible for the majority of men reason of this
its essence and difference from heathen religions christianity not fully comprehended at the beginning
simultaneously with this arose the claim to possession of the authentic meaning of the doctrine based on the miraculous nature of its transmission assembly of disciples as described in the acts
to the sole possession of the true meaning of christ's teaching supported by miraculous evidence has led by logical development to the creeds of the churches a church could not be founded by christ definitions of a church according to the catechisms
the churches have always been several in number and hostile to one another what is heresy the work of g arnold on heresies
the same thing is done by the other churches all the external conditions of modern life are such as to destroy the doctrine of the church and therefore the churches use every effort to support their doctrines
thus the information i received after my book came out went to show that the christian doctrine in its direct and simple sense was understood and had always been understood by a minority of men while the critics ecclesiastical and freethinking alike denied
the possibility of taking christ's teaching in its direct sense all this convinced me that while on one hand the true understanding of this doctrine had never been lost to a minority but had been established more and more clearly
on the other hand the meaning of it had been more and more obscured for the majority so that at last such a depth of obscurity has been reached that men do not take in their direct sense even the simplest precepts expressed in the simplest words
in the gospel christ's teaching is not generally understood in its true simple and direct sense even in these days when the light of the gospel has penetrated even to the darkest recesses of human consciousness
when in the words of christ that which was spoken in the ear is proclaimed from the housetops and when the gospel is influencing every side of human life domestic economic civic
this lack of true understanding of christ's words at such a time would be inexplicable if there were not causes to account for it one of these causes
is that the false interpretation and consequent misapprehension of the gospel is an error of such long standing even the strongest current of water cannot add a drop to a cup which is already full
if he has not formed any idea of them already but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already without a shadow of doubt what is laid before him
the christian doctrine is presented to the men of our world to day as a doctrine which everyone has known so long and accepted so unhesitatingly
that it cannot be understood in any other way than it is understood now christianity is understood now by all who profess the doctrines of the church as a supernatural miraculous revelation of everything which is repeated in the creed
by unbelievers it is regarded as an illustration of man's craving for a belief in the supernatural which mankind has now outgrown as an historical phenomenon which has received full expression in catholicism greek orthodoxy and protestantism
and has no longer any living significance for us the significance of the gospel is hidden from believers by the church from unbelievers by science
was in both form and content absolutely new to the jewish world in which it originated and still more to the roman world in which it was preached and diffused
law was laid upon law and in the midst of the roman legal system worked out to the highest point of perfection a new doctrine appeared which denied not only every deity and all fear and worship of them
but even all human institutions and all necessity for them in place of all the rules of the old religions this doctrine sets up only a type of inward perfection truth and love in the person of christ and
as a result of this inward perfection being attained by men also the outward perfection foretold by the prophets the kingdom of god when all men will cease to learn to make war when all shall be taught of god and united in love and the lion will lie down with the lamb
if any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of god
but ye seek to kill me a man that hath told you the truth ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free god is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth keep my sayings
and ye shall know of my sayings whether they be true no proofs of this doctrine were offered except its truth the correspondence of the doctrine with the truth the whole teaching consisted in the recognition of truth and following it
in a greater and greater attainment of truth and a closer and closer following of it in the acts of life there are no acts in this doctrine which could justify a man and make him saved there is only the image of truth to guide him for inward perfection in the person of christ
and for outward perfection in the establishment of the kingdom of god the fulfillment of this teaching consists only in walking in the chosen way in getting nearer to inward perfection in the imitation of christ
the greater or less blessedness of a man
but on the greater or less swiftness with which he is pursuing it
that was a sinner of the robber on the cross is a greater state of blessedness according to this doctrine than the stationary righteousness of the pharisee
be ye perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect seek ye first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness
the fulfillment of this precept is only to be found in uninterrupted progress toward the attainment of ever higher truth toward establishing more and more firmly an ever greater love within oneself and establishing more and more widely
the kingdom of god outside oneself it is obvious that appearing as it did in the midst of the jewish and heathen world such teaching could not be accepted by the majority of men
it is obvious too that even for those by whom it was accepted
that it could not be comprehensible in its full significance it has been only by a succession of misunderstandings errors partial explanations and the corrections and additions of generations
that the meaning of the christian doctrine has grown continually more and more clear to men the christian view of life has exerted an influence on the jewish and heathen and the heathen and jewish view of life has too exerted an influence on the christian
and christianity as the living force has gained more and more upon the extinct judaism and heathenism and has grown continually clearer and clearer as it freed itself from the admixture of falsehood which had overlaid it
men went further and further in the attainment of the meaning of christianity and realized it more and more in life the longer mankind lived the clearer and clearer became the meaning of christianity
as must always be the case with every theory of life succeeding generations corrected the errors of their predecessors and grew ever nearer and nearer to a comprehension of the true meaning it was thus from the very earliest times of christianity
and so too from the earliest times of christianity there were men who began to assert on their own authority that the meaning they attribute to the doctrine is the only true one
this was the principal cause at first of the misunderstanding of the doctrine and afterward of the complete distortion of it it was supposed that christ's teaching
was transmitted to men not like every other truth but in a special miraculous way
but by the miraculous manner of its transmission which was advanced as an irrefutable proof of the truth of the interpretation put on it this hypothesis originated from misunderstanding of the teaching and its result
was to make it impossible to understand it rightly and this happened first in the earliest times when the doctrine was still not so fully understood and often interpreted wrongly as we see by the gospels and the acts the less the doctrine was understood
did not need to be proved by miracles and needed no exercise of faith because this proposition is in itself convincing and in harmony with man's mind and nature but the proposition that christ was god had to be proved by miracles completely beyond our comprehension
the more the understanding of christ's teaching was obscured
the more the doctrine was strained from its meaning and the more obscure it became
and the less comprehensible the doctrine became one can see by the gospels the acts and the epistles how from the earliest times the non comprehension of the doctrine called forth the need for proofs through the miraculous and incomprehensible
the first example in the book of acts is the assembly which gathered together in jerusalem to decide the question which had arisen whether to baptize or not the uncircumcised and those who had eaten of food sacrificed to idols
who rejected all outward observances ablutions purifications fasts and sabbaths it was plainly said
and therefore the question of baptizing the uncircumcised could only have arisen among men who though they loved their master and dimly felt the grandeur of his teaching still did not understand the teaching itself very clearly and this was the fact
to give external confirmation to certain assertions and which has been productive of so much evil that is it was asserted that the correctness of what they had decided was guaranteed by the miraculous participation of the holy ghost that is of god in their decision
but the assertion that the holy ghost that is god spoke through the apostles in its turn wanted proof and thus it was necessary to confirm this that the holy ghost should descend at pentecost in tongues of fire upon those who made this assertion
in the account of it the descent of the holy ghost precedes the assembly but the book of acts was written much later than both events but the descent of the holy ghost too had to be proved for those who had not seen the tongues of fire
and so arose the necessity for still more miracles and changes raisings of the dead to life and strikings of the living dead and all those marvels which have been a stumbling block to men of which the acts is full and which far
it became thus it was from the earliest times and so it went on constantly increasing till it reached in our day the logical climax of the dogmas of transubstantiation and the infallibility of the pope or of the bishops or of scripture
and of requiring a blind faith rendered incomprehensible and utterly meaningless not in god but in christ not in a doctrine but in a person as in catholicism or in persons as in greek orthodoxy or in a book as in protestantism
the more widely christianity was diffused and the greater the number of people unprepared for it who were brought under its sway the less it was understood the more absolutely was its infallibility insisted on
to a resume supported by the temporal authority of the disputes that had taken place in the council to a creed which reckoned off i believe in so and so and so and so and so and so to the end to one holy apostolic church
god could not leave men to interpret his teaching at random therefore he founded the church all those statements are so utterly untrue and unfounded that one is ashamed to refute them nowhere nor in
anything except in the assertion of the church can we find that god or christ founded anything like what churchmen understand by the church in the gospels there is a warning against the church as it is an external authority
christ's followers should call no man master but nowhere is anything said of the foundation of what churchmen call the church
the other time in connection with the obscure utterance about a stone peter and the gates of hell from these two passages in which the word church is used in the signification merely of an assembly has been deduced all that we now understand
by the church but christ could not have founded the church that is what we now understand by that word for nothing like the idea of the church as we know it now with its sacraments miracles and above all its claim to infallibility
is to be found either in christ's words or in the ideas of the men of that time
besides if christ had really founded such an institution as the church for the foundation of all his teaching and the whole faith he would certainly have described this institution clearly and definitely and would have given the only true church besides tales of miracles which
some tokens so unmistakable that no doubt of its genuineness could ever have arisen but nothing of the sort was done by him and there have been and still are different institutions each calling itself the true church
the catholic catechism says l'eglise
et soumise a l'authorite des
see footnote understanding by the words pasteurs
an association of men having the pope at its head and consisting of certain individuals bound together by a certain organization footnote the church is the society of the faithful
established by our lord jesus christ spread over the whole earth and subject to the authority of its lawful pastors and chief of them our holy father the pope
the greek orthodox catechism says the church is a society founded upon earth by jesus christ which is united into one whole by one divine doctrine and by sacraments under the rule and guidance of a priesthood appointed by god
the greek orthodox priesthood consisting of certain individuals who happen to be in such or such positions the lutheran catechism says the church is holy christianity or the collection of all believers under christ their head
to whom the holy ghost through the gospels and sacraments promises communicates and administers heavenly salvation meaning that the catholic church is lost in error and that the true means of salvation is in lutheranism
for catholics the church of god coincides with the roman priesthood and the pope for the greek orthodox believer the church of god coincides with the establishment and priesthood of russia see footnote footnote
homyakov's definition of the church which was received with some favor among russians does not improve matters if we are to agree with homyakov in considering the greek orthodox church as the one true church
homyakov asserts that a church is a collection of men all without distinction of clergy and laymen united together by love and that only to men united by love is the truth revealed let us love each other that
recognize the popes and new dogmas but with such a definition of the church there is still more difficulty in reconciling as homyakov tries to do the church united by love with the church that recognizes the nicene creed and the doctrine of photius
so that homyakov's assertion that this church united by love and consequently holy is the same church as the greek orthodox priesthood profess faith in
if we admit the idea of a church in the sense homyakov gives to it that is a body of men bound together by love and truth then all that any man can predicate in regard to this body if such an one exists is its love and truth
but there can be no outer signs by which one could reckon oneself or another as a member of this holy body nor by which one could put anyone outside it so that no institution having an external existence can correspond to this idea
for lutherans the church of god coincides with a body of men who recognize the authority of the bible and luther's catechism
while believers were agreed among themselves and the body was one it had no need to declare itself as a church it was only when believers were split up into opposing parties renouncing one another that it seemed necessary to each party to confirm their own truth
by ascribing to themselves infallibility the conception of one church only arose when there were two sides divided and disputing who each called the other side heresy and recognized their own side only as the infallible church
if we knew that there was a church which decided in the year fifty one to receive the uncircumcised it is only so because there was another church of the judaists who decided to keep the uncircumcised out
if there is a catholic church now which asserts its own infallibility that is only because there are churches
each asserting its own infallibility and denying that of all other churches so that the one church is only a fantastic imagination which has not the least trace of reality about it as a real historical fact
openly assert this in the catholic catechism it is said
footnote who are those who are outside the church infidels heretics and schismatics the so called greek orthodox are regarded as schismatics the lutherans as heretics
so that according to the catholic catechism the only people in the church are catholics in the so called orthodox catechism it is said by the one christian church is understood the orthodox which remains fully in accord with the universal church
will be known by the word of god being studied clear and unmixed with man's additions and the sacraments being maintained faithful to christ's teaching according to this definition
the protestants of every kind lutherans reformed church presbyterians methodists swedenborgians mormons assert that the holy ghost is only present in their communities
if the catholics assert that the holy ghost at the time of the division of the church into arian and greek left the church that fell away
the holy ghost left the catholic and passed into the church they professed and this is just what they do every church traces its creed through an uninterrupted transmission from christ and the apostles and truly every christian creed
every branch in a tree comes from the root in unbroken connection
as every other so that there is but one strict and exact definition of what is a church
but of what it is and has been in reality a church is a body of men who claim for themselves that they are in complete and sole possession of the truth and these bodies having in course of time aided by the support of the temporal authorities
developed into powerful institutions have been the principal obstacles to the diffusion of a true comprehension of the teaching of christ it could not be otherwise the chief peculiarity which distinguished christ's teaching
strange though it may seem to us who have been brought up in the erroneous view of the church as a christian institution and in contempt for heresy yet the fact is that only in what was called heresy was there any true movement
that is true christianity and that it only ceased to be so when those heresies stopped short in their movement
since every theological work deals with the true doctrine of christ as distinguished
yet you will not find anywhere anything
there is much to be gained by separation from it conflict with error has no weapons other than thought and feeling one uniform type of doctrine has not yet been elaborated
divergencies in secondary matters arise freely in east and west theology is not wedded to invariable formulas if in the midst of this diversity a mass of beliefs common to all is apparent
is one not justified in seeing in it not a formulated system framed by the representatives of pedantic authority but faith itself in its surest instinct and its most spontaneous manifestation
if the same unanimity which is revealed in essential points of belief is found also in rejecting certain tendencies are we not justified in concluding that these tendencies were in flagrant opposition to the fundamental principles of christianity
and will not this presumption be transformed into certainty if we recognize in the doctrine universally rejected by the church the characteristic features of one of the religions of the past to say that gnosticism or ebionitism
are legitimate forms of christian thought one must boldly deny the existence of christian thought at all or any specific character by which it could be recognized while ostensibly widening its realm one undermines it
no one in the time of plato would have ventured to give his name to a doctrine in which the theory of ideas had no place and one would deservedly have excited the ridicule of greece by trying to pass off epicurus or zeno as a disciple of the academy
the author's whole argument amounts to this that every opinion which differs from the code of dogmas we believe in at a given time is heresy
every so called heresy regarding as it does its own creed as the truth can just as easily find in church history a series of illustrations of its own creed can use all pressense's arguments on its own behalf and can call its own creed
the one truly christian creed
the only definition of heresy the word
ketzer historie seventeen twenty nine by gottfried arnold
and points out all the unlawfulness the arbitrariness the senselessness and the cruelty of using the word heretic in the sense of reprobate this book is an attempt to write the history of christianity in the form of a history of heresy
as examples of these questions in which the answers are to some extent included also i will quote the following under the fourth head of the manner in which heretics are made he says in one of the questions in the seventh
does not all history show that the greatest makers of heretics and masters of that craft were just these wise men from whom the father hid his secrets that is the hypocrites the pharisees and lawyers men utterly godless and perverted
question twenty twenty one and in the corrupt times of christianity were not these very men cast out denounced by the hypocrites and envious who were endowed by god with great gifts and who would in the days of pure christianity have been held in high honor
and on the other hand would not the men who in the decline of christianity raised themselves above all and regarded themselves as the teachers of the purest christianity would not these very men in the times of the apostles and disciples of christ have been regarded as the most shameless
heretics and anti christians he expounds among other things in these questions the theory that any verbal expression of faith such as was demanded by the church and the departure from which was reckoned as heresy
could never fully cover the exact religious ideas of a believer and that therefore the demand for an expression of faith in certain words was ever productive of heresy
and if heavenly things and thoughts present themselves to a man's mind as so great and so profound that he does not find corresponding words to express them ought one to call him a heretic because he cannot express his idea with perfect exactness
was it not the easiest and most ordinary ecclesiastical proceeding if the clergy wanted to get rid of or to ruin anyone for them to cast suspicion on the person's belief and to throw a cloak of heresy upon him and by this means
true though it may be that there were sins and errors among the so called heretics it is no less true and evident he says farther on from the innumerable examples quoted here
that there was not a single sincere and conscientious man of any importance whom the churchmen would not from envy or other causes have ruined thus almost two hundred years ago the real meaning of heresy was understood
and notwithstanding that the same conception of it has gone on existing up to now and it cannot fail to exist so long as the conception of a church exists heresy is the obverse side of the church
wherever there is a church there must be the conception of heresy
heresy is the opinion of the men who do not admit the infallibility of the church's truth heresy makes its appearance in the church it is the effort to break through the petrified authority of the church
all effort after a living comprehension of the doctrine has been made by heretics
luther huss savonarola helchitsky and the rest were heretics it could not be otherwise the follower of christ whose service means an ever growing understanding of his teaching and an ever closer fulfillment of it
to assert of one's self or of any body of men that one is or they are in possession of perfect understanding and fulfillment of christ's word is to renounce the very spirit of christ's teaching strange as it may seem the churches as
institutions not only alien in spirit to christ's teaching but even directly antagonistic to it with good reason voltaire calls the church l'infame with good reason have all or almost all so called sects of christians recognized the church
as the scarlet woman foretold in the apocalypse with good reason is the history of the church the history of the greatest cruelties and horrors the churches as churches are not as many people suppose institutions
which have christian principles for their basis even though they may have strayed a little away from the straight path the churches as churches as bodies which assert their own infallibility are institutions opposed to christianity
there is not only nothing in common between the churches as such and christianity except the name but they represent two principles fundamentally opposed and antagonistic to one another
one represents pride violence self assertion stagnation and death the other meekness penitence humility progress and life we cannot serve these two masters we have to choose between them
the servants of the churches of all denominations especially of later times try to show themselves champions of progress in christianity they make concessions
and maintain that one cannot on account of these abuses deny the principle itself of a christian church which alone can bind all men together in unity and be a mediator between men and god but this is all a mistake not only have churches never bound men together in unity
of their hatred of one another of wars battles inquisitions massacres
such mediation is not wanted and was directly forbidden by christ who has revealed his teaching directly and immediately to each man but the churches set up dead forms in the place of god and far from revealing god
they obscure him from men's sight the churches which originated from misunderstanding of christ's teaching and have maintained this misunderstanding by their immovability cannot but persecute and refuse to recognize all true understanding of christ's words
they try to conceal this but in vain for every step forward along the path pointed out for us by christ is a step toward their destruction to hear and to read the sermons and articles in which church writers of later times
whether the churches can be antagonistic to christianity it cannot be one says that these people who can point to such men as chrysostom fenelon butler and others professing the christian faith were antagonistic to christianity one is tempted to say
they may be in error but they cannot be hostile to it but we must look to the fruit to judge the tree as christ taught us
that the results of their activity were antagonistic to christianity we cannot but admit that however good the men were the work of the church in which these men took part was not christian the goodness and worth of these men
who served the churches was the goodness and worth of the men and not of the institution they served all the good men
tihon zadonsky thomas a kempis and others were good men in spite of their serving an institution hostile to christianity
the churches with their principles and their practice are not a thing of the past the churches are before us to day and we can judge of them to some purpose by their practical activity their influence on men
what is the practical work of the churches to day what is their influence upon men what is done by the churches among us among the catholics and the protestants of all denominations what is their practical work and what are the results of their practical work
the practice of our russian so called orthodox church is plain to all it is an enormous fact which there is no possibility of hiding and about which there can be no disputing
he seemed carefully to seek out her tender spots so as to torture her mentally as harshly as possible princess mary had two passions and consequently two joys her nephew little nicholas and religion
and these were the favorite subjects of the prince's attacks and ridicule whatever was spoken of he would bring round to the superstitiousness of old maids or the petting and spoiling of children you want to make him little nicholas into an old maid like yourself a pity
prince andrew wants a son and not an old maid he would say or turning to mademoiselle bourienne he would ask her in princess mary's presence how she liked our village priests and icons and would joke about them he continually hurt princess mary's feelings
and tormented her but it cost her no effort to forgive him could he be to blame toward her or could her father whom she knew loved her in spite of it all be unjust and what is justice the princess never thought of that proud word justice
all the complex laws of man centered for her in one clear and simple law the law of love and self sacrifice taught us by him who lovingly suffered for mankind though he himself was god what had she to do with the justice or injustice of other people
she had to endure and love and that she did during the winter prince andrew had come to bald hills and had been gay gentle and more affectionate than princess mary had known him for a long time past she felt that something had happened to him
but he said nothing to her about his love before he left he had a long talk with his father about something and princess mary noticed that before his departure
julie karagina in petersburg whom she had dreamed as all girls dream of marrying to her brother and who was at that time in mourning for her own brother killed in turkey sorrow it seems is our common lot my dear tender friend julie
as a special providence of god who loving you wishes to try you and your excellent mother oh my friend religion and religion alone can i will not say comfort us but save us from despair
religion alone can explain to us what without its help man cannot comprehend why for what cause kind and noble beings able to find happiness in life not merely harming no one but necessary to the happiness of others
are called away to god while cruel useless harmful persons or such as are a burden to themselves and to others are left living the first death i saw and one i shall never forget that of my dear sister in law left that impression on me
just as you ask destiny why your splendid brother had to die
but in whose soul there were never any unkind thoughts had to die
five years have passed since then and already i with my petty understanding begin to see clearly why she had to die and in what way that death was but an expression of the infinite goodness of the creator whose every action
though generally incomprehensible to us is but a manifestation of his infinite love for his creatures perhaps i often think she was too angelically innocent to have the strength to perform all a mother's duties as a young wife she was irreproachable
perhaps she could not have been so as a mother as it is not only has she left us and particularly prince andrew with the purest regrets and memories but probably she will there receive a place i dare not hope for myself
but not to speak of her alone that early and terrible death has had the most beneficent influence on me and on my brother in spite of all our grief then at the moment of our loss these thoughts could not occur to me i should then have dismissed them with horror
but now they are very clear and certain i write all this to you dear friend only to convince you of the gospel truth which has become for me a principle of life not a single hair of our heads will fall without his will
and his will is governed only by infinite love for us and so whatever befalls us is for our good you ask whether we shall spend next winter in moscow in spite of my wish to see you i do not think so and do not want to do so
you will be surprised to hear that the reason for this is buonaparte the case is this my father's health is growing noticeably worse he cannot stand any contradiction and is becoming irritable this irritability is
as you know chiefly directed to political questions he cannot endure the notion that buonaparte is negotiating on equal terms with all the sovereigns of europe and particularly with our own the grandson of the great catherine as you know i am quite indifferent to politics
but from my father's remarks and his talks with michael ivanovich i know all that goes on in the world and especially about the honors conferred on buonaparte who only at bald hills in the whole world it seems is not accepted as a great man
and my father cannot stand this it seems to me that it is chiefly because of his political views that my father is reluctant to speak of going to moscow for he foresees the encounters that would result from his way of expressing his views regardless of anybody
all the benefit he might derive from a course of treatment he would lose as a result of the disputes about buonaparte which would be inevitable in any case it will be decided very shortly our family life goes on in the old way except for my brother andrew's absence
he as i wrote you before has changed very much of late after his sorrow he only this year quite recovered his spirits he has again become as i used to know him when a child kind affectionate with that heart of gold to which i know no equal he has realized it seems to me
that life is not over for him but together with this mental change he has grown physically much weaker he has become thinner and more nervous i am anxious about him and glad he is taking this trip abroad which the doctors recommended long ago i hope it will cure him
you write that in petersburg he is spoken of as one of the most active cultivated and capable of the young men forgive my vanity as a relation but i never doubted it the good he has done to everybody here from his peasants up to the gentry is incalculable
on his arrival in petersburg he received only his due i always wonder at the way rumors fly from petersburg to moscow especially such false ones as that you write about i mean the report of my brother's betrothal to the little rostova
if after six months she felt that she did not love him
but prince andrew was firm he came every day to the rostovs but did not behave to natasha as an affianced lover he did not use the familiar thou but said you to her and kissed only her hand after their engagement
quite different intimate and natural relations sprang up between them it was as if they had not known each other till now
they felt themselves now quite different beings then they were artificial now natural and sincere at first the family felt some constraint in intercourse with prince andrew he seemed a man from another world
and at the evident omens there had been of it prince andrew's coming to otradnoe and their coming to petersburg and the likeness between natasha and prince andrew which her nurse had noticed on his first visit and andrew's encounter with nicholas in eighteen o five
and many other incidents betokening that it had to be in the house that poetic dullness and quiet reigned which always accompanies the presence of a betrothed couple often when all sitting together everyone kept silent
sometimes the others would get up and go away and the couple left alone still remained silent they rarely spoke of their future life prince andrew was afraid and ashamed to speak of it natasha shared this as she did all his feelings which she constantly divined
once she began questioning him about his son prince andrew blushed as he often did now natasha particularly liked it in him and said that his son would not live with them why not asked natasha in a frightened tone i cannot take him away from his grandfather and besides
how i should have loved him said natasha immediately guessing his thought but i know you wish to avoid any pretext for finding fault with us sometimes the old count would come up kiss prince andrew and ask his advice about petya's education
the old countess sighed as she looked at them sonya was always getting frightened lest she should be in the way and tried to find excuses for leaving them alone even when they did not wish it when prince andrew spoke he could tell a story very well
when she spoke she noticed with fear and joy that he gazed attentively and scrutinizingly at her she asked herself in perplexity what does he look for in me he is trying to discover something by looking at me what if what he seeks in me is not there
sometimes she fell into one of the mad merry moods characteristic of her and then she particularly loved to hear and see how prince andrew laughed he seldom laughed but when he did he abandoned himself entirely to his laughter and after such a laugh she always felt nearer to him
and drawing near had not terrified her just as the mere thought of it made him turn pale and cold on the eve of his departure from petersburg
pierre seemed disconcerted and embarrassed he was talking to the countess and natasha sat down beside a little chess table with sonya thereby inviting prince andrew to come too he did so
you have known bezukhov a long time he asked do you like him yes he's a dear but very absurd and as usual when speaking of pierre she began to tell anecdotes of his absent mindedness some of which had even been invented about him
do you know i have entrusted him with our secret i have known him from childhood he has a heart of gold i beg you natalie prince andrew said with sudden seriousness i am going away and heaven knows what may happen you may cease to all right i know i am not to say that
only this then whatever may happen to you when i am not here what can happen whatever trouble may come prince andrew continued i beg you mademoiselle sophie whatever may happen to turn to him alone for advice and help
he is a most absent minded and absurd fellow but he has a heart of gold neither her father nor her mother nor sonya nor prince andrew himself
would act on natasha flushed and agitated she went about the house all that day dry eyed occupied with most trivial matters as if not understanding what awaited her she did not even cry when on taking leave he kissed her hand for the last time
don't go she said in a tone that made him wonder whether he really ought not to stay and which he remembered long afterwards nor did she cry when he was gone but for several days she sat in her room dry eyed taking no interest in anything
and only saying now and then oh why did he go away but a fortnight after his departure to the surprise of those around her she recovered from her mental sickness just as suddenly and became her old self again
in the back with us was werner while the rest of the company were left to return to the city in the two studio cars which had brought them out in the morning the director however seemed buried with his reflections he took no part in the conversation paid no attention to us upon the entire trip
manton's mind seemed to dwell rather upon the problems brought up by the death of stella than upon the tragedy itself the star's photoplay editor once had remarked to me that the promoter was ninety per cent bull and ten per cent efficiency i found that it was an unfair estimation
manton was a more than capable executive in a business where efficiency and method are rare this has been a hoodoo picture from the start he exclaimed suddenly we have been jinxed with a vengeance some one has held the indian sign on us for sure
first there were changes to be made in the script and for those millard took his own sweet time then we were handed a lot of negative which had been fogged in the perforator a thing that doesn't happen once in a thousand years but it caught us just as we sent the company down to delaware water gap
a whole ten days work went into the developer at once neither of the camera men caught the fog in their tests because it came in the middle of the rolls
and accidents we carefully registered the principal accomplice of the black terror a little hunchback with a face to send chills down your back after we had him in about half the scenes of a sequence of action he was taken sick and died of influenza
first we waited a few days then we had to take all that stuff over again our payroll on this picture is staggering stella's three thousand a week is cheap for her the old contract but it's a lot of money to throw away
two weeks when she was under the weather cost us six thousand dollars salary and there was half a week we couldn't do any work without her gordon and shirley and marilyn loring draw down seventeen hundred a week between them the director's salary is only two hundred short of that
and now it seemed to me that manton literally groaned with stella lamar dead excuse me looking at it this way but after all it is business and i'm the executive at the head of the company
lord knows where and we must retake every scene in which stella appeared it it's enough to bankrupt manton pictures for once and all can't you change the story about some way so you won't lose the value of her work asked kennedy
fortunately some of the biggest sets are not taken yet the car pulled up with a flourish before the manton studio which was an immense affair of reinforced concrete in the upper bronx then in response to our horn a great wide double door swung open
admitting us through the building to a large courtyard around which the various departments were built here there was little indication that the principal star of the company had just met her death under mysterious and suspicious circumstances
perhaps had i been familiar with the ordinary bustle of the establishment i might have detected a difference
but everything was overshadowed by the aquatic scene being filmed in the courtyard
a mob of extras and stage hands and various employees a sight which held kennedy and me for some little time i was glad when manton led the way through a long hall to the comparative quiet of the office building in the reception room there was a decided hush
is millard here he asked of the boy seated at the information desk no sir was the respectful reply he was here this morning and for a while yesterday you see manton confronted kennedy grimly this is only one of the things with which we have to contend in this business
i give millard an office but he's a law unto himself it's the artistic temperament if i interfere then he says he cannot write and he doesn't produce any manuscript ordinarily he cannot be bothered to work at the studio but philosophically
i know where to get him as a general thing he does most of his writing in his rooms downtown says there's more inspiration in the confusion of broadway than in the wilds of the bronx i'll phone him we followed the promoter up the stairs to the second and top floor
its windows at frequent intervals looked down upon the courtyard and the present confusion werner who had preceded us into the building now came up as manton bustled into his own office to use the telephone the director turned to kennedy indicating the next doorway
this is my place he explained it connects with manton on one side through his reception room you see in addition to directing stella lamar i have been in general charge of production and most of the casting is up to me kennedy entered after werner interested and i followed
the door through to the reception room stood open and beyond was the one to manton's quarters i could see the promoter at his desk receiver at his ear an impatient expression upon his face in the reception room a rather pretty girl young and of a shallow pated type i thought
was busy at a clattering typewriter she rose and closed the door upon manton so as not to disturb him the next office on this side is millard's volunteered werner he's the only scenario writer dignified with quarters in this building
manton has other writers hasn't he kennedy asked yes the scenario department is on the third floor across the court above the laboratory and cutting rooms who else is in the building here there are six rooms on this floor werner replied
manton the waiting room myself millard and the two other directors below is the general reception room the cashier the bookkeepers and stenographers as manton probably was having trouble obtaining his connection
all uninteresting to me i determined to look about a bit on my own hook
through my greater knowledge of the film world strolling out into the corridor i went to the door of millard's room to my disappointment it was locked
but saw nothing to awaken my suspicion or justify my intrusion beyond i discovered a washroom and aware suddenly of the immense amount of dust i had acquired in the ride in from tarrytown i entered to freshen my hands
in luxurious equipment for all the various departments of his establishment i had noticed the offices furnished with a richness worthy of a bank or some great downtown institution now in the lavatory immaculate with its white tile and modern appointments
i saw a shelf literally stacked in this day of paper with linen towels of the finest quality as i drew the water hot instantly my eye caught half in and half out of the wire basket beneath the stand one of the towels covered with peculiar yellow spots
immediately my suspicions were awakened i picked it up gingerly at close range i saw that the spots were only chrome yellow make up but there were also spots of a different nature
i did not stop to think of the unlikeliness of the discovery of a real clue under these circumstances analyzed afterward by kennedy i folded the towel hastily and hurried to rejoin him to show it to him i found him with werner
almost at the moment i rejoined the two a boy came to summon werner to one of the sets out on the stage itself kennedy and i were alone i showed him the towel at first he laughed you'll never make a detective walter he remarked
this is only simple coloring matter chinese yellow to be exact and will you tell me too he became ironical how do you expect to find clues of this sort here for a murder committed in tarrytown when all the people present were held out there and examined when we are the first to arrive back here
yellow you know photographs white chinese yellow is used largely in studios in place of white in make up because it does not cause halation which to the picture people is the bane of their existence white is too glaring reflects rays that blur the photography sometimes
if you will notice the next time you see them shooting a scene you will find the actors faces tinged with yellow even tablecloths and napkins and white dresses are frequently colored a pale yellow
and is now perhaps more frequently used than yellow i was properly chastened in fact though i did not say much i almost determined to let him conduct his case himself kennedy saw my crestfallen expression and understood
when his eye fell on the other end of it which indeed i myself had noticed he sobered instantly and studied the other spots indeed i had not examined them closely myself they were the very faint stains of some other yellow substance
a liquid which had dried and did not rub off as the make up and there were also some small round drops of dark red almost hidden in the fancy red scrollwork of the lettering on the towel
the latter had escaped me altogether blood kennedy exclaimed then look here the marks of the pale yellow liquid trailed into a slender trace of blood it looks as if some one had cleaned a needle on it he muttered
the murder had been in tarrytown we had just arrived here would anyone have time to do it i asked whoever used the towel did so in a hurry he reiterated seriously
there were too many watchers about it might have seemed better to have run the risk of a search with no sign of a wound on miss lamar's person it was pretty certain that neither mackay nor i would attempt to frisk everyone it was not as though we were looking for a revolver if she were shot
or a knife if she had been stabbed and he could not resist another dig at me
it's beginner's luck walter beginner's luck i ignored the uncomplimentary part of his remarks who could have been in the washroom just before me i asked suddenly he hurried through the waiting room to the door to manton's office opening it without ceremony manton was gone
it means werner or manton himself i whispered so the girl just behind us would not hear kennedy strode out to the hall and to a window overlooking the court after a moment he pointed i recognized both the cars used to transport the company to the home of emery phelps
there was no sign that either had just arrived for even the chauffeurs were out of sight perhaps melted into the crowd about the tank in the corner they must have arrived immediately behind us kennedy remarked we wasted several valuable minutes looking at that water stuff ourselves
at that moment werner's voice rose from the reception room below
i felt a surge of suspicion within me listen craig i muttered in low tones manton had no opportunity to steal down the hall after the girl closed the door and why not he interrupted contradicting me we had our backs to the door while we were talking with werner
sh kennedy stopped me as werner mounted the stairs he turned to the director with assumed nonchalance how long have the other cars been here he asked i thought we came pretty fast werner smiled i guess those boys had enough of tarrytown
they rolled into the yard both of them while you and mister jameson and manton were stopping to watch the people in the water i see kennedy gave me a side glance where are the dressing rooms he inquired it was a random shot werner pointed to the end of the hall toward the washroom
into the open air john alden perplexed and bewildered rushed like a man insane and wandered alone by the sea side paced up and down the sands and bared his head to the east wind
cooling his heated brow and the fire and fever within him slowly as out of the heavens with apocalyptical splendors sank the city of god in the vision of john the apostle
so with its cloudy walls of chrysolite jasper and sapphire sank the broad red sun and over its turrets uplifted glimmered the golden reed of the angel who measured the city
welcome o wind of the east he exclaimed in his wild exultation welcome o wind of the east from the caves of the misty atlantic blowing o'er fields of dulse and measureless meadows of sea grass
blowing o'er rocky wastes and the grottos and gardens of ocean lay thy cold moist hand on my burning forehead and wrap me close in thy garments of mist to allay the fever within me
like an awakened conscience the sea was moaning and tossing beating remorseful and loud the mutable sands of the sea shore fierce in his soul was the struggle and tumult of passions contending
love triumphant and crowned and friendship wounded and bleeding passionate cries of desire and importunate pleadings of duty is it my fault he said that the maiden has chosen between us
is it my fault that he failed my fault that i am the victor then within him there thundered a voice like the voice of the prophet it hath displeased the lord
and he thought of david's transgression bathsheba's beautiful face and his friend in the front of the battle shame and confusion of guilt and abasement and self condemnation
overwhelmed him at once and he cried in the deepest contrition it hath displeased the lord it is the temptation of satan then uplifting his head he looked at the sea
and beheld there dimly the shadowy form of the mayflower riding at anchor rocked on the rising tide and ready to sail on the morrow heard the voices of men through the mist the rattle of cordage thrown on the deck
clear and distinct but not loud in the dripping air of the twilight still for a moment he stood and listened and stared at the vessel then went hurriedly on as one who seeing a phantom
stops then quickens his pace and follows the beckoning shadow yes it is plain to me now he murmured the hand of the lord is leading me out of the land of darkness the bondage of error
through the sea that shall lift the walls of its waters around me hiding me cutting me off from the cruel thoughts that pursue me back will i go o'er the ocean this dreary land will abandon her whom i may not love
better to be in my grave in the green old churchyard in england close by my mother's side and among the dust of my kindred better be dead and forgotten than living in shame and dishonor
sacred and safe and unseen in the dark of the narrow chamber with me my secret shall lie like a buried jewel that glimmers bright on the hand that is dust in the chambers of silence and darkness
yes as the marriage ring of the great espousal hereafter thus as he spake he turned in the strength of his strong resolution leaving behind him the shore and hurried along in the twilight
till he beheld the lights in the seven houses of plymouth shining like seven stars in the dusk and mist of the evening soon he entered his door and found the redoubtable captain sitting alone
and absorbed in the martial pages of caesar fighting some great campaign in hainault or brabant or flanders long have you been on your errand he said with a cheery demeanor
even as one who is waiting an answer and fears not the issue
but you have lingered so long that while you were going and coming i have fought ten battles and sacked and demolished a city come sit down and in order relate to me all that has happened
then john alden spake and related the wondrous adventure from beginning to end minutely just as it happened how he had seen priscilla and how he had sped in his courtship
only smoothing a little and softening down her refusal but when he came at length to the words priscilla had spoken words so tender and cruel why don't you speak for yourself john
up leaped the captain of plymouth and stamped on the floor till his armor clanged on the wall where it hung with a sound of sinister omen all his pent up wrath burst forth in a sudden explosion even as a hand grenade
that scatters destruction around it wildly he shouted and loud
me miles standish your friend have supplanted defrauded betrayed me one of my ancestors ran his sword through the heart of wat tyler who shall prevent me from running my own through the heart of a traitor
yours is the greater treason for yours is a treason to friendship you who lived under my roof whom i cherished and loved as a brother you who have fed at my board and drunk at my cup to whose keeping i have intrusted my honor
my thoughts the most sacred and secret you too brutus ah woe to the name of friendship hereafter brutus was caesar's friend and you were mine but henceforward
and implacable hatred so spake the captain of plymouth and strode about in the chamber chafing and choking with rage like cords were the veins on his temples
but in the midst of his anger a man appeared at the doorway bringing in uttermost haste a message of urgent importance rumors of danger and war and hostile incursions of indians straightway the captain paused
and without further question or parley took from the nail on the wall his sword with its scabbard of iron buckled the belt round his waist and frowning fiercely departed alden was left alone
he heard the clank of the scabbard growing fainter and fainter and dying away in the distance then he arose from his seat and looked forth into the darkness felt the cool air blow on his cheek
that was hot with the insult lifted his eyes to the heavens and folding his hands as in childhood prayed in the silence of night to the father who seeth in secret
meanwhile the choleric captain strode wrathful away to the council found it already assembled impatiently waiting his coming men in the middle of life austere and grave in deportment only one of them old
the hill that was nearest to heaven covered with snow but erect the excellent elder of plymouth god had sifted three kingdoms to find the wheat for this planting then had sifted the wheat as the living seed of a nation
so say the chronicles old and such is the faith of the people near them was standing an indian in attitude stern and defiant naked down to the waist
and grim and ferocious in aspect while on the table before them was lying unopened a bible ponderous bound in leather brass studded printed in holland
and beside it outstretched the skin of a rattle snake glittered filled like a quiver with arrows a signal and challenge of warfare brought by the indian
and speaking with arrowy tongues of defiance this miles standish beheld as he entered and heard them debating what were an answer befitting the hostile message and menace talking of this and of that
contriving suggesting objecting one voice only for peace and that the voice of the elder judging it wise and well that some at least were converted rather than any were slain
for this was but christian behavior then out spake miles standish the stalwart captain of plymouth muttering deep in his throat for his voice was husky with anger
and the water of roses is it to shoot red squirrels you have your howitzer planted there on the roof of the church or is it to shoot red devils truly the only tongue that is understood by a savage
must be the tongue of fire that speaks from the mouth of the cannon thereupon answered and said the excellent elder of plymouth somewhat amazed and alarmed at this irreverent language not so thought saint paul
nor yet the other apostles not from the cannon's mouth were the tongues of fire they spake with but unheeded fell this mild rebuke on the captain who had advanced to the table and thus continued discoursing
leave this matter to me for to me by right it pertaineth war is a terrible trade
queen and huntress chaste and fair now the sun is laid to sleep seated in thy silver chair state in wonted manner keep hesperus entreats thy light goddess
excellently bright
cynthia's shining orb was made heaven to clear when day did close
goddess excellently bright lay thy bow of pearl apart and thy crystal shining quiver give unto the flying hart space to breathe how short soever
thou that mak'st a day of night goddess excellently bright b jonson seventy nine
wishes for the supposed mistress whoe'er she be that not impossible she that shall command my heart and me where'er she lie lock'd up from mortal eye
in shady leaves of destiny till that ripe birth of studied fate stand forth and teach her fair steps to our earth till that divine idea take a shrine of crystal flesh
through which to shine meet you her my wishes bespeak her to my blisses and be ye call'd my absent kisses i wish her beauty that owes not all its duty
to gaudy tire or glist'ring shoe tie something more than taffata or tissue can or rampant feather or rich fan a face that's best by its own beauty drest
and can alone command the rest a face made up out of no other shop than what nature's white hand sets ope sydneian showers of sweet discourse
whose powers can crown old winter's head with flowers whate'er delight can make day's forehead bright or give down to the wings of night soft silken hours
open suns shady bowers bove all nothing within that lowers days that need borrow no part of their good morrow from a fore spent night of sorrow
days that in spite of darkness by the light of a clear mind are day all night life that dares send a challenge to his end and when it comes say welcome friend
i wish her store of worth may leave her poor of wishes and i wish no more now if time knows that her whose radiant brows
weave them a garland of my vows her that dares be what these lines wish to see i seek no further it is she
such worth as this is shall fix my flying wishes and determine them to kisses let her full glory my fancies fly before ye
be ye my fictions but her story r crashaw eighty the great adventurer
over the mountains and over the waves under the fountains and under the graves under floods that are deepest which neptune obey over rocks that are steepest love will find out the way
when there is no place for the glow worm to lie when there is no space for receipt of a fly when the midge dares not venture lest herself fast she lay if love come
he will enter and will find out his way you may esteem him a child for his might or you may deem him a coward from his flight
be conceal'd from the day set a thousand guards upon her love will find out the way some think to lose him by having him confined and some do suppose him
poor thing to be blind
blind love if so ye call him will find out his way you may train the eagle to stoop to your fist or you may inveigle the phoenix of the east the lioness
ye may move her to give o'er her prey but you'll ne'er stop a lover
eighty one
no happiness or pain when i the dawn used to admire and praised the coming day i little thought the rising fire would take my rest away your charms in harmless childhood lay
like metals in a mine age from no face takes more away than youth conceal'd in thine but as your charms insensibly to their perfection prest
my passion with your beauty grew while cupid at my heart still as his mother favour'd you threw a new flaming dart each gloried in their wanton part to make a lover
he employ'd the utmost of his art to make a beauty she sir c sedley eighty two counsel to girls
gather ye rose buds while ye may old time is still a flying and this same flower that smiles to day to morrow will be dying the glorious lamp of heaven the sun
the higher he's a getting the sooner will his race be run and nearer he's to setting that age is best which is the first when youth and blood are warmer
but being spent the worse and worst times still succeed the former then be not coy but use your time and while ye may go marry
for having lost but once your prime you may for ever tarry r herrick eighty three to lucasta on going to the wars
tell me not sweet i am unkind that from the nunnery of thy chaste breast and quiet mind to war and arms i fly true a new mistress now i chase
the first foe in the field and with a stronger faith embrace a sword a horse a shield yet this inconstancy is such as you too shalt adore
i could not love thee dear so much loved i not honour more colonel lovelace eighty four elizabeth of bohemia
more by your number than your light you common people of the skies what are you when the moon shall rise
like the proud virgins of the year as if the spring were all your own what are you when the rose is blown you curious chanters of the wood that warble forth dame nature's lays
thinking your passions understood by your weak accents what's your praise when philomel her voice doth raise
then choice a queen
sir h wotton eighty five to the lady margaret ley
daughter to that good earl once president of england's council and her treasury who lived in both unstain'd with gold or fee and left them both more in himself content
till the sad breaking of that parliament broke him as that dishonest victory at chaeronia fatal to liberty kill'd with report that old man eloquent
yet by you madam methinks i see him living yet so well your words his noble virtues praise that all both judge you to relate them true and to possess them
honour'd margaret
one hundred forty two ode on the spring lo where the rosy bosom'd hours fair venus train appear disclose the long expecting flowers
and wake the purple year the attic warbler pours her throat responsive to the cuckoo's note the untaught harmony of spring while whispering pleasure as they fly
cool zephyrs through the clear blue sky their gather'd fragrance fling where'er the oak's thick branches stretch a broader browner shade where'er the rude and moss grown beech
beside some water's rushy brink with me the muse shall sit and think at ease reclined in rustic state
how low how little are the proud how indigent the great still is the toiling hand of care the panting herds repose
yet hark how thro the peopled air the busy murmur glows the insect youth are on the wing
some lightly o'er the current skim some show their gaily gilded trim quick glancing to the sun to contemplation's sober eye such is the race of man
alike the busy and the gay but flutter thro life's little day in fortune's varying colours drest brush'd by the hand of rough mischance or chill'd by age
their airy dance they leave in dust to rest methinks i hear in accents low the sportive kind reply poor moralist and what art thou
a solitary fly thy joys no glittering female meets no hive hast thou of hoarded sweets no painted plumage to display on hasty wings thy youth is flown
thy sun is set thy spring is gone we frolic while tis may t gray one hundred forty three
the poplar field the poplars are fell'd farewell to the shade and the whispering sound of the cool colonnade the winds play no longer and sing in the leaves
twelve years have elapsed since i last took a view of my favourite field and the bank where they grew and now in the grass behold they are laid and the tree is my seat
that once lent me a shade the blackbird has fled to another retreat where the hazels afford him a screen from the heat and the scene where his melody charm'd me before
resounds with his sweet flowing ditty no more my fugitive years are all hasting away and i must ere long lie lowly as they
and a stone at my head ere another such grove shall arise in its stead tis a sight to engage me if anything can to muse on the perishing pleasures of man
short lived as we are our enjoyments i see have a still shorter date and die sooner than we w cowper
one hundred forty four to a field mouse wee sleekit cow'rin tim'rous beastie o what a panic's in thy breastie
i wad be laith to rin and chase thee
i'm truly sorry man's dominion has broken nature's social union an justifies that ill opinion which makes thee startle at me thy poor earth born companion
an fellow mortal i doubt na whiles but thou may thieve what then poor beastie thou maun live a
i'll get a blessin wi the lave an never miss't thy wee bit housie too in ruin
an naething now to big a new ane o foggage green and bleak december's winds ensuin baith snell and keen thou saw the fields laid bare an waste
and weary winter comin fast and cozie here beneath the blast thou thought to dwell till crash the cruel coulter past out thro thy cell
that wee bit heap o leaves an stibble has cost thee mony a weary nibble
but mousie thou art no thy lane in proving foresight may be vain the best laid schemes o mice and men gang aft a gley
and lea'e us nought but grief and pain for promised joy still thou art blest compared wi me
i guess and fear r burns one hundred forty five a wish
mine be a cot beside the hill a bee hive's hum shall sooth my ear a willowy brook that turns a mill with many a fall shall linger near
shall twitter from her clay built nest oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch and share my meal a welcome guest around my ivied porch shall spring each fragrant flower that drinks the dew
and lucy at her wheel shall sing in russet gown and apron blue the village church among the trees where first our marriage vows were given
with merry peals shall swell the breeze and point with taper spire to heaven s rogers one hundred forty six to evening
if aught of oaten stop or pastoral song may hope chaste eve to soothe thy modest ear like thy own solemn springs thy springs and dying gales
o nymph reserved while now the bright hair'd sun sits in yon western tent
o'erhang his wavy bed now air is hush'd save where the weak eyed bat with short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing
or where the beetle winds his small but sullen horn as oft he rises midst the twilight path against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum
now teach me maid composed to breathe some soften'd strain whose numbers stealing through thy dark'ning vale may not unseemly with
as musing slow i hail thy genial loved return
at his warning lamp the fragrant hours and elves who slept in buds the day
and lovelier still the pensive pleasures sweet prepare thy shadowy car then let me rove some wild and heathy scene or find some ruin midst its dreary dells
whose walls more awful nod by thy religious gleams or if chill blustering winds or driving rain prevent my willing feet be mine the hut
that from the mountain's side views wilds and swelling floods and hamlets brown and dim discover'd spires and hears their simple bell
while spring shall pour his showers as oft he wont and bathe thy breathing tresses meekest eve while summer loves to sport beneath thy lingering light
while sallow autumn fills thy lap with leaves or winter yelling through the troublous air affrights thy shrinking train and rudely rends thy robes
so long regardful of thy quiet rule shall fancy friendship science smiling peace thy gentlest influence own and love thy favourite name
whatever the lagging dragging journey may have been to the rest of the emigrants it was a wonder and delight to the children a world of enchantment and they believed it to be peopled with the mysterious dwarfs and giants and goblins
that figured in the tales the negro slaves were in the habit of telling them nightly by the shuddering light of the kitchen fire at the end of nearly a week of travel the party went into camp near a shabby village which was caving house by house into the hungry mississippi
the river astonished the children beyond measure its mile breadth of water seemed an ocean to them in the shadowy twilight and the vague riband of trees on the further shore the verge of a continent which surely none but they had ever seen before uncle dan'l colored
aged forty his wife aunt jinny aged thirty young miss emily hawkins young mars washington hawkins
ranged themselves on a log after supper and contemplated the marvelous river and discussed it the moon rose and sailed aloft through a maze of shredded cloud wreaths the sombre river just perceptibly brightened under the veiled light
a deep silence pervaded the air and was emphasized at intervals rather than broken by the hooting of an owl the baying of a dog
the little company assembled on the log were all children at least in simplicity and broad and comprehensive ignorance and the remarks they made about the river were in keeping with the character
and so awed were they by the grandeur and the solemnity of the scene before them and by their belief that the air was filled with invisible spirits and that the faint zephyrs were caused by their passing wings that all their talk took to itself a tinge of the supernatural
suddenly uncle dan'l exclaimed chil'en dah's sum fin a comin all crowded close together and every heart beat faster uncle dan'l pointed down the river with his bony finger a deep coughing sound troubled the stillness
way toward a wooded cape that jetted into the stream a mile distant all in an instant a fierce eye of fire shot out from behind the cape and sent a long brilliant pathway quivering athwart the dusky water
the coughing grew louder and louder the glaring eye grew larger and still larger glared wilder and still wilder a huge shape developed itself out of the gloom and from its tall duplicate horns dense volumes of smoke
starred and spangled with sparks poured out and went tumbling away into the farther darkness nearer and nearer the thing came till its long sides began to glow with spots of light which mirrored themselves in the river
and attended the monster like a torchlight procession what is it
the answer came it's de almighty git down on yo knees it was not necessary to say it twice they were all kneeling in a moment and then while the mysterious coughing rose stronger and stronger
and the threatening glare reached farther and wider the negro's voice lifted up its supplications o lord we's ben mighty wicked an we knows dat we zerve to go to de bad place but good lord deah lord
if you's got to hab somebody good lord good deah lord
but we knows by de way you's a comin
an deah lord good lord it ain't like yo mercy it ain't like yo pity
when dey's so many ornery grown folks chuck full o cussedness dat wants roastin down dah oh lord
heah i is lord heah i is de ole niggah's ready lord de ole the flaming and churning steamer was right abreast the party and not twenty steps away the awful thunder of a mud valve suddenly burst forth
drowning the prayer and as suddenly
and scoured into the woods with the rest of the pack at his heels and then ashamed of himself he halted in the deep darkness and shouted but rather feebly
there was a moment of throbbing suspense and then to the surprise and the comfort of the party it was plain that the august presence had gone by for its dreadful noises were receding
in the direction of the log
an a goin on turrible an do de lord carry on dat way dout dey's sumfin don't suit him an warn't he a lookin right at dis gang heah an
dout somebody ast him to do it no indeedy
didn't i see him a lookin at us did you feel scared uncle dan'l no sah when a man is gaged in prah
dey can't nuffin tetch him well what did you run for well i
when a man is under de influence ob de sperit
what he's bout no sah dat man do no what he's bout
date's de hebrew chil'en dat went frough de fiah dey was burnt considable ob coase dey was but dey didn't know nuffin bout it heal right up agin if dey'd ben gals
maybe but dey wouldn't felt de burn i don't know but what they were girls i think they were now mars clay you knows bettern dat
bofe de same way but how should i know whether they were boys or girls goodness sakes mars clay don't de good book say sides don't it call em
if dey was gals wouldn't dey be de she brew chil'en some people dat kin read don't pear to take no notice when dey do read well uncle dan'l i think that
my here comes another one up the river there can't be two we gone dis time
dey ain't two mars clay days de same one de lord kin pear eberywhah in a second goodness
dat mean business honey he comin now like he fo'got sumfin
chapter seven to one sadness oppose a sadness and a half all situations have their instincts old and eternal mother nature warned jean valjean in a dim way of the presence of marius
knew nothing and yet he scanned with obstinate attention the darkness in which he walked as though he felt
and on the other something which was crumbling away
by that same mother nature did all he could to keep out of sight of the father
he exhibited ambiguous prudence and awkward daring he no longer came quite close to them as formerly he seated himself at a distance and pretended to be reading why did he pretend that
formerly he had come in his old coat now he wore his new one every day jean valjean was not sure that he did not have his hair curled his eyes were very queer he wore gloves in short
jean valjean cordially detested this young man cosette allowed nothing to be divined without knowing just what was the matter with her she was convinced that there was something in it
and that it must be concealed
which had recently come to cosette and the habit of new clothes developed by that stranger which was very repugnant to jean valjean it might be accidental no doubt certainly but it was a menacing
accident he never opened his mouth to cosette about this stranger one day however he could not refrain from so doing and with that vague despair which
suddenly casts the lead into the depths of its despair he said to her what a very pedantic air that young man has cosette but a year before only an indifferent little girl would have replied
why no he is charming ten years later with the love of marius in her heart she would have answered a pedant and insufferable to the sight
and the heart which she had then attained she contented herself with replying with supreme calmness that young man as though she now beheld him for the first time in her life
how stupid i am thought jean valjean she had not noticed him it is i who have pointed him out to her oh
oh the depth of children it is one of the laws of those fresh years of suffering and trouble of those vivacious conflicts between a first love and the first obstacles
that the young girl does not allow herself to be caught in any trap whatever and that the young man falls into every one jean valjean had instituted an undeclared war against marius which marius
with the sublime stupidity of his passion and his age did not divine jean valjean laid a host of ambushes for him he changed his hour he changed his bench he forgot his handkerchief
he came alone to the luxembourg marius dashed headlong into all these snares and to all the interrogation marks planted by jean valjean in his pathway he ingenuously answered yes
unconcern and in her imperturbable tranquillity
that ninny is madly in love with cosette but cosette does not even know that he exists none the less did he bear in his heart a mournful tremor
the minute when cosette would love might strike at any moment does not everything begin with indifference only once did cosette make a mistake and alarm him
what already jean valjean had not discontinued his trips to the luxembourg as he did not wish to do anything out of the way and as above all things he feared to arouse cosette
but during the hours which were so sweet to the lovers while cosette was sending her smile to the intoxicated marius who perceived nothing else now
but an adored and radiant face jean valjean was fixing on marius flashing and terrible eyes he who had finally come to believe himself incapable of a malevolent feeling
experienced moments when marius was present in which he thought he was becoming savage and ferocious once more
which had formerly contained so much wrath opening once more and rising up against that young man it almost seemed to him that unknown craters were forming in his bosom what
he was there that creature what was he there for he came creeping about smelling out examining trying he came saying hey why not he came to prowl about his
jean valjean's life to prowl about his happiness with the purpose of seizing it and bearing it away
what is he in search of an adventure what does he want a love affair a love affair and i what i have been first the most wretched of men and then the most unhappy
and i have traversed sixty years of life on my knees i have suffered everything
i have grown old without having been young i have lived without a family
without friends without life without children i have left my blood on every stone on every bramble on every mile post along every wall i have been gentle though others have been hard to me
and kind although others have been malicious i have become an honest man once more in spite of everything i have repented of the evil that i have done and have forgiven the evil that has been done to me and at
the moment when i receive my recompense at the moment when it is all over at the moment when i am just touching the goal at the moment when i have what i desire it is well it is good
i have paid i have earned it all this is to take flight all this will vanish and i shall lose cosette and i shall lose my life my joy my soul
a great booby to come and lounge at the luxembourg
and extraordinary gleam it was no longer a man gazing at a man it was no longer an enemy surveying an enemy it was a dog scanning a thief the reader knows the rest
marius pursued his senseless course one day he followed cosette
another day he spoke to the porter the porter on his side spoke and said to jean valjean monsieur who is that curious young man who is asking for you on the morrow jean valjean
the grave significance of cosette's silence he merely noticed that she had grown sad and he grew gloomy on his side and on hers inexperience had joined issue once he made a trial
he asked cosette would you like to come to the luxembourg a ray illuminated cosette's pale face yes said she they went thither three months had elapsed
was not there on the following day
would you like to come to the luxembourg she replied sadly and gently no jean valjean was hurt by this sadness and heart broken at this gentleness
what was going on in that mind which was so young and yet already so impenetrable what was on its way there within what was taking place in cosette's soul
sometimes instead of going to bed jean valjean remained seated on his pallet with his head in his hands and he passed whole nights asking himself what has cosette in her mind
and in thinking of the things that she might be thinking about
what mournful glances did he cast towards that cloister that chaste peak that abode of angels
how he contemplated with despairing ecstasy that convent garden full of ignored flowers and cloistered virgins where
how he adored that eden forever closed against him whence he had voluntarily and madly emerged how he regretted his abnegation and his folly in having brought cosette back into the world
poor hero of sacrifice seized and hurled to the earth by his very self devotion how he said to himself what have i done however nothing of all this was perceptible to cosette
no ill temper no harshness his face was always serene and kind jean valjean's manners were more tender and more paternal than ever if anything could have betrayed his lack of joy
it was his increased suavity on her side cosette languished
as she had rejoiced in his presence peculiarly without exactly being conscious of it when jean valjean ceased to take her on their customary strolls a feminine instinct murmured confusedly at the bottom of her heart
that she must not seem to set store on the luxembourg garden and that if this proved to be a matter of indifference to her her father would take her thither once more but days
jean valjean had tacitly accepted cosette's tacit consent she regretted it it was too late so marius had disappeared all was over the day on which she returned
to the luxembourg marius was no longer there what was to be done should she ever find him again she felt an anguish at her heart which nothing relieved and which augmented every day
she no longer knew whether it was winter or summer whether it was raining or shining whether the birds were singing whether it was the season for dahlias or daisies
more charming than the tuileries whether the linen which the laundress brought home was starched too much or not enough whether toussaint had done her marketing well or ill and she remained dejected absorbed
attentive to but a single thought her eyes vague and staring
she still wore her sweet face for him this pallor sufficed but too thoroughly
what is the matter with you she replied there is nothing the matter with me and after a silence when she divined that he was sad also she would add and you father is there anything wrong with you with me
nothing said he these two beings who had loved each other so exclusively
and jean valjean read beside her
it was three months
her figure was formed her skin had grown white her hair was lustrous an unaccustomed splendor had been lighted in her blue eyes
jean valjean on his side experienced a deep
in fact he had for some time past been contemplating with terror that beauty which seemed to grow more radiant every day
and merely asked of providence of man of the law
that cosette might love him that cosette might continue to love him that god would not prevent the heart of the child from coming to him and from remaining with him beloved by cosette he felt that he was healed rested appeased
no god might have said to him do you desire heaven
i should lose by it everything which could affect this situation if only on the surface
beneath his very eyes on the innocent and formidable brow of that child from the depths of her homeliness of his old age of his misery of his reprobation he said to himself
there moreover lay the difference between his tenderness and the tenderness of a mother
because they looked at each other that is the way people do fall in love nevertheless and the only way the rest is nothing but
all women resemble mahomet and then
what she now felt is any one the less ill because one does not know the name of one's malady
why that is very bad
that must not be you blush and turn pale when a certain being clad in black
toward the close of the third day's journey the wayfarers were just beginning to think of camping when they came upon a log cabin in the woods hawkins drew rein and entered the yard a boy about ten years old was sitting in the cabin door
with his face bowed in his hands hawkins approached expecting his footfall to attract attention but it did not he halted a moment and then said come come little chap you mustn't be going to sleep before sundown with a tired expression
the small face came up out of the hands a face down which tears were flowing ah i'm sorry i spoke so my boy tell me is anything the matter the boy signified with a scarcely perceptible gesture that the trouble was in the house
and made room for hawkins to pass then he put his face in his hands again and rocked himself about as one suffering a grief that is too deep to find help in moan or groan or outcry hawkins stepped within it was a poverty stricken place
they were noiselessly busy and they talked in whispers when they spoke hawkins uncovered and approached a coffin stood upon two backless chairs these neighbors had just finished disposing the body of a woman in it
a woman with a careworn gentle face that had more the look of sleep about it than of death an old lady motioned toward the door and said to hawkins in a whisper his mother po thing died of the fever last night
tha warn't no sich thing as saving of her but it's better for her better for her husband
and she hain't ever hilt up her head sence she jest went around broken hearted like and never took no intrust in anything but clay
she jest worshiped clay and clay he worshiped her they didn't pear to live at all only when they was together looking at each other loving one another she's ben sick three weeks and if you believe me
that child has worked and kep the run of the med'cin and the times of giving it and sot up nights and nussed her and tried to keep up her sperits
when she kep a sinking and sinking and turned away her head and didn't know him no mo it was fitten to make a body's heart break to see him climb
and call her so pitiful and she not answer
looked around wild and then she see him and she made a great cry and snatched him to her breast
but it took the last po strength she had and so her eyelids begin to close down
and then we see she was gone po creetur and clay he
i cain't bear to talk about it clay had disappeared from the door but he came in now and the neighbors reverently fell apart and made way for him he leaned upon the open coffin and let his tears course silently
then he put out his small hand and smoothed the hair and stroked the dead face lovingly
bent over and kissed the unresponsive lips time and time again and then turned away and went out of the house without looking at any of the company the old lady said to hawkins
they was from away north somers
goodness knows what's to become o that po boy no father no mother no kin folks of no kind nobody to go to
and all of us is so put to it for to get along and families so large hawkins understood all eyes were turned inquiringly upon him he said friends i am not very well provided for myself
but still i would not turn my back on a homeless orphan if he will go with me i will give him a home and loving regard i will do for him as i would have another do for a child of my own in misfortune
one after another the people stepped forward and wrung the stranger's hand with cordial good will and their eyes looked all that their hands could not express or their lips speak said like a true man said one
you was a stranger to me a minute ago but you ain't now said another it's bread cast upon the waters it'll return after many days
you got to camp in my house as long as you hang out here said one if tha hain't room for you and yourn my tribe'll turn out and camp in the hay loft a few minutes afterward while the preparations for the funeral were being concluded
mister hawkins arrived at his wagon leading his little waif by the hand and told his wife all that had happened and asked her if he had done right in giving to her and to himself this new care she said
it's a wrong that will shine brighter at the judgment day than the rights that many a man has done before you and there isn't any compliment you can pay me equal to doing a thing like this and finishing it up
just taking it for granted that i'll be willing to it willing come to me you poor motherless boy and let me take your grief and help you carry it when the child awoke in the morning it was as if from a troubled dream
but slowly the confusion in his mind took form and he remembered his great loss the beloved form in the coffin his talk with a generous stranger who offered him a home the funeral where the stranger's wife held him by the hand at the grave
and cried with him and comforted him and he remembered how this new mother tucked him in his bed in the neighboring farm house and coaxed him to talk about his troubles and then heard him say his prayers and kissed him good night
and left him with the soreness in his heart almost healed and his bruised spirit at rest
a race called iberian inhabited the entire peninsula of spain from the mediterranean to the pyrenees they also extended over the southern part of gaul as far as the rhone
it is thought that the iberians from atlantis and the north west part of africa says winchell settled in the south west of europe at a period earlier than the settlement of the egyptians in the north east of africa the iberians spread themselves over spain gaul and the british islands
as early as four thousand or five thousand b c the fourth dynasty of the egyptians according to brugsch dates from about thirty five hundred b c at this time the iberians had become sufficiently powerful to attempt the conquest of the known world
the libyan amazons of diodorus that is to say the libyans of the iberian race must be identified with the libyans with brown and grizzly skin of whom brugsch has already pointed out the representations figured on the egyptian monuments of the fourth dynasty
ibid the iberians known as sicanes colonized sicily in the ancient days they were the original settlers in italy and sardinia they are probably the source of the dark haired stock in norway and sweden
bodichon claims that the iberians embraced the ligurians cantabrians asturians and aquitanians strabo says speaking of the turduli and turdetani they are the most cultivated of all the iberians
they employ the art of writing and have written books containing memorials of ancient times and also poems and laws set in verse for which they claim an antiquity of six thousand years strabo
the iberians are represented to day by the basques the basque are of middle size compactly built robust and agile of a darker complexion than the spaniards with gray eyes and black hair they are simple but proud
impetuous merry and hospitable the women are beautiful skilful in performing men's work and remarkable for their vivacity and grace the basques are much attached to dancing and are very fond of the music of the bagpipe
new american cyclopaedia art basques according to paul broca their language stands quite alone or has mere analogies with the american type
the basque language the euscara has some common traits with the magyar osmanli and other dialects of the altai family as for instance with the finnic on the old continent
and some others in america new american cyclopaedia art basques duponceau says of the basque tongue this language
is the sole remaining fragment of perhaps a hundred dialects constructed on the same plan which probably existed and were universally spoken at a remote period in that quarter of the world like the bones of the mammoth
it remains a monument of the destruction produced by a succession of ages it stands single and alone of its kind surrounded by idioms that have no affinity with it we have seen them settling in the earliest ages in ireland
they also formed the base of the dark haired population of england and scotland they seem to have race affinities with the berbers on the mediterranean coast of africa doctor bodichon for fifteen years a surgeon in algiers says
persons who have inhabited brittany and then go to algeria are struck with the resemblance between the ancient armoricans the bretons and the cabyles of algiers in fact the moral and physical character is identical
the breton of pure blood has a long head light yellow complexion of bistre tinge eyes black or brown stature short and the black hair of the cabyle like him he instinctively hates strangers in both are the same perverseness and obstinacy
same love of independence same inflexion of the voice same expression of feelings listen to a cabyle speaking his native tongue and you will think you bear a breton talking celtic the bretons he tells us form a strong contrast to the people around them
who are celts of tall stature with blue eyes white skins and blond hair they are communicative impetuous versatile they pass rapidly from courage to despair the bretons are entirely different they are taciturn
hold strongly to their ideas and usages are persevering and melancholic in a word both in morale and physique they present the type of a southern race of the atlanteans
by atlanteans doctor bodichon refers to the inhabitants of the barbary states that being one of the names by which they were known to the greeks and romans he adds the atlanteans among the ancients passed for the favorite children of neptune
they made known the worship of this god to other nations to the egyptians for example in other words the atlanteans were the first known navigators like all navigators they must have planted colonies at a distance
chapter thirty three monopoly profits
one the term monopoly is used loosely and in many senses in popular discussion monopoly means almost any wealthy corporation or the power the corporation possesses a power which is usually thought of as oppressive
even economists have held the vaguest ideas regarding monopoly the recent rise of trusts and monopolies has given a large new body of facts bearing upon the subject
but all the resulting discussion by the public and by economists has not brought agreement upon a definition entirely satisfactory when usage has not settled upon any one meaning the selection of a definition is in a measure arbitrary
two monopoly should not be used as synonymous with scarcity
the simplest things bricks sand the commonest unskilled labor would have no value were there not a degree of scarcity relative to the wants that may be gratified monopoly whatever else it means
always conveys the idea of some exceptional kind of scarcity scarcity due in part to some source or cause not ordinarily present it is a bad practice in definition to apply two words to one idea leaving the other idea unnamed
as is done when monopoly is made synonymous with scarcity both words are needed such a usage unfortunately is common in economic literature many economic writers for example have called landownership monopoly
saying that land being the work of nature cannot be increased by men and therefore must always be scarce
land could be produced by man there still would be confusion here between a general class of goods and a special thing the fact that a particular field cannot be duplicated does not make a monopoly of land as a whole
makes land valueless or a free good nor is a land owner a monopolist any more than is the owner of a valuable machine the owner of forty acres of land worth four hundred dollars or the owner of a village lot worth a hundred dollars
can hardly be called a monopolist it leads to absurdity to use the word monopoly with reference to landownership indiscriminately neither mere scarcity nor the limitation of natural stores should be called monopoly
three the ability of superior material agents and of skilled workers to secure higher returns than do poor ones does not constitute monopoly the free competition assumed in abstract discussions of value
does not mean equal capacity or efficiency but the legal freedom and personal willingness to move a productive agent into the highest industrial place it is capable of holding the rocky field does not compete with the fertile one
in the sense that it can yield the same uses the field fit only for potatoes does not compete with those rare and favored localities that can raise the best wines the gardener earning two dollars a day does not compete with the skilled physician
with an income of twenty thousand dollars a year for he has not the economic capacity to do so but he is free to compete
unless law caste class legislation social prejudice or some other objective factor forbids anything however that prevents the labor or capital of buyers or sellers from application for which they are fitted
defeats free competition to use the term monopoly of any and every limitation of economic ability is to extend it to every case of value to use it of the high wages of skilled workmen
where no union to suppress competition exists among them is to make it a colorless synonym of scarcity it should be confined to a narrower and more exclusive use some special kinds of limitation
in unified control four the limitation connected with monopoly is not that of economic capacity but that of ownership and control the derivation of the word from the greek points to the general thought monos
such as soap candles et cetera
this policy is pursued in a limited degree to day for the encouragement of invention in the granting of patents and copyrights in the current definition the exclusive right power
or privilege of dealing in some article or trading in some market the term dealing in is well chosen
and includes power derived from political as well as from other sources but the term exclusive is too absolute allows of no gradations and makes the definition applicable
and some portion of the supply of products but ordinarily the portion controlled by any one is so small that withholding it entirely from sale would not cause the market price to rise in any appreciable degree the producer in such a case
regulates his action as if the market price were fixed beyond his control and he uses his productive agents fully up to the point where costs equal price on the marginal unit of product a skilled worker getting five dollars a day
as a reduction of supply results in a higher price it is possible as is seen in the paradox of value
yield a larger sum in the market than a larger number of units but the seller's interest lies not in the increase of total sales but in that of net gains net gains being the product of the number of units sold
increase at a much faster rate than do total sales the existence of monopoly power in any degree depends therefore on several factors the effect of contraction of supply in raising prices the effect on costs
the number of units remaining in the ownership of the one contracting supply and the possibility of preventing others from increasing supply later to profit by the higher prices
one monopoly gets its power from political economic and commercial sources a political monopoly derives its power of control from a special grant from the government forbidding others to engage in that business
the typical political monopoly is that conferred by a crown patent bestowing the exclusive right to carry on a certain business a second kind is that conferred by a patent for invention or the copyright on books
the object of which is to stimulate invention research and writing by giving the full control and protection of the government to the inventor and writer or their assignees in this case the privilege is socially earned by the monopolist it is not gotten for nothing
moreover the patent is limited in time expires and becomes a social possession a third kind is a government monopoly for purposes of revenue in france the government controls the tobacco trade
and the high price charged for tobacco makes the monopoly yield a large income a fourth kind
for public service as street railways lights gas waterworks et cetera these are granted to private capitalists to induce them to invest capital in something
economic monopoly arises when the ownership of scarce natural agents as mines land water power comes under the control of one man or one group of men who agree on a price economic monopoly
is a result of private property that is undesigned by the government or by society it is exceptional considering the whole range of private property but it is important the oil wells embracing the main sources of the world's supply
have come under one control one corporation
as to be able to fix a price different from that which would result under competition coal mines especially those of some peculiar and limited kind such as anthracite appear to become easily an object of monopolization
private control of great natural resources doubtless would have been prohibited
commercial monopoly variously called contractual organized or capitalistic monopoly arises where men unite their wealth to control a market to overpower or intimidate opposition and to keep out or limit competition
by the mere magnitude of their wealth these various kinds so merge into each other that they cannot always be distinguished in practice
one the task of the enterpriser is to get together the essential factors to secure valuable products the enterpriser must first decide what product he will endeavor to secure and the kind the place the time the quantity
and the quality he must then select in the right proportion the materials labor plant and machinery necessary for that product he must purchase these factors in the market at the lowest price he can unite them and sell the product
to recover the expenses in the selling price a thousand items enter into the cost and perhaps a single product emerges what the business man thus pays out expressed in money form
two the term cost of production is used in several senses the chief of which are money cost psychic cost and alternative cost the ambiguity of this term is a source of much confusion psychic cost is the pain fatigue
except at rare points when the pain of work
the worker who is free to determine the length of his own working day stops at that point
are almost equal in intensity the one as a positive the other as a negative quantity
cannot be related to the psychic cost or sacrifice and therefore it cannot serve as a measure of cost in every day business alternative cost is any good or gratification that must be given up when any other good is chosen
one may stay at home and read a book or go on a picnic the pleasure of reading the book will cost the pleasure of the picnic a good dress may cost a happy vacation that must be given up for it in this sense
each thing is a cost of every other thing that might be chosen in the place of it alternative cost is therefore manifold and indefinite the thought is significant at the moment of a choice but it is not constantly measurable for practical purposes
the money cost is the practical cost generally implied in the term cost of production it expresses not the pain of the laborer in doing the work not the sacrifice of the owner of the capital in saving the money but merely
the sum of money paid out by the producer there is frequent confusion of these ideas in economic discussion few even of the leading economists of the nineteenth century
three the enterpriser looking upon the cost of most of the factors as fixed seeks to combine them as economically as possible whether the enterpriser is running a factory or a farm is engaged in a retail or a wholesale store
buying at a better time and judging better than his competitors the quality of goods if in a given market at a given time goods are sold to one more cheaply than to others it is an act of generosity
the most successful enterprisers are not found to be those paying lower wages
that the main forces fixing the prices of agents are impersonal and can be only slightly modified in most cases
he looks therefore upon the cost of the elements as an ultimate fact which he can change little if at all and he shows his judgment chiefly in the selection of quality cost determines and limits the extent of his business
four the right proportioning and skilful substitution of the factors is a delicate technical task for the enterpriser good buying and good selling must precede and follow the central part of the enterpriser's task
that is the combining of the various factors each factor is applied subject to diminishing returns up to a point
the enterpriser is constantly studying the question whether the application of another unit of any one factor at the price will add to the value of the product as much or more than the cost
this calculation is made for every one of the minor factors entering into the business and for the business as a whole the proper proportion varies at different prices or costs if wages rise it pays to get machinery if wages fall
it pays to let the machinery deteriorate and to do more by hand labor likewise there is constant substitution of the various materials the right proportions change constantly with inventions a model factory is so proportioned
that the buildings hold the right number of machines with the right amount of space for the workmen and the right amount of power if there is more of a single factor than the ideal proportion it is an unnecessary cost even the model factory begins to be out of date
almost as soon as the walls are dry and the latest method is to build as nearly as possible on the unit system so that new parts may be added
five the enterpriser's costs determine the lowest price at which he can continue to sell but if successful he may have a wide margin of profits new factories are constantly arising with new and better adjustments
in industries of competing products
hence there is always a pressure of competition on some enterprisers who constantly complain that they must sell below the cost of production the organizers of a trust always declare some no doubt truly
business men say that competition is destructive and it certainly does destroy the less favorably situated enterprises each enterpriser's price is the highest he can get in the market for his product it may far exceed his costs
it may even fall below them but only temporarily
the sheriff soon closes the doors successful competitors are constantly pressing upon the marginal enterpriser fixing a price that leaves themselves a profit but is below his cost even the most successful enterpriser
comes into contact with cost and seems to be compelled by it he reaches out for trade and sells some not all goods at a price which leaves him no profit he enlarges his factory and ships goods farther paying the freight
the expanding business therefore comes at length to the point
hence the business man's view of the costs is that they determine value it is true in the sense that the supply of a particular product in any market is at last limited by cost of marginal producers or of marginal portions of supply
but it is not true of all the units of product that costs determine or equal market price there is a margin above costs to the successful enterpriser on a large portion of his output the margin may be narrow or wide
and not the reverse this does not mean that the business man is deceived into the belief that he has in cost of production a final explanation of value
a marvelous recognition and analysis of the most distant influences is necessary but in general a superficial view of value is taken in business it does not pay to do other
the logical treatment however must go deeper into the question and trace the cost of agents back to the ultimate cause of value that is to want gratifying power to say that the price of a product is determined
by the money cost or price of the factors is simply to postpone the answer to the question of value one has still to ask
in alternative uses two the demand for any factor entering into products is reflected in an increased price to its cost in all competing products figuratively speaking
products compete with each other for the factors that enter into them according to location quality of the soil and improvements a certain area of land has various rival uses these uses bid for the land
if fine wine can be raised on a piece of land potatoes ordinarily will not be planted in it but if there is such a supply of that quality of land that it continues to be used side by side for both products it will have the same value
and yield the same rental in both uses the least utility yielded by any portion of the supply fixes the value of all the units machines are usually made for some product determined in advance
but often they are only partially specialized and within limits they can be adapted sewing machine factories were readily turned to the making of bicycles at the time of greatest demand and bicycle factories later were used for the making of automobiles
thus in general machinery is used for the product to which it contributes the most value any enterpriser seeking it for any other use finds its cost affected by its various alternative uses the same is true of all the materials
and of all the grades of labor entering into products the enterpriser's cost is therefore the reflection of the want gratifying power of the productive agent in all its other uses as well as in the particular product he desires to the enterpriser
cost seems the cause of the value of a product to the economist
is the basis of value in the factors
three the genealogy of value may thus be traced through the various intermediate products to consumption goods a single product having a single source of supply shows most clearly the reflection of value
directly from the product the discovery of a mineral spring or of a good quality of building stone on worthless land will cause a value to attach at once to the source of supply when a great singer like adelina patti
commands several thousand dollars for each appearance in concert the source is the magical throat of the singer
when the one source of supply yields several different kinds of products there is just one new condition which confuses the thought and suggests the error that value begins in the source with costs therefore and not in the product
looking at the products severally no one of them explains the value of the source and on the contrary each one is seen to have a value independent of the particular use to which it is put to make the illustration most simple
a savage finds in a wreck on the coast
his fellows wish them for various purposes to make arrow heads spears knives hatchets hoes ornaments nails needles et cetera value is in this case derived in part through the source
from the alternate uses taken jointly and considered as one sum the value of the various products accounts as completely and exclusively for the value of the source as if they were merged into one product the source s
is distributed to each of the products in accordance with their marginal utility
from any source of supply constantly tends to equality any unit of product sought for any purpose must be paid for according to a marginal utility determined in all the applications
a single product two
with intermediate products in actual life the problem is far more complex and yet through its settlement runs just the same principle there is constant bidding for materials and through their price
the claims of rival products are adjusted a point is reached
the production of another unit results in a loss there is a most complex relation among many different industries using the same factors the value of a unit of product at a being reflected up to the source
and through successive links to the most distant product z the effect of this is to reduce the sale of z and correspondingly the use made of the agent in question a higher price of leather due to the increased use of shoes
raises the value of hides and cattle this increasing the extent of cattle raising and raises thus the cost of carriage trimmings pocket books foot balls leather belts and every other leather product as the price rises
substitutes for leather and imitations of it are used for such of the products
but is the medium through which consumers express their estimates
and satisfies the public taste is the good medium he readily transmits and accurately focuses the rays of public judgment one that misjudges is a poor medium the enterpriser is himself the servant of costs
laborers sometimes assume that the employer can dictate wages prices and markets can rule things with a lordly hand with rare exceptions the ultimate control in these matters by business men is very slight
in the main the enterpriser masters the situation only by bowing to it just as the scientist and the engineer gain mastery over nature because they know when to bend and how to obey the consumer
by deciding to buy this or that product sets in motion waves of value the consumers of products are the true purchasers of labor materials and uses of agents
to the price prevailing for the moment or his competitors in this day of narrow margins will seize the opportunity
a thing which is conditioned to act in a particular manner has necessarily been thus conditioned by god and that which has not been conditioned by god cannot condition itself to act proof
that by which things are said to be conditioned to act in a particular manner is necessarily something positive this is obvious therefore both of its essence and of its existence god by the necessity of his nature is the efficient cause
this is our first point our second point is plainly to be inferred therefrom for if a thing which has not been conditioned by god could condition itself the first part of our proof would be false and this as we have shown is absurd
but from god or from any of his attributes in so far as the latter is modified
this is our first point again this cause or this modification for the reason by which we established the first part of this proof must in its turn be conditioned by another cause which also is finite and has a conditioned existence and again
this last by another for the same reason and so on for the same reason to infinity
note as certain things must be produced immediately by god namely those things which necessarily follow from his absolute nature through the means of these primary attributes which nevertheless can neither exist nor be conceived without god it follows
that god is absolutely the proximate cause of those things immediately produced by him i say absolutely not after his kind
if they be conditioned by god it is impossible and not contingent that they should render themselves unconditioned wherefore all things are conditioned by the necessity of the divine nature not only to exist
but also to exist and operate in a particular manner and there is nothing that is contingent
note before going any further i wish here to explain what we should understand by nature viewed as active natura naturans and nature viewed as passive natura naturata i say to explain or rather call attention to it
for i think that from what has been said it is sufficiently clear that by nature viewed as active we should understand that which is in itself and is conceived through itself or those attributes of substance which express eternal and infinite essence
by nature viewed as passive i understand all that which follows from the necessity of the nature of god or of any of the attributes of god that is all the modes of the attributes of god in so far as they are considered as things which are in god
and which without god cannot exist or be conceived
actu finite or in function infinite must comprehend the attributes of god and the modifications of god and nothing else proof
in other words obviously that which is contained in the intellect in representation must necessarily be granted in nature
the gold miner as for van emmon his experience will have to be classed with smith's that is to say he soon came to feel that his agent was not what is commonly called human
it was all too different however he found himself enjoying a field of view which was a decided improvement upon smith's instead of a range which
began and ended just above the horizon his agent possessed the power of looking almost straight ahead this told the geologist
of human occupancy all argued that the two men had hit upon the same type of agent in van emmon's case however he could occasionally glimpse two loose parts of the machine
within the range of the observer and at the front nothing was done about it van emmon came to the same conclusion as smith the operator was looking into something like a periscope perhaps
he himself did not do the driving from what the geologist could see of the country below it was quite certainly cultivated in no other way could the even rows and uniform growth be explained
even though van emmon could not say whether the vegetation were tree shrub or plant it was certainly the work of man or some thing mightily like man shortly
he experienced an abrupt downward dive such as upset his senses somewhat when he recovered
and then the geologist saw something that challenged his understanding the craft had landed on the rim of a deep pit or what would have been called a pit
and seemingly covered with frost for it sparkled so brightly in the sun as to actually hurt the eyes in fact the geologist's first thought was a glacier
although he could not conceive of ice or snow of that tint running down the sides of the pit were a number of dark brown streaks about a yard wide
van emmon could make them out more or less clearly on the other side of the pit as well from the irregular way in which the walls were formed he quickly decided that the pit was a natural one the streaks he thought
the geologist wondered just how the craft's wheels were operated next he was holding his breath as the machine reached so steep a point in the slope that most surely no brakes could hold it simultaneously
he heard the hiss and whine which seemed to indicate the suction device it was a whole lot like going down into a placer mine the geologist afterward said and in view of what next met his eyes
he was justified in his guess down crept the machine until it was standing on its nose the sun was shining almost straight down into the slope
and van emmon forgot his uneasiness about the craft in his interest in what he saw the bottom of the pit was perhaps twenty feet in diameter and roughly hemispherical standing up from its bottom
were half a dozen slim formations like idealized stalagmites they were made of some semitransparent rock apparently the tint being a reddish yellow finally
was a stone and surrounding these six landmarks as van emmon called them was the most prodigious display of wealth imaginable for the whole queer place
was simply sprinkled with gold gold gold everywhere large nuggets of it as big as one's fist not embedded in rock
not scattered through sand but lying loose upon the surface of that unbelievable orange snow it was overwhelming
operating some unseen machinery he caused three shovel like devices to project from the front of his machine and these instantly proceeded so swiftly that van emmon could not possibly watch their action
suddenly the sanusian wheeled his machine about and started hurriedly up the slope
for he took flight as soon as he reached the top of the pit and he left half a million in gold behind him this new flight had not lasted two minutes before the geologist began to note other objects in the air
there were birds so distant that he could not identify them one came near enough however for him to conclude that it was a hawk
van emmon's agent turned his mysterious periscope so as to take it all in and the geologist was able to watch his fill whereupon he became converted to a new idea
the birds that smith and he had seen had not been birds at all but aircraft built in imitation of them
almost perfect imitation of a bee it was very close to an exact reproduction for one exception it did not have the hairy appearance so characteristic of bees
the body and legs were smooth and shiny later van emmon saw machines which went so far as even to imitate the hairs also
a perfectly round representation of a single eye was built like a conning tower toward the front of the bow presumably the observer sat or stood within this head
but otherwise
van emmon was strongly reminded of what he had once viewed under a powerful lens the fragile semitransparent wings the misshapen legs
he could not see how any intelligent being would make use of them they were continually waving about much as bees wave theirs
evidently these were the loose objects he had already noted now he wondered
there was no doubt about it they were wireless antennae for presently the newcomer
sent out a message which was read as quickly as it was received by van emmon's agent and as unconsciously translated number eight hundred four you are wanted on plot seventeen whereupon
van emmon's unknown assistant replied at once very well superior it was done by means of an extremely faint humming device reminding the geologist of certain wireless apparata he had heard
eye but he could not be sure the glass or whatever it was reflected everything within range was the airman a
did he sit or stand upright like a man or did he use all four limbs animal fashion van emmon had to admit that he could not tell no wonder he didn't guess the truth
presently coming to another nausea producing stop once more van emmon was temporarily helpless when he could look again he saw that the machine had landed upon a steep slope
this time with its nose pointing upward far above was what looked like a cave with a growth of some queer black grass on its upper rim the craft commenced to move upward
over a smooth dark tan surface in half a minute the machine had reached the top of the slope and the geologist looked eagerly for what might lie within the cave he was disappointed it was not a cave at all
instead another brown slope or rather a bulging precipice occupied this depression van emmon looked closer
at the bottom of this bulge was a queer fringe of the same kind of grass that showed on top of it van emmon looked from one to the other and all of a sudden the thing dawned upon him
this stupendous affair was no mountainside it was neither more nor less than the head of a colossal statue a mammoth edition of the goddess of liberty
and the aircraft had presumed to alight upon its cheek the machine clung there motionless for some time quite as though the airman knew that van emmon would like to look a long while
making out a small section of the nose also the huge curves of a dust covered ear
next second came the earthquake the whole statue rocked and swayed van emmon looked to see the machine thrown off from the base of the monument came a single terrific sound
a veritable roar as though the thing was being wrenched from the heart of the earth from somewhere on top came a spurt of water that splashed just beside the craft then
came the most terrible thing without the slightest warning the statue's great eye opened opened wide
blazed with wrath the statue was alive next second the sanusian shot into the air a moment and van emmon was able to look again
and as it happened the craft was now circling the amazing thing it had just quit
that he was dead sure of what he saw he was justified in wanting to be absolutely sure resting on the solid earth was a human head about fifty yards wide and
proportionately as tall it was alive but it was only the head
chapter seventeen
we now saw several large ice islands and a floe of field ice not however of any great extent the winds generally blew from the southeast or the northeast but were very light
whenever we had a westerly wind which was seldom it was invariably attended with a rain squall every day we had more or less snow the thermometer on the twenty seventh stood at thirty five
this day we found ourselves completely hemmed in by the ice and our prospects looked cheerless indeed
that we all trembled for the consequences toward evening the gale still blowing with fury a large field in front separated and we were enabled by carrying a press of sail
having crossed the antarctic circle very little ice was to be seen to the southward although large fields of it lay behind us this day we rigged some sounding gear
using a large iron pot capable of holding twenty gallons and a line of two hundred fathoms we found the current setting to the north about a quarter of a mile per hour the temperature of the air was now about thirty three here
we had still held on to the southward without any very great impediments on this morning however
we saw nevertheless much open water to the southward and felt no doubt of being able to reach it eventually
we at length came to a passage of about a mile in width
hail squalls of great violence immense flocks of the albatross flew over the schooner this day going from southeast to northwest
the sea still remained pretty well open
to the westward we saw some icebergs of incredible size and in the afternoon
its girth was probably at the base three quarters of a league and several streams of water were running from crevices in its sides we remained in sight of this island two days and then only lost it in a fog
early this morning we had the misfortune to lose a man overboard he was an american named peter vredenburgh a native of new york and was one of the most valuable hands on board the schooner
in going over the bows his foot slipped and he fell between two cakes of ice never rising again at noon of this day we were in latitude
the cold was now excessive and we had hail squalls continually from the northward and eastward in this direction also we saw several more immense icebergs
and the whole horizon to the eastward appeared to be blocked up with field ice rising in tiers one mass above the other some driftwood floated by during the evening and a great quantity of birds flew over
among which were nellies peterels albatrosses and a large bird of a brilliant blue plumage
our passage to the south again looked doubtful as nothing was to be seen in the direction of the pole
backed by absolute mountains of ragged ice one precipice of which arose frowningly above the other
the temperature of the air was forty seven that of the water thirtyfour we now sailed to the southward without meeting any interruption of moment until the sixteenth
longitude forty two degrees
we here again sounded and found a current setting still southwardly and at the rate of three quarters of a mile per hour the variation per azimuth had diminished and the temperature of the air was mild and pleasant
the thermometer being as high as fifty one at this period not a particle of ice was to be discovered all hands on board now felt certain of attaining the pole
about midday a small floe of ice was seen from the masthead off the larboard bow and upon it there appeared to be some large animal as the weather was good and nearly calm
captain guy ordered out two of the boats to see what it was dirk peters and myself accompanied the mate in the larger boat upon coming up with the floe
several shots were fired in quick succession the most of which took effect apparently in the head and body nothing discouraged however the monster threw himself from the ice
and the bear had actually succeeded in getting half his vast bulk across our gunwale and seizing one of the men by the small of his back before any efficient means were taken to repel him
the brute tumbled into the sea lifeless and without a struggle rolling over peters as he fell the latter soon recovered himself and a rope being thrown him he secured the carcass before entering the boat
we then returned in triumph to the schooner towing our trophy behind us this bear upon admeasurement proved to be full fifteen feet in his greatest length
his wool was perfectly white and very coarse curling tightly the eyes were of a blood red and larger than those of the arctic bear the snout also more rounded rather resembling the snout of the bulldog
the meat was tender but excessively rank and fishy although the men devoured it with avidity and declared it excellent eating
scarcely had we got our prize alongside when the man at the masthead gave the joyful shout of land on the starboard bow all hands were now upon the alert and a breeze springing up very opportunely from the northward and eastward
in approaching it from the northward a singular ledge of rock is seen projecting into the sea and bearing a strong resemblance to corded bales of cotton around this ledge to the westward is a small bay
at the bottom of which our boats effected a convenient landing it did not take us long to explore every portion of the island but with one exception we found nothing worthy of our observation in the southern extremity
we picked up near the shore half buried in a pile of loose stones a piece of wood which seemed to have formed the prow of a canoe there had been evidently some attempt at carving upon it
and captain guy fancied that he made out the figure of a tortoise but the resemblance did not strike me very forcibly besides this prow if such it were we found no other token that any living creature had ever been here before
uniformly decreased as we proceeded and what was still more surprising that the temperature of the air and latterly of the water became milder the weather might even be called pleasant
and we had a steady but very gentle breeze always from some northern point of the compass the sky was usually clear with now and then a slight appearance of thin vapour in the southern horizon this however was invariably of brief duration
the necessity of returning and he spoke of it frequently for my own part confident as i was of soon arriving at land of some description upon the course we were pursuing and having every reason to believe from present appearances
so tempting an opportunity of solving the great problem in regard to an antarctic continent had never yet been afforded to man and i confess that i felt myself bursting with indignation
at the timid and ill timed suggestions of our commander i believe indeed that what i could not refrain from saying to him on this head had the effect of inducing him to push on while therefore i
i must still be allowed to feel some degree of gratification at having been instrumental however remotely
but the thing was so utterly beyond their wildest conceptions so tremendously different in every way it left them all a little unwilling to commit themselves
what gets me is why the humans have allowed such an infernal thing to happen billie smiled somewhat sardonically i thought she remarked cuttingly that you were
always in sympathy with the upper dog mister van emmon i am hotly then with the memory of what he had just seen rushing back upon him i mean i was
until i saw saw that he stopped flushing deeply and before he could collect himself smith had broken in again i just happened to remember doc
didn't you say that the venusians in those books of yours say that sanus is ruled by the workers just what i was wondering about from van emmon
the humans seem to do all the work and the bees the bossing the doctor expected this the venusians had our viewpoint
the viewpoint of people on the earth when they said that the workers rule we consider the bee as a great worker don't we as busy as a bee you know none of the so called lower animals
show greater industry you don't mean to say demanded smith
before the doctor could reply van emmon broke in it seemed as though his mind refused to get past this particular point now
suppose we note a thing or two about conditions as we find them here on the earth we the humans
when man ranked no higher than others i feel sure of this he insisted seeing that smith was opposed to the idea and i think i know just what occurred to make man supreme what
well more favorable to the bees the doctor looked around the circle what do you think a factor more favorable to the bees shall we let it go at that there was no remark
even from smith and the doctor went an coming back to the bees then we note that they are remarkable for several points of great value first
second all bees possess wings and on that count alone they are far superior to humans third and to me the most important the bees possess a remarkable combination
of community life and specialization of course when you come to analyze these two points you see that they really belong to one another
is not unknown to certain forms of earth's insect life i mean a soldier type a kind of bee which specializes on fighting van emmon was listening closely
yet he had got another idea perhaps this soldier type is simply the plain worker bee all gone to sting it may be that these bees have given up labor altogether still
muttered smith under his breath all this doesn't solve the real problem why aren't the humans supreme for once he became emphatic that's what gets
me why aren't the humans the rulers doc kinney waited until he felt sure the others were depending upon him smith
you'll admit that success begets success won't you success begets success sure nothing succeeds like success well isn't that merely another way of saying that the consciousness of superiority
will lead to further conquests we humans are thoroughly conscious of our supremacy if we weren't we'd never attempt the things we do van emmon saw the point in other words
the humans on the earth never began to show their superiority until something something big happened to demonstrate their ability exactly cried kinney
our prehistoric ancestors would never have handed down such a tremendous ambition to you and me if they at that time had not been able to point to some definite feat and say that proves
i'm a bigger man than a horse for example of course reflected billie aloud of course there were other factors yes but they don't alter the case
originally the human was only slightly different from the apes he associated with there was perhaps only one slight point of superiority today there are millions of such points man is
infinitely superior now and it's all because he was slightly superior then suppose we grant that remarked the geologist what then
does that explain why the bees have made good on sanus to a large degree
which enabled him to force his will upon other creatures this power was his poisonous sting he found that when he got his fellows together and formed a swarm
they could attack any animal in such large numbers as to make it helpless any creature yes even reptiles scales or no scales they'd attack the eyes
the doctor thought for a few minutes let's see suppose we assume that a certain human once happened to be in the neighborhood of a hive
ants are great lovers of honey you know suppose the man stepped among the ants and was bitten naturally he would trample them to death and smash with his hands all that he couldn't trample
that the bees even while fighting the ants also started to attack the man but that he chanced to turn his attention to the ants first so that the bees let him alone
we know what remarkable things bees are when it comes to telling one another what they know is there any reason why such an experience all natural enough shouldn't demonstrate to them
then agreed that the man also might notice that the bees failed to sting him as long as he continued to destroy their other enemies if so
it was quite conceivable that bit by bit the bees had found other and more positive ways of securing the aid of men through threatening to sting even to cultivating flowers for their benefit
she conceded it's quite possible smith had been thinking of something else i always understood that a bee's stinging apparatus is good for only one attack
doesn't it always remain behind after stinging yes from the doctor quietly that is true the sting has tiny barbs on its tip and these cause it to remain in the wound
the sting is actually torn away from the bee when it flies away it never grows another that is why in fact the bee never stings except as a last resort
question of self defense just what i thought chuckled smith a bee is helpless without its sting if so how can you account for anything like a soldier bee the doctor returned his gaze with
perfect equanimity he looked at van emmon and billie they too seemed to think that the engineer had found a real flaw in kinney's reasoning
the doctor dropped his eyes and searched his mind thoroughly for the best words he removed his bracelets while he was thinking the others did the same all four got to their feet and stretched
silently but thoroughly not until they were ready to quit the study did the doctor make reply smith i don't need to remind you that it's the little things that count it's
too old a saying in this case it happens to be the greatest truth we have found today smith speaking with the utmost care what we have just said about the bee's sting is all true but
is the supreme creature on its planet it is superior to all the other insects all the birds all the animals
and its supremacy is due solely and entirely to the fact
this has been proved many times in history but never more conclusively than in the little kingdom of belgium whose present ruler albert the first has already won glory equal to that of any hero king of any age
and albert in consequence was not trained for the severe duties of a ruler but in the end this worked good rather than harm for albert received so thorough a military education
that by practical advice and prompt action he was able to save his country in the terrible ordeal through which it passed and as he had expected to be no more than one of the king's subjects he had learned the ways of the people more intimately
than he could have done if he had always been hemmed in with the restrictions of royalty when albert was seventeen years old his brother baldwin died and it was then seen that he might indeed become king for leopold had no direct male heirs
but this was not yet sure for under certain conditions the king had the right to appoint his successor and he did not decide to make albert the heir to the throne until the prince married and had two sons
who would ensure the permanence of the royal belgian family albert was born in eighteen seventy five on the eighth of april his father was count philippe of flanders who was leopold's youngest brother as a boy the young prince received an education
such as would be given to any cultivated well bred gentleman but as it was customary for younger sons of princes to enter the army particular attention was paid as we have said to his military training
and later tried his skill on the most rugged alps he was fond of shooting and shot well he was an excellent horseman and his tall figure was frequently to be seen astride his hunter which he managed with great skill
the possibility that he might become king had effected a change in the young man's character who became more reserved and serious ardently devoted to his studies and eager to find out as much as possible about the lives of the people
that one day he was to rule he often lectured on military topics he visited the mines and viewed the working conditions of the men that toiled incessantly underground he watched the fishermen at work and even accompanied them on their trips
he worked in machine shops and ran locomotives himself to learn the secrets of modern shipping he visited foreign countries and traveled in disguise as a reporter of a newspaper paying calls on various shipyards and taking notes on what he saw there
in the year of the war between america and spain eighteen ninety eight albert came to the united states and saw president mc kinley and in his travels through our great country he paid a visit to the great financier
with whom he talked about the problems that confronted belgium and from whom he doubtless received valuable advice he was much impressed by his visit to america and often talked about it afterward and thought out means by which the modern improvements he saw in america
all this time however the prince remained unmarried and king leopold who was growing old was worried about the succession to the throne finally he decided that as long as albert was without issue
and his choice fell upon the duc de vendome who had married albert's sister but albert who had given no signs of attraction toward any one of the various beautiful ladies he might have married
was soon to fall in love and make a marriage that would gladden the heart of old king leopold and please the belgian people among other things that he had studied in his young manhood was the science of medicine and a year after he came to america
he went to germany to see the clinic of a bavarian duke named charles theodore whose skill as an occulist had made him famous throughout europe albert visited this duke and was presented to his daughters with one of whom the duchess elizabeth
the king made a speech in which he publicly confirmed albert's claim to the throne and public attention was now focussed on the prince who was to be king albert had no intention of meddling with political affairs until he actually should become the ruler of belgium
and he gave scant encouragement to those who sought to sound him and find out what his future policies would be while he surveyed all public affairs with a keen eye and attentive mind he kept the public from knowing what he thought of them
before it had been known that he was to come to the throne
the king was unwilling to have the heir to the throne take so long and presumably so dangerous a journey but at last he consented and albert departed for africa and the congo
he walked more than fifteen hundred miles the colonists took a great liking to the tall reserved young man who studied all their interests and doings with such careful attention and the impression that albert made upon this part of his future kingdom
was more than favorable he had not been at home long before king leopold died and on the twenty third of december nineteen o nine albert came into his capital as king of the belgians
after taking the oath to guard the constitution and preserve the territory of the belgian nation he made a carefully prepared and well thought out speech in which he declared that the belgian monarch must always obey the laws of the country
that he gave a great deal of his own money to better conditions there and to further medical research the queen was busy also with her medical skill she visited the various hospitals and engaged in many charitable enterprises
it seemed that she could not do enough to relieve the sufferings of others
and sending reports back to the fatherland the position of belgium was peculiar in many ways not only did it lie as a little and weak nation between the great armed powers of france and germany
and has gained for it the name of the cockpit of europe even for its size belgium was in a woeful state of military unpreparedness for war because it was supposed to be exempt from conflict through an agreement of the great powers
and one and all they had promised to protect the neutrality of this little state with force of arms if necessary this as we have said had given the belgians a feeling of security they believed that even if war broke out
warning him that the germans had decided in secret council to send their invading armies across belgium in case of war with france and he had seen only too clearly that german spies and military experts were mapping out the country for their own secret ends
so albert struggled to increase the army and secured the passage of a favorable bill in october nineteen thirteen but the iron forces of germany were forged and ready
were packed away in her storehouses and arsenals only the stroke of a pen was needed to loose the blind forces and mighty armaments of a war greater than any that history has known
king albert's efforts in behalf of the belgian army were too late although he did not know it at the time in the summer of nineteen fourteen albert went to switzerland on a vacation
but his fear that germany was preparing for speedy war forced him to return to belgium in the middle of his holiday and events soon proved that he was justified
and immediately the german government sent to belgium a threat which declared that it was the purpose of the german high command to move german troops across belgium and that the belgians would resist at their own peril
many a ruler would have acceded to the terms that germany gave if a small boy is confronted by a trained pugilist of great weight and gigantic stature surely none can blame the boy for consenting to the pugilist's demands
none could have blamed king albert if he had yielded to such force and accepted the tyrant's terms
not sparing his own and the belgians sent the following reply back to the german war lords the german ultimatum has caused the belgian government deep and painful astonishment
and belgium refuses to believe that her independence could only be preserved at the cost of violating her neutrality and albert grimly added to some of his followers germany appears to believe that belgium is a road
expecting to overpower it easily they advanced against it in mass formation
that they numbered their dead by thousands the little kingdom of belgium had thrust a stick between the cogs of the great german war machine and by doing so saved the world from a german victory
and mobilize on the frontier and by the splendid and stubborn resistance that the germans encountered in belgium the english too were given a breathing space on the breast of this weak nation fell the whole weight of the mailed fist
and the germans moved onward in spite of attacks by the belgians that temporarily halted them with their great forty two centimeter howitzers the germans pulverized the forts that held out against them
and often in the front line the belgian soldiers would be cheered by the sight of their king loading and firing a rifle by their side in the place of some wounded comrade the king combined shrewdness with bravery
he ordered brussels not to resist the german horde but he fought to the knife wherever resistance would be effective while the british were yet far away and the french were unable to help belgium alone held the enemy in check
that they would have won if belgium had not withstood them with their forces once in paris and the french and british forces separated no human power could have triumphed against the kaiser
was able at last to beat the germans at the marne and save the world
broadcast in crashing explosions queen elizabeth had remained with the king serving as a nurse in the hospitals and doing what she could to relieve the suffering of her people but when it was seen that antwerp must fall
she refused to remain however but returned to the stricken country to take her place with the remainder of her subjects who had not yet received the yoke of german slavery
it would be better to die here he declared than in a foreign land
when the germans were pushing on again toward paris in the spring of nineteen eighteen he kept his head cool and his heart composed then the gray lines broke and the tide turned
the allied armies swept onward and the germans retreated pell mell to save themselves from utter ruin back from the ruined villages and the oppressed and tortured countryside the german hordes retreated and king albert and queen elizabeth triumphantly took possession once more
within sound of the guns on the nieuport front their hour of triumph was now come and they entered brussels after four years of exile their entry was planned to be as glorious and beautiful as possible
allied troops marched past in review and the king and queen were accompanied by the most famous generals of the allied armies the soldiers of the belgian army were crowned with flowers when reviewed by the king that so bravely led them
peace terms were drawn up and the germans compelled to repay the belgians to the last penny for the havoc and vandalism they had wrought and it is a kind of poetic justice that albert was reigning while the kaiser fled from his own country
and the good wishes of all americans have gone back with them to the wrecked and devastated land that they are striving to restore
i have forgotten yet four years ago it was familiar to me as my own name things which took place before the voyage seem to be getting a little cloudy in the memory now i have sat here
to write down some sort of account of what has happened god knows why since no eye can ever read it and at the very beginning i cannot remember the parson's name
a scotchman from ayrshire big and gaunt with tawny hair he used to go about london streets in shough and rough spun clothes a plaid flung from one shoulder once i saw him in holborn with his rather wild stalk
frowning and muttering to himself he had no sooner come to london and opened chapel i think in fetter lane than the little room began to be crowded and when some years afterwards
his voice from a whisper ran gathering like snow balls and crashed as i have heard the pack ice in commotion far yonder in the north while his gestures were as uncouth and gawky
as some wild man's of the primitive ages well this man what was his name macintosh mackay i think yes that was it mackay
mackay saw fit to take offence at the new attempt to reach the pole in the boreal and for three sundays when the preparations were nearing completion stormed against it at kensington
the excitement of the world with regard to the north pole had at this date reached a pitch which can only be described as fevered though that word hardly expresses the strange ecstasy and unrest which prevailed
for the abstract interest which mankind in mere desire for knowledge had always felt in this unknown region was now suddenly a thousand and a thousand times intensified
by a new concrete interest a tremendous money interest and the new zeal had ceased to be healthy in its tone as the old zeal was
the secret of this new rage lay in the last will and testament of mister charles p stickney of chicago
and from this loose method of designating the person intended had immediately burst forth a prolonged heat of controversy in europe and america as to whether or no the testator meant the chief
whatever his station in the expedition whose foot first reached the ninetieth degree of north latitude
everyone was an authority on her fitting and she was in every mouth a bet a hope a jest or a sneer for now at last it was felt that success was probable
and without doubt he did suggest something of that sort i suppose that at the time when he had the face to denounce the boreal there was not a sovereign on any throne in europe who
but for shame would have been glad of a subordinate post on board on the third sunday night of his denunciation i was there in that kensington chapel and i heard him
and the wild talk he talked he seemed like a man delirious with inspiration the people sat quite spell bound while mackay's prophesying voice ranged up and down through all the modulations of thunder
from the hurrying mutter to the reverberant shock and climax and those who came to scoff remained to wonder put simply
the north pole he said was not so very far away and the difficulties in the way of reaching it were not on the face of them so very great
human ingenuity had achieved a thousand things a thousand times more difficult yet in spite of over half a dozen well planned efforts in the nineteenth century
and thirty one in the twentieth man had never reached always he had been baulked
wonderfully really wonderfully like the tree of knowledge in eden he said was that pole
persistently veiled and forbidden
and he believed he said that the time was now come when man would find it absolutely in his power to stand on that ninetieth of latitude and plant an impious right foot on the head of the earth
just as it had been given into the absolute power of adam to stretch an impious right hand and pluck of the fruit of knowledge
the man's frantic earnestness authoritative voice and savage gestures could not but have their effect upon all as for me i declare i sat as though a messenger from heaven addressed me
but i believe that i had not yet reached home
he is behind his age i suppose but haven't i thought differently of mackay since my god three weeks it was about that before that sunday night discourse i was visited by clark
the chief of the coming expedition a mere visit of friendship
and though under twenty five had i suppose as elite a practice as any doctor in europe elite but small i was able to maintain my state and move among the great
in the course of conversation that afternoon clark said to me in his light hap hazard way do you know what i dreamed about you last night adam jeffson i dreamed that you were with us on the expedition i think he must have seen my start
on the same night i had myself dreamed the same thing but not a word said i about it now there was a stammer in my tongue when i answered who i on the expedition i would not go if i were asked
well we need not discuss the point
i know really very little of astronomy or magnetic phenomena besides i am about to be married but what about your botany my friend
and as for nautical astronomy poh
i said smiling such a thought would never enter my head there is first of all my fiancee ah the all important countess eh
the chance of stamping one's foot on the north pole does not occur to a man every day my son do talk of something else i said there is peters well of course there is peters but believe me the dream i had was so clear
has made it the most extraordinary which any creature of earth ever lived and i knew that this was so firstly because of the two dreams and secondly
an ordinary person reading my words would undoubtedly imagine that i mean only two ordinary contradictory impulses or else that i rave for what modern man could comprehend how real seeming were those voices
how loud and how ever and again i heard them contend within me with a nearness
i was playing one summer evening in a pine wood of my father's half a mile away was a quarry cliff and as i played it suddenly seemed as if someone said to me inside of me just take a walk toward the cliff and as if someone else said
don't go that way at all' mere whispers then which gradually as i grew up seemed to swell into cries of wrathful contention i did go toward the cliff it was steep thirty feet high
and i fell some weeks later on recovering speech i told my astonished mother that someone had pushed me over the edge and that someone else had caught me at the bottom
that two powers which hated each other must be continually after me one wishing for some reason to kill me and the other for some reason to keep me alive one wishing me to do so and so
but a creature separate special marked for something already i had notions touches of mood passing instincts
have hardly ever suggested any question in my mind as to how the voice was heard i did not find it so very difficult to comprehend that originally man had more ears than two
more or less resembled those primeval ones but not a creature except perhaps my mother has ever dreamed me what i here state that i was i seemed the ordinary youth of my time bow in my varsity eight
cramming for exams dawdling in clubs when i had to decide as to a profession who could have suspected the conflict that transacted itself in my soul while my brain was indifferent to the matter
that agony of strife with which the brawling voices shouted the one be a scientist a doctor and the other be a lawyer an engineer an artist be anything but a doctor a doctor i became
and went to what had grown into the greatest of medical schools cambridge and there it was that i came across a man named scotland who had a rather odd view of the world he had rooms i remember in the new court at trinity
and a set of us were generally there he was always talking about certain black and white powers till it became absurd and the men used to call him black and white mystery man
quito is better known than ecuador its primeval history however is lost in obscurity in the language of prescott the mists of fable have settled as darkly round its history
the cara nation who added to it by conquest and alliance the fame of the region excited the cupidity of the incas of peru and during the reign of cacha fourteen seventy five
and by the celebrated battle of hatuntaqui in which cacha was killed quito was added to the realm of the incas huayna capac made quito his residence and reigned there thirty eight years
the most brilliant epoch in the annals of the city at his death his kingdom was divided
civil war ensued in which the latter was defeated and atahuallpa was chosen inca of the whole empire fifteen thirty two during this war pizarro arrived at tumbez every body knows what followed
strangled at caxamarca the body of atahuallpa was carried to quito the city of his birth in compliance with his dying wish and buried there with imposing obsequies refounded by benalcazar in fifteen thirty four
december ninth eighteen twenty four in eighteen thirty
the colonial history of this favored spot is as lifeless as the history of sahara not a single event occurred of which even spain can be proud not a monument was raised which reflects any credit upon the mother country
every thing was prescribed by law and all law emanated from a tribunal five thousand miles distant there was no relation of private life with which the government did not interfere
what the colonist should plant and what trade he should follow where he should buy and where he should sell how much he should import and export and where and when he should marry
their religion consisted of outward observances and an imperfect knowledge of the papal bulls their morality in asceticism and devotion to their king their philosophy in the subtleties of aristotle
their history in the history of the mother country their geography in the maps of spanish america and of spain their press in what sufficed to print bill heads and blank forms their commerce in an insignificant coasting trade
their amusements in bull fights the arrival of a mail was an event of great moment
which announced the health of the sovereigns
while the english colonies of north america conquered their independence while the old world was drenched in blood to propagate the ideas which the french revolution had proclaimed
without any political experience whatever the people attempted to lay the foundation of a new system of government and society with head and hearts perverted by monkish superstition and spanish tyranny
impracticable theories official venality reckless disregard of individual rights and legal obligations
on the east flows the rio machangara
while the weary sun goes early to rest behind the towering peaks of pichincha so encircled is this sequestered spot
sees only a part of it and is disappointed and even when standing on panecillo with the entire city spread out before him he is not wholly satisfied buried between treeless sombre sierras
no busy hum greets the ear there are bugles instead of spindles and jingling church bells in place of rattling carriages the wandering eye does not look for a railroad or a telegraph
for even the highways such as they are seem deserted and save the music made for soldiers and saints all is silent the very mountains too with their snow mantled heads
and their sides scarred by volcanic eruptions and ruptured by earthquake shocks have a melancholy look in the words of a great artist they look like a world from which not only the human
groups of men not crowds for there is plenty of elbow room in ecuador in gay ponchos stand chatting in front of little shops or lean against the wall to enjoy the sunshine beggars in rags or sackcloth
indians from the mountains in every variety of costume cluster around heaps of vegetables for sale women in red brown and blue frocks are peddling oranges and alligator pears
opposite the mansion of the late general flores this is our hotel owned by a frenchman but kept by an indian we ride under the low archway bowing with ill grace like all republicans unaccustomed to royalty
is two thousand feet higher than the hospice of great saint bernard on the alps which is the only permanent place of abode in europe above six thousand five hundred feet when mister hassaurek was appointed united states minister to ecuador
he thanked mister lincoln for conferring upon him the highest gift in his power the mean result of our numerous observations with green's standard barometer
or fifty feet lower than the calculation of humboldt
and potosi may surpass it in altitude but there is not a city in the world which can show at once such a genial climate such magnificent views and such a checkered history it is unique likewise in its latitude
crossing bridgeless rivers floundering over bottomless roads and ascending and descending immense mountains he is astonished to find such elegant edifices
and such a proud aristocracy in this lofty lap of the andes the indian habitations which girdle the city have no more architectural pretensions than an arab dwelling
they are low mud hovels the scene within and without of dirt and disorder as we approach the grand plaza the centre of the city the buildings increase in size style and finish
the ordinary material is adobe not only because it is cheap but also because it best resists earthquake shocks fear of a terremoto has likewise led to a massiveness in construction which is
slightly ludicrous when we see the poverty which it protects the walls are often two or three feet thick the ground floor is occupied by servants whose rooms small enough to be called niches
surround the paved court yard which is entered from the street by a broad doorway within this court is sometimes a fountain or flower plot around it are arches or pillars supporting a gallery which is the passage way to the apartments of the second story
and from these project still farther uncouth water spouts such as used to be seen in rio janeiro
only three or four private residences rise above two stories the shops are small affairs akin to the cupboards of damascene merchants half a dozen modern ladies can keep out any more customers
and adorned with a fine colonnade on its right rises the cathedral on the left stands the unpretending palace of the nuncio
the view above was taken from this terrace the finest facade is presented by the old jesuit church which has an elaborate front of porphyry the church of san francisco built by the treasures of atahuallpa
chapter twenty four wardrop's story i have to go back to the night miss jane disappeared and that's another thing that has driven me desperate
will you tell me why i should be suspected of having a hand in that when she had been a mother to me if she is dead she can't exonerate me if she is living and we find her she will tell you what i tell you that i know nothing of the whole terrible business
i am quite certain of that wardrop i interposed besides i think i have got to the bottom of that mystery margery looked at me quickly but i shook my head it was too early to tell my suspicions
the things that looked black against me were bad enough but they had nothing to do with miss jane i will have to go back to before the night she went away
butler was not a business man he let too much responsibility lie with his subordinates and then according to the story he couldn't do much anyhow against schwartz
the cashier was entirely under machine control and butler was neglectful you remember knox the crash when three banks rotten to the core went under and it was found a large amount of state money had gone too
it was fleming who did it i am sorry margery but this is no time to mince words it was fleming who deposited the money in the wrecked banks knowing what would happen when the crash came
butler's sureties to save themselves confiscated every dollar he had in the world butler went to the penitentiary for six months on some minor count and when he got out after writing to fleming and schwartz protesting his innocence
and asking for enough out of the fortune they had robbed him of to support his wife he killed himself at the white cat margery was very pale but quiet she sat with her fingers locked in her lap and her eyes on wardrop
it was a bad business wardrop went on wearily fleming moved into butler's place as treasurer and took lightfoot as his cashier that kept the lid on once or twice when there was an unexpected call for funds
the treasury was almost empty and schwartz carried things over himself i went to plattsburg as mister fleming's private secretary when he became treasurer and from the first i knew things were even worse than the average state government
schwartz and fleming had to hold together they hated each other and the feeling was trebled when fleming married schwartz's divorced wife margery looked at me with startled incredulous eyes
what she must have seen confirmed wardrop's words and she leaned back in her chair limp and unnerved but she heard and comprehended every word wardrop was saying the woman was a very ordinary person but it seems schwartz cared for her
about a year ago mister fleming said another attempt had been made on his life with poison he was very much alarmed and i noticed a change in him from that time on things were not going well at the treasury
schwartz and his crowd were making demands that were hard to supply and
he employed a man to protect him a man named carter who had been a bartender in plattsburg when things began to happen here in manchester he took carter to the home as a butler then the borough bank got shaky
if it went down there would be an ugly scandal and fleming would go too his notes for half a million were there without security and he dared not show the canceled notes he had with schwartz's indorsement
he stopped his nervous pacing and stood looking down at her i was engaged to marry a girl who was everything on earth to me and i was private secretary to the state treasurer
with the princely salary of such a position mister fleming came back here when the borough bank threatened failure and tried to get money enough to tide over the trouble
and butler was innocent he raised a little money here and i went to plattsburg with securities and letters
i brought back one hundred and ten thousand dollars in a package in my russia leather bag and i had something else he wavered for the first time in his recital he went on more rapidly
and without looking at either of us i carried not in the valise a bundle of letters five in all which had been written by henry butler to mister fleming letters that showed what a dupe butler had been that he had been negligent but not criminal accusing fleming of having ruined him
things would have been different were you going to sell the letters margery demanded with quick scorn i intended to but i didn't it was a little bit too dirty after all
as i came up from the train the night i got here from plattsburg she had offered to buy the letters and i had brought them to sell to her and then at the last minute i lied i said i couldn't get them that they were locked in the monmouth avenue house
i put her in a taxicab that she had waiting and she went back to town
well mister fleming was your father margery i couldn't hurt you like that do you think missus butler took your leather bag i asked i do not think so
my hand was cramped from holding it when she gave up in despair at last and went back to the city what did you do with the letters she wanted i kept them with me that night and the next morning hid them in the secret closet that was when i dropped my fountain pen
and the pearls margery asked suddenly when did you get them harry to my surprise his face did not change he appeared to be thinking two days before i left he said
we were using every method to get money and your father said to sacrifice them if necessary my father
did you think i stole them he demanded and i confess that i was ashamed to say i had thought precisely that your father gave me nine unmounted pearls to sell he reiterated
margery looked at me i think she was fairly stunned to learn that her father had married again that he had been the keystone in an arch of villainy that with him gone was now about to fall and to associate him with so small and mean a thing
he thought what you all thought wardrop said bitterly he accused me of stealing the money i felt worse than a thief he was desperate and i took his revolver from him
but when i suggested that she wait for the rest of the story she refused vehemently i came back here to bellwood and the first thing i learned was about miss jane when i saw the blood print on the stair rail
i thought she was murdered and i had more than i could stand i took the letters out of the secret closet before i could show it to you and hunter and later i put them in the leather bag i gave you and locked it
you have it haven't you knox i nodded as for that night at the club
not all the truth i suppose i am a coward but i was afraid to if you knew schwartz you would understand with the memory of his huge figure and the heavy under shot face that i had seen the night before
i could understand very well knowing wardrop i went to that room at the white cat that night because i was afraid not to go fleming might kill himself or some one else i went up the stairs slowly and i heard no shot
at the door i hesitated then opened it quietly the door into the built in staircase was just closing it must have taken me only an instant to realize what had happened fleming was swaying forward as i caught him
i jumped to the staircase and looked down but i was too late the door below had closed i knew in another minute who had been there and escaped it was raining you remember and schwartz had forgotten to take his umbrella
with his name on the handle schwartz
he demanded i have been under surveillance every minute since that night there's probably some one hanging around the gate now anyhow i was
i hardly remember what i did
took the umbrella with me and left it in the vestibule of the first house i saw with a doctor's sign i rang the bell like a crazy man and then hunter came along and said to go back doctor gray was at the club that is all i know
i'm not proud of it margery
it clears up something but not all it doesn't tell where aunt jane is or who has the hundred thousand but it does show who killed your father
and if you know what is good for you knox you will let it go at that you can't fight the police and the courts single handed look how the whole thing was dropped and the most cold blooded kind of murder turned into suicide suicide without a weapon
i am not so sure about schwartz i said thoughtfully
chapter thirty three the jump he brought satan back to a hand canter and so he pulled around the next curve of the gulch and saw the trap squarely in front he came to a full halt
for he saw a tall strong barbed wire fence stretching across the stream bed and beyond the fence were a litter of chicken coops iron bands from broken barrels and a thousand other of those things which brand the typical western farm yard
above the top of the bank to his left he caught a glimpse of the sharp roof of the house he looked back but it was far too late to turn ride down the ravine to a place where the bank could be scaled and cut across country once more
the posse came like a whirlwind yelling shooting as if they hoped to attract attention and attention they certainly won for now dan saw a tall middle aged fellow his long beard blowing over one shoulder as he ran
come down into the farm yard with a double barreled shotgun in his hands he was a type of those who do not know what it is to miss their target probably because ammunition comes so high and with a double load of buckshot it was literally death to come within his range
but it is suicide to flirt with a shotgun in the hands of one used to bring down doves as they sloped out of the air toward a water hole the farmer stood with his broad brimmed straw hat pushed far back on his head looking up and down the ravine a perfect target
and barry's hand slipped automatically over his rifle his fingers refused to close upon it i can't do it satan he whispered we got to take our chances of gettin by that's all he couldn't have no hand with grey molly
a wild cheer rose from the posse and came echoing about him they had sighted their quarry from rickett to morgan hills from morgan hills to saint vincent
but this was the end of an historic run d'ye see whispered barry leaning close to satan's ears lad d'ye see what you've got to do the black stood with his head very high quivering through his whole body while he eyed the fence
it was murderously high and all things were against him the long run the rise of the ground going toward the fence and the gravel from which he must take off for the jump you can do it said the master you got to do it
go for it boy we win or lose together he swayed forward and satan leaped ahead at full speed gathering impetus scattering the gravel on either side
the farmer on the inside of the fence raised his shotgun leisurely to his shoulder and took a careful aim he knew what it all meant he had heard of the outlaw barry with his black horse and his wolf dog everyone in the desert had for that matter
and even had he been ignorant the shouting of the posse which now raced down the canyon in full view would have told him all that he needed to know how many things went through his mind while he squinted down the gleaming barrel
he thought of the long labor on the farm and the mortgage which still ate the life of his produce every year he thought of the narrow bowed shoulders of his wife he thought of the meager faces of his children
and he thought first and last of ten thousand dollars reward no wonder the hand which supported the barrels was steady as an iron prop he was shooting for his life and the happiness of five souls
he would save his fire till he literally saw the white of the enemy's eyes until the outlaw reached the fence no horse on the mountain desert could top that highest strand of wire as he very well knew and in his youth back in kentucky
he had ridden hunters that fence came exactly to the top of his head and the top of his head was six feet and two inches from the ground
to make assurance doubly sure he dropped upon one knee and made that shotgun an unstirring part and portion of himself nobly nobly the black came on his ears pricking as he judged the great task
and his head carried a little high and back as any good jumper knows his head must be carried the practiced eye of the farmer watched the outlaw gather his horse under him
well he knew the meaning of that shortening grip on the reins to give the horse the last little lift that might mean success or failure in the jump well he knew that rise in the stirrups that leaning forward and his heart rose in unison
and went back to the blue grass of kentucky glittering in the sun before them went the wolf dog skimming low reached the fence and shot over it in a graceful high arched curve then the shout of the rider up up
and the stallion reared and leaped he seemed to graze it coming up so close was his take off he seemed to be pawing his way over with the forefeet and then with both legs doubled close
quivering and humming the farmer hurled his best shotgun a dozen yards away and threw up his hat go it lad god bless ye and good luck
the hand of the rider lifted in mute acknowledgment and as he shot past the farmer caught a glimpse of a delicately handsome face that smiled down at him the left gate the left gate
he shouted through his cupped hands and as the fugitive rushed through the upper gate he turned to face the posse which was already pulling up at the fence and drawing their wirecutters as barry shot out onto the higher ground on the other side of the farmhouse
he could see them severing the wires and the interruption of the chase would be only a matter of seconds but seconds counted triply now and the halt and the time they would spend getting up impetus all told in favor of the fugitive
thirty five miles or thereabouts since they left rickett that morning and still the black ran smoothly with a lilt to his gallop dan barry lifted his head and his whistling soared and pulsed and filled the air
it made bart come back to him it made satan toss his head and glance at the master from the corner of his bright eye for this was an assurance that the battle was over and the rest not far away on they drove
straight as a bird flies for caswell city and black bart ranging ahead among the hills was picking the way once more
the sweep of his stride brushed him past rocks and shrubs and he literally flowed uphill and down far different from the horses which scampered in his rear for they pounded the earth with their efforts grunting under the weight of fifty pound saddles and heavy riders
another handicap checked them for while satan ran on alone freely the bunched pursuers kept a continual friction back and forth the leaders reined in to keep back with the mass of the posse and those in the rear by dint of hard spurring
would rush up to the front in turn until some spirited nag challenged for the lead so that there was a steady interplay among the fifteen
but even that pace was diminished by the difficulties of group riding yet mark retherton refused to allow his men to scatter and stretch out he kept them in hand steadily a bunched unit ready to strike together
for he had seen the dead body of pete glass and he kept in mind a picture of what might happen if this fellow should whirl and pick off the posse man by man
better prolong the run for in the end no single horse could stand up against so many relays yet it was maddening to watch the stallion float over hill and dale with that same unbroken stride
in a sprinting burst but each time the black drifted farther away and mile after mile mark retherton pulled his field glasses to his eyes and strained his vision to make out some sign of labor in the gait of satan
there was no change his head was still high the rhythm of his lope unfaltering
two score or more besides the fifteen fresh horses for the posse two score of men at least caswell could send out and from the heights they could surely detect the coming of barry and plant themselves in his way an ambush a volley
would end this famous ride the hills came up on them swiftly now and if the men of caswell failed in their duty it meant safety for the fugitive because two miles beyond were the willows of the marshes and the fords across the asper river
there could only be two alternatives since not a man showed on the hills either they waited in ambush or else they had mistaken the route along which barry would come and the latter was hardly possible
with his glasses mark retherton scanned the hills anxiously and it was then that he saw the dark form of the wolf dog skulking on before the outlaw he had watched black bart before this of course but never with suspicion
until he noted the peculiar manner in which the animal skirted here and there through the rough ground pausing on high places weaving back and forth across the course of his master like a scout thought retherton
and by god there he comes to report for black bart had whirled and raced straight back for dan
the speed of his running meant business and barry shortened the pace of satan while he looked over the hills incredulous despairing
to warn them of his coming nevertheless there came bart with the ill tidings and it only remained to skirt swiftly east round the dangerous ground and strike the marshes first he swung satan around on the new course with a pressure of his knees
and loosed him into a freer gallop they must have sensed the meaning of this maneuver at once for hardly had he stretched out east when voices shouted out of the hills and around and over several low knolls came forty horsemen racing
joan disobeys what he next knew was a fire of agony that wrapped his whole body and consciousness flashed back on him strong arms lifted him up up above him he sensed the eyes of his torturer
dim in moonlight and he beat his clubbed left fist into that face after that he knew he was being dragged onto a saddle but a wave of pain rushed up his side and numbed his brain thereafter his senses returned by fits and starts
vaguely once he felt a steel cable that girdled his waist and breast and held him erect though his head flopped back and forth once his eyes opened and above him glittered the bright field of stars towards which he drifted through space
a mind without a body once a stab of torment wakened him enough to hear easy satan watch them stones one more jolt like that will send him clear to and the voice glided into an eternity of distance
became aware of golden hair around a woman's face and a marvelous soft cool hand upon his forehead her voice reached him too and made him think of all things musical all things distant
like the sounds of birds falling from the sky and though he understood not a syllable a sweet assurance of safety flooded through him he slept
when he woke again it was from a dream of fleeing through empty air swifter than the wind with a wolf dog looming behind him out of space but presently he found that he was lying in a bed
with a stream of sunlight washing across a white coverlet a door at his right swung open and there in the entrance stood the wolf dog of his vision with a five year old girl upon its back
don't go in there bart whispered the child
with a speed which the eye could not follow twisted his head and the rows of great teeth closed over her hand it was so horrible that the cry froze in the throat of gregg yet the child
with only a little murmur of anger reached over with her other hand and caught the wolf by the nose
and raised the hand which he instantly released white marks showed on the pudgy tan bad dog she repeated and beat his neck with an impotent little fist the wolf dog cringed and turned from the door come in
invited gregg he was surprised to find his voice thin apt to swing up to a high pitch beyond his control a shower of golden curls tossed away from her face as she looked to him oh
she cried still with a guarded voice she leaned far over one hand buried in the ruff of bart's neck to secure her balance and with the other she laid hold of his right ear and drew him around facing the door once more
this time he showed his teeth but submitted only twitching the ear back and forth a time or two when she relaxed her hold
repeated gregg she canted her head to one side and considered him with fearless blue eyes i want to she sighed why can't you honey munner says no
he attempted to turn further towards her but the pain in his right shoulder prevented he found that his arm was bandaged to the elbow and held close to his side
who is your mother asked vic munner she repeated frowning in wonder why munner is my munner oh smiled he and who's your pa
what who's your father who's your dad daddy dan you ask a lot of things she added disapprovingly come on in pleaded vic gregg
and i won't ask nothin more about you munner says no she repeated she employed the moment of indecision by plucking at the hair of bart's shoulders he growled softly terribly
but she paid not the slightest heed your mother won't care asserted vic i know she nodded but daddy will spanking she looked blankly at him
i'll take all the blame just you come along in and he'll do his lookin at me he thought of the slender fellow who had rescued him and his large gentle brown eyes
but to a child even those mild eyes might seem terrible with authority will you true said the child wistfully honest and true
and she thumped the wolf dog vigorously with her heels he carried her in with a few gliding steps soundless
but he stopped well out of reach of the bed
bart winced and gave harsh warning vic had seen vicious dogs in his day seen them fighting seen them playing but he had never heard one of them growl like this the upper lips of the animal twitched dangerously back
and the sound came from the very depths of his body it made the flesh crawl along vic's back one rip of those great teeth could tear a man's throat open the child thudded her heels against the ribs of bart again
giddap she cried the wolf dog shuddered but would not budge an inch naughty bart she slipped off to the floor i'll make him come she said
if it's the same to you said vic rather hastily i'd just as soon he stayed where he is he's got to do what i want she answered she shook a tiny forefinger at him bart you just come here
she ordered and struck him sharply on the nose he blinked and lowered his head under the blow but though the snarling stopped his teeth flashed she caught him by both jowls and tugged him forward
let him be urged vic he's got to come and come he did step by halting step while she hauled him and now the snarling hoarse intakes of breath filled the room
once she moved a little to one side and vic caught the glint of two eyes red stained which were fixed undeviatingly upon her face mixed with vic's alarm at the great fighting beast
was a peculiar uneasiness for there was something uncanny in the determination the fearlessness of this infant when she stepped away the wolf dog stood trembling visibly but his eyes
were still not upon the man he hated or feared to approach but upon the child's face can you pat him now she asked not for an instant turning to gregg
he's got to come she stamped bart
bart her hands were clenched and her little body quivered with resolution the snake like head came to the very edge of the bed now pat him she commanded by very unpleasant degrees
vic stretched his hand towards that growling menace he'll take my arm off he complained shame kept him from utterly refusing the risk he won't bite you one bit declared the child
but i'll hold his nose if you're afraid and instantly she clasped the pointed muzzle between her hands even when vic's hand hovered above his head bart had no eye for him
once twice and again delicately as one might handle bubbles gregg touched that scarred forehead i made him come didn't i she cried in triumph
and turned a tense little face towards vic but the instant her eyes moved the wolf dog leaped away half the width of the room and stood shivering more devilish than ever she stamped again bad
bad bad bart she said angrily shall i make him come again leave him be muttered vic closing his eyes leave him be where he is i don't want him oh she said
it's hard to make him do things sometimes but daddy dan can make him do anything humph grunted vic he was remembering how at the master's order
bart had crouched at his feet in the wood an unchained murderer hungrily waiting for an excuse to kill there was something very odd about the people of this house and it would be a long time before he rid himself
of the impression of the cold steady eyes which had flashed up to him a moment before out of that baby face joan called a voice from beyond
and the soft fiber of it made vic certain that it belonged to the rider of the black stallion the little girl ran a step towards the door and then stopped and shrank back against the bed
if you're afraid your dad'll find you here said vic just you run along she was nervously twisting her hands in her dress daddy dan'll know she whispered without turning and
and he won't let me be afraid even of him a small hand slipped up fumbled a bit found the thumb of vic gregg and closed softly over it
some hunting stories for children the heavenly twins had been off in the mountains during their summer holiday and in consequence had seen very little of their good old friend mister munchausen he had written them once or twice
and they had found his letters most interesting especially that one in which he told how he had killed a moose up in maine with his waterbury watch spring and i do not wonder that they marvelled at that for it was one of the most extraordinary happenings in the annals of the chase
it seems if his story is to be believed and i am sure that none of us who know him has ever had any reason to think that he would deceive intentionally it seems i say that he had gone to maine for a week's sport with an old army acquaintance of his
who had now become a guide in that region unfortunately his rifle of which he was very fond and with which his aim was unerring was in some manner mislaid on the way and when they arrived in the woods they were utterly without weapons
but mister munchausen was not the man to be daunted by any such trifle as that particularly while his friend had an old army musket a relic of the war
said the old guide ain't so much that she won't shoot straight nor that she's got a kick onto her like an unbroke mule
for the fact is we ain't got nothin for to bust her with seein as how ammynition is skeerce i got powder an i got waddin but i ain't got no shot that doesn't make any difference the baron replied we can make the shot have you got any plumbing in the camp
if you have rip it out and i'll melt up a water pipe into bullets no sir retorted the old man
and i can spare it with this determination mister munchausen took his watch to pieces an ordinary time piece of the old fashioned kind and to make a long story short shot for several days with the component parts of that useful affair
rammed down into the barrel of the old musket with the stem winding ball he killed an eagle with pieces of the back cover chopped up to a fineness of medium sized shot he brought down several other birds but the great feat of all
was when he started for moose with nothing but the watch spring in the barrel of the gun having rolled it up as tight as he could fastened it with a piece of twine and rammed it well into the gun he set out to find the noble animal upon whose life he had designs
after stalking the woods for several hours he came upon the tracks which told him that his prey was not far off and in a short while he caught sight of a magnificent creature his huge antlers held proudly up and his great eyes full of defiance
for a moment the baron hesitated the idea of destroying so beautiful an animal seemed to be abhorrent to his nature which warrior like as he is has something of the tenderness of a woman about it a second glance at the superb creature however changed all that
for the baron then saw that to shoot to kill was necessary for the beast was about to force a fight in which the hunter himself would be put upon the defensive i won't shoot you through the head my beauty he said softly nor will i puncture your beautiful coat with this load of mine
but i'll kill you in a new way with this he pulled the trigger the powder exploded the string binding the long black spring into a coil broke and immediately the strip of steel shot forth into the air made directly toward the neck of the rushing moose
and coiling its whole sinuous length tightly about the doomed creature's throat strangled him to death as the twins father said a feat of that kind entitled the baron to a high place in fiction at least if not in history itself
the twins were very much wrought up over the incident particularly when one too smart small imp who was spending the summer at the same hotel where they were said that he didn't believe it but he was an imp who had never seen a cheap watch so how should he know anything
about what could be done with a spring that cannot be wound up by a great strong man in less than ten minutes as for the baron he was very modest about the achievement for when he first appeared at the twins home after their return he had actually forgotten all about it and in fact
until diavolo brought him his own letter when of course the whole matter came back to him it wasn't so very wonderful anyhow said the baron i should not think for instance of bragging about any such thing as that it was a simple affair all through
and what did you do with the moose's antlers asked angelica
i wanted to said the baron stroking the twins soft brown locks affectionately i wanted to bring them home for your father to use as a hat rack dear but they were too large when i had removed them from the dead animal i found them so large
that i could not get them out of the forest they got so tangled up in the trees
clear a path twenty feet wide and seven miles long to get them even as far as my friend's hut and after that they would have had to be carried thirty miles through the woods to the express office i guess it's just as well after all said diavolo
exactly said the baron exactly that same idea occurred to me and for that reason i concluded not to go to the trouble of cutting away those miles of trees the antlers would have made a very expensive present for your father to receive in these hard times
the twins observed after thinking over the baron's adventure if you hadn't had that you couldn't have killed the moose very likely not said the baron unless i had been able to do as i did in india thirty years ago at a man hunt what cried the twins
do they hunt men in india that all depends my dears replied the baron it all depends upon what you mean by the word they men don't hunt men but animals great wild beasts sometimes hunt them and it doesn't often happen that the men escape
in the particular man hunt i refer to i was the creature that was being hunted and i've had a good deal of sympathy for foxes ever since this was a regular fox hunt in a way although i was the fox and a herd of elephants were the huntsmen how queer said diavolo
unscrewing one of the baron's shirt studs to see if he would fall apart not half so queer as my feelings when i realised my position said the baron with a shake of his head i was frightened half to death it seemed to me that i'd reached the end of my tether at last
i was studying the fauna and flora of india in a small indian village
no that isn't quite it however one name does as well as another in india it was a good many miles from calcutta and i'd been living there about three months the village lay in a small valley between two ranges of hills none of them very high
on the other side of the westerly hills was a great level stretch of country upon which herds of elephants used to graze out of this rose these hills very precipitously which was a very good thing for the people in the valley else those elephants
would have come over and played havoc with their homes and crops to me the plains had a great fascination and i used to wander over them day after day in search of new specimens for my collection of plants and flowers never thinking of the danger i ran from an encounter with these elephants
who were very ferocious and extremely jealous of the territory they had come through years of occupation to regard as their own so it happened that one day late in the afternoon i was returning from an expedition over the plains and
as i had found a large number of new specimens i was feeling pretty happy i whistled loudly as i walked when suddenly coming to a slight undulation in the plain what should i see before me but a herd of sixty three elephants
some eating some thinking some romping and some lying asleep on the soft turf now if i had come quietly of course
but as i told you i was whistling i forget what the tune was
which enrages the elephants very much being the national anthem of the british invader at any rate
and then their sport began the leader lifted his trunk high in the air and let out a trumpet blast that echoed back from the cliff three miles distant instantly every elephant was on the alert those that had been sleeping awoke and sprang to their feet
and i saw in an instant that without stratagem i could not hope to reach a place of safety as i have said the cliff which rose straight up from the plain like a stone wall was three miles away nor was there any other spot in which i could find a refuge
it occurred to me as i ran that if i ran in circles i could edge up nearer to the cliff all the time and still keep my pursuers at a distance for the simple reason that an elephant being more or less unwieldy cannot turn as rapidly as a man can
so i kept running in circles i could run around my short circle in less time than the enemy could run around his larger one and in this manner i got nearer and nearer my haven of safety the bellowing beasts snorting with rage as they followed
finally when i began to see that i was tolerably safe another idea occurred to me which was that if i could manage to kill those huge creatures the ivory i could get would make my fortune but how that was the question well my dearly beloved imps
i admit that i am a fast runner but i am also a fast thinker and in less than two minutes i had my plan arranged i stopped short when about two hundred feet from the cliff and waited until the herd was fifty feet away
then i turned about and ran with all my might up to within two feet of the cliff and then turning sharply to the left ran off in that direction the elephants thinking they had me redoubled their speed but failed to notice that i had turned
so quickly was that movement executed
that was fine said the twins what a narrow escape it was for you uncle munch said diavolo very true said the great soldier rising as a signal that his story was done in fact you might say that i had sixty three narrow escapes one for each elephant
but what became of the ivory asked angelica oh as for that said the baron with a sigh i was disappointed in that they turned out to be all young elephants and they had lost their first teeth their second teeth hadn't grown yet
chapter twenty five dry sherry pratt wasted no time in cursing missus murgatroyd there would be plenty of opportunity for such relief to his feelings later on just then he had other matters to occupy him fully
he tore the indignant letter to shreds he hastily thrust the bank notes into one pocket and drew his keys from another within five minutes he had taken from his safe a sealed packet which he placed in an inside pocket of his coat and had left his office
for the last time as he knew very well that part of the game was up and it was necessary to be smart in entering on another phase of it since eldrick's visit of the previous day pratt had been prepared for all eventuality
he had made ready for flight and he was not going empty handed he had a considerable amount of missus mallathorpe's money in his possession by obtaining her signature to one or two documents he could easily obtain much more in london at an hour's notice
those documents were all ready and in the sealed packet which he had just taken from the safe in it too were some other documents john mallathorpe's will the letter which missus mallathorpe had written to him on the evening previous to her son's fatal accident
and the power of attorney which pratt had obtained from her at his first interview after that occurrence all was ready and now there was nothing to do but to get to normandale grange see missus mallathorpe and vanish
he had planned it all out carefully when he perceived the first danger signals and knew that his other plans and schemes were doomed to failure half an hour at normandale grange a journey to london
and then the next train to the continent on his way to regions much further off here things had turned out badly unexpectedly badly but he would carry away considerable easily transported wealth to a new career in a new country
pratt began his flight in methodical fashion he locked up his office and left the building by a back entrance which took him into a network of courts and alleys at the rear of the business part of barford
he made his way in and out of these places until he reached a bicycle dealer's shop in an obscure street whereat he had left a machine of his own on the previous evening under the excuse of having it thoroughly cleaned and oiled it was all ready for him on his arrival
and he presently mounted it and rode away through the outskirts of the town carefully choosing the less frequented streets and roads he rode on until he was clear of barford until in fact he was some miles from it
and had reached a village which was certainly not on the way to normandale and then at the post office he dismounted and going inside wrote out and dispatched a telegram it was a brief message containing but three words one as usual
and it was addressed esther mawson the grange normandale this done he remounted his bicycle rode out of the village
in quite a different direction it was not yet ten o'clock he had three hours to spare before the time came for keeping the appointment which he had just made at an early stage of his operations pratt had found that even the cleverest of schemers cannot work unaided
it had been absolutely necessary to have some tool close at hand to normandale grange and its inhabitants to have some person there upon whom he could depend for news he had found that person that tool in esther mawson
who as missus mallathorpe's maid had opportunities which he at once recognized as being likely to be of the greatest value to him the circumstances of harper mallathorpe's death had thrown pratt and the maid together and he had quickly discovered that she was to be bought
and would do anything for money he had soon come to an understanding with her soon bargained with her and made her a willing accomplice in certain of his schemes without letting her know their full meaning and extent all indeed that she had learned from pratt
was that he had some considerable hold on her mistress but it is dangerous work to play with edged tools and if pratt had only known it he was running great risks in using esther mawson as a semi accomplice esther mawson was in constant touch with her mistress
and missus mallathorpe afraid of her daughter and not greatly in sympathy with her badly needed a confidante little by little the mistress began to confide in the maid and before long esther mawson knew the secret and thenceforward she played a double game
pratt found her useful in arranging meetings with missus mallathorpe unknown to nesta and he believed her to be devoted to him but the truth was that esther mawson had only one object of devotion herself
and she was waiting and watching for an opportunity to benefit that object at pratt's expense pratt knew nothing of this as he slowly made his way to normandale that morning having plenty of time he went by devious and lonely roads and by lanes
eventually he came to the boundary of normandale park at a point far away from the grange there he dismounted hid his bicycle in a coppice wherein he had often left it before and went on towards the house through the woods and plantations
he knew every yard of the ground he traversed and was skilled in taking cover if he saw any sign of woodman or gamekeeper and in the end just as one o'clock chimed from the clock over the stables he came to a quiet spot in the shrubberies behind the grange and found esther mawson
and similar occasions esther mawson immediately realized that something unusual was in the air clever as pratt was at concealing his feelings she was cleverer in seeing small signs and she saw that this was no ordinary visit anything wrong
she asked at once bit of bother nothing much it'll blow over answered pratt who knew that a certain amount of candour was necessary in dealing with this woman but i shall have to be away for a bit
you want to see her inquired esther of course i've some papers for her to sign replied pratt how do things stand coast clear miss mallathorpe's going into barford after lunch answered esther
she'll be driving in about half past two i can manage it then how long shall you want to be with
ten minutes if it comes to that and after that asked esther then i want to get a train at scaleby replied pratt mentioning a railway junction which lay ten miles across country in another direction so make it as soon after two thirty as you can
you can see her as soon as miss mallathorpe's gone said esther you'd better come into the house i've got the key of the turret door and all's clear the servants are all at dinner i could do with something myself observed pratt who in his anxiety
esther mawson led the way along this until she and pratt came to a turret in the grey walls in the lower story of which a massive oaken door heavily clamped with iron gave entrance to a winding stair locked it from inside when she and pratt had entered
and preceded her companion up the stair and across one or two empty and dust covered chambers to a small room in which a few pieces of ancient furniture were slowly dropping to decay pratt had taken refuge in this room before and he sat down in one of the old chairs
and mopped his forehead i want something to drink above everything he remarked what can you get nothing but wine answered esther mawson as much as you like of that because i've a stock that's kept up in missus mallathorpe's room
i couldn't get any ale without going to the butler i can get wine and sandwiches without anybody knowing that'll do said pratt what sort of wine port sherry claret she replied whichever you like sherry then answered pratt
bring a bottle if you can get it i want a good drink the woman went away through the disused part of the old house into the modern portion she went straight to a certain store closet and took from it a bottle of old dry sherry which had been brought there from a bin in the cellars
it was part of a quantity of fine wine laid down by john mallathorpe years before and its original owner would have been disgusted to think that it should ever be used for the mere purpose of quenching thirst but esther mawson
carrying it to her own sitting room she carefully cut off the thick mass of sealing wax at its neck drew the cork and poured a little of the wine away and that done she unlocked a small box which stood on a corner of her dressing table
pratt would suspect nothing even if he drunk the whole bottle esther mawson had anticipated pratt's desires in the way of refreshment and she now went to a cupboard and took from it a plate of sandwiches carefully swathed in a napkin
she stole quietly back to the disused part of the house and set her provender before its expectant consumer pratt poured out a glassful of the sherry and drank it eagerly
some of old john mallathorpe's no doubt it was here when we came anyhow replied esther well i shall have to go
agreed esther i heard her order the carriage for half past two
asked pratt that butler man for instance or servants i'll see to it replied esther reassuringly i'll lock this door and take the key until i come back make yourself comfortable she locked pratt in the old room and went off
and the willing prisoner ate his sandwiches and drank his sherry and looked out of a mullioned window on the wide stretches of park and coppice and the breezy moorlands beyond he indulged in some reflections not wholly devoid of sentiment
he had cherished dreams of becoming the virtual owner of normandale always confident in his own powers he had believed that with time and patience he could have persuaded nesta mallathorpe to marry him why not now
all owing to that cursed and unfortunate contretemps with parrawhite that seemed utterly impossible all he could do now was to save himself and to take as much as he could get more than once that morning as he made his way across country
he had remembered parrawhite's advice to take cash and be done with it perhaps he reflected it might have been better still when he presently began his final retreat he would carry away with him a lot of the mallathorpe money
but before long pratt indulged in no more reflections sentiment or practical he had eaten all his sandwiches he had drunk three quarters of the bottle of sherry and suddenly he felt unusually drowsy and he laid his head back in his big chair
he took a chair at the table his bright bird's glance wandering from one to the other of the faces opposite him as he smoothed with one claw like hand the thatch of iron grey hair which hung down over his forehead almost to his eyes
and then give us an account of the subsequent events so far as you know them said the chief constable i was down near the breakwater yesterday evening setting some eel lines in the canal when he arrived commenced the innkeeper
when i came in charles that's the waiter told me there was a young gentleman in the bar parlour waiting to see me i went into the parlour and saw the young man sitting near the door he looked very tired and weary
and said he wished to stay at the inn for the night how was he dressed asked superintendent galloway looking up from his note book in a grey norfolk suit with knickerbockers and a soft felt hat had you ever seen him before
with no accommodation for gentlefolk at the best of times let alone war time the young gentleman said he was very tired and would sleep anywhere and was not particular about food he told me he had lost his way on the marshes
and a fisherman had directed him to the inn did he say where he had come from asked the chief constable no sir and i didn't think to ask him i might have done so but mister glenthorpe walked into the parlour just then
carrying some partridges in his hand he didn't see the young gentleman at first he was sitting in the corner behind the door but told me to have one of the partridges cooked for his dinner they had just been given to him
he said by the farmer whose land he was going to excavate next week as he turned to go out he saw the young gentleman sitting in the corner and he said in his hearty way good evening sir
it is not often that we have any society in these parts the young gentleman told him what he had told me how he had wandered away from durrington and got lost and had come to the inn in the hopes of getting a bed for the night
glad to see a civilised human being in these parts said mister glenthorpe i hope you'll give me the pleasure of your company at dinner benson tell ann to cook another partridge
i don't know whether the innkeeper will allow me that pleasure replied the young gentleman he says he cannot put me up for the night of course he'll put you up said mister glenthorpe not even a norfolk innkeeper would turn you out
on to the north sea marshes at this time of year that settled the question because i couldn't afford to offend mister glenthorpe and besides his providing the dinner helped me out of a difficulty so i went out to give orders about the dinner
leaving mister glenthorpe and him sitting together talking did you get him to fill in a registration form asked superintendent galloway i forgot to ask him sir replied the innkeeper that is gross and inexcusable carelessness on your part benson
said galloway sternly i shall have to report it i do not understand much about these things sir replied the innkeeper apologetically it is so rarely that we have a visitor to the place the authorities will hold you responsible
if they are not carried out you innkeepers and hotel keepers
go on with your story benson he and mister glenthorpe had dinner together in the little upstairs sitting room which mister glenthorpe kept for his own private use he did his writing in it and the flints and fossils he discovered in his excavations
were stored in the cupboards his meals were always taken up there and last night he ordered the dinner to be taken up there as usual and the table to be laid for two charles waited at table but i was up there twice
first time with some sherry and the second time was about an hour afterwards when the gentlemen had finished dinner i took up a bottle of some old brandy that the inn used to be famous for it's the same that you gentlemen have been drinking
when i knocked at the door with the brandy it was mister glenthorpe who called come in he was standing in front of the fire with a fossil in his hand and he was telling the young man about how he came to discover it
i put the brandy on the table and left the room that was the last time i saw him alive charles came down with the dinner things about half past nine and said he was not wanted upstairs any more charles went to bed shortly afterwards
he sleeps in one of the two rooms off the kitchen i went to my own bedroom before ten after first telling ann the servant who was doing some ironing in the kitchen to turn off the gas at the meter if the gentlemen retired before she finished
but not to bother if they were still sitting up it had been decided that the young gentleman should occupy the bedroom next to mister glenthorpe and ann was a bit late with her ordinary work because it had taken her some time to get his room ready
the room had not been occupied for some time and she'd had to air the bed clothes and make the bed afresh the next morning i was a bit late getting down there's nothing to open the inn for in the mornings and ann told me
as soon as i got down that the young gentleman had left nearly an hour before she had taken him up an early cup of tea at seven o'clock and he opened the door to her knock and took it from her he was fully dressed except for his boots
which he had in his hand and he asked her to clean them as he wanted to leave at once she was walking away with the boots when he called her back and took them from her saying that it didn't matter about cleaning them as he was in a hurry
but he always breakfasted in his room that would be about eight o'clock she thought it strange to see the key in the door
she came downstairs and told me i thought at first that mister glenthorpe might have got up early to go and look at his excavations but i went up to his room and saw the signs of a struggle and blood stains on the bed clothes
and i knew that something must have happened to him i went into the village and told constable queensmead he came to the inn and made a search inside and outside and found the footprints leading to the pit on the rise
one of mister glenthorpe's men who had been down the pit for flints was lowered by a rope and brought up the body the innkeeper took a leather wallet from his pocket
this is the note the young gentleman left behind with ann to pay his bill he explained pushing it across the table to the chief constable i would draw your attention sir to the fact that this treasury note is one of the first issue
printed in black on white paper remarked superintendent galloway to his superior officer
that money is missing from the dead man's effects
and took a note of the number and held it up to the light to see the watermark did you or the servant find any weapon in mister glenthorpe's room asked the chief constable no sir
asked superintendent galloway yes sir what sort of a knife a table knife
yes sir at least charles says so he has charge of the cutlery then charles had better tell us about it
you say you went to bed before ten o'clock benson did you hear anything in the night no sir i fell asleep almost immediately my room is a good distance from mister glenthorpe's room i do not think we have any more questions to ask you benson
pardon the curiosity of a medical man mister cromering remarked sir henry but would it be possible to ask the innkeeper whether he noticed anything peculiar about mister ronald's demeanour when he arrived at the inn or when he saw him at dinner subsequently
you hear that question benson said the chief constable did you notice anything strange about mister ronald's conduct when first he came to the inn or at any time i cannot say i did sir i thought he looked very tired when he first came into the inn
he seemed quite sane and rational quite sir did you notice any symptoms of mental disturbance or irritability about him at any time struck in sir henry durwood
no sir he was a little bit angry at first when i said i couldn't take him in but he struck me as quite cool and collected sir henry looked a little disappointed at this reply he asked no more questions but entered a note in a small note book which he took from his waistcoat pocket
mister cromering intimated to the innkeeper that he had finished questioning him and would like to examine the waiter charles if you wouldn't mind pulling the bell rope behind you sir hinted the innkeeper in response to a pull at the old fashioned bell rope
the stout country servant who had been washing greens in the kitchen entered the room where is charles ann asked the innkeeper he's in the kitchen replied the woman nervously then tell him he is wanted here immediately
remarked superintendent galloway in his loud voice as the woman went away on her errand
what does he wait on if not the bar parlour charles is stone deaf sir
to these in the morning i sent the captain who was to enter into a parley with them in a word to try them and tell me whether he thought they might be trusted or not to go on board and surprise the ship he talked to them of the injury done him
of the condition they were brought to and that though the governor had given them quarter for their lives as to the present action yet that if they were sent to england they would all be hanged in chains but that if they would join in so just an attempt
as to recover the ship he would have the governor's engagement for their pardon any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by men in their condition they fell down on their knees to the captain
and promised with the deepest imprecations that they would be faithful to him to the last drop and that they should owe their lives to him and would go with him all over the world that they would own him as a father to them as long as they lived
well says the captain i must go and tell the governor what you say and see what i can do to bring him to consent to it so he brought me an account of the temper he found them in and that he verily believed they would be faithful
i told him he should go back again and choose out those five and tell them that they might see he did not want men
the five hostages should be hanged in chains alive on the shore this looked severe and convinced them that the governor was in earnest however they had no way left them but accept it
and it was now the business of the prisoners as much as of the captain to persuade the other five to do their duty our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition first the captain his mate and passenger second the two prisoners of the first gang
to whom having their character from the captain i had given their liberty and trusted them with arms third the other two that i had kept till now in my bower pinioned but on the captain's motion had now released fourth
these five released at last so that there were twelve in all besides five we kept prisoners in the cave for hostages i asked the captain if he were willing to venture with these hands on board the ship
but as for me and my man friday i did not think it was proper for us to stir having seven men left behind and it was employment enough for us to keep them asunder and supply them with victuals as to the five in the cave
i resolved to keep them fast but friday went in twice a day to them to supply them with necessaries and i made the other two carry provisions to a certain distance where friday was to take them
when i showed myself to the two hostages it was with the captain who told them i was the person the governor had ordered to look after them and that it was the governor's pleasure they should not stir anywhere but at my direction that if they did
they would be fetched into the castle and be laid in irons so that as we never suffered them to see me as governor i now appeared as another person and spoke of the governor the garrison the castle and the like upon all occasions
the captain now had no difficulty before him but to furnish his two boats stop the breach of one and man them he made his passenger captain of one with four of the men and himself his mate and five more
and they contrived their business very well for they came up to the ship about midnight as soon as they came within call of the ship he made robinson hail them and tell them they had brought off the men and the boat but that it was a long time before they had found them
being very faithfully seconded by their men they secured all the rest that were upon the main and quarter decks and began to fasten the hatches to keep them down that were below when the other boat and their men entering at the forechains
secured the forecastle of the ship and the scuttle which went down into the cook room making three men they found there prisoners when this was done and all safe upon deck
the captain ordered the mate with three men to break into the round house where the new rebel captain lay who having taken the alarm had got up and with two men and a boy had got fire arms in their hands and when the mate with a crow split open the door
the new captain and his men fired boldly among them and wounded the mate with a musket ball which broke his arm and wounded two more of the men but killed nobody the mate calling for help rushed however into the round house
wounded as he was and with his pistol shot the new captain through the head the bullet entering at his mouth and came out again behind one of his ears so that he never spoke a word more upon which the rest yielded
and the ship was taken effectually without any more lives lost as soon as the ship was thus secured the captain ordered guns to be fired which was the signal agreed upon with me to give me notice of his success which you may be sure
i was very glad to hear having sat watching upon the shore for it till near two o'clock in the morning having thus heard the signal plainly i laid me down and it having been a day of great fatigue to me i slept sound
till i was surprised with the noise of a gun and presently starting up i heard a man call me by the name of governor governor and presently i knew the captain's voice when climbing up to the top of the hill there he stood and pointing to the ship
he embraced me in his arms my dear friend and deliverer says he there's your ship for she is all yours and so are we and all that belong to her
i cast my eyes to the ship and there she rode within little more than half a mile of the shore for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters of her and the weather being fair had brought her to an anchor
where i had first landed my rafts and so landed just at my door i was at first ready to sink down with the surprise for i saw my deliverance indeed visibly put into my hands all things easy and a large ship just ready to
carry me away whither i pleased to go at first for some time i was not able to answer him one word but as he had taken me in his arms i held fast by him or i should have fallen to the ground
and though it brought me to myself yet it was a good while before i could speak a word to him all this time the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as i only not under any surprise as i was
and he said a thousand kind and tender things to me to compose and bring me to myself but such was the flood of joy in my breast that it put all my spirits into confusion at last it broke out into tears and in a little while after i recovered my speech
i then took my turn and embraced him as my deliverer and we rejoiced together i told him i looked upon him as a man sent from heaven to deliver me and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders
that such things as these were the testimonies we had of a secret hand of providence governing the world and an evidence that the eye of an infinite power could search into the remotest corner of the world
and send help to the miserable whenever he pleased i forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to heaven and what heart could forbear to bless him who had not only in a miraculous manner provided for me in such a wilderness
and in such a desolate condition but from whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed when we had talked a while the captain told me he had brought me some little refreshment such as the ship afforded
upon this he called aloud to the boat and bade his men bring the things ashore that were for the governor
and six pieces of pork with a bag of peas and about a hundred weight of biscuit he also brought me a box of sugar a box of flour a bag full of lemons and two bottles of lime juice
and abundance of other things but besides these and what was a thousand times more useful to me he brought me six new clean shirts six very good neckcloths two pair of gloves one pair of shoes a hat
and one pair of stockings with a very good suit of clothes of his own which had been worn but very little in a word he clothed me from head to foot it was a very kind and agreeable present as any one may imagine to one in my circumstances
but never was anything in the world of that kind so unpleasant awkward and uneasy as it was to me to wear such clothes at first after these ceremonies were past and after all his good things were brought into my little apartment
for it was worth considering whether we might venture to take them with us or no
and the captain said he knew they were such rogues that there was no obliging them and if he did carry them away it must be in irons as malefactors to be delivered over to justice at the first english colony
he could come to and i found that the captain himself was very anxious about it upon this i told him that if he desired it i would undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own request that he should leave them upon the island
i should be very glad of that says the captain
so i caused friday and the two hostages for they were now discharged their comrades having performed their promise i say i caused them to go to the cave and bring up the five men pinioned as they were to the bower and keep them there till i came
after some time i came thither dressed in my new habit and now i was called governor again being all met and the captain with me i caused the men to be brought before me and i told them i had a full account of their villanous behavior to the captain
and how they had run away with the ship and were preparing to commit further robberies but that providence had ensnared them in their own ways and that they were fallen into the pit which they had dug for others i let them know that by my direction the ship had been seized
and they might see by and by that their new captain had received the reward of his villany and that they would see him hanging at the yard arm that as to them
i wanted to know what they had to say why i should not execute them as pirates taken in the fact as by my commission they could not doubt but i had authority so to do one of them answered in the name of the rest that they had nothing to say but this
to go to england and as for the captain he could not carry them to england other than as prisoners in irons to be tried for mutiny and running away with the ship the consequence of which they must needs know would be the gallows
so that i could not tell what was best for them unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island if they desired that as i had liberty to leave the island i had some inclination to give them their lives if they thought they could shift on shore
they seemed very thankful for it and said they would much rather venture to stay there than be carried to england to be hanged so i left it on that issue however the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it as if he durst not leave them there
and if he did not like it he might take them again if he could catch them upon this they appeared very thankful and i accordingly set them at liberty and bade them retire into the woods to the place whence they came and i would leave them some fire arms
some ammunition and some directions how they should live very well if they thought fit upon this i prepared to go on board the ship but told the captain i would stay that night to prepare my things and desired him to go on board in the meantime
and keep all right in the ship and send the boat on shore next day for me ordering him at all events to cause the new captain who was killed to be hanged at the yard arm that these men might see him
when the captain was gone i sent for the men up to me to my apartment and entered seriously into discourse with them on their circumstances i told them i thought they had made a right choice that if the captain had carried them away
they would certainly be hanged i showed them the new captain hanging at the yard arm of the ship and told them they had nothing less to expect
accordingly i gave them the whole history of the place and of my coming to it showed them my fortifications the way i made my bread planted my corn cured my grapes and in a word all that was necessary to make them easy
i told them the story also of the seventeen spaniards that were to be expected for whom i left a letter and made them promise to treat them in common with themselves here it may be noted that the captain who had ink on board
was greatly surprised that i never hit upon a way of making ink of charcoal and water or of something else as i had done things much more difficult i left them my fire arms viz five muskets three fowling pieces and three swords
i had above a barrel and a half of powder left for after the first year or two i used but little and wasted none
also i gave them the bag of peas which the captain had brought me to eat and bade them be sure to sow and increase them having done all this i left them the next day and went on board the ship we prepared immediately to sail but did not weigh that night
the next morning early two of the five men came swimming to the ship's side and making the most lamentable complaint of the other three begged to be taken into the ship for god's sake for they should be murdered and begged the captain to take them on board
after which they proved very honest and quiet fellows some time after this the boat was ordered on shore the tide being up with the things promised to the men to which the captain at my intercession
when i took leave of this island i carried on board for relics the great goat skin cap i had made my umbrella and one of my parrots also i forgot not to take the money i formerly mentioned
or tarnished and could hardly pass for silver
and handled as also the money i found in the wreck of the spanish ship and thus i left the island the nineteenth of december as i found by the ship's account in the year sixteen eighty six after i had been upon it
eight and twenty years two months and nineteen days being delivered from this second captivity
but the more the americans perceived thompson's value the more eager were they to have him as their own
the second mate whom i have already described as a rough and brutal fellow one day proposed to him to belong to their vessel certain he added that he would make his fortune by the capture of two if not three extra indiamen which they had information of on their passage
yes said the man i knew that but that's what we call in our country all my eye but they do not call it so in my country said the caledonian
the man got up found his face bleeding plentifully and his eye closed but instead of resenting the insult himself went off and complained to the captain
and clamorously demanded that the englishman should be punished for striking an officer when the story however came to be fairly explained the captain said he was bound to confess that the second mate was the aggressor inasmuch as he had acknowledged that he knew the penalty
of the transgression before he committed the act that he the captain had told thompson when he made the declaration that he thought him perfectly right and consequently he was bound to protect him by every law of hospitality
as well as gratitude after his services in saving the lives of their countrymen this did not satisfy the crew they were clamorous for punishment and a mutiny was actually headed by the second mate there was however a large party on board
the dispute ran high and i began to think that serious consequences might ensue for it had continued from the serving of grog at twelve o'clock till near two when casting my eyes over the larboard quarter i perceived a sail and told the captain of it
the privateer was at this time under top sails and top gallant sails jib and foresail running to the north east with a fine breeze and smooth water
i guess you are not far wrong in that said the captain
to the cut of the stranger's sails
as to that said the mate it isn't very likely that he's going to tell us the truth because you would not have done it yourself in the same situation said i just so said the mate and in fact
i must own that i had no particular wish to cruise for some months in this vessel and go back for water at tristan d'acunha
i therefore did not use my very best optical skill when i gave my opinion but as i saw the stranger was nearing us very fast although we were steering the same way i made my mind up that i should very soon be out of this vessel and on my way to england
where all my happiness and prospects were centred the chief mate took one more look the captain followed his example they then looked at each other and pronounced their cruise at an end
that you would enter on the books as one of the ship's company but let's have him aft and give him his discharge regularly first of all said the captain suppose we try what is to be done with our heels they used to be good and i never saw the brass bottomed sarpent
that could come anear us yet send the royal yards up
the vessel was well manned certainly and all sail was set upon her in a very expeditious manner heave the log said the captain they did so and she was going by their measurement nine and six
i think said i she is going about eleven knots and as she is six miles astern of you that she will be within gunshot in less than four hours
pass the word for sam gall the two operators soon appeared
the culprit was now brought forward and to my surprise it was the very man whom thompson when in the boat had thrown overboard for mutiny i cannot say that i felt sorry for the cause
or the effect that was likely to be produced by the disputes of the day seize him up said the captain
by which means we are likely to be taken so before my authority ceases i will show you a yankee trick i am an englishman said the man and appeal to my officer for protection
dick twist do you begin
with the like number and the prisoner after a due proportion of bellowing was cast loose i could not help reflecting how very justly this captain had got his vessel into jeopardy by first allowing a man to be seduced
divided the falls and the boat fell into the sea throw these here two aftermost guns overboard said the captain i guess we are too deep abaft and they would not be of much use to us in the way of defence for this is a wapper that's after us the guns in a few minutes were sent to their last rest and for the next half hour the enemy gained less upon them
had not been reckoned for at the main rigging nor shall it be said the captain while i command the true blooded yankee what is is right no man shall be punished for fair defence after warning thompson
avast there shipmates said twist and gall both in a breath we don't mind touching up such a chap as this here tripeman but not the scratch of a pin does thompson get in this vessel he is one of us he is a seamen every inch of him
and you must flog us and some fifty more if once you begin
with the second mate and then lay to till the frigate comes along side
you are said i if doing an act of justice is bullying you are in great danger and i warn you of it i perceive the force of those whom you pretend to call americans and though i am the last man in the world to sanction an act of treachery by heaving the ship to yet i caution you to beware how you provoke the bull dog who has only broke his master's chain for a lark and is ready to return to him
i am your guest and therefore your faithful friend use your utmost endeavours to escape from your enemy i know what she is for i know her well and if i am not much mistaken
you have scarcely more time with all your exertions than to pack up your things for be assured you will not pass twelve hours more under your own flag
settling that infernal dispute throw two more of the after guns overboard
cut away the bower anchors said the captain the stoppers were cut and the anchors dropped the brig immediately recovered herself from her oppression as it were and resumed her former velocity
but the enemy had by this time made fearful approaches the only hope of the captain and his crew was in the darkness and as this darkness came on
whether the moral essay of the captain was the effect of his present danger i will not pretend to say i only know that if the reader will turn back to some parts of my history he will find me very often in a similar mood on similar occasions
the two captains and the chief mate now retired after leaving me meditating by myself over the larboard gunwale just before the main rigging
if you will only say the word and promise us our free pardon i pretended at first not to hear but turning round i saw mister twist hold villain said i
do you think to redeem one act of treachery by another and do you dare to insult the honour of a naval officer with a proposal so infamous go to your station instantly and think yourself fortunate that i do not denounce you to the captain who has a perfect right to throw you overboard a fate which your chain of crimes fully deserves
gwendolen living in the same town as marian there was a little girl called gwendolen marian didn't know her very well though they went to the same school and sometimes smiled at each other in church her father and mother were always climbing mountains and lecturing about them afterward
so gwendolen had to live with her aunt who was very rich and wore a lot of rings in many ways gwendolen was a nice girl but she had an exceptionally large tummy
and the people in the square paid for a gardener to shave the grass every day one of the reasons why the people in the square were so rich was that they had so few children and the children that they did have had to be very careful not to make foot marks on the grass
gwendolen's aunt sometimes went there when she had a headache and wanted to throw it off and gwendolen went there to eat marzipan and read about princes and princesses
she generally sat on a painted iron seat in front of a flower bed shaped like a lozenge and once she was sick behind a bush called b stenophylla on a tin label one day she was sitting on this seat when she heard a curious sort of sound
some people like harmoniums and have them in their houses and play hymns on them on sunday afternoons but this was a harmonium that went on wheels with a man to push it and a woman walking beside him
if she saw anybody she would say kind lady or kind gentleman as the case might be and perhaps the kind lady or the kind gentleman would throw her some money and then she would say god bless you but people like that with travelling harmoniums
weren't allowed to come into bellington square and gwendolen's aunt said dear me just when i wanted a little peace and quiet if there had been anybody near such as a policeman or a gardener she would have told him to send the musicians away
but it was very hot and there was nobody about and so the people went on playing gwendolen watched them for a while through the railings
and the butler at number ten gave the woman a sixpence her aunt was very angry about it when gwendolen told her for what was the good of making rules she said if you encouraged people to break them the people with the harmonium came a little nearer
was stout with a hard brown face and rolling eyes like dark coloured pebbles when she smiled
she heard a little voice close to her knees oh gwendolen it said save me
with timid dark eyes i heard your aunt speak to you he said so i know your name he looked over his shoulder at the man and the woman but the woman was looking at the houses
and the man was watching her what's the matter said gwendolen he was holding on to the garden railings lift up my jacket he said and you'll see gwendolen stooped down and lifted up his jacket there were three great wounds across his back
oh dear she cried how did you get those they beat me he said they're always beating me gwendolen may have been lazy and she may have been greedy but she had a soft heart and the monkey had seen this oh how dreadful she said but when did you learn to talk
the monkey shivered a little hush they don't know he replied i've lived with them so long that i've learned their language but why don't you run away asked gwendolen how can i they keep me on this string and beat me every night gwendolen thought for a moment
oh gwendolen he said do save me if you can from where she was kneeling gwendolen could see the woman going up the steps to one of the houses the man was watching her as usual gwendolen was half hidden from them by a bush
but there's my aunt she said i don't know what my aunt would say listen said the monkey i could take you to a lovely island
gwendolen thought for a moment buttered toast she said well it's ever so much nicer said the monkey than buttered toast gwendolen looked at her aunt
there wasn't much time in another minute the man and the woman would be moving on close beside her in a little green box she could see the tops of the handles of the gardener's shears she took a deep breath then she made up her mind
all right she said i'll see what i can do she crept to the box and took out the shears the monkey squeezed himself through the railings with a beating heart gwendolen cut the string caught up the monkey and ran to her aunt her aunt looked up
why what have you got here she asked he belongs to those people said gwendolen with the harmonium oh save me said the monkey save me
dear me she said but the monkey talks yes said gwendolen he's been learning for a long time the monkey clasped his hands and looked into gwendolen's aunt's face he saw deep down into her where her good nature was
gwendolen's aunt was rather disturbed
if she took the monkey away people would call her a thief but if she let him go back perhaps he would be beaten to death
but how did you come here she said the monkey began to tremble again they stole me away he said from my wife and children oh auntie said gwendolen can't we take him back there he says it's ever so much nicer than buttered toast her aunt stood up
oh bother the buttered toast she said it's his wife and babies that i'm thinking about then the harmonium suddenly stopped and they heard the man cry out why where's that monkey he said he began to swear
they saw the woman run down the steps the monkey gave a little cry and jumped into gwendolen's aunt's arms then they saw the man and the woman rush toward the railings both their faces were dark as night come on said gwendolen's aunt we'll have to run for it
make for the gate fortunately the gate was on the opposite side of the garden and their own house was opposite the gate the man and the woman would have to run right round the square we ought to beat them said gwendolen's aunt
we shan't be safe said her aunt till we've got to the island because we shall really be thieves till we've taken the monkey home
gwendolen had never seen her looking so young
run upstairs and get your hat and overcoat gwendolen ran upstairs panting and puffing and fetched her hat and overcoat and her doll david
meanwhile her aunt ran into the study opened her cash box and took out a hundred pounds a minute later there came a thunder of knocks and two or three peals of the front door bell
from the back garden there was a little door leading into a street behind here there was a cab stand and gwendolen's aunt told the cab driver to drive to the station
just as the train came in there was hardly a moment to take their tickets in but the guard waited for them and they just managed it the engine whistled the porter slammed the door and the next moment they were off the monkey who had been hiding under gwendolen's aunt's coat
poked his head out and looked about him fortunately they had the carriage all to themselves oh dear said gwendolen how splendid it was an express train and it didn't stop for an hour and then gwendolen's aunt thought that they had better get out
we'll hire a motor car she said and go to lullington bay and find my old friend captain jeremy when i was young he wanted to marry me but i was too proud and wouldn't let him
so they got out and hired a motor car and drove at full speed to lullington bay it was a long drive and when they arrived at the captain's cottage the stars were shining and the captain was in his garden
deep below them they could see the ocean dark as bronze and knocking at the shore captain jeremy was looking through a telescope a stout little sailing ship was anchored in the bay why josina he said that was gwendolen's aunt's name
they told him what had happened and he looked very grave we must be off at once he said i know that man and woman why who are they asked gwendolen smugglers he said they're two of the most dangerous people i know
luckily my ship is all ready to sail we'll put off at once for monkey island
for a long time affairs at crotona ran along in this manner and eumolpus flushed with success so far forgot the former state of his fortunes that he even bragged to his followers
some wily legacy hunter should dispatch an agent to africa and catch us in our lie or even suppose the hireling servant glutted with prosperity should tip off his cronies or give the whole scheme away out of spite
they are always on the lookout for what is coming to them turning these possibilities over in my mind i left the house in a state of black melancholy hoping to revive my spirits in the fresh air but scarcely
the name i had assumed since my metamorphosis informed me that her mistress desired leave to speak with me
why that gait so precise that not a footstep deviates from its place unless you wish to show off your figure in order to sell your favors look at me i know nothing about omens and i don't study the heavens like the astrologers
but i can read men's intentions in their faces and i know what a flirt is after when i see him out for a stroll so if you'll sell us what i want there's a buyer ready but if you will do the graceful thing and lend
my mistress belongs to this class she jumps the fourteen rows from the stage to the gallery and looks for a lover among the gallery gods at the back puffed up with this delightful chatter come now confess won't you i queried
is this lady who loves me yourself the waiting maid smiled broadly at this blunt speech don't have such a high opinion of yourself said she i've never given in to any servant yet
the gods forbid that i should ever throw my arms around a gallows bird let the married women see to that and kiss the marks of the scourge if they like
even if i am only a servant i could not help marveling for my part at such discordant passions and i thought it nothing short of a miracle that this servant should possess the hauteur of the mistress
and conducted her to my side a woman more perfect than any statue there are no words with which to describe her form and anything i could say would fall far short her hair naturally wavy
flowed completely over her shoulders her forehead was low and the roots of her hair were brushed back from it her eyebrows running from the very springs of her cheeks
brighter than stars shining in a moonless night her nose
and her mouth was such an one as praxiteles dreamed diana had her chin her neck her hands
thought lightly of doris oh jove what's come to pass that thou thine armor cast away art mute in heaven and but an idle tale at such a time the horns should sprout the raging bull hold sway
i offer you a sister said she you have a brother already i know for i didn't disdain to ask
i will come in on the same footing only deem my kisses worthy of recognition and caress me at your own pleasure rather let me implore you by your beauty i replied
if you permit me to kneel before your shrine you will find me a true votary and that you may not think i approach this temple of love without a gift i make you a present of my brother what she exclaimed would you really sacrifice the only one
without whom you could not live the one upon whose kisses your happiness depends him whom you love as i would have you love me such sweetness permeated her voice as she said this
that you would have believed the sirens harmonies were floating in the breeze i was struck with wonder and dazzled by i know not what light that shone upon me brighter than the whole heaven but i made bold to inquire the name of my divinity why
she replied but i am not the sun child nor has my mother ever stayed the revolving world in its course at her pleasure but if the fates bring us two together i will owe heaven a favor i don't know what it is
a great torch is always flaming when these names meet take me in your arms then if you will there's no prying stranger to fear and your brother is far away from this spot so saying
and drew me to the ground which was covered with colored flowers with flowers like these did mother earth great ida's summit strew when jupiter his heart aflame enjoyed his lawful love there glowed the rose the flowering rush
the violet's deep blue from out green meadows snow white lilies laughed then from above this setting summoned venus to the green and tender sod bright day smiled kindly
side by side upon the grassy plot we lay exchanging a thousand kisses the prelude to more poignant pleasure but alas my sudden loss of vigor disappointed circe
is there any evil smelling perspiration in my armpits or if it's nothing of this kind
under her eyes i flushed hotly and if i had any virility left i lost it then my whole body seemed to be inert my queen i cried do not mock me in my humiliation i am bewitched
circe's anger was far from being appeased by such a trivial excuse turning her eyes contemptuously away from me she looked at her maid tell me chrysis and tell me truly is there anything repulsive about me anything sluttish
have i some natural blemish that disfigures my beauty don't deceive your mistress i don't know what's the matter with us but there must be something then she snatched a mirror from the silent maid and after scrutinizing all the looks and smiles which pass between lovers
she shook out her wrinkled earth stained robe and flounced off into the temple of venus nearby and here was i like a convicted criminal who had seen some horrible nightmare asking myself whether the pleasure out of which i had been cheated was a reality
or only a dream as when in the sleep bringing night dreams sport with the wandering eyes and earth spaded up
these enchantments by which he's obsessed and truth comes again with her train restoring perspective and pain the phantasm lives to the last the mind dwells with shades of the past the misfortune seemed to me a dream
but i imagined that i must surely be under a spell of enchantment and for a long time i was so devoid of strength that i could not get to my feet but finally my mental depression began to abate little by little my strength came back to me
and i returned home arrived there i feigned illness and threw myself upon my couch a little late giton who had heard of my indisposition entered the room in some concern as i wished to relieve his mind
i informed him that i had merely sought my pallet to take a rest telling him much other gossip but not a word about my mishap as i stood in great fear of his jealousy and to lull any suspicion which he might entertain i drew him to my side
and endeavoured to give him some proofs of my love but all my panting and sweating were in vain he jumped up in a rage and accused my lack of virility and change of heart
no no darling i replied my love for you has always been the same but reason prevails now over love and wantonness and for the socratic continence of your love i thank you in his name he replied sarcastically
when he left his master's bed chapter the one hundred and twenty ninth believe me brother when i tell you that i do not know whether i am a man or not i vainly protested i do not feel like one if i am
dead and buried lies that part in which i was once an achilles
and handed me her mistress's tablets in which were written the following words
greeting were i a wanton i should complain of my disappointment but as it is
for by it i dallied the longer in the shadow of pleasure still i would like to know how you are and whether you got home upon your own legs for the doctors say that one cannot walk without nerves young man
still even if i have been affronted i will not begrudge a prescription to one as sick as you
i am sure you will get back your strength if you will sleep without your brother for three nights so far as i am concerned i am not in the least alarmed about finding someone to whom i shall be as pleasing as i was to you my mirror and my reputation
do not lie farewell if you can such things will happen said chrysis when she saw that i had read through the entire inditement
dear lady i confess that i have often given cause for offense for i am only a man and a young one too but i never committed a deadly crime until today you have my confession of guilt
i deserve any punishment you may see fit to prescribe i betrayed a trust i murdered a man i violated a temple demand my punishment for these crimes should it be your pleasure to slay me
if you are content with a flogging i will run naked to my mistress only bear in mind that it was not myself but my tools that failed me i was a soldier and ready but i had no arms
by aspiring to too much it is likely that i spent my pleasure in delay i cannot imagine what the trouble was you bid me beware of paralysis
and omitting the bath i annointed myself in moderation with unguents and placed myself upon a more strengthening diet such as onions and snail's heads without condiments and i also drank more sparingly of wine then
so anxious was i to please her that i feared the outcome if my brother lay tickling my side chapter the one hundred and thirty first finding myself vigorous in mind and body when i arose next morning
i went down to the same clump of plane trees though i dreaded the spot as one of evil omen and commenced to wait for chrysis to lead me on my way i took a short stroll and had just seated myself where i had sat the day before when she came under the trees
leading a little old woman by the hand well mister squeamish she chirped when she had greeted me have you recovered your appetite in the meantime the old hag
brought out a twisted hank of different colored yarns and put it about my neck she then kneaded dust and spittle and dipping her middle finger into the mixture she crossed my forehead with it in spite of my protests
as long as life remains there's hope thou rustic god oh hear our prayer great priapus i thee invoke temper our arms to dare when she had made an end of this incantation
and three times to drop stones into my bosom each stone she wrapped up in purple after she had muttered charms over it then directing her hands to my privates she commenced to try out my virility quicker than thought the nerves responded to the summons
filling the crone's hand with an enormous erection skipping for joy look chrysis look she cried out see what a hare i've started for someone else to course this done the old lady handed me over to chrysis
shorn of its top
and quivering cypress and the stately plane and berry laden laurel a brook's wimpling waters strayed lashed into foam
and rolling pebbles in their chattering flow twas love's own nook as forest nightingale and urban procne undertook to bear true witness hovering the gleaming grass above and tender violets
their stolen love fanning herself with a branch of flowering myrtle she lay stretched out with her marble neck resting upon a golden cushion when she caught sight of me she blushed faintly
i sat down by her side as soon as the others had gone whereupon she put the branch of myrtle over my face and emboldened as if a wall had been raised between us well mister paralytic she teased have you brought all of yourself along today
the loveliness of her form drew me to her and summoned me to love our lips were pressed together in a torrent of smacking kisses our groping hands had discovered every trick of excitation and our bodies
clasped in a mutual embrace had fused our souls into one and then in the very midst of these ravishing preliminaries my nerves again played me false and i was unable to last until the instant of supreme bliss
lashed to fury by these inexcusable affronts the lady at last ran to avenge herself and calling her house servants she gave orders for me to be hoisted upon their shoulders and flogged then
still unsatisfied with the drastic punishment she had inflicted upon me she called all the spinning women and scrubbing wenches in the house and ordered them to spit upon me i covered my face with my hands but i uttered no complaint
and overwhelmed with blows and spittle i was driven from the house proselenos was kicked out too chrysis was beaten and all the slaves grumbled among themselves and wondered what had upset their mistress's good humor i took heart
after having given some thought to my misfortunes and
for fear that eumolpus would make merry over my mishaps or worse yet
i pretended that i was sick and went to bed there i turned the full fury of my resentment against that recreant which had been the sole cause of all the evil accidents which had befallen me
three times i grasped the two edged blade the recreant to cut away three times by fear my hand was stayed and palsied terror said me nay that which i might have done before twas now impossible to do
for cold with fear the wretch withdrew into a thousand wrinkled mare and shrank in shame before my gaze nor would his head uncover more but though the scamp in terror skulked with words i flayed him as he sulked
raising myself upon my elbow i rebuked the shirker in some such terms as these what have you to say for yourself you disgrace to gods and men i demanded
for your name must never be mentioned among refined people did i deserve to be lifted up to heaven and then dragged down to hell by you was it right for you to slander my flourishing and vigorous years and land me in the shadows
and lassitude of decrepit old age give me some sign however faint i beg of you that you have returned to life i vented my anger in words such as these his eyes were fixed
or drooping poppies as at noon they pine when i had made an end of this invective so out of keeping with good taste i began to do penance for my soliloquy
and blushed furtively because i had so far forgotten my modesty as to invoke in words
which men of dignity do not even recognize then rubbing my forehead for a long time why have i committed an indiscretion
i mused what does it amount to are we not accustomed to swear at every member of the human body the belly throat or even the head when it aches as it often does did not ulysses wrangle with his own heart
just as if they could hear gouty patients swear at their feet rheumatics at their hands blear eyed people at their eyes and do not those who often stub their toes blame their feet for all their pain
condemn a work of fresh simplicity a cheerful kindness my pure speech endows what people do
for who knows not the pleasures venus gives who will not in a warm bed tease his members great epicurus taught a truth that lives love
nothing can be more insincere than the silly prejudices of mankind and nothing sillier than the morality of bigotry
chapter the one hundred and thirty third
tell me little brother i demanded tell me on your honor
the night he stole you away from me or was he content to spend the night like a chaste widow wiping his eyes the lad in carefully chosen words took oath that ascyltos had used no force against him
that i was so distraught with my own misfortunes that i knew not what i was saying why recall past memories which can only cause pain said i to myself i then directed all my energies
i knelt upon the threshold of his shrine and invoked the god in the following verses of bacchus and the nymphs companion boon
a goat that feels his primest vigor father of the flocks shall come and suckling pigs
new wine in crocks shall foam thy grateful praises shall be sung by youths who thrice shall dance around thy shrine happy in youth and full of this year's wine
while i was engaged in this diplomatic effort in behalf of the affected member a hideous crone with disheveled hair and clad in black garments which were in great disorder entered the shrine and laying hands upon me
led me thoroughly frightened out into the portico chapter the one hundred and thirty fourth what witches she cried have devoured your manhood what filth did you tread upon at some crossroads in the dark
but weak and effeminate you are worn out like a cart horse at a hill you have lost both labor and sweat not content with getting yourself into trouble you have stirred up the wrath of the gods against me
and i will make you smart for it she then led me unresisting back into the priestess's room pushed me down upon the bed snatched a cane that hung upon the door and gave me another thrashing
shedding a flood of tears i covered my head with my right arm and huddled down upon the pillow nor did she weep less bitterly the sailor naked from his foundered barque some shipwrecked mariner seeks out to hear his woe
when hail beats down a farmer's crop his cark seeks consolation from another too death levels caste and sufferers unites and weeping parents are as one in grief we also will beseech the starry heights
united prayers climb best is the belief she seated herself upon the other side of the bed and in quavering tones commenced to accuse the delays of old age at last the priestess came in
why she cried what has brought you into my cell as if you were visiting a newly made grave and on a feast day too
was born under an unlucky star he can't dispose of his goods to either boy or girl such an unfortunate fellow you never saw
who could get up from circe's bed without having tasted pleasure
and after shaking her head for a while i'm the only one that knows how to cure that disease said she and for fear you think i'm talking to hear myself talk
i'll just have the young fellow sleep with me for a night and if i don't make it as hard as horn all that you see in the world must give heed to my mandates blossoming earth when i will it
must languish a desert riches pour forth when i will it from crags and grim boulders waters will spurt that will rival the nile at its flooding seas calm their billows before me
the image of luna drawn by my spells must descend and apollo atremble backs up his horses and turns from his course at my order
proteus changes his form when his good pleasure dictates i who am skilled in these arts can the shrubs of mount ida plant in the ocean turn rivers to flow up the mountains
chapter the one hundred and thirty fifth at this declaration which was so awe inspiring i shuddered in terror and commenced to scrutinize the crone more narrowly come now
obey my orders and
upon which she heaped live coals then with melted pitch she repaired a goblet which had become cracked through age next she replaced in the smoke stained wall a peg which had come out when she took down the wooden goblet then
having donned a mantle in the shape of a piece of square cut cloth she set a huge kettle upon the hearth and at the same time speared with a fork a cloth hanging upon the meathooks and lifted it down it contained some beans
which had been laid away for future use and a very small and stale piece of pig's cheek scored with a thousand slashes when she had untied the string which fastened the cloth she poured some of the beans upon the table
and ordered me to shell them quickly and carefully i obey her mandate and with careful fingers separate the beans from the filthy pods which contain them but she accusing my clumsiness hastily snatched them and
skillfully tearing off the pods with her teeth spat them upon the ground where they looked like dead flies i wondered then at the ingenuity of poverty and its expedients for emergency so ardent a follower of this virtue
did the priestess seem that it was reflected in everything around her her dwelling in particular was a very shrine of poverty no indian ivory set in gold gleamed here no trodden marble glistened here
no earth mocked for its gifts but ceres festive grove with willow wickerwork twas set around new cups of clay by revolutions shaped of lowly wheel for honey soft a bowl platters of green bark wickerwork
a jar stained by the lifeblood of the god of wine the walls around with chaff and spattered clay were covered flanging from protruding nails were slender stalks of the green rush and then suspended from the smoky beam
the stores of this poor cottage service berries soft entwined in fragrant wreaths hung down dried savory and raisins by the bunch an hostess here like she on attic soil
chapter the one hundred and thirty sixth in the meantime having shelled the beans she took a mouthful of the meat and with the fork was replacing the pig's cheek which was coeval with herself
her elbow was burned by a flaming brand and her whole face was covered by the ashes raised by her fall i jumped up in dismay and not without laughing helped the old lady to her feet she hastily scurried out into the neighborhood
to replenish the fire for fear anything should delay the sacrifice i was on my way to the door of the cell when lo and behold three sacred geese which were accustomed i suppose to demand their feed from the old woman at midday
made a rush at me and surrounding me made me nervous with their abominable rabid cackling one tore at my tunic another undid the lacings of my sandals and tugged at them but one in particular
and moving spirit of this savage attack did not hesitate to worry at my leg with his serrated bill unable to see the joke i twisted off one of the legs of the little table and thus armed began to belabor the pugnacious brute
nor did i rest content with a light blow i avenged myself by the death of the goose twas thus i ween the birds of stymphalus to heaven fled by herakles impelled the harpies too
whose reeking pinions held that poison which the feast of phineus contaminated all the air above
the heavens in uproar and confusion move the stars in dread their orbits then forsook by this time the two remaining geese had picked up the beans which had been scattered all over the floor and bereft i suppose
of their leader had gone back into the temple and i well content with my revenge and my booty threw the dead goose behind the cot
then fearing a scolding i made up my mind to run away and collecting together all my belongings started to leave the house i had not yet stepped over the threshold of the cell however
returning with an earthen vessel full of live coals thereupon i retraced my steps and throwing off my garments i took my stand just inside the door
she banked her fire with broken reeds piled some pieces of wood on top and began to excuse her delay on the ground that her friend would not permit her to leave until after the customary three drinks had been taken
but what were you up to in my absence she demanded where are the beans thinking that i had done a thing worthy of all praise i informed her of the battle in all its details and that she might not be downcast any longer
i produced the dead goose in payment for her loss when the old lady laid eyes upon that she raised such a clamor that you would have thought that the geese had invaded the room again confounded and thunderstruck at the novelty of my crime i asked her
and why she pitied the goose rather than myself chapter the one hundred and thirty seventh but beating her palms together you villain
she shrieked don't you know what a serious crime you've committed you have slaughtered the delight of priapus a goose the very darling of married women and for fear you think that nothing serious has happened if the magistrates find this out
you'll go to the cross until this day my dwelling has been inviolate and you have polluted it with blood you have conducted yourself in such a manner that any enemy i have can turn me out of the priesthood she spoke
i'll give you an ostrich in place of your goose while she sat upon the cot and to my stupefaction bewailed the death of the goose proselenos came in with the materials for the sacrifice seeing the dead goose
and inquiring the cause of her grief she herself commenced to weep more violently still and to commiserate me as if i had slain my own father instead of a public goose growing tired of this nonsense at last see here
said i could i not purchase immunity for a price even though i had assaulted you even though i had murdered a man look here i'm laying down two gold pieces you can buy both gods and geese with them
that is a proof of love not of malignity let us take such precautions that not a soul will find this out as for you pray to the gods to forgive your sacrilege the rich man can sail in a favoring gale
and snap out his course at his pleasure a dance espouse no acrisius will rail his credence by hers he will measure write verse or declaim snap the finger of scorn at the world yet still win all his cases
the rabble will drink in his words with concern when a cato austere it displaces
not proven or proved he can have
with gold at command anything he may crave is his without asking or sighing the universe bows at his slightest behest for jove is a prisoner in his treasure chest in the meantime
and when my fingers had all been spread out evenly she purified them with leeks and parsley then muttering incantations she threw hazel nuts into the wine and drew her conclusions as they sank or floated but she did not hoodwink me
for those with empty shells no kernel and full of air would of course float while those that were heavy and full of sound kernel would sink to the bottom she then turned her attention to the goose and
and served up a very delectable dinner for me whom but a moment before she had herself condemned to death in her own words
chapter sixty six matrimonial projects the day following this scene
at this time that is about half past twelve
watched the departure he had been waiting for
but at two o'clock she had not returned he then called for his horses drove to the chamber and inscribed his name to speak against the budget from twelve to two o'clock
heaping figure upon figure and receiving among other visits one from major cavalcanti who as stiff and exact as ever presented himself precisely at the hour named the night before to terminate his business with the banker on leaving the chamber
and been more bitter than ever against the ministry re entered his carriage
monte cristo was at home only he was engaged with some one
while the banker was waiting in the anteroom the door opened and a man dressed as an abbe and doubtless more familiar with the house than he was came in and instead of waiting merely bowed passed on to the farther apartments
and disappeared a minute after the door by which the priest had entered reopened and monte cristo appeared
whom you perhaps saw pass by has just arrived in paris not having seen him for a long time i could not make up my mind to leave him sooner so i hope this will be sufficient reason for my having made you wait
not at all on the contrary be seated but what is the matter with you you look careworn really you alarm me
presages some misfortune to the world
and i have heard nothing but bad news ah indeed said monte cristo have you had another fall at the bourse
really does it happen to be jacopo manfredi exactly so
imagine a man who has transacted business with me for i don't know how long to the amount of eight hundred thousand or nine hundred thousand francs during the year never a mistake or delay
well i was a million in advance with him and now my fine jacopo manfredi suspends payment really it is an unheard of fatality
i hold bills of exchange signed by him to the value of four hundred thousand francs payable at his correspondent's in paris at the end of this month to day is the thirtieth i present them but my correspondent has disappeared
this with my spanish affairs made a pretty end to the month then you really lost by that affair in spain yes only seven hundred thousand francs out of my cash box nothing more
why how could you make such a mistake such an old stager
she dreamed don carlos had returned to spain she believes in dreams it is magnetism she says and when she dreams a thing it is sure to happen she assures me on this conviction i allow her to speculate
she speculated and lost it is true she speculates with her own money not mine nevertheless you can understand that when seven hundred thousand francs leave the wife's pocket the husband always finds it out
but do you mean to say you have not heard of this
then you do not speculate i how could i speculate when i already have so much trouble in regulating my income i should be obliged besides my steward to keep a clerk and a boy
but touching these spanish affairs i think that the baroness did not dream the whole of the don carlos matter the papers said something about it did they not then you believe the papers i
not the least in the world only i fancied that the honest messager was an exception to the rule and that it only announced telegraphic despatches well
was brought by telegraph so that said monte cristo you have lost nearly one million seven hundred thousand francs this month not nearly indeed that is exactly my loss
it is a hard blow for a third rate fortune
what do you mean by that certainly continued monte cristo i make three assortments in fortune first rate second rate and third rate fortunes
i call those first rate which are composed of treasures one possesses under one's hand such as mines lands and funded property in such states as france austria and england provided these treasures and property
form a total of about a hundred millions i call those second rate fortunes that are gained by manufacturing enterprises joint stock companies viceroyalties and principalities
not drawing more than one million five hundred thousand francs the whole forming a capital of about fifty millions finally i call those third rate fortunes which are composed of a fluctuating capital
dependent upon the will of others or upon chances which a bankruptcy involves or a false telegram shakes such as banks speculations of the day in fact all operations under the influence of greater or less mischances
the whole bringing in a real or fictitious capital of about fifteen millions i think this is about your position is it not confound it yes replied danglars
the result then of six more such months as this would be to reduce the third rate house to despair oh said danglars becoming very pale
seven such months continued monte cristo in the same tone tell me have you ever thought that seven times
make nearly twelve millions no you have not well you are right for if you indulged in such reflections you would never risk your principal which is to the speculator what the skin is to civilized man
we have our clothes some more splendid than others this is our credit but when a man dies he has only his skin in the same way on retiring from business
you have nothing but your real principal of about five or six millions at the most for third rate fortunes are never more than a fourth of what they appear to be
you have just lost nearly two millions which must of course in the same degree diminish your credit and fictitious fortune to follow out my simile your skin has been opened by bleeding and this if repeated
do you want money do you wish me to lend you some
exclaimed danglars calling to his assistance all his philosophy and dissimulation i have made money at the same time by speculations which have succeeded i have made up the loss of blood by nutrition i lost a battle in spain
i have been defeated in trieste but my naval army in india will have taken some galleons and my mexican pioneers will have discovered some mine very good very good
but the wound remains and will reopen at the first loss no for i am only embarked in certainties
with the air of a mountebank sounding his own praises to involve me three governments must crumble to dust well such things have been that there should be a famine recollect the seven fat and the seven lean kine
and even then my vessels would become caravans so much the better
i see i was deceived and that you belong to the class of second rate fortunes i think i may aspire to that honor
which reminded monte cristo of the sickly moons which bad artists are so fond of daubing into their pictures of ruins but while we are speaking of business danglars added
pleased to find an opportunity of changing the subject tell me
give him money if he is recommended to you and the recommendation seems good excellent he presented himself this morning with a bond of forty thousand francs payable at sight on you signed by busoni
and returned by you to me with your indorsement of course i immediately counted him over the forty bank notes monte cristo nodded his head in token of assent but that is not all continued danglars
he has opened an account with my house for his son may i ask how much he allows the young man five thousand francs per month sixty thousand francs per year
how can a young man live upon five thousand francs a month but you understand that if the young man should want a few thousands more do not advance it the father will never repay it
you do not know these ultramontane millionaires they are regular misers and by whom were they recommended to you oh by the house of fenzi one of the best in florence
i do not mean to say you will lose but nevertheless mind you hold to the terms of the agreement would you not trust the cavalcanti i oh i would advance six millions on his signature
i was only speaking in reference to the second rate fortunes we were mentioning just now and with all this how unassuming he is
and you would have flattered him for certainly as you say he has no manner the first time i saw him he appeared to me like an old lieutenant who had grown mouldy under his epaulets
but all the italians are the same they are like old jews when they are not glittering in oriental splendor the young man is better
he appeared tolerable i was uneasy about him why because you met him at my house just after his introduction into the world as they told me
he has been travelling with a very severe tutor and had never been to paris before ah i believe noblemen marry amongst themselves do they not
they like to unite their fortunes it is usual certainly but cavalcanti is an original who does nothing like other people
do you think so i am sure of it and you have heard his fortune mentioned nothing else was talked of only some said he was worth millions and others that he did not possess a farthing
and what is your opinion i ought not to influence you because it is only my own personal impression well and it is that
that all these old podestas these ancient condottieri for the cavalcanti have commanded armies and governed provinces my opinion i say is that they have buried their millions in corners
the secret of which they have transmitted only to their eldest sons who have done the same from generation to generation and the proof of this is seen in their yellow and dry appearance like the florins of the republic which from being constantly gazed upon
have become reflected in them certainly said danglars and this is further supported by the fact of their not possessing an inch of land very little at least i know of none which cavalcanti possesses
excepting his palace in lucca ah he has a palace
come that is something yes and more than that he lets it to the minister of finance while he lives in a simple house oh as i told you before i think the old fellow is very close
come you do not flatter him i scarcely know him i think i have seen him three times in my life all i know relating to him is through busoni and himself
he was telling me this morning that tired of letting his property lie dormant in italy which is a dead nation he wished to find a method either in france or england of multiplying his millions
but remember that though i place great confidence in busoni i am not responsible for this never mind accept my thanks for the client you have sent me it is a fine name to inscribe on my ledgers
and my cashier was quite proud of it when i explained to him who the cavalcanti were by the way this is merely a simple question when this sort of people marry their sons do they give them any fortune
that depends upon circumstances
one of the noblest families in tuscany who when his sons married according to his wish gave them millions and when they married against his consent merely allowed them thirty crowns a month should andrea
he will perhaps give him one two or three millions for example supposing it were the daughter of a banker he might take an interest in the house of the father in law of his son then again if he disliked his choice
double locks his coffer and master andrea would be obliged to live like the sons of a parisian family by shuffling cards or rattling the dice ah that boy will find out some bavarian or peruvian princess
he will want a crown and an immense fortune no these grand lords on the other side of the alps frequently marry into plain families like jupiter they like to cross the race
and you know i am a speculator
ah well he would care very little about it i think but he is betrothed to your daughter i believe well
but madame de morcerf and albert you do not mean to say that it would not be a good match
but tell me what
said danglars laughing it would do her a great deal of good why so
monte cristo took no notice of this ill natured remark but still
said the count you must allow that he has a fine name
certainly your name is popular and does honor to the title they have adorned it with but you are too intelligent not to know that according to a prejudice too firmly rooted to be exterminated
a nobility which dates back five centuries is worth more than one that can only reckon twenty years and for this very reason said danglars with a smile
still i should not think the morcerfs would yield to the cavalcanti the morcerfs
you are a man of the world are you not i think so and you understand heraldry a little well look at my coat of arms it is worth more than morcerf's
why so because though i am not a baron by birth
well what then while his name is not morcerf how not morcerf not the least in the world go on i have been made a baron
so that i actually am one he made himself a count so that he is not one at all impossible
or rather my acquaintance during the last thirty years you know i have made the most of my arms though i never forgot my origin a proof of great humility or great pride said monte cristo
well when i was a clerk morcerf was a mere fisherman and then he was called fernand
fernand mondego you are sure pardieu i have bought enough fish of him to know his name
both having become noble both rich are about equal in worth excepting that there have been certain things mentioned of him that were never said of me
oh nothing ah yes
i have heard that name in greece in conjunction with the affairs of ali pasha exactly so
i acknowledge i would have given anything to find it out it would be very easy if you much wished it how so probably you have some correspondent in greece i should think so at yanina
everywhere well write to your correspondent in yanina and ask him
in the catastrophe of ali tepelini
i will write to day do so i will and if you should hear of anything very scandalous
the facts in the case of m valdemar
of course i shall not pretend to consider it any matter for wonder that the extraordinary case of m valdemar has excited discussion it would have been a miracle had it not especially under the circumstances
through the desire of all parties concerned to keep the affair from the public at least for the present or until we had farther opportunities for investigation through our endeavors to effect this a garbled or exaggerated account
made its way into society and became the source of many unpleasant misrepresentations and very naturally of a great deal of disbelief it is now rendered necessary that i give the facts
they are succinctly these my attention for the last three years had been repeatedly drawn to the subject of mesmerism and about nine months ago it occurred to me quite suddenly that in the series of experiments made hitherto
there had been a very remarkable and most unaccountable omission no person had as yet been mesmerized in articulo mortis it remained to be seen first whether
in such condition there existed in the patient any susceptibility to the magnetic influence secondly whether if any existed it was impaired or increased by the condition thirdly to what extent or for how long a period
the encroachments of death might be arrested by the process there were other points to be ascertained but these most excited my curiosity the last in especial from the immensely important character of its consequences
in looking around me for some subject by whose means i might test these particulars i was brought to think of my friend m ernest valdemar the well known compiler of the bibliotheca forensica and author
of the polish versions of wallenstein and gargantua m valdemar who has resided principally at harlaem
is or was particularly noticeable for the extreme spareness of his person his lower limbs much resembling those of john randolph and also for the whiteness of his whiskers in violent contrast to the blackness of his hair
the latter in consequence being very generally mistaken for a wig his temperament was markedly nervous and rendered him a good subject for mesmeric experiment on two or three occasions
i had put him to sleep with little difficulty but was disappointed in other results which his peculiar constitution had naturally led me to anticipate his will was at no period positively or thoroughly under my control and in regard to clairvoyance
i could accomplish with him nothing to be relied upon i always attributed my failure at these points
for some months previous to my becoming acquainted with him his physicians had declared him
it was his custom indeed to speak calmly of his approaching dissolution as of a matter neither to be avoided nor regretted when the ideas to which i have alluded first occurred to me it was of course very natural that i should think of m valdemar
i knew the steady philosophy of the man too well to apprehend any scruples from him and he had no relatives in america who would be likely to interfere i spoke to him frankly upon the subject and to my surprise
his interest seemed vividly excited i say to my surprise for although he had always yielded his person freely to my experiments he had never before given me any tokens of sympathy with what i did
his disease was of that character which would admit of exact calculation in respect to the epoch of its termination in death and it was finally arranged between us that he would send for me about twenty four hours before the period announced by his physicians as that of his decease
it is now rather more than seven months since i received from m valdemar himself the subjoined note my dear p you may as well come now d and f are agreed that i cannot hold out beyond to morrow midnight
and i think they have hit the time very nearly valdemar i received this note within half an hour after it was written and in fifteen minutes more i was in the dying man's chamber i had not seen him for ten days
was so extreme that the skin had been broken through by the cheek bones his expectoration was excessive the pulse was barely perceptible he retained nevertheless in a very remarkable manner
both his mental power and a certain degree of physical strength he spoke with distinctness took some palliative medicines without aid and when i entered the room was occupied in penciling memoranda in a pocket book
doctors d and f were in attendance after pressing valdemar's hand i took these gentlemen aside and obtained from them a minute account of the patient's condition the left lung had been for eighteen months
in a semi osseous or cartilaginous state
the right in its upper portion was also partially if not thoroughly ossified while the lower region was merely a mass
running one into another several extensive perforations existed and at one point permanent adhesion to the ribs had taken place these appearances in the right lobe
were of comparatively recent date the ossification had proceeded with very unusual rapidity no sign of it had been discovered a month before and the adhesion had only been observed during the three previous days
the patient was suspected of aneurism of the aorta but on this point the osseous symptoms rendered an exact diagnosis impossible it was the opinion of both physicians
sunday it was then seven o'clock on saturday evening on quitting the invalid's bed side to hold conversation with myself doctors d and f had bidden him a final farewell it had not been their intention to return
but at my request they agreed to look in upon the patient about ten the next night
as well as more particularly of the experiment proposed he still professed himself quite willing and even anxious to have it made and urged me to commence it at once
but i did not feel myself altogether at liberty to engage in a task of this character with no more reliable witnesses than these people in case of sudden accident might prove i therefore postponed operations until about eight the next night
when the arrival of a medical student with whom i had some acquaintance
relieved me from farther embarrassment it had been my design originally to wait for the physicians but i was induced to proceed first by the urgent entreaties of m valdemar and secondly by my conviction that i had not a moment to lose
as he was evidently sinking fast
that he would take notes of all that occurred and it is from his memoranda
either condensed or copied verbatim it wanted about five minutes of eight when taking the patient's hand
was entirely willing that i should make the experiment of mesmerizing him in his then condition he replied feebly
adding immediately afterwards
which i had already found most effectual in subduing him he was evidently influenced with the first lateral stroke of my hand across his forehead but although i exerted all my powers no further perceptible effect was induced until some minutes after ten o'clock
when doctors d and f called according to appointment i explained to them in a few words what i designed and as they opposed no objection saying that the patient was already in the death agony i proceeded without hesitation
exchanging however the lateral passes for downward ones and directing my gaze entirely into the right eye of the sufferer by this time his pulse was imperceptible and his breathing was stertorous and at intervals of half a minute
this condition was nearly unaltered for a quarter of an hour at the expiration of this period however a natural although a very deep sigh escaped the bosom of the dying man
and the stertorous breathing ceased that is to say its stertorousness was no longer apparent the intervals were undiminished the patient's extremities were of an icy coldness
at five minutes before eleven i perceived unequivocal signs of the mesmeric influence the glassy roll of the eye was changed for that expression of uneasy inward examination
with a few rapid lateral passes i made the lids quiver as in incipient sleep and with a few more i closed them altogether i was not satisfied however with this
and reposed on the bed at a moderate distance from the loin the head was very slightly elevated when i had accomplished this it was fully midnight and i requested the gentlemen present to examine m valdemar's condition
after a few experiments they admitted him to be an unusually perfect state of mesmeric trance the curiosity of both the physicians was greatly excited doctor d resolved at once to remain with the patient all night
while doctor f took leave with a promise to return at daybreak
the pulse was imperceptible the breathing was gentle scarcely noticeable unless through the application of a mirror to the lips the eyes were closed naturally
still the general appearance was certainly not that of death as i approached m valdemar i made a kind of half effort to influence his right arm into pursuit of my own as i passed the latter gently to and fro above his person
in such experiments with this patient
and assuredly i had little thought of succeeding now but to my astonishment his arm very readily although feebly followed every direction i assigned it with mine i determined to hazard a few words of conversation
m valdemar i said are you asleep he made no answer but i perceived a tremor about the lips and was thus induced to repeat the question again and again at its third repetition
his whole frame was agitated by a very slight shivering the eyelids unclosed themselves so far as to display a white line of the ball the lips moved sluggishly and from between them in a barely audible whisper
i questioned the sleep waker again do you still feel pain in the breast m valdemar the answer now was immediate but even less audible than before no pain i am dying
i did not think it advisable to disturb him farther just then and nothing more was said or done until the arrival of doctor f who came a little before sunrise
and expressed unbounded astonishment at finding the patient still alive after feeling the pulse and applying a mirror to the lips he requested me to speak to the sleep waker again i did so saying m valdemar do you still sleep
as before some minutes elapsed ere a reply was made and during the interval the dying man seemed to be collecting his energies to speak at my fourth repetition of the question he said very faintly almost inaudibly
yes still asleep dying it was now the opinion or rather the wish of the physicians that m valdemar should be suffered to remain undisturbed in his present apparently tranquil condition
until death should supervene and this it was generally agreed must now take place within a few minutes i concluded however to speak to him once more and merely repeated my previous question
the eyes rolled themselves slowly open the pupils disappearing upwardly the skin generally assumed a cadaverous hue resembling not so much parchment as white paper
and the circular hectic spots which hitherto had been strongly defined in the centre of each cheek went out at once i use this expression because the suddenness of their departure
put me in mind of nothing so much as the extinguishment of a candle by a puff of the breath the upper lip at the same time writhed itself away from the teeth which it had previously covered completely while the lower jaw fell with an audible jerk
leaving the mouth widely extended and disclosing in full view the swollen and blackened tongue i presume that no member of the party then present had been unaccustomed to death bed horrors but so hideous beyond conception
was the appearance of m valdemar at this moment that there was a general shrinking back from the region of the bed
will be startled into positive disbelief it is my business however simply to proceed there was no longer the faintest sign of vitality in m valdemar and concluding him to be dead we were consigning him to the charge of the nurses
a voice such as it would be madness in me to attempt describing there are indeed two or three epithets which might be considered as applicable to it in part i might say for example
that the sound was harsh and broken and hollow but the hideous whole is indescribable for the simple reason that no similar sounds have ever jarred upon the ear of humanity
there were two particulars nevertheless which i thought then and still think might fairly be stated as characteristic of the intonation as well adapted to convey some idea of its unearthly peculiarity
in the first place the voice seemed to reach our ears at least mine from a vast distance or from some deep cavern within the earth
as gelatinous or glutinous matters impress the sense of touch i have spoken both of sound and of voice i mean to say that the sound was one of distinct of even wonderfully thrillingly distinct
syllabification m valdemar spoke obviously in reply to the question i had propounded to him a few minutes before i had asked him it will be remembered if he still slept he now said
no i have been sleeping
no person present even affected to deny
which these few words thus uttered were so well calculated to convey
the nurses immediately left the chamber and could not be induced to return my own impressions i would not pretend to render intelligible to the reader for nearly an hour
we busied ourselves silently without the utterance of a word
when he came to himself we addressed ourselves again to an investigation of m valdemar's condition it remained in all respects as i have last described it with the exception that the mirror no longer afforded evidence
of respiration an attempt to draw blood from the arm failed i should mention too that this limb was no farther subject to my will i endeavored in vain to make it follow the direction of my hand
the only real indication indeed of the mesmeric influence was now found in the vibratory movement of the tongue
to queries put to him by any other person than myself he seemed utterly insensible although i endeavored to place each member of the company in mesmeric rapport with him
i believe that i have now related all that is necessary
in the afternoon we all called again to see the patient his condition remained precisely the same we had now some discussion as to the propriety and feasibility of awakening him but we had little difficulty
it was evident that so far death or what is usually termed death had been arrested by the mesmeric process it seemed clear to us all
to insure his instant or at least his speedy dissolution from this period until the close of last week an interval of nearly seven months we continued to make daily calls at m valdemar's house
accompanied now and then by medical and other friends all this time the sleeper waker remained exactly as i have last described him the nurses attentions were continual it was on friday last
which has given rise to so much discussion in private circles to so much of what i cannot help thinking unwarranted popular feeling
i made use of the customary passes
the first indication of revival was afforded by a partial descent of the iris it was observed as especially remarkable that this lowering of the pupil was accompanied by the profuse out flowing
from beneath the lids of a pungent and highly offensive odor it was now suggested that i should attempt to influence the patient's arm as heretofore i made the attempt and failed
doctor f then intimated a desire to have me put a question i did so as follows m valdemar can you explain to us what are your feelings or wishes now
there was an instant return of the hectic circles on the cheeks the tongue quivered or rather rolled violently in the mouth although the jaws and lips remained rigid as before
and at length the same hideous voice which i have already described broke forth for god's sake quick quick put me to sleep
and for an instant remained undecided what to do at first i made an endeavor to re compose the patient but failing in this through total abeyance of the will i retraced my steps and as earnestly struggled to awaken him
in this attempt i soon saw that i should be successful or at least i soon fancied that my success would be complete and i am sure that all in the room were prepared to see the patient awaken
for what really occurred however it is quite impossible that any human being could have been prepared as i rapidly made the mesmeric passes amid ejaculations of
and not from the lips of the sufferer his whole frame at once within the space of a single minute
crumbled absolutely rotted away beneath my hands upon the bed before that whole company there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome of detestable
those who remained behind decided for themselves what they must do the count ordered his carriage that he might drive to sokolniki and sat in his study with folded hands morose sallow and taciturn
in quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that it is only by his efforts that the whole population under his rule is kept going and in this consciousness of being indispensable
every administrator finds the chief reward of his labor and efforts while the sea of history remains calm the ruler administrator in his frail bark holding on with a boat hook to the ship of the people and himself moving
naturally imagines that his efforts move the ship he is holding on to but as soon as a storm arises and the sea begins to heave and the ship to move such a delusion is no longer possible the ship moves independently
with its own enormous motion the boat hook no longer reaches the moving vessel and suddenly the administrator
becomes an insignificant useless feeble man rostopchin felt this and it was this which exasperated him the superintendent of police whom the crowd had stopped
went in to see him at the same time as an adjutant who informed the count that the horses were harnessed they were both pale and the superintendent of police after reporting that he had executed the instructions he had received
informed the count that an immense crowd had collected in the courtyard and wished to see him without saying a word rostopchin rose and walked hastily to his light luxurious drawing room
went to the balcony door took hold of the handle let it go again and went to the window from which he had a better view of the whole crowd the tall lad was standing in front flourishing his arm
and saying something with a stern look the blood stained smith stood beside him with a gloomy face a drone of voices was audible through the closed window is my carriage ready asked rostopchin
it is your excellency replied the adjutant rostopchin went again to the balcony door but what do they want he asked the superintendent of police your excellency
they say they have got ready according to your orders to go against the french and they shouted something about treachery but it is a turbulent crowd your excellency i hardly managed to get away from it your excellency
i venture to suggest you may go i don't need you to tell me what to do exclaimed rostopchin angrily
looking at the crowd this is what they have done with russia this is what they have done with me
against the someone to whom what was happening might be attributed as often happens with passionate people he was mastered by anger but was still seeking an object on which to vent it
here is that mob the dregs of the people he thought as he gazed at the crowd this rabble they have roused by their folly they want a victim he thought as he looked at the tall lad flourishing his arm
and this thought occurred to him just because he himself desired a victim something on which to vent his rage is the carriage ready he asked again yes your excellency what are your orders about vereshchagin
he is waiting at the porch said the adjutant ah exclaimed rostopchin as if struck by an unexpected recollection and rapidly opening the door he went resolutely out onto the balcony
the talking instantly ceased hats and caps were doffed and all eyes were raised to the count good morning lads said the count briskly and loudly thank you for coming
we must punish the villain who has caused the ruin of moscow wait for me and the count stepped as briskly back into the room and slammed the door behind him a murmur of approbation and satisfaction ran through the crowd
he'll settle with all the villains you'll see and you said the french he'll show you what law is the mob were saying as if reproving one another for their lack of confidence a few minutes later
an officer came hurriedly out of the front door gave an order and the dragoons formed up in line the crowd moved eagerly from the balcony toward the porch rostopchin coming out there with quick angry steps
he had a long thin neck and his head that had been half shaved was again covered by short hair this young man was dressed in a threadbare blue cloth coat lined with fox fur
that had once been smart and dirty hempen convict trousers over which were pulled his thin dirty trodden down boots on his thin weak legs were heavy chains which hampered his irresolute movements
ah said rostopchin hurriedly turning away his eyes from the young man in the fur lined coat and pointing to the bottom step of the porch put him there the young man in his clattering chains
stepped clumsily to the spot indicated holding away with one finger the coat collar which chafed his neck turned his long neck twice this way and that sighed and submissively folded before him his thin hands
could sighs groans and the shuffling of feet be heard while waiting for the young man to take his place on the step rostopchin stood frowning and rubbing his face with his hand
lads said he with a metallic ring in his voice this man vereshchagin is the scoundrel by whose doing moscow is perishing
the young man in the fur lined coat stooping a little stood in a submissive attitude his fingers clasped before him his emaciated young face disfigured by the half shaven head hung down hopelessly
a vein in the young man's long thin neck swelled like a cord and went blue behind the ear and suddenly his face flushed all eyes were fixed on him he looked at the crowd
and rendered more hopeful by the expression he read on the faces there he smiled sadly and timidly and lowering his head shifted his feet on the step he has betrayed his tsar and his country
said rostopchin in a sharp even voice but suddenly he glanced down at vereshchagin who continued to stand in the same submissive attitude
he raised his arm and addressed the people almost shouting deal with him as you think fit i hand him over to you the crowd remained silent and only pressed closer and closer to one another
to keep one another back to breathe in that stifling atmosphere to be unable to stir and to await something unknown uncomprehended and terrible was becoming unbearable
who had seen and heard what had taken place before them all stood with wide open eyes and mouths straining with all their strength and held back the crowd that was pushing behind them beat him
let the traitor perish and not disgrace the russian name shouted rostopchin cut him down i command it hearing not so much the words as the angry tone of rostopchin's voice
the crowd moaned and heaved forward but again paused count exclaimed the timid yet theatrical voice of vereshchagin in the midst of the momentary silence that ensued
count one god is above us both
and the color rapidly came and went in his face he did not finish what he wished to say cut him down i command it shouted rostopchin suddenly growing pale like vereshchagin
draw sabers cried the dragoon officer drawing his own another still stronger wave flowed through the crowd and reaching the front ranks
carried it swaying to the very steps of the porch the tall youth with a stony look on his face and rigid and uplifted arm stood beside vereshchagin
saber him the dragoon officer almost whispered and one of the soldiers his face all at once distorted with fury struck vereshchagin on the head with the blunt side of his saber
cried vereshchagin in meek surprise looking round with a frightened glance as if not understanding why this was done to him a similar moan of surprise and horror ran through the crowd
o lord exclaimed a sorrowful voice but after the exclamation of surprise that had escaped from vereshchagin he uttered a plaintive cry of pain
even if we find it this evening the hundred days will be over in an hour and long before we could reach the egyptian capital the doctor will be on his way home still i will go out again and cast the net once more myself
it is too late murmured the young man who had studied in the schools of philosophy but all the same put the fish in that vessel full of water and we will take it back to show my father that we have done what we could but when he drew near the fish it looked up at him with such piteous eyes
that he could not make up his mind to condemn it to death for he knew well that
and threw it back into the sea and then began his journey back to the palace when at last he reached it he found the king in a high fever caused by his disappointment and he refused to believe the story told him by his son your head shall pay for it
your head shall pay for it cried he
but of course somebody ran at once to the queen and told her of the king's order and she put common clothes on the prince and filled his pockets with gold and hurried him on board a ship which was sailing that night for a distant island your father will repent some day
and then he will be thankful to know you are alive said she
and that is take no man into your service who desires to be paid every month the young prince thought this advice rather odd if the servant had to be paid anyhow
he had many times proved that his mother was wiser than he so he promised obedience after a voyage of several weeks he arrived at the island of which his mother had spoken it was full of hills and woods and flowers and beautiful white houses stood everywhere in gardens
what a charming spot to live in thought the prince and he lost no time in buying one of the prettiest of the dwellings then servants came pressing to offer their services
and what wages do you ask inquired the prince when he had questioned the new comer and found him suitable
at the end of a year you can see what my services are worth to you and can pay me in any way you like
the other part was a complete desert
the governor had sent bands of soldiers to lie in wait for the creature in order to kill it
that the ravages were committed it was in vain that the sleepy soldiers were always punished severely the same thing invariably occurred next time and at last heralds
asked he my daughter and anything besides that he chooses answered the governor but the arab shook his head give him your daughter and keep your wealth said he but henceforward let her share in your gains whatever they are
that night the arab stole down to the shore to watch but before he set out he rubbed himself all over with some oil which made his skin smart so badly that there was no chance of his going to sleep as the soldiers had done then he hid himself behind a large rock and waited
by and by a swell seemed to rise on the water and a few minutes later a hideous monster part bird part beast and part serpent stepped noiselessly
it walked stealthily up towards the fields but the arab was ready for it and as it passed plunged his dagger into the soft part behind the ear the creature staggered and gave a loud cry and then rolled over dead with its feet in the sea
but as the huge body remained quite still he quitted his hiding place and cut off the ears of his foe
never mind do as i bid you i have a reason for it answered the arab
all he desired was a ship which would carry him to see the world of course this was granted him at once and when he and his faithful arab embarked they found heaped up in the vessel stores of diamonds and precious stones
so they sailed and they sailed and they sailed and at length
after some hours he returned saying that he heard that the king's daughter was the most beautiful princess in the world and that the prince would do well to ask for her hand nothing loth the prince listened to this advice
the strange king happened to be in a good humour and they were readily admitted to his presence laying down his offerings on the steps of the throne he prayed the king to grant him his daughter in marriage the monarch listened to him in silence but answered after a pause
and not one of them lived for twelve hours after
but just as he was about to withdraw his proposal the arab whispered fear nothing but take her the luck must change some time he said at last
as you will replied the king
retired to their own apartments to sup by themselves for such was the custom of the country
to look out upon the river and upon the distant hills when his gaze suddenly fell on a silken shroud neatly laid out on a couch with his name embroidered in gold thread across the front for this also was the pleasure of the king
horrified at the spectacle he turned his head away and this time
it was a curious shape so long and narrow almost like
at this moment a small black snake
and seizing the serpent with some pincers that he held in one hand he cut off its head with a sharp dagger the king could hardly believe his eyes when early the next morning his new son in law craved an audience of his majesty what you
he cried as the young man entered
you remember i told you that the luck must turn at last and so it has
now from the moment that the arab cut off the snake's head the spell or whatever it was seemed to have been taken off the princess and she lived very happily with her husband the days passed swiftly in hunting in the forests or sailing on the broad river that flowed past the palace
and when night fell she would sing to her harp or the prince would tell her tales of his own country one evening a man in a strange garb with a face burnt brown by the sun arrived at court he asked to see the bridegroom and falling on his face announced
that he was a messenger sent by the queen of egypt proclaiming him king in succession to his father who was dead her majesty begs you will set out without delay
that his daughter's husband was not merely the governor of a province as he had supposed but the king of a powerful country he at once ordered a splendid ship to be made ready
to bid farewell to the young couple in spite of her grief for the dead king the queen was overjoyed to welcome her son home and commanded the palace to be hung with splendid stuffs to do honour to the bride the people expected great things from their new sovereign
and crowds presented themselves every morning with petitions in their hands
but he was very happy for all that till one night the arab came to him and begged permission to return to his own land filled with dismay the young man said
sadly the arab bowed his head no my master
but i have received a summons and i dare not disobey it the king was silent trying to choke down the grief he felt at the thought of losing his faithful servant well
that would be a poor return for all that you have done for me everything i have is yours take what you will for without you i should long ago have been dead and without you i should long ago have been dead answered the arab i am the golden headed fish
chapter nine how augustine came to milan and how his tempest tossed soul found light and peace at last augustine had not been a year in rome
they were less insolent it is true than those of carthage and not so rough but they had other defects which were quite as trying they would for instance attend the classes of a certain professor until the time arrived to pay their fees when deserting in a body to another school
it was certainly one way of getting an education for nothing but it was hard on the teachers
augustine was discouraged and sick at heart everything seemed to be against him there was no hope no light anywhere
symmachus the prefect of rome received a letter from milan requesting him to name a professor of rhetoric for the vacant chair in that city a competition was announced in which symmachus himself a well known orator
it was an excellent and honourable position the professor was supported by the state
which gave it a certain position augustine was furnished with letters of introduction to ambrose the bishop
and was probably an old friend of symmachus he was of a noble roman family and famous alike for his great learning and peculiar charm of manner he was famous also for his holiness of life
it was ambrose the orator with whom he desired to make acquaintance no sooner had he arrived in milan than he presented himself before the bishop who received him with a cordial courtesy that attracted augustine at once
this augustine began to do regularly he found that ambrose had not been overpraised
then gradually with a shock of surprise he began to attend to what the bishop said as well as to his manner of saying it ambrose was explaining the doctrines of the church he spoke very clearly and simply to the intelligence no less than to the heart
the manicheans had deceived him then thought augustine they had lied about the church's teaching or they themselves had been ignorant of it and he had let himself be deceived this was altogether unlike what they had told him
it was noble and sublime all that was great and good in him responded had he found the truth at last in the meantime monica determined to rejoin her son arrived in milan the journey had been long and dangerous
even the sailors had lost courage it was she who had comforted them in their fear the storm will soon be over she assured them i know that we shall reach our journey's end in safety
the sailors took heart again at her words her calm eyes strengthened them they felt that this gentle woman knew things that were hidden from them monica's first visit was to saint ambrose the two noble natures understood each other at once
when he met him a few days later she is one in a thousand much had happened since mother and son had parted and much had to be told the first thing that monica heard was that augustine had left the manicheans at this she rejoiced greatly
she was convinced she told him that she would see him a catholic before she died thus she spoke to me says augustine but to thee o fountain of mercy she redoubled her prayers and her tears
beseeching thee to hasten thine aid and dispel my darkness they went together now to the sermons and sat side by side in the church as in the days of augustine's childhood
one by one he laid aside the false ideas of the truth that had been given to him by the manicheans it was growing clearer to him every day true there was much that was above his understanding above the understanding of any human being as ambrose frankly acknowledged
but not above their faith the manicheans had sneered at faith as childish and credulous and yet thought augustine how many things he believed that he could have no possibility of proving he believed for instance that hannibal had crossed the alps
he believed that athens existed although he had never been there as of old a little group of friends had gathered round him at milan
there was romanianus who was there on state business
with trigetius both pupils of augustine's nebridius who had been with him in carthage and was like himself a native of roman africa
great hope has dawned wrote augustine the catholic faith teaches not what we thought and vainly accused it of life is vain death uncertain if it steals upon us of a sudden in what state shall we depart hence
and where shall we learn what here we have neglected let us not delay to seek after god and the blessed life
called simplicianus greatly beloved by saint ambrose for he had been his teacher and guide in early life to him augustine resolved to go he might be able to help him he told simplicianus
amongst other things that he had been reading a book of philosophy translated by a roman called victorinus the book was good said simplicianus
he had known him well in rome augustine was interested he would like to hear the story he said victorinus said the old man was a pagan and a worshipper of the heathen gods
and taught rhetoric to some of the noblest citizens of rome
that a statue had been erected to him in the forum in his old age after earnest study he became a christian but remained a long time a catechumen through fears of what his friends would say at last taking courage he prepared himself for baptism
and to punish himself for his human respect insisted on reading his profession of faith aloud before the whole congregation instead of making it as was usual in private this courageous action of an old man made augustine feel his own cowardice
he believed now that the catholic church was the true church and yet he could not face the thought of baptism he would have to give up so much
he could never attain to it he took leave of simplicianus sadly the help which he needed was not to be found there i went about my usual business he says while my anxiety increased as i daily sighed to thee
he frequented the church now even when there were no sermons for he began to feel the need of prayer one day when alypius and he were alone together there came in a friend of theirs pontitianus a devout christian who held a post at the emperor's court finding the epistles of saint paul upon the table
about saint anthony and of the many hermitages and monasteries in egypt and even here in his own country he spoke to them of the monastic life and its virtues
friends of his own walking together in the country came to a cottage inhabited by some holy recluses a life of saint anthony lay on the table one of them took it up and began to read his first feeling was one of astonishment
his second of admiration how uncertain life is he said suddenly to his companion we are in the emperor's service i wish we were in god's i had rather be his friend than the emperor's he read on with sighs and groans
at last he shut the book and arose my mind is made up he said i shall enter god's service here and now if you will not do so too at least do not try to hinder me you have chosen well said the other i am with you in this they never left the hermitage
this story only increased augustine's misery he had had more graces than these young men and had wasted them he was a coward when pontitianus had gone away
alypius followed and sat down beside him what are we about cried augustine hotly the unlearned take heaven by force and we with all our heartless learning wallow in the mire he sank his face in his hands and groaned the way lay clear before him
and he had not the courage to go further this and that he would have to do this and that he would have to give up he could not it was too hard and yet to stand with both feet on the rock of truth was it not worth all this and more
so the battle raged good and evil struggled together in his soul it seemed to him then that he saw a long procession winding across the garden it passed him and faded in the distance first came boys and girls young and weak
we have fought and conquered they said even we
some strong and vigorous some feeble and sickly
we have lived purely they said we have striven and conquered they were followed by old men and women worn with age and suffering they looked at him reproachfully
augustine's self control was leaving him
went to the other end of the garden and throwing himself down on the ground wept as if his heart would break his soul tossed this way and that in its anguish cried desperately to god for help suddenly on the stillness of the summer afternoon there broke the sound of a child's voice sweet insistent
augustine stood up there was no one there no human being was in sight
rang the sweet voice again and again in his ear now on this side now on that was this the answer to his prayer
put ye on the lord jesus christ and make not provision for the flesh and the concupiscence thereof he read
he would give up all and follow him then having carefully marked the place he sat down beside alypius and told him of his resolution what about me asked alypius perhaps there is something there for me too let me see
he took the book from augustine opened at the place he had marked and read he that is weak in the faith take unto you that will do very well for me he said augustine's first thought was for monica
chapter seven how saint monica's heart was well nigh broken by the news that her son had abjured the christian faith ill news travels fast augustine had scarcely joined the manicheans before the tidings reached monica
at first she could hardly believe it this was a blow for which she had not been prepared it crushed her to the earth
and yet she bent her broken heart to god's will and hoped on in him whose mercy cannot fail augustine had renounced the faith of his childhood publicly she heard later he had been entered by the manicheans as an auditor
the first degree of initiation in their sect and with all the zeal and ardour that he carried into everything he did he was advocating this abominable heresy and persuading his companions to follow his example her eyes grew dim with weeping for her son
and augustine would then return to tagaste perhaps she would find
it might be only the whim of a moment she would wait and see alas the hope was vain
determined that she should listen then the christian in monica rose above the mother her horror of heresy was for the moment stronger than her love for her son standing before him outraged and indignant
she told him plainly that if he spoke in such a way she could no longer receive him at her table or in her house augustine was amazed
with bent head he left the house and sought the hospitality of romanianus no sooner had he gone than monica's heart melted the mother love surged up again with bitter tears she cried on god to help her her grief seemed greater than she could bear
at last the night came and with it peace as she slept exhausted with weeping she had a dream which brought her a strange sense of hope and comfort it seemed to her that she was standing on a narrow rule or plank of wood
her heart weighed down with sorrow as it had been all through the day suddenly there came towards her a young man radiant and fair of face smiling at her he asked the cause of her tears i am weeping she answered for the loss of my son
grieve no more then he replied for look your son is standing there beside you monica turned her head it was true augustine stood at her side on the plank of wood be of good cheer continued the stranger
for where you are there shall he be also then monica awoke
in the morning she went straight to augustine and told him of her dream perhaps suggested her son anxious to turn it to his own advantage it means that you will come to see things as i do no said monica firmly
for he did not say where he is you shall be but where you are there he shall be augustine was even more struck by the earnestness of his mother's answer than by the dream itself though he pretended to make light of both
not long after monica went to see a certain holy bishop that she might beg him to use his influence with augustine to bring him back to the truth the wise old man listened attentively to her story let him alone for the present but pray much was his advice
for as yet he is obstinate and puffed up with these new ideas if what you tell me of your son is true
then seeing the anguish of the poor mother he told her that he himself in his youth had been led away by the manicheans
it was that which had saved him for as he wrote the truth became clear to him he had seen how much their doctrines were to be avoided
a sudden pity seized him go thy ways and god bless thee he cried it is impossible that a son of such tears should perish
and augustine returned to carthage but not for long he was now twenty years old his friend and patron romanianus was very anxious
and this he resolved to do a little circle of pupils
the sons of romanianus
he as well as the rest had abjured the catholic faith to join their heresy
when this friend was taken suddenly ill he lay unconscious in a burning fever there seemed to be no hope of recovery
his parents who were christians having begged that he might be baptized before he died the life giving waters were poured on him as he lay between life and death augustine made no protest so sure was he that what he himself had taught him before he was taken ill
would have more influence than a rite administered without his knowledge or consent to everybody's surprise the young man recovered his senses and began to mend augustine then laughingly told him what they had been doing and went on to make fun of the whole proceeding never doubting
never speak to me in such a way again if you wish to keep my affection he said
with the white robe of his baptism still unstained augustine was inconsolable
my eyes sought him everywhere and i hated all things because they had him not the thought of death was full of horror to him and he gave way to a deep depression his health never very robust began to suffer
realized that a change of scene would be the best thing for him and agreed to his proposal to return to carthage and open a school of rhetoric alypius and his other disciples followed him and in the rush of the great city augustine regained to some extent his peace of mind
while teaching he continued his own studies
many men of note joined his school and his name began to be famous he greatly desired honour he tells us but only if honourably won one day a certain magician paid him a visit
he had heard he said that augustine was about to compete for one of the state prizes in rhetoric what would he be ready to give if he could insure him the victory
he had not yet fallen so low as this i would not sacrifice a fly he retorted hotly to win a crown of gold the magician retired in haste and augustine who succeeded in carrying off the prize without the help of the demons
was publicly crowned by the pro consul vindicius who from thenceforth joined the circle of his friends the news of his success reached monica her mother's heart rejoiced in his triumph but her joy was tempered with sorrow
and her thoughts were of other victories and other crowns
he spoke no more to her of religion and she mindful of the old bishop's words was also silent
that holy chaste devout and sober widow such as thou lovest ceased not in all the hours of her prayers to bewail me in thy sight and her prayers were admitted into thy presence and yet thou sufferedst me to go on still and to be involved in that darkness
the darkness was indeed great but the fires were still smouldering beneath the ashes love honour and success were all his and yet he was not content there was something in his soul that none of these things could satisfy
after thee o truth he cries i hungered and thirsted his heart still ached for the loss of his friend he turned everywhere for comfort and found none he sought forgetfulness in study he wrote two books on the beautiful and the apt
monica drew fresh hope from her son's writings they were full of noble thoughts and high aspirations
he could not retain a cry of rapture
and caught him by the silken dress
and by the rent he stood revealed to her then said she o
and the danger of it is past computing surely the motive was a deep one nought other than the love of me
sweet words to a luted voice and the youth fell upon his knees before her smitten by her beauty
and thought i am bound to her by gratitude
fairer than the enchanted flower
like stars on the skirts of storm and she was the very dream of loveliness formed to freeze with awe
and embraced him saying said i not truly when i said i am that i shall be
but my own and stolen from me by wicked sorceries and he cried tell me o noorna my betrothed how this matter came to pass she said on our way to aklis
her willowy lightness her slimness as of the palm tree then she waded in the water and began to strike out with her arms and swim boldly
he likewise and presently they came to a current that hurried them off in its course and carried them as weeds streaming rapidly he was bearing witness to his faith as a man that has lost hope of life when a strong eddy stayed him
so he looked for noorna and saw her safe beside him flinging back the wet tresses from her face that was like the full moon growing radiant behind a dispersing cloud and she said ask not for the
and swam with an exulting stroke giving his breast broadly to the low billows and shouting verses of love and delight to her and while they swam sweetly behold
amethyst and emerald that came scudding over the waves toward them raised to the wind fan shaped and in its front two silver seats when she saw it noorna cried she has sent me this
rabesqurat perchance is she favourable to my wishes and this were well then she swayed in the water sideways and drew the shell to her and the twain climbed into it and sat each on one of the silver seats folded together
now while they were speeding over the water noorna said
i see much of the rest of that particular paris time
rue balzac in the light if not quite of alphonse daudet's
at least in that of certain other of his studies in that field of the precarious the ambiguous paris
at its hours by its wide protective plausible shadow a precious mantle of tone they gather these chequered parts into its vast paternal presence
and enjoy at its expense a degree of reflected dignity it was to the big square villa of the rue balzac that we turned as pupils not unacquainted with vicissitudes
that strikes me at this distance of time as of the oddest and most indescribable or as describable at best in some of the finer turns and touches of daudet's best method
the picture indeed should not be invidious it so little needs that i feel for its due measure of the vivid the queer the droll all coming back to me without prejudice to its air
as of an equally futile felicity i see it as bright and loose and vague as confused and embarrassed and helpless i see it i fear as quite ridiculous
and so relieved us of a sense of untoward discipline or of the pursuit of abstract knowledge it was a recreational or at least a social rather than a tuitional house
which fact had i really believe weighed favourably with our parents when
with their considerable practice how next to bestow us our father like so many free spirits of that time in new york and boston had been much interested in the writings of charles fourier and in his scheme of
as an active and sympathetic ex fourierist i think there were only ex fourierists by that time who was embarking not far from us on an experiment if not absolutely phalansteric
at least inspired or at any rate enriched by a bold idealism
it so corrects any fear that such places might be dreary i recall this one as positively gay bristling and bustling and resonant
untouched by the strenuous note for instance of hawthorne's co operative blithedale i like to think that in its then still almost suburban its pleasantly heterogeneous quarter
now oppressively uniform it was close to where balzac had ended his life though i question its identity as for a while i tried not to with the scene itself of the great man's catastrophe
round its high walled garden at all events he would have come and gone a throb of inference that had for some years indeed to be postponed for me
though an association displacing to day over the whole spot every other interest
from which the pedagogic process as commonly understood was most fantastically absent
even others exceptionally appointed heaven knows for the supremacy and yet its glory is that it was no poor blank but that it fairly creaked and groaned heatedly overflowed with its wealth
with prevailingly english and american pupils
with mature beneficiaries of both sexes and that our two categories were shaken up together to the liveliest effect
grand conception a son of the south bald and slightly replete with a delicate beard a quick but anxious rather melancholy eye and a slim graceful juvenile wife who multiplied herself
though scarce knowing at moments i think where or how to turn i see him as a daudet meridional but of the sensitive not the sensual type as something of a rolling stone
rolling rather down hill he had enjoyed some arrested possibly blighted connection in america and as ready always again for some new application of faith and funds if
fondly failing in the least to see why the particular application in the rue balzac the body of pensioners ranging from infancy to hoary eld shouldn't have been a bright success could have made it one
it would have been a most original triumph i recover it as for ourselves a beautifully mixed adventure
who sat at long boards of green cloth with us and with several of our contemporaries english and american boys
or from the aged and most remarkable
he above all such a model for daudet and who interrupted our abashed readings aloud to him of the french classics older and newer by wondrous reminiscences and even imitations of talma
it was our belief that he went back beyond the first empire to the scenes of the revolution this perhaps partly by reason in the first place of his scorn of our pronunciation when we met it of the sovereign word
politically obnoxious to the powers that then were though knowing that those so marked had to walk and even to breathe cautiously for fear of the mouchards of the tyrant we knew all about mouchards
and talked of them as we do to day of aviators or suffragettes to remember which in an age so candidly unconscious of them is to feel how much history we have seen unrolled
there were times when he but paced up and down and round the long table i see him as never seated but always on the move a weary wandering jew of the classe but in particular
le cid and show us how talma describing it seemed to crouch down on his haunches in order to spring up again terrifically to the height of
there fifty men at least had leaped to their feet but he threw off these broken lights with a quick relapse to indifference he didn't like the anglo saxon
of the children of albion at least his view was low on his american specimens he had i observed more mercy and this imperfection of sympathy the question of waterloo apart
rested it was impossible not to feel on his so resenting the dishonour suffered at our hands by his beautiful tongue to which as the great field of elocution he was patriotically devoted
i think he fairly loathed our closed english vowels and confused consonants our destitution of sounds that he recognised as sounds
though why in this connection he put up best with our own compatriots embroiled at that time often in even stranger vocables than now is more than i can say i think that would be explained perhaps
by his feeling in them as an old equalitarian certain accessibilities quand meme besides we of the younger persuasion at least must have done his ear less violence
than those earnest ladies from beyond the sea and than those young englishmen qualifying for examinations and careers who flocked with us both to the plausibly spread and the severely disgarnished table
and on whose part i seem to see it again an effort of anguish to pick up the happy idiom that we had unconsciously acquired french in the fine old formula of those days
so much diffused was the language of the family but i think it must have appeared to these students in general a family of which the youngest members were but scantly kept in their place
we piped with a greater facility and to a richer meed of recognition which sounds as if we might have become in these strange collocations fairly offensive little prigs
that was none the less not the case for there were oddly enough a few french boys as well to whom on the lingual or the family ground
when there entered to us benevolently ushered by madame fezandie a small boy of very fair and romantic aspect as it struck me a pupil newly arrived
a face delicate and pale and that deeply hoarse voice with which french children used to excite our wonder
his name and on his pronouncing it sought to know with livelier attention if he were then
to this distinction the boy confessed
that i knew myself quite dropped in comparison from his scheme of things such an origin as our little visitor's affected him visibly as dazzling and i felt justified after a while in stealing away into the shade
the shining hellenist and historian
what snobs admire now let us consider how difficult it is even for great men to escape from being snobs
it is very well for the reader whose fine feelings are disgusted by the assertion that kings princes lords are snobs to say you are confessedly a snob yourself in professing to depict snobs
it is only your own ugly mug which you are copying with a narcissus like conceit and fatuity but i shall pardon this explosion of ill temper on the part of my constant reader reflecting upon the misfortune of his birth
and country it is impossible for any briton perhaps not to be a snob in some degree if people can be convinced of this fact an immense point is gained surely
if i have pointed out the disease let us hope that other scientific characters may discover the remedy if you who are a person of the middle ranks of life are a snob
you whom nobody flatters particularly you who have no toadies you whom no cringing flunkeys or shopmen bow out of doors you whom the policeman tells to move on
you who are jostled in the crowd of this world and amongst the snobs our brethren consider how much harder it is for a man to escape who has not your advantages
and is all his life long subject to adulation the butt of meanness consider how difficult it is for the snobs idol not to be a snob as i was discoursing with my friend eugenio in this impressive way
lord buckram passed us the son of the marquis of bagwig and knocked at the door of the family mansion in red lion square his noble father and mother occupied as everybody knows distinguished posts in the courts of late sovereigns
the marquis was lord of the pantry and her ladyship lady of the powder closet to queen charlotte buck as i call him for we are very familiar gave me a nod as he passed
and i proceeded to show eugenio how it was impossible that this nobleman should not be one of ourselves having been practised upon by snobs all his life his parents resolved to give him a public education
and sent him to school at the earliest possible period the reverend otto rose d d principal of the preparatory academy for young noblemen and gentlemen richmond lodge took this little lord in hand and fell down and worshipped him
until the rector's lady and the surgeon's wife almost died with envy his own son and lord buckram having been discovered robbing an orchard together the doctor flogged his own flesh and blood most unmercifully for leading the young lord astray
he parted from him with tears there was always a letter directed to the most noble the marquis ef bagwig on the doctor's study table when any visitors were received by him at eton
a great deal of snobbishness was thrashed out of lord buckram and he was birched with perfect impartiality even there however a select band of sucking tuft hunters followed him
and he was caned several times with great advantage for not sufficiently polishing his master smith's shoes boys are not all toadies in the morning of life but when he went to the university
crowds of toadies sprawled over him the tutors toadied him the fellows in hall paid him great clumsy compliments the dean never remarked his absence from chapel or heard any noise issuing from his rooms
a number of respectable young fellows it is among the respectable the baker street class that snobbishness flourishes more than among any set of people in england a number of these clung to him like leeches
having been kept back for that express purpose by his father he spent a quarter's allowance in giving buckram a single dinner but he knew there was always pardon for him for extravagance in such a cause
and a ten pound note always came to him from home when he mentioned buckram's name in a letter what wild visions entered the brains of missus podge and miss podge the wife and daughter of the principal of lord buckram's college
when lord buckram after taking his honorary degree for alma mater is a snob too and truckles to a lord like the rest when lord buckram went abroad to finish his education
you all know what dangers he ran and what numbers of caps were set at him lady leach and her daughters followed him from paris to rome
of macdragonstown and proposed to shoot him unless he married that spotless and beautiful young creature who was afterwards led to the altar by mister muff at cheltenham
if perseverance and forty thousand pounds down could have tempted him miss lydia croesus would certainly have been lady buckram count towrowski was glad to take her with half the meney as all the genteel world knows
and who has been such a prodigious favourite with men if we were to describe him it would be personal
or what his personal qualities are suppose he is a young nobleman of a literary turn and that he published poems ever so foolish and feeble the snobs would purchase thousands of his volumes the publishers
half murdering policemen the public will sympathize good naturedly with his amusements and say he is a hearty honest fellow suppose he is fond of play and the turf and has a fancy to be a blackleg
and occasionally condescends to pluck a pigeon at cards the public will pardon him and many honest people will court him as they would court a housebreaker if he happened to be a lord suppose he is an idiot
yet by the glorious constitution he is good enough to govern
suppose he is an honest highminded gentleman so much the better for himself but he may be an ass and yet respected or a ruffian and yet be exceedingly popular or a rogue
and yet excuses will be found for him snobs will still worship him male snobs will do him honour and females look kindly upon him
the last refinement and luxury of unaffected good feeling a kind of social superstition to suppose that to be truly friendly one must be saying friendly words all the time any more than be doing friendly deeds continually
true friendliness like true religion being in a sort independent of works at length the good merchant whose eyes were pensively resting upon the gay tables in the distance
broke the spell by saying that from the spectacle before them one would little divine what other quarters of the boat might reveal he cited the case accidentally encountered but an hour or two previous of a shrunken old miser clad in
shrunken old moleskin stretched out an invalid on a bare plank in the emigrants quarters eagerly clinging to life and lucre though the one was gasping for outlet and about the other he was in torment lest death or
some other unprincipled cut purse should be the means of his losing it by like feeble tenure holding lungs and pouch and yet knowing and desiring nothing beyond them for his mind never raised above mould was now
all but mouldered away to such a degree indeed that he had no trust in anything not even in his parchment bonds which the better to preserve from the tooth of time he had packed down and sealed up like brandy peaches in a tin case of spirits
he hinted to be a somewhat jaundiced sentimentality nature he added in shakespeare's words had meal and bran and rightly regarded the bran in its way was not to be condemned
the other was not disposed to question the justice of shakespeare's thought but would hardly admit the propriety of the application in this instance much less of the comment so after some further temperate discussion of the pitiable miser
finding that they could not entirely harmonize the merchant cited another case that of the negro cripple but his companion suggested whether the alleged hardships of that alleged unfortunate might not exist more in the pity of the observer
than the experience of the observed he knew nothing about the cripple nor had seen him but ventured to surmise that could one but get at the real state of his heart he would be found about as happy as most men if not
in fact full as happy as the speaker himself he added that negroes were by nature a singularly cheerful race no one ever heard of a native born african zimmermann or torquemada that even from religion they dismissed all gloom
in their hilarious rituals they danced so to speak and as it were cut pigeon wings it was improbable therefore that a negro however reduced to his stumps by fortune could be ever thrown off the legs of a laughing philosophy
foiled again the good merchant would not desist but ventured still a third case that of the man with the weed whose story as narrated by himself and confirmed and filled out by the testimony of a certain man in a gray coat
whom the merchant had afterwards met he now proceeded to give and that without holding back those particulars disclosed by the second informant but which delicacy had prevented the unfortunate man himself from touching upon
but as the good merchant could perhaps do better justice to the man than the story we shall venture to tell it in other words than his though not to any other effect chapter twelve story of the unfortunate man
from which may be gathered whether or no he has been justly so entitled it appeared that the unfortunate man had had for a wife one of those natures anomalously vicious
which would almost tempt a metaphysical lover of our species to doubt whether the human form be in all cases conclusive evidence of humanity whether sometimes it may not be a kind of unpledged and indifferent tabernacle and whether
an unaccountable one considering that he himself was so good a man that he who hates vice hates humanity it should not in self defense be held for a reasonable maxim that none but the good are human
goneril was young in person lithe and straight too straight indeed for a woman a complexion naturally rosy and which would have been charmingly so but for a certain hardness and bakedness
like that of the glazed colors on stone ware her hair was of a deep rich chestnut but worn in close short curls all round her head her indian figure was not without its impairing effect on her bust
upon the whole aided by the resources of the toilet her appearance at distance was such that some might have thought her if anything rather beautiful though of a style of beauty rather peculiar and cactus like
while having a natural antipathy to such things as the breast of chicken or custard or peach or grape goneril could yet in private make a satisfactory lunch on hard crackers and brawn of ham she liked lemons
and the only kind of candy she loved were little dried sticks of blue clay secretly carried in her pocket withal she had hard steady health like a squaw's with as firm a spirit and resolution
some other points about her were likewise such as pertain to the women of savage life lithe though she was she loved supineness but upon occasion could endure like a stoic she was taciturn too
from early morning till about three o'clock in the afternoon she would seldom speak it taking that time to thaw her by all accounts into but talking terms with humanity during the interval she did little but look
and keep looking out of her large metallic eyes which her enemies called cold as a cuttle fish's but which by her were esteemed gazelle like for goneril was not without vanity
those who thought they best knew her often wondered what happiness such a being could take in life not considering the happiness which is to be had by some natures in the very easy way of simply causing pain to those around them
those who suffered from goneril's strange nature might with one of those hyberboles to which the resentful incline have pronounced her some kind of toad but her worst slanderers could never with any show of justice
have accused her of being a toady in a large sense she possessed the virtue of independence of mind goneril held it flattery to hint praise even of the absent and even if merited
passion is human like an icicle dagger goneril at once stabbed and froze so at least they said and when she saw frankness and innocence tyrannized into sad nervousness under her spell
according to the same authority inly she chewed her blue clay and you could mark that she chuckled
but another was alleged one really incomprehensible in company she had a strange way of touching as by accident the arm or hand of comely young men and seemed to reap a secret delight from it
but whether from the humane satisfaction of having given the evil touch as it is called or whether it was something else in her not equally wonderful but quite as deplorable remained an enigma
needless to say what distress was the unfortunate man's when engaged in conversation with company he would suddenly perceive his goneril bestowing her mysterious touches
especially in such cases where the strangeness of the thing seemed to strike upon the touched person notwithstanding good breeding forbade his proposing the mystery on the spot as a subject of discussion for the company
in these cases too the unfortunate man could never endure so much as to look upon the touched young gentleman afterwards fearful of the mortification of meeting in his countenance some kind of more or less quizzingly knowing expression
he would shudderingly shun the young gentleman so that here to the husband goneril's touch had the dread operation of the heathen taboo now goneril brooked no chiding
so at favorable times he in a wary manner and not indelicately would venture in private interviews gently to make distant allusions to this questionable propensity she divined him
but in her cold loveless way said it was witless to be telling one's dreams especially foolish ones but if the unfortunate man liked connubially to rejoice his soul with such chimeras much connubial joy might they give him
a touching case but all might perhaps have been borne by the unfortunate man conscientiously mindful of his vow for better or for worse to love and cherish his dear goneril so long as kind heaven might spare her to him
but when after all that had happened the devil of jealousy entered her a calm clayey cakey devil for none other could possess her and the object of that deranged jealousy her own child
a little girl of seven her father's consolation and pet when he saw goneril artfully torment the little innocent and then play the maternal hypocrite with it the unfortunate man's patient long suffering gave way
knowing that she would neither confess nor amend and might possibly become even worse than she was he thought it but duty as a father to withdraw the child from her but
loving it as he did he could not do so without accompanying it into domestic exile himself which hard though it was he did whereupon the whole female neighborhood who till now had
broke out in indignation against a husband who without assigning a cause could deliberately abandon the wife of his bosom and sharpen the sting to her too by depriving her of the solace of retaining her offspring
to all this self respect with christian charity towards goneril long kept the unfortunate man dumb and well had it been had he continued so for when driven to desperation he hinted something of the truth of the case
not a soul would credit it while for goneril she pronounced all he said to be a malicious invention ere long at the suggestion of some woman's rights women the injured wife began a suit
and thanks to able counsel and accommodating testimony succeeded in such a way as not only to recover custody of the child but to get such a settlement awarded upon a separation as to make penniless the unfortunate man so he averred
besides through the legal sympathy she enlisted effecting a judicial blasting of his private reputation what made it yet more lamentable was that the unfortunate man thinking that before the court his wisest plan as well as the most
christian besides being as he deemed not at variance with the truth of the matter would be to put forth the plea of the mental derangement of goneril which done he could with less of mortification to himself and odium to her
reveal in self defense those eccentricities which had led to his retirement from the joys of wedlock had much ado in the end to prevent this charge of derangement from fatally recoiling upon himself especially when
among other things he alleged her mysterious teachings in vain did his counsel striving to make out the derangement to be where in fact if anywhere it was urge that to hold otherwise to hold that such a being as goneril was sane
this was constructively a libel upon womankind libel be it and all ended by the unfortunate man's subsequently getting wind of goneril's intention to procure him to be permanently committed for a lunatic
upon which he fled and was now an innocent outcast wandering forlorn in the great valley of the mississippi with a weed on his hat for the loss of his goneril for he had lately seen by the papers that she was dead
and thought it but proper to comply with the prescribed form of mourning in such cases for some days past he had been trying to get money enough to return to his child and was but now started with inadequate funds
frederick revenge may have her own roused discipline aloud proclaims their cause
byron margaret began to wonder whether all offers were as unexpected beforehand as distressing at the time of their occurrence as the two she had had
an involuntary comparison between mister lennox and mister thornton arose in her mind she had been sorry that an expression of any other feeling than friendship had been lured out by circumstances from henry lennox
that regret was the predominant feeling on the first occasion of her receiving a proposal
so impressed as she did now when echoes of mister thornton's voice yet lingered about the room in lennox's case he seemed for a moment to have slid over the boundary between friendship and love
and the instant afterwards to regret it nearly as much as she did although for different reasons in mister thornton's case as far as margaret knew there was no intervening stage of friendship
their intercourse had been one continued series of opposition their opinions clashed and indeed she had never perceived that he had cared for her opinions as belonging to her the individual
as far as they defied his rock like power of character his passion strength he seemed to throw them off from him with contempt until she felt the weariness of the exertion of making useless protests
and now he had come in this strange wild passionate way to make known his love for although at first it had struck her that his offer was forced and goaded out of him by sharp compassion
for the exposure she had made of herself which he like others might misunderstand yet
and certainly not five minutes after the clear conviction dawned upon her shined bright upon her that he did love her that he had loved her that he would love her
and she shrank and shuddered as under the fascination of some great power repugnant to her whole previous life she crept away and hid from his idea but it was of no use
to parody a line out of fairfax's tasso his strong idea wandered through her thought she disliked him the more for having mastered her inner will
how dared he say that he would love her still even though she shook him off with contempt she wished she had spoken more stronger sharp decisive speeches came thronging into her mind
now that it was too late to utter them the deep impression made by the interview was like that of a horror in a dream that will not leave the room although we waken up and rub our eyes and force a stiff rigid smile upon our lips
it is there there cowering and gibbering with fixed ghastly eyes in some corner of the chamber listening to hear whether we dare to breathe of its presence to any one and we dare not
poor cowards that we are and so she shuddered away from the threat of his enduring love what did he mean had she not the power to daunt him she would see
it was more daring than became a man to threaten her so did he ground it upon the miserable yesterday if need were she would do the same to morrow by a crippled beggar willingly and gladly but by him she would do it
just as bravely in spite of his deductions and the cold slime of women's impertinence she did it because it was right and simple and true to save where she could save even to try to save
hitherto she had not stirred from where he had left her no outward circumstances had roused her out of the trance of thought in which she had been plunged by his last words
and by the look of his deep intent passionate eyes as their flames had made her own fall before them she went to the window and threw it open to dispel the oppression which hung around her
then she went and opened the door with a sort of impetuous wish to shake off the recollection of the past hour in the company of others or in active exertion
but all was profoundly hushed in the noonday stillness of a house where an invalid catches the unrefreshing sleep that is denied to the night hours
margaret would not be alone what should she do go and see bessy higgins of course thought she as the recollection of the message sent the night before flashed into her mind
and away she went when she got there she found bessy lying on the settle moved close to the fire though the day was sultry and oppressive she was laid down quite flat
as if resting languidly after some paroxysm of pain margaret felt sure she ought to have the greater freedom of breathing which a more sitting posture would procure and without a word she raised her up
and so arranged the pillows that bessy was more at ease though very languid i thought i should na ha seen yo again said she at last looking wistfully in margaret's face
i'm afraid you're much worse but i could not have come yesterday my mother was so ill for many reasons said margaret colouring
but the wranglin and the loud voices had just torn me to pieces and i thought when father left oh if i could just hear her voice reading me some words o peace and promise i could die away into the silence and rest o god
shall i read you a chapter now ay do
it will seem far away but when yo come to words i like
it'll seem close in my ear and going through me as it were margaret began bessy tossed to and fro if by an effort she attended for one moment
it seemed as though she were convulsed into double restlessness the next at last she burst out don't go on reading it's no use i'm blaspheming all the time in my mind wi thinking angrily on what canna be helped
your father was not there was he said margaret colouring deep not he
it's that that's fretting me
but why asked margaret i don't understand why yo see he's a committee man on this special strike th union appointed him because though i say it as shouldn't say it
and he and t other committee men laid their plans
what the major part thought t'others were to think whether they would or no and above all there was to be no going again the law of the land folk would go with them if they saw them striving and starving wi dumb patience
even wi knobsticks all was up
and beside all that committee knew they were right in their demand and they didn't want to have right all mixed up wi wrong till folk can't separate it
well i've told yo at length about this'n but i'm tired out
and by such a fool as boucher who must needs go right again the orders of committee
but steady thoughtful men good hands and good citizens who were friendly to law and judgment and would uphold order who only wanted their right wage and wouldn't work even though they starved till they got em
that's not true said margaret it was not boucher that threw the stone' she went first red then white yo'd be there then were yo asked bessy languidly
for indeed she had spoken with many pauses as if speech was unusually difficult to her yes never mind go on only it was not boucher that threw the stone
he did na speak words he were all in such a tremble wi spent passion i could na bear to look at him i heard his breath coming quick and at one time i thought he were sobbing
he sat down a bit and put his hand afore his eyes
father father said i thou'll never go peach on that poor clemmed man
dunnot be a fool says he words come readier than deeds to most men
and i should na ha minded if some one else had done the dirty work and got him clapped up but now he has strucken me i could do it less nor ever for it would be getting other men to take up my quarrel but if ever he gets well o'er this clemming
and is in good condition he and i'll have an up and down fight purring an a and i'll see what i can do for him and so father shook me off for indeed i was low and faint enough
and turned me sick to look at and i know not if i slept or waked or were in a dead swoon till mary come in and i telled her to fetch yo to me
i'm easier in my mind for having spit it out but i want some thoughts of the world that's far away to take the weary taste of it out o my mouth read me not a sermon chapter but a story chapter
they've pictures in them which i see when my eyes are shut
margaret read in her soft low voice though bessy's eyes were shut she was listening for some time for the moisture of tears gathered heavy on her eyelashes
at last she slept with many starts and muttered pleadings margaret covered her up and left her for she had an uneasy consciousness that she might be wanted at home and yet until now it seemed cruel to leave the dying girl
missus hale was in the drawing room on her daughter's return it was one of her better days and she was full of praises of the water bed it had been more like the beds at sir john beresford's than anything she had slept on since
one would think it was easy enough there was the same kind of feathers to be had and yet somehow till this last night she did not know when she had had a good sound resting sleep
mister hale suggested that something of the merits of the featherbeds of former days might be attributed to the activity of youth which gave a relish to rest but this idea was not kindly received by his wife no indeed mister hale
it was those beds at sir john's now margaret you're young enough and go about in the day are the beds comfortable i appeal to you do they give you a feeling of perfect repose when you lie down upon them
or rather don't you toss about and try in vain to find an easy position and waken in the morning as tired as when you went to bed margaret laughed to tell the truth mamma i've never thought about my bed at all what kind it is
i'm so sleepy at night that if i only lie down anywhere i nap off directly so i don't think i'm a competent witness but then you know i never had the opportunity of trying sir john beresford's beds i never was at oxenham
i only went to oxenham once after i was married to your aunt shaw's wedding and poor little fred was the baby then
and i know dixon did not like changing from lady's maid to nurse and i was afraid that if i took her near her old home and amongst her own people she might want to leave me but poor baby was taken ill at oxenham with his teething
and what with my being a great deal with anna just before her marriage and not being very strong myself dixon had more of the charge of him than she ever had before and it made her so fond of him
and she was so proud when he would turn away from every one and cling to her that i don't believe she ever thought of leaving me again though it was very different from what she'd been accustomed to poor fred
everybody loved him he was born with the gift of winning hearts it makes me think very badly of captain reid when i know that he disliked my own dear boy i think it a certain proof he had a bad heart ah
your poor father margaret he has left the room he can't bear to hear fred spoken of i love to hear about him mamma tell me all you like you never can tell me too much tell me what he was like as a baby
why margaret you must not be hurt but he was much prettier than you were i remember when i first saw you in dixon's arms i said dear what an ugly little thing and she said
it's not every child that's like master fred bless him dear how well i remember it then i could have had fred in my arms every minute of the day and his cot was close by my bed and now
now margaret i don't know where my boy is and sometimes i think i shall never see him again margaret sat down by her mother's sofa on a little stool and softly took hold of her hand
caressing it and kissing it as if to comfort missus hale cried without restraint at last she sat straight stiff up on the sofa
margaret if i can get better if god lets me have a chance of recovery it must be through seeing my son frederick once more it will waken up all the poor springs of health left in me
she paused and seemed to try and gather strength for something more yet to be said her voice was choked as she went on was quavering as with the contemplation of some strange yet closely present idea
and margaret if i am to die if i am one of those appointed to die before many weeks are over i must see my child first i cannot think how it must be managed
but i charge you margaret as you yourself hope for comfort in your last illness bring him to me that i may bless him only for five minutes margaret there could be no danger in five minutes oh margaret let me see him before i die
margaret did not think of anything that might be utterly unreasonable in this speech we do not look for reason or logic in the passionate entreaties of those who are sick unto death
who will soon pass away from among us and do they ask us for the future happiness of our lives we lay it at their feet and will it away from us but this wish of missus hale's was so natural so just
so right to both parties that margaret felt as if on frederick's account as well as on her mother's she ought to overlook all intermediate chances of danger and pledge herself to do everything in her power for its realisation
steady in their gaze though the poor white lips quivered like those of a child margaret gently rose up and stood opposite to her frail mother so that she might gather the secure fulfilment of her wish from the calm steadiness of her daughter's face
mamma i will write to night and tell frederick what you say i am as sure that he will come directly to us as i am sure of my life
you will write to night oh margaret the post goes out at five you will write by it won't you i have so few hours left i feel dear as if i should not recover
though sometimes your father over persuades me into hoping you will write directly won't you don't lose a single post for just by that very post i may miss him but mamma papa is out papa is out
and what then do you mean that he would deny me this last wish margaret why i should not be ill be dying if he had not taken me away from helstone to this unhealthy smoky sunless place
yes it is so indeed he knows it himself he has said so many a time he would do anything for me you don't mean he would refuse me this last wish prayer if you will
and indeed margaret the longing to see frederick stands between me and god i cannot pray till i have this one thing indeed i cannot don't lose time dear dear margaret
write by this very next post then he may be here here in twenty two days for he is sure to come no cords or chains can keep him in twenty two days i shall see my boy
she fell back and for a short time she took no notice of the fact that margaret sat motionless her hand shading her eyes you are not writing said her mother at last
bring me some pens and paper i will try and write myself she sat up trembling all over with feverish eagerness margaret took her hand down and looked at her mother sadly only wait till papa comes in
you promised margaret not a quarter of an hour ago you said he should come and so he shall mamma don't cry my own dear mother i'll write here now you shall see me write
and it shall go by this very post and if papa thinks fit he can write again when he comes in it is only a day's delay oh mamma don't cry so pitifully it cuts me to the heart
missus hale could not stop her tears they came hysterically and in truth she made no effort to control them but rather called up all the pictures of the happy past and the probable future
painting the scene when she should lie a corpse with the son she had longed to see in life weeping over her and she unconscious of his presence till she was melted by self pity into a state of sobbing and exhaustion
that made margaret's heart ache but at last she was calm and greedily watched her daughter as she began her letter wrote it with swift urgent entreaty sealed it up hurriedly for fear her mother should ask to see it
and then to make security most sure at missus hale's own bidding took it herself to the post office she was coming home when her father overtook her
and where have you been my pretty maid asked he to the post office with a letter a letter to frederick
she said it would make her well again and then she said that she must see him before she died i cannot tell you how urgent she was did i do wrong mister hale did not reply at first then he said
you should have waited till i came in margaret i tried to persuade her and then she was silent i don't know said mister hale after a pause
she ought to see him if she wishes it so much for i believe it would do her much more good than all the doctor's medicine and perhaps set her up altogether but the danger to him i'm afraid is very great
all these years since the mutiny papa yes it is necessary of course for government to take very stringent measures for the repression of offences against authority
more particularly in the navy where a commanding officer needs to be surrounded in his men's eyes with a vivid consciousness of all the power there is at home to back him and take up his cause and avenge any injuries offered to him if need be
ah it's no matter to them how far their authorities have tyrannised galled hasty tempers to madness or if that can be any excuse afterwards it is never allowed for in the first instance
they spare no expense they send out ships they scour the seas to lay hold of the offenders the lapse of years does not wash out the memory of the offence it is a fresh and vivid crime on the admiralty books till it is blotted out by blood
i'm sure frederick himself would run the risk so he would so he should nay margaret i'm glad it is done though i durst not have done it myself
i'm thankful it is as it is i should have hesitated till perhaps it might have been too late to do any good dear margaret you have done what is right about it and the end is beyond our control
it was all very well but her father's account of the relentless manner in which mutinies were punished made margaret shiver and creep
if she had decoyed her brother home to blot out the memory of his error by his blood she saw her father's anxiety lay deeper than the source of his latter cheering words
as soon as the bird appeared high above their heads sleep overpowered them and they only awoke to hear the windows crashing in
he placed a lot of thorns under his chin so that if he felt drowsy and nodded his head they would prick him and keep him awake
and it was as light as day when suddenly he heard a fearful noise and at the same time a terrible desire to sleep overpowered him his eyelids closed and his head sank on his shoulders
and were so painful that he awoke at once he saw the hawk swooping down upon the church and in a moment he had seized his gun and shot at the bird the hawk fell heavily under a big stone
dragged a lot of pine wood and ropes to the spot they fastened some of the burning pine wood to the end of the rope and let it slowly down to the bottom of the abyss at first it was quite dark
and the flaming torch only lit up dirty grey stone walls but the youngest brother determined to explore the abyss and letting himself down by the rope he soon reached the bottom here he found a lovely meadow
full of green trees and exquisite flowers in the middle of the meadow stood a huge stone castle with an iron gate leading to it which was wide open everything in the castle seemed to be made of copper
and the only inhabitant he could discover was a lovely girl who was combing her golden hair
like pure metal the youth looked at her more closely and saw that her skin was smooth and fair her blue eyes bright and sparkling and her hair as golden as the sun he fell in love with her on the spot
and kneeling at her feet he implored her to become his wife the lovely girl accepted his proposal gladly but at the same time she warned him that she could never come up to the world above
was dead and she went on to tell him that the only way in which the old creature could be killed
but the sword was so heavy that no one could lift it then the youth went into a room in the castle where everything was made of silver and here he found another beautiful girl the sister of his bride
she was combing her silver hair
the second girl handed him the sword but though he tried with all his strength he could not lift it at last a third sister came to him and gave him a drop of something to drink
which she said would give him the needful strength he drank one drop
then he drank a second and the sword began to move but only after he had drunk a third drop was he able to swing the sword over his head then he hid himself in the castle
and awaited the old witch's arrival at last as it was beginning to grow dark she appeared she swooped down upon a big apple tree
she pounced down upon the earth as soon as her feet touched the ground she became transformed from a hawk into a woman
first the treasures were attached to the rope and then the three lovely girls and now everything was up above and only he himself remained below
but as he was a little suspicious of his brothers he fastened a heavy stone on to the rope and let them pull it up at first they heaved with a will but when the stone was half way up they let it drop suddenly
and it fell to the bottom broken into a hundred pieces so that's what would have happened to my bones had i trusted myself to them said the youth sadly and he began to cry bitterly
not because of the treasures but because of the lovely girl with her swanlike neck and golden hair for a long time he wandered sadly all through the beautiful underworld and one day
he met a magician who asked him the cause of his tears the youth told him all that had befallen him and the magician said do not grieve young man if you will guard the children who are hidden in the golden apple tree
i will bring you at once up to the earth another magician who lives in this land always eats my children up it is in vain that i have hidden them under the earth and locked them into the castle
now i have hidden them in the apple tree hide yourself there too and at midnight you will see my enemy the youth climbed up the tree and picked some of the beautiful golden apples which he ate for his supper
at midnight the wind began to rise and a rustling sound was heard at the foot of the tree the youth looked down and beheld a long thick serpent beginning to crawl up the tree
and gradually got higher and higher it stretched its huge head in which the eyes glittered fiercely among the branches searching for the nest in which the little children lay
they trembled with terror when they saw the hideous creature and hid themselves beneath the leaves
swung his mighty sword in the air and with one blow cut off the serpent's head he cut up the rest of the body into little bits and strewed them to the four winds
up to the world above with what joy did he hurry now to his brothers house
but no one knew who he was only his bride who was serving as cook to her sisters recognised her lover at once his brothers who had quite believed he was dead
long long ago there lived an old farmer and his wife
far from any town their only neighbor was a bad and malicious badger this badger used to come out every night
and spoil the vegetables and the rice which the farmer spent his time in carefully cultivating
and did so much harm everywhere on the farm that the good natured farmer could not stand it any longer and determined to put a stop to it so he lay in wait day after day and night after night with a big club
hoping to catch the badger but all in vain then he laid traps for the wicked animal the farmer's trouble and patience was rewarded for one fine day on going his rounds
he found the badger caught in a hole he had dug for that purpose
and carried him home securely bound with rope when he reached the house the farmer said to his wife
you must keep an eye on him
because i want to make him into soup to night saying this
and went out to his work in the fields
and he thought and thought for a long time trying to hit upon some plan by which he might escape it was hard to think clearly in his uncomfortable position for he had been hung upside down
very near him at the entrance to the storehouse
stood the farmer's old wife pounding barley she looked tired and old her face was seamed with many wrinkles and was as brown as leather
she stopped to wipe the perspiration which rolled down her face dear lady said the wily badger
my arms are very strong
thank you for your kindness said the old woman
for you might escape if i did
now the badger is one of the most cunning of animals
you are very unkind you might untie me for i promise not to try to escape if you are afraid of your husband
when i have finished pounding the barley i am so tired and sore tied up like this
the old woman had a good and simple nature and could not think badly of any one
that the badger was only deceiving her in order to get away she felt sorry too for the animal as she turned to look at him he looked in such a sad plight hanging downwards from the ceiling by his legs
which were all tied together so tightly that the rope and the knots were cutting into the skin
she untied the cord and let him down the old woman then gave him the wooden pestle and told him to do the work for a short time while she rested he took the pestle but instead of doing the work as he was told
the badger at once sprang upon the old woman and knocked her down with the heavy piece of wood he then killed her and cut her up and made soup of her and waited for the return of the old farmer the old man worked hard in his fields all day
and as he worked he thought with pleasure that no more now would his labor be spoiled by the destructive badger towards sunset he left his work and turned to go home he was very tired
but the thought of the nice supper of hot badger soup awaiting his return cheered him the thought that the badger might get free and take revenge on the poor old woman never once came into his mind
the badger meanwhile assumed the old woman's form and as soon as he saw the old farmer approaching came out to greet him on the veranda of the little house saying so you
that it was not his wife but the badger who was waiting upon him and asked at once for the soup
look out for the bones in the kitchen laughing loudly
and ran away to his den in the hills the old man was left behind alone he could hardly believe what he had seen and heard then when he understood the whole truth he was so scared and horrified
that he fainted right away after a while he came round and burst into tears he cried loudly and bitterly he rocked himself to and fro in his hopeless grief it seemed too terrible to be real
that his faithful old wife had been killed and cooked by the badger
knowing nothing of what was going on at home and congratulating himself
which the creature had made of his poor old woman
dear he wailed aloud now not far away there lived in the same mountain a kind good natured old rabbit he heard the old man crying and sobbing and at once set out to see what was the matter
and if there was anything he could do to help his neighbor the old man told him all that had happened when the rabbit heard the story he was very angry at the wicked and deceitful badger and told the old man to leave everything to him
the farmer was at last comforted
the rabbit seeing that the farmer was growing calmer
the next day the weather was fine and the rabbit went out to find the badger he was not to be seen in the woods or on the hillside or in the fields anywhere
willingly consented to go out with him only too glad to get away from the neighborhood of the farmer and the fear of meeting him the rabbit led the way miles away from their homes out on the hills
where the grass grew tall and thick and sweet they both set to work to cut down as much as they could carry home
when they had each cut down all they wanted they tied it in bundles and then started homewards each carrying his bundle of grass on his back this time the rabbit made the badger go first when they had gone a little way
the rabbit took out a flint and steel and striking it over the badger's back as he stepped along in front set his bundle of grass on fire the badger heard the flint striking and asked
crack oh that is nothing
the fire soon spread in the bundle of dry grass on the badger's back the badger hearing the crackle of the burning grass asked
answered the rabbit by this time the bundle was nearly burned out and all the hair had been burned off the badger's back he now knew what had happened by the smell of the smoke of the burning grass
screaming with pain the badger ran as fast as he could to his hole the rabbit followed
said the rabbit i can't imagine how this happened
for he felt that nothing could be too bad for the animal who was guilty of murdering a poor helpless old woman who had trusted him he went home and made an ointment by mixing some sauce and red pepper together
he carried this to the badger but before putting it on he told him that it would cause him great pain but that he must bear it patiently because it was a very wonderful medicine for burns
and scalds and such wounds the badger thanked him and begged him to apply it at once but no language can describe the agony of the badger
as soon as the red pepper had been pasted all over his sore back he rolled over and over
the rabbit looking on felt that the farmer's wife was beginning to be avenged
and he got well when the rabbit saw that the badger was getting well he thought of another plan by which he could compass the creature's death so he went one day to pay the badger a visit
and to congratulate him on his recovery during the conversation the rabbit mentioned that he was going fishing and described how pleasant fishing was when the weather was fine and the sea smooth
the badger listened with pleasure to the rabbit's account of the way he passed his time now and forgot all his pains and his month's illness and thought what fun it would be if he could go fishing too
this was just what the rabbit wanted so he agreed then he went home and built two boats one of wood and the other of clay at last they were both finished and as the rabbit stood and looked at his work
if his plan succeeded and he could manage to kill the wicked badger now
he kept the wooden boat himself and gave the badger the clay boat the badger who knew nothing about boats was delighted with his new boat and thought how kind it was of the rabbit to give it to him
they both got into their boats and set out after going some distance from the shore
and see which one could go the quickest the badger fell in with the proposal and they both set to work to row as fast as they could for some time in the middle of the race the badger found his boat going to pieces
for the water now began to soften the clay he cried out in great fear to the rabbit to help him but the rabbit answered that he was avenging the old woman's murder and that this had been his intention all along
and was to drown with no one to help him
till he fell with the sinking clay boat and was seen no more thus at last he kept his promise to the old farmer the rabbit now turned and rowed shorewards and having landed and pulled his boat
upon the beach hurried back to tell the old farmer everything and how the badger his enemy had been killed the old farmer thanked him with tears in his eyes he said that till now he could never sleep at night
or be at peace in the daytime thinking of how his wife's death was unavenged but from this time he would be able to sleep and eat as of old
to stay with him and share his home so from this day the rabbit went to stay with the old farmer and they both lived together as good friends to the end of their days
and at last he made up his mind to marry again feeling that a wife would bring peace and order to his household and take care of his motherless children so he married and in the following years several children were born to him
but peace and order did not come to the household for the step mother was very cruel to the twins and beat them and half starved them and constantly drove them out of the house for her one idea was to get them out of the way
all day she thought of nothing but how she should get rid of them
where a wicked witch lived and so one morning she spoke to them saying you have been such
you will have to wait upon her and serve her but you will be well rewarded
so the children left the house together and the little sister
and when the grandmother heard where they were going she cried and said
now listen to me children
a queer little hut and when they looked into it there lay the witch with her head on the threshold of the door with one foot in one corner and the other in the other corner and her knees cocked up almost touching the ceiling
who's there she snarled in an awful voice when she saw the children and they answered civilly
the cat was curled up on the floor so they stroked her and fed her with ham and said to her
and run as fast as they could as soon as the handkerchief touched the ground a deep broad river would spring up which would hinder the witch's progress if she managed to get across it they
must throw the comb behind them and run for their lives for where the comb fell a dense forest would start up which would delay the witch so long
and trembling in every limb the poor children lay down to sleep on a heap of straw in the corner of the hut but they dared not close their eyes and scarcely ventured to breathe
in the morning the witch gave the girl two pieces of linen to weave before night and the boy a pile of wood to cut into chips then the witch left them to their tasks
as soon as she had gone out of sight
and taking one another by the hand
whose branches almost put their eyes out but the little sister tied the twigs together with a piece of ribbon and they got past safely and after running through the wood came out on to the open fields
in the meantime in the hut the cat was busy weaving the linen and tangling the threads as it wove and the witch returned to see how the children were getting on
i have served you all these years and you never gave me so much as a hard crust
was to mount on her broom and set off in pursuit of the children and as the children ran they heard the sound of the broom sweeping the ground close behind them
so instantly they threw the handkerchief down over their shoulder and in a moment a deep broad river flowed behind them when the witch came up to it it took her a long time
and the little sister put her ear to the ground and heard the broom sweeping the earth close behind them so quick as thought she threw the comb down on the ground and in an instant as the cat had said
a dense forest sprung up in which the roots and branches were so closely intertwined that it was impossible to force a way through it
she found that there was nothing for it but to turn round and go back to her hut
then they told their father all that they had suffered and he was so angry with their step mother that he drove her out of the house and never let her return but he and the children lived happily together and he took care of them himself
and the miller all of a sudden became so poor
he wandered about all day full of despair and misery and when he lay down at night he could get no rest but lay awake all night sunk in sorrowful thoughts one morning
he rose up before dawn and went outside for he thought his heart would be lighter in the open air
he heard a rustling in the water and when he looked near he saw a white woman rising up from the waves he realised at once that this could be none other than the nixy of the mill pond and in his terror
he didn't know if he should fly away or remain where he was while he hesitated the nixy spoke
and asked him why he was so sad when the miller heard how friendly her tone was he plucked up heart and told her how rich and prosperous
when he didn't know what he was to do for want and misery then the nixy spoke comforting words to him and promised that she would make him richer and more prosperous than he had ever been in his life before
if he would give her in return the youngest thing in his house the miller thought she must mean one of his puppies or kittens
and returned to his mill full of hope on the threshold he was greeted by a servant with the news that his wife had just given birth to a boy the poor miller was much horrified by these tidings
and went in to his wife with a heavy heart to tell her and his relations of the fatal bargain he had just struck with the nixy i would gladly give up all the good fortune she promised me he said
and in the meantime all prospered with the miller and in a few years he was richer than he had ever been before but all the same he did not enjoy his good fortune
she would demand his fulfilment of it but year after year went by and the boy grew up and became a great hunter and the lord of the land took him into his service for he was as smart and bold a hunter
as you would wish to see in a short time he married a pretty young wife and lived with her in great peace and happiness one day when he was out hunting a hare sprang up at his feet
the hunter pursued it hotly for some time and at last shot it dead then he proceeded to skin it never noticing that he was close to the mill pond which from childhood up he had been taught to avoid he soon finished the skinning
and went to the water to wash the blood off his hands he had hardly dipped them in the pond when the nixy rose up in the water and seizing him in her wet arms she dragged him down with her under the waves
when the hunter did not come home in the evening his wife grew very anxious and when his game bag was found close to the mill pond she guessed at once what had befallen him she was nearly beside herself with grief
calling on her husband without ceasing at last worn out with sorrow and fatigue
when she came to a hut where she found an old witch who promised to restore her husband to her when she awoke next morning she determined to set out and find the witch so she wandered on for many a day
and found the hut where the old witch lived the poor wife told her all that had happened and how she had been told in a dream of the witch's power to help her the witch counselled her to go to the pond the first time there was a full moon
and to comb her black hair with a golden comb and then to place the comb on the bank the hunter's wife gave the witch a handsome present thanked her heartily and returned home time dragged heavily till the time of the full moon
but it passed at last and as soon as it rose the young wife went to the pond combed her black hair with a golden comb and when she had finished placed the comb on the bank then she watched the water impatiently
soon she heard a rushing sound and a big wave rose suddenly and swept the comb off the bank and a minute after the head of her husband rose from the pond and gazed sadly at her but immediately another wave came
and the head sank back into the water without having said a word the pond lay still and motionless glittering in the moonshine and the hunter's wife was not a bit better off than she had been before
and at last worn out by fatigue she sank once more into a deep sleep
so next morning she went again to the flowery meadow and sought the witch in her hut and told her of her grief the old woman counselled her to go to the mill pond the next full moon
and play upon a golden flute and then to lay the flute on the bank as soon as the next moon was full the hunter's wife went to the mill pond played on a golden flute and when she had finished placed it on the bank
then a rushing sound was heard and a wave swept the flute off the bank and soon the head of the hunter appeared and rose up higher and higher till he was half out of the water
then he gazed sadly at his wife and stretched out his arms towards her but another rushing wave
the hunter's wife who had stood on the bank full of joy and hope sank into despair when she saw her husband snatched away again before her eyes but for her comfort she dreamt the same dream a third time
and betook herself once more to the old witch's hut in the flowery meadow this time the old woman told her to go the next full moon to the mill pond
and then to leave the spinning wheel on the bank the hunter's wife did as she was advised and the first night the moon was full she sat and spun with a golden spinning wheel and then left the wheel on the bank
in a few minutes a rushing sound was heard in the waters and a wave swept the spinning wheel from the bank
getting higher and higher each moment till at length he stepped on to the bank and fell on his wife's neck but the waters of the pond rose up suddenly overflowed the bank where the couple stood
and dragged them under the flood in her despair the young wife called on the old witch to help her and in a moment
but they were not able to remain together for the water tore them apart and when the flood was over they both resumed their own shapes again
found themselves each in a strange country and neither knew what had become of the other the hunter determined to become a shepherd and his wife too became a shepherdess so they herded their sheep for many years in solitude and sadness
now it happened once that the shepherd came to the country where the shepherdess lived the neighbourhood pleased him and he saw that the pasture was rich and suitable for his flocks so he brought his sheep there
and herded them as before the shepherd and shepherdess became great friends but they did not recognise each other in the least but one evening when the moon was full they sat together watching their flocks
and the shepherd played upon his flute then the shepherdess thought of that evening when she had sat at the full moon by the mill pond and had played on the golden flute the recollection was too much for her
and she burst into tears the shepherd asked her why she was crying and left her no peace till she told him all her story then the scales fell from the shepherd's eyes and he recognised his wife and she him
switzerland is a wonderful country full of beautiful snowy mountains where gleaming ice fields shine and dark pine forests grow hans lived with his aunt
some of them came in carriages some on foot some were rich some were poor but all of them wanted to climb to the mountain tops where the snows are always white and dazzling against the blue sky
the paths over the mountains are slippery and dangerous leading across the ice fields by cracks and chasms most fearful to see
the uncle was so brave and trusty
that very day hans was five years old
this was a great treat for hans and his aunt made haste to dress him in his best clothes you must be good she told him a dozen times before he set out with his uncle to the hotel where the prince was staying
when they got there they found everything in a bustle for the place was full of fine ladies and gentlemen who had come with the prince and the servants were hurrying here and there to wait on them nobody even saw the little boy in holiday clothes
who tiptoed so quietly over the beautiful carpets nobody i should say but the prince
he smiled at hans and asked his name and how old he was
and when the prince heard this he took a gold piece from his purse and gave it to hans this is for a birthday present he said
he ran every step of the way home to show the gold piece to his aunt and when she saw it she was almost as pleased as he was you must buy something that you can keep always she said what shall it be
a silver chain she cried clasping her hands at the thought of it a silver chain to wear upon your coat when you are a man and have perhaps a watch to hang upon it
twill be a fine thing to show a silver chain that a prince gave you hans was not certain that he wanted a chain more than anything else but his aunt was very sure about it so she gave the gold piece to a soldier cousin
when the chain came the aunt called all the neighbours to see it
she said again and again hans thought the chain very fine
he was quite willing that his aunt should put it away in the great chest where she kept the holiday clothes and the best tablecloths the chain lay there so long that hans felt sorry for it and wondered if it did not get lonely
and his aunt did not encourage him to play with other children she liked a quiet house she said and she supposed that everybody else did hans made no more noise than a mouse
he stayed a great deal in the stable with the cows the cows and he were good friends one of them the oldest of all had given milk for him when he was a baby
than a silver chain but he did not tell anybody for fear of being laughed at once he asked his aunt to let him play with the silver chain
then there was a great festival in the town
flags were flying fiddlers were playing gay tunes on their fiddles and the drummer boy kept time on his drum and made a great noise in the middle of the village square was a merry go round which hans and the other children liked best of all if you are good
then the swift runners ran races and the skilful marksmen shot at targets
so he sat down on a doorstep to rest
by and by a man with a covered basket came and sat down beside him
and hans heard a queer little grumbling sound inside oh yes said the man you want to get out row row said the thing in the basket
and let him peep in what do you think was in the basket the dearest baby puppy that hans had ever seen there said the man shutting down the lid
are you going to sell him asked hans yes indeed said the man how would you like to buy him yourself i said hans oh
is that yours
oh yes cried hans but i would a thousand times rather have a dog well then said the man if you are sure that the chain is yours and if you want the dog so much i'll let you have him for it
although he's worth a fortune and so in less time than i take to tell it
then he ran to find his aunt oh aunt he called even before he reached her look at this beautiful dog he is my very own the man let me have him for my silver chain your silver chain cried his aunt angrily
coming to meet him in haste your silver chain
not the silver chain that was bought for your birthday
a nice bargain indeed where is the man and catching the child by the hand she hurried back through the crowd so fast that he almost had to run to keep up with her the great tears ran down hans's cheeks and on to the dog's back
but his aunt did not notice them she scolded and scolded as she made her way back to the doorstep when they got there the man was nowhere to be seen and nobody could tell them which way he had gone
they had to go home without finding him hans still carried the dog in his arms and all the neighbours they met stopped to ask if silly hans had really given his silver chain for a dog as they had heard
his aunt had a great deal to say to them but hans said nothing at all he only hugged the dog the closer and wondered how long it would be before he would have to give him up but hans's aunt let him keep the dog in spite of her scolding
a dog is better than nothing she said hans named him prince for after all the dog was the prince's birthday present at first prince did nothing but sleep and eat then he began to grow oh so fast
by the time he had lived two years in the house he was a great fine dog with long thick hair and soft loving eyes he was very beautiful
and even hans's aunt thought so although she did not love the dog hans was never lonely after prince came even at night they stayed together
shaggy neck and sleep close beside him to keep warm the winters are very cold in the country where hans lived
and the snow comes down for days till the valleys are as white as the mountain tops few travellers go to the mountains then they are afraid of the bad roads and of the snow which sometimes slides in great masses
burying everything in its way hans's uncle knew many stories of travellers who had been lost in the snow and he told too of some good men living in the mountains
dogs like our prince here he would say and hans would hug prince and say
prince would bark sharply whenever hans told him this just as if he were proud he knew all about travellers and snow for
hans always let him go willingly with his good uncle but one day when his soldier cousin the one who had bought the silver chain in the city
hans was very sorry to let prince go
when she saw his sorrowful face what harm could come to a great dog like that
all day long his heart was heavy and when in the afternoon the little white snowflakes came flying down
after a long while he heard great laughing and talking on the road
it was the soldier cousin with a party of friends and they laughed still more when they saw hans little hans little hans cried one of them this fine cousin of yours has forgotten your dog forgotten my dog
he was asleep behind the stove at the inn said the soldier cousin who looked very much ashamed of himself
think of that a great dog like prince hans looked from one
but they were all too busy with their joking to notice him only the soldier cousin who was really sorry for his carelessness tried to comfort him he'll be here he said patting hans on the head by milking time i warrant
for he is wise enough to take care of himself anywhere wiser than you laughed the rest and they all went off merrily leaving the little boy standing in the road he scarcely saw them go
how could the dear dog find his way through the darkness alone i will go for him in the morning if he does not come home to night called the soldier cousin
and the big tears began to roll down his cheeks just then a thought sprang into his mind as thoughts will
he knew the way for he had been to the inn only the summer before with his uncle the loud winds whistled and the snowflakes kissed his cheeks and his nose but he thought of his playmate and started out bravely
hans knew her voice bring me my salt she seemed to say when i come back he answered as he struggled up the frozen road he was very cold for he had even forgotten his cap in his haste
but the snowflakes powdered his hair till he looked as if he wore a white one he could scarcely pucker up his mouth to whistle his feet were numb and his fingers tingled
and before many minutes he was fast asleep and lay in a little dark heap on the white snow let's cover him up said the snowflakes hurrying down
but before they had time to whiten his clothes a great big beautiful saint bernard dog came bounding down the road it was prince he had waked up from his nap behind the stove and hastened after the soldier cousin as fast as his four feet could carry him
he was not afraid of the night or the snow and he was as warm as toast in his shaggy coat he was thinking of hans as he hurried along when suddenly
in an instant the good dog sprang to the child's side
loud and long bow wow bow wow which meant in his language little master wake up but hans was dreaming of the mountains where the travellers went and did not hear bow wow bow wow
wake up wake up
pulling him along with his strong teeth you can't wake him up said the wind
bow wow bow wow come here come here the sound of his voice reached the village where everything was as quiet as the snow itself the cows heard it first and mooed in their stalls
the soldier cousin heard it on his way to hans's house
the neighbours heard it and opened their doors to listen bow wow bow wow come here come here something is wrong said the people and they all hurried out of their houses away from their fires and their suppers up the mountain side
till they came to the spot where the faithful dog kept guard over his little master
was a beautiful little lake where two wild ducks made their home and passed their days swimming and playing in its clear waters
and had come there before them and luckily instead of taking a dislike to the turtle
they became great friends and spent most of the day in each other's company all went on smoothly and happily till one summer
when the rains failed and the sun shone so fiercely that every morning there was a little less water in the lake and a little more mud on the bank the water lilies around the edge began to droop
and the ducks favourite swimming place where they could dive the deepest to grow shallower and shallower at length there came a morning when the ducks looked at each other uneasily
and before nightfall they had whispered that if at the end of two days rain had not come they must fly away and seek a new home for if they stayed in their old one which they loved so much
they would certainly die of thirst earnestly they watched the sky for many hours before they tucked their heads under their wings and fell asleep from sheer weariness
but not the tiniest cloud was to be seen covering the stars that shone so big and brilliant and hung so low in the heavens that you felt as if you could touch them so when the morning broke
they found him comfortably curled up on a pile of dead rushes more than half asleep for he was old and could not venture out in the heat as he once used
ah here you are he cried i began to wonder if i was ever going to see you again for somehow though the lake has grown smaller i seem to have grown weaker
and it is lonely spending all day and night by oneself oh my friend answered the elder of the two ducks if you have suffered we have suffered also besides i have something to tell you
that i fear will cause you greater pain still
and seek another where the sun's rays do not come my heart bleeds to say this for there is nothing nothing else in the world which would have induced us to separate from you
the turtle was so astonished as well as so distressed at the duck's speech that for a moment he could find no words to reply
he said in a shaky voice how can you think that i am able to live without you when for so long you have been my only friends if you leave me death will speedily put an end to my grief
our sorrow is as great as yours answered the other duck but what can we do and remember that if we are not here to drink the water
if it had not been for this terrible misfortune be sure that nothing would have parted us from one whom we love so dearly my friends replied the turtle
it stares in mine also but in the name of all the years we have passed together do not i beseech you leave me to perish here alone wherever you may go take me with you there was a pause
the ducks felt wretched at the thought of abandoning their old comrade yet at the same time how could they grant his prayer it seemed quite impossible and at length one of them spoke
yet how can we do what you ask consider that like yours our bodies are heavy and our feet small therefore how could we walk with you over mountains and deserts till we reached a land where the sun's rays no longer burn
why before the day was out we should all three be dead of fatigue and hunger no our only hope lies in our wings and alas you cannot fly no
i cannot fly of course answered the turtle with a sigh but you are so clever and have seen so much of the world surely you can think of some plan and he fixed his eyes eagerly on them
though he could not hear what they said the turtle could watch and the half hour that their talk lasted felt to him like a hundred years at length he beheld them returning side by side
and so great was his anxiety to know his fate he almost died from excitement before they reached him we hope we have found a plan that may do for you said the big duck gravely but we must warn you that it is not without great danger
especially if you are not careful to follow our directions how is it possible that i should not follow your directions when my life and happiness are at stake asked the turtle joyfully tell me what they are
well then answered the duck whilst we are carrying you through the air
however high above the earth you may find yourself you must not feel afraid nor move your feet nor open your mouth no matter what you see or hear it is absolutely needful for you to be perfectly still
or i cannot answer for the consequences i will be absolutely obedient answered the turtle not only on this occasion but during all my life and once more i promise faithfully not to move head or foot
to fear nothing and never to speak a word during the whole journey this being settled the ducks swam about till they found floating in the lake a good stout stick
this they tied to their necks with some of the tough water lily roots and returned as quickly as they could to the turtle now said the elder duck pushing the stick gently towards his friend take this stick firmly in your mouth
and do not let it go till we have set you down on earth again the turtle did as he was told
spread their wings and mounted swiftly into the air the turtle hanging between them for a while all went well they swept across valleys over great mountains above ruined cities
but no lake was to be seen anywhere still the turtle had faith in his friends and bravely hung on to the stick at length they saw in the distance a small village and very soon they were passing over the roofs of the houses
the people were so astonished at the strange sight that they all men women and children ran out to see it and cried to each other look look behold a miracle two ducks supporting a turtle
was ever such a thing known before indeed so great was the surprise that men left their ploughing and women their weaving in order to add their voices to their friends the ducks flew steadily on heeding nothing of the commotion below
but not so the turtle at first he kept silence as he had been bidden to do but at length the clamour below proved too much for him and he began to think that everyone was envying him the power of travelling through the air
and opened his mouth to reply but before he could utter a word he was rushing so swiftly through the air that he quickly became unconscious and in this state was dashed to pieces against the side of a house
then the ducks let fall after him the stick that had held up their friend and which was of no further use sadly they looked at each other and shook their heads
certainly this death was better than the one which awaited him
as if you couldn't even shoot it would seem like it wouldn't it as i sauntered back to the hotel i was conscious of a slight feeling of exacerbation as if i had been got at had
i felt that i had been made a laughing stock just then that
the men i had met were nice enough in their way indeed they were almost too nice also in their way they appeared to have so little to do in the way of actual work
that they had made it the business of their lives to perfect themselves in what are usually regarded say as accomplishments i was and am a plain civilian
i have worked for and earned my little pile such as it is and until i set out upon that pleasure tour in the east
a suspicion that a man might be so regarded had been dawning upon me ever since i arrived in india but until i came to ahmednugger
the men of ahmednugger were the most sporting individuals i had ever yet encountered
but i certainly have seen something of men of business these men of ahmednugger
they were the keenest men of business too and talk of the rigour of a competitive examination they formed themselves into an examining board which very soon took the stiffening out of me
which has been invented and found me wanting in them all they examined me as a rider as a driver
in fact in a range of subjects which i will not even venture to enumerate they refused me one solitary pass they plucked me in them all it did not add to my sense of satisfaction
that i found my ignorance expensive the joke of the thing was
whether across country or on the flat i thought that i made a tolerable fourth
that i had some notion at any rate of english billiards and of a hazard off the red
but these vain delusions were scattered at once and for ever by the men of ahmednugger my all round purblind insensate ignorance had been so convincingly displayed that
when he challenged me to see who could smash most glass balls with a rifle bullet he or i i rashly took his challenge up i flattered myself that at last i had a soft thing on
i had no notion it was rather late at night when the challenge was thrown down and taken up
but i conceived
we were each to fire at fifty glass balls which were to be sent up into the air out of a trap we were of course to fire at them while they were in the air
when i returned to the hotel a man was standing in the doorway he addressed me as i came up the steps it strikes me that you and i might shake hands sir
i asked him what he meant i've made myself one kind of ass and you've made yourself another kind
especially by a stranger and especially by a stranger like this stranger he was a short undersized man
his attire suggested seediness perceiving that i did not appreciate his manner he explained no offence intended sir but i just now saw you playing pantaloon to that youngster's clown
and i thought that he made the end of the poker rather hot as for me i'm an ass all over my name's johns i came to this place to shear the sheep there's been some shearing
but it's the sheep that's done it they've about sheared me
they've got hold of pretty well every blessed mag i had i did not encourage mister johns quite the contrary
the regimental races had recently been held a bookmaker had appeared upon the scene mister johns
and to nearly every man in the place he had lost his money
the way of the winning of anne jerome irving had been courting anne stockard for fifteen years he had begun when she was twenty and he was twenty five and now that jerome was forty and anne in a village where everybody knew everybody else's age had to own to being thirty five
the courtship did not seem any nearer a climax than it had at the beginning but that was not jerome's fault poor fellow at the end of the first year he had asked anne to marry him and anne had refused jerome was disappointed
but he kept his head and went on courting anne just the same that is he went over to esek stockard's house every saturday night and spent the evening he walked home with anne from prayer meeting and singing school and parties when she would let him
and asked her to go to all the concerts and socials and quilting frolics that came off anne never would go of course but jerome faithfully gave her the chance old esek rather favoured jerome's suit for anne was the plainest of his many daughters
but she took her own way with true stockard firmness and matters were allowed to drift on at the will of time or chance three years later jerome tried his luck again with precisely the same result and after that he had asked anne regularly once a year to marry him
and just as regularly anne said no a little more brusquely and a little more decidedly every year now in the mellowness of a fifteen year old courtship jerome did not mind it at all he knew that everything comes to the man who has patience to wait
time of course had not stood still with anne and jerome or with the history of deep meadows at the stockard homestead the changes had been many and marked
every year or two there had been a wedding in the big brick farmhouse and one of old esek's girls had been the bride each time julia and grace and celia and betty and theodosia and clementina stockard were all married and gone but anne had never had another lover
there had to be an old maid in every big family she said and she was not going to marry jerome irving just for the sake of having missus on her tombstone old esek and his wife had been put away in the deep meadows burying ground the broad fertile stockard acres passed into anne's possession
she was a good business woman and the farm continued to be the best in the district she kept two hired men and a servant girl and the sixteen year old of her oldest sister lived with her
but jerome dropped in every saturday night with clockwork regularity and talked to anne about her stock and advised her regarding the rotation of her crops and the setting out of her orchards and at ten o'clock he would take his hat and cane and tell anne to be good to herself and go home
he always walked home with her from evening meetings and was her partner in the games at quilting parties it was great fun for the young folks old jerome and anne were a standing joke in deep meadows
anne laughed at jerome as she had always done and would not have owned for the world that she could have missed him jerome was useful she admitted and a comfortable friend
if he would only omit that ridiculous yearly ceremony of proposal it was jerome's fortieth birthday when anne refused him again he realized this as he went down the road in the moonlight and doubt and dismay began to creep into his heart anne and he were both getting old
there was no disputing that fact it was high time that he brought her to terms if he was ever going to jerome was an easy going mortal and always took things placidly but he did not mean to have all those fifteen years of patient courting go for nothing
he had thought anne would get tired of saying no sooner or later and say yes if for no other reason than to have a change but getting tired did not seem to run in the stockard blood she had said no that night just as coolly and decidedly and unsentimentally as she said it fifteen years before
he made up his mind that something must be done and just as he got to the brook that divides deep meadows west from deep meadows central an idea struck him it was a good idea and amused him he laughed aloud and slapped his thigh
there's old jerome going home from seeing anne stockard said one wonder what on earth he's laughing at seems to me if i couldn't get a wife without hoeing a fifteen year row i'd give up trying
but then the speaker was a hamilton and the hamiltons never had any perseverance jerome although a well to do man owning a good farm had so to speak no home of his own the old irving homestead belonged to his older brother
who had a wife and family jerome lived with them and was so used to it he didn't mind at forty a lover must not waste time jerome thought out the details that night and next day he opened the campaign
but it was not until the evening after that that anne stockard heard the news it was her niece octavia who told her
i guess you've lost your beau this time aunt anne
what on earth do you mean asked anne a little sharply she was in the pantry counting eggs and octavia's interruption made her lose her count
i shall have to count them all over again i wish octavia that you could think of something besides beaus all the time well but listen persisted octavia wickedly jerome irving was at the social
at the cherry valley parsonage last night and he had harriet warren there took her there and drove her home again i don't believe it cried anne before she thought she dropped an egg into the basket so abruptly that the shell broke oh it's true enough
sam mitchell told me he was there and saw him sam says he looked quite beaming and was dressed to kill and followed harriet around like her shadow i guess you won't have any more bother with him aunt anne in the process of picking the broken egg out of the whole ones anne had recovered
her equanimity she gave a careful little laugh well it's to be hoped so goodness knows it's time he tried somebody else go and change your dress for milking octavia and don't spend quite so much time gossiping up the lane with sam mitchell he always was a fetch and carry
young girls oughtn't to be so pert when the subdued octavia had gone anne tossed the broken eggshell out of the pantry window viciously enough there's no fool like an old fool jerome irving always was an idiot
he's old enough to be her father and a warren too i've seen the time an irving wouldn't be seen on the same side of the road with a warren well anyhow i don't care and he needn't suppose i will
it might have been a relief
jerome had not been there the warrens were methodists and anne rightly guessed that he had gone to the methodist prayer meeting at cherry valley dancing attendance on harriet she said to herself scornfully when she got home she looked at her face in the glass more critically than she had done for years
anne stockard at her best had never been pretty when young she had been called gawky she was very tall and her figure was lank and angular she had a long pale face and dusky hair her eyes had been good a glimmering hazel large and long lashed
they were pretty yet but the crow's feet about them were plainly visible there were brackets around her mouth too and her cheeks were hollow anne suddenly realized as she had never realized before that she had grown old that her youth was left far behind
she was an old maid and harriet warren was young and pretty anne's long thin lips suddenly quivered i declare i'm a worse fool than jerome she said angrily when saturday night came jerome did not
the corner of the big old fashioned porch where he usually sat looked bare and lonely anne was short with octavia and boxed the cat's ears and raged at herself what did she care if jerome irving never came again
everybody knew that at sunset she saw a buggy drive past her gate even at that distance she recognized harriet warren's handsome high coloured profile it was jerome's new buggy and jerome was driving
the wheel spokes flashed in the sunlight as they crept up the hill perhaps they dazzled anne's eyes a little at least for that or some other reason she dabbed her hand viciously over them as she turned sharply about and went upstairs
octavia was practising her music lesson in the parlour below and singing in a sweet shrill voice the hired men were laughing and talking in the yard anne slammed down her window and banged her door and then lay down on her bed
she said her head ached the deep meadows people were amused and made joking remarks to anne which she had to take amiably because she had no excuse for resenting them in reality they stung her pride unendurably
when jerome had gone she realized that she had no other intimate friend and that she was a very lonely woman whom nobody cared about one night it was three weeks afterward she met jerome and harriet squarely
she was walking to church with octavia and they were driving in the opposite direction jerome had his new buggy and crimson lap robe his horse's coat shone like satin and had rosettes of crimson on his bridle jerome was dressed extremely well
and looked quite young with his round ruddy clean shaven face and clear blue eyes harriet was sitting primly and consciously by his side she was a very handsome girl with bold eyes and was somewhat overdressed she wore a big flowery hat
and a white lace veil and looked at anne with a supercilious smile anne felt dowdy and old she was very pale jerome lifted his hat and bowed pleasantly as they drove past suddenly harriet laughed out
anne did not look back but her face crimsoned darkly was that girl laughing at her she trembled with anger and a sharp hurt feeling when she got home that night she sat a long while by her window jerome was gone
and he let harriet warren laugh at her and he would never come back to her well it did not matter but she had been a fool only it had never occurred to her that jerome could act so
when four weeks had elapsed jerome came over one saturday night he was fluttered and anxious but hid it in a masterly manner anne was taken by surprise
and she started very perceptibly good evening anne he said easily and unblushingly anne choked up she was very angry or thought she was jerome appeared not to notice her lack of welcome he sat coolly down in his old place
his heart was beating like a hammer but anne did not know that i suppose she said cuttingly that you're on your way down to the bridge it's almost a pity for you to waste time stopping here at all any more than you have of late no doubt harriet'll be expecting you
a gleam of satisfaction flashed over jerome's face he looked shrewdly at anne who was not looking at him but was staring uncompromisingly out over the poppy beds a jealous woman always gives herself away if anne had been indifferent
she would not have given him that slap in the face i dunno's she will he replied coolly i didn't say for sure whether i'd be down tonight or not it's so long since i had a chat with you i thought i'd drop in for a spell but of course if i'm not wanted i can go where i will be
anne could not get back her self control
she had a feeling that she was right on the brink of a scene but she could not help herself i guess it doesn't matter much what i want she said stonily at any rate it hasn't seemed that way lately you don't care of course oh no harriet warren is all you care about well i wish you joy of her
jerome looked puzzled or pretended to in reality he was hugging himself with delight i don't just understand you anne he said hesitatingly you appear to be vexed about something i oh no i'm not mister irving
of course old friends don't count now well i've no doubt new ones will wear just as well if it's about my going to see harriet said jerome easily i don't see as how it can matter much to you goodness knows you took enough pains to show me you didn't want me
i don't blame you a woman has a right to please herself and a man ought to have sense to take his answer and go i hadn't and that's where i made my mistake i don't mean to pester you any more but we can be real good friends can't we
now i hold that this speech of jerome's delivered in a cool matter of fact tone as of a man stating a case with dispassionate fairness was a masterpiece it was the last cleverly executed movement of the campaign
if it failed to effect a capitulation he was a defeated man but it did not fail anne had got to that point where an excited woman must go mad or cry anne cried she sat flatly down on a chair and burst into tears
jerome's hat went one way and his cane another
he caught her hand in his and threw his arm boldly around her waist goodness gracious anne do you care after all tell me that
anne look here didn't i come after you for fifteen years
i don't care a rap for harriet warren or anyone but you now that's the truth right out anne no doubt it was and anne was convinced of it
on jerome's shoulder and it soothed her nerves wonderfully later on octavia slipping noiselessly up the steps in the dusk saw a sight that transfixed her with astonishment when she recovered herself she turned and fled wildly around the house
running bump into sam mitchell who was coming across the yard from a twilight conference with the hired men goodness tavy what's the matter
octavia leaned up against the wall in spasms of mirth oh sam she gasped old jerome irving and aunt anne are sitting round there in the dark on the front porch and he had his arms around her kissing her and they never saw nor heard me no more'n if they were deaf and blind
sam gave a tremendous whistle and then went off into a shout of laughter whose echoes reached even to the gloom of the front porch and the ears of the lovers but they did not know he was laughing at them and would not have cared if they had they were too happy for that there was a wedding that fall
and anne stockard was the bride when she was safely his jerome confessed all and was graciously forgiven but it was kind of mean to harriet said anne rebukingly to go with her and get her talked about and then drop her as you did don't you think so yourself jerome
her husband's eyes twinkled well hardly that you see harriet's engaged to that johnson fellow out west tain't generally known but i knew it and that's why i picked on her i thought it probable that she'd be willing enough to flirt with me for a little diversion
even if i was old harriet's that sort of a girl and i made up my mind that if that didn't fetch it nothing would and i'd give up for good and all but it did didn't it anne i should say so it was horrid of you jerome
how did you come to think of it jerome a fellow had to do something said jerome oracularly
lilian's business venture lilian mitchell turned into the dry goods store on randall street just as esther miller and ella taylor came out they responded coldly to her greeting and exchanged significant glances as they walked away
lilian's pale face crimsoned
and dressed in mourning these girls had been her close friends once but that was before the mitchells had lost their money since then lilian had been cut by many of her old chums and she felt it keenly the clerks in the store were busy and lilian sat down to wait her turn
near to her two ladies were also waiting and chatting helen wants me to let her have a birthday party missus saunders was saying wearily she has been promised it so long and i hate to disappoint the child
but our girl left last week and i cannot possibly make all the cakes and things myself i haven't the time or strength so helen must do without her party talking of girls said missus reeves impatiently i am almost discouraged
it is so hard to get a good all round one the last one i had was so saucy i had to discharge her and the one i have now cannot make decent bread i never had good luck with bread myself either that is missus porter's great grievance too
but i really must see to it soon at this point a saleswoman came up to lilian who made her small purchases and went out there goes lilian mitchell said missus reeves in an undertone she looks very pale
they say they are dreadfully poor since henry mitchell died his affairs were in a bad condition i am told i am sorry for missus mitchell responded missus saunders she is such a sweet woman lilian will have to do something i suppose
lilian walking down the street was wearily turning over in her mind the problems of her young existence
he had been a supposedly prosperous merchant the mitchells had always lived well and lilian was a petted and only child then came the shock of henry mitchell's sudden death and of financial ruin his affairs were found to be hopelessly involved
when all the debts were paid there was left only the merest pittance barely enough for house rent for lilian and her mother to live upon
and during the summer lilian had tried hard to think of something to do missus mitchell was a delicate woman and the burden of their situation fell on lilian's young shoulders there seemed to be no place for her she could not teach and had no particular talent in any line
there was no opening for her in willington which was a rather sleepy little place
and after lilian had had her cry out and was sitting at her window in the dusk watching a thin new moon shining over the trees down the street her inspiration came to her a minute later she whirled into the tiny sitting room where her mother was sewing mother our fortune is made i have an idea
don't lose it then said missus mitchell with a smile what is it my dear lilian sobered herself sat down by her mother's side and proceeded to recount the conversation she had heard in the store that afternoon now mother this is where my brilliant idea comes in
and i always have good luck now tomorrow morning i shall go to missus saunders and offer to furnish all the good things for helen's birthday party and then i'll ask missus reeves and missus porter if i may make their bread for them that will do for a beginning i like cooking you know
and i believe that in time i can work up a good business it seems to be a good idea said missus mitchell thoughtfully
but have you thought it all out carefully there will be many difficulties i know i don't expect smooth sailing right along and perhaps i'll fail altogether but somehow i don't believe i will a great many of your old friends will think
oh yes i know that too
i don't think there is any disgrace in working for my living i'm going to do my best and not care what people say early next morning lilian started out she had carefully thought over the details of her small venture considered ways and means
and decided on the most advisable course she would not attempt too much and she felt sure of success to secure competent servants was one of the problems of willington people at drayton a large neighbouring town were several factories
and into these all the working girls from willington had crowded
many of those who did were poor cooks and lilian shrewdly suspected that many a harassed housekeeper in the village would be glad to avail herself of the new enterprise lilian was as she had said of herself a born cook
missus saunders listened to her businesslike details with surprise and delight it is the very thing she said helen is so eager for that party but i could not undertake it myself her birthday is friday can you have everything ready by then
yes i think so said lilian briskly producing her notebook please give me the list of what you want and i will do my best from missus saunders she went to missus reeves and found a customer as soon as she had told the reason of her call
i'll furnish all the bread and rolls you need she said and they will be good too now about your jelly i can make good jelly and i'll be very glad to make yours when she left lilian had an order for two dozen glasses of apple jelly as well as a standing one for bread and rolls
missus porter was next visited and grasped eagerly at the opportunity i know your bread will be good she said and you may count on me as a regular customer lilian thought she had enough on hand for a first attempt and went home satisfied
on her way she called at the grocery store with an order that surprised mister hooper when she told him of her plan he opened his eyes i must tell my wife about that she isn't strong and she doesn't like cooking after dinner lilian went to work enveloped in a big apron
and whipped eggs stoned raisins stirred concocted and baked until dark when bedtime came she was so tired that she could hardly crawl upstairs but she felt happy too for the day had been a successful one and so also were the days and weeks and months that followed
it was hard and constant work but it brought its reward lilian had not promised more than she could perform and her customers were satisfied in a short time she found herself with a regular and growing business on her hands for new customers were gradually added and always came to stay
she had a very busy winter and of course it was not all plain sailing she had many difficulties to contend with sometimes days came on which everything seemed to go wrong when the stove smoked or the oven wouldn't heat properly
when cakes fell flat and bread was sour and pies behaved as only totally depraved pies can when she burned her fingers and felt like giving up in despair
the friends really worth having were still hers her mother's face had lost its look of care and her business was prospering she was hopeful and wide awake kept her wits about her and looked out for hints and learned to laugh over her failures
during the winter she and her mother had managed to do most of the work themselves hiring little mary robinson next door on especially busy days
but when spring came lilian prepared to open up her summer campaign on a much larger scale mary robinson was hired for the season
a summer kitchen was boarded in in the backyard and a new range bought lilian began operations with a striking advertisement in the willington news and an attractive circular sent around to all her patrons picnics and summer weddings were frequent
in bread and rolls her trade was brisk and constant she also took orders for pickles preserves and jellies and this became such a flourishing branch that a second assistant had to be hired
it was a cardinal rule with lilian never to send out any article that was not up to her standard she bore the loss of her failures
prompt and perfect was her motto the long hot summer days were very trying and sometimes she got very tired of it all but when on the anniversary of her first venture she made up her accounts she was well pleased to be sure she had not made a fortune but she had paid all their expenses
had a hundred dollars clear and had laid the solid foundations of a profitable business mother she said jubilantly as she wiped a dab of flour from her nose and proceeded to concoct the icing for blanche remington's wedding cake don't you think my business venture has been a decided success
the coachman pulled up his four horses and looked round to the right
where some peasants were sitting on a cart the counting house clerk was just going to jump down but on second thoughts he shouted peremptorily to the peasants instead and beckoned to them to come up
the wind that seemed to blow as they drove dropped when the carriage stood still gadflies settled on the steaming horses that angrily shook them off the metallic clank of a whetstone against a scythe
that came to them from the cart ceased one of the peasants got up and came towards the carriage well you are slow
of the rough dry road come along do a curly headed old man with a bit of bast tied round his hair and his bent back dark with perspiration came towards the carriage
quickening his steps and took hold of the mud guard with his sunburnt hand vozdvizhenskoe the manor house the count's he repeated
then turn to the left straight along the avenue and you'll come right upon it but whom do you want the count himself well are they at home my good man darya alexandrovna said vaguely
at home for sure said the peasant shifting from one bare foot to the other and leaving a distinct print of five toes and a heel in the dust sure to be at home he repeated evidently eager to talk
only yesterday visitors arrived there's a sight of visitors come what do you want he turned round and called to a lad who was shouting something to him from the cart oh
look at a reaping machine they'll be home by now and who will you be belonging to we've come a long way said the coachman climbing onto the box so it's not far i tell you it's just here as soon as you get out
he said keeping hold all the while of the carriage a healthy looking broad shouldered young fellow came up too what is it laborers they want for the harvest he asked i don't know my boy
so you keep to the left and you'll come right on it said the peasant unmistakably loth to let the travelers go and eager to converse the coachman started the horses but they were only just turning off
when the peasant shouted stop hi friend stop
the coachman stopped they're coming they're yonder shouted the peasant see what a turn out he said pointing to four persons on horseback and two in a char a banc coming along the road
they were vronsky with a jockey veslovsky and anna on horseback and princess varvara and sviazhsky
they had gone out to look at the working of a new reaping machine when the carriage stopped the party on horseback were coming at a walking pace anna was in front beside veslovsky anna quietly walking her horse
a sturdy english cob with cropped mane and short tail her beautiful head with her black hair
her full shoulders her slender waist in her black riding habit and all the ease and grace of her deportment impressed dolly for the first minute it seemed to her unsuitable for anna to be on horseback
the conception of riding on horseback for a lady was in darya alexandrovna's mind associated with ideas of youthful flirtation and frivolity which in her opinion was unbecoming in anna's position
but when she had scrutinized her seeing her closer she was at once reconciled to her riding in spite of her elegance everything was so simple quiet and dignified in the attitude the dress and the movements of anna
that nothing could have been more natural beside anna on a hot looking gray cavalry horse was vassenka veslovsky in his scotch cap with floating ribbons
obviously pleased with his own appearance darya alexandrovna could not suppress a good humored smile as she recognized him
obviously heated from galloping he was holding her in pulling at the reins after him rode a little man in the dress of a jockey sviazhsky and princess varvara
in a new char a banc with a big raven black trotting horse overtook the party on horseback anna's face suddenly beamed with a joyful smile at the instant when
in the little figure huddled in a corner of the old carriage she recognized dolly she uttered a cry started in the saddle and set her horse into a gallop on reaching the carriage she jumped off without assistance
and holding up her riding habit she ran up to greet dolly i thought it was you and dared not think it how delightful you can't fancy how glad i am she said at one moment pressing her face against dolly and kissing her
and at the next holding her off and examining her with a smile here's a delightful surprise alexey she said looking round at vronsky who had dismounted and was walking towards them vronsky taking off his tall gray hat
went up to dolly you wouldn't believe how glad we are to see you he said giving peculiar significance to the words and showing his strong white teeth in a smile vassenka veslovsky without getting off his horse
took off his cap and greeted the visitor by gleefully waving the ribbons over his head that's princess varvara anna said in reply to a glance of inquiry from dolly
ah said darya alexandrovna and unconsciously her face betrayed her dissatisfaction princess varvara was her husband's aunt and she had long known her and did not respect her
she knew that princess varvara had passed her whole life toadying on her rich relations but that she should now be sponging on vronsky a man who was nothing to her mortified dolly on account of her kinship with her husband
anna noticed dolly's expression and was disconcerted by it she blushed dropped her riding habit and stumbled over it darya alexandrovna
sviazhsky too she knew he inquired how his queer friend with the young wife was and running his eyes over the ill matched horses and the carriage with its patched mud guards
and i'll get into this vehicle he said the horse is quiet and the princess drives capitally no stay as you were said anna coming up and we'll go in the carriage and taking dolly's arm she drew her away
darya alexandrovna's eyes were fairly dazzled by the elegant carriage of a pattern she had never seen before the splendid horses and the elegant and gorgeous people surrounding her but what struck her most of all
was the change that had taken place in anna whom she knew so well and loved any other woman a less close observer not knowing anna before or not having thought as darya alexandrovna had been thinking on the road
would not have noticed anything special in anna but now dolly was struck by that temporary beauty which is only found in women during the moments of love and which she saw now in anna's face everything in her face
the clearly marked dimples in her cheeks and chin the line of her lips the smile which as it were fluttered about her face the brilliance of her eyes the grace and rapidity of her movements the fulness of the notes of her voice
even the manner in which with a sort of angry friendliness she answered veslovsky when he asked permission to get on her cob so as to teach it to gallop with the right leg foremost it was all peculiarly fascinating
and rejoicing in it when both the women were seated in the carriage a sudden embarrassment came over both of them anna was disconcerted by the intent look of inquiry dolly fixed upon her
she could not help feeling ashamed of the dirty old carriage in which anna was sitting with her the coachman philip and the counting house clerk were experiencing the same sensation
the counting house clerk to conceal his confusion busied himself settling the ladies but philip the coachman became sullen and was bracing himself not to be overawed in future by this external superiority
he smiled ironically looking at the raven horse and was already deciding in his own mind
was only good for promenade and wouldn't do thirty miles straight off in the heat the peasants had all got up from the cart and were inquisitively and mirthfully staring at the meeting of the friends making their comments on it
they're pleased too haven't seen each other for a long while said the curly headed old man with the bast round his hair i say uncle gerasim if we could take that raven horse now to cart the corn
that ud be quick work look ee is that a woman in breeches said one of them
sitting in a side saddle nay a man see how smartly he's going it
seems we're not going to sleep then what chance of sleep today said the old man
left alone darya alexandrovna with a good housewife's eye scanned her room all she had seen in entering the house and walking through it and all she saw now in her room
gave her an impression of wealth and sumptuousness and of that modern european luxury of which she had only read in english novels but had never seen in russia and in the country everything was new
from the new french hangings on the walls to the carpet which covered the whole floor the bed had a spring mattress and a special sort of bolster and silk pillowcases on the little pillows the marble washstand the dressing table
the little sofa the tables the bronze clock on the chimney piece the window curtains and the portieres were all new and expensive the smart maid who came in to offer her services
with her hair done up high and a gown more fashionable than dolly's was as new and expensive as the whole room darya alexandrovna liked her neatness her deferential and obliging manners but she felt ill at ease with her
that had unluckily been packed by mistake for her she was ashamed of the very patches and darned places of which she had been so proud at home at home it had been so clear that for six dressing jackets
there would be needed twenty four yards of nainsook at sixteen pence the yard which was a matter of thirty shillings besides the cutting out and making and these thirty shillings had been saved
but before the maid she felt if not exactly ashamed at least uncomfortable darya alexandrovna had a great sense of relief when annushka whom she had known for years walked in
the smart maid was sent for to go to her mistress and annushka remained with darya alexandrovna annushka was obviously much pleased at that lady's arrival and began to chatter away without a pause
dolly observed that she was longing to express her opinion in regard to her mistress's position especially as to the love and devotion of the count to anna arkadyevna but dolly carefully interrupted her
whenever she began to speak about this i grew up with anna arkadyevna my lady's dearer to me than anything well it's not for us to judge and to be sure there seems so much love
kindly pour out the water for me to wash now please darya alexandrovna cut her short certainly we've two women kept specially for washing small things but most of the linen's done by machinery
the count goes into everything himself ah what a husband dolly was glad when anna came in and by her entrance put a stop to annushka's gossip
anna had put on a very simple batiste gown dolly scrutinized that simple gown attentively she knew what it meant and the price at which such simplicity was obtained
an old friend said anna of annushka anna was not embarrassed now she was perfectly composed and at ease dolly saw that she had now completely recovered from the impression her arrival had made on her
and had assumed that superficial careless tone which as it were closed the door on that compartment in which her deeper feelings and ideas were kept well anna and how is your little girl asked dolly annie
this was what she called her little daughter anna very well she has got on wonderfully would you like to see her come i'll show her to you
over nurses we had an italian wet nurse a good creature but so stupid we wanted to get rid of her but the baby is so used to her that we've gone on keeping her still but how have you managed
dolly was beginning a question as to what name the little girl would have but noticing a sudden frown on anna's face she changed the drift of her question how did you manage have you weaned her yet
but anna had understood you didn't mean to ask that you meant to ask about her surname yes that worries alexey she has no name
said anna dropping her eyelids till nothing could be seen but the eyelashes meeting but we'll talk about all that later her face suddenly brightening come i'll show you her
in the nursery the luxury which had impressed dolly in the whole house struck her still more there were little go carts ordered from england and appliances for learning to walk
purposely constructed for crawling and swings and baths all of special pattern and modern they were all english solid and of good make and obviously very expensive
when they went in the baby with nothing on but her little smock was sitting in a little elbow chair at the table having her dinner of broth which she was spilling all over her little chest
the baby was being fed and the russian nursery maid was evidently sharing her meal neither the wet nurse nor the head nurse were there they were in the next room from which came the sound of their conversation
in the queer french which was their only means of communication hearing anna's voice a smart tall english nurse with a disagreeable face and a dissolute expression walked in at the door
hurriedly shaking her fair curls and immediately began to defend herself
at every word anna said the english nurse said hurriedly several times yes my lady the rosy baby with her black eyebrows and hair her sturdy red little body with tight goose flesh skin
delighted darya alexandrovna in spite of the cross expression with which she stared at the stranger she positively envied the baby's healthy appearance she was delighted too at the baby's crawling
not one of her own children had crawled like that when the baby was put on the carpet and its little dress tucked up behind it was wonderfully charming looking round like some little wild animal at the grown up big people
with her bright black eyes she smiled unmistakably pleased at their admiring her and holding her legs sideways she pressed vigorously on her arms and rapidly drew her whole back up after
and then made another step forward with her little arms but the whole atmosphere of the nursery and especially the english nurse darya alexandrovna did not like at all
it was only on the supposition that no good nurse would have entered so irregular a household as anna's that darya alexandrovna could explain to herself how anna with her insight into people
disreputable looking woman as nurse to her child besides from a few words that were dropped darya alexandrovna saw at once that anna the two nurses and the child had no common existence
and that the mother's visit was something exceptional anna wanted to get the baby her plaything and could not find it most amazing of all was the fact that on being asked how many teeth the baby had
i sometimes feel sorry i'm so superfluous here said anna going out of the nursery and holding up her skirt so as to escape the plaything standing in the doorway it was very different with my first child
i expected it to be the other way said darya alexandrovna shyly oh no by the way do you know i saw
said anna screwing up her eyes as though looking at something far away but we'll talk about that later you wouldn't believe it i'm like a hungry beggar woman when a full dinner is set before her and she does not know what to begin on first
the dinner is you and the talks i have before me with you
princess varvara you know her and i know your opinion and stiva's about her
the whole aim of her existence is to prove her superiority over auntie katerina pavlovna that's all true but she's a good natured woman and i am so grateful to her
was absolutely essential for me then she turned up but really she is good natured she did a great deal to alleviate my position i see you don't understand all the difficulty of my position there in petersburg she added
here i'm perfectly at ease and happy well of that later on though
he's the marshal of the district and he's a very good sort of a man but he wants to get something out of alexey you understand with his property now that we are settled in the country alexey can exercise great influence then there's tushkevitch
you have seen him you know betsy's admirer now he's been thrown over and he's come to see us as alexey says he's one of those people who are very pleasant if one accepts them for what they try to appear to be
as princess varvara says then veslovsky you know him
then you'll see the steward a german a very good fellow and he understands his work alexey has a very high opinion of him
during the time of the children's tea the grown up people sat in the balcony and talked as though nothing had happened though they all especially sergey ivanovitch and varenka
were very well aware that there had happened an event which though negative was of very great importance they both had the same feeling
which has left him in the same class or shut him out of the school forever everyone present feeling too that something had happened talked eagerly about extraneous subjects levin and kitty were particularly happy
and conscious of their love that evening and their happiness in their love seemed to imply a disagreeable slur on those who would have liked to feel the same and could not and they felt a prick of conscience
mark my words alexander will not come said the old princess that evening they were expecting stepan arkadyevitch to come down by train and the old prince had written that possibly he might come too
and i know why the princess went on he says that young people ought to be left alone for a while at first but papa has left us alone we've never seen him said kitty besides
we're not young people we're old married people by now only if he doesn't come i shall say good bye to you children said the princess sighing mournfully
how do you suppose he is feeling why now and suddenly there was an unexpected quiver in the princess's voice
maman always finds something to be miserable about they said in that glance they did not know that happy as the princess was in her daughter's house and useful as she felt herself to be there
she had been extremely miserable both on her own account and her husband's ever since they had married their last and favorite daughter and the old home had been left empty what is it agafea mihalovna kitty asked
suddenly of agafea mihalovna who was standing with a mysterious air and a face full of meaning about supper well that's right said dolly
that's my lesson no dolly i'm going said levin jumping up grisha who was by now at a high school had to go over the lessons of the term in the summer holidays darya alexandrovna
who had been studying latin with her son in moscow before had made it a rule on coming to the levins to go over with him at least once a day
levin had offered to take her place but the mother having once overheard levin's lesson and noticing that it was not given exactly as the teacher in moscow had given it said resolutely
though with much embarrassment and anxiety not to mortify levin that they must keep strictly to the book as the teacher had done and that she had better undertake it again herself levin was amazed both at stepan arkadyevitch
who by neglecting his duty threw upon the mother the supervision of studies of which she had no comprehension and at the teachers for teaching the children so badly
to give the lessons exactly as she wished and he went on teaching grisha not in his own way but by the book and so took little interest in it and often forgot the hour of the lesson so it had been today
no i'm going dolly you sit still he said we'll do it all properly like the book
then we shall have to miss it and levin went to grisha varenka was saying the same thing to kitty even in the happy well ordered household of the levins varenka had succeeded in making herself useful
i'll see to the supper you sit still she said and got up to go to agafea mihalovna yes yes most likely they've not been able to get chickens if so ours
and varenka vanished with her what a nice girl said the princess not nice maman she's an exquisite girl there's no one else like her
evidently not disposed to pursue the conversation about varenka it would be difficult to find two sons in law more unlike than yours he said with a subtle smile one all movement only living in society like a fish in water
the other our kostya lively alert quick in everything but as soon as he is in society he either sinks into apathy or struggles helplessly like a fish on land
yes he's very heedless said the princess addressing sergey ivanovitch i've been meaning indeed to ask you to tell him that it's out of the question for her she indicated kitty to stay here
that she positively must come to moscow he talks of getting a doctor down maman he'll do everything he has agreed to everything kitty said angry with her mother for appealing to sergey ivanovitch
to judge in such a matter in the middle of their conversation they heard the snorting of horses and the sound of wheels on the gravel dolly had not time to get up to go and meet her husband when from the window of the room below
levin leaped out and helped grisha out after him
levin shouted from under the balcony we've finished dolly don't be afraid he added and started running like a boy to meet the carriage
skipping along the avenue and some one else too papa of course cried levin stopping at the entrance of the avenue kitty don't come down the steep staircase go round
as he got nearer to the carriage he saw beside stepan arkadyevitch not the prince but a handsome stout young man in a scotch cap
this was vassenka veslovsky a distant cousin of the shtcherbatskys a brilliant young gentleman in petersburg and moscow society a capital fellow and a keen sportsman as stepan arkadyevitch said introducing him
not a whit abashed by the disappointment caused by his having come in place of the old prince veslovsky greeted levin gaily claiming acquaintance with him in the past and snatching up grisha into the carriage
lifted him over the pointer that stepan arkadyevitch had brought with him levin did not get into the carriage but walked behind he was rather vexed at the non arrival of the old prince whom he liked more and more the more he saw of him
and also at the arrival of this vassenka veslovsky a quite uncongenial and superfluous person he seemed to him still more uncongenial and superfluous when on approaching the steps where the whole party
were gathered together in much excitement levin saw vassenka veslovsky with a particularly warm and gallant air kissing kitty's hand your wife and i are cousins and very old friends said vassenka veslovsky
once more shaking levin's hand with great warmth well are there plenty of birds stepan arkadyevitch said to levin hardly leaving time for everyone to utter their greetings we've come with the most savage intentions
why maman they've not been in moscow since look tanya here's something for you get it please it's in the carriage behind he talked in all directions how pretty you've grown dolly he said to his wife
once more kissing her hand holding it in one of his and patting it with the other levin who a minute before had been in the happiest frame of mind now looked darkly at everyone and everything displeased him
who was it he kissed yesterday with those lips he thought looking at stepan arkadyevitch's tender demonstrations to his wife he looked at dolly and he did not like her either she doesn't believe in his love
so what is she so pleased about revolting thought levin he looked at the princess who had been so dear to him a minute before and he did not like the manner in which she welcomed this vassenka with his ribbons
just as though she were in her own house even sergey ivanovitch who had come out too onto the steps seemed to him unpleasant with the show of cordiality with which he met stepan arkadyevitch
though levin knew that his brother neither liked nor respected oblonsky and varenka
sainte nitouche making the acquaintance of this gentleman while all the while she was thinking of nothing but getting married
for falling in with the tone of gaiety
as though it were a holiday for himself and everyone else and above all unpleasant was that particular smile with which she responded to his smile noisily talking they all went into the house
but as soon as they were all seated levin turned and went out kitty saw something was wrong with her husband she tried to seize a moment to speak to him alone but he made haste to get away from her
saying he was wanted at the counting house it was long since his own work on the estate had seemed to him so important as at that moment it's all holiday for them he thought
visiting etiquette for the hostess when you write to invite a friend to visit you name a time when it will be convenient and agreeable for you to receive her
and if she accepts your invitation so arrange your duties and engagements that they will not interfere with your devoting the principal part of your time to the entertainment of your guest
if you have certain duties which must be performed daily say so frankly when she first arrives and see that during the time you are so occupied she has work reading music
or some other employment to pass the time away pleasantly have a room prepared especially for her use and let her occupy it alone many persons have a dislike to any one sleeping with them
and will be kept awake by a companion in the room or bed above all do not put a child to sleep in the chamber with your guest the day before your friend arrives
dusted and aired put clean fresh linen upon the bed see that the curtains are in good order the locks in perfect repair and the closet or wardrobe and bureau
empty for her clothes have upon the bureau a pin cushion well filled hair pins brush and comb and two mirrors one large and one small for the hand
without unpacking her own toilet articles upon the washstand have two pitchers full of water a cup tumbler soap dish and soap basin brush dish
and a sponge wash rag and plenty of clean towels have both a feather bed and a mattress upon the bedstead that she may place whichever she prefers uppermost two sheets
a blanket quilt and counterpane should be on the bed and there should be two extra blankets in the room should she require more covering in the night on the mantel piece place a few books
that she may read if she wishes before sleeping have upon the mantel piece a box of matches and if the room is not lighted by gas have also a supply of candles in a box and a candlestick
be careful that the fire is made every morning before she rises and keep a good supply of fuel in the room besides the larger chairs have a low one to use while changing the shoes
or washing the feet upon the table place a full supply of writing materials as your guest may wish to send word of her safe arrival before unpacking her own writing desk
put two or three postage stamps upon this table be sure that bells locks hinges and windows are all in perfect order
before your guest arrives go to her room if it is in winter have a good fire hot water on the washstand
and see that the windows are tightly closed and the room cheerful with sunshine or plenty of candle or gas light if in summer draw the curtains bow the shutters open the windows
and have a fan upon the table it is well to have a bath ready should your guest desire that refreshment after the dust and heat of traveling
when the time arrives at which you may expect your guest send a carriage to the station to meet her and if possible go yourself or send some member of the family to welcome her there
after her baggage is on the carriage drive immediately to the house and be certain all is ready there for her comfort
and lead her there yourself then after warmly assuring her how welcome she is leave her alone to change her dress bathe or lie down if she wishes if her journey has been a long one
and it is not the usual hour for your next meal have a substantial repast ready for her about half an hour after her arrival with tea or coffee if she arrives late at night
after she has removed her bonnet and bathed her face invite her to partake of a substantial supper and then pity her weariness and lead the way to her room she may politely assert
that she can still sit up and talk but be careful you do not keep her up too long and do not waken her in the morning after the first day she will of course
desire to breakfast at your usual hour but if she has had a long fatiguing journey she will be glad to sleep late the first day
be careful that she has a hot breakfast ready when she does rise and take a seat at the table to wait upon her after the chambermaid has arranged the guest chamber in the morning
go in yourself and see that all is in order and comfortable and that there is plenty of fresh water and towels the bed properly made and the room dusted
then do not go in again through the day unless invited if you are constantly running in to put a chair back open or shut the windows or arrange the furniture
you will entirely destroy the pleasantest part of your guest's visit by reminding her that she is not at home and must not take liberties even in her own room it looks too
as if you were afraid to trust her and thought she would injure the furniture if you have children forbid them to enter the room your friend occupies unless she invites them to do so
or they are sent there with a message if your household duties will occupy your time for some hours in the morning introduce your guest to the piano book case or picture folio
and place all at her service when your duties are finished either join her in her own room or invite her to sit with you and work chatting meanwhile together
if you keep your own carriage place it at her disposal as soon as she arrives if she is a stranger in the city accompany her to the points of interest she may wish to visit
and also offer to show her where to find the best goods should she wish to do any shopping enquire of your visitor if there is any particular habit she may wish to indulge in
such as rising late retiring early lying down in the daytime or any other habit that your family do not usually follow if there is
if there is any dish which is distasteful to her avoid placing it upon the table during her visit and if she mentions in conversation any favorite dish
have it frequently placed before her if she is accustomed to eat just before retiring and your family do not take supper see that something is sent to her room every night
if your friend has intimate friends in the same city beside yourself it is an act of kindly courtesy to invite them to dinner tea or to pass a day
and when calls are made and you see that it would be pleasant invite the caller to remain to dinner or tea never accept any invitation either to a party
ball or public entertainment that does not include your guest in answering the invitation give that as your reason for declining
when another note will be sent enclosing an invitation for her if the invitation is from an intimate friend say in answering it that your guest is with you and that she will accompany you
it is a mistaken idea to suppose that hospitality and courtesy require constant attention to a guest there are times when she may prefer to be alone
either to write letters to read or practice some ladies follow a guest from one room to another never leaving them alone for a single instant
when they would enjoy an hour or two in the library or at the piano but do not like to say so the best rule is to make your guest feel that she is heartily welcome
and perfectly at home when she is ready to leave you see that her trunks are strapped in time by the servants have a carriage ready to take her to the station
have the breakfast or dinner at an hour that will suit her prepare a luncheon for her to carry and let some gentleman in the family escort her to the wharf
check her trunks and procure her tickets if your guest is in mourning decline any invitations to parties or places of amusement whilst she is with you
chapter nineteen ball room etiquette for the guest as in every other case where hospitality is extended to you by invitation you must send your answer as soon as possible
accepting or declining the civility in preparing a costume for a ball choose something very light heavy dark silks are out of place in a ball room
and black should be worn in no material but lace for a married lady rich silk of some light color trimmed with flowers lace or tulle
white silk plain or lace over satin make an exquisite toilette jewels are perfectly appropriate also feathers in the coiffure for the young lady
pure white or light colors should be worn and the most appropriate dress is of some thin material made over silk white or the same color as the outer dress
satin or velvet are entirely out of place on a young lady let the coiffure be of flowers or ribbons never feathers and but very little jewelry is becoming to an unmarried lady
all ladies must wear boots or slippers of satin white black or the color of the dress white are the most appropriate black the most becoming to the foot
white kid gloves full trimmed a fine lace trimmed handkerchief and a fan are indispensable be very careful when dressing for a ball that the hair is firmly fastened
and the coiffure properly adjusted nothing is more annoying than to have the hair loosen or the head dress fall off in a crowded ball room
your first duty upon entering the room is to speak to your hostess after a few words of greeting turn to the other guests at a private ball
no lady will refuse an introduction to a gentleman it is an insult to her hostess implying that her guests are not gentlemen it is optional with the lady
whether to continue or drop the acquaintance after the ball is over but for that evening however disagreeable etiquette requires her to accept him for one dance
if she is disengaged and her hostess requests it at a public ball it is safest to decline all introductions made by the master of ceremonies though as before
such acquaintances are not binding after the evening is over be very careful how you refuse to dance with a gentleman a prior engagement will of course excuse you
but if you plead fatigue or really feel it do not dance the set with another gentleman it is most insulting though sometimes done on the other hand
be careful that you do not engage yourself twice for the same quadrille
in a polka or valse you may do this saying i will dance the second half with you but have a prior engagement for the first then after a few rounds with your first partner
say to him that you are engaged for the remainder of the dance resume your seat and your second partner will seek you let your manner in a ball room be quiet
it looks very badly to see a lady endeavoring to attract attention by her boisterous manner loud talking or over active dancing do not drag through dances
as if you found them wearisome it is an insult to your partner but while you are cheerful and animated be lady like and dignified in your deportment
at the end of each dance your partner will offer his arm and conduct you to a seat then bow and release him from further attendance
as he may be engaged for the next dance when invited to dance hand your ball card to the gentleman who will put his name in one of the vacant places if you wish to go to the supper room
accept the invitation that will be made after the dances whilst it is open but do not remain there long you may be keeping your escort from other engagements
if you are accompanied by a gentleman besides your father or brother remember he has the right to the first dance and also will expect to take you in to supper
do not let any one else interfere with his privilege if you wish during the evening to go to the dressing room to arrange any part of your dress request the gentleman
with whom you are dancing to escort you there he will wait for you at the door and take you back to the ball room do not detain him any longer than is necessary
never leave the ball room for any such purpose alone as there are always gentlemen near and round the door and it looks very badly to see a lady unattended
going through a crowd of gentlemen it is best at a ball to dance only every other dance as over fatigue and probably a flushed face will follow too much dancing
decline the intermediate ones on the plea of fatigue or fear of fatigue never go into the supper room with the same gentleman twice you may go more than once
if you wish for an ice or glass of water surely no lady wants two or three suppers but do not tax the same gentleman more than once even if he invites you
after each dance no lady of taste will carry on a flirtation in a ball room so as to attract remark be careful unless you wish your name coupled with his
how you dance too often with the same gentleman if you are so unfortunate as forgetting a prior engagement to engage yourself to two gentlemen for the same dance
decline dancing it altogether or you will surely offend one of them never press forward to take the lead in a quadrille and if others not understanding the figures
make confusion try to get through without remark it is useless to attempt to teach them as the music and other sets will finish the figure long before you can teach
and dance it keep your temper refrain from all remark and endeavor to make your partner forget in your cheerful conversation the annoyances of the dance
there is much that is exhilarating in the atmosphere of a ball room the light music company and even dancing itself are all conducive
to high spirits be careful that this flow of spirits does not lead you into hoydenism and rudeness guard your actions and your tongue
that you may leave the room as quietly and gracefully as you enter it avoid confidential conversation in a ball room it is out of season
and in excessively bad taste be modest and reserved but avoid bashfulness it looks like a school girl and is invariably awkward
never allow your partner though he may be your most intimate friend to converse in a low tone or in any way assume a confidential or lover like air at a ball
it is in excessively bad taste and gives annoyance frequently as others suppose such low toned remarks may refer to them
dance as others do it has a very absurd look to take every step with dancing school accuracy and your partner will be the first one to notice it
a quadrille takes no more steps than a graceful walk never stand up to dance in a quadrille unless you are perfectly familiar with the figures
depending upon your partner to lead you through you will probably cause utter confusion in the set annoy the others forming it and make yourself appear absurd
no young lady should go to a ball without the protection of a married lady or an elderly gentleman never cross a ball room alone
never remain in a ball room until all the company have left it or even until the last set it is ill bred and looks as if you were unaccustomed to such pleasures
and so desirous to prolong each one leave while there are still two or three sets to be danced do not accept any invitation for these late dances
as the gentleman who invites you may find out your absence too late to take another partner
adapted by joseph jacobs once upon a time there lived a king who had seven queens but no children this was a great grief to him
especially when he remembered that on his death there would be no heir to inherit the kingdom now it happened one day that a poor old fakir came to the king and said your prayers are heard
the king's delight at this promise knew no bounds and he gave orders for appropriate festivities to be prepared against the coming event throughout the length and breadth of the land
meanwhile the seven queens lived luxuriously in a splendid palace
and fed to their hearts content on sweetmeats and confectionery now the king was very fond of hunting and one day
the seven queens sent him a message saying may it please our dearest lord
fear lest evil should befall you the king to allay their anxiety promised regard for their wishes and set out toward the south but as luck would have it although he hunted diligently
he found no game nor had he more success to the east or west so that being a keen sportsman and determined not to go home empty handed
a white hind with golden horns and silver hoofs flashed past him into a thicket
nevertheless a burning desire to capture and possess the beautiful strange creature filled his breast
and so encircle the hind then gradually narrowing the circle he pressed forward till he could distinctly see the white hind panting in the midst nearer and nearer he advanced
and fled toward the mountains
the king setting spurs to his horse followed at full speed on on he galloped leaving his retinue far behind keeping the white hind in view never drawing bridle until finding himself in a narrow ravine with no outlet he reined in his steed
before him stood a miserable hovel into which being tired after his long unsuccessful chase he entered to ask for a drink of water an old woman seated in the hut at a spinning wheel
and immediately from an inner room came a maiden so lovely and charming so white skinned and golden haired that the king was transfixed by astonishment at seeing so beautiful a sight in the wretched hovel
and as he drank he looked into her eyes and then it became clear to him that the girl was no other than the white hind with the golden horns and silver feet he had chased so far
but she only laughed saying seven queens were quite enough even for a king to manage however when he would take no refusal but implored her to have pity on him promising her everything she could desire she replied
and then perhaps i may believe you mean what you say
had the eyes of his seven queens taken out and after throwing the poor blind creatures into a noisome dungeon whence they could not escape set off once more for the hovel in the ravine bearing with him his horrible offering
but the white hind only laughed cruelly when she saw the fourteen eyes and threading them as a necklace flung it round her mother's neck saying wear that little mother as a keepsake
while i am away in the king's palace then she went back with the bewitched monarch as his bride and he gave her the seven queens rich clothes and jewels to wear
and the seven queens slaves to wait upon her
a baby was born to the youngest of the queens
but though at first they disliked the handsome little boy he soon proved so useful to them that ere long they all looked on him as their son
and in an incredibly short space of time had made a hole big enough for him to crawl through through this he disappeared
as he grew older he enlarged the hole and slipped out
no one knew who the tiny boy was but everybody liked him and he was so full of funny tricks and antics so merry and bright that he was
or some sweetmeats all these things he brought home to his seven mothers as he loved to call the seven blind queens who by his help lived on in their dungeon when all the world thought they had starved to death ages before
at last when he was quite a big lad he one day took his bow and arrow and went out to seek for game coming by chance past the palace where the white hind lived in wicked splendor and magnificence
he saw some pigeons fluttering round the white marble turrets and taking good aim shot one dead it came tumbling past the very window where the white queen was sitting
at the first glance of the handsome young lad standing there bow in hand she knew by witchcraft that it was the king's son she nearly died of envy and spite
determining to destroy the lad without delay therefore
she asked him if he would sell her the pigeon he had just shot no replied the sturdy lad the pigeon is for my seven blind mothers who live in the noisome dungeon and who would die if i did not bring them food poor souls
cried the cunning white witch would you not like to bring them their eyes again give me the pigeon my dear and i faithfully promise to show you where to find them hearing this the lad was delighted beyond measure
and gave up the pigeon at once whereupon the white queen told him to seek her mother without delay
said the cruel queen if you show her this token on which i have written what i want done
with these words inscribed on it kill the bearer at once and sprinkle his blood like water now
as the son of seven queens could not read he took the fatal message cheerfully and set off to find the white queen's mother
while he was journeying he passed through a town where every one of the inhabitants looked so sad that he could not help asking what was the matter
therefore when her father died there would be no heir to the throne they greatly feared she must be out of her mind for though every good looking young man in the kingdom had been shown to her she declared she would only marry one who was the son
of seven mothers and who had ever heard of such a thing the king in despair had ordered every man who entered the city gates to be led before the princess so much to the lad's impatience
for he was in an immense hurry to find his mothers eyes he was dragged into the presence chamber no sooner did the princess catch sight of him than she blushed and turning to the king said dear father this is my choice
when the beautiful bride heard his story
for she was very learned and clever seeing the treacherous words she said nothing
she wrote on it these words take care of this lad giving him all he desires and returned it to the son of seven queens who none the wiser set off on his quest
ere long he arrived at the hovel in the ravine where the white witch's mother a hideous old creature grumbled dreadfully on reading the message especially when the lad asked for the necklace of eyes
nevertheless she took it off and gave it him saying there are only thirteen of em now for i lost one last week
dearest little mother i will be your other eye always after this he set off to marry the princess as he had promised but when passing by the white queen's palace
he saw some pigeons on the roof drawing his bow he shot one and it came fluttering past the window the white hind looked out and lo there was the king's son alive and well
she cried with hatred and disgust but sending for the lad asked him how he had returned so soon and when she heard how he had brought home the thirteen eyes
and given them to the seven blind queens she could hardly restrain her rage nevertheless she pretended to be charmed with his success and told him that if he would give her this pigeon also
the lad nothing loth gave her the pigeon whereupon as before she bade him go and ask her mother for the cow and gave him a potsherd where on was written kill this lad without fail
and sprinkle his blood like water but on the way the son of seven queens looked in on the princess just to tell her how he came to be delayed and she after reading the message on the potsherd
gave him another in its stead so that when the lad reached the old hag's hut and asked her for the jogi's cow she could not refuse but told the boy how to find it
and bidding him of all things not to be afraid of the eighteen thousand demons who kept watch and ward over the treasure told him to be off before she became too angry at her daughter's foolishness in thus giving away so many good things then
they were really frightful to behold but plucking up courage
who was king of all the demons sat milking her day and night and the milk streamed from her udder filling the milk white tank the jogi seeing the lad called out fiercely what do you want here
i want your skin for king indra is making a new kettledrum
upon this the jogi began to shiver and shake
and falling at the lad's feet cried if you will spare me i will give you anything i possess even my beautiful white cow
so driving the wonderful cow before him he set off homeward
and though they toiled from morning till night making curds and whey besides selling milk to the confectioners they could not use half the cow gave and became richer and richer day by day seeing them so comfortably off
the son of seven queens started with a light heart to marry the princess but when passing the white hind's palace he could not resist sending a bolt at some pigeons that were cooing on the parapet
one fell dead just beneath the window where the white queen was sitting looking out she saw the lad
when she heard how kindly her mother had received him she very nearly had a fit however she dissembled her feelings as well as she could and smiling sweetly said
that if he would give her this third pigeon she would do yet more for him
set off on his quest armed as before with a potsherd on which was written do not fail this time kill the lad and sprinkle his blood like water but when he looked in on his princess
just to prevent her becoming anxious about him she asked to see the potsherd as usual and substituted another on which was written yet again give this lad all he requires for his blood
shall be as your blood now when the old hag saw this and heard how the lad wanted the millionfold rice which ripens in a single night she fell into the most furious rage but
being terribly afraid of her daughter she controlled herself and bade the boy go and find the field guarded by eighteen millions of demons
warning him on no account to look back after having plucked the tallest spike of rice which grew in the center so the son of seven queens set off
guarded by eighteen millions of demons the millionfold rice grew he walked on bravely looking
till he reached the center and plucked the tallest ear but as he turned homeward a thousand sweet voices rose behind him crying in tenderest accents
he looked back and lo there was nothing left of him but a
now as time passed by and the lad did not return the old hag grew uneasy remembering the message his blood shall be as your blood so she set off to see what had happened
and knowing by her arts what it was she took a little water
then putting a drop of blood from her little finger into its mouth she blew on it and instantly the son of seven queens started up as well as ever
now be off before i repent of my kindness
who by the aid of the millionfold rice soon became the richest people in the kingdom then they celebrated their son's marriage to the clever princess with all imaginable pomp
but the bride was so clever she would not rest until she had made known her husband to his father and punished the wicked white witch so
and in which the white witch now dwelt in splendor then when all was prepared
and his marvelous wealth so he gladly accepted the invitation but what was his astonishment when on entering the palace he found it was a facsimile of his own in every particular and when his host richly attired
led him straight to the private hall where on royal thrones sat the seven queens dressed as he had last seen them he was speechless with surprise until the princess coming forward threw herself at his feet and told him the whole story
then the king awoke from his enchantment and his anger rose against the wicked white hind who had bewitched him so long until he could not contain himself so she was put to death and her grave plowed over
and after that the seven queens returned to their own splendid palace and everybody
a soul in hell it was nearly ten o'clock at night when i cast myself down upon my bed and began to gather my scattered wits and reflect upon what i had seen and heard but the more i reflected the less i could make of it
was i mad or drunk or dreaming or was i merely the victim of a gigantic and most elaborate hoax how was it possible that i a rational man not unacquainted with the leading scientific facts of our history
the thing was contrary to the experience of human nature and absolutely and utterly impossible it must be a hoax and yet if it were a hoax what was i to make of it what too was to be said of the figures on the water
of the woman's extraordinary acquaintance with the remote past and her ignorance or apparent ignorance of any subsequent history what too of her wonderful and awful loveliness this at any rate was a patent fact and beyond the experience of the world
no merely mortal woman could shine with such a supernatural radiance about that she had at any rate been in the right it was not safe for any man to look upon such beauty i was a hardened vessel in such matters
having with the exception of one painful experience of my green and tender youth put the softer sex i sometimes think that this is a misnomer almost entirely out of my thoughts but now to my intense horror i knew that i could never put away the vision of those glorious eyes
and alas the very diablerie of the woman whilst it horrified and repelled attracted in even a greater degree a person with the experience of two thousand years at her back with the command of such tremendous powers
i a fellow of my college noted for what my acquaintances are pleased to call my misogyny and a respectable man now well on in middle life had fallen absolutely and hopelessly in love with this white sorceress nonsense it must be nonsense
she had warned me fairly and i had refused to take the warning curses on the fatal curiosity that is ever prompting man to draw the veil from woman and curses on the natural impulse that begets it it is the cause of half
ay and more than half of our misfortunes why cannot man be content to live alone and be happy and let the women live alone and be happy too but perhaps they would not be happy and i am not sure that we should either here is a nice state of affairs
but then she was not modern
and had come out of the old coffer that vincey had left in my rooms nearly one and twenty years before could it be after all that the whole story was true and the writing on the sherd was not a forgery or the invention of some crack brained long forgotten individual
and if so could it be that leo was the man that she was waiting for the dead man who was to be born again impossible the whole thing was gibberish who ever heard of a man being born again
but if it were possible that a woman could exist for two thousand years this might be possible also anything might be possible i myself might for aught i knew be a reincarnation of some other forgotten self
or perhaps the last of a long line of ancestral selves well vive la guerre why not only unfortunately i had no recollection of these previous conditions the idea was so absurd to me that i burst out laughing
and then i laughed again at my own folly and the sound of my laughter rang dismally along the vaulted roof as though the ghost of the warrior had echoed the ghost of a laugh next i bethought me that i had not been to see how leo was
so taking up one of the lamps which was burning at my bedside i slipped off my shoes and crept down the passage to the entrance of his sleeping cave the draught of the night air was lifting his curtain to and fro gently as though spirit hands were drawing and redrawing it
i slid into the vault like apartment and looked round there was a light by which i could see that leo was lying on the couch tossing restlessly in his fever but asleep at his side half lying on the floor half leaning against the stone couch
was ustane she held his hand in one of hers but she too was dozing and the two made a pretty or rather a pathetic picture poor leo his cheek was burning red there were dark shadows beneath his eyes and his breath came heavily
he was very very ill and again the horrible fear seized me that he might die and i be left alone in the world and yet if he lived he would perhaps be my rival with ayesha even if he were not the man what chance should i
middle aged and hideous have against his bright youth and beauty well thank heaven my sense of right was not dead she had not killed that yet and as i stood there i prayed to heaven in my heart that my boy my more than son might live
ay even if he proved to be the man then i went back as softly as i had come but still i could not sleep the sight and thought of dear leo lying there so ill had but added fuel to the fire of my unrest
my wearied body and overstrained mind awakened all my imagination into preternatural activity ideas visions almost inspirations floated before it with startling vividness most of them were grotesque enough
some were ghastly some recalled thoughts and sensations that had for years been buried in the debris of my past life but behind and above them all hovered the shape of that awful woman and through them gleamed the memory of her entrancing loveliness
up and down the cave i strode up and down suddenly i observed what i had not noticed before that there was a narrow aperture in the rocky wall i took up the lamp and examined it the aperture led to a passage
now i was still sufficiently sensible to remember that it is not pleasant in such a situation as ours was to have passages running into one's bed chamber from no one knows where if there are passages people can come up them they can come up when one is asleep
partly to see where it went to and partly from a restless desire to be doing something i followed the passage it led to a stone stair which i descended the stair ended in another passage or rather tunnel also hewn out of the bed rock
and running so far as i could judge exactly beneath the gallery that led to the entrance of our rooms and across the great central cave i went on down it it was as silent as the grave but still
drawn by some sensation or attraction that i cannot define i followed on my stockinged feet falling without noise on the smooth and rocky floor when i had traversed some fifty yards of space i came to another passage running at right angles and here an awful thing happened to me
the sharp draught caught my lamp and extinguished it leaving me in utter darkness in the bowels of that mysterious place i took a couple of strides forward so as to clear the bisecting tunnel being terribly afraid lest i should turn up it in the dark
if once i got confused as to the direction and then paused to think what was i to do i had no match it seemed awful to attempt that long journey back through the utter gloom and yet i could not stand there all night and if i did
for in the bowels of the rock it would be as dark at midday as at midnight i looked back over my shoulder not a sight or a sound i peered forward into the darkness surely far away i saw something like the faint glow of fire
perhaps it was a cave where i could get a light at any rate it was worth investigating slowly and painfully i crept along the tunnel keeping my hand against its wall and feeling at every step with my foot before i put it down
fearing lest i should fall into some pit thirty paces there was a light a broad light that came and went shining through curtains fifty paces it was close at hand sixty
oh great heaven i was at the curtains and they did not hang close so i could see clearly into the little cavern beyond them
on which lay some broidered coverings over the fire bent the figure of a woman she was sideways to me and facing the corpse wrapped in a dark mantle that hid her like a nun's cloak she seemed to be staring at the flickering flame
suddenly as i was trying to make up my mind what to do with a convulsive movement that somehow gave an impression of despairing energy the woman rose to her feet and cast the dark cloak from her it was she herself
she was clothed as i had seen her when she unveiled in the kirtle of clinging white cut low upon her bosom and bound in at the waist with the barbaric double headed snake and as before her rippling black hair fell in heavy masses down her back
and the awful vindictiveness displayed upon those quivering features and in the tortured look of the upturned eyes were such as surpass my powers of description for a moment she stood still her hands raised high above her head and as she did so
the white robe slipped from her down to her golden girdle baring the blinding loveliness of her form she stood there her fingers clenched and the awful look of malevolence gathered and deepened on her face
suddenly i thought of what would happen if she discovered me and the reflection made me turn sick and faint but even if i had known that i must die if i stopped i do not believe that i could have moved for i was absolutely fascinated but still i knew my danger
supposing she should hear me or see me through the curtain supposing i even sneezed or that her magic told her that she was being watched swift indeed would be my doom down came the clenched hands to her sides then up again above her head
the white flame of the fire leapt up after them almost to the roof throwing a fierce and ghastly glare upon she herself upon the white figure beneath the covering and every scroll and detail of the rockwork down came the ivory arms again
and as they did so she spoke or rather hissed in arabic in a note that curdled my blood and for a second stopped my heart curse her
the arms fell and the flame sank up they went again and the broad tongue of fire shot up after them and then again they fell curse her memory
up again and again down curse her the daughter of the nile because of her beauty curse her because her magic hath prevailed against me curse her
because she held my beloved from me and again the flame dwindled and shrank she put her hands before her eyes and abandoning the hissing tone cried aloud what is the use of cursing she prevailed
and she is gone then she recommenced with an even more frightful energy curse her where she is let my curses reach her where she is and disturb her rest curse her through the starry spaces
let my power find her even there let her hear me even there let her hide herself in the blackness let her go down into the pit of despair because i shall one day find her
again the flame fell and again she covered her eyes with her hands it is of no use no use she wailed who can reach those who sleep not even i can reach them
then once more she began her unholy rites curse her when she shall be born again
for then shall i overtake her with my vengeance and utterly destroy her and so on the flame rose and fell reflecting itself in her agonised eyes the hissing sound of her terrible maledictions
and the fierce light and deep gloom
but at length she seemed to wear herself out and cease she sat herself down upon the rocky floor shook the dense cloud of her beautiful hair over her face and breast and began to sob terribly in the torture of a heartrending despair
two thousand years she moaned
but though century doth still creep on to century and time give place to time the sting of memory hath not lessened the light of hope doth not shine more bright oh to have lived two thousand years with all my passion eating out my heart
and with my sin ever before me oh that for me life cannot bring forgetfulness oh for the weary years that have been and are yet to come and evermore to come endless and without end my love my love
my love why did that stranger bring thee back to me after this sort for five hundred years i have not suffered thus oh if i sinned against thee have i not wiped away the sin when wilt thou come back to me who have all
and yet without thee have naught what is there that i can do what what what and perchance she perchance that egyptian doth abide with thee where thou art and mock my memory
oh why could i not die with thee i who slew thee alas that i cannot die alas alas and she flung herself prone upon the ground and sobbed and wept till i thought her heart must burst
suddenly she ceased raised herself to her feet rearranged her robe and tossing back her long locks impatiently swept across to where the figure lay upon the stone
and i trembled at the name i must look upon thy face again though it be agony it is a generation since i looked upon thee whom i slew slew with mine own hand
and then paused when she spoke again it was in a kind of awed whisper as though her idea were terrible even to herself shall i raise thee she said apparently addressing the corpse so that thou standest there before me as of old
i can do it and she held out her hands over the sheeted dead while her whole frame became rigid and terrible to see and her eyes grew fixed and dull i shrank in horror behind the curtain
and whether it was my imagination or a fact i am unable to say but i thought that the quiet form beneath the covering began to quiver and the winding sheet to lift as though it lay on the breast of one who slept suddenly she withdrew her hands and the motion of the corpse seemed to me to cease
to what purpose she said gloomily of what good is it to recall the semblance of life when i cannot recall the spirit even if thou stoodest before me thou wouldst not know me and couldst but do what i bid thee the life in thee would be my life
for a moment she stood there brooding and then cast herself down on her knees beside the form and began to press her lips against the sheet and weep there was something so horrible about the sight of this awe inspiring woman letting loose her passion on the dead
so much more horrible even than anything that had gone before that i could no longer bear to look at it and turning began to creep shaking as i was in every limb slowly along the pitch dark passage
feeling in my trembling heart that i had seen a vision of a soul in hell on i stumbled i scarcely know how twice i fell once i turned up the bisecting passage but fortunately found out my mistake in time
for twenty minutes or more i crept along
and found it was the little stair down which the weak dawn was stealing
the next thing that i remember was opening my eyes and perceiving the form of job who had now practically recovered from his attack of fever he was standing in the ray of light that pierced into the cave from the outer air shaking out my clothes as a makeshift for brushing them
which he could not do because there was no brush
he placed it on a leopard skin on the floor and stood back a step or two to observe the effect it was not satisfactory so he shut up the bag turned it on end and having rested it against the foot of the couch placed the dressing case on it
next he looked at the pots full of water which constituted our washing apparatus
i heard him murmur no hot water in this beastly place i suppose these poor creatures only use it to boil each other in and he sighed deeply what is the matter job i said beg pardon sir he said touching his hair
i thought you were asleep sir and i am sure you seem as though you want it one might think from the look of you that you had been having a night of it i only groaned by way of answer i had indeed been having a night of it such as i hope never to have again
how is mister leo job much the same sir if he don't soon mend he'll end sir and that's all about it though i must say that that there savage ustane do do her best for him almost like a baptised christian
and if i ventures to interfere it's awful to see her her hair seems to stand on end and she curses and swears away in her heathen talk at least i fancy she must be cursing from the look of her and what do you do then i make her a perlite bow and i say
young woman your position is one that i don't quite understand and can't recognise let me tell you that i has a duty to perform to my master as is incapacitated by illness
but she don't take no heed not she only curses and swears away worse than ever last night she put her hand under that sort of night shirt she wears
job laid great emphasis on the fools
it's a judgment on us sir that's my view and i for one is of opinion that the judgment isn't half done yet and when it is done we shall be done too
and now sir i must be seeing about mister leo's broth if that wild cat will let me and perhaps you would like to get up sir because it's past nine o'clock job's remarks were not of an exactly cheering order to a man who had passed such a night as i had
and what is more they had the weight of truth taking one thing with another it appeared to me to be an utter impossibility that we should escape from the place we were supposing that leo recovered and supposing that she would let us go which was exceedingly doubtful
formed a stronger and more impassable fortification round the various amahagger households than any that could be built or designed by man no there was but one thing to do face it out and speaking for my own part
i was so intensely interested in the whole weird story that so far as i was concerned notwithstanding the shattered state of my nerves i asked nothing better even if my life paid forfeit to my curiosity
what man for whom physiology has charms could forbear to study such a character as that of this ayesha when the opportunity of doing so presented itself the very terror of the pursuit added to its fascination and besides
as i was forced to own to myself even now in the sober light of day she herself had attractions that i could not forget not even the dreadful sight which i had witnessed during the night could drive that folly from my mind and alas that i should have to admit it
it has not been driven thence to this hour after i had dressed myself i passed into the eating or rather embalming chamber and had some food which was as before brought to me by the girl mutes when i had finished
i went and saw poor leo who was quite off his head and did not even know me i asked ustane how she thought he was but she only shook her head and began to cry a little evidently her hopes were small
and i then and there made up my mind that if it were in any way possible i would get she to come and see him surely she would cure him if she chose at any rate she said she could while i was in the room billali entered and also shook his head
he will die at night he said god forbid my father i answered and turned away with a heavy heart she who must be obeyed commands thy presence my baboon said the old man as soon as we got to the curtain
but oh my dear son be more careful yesterday i made sure in my heart that she would blast thee when thou didst not crawl upon thy stomach before her
come on my son come swiftly i turned and followed him down the passage and when we reached the great central cave saw that many amahagger some robed and some merely clad in the sweet simplicity of a leopard skin were hurrying along it
hollowed in the rock by the people who were before nobody visited those tombs now he said and i must say that my heart rejoiced when i thought of the opportunities of antiquarian research which opened out before me at last we came to the head of the cave
a fact that proved to me that these dais must have been used as altars probably for the celebration of religious ceremonies and more especially of rites connected with the interment of the dead on either side of this dais were passages leading billali informed me to other caves full of dead bodies
indeed he added the whole mountain is full of dead and nearly all of them are perfect in front of the dais were gathered a great number of people of both sexes who stood staring about in their peculiar gloomy fashion
which would have reduced mark tapley himself to misery in about five minutes on the dais was a rude chair of black wood inlaid with ivory having a seat made of grass fibre and a footstool formed of a wooden slab attached to the framework of the chair
and thereupon the entire crowd of spectators instantly precipitated itself upon the ground and lay still as though it were individually and collectively stricken dead leaving me standing there like some solitary survivor of a massacre
as it did so a long string of guards began to defile from a passage to the left and ranged themselves on either side of the dais then followed about a score of male mutes then as many women mutes bearing lamps and then a tall white figure
in whom i recognised she herself she mounted the dais and sat down upon the chair and spoke to me in greek i suppose because she did not wish those present to understand what she said come hither oh holly she said and sit thou at my feet
and see me do justice on those who would have slain thee forgive me if my greek doth halt like a lame man it is so long since i have heard the sound of it that my tongue is stiff and will not bend rightly to the words i bowed and mounting the dais
sat down at her feet how hast thou slept my holly she asked i slept not well oh ayesha i answered with perfect truth and with an inward fear that perhaps she knew how i had passed the heart of the night so
she said with a little laugh i too have not slept well last night i had dreams and methinks that thou didst call them to me oh holly of what didst thou dream ayesha i asked indifferently i dreamed she answered quickly
of one i hate and one i love and then as though to turn the conversation she addressed the captain of her guard in arabic let the men be brought before me the captain bowed low for the guard and her attendants did not prostrate themselves
but had remained standing and departed with his underlings down a passage to the right then came a silence
and appeared to be lost in thought while the multitude before her continued to grovel upon their stomachs
it seemed that their queen so rarely appeared in public that they were willing to undergo this inconvenience and even graver risks
but she stopped them nay she said in her softest voice stand i pray you stand perchance the time will soon be when ye shall grow weary of being stretched out and she laughed melodiously
i saw a cringe of terror run along the rank of the doomed wretches and wicked villains as they were i felt sorry for them some minutes perhaps two or three passed before anything fresh occurred during which she appeared from the movement of her head
ay oh queen nearly all of them i said and i saw them glower at me as i said it then tell to me and this great company the tale whereof i have heard
thus adjured i in as few words as i could related the history of the cannibal feast and of the attempted torture of our poor servant the narrative was received in perfect silence both by the accused and by the audience
and also by she herself when i had done ayesha called upon billali by name and lifting his head from the ground but without rising the old man confirmed my story no further evidence was taken
ye have heard said she at length in a cold clear voice very different from her usual tones indeed it was one of the most remarkable things about this extraordinary creature
that her voice had the power of suiting itself in a wonderful manner to the mood of the moment what have ye to say ye rebellious children why vengeance should not be done upon you for some time there was no answer but at last one of the men
a fine broad chested fellow well on in middle life with deep graven features and an eye like a hawk's spoke and said that the orders that they had received were not to harm the white men nothing was said of their black servant
they proceeded to try to hot pot him after the ancient and honourable custom of their country
as for their sudden attack upon ourselves it was made in an access of sudden fury and they deeply regretted it he ended by humbly praying that they might be banished into the swamps to live and die as it might chance
but i saw it written on his face that he had but little hope of mercy then came a pause and the most intense silence reigned over the whole scene which illuminated as it was by the flicker of the lamps striking out broad patterns of light and shadow upon the rocky walls
was as strange as any i ever saw even in that unholy land upon the ground before the dais were stretched scores of the corpselike forms of the spectators till at last the long lines of them were lost in the gloomy background
and men and women mutes watching with hard curious eyes then seated in her barbaric chair above them all with myself at her feet was the veiled white woman whose loveliness and awesome power seemed to visibly shine about her like a halo
or rather like the glow from some unseen light never have i seen her veiled shape look more terrible than it did in that space while she gathered herself up for vengeance at last it came
dogs and serpents she began in a low voice that gradually gathered power as she went on till the place rang with it eaters of human flesh two things have ye done
first ye have attacked these strangers being white men and would have slain their servant and for that alone death is your reward but that is not all ye have dared to disobey me
did i not send my word unto you by billali my servant and the father of your household did i not bid you to hospitably entertain these strangers whom now ye have striven to slay and whom had not they been brave and strong beyond the strength of men
ye would cruelly have murdered hath it not been taught to you from childhood that the law of she is an ever fixed law and that he who breaketh it by so much as one jot or tittle shall perish and is not my lightest word a law
according to your minds well do ye know it ye wicked ones but ye are all evil evil to the core the wickedness bubbles up in you like a fountain in the spring time were it not for me generations since had ye ceased to be
and begged her to spare them or at least to mete out their fate in some less awful way but she was hard as adamant about it my holly she said again speaking in greek which to tell the truth although i have always been considered a better scholar of the language than most men
i found it rather difficult to follow chiefly because of the change in the fall of the accent ayesha of course talked with the accent of her contemporaries whereas we have only tradition and the modern accent to guide us as to the exact pronunciation my holly it cannot be
your lives would not be safe among this people for a day thou knowest them not they are tigers to lap blood and even now they hunger for your lives how thinkest thou that i rule this people i have but a regiment of guards to do my bidding
therefore it is not by force it is by terror my empire is of the imagination once in a generation mayhap i do as i have done but now and slay a score by torture believe not that i would be cruel
or take vengeance on anything so low what can it profit me to be avenged on such as these those who live long my holly have no passions save where they have interests though i may seem to slay in wrath or because my mood is crossed
it is not so thou hast seen how in the heavens the little clouds blow this way and that without a cause yet behind them is the great wind sweeping on its path whither it listeth so it is with me oh holly my moods and changes are the little clouds
and fitfully these seem to turn but behind them ever blows the great wind of my purpose nay the men must die and die as i have said then suddenly turning to the captain of the guard
as any carpenter or mason might do looks as though i am going to hold a reception this morning said oakes
and now martin asking for another what is martin doing up here asked moore well don't get impatient he has something important anyway just wait
i think moore felt aggravated at oakes's apparent indifference of course it was simulated but he seemed so calm and oblivious of the mass of happenings
that had put moore and myself in a state of extreme excitement it was not long before martin and mister elliott were with us oakes received elliott in a most agreeable manner
also he was sure it must be of great value since the gentleman had travelled all the way from new york to place him in possession of it and this was said before any information was given
we saw that our friend was a diplomat quickly mister elliott gave all the particulars of the negro's confession and the detective said
as the matter belongs to his jurisdiction looking out of the window at that moment
good said oakes now mister elliott will you kindly retire with doctor moore while stone martin and i hear what the chief has to say when hallen came up he seemed very cordial but worried
and made no attempt to disguise the fact that he anticipated trouble with the unruly element in mona by saturday night you see he said we are few here
and i have been kept busy with the brewing uneasiness in town and cannot handle the murder affair satisfactorily i have come to ask you to help me if you are sufficiently at leisure we cannot get any clues at all
in the hands of a good shot as the distance from which it was fired would seem to show
my men have reported to me the curious affair of last night continued the chief i suppose you have a explanation for it in any event it must be followed up the people must be diverted
and more must be done at once than i can do will you help me yes said oakes of course hello what ails your head said the chief after thanking him
and then oakes told him as much as was necessary of the events of the day before i am very glad your carpenters have arrived said the chief they may help he smiled as did oakes they understood one another they
were in similar lines of business
said oakes and he called in moore and elliott and the discussion became general elliott was admitted unreservedly to our councils especially as oakes knew that he held the keys to the conviction of the assassin
the witness oakes in his fluent style acquainted the chief with the fact that the negro was already under surveillance and that in his opinion he should be brought to mona for further examination yes
they might infer he was the murderer and violence would certainly be done him at present i have all i can do to keep order in the town said hallen then he gave a lucid account of the wave of suspicion and of the evidences
life long friends are suspicious of one another and business is nearly at a standstill
and the other retaliated with a blow and an oath and asked him if he would look at his own arms not his neighbor's yes said oakes
one must always take account of the actions and reasonings of communities emotional waves rush through them as through individuals sometimes
look at history and consider the waves of religion emotional in character that have occurred look at the unreasonableness developed in our own country from ignorance and fear
at the stake oakes said moore with a smile you seem to make mental processes and conditions
certainly oakes replied it is most important did we not study the workings of a criminal's mind for instance
you see the determination of the probable condition of such a one's mind is often paramount especially in such a case as this in other words was the motive
one that would naturally sway an ordinary healthy individual under the conditions appertaining to the crime the so called sane motive or was it in any way dependent upon peculiarities
of the criminal's reasoning a motive built up of something unreal a delusion in the mind of one not in his right senses
i myself had frequently had cause to study such mental processes in the practice of my profession but i was amazed at the knowledge shown by oakes
and stated in such a broad untechnical manner the man was no ordinary one to be sure but i had scarcely expected him to show such education in these matters i now recalled what moore
had once told me of oakes's all round attainments doctor moore broke the silence
oakes did not notice the remark but said
yes said hallen and consequently there is only one quintus oakes it seems to me continued hallen
and i trust that you will find time to consider the murder also gentlemen said oakes very seriously
i shall make time hallen to do what little i can and thus quintus oakes became the leader in the unravelling of the mark murder mystery after a few remarks of no particular consequence
and a more or less general conversation he resumed suppose chief that we now smuggle the negro into mona as soon as possible and bring him here i believe that if mister elliott goes back with martin
it must be impressed upon him that he is regarded in the light of a hero appeal to the innate weakness of the race desire for flattery
i believe we can bring him here easily said elliott for he has confidence in me if he refuses to come said hallen we can get him here in plenty of ways yes said oakes
incognito lest the people become too excited
might be connected with the murder indirectly or directly but as yet we had not had sufficient opportunities for studying the surroundings of the house or the life of its attaches to venture an opinion
he laid particular stress upon the fact that opinions should never be formed on poor evidence since a biased mind was incapable of appreciating new discoveries or new clues
to theorize too much was very easy but sometimes fatal to detection of crime he preferred to work along several lines of investigation before concentration on any one idea
is one of very grave import unquestionably from what you saw stone and from the evidence of us all there were two men near the place you were going to pass
that the first one warned you and was in a sense a friend is mysterious enough it needs solution but that the man who warned you should have run away and been pursued by the other is peculiar to say the least
undoubtedly and he ran to escape detection himself the other
would under ordinary circumstances have run away when he saw you were warned he did run but it was after the man who warned you to my mind the explanation is this continued the detective
the man at the bridge is friendly but cannot expose his identity or risk capture the would be assassin
him in self protection i don't see why said moore he could have escaped instead exactly said oakes he could have done so but he did not wish it
he has not completed what he wants to do around here he wished to come back and to do so with safety he must rid himself of the one who knew of his doings
i ventured or both said oakes at all events said hallen
the tension is great too great for safety
about a camel and a thief it is a true story and happened many many years ago
once upon a time a traveler was going on foot across the country in his belt he had a purse full of money one day as the sun began to get hot he lay down on the grass under a tree near the roadway and fell asleep
after a few hours he woke up and what was his surprise to find that the purse was gone
somebody had quietly stolen his purse and gone away the traveler ran to the nearest village and there told the police about it now among the police there was a very clever man
and the police brought him with them to the place where the money had been stolen the clever man looked all around the place very carefully to see if he could find any marks on the ground
on the grass near the tree he found no marks in fact if a person walks on the grass just once or twice it does not leave any mark
he found footprints they are a camel's footprints he said looking at the marks carefully
three of them are quite deep and clear but the fourth one is very faint he followed the camel's footprints along the road for a long time
but now and again he stopped and looked at the shrubs and bushes which grew here and there on both sides of the road hello that is strange he suddenly said
the camel has eaten from the bushes and shrubs here and there on the left side of the road but he hasn't eaten at all from those on the right side of the road he went on for some time longer
then suddenly stopped to look at the road where the camel had walked hello this is also strange he said here are a lot of bees buzzing near the ground on the right side of the road
and here are a lot of ants scrambling over the ground on the left side of the road
we want to know about the thief who stole the money you have not found any other footprints except the camel's that is quite true the clever man said
but as the camel could not steal the money there must be a man riding on the camel he must be the thief but why didn't the thief leave any footprints
because he must have ridden his camel from the roadway right to the edge of the grass the clever man answered then he must have
jumped down upon the grass where he knew he would not leave any footprint he must have walked very quietly on the grass up to the tree where the traveler was sleeping and stolen the money
how can we find him if you do not tell us what he is like i cannot tell you a thing about the thief
the clever man answered but i can tell you all about the camel the camel is blind in his right eye and lame in his left hind foot
the package on the right side has honey in it and the package on the left side has corn in it so you must search for a man who is riding a camel loaded like that he is the thief
so the police searched for a man who was riding a camel which was blind in his right eye lame in his left hind foot and carrying honey in a package on his right side and corn in a package on his left side
after following the camel's footprints on the ground for a long time the police at last came to a village they searched through the village and found many men riding camels
but there was only one man riding a camel blind in his right eye lame in left hind foot and carrying honey on the right side and corn on the left side so the police knew that he was the thief
and took him before the judge then the thief said that it was quite true that he stole the money afterwards the judge turned to the clever man and asked him
the clever man answered very modestly first about the camel being blind in his right eye he had nibbled at the shrubs and bushes growing on the left side of the road
on the right side of the road there were also plenty of good shrubs and bushes but the camel had not taken a single bite at any of them that showed that he did not even see those shrubs and bushes on his right side
that is very clever of you the judge said
in his left hind foot
as the camel walked along the marks of his two front feet and right hind foot were quite deep and clear on the ground but the mark of his left hind foot was very faint
that showed that the camel was limping and the left hind foot only just touched the ground so i knew that he was lame in that foot that is also very clever of you the judge said
that was the simplest of all
nearly every step he took jerked the load on his back
and a few grains of the corn fell to the ground from the package on his left side but you could not see very well here and there on the ground just a few drops of honey or
i could not the clever man answered
on the right side of the road i found a swarm of bees here and there so i knew that they were trying to pick up the honey and on the left side of the road i saw a whole lot of ants here and there
so i knew that they were trying to pick up and carry away the grains of corn now was it not really clever of that man to find all that out about the camel without ever seeing the camel before
but as you understand
chapter seven the serpentine river in his way to saint james's street where the wine merchant lived sir philip baddely picked up several young men of his acquaintance who were all eager to witness a trial of taste
of epicurean taste between the baronet and clarence hervey amongst his other accomplishments our hero piqued himself upon the exquisite accuracy of his organs of taste he neither loved wine nor was he fond of eating
but at fine dinners with young men who were real epicures
and asserted superiority even in judging of wine and sauces having gained immortal honour at an entertainment by gravely protesting that some turtle would have been excellent if it had not been done a bubble too much
he presumed elate as he was with the applauses of the company to assert that no man in england had a more correct taste than himself
sir philip baddely could not passively submit to this arrogance he loudly proclaimed that though he would not dispute mister hervey's judgment as far as eating was concerned
yet he would defy him as a connoisseur in wines and he offered to submit the competition to any eminent wine merchant in london and to some common friend of acknowledged taste and experience
mister rochfort was chosen as the common friend of acknowledged taste and experience and a fashionable wine merchant was pitched upon to decide with him the merits of these candidates for bacchanalian fame sir philip
who was just going to furnish his cellars was a person of importance to the wine merchant who produced accordingly his choicest treasures sir philip and clarence tasted of all in their turns sir philip with real
and clarence with affected gravity and they delivered their opinions of the positive and comparative merits of each the wine merchant evidently as mister hervey thought leaned towards sir philip upon my word sir philip you are right
you certainly have a most discriminating taste said the complaisant wine merchant i'll tell you what cried sir philip the thing is this by jove now there's no possibility now no possibility now by jove of imposing upon me
then said clarence hervey would you engage to tell the differences between these two wines ten times running blind fold ten times that's nothing replied sir philip yes fifty times i would by jove
sir philip had nothing left but oaths in his own favour clarence hervey was victorious and his sense of the importance of this victory was much increased by the fumes of the wine which began to operate upon his brain
his triumph was as he said it ought to be bacchanalian he laughed and sang with anacreontic spirit and finished by declaring that he deserved to be crowned with vine leaves
dine with me clarence said rochfort and we'll crown you with three times three and whispered he to sir philip we'll have another trial after dinner but as it's not near dinner time yet
what shall we do with ourselves till dinner time said sir philip yawning pathetically clarence not being used to drink in a morning though all his companions were was much affected by the wine
and rochfort proposed that they should take a turn in the park to cool hervey's head to hyde park they repaired sir philip boasting all the way they walked of the superior strength of his head
and observed that at this instant he walked better than any person in company sir philip baddely not excepted now sir philip baddely was a noted pedestrian and he immediately challenged our hero to walk with him for any money he pleased
done said clarence for ten guineas for any money you please and instantly they set out to walk as rochfort cried one two three and away
keep the path and whichever reaches that elm tree first has it they were exactly even for some yards then clarence got ahead of sir philip and he reached the elm tree first but as he waved his hat exclaiming clarence has won the day
sir philip came up with his companions and coolly informed him that he had lost his wager lost lost lost clarence fairly lost didn't i reach the tree first said clarence yes answered his companions
but you didn't keep the path you turned out of the way when you met that crowd of children yonder now i said sir philip dashed fairly through them kept the path and won my bet but said hervey
would you have had me run over that little child who was stooping down just in my way
you said you'd lay me any money i pleased recollect now i'm very moderate and as you are a particular friend clarence i'll only take your ten guineas a loud laugh from his companions provoked clarence they were glad to have a laugh against him
because he excited universal envy by the real superiority of his talents and by his perpetually taking the lead in those trifles which were beneath his ambition and exactly suited to engage the attention of his associates be it so and welcome
i'll pay ten guineas for having better manners than any of you cried hervey laughing but remember though i've lost this bet i don't give up my pedestrian fame
sir philip there are no women to throw golden apples in my way now and no children for me to stumble over
double or quit i'm off by jove said sir philip
but i'm your man if you've a mind for a swim here's the serpentine river clarence hey damn it hey sir philip and all his companions knew that clarence had never learned to swim you may wink at one another as wisely as you please
said clarence but come on my boys i am your man for a swim hundred guineas upon it
leap in with me into this weedy flood and swim to yonder point and instantly hervey who had in his confused head some recollection of an essay of doctor franklin on swimming
by which he fancied that he could ensure at once his safety and his fame threw off his coat and jumped into the river luckily he was not in boots
rochfort and all the other young men stood laughing by the river side who the devil are these two that seem to be making up to us said sir philip looking at two gentlemen who were coming towards them saint george hey you know every body
the foremost is percival of oakly park i think pon my honour replied mister saint george and he then began to settle how many thousands a year mister percival was worth this point was not decided when the gentlemen came up to the spot where sir philip was standing
the child for whose sake clarence hervey had lost his bet was mister percival's and he came to thank him for his civility the gentleman who accompanied mister percival was an old friend of clarence hervey's he had met him abroad but had not seen him for some years
pray gentlemen said he to sir philip and his party is mister clarence hervey amongst you i think i saw him pass by me just now damn it yes where is clary though exclaimed sir philip suddenly recollecting himself
clarence hervey at this instant
sir philip's party as soon as the danger was over officiously offered their assistance
damn it what shall we do with him now
mister percival ran to the boat house for assistance and they carried the body into the house the elderly gentleman who had accompanied mister percival now made his way through the midst of the noisy crowd and directed what should be done to restore mister hervey's suspended animation
whilst he was employed in this benevolent manner clarence's worthy friends were sneering at him and whispering to one another
said saint george he is the famous doctor x i met him at a circulating library t'other day
and curse me if i should choose to meet with myself in a book no danger of that said rochfort for how can one meet with oneself in a book sir philip if one never opens one by jove that's the true way but pon my honour
said saint george i should like of all things to see myself in print twould make one famously famous damn me if i don't flatter myself though one can make oneself famous enough to all intents and purposes
without having any thing to say to these author geniuses you're a famous fellow faith to want to see yourself in print i'll publish this in bond street
hervey's in good hands said rochfort
so my voice is let's be off and we can leave saint george who has such a famous mind to be in the doctor's hook to bring clary after us when he's ready for dinner and good
away the faithful friends went to the important business of their day when clarence hervey came to his senses he started up rubbed his eyes and looked about exclaiming what's all this where am i
where's baddely where's rochfort where are they all gone home to dinner answered mister saint george who was a hanger on of sir philip's but they left me to bring you after them faith clary you've had a squeak for your life
but you're a rough one we shan't have to pour over your grave a full bottle of red as yet my boy you'll do as well as ever so i'll step and call a coach for you clary and we shall be at dinner as soon as the best of em after all by jingo
i leave you in good hands with the doctor here that brought you to life and the gentleman that dragged you out of the water here's a note for you whispered mister saint george as he leaned over clarence hervey here's a note for you from sir philip and rochfort read it do you mind
to yourself if i can said clarence
he left the boat house clarence with some difficulty deciphered the note which contained these words quiz the doctor clary as soon as you are up to it he's an author so fair game quiz the doctor and we'll drink your health with three times three in rochfort's burgundy
p s burn this when read with the request contained in the postscript clarence immediately complied he threw the note into the fire with indignation the moment that he had read it and turning towards the gentleman to whom it alluded
he began to express in the strongest terms his gratitude for their benevolence
doctor x cried he is it possible how rejoiced i am to see you and how rejoiced i am to be obliged to you there is not a man in england to whom i would rather be obliged
you are not acquainted with mister percival i believe said doctor x give me leave mister percival
though by the company in which you found him you might not think so
this sir is no less a man than mister clarence hervey of whose universal genius you have just had a specimen for which he was crowned with sedges as he well deserved
by the god of the serpentine river do not be so unjust as to imagine that he has any of the presumption which is sometimes the chief characteristic of a man of universal genius mister clarence hervey is without exception
the most humble man of my acquaintance for whilst all good judges would think him fit company for mister percival he has the humility to think himself upon a level with mister rochfort and sir philip baddely
you have lost as little of your satirical wit doctor x as of your active benevolence i perceive said clarence hervey since i met you abroad
will you tell me where you are to be found in town and to morrow to morrow and to morrow and to morrow said doctor x why not to day i am engaged said clarence hesitating and laughing
i am unfortunately engaged to day to dine with mister rochfort and sir philip baddely and in the evening i am to be at lady delacour's lady delacour
no no it cannot be the same a goddess of four years standing incredible incredible as it seems said clarence it is true i admire her ladyship more than ever i did
like a true connoisseur said doctor x you admire a fine picture the older it grows i hear that her ladyship's face is really one of the finest pieces of painting extant
with the advantage of ev'ry grace which time alone can grant come come doctor x cried mister percival no more wit at lady delacour's expense i have a fellow feeling for mister hervey why
you are not in love with her ladyship are you said doctor x i am not in love with lady delacour's picture of herself replied mister percival but i was once in love with the original how when
cried clarence hervey in a tone totally different from that in which he had first addressed mister percival to morrow you shall know the how the when and the where said mister percival here's your friend mister saint george and his coach
the deuce take him said clarence but tell me is it possible that you are not in love with her still and why why said mister percival why
and let me introduce you to lady anne percival she can answer your question better than i can if not entirely to your satisfaction at least entirely to mine which is more surprising as the lady is my wife
by this time clarence hervey was equipped in a dry suit of clothes and by the strength of an excellent constitution which he had never injured even amongst his dissipated associates he had recovered from the effects of his late imprudence
clary let's away here's the coach said mister saint george why my boy that's a famous fellow faith why you look the better for being drowned
if i could always be sure of such good friends to pull me out said hervey pray saint george by the bye what were you and rochfort and sir philip and all the rest of my friends doing whilst i was drowning i can't say particularly upon my soul
replied mister saint george for my own part i was in boots so you know i was out of the question but what signifies all that now come come we had best think of looking after our dinners clarence hervey who had very quick feelings
was extremely hurt by the indifference which his dear friends had shown when his life was in danger he was apt to believe that he was really an object of affection and admiration amongst his companions and that though they were neither very wise
nor very witty they were certainly very good natured when they had forfeited by their late conduct these claims to his regard his partiality for them was changed into contempt you had better come home and dine with me mister hervey
said mister percival if you be not absolutely engaged for here is your physician who tells me that temperance is necessary for a man just recovered from drowning and mister rochfort keeps too good a table i am told for one in your condition
clarence accepted of this invitation with a degree of pleasure which perfectly astonished mister saint george every man knows his own affairs best said he to clarence as he stepped into his hackney coach but for my share
if to live well mean nothing but to eat said clarence now said doctor x looking at his watch it will be eight o'clock by the time we get to upper grosvenor street and lady anne will probably have waited dinner for us about two hours
which i apprehend is sufficient to try the patience of any woman but griselda do not continued he turning to clarence hervey expect to see an old fashioned spiritless patient griselda in lady anne percival
i can assure you that she is but i will neither tell you what she is nor what she is not every man who has any abilities likes to have the pleasure and honour of finding out a character by his own penetration
instead of having it forced upon him at full length in capital letters of gold finely emblazoned and illuminated by the hand of some injudicious friend every child thinks the violet of his own finding the sweetest
the season's prospects the great question in the mallory family just now is whether dick will get into the eleven this year confident as he is himself he is taking no risks we're going to put the net up to morrow he said to me
as soon as i arrived and then you'll be able to bowl to me how long are you staying till to night i said quickly rot you're fixed up here till tuesday any how my dear dick i've come down for a few days rest
i don't believe you can bowl said bobby rudely bobby is twelve five years younger than dick it is not my place to smack bobby's head but somebody might do it for him
then that just shows how little you know about it i retorted in a match last september i went on to bowl why i knew the captain i explained
well as i say he asked me to go on to bowl and i took four wickets for thirteen runs there good man said dick was it against a girls school said bobby you know bobby is simply asking for it
it was not nor were children of twelve allowed in without their perambulators
said bobby i bet phyllis can bowl better than you is this true i said to phyllis
of course she might be something special i can bowl bobby out she said modestly i looked at bobby in surprise and then shook my head sadly
you jolly well shut up he said turning indignantly to his sister just because you did it once when the sun was in my eyes bobby bobby i said this is painful hearing
let us be thankful that we don't have to play against girls schools let us but bobby was gone goaded to anger he had put his hands in his pockets and made the general observation rice pudding an observation inoffensive enough to a stranger
but evidently of such deep private significance to phyllis that it was necessary for him to head a pursuit into the shrubbery without further delay the children are gone i said to dick now we can discuss the prospects for the season in peace
i took up the sportsman again i see that kent is going to the prospects are all right said dick if only i can get into form soon enough last year i didn't get going till the end of june by the way
what sort of stuff do you bowl ordinary sort of stuff i said with one or two bounces in it
slow that is you know when i do bowl at all i'm not quite sure this season whether i hadn't better slow said dick thoughtfully that's really what i want
i want lots of that you must get phyllis to bowl to you i said with detachment you know i shouldn't be surprised if lancashire my dear man girls can't bowl she fields jolly well though
what about your father his bowling days are rather over he was in the eleven you know thirty years ago so there's really nobody but one's bowling days soon get over i hastened to agree
but i know now exactly what the prospects of the season or at any rate of the first week of it are
the prospects here are on the whole encouraging to dwell upon the bright side first there will be half an hour's casual bowling and an hour and a half's miscellaneous coaching every day
on the other hand some of his best plants will be disturbed while there is more than a chance that he may lose the services of a library window missus mallory the prospects here are much as last year
except that her youngest born joan is now five and consequently rather more likely to wander in the way of a cricket ball or fall down in front of the roller than she was twelve months ago
otherwise missus mallory faces the approaching season with calm if not with complete appreciation dick
ideal bowling and in addition the whole hearted admiration of all of us in short the outlook here is distinctly hopeful phyllis the prospects of this player are from her own point of view bright
as she will be allowed to field for two hours a day to the beloved dick she is also fully qualified now to help with the heavy roller
a new experiment is to be tried this season and she will be allowed to bowl for an odd five minutes at the end of dick's innings to me bobby enters upon the coming season with confidence
as he thinks there is a chance of my bowling to him too but he is mistaken as before he will be in charge of the heavy roller and he will also be required to slacken the ropes of the net at the end of the day
his prospects however are certainly improved this season as he will be qualified to bowl for the whole two hours but only on the distinct understanding with phyllis that he does his own fielding for himself
of the prospects of joan i have already spoken above there remain only the prospects of myself which are frankly rotten they consist chiefly of two hours bowling to the batting of dick
who hits them back very hard and ten minutes batting to the bowling of phyllis slow mild and bobby fast wides for dick having been ordered by the captain not to strain himself by trying to bowl is not going to try
it is extremely doubtful whether bobby will approve of my action while if he or phyllis should by an unlucky accident get me out i should never hear the last of it in this case however there must be added to bobby's prospects
the possibility of getting his head definitely smacked fortunately it is my only consolation the season will be a short one
it was one of those summer evenings with the chill on so after dinner we lit the smoking room fire and wondered what to do there were eight of us just the right number for two bridge tables or four picquet pairs
or eight patience singles
not when you get a grand slam said our host thinking of an accident which had happened to him the night before even then i don't suppose anybody laughed peter and i who were partners on that occasion admitted that we hadn't laughed
well there you are said celia triumphantly let's play proverbs i don't think i know it said herbert he wouldn't oh it's quite easy first you think of a proverb like
a burnt camel spoils the moss i explained you mean a burnt child dreads the fire corrected herbert celia caught my eye and went on hurriedly well then somebody goes outside
and then he asks questions from outside asked missus herbert from inside i assured her generally from very near the fire because he has got so cold waiting in the hall oh yes
i see and then he asks questions and we each have to get one of the words of the proverb into our answer without letting him know what the proverb is it's rather fun
peter and his wife who knew the game agreed missus herbert seemed resigned to the worst but herbert though faint was still pursuing but doesn't he guess what the proverb is he asked
sometimes i admitted but sometimes if we are very very clever he doesn't that in fact is the game our host got up and went to the door i think i see he said
and i want my pipe anyhow so i'll go out first now then said celia when the door was safely closed what shall we have
of course you know this game and you know the difficulty of thinking of a proverb which has no moss or stable doors or glasshouses in it all of them words which it is impossible to include naturally in an answer to an ordinary question
the proverbs which missus herbert suggested were full of moss what about it's never too late to mend said missus peter the only difficult word is mend
we mustn't have less than seven words one for each of us can't we get something from solomon for a change said peter a roaring lion is a calamity to its father but the cautious man cometh not again that sort of thing
we might try it said celia doubtfully not feeling quite sure if it were a real proverb but cometh would be difficult i don't see why said herbert one could always work it in somehow
well of course if he asked you by what train cometh thou up in the mornings you could answer i cometh up by the ten fifteen only you don't get that sort of question as a rule oh i see said herbert
i didn't quite understand after all its really much more fun having camels and things said celia it's the last straw that breaks the camel's back
who'll do camels you'd better she added kindly to me everybody but myself seemed to think that this was much more fun i'll do straw said peter generously whereupon celia volunteered for breaks
there were seven of us for nine words we gave missus herbert the second the fearing to trust her with anything more alarming and in order to keep it in the family we gave the other the to herbert who was also responsible for back
our hostess had last and missus peter had that all this being settled our host was admitted into his smoking room again you begin with me i said and i was promptly asked
how many blue beans make five when i had made a suitable answer into which it's came without much difficulty our host turned to herbert herbert's face had already assumed a look of strained expectancy
well herbert what do you think of lloyd george
he wiped the perspiration from his brow he er that is to say er lloyd george yes is that the answer said our host rather surprised herbert explained hastily that he hadn't really begun yet
he managed to get the in several times before blowing his nose vigorously and announcing that he had finished i believe he's playing a different game murmured celia to missus peter
the next three words were disposed of easily enough a lucky question to peter about the weather giving him an opportunity to refer to his straw hat it was now celia's turn for breaks nervous i asked her
all of a twitter she said well celia said our host how long are you going to stay with us oh a long time yet said celia confidently
till wednesday anyhow i interrupted thinking it a good opportunity to clinch the matter we generally stay explained celia until our host breaks it to us that he can't stick us any longer
not that that often happens i added look here
i am said celia firmly well have you answered it yet to tell the truth i've quite forgotten the word that oh i remember now yes she went on very distinctly and slowly
i hope to remain under your roof
missus herbert repeated her husband's triumph with the and then it was my turn again for these horrible camels my only hope was that our host would ask me if i had been to the zoo lately but i didn't see why he should
he didn't would it surprise you to hear he asked that the president of czecho slovakia
in the hope of gaining a little more time he repeated his question no
and i telegraphed an appeal to celia for help she nodded back at me have you finished asked our host good lord no i shall be half an hour yet the fact is you've asked the wrong question you see i've got to get in moss
i thought it was camels said celia carelessly no moss now if you'd only asked me a question about gardening you see the proverb we wanted to have first of all was
people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones only throw was so difficult almost as difficult as i turned to celia what was it you said just now oh yes camels or
stable doors or frying pans however there it is and i enlarged a little more on the difficulty of getting in these difficult words thank you very much said our host faintly when i had finished
as in some other of his plays shakespeare has remodelled an earlier and somewhat rough composition to finer issues suffering much to remain as it had come from the less skilful hand
and not raising the whole of his work to an equal degree of intensity hence perhaps some of that depth and weightiness which make this play so impressive as with the true seal of experience like a fragment of life itself
rough and disjointed indeed but forced to yield in places its profounder meaning in measure for measure in contrast with the flawless execution of romeo and juliet
shakespeare has spent his art in just enough modification of the scheme of the older play to make it exponent of this purpose
adapting its terrible essential incidents so that coleridge found it the only painful work among shakespeare's dramas and leaving for the reader of to day more than the usual number of difficult expressions
as indeed is congruous with the bland half humorous equity which informs the whole composition sinking from the heights of sorrow and terror into the rough scheme of the earlier piece
yet it is hardly less full of what is really tragic in man's existence than if claudio had indeed stooped to death even the humorous concluding scenes have traits of special grace
retaining in less emphatic passages
as it seems so that we watch to the end for the traces where the nobler hand has glanced along leaving its vestiges as if accidentally or wastefully in the rising of the style
the interest of measure for measure therefore is partly that of an old story told over again we measure with curiosity that variety of resources which has enabled shakespeare
adding to the intricacy of the piece yet so modifying its structure as to give the whole almost the unity of a single scene lending by the light of a philosophy which dwells much on what is complex and subtle in our nature
a true human propriety to its strange and unexpected turns of feeling and character
and the subsequent reconciliation of isabella so that she pleads successfully for his life it was from whetstone a contemporary english writer that shakespeare derived the outline of
cinthio's rare history of promos and cassandra one of that numerous class of italian stories like boccaccio's tancred of salerno in which the mere energy of southern passion has everything its own way
and which though they may repel many a northern reader by a certain crudity in their colouring seem to have been full of fascination for the elizabethan age
this story as it appears in whetstone's endless comedy is almost as rough as the roughest episode of actual criminal life but the play seems never to have been acted and some time after its publication whetstone himself
turned the thing into a tale included in his heptameron of civil discourses where it still figures as a genuine piece with touches of undesigned poetry a quaint field flower here and there of diction or sentiment
the whole strung up to an effective brevity and with the fragrance of that admirable age of literature all about it here then there is something of the original italian colour
in this narrative shakespeare may well have caught the first glimpse of a composition with nobler proportions and some artless sketch from his own hand perhaps putting together his first impressions
and even as it stands but the preparation only we might think of a still more imposing design for once we have in it a real example of that sort of writing which is sometimes described as suggestive
and which by the help of certain subtly calculated hints only brings into distinct shape the reader's own half developed imaginings often the quality is attributed to writing merely vague and unrealised
but in measure for measure quite certainly shakespeare has directed the attention of sympathetic readers along certain channels of meditation beyond the immediate scope of his work measure for measure therefore
by the quality of these higher designs woven by his strange magic on a texture of poorer quality is hardly less indicative than hamlet even of shakespeare's reason of his power of moral interpretation
it deals not like hamlet with the problems which beset one of exceptional temperament but with mere human nature it brings before us a group of persons
behind this group of people behind their various action shakespeare inspires in us the sense of a strong tyranny of nature and circumstance then what shall there be on this side of it
on our side the spectators side of this painted screen with its puppets who are really glad or sorry all the time what philosophy of life what sort of equity
stimulated to read more carefully by shakespeare's own profounder touches the reader will note the vivid reality the subtle interchange of light and shade
the strongly contrasted characters of this group of persons passing across the stage so quickly the slightest of them is at least not ill natured
the meanest of them can put forth a plea for existence truly sir i am a poor fellow that would live they are never sure of themselves even in the strong tower of a cold unimpressible nature they are capable of many friendships
and of a true dignity in danger giving each other a sympathetic if transitory regret one sorry that another should be foolishly lost at a game of tick tack
words which seem to exhaust man's deepest sentiment concerning death and life are put on the lips of a gilded witless youth and the saintly isabella feels fire creep along her kindling her tongue to eloquence
at the suggestion of shame
it comes capriciously giving many and long reprieves to barnardine who has been waiting for it nine years in prison taking another thence by fever another by mistake of judgment
embracing others in the midst of their music and song the little mirror of existence which reflects to each for a moment the stage on which he plays is broken at last by a capricious accident
while all alike in their yearning for untasted enjoyment are really discounting their days grasping so hastily and accepting so inexactly the precious pieces
the duke's quaint but excellent moralising at the beginning of the third act does but express like the chorus of a greek play the spirit of the passing incidents to him in shakespeare's play
to a few here and there in the actual world this strange practical paradox of our life so unwise in its eager haste reveals itself in all its clearness the duke disguised as a friar
with his curious moralising on life and death and isabella in her first mood of renunciation
come with the quiet of the cloister as a relief to this lust and pride of life like some grey monastic picture
or at the nunnery among the novices with their little limited privileges where if you speak you must not show your face or if you show your face you must not speak
not less precious for this relief in the general structure of the piece than for its own peculiar graces is the episode of mariana a creature wholly of shakespeare's invention told by way of interlude in subdued prose
the moated grange with its dejected mistress its long listless discontented days where we hear only the voice of a boy broken off suddenly in the midst of one of the loveliest songs of shakespeare or of shakespeare's school
is the pleasantest of many glimpses we get here of pleasant places the field without the town angelo's garden house the consecrated fountain
as man of the world said blake stretching himself to his full height of five foot three and speaking with the wisdom of nineteen years i say that it can't be done
in any other company certainly at headquarters possibly but not in d company d company has a reputation all i say said rogers
is that if you can't run any mess in the trenches on four francs a day you're a rotten mess president blake turned dramatically to his company commander did you hear that billy
i was just going to say it myself then in that case i have the honour to resign the mess presidency
you're detailed you can't be detailed to be a president presidents are elected by popular acclamation
to avoid being shot well anyhow they resign i shall send my resignation in to the army council to night it will appear in the gazette in due course
and the amount of lime juice consumed by casual visitors i'll tell you what
if you'll bar guests
we never have any never have any said blake indignantly then i shall keep a visitors book just to show you so that was how the d company visitors book was inaugurated
i had the honour of opening it i happened to be mending a telephone line in this particular trench one thirsty day and there was the dug out and well there was i
i dropped in hallo said blake have a drink i had a lime juice then i had another and then
the visitors book said blake
whichever you like what do they usually do i asked well you're the first so you'll set the tone for god's sake don't be too funny it was an alarming responsibility
however as it happened i had something which i wanted to say
i wrote pleasantly entertained as usual by d company refused a pressing invitation to stay to lunch although it was a hot day and i had a long walk back to my own mess
i handed the book back to blake he read it and with one foot on the bottom step of the dugout i waited anxiously oh i say do stay to lunch he said i gave a start of surprise
oh thanks very much i said and i took my foot off the step it would be rather i think perhaps well thanks very much once begun the book filled up rapidly
subalterns from other companies used to call round for the purpose of being funny i suppose that unconsciously i had been too humorous anyway the tone had been set
the bombing officer i remember vowed that missus blake's hospitality was so charming that he would bring his wife and family next time
a painful business one way and another it was not long before the last page was reached we must get the general for the last page said blake don't be an ass said rogers
whatever's the matter don't you think he'd do it you wouldn't have the cheek to ask him good lord
why on earth shouldn't i ask him i happened to turn up just then the telephone line from headquarters to d company always seemed to want attention whatever part of the line we were in hallo said blake have a drink
well i am rather thirsty i said
pass the visitors book and let's get it over no you don't said blake snatching it away from me that's for the general this way sir said a voice above
and down came billy followed by the brigadier we jumped up you'll have a drink sir said billy oh thanks very much what will you have sir asked blake
lime juice i'll have lime juice thank you said the general after consideration blake produced the book nervously i wonder if you'd mind he began
the general looked inquiring and started feeling for his glasses he was just feeling in his fifth pocket when billy came to the rescue it's only some nonsense of blake's sir he said
he keeps a visitors book ah well said the general getting up
you are a silly ass he said if you hadn't interfered he'd have done it well i shall fill it in myself now he took a pencil and wrote monday
hospitably received by d company and much enjoyed the mess president's amusing conversation the company commander and a subaltern named rogers struck me as rather lacking in intelligence
r blake d s o brig gen i had been out of it for a long time and when quite accidentally i met an officer of the battalion in london i was nearly a year behind the news and blake
i said after he'd told me some of it that nice child in d company what happened to him didn't you hear
he went into that last show as senior subaltern of d billy was knocked out pretty early and blake took on
and had to carry on on our own billy was the senior company commander and took charge of the battalion i don't quite know how it happened after that we all got rather mixed up i suppose
blake was actually commanding the brigade he was splendid simply all over the place he got the d s o
funny isn't it not so very
shouted to the coachman right away the reason of all this was that the lady was the possessor of a piece of intelligence
every moment she kept looking out of the carriage window and perceiving with almost speechless vexation that as yet she was but half way on her journey
the fronts of the houses appeared to her longer than usual and in particular did the front of the white stone hospital with its rows of narrow windows seem interminable
which at length forced her to ejaculate oh the cursed building positively there is no end to it also
go quicker andrusha you are a horribly long time over the journey this morning but at length the goal was reached and the koliaska stopped before a one storied wooden mansion dark grey in colour and
having white carvings over the windows a tall wooden fence and narrow garden in front of the latter and a few meagre trees looming white with an incongruous coating of road dust in the windows of the building were also a few flower pots
and a parrot that kept alternately dancing on the floor of its cage and hanging on to the ring of the same with its beak also in the sunshine before the door two pet dogs were sleeping here
there lived the lady's bosom friend as soon as the bosom friend in question learnt of the newcomer's arrival she ran down into the hall and the two ladies kissed and embraced one another
when i heard some one arriving i wondered who could possibly be calling so early parasha declared that it must be the vice governor's wife so as i did not want to be bored with her i gave orders that i was to be reported
not at home for her part the guest would have liked to have proceeded to business by communicating her tidings but a sudden exclamation from the hostess imparted temporarily a new direction to the conversation
what a pretty chintz she cried gazing at the other's gown yes it is pretty agreed the visitor
praskovia thedorovna thinks that in other words the ladies proceeded to indulge in a conversation on the subject of dress and only after this had lasted for a considerable while
did the visitor let fall a remark which led her entertainer to inquire and how is the universal charmer
and the visitor's breathing became more hurried and further words seemed to be hovering between her lips like hawks preparing to stoop upon their prey only a person of the unhumanity of a true friend would have had the heart to interrupt her
i wonder how any one can see anything in the man to praise or to admire
that he is a perfect rascal
oh i know that some people think him handsome continued the hostess unmoved
his nose is perfectly odious yes
the guest's tone was almost piteous in its appeal what is it then you cannot imagine my state of mind you see this morning i received a visit from father cyril's wife the archpriest's wife you know her don't you
oh dear no had that been all
listen to what father cyril's wife had to tell me she said that
arrived all pale and trembling and told her oh such things
there came the most dreadful knocking imaginable and some one screamed out
just think after this how any one can say that the man is charming i cannot imagine
is she a young woman or good looking oh dear no quite an old woman splendid indeed
one may heartily commend the taste of our ladies for having fallen in love with him nevertheless it is not as you suppose think now
of course madame korobotchka answered reasonably enough i cannot sell you those souls
but he replied no no they are not dead tis i who tell you that
i swear that they are still alive in short he made such a scene that the whole village came running to the house and children screamed and men shouted
the affair seemed to me so horrible so utterly horrible that i trembled beyond belief
my dearest madam said my maid mashka pray look at yourself in the mirror and see how white you are but i have no time for that i replied as i must be off to tell my friend anna grigorievna
the news nor did i lose a moment in ordering the koliaska yet when my coachman andrusha asked me for directions
until i thought he must think me mad
i confess that the words pass my understanding curiously enough this is the second time i have heard speak of those souls true my husband avers that nozdrev was lying yet in his lies there seems to have been a grain of truth well
i am altogether at a loss what to do
that such things should happen try and imagine my feelings in my opinion there is in this more than the dead souls which meet the eye i think so too agreed the other as a matter of fact her friend's remark had struck her with complete surprise
in fact she felt driven to inquire what do you suppose to be hidden beneath it all no tell me
yes but tell me what is in your mind upon this the visitor had to confess herself nonplussed for though capable of growing hysterical she was incapable of propounding any rational theory
consequently she felt the more that she needed tender comfort and advice
or rather they pricked themselves up and straightened herself and became somehow more modish and despite her not inconsiderable weight posed herself to look like a piece of thistledown floating on the breeze the dead souls began the hostess
are what are what inquired the guest in great excitement are are tell me tell me for heaven's sake
to abduct the governor's daughter
petrified genuine amazement my god she cried
i should never have guessed it well to tell you the truth i guessed it as soon as ever you opened your mouth so much then for educating girls like the governor's daughter at school just see what comes of it
truly it wrings one's heart to see to what lengths immorality has come some of the men have quite lost their heads about her but for my part i think her not worth noticing of course and her manners are unbearable
but what puzzles me most is how a travelled man like chichikov could come to let himself in for such an affair surely he must have accomplices yes and i should say that one of those accomplices is nozdrev surely not
certainly i should say so why i have known him even try to sell his own father at all events he staked him at cards
i should never had thought him capable of such things i always guessed him to be so the two ladies were still discussing the matter with acumen
probably because the function in life of its members had always been that of managing and administering a household with the ladies therefore matters soon assumed vivid and definite shape they became clearly
and irrefutably materialised they stood stripped of all doubt and other impedimenta said some of the ladies in question chichikov had long been in love with the maiden
seeing that chichikov was as rich as a jew but
how the worthy dames came to know that he was married remains a mystery and the said deserted wife
had decided to abduct the girl in other circles the matter was stated in a different way that is to say
but that as a man of subtlety and experience he had bethought him of obtaining the daughter's hand
and carrying on with her an ardent liaison and that thereafter he had made an application for the desired hand but that the mother fearing to commit a sin against religion and feeling in her heart certain gnawings of conscience
whereupon chichikov had decided to carry out the abduction alleged to the foregoing of course there became appended various additional proofs and items of evidence
in proportion as the sensation spread to more remote corners of the town at length with these perfectings
naturally as the mother of a family and as the first lady in the town
she was highly offended when she heard the stories and very justly so
though innocent had to endure about as unpleasant a tete a tete as ever befell a maiden of sixteen while for his part the swiss footman received orders never at any time
having done their business with the governor's wife the ladies party descended upon the male section with a view to influencing it to their own side by asserting that the dead souls
and successfully affecting the abduction and indeed more than one man was converted and joined the feminine camp in spite of the fact that thereby such seceders incurred strong names from their late comrades
names such as old women petticoats
also however much they might arm themselves and take the field the men could not compass such orderliness within their ranks as could the women with the former everything was of the antiquated
and rough hewn and ill fitting and unsuitable and badly adapted and inferior kind their heads were full of nothing but discord and triviality and confusion and slovenliness of thought
in brief they displayed everywhere the male bent the rude
or of jumping to a conclusion
and everlasting timidity for instance the men's party declared that the whole story was rubbish that the alleged abduction of the governor's daughter
when they accused chichikov of the deed that a woman was like a money bag whatsoever you put into her she thenceforth retained that the subject which really demanded attention was the dead souls of which the devil only knew the meaning
one reason why the men's party was so certain that the dead souls connoted something contrary to good order and discipline was that there had just been appointed
a new governor general an event which of course had thrown the whole army of provincial tchinovniks into a state of great excitement seeing that they knew that before long there would ensue transferments and sentences of censure
as well as the series of official dinners
alas thought the army of tchinovniks it is probable that should he learn of the gross reports at present afloat in our town he will make such a fuss that we shall never hear the last of them
in particular did the director of the medical department turn pale at the thought that possibly the new governor general would surmise the term dead folk to connote patients in the local hospitals who for want of proper preventative measures
indeed might it not be that chichikov was neither more nor less than an emissary of the said governor general sent to conduct a secret inquiry
communicated this last supposition to the president of the council who though at first inclined to ejaculate rubbish suddenly turned pale on propounding to himself the theory
a terrible thought considering that he the president
and had himself acted as plushkin's representative what if these things should reach the governor general's ears he mentioned the matter to one friend and another and they in their turn
and is even more destructive than the dreaded black death also to add to the tchinovniks troubles
two documents of great importance the first of them contained advices that according to received evidence and reports there was operating in the province a forger of rouble notes who had been passing under various aliases
and must therefore be sought for with the utmost diligence while the second document was a letter from the governor of a neighbouring province with regard to a malefactor who had there evaded apprehension a letter conveying also a warning that
if in the province of the town of n there should appear any suspicious individual who could produce neither references nor passports he was to be arrested forthwith these two documents left every one thunderstruck
for they knocked on the head all previous conceptions and theories not for a moment could it be supposed that the former document referred to chichikov yet as each man pondered the position from his own point of view
as also that his vague references to himself had yes included statements that his career in the service
this gave the tchinovniks further food for thought perhaps his life really did stand in danger perhaps
as a matter of fact who was he not that it could actually be supposed that he was a forger of notes still less a brigand seeing that his exterior was respectable in the highest degree yet who was he
at length the tchinovniks decided to make enquiries among those of whom
in order that at least it might be learnt
and what exactly underlay them and whether in passing he had explained to any one his real intentions or revealed to any one his identity in the first instance therefore resort was had to korobotchka
yet little was gleaned from that source merely a statement that he had bought of her some souls for fifteen roubles apiece and also a quantity of feathers while promising also to buy some other commodities in the future
seeing that in particular he had entered into a contract with the treasury for lard a fact constituting fairly presumptive proof that the man was a rogue seeing that just such another fellow
and in particular had done the archpriest out of over a hundred roubles thus the net result of madame's cross examination was to convince the tchinovniks that she was a garrulous silly old woman
with regard to manilov he replied that he would answer for chichikov as he would for himself
which paul ivanovitch possessed finally he delivered on chichikov with acutely knitted brows a eulogy couched in the most charming of terms and coupled with sundry sentiments on the subject of friendship and affection in general
true these remarks sufficed to indicate the tender impulses of the speaker's heart but also they did nothing to enlighten his examiners concerning the business that was actually at hand as for sobakevitch
that landowner replied that he considered chichikov an excellent fellow as well as that the souls whom he had sold to his visitor had been in the truest sense of the word alive but that he could not answer for anything
which might occur in the future seeing that any difficulties which might arise in the course of the actual transferment of souls would not be his fault in view of the fact that god was lord of all and that fevers and other mortal complaints
and that instances of whole villages perishing through the same could be found on record finally our friends the tchinovniks found themselves compelled to resort to an expedient which
though not particularly savoury is not infrequently employed namely the expedient of getting lacqueys quietly to approach the servants of the person concerning whom information is desired
and to ascertain from them the servants certain details with regard to their master's life and antecedents yet even from this source
provided his interrogators merely with a taste of the smell of his living room and selifan confined his replies
and also had served in the customs in short the sum total of the results gathered by the tchinovniks was that they still stood in ignorance of chichikov's identity but that he must be some one wherefore
it was decided to hold a final debate on the subject on what ought to be done and who chichikov could possibly be
h halvorsen a olsen f steller and j andersen at last we were more or less ready
on our first hydrographic cruise in the north atlantic i suppose there was no one on board on june eighth nineteen ten who dreamed that a year later we should go on a similar cruise in the south
we had a pilot on board as far as montevideo where we arrived on the afternoon of the ninth but on account of an increasing wind pampero
we had to lie at anchor here for a day and a half as the pilot could not be taken off on saturday afternoon the tenth he was fetched off by a big tug boat
this gentleman asked us if we could not come into the harbour as people would like to see the ship i promised to come in on the way back if we had time on sunday morning the eleventh
we weighed anchor and went out in the most lovely weather that can be imagined gradually the land disappeared and in the course of the evening we lost the lights we were once more out in the atlantic
and immediately everything resumed its old course in order to save our supply of preserved provisions as much as possible we took with us a quantity of live poultry and no fewer than twenty live sheep
which were quartered in the farmyard on the port side of the vessel's fore deck sheep and hens were all together and there was always a most beautiful scent of hay so that we had not only sea air but country air
in spite of all this delightful air three or four of the crew were down with influenza and had to keep their berths for some days
by the beginning of september and on getting if possible one station a day the distance according to a rough calculation was about eight thousand nautical miles and i laid down the following plan
and north westerly winds to the coast of africa and there get hold of the south east trade if we could not reach africa before that date then to turn on july twenty second and lay our course
which we could reach before august first from there again with the same wind to south trinidad august eleventh or twelve on again with easterly and north easterly winds
when the observations were to be concluded and we should try to make buenos aires in the shortest time that was the plan that we attempted
we did not begin at once to take samples of water and with a head wind north east we lay close hauled for some days we also had a pretty stiff breeze
for taking samples of water a winch is used with a sounding line of let us say five thousand metres two thousand seven hundred thirty four fathoms on which are hung one or more tubes for catching water
we used three at once to save time now supposing water and temperatures are to be taken at depths of three hundred four hundred and five hundred metres
one hundred sixty four two hundred eighteen and two hundred seventy three fathoms
from the end of the line where a small weight a hangs then it is lowered until the indicator wheel
apparatus two is then put on and it is lowered again for another one hundred metres when apparatus i is put on and the line paid out for three hundred metres one hundred sixty four fathoms that is
the upper apparatus i is then at three hundred metres
and no three at five hundred metres
is hung a slipping sinker about eight centimetres
which rest in bearings on the frame so that the cylinder can be swung one hundred eighty degrees straight up and down the cylinder while being lowered in an inverted position is open at both ends so that the water can pass through
working on hinges and provided with packing when the apparatus is released the cylinder swings round and these valves then automatically close the ends of the cylinder
at the required depth remains in it while it is being heaved up and is collected in bottles when the apparatus is released the column of mercury in the thermometer is broken
as the water is taken from the release takes place in the following manner
they are left hanging for a few minutes so that the thermometers may be set at the right temperature before the column of mercury is broken
when this sinker strikes the first apparatus a spring is pressed
as already mentioned close the ends of the cylinder which is fixed in its new position by a hook in the bottom of the frame at the same instant
to apparatus two where the same thing happens it is then repeated with apparatus three when they are all ready they are heaved in by holding one's finger on the line one can feel
when the sinkers strike against the cylinders but i used to look at my watch
the necessary data are entered in a book on the morning of the seventeenth then the sails were clewed up
we first tried taking soundings with a sinker of sixty six pounds and a tube for taking specimens of the sea bed
so that sinker tube and over two thousand metres of line continued their way
i had thought of taking samples of water at four thousand three thousand and two thousand metres
two thousand one hundred eighty seven one thousand six hundred thirty nine one thousand and ninety three fathoms and so on and water cylinders were put on from zero to two thousand metres
this however took six hours next day on account of the heavy sea only a few samples from zero to one hundred metres
on the third day we made another attempt to get the bottom this time we got specimens of the sea bed from about four thousand five hundred metres
and temperatures occupied eight hours from seven a m till three p m
this time was not at our disposal
and samples of water at greater depths than one thousand metres
for the remainder of the trip we took temperatures and samples of water at the following depths
three hundred four hundred five hundred seven hundred fifty and one thousand metres
two and three quarters five and a half thirteen and a half
forty one fifty four eighty one one hundred eight one hundred thirty five one hundred sixty four two hundred eighteen two hundred seventy three four hundred ten and five hundred forty six fathoms in all
fifteen samples from each station and from this time forward we went on regularly with one station every day finally we managed to heave up two water cylinders on the same line by hand without great difficulty
he had vanished in the crowd who stood open mouthed gazing after the dead man our speed on this cruise was regulated as nearly as possible
we made two fairly parallel sections with comparatively regular intervals between the stations as regular in any case as one can hope to get with a vessel like the fram which really has too little both of sail area
and engine power the number of stations was sixty in all and eight hundred ninety one samples of water were taken of plankton specimens one hundred ninety were sent home the further examination of these specimens in norway
will show whether the material collected is of any value and whether the cruise has yielded satisfactory results as regards the weather on the trip it was uniformly good the whole time
we had a good deal of wind now and then with seas and rolling but for the most part there was a fresh breeze in the south east trade we sailed for four weeks at a stretch without using the engine
at the same time we had a good opportunity of smartening up the ship which she needed badly all the iron was freed from rust and the whole vessel painted both below and above deck
the decks themselves were smeared with a mixture of oil tar and turpentine after being scoured all the rigging was examined
nearly the whole ship was painted again masts and yards
both deck houses the boats and the various winches
or freshly painted everything hung in its place and such order and cleanliness reigned that it was a pleasure to go down there the result of all this renovating and smartening up was that when we fetched up by the quay at buenos aires
the fram looked brighter than i suppose she has ever done since she was new
and all the provisions re stowed
a whole suit of sails was completely worn out on this voyage but what can one expect when the ship is being worked every single day with clewing up making fast and setting of sails both in calms and winds
this work every day reminded me of the corvette ellida when the order was all hands aloft as a rule though it was only clewing up the sails that had to be done as we always had to take soundings on the weather side
so that the sounding line should not foul the bottom of the vessel
and we did not lose more than one thermometer in about nine hundred soundings
of sails roenne was occupied the whole time
in making and patching sails
and on the approaching trip to the ice barrier we should have
june thirtieth nineteen eleven is a red letter day in the fram's history
bravo fram it was well done especially after the bad character you have been given as a sailer and a sea boat
and the franz was congratulated by all present
on the evening of july twenty ninth saint helena was passed it was the first time i had seen this historic island it was very strange to think that the greatest spirit of a hundred centuries as some author has called napoleon
should have ending his restless life on this lonely island of the south atlantic on august twelfth when daylight came we sighted the little martin vaz islands ahead and a little later south trinidad
in nineteen ten this island was passed on october sixteenth we checked our chronometers which however proved to be correct from noon till two p m while we were lying still and
taking our daily hydrographic observations a sailing ship appeared
lying close hauled to the south
and those were pretty far off
september nineteen ten had we been troubled with animals or insects of any kind whatever but when we were in buenos aires for the first time at least half a million flies came aboard to look at the vessel i hoped they would go ashore
but it hung for a whole month without there being a sign of a fish
one morning the keenest of our fishermen came up as usual and felt the line yes by jove at last there was one and a big one too as he could hardly haul in the line by himself
there was a shout for assistance hi you beggar come and lend a hand there's a big fish help came in a second
it'll be grand to get fresh fish for dinner at last the fish appeared over the rail but alas it was seen to have no head it was an ordinary stockfish about three quarters of a yard long
goes without saying the fishermen included as they took it all in good part as a fishing boat the fram is on the whole not very successful
one whether there is natural love in the angels two whether there is in them love of choice three whether the angel loves himself with natural love or with love of choice four
whether one angel loves another with natural love as he loves himself five whether the angel loves god more than self with natural love first article
whether there is natural love or dilection in an angel objection one it would seem that there is no natural love or dilection in the angels for natural love is contradistinguished from intellectual love
further those who love with natural love are more acted upon than active in themselves for nothing has control over its own nature now the angels are not acted upon but act of themselves because they possess free will as was shown above
consequently there is no natural love in them
further every love is either ordinate or inordinate now ordinate love belongs to charity while inordinate love belongs to wickedness
while wickedness is against nature therefore there is no natural love in the angels on the contrary love results from knowledge
one two but there is natural knowledge in the angels therefore there is also natural love i answer that we must necessarily place natural love in the angels in evidence of this we must bear in mind that what comes first is always sustained in what comes after it
now nature comes before intellect because the nature of every subject is its essence consequently whatever belongs to nature must be preserved likewise in such subjects as have intellect but it is common to every nature to have some inclination
and this is its natural appetite or love this inclination is found to exist differently in different natures but in each according to its mode consequently in the intellectual nature there is to be found a natural inclination coming from the will
in the sensitive nature according to the sensitive appetite but in a nature devoid of knowledge only according to the tendency of the nature to something therefore since an angel is an intellectual nature
intellectual love is contradistinguished from that natural love which is merely natural in so far as it belongs to a nature which has not likewise the perfection of either sense or intellect
who acts in such a manner that he is in no way moved to act by another and in whom nature and will are the same so there is nothing unfitting in an angel being moved to act in so far as such
as natural knowledge is always true so is natural love well regulated
to say that a natural inclination is not well regulated is to derogate from the author of nature yet the rectitude of natural love is different from the rectitude of charity and virtue because the one rectitude perfects the other
even so the truth of natural knowledge is of one kind and the truth of infused or acquired knowledge is of another second article
question sixty art two whether there is love of choice in the angels objection one it would seem that there is no love of choice in the angels for love of choice appears to be rational love since choice follows counsel which lies in inquiry
now rational love is contrasted with intellectual which is proper to angels
further the angels have only natural knowledge besides such as is infused since they do not proceed from principles to acquire the knowledge of conclusions hence they are disposed to everything they can know as our intellect is disposed towards first principles
there is only natural love in the angels therefore there is no love of choice in them on the contrary we neither merit nor demerit by our natural acts but by their love the angels merit or demerit therefore there is love of choice in them
i answer that there exists in the angels a natural love and a love of choice their natural love is the principle of their love of choice because what belongs to that which precedes has always the nature of a principle
wherefore since nature is first in everything what belongs to nature must be a principle in everything this is clearly evident in man with respect to both his intellect and his will for the intellect knows principles naturally
and from such knowledge in man comes the knowledge of conclusions which are known by him not naturally but by discovery or by teaching in like manner the end acts in the will in the same way as the principle does in the intellect
consequently the will tends naturally to its last end for every man naturally wills happiness and all other desires are caused by this natural desire since whatever a man wills he wills on account of the end therefore the love of that good which a man naturally wills as an end
is his natural love but the love which comes of this which is of something loved for the end's sake is the love of choice there is however a difference on the part of the intellect and on the part of the will because as was stated already
the mind's knowledge is brought about by the inward presence of the known within the knower it comes of the imperfection of man's intellectual nature that his mind does not simultaneously possess all things capable of being understood
but only a few things from which he is moved in a measure to grasp other things the act of the appetitive faculty on the contrary follows the inclination of man towards things some of which are good in themselves and consequently are appetible in themselves
others being good only in relation to something else and being appetible on account of something else consequently it does not argue imperfection in the person desiring for him to seek one thing naturally as his end
and something else from choice as ordained to such end therefore since the intellectual nature of the angels is perfect only natural and not deductive knowledge is to be found in them but there is to be found in them both natural love and love of choice
since nature is not the sufficient principle thereof
not all love of choice is rational love according as rational is distinguished from intellectual love for rational love is so called which follows deductive knowledge
ad one when treating of free will every choice does not follow a discursive act of the reason but only human choice consequently the conclusion does not follow the reply to the second objection follows from what has been said third article
whether the angel loves himself with both natural love and love of choice objection one it would seem that the angel does not love himself both with natural love and a love of choice
natural love regards the end itself while love of choice regards the means to the end but the same thing with regard to the same cannot be both the end and a means to the end therefore natural love and the love of choice cannot have the same object
but uniting and binding imply various things brought together therefore the angel cannot love himself
further love is a kind of movement but every movement tends towards something else therefore it seems that an angel cannot love himself
on the contrary the philosopher says ethic ix
eight love for others comes of love for oneself i answer that since the object of love is good and good is to be found both in substance and in accident
a thing may be loved in two ways first of all as a subsisting good and secondly as an accidental or inherent good that is loved as a subsisting good
but that which we wish unto another is loved as an accidental or inherent good thus knowledge is loved
this kind of love has been called by the name concupiscence while the first is called friendship
everything naturally seeks to procure what is good for itself as fire seeks to mount upwards consequently both angel and man naturally seek their own good and perfection this is to love self
hence angel and man naturally love self in so far as by natural appetite each desires what is good for self on the other hand each loves self with the love of choice in so far as from choice he wishes for something which will benefit himself
it is not under the same but under quite different aspects that an angel or a man loves self with natural and with elective love as was observed above
as to be one is better than to be united
but does not of necessity tend towards something else yet it can be reflected back upon the lover so that he loves himself just as knowledge is reflected back upon the knower in such a way that he knows himself fourth article
question sixty art four whether an angel loves another with natural love as he loves himself objection one it would seem that an angel does not love another with natural love as he loves himself for love follows knowledge
but an angel does not know another as he knows himself because he knows himself by his essence
as was said above question fifty six
therefore it seems that one angel does not love another with natural love as he loves himself
further the cause is more powerful than the effect and the principle than what is derived from it but love for another comes of love for self as the philosopher says ethic
therefore one angel does not love another as himself but loves himself more
further natural love is of something as an end and is unremovable but no angel is the end of another and again such love can be severed from him as is the case with the demons who have no love for the good angels
therefore an angel does not love another with natural love as he loves himself on the contrary that seems to be a natural property which is found in all even in such as devoid of reason but every beast loves its like as is said
thirteen nineteen therefore an angel naturally loves another as he loves himself
both angel and man naturally love self now what is one with a thing is that thing itself consequently every thing loves what is one with itself so if this be one with it by natural union it loves it with natural love
but if it be one with it by non natural union then it loves it with non natural love thus a man loves his fellow townsman with a social love while he loves a blood relation with natural affection
in so far as he is one with him in the principle of natural generation now it is evident that what is generically or specifically one with another is the one according to nature and so everything loves another
which is one with it in species with a natural affection in so far as it loves its own species this is manifest even in things devoid of knowledge for fire has a natural inclination to communicate its form to another thing
namely to be borne upwards so then it must be said that one angel loves another with natural affection in so far as he is one with him in nature but so far as an angel has something else in common with another angel
or differs from him in other respects he does not love him with natural love
the expression as himself can in one way qualify the knowledge and the love on the part of the one known and loved and thus one angel knows another as himself because he knows the other to be even as he knows himself to be
in another way the expression can qualify the knowledge and the love on the part of the knower and lover and thus one angel does not know another as himself because he knows himself by his essence and the other not by the other's essence
in like manner he does not love another as he loves himself because he loves himself by his own will but he does not love another by the other's will
the expression as does not denote equality but likeness for since natural affection rests upon natural unity the angel naturally loves less what is less one with him
consequently he loves more what is numerically one with himself than what is one only generically or specifically but it is natural for him to have a like love for another as for himself in this respect
that as he loves self in wishing well to self so he loves another in wishing well to him
not as of that end to which good is willed but rather as of that good which one wills for oneself and in consequence for another as united to oneself nor can such natural love be stripped from the wicked angels
without their still retaining a natural affection towards the good angels in so far as they share the same nature with them but they hate them in so far as they are unlike them according to righteousness and unrighteousness fifth article
whether an angel by natural love loves god more than he loves himself objection one
natural love rests upon natural union now the divine nature is far above the angelic nature therefore according to natural love the angel loves god less than self or even than another angel
but every one loves another with natural love for his own sake because one thing loves another as good for itself therefore the angel does not love god more than self with natural love
further nature is self centered in its operation for we behold every agent acting naturally for its own preservation but nature's operation would not be self centered were it to tend towards anything else more than to nature itself
therefore the angel does not love god more than himself from natural love
further it is proper to charity to love god more than self but to love from charity is not natural to the angels for it is poured out upon their hearts by the holy spirit who is given to them as augustine says
therefore the angels do not love god more than themselves by natural love
further natural love lasts while nature endures but the love of god more than self does not remain in the angel or man who sins
two loves have made two cities namely love of self
while love of god unto the contempt of self has made the heavenly city
but the precept of loving god more than self is a moral precept of the law therefore it is of the law of nature consequently from natural love the angel loves god more than himself i answer that
there have been some who maintained that an angel loves god more than himself with natural love both as to the love of concupiscence through his seeking the divine good for himself rather than his own good and in a fashion
in so far as he naturally desires a greater good to god than to himself because he naturally wishes god to be god while as for himself he wills to have his own nature but absolutely speaking out of the natural love he loves himself more than he does god
because he naturally loves himself before god and with greater intensity the falsity of such an opinion stands in evidence if one but consider whither natural movement tends in the natural order of things because the natural tendency of things devoid of reason
shows the nature of the natural inclination residing in the will of an intellectual nature now in natural things everything which as such naturally belongs to another is principally and more strongly inclined to that other to which it belongs
we find the same inclination among the social virtues for it behooves the virtuous citizen to expose himself to the danger of death for the public weal of the state and if man were a natural part of the city then such inclination would be natural to him
consequently since god is the universal good and under this good both man and angel and all creatures are comprised
naturally belongs to god it follows that from natural love angel and man alike love god before themselves and with a greater love otherwise if either of them loved self more than god it would follow that natural love would be perverse
and that it would not be perfected but destroyed by charity
such reasoning holds good of things adequately divided whereof one is not the cause of the existence and goodness of the other
but where one is the whole cause of the existence and goodness of the other that one is naturally more loved than self because as we said above each part naturally loves the whole more than itself and each individual naturally loves the good of the species
more than its own individual good now god is not only the good of one species but is absolutely the universal good
when it is said that god is loved by an angel in so far as he is good to the angel if the expression in so far denotes an end then it is false for he does not naturally love god for his own good but for god's sake
if it denotes the nature of love on the lover's part then it is true
except from this that everything is dependent on that good which is god
nature's operation is self centered not merely as to certain particular details but much more as to what is common for everything is inclined to preserve not merely its individuality but likewise its species
and much more has everything a natural inclination towards what is the absolutely universal good
is loved by everything with natural love
he is love with the love of charity
since god's substance and universal goodness are one and the same all who behold god's essence are by the same movement of love moved towards the divine essence as it is distinct from other things and according as it is the universal good
and because he is naturally loved by all so far as he is the universal good it is impossible that whoever sees him in his essence should not love him but such as do not behold his essence know him by some particular effects
which are sometimes opposed to their will
there's no good in him said his stepmother not a mossul with these words she thrust little joe forward by applying her knee to the small of his back
and thereby jerking him into the middle of the school before the master there's no making nothing out of him whack him as you will little joe lambole was a child of ten dressed in second hand nay
third hand garments that did not fit his coat had been a soldier's scarlet uniform that had gone when discarded to a dealer who had dealt it to a carter and when the carter had worn it out it was reduced and adapted to the wear of the child
the nether garments had in like manner served a full grown man till worn out then they had been cut down at the knees though shortened in leg they maintained their former copiousness of seat and served as an inexhaustible receptacle for dust
often as little joe was licked
only a seven month child said missus lambole contemptuously born without his nails on fingers and toes they growed later his wits have never come right and a deal
use the rod we won't grumble at you for doing so little joe lambole when he came into the world had not been expected to live
that could not roar but whimpered he had been privately baptised directly he was born because at the first missus lambole said the child is mine though it be such a creetur and i wouldn't like it according to be buried like a dog
he was called joseph the scriptural joseph had been sold as a bondman into egypt this little joseph seemed to have been brought into the world to be a slave in all propriety he ought to have died as a baby and that happy consummation was almost desired
but he disappointed expectations and lived his mother died soon after and his father married again and his father and stepmother loved him doubtless but love is manifested in many ways and the lamboles showed theirs in a rough way
by slaps and blows and kicks the father was ashamed of him because he was a weakling and the stepmother because he was ugly and was not her own child he was a meagre little fellow with a long neck and a white face and sunken cheeks
a pigeon breast and a big stomach he walked with his head forward and his great pale blue eyes staring before him into the far distance as if he were always looking out of the world his walk was a waddle
and he tumbled over every obstacle because he never looked where he was going always looked to something beyond the horizon because of his walk and his long neck and staring eyes and big stomach the village children called him gander joe or joe gander
and his parents were not sorry for they were ashamed that such a creature should be known as a lambole the lamboles were a sturdy hearty people with cheeks like quarrender apples and bones set firm and knit with iron sinews
they were a hard working practical people who fattened pigs and kept poultry at home lambole was a roadmaker in breaking stones one day a bit of one had struck his eye and blinded it after that he wore a black patch upon it
he saw well enough out of the other he never missed seeing his own interests lambole could have made a few pence with his son had his son been worth anything he could have sent him to scrape the road and bring the manure off it in a shovel to his garden
but joe never took heartily to scraping the dung up in a word the boy was good for nothing he had hair like tow and a little straw hat on his head with the top torn so that the hair forced its way out
and as he walked the top bobbed about like the lid of a boiling saucepan when the whortleberries were ripe in june missus lambole sent joe out with other children to collect the berries in a tin can she sold them for fourpence a quart
and any child could earn eightpence a day in whortleberry time one that was active might earn a shilling but joe would not remain with the other children they teased him
sounds in imitation of the voices of these birds moreover they stole the berries he had picked and put them into their own cans when joe gander left them and found himself alone in the woods then he lay down among the brown heather and green fern
and looked up through the oak leaves at the sky and listened to the singing of the birds oh wondrous music of the woods the hum of the summer air among the leaves the drone of the bees about the flowers
the twittering and fluting and piping of the finches and blackbirds and thrushes and the cool soft cooing of the wood pigeons like the lowing of aerial oxen then the tapping of the green woodpecker
and a glimpse of its crimson head like a carbuncle running up the tree trunk and the powdering down of old husks of fir cones or of the tender rind of the topmost shoot of a scottish pine
for aloft a red squirrel was barking a beautiful tree out of wantonness and frolic a rabbit would come forth from the bracken and sit up in the sun and clean its face with the fore paws
and stroke its long ears then seeing the soiled red coat would skip up little joe lying very still and screw its nose and turn its eyes from side to side
and then the boy laughed and the rabbit was gone with a flash of white tail happy days days of listening to mysterious music
of looking into mysteries of sun and foliage of spiritual intercourse with the great mother soul of nature
oh steppy it was so nice everything was singing i'll make you sing in the chorus too cried missus lambole and laid a stick across his shoulders
experience had taught her the futility of dusting at a lower level
but when he went again into the wood it was again the same the spell of the wood spirits was on him he forgot about the berries at fourpence a quart and lay on his back and listened
and the whole wood whispered and sang to him and consoled him for his beating and the wind played lullabies among the fir spines and whistled in the grass
and the aspen clashed its myriad tiny cymbals together producing an orchestra of sound that filled the soul of the dreaming boy with love and delight
it fared no better in autumn when the blackberry season set in joe went with his can to an old quarry where the brambles sent their runners over the masses of rubble thrown out from the pits
and warmed and ripened their fruit on the hot stones it was a marvel to see how the blackberries grew in this deserted quarry how large the fruit swelled how thick they were like mulberries on the road side of the quarry was a belt of pines
and the sun drew out of their bark scents of unsurpassed sweetness about the blackberries hovered spotted white and yellow and black moths beautiful as butterflies butterflies did not fail either
asleep in the sun with wings expanded or drifting about the clumps of yellow ragwort doubtful whether to perch or not here hidden behind the trees among the leaves of overgrown rubble
was a one story cottage of wood and clay covered with thatch in which lived roger gale the postman roger gale had ten miles to walk every morning delivering letters and the same number of miles every evening
for which twenty miles he received the liberal pay of six shillings a week he had to be at the post office at half past six in the morning to receive the letters and at seven in the evening to deliver them his work took him about six hours
the middle of the day he had to himself roger gale was an old soldier and enjoyed a pension he occupied himself when at home as a shoemaker but the walks took so much out of him being an old man
that he had not the strength and energy to do much cobbling when at home therefore he idled a good deal and he amused his idle hours with a violin now when joe gander came to the quarry before the return of the postman from his rounds
he picked blackberries but no sooner had roger gale unlocked his door taken down his fiddle and drawn the bow across the strings than joe set down the can and listened and when old roger began to play an air from the daughter of the regiment
then joe crept towards his cottage in little stages of wonderment and hunger to hear more and hear better much in the same way as now and again in the wood the inquisitive rabbits had approached his red jacket
presently joe was seated on the doorstep with his ear against the wooden door and the blackberries and the can and stepmother's orders and father's stick and his hard bed and his meagre meals even the whole world
had passed away as a scroll that is rolled up and laid aside and he lived only in the world of music though his great eyes were wide he saw nothing through them
he felt nothing he had but one faculty that was awake and that was hearing one day roger came to his door and opened it suddenly so that the child leaning against it fell across his threshold
whom have we here what is this what do you want asked the postman then gander joe stood up craning his long neck and staring out of his goggle eyes with his rough flaxen hair standing up in a ruffle above his head
and his great stomach protruded and said nothing so roger burst out laughing
this was flattering to the postman and it was the initiation of a friendship between them but when joe came home with an empty can and said oh steppy master roger gale did fiddle so beautiful the woman said fiddle
i'll fiddle your back pretty smartly you idle vagabond and she was a truthful woman who never fell short of her word to break him of his bad habits that is of his dreaminess and uselessness missus lambole took joe
to school at school he had a bad time of it he could not learn the letters he was mentally incapable of doing a subtraction sum he sat on a bench staring at the teacher
and was unable to answer an ordinary question what the lesson was about the school children tormented him the monitor scolded and the master beat then little joe gander took to absenting himself from school
but instead of going to the school he went to the cottage in the quarry and listened to the fiddle of roger gale little joe got hold of an old box and with a knife he cut holes in it and he fashioned a bridge
and then a handle and he strung horsehair over the latter and made a bow and drew very faint sounds from this improvised violin that made the postman laugh but which gave great pleasure to joe
the sound that issued from his instrument was like the humming of flies but he got distinct notes out of his strings though the notes were faint after he had played truant for some time his father heard what he had done
and he beat the boy till he was like a battered apple that had been flung from the tree by a storm upon a road for a while joe did not venture to the quarry except on saturdays and sundays he was forbidden by his father to go to church
because the organ and the singing there drove him half crazed when a beautiful touching melody was played his eyes became clouded and the tears ran down his cheeks and when the organ played the hallelujah chorus or some grand and stirring march
his eyes flashed and his little body quivered and he made such faces that the congregation were disturbed and the parson remonstrated with his mother the child was clearly imbecile and unfit to attend divine worship
mister lambole got an idea into his head he would bring up joe to be a butcher and he informed joe that he was going to place him with a gentleman of that profession in town joe cried he turned sick at the sight of blood
and the smell of raw meat was abhorrent to him but joe's likings were of no account with his father and he took him to the town and placed him with a butcher there he was invested in a blue smock and was informed that his duties would consist in taking meat about to the customers
and he cried himself to sleep the first night and he cried all the next day when sent around with meat on his shoulder now on his journey through the streets he had to pass the window of a toy shop in the window were dolls and horses and little carts
for these joe did not care but there were also some little violins some high priced and some very low and over these joe lingered with loving covetous eyes there was one little fiddle to which his heart went out
that cost only three shillings and sixpence each day as he passed the shop he was drawn to it and stood looking in and longed daily more ardently than on the previous day for this three and sixpenny violin
that he was unconscious of some boys stealing the meat out of the sort of trough on his shoulder in which he carried it about this was the climax of his misdeeds he had been reprimanded for his blunders
delivering the wrong meat at the customers doors for his dilatory ways in going on his errands the butcher could endure him no more and sent him home to his father who thrashed him as his welcome
but he carried home with him the haunting recollections of that beautiful little red fiddle with its fine black keys the bow he remembered was strung with white horsehair joe
had now a fixed ambition something to live for he would be perfectly happy if he could have that three shillings and sixpenny fiddle but how were three shillings and sixpence to be earned
he confided his difficulty to postman roger gale and roger gale said he would consider the matter a couple of days after the postman said to joe gander they want a lad to sweep the leaves in the drive at the great house
the squire's coachman told me and i mentioned you
joe's face brightened he went home and told his stepmother
said missus lambole very well you shall sweep the drive then fivepence will come to us and you shall have a penny every week to spend in sweetstuff at the post office joe tried to reckon how long it would be before he could purchase the fiddle
but the calculation was beyond his powers so he asked the postman who assured him it would take him forty weeks that is about ten months little joe was not cast down what was time with such an end in view
jacob served fourteen years for rachel and this was only forty weeks for a fiddle joe was diligent every saturday sweeping the drive he was ordered whenever a carriage entered to dive behind the rhododendrons and laurels and disappear
he was of a too ragged and idiotic appearance to show in a gentleman's grounds once or twice he encountered the squire and stood quaking with his fingers spread out his mouth and eyes open and the broom at his feet
poor fellow said the squire to the gardener i suppose it is a charity to employ him but i must say i should have preferred someone else with his wits about him i will see to having him sent to an asylum for idiots
in which i have some interest there's no knowing said the squire no knowing but that with wholesome food cleanliness and kindness his feeble mind may be got to understand that two and two make four which i learn he has not yet mastered
every saturday evening joe gander brought his sixpence home to his stepmother the woman was not so regular in allowing him his penny out
steppy need i go to school any more
then said missus lambole
very well eating such a lot does no one good if you will be content with one slice of bread for breakfast instead of two and the same for supper you shall have your penny
a swede or a mangold out of farmer eggins's field swedes and mangolds are cooling to the blood and sit light on the stomick said missus lambole so the compact was made but it nearly killed joe
his cheeks and chest fell in deeper and deeper and his stomach protruded more than ever his legs seemed hardly able to support him and his great pale blue wandering eyes appeared ready to start out of his head like the horns of a snail
as for his voice it was thin and toneless like the notes on his improvised fiddle on which he played incessantly the child will always be a discredit to us said lambole
he don't look like a human child he don't think and feel like a christian the shovelfuls of dung he might have brought to cover our garden if he had only given his heart to it i've heard of changelings said missus lambole
they do say that the pixies steal away the babies of christian folk and put their own bantlings in their stead the only way to find out is to heat a poker red hot and ram it down the throat of the child
and runs off with her own child and leaves your proper babe behind
said lambole thrusting hot coals back on to the hearth with his foot i don't suppose it would said missus lambole and yet we call this a land of liberty law ain't made for the poor but for the rich
it is wickedness argued the father it is just the same with colts all wickedness you must drive it out with the stick and now a great temptation fell on little gander joe
and the daughter of the house miss amory was musical her mother played on the piano and the young lady on the violin
and miss amory had taken lessons from the best masters in town she played vastly better than poor roger gale and she played to an accompaniment sometimes whilst joe was sweeping he heard the music
then he stole nearer and nearer to the house hiding behind rhododendron bushes and listening with eyes and mouth and nostrils and ears the music exercised on him an irresistible attraction
he forgot his obligation to work he forgot the strict orders he had received not to approach the garden front of the house the music acted on him like a spell occasionally he was roused from his dream by the gardener who boxed his ears
once a servant came out from miss amory to tell the ragged little boy not to stand in front of the drawing room window staring in on another occasion he was found by miss amory
they thought him a fool and that he had the inquisitiveness of the half witted to peer in at windows and see the pretty sights within he was reprimanded and threatened with dismissal
and you must teach them as you feed the polar bears with the end of a stick one day miss amory seeing how thin and hollow eyed the child was and hearing him cough brought him out a cup of hot coffee and some bread
he took it without a word only pulling off his torn straw hat and throwing it at his feet exposing the full shock of tow like hair then he stared at her out of his great eyes speechless joe she said
poor little man how old are you dun'now he answered can you read and write no nor do sums no what can you do fiddle
have you got a fiddle yes i should like to see it and hear you play next day was sunday little joe forgot about the day and forgot that miss amory would probably be in church in the morning
she had asked to see his fiddle so in the morning he took it and went down with it to the park the church was within the grounds and he had to pass it as he went by he heard the roll of the organ and the strains of the choir
he stopped to hearken then went up the steps of the churchyard listening a desire came on him to catch the air on his improvised violin and he put it to his shoulder
and drew his bow across the slender cords the sound was very faint so faint as to be drowned by the greater volume of the organ and the choir nevertheless he could hear the feeble tones close to his ear
and his heart danced at the pleasure of playing to an accompaniment like miss amory the choir the congregation were singing the advent hymn to luther's tune great god
what do i see and hear the end of things created little joe playing his inaudible instrument came creeping up the avenue treading on the fallen yellow lime leaves
passing between the tombstones drawn on by the solemn beautiful music presently he stood in the porch then he went on he was unconscious of everything but the music
and the joy of playing with it he walked on softly into the church without even removing his ragged straw cap though the squire and the squire's wife and the rector and the reverend the missus rector and the parish churchwarden
and the rector's churchwarden and the overseer and the waywarden and all the farmers and their wives were present he had forgotten about his broken cap in the delight that made the tears fill his eyes and trickle over his pale cheeks
coming up the nave fiddling with his hat on regardless of the sacredness of the place
j p and d l the rector coughed very loud and looked hard at his churchwarden farmer eggins who turned red as the sun in a november fog and rose at the same instant the people's churchwarden rose
and both advanced upon joe gander from opposite sides of the church at the moment that they touched him the organ and the singing ceased and it was to joe a sudden wakening from a golden dream to a black
he looked up with dazed face first at one man then at the other both their faces blazed with equal indignation both were equally speechless with wrath they conducted him each holding an arm out of the porch
and down the avenue joe heard indistinctly behind him the droning of the rector's voice continuing the prayers he looked back over his shoulder and saw the faces of the school children straining after him through the open door from their places near it
the people's churchwarden uttered a loud and disgusted ugh then with his heavy hand slapped the head of the child towards the parson's churchwarden who with his still heavier hand boxed it back again then the people's churchwarden gave him a blow
which sent him staggering forward and this was supplemented by a kick from the parson's churchwarden which sent joe gander spinning down the five steps at once and cast him prostrate into the road where he fell and crushed his extemporised violin
then the churchwardens turned blew their noses and re entered the church where they sat out the rest of the service grateful in their hearts that they had been enabled that day to show that their office was no sinecure
the churchwardens were unaware that in banging and kicking the little boy out of the churchyard and into the road they had flung him so that he fell with his head upon the curbstone of the footpath which stone was of slate
and sharp they did not find this out through the prayers nor through the sermon but when the whole congregation left the church they were startled to find little joe gander insensible with his head cut
and a pool of blood on the footway the squire was shocked as were his wife and daughter and the churchwardens were in consternation
it is surely the stupidest of losses to confuse things which right reason has put asunder to lose the sense of achieved distinctions the distinction between poetry and prose for instance or to speak more exactly
between the laws and characteristic excellences of verse and prose composition on the other hand those who have dwelt most emphatically on the distinction between prose and verse prose and poetry
may sometimes have been tempted to limit the proper functions of prose too narrowly and this again is at least false economy as being in effect the renunciation of a certain means or faculty in a world
where after all we must needs make the most of things critical efforts to limit art a priori by anticipations regarding the natural incapacity of the material with which this or that artist works as the sculptor with solid form
are always liable to be discredited by the facts of artistic production and while prose is actually found to be a coloured thing with bacon
musical with cicero and newman
with milton and taylor it will be useless to protest that it can be nothing at all except something very tamely and narrowly confined to mainly practical ends
as useless as the protest that poetry might not touch prosaic subjects as with wordsworth or an abstruse matter as with browning or treat contemporary life nobly as with tennyson
in subordination to one essential beauty in all good literary style in all literature as a fine art
and it is the business of criticism to estimate them as such as it is good in the criticism of verse to look for those hard logical and quasi prosaic excellences which that too has or needs
to find in the poem amid the flowers the allusions the mixed perspectives of lycidas for instance the thought the logical structure how wholesome
as to identify in prose what we call the poetry the imaginative power not treating it as out of place and a kind of vagrant intruder but by way of an estimate of its rights that is
with the characteristic instinct of his age loved to emphasise the distinction between poetry and prose the protest against their confusion with each other coming with somewhat diminished effect from one whose poetry was so prosaic in truth
his sense of prosaic excellence affected his verse rather than his prose which is not only fervid richly figured poetic as we say but vitiated all unconsciously by many a scanning line
setting up correctness that humble merit of prose as the central literary excellence he is really a less correct writer than he may seem still with an imperfect mastery of the relative pronoun it might have been foreseen that
in the rotations of mind the province of poetry in prose would find its assertor and a century after dryden amid very different intellectual needs and with the need therefore of great modifications in literary form
the range of the poetic force in literature was effectively enlarged by wordsworth the true distinction between prose and poetry he regarded as the almost technical or accidental one of the absence or presence of metrical beauty
or say metrical restraint and for him the opposition came to be between verse and prose of course but as the essential dichotomy in this matter between imaginative and unimaginative writing
the literature of power and the literature of knowledge
but his peculiar sense of fact whether past or present dismissing then under sanction of wordsworth that harsher opposition of poetry to prose as savouring in fact of the arbitrary psychology of the last century
and with it the prejudice that there can be but one only beauty of prose style
which if they apply to the literature of fact
while they apply indifferently to verse and prose so far as either is really imaginative certain conditions of true art in both alike
which conditions may also contain in them the secret of the proper discrimination and guardianship of the peculiar excellences of either the line between fact and something quite different from external fact is indeed hard to draw
in pascal for instance in the persuasive writers generally how difficult to define the point where from time to time argument which if it is to be worth anything at all must consist of facts or groups of facts
becomes a pleading a theorem no longer but essentially an appeal to the reader to catch the writer's spirit to think with him if one can or will an expression no longer of fact but of his sense of it
his peculiar intuition of a world prospective or discerned below the faulty conditions of the present
in science on the other hand in history so far as it conforms to scientific rule we have a literary domain where the imagination may be thought to be always an intruder and as in all science
the functions of literature reduce themselves eventually to the transcribing of fact so all the excellences of literary form in regard to science are reducible to various kinds of pains taking
in the drafting of an act of parliament as in sewing yet here again the writer's sense of fact in history especially and in all those complex subjects which do but lie on the borders of science
will still take the place of fact in various degrees your historian for instance with absolutely truthful intention amid the multitude of facts presented to him must needs select and in selecting
assert something of his own humour something that comes not of the world without but of a vision within so gibbon moulds his unwieldy material to a preconceived view
moving full of poignant sensibility amid the records of the past each after his own sense modifies who can tell where and to what degree and becomes something else than a transcriber each as he thus modifies
passing into the domain of art proper for just in proportion as the writer's aim consciously or unconsciously comes to be the transcribing not of the world not of mere fact
he becomes an artist his work fine art and good art as i hope ultimately to show in proportion to the truth of his presentment of that sense as in those humbler or plainer functions of literature also
truth truth to bare fact there is the essence of such artistic quality as they may have truth there can be no merit no craft at all without that and further
all beauty is in the long run only fineness of truth or what we call expression the finer accommodation of speech to that vision within the transcript of his sense of fact rather than the fact
as being preferable pleasanter more beautiful to the writer himself in literature as in every other product of human skill in the moulding of a bell or a platter for instance wherever this sense asserts itself
wherever the producer so modifies his work as over and above its primary use or intention to make it pleasing to himself of course in the first instance there
as opposed to merely serviceable art exists literary art that is like all art which is in any way imitative or reproductive of fact form or colour or incident
is the representation of such fact as connected with soul of a specific personality in its preferences its volition and power such is the matter of imaginative or artistic literature
this transcript not of mere fact but of fact in its infinite variety as modified by human preference
it will be good literary art not because it is brilliant or sober or rich or impulsive or severe but just in proportion as its representation of that sense that soul fact is true
verse being only one department of such literature and imaginative prose it may be thought being the special art of the modern world that imaginative prose should be the special and opportune art of the modern world
results from two important facts about the latter first the chaotic variety and complexity of its interests making the intellectual issue the really master currents of the present time incalculable
a condition of mind little susceptible of the restraint proper to verse form so that the most characteristic verse of the nineteenth century has been lawless verse and secondly an all pervading naturalism
a curiosity about everything whatever as it really is involving a certain humility of attitude cognate to what must after all be the less ambitious form of literature
and prose thus asserting itself as the special and privileged artistic faculty of the present day will be however critics may try to narrow its scope
and in what he proposes to do will have in mind first of all the scholar and the scholarly conscience the male conscience in this matter as we must think it under a system of education which still to so large an extent limits real scholarship to men
in his self criticism
considerately though without consideration for him over the ground which the female conscience traverses so lightly so amiably for the material in which he works is no more a creation of his own than the sculptor's marble
product of a myriad various minds and contending tongues compact of obscure and minute association a language has its own abundant and often recondite laws
in the habitual and summary recognition of which scholarship consists a writer full of a matter he is before all things anxious to express may think of those laws the limitations of vocabulary structure and the like as a restriction
his punctilious observance of the proprieties of his medium will diffuse through all he writes a general air of sensibility of refined usage
the exclusions or rejections which nature demands we know how large a part these play according to bacon in the science of nature in a somewhat changed sense
we might say that the art of the scholar is summed up in the observance of those rejections demanded by the nature of his medium the material he must use alive to the value of an atmosphere in which every term finds its utmost degree of expression
and with all the jealousy of a lover of words he will resist a constant tendency on the part of the majority of those who use them to efface the distinctions of language the facility of writers often reinforcing in this respect the work of the vulgar
he will feel the obligation not of the laws only but of those affinities avoidances those mere preferences of his language which through the associations of literary history have become a part of its nature
prescribing the rejection of many a neology many a license many a gipsy phrase which might present itself as actually expressive his appeal again is to the scholar who has great experience in literature
and will show no favour to short cuts or hackneyed illustration or an affectation of learning designed for the unlearned hence a contention
having for the susceptible reader the effect of a challenge for minute consideration
being a pledge that it is worth the reader's while to be attentive too that the writer is dealing scrupulously with his instrument and therefore indirectly with the reader himself also that he has the science of the instrument he plays on
perhaps after all with a freedom which in such case will be the freedom of a master for meanwhile braced only by those restraints he is really vindicating his liberty in the making of a vocabulary
an entire system of composition for himself his own true manner and when we speak of the manner of a true master we mean what is essential in his art pedantry being only the scholarship of le cuistre
we have no english equivalent he is no pedant and does but show his intelligence of the rules of language in his freedoms with it addition or expansion which like the spontaneities of manner in a well bred person will still further illustrate good taste
the right vocabulary translators have not invariably seen how all important that is in the work of translation driving for the most part at idiom or construction whereas if the original be first rate
one's first care should be with its elementary particles plato for instance being often reproducible by an exact following with no variation in structure of word after word
so only each word or syllable be not of false colour to change my illustration a little well that is because any writer worth translating at all has winnowed and searched through his vocabulary
is conscious of the words he would select in systematic reading of a dictionary and still more of the words he would reject were the dictionary other than johnson's and doing this with his peculiar sense of the world ever in view
in search of an instrument for the adequate expression of that he begets a vocabulary faithful to the colouring of his own spirit and in the strictest sense original that living authority which language needs lies in truth
in its scholars who recognising always that every language possesses a genius a very fastidious genius of its own expand at once and purify its very elements which must needs change along with the changing thoughts of living people
ninety years ago for instance
was needed by wordsworth to break through the consecrated poetic associations of a century and speak the language that was his that was to become in a measure the language of the next generation but he did it with the tact of a scholar also
english for a quarter of a century past has been assimilating the phraseology of pictorial art for half a century the phraseology of the great german metaphysical movement of eighty years ago in part also
and none but pedants will regret a great consequent increase of its resources for many years to come its enterprise may well lie in the naturalisation of the vocabulary of science so only it be under the eye of a sensitive scholarship
in a liberal naturalisation of the ideas of science too for after all the chief stimulus of good style is to possess a full rich complex matter to grapple with the literary artist therefore
will be well aware of physical science science also attaining in its turn its true literary ideal and then as the scholar is nothing without the historic sense he will be apt to restore not really obsolete or really worn out words
but the finer edge of words still in use ascertain communicate discover
to misuse and still as language was made for man he will be no authority for correctnesses which limiting freedom of utterance were yet but accidents in their origin
which ought to have been in shakespeare
for inanimate objects being but a barbarous and really inexpressive survival yet we have known many things like this racy saxon monosyllables close to us as touch and sight
he will intermix readily with those long savoursome latin words
in this late day certainly no critical process can be conducted reasonably without eclecticism
how illustrative of monosyllabic effect of sonorous latin of the phraseology of science of metaphysic of colloquialism even are the writings of tennyson yet with what a fine fastidious scholarship throughout
a scholar writing for the scholarly he will of course leave something to the willing intelligence of his reader
to become tutor to the ignorance of the first i meet is a thing i abhor
a thing in fact naturally distressing to the scholar who will therefore ever be shy of offering uncomplimentary assistance to the reader's wit
to really strenuous minds there is a pleasurable stimulus in the challenge for a continuous effort on their part to be rewarded by securer and more intimate grasp of the author's sense self restraint a skilful economy of means
that too has a beauty of its own and for the reader supposed there will be an aesthetic satisfaction in that frugal closeness of style which makes the most of a word in the exaction from every sentence of a precise relief
in the just spacing out of word to thought in the logically filled space connected always with the delightful sense of difficulty overcome different classes of persons at different times make of course very various demands upon literature
but all disinterested lovers of books will always look to it as to all other fine art for a refuge a sort of cloistral refuge from a certain vulgarity in the actual world a perfect poem like lycidas
a perfect fiction like esmond the perfect handling of a theory like newman's idea of a university has for them something of the uses
here then with a view to the central need of a select few
everything every component element will have undergone exact trial and above all there will be no uncharacteristic or tarnished or vulgar decoration permissible ornament being for the most part structural or necessary
as the painter in his picture so the artist in his book aims at the production by honourable artifice of a peculiar atmosphere
may be known rather by what he omits
the true artist may be best recognised by his tact of omission
and the ornamental word the figure
is rarely content to die to thought precisely at the right moment but will inevitably linger awhile
behind it of perhaps quite alien associations just there it may be
but the true artist allows for it he will remember that as the very word ornament indicates what is in itself non essential
of all literary style is of its very essence and independent in prose and verse alike of all removable decoration that it may exist in its fullest lustre as in flaubert's madame bovary for instance or in stendhal's
in a composition utterly unadorned with hardly a single suggestion of visibly beautiful things parallel allusion the allusive way generally the flowers in the garden
he knows the narcotic force of these upon the negligent intelligence to which any diversion literally is welcome any vagrant intruder because one can go wandering away with it from the immediate subject jealous
if he have a really quickening motive within of all that does not hold directly to that of the facile the otiose he will never depart from the strictly pedestrian process unless he gains a ponderable something thereby
even assured of its congruity he will still question its serviceableness is it worth while can we afford to attend to just that to just that figure or literary reference just then
surplusage he will dread that as the runner on his muscles for in truth all art does but consist in the removal of surplusage from the last finish of the gem engraver blowing away the last particle of invisible dust
lying somewhere according to michelangelo's fancy in the rough hewn block of stone and what applies to figure or flower must be understood of all other accidental or removable ornaments of writing whatever
and not of specific ornament only but of all that latent colour and imagery which language as such carries in it a lover of words for their own sake to whom nothing about them is unimportant
a minute and constant observer of their physiognomy he will be on the alert not only for obviously mixed metaphors of course but for the metaphor that is mixed in all our speech though a rapid use may involve no cognition of it
currently recognising the incident the colour the physical elements or particles in words like absorb consider extract to take the first that occur
he will avail himself of them as further adding to the resources of expression the elementary particles of language will be realised as colour and light and shade through his scholarly living in the full sense of them
still opposing the constant degradation of language by those who use it carelessly he will not treat coloured glass as if it were clear and while half the world is using figure unconsciously
but of the vague lazy half formed personification a rhetoric depressing
which plays so large a part there and as in the case of more ostentatious ornament scrupulously exact of it from syllable to syllable its precise value
so far i have been speaking of certain conditions of the literary art arising out of the medium or material in or upon which it works the essential qualities of language and its aptitudes for contingent ornamentation
matters which define scholarship as science and good taste respectively they are both subservient to a more intimate quality of good style more intimate as coming nearer to the artist himself
the otiose the facile surplusage why are these abhorrent to the true literary artist except because in literary as in all other art structure is all important felt or painfully missed everywhere
that architectural conception of work which foresees the end in the beginning and never loses sight of it
with undiminished vigour unfold and justify the first a condition of literary art which in contradistinction to another quality of the artist himself to be spoken of later
alice wibblewobble in a bag you remember i told you last night about jimmie wibblewobble being carried up by a kite
he promised that he would be very careful i'll fly smaller kites he said
for her mamma was going to make prune bread that is bread with prunes in it and it's very nice i assure you for i've eaten it as alice was coming home through a lonely part of the woods where the trees were so thick that it was almost dark
she began to feel a little bit frightened so to stop herself from feeling scared she began to sing
but instead alice sang and this is the song she made up so she wouldn't be frightened you are allowed to sing it if you are not more than seven and three quarters years old if you are any older than that you will have to have a special excuse
or some one else will have to sing it for you well this is the song i'm not afraid to wander in woodlands dark and drear
the birds the trees and flowers are kind as kind can be i'm sure that not a single one would do a thing to me the bugs and pretty butterflies will form a fairy band and guard me safely while i walk throughout this dark woodland
but just the same i'll hurry and not stay here too long because you see i only know two verses of this song well as soon as alice finished singing
no answered the fox savagely
what good would money be to me i can't eat money ha ha ha and he laughed that way three times just like a mooley cow
are you going to eat me asked alice from inside the bag where she was trembling so that she squashed the yeast cake all out as flat as a pancake on a cold winter morning when you have brown sausage gravy and maple syrup to pour on it eat you
but i can't decide whether to have you boiled or roasted it's quite trying not to know i must make up my mind soon however then he ran on some more over the hills bumpity bump
well the old fox hurried on with alice in the bag and he ran fast to get to his den and pretty soon the little duck girl felt him coming to a stop then she heard some one saying
what have you in that bag i have apples in this bag said the fox oh but wasn't he the bold bad story telling fox though apples eh asked the voice again
and then alice knew right away who it was can you guess no well i'll tell you it was nurse jane fuzzy wuzzy the kind old muskrat lady it was she who had asked the question oh so you have apples in there
jane fuzzy wuzzy repeated to the fox well now do you know she went on i am very fond of apples
no answered the bad fox i can't
moving nearer to the fox and showing her sharp teeth like the carpenter's chisel when he shaves the door down to make it smaller i just love sour apples said the nurse oh
i made a mistake these are sweet apples said the fox quickly waggling his big tail like a dusting brush i made a mistake too went on miss fuzzy wuzzy i guess i love sweet apples instead of sour ones
you will have to excuse me again spoke the fox quickly
declared the muskrat and she showed her teeth some more as if she were smiling only she wasn't she was getting ready to bite the bad fox i guess
and what's more the kind muskrat nurse did ah she exclaimed you have moving apples i see i just love moving apples
and she bit him on the nose and on his front legs and on his hind legs until he was glad enough to drop the bag containing poor alice and run away over the hills as fast as he could go then the muskrat gnawed open the bag and alice came out her feathers all ruffled up
but she was not much hurt only the yeast cake was all squashed out of shape like a piece of putty then jane fuzzy wuzzy took alice home safely and nothing more happened right away well now to morrow night let's see ha hum oh
how careless of me of course there isn't going to be any story to morrow night because we're at the end of this book you can see for yourself if you look carefully that there are no more stories in it not a single one but listen as the telephone girl says
so if you want to read about them you may do so in the next book of the bed time series which will be called jackie and peetie bow wow and the book will have in it some pictures of the doggies and tell how they had a show and built a swing
and got lost and ran away to join a circus and did ever so many things that it was really astonishing honestly it was well i think i'll say good night now
jimmie and the waterfall it was such a nice day that mister and missus wibblewobble decided to go visiting as they had an invitation to call on missus greenie the frog lady who lived at the end of the pond
so the two ducks after seeing that the pen was in order and the windows nice and clean in case any company should call on them while they were out started off swimming very slowly for they had their best clothes on and did not want to splash water on them
now i hope you children will be good called mamma wibblewobble to jimmie and lulu and alice don't get into any mischief and we'll be back at supper time we'll be good promised alice
but jimmie and lulu didn't say anything though of course they meant to be good also only sometimes you know how it is just when you want to be good and make no trouble something is sure to happen that is
well that's the way it was this time the papa and mamma ducks hadn't been gone more than half an hour before jimmie thought of something to do of course he didn't know it was mischief but it was all the same it happened
that at one end of the pond where the ducks lived there was a waterfall that is the water ran from the pond and fell over a high wall of stones upon some more stones down below and made a lot of foam and a rushing gurgling noise that was very cool in summer
making you think of ice cream and all nice things like that and besides this there was near the waterfall a big mill with a wheel that went around and around to grind the corn and grain
well jimmie's papa and mamma hadn't been gone more than half an hour before the little boy duck called to lulu and alice let's see how near we can go to the waterfall he said
mister and missus wibblewobble knew this and many times had told their children to keep away but you see jimmie forgot or else didn't want to remember so he called to his sisters telling them to see how near they could go
i'll not spoke alice and you hadn't better either jimmie you know what mamma said oh well the water's low now replied jimmie i don't believe there's any danger come on lulu all right said lulu
so she and jimmie started to swim as close as they could to the waterfall
and who should come along but nurse jane fuzzy wuzzy the muskrat nurse who was out for a walk she told alice about sammie and susie littletail and said the little rabbit children were well
now all this while jimmie and lulu were swimming nearer and nearer to the waterfall they could hear the water splashing on the rocks below and they liked to listen to it
no i'm going closer declared jimmie there is no danger come on
then she swam just as hard as she could toward shore
i'm going just a little bit closer now lulu had a very hard time indeed getting to shore as the current was so strong but she finally managed it jimmie however kept on swimming nearer and nearer to the falls
then all at once before you could stick a pin in a cushion what should take place but that the little boy duck felt himself being pulled along by the rushing water just as the soap floats along when you pull the plug out of the bathtub
jimmie splashed and paddled with all his might and tried to swim ashore where lulu was anxiously watching him but he couldn't seem to move
and the big millwheel going around and around then jimmie knew he was in great danger
lulu and alice heard him and were much frightened they started to go to the aid of their brother but grandfather goosey gander warned them not to but who will save jimmie they cried i will try to answered the old gentleman duck
so he got a rope and threw it to jimmie but the rope wasn't long enough and the poor little boy duck kept getting closer and closer to the edge of the falls and the big millwheel oh how hard he was swimming but the water was stronger than he was
get a board cried bully the frog who came hopping along just then so the ducks and the geese got a board and threw it to jimmie but it floated past him
then it surely did look as if he were going to be carried right over the falls for he was being swept nearer and more near
and he could hear the water making a terrible roaring splashing sound on the rocks you have no idea how scared jimmie was and he wished he had never gone near the falls then the other ducks got a long stick
and grandfather goosey gander held it out so the little boy duck could grasp it in his bill but the stick broke and every one said it was too bad then just as jimmie was almost to the edge of the falls if nurse jane fuzzy wuzzy didn't call out
stand aside everybody i am a good swimmer and i will save him
why that good kind muskrat jumped right into the water
but she took hold very gently so as not to hurt him then she was such a fine swimmer that she managed to get to shore towing and pulling jimmie with her for the water could not hurt nurse jane fuzzy wuzzy no matter how hard the millwheel splashed
so that is how jimmie was saved from the waterfall and when his papa and mamma came home they were very glad of course and why shouldn't they be but all the same
lulu and jimmie had to be punished for disobeying and going too near the falls when they had been told not to and their punishment was that they could not go in swimming for three days and if you ever were a duck
you know that was very severe punishment indeed very severe but i'm not going to say that jimmie and lulu didn't deserve it no indeed i'm not not if you were to offer me an orange and a half and i'm very fond of oranges very
well that's how things will sometimes happen in this world won't they do the best that you can but now i suppose you want to know what the story will be about to morrow night well if i see a pink grasshopper
the wibblewobbles party there was great excitement in the duck pen and the reason for it
it was the first party they had ever had
you see it was this way lulu and alice both had the same birthday that is they were twins jimmie was a day older than they were and he wasn't a twin there now i've explained it all to you and i'll get on with the story well
mamma wibblewobble arranged for the party she did all the baking and got the ice cream ready and made the pies and tarts and alice and lulu sent out the invitations
they were written on nice little pieces of white birch bark that johnnie and billie bushytail gnawed off the trees for the little duck girls of course johnnie and billie were invited and so was sammie littletail and susie and sister sallie
and mister and missus bushytail and mister and missus littletail and uncle wiggily longears and nurse jane fuzzy wuzzy and grandfather goosey gander and bully the frog and the goldfish and let me see who else oh of course
the fairy prince alice would not have had him left out for anything
jimmie got ready too that is he put on a clean collar and a new red necktie and he looked very nice but he really didn't care much about the party he said he and the boys would go off by themselves and talk about baseball no said his mother
you must not do that i want you and the boys to entertain the little girls be nice now jimmie so jimmie said he would and pretty soon the company began to come
and would you believe me he never said a word about jimmie breaking his window that time we are very glad to see you said alice and lulu as they stood at the front door to receive their friends
aunt lettie the nice old lady goat was also there and as the guests came up she called out now girls walk right in the bedroom and put your things on the bed you boys take your things in jimmie's room
uncle wiggily was the last to arrive and you know why that was it was because his rheumatism hurt him so but he finally got there and then the party was complete that is all but the fairy prince and even the goldfish didn't know what had become of him
first the boys all stayed on one side of the room and the girls on the other but when alice said let's play spin the platter
jimmie was it part of the time and so was johnnie bushytail now let's play going to jerusalem proposed lulu and they did grandfather goosey gander whistling through his bill just like a fife to make the music
then they played blind duck bluff and post office and clap in clap out and forfeits and
oh yes there was one more puss in the corner and whom do you suppose was the puss why the little kittie lulu's little kittie you know that aunt lettie thought had come from the pussy willows when are we going to eat
asked bushytail after a while and he spoke out loud hush cried sister sallie you mustn't ask that billie it isn't polite
bless your heart exclaimed aunt lettie of course you do it must be time to serve the refreshments i'll go ask missus wibblewobble i don't want refreshments objected billie in a whisper to sister sallie i'm hungry and i want something to eat
oh said billie and just then in came mamma wibblewobble and aunt lettie and missus bushytail and missus littletail and nurse jane fuzzy wuzzy all of whom helped serve the good things to eat
hickorynut ice cream and chocolate covered carrots and cornmeal made into little balls with cocoanut marshmallow on the outside and candied cabbage leaves and water cress flavored with spearmint
when you have a party jimmie i'm coming to that too sure answered jimmie i'll have one next week if mamma will let me for you see he found he liked parties better than he thought he would well they played some more games including one called hide the peanut
and then it was time to go home and now comes the queer part of it just as they were all saying good night and uncle wiggily was looking for his crutch there sounded out in the woods three blasts from a silver trumpet ta ra ta ra ta ra
you know just like when the procession starts in a circus and who should come riding up to the ducks house but a little boy all dressed in silver and gold with a long white plume in his hat and he was on a white horse
once more the trumpet sounded and the boy called out am i too late for the party
what not the mud turtle fairy prince asked alice fanning herself so she wouldn't faint the very same answered the boy i got tired of being a mud turtle but i am still a fairy prince i don't believe it exclaimed uncle wiggily
you are only a little boy on a horse and not a fairy prince at all wait and you shall see cried the boy waving his hand and the silver trumpet blew again
and the horse reared up on his hind legs i certainly am the fairy prince and to prove it i will do something wonderful come to the woods to morrow uncle wiggily longears and see what will i see asked uncle wiggily
you will see a red fairy answered the boy who used to be mud turtle and the red fairy will do something wonderful for you oh cried uncle wiggily i don't believe in fairies but all the same he had to after what happened for he went back to the woods and met a red fairy
the rooster tries to swim grandfather goosey gander was quite lame the next day from having been caught in the brush pile and could not go very far away from the duck pen
he did manage to hobble around on the crutch which nurse jane fuzzy wuzzy made for him and he sat in a sunny corner reading the newspaper with his glasses which susie littletail found he was reading away as alice lulu and jimmie wibblewobble
were playing about on the edge of the pond and the little duck children made so much noise that the old grandfather could not understand what was in the papers can't you children play something quiet
he asked for papa and mamma wibblewobble had gone visiting and grandfather goosey gander was left to mind the house play some nice easy game he suggested let's play acorn tag said lulu all right you're it answered jimmie
so they each took an acorn which they found in the woods and put it in their bills then lulu had to chase after jimmie and alice and when she touched either one of them with her wing she had to call out
you can't run a little bit i've tagged you and now you're it yes that's what she had to call and she had to do it without letting the acorn fall out of her bill now if you think that's a very easy thing to do
just you try it that's all lulu didn't have much trouble putting her wing on jimmie or alice but every time she tried to call out the little verse the acorn would roll out of her bill
and then it was jimmie's turn well they played acorn tag for quite a while and when they got tired of that they all went in swimming they swam around in circles and criss crossed and went in squares and in triangles and all sorts of queer figures
including eight nine ten which are very difficult figures indeed for little ducks while they were swimming away having lots of fun and far enough off so that grandfather goosey gander could read his paper in peace
who should come down to the edge of the pond but the rooster his name was mister cock a doodle and he was very proud he walked right down to the edge of the water and looked at the ducks
then he crowed as loud as he could and flapped his wings just as if he were saying there i'd like to see any of you do that ha hum oh my yes indeed how do you do mister cock a doodle asked jimmie
ahem i am pretty well my young friend replied the rooster and how may you happen to be to day and how are your sisters lulu and alice wibblewobble
answered lulu and alice and lulu went on don't you wish you could swim mister doodle i can said the rooster and he strutted back and forth at the edge of the pond certainly i can swim what put the notion into your heads that i can't
we never saw you spoke jimmie ahem perhaps not you never saw me stand on one foot and jump over a barrel but that doesn't prove that i can't do it replied mister doodle i can swim if i choose i have never cared to that's all
try now suggested lulu for she didn't believe that rooster could swim no matter what he said oh the water is too cold to go swimming now said mister doodle i never swim in cold water
why it's as warm as warm can be declared alice and she splashed a few drops upon the rooster so he could feel it well er ahem the wind is blowing too much said the rooster when he felt the nice warm water why it doesn't blow at all answered jimmie
well i haven't my swimming shoes on objected mister cock a doodle i can't swim without them you ducks have pieces of skin between your toes so the water won't slip through but i haven't my webbed feet on
do you think you could swim then yes answered the rooster i think i could you see he had no more excuses to make oh wasn't he a tricky old rooster though eh so lulu and jimmie got some bits of cloth
and with long pieces of ribbon grass they bound the cloth on the rooster's claws so his feet looked something like a duck's now come on and we'll have a swimming race suggested jimmie
it won't hurt you the least bit mister doodle
for he only used one leg at a time then he got dizzy and went around the other way then he had to stop next he flapped his wings and splashed the water all over say i wish you could have seen him it was as good as a circus
he got his tail all wet and his back got all wet and as his feathers weren't the kind that water runs off from he was soon as soaked as your umbrella ever was that made him heavy and he began to sink oh how he splashed and spluttered around in that pond
he couldn't swim any more than my typewriter can
why he felt himself sinking more and more and more oh it was terrible save me oh save me mister doodle cried i am going down help me please help help help
then the duck children felt sorry and swam to him as fast as they could each one took hold of that poor rooster
he couldn't even crow nor flap his wings i thought you said you could swim spoke jimmie hush begged alice who was very kind hearted don't be casting up don't make him feel bad
i guess the water wasn't right for swimming to day and with that he walked off and hid himself in some leaves to get dry for he hadn't any towels at his house
who the fairy prince was mamma and papa wibblewobble were sitting in front of the duck pen talking with grandfather goosey gander and the big rooster
they were so busily engaged in conversation about the best way to serve cold corn meal mixed with water that when lulu asked her parents if she and jimmie and alice could go for a swim missus wibblewobble said yes my dear
but be careful you don't get wet now wasn't that a funny thing for a duck mamma to say to her little duck girl but mamma wibblewobble was absent minded so we must excuse her you see she thought lulu wanted to go for a walk in the woods
well it didn't much matter but i thought i would speak about it can we go asked jimmie when lulu came back yes she answered hurry now for we are going to see the fairy prince as the gold fish promised
i have explained am i swimming straight lulu i wouldn't for all the world have a fairy prince see me swimming crooked
i wish bully the frog was here he and i could have some fun
we are the only ones allowed to see the fairy prince it's a secret and he is quite bashful
or even the gold fish oh let's don't worry suggested alice worrying is one of the very worst things you can do especially when there is anything in it about a fairy don't you know that fairies are especially made not to worry
we will find our way somehow
can't we swim i don't believe much in this fairy business anyhow
only those who believe in fairies can see them i know for i've read lots of fairy stories you see alice was very much in earnest about this matter
the breeze blew just enough to make little ripples
the ducks liked it but still there was no sign of the fairy prince and the gold fish had not come to show them the way i don't believe we'll ever see any fairy prince said jimmie oh but the gold fish promised me
spoke lulu hush cried alice
we may meet the magical boat or the golden ball any minute and just then what should happen but that they heard a voice singing yes sir just as true as i'm telling you a voice singing
right down under the water and this is what it sang in silvery tones just like the little bell that tinkles on pussy's neck the fairy prince lies deep and dark waiting for the firefly's spark
if you wish to see him now follow me and make a bow and all at once who should appear but fan tail the gold fish
and when she saw the three duck children she asked did you hear me singing was that you asked lulu it was replied fan but why don't you do as i said
if you wish to see the fairy prince you must bow he always wants people to do that so lulu and jimmie bowed once and alice bowed three times
she said you must always do things by threes where fairies are concerned now follow me called the gold fish
while the water whispered to the green stems
and she pointed with her fin to a hole in the bank he will come out presently bow your prettiest well you can just imagine how excited the duck children were alice fairly trembled and even jimmie was interested
as they all bowed all ready now went on the gold fish behold the fairy prince behold behold and she made a booming noise under the water
just like the big bass drum when a man in the circus jumps over sixteen elephants and a quarter all at once
what should come out of that hole in the side of the bank just above the water what i say should come out of that hole now be careful take tight hold of the arms of the chair and hold your breaths so as not to be disappointed
what should come out of the hole but a big brownish black spotted with red and yellow wrinkle legged hard shelled sharp beaked mud turtle there now
did you well i'm awfully sorry but you know i'm not responsible i merely tell what happens
then the gold fish came quite close to them and whispered something
he says he's the fairy prince insists on it in fact and he has it engraved on his visiting cards but i have my doubts only i don't dare say so for you see i work for him run errands and the like of that
so far be it from me to say he is not a fairy prince i have however guided you to him behold the fairy prince and she called the last real loudly for the mud turtle was looking right at her
hush oh hush please begged alice of course he is a fairy prince they are always disguised like that always appearing as something different from what they really are you know
but of course he is a fairy prince then she bowed again three times and said fairy prince i salute thee fairy nothing grunted jimmie he is no more a fairy than i am then the mud turtle heard them talking
with his snaky neck and he came a little more out of the hole and said of course i am the fairy prince everybody knows that i've been a fairy prince for ever and ever so long
and then he sneezed just to show that though he was a fairy prince he was not proud
tell me and i will do it at once dost thou need three drops of magical water no answered the mud turtle
i am a fairy prince but i am satisfied with my shape as i am and i do not want to change i have always been this way and i always want to stay so please be so kind as to go away i want to eat my dinner
so they hurried away for the gold fish whispered that the mud turtle was always cross when he ate
but alice was not for she insisted that the mud turtle was really wonderful
i leave it to you but whatever you may think please don't be hasty take plenty of time perhaps you had better wait for the story to morrow night
as schoolmaster in tant sannie's household and he had grown mighty and more mighty day by day he visited the cabin no more sat close to tant sannie drinking coffee all the evening
and walked about loftily with his hands under the coat tails of the german's black cloth and failed to see even a nigger who wished him a deferential good morning it was therefore with no small surprise that the german perceived bonaparte's red nose at the door
walk in walk in he said joyfully
well none make a fire we have done supper but my dear friend said bonaparte taking off his hat i came not to sup not for mere creature comforts but for an hour of brotherly intercourse with a kindred spirit
the press of business and the weight of thought but they alone may sometimes prevent me from sharing the secrets of my bosom with him for whom i have so great a sympathy you perhaps wonder when i shall return the two pounds
said the german rubbing his hands and looking about not knowing how best to show his pleasure at the unexpected visit for three weeks the german's diffident good evening had met with a stately bow
the chin of bonaparte lifting itself higher daily and his shadow had not darkened the cabin doorway since he came to borrow the two pounds the german walked to the head of the bed and took down a blue bag that hung there
blue bags were a speciality of the german's he kept above fifty stowed away in different corners of his room some filled with curious stones some with seeds that had been in his possession fifteen years
in all a wonderful assortment but highly prized we have something here not so bad said the german smiling knowingly as he dived his hand into the bag and took out a handful of almonds and raisins
i buy these for my chickens they increase in size but they still think the old man must have something nice for them and the old man well a big boy may have a sweet tooth sometimes may he not
ha ha said the german chuckling at his own joke as he heaped the plate with almonds here is a stone two stones to crack them no late patent improvement well adam's nut cracker ha ha but i think we shall do
we will not leave them uncracked we will consume a few without fashionable improvements here the german sat down on one side of the table bonaparte on the other each one with a couple of flat stones before him and the plate between them
do not be afraid said the german do not be afraid i do not forget the boy at the fire i crack for him the bag is full why this is strange he said suddenly cracking upon a large nut three kernels
i have not observed that before this must be retained this is valuable he wrapped the nut gravely in paper and put it carefully in his waistcoat pocket valuable very valuable he said shaking his head
ah my friend said bonaparte what joy it is to be once more in your society the german's eyes glistened and bonaparte seized his hand and squeezed it warmly they then proceeded to crack and eat
after a while bonaparte said stuffing a handful of raisins into his mouth i was so deeply grieved my dear friend that you and tant sannie had some slight unpleasantness this evening oh no no said the german
a few sheep missing but i make it good myself i give my twelve sheep and work in the other eight
well said the german this is the case last evening i count the sheep at the kraal twenty are missing i ask the herd he tells me they are with the other flock he tells me so distinctly how can i think he lies
i come back here the herd is gone the sheep are gone but i cannot no i will not believe he stole them said the german growing suddenly excited some one else but not he i know that boy i knew him three years he is a good boy
i have seen him deeply affected on account of his soul and she would send the police after him i say i would rather make the loss good myself i will not have it he has fled in fear i know his heart
under my words that he first felt his need of a saviour bonaparte cracked some more almonds then said yawning and more as though he asked for the sake of having something to converse about than from any interest he felt in the subject
and what has become of the herd's wife the german was alight again in a moment yes his wife she has a child six days old and tant sannie would turn her out into the fields this night
that said the german rising that is what i call cruelty diabolical cruelty my soul abhors that deed the man that could do such a thing i could run him through with a knife said the german
his grey eyes flashing and his bushy black beard adding to the murderous fury of his aspect then suddenly subsiding he said but all is now well tant sannie gives her word that the maid shall remain for some days
i go to oom muller's tomorrow to learn if the sheep may not be there if they are not then i return they are gone that is all i make it good tant sannie is a singular woman said bonaparte taking the tobacco bag the german passed to him
singular yes said the german but her heart is on her right side i have lived long years with her and i may say i have for her an affection which she returns i may say added the german with warmth
ah my friend said bonaparte
do we not love the very worm we tread upon and as we tread upon it do we know distinctions of race or of sex or of colour no
after a time he sank into a less fervent mood and remarked the coloured female who waits upon tant sannie appears to be of a virtuous disposition an individual who virtuous said the german i have confidence in her
there is that in her which is pure that which is noble the rich and high that walk this earth with lofty eyelids might exchange with her the german here got up to bring a coal for bonaparte's pipe
and they sat together talking for a while at length bonaparte knocked the ashes out of his pipe it is time that i took my departure dear friend he said
but before i do so shall we not close this evening of sweet communion and brotherly intercourse by a few words of prayer oh how good and how pleasant a thing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity
it is like the dew upon the mountains of hermon for there the lord bestowed a blessing even life for evermore stay and drink some coffee said the german no thank you my friend i have business that must be done tonight said bonaparte
he is going to take the wagon to the mill tomorrow what a little man he is a fine boy but though the boy nodded before the fire he was not asleep and they all knelt down to pray
when they rose from their knees bonaparte extended his hand to waldo and patted him on the head
good night good bye the lord bless and guide you
he laid some emphasis on the last words and you my dear friend he added turning with redoubled warmth to the german long long shall i look back to this evening as a time of refreshing from the presence of the lord
as an hour of blessed intercourse with a brother in jesus may such often return the lord bless you he added with yet deeper fervour richly richly then he opened the door and vanished out into the darkness
as he stumbled over the stones if there isn't the rarest lot of fools on this farm that ever god almighty stuck legs to he he he when the worms come out then the blackbirds feed ha ha ha
then he drew himself up even when alone he liked to pose with a certain dignity it was second nature to him
immediately after breakfast camp was struck and accompanied by a few of the wa kamba
some three or four miles from its northern bank we had not gone very far before i caught sight of a fine waterbuck and successfully bowled him over a good omen for the day which put us all in excellent spirits
mabruki cut off several strips of the tough meat and impaled them on a sharp stick to dry in the sun as he went along i warned him that he had better be careful that a lion did not scent the meat as if it did it would be sure to follow up and kill him
of course i did not mean this seriously but mabruki was a great glutton and by no means courageous so i wanted to frighten him as we trudged along towards the hill
and on looking over the crest i was delighted to see two beautiful giraffe feeding peacefully a little distance away and straining their long necks to get at the tops of some mimosa like trees while a young one was lying down in the grass quite close to me
for some time i remained concealed watching the full grown pair with great interest they had evidently just come up from the river and were slowly making their way back to their home on the escarpment
they seemed on the most affectionate terms occasionally entwining their great long necks and gently biting each other on the shoulders much as i should have liked to have added a giraffe to my collection of trophies i left them undisturbed
as i think it a pity to shoot these rather rare and very harmless creatures unless one is required for a special purpose
we pushed on accordingly towards the escarpment for i was very impatient to get to the top and explore a place where i felt convinced no other white man had ever set foot
and of course the inevitable wait a bit thorns i was fortunate enough however to find a rhino path which afforded a fairly comfortable and open road on which we could walk upright the greater part of the way
the climb up the escarpment itself was a stiff one and had to be negotiated principally on all fours but on the way up i discovered that there was an enormous cleft some miles to the right which would probably have afforded an easier ascent
i had not time to explore it on this particular day but i made a mental note to do so on some future occasion after a two hours journey from the river we sat panting on the summit after our scramble
and surveyed the valley of the tsavo which lay spread out like a map about five hundred feet below us our home tents the bridge tsavo station and other buildings were plainly visible
and the railway itself like a shining snake could be seen for many miles winding its way through the parched wilderness
here i found the same kind of nyika as that round tsavo the only difference being that there were more green trees about the country moreover was somewhat more open and was intersected by hundreds of broad and well beaten animal paths
along which we could walk upright in comfort i was leading the way followed closely by mahina and mabruki when suddenly we almost walked upon a lion which was lying down at the side of the path and which had probably been asleep
it gave a fierce growl and at once bounded off through the bush but to mabruki who doubtless recalled then the warning i had given him in fun earlier in the day
the incident appeared so alarming that he flung down his stick load of meat and fled for his life
even the usually silent wa kamba joining in the general laughter as they scrambled for the discarded meat we saw nothing more of the lion though a few steps further on brought us to the remains of a zebra which he had recently killed and feasted on
but after this mabruki kept carefully in the rear curiously enough only a short while later we had an exactly similar adventure with a rhino as owing to the tortuous nature of the path we walked right into it before we were aware
like the lion however it was more frightened than we and charged away from us through the jungle for about two hours we pursued our journey into the plateau and saw and heard a wonderful variety of game including giraffe rhino
bush buck the lesser kudu zebra wart hog baboons and monkeys and any number of paa the last being of a redder colour than those of the tsavo valley of natives or of human habitations however
we saw no signs and indeed the whole region was so dry and waterless as to be quite uninhabitable the animals that require water have to make a nightly journey to and from the sabaki
which accounts for the thousands of animal paths leading from the plateau to the river by this time we were all beginning to feel very tired and the bhisti's stock of water was running low
i therefore climbed the highest tree i could find in order to have a good look round but absolutely nothing could i see in any direction but the same flat thorny wilderness interspersed here and there with a few green trees
a most hopeless terrible place should one be lost in it with certain death either by thirst or by savage beasts staring one in the face
clearly then the only thing to do was to return to the river and in order to accomplish this before dark it was necessary that no time should be lost
but we had been winding in and out so much through the animal paths that it was no easy matter to say in which direction the sabaki lay first i consulted my wa kamba followers as to the route back they simply shook their heads
then i asked mahina who pointed out a direction exactly opposite to that which i felt confident was the right one mabruki of course knew nothing but volunteered the helpful and cheering information that we were lost and would all be killed by lions
in these circumstances i confirmed my own idea as to our way by comparing my watch and the sun and gave the order to start at once
mabruki murmured loudly even mahina expressed grave doubts as to whether the sahib had taken the right direction only the wa kamba stalked along in reassuring silence
for some time we had been following a broad white rhino path and the great footmarks of one of these beasts were fresh and plainly visible in the dust he had been travelling in the opposite direction to us
and i felt sure that he must have been returning from drinking in the river i accordingly insisted on our keeping to this path and very soon to my great relief we found that we were at the edge of the escarpment a couple of miles away from the place where we had made the ascent
here a halt was called a sheet was spread over some of the stunted trees and under its shade we rested for half an hour had some food and drank the last of our water after this we pushed on with renewed vigour
and arrived at the sabaki in good time before sundown having bagged a couple of guinea fowl and a paa on the way to serve for dinner after the long and fatiguing day my bathe in a clear shady pool was a real delight
but i might not have enjoyed it quite so much if i had known then of the terrible fate which awaited one of my followers in the same river the next day by the time i got back to camp supper was ready and fully appreciated
the tireless mahina had also collected some dry grass for my bed and i turned in at once with my rifle handy and slept the sleep of the just regardless of all the wild beasts in africa
at dawn mabruki roused me with a cup of steaming hot coffee and some biscuits and a start was at once made on our return journey to tsavo the place where we had struck the sabaki the previous evening
was some miles further down the stream than i had ever been before so i decided to take advantage of the masai trail along its bank until the tsavo river was reached i did not think we should meet with any further adventure on our way home
but in the wilds the unexpected is always happening shortly after we started one of the wa kamba went down to the river's edge to fill his calabash with water when a crocodile suddenly rose up out of the stream seized the poor fellow and in a moment had dragged him in
but on hearing the cries of the others i ran back as quickly as possible too late however to see any sign of either crocodile or native mahina philosophically remarked that after all it was only a washenzi savage
whose loss did not much matter and the other three wa kamba certainly did not appear to be affected by the incident but calmly possessed themselves of their dead companion's bow and quiver of poisoned arrows and of the stock of meat which he had left on the bank
i have since learned that accidents of this kind are of fairly frequent occurrence along the banks of these rivers on one occasion while i was in the country a british officer had a very lucky escape
he was filling his water bottle at the river when one of these brutes caught him by the hand and attempted to draw him in fortunately one of his servants rushed to his assistance and managed to pull him out of the crocodile's clutches with the loss only of two of his fingers
as we made our way up the sabaki we discovered a beautiful waterfall about a hundred and fifty feet high not a sheer drop but a series of cascades
at this time the river was in low water and the falls consequently did not look their best but in flood time they form a fine sight and the thunder of the falling water can then be plainly heard at tsavo over seven miles away when the wind is in the right direction
bonaparte blenkins makes his nest ah what is the matter asked waldo stopping at the foot of the ladder with a load of skins on his back that he was carrying up to the loft
through the open door in the gable little em was visible her feet dangling from the high bench on which she sat the room
the back being bonaparte's bedroom the front his schoolroom lyndall made him angry said the girl tearfully and he has given me the fourteenth of john to learn he says he will teach me to behave myself when lyndall troubles him
what did she do asked the boy
today she asked him what the signs of the zodiac were and he said he was surprised that she should ask him it was not a fit and proper thing for little girls to talk about then she asked him who copernicus was
and he said he was one of the emperors of rome who burned the christians in a golden pig and the worms ate him up while he was still alive i don't know why said em plaintively
but she just put her books under her arm and walked out and she will never come to his school again she says and she always does what she says and now i must sit here every day alone said em the great tears dropping softly
perhaps tant sannie will send him away said the boy in his mumbling way trying to comfort her no said em shaking her head no last night when the little hottentot maid was washing her feet
he told her he liked such feet and that fat women were so nice to him
no he'll never go away said em dolorously the boy put down his skins and fumbled in his pocket and produced a small piece of paper containing something
there take it for you he said this was by way of comfort em opened it and found a small bit of gum a commodity prized by the children but the great tears dropped down slowly on to it waldo was distressed
he had cried so much in his morsel of life that tears in another seemed to burn him if he said stepping in awkwardly and standing by the table if you will not cry i will tell you something a secret what is that
asked em instantly becoming decidedly better you will tell it to no human being no he bent nearer to her and with deep solemnity said i have made a machine em opened her eyes
said the boy there is only one thing that is not right yet but it will be soon when you think and think and think all night and all day it comes at last he added mysteriously where is it here
i always carry it here said the boy putting his hand to his breast where a bulging out was visible this is a model when it is done they will have to make a large one show it me the boy shook his head no not till it is done
i cannot let any human being see it till then it is a beautiful secret said em and the boy shuffled out to pick up his skins that evening father and son sat in the cabin eating their supper
the father sighed deeply sometimes perhaps he thought how long a time it was since bonaparte had visited the cabin but his son was in that land in which sighs have no part
it is a question whether it were not better to be the shabbiest of fools and know the way up the little stair of imagination to the land of dreams than the wisest of men who see nothing that the eyes do not show and feel nothing that the hands do not touch
the boy chewed his brown bread and drank his coffee but in truth he saw only his machine finished that last something found out and added he saw it as it worked with beautiful smoothness
and over and above as he chewed his bread and drank his coffee there was that delightful consciousness of something bending over him and loving him it would not have been better in one of the courts of heaven
than there eating his supper in that little room as they sat in silence there was a knock at the door
she was a messenger from tant sannie the german was wanted at once at the homestead putting on his hat with both hands he hurried off the kitchen was in darkness but in the pantry beyond tant sannie and her maids were assembled
a kaffer girl who had been grinding pepper between two stones knelt on the floor the lean hottentot stood with a brass candlestick in her hand and tant sannie near the shelf with a hand on each hip
was evidently listening intently as were her companions
the room beyond the pantry was the storeroom through the thin wooden partition there arose at that instant evidently from some creature ensconced there a prolonged and prodigious howl
the german seized the churn stick and was about to rush round the house when the boer woman impressively laid her hand upon his arm that is his head
said tant sannie at last
it would not be the thing for me to go alone
said tant sannie blushing and smoothing out her apron upon this they all trudged round the house in company the hottentot maid carrying the light tant sannie and the german following and the kaffer girl bringing up the rear
oh said tant sannie i see now it wasn't wickedness made him do without his wife so long only necessity at the door she motioned to the german to enter and followed him closely
on the stretcher behind the sacks bonaparte lay on his face his head pressed into a pillow his legs kicking gently
the german stood with folded hands looking on we must all die said tant sannie at last it is the dear lord's will hearing her voice bonaparte turned himself on to his back
said tant sannie i know for i've lost two husbands bonaparte looked up into the german's face oh what does she say
the german repeated tant sannie's remark
cried bonaparte flinging himself back upon the bed he howled till the tarantulas who lived between the rafters and the zinc roof felt the unusual vibration and looked out with their wicked bright eyes to see what was going on
tant sannie sighed the hottentot maid sighed the kaffer girl who looked in at the door put her hand over her mouth and said
you must trust in the lord said tant sannie he can give you more than you have lost i do i do he cried but oh i have no wife i have no wife tant sannie was much affected and came and stood near the bed
nice fine flour pap there is some boiling on the kitchen fire the german made the proposal but the widower waved his hand no nothing shall pass my lips
bonaparte caught the word perhaps perhaps if i struggled with myself for the sake of my duties i might imbibe a few drops he said
i must do my duty must i not tant sannie gave the order and the girl went for the pap i know how it was when my first husband died they could do nothing with me the boer woman said
till i had eaten a sheep's trotter and honey and a little roaster cake i know bonaparte sat up on the bed with his legs stretched out in front of him and a hand on each knee blubbering softly oh she was a woman
you are very kind to try and comfort me but she was my wife for a woman that is my wife i could live for the woman that is my wife i could die
ah that sweet word wife when will it rest upon my lips again when his feelings had subsided a little he raised the corners of his turned down mouth and spoke to the german with flabby lips
do you think she understands me oh tell her every word that she may know i thank her at that instant the girl reappeared with a basin of steaming gruel and a black bottle
tant sannie poured some of its contents into the basin stirred it well and came to the bed oh i can't i can't i shall die i shall die said bonaparte putting his hands to his side
just a drop it's too thick it's too thick i should choke tant sannie added from the contents of the bottle and held out a spoonful bonaparte opened his mouth like a little bird waiting for a worm and held it open
as she dipped again and again into the pap ah this will do your heart good said tant sannie in whose mind the relative functions of heart and stomach were exceedingly ill defined
when the basin was emptied the violence of his grief was much assuaged he looked at tant sannie with gentle tears tell him said the boer woman
bless you dear friend god bless you said bonaparte when the door was safely shut on the german the hottentot and the dutchwoman he got off the bed and washed away the soap he had rubbed on his eyelids bon
he said slapping his leg you're the cutest lad i ever came across if you don't turn out the old hymns and prayers and pummel the ragged coat and get your arms round the fat one's waist and a wedding ring on her finger
then you are not bonaparte but you are bonaparte bon you're a fine boy
the first and rightful lover with his long rapid strides mitya walked straight up to the table gentlemen he said in a loud voice
yet stammering at every word i i'm all right don't be afraid he exclaimed i there's nothing the matter he turned suddenly to grushenka who had shrunk back in her chair towards kalganov and
so he finished turning to the fat little man with the pipe sitting on the sofa the latter removed his pipe from his lips with dignity and observed severely
we're here in private there are other rooms
why it's you dmitri fyodorovitch what do you mean answered kalganov suddenly sit down with us how are you
delighted to see you dear and precious fellow i always thought a lot of you mitya responded joyfully and eagerly at once holding out his hand across the table aie how tight you squeeze
you've quite broken my fingers laughed kalganov he always squeezes like that always grushenka put in gayly with a timid smile seeming suddenly convinced from mitya's face that he was not going to make a scene
she was watching him with intense curiosity and still some uneasiness she was impressed by something about him and indeed the last thing she expected of him was that he would come in and speak like this at such a moment
good evening maximov ventured blandly on the left mitya rushed up to him too good evening you're here too how glad i am to find you here too
in this very room where i too adored my queen
i flew here and vowed oh don't be afraid it's my last night let's drink to our good understanding they'll bring the wine at once i brought this with me something made him pull out his bundle of notes allow me panie
i want to have music singing a revel as we had before but the worm the unnecessary worm will crawl away and there'll be no more of him i will commemorate my day of joy on my last night
he was almost choking there was so much so much he wanted to say but strange exclamations were all that came from his lips the pole gazed fixedly at him at the bundle of notes in his hand looked at grushenka
i can't help laughing at you the way you talk sit down mitya what are you talking about don't frighten us please you won't frighten us will you if you won't i am glad to see you
flinging up his hands oh pass me by go your way i won't hinder you and suddenly he surprised them all and no doubt himself as well by flinging himself on a chair and bursting into tears
turning his head away to the opposite wall while his arms clasped the back of the chair tight as though embracing it come come what a fellow you are cried grushenka reproachfully that's just how he comes to see me
he begins talking and i can't make out what he means he cried like that once before and now he's crying again
as though you had anything to cry for she added enigmatically emphasizing each word with some irritability i i'm not crying well good evening
he instantly turned round in his chair and suddenly laughed not his abrupt wooden laugh but a long quivering inaudible nervous laugh well there you are again come cheer up cheer up grushenka said to him persuasively
i wish it i wish it and if he goes away i shall go too she added with flashing eyes
he added politely addressing mitya
every one laughed good heavens i thought he was going to begin again grushenka exclaimed nervously do you hear mitya she went on insistently don't prance about but it's nice you've brought the champagne i want some myself
and i can't bear liqueurs and best of all you've come yourself we were fearfully dull here you've come for a spree again i suppose but put your money in your pocket where did you get such a lot
were fixed in confusion he thrust them hurriedly into his pocket he flushed at that moment the innkeeper brought in an uncorked bottle of champagne and glasses on a tray
mitya snatched up the bottle but he was so bewildered that he did not know what to do with it kalganov took it from him and poured out the champagne another another bottle mitya cried to the innkeeper
he drank off his glass without waiting for any one else his whole countenance suddenly changed the solemn and tragic expression with which he had entered vanished completely and a look of something childlike came into his face
he seemed to have become suddenly gentle and subdued he looked shyly and happily at every one with a continual nervous little laugh and the blissful expression of a dog who has done wrong been punished and forgiven
he seemed to have forgotten everything and was looking round at every one with a childlike smile of delight he looked at grushenka laughing continually and bringing his chair close up to her
though he had formed no definite conception of them yet the pole on the sofa struck him by his dignified demeanor and his polish accent and above all by his pipe well what of it
it's a good thing he's smoking a pipe he reflected the pole's puffy middle aged face with its tiny nose and two very thin pointed dyed and impudent looking mustaches had not so far roused the faintest doubts in mitya
with love locks foolishly combed forward over the temples i suppose it's all right since he wears a wig he went on musing blissfully
the other younger pole who was staring insolently and defiantly at the company and listening to the conversation with silent contempt still only impressed mitya by his great height which was in striking contrast to the pole on the sofa
in his mood of doglike submissiveness all feeling of rivalry had died away grushenka's mood and the enigmatic tone of some of her words he completely failed to grasp
all he understood with thrilling heart was that she was kind to him that she had forgiven him and made him sit by her he was beside himself with delight watching her sip her glass of champagne the silence of the company seemed somehow to strike him however
as though divining his thought and pointing to maximov mitya immediately stared at kalganov and then at maximov he's talking nonsense he laughed his short wooden laugh seeming suddenly delighted at something ha ha
yes would you believe it he will have it that all our cavalry officers in the twenties married polish women that's awful rot isn't it polish women repeated mitya perfectly ecstatic
kalganov was well aware of mitya's attitude to grushenka and he guessed about the pole too but that did not so much interest him perhaps did not interest him at all what he was interested in was maximov
he had come here with maximov by chance and he met the poles here at the inn for the first time in his life grushenka he knew before and had once been with some one to see her but she had not taken to him
but here she looked at him very affectionately before mitya's arrival she had been making much of him but he seemed somehow to be unmoved by it he was a boy not over twenty dressed like a dandy
with a very charming fair skinned face and splendid thick fair hair from his fair face looked out beautiful pale blue eyes with an intelligent and sometimes even deep expression beyond his age indeed
although the young man sometimes looked and talked quite like a child
at other times he would grow excited sometimes apparently over the most trivial matters only imagine i've been taking him about with me for the last four days he went on indolently drawling his words quite naturally
though without the slightest affectation ever since your brother do you remember shoved him off the carriage and sent him flying
and i took him into the country but he keeps talking such rot i'm ashamed to be with him i'm taking him back the gentleman has not seen polish ladies and says what is impossible
the pole with the pipe observed to maximov he spoke russian fairly well much better anyway than he pretended if he used russian words he always distorted them into a polish form but i was married to a polish lady myself tittered maximov
but did you serve in the cavalry
were you a cavalry officer put in kalganov at once was he a cavalry officer indeed ha ha cried mitya listening eagerly and turning his inquiring eyes to each as he spoke as though there were no knowing
what he might hear from each no you see maximov turned to him what i mean is that those pretty polish ladies when they danced the mazurka with our uhlans when one of them dances a mazurka with a uhlan she jumps on his knee like a kitten
a little white one and the pan father and pan mother look on and allow it they allow it and next day the uhlan comes and offers her his hand
maximov ended tittering the pan is a lajdak
the tall pole on the chair growled suddenly and crossed one leg over the other mitya's eye was caught by his huge greased boot with its thick dirty sole the dress of both the poles looked rather greasy
well now it's lajdak what's he scolding about said grushenka suddenly vexed pani agrippina
i'm not hindering them pani said the pole in the wig with a long look at grushenka and relapsing into dignified silence he sucked his pipe again no no the polish gentleman spoke the truth kalganov got excited again
he's never been in poland so how can he talk about it i suppose you weren't married in poland were you no in the province of smolensk only a uhlan had brought her to russia before that
my future wife with her mamma and her aunt and another female relation with a grown up son he brought her straight from poland and gave her up to me he was a lieutenant in our regiment a very nice young man at first he meant to marry her himself
but he didn't marry her because she turned out to be lame
yes they both deceived me a little bit at the time and concealed it i thought she was hopping she kept hopping i thought it was for fun
yes so pleased but it turned out to be quite a different cause afterwards when we were married after the wedding that very evening she confessed and very touchingly asked forgiveness
i once jumped over a puddle when i was a child she said and injured my leg he he kalganov went off into the most childish laughter almost falling on the sofa
grushenka too laughed mitya was at the pinnacle of happiness do you know that's the truth he's not lying now exclaimed kalganov turning to mitya
and what was worse she'd had all my little property transferred to her beforehand you're an educated man she said to me you can always get your living she settled my business with that
don't you think so some people are low from self interest but he's simply so from nature only fancy he claims he was arguing about it all the way yesterday that gogol wrote dead souls about him do you remember
there's a landowner called maximov in it whom nozdryov thrashed he was charged do you remember for inflicting bodily injury with rods on the landowner maximov in a drunken condition
tchitchikov made his journey at the very latest at the beginning of the twenties so that the dates don't fit
he couldn't could he it was difficult to imagine what kalganov was excited about but his excitement was genuine
well but if they did thrash him he cried laughing it's not that they thrashed me exactly but what i mean is put in maximov what do you mean either they thrashed you or they didn't
the other shrugged his shoulders in reply neither of them had a watch why not talk let other people talk mustn't other people talk because you're bored grushenka flew at him with evident intention of finding fault
this time the pole answered with unmistakable irritability pani i didn't oppose it i didn't say anything all right then come tell us your story grushenka cried to maximov why are you all silent
there's nothing to tell it's all so foolish answered maximov at once with evident satisfaction mincing a little
besides all that's by way of allegory in gogol for he's made all the names have a meaning nozdryov was really called nosov and kuvshinikov had quite a different name
fenardi really was called fenardi only he wasn't an italian but a russian
and she kept turning round and round only not for four hours but for four minutes only and she bewitched every one but what were you beaten for cried kalganov
answered maximov what piron
the famous french writer piron we were all drinking then a big party of us in a tavern at that very fair they'd invited me and first of all i began quoting epigrams is that you boileau what a funny get up
and boileau answers that he's going to a masquerade that is to the baths he he and they took it to themselves so i made haste to repeat another very sarcastic well known to all educated people
but one grief is weighing on me
they were still more offended and began abusing me in the most unseemly way for it and as ill luck would have it to set things right i began telling a very cultivated anecdote about piron
how he was not accepted into the french academy and to revenge himself wrote his own epitaph
they seized me and thrashed me
for my education people can thrash a man for anything
i thought it would be amusing grushenka cut them short suddenly mitya started and at once left off laughing the tall pole rose upon his feet
began pacing from corner to corner of the room his hands behind his back ah he can't sit still said grushenka looking at him contemptuously mitya began to feel anxious he noticed
besides that the pole on the sofa was looking at him with an irritable expression
in a flash he had pulled three glasses towards him and filled them with champagne to poland panovie i drink to your poland cried mitya i shall be delighted panie said the pole on the sofa with dignity and affable condescension
and he took his glass and the other pan what's his name drink most illustrious take your glass mitya urged pan vrublevsky put in the pole on the sofa
came up to the table swaying as he walked
all three drank mitya seized the bottle and again poured out three glasses
and let us be brothers pour out some for us said grushenka i'll drink to russia too
and i would too to russia the old grandmother tittered maximov all all cried mitya trifon borissovitch some more bottles the other three bottles mitya had brought with him were put on the table
mitya filled the glasses to russia hurrah he shouted again
and said with a resonant voice to russia as she was before seventeen seventy two come that's better cried the other pole and they both emptied their glasses at once
pan vrublevsky was specially furious can one help loving one's own country he shouted be silent don't quarrel i won't have any quarreling cried grushenka imperiously and she stamped her foot on the floor
her face glowed her eyes were shining the effects of the glass she had just drunk were apparent mitya was terribly alarmed
all were silent looking at one another gentlemen i was the cause of it all mitya began again unable to make anything of grushenka's words come why are we sitting here
what shall we do to amuse ourselves again ach it's certainly anything but amusing
let's play faro again as we did just now maximov tittered suddenly
the pole on the sofa responded as it were unwillingly that's true assented pan vrublevsky lite
late pani a late hour i mean the pole on the sofa explained it's always late with them they can never do anything grushenka almost shrieked in her anger
i'm ready panie added he addressing mitya
i want to lose a lot to you take your cards make the bank we'll have cards from the landlord panie said the little pole gravely and emphatically that's much the best way chimed in pan vrublevsky
from the landlord very good i understand let's get them from him cards
the landlord brought in a new unopened pack and informed mitya that the girls were getting ready and that the jews with the cymbals would most likely be here soon but the cart with the provisions had not yet arrived
mitya jumped up from the table and ran into the next room to give orders but only three girls had arrived and marya was not there yet and he did not know himself what orders to give and why he had run out
he only told them to take out of the box the presents for the girls the sweets the toffee and the fondants
i was rude to andrey suddenly maximov who had followed him out touched him on the shoulder give me five roubles he whispered to mitya i'll stake something at faro too he he capital splendid take ten here
they looked much more amiable almost cordial
gentlemen cried pan vrublevsky
i've lost fifty roubles to them just now the pan had no luck perhaps he'll be lucky this time the pole on the sofa observed in his direction how much in the bank to correspond asked mitya
the pan captain has heard of pan podvysotsky perhaps what podvysotsky in warsaw there was a bank and any one comes and stakes against it podvysotsky comes
so much the better the banker throws the dice podvysotsky wins
and pulling out the drawer he gives him a million
there was a million in the bank i didn't know that says podvysotsky panie podvysotsky said the banker you pledged your honor and we pledged ours podvysotsky took the million that's not true said kalganov
panie kalganov in gentlemanly society one doesn't say such things
you see how i talk polish ha ha here i stake ten roubles the knave leads and i put a rouble on the queen the queen of hearts the pretty little panienotchka
and as though trying to conceal it from every one he moved right up and crossed himself hurriedly under the table mitya won the rouble won too a corner cried mitya
i'll bet another rouble a single stake maximov muttered gleefully hugely delighted at having won a rouble lost
double double mitya doubled his stakes and each time he doubled the stake the card he doubled was trumped by the poles the rouble stakes kept winning
you've lost two hundred panie will you stake another hundred
what lost two hundred already then another two hundred all doubles and pulling his money out of his pocket mitya was about to fling two hundred roubles on the queen but kalganov covered it with his hand
that's enough he shouted in his ringing voice what's the matter mitya stared at him that's enough i don't want you to play any more don't why because i don't hang it
come away that's why i won't let you go on playing mitya gazed at him in astonishment
with a curious note in her voice both the poles rose from their seats with a deeply offended air
how dare you pan vrublevsky too growled at kalganov don't dare to shout like that cried grushenka ah you turkey cocks mitya looked at each of them in turn
but something in grushenka's face suddenly struck him and at the same instant something new flashed into his mind a strange new thought pani agrippina the little pole was beginning crimson with anger
in the next room i've two words to say to you something pleasant very pleasant you'll be glad to hear it the little pan was taken aback and looked apprehensively at mitya
he agreed at once however on condition that pan vrublevsky went with them the bodyguard let him come and i want him too
we'll be back in one moment answered mitya there was a sort of boldness a sudden confidence shining in his eyes his face had looked very different when he entered the room an hour before
the small man and mitya sat down to this table facing each other while the huge vrublevsky stood beside them his hands behind his back the poles looked severe but were evidently inquisitive
well look here panie i won't keep you long there's money for you he pulled out his notes would you like three thousand take it and go your way the pole gazed open eyed at mitya with a searching look
take three thousand and go to the devil and vrublevsky with you d'you hear but at once this very minute and for ever
here's the door you go out of it what have you got there a great coat a fur coat i'll bring it out to you they'll get the horses out directly
five hundred roubles i'll give you this moment for the journey and as a first installment and two thousand five hundred to morrow in the town i swear on my honor i'll get it i'll get it at any cost cried mitya
the poles exchanged glances again the short man's face looked more forbidding seven hundred seven hundred not five hundred at once this minute cash down
feeling something wrong what's the matter panie don't you trust me i can't give you the whole three thousand straight off if i give it you may come back to her to morrow besides i haven't the three thousand with me i've got it at home in the town
faltered mitya his spirit sinking at every word he uttered upon my word the money's there hidden in an instant an extraordinary sense of personal dignity showed itself in the little man's face
what next he asked ironically for shame and he spat on the floor
said mitya recognizing with despair that all was over because you hope to make more out of grushenka you're a couple of capons that's what you are this is a mortal insult the little pole turned as red as a crab
and he went out of the room briskly as though unwilling to hear another word vrublevsky swung out after him and mitya followed confused and crestfallen he was afraid of grushenka
afraid that the pan would at once raise an outcry and so indeed he did the pole walked into the room and threw himself in a theatrical attitude before grushenka pani agrippina
i have received a mortal insult he exclaimed but grushenka suddenly lost all patience as though they had wounded her in the tenderest spot speak russian speak russian she cried not another word of polish
you used to talk russian you can't have forgotten it in five years she was red with passion pani agrippina my name's agrafena grushenka
speak russian or i won't listen the pole gasped with offended dignity and quickly and pompously delivered himself in broken russian pani agrafena
i came here to forget the past and forgive it to forget all that has happened till to day
came here to forgive me grushenka cut him short jumping up from her seat just so pani i'm not pusillanimous i'm magnanimous
when i saw your lovers pan mitya offered me three thousand in the other room to depart i spat in the pan's face what he offered you money for me cried grushenka hysterically is it true mitya how dare you
am i for sale
it wasn't virtue kept me pure and it wasn't that i was afraid of kuzma but that i might hold up my head when i met him and tell him he's a scoundrel
and i could only give him seven hundred straight off i see he heard i had money and came here to marry me pani agrippina cried the little pole i'm a knight i'm a nobleman and not a lajdak
i came here to make you my wife and i find you a different woman perverse and shameless oh go back where you came from
i've been a fool a fool to have been miserable these five years and it wasn't for his sake it was my anger made me miserable and this isn't he at all was he like this it might be his father where did you get your wig from
damned fool abject shameless i was she sank back in her low chair and hid her face in her hands at that instant the chorus of mokroe began singing in the room on the left a rollicking dance song
landlord send the shameless hussies away
d'you want to split your throat he said addressing vrublevsky with surprising rudeness animal bellowed pan vrublevsky animal and what sort of cards were you playing with just now
i gave you a pack and you hid it you played with marked cards i could send you to siberia for playing with false cards d'you know that for it's just the same as false banknotes
and pulled out an unopened pack of cards here's my pack unopened
from where i stood i saw him slip my pack away and put his in place of it you're a cheat and not a gentleman and i twice saw the pan change a card cried kalganov
how shameful how shameful exclaimed grushenka clasping her hands and blushing for genuine shame good lord he's come to that i thought so too said mitya
and in one instant had carried him into the room on the right from which they had just come i've laid him on the floor there he announced returning at once gasping with excitement he's struggling the scoundrel but he won't come back
i don't want my two hundred either cried mitya i wouldn't take it for anything let him keep it as a consolation
and there was a note of fierce anger in the exclamation the little pan crimson with fury but still mindful of his dignity was making for the door but he stopped short and said suddenly addressing grushenka pani
come if not good by and swelling with indignation and importance he went to the door this was a man of character
he had so good an opinion of himself that after all that had passed he still expected that she would marry him
chapter twelve contemporary strong people charles jefferson louis cyr john grun marx
the nail king the human claw hammer
mexican billy wells a foolhardy italian wilson herman sampson sandow yucca la blanche lulu hurst
mattie lee price the twilight of the freaks
feats of strength have always interested me greatly
the one among these who deserves first mention is charles jefferson with whose achievements i became quite familiar while we were working in the same museum many years ago
i am convinced that he must have been the strongest man of his time at lifting with the bare hands alone he had two feats that he challenged any mortal to duplicate
one was picking up a heavy blacksmith's anvil by the horn and placing it on a kitchen table for the other he had a block of steel which as near as i can remember must have been about fourteen inches long
twelve inches wide and seven inches thick this block lay on the floor and his challenge was for anyone to pick it up with bare hands i noticed that it required unusually long fingers to grasp it
since one could get only the thumb on one side though thousands tried i never saw or heard of anyone else who could juggle his anvil or pick up the weight true
i saw him surreptitiously rub his fingers with resin to assist in the gripping but that could have been only of slight assistance to the marvelous grip the man possessed
it is generally conceded that louis cyr was in his best days the strongest man in the known world at all round straight lifting cyr did not give the impression of being an athlete
for he appeared to be over fat and not particularly muscular but he made records in lifting which to the best of my knowledge no other man has been able to duplicate john grun marx a luxemberger
must have been among the strongest men in the world at the time i knew him we worked on the same bill several times but it was at the olympia in paris that he shone supreme as a strongman and at the same time as a weak one
for in spite of his sovereign strength mars was no match for a pair of bright eyes all a pretty woman had to do was to smile and john would wilt and paris was paris marx's strength was prodigious
and he juggled hundreds and toyed with thousands of pounds as a child plays with a rattle he must have weighed in the neighborhood of three hundred pounds and he walked like a veritable colossus in fact he reminded me of a two footed baby elephant
always good natured he made a host of friends both in the profession and out of it after years of professional work he settled down as landlord of a public house in england
he did not realize that he was bereft of his enormous strength and those about him humored him
he died almost forgotten except by his brother artists but they myself among them built a monument to this good natured hercules whose only care was to entertain
one whom i found most interesting was william le roy known as the nail king
whose act appealed to me for its originality
le roy was born in cincinnati ohio october third eighteen seventy three
the inordinate strength of his jaws teeth and neck enabled him to push a nail held between his teeth through a one inch board or to nail together with his teeth two three quarters inch boards
he could draw with his teeth a large nail that had been driven completely through a two inch plank then he would screw an ordinary two inch screw into a hardwood plank with his teeth pull it out with his teeth
who could pull it out with a large pair of pincers which he proffered for the purpose when he had performed these stunts in various positions he would bend his body backward till his head pointed toward the floor
and in that position push a nail through a one inch board held perpendicularly in a metal frame i saw no chance for trickery in le roy's act
who either by superior strength or by a peculiar knack
and drive it through a one inch board
boasting that he was one of the few really expert sleight of hand magicians of the world i met weyer at liege belgium where we had an all night match with playing cards
he could duplicate the tricks on this occasion however he was unable to make the boast good another clever performer of those days was mexican billy wells who worked on the curio platform
his act was the old stone breaking stunt already explained except that he had the stones broken on his head instead of on his body he protected his head with a small blanket which he passed for examination
and this protection seemed excusable considering that he had to do at least seven shows a day a strong man from the audience did the real work of the act by swinging the heavy sledge hammer on the stone as shown in the accompanying illustration
but if it was not wells would yell harder harder hit harder until the stone was broken the last i saw of billy was during one of my engagements at the palace theater new york
he was then soliciting orders for some photograph firm the halcyon days of his big money having faded to a memory but he had been a good showman and his was one of the best liked working acts in the curio as the dime museum profession was called
of all the acts of this nature that i have ever seen i think the most foolhardy was that of an under sized italian who lay on his back on the floor and let fall from his hands extended upward at arm's length
heavy weights upon his chest the silly fool i said as much to him and some other things too his act had little entertainment to show as compared with the pain and danger involved i do not know what became of him
but i can guess among the museum attractions of those years was a man named wilson who had the incredible chest expansion of twenty one inches
this man would allow a strong leather strap about the size of a trunk strap to be buckled round his chest and then inflating his lungs would break it with very little apparent exertion
although his expansion was only about sixteen inches
another samson a german among other sensational feats such as breaking coins with his fingers used to flex his muscles and break a dog chain that had been fastened round the biceps of his right arm
while he was performing at the aquarium in london he issued a challenge sandow then a youth without reputation accepted the challenge went upon the stage defeated him and since samson's act had been the talk of the town
thus brought himself into instant notice the beginning of a career in which he rose to the top of his profession after several successful years on the stage sandow settled down in london
where i last heard of him as conducting a school of instruction in health and strength methods
i recall two strong women who were notably good yucca who lifted a horse by means of a harness over the shoulders and la blanche who toyed with heavy articles in a most entertaining way
i remember these ladies particularly because both were remarkably good talkers
lulu hurst known variously as the georgia magnet the electric girl
created a veritable sensation a generation ago by a series of feats
her methods consisted in utilizing the principles of the lever and fulcrum in a manner so cleverly disguised that it appeared to the audience that some supernatural power must be at work although she was exposed many times
her success was so marked that several other muscular ladies entered her province with acts that were in several instances superior to the original one of the cleverest of these was annie abbott who if i remember rightly
also called herself the georgia magnet she took the act to england and her opening performance at the alhambra
of those days the second sensation was credited to the bullet proof man this chap wore a jacket that rifle bullets fired point blank failed to penetrate the composition of this jacket was a secret
but after the owner's death the garment was ripped open and found to contain ground glass
the magnet failed to attract after about forty eight hours for a keen witted reporter discovered her methods and promptly published them the bullet detainer also lasted only a short time only
when my opening added a third sensational surprise one of the london dailies asked
that they were gunning for me is proved by the fact that the same newspaper investigator who exposed the magnet came upon the stage of the alhambra at my press performance the same stage where the unhappy dixie lode stone had collapsed and though he
brought along an antique slave iron which he seemed to think would put an end to my public career on the spot i managed to escape in less than three minutes when i passed back his irons he grinned at me and said
and he shook me cordially by the hand some twenty six years ago i was on the bill with mattie lee price who though less well known was in many ways superior to either miss hurst or miss abbott
for a time she was a sensation of the highest order for which thanks were largely due to the management of her husband a wonderful lecturer and a thorough showman i think his name was white
we worked together at kohl and middleton's chicago and the following week at burton's museum milwaukee but when we made the next jump i found that white was not along they had had a family squabble
the other apex of the triangle being a circus grafter who shibbolethed at some of the brace games
he had interfered between the couple and was i am sorry to say quite successful as an interferer but he was a diabolical failure when he attempted to duplicate white's work as lecturer
lately i have learned that she died in london in nineteen hundred and is buried in clements cemetery fulham this was one of the most positive demonstrations i have ever seen
miss price was a marvelous performer but without her husband lecturer she was no longer a drawing card and dropped to the level of an ordinary entertainer even lower
in chapter eleven we read doctor desaguliers analysis of the mechanics of what may be called strongmanship similar investigations have attended the appearance of more recent performers for instance
reviewing one of lulu hurst's performances the new york times of july thirteenth eighteen eighty four said the phenomenon of the nineteenth century which may be seen nightly at wallack's
is not so much the famous georgia girl with her mysterious muscle as is the audience which gathers to wonder at her performance it is a phenomenon of stupidity
cheerful asininity they will help on their deceivers then follows a description of her performance which was far from successful thanks to the efforts of one of the committee a man described as mister thomas johnson
a powerfully built engraver connected with the century magazine mister johnson had evidently caught her secret
a disclosure of the methods employed in a few of her tests
the same general principles shown here being used throughout her performance these explanations are taken from the french periodical la nature
in which mister nelson w perry thus sums up the attitude of the public in regard to this class of performance electricity is a mysterious agent therefore everything mysterious is electric
of the performance of the electric girl this magazine says it is a question of a simple application of the elementary principles of the laws of mechanics chapter of equilibrium
we propose to point out here a certain number of such artifices
the data furnished by mister perry as well as those resulting from our own observations one of the experiments consists in having a man or several men
the girl forces back two or three men who in unstable equilibrium and under the oblique action of the thrust exerted are obliged to fall back this first experiment is so elementary and infantile
that it is not necessary to dwell upon it in order to show the relative sizes of the persons the artist has supposed the little girl to be standing on a platform in the first experiment
but in the experiment that we witnessed this platform was rendered useless by the fact that the girl who performed them was of sufficient height to reach the cue by extending her arms and standing on tiptoes
next we have a second and more complex experiment less easily explained at first sight two men fig two
the girl places her hand against the lower end of the stick in the position shown and the two men are invited to make the latter slide vertically in the girl's hand which they are unable to do in spite of their conscientious and oft repeated attempts
mister perry explains this exercise as follows the men are requested to place themselves parallel to each other and the girl who stands opposite them places the palm of her hand against the stick and turned toward her
she takes care to place her hand as far as possible from the hands of the two men so as to give herself a certain leverage she then begins to slide her hand along the stick gently at first and then with an increasing pressure
as if she wished to better the contact between the stick and her hand she thus moves it from the perpendicular and asks the two men to hold it in a vertical position this they do under very disadvantageous conditions
the stress exerted by the girl is very feeble because on the one hand she has the lever arm to herself and on the other
they then imagine that they are exerting a vertical stress while in reality their stresses are horizontal and tend to keep the stick in a vertical position in order to react against the pressure exerted at the lower end of the stick
evidently a certain vertical component that tends to cause the stick to descend
to support this vertical force without difficulty
and assuming the role of the girl with two very strong men as adversaries all the efforts made to cause the stick to slide in the open hand failed and the excess of weight due to the vertical force always remained less than twenty five pounds
despite the very determined and sincere stresses of the two men who unbeknown to themselves were exerting their strength in a horizontal direction in the experiment represented in fig three
the two men are requested to hold the stick firmly and immovable but the slightest pressure upon the extremity suffices to move the arms and body of the subject such pressure in the first place is exerted but slightly
and the stresses are gradually increased then all at once when the force exerted horizontally is as great as possible and the men are exerting their strength in the opposite direction in order to resist it
the girl abruptly ceases the pressure without warning and exerts
unprepared for this change the victims lose their equilibrium and find themselves at the mercy of the girl and so much the more so in proportion as they are stronger and their efforts are greater
where it concerns the easy lifting of a very heavy person the trick is no less simple
grasp the seat or arms of the chair and in endeavoring to resist make the whole weight of their body bear upon their feet if they do not do so at the first instant
and they help therein unconsciously the experimenter therefore needs only to exert a horizontal thrust without doing any lifting and such horizontal thrust is facilitated
by taking the knees as points of support for her elbows as soon as a slight movement is effected the hardest part of the work is over for it is only necessary for the girl to cease
to exert her stresses in order to have the chair fall back or move laterally in one direction or the other at all events the equilibrium is destroyed and before it is established again
it requires but little dexterity to move the subject about in all directions without a great expenditure of energy the difficulty is not increased on seating two men or three men
since in the latter case the third acts as a true counter poise to the first and the whole pretty well resembles an apparatus of unstable equilibrium whose centre of gravity is very high and consequently so much more easily displaced
all these experiments require some little skill and practice but are attended with no difficulty and upon the whole do not merit the enthusiastic articles that have given the electric or magnetic girl her european reputation
strong people whether tricksters or genuine athletes or both
and the whole repertoire of the so called human ostrich steadily declined and i recall only one engagement of a performer of this type at a first class theater in this country during the present generation and that date was not played
created a demand for freaks that was far in excess of the supply and many houses were obliged to close because no freaks were obtainable even at the enormous increase in salaries then in vogue the small price of admission and the fact that
feature curios like laloo
drew down seven or eight hundred dollars a week
and not a few of the leading managers of to day's vaudeville owe their start in life to the dime museum among the museums that were veritable gold mines
brandenberg's of philadelphia moore's of detroit and rochester
kohl and middleton's austin and stone's of boston robinson of buffalo
globe harlem worth's and the gayety of new york the dime museum is but a memory now and in three generations it will in all probability be utterly forgotten
a few of the acts had sufficient intrinsic worth to follow the managers into vaudeville but these have no part in this chronicle
the names of the states alabama indian meaning here we rest arkansas kansas the indian name for smoky water with the french prefix arc
bow or bend in the principal river california
spanish for hot furnace in allusion to the climate colorado spanish meaning colored from the red color of the colorado river connecticut indian meaning long river
delaware named in honor of lord de la ware florida named by ponce de leon who discovered it in fifteen twelve on easter day the spanish pascua de flores or feast of flowers
illinois from the indian illini men and the french suffix ois together signifying tribe of men indiana indian land iowa
indian meaning beautiful land kansas indian meaning smoky water kentucky indian for at the head of the river or the dark and bloody ground louisiana
maine from the province of maine in france maryland in honor of henrietta maria
massachusetts the place of the great hills the blue hills southwest of boston michigan the indian name for a fish weir the lake was so called from the fancied resemblance of the lake to a fish trap
minnesota indian meaning sky tinted water mississippi indian meaning great father of waters missouri indian meaning muddy nebraska indian meaning water valley
nevada spanish meaning snow covered alluding to the mountains new hampshire from hampshire county england new jersey in honor of sir george carteret
one of the original grantees who had previously been governor of jersey island new york in honor of the duke of york north and south carolina originally called carolina
ohio indian meaning beautiful river oregon from the spanish oregano wild marjoram which grows abundantly on the coast pennsylvania latin meaning penn's woody land
rhode island from a fancied resemblance to the island of rhodes in the mediterranean tennessee indian meaning river with the great bend texas origin of this name is unknown vermont french
meaning green mountain virginia in honor of elizabeth the virgin queen wisconsin indian meaning gathering of the waters or wild rushing channel mottoes of the states arkansas
california eureka i have found it colorado
connecticut qui transtulit sustinet he who has transferred sustains delaware liberty and independence florida in god is our trust georgia
wisdom justice moderation illinois state sovereignty and national union iowa our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain kansas
ad astra per aspera to the stars through rugged ways kentucky united we stand divided we fall louisiana union and confidence maine
dirigo i direct maryland
increase and multiply massachusetts ense petit
by her sword she seeks under liberty a calm repose michigan
if thou seekest a beautiful peninsula look around minnesota
nebraska popular sovereignty nevada volens et potens willing and able new jersey liberty and independence new york excelsior higher ohio
imperium in imperio an empire within an empire oregon
pennsylvania virtue liberty independence rhode island hope south carolina
tennessee agriculture commerce vermont freedom and unity virginia sic semper tyrannis so be it ever to tyrants west virginia
montani semper liberi the mountaineers are always free wisconsin
cotton state arkansas toothpick and bear state california eureka and golden state colorado centennial state connecticut
land of steady habits freestone state and nutmeg state dakota sioux state delaware uncle sam's pocket handkerchief and blue hen state florida
everglade and flowery state georgia empire state of the south idaho gem of the mountains illinois prairie and sucker state indiana hoosier state
iowa hawkeye state kansas jayhawker state kentucky corn cracker state louisiana creole state maine timber and pine tree state
maryland monumental state massachusetts old bay state michigan wolverine and peninsular state minnesota gopher and north star state mississippi eagle state
missouri puke state nebraska antelope state nevada sage state new hampshire old granite state new jersey blue state and new spain
new mexico vermin state new york empire state north carolina rip van winkle old north and turpentine state ohio buckeye state
oregon pacific state pennsylvania keystone iron and oil state rhode island plantation state and little rhody south carolina palmetto state tennessee
lion's den state texas lone star state utah mormon state vermont green mountain state virginia old dominion wisconsin badger and copper state
natives of states and territories alabama lizards arkansas toothpicks california gold hunters colorado rovers connecticut
wooden nutmegs dakota squatters delaware muskrats florida fly up the creeks georgia buzzards idaho fortune seekers illinois suckers
indiana hoosiers iowa hawkeyes kansas jayhawkers kentucky corn crackers louisiana creoles maine foxes maryland clam humpers
massachusetts yankees michigan wolverines minnesota gophers mississippi tadpoles missouri pukes nebraska bugeaters nevada sagehens
new hampshire granite boys new jersey blues or clam catchers new mexico spanish indians new york knickerbockers north carolina tarheels
ohio buckeyes oregon hard cases pennsylvania pennamites or leather heads rhode island gun flints south carolina weazles tennessee whelps
texas beef heads utah polygamists vermont green mountain boys virginia beagles wisconsin badgers nicknames of cities atlanta gate city of the south
baltimore monumental city bangor lumber city boston modern athens literary emporium city of notions and hub of the universe brooklyn city of churches
buffalo queen of the lakes burlington iowa orchard city charleston palmetto city chicago prairie or garden city cincinnati queen of the west and porkopolis
cleveland forest city denver city of the plains detroit city of the straits hartford insurance city indianapolis railroad city
gate city lafayette star city leavenworth cottonwood city louisville falls city lowell spindle city mc gregor pocket city madison lake city
milwaukee cream city nashville rock city new haven elm city new orleans crescent city new york empire city commercial emporium gotham and metropolis of america
all the movements of the eyes become co ordinate by the fourth month and by this time the child begins to have the
feeling of self that is he looks at his own hands and looks at himself in the mirror the study of the child's mind during the first year shows conclusively that ideas develop and reasoning processes occur before there is any knowledge of words or of language
though it may be assumed that the child thinks in symbols visual or auditory which are clumsy equivalents for words by the end of the year the child begins to express itself by sounds that is speech begins
by the end of the second year the child's power of speech is practically acquired the wonderful human brain according to the novel computations of a renowned histologist who has been calculating the aggregate cell forces of the human brain
the cerebral mass is composed of at least three hundred million of nerve cells each an independent body organism and microscopic brain so far as concerns its vital functions but subordinate to a higher purpose in relation to the functions of the organ
each living a separate life individually though socially subject to a higher law of function the lifetime of a nerve cell he estimates to be about sixty days
to be succeeded by an equal number of their progeny while once in every sixty days a man has a new brain mourning colors the world over
black is by no means the only color used by man to express grief or mourning for the dead in the south sea islands the natives express sorrow and hope by stripes of black and white
pale brown the color of withered leaves is the mourning of persia sky blue to express the assured hope that the deceased has gone to heaven is the mourning of syria cappadocia and armenia deep blue in bokhara
purple and violet to express kings and queens to god was the color of mourning for cardinals and kings of france the color of mourning in turkey is violet white emblem of hope
the ladies of ancient rome and sparta wore white
yellow is the color of mourning in egypt and in burmah anne boleyn wore yellow mourning for catharine of aragon curious facts about hair the hair of men is finer than that of women
the average weight of a head of hair is from five to twelve ounces on an average head there are about one thousand hairs to the square inch hair will stretch about one fourth of its length and retract nearly to its original length
four hairs of good strength will hold suspended a one pound weight a single head of hair of average growth would therefore hold suspended an entire audience of two hundred people things that are misnamed
catgut is gut of sheep baffin's bay is no bay at all arabic figures were invented by the indians turkish baths are not of turkish origin
slave by derivation should mean noble illustrious turkeys do not come from turkey
titmouse is not a mouse but a little hedge sparrow dutch clocks are of german deutsch not dutch manufacture salt that is table salt
is not a salt at all but chloride of sodium galvanized iron is not galvanized simply iron coated with zinc ventriloquism is not voice from the stomach but from the mouth kid gloves are not kid at all
but are made of lambskin or sheepskin
tonquin beans come from tonka in guinea not tonquin in asia fire air earth and water called the four elements are not elements at all
rice paper is not made from rice but from the pith of tungtsau or hollowplant japan lacquer contains no lac at all
pen means a feather latin penna a wing a steel pen is therefore an anomaly jerusalem artichoke has no connection with jerusalem but with the sunflower girasole
humble pie for umbil pie the umbils of venison were served to inferiors and servants lunar caustic is simply nitrate of silver and silver is the astrological symbol of the moon
bridegroom has nothing to do with groom it is the old english guma a
mother of pearl is the inner layer of several sorts of shell and in some cases the matrix of the pearl sealing wax is not wax at all nor does it contain wax it is made of shellac
venice turpentine and cinnabar cleopatra's needles were not erected by cleopatra nor in honor of that queen
german silver is not silver at all but a metallic mixture which has been in use in china
cuttle bone is not bone but a structure of pure chalk imbedded loosely in the substance of a species of cuttlefish america was named after amerigo vespucci
a naval astronomer of florence but he did not discover the new world prussian blue does not come from prussia it is the precipitate of the salt of protoxide of iron with red prussiate of potass
wormwood has nothing to do with worms or wood it is the anglo saxon wer mod man inspiriting being a strong tonic honeydew is neither honey nor dew
but an animal substance given off by certain insects especially when hunted by ants gothic architecture is not that of the goths but the ecclesiastical style employed in england and france before the renaissance
sperm oil properly means seed oil from the notion that it was spawn or milt of a whale it is chiefly taken however from the head not the spawn of the
whalebone is not bone nor does it possess any properties of bone it is a substance attached to the upper jaw of the whale and serves to strain the water which the creature takes up the language of the flag
to strike a flag is to lower the national colors in token of submission flags are used as the symbol of rank and command the officers using them being called flag officers
such flags are square to distinguish them from other banners a flag of truce is a white flag displayed to an enemy to indicate a desire to parley or for consultation
the white flag is a sign of peace after a battle parties from both sides often go out to the field to rescue the wounded or bury dead under the protection of a white flag the red flag is a sign of defiance
and is often used by revolutionists in the naval service it is a mark of danger and shows a vessel to be receiving or discharging her powder the black flag is a sign of piracy
the yellow flag shows a vessel to be at quarantine or is the sign of a contagious disease a flag at half mast means mourning fishing and other vessels return with a flag at half mast to announce the loss
or death of some of the men dipping the flag is lowering it slightly and then hoisting it again to salute a vessel or fort
if the president of the united states goes afloat the american flag is carried in the bows of his barge or hoisted at the main of the vessel on board of which he is death sentence of the savior
the following is said to be the sentence of death word for word pronounced against jesus christ
intendent of the lower province of galilee that jesus of nazareth shall suffer death by the cross in the seventeenth year of the reign of emperor tiberius and on the twenty fourth day of the month in the most holy city of jerusalem
during the pontificate of annas and caiaphas
intendent of the province of lower galilee sitting to judgment in the presidential seat of the praetors sentences jesus of nazareth to death on a cross between robbers as the numerous and notorious testimonies of the people prove
one jesus is a misleader two he has excited the people to sedition three he is an enemy to the laws four he calls himself the son of god
six he went to the temple followed by a multitude carrying palms in their hands orders from the first centurion quirrillis cornelius to bring him to the place of execution
forbids all persons rich or poor to prevent the execution of jesus the witnesses who have signed the execution of jesus are one daniel robani pharisee two john zorobabic
three raphael robani
through the gate of tournes the horse's prayer to thee my master i offer my prayer feed water and care for me and when the day's work is done provide me with shelter and a clean dry bed
always be kind to me pet me sometimes that i may serve you the more gladly and learn to love you do not jerk the reins and do not whip me when going up hill never strike beat or kick me when i do not understand what you want
but give me a chance to understand you watch me and if i fail to do your bidding see if something is not wrong with my harness or feet do not overload me or hitch me where water will drip on me keep me well shod
examine my teeth when i do not eat i may have an ulcerated tooth and that you know is painful do not tie or check my head in an unnatural position or take away my best defence against flies and mosquitoes by cutting off my mane or tail
i cannot tell you when i am thirsty so give me clean cool water often i cannot tell you in words when i am sick so watch me and by signs you may know my condition give me all possible shelter from the hot sun
and put a blanket on me not when i am working but when i am standing in the cold never put a frosty bit in my mouth first warm it by holding it in your hands i try to carry you and your burdens without a murmur
and wait patiently for you long hours of the day or night without the power to choose my shoes or path i sometimes fall on the hard pavements
and finally o my master when my useful strength is gone do not turn me out to starve or freeze nor sell me to some human brute to be slowly tortured and starved to death but do thou my master take my life in the kindest way
and your god will reward you here and hereafter amen a lady's chance of marrying every woman has some chance to marry it may be one to fifty or it may be ten to one that she will
representing her entire chance at one hundred at certain points of her progress in time it is found to be in the following ratio between the ages of fifteen and twenty years
between the ages of twenty and twenty five years fifty two per cent between the ages of twenty five and thirty years eighteen per cent between the ages of thirty and thirty five years
between the ages of thirty five and forty years
between the ages of forty five and fifty years three quarters of one percent
a little demon going in to lise he found her half reclining in the invalid chair in which she had been wheeled when she was unable to walk
she did not move to meet him but her sharp keen eyes were simply riveted on his face
alyosha was amazed at the change that had taken place in her in three days she was positively thinner she did not hold out her hand to him he touched the thin long fingers which lay motionless on her dress
then he sat down facing her without a word i know you are in a hurry to get to the prison lise said curtly and mamma's kept you there for hours she's just been telling you about me and yulia
i've been listening why do you stare at me i want to listen and i do listen there's no harm in that i don't apologize you are upset about something on the contrary
i've only just been reflecting for the thirtieth time what a good thing it is i refused you and shall not be your wife you are not fit to be a husband if i were to marry you and give you a note to take to the man i loved after you
you'd take it and be sure to give it to him and bring an answer back too if you were forty you would still go on taking my love letters for me she suddenly laughed
there is something spiteful and yet open hearted about you alyosha smiled to her the open heartedness consists in my not being ashamed of myself with you what's more i don't want to feel ashamed with you just with you
i am very fond of you but i don't respect you if i respected you i shouldn't talk to you without shame should i no but do you believe that i am not ashamed with you no i don't believe it
lise laughed nervously again she spoke rapidly i sent your brother dmitri fyodorovitch some sweets in prison
you are quite pretty i shall love you awfully for having so quickly allowed me not to love you why did you send for me to day lise i wanted to tell you of a longing i have
i should like some one to torture me marry me and then torture me deceive me and go away i don't want to be happy you are in love with disorder yes i want disorder
i keep wanting to set fire to the house i keep imagining how i'll creep up and set fire to the house on the sly it must be on the sly they'll try to put it out but it'll go on burning and i shall know and say nothing ah what silliness
and how bored i am she waved her hand with a look of repulsion it's your luxurious life said alyosha softly is it better then to be poor yes it is better
that's what your monk taught you that's not true let me be rich and all the rest poor i'll eat sweets and drink cream and not give any to any one else ach don't speak don't say anything
she shook her hand at him though alyosha had not opened his mouth you've told me all that before i know it all by heart it bores me if i am ever poor i shall murder somebody and even if i am rich
i may murder some one perhaps why do nothing but do you know i should like to reap cut the rye i'll marry you and you shall become a peasant a real peasant we'll keep a colt shall we do you know kalganov
yes he is always wandering about dreaming he says why live in real life it's better to dream one can dream the most delightful things but real life is a bore but he'll be married soon for all that
he's been making love to me already can you spin tops yes well he's just like a top he wants to be wound up and set spinning and then to be lashed lashed lashed with a whip
if i marry him i'll keep him spinning all his life you are not ashamed to be with me no you are awfully cross because i don't talk about holy things i don't want to be holy
what will they do to one in the next world for the greatest sin you must know all about that god will censure you alyosha was watching her steadily that's just what i should like
i would go up and they would censure me and i would burst out laughing in their faces i should dreadfully like to set fire to the house alyosha to our house you still don't believe me why
there are children of twelve years old who have a longing to set fire to something and they do set things on fire too it's a sort of disease that's not true that's not true there may be children but that's not what i mean
you take evil for good it's a passing crisis it's the result of your illness perhaps you do despise me though it's simply that i don't want to do good
i want to do evil and it has nothing to do with illness why do evil so that everything might be destroyed ah how nice it would be if everything were destroyed you know alyosha
i sometimes think of doing a fearful lot of harm and everything bad and i should do it for a long while on the sly and suddenly
every one will stand round and point their fingers at me and i would look at them all that would be awfully nice why would it be so nice alyosha i don't know
it's a craving to destroy something good or as you say to set fire to something it happens sometimes i not only say it i shall do it i believe you
ah how i love you for saying you believe me and you are not lying one little bit but perhaps you think that i am saying all this on purpose to annoy you no i don't think that
though perhaps there is a little desire to do that in it too there is a little i never can tell lies to you she declared with a strange fire in her eyes
there was not a trace of humor or jesting in her face now
there are moments when people love crime said alyosha thoughtfully yes yes you have uttered my thought they love crime
every one loves crime they love it always not at some moments you know it's as though people have made an agreement to lie about it and have lied about it ever since they all declare that they hate evil but secretly
they all love it and are you still reading nasty books yes i am mamma reads them and hides them under her pillow and i steal them aren't you ashamed to destroy yourself
i want to destroy myself there's a boy here who lay down between the railway lines when the train was passing lucky fellow listen
your brother is being tried now for murdering his father and every one loves his having killed his father loves his having killed his father yes loves it every one loves it everybody says it's so awful
but secretly they simply love it i for one love it there is some truth in what you say about every one said alyosha softly oh what ideas you have
and you a monk too you wouldn't believe how i respect you alyosha for never telling lies oh i must tell you a funny dream of mine i sometimes dream of devils it's night
i am in my room with a candle and suddenly
there's a crowd of them behind the doors and they want to come and seize me and they are just coming just seizing me but i suddenly cross myself and they all draw back though they don't go away altogether
they stand at the doors and in the corners waiting and suddenly i have a frightful longing to revile god aloud and so i begin and then they come crowding back to me delighted
it's awful fun it takes one's breath away i've had the same dream too
really cried lise surprised
could two different people have the same dream
lise went on with really excessive amazement it's not the dream that's important
you never lie to me don't lie now is it true you are not laughing it's true lise seemed extraordinarily impressed and for half a minute she was silent alyosha
come and see me come and see me more often she said suddenly in a supplicating voice i'll always come to see you all my life answered alyosha firmly you are the only person i can talk to you know
lise began again i talk to no one but myself and you only you in the whole world and to you more readily than to myself and i am not a bit ashamed with you not a bit
alyosha why am i not ashamed with you not a bit alyosha is it true that at easter the jews steal a child and kill it i don't know there's a book here in which i read about the trial of a jew
who took a child of four years old and cut off the fingers from both hands and then crucified him on the wall hammered nails into him and crucified him and afterwards when he was tried he said that the child died soon within four hours
that was soon he said the child moaned kept on moaning and he stood admiring it that's nice nice nice i sometimes imagine that it was i who crucified him
he would hang there moaning and i would sit opposite him eating pineapple compote i am awfully fond of pineapple compote do you like it
her pale sallow face was suddenly contorted her eyes burned you know when i read about that jew i shook with sobs all night
i kept fancying how the little thing cried and moaned a child of four years old understands you know and all the while the thought of pineapple compote haunted me in the morning i wrote a letter to a certain person
begging him particularly to come and see me he came and i suddenly told him all about the child and the pineapple compote all about it all and said that it was nice he laughed
and said it really was nice then he got up and went away he was only here five minutes did he despise me did he despise me
despise me or not she sat up on the couch with flashing eyes tell me
did you send for that person yes i did did you send him a letter yes simply to ask about that about that child no not about that at all
but when he came i asked him about that at once he answered laughed got up and went away that person behaved honorably alyosha murmured and did he despise me
did he laugh at me no for perhaps he believes in the pineapple compote himself he is very ill now too lise yes he does believe in it said lise with flashing eyes
he doesn't despise any one alyosha went on only he does not believe any one if he doesn't believe in people of course
then he despises me me you too good lise seemed to grind her teeth when he went out laughing i felt that it was nice to be despised
the child with fingers cut off is nice and to be despised is nice
do you know alyosha do you know i should like
she suddenly jumped from the couch rushed to him and seized him with both hands save me she almost groaned is there any one in the world i could tell what i've told you i've told you the truth the truth
i shall kill myself because i loathe everything i don't want to live because i loathe everything i loathe everything everything alyosha why don't you love me in the least she finished in a frenzy
but i do love you answered alyosha warmly and will you weep over me will you yes not because i won't be your wife but simply weep for me yes thank you
it's only your tears i want every one else may punish me and trample me under foot every one every one not excepting any one for i don't love any one do you hear not any one
on the contrary i hate him go alyosha it's time you went to your brother she tore herself away from him suddenly how can i leave you like this said alyosha almost in alarm
go to your brother the prison will be shut go here's your hat give my love to mitya go go and she almost forcibly pushed alyosha out of the door
he looked at her with pained surprise when he was suddenly aware of a letter in his right hand a tiny letter folded up tight and sealed he glanced at it and instantly read the address
her face had become almost menacing give it to him you must give it to him she ordered him trembling and beside herself to day at once or i'll poison myself that's why i sent for you
and she slammed the door quickly the bolt clicked
lise unbolted the door opened it a little put her finger in the crack and slammed the door with all her might pinching her finger
i could never understand how one can love one's neighbors it's just one's neighbors to my mind that one can't love though one might love those at a distance
i once read somewhere of john the merciful a saint that when a hungry frozen beggar came to him he took him into his bed held him in his arms and began breathing into his mouth
which was putrid and loathsome from some awful disease i am convinced that he did that from self laceration from the self laceration of falsity for the sake of the charity imposed by duty
as a penance laid on him for any one to love a man he must be hidden
love is gone father zossima has talked of that more than once observed alyosha he too said that the face of a man often hinders many people not practiced in love from loving him
but yet there's a great deal of love in mankind and almost christ like love
well i know nothing of it so far
and the innumerable mass of mankind are with me there the question is whether that's due to men's bad qualities or whether it's inherent in their nature to my thinking christ like love for men is a miracle impossible on earth
he was god but we are not gods suppose i for instance suffer intensely another can never know how much i suffer because he is another and not i and what's more
a man is rarely ready to admit another's suffering as though it were a distinction why won't he admit it do you think because i smell unpleasant because i have a stupid face because i once trod on his foot besides
there is suffering and suffering degrading humiliating suffering such as humbles me hunger for instance my benefactor will perhaps allow me but when you come to higher suffering for an idea for instance
he will very rarely admit that perhaps because my face strikes him as not at all what he fancies a man should have who suffers for an idea
beggars especially genteel beggars ought never to show themselves but to ask for charity through the newspapers one can love one's neighbors in the abstract or even at a distance
but at close quarters it's almost impossible
then one might like looking at them but even then we should not love them but enough of that i simply wanted to show you my point of view
but we had better confine ourselves to the sufferings of the children that reduces the scope of my argument to a tenth of what it would be still we'd better keep to the children though it does weaken my case but
in the first place children can be loved even at close quarters even when they are dirty even when they are ugly i fancy though children never are ugly the second reason why i won't speak of grown up people is that
besides being disgusting and unworthy of love they have a compensation they've eaten the apple and know good and evil and they have become like gods they go on eating it still
but the children haven't eaten anything and are so far innocent
they must be punished for their fathers who have eaten the apple but that reasoning is of the other world and is incomprehensible for the heart of man here on earth
the innocent must not suffer for another's sins and especially such innocents you may be surprised at me alyosha but i am awfully fond of children too and observe
cruel people the violent the rapacious the karamazovs are sometimes very fond of children children while they are quite little up to seven for instance
as it were of a different species i knew a criminal in prison
murdered whole families including several children but when he was in prison he had a strange affection for them he spent all his time at his window watching the children playing in the prison yard
he trained one little boy to come up to his window and made great friends with him you don't know why i am telling you all this alyosha my head aches and i am sad you speak with a
strange air observed alyosha uneasily as though you were not quite yourself by the way a bulgarian i met lately in moscow
told me about the crimes committed by turks and circassians in all parts of bulgaria through fear of a general rising of the slavs
murder outrage women and children they nail their prisoners by the ears to the fences
they hang them all sorts of things you can't imagine
but that's a great injustice and insult to the beasts a beast can never be so cruel as a man so
that's all he can do he would never think of nailing people by the ears even if he were able to do it these turks took a pleasure in torturing children too cutting the unborn child
from the mother's womb and tossing babies up in the air and catching them on the points of their bayonets before their mothers eyes doing it before the mothers eyes was what gave zest to the amusement
here is another scene that i thought very interesting imagine a trembling mother with her baby in her arms
they've planned a diversion they pet the baby laugh to make it laugh they succeed the baby laughs at that moment a turk points a pistol four inches from the baby's face
the baby laughs with glee holds out its little hands to the pistol and he pulls the trigger in the baby's face and blows out its brains artistic wasn't it by the way
turks are particularly fond of sweet things they say brother what are you driving at
i think if the devil doesn't exist but man has created him he has created him in his own image and likeness just as he did god then
observed alyosha it's wonderful how you can turn words as polonius says in hamlet laughed ivan you turn my words against me well i am glad
yours must be a fine god if man created him in his image and likeness
i am fond of collecting certain facts and would you believe
from newspapers and books and i've already got a fine collection the turks of course
but they are foreigners i have specimens from home that are even better than the turks you know we prefer beating rods and scourges that's our national institution nailing ears
is unthinkable for us for we are after all europeans but the rod and the scourge we have always with us and they cannot be taken from us abroad now they scarcely do any beating
manners are more humane or laws have been passed so that they don't dare to flog men now
and so national that it would be practically impossible among us though i believe we are being inoculated with it since the religious movement began in our aristocracy
i have a charming pamphlet translated from the french describing how quite recently five years ago a murderer richard was executed a young man i believe of
three and twenty who repented and was converted to the christian faith at the very scaffold this richard was an illegitimate child who was given
as a child of six by his parents to some shepherds on the swiss mountains they brought him up to work for them he grew up like a little wild beast among them the shepherds taught him nothing and scarcely fed or clothed him
but sent him out at seven to herd the flock in cold and wet and no one hesitated or scrupled to treat him so quite the contrary they thought they had every right for richard had been given to them as a chattel
and they did not even see the necessity of feeding him richard himself describes how in those years like the prodigal son in the gospel he longed to eat of the mash given to the pigs which were fattened for sale
and beat him when he stole from the pigs and that was how he spent all his childhood and his youth till he grew up and was strong enough to go away and be a thief the savage began to earn his living
as a day laborer in geneva he drank what he earned he lived like a brute and finished by killing and robbing an old man he was caught tried and condemned
two whip poor wills were uttering their insistent note
the sky in the west still glowed with amber light and the crescent moon floated like a golden boat above the horizon's edge
the lamps within were unlighted and the evening wind blew the white muslin curtains out
the porch was low only a step from the ground
felt soft and cool to the bare feet of the children in front and all around lay the garden flowers and fruit quaintly intermingled down the long path to the gate where three roads met great bunches of peonies lifted white blossoms
luminously white in the moonlight and on either side rows of currant bushes cast low dark shadows and here and there dwarf crab apple trees tossed pale scented flowers above them
the children chattered quietly at their play as if they felt a mystery around them and small betty was sure she saw fairies dancing on the iris flowers when the light breeze stirred them but of this she said nothing
lest her practical older sister should drop a scornful word of unbelief a thing betty shrank from and instinctively avoided why should she be told there were no such things as fairies and goblins and pigwidgeons
when one might be at that very moment dancing at her elbow and hear it all so betty wagged her curly golden head wise with the wisdom of childhood and went her own ways and thought her own thoughts as for the strange creatures of wondrous power that peopled the earth
did she not often go when the sun was setting and climb the fence behind the barn under the
where none could see her and watch the fiery griffins in the west could she not see them flame and flash their wings spreading far out across the sky in fantastic flight
could she not see the flying mist women flinging their floating robes of softest pink and palest green around their slender limbs and trailing them delicately across the deepening sky had she not heard the giants nay seen them
under huge rolling machines a thousand times bigger than that farmer hopkins used to crush the clods in his wheat field in the spring
ah she knew if martha would only listen to her she could show her some of these true things and stop her scoffing lured by these mysteries betty made short excursions into the garden away from the others
peering among the shadows and gazing wide eyed into the clusters of iris flowers above which night moths fluttered softly and silently maybe there were fairies there three could ride at once on the back of a devil's riding horse she knew
and in the daytime they rode the dragon flies two at a time they were so light it was nothing for the great green and gold big eyed dragon flies to carry two betty knew a place below the spring where the maidenhair fern grew thick and spread out wide perfect fronds on slender brown stems
and where taller ferns grew high and leaned over like a delicate fairy forest and where the wild violets grew so thick you could not see the ground beneath them and the grass was lush and long like fine green hair and crept up the hillside and over the roots of the maple and basswood trees
here lived the elves she knew them well and often lay with her head among the violets listening for the thin sound of their elfin fiddles often she had drowsed the summer noon in the coolness
unheeding the dinner call until busy martha roused her with the sisterly scolding she knew she deserved and took in good part now as betty crept cautiously about peering and hoping with a half fearing expectation a sweet threadlike wail
trembled out toward her across the moonlit and shadowed space her father was tuning his violin her mother sat at his side hushing bobby in her arms
now the plaintive call of the violin came stronger and she hastened back to curl up at her father's feet and listen she closed her vision seeing eyes and leaned against her father's knee
and as the season advanced she would be busier still
each bringing an advancing crescendo of work but oh the happy days for betty lived in a world all her own wherein her play was as real as her work and labor was turned by her imaginative little mind into new forms of play
and although night often found her weary too tired to lie quietly in her bed sometimes the line between the two was never in her thoughts distinctly drawn
made her wish with all the intensity of her sensitive soul that she might confess to some one what she had done
so she tried to repent very hard and tell god all about it somehow it was always easier to tell god about things for she reasoned if god was everywhere and knew everything then he knew she had been bad and had seen her all the time
and she turned and kissed them first one and then the other with eager kisses
don't wake him dear said her mother
and hid her face on them while she repented very hard
climbing behind him and guiding his little feet from one rung of the perpendicular ladder to another teaching him to cling with clenched hands to the rounds until she had landed him in the loft there she had persuaded him he was a swallow in his nest
while she had taken her fill of the delight of leaping from the loft down into the bay where she had first tossed enough hay to make a soft lighting place for the twelve foot leap oh the joy of it flying through the air if she could only fly up instead of down
so bobby sat still and when she returned obediently opened his mouth but alas he wearied of his role in the play
now as she sat clasping her knees her little body grew all trembling and weak again as she lived over the terrible moment when she had reached him just in time to drag him back from the edge and to cuddle and caress him until he lifted up his voice and wept not because he was in the least troubled or hurt
and when she reluctantly brought him back to dinner how she had succeeded in getting him down from the loft would make a chapter of diplomacy her mother reproved her for allowing him to take it and lapped the two pieces and wound them about with thread and told her she must wear the broken comb after this she was glad
glad it was broken and she had treasured it so and glad that her mother had scolded her
thus she tortured herself and repented very hard the other sin she had that day committed she felt to be a double sin because she knew all the time it was wrong and did it deliberately
of robert burns poems these poems she loved not that she understood them
unchildish fear crept over her a fear of the years to come so long and endless they would be always coming coming one after another and here she was never to stop living and every day doing something that she ought not and every evening repenting it
and her father might stop loving her and her sister might stop loving her and her little brother might stop loving her and bobby might die
weiss would call in some other doctor
this was my view but i meant to have thorndyke's opinion and act under his direction but the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley when i came downstairs and took a preliminary glance at the rough memorandum book kept by the bottle boy
or in his absence by the housemaid i stood aghast the morning's entries looked already like a sample page of the post office directory the new calls alone were more than equal to an ordinary day's work and the routine visits remained to be added
gloomily wondering whether the black death had made a sudden reappearance in england i hurried to the dining room and made a hasty breakfast interrupted at intervals by the apparition of the bottle boy to announce new messages the first two or three visits solved the mystery
an epidemic of influenza had descended on the neighbourhood and i was getting not only
members of a certain benefit club which accounted for the remarkable suddenness of the outbreak of course my contemplated visit to thorndyke was out of the question i should have to act on my own responsibility but
in the hurry and rush and anxiety of the work for some of the cases were severe and even critical
even with the aid of a hansom which i chartered as stillbury kept no carriage i had not finished my last visit until near on midnight and was then so spent with fatigue that i fell asleep over my postponed supper
as the next day opened with a further increase of work i sent a telegram to doctor stillbury at hastings whither he had gone
i asked for authority to engage an assistant
i found him rubbing his hands over the open day book it's an ill wind that blows nobody good he remarked cheerfully as we shook hands
by the way you are not anxious to be off i suppose as a matter of fact i was for i had decided to accept thorndyke's offer and was now eager to take up my duties with him
the services of a strange assistant i should like to get off as soon as you can spare me i replied but i'm not going to leave you in the lurch that's a good fellow said stillbury i knew you wouldn't let us have some tea and divide up the work anything of interest going
there were one or two unusual cases on the list and as we marked off our respective patients i gave him the histories in brief synopsis and then i opened the subject of my mysterious experiences at the house of mister weiss
there's another affair that i want to tell you about rather an unpleasant business oh dear exclaimed stillbury he put down his cup and regarded me with quite painful anxiety it looks to me like an undoubted case of criminal poisoning i continued
stillbury's face cleared instantly oh i'm glad it's nothing more than that he said with an air of relief i was afraid it was some confounded woman there's always that danger you know when a locum is young and happens if i may say so jervis to be a good looking fellow
yes he admitted reluctantly i suppose you're right deuced unpleasant though
keep you hanging about to give evidence still you are quite right we can't stand by and see the poor devil poisoned without making some effort
don't you really no i don't
not on your evidence jervis they might pick up something fresh but if they didn't they would fail you haven't got enough hard baked facts to upset a capable defence still that isn't our affair
there ought not to be any delay said i there needn't be i shall look in on missus wackford and you have to see the rummel children we shall pass the station on our way
the suggestion met my views exactly as soon as we had finished tea we set forth
carefully laying down his pen shook hands cordially and what can i do for you gentlemen he asked with an affable smile stillbury proceeded to open our business my friend here doctor jervis
something in my line of business the officer inquired that said i
and hereupon without further preamble i plunged into the history of the case giving him a condensed statement similar to that which i had already made to stillbury he listened with close attention jotting down from time to time a brief note on a sheet of paper
and when i had finished he wrote out in a black covered notebook a short precis of my statement i have written down here he said
i will read the deposition over to you and if it is correct i will ask you to sign it he did so and when i had signed the document i asked him what was likely to be done in the matter i am afraid he replied that we can't take any active measures
but i think that is all we can do unless we hear something further but
i do he replied
it seems a pity not to take some measures i said while you are waiting to hear something further they may give the poor wretch a fresh dose and kill him in which case we should hear something further
i quite agree with you sir but we've no evidence that he is going to die his friends sent for you and you treated him skilfully and left him in a fair way to recovery
yes i know the officer continued as i made signs of disagreement
but you overrate our powers
now we have no such evidence look at your statement and tell me what you can swear to
and who gave him that poisonous dose i very strongly suspect that's no good sir
suspicion isn't evidence we should want you to swear an information and give us enough facts to make out a prima facie case against some definite person and you couldn't do it your information amounts to this that a certain person has taken a poisonous dose of morphine and apparently recovered that's all
you can't swear that the names given to you are real names and you can't give us any address or even any locality i took some compass bearings in the carriage i said you could locate the house i think without much difficulty
the officer smiled faintly and fixed an abstracted gaze on the clock you could sir he replied i have no doubt whatever that you could i couldn't
good evening doctor stillbury he shook hands with us both genially and accepting perforce this very polite but unmistakable dismissal we took our departure outside the station stillbury heaved a comfortable sigh
he was evidently relieved to find that no upheavals were to take place in his domain i thought that would be their attitude he said and they are quite right you know the function of law is to prevent crime it is true
but prophylaxis in the sense in which we understand it is not possible in legal practice
however i had done all that i could in the matter no further responsibility lay upon me and as it was practically certain that i had seen and heard the last of mister graves and his mysterious household i dismissed the case from my mind
the plethora of work in doctor stillbury's practice continued longer than i had bargained for day after day went by and still found me tramping the dingy streets of kennington or scrambling up and down narrow stairways turning in at night dead tired
or turning out half awake to the hideous jangle of the night bell it was very provoking for months i had resisted thorndyke's persuasion to give up general practice and join him not from lack of inclination but from a deep suspicion that he was thinking of my wants rather than his own
that his was a charitable rather than a business proposal now that i knew this not to be the case i was impatient to join him and as i trudged through the dreary thoroughfares of this superannuated suburb with its once rustic villas and its faded gardens
the closed carriage appeared no more nor did any whisper either of good or evil reach me in connection with the mysterious house from which it had come
all the incidents of that last night would reconstitute themselves with a vividness that showed the intensity of the impression that they had made at the time
but it clung to my memory it haunted me and ever as it returned it bore with it the disquieting questions was mister graves still alive and if he was not was there really nothing which could have been done to save him
one evening as we were writing up the day book stillbury remarked i almost think jervis i could manage by myself now
i think i can when would you like to be off as soon as possible say to morrow morning after i have made a few visits and transferred the patients to you
then i will give you your cheque and settle up everything to night so that you shall be free to go off when you like to morrow morning thus ended my connection with kennington lane on the following day at about noon
i found myself strolling across waterloo bridge with the sensations of a newly liberated convict and a cheque for twenty five guineas in my pocket my luggage was to follow when i sent for it now unhampered even by a hand bag
the red thumb mark by r austin freeman preface in writing the following story the author has had in view no purpose other than that of affording entertainment to such readers as are interested in problems of crime and their solutions
and the story itself differs in no respect from others of its class excepting in that an effort has been made to keep within the probabilities of ordinary life both in the characters
and in the incidents nevertheless it may happen that the book may serve a useful purpose in drawing attention to certain popular misapprehensions on the subject of finger prints and their evidential value misapprehensions the extent of which
sixteen seventy seven fabricatam anno sixteen ninety eight richardo powell armiger thesaurar the words set in four panels which formed a frieze beneath the pediment of a fine brick portico
and as i somewhat absently read over the inscription my attention was divided between admiration of the exquisitely finished carved brickwork and the quiet dignity of the building and
in its wig and obsolete habiliments to the old world surroundings that it seemed to complete the picture and i lingered idly to look at it the barrister had halted in the doorway to turn over a sheaf of papers that he held in his hand and as he replaced the red tape which bound them together
for a moment we regarded one another with the incurious gaze that casual strangers bestow on one another
and the figure detaching itself from its frame came down the steps with a hand extended in cordial greeting
thrown up on the sounding beach of the inner temple like the proverbial bread cast upon the waters
whereas i am in the position of a man who having cast his bread upon the waters sees it return in the form of a buttered muffin or a bath bun i left a respectable medical practitioner and i find him transformed into a bewigged and begowned limb of the law thorndyke laughed at the comparison
hippocrates is only hiding under the gown of solon as you will understand when i explain my metamorphosis and that i will do this very evening if you have no engagement i am one of the unemployed at present i said and quite at your service
no replied thorndyke i often wish i did it would add several inches to one's stature to feel that the mouth of one's burrow was graced with a latin inscription for admiring strangers to ponder over no my chambers are some doors further down
at the top of middle temple lane we parted thorndyke taking his way with fluttering gown towards the law courts
as though it apologised for breaking the studious silence
pacing slowly before the doorway of number six a in which though the wig had now given place to a felt hat and the gown to a jacket
punctual to the moment as of old said he meeting me half way what a blessed virtue is punctuality even in small things i have just been taking the air in fountain court and will now introduce you to my chambers here is my humble retreat
where we were confronted by a massive door above which my friend's name was written in white letters rather a forbidding exterior remarked thorndyke as he inserted the latchkey but it is homely enough inside
the heavy door swung outwards and disclosed a baize covered inner door which thorndyke pushed open and held for me to pass in you will find my chambers an odd mixture said thorndyke for they combine the attractions of an office a museum a laboratory and a workshop
and a restaurant added a small elderly man who was decanting a bottle of claret by means of a glass syphon you forgot that sir
with the requisites for our meal tell me said thorndyke
it is not an uncommon one my funds ran out as you know rather unexpectedly
the coffer was absolutely empty and though no doubt a medical diploma contains
there is a vast difference in practice between the potential and the actual i have in fact been earning a subsistence sometimes as an assistant sometimes as a locum tenens
lips and frowned it's a wicked shame jervis said he presently that a man of your abilities and scientific acquirements should be frittering away his time on odd jobs like some half qualified wastrel
it is i agreed my merits are grossly undervalued by a stiff necked and obtuse generation but what would you have my learned brother if poverty steps behind you and claps the occulting bushel over your thirty thousand candle power luminary
yes i suppose that is so grunted thorndyke and he remained for a time in deep thought and now said i let us have your promised explanation i am positively frizzling with curiosity to know what chain of circumstances has converted
john evelyn thorndyke from a medical practitioner into a luminary of the law thorndyke smiled indulgently the
john evelyn thorndyke is still a medical practitioner what in a wig and gown i exclaimed yes a mere sheep in wolf's clothing he replied i will tell you how it has come about after you left the hospital six years ago i stayed on
taking up any small appointments that were going assistant demonstrator or curatorships and such like hung about the chemical and physical laboratories the museum and post mortem room and meanwhile took my m d
but soon after this old stedman retired unexpectedly you remember stedman the lecturer on medical jurisprudence and i put in for the vacant post rather to my surprise i was appointed lecturer whereupon i dismissed the coronership from my mind took my
present chambers and sat down to wait for anything that might come
why a very curious assortment of miscellaneous practice he replied at first i only got an occasional analysis in a doubtful poisoning case but by degrees my sphere of influence has extended
until it now includes all cases in which a special knowledge of medicine or physical science can be brought to bear upon law but you plead in court i observe said i very seldom he replied more usually i appear in the character of that bete noir
but in most instances i do not appear at all
for you were always a deuce of a worker to say nothing of your capabilities yes i worked hard replied thorndyke and i work hard still but i have my hours of labour and my hours of leisure
unlike you poor devils of general practitioners who are liable to be dragged away from the dinner table
for at this moment as a sort of commentary on his self congratulation
must see who it is i suppose he continued though one expects people to accept the hint of a closed oak he strode across the room and flung open the door with an air of by no means gracious inquiry it's rather late for a business call
said an apologetic voice outside but my client was anxious to see you without delay come in mister lawley said thorndyke rather stiffly and as he held the door open the two visitors entered they were both men one middle aged
rather foxy in appearance and of a typically legal aspect and the other a fine handsome young fellow of very prepossessing exterior
rather pale and wild looking and evidently in a state of profound agitation i am afraid said the latter with a glance at me and the dinner table that our visit for which i am alone responsible is a most unseasonable one
if we are really inconveniencing you doctor thorndyke
and he now replied in a much more genial tone
why my friend and i are both doctors and as you are aware no doctor expects to call any part of the twenty four hours his own unreservedly i had risen on the entrance of the two strangers
but the young man interrupted me pray don't go away on my account he said the facts that i am about to lay before doctor thorndyke
in that case said thorndyke let us draw our chairs up to the fire and fall to business forthwith
chapter eight mary ballard's discovery peter junior's mind was quite made up to go his own way and leave home to study abroad but first he would try to convert his father to his way of thinking then there was another thing to be done
that under present conditions would never do but to make sure of betty lest some one come and steal into her heart before his return after his talk with his father in the bank he lay long into the night
gazing at the shadowed tracery on his wall cast by the full harvest moon shining through the maple branches outside his window the leaves had not all fallen and in the light breeze they danced and quivered and the branches swayed
and the shadows also swayed and danced delicately over the soft gray wall paper and the red coated old soldier standing stiffly in his gold frame
and often he tried to call them out from the past to banish things he would forget long this night he lay planning and thinking should he speak to betty and tell her he loved her should he only teach her to think of him not with the frank liking of her girlhood
he would wait and see what the next day would bring forth in the morning he discarded his crutch as he had threatened and walked out to the studio using only a stout old blackthorn stick he had found one day when rummaging among a collection of odds and ends in the attic
he thought the stick was his father's and wondered why so interesting a walking stick
but it had been many years since the elder had laid eyes on that knobbed and sturdy stick which larry had treasured as a rare thing in the new world
it had belonged to his great grandfather in ireland and no doubt had done its part in cracking crowns betty kneading bread at a table before the kitchen window spied peter junior limping wearily up the walk without his crutch and ran to him dusting the flour from her hands as she came
what did you go without your crutch for it's very silly of you
don't you think it i'm very well off without
he raised her hand and kissed her wrist where there was no flour
he dropped down on the piazza and drew her to the step beside him i must finish kneading the bread i can't sit here you rest in the rocker awhile before you go up to the studio father's up there he came home late last night after we were all in bed
she returned to her work and after a moment called to him through the open window
we're going out to carter's grove we've got permission every one's going
no more he thought gloomily than if she were his sister what are you all going there for why nuts goosey
no he wanted her to urge and coax him to go for her sake
he left his seat took the side path around to the kitchen door and drew up a chair to the end of the table where she deftly manipulated the sweet smelling dough patting it and pulling it and turning it about until she was ready to put the shapely balls in the pans
holding them in her two firm little hands with a slight rolling motion as she slipped each loaf in its place
why do you fuss with it so
but he loved to watch her pink tipped fingers carefully shaping the loaves nevertheless oh because good reason well the more you work it the better it is just like everything else and then if you don't make good looking loaves
she tossed a stray lock from her eyes and opening the oven door thrust in her arm my but it's hot
what could he say what could he do next she left him a moment and quickly returned with a cup of butter
but i must work this dough i have left into raised biscuit
only our little crowd when i said everybody you didn't think i meant everybody in the whole world did you you know us all do you want me to go there'll be enough others she tossed her head and gave him a sidelong glance i always ask people to go when i don't want them to
no i don't but the red he had brought into her cheeks intoxicated him with delight now he knew a thing to do he seized her wrists and turned her away from the table and continued to look into her eyes
but the burning blush made even the little ear she turned toward him pink and he loved it his discretion was all gone
and slipping his arm around her he drew her away and out to the seat under the old silver leaf poplar tree
changed to pleading please betty dear just hear me this far i'm going away betty and i love you
dear it isn't the old thing it's love and it's what i want you to feel for me i woke up yesterday and found i loved you
say you'll love me and be my wife some day won't you betty she drooped in his arms hanging her head and looking down on her floury hands say it betty dear won't you her lip quivered
and anyway i liked you better the other way why betty tell me why
most eighteen i know because
with face turned from him again he lifted her face to his
some one might find you out and love you
and i come back for you promise me where why peter junior where are you going betty removed his arm from around her waist and slipped to her own end of the seat there with hands folded decorously in her lap with heightened color and serious eyes
always she had been merry and teasing and his heart was proud that he had wrought such a miracle in her i am going to paris i mean to be an artist
will your father let you do that her eyes widened with surprise and the surprise nettled him
what do you mean to go without his consent of course not goosey
to earn the money and then go it it would be more more as if you were in earnest
he loved to feel his power over her thus still she tantalized him
i mean it would look more as if you were in earnest about becoming an artist no the real question is do you love me will you marry me when i come back she was silent and he came nearer
yes if if
he did not know himself he was a man he had never met the like of and he gloried in himself it seemed as if he heard bells ringing out in joy then he looked up and saw mary ballard's eyes fixed on him peter junior what are you doing
her voice shook i i'm
i see that we are to be married some day and you are precipitate peter junior
he's going away to be gone perhaps for years and i've i've told him yes mother so it isn't his fault then she turned and fled to her own room and hid her flaming face in the pillow and wept sit here with me awhile peter junior and we'll talk it all over
said mary he obeyed her and looking squarely in her eyes manfully told her his plans and tried to make her feel as he felt that no love like his had ever filled a man's heart before at last she sent him up to the studio to tell her husband
and she went in and finished betty's task putting the bread alas too light by this time in the oven and shaping the raised biscuit which betty had left half finished then she paused a moment to look out of the window
down the path where the boys and little janey would soon come tumbling home from school hot and hungry a tear slowly coursed down her cheek and following the curves trembled on the tip of her chin she brushed it away impatiently of course it had to come that was what life must bring
but ah not so soon not so soon then she set about preparations for dinner without betty's help that too was what it would mean sometime to go on doing things without betty she gave a little sigh
an arm was slipped about her waist and she turned to look in bertrand's eyes
queen o the pinkies an boss o the blues
just then they heard a sound of footsteps in the corridor the soldiers had partly recovered their courage and fearful of the anger of their dreaded boolooroo
replied the frightened boolooroo we're not goin to said trot
who are you and your soldiers going to obey me or the snubnosed ones
for he hated the princesses as did all the blueskins then escort those girls to their rooms lock em in an put a guard before the door
at once the soldiers seized the princesses and notwithstanding their snarls and struggles marched them to their rooms and locked them in while they were gone on this errand the boolooroo begged to be released
but trot did not think it safe to unbind him just then when the soldiers returned she told their leader to put a strong guard before the palace and to admit no one unless either she or cap'n bill gave the order to do so
and when trot and cap'n bill were left alone they turned the goat loose in the room of the great knife and then locked the animal in
the billygoat is the very best guard we could have
so now queen trot what's next on the program next said trot
i don't mean to stay in this dismal blue country long even if i am the queen let's find the umbrel and get home as soon as we can that suits me the sailor joyfully exclaimed
and then the two began a careful search through the palace they went into every room and looked behind the furniture and underneath the beds and in every crack and corner
but no place could they spy the magic umbrella cap'n bill even ventured to enter the rooms of the six snubnosed princesses who were by this time so thoroughly alarmed that they had become meek and mild as could be
finally they returned to the great throne room of the palace
and tried to think what could possibly have become of the precious umbrella while they were sitting and talking together the captain of the guards entered and bowed respectfully beg pardon your small sized majesty
said he to trot but it is my duty to report that the pinkies are preparing to attack the city oh i'd forgotten the pinkies exclaimed the girl
we have two fine bands but they are not brass replied the captain their instruments are made of blue metal well order em out commanded trot and say
we'll have all the fun there is going continued the girl for we are to entertain the army of the pinkies the pinkies exclaimed the captain of the guards why they're our enemies your short highness
not any more replied trot i'm queen of the pinkies an i'm also queen of the blues so i won't have my people quarreling
and jus as soon as you've spread the news an got the bands tuned up and the soldiers ready to march you let us know and we'll head the procession
even the gravel in the pretty paths was pink
grading from a faint blush rose to deep pink verging on red but no other color was visible in the sky hung a pink glow with rosy clouds floating here and there
but a distinct pink the sun was high in the sky just now
for aside from the danger that threatened them in the blue country the other side of the island was very depressing here the scene that confronted them was pretty and homelike
half a mile distant was a large city
while hundreds of pink banners floated from its numerous domes the country between the fog bank and the city was like a vast garden very carefully kept and as neat as wax
the parrot was fluttering its wings and pruning its feathers to remove the wet of the fog trot and button bright and cap'n bill were all soaked to the skin and chilled through
but as they sat upon the pink grass they felt the rays of the sun sending them warmth
advancing toward them were four of the natives of the pink country
and they were not very tall the highest of the men being no taller than trot or button bright they all had short necks and legs pink hair and eyes rosy cheeks and pink complexions
the men wore picturesque pink clothing and round hats with pink feathers in them
their dresses consisted of layer after layer of gauzy tucks and ruffles and laces
the skirts which of course were of many shades of pink were so fluffy and light
displaying their chubby pink ankles and pink kid shoes they wore rings and necklaces and bracelets and brooches of rose gold set with pink gems and all four of the new arrivals
they halted a little way from our adventurers
what country did you come from
it isn't just one country but a good many countries
returned the woman they are the blue
they all cried in a chorus and they made us slaves said trot an wanted fer to patch us added cap'n bill indignantly
and that gave all the pink citizens a chance to have a good look at the strangers
and their faces indicated that they were contented and happy they were much surprised at cap'n bill's great size and wooden leg two very unusual things in their experience and the old sailor frightened more than one pinky boy and girl
where they viewed the passing procession from behind the window shutters in comparative safety as for the grown people
a sympathetic audience will have no difficulty in guessing that she is in love on the other hand her elder sister miss prendergast
the sock however has no real bearing upon the plot
did you have a pleasant dinner party last night jane jane to herself seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty looking up
the blizzards were there and the podbys and the slumphs these people are not important and should not be over emphasised
jane brightening up such an interesting man my dear he talked most agreeably about art during dinner and we renewed the conversation in the drawing room we found that we agreed upon all the main principles of art considered as such
what was your man's name
you know how difficult it is to catch names when one is introduced
but i enquired about him afterwards and i find that he is a mister enter mary the parlourmaid
jane taking it thank you mary exit mary to work up her next line a letter i wonder who it is from reading the envelope
miss prendergast honeysuckle lodge she opens it with the air of one who has often received letters before but feels that this one may play an important part in her life
but whether you pardon me or not i ask you to listen to me i know of no woman for whose talents i have a greater admiration
you have been the lodestar of my existence
looking down on the ground
bootle realising the situation by george aside
jane missing the connection yes i have a younger sister
fiercely but he is mine i will hold him to his promise picking up a photograph of alice as a small child from an occasional table little alice
to protect her from the cruel world
she puts her handkerchief to her eyes no
bootle and alice who have been embracing all this time unless they can think of something else to do break away in surprise
mister bootle said in his letter to you that he was coming for his answer and i see what answer you have given him to bootle
i know my little sister you see bootle tactlessly
jane smiling and i tell you again now i believe it is usual for men to kiss their sisters in law she offers her cheek
salutes her respectfully
colonel wheeler as any one might see at a glance
was unmistakably that of a military man and also his dress for the colonel invariably appeared in full uniform with a scarlet gold laced coat epaulettes and a cocked hat and feathers seldom removed even at meal times
like all truly brave men
than to be detailed on escort duty and made of use to the ladies of his acquaintance so it came to pass that again and again he was asked to take charge of large family parties on long journeys
all of them belonging to somebody else not one of them being kith or kin to the gallant colonel they made really a formidable assemblage when collected and it took the longest legal envelope which liz
there i have let out the secret
they belonged to lizzie bruce and her cousin ernestine
large none of the mamma dolls had less than twelve children
who had only two or three little boys and girls
just as good as paper dolls and this was meant as the highest possible compliment
it took a day and a half to make the journey and the little cousins did not visit each other more than once or twice a year
but the dolls went much oftener they travelled by mail in one of those long yellow envelopes which lawyers use to put papers in and colonel wheeler always went in the same envelope to take care of them
when they came back from these trips lizzie or ernestine whichever it chanced to be would unpack them and exclaim delightedly how well the dear things look
see mamma how round and pink their faces have grown i wouldn't advise you to depend so much on colonel wheeler lizzie's mother would sometimes say
and as for the colonel he is such a good man truly mamma he would never steal anybody else's family
this party included besides colonel wheeler who as usual acted as escort missus allen the wife of captain allen her fourteen children her sister in law miss allen her own sister pauline gray
so called because her only dress happened to be made of gray and blue tissue paper and missus adipose and her little girl missus adipose whose name had been suggested by papa was the fattest of all the dolls
captain allen was a creature who had no real existence lizzie meant to make a doll to represent him some day meanwhile he was kept persistently at the front wherever that might be
and missus allen travelled about as freely as if she had no husband at all this lizzie and ernestine considered an admirable arrangement
think how often he has gone to hingham and never once didn't come back
no something dreadful has happened it's that horrid post office
mamma was very sorry for lizzie papa wrote to the postmaster and ernestine's papa inquired at the hingham post office and there was quite a stir over the lost travellers
time went on a month six weeks two months passed and no tidings came
and mister adipose still sat in the lonely baby house watching the cook brandishing a paper saucepan always the same saucepan
and bridget the housemaid forever dusting the same table top
mamma proposed that lizzie should make some new dolls to take the place of the lost ones and offered help and the use of her mucilage bottle
colonel wheeler is such a good traveller and what would they think if there was a strange family in their rooms
which is very interesting and the two pairs of twins which missus allen forgot to take
the very next morning after this conversation as mamma sat writing in her room upstairs
the postman had rapped a moment before
the shriek was so loud and sudden that missus bruce jumped up
and a mass of pink and gray and green gowns and funny tumbled capes and hats
an insurance act
but in my own case i had expected the thing to be the merest formality the doctor having seen at a glance what a fine strong healthy fellow i was
enquire genially what my grandfather had died of and show me to the door this idea of mine was fostered by the excellent testimonial which i had written myself at the company's bidding
are you suffering from any constitutional disease no have you ever had gout no are you deformed no are you of strictly sober and temperate habits
my replies had been a model of what an assurance company expects then why the need of a doctor
they insisted the doctor began quietly enough he asked as i had anticipated after the health of my relations
with an apologetic smile and looked round for the sideboard unfortunately he did not pursue the matter and now he said after the hundredth question
i should like to look at your chest i had seen it coming for some time
it was no good he was evidently determined to see my chest
for the most part one double knock at any point appeared to satisfy him but occasionally there would be no answer and he would knock again at one spot he knocked four times before he could make himself heard
has torn it i shall be ploughed and i sent an urgent message to my chest
for at the next knock he passed on to an adjacent spot
i don't believe he likes my chest without a word he got out his stethoscope and began to listen to me as luck would have it he struck something interesting almost at once
and for what seemed hours
or i might have licked his ear beyond that nothing seemed to offer i moistened my lips and spoke am i dying i asked in a broken voice
just breathe naturally i am
it was a terrible reflection um
by and by he went and listened behind my back it is very bad form to listen behind a person's back i did not tell him so however i wanted him to like me yes
now cough i haven't a cough
and that he was taking a silent farewell of me i bowed my head then determined to bear my death sentence like a man
however he wouldn't let me go
you must not give way and i made an effort to release one of my hands meaning to pat him encouragingly on the shoulder he resisted i realised suddenly
and that he was simply feeling my pulses
um and continued to finger my wrists
as hard as i could
and he got up from the desk where he had been making notes of my disastrous case and came over to me there is just one thing more sit down i sat down now cross your knees
i crossed my knees
my chest
he may have disliked my back
during these months the land is continually heated day and night to a higher temperature than the water in the ocean south of it the winds are probably not so severe during the night as through the day as the difference between the temperature of the land and the water will not be so great during the night
and difference of temperature between two points usually means a proportional difference in the velocity of the wind there is a time in the fall and spring while there is a struggle between the temperature of the land and water for supremacy when the winds are variable
attended with local storms somewhat as we have them in the temperate zone
than is stored up in the day hence the conditions during the winter months are reversed the water is constantly warmer than the land and there is a constant wind blowing from the land to the ocean which continues until april
when after a season of local storms the conditions are established in the opposite direction these winds are called monsoons
that in summer it blows in a northeasterly direction from the sea and in the winter in a southwesterly direction from the land this divergence from a direct north and south is caused by the rotation of the earth and the explanation is the same as that we have given for the trade winds
in the southern latitudes there is a comparatively constant condition of wind and weather because the surface of the globe in these regions is mostly water but in the north where most of the land surface is located
the freaks of wind and weather that we find prevailing upon the north american continent are not so easily accounted for as the phenomena heretofore discussed in the northern part the land reaches far up toward the north pole while on the west lies the pacific ocean
which merges into the arctic ocean at bering strait the climate of the western coast is affected by a warm ocean current that sets up as far north as alaska while high ranges of mountains prevent the effects of this warm current from being felt inland to any great extent
all of which helps to complicate any theory that may be advanced regarding changes of weather aside from the changes of temperature that are due to the seasons which are caused by the oscillating motion of the earth between the limits of the tropic of cancer on the north
and the tropic of capricorn on the south there are other changes constantly taking place in all seasons of the year while it is not difficult to account for the change of seasons and the gradual change of temperature that would naturally follow
owing to the difference of angle at which the sun's rays strike the earth it is more difficult to account for the violent changes that occur several times during the progress of a season as well as the less violent ones that come every few days
the diurnal changes are easily accounted for by the rotation of the earth on its axis each day but there is another class of phenomena with which the weather man has to struggle when he is making up a forecast of the weather from day to day
in order that we may proceed intelligently let us say a word about the barometer we speak of high and low barometer and we make the instrument with graduations marked for all kinds of weather which really mean but very little
the reading of a single barometer alone will give us but a faint idea of what is really going to happen from day to day
but if we have a series of barometers located at different stations scattered all over the continent and connected at headquarters by telegraph so that we can have the readings from a whole series of barometers at once then it becomes a very useful instrument
a barometer may read low at one station by the scale but may be high with reference to some other barometer that reads very low what is a barometer if we should take a glass tube closed at one end the area of the cross section of which is one inch square
and fill it with mercury and while thus filled plunge the open end into a vessel of mercury it will be found that the amount of mercury remaining in the tube above the level of the mercury in the vessel will weigh about fifteen pounds
if the experiment has been performed at sea level this will vary however according to the temperature of the air of course barometers are tested when the air is at a certain temperature if the weight of mercury in the tube is fifteen pounds
since it is sustained by the air pressing down on the mercury in the open vessel it shows that the air pressure on that open vessel is equal to fifteen pounds to the square inch in practice of course the tubes are made very much smaller
because the pressure on the mercury in the open vessel is less than fifteen pounds to the square inch and again conditions may arise that will condense the air and make it for the time being weigh more than fifteen pounds to the square inch in which case the mercury will rise in the tube
thus it will be seen that the barometer will register the slightest change in air pressure let us dwell for a moment on the causes of what are commonly called changes of weather when we will again revert to the use of the barometer
the use of the telegraph in connection with the establishment of a weather bureau having stations for observation at convenient points throughout the country has contributed much to the science of meteorology it is found that there are areas of high and low pressure existing at the same time
in different parts of the country these usually have their origin in the far northwest and follow each other sweeping down the eastern side of the rocky mountains and gradually bending easterly and from that to northeasterly by the time they reach the atlantic coast
the areas of low pressure are called cyclones while the areas of high pressure are called anti cyclones by cyclone we do not mean those cloud funnels commonly called by that name that form at certain times of the year in certain sections of the country and produce such destruction of life and property
these storms are usually confined to a narrow strip and are short lived they arise undoubtedly from local conditions a description of these tornadoes for such is their true name will be given in some future chapter
these centers of high and low pressure may be several hundred miles apart in the area of high pressure if it is in the winter season the weather is unusually clear and cold and generally clear
at this point it will be warmer and winds will prevail with rain or snow the winds varying in direction and intensity at a given point as the cyclone moves forward in the center of these cyclones and anti cyclones there will be a region of comparative calm
and the air is ascending at the center of the area of low pressure while it is pouring in on all sides from the area of high pressure where the air is compressed by a downward current from the upper regions the high pressure or anti cyclone system
usually covers a larger area than the low pressure system where the air is ascending while the air moves laterally from high to low it does not move in a direct line the air movement
outside of the high pressure center is usually not at a very high speed but in northern latitudes in the direction of the hands of a clock as it circles around it widens out spirally until it reaches the edge of a low pressure system
when it bends in its course and moves in the other direction around this center but constantly moving inward toward it in a spiral form and in a direction that is reverse to that of the hands of a clock
the velocity of its movement is very much accelerated until it has moved into the zone of quiet air in the center where it is ascending in the upper regions of the atmosphere there are counter currents flowing in the opposite direction
the downward flow at the area of high pressure compresses the air near the surface of the earth and rarefies it in the higher regions of the atmosphere while the opposite effect is going on over the center of low pressure the air being rarefied nearer the surface of the earth
but condensed above normal in the higher regions by the upward current which causes an overflow back toward the rarefied upper regions over the area of high pressure it will be observed that the ordinary storm has a compound motion
the whole system moves in an easterly direction while the winds are blowing spirally about the storm center if we should be in the track of a moving storm so that its center passed over us the winds at the beginning would blow in one direction
when we should feel the wind in the opposite direction until the area of low pressure had moved forward into the region of high pressure
the steeper the grade the more rapidly the fluid will flow let us now have recourse for a moment to figs one two and three in order that the subject may be more fully understood in looking at these diagrams we should imagine ourselves looking south
one of high and the other of low pressure the arrows show the general direction of the wind you will notice that in the upper regions it blows in an opposite direction from the air movement on the surface of the earth
how the wind moves spirally around both centers over the area of high pressure the air descends spirally from the upper regions circling around a large area
and circles outwardly until it finally moves off in the direction of a low pressure area gradually bending in the other direction until finally it moves the reverse of the hands of a clock
it moves spirally and upwardly about the low pressure area until it reaches a point in the upper air
now imagine the whole combination moving from west to east at an average rate of thirty miles per hour and imagine further that this system is linked to other systems that are following along
and you have some idea of the weather changes as they occur in the middle united states by referring to fig three you will see why the wind changes its direction when a storm center passes over any point
and see what part it plays in predicting changes in the weather
and owing to the peculiar way it ascends by circling spirally upward around a region of comparative calm it creates a partial vacuum which is more pronounced in the center of the area
at the area of high pressure the air will be condensed by the descending current being arrested by the earth the descending current coming as it does from the upper and colder regions accounts for the cool weather that most always prevails at a high pressure area
in order to know how great the change of weather is likely to be we must know what the readings of at least two barometers are one at the high and another at the low pressure area if the difference between the readings of the two barometers is very great
we may expect the change to be sudden and violent high and low as applied to a barometer are only relative terms there is no fixed point on the index of the instrument that can be said to be arbitrarily high or low
for this reason a single barometer is not of much use if it begins to fall from any point and falls rapidly it indicates that an area of a much lower pressure is approaching the same is true of a high pressure area if the barometer rises rapidly from any point
if we study the air motions in these systems sufficiently to get at least an inkling of the law of their movements it becomes a very interesting subject
years ago i attended at some inconvenience a large public meeting because i heard that lucretia mott was to speak after several addresses a slight lady with white cap and drab quaker dress came forward though well in years
her eyes were bright her smile was winsome
and the manner had such naturalness and grace as a queen might envy i have forgotten the words forgotten even the subject but the benign presence and gracious smile i shall never forget
her father thomas coffin was a sea captain of staunch principle her mother a woman of great energy wit and good sense the children's pleasures were such as a plain country home afforded when missus coffin went to visit her neighbors she would say to her daughters
now after you have finished knitting twenty bouts
when lucretia was twelve years old the family moved to boston at first all the children attended a private school but captain coffin fearing this would make them proud
years after lucretia said
which but for this experience i might never have known a year later she was sent to a friends boarding school at nine partners new york both boys and girls attended this school but were not permitted to speak to each other unless they were near relatives if so
they could talk a little on certain days over a certain corner of the fence between the playgrounds
such grave precautions did not entirely prevent the acquaintance of the young people for when a lad was shut up in a closet on bread and water lucretia and her sister supplied him with bread and butter under the door this boy was a cousin of the teacher james mott
who was fond of the quick witted school girl so that it is probable that no harm came to her from breaking the rules at fifteen lucretia was appointed an assistant teacher and she and mister mott with a desire to know more of literature
and quite possibly more of each other began to study french together he was tall with light hair and blue eyes and shy in manner she petite with dark hair and eyes quick in thought and action and fond of mirth
when she was eighteen and james twenty one the young teachers were married and both went to her father's home in philadelphia to reside he assisting in mister coffin's business
the war of eighteen twelve brought financial failure to many and young mott soon found himself with a wife and infant daughter to support and no work hoping that he could obtain a situation with an uncle in new york state he took his family thither
but came back disappointed finally he found work in a plow store at a salary of six hundred dollars a year captain coffin meantime had died leaving his family poor james could do so little for them all with his limited salary
that he determined to open a small store but the experiment proved a failure his health began to be affected by this ill success when lucretia with her brave heart said my cousin and i will open a school thee must not get discouraged james
the school was opened with four pupils each paying seven dollars a quarter the young wife put so much good cheer and earnestness into her work that soon there were forty pupils in the school mister mott's prospects now brightened for he was earning one thousand dollars a year
the young couple were happy in their hard work for they loved each other and love lightens all care and labor but soon a sorrow worse than poverty came their only son thomas a most affectionate child
died saying with his latest breath i love thee mother it was a crushing blow but it proved a blessing in the end leading her thoughts heavenward a few months afterwards her voice was heard for the first time in public in prayer in one of the friends meetings
the words were simple earnest eloquent the good quakers marvelled and encouraged the gift they did not ask whether man or woman brought the message so it came from heaven and now at twenty five having resigned her position as teacher
she began close study of the bible and theological books she had four children to care for did all her sewing even cutting and making her own dresses but she learned what every one can learn to economize time her house was kept scrupulously clean
she says i omitted much unnecessary stitching and ornamental work in the sewing for my family so that i might have more time for the improvement of my mind
for novels and light reading i never had much taste the ladies department in the periodicals of the day had no attraction for me she would lay a copy of william penn's ponderous volumes open at the foot of her bed
and drawing her chair close to it with her baby on her lap would study the book diligently a woman of less energy and less will power than young missus mott would have given up all hope of being a scholar she read the best books in philosophy and science
john stuart mill and dean stanley though widely different were among her favorite authors james mott was now prospering in the cotton business so that they could spare time to go in their carriage and speak at the quaker meetings in the surrounding country
lucretia would be so absorbed in thought as not to notice the beauties of the landscape which her husband always greatly enjoyed pointing out a fine view to her she replied yes it is beautiful now that thou points it out
from a child she was deeply interested for the slave she had read in her school books clarkson's description of the slave ships and these left an impression never to be effaced
when december fourth eighteen thirty three a convention met in philadelphia for the purpose of forming the american anti slavery society lucretia mott was one of the four women who braved the social obloquy as friends of the despised abolitionists
she spoke and was listened to with attention immediately the philadelphia female anti slavery society was formed and missus mott became its president and its inspiration
so unheard of a thing was an association of women and so unaccustomed were they to the methods of organization that they were obliged to call a colored man to the chair to assist them the years of martyrdom which followed we at this day can scarcely realize
anti slavery lecturers were tarred and feathered mobs in new york and philadelphia swarmed the streets burning houses and breaking church windows in the latter city they surrounded the hall of the abolitionists where the women were holding a large convention
and missus mott was addressing them all day long they cursed and threw stones and as soon as the women left the building they burned it to ashes then wrought up to fury the mob started for the house of james and lucretia mott knowing that they were coming
the calm woman sent her little children away and then in the parlor with a few friends peacefully awaited a probable death in the turbulent throng was a young man who while he was no friend of the colored man could not see lucretia mott harmed
with skilful ruse as they neared the house he rushed up another street shouting at the top of his voice on to motts and the wild crowd blindly followed wreaking their vengeance in another quarter a year later in delaware where missus mott was speaking
one of her party a defenceless old man was dragged from the house and tarred and feathered she followed begging the men to desist and saying that she was the real offender but no violent hands were laid upon her at another time
when the annual meeting of the anti slavery society in new york was broken up by the mob some of the speakers were roughly handled perceiving that several ladies were timid missus mott said to the gentleman who was accompanying her won't thee look after some of the others
but who will take care of you he said with great tact and a sweet smile she answered this man laying her hand on the arm of one of the roughest of the mob
the astonished man had like others a tender heart beneath the roughness and with respectful manner took her to a place of safety the next day going into a restaurant she saw the leader of the mob and immediately sat down by him and began to converse
her kindness and her sweet voice left a deep impression as he went out of the room he asked at the door who is that lady why that is lucretia mott for a second he was dumbfounded but he added well she's a good sensible woman
in eighteen thirty nine a world's convention was called at london to debate the slavery question among the delegates chosen were james and lucretia mott wendell phillips and his wife and others
missus mott was jubilant at the thought of the world's interest in this great question and glad for an opportunity to cross the ocean and enjoy a little rest and the pleasure of meeting friends who had worked in the same cause when the party arrived they were told to their astonishment
that no women were to be admitted to the convention as delegates they had faced mobs and ostracism they had given money and earnest labor but they were to be ignored william lloyd garrison hurt at such injustice
refused to take part in the convention and sat in the gallery with the women although missus mott did not speak in the assembly the dublin herald said nobody doubts that she was the lioness of the convention
she was entertained at public breakfasts and at these spoke with the greatest acceptance to both men and women the duchess of sutherland and lady byron showed her great attention
carlyle was much pleased with the quaker lady whose quiet manner had a soothing effect on him wrote missus carlyle to a friend at glasgow she held a delighted audience for nearly two hours in breathless attention said the press
after some months of devoted christian work along with sight seeing mister and missus mott started homeward he had spoken less frequently than his wife but always had been listened to with deep interest
her heart was moved toward a large number of irish emigrants in the steerage and she desired to hold a religious meeting among them when asked about it they said they would not hear a woman preacher for women priests were not allowed in their church
then she asked that they would come together and consider whether they would have a meeting this seemed fair and they came she explained to them that she did not intend to hold a church service that as they were leaving their old homes and seeking new ones in her country
she wanted to talk with them in such a way as would help them in the land of strangers and then if they would listen they were all the time listening very eagerly she would give an outline of what she had intended to say if the meeting had been held at the close when all had departed
there is no tendency in any substance to rise of itself but the lighter substance rises because it is forced to do so by the heavier which displaces it this law lies at the bottom of all of the phenomena of air currents if we are at certain points on the seashore in the summer time
we may notice that about nine o'clock in the morning a breeze will spring up from the ocean and blow toward the land this will increase in intensity until about two o'clock in the afternoon when it has reached its maximum velocity and from this time it gradually diminishes
until in the evening there will be a season of calm the same as there was in the early morning the explanation of this peculiar action of the air is found in the fact that during the day the land is heated much more rapidly on its surface than the water is
the radiant energy from the sun is suddenly arrested at the surface of the earth which is heated to only a very shallow depth while in the water it is different being transparent it is penetrated by the radiant energy to a much greater depth
and does not suddenly arrest it as is the case on land as the sun rises and the rays strike in a more and more vertical direction the earth becomes rapidly and intensely heated at its surface and this in turn heats the stratum of air next above it
which is pressing on it with a force of fifteen pounds to the square inch at sea level when air is heated it expands and as it expands it grows lighter the stratum lying upon the earth as soon as it becomes heated moves upward
and its place is occupied by the heavier cooler air that flows in from the sides we can now see that if there is a strong ascending current of air on the land near the ocean the cooler air from the surface of the ocean
will flow in to take the place of the warmer and lighter air that is driven upward really by the force of gravity which causes the heavier fluid to keep the lowest level as the earth grows hotter this movement is more and more rapid
which causes the flow of colder air to be quickened and hence the increasing force of the wind as the sun mounts higher in the heavens
but when it has passed the point of maximum heating intensity and the earth begins to cool by radiation the movements of air currents begin to slow up until along in the evening a point is reached where the surface of the earth and that of the
and there is no longer any cause for change of position in the air the earth heats up quickly and it also cools quickly especially if there is green grass and vegetation while they are poor conductors of heat they are excellent radiators
so that when the sun's rays are no longer active the earth cools down rapidly and soon passes the point where there is an equilibrium between the land and water the water possesses the opposite quality it is slow to become heated because of a much larger mass that is affected
and is equally slow to give up the heat and the consequence is that after the sun has set the land cools so much faster than the water that we soon have the opposite condition and the sea is warmer than the land which makes the air at that point lighter
and which in turn causes the denser or colder air from the land to flow toward the ocean and displace the lighter air and force it upward hence we have a land instead of a sea breeze
so that the normal condition in summer is that of a breeze from the ocean toward the land during part of the day and a corresponding breeze from the land to the ocean during part of the night with a period of no wind during the morning and evening of each day
the forces that work to produce all the varying phenomena of air currents on different portions of the earth are difficult to explain as there are so many local conditions of heat and cold and these are modified by the advancing and receding seasons
the unequal distribution of land and water upon the earth's surface the readiness with which some portions absorb and radiate heat as compared with others the tall ranges of mountains many of them snow capped
the lowlands adjacent to them that become intensely heated under the sun's rays the diversity of coastline and the fact that there is a zone of continually heated earth and water in the tropical regions
all these conditions coupled with the fact that the earth rotates on its axis once in twenty four hours are certainly sufficient to account for all the complicated phenomena of aerial changes on the various portions of the earth's surface
and can be reckoned upon for the use of commerce if you trace the line of the equator you will notice that for more than three quarters of the distance it passes through the water the water as we have explained in the last chapter becomes gradually heated to a considerable depth
and when once saturated with heat is slow to give it up
with the exception of certain circumscribed portions of the land the result is that this heated equatorial zone is constantly sending up warm air caused by the inrush of colder air which is heavier than the air at the equator
expanded by the heat the warm air at the equator is forced up into the higher regions of the atmosphere and here it overflows each way north and south causing a current of air in the upper regions counter to that of the lower
as it travels north and south it gradually drops as it becomes cooler and finally at some point north and south its course is changed and it flows in again toward the equator
as a matter of fact the trade winds do not flow apparently from the north and south directly toward the equator but in an oblique direction on the north side of the equator we have a northeasterly wind and a southeasterly wind on the south side
this is caused by the rotation of the earth from west to east the direction of the trade wind however is more apparent than real the earth in its diurnal revolutions travels at the rate of a little more than one thousand miles an hour at the equator
but if we should travel northward to within four miles say of the north pole
at some point equidistant between the north pole and the equator the surface of the earth will be moving at a rate say of five hundred miles an hour
if we could fire a projectile from this point that would have a carrying power to take it to the equator some time after the projectile was fired although it would fly in a perfectly direct line it would appear to anyone at the equator who observed its approach
to be moving from a northeasterly direction the reason is that the earth is traveling twice as fast at the equator as it is at the point whence the projectile is fired therefore it will overshoot so to speak at the equator
and not be dragged around by the increased motion we find there to make this still plainer
the projectile would appear to anyone standing at the equator to come directly from the north if however the earth is revolving at the rate of one thousand miles an hour at the equator to the eastward and the projectile was fired from the pole where there is practically no motion
in the same direction along the longitudinal lines as before the observer would have to be in a position on the equator one thousand miles west of this longitudinal line in order to see the projectile when it arrived therefore the apparent movement of the projectile
would not be along the line at the instant that it was fired but along a line that would cross the equator at a point one thousand miles west when a southward impulse is given to the air it follows to some extent the same law so that to one standing on the equator
the northern trade wind will blow from the northeast
there are two other regions of calms in the ocean one at the north at the tropic of cancer and another at the south near the tropic of capricorn as has been stated there are currents flowing back in the upper regions at the equator north and south and these are called the upper trades
the lower currents being called the lower trades these upper trades gradually fall till they reach the tropic of cancer on the north where the lower part of the current stops and bends back toward the equator now becoming a part of the lower trade wind
this causes a calm at that point where it turns the upper parts of this current continue on in a northerly and southerly direction on the surface until they meet with the cold air of the north and south polar regions
where there is a conflict of the elements as there always is when cold and warm currents meet the only point where the trade wind has free play is in the south indian ocean and this is called the heart of the trades
and its thunder drowned for a minute
the nilghai looked at his watch and said shortly that's the paris night mail you can book from here to saint petersburg if you choose dick crammed head and shoulders out of the window and looked across the river
binkie making himself as large as possible
well said the nilghai to the two pairs of shoulders have you never seen this place before a steam tug on the river hooted as she towed her barges to wharf then the boom of the traffic came into the room
torpenhow nudged dick good place to bank in bad place to bunk in dickie isn't it
still looking out on the darkness my god what a city to loot binkie found the night air tickling his whiskers and sneezed plaintively
if it isn't closed by the time you want to go there
allah forbid i shall get away before that time comes give a man room to stretch his legs mister binkie dick flung himself down on the sofa and tweaked binkie's velvet ears yawning heavily the while
you'll find that wardrobe case very much out of tune torpenhow said to the nilghai it's never touched except by you a piece of gross extravagance dick grunted
the life of the nilghai is fraud and slaughter his writings are watered dickens and water but the voice of the nilghai raised on high
dick quoted from torpenhow's letterpress in the nungapunga book
the man laughed singing was his one polite accomplishment as many press tents in far off lands had known what shall i sing said he turning in the chair moll roe in the morning said torpenhow at a venture no
said dick sharply and the nilghai opened his eyes the old chanty whereof he among a very few possessed all the words was not a pretty one but dick had heard it many times before without wincing
without prelude he launched into that stately tune that calls together and troubles the hearts of the gipsies of the sea farewell and adieu to you spanish ladies farewell and adieu to you ladies of spain
dick turned uneasily on the sofa for he could hear the bows of the barralong
we'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas until we take soundings in the channel of old england from ushant to scilly
thirty five thirty five said dick petulantly don't tamper with holy writ go on nilghai the first land we made it was called the deadman and they sang to the end very vigourously
that would be a better song if her head were turned the other way to the ushant light for instance said the nilghai flinging his arms about like a mad windmill said torpenhow give us something else nilghai you're in fine fog horn form tonight
give us the ganges pilot you sang that in the square the night before el maghrib by the way i wonder how many of the chorus are alive to night said dick torpenhow considered for a minute by jove
vincent caught smallpox in cairo carried it here and died of it yes only you and i
with a policeman at each corner say that i charge too much for my pictures they are buying your work not your insurance policies dear child said the nilghai i gambled with one to get at the other don't preach go on with the pilot
where in the world did you get that song
i made it an accompaniment with heaps of base chords oh vanity begin and the nilghai began
i'm drifting down with the tide i have my sailing orders while yet an anchor ride and never on fair june morning have i put out to sea with clearer conscience or better hope
shoulder to shoulder joe my boy into the crowd like a wedge strike with the hangers messmates but do not cut with the edge cries charnock scatter the faggots double that brahmin in two
the tall pale widow for me joe the little brown girl for you young joe you're nearing sixty why is your hide so dark katie has soft fair blue eyes who blackened yours why hark
they were all singing now dick with the roar of the wind of the open sea about his ears as the deep bass voice let itself go
the arquebuses to me i ha sounded the dutch high admiral's heart as my lead doth sound the sea
moore me close to charnock next to my nut brown bride my blessing to kate at fairlight holwell my thanks to you steady we steer for heaven through sand drifts cold and blue
now what is there in that nonsense to make a man restless said dick hauling binkie from his feet to his chest it depends on the man said torpenhow the man who has been down to look at the sea
i didn't know she was going to upset me in this fashion that's what men say when they go to say good bye to a woman
but a woman can be began dick unguardedly a piece of one's life continued torpenhow no she can't his face darkened for a moment she says she wants to sympathise with you
to ask why the dickens you haven't been wasting your time with her don't generalise said the nilghai by the time you arrive at five notes a day you must have gone through a good deal and behaved accordingly shouldn't begin these things my son
said dick just a little anxious to change the conversation and you shouldn't have sung the sea isn't sending you five notes a day said the nilghai no but i'm fatally compromised
hear him blaspheming his first love why in the world shouldn't you listen to her said torpenhow before dick could reply the nilghai lifted up his voice with a shout that shook the windows in the men of the sea that begins as all know
the sea is a wicked old woman
ends in a refrain slow as the clacking of a capstan when the boat comes unwillingly up to the bars where the men sweat and tramp in the shingle
for the call is on our heart strings said the men of the sea the nilghai sang that verse twice with simple cunning intending that dick should hear but dick was waiting for the farewell of the men to their wives
ye that love us can ye move us she is dearer than ye and your sleep will be the sweeter said the men of the sea the rough words beat like the blows of the waves
on the bows of the rickety boat from lima in the days when dick was mixing paints making love drawing devils and angels in the half dark and wondering whether the next minute would put the italian captain's knife between his shoulder blades
and know the sea once more and by her beget pictures to talk to binat among the sands of port said while yellow tina mixed the drinks to hear the crackle of musketry
and see the smoke roll outward thin and thicken again till the shining black faces came through and in that hell every man was strictly responsible for his own head and his own alone and struck with an unfettered arm
it was impossible utterly impossible but oh our fathers in the churchyard she is older than ye and our graves will be the greener said the men of the sea what is there to hinder
said torpenhow in the long hush that followed the song you said a little time since that you wouldn't come for a walk round the world torp that was months ago and i only objected to your making money for travelling expenses
you've shot your bolt here and it has gone home
and grasping a handful of dick generally over the right ribs soft as putty pure tallow born of over feeding train it off dickie
we're all equally gross nilghai next time you have to take the field you'll sit down wink your eyes gasp and die in a fit
there's always trouble in south america do you suppose i want to be told where to go great heavens the only difficulty is to know where i'm to stop
said torpenhow are you thinking of commissions in hand pay forfeit and go you've money enough to travel as a king if you please
i think i see myself shipping first class on a six thousand ton hotel and asking the third engineer what makes the engines go round and whether it isn't very warm in the stokehold
i shall compromise and go for a small trip to begin with that's something at any rate where will you go said torpenhow it would do you all the good in the world old man
i shall go in the first place to rathray's stable where i shall hire one horse and take him very carefully as far as richmond hill then i shall walk him back again in case he should accidentally burst into a lather
i shall do that to morrow for the sake of air and exercise bah dick had barely time to throw up his arm and ward off the cushion that the disgusted torpenhow heaved at his head air and exercise indeed said the nilghai sitting down heavily on dick
let's give him a little of both get the bellows torp at this point the conference broke up in disorder because dick would not open his mouth till the nilghai held his nose fast and there was some trouble in forcing the nozzle of the bellows between his teeth
and the enemy becoming helpless with laughter he so beat them over the head
which he did after a while travelling rapidly up and down the floor in the shape of an agitated green haggis and when he came out looking for satisfaction
a prophet has no honour in his own country said dick ruefully dusting his knees this filthy fluff will never brush off my legs it was all for your own good said the nilghai nothing like air and exercise
all for your good said torpenhow not in the least with reference to past clowning
indeed it would old man i shouldn't have spoken if i hadn't thought so only you make a joke of everything before god i do no such thing said dick quickly and earnestly you don't know me if you think that
i don't think it said the nilghai how can fellows like ourselves who know what life and death really mean dare to make a joke of anything i know we pretend it to save ourselves from breaking down or going to the other extreme
and try to advise me to make my work better do you suppose i don't think about that myself but you can't help me you can't help me not even you i must play my own hand alone in my own way hear hear from the nilghai
what's the one thing in the nilghai saga that i've never drawn in the nungapunga book dick continued to torpenhow who was a little astonished at the outburst
now there was one blank page in the book given over to the sketch that dick had not drawn of the crowning exploit in the nilghai's life when that man being young and forgetting that his body and bones belonged to the paper that employed him
and for aught they knew twenty battalions in front to save the battered twenty fourth german infantry to give time to decide the fate of vionville and to learn ere their remnant came back to flavigay
that cavalry can attack and crumple and break unshaken infantry whenever he was inclined to think over a life that might have been better an income that might have been larger and a soul that might have been considerably cleaner
and take heart for any lesser battle the next day might bring i know he said very gravely i was always glad that you left it out i left it out because nilghai taught me what the germany army learned then
and what schmidt taught their cavalry i don't know german what is it take care of the time and the dressing will take care of itself i must ride my own line to my own beat old man tempe ist richtung
you've learned your lesson well said the nilghai he must go alone he speaks truth torp maybe i'm as wrong as i can be hideously wrong
i must find that out for myself as i have to think things out for myself but i daren't turn my head to dress by the next man
because i'm responsible for both only don't think i frivol about it torp i have my own matches and sulphur and i'll make my own hell thanks there was an uncomfortable pause then torpenhow said blandly
what did the governor of north carolina say to the governor of south carolina
there are the makings of a very fine prig in you dick said the nilghai i've liberated my mind estimable binkie with the feathers in his mouth dick picked up the still indignant one and shook him tenderly
you're tied up in a sack and made to run about blind binkie wee without any reason and it has hurt your little feelings never mind
and don't sneeze in my eye because i talk latin good night he went out of the room that's distinctly one for you said the nilghai i told you it was hopeless to meddle with him he's not pleased
he'd swear at me if he weren't i can't make it out he has the go fever upon him and he won't go i only hope that he mayn't have to go some day when he doesn't want to said torpenhow
and a burning desire to exploit both
he decided after all the honeymoon will be that tour with reservations only
i didn't feel it so much when i was with maisie these damnable songs did it
through every step of the impetuous flight to london for he was indeed down and done for masterful no longer but rather a little abject neither an artist stronger than she nor a man to be looked up to
she was immensely and unfeignedly sorry for him more sorry than she had ever been for any one in her life but not sorry enough to deny his words so
because she had honestly intended that her journey should end triumphantly and now she was only filled with pity most startlingly distinct from love well said dick
i never meant to worry you any more what's the matter he was conscious that maisie was catching her breath but was as unprepared as herself for the torrent of emotion that followed
she had dropped into a chair and was sobbing with her face hidden in her hands i can't i can't she cried desperately indeed i can't it isn't my fault
i'm so sorry oh dickie i'm so sorry
for the words lashed like a whip
it is not good to realise that you have failed in the hour of trial or flinched before the mere possibility of making sacrifices i do despise myself indeed i do
but i can't oh dickie you wouldn't ask me would you wailed maisie she looked up for a minute and by chance it happened that dick's eyes fell on hers
the unshaven face was very white and set and the lips were trying to force themselves into a smile but it was the worn out eyes that maisie feared her dick had gone blind
i told you how it would be what's the use of worrying for pity's sake don't cry like that it isn't worth it you don't know how i hate myself oh dick help me
he stumbled forward and put his arm round her and her head fell on his shoulder hush dear hush don't cry you're quite right and you've nothing to reproach yourself with you never had
you're only a little upset by the journey and i don't suppose you've had any breakfast
i wanted to come i did indeed she protested very well and now you've come and seen and i'm immensely grateful
when you're better you shall go away and get something to eat what sort of a passage did you have coming over maisie was crying more subduedly for the first time in her life glad that she had something to lean against
dick patted her on the shoulder tenderly but clumsily for he was not quite sure where her shoulder might be she drew herself out of his arms at last and waited trembling and most unhappy
he had felt his way to the window to put the width of the room between them and to quiet a little the tumult in his heart are you better now he said yes but
my god i isn't isn't there anything i could do for you then i'll stay here in england to do it if you like perhaps i could come and see you sometimes i think not dear
it would be kindest not to see me any more please
don't you think perhaps you had almost better go now he was conscious that he could not bear himself as a man if the strain continued much longer i don't deserve anything else i'll go dick
nonsense you've nothing to worry about i'd tell you if you had wait a moment dear i've got something to give you first i meant it for you ever since this little trouble began it's my melancolia
she was a beauty when i last saw her you can keep her for me and if ever you're poor you can sell her she's worth a few hundreds at any state of the market he groped among his canvases
she's framed in black is this a black frame that i have my hand on there she is what do you think of her he turned a scarred formless muddle of paint towards maisie
and the eyes strained as though they would catch her wonder and surprise one thing and one thing only could she do for him well the voice was fuller
maisie looked at the blur and a lunatic desire to laugh caught her by the throat but for dick's sake whatever this mad blankness might mean she must make no sign
won't you have it then i'll send it over to your house if you will i
she turned and ran choking and blinded
and go to her house across the parks there she sat down in the dismantled drawing room and thought of dick in his blindness useless till the end of life and of herself in her own eyes
behind the sorrow the shame and the humiliation lay fear of the cold wrath of the red haired girl when maisie should return maisie had never feared her companion before not until she found herself saying
did she realise her scorn of herself
for dick was reserved more searching torment he could not realise at first that maisie whom he had ordered to go had left him without a word of farewell he was savagely angry against torpenhow
who had brought upon him this humiliation and troubled his miserable peace then his dark hour came and he was alone with himself and his desires to get what help he could from the darkness the queen could do no wrong
but in following the right so far as it served her work she had wounded her one subject more than his own brain would let him know
and i've lost it he said as soon as the misery permitted clear thinking and torp will think that he has been so infernally clever that i shan't have the heart to tell him
i must think this out quietly hullo said torpenhow entering the studio after dick had enjoyed two hours of thought i'm back are you feeling any better
torp i
come here dick coughed huskily wondering indeed what he should say and how to say it temperately what's the need for saying anything get up and tramp
torpenhow was perfectly satisfied they walked up and down as of custom torpenhow's hand on dick's shoulder and dick buried in his own thoughts
said dick at last you shouldn't go off your head if you want to keep secrets dickie it was absolutely impertinent on my part but if you'd seen me rocketing about
there will be a charivari in my rooms to night seven other devils
the row in the southern soudan i surprised their councils the other day and it made me unhappy have you fixed your flint to go
haven't signed any contracts yet i wanted to see how your business would turn out
things had gone wrong he put his question cautiously don't ask me too much i'm only a man you've tried to be an angel very successfully oh ye es well
do you attend the function to night we shall be half screwed before the morning
and meditate i don't blame you you observe a good time if ever a man did that night there was a tumult on the stairs
to torpenhow's room that they might discuss their plan of campaign in the event of military operations becoming a certainty
had bidden all the men they had worked with to the orgy and mister beeton the housekeeper declared that never before in his checkered experience had he seen quite such a fancy lot of gentlemen
they waked the chambers with shoutings and song and the elder men were quite as bad as the younger for the chances of war were in front of them and all knew what those meant
dick suddenly began to laugh to himself when one comes to think of it the situation is intensely comic maisie's quite right poor little thing i didn't know she could cry like that before
but now i know what torp thinks i'm sure he'd be quite fool enough to stay at home and try to console me if he knew besides
i must carry this business through alone as usual if there isn't a war and torp finds out
if there is a way i mustn't interfere with another man's chances business is business and i want to be alone i want to be alone what a row they're making
somebody hammered at the studio door come out and frolic dickie said the nilghai i should like to but i can't i'm not feeling frolicsome
then i'll tell the boys and they'll drag you like a badger please not old man on my word i'd sooner be left alone just now very good
cassavetti is beginning to sing songs of the sunny south already for one minute dick considered the proposition seriously no thanks
virtuous child that's the effect of emotion on the young all my congratulations dick
go to the devil oh send binkie in here the little dog entered on elastic feet riotous from having been made much of all the evening
that this was no place for tail wagging and settled himself on dick's lap till it was bedtime then he went to bed with dick
and rose in the morning with a painfully clear head to receive torpenhow's more formal congratulations and a particular account of the last night's revels you aren't looking very happy for a newly accepted man said torpenhow
never mind that it's my own affair and i'm all right do you really go yes
they wired and i accepted on better terms than before when do you start the day after to morrow for brindisi thank god dick spoke from the bottom of his heart
but men in your condition are allowed to be selfish
that's a slender amount for housekeeping isn't it
marriage expenses torpenhow brought him the money counted it out in fives and tens and carefully put it away in the writing table now i suppose i shall have to listen to his ravings about his girl until i go
heaven send us patience with a man in love he said to himself
he hung in the doorway of torpenhow's room when the latter was packing and asked innumerable questions about the coming campaign till torpenhow began to feel annoyed you're a secretive animal dickie and you consume your own smoke don't you
he said on the last evening i i suppose so
days weeks or months one can never tell it may go on for years
i wish i were going good heavens you're the most unaccountable creature hasn't it occurred to you that you're going to be married thanks to me of course yes i'm going to be married
so i am going to be married i'm awfully grateful to you haven't i told you that you might be going to be hanged by the look of you said torpenhow
its advantages and disadvantages its beauty and its ugliness its morality and immorality she had somewhat receded from her first position that it was better being here in the great strange city than being at home where the very streets shamed them
she had not liked the way that their fellow lodger looked at kitty it was bold to say the least she was not pleased either with their new acquaintance's familiarity and yet he had said no more than some stranger
if there could be such a stranger would have said down home there was a difference however which she recognised thomas was not the provincial who puts every one on a par with himself nor was he the metropolitan who complacently patronises the whole world
missus jones assurance as to her guest's fine qualities did not do all that might have been expected to reassure missus hamilton in the face of the difficulties
she could not however lay her finger on any particular point that would give her the reason for rejecting his friendly advances she got ready the next evening to go to the theatre with the rest mister thomas at once possessed himself of kitty
and walked on ahead leaving joe to accompany his mother and missus jones an arrangement by the way not altogether to that young gentleman's taste
at the door of the theatre they had to run the gantlet of a dozen pairs of eyes
i wonder who that little light girl is that thomas is with to night he s a hot one for you missus hamilton had been in a theatre but once before in her life and joe and kit but a few times oftener
on those occasions they had sat far up in the peanut gallery in the place reserved for people of colour this was not a pleasant cleanly nor beautiful locality and by contrast with it even the garishness of the cheap new york theatre seemed fine and glorious
they had good seats in the first balcony and here their guide had shown his managerial ability again for he had found it impossible or said so to get all the seats together so that he and the girl were in the row in front and to one side of where the rest sat
kitty did not like the arrangement and innocently suggested that her brother take her seat while she went back to her mother
she could not urge them again
without any feeling of its ugliness she looked at the curtain as at a door that should presently open between her and a house of wonders she looked at it with the fascination that one always experiences for what either brings near or withholds the unknown as for joe
he was not bothered by the mystery or the glamour of things but he had suddenly raised himself in his own estimation
of course he went hot and cold by turns and the sweat broke out on his brow but instantly he began to swell he had made a decided advance in knowledge and he swelled with the consciousness that already he was coming to be a man of the world
he looked with a new feeling at the swaggering sporty young negroes his attitude towards them was not one of humble self depreciation any more since last night he had grown and felt that he might that he would be like them and it put a sort of chuckling glee into his heart
down home he had shaved the wild young bucks of the town and while doing it drunk in eagerly their unguarded narrations of their gay exploits
that made him see everything wrong as he sat there to night he gave to all he saw a wrong value and upon it based his ignorant desires when the men of the orchestra filed in and began tuning their instruments
it was the signal for an influx of loiterers from the door
and because members of their own race were giving the performance they seemed to take a proprietary interest in it all they discussed its merits and demerits as they walked down the aisle in much the same tone that the owners would have used had they been wondering whether the entertainment was going to please the people or not
then the curtain went up on a scene of beauty
with the exception of one who looked like a faded kid glove the men discarded the grease paint but the women under their make ups ranged from pure white pale yellow
but they could sing and they did sing with their voices their bodies their souls
and they gave almost a semblance of dignity to the tawdry music and inane words
but take the same cheese cloth put a little water starch into it and put it on the stage and she could see only chiffon she turned around and nodded delightedly at her brother but he did not see her he was lost transfixed
his soul was floating on a sea of sense he had eyes and ears and thoughts only for the stage his nerves tingled and his hands twitched only to know one of those radiant creatures to have her speak to him smile at him if ever a man was intoxicated joe was
missus hamilton was divided between shame at the clothes of some of the women and delight with the music her companion was busy pointing out who this and that actress was and giving jelly like appreciation to the doings on the stage
mister thomas was the only cool one in the party he was quietly taking stock of his young companion of her innocence and charm she was a pretty girl little and dainty but well developed for her age her hair was very black and wavy
and some strain of the south's chivalric blood which is so curiously mingled with the african in the veins of most coloured people had tinged her skin to an olive hue
his voice was very confidential and his lips near her ear but she did not notice oh yes she answered this is grand how i d like to be an actress and be up there maybe you will some day oh no i m not smart enough
we ll see he said wisely i know a thing or two between the first and second acts a number of thomas's friends strolled up to where he sat and began talking
they treated her with a half courteous familiarity that made her blush her mother was not pleased with the many acquaintances that her daughter was making
joe looked at them hungrily but the man in front with his sister did not think it necessary to include the brother or the rest of the party in his miscellaneous introductions one brief bit of conversation which the mother overheard especially troubled her
not going out for a minute or two asked one of the men as he was turning away from thomas
whenever you can keep old bill from goin out an lushin between acts say you got a good thing push it along the girl's mother half rose but she resumed her seat for the man was going away
her mind was not quiet again however until the people were all in their seats and the curtain had gone up on the second act at first she was surprised at the enthusiasm over just such dancing as she could see any day from the loafers on the street corners down home
and then like a good sensible humble woman
so she laughed and applauded with the rest all the while trying to quiet something that was tugging at her away down in her heart when the performance was over she forced her way to kitty's side
where she remained in spite of all thomas's palpable efforts to get her away finally he proposed that they all go to supper at one of the coloured cafes
chapter twenty an unsafe position on receiving the alcoholic douche calhoun had clutched his six shooter and drawn it from its holster he only waited to get the whisky out of his eyes before advancing upon his adversary
the mustanger anticipating this action had armed himself with a similar weapon and stood ready to return the fire of his antagonist shot for shot the more timid of the spectators had already commenced making their escape out of doors tumbling over one another
in their haste to get out of harm's way a few stayed in the saloon from sheer irresolution a few others of cooler courage from choice or perhaps actuated by a more astute instinct
which told them that in attempting to escape they might get a bullet in the back there was an interval some six seconds of silence during which a pin might have been heard falling upon the floor it was but the interlude that often occurs between resolution and action
when the mind has completed its task and the body has yet to begin it might have been more brief with other actors on the scene two ordinary men would have blazed away at once and without reflection
but the two now confronting each other were not of the common kind both had seen street fighting before had taken part in it and knew the disadvantage of an idle shot
each was determined to take sure aim on the other it was this that prolonged the interval of inaction to those outside who dared not even look through the doors the suspense was almost painful the cracking of the pistols which they expected every moment to hear
it was almost a disappointment when instead they heard the voice of the major who was among the few who had stayed inside raised in a loud authoritative tone hold commanded he in the accent of one accustomed to be obeyed
at the same time whisking his sabre out of its scabbard and interposing its long blade between the disputants hold your fire i command you both drop your muzzles or by the almighty i'll take the arm off the first of you that touches trigger
hold i say why shouted calhoun purple with angry passion why major ringwood after an insult like that and from a low fellow
damn me if i care i shall be the last to let it pass unpunished stand out of the way major the quarrel is not yours you have no right to interfere indeed ha ha sloman hancock crossman hear that
i have no right to interfere hark ye mister cassius calhoun ex captain of volunteers know you where you are sir don't fancy yourself in the state of mississippi among your slave whipping chivalry this sir is a military post under military law
my humble self its present administrator i therefore command you to return your six shooter to the holster from which you have taken it this instant too or you shall go to the guard house like the humblest soldier in the cantonment
indeed sneeringly replied the mississippian what a fine country you intend texas to become i suppose a man mustn't fight however much aggrieved without first obtaining a licence from major ringwood is that to be the law of the land
you shall be quite at liberty you and your antagonist to kill one another if it so please you but not just now you must perceive mister calhoun that your sport endangers the lives of other people who have not the slightest interest in it
i've no idea of being bored by a bullet not intended for me wait till the rest of us can withdraw to a safe distance and you may crack away to your heart's content now sir will that be agreeable to you
had the major been a man of ordinary character his commands might have been disregarded but to his official weight as chief officer of the post was added a certain reverence due to seniority in age
and who allowed no trilling with his authority his sabre had not been unsheathed by way of empty gesticulation the disputants knew it and by simultaneous consent lowered the muzzles of their pistols still holding them in hand
calhoun stood with sullen brow gritting his teeth like a beast of prey momentarily withheld from making attack upon its victim while the mustanger appeared to take things as coolly as if neither angry nor an irishman
i suppose you are determined upon fighting said the major knowing that there was not much chance of adjusting the quarrel i have no particular wish for it modestly responded maurice if mister calhoun will apologise for what he has said and also what he has done
he ought to do it he began the quarrel suggested several of the bystanders never scornfully responded the ex captain cash calhoun ain't accustomed to that sort of thing apologise indeed and to a masquerading monkey like that
enough cried the young irishman for the first time showing serious anger i gave him a chance for his life he refuses to accept it and now by the mother of god we don't both leave this room alive
major i insist that you and your friends withdraw i can stand his insolence no longer ha ha ha responded the southerner with a yell of derisive laughter a chance for my life clear out all of ye clear out and let me at him
stay cried the major hesitating to turn his back upon the duellist it's not quite safe you may fancy to begin your game of touch trigger a second too soon we must get out of doors before you do
besides gentlemen he continued addressing himself to those around him there should be some system about this if they are to fight let it be fair for both sides let them be armed alike and go at it on the square
by all means chorused the half score of spectators turning their eyes towards the disputants to see if they accepted the proposal neither of you can object continued the major interrogatively
i sha'n't object to anything that's fair assented the irishman devil a bit i shall fight with the weapon i hold in my hand doggedly declared calhoun agreed the very weapon for me was the rejoinder of his adversary
so far all right you're armed exactly alike have they any other weapons inquired young hancock suspecting that under the cover of his coat the ex captain had a knife i have none answered the mustanger with a frankness that left no doubt as to his speaking the truth
all eyes were turned upon calhoun who appeared to hesitate about making a reply he saw he must declare himself of course he said i have my toothpick as well you don't want me to give up that a man ought to be allowed to use whatever weapon he has got
but captain calhoun pursued hancock your adversary has no knife if you are not afraid to meet him on equal terms you should surrender yours certainly he should cried several of the bystanders he must he must
come mister calhoun said the major in a soothing tone six shots ought to satisfy any reasonable man without having recourse to the steel before you finish firing one or the other of you damn the knife interrupted calhoun unbuttoning his coat
then drawing forth the proscribed weapon and flinging it to the farthest corner of the saloon he added in a tone of bravado intended to encowardice his adversary i sha'n't want it for such a spangled jay bird as that i'll fetch him out of his boots at the first shot
time enough to talk when you've done something to justify it cry boo to a goose but don't fancy your big words are going to frighten me mister calhoun quick gentlemen i'm impatient to put an end to his boasting and blasphemy
hound frantically hissed out the chivalric southerner low dog of an irish dam i'll send you howling to your kennel i'll shame captain calhoun interrupted the major seconded by other voices
this talk is idle as it is unpolite in the presence of respectable company have patience a minute longer and you may then say what you like now gentlemen he continued addressing himself to the surrounding there is only one more preliminary to be arranged
a difficulty here presented itself how was the engagement to be given a simple promise would scarce be sufficient in a crisis like that the combatants one of them at least
there must be a signal pursued the major neither should fire till that be given can any one suggest what it is to be i think i can said the quiet captain sloman advancing as he spoke
there is as you perceive a door at each end of the room i see no difference between them let them enter again one at each door with the understanding that neither is to fire before setting foot across the threshold
capital the very thing replied several voices and what for a signal demanded the major a shot no ring the tavern bell nothing could be better nothing fairer
conclusively declared the major making for one of the doors that led outward into the square mein gott major screamed the german boniface rushing out from behind his bar where up to this time he had been standing transfixed with fear
surely the shentlemens pe not going to shoot their pisthols inside the shaloon ach they'll preak all my pottles and my shplendid looking glashes an my crystal clock that hash cost me von two hundred dollars they'll shpill my
ach major it'll ruin me mein gott it will never fear oberdoffer rejoined the major pausing to reply no doubt you'll be paid for the damage at all events you had better betake yourself to some place of safety
if you stay in your saloon you'll stand a good chance of getting a bullet through your body and that would be worse than the preaking of your pottles without further parley the major parted from the unfortunate landlord and hurried across the threshold into the street
whither the combatants who had gone out by separate doors had already preceded him old duffer left standing in the middle of his sanded floor
she knew that although he worked he never had any money for the house and she foresaw the time when the little they had would no longer suffice for kitty and her realising this she herself set out to find something to do
it was a hard matter for wherever she went seeking employment it was always for her and her daughter
at first the girl grew wistful and then impatient and rebellious she complained that joe was away from them so much enjoying himself while she had to be housed up like a prisoner she had receded from her dignified position
but as that gentleman never included the mother in his invitation she decided that her daughter should go no more and she begged joe to take his sister out sometimes instead
he demurred at first for he now numbered among his city acquirements a fine contempt for his woman relatives finally however he consented and took kit once to the theatre
the quick poison of the unreal life about her had already begun to affect her character she had grown secretive and sly the innocent longing which in a burst of enthusiasm she had expressed that first night at the theatre was growing into a real ambition with her
and she dropped the simple old songs she knew to practise the detestable coon ditties which the stage demanded she showed no particular pleasure when her mother found the sort of place they wanted but went to work with her in sullen silence
missus hamilton could not understand it all and many a night she wept and prayed over the change in this child of her heart there were times when she felt that there was nothing left to work or fight for the letters from berry in prison became fewer and fewer
he was sinking into the dull dead routine of his life her own letters to him fell off it was hard getting the children to write
so in the weeks and months that followed she drifted farther away from her children and husband and all the traditions of her life after joe's first night at the banner club he had kept his promise to hattie sterling and had gone often to meet her
she had taught him much because it was to her advantage to do so his greenness had dropped from him like a garment
he knew that she was much older than he but he only took this fact as an additional sign of his prowess in having won her
he was proud of himself when he went behind the scenes at the theatre or waited for her at the stage door and bore her off under the admiring eyes of a crowd of gapers and hattie she liked him in a half contemptuous half amused way
so she was willing to overlook his weakness and his callow vanity look here she said to him one day i guess you ll have to be moving there s a young lady been inquiring for you to day and i won't stand for that
who is it it s a girl named minty brown from your home his face turned brick red with fear and shame minty brown he stammered had that girl told all and undone him
but hattie was going on about her work and evidently knew nothing oh you need n't pretend you don't know her she went on banteringly
to supper he thought was she mocking him was she restraining her scorn of him only to make his humiliation the greater after a while
joe was driven by a tempest of conflicting emotions if minty brown had not told his story why not would she yet tell and if she did what would happen he tortured himself by questioning if hattie would cast him off
at the very thought his hand trembled and the man in the chair asked him if he had n't been drinking when he met minty in the evening however the first glance at her reassured him her face was wreathed in smiles as she came forward and held out her hand
well well joe hamilton she exclaimed if i ain't right down glad to see you how are you i m middlin minty how s yourself
an jes look at the boy ef he ain't got the impidence to be waihin a mustache too you must a been lettin the cats lick yo upper lip
no indeed what you doin here
i allus was mighty anxious to see this hyeah town but tell me how s kit an yo ma they re both right well
he hesitated for a moment he knew how his mother if not kit would receive her and yet he dared not anger this woman who had his fate in the hollow of her hand she saw his hesitation and spoke up
then he hastened home to prepare the way for minty's coming
but he had reckoned without his host missus hamilton might make certain concessions to strangers on the score of expediency but she absolutely refused to yield one iota of her dignity to one whom she had known so long as an inferior
but don't you see what she can do for us ma she knows people that i know and she can ruin me with them i ain't never bowed my haid to minty brown
i ain't a goin to do it i m ashamed o you kitty fu wantin me to
you ll see what ll happen he cried you ll see fannie looked at her son and she seemed to see him more clearly than she had ever seen him before his foppery his meanness his cowardice well she answered with a sigh
she left hattie sterling's soon after joe and he was still walking the floor and uttering dire forebodings when she rang the bell below and asked for the hamiltons missus jones ushered her into her fearfully upholstered parlour
and then puffed up stairs to tell her lodgers that there was a friend there from the south who wanted to see them
no no kitty broke in
and perceiving that something was amiss had come to the stairs to listen now her voice striving hard to be condescending and sweet but growing harsh with anger floated up from below
an dey was run out o town missus jones gasped and then turned and went hastily downstairs kit burst out crying afresh and joe walked the floor muttering beneath his breath while the mother sat grimly watching the outcome
finally they heard missus jones step once more on the stairs she came in without knocking and her manner was distinctly unpleasant mis hamilton she said i ve had a talk with the lady downstairs an she s tol me everything
i m kin o sorry but everybody in the house heard what mis brown said
i reckon all dat kin be splained
she flashed a vindictive glance at the girl who turned deadly pale and dropped her head in her hands you daih to say dat mis jones you dat fust interduced my gal to dat man and got huh to go out wid him
joe got out of the house as soon as possible he did not speak to kit nor look at his mother he felt like a cur because he knew deep down in his heart that he had only been waiting for some excuse to take this step
as he slammed the door behind him his mother flung herself down by kit's side and mingled her tears with her daughter's but kit did not raise her head
but the girl did not speak she only shook with hard sobs then her mother raised her head and almost screamed my gawd not you kit the girl rose and then dropped unconscious in her mother's arms
it was late in the evening when they reached the little town but spargo having looked in at the parlour of the yellow dragon and ascertained that mister quarterpage had only just gone home took breton across the street
nothing would satisfy him but that the two should go in his family he said had just retired but he himself was going to take a final nightcap and a cigar and they must share it for a few minutes only then mister quarterpage said spargo as they followed the old man into his dining room
we have to be up at daybreak and possibly you too would like to be up just as early mister quarterpage looked an enquiry over the top of a decanter which he was handling at daybreak he exclaimed the fact is said spargo that grave of chamberlayne's is going to be opened at daybreak
the officials in charge of it have come down in the same train with us we're all staying across there at the dragon the officials have gone to make the proper arrangements with your authorities
and i suppose now that you know of it you'll be there god bless me exclaimed mister quarterpage you've really done that well well so we shall know the truth at last after all these years
and this other young gentleman spargo looked at breton who had already given him permission to speak mister quarterpage he said this young gentleman is without doubt john maitland's son he's the young barrister mister ronald breton that i told you of but
decanter and glass and hastened to give breton his hand my dear young sir he exclaimed that i will indeed and as to wishing you well
but well to your poor father he was led away sir led away by chamberlayne god bless me what a night of surprises why mister spargo supposing that coffin is found empty what then then answered spargo then i think we shall
be able to put our hands on the man who is supposed to be in it you think my father was worked upon by this man chamberlayne sir observed breton a few minutes later when they had all sat down round mister quarterpage's hospitable hearth
chamberlayne my dear young sir he answered
nobody knew anything about him until he came to this town and yet before he had been here very long he had contrived to ingratiate himself with everybody of course to his own advantage
it would never have been any surprise to me to hear definitely i mean young gentlemen that all this money that was in question went into chamberlayne's pockets
and you really believe that chamberlayne is actually alive mister spargo spargo pulled out his watch we shall all know whether he was buried in that grave before another six hours are over mister quarterpage he said he might well have spoken of four hours instead of six for it was
market milcaster and the sea was white with fog
everything around them was quiet as the dead folk who lay beneath their feet
a dreadful thing if there is a dead man there said spargo
in upon the dead he watched all that was done the men employed by the local authorities instructed over night had fenced in the grave with canvas the proceedings were accordingly conducted in strict privacy a man was posted to keep away
at first there was nothing to do but wait and spargo occupied himself by reflecting that every spadeful of earth thrown out of that grave was bringing him nearer to the truth he had an unconquerable intuition that the truth
and that the body of the stockbroker chamberlayne then a good deal of his spargo's latest theory would be dissolved to nothingness but if that coffin contained no body at all then they're down to it whispered breton presently they all went and looked down into the grave
one of them was brushing the earth away from the name plate
they could all read the lettering on it james cartwright chamberlayne born eighteen fifty two died eighteen ninety one spargo turned away as the men began to lift the coffin out of the grave we shall know now he whispered to breton and yet
what is it we shall know if if what said breton if what but spargo shook his head
and the issues were tremendous now for it said the watchman's solicitor in an undertone
worked them out it seemed to spargo that each man grew slower and slower in his movements he felt that he himself was getting fidgety then he heard a voice of authority lift the lid off a man at the head of the coffin a man at the foot suddenly and swiftly raised the lid
the men gathered round craned their necks with a quick movement sawdust the coffin was packed to the brim with sawdust tightly pressed down the surface lay smooth undisturbed levelled as some hand had levelled it long years before
him with a smile it is evident that there were good grounds for suspicion he remarked here is no dead body gentlemen see if anything lies beneath the sawdust he added turning to the workmen turn it out the workmen began to scoop out the sawdust with their hands
one of them evidently desirous of making sure that no body was in the coffin thrust down his fingers at various places along its length he too laughed the coffin's weighted with lead he remarked see and tearing the sawdust aside he showed those around him that
done it cleverly he remarked looking round you see how these weights have been adjusted when a body's laid out in a coffin you know all the weight's in the end where the head and trunk rest here you see the heaviest bar of lead is in the middle the lightest at the feet clever
let's see if there's anything else there was something else at the bottom of the coffin
forced his way to where the officials from the home office and the solicitor sent by the watchman were hastily examining their discoveries the first bundle of papers opened evidently related to transactions at market milcaster
spargo caught glimpses of names that were familiar to him mister quarterpage's amongst them
a quantity of papers relating to cloudhampton and the hearth and home mutual benefit society were revealed he gave a hasty glance at these and drew breton aside
it strikes me we've found a good deal more than we ever bargained for he exclaimed didn't aylmore say that the real culprit at cloudhampton was another man his clerk or something of that sort he did agreed breton he insists on it then this fellow chamberlayne must have been the man said spargo he came to market milcaster from the north
what they may reveal you don't indeed said spargo but i may as well tell you that i have a strong belief that they'll reveal a good deal that nobody dreams of so take the greatest care of them then without waiting for further talk with any one spargo hurried breton out of the cemetery at the gate he seized him by the arm
a great deal you said if we found that coffin empty it is empty come on quick all right i believe i know where elphick and cardlestone can be found that's all all it's enough
right away up in one of the wildest parts of the yorkshire moors i expect they've gone there nobody knows even their names there
so loud it would have made each thunder faint which counter to it following its way mine eyes directed wholly to one place after the dolorous discomfiture
when charlemagne the holy emprise lost so terribly orlando sounded not short while my head turned thitherward i held when many lofty towers i seemed to see whereat i
master say what town is this and he to me because thou peerest forth athwart the darkness at too great a distance
well shalt thou see if thou arrivest there how much the sense deceives itself by distance therefore a little faster spur thee on
one and all of them as when the fog is vanishing away little by little doth the sight refigure whate'er the mist that crowds the air conceals so piercing through the dense and darksome air
more and more near approaching tow'rd the verge my error fled and fear came over me because as on its circular parapets
e'en thus the margin which surrounds the well with one half of their bodies turreted the horrible giants whom jove menaces e'en now from out the heavens when he thunders
and i of one already saw the face shoulders and breast and great part of the belly
and if of elephants and whales she doth not repent her
more just and more discreet will hold her for it for where the argument of intellect is added unto evil will and power no rampart can the people make against it
his face appeared to me as long and large as is at rome the pine cone of saint peter's and in proportion were the other bones so that the margin which an apron was down from the middle
showed so much of him above it that to reach up to his hair
for i beheld thirty great palms of him down from the place where man his mantle buckles
to which were not befitting sweeter psalms
soul idiotic keep to thy horn and vent thyself with that when wrath or other passion touches thee search round thy neck
here let us leave him and not speak in vain for even such to him is every language as his to others which to none is known therefore a longer journey did we make
turned to the left and a crossbow shot oft we found another far more fierce and large in binding him who might the master be i cannot say but he had pinioned close behind the right arm and in front the other
with chains that held him so begirt about from the neck down that on the part uncovered it wound itself as far as the fifth gyre this proud one wished to make experiment of his own power against the supreme jove
he showed great prowess what time the giants terrified the gods the arms he wielded never more he moves and i to him if possible
i should wish that of the measureless briareus these eyes of mine might have experience whence he replied thou shalt behold antaeus close by here
who can speak and is unbound who at the bottom of all crime shall place us
save that he seems in aspect more ferocious there never was an earthquake of such might that it could shake a tower so violently
if i had not beheld the manacles then we proceeded farther in advance
who full five ells without the head forth issued from the cavern o thou who in the valley fortunate which scipio the heir of glory made when hannibal turned back with all his hosts
once brought'st a thousand lions for thy prey and who hadst thou been at the mighty war among thy brothers some it seems still think the sons of earth the victory would have gained
place us below nor be disdainful of it
make us not go to tityus nor typhoeus
therefore stoop down and do not curl thy lip still in the world can he restore thy fame because he lives and still expects long life if to itself grace call him not untimely
draw nigh that i may take thee then of himself and me one bundle made as seems the carisenda to behold beneath the leaning side when goes a cloud above it so that opposite it hangs
such did antaeus seem to me who stood watching to see him stoop and then it was i could have wished to go some other way but lightly in the abyss which swallows up judas with lucifer
he put us down nor thus bowed downward made he there delay but as a mast does in a ship uprose inferno
i would press out the juice of my conception more fully but because i have them not not without fear i bring myself to speak
for tis no enterprise to take in jest to sketch the bottom of all the universe nor for a tongue that cries mamma and babbo
who helped amphion in enclosing thebes that from the fact the word be not diverse o rabble ill begotten above all who're in the place to speak of which is hard
twere better ye had here been sheep or goats when we were down within the darksome well beneath the giant's feet but lower far and i was scanning still the lofty wall i heard it said to me
look how thou steppest take heed thou do not trample with thy feet the heads of the tired miserable brothers whereat i turned me round and saw before me and underfoot a lake
that from the frost the semblance had of glass and not of water so thick a veil ne'er made upon its current in winter time danube in austria nor there beneath the frigid sky the don
when is dreaming of gleaning oftentimes the peasant girl livid as far down as where shame appears were the disconsolate shades within the ice setting their teeth unto the note of storks
each one his countenance held downward bent from mouth the cold from eyes the doleful heart among them witness of itself procures when round about me
somewhat i had looked i downward turned me and saw two so close the hair upon their heads together mingled
tell me i said who are you
clamp never bound together wood with wood so strongly whereat they like two he goats butted together so much wrath o'ercame them
and one who had by reason of the cold lost both his ears still with his visage downward said why dost thou so mirror thyself in us if thou desire to know who these two are
the valley whence bisenzio descends belonged to them and to their father albert they from one body came and all caina thou shalt search through and shalt not find a shade more worthy to be fixed in gelatine
not he in whom were broken breast and shadow at one and the same blow by arthur's hand focaccia not not he who me encumbers so with his head i see no farther forward
and bore the name of sassol mascheroni well knowest thou who he was if thou art tuscan and that thou put me not to further speech know that i
was and wait carlino to exonerate me then i beheld a thousand faces made purple with cold
where everything of weight unites together and i was shivering in the eternal shade
but in walking mong the heads i struck my foot hard in the face of one weeping he growled why dost thou trample me unless thou comest to increase the vengeance of montaperti
why dost thou molest me and i my master now wait here for me that i through him may issue from a doubt then thou mayst hurry me as thou shalt wish the leader stopped
who art thou that thus reprehendest others now who art thou
other people's cheeks so that if thou wert living twere too much living i am and dear to thee it may be was my response if thou demandest fame that mid the other notes thy name i place
and he to me for the reverse i long take thyself hence and give me no more trouble for ill thou knowest to flatter in this hollow then by the scalp behind i seized upon him and said
it must needs be thou name thyself or not a hair remain upon thee here whence he to me though thou strip off my hair i will not tell thee who i am nor show thee
if on my head a thousand times thou fall i had his hair in hand already twisted
when cried another what doth ail thee bocca
what devil touches thee now said i
he weepeth here the silver of the french i saw
if thou shouldst questioned be who else was there
of whom the gorget florence slit asunder
already we had gone away from him when i beheld two frozen in one hole so that one head a hood was to the other
and even as bread through hunger is devoured the uppermost on the other set his teeth there where the brain is to the nape united not in another fashion tydeus gnawed the temples of menalippus in disdain
than that one did the skull and the other things
but if my words be seed that may bear fruit of infamy to the traitor whom i gnaw speaking and weeping shalt thou see together
but a florentine thou seemest to me truly when i hear thee thou hast to know i was count ugolino and this one was ruggieri the archbishop now i will tell thee why i am such a neighbour
trusting in him i was made prisoner and after put to death i need not say but ne'ertheless what thou canst not have heard that is to say how cruel was my death
hear shalt thou and shalt know if he has wronged me a narrow perforation in the mew which bears because of me the title of famine
had shown me through its opening many moons already when i dreamed the evil dream which of the future rent for me the veil this one appeared to me as lord and master
and with sharp tushes it seemed to me i saw their flanks ripped open when i before the morrow was awake moaning amid their sleep i heard my sons who with me were and asking after bread
what art thou wont to weep at they were awake now and the hour drew nigh at which our food used to be brought to us and through his dream was each one apprehensive
and i heard locking up the under door of the horrible tower whereat without a word i gazed into the faces of my sons i wept not i within so turned to stone
they wept and darling little anselm mine said thou dost gaze so father what doth ail thee still not a tear i shed nor answer made all of that day
nor yet the night thereafter until another sun rose on the world as now a little glimmer made its way into the dolorous prison
both of my hands in agony i bit and thinking that i did it from desire of eating on a sudden they uprose and said they father
much less pain twill give us if thou do eat of us thyself didst clothe us with this poor flesh and do thou strip it off i calmed me then not to make them more sad
that day we all were silent and the next ah obdurate earth wherefore didst thou not open when we had come unto the fourth day
gaddo threw himself down outstretched before my feet saying my father why dost thou not help me
whence i betook me already blind to groping over each and three days called them after they were dead then hunger did what sorrow could not do when he had
said this with his eyes distorted the wretched skull resumed he with his teeth which as a dog's upon the bone were strong ah pisa
thou opprobrium of the people of the fair land there where the si doth sound since slow to punish thee thy neighbours are
let the capraia and gorgona move and make a hedge across the mouth of arno that every person in thee it may drown for if count ugolino had the fame of having in thy castles thee betrayed
not downward turned but all of them reversed weeping itself there does not let them weep and grief that finds a barrier in the eyes turns itself inward to increase the anguish
because the earliest tears a cluster form and in the manner of a crystal visor fill all the cup beneath the eyebrow full and notwithstanding that as in a callus
is not below here every vapour quenched
lift from mine eyes the rigid veils that i may vent the sorrow which impregns my heart a little e'er the weeping recongeal whence i to him if thou wouldst have me help thee
and if i free thee not may i go to the bottom of the ice then he replied
who here a date am getting for my fig o said i to him now art thou too dead and he to me how may my body fare up in the world no knowledge i possess
his body by a demon is taken from him who thereafter rules it until his time has wholly been revolved
itself down rushes into such a cistern and still perchance above appears the body of yonder shade that winters here behind me this thou shouldst know if thou hast just come down
i think said i to him thou dost deceive me for branca d oria is not dead as yet and eats and drinks and sleeps and puts on clothes in moat above said he
in his own body and one near of kin who made together with him the betrayal
and to be rude to him was courtesy
seems alive inferno
towards us therefore look in front of thee my master said if thou discernest him as when there breathes a heavy fog or when our hemisphere is darkening into night
appears far off a mill the wind is turning methought that such a building then i saw and for the wind i drew myself behind my guide because there was no other shelter
now was i and with fear in verse i put it there where the shades were wholly covered up
others stand erect this with the head and that one with the soles another bow like face to feet inverts when in advance so far we had proceeded
the creature who once had the beauteous semblance
and made me stop saying behold dis and behold the place where thou with fortitude must arm thyself how frozen i became and powerless then ask it not reader
being of both deprived the emperor of the kingdom dolorous from his mid breast forth issued from the ice and better with a giant i compare than do the giants with those arms of his
consider now how great must be that whole
and lifted up his brow against his maker
o what a marvel it appeared to me when i beheld three faces on his head the one in front and that vermilion was two were the others that were joined with this
above the middle part of either shoulder and they were joined together at the crest and the right hand one seemed twixt white and yellow the left was such to look upon as those who come from where the nile falls valley ward
underneath each came forth two mighty wings
sails of the sea i never saw so large no feathers had they but as of a bat their fashion was and he was waving them
thereby
at every mouth he with his teeth was crunching a sinner in the manner of a brake so that he three of them tormented thus
which has the greatest pain the master said is judas iscariot with head inside he plies his legs without of the two others who head downward are
the one who hangs from the black jowl is brutus see how he writhes himself and speaks no word and the other who so stalwart seems is cassius but night is reascending
and tis time that we depart for we have seen the whole as seemed him good i clasped him round the neck
and when the wings were opened wide apart he laid fast hold upon the shaggy sides from fell to fell descended downward then between the thick hair and the frozen crust
when we were come to where the thigh revolves exactly on the thickness of the haunch the guide with labour and with hard drawn breath
panting as one fatigued must we perforce depart from so much evil then through the opening of a rock he issued and down upon the margin seated me
then tow'rds me he outstretched his wary step i lifted up mine eyes and thought to see lucifer in the same way i had left him and i beheld him upward hold his legs
and if i then became disquieted let stolid people think who do not see what the point is beyond which i had passed rise up the master said upon thy feet
the way is long and difficult the road and now the sun to middle tierce returns it was not any palace corridor there where we were but dungeon natural
with floor uneven and unease of light ere from the abyss i tear myself away my master said i when i had arisen to draw me from an error speak a little
thou still imaginest thou art beyond the centre where i grasped the hair of the fell worm who mines the world that side thou wast so long as i descended
and now beneath the hemisphere art come
and neath whose cope was put to death the man who without sin was born and lived
here it is morn when it is evening there
still fixed remaineth as he was before upon this side he fell down out of heaven
for fear of him made of the sea a veil and came to our hemisphere and peradventure to flee from him
a place there is below from beelzebub as far receding as the tomb extends which not by sight is known
of a small rivulet that there descendeth
the guide and i into that hidden road now entered to return to the bright world and without care of having any rest we mounted up he first and i the second
till i beheld through a round aperture some of the beauteous things that heaven doth bear
a concert a catastrophe and a confession marilla
so i don't think you're very badly off to see her again but she wants to see me pleaded anne she has something very important to tell me how do you know she has
two flashes mean are you there three mean yes and four no
diana has just signaled five flashes and i'm really suffering to know what it is well you needn't suffer any longer said marilla sarcastically you can go but you're to be back here in just ten minutes remember that
anne did remember it and was back in the stipulated time although probably no mortal will ever know just what it cost her to confine the discussion of diana's important communication within the limits of ten minutes but at least she had made good use of them
oh marilla what do you think you know tomorrow is diana's birthday well her mother told her she could ask me to go home with her from school and stay all night with her
and they are going to take diana and me to the concert if you'll let me go that is you will won't you marilla oh i feel so excited you can calm down then because you're not going
i'm sure the debating club is a most respectable affair pleaded anne i'm not saying it isn't
that will be just about the same thing as a sermon please mayn't i go marilla you heard what i said anne didn't you take off your boots now and go to bed it's past eight there's just one more thing marilla
said anne with the air of producing the last shot in her locker missus barry told diana that we might sleep in the spare room bed
opened his eyes and said decidedly well now marilla
i don't then retorted marilla who's bringing this child up matthew you or me well now you admitted matthew don't interfere then well now i ain't interfering
it ain't interfering to have your own opinion and my opinion is that you ought to let anne go
but i don't approve of this concert plan
it would unsettle her for a week i understand that child's disposition and what's good for it better than you matthew i think you ought to let anne go repeated matthew firmly argument was not his strong point but holding fast to his opinion certainly was
marilla gave a gasp of helplessness and took refuge in silence the next morning when anne was washing the breakfast dishes in the pantry matthew paused on his way out to the barn to say to marilla again i think you ought to let anne go marilla
for a moment marilla looked things not lawful to be uttered then she yielded to the inevitable and said tartly very well she can go since nothing else'll please you anne flew out of the pantry dripping dishcloth in hand
i guess once is enough to say them
don't blame me blame matthew anne shirley you're dripping greasy water all over the floor i never saw such a careless child
said anne repentantly i make so many mistakes but then just think of all the mistakes i don't make although i might i'll get some sand and scrub up the spots before i go to school oh marilla my heart was just set on going to that concert i never was to a concert in my life
but you see matthew did matthew understands me and it's so nice to be understood marilla anne was too excited to do herself justice as to lessons that morning in school
she and diana talked so constantly about it all day that with a stricter teacher than mister phillips dire disgrace
anne felt that she could not have borne it if she had not been going to the concert for nothing else was discussed that day in school the avonlea debating club which met fortnightly all winter had had several smaller free entertainments
but this was to be a big affair admission ten cents in aid of the library
and all the scholars were especially interested in it by reason of older brothers and sisters who were going to take part everybody in school over nine years of age expected to go except carrie sloane
they had a perfectly elegant tea and then came the delicious occupation of dressing in diana's little room upstairs
at last they were ready cheeks scarlet and eyes glowing with excitement true anne could not help a little pang when she contrasted her plain black tam and shapeless tight sleeved homemade gray cloth coat
with diana's jaunty fur cap and smart little jacket but she remembered in time that she had an imagination and could use it then diana's cousins the murrays from newbridge came
they all crowded into the big pung sleigh among straw and furry robes
there was a magnificent sunset and the snowy hills and deep blue water of the saint lawrence gulf seemed to rim in the splendor like a huge bowl of pearl and sapphire brimmed with wine and fire
tinkles of sleigh bells and distant laughter that seemed like the mirth of wood elves came from every quarter oh diana breathed anne squeezing diana's mittened hand under the fur robe
isn't it all like a beautiful dream do i really look the same as usual
you've got the loveliest color
and as anne assured diana every succeeding thrill was thrillier than the last when prissy andrews attired in a new pink silk waist with a string of pearls about her smooth white throat and real carnations in her hair
when sam sloane proceeded to explain and illustrate how sockery set a hen anne laughed until people sitting near her laughed too more out of sympathy with her than with amusement at a selection that was rather threadbare even in avonlea
looking at prissy andrews at the end of every sentence anne felt that she could rise and mutiny on the spot if but one roman citizen led the way only one number on the program failed to interest her when gilbert blythe recited
bingen on the rhine anne picked up rhoda murray's library book and read it until he had finished
it was eleven when they got home sated with dissipation but with the exceeding sweet pleasure of talking it all over still to come
anne and diana tiptoed into the parlor a long narrow room out of which the spare room opened it was pleasantly warm and dimly lighted by the embers of a fire in the grate
sighed anne rapturously it must be splendid to get up and recite there do you suppose we will ever be asked to do it diana yes of course someday they're always wanting the big scholars to recite
i will take a walk round the town to inform myself what people say and particularly how they are pleased with my officers of justice if there be any against whom they have cause of just complaint we will turn them out and put others in their stead who shall officiate better
if on the contrary there be any that have gained their applause we will have that esteem for them which they deserve
and went out all three together they passed through several places and by several markets as they entered a small street they perceived by the light of the moon a tall man with a white beard who carried nets on his head and a staff in his hand
honest man said the vizier who art thou the old man replied sir i am a fisher but one of the poorest and most miserable of the trade i went from my house about noon a fishing
and from that time to this i have not been able to catch one fish at the same time i have a wife and small children and nothing to maintain them
hast thou the courage to go back and cast thy net once more we will give thee a hundred sequins for what thou shalt bring up at this proposal the fisherman forgetting all his day's toil
saying to himself as he went these gentlemen seem too honest and reasonable not to reward my pains
they came to the bank of the river and the fisherman having thrown in his net when he drew it again brought up a trunk close shut and very heavy the caliph made the grand vizier pay him one hundred sequins immediately and sent him away
when the trunk was opened they found in it a large basket made of palm leaves
they would not take time to undo it but cut the thread with a knife and took out of the basket a package wrapt up in a sorry piece of hanging and bound about with a rope which being untied they found to their great amazement the corpse of a young lady
whiter than snow all cut in pieces
his surprise was instantly changed into passion and darting an angry look at the vizier thou wretch said he is this your inspection into the actions of my people do they commit such impious murders under thy ministry in my capital
and throw my subjects into the tigris that they may cry for vengeance against me at the day of judgment
by the death of her murderer i swear by heaven that i will cause thee and forty more of thy kindred to be impaled commander of the faithful replied the grand vizier i beg your majesty to grant me time to make enquiry
i will allow thee no more said the caliph than three days the vizier jaaffier went home in great perplexity alas said he how is it possible that in such a vast and populous city as bagdad
who undoubtedly committed the crime without witness and perhaps may be already gone from hence any other vizier than i would take some wretched person out of prison and cause him to be put to death to satisfy the caliph but i will not burden my conscience with such a barbarous action
he ordered the officers of the police and justice to make strict search for the criminal they sent their servants about and they were not idle themselves for they were no less concerned in this matter than the vizier but all their endeavours were to no purpose
what pains soever they took they could not discover the murderer so that the vizier concluded his life to be lost the third day being arrived an officer came to the unfortunate minister with a summons to follow him which the vizier obeyed
commander of the faithful i have not found any person that could give me the least account of him
gave him many reproachful words and ordered that he and forty bermukkees should be impaled at the gate of the palace in the mean while the stakes were preparing and orders were sent to seize forty bermukkees in their houses
a public crier was sent about the city by the caliph's order to cry thus those who have a desire to see the grand vizier jaaffier impaled with forty of his kindred let them come to the square before the palace
when all things were ready the criminal judge and many officers belonging to the palace having brought out the grand vizier with the forty bermukkees set each by the stake designed for him
the multitude of people that filled the square could not without grief and tears behold this tragical sight
not only in bagdad but through all the dominions of the caliph nothing could prevent the execution of this prince's severe and irrevocable sentence and the lives of the most deserving people in the city
were just going to be sacrificed when a young man of handsome mien pressed through the crowd till he came up to the grand vizier
and comforter of the poor you are not guilty of the crime for which you stand here withdraw and let me expiate the death of the lady that was thrown into the tigris it is i who murdered her and i deserve to be punished for my offence
though these words occasioned great joy to the vizier yet he could not but pity the young man in whose look he saw something that instead of evincing guilt was engaging but as he was about to answer him a tall man advanced in years
who had likewise forced his way through the crowd came up to him saying do not believe what this young man tells you i killed that lady who was found in the trunk and this punishment ought only to fall upon me i conjure you in the name of god
not to punish the innocent for the guilty sir said the young man to the vizier i do protest that i am he who committed this vile act and nobody else had any concern in it my son said the old man
it is despair that brought you hither and you would anticipate your destiny
and it is time for me to be gone let me therefore sacrifice my life for yours sir said he again to the vizier i tell you once more i am the murderer let me die without delay
the controversy between the old and the young man induced the grand vizier to carry them both before the caliph to which the judge criminal consented being glad to serve the vizier
when he came before the prince he kissed the ground seven times and spake after this manner commander of the faithful i have brought here before your majesty this old and this young man each of whom declares himself to be the sole murderer of the lady
but the old man maintained the contrary go said the caliph to the grand vizier and cause them both to be impaled but sir said the vizier if only one of them be guilty
at these words the young man spoke again i swear by the great god who has raised the heavens so high that i am the man who killed the lady cut her in pieces and about four days ago threw her into the tigris
i renounce my part of happiness amongst the just at the day of judgment if what i say be not truth therefore i am he that ought to suffer
believed him especially since the old man made no answer whereupon turning to the young man wretch said he what made thee commit that detestable crime and what is it that moves thee to offer thyself voluntarily to die
they had young ones in a nest in a tree and used to carry off children to feed their nestlings until the whole country was desolated so the whole population went in a body to the raja and told him that they would have to leave the country if he could not have the kites killed
and thereupon many men tried to kill them but the kites had made their nest of ploughs and clod crushers so that the arrows could not hit them and the shooters had to give up the attempt
and then shot them both through the hole in a clod crusher into which the pole fits and the two kites fell down dead at the source of the ganges and jumna and where they fell they made a great depression in the ground then kara and guja
carried the bodies to the raja and he gave them a grant of land and their grateful neighbours made a large rice field of the depression which the kites had made in the earth and this was given to kara and guja as service land to their great delight
kara and guja used to spend their time in the forest living on what they could find there they slept in a cave and at evening would cook their rice there or roast jungle roots
one day a tiger spied them out as they were roasting tubers and came up to them suddenly and said what are you cooking
they threw him a bit of something good to eat the tiger would not go away but lay there expecting to be fed and kara and guja debated how to get rid of him then guja suddenly jumped up and dashed at the tiger and caught him by the tail and began to twist the tail
kara and guja roasted the tail and ate it and they found it so nice that they decided to hunt the tiger and eat the rest of him
but they did not eat the paunch kara wanted to eat it but guja would not let him so kara carried it away on his shoulder presently they sat down in the shade of a banyan tree by the side of a road and along the road came a raja's wedding procession
and some of them lay down to eat and the raja got out of his palki and lay down to sleep in the shade after a time kara got tired of holding the tiger's paunch in his arms and whispered to guja that he could hold it no longer
guja told him on no account to let it go but at last kara got so tired
then all the raja's attendants raised a shout that the raja's stomach had burst and all ran away in a panic leaving everything they had under the tree but after they had gone a little distance they thought of the goods they had left behind and how they could not continue the journey without them
and put them one by one into the drum when the raja's attendants came back and saw that there were two men in the tree they called out why have you dishonoured our raja we will kill you kara and guja answered come and see who will do the killing
so they began to fight and the raja's men fired their guns at kara and guja till they were tired of shooting and had used up all their powder and shot but they never hit them then kara and guja called out now it is our turn
and when the raja's men saw that kara and guja had nothing but a drum they said yes it is your turn
then kara and guja took all their belongings and went home
may be welded into a solid and compact body by an attack from a foreign power the imperative call to common defense the habit of sharing common burdens
act as an amalgam drawing together all elements except perhaps the most discordant the presence of the enemy allays the most virulent of quarrels temporarily at least politics runs an old saying
so well understood in diplomatic circles applied nearly as well to the original thirteen american colonies as to the countries of europe the necessity for common defense if not equally great was certainly always pressing
though it has long been the practice to speak of the early settlements as founded in a wilderness this was not actually the case from the earliest days of jamestown on through the years the american people were confronted by dangers from without
all about their tiny settlements were indians growing more and more hostile as the frontier advanced and as sharp conflicts over land aroused angry passions to the south and west was the power of spain
humiliated it is true by the disaster to the armada but still presenting an imposing front to the british empire to the north and west were the french ambitious energetic imperial in temper
and prepared to contest on land and water the advance of british dominion in america relations with the indians and the french indian affairs
it is difficult to make general statements about the relations of the colonists to the indians the problem was presented in different shape in different sections of america it was not handled according to any coherent or uniform plan by the british government
which alone could speak for all the provinces at the same time neither did the proprietors and the governors who succeeded one another in an irregular train
as the difficulties arose mainly on the frontiers where the restless and pushing pioneers were making their way with gun and ax nearly everything that happened was the result of chance rather than of calculation
personal treachery or a flash of bad temper often set in motion destructive forces of the most terrible character on one side of the ledger may be set innumerable generous records
of squanto and samoset teaching the pilgrims the ways of the wilds of roger williams buying his lands from the friendly natives or of william penn treating with them on his arrival in america
on the other side of the ledger must be recorded many a cruel and bloody conflict as the frontier rolled westward with deadly precision
sensing their doom fell upon the tiny settlements with awful fury in sixteen thirty seven only to meet with equally terrible punishment a generation later king philip son of massasoit the friend of the pilgrims
called his tribesmen to a war of extermination which brought the strength of all new england to the field and ended in his own destruction
virginia and her southern neighbors suffered as did new england in sixteen twenty two opecacano a brother of powhatan the friend of the jamestown settlers launched a general massacre and in sixteen forty four he attempted a war of extermination
in sixteen seventy five the whole frontier was ablaze nathaniel bacon vainly attempted to stir the colonial governor to put up an adequate defense and failing in that plea himself headed a revolt and a successful expedition against the indians
was likewise spared until her western vanguard came into full conflict with the allied french and indians
the english colonies engrossed with their own problems gave little or no thought to their distant neighbors
too small in population and too slight in strength to be much of a menace to boston hartford or new york it was the statesmen in france and england rather than the colonists in america who first grasped the significance of the slowly converging empires in north america
that sounded the first note of colonial alarm
owed their origins and their endings mainly to the intrigues and rivalries of european powers although they all involved the american colonies in struggles with the french and their savage allies the clash in the ohio valley
the second of these wars had hardly closed however before the english colonists themselves began to be seriously alarmed about the rapidly expanding french dominion in the west marquette and joliet
who opened the lake region and la salle who in sixteen eighty two had gone down the mississippi to the gulf had been followed by the builders of forts in seventeen eighteen the french founded new orleans thus taking possession of the gateway to the mississippi
as well as the saint lawrence
in seventeen thirty one they occupied crown point in seventeen forty nine they formally announced their dominion over all the territory drained by the ohio river having asserted this lofty claim
they set out to make it good by constructing in the years seventeen fifty two seventeen fifty four fort le boeuf near lake erie fort venango on the upper waters of the allegheny and fort duquesne
at the junction of the streams forming the ohio though they were warned by george washington in the name of the governor of virginia
and france austria spain and minor powers on the other on american soil the defeat of braddock in seventeen fifty five and wolfe's exploit in capturing quebec four years later were the dramatic features
on the continent of europe england subsidized prussian arms to hold france at bay in india on the banks of the ganges as on the banks of the saint lawrence british arms were triumphant well could the historian write
conquests equaling in rapidity and far surpassing in magnitude those of cortes and pizarro had been achieved in the east well could the merchants of london declare that under the administration of william pitt the imperial genius of this world wide conflict
commerce had been united with and made to flourish by war from the point of view of the british empire the results of the war were momentous by the peace of seventeen sixty three canada and the territory east of the mississippi
except new orleans passed under the british flag the remainder of the louisiana territory was transferred to spain and french imperial ambitions on the american continent were laid to rest
spain ceded to king george the colony of florida
chapter nineteen the battle field at night let us return it is a necessity in this book to that fatal battle field on the eighteenth of june the moon was full its light favored blucher's ferocious pursuit
betrayed the traces of the fugitives delivered up that disastrous mass to the eager prussian cavalry and aided the massacre such tragic favors of the night do occur sometimes during catastrophes after the last cannon shot had been fired
the plain of mont saint jean remained deserted the english occupied the encampment of the french it is the usual sign of victory to sleep in the bed of the vanquished they established their bivouac beyond rossomme
the prussians let loose on the retreating rout pushed forward wellington went to the village of waterloo to draw up his report to lord bathurst if ever the sic vos non vobis was applicable it certainly is to that village of waterloo
waterloo took no part and lay half a league from the scene of action mont saint jean was cannonaded
papelotte was burned plancenoit was burned la belle alliance beheld the embrace of the two conquerors these names are hardly known and waterloo which worked not in the battle bears off all the honor
we are not of the number of those who flatter war when the occasion presents itself we tell the truth about it war has frightful beauties which we have not concealed it has also we acknowledge some hideous features
one of the most surprising is the prompt stripping of the bodies of the dead after the victory the dawn which follows a battle always rises on naked corpses who does this who thus soils the triumph
what pickpockets are they who ply their trade in the rear of glory some philosophers voltaire among the number affirm that it is precisely those persons have made the glory it is the same men they say there is no relief corps
the hero of the day is the vampire of the night one has assuredly the right after all to strip a corpse a bit when one is the author of that corpse for our own part we do not think so
it seems to us impossible that the same hand should pluck laurels and purloin the shoes from a dead man one thing is certain which is that generally after conquerors follow thieves
but let us leave the soldier especially the contemporary soldier out of the question every army has a rear guard and it is that which must be blamed bat like creatures half brigands and lackeys
wearers of uniforms who take no part in the fighting pretended invalids formidable limpers interloping sutlers trotting along in little carts sometimes accompanied by their wives and stealing things which they sell again
beggars offering themselves as guides to officers soldiers servants marauders armies on the march in days gone by we are not speaking of the present dragged all this behind them so that in the special language they are called stragglers
no army no nation was responsible for those beings they spoke italian and followed the germans then spoke french and followed the english it was by one of these wretches a spanish straggler who spoke french
that the marquis of fervacques deceived by his picard jargon and taking him for one of our own men was traitorously slain and robbed on the battle field itself
the rascal sprang from this marauding the detestable maxim live on the enemy produced this leprosy which a strict discipline alone could heal there are reputations which are deceptive
one does not always know why certain generals great in other directions have been so popular
evil permitted constitutes part of goodness
the marauders in the train of an army were more or less in number according as the chief was more or less severe hoche and marceau had no stragglers wellington had few and we do him the justice to mention it
wellington was rigid he gave orders that any one caught in the act should be shot but rapine is tenacious the marauders stole in one corner of the battlefield while others were being shot in another the moon was sinister over this plain
towards midnight a man was prowling about
to all appearance he was one of those whom we have just described neither english nor french neither peasant nor soldier less a man than a ghoul attracted by the scent of the dead bodies having theft for his victory and come to rifle waterloo
he was clad in a blouse that was something like a great coat he was uneasy and audacious he walked forwards and gazed behind him who was this man the night probably knew more of him than the day
he had no sack but evidently he had large pockets under his coat from time to time he halted scrutinized the plain around him as though to see whether he were observed bent over abruptly
disturbed something silent and motionless on the ground then rose and fled his sliding motion his attitudes his mysterious and rapid gestures
and which ancient norman legends call the alleurs certain nocturnal wading birds produce these silhouettes among the marshes a glance capable of piercing all that mist deeply would have perceived at some distance
a sort of little sutler's wagon with a fluted wicker hood harnessed to a famished nag which was cropping the grass across its bit as it halted hidden as it were
at the angle of the road from mont saint jean to braine l'alleud
perhaps there was some connection between that wagon and that prowler the darkness was serene not a cloud in the zenith
the moon remains white these are the indifferences of the sky in the fields branches of trees broken by grape shot but not fallen upheld by their bark swayed gently in the breeze of night
moved the shrubbery quivers which resembled the departure of souls ran through the grass in the distance the coming and going of patrols and the general rounds of the english camp were audible
forming one in the west the other in the east two great flames which were joined by the cordon of bivouac fires of the english like a necklace of rubies with two carbuncles at the extremities as they extended in an immense semicircle over the hills along the horizon
the heart is terrified at the thought of what that death must have been to so many brave men if there is anything terrible
it is this to live to see the sun to be in full possession of virile force to possess health and joy to laugh valiantly to rush towards a glory which one sees dazzling in front of one
to feel in one's breast lungs which breathe a heart which beats a will which reasons to speak think hope love to have a mother to have a wife to have children
to have the light and all at once in the space of a shout in less than a minute to sink into an abyss to fall to roll to crush to be crushed to see ears of wheat
flowers leaves branches not to be able to catch hold of anything to feel one's sword useless men beneath one horses on top of one
to struggle in vain since one's bones have been broken by some kick in the darkness to feel a heel which makes one's eyes start from their sockets to bite horses shoes in one's rage to stifle to yell
to be beneath and to say to one's self but just a little while ago i was a living man there where that lamentable disaster had uttered its death rattle all was silence now
the edges of the hollow road were encumbered with horses and riders inextricably heaped up terrible entanglement there was no longer any slope for the corpses had levelled the road with the plain
and reached the brim like a well filled bushel of barley a heap of dead bodies in the upper part a river of blood in the lower part such was that road on the evening of the eighteenth of june eighteen fifteen
and there overflowed in a large pool in front of the abatis of trees which barred the way at a spot which is still pointed out it will be remembered that it was at the opposite point in the direction of the genappe road
the thickness of the layer of bodies was proportioned to the depth of the hollow road towards the middle at the point where it became level where delort's division had passed the layer of corpses was thinner
the nocturnal prowler whom we have just shown to the reader was going in that direction he was searching that vast tomb he gazed about he passed the dead in some sort of hideous review he walked with his feet in the blood
all at once he paused a few paces in front of him in the hollow road at the point where the pile of dead came to an end an open hand illumined by the moon projected from beneath that heap of men
that hand had on its finger something sparkling which was a ring of gold the man bent over remained in a crouching attitude for a moment and when he rose there was no longer a ring on the hand
he did not precisely rise he remained in a stooping and frightened attitude with his back turned to the heap of dead scanning the horizon on his knees with the whole upper portion of his body supported on his two forefingers
which rested on the earth and his head peering above the edge of the hollow road the jackal's four paws suit some actions
at that moment he gave a terrible start he felt some one clutch him from behind he wheeled round it was the open hand which had closed and had seized the skirt of his coat an honest man would have been terrified
this man burst into a laugh come said he it's only a dead body
but the hand weakened and released him effort is quickly exhausted in the grave well now said the prowler is that dead fellow alive let's see he bent down again fumbled among the heap
pushed aside everything that was in his way seized the hand grasped the arm freed the head pulled out the body and a few moments later he was dragging the lifeless or at least the unconscious man through the shadows of hollow road
an officer and even an officer of considerable rank
this officer no longer possessed a helmet a furious sword cut had scarred his face where nothing was discernible but blood however he did not appear to have any broken limbs and by some happy chance if that word is permissible here
the dead had been vaulted above him in such a manner as to preserve him from being crushed his eyes were still closed
the prowler tore off this cross which disappeared into one of the gulfs which he had beneath his great coat then he felt of the officer's fob discovered a watch there and took possession of it next he searched his waistcoat found a purse and pocketed it
which he was administering to this dying man the officer opened his eyes thanks he said feebly the abruptness of the movements of the man who was manipulating him the freshness of the night the air which he could inhale freely
had roused him from his lethargy the prowler made no reply he raised his head a sound of footsteps was audible in the plain some patrol was probably approaching the officer murmured for the death agony was still in his voice
the english answered the prowler the officer went on look in my pockets you will find a watch and a purse take them it was already done
the prowler executed the required feint and said there is nothing there i have been robbed said the officer i am sorry for that you should have had them
the steps of the patrol became more and more distinct some one is coming said the prowler with the movement of a man who is taking his departure the officer raised his arm feebly and detained him
you have saved my life who are you the prowler answered rapidly and in a low voice like yourself i belonged to the french army i must leave you if they were to catch me they would shoot me
what is your rank sergeant what is your name thenardier i shall not forget that name said the officer and do you remember mine
the disaster of the hollow road had decimated but not discouraged them they belonged to that class of men who when diminished in number increase in courage wathier's column alone had suffered in the disaster
delort's column which ney had deflected to the left as though he had a presentiment of an ambush had arrived whole
at full speed with bridles loose swords in their teeth pistols in fist such was the attack there are moments in battles in which the soul hardens the man until the soldier is changed into a statue and when all this flesh turns into granite
the english battalions desperately assaulted did not stir then it was terrible all the faces of the english squares were attacked at once a frenzied whirl enveloped them that cold infantry remained impassive
the second ranks shot them down behind the second rank the cannoneers charged their guns the front of the square parted permitted the passage of an eruption of grape shot and closed again
their great horses reared strode across the ranks leaped over the bayonets and fell gigantic in the midst of these four living wells
files of men disappeared ground to dust under the horses the bayonets plunged into the bellies of these centaurs hence a hideousness of wounds which has probably never been seen anywhere else the squares
wasted by this mad cavalry closed up their ranks without flinching inexhaustible in the matter of grape shot they created explosions in their assailants midst the form of this combat was monstrous
they were a tempest each square was a volcano attacked by a cloud lava contended with lightning the square on the extreme right the most exposed of all being in the air was almost annihilated at the very first shock
the bagpipe player in the centre dropped his melancholy eyes filled with the reflections of the forests and the lakes in profound inattention while men were being exterminated around him and seated on a drum with his pibroch under his arm
played the highland airs these scotchmen died thinking of ben lothian as did the greeks recalling argos
the cuirassiers relatively few in number and still further diminished by the catastrophe of the ravine had almost the whole english army against them but they multiplied themselves so that each man of them was equal to ten
nevertheless some hanoverian battalions yielded wellington perceived it and thought of his cavalry had napoleon at that same moment thought of his infantry he would have won the battle
this forgetfulness was his great and fatal mistake all at once the cuirassiers who had been the assailants found themselves assailed the english cavalry was at their back before them two squares
behind them somerset somerset meant fourteen hundred dragoons of the guard on the right somerset had dornberg with the german light horse and on his left trip with the belgian carabineers the cuirassiers attacked on the flank and in front
before and in the rear by infantry and cavalry had to face all sides what mattered it to them they were a whirlwind their valor was something indescribable in addition to this they had behind them the battery
which was still thundering it was necessary that it should be so or they could never have been wounded in the back one of their cuirasses
for such frenchmen nothing less than such englishmen was needed it was no longer a hand to hand conflict it was a shadow a fury a dizzy transport of souls and courage a hurricane of lightning swords
in an instant the fourteen hundred dragoon guards numbered only eight hundred fuller their lieutenant colonel fell dead ney rushed up with the lancers
the plateau of mont saint jean was captured recaptured captured again
or to put it more exactly the whole of that formidable rout collared each other without releasing the other the squares still held firm there were a dozen assaults ney had four horses killed under him
this conflict lasted two hours the english army was profoundly shaken there is no doubt that had they not been enfeebled in their first shock by the disaster of the hollow road the cuirassiers would have overwhelmed the centre
took or spiked sixty pieces of ordnance and captured from the english regiments six flags
of the guard bore to the emperor in front of the farm of la belle alliance wellington's situation had grown worse this strange battle was like a duel between two raging wounded men each of whom still fighting and still resisting
is expending all his blood which of the two will be the first to fall the conflict on the plateau continued what had become of the cuirassiers no one could have told one thing is certain that on the day after the battle
genappe la hulpe and brussels meet and intersect each other
one of the men who picked up the body still lives at mont saint jean his name is dehaze he was eighteen years old at that time wellington felt that he was yielding the crisis was at hand the cuirassiers had not succeeded
since the centre was not broken through as every one was in possession of the plateau no one held it and in fact it remained to a great extent with the english wellington held the village and the culminating plain ney had only the crest and the slope
they seemed rooted in that fatal soil on both sides but the weakening of the english seemed irremediable the bleeding of that army was horrible kempt on the left wing demanded reinforcements there are none
replied wellington he must let himself be killed almost at that same moment a singular coincidence which paints the exhaustion of the two armies ney demanded infantry from napoleon and napoleon exclaimed infantry
where does he expect me to get it does he think i can make it nevertheless the english army was in the worse case of the two the furious onsets of those great squadrons with cuirasses of iron and breasts of steel had ground the infantry to nothing
a few men clustered round a flag marked the post of a regiment such and such a battalion was commanded only by a captain or a lieutenant alten's division
hardly anything was left of those dutch grenadiers who intermingled with spaniards in our ranks in eighteen eleven fought against wellington and who in eighteen fifteen rallied to the english standard fought against napoleon
the loss in officers was considerable lord uxbridge who had his leg buried on the following day had his knee shattered if on the french side in that tussle of the cuirassiers delort l'heritier
on the side of the english there was alten wounded barne wounded delancey killed van meeren killed ompteda killed the whole of wellington's staff decimated and england had the worse of it in that bloody scale
the second regiment of foot guards had lost five lieutenant colonels four captains and three ensigns the first battalion of the thirtieth infantry had lost twenty four officers and one thousand two hundred soldiers the seventy ninth highlanders had lost twenty four officers wounded
eighteen officers killed four hundred fifty soldiers killed the hanoverian hussars of cumberland a whole regiment with colonel hacke at its head who was destined to be tried later on and cashiered had turned bridle in the presence of the fray
the transports ammunition wagons the baggage wagons the wagons filled with wounded on perceiving that the french were gaining ground and approaching the forest rushed headlong thither the dutch mowed down by the french cavalry cried alarm
according to the testimony of eye witnesses who are still alive
a number of batteries lay unhorsed these facts are attested by siborne and pringle exaggerating the disaster goes so far as to say that the anglo dutch army was reduced to thirty four thousand men
the iron duke remained calm but his lips blanched vincent the austrian commissioner alava the spanish commissioner who were present at the battle in the english staff thought the duke lost
at five o'clock wellington drew out his watch and he was heard to murmur these sinister words blucher or night it was at about that moment that a distant line of bayonets gleamed on the heights in the direction of frischemont
this entrance which usually stood ajar in the most inviting fashion permitted a view of two things neither of which have anything very funereal about them a courtyard surrounded by walls hung with vines and the face of a lounging porter
above the wall at the bottom of the court tall trees were visible when a ray of sunlight enlivened the courtyard when a glass of wine cheered up the porter
without carrying away a smiling impression of it nevertheless it was a sombre place of which one had had a glimpse the threshold smiled the house prayed and wept if one succeeded in passing the porter which was not easy
which was even nearly impossible for every one for there was an open sesame which it was necessary to know if the porter once passed one entered a little vestibule on the right
on which opened a staircase shut in between two walls and so narrow that only one person could ascend it at a time if one did not allow one's self to be alarmed by a daubing of canary yellow with a dado of chocolate which clothed this staircase
if one ventured to ascend it one crossed a first landing then a second and arrived on the first story at a corridor where the yellow wash and the chocolate hued plinth pursued one with a peaceable persistency
staircase and corridor were lighted by two beautiful windows the corridor took a turn and became dark if one doubled this cape one arrived a few paces further on in front of a door which was all the more mysterious because it was not fastened
if one opened it one found one's self in a little chamber about six feet square tiled well scrubbed clean cold and hung with nankin paper with green flowers at fifteen sous the roll
a white dull light fell from a large window with tiny panes on the left which usurped the whole width of the room one gazed about but saw no one one listened one heard neither a footstep nor a human murmur
the walls were bare the chamber was not furnished there was not even a chair one looked again and beheld on the wall facing the door a quadrangular hole about a foot square with a grating of interlacing iron bars
black knotted solid which formed squares i had almost said meshes of less than an inch and a half in diagonal length the little green flowers of the nankin paper ran
in a calm and orderly manner to those iron bars without being startled or thrown into confusion by their funereal contact
or an exit through the square hole this grating would have prevented it it did not allow the passage of the body but it did allow the passage of the eyes
of the mind this seems to have occurred to them for it had been re enforced by a sheet of tin inserted in the wall a little in the rear and pierced with a thousand holes more microscopic than the holes of a strainer at the bottom of this plate
an aperture had been pierced exactly similar to the orifice of a letter box a bit of tape attached to a bell wire hung at the right of the grated opening if the tape was pulled a bell rang and one heard a voice very near at hand which made one start
who is there the voice demanded it was a woman's voice a gentle voice so gentle that it was mournful here again there was a magical word which it was necessary to know
if one did not know it the voice ceased the wall became silent once more as though the terrified obscurity of the sepulchre had been on the other side of it if one knew the password the voice resumed enter on the right
one then perceived on the right facing the window a glass door surmounted by a frame glazed and painted gray on raising the latch and crossing the threshold
before the grating is lowered and the chandelier is lighted one was in fact in a sort of theatre box narrow furnished with two old chairs and a much frayed straw matting sparely illuminated by the vague light from the glass door
a regular box with its front just of a height to lean upon bearing a tablet of black wood this box was grated only the grating of it was not of gilded wood as at the opera
the first minutes passed when one's eyes began to grow used to this cellar like half twilight one tried to pass the grating but got no further than six inches beyond it there he encountered a barrier of black shutters
re enforced and fortified with transverse beams of wood painted a gingerbread yellow these shutters were divided into long narrow slats and they masked the entire length of the grating they were always closed
at the expiration of a few moments one heard a voice proceeding from behind these shutters and saying i am here what do you wish with me it was a beloved sometimes an adored voice no one was visible
hardly the sound of a breath was audible it seemed as though it were a spirit which had been evoked
if one chanced to be within certain prescribed and very rare conditions the slat of one of the shutters opened opposite you the evoked spirit became an apparition behind the grating behind the shutter
one perceived so far as the grating permitted sight a head of which only the mouth and the chin were visible the rest was covered with a black veil one caught a glimpse of a black guimpe and a form that was barely defined covered with a black shroud
that head spoke with you but did not look at you and never smiled at you the light which came from behind you was adjusted in such a manner that you saw her in the white and she saw you in the black
this light was symbolical nevertheless your eyes plunged eagerly through that opening which was made in that place shut off from all glances a profound vagueness enveloped that form clad in mourning
your eyes searched that vagueness and sought to make out the surroundings of the apparition at the expiration of a very short time you discovered that you could see nothing what you beheld was night
emptiness shadows a wintry mist mingled with a vapor from the tomb a sort of terrible peace a silence from which you could gather nothing not even sighs a gloom in which you could distinguish nothing
not even phantoms what you beheld was the interior of a cloister it was the interior of that severe and gloomy edifice which was called the convent of the bernardines of the perpetual adoration
the box in which you stood was the parlor the first voice which had addressed you was that of the portress who always sat motionless and silent on the other side of the wall near the square opening screened by the iron grating
and the plate with its thousand holes as by a double visor the obscurity which bathed the grated box arose from the fact that the parlor which had a window on the side of the world had none on the side of the convent
profane eyes must see nothing of that sacred place nevertheless there was something beyond that shadow there was a light there was life in the midst of that death
although this was the most strictly walled of all convents we shall endeavor to make our way into it and to take the reader in and to say
things which story tellers have never seen
as a matter of course he would be there to hear the charge but almost equally as a matter of course he would be languid silent cross and unenergetic they who knew him were sure when they saw his bearing on this morning that he intended to do something
more before the charge was given the judges entered the court nearly half an hour later than usual and it was observed with surprise that they were followed by the duke of omnium mister chaffanbrass was on his feet before the chief justice had taken his seat but the judge was the first to speak
it was observed that he held a scrap of paper in his hand and that the barrister held a similar scrap then every man in the court knew that some message had come suddenly by the wires
i am informed mister chaffanbrass that you wish to address the court before i begin my charge
and to subject the jury to the very great inconvenience of prolonged incarceration for another week either to do that or to call upon the jury to acquit the prisoner i venture to assert on my own peril that no jury can convict the prisoner after hearing me read that which i hold in my hand
every eye was turned upon phineas finn who up to this moment had heard nothing of these new tidings
on him the effect was altogether distressing he had borne the trying week with singular fortitude having stood there in the place of shame hour after hour and day after day expecting his doom it had been to him as a lifetime of torture
he had become almost numb from the weariness of his position and the agonising strain upon his mind
had offered him a seat from day to day but he had always refused it preferring to lean upon the rail and gaze upon the court he had almost ceased to hope for anything except the end of it he had lost count of the days and had begun to feel that the trial was an eternity of torture in itself
at nights he could not sleep but during the sunday after mass he had slept all day
since that vacant sunday and now he heard the advocate declare without knowing on what ground the declaration was grounded that the trial must be postponed or that the jury must be instructed to acquit him
a house door key made in prague we have the mould in our possession and will bring the man who made the key to england now my lud the case
on the night of the murder we now propose to prove that he had prepared himself with the means of doing so and had done so after a fashion which is conclusive as to his having required the key for some guilty purpose
and we go further and say that those twelve men as twelve human beings with hearts in their bosoms and ordinary intelligence at their command cannot ignore the message
then there was a scene in court and it appeared that no less than four messages had been received from prague all to the same effect one had been addressed by madame goesler to her friend the duchess and that message had caused the duke's appearance on the scene
he had brought his telegram direct to the old bailey and the chief justice now held it in his hand
sir gregory rising with the telegram in his hand stated that he had received the same information
let your evidence go to the jury then said mister chaffanbrass with such observations as his lordship may choose to make on the telegram i shall be contented you have already got your other man in prison on a charge of bigamy
i could not take notice of the message in charging the jury mister chaffanbrass said the judge it has come as far as we know from the energy of a warm friend
but it proves nothing it is an assertion and where should we all be mister chaffanbrass if it should appear hereafter that the assertion is fictitious prepared purposely to aid the escape of a criminal i defy you to ignore it my lord
i can only suggest mister chaffanbrass continued the judge that you should obtain the consent of the gentlemen on the other side to a postponement of my charge then spoke out the foreman of the jury was it proposed that they should be locked up till somebody should come from prague
and that then the trial should be recommenced the system said the foreman under which middlesex juries were chosen for service in the city was known to be most horribly cruel but cruelty to jurymen such as this had never even been heard of
then a most irregular word was spoken one of the jurymen declared that he was quite willing to believe the telegram every one believes it said mister chaffanbrass then the chief justice scolded the juryman and sir gregory grogram scolded mister chaffanbrass
it seemed as though all the rules of the court were to be set at defiance will my learned friend say that he doesn't believe it asked mister chaffanbrass i neither believe nor disbelieve it but it cannot affect the evidence said sir gregory then send the case to the jury said mister chaffanbrass
it seemed that everybody was talking and mister wickerby the attorney tried to explain it all to the prisoner over the bar of the dock
my lud said mister chaffanbrass i maintain that it is proper that the prisoner should be informed of the purport of these telegrams mercy demands it and justice as well phineas finn however did not understand as he had known nothing about the latch key of the house in northumberland street
something however must be done the chief justice was of opinion that although the preparation of a latch key in prague could not really affect the evidence against the prisoner although the facts against the prisoner would not be altered let the manufacture of that special key be ever so clearly proved
nevertheless the jury were entitled to have before them the facts now tendered in evidence before they could be called upon to give a verdict and that therefore they should submit themselves in the service of their country to the very serious additional inconvenience which they would be called upon to endure
sundry of the jury altogether disagreed with this and became loud in their anger they had already been locked up for a week and we are quite prepared to give a verdict said one the judge again scolded him very severely and as the attorney general did at last assent
and as the unfortunate jurymen had no power in the matter so it was at last arranged the trial should be postponed till time should be given for madame goesler and the blacksmith to reach london from prague if the matter was interesting to the public before it became doubly interesting now
it was of course known to everybody that madame goesler had undertaken a journey to bohemia and as many supposed a roving tour through all the wilder parts of unknown europe poland hungary and the principalities for instance
with the object of looking for evidence to save the life of phineas finn and grandly romantic tales were told of her wit her wealth and her beauty the story was published of the duke of omnium's will only not exactly the true story
the late duke had left her everything at his disposal and it was hinted that they had been privately married just before the duke's death of course madame goesler became very popular
prague be ever so minute in his evidence as to the key let it be made as clear as running water that mealyus had caused to be constructed for him in prague a key that would open the door of the house in northumberland street the facts as proved at the trial would not be at all changed
the lawyers were much at variance with their opinions on the matter some thinking that the judge had been altogether wrong in delaying his charge according to them he should not have allowed mister chaffanbrass to have read the telegram in court the charge should have been given
and the sentence of the court should have been pronounced if a verdict of guilty were given the home secretary should then have granted a respite till the coming of the blacksmith and have extended this respite to a pardon if advised that the circumstances of the latch key rendered doubtful the propriety of the verdict
others however maintained that in this way a grievous penalty would be inflicted on a man who by general consent was now held to be innocent not only would he by such an arrangement of circumstances have been left for some prolonged period under the agony of a condemnation
but by the necessity of the case he would lose his seat for tankerville
or from the home secretary would absolve the house from that duty the house as a house of parliament could only recognise the verdict of the jury as to the man's guilt
many went much further than this and were prepared to prove that were he once condemned he could not afterwards sit in the house even if re elected now there was unquestionably an intense desire since the arrival of these telegrams that phineas finn should retain his seat
it may be a question whether he would not have been the most popular man in the house could he have sat there on the day after the telegrams arrived the attorney general had declared and many others had declared with him that this information about the latch key did not in the least affect the evidence as given against mister finn
could it have been possible to convict the other man merely because he had surreptitiously caused a door key of the house in which he lived to be made for him
and how would this new information have been received had lord fawn sworn unreservedly that the man he had seen running out of the mews had been phineas finn it was acknowledged that the latch key could not be accepted as sufficient evidence against mealyus
but nevertheless the information conveyed by the telegrams altogether changed the opinion of the public as to the guilt or innocence of phineas finn his life now might have been insured as against the gallows at a very low rate
it was felt that no jury could convict him and he was much more pitied in being subjected to a prolonged incarceration than even those twelve unfortunate men who had felt sure that the wednesday would have been the last day of their unmerited martyrdom
phineas in his prison was materially circumstanced precisely as he had been before the trial he was supplied with a profusion of luxuries could they have comforted him and was allowed to receive visitors but he would see no one but his sisters
except that he had one interview with mister low even mister low found it difficult to make him comprehend the exact condition of the affair and could not induce him to be comforted when he did understand it what had he to do
with the manufacture of a paltry key by such a one as mealyus how would it have been with him and with his name for ever if this fact had not been discovered i was to be hung or saved from hanging according to the chances of such a thing as this
i do not care for my life in a country where such injustice can be done his friend endeavoured to assure him that even had nothing been heard of the key the jury would have acquitted him but phineas would not believe him
the attorney and solicitor general
who ought to have known him and the judge had taken the part of lord fawn who had seemed to phineas to be bent on swearing away his life he had borne himself very gallantly during that week having in all his intercourse with his attorney spoken without a quaver in his voice
and without a flaw in the perspicuity of his intelligence but now when mister low came to him explaining to him that it was impossible that a verdict should be found against him he was quite broken down there is nothing left of me he said at the end of the interview
even when i think of all that friends have done for me it fails to cheer me in this matter i should not have had to depend on friends had not she gone for me to that place every one would have believed me to be a murderer
and yet in his solitude he thought very much of the marvellous love shown to him by his friends words had been spoken which had been very sweet to him in all his misery
lord chiltern lord cantrip and mister monk had alluded to him as a man specially singled out by them for their friendship lady cantrip than whom no woman in london was more discreet had been equally enthusiastic
then how gracious how tender how inexpressibly sweet had been the words of her who had been violet effingham and now the news had reached him of madame goesler's journey to the continent it was a wonderful thing for her to do mister low had said
yes indeed remembering all that had passed between them he acknowledged to himself that it was very wonderful were it not that his back was now broken that he was prostrate and must remain so a man utterly crushed by what he had endured
in the meantime madame goesler having accomplished the journey from prague in considerably less than a week reached london with the blacksmith the attorney's clerk
the sitting of the court should have been concluded and everybody concerned should have been somewhere else but the matter was sufficient to justify almost any departure from routine a member of the house of commons was in custody
unless a jury could find him guilty let him be at once restored to his duties and his privileges the case was involved in difficulties but
in the meantime the jury who had been taken down by train every day to have a walk in the country in the company of two sheriff's officers and who had been allowed to dine at greenwich one day and at richmond on another in the hope that
were informed that they would be once again put into their box on wednesday but madame goesler reached london on the sunday morning
and with the personal assistance of our old friend major mackintosh without a doubt the man mealyus had caused to be made for him in prague a key which would open the door of the house in northumberland street a key was made in london from the model now brought which did open the door
that then the matter must rest for ever unless further evidence could be obtained against yosef mealyus
even though he might possibly have obtained the use of a grey coat for a few hours there was no tittle of evidence to show that he had ever had the great coat on his shoulders or that he had been out of the house on that night
lord fawn to his infinite disgust was taken to the prison in which mealyus was detained and was confronted with the man but he could say nothing mealyus at his own suggestion put on the coat and stalked about the room in it but lord fawn would not say a word
the person whom he now saw might have been the man in the street or mister finn might have been the man or any other man might have been the man lord fawn was very dignified very reserved and very unhappy to his thinking he was the great martyr of this trial
phineas finn was becoming a hero against the twelve jurymen the finger of scorn would never be pointed but his sufferings must endure for his life might probably embitter his life to the very end
looking into his own future from his present point of view he did not see how he could ever again appear before the eye of the public and yet with what persistency of conscience had he struggled to be true and honest
he had seen a man in a grey coat and for the future would confine himself to that you did not see me my lord said mister emilius with touching simplicity
might at any rate hear the judge's charge on that day when another discovery was made more wonderful than that of the key and this was made without any journey to prague and might no doubt have been made on any day since the murder had been committed
and it was a discovery for not having made which the police force generally was subjected to heavy censure a beautiful little boy was seen playing in one of those gardens through which the passage runs with a short loaded bludgeon in his hand
but luckily it attracted attention and his little lordship took two gardeners and a coachman and all the nurses to the very spot at which he found it before an hour was over he was standing at his father's knee detailing the fact with great open eyes
to two policemen having by this time become immensely proud of his adventure
it was about a foot long with a leathern thong to the handle with something of a spring in the shaft and with the oval loaded knot at the end cased with leathern thongs very minutely and skilfully cut they who understood modern work in leather
gave it as their opinion that the weapon had been made in paris it was considered that mealyus had brought it with him and concealed it in preparation for this occasion if the police could succeed in tracing the bludgeon into his hands or in proving that he had purchased any such instrument
then so it was thought there would be evidence to justify a police magistrate in sending mister emilius to occupy the place so lately and so long held by poor phineas finn but till that had been done there could be nothing to connect the preacher with the murder
all who had heard the circumstances of the case were convinced that mister bonteen had been murdered by the weapon lately discovered and not by that which phineas had carried in his pocket
this second bludgeon would no doubt help to remove the difficulty in regard to phineas but would not give atonement to the shade of mister bonteen mealyus was confronted with the weapon in the presence of major mackintosh
how it was found in the nobleman's garden by the little boy at the first moment with instant readiness he took the thing in his hand and looked at it with feigned curiosity
but with all his presence of mind he could not keep the tell tale blood from mounting you don't know anything about it mister mealyus said one of the policemen present looking closely into his face
nothing about the stick i never had such a stick or as i believe saw one before he did it very well but he could not keep the blood from rising to his cheeks the policemen were sure that he was the murderer but what could they do
you saved his life certainly said the duchess to her friend on the sunday afternoon that had been before the bludgeon was found i do not believe that they could have touched a hair of his head said madame goesler would they not everybody felt sure that he would be hung
would it not have been awful i do not see how you are to help becoming man and wife now for all the world are talking about you
on the tuesday after the bludgeon was found the two ladies met again
when any one might have seen him i don't feel to hate him so very much after all as for that little wife of his she has got no more than she deserved mister finn will surely be acquitted now
that is all settled and it is a shame that he should be kept in prison even over to day
or at the very least appoint him secretary to something i do wish plantagenet hadn't been in such a hurry about that nasty board of trade and then he might have gone there he couldn't very well be privy seal unless they do make him a peer you wouldn't mind would you my dear
i think you'll find that they will console mister finn with something less gorgeous than that you have succeeded in seeing him of course
who was she you won't be ill natured i'll endeavour at any rate to keep my temper duchess it was lady laura i supposed so they say she is frantic about him my dear i never believe those things women do not get frantic about men in these days
i do not wonder that she should have seen him of course you know that she is a widow oh yes mister kennedy had died long before i left england
it may be so said madame goesler while the slightest blush in the world suffused her cheek and i'll make you another bet and give you any odds what is that
indeed it was felt to be so inconvenient while it was thought that gentlemen had not the alternative that some men became afraid of going into society
such things have been done i do not doubt said madame goesler who had contrived to avert her face without making the motion apparent to her friend when this is all over we'll get him down to matching and manage better than that
i should think they'll hardly go on with the session as nobody has done anything since the arrest while mister finn has been in prison legislation has come to a standstill altogether even plantagenet doesn't work above twelve hours a day
and i'm told that poor lord fawn hasn't been near his office for the last fortnight
there'll be a few dinners of course just as a compliment to the great man but london will break up after that i should think you won't come in for so much of the glory as you would have done if they hadn't found the stick little lord frederick must have his share you know
it's the most singular case i ever knew said sir simon slope that night to one of his friends we certainly should have hanged him but for the two accidents and yet neither of them brings us a bit nearer to hanging any one else what a pity
to whom he liberally contributed from the abundance of his mind
quid et minetur solicitus parum
like that employed in levelling ground can be perceived only by those who had an opportunity of comparing the original with the altered copy what we certainly know to have been done by him in this way
was the debates in both houses of parliament under the name of the senate of lilliput sometimes with feigned denominations of the several speakers sometimes with denominations formed of the letters of their real names
in the manner of what is called anagram so that they might easily be decyphered parliament then kept the press in a kind of mysterious awe which made it necessary to have recourse to such devices
in our time it has acquired an unrestrained freedom so that the people in all parts of the kingdom have a fair open and exact report of the actual proceedings of their representatives and legislators
but having a small patrimony and being an adherent of the unfortunate house of stuart
that at an early period government thought it worth their while to keep it quiet by a pension
and burst forth with a splendour the rays of which will for ever encircle his name boileau had imitated the same satire with great success applying it to paris but an attentive comparison will satisfy every reader
that he is much excelled by the english juvenal
the common shore where france does all her filth and ordure pour oldham the common shore of paris and of rome johnson and
tho much concern'd to lose my dear old friend there is one passage in the original better transfused by oldham than by johnson nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se
which is an exquisite remark on the galling meanness and contempt annexed to poverty johnson's imitation is of all the griefs that harass the distrest sure the most bitter is a scornful jest
oldham's though less elegant is more just nothing in poverty so ill is borne as its exposing men to grinning scorn
where or in what manner this poem was composed i am sorry that i neglected to ascertain with precision from johnson's own authority he has marked upon his corrected copy of the first edition of it written in seventeen thirty eight
and as it was published in the month of may in that year it is evident that much time was not employed in preparing it for the press
sir when i took the liberty of writing to you a few days ago i did not expect a repetition of the same pleasure so soon for a pleasure i shall always think it to converse in any manner with an ingenious and candid man
but having the inclosed poem in my hands to dispose of for the benefit of the authour of whose abilities i shall say nothing since i send you his performance i believed i could not procure more advantageous terms
that you will favour me with a letter to morrow that i may know what you can afford to allow him that he may either part with it to you or find out which i do not expect some other way more to his satisfaction i have only to add
that as i am sensible i have transcribed it very coarsely which after having altered it i was obliged to do i will if you please to transmit the sheets from the press correct it for you
and take the trouble of altering any stroke of satire which you may dislike by exerting on this occasion your usual generosity you will not only encourage learning and relieve distress but though it be in comparison of
the other motives of very small account oblige in a very sensible manner sir your very humble servant
if it can be set immediately about i will be so much the authour's friend as not to content myself with mere solicitations in his favour i propose if my calculation be near the truth
to engage for the reimbursement of all that you shall lose by an impression of five hundred provided as you very generously propose that the profit if any be set aside for the authour's use excepting the present you made which
if he be a gainer it is fit he should repay i beg that you will let one of your servants write an exact account of the expense of such an impression and send it with the poem that i may know what i engage for
i am very sensible from your generosity on this occasion of your regard to learning
consisting in adapting juvenal's sentiments to modern facts and persons it will with those additions very conveniently make five sheets and since the expense will be no more i shall contentedly insure it as i mentioned in my last
if it be not therefore gone to dodsley's i beg it may be sent me by the penny post
i am extremely obliged by your kind letter and will not fail to attend you to morrow with irene who looks upon you as one of her best friends i was to day with mister dodsley who declares very warmly in favour of the paper you sent him
which he desires to have a share in it being as he says a creditable thing to be concerned in i knew not what answer to make till i had consulted you nor what to demand on the authour's part
but am very willing that if you please he should have a part in it as he will undoubtedly be more diligent to disperse and promote it if you can send me word to morrow what i shall say to him i will settle matters and bring the poem with me for the press
while he is so cautious as not to avow it to be his own production
if we did we could not but feel an indignant regret
a casual coincidence with other writers or an adoption of a sentiment or image which has been found in the writings of another and afterwards appears in the mind as one's own
your notes upon my poet were very acceptable i beg that you will be so kind as to continue your searches it will be reputable to my work and suitable to your professorship to have something of yours in the notes as you have given no directions about your name
dear sir you will receive this by mister baretti a gentleman particularly intitled to the notice and kindness of the professor of poesy he has time but for a short stay and will be glad to have it filled up with as much as he can hear and see
in recommending another to your favour i ought not to omit thanks for the kindness which you have shewn to myself have you any more notes on shakspeare i shall be glad of them
dear sir though i might have expected to hear from you upon your entrance into a new state of life at a new place yet recollecting not without some degree of shame that i owe you a letter upon an old account
i should be sorry to think that what engrosses the attention of my friend should have no part of mine
to mitigate the terrours of a violent death which is more formidable at the first glance than on a nearer and more steady view a violent death is never very painful the only danger is lest it should be unprovided
but if a man can be supposed to make no provision for death in war what can be the state that would have awakened him to the care of futurity when would that man have prepared himself to die who went to seek death without preparation
what then can be the reason why we lament more him that dies of a wound than him that dies of a fever a man that languishes with disease ends his life with more pain but with less virtue
he leaves no example to his friends nor bequeaths any honour to his descendants the only reason why we lament a soldier's death is that we think he might have lived longer
yet this cause of grief is common to many other kinds of death which are not so passionately bewailed the truth is that every death is violent which is the effect of accident every death which is not gradually brought on by the miseries of age
or when life is extinguished for any other reason than that it is burnt out he that dies before sixty of a cold or consumption dies in reality by a violent death
yet his death is borne with patience only because the cause of his untimely end is silent and invisible let us endeavour to see things as they are and then enquire whether we ought to complain
whether to see life as it is will give us much consolation i know not but the consolation which is drawn from truth if any there be is solid and durable that which may be derived from errour must be like its original
i have to mention that the late mister strahan the printer told me that johnson wrote it that with the profits he might defray the expence of his mother's funeral
written to refute the system of optimism which it has accomplished with brilliant success is wonderfully similar in its plan and conduct to johnson's rasselas
it would have been in vain to deny that the scheme of that which came latest was taken from the other though the proposition illustrated by both these works was the same namely that in our present state there is more evil than good the intention of the writers was very different
of departed spirits a doctrine which it is a mistake to suppose that he himself ever positively held
i will promise you safety there is no danger from the dead he that is once buried will be seen no more that the dead are seen no more said imlac
i will not undertake to maintain against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages and of all nations there is no people rude or learned among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed
could become universal only by its truth those that never heard of one another would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible that it is doubted by single cavillers can very little weaken the general evidence
and some who deny it with their tongues confess it by their fears notwithstanding my high admiration of rasselas
may not perhaps have made life appear to him more insipid and unhappy than it generally is for i am sure that he had less enjoyment from it than i have
yet whatever additional shade his own particular sensations may have thrown on his representation of life attentive observation and close enquiry have convinced me that there is too much of reality in the gloomy picture
the truth however is that we judge of the happiness and misery of life differently at different times according to the state of our changeable frame
and would from sincere benevolence impress upon all who honour this book with a perusal that until a steady conviction is obtained that the present life is an imperfect state and only a passage to a better
if we comply with the divine scheme of progressive improvement and also that it is a part of the mysterious plan of providence
but if we walk with hope in the mid day sun of revelation our temper and disposition will be such that the comforts and enjoyments in our way will be relished
and of the whole but a small part is troublesome small debts are like small shot they are rattling on every side and can scarcely be escaped without a wound great debts are like cannon of loud noise but little danger
you must therefore be enabled to discharge petty debts that you may have leisure with security to struggle with the rest neither the great nor little debts disgrace you
i am sure you have my esteem for the courage with which you contracted them and the spirit with which you endure them i wish my esteem could be of more use i have been invited or have invited myself to several parts of the kingdom
and will not incommode my dear lucy by coming to lichfield while her present lodging is of any use to her i hope in a few days to be at leisure and to make visits whither i shall fly is matter of no importance
and our lexicographer is in great distress he says the boy is a sickly lad of a delicate frame and particularly subject to a malady in his throat which renders him very unfit for his majesty's service
he was humble enough to desire my assistance on this occasion though he and i were never cater cousins and i gave him to understand that i would make application to my friend mister wilkes who perhaps by his interest with doctor hay and mister elliot
might be able to procure the discharge of his lacquey it would be superfluous to say more on the subject which i leave to your own consideration
but i cannot let slip this opportunity of declaring that i am with the most inviolable esteem and attachment dear sir your affectionate obliged humble servant t smollet mister wilkes who upon all occasions has acted as a private gentleman
with most polite liberality applied to his friend sir george hay
this time there was no drowning the confusion the telephone fairly shook with innumerable cries shouts imprecations the four gave up trying to hear and watched the two venusians
her expression had lost a great deal of its good humor and there was a certain sharpness in her voice as she exclaimed estra if your sister has done this and i see no reason to doubt it then she has made man superfluous if women can produce children mechanically
and govern the sex at will the coming race need be nothing but females
for a moment the two stared at one another challengingly on the earth their attitude would have indicated some unimportant tiff none would have dreamed that the most momentous question in their lives had come up and had found them at outs
next instant myrin turned and without another word walked from the room estra followed slowly to the door where he stood looking after her with an expression of the keenest concern on his sensitive high strung features the three men from the earth after a glance
studiously avoided looking at him but billie walked up and laid a hand on his arm are you really in favor of this scheme she inquired in a curiously tender voice at the same time she gazed intently into estra's eyes
he turned and the smile came back to his face he took billie's hand and laid it between both his own his voice was even gentler than before most certainly i do favor my sister's method billie it will be the greatest boon the race has ever known
we can look forward now and his face shone again
there may be some hitch in the idea estra if god meant for man to become to become obsolete he would not have hidden the method all this time suppose some flaw should develop later on in the cube billie jackson would not have stumbled over such a speech
she would have been filled with what she was saying and not with what she was seeing on the other side of the room van emmon watched and glowered he could not hear the venusian lifted his head suddenly the voices from the telephone had subsided
only an occasional outburst came from the instrument estra closed his eyes again for a second and when he opened them again his manner was astonishingly alert and his speech swift and to the point so far as we know billie the method has no flaws
it gives us the chance to throw off our lower selves and if by so doing we reduce the race to a single sex only he stopped short as though at a sound and with a word of apology stepped from the room he opened another door
far down the corridor and as he passed through the wail of a new born infant came faintly to the four wonder what's up said smith
whirled upon the engineer and motioned him to his side look at the people
silently and without confusion during the past few minutes their numbers were increasing swiftly fresh arrivals packing the background
except for a low voiced buzzing there was no disturbance billie came up she seemed to divine the temper of the mob she caught her breath sharply and then said very simply it reminds me of bethlehem
but the words had scarcely left her mouth before an uproar sounded from one end of the street below a crowd of excited venusians was pushing its way determinedly toward the house their passage obstructed by shouting protesting individuals
van emmon's breast began to heave he fancied he saw blows struck by george he exclaimed next second they're fighting it was true a hand to hand battle was going on less than a block away
the people below the window surged in the direction of the fight all were shouting now the clamor was deafening live and let live came one of the shouts it was taken up by the group that was doing the attacking and made into a cheer
then came other cries from them smith made out something like down with sex monopoly don't you see shouted smith above the din these people below are estra's friends those newcomers are backing savarona get the idea
he repeated if estra wins out the old boy with the fountain of youth will never get another boy baby to experiment on what the doctor leaped to their sides he took it in at a glance then whirled to the door we ought to warn estra
he knows it already reminded billie swiftly a great shout came from below the attackers had forced their way through the crowd of estra's friends well van emmon stood squarely in the middle of the room
so far as i'm concerned estra and his sister can face that crowd alone i don't approve of the scheme the doctor eyed him thoughtfully i'm not so sure van this is a tremendous thing we ought to van is right exploded billie
next instant myrin for once in a hurry broke into the room she glanced about missed estra looked slightly puzzled and then frowned angrily as the venusian himself stepped in you fooled me she shot at him
but he smiled apologetically he was carrying a large package of leaflets closely printed in venusian there seemed to be several thousand in the lot he said by way of explanation i had to get ready savarona's people will be here any moment
they have destroyed the elevator and a wave of clamor burst from below they've broken the barrier remarked estra calmly he turned to the door then whirled at a crash which sounded from above through the roof he added
he did not even glance at the balcony where the two cars barred the way against any attack from that direction next second he again quit the room
they never saw her again as for estra he came back in a moment carrying a small white bundle which stirred in his arms he unhesitatingly handed the child to billie his mouth moved soundlessly as a muffled shriek arose from the other end of the corridor
there was a thud a metallic crash and a great roar of voices the mob had broken in and up through the back of the house the first of the attackers thrust his head and shoulders into sight not ten feet away
estra touched something with his foot and a door shot across the corridor there was an instant's silence then the thunder of the mob hurling itself against the door the people were fairly snarling now estra closed the inner door
estra shrilly from billie she laid the baby down and strode to the venusian let's get out of here the car's on the balcony nobody's in the way to interfere why not a grinding ripping jar from above and estra shook his head
the smile was gone and his mouth was set and grim they'd catch us before we went a mile he said glancing at the infant who had begun to cry in a stifled gasping way that tore at the nerves estra
billie pleaded but he turned away the doctor strode up to him and gripped his shoulder what's the good estra what can you accomplish even if you the venusian tapped his forehead i can tell he exclaimed
just give me a chance to offer my sister's discovery to the world and i shall be satisfied he touched the package of leaflets these are not written as clearly as they should be but if i cannot hold them back then these fingering the papers
these go to the friends down below he moved closer to the window but his eyes were on the door a rending crash told that the corridor was now open to the mob there was a rush and then the storm of the people battering the last door
doc billie smith had the window open and was stepping into one of the cars kinney and the geologist were at his side in an instant the girl held back estra she begged she picked up the baby and with her free hand tugged at the venusian's arm
come on don't sacrifice yourself the door bulged under the attack the noise was ear splitting nevertheless estra heard and shook his head without looking at the woman from the earth she dashed to the window then came back
hurry there's a chance he stood unmoved watchful and ready estra i want you to come her face flamed can't you see can't you see that i i want you she gasped as the door shrieked under the strain
come if you're a man the venusian's face changed he turned and stared at the girl with eyes that held nothing but blank amazement the grimness left his mouth his lips partly opened
he took a step forward and threw an arm about her shoulders billie i'm sorry i never thought a crack showed at the edge of the door and a roar smote their ears estra backed to the window
go he shouted go quickly while you can billie stood stock still gazing at him i'm going to stay she screamed i'll take my chances with he thrust her through the window
you don't understand he shouted and took the baby away from her despite all her strength then a wonderfully tender light came into his eyes he gripped billie's hands and spoke sorrowfully billie
if momsey or papa sherwood knew about this they'd be awfully sorry for me thought nan still sitting on the trunk such a looking place nothing to see but snow and trees
for the village of pine camp was quite surrounded by the forest and all the visitor could see from the windows of her first floor bedroom were stumps and trees with deep snow everywhere there was a glowing wood stove in the room and a big chintz covered box beside it full of chunks
it was warm in the room the atmosphere being permeated with the sweet tang of wood smoke nan dried her eyes there really was not any use in crying momsey and papa sherwood could not know how bad she felt and she really was not selfish enough to wish them to know
now nanny sherwood she scolded herself there's not a particle of use of your sniveling it won't get you anywhere as missus joyce says you'll only make your eyes red and the folks will see that you're not happy here and they will be hurt
mustn't make other folks feel bad just because i feel bad myself nan decided come on pluck up your courage i know what i'll do she added literally shaking herself as she jumped off the trunk
i'll unpack i'll cover up everything ugly that i can with something pretty from tillbury hurried as she had been her departure from the cottage on amity street nan had packed in her trunk many of those little possessions dear to her childish heart
that had graced her bedroom these appeared from the trunk even before she hung away her clothes in the unplastered closet where the cold wind searched through the cracks from out of doors into that closet away back in the corner went a long pasteboard box
tied carefully with strong cord nan patted it gently with her hand before she left the box whispering you dear i wouldn't have left you behind for anything i won't let them know you are here but sometimes when i'm sure nobody will interrupt
you shall come out she spread a fringed towel over the barren top of the dresser it would not cover it all of course but it made an island in a sea of emptiness and on the island she quickly set forth the plain little toilet set her mother had given her on her last birthday
and the several other knickknacks that would help to make the big dresser look as though there was somebody at home as she whispered to herself she draped a scarf here hung up a pretty silk bag there
placed momsey's and papa sherwood's portraits in their little silver filigree easels on the mantelpiece flanking the clock that would not run and which was held by the ugly china shepherdess with only one foot and a broken crook
for the ring at the top was dented by little teeth nothing however could take the curse of ugliness off the staring gray walls of the room or from the horrible turkey red and white canton flannel quilt that bedecked the bed
nan longed to spill the contents of her ink bottle over that hideous coverlet but did not dare the effort to make the big east room look less like a barn made nan feel better in her mind it was still dreary it must be confessed
there were a dozen things she wished she could do to improve it there were nothing but paper shades at the windows even a simple scrim curtain
nan raised her eyes to one window to see a face pressed close against the glass and two rolling crablike eyes glaring in at her mercy ejaculated nan sherwood what is the matter with that child's eyes they'll drop out of her head
she ran to the window evidently startling the peeper quite as much as she had been startled herself
and ungracefully sprawled in the snow upon her back she could not get away before nan had the window open the sash was held up by a notched stick nan put her head and shoulders out into the frosty air and stared down at the prostrate girl
who stared up at her in return what do you want nan asked nothin replied the stranger what were you peeping in for to see you was the more frank reply what for asked nan
i've newly come here yes admitted nan well but i'm not such a sight am i laughed the girl from tillbury but you are lying there in the snow you'll get your death of cold get up the other did so
beside the men's boots which were patched and old she wore a woollen skirt a blouse and a shawl over her head and shoulders she shook the snow from her garments much as a dog frees himself from water after coming out of a pond
it's too cold to talk with this window open you're a neighbor aren't you the girl nodded then come in urged nan i'm sure my aunt will let you
don't want marm sherwood to see me she said why not she told me not to come over after you come ithout i put on my new dress and washed my hands and face well exclaimed nan looking at her more closely you seem to have a clean face at least
yes but that dress she gin me my brother bob took and put on old beagle for to dress him up funny and beagle heard a noise he thought was a fox barking and he started for the tamarack swamp lickety split
i expect there ain't enough of that gingham left to tie around a sore thumb nan listened to this in both amusement and surprise the girl was a new specimen to her come in anyway she urged i can't keep the window open
i'll climb in then declared the other suddenly and suiting the action to the word she swarmed over the sill but she left one huge boot in the snow and nan laughing delightedly ran for the poker to fish for it
and drew it in and shut down the window the strange girl was warming her hands at the fire nan pushed a chair toward her and took one herself but not the complaining spring rocking chair now tell me all about yourself the girl demanded
i'm nan sherwood and i've come here to pine camp to stay while my father and mother have gone to scotland i've heard about scotland declared the girl with the very prominent eyes have you yes gran'ther llewellen sings that song you know
scotland's burning scotland's burning where where where where fire fire fire fire pour on water pour on water fire's out fire's out nan laughed i've heard that too she said but it was another scotland then so your name is llewellen
marg'ret llewellen i've heard your grandfather is sick said nan remembering tom's report of the health of the community when he had met her and her uncle at hobart forks yes he's got the tic del rew declared margaret rather unfeelingly
aunt matildy says he's allus creakin round like a rusty gate hinge why that doesn't sound very nice objected nan don't you love your grandfather not much said this perfectly frank young savage he's so awfully wizzled
wizzled repeated nan puzzled
but you love your aunt matilda gasped nan well she's wizzled some confessed margaret then she said i don't like faces like hern and marm sherwood's i like your face it's smooth
but she was a queer little thing you've been to chicago ain't you asked margaret suddenly we came through chicago on our way up here from my home we stayed one night there nan replied it's bigger'n pine camp ain't it
my goodness yes bigger'n the forks queried margaret doubtfully why it is much much bigger said nan hopeless of making one so densely ignorant understand anything of the proportions of the metropolis of the lakes
he don't believe it bob's my brother but there never was such a dunce since adam nan had to laugh the strange girl amused her but margaret said something too that deeply interested the visitor at pine camp before she ended her call
making her exit as she had her entrance by the window i reckon you never seen this house of your uncle's before did you queried margaret at one point in the conversation oh no i never visited them before
didn't you uster visit em when they lived at pale lick no i don't remember that they ever lived anywhere else beside here yes they did i heard gran'ther tell about it
chapter fifteen a cat and her kittens that was a breakfast long to be remembered by nan sherwood not particularly because of its quality but for the quantity served
great platters of baked beans were placed on the table flanked by the lumps of pork that had seasoned them fried pork too was a main stay on the bill of fare
the deal table was graced by no cloth or napery of any kind there were heaps of potatoes and onions fried together and golden cornbread with bowls of white gravy to ladle over it
she felt bashful because of the presence of so many rough men but they left her alone for the most part and she could listen and watch old toby vanderwiller tell you what ged's been blowin about henry asked one of the men at the table
busy ladling beans into his mouth with a knife a feat that nan thought must be rather precarious to say the least says he's going to jail me if i go on to the perkins tract growled uncle henry with whom the matter was doubtless a sore subject
said this tale bearer oh ged says a whole lot besides his prayers responded uncle henry good naturedly perhaps he saw they were trying to bait him
after a gulp of coffee from his thick china cup some of the boys at beckett's you know they're a tough crowd was riggin him about what you said to him down to the forks and ged spit out that he'd give a lump of money to see you on your back huh grunted uncle henry
got the old man right down to cases that so asked mister sherwood curiously what's ged going to do challenge me to a game of cat's cradle or does he want to settle the business at draughts three best out o five
now you know dern well hen said the other as some of the listeners laughed loudly at mister sherwood's sally that old ged raffer will never lock horns with you ceptin it's in court where he'll have the full pertection of the law
and a grain the best of it into the bargain well i s'pose that's so admitted nan's uncle rather gloomily she thought so if beckett's crowd are int'rested in bumping you a whole lot you may be sure ged's promised em real money for it
you're fooling now he hasn't hired any half baked chip eaters and canucks to try and beat me up i ain't foolin pshaw you kin pshaw till the cows come home cried the other heatedly i got it straight who from
sim barkis him what's cookin for beckett's crew good man sim never caught him in a lie yet you are beginning to sound reasonable josh and mister sherwood put down his knife and fork and looked shrewdly at his informant
now tell me he said how much is sim going to get for helping to pay ged raffer's debts har ejaculated the other man you know sim ain't that kind all right then
how much does he say the gang's going to split between em after they've done me up brown according to contract scoffed uncle henry and nan realized that her giant relative had not the least fear of not being able to meet any number of enemies in the open
sim come away before they got that far of course ged didn't say right out in open meetin that he'd give so many dollars for your scalp but he got em all int'rested and it wouldn't surprise him so sim said if on the quiet some of those plug uglies had agreed to do the job
nan shuddered and had long since stopped eating but nobody paid any attention to her at the moment uncle henry drawled they're going to do the hardest day's job for the smallest pay that they ever did on this michigan peninsula
i'm much obliged to you josh for telling me i never go after trouble as you fellows all know but i sha'n't try to dodge it either he picked up his knife and fork and went quietly on with his breakfast but nan could not eat any more at all
it seemed to the gently nurtured girl from tillbury as though she had fallen in with people from another globe even the mill hands whom bess harley so scorned were not like these great rough fellows whose minds seemed continually to be fixed upon battle
the men began one by one to push back the benches and go out there was a great bustle of getting under way as the teams started for the woods and the choppers too went away tom hurried to start his big pair of dapple grays
and nan was glad to bundle up again and run out to watch the exodus they were a mighty crew as uncle henry had said the big woods did not breed runts
remembering the stunted quick moving chattering french canadians and the scattering of american born employees among them who worked in the tillbury mills nan was the more amazed by the average size of these workmen
the woodsmen were a race of giants beside the narrow shouldered flat chested pygmies who toiled in the mills tom strode by with his timber sled rafe leaped on to ride and tom playfully snapped his whiplash at him
nan was glad to see that the two brothers smiled again at each other their recent tiff seemed to be forgotten some of the choppers had already gone on ahead to the part of the tract where the marked trees were being felled
now the pluck pluck pluck of the axe blows laid against the forest monarchs reached the girl's ears she thought the flat stuttering sound of the axes said pluck very plainly and that that was just the word they should say
for it does take lots of pluck to do work of this kind nan confided to her uncle who walked up and down on the porch smoking an after breakfast pipe yes no softies allowed on the job said he cheerfully some of the boys may be rough and hard nuts to crack
but they want to fight so much gasped nan sho said her uncle slowly it's mostly talk they feel the itch for hard work and hard play that's all
you take lively full muscled animals and they are always bucking and quarreling trying to see which one is the best take two young fat steers they'll lock horns at the drop of a hat it's animal spirits nan
they feel that they've got to let off steam where muscle and pluck count for what they do in the lumber camps there's bound to be more or less ructions perhaps this might be but nan was dreadfully sorry nevertheless that uncle henry had this trouble with mister gedney raffer
the girl feared that there had been something besides letting off steam in the challenge her uncle had thrown down to his enemy or to the men that enemy could hire to attack him the timber sledges soon began to drift back
for some of the logs had been cut before the big storm and had only to be broken out of the drifts and rolled upon the sleds with the aid of the men's canthooks it was a mystery at first to nan how they could get three huge logs some of them three feet in diameter at the butt
on to the sled two at the bottom and one rolled upon them all being fastened securely with the timber chain and hook how the horses strained in their collars to start the mighty load
but once started the runners slipped along easily enough even through the deep snow packing the compressible stuff in one passage as hard as ice nan followed in this narrow track to the very bank of the river where the logs were heaped in long windrows
ready to be launched into the stream when the waters should rise at the time of the spring freshet tom managed his team alone and unloaded alone too it was marvelous so nan thought that her cousin could start the top log with the great canthook
and guide it as it rolled off the sled so that it should lie true with timbers that had been piled before the strain of his work made him perspire as though it were midsummer he thrust the calks on his bootsoles into the log
and the shreds of bark and small chips flew as he stamped to get a secure footing for his work then he heaved like a giant his shoulders humping under the blue jersey he wore
and finally the log turned once started it was soon rolled into place nan ran into the cook shed often to get warm her uncle was busy with the boss of the camp
so she had nobody but the cook and his helper to speak to for a time therefore it was loneliness that made her start over the half beaten trail for the spot where the men were at work without saying a word to anybody
none of the teams had come by for some time but she could hear faintly the sound of the axes and the calling of the workmen to each other and their sharp commands to the horses she went away from the camp a few hundred yards and then found that the trail forked
one path went down a little hill and as that seemed easy to descend nan followed it into a little hollow it seemed only one sled had come this way and none of the men were here the voices and axes sounded from higher up the ridge
suddenly she heard something entirely different from the noise of the woodsmen it was the snarling voice of a huge cat and almost instantly nan sighted the creature which stood upon a snow covered rock beside the path
it had tasseled ears a wide wicked smile bristling whiskers and fangs that really made nan tremble although she was some yards from the bobcat as she believed from what her cousins had told her bobcats are not usually dangerous
they never seek trouble with man save under certain conditions and that is when a mother cat has kittens to defend this was a big female cat and although the season was early she had littered and her kittens three of them
were bedded in a heap of leaves blown by the wind into a hollow tree trunk the timberman driving through the hollow had not seen the bobcat and her three blind babies but he had roused the mother cat and she was now all ready to spring at intruders
i went at once to the convent the parlour was full but thanks to my costume of pierrot which was seen in venice but very seldom everybody made room for me i walked on assuming the gait of a booby the true characteristic of my costume
and i stopped near the dancers after i had examined the pantaloons punches harlequins and merry andrews i went near the grating where i saw all the nuns and boarders some seated some standing and without appearing to notice any of them in particular
i remarked my two friends together and very intent upon the dancers i then walked round the room eyeing everybody from head to foot and calling the general attention upon myself
and with such an air of stupidity that everybody laughed and made room for us my partner danced very well according to her costume and i kept my character with such perfection that the laughter was general
after the minuet i danced twelve forlanas with the greatest vigour out of breath i threw myself on a sofa pretending to go to sleep and the moment i began to snore everybody respected the slumbers of pierrot
the quadrille lasted one hour and i took no part in it but immediately after it a harlequin approached me with the impertinence which belongs to his costume and flogged me with his wand it is harlequin's weapon
in my quality of pierrot i had no weapons i seized him round the waist and carried him round the parlour running all the time while he kept on flogging me i then put him down adroitly snatching his wand out of his hand i lifted his columbine on my shoulders and pursued him
striking him with the wand to the great delight and mirth of the company the columbine was screaming because she was afraid of my tumbling down and of shewing her centre of gravity to everybody in the fall
she had good reason to fear for suddenly a foolish merry andrew came behind me tripped me up and down i tumbled everybody hooted master punch i quickly picked myself up and rather vexed i began a regular fight with the insolent fellow
he was of my size but awkward and he had nothing but strength i threw him and shaking him vigorously on all sides i contrived to deprive him of his hump and false stomach the nuns who had never seen such a merry sight clapped their hands
everybody laughed loudly and improving my opportunity i ran through the crowd and disappeared i was in a perspiration and the weather was cold i threw myself into a gondola and in order not to get chilled i landed at the ridotto
i had two hours to spare before going to the casino of muran and i longed to enjoy the astonishment of my beautiful nun when she saw
i spent those two hours in playing at all the banks winning losing and performing all sorts of antics with complete freedom being satisfied that no one could recognize me enjoying the present bidding defiance to the future
and laughing at all those reasonable beings who exercise their reason to avoid the misfortunes which they fear destroying at the same time the pleasure that they might enjoy
but two o'clock struck and gave me warning that love and comus were calling me to bestow new delights upon me with my pockets full of gold and silver i left the ridotto hurried to muran
entered the sanctuary and saw my divinity leaning against the mantelpiece she wore her convent dress i come near her by stealth in order to enjoy her surprise i look at her and i remain petrified astounded the person i see is not m m
it is c c dressed as a nun who more astonished even than myself does not utter one word or make a movement i throw myself in an arm chair in order to breathe and to recover from my surprise the sight of c c had annihilated me
and my mind was as much stupefied as my body i found myself in an inextricable maze it is m m i said to myself who has played that trick upon me but how has she contrived to know that i am the lover of c c
has c c betrayed my secret but if she has betrayed it how could m m deprive herself of the pleasure of seeing me and consent to her place being taken by her friend and rival that cannot be a mark of kind compliance for a woman never carries it to such an extreme
i see in it only a mark of contempt a gratuitous insult my self love tried hard to imagine some reason likely to disprove the possibility of that contempt but in vain
absorbed in that dark discontent i believed myself wantonly trifled with deceived despised and i spent half an hour silent and gloomy staring at c c who scarcely dared to breathe perplexed confused and not knowing in whose presence she was
deeply in love with m m and having come to the casino only for her i did not feel disposed to accept the exchange although i was very far from despising c c whose charms were as great at least as those of m m
i loved her tenderly i adored her but at that moment it was not her whom i wanted because at first her presence had struck me as a mystification it seemed to me that if i celebrated the return of c c in an amorous manner
i would fail in what i owed to myself and i thought that i was bound in honour not to lend myself to the imposition besides without exactly realizing that feeling i was not sorry to have it in my power to reproach m m with an indifference very strange in a woman
in love and i wanted to act in such a manner that she should not be able to say that she had procured me a pleasure i must add that i suspected m m to be hiding in the secret closet perhaps with her friend
at first i thought of going away the more so that both c c and her friend could not be certain that i and pierrot were the same individual but i soon abandoned the idea with horror
i almost fancied that she knew it already and i shared the grief which she evidently would feel in that case i had seduced her i had given her the right to call me her husband these thoughts broke my heart
she will shew herself in good time with that idea i took off the gauze which covered my features my lovely c c gave a deep sigh and said i breathe again it could not be anyone but you my heart felt it
you seemed surprised when you saw me dearest did you not know that i was waiting for you i had not the faintest idea of it if you are angry i regret it deeply but i am innocent my adored friend come to my arms and never suppose that i can be angry with you
i i would never have been guilty of such a thing even if death had stared me in the face then how did you come here how did your friend contrive to discover everything
laura perhaps no laura is faithful dearest and i cannot guess how it was but how could you be persuaded to assume that disguise and to come here you can leave the convent and you have never apprised me of that important circumstance
can you suppose that i would not have told you all about it if i had ever left the convent even once
tell me all about it my love i feel extremely curious i am glad of it and i would conceal nothing from you you know how dearly m m and i love each other no intimacy could be more tender than ours you can judge of it by what i told you in my letters
well two days ago my dear friend begged the abbess and my aunt to allow me to sleep in her room in the place of the lay sister who having a very bad cold had carried her cough to the infirmary
the permission was granted and you cannot imagine our pleasure in seeing ourselves at liberty for the first time to sleep in the same bed to day shortly after you had left the parlour where you so much amused us without our discovering that the delightful pierrot was our friend
my dear m m retired to her room and i followed her the moment we were alone she told me that she wanted me to render her a service from which depended our happiness i need not tell you how readily i answered that she had only to name it
then she opened a drawer and much to my surprise she dressed me in this costume she was laughing and i did the same without suspecting the end of the joke
when she saw me entirely metamorphosed into a nun she told me that she was going to trust me with a great secret but that she entertained no fear of my discretion let me tell you clearest friend she said to me that i was on the point of going out of the convent to return only tomorrow morning
i have however just decided that you shall go instead you have nothing to fear and you do not require any instructions because i know that you will meet with no difficulty in an hour a lay sister will come here i will speak a few words apart to her
and she will tell you to follow her you will go out with her through the small gate and across the garden as far as the room leading out to the low shore there you will get into the gondola and say to the gondolier these words to the casino
you will reach it in five minutes you will step out and enter a small apartment where you will find a good fire you will be alone and you will wait for whom i enquired for nobody you need not know any more
you may only be certain that nothing unpleasant will happen to you trust me for that you will sup at the casino and sleep if you like without being disturbed do not ask any questions for i cannot answer them such is my dear husband the whole truth
tell me now what i could do after that speech of my friend and after she had received my promise to do whatever she wished do not distrust what i tell you for my lips cannot utter a falsehood
i laughed and not expecting anything else but an agreeable adventure i followed the lay sister and soon found myself here
be quite certain that the very moment i saw you my heart knew who it was but a minute after i felt as if the lightning had struck me when i saw you step back for i saw clearly enough that you did not expect to find me
your gloomy silence frightened me and i would never have dared to be the first in breaking it the more so that in spite of the feelings of my heart i might have been mistaken
recollect that for the last eight months i have been deprived of the happiness of kissing you and now that you must be certain of my innocence allow me to congratulate you upon knowing this casino you are happy and i congratulate you with all my heart
m m is after me the only woman worthy of your love the only one with whom i could consent to share it i used to pity you but i do so no longer and your happiness makes me happy kiss me now
i should have been very ungrateful i should even have been cruel if i had not
after assuring her that i no longer entertained any doubt of her innocence i told her that i thought the behaviour of her friend very ambiguous i said that notwithstanding the pleasure i felt in seeing her the trick played upon me by her friend was a very bad one
that it could not do otherwise than displease me greatly because it was an insult to me
she thought very likely that you still loved me and she imagined for i know her well that she could not give us a greater proof of her love than by procuring us without forewarning us that which two lovers fond of each other must wish for so ardently
she wished to make us happy and i cannot be angry with her for it you are right to think so dearest but my position is very different from yours you have not another lover you could not have another but i being free and unable to see you
have not found it possible to resist the charms of m m i love her madly she knows it and intelligent as she is she must have meant to shew her contempt for me by doing what she has done i candidly confess that i feel hurt in the highest degree
if she loved me as i love her she never could have sent you here instead of coming herself i do not think so my beloved friend her soul is as noble as her heart is generous
and just in the same manner that i am not sorry to know that you love one another and that you make each other happy as this beautiful casino proves to me she does not regret our love and she is on the contrary delighted to shew us that she approves of it
most likely she meant to prove that she loved you for your own sake that your happiness makes her happy and that she is not jealous of her best friend being her rival to convince you that you ought not to be angry with her for having discovered our secret
she proves by sending me here in her place that she is pleased to see your heart divided between her and me you know very well that she loves me and that i am often either her wife or her husband
and as you do not object to my being your rival and making her often as happy as i can she does not want you either to suppose that her love is like hatred for the love of a jealous heart is very much like it
you plead the cause of your friend with the eloquence of an angel but dear little wife you do not see the affair in its proper light you have intelligence and a pure soul but you have not my experience
as to be deceived by all this affair i am miserable and it is her doing then i should be right if i complained of her also because she makes me feel that she is the mistress of my lover and she shews me that after seducing him from me
she gives him back to me without difficulty then she wishes me to understand that she despises also my tender affection for her since she places me in a position to shew that affection for another person
now dearest you speak without reason for the relations between you two are of an entirely different nature your mutual love is nothing but trifling nonsense mere illusion of the senses the pleasures which you enjoy together are not exclusive
to become jealous of one another it would be necessary that one of you two should feel a similar affection for another woman but m m could no more be angry at your having a lover than you could be so yourself if she had one provided however that the lover should not belong to the other
but that is precisely our case and you are mistaken we are not angry at your loving us both equally have i not written to you that i would most willingly give you my place near m m then you must believe that i despise you likewise my darling
that wish of yours to give me up your place when you did not know that i was happy with m m arose from your friendship rather than from your love and for the present i must be glad to see that your friendship is stronger than your love
but i have every reason to be sorry when m m feels the same i love her without any possibility of marrying her do you understand me dearest as for you knowing that you must be my wife i am certain of our love which practice will animate with new life
it is not the same with m m that love cannot spring up again into existence is it not humiliating for me to have inspired her with nothing but a passing fancy i understand your adoration for her very well
she has initiated you into all her mysteries and you owe her eternal friendship and everlasting gratitude it was midnight and we went on wasting our time in this desultory conversation when the prudent and careful servant brought us an excellent supper
i could not touch anything my heart was too full but my dear little wife supped with a good appetite i could not help laughing when i saw a salad of whites of eggs and c c thought it extraordinary because all the yolks had been removed
in her innocence she could not understand the intention of the person who had ordered the supper as i looked at her i was compelled to acknowledge that she had improved in beauty in fact c c was remarkably beautiful yet i remained cold by her side
i have always thought that there is no merit in being faithful to the person we truly love two hours before day light we resumed our seats near the fire and c c seeing how dull i was was delicately attentive to me she attempted no allurement
all her movements wore the stamp of the most decent reserve and her conversation tender in its expressions and perfectly easy never conveyed the shadow of a reproach for my coolness
towards the end of our long conversation she asked me what she should say to her friend on her return to the convent my dear m m expects to see me full of joy and gratitude for the generous present she thought she was making me by giving me this night
but what shall i tell her the whole truth do not keep from her a single word of our conversation as far as your memory will serve you and tell her especially that she has made me miserable for a long time
no for i should cause her too great a sorrow she loves you dearly and cherishes the locket which contains your likeness
i mean on the contrary to do all i can to bring peace between you two and i must succeed before long because my friend is not guilty of any wrong and you only feel some spite although with no cause
i will send you my letter by laura unless you promise me to go and fetch it yourself at her house your letters will always be dear to me but mark my words m m will not enter into any explanation she will believe you in everything except in one
i suppose you mean our passing a whole night together as innocently as if we were brother and sister if she knows you as well as i do she will indeed think it most wonderful in that case you may tell her the contrary if you like
nothing of the sort i hate falsehoods and i will certainly never utter one in such a case as this it would be very wrong i do not love you less on that account my darling although during this long night you have not condescended to give me the slightest proof of your love
believe me dearest i am sick from unhappiness i love you with my whole soul but i am in such a situation that what you are weeping my love oh i entreat you spare my heart i am so sorry to have told you such a thing
but i can assure you i never meant to make you unhappy i am sure that in a quarter of an hour m m will be crying likewise the alarum struck and having no longer any hope of seeing m m come to justify herself i kissed c c
no said janetta with a note of tired defiance in her voice ive written eleven letters to day expressing surprise and gratitude for sundry unmerited gifts but i havent written to the froplinsons some one will have to write to them said egbert
i dont dispute the necessity but i dont think the some one should be me said janetta i wouldnt mind writing a letter of angry recrimination or heartless satire to some suitable recipient in fact i should rather enjoy it
but ive come to the end of my capacity for expressing servile amiability eleven letters to day and nine yesterday all couched in the same strain of ecstatic thankfulness really you cant expect me to sit down to another there is such a thing as writing oneself out
ive written nearly as many said egbert and ive had my usual business correspondence to get through too besides i dont know what it was that the froplinsons sent us a william the conqueror calendar said janetta
with a quotation of one of his great thoughts for every day in the year impossible said egbert he didnt have three hundred and sixty five thoughts in the whole of his life or if he did he kept them to himself he was a man of action not of introspection
well it was william wordsworth then said janetta i know william came into it somewhere that sounds more probable said egbert well lets collaborate on this letter of thanks and get it done
it was very good of you to think of us
its what i always do say and what every one says to me protested egbert we sent them something on the twenty second said janetta so they simply had to think of us there was no getting away from it
bridge markers said janetta in a cardboard case with some inanity about digging for fortune with a royal spade emblazoned on the cover the moment i saw it in the shop i said to myself froplinsons and to the attendant how much
when he said ninepence i gave him their address jabbed our card in paid tenpence or elevenpence to cover the postage and thanked heaven with less sincerity and infinitely more trouble they eventually thanked me the froplinsons dont play bridge said egbert
one is not supposed to notice social deformities of that sort said janetta it wouldnt be polite besides
what trouble did they take to find out whether we read wordsworth with gladness for all they knew or cared we might be frantically embedded in the belief that all poetry begins and ends with john masefield and it might infuriate or depress us to have a daily sample of wordsworthian products flung at us
well lets get on with the letter of thanks said egbert proceed said janetta how clever of you to guess that wordsworth is our favourite poet dictated egbert again janetta laid down her pen do you realise what that means she asked
a wordsworth booklet next christmas and another calendar the christmas after with the same problem of having to write suitable letters of thankfulness no the best thing to do is to drop all further allusion to the calendar and switch off on to some other topic but what other topic
oh something like this what do you think of the new year honours list a friend of ours made such a clever remark when he read it then you can stick in any remark that comes into your head it neednt be clever the froplinsons wont know whether it is or isnt
and anyhow you cant suddenly dismiss the subject of the calendar surely there must be some intelligent remark that can be made about it well we cant think of one said janetta wearily the fact is weve both written ourselves out
heavens ive just remembered missus stephen ludberry i havent thanked her for what she sent what did she send i forget i think it was a calendar there was a long silence
the forlorn silence of those who are bereft of hope and have almost ceased to care presently egbert started from his seat with an air of resolution the light of battle was in his eyes let me come to the writing table he exclaimed gladly said janetta
are you going to write to missus ludberry or the froplinsons to neither said egbert drawing a stack of notepaper towards him im going to write to the editor of every enlightened and influential newspaper in the kingdom im going to suggest that there should be a sort of
epistolary truce of god during the festivities of christmas and new year from the twenty fourth of december to the third or fourth of january it shall be considered an offence against good sense and good feeling to write or expect any letter
or communication that does not deal with the necessary events of the moment answers to invitations arrangements about trains renewal of club subscriptions and of course all the ordinary everyday affairs of business sickness
engaging new cooks and so forth these will be dealt with in the usual manner as something inevitable a legitimate part of our daily life but all the devastating accretions of correspondence incident to the festive season
these should be swept away to give the season a chance of being really festive a time of untroubled unpunctuated peace and good will but you would have to make some acknowledgment of presents received objected janetta otherwise people would never know whether they had arrived safely
of course i have thought of that said egbert every present that was sent off would be accompanied by a ticket bearing the date of dispatch and the signature of the sender
and some conventional hieroglyphic to show that it was intended to be a christmas or new year gift there would be a counterfoil with space for the recipients name and the date of arrival and all you would have to do would be to sign and date the counterfoil add a conventional hieroglyphic
sounds delightfully simple said janetta wistfully but people would consider it too cut and dried too perfunctory it is not a bit more perfunctory than the present system said egbert
i have only the same conventional language of gratitude at my disposal with which to thank dear old colonel chuttle for his perfectly delicious stilton which we shall devour to the last morsel and the froplinsons for their calendar which we shall never look at
colonel chuttle knows that we are grateful for the stilton without having to be told so and the froplinsons know that we are bored with their calendar whatever we may say to the contrary just as we know that they are bored with the bridge markers in spite of their written assurance that they thanked us for our charming little gift
what is more the colonel knows that even if we had taken a sudden aversion to stilton or been forbidden it by the doctor we should still have written a letter of hearty thanks around it so you see the present system of acknowledgment
is just as perfunctory and conventional as the counterfoil business would be only ten times more tiresome and brain racking your plan would certainly bring the ideal of a happy christmas a step nearer realisation said janetta
there are exceptions of course said egbert people who really try to infuse a breath of reality into their letters of acknowledgment aunt susan for instance who writes thank you very much for the ham
not such a good flavour as the one you sent last year which itself was not a particularly good one hams are not what they used to be it would be a pity to be deprived of her christmas comments but that loss would be swallowed up in the general gain meanwhile said janetta
a brittle one which exploded just as he was getting into it
bit she said removing fragments of shell from her lap
emerged from his apologies and swore that he was
i do wish you could solve it for us it goes like this and she proceeded to explain it herbert decided that the small piece of meringue still in her hair was not worth mentioning
and he listened to her with interest on the next morning i happened to drop in at herbert's office and that in short is how i was entangled in the business
look here said herbert you used to be mathematical here's something for you let the dead past bury its dead i implored i am now quite respectable
it goes like this he said ignoring my appeal he then gave me the problem which i hand on to you a subaltern riding at the rear of a column of soldiers trotted up to the captain in front
and challenged him to a game of billiards for half a crown a side the loser to pay for the table having lost he played another hundred double or quits and then rode back the column by this time having travelled twice its own length
and a distance equal to the distance it would have travelled if it had been going in the other direction what was the captain's name perhaps i have not got it quite right for i have had an eventful week since then
or perhaps herbert didn't get it quite right or perhaps the girl with the meringue in her hair didn't get it quite right but anyhow that was the idea of it and the answer said herbert ought to be four cows
but i keep on making it eight and tuppence just have a shot at it there's a good fellow i promised the girl you know i sat down worked it out hastily on the back of an envelope and made it a yard and a half
i know it's four cows but i can't get it sorry i said how stupid of me i left out the table money i did it hastily again and made it three minutes twenty five seconds
it is difficult isn't it said herbert i thought as you used to be mathematical and as i'd promised the girl wait a moment i said still busy with my envelope i forgot the subaltern
ah that's right the answer is a hundred and twenty five men no that's wrong i never doubled the half crown er oh look here herbert i'm rather busy this morning i'll send it to you
right said herbert i know i can depend on you because you're mathematical and he opened the door for me i had meant to do a very important piece of work that day
but i couldn't get my mind off herbert's wretched problem happening to see carey at teatime i mentioned it to him ah said carey profoundly
have you tried it with an x of course yes it looks as though it wants a bit of an x somewhere
let x be the subaltern that's the way i say i didn't know you were interested in problems well because i've got rather a tricky chess problem here i can't do he produced his pocket chess board
white mates in four moves i looked at it carelessly black had only left himself with a pawn and a king
while white had a queen and a couple of knights about now i know very little about chess but i do understand the theory of chess problems
have you tried letting the queen be taken by black's pawn then sacrificing the knights and finally mating him with the king alone yes said carey then i was baffled
if one can't solve a chess problem by starting off with the most unlikely looking thing on the board one can't solve it at all however i copied down the position and said i'd glance at it
at eleven that night i rose from my glance decided that herbert's problem was the more immediately pressing and took it to bed with me
i was lunching with william next day and i told him about the subaltern he dashed at it lightheartedly and made the answer seventeen seventeen what i said
well whatever we're talking about i think you'll find it's seventeen all right but look here my son here's a golf problem for you a is playing b at the fifth hole a falls off the tee into a pond
i forget how it went on when i got home to dinner after a hard day with the subaltern i found a letter from norah waiting for me i hear from mister carey she wrote
do have a shot at it the answer ought to be eight miles an hour luckily however she forgot to enclose the problem for by this time what with herbert's subaltern carey's pawn
and a cistern left me by an uncle who was dining with us that night i had more than enough to distract me and so the business has gone on
the news that i am preparing a collection of interesting and tricky problems for a new encyclopaedia has got about among my friends everybody who writes to me tells me of a relation of his who has been shearing sheep or rowing against the stream
or dealing himself four aces people who come to tea borrow a box of wooden matches and beg me to remove one match and leave a perfect square i am asked to do absurd things with pennies
meanwhile herbert has forgotten both the problem and the girl three evenings later he shared his hollandaise sauce with somebody in yellow as luck would have it and she changed the subject
he is now going manfully through bleak house a chapter a night
however i was not angry with him for i had just made it come to three cows it is a cow short but it is nearer than i have ever been before
and i think i shall leave it at that indeed
but i don't want you to suppose that it is not also quite apparent to me i have no illusions on the subject neither i imagine has toby to me there are only two kinds of horse
chestnuts roans bay rums i know nothing of all these i can only describe a horse simply as a nice horse or a nasty horse toby is a nice horse
toby of course knows much more about men than i do about horses and no doubt he describes me professionally to his colleagues as a flea bitten fellow standing about eighteen hoofs
i like to think that he sums me up to himself as a nice man at any rate i am not allowed to wear spurs and that must weigh with a horse a good deal i have no real right to toby
the signalling officer's official mount is a bicycle but a bicycle in this weather
it would only cause jealousy if one of them rode him and why would it create more jealousy than if you do asked one of them well i said you're the officer commanding platoon number
fifteen fifteen now why should the officer commanding the fifteenth platoon ride a horse when the officer commanding the nineteenth he reminded me that there were only sixteen platoons in a battalion
it's such a long time since i had anything to do with platoons that i forget all right we'll say the sixteenth why shouldn't he have a horse of all the unjust well
you see what recriminations it would lead to now i don't say i'm more valuable than a platoon commander or more effective on a horse but at any rate there aren't sixteen of me there's only one signalling officer
and if there is a spare horse over what about the bombing officer said o c platoon fifteen carelessly i had quite forgotten the bombing officer of course he is a specialist too
i said thinking hard all the time you would well put it this way the range of a mills bomb is about fifty yards the range of a field telephone is several miles
which of us is more likely to require a horse and the sniping officer he went on dreamily this annoyed me you don't shoot snipe from horseback
i said sharply you're mixing up shooting and hunting my lad and in any case there are reasons special reasons why i ride toby reasons of which you know nothing here are the reasons
one i think i have more claim to a horse called toby than has a contributor to our feathered friends or whatever paper the sniping officer writes for two
when i joined the army celia was inconsolable i begged her to keep a stiff upper lip to which she replied that she could do it better if i promised not to keep a bristly one
i pointed out that the country wanted bristles and though between ourselves we might regard it as a promising face spoilt for a tradition still discipline was discipline
and so the bristles came and remained until the happy day when the war office at the risk of losing the war made them optional immediately they were uprooted
now the colonel has only one fault i have been definitely promised my second star in nineteen twenty seven so he won't think i am flattering him with a purpose
he likes moustaches his own is admirable and i have no wish for him to remove it but i think he should be equally broad minded about mine you aren't really more beautiful without it
he said a moustache suits you my wife doesn't think so i said firmly i had the war office on my side so i could afford to be firm the colonel looked at me
and then he looked out of the window and made the following remarkable statement toby he said gently to himself doesn't like clean shaven officers
this hadn't occurred to me i let it sink in of course i said at last one must consider one's horse i quite see that with a bicycle
he said it's different and so there you have the second reason if the bombing officer rode toby i should shave again to morrow and then where would the battalion be ruined
so toby and i go off together up till now he has been good to me he has bitten one company commander removed another and led the colonel a three mile chase across country after him
so if any misunderstanding occurs between us there will be good precedent for it so far my only real trouble has been once when billeting
billeting is delightful fun
i say nothing of the result but for reasons connected with toby i hope he won't come again for in the middle of a narrow street crowded with lorries he jumped off his horse flung i think that's the expression
flung me the reins and said
the major's horse i can describe quite shortly a nasty big black horse toby
but he had been knee deep in mud inspecting huts for nearly half an hour and was sick of billeting i need not describe two hundred lorries on a dark evening to you and so seeing that you know the constituents
i must let you imagine how they all mixed this is a beastly war but it has its times
i doubt if even in england which seems very far off you will find two people more contented with the morning than toby and i
jack and his sister nina were two little orphans who had to beg from door to door for their food and a place to sleep one day a man named simon told them if they would work for him he would give them a home
jack and nina thought simon must be a very kind hearted man to offer them a home so they worked just as hard as they could to repay him but in this they were mistaken
for simon was a very greedy hard hearted man and only offered to take the children that he might get their work for nothing
although they were both much too small to do such hard work in return simon gave them a place to sleep on the floor of the attic and very little to eat if he had nina cook meat for his dinner
he would sit by the stove and watch that she did not eat any of it
he would leave the bones and gristle for poor little jack and nina who were half starved one day simon told jack he was going to sell the big brindle cow to the butcher and that he was to drive her the next day to the town a few miles away
jack and nina were very fond of brindle cow and wept bitterly when they heard this they begged simon not to let the butcher have her but he told them he would not listen to any such silly chatter and for jack to be off the next morning bright and early
nina put her arms around brindle cow and cried when jack was ready to lead her away and watched them down the road
and she went back to get simon's breakfast with a sad heart when jack came to the woods he led brindle cow to a stream to drink and while he sat on the bank waiting
he was surprised to see a fairy slip out of a lily as it opened i thought you were never coming said the little creature
he was so surprised brindle cow answered we had to wait for daylight you know she said
but the sun will soon be up and i must get home before that said the fairy now what can i do for you save my life i am on the way to the butcher now replied brindle cow
you told me that day i did not eat the field flower in which you were sleeping that you would help me if ever i was in need of help said brindle cow last night i saw one of your sisters and told her my sad plight
i said oh she will be by the stream in the wood she sits in a lily until it is time to go home in the morning i will tell her
of course i will help you said the field fairy i will change you into anything you like what shall it be there is another thing good field fairy said brindle cow
this poor boy will be punished if i am not carried to the butcher and the money he gets carried back to simon this boy and his sister have been very kind to me they never forgot to bring me water
and gave me salt many times when their master did not know it i should not like to get them into trouble even to save my life oh please do not mind us said jack
who at last was able to speak nina and i will not mind being punished if only you can escape the butcher
said the fairy that will save you from the butcher
it is this instead of changing you into some other shape why not change your master into a kind and good man oh that would be best of all said jack that is if
brindle cow does not object to remaining a cow i would rather be a cow if i can be sure i am going to live replied brindle cow
but you can understand of course there can be no joy in life for me with that butcher staring me in the face well that is all settled then replied the fairy
for it is cool and shady along the road to the farm you two wait here and see what happens jack wondered what the field fairy intended to do but he would not be surprised now at anything so he began to pick some berries
for he had not had his breakfast and now brindle cow was sure she was not going to the butcher so she began to eat the sweet grass by the stream jack thought she might speak again and he patted her sides and nose
but the only answer brindle cow made was to rub her nose against him and moo after a while jack heard some one calling his name and running down the road it was nina
come quickly something has happened to simon jack let brindle cow take care of herself and hurried after nina wondering what the fairy had done to simon but it seemed that simon had brought on his trouble himself
by trying to save the wood that morning when nina told him she needed more wood for the fire instead of giving her more wood
when jack and nina reached the farmhouse simon was on the floor groaning with pain
jack and nina lifted him from the floor and placed him on his bed
nina bathed his face and hands and jack bandaged them and by and by he fell asleep when he awoke he asked for some gruel and then he remembered brindle cow poor creature said simon
even if she was getting old but it is too late now for of course the butcher has her just then moo
jack thought of brindle cow why there she is now he said i did not get to the butcher's this morning because nina called me before i had gone beyond the woods i'll never sell her said simon go out jack and give her a good dinner
and to night see that she has a nice bed of straw in the barn that day for dinner simon told nina to have a good meat stew
jack told nina what had happened at the stream in the woods
of course not said nina fairies always do good not bad things and besides simon must have been burnt at the very time you saw the fairy
jack was quite sure he did not dream it but never again did brindle cow speak at least jack never heard her if she did but when simon recovered from his burns and was quite well again
something did happen and whether the field fairy and brindle cow had anything to do with it jack and nina never knew simon was a changed man that was sure he would not let nina do the work any more but sent both of the children to school
he fixed up the house and bought new furniture and best of all he bought nice clothing for jack and nina and if you don't mind said simon to jack and nina one day i wish you would call me uncle simon
he even bought a nice horse and pretty willow carriage for the children to drive to school in fact everybody thought simon must have lost his mind he was so changed it must be the work of the field fairy said jack
she said she would change him into a kind and good man perhaps she came and found him burnt and thought she would wait and see what happened to him said nina but i think you fell asleep that morning jack while you were waiting for brindle cow to drink at the stream
brindle cow saw the fairy didn't you brindle asked jack as brindle cow came up to the stone wall where jack and nina stood brindle cow looked over the wall straight at jack and answered
it does not matter jack said nina with a laugh as she patted brindle cow on the nose it has all turned out so well and uncle simon could not be kinder or nicer to us now if he were our father
sometimes i think it is all because when he was so sick and helpless that we were kind to him and did all we could even though he had almost starved us and made us work so hard
sallie hicks's forefinger sallie hicks was a little girl who was good most of the time but she had one bad habit and that was caused by her forefinger on her right hand
sallie's right hand forefinger would get into things it should not and it caused sallie's mother a great deal of trouble and most of sallie's punishments were on account of that unruly right hand forefinger
one day sallie's mother set a dish of hot jelly on the kitchen table to cool she told sallie it was hot and she must not touch it but no sooner was her mother out of the kitchen and the cook's head was turned another way
than sallie hicks forgot all about her mother's warning and the naughty right hand forefinger went right into the hot jelly oh how sallie screamed with pain
it burned her so the big tears ran right down sallie's pretty pink cheeks and her mother and grandmother and cook too came running to see what was the matter the little forefinger told the story
and it had to be wrapped in some cooling salve and a soft piece of linen i told you that some day you would get that finger burned said her mother and now because you disobeyed me you must sit in the big chair in the hall until lunch time and not speak to anyone
i want you to think about that naughty finger sallie's grandmother passed her in the hall and leaned over and kissed her i am sorry that grandmother's little girl was so naughty she said good little girls mind their mothers
and they don't get burnt fingers sallie watched her grandmother go upstairs and then sallie looked at the picture hanging on the wall of her great grandmother i wonder if grandmother great ever had to punish grandmother
very good little girls sallie looked at her grandfather great too and wondered how it was that though the greats were the father and mother of her own dear grandmother they had nice black hair all smooth and shiny
while her grandmother and grandfather too had white hair sallie looked at the forefinger all wrapped about with the white cloth and she thought how dreadful it would be to have her finger big and long as it looked now
then she looked at grandmother great again and her eyes seemed to be looking right at that little burnt forefinger sallie put her right hand behind her but the eyes of grandmother great looked right at sallie
sallie winked her eyes and looked again for she thought her grandmother great smiled at her sallie looked hard at the picture and grandmother great seemed to shake her head at sallie
asked sallie grandmother great smiled i had several little girls once but they were all good little girls said grandmother great always every bit of the time questioned sallie yes
i cannot remember now that they ever did anything naughty said grandmother great but you know dear it was a long time ago i had my little girls a very long time ago perhaps you forget when it is a long time ago said sallie didn't
oh dear yes i remember now that your grandmother did put her forefinger the right hand forefinger it was too in the wheel of the wringer once to see what would happen said grandmother great did she cry asked sallie
oh dear yes poor little girlie
her poor little finger never grew quite as it should at the end said grandmother great with a sigh do mothers cry when little girls get burnt putting their fingers into things they should not asked sallie of course they do my dear
mothers have many a cry over their little girls when they are naughty said grandmother great i don't want mother to cry said sallie of course you don't my dear said grandmother great
before sallie could promise her grandmother great she would be a good little girl she heard some one say sallie sallie come to lunch sallie opened her eyes for she had been asleep dreaming all this time
and there stood her mother in the doorway mother do mothers forget how naughty their little girls were when they grow up asked sallie i think so said her mother i hope you will be so good before you grow up
grandmother great told me mothers did forget their little girls were naughty ever after they grew up said sallie you mean your grandmother told you not grandmother great said sallie's mother you never saw grandmother great dear
well she told me so just now said sallie and she said too
and that she cried because grandmother
is the child talking about said sallie's mother she has been asleep and dreamed it said sallie's grandmother taking sallie in her arms
and told her she must look out for her forefinger or she might get it terribly hurt just as i did did you think the picture of grandmother great spoke to you she asked sallie holding her close in her arms she did
said sallie and she said mothers always cried when their little girls are naughty oh mother dear i don't want to make you cry and i won't put my finger in anything again truly i won't sobbed sallie
she isn't half awake yet said her grandmother as sallie's mother took her in her arms and kissed her sallie kept her promise even if she did dream about grandmother great talking to her
and the right hand forefinger did not get her into any more trouble sallie hicks often looks at the portraits in the hall of grandmother and grandfather great but grandmother great never has spoken to her since that day
but sallie hicks smiles at her and sometimes the eyes seem to smile back
but at six ice was sighted ahead under ordinary conditions the safe course would have been to go about and stand to the east but in our case we must risk trouble to get smoother water for the ponies
we passed a stream of ice over which the sea was breaking heavily and one realised the danger of being amongst loose floes in such a sea but soon we came to a compacter body of floes and running behind this
we were agreeably surprised to find comparatively smooth water we ran on for a bit then stopped and lay to now we are lying in a sort of ice bay there is a mile or so of pack to windward
and two horns which form the bay embracing us the sea is damped down to a gentle swell although the wind is as strong as ever as a result we are lying very comfortably the ice is drifting a little faster than the ship
so that we have occasionally to steam slowly to leeward so far so good from a dangerous position we have achieved one which only directly involved a waste of coal the question is which will last longest
the gale or our temporary shelter rennick has just obtained a sounding of one hundred eighty seven fathoms taken in conjunction with yesterday's
and ross's sounding of one hundred eighty this is interesting showing the rapid gradient of the continental shelf nelson is going to put over the eight feet agassiz trawl
a light dredge was tried on a small manilla line very little result
a second time with more weight and line
evening our protection grew less as the day advanced but saved us much from the heavy swell at eight p m we started to steam west to gain fresh protection there being signs of pack to south and west
now the squalls are lessening in force the sky is clearing and we seem to be approaching the end of the blow i trust it may be so and that the new year will bring us better fortune than the old
land oh at ten p m to night as the clouds lifted to the west a distant but splendid view of the great mountains was obtained all were in sunshine sabine and whewell
as remarkable a landmark as sabine itself mount sabine was one hundred ten miles away when we saw it
it is absolutely calm with glorious bright sunshine several people were sunning themselves at eleven o'clock sitting on deck and reading the land is clear to night coulman island seventy five miles west
the sun has been shining almost continuously
but bowers has kept going in all weathers there is still a good deal of swell difficult to understand after a day's calm and less than two hundred miles of water to wind ward
wilson saw and sketched the new white stomached whale seen by us in the pack
the sky is covered with light cumulus and an easterly wind has sprung up force two to three with all sail set we are making very good progress
ten a m the conditions are very much the same as last night
and the land is showing up well though erebus is veiled in stratus cloud
but the wind is alarming and there is a slight swell which has little effect on the ship but makes all the difference to our landing for the moment it doesn't look hopeful we have been continuing our line of soundings
the water has gradually got deeper and we are now getting three hundred ten to three hundred fifty fathoms against one hundred eighty on the bank the discovery soundings give depths up to four hundred fifty fathoms
east of ross island six p m no good alas cape crozier with all its attractions is denied us we came up to the barrier five miles east of the cape soon after one p m
barrier was not more than sixty feet in height from the crow's nest one could see well over it and noted that there was a gentle slope for at least a mile towards the edge the land of black or white island
could be seen distinctly behind topping the huge lines of pressure ridges we plotted the barrier edge from the point at which we met it to the crozier cliffs to the eye it seems scarcely to have changed since discovery days
and wilson thinks it meets the cliff in the same place the barrier takes a sharp turn back at two or three miles from the cliffs runs back for half a mile then west again with a fairly regular surface
until within a few hundred yards of the cliffs the interval is occupied with a single high pressure ridge the evidences of pressure at the edge being less marked than i had expected
ponting was very busy with cinematograph and camera in the angle at the corner near the cliffs rennick got a sounding of one hundred forty fathoms and nelson some temperatures and samples
when lowering the water bottle on one occasion the line suddenly became slack at one hundred metres then after a moment's pause began to run out again we are curious to know the cause
meanwhile one of the whale boats was lowered and wilson griffith taylor priestley evans and i were pulled towards the shore the after guard are so keen that the proper boat's crew was displaced and the oars manned by oates atkinson and cherry garrard
the latter catching several crabs the swell made it impossible for us to land i had hoped to see whether there was room to pass between the pressure ridge and the cliff a route by which royds once descended to the emperor rookery
as we approached the corner we saw that a large piece of sea floe ice had been jammed between the barrier and the cliff and had buckled up
this is an age and stage of development of the emperor chick of which we have no knowledge and it would have been a triumph to have secured the chick but alas there was no way to get at it another most curious sight
was the feet and tails of two chicks and the flipper of an adult bird projecting from the ice on the under side of the jammed floe
finding it impossible to land owing to the swell we pulled along the cliffs for a short way these crozier cliffs are remarkably interesting the rock mainly volcanic tuff
includes thick strata of columnar basalt and one could see beautiful designs of jammed and twisted columns as well as caves with whole and half pillars very much like a miniature giant's causeway
bands of bright yellow occurred in the rich brown of the cliffs caused the geologists think by the action of salts on the brown rock in places the cliffs overhung
and continued to break into them over a shelving beach icicles hung pendant everywhere
we noticed a very clear echo as we passed close to a perpendicular rock face later we returned to the ship which had been trying to turn in the bay she is not very satisfactory in this respect
several minutes often elapse after the telegraph has been put over before there is any movement of the engines it makes the position rather alarming when one is feeling one's way into some doubtful corner
when the whaler was hoisted we proceeded round to the penguin rookery hopes of finding a quiet landing had now almost disappeared
going close to these we got repeated soundings varying from thirty four down to twelve fathoms there is evidently a fairly extensive bank at the foot of the rookery
reluctantly and sadly we have had to abandon our cherished plan it is a thousand pities
comfortable quarters for the hut ice for water snow for the animals good slopes for ski ing vast tracks of rock for walks proximity to the barrier and to the rookeries of two types of penguins easy ascent of mount terror
good ground for biological work good peaks for observation of all sorts fairly easy approach to the southern road with no chance of being cut off and so forth it is a thousand pities
to have to abandon such a spot on passing the rookery it seemed to me we had been wrong in assuming that all the guano is blown away i think there must be a pretty good deposit in places
the penguins could be seen very clearly from the ship on the large rookery they occupy an immense acreage
but on the small rookery they are patchy
such unused spaces would have been ideal for a wintering station if only some easy way could have been found to land stores i noted many groups of penguins on the snow slopes over looking the sea far from the rookeries
and one finds it difficult to understand why they meander away to such places a number of killer whales rose close to the ship when we were opposite the rookery what an excellent time these animals must have
with thousands of penguins passing to and fro we saw our old discovery post office pole
in the case of the barrier edge from the penguin rookeries to the west it is a relentless coast with high ice cliffs and occasional bare patches of rock showing through even if landing were possible
the grimmest crevassed snow slopes lie behind to cut one off from the barrier surface there is no hope of shelter till we reach cape royds meanwhile all hands are employed making a running survey
i give an idea of the programme opposite terror cleared itself of cloud some hours ago and we have had some change in views of it it is quite certain that the ascent would be easy
the bay on the north side of erebus is much deeper than shown on the chart the sun has been obstinate all day peeping out occasionally
programme bruce continually checking speed with hand log bowers taking altitudes of objects as they come abeam
nelson noting results pennell taking verge plate bearings on bow and quarter cherry garrard noting results evans taking verge plate bearings abeam atkinson noting results
campbell taking distances abeam with range finder wright noting results rennick sounding with thomson machine drake noting results
beaufort island looks very black from the south
we find pack off cape bird we have passed through some streams and there is some open water ahead but i'm afraid we may find the ice pretty thick in the strait at this date wednesday january four one a m
we are around cape bird and in sight of our destination but it is doubtful if the open water extends so far we have advanced by following an open water lead close along the land
cape bird is a very rounded promontory with many headlands it is not easy to say which of these is the cape
there is a very extensive expanse of land and on it one larger and several small penguin rookeries on the uniform dark reddish brown of the land can be seen numerous grey spots these are erratic boulders of granite
through glasses one could be seen perched on a peak at least thirteen hundred feet above the sea another group of killer whales were idly diving off the penguin rookery an old one with a very high straight dorsal fin and several youngsters
it seemed impossible that they should have failed to see the sinister fins during their frequent jumps into the air
crossed the whales yet there was no commotion whatever and presently the small birds could be seen leaping away on the other side one can only suppose the whales are satiated as we rounded cape bird
we came in sight of the old well remembered land marks mount discovery and the western mountains seen dimly through a hazy atmosphere it was good to see them again and perhaps after all
we are better this side of the island it gives one a homely feeling to see such a familiar scene four a m the steep exposed hill sides on the west side of cape bird look like high cliffs as one gets south of them
the floes heavier but the latter remain loose many of us spent the night on deck as we pushed through the pack we have passed some very large floes evidently frozen in the strait this is curious
early in the spring i have observed several floes with an entirely new type of surface they are covered with scales each scale consisting of a number of little flaky ice sheets
superimposed and all dipping at the same angle it suggests to me a surface with sastrugi
we are within five miles of cape royds and ought to get there wednesday january four p m this work is full of surprises at six a m
we steered for the cape fully expecting to find the edge of the pack ice ranging westward from it to our astonishment we ran on past the cape with clear water or thin sludge ice on all sides of us past cape royds
past cape barne past the glacier on its south side and finally round and past inaccessible island a good two miles south of cape royds the cape itself was cut off from the south we could have gone farther
but the last sludge ice seemed to be increasing in thickness
or the land so free from snow taking these facts in conjunction with the exceptional warmth of the air i came to the conclusion that it had been an exceptionally warm summer at this point
it was evident that we had a considerable choice of wintering spots we could have gone to either of the small islands to the mainland
or pretty well anywhere except hut point my main wish was to choose a place that would not be easily cut off from the barrier and my eye fell on a cape which we used to call the skuary a little behind us
it was separated from old discovery quarters
the ice would soon become firm i called a council and put these propositions to push on to the glacier tongue and winter there to push west to the tombstone ice
i favoured the latter course
so we turned back close around inaccessible island and steered for the fast ice off the cape at full speed after piercing a small fringe of thin ice at the edge of the fast floe
the ship's stem struck heavily on hard bay ice about a mile and a half from the shore here was a road to the cape and a solid wharf on which to land our stores we made fast with ice anchors
wilson evans and i went to the cape which i had now rechristened cape evans in honour of our excellent second in command a glance at the land showed as we expected ideal spots for our wintering station
the rock of the cape consists mainly of volcanic agglomerate with olivine kenyte it is much weathered and the destruction had formed quantities of coarse sand we chose a spot for the hut
which i must detail later for a winter station and we realised that at length our luck had turned the most favourable circumstance of all is the stronge chance of communication with cape armitage being established at an early date
does not become secure till late in the season probably in may before that all evidence seems to show that the part between cape royds and cape barne is continually going out how i ask myself
at a comparatively early date it will probably only be necessary to cross the sea ice
even if it should both stages can be seen before the party ventures upon them after many frowns fortune has treated us to the kindest smile for twenty four hours we have had a calm
with brilliant sunshine such weather in such a place
that i have ever experienced the warm glow of the sun with the keen invigorating cold of the air forms a combination which is inexpressibly health giving and satisfying to me whilst the golden light
on this wonderful scene of mountain and ice satisfies every claim of scenic magnificence no words of mine can convey the impressiveness of the wonderful panorama displayed to our eyes
ponting is enraptured and uses expressions which in anyone else
chapter twenty one a risk for love ey ey he is a craven and he called me doddering fool the speaker
and he addressed a knot of chieftains in one of the chambers of the palace of o tar
if a kor was alive there were a jeddak for us who says that a kor is dead demanded one of the chiefs where is he then
whom o tar thought too well beloved for men so near the throne as they the chief shook his head and i thought that or knew it rather
here comes the licker of feet and all eyes were turned upon the approaching
elicited naught but a few surly nods have you heard the news he continued unabashed by treatment to which he was becoming accustomed what has o tar seen an ulsio and fainted
men have died for less than that ancient one
i am safe retorted i gos for i am not a brave and popular son of the jeddak
this was indeed open treason
o tar goes to the chamber of o mai this night in search of turan the slave he said he sorrows that his warriors have not the courage for so mean a duty and that their jeddak is thus compelled
to arrest a common slave with which taunt
in other parts of the palace as a matter of fact the latter part of his message was purely original with himself
if i don't see him i will know that he has not explained the old taxidermist is there anything there to fill an honest man with fear asked a chieftain what have you seen
it was not so much what i saw though that was bad enough as what i heard said i gos tell us what heard and saw you i saw the dead o mai
the others shuddered and you went not mad they asked am i mad retorted i gos and you will go again yes then indeed you are mad cried one
upon his couch i heard horrid moans and frightful screams and you are not afraid to go there again demanded several
he has lain thus for five thousand years nor can a sound harm me i heard it once and live i can hear it again it came from almost at my side where i hid behind the hangings
and watched the slave turan before i snatched the woman away from him
then indeed shall o tar fall the night came and the zodes dragged and the time approached when o tar
to us who may doubt the existence of malignant spirits his fear may seem unbelievable for he was a strong man an excellent swordsman and a warrior of great repute
to the very apartments themselves he was almost paralyzed with terror he had come alone for two very excellent reasons the first of which was that
thus none might note his terror stricken state nor his defection should he fail at the last moment and the other was that should he accomplish the thing alone or be able to make his chiefs believe that he had the credit would be far greater
than were he to be accompanied by warriors but though he had started alone he had become aware that he was being followed and he knew that it was because his people had no faith in either his courage
or his veracity he did not believe that he would find the slave turan he did not very much want to find him for though o tar was an excellent swordsman and a brave warrior in physical combat
and he had no stomach for a passage at arms with one whom he knew outclassed him and so o tar stood with his hand upon the door afraid to enter afraid not to
silence and gloom and the dust of centuries lay heavy upon the chamber from his warriors he knew the route that he must take to the horrid chamber of o mai and so he forced his unwilling feet
across the room before him across the room where the jetan players sat at their eternal game and came to the short corridor that led into the room of o mai his naked sword trembled in his grasp
he paused after each forward step to listen and when he was almost at the door of the ghost haunted chamber his heart stood still within his breast and the cold sweat broke from the clammy skin of his forehead
the sound of muffled breathing then it was that o tar of manator came near to fleeing from the nameless horror that he could not see but that he knew lay waiting for him in that chamber just ahead
but again came the fear of the wrath and contempt of his warriors and his chiefs they would degrade him and they would slay him into the bargain
his only hope therefore lay in daring the unknown in preference to the known he moved forward a few steps took him to the doorway the chamber before him
was darker than the corridor so that he could just indistinctly make out the objects in the room
with a darker blotch of something lying on the marble floor beside it he moved a step farther into the doorway and the scabbard of his sword scraped against the stone frame to his horror
he saw a figure
of o mai the cruel his knees shook but he gathered all his moral forces and gripping his sword more tightly in his trembling fingers prepared to leap across the chamber upon the horrid apparition
he hesitated just a moment he felt eyes upon him ghoulish eyes that bored through the darkness into his withering heart eyes that he could not see he gathered himself for the rush
and then there broke from the thing upon the couch an awful shriek
smiling only to swing quickly about with drawn sword as the shadow of a noise impinged upon his keen ears from the shadows behind him between the parted hangings he saw a bent and wrinkled figure
sheathe your sword turan said the old man
one might forgive him that who had heard your uncanny scream it all but blasted my own courage and it was you then
it was you then old scoundrel demanded gahan
the gatholian knew that scarce the most abandoned of knaves would repudiate this solemn pledge and so he stooped and picking up the old man's sword returned it to him hilt first
in acceptance of his friendship where is the princess tara of helium asked gahan is she safe she is confined in the tower of the women's quarters awaiting the ceremony that is to make her jeddara
this thing dared think that tara of helium would mate with him growled gahan i will make short work of him if he is not already dead from fright and he stepped toward the fallen o tar to run his sword
through the jeddak's heart no cried i gos slay him not
if you would save your princess how is that asked gahan if word of o tar's death reached the quarters of the women the princess tara would be lost they know o tar's intention of taking her to wife
you may rest assured that they all hate her with the hate of jealous women
should o tar die they would turn her over to the warriors and the male slaves for there would be none to avenge her gahan sheathed his sword your point is well taken but what shall we do with him
he is not dead when he revives he will return to his quarters with a fine tale of his bravery and there will be none to impugn his boasts
knelt beside it for an instant and then returned past the couch to gahan the two quit the chamber of o mai and took their way toward the spiral runway
and out upon the roof of that portion of the palace from where he pointed to a high tower quite close by there he said lies the princess of helium and quite safe she will be until the time of the ceremony
safe possibly from other hands but not from her own said gahan
she would do that asked i gos she will unless you can get word to her that i still live and that there is yet hope replied gahan i cannot get word to her
no shadow falls within those chambers that is not marked by a hundred eyes
i will find a way
laying their plans against the time that tara of helium should be brought from the high tower to the throne room of o tar it was then
that any hope of rescuing her might be entertained just how far he might trust the other
and so he kept to himself the knowledge of the plan that he had forwarded to floran and val dor by ghek but he assured the ancient taxidermist that if he were sincere in his oft repeated declaration
gahan assured the other and if you have any party that thinks as you do prepare them for the eventuality that will succeed o tar's presumptuous attempt to wed the daughter of the warlord where shall i see you again and when
i go now to speak with tara princess of helium
but it will avail you naught you will not speak with tara princess of helium though doubtless the blood
gahan smiled i shall not be slain where and when shall we meet but you may find me in o mai's chamber at night
that seems the safest retreat in all manator for an enemy of the jeddak in whose palace it lies i go and may the spirits of your ancestors surround you said i gos
after the old man had left him gahan made his way across the roof to the high tower which appeared to have been constructed of concrete and afterward elaborately carved its entire surface being covered
with intricate designs cut deep into the stone like material of which it was composed though wrought ages since
and the rarity of dust storms to scale it though presented difficulties and danger that might have deterred the bravest of men that would doubtless have deterred
had he not felt that the life of the woman he loved depended upon his accomplishing the hazardous feat removing his sandals and laying aside all of his harness and weapons other than a single belt supporting a dagger
the gatholian essayed the dangerous ascent clinging to the carvings with hands and feet he worked himself slowly aloft avoiding the windows and keeping upon the shadowy side of the tower away from the light of thuria and cluros
the tower rose some fifty feet above the roof of the adjacent part of the palace comprising five levels or floors with windows looking in every direction a few of the windows were balconied
these like several of the others he had passed at lower levels were heavily barred so that there was no possibility of his gaining ingress to the apartment where tara was confined
darkness hid the interior behind the first window that he approached the second opened upon a lighted chamber where he could see a guard sleeping at his post outside a door
here also was the top of the runway leading to the next level below passing still farther around the tower gahan approached another window
but now he clung to that side of the tower which ended in a courtyard a hundred feet below and in a short time the light of thuria would reach him he realized that he must hasten and he prayed that behind the window he now approached
he would find tara of helium coming to the opening he looked in upon a small chamber dimly lighted in the center
a bare arm protruding from the coverings lay exposed against a black and yellow striped orluk skin an arm of wondrous beauty about which was clasped
no other creature was visible within the chamber all of which was exposed to gahan's view pressing his face to the bars the gatholian whispered her dear name the girl stirred
but did not awaken again he called but this time louder tara sat up and looked about and at the same instant a huge eunuch leaped to his feet from where he had been lying on the floor
farthest from gahan simultaneously the brilliant light of thuria flashed full upon the window where gahan clung silhouetting him plainly to the two within both sprang to their feet the eunuch drew his sword
without a sound he died and lunged forward to the floor then tara ran to the window turan my chief she cried
what awful risk is this you take to seek me here where even your brave heart is powerless to aid me be not so sure of that heart of my heart he replied while i bring but words to my love
they be the forerunner of deeds i hope that will give her back to me forever i feared that you might destroy yourself tara of helium to escape the dishonor that o tar would do you
and so i came to give you new hope and to beg that you live for me through whatever may transpire in the knowledge that there is yet a way and that if all goes well we shall be freed at last
look for me in the throne room of o tar the night that he would wed you and now how may we dispose of this fellow he pointed to the dead eunuch upon the floor we need not concern ourselves about that she replied
none dares harm me for fear of the wrath of o tar otherwise i should have been dead so soon as ever i entered this portion of the palace for the women hate me o tar alone may punish me and what cares o tar
second division transcendental dialectic introduction
of transcendental illusory appearance we termed dialectic in general a logic of appearance this does not signify a doctrine of probability for probability is truth only cognized upon insufficient grounds
for truth or illusory appearance does not reside in the object in so far as it is intuited but in the judgement upon the object in so far as it is thought
it is therefore quite correct to say that the senses do not err not because they always judge correctly but because they do not judge at all hence truth and error consequently also illusory appearance as the cause of error
are only to be found in a judgement that is in the relation of an object to our understanding in a cognition which completely harmonizes with the laws of the understanding no error can exist
deviate from its own laws hence neither the understanding per se without the influence of another cause nor the senses per se would fall into error the former could not
the effect the judgement must necessarily accord with these laws but in accordance with the laws of the understanding consists the formal element in all truth in the senses there is no judgement neither a true nor a false one
it follows that error is caused solely by the unobserved influence of the sensibility upon the understanding and thus it happens that the subjective grounds of a judgement and are confounded with the objective
and cause them to deviate from their proper determination just as a body in motion would always of itself proceed in a straight line but if another impetus gives to it a different direction
it will then start off into a curvilinear line of motion
that determine the judgement in two different directions which as it were form an angle and to resolve this composite operation into the simple ones of the understanding and the sensibility in pure a priori judgements
this must be done by means of transcendental reflection
our purpose is to speak of transcendental illusory appearance which influences principles that are not even applied to experience for in this case we should possess a sure test of their correctness
but which leads us in disregard of all the warnings of criticism completely beyond the empirical employment of the categories and deludes us with the chimera of an extension of the sphere of the pure understanding
we shall term those principles the application of which is confined entirely within the limits of possible experience immanent those on the other hand which transgress these limits we shall call transcendent principles
but by these latter i do not understand principles of the transcendental use or misuse of the categories which is in reality a mere fault of the judgement when not under due restraint from criticism
and therefore not paying sufficient attention to the limits of the sphere in which the pure understanding is allowed to exercise its functions but real principles which exhort
us to break down all those barriers and to lay claim to a perfectly new field of cognition which recognizes no line of demarcation thus transcendental and transcendent are not identical terms
which authorizes us to overstep them is called transcendent if our criticism can succeed in exposing the illusion in these pretended principles
those which are limited in their employment to the sphere of experience may be called in opposition to the others immanent principles of the pure understanding logical illusion which consists merely in the imitation
of the form of reason the illusion in sophistical syllogisms arises entirely from a want of due attention to logical rules
so soon as the attention is awakened to the case before us this illusion totally disappears transcendental illusion on the contrary does not cease to exist even after it has been exposed
the illusion in the proposition the world must have a beginning in time the cause of this is as follows in our reason subjectively considered as a faculty of human cognition there exist fundamental rules and maxims of its exercise
which have completely the appearance of objective principles now from this cause it happens that the subjective necessity of a certain connection of our conceptions is regarded as an objective necessity
of the determination of things in themselves this illusion it is impossible to avoid just as we cannot avoid perceiving that the sea appears to be higher at a distance than it is near the shore
transcendental dialectic will therefore content itself with exposing the illusory appearance in transcendental judgements and guarding us against it but to make it as in the case of logical illusion entirely disappear
and cease to be illusion is utterly beyond its power for we have here to do with a natural and unavoidable illusion which rests upon subjective principles and imposes these upon us as objective
while logical dialectic in the detection of sophisms
or with an artificially constructed illusion in imitation of the natural error there is therefore a natural and unavoidable dialectic of pure reason not that in which the bungler
inseparable adjunct of human reason and which even after its illusions have been exposed does not cease to deceive and continually to lead reason into momentary errors
chapter twenty two at the moment of marriage the silence of the tomb lay heavy about him as o tar
opened his eyes in the chamber of o mai recollection of the frightful apparition that had confronted him swept to his consciousness he listened but heard naught
within the range of his vision there was nothing apparent that might cause alarm slowly he lifted his head and looked about upon the floor beside the couch lay the thing
that had at first attracted his attention and his eyes closed in terror as he recognized it for what it was but it moved not nor spoke o tar opened his eyes again
and rose to his feet he was trembling in every limb
o tar backed slowly from the room at last he gained the outer corridor it was empty he did not know that it had emptied rapidly
as the loud scream with which his own had mingled had broken upon the startled ears of the warriors who had been sent to spy upon him
and as he entered they arose and upon the faces of many were incredulity and amaze for they had not thought to see o tar the jeddak again after what the spies had told them of the horrid sounds issuing from the chamber of o mai
thankful was o tar that he had gone alone to that chamber of fright for now no one could deny the tale that he should tell
had seen black looks directed toward him as the tals slipped by and his benefactor failed to return o brave and glorious jeddak cried the major domo we rejoice at your safe return
he is not there and i doubt if he ever goes there few men would choose to remain long in such a dismal place you were not attacked asked e thas you heard no screams nor moans
i heard hideous noises and saw phantom figures
am not mad i even rested in the chamber beside his corpse in a far corner of the room a bent and wrinkled old man hid a smile behind a golden goblet of strong brew
come let us drink cried o tar and reached for the dagger the pommel of which he was accustomed to use to strike the gong which summoned slaves but the dagger was not in its scabbard o tar was puzzled
he seized instead a table utensil and struck the gong and when the slaves came bade them bring the strongest brew for o tar and his chiefs before the dawn broke many were the expressions of admiration bellowed from drunken lips
but some there were who still looked glum came at last the day that o tar would take the princess tara of helium to wife for hours
slaves prepared the unwilling bride
then her whole body was anointed with the oil of pimalia blossoms and massaged by the deft fingers of a slave from distant dusar her harness all new and wrought for the occasion was of the white hide of the great white apes of barsoom
hung heavily with platinum and diamonds fairly encrusted with them the glossy mass of her jet hair had been built into a coiffure of stately and becoming grandeur
into which diamond headed pins were stuck until the whole scintillated as the stars in heaven upon a moonless night but it was a sullen and defiant bride that they led from the high tower
slowly tara surrounded by a heavy guard of honor moved along the marble corridors filled with people at the entrance to the hall of chiefs
received her the hall was empty except for its ranks of dead chieftains upon their dead mounts through this long chamber
here the bride would await the groom at the foot of the steps leading to the throne the guests followed her in and took their places leaving the central aisle from the hall of chiefs to the throne clear
for up this o tar would approach his bride alone after a short solitary communion with the dead behind closed doors in the hall of chiefs it was the custom
the guests had all filed through the hall of chiefs the doors at both ends had been closed presently
and o tar entered his black harness was ornamented with rubies and gold his face was covered by a grotesque mask of the precious metal
in which two enormous rubies were set for eyes though below them were narrow slits through which the wearer could see his crown was a fillet supporting carved feathers of the same metal as the mask
who had preceded him as the doors at the lower end of the hall closed behind him o tar the jeddak stood alone with the great dead by the dictates of ages
no mortal eye might look upon the scene enacted within that sacred chamber
the bride stood silently at the foot of the throne the guests spoke together in low whispers until the room was filled with the hum of many voices at length
the doors leading into the hall of chiefs swung open and the resplendent bridegroom stood framed for a moment in the massive opening a hush fell upon the wedding guests with measured and impressive step
the groom approached the bride tara felt the muscles of her heart contract with the apprehension that had been growing upon her as the coils of fate settled more closely about her
and no sign came from turan where was he what indeed could he accomplish now to save her surrounded by the power of o tar with never a friend among them her position seemed at last
without vestige of hope i still live she whispered inwardly in a last brave attempt to combat the terrible hopelessness that was overwhelming her but her fingers stole for reassurance to the slim blade
that she had managed to transfer undetected from her old harness to the new and now the groom was at her side and taking her hand was leading her up the steps to the throne before which they halted
and stood facing the gathering below came then from the back of the room a procession headed by the high dignitary whose office it was to make these two man and wife and directly behind him
about the wrist of each symbolizing their indissoluble union in the holy bonds of wedlock would turan's promised succor come too late tara listened to the long
in which the critic remains a liberal and does not go beyond the principle of liberalism man this may distinctively be named after man and called the humane
the laborer is counted as the most material and egoistical man he does nothing at all for humanity does everything for himself for his welfare the commonalty
because it proclaimed the freedom of man only as to his birth had to leave him in the claws of the un human man the egoist for the rest of life hence under the regime of political liberalism
egoism has an immense field for free utilization the laborer will utilize society for his egoistic ends as the commoner does the state
you have only an egoistic end after all your welfare is the humane liberal's reproach to the socialist take up a purely human interest then i will be your companion
but to this there belongs a consciousness stronger more comprehensive than a laborer consciousness the laborer makes nothing therefore he has nothing but he makes nothing
because his labor is always a labor that remains individual calculated strictly for his own want a labor
gutenberg's labor did not remain individual but begot innumerable children and still lives to day it was calculated for the want of humanity and was an eternal
imperishable labor the humane consciousness despises the commoner consciousness as well as the laborer consciousness for the commoner is indignant only at vagabonds
at all who have no definite occupation and their immorality the laborer is disgusted by the idler lazybones and his immoral because parasitic
and unsocial principles to this the humane liberal retorts the unsettledness of many is only your product philistine but that you proletarian demand the grind of all
and want to make drudgery general is a part still clinging to you of your pack mule life up to this time certainly you want to lighten drudgery itself by all having to drudge equally hard
yet only for this reason that all may gain leisure to an equal extent but what are they to do with their leisure what does your society do that this leisure may be passed humanly
it must leave the gained leisure to egoistic preference again and the very gain that your society furthers falls to the egoist as the gain of the commonalty
the masterlessness of man could not be filled with a human element by the state and therefore was left to arbitrary choice it is assuredly necessary that man be masterless
but therefore the egoist is not to become master over man again either but man over the egoist man must assuredly find leisure but if the egoist makes use of it
it will be lost for man therefore you ought to have given leisure a human significance but you laborers undertake even your labor from an egoistic impulse because you want to eat drink
live how should you be less egoists in leisure you labor only because having your time to yourselves idling goes well after work done and what you are to while away your leisure time with
is left to chance but if every door is to be bolted against egoism it would be necessary to strive after completely disinterested action total
disinterestedness this alone is human because only man is disinterested the egoist always interested
if we let disinterestedness pass unchallenged for a while then we ask do you mean not to take an interest in anything not to be enthusiastic for anything
oh yes but that is not an egoistic interest not interestedness but a human
theoretical interest to wit an interest not for an individual or individuals all but for the idea for man
and you do not notice that you too are enthusiastic only for your idea your idea of liberty and further do you not notice that your disinterestedness is again like
religious disinterestedness a heavenly interestedness certainly benefit to the individual leaves you cold and abstractly you could cry
and take no serious care for the individual's wants anyhow not for your own comfort nor for that of the rest but you make nothing of all this because you are a dreamer
do you suppose the humane liberal will be so liberal as to aver that everything possible to man is human on the contrary he does not indeed share the philistine's moral prejudice
his judgment is the strumpet is not a human being or so far as a woman is a strumpet
jew the christian the
is not a human being so far as you are a jew et cetera you are not a human being again the imperious postulate cast from you everything peculiar criticise it away be not a jew
nothing but a human being assert your humanity against every restrictive specification
make yourself by means of it a human being and free from those limits make yourself a free man
recognize humanity as your all determining essence i say you are indeed more than a jew
but you are also more than a human being those are all ideas but you are corporeal do you suppose then that you can ever become a human being as such
do you suppose our posterity will find no prejudices and limits to clear away for which our powers were not sufficient or do you perhaps think that in your fortieth or fiftieth year you have come so far
that the following days have nothing more to dissipate in you
the men of the future will yet fight their way to many a liberty that we do not even miss what do you need that later liberty for if you meant to esteem yourself as nothing before you had become a human being
you would have to wait till the last judgment till the day when man or humanity shall have attained perfection but as you will surely die before that
what becomes of your prize of victory rather therefore invert the case and say to yourself i
i do not need to begin by producing the human being in myself for he belongs to me already like all my qualities but asks the critic how can one be a jew and a man at once
in the first place i answer one cannot be either a jew or a man at all if
one always reaches beyond those specifications and let isaacs be ever so jewish a jew nothing but a jew he cannot be just because he is this jew
in the second place as a jew one assuredly cannot be a man if being a man means being nothing special but in the third place and this is the point i can as a jew
from samuel or moses and others you hardly expect that they should have raised themselves above judaism although you must say that they were not yet men they simply were what they could be is it otherwise with the jews of to day
because you have discovered the idea of humanity does it follow from this that every jew can become a convert to it if he can he does not fail to and if he fails to he cannot
what does your demand concern him what the call to be a man which you address to him as a universal principle in the human society which the humane liberal promises
nothing which bears the character of private is to have value in this way the circle of liberalism which has its good principle in man and human liberty its bad in the
egoist and everything private its god in the former its devil in the latter rounds itself off completely and if the special or private person lost his value in the state
no personal prerogative if in the laborers or ragamuffins society special private property is no longer recognized so in human society
everything special or private will be left out of account and when pure criticism shall have accomplished its arduous task then it will be known just what we must look upon as private and what
penetrated with a sense of our nothingness we must let stand because state and society do not suffice for humane liberalism it negates both and at the same time
retains them so at one time the cry is that the task of the day is not a political but a social one and then again the free state is promised for the future in truth
human society is both the most general state and the most general society only against the limited state is it asserted that it makes too much stir about spiritual private interests
e g people's religious belief and against limited society that it makes too much of material private interests both are to leave private interests to private people and
as human society concern themselves solely about general human interests the politicians thinking to abolish personal will self will or arbitrariness
the socialists taking away property too do not notice that this secures itself a continued existence in self ownership is it only money and goods then that are a property or is every opinion something of mine
something of my own so every opinion must be abolished or made impersonal the person is entitled to no opinion but as self will was transferred to the state property to society
so opinion too must be transferred to something general man and thereby become a general human opinion if opinion persists then i have my god why
god exists only as my god he is an opinion or my faith and consequently my faith my religion my thoughts
the fanaticism of liberty for this would be a faith that agreed with the essence of man and because only man is reasonable you and i might be very unreasonable a reasonable faith
as self will and property become powerless so must self ownership or egoism in general in this supreme development of free man egoism
self ownership is combated on principle and such subordinate ends as the social welfare of the socialists et cetera vanish before the lofty idea of humanity
everything that is not a general human entity is something separate satisfies only some or one or if it satisfies all it does this to them only as individuals
not as men and is therefore called egoistic to the socialists welfare is still the supreme aim as free rivalry was the approved thing to the political liberals
now welfare is free too and we are free to achieve welfare just as he who wanted to enter into rivalry competition
but to take part in the rivalry you need only to be commoners to take part in the welfare only to be laborers neither reaches the point of being synonymous with man
it is truly well with man only when he is also intellectually free for man is mind therefore
all powers that are alien to him the mind all superhuman heavenly unhuman powers must be overthrown and the name man must be above every name
so in this end of the modern age age of the moderns there returns again as the main point what had been the main point at its beginning intellectual liberty
to the communist in particular the humane liberal says if society prescribes to you your activity then this is indeed free
need to be a purely human activity
what kind of activity society demands of you remains accidental you know it might give you a place in building a temple or something of that sort or even if not that
you might yet on your own impulse be active for something foolish therefore unhuman yes more yet you really labor only to nourish yourself in general to live
for dear life's sake not for the glorification of humanity consequently free activity is not attained till you make yourself free from all stupidities from everything non human
egoistic pertaining only to the individual not to the man in the individual dissipate all untrue thoughts that obscure man or the idea of humanity in short
when you are not merely unhampered in your activity but the substance too of your activity is only what is human and you live and work only for humanity
but this is not the case so long as the aim of your effort is only your welfare and that of all what you do for the society of ragamuffins is not yet anything done for human society
laboring does not alone make you a man because it is something formal and its object accidental the question is who you that labor are
as far as laboring goes you might do it from an egoistic
nourishment and the like it must be a labor furthering humanity calculated for the good of humanity
in short a humane labor this implies two things one that it be useful to humanity next that it be the work of a man
the first alone may be the case with every labor as even the labors of nature e g of animals are utilized by humanity for the furthering of science et cetera the second requires that he who labors
should know the human object of his labor and as he can have this consciousness only when he knows himself as man the crucial condition is self consciousness
therewith you only get a view of the whole of your labor
or essence man the laborer has still remaining the desire for a higher consciousness which
hence leisure stands by the side of his labor and he sees himself compelled to proclaim labor and idling human in one breath yes to attribute the true elevation to the idler
the leisure enjoyer he labors only to get rid of labor he wants to make labor free only that he may be free from labor in fine his work has no satisfying substance
because it is only imposed by society only a stint a task a calling and conversely his society does not satisfy
work his labor ought to satisfy him as a man instead of that it satisfies society society ought to treat him as a man and it treats him as a rag tag laborer or
a laboring ragamuffin labor and society are of use to him not as he needs them as a man but only as he needs them
such is the attitude of criticism toward labor it points to mind wages the war
unintellectual mass labor averse to labor as they are the masses love to make labor easy for themselves in literature which is to day furnished in mass
this aversion to labor begets the universally known superficiality which puts from it
humane liberalism says you want labor all right we want it likewise but we want it in the fullest measure we want it not that we may gain spare time
but that we may find all satisfaction in it itself we want labor because it is our self development but then the labor too must be adapted to that end man is honored only by human self conscious labor
only by the labor that has for its end no egoistic purpose but man
so that the saying should be
i labor therefore i am a man the humane liberal wants that labor of the mind which works up all material he wants the mind that leaves no thing quiet or in its existing condition that
acquiesces in nothing analyzes everything criticises anew every result that has been gained this restless mind is the true laborer it obliterates prejudices shatters limits and narrownesses
and raises man above everything that would like to dominate over him while the communist labors only for himself and not even freely but from necessity in short
represents a man condemned to hard labor the laborer of such a type is not egoistic because he does not labor for individuals
neither for himself nor for other individuals not for private men therefore but for humanity and its progress he does not ease individual pains does not care for individual wants
humanity is pressed dispels prejudices which dominate an entire time vanquishes hindrances that obstruct the path of all clears away errors in which men entangle themselves discovers truths
my coming on the scene certainly calmed things down for the whole fortnight that intervened between my arrival and the girl's departure
and in the interval give edward a hell of a time having discovered what he wanted
that the girl should go five thousand miles away and love him steadfastly as people do in sentimental novels she was determined to smash that aspiration and she repeated to edward in every possible tone that the girl did not love him
that the girl detested him for his brutality his overbearingness his drinking habits she pointed out that edward in the girl's eyes was already pledged three or four deep
edward never said anything did the girl love edward or didn't she i don't know
for his good soldiering for his saving lives at sea for the excellent landlord that he was and the good sportsman
when she discovered that he wasn't a good husband for though women as i see them have little or no feeling of responsibility towards a county
they have an immense and automatically working instinct that attaches them to the interest of womanhood
but i rather think that a woman will only do this if she has reason to believe that the other woman has given her husband a bad time
put him back as the saying is i don't attach any particular importance to these generalizations of mine they may be right they may be wrong i am only an ageing american with very little knowledge of life you may take my generalizations or leave them
but i am pretty certain that i am right in the case of nancy rufford that she had loved edward ashburnham very deeply and tenderly it is nothing to the point that she let him have it good and strong as soon as she discovered that he had been unfaithful to leonora
and that his public services had cost more than leonora thought they ought to have cost nancy would be bound to let him have it good and strong then she would owe that to feminine public opinion she would be driven to it by the instinct for self preservation
since she might well imagine that if edward had been unfaithful to leonora to missus basil and to the memories of the other two he might be unfaithful to herself and no doubt she had her share of the sex instinct that makes women be intolerably cruel to the beloved person
anyhow i don't know whether at this point nancy rufford loved edward ashburnham i don't know whether she even loved him when on getting at aden the news of his suicide she went mad because that may just as well have been for the sake of leonora as for the sake of edward
or it may have been for the sake of both of them i don't know i know nothing i am very tired leonora held passionately the doctrine that the girl didn't love edward she wanted desperately to believe that
it was a doctrine as necessary to her existence as a belief in the personal immortality of the soul she said that it was impossible that nancy could have loved edward after she had given the girl her view of edward's career and character edward on the other hand believed maunderingly
that some essential attractiveness in himself must have made the girl continue to go on loving him to go on loving him as it were in underneath her official aspect of hatred
he thought she only pretended to hate him in order to save her face and he thought that her quite atrocious telegram from brindisi was only another attempt to do that to prove that she had feelings creditable to a member of the feminine commonweal
i don't know i leave it to you there is another point that worries me a good deal in the aspects of this sad affair leonora says that in desiring that the girl should go five thousand miles away and yet continue to love him edward was a monster of selfishness
he was desiring the ruin of a young life edward on the other hand put it to me that supposing that the girl's love was a necessity to his existence and if he did nothing by word or by action to keep nancy's love alive he couldn't be called selfish
leonora replied that showed he had an abominably selfish nature even though his actions might be perfectly correct
he sat still and let leonora take away his character and let leonora damn him to deepest hell without stirring a finger i daresay he was a fool i don't see what object there was in letting the girl think worse of him than was necessary
still there it is and there it is also that all those three presented to the world the spectacle of being the best of good people i assure you that during my stay for that fortnight in that fine old house i never so much as noticed a single thing that could have affected that good opinion
and even when i look back knowing the circumstances i can't remember a single thing any of them said that could have betrayed them i can't remember right up to the dinner when leonora read out that telegram
and leonora kept it up jolly well for even longer than that she kept it up as far as i was concerned until eight days after edward's funeral immediately after that particular dinner
the dinner at which i received the announcement that nancy was going to leave for india on the following day i asked leonora to let me have a word with her she took me into her little sitting room and i then said
i spare you the record of my emotions that she was aware that i wished to marry nancy that she had seemed to favour my suit and that it appeared to be rather a waste of money upon tickets and rather a waste of time upon travel to let the girl go to india
if leonora thought that there was any chance of her marrying me and leonora i assure you was the absolutely perfect british matron she said that she quite favoured my suit that she could not desire for the girl a better husband
but that she considered that the girl ought to see a little more of life before taking such an important step yes leonora used the words taking such an important step she was perfect
and settling down there with the girl that didn't at all suit leonora
still i think she might have managed to let me know in some periphrasis or other that i might have the girl if i would take her to philadelphia or timbuctoo i loved nancy very much and leonora knew it however i left it at that
i left it with the understanding that nancy was going away to india on probation it seemed to me a perfectly reasonable arrangement and i am a reasonable sort of man i simply said that i should follow nancy out to india after six months time or so
well you see i did follow nancy out to india after a year i must confess to having felt a little angry with leonora for not having warned me earlier that the girl would be going
i took it as one of the queer not very straight methods that roman catholics seem to adopt in dealing with matters of this world i took it that leonora had been afraid i should propose to the girl or at any rate have made considerably greater advances to her than i did
if i had known earlier that she was going away so soon perhaps leonora was right perhaps roman catholics with their queer shifty ways are always right they are dealing with the queer shifty thing that is human nature
and that would have produced another complication it may have been just as well
for edward ashburnham and his wife called me half the world over in order to sit on the back seat of a dog cart whilst edward drove the girl to the railway station from which she was to take her departure to india they wanted i suppose to have a witness of the calmness of that function
the girl's luggage had been already packed and sent off before her berth on the steamer had been taken they had timed it all so exactly that it went like clockwork they had known the date upon which colonel rufford would get edward's letter
and quite mercilessly arranged by edward himself they gave colonel rufford as a reason for telegraphing the fact that missus colonel somebody or other would be travelling by that ship and that she would serve as an efficient chaperon for the girl
good people after my interview with leonora
i didn't know where the girl was and i thought i mind find her there
edward was lounging in his chair smoking a cigar and he said nothing for quite five minutes the candles glowed in the green shades the reflections were green in the glasses of the book cases that held guns and fishing rods over the mantelpiece was the brownish picture of the white horse
those were the quietest moments that i have ever known then suddenly edward looked me straight in the eyes and said look here old man i wish you would drive with nancy and me to the station tomorrow
he lay there for a long time looking along the line of his knees at the fluttering fire
i am so desperately in love with nancy rufford that i am dying of it poor devil
the sun was quite bright the winding road between the heather and the bracken was very hard i sat on the back seat of the dog cart nancy was beside edward they talked about the way the cob went edward pointed out with the whip a cluster of deer upon a coombe three quarters of a mile away
we passed the hounds in the level bit of road beside the high trees going into fordingbridge and edward pulled up the dog cart so that nancy might say good bye to the huntsman and cap him a last sovereign she had ridden with those hounds ever since she had been thirteen
the train was five minutes late and they imagined that that was because it was market day at swindon or wherever the train came from that was the sort of thing they talked about the train came in edward found her a first class carriage with an elderly woman in it
the girl entered the carriage edward closed the door and then she put out her hand to shake mine there was upon those people's faces no expression of any kind whatever the signal for the train's departure was a very bright red
so long to edward edward answered so long he swung round on his heel and large slouching and walking with a heavy deliberate pace he went out of the station i followed him and got up beside him in the high dog cart
it was the most horrible performance i have ever seen and after that a holy peace like the peace of god which passes all understanding descended upon branshaw teleragh leonora went about her daily duties with a sort of triumphant smile
a very faint smile but quite triumphant i guess she had so long since given up any idea of getting her man back
once in the hall when leonora was going out edward said beneath his breath but i just caught the words thou hast conquered o pale galilean it was like his sentimentality to quote swinburne
it's very odd i think i ought to tell you dowell that i haven't any feelings at all about the girl now it's all over don't you worry about me i'm all right a long time afterwards he said
i guess it was only a flash in the pan he began to look after the estates again he took all that trouble over getting off the gardener's daughter who had murdered her baby he shook hands smilingly with every farmer in the market place
everything went on as if the girl had never existed it was very still weather
and when i come to look at it i see that it is a happy ending with wedding bells and all the villains for obviously edward and the girl were villains have been punished by suicide and madness the heroine the perfectly normal virtuous and slightly deceitful heroine
has become the happy wife of a perfectly normal virtuous and slightly deceitful husband
a happy ending that is what it works out at i cannot conceal from myself the fact that i now dislike leonora without doubt i am jealous of rodney bayham but i don't know whether it is merely a jealousy arising from the fact that i desired myself to possess leonora
edward ashburnham and nancy rufford in order to set her up in a modern mansion replete with every convenience and dominated by a quite respectable and eminently economical master of the house it was necessary that edward and nancy rufford should become
for me at least no more than tragic shades
and she repeated the word shuttlecocks three times i know what was passing in her mind if she can be said to have a mind for leonora has told me that once the poor girl said she felt like a shuttlecock being tossed backwards and forwards
between the violent personalities of edward and his wife leonora she said was always trying to deliver her over to edward and edward tacitly and silently forced her back again
and leonora also imagined that edward and nancy picked her up and threw her down as suited their purely vagrant moods so there you have the pretty picture mind i am not preaching anything contrary to accepted morality
society must go on i suppose and society can only exist if the normal
and if the passionate the headstrong and the too truthful are condemned to suicide and to madness but i guess that i myself in my fainter way come into the category of the passionate of the headstrong and the too truthful
for i can't conceal from myself the fact that i loved edward ashburnham
if i had had the courage and virility and possibly also the physique of edward ashburnham i should i fancy have done much what he did
yes society must go on it must breed like rabbits that is what we are here for but then i don't like society much
no one visits me for i visit no one
in twenty minutes or so i shall walk down to the village beneath my own oaks alongside my own clumps of gorse to get the american mail
so life peters out i shall return to dine and nancy will sit opposite me with the old nurse standing behind her enigmatic silent utterly well behaved as far as her knife and fork go
then she will say that she believes in an omnipotent deity or she will utter the one word shuttle cocks perhaps it is very extraordinary to see the perfect flush of health on her cheeks to see the lustre of her coiled black hair the poise of the head upon the neck
the grace of the white hands and to think that it all means nothing
yes it is queer but at any rate there is always leonora to cheer you up
and that is the end of my story the child is to be brought up as a romanist it suddenly occurs to me that i have forgotten to say how edward met his death you remember that peace had descended upon the house that leonora was quietly triumphant
and that edward said his love for the girl had been merely a passing phase well one afternoon we were in the stables together looking at a new kind of flooring that edward was trying in a loose box
edward was talking with a good deal of animation about the necessity of getting the numbers of the hampshire territorials up to the proper standard he was quite sober quite quiet his skin was clear coloured his hair was golden and perfectly brushed
the level brick dust red of his complexion went clean up to the rims of his eyelids his eyes were porcelain blue and they regarded me frankly and directly his face was perfectly expressionless
he stood well back upon his legs and said we ought to get them up to two thousand three hundred and fifty a stable boy brought him a telegram and went away he opened it negligently regarded it without emotion and in complete silence handed it to me
on the pinkish paper in a sprawled handwriting i read safe brindisi having rattling good time nancy
but he was also to the last a sentimentalist whose mind was compounded of indifferent poems and novels he just looked up to the roof of the stable as if he were looking to heaven and whispered something that i did not catch
they came out with a little neat pen knife quite a small pen knife he said to me you might just take that wire to leonora and he looked at me with a direct challenging brow beating glare i guess he could see in my eyes that i didn't intend to hinder him
why should i hinder him i didn't think he was wanted in the world let his confounded tenants his rifle associations his drunkards reclaimed and unreclaimed get on as they liked not all the hundreds and hundreds of them deserved
that that poor devil should go on suffering for their sakes when he saw that i did not intend to interfere with him his eyes became soft and almost affectionate he remarked so long old man
i didn't know what to say i wanted to say god bless you
but i thought that perhaps that would not be quite english good form
what should these people have done what in the name of god should they have done
belong to edward edward must die the girl must lose her reason because edward died and that after a time leonora who was the coldest and the strongest of the three would console herself by marrying rodney bayham
and have a quiet comfortable good time that end on that night whilst leonora sat in the girl's bedroom and edward telephoned down below that end was plainly manifest the girl plainly was half mad already
edward was half dead only leonora active persistent instinct with her cold passion of energy was doing things what then should they have done worked out in the extinction of two very splendid personalities
for edward and the girl were splendid personalities in order that a third personality more normal should have after a long period of trouble a quiet comfortable good time
i am writing this now i should say a full eighteen months after the words that end my last chapter since writing the words until my arrival which i see end that paragraph
the great rhone the immense stretches of the crau i have rushed through all provence and all provence no longer matters
because there is only hell edward is dead the girl is gone oh utterly gone leonora is having a good time with rodney bayham and i sit alone in branshaw teleragh i have been through provence i have seen africa
my poor girl sitting motionless with her wonderful hair about her
credo in unum deum omnipotentem credo in unum deum omnipotentem those are the only reasonable words she uttered those are the only words it appears that she ever will utter
it must be extraordinarily reasonable for her if she can say that she believes in an omnipotent deity well there it is i am very tired of it all for i daresay all this may sound romantic but it is tiring tiring
to have caught the trains to have chosen the cabins to have consulted the purser and the stewards as to diet for the quiescent patient who did nothing but announce her belief in an omnipotent deity that may sound romantic but it is just a record of fatigue
i don't know why i should always be selected to be serviceable i don't resent it but i have never been the least good florence selected me for her own purposes and i was no good to her
i was quietly writing in my room at branshaw when leonora came to me with a letter
colonel rufford had left the army and had taken up an appointment at a tea planting estate in ceylon his letter was pathetic because it was so brief so inarticulate and so business like he had gone down to the boat to meet his daughter and had found his daughter quite mad
it appears that at aden nancy had seen in a local paper the news of edward's suicide in the red sea she had gone mad she had remarked to missus colonel luton who was chaperoning her that she believed in an omnipotent deity
she hadn't made any fuss her eyes were quite dry and glassy even when she was mad nancy could behave herself colonel rufford said the doctor did not anticipate that there was any chance of his child's recovery it was nevertheless
it might soothe her and it might have a good effect and he just simply wrote to leonora please come and see if you can do it i seem to have lost all sense of the pathetic but still that simple enormous request of the old colonel strikes me as pathetic
and yet he believed in the goodness of human nature he believed that leonora would take the trouble to go all the way to ceylon in order to soothe his daughter leonora wouldn't leonora didn't ever want to see nancy again
at the same time she agreed as it were on public grounds that someone soothing ought to go from branshaw to ceylon
had first come to branshaw so off i go rushing through provence to catch the steamer at marseilles and i wasn't the least good when i got to ceylon and the nurse wasn't the least good nothing has been the least good
the sea air the change of climate the voyage and all the usual sort of things might restore her reason of course they haven't restored her reason she is i am aware sitting in the hall forty paces from where i am now writing
she is very well dressed she is quite quiet
the old nurse looks after her very efficiently of course you have the makings of a situation here but it is all very humdrum as far as i am concerned i should marry nancy if her reason were ever sufficiently restored to let her appreciate the meaning of the anglican marriage service
but it is probable that her reason will never be sufficiently restored to let her appreciate the meaning of the anglican marriage service therefore i cannot marry her according to the law of the land so here i am very much where i started thirteen years ago
i am the attendant not the husband of a beautiful girl who pays no attention to me i am estranged from leonora who married rodney bayham in my absence and went to live at bayham leonora rather dislikes me because she has got it into her head that i disapprove of her marriage with rodney bayham
well i disapprove of her marriage possibly i am jealous yes no doubt i am jealous in my fainter sort of way i seem to perceive myself following the lines of edward ashburnham
with nancy and with leonora and with maisie maidan
i am no doubt like every other man only probably because of my american origin i am fainter at the same time i am able to assure you that i am a strictly respectable person i have never done anything that the most anxious mother of a daughter
or the most careful dean of a cathedral would object to
well it is all over not one of us has got what he really wanted leonora wanted edward
a pleasant enough sort of sheep florence wanted branshaw and it is i who have bought it from leonora i didn't really want it what i wanted mostly was to cease being a nurse attendant well i am a nurse attendant edward wanted nancy rufford and i have got her
why can't people have what they want the things were all there to content everybody yet everybody has the wrong thing perhaps you can make head or tail of it it is beyond me is there any terrestial paradise where amidst the whispering of the olive leaves
people can be with whom they like and have what they like and take their ease in shadows and in coolness or are all men's lives like the lives of us good people like the lives of the ashburnhams of the dowells of the ruffords broken tumultuous
agonized and unromantic lives periods punctuated by screams by imbecilities by deaths by agonies who the devil knows for there was a great deal of imbecility about the closing scenes of the ashburnham tragedy neither of those two women knew
and he was drunk most of the time but drunk or sober he stuck to what was demanded by convention and by the traditions of his house nancy rufford had to be exported to india and nancy rufford hadn't to hear a word of love from him she was exported to india
and she never heard a word from edward ashburnham it was the conventional line it was in tune with the tradition of edward's house i daresay it worked out for the greatest good of the body politic conventions and traditions i suppose work blindly
for the extinction of proud resolute and unusual individuals edward was the normal man but there was too much of the sentimentalist about him and society does not need too many sentimentalists nancy was a splendid creature but she had about her a touch of madness
society does not need individuals with touches of madness about them so edward and nancy found themselves steamrolled out and leonora survives the perfectly normal type married to a man who is rather like a rabbit
for rodney bayham is rather like a rabbit and i hear that leonora is expected to have a baby in three months time so those splendid and tumultuous creatures with their magnetism and their passions those two that i really loved have gone from this earth
it is no doubt best for them what would nancy have made of edward if she had succeeded in living with him what would edward have made of her for there was about nancy a touch of cruelty a touch of definite actual cruelty that made her desire to see people suffer
yes she desired to see edward suffer and by god she gave him hell she gave him an unimaginable hell those two women pursued that poor devil and flayed the skin off him as if they had done it with whips i tell you his mind bled almost visibly
i seem to see him stand naked to the waist his forearms shielding his eyes and flesh hanging from him in rags i tell you that is no exaggeration of what i feel it was as if leonora and nancy banded themselves together to do execution
for the sake of humanity upon the body of a man who was at their disposal they were like a couple of sioux who had got hold of an apache and had him well tied to a stake i tell you there was no end to the tortures they inflicted upon him
night after night he would hear them talking talking maddened sweating seeking oblivion in drink he would lie there and hear the voices going on and on and day after day leonora would come to him and would announce the results of their deliberations
they were like judges debating over the sentence upon a criminal they were like ghouls with an immobile corpse in a tomb beside them i don't think that leonora was any more to blame than the girl
i mean to say that in normal circumstances her desires were those of the woman who is needed by society she desired children decorum an establishment she desired to avoid waste she desired to keep up appearances
she was utterly and entirely normal even in her utterly undeniable beauty but i don't mean to say that she acted perfectly normally in this perfectly abnormal situation all the world was mad around her and she herself agonized took on the complexion of a mad woman
of a woman very wicked of the villain of the piece what would you have steel is a normal hard polished substance but if you put it in a hot fire it will become red
it was like that with leonora she was made for normal circumstances for mister rodney bayham who will keep a separate establishment secretly in portsmouth and make occasional trips to paris and to budapest in the case of edward and the girl leonora broke and simply went all over the place
she adopted unfamiliar and therefore extraordinary and ungraceful attitudes of mind at one moment she was all for revenge after haranguing the girl for hours through the night she harangued for hours of the day the silent edward and edward just once tripped up
and that was his undoing perhaps he had had too much whisky that afternoon she asked him perpetually what he wanted
he meant that he wanted the girl to go to her father in india as soon as her father should cable that he was ready to receive her but just once he tripped up to leonora's eternal question he answered that all he desired in life was that that he could pick himself together again
and go on with his daily occupations if the girl being five thousand miles away would continue to love him he wanted nothing more he prayed his god for nothing more well he was a sentimentalist
and the moment that she heard that leonora determined that the girl should not go five thousand miles away and that she should not continue to love edward the way she worked it was this she continued to tell the girl that she must belong to edward
she was going to get a divorce she was going to get a dissolution of marriage from rome
she told the girl of la dolciquita
and at hearing of the miseries her aunt had suffered for leonora once more had the aspect of an aunt to the girl
the girl made her resolves her aunt said incessantly you must save edward's life you must save his life
then he will tire of you as he has of the others but you must save his life
exactly what was going on and he remained dumb he stretched out no finger to help himself all that he required to keep himself a decent member of society was that the girl five thousand miles away should continue to love him they were putting a stopper upon that
and that was the real hell for him that was the picture that never left his imagination
and she looked at him with her straight eyes of an unflinching cruelty and she said i am ready to belong to you
to save your life he answered i don't want it i don't want it i don't want it and he says that he didn't want it
and all the while he had the immense temptation to do the unthinkable thing not from the physical desire but because of a mental certitude he was certain that if she had once submitted to him she would remain his for ever he knew that
she said i can never love you now i know the kind of man you are i will belong to you to save your life but i can never love you it was a fantastic display of cruelty she didn't in the least know what it meant to belong to a man
but at that edward pulled himself together he spoke in his normal tones gruff husky overbearing
he had seen from his windows in whitehall parliament square filled with a mob the like of which had not been known in england since the days of christianity a mob full of a fury that could scarcely draw its origin
except from sources beyond the reach of sense thrice during the hours that followed the publication of the catholic plot and the outbreak of mob law he had communicated with the prime minister asking whether nothing could be done to allay the tumult and on both occasions
that what could be done would be done that force was inadmissible at present but that the police were doing all that was possible as regarded the despatch of the volors to rome he had assented by silence as had the rest of the council
as he passed in one of the government volors over london on his way home he had caught more than one glimpse of what was proceeding beneath him the streets were as bright as day shadowless and clear in the white light
and every roadway was a crawling serpent from beneath rose up a steady roar of voices soft and woolly punctuated by cries from here and there ascended the smoke of burning and once as he flitted over one of the great squares
to the south of battersea he had seen as it were a scattered squadron of ants
he knew what was happening well after all man was not yet perfectly civilised he did not like to think of what awaited him at home once about five hours earlier he had listened to his wife's voice through the telephone
and what he had heard had nearly caused him to leave all and go to her yet he was scarcely prepared for what he found as he came into the sitting room there was no sound except that far away hum from the seething streets below the room seemed strangely dark and cold
he passed across to the window closed it and drew the curtains then he took that rigid figure gently by the arm mabel he said mabel she submitted to be drawn towards the sofa but there was no response to his touch
he sat down and looked up at her with a kind of despairing apprehension my dear i am tired out he said still she looked at him there was in her pose that rigidity that actors simulate yet he knew it for the real thing
he had seen that silence once or twice before in the presence of a horror once at any rate at the sight of a splash of blood on her shoe well my darling sit down at least he said she obeyed him mechanically
her loyalty to her faith and her hatred of those crimes in the name of justice as he looked on her he saw that these two were at death grips that hatred was prevailing and that she herself was little more than a passive battlefield
then as with a long drawn howl of a wolf there surged and sank the voices of the mob a mile away the tension broke she threw herself forward towards him he caught her by the wrists and so she rested
clasped in his arms her face and bosom on his knees and her whole body torn by emotion for a full minute neither spoke oliver understood well enough yet at present he had no words he only drew her a little closer to himself
kissed her hair two or three times and settled himself to hold her he began to rehearse what he must say presently then she raised her flushed face for an instant looked at him passionately dropped her head again and began to sob out broken words
he could only catch a sentence here and there yet he knew what she was saying it was the ruin of all her hopes she sobbed the end of her religion let her die die and have done with it it was all gone gone
swept away in this murderous passion of the people of her faith they were no better than christians after all as fierce as the men on whom they avenged themselves as dark as though the saviour julian had never come it was all lost
the burning churches and convents all streamed out incoherent broken by sobs details of horror lamentations reproaches interpreted by the writhing of her head and hands upon his knees the collapse was complete
he put his hands again beneath her arms and raised her he was worn out by his work yet he knew he must quiet her this was more serious than any previous crisis yet he knew her power of recovery sit down my darling he said
there give me your hands now listen to me
men were not yet perfect he said there ran in their veins the blood of men who for twenty centuries had been christians there must be no despair faith in man was of the very essence of religion faith in man's best self in what he would become
not in what at present he actually was they were at the beginning of the new religion not in its maturity there must be sourness in the young fruit consider too the provocation remember the appalling crime that these catholics had contemplated
they had set themselves to strike the new faith in its very heart my darling he said men are not changed in an instant what if those christians had succeeded
but what does faith mean except that we know that mercy will prevail faith patience and hope these are our weapons he spoke with passionate conviction his eyes fixed on hers
in a fierce endeavour to give her his own confidence and to reassure the remnants of his own doubtfulness it was true that he too hated what she hated yet he saw things that she did not well well he told himself he must remember that she was a woman
the look of frantic horror passed slowly out of her eyes giving way to acute misery as he talked and as his personality once more began to dominate her own but it was not yet over but the volors she cried the volors
that is deliberate that is not the work of the mob my darling it is no more deliberate than the other we are all human we are all immature yes the council permitted it permitted it remember
but she returned to one of his words permitted it and you permitted it dear i said nothing
i tell you that if we had forbidden it there would have been yet more murder and the people would have lost their rulers we were passive since we could do nothing ah but it would have been better to die oh oliver let me die at least i cannot bear it
by her hands which he still held he drew her nearer yet to himself sweetheart he said gravely cannot you trust me a little if i could tell you all that passed to day
the name of felsenburgh weighed down the balance and trust came back with a flood of tears oh oliver she said i know i trust you but i am so weak and all is so terrible and he so strong and merciful and will he be with us to morrow
it struck midnight from the clock tower a mile away as they yet sat and talked she was still tremulous from the struggle but she looked at him smiling still holding his hands he saw that the reaction was upon her in full force at last
the new year my husband she said and rose as she said it drawing him after her i wish you a happy new year she said oh help me oliver she kissed him and drew back still holding his hands
oliver she cried again i must tell you this do you know what i thought before you came he shook his head staring at her greedily how sweet she was he felt her grip tighten on his hands i thought i could not bear it she whispered
that i must end it all ah you know what i mean his heart flinched as he heard her
ah do not look like that i could not tell you if it was not as their lips met again there came the vibration of an electric bell from the next room and oliver knowing what it meant felt even in that instant a tremor shake his heart
he loosed her hands and still smiled at her the bell she said with a flash of apprehension but it is all well between us again her face steadied itself into loyalty and confidence it is all well she said
and again the impatient bell tingled go oliver i will wait here a minute later he was back again with a strange look on his white face and his lips compressed he came straight up to her
taking her once more by the hands and looking steadily into her steady eyes in the hearts of both of them resolve and faith were holding down the emotion that was not yet dead he drew a long breath
her lips moved and that deadly paleness lay on her cheeks he gripped her firmly listen he said you must face it it is over rome is gone now we must build something better
so much percy saw as he performed the first genuflection then he dropped his eyes advanced genuflected again with the other advanced once more and for the third time genuflected
lifting the thin white hand stretched out to his lips he heard the door close as he stood up father franklin holiness said the cardinal's voice at his ear
a white sleeved arm waved to a couple of chairs set a yard away and the two sat down while the cardinal talking in slow latin said a few sentences explaining that this was the english priest whose correspondence had been found so useful
percy began to look with all his eyes he knew the pope's face well from a hundred photographs and moving pictures even his gestures were familiar to him the slight bowing of the head in assent
with hands clasping the bosses of his chair arms and an appearance of great and deliberate dignity but it was at the face chiefly that he looked dropping his gaze three or four times as the pope's blue eyes turned on him
the lids drew straight lines across them giving him the look of a hawk but the rest of the face contradicted them there was no sharpness in that
the chin was firm and cloven and the poise of the whole head was strangely youthful it was a face of great generosity and sweetness set at an angle between defiance and humility but ecclesiastical from ear to ear and brow to chin
he was astonished at the look of youth for the pope was eighty eight this year yet his figure was as upright as that of a man of fifty his shoulders unbowed his head set on them like an athlete's
and his wrinkles scarcely perceptible in the half light papa angelicus reflected percy the cardinal ceased his explanations and made a little gesture percy drew up all his faculties tense and tight to answer the questions that he knew were coming
i suggest to you three heads what has happened what is happening what will happen with a peroration as to what should happen percy drew a long breath settled himself back
clasped the fingers of his left hand in the fingers of his right fixed his eyes firmly upon the cross embroidered red shoe opposite and began had he not rehearsed this a hundred times
by the wisdom of her pontiffs over ruled by god almighty the lines had been drawing tighter every year he instanced the abolition of all local usages including those so long cherished by the east
the establishment of the cardinal protectorates in rome the enforced merging of all friars into one order though retaining their familiar names under the authority of the supreme general all monks with the exception of the carthusians
the carmelites and the trappists into another of the three excepted into a third and the classification of nuns after the same plan further he remarked on the more recent decrees
establishing the sense of the vatican decision on infallibility the new version of canon law the immense simplification that had taken place in ecclesiastical government the hierarchy
rubrics and the affairs of missionary countries with the new and extraordinary privileges granted to mission priests at this point he became aware that his self consciousness had left him and he began even with little gestures
but the corner stone had once more been rejected and instead of the chaos that the pious had prophesied there was coming into existence a unity unlike anything known in history this was the more deadly from the fact that it contained so many elements
of indubitable good war apparently was now extinct and it was not christianity that had done it union was now seen to be better than disunion and the lesson had been learned apart from the church
in fact natural virtues had suddenly waxed luxuriant and supernatural virtues were despised friendliness took the place of charity contentment the place of hope and knowledge the place of faith
he had accomplished a work that apart from god seemed miraculous
coming himself from the continent that alone could produce such powers he had prevailed by sheer force of personality over the two supreme tyrants of life religious fanaticism and party government
his influence over the impassive english was another miracle yet he had also set on fire france germany and spain percy here described one or two of his little scenes saying that it was like the vision of a god and he quoted freely
some of the titles given to the man by sober unhysterical newspapers felsenburgh was called the son of man because he was so pure bred a cosmopolitan the saviour of the world because he had slain war and himself survived
even even here percy's voice faltered even incarnate god because he was the perfect representative of divine man the quiet priestly face watching opposite never winced or moved and he went on
on the other hand it would reassure the faithful and purge out the half hearted once in the early ages satan's attack had been made on the bodily side with whips and fire and beasts in the sixteenth century it had been on the intellectual side
in the twentieth century on the springs of moral and spiritual life now it seemed as if the assault was on all three planes at once but what was chiefly to be feared was the positive influence of humanitarianism
it was coming like the kingdom of god with power it was crushing the imaginative and the romantic it was assuming rather than asserting its own truth it was smothering with bolsters instead of wounding and stimulating with steel or controversy
it seemed to be forcing its way almost objectively into the inner world persons who had scarcely heard its name were professing its tenets priests absorbed it as they absorbed god in communion he mentioned the names of the recent apostates
children drank it in like christianity itself the soul naturally christian seemed to be becoming the soul naturally infidel persecution cried the priest was to be welcomed like salvation prayed for and grasped but he feared that the authorities were too shrewd
there might be individual martyrdoms in fact there would be and very many but they would be in spite of secular government not because of it finally he expected humanitarianism would presently put on the dress of liturgy and sacrifice
and when that was done the church's cause unless god intervened would be over percy sat back trembling yes my son and what do you think should be done
holy father the mass prayer the rosary these first and last the world denies their power it is on their power that christians must throw all their weight all things in jesus christ in jesus christ first and last nothing else can avail
he must do all for we can do nothing the white head bowed then it rose erect yes my son but so long as jesus christ deigns to use us we must be used he is prophet and king as well as priest
we then too must be prophet and king as well as priest what of prophecy and royalty the voice thrilled percy like a trumpet yes holiness for prophecy then let us preach charity for royalty let us reign on crosses
we must love and suffer he drew one sobbing breath your holiness has preached charity always let charity then issue in good deeds let us be foremost in them let us engage in trade honestly in family life chastely in government uprightly
every fool has desired it a new order holiness a new order he stammered the white hand dropped the paper weight the pope leaned forward looking intently at the priest yes my son percy threw himself on his knees
a new order holiness no habit or badge subject to your holiness only freer than jesuits poorer than franciscans more mortified than carthusians men and women alike the three vows with the intention of martyrdom
the pantheon for their church each bishop responsible for their sustenance a lieutenant in each country holiness it is the thought of a fool and christ crucified for their patron the pope stood up abruptly
so abruptly that cardinal martin sprang up too apprehensive and terrified it seemed that this young man had gone too far then the pope sat down again extending his hand god bless you my son you have leave to go
the dark was falling softly layer on layer across the roofs to westward burned the smouldering fire of the winter sunset and the interior was full of the dying light she had slept a little in her chair that afternoon
and had awakened with that strange cleansed sense of spirit and mind that sometimes follows such sleep
she remembered afterwards an unusual busy ness on the broad tracks beneath her as she had looked out on them from her windows and an unusual calling of horns and whistles but she thought nothing of it and passed down an hour later for a meditation in the church
on the significance that lay beneath the surface of life the huge principles upon which all lived and which so plainly were the true realities indeed such devotion was becoming almost recognised among certain classes of people
she went to day to her usual seat sat down folded her hands looked for a minute or two upon the old stone sanctuary the white image and the darkening window then she closed her eyes and began to think according to the method she followed
then she sent out her powers sweeping with the eyes of her mind the seething world seeing beneath the light and dark of the two hemispheres the countless millions of mankind children coming into the world old men leaving it
the mature rejoicing in it and their own strength back through the ages she looked through those centuries of crime and blindness as the race rose through savagery and superstition to a knowledge of themselves on through the ages yet to come
as generation followed generation to some climax whose perfection she told herself she could not fully comprehend because she was not of it yet she told herself again that climax had already been born the birthpangs were over
for had not he come who was the heir of time then by a third and vivid act she realised the unity of all the central fire of which each spark was but a radiation that vast passionless divine being
realising himself up through these centuries one yet many him whom men had called god now no longer unknown
him who now with the coming of the new saviour had stirred and awakened and shown himself as one and there she stayed contemplating the vision of her mind detaching now this virtue now that for particular assimilation
dwelling on her deficiencies seeing in the whole the fulfilment of all aspirations the sum of all for which men had hoped that spirit of peace so long hindered yet generated too perpetually by the passions of the world
there she stayed losing the sense of individuality merging it by a long sustained effort of the will drinking as she thought long breaths of the spirit of life and love
some sound she supposed afterwards disturbed her and she opened her eyes and there before her lay the quiet pavement glimmering through the dusk the step of the sanctuary
it was here that men had worshipped jesus that blood stained man of sorrow who had borne even on his own confession not peace but a sword yet they had knelt those blind and hopeless christians
ah the pathos of it all the despairing acceptance of any creed that would account for sorrow the wild worship of any god who had claimed to bear it and again came the sound striking across her peace
though as yet she did not understand why it was nearer now and she turned in astonishment to look down the dusky nave it was from without that the sound had come that strange murmur that rose and fell again as she listened
she stood up her heart quickening a little only once before had she heard such a sound once before in a square where men raged about a point beneath a platform she stepped swiftly out of her seat passed down the aisle
drew back the curtains beneath the west window lifted the latch and stepped out the street from where she looked over the railings that barred the entrance to the church seemed unusually empty and dark to right and left stretched the houses
overhead the darkening sky was flushed with rose but it seemed as if the public lights had been forgotten there was not a living being to be seen
seeing the face looking at her then she clung to the bars staring over her shoulder mabel lifted the latch in an instant the child sprang in ran to the door and beat against it then turning seized her dress and cowered against her
mabel shut the gate there there she said who is it who are coming but the child hid her face drawing at the kindly skirts and the next moment came the roar of voices and the trampling of footsteps
it was not more than a few seconds before the heralds of that grim procession came past first came a flying squadron of children laughing terrified fascinated screaming turning their heads as they ran
as he had been at breakfast of her own bedroom with its softened paper
so thick and incessant it was so complete her concentration in the sense of sight except for that it might have been from its suddenness and overwhelming force some mob of phantoms trooping on a sudden
out of some vista of the spiritual world visible across an open space and about to vanish again in obscurity that empty street was full now on this side and that so far as she could see the young men were gone
running or walking she hardly knew round the corner to the right and the entire space was one stream of heads and faces pressing so fiercely that the group at the railings were detached like weeds and drifted too sideways clutching at the bars
and swept away too and vanished
turning from side to side borne from beneath faces distorted with passion looked at her from time to time as the moving show went past open mouths cried at her but she hardly saw them
she was watching those strange emblems straining her eyes through the dusk striving to distinguish the battered broken shapes half guessing yet afraid to guess then on a sudden from the hidden lamps beneath the eaves light leaped into being
unparalleled in history
a group kneeling before a picture
the aspect of the crowd that had waited in westminster to hear the result of the offer made to the stranger
pointing out their hysterical enthusiasm he even went so far as to venture upon prophecy and to declare his belief that persecution was within reasonable distance the world seems very oddly alive he said
it is as if the whole thing was flushed and nervous the cardinal nodded we too he said even we feel it for the rest the cardinal had sat watching him out of his narrow eyes nodding from time to time
putting an occasional question but listening throughout with great attention and your recommendations father he had said and then interrupted himself no that is too much to ask the holy father will speak of that
he had congratulated him upon his latin then
at his second tap the door opened and the cardinal came out taking him by the arm without a word and together they turned to the lift entrance
i never thought of that a swiss guard flung back the door of the lift saluted and went before them along the plain flagged passage to where his comrade stood then he saluted again and went back
it really seemed almost incredible that such things still existed in a moment your eminence he said in latin will your eminence wait here it was a little square room with half a dozen doors plainly contrived
giving the impression of a curious mingling of ascetic poverty and dignity by its red tiled floor
and two vast bronze candlesticks of incalculable value that stood on the
the shutters here too were drawn and there was nothing to distract percy from the excitement that surged up now tenfold in heart and brain it was papa angelicus whom he was about to see
and pope nine years previously
of yielding the churches throughout the whole of italy to the government
and who had since set himself to make it a city of saints
nothing whatever for the world's opinion his policy so far as it could be called one consisted in a very simple thing
by producing supernatural virtues in man
and should set an example to its dependency this could not be done unless peter ruled his city and therefore he had sacrificed every church and ecclesiastical building in the country for that one end then he had set about ruling his city
he had said that on the whole the latter day discoveries of man tended to distract immortal souls from a contemplation of eternal verities
but that at present they were too exciting to the imagination so he had removed the trams the volors the laboratories the manufactories
and had allowed them to be planted in the suburbs in their place he had raised shrines religious houses
he allowed no man under the age of fifty to live within its walls for more than one month in each year except those who received his permit they might live of course immediately outside the city
rents had instantly begun to rise so he had legislated against that by reserving in each quarter a number of streets at fixed prices and had issued an ipso facto excommunication against all who erred in this respect
idolatry and apostasy for which this punishment was theoretically sanctioned there had not been however more than two such executions in the eight years of his reign since criminals of course with the exception of devoted believers
instantly made their way to the suburbs where they were no longer under his jurisdiction but he had not stayed here he had sent once more ambassadors to every country in the world informing the government of each of their arrival
no attention was paid to this beyond that of laughter
to claim his rights and meanwhile used his legates for the important work
epistles appeared from time to time in every town laying down the principles of the papal claims with as much tranquillity as if they were everywhere acknowledged freemasonry was steadily denounced as well as democratic ideas of every kind
who was creator and ruler of the world
whose name and seal were appended that was a line of action that took the world completely by surprise people had expected hysteria
it was as if progress had not yet begun and volors were uninvented as if the entire universe had not come to disbelieve in god and to discover that itself was god
here was this silly old man talking in his sleep babbling of the cross and the inner life and the forgiveness of sins exactly as his predecessors had talked
and this was the man thought percy papa angelicus whom he was to see in a minute or two the cardinal put his hand on the priest's knee as the door opened and a purple prelate appeared bowing
only this he said be absolutely frank
chapter thirty eight godfrey and letty
when godfrey arrived in london the wind was cold the pavements were cold the houses seemed to be not only cold but feeling it the very dust that blow in his face was cold now cold is a powerful ally of the commonplace
and imagination therefore was not very busy in the bosom of godfrey wardour as he went to find letty helmer which was just as well in the circumstances he was cool to the very heart when he walked up to the door indicated by mary and rung the bell missus helmer was at home
would he walk up stairs it was not a house of ceremonies he was shown up and up and into the room where she sat without a word carried before to prepare her for his visit it was so dark that he could see nothing but the figure of one at work by a table
on which stood a single candle there was but a spark of fire in the dreary grate and letty was colder than any one could know for she was at the moment making down the last woolly garment she had in the vain hope of warming her baby
she looked up she had thought it was the landlady
she gazed for a moment in bewilderment saw who it was and jumped up half frightened half ready to go wild with joy all the memories of godfrey rushed in a confused heap upon her and overwhelmed her
she ran to him and the same moment was in his arms with her head on his shoulder weeping tears of such gladness as she had not known since the first week of her marriage neither spoke for some time letty could not because she was crying
and godfrey would not because he did not want to cry those few moments were pure simple happiness to both of them to letty because she had loved him from childhood and hoped that all was to be as of old between them
to godfrey because for the moment he had forgotten himself and had neither thought of injury nor hope of love remembering only the old days and the letty that used to be it may seem strange that
having never once embraced her all the time they lived together he should do so now but letty's love would any time have responded to the least show of affection and when at the sight of his face into which memory had called up all his tenderness she rushed into his arms
how could he help kissing her the pity was that he had not kissed her long before or was it a pity i think not but the embrace could not be a long one godfrey was the first to relax its strain and letty responded with an instant collapse
and sad with such big eyes and the bone tightening the skin upon her forehead he felt as if she were a spectre letty not the letty he had loved glancing up she caught his troubled gaze
do not look at me so or i shall cry again you know you never liked to see me cry my
if he had not kept it lower than natural would have broken you are suffering
i am only so glad to see you again cousin godfrey she sat on the edge of the sofa and had put her open hands palm to palm between her knees in a childish way looking like one chidden
but was ready to endure for a moment godfrey sat gazing at her with troubled heart and troubled looks then between his teeth muttered damn the rascal
scared yet ready to defend her hands were now clinched one on each side of her she was poking the little fists into the squab of the sofa cousin godfrey she cried if you mean tom you must not you must not
i will go away if you speak a word against him i will i will i must you know godfrey made no reply neither apologized nor sought to cover why child he said at last
she had not been at all pitying herself but such an utterance from the man she loved like an elder brother so wrought upon her enfeebled condition that she broke into a cry she strove to suppress her emotion
in her agony she would have rushed from the room had not godfrey caught her drawn her down beside him and kept her there you shall not leave me he said in that voice letty had always been used to obey
who has a right to know how things go with you if i have not come you must tell me all about it i have nothing to tell cousin godfrey she replied with some calmness for godfrey's decision had enabled her to conquer herself
except that baby is ill and looks as if he would never get better and it is like to break my heart oh he is such a darling cousin godfrey let me see him said godfrey in his heart detesting the child
the visible sign that another was nearer to letty than he she jumped up almost ran into the next room and coming back with her little one laid him in godfrey's arms the moment he felt the weight of the little sad looking sleeping thing
he grew human toward him and saw in him letty and not tom good god the child is starving too he exclaimed oh no cousin godfrey cried letty
he had a fresh laid egg for breakfast this morning and some arrowroot for dinner and some bread and milk for tea london milk said godfrey well it is not like the milk in the dairy at thornwick admitted letty
if he had milk like that he would soon be well but godfrey dared not say bring him to thornwick he knew his mother too well for that when were you anywhere in the country he asked
in a negative kind of way he was still nursing the baby not since we were married she answered sadly you see poor tom can't afford it now godfrey happened to have heard from the best authority
that tom's mother was far from illiberal to him missus helmer allows him so much a year does she not he said i know he gets money from her but it can't be much she answered
godfrey's suspicions against tom increased every moment he must learn the truth he would have it if by an even cruel experiment
then said with assumed cheerfulness well letty i suppose for the sake of old times you will give me some dinner then indeed her courage gave way she turned from him laid her head on the end of the sofa
and sobbed so that the room seemed to shake with the convulsions of her grief letty said godfrey laying his hand on her head
i don't want any dinner in fact i dined long ago but you would not be open with me and i was forced to find out for myself you have not enough to eat and you know it i will not say a word about who is to blame
for anything i know it may be no one i am sure it is not you but this must not go on see i have brought you a little pocket book i will call again tomorrow and you will tell me then how you like it
he laid the pocket book on the table there was ten times as much in it as ever letty had had at once but she never knew what was in it she rose with instant resolve all the woman in her waked at once
she felt that a moment was come when she must be resolute or lose her hold on life cousin godfrey she said in a tone he scarcely recognized as hers
if you do not take that purse away i will throw it in the fire without opening it if my husband can not give me enough to eat i can starve as well as another if you loved tom it would be different but you hate him and i will have nothing from you
take it away cousin godfrey mortified hurt miserable godfrey took the purse and without a word walked from the room somewhere down in his secret heart was dawning an idea of letty
beyond anything he used to think of her but in the mean time he was only blindly aware that his heart had been shot through and through nor was this the time for him to reflect that under his training letty even if he had married her
would never have grown to such dignity it was indeed only in that moment she had become capable of the action she had been growing as none not mary still less herself knew under the heavy snows of affliction
but the dignity of her refusal was in this that she would accept nothing in which her husband had and could have no human that is no spiritual share she had married him because she loved him
not wittingly would she allow the finest edge even of ancient kindness to come between her tom and herself to accept from her cousin godfrey the help her husband ought to provide her would be to let him however innocently step into his place
there was no reasoning in her resolve it was allied to that spiritual insight which in simple natures and in proportion to their simplicity approaches or amounts to prophecy as the presence of death will sometimes change even an ordinary man to a prophet
sufficing to direct the doubtful step
the moment godfrey was out of the room she cast herself on the floor and sobbed as if her heart must break but her sobs were tearless
unsought came the conviction and she could not send it away to this had sunk her lofty idea of her tom that he would have had her take the money more than once or twice in the ill humors that followed a forced hilarity
chapter thirty seven lydgate steet letty's whole life was now gathered about her boy and she thought little comparatively about tom and tom thought so little about her that he did not perceive the difference
but it was ever with more of a grudge that he gave it the influence over him of sepia was scarcely less now that she was gone but if she cared for him at all it was mainly that
for like macbeth he had begun already to consider life but a poor affair across the cloud of this death gleamed certainly the flashing of sepia's eyes or the softly infolding dawn of her smile
but only the next hour nay the next moment to leave all darker than before precious is the favor of any true good woman be she what else she may but what is the favor of one without heart or faith or self giving
yet is there testimony only too strong and terrible to the demoniacal power enslaving and absorbing as the arms of the kraken of an evil woman over an imaginative youth possibly did he know beforehand her nature he would not love her
calls her the worst of names yet can not or will not tear himself free
and hates her thralldom happily tom had not reached this depth of perdition sepia was prudent for herself and knew none better what she was about so far as the near future was concerned therefore held him at arm's length
where tom basked in a light that was of hell for what is a hell or a woman like sepia but an inverted creation his nature in consequence was in all directions dissolving he drank more and more strong drink
fitting fuel to such his passion and sepia liked to see him approach with his eyes blazing there are not many women like her she is a rare type
if one of them be actually on the path and to the philosopher a possibility is a fact but the true value of the study of abnormal development is that in the deepest sense such development is not abnormal at all
but the perfected result of the laws that avenge law breach it is in and through such that we get glimpses down the gulf of a moral volcano to the infernal possibilities of the human the lawless rot of that which
in its attainable idea is nothing less than divine imagined foreseen cherished and labored for by the father of the human
such inverted possibility the infernal possibility i mean lies latent in every one of us and except we stir ourselves up to the right will gradually from a possibility become an energy the wise man dares not yield to a temptation
were it only for the terror that if he do he will yield the more readily again the commonplace critic who recognizes life solely upon his own conscious level mocks equally at the ideal and its antipode
incapable of recognizing the art of shakespeare himself as true to the human nature that will not be human i have said that letty did her best with what money tom gave her but when she came to find that he had not paid the lodging for two months
that the payment of various things he had told her to order and he would see to had been neglected and that the tradespeople were getting persistent in their applications that when she told him anything of the sort he treated it at one time as a matter of no consequence
and a sea of troubles she felt as if she lay already in the depths of a debtor's jail therefore sparing as she had been from the first she was more sparing than ever not only would she buy nothing for which she could not pay down
having often in consequence to go without proper food
she grew very thin and in deed if she had not been of the healthiest could not have stood her own treatment many weeks her baby soon began to show suffering but this did not make her alter her way or drive her to appeal to tom
she was ignorant of the simplest things a mother needs to know and never imagined her abstinence could hurt her baby so long as she went on nursing him it was all the same she thought
he cried so much that tom made it a reason with himself and indeed gave it as one to letty for not coming home at night
the baby went on crying and the mother's heart was torn the woman of the house said he must be already cutting his teeth and recommended some devilish sirup letty bought a bottle with the next money she got and thought it did him good because lessening his appetite
it lessened his crying and also made him sleep more than he ought
thereat in letty sprang up the mother erect and fierce she darted to tom snatched the child from his arms and turned to carry him to the inner room but as the mother rose in letty the devil rose in tom
if what followed was not the doing of the real tom it was the doing of the devil to whom the real tom had opened the door with one stride he overtook his wife and mother and child lay together on the floor i must say for him that
even in his drunkenness he did not strike his wife as he would have struck a man it was an open handed blow he gave her what in familiar language is called a box on the ear but for days she carried the record of it on her cheek in five red finger marks
when he saw her on the floor tom's bedazed mind came to itself
but alas even then he thought more of the wrong he had done to himself as a gentleman than of the grievous wound he had given his wife's heart
and laid him on the rug then lifted the bitterly weeping letty
not humbly to entreat her pardon but as was his wont to justify himself by proving that all the blame was hers and that she had wronged him greatly in driving him to do such a thing
this for apology poor letty never having had from him fuller acknowledgment of wrong was fain to accept she turned on the sofa threw her arms about his neck
and the doctor could discover no injury from the fall they told him he had had at the same time he said he was not properly nourished and must have better food this was a fresh difficulty to letty it was a call for more outlay and now their landlady
who had throughout been very kind was in trouble about her own rent and began to press for part at least of theirs
she forgot that there was a thing called joy so sad she looked that the good woman full of pity assured her that come what might
but at the worst would only have to go a story higher to inferior rooms the rent should wait she said until better days but this kindness relieved letty only a little for the rent past and the rent to come hung upon her like a cloak of lead
nor was even debt the worst that now oppressed her for possibly from the fall but more from the prolonged want of suitable nourishment and wise treatment after that terrible night the baby grew worse
many were the tears the sleepless mother shed over the sallow face and wasted limbs of her slumbering treasure her one antidote to countless sorrows and many were the foolish means she tried to restore his sinking vitality
mary had written to her and she had written to mary
that would have been to bring blame upon tom but mary with her fine human instinct felt that things must be going worse with her than before and when she found that her return was indefinitely postponed by mister redmain's illness she ventured at last
whether it might not now be time to let bygones be bygones and make some inquiry concerning her to this letter godfrey returned no answer
he took it therefore as a piece of utter presumption in mary to write to him about letty and that in the tone as he interpreted it of one reading him a lesson of duty but while he was thus indignant with mary
he was also vexed with letty that she should not herself have written to him if she was in any need forgetting that he had never hinted at any door of communication open between him and her his heart quivered at the thought that she might be in distress
he had known for certain he said the fool would bring her to misery for himself the thought of letty was an ever open wound with an ever present pain
now keen and stinging the agony of her desertion he said would never cease gnawing at his heart until it was laid in the grave
but while thus he brooded a fierce and evil joy awoke in him at the thought that now at last the expected hour had come when he would heap coals of fire on her head he was still fool enough to think of her as having forsaken him
although he had never given her ground for believing and she had never had conceit enough to imagine that he cared the least for her person
she knew what she had gained in tom helmer he passed a troubled night dreamed painfully and started awake to renewed pain
when the redmains went to cornwall sepia was left at durnmelling in the expectation of joining them in london within a fortnight at latest the illness of mister redmain however caused her stay to be prolonged and she was worn out with ennui
the self she was so careful over was not by any means good company not seldom during her life had she found herself capable of almost anything to get rid of it short of suicide or repentance this autumn at durnmelling she would even occasionally
never man more to her mind in her wanderings she had come upon the breach in the ha ha and clambering up found herself on the forbidden ground of a neighbor whom the family did not visit to no such folly would sepia be a victim
the analysis of such a nature as hers with her story to set it forth would require a book to itself and i must happily content myself with but a fact here and there in her history in one of her rambles on his ground
she had her desire and met godfrey wardour he lifted his hat and she stopped and addressed him by way of apology
she said i know i am trespassing but this field of yours is higher than the ground about durnmelling and seems to take pounds off the weight of the atmosphere for all he had gone through godfrey was not yet less than courteous to ladies
he assured miss yolland that thornwick was as much at her service as if it were a part of durnmelling though indeed he added with a smile it would be more correct to say as if durnmelling were a part of thornwick'
giving rise to many questions and a long conversation ensued suddenly she woke or seemed to wake to the consciousness that she had forgotten herself and the proprieties together hastily and to all appearance with some confusion
she wished him a good morning but she was not too much confused to thank him again for the permission he had given her to walk on his ground it was not by any intention on the part of godfrey that they met several times after this
but they always had a little conversation before they parted nor did sepia find any difficulty in getting him sufficiently within their range to make him feel the power of her eyes she was too prudent however
to bring to bear upon any man all at once the full play of her mesmeric battery and things had got no further when she went to london a week or two before the return of the redmains ostensibly to get things in some special readiness for hesper
but that this may have been a pretense appears possible from the fact that mary came from cornwall on the same mission a few days later i have just mentioned an acquaintance of sepia's who attracted the notice and roused the peculiar interest of mister redmain because of a look
he saw pass betwixt them this man spoke both english and french with a foreign accent and gave himself out as a georgian count galofta he called himself i believe he was a prince in paris at this time he was in london
and during the ten days that sepia was alone came to see her several times called early in the forenoon first the next day in the evening when they went together to the opera and once came and staid late
whether from her dark complexion making her look older than she was or from the subduing air which her experience had given her or merely from the fact that she belonged to nobody much miss yolland seemed to have carte blanche to do as she pleased
mary had never seen him before but something about him caused her to look at him again as he passed somehow tom also had discovered sepia's return and had gone to see her more than once
there was so much to be done for hesper's wardrobe that for some days mary found it impossible to go and see letty her mistress seemed harder to please than usual and more doubtful of humor than ever before this may have arisen but i doubt it
from the fact that having gone to church the sunday before they left she had there heard a different sort of sermon from any she had heard in her life before sermons have something to do with the history of the world however many of them may be no better than a withered leaf in the blast
the morning after her arrival hesper happening to find herself in want of mary's immediate help instead of calling her as she generally did opened the door between their rooms and saw mary on her knees by her bedside
now hesper had heard of saying prayers night and morning both and when a child had been expected and indeed compelled to say her prayers but to be found on one's knees in the middle of the day looked to her a thing exceedingly odd
she had to pray much too often to kneel always and god was too near her wherever she happened to be for the fancy that she must seek him in any particular place but so it happened now she rose a little startled rather than troubled
and followed her mistress into her room i am sorry to have disturbed you mary said hesper herself a little annoyed it is not quite easy to say why but people do not generally say their prayers in the middle of the day
i say mine when i need to say them answered mary a little cross that hesper should take any notice she would rather the thing had not occurred and it was worse to have to talk about it for my part
said hesper i wonder if there was another saying in the bible she would have been so ready to quote i don't know what that means returned mary i believe it is somewhere in the bible but i am sure jesus never said it
for he tells us to be righteous as our father in heaven is righteous but the thing is impossible said hesper how is one with such claims on her as i have to attend to these things society has claims no one denies that
asked mary many people think now there is no god at all returned hesper with an almost petulant expression if there is no god that settles the question answered mary but if there should be one how then
then i am sure he would never be hard on one like me i do just like other people one must do as people do if there is one thing that must be avoided more than another it is peculiarity
how ridiculous it would be of any one to set herself against society then you think the judge will be satisfied if you say lord i had so many names in my visiting book and so many invitations i could not refuse
that it was impossible for me to attend to those things i don't see that i'm at all worse than other people persisted hesper i can't go and pretend to be sorry for sins i should commit again the next time there was a necessity
nothing had been said about repentance here i imagine the sermon may have come in then of course you can't repent said mary hesper recovered herself a little i am glad you see the thing as i do she said
what have i got to repent of do you really want me to say what i think asked mary of course i do returned hesper
she knew mary's freedom of speech upon occasion but felt that to draw back would be to yield the point what have i done to be ashamed of pray some ladies are ready to plume themselves upon not having been guilty of certain great crimes
some thieves i dare say console themselves that they have never committed murder if i had married a man i did not love answered mary i should be more ashamed of myself than i can tell
that is the way of looking at such things in the class you belong to i dare say rejoined hesper but with us it is quite different there is no necessity laid upon you our position obliges us
but what if god should not see it as you do if that is all you have got to bring against me said hesper with a forced laugh but that is not all replied mary when you married you promised many things
not one of which you have ever done really mary this is intolerable cried hesper i am only doing what you asked me ma'am said mary and i have said nothing that every one about mister redmain does not know as well as i do
hesper wished heartily she had never challenged mary's judgment but she resumed more quietly how could you how could any one how could god himself hard as he is ask me to fulfill the part
of a loving wife to a man like mister redmain there is no use mincing matters with you mary but you promised persisted mary it belongs besides to the very idea of marriage
there are a thousand promises made every day which nobody is expected to keep it is the custom the way of the world how many of the clergy now believe the things they put their names to they must answer for themselves
and when we have said it to stick to it but just look around you and see how many there are in precisely the same position will you dare to say they are all going to be lost because they do not behave like angels to their brutes of husbands
i say they have got to repent of behaving to their husbands as their husbands behave to them and what if they don't mary paused a little do you expect to go to heaven ma'am she asked i hope so
hesper laughed i am pretty comfortable where i am she said husband and all
what she did say was but you know you can't stay here god is not going to keep up this way of things for you can you ask it seeing you don't care a straw what he wants of you but i have sometimes thought
what if hell be just a place where god gives everybody everything she wants and lets everybody do whatever she likes without once coming nigh to interfere what a hell that would be for god's presence in the very being and nothing else is bliss
not to mention that i oughtn't and couldn't and wouldn't do them for any man many a woman said mary with a solemnity in her tone which she did not intend to appear there has done many more trying things for persons of whom she knew nothing i dare say
but such women go in for being saints and that is not my line i was not made for that you were made for that and far more said mary there are such women i know persisted hesper
i can tell you how they find it possible they love every human being just because he is human your husband might be a demon from the way you behave to him i suppose you find it agreeable to wait upon him he is civil to you i dare say
fish nothing is more difficult than to give the average prices of fish
in the space of one day cause such a difference in its supply that the same fish a turbot for instance which may be bought to day for six or seven shillings
will to morrow be in the london markets worth perhaps almost as many pounds the average costs therefore which will be found appended to each recipe must be understood as about the average price for the different kinds of fish
when the market is supplied upon an average and when the various sorts are of an average size and quality general rule in choosing fish
a proof of freshness and goodness in most fishes is their being covered with scales for if deficient in this respect it is a sign of their being stale
cleanse the anchovies wipe them dip them in the paste and fry of a nice brown colour
average cost for this quantity
seasonable all the year
in his book of british fishes mister yarrell states that the anchovy is a common fish in the mediterranean from greece to gibraltar and was well known to the greeks and romans by whom the liquor prepared from it called garum
was in great estimation its extreme range is extended into the black sea the fishing for them is carried on during the night and lights are used with the nets
the anchovy is common on the coasts of portugal spain and france it occurs i have no doubt at the channel islands and has been taken on the hampshire coast
and rub the whole through a sieve put it by in small pots for use and carefully exclude the air with a bladder
or if wanted very savoury fry them in clarified butter and spread on them the paste
made mustard or a few grains of cayenne may be added to the paste before laying it on the toast anchovy paste when some delicate zest says a work just issued on the adulterations of trade
is required to make the plain english breakfast more palatable many people are in the habit of indulging in what they imagine to be anchovies these fish are preserved in a kind of pickling bottle carefully corked down
and surrounded by a red looking liquor resembling in appearance diluted clay the price is moderate one shilling only being demanded for the luxury when these anchovies are what is termed potted
it implies that the fish have been pounded into the consistency of a paste and then placed in flat pots somewhat similar in shape to those used for pomatum this paste is usually eaten spread upon toast
which enables gentlemen at wine parties to enjoy their port with redoubled gusto unfortunately in six cases out of ten the only portion of these preserved delicacies that contains anything indicative of anchovies
is the paper label pasted on the bottle or pot on which the word itself is printed all the samples of anchovy paste analyzed by different medical men have been found to be highly and vividly coloured
two sliced onions a faggot of sweet herbs nutmeg and mace to taste the juice of a lemon two anchovies one or two barbels according to size mode
and strain put in the fish heat it gradually but do not let it boil or it will be broken time altogether one hour sufficient for four persons
and in england is esteemed as one of the worst of the fresh water fish it was however formerly if not now a favourite with the jews excellent cookers of fish others would boil with it a piece of bacon
that it might have a relish it is to be met with from two to three or four feet long
from putney upwards in the thames some are found of large size but they are valued only as affording sport to the brethren of the angle
a little vinegar mode clean the brill cut off the fins and rub it over with a little lemon juice to preserve its whiteness set the fish in sufficient cold water to cover it throw in salt
and bring it gradually to boil simmer very gently till the fish is done which will be in about ten minutes but the time for boiling of course depends entirely on the size of the fish serve it on a hot napkin
and garnish with cut lemon parsley horseradish and a little lobster coral sprinkled over the fish send lobster or shrimp sauce and plain melted butter to table with it time
this fish resembles the sole but is broader and when large is esteemed by many in a scarcely less degree than the turbot whilst it is much cheaper
it is a fine fish and is abundant in the london market to choose brill the flesh of this fish like that of turbot
cod when boiled quite fresh is watery
and ventral fins before the pectoral ones
and is a numerous tribe inhabiting only the depths of the ocean and seldom visiting the fresh waters they have a smooth head and the gill membrane has seven rays
the body is oblong and covered with deciduous scales the fins are all inclosed in skin whilst their rays are unarmed
as it is liable to break it and only keep it just simmering if the water should boil away add a little by pouring it in at the side of the kettle and not on the fish add salt in the above proportion
and bring it gradually to a boil skim very carefully draw it to the side of the fire
sufficient for six or eight persons seasonable from november to march note oyster sauce and plain melted butter should be served with this to choose cod
if this rises immediately the fish is good if not it is stale
if the fish when it is cut exhibits a bronze appearance like the silver side of a round of beef when this is the case the flesh will be firm when cooked stiffness in a cod
or in any other fish is a sure sign of freshness though not always of quality sometimes codfish though exhibiting signs of rough usage
this appearance is generally caused by the fish having been knocked about at sea
see that it is perfectly clean and put it in the fish kettle with sufficient cold water to cover it heat it gradually but do not let it boil much or the fish will be hard skim well
and when done drain the fish and put it on a napkin garnished with hard boiled eggs cut in rings time about one hour
seasonable in the spring
note serve with egg sauce and parsnips this is an especial dish on ash wednesday preserving cod immediately as the cod are caught their heads are cut off they are then opened cleaned and salted
when they are stowed away in the hold of the vessel in beds of five or six yards square head to tail with a layer of salt to each layer of fish when they have lain in this state three or four days in order that the water may drain from them
here they remain till the vessel is loaded when they are sometimes cut into thick pieces and packed in barrels for the greater convenience of carriage cod sounds should be well soaked in salt and water
and thoroughly washed before dressing them they are considered a great delicacy and may either be broiled fried or boiled if they are boiled mix a little milk with the water
one oz of butter two eggs seasoning of salt pepper nutmeg and mace to taste four cod sounds mode make the forcemeat by mixing the ingredients well together wash the sounds
rub over with lard dredge with flour and cook them gently before the fire in a dutch oven
seasonable from november to march sufficient for four persons the sounds in codfish these are the air or swimming bladders by means of which the fishes are enabled to ascend or descend in the water
in the newfoundland fishery they are taken out previous to incipient putrefaction washed from their slime and salted for exportation the tongues are also cured and packed up in barrels whilst from the livers
considerable quantities of oil are extracted this oil having been found possessed of the most nourishing properties and particularly beneficial in cases of pulmonary affections
ingredients any remains of cold cod twelve oysters sufficient melted butter to moisten it mashed potatoes enough to fill up the dish mode
thickening of flour or butter lemon peel chopped very fine to taste twelve oysters mode lay the cod in salt for four hours then wash it and place it in a dish season
mode flake the fish and fry it of a nice brown colour with the butter and onions put this in a stewpan add the stock and thickening and simmer for ten minutes stir the curry powder into the cream
put it with the seasoning to the other ingredients give one boil and serve
seasonable from november to march sufficient for four persons
serve in a dish garnished with croutons time
fried bread a few bread crumbs mode flake the cod carefully leaving out all skin and bone
and stir it over the fire till the latter is melted add seasoning put in the fish and mix it well with the sauce make a border of fried bread round the dish
lay in the fish sprinkle over with bread crumbs and baste with butter brown either before the fire or with a salamander and garnish with toasted bread cut in fanciful shapes
its great rendezvous are the sandbanks of newfoundland nova scotia cape breton and new england these places are its favourite resorts
for there it is able to obtain great quantities of worms a food peculiarly grateful to it another cause of its attachment to these places has been said to be on account of the vicinity
few are taken north of iceland and the shoals never reach so far south as the straits of gibraltar many are taken on the coasts of norway in the baltic and off the orkneys which prior to the discovery of newfoundland
formed one of the principal fisheries
the well bank and cromer on the east coast of england
a little chopped shalot and parsley
mode boil the cod and either leave it whole or what is still better flake it from the bone and take off the skin put it into a stewpan with the butter parsley shalot pepper and nutmeg
melt the butter gradually and be very careful that it does not become like oil
an expert hand will sometimes take four hundred in a day the employment is excessively fatiguing
salt to taste a few drops of garlic vinegar
mode chop the shalots mince the ham very fine pour on the stock and simmer for fifteen minutes if the colour should not be good add cream in the above proportion and strain it through a fine sieve
season it and put in the vinegar lemon juice and sugar
put it on the dish without breaking and pour the sauce over it
seasonable from november to march sufficient for four persons the fecundity of the cod in our preceding remarks on the natural history of fishes we have spoken of the amazing fruitfulness of this fish
but in this we see one more instance of the wise provision which nature has made for supplying the wants of man so extensive has been the consumption of this fish that it is surprising that it has not long ago become extinct
which would certainly have been the case had it not been for its wonderful powers of reproduction so early as thirteen sixty eight says doctor cloquet the inhabitants of amsterdam had dispatched fishermen to the coast of sweden
and in the first quarter of seventeen ninety two from the ports of france only
and bring into the commercial world more than forty million of salted and dried cod if we add to this immense number the havoc made among the legions of cod by the larger scaly tribes of the great deep
and sew it up to prevent the stuffing from falling out
and sprinkle it with bread crumbs lay it in a deep earthen dish and drop the butter oiled over the bread crumbs add the stock onions bay leaf herbs wine and anchovies and bake for one hour
aquatic plants small fish clay or mould some of them are migratory they have very small mouths and no teeth and the gill membrane has three rays the body is smooth and generally whitish
one blade of mace one quarter pint of port wine
cayenne and salt to taste a faggot of savoury herbs mode scale the fish clean it nicely and if very large divide it lay it in the stewpan after having rubbed a little salt on it
and put in sufficient stock to cover it add the herbs onions and spices and stew gently for one hour
sufficient for one or two persons note this fish can be boiled plain and served with parsley and butter
the age of carp this fish has been found to live one hundred fifty years
the most pleasing things about it were the immense shoals of very large carp
like silver fish and perfectly tame so that when any passengers approached their watery habitation they used to come to the shore in such numbers as to heave each other out of the water begging for bread
not only in england but in other countries it is a river fish and resembles the carp but is somewhat longer its flesh is not in much esteem being coarse and when out of season full of small hairy bones
the head and throat are the best parts the roe is also good the char this is one of the most delicious of fish being esteemed by some superior to the salmon it is an inhabitant of the deep lakes of mountainous countries
its flesh is rich and red and full of fat the largest and best kind is found in the lakes of westmoreland and as it is considered a rarity it is often potted and preserved the dace or dare
this fish is gregarious and is seldom above ten inches long although according to linnaeus it grows a foot and a half in length its haunts are in deep water near piles of bridges where the stream is gentle
over gravelly sandy or clayey bottoms deep holes that are shaded water lily leaves and under the foam caused by an eddy in the warm months they are to be found in shoals on the shallows near to streams
they are in season about the end of april and gradually improve till february when they attain their highest condition in that month when just taken scotched crimped and broiled they are said to be more palatable than a fresh herring
the roach this fish is found throughout europe and the western parts of asia in deep still rivers of which it is an inhabitant it is rarely more than a pound and a half in weight
seasonable all the year but not so good in may june and july
after having boiled the crab pick the meat out from the shells and mix with it the nutmeg and seasoning cut up the butter in small pieces and add the bread crumbs and vinegar mix altogether put the whole in the large shell
and brown before the fire or with a salamander
seasonable all the year but not so good in may june and july
the whole of this tribe of animals have the body covered with a hard and strong shell and they live chiefly in the sea some however inhabit fresh waters
they feed variously on aquatic or marine plants small fish molluscae or dead bodies the black clawed species is found on the rocky coasts of both europe and india and is the same that is introduced to our tables
being much more highly esteemed as a food than many others of the tribe the most remarkable feature in their history is the changing of their shells and the reproduction of their broken claws the former occurs once a year usually between christmas and easter
when the crabs retire to cavities in the rocks or conceal themselves under great stones
and is alluded to in the following lines from oppian the hermit fish unarm'd by nature left helpless and weak grow strong by harmless theft fearful they stroll and look with panting wish
for the cast crust of some new cover'd fish or such as empty lie and deck the shore whose first and rightful owners are no more they make glad seizure of the vacant room and count the borrow'd shell their native home
arrange them on a napkin and garnish with plenty of double parsley note this fish is frequently used for garnishing boiled turkey boiled fowl calf's head turbot and all kinds of boiled fish potted crayfish
pounded mace pepper and salt to taste two oz butter mode boil the fish in salt and water pick out all the meat and pound it in a mortar to a paste whilst pounding
add the butter gradually and mix in the spice and seasoning put it in small pots and pour over it clarified butter carefully excluding the air
serve on a hot napkin and garnish with cut lemon and parsley lobster anchovy or shrimp sauce and plain melted butter should be sent to table with it time
seasonable all the year but best from september to january note
and is in general rare although it is sometimes taken in abundance on the devon and cornish coasts
who could for a moment suppose that so important an article as the umbrella would be without its lighter as well as its more serious history umbrellas are still we regret to say regarded rather in a comic than a serious light
so if any of the following anecdotes seem to treat of umbrellas in too mocking or frivolous a vein it is the fault of the bad taste of the british public not ours
the next story relates to the early history of the umbrella in scotland and may probably be referred to the time when good doctor jamieson was walking about glasgow with his new fangled sheltering apparatus which he had brought with him
on his return from paris as it was the first ever seen in that city it attracted universal attention and a vast amount of impudence from the horrid boys the following anecdote then
and were looked upon by the common class of people as a perfect phenomenon one day daniel m
when about to return a shower came on and the colonel politely offered him the loan of an umbrella which he gladly accepted and daniel with his head two or three inches higher than usual marched off
there is an instance quoted of remarkable presence of mind relating to an umbrella and its owner the members of a comfortable pic nic party were cosily assembled in some part of india when an unbidden
and most unwelcome guest made his appearance in the shape of a huge bengal tiger most persons would naturally have sought safety in flight and not stayed to hob and nob with this denizen of the jungle
not so however thought a lady of the party who inspired by her innate courage or the fear of losing her dinner perhaps by both combined seized her umbrella and opened it suddenly in the face of the tiger
as he stood wistfully gazing upon brown curry and foaming allsop the astonished brute turned tail and fled and the lady saved her dinner not many years ago the umbrella was employed in an equally curious manner
though not so successfully as in the former instance in the campaign of seventeen ninety three general bournonville who was sent with four commissioners by the national convention
to the camp of the prince of saxe coburg was detained as a prisoner with his companions and confined in the fortress of olmuetz in this situation he made a desperate attempt to regain his liberty
having procured an umbrella he leaped with it from a window forty feet above the ground but being a very heavy man it did not prove sufficient to let him down in safety he struck against an opposite wall
fell into a ditch and broke his leg and worse than all was carried back to his prison one of the most remarkable instances on record in which the umbrella was the agency of a man's life being saved occurred
according to his own statement to our old friend colonel longbow of course our kind readers know him as well as we do for not to do so would be to argue yourselves unknown at any continental watering place
longbow or one of his family for it is a large one can be met with he is indeed a wonderful man on intimate terms with all the crowned heads of europe and proves his intimacy by always speaking of them by their christian names
and charming you by the terms of easy familiarity with which he imbibes your champagne or your porter for all is alike to him so long as he has not to pay for it he can take any given quantity well
the other day we happened to meet the colonel and he speedily contrived to discover that we were on the point of going to dine and so invited him to share our humble meal as a graceful way of making a virtue of necessity for had we not done so
during dinner conversation of course turned upon one all engrossing subject the war and the colonel proceeded to give us his experiences of former wars including his adventures in the crimea
and the miraculous escape he owed to an umbrella it appeared that he had gone out with his friend lord levant on a yachting excursion in the mediterranean and they eventually found their way into the black sea
to observe the magnificent prospect of a sea running mountains high as it was raining at the time he put up a huge gingham umbrella he happened to find in the hotel suddenly however a furious blast of wind drove across the cliff
and lifted the colonel bodily in the air away he flew far out to sea the umbrella acting as a parachute to let him fall easy
on coming up to the surface after his first dip he found that swimming would not save him so he quietly emptied out the water contained in the umbrella seated himself upon it and sailed triumphantly into the harbour like arion on his dolphin
and we were compelled to do penance for our unbelief by lending the gallant colonel a sovereign for the bank was closed we thought the anecdote cheap at the price there is a story told of one of our city bankers
that he owed an excellent wife to the interposition of an umbrella it appears that on returning home one day in a heavy shower of rain he found a young lady standing in his doorway politeness induced him to invite her to take shelter under his roof
and eventually to offer her the loan of an umbrella of course the gallant banker called for it the next day and the acquaintance thus accidentally made soon ripened into mutual affection this species of umbrella courtship
has been immortalised in more than one song none of which however are quite worth quoting a worthy little frenchman of our acquaintance was ordered by his medical man to take a course of shower baths
such things being unknown to him in his fatherland he of course found the first essay remarkably unpleasant but with native ingenuity he soon discovered a remedy on our asking him how he liked the hydropathic system he replied
gives an anecdote of which we can only say si non e vero
it at all events illustrates the frightful morality that exists with regard to borrowing umbrellas hopkins once lent simpson his next door neighbour an umbrella you will judge of the intellect of hopkins
not so much from the act of lending an umbrella but from his insane endeavour to get it back again it poured in torrents hopkins had an urgent call hopkins knocked at simpson's door i want my umbrella
and with the borrowed umbrella in his hand was advancing to the threshold
do answered simpson darting from the door do as i did borrow one the umbrella has been most successfully introduced on the stage what for instance would paul pry have been without that valuable implement
for which to inquire with his stereotyped hope i don't intrude or his french successor the nobleman in the grand duchess who inquires in plaintive accents
just after schneider has been declaiming about her father's sabre merely to bring a big umbrella on the stage is an acknowledged way of raising a laugh
missus gamp again with her receptacle for unconsidered trifles cannot be realised apart from her umbrella and then those hired waiters who come into our houses with an umbrella of graceful proportions
and emerge towards the small hours with a most plethoric parapluie which looks as if it had been regaling on the good things as well as its master it used to appear to us a comical sight years back in the old city of paris
to see the national guard going to exercise with a musket in one hand and an umbrella in the other and we dare say it was a very sensible plan after all and might have been imitated with success before sebastopol
a stout steel umbrella would offer no contemptible shelter to a rifleman this circumstance too may throw a light on a hitherto obscure passage in macbeth where birnam wood moves to dunsinane
we throw out this as a hint to any enterprising manager in germany on the other hand a soldier is
strictly forbidden from carrying an open umbrella unless he is accompanied by a civilian or a lady a worthy corporal on one occasion was sent to fetch an umbrella his major's lady had left at a friend's house
and at the same time took her lapdog for an airing on the road home a violent shower came on and to avoid committing a breach of the regulations under his arm he tucked the dog which was contained according to his ideas
in both the above categories put up the umbrella and marched very comfortably to barracks with one more characteristic anecdote we will close our budget one evening
a shower came on and his chapel was speedily filled with devotees
behold zarathustra even the people learn from thee and acquire faith in thy teaching but for them to believe fully in thee one thing is still needful thou must first of all convince us cripples
here hast thou now a fine selection and verily an opportunity with more than one forelock the blind canst thou heal and make the lame run
and from him who hath too much behind couldst thou well also take away a little that i think would be the right method to make the cripples believe in zarathustra
zarathustra however answered thus unto him who so spake when one taketh his hump from the hunchback then doth one take from him his spirit
so do the people teach and when one giveth the blind man eyes then doth he see too many bad things on the earth so that he curseth him who healed him
he however who maketh the lame man run inflicteth upon him the greatest injury for hardly can he run when his vices run away with him so do the people teach concerning cripples
and why should not zarathustra also learn from the people when the people learn from zarathustra it is however the smallest thing unto me since i have been amongst men
to see one person lacking an eye another an ear and a third a leg and that others have lost the tongue or the nose or the head i see and have seen worse things
and divers things so hideous that i should neither like to speak of all matters nor even keep silent about some of them namely men who lack everything except that they have too much of one thing
or something else big reversed cripples i call such men and when i came out of my solitude and for the first time passed over this bridge then i could not trust mine eyes but looked again and again and said at last
that is an ear an ear as big as a man i looked still more attentively and actually there did move under the ear something that was pitiably small and poor and slim and in truth
this immense ear was perched on a small thin stalk the stalk however was a man a person putting a glass to his eyes could even recognise further a small envious countenance
and also that a bloated soullet dangled at the stalk the people told me however that the big ear was not only a man but a great man a genius but i never believed in the people when they spake of great men
and i hold to my belief that it was a reversed cripple who had too little of everything and too much of one thing when zarathustra had spoken thus unto the hunchback
and unto those of whom the hunchback was the mouthpiece and advocate then did he turn to his disciples in profound dejection and said
as on a battle and butcher ground and when mine eye fleeth from the present to the bygone it findeth ever the same fragments and limbs and fearful chances but no men
the present and the bygone upon earth ah my friends that is my most unbearable trouble and i should not know how to live if i were not a seer of what is to come
a seer a purposer a creator a future itself and a bridge to the future and alas also as it were a cripple on this bridge all that is zarathustra
and ye also asked yourselves often who is zarathustra to us what shall he be called by us and like me did ye give yourselves questions for answers is he a promiser or a fulfiller
a conqueror or an inheritor a harvest or a ploughshare a physician or a healed one is he a poet or a genuine one an emancipator or a subjugator a good one or an evil one
i walk amongst men as the fragments of the future that future which i contemplate and it is all my poetisation and aspiration to compose and collect into unity
what is fragment and riddle and fearful chance and how could i endure to be a man if man were not also the composer and riddle reader and redeemer of chance
into thus would i have it that only do i call redemption will so is the emancipator and joy bringer called thus have i taught you my friends
but now learn this likewise the will itself is still a prisoner willing emancipateth but what is that
called which still putteth the emancipator in chains it was thus is the will's teeth gnashing and lonesomest tribulation called impotent towards what hath been done
it is a malicious spectator of all that is past not backward can the will will that it cannot break time and time's desire that is the will's lonesomest tribulation
willing emancipateth what doth willing itself devise in order to get free from its tribulation and mock at its prison ah a fool becometh every prisoner
foolishly delivereth itself also the imprisoned will that time doth not run backward that is its animosity that which was
so is the stone which it cannot roll called and thus doth it roll stones out of animosity and ill humour and taketh revenge on whatever doth not like it feel rage and ill humour
thus did the will the emancipator become a torturer and on all that is capable of suffering it taketh revenge because it cannot go backward
this yea this alone is revenge itself the will's antipathy to time and its it was verily a great folly dwelleth in our will
and it became a curse unto all humanity that this folly acquired spirit the spirit of revenge my friends that hath hitherto been man's best contemplation
and where there was suffering it was claimed there was always penalty penalty so calleth itself revenge with a lying word it feigneth a good conscience
and because in the willer himself there is suffering because he cannot will backwards thus was willing itself and all life claimed to be penalty and then did cloud after cloud roll over the spirit
everything perisheth therefore everything deserveth to perish and this itself is justice the law of time that he must devour his children thus did madness preach
morally are things ordered according to justice and penalty oh where is there deliverance from the flux of things and from the existence of penalty thus did madness preach
can there be deliverance when there is eternal justice alas unrollable is the stone it was eternal must also be all penalties thus did madness preach
no deed can be annihilated how could it be undone by the penalty this this is what is eternal in the existence of penalty that existence also must be eternally recurring deed and guilt
unless the will should at last deliver itself and willing become non willing but ye know my brethren this fabulous song of madness away from those fabulous songs did i lead you when i taught you
the will is a creator all it was is a fragment a riddle a fearful chance
but thus would i have it
but thus do i will it thus shall i will it but did it ever speak thus and when doth this take place hath the will been unharnessed from its own folly
hath the will become its own deliverer and joy bringer hath it unlearned the spirit of revenge and all teeth gnashing and who hath taught it reconciliation with time and something higher than all reconciliation
something higher than all reconciliation must the will will which is the will to power but how doth that take place who hath taught it also to will backwards
but at this point in his discourse it chanced that zarathustra suddenly paused and looked like a person in the greatest alarm with terror in his eyes did he gaze on his disciples
his glances pierced as with arrows their thoughts and arrear thoughts
it is difficult to live amongst men because silence is so difficult especially for a babbler thus spake zarathustra the hunchback however had listened to the conversation
and had covered his face during the time but when he heard zarathustra laugh he looked up with curiosity and said slowly but why doth zarathustra speak otherwise unto us than unto his disciples
zarathustra answered what is there to be wondered at with hunchbacks one may well speak in a hunchbacked way very good said the hunchback and with pupils one may well tell tales out of school
but why doth zarathustra speak otherwise unto his pupils
a doctrine appeared a faith ran beside it all is empty all is alike all hath been and from all hills there re echoed all is empty all is alike all hath been
to be sure we have harvested but why have all our fruits become rotten and brown what was it fell last night from the evil moon in vain was all our labour poison hath our wine become
the evil eye hath singed yellow our fields and hearts arid have we all become and fire falling upon us then do we turn dust like ashes
yea the fire itself have we made aweary all our fountains have dried up even the sea hath receded all the ground trieth to gape but the depth
will not swallow alas where is there still a sea in which one could be drowned so soundeth our plaint across shallow swamps
verily even for dying have we become too weary now do we keep awake and live on in sepulchres thus did zarathustra hear a soothsayer speak
sorrowfully did he go about and wearily and he became like unto those of whom the soothsayer had spoken verily said he unto his disciples a little while and there cometh
the long twilight alas how shall i preserve my light through it that it may not smother in this sorrowfulness
thus did zarathustra go about grieved in his heart and for three days he did not take any meat or drink he had no rest and lost his speech
at last it came to pass that he fell into a deep sleep his disciples however sat around him in long night watches and waited anxiously to see if he would awake and speak again and recover from his affliction
his voice however came unto his disciples as from afar hear i pray you the dream that i dreamed my friends and help me to divine its meaning
a riddle is it still unto me this dream the meaning is hidden in it and encaged and doth not yet fly above it on free pinions all life had i renounced
so i dreamed night watchman and grave guardian had i become aloft in the lone mountain fortress of death there did i guard his coffins full stood the musty vaults of those trophies of victory
out of glass coffins did vanquished life gaze upon me the odour of dust covered eternities did i breathe sultry and dust covered lay my soul and who could have aired his soul there
brightness of midnight was ever around me lonesomeness cowered beside her and as a third death rattle stillness the worst of my female friends
keys did i carry the rustiest of all keys and i knew how to open with them the most creaking of all gates like a bitterly angry croaking
ran the sound through the long corridors when the leaves of the gate opened ungraciously did this bird cry unwillingly was it awakened but more frightful even and more heart strangling was it
when it again became silent and still all around and i alone sat in that malignant silence
if time there still was what do i know thereof but at last there happened that which awoke me thrice did there peal peals at the gate
like thunders thrice did the vaults resound and howl again then did i go to the gate alpa cried i who carrieth his ashes unto the mountain alpa alpa
who carrieth his ashes unto the mountain and i pressed the key
but not a finger's breadth was it yet open then did a roaring wind tear the folds apart whistling whizzing and piercing it threw unto me a black coffin
and in the roaring and whistling and whizzing the coffin burst up and spouted out a thousand peals of laughter and a thousand caricatures of children angels owls fools and
child sized butterflies laughed and mocked and roared at me fearfully was i terrified thereby it prostrated me
but mine own crying awoke me and i came to myself thus did zarathustra relate his dream and then was silent for as yet he knew not the interpretation thereof
but the disciple whom he loved most arose quickly seized zarathustra's hand and said thy life itself interpreteth unto us this dream o zarathustra
art thou not thyself the wind with shrill whistling which bursteth open the gates of the fortress of death art thou not thyself the coffin full of many hued malices and angel caricatures of life
and whoever else rattleth with sinister keys with thy laughter wilt thou frighten and prostrate them fainting and recovering will demonstrate thy power over them and when the long twilight cometh
and the mortal weariness even then wilt thou not disappear from our firmament thou advocate of life new stars hast thou made us see and new nocturnal glories
verily laughter itself hast thou spread out over us like a many hued canopy
thus spake the disciple and all the others then thronged around zarathustra
zarathustra however sat upright on his couch with an absent look like one returning from long foreign sojourn did he look on his disciples and examined their features
but still he knew them not when however they raised him and set him upon his feet behold all on a sudden his eye changed he understood everything that had happened
stroked his beard and said with a strong voice well this hath just its time but see to it my disciples that we have a good repast and without delay thus do i mean to make amends for bad dreams
the soothsayer however shall eat and drink at my side and verily i will yet show him a sea in which he can drown himself thus spake zarathustra
joined his regiment and was soon taken as orderly by a general commanding a large guerrilla detachment from the time he received his commission and especially since he had joined the active army and taken part in the battle of vyazma petya had been in
a constant state of blissful excitement at
he was highly delighted with what he saw and experienced in the army but at the same time it always seemed to him that the really heroic exploits were being performed just where he did not happen to be and he was always in a hurry to get where he was not
when on the twenty first of october
and had there twice fired his pistol so now the general explicitly forbade his taking part in any action whatever of denisov's that was why petya had blushed and grown confused when denisov asked him whether he could stay
before they had ridden to the outskirts of the forest petya had considered he must carry out his instructions strictly and return at once but when he saw the french and saw tikhon and learned that
that the general whom he had greatly respected till then was a rubbishy german that denisov was a hero the esaul a hero and tikhon a hero too and that it would be shameful for him to leave them at a moment of difficulty
it was already growing dusk when denisov petya and the esaul rode up to the watchhouse in the twilight saddled horses could be seen and cossacks and hussars who
had rigged up rough shelters in the glade and were kindling glowing fires in a hollow of the forest where the french could not see the smoke in the passage of the small watchhouse a cossack with sleeves rolled up was chopping some mutton
in the room three officers of denisov's band were converting a door into a tabletop petya took off his wet clothes gave them to be dried and at once began helping the officers to fix up the dinner table
in ten minutes the table was ready and a napkin spread on it on the table were vodka a flask of rum white bread roast mutton and salt sitting at table with the officers and tearing the fat savory mutton with his hands
down which the grease trickled petya was in an ecstatic childish state of love for all men and consequently of confidence that others loved him in the same way
it's all right my staying a day with you
do let me into the very into the chief
and he handed him his clasp knife the officer admired it please keep it i have several like it said petya blushing heavens i was quite forgetting he suddenly cried i have some raisins fine ones
i bought ten pounds i am used to something sweet would you like some and petya ran out into the passage to his cossack and
he asked the esaul i bought a capital one from our sutler he has splendid things and he's very honest that's the chief thing
that happens sometimes you know
a hundred flints i bought them very cheap please take as many as you want or all if you like then suddenly dismayed lest he had said too much petya stopped and blushed
and running over the events of the day he remembered the french drummer boy it's capital for us here but what of him
have they fed him haven't they hurt his feelings he thought but having caught himself saying too much about the flints he was now afraid to speak out i might ask he thought but they'll say he's a boy himself and so he pities the boy
i'll show them tomorrow whether i'm a boy will it seem odd if i ask petya thought well never mind and immediately blushing and looking anxiously at the officers to see if they appeared ironical he said
perhaps yes he's a poor little fellow said denisov who evidently saw nothing shameful in this reminder call him in his name is vincent bosse have him fetched i'll call him said petya yes yes call him a poor little fellow denisov repeated
and having kissed denisov he ran out of the hut bosse vincent petya cried stopping outside the door
petya replied that he wanted the french lad who had been captured that day ah vesenny said a cossack vincent the boy's name had already been changed by the cossacks into vesenny vernal and into vesenya by the peasants and soldiers
in both these adaptations the reference to spring vesna matched the impression made by the young lad he is warming himself there by the bonfire ho vesenya vesenya vesenny laughing voices were heard calling to one another in the darkness
the stillest hour what hath happened unto me my friends ye see me troubled driven forth unwillingly obedient ready to go alas to go away from you
yea once more must zarathustra retire to his solitude but unjoyously this time doth the bear go back to his cave what hath happened unto me who ordereth this
ah mine angry mistress wisheth it so she spake unto me have i ever named her name to you yesterday towards evening there spake unto me my stillest hour
and thus did it happen for everything must i tell you
do ye know the terror of him who falleth asleep to the very toes he is terrified because the ground giveth way under him and the dream beginneth
this do i speak unto you in parable yesterday at the stillest hour did the ground give way under me the dream began the hour hand moved on the timepiece of my life drew breath
and i wept and trembled like a child and said ah i would indeed but how can i do it exempt me only from this it is beyond my power
then was there again spoken unto me without voice
and i answered ah is it my word who am i i await the worthier one i am not worthy even to succumb by it
then was there again spoken unto me without voice
humility hath the hardest skin and i answered what hath not the skin of my humility endured at the foot of my height do i dwell how high are my summits
no one hath yet told me but well do i know my valleys then was there again spoken unto me without voice o zarathustra
as yet hath my word not removed mountains and what i have spoken hath not reached man i went indeed unto men
i lay however on the ground and the sweat flowed from my limbs now have ye heard all and why i have to return into my solitude
nothing have i kept hidden from you my friends but even this have ye heard from me who is still the most reserved of men and will be so ah my friends
i should have something more to say unto you i should have something more to give unto you
when however zarathustra had spoken these words the violence of his pain and a sense of the nearness of his departure from his friends came over him so that he wept aloud
chapter one an explosion are you all ready tom all ready mister sharp replied a young man who was stationed near some complicated apparatus while the questioner a dark man with a nervous manner
leaned over a large tank i'm going to turn on the gas now went on the man look out for yourself i'm not sure what may happen neither am i but i'm ready for it
if it does explode it can't do much damage oh i hope it doesn't explode we've had so much trouble with the airship i trust nothing goes wrong now well turn on the gas mister sharp
advised tom swift i'll watch the pressure gauge and if it goes too high i'll warn you and you can shut it off the man nodded and with a small wrench in his hand went to one end of the tank the youth
looking anxiously at him turned his gaze now and then toward a gauge somewhat like those on steam boilers which gauge was attached to an aluminum cigar shaped affair about five feet long
the hissing grew louder be ready to jump
i will answered the lad but the pressure is going up very slowly maybe you'd better turn on more gas i will here she goes look out now
with a sudden hiss as the powerful gas under pressure passed from the tank through the pipes and into the aluminum container the hand on the gauge swept past figure after figure on the dial shut it off
cried tom quickly it's coming too fast shut her off the man sprang to obey the command and with nervous fingers sought to fit the wrench over the nipple of the controlling valve then his face seemed to turn white with fear
i can't move it mister sharp yelled it's jammed i can't shut off the gas run look out she'll explode tom swift the young inventor whose acquaintance some of you have previously made
gave one look at the gauge and seeing that the pressure was steadily mounting endeavored to reach and open a stop cock that he might relieve the strain one trial showed him that the valve
there had jammed too and catching up a roll of blue prints the lad made a dash for the door of the shop he was not a second behind his companion and hardly had they passed out of the structure
before there was a loud explosion which shook the building and shattered all the windows in it pieces of wood bits of metal and a cloud of sawdust and shavings flew out of the door after the man and the youth
and this was followed by a cloud of yellowish smoke are you hurt tom cried mister sharp as he swung around to look back at the place where the hazardous experiment had been conducted not a bit how about you
i'm all right but it was touch and go good thing you had the gauge on or we'd never have known when to run well we've made another failure of it and the man spoke somewhat bitterly
never mind mister sharp went on tom swift i think it will be the last mistake i see what the trouble is now and know how to remedy it come on back and we'll try it again
no i guess that's all right it was the aluminum container that went up and that's so light it didn't do much damage but we'd better wait until some of those fumes escape they're not healthy to breathe
the cloud of yellowish smoke was slowly rolling away and the man and lad were approaching the shop which
was still intact when an aged man coming from a handsome house not far off called out tom is anyone hurt no dad we're all right what happened
well we had another explosion we can't seem to get the right mixture of the gas but i think we've had the last of our bad luck we're going to try it again up to now the gas has been too strong the tank too weak
or else our valve control is bad oh dear mister swift do tell them to be careful a woman's voice chimed in i'm sure something dreadful will happen
there i was just putting my bread in the oven went on missus baggert the housekeeper and i was so startled that i dropped it and now the dough is all over the kitchen floor i never saw such a mess i'm sorry answered the youth
trying not to laugh we'll see that it doesn't happen again yes that's what you always say rejoined the motherly looking woman who looked after the interests of mister swift's home
well we mean it this time retorted the lad we see where our mistake was don't we mister sharp i think so replied the other seriously come on back and we'll see what damage was done proposed tom
maybe we can rig up another container mix some fresh gas and make the final experiment this afternoon now do be careful cautioned mister swift the aged inventor once more
i'm afraid you two have set too hard a task for yourselves this time no we haven't dad answered his son you'll see us yet skimming along above the clouds humph
if you go above the clouds i shan't be very likely to see you but go slowly now don't blow the place up again mister swift went into the house followed by missus baggert
who was loudly bewailing the fate of her bread tom and mister sharp started toward the shop where they had been working it was one of several buildings built for experimental purposes and patent work by mister swift near his home
it didn't do so very much damage observed tom as he peered in through a window void of all the panes of glass we can start right in hold on wait don't try it now exclaimed mister sharp
who talked in short snappy sentences which however said all he meant the fumes of that gas aren't good to breathe wait until they have blown away
he began to cough choking from the pungent odor and tom felt an unpleasant tickling sensation in his throat
i'll be looking over the blue prints let's have em tom handed over the roll he had grabbed up when he ran from the shop just before the explosion took place and while his companion spread them out on his knee
as he sat on an upturned barrel the lad walked toward the rear of the large yard it was enclosed by a high board fence with a locked gate
but tom undoing the fastenings stepped out into a broad green meadow at the rear of his father's property as he did so he saw three boys running toward him hello exclaimed our hero
there are andy foger sam
and pete bailey i wonder what they're heading this way for on the trio came increasing their pace as they caught sight of tom andy foger a red haired and squint eyed lad a sort of town bully
with a rich and indulgent father was the first to reach the young inventor how how many are killed panted andy shall we go for doctors asked sam can we see the place blurted out pete
and he had to sit down on the grass he was so winded killed doctors repeated tom clearly much puzzled what are you fellows driving at anyhow
demanded andy in eager tones not a one replied tom there was an explosion exclaimed pete we heard it and you can't fool us and we saw the smoke added
yes there was a small explosion admitted tom with a smile but no one was killed or even hurt we don't have such things happen in our shops nobody killed repeated andy questioningly
and the disappointment was evident in his tones nobody hurt added sam his crony and he too showed his chagrin all our run for nothing continued pete another crony in disgust
what happened demanded the red haired lad as if he had a right to know we were walking along the lake road and we heard an awful racket if the police come out here you'll have to tell what it was tom swift he spoke
defiantly i've no objection to telling you or the police replied tom there was an explosion my friend mister sharp the balloonist and i were conducting an experiment with a new kind of gas
and it was too strong that's all an aluminum container blew up but no particular damage was done i hope you're satisfied humph what you making anyhow demanded andy
and again he spoke as if he had a right to know i don't know that it's any of your business tom came back at him sharply but as everyone will soon know i may as well tell you we're building an airship
an airship exclaimed sam and pete in one breath an airship queried andy and there was a sneer in his voice well i don't think you can do it tom swift you'll never build an airship
even if you have a balloonist to help you i won't eh and tom was a trifle nettled at the sneering manner of his rival no you won't it takes a smarter fellow than you are
i believe i could beat you at it myself oh you think you could asked tom and this time he had mastered his emotions he was not going to let andy foger make him angry
for more than once had tom in his motor boat proved more than a match for the squint eyed bully and his cronies go back at him andy advised sam in a low voice don't take any of his guff
i don't intend to spluttered andy maybe you did beat me in the races because my motor wasn't working right he conceded but you can't do it again anyhow that's got nothing to do with an airship i'll bet you can't make one
i don't bet replied tom calmly but if you wait a few weeks you'll see me in an airship and then
to whom they were indebted for many automobile and motor boat rides just wait advised tom with a tantalizing smile
i'm willing i have an hour or so to spare
discomfited for the defeat of his speedy boat by a much smaller and less powerful one was a sore point with him you just wait that's all i'll get even with you look here cried tom suddenly
you always say that whenever i get the best of you i'm sick of hearing it i consider that a threat
if you don't look out andy foger you'll have trouble with me and at no very distant date tom with flashing eyes and clenched fists took a step forward andy shrank back don't be afraid of him advised sam we'll stand by you andy
i ain't afraid muttered the red haired lad but it was noticed that he shuffled off you just wait i'll fix you he added to tom the bully was plainly in a rage the young inventor was about to reply and possibly would have made a more substantial
rejoinder to andy than mere words when the gate opened and mister sharp stepped out the fumes have all cleared away tom he said we can go in the shop now
charles summers strangers visiting melbourne the chief city of australia will not be allowed to overlook four great marble statues which adorn the public library they are the gift of
mister w j clark one of the distinguished public men of that growing empire these statues represent in a sitting posture queen victoria prince albert the prince of wales and the princess of wales
they are larger than life and according to the australian press they are admirable works in every respect they were executed by charles summers a sculptor long resident in that colony
where he practiced his art with great success as the public buildings and private houses of melbourne attest many of his works remain in the colony and he may be said to be the founder of his form of art
in that part of the world the history of this man's life is so remarkable that i think it will interest the reader sixty years ago charles summers was a little hungry ragged boy in english
who earned four cents a day by scaring the crows from the wheat fields i have seen myself such little fellows engaged in this work coming on duty before four in the morning and remaining till eight in the evening
frightening away the birds by beating a tin pan with a stick not unfrequently chasing them and throwing stones at them he was the son of a mason who had eight children and squandered half his time and money in the tap room
hence this boy from the age of eight or nine years smart intelligent and ambitious was constantly at work at some such employment and often during his father's drunken fits he was the chief support of the family
and he was often seen on the high road in charge of the drunkard struggling to get him home before he had spent their united earnings in drink in these deplorable circumstances he acquired a dexterity and patience
he was observed to have a strong propensity to do fancy stone work he obtained as a boy some local celebrity for his carved gate posts and other ornamental objects in stone
so great was his skill and industry that by the time he was nineteen years of age besides having maintained a large family for years he had saved a sum equal to a hundred dollars
then a piece of good fortune happened to him a man came from london to set up in a parish church near by a monumental figure and looked about for a skillful mason to assist him
and upon him the choice fell thus he was introduced to the world of art for this figure had been executed by henry weekes a distinguished london sculptor the hardships of his childhood
had made a man of him at this early age a thoughtful and prudent man taking with him ten of his twenty pounds he went to london and applied for employment in the studio of henry weekes
this artist employed several men but he had no vacant place except the humble one of stone polisher which required little skill he accepted the place with alacrity and delight at a salary of five dollars a week
he was now in his element the lowliest employments of the studio were pleasing to him he loved to polish the marble the sight of the numerous models was a pleasure to him even wetting the cloths and cleaning
the model tools were pleasant tasks his cheerfulness and industry soon made him a favorite and when his work was done he employed his leisure in gaining skill in carving and cutting marble
to execute two colossal figures in bronze and the young man was obliged to spend much of his time in erecting the foundry and other duties which he felt to be foreign to his art
impatient at this he resigned his place and visited his home where he executed medallion portraits first of his own relations and afterwards of public men such as the mayor of bristol
and the member of parliament for his county these medallions gave him some reputation and it was a favorite branch with him as long as he lived
the chief of which is a gold medal given every two years for the best group in clay of an historical character a silver medal is also given every year for the best
model from life at the exhibition of eighteen fifty one when he was twenty four years of age he was a competitor for both these prizes for the gold medal he executed a group which he called mercy interceding for the vanquished
for the silver medal he offered a bust of a living person he had the singular good fortune of winning both and he received them in public from the hands of the president of the academy sir charles eastlake
cheer upon cheer greeted the modest student when he rose and went forward for the purpose he was a young man of great self control instead of joining in the usual festivities of his fellow students after the award
he walked quietly to his lodgings where his father and brother were anxiously waiting to hear the result of the competition he threw himself into a chair without a word and they began to console him for the supposed disappointment
in a few minutes they sat down to supper whereupon with a knowing smile he took his medals out of his pocket and laid one of them on each side of his plate
from this time he had no difficulties except those inherent in the nature of his work and in his own constitution his early struggle with life had made him too intense he had scarcely known what play was
and he did not know how to recreate himself he had little taste for reading or society he loved art alone the consequence was that he worked with an intensity and continuity that no human constitution could long endure
soon after winning his two medals his health was so completely prostrated that he made a voyage to australia to visit a brother who had settled there the voyage restored him and he soon resumed the practice of his art at melbourne
the people were just building their houses of parliament and he was employed to execute the artistic work of the interior he lived many years in australia and filled the colony with his works in marble and bronze
and yet during his residence in rome he had twenty men in his service it was in rome in eighteen seventy six that he received from melbourne the commission to execute in marble the four colossal
statues mentioned above these works he completed in something less than eighteen months besides doing several other minor works previously ordered it was too much and nature resented the affront
after he had packed the statues and sent them on their way to the other side of the globe he set out for melbourne himself intending to take england by the way for medical advice at paris he visited the exhibition and the next day at his hotel
for that he lived and almost in the midst of it died he could not have conceived existence without it always and under every circumstance he was thinking of his work and gathering from whatever surrounded
him such information as he thought would prove of service in omnibuses in railway carriages and elsewhere he found opportunities of study and could always reproduce a likeness
from memory of the individuals so observed i do not copy these words as commendation but as warning like so many other gifted men of this age he lived too fast and attempted too much
he died when his greatest and best life would naturally have been just beginning he died at the beginning of the period when the capacity for high enjoyment of life is naturally the greatest
tom sam get up at once what's the row now dick came sleepily from tom have you discovered anything yes i've discovered a whole lot get up if you want to catch the next train
the next train for where demanded tom as he hopped out of bed the next train for albany have they taken dora to albany questioned sam as he too arose and began to don his garments
i think so was the elder brother's reply and while the pair dressed dick told of what had occurred and what he had heard this is getting to be quite a chase was tom's remark but i reckon you are right
and we'll land on them in the capital if we aren't too late answered dick i'd like to know how they are going to take dora to albany if she doesn't want to go came from tom
was what dick said the train left at half past two in the morning and they had not long to wait once on board they proceeded to make themselves as comfortable as possible each having a whole seat to himself
and sam and tom went to sleep without much trouble but dick was wide awake wondering what would be the next move on reaching albany poor dora he murmured
oh but that crowd shall be punished for this if she comes to harm it will almost kill missus stanhope and his heart sank like a lump of lead as he thought of his dearest friend
in the power of her unscrupulous enemies it was just getting daylight when the long train rolled into the spacious depot at the state capital only a few working people and newsboys were stirring
tom and sam pulled themselves together with long yawns sleeping in a seat doesn't come up to a bed by any means remarked tom which way now we'll go down to the river and look for the flyaway
it will be like looking for a needle in a hay stack said sam the boats are pretty thick here that is true but it is the best we can do replied the elder rover
once along the river front they began a careful inquiry concerning the boat of which they were in search not much progress remarked tom after two hours had been spent in vain
this climbing from one dock to the next is decidedly tiring and i'm hungry put in sam i move we hunt up a restaurant an eating place was not far away
and entering they ordered a morning meal of ham and eggs rolls and hot coffee while they were eating a man came in and sat down close by them it was martin harris
we liked it well enough put in tom but we left in a hurry he went on thinking martin harris might give them some information have you been out on the river yet this morning
yes just came up from our place below to do a little trading did you see anything of a yacht called the flyaway the flyaway what sort of a looking craft is she i can't tell you that
one boat there attracted my attention said martin harris slowly i saw two boys and a girl on board of her how was the girl dressed cried dick she had on a light blue dress and a sailor hat
and the boys one was dressed in gray and the other in dark blue or black that was the boat where did she go ejaculated dick
who remembered well how mumps and baxter had been attired and the pretty dress and hat dora was in the habit of wearing she was bound straight down the river we must follow her that's the talk burst out tom
but how what do you want to follow the flyaway for asked martin harris curiously those two boys are running away with that girl impossible no it isn't one of the fellows
the fellow in dark clothing is the chap who ran into us that day well now do you know i thought it looked like him was harris comment and come to think of it that boat got as far away from me as she could
do you think you would know her again i mean the flyaway if we got anywhere near her asked dick i think i would lad she had a rather dirty mainsail and jib and each had a new patch of white near the top
then too her rig is a little different from what we have around here looked like a southern boat have you your boat handy yes she's right at the end of this street
could your boat catch the flyaway do you think my boat the searchlight is as good a yacht as there is anywhere around if i do say it myself answered martin harris promptly it you don't believe it try her and see
we will try her came promptly from dick and the sooner you begin the chase the better it will suit me all right we'll start as soon as i've swallowed this coffee answered the skipper of the searchlight
but hold on this may prove a long search do you want to make terms i wasn't thinking of that
i was thinking that i haven't any provender aboard my yacht if we want to stay out any length of time i'll fix that answered dick come sam you say the yacht is at the foot of the street yes
we'll be there in less than five minutes where are you going to buy provisions yes dick made off followed not only by sam but likewise by tom he found a large grocery close at hand
and here purchased some coffee sugar canned meat and fish a small quantity of vegetables and also several loaves of bread and some salt to this tom added a box of crackers and sam some cake and fruit
and with their arms loaded down they hurried to the searchlight martin harris was on hand and ready to cast off hullo you did lay in some things he grinned i reckon you calculate this chase to last some time
we've got enough for several days anyway that is all but water returned dick i've got a whole barrel full of that forward lad then we are ready to leave
i hope though we run the flyaway down before noon concluded the elder rover as he hopped on board leaving sam to stow away the stores as he saw fit dick and tom sprang in to assist martin harris
and soon the mainsail and jib were set and they turned away from the dock and began the journey down the hudson as soon as they were clear of the other boats the skipper set his topsail and flying jib and they bowled along at a merry gait
the wind being very nearly in their favor and neither too strong nor too slack now i'd like to hear the particulars of this case remarked martin harris as he proceeded to make himself comfortable at the tiller
you see i want to know just what i am doing i don't want to get into any trouble with the law you won't get into any trouble nobody has a right to run off with a girl against her will replied dick
that's true but why are they running off with her i think they have been hired to do it by a man who wants to marry the girl's mother went on dick and related the particulars of what had occurred martin harris was deeply interested
i reckon you have the best end of it he said when the youth had finished and you say this dan baxter is a son of the rascal who is suspected of robbing rush and wilder yes evidently a hard crowd
or rather incensed for there be those so apt credulous and facile to love that if they hear of a proper man or woman they are in love before they see them and that merely by relation
that they are as much maimed by report as if they saw them
was far in love with her and out of fame and common rumour so much incensed that he would needs have her to be his wife and sometimes by reading they are so affected
in xenophon but i am as much affected as if i were present with her
and so did those three gentlewomen
whom they never knew but only heard him commended or by reading of a letter
as well from sight and the species of love are received into the fantasy by relation alone
both senses affect
sometimes we love those that are absent saith philostratus and gives instance in his friend athenodorus that loved a maid at corinth whom he never saw
we see with the eyes of our understanding but the most familiar and usual cause of love is that which comes by sight which conveys those admirable rays of beauty and pleasing graces to the heart
the eyes are the harbingers of love and the first step of love is sight
powerful soul ravishing and captivating beauty which
is sharper than any dart or needle wounds deeper into the heart and opens a gap through our eyes to that lovely wound which pierceth the soul itself
through it love is kindled like a fire this amazing confounding admirable
nothing so divine lovely precious tis nature's crown gold and glory bonum si non summum
triumphans whose power hence may be discerned we contemn and abhor generally such things as are foul and ugly to behold account them filthy but love and covet that which is fair
a fair hawk a fine garment
when he destroyed all those temples of the gods in greece caused that of diana in integrum servari to be spared alone for that excellent beauty and magnificence of it inanimate beauty can so command
tis that which painters artificers orators all aim at
that ministered occasion to art to find out the knowledge of carving painting building to find out models perspectives rich furnitures and so many rare inventions whiteness in the lily
red in the rose purple in the violet a lustre in all things without life the clear light of the moon the bright beams of the sun splendour of gold
purple sparkling diamond the excellent feature of the horse the majesty of the lion the colour of birds peacock's tails the silver scales of fish
delightful in flowers wonderful in beasts but most glorious in men doth make us affect and earnestly desire it as when we hear any sweet harmony an eloquent tongue see any excellent quality curious work of man
elaborate art or aught that is exquisite there ariseth instantly in us a longing for the same
magistratu et gloria florent injuria lacessimus we backbite wrong hate renowned rich and happy men
and adore them as so many gods we had rather serve them than command others and account ourselves the more beholding to them the more service they enjoin us though they be otherwise vicious dishonest we love them favour them
though they have no other good quality beside dic igitur o fomose adolescens
auscultabimus speak fair youth speak autiloquus thy words are sweeter than nectar speak o telemachus thou art more powerful than ulysses speak alcibiades
though drunk we will willingly hear thee as thou art faults in such are no faults for when the said alcibiades had stolen anytus his gold and silver plate he was so far from prosecuting so foul a fact
though every man else condemned his impudence and insolency that he wished it had been more and much better he loved him dearly for his sweet sake no worth is eminent in such lovely persons all imperfections hid
de his quos plurimum diligimus turpitudinem suspicamur
omnes sensus formosus delectat many men have been preferred for their person alone chosen kings as amongst the indians persians ethiopians of old the properest man of person the country could afford
that no man was thought fit to reign that was not in all parts complete and supereminent agis king of lacedaemon
deposed because he married a little wife
learned eloquent of a pleasant a promising countenance a goodly proper man he had in a word a winning look of his own and that carried it for that he was especially advanced
maximinus elected emperor
branchus the son of apollo whom he begot of jance succron's daughter saith lactantius
now grown a man was an earnest suitor to his mother to know his father
yet overcome by his importunity at last she sent him to his father when he came into apollo's presence malas dei reverenter osculatus he carried himself so well and was so fair a young man
that apollo was infinitely taken with the beauty of his person he could scarce look off him and said he was worthy of such parents gave him a crown of gold the spirit of divination and in conclusion made him
a demigod o vis superba formae a goddess beauty is whom the very gods adore nam pulchros
love's harbinger love's loadstone a witch a charm
a sufficient patrimony an ample commendation an accurate epistle
imperio digna forma beauty deserves a kingdom saith abulensis
than for all other virtues besides and such as are fair
that idalian ganymede was therefore fetched by jupiter into heaven
dear to alexander antinous to adrian plato calls beauty for that cause a privilege of nature naturae gaudentis opus nature's masterpiece a dumb comment
theophrastus a silent fraud
but women make kings pay tribute and have dominion over them when they have got gold and silver they submit all to a beautiful woman give themselves wholly to her
or any precious thing they will leave father and mother and venture their lives for her labour and travel to get and bring all their gains to women steal
and put it on her own and stroke him with her left hand yet the king gaped and gazed on her and when she laughed he laughed and when she was angry he flattered to be reconciled to her so beauty commands even kings themselves
ferrum pulchritudo captivat vincentur specie qui non vincentur proelio
that a strong man must labour for his living if he will have aught a valiant man must fight and endanger himself for it a wise man speak show himself and toil but a fair and beautiful person doth all
that it had power to countermand all duty
when he saw her fair face as one amazed at her divine beauty he let his weapon fall and embraced her besides
ergo habetantur enses pulchritudine the edge of a sharp sword as the saying is is dulled with a beautiful aspect and severity itself is overcome
when phryne his client was accused at athens for her lewdness used no other defence in her cause but tearing her upper garment disclosed her naked breast to the judges with which comeliness of her body
and amiable gesture they were so moved and astonished that they did acquit her forthwith and let her go o noble piece of justice mine author exclaims
in perpetual remembrance a virgin riding upon an ass's back with this motto
why said she all this why did she make such promises to a dumb beast but that she perceived the poor ass to be taken with her beauty for he did often obliquo collo
et ad delicatulas voculas tentabat adhinnire offer to give consent as much as in him was to her delicate speeches and besides he had some feeling
paris for helena corebus to troja
venerat insano cassandrae insensus amore who inflamed with a violent passion for cassandra happened then to be in troy king john of france
once prisoner in england came to visit his old friends again crossing the seas but the truth is his coming was to see the countess of salisbury the nonpareil of those times
did i carry hence into my beehives those young hearts have already all become old and not old even only weary ordinary comfortable
they declare it we have again become pious of late did i see them run forth at early morn with valorous steps but the feet of their knowledge became weary
and now do they malign even their morning valour verily many of them once lifted their legs like the dancer to them winked the laughter of my wisdom
then did they bethink themselves just now
to creep to the cross around light and liberty did they once flutter like gnats and young poets a little older a little colder
and already are they mystifiers and mumblers and mollycoddles did perhaps their hearts despond because lonesomeness had swallowed me like a whale
did their ear perhaps hearken yearningly long for me in vain and for my trumpet notes and herald calls ah ever are there but few of those
these are always the great majority the common place the superfluous the far too many those all
him who is of my type will also the experiences of my type meet on the way so that his first companions must be corpses and buffoons
his second companions however they will call themselves his believers will be a living host with much love much folly much unbearded veneration
to those believers shall he who is of my type among men not bind his heart in those spring times and many hued meadows shall he not believe
who knoweth the fickly faint hearted human species could they do otherwise then would they also will otherwise the half and half spoil every whole
that leaves become withered what is there to lament about that let them go and fall away o zarathustra and do not lament better even
to blow amongst them with rustling winds blow amongst those leaves o zarathustra that everything withered may run away from thee the faster
we have again become pious so do those apostates confess and some of them are still too pusillanimous thus to confess unto them
i look into the eye before them i say it unto their face and unto the blush on their cheeks ye are those who again pray it is however
a shame to pray not for all but for thee and me and whoever hath his conscience in his head for thee it is a shame to pray
thou knowest it well the faint hearted devil in thee which would fain fold its arms and place its hands in its bosom and take it easier
this faint hearted devil persuadeth thee that there is a god thereby however dost thou belong to the light dreading type to whom light
never permitteth repose now must thou daily thrust thy head deeper into obscurity and vapour and verily thou choosest the hour well
for just now do the nocturnal birds again fly abroad the hour hath come for all light dreading people the vesper hour and leisure hour when
take leisure i hear it and smell it it hath come their hour for hunt and procession not indeed for a wild hunt but for a tame
lame snuffling soft treaders soft prayers hunt for a hunt after susceptible simpletons
have again been set and whenever i lift a curtain a night moth rusheth out of it did it perhaps squat there along with another night moth
for everywhere do i smell small concealed communities and wherever there are closets there are new devotees therein and the atmosphere of devotees
they sit for long evenings beside one another and say let us again become like little children and say good god
ruined in mouths and stomachs by the pious confectioners or they look for long evenings at a crafty lurking cross spider that preacheth prudence
to the spiders themselves and teacheth that under crosses it is good for cobweb spinning or they sit all day at swamps with angle rods and on that account
think themselves profound but whoever fisheth where there are no fish i do not even call him superficial or they learn in godly gay style to play the harp
who would fain harp himself into the heart of young girls for he hath tired of old girls and their praises or they learn to shudder with a learned semi madcap who waiteth
in darkened rooms for spirits to come to him and the spirit runneth away entirely or they listen to an old roving howl and growl piper
who hath learnt from the sad winds the sadness of sounds now pipeth he as the wind and preacheth sadness in sad strains and some of them
have even become night watchmen they know now how to blow horns and go about at night and awaken old things which have long fallen asleep five words
about old things did i hear yester night at the garden wall they came from such old
arid night watchmen
human fathers do this better he is too old he now careth no more for his children answered the other night watchman
no one can prove it unless he himself prove it i have long wished that he would for once prove it thoroughly prove as if he had ever proved anything proving is difficult to him
he layeth great stress on one's believing him ay ay belief saveth him belief in him
so it is with us also thus
the two old night watchmen and light scarers and tooted thereupon sorrowfully on their horns so did it happen yester night at the garden wall to me however
and sunk into the midriff verily it will be my death yet to choke with laughter when i see asses drunken and hear night watchmen thus doubt about god
hath the time not long since passed for all such doubts who may nowadays awaken such old slumbering light shunning things with the old deities
hath it long since come to an end and verily a good joyful deity end had they they did not begloom themselves to death
that do people fabricate on the contrary they
the utterance there is but one god thou shalt have no other gods before me an old grim beard of a god a jealous one forgot himself
in such wise and all the gods then laughed and shook upon their thrones and exclaimed is it not just divinity that there are gods but no god
he that hath an ear let him hear thus talked zarathustra in the city he loved which is surnamed the pied cow
when we had finished drinking tea she told us to go with her into the next room where the tables had been prepared for lunch and i wondered if she had any room for lunch after all that she had just eaten but i soon found out
as soon as she was inside the room she ordered the covers to be removed and they were all taken off at one time then she took her seat at the head of the table and told us to stand at the foot she then said generally
the emperor takes lunch with me when we have the theatre but he is shy to day as you are all new to him i hope he will get over it and not be so bashful you three had better eat with me to day of course we knew that this was an especial favor
and thanked her by kowtowing before we commenced to eat this kowtowing or bowing our heads to the ground was very tiring at first and made us dizzy until we got used to it when we commenced to eat
to place plates for us and give us silver chopsticks spoons et cetera and said i am sorry you have to eat standing but i cannot break the law of our great ancestors even the young empress cannot sit in my presence i am sure
the foreigners must think we are barbarians to treat our court ladies in this way and i don't wish them to know anything about our customs you will see how differently i act in their presence so that they cannot see my true self
i was watching her while she was talking to my mother and marvelled to see how she could eat after having eaten such a quantity of candy walnuts et cetera while in her bedroom beef was a thing
that was tabooed within the precincts of the palace as it was considered a great sin to kill and eat animals that were used as beasts of burden the food consisted mostly of pork mutton and game fowls and vegetables
this day we had pork cooked in ten different ways such as meat balls sliced cold in two different ways red and white the red being cooked with a special kind of sauce made of beans which gives it the red color and has a delicious taste
chopped pork with chopped bamboo shoots pork cut in cubes and cooked with cherries and pork cooked with onions and sliced thin this last dish was her majesty's favorite and i must say it was good then
there was a sort of pancake made of eggs pork and mushrooms chopped fine and fried also pork cooked with cabbage and another dish cooked with turnips the fowl and mutton was cooked in several different ways
in the center of the table was a very large bowl about two feet in diameter of the same yellow porcelain in which there was a chicken a duck and some shark fins in a clear soup shark fins are considered a great delicacy in china besides this
and that was the skin of roast pork cut into very small slices and fried until it curls up like a rasher of bacon as a rule the manchu people seldom eat rice but are very fond of bread and this day
we had bread made in a number of different ways such as baked steamed fried some with sugar and some with salt and pepper cut in fancy shapes or made in fancy moulds such as dragons butterflies flowers
et cetera and one kind was made with mincemeat inside then we had a number of different kinds of pickles of which her majesty was very fond then there was beans and green peas and peanuts made into cakes and served
with sugarcane syrup i did not eat very much as i was too busy watching her majesty and listening to what she said although she told us to eat all we could in addition to all i have mentioned we had many different kinds of porridge
some made of sweet corn and some with tiny yellow rice like bird seed and her majesty said that we must all eat porridge after our meat after we had finally finished eating her majesty rose from the table
and said come into my bedroom and you will see the young empress and the court ladies eat they always eat after i am finished we went with her and i stood near the door between the two rooms and saw the young empress and court ladies come in
and stand around the table eating very quietly they were never allowed to sit down and eat their food all this time the theatre had been going on playing some fairy tales but they were not near as interesting
her majesty sat on her long couch in the bedroom and the eunuch brought her some tea and she ordered some brought for us my reader can imagine how delighted i was to be treated in this way
and that her word is law one must never raise their eyes when talking to her this is a sign of great respect i thought these extreme favors must be most unusual i had been told that her majesty had a very fierce temper
but seeing her so kind and gracious to us and talking to us in such a motherly way i thought my informant must be wrong and that she was the sweetest woman in the world when her majesty had rested a while she told us
that it was time we were returning to the city as it was getting late she gave us eight big yellow boxes of fruit and cakes to take home with us she said to my mother tell yu keng my father to get better soon and tell him
however i knew he would appreciate her kind thoughtfulness even if it were detrimental to his health as perhaps most of my readers know
when her majesty gives presents and we kowtowed to her when she gave us the fruit and cakes and thanked her for her kindness just as we were leaving her majesty said to my mother that she liked us very much and wanted us to come
and showed us the house we would live in when we came and told us to come back inside of two days this house contained three very large rooms and was situated on the right side of her own or private palace this palace
on the shores of the lake and was her majesty's favorite place and where she spent most of her time reading and resting and when the spirit moved her she would go for a sail on the lake in this palace she had quite a number of bedrooms
and made use of them all when she had finished showing us this house we took leave of her majesty the young empress and the court ladies
from her majesty once more we had to bend to custom in thanking her for these gifts this time the gift having been sent to the house we placed the silk on a table in the center of the room and kowtowed to thank her majesty
and told the eunuchs to tell her majesty how grateful we were to her for all her kindness and for the beautiful gifts there is another thing that had to be done according to the custom and that was to give the eunuchs a present
or tip and we had to give each of the eunuchs ten taels for their trouble we afterwards found out that when eunuchs went anywhere to take presents for her majesty they were required to report to her when they returned
how the recipient had thanked her and what had been given them which she allowed them to keep she also asked them numerous questions about our house whether we were pleased with her et cetera these people are extremely fond of talking
and after we had returned to the palace again they told us what her majesty had said about us the first day we were there
to go to the palace and leave my father all alone owing to his being in poor health but we could not disobey her majesty's order so we returned to the palace three days later our first day there was a busy one for us
when we first arrived we went and thanked her majesty for the present that she had sent us she told us that she was very busy to day as she was going to receive a russian lady madame plancon wife of the russian minister to china
who was bringing a miniature portrait of the czar and czarina and family
the empress dowager she asked me if i could speak russian i told her that i could not but that most russians spoke french which seemed to satisfy her she however said
i won't know or be able to find out and at the same time was looking at one of the court ladies i concluded that someone must be fooling her for she seemed to appreciate the fact that i had told her the truth
this afterwards proved to be true and one of the court ladies was dismissed for pretending she could talk foreign languages when she could not speak a word besides this audience there was the theatre
and the engagement ceremony of her majesty's nephew ter ju the engagement ceremony according to the manchu custom is performed by two of the princesses of the royal family going to the house of the prospective bride who sits on her bed cross legged
her eyes closed and awaits their coming when they arrive at the house they go to her bedroom and place a symbol called ru yee made of pure jade about one and a half feet long in her lap and suspend two small bags made of silk
and beautifully embroidered each containing a gold coin from the buttons of her gown and place two gold rings on her fingers on which is carved the characters ta hsi great happiness
the return home o lonesomeness my home lonesomeness too long have i lived wildly in wild remoteness
to return to thee without tears now threaten me with the finger as mothers threaten now smile upon me as mothers smile
now say just who was it that like a whirlwind once rushed away from me who when departing called out too long have i sat with lonesomeness
there have i unlearned silence that hast thou learned now surely o zarathustra everything do i know
amongst the many thou unique one than thou
one thing is forsakenness another matter is lonesomeness that hast thou now learned and that amongst men
thou wilt ever be wild and strange wild and strange even when they love thee for above all they want to be treated indulgently here however
and house with thyself here canst thou utter everything and unbosom all motives nothing is here ashamed of concealed congealed feelings
here do all things come caressingly to thy talk and flatter thee for they want to ride upon thy back
uprightly and openly mayest thou here talk to all things and verily it soundeth as praise in their ears for one to talk to all things directly
another matter however is forsakenness for dost thou remember o zarathustra when thy bird screamed overhead
when thou stoodest in the forest irresolute ignorant where to go beside a corpse when thou spakest let mine animals lead me
more dangerous have i found it among men than among animals that was forsakenness and dost thou remember o zarathustra when thou sattest in thine isle
a well of wine giving and granting amongst empty buckets bestowing
until at last thou alone sattest thirsty amongst the drunken ones and wailedst nightly
than giving and stealing
that was forsakenness and dost thou remember o zarathustra
forth from thyself when with wicked whispering it said speak and succumb when it disgusted thee with all thy waiting and silence and discouraged thy humble courage
that was forsakenness o lonesomeness my home lonesomeness how blessedly and tenderly speaketh thy voice unto me
we do not question each other we do not complain to each other we go together openly through open doors for all is open with thee and clear
on lighter feet for in the dark time
than in the light here fly open unto me all being's words and word cabinets here all being wanteth to become words
here all becoming wanteth to learn of me how to talk down there however all talking is in vain there
forgetting and passing by are the best wisdom that have i learned now he who would understand everything in man must handle everything but for that
i have too clean hands i do not like even to inhale their breath alas
and bad breaths o
o pure odours around me how from a deep breast
but down there there speaketh everything there is everything misheard if one announce one's wisdom with bells the shopmen in the market place
will out jingle it with pennies
no one knoweth any longer how to understand
nothing falleth any longer into deep wells everything among them talketh nothing succeedeth any longer and accomplisheth itself
and hatch eggs everything among them talketh everything is out talked and that which yesterday was still too hard for time itself
hangeth to day outchamped and outchewed from the mouths of the men of to day everything among them talketh everything is betrayed
and what was once called the secret and secrecy of profound souls belongeth to day to the street trumpeters and other butterflies o human hubbub
thou wonderful thing thou noise in dark streets
in indulging and pitying lay ever my greatest danger and all human hubbub wisheth to be indulged and tolerated with suppressed truths
and rich in petty lies of pity thus have i ever lived among men disguised did i sit amongst them ready to misjudge myself that i might endure them
and willingly saying to myself thou fool
one unlearneth men when one liveth amongst them there is too much foreground in all men what can far seeing
far longing eyes do there and fool that i was when they misjudged me i indulged them on that account more than myself
being habitually hard on myself and often even taking revenge on myself for the indulgence stung all over by poisonous flies and hollowed
like the stone by many drops of wickedness thus did i sit among them and still said to myself innocent is everything petty of its pettiness
in all innocence how could they be just towards me he who liveth amongst the good pity teacheth him to lie
pity maketh stifling air for all free souls for the stupidity of the good is unfathomable to conceal myself and my riches that
did i learn down there for every one did i still find poor in spirit it was the lie of my pity that i knew in every one that i saw
and scented in every one what was enough of spirit for him and what was too much their stiff wise men i call them wise not stiff
thus did i learn to slur over words the grave diggers dig for themselves diseases under old rubbish rest bad vapours one should not stir up the marsh
one should live on mountains with blessed nostrils do i again breathe mountain freedom freed at last is my nose from the smell of all human hubbub
with sharp breezes tickled
and shouteth self congratulatingly
born two hundred seventy six died three hundred fifteen gibbon
he had given him in marriage his daughter valeria whose melancholy adventures might furnish a very singular subject for tragedy she had fulfilled and even surpassed the duties of a wife as she had not any children herself
she condescended to adopt the illegitimate son of her husband and invariably displayed towards the unhappy candidianus the tenderness and anxiety of a real mother
her ample possessions provoked the avarice and her personal attractions excited the desires of his successor maximin he had a wife still alive but divorce was permitted by the roman law
and the fierce passions of the tyrant demanded an immediate gratification
but it was tempered by the prudence which her defenceless condition compelled her to observe she represented to the persons whom maximin had employed on this occasion that
even if honour could permit a woman of her character and dignity to entertain a thought of second nuptials decency at least must forbid her to listen to his addresses at a time when the ashes of her husband and his benefactor were still warm
and while the sorrows of her mind were still expressed by her mourning garments she ventured to declare that she could place little confidence in the professions of a man whose cruel inconstancy
was capable of repudiating a faithful and affectionate wife on this repulse the love of maximin was converted into fury and as witnesses and judges were always at his disposal it was easy for him to cover his fury
with an appearance of legal proceedings
her eunuchs and domestics devoted to the most inhuman tortures and several innocent and respectable matrons who were honoured with her friendship suffered death on a false accusation of adultery the empress herself together with her mother
was condemned to exile and as they were ignominiously hurried from place to place before they were confined to a sequestered village
diocletian made several ineffectual efforts to alleviate the misfortunes of his daughter and as the last return that he expected for the imperial purple which he had conferred on maximin
and to close the eyes of her afflicted father he entreated but as he could no longer threaten his prayers were received with coldness and disdain and the pride of maximin was gratified in treating diocletian as a suppliant
and his daughter as a criminal the death of maximin seemed to assure the empresses of a favourable alteration in their fortune
the public disorders relaxed the vigilance of their guard and they easily found means to escape from the place of their exile and to repair though with some precaution and in disguise to the court of licinius
the behaviour of licinius in the first days of his reign and the honourable reception which he gave to the young candidianus
both on her own account and on that of her adopted son but these grateful prospects were soon succeeded by horror and astonishment and the bloody executions which stained the palace of nicomedia
and still accompanied by her mother prisca they wandered about fifteen months through the provinces concealed in the disguise of plebeian habits they were at length discovered at thessalonica
and as the sentence of their death was already pronounced they were immediately beheaded and their bodies thrown into the sea the people gazed on the melancholy spectacle
but their grief and indignation were suppressed by the terrors of a military guard such was the unworthy fate of the wife and daughter of diocletian
the princess knew her royal brother
later in life the high road to his favor was in ridding him of his wife and helping him to a new one a dangerous way though as wolsey found to his sorrow when he sank his glory in poor anne boleyn
brandon took the hint and managed to let it be known to his play loving king that he knew the latest french games
so brandon was taken from his duties such as they were and placed at the card table
that being the case brandon's seat opposite the king was very likely to excite envy and the time soon came henry having learned the play when brandon had to face someone else and the seat was too costly for a man without a treasury
and he would have been in a bad plight had not wolsey come to his relief
this great game of honor and ruff occupied henry's mind day and night during a fortnight
never having learned not to cloy his appetite by over feeding so we saw little of brandon while the king's fever lasted and mary said she wished she had remained silent about the cards
you see she could enjoy this new plaything as well as her brother but the king of course must be satisfied first they both had enough eventually henry in one way mary in another
the next morning as bright and beautiful a june day as ever gladdened the heart of a rose we took horse for windsor a delightful seven league ride over a fair road
mary and jane traveled side by side with an occasional companion or two as the road permitted i was angry with jane as you know so did not go near the girls and brandon
without any apparent intention one way or the other allowed events to adjust themselves and rode with cavendish and me we were perhaps forty yards behind the girls and i noticed after a time that the lady mary kept looking backward in our direction as if fearing rain from the east
i was in hopes that jane too would fear the rain but you would have sworn her neck was stiff so straight ahead did she keep her face we had ridden perhaps three leagues when the princess stopped her horse and turned in her saddle
i heard her voice but did not understand what she said in a moment some one called out master brandon is wanted so that gentleman rode forward and i followed him when we came up with the girls mary said
i fear my girth is loose brandon at once dismounted to tighten it and the others of our immediate party began to cluster around brandon tried the girth
he said it is loose i say insisted the princess with a little irritation the saddle feels like it try the other
ride on we can manage this without so much help
while he was looking for it mary leaned over her horse's neck and asked were you and cavendish settling all the philosophical points now in dispute that you found him so interesting not all
you were so absorbed i supposed it could be nothing short of that no replied brandon again but the girth is not loose perhaps i only imagined it returned mary carelessly having
lost interest in the girth i looked toward jane whose eyes were bright with a smile and turned brandon's horse over to him jane's smile gradually broadened into a laugh and she said edwin i fear my girth is loose also as the lady mary's was
then drop back with me i responded the princess looked at us with a half smile half frown and remarked now you doubtless consider yourselves very brilliant and witty yes
returned jane maliciously nodding her head in emphatic assent as the princess and brandon rode on before us
so you want me to ride with you i replied yes
i said nothing however and after a time jane spoke the dance was one thing and riding with you is another i did not wish to dance with you but i do wish to ride with you
you are the only gentleman to whom i would have said what i did about my girth being loose as to the new dance i do not care to learn it because i would not dance it with any man but you and not even with you yet
it meant that she cared for me and would some day be mine
this was comforting if not satisfying and loosened my tongue jane you know my heart is full of love for you
now that sentence was my rock ahead whenever i tried to give jane some idea of the state of my affections it was a part of the speech which i had prepared and delivered to mary in jane's hearing as you already know i had said to the princess
the universe will crumble and the heavens roll up as a scroll ere my love shall alter or pale it was a high sounding sentence but it was not true as i was forced to admit almost with the same breath that spoke it
it is wonderful what a fund of useless information some persons accumulate and cling to with a persistent determination worthy of a better cause
i wonder what she would have thought had she known that i had said substantially the same thing to a dozen others i never should have won her in that case she does not know it yet and never shall if i can prevent
as upon the morning of that rare ride to windsor aye surer since she knows that in all these years it has changed only to grow greater and stronger and truer
in the fructifying light of her sweet face and the nurturing warmth of her pure soul what a blessed thing it is for a man to love his wife and be satisfied with her
who can stretch out the sweetest season of his existence
so jane halted my effort to pour out my heart as she always did there is something that greatly troubles me she said what is it i asked in some concern
my mistress she answered nodding in the direction of the two riding ahead of us i never saw her so much interested in any one as she is in your friend master brandon
she has never been compelled to forego anything she wanted and her desires are absolutely imperative they drive her and she is helpless against them she would not and could not make the smallest effort to overcome them
i think it never occurred to her that such a thing could be necessary
now look at them ahead of us no girl is so happy riding beside a man unless she is interested in him she was dull enough until he joined her
no i answered but i think he is heart whole or nearly so
he certainly is different from other men returned jane i think he has never spoken a word of love to her he has said some pretty things which she has repeated to me
i should like to see anyone else take that liberty
perhaps it would be better if he did it might cure her i replied oh no no not now at first perhaps but not now
she might have to speak first or there might be no speaking from one who thought his position too far beneath hers she whose smallest desires drive her so will never forego so great a thing as the man she loves only for the want of a word or two
then it was that jane told me of the scene with the note of the little whispered confidence upon their pillows and a hundred other straws that showed only too plainly which way this worst of ill winds was blowing with no good in it for any one
now who could have foretold this
as all other men had done but that mary should love brandon and he remain heart whole was an unlooked for event one that would hardly have been predicted by the shrewdest prophet what lady jane said troubled me greatly
as it was but the confirmation of my own fears her opportunity to know was far better than mine but i had seen enough to set me thinking brandon i believe saw nothing of mary's growing partiality at all
he could not help but find her wonderfully attractive and interesting and perhaps it needed only the thought that she might love him to kindle a flame in his own breast but at the time of our ride to windsor charles brandon was not in love with mary tudor
however near it he may unconsciously have been he would whistle and sing and was as light hearted as a lark i mean when away from the princess as well as with her a mood that does not go with a heart full of heavy love
of impossible fatal love such as his would have been for the first princess of the first blood royal of the world
now and then her heart would well up so full of the sunlight and the flowers and the birds in the hedge aye and of the contagious love in my heart too that it poured itself forth in a spontaneous little song which thrills me even now
ahead of us were the princess and brandon
and her laughter rich and low wafted on the wings of the soft south wind made the glad birds hush to catch its silvery note it seemed that the wild flowers had taken on their brightest hue the trees their richest sabbath day green
and the sun his softest radiance only to gladden the heart of mary that they might hear her laugh the laugh would have come quite as joyously had the flowers been dead and the sun black for flowers and sunlight
south wind green pastures and verdant hills all were riding by her side poor mary her days of laughter were numbered we all rode merrily on to windsor
and when we arrived it was curious to see the great nobles buckingham both the howards seymour and a dozen others stand back for plain charles brandon to dismount the fairest maiden and the most renowned princess in christendom it was done most gracefully
the nobles envied brandon his evident favor with this unattainable mary and hated him accordingly but they kept their thoughts to themselves for two reasons first they knew not to what degree the king's favor already marked
during which time the king made several knights brandon would probably have been one of them as everybody expected had not buckingham related to henry the episode of the loose girth and adroitly poisoned his mind as to mary's partiality
at this the king began to cast a jealous eye on brandon
and when she loved or married it should be for henry's benefit regardless of all else brandon and the lady mary saw a great deal of each other during this little stay at windsor as she always had some plan to bring about a meeting
and although very delightful to him it cost him much in royal favor he could not trace this effect to its proper cause and it troubled him
james whom years had not yet taught distrust or caution was seduced to believe the story of perkin's birth and adventures and he carried his confidence so far as to give him in marriage the lady catharine gordon
attended by some of the borderers and he carried perkin along with him in hopes that the appearance of the pretended prince might raise an insurrection in the northern counties perkin himself dispersed a manifesto
in which he set forth his own story and craved the assistance of all his subjects in expelling the usurper whose tyranny and maladministration whose depression of the nobility by the elevation of mean persons whose oppression of the people
by multiplied impositions and vexations had justly he said rendered him odious to all men but perkin's pretensions attended with repeated disappointments
were now become stale in the eyes even of the populace and the hostile dispositions which subsisted between the kingdoms rendered a prince supported by the scots but an unwelcome present to the english nation
the ravages also committed by the borderers accustomed to license and disorder struck a terror into all men and made the people prepare rather for repelling the invaders
than for joining them perkin that he might support his pretensions to royal birth feigned great compassion for the misery of his plundered subjects and publicly remonstrated with his ally against the depredations exercised by the scottish army
but james told him that he doubted his concern was employed only in behalf of an enemy
by the pretence which it might afford him to levy impositions on his own subjects he summoned a parliament to whom he made bitter complaints against the irruption of the scots the absurd imposture countenanced by that nation
the cruel devastations committed in the northern counties and the multiplied insults thus offered both to the king and kingdom of england the parliament made the expected return to this discourse by granting a subsidy
to the amount of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds
but he found it not so easy to levy the money upon his subjects the people who were acquainted with the immense treasures which he had amassed could ill brook the new impositions raised on every slight occasion
and it is probable that the flaw which was universally known to be in his title
when the subsidy began to be levied in cornwall the inhabitants numerous and poor robust and courageous
and which had usually been repelled by the force of the northern counties their ill humor was further incited by one michael joseph a farrier of bodmin a notable prating fellow who by thrusting himself forward on every occasion
had acquired an authority among those rude people thomas flammoc too a lawyer
by informing them that the tax though imposed by parliament was entirely illegal that the northern nobility were bound by their tenures to defend the nation against the scots and that if these new impositions were tamely submitted to
the avarice of henry and of his ministers would soon render the burden intolerable to the nation the cornish he said must deliver to the king a petition seconded by such a force as would give it authority
care must be taken by their orderly deportment to show that they had nothing in view but the public good and the redress of all those grievances under which the people had so long labored
encouraged by these speeches the multitude flocked together and armed themselves with axes bills bows and such weapons as country people are usually possessed of flammoc and joseph were chosen their leaders
they soon conducted the cornish through the county of devon and reached that of somerset at taunton the rebels killed in their fury an officious and eager commissioner of the subsidy whom they called the provost of perin
a nobleman of an ancient family popular in his deportment but vain ambitious and restless in his temper
he had from the beginning maintained a secret correspondence with the first movers of the insurrection and was now joyfully received by them as their leader proud of the countenance given them by so considerable a nobleman
they continued their march breathing destruction to the king's ministers and favorites particularly to morton now a cardinal and sir reginald bray who were deemed the most active instruments in all his oppressions
notwithstanding their rage against the administration they carefully followed the directions given them by their leaders and as they met with no resistance they committed during their march no violence or disorder
the rebels had been told by flammoc that the inhabitants of kent as they had ever during all ages remained unsubdued
and had even maintained their independence during the norman conquest would surely embrace their party and declare themselves for a cause which was no other than that of public good and general liberty
but the kentish people had very lately distinguished themselves by repelling perkin's invasion and as they had received from the king many gracious acknowledgments for this service their affections were by that means much conciliated to his government
it was easy therefore for the earl of kent lord abergavenny and lord cobham who possessed great authority in those parts to retain the people in obedience and the cornish rebels though they pitched their camp near eltham at the very gates of london
and invited all the people to join them got reenforcement from no quarter there wanted not discontents every where but no one would take part in so rash and ill concerted an enterprise and besides the situation in which the king's affairs then stood
henry in order to oppose the scots had already levied an army which he put under the command of lord daubeney the chamberlain and as soon as he heard of the cornish insurrection he ordered it to march southwards and suppress the rebels
not to leave the northern frontier defenceless
who assembled the forces on the borders and made head against the enemy henry found here the concurrence of the three most fatal incidents that can befall a monarchy a foreign enemy a domestic rebellion
and a pretender to his crown but he enjoyed great resources in his army and treasure and still more in the intrepidity and courage of his own temper
on other occasions he had always hastened to a decision and it was a usual saying with him that he desired but to see his rebels but as the cornish mutineers behaved in an inoffensive manner
and committed no spoil on the country as they received no accession of force on their march or in their encampment and as such hasty and popular tumults might be expected to diminish every moment by delay
he took post in london and assiduously prepared the means of insuring victory after all his forces were collected he divided them into three bodies and marched out to assail the enemy
the first body commanded by the earl of oxford and under him by the earls of essex and suffolk were appointed to place themselves behind the hill on which the rebels were encamped the second and most considerable henry put under the command of lord daubeney
and ordered him to attack the enemy in front and bring on the action
about his own person and took post in saint george's fields where he secured the city and could easily as occasion served either restore the fight or finish the victory
daubeney beat a detachment of the rebels from deptford bridge and before their main body could be in order to receive him he had gained the ascent of the hill and placed himself in array before them they were formidable from their numbers
being sixteen thousand strong and were not defective in valor but being tumultuary troops ill armed and not provided with cavalry or artillery they were but an unequal match for the king's forces
daubeney began the attack with courage and even with a contempt of the enemy which had almost proved fatal to him he rushed into the midst of them
the rebels being surrounded on every side by the king's troops were almost all made prisoners and immediately dismissed without further punishment
whether that henry was satisfied with the victims who had fallen in the field and who amounted to near two thousand or that he pitied the ignorance and simplicity of the multitude or favored them on account of their inoffensive behavior
the scottish king was not idle during these commotions in england he levied a considerable army and sat down before the castle of norham in northumberland
james replied that he himself was no judge of the young man's pretensions but having received him as a supplicant and promised him protection he was determined not to betray a man who had trusted to his good faith and his generosity
the next demand of the english met with no better reception they required reparation for the ravages committed by the late inroads into england the scottish commissioners replied that the spoils were like water spilt upon the ground
which could never be recovered and that henry's subjects were better able to bear the loss than their master to repair it
henry's commissioners next proposed that the two kings should have an interview at newcastle in order to adjust all differences but james said
not to go a begging for it lest the conferences should break off altogether without effect a truce was concluded for some months and james perceiving that while perkin remained in scotland
a solid peace with henry privately desired him to depart the kingdom
his usual retreat in all his disappointments the flemish merchants who severely felt the loss resulting from the interruption of commerce with england
the flemish court agreed that all english rebels should be excluded the low countries and in this prohibition the demesnes of the duchess dowager were expressly comprehended when this principal article was agreed to
a treaty of commerce was finished which was favorable to the flemings and to which they long gave the appellation of intercursus magnus the great treaty and when the english merchants returned to their usual abode at antwerp
but as he must dismiss all his english retainers if he took shelter in the low countries and as he was sure of a cold reception if not bad usage among people who were determined to keep on terms of friendship with the court of england he thought fit rather to hide himself during some time in the wilds and fastnesses of ireland
impatient however of a retreat which was both disagreeable and dangerous he held consultations with his followers herne skelton and astley three broken tradesmen
by their advice he resolved to try the affections of the cornish whose mutinous disposition notwithstanding the king's lenity still subsisted after the suppression of their rebellion no sooner did he appear at bodmin in cornwall
than the populace to the number of three thousand flocked to his standard and perkin
not to suffer the expectations of his followers to languish he presented himself before exeter and by many fair promises invited that city to join him finding that the inhabitants shut their gates against him
he laid siege to the place but being unprovided with artillery ammunition and every thing requisite for the attempt he made no progress in his undertaking
all the courtiers sensible that their activity on this occasion would be the most acceptable service which they could render the king displayed their zeal for the enterprise and forwarded his preparations
to the relief of exeter the earl of devonshire and the most considerable gentlemen in the county of that name took arms of their own accord and marched to join the king's generals
the duke of buckingham put himself at the head of a troop consisting of young nobility and gentry who served as volunteers
the king himself prepared to follow with a considerable army and thus all england seemed united against a pretender who had at first engaged their attention and divided their affections
perkin informed of these great preparations immediately raised the siege of exeter and retired to taunton
and seemed still resolute to maintain his cause he himself despaired of success and secretly withdrew to the sanctuary of beaulieu in the new forest
the cornish rebels submitted to the king's mercy and found that it was not yet exhausted in their behalf except a few persons of desperate fortunes who were executed and some others who were severely fined
all the rest were dismissed with impunity lady catharine gordon wife to perkin fell into the hands of the victor and was treated with a generosity which does him honor he soothed her mind with many marks of regard
some counselled him to make the privileges of the church yield to reasons of state to take him by violence from the sanctuary to inflict on him the punishment due to his temerity and thus at once to put an end to an imposture
which had long disturbed the government and which the credulity of the people and the artifices of malcontents were still capable of reviving
to deliver himself into the king's hands
they seemed desirous of revenging themselves by their insults for the shame which their former belief of his impostures had thrown upon them
and obliged in both places to read aloud to the people the confession which had formerly been published in his name he was then confined to the tower where his habits of restless intrigue and enterprise followed him
he insinuated himself into the intimacy of four servants of sir john digby lieutenant of the tower and by their means opened a correspondence with the earl of warwick who was confined in the same prison
chapter nine i have a memorable birthday
i remember nothing he was going away at the end of the half year if not sooner and was more spirited and independent than before in my eyes and therefore more engaging than before but beyond this i remember nothing
and to exist alone it is even difficult for me to believe that there was a gap of full two months between my return to salem house and the arrival of that birthday i can only understand that the fact was so because i know it must have been so otherwise
how well i recollect the kind of day it was i smell the fog that hung about the place i see the hoar frost ghostly through it i feel my rimy hair fall clammy on my cheek i look along the dim perspective of the schoolroom
with a sputtering candle here and there to light up the foggy morning and the breath of the boys wreathing and smoking in the raw cold as they blow upon their fingers and tap their feet upon the floor it was after breakfast and we had been summoned in from the playground
when mister sharp entered and said david copperfield is to go into the parlour i expected a hamper from peggotty and brightened at the order some of the boys about me put in their claim not to be forgotten in the distribution of the good things
alacrity don't hurry david said mister sharp there's time enough my boy don't hurry i might have been surprised by the feeling tone in which he spoke if i had given it a thought but i gave it none until afterwards i hurried away to the parlour
and there i found mister creakle sitting at his breakfast with the cane and a newspaper before him and missus creakle with an opened letter in her hand but no hamper david copperfield said missus creakle leading me to a sofa and sitting down beside me
i want to speak to you very particularly i have something to tell you my child mister creakle at whom of course i looked shook his head without looking at me and stopped up a sigh with a very large piece of buttered toast
you are too young to know how the world changes every day said missus creakle and how the people in it pass away but we all have to learn it david some of us when we are young some of us when we are old some of us at all times of our lives
i looked at her earnestly when you came away from home at the end of the vacation
were they all well after another pause was your mama well i trembled without distinctly knowing why and still looked at her earnestly
because said she i grieve to tell you that i hear this morning your mama is very ill a mist rose between missus creakle and me and her figure seemed to move in it for an instant then i felt the burning tears run down my face
and it was steady again she is very dangerously ill she added i knew all now she is dead there was no need to tell me so i had already broken out into a desolate cry
when i could cry no more i began to think and then the oppression on my breast was heaviest and my grief a dull pain that there was no ease for and yet my thoughts were idle not
intent on the calamity that weighed upon my heart but idly loitering near it i thought of our house shut up and hushed i thought of the little baby who missus creakle said had been pining away for some time
and who they believed would die too i thought of my father's grave in the churchyard by our house and of my mother lying there beneath the tree i knew so well i stood upon a chair when i was left alone and looked into the glass to see how red my eyes were
i considered after some hours were gone if my tears were really hard to flow now as they seemed to be what in connexion with my loss it would affect me most to think of when i drew near home for i was going home to the funeral
i am sensible of having felt that a dignity attached to me among the rest of the boys and that i was important in my affliction if ever child were stricken with sincere grief i was
when i saw them glancing at me out of the windows as they went up to their classes i felt distinguished and looked more melancholy and walked slower when school was over and they came out and spoke to me i felt it rather good in myself not to be proud to any of them
and to take exactly the same notice of them all as before i was to go home next night not by the mail but by the heavy night coach which was called the farmer
and was principally used by country people travelling short intermediate distances upon the road we had no story telling that evening and traddles insisted on lending me his pillow i don't know what good he thought it would do me for i had one of my own
but it was all he had to lend poor fellow except a sheet of letter paper full of skeletons and that he gave me at parting as a soother of my sorrows and a contribution to my peace of mind i left salem house upon the morrow afternoon
and did not get into yarmouth before nine or ten o'clock in the morning i looked out for mister barkis but he was not there and instead of him a fat short winded merry looking little old man in black
with rusty little bunches of ribbons at the knees of his breeches black stockings and a broad brimmed hat came puffing up to the coach window and said master copperfield yes sir will you come with me young sir if you please he said opening the door
and i shall have the pleasure of taking you home i put my hand in his wondering who he was and we walked away to a shop in a narrow street on which was written omer draper tailor
which were heaped upon the table and little bits and cuttings of which were littered all over the floor there was a good fire in the room and a breathless smell of warm black crape i did not know what the smell was then but i know now the three young women
who appeared to be very industrious and comfortable raised their heads to look at me and then went on with their work stitch stitch stitch at the same time there came from a workshop
a regular sound of hammering that kept a kind of tune rat tat tat rat tat tat rat tat tat without any variation well said my conductor to one of the three young women how do you get on minnie
we shall be ready by the trying on time she replied gaily without looking up don't you be afraid father mister omer took off his broad brimmed hat and sat down and panted he was so fat that he was obliged to pant some time before he could say that's right
father said minnie playfully what a porpoise you do grow well i don't know how it is my dear he replied considering about it i am rather so you are such a comfortable man you see said minnie
you take things so easy no use taking em otherwise my dear said mister omer no indeed returned his daughter we are all pretty gay here thank heaven ain't we father i hope so my dear said mister omer as i have got my breath now
he took my various dimensions and put them down in a book
and to certain fashions which he said had just come up and to certain other fashions which he said had just gone out and by that sort of thing we very often lose a little mint of money said mister omer but fashions are like human beings
they come in nobody knows when why or how and they go out nobody knows when why or how everything is like life in my opinion if you look at it in that point of view i was too sorrowful to discuss the question
which would possibly have been beyond me under any circumstances and mister omer took me back into the parlour breathing with some difficulty on the way he then called down a little break neck range of steps behind a door bring up that tea and bread and butter
which after some time during which i sat looking about me and thinking and listening to the stitching in the room and the tune that was being hammered across the yard appeared on a tray and turned out to be for me i have been acquainted with you said mister omer
after watching me for some minutes during which i had not made much impression on the breakfast for the black things destroyed my appetite i have been acquainted with you a long time my young friend have you sir all your life said mister omer
he lays in five and twen ty foot of ground if he lays in a fraction
or her direction i forget which do you know how my little brother is sir i inquired mister omer shook his head rat tat tat rat tat tat rat tat tat he is in his mother's arms said he
oh poor little fellow is he dead don't mind it more than you can help said mister omer yes the baby's dead my wounds broke out afresh at this intelligence i left the scarcely tasted breakfast
and went and rested my head on another table in a corner of the little room which minnie hastily cleared lest i should spot the mourning that was lying there with my tears she was a pretty good natured girl and put my hair away from my eyes with a
soft kind touch but she was very cheerful at having nearly finished her work and being in good time and was so different from me
as you said we could make a little trip of it and go over together if it was done minnie and me and you oh i thought you were going to leave me out altogether said mister omer laughing till he coughed
as you was so good as to say that resumed the young man why i turned to with a will you see will you give me your opinion of it i will said mister omer rising my dear and he stopped and turned to me would you like to see your no father
minnie interposed i thought it might be agreeable my dear said mister omer but perhaps you're right
i had never heard one making i had never seen one that i know of but it came into my mind what the noise was while it was going on and when the young man entered i am sure i knew what he had been doing the work being now finished
whose names i had not heard brushed the shreds and threads from their dresses and went into the shop to put that to rights and wait for customers minnie stayed behind to fold up what they had made and pack it in two baskets
and he must make haste and get himself ready then he went out again and then she put her thimble and scissors in her pocket and stuck a needle threaded with black thread neatly in the bosom of her gown and put on her outer clothing smartly
at a little glass behind the door in which i saw the reflection of her pleased face all this i observed sitting at the table in the corner with my head leaning on my hand and my thoughts running on very different things the chaise soon came round to the front of the shop
and the baskets being put in first i was put in next and those three followed i remember it as a kind of half chaise cart half pianoforte van painted of a sombre colour and drawn by a black horse with a long tail
there was plenty of room for us all i do not think i have ever experienced so strange a feeling in my life i am wiser now perhaps as that of being with them remembering how they had been employed and seeing them enjoy the ride
i was not angry with them i was more afraid of them as if i were cast away among creatures with whom i had no community of nature they were very cheerful the old man sat in front to drive and the two young people sat behind him
and whenever he spoke to them leaned forward the one on one side of his chubby face and the other on the other and made a great deal of him they would have talked to me too but i held back and moped in my corner scared by their love making and hilarity
and almost wondering that no judgement came upon them for their hardness of heart so when they stopped to bait the horse and ate and drank and enjoyed themselves i could touch nothing that they touched but kept my fast unbroken so when we reached home
i dropped out of the chaise behind as quickly as possible that i might not be in their company before those solemn windows looking blindly on me like closed eyes once bright and oh
that which in the better time was mine i was in peggotty's arms before i got to the door and she took me into the house her grief burst out when she first saw me but she controlled it soon and spoke in whispers and walked softly as if the dead could be disturbed
mister murdstone took no heed of me when i went into the parlour where he was
and pondering in his elbow chair miss murdstone who was busy at her writing desk which was covered with letters and papers gave me her cold finger nails and asked me in an iron whisper if i had been measured for my mourning i said yes
and your shirts said miss murdstone have you brought em home yes ma'am i have brought home all my clothes this was all the consolation that her firmness administered to me
i do not doubt that she had a choice pleasure in exhibiting what she called her self command and her firmness and her strength of mind
and she showed it now in reducing everything to pen and ink and being moved by nothing all the rest of that day and from morning to night afterwards she sat at that desk scratching composedly with a hard pen
or appearing with an atom of her dress astray her brother took a book sometimes but never read it that i saw he would open it and look at it as if he were reading but would remain for a whole hour without turning the leaf and then put it down and walk to and fro in the room
i used to sit with folded hands watching him and counting his footsteps hour after hour he very seldom spoke to her and never to me he seemed to be the only restless thing except the clocks in the whole motionless house
in these days before the funeral i saw but little of peggotty except that in passing up or down stairs i always found her close to the room where my mother and her baby lay
and sat by my bed's head while i went to sleep a day or two before the burial i think it was a day or two before but i am conscious of confusion in my mind about that heavy time with nothing to mark its progress she took me into the room
i only recollect that underneath some white covering on the bed with a beautiful cleanliness and freshness all around it there seemed to me to lie embodied the solemn stillness that was in the house and that when she would have turned the cover gently back i cried
oh no oh no and held her hand if the funeral had been yesterday i could not recollect it better the very air of the best parlour when i went in at the door the bright condition of the fire
and how is master david he says kindly i cannot tell him very well i give him my hand which he holds in his dear me says mister chillip meekly smiling with something shining in his eye our little friends grow up around us
they grow out of our knowledge ma'am this is to miss murdstone who makes no reply there is a great improvement here ma'am says mister chillip miss murdstone merely answers with a frown and a formal bend mister chillip discomfited
goes into a corner keeping me with him and opens his mouth no more i remark this because i remark everything that happens not because i care about myself or have done since i came home and now the bell begins to sound
and mister omer and another come to make us ready as peggotty was wont to tell me long ago the followers of my father to the same grave were made ready in the same room there are mister murdstone our neighbour mister grayper
we stand around the grave the day seems different to me from every other day and the light not of the same colour of a sadder colour now there is a solemn hush
with what is resting in the mould and while we stand bareheaded i hear the voice of the clergyman sounding remote in the open air and yet distinct and plain saying i am the resurrection and the life saith the lord
then i hear sobs and standing apart among the lookers on i see that good and faithful servant whom of all the people upon earth i love the best and unto whom my childish heart is certain that the lord will one day say well done
there are many faces that i know among the little crowd faces that i knew in church when mine was always wondering there faces that first saw my mother when she came to the village in her youthful bloom i do not mind them i mind nothing but my grief
and yet i see and know them all and even in the background far away see minnie looking on and her eye glancing on her sweetheart who is near me it is over and the earth is filled in and we turn to come away before us stands our house
so pretty and unchanged so linked in my mind with the young idea of what is gone that all my sorrow has been nothing to the sorrow it calls forth but they take me on and mister chillip talks to me and when we get home puts some water to my lips
and when i ask his leave to go up to my room dismisses me with the gentleness of a woman all this i say is yesterday's event
but this stands like a high rock in the ocean i knew that peggotty would come to me in my room the sabbath stillness of the time the day was so like sunday i have forgotten that was suited to us both
she sat down by my side upon my little bed and holding my hand and sometimes putting it to her lips and sometimes smoothing it with hers as she might have comforted my little brother told me in her way all that she had to tell concerning what had happened
she was never well said peggotty for a long time she was uncertain in her mind and not happy when her baby was born i thought at first she would get better but she was more delicate and sunk a little every day
she used to like to sit alone before her baby came and then she cried but afterwards she used to sing to it so soft
didn't my sweet girl here peggotty stopped and softly beat upon my hand a little while the last time that i saw her like her own old self was the night when you came home my dear the day you went away she said to me
i never shall see my pretty darling again
that tells the truth i know she tried to hold up after that and many a time when they told her she was thoughtless and light hearted made believe to be so but it was all a bygone then she never told her husband
what she had told me she was afraid of saying it to anybody else till one night a little more than a week before it happened when she said to him my dear i think i am dying it's off my mind now peggotty she told me
when i laid her in her bed that night he will believe it more and more poor fellow every day for a few days to come and then it will be past i am very tired if this is sleep sit by me while i sleep don't leave me god bless both my children
god protect and keep my fatherless boy i never left her afterwards said peggotty she often talked to them two downstairs for she loved them she couldn't bear not to love anyone who was about her but when they went away from her bed side she always turned to me
and never fell asleep in any other way on the last night in the evening she kissed me and said if my baby should die too peggotty please let them lay him in my arms and bury us together
when she lay here blessed him not once but a thousand times another silence followed this and another gentle beating on my hand it was pretty far in the night said peggotty when she asked me for some drink
daybreak had come and the sun was rising when she said to me how kind and considerate mister copperfield had always been to her and how he had borne with her and told her when she doubted herself that a loving heart was better and stronger than wisdom
peggotty my dear she said then put me nearer to you for she was very weak lay your good arm underneath my neck she said and turn me to you for your face is going far off and i want it to be near
i put it as she asked and oh davy the time had come when my first parting words to you were true when she was glad to lay her poor head on her stupid cross old peggotty's arm and she died like a child that had gone to sleep
thus ended peggotty's narration from the moment of my knowing of the death of my mother
from that instant only as the young mother of my earliest impressions who had been used to wind her bright curls round and round her finger and to dance with me at twilight in the parlour
chapter three i have a change the carrier's horse was the laziest horse in the world i should hope and shuffled along with his head down as if he liked to keep people waiting to whom the packages were directed i fancied indeed
that he sometimes chuckled audibly over this reflection but the carrier said he was only troubled with a cough the carrier had a way of keeping his head down like his horse and of drooping sleepily forward as he drove with one of his arms on each of his knees
i say drove but it struck me that the cart would have gone to yarmouth quite as well without him for the horse did all that and as to conversation he had no idea of it but whistling peggotty had a basket of refreshments on her knee
which would have lasted us out handsomely if we had been going to london by the same conveyance we ate a good deal and slept a good deal peggotty always went to sleep with her chin upon the handle of the basket
if the world were really as round as my geography book said how any part of it came to be so flat but i reflected that yarmouth might be situated at one of the poles which would account for it
as we drew a little nearer and saw the whole adjacent prospect lying a straight low line under the sky i hinted to peggotty that a mound or so might have improved it
that we must take things as we found them and that for her part she was proud to call herself a yarmouth bloater when we got into the street which was strange enough to me and smelt the fish and pitch
upon the whole the finest place in the universe here's my am screamed peggotty growed out of knowledge he was waiting for us in fact at the public house
and asked me how i found myself like an old acquaintance i did not feel at first that i knew him as well as he knew me because he had never come to our house since the night i was born and naturally he had the advantage of me
but our intimacy was much advanced by his taking me on his back to carry me home he was now a huge strong fellow of six feet high broad in proportion and round shouldered but with a simpering boy's face and
curly light hair that gave him quite a sheepish look he was dressed in a canvas jacket and a pair of such very stiff trousers that they would have stood quite as well alone without any legs in them and you couldn't so properly have said he wore a hat
we turned down lanes bestrewn with bits of chips and little hillocks of sand and went past gas works rope walks boat builders yards shipwrights yards ship breakers yards caulkers yards riggers lofts smiths forges
as far as i could stare over the wilderness and away at the sea and away at the river but no house could i make out there was a black barge or some other kind of superannuated boat not far off
high and dry on the ground with an iron funnel sticking out of it for a chimney and smoking very cosily but nothing else in the way of a habitation that was visible to me that's not it said i that ship looking thing
that's it mas'r davy returned ham if it had been aladdin's palace roc's egg and all
there was a delightful door cut in the side and it was roofed in and there were little windows in it but the wonderful charm of it was that it was a real boat which had no doubt been upon the water hundreds of times
and which had never been intended to be lived in on dry land that was the captivation of it to me if it had ever been meant to be lived in i might have thought it small or inconvenient or lonely
but never having been designed for any such use it became a perfect abode it was beautifully clean inside and as tidy as possible there was a table and a dutch clock and a chest of drawers
and on the chest of drawers there was a tea tray with a painting on it of a lady with a parasol taking a walk with a military looking child who was trundling a hoop the tray was kept from tumbling down by a bible and the tray if it had tumbled down
would have smashed a quantity of cups and saucers and a teapot that were grouped around the book on the walls there were some common coloured pictures framed and glazed of scripture subjects such as i have never seen since in the hands of pedlars
without seeing the whole interior of peggotty's brother's house again at one view abraham in red going to sacrifice isaac in blue and daniel in yellow cast into a den of green lions were the most prominent of these
over the little mantelshelf was a picture of the sarah jane lugger built at sunderland with a real little wooden stern stuck on to
there were some hooks in the beams of the ceiling the use of which i did not divine then and some lockers and boxes and conveniences of that sort which served for seats and eked out the chairs
child like according to my theory
and most desirable bedroom ever seen in the stern of the vessel with a little window where the rudder used to go through a little looking glass just the right height for me nailed against the wall and framed with oyster shells a little bed
and a nosegay of seaweed in a blue mug on the table the walls were whitewashed as white as milk and the patchwork counterpane made my eyes quite ache with its brightness
one thing i particularly noticed in this delightful house was the smell of fish which was so searching
i found it smelt exactly as if it had wrapped up a lobster on my imparting this discovery in confidence to peggotty she informed me that her brother dealt in lobsters crabs and crawfish
whom i had seen curtseying at the door when i was on ham's back
or i thought her so with a necklace of blue beads on who wouldn't let me kiss her when i offered to but ran away and hid herself by and by when we had dined in a sumptuous manner off boiled dabs melted butter
and potatoes with a chop for me a hairy man with a very good natured face came home as he called peggotty lass and gave her a hearty smack on the cheek i had no doubt from the general propriety of her conduct
that he was her brother and so he turned out being presently introduced to me as mister peggotty the master of the house glad to see you sir said mister peggotty you'll find us rough sir but you'll find us ready
and that she desired her compliments which was a polite fiction on my part i'm much obleeged to her i'm sure said mister peggotty well sir if you can make out here fur a fortnut
remarking that cold would never get his muck off he soon returned greatly improved in appearance but so rubicund that i couldn't help thinking his face had this in common with the lobsters crabs and crawfish
that it went into the hot water very black and came out very red after tea when the door was shut and all was made snug the nights being cold and misty now it seemed to me the most delicious retreat
that the imagination of man could conceive to hear the wind getting up out at sea to know that the fog was creeping over the desolate flat outside and to look at the fire and think that there was no house near but this one and this one a boat
was like enchantment little em'ly had overcome her shyness and was sitting by my side upon the lowest and least of the lockers which was just large enough for us two and just fitted into the chimney corner
missus peggotty with the white apron was knitting on the opposite side of the fire peggotty at her needlework was as much at home with saint paul's and the bit of wax candle as if they had never known any other roof ham
who had been giving me my first lesson in all fours was trying to recollect a scheme of telling fortunes with the dirty cards
once upon a time there dwelt in the land of erin a young man who was seeking a wife and of all the maidens round about none pleased him as well as the only daughter of a farmer
the girl was willing and the father was willing and very soon they were married and went to live at the farm by and bye the season came when they must cut the peats and pile them up to dry so that they might have fires in the winter
so on a fine day the girl and her husband and the father and his wife all went out upon the moor they worked hard for many hours and at length grew hungry so the young woman was sent home to bring them food
and also to give the horses their dinner when she went into the stables she suddenly saw the heavy pack saddle of the speckled mare just over her head and she jumped and said to herself
suppose that pack saddle were to fall and kill me how dreadful it would be and she sat down just under the pack saddle she was so much afraid of and began to cry now the others out on the moor grew hungrier and hungrier
and at length the mother declared that she would wait no longer
when i came in and saw the pack saddle over my head i thought how dreadful it would be if it fell and killed me and she cried louder than before the old woman struck her hands together ah to think of it
if that were to be what should i do and she sat down by her daughter and they both wrung their hands and let their tears flow something strange must have occurred exclaimed the old farmer on the moor
who by this time was not only hungry but cross i must go after them and he went and found them in the stable what is the matter asked he oh replied his wife when our daughter came home
and she thought how dreadful it would be if it were to fall and kill her well but it didn't fall replied the young man and he went off to the kitchen to get some supper leaving them to cry as long as they liked
the next morning he got up with the sun and said to the old man and to the old woman and to his wife farewell
and he walked away till he came to the town
no man was present but only some women spinning at their wheels you do not belong to this town said he you speak truth they answered nor you either i do not replied he but is it a good place to live in
the women looked at each other the men of the town are so silly that we can make them believe anything we please said they well
and when he was in his bed his wife went to him and said thou art dead
asked he thou art said she shut thine eyes and stir neither hand nor foot and dead he felt sure he was soon the second man came home
no it is not you answered she so he went away and slept in the wood when the third man arrived his wife gave him his supper and after that he went to bed just as usual the next morning
now rise and be quick called the wife and the man jumped out of bed in a great hurry and began to look about him why where are my clothes asked he silly that you are they are on your back of course answered the woman
are they said he they are said she and make haste lest the burying be ended before you get there then off he went running hard
they forgot in their fright what they were there for and fled to hide themselves and the naked man stood alone at the head of the coffin very soon a man came out of the wood and spoke to him do you know me
not i answered the naked man i do not know you but why are you naked asked the first man
and my wife told me that i myself was dead
but at the sound of his voice the two men were so terrified that they ran straight home and the man in the coffin got up and followed them
with what splendour righteousness shines whereby it is manifest that goodness never lacks its reward nor crime its punishment for verily in all manner of transactions
that for the sake of which the particular action is done may justly be accounted the reward of that action even as the wreath
is the reward offered for running now we have shown happiness to be that very good for the sake of which all things are done absolute good then
is offered as the common prize as it were of all human actions but truly this is a reward from which it is impossible to separate the good man for one who is without good
cannot properly be called good at all wherefore righteous dealing
rage the wicked then never so violently the crown shall not fall from the head of the wise nor wither verily other men's unrighteousness
cannot pluck from righteous souls their proper glory were the reward in which the soul of the righteous delighteth received from without then might it be taken away by him who gave it or some other
but since it is conferred by his own righteousness then only will he lose his prize when he has ceased to be righteous lastly since every prize is desired because it is believed to be good
who can account him who possesses good to be without reward and what a prize the fairest and grandest of all for remember the corollary which i chiefly insisted on a little while back
and reason thus since absolute good is happiness tis clear that all the good must be happy for the very reason that they are good but it was agreed that those who are happy are gods
so then the prize of the good is one which no time may impair no man's power lessen no man's unrighteousness tarnish tis very godship
and this being so the wise man cannot doubt that punishment is inseparable from the bad for since good and bad and likewise reward and punishment are contraries it necessarily follows that
corresponding to all that we see accrue as reward of the good there is some penalty attached as punishment of evil as then righteousness itself is the reward of the righteous
so wickedness itself is the punishment of the unrighteous now no one who is visited with punishment doubts that he is visited with evil accordingly
if they were but willing to weigh their own case could they think themselves free from punishment whom wickedness worst of all evils has not only touched but deeply tainted
see also from the opposite standpoint the standpoint of the good what a penalty attends upon the wicked thou didst learn a little since that whatever is is one
and that unity itself is good accordingly by this way of reckoning whatever falls away from goodness ceases to be whence it comes to pass that the bad cease to be what they were while only the outward aspect
is still left to show they have been men wherefore by their perversion to badness they have lost their true human nature further since righteousness alone can raise men above the level of humanity
it must needs be that unrighteousness degrades below man's level those whom it has cast out of man's estate it results then that thou canst not consider him human
whom thou seest transformed by vice the violent despoiler of other men's goods enflamed with covetousness surely resembles a wolf a bold and restless spirit
ever wrangling in law courts is like some yelping cur the secret schemer taking pleasure in fraud and stealth is own brother to the fox the passionate man
phrenzied with rage we might believe to be animated with the soul of a lion the coward and runaway afraid where no fear is may be likened to the timid deer he who is sunk in ignorance and stupidity
lives like a dull ass he who is light and inconstant never holding long to one thing is for all the world like a bird he who wallows in foul and unclean lusts is sunk in the pleasures of a filthy hog
so it comes to pass that he who by forsaking righteousness ceases to be a man cannot pass into a godlike condition but actually turns into a brute beast song three
th ithacan discreet and all his storm tossed fleet far o'er the ocean wave the winds of heaven drave drave to the mystic isle where dwelleth in her guile that fair and faithless one
the daughter of the sun
for whoso drinks it up must suffer hideous change to monstrous shapes and strange one like a boar appears this his huge form uprears mighty in bulk and limb
an afric lion grim with claw and fang confessed a wolf this sore distressed when he would weep doth howl and strangely tame these prowl the indian tiger's mates
and though in such sore straits the pity of the god who bears the mystic rod had power the chieftain brave from her fell arts to save his comrades unrestrained
the fatal goblet drained all now with low bent head like swine on acorns fed man's speech and form were reft no human feature left but steadfast still
the mind unaltered unresigned the monstrous change bewailed how little then availed the potencies of ill these herbs this baneful skill may change each outward part
but cannot touch the heart in its true home deep set man's spirit liveth yet those poisons are more fell more potent to expel man from his high estate
his looks his spirits and his temper are all perceptibly changed for the better since i last saw him but there is room for improvement still he is not always cheerful nor always contented
she knows her power and she uses it too but well knowing that to wheedle and coax is safer than to command she judiciously tempers her despotism with flattery and blandishments enough
this is by openly but not too glaringly coquetting with mister huntingdon who is quite willing to be her partner in the game but i don't care for it because with him i know there is nothing but personal vanity
and perhaps to torment his friend
is actuated by much the same motives
it is obviously therefore my interest to disappoint them both as far as i am concerned by preserving a cheerful undisturbed serenity throughout and accordingly i endeavour to show the fullest confidence in my husband
and the greatest indifference to the arts of my attractive guest i have never reproached the former but once and that was for laughing at lord lowborough's depressed and anxious countenance one evening when they had both been particularly provoking
and then indeed i said a good deal on the subject and rebuked him sternly enough but he only laughed and said can feel for him helen can't you
i can feel for anyone that is unjustly treated i replied and i can feel for those that injure them too why helen you are as jealous as he is cried he laughing still more
and i found it impossible to convince him of his mistake so from that time i have carefully refrained from any notice of the subject whatever
he either has not the sense or the power to follow my example though he does try to conceal his uneasiness as well as he can but still it will appear in his face and his ill humour will peep out at intervals
though not in the expression of open resentment they never go far enough for that but i confess i do feel jealous at times most painfully bitterly so when she sings and plays to him
and he hangs over the instrument and dwells upon her voice with no affected interest for then i know he is really delighted and i have no power to awaken similar fervour
i can amuse and please him with my simple songs but not delight him thus
mister hargrave's much neglected home his mother frequently asks us over that she may have the pleasure of her dear walter's company and this time she had invited us to a dinner party and got together as many of the country gentry
pretentious worldly minded woman she has money enough to live very comfortably if she only knew how to use it judiciously and had taught her son to do the same
as of a shameful crime she grinds her dependents pinches her servants and deprives even her daughters and herself of the real comforts of life because she will not consent to yield the palm in outward show
to those who have three times her wealth and above all because she is determined her cherished son shall be enabled to
and to go to a certain length in youthful indulgences not so much to gratify his own tastes as to maintain his reputation as a man of fashion in the world
and a respectable fellow among his own lawless companions while he is too selfish to consider how many comforts might be obtained for his fond mother and sisters with the money he thus wastes upon himself
this is a harsh judgment to form of dear noble minded generous hearted walter but i fear it is too just
missus hargrave's anxiety to make good matches for her daughters is partly the cause and partly the result of these errors by making a figure in the world
and showing them off to advantage she hopes to obtain better chances for them and by thus living beyond her legitimate means and lavishing so much on their brother she renders them portionless
and makes them burdens on her hands poor milicent i fear has already fallen a sacrifice to the manoeuvrings of this mistaken mother who congratulates herself on having so satisfactorily discharged
her maternal duty and hopes to do as well for esther but esther is a child as yet
chapter eleven emil's thanksgiving the brenda was scudding along with all sail set to catch the rising wind and everyone on board was rejoicing for the long voyage was drawing towards an end
four weeks more missus hardy
said second mate hoffmann as he paused beside two ladies sitting in a sheltered corner of the deck
and still gladder to put my feet on solid ground answered the elder lady smiling for our friend emil was a favourite as well he might be since he devoted himself to the captain's wife and daughter
who were the only passengers on board so shall i
i've tramped up and down the deck so much i shall be barefooted if we don't arrive soon laughed mary the daughter showing two shabby little boots as she glanced up at the companion of these tramps remembering gratefully how pleasant he had made them
don't think there are any small enough in china answered emil with a sailor's ready gallantry privately resolving to hunt up the handsomest shoes he could find the moment he landed
i don't know what you would have done for exercise dear if mister hoffmann had not made you walk every day this lazy life is bad for young people though it suits an old body like me well enough in calm weather
is this likely to be a gale think ye added missus hardy with an anxious glance at the west where the sun was setting redly only a capful of wind ma'am just enough to send us along lively answered emil
with a comprehensive glance aloft and alow please sing mister hoffmann it's so pleasant to have music at this time we shall miss it very much when we get ashore said mary
give me freshening breeze my boys a white and swelling sail a ship that cuts the dashing waves and weathers every gale what life is like a sailor's life so free so bold so brave
his home the ocean's wide expanse a coral bed his grave just as the last notes of the clear strong voice died away missus hardy suddenly exclaimed what's that
emil's quick eye saw at once the little puff of smoke coming up a hatchway where no smoke should be and his heart seemed to stand still for an instant as the dread word fire flashed through his mind then he was quite steady
fire in the hold sir don't frighten the women was captain hardy's first order then both be stirred themselves to discover how strong the treacherous enemy was and to rout it if possible the brenda's cargo was a very combustible one
and in spite of the streams of water poured into the hold it was soon evident that the ship was doomed smoke began to ooze up between the planks everywhere and the rising gale soon fanned the smouldering fire to flames that began to break out here and there
telling the dreadful truth too plainly for anyone to hide missus hardy and mary bore the shock bravely when told to be ready to quit the ship at a minute's notice the boats were hastily prepared
and the men worked with a will to batten down every loophole whence the fire might escape soon the poor brenda was a floating furnace and the order to take to the boats came for all the women first of course and it was fortunate that
being a merchantman there were no more passengers on board so there was no panic and one after the other the boats pushed off that in which the women were lingered near for the brave captain would be the last to leave his ship
emil stayed by him till ordered away and reluctantly obeyed but it was well for him he went
rocking far below half hidden by a cloud of smoke a mast undermined by the fire now raging in the bowels of the ship fell with a crash knocking captain hardy overboard
the boat soon reached him as he floated out from the wreck and emil sprung into the sea to rescue him for he was wounded and senseless this accident made it necessary for the young man to take command and he at once ordered the men to pull for their lives
where floated the frail boats filled with pale faces all turned for a last look at the fated brenda slowly settling to her watery grave no one saw the end however for the gale soon swept the watchers far away
and separated them some never to meet again till the sea gives up its dead the boat whose fortunes we must follow was alone when dawn came up showing these survivors all the dangers of their situation
food and water had been put in and such provision for comfort and safety as time allowed but it was evident that with a badly wounded man two women and seven sailors their supply would not last long and help was sorely needed
and cheering one another with prophecies of speedy rescue second mate hoffmann was very brave and helpful though his unexpected responsibility weighed heavily on his shoulders for the captain's state seemed desperate
the poor wife's grief wrung his heart and the blind confidence of the young girl in his power to save them made him feel that no sign of doubt or fear must lessen it the men did their part readily now but emil knew that if starvation and despair made brutes of them
his task might be a terrible one so he clutched his courage with both hands kept up a manly front and spoke so cheerily of their good chances that all instinctively turned to him for guidance and support
things looked dark and hope began to fail the wounded man was delirious the wife worn out with anxiety and suspense the girl weak for want of food having put away half her biscuit for her mother and given her share of water to wet her father's feverish lips
the sailors ceased rowing and sat grimly waiting openly reproaching their leader for not following their advice others demanding more food all waxing dangerous as privation and pain brought out the animal instincts lurking in them
emil did his best but mortal man was helpless there and he could only turn his haggard face from the pitiless sky that dropped no rain for their thirst to the boundless sea where no sail appeared to gladden their longing eyes
all day he tried to cheer and comfort them while hunger gnawed thirst parched and growing fear lay heavy at his heart he told stories to the men implored them to bear up for the helpless women's sake and promised rewards
if they would pull while they had strength to regain the lost route as nearly as he could make it out and increase their chance of rescue he rigged an awning of sailcloth over the suffering man and tended him like a son comforted the wife
by singing every song he knew or recounting his adventures by land and sea till she smiled and took heart for all ended well the fourth day came and the supply of food and water was nearly gone
emil proposed to keep it for the sick man and the women but two of the men rebelled demanding their share emil gave up his as an example and several of the good fellows followed it
with the quiet heroism which so often crops up in rough but manly natures this shamed the others
but during the night
left the watch to the most trustworthy sailor that he might snatch an hour's rest these two men got at the stores and stole the last of the bread and water and the one bottle of brandy which was carefully hoarded to keep up their strength and make the brackish water drinkable
half mad with thirst they drank greedily and by morning one was in a stupor from which he never woke the other so crazed by the strong stimulant that when emil tried to control him he leaped overboard and was lost
horror stricken by this terrible scene the other men were submissive henceforth and the boat floated on and on with its sad freight of suffering souls and bodies
another trial came to them that left all more despairing than before a sail appeared and for a time a frenzy of joy prevailed to be turned to bitterest disappointment when it passed by
too far away to see the signals waved to them or hear the frantic cries for help that rang across the sea emil's heart sank then for the captain seemed dying and the women could not hold out much longer he kept up till night came
broken only by the feeble murmuring of the sick man the whispered prayers of the poor wife the ceaseless swash of waves emil hid his face and had an hour of silent agony that aged him more than years of happy life could have done
it was not the physical hardship that daunted him though want and weakness tortured him it was his dreadful powerlessness to conquer the cruel fate that seemed hanging over them the men he cared little for
since these perils were but a part of the life they chose but the master he loved the good woman who had been so kind to him the sweet girl whose winsome presence had made the long voyage so pleasant for them all
as he sat there with his head in his hands bowed down by the first great trial of his young life the starless sky overhead the restless sea beneath and all around him suffering for which he had no help
a soft sound broke the silence and he listened like one in a dream it was mary singing to her mother who lay sobbing in her arms spent with this long anguish a very faint and broken voice it was
but the loving heart turned instinctively to the great helper in this hour of despair and he heard her feeble cry it was a sweet old hymn often sung at plumfield and as he listened all the happy past came back so clearly
that emil forgot the bitter present and was at home again his talk on the housetop with aunt jo seemed but yesterday and with a pang of self reproach he thought the scarlet strand i must remember it
emil for a little while forgot his burden in a dream of plumfield he saw them all heard the familiar voices felt the grip of welcoming hands and seemed to say to himself well
a sudden shout startled him from that brief rest and a drop on his forehead told him that the blessed rain had come at last bringing salvation with it for thirst is harder to bear than hunger heat or cold welcomed by cries of joy
all lifted up their parched lips held out their hands and spread their garments to catch the great drops that soon came pouring down to cool the sick man's fever quench the agony of thirst and bring refreshment to every weary body in the boat
all night it fell all night the castaways revelled in the saving shower and took heart again like dying plants revived by heaven's dew the clouds broke away at dawn and emil sprung up
but this was not all as his eye swept the horizon clear against the rosy sky shone the white sails of a ship so near that they could see the pennon at her mast head and black figures moving on the deck
one cry broke from all those eager throats and rang across the sea as every man waved hat or handkerchief and the women stretched imploring hands towards this great white angel of deliverance coming down upon them
giving him his reward in tears and blessings as their grateful hearts overflowed he always said that was the proudest moment of his life as he stood there holding mary in his arms for the brave girl
who had kept up so long broke down then and clung to him half fainting while her mother busied herself about the invalid who seemed to feel the joyful stir and gave an order as if again on the deck of his lost ship
it was soon over and then all were safely aboard the good urania homeward bound emil saw his friends in tender hands his men among their mates
and told the story of the wreck before he thought of himself the savoury odour of the soup carried by to the cabin for the ladies reminded him that he was starving and a sudden stagger betrayed his weakness
he was instantly borne away to be half killed by kindness and being fed clothed and comforted was left to rest just as the surgeon left the state room he asked in his broken voice what day is this
my head is so confused i've lost my reckoning thanksgiving day man and we'll give you a regular new england dinner if you'll eat it answered the surgeon heartily but emil was too spent to do anything
he tore open his doublet as the thought of the plague flashed through his mind but no plague spot was to be seen and it was quite evident from the appearance of the face that he had not died of the distemper
yet the cold white face was convulsed as if he had died in throes of agony
the rapid and exciting events of the night had turned his head into a mental chaos
but he still had commonsense enough left to know that something must be done about this immediately
which establishments were generally open and filled
a pest cart came providentially along
and came to a halt another one he said
and glancing at the lifeless form with a very professional eye well i think there is room for another one in the cart so bear a hand friend and let us have him out of this
the driver looked at sir norman then stooped down and touched ormiston's
he stood up after a moment with some thing like a small laugh if he's alive he said turning to go then i never saw any one dead
stay exclaimed the young man i wish you to assist me in bringing him to yonder apothecary's shop
and you may have this for your pains this proved to be a talisman of alacrity for the man pocketed it and briskly laid hold of ormiston by the feet while sir norman wrapped his cloak reverently about him and took him by the shoulders
in this style his body was conveyed to the apothecary's shop which they found half full of applicants for medicine among whom their entrance with the corpse produced no greater sensation than a momentary stare
the attire and bearing of sir norman proving him to be something different from their usual class of visitors bringing one of the drowsy apprentices immediately to his side inquiring what were his orders a private room and your master's attendance directly was the authoritative reply
both were to be had the former a hole in the wall behind the shop the latter a pallid cadaverous looking person with the air of one who had been dead a week thought better of it and rose again there was a long table in the aforesaid hole in the wall
bearing a strong family likeness to a dissecting table upon which the stark figure was laid and the pest cart driver disappeared the apothecary held a mirror close to the face applied his ear to the pulse and heart
the man is dead sir was his criticism dead as a door nail
wouldn't kindle one spark of life in such ashes at least try try something bleeding for instance suggested sir norman again the apothecary examined the body and again he shook his head dolefully
the right arm was bared the lancet inserted one or two black drops sluggishly followed and nothing more it's all a waste of time you see remarked the apothecary wiping his dreadful little weapon
not by the plague i don't know said sir norman gloomily i wish you would tell me that can't do it sir my skill doesn't extend that far
so he must have died of some internal complaint probably disease of the heart never knew him to have such a thing said sir norman sighing it is very mysterious and very dreadful and notwithstanding all you have said i cannot believe him dead
can he not remain here until morning at least the starved apothecary looked at him out of a pair of hollow melancholy eyes gold can do anything was his plaintive reply
are you sure you can do nothing more for him nothing whatever sir
which he did accordingly and sir norman was left alone with all that remained of him who two hours before was his warm friend he could scarcely believe that it was the calm majesty of death that so changed the expression of that white face and yet the longer he looked the more deeply an inward conviction assured him that it was so
he chafed the chilling hands and face he applied hartshorn and burnt feathers to the nostrils but all these applications though excellent in their way could not exactly raise the dead to life and in this case proved a signal failure
love is stronger than friendship stronger than grief stronger than death stronger than every other feeling in the world
and the apothecary's shop and strode off to the place he had quitted
that the impulse which half an hour before would have been unhesitatingly obeyed went for nothing now
ah sir norman as i live cried the count wheeling round and lifting his hat
really said the count with some embarrassment you attack me so unexpectedly and so like a ghost or a highwayman by the way i have a word to say to you about highwaymen and was seeking you to say it
all in good time we have a listener and does it not strike you our conference should be private
with whom it was evident getting beyond this question was a moral and physical impossibility
as if he fancied in that case he was safe enough but sir norman luckily did not see it and heard only the suave reply certainly sir norman i shall be delighted to do so
let us stand over there in the shadow of that arch and george do you remain here within call the count blandly waved sir norman to follow which sir norman did with much the mein of a sulky lion
well cried the young knight impatiently i am waiting go on my dear kingsley responded the count in his easy way
i think you are laboring under a little mistake i have nothing to go on about it is you who are to begin the controversy do you dare to play with me exclaimed sir norman furiously
that is the fourth or fifth time that you've asked me that question said the count with provoking indifference
sir norman's feelings which had been rising ever since their meeting got up to such a height at this aggravating question
but the count's hand lightly interposed before it came out not yet sir norman be calm talk rationally
do you dare deny having carried her off deny it no
ah said sir norman grinding his teeth then you acknowledge it i acknowledge it yes what next the perfect composure of his tone fell like a cool damp towel on the fire of sir norman's wrath
it did not quite extinguish the flame however only quenched it a little and it still hissed hotly underneath and you dare to stand before me and acknowledge such an act exclaimed sir norman
verily yea said the count laughing i seldom take the trouble to deny my acts what next there is nothing next said sir norman severely until we have come to a proper understanding about this
are you aware sir that that lady is my promised bride no i do not know that i am on the contrary i have an idea she is mine she was you mean
not with a woman said sir norman with stern dogmatism it is their privilege to break their promise and change their mind sixty times an hour if they choose
softly my friend softly how was i to know all this you ought to have known it returned sir norman in the same dogmatical way or if you didn't you do now so say no more about it
where is she i tell you repeated the young man in a frenzy your patience one moment longer until we see which of us has the best right to the lady i have a prior claim a forced one leoline does not care a snap far you
and she loves me what extraordinary bad taste said the count thoughtfully did she tell you that yes she did tell me this and a great deal more come have done talking and tell me where she is or i'll
oh no you wouldn't said the count teasingly since matters stand in this light i'll tell you what i'll do
viewing her as my promised bride and have sent her to my own home in the care of a trusty messenger where i give you my word of honor i have not been since
the count paused and meditated this proposal was all very plausible and nice on the surface
in the very best way in the world we will not part company until morning comes
until then we will have to be i suppose replied sir norman rather ungraciously taking the hand as if it were red hot and dropping it again
there is a little excursion which i would like you to accompany me on
where to to the ruin
never mind i have heard it would you object to a third excursion there before morning
and nothing was to be gained by killing the count beyond the mere transitory pleasure of the thing
then again there was hubert well inquired the count as sir norman looked up i have no objection to go with you to the ruin was the reply only this if we are seen there we will be dead men two minutes after
all that is required being your promise to guide us thither do you give it i do
if you mean me by that i am here said a voice at his elbow
and hubert affecting not to notice the survey watched sir norman well was that individual's eager address were you successful
the count was still watching the boy so intently that that most discreet youth was suddenly seized with a violent fit of coughing which precluded all possibility of reply for at least five minutes and sir norman at the same moment felt his arm receive a sharp and warning pinch
sir norman still under the influence of the pinch replied by an inaudible murmur
permit us to leave you for a moment there is no need to do so
now cried sir norman eagerly what news
the count no yes he said she was at his house
and at present perfectly safe and did you see her of course and heard her too
that i do not clearly see we will have to bring a ladder and there will be so much danger and so little chance of success that to me it seems an almost hopeless task where did you meet count l'estrange
and hereupon sir norman briefly and quickly rehearsed the substance of their conversation
well i do not see that you can do otherwise sir norman and i think it would be wise to obey the count for to night at least then to morrow if things do not go on well we can take the law in our own hands
not until to morrow you shall know him then to morrow to morrow exclaimed sir norman disconsolately everything is postponed until to morrow oh here comes the count back again are we going to start now i wonder
chapter twenty the sacrament of confirmation confirmation is a sacrament in which through the imposition of the bishop's hands unction and prayer baptized persons receive the holy ghost
that they may steadfastly profess their faith and lead upright lives this sacrament is called confirmation because it confirms or strengthens the soul by divine grace
sometimes it is named the laying on of hands because the bishop imposes his hands on those whom he confirms it is also known by the name of chrism because the forehead of the person confirmed
is anointed with chrism in the form of a cross frequent mention is made of this sacrament in the holy scripture in the acts it is written
they sent unto them peter and john
when they were come prayed for them that they might receive the holy ghost for he was not yet come upon any of them
as an earnest of future glory
but god who worketh all in all sanctifies the soul by his secret operation it cannot be asserted that the laying on of hands and the graces which followed from it as recorded in the acts were not intended to be continued after the apostles times
for there is no warrant for such an assumption this function of imposing hands formed as regular and imperative a part of the apostolic ministry as the duties which they exercised in preaching baptizing ordaining et cetera
hence the successors of the apostles in the nineteenth century have precisely the same authority and obligation to confirm as they have to preach to baptize or to ordain those who were confirmed by the apostles
usually gave evidence of the grace which they received by prophecy the gift of tongues and the manifestation of other miraculous powers it may be asked why do not these gifts accompany now the imposition of hands i answer
the grace which the apostolic disciples received was for their personal sanctification the gift of tongues which they exercised was intended by almighty god to edify and enlighten the spectators
and to give divine sanction to the apostolic ministry but now that the church is firmly established and the divine authority of her ministry is clearly recognized these miracles are no longer necessary
saint gregory illustrates this point by a happy comparison as the sapling he says when it is first planted is regularly watered by the gardener who softens the earth around it that the sun and the moisture
may nourish its roots until it takes deep root and it no longer requires any special care so the church in her infancy had to be nourished by the miraculous power of god
but after it had taken root in the hearts of the people and spread its branches over the earth it was left to the ordinary agencies of providence saint augustine writes also on the same subject in the first days of the church
the holy ghost came down on believers and they spoke in tongues which they had not learned these were miracles suited to the times is it now expected that they upon whom hands are laid should speak with tongues
and proclaiming its salutary effects the flesh says tertullian is anointed that the soul may be consecrated the flesh is marked
that was done by peter and john that prayer being made for them and hands imposed the holy ghost should be invoked and poured forth upon them which now also is done amongst us
so that they who are baptized in the church are presented to the bishops of the church and by our prayer and imposition of hands
compares the sacred chrism in confirmation to the eucharist you were anointed with oil being made sharers and partners of christ and see well that you regard it not as mere ointment for as the bread of the eucharist
after the invocation of the holy ghost is no longer mere bread but the body of christ so likewise this holy ointment is no longer common ointment after the invocation but the gift of christ and of the holy ghost
being rendered efficient by his divinity you were anointed on the forehead that you might be delivered from the shame which the first transgressor always experienced and that you might contemplate the glory of god with an unveiled countenance
as christ after his baptism and the descent of the holy ghost upon him
so you likewise after holy baptism and the mysterious unction clothed with the panoply of the holy ghost
remember he says that you have received the spiritual seal the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and fortitude the spirit of knowledge and piety
now some of these churches have been separated from the catholic church since the fourth and fifth centuries this fact is an eloquent vindication of the apostolic antiquity of confirmation
and is an ample refutation of those who would ascribe to it a more recent origin protestantism which made such havoc of the other sacraments did not fail to abolish confirmation in its sweeping revolution the episcopal church retains indeed
the name of confirmation in its ritual and even borrows a portion of our prayers and ceremonial but in opposition to the uniform teaching of the catholic as well as of all the oriental churches both orthodox and schismatic
it declares confirmation to be a mere rite and not a sacrament in violation of the practice of all antiquity it mutilates the rite by omitting the sacred unction it retains the shadow without the substance
it raises indeed its hands over the candidates but they are not the anointed hands of peter or john or cyprian or augustine to whom it is said whatsoever thou shalt bless let it be blessed
indeed if you wish to see the most beautiful spots of any oriental city ask for the cemeteries the homes of the dead are ever the loveliest places
which contains quite a little town of neat clean looking houses together with thirty four temples for the use of the priests and attendants of the shrines the main temple with its huge red pillars supporting a heavy chinese roof of grey tiles
is approached through a colossal open hall which leads into a stone courtyard at one end of this courtyard is a broad flight of steps the three or four lower ones of stone and the upper ones of red wood
at these the visitor is warned by a notice to take off his boots a request which englishmen with characteristic disregard of the feelings of others usually neglect to comply with the main hall of the temple is of large proportions
and the high altar is decorated with fine bronze candelabra incense burners and other ornaments and on two days of the year a very curious collection of pictures representing the five hundred gods whose images are known to all persons who have visited canton
is hung along the walls the big bell outside the main hall is rather remarkable on account of the great beauty of the deep bass waves of sound which it rolls through the city than on account of its size
for it is ten feet high and five feet eight inches in diameter while its metal is a foot thick it was hung up in the year sixteen seventy three but the chief objects of interest in these beautiful grounds are the chapels attached to the tombs of the shoguns
an ancient temple which then stood at hibiya near the castle went forth and waited before the gate to do homage to the prince
seeing that the abbot was no ordinary man stopped and asked his name and entered the temple to rest himself the smooth spoken monk soon found such favour with iyeyasu
and seeing that its grounds were narrow and inconveniently near the castle he caused it to be removed to its present site in the year sixteen ten the temple was raised
to the dignity of the imperial temples which until the last revolution were presided over by princes of the blood and to the abbot was granted the right on going to the castle of sitting in his litter as far as the entrance hall
instead of dismounting at the usual place and proceeding on foot through several gates and courtyards nor were the privileges of the temple confined to barren honours
when iyeyasu died the shrine called antoku in was erected in his honour to the south of the main temple here on the seventeenth day of the fourth month the anniversary of his death ceremonies are held in honour of his spirit
deified as gongen sama
but iyeyasu is not buried here
charming delicious grand beautiful
the son and successor of iyeyasu
the sixth seventh ninth twelfth and fourteenth shoguns of the tokugawa dynasty are buried in three shrines attached to the temple the remainder
who lies with his grandfather at nikko
lying on one side of a splendid avenue of scotch firs which border a broad well kept gravel walk passing through a small gateway of rare design
lined with a long array of colossal stone lanterns the gift of the vassals of the departed prince a second gateway
a great cistern cut out of a single block of stone like a sarcophagus and a smaller number of lanterns of bronze these are given by the go san ke the three princely families in which the succession to the office of shogun was vested
inside this is a third court partly covered like a cloister the approach to which is a doorway of even greater beauty and richness than the last the ceiling is gilt and painted with arabesques and with heavenly angels playing on musical instruments
and the panels of the walls are sculptured in high relief with admirable representations of birds and flowers life size life like all being coloured to imitate nature inside this enclosure stands a shrine before the closed door of which a priest on one side
and a retainer of the house of tokugawa on the other sit mounting guard mute and immovable as though they themselves were part of the carved ornaments passing on one side of the shrine we come to another court plainer than the last
at the top of which protected by a bronze door stands a simple monumental urn of bronze on a stone pedestal under this is the grave itself and it has always struck me that there is no small amount of poetical feeling in this simple ending to so much magnificence
the sermon may have been preached by design or it may have been by accident but the lesson is there there is little difference between the three shrines all of which are decorated in the same manner it is very difficult to do justice to their beauty in words
writing many thousand miles away from them i have the memory before me of a place green in winter pleasant and cool in the hottest summer of peaceful cloisters of the fragrance of incense of the subdued chant of richly robed priests
and the music of bells of exquisite designs harmonious colouring rich gilding
in the mountains of nikko has no quieter resting place than his descendants in the heart of the city over which they ruled besides the graves of the shoguns zojoji contains other lesser shrines in which are buried the wives of the second sixth and eleventh shoguns
the sixth shogun who succeeded to the office by adoption there is also a holy place called the satsuma temple
and who died young at his death five of his retainers with one ogasasawara kemmotsu at their head
that they might follow their young master into the next world they were buried in this place and i believe that this is the last instance on record of the ancient japanese custom of junshi that is to say dying with the master there are during the year
several great festivals which are specially celebrated at zojoji the chief of these are the kaisanki or founder's day which is on the eighteenth day of the seventh month the twenty fifth day of the first month the anniversary of the death of the monk honen
the founder of the jodo sect of buddhism that to which the temple belongs
on the fifteenth of the second month the birthday of buddha on the eighth day of the fourth month and from the sixth to the fifteenth of the tenth month at uyeno is the second of the burial grounds of the shoguns
it faces the ki mon or devil's gate
one of the most famous of the holy places of kiyoto having founded the temple
the second son of the retired emperor should come and reside there and from that time until eighteen sixty eight the temple was always presided over by a miya or
and whose position was that of an ecclesiastical chief or primate over the east of japan the temples in yedo are not to be compared in point of beauty with those in and about peking what is marble there is wood here still they are very handsome
alas the main temple the hall in honour of the sect to which it belongs the hall of services the bell tower the entrance hall and the residence of the prince of the blood
when the shogun's men made their last stand in yedo against the troops of the mikado the fate of the day was decided by two field pieces
and the shogun's men driven out of the place
a few of the lesser temples and tombs and the beautiful park like grounds
among these is a temple in the form of a roofless stage in honour of the thousand handed kwannon
went and prayed for a thousand days at the temple of the thousand handed kwannon at kiyomidzu in kiyoto his retreat having been discovered he was seized and brought bound to kamakura the chief town of the house of gen here
he was condemned to die at a place called yui by the sea shore but every time that the executioner lifted his sword to strike the blade was broken by the god kwannon
was warned in a dream to spare morihisa's life so morihisa was reprieved and rose to power in the state
who takes such good care of his faithful votaries to him this temple is dedicated a colossal bronze buddha twenty two feet high
and a stone lantern twenty feet high and twelve feet round at the top are greatly admired by the japanese there are only three such lanterns in the empire the other two being at nanzenji a temple in kiyoto
exit tyrannus the eventful day had arrived at last the day which when first named had seemed like all golden dates that promise anything definite so immeasurably remote
when it was first announced a fortnight before that miss smedley was really going the resultant ecstasies had occupied a full week during which we blindly revelled in the contemplation and discussion of her past tyrannies crimes malignities
in recalling to each other this or that insult dishonour or physical assault sullenly endured at a time when deliverance was not even a small star on the horizon
with special new troubles of their own no doubt since this is but a work a day world but at least free from one familiar scourge the time that remained had been taken up by the planning of practical expressions of the popular sentiment
under edward's masterly direction arrangements had been made for a flag to be run up over the hen house at the very moment when the fly with miss smedley's boxes on top and the grim oppressor herself inside began to move off down the drive
three brass cannons set on the brow of the sunk fence were to proclaim our deathless sentiments in the ears of the retreating foe the dogs were to wear ribbons and later but this depended on our powers of evasiveness and dissimulation there might be a small bonfire
with a cracker or two if the public funds could bear the unwonted strain i was awakened by harold digging me in the ribs and she's going to day was the morning hymn that scattered the clouds of sleep strange to say
it was with no corresponding jubilation of spirits that i slowly realised the momentous fact indeed as i dressed a dull disagreeable feeling that i could not define grew within me something like a physical bruise harold was evidently feeling it too
for after repeating she's going to day in a tone more befitting the litany he looked hard in my face for direction as to how the situation was to be taken but i crossly bade him look sharp and say his prayers and not bother me
what could this gloom portend that on a day of days like the present seemed to hang my heavens with black down at last and out in the sun we found edward before us swinging on a gate and chanting a farm yard ditty in which all the beasts appear in due order
jargoning in their several tongues and every verse begins with the couplet now my lads come with me out in the morning early the fateful exodus of the day had evidently slipped his memory entirely i touched him on the shoulder she's going to day i said
edward's carol subsided like a water tap turned off so she is he replied and got down at once off the gate
at breakfast miss smedley behaved in a most mean and uncalled for manner the right divine of governesses to govern wrong includes no right to cry in thus usurping the prerogative of their victims they ignore the rules of the ring and hit below the belt
charlotte was crying of course but that counted for nothing charlotte even cried when the pigs noses were ringed in due season thereby evoking the cheery contempt of the operators who asserted they liked it and doubtless knew
but when the cloud compeller her bolts laid aside resorted to tears mutinous humanity had a right to feel aggrieved
what would the romans have done supposing hannibal had cried history has not even considered the possibility rules and precedents should be strictly observed on both sides when they are violated the other party is justified in feeling injured
there were no lessons that morning naturally another grievance the fitness of things required that we should have struggled to the last in a confused medley of moods and tenses and parted for ever flushed with hatred
over the dismembered corpse of the multiplication table but this thing was not to be and i was free to stroll by myself through the garden and combat as best i might this growing feeling of depression it was a wrong system altogether i thought
this going of people one had got used to things ought always to continue as they had been change there must be of course pigs for instance came and went with disturbing frequency fired their ringing shot and passed hotly charged and sank at last
but nature had ordered it so and in requital had provided for rapid successors
but now when it was no question of a peerless pig but only of a governess nature seemed helpless and the future held no litter of oblivion things might be better or they might be worse but they would never be the same
and the innate conservatism of youth asks neither poverty nor riches but only immunity from change edward slouched up alongside of me presently with a hang dog look on him as if he had been caught stealing jam what a lark it'll be when she's really gone
he observed with a swagger obviously assumed grand fun i replied dolorously and conversation flagged
shall you run it up i asked when the fly starts or or wait a little till it's out of sight edward gazed around him dubiously we're going to have some rain i think he said and and it's a new flag
it would be a pity to spoil it p'raps i won't run it up at all harold came round the corner like a bison pursued by indians i've polished up the cannons he cried and they look grand mayn't i load em now you leave em alone
said edward severely or you'll be blowing yourself up consideration for others was not usually edward's strong point don't touch the gunpowder till you're told or you'll get your head smacked harold fell behind limp squashed obedient she wants me to write to her
he began presently says she doesn't mind the spelling it i'll only write fancy her saying that oh shut up will you said edward savagely and once more we were silent with only our thoughts for sorry company let's go off to the copse
i suggested timidly feeling that something had to be done to relieve the tension and cut more new bows and arrows she gave me a knife my last birthday said edward moodily never budging it wasn't much of a knife but i wish i hadn't lost it
i said she sat up half the night rubbing stuff on them i forgot all about that till this morning there's the fly cried harold suddenly i can hear it scrunching on the gravel
the fly and its contents had finally disappeared through the gate the rumble of its wheels had died away
from out the frosted cake of our existence fate had cut an irreplaceable segment turn which way we would the void was present we sneaked off in different directions mutually undesirous of company
and it seemed borne in upon me that i ought to go and dig my garden right over from end to end it didn't actually want digging on the other hand no amount of digging could affect it for good or for evil so i worked steadily strenuously under the hot sun stifling thought in action
at the end of an hour or so i was joined by edward i've been chopping up wood he explained in a guilty sort of way though nobody had called on him to account for his doings what for i inquired stupidly there's piles and piles of it chopped up already
a falling out harold told me the main facts of this episode some time later in bits and with reluctance it was not a recollection he cared to talk about the crude blank misery of a moment
is apt to leave a dull bruise which is slow to depart if it ever does so entirely and harold confesses to a twinge or two still at times like the veteran who brings home a bullet inside him from martial plains over sea
he knew he was a brute the moment he had done it selina had not meant to worry only to comfort and assist but his soul was one raw sore within him
when he found himself shut up in the schoolroom after hours merely for insisting that seven times seven amounted to forty seven the injustice of it seemed so flagrant why not forty seven as much as forty nine one number was no prettier than the other to look at
and it was evidently only a matter of arbitrary taste and preference and anyhow it had always been forty seven to him and would be to the end of time so when selina came in out of the sun leaving the trappers or the far west behind her
and putting off the glory of being an apache squaw in order to hear him his tables and win his release harold turned on her venomously rejected her kindly overtures
the fit passed directly his eyes were opened and his soul sat in the dust as he sorrowfully began to cast about for some atonement heroic enough to salve the wrong of course poor selina looked for no sacrifice nor heroics whatever
she didn't even want him to say he was sorry if he would only make it up she would have done the apologising part herself but that was not a boy's way something solid harold felt was due from him and until that was achieved
making up must not be thought of in order that the final effect might not be spoilt accordingly when his release came and poor selina hung about trying to catch his eye harold possessed by the demon of a distorted motive avoided her steadily
though he was bleeding inwardly at every minute of delay and came to me instead needless to say i approved his plan highly it was so much more high toned than just going and making up tamely which any one could do
and a girl who had been jobbed in the ribs by a hostile elbow could not be expected for a moment to overlook it without the liniment of an offering to soothe her injured feelings i know what she wants most said harold she wants that set of tea things in the toy shop window
with the red and blue flowers on em she's wanted it for months cos her dolls are getting big enough to have real afternoon tea and she wants it so badly that she won't walk that side of the street when we go into the town but it costs five shillings
then we set to work seriously and devoted the afternoon to a realisation of assets and the composition of a budget that might have been dated without shame from whitehall
turned up at last in the straw of the dog kennel
two six by advance from me on security of next uncle and failing that to be called in at christmas
by shaken out of missionary box with the help of a knife blade
by bet due from edward for walking across the field where farmer larkin's bull was and edward bet him twopence he wouldn't
by advance from martha on no security at all only you mustn't tell your aunt
and at last we breathed again the rest promised to be easy selina had a tea party at five on the morrow with the chipped old wooden tea things that had served her successive dolls from babyhood harold would slip off directly after dinner
going alone so as not to arouse suspicion as we were not allowed to go into the town by ourselves it was nearly two miles to our small metropolis but there would be plenty of time for him to go and return even laden with the olive branch neatly packed in shavings
besides he might meet the butcher who was his friend and would give him a lift then finally at five the rapture of the new tea service descended from the skies and retribution made making up at last without loss of dignity
with the event before us we thought it a small thing that twenty four hours more of alienation and pretended sulks must be kept up on harold's part but selina who naturally knew nothing of the treat in store for her moped for the rest of the evening and took a very heavy heart to bed
when next day the hour for action arrived harold evaded olympian attention with an easy modesty born of long practice and made off for the front gate selina who had been keeping her eye upon him thought he was going down to the pond to catch frogs
a joy they had planned to share together and made after him but harold though he heard her footsteps continued sternly on his high mission without even looking back and selina was left to wander disconsolately among flower beds
all scent and colour i saw it all and although cold reason approved our line of action instinct told me we were brutes harold reached the town so he recounted afterwards in record time
having run most of the way for fear the tea things which had reposed six months in the window should be snapped up by some other conscience stricken lacerator of a sister's feelings and it seemed hardly credible to find them still there and their owner willing to part with them for the price marked on the ticket
he paid his money down at once that there should be no drawing back from the bargain and then as the things had to be taken out of the window and packed and the afternoon was yet young he thought he might treat himself to a taste of urban joys
shops came first of course
and the clock work locomotive and against the barber's window with wigs on blocks reminding him of uncles and shaving cream that looked so good to eat and the grocer's window displaying more currants than the whole british population could possibly consume without a special effort
and the window of the bank wherein gold was thought so little of that it was dealt about in shovels next there was the market place with all its clamorous joys and when a runaway calf came down the street like a cannon ball harold felt that he had not lived in vain
the whole place was so brimful of excitement that he had quite forgotten the why and the wherefore of his being there when a sight of the church clock recalled him to his better self and sent him flying out of the town as he realised he had only just time enough left to get back in
if he were after his appointed hour he would not only miss his high triumph but probably would be detected as a transgressor of bounds a crime before which a private opinion on multiplication sank to nothingness so he jogged along on his homeward way
thinking of many things and probably talking to himself a good deal as his habit was and had covered nearly half the distance when suddenly a deadly sinking in the pit of his stomach a paralysis of every limb around him a world extinct of light and music
a black sun and a reeling sky he had forgotten the tea things it was useless it was hopeless all was over and nothing could now be done nevertheless he turned and ran back wildly blindly
choking with the big sobs that evoked neither pity nor comfort from a merciless mocking world around a stitch in his side dust in his eyes and black despair clutching at his heart so he stumbled on with leaden legs and bursting sides till
as if fate had not yet dealt him her last worst buffet on turning a corner in the road he almost ran under the wheels of a dog cart in which as it pulled up was apparent the portly form of farmer larkin the arch enemy whose ducks he had been shying stones at that very morning
had harold been in his right and unclouded senses he would have vanished through the hedge some seconds earlier rather than pain the farmer by any unpleasant reminiscences which his appearance might call up but as things were he could only stand and blubber hopelessly
caring indeed little now what further ill might befall him the farmer for his part surveyed the desolate figure with some astonishment calling out in no unfriendly accents why master harold whatever be the matter
baint runnin away be ee then harold with the unnatural courage born of desperation flung himself on the step and climbing into the cart fell in the straw at the bottom of it sobbing out that he wanted to go back go back
the situation had a vagueness but the farmer a man of action rather than words swung his horse round smartly and they were in the town again by the time harold had recovered himself sufficiently to furnish some details as they drove up to the shop
the woman was waiting at the door with the parcel and hardly a minute seemed to have elapsed since the black crisis ere they were bowling along swiftly home the precious parcel hugged in a close embrace and now the farmer came out in quite a new and unexpected light
never a word did he say of broken fences and hurdles of trampled crops and harried flocks and herds one would have thought the man had never possessed a head of live stock in his life instead he was deeply interested in the whole dolorous quest of the tea things
and sympathised with harold on the disputed point in mathematics as if he had been himself at the same stage of education as they neared home harold found himself to his surprise sitting up and chatting to his new friend like man to man
and before he was dropped at a convenient gap in the garden hedge he had promised that when selina gave her first public tea party little miss larkin should be invited to come and bring ha whole sawdust family along with her
and the farmer appeared as pleased and proud as if he hat been asked to a garden party at marlborough house really those olympians have certain good points far down in them i shall have to leave off abusing them some day at the hour of five selina
having spent the afternoon searching for harold in all his accustomed haunts sat down disconsolately to tea with her dolls who ungenerously refused to wait beyond the appointed hour the wooden tea things seemed more chipped than usual
and the dolls themselves had more of wax and sawdust and less of human colour and intelligence about them than she ever remembered before
i had but a knife and a pipe it now grew dark
i thought the top of some high tree would be a good place to keep me out of harm's way and that there i might sit and think of death for as yet i had no hopes of life
then i cut a stick to keep off the beasts of prey in case they should come and fell to sleep just as if the branch i lay on had been a bed of down when i woke up it was broad day
the sky too was clear and the sea calm
and lay but a mile from me while the boat was on the beach two miles on my right i went some way down by the shore to get to the boat
so that i could get near the ship and here i found
we should all have been safe
yet as there was no use in that it struck me that the best thing for me to do was to swim to the ship i soon threw off my clothes took to the sea and swam up to the wreck
but how was i to get on deck i had swam twice round the ship when a piece of rope caught my eye
that at first the waves hid it by the help of this rope i got on board i found that there was a bulge in the ship and that she had sprung a leak
you may be sure that my first thought was to look round for some food and i soon made my way to the bin where the bread was kept and ate some of it as i went to and fro for there was no time to lose
there was too some rum of which i took a good draught and this gave me heart what i stood most in need of was a boat to take the goods to shore
and as there were some spare yards in the ship two or three large planks of wood and a spare mast or two i fell to work with these to make a raft i put four spars side by side
and laid short bits of plank on them cross ways to make my raft strong though these planks would bear my own weight they were too slight to bear much of my freight so
which was on board and cut a mast in three lengths and these gave great strength to the raft i found some bread and rice a dutch cheese and some dry goat's flesh there had been some wheat
but the rats had got at it and it was all gone my next task was to screen my goods from the spray of the sea
and these i put on the raft when the high tide came up it took off my coat and shirt which i had left on the shore but there were some fresh clothes in the ship
see here is a prize said i out loud
now i shall not starve for i found four large guns but how was my raft to be got to land i had no sail no oars
and a gust of wind would make all my store slide off
a calm sea a tide which set in to the shore and a slight breeze to blow me there i had the good luck to find some oars in a part of the ship in which i had made no search till now
but soon i found it drove to one side at length i saw a creek to which with some toil i took my raft and now the beach was so near that i felt my oar touch the ground
here i had well nigh lost my freight for the shore lay on a slope so that there was no place to land on save where one end of the raft would lie so high and one end so low
that all my goods would fall off to wait till the tide came up was all that could be done so when the sea was a foot deep i thrust the raft
and stuck my two oars in the sand one on each side of the raft thus i let her lie till the ebb of the tide and when it went down she was left safe on land with all her freight
i saw that there were birds on the isle and i shot one of them mine must have been the first gun that had been heard there since the world was made for at the sound of it
whole flocks of birds flew up with loud cries from all parts of the wood
and this took up the rest of the day what to do at night i knew not
for fear of beasts of prey as well as snakes but there was no cause for these fears as i have since found i put the chests and boards round me as well as i could
and made a kind of hut for the night as there was still a great store of things left in the ship which would be of use to me
for i knew that the first storm would break up the ship
and took good care this time not to load my raft too much the first thing i sought for was the tool chest and in it were some bags of nails spikes saws
and a roll of lead but this last i had not the strength to hoist up to the ship's side so as to get it on my raft there were some spare sails too which i brought to shore
which sat on one of the chests when i came up i held my gun at her but as she did not know
now that i had two freights of goods at hand i made a tent with the ship's sails to stow them in and cut the poles for it from the wood
and put the casks in piles round the tent
spread one of the beds which i had brought from the ship on the ground laid two guns close to my head and went to bed for the first time i slept all night for i was much in need of rest
the next day i was sad and sick at heart
but there was too much to be done for me to dwell long on my sad lot
and i brought back as much as the raft would hold one day i had put too great a load on the raft which made it sink down on one side so that the goods were lost in the sea
were spent in this way and i had brought to land all that one pair of hands could lift though if the sea had been still calm i might have brought the whole ship piece by piece the last time
i swam to the wreck the wind blew so hard that i made up my mind to go on board next time at low tide i found some tea and some gold coin but as to the gold it made me laugh to look at it
o drug said i thou art of no use to me
till the ship go down then go thou with it
so i put it in a piece of the sail
so i had to swim back with all speed for i knew that at the turn of the tide i should find it hard work to get to land at all but in spite of the high wind i came to my home all safe
at dawn of day i put my head out and cast my eyes on the sea when lo no ship was there
i had now to look out for some spot where i could make my home half way up a hill there was a small plain four or five score feet long and twice as broad and
as it had a full view of the sea i thought that it would be a good place for my house i first dug a trench round a space which took in twelve yards and in this i drove
two rows of stakes till they stood firm like piles five and a half feet from the ground i made the stakes close and tight with bits of rope
and put small sticks on the top of them in the shape of spikes this made so strong a fence that no man or beast could get in the door of my house was on the top and i had to climb up to it by steps
which i took in with me so that no one else might come up by the same way close to the back of the house stood a high rock in which i made a cave
round my house to the height of a foot and a half i had to go out once a day in search of food
to let me get near them at last i lay in wait for them close to their own haunts
but if they were in the vale and i on high ground they took no heed of me the first goat i shot had a kid by her side and when the old one fell
the kid stood near her till i took her off on my back and then the young one ran by my side
why should not i go and you stay in the boat at this xury said if wild mans come they eat me you go way
well said i
they shall not eat you or me
and came back with a hare that he had shot which we were glad to cook and eat
and had seen no wild men i made a guess
for i saw the top of the great peak which i knew was near them my one hope was that if i kept near the coast i should find some ship that would take us on board and then and not till then
should i feel a free man
that i must meet with some ship or die
who stood to look at us they were black and wore no clothes
who knew best said not you go not you go so i brought the boat as near the land as i could that i might talk to them and they kept up with me a long way
i made signs that they should bring me some food and they on their part made signs for me to stop my boat so i let down the top of my sail and lay by
and in less than half an hour they came back with some dry meat and a sort of corn which is grown in this part of the world
nor did they dare to come to us at last they took a safe way for us all for they brought the food to the shore where they set it down
but as good luck would have it we were at hand to take a great prize for them for two wild beasts of the same kind as the first i spoke of came in full chase from the hills down to the sea
one of these beasts came near our boat so i lay in wait for him with my gun and as soon as the brute was in range i shot him through the head twice he sank down in the sea and twice he came up
and then just swam to the land where he fell down dead the men were in as much fear at the sound of my gun as they had been at the sight of the beasts but when i made signs for them to come to the shore
they took heart and came they at once made for their prize and by the help of a rope which they slung round him they brought him safe on the beach
the land in front of us ran out four or five miles like a bill and we had to keep some way from the coast to make this point so that we lost sight of the shore
when all at once i heard the lad cry out a ship with a sail a ship with a sail
but i knew well from the look of her that she was not one of the turk's i made all the sail i could to come in the ship's way
in the hope that if those on deck could not hear the sound they might see the smoke this they did see and then let down their sails so that we might come up to them
the men spoke to us in french
at last a scot on board said in my own tongue who are you whence do you come i told him in a few words how i had got free from the moors then the man who had charge of the ship bade me come on board
i told him that he might take all i had but he said
for i have but done for you what you would have done for me had i been in the same plight
but i told him that as it was by the boy's help that i had got free
he said it was just and right in me to feel thus but at the same time if i could make up my mind to part with him he should be set free in two years time so
and was now a free man i had made a good sum by all my store
at length i met with a man whose case was much the same as my own and we both took some land to farm my stock like his was low but we made our farms serve to keep us in food
though not more than that
round me and to add to my grief the kind friend who had brought me here in his ship now meant to leave these shores on my first start to sea when a boy
i had put a small sum in the hands of an aunt and this my friend said i should do well to spend on my farm so when he got home he sent some of it in cash
and such like goods my aunt had put a few pounds in my friend's hands as a gift to him
and with this sum he was so kind as to buy me a slave in the mean time i had bought a slave so now i had two
one day some men came to ask me to take charge of a slave ship to be sent out by them they said they would give me a share in the slaves and pay the cost of the stock
this would have been a good thing for me if i had not had farms and land
for i had made a large sum
well i told these men that i would go with all my heart if they would look to my farm in the mean time which they said they would do so
she had six guns twelve men and a boy we took with us saws chains toys beads bits of glass
we knew not where all at once there was a cry of
and the ship struck on a bank of sand in which she sank so deep that we could not get her off
there had been a boat at her stern but we found it had been torn off by the force of the waves one small boat was still left on the ship's side so
the heart of each now grew faint our cheeks were pale and our eyes were dim for there was but one hope and that was to find some bay and so get in the lee of the land
we now gave up our whole souls to god the sea grew more and more rough and its white foam would curl and boil
burst on the boat's side
at length one large wave took me to the shore and left me high and dry though half dead with fear
but just then the curve of a huge wave rose up as high as a hill and this i had no strength to keep from so it took me back to the sea
i did my best to float on the top and held my breath to do so the next wave was quite as high and shut me up in its bulk i held my hands down tight to my side
and then my head shot out at the top of the waves this gave me heart and breath too and soon my feet felt the ground i stood quite still for a short time to let the sea run back from me
and then i set off with all my might to the shore
and twice more land me on the shore i thought the last wave would have been the death of me
and with such force as to leave me in a kind of swoon which thank god did not last long
to my great joy i got up to the cliffs close to the shore where i found some grass out of the reach of the sea there i sat down safe on land at last
i could but cry out in the words of the psalm they that go down to the sea in ships these men see the works of the lord in the deep for at his word the storms rise
then do they mount to the sky and from thence go down to the deep my soul faints i reel to and fro and am at my wit's end
then the lord brings me out of all my fears
now lift up my hands now fold them on my breast and thank god for all that he had done for me when the rest of the men were lost
and i was safe i now cast my eyes round me
like a bird in a storm then all the glee i felt at first left me
i came on these shores on the eighth day of june in the year sixteen fifty nine on the side of this post i made a notch each day as it came and this i kept up till the last
you may guess how fond i was of them for they were all the friends left to me i brought the dog and two cats from the ship the dog would fetch things for me at all times and by his bark
his whine his growl and his tricks he would all but talk to me
or to find fault with me what a treat it would have been now that i had brought ink from the ship i wrote down a sketch of each day as it came not so much to leave to those who might read it
when i was dead and gone as to get rid of my own thoughts and draw me from the fears which all day long dwelt on my mind
no one to make me think it was dull to roam day by day from the wood to the shore
so much for the sad view of my case but like most things it had a bright side as well as a dark one for here was i safe on land
while all the rest of the ship's crew were lost
god who shapes our ways and led me by the hand then can save me from this state now
true i am cast on a rough and rude part of the globe but there are no beasts of prey on it to kill or hurt me
and i soon gave up all dull thoughts
as look out for a sail my goods from the wreck had been in the cave for more than ten months and it was time now to put them right as they took up all the space and left me no room to turn in
so i made my small cave a large one and dug it out a long way back in the sand rock then i brought the mouth of it up to the fence and so made a back way to my house
this done i put shelves on each side to hold my goods which made my cave look like a shop full of stores to make these shelves i cut down a tree and with the help of a saw an axe a plane
and some more tools i made boards a chair and a desk to write on came next i rose in good time and set to work till noon then i ate my meal
and to work once more till the sun had set and then to bed
but i had made it far too large for in course of time the earth fell in from the roof
had i been in it when this took place i should have lost my life i had now to set up posts in my cave with planks on the top of them so as to make a roof of wood
the skin of which made me a cap
i had to go to bed at dusk till i made a lamp of goat's fat which i put in a clay dish and this
as i had found a use for the bag which had held the fowl's food on board ship i shook out from it the husks of corn this was just at the time when the great rains fell
and in the course of a month blades of rice corn and rye sprang up as time went by and the grain was ripe i kept it and took care to sow it each year
a thing now took place on the isle which no one could have dreamt of and which struck me down with fear it was this the ground shook with great force
once more there was a shock and now the earth fell from the roof of my cave
for the shocks were just as strong there as on land
and there was a noise and a roar all around me
and when it had gone off i sat quite still on the ground for i knew not what to do
trees were torn up by the roots
and a great part of the isle was laid waste with the storm i thought that the world had come to an end in three hours time all was calm
but rain fell all that night and a great part of the next day now though quite worn out i had to move my goods which were in the cave to some safe place
i knew that tools would be my first want and that i should have to grind mine on the stone
so i made a wheel by which i could move it with my foot this was no small task but i took great pains with it and at length it was done
the rain fell for some days and a cold chill came on me in short i was ill i had pains in my head and could get no sleep at night
at one time i shook with cold and then a hot fit came on
which would last six hours at a time ill as i was i had to go out with my gun to get food i shot a goat but it was a great toil to bring it home and still more to cook it
i spent the next day in bed and felt half dead from thirst yet too weak to stand up to get some drink i lay and wept like a child lord look on me
lord look on me would i cry for hours at last the fit left me and i slept
i dreamt that i lay on the ground and saw a man come down from a great black cloud in a flame of light when he stood on the earth it shook as it had done a few days since
he came up and said as i see
now thou shalt die then i woke and found it was a dream weak and faint i was in dread all day lest my fit should come on
too ill to get out with my gun i sat on the shore to think
there can be no doubt that the hand that made it made the air the earth the sky and who is that it is god
it must be he who guides them and if so
and he not know it then god must know how sick and sad i am and he wills me to be here o why hath god done this to me then some voice would seem to say
dost thou ask why god hath done this to thee ask why thou wert not shot by the moors who came on board the ship and took the lives of thy mates
ask why thou wert not torn by the beasts of prey on the coasts
and art safe a sound sleep then fell on me and when i woke it must have been three o'clock the next day by the rays of the sun nay it may have been more than that
as i have since found that there was one notch too few i now took from my store
my eyes fell on five words that would seem to have been put there for my good at this time so well did they cheer my faint hopes and touch the true source of my fears
i will not leave thee and they have dwelt in my heart to this day i laid down the book to pray my cry was o lord
help me to love and learn thy ways this was the first time in all my life that i had felt a sense that god was near and heard me
for now a new strength had come to me and there was a change in my griefs as well as in my joys
springs and creeks so i set off and brought back with me limes and grapes in their prime large and ripe
that i might lay up a store the vale on the banks of which they grew was fresh and green
which gave so great a charm to the spot as to make me wish to live there but
while from my house no ships could come on my side of the isle and not be seen by me yet the cool soft banks were so sweet and new to me that much of my time was spent there
i had sown it too late in the next it was spoilt by the drought
chapter twelve human freight on the dummy tavia almost fell over ned dorothy grasped the door the maid ruffled up her nice white apron they all scrambled into the living room
and there was more for with them in fact in ned's strong arms was a child a boy with blazing cheeks and defiant eyes look mother he came up on the dumb waiter said ned as soon as he could speak yes and i nearly killed him
blurted tavia i thought the place was haunted on the dumb waiter repeated dorothy the maid nodded her head decidedly why ejaculated missus white sitting up very straight i didn't mean anything
said the boy reflecting good breeding in choice of language if not in manner of transportation i was just coming up to fly kites but on the dummy queried ned well we wouldn't dare come up any other way
this apartment was not rented before and we had to sneak in on the janitor this is the best lobby for kites and his eyes danced at the thought but where's the kite questioned ned talent's got it
talent repeated dorothy yes he's the other fellow the smartest fellow around his real name he paused to laugh is what begged tavia coming over to the little fellow with no hidden show of admiration
it's too silly but he didn't choose it apologized the boy it's c l a u d that's a pretty name interposed missus white feeling obliged to say something agreeable
but he can't bear it declared the boy my name is worse mother brought it from rome catacombs suggested tavia foolishly no
but it's raphael that was the name of a great painter said missus white again feeling how difficult it was to talk to a small and enterprising new york boy maybe admitted the little one
but i have raffle from the boys and that's all right means going off all the time everyone laughed raffle looked uneasily at the door but where's that kite questioned ned talent was waiting until i got up
then i was to pull him up he has the kites as long as i didn't kill you raffle said tavia i guess we won't have to have you arrested for false entering dorothy caught the rope just in time
ned explained in answer to his mother's look of inquiry tavia was so scared she was going to let it drop we had ordered things tavia explained further and thought they were coming up i was just crazy to have something to do with all the machines in the place
so went to get the things imagine me seeing something squirm in the dark but you weren't afraid said raffle to dorothy you just hauled me out your coat got torn dorothy remarked to divert attention what will your mother say
she will never see it declared the little fellow she goes to rehearsal all day and sings all night tillie she's the girl she likes me she won't mind mending it and he bunched together in his small hand the hole in the short coat
i'll tell you interposed ned they say dark haired people fetch good luck and you are our first caller suppose we get talent and bring him up properly kites and all
then perhaps when i get something to eat you may show me how to fly a kite over the hudson bully exclaimed raffle i'll get him right away if john the janitor catches him waiting with the kites
but he was gone with the rest of the sentence ned slapped his knees in glee tavia stretched out full length shoes and all on the rose colored divan dorothy shook with merry laughter but martha the maid with the ruffled up apron
turned to the kitchenette to hide her emotion new york is certainly a busy place said ned finally we may get a wireless from home on the clothes line tavia i warn you not to hang handkerchiefs on the roof
but new york was actually fascinating tavia she would likely be looking for bulls and bears on wall street next thought ned aunty we are going to have the nicest lunch interrupted dorothy we all helped martha
it was hard to find things and get the right dishes you know i guess the last folks who had this apartment must have had a chinese cook for everything is put away backwards yes the pans were on the top shelves and the cups on the bottom tavia agreed
i took to the pans i love to climb on those queer ladders that roll along like silvery moonlight ned helped out only the clouds won't develop wouldn't i give a lot to have had all the boys share this fun
said dorothy then realizing the looks that followed the word boys she blushed peach blow a japanese gong sounded gently in the place called hall
there's the lunch bell declared dorothy and isn't that little aeolian harp on the sitting room door too sweet the sitting room is a private room in an apartment explained ned mischievously and it's a great idea to have an alarm clock on the door
there comes the boy with the kite tavia exclaimed i don't believe i care for lunch oh yes you do my dear objected missus white there are two boys and we will have to trust them on the balcony with their kites
tavia looked longingly at the boys who now were making their way to what dorothy had termed the dove cote ned insisted upon postponing his lunch until they got their strings both untied and tied again first from the stick
then to the rail martha said things would be cold but ned was obdurate at last missus white and her guests were seated at the polished table in the green and white room she glanced about approvingly while martha brought in the dishes
i made the pudding dorothy confessed i remember our old housekeeper used to make that brown betty out of stale cake and as martha could get no other kind of cake handy i thought it would do a cross between pudding cake and pie remarked tavia
but mostly sweet gravy it smells good however and i cleaned the lettuce
protested dorothy who at that moment was in the act of putting a lettuce leaf between her lips but i was only going to say that these reptiles had been properly bathed and are perfectly wholesome in fact they have been sterilized tavia said calmly
at any rate put in missus white you all have succeeded in getting a very nice luncheon together
we might have gotten along with one more maid to help martha then we would have had more house room
janitor exclaimed missus white my dear you do not know new york janitors they are a set of aristocrats all by themselves we will have to look out that we please the janitor or we may go without service a day or two just for punishment
in the way she had of always inviting trouble of one kind if not exactly the kind under discussion
he has the loveliest red cheeks looks like a baldwin apple left over from last year a rush through the apartment revealed ned and the two kite boys anything left asked ned
these two youngsters have to wait until two o'clock for a bite to eat and i thought of course interrupted his mother pleasantly as she touched the bell for martha we will set plates for them at once glad to have our neighbors so friendly
tavia gazed at them with eyes that showed no wonder she expected so many things of new york that each surprise seemed to have its own niche in her delighted sentiments you see said raffle tillie goes out for a walk about noon time
then mother gets in sometimes at two and sometimes later a feller always has to wait for someone does tillie take a baby out ventured dorothy baby repeated the boy i'm the baby she never takes me out
at which assertion the two boys laughed merrily she just takes a complexion walk ned helped out martha did not smile very sweetly when told to make two more places at the table but she did not frown either in a short time
and dorothy assisting martha were left by missus white to their own pleasure while she excused herself and went off to write some notes she remembered even then what ned had said about boys liking to have things to themselves and was not sorry of the excuse
but tavia held to her chair she knew the strangers would say something interesting and her bump of curiosity was not yet reduced my big brother goes to the university raffle said but he eats at the grill he never has to wait
your brother repeated tavia as if that was the very remark she had been waiting for now tavia cautioned ned now ned said tavia in a tone of defiance i only wanted to say continued ned
that this big brother is probably studying law and he may know a lot about well the number of persons in whom one person may be legitimately interested the small boys were too much absorbed in their meal to pay attention to such a technical discussion
tavia only turned her eyes up then rolled them down quickly in a sort of scorn for answer to ned now for your pudding announced dorothy who came from the kitchenette with three large dishes of the brown betty on a small tray
what's that asked ned as the outside door bell rang vigorously in reply martha announced that the janitor wanted to know if anyone had tied a kite to the lobby rail
chapter thirty one off again a short halt of a day or two only was made by the lake at first and then an excursion
which had been made successfully in search of game having resulted in the discovery of a more suitable spot higher up towards the mountains a week was spent there in a beautiful little valley where an abundant stream of crystal purity emptied itself into the wide spreading lake
pasturage was there for the horses and mules and almost without effort food was to be had at the expense of a few cartridges while very little skill was needed for griggs and the boys to draw salmon like and trout like fish to the banks
in a day or two the perils and sufferings of the journey across the salt plains were forgotten and careful searching for signs of indians having proved that they were the sole occupants of the district
the whole party gave themselves up to the pleasures of the peaceful life they were enjoying but not for long griggs had entered into the spirit of the chase the fishing and the search for vegetable food
he was as eager too when the doctor led excursions into gully and up hill sides of a part of the world that seemed to the adventurers as if it had never before been trodden by the foot of man
and ready to point out fresh flowers or indications of metal or other minerals where the cliff was bared or splintered by some fall from above but over the camp fire at night in some rocky nook or beneath the spreading boughs of a gigantic spruce fir
a hint or a word or two brought him back to the prime motive of their journey i'm ready when you are gentlemen he cried i don't say this isn't grand
as happy as the day is long in a place like this but we didn't come out here only to enjoy a hunting party there's that map you know yes said the doctor gravely there's the map but you don't think this is a likely part of the country not down here sir
but from where we stood to day after stalking those birds i could see the mountains opening out in gulch and rift and hollow beyond which there was peak and point and pass that looked as much like the sort of country as could be
and i added wilton it's made me long to begin exploring again for there was no sign of desert that i could see it's a grand country said bourne and the wonder to me is that it has not been settled why do you laugh boy
what was it that the salt plains were enough to keep anybody from coming as far as this that's it my lad said griggs men may have come prospecting in this direction for gold
but i shouldn't be a bit surprised to find that this is only a patch of good land round and about these mountains and that if we went far enough in any direction we should come to the salt plains again shutting it in and keeping people back
it is possible said the doctor it's more than likely sir if it were not so wouldn't people have settled here it is very far from civilisation griggs said bourne most new places are far from civilisation sir
cried griggs but look all round here sir if a good strong party of men came here with their wives and children they'd make their own civilisation for it seems to me that we can find here already pretty well everything a man could want
see what it would be after a few years of farm stock rearing and gardening then why not stop and settle here said the doctor smiling because we've got gold on the brain sir replied griggs grimly
and having started i say let's carry out our work if we don't find out that his map told the truth i'm ready to come and open out this bit of country if you like for it's ten times the place that we came from even now if you say we'll go no further
i'll set to work with you but because it's so beautiful ought we to forget how we're cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world no said the doctor emphatically i propose we make a fresh start to morrow
and see what there is yonder there was a murmur of agreement at this in which the boys joined yes said chris as he sauntered away soon after with his eyes roaming in every direction in search of danger or something new
griggs is right it's as fine as fine here and i don't like leaving the fishing
no going down hill again to be roasted and choked with thirst of course not said chris we've had enough of that i want to do some of that shooting griggs was talking about last night what the goats up in the mountains
yes and those big horned sheep but i feel sure he was laughing at us about their jumping about the precipices and running along ledges full gallop when they're only a few inches wide oh i don't know
he hadn't got that queer cock of the eye that he has when he's spinning a yarn well no but it was a good deal like throwing the hatchet didn't you see how serious your father looked yes but not so serious as your father did
when griggs declared that he'd seen flocks of those sheep running away from people stalking them till they got to the edges of the precipices where they could go no farther and then jump down head first so as to come on the great thick twisted horns which cover their foreheads
and bounce up again and go on running along a lower part yes i saw why a big heavy sheep if he came down like that would break his horns break his horns cried ned he'd break his neck
i should like to shoot one of those fellows said chris
leg of mutton wouldn't a good roast joint be a treat oh what a fellow you are for thinking about eating cried chris impatiently and so are you for drinking replied ned you're always on the lookout for water
well we must drink a great deal in such a thirsty land yes and we must eat a deal to keep up one's strength said ned i can't help getting hungry when we're walking about so much i suppose it's because i'm growing fast
yea that's it said chris smiling i get very hungry too it's all right i won't laugh at you any more i say what lots of those little gophers there are here look there why there must be about a hundred up on that patch of sandy ground
watching us to see if we're coming and ready to pop into their holes i see them there's one of those little round tots of owls sitting there too just outside the burrow it's quite comic to see the gophers living so sociably with the little owls
chris gave a shout just then and the colony of little burrowing animals resembling the marmots of the alps disappeared into their holes
of angry warning whistles just as a huge eagle came sailing along overhead swooping so near that a good marksman could easily have brought it down seems a pity to go away from a place where there's so much to see said chris after a time
and what for to find gold well it's only yellow metal we might stay here and find some or silver said ned yes or lead or antimony or coal cried ned
ah that would be useful for making our cooking fire said chris but there's plenty of wood everywhere and i won't complain i want to go on and see more every place we come to seems more wonderful than the last and there's no knowing what we may find next
we shall see said ned yawning for the darkness was sweeping up the sides of the hills leaving the hollows black and they had had a long and tiring day i suppose we shall start then to morrow
i wonder what our next camping place may be like that ruined city described by the old prospector perhaps said ned laughing but what are we going to do then load the mules with gold and go back again i hope not cried chris i don't want to go back
said ned yawning again i say don't do that cried chris querulously i wasn't doing anything yes you were opening your mouth as wide as you could just like old skeeter when he's getting ready to bray
whinny said ned correctively he isn't a donkey i know that he can't bray he whinnies and squeals but he tries to bray and opens his mouth just like you do perhaps so
said ned changing the conversation at once i say doesn't that peak look beautiful it's just as if it is red hot you'd find it pretty cold if you were up there said chris giving up making rude allusions to his companion's yawning
yes that always seems to me so strange said ned what does
it ought to be hotter don't find fault with nature said chris dogmatically i wasn't finding fault i only say it seems queer i want to thoroughly understand why it is ask your father he knows
i did said ned and he said it was because the atmosphere was thinner the higher you get then the lower you get i suppose the thicker it is said chris thoughtfully and that's why it's so thick and hot down there on the salt desert
oh my word how it used to scorch it was just as if the haze was one great burning glass oh i say cried ned dolefully i wish you wouldn't wouldn't what talk about the heat on the salt plains
we're going to start off afresh to morrow morning and i shall begin dreaming about what we went through over yonder poor old chap ah you may laugh but it'll all come back like a nightmare with the burning thirst and giddiness and the black spots before one's eyes
that's biliousness said chris speaking authoritatively like a doctor's son i don't care what it is it's very horrible said ned and if i thought we were going through a time like that again i should want to stop at home where's that
ah to be sure said ned with a sigh i forgot where we were i suppose there'll be no home again till we've found the gold and that won't be to night said chris as a shrill whistle rang out through the clear evening air
there's old griggs calling us just as if we were dogs i've a good mind not to hear but chris answered the whistle all the same and the boys were soon after joined by the american who had come to meet them and his first words were
chapter eleven patsy is defiant
that german lieutenant elbl he began oh is that his name
yes will he get well certainly what is a foot to a man like him but his soldiering days are past perhaps that's fortunate returned the captain ruminatively
when i was a boy his father was burgomaster mayor in munich people said he was well to do the germans are thrifty so i suppose there's still money in the elbl family
money will do much to help reconcile the man to the loss of his foot declared the doctor will he suffer much pain while it is getting well not if i can help it the fellow bears pain with wonderful fortitude
and i've doped his medicine ever since thank you said carg he's my cousin in the small hours of the next morning while patsy was on duty in the hospital section the young belgian became wakeful and restless
she promptly administered a sedative and sat by his bedside after a little his pain was eased and he became quiet but he lay there with wide open eyes can i do anything more for you she asked
if you would be so kind replied andrew denton well please read to me some letters you will find in my pocket i cannot read them myself and they will comfort me patsy found the packet of letters
the top one first he said eagerly read them all she opened the letter reluctantly it was addressed in a dainty female hand and the girl had the uncomfortable feeling that she was about to pry into personal relations of a delicate character
but for the last two i have not seen her the letters were dated at charleroi and each one began my darling husband patsy read the packet through from first to last her eyes filling with tears at times
of the poor young wife and realized that the boyish husband was even now dying a martyr to his country's cause the letters were signed elizabeth
in one was a small photograph of a sweet dark eyed girl whom she instantly knew to be the bereaved wife
patsy asked i hope so mademoiselle with her mother the germans now occupy the town but you will notice the last letter states that all citizens are treated courteously and with much consideration so i do not fear for her
the reading of the letters in conjunction with the opiate seemed to comfort him for presently he fell asleep with a heavy heart the girl left him to attend to her other patients and at three o'clock
ajo came in and joined her to relieve the tedium of the next three hours the boy knew nothing of nursing but he could help patsy administer potions and change compresses and his presence was a distinct relief to her
the girl was supposed to sleep from six o'clock at which time she was relieved from duty until one in the afternoon but the next morning at eight she walked into the forward salon where her friends were at breakfast
and sat down beside uncle john i could not sleep said she because i am so worried over andrew denton that is foolish my dear answered mister merrick affectionately patting the hand she laid in his
the doctor says poor denton cannot recover if you're going to take to heart all the sad incidents we encounter on this hospital ship it will not only ruin your usefulness but destroy your happiness exactly so
coming into the salon in time to overhear this remark a nurse should be sympathetic but impersonally so denton has been married but five months said patsy
and her letters to him are full of love and longing
his accident or that he he her voice broke with a sob she could not repress
purred uncle john where does she live this young wife at charleroi well the germans are there yes uncle but don't you suppose they would let her come to see her dying husband a young girl unprotected
would it be safe the germans remarked captain carg from his end of the table are very decent people ahem said uncle john some of them i've no doubt are quite respectable observed ajo
but from all reports the rank and file in war time are rather unpleasant to meet precisely agreed uncle john i think patsy dear it will be best to leave this belgian girl in ignorance of her husband's fate
a woman takes what comes especially if she is obliged to patsy regarded him indignantly there are many kinds of women she began thank heaven exclaimed maurie
and then she realized how futile it was to argue with him a little later she walked on deck with uncle john and pleaded her cause earnestly it was said by those who knew him well
that the kindly little gentleman was never able to refuse patsy anything for long and he was himself so well aware of this weakness that he made a supreme effort to resist her on this occasion you and i
said she would have no trouble in passing the german lines we are strictly neutral you know we americans and our passports and the red cross will take us anywhere in safety it won't do my dear he replied
you've already been in danger enough for one war i shudder even now as i think of those bullets and shells at nieuport but we can pass through at some place where they are not fighting show me such a place
and distances are very small in this part of the continent we could get to charleroi in a day and return the next day with missus denton impossible the doctor says he may live for several days
you have twenty in your charge now and by to night there may be possibly a dozen more many of them have wives at home but
and after only five months of married life three of which they passed together here at least is one brave heart we may comfort one poor woman who will be ever grateful for our generous kindness
mister merrick coughed he wiped his eyes and blew his nose on his pink bordered handkerchief but he made no promise
i don't care what he says i'm going she persisted her eyes blazing with determination the boy whistled softly studying her face then he walked across the deck to mister merrick
the little man cast a half frightened half reproachful glance at his niece let's go and consult the doctor he exclaimed and together uncle john and ajo went below
he's a fine fellow this denton said he and rather above the average soldier moreover his case is a pitiful one i'll agree to keep him alive until his wife comes
how on earth can we manage to cross the lines he asked take one of our launches said the boy skim the coast to ostend and you'll avoid danger altogether that's the idea exclaimed the doctor approvingly
why it's the easiest thing in the world sir uncle john began to feel slightly reassured who will run the launch he inquired i'll give you the captain and one of the men said the boy carg's an old traveler
and knows more than he appears to besides he speaks german we can't spare very many you understand and the ambulances will keep maurie and me pretty busy patsy will be missed too from the hospital ward so you must hurry back
two days ought to accomplish our object said uncle john easily agreed gys i've arranged for a couple of girls from the town to come and help us to day for i must save the strength of my expert nurses as much as possible
and i'll keep them with us until you return the french girls are not experienced in nursing but i'll take miss patsy's watch myself so we shall get along all right
the fuzzies took the manipulator quite calmly the next morning that wasn't any horrible monster that was just something pappy jack took rides in he found one rather indifferent sunstone in the morning and two good ones in the afternoon
he came home early and found the family in the living room they had dumped the wastebasket and were putting things back into it another land prawn seemed to have gotten into the house its picked shell was with the other rubbish in the basket
they had dinner early and he loaded the lot of them into the airjeep and took them for a long ride to the south and west the following day he located the flint vein on the other side of the gorge and spent most of the morning blasting away the sandstone above it
the next time he went into mallorysport he decided he was going to shop around for a good power shovel he had to blast a channel to keep the little stream from damming up on him he didn't get any flint cracked at all that day
there was another harpy circling around the camp when he got back he chased it with the manipulator and shot it down with his pistol harpies probably found fuzzies as tasty as fuzzies found land prawns
the family were all sitting under the gunrack when he entered the living room the next day he cracked flint and found three more stones it really looked as though he had found the dying place of the jellyfish at that he knocked off early that afternoon
and when he came in sight of the camp he saw an airjeep grounded on the lawn and a small man with a red beard in a faded khaki bush jacket sitting on the bench by the kitchen door surrounded by fuzzies
there was a camera and some other equipment laid up where the fuzzies couldn't get at it baby fuzzy of course was sitting on his head he looked up and waved and then handed baby to his mother and rose to his feet
jack called down as he grounded the manipulator my god don't start me on that now ben rainsford replied and then laughed i stopped at the constabulary post on the way home i thought george lunt had turned into the biggest liar in the known galaxy
then i went home and found your call on the recorder so i came over here been waiting long the fuzzies had all abandoned rainsford and come trooping over as soon as the manipulator was off contragravity he climbed down among them
and they followed him across the grass catching at his trouser legs and yeeking happily not so long rainsford looked at his watch good lord three and half hours is all
well the time passed quickly you know your little fellows have good ears they heard you coming a long time before i did did you see them killing any prawns i should say i got a lot of movies of it he shook his head slowly
jack this is almost incredible you're staying for dinner of course you try and chase me away
want you to make a tape about them if you're willing glad to we'll do that after we eat he sat down on the bench and the fuzzies began climbing upon and beside him this is the original little fuzzy he brought the rest in a couple of days later
mamma fuzzy and baby fuzzy and these are mike and mitzi i call this one ko ko because of the ceremonious way he beheads land prawns george says you call them all fuzzies want that for the official designation
sure that's what they are isn't it well let's call the order hollowayans rainsford said family fuzzies genus fuzzy species holloway's fuzzy fuzzy fuzzy holloway how'll that be
that would be all right he supposed at least they didn't try to latinize things in extraterrestrial zoology any more i suppose our bumper crop of land prawns is what brought them into this section
yes of course george was telling me you thought they'd come down from the north about the only place they could have come from this is probably just the advance guard we'll be having fuzzies all over the place before long i wonder how fast they breed
not very fast three males and two females in this crowd and only one young one he set mike and mitzi off his lap and got to his feet i'll go start dinner now while i'm doing that you can look at the stuff they brought in with them
when he had placed the dinner in the oven and taken a couple of highballs into the living room rainsford was still sitting at the desk looking at the artifacts he accepted his drink and sipped it absently then raised his head
jack this stuff is absolutely amazing he said it's better than that it's unique only collection of native weapons and implements on zarathustra ben rainsford looked up sharply you mean what i think you mean he asked yes you do
anything pardon anybody who does this kind of work is good enough native for me he hesitated briefly why jack this tape you said you'd make can i transmit a copy to juan jimenez he's chief mammalogist with the company science division
we exchange information and there's another company man i'd like to have hear it gerd van riebeek he's a general xeno naturalist like me but he's especially interested in animal evolution why not the fuzzies are a scientific discovery
discoveries ought to be reported little fuzzy mike and mitzi strolled in from the kitchen little fuzzy jumped up on the armchair and switched on the viewscreen fiddling with the selector he got the big blackwater woods burning
mike and mitzi shrieked delightedly like a couple of kids watching a horror show they knew by now that nothing in the screen could get out and hurt them would you mind if they came out here and saw the fuzzies why the fuzzies would love that they like company
mamma and baby and ko ko came in seemed to approve what was on the screen and sat down to watch it when the bell on the stove rang they all got up and ko ko jumped onto the chair and snapped the screen off ben rainsford looked at him for a moment
you know i have married friends with children who have a hell of a time teaching eight year olds to turn off screens when they're through watching them he commented it took an hour after dinner to get the whole story from the first little yeek in the shower stall on tape
when he had finished ben rainsford made a few remarks and shut off the recorder then looked at his watch twenty hundred it'll be seventeen hundred in mallorysport he said i could catch jimenez at science center if i called now he usually works a little late
he moved his pistol and some other impedimenta off the table and set little fuzzy and mamma fuzzy and baby upon it then drew up a chair beside it in range of the communication screen and sat down with mike and mitzi and ko ko
rainsford punched out a wavelength combination then he picked up baby fuzzy and set him on his head in a moment the screen flickered and cleared and a young man looked out of it with the momentary upward glance of one who wants to make sure his public face is on straight
it was a bland tranquilized life adjusted group integrated sort of face the face turned out in thousands of copies every year by the educational production lines on terra why bennett this is a pleasant surprise he began i never expec
then he choked at least he emitted a sound of surprise what in the name of dai butsu are those things on the table in front of you he demanded i never saw anything and what is that on your head family group of fuzzies rainsford said
mature male mature female immature male he lifted baby fuzzy down and put him in mamma's arms species fuzzy fuzzy holloway zarathustra
jack juan jimenez they shook their own hands at one another in the ancient terran chinese gesture that was used on communication screens and assured each other jimenez rather absently that it was a pleasure he couldn't take his eyes off the fuzzies
where did they come from he wanted to know are you sure they're indigenous they're not quite up to spaceships yet doctor jimenez fairly early paleolithic i'd say
jimenez thought he was joking and laughed the sort of a laugh that could be turned on and off like a light rainsford assured him that the fuzzies were really indigenous we have everything that's known about them on tape he said about an hour of it
can you take sixty speed he was making adjustments on the recorder as he spoke all right set and we'll transmit to you and can you get hold of gerd van riebeek i'd like him to hear it too it's as much up his alley as anybody's
when jimenez was ready rainsford pressed the play off button and for a minute the recorder gave a high wavering squeak the fuzzies all looked startled then it ended i think when you hear this that you and gerd will both want to come out and see these little people
if you can bring somebody who's a qualified psychologist somebody capable of evaluating the fuzzies mentation jack wasn't kidding about early paleolithic if they're not sapient they only miss it by about one atomic diameter
jimenez looked almost as startled as the fuzzies had you surely don't mean that he looked from rainsford to jack holloway and back well i'll call you back when we've both heard the tape you're three time zones west of us aren't you
then we'll try to make it before your midnight that'll be twenty one hundred he called back half an hour short of that this time it was from the living room of an apartment instead of an office there was a portable record player in the foreground and a low table with snacks and drinks
and two other people were with him one was a man of about jimenez's age with a good humored non life adjusted non group integrated and slightly weather beaten face the other was a woman with glossy black hair and a mona lisa ish smile
ruth is with doctor mallin's section she's been working with the school department and the juvenile court she can probably do as well with your fuzzies as a regular xeno psychologist well i have worked with extraterrestrials the woman said i've been on loki and thor and shesha
jack nodded been on the same planets myself are you people coming out here oh yes van riebeek said we'll be out by noon tomorrow we may stay a couple of days but that won't put you to any trouble
now how do we get to your place jack told him and gave map coordinates van riebeek noted them down
what its significance might prove likely to be when she faced it she had not known it is true but this was different from from anything as they walked up the sun dappled avenue she kept glancing aside at rosy and endeavouring to draw useful conclusions
the poor girl's air of being a plain insignificant frump long past youth struck an extraordinary and for the time unexplainable note her ill cut out of date dress the cheap suit of the hunchbacked boy who limped patiently along helped by his crutch
suggested possible explanations which were without doubt connected with the thought
what extraordinary disposal was being made of rosy's money but her each glance at her sister also suggested complication upon complication the singular half hour under the trees by the pool spent after the first hysteric moments were over
in vague exclaimings and questions which seemed half frightened and all at sea had gradually shown her that she was talking to a creature wholly other than the rosalie who had so well known and loved them all and whom they had so well loved and known
they did not know this one and she did not know them she was even a little afraid of the stir and movement of their life and being the rosy they had known seemed to be imprisoned within the wall the years of her separated life had built about her at each breath she drew
bettina saw how long the years had been to her and how far her home had seemed to lie away so far that it could not touch her and was only a sort of dream the recalling of which made her suddenly begin to cry again every few minutes
to bettina's sensitively alert mind it was plain that it would not do in the least to drag her suddenly out of her prison or cloister whichsoever it might be to do so would be like forcing a creature accustomed only to darkness to stare at the blazing sun
to have burst upon her with the old impetuous candid fondness
as if with something bordering on indecency she could not have stood it perhaps such fondness was so remote from her in these days that she had even ceased to be able to understand it where are your little girls bettina asked
remembering that there had been notice given of the advent of two girl babies they died lady anstruthers answered unemotionally
there is only ughtred betty glanced at the boy and saw a small flame of red creep up on his cheek instinctively she knew what it meant and she put out her hand and lightly touched his shoulder i hope you'll like me ughtred she said
he almost started at the sound of her voice but when he turned his face towards her he only grew redder and looked awkward without answering his manner was that of a boy who was unused to the amenities of polite society and who was only made shy by them
without warning a moment or so later bettina stopped in the middle of the avenue and looked up at the arching giant branches of the trees which had reached out from one side to the other as if to clasp hands or encompass an interlacing embrace
as far as the eye reached they did this and the beholder stood as in a high stately pergola with breaks of deep azure sky between several mellow cawing rooks were floating solemnly beneath or above the branches now wand then settling in some highest one
or disappearing in the thick greenness lady anstruthers stopped when her sister did so and glanced at her in vague inquiry it was plain that she had outlived even her sense of the beauty surrounding her
she asked at all of it betty answered it is so wonderful she likes it said ughtred and then rather slunk a step behind his mother as if he were ashamed of himself
the house is just beyond those trees said lady anstruthers they came in full view of it three minutes later
she likes that too said ughtred and although he said it sheepishly there was imperfectly concealed beneath the awkwardness a pleasure in the fact do you asked rosalie with her small painful smile betty laughed
it is too picturesque in its special way to be quite credible she said i thought that when i first saw it said rosy don't you think so now well was the rather uncertain reply
why let it fall to pieces betty put it to her with impartial promptness we haven't money enough to hold it together resignedly as they climbed the low broad lichen blotched steps whose broken stone balustrades were almost hidden in clutching untrimmed ivy
betty felt them to be almost incredible too the uneven stones of the terrace the steps mounted to were lichen blotched and broken also tufts of green growths had forced themselves between the flags and added an untidy beauty
the ivy tossed in branches over the red roof and walls of the house it had been left unclipped until it was rather an endlessly clambering tree than a creeper the hall they entered had the beauty of spacious form and good old oaken panelling
there were deep window seats and an ancient high backed settle or so and a massive table by the fireless hearth but there were no pictures in places where pictures had evidently once hung and the only coverings on the stone floor were the faded remnants of a central rug and a worn tiger skin
the head almost bald and a glass eye knocked out bettina took in the unpromising details without a quiver of the extravagant lashes these indeed and the eyes pertaining to them seemed rather to sweep the fine roof and a certain minstrel's gallery and staircase
than which nothing could have been much finer with the look of an appreciative admirer of architectural features and old oak she had not journeyed to stornham court with the intention of disturbing rosy or of being herself obviously disturbed
she had come to observe situations and rearrange them with that intelligence of which unconsidered emotion or exclamation form no part it is the first old english house i have seen she said with a sigh of pleasure i am so glad rosy
she put a hand on each of rosy's thin shoulders she felt sharply defined bones as she did so and bent to kiss her it was the natural affectionate expression of her feeling but tears started to rosy's eyes
turned red again and shifted in his place oh betty was rosy's faint nervous exclamation you seem so beautiful and so so strange that you frighten me betty laughed with the softest possible cheerfulness shaking her a little
i shall not seem strange long she said after i have stayed with you a few weeks if you will let me stay with you let you let you in a sort of gasp poor little lady anstruthers sank on to a settle and began to cry again
it was plain that she always cried when things occurred ughtred's speech from his window seat testified at once to that don't cry mother he said you know how we've talked that over together it's her nerves he explained to bettina
we know it only makes things worse but she can't stop it bettina sat on the settle too she herself was not then aware of the wonderful feeling the poor little spare figure experienced as her softly strong young arms curved about it
she was only aware that she herself felt that this was a heart breaking thing and that she must not must not let it be seen how much she recognised its woefulness this was pretty fair rosy who had never done a harm in her happy life
this forlorn thing was her rosy never mind she said half laughing again i rather want to cry myself and i am stronger than she is i am immensely strong yes yes said lady anstruthers wiping her eyes
and making a tremendous effort at self respecting composure you are strong i have grown so weak in well in every way betty i'm afraid this is a poor welcome you see i'm afraid you'll find it all so different from from new york
i wanted to find it different said betty but but i mean you know lady anstruthers turned helplessly to the boy bettina was struck with the painful truth that she looked even silly as she turned to him ughtred
tell her she ended and hung her head ughtred had got down at once from his seat and limped forward his unprepossessing face looked as if he pulled his childishness together with an unchildish effort she means he said in his awkward way
that she doesn't know how to make you comfortable the rooms are all so shabby everything is so shabby perhaps you won't stay when you see bettina perceptibly increased the firmness of her hold on her sister's body
it was as if she drew it nearer to her side in a kind of taking possession she knew that the moment had come when she might go this far at least without expressing alarming things you cannot show me anything that will frighten me was the answer she made
i have come to stay rosy we can make things right if they require it why not lady anstruthers started a little and stared at her she knew ten thousand reasons why things had not been made right
and the casual inference that such reasons could be lightly swept away as if by the mere wave of a hand implied a power appertaining to a time seeming so lost forever that it was too much for her oh betty betty she cried
the fact so simple to the members of the abnormal class to which she of a truth belonged the class which heaped up its millions the absolute knowledge that there was a great deal of money in the world and that she was of those who were among its chief owners had ceased to seem a fact
and had vanished into the region of fairy stories
which was also a revelation of many things there would be unpleasing truths to be learned and she had not made her pilgrimage for nothing but in any event there were advantages without doubt in the circumstance which subjected one to being perpetually pointed out as a daughter of a multi millionaire
you have forgotten i have not i have been looking forward to this for years i have been planning to come to you since i was eleven years old
she could almost have smiled at her scruples of the night before as she looked back on them they seemed to belong to the old ignorant timorous time when she had feared to look life in the face and had been blind to the mysteries and contradictions of the human heart because her own had not been revealed to her
darrow had said you were made to feel everything and to feel was surely better than to judge when she came downstairs he was already in the oak room with effie and madame de chantelle
and the sense of reassurance which his presence gave her was merged in the relief of not being able to speak of what was between them but there it was inevitably and whenever they looked at each other they saw it in her dread of giving it a more tangible shape
she tried to devise means of keeping the little girl with her and when the latter had been called away by the nurse found an excuse for following madame de chantelle upstairs to the purple sitting room
of which anna could hardly yet bear to consider the vaguest outline the date of her marriage the relative advantages of sailing from london or lisbon the possibility of hiring a habitable house at their new post and when these problems were exhausted
the application of the same method to the subject of owen's future his grandmother having no suspicion of the real reason of sophy viner's departure had thought it extremely suitable of the young girl to withdraw to the shelter of her old friends roof in the hour of bridal preparation
this maidenly retreat had in fact impressed madame de chantelle so favourably that she was disposed for the first time to talk over owen's projects and as every human event translated itself for her into terms of social and domestic detail
anna had perforce to travel the same round again she felt a momentary relief when darrow presently joined them but his coming served only to draw the conversation back to the question of their own future and anna felt a new pang
as she heard him calmly and lucidly discussing it did such self possession imply indifference or insincerity in that problem her mind perpetually revolved and she dreaded the one answer as much as the other
she was resolved to keep on her course as though nothing had happened to marry darrow and never let the consciousness of the past intrude itself between them but she was beginning to feel that the only way of attaining to this state of detachment from the irreparable
was once for all to turn back with him to its contemplation as soon as this desire had germinated
and soon after luncheon the three set forth in the motor to show darrow a chateau famous in the annals of the region during their excursion anna found it impossible to guess from his demeanour if effie's presence between them was as much of a strain to his composure as to hers
he remained imperturbably good humoured and appreciative while they went the round of the monument and she remarked only that when he thought himself unnoticed his face grew grave and his answers came less promptly
darrow acquiesced and they got out and sent effie on in the motor their way led through a bit of sober french woodland flat as a faded tapestry but with gleams of live emerald lingering here and there among its browns and ochres
and veiled the distant glimpses of the landscape in soft uncertainty in such a solitude anna had fancied it would be easier to speak but as she walked beside darrow over the deep soundless flooring of brown moss the words on her lips took flight again
it seemed impossible to break the spell of quiet joy which his presence laid on her and when he began to talk of the place they had just visited she answered his questions and then waited for what he should say next no decidedly she could not speak
she no longer even knew what she had meant to say the same experience repeated itself several times that day and the next
she formulated with a fervent lucidity every point in her imaginary argument but as soon as she was alone with him something deeper than reason and subtler than shyness laid its benumbing touch upon her and the desire to speak became merely a dim disquietude
through which his looks his words his touch reached her as through a mist of bodily pain yet this inertia was torn by wild flashes of resistance and when they were apart she began to prepare again what she meant to say to him
she knew he could not be with her without being aware of this inner turmoil and she hoped he would break the spell by some releasing word but she presently understood that he recognized the futility of words
and was resolutely bent on holding her to her own purpose of behaving as if nothing had happened once more she inwardly accused him of insensibility and her imagination was beset by tormenting visions of his past had such things happened to him before
if the episode had been an isolated accident
for at a certain point her imagination always turned back but if it were a mere link in a chain of similar experiments the thought of it dishonoured her whole past effie in the interregnum between governesses had been given leave to dine downstairs
when at length she had been carried off anna proposed a game of cards and after this diversion had drawn to its languid close she said good night to darrow and followed madame de chantelle upstairs but madame de chantelle never sat up late
and the second evening with the amiably implied intention of leaving anna and darrow to themselves she took an earlier leave of them than usual anna sat silent listening to her small stiff steps as they minced down the hall and died out in the distance
madame de chantelle had broken her wooden embroidery frame and darrow having offered to repair it had drawn his chair up to a table that held a lamp anna watched him as he sat with bent head and knitted brows trying to fit together the disjoined pieces
the sight of him so tranquilly absorbed in this trifling business seemed to give to the quiet room a perfume of intimacy to fill it with a sense of sweet familiar habit and it came over her again
and she said to herself that other woman has sat and watched him as i am doing she has known him as i have never known him perhaps he is thinking of that now
he looked young active stored with strength and energy not the man for vain repinings or long memories she wondered what she had to hold or satisfy him he loved her now she had no doubt of that but how could she hope to keep him
they were so nearly of an age that already she felt herself his senior as yet the difference was not visible outwardly at least they were matched
she thought with a pang of bitterness he won't grow any older because he doesn't feel things and because he doesn't i shall and when she ceased to please him what then had he the tradition of faith to the spoken vow
but what did she care for his convictions or his theories no doubt he loved her now and believed he would always go on loving her and was persuaded that if he ceased to his loyalty would be proof against the change what she wanted to know was not what he thought about it in advance
but what would impel or restrain him at the crucial hour she put no faith in her own arts she was too sure of having none and if some beneficent enchanter had bestowed them on her she knew now that she would have rejected the gift
she could hardly conceive of wanting the kind of love that was a state one could be cozened into darrow putting away the frame walked across the room and sat down beside her and she felt he had something special to say
they're sure to send for me in a day or two now he began she made no answer and he continued you'll tell me before i go what day i'm to come back and get you
and instead of answering him she broke out there's something i've been wanting you to know the other day in paris i saw miss viner she saw him flush with the intensity of his surprise you sent for her
no she heard from adelaide that i was in paris and she came she came because she wanted to urge me to marry you
darrow stood up i'm glad you've told me he spoke with a visible effort at composure her eyes followed him as he moved away is that all he asked after an interval
it seems to me a great deal it's what she'd already asked me his voice showed her how deeply he was moved and a throb of jealousy shot through her oh it was for your sake i know he made no answer and she added
she's been exceedingly generous why shouldn't we speak of it she had lowered her head but through her dropped lids she seemed to be watching the crowded scene of his face i've not shrunk from speaking of it speaking of her then i mean
she broke off confused and he questioned what is it you want to know better the colour rose to her forehead how could she tell him what she scarcely dared own to herself
there was nothing she did not want to know no fold or cranny of his secret that her awakened imagination did not strain to penetrate but she could not expose sophy viner to the base fingerings of a retrospective jealousy
nor darrow to the temptation of belittling her in the effort to better his own case the girl had been magnificent and the only worthy return that anna could make was to take darrow from her without a question if she took him at all
she lifted her eyes to his face i think i only wanted to speak her name it's not right that we should seem so afraid of it if i were really afraid of it i should have to give you up she said
what becomes of ione in the house of arbaces
whose majestic and passionless features the marble so well portrayed
the tall a ethiopian slave grinned as he admitted her and motioned to her to proceed
although it was broad day without the mansion
beautiful ione said arbaces as he bent to touch her hand it is you that have eclipsed the day it is your eyes that light up the halls it is your breath which fills them with perfumes
you must not talk to me thus said ione smiling you forget that your lore has sufficiently instructed my mind to render these graceful flatteries to my person unwelcome it was you who taught me to disdain adulation
will you unteach your pupil there was something so frank and charming in the manner of ione
he however
he led her through the various chambers of a house which seemed to contain to her eyes
the treasures of the world in the walls were set pictures of inestimable art the lights shone over statues of the noblest age of greece cabinets of gems each cabinet itself a gem
filled up the interstices of the columns the most precious woods lined the thresholds and composed the doors
sometimes they were alone in these rooms sometimes they passed through silent rows of slaves who kneeling as she passed
of gems which the egyptian
i have
said she wonderingly that you were rich but i never dreamed of the amount of your wealth would i could coin it all
laughingly but thou dost not disdain riches o ione they know not what life is capable of who are not wealthy gold is the great magician of earth it realizes our dreams
by his treasures and his eloquence
meanwhile
which till lately had seemed to disdain the common homage we pay to beauty and with that delicate subtlety which woman alone possesses she sought to ward off shafts deliberately aimed and to laugh or to talk away the meaning from his warming language
nothing in the world is more pretty than that same species of defence
it was with difficulty that he suppressed his emotions alas
suddenly as they stood in one hall
and as if by enchantment a banquet rose from the floor a couch or throne
ascended simultaneously at the feet of ione and at the same instant from behind the curtains swelled the invisible and softest music arbaces placed himself at the feet of ione and children
the music sank into a low and subdued strain and arbaces thus addressed his beautiful guest hast thou never in this dark and uncertain world hast thou never aspired my pupil to look beyond
each event to come has also its spectrum its shade when the hour arrives life enters it the shadow becomes corporeal and walks the world thus in the land beyond the grave
are ever two impalpable and spiritual hosts
we see the one as the other and learn as i have learned not alone the mysteries of the dead but also the destiny of the living as thou hast learned can wisdom attain so far
wilt thou prove my knowledge ione and behold the representation of thine own fate
the neapolitan trembled she thought of glaucus and sighed as well as trembled were their destinies to be united half incredulous half believing half awed
it may revolt it may terrify
not so ione i have myself looked upon thy future lot and the ghosts of thy future bask in the gardens of elysium amidst the asphodel and the rose they prepare the garlands of thy sweet destiny
and the fates so harsh to others weave only for thee the web of happiness and love wilt thou then come and behold thy doom so that thou mayest enjoy it beforehand
again the heart of ione murmured glaucus
the curtains withdrew as by magic hands
they descended by broad and easy steps into a garden
or gathered in baskets lay like offerings at the feet of the frequent statues that gleamed along their path whither wouldst thou lead me arbaces said ione wonderingly
but yonder said he
our rites require such holy ground they passed into a narrow hall at the end of which hung a sable curtain arbaces lifted it ione entered and found herself in total darkness
while he so spoke a soft and warm and gradual light diffused itself around as it spread over each object
hung everywhere with black
on which stood a tripod of bronze
was a colossal head of the blackest marble which she perceived by the crown of wheat ears that encircled the brow represented the great egyptian goddess arbaces stood before the altar
he had laid his garland on the shrine
suddenly from that tripod leaped into life a blue quick darting
the curtain at the back of the altar waved tremulously to and fro it parted slowly and in the aperture which was thus made ione beheld an indistinct and pale landscape which gradually grew brighter
at length she discovered plainly trees and rivers and meadows
at length before the landscape a dim shadow glided it rested opposite to ione slowly the same charm seemed to operate upon it
as if to invite her to ascend it the neapolitan's heart beat violently shall the shadow disclose itself whispered a voice beside her the voice of arbaces
ah yes
softly arbaces raised his hand the spectre seemed to drop the mantle that concealed its form
this is indeed thy fate
and thou art destined to be the bride of arbaces
and arbaces himself the real the living arbaces was at her feet oh ione said he passionately gazing upon her listen to one who has long struggled vainly with his love
i have dreamed till i saw thee i wake and i behold thee
think not of me as thou hast thought
cold insensate and morose which i have seemed to thee never woman had lover so devoted so passionate as i will be to ione do not struggle in my clasp see i release thy hand
take it from me if thou wilt well be it so but do not reject me ione do not rashly reject judge of thy power over him whom thou canst thus transform i
who never knelt to mortal being kneel to thee i who have commanded fate
ione tremble not thou art my queen my goddess be my bride all the wishes thou canst form shall be fulfilled the ends of the earth shall minister to thee pomp
power luxury shall be thy slaves arbaces shall have no ambition save the pride of obeying thee ione turn upon me those eyes shed upon me thy smile dark is my soul when thy face is hid from it
shine over me my sun my heaven my daylight ione ione do not reject my love alone and in the power of this singular and fearful man
the softness of his voice reassured her and in her own purity she felt protection but she was confused astonished
it was some moments before she could recover the power of reply rise arbaces said she at length
rise and if thou art serious if thy language be in earnest
said he tenderly well then listen to me you have been my guardian my friend my monitor
for this new character i was not prepared think not she added quickly as she saw his dark eyes glitter with the fierceness of his passion not that i scorn
that i am untouched that i am not honored by this homage but say canst thou hear me calmly ay though thy words were lightning and could blast me
i love another said ione blushingly but in a firm voice by the gods by hell shouted arbaces rising to his fullest height
dare not tell me that dare not mock me it is impossible whom hast thou seen whom known oh ione it is thy woman's invention thy woman's art that speaks
do with me as thou wilt say that thou lovest not me but say not that thou lovest another alas began ione and then appalled before his sudden and unlooked for violence
arbaces came nearer to her his breath glowed fiercely on her cheek he wound his arms round her she sprang from his embrace in the struggle a tablet fell from her bosom on the ground
arbaces perceived and seized it it was the letter that morning received from glaucus ione sank upon the couch half dead with terror
rapidly the eyes of arbaces ran over the writing the neapolitan did not dare to gaze upon him she did not see the deadly paleness that came over his countenance
he read it to the end and then as the letter fell from his hand he said
is the writer of this the man thou lovest ione sobbed but answered not speak he rather shrieked than said it is it is
and his name it is written here his name is glaucus ione clasping her hands looked round as for succour or escape
said arbaces sinking his voice into a whisper thou shalt go to thy tomb rather than to his arms what thinkest thou arbaces will brook a rival such as this puny greek what
thinkest thou that he has watched the fruit ripen to yield it to another pretty fool no thou art mine all only mine and thus thus i seize and claim thee
was all the energy less of love than of revenge
she again tore herself from him
she half withdrew the curtain he had seized her again she broke away from him and fell
as if to regain his breath and thence once more darted upon his prey at that instant the curtain was rudely torn aside the egyptian felt a fierce and strong grasp upon his shoulder
and the pale worn but menacing
ah he muttered as he glared from one to the other what fury hath sent ye hither ate
now lifeless from the ground his strength exhausted by a mind long overwrought did not suffice to bear her away light and delicate though her shape he placed her therefore on the couch
and stood over her with a brandishing knife watching the contest between glaucus and the egyptian
the muscles strained the veins swelled the lips apart the teeth set both were strong beyond the ordinary power of men both animated by relentless wrath they coiled they wound around each other
they rocked to and fro they swayed from end to end of their confined arena
they drew back for breath arbaces leaning against the column glaucus a few paces apart o ancient goddess exclaimed arbaces
protect thy chosen
as he spoke
as through a transparent veil flushed luminously a crimson and burning hue
the eyes became like balls of lurid fire
and not free from the hereditary superstitions of his race
his knees knocked together he stood seized with a divine panic dismayed aghast half unmanned before his foe
die wretch he shouted
the mighty mother claims thee as a living sacrifice
he slid he fell
taught by his sacred profession as well as by his knowledge of arbaces to distrust all miraculous interpositions had not shared the dismay of his companion he rushed forward
the watchful egyptian caught his arm as it descended
with a loud and exulting yell arbaces brandished the knife on high glaucus gazed upon his impending fate with unwinking eyes
when at that awful instant the floor shook under them with a rapid and convulsive throe a mightier spirit than that of the egyptian was abroad a giant and crushing power
before which sunk into sudden impotence his passion and his arts it woke it stirred that dread demon of the earthquake
as a titan on whom the mountains are piled
it moved on its tortured couch
the altar rocked the tripod reeled
the column trembled and waved from side to side
right upon his bended form
at once suddenly without sound or motion or semblance of life upon the floor
the earth has preserved her children said glaucus staggering to his feet blessed be the dread convulsion
it seemed locked as in death blood gushed from the egyptian's lips over his glittering robes he fell heavily from the arms of glaucus and the red stream trickled slowly along the marble again the earth shook beneath their feet
the convulsion ceased as suddenly as it came they tarried no longer glaucus bore ione lightly in his arms and they fled from the unhallowed spot
whose festive and glittering garments contrasted in mockery the solemn terror of the hour they did not appear to heed the strangers
after the tranquillity of sixteen years
the earthquake the earthquake and passing unmolested from the midst of them
and there sitting on a little mound over which spread the gloom of the dark green aloes
at the first grey dawn of the day
sleepless and alone on the summit of the lofty and pyramidal tower which flanked his house a tall parapet around it served as a wall and conspired
to defy the prying eyes of curiosity or observation a table on which lay a scroll filled with mystic figures was before him on high the stars waxed dim and faint
and the shades of night melted from the sterile mountain tops
the struggle of night and day was more visible over the broad ocean which stretched calm like a gigantic lake bounded by the circling shores that covered with vines and foliage and gleaming here and there with the white walls of sleeping cities
it was the hour above all others most sacred to the daring science of the egyptian the science which would read our changeful destinies in the stars he had filled his scroll
again do the stars forewarn me some danger then assuredly awaits me said he slowly some danger violent and sudden in its nature
the stars wear for me the same mocking menace which if our chronicles do not err
for him doomed to strive for all things to enjoy none all attacking nothing gaining battles without fruit laurels without triumph fame without success at last made craven by his own superstitions
and slain like a dog by a tile from the hand of an old woman verily the stars flatter when they give me a type in this fool of war when they promise to the ardour of my wisdom the same results as to the madness of his ambition
let me look again beware say the shining prophets how thou passest under ancient roofs or besieged walls
is charged by the curses of destiny against thee and at no distant date from this comes the peril but i cannot of a certainty
well if my glass runs low the sands shall sparkle to the last yet if i escape this peril
i see honors happiness success shining upon every billow of the dark gulf beneath which i must sink at last what then with such destinies beyond the peril shall i succumb to the peril
my soul whispers hope it sweeps exultingly beyond the boding hour
he paced rapidly the narrow space of that star roofed floor and pausing at the parapet looked again upon the grey and melancholy heavens the chills of the faint dawn came refreshingly upon his brow
no lights save here and there from before the columns of a temple
the streams of life circulated not they lay locked under the ice of sleep
with its stony seats rising one above the other coiled and round as some slumbering monster rose a thin and ghastly mist which gathered darker and more dark over the scattered foliage that gloomed in its vicinity
the city seemed as after the awful change of seventeen ages it seems now to the traveler a city of the dead the ocean itself that serene and tideless sea
stabiae and herculaneum and pompeii those children and darlings of the deep ye slumber said the egyptian
as he scowled over the cities the boast and flower of campania ye slumber
as ye now jewels in the crown of empire so once were the cities of the nile their greatness hath perished from them they sleep amidst ruins their palaces and their shrines are tombs
the serpent coils in the grass of their streets the lizard basks in their solitary halls by that mysterious law of nature which humbles one to exalt the other
thou haughty rome
the time shall come when egypt shall be avenged
as the egyptian uttered a prediction which fate so fearfully fulfilled
the morning light which can pale so wanly even the young cheek of beauty gave his majestic and stately features almost the colors of the grave
and the glittering eyes fierce with a savage gladness half prophet and half fiend
before him lay the vineyards and meadows of the rich campania the gate and walls ancient half pelasgic of the city seemed not to bound its extent
villas and villages stretched on every side up the ascent of vesuvius not nearly then so steep or so lofty as at present for as rome itself is built on an exhausted volcano
so in similar security the inhabitants of the south tenanted the green and vine clad places
from the gate stretched the long street of tombs various in size and architecture by which on that side the city is as yet approached above all
rode the cloud capped summit of the dread mountain with the shadows now dark now light betraying the mossy caverns and ashy rocks which testified the past conflagrations and might have prophesied
but man is blind that which was to come difficult was it then and there to guess the causes why the tradition of the place wore so gloomy and stern a hue why in those smiling plains
for miles around to baiae and misenum
why in those phlegrae now laughing with the vine
save indeed that yet in yon seared and blasted summit fancy might think to read the characters of the olympian thunderbolt but it was neither the rugged height of the still volcano
nor the melancholy avenue of tombs nor the glittering villas of a polished and luxurious people
broken here and there by jagged crags and copses of wild foliage at the base of this lay a marshy and unwholesome pool and the intent gaze of arbaces caught the outline of some living form moving by the marshes
and stooping ever and anon as if to pluck its rank produce ho said he aloud i have then another companion in these unworldly night watches
what doth she too as the credulous imagine doth she too learn the lore of the great stars hath she been uttering foul magic to the moon or culling
as her pauses betoken foul herbs from the venomous marsh well
if he could find such a paragon he would marry her there were many beautiful maidens in the land but they were not the cleverest there were also many maidens who were clever enough but they were not the fairest this much is certain
half enough good looks and wit to suit him he was now of an age when he and his father the king and their faithful subjects were all of opinion that he ought to get married but as we have seen
his addresses so he determined to journey to other countries and to travel incognito and unattended
he traveled far and wide from one land to another but it fared with him abroad as it had fared with him at home
he rode and rode still he could not get to the end of the forest noonday came
he had no idea where he was
and they were both tired out at last he saw a small cloud of blue smoke rising amid the green trees and riding toward it he soon came to a little cottage very poor and mean looking
but he was glad enough for here at least he should find somebody
they appeared very much astonished to see such a fine handsome young knight the prince after wishing them good evening
but when he told them that neither he nor his horse could hold out any longer so greatly did they need rest and a night's lodging
his first care was for his horse stable there was none but there was a bit of a shed for the old people's cow
tired beast then he went into the cottage which consisted of one little room which was both dark and low he sat down on a wooden bench and began to talk to the old people
did they live here all alone in the wild wood yes the old folk said they did
they got on as best they could
then the prince had his supper the best the house could afford a crust of dry bread and a bowl of milk the old folk then fetched a wisp of straw
intending to lie upon it they had but one bed and they meant to give it up to their grand guest but the prince would not hear of such a thing
and he would lie on the bundle of straw that was spread upon the floor
but he was thoroughly tired out so he soon fell asleep
then he awoke and stiff enough he was in all his limbs from lying on so hard a bed
might be rats or mice or perhaps a cat yes it was certainly a cat
exactly like a spinning wheel then he heard singing that could not be the cat nor was it the song of
so sweet a song he had never heard before he sprang to his feet rubbed his eyes
and the old people persisted
that there was no one in the house but themselves nay
i prefer believing what i have heard with my own ears and you may as well tell me the plain truth for i am determined to learn it one way or another so then the old man made a clean breast of it
the prince was quite right there was somebody else in the house it was their daughter
old and feeble as they were she earned a few pence by her spinning and weaving
nor woman eater either so far as he knew
and she came running down tripping along clad in mean attire so blithe and fresh and fair
never had he seen anything half so lovely as she was he was utterly at a loss what to say or do
he might not even dream of making his wife so he turned resolutely away
getting his horse ready to start and would not so much as allow himself to look at her again but when he was in the saddle just setting off as he nodded good by to the old folk
and who now were bowing and scraping before him he could not help giving a side glance to where she stood gazing at him with lovely
farewell and as she returned his greeting with downcast eyes and bowed and blushing face the prince felt as if his heart were in his mouth the lovely eyes looked up once more as he galloped off
and they followed him till he was out of sight and not only did they follow him thus far but long after he had left both house and wood far behind those beautiful eyes still haunted him
and as he rode along he said to himself yes she is beautiful and more than beautiful enough for me but i also vowed that she whom i marry must be as clever or nearly as clever
as i am and that of course she cannot be he marked well where the little cottage stood and soon he reached a road he knew well for the wild wood lay on the very border of his own land
he rode straight home to his father's castle
the old king was much vexed on hearing this but he was so certain of his son's exceeding cleverness that he had no doubt matters were exactly as the prince represented he had but one wish
to see his son married before closing his eyes forever and he had such faith in his son
so now the prince was at home once more surrounded by all the good things imaginable and yet he knew not one moment's content
dainty food failed to tempt his appetite
and whether he would or not at last he said to himself there must be an end of this
he determined to convince himself
so he wrote a letter to her
he sent off a royal courier at once bidding him bring back an immediate answer
and now he felt bound to perform the vow that he had made which was just what he most wished to do so he rode forth with all his royal train
once while traveling through his territories he came to a well that was filled to the brim with clear cold water and being very thirsty he stopped to drink on the top of the water floated a golden vessel which the king attempted to seize
but just as his hand touched it away it floated to the other side of the well he went around to where the vessel rested and tried again with the same result every time the king touched the basin it glided from his grasp
at last losing patience he gave up trying to seize the vessel and bending over the well he began to drink his long beard had fallen into the water and when he had slaked his thirst and attempted to rise
he found himself held fast by it after vainly pulling and jerking for some time he looked down into the water and saw a hideous face grinning at him its eyes were green and shining its teeth showed from ear to ear
and it held him by the beard with two bony claws in horror the king tried to extricate himself but a terrible voice came from the depths of the well you cannot get away king kojata so do not make me pull your beard too hard
there is something at the palace of which you do not know promise to give it to me and i will release you the king did not know of anything that could have arrived at the palace during his absence worth the discomfort he was experiencing
so he very readily gave his promise and was freed when he had shaken the water from his beard he looked in the well for the ugly monster which had held him captive but he was nowhere to be seen
summoning his attendants he at once set out for home where he arrived in a few days the people along the way hailed him with delight and when he reached the palace the queen led him to the royal chamber and showed him a beautiful son
that had been born during his absence his joy was so great that he forgot all else but after a time he recalled with horror his compact with the monster of the well and the meaning was all plain to him
the thought of what he had promised haunted him day and night and the fear that something would happen to his little son tortured him but as days and months passed and the little prince grew more beautiful all the time
the king at last forgot his fears and became happy once more years went by without anything happening to disturb his peace of mind and the prince grew to be a beautiful youth who was the joy and pride of the king and queen
one day he went with the hunters to the forest and while pursuing a wild boar became separated from them he got farther and farther away from his companions and at last found himself alone in a dark part of the wood
where he never before had been not knowing in which direction his path lay he called again and again to the hunters at last a hoarse voice answered him and from the hollow trunk of a lime tree
appeared a hideous man with green eyes and terrible teeth i've waited for you a long time prince milan said he who on earth may you be asked the prince your father will tell you who i am
just give my greetings to his majesty and tell him that i am ready to claim the debt he owes me the green eyed man then disappeared into the hollow tree from which he came and when the prince reached home he related his experience to his father
the king turned white and cried at last it has come then he explained to the prince what had occurred at the well and added now my happiness is at an end for you my son will be taken from me
the prince told the king not to despair for though he might go away he was certain to return to him his father provided him with a handsome horse with golden stirrups and the queen gave him a cross to wear about his neck
when he had said farewell to his unhappy parents he mounted his horse and rode for two days without stopping on the third day he came to a lake on whose smooth surface thirty ducks were swimming
while spread about upon the grass were thirty white garments the prince dismounted and taking up one of the garments seated himself behind a bush and waited to see what would happen the ducks dived under the water
and disported themselves for a time then came ashore and putting on the little white garments they became beautiful maidens and disappeared but there was one little duck that remained on the lake and swam about in the most distracted manner
uttering piteous cries the prince came from behind the bush and the little duck begged him to give back her garment he had no sooner done so than before him stood the loveliest maiden he had ever seen
thank you prince milan for restoring my garment said she my name is hyacinthia and i am one of the thirty daughters of a king of the underworld to whose castle i will lead you for he has waited long for you
approach him on your knees and do not fear him for i will be there to help you whatever happens she tapped her little foot on the ground which opened and they were immediately transported to the palace of her father in the underworld
which was carved from a single carbuncle when his eyes became accustomed to the radiant light the prince saw the magician of the lime tree sitting on a dazzling throne his green eyes looked out from under a golden crown
and his hideous claws clutched the air with rage when he saw the prince remembering what the maiden had told him prince milan walked boldly up to the throne and knelt at the feet of the magician who cursed in a voice
that shook the underworld as the youth was not at all frightened the magician at last stopped swearing laughing at his courage he welcomed him to his palace and showed him to a beautiful chamber which he was to occupy
on the following day he sent for him and said you are very brave prince milan but you must pay the penalty for keeping me waiting so long for you to night build me a palace of gold and marble
with windows of crystal and about it the most beautiful gardens in the world or tomorrow i shall cut off your head the prince went back to his chamber and sadly awaited his doom that evening a small bee flew in through his window
and as soon as it entered the room it became hyacinthia why are you sad prince milan she asked he told her of her father's impossible command and added naturally i am not happy at the thought of losing my head
do not be distressed about that said she but trust to me in the morning he looked out of the window and saw a wonderful marble palace with a roof of gold when the magician beheld it he exclaimed
you have accomplished a great wonder but i cannot let you off so easily to morrow i will place my thirty daughters in a row and if you cannot tell me which one is the youngest you will lose your head
the prince however was not cast down at this for he thought he would have no trouble in recognizing hyacinthia that evening the little bee entered the room and told him that this task
was quite as difficult as the first because the sisters were all exactly alike but you will know me said she by a little fly which you will discover on my cheek
the next day the magician summoned him to his presence and showed him the thirty daughters standing in a row the prince passed before them twice without daring to choose
but he saw the little fly on the pink cheek of one of the maidens this is hyacinthia exclaimed he the magician was greatly astonished but not yet satisfied he required of the prince still another task
if before this candle burns to the bottom said he you make me a pair of boots reaching to my knees i will let you go but if you fail you will lose your head
when the prince had told her of this new task she breathed on the window pane and straightway it was covered with frost then leading prince milan from the chamber she locked the door and they fled through the passage by which they had entered the underworld
beside the smooth lake his horse was still grazing and mounting it they were borne swiftly away when the magician sent for the prince to come to him
the frozen breath replied to the messengers and so delayed the discovery of his escape at last the magician lost patience and ordered the door burst open the frozen breath mocked at him and he hastened in pursuit of the fugitives
i hear the sound of horses feet behind us said hyacinthia the prince dismounted and putting his ear to the ground answered yes they are near hyacinthia thereupon changed herself into a river and the prince became a bridge
and his horse a blackbird their pursuers no longer finding their footprints were obliged to return to the magician who cursed them and again sent them forth i hear the sound of horses feet behind us
again said hyacinthia the prince put his ear to the earth and said yes they are nearly upon us thereupon hyacinthia changed herself the prince and the horse all into a dense forest in which many paths crossed
so that the followers were bewildered and they again returned to the magician i hear horses feet behind us said hyacinthia a third time and this time it was the magician himself
hyacinthia took the little cross from the neck of the prince and changed herself into a church the prince into a monk and the horse into the belfry so that when the magician came up he lost all trace of them
and was obliged to return to the underworld in great chagrin when he had departed the prince and hyacinthia mounted the horse and rode till they came to a beautiful town we must not enter said she for we may not come out again
but the prince would not take her advice and insisted upon passing through the gates then sadly replied the maiden when the king and queen of the town come out to meet you do not kiss the little child which they will lead by the hand
or you will forget me and never come back as for me i will become a milestone and wait for you here it was all as hyacinthia had said the king and queen came out to greet him and when the lovely little child ran up to him for a caress
he kissed its pretty face and forgot hyacinthia the first and second day went by and when the third day came hyacinthia wept and became a little blue flower growing by the roadside
an old man came along and digging up the flower carried it home with him and planted it in his garden he watered and tended it carefully and one day the little flower became a beautiful maiden
to morrow is prince milan's wedding day said the old man hyacinthia at once dried her tears and presented herself at the palace dressed like a peasant she went to the cook and asked to be allowed to make the wedding cake
the cook was so struck with her beauty that he could not refuse the request when the guests were all seated about the table prince milan was called upon to cut the cake as soon as he had done so
out flew two beautiful doves which circled about his head dear mate cried one of the doves do not leave me as prince milan left hyacinthia the prince who suddenly recollected all he had forgotten
ran from the room and at the door found hyacinthia and his horse awaiting him they mounted and rode swiftly away to the kingdom of king kojata
the caliph being in an affable state of mind summoned the peddler who delighted with the opportunity displayed all the treasures of his pack there were pearls rings silks and many other rich things
the caliph selected something for himself a handsome present for the vizier and another for the vizier's wife just as the peddler was putting the things back into his box the caliph noticed a small drawer and asked what it contained
only something of no value which i picked up in a street of mecca the peddler replied he thereupon opened the drawer and showed the caliph a small box containing a black powder and a scroll written in characters
which neither the caliph nor his grand vizier could make out the caliph immediately decided that he wanted this strange scroll and the peddler was persuaded to part with it for a trifle then the vizier was asked to find some one to decipher its meaning
near the mosque lived a man called selim who was so learned that he knew every language in the world when the vizier brought him to interpret the scroll
they tell me that you are a scholar and can read all languages if you can decipher what is written here i shall know that it is true and will give you a robe of honor but if you fail i shall have you punished with many strokes because you are falsely named
selim prostrated himself at the feet of the caliph and then took the scroll he had not looked at it long when he exclaimed my lord and master i hope to die if this is not latin
well if so let us hear what it says the caliph impatiently answered selim at once began let him who finds this box praise allah if he snuffs the powder it contains at the same time pronouncing the word matabor
he will be transformed into any creature that he desires and will understand the language of all animals when he wishes to return to his own form let him bow to the east three times repeating the word matabor
but remember if while he is bird or beast he should laugh the magic word would be forgotten and the enchantment would be on him forever the caliph was delighted with the knowledge of selim
he made him a splendid present and told him to keep the secret when he had dismissed the learned man he turned to the grand vizier and expressed a wish to try the powder come to morrow morning early said he and we will go together to the country
and learn what the animals are talking about the vizier came as he was ordered and they left the palace without attendants beyond the town was a large pond where some handsome storks were often seen and to this place they presently came
a grave and stately stork was hunting for frogs while another flew about and kept him company most gracious lord said the vizier what think you of these dignified long legs and how would you like to know their chatter
the caliph replied that the stork had always interested him and he would very much like a more intimate acquaintance taking the box from his girdle he helped himself to a pinch of snuff and offered it to the vizier who followed his example
together they cried matabor and instantly their beards disappeared and feathers covered their bodies their necks stretched out long and slender and their legs shriveled into red and shapeless sticks
the caliph lifted up his foot to stroke his beard in astonishment but found a long bill in its place by the beard of the prophet since i have not one of my own to swear by but we are a pretty pair of birds mansor
if i may say so your highness you are equally handsome as a stork as when you were a caliph replied the vizier i see our two relations are conversing over there shall we join them
when they came near to where the storks were smoothing their feathers and touching bills in the most friendly manner this was the conversation they overheard will you have some of my frog's legs for breakfast dame yellowlegs no thank you
i am obliged to practise a dance for my father's guests and cannot eat thereupon dame yellowlegs stepped out and began to pose most gracefully the caliph and the vizier watched her until she stood on one foot and spread her wings
then they both at the same time burst into such peals of laughter that the two storks flew away suddenly however the vizier ceased his mirth and commenced bowing to the east the caliph recovered himself and did the same but neither could think of the magic word
and you my grand vizier i have had enough of being a bird for one day most gracious lord that dancing stork has undone us for since laughing at her antics i cannot remember the word that will restore us to human shape
so at last in despair the two unhappy birds wandered through the meadows they appeased their hunger with fruits for they could not bring themselves to eat frogs and lizards as they dared not return to bagdad and tell the people their chagrin
they flew over the city and had the satisfaction of seeing signs of mourning and confusion in a few days however while sitting on the roof of a house they saw a splendid procession coming up the street and the people welcoming the new ruler hail
the procession came nearer
he at once recognized the new ruler as the son of his worst enemy behold said he the explanation of our enchantment this is the son of kaschnur the magician who is my great enemy who seeks revenge
let us not lose hope but fly to the sacred grave of the prophet and pray to be released from the spell they at once spread their wings and soared away toward medina
but not being accustomed to such long flights they soon became fatigued and descended to a ruin which stood in a valley below the two enchanted birds decided to remain there for the night then wandered through the deserted rooms and corridors
which gave of evidence of former splendor suddenly the vizier stopped and remarked that if it were not ridiculous for a stork to be afraid of ghosts he would feel decidedly nervous the caliph listened and heard a low moaning and sobbing
which seemed to come from a room down the passage he started to rush toward it but the vizier held him fast by a wing he had retained the brave heart that he had possessed when a caliph however and freeing himself from the vizier's bill he hurried to the room
whence came the pitiful sounds the moon shone through a barred window and showed him a screech owl sitting on the floor of the ruined chamber lamenting in a hoarse voice the vizier had cautiously stolen up beside the caliph
and at sight of the two storks the screech owl uttered a cry of pleasure to their astonishment it addressed them in arabic in the following words i have abandoned myself to despair but i believe my deliverance is near
for it was prophesied in my youth that a stork would bring me good fortune the caliph thus appealed to arched his neck most gracefully and replied alas screech owl i fear we are unable to aid you
the screech owl became very much excited and exclaimed
i am tusa the daughter of the king of the indies
for his son mirza my father ordered him thrown down stairs
a powder which changed me into this hideous shape he then conveyed me to this lonely castle
and so freed me from the enchantment at the conclusion of her story the screech owl wept anew and would not be consoled suddenly however she wiped her eyes on her wing and said
i have an idea that may lead to our deliverance once every month the magician kaschnur and his companions meet in a large hall at this castle where they feast and relate their evil deeds
we will listen outside the door and perhaps you may hear the forgotten word then when you have resumed human form one of you can ask to marry me that i too may be freed from this wretched enchantment and the prophecy that a stork would bring me happiness
the caliph and the vizier withdrew and consulted over the situation it is unfortunate said the caliph but if we are to meet again i think you will have to ask the screech owl to marry you not so your highness
i already have a wife and would rather remain a stork forever than take another besides i am an old man while you are young and unmarried and much better suited to a beautiful princess that is it said the caliph
how do i know that she will not prove to be some old fright as the vizier was firm the caliph at last said he would take the chances and do as the screech owl required that very night it so happened that the magicians met at the ruined castle
the screech owl led the two storks through difficult passages till they came to a hole in the wall
handsomely carved pillars adorned the room and a table was spread with many dishes about the table sat eight men among whom was their enemy the magician he entertained the company with many stories
and at last came to his latest that of turning the caliph and vizier into storks in relating which he pronounced the magic word the storks did not wait to hear more but ran to the door of the castle
the screech owl followed as fast as she could and when the caliph saw her he exclaimed to prove my gratitude o our deliverer i beg you to take me for your husband then the two storks faced the rising sun and bowed their long necks three times
matabor they solemnly cried together and in an instant they were no longer storks but stood before each other in their natural forms in their joy they fell on each other's necks and forgot all about the screech owl until they heard a sweet voice beside them
and turning beheld a beautiful princess when the caliph recovered from his astonishment he said that he was now indeed enchanted and hoped to remain so always they then started at once for the gate of bagdad
and when they arrived the people were overjoyed for they had believed their ruler dead the magician was taken to the ruined castle and hanged and his son was given the choice of the black powder or death choosing the powder
he was changed into a stork and was kept in the palace gardens caliph charid and the princess were married and when their children grew old enough the caliph often amused them with imitations of the grand vizier when he was a stork
much less was i able in my own strength but like a barbarian have i murdered and defiled the language of others
and i was indignant that the name of my own people formerly famous and distinguished should sink into oblivion and like smoke be dissipated
than nobody although so many are to be found who might much more satisfactorily discharge the labour thus imposed on me i humbly entreat my readers whose ears i may offend by the inelegance of my words
for zealous efforts very often fail but bold enthusiasm were it in its power would not suffer me to fail may therefore candour be shown where the inelegance of my words is insufficient
and may the truth of this history which my rustic tongue has ventured as a kind of plough to trace out in furrows lose none of its influence from that cause
for it is better to drink a wholesome draught of truth from the humble vessel
to winnow my chaff and lay up the wheat in the storehouse of your memory for truth regards not who is the speaker nor in what manner it is spoken but that the thing be true and she does not despise the jewel which she has rescued from the mud
who kindled with generous ardour have endeavoured by roman eloquence to smooth the jarring elements of their tongue if they have left unshaken any pillar of history which i wished to see remain this history therefore has been compiled from a wish to benefit my inferiors
of our lord's incarnation and in the twenty fourth year of mervin
that the prayers of my betters will be offered up for me in recompence of my labour
have endeavoured to write some extracts which the dulness of the british nation had cast away because teachers had no knowledge nor gave any information in their books about this island of britain but i have got together all that i could find
as from the chronicles of the sacred fathers hieronymus eusebius
and from our ancient traditions many teachers and scribes have attempted to write this but somehow or other have abandoned it from its difficulty
i pray that every reader who shall read this book may pardon me for having attempted like a chattering jay or like some weak witness to write these things after they had failed
and it was suspected that he was begotten in adultery by his father in law the following verse however was immediately in every one's mouth
nine months for common births the fates decree
nor did he desist from pursuing them until an apparition in the form of a barbarian woman of more than human size appeared to him
these achievements he had the honour of an ovation and the triumphal ornaments
and returning again to germany died of disease in the summer encampment which thence obtained the name of the unlucky camp his corpse was carried to rome by the principal persons of the several municipalities and colonies upon the road
and gave the cognomen of germanicus to him and his posterity in him the civil and military virtues were equally displayed for besides his victories
he likewise often declared that he would some time or other if possible restore the ancient government in this account i suppose some have ventured to affirm that augustus was jealous of him and recalled him
and because he made no haste to comply with the order took him off by poison this i mention that i may not be guilty of any omission more than because i think it either true or probable
since augustus loved him so much when living that he always in his wills made him joint heir with his sons as he once declared in the senate and upon his decease extolled him
in a speech to the people to that degree that he prayed the gods to make his caesars like him and to grant himself as honourable an exit out of this world as they had given him and not satisfied with inscribing upon his tomb
an epitaph in verse composed by himself he wrote likewise the history of his life in prose he had by the younger antonia several children but left behind him only three namely germanicus livilla
and during almost the whole of his minority and for some time after
and body being greatly impaired he was even after his arrival at years of maturity never thought sufficiently qualified for any public or private employment he was therefore during a long time and even after the expiration of his minority
under the direction of a pedagogue who he complains in a certain memoir
on account of this crazy constitution of body and mind
he presided muffled up in a pallium a new fashion when he assumed the manly habit he was carried in a litter at midnight to the capitol
from an early age with great assiduity to the study of the liberal sciences and frequently published specimens of his skill in each of them but never with all his endeavours could he attain to any public post in the government
or afford any hope of arriving at distinction thereafter his mother antonia frequently called him
but never finished by nature and when she would upbraid any one with dulness she said he was a greater fool than her son claudius his grandmother augusta always treated him with the utmost contempt
it was in writing very briefly and severely or by messengers his sister livilla upon hearing that he was about to be created emperor openly and loudly expressed her indignation
we are both agreed in this that once for all we ought to determine what course to take with him
by the same steps and degrees we did his brother but if we find him below par and deficient both in body and mind we must beware of giving occasion for him and ourselves to be laughed at by the world
which is ready enough to make such things the subject of mirth and derision
without settling in the first instance
i am not against his superintending the feast of the priests in the games of mars if he will suffer himself to be governed by his kinsman silanus's son that he may do nothing to make the people stare and laugh at him
in the very front of the theatre
for if he be capable of attending his brother to the mount
this part of my letter to read in another letter he writes as follows i shall invite the youth tiberius every day during your absence to supper that he may not sup alone with his friends sulpicius
and athenodorus i wish the poor creature was more cautious and attentive in the choice of some one whose manners air and gait might be proper for his imitation
in things of consequence he sadly fails where his mind does not run astray he discovers a noble disposition in a third letter he says let me die my dear livia
if i am not astonished that the declamation of your grandson tiberius should please me for how he who talks so ill should be able to declaim so clearly and properly i cannot imagine
naming him amongst the heirs of the third degree who were but distantly allied to his family for a sixth part of his estate only
of the consulship and when he pressed for a legitimate appointment the emperor wrote word back that he sent him forty gold pieces for his expenses during the festivals
upon this laying aside all hope of advancement he resigned himself entirely to an indolent life living in great privacy
another while in campania
by which means besides his former character of a dull heavy fellow he acquired that of a drunkard
much respect was shown him both in public and private
twice made choice of him to intercede on their behalf once to obtain from the consuls the favour of bearing on their shoulders the corpse of augustus to rome and a second time to congratulate him upon the death of sejanus
when he entered the theatre they used to rise and put off their cloaks the senate likewise decreed
leaving him besides a legacy of two millions of sesterces and expressly recommending him to the armies
claudius also was admitted to public offices and held the consulship jointly with his nephew for two months
an eagle which was flying that way alighted upon his right shoulder
he sometimes presided at the public spectacles as the representative of caius
wishing him all happiness sometimes under the title of the emperor's uncle
if at any time he came in late to supper
the company used to throw olive stones and dates at him and the buffoons who attended would wake him
sometimes they would put slippers upon his hands as he lay snoring that he might upon awaking
first in his consulship for having been too remiss
nero and drusus he was very near being deprived of his office and afterwards he was continually harassed with informations against him by one or other
was also allowed to be prosecuted
at last being obliged to pay eight millions of sesterces on entering upon a new office of priesthood he was reduced to such straits in his private affairs that in order to discharge his bond to the treasury he was under the necessity of exposing to sale his whole estate
and the like circumstances he came at last to the empire
and desirous to discover who he was pulled him out when immediately recognizing him
and saluted him by the title of emperor he then conducted him to his fellow soldiers who were all in a great rage and irresolute what they should do they put him into a litter and as the slaves of the palace had all fled
took their turns in carrying him on their shoulders and brought him into the camp
for the consuls with the senate and civic troops had possessed themselves of the forum and capitol with the determination to assert the public liberty and he being sent for likewise by a tribune of the people to the senate house
to give his advice upon the present juncture of affairs returned answer i am under constraint and cannot possibly come the day afterwards
while the people who surrounded the senate house shouted
and pardon for every thing said or done during that time and this he faithfully observed with the exception only of putting to death a few tribunes and centurions concerned in the conspiracy against caius both as an example
and because he understood that they had also planned his own death
his most solemn and usual oath was
declaring by a proclamation that he the more earnestly insisted upon the observation of his father drusus's birth day because it was likewise that of his grandfather antony
he completed the marble arch near pompey's theatre which had formerly been decreed by the senate in honour of tiberius
yet he forbad the day of his assassination notwithstanding it was that of his own accession to the empire
he was sparing and modest declining the title of emperor and refusing all excessive honours he celebrated the marriage of his daughter
as one of their assessors and when they gave public spectacles he would rise up with the rest of the spectators and salute them both by words and gestures
he excused himself because on account of the crowd he could not hear them unless they stood in a short time by this conduct he wrought himself so much into the favour and affection of the public that when upon his going to ostia
a report was spread in the city that he had been way laid and slain the people never ceased cursing the soldiers for traitors and the senate as parricides until one or two persons and presently after several others were brought by the magistrates upon the rostra
not only by individuals separately but by a faction
a low fellow was found with a poniard about him near his chamber at midnight two men of the equestrian order were discovered waiting for him in the streets armed with a tuck and a huntsman's dagger one of them intending to attack him as he came out of the theatre
and the other as he was sacrificing in the temple of mars
the legions which he had seduced from their oath of fidelity relinquishing their purpose upon an alarm occasioned by ill omens for when orders were given them to march to meet their new emperor the eagles could not be decorated nor the standards pulled out of the ground
he constantly attended the courts for the administration of justice even upon such days as were solemnly observed as days of rejoicing in his family or by his friends
who concealing the privilege his children gave him to be excused from serving had answered to his name as too eager for the office another who was summoned before him in a cause of his own
how equitable a judge he would prove in that of other persons a woman refusing to acknowledge her own son and there being no clear proof on either side he obliged her to confess the truth
against those who did not without inquiring whether their absence was occasioned by their own fault or by real necessity on proclamation of a man's being convicted of forgery and that he ought to have his hand cut off he insisted
that an executioner should be immediately sent for with a spanish sword and a block a person being prosecuted for falsely assuming the freedom of rome and a frivolous dispute arising between the advocates in the cause
or grecian dress to show his impartiality he commanded him to change his clothes several times according to the character he assumed in the accusation or defence an anecdote is related of him
and believed to be true that in a particular cause he delivered his sentence in writing thus
that he was everywhere and openly despised a person making an excuse
he had sent for from the provinces declared it was impossible for him to appear concealing the reason for some time at last after several interrogatories were put to him on the subject he answered the man is dead to which claudius replied
for said he his father is his proper censor
but likewise deprived of the freedom of rome an illustrious man of the highest provincial rank in greece only because he was ignorant of the latin language nor in this review did he suffer any one to give an account of his conduct by an advocate
but obliged each man to speak for himself in the best way he could he disgraced many and some that little expected it and for a reason entirely new
those whom he charged with living in celibacy with want of children or estate proving themselves to be husbands parents and in affluent circumstances one of the knights who was charged with stabbing himself laid his bosom bare
to show that there was not the least mark of violence upon his body the following incidents were remarkable in his censorship he ordered a car plated with silver and of very sumptuous workmanship
he published twenty proclamations in one day in one of which he advised the people since the vintage was very plentiful to have their casks well secured at the bung with pitch and in another he told them that nothing would sooner cure the bite of a viper
he considered as beneath the imperial dignity
but even to some of the exiles among the spoils taken from the enemy he fixed upon the pediment of his house in the palatium a naval crown in token of his having passed and as it were conquered the ocean
and had it suspended near the civic crown which was there before
in the same war rode behind the rest followed on foot wearing the robe with the broad stripes crassus frugi was mounted upon a horse richly caparisoned in a robe embroidered with palm leaves
he caused the magistrates to summon the people out of all the streets in the city to their assistance placing bags of money before him he encouraged them to do their utmost declaring that he would reward every one on the spot
for several successive years
who so abused him at the same time pelting him with fragments of bread
he proposed to the merchants a sure profit by indemnifying them against any loss that might befall them by storms at sea and granted great privileges to those who built ships for that traffic
the freedom of the city and to women the rights which by law belonged to those who had four children
were very useful the principal were an aqueduct which had been begun by caius
he brought to the city the cool and plentiful springs of the claudian water one of which is called caeruleus and the other curtius and albudinus as likewise the river of the new anio in a stone canal
and distributed them into many magnificent reservoirs the canal from the fucine lake was undertaken as much for the sake of profit as for the honour of the enterprise for there were parties who offered to drain it at their own expense
on condition of their having a grant of the land laid dry with great difficulty he completed a canal three miles in length partly by cutting through and partly by tunnelling a mountain thirty thousand men being constantly employed in the work
by carrying out circular piers on the right and on the left
in imitation of the pharos at alexandria on which lights were burnt
and entertained them with a great variety of public magnificent spectacles not only such as were usual and in the accustomed places but some of new invention and others revived from ancient models
and was rebuilt by him he presided upon a tribunal erected for him in the orchestra having first paid his devotions in the temple above
though he himself says in his history that they had been omitted before the age of augustus who had calculated the years with great exactness
to games which no person had ever before seen nor ever would again when many were still living who had already seen them
were now again brought upon the stage
and assigned proper places for the senators
besides the chariot races he exhibited there the trojan game and wild beasts from africa which were encountered by a troop of pretorian knights with their tribunes and even the prefect at the head of them
and drag them by the horns to the ground he gave exhibitions of gladiators in several places and of various kinds
another in the septa as usual and in the same place another out of the common way and of a few days continuance only
because when he was going to present it he informed the people by proclamation
got up in haste and without ceremony nor did he lend himself to any kind of public diversion with more freedom and hilarity insomuch that he would hold out his left hand
the gold pieces presented to those who came off conquerors he would earnestly invite the company to be merry sometimes calling them his masters with a mixture of insipid far fetched jests
he would give them one when he could catch it the following was well intended and well timed having amidst great applause spared a gladiator on the intercession of his four sons he sent a billet immediately round the theatre
to remind the people how much it behoved them to get children since they had before them an example how useful they had been in procuring favour and security for a gladiator he likewise represented in the campus martius the assault and sacking of a town
immediately before he drew off the waters from the fucine lake he exhibited upon it a naval fight but the combatants on board the fleets crying out health attend you noble emperor we who are about to peril our lives salute you
the next morning diamond was up almost as early as before he had nothing to fear from his mother now and made no secret of what he was about by the time he reached the stable several of the men were there
and he told them all they wanted to know but when he proceeded to harness the old horse they pushed him aside with rough kindness called him a baby and began to do it all for him
so diamond ran in and had another mouthful of tea and bread and butter and although he had never been so tired as he was the night before he started quite fresh this morning it was a cloudy day and the wind blew hard from the north
so hard sometimes that perched on the box with just his toes touching the ground
lest he should be blown away but he did not really mind it his head was full of the dream he had dreamed
for his work was not to dig stars but to drive old diamond and pick up fares there are not many people who can think about beautiful things and do common work at the same time but then there are not many people who have been to the back of the north wind
there was not much business doing and diamond felt rather cold notwithstanding his mother had herself put on his comforter and helped him with his greatcoat but he was too well aware of his dignity to get inside his cab as some do
a cabman ought to be above minding the weather at least so diamond thought at length he was called to a neighbouring house
for the roughs were in great force however there being no block not even in nightingale lane he reached the entrance of the wharf and set down his passenger without annoyance
but as he turned to go back some idlers not content with chaffing him showed a mind to the fare the young woman had given him they were just pulling him off the box and diamond was shouting for the police when a pale faced man
came up and making good use of his stick drove them off now my little man he said get on while you can
but diamond was not in the habit of thinking only of himself he saw that his new friend looked weary if not ill and very poor won't you jump in sir he said i will take you wherever you like
thank you my man but i have no money so i can't oh i don't want any money i shall be much happier if you will get in you have saved me all i had i owe you a lift sir
which way are you going to charing cross but i don't mind where i go well i am very tired if you will take me to charing cross i shall be greatly obliged to you i have walked from gravesend
so saying he opened the door and got in and diamond drove away but as he drove he could not help fancying he had seen the gentleman for diamond knew he was a gentleman before
do all he could however he could not recall where or when
whom the relief of being carried had made less and less inclined to carry himself had been turning over things in his mind and as they passed the mint called to diamond
if you didn't mind taking me to chiswick i should be able to pay you when we got there it's a long way but you shall have the whole fare from the docks and something over very well sir said diamond i shall be most happy
he was just clambering up again when the gentleman put his head out of the window and said it's the wilderness mister coleman's place but i'll direct you when we come into the neighbourhood it flashed upon diamond who he was
but he got upon his box to arrange his thoughts before making any reply the gentleman was mister evans to whom miss coleman was to have been married
i have said that he had not behaved very well to miss coleman he had put off their marriage more than once in a cowardly fashion
when a man thinks of what people will say in such a case he may love but his love is but a poor affair mister coleman took him into the firm as a junior partner
and it was in a measure through his influence that he entered upon those speculations which ruined him so his love had not been a blessing the ship which north wind had sunk was their last venture
and mister evans had gone out with it in the hope of turning its cargo to the best advantage he was one of the single boat load which managed to reach a desert island
but he was not past being taught and his troubles had done him no end of good for they had made him doubt himself
and hunt for her food and make clothes for her he would have thought himself the most fortunate of men
in which case it is the one frightful thing to be successful so he had come back a more humble man and longing to ask miss coleman to forgive him but he had no idea what ruin had fallen upon them
for he had never made himself thoroughly acquainted with the firm's affairs few speculative people do know their own affairs hence he never doubted he should find matters much as he left them
but if he had not fallen in with diamond he would not have thought of going there first what was diamond to do he had heard his father and mother drop some remarks concerning mister evans which made him doubtful of him
it was of course of no use to drive mister evans to chiswick but if he should tell him what had befallen them and where they lived now he might put off going to see them and he was certain that miss coleman at least must want very much to see mister evans
the moment he came to this conclusion he changed his course from westward to northward and went straight for mister coleman's poor little house in hoxton
and had no suspicion therefore of the change of direction by this time the wind had increased almost to a hurricane and as they had often to head it it was no joke for either of the diamonds the distance however was not great
before they reached the street where mister coleman lived it blew so tremendously that when miss coleman who was going out a little way opened the door it dashed against the wall with such a bang that she was afraid to venture and went in again
old diamond had so much ado to stop the cab against it
young diamond jumped off his box
then turned to the cab and said before mister evans had quite begun to think something must be amiss please sir my harness has given away would you mind stepping in here for a few minutes they're friends of mine i'll take you where you like after i've got it mended
half stupid with fatigue and want of food mister evans yielded to the boy's suggestion and walked in at the door which the maid held with difficulty against the wind she took mister evans for a visitor as indeed he was
and showed him into the room on the ground floor
tell miss coleman it's miss coleman he wants to see i don't know said the maid he don't look much like a gentleman he is though and i know him and so does miss coleman
the maid could not but remember diamond having seen him when he and his father brought the ladies home so she believed him
which is all about diamond if he had known that miss coleman thought mister evans was dead perhaps he would have managed differently there was a cry and a running to and fro in the house
almost as soon as mister evans went in the wind began to cease and was now still diamond found that by making the breeching just a little tighter than was quite comfortable for the old horse he could do very well for the present
and thinking it better to let him have his bag in this quiet place
in a little while mister evans came out and asked him to come in diamond obeyed and to his delight miss coleman put her arms round him and kissed him and there was payment for him not to mention the five precious shillings she gave him
which he could not refuse because his mother wanted them so much at home for his father he left them nearly as happy as they were themselves the rest of the day he did better and although he had not so much to take home as the day before
and how he had done and what was the result they asked him such a multitude of questions some of which he could answer and some of which he could not answer and his father seemed ever so much better from finding that his boy was already not only useful to his family but useful to other people
and did work worth doing for a fortnight diamond went on driving his cab and keeping his family he had begun to be known about some parts of london
one gentleman who lived near the mews engaged him to carry him to the city every morning at a certain hour and diamond was punctual as clockwork though to effect that required a good deal of care for his father's watch was not much to be depended on
between the two however he did make a success of it after that fortnight his father was able to go out again
chapter twenty four failure it must have been now about eleven o'clock the clouds had cleared off and the night had changed from brown and grey
to blue sparkling with gold i could see much better and fancied i could hear better too
i had not ridden far from the stable before i again found myself
with only the wide silent fields about me and the wider and more silent sky over my head the fear began to return i fancied something strange creeping along every ditch
something shapeless but with a terrible cry in it next i thought i saw a scarcely visible form now like a creature on all fours now like a man far off
but coming rapidly towards me across the nearest field it always vanished however before it came close the worst of it was that the faster i rode the more frightened i became
for my speed seemed to draw the terrors the faster after me having discovered this i changed my plan and when i felt more frightened drew rein and went slower
and certainly as often as i did so it abated fear is a worse thing than danger i had to pass very nigh the pool to which turkey and i had gone the night of our adventure with bogbonny's bull
that story was now far off in the past
notwithstanding in fact i owed the greater part of the courage i possessed
i dared not have gone on my own two legs it was not that i could so easily run away with four instead but that somehow i was lifted above the ordinary level of fear by being upon her back
at length i came in sight of the keeper's farm and just at that moment the moon peeped from behind a hill throwing as long shadows as the setting sun but in the other direction
the shadows were very different too somehow they were liker to the light that made them than the sun shadows are to the sunlight both the light and the shadows of the moon were strange and fearful to me
are all so strong and so real and so friendly you seem to know all about them they belong to your house
but with the moon and its shadows it is very different indeed the fact is the moon is trying to do what she cannot do
she is not able for this for her light is not her own it is second hand from the sun himself and her shadows therefore also are second hand shadows pieces cut out of the great sun shadow
and coloured a little with the moon's yellowness if i were writing for grown people i should tell them that those who understand things because they think about them and ask god to teach them walk in the sunlight
and others who take things because other people tell them so are always walking in the strange moonlight
for they hardly know light from darkness well at first the moon frightened me a little she looked so knowing and yet all she said round about me was so strange
but i rode quietly up to the back of the yard where the ricks stood got off missy and fastened the bridle to the gate and walked across to the cart shed where the moon was shining upon the ladder leading up to the loft
i climbed the ladder and after several failures succeeded in finding how the door was fastened when i opened it the moonlight got in before me
where jamie was lying asleep with a rug over him i crossed the floor knelt down by him and tried to wake him this was not so easy
he was far too sound asleep to be troubled by the rats for sleep is an armour yes a castle against many enemies i got hold of one of his hands
and in lifting it to pull him up found a cord tied to his wrist i was indignant
i gave the cord a great tug of anger pulled out my knife and cut it then hauling jamie up got him half awake at last he stared with fright first and then began to cry
as soon as he was awake enough to know me he stopped crying but not staring and his eyes seemed to have nothing better than moonlight in them come along jamie i said i'm come to take you home
i don't want to go home
that's very ungrateful of you jamie i said full of my own importance when i've come so far and all at night too to set you free i'm free enough said jamie
i don't want to go before the morning and he began to whimper again do you call this free i said holding up his wrist where the remnant of the cord was hanging oh
said jamie that's only but ere he got farther the moonlight in the loft was darkened i looked hurriedly towards the door there stood the strangest figure
with the moon behind it i thought at first it was the kelpie come after me for it was a tall woman my heart gave a great jump up but i swallowed it down
i would not disgrace myself before jamie it was not the kelpie however but the keeper's sister
i will not attempt to describe her appearance it was peculiar enough for she had just got out of bed and thrown an old shawl about her she was not pleasant to look at
for as jamie explained to me afterwards the cord which was tied to his wrist instead of being meant to keep him a prisoner was a device of her kindness to keep him from being too frightened
the other end had been tied to her wrist that if anything happened he might pull her
she said in a gruff voice as she advanced along the stream of moonlight i stood up as bravely as i could it's only me miss adam i said and who are you
she returned ranald bannerman i answered oh she said in a puzzled tone what are you doing here at this time of the night
i came to take jamie home but he won't go you're a silly boy to think my brother john would do him any harm she returned you're comfortable enough aren't you jamie duff
yes thank you ma'am quite comfortable said jamie who was now wide awake but please ma'am ranald didn't mean any harm he's a housebreaker though
and he'd better go home again as fast as he can if john adam should come out i don't exactly know what might happen or perhaps he'd like to stop and keep you company no thank you miss adam
i said i will go home come along then and let me shut the door after you somewhat nettled with jamie duff's indifference to my well meant exertions on his behalf
i followed her without even bidding him good night oh you've got missy have you she said spying her where she stood would you like a drink of milk or a piece of oatcake before you go
no thank you i said i shall be glad to go to bed i should think so she answered jamie is quite comfortable i assure you and i'll take care he's in time for school in the morning
there's no harm in him poor thing she undid the bridle for me helped me to mount in the kindest way bade me good night and stood looking after me till i was some distance off
i went home at a good gallop took off the saddle and bridle and laid them in a cart in the shed turned missy loose into the stable shut the door and ran across the field to the manse
desiring nothing but bed when i came near the house from the back i saw a figure entering the gate from the front it was in the full light of the moon which was now up a good way
and peeping round saw that my first impression was correct it was the kelpie she entered and closed the door behind her very softly afraid of being locked out a danger which had scarcely occurred to me before
she gave a cry of alarm but presently opened the door looking pale and frightened what are you doing out of doors this time of the night she asked but without quite her usual arrogance
for although she tried to put it on her voice trembled too much i retorted the question what were you doing out yourself i said
looking after you of course that's why you locked the door i suppose to keep me out she had no answer ready but looked as if she would have struck me
i shall let your father know of your goings on she said recovering herself a little you need not take the trouble i shall tell him myself at breakfast to morrow morning i have nothing to hide
you had better tell him too i said this not that i did not believe she had been out to look for me but because i thought she had locked the door to annoy me
for doors were seldom locked in the summer nights in that part of the country she made me no reply but turned and left me not even shutting the door
child and garden flower and sun vanish all things mortal as the building shadows fall as the rays diminish under evening's cloak they all
garden darkened daisy shut child in bed they slumber glow worm in the hallway rut mice among the lumber
in the darkness houses shine parents move the candles till on all the night divine turns the bedroom handles till at last the day begins
in the east a breaking in the hedges and the whins sleeping birds a waking in the darkness shapes of things houses trees and hedges
clearer grow and sparrow's wings beat on window ledges these shall wake the yawning maid she the door shall open finding dew on garden glade
and the morning broken there my garden grows again green and rosy painted as at eve behind the pane from my eyes it fainted
just as it was shut away toy like in the even here i see it glow with day under glowing heaven every path and every plot
every blush of roses every blue forget me not where the dew reposes up they cry the day is come on the smiling valleys
we have beat the morning drum playmate
birds all the sunny day flutter and quarrel here in the arbour like tent of the laurel here in the fork the brown nest is seated four little blue eggs
while we stand watching her staring like gabies safe in each egg are the
soon the frail eggs they shall chip and upspringing make all the april woods
younger than we are o children and frailer soon in the blue air they'll be singer and sailor we so much older taller and stronger
we shall look down on the birdies no longer they shall go flying with musical speeches high overhead in the tops of the beeches in spite of our wisdom and
sensible talking we on our feet must go
all the names i know from nurse gardener's garters shepherd's purse bachelor's buttons lady's smock
fairy places fairy things fairy woods where the wild bee wings tiny trees for tiny dames these must all be fairy names
tiny woods below whose boughs shady fairies weave a house
fair are grown up people's trees
great is the sun and wide he goes through empty heaven with repose and in the blue and glowing days
though closer still the blinds we pull to keep the shady parlour cool yet he will find a chink or two to slip his golden fingers through
the dusty attic spider clad he through the keyhole maketh glad and through the broken edge of tiles into the laddered hay loft smiles
he bares to all the garden ground and sheds a warm and glittering look among the ivy's inmost nook above the hills along the blue
round the bright air with footing true
when the grass was closely mown walking on the lawn alone in the turf a hole i found and hid a soldier underground
spring and daisies came apace grasses hide my hiding place
o'er the lawn up to my knee under grass alone he lies looking up with leaden eyes scarlet coat and pointed gun to the stars and to the sun
when the grass is ripe like grain
when the lawn is shaven clear then my hole shall reappear i shall find him never fear i shall find my grenadier
but for all that's gone and come i shall find my soldier dumb he has lived a little thing in the grassy woods of spring done if he could tell me true
just as i should like to do he has seen the starry hours and the springing of the flowers and the fairy things that pass in the forests of the grass
talking bee and ladybird
not a word will he disclose not a word of all he knows
all up the vale from the autumn bonfires see the smoke trail pleasant summer over and all the summer flowers
the grey smoke towers sing a song of seasons something bright in all flowers in the summer
the gardener does not love to talk he makes me keep the gravel walk and when he puts his tools away he locks the door and takes the key
away behind the currant row where no one else but cook may go far in the plots
old and serious
he digs the flowers green red and blue nor wishes to be spoken to he digs the flowers and cuts the hay and never seems to want to play
silly gardener summer goes and winter comes with pinching toes when in the garden bare and brown you must lay your barrow down
well now and while the summer stays to profit by these garden days o how much wiser you would be to play at indian wars with me
this garden ground that now you smoke your pipe around has seen immortal actions done
here we had best on tip toe tread while i for safety march ahead for this is that enchanted ground where all who loiter slumber sound
here is simple shepherd's land here are the fairy hollyhocks
the pony express rider at the time when the civil war broke out cody was too young to enlist no regiment would take him and besides his mother who was in feeble health and who had all the family to look out for
begged and prayed him to stay at home as she said it was more important for him the man of the family to watch over them than to put his services at his country's disposal the boy wanted to go
yet he gave up his ambition for his mother bill promised his mother that he would never go to war as long as she was alive but that as he must do something to earn money he had to go to work at once
his chance came with an opportunity to join a group of men who will be read about as long as there is any history of the united states their work only lasted a few years
but it was so extraordinary so exciting so near to the ideal of a life of adventure that it stands out more important than many an era in this country's history which had greater results and extended over a longer time
the firm of russell majors and waddell who have already been mentioned increased in importance because they were the only men who carried out on a large scale successfully
the business of transporting freight across the desert and the mountains to california but as california grew and it grew very fast in a few years
there came a demand for a speedier method of communication between the western frontier in the east and the eastern frontier in the west
those two thousand miles of waste land consumed a month or more when transportation was by means of bull trains it did not matter very much with freight but in the transportation of money of letters
of business arrangements that time grew to be too long for advancing civilization the great freight transporters therefore conceived the idea of getting up a scheme for carrying a few letters at a much faster rate
from saint joseph to san francisco by means of a single horseman riding a pony at full speed their idea was that a man should mount a swift pony well tried for his endurance before starting
that this man should ride fifteen miles straight out into the desert and that at the end of the fifteen miles there should be a station a house with a couple of men in it who would have another pony ready the horseman was to ride up to this shanty
jump to the ground with his bag of letters immediately jump on the fresh pony and rush along another fifteen miles to a similar station some of these stations were in settlements some were in towns
but most of them were on the bleak prairies or in the hills of the rocky mountains the trail was the same as that used by the freight bull trains the bull train stations were of course used but it was necessary to increase the number of stations
some of the divisions were longer than others but the average was a distance of forty five miles that is the man who rode one of these divisions of the two thousand miles rode fifteen miles on one pony
fifteen miles on the second and fifteen miles on the third then he began his return trip of forty five miles the longest division was two hundred and fifty miles
sometimes the country was open and moderately easy for riding sometimes it was up rocky gulches or through forests where the riding was hard it required in the men the hardest kind of physique and endurance
in the ponies surefootedness as well as swiftness sometimes in order to keep up the schedule the men were obliged to cover twenty five miles in an hour on flat country
they received about one hundred and twenty five dollars a month which was very high pay but that gave the promoters of the scheme their choice among the best men of the frontier the letters were carried in mail pouches or bags that hung over the saddle
and no rider was allowed to carry more than twenty pounds in order to get as much mail within the twenty pounds as possible letters were written on tissue paper whatever money was carried was in paper
and one eastern newspaper printed a special edition on tissue paper for use only on this famous pony express so in the twenty pounds there were hundreds of letters in fact the paper was so thin
that even a hundred letters would not occupy a space larger than that occupied by an ordinary monthly magazine to day the mail pouches were waterproof and once locked at saint joseph missouri
they were not opened until they were delivered in sacramento california two thousand miles away it seems almost incredible but that distance was covered in a time that was extraordinarily short for those days
when one remembers that the whole journey was made by running ponies it was an exciting time when the first pony was ready and saddled at the offices of russell majors and waddell in saint joseph
a large crowd gathered long before the appointed time for starting and when the pony was brought forth he was greeted with cheers at the exact moment a frontiersman came out of the office threw the pouch over the saddle
leaped on the pony and started off at the top speed the pony was capable of followed by the cries and cheers of the crowd
that journey where the mail bags were thrown across the ponies and carried by a number of riders took ten days to do the two thousand miles
including all stops and all delays but in a short time the average trip was made regularly in nine days
when cody was looking for work he conceived the idea of enlisting as one of the pony express riders and he went to the office of the company and asked if he could not be one of the riders they told him that he was too young
as he was then only a little over fourteen but he insisted he could do it and finally they gave him the shortest trip a ride of thirty five miles with three changes of ponies
when the time came for him to be ready for the first trip the boy was outside of his station with his pony ready looking across the prairie for the rider who was to bring the mail pouches from the next station close upon time the man appeared
drawing up to the station he jumped off threw the bag to cody who in turn leaped into his saddle with it and started on his fifteen miles he reached his first station on time
and so with the third until he finished his thirty five miles and threw the bag to the next man who was waiting and within an hour he was ready again for the rider coming from the direction of san francisco as soon as he had the mail
he mounted a fresh pony and rode back over the same thirty five miles thus the boy did seventy miles every day for three months but endurance was not the only quality the rider must have through most of the whole route
there was constant danger of a hold up either from indians or from outlaws who knew that the bag frequently contained money he must be as alert and as good a frontiersman in the knowledge of indian warfare as he was a good horseman
it was some time before the boy had any incident other than the ordinary episodes of the long ride however the time came he was riding as fast as his pony could go through a ravine one day
when there sprang out in front of him in the narrow track a man with his rifle at his shoulder young cody knew enough to know that the man had what was called the drop on him there was nothing to do but pull up and await events
it was a white man a desperado of the plains he told the boy that he meant him no harm but that he wanted the money in the bag cody could do nothing but sit quietly on his pony but always alert
always on the watch for every opportunity in a situation that young as he was he had been in many times before he kept a keen eye on the man while appearing to submit the outlaw was careless enough to approach the pony from the front
and as he got within reach the young horseman by a trick that he had used many times before made the pony rear so suddenly that his fore foot struck the man in the head and knocked him senseless bill knew that somewhere in the vicinity
the highwayman had a horse he at once dismounted bound the man hand and foot while he was insensible and then began to hunt for the horse in the bushes he found him a few rods away
unbinding his legs bill forced him to mount his own horse and then strapped him on although the young pony expressman was late at the next station
for the delay of the mail that day at the end of a few months the work proved too severe for him to continue and he was laid off as supernumerary that is a man who could be called on to ride in any emergency
it was not long however before he made application for another job on the pony express he went to fort laramie and looked up a man named slade who was agent of the line there slade told him he was too young
but on hearing his name he slapped him on the shoulder and said that he had heard of him before and that he would give him a job
and the distance was seventy six miles the boy started running this route regularly each day and for a time had no unusual experience one day however having made the run out of seventy six miles
he found when he arrived at his last station that the man who was supposed to carry the bag to the next station a distance of eighty five miles had been wounded by indians bill offered to go on and carry the bag over that man's section
and as there was no one else to do it he was sent on this second division covered a distance of one hundred and sixty one miles that made one continuous route of three hundred and twenty two miles out and back without stopping
in that time he rode twenty one ponies and made the longest trip ever made by a pony express rider
there was no time for thought and bill immediately reached for his revolver but upon seeing him the man dropped his rifle and came forward he turned out to be a famous character of the plains named california joe
and on seeing the young boy he immediately asked him if he were not bill cody then the frontiersman told him that a little way back on the road
it was only a little later that as bill left one of the stations
there were reports of indians in the vicinity cody said he would and started away at breakneck pace here again as many times before and after the boy's instinctive knowledge and immediate perception of anything no matter how small
that was unusual or unnatural on the plains saved his life always keeping a keen watch he suddenly saw above the top of a pile of rocks something that he knew was not put there by nature it was a little speck of color
he knew that it was a feather in the headdress of an indian in war paint he did not stop or turn
then ducking behind his pony he turned him instantly off the trail and at the same moment a puff of smoke from behind the rock showed that his guess had been true the bullet went where the rider should have been
but it missed by the swerve which he had caused the pony to make out sprang two warriors and a party of indians appeared from a little distance further away
as he approached the end of the valley which narrowed into a point he saw that some of the indians on the slopes were riding down to cut off his track he watched his opportunity and luckily for him those indians had no rifles
he saw them fit the arrows to their bows waited for the right moment and just before the leading indian fired his arrow the boy shot him with his revolver when he reached the next station
he found that his pony had two arrows sticking in its flesh at this time the pony express had to be stopped for some time on account of the number of indians who were lying in wait all along the trails to capture the riders
and so the boy was once more out of a job he became a supernumerary again and as there were days in which he had nothing to do he was in the habit of going out hunting
on one of these trips he came upon a group of horses tied near a stream and hearing voices in a dugout cave near by he went to investigate it turned out that the men were a group of prairie ruffians
they supposed him to be an advance scout in search of themselves and for a few moments
he pointed backward they asked where his horse was he said it was down by the stream they asked him to go and get it and join them he said he would volunteering with the keenness of men whose lives are always at stake
to leave his gun with them that allayed suspicion for the moment but they even went so far as to send two of their number with him the boy as they reached the horse carelessly said that he had shot some game and would pick it up
in the meantime asking the men to lead his horse on ahead then turning behind the second man he struck him a blow with his revolver and shot the other mounting his pony cody then dashed down the ravine
in a moment the whole party were after him it was certain that he would soon be overtaken
bill turned the corner of some rocks and dismounting gave the pony a slap and sent him tearing down the ravine while he himself hid in the bushes and watched the whole party tear by in the pursuit of the riderless horse
he then calmly walked back to the station at horseshoe and told of the adventure such experiences as this followed one after another until in eighteen sixty three with the civil war in full progress
cody then seventeen years old received word that his mother was dying he went immediately to their home and arrived in time to see his mother before she died
he had kept his word with his mother and had not become a soldier as long as she lived but now that she was dead and the family homestead out of debt he was free from all promises he at once enlisted
and his regiment was soon ordered to the front but the young man was so able as a scout that he soon came to be used on special duty then too his fame as a plainsman was well known
he was at once selected therefore as a bearer of military dispatches at fort larned and one of his first escapades took place soon after he was put upon this work
these men now on the southern side
they hid their horses in a clump of trees and went to a cabin near the ford to wait for his arrival
and as by this time the young man had acquired the habit of absolutely observing everything at all times about him he soon discovered the fresh tracks of horses
without any other object than the natural instinct to find the reason for everything that presented itself he quietly dismounted followed the trail and found the five horses
it was evident that there were five men near by watching for him the only thing to do was to ride on as quietly as possible and try to make the ford
he turned in his saddle and before any of the five could pull a trigger he had shot one of them
in a certain village there lived two people who had both the same name both were called klaus but one owned four horses and the other only one in order to distinguish the one from the other
the one who had four horses was called big klaus and the one who had only one horse little klaus now you shall hear what befell them both for this is a true story the whole week through
little klaus had to plough for big klaus and lend him his one horse then big klaus lent him his four horses but only once a week and that was on sunday
over all the five horses for they were indeed as good as his on this one day the sun shone brightly and all the bells in the church towers were pealing the people were dressed in their best clothes and were going to church
with their hymn books under their arms to hear the minister preach they saw little klaus ploughing with the five horses but he was so happy that he kept on cracking his whip and calling out
you mustn't say that said big klaus only one horse is yours but as soon as someone else was going by little klaus forgot that he must not say it and called out
now you had better stop that said big klaus for if you say it once more i will give your horse such a crack on the head that it will drop down dead on the spot i really won't say it again said little klaus
but as soon as more people passed by and nodded him good morning
i'll see to your horses said big klaus
alas now i have no horse
then he flayed the skin off his horse dried it and put it in a sack which he threw over his shoulder and went into the town to sell it he had a long way to go and had to pass through a great dark forest a dreadful
storm came on in which he lost his way
night came on and it was impossible to reach the town that evening right in front of him was a large farm house the window shutters were closed but the light came through the chinks
i should very much like to be allowed to spend the night there thought little klaus and he went and knocked at the door the farmer's wife opened it
her husband was not at home and she took in no strangers well i must lie down outside said little klaus
and he could just see into the room there stood a large table spread with wine and roast meat and a beautiful fish the farmer's wife and the sexton sat at the table but there was no one else
she was filling up his glass while he stuck his fork into the fish which was his favourite dish if one could only get some of that
ah what delicious cakes he saw standing there it was a feast then he heard someone riding along the road towards the house it was the farmer coming home he was a very worthy man
but he had one great peculiarity namely that he could not bear to see a sexton if he saw one he was made quite mad that was why the sexton had gone to say good day to the farmer's wife when he knew that her husband was not at home
and the good woman therefore put in front of him the best food she had but when they heard the farmer coming they were frightened
he did so as he knew the poor man could not bear to see a sexton
when he saw the good food disappearing is anybody up there asked the farmer catching sight of little klaus why are you lying there come with me into the house
and begged to be allowed to spend the night there yes certainly said the farmer but we must first have something to eat the wife received them both very kindly spread a long table and gave them a large plate of porridge the farmer was hungry
and ate with a good appetite but little klaus could not help thinking of the delicious dishes of fish and roast meats and cakes which he knew were in the oven
the porridge did not taste good to him so he trod upon his sack and the dry skin in the sack squeaked loudly hush said little klaus
he says we should not eat porridge for he has conjured the whole oven full of roast meats and fish and cakes
the wife could say nothing but she put the food at once on the table and they ate the fish the roast meat and the cakes little klaus now trod again on his sack so that the skin squeaked what does he say now
he says
for us three bottles of wine they are standing in the corner by the oven the wife had to fetch the wine which she had hidden and the farmer drank and grew very merry
very good spirits yes said little klaus my wizard can do everything that i ask isn't that true he asked treading on the sack so that it squeaked
he says yes but that the devil looks so ugly that we should not like to see him oh i'm not at all afraid what does he look like he will show himself in the shape of a sexton
i say said the farmer he must be ugly you must know that i can't bear to look at a sexton but it doesn't matter i know that it is the devil and i sha'n't mind i feel up to it now but he must not come too near me
i must ask my wizard said little klaus treading on the sack and putting his ear to it
he says you can open the chest in the corner there and you will see the devil squatting inside it but you must hold the lid so that he shall not escape
begged the farmer going towards the chest where his wife had hidden the real sexton
yes now i have seen him he looked just like our sexton oh it was horrid so he had to drink again
just think how many things i can get from this wizard
as you have been so good as to give me shelter to night i will sell him you shall have the wizard for a bushel of money but i must have full measure that you shall said the farmer
who knows that he isn't in there still little klaus gave the farmer his sack with the dry skin and got instead a good bushelful of money the farmer also gave him a wheelbarrow to carry away his money and the chest
farewell said little klaus and away he went with his money and the big chest wherein sat the sexton
the water flowed so rapidly that you could scarcely swim against the stream a great new bridge had been built over it on the middle of which little klaus stopped and said aloud so that the sexton might hear
now what can he want with it thought big klaus and he smeared some tar at the bottom so that of
and this is just what happened for when he got his measure back three new silver five shilling pieces were sticking to it what does this mean said big klaus and he ran off at once to little klaus where did you get so much money from
oh that was from my horse skin i sold it yesterday evening
knocked all his four horses on the head skinned them
skins skins who will buy skins he cried through the streets
a bushel of money he is making game of us they said and the shoemakers seized their yard measures and the tanners their leathern aprons and they gave big klaus a good beating skins skins they cried mockingly
yes we will tan your skin for you out of the town with him they shouted and big klaus had to hurry off as quickly as he could if he wanted to save his life
little klaus shall pay dearly for this i will kill him
though she had been very unkind to him he was very much distressed and he took the dead woman and laid her in his warm bed to try if he could not bring her back to life there she lay the whole night
while he sat in the corner and slept on a chair which he had often done before and in the night as he sat there the door opened and big klaus came in with his axe he knew quite well where little klaus's bed stood
and going up to it he struck the grandmother on the head just where he thought little klaus would be there said he now you won't get the best of me again and he went home
it was a good thing for my grandmother that she was dead already
then he dressed his grandmother in her sunday clothes borrowed a horse from his neighbour harnessed the cart to it sat his grandmother on the back seat so that she could not fall out when he drove and away they went
when the sun rose they were in front of a large inn
the host was very rich he was a very worthy but hot tempered man good morning said he to little klaus you are early on the road yes said little klaus
she is sitting outside in the cart i cannot bring her in
but you will have to speak loud for she is very hard of hearing oh yes certainly i will said the host and pouring out a large glass of mead he took it out to the dead grandmother who was sitting upright in the cart here is a glass of mead from your son
said the host but the dead woman did not answer a word and sat still don't you hear cried the host as loud as he could
then he shouted the same thing again
so he went himself to little klaus with the measure well now where did you get all this money
you killed my grandmother not me said little klaus
said big klaus and hurrying home he took an axe
laid her in the cart and drove off to the apothecary's and asked whether he wanted to buy a dead body who is it and how did you get it asked the apothecary it is my grandmother said big klaus
i killed her in order to get a bushel of money you are mad said the apothecary don't mention such things or you will lose your head and he began to tell him what a dreadful thing he had done and what a wicked man he was
till big klaus was so frightened that he jumped into the cart and drove home as hard as he could the apothecary and all the people thought he must be mad so they let him go you shall pay for this said big klaus as he drove home
and went to little klaus and said you have fooled me again first i killed my horses then my grandmother it is all your fault but you sha'n't do it again and he seized little klaus pushed him in the sack
he had to go a long way before he came to the river and little klaus was not very light the road passed by the church the organ was sounding and the people were singing most beautifully big klaus put down the sack with little klaus in it
little klaus could not get out and everybody was in church
oh dear oh dear groaned little klaus in the sack twisting and turning himself but he could not undo the string there came by an old old shepherd with snow white hair and a long staff in his hand
he was driving a herd of cows and oxen
and i poor man said the cattle driver
open the sack called out little klaus creep in here instead of me and you will die in a moment i will gladly do that said the cattle driver and he opened the sack and little klaus struggled out at once
you will take care of the cattle won't you asked the old man
soon after big klaus came out of the church and taking up the sack on his shoulders it seemed to him as if it had become lighter for the old cattle driver was not half as heavy as little klaus how easy he is to carry now
that must be because i heard part of the service
which was deep and broad threw in the sack with the old driver and called after it for he thought little klaus was inside down you go you won't mock me any more now then he went home
but when he came to the cross roads there he met little klaus who was driving his cattle
said big klaus haven't i drowned you yes replied little klaus you threw me into the river a good half hour ago but how did you get those splendid cattle asked big klaus they are sea cattle
and i thank you for having drowned me because now i am on dry land and really rich how frightened i was when i was in the sack
how the wind whistled in my ears as you threw me from the bridge into the cold water i sank at once to the bottom but i did not hurt myself for underneath was growing the most beautiful soft grass
i fell on this and immediately the sack opened the loveliest maiden in snow white garments with a green garland round her wet hair took me by the hand and said
and a mile farther down the road there is another herd which i will give you as a present now i saw that the river was a great high road for the sea people along it they travel
it was so beautiful full of flowers and fresh grass the fishes which were swimming in the water shot past my ears as the birds do here in the air
but why did you come up to us again asked big klaus
oh said little klaus that was just so politic of me you heard what i told you that the sea maiden said to me a mile farther along the road and by the road she meant the river for she can go by no other way
there was another herd of cattle waiting for me but i know what windings the river makes now here now there
therefore it makes it much shorter if one comes on the land and drives across the field to the river
said big klaus do you think i should also
oh yes i think so
but i can't carry you in a sack to the river you are too heavy for me
thank you said big klaus but if i don't get any sea cattle when i come there you will have a good hiding mind oh no don't be so hard on me then they went to the river
yes but help me first said big klaus or else you shall have a beating and so he crept into the large sack which was lying on the back of one of the oxen
put a stone in for i am afraid i may not reach the bottom said big klaus it goes all right said little klaus but still he laid a big stone in the sack fastened it up tight and then pushed it in
plump there was big klaus in the water and he sank like lead to the bottom
chapter six idealism thus is the unspeakable but intelligible and practicable meaning of the world conveyed to man the immortal pupil in every object of sense
to this one end of discipline all parts of nature conspire a noble doubt perpetually suggests itself whether this end be not the final cause of the universe and whether nature outwardly exists
it is a sufficient account of that appearance we call the world that god will teach a human mind and so makes it the receiver of a certain number of congruent sensations which we call sun and moon man and woman
house and trade in my utter impotence to test the authenticity of the report of my senses to know whether the impressions they make on me correspond with outlying objects what difference does it make
the relations of parts and the end of the whole remaining the same what is the difference whether land and sea interact and worlds revolve and intermingle without number or end deep yawning under deep
and galaxy balancing galaxy throughout absolute space or whether without relations of time and space the same appearances are inscribed in the constant faith of man
whether nature enjoy a substantial existence without or is only in the apocalypse of the mind it is alike useful and alike venerable to me be it what it may it is ideal to me
so long as i cannot try the accuracy of my senses the frivolous make themselves merry with the ideal theory if its consequences were burlesque as if it affected the stability of nature it surely does not
god never jests with us and will not compromise the end of nature by permitting any inconsequence in its procession any distrust of the permanence of laws would paralyze the faculties of man
their permanence is sacredly respected and his faith therein is perfect the wheels and springs of man are all set to the hypothesis of the permanence of nature we are not built like a ship to be tossed
but like a house to stand it is a natural consequence of this structure that so long as the active powers predominate over the reflective
we resist with indignation any hint that nature is more short lived or mutable than spirit the broker the wheelwright the carpenter the toll man are much displeased at the intimation
but whilst we acquiesce entirely in the permanence of natural laws the question of the absolute existence of nature still remains open it is the uniform effect of culture on the human mind
not to shake our faith in the stability of particular phenomena as of heat water azote but to lead us to regard nature as a phenomenon not a substance to attribute necessary existence to spirit
to esteem nature as an accident and an effect to the senses and the unrenewed understanding belongs a sort of instinctive belief in the absolute existence of nature in their view
man and nature are indissolubly joined things are ultimates and they never look beyond their sphere the presence of reason mars this faith
and shows us nature aloof and as it were afloat until this higher agency intervened the animal eye sees with wonderful accuracy sharp outlines and colored surfaces
when the eye of reason opens to outline and surface are at once added grace and expression these proceed from imagination and affection and abate somewhat of the angular distinctness of objects
if the reason be stimulated to more earnest vision outlines and surfaces become transparent and are no longer seen causes and spirits are seen through them
the best moments of life are these delicious awakenings of the higher powers and the reverential withdrawing of nature before its god let us proceed to indicate the effects of culture one
our first institution in the ideal philosophy is a hint from nature herself nature is made to conspire with spirit to emancipate us certain mechanical changes
a small alteration in our local position apprizes us of a dualism we are strangely affected by seeing the shore from a moving ship from a balloon or through the tints of an unusual sky
a man who seldom rides needs only to get into a coach and traverse his own town to turn the street into a puppet show the men the women talking running bartering fighting the earnest mechanic
the lounger the beggar the boys the dogs are unrealized at once or at least wholly detached from all relation to the observer and seen as apparent not substantial beings
what new thoughts are suggested by seeing a face of country quite familiar in the rapid movement of the rail road car nay the most wonted objects make a very slight change in the point of vision please us most
the butcher's cart and the figure of one of our own family amuse us so a portrait of a well known face gratifies us turn the eyes upside down by looking at the landscape through your legs and how agreeable is the picture
any time these twenty years in these cases by mechanical means is suggested the difference between the observer and the spectacle between man and nature hence arises a pleasure mixed with awe
i may say a low degree of the sublime is felt from the fact probably that man is hereby apprized that whilst the world is a spectacle something in himself is stable two
in a higher manner the poet communicates the same pleasure
the sun the mountain the camp the city the hero the maiden not different from what we know them but only lifted from the ground and afloat before the eye he unfixes the land and the sea
makes them revolve around the axis of his primary thought and disposes them anew possessed himself by a heroic passion he uses matter as symbols of it the sensual man conforms thoughts to things
the poet conforms things to his thoughts the one esteems nature as rooted and fast the other as fluid and impresses his being thereon to him
the refractory world is ductile and flexible he invests dust and stones with humanity and makes them the words of the reason the imagination may be defined to be the use which the reason
makes of the material world shakspeare possesses the power of subordinating nature for the purposes of expression beyond all poets his imperial muse tosses the creation like a bauble from hand to hand
and uses it to embody any caprice of thought that is upper most in his mind the remotest spaces of nature are visited and the farthest sundered things are brought together
we are made aware that magnitude of material things is relative and all objects shrink and expand to serve the passion of the poet thus in his sonnets the lays of birds the scents and dyes of flowers
he finds to be the shadow of his beloved time which keeps her from him is his chest the suspicion she has awakened is her ornament the ornament of beauty is suspect
a crow which flies in heaven's sweetest air his passion is not the fruit of chance it swells as he speaks to a city or a state no it was builded far from accident
it suffers not in smiling pomp nor falls under the brow of thralling discontent it fears not policy that heretic that works on leases of short numbered hours
but all alone stands hugely politic in the strength of his constancy the pyramids seem to him recent and transitory the freshness of youth and love dazzles him with its resemblance to morning
take those lips away which so sweetly were forsworn and those eyes the break of day lights that do mislead the morn
the wild beauty of this hyperbole i may say in passing it would not be easy to match in literature this transfiguration which all material objects undergo through the passion of the poet
this power which he exerts to dwarf the great to magnify the small might be illustrated by a thousand examples from his plays i have before me the tempest and will cite only these few lines ariel
the strong based promontory have i made shake and by the spurs plucked up the pine and cedar prospero calls for music to soothe the frantic alonzo and his companions
a solemn air and the best comforter to an unsettled fancy cure thy brains now useless boiled within thy skull again the charm dissolves apace
and as the morning steals upon the night melting the darkness so their rising senses begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle their clearer reason their understanding begins to swell
and the approaching tide will shortly fill the reasonable shores that now lie foul and muddy the perception of real affinities between events that is to say of ideal affinities for those only are real
enables the poet thus to make free with the most imposing forms and phenomena of the world and to assert the predominance of the soul three
that the one proposes beauty as his main end the other truth but the philosopher not less than the poet postpones the apparent order and relations of things to the empire of thought
the problem of philosophy according to plato is for all that exists conditionally to find a ground unconditioned and absolute it proceeds on the faith that a law determines all phenomena
which being known the phenomena can be predicted that law when in the mind is an idea its beauty is infinite the true philosopher and the true poet are one
and a beauty which is truth and a truth which is beauty is the aim of both is not the charm of one of plato's or aristotle's definitions strictly like that of the antigone of sophocles
it is in both cases that a spiritual life has been imparted to nature that the solid seeming block of matter has been pervaded and dissolved by a thought
that this feeble human being has penetrated the vast masses of nature with an informing soul and recognised itself in their harmony that is seized their law
in physics when this is attained the memory disburthens itself of its cumbrous catalogues of particulars and carries centuries of observation in a single formula thus even in physics
the material is degraded before the spiritual the astronomer the geometer rely on their irrefragable analysis and disdain the results of observation
this will be found contrary to all experience yet is true had already transferred nature into the mind and left matter like an outcast corpse four
intellectual science has been observed to beget invariably a doubt of the existence of matter turgot said
it fastens the attention upon immortal necessary uncreated natures that is upon ideas and in their presence we feel that the outward circumstance is a dream and a shade
whilst we wait in this olympus of gods we think of nature as an appendix to the soul we ascend into their region and know that these are the thoughts of the supreme being
these are they who were set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was when he prepared the heavens they were there when he established the clouds above
when he strengthened the fountains of the deep then they were by him as one brought up with him of them took he counsel their influence is proportionate
as objects of science they are accessible to few men yet all men are capable of being raised by piety or by passion into their region
and no man touches these divine natures without becoming in some degree himself divine like a new soul they renew the body we become physically nimble and lightsome we tread on air
life is no longer irksome and we think it will never be so no man fears age or misfortune or death in their serene company for he is transported out of the district of change
whilst we behold unveiled the nature of justice and truth we learn the difference between the absolute and the conditional or relative we apprehend the absolute as it were for the first time
we exist we become immortal for we learn that time and space are relations of matter that with a perception of truth or a virtuous will they have no affinity
five finally religion and ethics which may be fitly called the practice of ideas or the introduction of ideas into life have an analogous effect
with all lower culture in degrading nature and suggesting its dependence on spirit ethics and religion differ herein that the one is the system of human duties commencing from man
the other from god religion includes the personality of god ethics does not they are one to our present design they both put nature under foot
the first and last lesson of religion is the things that are seen are temporal the things that are unseen are eternal it puts an affront upon nature it does that for the unschooled
which philosophy does for berkeley and viasa the uniform language that may be heard in the churches of the most ignorant sects is contemn the unsubstantial shows of the world
they are vanities dreams shadows unrealities seek the realities of religion the devotee flouts nature
and plotinus they distrusted in themselves any looking back to these flesh pots of egypt plotinus was ashamed of his body in short they might all say of matter what michael angelo
said of external beauty it is the frail and weary weed in which god dresses the soul which he has called into time it appears that motion poetry
physical and intellectual science and religion all tend to affect our convictions of the reality of the external world but i own
there is something ungrateful in expanding too curiously the particulars of the general proposition that all culture tends to imbue us with idealism i have no hostility to nature but a child's love to it
i expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons let us speak her fair i do not wish to fling stones at my beautiful mother nor soil my gentle nest
i only wish to indicate the true position of nature in regard to man wherein to establish man all right education tends as the ground which to attain is the object of human life that is
of man's connection with nature culture inverts the vulgar views of nature and brings the mind to call that apparent which it uses to call real and that real
which it uses to call visionary children it is true believe in the external world the belief that it appears only is an afterthought but with culture
the advantage of the ideal theory over the popular faith is this that it presents the world in precisely that view which is most desirable to the mind it is in fact
the view which reason both speculative and practical that is philosophy and virtue take for seen in the light of thought the world always is phenomenal and virtue subordinates it to the mind
idealism sees the world in god it beholds the whole circle of persons and things of actions and events of country and religion not as painfully accumulated
atom after atom act after act in an aged creeping past but as one vast picture which god paints on the instant eternity for the contemplation of the soul therefore
the soul holds itself off from a too trivial and microscopic study of the universal tablet it respects the end too much to immerse itself in the means it sees something more important in christianity
than the scandals of ecclesiastical history or the niceties of criticism and very incurious concerning persons or miracles and not at all disturbed by chasms of historical evidence
it accepts from god the phenomenon as it finds it as the pure and awful form of religion in the world it is not hot and passionate at the appearance of what it calls its own good or bad fortune
at the union or opposition of other persons no man is its enemy it accepts whatsoever befalls as part of its lesson
but now i have a tale of heroes who sailed away into a distant land to win themselves renown for ever in the adventure of the golden fleece whither they sailed my children i cannot clearly tell it all happened long ago
like a dream which you dreamt last year and why they went i cannot tell some say that it was to win gold
it was not for the sake of gold that the lord came down and died and the apostles went out to preach the good news in all lands the spartans looked for no reward in money when they fought and died at thermopylae
and socrates the wise asked no pay from his countrymen but lived poor and barefoot all his days only caring to make men good and there are heroes in our days also who do noble deeds but not for gold
our discoverers did not go to make themselves rich when they sailed out one after another into the dreary frozen seas nor did the ladies who went out last year to drudge in the hospitals of the east making themselves poor that they might be rich in noble works
and young men too whom you know children and some of them of your own kin did they say to themselves how much money shall i earn when they went out to the war leaving wealth and comfort and a pleasant home and all that money can give to face hunger and thirst and wounds and death
that they might fight for their country and their queen no children there is a better thing on earth than wealth a better thing than life itself and that is to have done something before you die for which good men may honour you and god your father smile upon your work
therefore we will believe why should we not of these same argonauts of old that they too were noble men who planned and did a noble deed and that therefore their fame has lived and been told in story and in song
mixed up no doubt with dreams and fables and yet true and right at heart so we will honour these old argonauts and listen to their story as it stands and we will try to be like them each of us in our place
for each of us has a golden fleece to seek and a wild sea to sail over ere we reach it and dragons to fight ere it be ours and what was that first golden fleece i do not know nor care
the old hellens said that it hung in colchis which we call the circassian coast nailed to a beech tree in the war god's wood and that it was the fleece of the wondrous ram who bore phrixus and helle across the euxine sea
and when a famine came upon the land their cruel step mother ino wished to kill them that her own children might reign
so the poor children were brought to the altar and the priest stood ready with his knife when out of the clouds came the golden ram and took them on his back and vanished then madness came upon that foolish king athamas
and ruin upon ino and her children for athamas killed one of them in his fury and ino fled from him with the other in her arms and leaped from a cliff into the sea and was changed into a dolphin such as you have seen
which wanders over the waves for ever sighing with its little one clasped to its breast but the people drove out king athamas because he had killed his child and he roamed about in his misery till he came to the oracle in delphi
and the oracle told him that he must wander for his sin till the wild beasts should feast him as their guest so he went on in hunger and sorrow for many a weary day till he saw a pack of wolves the wolves were tearing a sheep
but when they saw athamas they fled and left the sheep for him and he ate of it and then he knew that the oracle was fulfilled at last so he wandered no more but settled and built a town and became a king again
but the ram carried the two children far away over land and sea till he came to the thracian chersonese and there helle fell into the sea so those narrow straits are called hellespont after her and they bear that name until this day
then the ram flew on with phrixus to the north east across the sea which we call the black sea now but the hellens call it euxine and at last they say he stopped at colchis on the steep circassian coast and there phrixus married chalciope
and after awhile phrixus died and was buried but his spirit had no rest for he was buried far from his native land and the pleasant hills of hellas
and called sadly by their beds come and set my spirit free that i may go home to my fathers and to my kinsfolk and the pleasant minuan land and they asked how shall we set your spirit free
you must sail over the sea to colchis and bring home the golden fleece and then my spirit will come back with it and i shall sleep with my fathers and have rest he came thus and called to them often but when they woke they looked at each other and said
who dare sail to colchis or bring home the golden fleece and in all the country none was brave enough to try it for the man and the time were not come
who was king in iolcos by the sea there he ruled over the rich minuan heroes as athamas his uncle ruled in boeotia and like athamas he was an unhappy man for he had a step brother named pelias of whom some said that he was a nymph's son
and there were dark and sad tales about his birth when he was a babe he was cast out on the mountains and a wild mare came by and kicked him but a shepherd passing found the baby with its face all blackened by the blow
and took him home and called him pelias because his face was bruised and black and he grew up fierce and lawless and did many a fearful deed and at last he drove out a eson his step brother and then his own brother neleus
and a eson when he was driven out went sadly away out of the town leading his little son by the hand and he said to himself i must hide the child in the mountains or pelias will surely kill him because he is the heir
so he went up from the sea across the valley through the vineyards and the olive groves and across the torrent of anauros toward pelion the ancient mountain whose brows are white with snow he went up and up into the mountain
over marsh and crag and down till the boy was tired and footsore and a eson had to bear him in his arms till he came to the mouth of a lonely cave at the foot of a mighty cliff above the cliff the snow wreaths hung dripping and cracking in the sun
but at its foot around the cave's mouth grew all fair flowers and herbs as if in a garden
there they grew gaily in the sunshine and the spray of the torrent from above while from the cave came the sound of music and a man's voice singing to the harp then a eson put down the lad and whispered fear not but go in
and whomsoever you shall find lay your hands upon his knees and say in the name of zeus the father of gods and men i am your guest from this day forth then the lad went in without trembling for he too was a hero's son
but when he was within he stopped in wonder to listen to that magic song and there he saw the singer lying upon bear skins and fragrant boughs cheiron the ancient centaur the wisest of all things beneath the sky
down to the waist he was a man but below he was a noble horse his white hair rolled down over his broad shoulders and his white beard over his broad brown chest and his eyes were wise and mild and his forehead like a mountain wall
and in his hands he held a harp of gold and struck it with a golden key and as he struck he sang till his eyes glittered and filled all the cave with light and he sang of the birth of time and of the heavens and the dancing stars
and the shaping of the wondrous earth and he sang of the treasures of the hills and the hidden jewels of the mine and the veins of fire and metal and the virtues of all healing herbs and of the speech of birds and of prophecy and of hidden things to come
then he sang of health and strength and manhood and a valiant heart and of music and hunting and wrestling and all the games which heroes love and of travel and wars and sieges and a noble death in fight and then he sang of peace and plenty
and of equal justice in the land and as he sang the boy listened wide eyed and forgot his errand in the song
and called the lad with a soft voice and the lad ran trembling to him and would have laid his hands upon his knees but cheiron smiled and said call hither your father a eson
for i know you and all that has befallen and saw you both afar in the valley even before you left the town then a eson came in sadly
why camest you not yourself to me a eson the a eolid and a eson said
and i wished to try whether he was fearless and dare venture like a hero's son
and laid his hand upon his golden locks and said are you afraid of my horse's hoofs fair boy or will you be my pupil from this day i would gladly have horse's hoofs like you if i could sing such songs as yours and cheiron laughed and said
sit here by me till sundown when your playfellows will come home and you shall learn like them to be a king worthy to rule over gallant men
go back in peace and bend before the storm like a prudent man this boy shall not cross the anauros again till he has become a glory to you and to the house of a eolus and a eson wept over his son and went away
but the boy did not weep so full was his fancy of that strange cave and the centaur and his song and the playfellows whom he was to see
till the sun sank low behind the cliff and a shout was heard outside and then in came the sons of the heroes a eneas and heracles and peleus and many another mighty name
and one cried i have killed two deer and another i took a wild cat among the crags
and coeneus carried a bear cub under each arm and laughed when they scratched and bit for neither tooth nor steel could wound him
asclepius the too wise child
and whispered how he had watched the snake cast its old skin and grow young again before his eyes and how he had gone down into a village in the vale and cured a dying man with a herb which he had seen a sick goat eat
to each athene and apollo give some gift and each is worthy in his place but to this child they have given an honour beyond all honours to cure while others kill then the lads brought in wood and split it and lighted a blazing fire
and others skinned the deer and quartered them and set them to roast before the fire and while the venison was cooking they bathed in the snow torrent and washed away the dust and sweat and then all ate till they could eat no more for they had tasted nothing since the dawn
and drank of the clear spring water for wine is not fit for growing lads and when the remnants were put away they all lay down upon the skins and leaves about the fire and each took the lyre in turn and sang and played with all his heart
and after a while they all went out to a plot of grass at the cave's mouth and there they boxed and ran and wrestled and laughed till the stones fell from the cliffs then cheiron took his lyre and all the lads joined hands
and as be played they danced to his measure in and out and round and round there they danced hand in hand till the night fell over land and sea while the black glen shone with their broad white limbs and the gleam of their golden hair
and the lad danced with them delighted and then slept a wholesome sleep upon fragrant leaves of bay and myrtle and marjoram and flowers of thyme and rose at the dawn and bathed in the torrent and became a schoolfellow to the heroes sons
and forgot iolcos and his father and all his former life but he grew strong and brave and cunning upon the pleasant downs of pelion in the keen hungry mountain air and he learnt to wrestle and to box and to hunt and to play upon the harp
and even the portraits of the great lawyers seemed to look on with satisfaction his mother left her tea and toast untouched but sat with her usual pretty primness only showing her emotion by that flush in the cheeks and brightness in the eyes
which give an old woman a touching momentary identity with her far off youthful self and saying decisively the greatest comfort camden is that you have deserved it when a man gets a good berth mother half the deserving must come after
said the son brimful of pleasure and not trying to conceal it the gladness in his face was of that active kind which seems to have energy enough not only to flash outwardly but to light up busy vision within
who was making tender little beaver like noises there shall be sugar candy always on the table for you to steal and give to the children and you shall have a great many new stockings to make presents of and you shall darn your own more than ever
miss noble nodded at her nephew with a subdued half frightened laugh
as for you winny the vicar went on i shall make no difficulty about your marrying any lowick bachelor mister solomon featherstone for example as soon as i find you are in love with him
miss winifred who had been looking at her brother all the while and crying heartily which was her way of rejoicing smiled through her tears and said you must set me the example cam you must marry now with all my heart
said the vicar rising pushing his chair away and looking down at himself what do you say mother you are a handsome man camden though not so fine a figure of a man as your father said the old lady i wish you would marry miss garth brother said miss winifred
she would make us so lively at lowick very fine you talk as if young women were tied up to be chosen like poultry at market as if i had only to ask and everybody would have me said the vicar not caring to specify we don't want everybody
said miss winifred but you would like miss garth mother shouldn't you my son's choice shall be mine said missus farebrother with majestic discretion and a wife would be most welcome camden
missus farebrother always called her tiny old sister by that magnificent name i shall do without whist now mother
i shall have two parishes said the vicar preferring not to discuss the virtues of that game he had already said to dorothea i don't feel bound to give up saint botolph's it is protest enough against the pluralism they want to reform if i give somebody else most of the money
the stronger thing is not to give up power but to use it well i have thought of that said dorothea
yet i felt that i ought not to let it be used by some one else instead of me it is i who am bound to act so that you will not regret your power said mister farebrother his was one of the natures in which conscience gets the more active when the yoke of life ceases to gall them
but in his heart he felt rather ashamed that his conduct had shown laches which others who did not get benefices were free from i used often to wish i had been something else than a clergyman he said to lydgate
but perhaps it will be better to try and make as good a clergyman out of myself as i can that is the well beneficed point of view you perceive from which difficulties are much simplified he ended smiling the vicar did feel then as if his share of duties would be easy
but duty has a trick of behaving unexpectedly something like a heavy friend whom we have amiably asked to visit us and who breaks his leg within our gates hardly a week later duty presented itself in his study under the disguise of fred vincy
but you are the only friend i can consult
sit down fred i'm ready to hear and do anything i can said the vicar who was busy packing some small objects for removal and went on with his work i wanted to tell you
fred hesitated an instant and then went on plungingly i might go into the church now and really look where i may i can't see anything else to do
fred paused again an instant and then repeated and i can't see anything else to do
merely that i don't like it i don't like divinity and preaching and feeling obliged to look serious i like riding across country and doing as other men do i don't mean that i want to be a bad fellow in any way but i've no taste for the sort of thing people expect of a clergyman
and yet what else am i to do my father can't spare me any capital else i might go into farming and he has no room for me in his trade and of course i can't begin to study for law or physic now when my father wants me to earn something
fred's voice had taken a tone of grumbling remonstrance and mister farebrother might have been inclined to smile if his mind had not been too busy in imagining more than fred told him have you any difficulties about doctrines about the articles
he said trying hard to think of the question simply for fred's sake no i suppose the articles are right i am not prepared with any arguments to disprove them and much better cleverer fellows than i am go in for them entirely
i think it would be rather ridiculous in me to urge scruples of that sort as if i were a judge said fred quite simply
of course if i am obliged to be a clergyman i shall try and do my duty though i mayn't like it
for going into the church under the circumstances that depends on your conscience fred
i can only tell you about myself that i have always been too lax and have been uneasy in consequence but there is another hindrance said fred coloring i did not tell you before though perhaps i may have said things that made you guess it
miss garth i suppose said the vicar examining some labels very closely yes i shouldn't mind anything if she would have me and i know i could be a good fellow then and you think she returns the feeling
she never will say so and a good while ago she made me promise not to speak to her about it again and she has set her mind especially against my being a clergyman i know that but i can't give her up
i do think she cares about me i saw missus garth last night and she said that mary was staying at lowick rectory with miss farebrother yes she is very kindly helping my sister
no i want to ask a great favor of you i am ashamed to bother you in this way but mary might listen to what you said if you mentioned the subject to her i mean about my going into the church that is rather a delicate task my dear fred
will be asking her to tell me whether she returns it that is what i want her to tell you said fred bluntly i don't know what to do unless i can get at her feeling you mean that you would be guided by that as to your going into the church
not my sort of love
will she not be hurt at my intrusion
she respects you more than any one and she would not put you off with fun as she does me of course i could not have told any one else or asked any one else to speak to her but you there is no one else who could be such a friend to both of us
fred paused a moment and then said rather complainingly
there was a moment's silence before mister farebrother laid down his work and putting out his hand to fred said very well my boy i will do what you wish that very day mister farebrother went to lowick parsonage on the nag which he had just set up
the young growths are pushing me aside he found mary in the garden gathering roses and sprinkling the petals on a sheet the sun was low and tall trees sent their shadows across the grassy walks where mary was moving without bonnet or parasol
she did not observe mister farebrother's approach along the grass and had just stooped down to lecture a small black and tan terrier which would persist in walking on the sheet and smelling at the rose leaves as mary sprinkled them
she took his fore paws in one hand and lifted up the forefinger of the other while the dog wrinkled his brows and looked embarrassed
mary was saying in a grave contralto
you are unmerciful to young gentlemen miss garth said the vicar within two yards of her mary started up and blushed it always answers to reason with fly she said laughingly
but not with young gentlemen oh with some i suppose since some of them turn into excellent men
not a silly one i hope said mary beginning to pluck the roses again and feeling her heart beat uncomfortably no though perhaps wisdom is not his strong point but rather affection and sincerity
however wisdom lies more in those two qualities than people are apt to imagine i hope you know by those marks what young gentleman i mean yes i think i do said mary bravely her face getting more serious and her hands cold
it must be fred vincy he has asked me to consult you about his going into the church i hope you will not think that i consented to take a liberty in promising to do so on the contrary mister farebrother
said mary giving up the roses and folding her arms but unable to look up whenever you have anything to say to me i feel honored but before i enter on that question let me just touch a point on which your father took me into confidence
by the way it was that very evening on which i once before fulfilled a mission from fred just after he had gone to college mister garth told me what happened on the night of featherstone's death how you refused to burn the will and he said that you had some heart prickings on that subject
because you had been the innocent means of hindering fred from getting his ten thousand pounds i have kept that in mind and i have heard something that may relieve you on that score may show you that no sin offering is demanded from you there
mister farebrother paused a moment and looked at mary he meant to give fred his full advantage but it would be well he thought to clear her mind of any superstitions such as women sometimes follow when they do a man the wrong of marrying him as an act of atonement
mary's cheeks had begun to burn a little and she was mute i mean that your action made no real difference to fred's lot i find that the first will would not have been legally good after the burning of the last it would not have stood if it had been disputed
so on that score you may feel your mind free thank you mister farebrother said mary earnestly i am grateful to you for remembering my feelings well now i may go on
he has worked his way so far and now the question is what is he to do
i have questioned him on the subject and i confess i see no insuperable objection to his being a clergyman as things go he says that he could turn his mind to doing his best in that vocation on one condition
if that condition were fulfilled i would do my utmost in helping fred on after a time not of course at first he might be with me as my curate and he would have so much to do that his stipend would be nearly what i used to get as vicar
but i repeat that there is a condition without which all this good cannot come to pass he has opened his heart to me miss garth and asked me to plead for him the condition lies entirely in your feeling
mary looked so much moved that he said after a moment let us walk a little and when they were walking he added to speak quite plainly fred will not take any course which would lessen the chance that you would consent to be his wife
i cannot possibly say that i will ever be his wife mister farebrother but i certainly never will be his wife if he becomes a clergyman what you say is most generous and kind i don't mean for a moment to correct your judgment
it is only that i have my girlish mocking way of looking at things said mary with a returning sparkle of playfulness in her answer which only made its modesty more charming he wishes me to report exactly what you think said mister farebrother
i could not love a man who is ridiculous said mary not choosing to go deeper fred has sense and knowledge enough to make him respectable if he likes in some good worldly business
but i can never imagine him preaching and exhorting and pronouncing blessings and praying by the sick without feeling as if i were looking at a caricature
and i think there is nothing more contemptible than such imbecile gentility
as if it were an institution for getting up idiots genteelly as if mary checked herself
young women are severe they don't feel the stress of action as men do though perhaps i ought to make you an exception there but you don't put fred vincy on so low a level as that no indeed he has plenty of sense
but i think he would not show it as a clergyman he would be a piece of professional affectation then the answer is quite decided as a clergyman he could have no hope mary shook her head
but if he braved all the difficulties of getting his bread in some other way will you give him the support of hope may he count on winning you i think fred ought not to need telling again what i have already said to him
mary answered with a slight resentment in her manner i mean that he ought not to put such questions until he has done something worthy instead of saying that he could do it mister farebrother was silent for a minute or more
and then as they turned and paused under the shadow of a maple at the end of a grassy walk said i understand that you resist any attempt to fetter you but either your feeling for fred vincy excludes your entertaining another attachment or it does not
either he may count on your remaining single until he shall have earned your hand or he may in any case be disappointed pardon me mary
but when the state of a woman's affections touches the happiness of another life of more lives than one i think it would be the nobler course for her to be perfectly direct and open mary in her turn was silent
wondering not at mister farebrother's manner but at his tone which had a grave restrained emotion in it when the strange idea flashed across her that his words had reference to himself she was incredulous and ashamed of entertaining it
she had never thought that any man could love her except fred who had espoused her with the umbrella ring when she wore socks and little strapped shoes still less that she could be of any importance to mister farebrother the cleverest man in her narrow circle
she had only time to feel that all this was hazy and perhaps illusory but one thing was clear and determined her answer since you think it my duty mister farebrother i will tell you that i have too strong a feeling for fred to give him up for any one else
i should never be quite happy if i thought he was unhappy for the loss of me
my gratitude to him for always loving me best and
i cannot imagine any new feeling coming to make that weaker i should like better than anything to see him worthy of every one's respect but please tell him i will not promise to marry him till then i should shame and grieve my father and mother
then i have fulfilled my commission thoroughly said mister farebrother putting out his hand to mary and i shall ride back to middlemarch forthwith with this prospect before him we shall get fred into the right niche somehow and i hope i shall live to join your hands
god bless you oh please stay and let me give you some tea said mary her eyes filled with tears for something indefinable something like the resolute suppression of a pain in mister farebrother's manner made her feel suddenly miserable
as she had once felt when she saw her father's hands trembling in a moment of trouble no my dear no i must get back
chapter six they walked directly into a bare dark hallway there was no one stirring and kemp softly opened the door
here a broad band of yellow sunlight
the waxen like face of the sleeping boy the rest of the simple poor looking room was in shadow the doctor noiselessly closed the door behind them and stepped to the bed which was covered with a heavy horse blanket
the boy on the bed even in sleep could not be accounted good looking there was a heaviness of feature a plentitude of freckles a shock of lack lustre hair that made poor bob bard anything but a thing of beauty and yet
as ruth looked at him and saw kemp's strong white hand placed gently on the low forehead a great wave of tender pity took possession of her sleep puts the strongest at the mercy of the watcher there is a loneliness about it
a silent expressive plea for protection that appeals unconsciously
it would be too bad to wake him now said the doctor in a low voice coming back to her side he is sleeping restfully
but it would be senseless to wait as there is no telling when he will waken a shade of disappointment passed over the girl's face which he noticed but he continued you might leave your roses where he cannot fail to see them
his conjectures on their mysterious appearance will rouse him sufficiently for one day he watched her move lightly across the room and fill a cup with water from an earthenware pitcher she looked about for a second as if hesitating where to place it
and then quickly drew up a high backed wooden chair close to the bedside and placed thereon a cup with roses so that they looked straight into the face of the slumbering lad we will go now kemp said and opened the door for ruth to pass before him
she followed him slowly but on the threshold drew back a thoughtful little pucker on her brow i think i shall wait anyway she explained i should like to talk with bob a little the doctor looked slightly annoyed
you had better drive home with me he objected thank you she replied drawing farther back into the room but the jackson street cars are very convenient nevertheless i should prefer to have you come with me he insisted but i do not wish to
she repeated quietly besides i have decided to stay that settles it then smiled kemp and shaking her hand he went out alone when my lady will she will and when she won't she won't he mused gathering up his reins
but the terminal point to the thought was a smile ruth thus left alone seated herself on the one other chair near the foot of the bed strange to say though she gazed at bob her thoughts had flown out of the room
she was dimly conscious that she was pleasantly excited had she cared to look the cause boldly in the face she would have known that miss ruth levice's vanity had been highly fed by doctor kemp's unmistakable desire for her assistance
he must at least have looked at her with friendly eyes but here her modesty drew a line even for herself and giving herself a mental shake she saw that two lambent brown eyes were looking wonderingly at her from the face of the sick lad how do you feel now bob
she asked rising immediately and smiling down at him the boy forgot to answer the doctor brought me here she went on brightly but as you were asleep he could not wait are you feeling better bob the soft star like eyes did not wander in their gaze
why did you come he breathed finally his voice was surprisingly musical why faltered ruth oh to bring you these roses do you care for flowers bob she lifted the mass of delicate buds toward him
two pale transparent hands went out to meet them tenderly as you sometimes see a mother press the cheek of her babe to her own he drew them to his cheek oh my darlings my darlings he murmured passionately with his lips pressed to the fragrant petals
lady replied the boy raising himself to a sitting posture there is nothing in the world to me like flowers i never thought boys cared so for flowers remarked ruth in surprise
i am a gardener said he simply and again fell to caressing the roses sitting up he looked fully seventeen or eighteen years old you must have missed them during your illness observed ruth a long sigh answered her
the boy rested his dreamy eyes upon her he was no longer ugly with his thoughts illumining his face marechal niel she heard him whisper still with his eyes upon her all in soft radiant robes like a gracious queen
lady you fit well next my homer rose what homer rose asked ruth humoring the flower poet's odd conceit my strong brave homer there is none like him for strength with all his gentle perfume folded close to his heart
i used to think these duchesses would suit him best but now having seen you i know they were too frail marechal niel it was impossible to resent openly the boy's musings but with a quick insistence
that stemmed the current of his thoughts she said tell me where you suffer bob
but he is nourishing me and missus mills brings me what he orders and is there anything you would like to have of which you forgot to tell him i never tell him anything i wish replied the boy proudly he knows beforehand
did you never draw up close to a delicate flower lay your cheek softly upon it so close your eyes so and listen to the tale it's telling well that is what my good friend does always
answered bob in unabashed simplicity yet his spoken words were flawless then i shall read them to you she answered pleasantly to morrow bob say at about three you will come again
why yes now that i know you i must know you better may i come oh lady ruth went out enveloped in that look of gratitude it was the first directly personal expression of honest gratitude she had ever received
she had led on the whole so far an egotistic life being their only child her parents expected much of her during her school life
for all her father's ideas whims and hobbies true he had made her take a wide interest in everything within the line of vision hanging on his arm as they wandered off daily in their peripatetic school he had imbued her with all his manly nobility of soul
but theorizing does not give much hold on a subject the mind being taken up with its own clever elucidations for the past six months
ruth had soon gauged the worth of this surface life and now that a lull had come she realized that what she needed was some interest outside of herself an interest which the duties of a mere society girl do not allow to develop to a real good
a plan slowly formed itself in her mind in which she became so engrossed that she unconsciously crossed the cable of the jackson street cars she did not turn till a hand was suddenly laid upon her arm what are you doing in this part of town
what is the matter with this part of town you are on a very disreputable street where are you going home then be so kind as to turn back with me and take the cars she glanced at him quickly
unused to his tone of command and turned with him how do you happen to be here he asked shortly doctor kemp took me to see a poor patient of his doctor kemp surprise raised his eyebrows half an inch yes
indeed then he continued in cool biting words why didn't he carry his charity a little farther and take you home again because i did not choose to go with him she returned rearing her head and looking calmly at him as they walked along
bah what had your wishing or not wishing to do with it the man knew where he had taken you even if you did not know this quarter is occupied by nothing but negroes and foreign loafers it was decidedly ungentlemanly to leave you to return alone at this time of the evening
probably he gave me credit for being able to take care of myself in broad daylight probably he never gave it a second's thought one way or the other hereafter you had better consult your natural protectors before starting out on quixotic excursions
with indifferent strangers louis she actually stamped her little foot while walking well stop that please you are not my keeper her cousin smiled quizzically they took their seats on the dummy
just as the sun a golden ball was about to glide behind lone mountain late afternoon is a quiet time and ruth and louis did not speak for a while the girl was experiencing a whirl of conflicting emotions anger at louis's interference
pleasure at his protecting care annoyance at what he considered gross negligence on the doctor's part and a sneaking pride in defiance of his insinuations over the thought that kemp had trusted to her womanliness as a safeguard against any chance annoyance
she also felt ashamed at having showed temper louis she ventured finally rubbing her shoulder against his as gentle animals conciliate their mates i am sorry i spoke so harshly but it exasperates me
to hear you cast slurs as you have done before upon doctor kemp in his absence why should it my dear since it give you a chance to uphold him there is a way of saying my dear that is as mortifying as a slap in the face
the dark blood surged over the girl's cheeks she drew a long hard breath and then said in a low voice i think we will not quarrel louis will you get off at the next corner with me i have a prescription to be made up at the drug store certainly
chapter two mother and daughter in the cosy chamber of an apartment located in a fashionable quarter of new york louise merrick reclined upon a couch dressed in a dainty morning gown
and propped and supported by a dozen embroidered cushions
stood a box of bonbons the contents of which she occasionally nibbled as she turned the pages of her novel the girl had a pleasant and attractive face although its listless expression was singular in one so young
the room was tastefully though somewhat elaborately furnished yet everything in it seemed as fresh and new as if it had just come from the shop which was not far from the truth the apartment itself was new
with highly polished floors and woodwork and decorations undimmed by time even the girl's robe which she wore so gracefully was new and the books upon the center table were of the latest editions
the portiere was thrust aside and an elderly lady entered the room seating herself quietly at the window and after a single glance at the form upon the couch beginning to embroider patiently upon some work
she took from a silken bag she moved so noiselessly that the girl did not hear her and for several minutes absolute silence pervaded the room then however louise in turning a leaf
glanced up and saw the head bent over the embroidery she laid down her book and drew an open letter from between the cushions beside her which she languidly tossed into the other's lap
who is this woman mamma she asked missus merrick glanced at the letter and then read it carefully through before replying jane merrick is your father's sister
that i cannot well explain i had supposed you knew of your poor father's sister jane although you were so young when he died that it is possible he never mentioned her name in your presence they were not on friendly terms you know
jane was rich having inherited a fortune and a handsome country place from a young man whom she was engaged to marry but who died on the eve of his wedding day how romantic exclaimed louise
it does seem romantic related in this way replied her mother
she became a crabbed disagreeable woman old before her time and friendless because she suspected everyone of trying to rob her of her money your poor father applied to her in vain for assistance and i believe her refusal positively shortened his life
when he died after struggling bravely to succeed in his business he left nothing but his life insurance thank heaven he left that sighed louise yes we would have been beggared indeed
without it agreed missus merrick yet i often wonder louise how we managed to live upon the interest of that money for so many years we didn't live we existed corrected the girl yawning
missus merrick frowned and leaned back in her chair i sometimes doubt if the idea was so brilliant after all she returned with a certain grimness of expression we're plunging louise
and it may be into a bottomless pit don't worry dear said the girl biting into a bonbon we are only on the verge of our great adventure and there's no reason to be discouraged yet i assure you
brilliant of course the idea was brilliant mamma the income of that insurance money was insignificant but the capital is a very respectable sum i am just seventeen years of age
although i feel that i ought to be thirty at the least and in three years i shall be twenty and a married woman you decided to divide our capital into three equal parts and spend a third of it each year
this plan enabling us to live in good style and to acquire a certain social standing that will allow me to select a wealthy husband it's a very brilliant idea my dear three years is a long time
i'll find my croesus long before that never fear you ought to returned the mother thoughtfully but if you fail we shall be entirely ruined a strong incentive to succeed
said louise smiling an ordinary girl might not win out but i've had my taste of poverty and i don't like it
for as long as we live in this luxurious fashion we shall pay our bills promptly and be proper and respectable in every way the only chance we run lies in the danger that eligible young men may prove shy and refuse to take our bait
but are we not diplomats mother dear
but will be content with a man who can support us in good style or even in comfort and in return for his money i'll be a very good wife to him that seems sensible and wise i'm sure and not at all difficult of accomplishment
missus merrick stared silently out of the window and for a few moments seemed lost in thought i think louise she said at last you will do well to cultivate your rich aunt
you mean that i should accept her queer invitation to visit her yes she has sent me a check for a hundred dollars isn't it funny
jane was always a whimsical woman perhaps she thinks we are quite destitute and fears you would not be able to present a respectable appearance at elmhurst without this assistance but it is an evidence of her good intentions
finding death near at hand she is obliged to select an heir and so invites you to visit her that she may study your character and determine whether you are worthy to inherit her fortune the girl laughed lightly
it will be easy to cajole the old lady she said in two days i can so win her heart that she will regret she has neglected me so long exactly
if i get her money we will change our plans and abandon the adventure we were forced to undertake but if for any reason
we can fall back upon this prettily conceived scheme which we have undertaken as you say it is well to have two strings to one's bow and during july and august everyone will be out of town and so we shall lose no valuable time
missus merrick did not reply she stitched away in a methodical manner as if abstracted and louise crossed her delicate hands behind her head and gazed at her mother reflectively presently she said
is this rich aunt of mine the only relative he had no indeed there were two other sisters and a brother a very uninteresting lot with the exception of your poor father the eldest was john merrick
a common tinsmith if i remember rightly who went into the far west many years ago and probably died there for he was never heard from then came jane who in her young days had some slight claim to beauty
anyway she won the heart of thomas bradley the wealthy young man i referred to and she must have been clever to have induced him to leave her his money your father was a year or so younger than jane and after him came julia
a coarse and disagreeable creature who married a music teacher and settled in some out of the way country town once while your father was alive she visited us for a few days with her baby daughter and nearly drove us all crazy
said louise musingly then this rich aunt jane has another niece besides myself perhaps two returned missus merrick for her youngest sister who was named violet
married a vagabond irishman and had a daughter about a year younger than you the mother died but whether the child survived her or not i have never learned what was her name asked louise i cannot remember
but it is unimportant you are the only merrick of them all and that is doubtless the reason jane has sent for you the girl shook her blonde head i don't like it she observed
don't like what all this string of relations it complicates matters missus merrick seemed annoyed
she said with almost a sneer in her tones you'd better not go to elmhurst one or the other of your country cousins might supplant you in your dear aunt's affections
the girl yawned and took up her neglected novel nevertheless mater dear she said briefly
at last we came to a place from which the great spread of the earth was visible for a time
we had wholly lost ourselves going up and down and turning corners without getting further but my father said that we must come right if we made up our minds to go long enough
we had been in among all shapes and want of shapes of dreariness through and in and out of every thrup and thrum of weariness scarcely hoping ever more to find our way out and discover memory of men for us when all of a sudden
we saw a grand sight the day had been dreadfully hot and baffling with sudden swirls of red dust arising and driving the great drought into us to walk had been worse than to drag one's way through a stubbly bed of sting nettles
disfigures the beauty of the sierra on either side in purple distance sprang sky piercing obelisks and vapor mantled glaciers spangled with bright snow and shodden with eternal forest
before us lay the broad luxuriant plains of california checkered with more tints than any other piece of earth can show sleeping in alluvial ease and veined with soft blue waters
and through a gap in the brown coast range at twenty leagues of distance a light so faint as to seem a shadow hovered above the pacific but none of all this grandeur touched our hearts except the water gleam
parched with thirst i caught my father's arm and tried to urge him on toward the blue enchantment of ecstatic living water but to my surprise he staggered back and his face grew as white as the distant snow
i managed to get him to a sandy ledge with the help of his own endeavors and there let him rest and try to speak
my little child he said at last as if we were fallen back ten years put your hand where i can feel it my hand all the while had been in his
and to let him know where it was it moved but cold fear stopped my talking my child i have not been kind to you my father slowly spoke again
but it has not been from want of love some day you will see all this and some day you will pardon me he laid one heavy arm around me and forgetting thirst and pain
with the last intensity of eyesight watched the sun departing to me i know not how great awe was every where and sadness the conical point of the furious sun which like a barb had pierced us
was broadening into a hazy disk inefficient but benevolent underneath him depth of night was waiting to come upward after letting him fall through and stain his track with redness already the arms of darkness
his upper arc was pure and keen but the lower was flaked with atmosphere a glow of hazy light soon would follow and one bright glimmer addressed more to the sky than to the earth and after that a broad soft gleam
and after that how many a man should never see the sun again and among them would be my father he for the moment resting there with heavy light upon him
and the dark jaws of the mountain desert yawning wide behind him and all the beautiful expanse of liberal earth before him even so he seemed to me of all the things in sight the one that first would draw attention
and the sad tranquillity which comes to those who know what human life is through continual human death although in the matter of bodily strength he was little past the prime of life his long and abundant hair was white
and his broad and upright forehead marked with the meshes of the net of care but drought and famine and long fatigue had failed even now to change or weaken the fine expression of his large sad eyes
those eyes alone would have made the face remarkable among ten thousand so deep with settled gloom they were and dark with fatal sorrow such eyes might fitly have told the grief of adrastus son of gordias who
having slain his own brother unwitting unwitting slew the only son of his generous host and savior the pale globe of the sun hung trembling in the haze himself had made my father rose to see the last
and reared his tall form upright against the deepening background he gazed as if the course of life lay vanishing below him while level land and waters drew the breadth of shadow over them
then the last gleam flowed and fled upon the face of ocean and my father put his dry lips to my forehead saying nothing his lips might well be dry for he had not swallowed water for three days
but it frightened me to feel how cold they were and even tremulous let us run let us run my dear father i cried delicious water the dark falls quickly but we can get there before dark
it is all down hill oh do let us run at once
we have escaped from that starving desert at a spot at a spot where we can see
and the hand with which he tried to point some distant landmark fell away his face which had been so pale before became of a deadly whiteness and he breathed with gasps of agony i knelt before him and took his hands
and tried to rub the palms and did whatever i could think of
what a brute i was to let you do it but i did not know i never knew please god to take me also he could not manage to answer this even if he understood it
but he firmly lifted his arm again and tried to make me follow it what does it matter oh never mind never mind such a wretch as i am father only try to tell me what i ought to do for you
my child my child were his only words and he kept on saying my child my child as if he liked the sound of it
at what time of the night my father died i knew not then or afterward it may have been before the moon came over the snowy mountains or it may not have been till the worn out stars in vain repelled the daybreak
all i know is that i ever strove to keep more near to him through the night to cherish his failing warmth and quicken the slow laborious harassed breath
from time to time he tried to pray to god for me and for himself but every time his mind began to wander and to slip away as if through want of practice
for the chills of many wretched years had deadened and benumbed his faith he knew me now and then betwixt the conflict and the stupor for more than once he muttered feebly and as if from out a dream
time for erema to go on her way go on your way and save your life save your life erema there was no way for me to go except on my knees before him
light rubbing i whispered into his ear my name that he might speak once more to me and when he could not speak i tried to say what he would say to me
at last with a blow that stunned all words it smote my stupid wandering mind that all i had to speak and smile to all i cared to please and serve the only one left to admire and love
and in the anguish of my sobbing little things came home to me a thousand little things that showed how quietly he had prepared for this and provided for me only cold despair and self reproach and strong rebellion dazed me
until i lay at my father's side and slept with his dead hand in mine there in the desert of desolation pious awe embraced me and small phantasms of individual fear could not come nigh me
by and by long shadows of morning crept toward me dismally and the pallid light of the hills was stretched in weary streaks away from me how i arose or what i did or what i thought
is nothing now such times are not for talking of how many hearts of anguish lie forlorn with none to comfort them with all the joy of life died out and all the fear of having yet to live in front arising
young and weak and wrong of sex for doing any valiance long i lay by my father's body wringing out my wretchedness thirst and famine now had flown into the opposite extreme
i seemed to loathe the thought of water and the smell of food would have made me sick i opened my father's knapsack and a pang of new misery seized me there lay nearly all his rations
which he had made pretense to eat as he gave me mine from time to time he had starved himself since he failed of his mark and learned our risk of famishing all his own food he had kept for me as well as his store of water
and i had done nothing but grumble and groan even while consuming every thing compared with me the hovering vultures might be considered angels
i was a great deal too worn out to cry or sob simply to break down may be the purest mercy that can fall on truly hopeless misery
he had not expected an early crop
during a whole generation his philosophy had amidst tumults wars and proscriptions been slowly ripening in a few well constituted minds
while factions were struggling for dominion over each other a small body of sages had turned away with benevolent disdain from the conflict and had devoted themselves to the nobler work of extending the dominion of man over matter
doctrine the civil troubles had stimulated the faculties of the educated classes and had called forth a restless activity and an insatiable curiosity such as had not before been known among us
yet the effect of those troubles was that schemes of political and religious reform were generally regarded with suspicion and contempt during twenty years the chief employment of busy and ingenious men had been to frame constitutions with first magistrates
with senates appointed by lot with annual senates with perpetual senates in these plans nothing was omitted all the detail all the nomenclature all the ceremonial of the imaginary government was fully set forth polemarchs and phylarchs
tribes and galaxies the lord archon and the lord strategus which ballot boxes were to be green and which red which balls were to be of gold and which of silver which magistrates were to wear hats and which black velvet caps with peaks
but daring and ingenious men might indemnify themselves by treating with disdain what had lately been considered as the fundamental laws of nature the torrent which had been dammed up in one channel rushed violently into another
the revolutionary spirit ceasing to operate in politics began to exert itself with unprecedented vigour and hardihood in every department of physics
in that year the royal society destined to be a chief agent in a long series of glorious and salutary reforms
the transfusion of blood the ponderation of air the fixation of mercury succeeded to that place in the public mind which had been lately occupied by the controversies of the rota
and of doublekeeled ships which were never to founder in the
all classes were hurried along by the prevailing sentiment
and puzzled philosophers charles himself had a laboratory at whitehall and was far more active and attentive
and every day made some new advance in defiance of hippocrates and galen the attention of speculative men had been for the first time directed to the important subject of sanitary police
the great plague of sixteen sixty five induced them to consider with care the defective architecture
it was then that ray made a new classification of birds and fishes and that the attention of woodward was first drawn towards fossils and shells
one after another phantoms which had haunted the world through ages of darkness fled before the light astrology and alchymy became jests soon there was scarcely a county in which some of the quorum did not smile contemptuously
when an old woman was brought before them for riding on broomsticks or giving cattle the murrain but it was in those noblest and most arduous departments of
knowledge in which induction and mathematical demonstration cooperate for the discovery of truth that the english genius won in that age the most memorable triumphs
edmund halley investigated the properties of the atmosphere the ebb and flow of the sea the laws of magnetism and the course of the comets nor did he shrink from toil peril and exile in the cause of science
while he on the rock of saint helena mapped the constellations of the southern hemisphere
it was so pale the small eyes had closed themselves and it drew its breath so softly now and then with a deep respiration as if it sighed and the mother looked still more sorrowfully on the little creature
and in came a poor old man wrapped up as in a large horse cloth for it warms one and he needed it as it was the cold winter season
and the wind blew so that it cut the face as the old man trembled with cold and the little child slept a moment
and set it on the stove
the old man sat and rocked the cradle
and looked at her little sick child that drew its breath so deep and raised its little hand
and the old man it was death himself he nodded so strangely it could just as well signify yes as no
and the tears ran down over her cheeks
she had not closed her eyes for three days and nights and now she slept but only for a minute when she started up and trembled with cold what is that said she and looked on
but the old man was gone and her little child was gone he had taken it with him and the old clock in the
the great leaden weight ran down to the floor bump and then the clock also stood still but the poor mother ran out of the house and cried aloud for her child
out there in the midst of the snow there sat a woman in long black clothes and she said death has been in thy chamber and i saw him hasten away with thy little child
he goes faster than the wind and he never brings back what he takes oh only tell me which way he went said the mother
i know it said the woman in the black clothes
hast sung for thy child i am fond of them i have heard them before i am night i saw thy tears whilst thou sang'st them
but do not stop me now i may overtake him i may find my child but night stood still and mute then the mother wrung her hands
but yet many more tears and then night said go to the right into the dark pine forest thither i saw death take his way with thy little child
the roads crossed each other in the depths of the forest and she no longer knew whither she should go
and ice flakes hung on the branches hast thou not seen death go past with my little child
i am freezing to death i shall become a lump of ice
and her blood flowed in large drops
she then came to a large lake where there was neither ship nor boat the lake was not frozen sufficiently to bear her neither was it open
could wade through it and across it she must go if she would find her child then she lay down to drink up the lake and that was an impossibility for a human being but the afflicted mother thought that a miracle might happen nevertheless
said the weeping mother and she wept still more
and she flew in the rocking waves to the shore on the opposite side
and caverns or if it were built up
how have you been able to find the way hither and who has helped you our lord has helped me said she
where shall i find my little child nay i know not said the woman
death will soon come and plant them over again
just as everyone happens to be settled they look like other plants but they have pulsations of the heart
what you shall do more i have nothing to give said the afflicted mother but i will go to the world's end for you nay i have nothing to do there said the woman but you can give me your long black hair you know yourself that
and got the old woman's snow white hair instead so they went into death's great greenhouse where flowers and trees grew strangely into one another there stood fine hyacinths under glass bells and there stood
strong stemmed peonies there grew water plants some so fresh others half sick
every tree and every flower had its name each of them was a human life the human frame still lived one in china and another in greenland round about in the world
there were large trees in small pots so that they stood so stunted in growth
round about it and it was so petted and nursed
and heard within them how the human heart beat
and stretched her hands out over a little blue crocus that hung quite sickly on one side
then he will be afraid
and no one dares to pluck them up before he gives leave
how hast thou been able to find thy way hither
i am a mother said she and death stretched out his long hand towards the fine little flower
so tight and yet afraid that she should touch one of the leaves then death blew on her hands and she felt that it was colder than the cold wind and her hands fell down powerless
thou canst not do anything against me said death but our lord can said she i only do his bidding said death i am his gardener
i take all his flowers and trees and plant them out in the great garden of paradise in the unknown land but how they grow there and how it is there i dare not tell thee give me back my child said the mother
and she wept and prayed at once she seized hold of two beautiful flowers close by with each hand and cried out to death
touch them not said death
and now thou wilt make another mother equally unhappy another mother said the poor woman and directly
take them again they are now brighter than before now look down into the deep well close by i shall tell thee the names of the two flowers
and thou wilt see their whole future life their whole human existence
and she looked down into the well
how the one became a blessing to the world to see how much happiness and joy were felt everywhere
and distress horror and wretchedness both of them are god's will said death which of them is misfortune's flower and which is that of happiness asked she
know from me that the one flower was thy own child it was thy child's fate thou saw'st thy own child's future life then the mother screamed with terror
which of them was my child tell it me save the innocent save my child from all that misery rather take it away take it into god's kingdom forget my tears forget my prayers and all that i have done
i do not understand thee said death wilt thou have thy child again or shall i go with it there
then the mother wrung her hands fell on her knees
which is the best hear me not hear me not
this war hastened the approach of the great constitutional crisis it was necessary that the king should have a large military force he could not have such a force without money
must administer the government in conformity with the sense of the house of commons or must venture on such a violation of the fundamental laws of the land as had been unknown during several centuries
a deficiency in their revenue by a benevolence or a forced loan but these expedients were always of a temporary nature to meet the regular charge of a long war by regular taxation
was a course which henry the eighth himself would not have dared to take it seemed therefore that the decisive hour was approaching
either share the fate of the senates of the continent or obtain supreme ascendency in the state just at this conjuncture james died charles the first succeeded to the throne
he had received from nature a far better understanding a far stronger will
and was much more disposed than his father to carry them into practice he was like his father a zealous episcopalian he was moreover what his father had never been a zealous arminian
and though no papist liked a papist much better than a puritan it would be unjust to deny that charles had some of the qualities of a good and even of a great prince he wrote and spoke not like his father
with the exactness of a professor but after the fashion of intelligent and well educated gentlemen his taste in literature and art was excellent his manner dignified though not gracious his domestic life without blemish
he was in truth impelled by an incurable propensity to dark and crooked ways
was sufficiently sensitive should never have reproached him with this great vice
not only from constitution and from habit but also on principle he seems to have learned from the theologians whom he most esteemed that between him and his subjects
there could be nothing of the nature of mutual contract
divest himself of his despotic authority and that in every promise which he made there was an implied reservation that such promise might be broken in case of necessity and that of the necessity he was the sole judge
it was played on the side of the house of commons with keenness but with admirable dexterity coolness and perseverance great statesmen who looked far behind them and far before them were at the head of that assembly
they were resolved to place the king in such a situation that he must either conduct the administration in conformity with the wishes of his parliament or make outrageous attacks on the most sacred principles of the constitution
they accordingly doled out supplies to him very sparingly
his choice was soon made he dissolved his first parliament and levied taxes by his own authority he convoked a second parliament and found it more intractable than the first
and threw the chiefs of the opposition into prison at the same time a new grievance which the peculiar feelings and habits of the english nation made insupportably painful
to be of fearful augury excited general discontent and alarm companies of soldiers were billeted on the people and martial law was in some places
substituted for the ancient jurisprudence of the realm the king called a third parliament and soon perceived that the opposition was stronger and fiercer than ever
he now determined on a change of tactics instead of opposing an inflexible resistance to the demands of the commons he after much altercation and many evasions agreed to a compromise which if he had faithfully adhered to it
would have averted a long series of calamities the parliament granted an ample supply the king ratified in the most solemn manner that celebrated law which is
by ratifying that law he bound himself never again to raise money without the consent of the houses
and never again to subject his people to the jurisdiction of courts martial the day on which the royal sanction was after many delays solemnly given to this great act was a day of joy and hope
the clerk had pronounced the ancient form of words by which our princes have during many ages
it became manifest that charles had no intention of observing the compact into which he had entered the supply given by the representatives of the nation was collected
the promise by which that supply had been obtained was broken
some of the most distinguished members were imprisoned and one of them sir john eliot after years of suffering died in confinement charles however could not venture to raise by his own authority
taxes sufficient for carrying on war he accordingly hastened to make peace with his neighbours and thenceforth gave his whole mind to british politics now commenced a new era
many english kings had occasionally committed unconstitutional acts but none had ever systematically attempted to make himself a despot and to reduce the parliament to a nullity
such was the end which charles distinctly proposed to himself from march sixteen twenty nine to april sixteen forty the houses were not convoked
only once had there been an interval of even half that length this fact alone is sufficient to refute those who represent charles as having merely trodden in the footsteps of the plantagenets and tudors
it is proved by the testimony of the king's most strenuous supporters that during this part of his reign the provisions of the petition of right were violated by him not occasionally but constantly and on system
that a large part of the revenue was raised without any legal authority and that persons obnoxious to the government languished for years in prison without being ever called upon to plead before any tribunal
for these things history must hold the king himself chiefly responsible from the time of his third parliament he was his own prime minister
was the counsellor most trusted in political and military affairs
and felt towards those whom he had deserted that peculiar malignity which has in all ages been characteristic of apostates
and had formed a vast and deeply meditated scheme which very nearly confounded even the able tactics of the statesmen by whom the house of commons had been directed
to this scheme in his confidential correspondence he gave the expressive name of thorough his object was to do in england all and more than all
to make charles a monarch as absolute as any on the continent
at the disposal of the crown to deprive the courts of law of all independent authority
and to punish with merciless rigour all who murmured at the acts of the government
even in the most decent and regular manner
a coherence a precision which if he had not been pursuing an object
he saw that there was one instrument
could be carried into execution that instrument was a standing army to the forming of such an army therefore he directed all the energy of his strong mind
but also over the english colonists and was able to boast that in that island
archbishop of canterbury
laud had departed farthest from the principles of the reformation and had drawn nearest to rome his theology was more remote than even that of the dutch arminians from the theology of the calvinists
his ill concealed dislike of the marriage of ecclesiastics the ardent and not altogether disinterested zeal with which he asserted the claims of the clergy to the reverence of the laity would have made him an object of aversion to the puritans
even if he had used only legal and gentle means for the attainment of his ends but his understanding was narrow and his commerce with the world had been small he was by nature rash irritable
quick to feel for his own dignity slow to sympathise with the sufferings of others and prone to the error
for emotions of pious zeal under his direction every corner of the realm was subjected to a constant and minute inspection every little congregation of separatists was tracked out and broken up
even the devotions of private families could not escape the vigilance of his spies
which festered in innumerable bosoms was generally disguised under an outward show of conformity on the very eve of troubles fatal to himself and to his order the bishops of several extensive dioceses were able to
report to him that not a single dissenter was to be found
the judges of the common law holding their situations during the pleasure of the king were scandalously obsequious
than a class of courts the memory of which is still after the lapse of more than two centuries held in deep abhorrence by the nation foremost among these courts in power and in infamy were the star chamber
and the high commission the former a political the latter a religious inquisition neither was a part of the old constitution of england the star chamber had been remodelled and the high commission created by the tudors
the power which these boards had possessed before the accession of charles had been extensive and formidable but had been small indeed when compared with that which they now usurped
guided chiefly by the violent spirit of the primate and free from the control of parliament they displayed a rapacity a violence a malignant energy which had been unknown to any former age
to fine imprison
a separate council which sate at york under the presidency of wentworth was armed in defiance of law
with almost boundless power over the northern counties all these tribunals insulted and defied the authority of westminster hall and daily committed excesses which the most distinguished royalists have warmly condemned
we are informed by clarendon that there was hardly a man of note in the realm
and greediness of the star chamber
that party had always been desirous to see the old civil polity
but had many reasons for dreading the restoration of the old family richard was the very man for politicians of this description
his humanity ingenuousness and modesty the mediocrity of his abilities and the docility with which he submitted to the guidance of persons wiser than himself admirably qualified him to be the head of a limited monarchy
for a time it seemed highly probable that he would under the direction of able advisers effect what his father had attempted in vain a parliament was called and the writs were directed after the old fashion
the small boroughs which had recently been disfranchised regained their lost privilege
it may seem strange to a generation which has been excited almost to madness by the question of parliamentary reform
to this change but though speculative men might even in that age discern the vices of the old representative system and predict that those vices would sooner or later produce serious practical evil
representative system on the other hand though constructed on sound principles was not popular
it had sprung from military violence it had been fruitful of nothing but disputes the whole nation was sick of government by the sword and pined for government by the law
and abuses which were in strict conformity with the law and which had been destroyed by the sword gave general satisfaction
under a new dynasty richard was solemnly recognised as first magistrate
taken the side of public liberty to sit in the upper house of parliament without any new creation thus far the statesmen by whose advice richard acted had been successful
almost all the parts of the government were now constituted as they had been constituted at the commencement of the civil war
there can be little doubt that an order of things similar to that which was afterwards established under the house of hanover would have been established under the house of cromwell
which he had inherited he had never led them to victory he had never even borne arms
approved by the military saints
and by cheerful resignation under cruel wrongs and misfortunes but the cant then
the prudence to conceal the officers who had the principal influence among the troops stationed near london were not his friends
but destitute of the wisdom and civil courage which had been conspicuous in their deceased leader some of them were honest but fanatical independents and republicans of this class fleetwood was the representative
his rapid elevation his prosperity and glory his inauguration in the hall and his
they were as well born as he and as well educated they could not understand
and they pursued the objects of their wild ambition not like him
but with the restlessness and irresolution characteristic of aspiring mediocrity among these feeble copies of a great original the most conspicuous was lambert on the very day of richard's accession the officers began to conspire against their new master
hastened the crisis alarm and resentment spread through the camp
it seemed that the independents were to be subjected to the presbyterians and that the men of the sword were to be subjected to the men of the gown a coalition
was formed between the military malecontents and the republican minority of the house of commons it may well be doubted whether richard could have triumphed over that coalition even if he had inherited his father's clear judgment and iron courage
he fell ingloriously and without a struggle he was used by the army as an instrument for the purpose of dissolving the parliament and was then contemptuously thrown aside
and by inviting that assembly to resume its functions the old speaker and a quorum of the old members came together and were proclaimed amidst the scarcely stifled derision and execration of the whole nation the supreme power in the commonwealth
that there should be no first magistrate and no house of lords but this state of things could not last on the
and began to treat them as subjects
named by the officers assumed the direction of affairs
had at length produced an alliance between the cavaliers and the presbyterians some presbyterians had indeed been disposed to such an alliance even before the death of charles the first but it was
not till after the fall of richard cromwell that the whole party became eager for the restoration of the royal house there was no longer any reasonable hope that the old constitution could be reestablished under a new dynasty
one choice only was left the stuarts or the army the banished family had committed great faults but it had dearly expiated those faults and had undergone a long and it might be hoped a salutary training in the school of adversity
it was probable that charles the second would take warning by the fate of charles the first but be this as it might the dangers which threatened the country
it seemed but too likely that england would fall under the most odious
anything was preferable to the yoke of a succession of incapable and inglorious tyrants raised to power
as often as the truncheon was transferred from one feeble hand to another
on the troops if the presbyterians obstinately stood aloof from the royalists the state was lost and men might well doubt whether by the combined exertions of presbyterians and royalists it could be saved
for the dread of that invincible army was on all the inhabitants of the island and the cavaliers taught by a hundred disastrous fields how little numbers can effect against discipline
either to monarchy or to liberty that mighty force which had during many years acted as one man and which while so acting had been found irresistible was at length divided against itself
the army of scotland had done good service to the commonwealth and was in the highest state of efficiency it had borne no part in the late revolutions and had seen
mister herbert linley of the friends and neighbors who had associated with herbert linley in bygone days
those few it is needless to say were men one of the faithful companions
who had not shrunk from him yet had just left the london hotel at which linley had taken rooms for sydney westerfield and himself in the name of mister and missus herbert
this old friend had been shocked by the change for the worse which he had perceived in the fugitive master of mount morven linley's stout figure of former times had fallen away
as if he had suffered under long illness his healthy color had faded he made an effort to assume the hearty manner that had once been natural to him which was simply pitiable to see
after sacrificing all that makes life truly decent and truly enjoyable for a woman he has got nothing not even false happiness in return
the retiring visitor descended the hotel steps and went his way along the street linley returned to the newspaper which he had been reading when his friend was shown into the room
line by line he followed the progress of the law report which informed its thousands of readers that his wife had divorced him and had taken lawful possession of his child word
of crushing severity in which the lord president had spoken of sydney westerfield and of himself
and cherish and then even then urged by his own self tormenting suspicion he looked for more on the opposite page there was a leading article
presenting comments on the trial written in the tone of lofty and virtuous regret
that no condemnation of the conduct of the husband and the governess
and no misery that might overtake them in the future more than they had deserved
and thought over what he had read if he had done nothing else he had drained the bitter cup
when he looked back he saw nothing but the life that he had wasted when his thoughts turned to the future they confronted a prospect empty of all promise to a man still in the prime of life
wife and child were as completely lost to him
he had deserved it the clock roused him striking the hour
as he crossed the room he passed by a mirror his own sullen despair looked at him in the reflection of his face she will be back directly he remembered she mustn't see me like this
he went on to the window to divert his mind and so to clear his face
artificial cheerfulness assumed love in sydney's presence that was what his life had come to already if he had known that she had gone out seeking a temporary separation
with his fear of self betrayal if he had suspected that she too had thoughts which must be concealed sad
would the end have been but she had thus far escaped the danger of exciting his distrust that she loved him he knew
and who was very kind to me when i was a child and she had asked leave to go to the house and inquire if that friendly landlady was still living with nothing visibly constrained in her smile
and with no faltering tone in her voice it was not until she was out in the street
and the bitter sigh broke from her and mingled its little unheard misery with the grand rise and fall of the tumult of london life while he was still at the window
he saw her crossing the street on her way back to him she came into the room with her complexion heightened by exercise she kissed him and said with her pretty smile
and seating himself by her side asked if she felt tired every attention that she could wish for from the man whom she loved
she met him halfway and answered as if her mind was quite at ease no dear i'm not tired but i'm glad to get back did you find your old landlady still alive yes
but oh so altered poor thing the struggle for life must have been a hard one since i last saw her she didn't recognize you of course oh no
it was too sad i said i had known her lodgings well many years ago
i told her who i was ah it was a melancholy meeting for both of us
and my brother lost to me in spite of every effort to find him i asked to go into the kitchen thinking the change would be a relief to both of us the kitchen used to be a paradise to me in those old days
it was so warm to a half starved child and i always got something to eat when i was there you have no idea herbert
how poor and how empty the place looked to me now i was glad to get out of it and go upstairs there was a lumber room at the top of the house i used to play in it all by myself
more changes met me the moment i opened the door changes for the better my dear it couldn't have changed for the worse
the lumber taken away and a nice little bed in one corner some clerk in the city had taken the room i shouldn't have known it again but there was another surprise waiting for me a happy surprise this time
in cleaning out the garret what do you think the landlady found try to guess anything to please her
was it something you had left behind you he said at the time when you lodged there yes you are right at the first guess a little memorial of my father
only some torn crumpled leaves from a book of children's songs
and a small packet of his letters which my mother may have thrown aside and forgotten see i have brought them back with me i mean to look over the letters at once but this doesn't interest you
indeed it does he made that considerate reply mechanically as if thinking of something else she was afraid to tell him plainly that she saw this
but she could venture to say that he was not looking well i have noticed it for some time past she confessed you have been accustomed to live in the country i am afraid london doesn't agree with you
he admitted that she might be right still speaking absently still thinking of the divorce she laid the packet of letters and the poor relics of the old song book on the table and bent over him tenderly
the seaside might do you good don't you think so i daresay my dear where shall we go oh i leave that to you no sydney it was i who proposed coming to london
you shall decide this time she submitted and promised to think of it leaving him with the first expression of trouble that had shown itself in her face
on the point of removing the letters next she noticed the newspaper on the table anything interesting to day she asked and drew the newspaper toward her to look at it he took it from her suddenly almost roughly
the next moment he apologized for his rudeness
after begging her pardon you don't care about politics do you instead of answering she looked at him attentively the heightened color which told of recent exercise healthily enjoyed faded from her face
she was silent she was pale a little confused he smiled uneasily
there is something in the newspaper she said which you don't want me to read he denied it
her voice sank low her face turned paler still is it all over she asked and is it put in the newspaper what do you mean i mean the divorce he went back again to the window and looked out
it was the easiest excuse that he could devise for keeping his face turned away from her she followed him i don't want to read it herbert i only ask you to tell me if you are a free man again
quiet as it was her tone left him no alternative but to treat her brutally or to reply still looking out at the street he said yes free to marry if you like she persisted
he said yes once more and kept his face steadily turned away from her she waited a while he neither moved nor spoke surviving the slow death little by little of all her other illusions
one last hope had lingered in her heart it was killed by that cruel look fixed on the view of the street i'll try to think of a place that we can go to at the seaside having said those words
she slowly moved away to the door and turned back remembering the packet of letters she took it up paused and looked toward the window the streets still interested him
she tried to think of bennydeck her eyes followed him as long as he was in sight but her thoughts wandered to look at him now was to look at the little companion walking by his side still
the child reminded her of the living father still the child innocently tortured her with the consciousness of deceit the faithless man from whom the law had released her
possessed himself of her thoughts in spite of the law he and he only
when she was left by herself did he remind her of the sin that he had committed of the insult that he had inflicted on the woman whom he had vowed to love and cherish no
he recalled to her the years of love that she had passed by his side he upbraided her with the happiness which she had owed to him in the prime and glory of her life woman
set that against the wrong which i have done to you
and society has the right to condemn me but i am your child's father still forget me if you can
the soft mystery of twilight the solemn silence of the slowly coming night daunted catherine in that lonely place
as she set her face toward the house a discovery confronted her she was not alone a woman was standing on the path apparently looking at her in the dim light and at the distance between them
recognition of the woman was impossible she neither moved nor spoke strained to their utmost point of tension catherine's nerves quivered at the sight of that shadowy solitary figure
she dropped back on the seat in tones that trembled she said who are you what do you want
there was light enough left to reveal her face now that she was near it was the face of sydney westerfield the survival of childhood in the mature human being betrays itself most readily in the sex
the chances and changes of life show the child's mobility of emotion constantly associating itself with the passions of the woman
at the moment of recognition the troubled mind of catherine was instantly steadied under the influence of that coarsest sense which levels us with the animals the sense of anger
i am amazed at your audacity she said there was no resentment there was only patient submission in sydney's reply twice i have approached the house in which you are living and twice my courage has failed me
i have gone away again i have walked i don't know where i don't know how far shame and fear seemed to be insensible to fatigue this is my third attempt
i think you would see what the effort has cost me i have not much to say may i ask you to hear me you have taken me by surprise miss westerfield
you have no right to do that i refuse to hear you try madam
will you think again no sydney turned to go away and suddenly stopped another person was advancing from the hotel an interruption a trivial domestic interruption presented itself
the nursemaid had missed the child and had come into the garden to see if she was with her mother where is miss kitty ma'am the girl asked
her mistress told her what had happened and sent her to the palace to relieve captain bennydeck of the charge that he had undertaken susan listened looking at sydney and recognizing the familiar face
as the girl moved away sydney spoke to her i hope little kitty is well and happy the mother does not live who could have resisted the tone in which that question was put the broken heart the love for the child
that still lived in it spoke in accents that even touched the servant she came back remembering the happy days when the governess had won their hearts at mount morven and for a moment at least
remembering nothing else quite well and happy miss thank you susan said
the nursemaid was not near enough to hear what followed miss westerfield will you forget what i said just now with those words catherine pointed to the chair i am ready to hear you she resumed but i have something to ask first
does what you wish to say to me relate only to yourself it relates to another person as well as to myself that reply and the inference to which it led tried catherine's resolution
to preserve her self control as nothing had tried it yet if that other person she began means mister herbert linley sydney interrupted her in words which she was entirely unprepared to hear
if i had not left him of my own free will she said what else would excuse me for venturing to come here catherine's sense of justice felt the force of that reply at the same time her sense of injury
set its own construction on sydney's motive has his cruelty driven you away from him she asked if he has been cruel to me sydney answered do you think i should have come here to complain of it to you
i have nothing to complain of and yet you have left him
he has done everything that a man in his unhappy position could do to set my mind at ease and yet i have left him oh i claim no merit for my repentance bitterly as i feel it
i might not have had the courage to leave him if he had loved me as he once loved you miss westerfield you are the last person living who ought to allude to my married life
you may perhaps pardon the allusion madam when you have heard what i have still to say i owe it to mister herbert linley if not to you to confess that his life with me has not been a life of happiness
he has tried compassionately tried to keep his secret sorrow from discovery and he has failed
i am the miserable victim of a man's passing fancy you have been you are still the one object of a husband's love
catherine's head sank on her bosom her helpless hands lay trembling on her lap overpowered by the confession which she had just heard
a confession which had followed closely on the thoughts inspired by the appearance of the child her agitation was beyond control her mind was unequal to the effort of decision
the woman who had been wronged who had the right to judge for herself and to speak for herself was the silent woman of the two it was not quite dark yet sydney could see as well as hear
for the first time since the beginning of the interview she allowed the impulse of the moment to lead her astray in her eagerness to complete the act of atonement
she alluded again to herbert linley and she spoke too soon will you let him ask your pardon she said he expects no more
catherine's spirit was roused in an instant he expects too much she answered sternly is he here by your connivance is he too waiting to take me by surprise
i am incapable madam of taking such a liberty with you as that i may perhaps have hoped to be able to tell him by writing of a different reception she checked herself
i beg your pardon if i have ventured to hope i dare not ask you to alter your opinion do you dare to look the truth in the face catherine interposed
what sacred ties that man has broken what memories he has profaned what years of faithful love he has cast from him
must i tell you how he poisoned his wife's mind with doubts of his truth and despair of his honor when he basely deserted her
does your repentance forget that he would still have been my blameless husband but for you
catherine looked at her and relented the noble nature which could stoop to anger but never sink to the lower depths of malice and persecution restrained itself and made amends
i say it in no unkindness to you she resumed but when you ask me to forgive consider what you ask me to forget it will only distress us both if we remain longer together she continued rising as she spoke
perhaps you will believe that i mean well when i ask if there is anything i can do for you nothing
invited to rest herself in the hotel she asked leave to remain where she was the mere effort of rising was too much for her now catherine said the parting words kindly i believe in your good intentions
i believe in your repentance believe in my punishment after that reply no more was said behind the trees that closed the view at the further extremity of the lawn the moon was rising
the largest nature the longest love missus presty waited in the garden to be joined by her daughter and captain bennydeck and waited in vain it was past her grandchild's bedtime
she decided on returning to the house suppose we look for them in the sitting room kitty proposed suppose we wait a moment before we go in her wise grandmother advised
if i hear them talking i shall take you upstairs to bed
which might prove useful to her in after life when you grow up to be a woman my dear beware of making the mistake that i have just committed never be foolish enough to mention your reasons when a child asks why
when you were a child yourself of course it was why they had reached the sitting room door by this time kitty opened it without ceremony and looked in the room was empty
missus presty knocked at catherine's bedroom door may i come in come in directly where is kitty susan is putting her to bed stop it kitty mustn't go to bed no questions
i'll explain myself when you come back there was a wildness in her eyes and a tone of stern command in her voice which warned her mother to set dignity aside and submit i don't ask what has happened
missus presty resumed on her return that letter that fatal letter to the captain has justified my worst fears what in heaven's name are we to do now we are to leave this hotel
was the instant reply when to night catherine
the shock i have suffered the misery the humiliation i tell you it's more than i can bear stay here by yourself if you like i mean to go
missus presty took the only way by which it was possible to calm her compose yourself catherine
i'll settle everything with the landlord and give the maid her orders sit down by the open window let the wind blow over you the railway service from sydenham to london is a late service
the nearest hotel to the terminus would offer them accommodation for that night on the next day they could find some quiet place in the country no matter where so long as they were not disturbed
give me rest and peace and my mind will be easier catherine said let nobody know where to find me these conditions were strictly observed with an exception in favor of mister sarrazin
while his client's pecuniary affairs were still unsettled the lawyer had his claim to be taken into her confidence
the state of his mind presented a complete contrast to the state of catherine's mind so far from sharing her aversion to the personal associations
which were connected with the hotel he found his one consolation in visiting the scenes which reminded him of the beloved woman whom he had lost the reason for this was not far to seek his was the largest nature
and his had been the most devoted love as usual his letters were forwarded to him from his place of residence in london
the others he took out with him to that sequestered part of the garden in which he had passed the happiest hours of his life by catherine's side
he was thinking of her now his better judgment protested his accusing conscience warned him that he was committing not only an act of folly but with his religious convictions
an act of sin and still she held her place in his thoughts the manager had told him of her sudden departure from the hotel
that the place of her destination had not been communicated to him asked if she had left no directions relating to her correspondence he had replied that his instructions were to forward all letters to her lawyer
on the point of inquiring next for the name and address bennydeck's sense of duty and sense of shame roused at last filled him with a timely contempt for himself in feeling tempted to write to catherine
in encouraging fond thoughts of her among scenes which kept her in his memory
she had set him the right example
in leaving the place before he could falter in his resolution he gave notice of his departure the one hope for him now was to find a refuge from himself in acts of mercy
consolation was perhaps waiting for him in his home his unopened correspondence offered a harmless occupation to his thoughts in the meanwhile one after another he read the letters
with an attention constantly wandering and constantly recalled until he opened the last of them that remained in a moment more his interest was absorbed the first sentences in the letter told him
that the deserted creature whom he had met in the garden the stranger to whom he had offered help and consolation in the present and in the future was no other than the lost girl
of whom he had been so long in search the daughter of roderick westerfield once his dearest and oldest friend in the pages that followed
the writer confided to him her sad story leaving it to her father's friend to decide whether she was worthy of the sympathy which he had offered to her when he thought she was a stranger
this part of her letter was necessarily a repetition of what bennydeck had read in the confession
that generous woman had been guilty of one and but one concealment of the truth in relating the circumstances under which the elopement from mount morven had taken place she had abstained
in justice to the sincerity of sydney's repentance from mentioning sydney's name another instance the captain thought bitterly as he closed the letter
of the virtues which might have made the happiness of my life but he was bound to remember and he did remember that there was now a new interest tenderly associating itself with his life to come
the one best way of telling sydney how dear she was to him already for her father's sake would be to answer her in person he hurried away to london by the first train
and drove at once to randal's place of abode to ask for sydney's address wondering what had become of the postscript to his letter which had given bennydeck the information of which he was now in search
randal complied with his friend's request and then ventured to allude to the report of the captain's marriage engagement am i to congratulate you he asked
congratulate me on having discovered roderick westerfield's daughter that reply and the tone in which it was given led randal to ask if the engagement had been prematurely announced
there is no engagement at all bennydeck answered with a look which suggested that it might be wise not to dwell on the subject but the discovery was welcome to randal for his brother's sake
he ran the risk of consequences and inquired if catherine was still to be found at the hotel the captain answered by a sign in the negative randal persisted do you know where she has gone
nobody knows but her lawyer in that case randal concluded i shall get the information that i want noticing that bennydeck looked surprised he mentioned his motive
herbert is pining to see kitty he continued and i mean to help him
as things are i believe i shall not offend catherine if i arrange for a meeting between father and child what do you say bennydeck answered
chapter seventeen joseph drives a bargain a new terror leapt into joseph's eyes at that movement of crispin's and for the third time that night did he taste the agony that is death's forerunner
yet galliard delayed the stroke he held his sword poised the point aimed at joseph's breast and holding he watched him marking each phase of the terror reflected upon his livid countenance he was loth to strike
for to strike would mean to end this exquisite torture of horror to which he was subjecting him broken joseph had been before and passive now of a sudden he grew violent again but in a different way he flung himself upon his knees before sir
crispin and passionately he pleaded for the sparing of his miserable life crispin looked on with an eye both of scorn and of cold relish it was thus he wished to see him broken and agonized suffering thus something of all that which
he himself had suffered through despair in the years that were sped with satisfaction then he watched his victim's agony he watched it too with scorn and some loathing for a craven was in his eyes an ugly sight and joseph in that moment was truly
become as vile a coward as ever man beheld his parchment like face was grey and mottled his brow bedewed with sweat his lips were blue and quivering his eyes bloodshot and almost threatening tears
in the silence of one who waits stood crispin listening calm and unmoved as though he heard not until joseph's whining prayers culminated in an offer to make reparation then crispin broke in at length with an impatient gesture
what reparation can you make you murderer can you restore to me the wife and child you butchered eighteen years ago i can restore your child at least returned the other i can and will restore him to you if you but stay your hand
that and much more will i do to repair the past unconsciously crispin lowered his sword arm
his jaw was fallen and the grim firmness all gone from his face and replaced by amazement then unbelief followed by inquiry then unbelief again the pallor of his cheeks seemed to intensify
at last however he broke into a hard laugh what lie is this you offer me zounds man are you not afraid it is no lie joseph cried in accents so earnest that some of the unbelief passed again from galliard's face
it is the truth god's truth your son lives hell hound it is a lie on that fell night as i swooned under your cowardly thrust i heard you calling to your brother to slit the squalling bastard's throat those were your very words master joseph
i own i bade him do it but i was not obeyed he swore we should give the babe a chance of life it should never know whose son it was he said and i agreed we took the boy away he has lived and thrived
the knight sank on to a chair as though bereft of strength he sought to think but thinking coherently he could not at last how shall i know that you are not lying what proof can you advance he demanded hoarsely
i swear that what i have told you is true i swear it by the cross of our redeemer he protested with a solemnity that was not without effect upon crispin nevertheless he sneered i ask for proofs man not oaths
what proofs can you afford me there are the man and the woman whom the lad was reared by and where shall i find them joseph opened his lips to answer then closed them again
he regained confidence at crispin's tone and questions gathering from both that the knight was willing to believe if proof were set before him he rose to his feet and when next he spoke his voice had won back much of its
habitual calm deliberateness that said he i will tell you when you have promised to go hence leaving gregory and me unharmed i will supply you with what money you may need and i will give you a letter to those people so couched that
what they tell you by virtue of it shall be a corroboration of my words his elbow resting upon the table and his hand to his brow so that it shaded his eyes sat crispin long in thought swayed by emotions and doubts
the like of which he had never yet known in the whole of his chequered life was joseph lying to him that was the question that repeatedly arose and oddly enough for all his mistrust of the man he was inclined to account true the ring of his words
joseph watched him with much anxiety and some hope at length crispin withdrew his hands from eyes that were grown haggard and rose let us see the letter that you will write said he there you have pen ink and paper write
you promise asked joseph i will tell you when you have written in a hand that shook somewhat joseph wrote a few lines then handed crispin the sheet whereon he read the bearer of this is sir crispin galliard
who is intimately interested in the matter that lies betwixt us and whom i pray you answer fully and accurately the questions he may put you in that connexion i understand said crispin slowly yes it will serve now the superscription
and he returned the paper ashburn was himself again by now he realized the advantage he had gained and he would not easily relinquish it i shall add the superscription said he calmly when you swear to depart without further molesting us
crispin paused a moment weighing the position well in his mind if joseph lied to him now he would find means to return he told himself
joseph dipped his pen and paused meditatively to watch a drop of ink wherewith it was overladen fall back into the horn the briefest of pauses was it yet it was not the accident it appeared to be
hitherto joseph had been as sincere as he had been earnest intent alone upon saving his life at all costs and forgetting in his fear of the present the dangers that the future might hold for him were crispin galliard still at large
but in that second of dipping his quill
and that crispin would go forth as he said
as he watched the drop of ink roll from his pen point he remembered that in london there dwelt at the sign of the anchor in thames street one colonel pride whose son this galliard had slain and who did he once lay hands upon him
was not like to let him go again in a second was the thought conceived and the determination taken and as he folded the letter and set upon it the superscription joseph felt that he could have cried out in his exultation at the cunning manner in which he was outwitting his enemy
crispin took the package and read thereon this is to mister henry lane at the sign of the anchor thames street london the name was a fictitious one one that joseph had set down upon the spur of the moment
his intention being to send a messenger that should outstrip sir crispin and warn colonel pride of his coming it is well was crispin's only comment he too was grown calm again and fully master of himself
he placed the letter carefully within the breast of his doublet if you have lied to me if this is but a shift to win your miserable life rest assured master ashburn that you have but put off the day for a very little while
it was on joseph's lips to answer that none of us are immortal but he bethought him that the pleasantry might be ill timed and bowed in silence galliard took his hat and cloak from the chair on which he had placed them upon descending that evening then he turned again to joseph
you spoke of money a moment ago he said in the tones of one demanding what is his own the tones of a gentleman speaking to his steward i will take two hundred caroluses more i cannot carry in comfort joseph gasped at the amount
then he remembered that there was a brace of pistols in his study if he could get those he would settle matters there and then without the aid of colonel pride i will fetch the money said he betraying his purpose by his alacrity
by your leave master ashburn i will come with you joseph's eyes flashed him a quick look of baffled hate as you will said he with an ill grace as they passed out crispin turned to kenneth
kenneth bent his head without replying but master gregory required little watching he lay a helpless half swooning heap upon the floor which he had smeared with the blood oozing from his wounded shoulder
during the brief while they were alone together
he sat himself down upon the nearest chair and with his chin in his hands and his elbows on his knees he pondered over the miserable predicament into which sir crispin had got him
was his enmity at that moment towards the knight that galliard should be upon the eve of finding his son and a sequel to the story he had heard from him that night in worcester was to kenneth a thing of no interest or moment
galliard had ruined him with these ashburns he could never now hope to win the hand of cynthia to achieve which he had been willing to turn both fool and knave aye had turned both
that he was gone south to marry a great english heiress that at such a season he could think of this but serves to prove the shallow nature of his feelings a love was his that had gain and vanity for its foundation in fact it was no love at all
for what he accounted love for cynthia was but the love of himself which through cynthia he sought to indulge he cursed the ill luck that had brought crispin into his life he cursed crispin for the evil he had suffered from him
forgetting that but for crispin he would have been carrion a month ago and more deep at his bitter musings was he when the door opened again to admit joseph followed by galliard
you may untruss him kenneth when i am gone
fare you well he added with unusual gentleness and turning a glance that was almost regretful upon the lad we are not like to meet again but should we i trust it may be in happier times
if i have harmed you in this business remember that my need was great fare you well and he held out his hand take yourself to hell sir answered kenneth turning his back upon him
chapter twenty eight smuggling
to which he did not return a little dutch felucca manned by eleven men
it was night the darkness was great the tide rose in the darkness it was a capital time to land passengers and merchandise the road of scheveningen forms a vast crescent it is not very deep and not very safe
therefore nothing is seen stationed there but large flemish hoys or some of those dutch barks which fishermen draw up on the sand on rollers as the ancients did according to virgil when the tide is rising and advancing on land it is not prudent to bring the vessels too close in shore
and the sand of that coast is spongy it receives easily but does not yield so well it was on this account no doubt that a boat was detached from the bark as soon as the latter had cast anchor
amidst whom was to be seen an object of an oblong form a sort of large pannier or bale the shore was deserted the few fishermen inhabiting the down were gone to bed the only sentinel that guarded the coast
a coast very badly guarded seeing that a landing from large ships was impossible
imitated them so far that he slept at the back of his watch box as soundly as they slept in their beds the only noise to be heard then
for this real silence and apparent solitude did not satisfy them their boat therefore scarcely as visible as a dark speck upon the ocean
avoiding the use of their oars for fear of being heard and gained the nearest land scarcely had it touched the ground when a single man jumped out of the boat after having given a brief order in a manner which denoted the habit of commanding
in consequence of this order several muskets immediately glittered in the feeble light reflected from that mirror of the heavens the sea and the oblong bale of which we spoke containing no doubt some contraband object
directing his course to the nearest point of the wood when there he sought for that house already described as the temporary residence and a very humble residence of him who was styled by courtesy king of england all were asleep there as everywhere else
only a large dog of the race of those which the fishermen of scheveningen harness to little carts to carry fish to the hague
began to bark formidably as soon as the stranger's steps were audible beneath the windows but the watchfulness instead of alarming the newly landed man appeared on the contrary to give him great joy
whilst with an auxiliary of that sort his voice became almost useless the stranger waited then till these reiterated and sonorous barkings should according to all probability have produced their effect and then he ventured a summons
on hearing his voice the dog began to roar with such violence that another voice was soon heard from the interior quieting the dog with that the dog was quieted what do you want asked that voice at the same time weak broken and civil
who are you ah mordioux you ask too much i don't like talking through doors only tell me your name i don't like to declare my name in the open air either besides you may be sure i shall not eat your dog and i hope to god he will be as reserved with respect to me
you bring news perhaps monsieur do you not replied the voice patient and querulous as that of an old man i will answer for it i bring you news you little expect
that your news is worth waking the king for god's sake my dear monsieur draw your bolts you will not be sorry i swear for the trouble it will give you i am worth my weight in gold parole d'honneur monsieur i cannot open the door till you have told me your name must i then
it is by the order of my master monsieur well my name is
never mind tell it notwithstanding
the voice uttered an exclamation oh good heavens said a voice on the other side of the door monsieur d'artagnan what happiness i could not help thinking i knew that voice humph said d'artagnan
that's flattering oh yes we know it said the old man drawing the bolts and here is the proof and at these words he let in d'artagnan who by the light of the lantern he carried in his hand recognized his obstinate interlocutor
it is i what joy to see you once again you are right there what joy said d'artagnan pressing the old man's hand there
but the king is asleep my dear monsieur mordioux then wake him he won't scold you for having disturbed him i will promise you you come on the part of the count do you not
from athos ma foi no i come on my own part come parry quick the king i want the king parry did not think it his duty to resist any longer he knew d'artagnan of old he knew that
although a gascon his words never promised more than they could stand to he crossed a court and a little garden appeased the dog that seemed most anxious to taste of the musketeer's flesh and went to knock at the window of a chamber forming the ground floor of a little pavilion
immediately a little dog inhabiting that chamber replied to the great dog inhabiting the court poor king said d'artagnan to himself these are his body guards it is true he is not the worse guarded on that account
who brings you some news a noise was immediately heard in the chamber a door was opened and a flood of light inundated the corridor and the garden
come in monsieur le chevalier said he turning around then perceiving the fisherman
d'artagnan bowed it was my duty to behave as i did the moment i knew that i had the honor of being near your majesty you bring me news do you say yes sire from the king of france ma foi no sire replied d'artagnan
your majesty must have seen yonder that the king of france is only occupied with his own majesty charles raised his eyes towards heaven no sire no continued d'artagnan
nevertheless i hope that your majesty will listen to the facts and news with some favor speak monsieur if i am not mistaken sire your majesty spoke a great deal at blois of the embarrassed state in which the affairs of england are
charles colored monsieur said he it was to the king of france i related oh your majesty is mistaken said the musketeer coolly i know how to
once fortunate they look upon me no more
but still more the most absolute devotion and that believe me with me sire means something now hearing your majesty complain of fate i found that you were noble and generous and bore misfortune well
you will choose presently sire said d'artagnan
charles allowed a movement of impatience to escape him and the principal object your majesty found in your way continued d'artagnan was a certain general commanding the armies of the parliament and who was playing yonder the part of another cromwell did not your majesty say so yes but i repeat to you monsieur
yes monsieur but once more to what purpose are all these questions
i hope however presently you will pardon my want of etiquette your majesty added that notwithstanding if you could see him confer with him and meet him face to face
the only serious one the only insurmountable one the only real one you met with on your road
my destiny my future my obscurity or my glory depend upon that man but what do you draw from that one thing alone
monsieur a king who has neither army nor money
has no means of acting against a man like monk
that without an army and without a million i have done i myself what your majesty thought could alone be done with an army and a million
in england exactly sire you went to take monk in england should i by chance have done wrong sire in truth you are mad monsieur not the least in the world sire you have taken monk yes sire where in the midst of his camp
i bring him to your majesty said d'artagnan simply you bring him to me cried the king almost indignant at what he considered a mystification yes sire replied d'artagnan in the same tone i bring him to you he is down below yonder in a large chest pierced with holes
waverley turned and was warmly embraced by fergus mac ivor a thousand welcomes to holyrood once more possessed by her legitimate sovereign did i not say we should prosper and that you would fall into the hands of the philistines if you parted from us
dear fergus said waverley eagerly returning his greeting it is long since i have heard a friend's voice where is flora safe and a triumphant spectator of our success in this place said waverley ay
in this city at least answered his friend
who has been frequent in his inquiries after you thus saying he dragged waverley by the arm out of the guard chamber and ere he knew where he was conducted edward found himself in a presence room fitted up with some attempt at royal state
a young man wearing his own fair hair distinguished by the dignity of his mien and the noble expression of his well formed and regular features advanced out of a circle of military gentlemen and highland chiefs by whom he was surrounded
in his easy and graceful manners waverley afterwards thought he could have discovered his high birth and rank although the star on his breast and the embroidered garter at his knee had not appeared as its indications let me present to your royal highness said fergus bowing profoundly
said the young chevalier interrupting him i beg your pardon for interrupting you my dear mac ivor
thus saying he extended his hand to edward with the utmost courtesy who could not had he desired it have avoided rendering him the homage which seemed due to his rank and was certainly the right of his birth i am sorry to understand mister waverley that
owing to circumstances which have been as yet but ill explained you have suffered some restraint among my followers in perthshire and on your march here but we are in such a situation that we hardly know our friends
and i am even at this moment uncertain whether i can have the pleasure of considering mister waverley as among mine he then paused for an instant but before edward could adjust a suitable reply or even arrange his ideas as to its purport the prince took out a paper and then proceeded
set forth by the friends of the elector of hanover in which they rank mister waverley among the nobility and gentry who are menaced with the pains of high treason for loyalty to their legitimate sovereign but i desire to gain no adherents save from affection and conviction
or to join the forces of the elector he shall have my passport and free permission to do so and i can only regret that my present power will not extend to protect him against the probable consequences of such a measure but continued charles edward after another short pause
if mister waverley should like his ancestor sir nigel determine to embrace a cause which has little to recommend it but its justice and follow a prince who throws himself upon the affections of his people to recover the throne of his ancestors or perish in the attempt
i can only say that among these nobles and gentlemen he will find worthy associates in a gallant enterprise and will follow a master who may be unfortunate but i trust will never be ungrateful the politic chieftain
unaccustomed to the address and manners of a polished court in which charles was eminently skilful
and easily outweighed all prudential motives to be thus personally solicited for assistance by a prince whose form and manners
answered his ideas of a hero of romance
recovered by the sword which he was already bending towards other conquests gave edward in his own eyes the dignity and importance which he had ceased to consider as his attributes rejected slandered and threatened upon the one side
he was irresistibly attracted to the cause which the prejudices of education and the political principles of his family had already recommended as the most just these thoughts rushed through his mind like a torrent
sweeping before them every consideration of an opposite tendency the time besides admitted of no deliberation and waverley kneeling to charles edward
the prince for although unfortunate in the faults and follies of his forefathers
he really loved waverley because their feelings and projects never thwarted each other he hoped to see him united with flora
but as we before hinted he also exulted as a politician in beholding secured to his party a partizan of such consequence and he was far from being insensible to the personal importance which he himself gained with the prince from having so materially
charles edward on his part seemed eager to show his attendants the value which he attached to his new adherent by entering immediately as in confidence upon the circumstances of his situation you have been secluded so much from intelligence mister waverley
from causes of which i am but indistinctly informed that i presume you are even yet unacquainted with the important particulars of my present situation
district of moidart with only seven attendants and of the numerous chiefs and clans whose loyal enthusiasm at once placed a solitary adventurer at the head of a gallant army you must also i think have learned that the commander in chief of the hanoverian elector
sir john cope marched into the highlands at the head of a numerous and well appointed military force with the intention of giving us battle but that his courage failed him when we were within three hours march of each other
so that he fairly gave us the slip and marched northward to aberdeen leaving the low country open and undefended not to lose so favourable an opportunity i marched on to this metropolis driving before me two regiments of horse
gardiner's and hamilton's who had threatened to cut to pieces every highlander that should venture to pass stirling and while discussions were carrying forward among the magistracy and citizens of edinburgh whether they should defend themselves or surrender my good friend lochiel
laying his hand on the shoulder of that gallant and accomplished chieftain saved them the trouble of farther deliberation by entering the gates with five hundred camerons thus far therefore we have done well but in the meanwhile
this doughty general's nerves being braced by the keen air of aberdeen he has taken shipping for dunbar and i have just received certain information that he landed there yesterday
one that being inferior probably in numbers and certainly in discipline and military appointments not to mention our total want of artillery and the weakness of our cavalry it will be safest to fall back towards the mountains and there protract the war until fresh succours arrive from france
the opposite opinion maintains that a retrograde movement in our circumstances is certain to throw utter discredit on our arms and undertaking and far from gaining us new partizans will be the means of disheartening those who have joined our standard
the officers who use these last arguments among whom is your friend fergus mac ivor maintain that if the highlanders are strangers to the usual military discipline of europe the soldiers whom they are to encounter are no less strangers to their peculiar and formidable mode of attack
that the attachment and courage of the chiefs and gentlemen are not to be doubted and that as they will be in the midst of the enemy their clansmen will as surely follow them in fine that having drawn the sword we should throw away the scabbard and trust our cause to battle and to the god of battles
that he could not venture to offer an opinion as derived from military skill but that the counsel would be far the most acceptable to him which should first afford him an opportunity
allow me instead of the captain's commission which you have lost
with the advantage of acting as one of my aides de camp until you can be attached to a regiment of which i hope several will be speedily embodied your royal highness will forgive me answered waverley
in the meanwhile i hope for your permission to serve as a volunteer under my friend fergus mac ivor at least said the prince who was obviously pleased with this proposal allow me the pleasure of arming you after the highland fashion with these words he unbuckled the broadsword which he wore
the belt of which was plaited with silver and the steel basket hilt richly and curiously inlaid the blade said the prince is a genuine andrea ferrara it has been a sort of heir loom in our family but i am convinced i put it into better hands than my own
and will add to it pistols of the same workmanship colonel mac ivor you must have much to say to your friend i will detain you no longer from your private conversation
runs away to the land of toys with his friend lamp wick
the fairy's words had thrown him pinocchio asked for permission to give out the invitations
you may invite your friends to tomorrow's party only remember to return home before dark do you understand
boys give promises very easily but they as easily forget them but i am not like those others when i give my word i keep it
in case you do disobey you will be the one to suffer not anyone else why because boys who do not listen to their elders always come to grief
said pinocchio but from now on i obey
we shall see if you are telling the truth
in a little more than an hour all his friends were invited some accepted quickly and gladly others had to be coaxed but when they heard that the toast
was to be buttered on both sides they all ended by accepting the invitation with the words
we'll come to please you now it must be known that among all his friends pinocchio had one whom he loved most of all
the boy's real name was romeo but everyone called him lamp wick
and thin and had a woebegone look about him lamp wick was the laziest boy in the school and the biggest mischief maker but pinocchio loved him dearly
that day he went straight to his friend's house to invite him to the party but lamp wick was not at home he went a second time and again a third
but still without success
pinocchio searched here and there and everywhere and finally discovered him hiding
asked pinocchio running up to him i am waiting for midnight to strike to go where far far away and i have gone to your house three times to look for you
haven't you heard the news don't you know what good luck is mine what is it tomorrow i end my days as a marionette and become a boy like you and all my other friends
shall i see you at my party tomorrow but i'm telling you that i go
to a real country the best in the world a wonderful place
i oh no
believe me if you don't come you'll be sorry
where can you find a place that will agree better with you and me no schools no teachers no books
there is no such thing as study here it is only on saturdays that we have no school in the land of toys every day except sunday is a saturday
vacation begins on the first of january and ends on the last day of december
all countries should be like it how happy we should all be but how does one spend the day in the land of toys days are spent
nodding his wooden head as if to say
word just see the sun is setting and i must leave you
home my good fairy wants me to return home before night wait two minutes more it's too late only two minutes and if the fairy scolds me
said lamp wick are you going alone or with others alone there will be more than a hundred of us will you walk at midnight the wagon passes here that is to take us
within the boundaries of that marvelous country
how i wish midnight would strike why to see you all set out together
is she afraid the bats will eat you up listen lamp wick
in the land of toys not even the shadow of one not even one teacher not one and one does not have to study
what a great land said pinocchio feeling his mouth water what a beautiful land i have never been there but i can well imagine it why don't you come too
good by then and remember me to the grammar schools to the high schools
even to the colleges if you meet them on the way
turning once more to his friend
that in that country each
is composed of six saturdays and one sunday very sure and that
very very sure
in sudden determination he said hurriedly good by for the last time and good luck good by how soon will you go within two hours
what a pity if it were only one hour i might wait for you and the fairy
in the meantime the night became darker and darker
in the distance a small light flickered a queer sound could be heard soft as a little bell and faint and muffled like the
buzz of a far away mosquito there it is cried lamp wick jumping to his feet what
which is coming to get me for the last time are you coming or not but is it really true that in that country boys never have to study
never never
after five months of play pinocchio wakes up one fine morning and finds a great surprise awaiting him finally the wagon arrived it made no noise
for its wheels were bound with straw and rags it was drawn by twelve pair of donkeys all of the same size but all of different color some were gray others white
and still others a mixture of brown and black here and there were a few with large yellow and blue stripes the strangest thing of all was that
those twenty four donkeys instead of being iron shod
had on their feet laced shoes made of leather just like the ones boys wear and the driver of the wagon imagine to yourselves a little fat man
round and shiny as a ball of butter with a face beaming like an apple a little mouth that always smiled and a voice small and wheedling like that of a cat begging for food
but to be allowed to ride
to that lovely place called the land of toys in fact the wagon was so closely packed with boys of all ages that it looked
like a box of sardines they were uncomfortable they were piled one on top of the other they could hardly breathe yet not one word of complaint was heard the thought
that in a few hours they would reach a country where there were no schools no books no teachers made these boys so happy that they felt neither hunger nor thirst
nor sleep nor discomfort no sooner had the wagon stopped than the little fat man turned to lamp wick with bows and smiles he asked in a wheedling tone
tell me my fine boy do you also want to come to my wonderful country
never mind answered lamp wick if there's no room inside
and with one leap he perched himself there
what are you going to do will you come with us
may that bring you luck pinocchio lamp wick called out
no no no come with us and we'll always be happy cried four other voices from the wagon
come with us and we'll always be happy shouted the one hundred and more boys in the wagon all together and if i go with you what will my good fairy say asked
beginning to waver and weaken in his good resolutions
only think that we are going to a land where we shall be allowed to make all the racket we like from morning till night pinocchio did not answer but sighed deeply once
twice a third time finally he said
the seats are all filled answered the little man but to show you how much i think of you take my place as coachman and you
i'll walk
i much prefer riding one of these donkeys cried pinocchio
than done he approached the first donkey and tried to mount it but the little animal turned suddenly and gave him such a terrible kick in the stomach that pinocchio was thrown to the ground and fell with his legs in the air at this unlooked for entertainment
the whole company of runaways laughed uproariously the little fat man did not laugh he went up to the rebellious animal and still smiling bent over him lovingly and
in the meantime pinocchio lifted himself up from the ground and with one leap landed on the donkey's back the leap was so well taken that all the boys shouted hurrah for pinocchio
and clapped their hands in hearty applause suddenly the little donkey gave a kick with his two hind feet and at this unexpected move
again the boys shouted with laughter but the little man instead of laughing became so loving toward the little animal that with another kiss
you can mount now my boy he then said to pinocchio have no fear that donkey was worried about something but i have spoken to him and now he seems quiet
and reasonable pinocchio mounted and the wagon started on its way while the donkeys galloped along the stony road
a very quiet voice whispering to him poor silly you have done as you wished but you are going to be a sorry boy
looked about him to see whence the words had come but he saw no one the donkeys galloped
the boys slept lamp wick snored like a dormouse
sang sleepily between his teeth after a mile or so pinocchio again heard the same faint voice whispering remember little simpleton
boys who stop studying and turn their backs
in order to give all their time to nonsense and pleasure sooner or later come to grief
how well i can prove it to you a day will come
at these whispered words
he jumped to the ground ran up to the donkey on whose back he had been riding
think how great was his surprise
weeping weeping just like a boy hey mister driver
let him weep
he learned to mumble a few words when he lived for three years with a
poor beast come come said the little man
over a donkey that can weep mount quickly and let us go the night is cool and the road is long pinocchio obeyed without another word the wagon started again
toward dawn the next morning they finally reached that much longed for country the land of toys this great land was entirely different from any other place in the world its population
large though it was was composed wholly of boys the oldest were about fourteen years of age the youngest eight in the street there was such a racket such shouting such
blowing of trumpets that it was deafening everywhere groups of boys were gathered together some played at marbles at hopscotch at ball others rode on bicycles or on wooden horses some played at
at tag here a group
and recited a few turned somersaults others walked on their hands with their feet in the air generals in full uniform leading regiments of cardboard soldiers passed by laughter shrieks howls
catcalls hand clapping followed this parade one boy made a noise like a hen another like a rooster and a third imitated a lion in his den all together they created such a pandemonium that it
the squares were filled with small wooden theaters overflowing with boys from morning till night and on the walls of the houses
were words like these hurrah for the land of toys down with arithmetic no more school as soon as they had set foot in that land pinocchio
lamp wick and all the other boys who had traveled with them started out on a tour of investigation they wandered everywhere they looked into every nook and corner house and theater
they became everybody's friend who could be happier than they what with entertainments and parties the hours the days the weeks passed like lightning oh
by chance he met his friend lamp wick was i right or wrong answered lamp wick
to think that even yesterday the idea came into your head to return home to see your fairy
you owe it to me to my advice to my care do you admit it only true friends count after all it's true lamp wick it's true
it is all because of you and to think that the teacher when speaking of you used to say do not go with that lamp wick
indeed i know how much he disliked me and how he enjoyed speaking ill of me but i am of
and i gladly forgive him
fondly embracing his friend five months passed and the boys continued playing
till night without ever seeing a book or a desk or a school but my children there came a morning when pinocchio awoke
and found a great surprise awaiting him a surprise which made him feel very unhappy
become like those of a donkey in a little while he changes into a real donkey and begins to bray everyone at one time or another
has found some surprise awaiting him of the kind which pinocchio had on that eventful morning of his life there are but few
on awakening pinocchio put his hand up to his head and there he found guess he found that during the night his ears had grown at least ten full
inches you must know
even from his birth had very small ears so small indeed that to the naked eye they could hardly be seen fancy how he felt when he noticed that
overnight those two dainty organs had become as long as shoe brushes he went in search of a mirror but not finding any he just filled a basin with water and looked at himself
there he saw what he never could have wished to see his manly figure was adorned and enriched by a beautiful pair of donkey's ears
i leave you to think of the terrible grief the shame the despair of the poor marionette he began to cry to scream to knock his head against the wall
the longer and the more hairy grew his ears
a dormouse came into the room a fat little dormouse who lived upstairs seeing pinocchio so grief stricken she asked him anxiously what is the matter dear little neighbor
i am sick
little dormouse very very sick and from an illness which frightens me do you understand how to feel the pulse a little feel mine then and tell me if i have a fever
the dormouse took pinocchio's wrist between her paws and after a few minutes looked up at him sorrowfully and said my friend
i am sorry but i must give you some very sad news what is it you have a very bad fever
but what fever is it the donkey fever
know then that within two or three hours you will no longer be a marionette nor a boy what shall i be
donkey just like the ones that pull the fruit carts to market oh what have i done
and pulling and tugging at them angrily just as if they belonged to another my dear boy answered the dormouse to cheer him up a bit why worry now what is done cannot be undone you know
fate has decreed that
must sooner or later turn into donkeys but is it really so
but the fault is not mine believe me little dormouse
i wanted to return home i wanted to be obedient i wanted to study and to succeed in school but lamp wick said to me
enjoy ourselves and be happy from morn till night and why did you follow the advice of that false friend why
and who has been so kind to me and by this time i
like all these friends of mine oh if i meet lamp wick i am going to tell him what i think of him and more too after this long speech
pinocchio walked to the door of the room but when he reached it remembering his donkey ears
and turned back he took a large cotton bag from a shelf put it on his head and pulled it far down to his very nose thus adorned he went out
he looked for lamp wick everywhere along the streets in the squares inside the theatres everywhere but he was not to be found he asked everyone
in desperation he returned home and knocked at the door who is it asked lamp wick from within it is i
after a full half hour the door opened another surprise awaited pinocchio there in the room stood his friend with a large
cotton bag on his head
at the sight of that bag pinocchio felt slightly happier and thought to himself my friend must be suffering from the same sickness that i am
i wonder if he too has donkey fever but pretending he had seen nothing he asked with a smile how are you my dear lamp wick very well
like a mouse in a parmesan cheese is that really true why should i lie to you i beg your pardon my friend but
oh my poor pinocchio oh my poor lamp wick an embarrassingly long silence followed these words
during which time the two friends
in a mocking way finally
in a voice sweet as honey and soft as a flute said to his companion tell me lamp wick dear friend have you ever suffered
from an earache never and you never still since this morning my ear has been torturing me
both of them and yours both of them too i wonder if it could be the same sickness i'm afraid it is will you do me a favor lamp wick
gladly with my whole heart will you let me see your ears why not
i want to see yours dear pinocchio no you must show yours first
yours first then mine well then
let us take off our caps together all right all right ready then pinocchio began to count one two three
at the word three the two boys pulled off their caps
and then a scene took place which is hard to believe but it is all too true
and his friend lamp wick when they saw each other both stricken by the same misfortune instead of feeling sorrowful and ashamed began to poke fun at each other and after much nonsense
they ended by bursting out into hearty laughter they laughed and laughed and laughed
but all of a sudden lamp wick stopped laughing he tottered and almost fell pale as a ghost he turned to pinocchio and said
i can't either cried pinocchio and his laughter turned to tears as he stumbled about helplessly they had hardly finished speaking when both of them fell on all fours and began running and jumping around the room
their arms turned into legs their faces lengthened into snouts and their backs became covered with long gray hairs this was humiliation enough
but the most horrible moment was the one in which the two poor creatures felt their tails appear overcome with shame and grief they tried to cry and bemoan their fate
but what is done can't be undone instead of moans and cries they burst forth into loud donkey brays
at that moment a loud knocking was heard at the door and a voice called to them
i am the little man
now that is to me a very amazing thing amazing for the light of possibilities that it casts into the human heart for i had never had the slightest conscious idea of marrying the girl
i never had the slightest idea even of caring for her i must have talked in an odd way as people do who are recovering from an anaesthetic it is as if one had a dual personality the one i
being entirely unconscious of the other i had thought nothing i had said such an extraordinary thing i don't know that analysis of my own psychology matters at all to this story i should say that it didn't or at any rate
that i had given enough of it but that odd remark of mine had a strong influence upon what came after i mean
if i hadn't said two hours after my wife's death now i can marry the girl she had then taken it for granted that i had been suffering all that she had been suffering or at least
that i had permitted all that she had permitted so that a month ago about a week after the funeral of poor edward she could say to me in the most natural way in the world
she said with her clear reflective intonation oh stop here for ever and ever if you can and then she added you couldn't be more of a brother to me or more of a counsellor or more of a support
you are all the consolation i have in the world and isn't it odd to think that if your wife hadn't been my husband's mistress you would probably never have been here at all that was how i got the news full in the face like that
i didn't say anything and i don't suppose i felt anything unless maybe it was with that mysterious and unconscious self that underlies most people perhaps one day when i am unconscious or walking in my sleep i may go and spit upon poor edward's grave
it seems about the most unlikely thing i could do but there it is no i remember no emotion of any sort but just the clear feeling that one has from time to time when one hears that some missus so and so is au mieux with a certain gentleman
it made things plainer suddenly to my curiosity it was as if i thought at that moment of a windy november evening that when i came to think it over afterwards a dozen unexplained things would fit themselves into place
but i wasn't thinking things over then i remember that distinctly i was just sitting back rather stiffly in a deep arm chair that is what i remember it was twilight
branshaw manor lies in a little hollow with lawns across it and pine woods on the fringe of the dip the immense wind coming from across the forest roared overhead but the view from the window was perfectly quiet and grey
not a thing stirred except a couple of rabbits on the extreme edge of the lawn it was leonora's own little study that we were in and we were waiting for the tea to be brought i as i said was sitting in the deep chair
leonora was standing in the window twirling the wooden acorn at the end of the window blind cord desultorily round and round she looked across the lawn and said as far as i can remember edward has been dead only ten days and yet there are rabbits on the lawn
i understand that rabbits do a great deal of harm to the short grass in england and then she turned round to me and said without any adornment at all for i remember her exact words i think it was stupid of florence to commit suicide
i cannot tell you the extraordinary sense of leisure that we two seemed to have at that moment it wasn't as if we were waiting for a train it wasn't as if we were waiting for a meal it was just that there was nothing to wait for
nothing there was an extreme stillness with the remote and intermittent sound of the wind there was the grey light in that brown small room and there appeared to be nothing else in the world i knew then
that leonora was about to let me into her full confidence it was as if or no it was the actual fact that leonora with an odd english sense of decency had determined to wait until edward had been in his grave for a full week before she spoke
and with some vague motive of giving her an idea of the extent to which she must permit herself to make confidences i said slowly and these words too i remember with exactitude did florence commit suicide
i didn't know i was just you understand trying to let her know that if she were going to speak she would have to talk about a much wider range of things than she had before thought necessary
that florence had committed suicide it had never entered my head you may think that i had been singularly lacking in suspiciousness
but consider the position in such circumstances of clamour of outcry of the crash of many people running together of the professional reticence of such people as hotel keepers
the traditional reticence of such good people as the ashburnhams in such circumstances it is some little material object always that catches the eye and that appeals to the imagination
i had no possible guide to the idea of suicide and the sight of the little flask of nitrate of amyl in florence's hand suggested instantly to my mind
nitrate of amyl you understand is the drug that is given to relieve sufferers from angina pectoris seeing florence as i had seen her running with a white face and with one hand held over her heart
and seeing her as i immediately afterwards saw her lying upon her bed with the so familiar little brown flask clenched in her fingers it was natural enough for my mind to frame the idea as happened now and again i thought
she had gone out without her remedy and having felt an attack coming on whilst she was in the gardens she had run in to get the nitrate in order as quickly as possible to obtain relief and it was equally inevitable
my mind should frame the thought that her heart unable to stand the strain of the running should have broken in her side how could i have known that during all the years of our married life that little brown flask had contained
not nitrate of amyl but prussic acid it was inconceivable why not even edward ashburnham who was after all more intimate with her than i was had an inkling of the truth he just thought that she had dropped dead of heart disease
indeed i fancy that the only people who ever knew that florence had committed suicide were leonora the grand duke the head of the police and the hotel keeper i mention these last three because my recollection of that night
is only the sort of pinkish effulgence from the electric lamps in the hotel lounge there seemed to bob into my consciousness like floating globes the faces of those three now it would be the bearded
monarchical benevolent head of the grand duke then the sharp featured brown cavalry moustached feature of the chief of police then the globular polished and high collared vacuousness that represented monsieur schontz
the proprietor of the hotel at times one head would be there alone at another the spiked helmet of the official would be close to the healthy baldness of the prince
the sovereign's soft exquisitely trained voice would say ja ja ja each word dropping out like so many soft pellets of suet the subdued rasp of the official would come zum befehl durchlaucht
like five revolver shots
under its breath like that of an unclean priest reciting from his breviary in the corner of a railway carriage that was how it presented itself to me they seemed to take no notice of me
i don't suppose that i was even addressed by one of them but as long as one or the other or all three of them were there they stood between me as if i being the titular possessor of the corpse had a right to be present at their conferences
then they all went away and i was left alone for a long time and i thought nothing absolutely nothing i had no ideas i had no strength i felt no sorrow no desire for action
no inclination to go upstairs and fall upon the body of my wife i just saw the pink effulgence the cane tables the palms the globular match holders the indented ash trays and then leonora came to me
and it appears that i addressed to her that singular remark now i can marry the girl but i have given you absolutely the whole of my recollection of that evening
as it is the whole of my recollection of the succeeding three or four days i was in a state just simply cataleptic they put me to bed and i stayed there they brought me my clothes and i dressed
they led me to an open grave and i stood beside it if they had taken me to the edge of a river or if they had flung me beneath a railway train i should have been drowned or mangled in the same spirit i was the walking dead well those are my impressions
i pieced it together afterwards you will remember i said that edward ashburnham and the girl had gone off that night to a concert at the casino and that leonora had asked florence almost immediately after their departure to follow them
and to perform the office of chaperone florence you may also remember was all in black being the mourning that she wore for a deceased cousin jean hurlbird it was a very black night and the girl was dressed in cream coloured muslin
that must have glimmered under the tall trees of the dark park like a phosphorescent fish in a cupboard you couldn't have had a better beacon and it appears that edward ashburnham led the girl not up the straight allee that leads to the casino
but in under the dark trees of the park edward ashburnham told me all this in his final outburst
i didn't pump him i hadn't any motive at that time i didn't in the least connect him with my wife but the fellow talked like a cheap novelist or like a very good novelist for the matter of that if it's the business of a novelist to make you see things clearly
it appears that not very far from the casino he and the girl sat down in the darkness upon a public bench the lights from that place of entertainment must have reached them through the tree trunks since edward said
he could quite plainly see the girl's face that beloved face with the high forehead the queer mouth the tortured eyebrows and the direct eyes and to florence creeping up behind them they must have presented the appearance of silhouettes
for i take it that florence came creeping up behind them over the short grass
was immediately behind that public seat it was not a very difficult feat for a woman instinct with jealousy the casino orchestra was as edward remembered to tell me playing the rakocsy march
and although it was not loud enough at that distance to drown the voice of edward ashburnham it was certainly sufficiently audible to efface amongst the noises of the night the slight brushings and rustlings that might have been made by the feet of florence
or by her gown in coming over the short grass
it must have been horrible for her horrible well i suppose she deserved all that she got anyhow there you have the picture the immensely tall trees elms most of them
the silhouettes of those two upon the seat the beams of light coming from the casino the woman all in black peeping with fear behind the tree trunk it is melodrama but i can't help it and then it appears
something happened to edward ashburnham he assured me and i see no reason for disbelieving him that until that moment he had had no idea whatever of caring for the girl
he certainly loved her but with a very deep very tender and very tranquil love he had missed her when she went away to her convent school he had been glad when she had returned but of more than that he had been totally unconscious
had he been conscious of it he assured me
he realized that it was the last outrage upon leonora but the real point was his entire unconsciousness he had gone with her into that dark park with no quickening of the pulse with no desire for the intimacy of solitude
he had gone intending to talk about polo ponies and tennis racquets about the temperament of the reverend mother at the convent she had left and about whether her frock for a party when they got home should be white or blue it hadn't come into his head
that they would talk about a single thing that they hadn't always talked about it had not even come into his head that the tabu which extended around her was not inviolable and then suddenly that he was very careful to assure me
that at that time there was no physical motive about his declaration it did not appear to him to be a matter of a dark night and a propinquity and so on no it was simply of her effect on the moral side of his life
he said that he never had the slightest notion to enfold her in his arms or so much as to touch her hand he swore that he did not touch her hand he said that they sat she at one end of the bench he at the other
he leaning slightly towards her and she looking straight towards the light of the casino her face illuminated by the lamps the expression upon her face he could only describe as queer
at another time indeed he made it appear that he thought she was glad it is easy to imagine that she was glad
frankly she adored edward ashburnham he was for her in everything that she said at that time the model of humanity the hero the athlete the father of his country the law giver so that for her to be suddenly intimately
and overwhelmingly praised must have been a matter for mere gladness however overwhelming it were it must have been as if a god had approved her handiwork or a king her loyalty
she just sat still and listened smiling and it seemed to her that all the bitterness of her childhood the terrors of her tempestuous father the bewailings of her cruel tongued mother were suddenly atoned for
she had her recompense at last because of course if you come to figure it out a sudden pouring forth of passion by a man whom you regard as a cross between a pastor and a father might to a woman have the aspect
of mere praise for good conduct it wouldn't i mean appear at all in the light of an attempt to gain possession the girl at least regarded him as firmly anchored to his leonora
she had not the slightest inkling of any infidelities he had always spoken to her of his wife in terms of reverence and deep affection he had given her the idea that he regarded leonora as absolutely impeccable and as absolutely satisfying
who have been at work upon the matter carefully have come to that conclusion and nothing but private knowledge or personal affection will stand against such evidence at tankerville there was nothing of either
and our hero's guilt was taken as a certainty there was an interest felt in the whole matter which was full of excitement and not altogether without delight to the tankervillians of course the borough as a borough
would never again hold up its head there had never been known such an occurrence in the whole history of this country as the hanging of a member of the house of commons and this member of parliament
was to be hung for murdering another member which no doubt added much to the importance of the transaction a large party in the borough declared that it was a judgment tankerville had degraded itself among boroughs
by sending a roman catholic to parliament and had done so at the very moment in which the church of england was being brought into danger this was what had come upon the borough by not sticking to honest mister browborough there was a moment
just before the trial was begun in which a large proportion of the electors was desirous of proceeding to work at once and of sending mister browborough back to his own place it was thought that phineas finn should be made to resign
and very wise men in tankerville were much surprised when they were told that a member of parliament cannot resign his seat that when once returned he is supposed to be as long as that parliament shall endure
the absolute slave of his constituency and his country
only by accepting some office under the crown now it was held to be impossible that a man charged with murder should be appointed even to the stewardship of the chiltern hundreds the house no doubt could expel a member
and would as a matter of course expel the member for tankerville but the house could hardly proceed to expulsion
so it came to pass that there was no escape for the borough from any part of the disgrace to which it had subjected itself by its unworthy choice and some tankervillians of sensitive minds were of opinion that no tankervillian ever again
ought to take part in politics then quite suddenly there came into the borough the tidings that phineas finn was an innocent man this happened on the morning on which the three telegrams from prague reached london
the news conveyed by the telegrams was at tankerville almost as soon as in the court at the old bailey and was believed as readily the name of the lady who had travelled all the way to bohemia on behalf of their handsome young member
was on the tongue of every woman in tankerville and a most delightful romance was composed some few protestant spirits regretted the now assured escape of their roman catholic enemy and would not even yet allow themselves to doubt
that the whole murder had been arranged by divine providence to bring down the scarlet woman it seemed to them to be so fitting a thing that providence should interfere directly to punish a town
in which the sins of the scarlet woman were not held to be abominable but the multitude were soon convinced that their member was innocent and as it was certain that he had been in great peril as it was known that he was still in durance
and as it was necessary that the trial should proceed and that he should still stand at least for another day in the dock he became more than ever a hero then came the further delay and at last the triumphant conclusion of the trial
when acquitted phineas finn was still member for tankerville and might have walked into the house on that very night instead of doing so he had at once asked for the accustomed means of escape from his servitude and the seat for tankerville was vacant
the most loving friends of mister browborough perceived at once that there was not a chance for him the borough was all but unanimous in resolving that it would return no one as its member but the man who had been unjustly accused of murder
mister ruddles was at once despatched to london with two other political spirits so that there might be a real deputation and waited upon phineas two days after his release from prison
ruddles was very anxious to carry his member back with him assuring phineas of an entry into the borough so triumphant that nothing like to it had ever been known at tankerville but to all this phineas was quite deaf
at first he declined even to be put in nomination you can't escape from it mister finn you can't indeed said ruddles you don't at all understand the enthusiasm of the borough does he mister gadmire
i never knew anything like it in my life before said gadmire i believe mister finn would poll two thirds of the church party to morrow said mister troddles a leading dissenter in tankerville who on this occasion was the third member of the deputation
i needn't sit for the borough unless i please i suppose pleaded phineas well no at least i don't know said ruddles it would be throwing us over a good deal and i'm sure you are not the gentleman to do that and then mister finn
don't you see that though you have been knocked about a little lately by george he has most cruel said troddles you'll miss the house if you give it up you will after a bit mister finn you've got to come round again mister finn
and you shouldn't put yourself out of the way of coming round comfortably phineas knew that there was wisdom in the words of mister ruddles and consented though at this moment he was low in heart disgusted with the world and sick of humanity
though every joint in his body was still sore from the rack on which he had been stretched yet he knew that it would not be so with him always as others recovered so would he
and it might be that he would live to miss the house should he now refuse the offer made to him he accepted the offer but he did so with a positive assurance
that no consideration should at present take him to tankerville we ain't going to charge you not one penny said mister gadmire with enthusiasm i feel all that i owe to the borough said phineas and to the warm friends there who have espoused my cause
but i am not in a condition at present either of mind or body to put myself forward anywhere in public i have suffered a great deal most cruel said troddles and am quite willing to confess
that i am therefore unfit in my present position to serve the borough we can't admit that said gadmire raising his left hand we mean to have you said troddles there isn't a doubt about your re election mister finn said ruddles
i must trust to one of you gentlemen to explain to the electors that in my present condition i am unable to visit the borough
disappointed no doubt at not bringing with them him whose company would have made their feet glorious on the pavement of their native town but still with a comparative sense of their own importance in having seen the great sufferer whose woes forbade
that he should be beheld by common eyes they never even expressed an idea that he ought to have come alluding even to their past convictions
but spoke of him as a personage made almost sacred by the sufferings which he had been made to endure as to the election that would be a matter of course
he was proposed by mister ruddles himself and was absolutely seconded by the rector of tankerville the staunchest tory in the place who on this occasion made a speech in which he declared that as an englishman loving justice
he could not allow any political or even any religious consideration to bias his conduct on this occasion mister finn had thrown up his seat under the pressure of a false accusation and it was the rector thought for the honour of the borough
that the seat should be restored to him so phineas finn was re elected for tankerville without opposition and without expense and for six weeks after the ceremony parcels were showered upon him by the ladies of the borough
who sent him worked slippers scarlet hunting waistcoats pocket handkerchiefs with p f beautifully embroidered and chains made of their own hair in this conjunction of affairs the editor of the people's banner
found it somewhat difficult to trim his sails it was a rule of life with mister quintus slide to persecute an enemy an enemy might at any time become a friend but while an enemy was an enemy he should be trodden on and persecuted
mister slide had striven more than once to make a friend of phineas finn but phineas finn had been conceited and stiff necked phineas had been to mister slide an enemy of enemies and by all his ideas of manliness
by all the rules of his life by every principle which guided him he was bound to persecute phineas to the last during the trial and the few weeks before the trial he had written various short articles
with the view of declaring how improper it would be should a newspaper express any opinion of the guilt or innocence of a suspected person while under trial and he gave two or three severe blows to contemporaries for having sinned in the matter
but in all these articles he had contrived to insinuate that the member for tankerville would as a matter of course be dealt with by the hands of justice he had been very careful to recapitulate all circumstances
which had induced finn to hate the murdered man and had more than once related the story of the firing of the pistol at macpherson's hotel then came the telegram from prague and for a day or two mister slide was stricken dumb
the acquittal followed and quintus slide had found himself compelled to join in the general satisfaction evinced at the escape of an innocent man then came the re election for tankerville and mister slide felt
that there was opportunity for another reaction more than enough had been done for phineas finn in allowing him to elude the gallows there could certainly be no need for crowning him with a political chaplet because he had not murdered mister bonteen
among a few other remarks which mister slide threw together the following appeared in the columns of the people's banner we must confess that we hardly understand the principle on which mister finn has been re elected for tankerville
with so much enthusiasm free of expense and without that usual compliment to the constituency which is implied by the personal appearance of the candidate we have more than once expressed our belief that he was wrongly accused in the matter of mister bonteen's murder
indeed our readers will do us the justice to remember that during the trial and before the trial we were always anxious to allay the very strong feeling against mister finn with which the public mind was then imbued not only by the facts of the murder
but also by the previous conduct of that gentleman but we cannot understand why the late member should be thought by the electors of tankerville to be especially worthy of their confidence because he did not murder mister bonteen
he himself instigated we hope by a proper feeling retired from parliament as soon as he was acquitted his career during the last twelve months has not enhanced his credit and cannot we should think have increased his comfort
as to which the police were so benignly inefficient that it would not be for the welfare of the nation that a gentleman should be employed in the public service whose public life had been marked by the misfortune which had attended mister finn
great efforts were made by various ladies of the old whig party to obtain official employment for him but they were made in vain mister gresham was too wise and our advice we will not say was followed
but was found to agree with the decision of the prime minister mister finn was left out in the cold in spite of his great friends and then came the murder of mister bonteen can it be that mister finn's fitness for parliamentary duties
has been increased by mister bonteen's unfortunate death or by the fact that mister bonteen was murdered by other hands than his own we think not the wretched husband who in the madness of jealousy fired a pistol at this young man's head
has since died in his madness does that incident in the drama give mister finn any special claim to consideration we think not and we think also that the electors of tankerville would have done better had they allowed mister finn
to return to that obscurity which he seems to have desired the electors of tankerville however are responsible only to their borough and may do as they please with the seat in parliament which is at their disposal
we may however protest against the employment of an unfit person in the service of his country simply because he has not committed a murder
chapter eight symptoms of poisoning the apparition did not return it did not reappear in the theatre but it reappeared to the memory of gwynplaine gwynplaine was to a certain degree troubled
it seemed to him that for the first time in his life he had seen a woman he made that first stumble a strange dream we should beware of the nature of the reveries that fasten on us
reverie has in it the mystery and subtlety of an odour it is to thought what perfume is to the tuberose it is at times the exudation of a venomous idea and it penetrates like a vapour
you may poison yourself with reveries as with flowers an intoxicating suicide exquisite and malignant the suicide of the soul is evil thought in it is the poison
it makes you bear your half in the trickeries which it plays on conscience it charms then it corrupts you we may say of reverie as of play one begins by being a dupe
and ends by being a cheat gwynplaine dreamed he had never before seen woman
in dea he had just seen the reality a warm and living skin under which one felt the circulation of passionate blood an outline with the precision of marble and the undulation of the wave
a high and impassive mien mingling refusal with attraction and summing itself up in its own glory hair of the colour of the reflection from a furnace
a gallantry of adornment producing in herself and in others a tremor of voluptuousness the half revealed nudity betraying a disdainful desire to be coveted at a distance by the crowd
the charm of impenetrability temptation seasoned by the glimpse of perdition a promise to the senses and a menace to the mind a double anxiety the one desire the other fear
he had just seen these things he had just seen woman he had seen more and less than a woman he had seen a female and at the same time an olympian the female of a god
the mystery of sex had just been revealed to him and where on inaccessible heights at an infinite distance o mocking destiny the soul
that celestial essence he possessed he held it in his hand it was dea sex that terrestrial embodiment he perceived in the heights of heaven it was that woman
a duchess more than a goddess
what a precipice even dreams dissolved before such a perpendicular height to escalade was he going to commit the folly of dreaming about the unknown beauty he debated with himself
he recalled all that ursus had said of high stations which are almost royal the philosopher's disquisitions which had hitherto seemed so useless now became landmarks for his thoughts
a very thin layer of forgetfulness often lies over our memory through which at times we catch a glimpse of all beneath it his fancy ran on that august world the peerage
to which the lady belonged and which was so inexorably placed above the inferior world the common people of which he was one and was he even one of the people was not he the mountebank below the lowest of the low
for the first time since he had arrived at the age of reflection he felt his heart vaguely contracted by a sense of his baseness and of that which we nowadays call abasement
his lyrical inventories his dithyrambics of castles parks fountains and colonnades his catalogues of riches and of power revived in the memory of gwynplaine in the relief of reality mingled with mist
he was possessed with the image of this zenith that a man should be a lord it seemed chimerical it was so however incredible thing there were lords
but were they of flesh and blood like ourselves it seemed doubtful he felt that he lay at the bottom of all darkness encompassed by a wall while he could just perceive in the far distance above his head
through the mouth of the pit a dazzling confusion of azure of figures and of rays which was olympus in the midst of this glory the duchess shone out resplendent
he felt for this woman a strange inexpressible longing combined with a conviction of the impossibility of attainment this poignant contradiction returned to his mind again and again notwithstanding every effort
he saw near to him even within his reach in close and tangible reality the soul and in the unattainable in the depths of the ideal the flesh
none of these thoughts attained to certain shape they were as a vapour within him changing every instant its form and floating away
was intense he did not form even in his dreams any hope of reaching the heights where the duchess dwelt luckily for him the vibration of such ladders of fancy if ever we put our foot upon them
may render our brains dizzy for ever intending to scale olympus we reach bedlam any distinct feeling of actual desire would have terrified him he entertained none of that nature besides
was he likely ever to see the lady again most probably not to fall in love with a passing light on the horizon madness cannot reach to that pitch
to make loving eyes at a star even is not incomprehensible it is seen again it reappears it is fixed in the sky but can any one be enamoured of a flash of lightning
dreams flowed and ebbed within him the majestic and gallant idol at the back of the box had cast a light over his diffused ideas then faded away he thought yet thought not of it
turned to other things returned to it it rocked about in his brain nothing more it broke his sleep for several nights sleeplessness is as full of dreams as sleep
it is almost impossible to express in their exact limits the abstract evolutions of the brain the inconvenience of words is that they are more marked in form than ideas
all ideas have indistinct boundary lines words have not a certain diffused phase of the soul ever escapes words expression has its frontiers thought has none
the depths of our secret souls are so vast that gwynplaine's dreams scarcely touched dea dea reigned sacred in the centre of his soul nothing could approach her still
for such contradictions make up the soul of man there was a conflict within him was he conscious of it scarcely in his heart of hearts he felt a collision of desires we all have our weak points
two instincts one the ideal the other sexual were struggling within him such contests occur between the angels of light and darkness on the edge of the abyss
at length the angel of darkness was overthrown one day gwynplaine suddenly thought no more of the unknown woman the struggle between two principles the duel between his earthly and his heavenly nature had taken place within his soul
and at such a depth that he had understood it but dimly one thing was certain that he had never for one moment ceased to adore dea he had been attacked by a violent disorder his blood had been fevered
but it was over dea alone remained gwynplaine would have been much astonished had any one told him that dea had ever been even for a moment in danger and in a week or two the phantom
which had threatened the hearts of both their souls faded away within gwynplaine nothing remained but the heart which was the hearth and the love which was its fire besides we have just said
that the duchess did not return ursus thought it all very natural the lady with the gold piece is a phenomenon she enters pays and vanishes it would be too much joy were she to return
as to dea she made no allusion to the woman who had come and passed away
and now and then by some significant exclamation such as one does not get ounces of gold every day she spoke no more of the woman this showed deep instinct the soul takes obscure precautions
in the secrets of which it is not always admitted itself to keep silence about any one seems to keep them afar off one fears that questions may call them back
we put silence between us as if we were shutting a door so the incident fell into oblivion was it ever anything had it ever occurred
could it be said that a shadow had floated between gwynplaine and dea dea did not know of it nor gwynplaine either no nothing had occurred the duchess herself
was blurred in the distant perspective like an illusion it had been but a momentary dream passing over gwynplaine out of which he had awakened when it fades away a reverie like a mist leaves no trace behind
and when the cloud has passed on love shines out as brightly in the heart
chapter four contraries fraternize in hate success is hateful especially to those whom it overthrows it is rare that the eaten adore the eaters
the laughing man had decidedly made a hit the mountebanks around were indignant a theatrical success is a syphon it pumps in the crowd and creates emptiness all round
the shop opposite is done for the increased receipts of the green box caused a corresponding decrease in the receipts of the surrounding shows those entertainments popular up to that time
suddenly collapsed it was like a low water mark showing inversely but in perfect concordance the rise here the fall there theatres experience the effect of tides they rise in one
only on condition of falling in another the swarming foreigners who exhibited their talents and their trumpetings on the neighbouring platforms seeing themselves ruined by the laughing man
yet dazzled all the grimacers all the clowns all the merry andrews envied gwynplaine how happy he must be with the snout of a wild beast the buffoon mothers and dancers on the tight rope
with pretty children looked at them in anger and pointing out gwynplaine would say what a pity you have not a face like that some beat their babes savagely for being pretty more than one had she known the secret
would have fashioned her son's face in the gwynplaine style the head of an angel which brings no money in is not as good as that of a lucrative devil one day the mother of a little child who was a marvel of beauty
and who acted a cupid exclaimed our children are failures they only succeeded with gwynplaine and shaking her fist at her son she added if i only knew your father wouldn't he catch it
gwynplaine was the goose with the golden eggs what a marvellous phenomenon there was an uproar through all the caravans the mountebanks enthusiastic and exasperated looked at gwynplaine and gnashed their teeth
admiring anger is called envy then it howls they tried to disturb chaos vanquished made a cabal hissed scolded shouted
this was an excuse for ursus to make out of door harangues to the populace and for his friend tom jim jack to use his fists to re establish order his pugilistic marks of friendship
at a distance however for the group in the green box sufficed to themselves and held aloof from the rest of the world and because tom jim jack this leader of the mob seemed a sort of supreme bully
without a tie without a friend a smasher of windows a manager of men now here now gone hail fellow well met with every one companion of none
this raging envy against gwynplaine did not give in for a few friendly hits from tom jim jack the outcries having miscarried the mountebanks of tarrinzeau field fell back on a petition they addressed to the authorities
this is the usual course against an unpleasant success we first try to stir up the crowd and then we petition the magistrate with the merry andrews the reverends allied themselves
the laughing man had inflicted a blow on the preachers
but in the churches the congregations in the churches of the five parishes in southwark had dwindled away people left before the sermon to go to gwynplaine chaos vanquished
the green box the laughing man all the abominations
eclipsed the eloquence of the pulpit the voice crying in the desert vox clamantis in deserto is discontented and is prone to call for the aid of the authorities
the clergy of the five parishes complained to the bishop of london who complained to her majesty the complaint of the merry andrews was based on religion they declared it to be insulted
they described gwynplaine as a sorcerer
the reverend gentlemen invoked social order setting orthodoxy aside they took action on the fact that acts of parliament were violated it was clever because it was the period of mister locke
who had died but six months previously twenty eighth october seventeen o four and when scepticism which bolingbroke had imbibed from voltaire was taking root
later on wesley came and restored the bible as loyola restored the papacy
and by chaplains in the name of the police
and of the inspectors of nuisances the green box was denounced by the priests as an obstruction and by the jugglers as sacrilegious had they any pretext
was there any excuse yes what was the crime
a dog was allowable a wolf forbidden in england the wolf is an outlaw
putting the wolf beyond the protection of the law they moved for something like the imprisonment of gwynplaine and the execution of the wolf or at any rate for their banishment the question was one of public importance the danger to persons passing
et cetera and on this point they appealed to the faculty they cited the opinion of the eighty physicians of london a learned body
which can raise sick people to the dignity of being amenable to their jurisdiction which has the right to imprison those who infringe its law and contravene its ordinances and which
amongst other useful regulations for the health of the citizens put beyond doubt this fact acquired by science that if a wolf sees a man first the man becomes hoarse for life besides he may be bitten
homo then was a pretext
he was uneasy he was afraid of two claws the police and the justices to be afraid of the magistracy it is sufficient to be afraid there is no need to be guilty
his eagerness to make their acquaintance amounted to nil his curiosity to see the magistrates was about as great as the hare's to see the greyhound he began to regret that he had come to london
better is the enemy of good murmured he apart i thought the proverb was ill considered i was wrong stupid truths are true truths
against the coalition of powers merry andrews taking in hand the cause of religion and chaplains indignant in the name of medicine the poor green box suspected of sorcery in gwynplaine and of hydrophobia in homo
had only one thing in its favour but a thing of great power in england municipal inactivity it is to the local authorities letting things take their own course that englishmen owe their liberty
liberty in england behaves very much as the sea around england it is a tide
manners surmount the law a cruel system of legislation drowned under the wave of custom a savage code of laws still visible through the transparency of universal liberty such is england the laughing man
chaos vanquished and homo might have mountebanks preachers bishops the house of commons the house of lords her majesty london and the whole of england against them and remain undisturbed so long as southwark permitted
and the local authorities seemed disinclined to interfere in england indifference is protection so long as the sheriff of the county of surrey to the jurisdiction of which southwark belongs did not move in the matter
and homo could sleep on his wolf's ears
it increased success the green box was none the worse for it for the time on the contrary hints were scattered that it contained something mysterious
the public follow with gusto the scent of anything contraband to be suspected is a recommendation the people adopt by instinct that at which the finger is pointed
whilst passing a pleasant evening both an act of kindness to the oppressed and of opposition to the oppressor is agreeable you are protecting at the same time that you are being amused so the theatrical caravans on the bowling green
continued to howl and to cabal against the laughing man nothing could be better calculated to enhance his success the shouts of one's enemies are useful and give point and vitality to one's triumph
a friend wearies sooner in praise than an enemy in abuse to abuse does not hurt enemies are ignorant of this fact they cannot help insulting us and this constitutes their use
they cannot hold their tongues and thus keep the public awake the crowds which flocked to chaos vanquished increased daily
and did not tell gwynplaine lest it should trouble the ease of his acting by creating anxiety
relying gwynplaine accepted these orphans were all in all to each other the feeble and the deformed the widowed were betrothed
an inexpressible thanksgiving arose out of their distress they were grateful to whom to the obscure immensity be grateful in your own hearts that suffices
thanksgiving has wings and flies to its right destination your prayer knows its way better than you can how many men have believed that they prayed to jupiter when they prayed to jehovah
how many believers in amulets are listened to by the almighty
deformity is expulsion blindness is a precipice the expelled one had been adopted the precipice was habitable gwynplaine had seen a brilliant light descending on him
in an arrangement of destiny which seemed to put in the perspective of a dream a white cloud of beauty having the form of a woman a radiant vision in which there was a heart and the phantom almost a cloud and yet a woman clasped him
and the apparition embraced him and the heart desired him gwynplaine was no longer deformed he was beloved the rose demanded the caterpillar in marriage
feeling that within the caterpillar there was a divine butterfly gwynplaine the rejected was chosen to have one's desire is everything gwynplaine had his
the abjection of the disfigured man was exalted and dilated into intoxication into delight into belief and a hand was stretched out towards the melancholy hesitation of the blind girl
to guide her in her darkness
which absorbed them the rejected found a refuge in each other two blanks combining filled each other up they held together by what they lacked in that in which one was poor
the other was rich the misfortune of the one made the treasure of the other had dea not been blind would she have chosen gwynplaine had gwynplaine not been disfigured
she would probably have rejected the deformed as he would have passed by the infirm what happiness for dea that gwynplaine was hideous what good fortune for gwynplaine that dea was blind
apart from their providential matching they were impossible to each other a mighty want of each other was at the bottom of their loves gwynplaine saved dea
apposition of misery produced adherence it was the embrace of those swallowed in the abyss none closer none more hopeless none more exquisite
gwynplaine had a thought what should i be without her dea had a thought what should i be without him the exile of each made a country for both the two incurable fatalities
the stigmata of gwynplaine and the blindness of dea joined them together in contentment they sufficed to each other they imagined nothing beyond each other to speak to one another was a delight
to approach was beatitude by force of reciprocal intuition they became united in the same reverie and thought the same thoughts in gwynplaine's tread
they tightened their mutual grasp in a sort of sidereal chiaroscuro full of perfumes of gleams of music of the luminous architecture of dreams they belonged to each other
they knew themselves to be for ever united in the same joy and the same ecstasy and nothing could be stranger than this construction of an eden by two of the damned they were inexpressibly happy
in their hell they had created heaven such was thy power o love dea heard gwynplaine's laugh gwynplaine saw dea's smile thus ideal felicity was found
the perfect joy of life was realized the mysterious problem of happiness was solved and by whom by two outcasts for gwynplaine
gwynplaine was presence presence is that profound mystery which renders the invisible world divine and from which results that other mystery confidence in religions this is the only thing which is irreducible
but this irreducible thing suffices the great motive power is not seen it is felt gwynplaine was the religion of dea sometimes lost in her sense of love towards him she knelt
like a beautiful priestess before a gnome in a pagoda made happy by her adoration imagine to yourself an abyss and in its centre an oasis of light and in this oasis
two creatures shut out of life dazzling each other no purity could be compared to their loves
though perhaps she desired it because blindness especially in a woman has its dreams and though trembling at the approaches of the unknown does not fear them all as to gwynplaine his sensitive youth made him pensive
the more delirious he felt the more timid he became he might have dared anything with this companion of his early youth with this creature as innocent of fault as of the light with this blind girl who saw but one thing
that she adored him but he would have thought it a theft to take what she might have given so he resigned himself with a melancholy satisfaction to love angelically and the conviction of his deformity
resolved itself into a proud purity these happy creatures dwelt in the ideal they were spouses in it at distances as opposite as the spheres they exchanged in its firmament
the deep effluvium which is in infinity attraction and on earth the sexes
were the kisses of souls they had always lived a common life they knew themselves only in each other's society the infancy of dea had coincided with the youth of gwynplaine
they had grown up side by side for a long time they had slept in the same bed for the hut was not a large bedchamber
gwynplaine felt himself grown up and it was in the youth that shame arose he said to ursus i will also sleep on the floor and at night he stretched himself with the old man on the bear skin
she cried for her bed fellow but gwynplaine become restless because he had begun to love decided to remain where he was from that time he always slept by the side of ursus on the planks in the summer
when the nights were fine he slept outside with homo when thirteen dea had not yet become resigned to the arrangement often in the evening she said gwynplaine come close to me
that will put me to sleep a man lying by her side was a necessity to her innocent slumbers
she ignored nudity
dea untaught made gwynplaine wild sometimes it happened that dea when almost reaching youth combed her long hair as she sat on her bed
and would call gwynplaine gwynplaine blushed lowered his eyes and knew not what to do in presence of this innocent creature stammering he turned his head feared and fled
the daphnis of darkness took flight before the chloe of shadow
had become quite an institution in london she had obtained full though by no means undisputed possession of the great hall in the marylebone road and was undoubtedly for the moment
and disturbed the happiness of many fathers of families it may easily be conceived that all this was gall and wormwood to the baroness banmann
the baroness on her arrival in london had anticipated the success which this low bred american female had achieved it was not simply the honour of the thing which was very great
and would have been very dear to the baroness but the american doctor was making a rapid fortune out of the proceeds of the hall
she had on one occasion threatened to strike lecturing unless she were allowed a certain very large percentage on the sum taken at the doors and the stewards and directors of the institute
had found themselves compelled to give way to her demands she had consequently lodged herself magnificently at the langham hotel had set up her brougham in which she always had herself driven to the institute
and was asked out to dinner three or four times a week whereas the baroness was in a very poor condition she had indeed succeeded in getting herself invited to mister de baron's house and from time to time
raised a little money from those who were unfortunate enough to come in her way but she was sensible of her own degradation and at the same time quite assured that as a preacher
on women's rights at large she could teach lessons infinitely superior to anything that had come from that impudent but imbecile american
had for the moment been the spokeswoman and in these overtures it had been intimated to her that the directors would be happy to remunerate her for her trouble should the money collected at the hall enable them to do so
the baroness believed that enormous sums had been received and was loud in assuring all her friends that this popularity had in the first place been produced by her own exertions
at any rate she was resolved to seek redress at law and at last had been advised to proceed conjointly against aunt ju lady selina protest and the bald headed old gentleman
the business had now been brought into proper form and the trial was to take place in march all this was the cause of much trouble to poor mary and of very great vexation to lord george
when the feud was first becoming furious an enormous advertisement was issued by doctor fleabody's friends in which her cause was advocated and her claims recapitulated
gentry and people of england who supported the disabilities generally and her cause in particular among these names which were very numerous appeared that of lady george germain
oh george she said look here what right have they to say so i never patronised anything i went there once when i came to london first because miss mildmay asked me you should not have gone
said he we have had all that before and you need not scold me again there couldn't be any great harm in going to hear a lecture this occurred just previous to her going down to manor cross
that journey which was to be made for so important an object then lord george did just what he ought not to have done he wrote an angry letter to miss fleabody as he called her complaining bitterly
of the insertion of his wife's name doctor fleabody was quite clever enough to make fresh capital out of this she withdrew the name explaining that she had been ordered to do so by the lady's husband
and implying that thereby additional evidence was supplied that the disabilities of women were absolutely crushing to the sex in england
mary when she saw this and the paper did not reach her till she was at manor cross was violent in her anxiety to write herself in her own name and disclaim all disabilities
and mary was forced to keep her indignation to herself
a man came all the way down from london for the purpose of serving lady george with a subpoena to give evidence at the trial on the part of the baroness lord george was up in london at the time
never having entered the house at manor cross or even the park since his visit to italy the consternation of the ladies may be imagined poor mary was certainly not in a condition to go into a court of law
and would be less so on the day fixed for the trial and yet this awful document seemed to her and to her sisters in law to be so imperative as to admit of no escape
it was in vain that lady sarah with considerable circumlocution endeavoured to explain to the messenger the true state of the case the man could simply say that he was only a messenger
and had now done his work looked at in any light the thing was very terrible lord george might probably even yet be able to run away with her to some obscure corner of the continent
in which messengers from the queen's judges would not be able to find her and she might perhaps bear the journey without injury but then what would become of a baby perhaps of a popenjoy so born
and in that case the baby would at once be a popenjoy what a condition was this for a marchioness to be in at the moment of the birth of her eldest child
said mary through her tears it is such a pity that you should ever have gone said lady susanna shaking her head it wasn't wicked to go said mary and i won't be scolded about it any more
you went to a lecture yourself when you were in town and they might just as well have sent for you
and was very keen in thinking what steps had better be taken mary wished to run off to the deanery at once
which was of course written by that day's post to lord george there were still ten days to the trial and twenty days by computation to the great event there were of course
various letters written to lord george lady sarah wrote very sensibly suggesting that he should go to mister stokes the family lawyer
she was however of opinion that if mary was concealed in a certain room at manor cross which might she thought be sufficiently warmed and ventilated for health
the judges of the queen's bench would never be able to find her the baby in that case would have been born at manor cross
mary's letter was almost hysterically miserable she knew nothing about the horrid people what did they want her to say all she had done was to go to a lecture and to give the wicked woman a guinea
wouldn't george come and take her away she wouldn't care where she went
it was she said very cruel and she did hope that george would come to her at once if he didn't come she thought that she would die nothing of course was said to the marchioness
but it was found impossible to keep the matter from missus toff missus toff was of opinion that the bit of paper should be burned and that no further notice should be taken of the matter at all if they don't go
missus toff remembering that a brother of hers who had forgotten himself in liquor at the brotherton assizes
who remembered also that the good natured judge
but lady sarah could not look at the matter in that light she was sure that if a witness were really wanted that witness could not escape by paying a fine
the next morning there came a heartrending letter from aunt ju she was very sorry that lady george should have been so troubled but then let them think of her trouble of her misery
that odious baroness had summoned everybody that had ever befriended her captain de baron had been summoned
and missus montacute jones and the whole expense according to aunt ju would fall upon her for it seemed to be the opinion of the lawyers that she had hired the baroness
then she said some very severe things against the disabilities generally there was that woman fleabody making a fortune in their hall and would take none of this expense upon herself
she thought that such things should be left to men who after all were not so mean as women so at least said aunt ju and then there was new cause for wonderment
lord brotherton had been summoned and would lord brotherton come they all believed that he was dying and if so surely he could not be made to come but is it not horrible said lady susanna
that people of rank should be made subject to such an annoyance if anybody can summon anybody nobody can ever be sure of herself on the next morning lord george himself came down to brotherton and mary
with a carriage full of precautions was sent into the deanery to meet him the marchioness discovered that the journey was to be made and was full of misgivings and full of enquiries
in her present condition the mother expectant ought not to be allowed to make any journey at all the marchioness remembered how sir henry had told her before popenjoy was born that all carriage exercise was bad
and why should she go to the deanery who could say whether the dean would let her come away again what a feather it would be in the dean's cap if the next popenjoy were born at the deanery
it was explained to her that in no other way could she see her husband then the poor old woman was once more loud in denouncing the misconduct of her youngest son to the head of the family
mary made the journey in perfect safety and then was able to tell her father the whole story i never heard of anything so absurd in my life said the dean i suppose i must go papa not a yard
fetch you no does it mean nothing very little
that baroness probably thinks that she will get money out of you if the worst comes to the worst you must send a medical certificate will that do of course it will when george is here we will get doctor loftly
and he will make it straight for us you need not trouble yourself about it at all those women at manor cross are old enough to have known better lord george came and was very angry
and who took upon himself to assure lady george that all the judges in the land could not enforce her attendance as long as she had that certificate in her hands
and could not refrain himself from a cross word or two
oh george are we to have that all again why shouldn't she have gone asked the dean are you in favour of rights of women not particularly
if there be any rights which they haven't got i thoroughly wish that they might get them i certainly don't believe in the baroness banmann
but i don't think they could have been wrong in going in good company to hear what a crazy old woman might have to say it was very foolish said lord george see what has come of it
how could i tell george
nasty fat old woman i'm sure i didn't want to hear her then lord george went back to town with the medical certificate in his pocket and mary being in her present condition afraid of the authorities
was unable to stay and be happy even for one evening with her father during the month the disabilities created a considerable interest throughout london of which doctor fleabody reaped the full advantage
the baroness was so loud in her clamours that she forced the question of the disabilities on the public mind generally and the result was that the world flocked to the institute
the baroness as she heard of this became louder and louder it was not this that she wanted
the baroness when she desired to be little the doctor always called her a female and the baroness though in truth she was not personally attractive did contrive to surround herself with supporters
and in these days moved into comfortable lodgings in wigmore street very few were heard to speak in her favour but they who contributed to the relief of her necessities were many
it was found to be almost impossible to escape from her without leaving some amount of money in her hands and then in a happy hour she came at last across an old gentleman
who did appreciate her and her wrongs how it was that she got an introduction to mister philogunac coelebs was not i think ever known it is not improbable that having heard of his soft heart
his peculiar propensities and his wealth she contrived to introduce herself it was however suddenly understood that mister philogunac coelebs who was a bachelor and very rich had taken her by the hand
and intended to bear all the expenses of the trial it was after the general intimation which had been made to the world in this matter that the summons for lady mary had been sent down to manor cross
everywhere how she did work the attornies who had the case in hands found themselves unable to secure themselves against her she insisted on seeing the barristers
and absolutely did work her way into the chambers of that discreet junior mister stuffenruff she was full of her case full of her coming triumph she would teach women like miss julia mildmay
and lady selina protest
and as for the american female you'll put her pipe out suggested mister philogunac coelebs who was not superior to a mild joke stop her from piping altogether in dis contry said the baroness
who in the midst of her wrath and zeal and labour was superior to all jokes two days before that fixed for the trial there fell a great blow upon those who were interested in the matter
a blow that was heavy on mister coelebs but heavier still on the attornies the baroness had taken herself off and when enquiries were made it was found that she was at madrid
mister snape one of the lawyers was the person who first informed mister coelebs and did so in a manner which clearly implied that he expected mister coelebs to pay the bill then mister snape
encountered a terrible disappointment and mister coelebs was driven to confess his own disgrace he had he said never undertaken to pay the cost of the trial
but he had unfortunately given the lady a thousand pounds to enable her to pay the expenses herself mister snape expostulated and later on urged with much persistency
they had taken their orders from the lady and must look to the lady for payment they who best knew mister philogunac coelebs thought that he had escaped cheaply
i am so glad she has gone said mary when she heard the story i should never have felt safe while that woman was in the country
it was arranged that ferdinand should join his regiment by the next mediterranean packet which was not to quit falmouth for a fortnight glastonbury and himself therefore lost no time
in bidding adieu to their kind friends in london and hastening to armine they arrived the day after the gazette they found sir ratcliffe waiting for them at the town
and the fond smile and cordial embrace with which he greeted glastonbury more than repaid that good man for all his exertions there was notwithstanding a perceptible degree of constraint both on the part of the baronet
and his former tutor it was evident that sir ratcliffe had something on his mind of which he wished to disburden himself and it was equally apparent that glastonbury was unwilling to afford him an opportunity
under these rather awkward circumstances it was perhaps fortunate that ferdinand talked without ceasing giving his father an account of all he had seen done and heard
to that capital fellow the guard of the coach they were at the park gates lady armine was there to meet them the carriage stopped ferdinand jumped out and embraced his mother she kissed him
and ran forward and extended both her hands to mister glastonbury deeds not words must show our feelings she said and the tears glittered in her beautiful eyes glastonbury with a blush
after dinner during which ferdinand recounted all his adventures lady armine invited him when she rose to walk with her in the garden it was then with an air of considerable confusion
clearing his throat and filling his glass at the same time that sir ratcliffe said to his remaining guest my dear glastonbury you cannot suppose that i believe that the days of magic have returned
this commission both constance and myself feel that is
that you are at the bottom of it all the commission is purchased i could not expect the duke deeply as i feel his generous kindness to purchase a commission for my son i could not permit it no
glastonbury and here sir ratcliffe became more animated you could not permit it my honour is safe in your hands sir ratcliffe paused for a reply on that score my conscience is clear replied glastonbury
it is then it must be then as i suspect rejoined sir ratcliffe i am your debtor for this great service it is easy to count your obligations to me said glastonbury
but mine to you and yours are incalculable my dear glastonbury said sir ratcliffe pushing his glass away as he rose from his seat and walked up and down the room i may be proud but i have no pride for you
i owe you too much indeed my dear friend there is nothing that i would not accept from you were it in your power to grant what you would desire it is not pride my dear glastonbury do not mistake me
it is not pride that prompts this explanation but but
glastonbury i cannot indeed mister glastonbury looked at sir ratcliffe steadily then rising from his seat he took the baronet's arm and without saying a word walked slowly towards the gates of the castle where he lodged
and which we have before described
let me be pioneer invited sir ratcliffe to follow him they accordingly entered his chamber it was a small room lined with shelves of books except in one spot where was suspended a portrait of lady barbara
the floor was covered with so many boxes and cases that it was not very easy to steer a course when you had entered glastonbury however beckoned to his companion to seat himself in one of his two chairs
it is my will said glastonbury handing it to sir ratcliffe who laid it down on the table nay
to peruse it for it concerns yourself i would rather learn its contents from yourself if you positively desire me replied sir ratcliffe i have left everything to our child said glastonbury for thus
when speaking to the father alone he would often style the son
said sir ratcliffe brushing away a tear long very long as the almighty pleases said glastonbury crossing himself but living or dead i look upon all as ferdinand's
and hold myself but the steward of his inheritance which i will never abuse o glastonbury no more of this i pray you have wasted a precious life upon our forlorn race alas how often and how keenly do i feel
that had it not been for the name of armine
would that i could would that any act of mine i care not what could revive the fortunes of the house of armine honoured for ever be the name which with me is associated with all that is great and glorious in man and
here his voice faltered and he turned away his face exquisite and enchanting in woman no ratcliffe he resumed by the memory of one i cannot name by that blessed and saintly being from whom you derive your life
you will not you cannot deny this last favour i ask i entreat i supplicate you to accord me me who have ever eaten of your bread and whom your roof hath ever shrouded
said sir ratcliffe throwing himself back in the chair and covering his face with his right hand i know not what to say i know not what to feel glastonbury advanced and gently took his other hand
dear sir ratcliffe he observed in his usual calm sweet voice
i did believe that after my long and intimate connection with your house after having for nearly forty years sympathised as deeply with all your fortunes as if indeed
after having been honoured on your side with a friendship which has been the consolation and charm of my existence indeed too great a blessing i did believe more especially when i reminded myself
of the unrestrained manner in which i had availed myself of the advantages of that friendship i did believe actuated by feelings which perhaps i cannot describe and thoughts to which i cannot now give utterance that i might venture without offence
upon this slight service ay that the offering might be made in the spirit of most respectful affection and not altogether be devoid of favour in your sight excellent kind hearted man said sir ratcliffe
pressing the hand of glastonbury in his own i accept your offering in the spirit of perfect love believe me dearest friend it was no feeling of false pride that for a moment influenced me
you are mistaken when i cast my lot at armine i sank a portion of my capital on my life so slender are my wants here and so little does your dear lady permit me to desire that believe me
destined for our ferdinand yet a little time and adrian glastonbury must be gathered to his fathers why then deprive him of the greatest gratification of his remaining years the consciousness that
to be really serviceable to those he loves it is not necessary for him to cease to exist may you never repent your devotion to our house said sir ratcliffe rising from his seat
time was we could give them who served us something better than thanks
chapter twenty one in which captain lake visits his sister's sick bed i suspect there are very few mere hypocrites on earth of course i do not reckon those
who are under compulsion to affect purity of manners and a holy integrity of heart and there are such but those who volunteer an extraordinary profession of holiness being all the while conscious villains the pharisees
wore a mask i am sure he often wore it when he was quite alone i don't know indeed that he ever took it off he was perhaps content to see it even when he looked in the glass and had not a very
distinct idea what the underlying features might be it answers with the world it almost answers with himself pity it won't do everywhere when moses went to speak with god says the admirable hall
he pulled off his veil it was good reason he should present to god that face which he had made there had been more need of his veil to hide the glorious face of god from him than to hide his from god
hypocrites are contrary to moses he showed his worst to men his best to god they show their best to men their worst to god but god sees both their veil and their face and i know not whether he more hates their veil
his strange eyes glanced now this way now that with a fierce restlessness now to the window now to the door and you would have said he was listening intently to some
one after the other two or three little wafers of a dark hue and placed them successively on his tongue and suffered them to melt and so swallowed them
a little in opium he was not a great adept yet at least like those gentlemen who can swallow five hundred drops of laudanum at a sitting but he knew the virtues of the drug and cultivated its acquaintance
and was oftener under its influence than perhaps any mortal except himself suspected
there was a twittering of small birds among the brown leaves and ivy and a thousand other pleasant sounds and sights stirring in the sharp sunny air this sort of inflexible merry making
in the eyes of anxious captain lake fear hath torment and fear is the worst ingredient in mental pain this is the reason why suspense is so intolerable and the retrospect even of the worst less terrible
why did time limp so tediously away with him prolonging his anguish gratuitously he felt truculently
with a dreadful yearning he hated the fresh glitter of that morning scene why should the world be cheerful it was a repast spread of which he could not partake and it spited him
with his walking cane if he could and draped the world in black he saw from his window the
in white choker and seedy black
they were very busy talking little fairy used to walk when parochial visits were not very distant
with his wapsie how that name came about no one remembered but the vicar answered to it more cheerily than to any other the little man was solitary and these rambles were a delight a beautiful smiling little fellow very exacting
that led the wise men and the celestial song heard by the shepherds keeping their flocks by night and snatches of pilgrim's progress and sometimes when they made a feast and eat their pennyworth of cherries sitting on the style he treated him
i am afraid to the profane histories of jack the giant killer and the yellow dwarf the vicar had theories about imagination and fancied it was an important faculty and that the creator had not given children their
unextinguishable love of stories to no purpose i don't envy the man who is superior to the society of children what can he gain from children's talk is it witty or wise or learned be frank is it not
honestly a mere noise and interruption a musical cackling of geese and silvery braying of tiny asses well say i out of my large acquaintance there are not many men to whom i would go for wisdom
learning is better found in books and as for wit is it always pleasant the most companionable men are not always the greatest intellects they laugh and though they don't converse
there was not a great deal in will honeycomb for instance but our dear mister spectator tells us somewhere that he laughed easily which i think quite accounts for his acceptance with the club he was kindly and enjoying
what is it that makes your dog so charming a companion in your walks simply that he thoroughly likes you and enjoys himself he appeals imperceptibly to your affections which cannot be stirred
such is god's will ever so lightly without some little thrillings of happiness and through the subtle absorbents of your sympathy he infuses into you something of his own hilarious and exulting spirit when stanley lake saw the vicar
the lines of his pale face contracted strangely and his wild gaze followed him and i don't think he breathed once until the thin smiling man
bright boy holding by his hand had passed by
that on greeting mister larkin in the parlour he thought it necessary to mention that he had taken cold in that confounded billiard room last night which spoiled his sleep and made him awfully seedy that morning of course his host was properly afflicted and sympathetic
by the bye i had a letter this morning from that party our common friend mister w you know said larkin gracefully well what is he doing and when does he come back you mean wylder of course
yes my good client mister mark wylder permit me to assist you to some honey you'll find it remarkably good i venture to say it comes from the gardens of queen's audley the late marquis you know prided himself on his honey
oh certainly and with wylder's great red seal on the back of the envelope the letter ran thus dear larkin i write in haste to save post to say i shall be detained in town a few days longer than i thought
don't wait for me about the parchments i am satisfied if anything crosses your mind a word with mister de c at the hall will clear all up have all ready to sign and seal when i come back
it was evidently written in great haste with the broad nibbed pen he liked but notwithstanding the sort of swagger with which the writing marched across the page lake might have seen here and there a little quaver indicative of something different from haste
the vibrations of another sort of flurry certainly within a week he writes does he mean he'll be here in a week or only to have the papers ready in a week asked lake the question certainly does arise it struck me on the first
perusal answered the attorney his address is rather a wide one too london
the wanderers he has left the united service nothing for me by the way no letter no
i hate them said the captain i wonder how my sister is this morning would you like a messenger i'll send down with pleasure to enquire thank you no i'll walk down and see her and lake yawned at the window
and then took his hat and stick and sauntered toward gylingden at the post office window he tapped with the silver tip of his cane and told miss driver with a sleepy smile
i'm going down to redman's farm and any letters for my sister miss lake i may as well take with me everybody in business in the town of gylingden
a most respectable party a high man and of course there was no difficulty there was only one letter the address was written
and in fact left an enduring impression upon that impressible nature turning up the dark road at redman's dell the gallant captain passed the old mill and all being quiet up and down the road he halted
under the lordly shadow of a clump of chestnuts and opened and read the letter
it contained only these words wednesday on friday night next at half past twelve this he read twice or thrice pausing between whiles the envelope bore the london postmark
then he took out his cigar case selected a promising weed and wrapping the laconic note prettily round one of his scented matches lighted it and the note flamed pale in the daylight and dropped
still blazing at the root of the old tree he stood by and sent up a little curl of blue smoke an incense to the demon of the wood and turned in a minute more into a black film overrun by a hundred creeping sparkles
and having completed his mysterious incremation he with his yellow eyes made a stolen glance around and lighting his cigar glided gracefully up the steep road under the solemn canopy of old timber to the sound of the moaning stream below
how are all where is that girl margery in the kitchen master stanley said she courtesying again are you sure said captain lake peeping toward that apartment over the old woman's shoulder certain sure master stanley
ceremonious ascent to the empty chamber children had once occupied that silent floor for there was a little balustraded gate across the top of the staircase
i keep this closed said old tamar and forbid her to cross it lest she should disturb the mistress heaven forgive me very good he whispered and he peeped over the banister and then entered rachel's silent room darkened with closed shutters
the white curtains and white coverlet so like the dark chamber of white death he had intended speaking to tamar there but changed his mind or rather could not make up his mind and he loitered silently and stood with the curtain
in his gloved hand looking upon the cold coverlet as if rachel lay dead there that will do he said awaking from his wandering thought we'll go down now tamar
walking lightly and slowly down the stairs they went and stanley entered the kitchen how do you do margery you'll be glad to hear your mistress is better you must run down to the town though and buy some jelly and you are to bring her back
half a crown in her hand put on your bonnet and my old shawl child and take the basket
lake had no very high opinion of men or women gentle or simple she listens i dare say the little spy said he no master stanley she's a good little girl
yes the lord forgive me i'm deceiving her he did not like the tone and look which accompanied this now my good old tamar you really can't be such an idiot as to fancy
of that which in no wise concerns her this is a critical matter do you see and if it were known in this place that your young mistress had gone away as she has done though quite innocently upon my honour i think it would blast her
crotchet to ruin poor radie i fancy i'm doing just what you both bid me said the old woman you sit up stairs chiefly she nodded sadly and keep the hall door shut and bolted
again she nodded i'm going up to the hall and i'll tell them she's much better and that i've been in her room and that perhaps she may go up to see them in the morning old tamar shook her head and groaned how long
is all this to go on for master stanley why d you tamar can't you listen he said clutching her wrist in his lavender kid grasp rather roughly how long a very short time i tell you
she'll be home immediately i'll come to morrow and tell you exactly maybe to morrow evening will that do and should they call you must say the same and if miss dorcas miss brandon you know should wish to go up to see her tell her she's asleep
tamar groaned again and she said i opened my bible lord help me three times to day master stanley and could not go on it's no use i can't read it time enough i think you've read more than is good for you i think you are half mad tamar
but think what you may it must be done have not you read of straining at gnats and swallowing camels you used not i've heard to be always so scrupulous old tamar there was a vile sarcasm in his tone and look
it is not for the child i nursed to say that said tamar there were scandalous stories of wicked old tiberius bankrupt dead and buried compromising the fame of tamar not always a spectacled and cadaverous student of holy writ
these indeed were even in stanley's childhood old world hazy traditions of the servants hall but boys hear often more than is good and more than gospel who live in such houses as old general lake the old millionaire widower kept
i did not mean anything upon my honour tamar that could annoy you i only meant you used not to be a fool and pray don't begin now for i assure you radie and i would not ask it if it could be avoided
i don't think your bible teaches you anywhere to hurt your neighbour and to break faith don't speak of the bible now but you needn't fear me master stanley answered the old woman a little sternly
poor miss radie she never heard anything but what was good from old tamar whatever i might ha bin myself miserable sinners are we all and i'll do as you bid me and i have done master stanley
but we get rough ways in the army i'm afraid and you won't mind me you never did mind little stannie when he was naughty you know there was here a little subsidence in his speech
but there were several reasons against it so that handsome coin remained in his purse and i forgot to tell you tamar i've a ring for you in town a little souvenir you'll think it pretty a gold ring with a stone in it
it belonged to poor dear aunt jemima you remember i left it behind so stupid
as he walked down the mill road toward the town he met lord chelford on his way to make enquiry about rachel at redman's farm and lake who as we know had just seen his sister gave him all particulars chelford like the lawyer
had heard from mark wylder that morning a few lines postponing his return he merely mentioned it and made no comment but lake perceived that he was annoyed at his unexplained absence lake dined at brandon that evening and though looking ill was
very good company and promised to bring an early report of rachel's convalescence in the morning i have little to record of next day except that larkin received another london letter wylder plainly wrote in great haste and merely said i shall have to wait a day or
two longer than i yesterday thought to meet a fellow from whom i am to receive something of importance rather as i think to me get the deeds ready as i said in my last if i am not in gylingden by monday we must put off the wedding for a week later
this note was as unceremonious and still shorter lord chelford would have written at once to remonstrate with mark on the unseemliness of putting off his marriage so capriciously or at all events so mysteriously
miss brandon not being considered nor her friends consulted but mark had a decided objection to many letters he had no fancy to be worried when he had made up his mind by prosy remonstrances and he shut out the whole
wylder was hidden from mortal sight like a heaven protected hero in the iliad and a cloud of invisibility girdled him like most rustic communities gylingden and its neighbourhood were early in bed few lights burned after half past ten and the whole vicinity
was deep in its slumbers before twelve o'clock at that dread hour captain lake about a mile on the dollington which was the old london road from gylingden was pacing backward and forward under the towering files of beech that overarch it at that point
the white house public with a wide panel over its door presenting in tints subdued by time a stage coach and four horses in mid career lay a few hundred yards nearer to gylingden
of nature was to be heard stanley lake did not like waiting any more than did louis
of acting sentry and was very peevish by the time the ring of wheels and horse hoofs approaching from the london direction became audible even so he had a longer wait than he expected
hallo there i say a passenger for the white house
well i'll pay you half fare to bring me there all right sir but the oss sir must av is oats fust feed him here then they are all asleep in the white house
must not know who you are and i must go back with him
indeed i've been i may say very ill and i told that fellow larkin who has his eyes about him and would wonder what kept me out so late that i would run down to some of the places near for a change and sleep a night there
and you have been really so very kind i assure you i appreciate it radie i do indeed and i'm very grateful i am upon my word
chapter twenty captain lake takes an evening stroll about gylingden again i had serious thoughts of removing my person and effects to the brandon arms
but neither was i quite satisfied that the thing was altogether canny the apparition whatever it was seemed to persecute me with a mysterious obstinacy
which was plagued with its presence at the same time i had an odd sort of reluctance to mention the subject to my entertainers the thing itself was a ghostly slur upon the house and to run away a reproach to my manhood and besides writing now at a distance
and in the spirit of history i suspect the interest which beauty always excites had a great deal to do with my resolve to hold my ground and i dare say notwithstanding my other reasons had the ladies at the hall been all either old or ugly
as it was however i was resolved to maintain my position but that evening was streaked with a tinge of horror and i more silent and distrait
even though the owner be nothing very remarkable is always felt
not very much regretted for the first time we were really a small party miss lake was not there the gallant captain her brother was also absent the vicar and his good little wife were at naunton that evening
to hear a missionary recount his adventures and experiences in japan and none of the neighbours had been called in to fill the empty chairs
in truth did i old lady chelford occasionally dozed and nodded sternly after tea waking up and eyeing people grimly as though enquiring whether anyone presumed to suspect her ladyship of having had a nap chelford i recollect took a book
and read to us now and then a snatch of poetry i forget what my book except when i was thinking of the tarn and that old man i so hated was miss brandon's exquisite and mysterious face that young lady was leaning back in her great oak chair
in which she looked like the heroine of some sad and gorgeous romance of the old civil wars of england and directing a gaze of contemplative and haughty curiosity upon the old lady who was unconscious of the daring profanation
all on a sudden dorcas brandon said and pray what do you think of marriage lady chelford what do i think of marriage repeated the dowager throwing back her head and eyeing the beautiful heiress through her gold spectacles with a stony surprise
for she was not accustomed to be catechised by young people marriage why tis a divine institution what can the child mean
it may be safely contracted solely to join two estates pursued the young lady do i think it may safely be contracted solely to join two estates repeated the old lady with a look and carriage that plainly showed
how entirely she appreciated the amazing presumption of her interrogatrix there was a little pause certainly replied lady chelford
that is of course under proper conditions and with a due sense of its sacred character and a a obligations the first of which is love continued miss brandon the second honour
both involuntary and the third obedience which springs from them old lady chelford coughed and then rallying said very good miss
i don't see miss brandon that my thoughts upon that subject can concern anyone but myself retorted the old lady severely and from an awful altitude
and my years and the manner in which i am usually treated i am a little surprised at the tone in which you are pleased to question me these last terrible remarks totally failed to overawe the serene temerity of the grave beauty
i assumed lady chelford as you had interested yourself in me so far as to originate the idea of my engagement to mister wylder that you had considered these to me very important questions a little
and could give me satisfactory answers upon points on which my mind has been employed for some days and indeed i think i've a right to ask that assistance of you you seem to forget young lady that there are times and places for such discussions
and that to mister a a your visitor a glance at me it can't be very interesting to listen to this kind of of conversation which is neither very entertaining nor very wise i am answerable only for my part
of it and i think my questions very much to the purpose said the young lady in her low silvery tones i don't question your good opinion miss brandon of your own discretion but i can't see any profit in
now discussing an engagement of more than two months standing or a marriage which is fixed to take place only ten days hence and i think sir glancing again at me it must strike you a little oddly
now was it fair to call a peaceable inhabitant like me into the thick of a fray like this i paused long enough to allow miss brandon to speak but she did not choose to do so thinking i suppose it was my business
i believe i ought to have withdrawn a little i said very humbly and old lady chelford at the word shot a gleam of contemptuous triumph at miss dorcas
in deference to you who are not aware as miss brandon is that i am one of mister wylder's oldest and most intimate friends and at his request and with lord chelford's approval
but there is nothing which either she or i may say which i wish to conceal from any friend of mister wylder's the idea of miss brandon's seriously thinking of withdrawing from her engagement with mark wylder i confess never entered my mind
but the young lady showed no sign of excitement and lay back in her chair in her usual deep cold calm lake's late smoking with wylder must have disagreed with him very much indeed
more out of sorts as night approached he stole away from mister larkin's trellised porch in the dusk he marched into the town rather quickly like a man who has business on his hands
but he had none for he walked by the brandon arms and halted and stared at the post office as if he fancied he had something to say there but no there was no need to tap at the wooden window pane
some idle boys were observing the dandy captain and he turned down
on the common and sauntered upon the short grass
or two for gylingden boasts a spa' were lounging away the twilight half hours there he seated himself on one of the rustic seats and his yellow eyes wandered restlessly and vaguely
then for nearly ten minutes he smoked an odd recreation for a man suffering from the cigars of last night and after that for nearly as long again he seemed lost in deep thought his eyes upon the misty grass before him and his small french
boot beating time to the music of his thoughts several groups passed close by him in their pleasant circuit some wondered what might be the disease of that pale peevish looking gentleman who sat there so still
languid and dejected others set him down as a gentleman in difficulties of some sort who was using gylingden for a temporary refuge others again supposed he might be that major craddock
who had lost thirty thousand pounds on vanderdecken the other day
at disadvantage and remarked that some of mister larkin's clients looked always unhappy though they had so godly an attorney to deal with when lake with a little shudder for it was growing chill
lifted up his yellow eyes suddenly and recollected where he was the common had grown dark and was quite deserted
and in the billiard room beneath it and shadowy figures with cues in their hands gliding hither and thither across its uncurtained windows with a shrug and a stealthy glance round him
captain lake started up the instinct
and the score called by the marker and entered the hot glaring room old major jackson with his glass in his eye was contending in his shirt sleeves heroically with a manchester bag man who was palpably too much for him
the double chinned and florid proprietor of the brandon arms with a brandy and water familiarity offered captain lake two
and clack of tongues that followed the close of the game captain lake glared round for a moment like a man called up from sleep the noise rattled and roared in his ears the talk sounded madly and the faces of the people excited and menaced
him undefinably and he felt as if he was on the point of starting to his feet and stamping and shouting the fact is i suppose he was confoundedly nervous
dyspeptic or whatever else it might be and the heat and glare were too much for him so out he went into the chill fresh night air and round the corner into the quaint main street of gylingden and walked down
and then back again and so on trying to tire himself i think and every time he walked down the street with his face toward london his yellow eyes gleamed through the dark air with the fixed gaze of a man looking out for the appearance of a vehicle
it perhaps indicated an anxiety and a mental look out in that direction for he really expected no such thing
and a newspaper in the coffee room
lodge it was called and entered mister larkin's drawing room very cheerfully how quiet you are here said the captain i have been awfully dissipated since i saw you in an innocent way my dear captain lake you mean of course in an innocent way
but for a resident here putting aside other feelings a resident holding a position it would not do i assure you there are people there whom one could not associate with comfortably i don't care i hope how poor a man may be
and his grandfather he did not care to enquire after and who has had the education of one does not feel himself at home you know i'm sure you have felt the same sort of thing yourself oh of course
and i had such a nice walk on the common first and then a turn up and down before the brandon arms where at last i read a paper and could not resist a glass of brandy and water and growing lazy came home in a fly
so i think i have had a very gay evening larkin smiled
well then if you permit me being a little tired i'll go to my bed room with a grave and affectionate interest mister larkin looked in his face and sighed a little and said might i perhaps venture to beg just this one night
that chastened and entreating look it was hard to resist but somehow the whole thing seemed to lake to say do allow me this once to prescribe do give your poor soul this one chance and lake answered him
she apparently had fulfilled the necessary condition for the next morning in the cold faint dawn she knew that a spirit was standing by her bed she had lain down without undressing it being her belief that ralph would not outlast the night
she had no inclination to sleep she was waiting and such waiting was wakeful but she closed her eyes she believed that as the night wore on she should hear a knock at her door she heard no knock
but at the time the darkness began vaguely to grow grey she started up from her pillow as abruptly as if she had received a summons it seemed to her for an instant that he was standing there
a vague hovering figure in the vagueness of the room she stared a moment she saw his white face his kind eyes then she saw there was nothing she was not afraid she was only sure
she quitted the place and in her certainty passed through dark corridors and down a flight of oaken steps that shone in the vague light of a hall window outside ralph's door she stopped a moment listening
she opened the door with a hand as gentle as if she were lifting a veil from the face of the dead and saw missus touchett sitting motionless and upright beside the couch of her son with one of his hands in her own
the doctor was on the other side with poor ralph's further wrist resting in his professional fingers the two nurses were at the foot between them missus touchett took no notice of isabel
but the doctor looked at her very hard then he gently placed ralph's hand in a proper position close beside him the nurse looked at her very hard too and no one said a word but isabel only looked at what she had come to see
it was fairer than ralph had ever been in life and there was a strange resemblance to the face of his father which six years before she had seen lying on the same pillow she went to her aunt and put her arm around her
and missus touchett who as a general thing neither invited nor enjoyed caresses submitted for a moment to this one rising as might be to take it but she was stiff and dry eyed
her acute white face was terrible dear aunt lydia isabel murmured go and thank god you've no child said missus touchett disengaging herself
three days after this a considerable number of people found time at the height of the london season to take a morning train down to a quiet station in berkshire
and spend half an hour in a small grey church which stood within an easy walk it was in the green burial place of this edifice that missus touchett consigned her son to earth she stood herself at the edge of the grave
and isabel stood beside her the sexton himself had not a more practical interest in the scene than missus touchett it was a solemn occasion but neither a harsh nor a heavy one there was a certain geniality in the appearance of things
the weather had changed to fair the day one of the last of the treacherous may time was warm and windless and the air had the brightness of the hawthorn and the blackbird if it was sad to think of poor touchett
it was not too sad since death for him had had no violence he had been dying so long he was so ready everything had been so expected and prepared there were tears in isabel's eyes
but they were not tears that blinded she looked through them at the beauty of the day the splendour of nature the sweetness of the old english churchyard the bowed heads of good friends lord warburton was there and a group of gentlemen all unknown to her
were connected with the bank and there were others whom she knew miss stackpole was among the first with honest mister bantling beside her and caspar goodwood lifting his head higher than the rest bowing it rather less
during much of the time isabel was conscious of mister goodwood's gaze he looked at her somewhat harder than he usually looked in public while the others had fixed their eyes upon the churchyard turf but she never let him see that she saw him
she thought of him only to wonder that he was still in england she found she had taken for granted that after accompanying ralph to gardencourt he had gone away she remembered how little it was a country that pleased him he was there however
very distinctly there and something in his attitude seemed to say that he was there with a complex intention she wouldn't meet his eyes though there was doubtless sympathy in them he made her rather uneasy
with the dispersal of the little group he disappeared and the only person who came to speak to her though several spoke to missus touchett was henrietta stackpole henrietta had been crying ralph had said to isabel
that he hoped she would remain at gardencourt and she made no immediate motion to leave the place she said to herself that it was but common charity to stay a little with her aunt it was fortunate she had so good a formula
otherwise she might have been greatly in want of one her errand was over she had done what she had left her husband to do she had a husband in a foreign city counting the hours of her absence in such a case
one needed an excellent motive he was not one of the best husbands but that didn't alter the case certain obligations were involved in the very fact of marriage and were quite independent of the quantity of enjoyment extracted from it
isabel thought of her husband as little as might be but now that she was at a distance beyond its spell she thought with a kind of spiritual shudder of rome there was a penetrating chill in the image and she drew back
into the deepest shade of gardencourt she lived from day to day postponing closing her eyes trying not to think she knew she must decide but she decided nothing
her coming itself had not been a decision on that occasion she had simply started osmond gave no sound and now evidently would give none he would leave it all to her from pansy she heard nothing but that was very simple
her father had told her not to write missus touchett accepted isabel's company but offered her no assistance she appeared to be absorbed in considering without enthusiasm but with perfect lucidity
the new conveniences of her own situation missus touchett was not an optimist but even from painful occurrences she managed to extract a certain utility this consisted in the reflexion that after all
death was disagreeable but in this case it was her son's death not her own she had never flattered herself that her own would be disagreeable to any one but missus touchett she was better off than poor ralph
who had left all the commodities of life behind him and indeed all the security
that it exposed one to be taken advantage of for herself she was on the spot there was nothing so good as that she made known to isabel very punctually it was the evening her son was buried
several of ralph's testamentary arrangements he had told her everything had consulted her about everything he left her no money of course she had no need of money he left her the furniture of gardencourt
exclusive of the pictures and books and the use of the place for a year after which it was to be sold the money produced by the sale was to constitute an endowment for a hospital for poor persons suffering from the malady of which he died
and of this portion of the will lord warburton was appointed executor the rest of his property which was to be withdrawn from the bank was disposed of in various bequests several of them to those cousins in vermont
to whom his father had already been so bountiful then there were a number of small legacies some of them are extremely peculiar said missus touchett he has left considerable sums to persons i never heard of
apparently he thought you didn't like him for he hasn't left you a penny it was his opinion that you had been handsomely treated by his father which i'm bound to say i think you were though i don't mean that i ever heard him complain of it
the pictures are to be dispersed he has distributed them about one by one as little keepsakes
it sounds like a practical joke
does he mean her following him up from rome was that a service to literature it contains a great many rare and valuable books and as she can't carry it about the world in her trunk he recommends her to sell it at auction
she will sell it of course at christie's and with the proceeds she'll set up a newspaper will that be a service to literature this question isabel forbore to answer
as it exceeded the little interrogatory to which she had deemed it necessary to submit on her arrival besides she had never been less interested in literature than to day
as she found when she occasionally took down from the shelf one of the rare and valuable volumes of which missus touchett had spoken she was quite unable to read her attention had never been so little at her command
one afternoon in the library about a week after the ceremony in the churchyard she was trying to fix it for an hour but her eyes often wandered from the book in her hand to the open window which looked down the long avenue it was in this way
in a corner of it he had always had a high standard of courtesy and it was therefore not remarkable under the circumstances that he should have taken the trouble to come down from london to call on missus touchett
the theory i have just mentioned was plausible enough but it brought her little rest and if you had seen her pacing about you would have said she had a bad conscience she was not pacified when at the end of a quarter of an hour finding herself in view of the house
she saw missus touchett emerge from the portico accompanied by her visitor her aunt had evidently proposed to lord warburton that they should come in search of her she was in no humour for visitors and if she had had a chance
would have drawn back behind one of the great trees but she saw she had been seen and that nothing was left her but to advance as the lawn at gardencourt was a vast expanse this took some time during which she observed that
as he walked beside his hostess lord warburton kept his hands rather stiffly behind him and his eyes upon the ground both persons apparently were silent
as she directed it toward isabel had even at a distance an expression it seemed to say with cutting sharpness here's the eminently amenable nobleman you might have married when lord warburton lifted his own eyes however
that was not what they said they only said this is rather awkward you know and i depend upon you to help me he was very grave very proper and for the first time since isabel had known him
greeted her without a smile even in his days of distress he had always begun with a smile he looked extremely selfconscious lord warburton has been so good as to come out to see me said missus touchett
he tells me he didn't know you were still here i know he's an old friend of yours and as i was told you were not in the house i brought him out to see for himself
that would get me back in time for dinner
i'm so glad to find you've not gone i'm not here for long you know isabel said with a certain eagerness i suppose not but i hope it's for some weeks you came to england sooner than a than you thought
yes i came very suddenly missus touchett turned away as if she were looking at the condition of the grounds which indeed was not what it should be while lord warburton hesitated a little
isabel fancied he had been on the point of asking about her husband rather confusedly and then had checked himself he continued immitigably grave either because he thought it becoming in a place over which death had just passed
or for more personal reasons if he was conscious of personal reasons it was very fortunate that he had the cover of the former motive he could make the most of that isabel thought of all this it was not that his face was sad
for that was another matter but it was strangely inexpressive my sisters would have been so glad to come if they had known you were still here if they had thought you would see them lord warburton went on
do kindly let them see you before you leave england it would give me great pleasure i have such a friendly recollection of them i don't know whether you would come to lockleigh for a day or two you know there's always that old promise
and his lordship coloured a little as he made this suggestion which gave his face a somewhat more familiar air perhaps i'm not right in saying that just now of course you're not thinking of visiting but i meant what would hardly be a visit
i would see that there should be literally no one else isabel wondered if not even the young lady he was to marry would be there with her mamma but she did not express this idea thank you extremely
she contented herself with saying i'm afraid i hardly know about whitsuntide but i have your promise haven't i for some other time there was an interrogation in this but isabel let it pass
she looked at her interlocutor a moment and the result of her observation was that as had happened before she felt sorry for him take care you don't miss your train she said and then she added i wish you every happiness
he blushed again more than before and he looked at his watch
i haven't much time but i've a fly at the door thank you very much it was not apparent whether the thanks applied to her having reminded him of his train or to the more sentimental remark good bye missus osmond good bye
he shook hands with her without meeting her eyes and then he turned to missus touchett who had wandered back to them with her his parting was equally brief and in a moment the two ladies saw him move with long steps across the lawn
are you very sure he's to be married
ah said isabel i give it up while her aunt returned to the house and to those avocations which the visitor had interrupted she gave it up but she still thought of it
she stood and looked at it as if it might have something to say to her she wouldn't sit down on it now she felt rather afraid of it she only stood before it
if you had seen her there you would have admired the justice of the former epithet you would at least have allowed that at this moment
dined early and had tea at an indefinite hour how long she had sat in this position she could not have told you but the twilight had grown thick when she became aware that she was not alone she quickly straightened herself glancing about
but felt like she knew not what
but there was something in his face that she wished not to see
no matter i came from london a while ago by the train but i couldn't come here directly there was a man at the station who got ahead of me he took a fly that was there and i heard him give the order to drive here
i don't know who he was but i didn't want to come with him i wanted to see you alone so i've been waiting and walking about
i want to speak to you goodwood spoke very fast he was as excited as when they had parted in rome isabel had hoped that condition would subside and she shrank into herself as she perceived that on the contrary
he had only let out sail she had a new sensation he had never produced it before it was a feeling of danger there was indeed something really formidable in his resolution
she gazed straight before her he with a hand on each knee leaned forward looking deeply into her face the twilight seemed to darken round them i want to speak to you he repeated i've something particular to say i don't want to trouble you
as i did the other day in rome that was of no use it only distressed you
or because such a voice in the darkness seemed of necessity a boon but she listened to him as she had never listened before his words dropped deep into her soul they produced a sort of stillness in all her being
and it was with an effort in a moment that she answered him how can you help me she asked in a low tone as if she were taking what he had said seriously enough to make the enquiry in confidence by inducing you to trust me
then i was quite in the dark but to day i know on good authority everything's clear to me to day it was a good thing when you made me come away with your cousin he was a good man a fine man one of the best he told me how the case stands for you
he explained everything he guessed my sentiments he was a member of your family and he left you so long as you should be in england to my care said goodwood as if he were making a great point
do you know what he said to me the last time i saw him as he lay there where he died he said do everything you can for her do everything she'll let you
isabel suddenly got up you had no business to talk about me why not why not when we talked in that way he demanded following her fast and he was dying
when a man's dying it's different she checked the movement she had made to leave him she was listening more than ever it was true that he was not the same as that last time that had been aimless fruitless passion
but at present he had an idea which she scented in all her being but it doesn't matter he exclaimed pressing her still harder though now without touching a hem of her garment
if touchett had never opened his mouth i should have known all the same i had only to look at you at your cousin's funeral to see what's the matter with you you can't deceive me any more for god's sake be honest with a man who's so honest with you you're the most unhappy of women
i've never been so sane i see the whole thing don't think it's necessary to defend him but i won't say another word against him i'll speak only of you goodwood added quickly
how can you pretend you're not heart broken you don't know what to do you don't know where to turn it's too late to play a part didn't you leave all that behind you in rome touchett knew all about it and i knew it too
say it will and he flared almost into anger give me one word of truth when i know such a horror as that how can i keep myself from wishing to save you
what would you think of me if i should stand still and see you go back to your reward it's awful what she'll have to pay for it that's what touchett said to me i may tell you that mayn't i he was such a near relation cried goodwood
making his queer grim point again i'd sooner have been shot than let another man say those things to me but he was different he seemed to me to have the right it was after he got home when he saw he was dying and when i saw it too
i understand all about it you're afraid to go back you're perfectly alone you don't know where to turn you can't turn anywhere you know that perfectly now it is therefore that i want you to think of me
to think of you isabel said standing before him in the dusk the idea of which she had caught a glimpse a few moments before now loomed large she threw back her head a little she stared at it as if it had been a comet in the sky
you don't know where to turn turn straight to me i want to persuade you to trust me goodwood repeated and then he paused with his shining eyes why should you go back why should you go through that ghastly form
to get away from you she answered but this expressed only a little of what she felt the rest was that she had never been loved before she had believed it but this was different this was the hot wind of the desert
at the approach of which the others dropped dead like mere sweet airs of the garden it wrapped her about it lifted her off her feet while the very taste of it as of something potent acrid and strange forced open her set teeth
at first in rejoinder to what she had said it seemed to her that he would break out into greater violence but after an instant he was perfectly quiet he wished to prove he was sane that he had reasoned it all out
i want to prevent that and i think i may if you'll only for once listen to me it's too monstrous of you to think of sinking back into that misery of going to open your mouth to that poisoned air it's you that are out of your mind
trust me as if i had the care of you why shouldn't we be happy when it's here before us when it's so easy i'm yours for ever for ever and ever here i stand i'm as firm as a rock what have you to care about
as it is you've nothing to consider you must save what you can of your life you mustn't lose it all simply because you've lost a part it would be an insult to you to assume that you care for the look of the thing for what people will say
for the bottomless idiocy of the world we've nothing to do with all that we're quite out of it we look at things as they are you took the great step in coming away the next is nothing it's the natural one i swear as i stand here
that a woman deliberately made to suffer is justified in anything in life in going down into the streets if that will help her i know how you suffer and that's why i'm here we can do absolutely as we please to whom under the sun do we owe anything
what is it that holds us what is it that has the smallest right to interfere in such a question as this such a question is between ourselves and to say that is to settle it
were we born to be afraid i never knew you afraid if you'll only trust me how little you will be disappointed
she said it at random to hear herself say something but it was not what she meant the world in truth had never seemed so large it seemed to open out all round her to take the form of a mighty sea where she floated in fathomless waters
she had wanted help and here was help it had come in a rushing torrent i know not whether she believed everything he said but she believed just then that to let him take her in his arms would be the next best thing to her dying this belief for a moment
she seemed to beat with her feet in order to catch herself to feel something to rest on ah be mine as i'm yours she heard her companion cry he had suddenly given up argument and his voice seemed to come
harsh and terrible through a confusion of vaguer sounds this however of course was but a subjective fact as the metaphysicians say the confusion the noise of waters all the rest of it were in her own swimming head
in an instant she became aware of this do me the greatest kindness of all she panted i beseech you to go away ah don't say that don't kill me he cried she clasped her hands her eyes were streaming with tears
as you love me as you pity me leave me alone he glared at her a moment through the dusk and the next instant she felt his arms about her and his lips on her own lips
his kiss was like white lightning a flash that spread and spread again and stayed and it was extraordinarily as if while she took it she felt each thing in his hard manhood that had least pleased her
each aggressive fact of his face his figure his presence justified of its intense identity and made one with this act of possession so had she heard of those wrecked and under water
following a train of images before they sink but when darkness returned she was free she never looked about her she only darted from the spot there were lights in the windows of the house they shone far across the lawn
in an extraordinarily short time for the distance was considerable she had moved through the darkness for she saw nothing and reached the door here only she paused she looked all about her she listened a little
then she put her hand on the latch she had not known where to turn but she knew now there was a very straight path
in which henrietta stackpole occupied furnished lodgings he had hardly removed his hand from the knocker when the door was opened and miss stackpole herself stood before him she had on her hat and jacket she was on the point of going out
oh good morning he said i was in hopes i should find missus osmond henrietta kept him waiting a moment for her reply but there was a good deal of expression about miss stackpole even when she was silent pray what led you to suppose she was here
i went down to gardencourt this morning and the servant told me she had come to london
again miss stackpole held him with an intention of perfect kindness in suspense she came here yesterday and spent the night but this morning she started for rome
caspar goodwood was not looking at her his eyes were fastened on the doorstep oh she started he stammered and without finishing his phrase or looking up he stiffly averted himself
lady masham sixteen fifty eight ballard damaris lady masham the daughter of the famous doctor cudworth and second wife of sir thomas masham of oates in essex
was born in sixteen fifty eight her father who soon perceived the bent of her genius took particular care in her tuition and she applied herself with great diligence to the study of divinity and philosophy
under the direction of the celebrated mister locke who was a domestic in her family for many years and at length died in her house at oates soon after she was married the fame of her learning piety and ingenuity
induced the celebrated mister norris to address and inscribe to her by way of letter his reflections upon the conduct of human life this began a friendship between them which having its foundation in religion
seemed very likely to be firm and lasting but it seems to have been in a great measure dissolved before it had been of any long continuance occasioned by this lady's contracting an indissoluble friendship with mister locke
as their duty to love with desire nothing but god only and lady masham published without her name her discourse concerning the love of god wherein she applied herself to the examination of mister norris's scheme
which included the proposition that every degree of love of any creature is sinful a proposition defended by him on the ground borrowed from father malebranche that god not the creature
is the efficient cause of our sensations missus masham examined this hypothesis with great accuracy and ingenuity and represented in a strong light the evil consequences resulting from it
about the year seventeen hundred lady masham also wrote a treatise occasional thoughts in reference to a virtuous and christian life the principal design
of which was to improve religion and virtue and indeed it is so full of excellent instruction that if carefully perused by both sexes it could not fail of obtaining much of its desired end
for so scandalously permitting their daughters to pass that part of their youth in which the mind is most ductile and susceptible of good impressions in a ridiculous circle of diversions
that they can find no spare hours wherein to make any improvement in their understandings as missus masham owed much to the care of mister locke for her acquired endowments and skill in arithmetic geography chronology history
philosophy and divinity so as he was a domestic in her family she returned the obligation with singular benevolence and gratitude always treating him with the utmost generosity her friendship for him being inviolable
it is recorded that as she sat by mister locke's side the night before he died he exhorted her to regard this world only as a state of preparation for a better that she desired to sit up with him that night
but he would not permit her the next day as she was reading the psalms in a low tone by him in his room he desired her to read aloud she did so and he appeared very attentive till the approach of death
prevented him he then desired her ladyship to break off and in a few minutes afterwards expired as a testimony of her gratitude to mister locke's memory
the departure from lemnos a day came
and went on the lemnian land he gathered the heroes about him and they seeing heracles come amongst them clamored to go to hunt the wild bulls that were inland from the sea so for once
the heroes left the lemnian maidens who were their friends
and went with heracles and as they went heracles spoke to each of the heroes saying that they were forgetting the fleece of gold that they had sailed to gain jason blushed to think that he had almost let go out of his mind
the quest that had brought him from iolcus
and of how her little hand would stay in his and his own hand became loose upon the spear so that it nearly fell from him how could he he thought
he heard the clear voice of atalanta as she too spoke to the argonauts what heracles said was brave and wise said atalanta forgetfulness would cover their names if they stayed longer in lemnos forgetfulness and shame
and they would come to despise themselves leave lemnos she cried and draw argo into the sea and depart for colchis all day the argonauts stayed by themselves hunting the bulls
on their way back from the chase they were met by lemnian maidens who carried wreaths of flowers for them very silent were the heroes as the maidens greeted them heracles went with jason to the palace
seated herself not on the couch where she was wont to sit looking into the face of jason but on the stone throne of king thoas her father and seated on that throne she spoke to jason and to heracles
as a queen might speak in the hall that night
a story was told castor began it and polydeuces ended it and the story that helen's brothers told was the golden maid epimetheus the titan had a brother who was the wisest of all beings
prometheus called the foreseer but epimetheus himself was slow witted and scatter brained his wise brother once sent him a message bidding him beware of the gifts that zeus might send him epimetheus heard
but he did not heed the warning and thereby he brought upon the race of men troubles and cares prometheus the wise titan had saved men from a great trouble that zeus would have brought upon them also
zeus was the more wroth with men now because fire stolen from him had been given them he was wroth with the race of titans too and he pondered in his heart how he might injure men and how he might use epimetheus
the mindless titan to further his plan while he pondered there was a hush on high olympus the mountain of the gods then zeus called upon the artisan of the gods lame hephaestus
and he commanded him to make a being out of clay that would have the likeness of a lovely maiden with joy and pride hephaestus worked at the task that had been given him and he fashioned a being that had the likeness of a lovely maiden
all strove to add a grace or a beauty to the work of hephaestus zeus
should see and feel athene dressed her in garments that were as lovely as flowers aphrodite the goddess of love put a charm on her lips and in her eyes the graces put necklaces around her neck
and set a golden crown upon her head the hours brought her a girdle of spring flowers then the herald of the gods gave her speech that was sweet and flowing all the gods and goddesses had given gifts to her
and for that reason the maiden of hephaestus's making was called pandora the all endowed she was lovely the gods knew
but lovely as flowers and bright waters and earthly maidens are lovely zeus smiled to himself when he looked upon her and he called to hermes who knew all the ways of the earth and he put her into the charge of hermes
also he gave hermes a great jar to take along this jar was pandora's dower
now one day as he was sitting on a fallen pillar in the ruined place that was now forsaken by the rest of the titans he saw a pair coming toward him one had wings and he knew him to be hermes the messenger of the gods
the other was a maiden epimetheus marveled at the crown upon her head and at her lovely garments there was a glint of gold all around her he rose from where he sat upon the broken pillar
and as she came nearer the charm that was on her lips and in her eyes came to the earth born one and he smiled with more and more delight hermes came and stood before him he also smiled
but his smile had something baleful in it
and he said o epimetheus father zeus would be reconciled with thee and as a sign of his good will he sends thee this lovely goddess to be thy companion
oh very foolish was epimetheus the earth born one as he looked upon the golden maid who was sent by zeus he lost memory of the wars that zeus had made upon the titans and the elder gods
he lost memory of his brother chained by zeus to the rock he lost memory of the warning that his brother the wisest of all beings had sent him he took the hands of pandora
very far away seemed the voice of hermes saying this jar too is from olympus it has in it pandora's dower the jar stood forgotten for long and green plants grew over it while epimetheus
walked in the garden with the golden maid or watched her while she gazed on herself in the stream or searched in the untended places for the fruits that the elder gods would eat when they feasted with the titans in the old days before zeus had come to his power
and lost to epimetheus was the memory of his brother now suffering upon the rock because of the gift he had given to men and pandora knowing nothing except the brightness of the sunshine and the lovely shapes and colors of things
and the sweet taste of the fruits that epimetheus brought to her could have stayed forever in that garden but every day epimetheus would think that the men and women of the world
should be able to talk to him about this maiden with the wonderful radiance of gold and with the lovely garments and the marvelous crown and one day he took pandora by the hand and he brought her out of that deep lying valley and toward the homes of men
he did not forget the jar that hermes had left with her all things that belonged to the golden maid were precious and epimetheus took the jar along the race of men at the time were simple and content
since prometheus had given them fire they had good fruits of their toil they had well shaped tools to dig the earth and to build houses their homes were warmed with fire and fire burned upon the altars that were upon their ways
greatly they reverenced prometheus who had given them fire and greatly they reverenced the race of the titans so when epimetheus came amongst them
tall as a man walking with stilts they welcomed him and brought him and the golden maid to their hearths and epimetheus showed pandora the wonderful element that his brother had given to men and she rejoiced to see the fire
for the lid that had been tight upon it now fitted very loosely but no one gave heed to the jar as it stood in the open space where epimetheus had left it at first
the men and women looked upon the beauty of pandora upon her lovely dresses and her golden crown and her girdle of flowers with wonder and delight epimetheus would have every one admire and praise her
or building houses and the women would leave off spinning or weaving and come at his call and stand about and admire the golden maid but as time went by a change came upon the women one woman would weep
and another would look angry and a third would go back sullenly to her work when pandora was admired or praised once the women were gathered together and one who was the wisest amongst them said
once we did not think about ourselves and we were content but now we think about ourselves and we say to ourselves that we are harsh and ill favored indeed compared to the golden maid that the titan is so enchanted with
and we hate to see our own men praise and admire her and often in our hearts we would destroy her if we could that is true the women said and then a young woman cried out in a most yearnful voice
o tell us you who are wise how can we make ourselves as beautiful as pandora then said that woman who was thought to be wise
are all in that jar that epimetheus brought with her when the woman who was thought to be wise said this
but then one arose and another arose and they stood and whispered together
and that they should take out of it the salves and the charms and the washes that would leave them as beautiful as pandora so the women went to that place on their way they stopped at a pool
and they bent over to see themselves mirrored in it and they saw themselves with dusty and unkempt hair with large and knotted hands with troubled eyes and with anxious mouths they frowned as they looked upon their images
and they said in harsh voices that in a while they would have ways of making themselves as lovely as the golden maid and as they went on they saw pandora she was playing in a flowering field while epimetheus
high as a man upon stilts went gathering the blossoms of the bushes for her they went on and they came at last to the place where epimetheus had left the jar that held pandora's dower a great stone jar it was
there was no bird nor flower nor branch painted upon it it stood high as a woman's shoulder and as the women looked on it they thought that there were things enough in it to keep them beautiful for all the days of their lives
once the lid had been fixed tightly down on the jar but the lid was shifted a little now as the hands of the women grasped it to take off the lid the jar was cast down and the things that were inside spilled themselves forth
they were black and gray and red they were crawling and flying things and as the women looked the things spread themselves abroad or fastened themselves upon them the jar like pandora herself
had been made and filled out of the ill will of zeus and it had been filled not with salves and charms and washes as the women had thought but with cares and troubles
before the women came to it one trouble had already come forth from the jar self thought that was upon the top of the heap it was self thought that had afflicted the women making them troubled about their own looks
and envious of the graces of the golden maid and now the others spread themselves out sickness and war and strife between friends they spread themselves abroad and entered the houses while epimetheus the mindless titan
gathered flowers for pandora the golden maid lest she should weary of her play he called to her he would take her into the houses of men as they drew near to the houses they saw a woman seated on the ground weeping
her husband had suddenly become hard to her and had shut the door on her face they came upon a child crying because of a pain that he could not understand and then they found two men struggling their strife being on account of a possession
in every house they went to epimetheus would say i am the brother of prometheus who gave you the gift of fire but instead of giving them a welcome the men would say we know nothing about your relation to prometheus
we see you as a foolish man upon stilts epimetheus was troubled by the hard looks and the cold words of the men who once had reverenced him he turned from the houses and went away in a quiet place he sat down
that he heard the voice of his wise and suffering brother saying do not accept any gift that zeus may send you he rose up and he hurried away from that place leaving pandora playing by herself
there came into his scattered mind regret and fear as he went on he stumbled he fell from the edge of a cliff and the sea washed away the body of the mindless brother of prometheus
not everything had been spilled out of the jar that had been brought with pandora into the world of men a beautiful living thing was in that jar also this was hope
and this beautiful living thing had got caught under the rim of the jar and had not come forth with the others one day a weeping woman found hope under the rim of pandora's jar and brought this living thing into the house of men
and now because of hope they could see an end to their troubles and the men and women roused themselves in the midst of their afflictions and they looked toward gladness hope
that had been caught under the rim of the jar stayed behind the thresholds of their houses as for pandora the golden maid she played on knowing only the brightness of the sunshine and the lovely shapes of things
beautiful would she have seemed to any being who saw her but now she had strayed away from the houses of men and epimetheus was not there to look upon her then hephaestus the lame artisan of the gods
left down his tools and went to seek her he found pandora and he took her back to olympus and in his brazen house she stays though sometimes at the will of zeus she goes down into the world of men
when polydeuces had ended the story that castor had begun heracles cried out for the argonauts too there has been a golden maid nay not one
but a golden maid for each out of the jar that has been with her ye have taken forgetfulness of your honor as for me i go back to the argo
lest one of these golden maids should hold me back from the labors that make great a man so heracles said
and stood before jason there was a storm in all her body her mouth was shaken and a whole life's trouble was in her great eyes before she spoke jason cried out
what heracles said is true o argonauts on the quest of the golden fleece our lives and our honors depend to colchis
he stood upright in the hall and his comrades gathered around him the lemnian maidens would have held out their arms and would have made their partings long delayed but that a strange cry came to them through the night
well did the argonauts know that cry it was the cry of the ship of argo herself they knew that they must go to her now or stay from the voyage for ever
and the maidens knew that there was something in the cry of the ship that might not be gainsaid and they put their hands before their faces and they said no other word
i too am a ruler jason and i know that there are great commands that we have to obey go then to the argo ah neither i nor the women of lemnos will stay your going now
but to morrow speak to us from the deck of the ship and bid us farewell do not go from us in the night jason
she sat on the throne of king thoas and she had polyxo her nurse tell her of the ways of jason's voyage as he had told of them and of all that he would have to pass through when the other lemnian women slept
she put her head upon her nurse's knees and wept
for she would not have the others hear her weeping by the coming of the morning's light the argonauts had made all ready for their sailing they were standing on the deck when the light came and they saw the lemnian women come to the shore
each looked at her friend aboard the argo and spoke and went away and last
and she in her strange way of speaking said what you told us i have remembered how you will come to the dangerous passage that leads into the sea of pontus
and how by the flight of a pigeon you will know whether or not you may go that way o jason
she showed a pigeon held in her hands she loosed it and the pigeon alighted on the ship and stayed there on pink feet a white feathered pigeon
sleep and rest went from him
the shrine of apollo to be purified of his crime
thou shalt go to eurystheus thy cousin in mycenae and serve him in all things when the labors he shall lay upon thee are accomplished and when the rest of thy life is lived out thou shalt become one of the immortals
heracles on hearing these words set out for mycenae he stood before his cousin who hated him he a towering man stood before a king who sat there weak and trembling and heracles said
i have come to take up the labors that you will lay upon me speak now eurystheus and tell me what you would have me do eurystheus that weak king looking on the young man who stood as tall
and as firm as one of the immortals had a heart that was filled with hatred he lifted up his head and he said with a frown there is a lion in nemea that is stronger and more fierce than any lion known before kill that lion
and bring the lion's skin to me that i may know that you have truly performed your task so eurystheus said and heracles with neither shield nor arms went forth from the king's palace to seek and to combat the dread lion of nemea
he went on until he came into a country where the fences were overthrown and the fields wasted and the houses empty and fallen he went on until he came to the waste around that land
there he came on the trail of the lion it led up the side of a mountain and heracles without shield or arms followed the trail he heard the roar of the lion looking up he saw the beast standing at the mouth of a cavern
huge and dark against the sunset the lion roared three times and then it went within the cavern around the mouth were strewn the bones of creatures it had killed and carried there heracles looked upon them when he came to the cavern
he went within far into the cavern he went and then he came to where he saw the lion it was sleeping heracles viewed the terrible bulk of the lion and then he looked upon his own knotted hands and arms
measuring his strength and the size of the lion the breath from its mouth and nostrils came heavily to him as the beast slept gorged with its prey then the lion yawned heracles sprang on it
and put his great hands upon its throat no growl came out of its mouth but the great eyes blazed while the terrible paws tore at heracles against the rock heracles held the beast strongly he held it choking it through the skin that was almost impenetrable
terribly the lion struggled but the strong hands of the hero held around its throat until it struggled no more then heracles stripped off that impenetrable skin from the lion's body he put it upon himself for a cloak
then as he went through the forest he pulled up a young oak tree and trimmed it and made a club for himself with the lion's skin over him that skin that no spear or arrow could pierce
and carrying the club in his hand he journeyed on until he came to the palace of king eurystheus the king seeing coming toward him a towering man all covered with the hide of a monstrous lion ran and hid himself in a great jar
he would not speak with heracles nor have him come near him so fearful was he but heracles was content to be left alone he sat down in the palace and feasted himself the servants came to the king
he issued commands through his heralds ordering heracles to go forth at once and perform the second of his tasks it was to slay the great water snake that made its lair in the swamps of lerna
heracles stayed to feast another day and then with the lion's skin across his shoulders and the great club in his hands he started off but this time he did not go alone the boy iolaus went with him
heracles and iolaus went on until they came to the vast swamp of lerna right in the middle of the swamp was the water snake that was called the hydra nine heads it had
and it raised them up out of the water as the hero and his companion came near they could not cross the swamp to come to the monster for man or beast would sink and be lost in it the hydra remained in the middle of the swamp
as the hydra came near he knocked head after head off its body but for every head knocked off two grew upon the hydra and as he struggled with the monster a huge crab came out of the swamp
then heracles cried out the boy iolaus came he killed the crab that had come to the hydra's aid then heracles laid hands upon the hydra and drew it out of the swamp with his club he knocked off a head
and he had iolaus put fire to where it had been so that two heads might not grow in that place the life of the hydra was in its middle head that head he had not been able to knock off with his club
heracles dipped his arrows into the gall of the monster making his arrows deadly no thing that was struck by these arrows afterward could keep its life again he came to eurystheus's palace
and eurystheus seeing him ran again and hid himself in the jar
that he had returned and that the second labor was accomplished eurystheus hearing from the servants that heracles was mild in his ways came out of the jar insolently he spoke
but then he remembered that the crime that he had committed in his madness would have to be expiated by labors performed at the order of this man he looked full upon eurystheus and he said tell me of the other labors
and i will go forth from mycenae and accomplish them then eurystheus bade him go and make clean the stables of king augeias heracles came into that king's country
the smell from the stables was felt for miles around countless herds of cattle and goats had been in the stables for years and because of the uncleanness and the smell that came from it the crops were withered all around
heracles told the king that he would clean the stables if he were given one tenth of the cattle and the goats for a reward the king agreed to this reward
and in a day all the uncleanness was washed away then heracles turned the rivers back into their own courses he was not given the reward he had bargained for however
he went back to mycenae with the tale of how he had cleaned the stables ten labors remain for me to do now he said eleven said eurystheus
how can i allow the cleaning of king augeias's stables to you when you bargained for a reward for doing it then while heracles stood still holding himself back from striking him eurystheus ran away and hid himself in the jar
supped with me at these chambers johnson pity is not natural to man children are always cruel savages are always cruel
pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason we may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress without pity for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them
when i am on my way to dine with a friend and finding it late have bid the coachman make haste if i happen to attend when he whips his horses i may feel unpleasantly that the animals are put to pain but i do not wish him to desist
no sir i wish him to drive on mister alexander donaldson bookseller of edinburgh had for some time opened a shop in london and sold his cheap editions of the most popular english books
was at this time very angry that the booksellers of london for whom he uniformly professed much regard
he is a fellow who takes advantage of the law to injure his brethren for notwithstanding that the statute secures only fourteen years of exclusive right
and upon that belief numberless bargains are made to transfer that property after the expiration of the statutory term now donaldson i say takes advantage here
of people who have really an equitable title from usage and if we consider how few of the books of which they buy the property succeed so well as to bring profit we should be of opinion
that the term of fourteen years is too short it should be sixty years dempster
exclusive right of authours should be considerably enlarged he was then for granting a hundred years the conversation now turned upon mister david hume's style
who ought to value only merit johnson if man were a savage living in the woods by himself this might be true but in civilized society we all depend upon each other
and our happiness is very much owing to the good opinion of mankind
pound saint paul's church into atoms and consider any single atom it is to be sure good for nothing but put all these atoms together and you have saint paul's church so it is with human felicity
which is made up of many ingredients each of which may be shewn to be very insignificant in civilized society personal merit will not serve you so much as money will sir you may make the experiment
go into the street and give one man a lecture on morality and another a shilling and see which will respect you most if you wish only to support nature
this sum will fill your belly shelter you from the weather and even get you a strong lasting coat
all beyond this is artificial and is desired in order to obtain a greater degree of respect from our fellow creatures and sir if six hundred pounds a year procure a man more consequence
and of course more happiness than six pounds a year
and so on as far as opulence can be carried perhaps he who has a large fortune may not be so happy as he who has a small one but that must proceed from other causes
for caeteris paribus he who is rich in a civilized society must be happier than he who is poor as riches if properly used and it is a man's own fault if they are not
must be productive of the highest advantages money to be sure of itself is of no use for its only use is to part with it rousseau and all those who deal in paradoxes
because most ingenious things that is to say most new things could be said upon it sir there is nothing for which you may not muster up more plausible arguments
than those which are urged against wealth and other external advantages why now there is stealing why should it be thought a crime
and that what was unjustly got it must be unjust to keep where is the harm in one man's taking the property of another from him besides sir when we consider the bad use that many people make of their property
and how much better use the thief may make of it it may be defended as a very allowable practice yet sir the experience of mankind has discovered stealing to be so very bad a thing
that they make no scruple to hang a man for it when i was running about this town a very poor fellow
but i was at the same time very sorry to be poor sir all the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil shew it to be evidently a great evil
you never find people labouring to convince you
johnson that is an ill founded notion being a king does not exclude a man from such society great kings have always been social
the only great king at present
the last king of england who was a man of parts was social and our henrys and edwards were all social mister dempster having endeavoured to maintain that intrinsick merit
ought to make the only distinction amongst mankind johnson why sir mankind have found that this cannot be how shall we determine the proportion of intrinsick merit
were that to be the only distinction amongst mankind we should soon quarrel about the degrees of it were all distinctions abolished the strongest would not long acquiesce
but would endeavour to obtain a superiority by their bodily strength but sir as subordination is very necessary for society and contensions for superiority very dangerous mankind that is to say
all civilized nations have settled it upon a plain invariable principle
to be sure sir if you were to dine only once and it were never to be known where you dined you would choose rather to dine with the first man for genius but to gain most respect
you should dine with the first duke in england for nine people in ten that you meet with would have a higher opinion of you for having dined with a duke
for he asserted his own independence as a literary man no man said he who ever lived by literature has lived more independently than i have done he said he had taken longer time
he said i have not met with any man for a long time who has given me such general displeasure he is totally unfixed in his principles and wants to puzzle other people
i said his principles had been poisoned by a noted infidel writer but that he was nevertheless a benevolent good man johnson we can have no dependance upon that instinctive
that constitutional goodness which is not founded upon principle i grant you that such a man may be a very amiable member of society i can conceive him placed in such a situation
that he is not much tempted to deviate from what is right and as every man prefers virtue when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts i can conceive him doing nothing wrong
but if such a man stood in need of money i should not like to trust him and i should certainly not trust him with young ladies for there there is always temptation
hume and other sceptical innovators are vain men and will gratify themselves at any expence
so they have betaken themselves to errour truth sir is a cow which will yield such people no more milk
at the expence of truth what fame might i have acquired every thing which hume has advanced against christianity had passed through my mind long before he wrote always remember this
that after a system is well settled upon positive evidence a few partial objections ought not to shake it the human mind is so limited that it cannot take in all the parts of a subject
so that there may be objections raised against any thing there are objections against a plenum
why sir the great difficulty of proving miracles should make us very cautious in believing them but let us consider although god has made nature to operate by certain fixed laws
yet it is not unreasonable to think that he may suspend those laws in order to establish a system highly advantageous to mankind now the christian religion is a most beneficial system
the miracles which prove it are attested by men who had no interest in deceiving us but who on the contrary were told that they should suffer persecution and did actually lay down their lives in confirmation
of the truth of the facts which they asserted indeed for some centuries the heathens did not pretend to deny the miracles but said they were performed by the aid of evil spirits
this is a circumstance of great weight then sir when we take the proofs derived from prophecies which have been so exactly fulfilled we have most satisfactory evidence
supposing a miracle possible as to which in my opinion there can be no doubt we have as strong evidence for the miracles in support of christianity as the nature of the thing admits
said he for the mistress of it is a good civil woman and has not much business sir i love the acquaintance of young people because in the first place i don't like to think myself growing old
in the next place young acquaintances must last longest if they do last and then sir young men have more virtue than old men they have more generous sentiments
they have more wit and humour and knowledge of life than we had but then the dogs are not so good scholars sir in my early years i read very hard it is a sad reflection but a true one
have been known to do and let it be remembered that he was now talking spontaneously
from his spirit of contradiction or more properly from his love of argumentative contest to speak lightly of his own application to study it is pleasing to consider that the old gentleman's gloomy prophecy
as to the irksomeness of books to men of an advanced age which is too often fulfilled was so far from being verified in johnson
he mentioned to me now for the first time that he had been distrest by melancholy and for that reason
against melancholy he recommended constant occupation of mind a great deal of exercise moderation in eating and drinking and especially to shun drinking at night he said melancholy people
were apt to fly to intemperance for relief
i put on a very grave countenance and said to her madam i am now become a convert to your way of thinking i am convinced that all mankind are upon an equal footing and to give you an unquestionable proof madam
here is a very sensible civil well behaved fellow citizen your footman
she has never liked me since sir your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves they would all have some people under them
why not then have some people above them i mentioned a certain authour who disgusted me by his forwardness and by shewing no deference to noblemen
johnson suppose a shoemaker should claim an equality with him as he does with a lord how he would stare why sir do you stare says the shoemaker
i do great service to society tis true i am paid for doing it but so are you sir and i am sorry to say it paid better than i am for doing something not so necessary
for mankind could do better without your books than without my shoes thus sir there would be a perpetual struggle for precedence were there no fixed invariable rules for the distinction of rank
he said doctor joseph warton was a very agreeable man and his essay on the genius and writings of pope a very pleasing book i wondered that he delayed so long to give us
why sir i suppose he finds himself a little disappointed in not having been able to persuade the world to be of his opinion as to pope
but being originally poor he has got a love of mean company and low jocularity a very bad thing sir to laugh is good as to talk is good
but you ought no more to think it enough if you laugh than you are to think it enough if you talk
to a better motive than to vanity for they afford unquestionable evidence of his tenderness and complacency which some while they were forced to acknowledge his great powers have been so strenuous to deny he maintained that a boy at school was
from which i have never yet varied that a man is happier and i enlarged upon the anxiety and sufferings which are endured at school johnson
ah sir a boy's being flogged is not so severe as a man's having the hiss of the world against him
the more afraid they are of losing it i silently asked myself is it possible that the great samuel johnson really entertains any such apprehension
and is not confident that his exalted fame is established upon a foundation never to be shaken
i have said he never heard of him except from you but let him know my opinion of him
further developments bill surname unknown was not one of your ultra scientific fighters he did not favour the american crouch and the artistic feint he had a style wholly his own
and partly on a windmill his head he appeared to be trying to conceal between his shoulders and he whirled his arms alternately in circular sweeps mike on the other hand stood upright and hit straight
with the result that he hurt his knuckles very much on his opponent's skull without seeming to disturb the latter to any great extent in the process he received one of the windmill swings on the left ear
raised a cheer this maddened mike
bill satisfied for the moment with his success had stepped back and was indulging in some fancy sparring when mike sprang upon him like a panther they clinched and mike who had got the under grip hurled bill forcibly against a stout man who looked like a publican
the two fell in a heap bill underneath at the same time bill's friends joined in the first intimation mike had of this was a violent blow across the shoulders with a walking stick even if he had been wearing his overcoat the blow would have hurt
as he was in his jacket it hurt more than anything he had ever experienced in his life he leapt up with a yell but psmith was there before him mike saw his assailant lift the stick again and then collapse as the old etonian's right took him under the chin
he darted to psmith's side this is no place for us observed the latter sadly shift ho i think come on they dashed simultaneously for the spot where the crowd was thinnest the ring which had formed round mike and bill had broken up as the result of the intervention
of bill's allies and at the spot for which they ran only two men were standing and these had apparently made up their minds that neutrality was the best policy for they made no movement to stop them psmith and mike charged through the gap and raced for the road
the suddenness of the move gave them just the start they needed mike looked over his shoulder the crowd to a man seemed to be following bill excavated from beneath the publican led the field lying a good second came a band of three
and after them the rest in a bunch they reached the road in this order some fifty yards down the road was a stationary tram in the ordinary course of things it would probably have moved on long before psmith and mike could have got to it
but the conductor a man with sporting blood in him seeing what appeared to be the finish of some marathon race refrained from giving the signal and moved out into the road to observe events more clearly at the same time calling to the driver who joined him
there was some cheering psmith and mike reached the tram ten yards to the good and if it had been ready to start then all would have been well but bill and his friends had arrived while the driver and conductor were both out in the road
the affair now began to resemble the doings of horatius on the bridge psmith and mike turned to bay on the platform at the foot of the tram steps
psmith descending with a dignity somewhat lessened by the fact that his hat was on the side of his head was in time to engage the runners up
but he was undoubtedly effective nature had given him an enormous reach and a lightness on his feet remarkable in one of his size and at some time in his career he appeared to have learned how to use his hands the first of the three runners the walking stick manipulator
had the misfortune to charge straight into the old etonian's left it was a well timed blow and the force of it added to the speed at which the victim was running sent him on to the pavement where he spun round and sat down in the subsequent proceedings he took no part
one on each side in doing so the one on the left tripped over mike and bill
and fell leaving psmith free to attend to the other he was a tall weedy youth his conspicuous features were a long nose and a light yellow waistcoat psmith hit him on the former with his left and on the latter with his right the long youth emitted a gurgle and collided with bill
bill having received a second blow in the eye during the course of his interview on the road with mike was not feeling himself mistaking the other for an enemy he proceeded to smite him in the parts about the jaw he had just upset him when a stern official voice observed ere now
what's all this there is no more unfailing corrective to a scene of strife than the what's all this of the london policeman bill abandoned his intention of stamping on the prostrate one and the latter sitting up blinked and was silent what's all this asked the policeman again
psmith adjusting his hat at the correct angle again undertook the explanations a distressing scene officer he said a case of that unbridled brawling which is alas but too common in our london streets
fall out over some point probably of the most trivial nature and what happens they brawl they he it me said the long youth dabbing at his face with a handkerchief
who regarded him through his eyeglass with a look in which pity and censure were nicely blended bill meanwhile circling round restlessly in the apparent hope of getting past the law and having another encounter with mike
expressed himself in a stream of language which drew stern reproof from the shocked constable you op it concluded the man in blue that's what you do you op it i should said psmith kindly
a man of taste and discernment he knows what is best his advice is good and should be followed the constable seemed to notice psmith for the first time he turned and stared at him psmith's praise had not had the effect of softening him his look was one of suspicion
and what might you have been up to he inquired coldly this man says you hit him psmith waved the matter aside purely in self defence he said purely in self defence what else could the man of spirit do
a mere tap to discourage an aggressive movement the policeman stood silent weighing matters in the balance he produced a notebook and sucked his pencil
a brainy and admirable step said psmith approvingly this rugged honest man all unused to verbal subtleties shall give us his plain account of what happened after which as i presume this tram little as i know of the habits of trams
has got to go somewhere today i would suggest that we all separated and moved on he took two half crowns from his pocket and began to clink them meditatively together a slight softening of the frigidity of the constable's manner became noticeable
there was a milder beam in the eyes which gazed into psmith's nor did the conductor seem altogether uninfluenced by the sight
seeing as how he'd hung abart long enough when he see'd
he added that when they reached the trem the two gents had got aboard and was then set upon by the blokes
and that's how it was lucidly and excellently put said psmith
comrade jackson i fancy we leave the court without a stain on our characters we win through er constable we have given you a great deal of trouble possibly thank you sir there was a musical clinking now then all of you you op it
get on with that tram conductor psmith and mike settled themselves in a seat on the roof
and asked after his wife and the little ones at home the conductor thanked goodness that he was a bachelor punched the tickets and retired subject for a historical picture said psmith wounded leaving the field after the battle of clapham common
how are your injuries comrade jackson my back's hurting like blazes said mike and my ear's all sore where that chap got me anything the matter with you physically said psmith no spiritually much do you realize comrade jackson the thing that has happened
if this should get about the clubs i tell you comrade jackson no such crisis has ever occurred before in the course of my career you can always get off you know said mike he thinks of everything said psmith admiringly you have touched the spot with an unerring finger
let us descend i observe in the distance a cab that looks to me more the sort of thing we want
sunday supper the cab took them back to the flat at considerable expense and psmith requested mike to make tea a performance in which he himself was interested purely as a spectator
but he never got further than this mike his back throbbing dully from the blow he had received and feeling more than a little sore all over prepared the etna fetched the milk and finally produced the finished article psmith sipped meditatively
how pleasant he said after strife is rest we shouldn't have appreciated this simple cup of tea had our sensibilities remained unstirred this afternoon
mike looked up what you don't mean to say you're going to sweat out to clapham again undoubtedly comrade waller is expecting us to supper what absolute rot we can't fag back there noblesse oblige
the cry has gone round the waller household jackson and psmith are coming to supper and we cannot disappoint them now already the fatted blanc mange has been killed and the table creaks beneath what's left of the midday beef
probably we shall find him in the act of emitting his last breath
not much grinned mike they were too busy with us all right
but it's awful rot one of the many things mike could never understand in psmith was his fondness for getting into atmospheres that were not his own he would go out of his way to do this mike like most boys of his age
was never really happy and at his ease except in the presence of those of his own years and class psmith on the contrary seemed to be bored by them and infinitely preferred talking to somebody who lived in quite another world mike was not a snob
he simply had not the ability to be at his ease with people in another class from his own he did not know what to talk to them about unless they were cricket professionals
but psmith was different he could get on with anyone he seemed to have the gift of entering into their minds and seeing things from their point of view as regarded mister waller mike liked him personally and was prepared as we have seen
to undertake considerable risks in his defence but he loathed with all his heart and soul the idea of supper at his house he knew that he would have nothing to say whereas psmith gave him the impression of looking forward to the thing as a treat
the door was opened to them by their host himself so far from looking battered and emitting last breaths he appeared particularly spruce he had just returned from church and was still wearing his gloves and tall hat he squeaked with surprise when he saw who were standing on the mat
i was afraid those ruffians might have injured you
chivvied interposed psmith with dignified melancholy
we were being chivvied we were legging it with the infuriated mob at our heels an ignominious position for a shropshire psmith but after all napoleon did the same but what happened i could not see
i only know that quite suddenly the people seemed to stop listening to me and all gathered round you and jackson and then i saw that jackson was engaged in a fight with a young man comrade jackson i imagine having heard a great deal about all men being equal was anxious to test the theory
and see whether comrade bill was as good a man as he was the experiment was broken off prematurely but i personally should be inclined to say that comrade jackson had a shade the better of the exchanges
mister waller looked with interest at mike who shuffled and felt awkward he was hoping that psmith would say nothing about the reason of his engaging bill in combat
would be effusive and overpowering and he did not wish to pose as the brave young hero there are moments when one does not feel equal to the role fortunately before mister waller had time to ask any further questions the supper bell sounded and they went into the dining room
sunday supper unless done on a large and informal scale is probably the most depressing meal in existence there is a chill discomfort in the round of beef an icy severity about the open jam tart the blancmange shivers miserably
and so does exhilarating conversation unfortunately at mister waller's table there was neither the cashier's views on temperance were not merely for the platform they extended to the home and the company was not of the exhilarating sort
there were four people present comrade prebble the orator a young man of the name of richards mister waller's niece
who was engaged to mister richards and edward
he was ten years old wore a very tight eton suit and had the peculiarly loathsome expression which a snub nose sometimes gives to the young it would have been plain to the most casual observer that mister waller was fond and proud of his son
the cashier was a widower and after five minutes acquaintance with edward mike felt strongly that missus waller was the lucky one edward sat next to mike and showed a tendency to concentrate his conversation on him
psmith at the opposite end of the table beamed in a fatherly manner upon the pair through his eyeglass mike got on with small girls reasonably well he preferred them at a distance but if cornered by them could put up a fairly good show small boys however filled him with a sort of frozen horror
it was his view that a boy should not be exhibited publicly until he reached an age when he might be in the running for some sort of colours at a public school edward was one of those well informed small boys he opened on mike with the first mouthful
what said mike coldly do you know the principal exports of marseilles i do oh said mike yes do you know the capital of madagascar mike as crimson as the beef he was attacking said he did not i do
oh said mike who was the first king you mustn't worry mister jackson teddy
as who should say there are not many boys of his age i can tell you who could worry you with questions like that
across the dinner table i owe much of my own grasp of i bet you don't know what's the capital of madagascar interrupted mike rudely i do said edward i can tell you the kings of israel he added turning to mike
mike's appeared to fascinate him mike helped himself to beetroot in moody silence his mouth was full when comrade prebble asked him a question
was a good chap but had no roof to his mouth i beg your pardon said mike comrade prebble repeated his observation mike looked helplessly at psmith but psmith's eyes were on his plate mike felt he must venture on some answer no he said decidedly
comrade prebble seemed slightly taken aback there was an awkward pause then mister waller for whom his fellow socialist's methods of conversation held no mysteries interpreted the mustard prebble yes yes would you mind passing prebble the mustard mister jackson
oh sorry gasped mike and reaching out upset the water jug into the open jam tart through the black mist which rose before his eyes as he leaped to his feet and stammered apologies came the dispassionate voice of master edward waller
reminding him that mustard was first introduced into peru by cortez his host was all courtesy and consideration he passed the matter off genially
at the table of a comparative stranger mike's nerve had gone he ate on but he was a broken man at the other end of the table it became gradually apparent that things were not going on altogether as they should have done there was a sort of bleakness in the atmosphere
young mister richards was looking like a stuffed fish and the face of mister waller's niece was cold and set why come come ada said mister waller breezily
what's george been saying to you he added jocularly
there's nothing the matter nothing that mister richards can say to me can upset me mister richards echoed mister waller in astonishment how was he to know that during the walk back from church the world had been transformed george had become mister richards and all was over
i assure you ada began that unfortunate young man ada turned a frigid shoulder towards him come come said mister waller disturbed what's all this what's all this his niece burst into tears and left the room
we have yet to hear of it mike scarlet to the extreme edges of his ears concentrated himself on his plate comrade prebble made a great many remarks which were probably illuminating if they could have been understood mister waller looked astonished at mister richards
mister richards pink but dogged loosened his collar but said nothing psmith leaning forward asked master edward waller his opinion on the licensing bill we happened to have a word or two said mister richards at length
on the way home from church on the subject of women's suffrage that fatal topic murmured psmith in australia began master edward waller i was rayther well rayther facetious about it continued mister richards psmith clicked his tongue sympathetically
i went talking on laughing and joking when all of a sudden she flew out at me
how very disturbing said mister waller
she in australia said edward in even tones they've got women's suffrage already did you know that he said to mike mike made no answer his eyes were fixed on his plate a bead of perspiration began to roll down his forehead
if his feelings could have been ascertained at that moment
death where is thy sting
psmith makes a discovery women said psmith helping himself to trifle and speaking with the air of one launched upon his special subject are one must recollect like
passing on lightly from that conclusion let us turn for a moment to the rights of property in connection with which comrade prebble and yourself had so much that was interesting to say this afternoon
he bowed in comrade prebble's direction
but earnest your very lucid comrade prebble beamed and took the floor mike began to realize that till now he had never known what boredom meant there had been moments in his life which had been less interesting than other moments
but nothing to touch this for agony comrade prebble's address streamed on like water rushing over a weir every now and then there was a word or two which was recognizable but this happened so rarely that it amounted to little
sometimes mister waller would interject a remark but not often he seemed to be of the opinion that comrade prebble's was the master mind and that to add anything to his views would be in the nature of painting the lily and gilding the refined gold mike himself said nothing
psmith and edward were equally silent the former sat like one in a trance thinking his own thoughts while edward who prospecting on the sideboard
after about twenty minutes during which mike's discomfort changed to a dull resignation mister waller suggested a move to the drawing room where ada he said would play some hymns the prospect did not dazzle mike but any change he thought must be for the better
that it had begun to hypnotize him also the move had the excellent result of eliminating the snub nosed edward who was sent to bed his last words were in the form of a question addressed to mike on the subject of the hypotenuse and the square upon the same
at our flat one day i may not be in myself i have many duties which keep me away but comrade jackson is sure to be there and will be delighted to chat with him on the way upstairs mike tried to get psmith to himself for a moment to suggest the advisability of an early departure
but psmith was in close conversation with his host mike was left to comrade prebble who apparently had only touched the fringe of his subject in his lecture in the dining room when mister waller had predicted hymns in the drawing room he had been too sanguine or too pessimistic
of ada when they arrived there were no signs it seemed that she had gone straight to bed young mister richards was sitting on the sofa moodily turning the leaves of a photograph album which contained portraits of master edward waller in geometrically progressing degrees of repulsiveness
here in frocks looking like a gargoyle there in sailor suit looking like nothing on earth the inspection of these was obviously deepening mister richards gloom but he proceeded doggedly with it comrade prebble backed the reluctant mike into a corner
and like the ancient mariner held him with a glittering eye psmith and mister waller in the opposite corner were looking at something with their heads close together mike definitely abandoned all hope of a rescue from psmith and tried to buoy himself up with the reflection
that this could not last for ever hours seemed to pass and then at last he heard psmith's voice saying good bye to his host he sprang to his feet comrade prebble was in the middle of a sentence but this was no time for polished courtesy
he felt that he must get away and at once i fear psmith was saying that we must tear ourselves away we have greatly enjoyed our evening you must look us up at our flat one day and bring comrade prebble if i am not in comrade jackson is certain to be
and he will be more than delighted to hear comrade prebble speak further on the subject of which he is such a master comrade prebble was understood to say that he would certainly come mister waller beamed mister richards still steeped in gloom shook hands in silence
out in the road with the front door shut behind them mike spoke his mind look here smith he said definitely
you can jolly well accept my resignation
mike laughed one of those short hollow bitter laughs i am at a loss comrade jackson said psmith to understand your attitude you fed sumptuously you had fun with the crockery that knockabout act of yours with the water jug was alone worth the money
and you had the advantage of listening to the views of a master of his subject what more do you want what on earth did you land me with that man prebble for land you why you courted his society i had practically to drag you away from him
when i got up to say good bye you were listening to him with bulging eyes
do you mean to tell me comrade jackson that your appearance belied you that you were not interested well well how we misread our fellow creatures
it was a bit thick i was too absorbed with comrade waller we were talking of things of vital moment however the night is yet young we will take this cab wend our way to the west seek a cafe and cheer ourselves with light refreshments
arrived at a cafe whose window appeared to be a sort of museum of every kind of german sausage they took possession of a vacant table and ordered coffee mike soon found himself soothed by his bright surroundings and gradually his impressions of blancmange
edward and comrade prebble faded from his mind psmith meanwhile was preserving an unusual silence being deep in a large square book of the sort in which press cuttings are pasted as psmith scanned its contents a curious smile lit up his face
his reflections seemed to be of an agreeable nature hullo said mike
where did you get that comrade waller very kindly lent it to me he showed it to me after supper knowing how enthusiastically i was attached to the cause had you been less tensely wrapped up in comrade prebble's conversation
however you now have your opportunity
it is the record of the meetings of the tulse hill parliament said psmith impressively a faithful record of all they said all the votes of confidence they passed in the government and also all the nasty knocks they gave it from time to time what on earth's the tulse hill parliament
it is alas said psmith in a grave sad voice no more in life it was beautiful but now it has done the tom bowling act it has gone aloft we are dealing comrade jackson not with the live vivid present but with the far off rusty past
and yet in a way there is a touch of the live vivid present mixed up in it i don't know what the dickens you're talking about said mike let's have a look anyway psmith handed him the volume and leaning back sipped his coffee and watched him
at first mike's face was bored and blank but suddenly an interested look came into it aha said psmith who's bickersdyke anything to do with our bickersdyke no other than our genial friend himself mike turned the pages reading a line or two on each
he lets himself go a bit doesn't he he does acknowledged psmith a fiery passionate nature that of comrade bickersdyke he's simply cursing the government here giving them frightful beans psmith nodded i noticed the fact myself but what's it all about
as far as i can glean from comrade waller said psmith about twenty years ago when he and comrade bickersdyke worked hand in hand as fellow clerks at the new asiatic they were both members of the tulse hill parliament that powerful institution
at that time comrade bickersdyke was as fruity a socialist as comrade waller is now only apparently as he began to get on a bit in the world he altered his views to some extent as regards the iniquity of freezing on to a decent share of the doubloons
and that you see is where the dim and rusty past begins to get mixed up with the live vivid present if any tactless person were to publish those very able speeches made by comrade bickersdyke when a bulwark of the tulse hill parliament
our revered chief would be more or less caught bending if i may employ the expression as regards his chances of getting in as unionist candidate at kenningford
from what i have seen of their rather acute sense of humour
you aren't going to i shall do nothing rashly i shall merely place this handsome volume among my treasured books i shall add it to my books that have helped me series because i fancy that in an emergency it may not be at all a bad thing to have about me
once upon a time so long ago that i have quite forgotten the date there lived a king and queen who had no children and the king said to himself all the queens of my acquaintance have children some three some seven
and some as many as twelve and my queen has not one i feel ill used
but the queen pretended to take it all as a joke and a very good one too
this however was an affair of state the queen smiled
she was indeed a very nice queen and heartily sorry that she could not oblige the king immediately the king tried to have patience but he succeeded very badly it was more than he deserved therefore
when at last the queen gave him a daughter as lovely a little princess as ever cried
won't i just the day drew near when the infant must be christened the king wrote all the invitations with his own hand of course somebody was forgotten now it does not generally matter if somebody is forgotten
only you must mind who unfortunately the king forgot without intending to forget and so the chance fell upon the princess makemnoit which was awkward for the princess was the king's own sister
but she had made herself so disagreeable to the old king their father that he had forgotten her in making his will and so it was no wonder that her brother forgot her in writing his invitations
but poor relations don't do anything to keep you in mind of them why don't they the king could not see into the garret she lived in could he she was a sour spiteful creature the wrinkles of contempt crossed the wrinkles of peevishness
and made her face as full of wrinkles as a pat of butter if ever a king could be justified in forgetting anybody this king was justified in forgetting his sister even at a christening she looked very odd too her forehead was as large
as all the rest of her face and projected over it like a precipice when she was angry her little eyes flashed blue when she hated anybody they shone yellow and green what they looked like when she loved anybody i do not know
if she had not somehow got used to herself but what made it highly imprudent in the king to forget her was that she was awfully clever in fact she was a witch and when she bewitched anybody he very soon had enough of it
for she beat all the wicked fairies in wickedness and all the clever ones in cleverness she despised all the modes we read of in history in which offended fairies and witches have taken their revenges and therefore
after waiting and waiting in vain for an invitation she made up her mind at last to go without one and make the whole family miserable like a princess as she was so she put on her best gown went to the palace
was kindly received by the happy monarch who forgot that he had forgotten her and took her place in the procession to the royal chapel when they were all gathered about the font she contrived to get next to it and throw something into the water after which
till the water was applied to the child's face but at that moment she turned round in her place three times and muttered the following words loud enough for those beside her to hear light of spirit by my charms
light of body every part never weary human arms only crush thy parents heart they all thought she had lost her wits and was repeating some foolish nursery rhyme
but a shudder went through the whole of them notwithstanding the baby on the contrary began to laugh and crow while the nurse gave a start and a smothered cry for she thought she was struck with paralysis
she could not feel the baby in her arms but she clasped it tight and said nothing the mischief was done
she can't be ours her atrocious aunt had deprived the child of all her gravity if you ask me how this was effected i answer in the easiest way in the world she had only to destroy gravitation
for the princess was a philosopher and knew all the ins and outs of the laws of gravitation as well as the ins and outs of her boot lace and being a witch as well she could abrogate those laws in a moment or at least so clog their wheels
and rust their bearings that they would not work at all but we have more to do with what followed than with how it was done the first awkwardness that resulted from this unhappy privation was that the moment the nurse began to float the baby up and down
she flew from her arms towards the ceiling happily the resistance of the air brought her ascending career to a close within a foot of it there she remained horizontal as when she left her nurse's arms kicking and laughing amazingly
the nurse in terror flew to the bell and begged the footman who answered it to bring up the house steps directly trembling in every limb she climbed upon the steps and had to stand upon the very top and reach up
before she could catch the floating tail of the baby's long clothes
the occasion of its discovery by the king was naturally a repetition of the nurse's experience astonished that he felt no weight when the child was laid in his arms he began to wave her up and not down
for she slowly ascended to the ceiling as before and there remained floating in perfect comfort and satisfaction as was testified by her peals of tiny laughter the king stood staring up in speechless amazement
and trembled so that his beard shook like grass in the wind at last turning to the queen
staring and stammering she can't be ours queen now the queen was much cleverer than the king and had begun already to suspect that this effect defective came by cause i am sure she is ours answered she
people who were never invited ought not to have been present
tapping his forehead with his forefinger i have it all i've found her out don't you see it queen princess makemnoit has bewitched her that's just what i say answered the queen i beg your pardon my love i did not hear you
john bring the steps i get on my throne with for he was a little king with a great throne like many other kings
one fine summer day a month after these her first adventures during which time she had been very carefully watched the princess was lying on the bed in the queen's own chamber fast asleep one of the windows was open
for it was noon and the day was so sultry that the little girl was wrapped in nothing less ethereal than slumber itself the queen came into the room and not observing that the baby was on the bed opened another window
a frolicsome fairy wind which had been watching for a chance of mischief rushed in at the one window and taking its way over the bed where the child was lying caught her up and rolling and floating her along
like a piece of flue or a dandelion seed carried her with it through the opposite window and away the queen went down stairs quite ignorant of the loss she had herself occasioned when the nurse returned
she supposed that her majesty had carried her off and dreading a scolding delayed making inquiry about her but hearing nothing she grew uneasy and went at length to the queen's boudoir where she found her majesty
please your majesty shall i take the baby said she where is she asked the queen please forgive me i know it was wrong what do you mean said the queen looking grave oh don't frighten me your majesty exclaimed the nurse
clasping her hands the queen saw that something was amiss and fell down in a faint the nurse rushed about the palace screaming my baby my baby every one ran to the queen's room but the queen could give no orders
they soon found out however that the princess was missing and in a moment the palace was like a beehive in a garden and in one minute more the queen was brought to herself by a great shout and a clapping of hands
they had found the princess fast asleep under a rose bush
there was positively no danger of letting her fall they might throw her down or knock her down or push her down but they couldn't let her down it is true they might let her fly into the fire or the coal hole or through the window
but none of these accidents had happened as yet if you heard peals of laughter resounding from some unknown region you might be sure enough of the cause going down into the kitchen or the room
all and sum playing at ball with the little princess she was the ball herself
away she went flying from one to another screeching with laughter and the servants loved the ball itself
but they had to take some care how they threw her for if she received an upward direction she would never come down again without being fetched
what is to be done but above stairs it was different one day for instance after breakfast the king went into his counting house and counted out his money the operation gave him no pleasure to think
said he to himself that every one of these gold sovereigns weighs a quarter of an ounce and my real live flesh and blood princess weighs nothing at all and he hated his gold sovereigns
as they lay with a broad smile of self satisfaction all over their yellow faces the queen was in the parlour eating bread and honey but at the second mouthful she burst out crying and could not swallow it the king heard her sobbing
glad of anybody but especially of his queen to quarrel with he clashed his gold sovereigns into his money box clapped his crown on his head and rushed into the parlour what is all this about exclaimed he what are you crying for queen
i can't eat it said the queen looking ruefully at the honey pot no wonder retorted the king you've just eaten your breakfast
oh that's not it sobbed her majesty it's my child my child well what's the matter with your child she's neither up the chimney nor down the draw well just hear her laughing yet the king could not help a sigh
which he tried to turn into a cough saying it is a good thing to be light hearted i am sure whether she be ours or not it is a bad thing to be light headed answered the queen looking with prophetic soul far into the future
said the king t is a bad thing to be light fingered answered the queen
said the king t is a bad thing began the queen but the king interrupted her
and in which therefore he has come off triumphant in fact it is a good thing altogether to be light bodied but it is a bad thing altogether to be light minded retorted the queen who was beginning to lose her temper
this last answer quite discomfited his majesty who turned on his heel and betook himself to his counting house again
the queen's hair was black as night and the king's had been and his daughter's was golden as morning but it was not this reflection on his hair that arrested him it was the double use of the word light
for the king hated all witticisms and punning especially and besides he could not tell whether the queen meant light haired or light heired for why might she not aspirate her vowels when she was exasperated herself
he turned upon his other heel and rejoined her she looked angry still because she knew that she was guilty or what was much the same knew that he thought so
not to say kings and queens and the most objectionable form duplicity can assume is that of punning there said the queen i never made a jest but i broke it in the making i am the most
unfortunate woman in the world she looked so rueful that the king took her in his arms and they sat down to consult can you bear this said the king no i can't said the queen
well what's to be done said the king i'm sure i don't know said the queen but might you not try an apology to my old sister i suppose you mean said the king yes said the queen well i don't mind
said the king so he went the next morning to the house of the princess and making a very humble apology begged her to undo the spell but the princess declared with a grave face that she knew nothing at all about it her eyes however
shone pink which was a sign that she was happy she advised the king and queen to have patience and to mend their ways the king returned disconsolate the queen tried to comfort him we will wait till she is older
and explain things to us but what if she should marry exclaimed the king in sudden consternation at the idea well what of that rejoined the queen just think if she were to have children in the course of a hundred years
the air might be as full of floating children as of gossamers in autumn that is no business of ours replied the queen besides by that time they will have learned to take care of themselves a sigh was the king's only answer
he would have consulted the court physicians but he was afraid they would try experiments upon her
meantime notwithstanding awkward occurrences and griefs that she brought upon her parents the little princess laughed and grew not fat but plump and tall
without having fallen into any worse scrape than a chimney by rescuing her from which a little bird nesting urchin got fame and a black face nor thoughtless as she was
when she was told for the sake of experiment
she laughed when she heard that the enemy was on his way to besiege her father's capital she laughed hugely but when she was told that the city would certainly be abandoned to the mercy of the enemy's soldiery why then she laughed immoderately
she never could be brought to see the serious side of anything when her mother cried she said what queer faces mamma makes and she squeezes water out of her cheeks funny mamma and when her papa stormed at her
she laughed and danced round and round him clapping her hands and crying do it again papa do it again it's such fun dear funny papa and if he tried to catch her she glided from him in an instant
not in the least afraid of him but thinking it part of the game not to be caught with one push of her foot she would be floating in the air above his head or she would go dancing backwards and forwards and sideways like a great butterfly
it happened several times when her father and mother were holding a consultation about her in private that they were interrupted by vainly repressed outbursts of laughter over their heads and looking up with indignation
saw her floating at full length in the air above them whence she regarded them with the most comical appreciation of the position one day an awkward accident happened the princess had come out upon the lawn with one of her attendants
who held her by the hand spying her father at the other side of the lawn she snatched her hand from the maid's and sped across to him now when she wanted to run alone
whatever she wore as part of her attire had no effect in this way
lost all its weight for the time but whatever she only held in her hands retained its downward tendency on this occasion she could see nothing to catch up but a huge toad that was walking across the lawn
as if he had a hundred years to do it in not knowing what disgust meant for this was one of her peculiarities she snatched up the toad and bounded away she had almost reached her father and he was holding out his arms to receive her
and take from her lips the kiss which hovered on them like a butterfly on a rosebud when a puff of wind blew her aside into the arms of a young page who had just been receiving a message from his majesty
now it was no great peculiarity in the princess that once she was set agoing it always cost her time and trouble to check herself on this occasion there was no time she must kiss and she kissed the page she did not mind it much
for she had no shyness in her composition and she knew besides that she could not help it so she only laughed like a musical box the poor page fared the worst for the princess trying to correct the unfortunate tendency of the kiss
put out her hands to keep off the page so that along with the kiss he received on the other cheek a slap with the huge black toad which she poked right into his eye he tried to laugh too
but the attempt resulted in such an odd contortion of countenance as showed that there was no danger of his pluming himself on the kiss as for the king his dignity was greatly hurt
and he did not speak to the page for a whole month i may here remark that it was very amusing to see her run if her mode of progression could properly be called running
these people or their leader
that officer took colbert on one side in spite of his resistance and the contradiction of his bushy eyebrows in case said he
indeed monsieur in spite of our regret at displeasing you or thwarting your views
triple fool replied colbert furiously shaking his hair thick and black as a mane what are you telling me
are you mad or drunk but monsieur they cried vive colbert replied the trembling watch a handful of conspirators no no a mass of people
ah indeed said colbert expanding a mass of people cried vive colbert
so terrible were the cries and this was from the people the real people certainly monsieur only these real people beat us oh very well continued colbert
thoughtfully then you suppose it was the people alone who wished to burn the condemned oh yes monsieur that is quite another thing you strongly resisted then
but you killed nobody yourselves monsieur a few of the rioters were left upon the square and one among them who was not a common man who was he
a worthy man who wanted a fat fowl yes monsieur the same
louder than all the rest like a madman colbert's brow grew dark and wrinkled a kind of ambitious glory which had lighted his face was extinguished like the light of glow worms we crush beneath the grass
then you say resumed the deceived intendant that the initiative came from the people
the affair originated with fouquet does not everybody know that the condemned were his friends from childhood that is true thought d'artagnan and thus are all my doubts cleared up i repeat it
monsieur fouquet may be called what they please but he is a very gentlemanly man
perfectly monsieur replied he advancing suddenly oh is that you monsieur said colbert in person
double brute thought d'artagnan to think to play the great man and the hypocrite with me well continued he to colbert
will you take upon you to tell his majesty monsieur l'intendant what commission is this you give me and what do you charge me to tell his majesty monsieur be precise if you please said colbert in a sharp voice
i give you no commission replied d'artagnan with that calmness which never abandons the banterer
ah it is very true said the latter that this gentleman saved us why did you not tell me monsieur that you came to relate me this said colbert with envy
everything is explained and more favorably for you than for anybody else
it is an exploit nevertheless
constant habit blunts the mind
simply to this the king ordered me to come to you ah said colbert recovering himself when he saw d'artagnan draw a paper from his pocket it is to demand some money of me precisely monsieur
till i have dispatched the report of the watch d'artagnan turned upon his heel insolently enough and finding himself face to face with colbert after his first turn he bowed to him as a harlequin would have done then
he directed his steps towards the door in quick time colbert was struck with this pointed rudeness to which he was not accustomed
had such a want of money that though their feet seemed to take root in the marble they hardly lost their patience was d'artagnan going straight to the king would he go and describe his rough reception or recount his exploit
this was a matter for grave consideration at all events the moment was badly chosen to send d'artagnan away
for it to be already forgotten therefore colbert thought it would be better to shake off his arrogance and call d'artagnan back
cried colbert what are you leaving me thus d'artagnan turned round why not said he quietly we have no more to say to each other have we
you have at least money to receive as you have an order
and in the same manner as you give a sword thrust when you are required i on my part pay when an order is presented to me present yours it is useless my dear monsieur colbert
my order is paid paid by whom
colbert grew pale
said he in a stifled voice if you are paid why do you show me that paper in consequence of the word of order
of me said colbert not exactly the king said to me
but it was with his unfortunate physiognomy as with a stormy sky sometimes radiant sometimes dark as night according as the lightening gleams or the cloud passes
asked he why yes
replied d'artagnan it may be believed
cried colbert struck as fouquet had been
said colbert with a vicious smile oh said d'artagnan the king apologized for giving me so little but he promised to make it more hereafter when he should be rich
so then notwithstanding the expectation of the king the superintendent paid you did he in the same manner as in opposition to the king's expectation you refused to pay me
i did not refuse monsieur i only begged you to wait
yes as you might have done
and what did he do he politely counted me down the sum total saying that for the king his coffers were always full the sum total
yes monsieur and what for
in good new coin you see then that i am able to go away without standing in need of you having come here only for form's sake and d'artagnan slapped his hand upon his pocket with a laugh which disclosed to colbert thirty two magnificent teeth
as white as teeth of twenty five years old and which seemed to say in their language serve up to us thirty two little colberts and we will chew them willingly the serpent is as brave as the lion
the hawk as courageous as the eagle that cannot be contested
and are so called that they will be brave only when they have to defend themselves colbert was not frightened at the thirty two teeth of d'artagnan he recovered and suddenly monsieur said he
monsieur le surintendant has done what he had no right to do what do you mean by that replied d'artagnan i mean that your note will you let me see your note if you please very willingly here it is
without uneasiness and particularly without a certain degree of regret at having trusted him with it well monsieur the royal order says thus
forming a quarter of the pension i have made him so in fact it is written said d'artagnan affecting calmness very well
why has more been given to you because there was more and m fouquet was willing to give me more that does not concern anybody
that you should be ignorant of the usages of state finance
i never have a thousand livres to pay replied d'artagnan once more said colbert irritated once more if you had any sum to pay
that only proves one thing said d'artagnan and that is that you have your own particular customs in finance
mine monsieur are the correct ones i do not say that they are not and you have accepted what was not due to you d'artagnan's eyes flashed
colbert made no reply to this subtlety
said he carried away by his jealous ardor then you must give me credit for them replied d'artagnan with his imperceptible irony
well what will you do then
you must return them to my chest
the king wants his money monsieur and i monsieur i want the king's money that may be so but you must return this not a sou
comptabilite as you call it a good cashier never gives back or takes back then monsieur we shall see what the king will say about it
but that he does not even take care of vouchers for the sums that he has paid
colbert did not perceive all that there was of a threatening character in his name pronounced in a certain manner you shall see hereafter what use i will make of it
snatching the paper from him with a rapid movement
i have no occasion to wait for that
cried colbert this is violence nonsense you must not be particular about a soldier's manners replied d'artagnan
and he went out laughing in the face of the future minister that man now muttered he
there his friends were assembled in full chat
and was endeavoring to do the honors of the house in his absence upon the arrival of the superintendent a murmur of joy and affection was heard fouquet full of affability good humor and munificence
his brow upon which his little court read as upon that of a god all the movements of his soul and thence drew rules of conduct his brow upon which affairs of state never impressed a wrinkle was this evening
paler than usual and more than one friendly eye remarked that pallor fouquet placed himself at the head of the table and presided gayly during supper he recounted vatel's expedition to la fontaine
in such a manner that all the table heard it a tempest of laughter and jokes ensued which was only checked by a serious and even sad gesture from pelisson
or in that of his brother an explanation which nothing afforded him pelisson took up the matter
said he why not replied fouquet if true as it is said to be that the king has made him his intendant scarcely had fouquet uttered these words with a marked intention
than an explosion broke forth among the guests the miser said one the mean pitiful fellow said another the hypocrite said a third pelisson exchanged a meaning look with fouquet messieurs
said he in truth we are abusing a man whom no one knows it is neither charitable nor reasonable and here is monsieur le surintendant who i am sure agrees with me entirely replied fouquet
our business to day is with the faisans truffes
this speech stopped the dark cloud which was beginning to throw its shade over the guests
the abbe intelligent as a man who stands in need of his host's money so enlivened the financiers and the men of the sword that amidst the vapors of this joy and the noise of conversation inquietudes disappeared completely
was the text of the conversation at the second course and dessert
adjoining the gallery he led the way thither conducting by the hand a lady the queen by his preference of the evening the musicians then supped
and flower scented pelisson then approached the superintendent and said something troubles monseigneur greatly replied the minister
pelisson on turning round found la fontaine treading upon his heels he was obliged to listen to a latin verse which the poet had composed upon vatel la fontaine had for an hour
been scanning this verse in all corners
advantageously he thought he had caught pelisson
he turned towards sorel who had himself just composed a quatrain in honor of the supper and the amphytrion
perceived that the poet absent minded as usual was about to follow the two talkers and he interposed la fontaine seized upon him and recited his verses the abbe who was quite innocent of latin nodded his head
in cadence at every roll which la fontaine impressed upon his body according to the undulations of the dactyls and spondees while this was going on behind the confiture basins
said pelisson to gourville whilst we converse here so be it
the major part of the beaux the ladies and the chatterers whilst the men walked in the gallery lighted by three hundred wax lights in the sight of all the admirers of fireworks all ran away towards the garden
and said monsieur we are here all said fouquet yes count the superintendent counted there were eight persons
as if conversing upon vague and frivolous subjects sorel and two officers imitated them and in an opposite direction the abbe fouquet walked alone
messieurs said he let no one of you raise his head as he walks or appear to pay attention to me continue walking we are alone listen to me a perfect silence ensued
disturbed only by the distant cries of the joyous guests from the groves
as if each one was occupied about something whilst lending attention really only to one amongst them who himself
messieurs said fouquet you have without doubt
who were with us on wednesday for god's sake abbe do not stop it is not necessary to enable you to listen walk on carrying your head in a natural way
give us notice by coughing
i have not observed their absence said pelisson who at this moment was turning his back to fouquet and walking the other way
who pays me my pension and i
who owes me eleven hundred livres from our last game of brelan sorel continued fouquet walking bent and gloomily
for both are doomed to die to die exclaimed the whole assembly arrested in spite of themselves in the comedy they were playing by that terrible word recover yourselves messieurs said fouquet
for perhaps we are watched i said to die to die repeated pelisson what the men i saw six days ago full of health gayety and the spirit of the future
good god that disease should thus bring him down all at once it is not a disease said fouquet then there is a remedy said sorel no remedy
of what are these gentlemen dying then asked an officer ask of him who kills them replied fouquet who kills them are they being killed then cried the terrified chorus
they do better still they are hanging them murmured fouquet in a sinister voice
in that rich gallery splendid with pictures flowers velvet and gold involuntarily every one stopped the abbe quitted his window the first fuses of the fireworks began to mount above the trees
a prolonged cry from the gardens attracted the superintendent to enjoy the spectacle he drew near to a window and his friends placed themselves behind him
messieurs said he
tried and will execute my two friends what does it become me to do mordieu exclaimed the abbe the first one to speak
monseigneur said pelisson you must speak to his majesty the king my dear pelisson himself signed the order for the execution
impossible said gourville unless we could corrupt the jailers or the governor said fouquet this night the prisoners might be allowed to escape which of you will take charge of the transaction
i said the abbe will carry the money and i said pelisson will be the bearer of the words words and money said fouquet
that is sufficient nevertheless it shall be a million if necessary a million cried the abbe why for less than half i would have half paris sacked
the governor being gained the two prisoners escape once clear of the fangs of the law they will call together the enemies of colbert and prove to the king that his young justice like all other monstrosities is not infallible
go to paris then pelisson said fouquet and bring hither the two victims to morrow we shall see
take care the wind does not carry you away said the abbe what a responsibility peste let me help you a little silence said fouquet somebody is coming
ah the fireworks are producing a magical effect at this moment a shower of sparks fell rustling among the branches of the neighboring trees
was a frightful one the heads
extended afar thick and agitated as the ears of corn in a vast plain from time to time a fresh report or a distant rumor made the heads oscillate and thousands of eyes flash
now and then there were great movements all those ears of corn bent and became waves more agitated than those of the ocean which rolled from the extremities to the center and beat like the tides
then the handles of the halberds were let fall upon the heads and shoulders of the rash invaders at times also
a large empty circle was formed around the guard a space conquered upon the extremities which underwent in their turn the oppression of the sudden movement which drove them against the parapets of the seine from the window
that commanded a view of the whole place d'artagnan saw with interior satisfaction that such of the musketeers and guards as found themselves involved in the crowd were able
to keep room he even remarked that they had succeeded by that esprit de corps which doubles the strength of the soldier in getting together in one group to the amount of about fifty men and that
the nucleus was complete and within reach of his voice but it was not the musketeers and guards that drew the attention of d'artagnan around the gibbets and particularly at the entrances to the arcade of saint jean moved a noisy mass a busy mass
daring faces resolute demeanors were to be seen here and there mingled with silly faces and indifferent demeanors signals were exchanged hands given and taken d'artagnan remarked among the groups
and those groups the most animated the face of the cavalier whom he had seen enter by the door of communication from his garden and who had gone upstairs to harangue the drinkers that man was organizing troops and giving orders
mordioux said d'artagnan to himself i was not deceived i know that man
devil is he doing here a distant murmur which became more distinct by degrees
and drew his attention another way this murmur was occasioned by the arrival of the culprits a strong picket of archers preceded them
the entire crowd now joined as if in one cry all the cries united formed one immense howl d'artagnan saw raoul was becoming pale
the fire keepers turned round on hearing the great cry
the condemned are arrived said d'artagnan that's well replied they again replenishing the fire d'artagnan looked at them with much uneasiness it was evident that these men who were making such a fire for no apparent purpose
had some strange intentions the condemned appeared upon the place they were walking the executioner before them whilst fifty archers formed a hedge on their right and their left both were dressed in black they appeared pale but firm
d'artagnan remarked this mordioux cried he
raoul drew back without however having the power to leave the window terror even has its attractions to the death to the death cried fifty thousand voices
yes to the death howled a hundred frantic others as if the great mass had given them the reply to the halter to the halter cried the great whole
well said d'artagnan this is droll
there was at this moment a great rolling movement in the crowd which stopped for a moment the march of the condemned the people of a bold and resolute mien whom d'artagnan had observed by dint of pressing pushing
and lifting themselves up had succeeded in almost touching the hedge of archers the cortege resumed its march all at once to cries of vive colbert those men of whom d'artagnan never lost sight fell upon the escort
which in vain endeavored to stand against them behind these men was the crowd then commenced amidst a frightful tumult as frightful a confusion this time there was something more than cries of expectation or cries of joy
there were cries of pain halberds struck men down swords ran through them muskets were discharged at them the confusion became then so great that d'artagnan could no longer distinguish anything then from this chaos
suddenly surged something like a visible intention like a will pronounced the condemned had been torn from the hands of the guards
the people hesitated not knowing which they ought to fall upon the archers or the aggressors what stopped the people was that those who cried vive colbert began to cry at the same time no halter no halter
to the fire to the fire burn the thieves burn the extortioners this cry
the populace had come to witness an execution
crying with the minority which had become thanks to them the most compact majority yes yes to the fire with the thieves vive colbert mordioux exclaimed d'artagnan this begins to look serious
one of the men who remained near the chimney approached the window a firebrand in his hand ah ah said he it gets warm
there is the signal added he and he immediately applied the burning brand to the wainscoting now
did not require much entreating to take fire in a second the boards began to crackle
hola cried he turning round is the fire here are you drunk or mad my masters the two men looked at each other with an air of astonishment in what asked they of d'artagnan was it not a thing agreed upon
a thing agreed upon that you should burn my house vociferated d'artagnan snatching the brand from the hand of the incendiary
whilst d'artagnan pushed his man down the stairs
the disorder was at its height the air was filled with simultaneous cries of to the fire to the death to the halter to the stake
the group which had forced the culprits from the hands of the archers
which appeared to be the goal towards which they dragged them
they wanted to burn the condemned and his house was to serve as a funeral pile halt there cried he sword in hand
to the fire to the fire with the thieves vive colbert these cries exasperated d'artagnan mordioux said he what burn the poor devils who are only condemned to be hung that is infamous
before the door however the mass of anxious spectators rolled back against the walls had become more thick and closed up the way
were within ten paces of the door
passage passage cried he pistol in hand burn them burn them repeated the crowd the image de notre dame is on fire burn the thieves
it was plainly d'artagnan's house that was their object d'artagnan remembered the old cry always so effective from his mouth a moi mousquetaires shouted he with the voice of a giant
with one of those voices which dominate over cannon the sea the tempest
and suspending himself by the arm from the balcony
which began to draw back form a house that rained men raoul was on the ground as soon as he both sword in hand
all turned round at that cry and recognized d'artagnan to the captain to the captain cried they in their turn and the crowd opened before them as though before the prow of a vessel at that moment
no one passes here said d'artagnan take that then
and passed the blade through his body i told you plainly to keep yourself quiet
who rolled at his feet passage passage
at first terrified but soon recovering when they found they had only to do with two men but those two men were hundred armed giants
they pierce with its point strike with the flat cut with the edge every stroke brings down a man
that is to say to every man that fell
guided by it joined d'artagnan during this time the archers recovering from the panic they had undergone
and regular as mill strokes overturn or knock down all that opposed them the crowd which sees swords gleaming and drops of blood flying in the air the crowd falls back and crushes itself at length cries for mercy and of despair resound
that is the farewell of the vanquished the two condemned are again in the hands of the archers d'artagnan approaches them seeing them pale and sinking console yourselves poor men said he you will not undergo the
frightful torture with which these wretches threatened you the king has condemned you to be hung you shall only be hung go on hang them and it will be over
from this moment the affair did not occupy much time the executioner heedless about operating according to the rules of the art
they felicitated they cheered him he wiped his brow streaming with sweat and his sword streaming with blood
and while raoul turned away his eyes in compassion he pointed to the musketeers the gibbets laden with their melancholy fruit poor devils said he i hope they died blessing me for i saved them with great difficulty
a dark ironical smile flitted across his lips he wished to reply but the effort hastened the snapping of the chord of life he expired oh all this is very frightful murmured raoul let us begone
you are not wounded asked d'artagnan
thank you that's well thou art a brave fellow mordioux the head of the father
ah if he had been here good porthos you would have seen something worth looking at then
murmured d'artagnan come chevalier pray come away urged raoul one minute my friend let me take my thirty seven and a half pistols and i am at your service
fortune showed itself strangely favourable to the plans of nahoon and nanea one of the zulu captain's perplexities was as to how he should lull the suspicions and evade the vigilance of his own companions
who together with himself had been detailed by the king to assist hadden in his hunting and to guard against his escape as it chanced however on the day after the incident of the visit of maputa
which was to be placed upon full war footing accordingly
to allow of his travelling fast and far so the soldiers went doubting nothing
taking with him his daughter nanea
and also those fifteen head of cattle that had been lobola'd by nahoon in consideration of his forthcoming marriage
under pretence that they required a change of veldt
telling him to keep them by the crocodile drift as there the grass was good and sweet all preparations being completed on the third day the party started heading straight for ulundi
after they had travelled some miles however they left the road and turning sharp to the right passed unobserved of any through a great stretch of uninhabited bush their path now lay not far from the pool of doom
which indeed was close to umgona's kraal and the forest that was called home of the dead but out of sight of these it was their plan to travel by night reaching the broken country near the crocodile drift on the following morning
here they proposed to lie hid that day and through the night then having first collected the cattle which had preceded them to cross the river at the break of dawn and escape into natal at least this was the plan of his companions
whereon after one last appearance two of the party would play no part during that long afternoon's journey umgona who knew every inch of the country
hadden who brought up the rear noticed that the girl seemed to be under the spell of an imminent apprehension for from time to time she clasped her lover's arm and looking up into his face addressed him with vehemence
almost with passion curiously enough the sight touched hadden and once or twice he was shaken by so sharp a pang of remorse at the thought of his share in this tragedy
that he cast about in his mind seeking a means to unravel the web of death which he himself had woven but ever that evil voice was whispering at his ear
the white inkoos had been refused by this dusky beauty and that if he found a way to save him within some few hours she would be the wife of the savage gentleman at her side
the man who had named him black heart and who despised him the man whom he had meant to murder and who immediately repaid his treachery by rescuing him from the jaws of the leopard
moreover it was a law of hadden's existence never to deny himself of anything that he desired if it lay within his power to take it a law which had led him always deeper into sin
in other respects indeed it had not carried him far for in the past he had not desired much and he had won little but this particular flower was to his hand and he would pluck it
if nahoon stood between him and the flower so much the worse for nahoon and if it should wither in his grasp so much the worse for the flower it could always be thrown away
thus it came about that not for the first time in his life philip hadden discarded the somewhat spasmodic prickings of conscience and listened to that evil whispering at his ear
about half past five o'clock in the afternoon the four refugees passed the stream that a mile or so down fell over the little precipice into the doom pool
and entering a patch of thorn trees on the further side walked straight into the midst of two and twenty soldiers who were beguiling the tedium of expectancy by the taking of snuff and the smoking of dakka or native hemp
replaced the snuff boxes in the slits made in the lobes of their ears and secured the four of them what is the meaning of this o king's soldiers asked umgona in a quavering voice
why do you molest us indeed wherefore then are your faces set towards the south does the black one live in the south well
i do not understand stammered umgona then i will explain while you rest said the captain the chief maputa yonder sent word to the black one at ulundi that he had learned of your intended flight to natal
from the lips of this white man who had warned him of it the black one was angry and despatched us to catch you and make an end of you that is all come on now quietly and let us finish the matter
as the doom pool is near your deaths will be easy nahoon heard the words and sprang straight at the throat of hadden but he did not reach it for the soldiers pulled him down nanea heard them also
she said nothing she only looked but he could never forget that look the white man for his part was filled with a fiery indignation against maputa you wicked villain he gasped
whereat the chief smiled in a sickly fashion and turned away then they were marched along the banks of the stream till they reached the waterfall that fell into the pool of doom hadden was a brave man after his fashion
but his heart quailed as he gazed into that abyss are you going to throw me in there he asked of the zulu captain in a thick voice you white man replied the soldier unconcernedly no
our orders are to take you to the king but what he will do with you i do not know there is to be war between your people and ours so perhaps he means to pound you into medicine for the use of the witch doctors
or to peg you over an ant heap as a warning to other white men hadden received this information in silence but its effect upon his brain was bracing for instantly he began to search out some means of escape
by now the party had halted near the two thorn trees that hung over the waters of the pool who dives first asked the captain of the chief maputa the old wizard he replied
nodding at umgona then his daughter after him and last of all this fellow and he struck nahoon in the face with his open hand come on wizard said the captain grasping umgona by the arm
and let us see how you can swim at the words of doom umgona seemed to recover his self command after the fashion of his race no need to lead me soldier he said
shaking himself loose who am old and ready to die then he kissed his daughter at his side wrung nahoon by the hand and turning from hadden with a gesture of contempt
walked out upon the platform that joined the two thorn trunks here he stood for a moment looking at the setting sun then suddenly and without a sound he hurled himself into the abyss below and vanished
that was a brave one said the captain with admiration can you spring too girl or must we throw you i can walk my father's path
nanea answered faintly but first i crave leave to say one word it is true that we were escaping from the king and therefore by the law we must die but it was black heart here who made the plot
and he who has betrayed us would you know why he has betrayed us because he sought my favour and i refused him and this is the vengeance that he takes a white man's vengeance
broke in the chief maputa this pretty one speaks truth for the white man would have made a bargain with me under which umgona the wizard and nahoon the soldier were to be killed at the crocodile drift
and he himself suffered to escape with the girl i spoke him softly and said yes and then like a loyal man i reported to the king you hear sighed nanea nahoon
fare you well though presently perhaps we shall be together again it was i who tempted you from your duty for my sake you forgot your honour and i am repaid farewell my husband
she turned and addressed hadden saying black heart you seem to have won the day
after sunset comes the night black heart and in that night i pray that you may wander eternally and be given to drink of my blood and the blood of umgona my father
and the blood of nahoon my husband who saved your life and whom you have murdered perchance black heart
then uttering a low cry nanea clasped her hands and sprang upwards and outwards from the platform the watchers bent their heads forward to look
they saw her rush headlong down the face of the fall to strike the water fifty feet below a few seconds and for the last time they caught sight of her white garment
glimmering on the surface of the gloomy pool then the shadows and mist wreaths hid it and she was gone now husband cried the cheerful voice of the captain
so be swift to follow a bride who is so ready to lead the way
but you are good people to kill never have i had to do with any who gave less trouble you and he stopped for mental agony had done its work
and suddenly nahoon went mad before his eyes with a roar like that of a lion the great man cast off those who held him and seizing one of them round the waist and thigh he put out all his terrible strength
lifting him as though he had been an infant he hurled him over the edge of the cliff to find his death on the rocks of the pool of doom then crying black heart your turn black heart the traitor he rushed at hadden
but he could not come at him for the soldiers sprang upon him and notwithstanding his fearful struggles they pulled him to the ground as at certain festivals the zulu regiments with their naked hands
pull down a bull in the presence of the king cast him over before he can work more mischief said a voice but the captain cried out nay nay he is sacred the fire from heaven has fallen on his brain
and we may not harm him else evil would overtake us all bind him hand and foot and bear him tenderly to where he can be cared for surely i thought that these evil doers were giving us too little trouble
and thus it has proved so they set themselves to make fast nahoon's hands and wrists using as much gentleness as they might for among the zulus a lunatic is accounted holy
it was no easy task and it took time hadden glanced around him and saw his opportunity on the ground close beside him lay his rifle where one of the soldiers had placed it
and about a dozen yards away maputa's pony was grazing with a swift movement he seized the martini and five seconds later he was on the back of the pony heading for the crocodile drift at a gallop
that occupied as they all were in binding nahoon for half a minute or more none of the soldiers noticed what had happened then maputa chanced to see and waddled after him to the top of the rise screaming
he has stolen my horse and the gun too the gun that he promised to give me hadden who by this time was a hundred yards away heard him clearly and a rage filled his heart
this man had made an open murderer of him more he had been the means of robbing him of the girl for whose sake he had dipped his hands in these iniquities he glanced over his shoulder maputa was still running and alone
yes there was time at any rate he would risk it pulling up the pony with a jerk he leapt from its back slipping his arm through the rein with an almost simultaneous movement as it chanced
and as he had hoped would be the case the animal was a trained shooting horse and stood still
though the herd have fled from thee thy home is still here here is the smile that no cloud can o'ercast and a heart and a hand all thy own to the last moore
and kindly faces were bending over him he was conscious from the first of an oppressive weight of trouble but could not realize what had occurred as one awakening from a troubled dream he strove to gather up his scattered faculties
and recall what had happened like a blast of doom the awful truth burst upon him and he leaped to his feet he was at the home of landlord nurse and the pale sad horror stricken faces about him
were the old gentleman and his sons and daughters they caught charles before he reached the door my mother cried the young man no you can do her no good by an act of rashness
john nurse answered tell me all about it i will sit here and listen to it all said charles when he discovered that he could not break away from his friends your mother and cora waters have both been cried out upon as witches
warrants were issued and they were arrested now collect your faculties and act on your coolest judgment think what you will do
charles stevens bowed his head in his hands and reflected long and earnestly on the course to pursue he recalled the words of oracus the brave young chief who could muster a hundred warriors
he was cunning and might devise some plan of escape and charles was not long in resolving what to do he would not act hurriedly he would be desperate but that desperation would have coolness and premeditation about it
he promised his friends to be calm
and then begun seeking an interview with his mother and cora it was three days before the interview was granted he found them occupying loathsome cells each chained to the wall the interview was long
and just what such an interview could be full of grief and despair charles tried to hope he tried to see a ray of sunlight
but the effort only revealed the swaying forms of those hung on witches hill even if he summoned oracus and all his braves would they be strong enough to break down that door of iron or cut the chains asunder
charles in his desperation resolved to rescue the beloved ones or die in the effort he went away weeping he did not return home that home was desolate lonely
for charles was determined to move heaven and earth or rescue his mother and cora but he did not depend on those distant relatives and friends so much as the dusky friends in the forest
or would have succeeded in his efforts even if he should be killed in an abortive attempt however he hoped that his relatives would resume the warfare for the prisoners
could i but find the waters brothers i would have two friends and allies to aid me oh heaven give me light give me light
charles stevens like all true christians in this dark hour went to god for aid kneeling he prayed as he had never prayed before he seemed to take hold of the throne of grace
and with a faith strengthened and renewed drew inspiration for his desperate resolve from the only living fountain armed with his rifle and pistols he left the village and went into the forest
the moss and ferns and cool shades seem to breathe of eternity charles stevens had always loved the dark old woods and never had they seemed so friendly as on this occasion when they screened him from the frowns of man
solitude offered him its charms the zephyrs sought to soothe his sorrows by their gentle whispers and the birds sang for the peace of his troubled spirit while the babbling brooks strove to make him gay
but who can be gay when loved ones are menaced with a terrible danger charles stevens saw little of the beauty of nature his eyes were searching the forests for dusky forms which he hoped to meet
those dusky sons of the forest were not often desirable sights but charles was as anxious to see the feathers and painted faces of these heathens as if they were brothers he spent the day in wandering through the woods
by the merest chance he raised his despairing eyes and gazing across the stream to the woods beyond saw a light charles struggled to his feet and gazed like one to whom life has suddenly been restored
he plunged into the creek waded across and started through the woods toward the light it was much further away than he had at first supposed and he was several minutes in reaching the camp fire
ten dusky sons of the forest were seated about the camp fire while two men in the garb of civilization were roving about charles felt some misgivings at first on discovering men of his own color in the camp
he crawled from tree to tree from log to bush until he was near enough to see the features of the men when he first got within sight they stood with their backs toward him and he could not see their faces
but at last one turned about so that the glare of the fire light fell full on his face and with a cry of joy charles stevens bounded to his feet crying mister waters mister waters and dashed toward the camp
a pair of strong arms encircled his waist and the young man heard a voice say white man go too soon he had been seized by a sentry
but mister waters and oracus hastened to him and he was released the other white man was the brother of mister waters and charles bewildered overjoyed yet faint and weak was half led and half carried to the camp
he found himself making hurried explanations while a savage was broiling venison steaks before the fire for him we know all said mister george waters what do you know they have been cried out upon asked charles
we do do you know they are in prison we have heard it all said mister waters calmly how could you have heard it asked charles we have faithful friends who inform us of everything
we were concerting plans when you came but you must have food charles stevens gazed on the calm face of the man before him and could but wonder at his coolness mister waters
do you know that your own daughter is one of the accused i know all how can you be so calm knowing all as you do i am calm for my daughter's sake
the only hope of liberating her of saving her life is by cool deliberate and well matured plans are your plans formed yes when will you act
on to morrow night oracus will have all his warriors ready by that time and we will require crow bars hammers and axes to break in the door of the jail meanwhile
you will have to take some refreshments food and drink and get some sleep
i scarcely have your conduct is foolish
charles ate some broiled venison and went to sleep so exhausted was he that he did not awake until the noise of breaking camp aroused him
another white man was in camp his hands were fastened behind his back and he was tied to a tree his sallow complexion and angular features were familiar to charles stevens the prisoner was joel martin
two of the indians captured him last night explained george waters he was prowling about in the woods and they seized him what are you going to do with him charles asked
we will do him no hurt unless we are forced to said mister waters i trust you will not be forced said charles stevens so i pray yet we must protect ourselves and those whom we would rescue
yes are they friends they are the braves of oracus and will follow where he leads charles stevens passed an anxious day a part of the time he was near enough to joel martin to hear him muttering
i have no fear of george waters galley slave you may turn me over to your heathen cut throats yet i will defy you if i live i will yet drag you to justice for the murder of my brother mister martin
you have forgotten that the word of god says vengeance is mine and i will repay saith the lord put in charles i will be the instrument of vengeance you are in the power of mister waters
for the present i am don't you think you should be careful how you threaten him seeing he has you at his mercy charles could not intimidate the bold virginian
he was furious and no threat of punishment could move him during the day a
the red men now numbered eighty and by the afternoon the entire party was moving toward salem at dusk they were but five miles from the village here a halt was called
and after a short consultation oracus detailed five of his braves to guard mister martin and with the others moved on over the hills and through the woods toward salem what will they do with him charles asked
release him when we leave the village mister waters would you not be justified in killing him no why not he will murder you if he can no one is justified in slaying a prisoner
and i shall never do it no more blood will be on my hands unless it be in defence of her for her i slew the other and only for her will my arm ever be raised against my fellow man
no as god is my judge my hand shall never be raised even to defend this miserable life i live but for my child and when she is gone i care not how soon i am called
i have known only sorrow since he did not finish the sentence but turned away it was late in the night when the party entered salem the houses were dark and silent
no light was visible from any window and it seemed a deserted hamlet earnestness without excitement was evinced everything was done in perfect order the men moved first to the blacksmith shop
where several supplied themselves with axes heavy crow bars and sledges explain to your warriors that under no circumstances are they to shed blood said mister george waters
mister waters by the aid of a lighted pine knot found a pair of cold chisels which he appropriated then the party moved off toward the jail in perfect order there was no undue haste or nervous excitement
all seemed as cool as if they were going as invited guests to a banquet the indians moccasined feet
where are you cried charles he had to call several times before the frightened woman could answer then from out the darkness there came a feeble response he groped his way along in the darkness he found a cell door
tore it open and reached her side at this moment some one lighted a torch within the jail a scene wild weird and terrible burst upon their view
the prisoners were almost driven to madness by the sudden appearance of the savage and civilized liberators charles stevens with chisel and hammer quickly cut the chains of his mother and hastened to liberate cora
her father held the light while he cut the iron band free free cried the excited charles let us away before the town is roused no
not while a prisoner remains to suffer the wrath of prejudice then with chisel and hammer he went from one to another and cut the iron bands which bound them oracus and henry waters joined him in the work of liberation
until all were freed this required several moments of time and the confusion and uproar which they were compelled to make was rousing the town mister parris half dressed ran barefoot through the town waving his long arms in the air
and shouting that the fiends of the air had conspired to liberate the prisoners his words and his wild fanatical manner tended rather to increase the fear of the people of salem than diminish it then there went out the report through the village that the indians had attacked the town
and the people roused from their midnight slumbers magnified the numbers of the assailants ten to one cora mother whispered charles this way he took a hand of each and started to run from the jail down the street
others followed fly all of you fly for your lives cried henry waters who now that his work was done flung aside his iron bar and sledge at a word of command from oracus
his warriors formed a hollow square about the escaping fugitives and moved off as rapidly as they could everybody was bewildered everybody running into the street was asking what has happened what has gone amiss
he ran to the sheriff and cried bestir yourself do you not see they are taking your prisoners away i have no deputies answered the sheriff they number hundreds and the indians are with them
nonsense they are only disguised and are not a dozen come i will go with you four or five by standers being thus emboldened offered to go themselves and aid in recovering the prisoners
come i will lead you cried the eager preacher allowing his zeal to overcome his discretion they ran after the escaping party and mister parris either being more zealous than the others or more swift of foot outran them
and eluding some of the indians who tried to intercept him ran to where charles stevens was half leading and half dragging his mother and cora from the village fire brand of hades you shall not escape me
cried mister parris seizing cora's shoulder with a clutch so fierce as to make her cry out charles released both his mother and cora and seizing mister parris by the throat hurled him to the ground and raised a hammer to brain him
but at this moment a strong hand seized his arm and the calm kind voice of mister waters said stay your hand charles do the man no harm next moment a pair of dusky hands seized mister parris
and he was hurried away to the rear mister henry waters caused a couple of guns to be fired in the air in order to intimidate their pursuers this had the desired effect and the mention of indians was sufficient to drive all to the defense of their homes
running halfway down the staircase levin caught a sound he knew a familiar cough in the hall but he heard it indistinctly through the sound of his own footsteps and hoped he was mistaken then he caught sight of a long bony familiar figure
and now it seemed there was no possibility of mistake and yet he still went on hoping that this tall man taking off his fur cloak and coughing was not his brother nikolay levin loved his brother but being with him was always a torture
just now when levin under the influence of the thoughts that had come to him and agafea mihalovna's hint was in a troubled and uncertain humor
instead of a lively healthy visitor some outsider who would he hoped cheer him up in his uncertain humor he had to see his brother who knew him through and through who would call forth all the thoughts nearest his heart
would force him to show himself fully and that he was not disposed to do angry with himself for so base a feeling levin ran into the hall
terrible as his brother nikolay had been before in his emaciation and sickliness now he looked still more emaciated still more wasted he was a skeleton covered with skin
he stood in the hall jerking his long thin neck and pulling the scarf off it and smiled a strange and pitiful smile when he saw that smile submissive and humble levin felt something clutching at his throat you see i've come to you
never for one second taking his eyes off his brother's face i've been meaning to a long while but i've been unwell all the time now i'm ever so much better he said rubbing his beard with his big thin hands yes yes answered levin
and he felt still more frightened when kissing him he felt with his lips the dryness of his brother's skin and saw close to him his big eyes full of a strange light
a few weeks before konstantin levin had written to his brother that through the sale of the small part of the property that had remained undivided there was a sum of about two thousand roubles to come to him as his share nikolay said that he had come now to take this money and
what was more important to stay a while in the old nest to get in touch with the earth so as to renew his strength like the heroes of old for the work that lay before him in spite of his exaggerated stoop and the emaciation that was so striking from his height
his movements were as rapid and abrupt as ever levin led him into his study his brother dressed with particular care a thing he never used to do combed his scanty lank hair and smiling went upstairs
he was in the most affectionate and good humored mood just as levin often remembered him in childhood he even referred to sergey ivanovitch without rancor
the news of the death of parfen denisitch made a painful impression on him a look of fear crossed his face but he regained his serenity immediately of course he was quite old he said and changed the subject
well i'll spend a month or two with you and then i'm off to moscow do you know myakov has promised me a place there and i'm going into the service now i'm going to arrange my life quite differently he went on you know i got rid of that woman marya nikolaevna
why what for oh she was a horrid woman she caused me all sorts of worries but he did not say what the annoyances were he could not say that he had cast off marya nikolaevna because the tea was weak and above all because she would look after him as though he were an invalid
besides i want to turn over a new leaf completely now i've done silly things of course like everyone else but money's the last consideration i don't regret it so long as there's health and my health thank god is quite restored
levin listened and racked his brains but could think of nothing to say nikolay probably felt the same
he told his brother of his plans and his doings his brother listened but evidently he was not interested by it these two men were so akin so near each other that the slightest gesture the tone of voice told both more than could be said in words
both of them now had only one thought
which stifled all else but neither of them dared to speak of it and so whatever they said not uttering the one thought that filled their minds was all falsehood never had levin been so glad when the evening was over and it was time to go to bed
never with any outside person never on any official visit had he been so unnatural and false as he was that evening and the consciousness of this unnaturalness and the remorse he felt at it made him even more unnatural
as the house was damp and only one bedroom had been kept heated levin put his brother to sleep in his own bedroom behind a screen his brother got into bed and whether he slept or did not sleep tossed about like a sick man coughed and when he could not get his throat clear
mumbled something sometimes when his breathing was painful he said oh my god sometimes when he was choking he muttered angrily ah the devil levin could not sleep for a long while hearing him
his thoughts were of the most various but the end of all his thoughts was the same death death the inevitable end of all for the first time presented itself to him with irresistible force and death which was here in this loved brother
groaning half asleep and from habit calling without distinction on god and the devil was not so remote as it had hitherto seemed to him it was in himself too he felt that if not today tomorrow
if not tomorrow in thirty years wasn't it all the same and what was this inevitable death he did not know had never thought about it and what was more had not the power had not the courage to think about it i work i want to do something
but i had forgotten it must all end i had forgotten death he sat on his bed in the darkness crouched up hugging his knees and holding his breath from the strain of thought he pondered but the more intensely he thought the clearer it became to him that it was indubitably so
that death will come and all ends that nothing was even worth beginning and that there was no helping it anyway yes it was awful but it was so but i am alive still now what's to be done what's to be done he said in despair
he lighted a candle got up cautiously and went to the looking glass and began looking at his face and hair yes there were gray hairs about his temples he opened his mouth his back teeth were beginning to decay he bared his muscular arms
yes there was strength in them
and suddenly he recalled how they used to go to bed together as children and how they only waited till fyodor bogdanitch was out of the room to fling pillows at each other and laugh laugh irrepressibly
so that even their awe of fyodor bogdanitch could not check the effervescing overbrimming sense of life and happiness and now that bent hollow chest
why do you keep fidgeting why don't you go to sleep his brother's voice called to him oh i don't know i'm not sleepy i have had a good sleep i'm not in a sweat now just see feel my shirt it's not wet is it levin felt
withdrew behind the screen and put out the candle but for a long while he could not sleep the question how to live had hardly begun to grow a little clearer to him when a new insoluble question presented itself death why he's dying
but the rains began preventing the harvesting of the corn and potatoes left in the fields and putting a stop to all work even to the delivery of the wheat the mud was impassable along the roads two mills were carried away and the weather got worse and worse
on the thirtieth of september the sun came out in the morning and hoping for fine weather levin began making final preparations for his journey he gave orders for the wheat to be delivered sent the bailiff to the merchant to get the money owing him
and went out himself to give some final directions on the estate before setting off having finished all his business soaked through with the streams of water which kept running down the leather behind his neck and his gaiters but in the keenest and most confident temper levin returned homewards in the evening
the weather had become worse than ever towards evening the hail lashed the drenched mare so cruelly that she went along sideways shaking her head and ears but levin was all right under his hood and he looked cheerfully about him at the muddy streams running under the wheels
at the drops hanging on every bare twig at the whiteness of the patch of unmelted hailstones on the planks of the bridge at the thick layer of still juicy fleshy leaves that lay heaped up about the stripped elm tree in spite of the gloominess of nature around him he felt peculiarly eager
the talks he had been having with the peasants in the further village had shown that they were beginning to get used to their new position the old servant to whose hut he had gone to get dry evidently approved of levin's plan and of his own accord proposed to enter the partnership by the purchase of cattle
i have only to go stubbornly on towards my aim and i shall attain my end thought levin and it's something to work and take trouble for this is not a matter of myself individually the question of the public welfare comes into it the whole system of culture
the chief element in the condition of the people must be completely transformed instead of poverty general prosperity and content instead of hostility harmony and unity of interests in short a bloodless revolution
but a revolution of the greatest magnitude beginning in the little circle of our district then the province then russia the whole world because a just idea cannot but be fruitful yes it's an aim worth working for
and its being me kostya levin who went to a ball in a black tie and was refused by the shtcherbatskaya girl and who was intrinsically such a pitiful worthless creature that proves nothing i feel sure franklin felt just as worthless
and he too had no faith in himself thinking of himself as a whole that means nothing and he too most likely had an agafea mihalovna to whom he confided his secrets musing on such thoughts levin reached home in the darkness
the bailiff who had been to the merchant had come back and brought part of the money for the wheat an agreement had been made with the old servant and on the road the bailiff had learned that everywhere the corn was still standing in the fields
so that his one hundred and sixty shocks that had not been carried were nothing in comparison with the losses of others after dinner levin was sitting as he usually did in an easy chair with a book
today all the significance of his book rose before him with special distinctness and whole periods ranged themselves in his mind in illustration of his theories i must write that down he thought that ought to form a brief introduction which i thought unnecessary before
he got up to go to his writing table and laska lying at his feet got up too stretching and looking at him as though to inquire where to go but he had not time to write it down for the head peasants had come round and levin went out into the hall to them
after his levee that is to say giving directions about the labors of the next day and seeing all the peasants who had business with him
laska lay under the table agafea mihalovna settled herself in her place with her stocking after writing for a little while levin suddenly thought with exceptional vividness of kitty her refusal and their last meeting he got up and began walking about the room
what's the use of being dreary said agafea mihalovna come why do you stay on at home you ought to go to some warm springs especially now you're ready for the journey well i am going away the day after tomorrow agafea mihalovna
i must finish my work there there your work you say as if you hadn't done enough for the peasants why as tis they're saying your master will be getting some honor from the tsar for it
i'm not worrying about them i'm doing it for my own good agafea mihalovna knew every detail of levin's plans for his land levin often put his views before her in all their complexity and not uncommonly he argued with her and did not agree with her comments
but on this occasion she entirely misinterpreted what he had said of one's soul's salvation we all know and must think before all else she said with a sigh parfen denisitch now for all he was no scholar he died a death that god grant every one of us the like
i mean that i'm acting for my own advantage it's all the better for me if the peasants do their work better well whatever you do if he's a lazy good for nought everything'll be at sixes and sevens if he has a conscience he'll work and if not there's no doing anything
oh come you say yourself ivan has begun looking after the cattle better all i say is answered agafea mihalovna evidently not speaking at random but in strict sequence of idea that you ought to get married that's what i say
agafea mihalovna's allusion to the very subject he had only just been thinking about hurt and stung him levin scowled and without answering her he sat down again to his work repeating to himself all that he had been thinking of the real significance of that work
only at intervals he listened in the stillness to the click of agafea mihalovna's needles and recollecting what he did not want to remember he frowned again at nine o'clock they heard the bell and the faint vibration of a carriage over the mud
well here's visitors come to us and you won't be dull said agafea mihalovna getting up and going to the door
chapter one so of course wrote betty flanders pressing her heels rather deeper in the sand there was nothing for it but to leave slowly welling from the point of her gold nib pale blue ink dissolved the full stop
for there her pen stuck her eyes fixed and tears slowly filled them the entire bay quivered the lighthouse wobbled and she had the illusion that the mast of mister connor's little yacht was bending like a wax candle in the sun she winked quickly
accidents were awful things she winked again the mast was straight the waves were regular the lighthouse was upright but the blot had spread nothing for it but to leave she read well if jacob doesn't want to play
the shadow of archer her eldest son fell across the notepaper and looked blue on the sand and she felt chilly it was the third of september already if jacob doesn't want to play
i don't see him run and find him tell him to come at once but mercifully she scribbled ignoring the full stop everything seems satisfactorily arranged packed though we are like herrings in a barrel and forced to stand the perambulator which the landlady quite naturally won't allow
such were betty flanders's letters to captain barfoot many paged tear stained scarborough is seven hundred miles from cornwall captain barfoot is in scarborough seabrook is dead
tears made all the dahlias in her garden undulate in red waves and flashed the glass house in her eyes and spangled the kitchen with bright knives and made missus jarvis the rector's wife think at church while the hymn tune played and missus flanders bent low over her little boys heads
that marriage is a fortress and widows stray solitary in the open fields picking up stones gleaning a few golden straws lonely unprotected poor creatures
scarborough missus flanders wrote on the envelope and dashed a bold line beneath it was her native town the hub of the universe but a stamp
she ferreted in her bag then held it up mouth downwards then fumbled in her lap all so vigorously that charles steele in the panama hat suspended his paint brush like the antennae of some irritable insect it positively trembled
here was that woman moving actually going to get up confound her he struck the canvas a hasty violet black dab for the landscape needed it it was too pale
too pale as usual the critics would say it was too pale for he was an unknown man exhibiting obscurely
i saw your brother i saw your brother he said nodding his head as archer lagged past him trailing his spade and scowling at the old gentleman in spectacles over there by the rock steele muttered with his brush between his teeth
squeezing out raw sienna and keeping his eyes fixed on betty flanders's back
the voice had an extraordinary sadness pure from all body pure from all passion going out into the world solitary unanswered breaking against rocks so it sounded steele frowned but was pleased by the effect of the black it was just that note which brought the rest together
there's titian and so having found the right tint up he looked and saw to his horror a cloud over the bay missus flanders rose slapped her coat this side and that to get the sand off and picked up her black parasol
the rock was one of those tremendously solid brown or rather black rocks which emerge from the sand like something primitive rough with crinkled limpet shells and sparsely strewn with locks of dry seaweed a small boy has to stretch his legs far apart
and indeed to feel rather heroic before he gets to the top but there on the very top is a hollow full of water with a sandy bottom with a blob of jelly stuck to the side and some mussels a fish darts across
the fringe of yellow brown seaweed flutters and out pushes an opal shelled crab oh a huge crab jacob murmured and begins his journey on weakly legs on the sandy bottom now
jacob plunged his hand the crab was cool and very light but the water was thick with sand and so scrambling down jacob was about to jump holding his bucket in front of him when he saw stretched entirely rigid side by side their faces very red an enormous man and woman
an enormous man and woman it was early closing day were stretched motionless with their heads on pocket handkerchiefs side by side within a few feet of the sea while two or three gulls gracefully skirted the incoming waves and settled near their boots
the large red faces lying on the bandanna handkerchiefs stared up at jacob jacob stared down at them holding his bucket very carefully jacob then jumped deliberately and trotted away very nonchalantly at first but faster and faster as the waves came creaming up to him
and he had to swerve to avoid them and the gulls rose in front of him and floated out and settled again a little farther on a large black woman was sitting on the sand he ran towards her nanny nanny he cried
sobbing the words out on the crest of each gasping breath the waves came round her she was a rock she was covered with the seaweed which pops when it is pressed he was lost there he stood his face composed itself
he was about to roar when lying among the black sticks and straw under the cliff he saw a whole skull perhaps a cow's skull a skull perhaps with the teeth in it sobbing but absent mindedly he ran farther and farther away until he held the skull in his arms
why didn't you stay with us naughty little boy now put it down now come along both of you and she swept round holding archer by one hand and fumbling for jacob's arm with the other but he ducked down and picked up the sheep's jaw which was loose swinging her bag clutching her parasol
holding archer's hand and telling the story of the gunpowder explosion in which poor mister curnow had lost his eye missus flanders hurried up the steep lane aware all the time in the depths of her mind of some buried discomfort there on the sand not far from the lovers lay the old sheep's skull without its jaw
clean white wind swept sand rubbed a more unpolluted piece of bone existed nowhere on the coast of cornwall the sea holly would grow through the eye sockets it would turn to powder or some golfer hitting his ball one fine day would disperse a little dust
no but not in lodgings thought missus flanders it's a great experiment coming so far with young children there's no man to help with the perambulator and jacob is such a handful so obstinate already throw it away dear do she said as they got into the road
but jacob squirmed away from her and the wind rising she took out her bonnet pin looked at the sea and stuck it in afresh the wind was rising the waves showed that uneasiness like something alive restive expecting the whip of waves before a storm
the fishing boats were leaning to the water's brim a pale yellow light shot across the purple sea and shut the lighthouse was lit come along said betty flanders the sun blazed in their faces and gilded the great blackberries trembling out from the hedge which archer tried to strip as they passed
don't lag boys you've got nothing to change into said betty pulling them along and looking with uneasy emotion at the earth displayed so luridly with sudden sparks of light from greenhouses in gardens with a sort of yellow and black mutability against this blazing sunset
this astonishing agitation and vitality of colour which stirred betty flanders and made her think of responsibility and danger she gripped archer's hand on she plodded up the hill what did i ask you to remember she said
humorously and simply and who shall deny that this blankness of mind when combined with profusion mother wit old wives tales haphazard ways moments of astonishing daring humour and sentimentality
who shall deny that in these respects every woman is nicer than any man well betty flanders to begin with she had her hand upon the garden gate the meat she exclaimed striking the latch down
the harsh light fell on the garden cut straight across the lawn lit up a child's bucket and a purple aster and reached the hedge missus flanders had left her sewing on the table there were her large reels of white cotton and her steel spectacles her needle case
her brown wool wound round an old postcard there were the bulrushes and the strand magazines and the linoleum sandy from the boys boots a daddy long legs shot from corner to corner and hit the lamp globe
the wind blew straight dashes of rain across the window which flashed silver as they passed through the light a single leaf tapped hurriedly persistently upon the glass there was a hurricane out at sea archer could not sleep missus flanders stooped over him
think of the fairies said betty flanders think of the lovely lovely birds settling down on their nests now shut your eyes and see the old mother bird with a worm in her beak now turn and shut your eyes she murmured and shut your eyes
the lodging house seemed full of gurgling and rushing the cistern overflowing water bubbling and squeaking and running along the pipes and streaming down the windows what's all that water rushing in murmured archer it's only the bath water running away said missus flanders
something snapped out of doors i say won't that steamer sink said archer opening his eyes of course it won't said missus flanders the captain's in bed long ago
shut your eyes and think of the fairies fast asleep under the flowers i thought he'd never get off such a hurricane she whispered to rebecca who was bending over a spirit lamp in the small room next door the wind rushed outside but the small flame of the spirit lamp burnt quietly shaded from the cot by a book stood on edge
did he take his bottle well missus flanders whispered and rebecca nodded and went to the cot and turned down the quilt and missus flanders bent over and looked anxiously at the baby asleep but frowning
and rebecca stole like a cat and wedged it the two women murmured over the spirit lamp plotting the eternal conspiracy of hush and clean bottles while the wind raged and gave a sudden wrench at the cheap fastenings both looked round at the cot their lips were pursed
missus flanders crossed over to the cot asleep whispered rebecca looking at the cot missus flanders nodded
missus flanders had left the lamp burning in the front room there were her spectacles her sewing and a letter with the scarborough postmark she had not drawn the curtains either
the light blazed out across the patch of grass fell on the child's green bucket with the gold line round it and upon the aster which trembled violently beside it for the wind was tearing across the coast hurling itself at the hills and leaping in sudden gusts on top of its own back
how it spread over the town in the hollow how the lights seemed to wink and quiver in its fury lights in the harbour lights in bedroom windows high up and rolling dark waves before it it raced over the atlantic jerking the stars above the ships this way and that
there was a click in the front sitting room mister pearce had extinguished the lamp the garden went out it was but a dark patch every inch was rained upon every blade of grass was bent by rain eyelids would have been fastened down by the rain
lying on one's back one would have seen nothing but muddle and confusion clouds turning and turning and something yellow tinted and sulphurous in the darkness the little boys in the front bedroom had thrown off their blankets and lay under the sheets it was hot rather sticky and steamy
archer lay spread out with one arm striking across the pillow he was flushed and when the heavy curtain blew out a little he turned and half opened his eyes the wind actually stirred the cloth on the chest of drawers and let in a little light so that the sharp edge of the chest of drawers was visible
in the other bed by the door jacob lay asleep fast asleep profoundly unconscious the sheep's jaw with the big yellow teeth in it lay at his feet he had kicked it against the iron bed rail outside the rain poured down more directly and powerfully as the wind fell in the early hours of the morning
at this late season there were not many boarders and yet i was not alone in the public part of the monastery this itself is hard by the gate with a small dining room on the ground floor and a whole corridor of cells similar to mine upstairs
i have stupidly forgotten the board for a regular retraitant but it was somewhere between three and five francs a day and i think most probably the first chance visitors like myself might give what they chose as a free will offering
but nothing was demanded i may mention that when i was going away father michael refused twenty francs as excessive i explained the reasoning which led me to offer him so much but even then from a curious point of honour he would not accept it with his own hand
i have no right to refuse for the monastery he explained but i should prefer if you would give it to one of the brothers i had dined alone because i arrived late but at supper i found two other guests
he was a grenadier in person with the hale colour and circular wrinkles of a peasant and as he complained much of how he had been impeded by his skirts upon the march i have a vivid fancy portrait of him striding along upright big boned
the other was a short grizzling thick set man from forty five to fifty dressed in tweed with a knitted spencer and the red ribbon of a decoration in his button hole this last was a hard person to classify
he was an old soldier who had seen service and risen to the rank of commandant and he retained some of the brisk decisive manners of the camp on the other hand as soon as his resignation was accepted he had come to our lady of the snows as a boarder
and after a brief experience of its ways had decided to remain as a novice already the new life was beginning to modify his appearance already he had acquired somewhat of the quiet and smiling air of the brethren
and he was as yet neither an officer nor a trappist but partook of the character of each and certainly here was a man in an interesting nick of life out of the noise of cannon and trumpets
he was in the act of passing into this still country bordering on the grave where men sleep nightly in their grave clothes and like phantoms communicate by signs at supper we talked politics
i make it my business when i am in france to preach political good will and moderation and to dwell on the example of poland much as some alarmists in england dwell on the example of carthage the priest and the commandant assured me of their sympathy with all i said
and made a heavy sighing over the bitterness of contemporary feeling why you cannot say anything to a man with which he does not absolutely agree said i but he flies up at you in a temper they both declared that such a state of things was antichristian
the old soldier's countenance was instantly suffused with blood with the palms of his hands he beat the table like a naughty child
will you dare to justify these words but the priest had not forgotten the tenor of our talk and suddenly in the height of his fury the old soldier found a warning look directed on his face
the absurdity of his behaviour was brought home to him in a flash and the storm came to an abrupt end without another word it was only in the morning over our coffee friday september twenty seventh that this couple found out i was a heretic
i suppose i had misled them by some admiring expressions as to the monastic life around us and it was only by a point blank question that the truth came out i had been tolerantly used both by simple father apollinaris
and astute father michael and the good irish deacon when he heard of my religious weakness had only patted me upon the shoulder and said you must be a catholic and come to heaven
but he could not away with such a monstrous attitude no no he cried you must change you have come here god has led you here and you must embrace the opportunity i made a slip in policy
two classes of men circumstantially divorced from the kind and homely ties of life your father and mother cried the priest very well you will convert them in their turn when you go home i think i see my father's face
i would rather tackle the gaetulian lion in his den than embark on such an enterprise against the family theologian but now the hunt was up priest and soldier were in full cry for my conversion and the work of the propagation of the faith
was being gallantly pursued against myself
they never sought to convince me in argument where i might have attempted some defence but took it for granted that i was both ashamed and terrified at my position and urged me solely on the point of time now they said when god had led me to our lady of the snows
now was the appointed hour do not be withheld by false shame observed the priest for my encouragement for one who feels very similarly to all sects of religion and who has never been able even for a moment
to weigh seriously the merit of this or that creed on the eternal side of things however much he may see to praise or blame upon the secular and temporal side the situation thus created was both unfair and painful
i committed my second fault in tact and tried to plead that it was all the same thing in the end and we were all drawing near by different sides to the same kind and undiscriminating friend and father
that as it seems to lay spirits would be the only gospel worthy of the name but different men think differently and this revolutionary aspiration brought down the priest with all the terrors of the law
he launched into harrowing details of hell the damned he said on the authority of a little book which he had read not a week before and which to add conviction to conviction he had fully intended to bring along with him in his pocket
were to occupy the same attitude through all eternity in the midst of dismal tortures and as he thus expatiated
at this moment whilst i was somewhat embarrassed how to answer in came one of the monks a little brown fellow as lively as a grig and with an italian accent who threw himself at once into the contention
look at him he said the rule was very hard he would have dearly liked to stay in his own country italy it was well known how beautiful it was the beautiful italy but then there were no trappists in italy and he had a soul to save
and here he was i am afraid i must be at bottom what a cheerful indian critic has dubbed me a faddling hedonist for this description of the brother's motives gave me somewhat of a shock
i should have preferred to think he had chosen the life for its own sake and not for ulterior purposes and this shows how profoundly i was out of sympathy with these good trappists even when i was doing my best to sympathize
the argument seemed decisive hear that he cried and i have seen a marquis here a marquis a marquis he repeated the holy word three times over and other persons high in society and generals
and here at your side is this gentleman who has been so many years in armies decorated an old warrior and here he is ready to dedicate himself to god i was by this time so thoroughly embarrassed
that i pled cold feet and made my escape from the apartment it was a furious windy morning with a sky much cleared and long and potent intervals of sunshine and i wandered until dinner in the wild country towards the east
sorely staggered and beaten upon by the gale but rewarded with some striking views at dinner the work of the propagation of the faith was recommenced and on this occasion still more distastefully to me
the priest asked me many questions as to the contemptible faith of my fathers and received my replies with a kind of ecclesiastical titter your sect he said once for i think you will admit it would be doing it too much honour to call it a religion
at length i grew annoyed beyond endurance and although he was on his own ground and what is more to the purpose an old man and so holding a claim upon my toleration i could not avoid a protest against this uncivil usage
he was sadly discountenanced i assure you he said i have no inclination to laugh in my heart i have no other feeling but interest in your soul and there ended my conversion honest man
he was no dangerous deceiver but a country parson full of zeal and faith
a man strong to walk and strong to comfort his parishioners in death i daresay he would beat bravely through a snowstorm where his duty called him
we travelled in the print of olden wars yet all the land was green and love we found and peace where fire and war had been they pass and smile the children of the sword
no more the sword they wield and o how deep the corn along the battlefield w p bannatyne across the lozere
the track that i had followed in the evening soon died out and i continued to follow over a bald turf ascent a row of stone pillars such as had conducted me across the goulet it was already warm
i tied my jacket on the pack and walked in my knitted waistcoat modestine herself was in high spirits and broke of her own accord for the first time in my experience into a jolting trot that sent the oats swashing in the pocket of my coat
scarce a tree scarce a house appeared upon the fields of wild hill that ran north east and west all blue and gold in the haze and sunlight of the morning a multitude of little birds kept sweeping and twittering about my path
they perched on the stone pillars they pecked and strutted on the turf and i saw them circle in volleys in the blue air and show from time to time translucent flickering wings between the sun and me
almost from the first moment of my march a faint large noise like a distant surf had filled my ears sometimes i was tempted to think it the voice of a neighbouring waterfall
and sometimes a subjective result of the utter stillness of the hill but as i continued to advance the noise increased and became like the hissing of an enormous tea urn and at the same time
breaths of cool air began to reach me from the direction of the summit at length i understood it was blowing stiffly from the south upon the other slope of the lozere and every step that i took i was drawing nearer to the wind
although it had been long desired it was quite unexpectedly at last that my eyes rose above the summit a step that seemed no way more decisive than many other steps that had preceded it and
like stout cortez when with eagle eyes he stared at the pacific i took possession in my own name of a new quarter of the world for behold instead of the gross turf rampart i had been mounting for so long
a view into the hazy air of heaven and a land of intricate blue hills below my feet the lozere lies nearly east and west cutting gevaudan into two unequal parts
its highest point this pic de finiels on which i was then standing rises upwards of five thousand six hundred feet above the sea and in clear weather commands a view over all lower languedoc to the mediterranean sea
i have spoken with people who either pretended or believed that they had seen from the pic de finiels white ships sailing by montpellier and cette behind was the upland northern country through which my way had lain
peopled by a dull race without wood without much grandeur of hill form and famous in the past for little besides wolves but in front of me half veiled in sunny haze
rich picturesque illustrious for stirring events speaking largely i was in the cevennes at monastier and during all my journey but there is a strict and local sense in which only this confused and shaggy country at my feet has any title to the name
and in this sense the peasantry employ the word these are the cevennes with an emphasis the cevennes of the cevennes in that undecipherable labyrinth of hills
a war of bandits a war of wild beasts raged for two years between the grand monarch with all his troops and marshals on the one hand and a few thousand protestant mountaineers upon the other
a hundred and eighty years ago the camisards held a station even on the lozere where i stood they had an organization arsenals a military and religious hierarchy their affairs were the discourse of every coffee house in london
england sent fleets in their support their leaders prophesied and murdered with colours and drums and the singing of old french psalms their bands sometimes affronted daylight marched before walled cities
and dispersed the generals of the king and sometimes at night or in masquerade possessed themselves of strong castles and avenged treachery upon their allies and cruelty upon their foes there a hundred and eighty years ago was the chivalrous roland
grave silent imperious pock marked ex dragoon whom a lady followed in his wanderings out of love there was cavalier a baker's apprentice with a genius for war
there again was castanet a partisan leader in a voluminous peruke and with a taste for controversial divinity strange generals who moved apart to take counsel with the god of hosts and fled or offered battle set sentinels
or slept in an unguarded camp as the spirit whispered to their hearts and there to follow these and other leaders was the rank and file of prophets and disciples bold patient indefatigable hardy to run upon the mountains
cheering their rough life with psalms eager to fight eager to pray listening devoutly to the oracles of brain sick children and mystically putting a grain of wheat among the pewter balls with which they charged their muskets
the napoleon bonaparte of wolves but now i was to go down into the scene of a romantic chapter or better a romantic footnote in the history of the world what was left of all this bygone dust and heroism
i was told that protestantism still survived in this head seat of protestant resistance so much the priest himself had told me in the monastery parlour but i had yet to learn if it were a bare survival or a lively and generous tradition
again if in the northern cevennes the people are narrow in religious judgments and more filled with zeal than charity what was i to look for in this land of persecution and reprisal
skulked for each other's lives among the mountains just on the brow of the hill where i paused to look before me the series of stone pillars came abruptly to an end and only a little below
a sort of track appeared and began to go down a break neck slope turning like a corkscrew as it went it led into a valley between falling hills stubbly with rocks like a reaped field of corn and floored farther down with green meadows
i followed the track with precipitation the steepness of the slope the continual agile turning of the line of the descent and the old unwearied hope of finding something new in a new country all conspired to lend me wings
yet a little lower and a stream began collecting itself together out of many fountains and soon making a glad noise among the hills sometimes it would cross the track in a bit of waterfall with a pool in which modestine refreshed her feet
the whole descent is like a dream to me so rapidly was it accomplished i had scarcely left the summit ere the valley had closed round my path and the sun beat upon me walking in a stagnant lowland atmosphere
the track became a road and went up and down in easy undulations i passed cabin after cabin but all seemed deserted and i saw not a human creature nor heard any sound except that of the stream
i was however in a different country from the day before the stony skeleton of the world was here vigorously displayed to sun and air the slopes were steep and changeful oak trees clung along the hills
well grown wealthy in leaf and touched by the autumn with strong and luminous colours here and there another stream would fall in from the right or the left down a gorge of snow white and tumultuary boulders
the river in the bottom for it was rapidly growing a river collecting on all hands as it trotted on its way here foamed a while in desperate rapids and there lay in pools of the most enchanting sea green shot with watery browns
as far as i have gone i have never seen a river of so changeful and delicate a hue crystal was not more clear the meadows were not by half so green and at every pool i saw i felt a thrill of longing to be out of these hot
dusty and material garments and bathe my naked body in the mountain air and water all the time as i went on i never forgot it was the sabbath the stillness was a perpetual reminder
and i heard in spirit the church bells clamouring all over europe and the psalms of a thousand churches at length a human sound struck upon my ear a cry strangely modulated between pathos and derision
and looking across the valley i saw a little urchin sitting in a meadow with his hands about his knees and dwarfed to almost comical smallness by the distance but the rogue had picked me out as i went down the road
from oak wood on to oak wood driving modestine and he made me the compliments of the new country in this tremulous high pitched salutation and as all noises are lovely and natural at a sufficient distance this also
coming through so much clean hill air and crossing all the green valley sounded pleasant to my ear and seemed a thing rustic like the oaks or the river a little after the stream that i was following fell into the tarn
indeed it was typical of these french highlands imagine a cottage of two stories with a bench before the door the stable and kitchen in a suite so that modestine and i could hear each other dining furniture of the plainest earthen floors
a single bed chamber for travellers and that without any convenience but beds in the kitchen cooking and eating go forward side by side and the family sleep at night any one who has a fancy to wash must do so in public at the common table
the food is sometimes spare hard fish and omelette have been my portion more than once the wine is of the smallest the brandy abominable to man and the visit of a fat sow
grouting under the table and rubbing against your legs is no impossible accompaniment to dinner but the people of the inn in nine cases out of ten show themselves friendly and considerate as soon as you cross the doors you cease to be a stranger
and although these peasantry are rude and forbidding on the highway they show a tincture of kind breeding when you share their hearth at bouchet for instance i uncorked my bottle of beaujolais and asked the host to join me he would take but little
i am an amateur of such wine do you see he said and i am capable of leaving you not enough in these hedge inns the traveller is expected to eat with his own knife unless he ask no other will be supplied
with a glass a whang of bread and an iron fork the table is completely laid my knife was cordially admired by the landlord of bouchet and the spring filled him with wonder i should never have guessed that he said
i would bet he added weighing it in his hand that this cost you not less than five francs when i told him it had cost me twenty his jaw dropped he was a mild handsome sensible friendly old man astonishingly ignorant
his wife who was not so pleasant in her manners knew how to read although i do not suppose she ever did so she had a share of brains and spoke with a cutting emphasis like one who ruled the roast
my man knows nothing she said with an angry nod he is like the beasts and the old gentleman signified acquiescence with his head there was no contempt on her part and no shame on his the facts were accepted loyally and no more about the matter
i was tightly cross examined about my journey and the lady understood in a moment and sketched out what i should put into my book when i got home whether people harvest or not in such or such a place if there were forests studies of manners
the beauties of nature and all that and she interrogated me with a look it is just that said i
i understood that they were both much interested by the story of my misadventures in the morning said the husband i will make you something better than your cane such a beast as that feels nothing it is in the proverb dur comme un ane
you might beat her insensible with a cudgel and yet you would arrive nowhere something better i little knew what he was offering
in the act of mounting into the other this was my first experience of the sort and if i am always to feel equally silly and extraneous i pray god it be my last as well
i kept my eyes to myself and know nothing of the woman except that she had beautiful arms and seemed no whit embarrassed by my appearance as a matter of fact the situation was more trying to me than to the pair
a pair keep each other in countenance it is the single gentleman who has to blush but i could not help attributing my sentiments to the husband and sought to conciliate his tolerance with a cup of brandy from my flask he told me that he was a cooper of alais
travelling to saint etienne in search of work and that in his spare moments he followed the fatal calling of a maker of matches me he readily enough divined to be a brandy merchant i was up first in the morning monday september twenty third
and hastened my toilette guiltily so as to leave a clear field for madam the cooper's wife i drank a bowl of milk and set off to explore the neighbourhood of bouchet it was perishing cold a grey windy wintry morning
misty clouds flew fast and low the wind piped over the naked platform
and the eastern hills where the sky still wore the orange of the dawn it was five in the morning and four thousand feet above the sea and i had to bury my hands in my pockets and trot people were trooping out to the labours of the field by twos and threes
and all turned round to stare upon the stranger i had seen them coming back last night i saw them going afield again and there was the life of bouchet in a nutshell
when i came back to the inn for a bit of breakfast the landlady was in the kitchen combing out her daughter's hair and i made her my compliments upon its beauty oh no said the mother
thus does a wise peasantry console itself under adverse physical circumstances and by a startling democratic process the defects of the majority decide the type of beauty and where said i is monsieur
the master of the house is upstairs she answered making you a goad
who introduced me to their use this plain wand with an eighth of an inch of pin was indeed a sceptre when he put it in my hands thenceforward modestine was my slave
a prick and she passed the most inviting stable door a prick and she broke forth into a gallant little trotlet that devoured the miles
it was not a remarkable speed when all was said and we took four hours to cover ten miles at the best of it but what a heavenly change since yesterday no more wielding of the ugly cudgel no more flailing with an aching arm no more broadsword exercise
and what although now and then a drop of blood should appear on modestine's mouse coloured wedge like rump i should have preferred it otherwise indeed but yesterday's exploits had purged my heart of all humanity the perverse little devil
since she would not be taken with kindness must even go with pricking it was bleak and bitter cold and except a cavalcade of stride legged ladies and a pair of post runners the road was dead solitary all the way to pradelles
i scarce remember an incident but one a handsome foal with a bell about his neck came charging up to us upon a stretch of common sniffed the air martially as one about to do great deeds and suddenly thinking otherwise in his green young heart
put about and galloped off as he had come the bell tinkling in the wind for a long while afterwards i saw his noble attitude as he drew up and heard the note of his bell and when i struck the high road the song of the telegraph wires seemed to continue the same music
pradelles stands on a hillside high above the allier surrounded by rich meadows they were cutting aftermath on all sides which gave the neighbourhood this gusty autumn morning an untimely smell of hay
on the opposite bank of the allier the land kept mounting for miles to the horizon a tanned and sallow autumn landscape with black blots of fir wood and white roads wandering through the hills over all this the clouds shed a uniform and purplish shadow
sad and somewhat menacing exaggerating height and distance and throwing into still higher relief the twisted ribbons of the highway it was a cheerless prospect but one stimulating to a traveller
and all that i beheld lay in another county
mountainous uncultivated and but recently disforested from terror of the wolves wolves alas like bandits seem to flee the traveler's advance and you may trudge through all our comfortable europe and not meet with an adventure worth the name
but here if anywhere a man was on the frontiers of hope for this was the land of the ever memorable beast the napoleon bonaparte of wolves what a career was his
he pursued armed horsemen he has been seen at broad noonday chasing a post chaise and outrider along the king's high road and chaise and outrider fleeing before him at the gallop he was placarded like a political offender
and ten thousand francs were offered for his head and yet when he was shot and sent to versailles behold a common wolf and even small for that though i could reach from pole to pole sang alexander pope
the little corporal shook europe and if all wolves had been as this wolf they would have changed the history of man
has made him the hero of a novel which i have read and do not wish to read again i hurried over my lunch and was proof against the landlady's desire that i should visit our lady of pradelles who performed many miracles although she was of wood
on both sides of the road in big dusty fields farmers were preparing for next spring every fifty yards a yoke of great necked stolid oxen were patiently haling at the plough
i saw one of these mild formidable servants of the glebe who took a sudden interest in modestine and me the furrow down which he was journeying lay at an angle to the road and his head was solidly fixed to the yoke
like those of caryatides below a ponderous cornice but he screwed round his big honest eyes and followed us with a ruminating look until his master bade him turn the plough and proceed to reascend the field
from all these furrowing ploughshares from the feet of oxen from a labourer here and there who was breaking the dry clods with a hoe the wind carried away a thin dust like so much smoke it was a fine busy breathing rustic landscape and as i continued to descend
i had crossed the loire the day before
give them peace but now
music and punitive wars
they will rarely last for five generations
with a glib tongue five confucius said
fall into three mistakes to speak before the time has come is rashness not to speak when the time has come is secrecy to speak heedless of looks is blindness
seven confucius said a gentleman has three things to guard against in the days of thy youth ere thy strength is steady
beware of lust when manhood is reached in the fulness of strength
in old age when thy strength is broken beware of greed eight confucius said
the best men are born wise next come those that grow wise by learning
ten confucius said a gentleman has nine aims to see clearly to understand what he hears to be warm in manner
dignified in bearing faithful of speech
to ask when in doubt in anger
eleven confucius said in sight of good to be filled with longing
i have heard such words
i have heard these words
but the people on his death day
these two things i have heard
i hear of courtesy and i hear too
the army on the march one sun tzu said we come now to the question of encamping the army and observing signs of the enemy
pass quickly over mountains and keep in the neighborhood of valleys two camp in high places facing the sun do not climb heights in order to fight so much
for mountain warfare three after crossing a river you should get far away from it four when an invading force crosses a river
in its onward march do not advance to meet it in mid stream it will be best to let half the army get across and then deliver your attack five
if you are anxious to fight you should not go to meet the invader near a river which he has to cross six moor your craft higher up than the enemy
and facing the sun do not move up stream to meet the enemy so much for river warfare seven in crossing salt marshes your sole concern
should be to get over them quickly without any delay eight if forced to fight in a salt marsh you should have water and grass near you and get your back to a clump of trees
so much for operations in salt marches nine in dry level country take up an easily accessible position with rising ground to your right
and on your rear so that the danger may be in front and safety lie behind so much for campaigning in flat country ten
these are the four useful branches of military knowledge which enabled the yellow emperor to vanquish four several sovereigns eleven all armies prefer high ground to low
and sunny places to dark twelve if you are careful of your men and camp on hard ground the army will be free from disease of every kind and this will spell victory
thirteen when you come to a hill or a bank occupy the sunny side with the slope on your right rear thus you will at once act for the benefit of your soldiers
and utilize the natural advantages of the ground fourteen when in consequence of heavy rains up country a river which you wish to ford is swollen and flecked with foam
you must wait until it subsides fifteen country in which there are precipitous cliffs with torrents running between deep natural hollows
confined places tangled thickets quagmires and crevasses should be left with all possible speed and not approached sixteen
while we keep away from such places we should get the enemy to approach them while we face them we should let the enemy have them on his rear seventeen
if in the neighborhood of your camp there should be any hilly country ponds surrounded by aquatic grass hollow basins filled with reeds or woods with thick undergrowth
they must be carefully routed out and searched for these are places where men in ambush or insidious spies are likely to be lurking eighteen
when the enemy is close at hand and remains quiet he is relying on the natural strength of his position nineteen when he keeps aloof and tries to provoke a battle
he is anxious for the other side to advance twenty if his place of encampment is easy of access he is tendering a bait twenty one
shows that the enemy is advancing the appearance of a number of screens in the midst of thick grass means that the enemy wants to make us suspicious twenty two
the rising of birds in their flight is the sign of an ambuscade startled beasts indicate that a sudden attack is coming
twenty three when there is dust rising in a high column
it betokens the approach of infantry when it branches out in different directions it shows that parties have been sent to collect firewood a few clouds of dust moving to and fro signify that the army
is encamping twenty four humble words and increased preparations are signs that the enemy is about to advance violent language and driving forward as if
to the attack are signs that he will retreat twenty five when the light chariots come out first and take up a position on the wings it is a sign that the enemy
is forming for battle twenty six peace proposals unaccompanied by a sworn covenant indicate a plot twenty seven
when there is much running about and the soldiers fall into rank it means that the critical moment has come twenty eight when some are seen advancing and some retreating
twenty nine when the soldiers stand leaning on their spears they are faint
thirty if those who are sent to draw water begin by drinking themselves the army is suffering from thirst thirty one
if the enemy sees an advantage to be gained and makes no effort to secure it the soldiers are exhausted thirty two if birds gather on any spot
clamor by night betokens nervousness thirty three if there is disturbance in the camp
if the banners and flags are shifted about sedition is afoot if the officers are angry it means that the men are weary thirty four
when an army feeds its horses with grain and kills its cattle for food
over the camp fires showing that they will not return to their tents you may know that they are determined to fight to the death thirty five
the sight of men whispering together in small knots or speaking in subdued tones points to disaffection amongst the rank and file thirty six
too frequent rewards signify that the enemy is at the end of his resources too many punishments betray a condition of dire distress thirty seven
to begin by bluster but afterwards to take fright at the enemy's numbers shows a supreme lack of intelligence thirty eight when
envoys are sent with compliments in their mouths it is a sign that the enemy wishes for a truce thirty nine if the enemy's troops march up angrily
and remain facing ours for a long time without either joining battle or taking themselves off again the situation is one that demands great vigilance and circumspection forty
if our troops are no more in number than the enemy that is amply sufficient it only means that no direct attack can be made what we can do is simply to concentrate
all our available strength keep a close watch on the enemy and obtain reinforcements forty one he who exercises no forethought but makes light of his opponents
is sure to be captured by them forty two if soldiers are punished before they have grown attached to you they will not prove submissive and unless submissive then
will be practically useless if when the soldiers have become attached to you punishments are not enforced they will still be useless forty three therefore
soldiers must be treated in the first instance with humanity but kept under control by means of iron discipline this is a certain road to victory forty four
if in training soldiers commands are habitually enforced the army will be well disciplined if not its discipline will be bad forty five
if a general shows confidence in his men but always insists on his orders being obeyed
four in his free moments the master was easy and cheerful five the master said how deep is my decay
i have withheld teaching from no one eight the master said
the master never ate his fill on days when he had been wailing
but since there is no sure road i tread the path i love twelve
war and sickness thirteen
i did not suppose he said
did they rue the past they sought love and found it what had they to rue
the master said
with bent arm for pillow
but ill gotten wealth and honours are to me a wandering cloud sixteen
and the upkeep of courtesy of all these
asked tzu lu about confucius tzu lu did not answer
i loved the past
walking three together i am sure of teachers i pick out the good and follow it i see the bad
the master said a holy man i shall not live to see enough could i find a gentleman a good man i shall not live to see
he shot but not at birds sitting
pick out the good and follow it
the master said i allow his coming
and lo love is come
to live as a gentleman is not yet
the master said long lasting has my prayer been
the master said a gentleman is calm and spacious
yet dignified
he sent confucius a sucking pig confucius chose a time when he was out and went to thank him they met on the road he said to confucius come
let us speak together to cherish a gem and undo the kingdom
i must take office two the master said
three
said confucius truth earnestness and kindness modesty escapes insult bounty wins the many
love of knowledge without love of learning
love of truth without love of learning sinks into cruelty love of
sinks into turbulence love of strength without love of learning sinks into oddity nine the master said
poetry would ripen you teach you insight
courtesy courtesy is the cry but are jade and silk the whole of courtesy
may lead him anywhere sixteen the master said men of old had three failings which have perhaps died out to day ambitious men of old were not nice
that is all seventeen the master said
eighteen the master said
i hate the strains of cheng confounders of sweet music i hate a sharp tongue the ruin of kingdom and home nineteen
is ended in one year the master said feeding on rice clad in brocade
twenty two the master said
to task the mind could he not play at chequers
twenty six the master said
tell me then this archetype of man if it exists anywhere it must exist eternally in the mind of god at least plato would have so said yes and derive its existence immediately from him yes
but a man is one willing person unlike to all others yes then this archetype must be such i suppose so but possessing the faculties and properties of all men in their highest perfection of course
how sweetly and obediently my late teacher becomes my pupil
with her eyes full of tears i never taught you anything raphael you taught me most beloved lady
be it so then this archetype must be a son also whose son raphael why not of zeus father of gods and men for we agreed that it
we will call it he now having agreed that it is a person could owe its existence to none but god himself and what then said hypatia fixing those glorious eyes full on his face
in an agony of doubt but yet as raphael declared to his dying day of hope and joy well hypatia and must not a son be of the same species as his father eagles says the poet
do not beget doves is the word son anything but an empty and false metaphor unless the son be the perfect and equal likeness of his father heroes beget sons worse than themselves says the poet
we are not talking now of men as they are whom homer's zeus calls the most wretched of all the beasts of the field
and a perfect and archetypal father in a perfect and eternal world wherein is neither growth decay nor change and of a perfect and archetypal generation
of which the only definition can be that like begets its perfect like you are silent be so hypatia we have gone up too far into the abysses and so they both were silent for a while
and raphael thought solemn thoughts about victoria and about ancient signs of isaiah's which were to him none the less prophecies concerning the man whom he had found because he prayed and trusted that the same signs might be repeated to himself
and a child given to him also as a token that in spite of all his baseness god was with him but he was a jew and a man
and a woman and for that matter so were the men of her school
the relations and duties of common humanity shone with none of the awful and divine meaning which they did in the eyes of the converted jew awakened for the first time in his life to know the meaning of his own scriptures and become an israelite indeed
and raphael's dialectic too though it might silence her could not convince her her creed like those of her fellow philosophers was one of the fancy and the religious sentiment rather than of the reason and the moral sense
all the brilliant cloud world in which she had revelled for years cosmogonies emanations affinities symbolisms hierarchies abysses eternities and the rest of it though she could not rest in them
not even believe in them though they had vanished into thin air at her most utter need yet they were too pretty to be lost sight of for ever and struggling against the growing conviction of her reason she answered at last
the sublime the beautiful the heavenly for a dry and barren chain of dialectic in which for aught i know for after all raphael i cannot cope with you i am a woman a weak woman
and she covered her face with her hands for aught you know what asked raphael gently you may have made the worse appear the better reason so said aristophanes of socrates
but hear me once more beloved hypatia you refuse to give up the beautiful the sublime the heavenly
had never found them till now recollect what i said just now what if our old beautiful and sublime and heavenly had been the sheerest materialism notions spun by our own brains
out of the impressions of pleasant things and high things and low things and awful things which we had seen with our bodily eyes what if i had discovered that the spiritual is not the intellectual but the moral
and that the spiritual world is not as we used to make it a world of our own intellectual abstractions or of our own physical emotions religious or other but a world of righteous or unrighteous persons
what if i had discovered that one law of the spiritual world in which all others were contained was righteousness and that disharmony with that law which we called unspirituality was not being vulgar or clumsy
or ill taught or unimaginative or dull but simply being unrighteous what if i had discovered that righteousness and it alone was the beautiful righteousness the sublime the heavenly the godlike ay
god himself and what if it had dawned on me as by a great sunrise what that righteousness was like what if i had seen a human being a woman too a young weak girl showing forth the glory and the beauty of god
showing me that the beautiful was to mingle unshrinking for duty's sake with all that is most foul and loathsome that the sublime was to stoop to the most menial offices the most outwardly degrading self denials that to be heavenly
were god's commands and only to be performed aright by the help of the same spirit by which he rules the universe that righteousness was to love to help to suffer for if need be to die for those who
in themselves seem fitted to arouse no feelings except indignation and disgust what if
for the first time i trust not for the last time in my life i saw this vision and at the sight of it my eyes were opened and i knew it for the likeness and the glory of god what if i a platonist
how much more a son of god if for the good of others man has strength to sacrifice himself in part god will have strength to sacrifice himself utterly
or he will be less beautiful less sublime less heavenly less righteous than my poor conception of him ay than this weak playful girl why should i not believe those who tell me that he has done it already
what if their evidence be after all only probability i do not want mathematical demonstration to prove to me that when a child was in danger his father saved him neither do i here
my reason my heart every faculty of me except this stupid sensuous experience which i find deceiving me every moment which cannot even prove to me my own existence accepts that story of calvary
as the most natural most probable most necessary of earthly events assuming only that god is a righteous person and not some dream of an all pervading necessary spirit nonsense which in its very terms
confesses its own materialism hypatia answered with a forced smile
has deserted the method of the severe dialectician for that of the eloquent lover not altogether said he smiling in return for suppose that i had said to myself we platonists agree that the sight of god is the highest good
and if he be righteous and righteousness be as i know it to be identical with love then he will desire that highest good for men far more than they can desire it for themselves then he will desire to show himself
and his own righteousness to them will you make answer dearest hypatia or shall i or does your silence give consent at least let me go on to say this that if god do desire to show his righteousness to men
his only perfect method according to plato will be that of calumny persecution the scourge and the cross that so he like glaucon's righteous man
may remain for ever free from any suspicion of selfish interest or weakness of endurance am i deserting the dialectic method now hypatia you are still silent you will not hear me i see at some future day
the philosopher may condescend to lend a kinder ear to the words of her greatest debtor or rather she may condescend to hear in her own heart the voice of that archetypal man who has been loving her guiding her
heaping her with every perfection of body and of mind inspiring her with all pure and noble longings
to listen to her own reason her own philosophy when they proclaim him as the giver of them and to impart them freely and humbly
to the poor and the brutish and the sinful
farewell stay said she springing up whither are you going to do a little good before i die having done much evil to farm plant and build
to fight ausurian robbers feed thracian mercenaries save a few widows from starvation and a few orphans from slavery
we shall have trouble in the flesh augustine tells us but as i answered him i really have had so little thereof yet that my fair share may probably be rather a useful education than otherwise farewell
stay said she come again again
bring her i must see her she must be noble indeed
she is many a hundred miles away ah perhaps she might have taught something to me me the philosopher you need not have feared me i have no heart to make converts now
why break the bruised reed my plans are scattered to the winds my pupils worthless my fair name tarnished my conscience heavy with the thought of my own cruelty if you do not know all
why not fold my mantle round me like julius of old and die raphael stood looking sadly at her as her whole face sank into utter prostration yes come the galilaean
if he conquers strong men can the weak maid resist him come soon this afternoon my heart is breaking fast at the eighth hour this afternoon yes at noon i lecture take my farewell rather for ever of the schools
gods what have i to say and tell me about him of nazareth farewell farewell beloved lady at the ninth hour you shall hear of him of nazareth why did his own words sound to him strangely pregnant
all but ominous he almost fancied that not he but some third person had spoken them he kissed hypatia's hand it was as cold as ice and his heart too in spite of all his bliss
felt cold and heavy as he left the room as he went down the steps into the street a young man sprang from behind one of the pillars
what do you want with me philammon for it was he looked at him an instant and recognised him save her for the love of god save her whom
for god's sake said philammon go back and warn her she will hear you you are rich you used to be her friend i know you i have heard of you oh if you ever cared for her if you ever felt for her a thousandth part of what i feel
go in and warn her not to stir from home i must hear more of this said raphael who saw that the boy was in earnest come in with me and speak to her father no not in that house never in that house again do not ask me why
but go yourself she will not hear me did you did you prevent her from listening what do you mean i have been here ages i sent a note in by her maid and she returned no answer
raphael recollected then for the first time a note which he had seen brought to her during the conversation i saw her receive a note she tossed it away tell me your story if there is reason in it
i will bear your message myself of what is she to be warned of a plot i know that there is a plot against her among the monks and parabolani as i lay in bed this morning in arsenius's room they thought i was asleep
arsenius has that venerable fanatic then gone the way of all monastic flesh and turned persecutor god forbid i heard him beseeching peter the reader to refrain from something
i heard peter say she that hindereth
and when he went out into the passage i heard him say to another
these are slender grounds my friend ah
philammon blushed and burst forth again
i know the hatred which they bear her the crimes which they attribute to her her house would have been attacked last night had it not been for cyril and i knew peter's tone he spoke too gently and softly not to mean something devilish
strictly commanding that no visitor should be admitted where was theon then he had gone out by the canal gate half an hour before with a bundle of mathematical papers under his arm no one knew whither
and he hastily wrote on his tablet do not despise the young monk's warning i believe him to speak the truth
he bribed a maid to take the message upstairs and passed his time in the hall in warning the servants but they would not believe him it was true the shops were shut in some quarters and the museum gardens empty
people were a little frightened after yesterday but cyril they had heard for certain had threatened excommunication only last night to any christian who broke the peace and there had not been a monk to be seen in the streets the whole morning
and as for any harm happening to their mistress impossible the very wild beasts would not tear her said the huge negro porter if she was thrown into the amphitheatre whereat a maid boxed his ears for talking of such a thing
and then by way of mending it declared that she knew for certain that her mistress could turn aside the lightning and call legions of spirits to fight for her with a nod what was to be done with such idolaters and yet who could help liking them the better for it
at last the answer came down in the old graceful studied self conscious handwriting it is a strange way of persuading me to your new faith to bid me beware on the very first day of your preaching
of the wickedness of those who believe it i thank you but your affection for me makes you timorous i dread nothing they will not dare did they dare now they would have dared long ago as for that youth to obey or to believe his word
even to seem aware of his existence were shame to me henceforth because he is insolent enough to warn me therefore i will go fear not for me you would not wish me for the first time in my life to fear for myself
i must follow my destiny i must speak the words which i have to speak above all i must let no christian say that the philosopher dared less than the fanatic if my gods are gods
and if not let your god prove his rule as seems to him good raphael tore the letter to fragments the guards at least were not gone mad like the rest of the world it wanted half an hour of the time of her lecture
in the interval he might summon force enough to crush all alexandria and turning suddenly he darted out of the room and out of the house
cried he to philammon with a gesture of grief stay here and stop her make a last appeal drag the horses heads down if you can i will be back in ten minutes and he ran off for the nearest gate of the museum gardens
on the other side of the gardens lay the courtyard of the palace there were gates in plenty communicating between them if he could but see orestes even alarm the guard in time and he hurried through the walks and alcoves
now deserted by the fearful citizens to the nearest gate it was fast and barricaded firmly on the outside terrified he ran on to the next it was barred also he saw the reason in a moment
and maddened as he saw it the guards careless about the museum or reasonably fearing no danger from the alexandrian populace to the glory and wonder of their city or perhaps wishing wisely enough to concentrate their forces
in the narrowest space had contented themselves with cutting off all communication with the gardens and so converting the lofty partition wall
at all events the doors leading from the museum itself might be open he knew them every one every hall passage statue picture
almost every book in that vast treasure house of ancient civilisation he found an entrance hurried through well known corridors to a postern through which he and orestes had lounged a hundred times
their lips full of bad words their hearts of worse thoughts gathered in those records of the fair wickedness of old it was fast
no one answered there another still silence and despair he rushed upstairs hoping that from the windows above he might be able to call to the guard
the prudent soldiers had locked and barricaded the entrances to the upper floors of the whole right wing lest the palace court should be commanded from thence whither now back and whither then back round endless galleries
vaulted halls staircases doorways some fast some open up and down trying this way and that losing himself at whiles in that enormous silent labyrinth and his breath failed him his throat was parched
his face burned as with the simoom wind his legs were trembling under him his presence of mind usually so perfect failed him utterly he was baffled netted there was a spell upon him was it a dream
was it all one of those hideous nightmares of endless pillars beyond pillars stairs above stairs rooms within rooms changing shifting lengthening out for ever and for ever before the dreamer narrowing
closing in on him choking him
a few moments later about three o'clock courfeyrac chanced to be passing along the rue mouffetard in company with bossuet the snow had redoubled in violence and filled the air bossuet was just saying to courfeyrac
one would say to see all these snow flakes fall that there was a plague of white butterflies in heaven all at once bossuet caught sight of marius coming up the street towards the barrier with a peculiar air hold said bossuet there's marius
i saw him said courfeyrac don't let's speak to him why he is busy with what don't you see his air what air he has the air of a man who is following some one
just see the eyes he is making said courfeyrac but who the deuce is he following some fine flowery bonneted wench he's in love but observed bossuet i don't see any wench nor any flowery bonnet in the street
there's not a woman round courfeyrac took a survey and exclaimed he's following a man a man in fact wearing a gray cap and whose gray beard could be distinguished although they only saw his back
was walking along about twenty paces in advance of marius this man was dressed in a great coat which was perfectly new and too large for him and in a frightful pair of trousers all hanging in rags and black with mud
who is that man he retorted courfeyrac he's a poet poets are very fond of wearing the trousers of dealers in rabbit skins and the overcoats of peers of france let's see where marius will go said bossuet
let's see where the man is going let's follow them hey bossuet exclaimed courfeyrac eagle of meaux
without a suspicion that he was already held by a glance he quitted the rue mouffetard and marius saw him enter one of the most terrible hovels in the rue gracieuse he remained there about a quarter of an hour
then returned to the rue mouffetard he halted at an ironmonger's shop which then stood at the corner of the rue pierre lombard and a few minutes later marius saw him emerge from the shop holding in his hand a huge cold chisel
with a white wood handle which he concealed beneath his great coat at the top of the rue petit gentilly
the day was declining the snow which had ceased for a moment had just begun again
which was deserted as usual and did not follow jondrette into it it was lucky that he did so for on arriving in the vicinity of the wall where marius had heard the long haired man and the bearded man conversing
jondrette turned round made sure that no one was following him did not see him then sprang across the wall and disappeared the waste land bordered by this wall
communicated with the back yard of an ex livery stable keeper of bad repute who had failed and who still kept a few old single seated berlins under his sheds
marius thought that it would be wise to profit by jondrette's absence to return home moreover it was growing late every evening ma'am bougon when she set out for her dish washing in town had a habit of locking the door
which was always closed at dusk marius had given his key to the inspector of police it was important therefore that he should make haste evening had arrived night had almost closed in
on the horizon and in the immensity of space there remained but one spot illuminated by the sun and that was the moon it was rising in a ruddy glow behind the low dome of salpetriere
the door was still open when he arrived he mounted the stairs on tip toe and glided along the wall of the corridor to his chamber this corridor as the reader will remember was bordered on both sides by attics all of which were for the moment
empty and to let ma'am bougon was in the habit of leaving all the doors open as he passed one of these attics marius thought he perceived in the uninhabited cell the motionless heads of four men
vaguely lighted up by a remnant of daylight falling through a dormer window marius made no attempt to see not wishing to be seen himself
he succeeded in reaching his chamber without being seen and without making any noise it was high time a moment later he heard ma'am bougon take her departure locking the door of the house behind her
in which will be found the words to an english air which was in fashion in eighteen thirty two marius seated himself on his bed it might have been half past five o'clock only half an hour separated him from what was about to happen
he heard the beating of his arteries as one hears the ticking of a watch in the dark he thought of the double march which was going on at that moment in the dark crime advancing on one side justice coming up on the other he was not afraid
but he could not think without a shudder of what was about to take place as is the case with all those who are suddenly assailed by an unforeseen adventure the entire day produced upon him the effect of a dream
and in order to persuade himself that he was not the prey of a nightmare he had to feel the cold barrels of the steel pistols in his trousers pockets it was no longer snowing the moon disengaged itself more and more clearly from the mist
and its light mingled with the white reflection of the snow which had fallen communicated to the chamber a sort of twilight aspect there was a light in the jondrette den
marius saw the hole in the wall shining with a reddish glow which seemed bloody to him it was true that the light could not be produced by a candle however there was not a sound in the jondrette quarters not a soul was moving there
not a soul speaking not a breath the silence was glacial and profound and had it not been for that light he might have thought himself next door to a sepulchre marius softly removed his boots and pushed them under his bed
several minutes elapsed marius heard the lower door turn on its hinges a heavy step mounted the staircase
the latch of the hovel was noisily lifted it was jondrette returning instantly several voices arose the whole family was in the garret only it had been silent in the master's absence
like wolf whelps in the absence of the wolf it's i said he good evening daddy yelped the girls well said the mother all's going first rate responded jondrette but my feet are beastly cold
good you have dressed up you have done well you must inspire confidence all ready to go out don't forget what i told you you will do everything sure rest easy because said jondrette
and he left the phrase unfinished marius heard him lay something heavy on the table probably the chisel which he had purchased by the way said jondrette have you been eating here yes said the mother
i got three large potatoes and some salt i took advantage of the fire to cook them good returned jondrette to morrow i will take you out to dine with me we will have a duck and fixings you shall dine like charles the tenth all is going well
marius heard a sound of charcoal being knocked with the tongs or some iron utensil and jondrette continued have you greased the hinges of the door so that they will not squeak yes replied the mother
what time is it nearly six
the devil ejaculated jondrette the children must go and watch come you do you listen here a whispering ensued jondrette's voice became audible again has old bougon left yes said the mother
are you sure that there is no one in our neighbor's room he has not been in all day and you know very well that this is his dinner hour you are sure sure all the same said jondrette there's no harm in going to see whether he is there
here my girl take the candle and go there marius fell on his hands and knees and crawled silently under his bed hardly had he concealed himself when he perceived a light through the crack of his door p'pa cried a voice
he is not in here he recognized the voice of the eldest daughter did you go in demanded her father no replied the girl but as his key is in the door he must be out the father exclaimed go in nevertheless
the door opened and marius saw the tall jondrette come in with a candle in her hand she was as she had been in the morning only still more repulsive in this light she walked straight up to the bed
she stepped to the window and looked out with the half foolish way she had
she returned to the mirror and began again to put on airs before it
and marius heard the sound of the two young girls bare feet in the corridor and jondrette's voice shouting to them pay strict heed one on the side of the barrier
don't lose sight for a moment of the door of this house and the moment you see anything rush here on the instant as hard as you can go you have a key to get in the eldest girl grumbled the idea of standing watch in the snow barefoot
to morrow you shall have some dainty little green silk boots said the father they ran down stairs and a few seconds later the shock of the outer door as it banged to announced that they were outside
a line of doors flew open and a lot of men stepped out headlong they had high hats healthy pale faces dark overcoats and shiny boots they held in their gloved hands thin umbrellas and hastily folded evening papers
that resembled stiff dirty rags of greenish pinkish or whitish colour alvan hervey stepped out with the rest a smouldering cigar between his teeth a disregarded little woman in rusty black with both arms full of parcels
no one spared him a glance alvan hervey passed through the ticket gate between the bare walls of a sordid staircase men clambered rapidly their backs appeared alike
almost as if they had been wearing a uniform their indifferent faces were varied but somehow suggested kinship
dignity disgust or foresight would resolutely ignore each other and their eyes quick or slow their eyes gazing up the dusty steps their eyes brown black gray blue had all the same stare
concentrated and empty satisfied and unthinking outside the big doorway of the street they scattered in all directions walking away fast from one another
from familiarity or confidences from something suspected and concealed like truth or pestilence alvan hervey hesitated standing alone in the doorway for a moment then decided to walk home
he strode firmly a misty rain settled like silvery dust on clothes on moustaches wetted the faces varnished the flagstones darkened the walls dripped from umbrellas
by the easy mastery over animals and over needy men he was going home much earlier than usual straight from the city and without calling at his club he considered himself
well connected well educated and intelligent who doesn't but his connections education and intelligence were strictly on a par with those of the men with whom he did business or amused himself he had married five years ago at the time
all his acquaintances had said he was very much in love and he had said so himself frankly because it is very well understood that every man falls in love once in his life unless his wife dies when it may be quite praiseworthy to fall in love again
the girl was healthy tall fair and in his opinion was well connected well educated and intelligent she was also intensely bored with her home where as if packed in a tight box
her individuality of which she was very conscious had no play she strode like a grenadier was strong and upright like an obelisk had a beautiful face a candid brow pure eyes
he surrendered quickly to all those charms and she appeared to him so unquestionably of the right sort that he did not hesitate for a moment to declare himself in love under the cover of that sacred and poetical fiction he desired her masterfully
for various reasons but principally for the satisfaction of having his own way he was very dull and solemn about it for no earthly reason unless to conceal his feelings which is an eminently proper thing to do
nobody however would have been shocked had he neglected that duty for the feeling he experienced really was a longing a longing stronger and a little more complex no doubt but no more reprehensible in its nature than a hungry man's appetite for his dinner
after their marriage they busied themselves with marked success in enlarging the circle of their acquaintance thirty people knew them by sight twenty more with smiling demonstrations
tolerated their occasional presence within hospitable thresholds at least fifty others became aware of their existence they moved in their enlarged world amongst perfectly delightful men and women who feared emotion enthusiasm or failure
more than fire war or mortal disease who tolerated only the commonest formulas of commonest thoughts and recognized only profitable facts it was an extremely charming sphere the abode of all the virtues
to conceal the pitiless materialism of thoughts and aspirations alvan hervey and his wife spent five years of prudent bliss unclouded by any doubt as to the moral propriety of their existence she to give her individuality fair play
took up all manner of philanthropic work and became a member of various rescuing and reforming societies patronized or presided over by ladies of title he took an active interest in politics and having met quite by chance a literary man who nevertheless was related to an earl
he was induced to finance a moribund society paper it was a semi political and wholly scandalous publication redeemed by excessive dulness and as it was utterly faithless
and he enjoyed also the special kind of importance he derived from this connection with what he imagined to be literature this connection still further enlarged their world
men who wrote or drew prettily for the public came at times to their house and his editor came very often he thought him rather an ass because he had such big front teeth
elegant and bulky in the drawing room
and talked for hours with a thick lipped smile he said nothing that could be considered objectionable and not quite the thing talked in an unusual manner not obviously irritatingly his forehead was too lofty unusually so
and under it there was a straight nose lost between the hairless cheeks that in a smooth curve ran into a chin shaped like the end of a snow shoe and in this face that resembled the face of a fat and fiendishly knowing baby
there glittered a pair of clever peering unbelieving black eyes he wrote verses too rather an ass but the band of men who trailed at the skirts of his monumental frock coat seemed to perceive wonderful things in what he said
alvan hervey put it down to affectation those artist chaps upon the whole were so affected still all this was highly proper very useful to him and his wife seemed to like it as if she also had derived some distinct and secret advantage
from this intellectual connection she received her mixed and decorous guests with a kind of tall ponderous grace
annexing street after street it included also somebody's gardens a crescent a couple of squares thus alvan hervey and his wife for five prosperous years lived by the side of one another
in time they came to know each other sufficiently well for all the practical purposes of such an existence but they were no more capable of real intimacy than two animals feeding at the same manger under the same roof in a luxurious stable
and her own share of the world's respect envy and applause they understood each other warily tacitly like a pair of cautious conspirators in a profitable plot because they were both unable to look at a fact
a sentiment a principle or a belief otherwise than in the light of their own dignity of their own glorification of their own advantage they skimmed over the surface of life hand in hand in a pure and frosty atmosphere
like two skilful skaters cutting figures on thick ice for the admiration of the beholders and disdainfully ignoring the hidden stream the stream restless and dark the stream of life profound and unfrozen
there was nothing unusual in that he said no no tea and went upstairs he ascended without footfalls brass rods glimmered all up the red carpet on the first floor landing a marble woman
decently covered from neck to instep with stone draperies advanced a row of lifeless toes to the edge of the pedestal and thrust out blindly a rigid white arm holding a cluster of lights he had artistic tastes at home
a young lady sprawled with dreamy eyes in a moored boat in company of a lunch basket a champagne bottle and an enamoured man in a blazer bare legged boys flirted sweetly with ragged maidens
seemed to represent a massacre turned into stone he looked of course at nothing ascended another flight of stairs and went straight into the dressing room
a bronze dragon nailed by the tail to a bracket writhed away from the wall in calm convolutions and held between the conventional fury of its jaws a crude gas flame that resembled a butterfly
the room was empty of course but as he stepped in it became filled all at once with a stir of many people because the strips of glass on the doors of wardrobes and his wife's large pier glass
reflected him from head to foot and multiplied his image into a crowd of gentlemanly and slavish imitators who were dressed exactly like himself had the same restrained and rare gestures who moved when he moved
stood still with him in an obsequious immobility and had just such appearances of life and feeling as he thought it dignified and safe for any man to manifest and like real people who are slaves of common thoughts that are not even their own
they seemed to dodge behind walnut furniture to be seen again far within the polished panes stepping about distinct and unreal in the convincing illusion of a room and like the men he respected they could be trusted to do nothing individual
original or startling nothing unforeseen and nothing improper he moved for a time aimlessly in that good company humming a popular but refined tune and thinking vaguely of a business letter from abroad
the square white patch of an envelope it was such an unusual thing to be seen there that he spun round almost before he realized his surprise and all the sham men about him pivoted on their heels all appeared surprised
struck him as so outrageous that thinking of it he experienced suddenly a staggering sense of insecurity an absurd and bizarre flash of a notion that the house had moved a little under his feet he tore the envelope open glanced at the letter
and sat down in a chair near by he held the paper before his eyes and looked at half a dozen lines scrawled on the page
a great aimless uproar that in a manner prevented him from hearing himself think and made his mind an absolute blank this absurd and distracting tumult seemed to ooze out of the written words
that trembled holding the paper and suddenly he dropped the letter as though it had been something hot or venomous or filthy and rushing to the window with the unreflecting precipitation of a man anxious to raise an alarm of fire or murder
he threw it up and put his head out a chill gust of wind wandering through the damp and sooty obscurity over the waste of roofs and chimney pots touched his face with a clammy flick he saw an illimitable darkness
in which stood a black jumble of walls and between them the many rows of gaslights stretched far away in long lines like strung up beads of fire
a sinister loom as of a hidden conflagration lit up faintly from below the mist falling upon a billowy and motionless sea of tiles and bricks at the rattle of the opened window the world seemed to leap out of the night and confront him
while floating up to his ears there came a sound vast and faint the deep mutter of something immense and alive it penetrated him with a feeling of dismay and he gasped silently
from the cab stand in the square came distinct hoarse voices and a jeering laugh which sounded ominously harsh and cruel it sounded threatening he drew his head in
as if before an aimed blow and flung the window down quickly he made a few steps stumbled against a chair and with a great effort pulled himself together to lay hold of a certain thought that was whizzing about loose in his head
he got it at last after more exertion than he expected he was flushed and puffed a little as though he had been catching it with his hands but his mental hold on it was weak
to hear it spoken firmly in order to insure a perfect measure of possession but he was unwilling to hear his own voice to hear any sound whatever owing to a vague belief shaping itself slowly within him
that solitude and silence are the greatest felicities of mankind the next moment it dawned upon him that they are perfectly unattainable that faces must be seen words spoken
thoughts heard all the words all the thoughts he said very distinctly and looking at the carpet
not the fact but the words the words charged with the shadowy might of a meaning that seemed to possess the tremendous power to call fate down upon the earth like those strange and appalling words
that sometimes are heard in sleep they vibrated round him in a metallic atmosphere in a space that had the hardness of iron and the resonance of a bell of bronze looking down between the toes of his boots
and travelling away widening endlessly far very far where he could not hear where he could not imagine anything where and with that ass
he said again without stirring in the least and there was nothing but humiliation nothing else he could derive no moral solace from any aspect of the situation
which radiated pain only on every side pain what kind of pain it occurred to him that he ought to be heart broken but in an exceedingly short moment
he perceived that his suffering was nothing of so trifling and dignified a kind it was altogether a more serious matter and partook rather of the nature of those subtle and cruel feelings which are awakened by a kick or a horse whipping
he felt very sick physically sick as though he had bitten through something nauseous life that to a well ordered mind should be a matter of congratulation
appeared to him for a second or so perfectly intolerable he picked up the paper at his feet and sat down with the wish to think it out to understand why his wife his wife should leave him should throw away respect
comfort peace decency position throw away everything for nothing he set himself to think out the hidden logic of her action a mental undertaking fit for the leisure hours of a madhouse though he couldn't see it
and he thought of his wife in every relation except the only fundamental one he thought of her as a well bred girl as a wife as a cultured person as the mistress of a house as a lady but he never for a moment thought of her simply
as a woman then a fresh wave a raging wave of humiliation swept through his mind
and left nothing there but a personal sense of undeserved abasement why should he be mixed up with such a horrid exposure
by a truth effective and unjust like a calumny and the past was wasted its failure was disclosed a distinct failure on his part to see to guard to understand it could not be denied it could not be explained away hustled out of sight
he could not sit on it and look solemn now if she had only died if she had only died he was driven to envy such a respectable bereavement
and one so perfectly free from any taint of misfortune that even his best friend or his best enemy would not have felt the slightest thrill of exultation no one would have cared he sought comfort in clinging to the contemplation of the only fact of life
that the resolute efforts of mankind had never failed to disguise in the clatter and glamour of phrases and nothing lends itself more to lies than death if she had only died certain words would have been said to him in a sad tone and he with proper fortitude
would have made appropriate answers there were precedents for such an occasion and no one would have cared if she had only died
and life was his concern that sane and gratifying existence untroubled by too much love or by too much regret she had interfered with it she had defaced it and suddenly it occurred to him he must have been mad to marry
it was too much in the nature of giving yourself away of wearing if for a moment your heart on your sleeve but every one married was all mankind mad
in the shock of that startling thought he looked up and saw to the left to the right in front men sitting far off in chairs and looking at him with wild eyes
emissaries of a distracted mankind intruding to spy upon his pain and his humiliation it was not to be borne he rose quickly and the others jumped up too on all sides
he stood still in the middle of the room as if discouraged by their vigilance no escape he felt something akin to despair everybody must know the servants must know to night he ground his teeth and he had never noticed
never guessed anything every one will know he thought the woman's a monster but everybody will think me a fool and standing still in the midst of severe walnut wood furniture
something unknown withering and poisonous had entered his life passed near him touched him and he was deteriorating he was appalled what was it she was gone why
everything was changed why only a woman gone after all and yet he had a vision a vision quick and distinct as a dream
the vision of everything he had thought indestructible and safe in the world crashing down about him like solid walls do before the fierce breath of a hurricane he stared shaking in every limb while he felt the destructive breath
the mysterious breath the breath of passion stir the profound peace of the house he looked round in fear yes crime may be forgiven uncalculating sacrifice
a thing to curse to hide and to deny a shameless and forlorn thing that tramples upon the smiling promises that tears off the placid mask that strips the body of life and it had come to him
it had laid its unclean hand upon the spotless draperies of his existence and he had to face it alone with all the world looking on all the world and he thought that even
the bare suspicion of such an adversary within his house carried with it a taint and a condemnation he put both his hands out as if to ward off the reproach of a defiling truth and instantly
he glanced vainly here and there like a man looking in desperation for a weapon or for a hiding place
without any squeamishness would strike so as to lay open his heart he could get help nowhere or even take counsel with himself because in the sudden shock of her desertion the sentiments which he knew that in fidelity to his bringing up
he ought to experience were so mixed up with the novelty of real feelings of fundamental feelings that know nothing of creed class or education that he was unable to distinguish clearly between what is and what ought to be
between the inexcusable truth and the valid pretences and he knew instinctively that truth would be of no use to him some kind of concealment seemed a necessity because one cannot explain of course not
who would listen one had simply to be without stain and without reproach to keep one's place in the forefront of life he said to himself
i must get over it the best i can and began to walk up and down the room what next what ought to be done he thought i will travel
for no one would be likely to converse with him about the abominable conduct of that
he argued to himself that decent people and he knew no others did not care to talk about such indelicate affairs she had gone off with that unhealthy fat ass of a journalist why
he had been all a husband ought to be he had given her a good position she shared his prospects he had treated her invariably with great consideration he reviewed his conduct with a kind of dismal pride it had been irreproachable
and the indelicate aspect of his domestic misfortune struck him with such shame that next moment
for him to induce a general belief that he had been in the habit of beating his wife some fellows do
for it was clear he had lived with the root of it for five years and it was too shameful
but he gave it up directly and began to think of the divorce court it did not present itself to him notwithstanding his respect for law and usage as a proper refuge for dignified grief
it appeared rather as an unclean and sinister cavern where men and women are haled by adverse fate
it should not be allowed that woman five years married five years and never to see anything not to the very last day not till she coolly went off
and he pictured to himself all the people he knew engaged in speculating as to whether all that time he had been blind foolish or infatuated what a woman blind not at all
could a clean minded man imagine such depravity evidently not he drew a free breath that was the attitude to take it was dignified enough it gave him the advantage
and he could not help perceiving that it was moral he yearned unaffectedly to see morality in his person triumphant before the world
as to her she would be forgotten let her be forgotten buried in oblivion lost no one would allude refined people and every man and woman he knew could be so described had of course a horror of such topics
had they oh yes no one would allude to her in his hearing he stamped his foot tore the letter across then again and again the thought of sympathizing friends excited in him a fury of mistrust
he flung down the small bits of paper they settled fluttering at his feet and looked very white on the dark carpet like a scattered handful of snow flakes
this fit of hot anger was succeeded by a sudden sadness by the darkening passage of a thought that ran over the scorched surface of his heart like upon a barren plain
and after a fiercer assault of sunrays the melancholy and cooling shadow of a cloud he realized that he had had a shock not a violent or rending blow that can be seen
keep chained deep down in the inscrutable twilight of our breasts a dark curtain seemed to rise before him and for less than a second he looked upon the mysterious universe of moral suffering
as a landscape is seen complete and vast and vivid under a flash of lightning so he could see disclosed in a moment all the immensity of pain that can be contained in one short moment of human thought
then the curtain fell again but his rapid vision left in alvan hervey's mind a trail of invincible sadness a sense of loss and bitter solitude as though he had been robbed and exiled
for a moment he ceased to be a member of society with a position a career and a name attached to all this like a descriptive label of some complicated compound he was a simple human being
and squares he stood alone naked and afraid like the first man on the first day of evil there are in life events contacts glimpses
that seem brutally to bring all the past to a close there is a shock and a crash as of a gate flung to behind one by the perfidious hand of fate go and seek another paradise
fool or sage there is a moment of dumb dismay and the wanderings must begin again the painful explaining away of facts
the charming legend of a heartless country of a promised land all flowers and blessings he came to himself with a slight start
and was moved so deeply by the oppressive sorrow that another turn of the screw he felt would bring tears out of his eyes he was deteriorating five years of life in common had appeased his longing yes long time ago
the first five months did that but there was the habit the habit of her person of her smile of her gestures of her voice of her silence she had a pure brow and good hair
he was surprised by the number of details that intruded upon his unwilling memory he could not help remembering her footsteps the rustle of her dress her way of holding her head her decisive manner of saying alvan
the quiver of her nostrils when she was annoyed all that had been so much his property so intimately and specially his he raged in a mournful silent way as he took stock of his losses
he was like a man counting the cost of an unlucky speculation irritated depressed exasperated with himself and with others with the fortunate with the indifferent with the callous
foreigners do they also kill sometimes in such circumstances and to his horror he felt himself driven to regret almost that the usages of a society ready to forgive the shooting of a burglar forbade him
under the circumstances even as much as a thought of murder nevertheless he clenched his fists and set his teeth hard and he was afraid at the same time
in the very middle of a beat to turn one's heart into a handful of dust the contamination of her crime spread out tainted the universe tainted himself woke up all the dormant infamies of the world
caused a ghastly kind of clairvoyance in which he could see the towns and fields of the earth its sacred places its temples and its houses peopled by monsters by monsters of duplicity lust and murder she was a monster
he himself was thinking monstrous thoughts and yet he was like other people how many men and women at this very moment were plunged in abominations meditated crimes it was frightful to think of
each seemed now an abode of anguish and folly and his thought as if appalled stood still recalling with dismay the decorous and frightful silence that was like a conspiracy
the grim impenetrable silence of miles of walls concealing passions misery thoughts of crime surely he was not the only man his was not the only house and yet no one knew no one guessed
but he knew he knew with unerring certitude that could not be deceived by the correct silence of walls of closed doors of curtained windows
like a man informed of a deadly secret the secret of a calamity threatening the safety of mankind the sacredness
for on this bright morning the young master of cripple corner is married to its young mistress far away to wit in the little town of brieg in switzerland lying at the foot of the simplon pass where she saved his life
the bells ring gaily in the little town of brieg and flags are stretched across the street and rifle shots are heard and sounding music from brass instruments
in the public way before the inn and there will be free feasting and revelry what with bells and banners draperies hanging from windows
the little town of brieg is all in a flutter like the hearts of its simple people it was a stormy night last night and the mountains are covered with snow but the sun is bright to day
the sweet air is fresh the tin spires of the little town of brieg are burnished silver and the alps are ranges of far off white cloud in a deep blue sky the primitive people of the little town of brieg
have built a greenwood arch across the street under which the newly married pair shall pass in triumph from the church it is inscribed on that side honour and love to marguerite vendale
for the people are proud of her to enthusiasm this greeting of the bride under her new name is affectionately meant as a surprise and therefore the arrangement has been made that she unconscious why
a scheme not difficult to carry into execution in the crooked little town of brieg so all things are in readiness and they are to go and come on foot assembled in the inn's best chamber
festively adorned are the bride and bridegroom the neuchatel notary the london lawyer madame dor and a certain large mysterious englishman popularly known
and behold madame dor arrayed in a spotless pair of gloves of her own with no hand in the air but both hands clasped round the neck of the bride
to embrace whom madame dor has turned her broad back on the company consistent to the last forgive me my beautiful pleads madame dor for that i ever was his she cat
she cat madame dor engaged to sit watching my so charming mouse are the explanatory words of madame dor delivered with a penitential sob why
you were our best friend george dearest tell madame dor was she not our best friend
what should we have done without her you are both so generous cries madame dor accepting consolation and immediately relapsing but i commenced as a she cat ah but
like the cat in the fairy story good madame dor says vendale saluting her cheek you were a true woman and being a true woman the sympathy of your heart was with true love
i don't wish to deprive madame dor of her share in the embraces that are going on mister bintrey puts in watch in hand and i don't presume to offer any objection to your having got yourselves mixed together in the corner there
like the three graces i merely remark that i think it's time we were moving what are your sentiments on that subject mister ladle clear sir replies joey with a gracious grin
i'm clearer altogether sir for having lived so many weeks upon the surface i never was half so long upon the surface afore and it's done me a power of good at cripple corner
i was too much below it atop of the simpleton i was a deal too high above it i've found the medium here sir and if ever i take it in convivial in all the rest of my days
i mean to do it this day to the toast of bless em both i too says bintrey
let you and me be two men of marseilles
arm in arm they go down to the door where others are waiting for them and they go quietly to the church and the happy marriage takes place while the ceremony is yet in progress the notary is called out
when it is finished he has returned is standing behind vendale and touches him on the shoulder go to the side door one moment monsieur vendale alone leave madame to me
at the side door of the church are the same two men from the hospice they are snow stained and travel worn they wish him joy and then each lays his broad hand upon vendale's breast
and one says in a low voice while the other steadfastly regards him it is here monsieur your litter the very same my litter is here why hush for the sake of madame
your companion of that day what of him the man looks at his comrade and his comrade takes him up each keeps his hand laid earnestly on vendale's breast
for some days the weather was now good now bad yes he arrived at our hospice the day before yesterday and having refreshed himself with sleep on the floor before the fire wrapped in his cloak
was resolute to go on before dark to the next hospice he had a great fear of that part of the way and thought it would be worse to morrow yes he went on alone
he had passed the gallery when an avalanche
we must ascend the street outside madame must not see
until madame has passed through as you descend we who accompany the litter will set it down on the stones of the street the second to the right and will stand before it
but do not let madame turn her head towards the street the second to the right there is no time to lose madame will be alarmed by your absence adieu vendale returns to his bride
and draws her hand through his unmainied arm a pretty procession awaits them at the main door of the church they take their station in it
and descend the street amidst the ringing of the bells the firing of the guns the waving of the flags the playing of the music the shouts the smiles and tears of the excited town heads are uncovered as she passes
hands are kissed to her all the people bless her heaven's benediction on the dear girl see where she goes in her youth and beauty
near the corner of the street the second to the right he speaks to her and calls her attention to the windows on the opposite side the corner well passed he says do not look round my darling
for a reason that i have and turns his head then looking back along the street he sees the litter and its bearers passing up alone under the arch as he and she
and their marriage train
an ancient english cathedral tower how can the ancient english cathedral tower be here the well known massive gray square tower of its old cathedral
how can that be here there is no spike of rusty iron in the air
what is the spike that intervenes and who has set it up maybe it is set up by the sultan's orders for the impaling of a horde of turkish robbers one by one
it is so for cymbals clash and the sultan goes by to his palace in long procession ten thousand scimitars flash in the sunlight and thrice ten thousand dancing girls strew flowers then
follow white elephants caparisoned in countless gorgeous colours and infinite in number and attendants still the cathedral tower rises in the background where it cannot be
and still no writhing figure is on the grim spike stay is the spike so low a thing as the rusty spike on the top of a post of an old bedstead
that has tumbled all awry some vague period of drowsy laughter must be devoted to the consideration of this possibility
shaking from head to foot the man whose scattered consciousness
and looks around he is in the meanest and closest of small rooms through the ragged window curtain the light of early day steals in from a miserable court he lies dressed
across a large unseemly bed upon a bedstead that has indeed given way under the weight upon it lying also dressed and also across the bed not longwise are a chinaman
a lascar and a haggard woman the two first are in a sleep or stupor the last is blowing at a kind of pipe to kindle it and as she blows and shading it with her lean hand
concentrates its red spark of light it serves in the dim morning as a lamp to show him what he sees of her another says this woman
in a querulous rattling whisper have another he looks about him with his hand to his forehead ye've smoked as many as five since ye come in at midnight
the woman goes on as she chronically complains
bad them two come in after ye
few chinamen about the docks
and no ships coming in these say here's another ready for ye deary ye'll remember like a good soul won't ye that the market price is dreffle high just now
and jack chinaman t'other side the court but he can't do it as well as me has the true secret of mixing it ye'll pay up accordingly deary won't ye
she blows at the pipe as she speaks and occasionally bubbling at it inhales much of its contents
my lungs is bad it's nearly ready for ye deary
i see ye coming to and i ses to my poor self i'll have another ready for him and he'll bear in mind the market price of opium and pay according
o my poor head i makes my pipes of old penny ink bottles ye see deary this is one and i fits in a mouthpiece this way
and i takes my mixter out of this thimble with this little horn spoon and so i fills deary ah my poor nerves
i got heavens hard drunk for sixteen year afore i took to this
and it takes away the hunger as well as wittles deary she hands him the nearly emptied pipe and sinks back turning over on her face
he rises unsteadily from the bed lays the pipe upon the hearth stone draws back the ragged curtain and looks with repugnance at his three companions
he notices that the woman has opium smoked herself into a strange likeness of the chinaman his form of cheek eye and temple and his colour are repeated in her
said chinaman convulsively wrestles with one of his many gods or devils perhaps and snarls horribly the lascar laughs and dribbles at the mouth
the waking man muses as he turns her face towards him and stands looking down at it
and public houses and much credit of an increase of hideous customers and this horrible bedstead set upright again and this horrible court swept clean
what can she rise to under any quantity of opium
he bends down his ear to listen to her mutterings unintelligible as he watches the spasmodic shoots and darts that break out of her face and limbs
like fitful lightning out of a dark sky some contagion in them seizes upon him
placed there perhaps for such emergencies and to sit in it holding tight until he has got the better of this unclean spirit of imitation then he comes back
pounces on the chinaman and seizing him with both hands by the throat turns him violently on the bed the chinaman clutches the aggressive hands resists gasps and protests
a watchful pause unintelligible slowly loosening his grasp as he listens to the incoherent jargon with an attentive frown
he turns to the lascar and fairly drags him forth upon the floor as he falls the lascar starts into a half risen attitude glares with his eyes lashes about him fiercely with his arms
and draws a phantom knife it then becomes apparent that the woman has taken possession of this knife for safety's sake for she too starting up and restraining and expostulating with him
the knife is visible in her dress not in his when they drowsily drop back side by side there has been chattering and clattering enough between them but to no purpose
when any distinct word has been flung into the air
wherefore unintelligible is again the comment of the watcher made with some reassured nodding of his head and a gloomy smile he then lays certain silver money on the table
finds his hat gropes his way down the broken stairs gives a good morning to some rat ridden doorkeeper in bed in a black hutch beneath the stairs and passes out
that same afternoon the massive gray square tower of an old cathedral rises before the sight of a jaded traveller the bells are going for daily vesper service
and he must needs attend it one would say from his haste to reach the open cathedral door the choir are getting on their sullied white robes in a hurry when he arrives among them gets on his own robe
and falls into the procession filing in to service then the sacristan locks the iron barred gates that divide the sanctuary from the chancel and all of the procession having scuttled into their places hide their faces
and then the intoned words
the inquest on john phillips several of the notabilities of the neighbourhood had ridden or driven to the inn attracted of course by curiosity
and the man with the maimed hand immediately joined them as they stood talking apart from the rest of us now i knew all such people of our parts well enough by sight but i did not know this man who certainly belonged to their class
and i turned to mister lindsey asking him who was this gentleman that had just ridden up he glanced at me with evident surprise at my question what said he you don't know him
that's the man there's been so much talk about lately sir gilbert carstairs of hathercleugh house the new successor to the old baronetcy i knew at once what he meant
and on the english side of the river stood an ancient picturesque romantic old place half mansion half castle set in its own grounds and shut off from the rest of the world by high walls and groves of pine and fir
which had belonged for many a generation to the old family of carstairs its last proprietor sir alexander carstairs sixth baronet had been a good deal of a recluse
and i never remember seeing him but once when i caught sight of him driving in the town a very very old man who looked like what he really was a hermit he had been a widower for many long years
and though he had three children it was little company that he seemed to have ever got out of them for his elder son mister michael carstairs had long since gone away to foreign parts and had died there
his younger son mister gilbert was it was understood a doctor in london and never came near the old place and his one daughter missus ralston though she lived within ten miles of her father was not on good terms with him
it was said that the old gentleman was queer and eccentric and hard to please or manage however that may be it is certain that he lived a lonely life till he was well over eighty years of age
and he had died suddenly not so very long before james gilverthwaite came to lodge with us and mister michael being dead unmarried and therefore without family the title and estate had passed to mister gilbert
and taken possession bringing with him though he himself was getting on in years being certainly over fifty a beautiful young wife whom they said he had recently married and was according to various accounts which had crept out
a very wealthy woman in her own right so here was sir gilbert carstairs seventh baronet before me chatting away to some of the other gentlemen of the neighbourhood and there was not a doubt in my mind
that he was the man whom i had seen on the road the night of the murder i was close enough to him now to look more particularly at his hand and i saw that the two first fingers had completely disappeared
and that the rest of it was no more than a claw it was not likely there could be two men in our neighbourhood thus disfigured moreover the general build of the man the tweed suit of grey that he was wearing
the attitude in which he stood all convinced me that this was the person i had seen at the cross roads holding his electric torch to the face of his map
and i made up my mind there and then to say nothing in my evidence about that meeting for i had no reason to connect such a great gentleman as sir gilbert carstairs with the murder
and it seemed to me that his presence at those cross roads was easily enough explained he was a big athletic man and was likely fond of a walk
not as yet being over familiar with the neighbourhood having lived so long away from it had got somewhat out of his way in returning home no i would say nothing
i had been brought up to have a firm belief in the old proverb which tells you that the least said
we were all packed pretty tightly in the big room of the inn when the coroner opened his inquiry and at the very onset of the proceedings he made a remark which was expected by all of us that knew how these things are done
and are likely to go we could not do much that day there would have to be an adjournment
he understood he remarked with a significant glance at the police officials and at one or two solicitors that were there that there was some extraordinary mystery at the back of this matter and that a good many things would have to be brought to light
before the jury could get even an idea as to who it was that had killed the man whose body had been found and as to the reason for his murder and all they could do that day he went on was to hear such evidence not much
as had already been collected and then to adjourn mister lindsey had said to me as we drove along to the inn that i should find myself the principal witness and that gilverthwaite would come into the matter more prominently than anybody fancied
and this of course was soon made evident what there was to tell of the dead man up to that time was little there was the medical evidence that he had been stabbed to death by a blow from a very formidable knife or dagger
which had been driven into his heart from behind there was the evidence which chisholm and i had collected in peebles and at cornhill station and at the inn across the coldstream bridge
there was the telegram which had been sent by mister gavin smeaton whoever he might be from dundee and that was about all and it came to this that here was a man who in registering at a peebles hotel
called himself john phillips and wrote down that he came from glasgow where up to that moment the police had failed to trace anything relating to such a person and this man had travelled to cornhill station from peebles
been seen in an adjacent inn had then disappeared and had been found about two hours later murdered in a lonely place and the question comes to this observed the coroner
what was this man doing at that place and who was he likely to meet there we have some evidence on that point and he added with one shrewd glance at the legal folk in front of him
and another at the jurymen at his side i think you'll find gentlemen of the jury that it's just enough to whet your appetite for more they had kept my evidence to the last
there was much more when i got up to tell my tale and to answer any questions that anybody liked to put to me mine of course was a straight enough story
told in a few sentences and i did not see what great amount of questioning could arise out of it but whether it was that he fancied i was keeping something back or that he wanted even at that initial stage of the proceedings
to make matters as plain as possible a solicitor that was representing the county police began to ask me questions
when this man gilverthwaite gave you his orders he asked no one i answered and you've told me everything that he said to you as near as i can recollect it
every word he didn't describe the man you were to meet he didn't in any way
nor tell me his name so that you'd no idea whatever as to who it was that you were to meet nor for what purpose he was coming to meet gilverthwaite if gilverthwaite had been able to meet him
i'd no idea said i i knew nothing but that i was to meet a man and give him a message he seemed to consider matters a little keeping silence and then he went off on another tack
while he was lodging with your mother he asked next to nothing i replied
of my own knowledge next to nothing i repeated i've seen him in the streets and on the pier and taking his walks on the walls and over the border bridge and i've heard him say that he'd been out in the country
and that's all was he always alone he asked i never saw him with anybody never heard of his talking to anybody nor of his going to see a soul in the place i answered
and first and last he never brought any one into our house nor had anybody asked at the door for him and with the exception of that registered letter we've heard of
he said not one said i from first to last not one he was silent again for a time and all the folk staring at him and me and for the life of me
i could not think what other questions he could get out of his brain to throw at me but he found one and put it with a sharp cast of his eye now did this man ever give you while he was in your house
he asked yes i answered he did that when he came asking for lodgings he said he had folk of his own buried in the neighbourhood and he was minded to take a look at their graves and at the old places where they'd lived
giving you in fact an impression that he was either a native of these parts or had lived here at some time or had kindred that had he asked just that i replied
did he tell you the names of such folk or where they were buried or anything of that sort he suggested no never said i he never mentioned the matter again
to look at any particular grave or house he inquired no i replied but we knew that he took his walks into the country on both sides tweed he hesitated a bit
looked at me and back at his papers and then with a glance at the coroner sat down and the coroner nodding at him as if there was some understanding between them turned to the jury
it may seem without the scope of this inquiry gentlemen he said but the presence of this man gilverthwaite in the neighbourhood has evidently so much to do with the death of the other man
whom we know as john phillips that we must not neglect any pertinent evidence
he's even fairer than thou knewest him
what means this pine for him seest not the flowing hair on cheeks a flowing i say by allah an ye deem i dote look at the truth in those fine eyes a showing
but for the down that veils his cheek and chin his brow had dazed all eyes no sight allowing and whoso sojourns in a growthless land how shall he move from land fair growths a growing
he is consoled and lie no consolation comes to those who pine and sigh i had no solace when rose bloomed alone on cheek
and again
she hath lips like wine and breasts like pomegranates twain and a shape supple as a rattan cane her body is well formed and with sloping shoulders dight she hath a nose like the edge of a sword shining bright
and a forehead brilliant white and eyebrows which unite and eyes stained by nature's hand black as night if she speak fresh young pearls are scattered from her mouth forthright
and all hearts are ravished by the daintiness of her sprite when she smileth thou wouldst ween the moon shone out her lips between and when she eyes thee sword blades flash from the babes of her eyes
in her all beauties to conclusion come and she is the centre of attraction to traveller and stay at home she hath two lips of cramoisy than cream smoother and of taste than honey sweeter
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say when it was the four hundred and twenty second night she said
that the preacher woman thus pursued her theme in the praise of fair maids she hath two lips of cramoisy than cream smoother and than honey sweeter adding and she hath a bosom
likewise a stomach right smooth flanks soft as the palm spathe and creased with folds and dimples which overlap one another and liberal thighs which like columns of pearl arise
and back parts which billow and beat together like seas of glass or mountains of glance
so o miserable where are mortal men beside the jinn
and on them for delight depend verily they may say we rule over necks and rob hearts these women how many a rich man have they not paupered how many a powerful man have they not prostrated
have they not enslaved indeed they seduce the sage and send the saint to shame and bring the wealthy to want and plunge the fortune favoured into penury yet for all this
and pleasaunces made and wealth heaped up and smitten off is many a head and indeed he spoke sooth in the words whoso saith the world meaneth woman now as for thy citation from the holy traditions
compareth the beardless with the black eyed girls of paradise now doubtless the subject of comparison is worthier than the object there with compared so unless women be the worthier and the goodlier
but the contrary boys are likened to girls for folk say
for whiskers change the charms of the comely into ugliness quoting these couplets that sprouting hair upon his face took wreak
that when the preacher woman ended her verse she resumed addressing the man laud to allah almighty how can it be hid from thee that the perfect pleasure is in women and that abiding blessings are not to be found but with them
seeing that allah extolled and exalted be he hath promised his prophets and saints black eyed damsels in paradise
that e e n by day light shows the dung upon their dress what contrast wi the man who slept a gladsome night
so we went our way rejoicing in that we had profited by her contention and yet sorrowing to part from her and among the tales they tell is one of abu suwayd and the pretty old woman
quoth abu suwayd i and a company of my friends entered a garden one day to buy somewhat of fruit and we saw in a corner an old woman who was bright of face but her head hair was white
that abu suwayd continued
my staining lasts not while that of days is aye remaining days when beclad in gear of youth i fared raked fore and aft by men with joy unfeigning i cried
quoth abu al ayna there were in our street two women one of whom had for lover a man
returneth the boy's leman was edified by her speech and said i forswear my lover by the lord of the ka'abah and amongst tales is one of ali the cairene
and the haunted house in baghdad there lived once in the city of cairo a merchant who had great store of monies and bullion gems and jewels and lands and houses beyond count and his name was hasan the jeweller the baghdad man
furthermore allah had blessed him with a son of perfect beauty and brilliancy rosy cheeked fair of face and well figured whom he named ali of cairo and had taught the koran and science
till he became proficient in all manner of knowledge he was under his father's hand in trade
hasan fell sick and his sickness grew upon him till he made sure of death so he called his son to him
that the king and the wazir and his son ceased not to dwell in all solace and in the greatest happiness awhile till the king fell ill and his sickness grew on him so he summoned the lords of his realm and said to them
there is come upon me a sore malady peradventure a mortal and i have therefore summoned you to consult you respecting a certain matter on which i would have you counsel me as you deem well they asked
what is the matter of which thou wouldst take counsel with us o king and he answered i am old and sickly and i fear for the realm after me from its enemies
so i would have you all agree upon some one that i may proclaim him king in my lifetime and so ye may be at ease whereupon quoth they with one voice we all approve of thy daughter's husband hasan
son of the wazir ali for we have seen his wit and perfect understanding and he knoweth the place of all great and small asked the king are ye indeed agreed upon this and they answered yes
rise come with us to the king wherefore asked he and they answered for a thing that will benefit both us and thee so he went in with them to the king and kissed the ground before his father in law who said to him
be seated o my son he sat down and the king continued
and it is my purpose to proclaim thee whilst i yet live and so make an end of the business but hasan stood up and kissing the ground once more before the king said to him
acquit me therefore of this thing but all the emirs cried out saying we consent not but that thou be king over us then said hasan my father is older than i and i and he are one thing
and it befits not to advance me over him but ali said i will consent to nothing save whatso contenteth my brethren and they have all chosen and agreed upon thee
wherefore gainsay thou not the king's commandment and that of thy brethren and hasan hung his head abashed before the king and his father then said the king to the emirs
look thou rule the lieges in the fear of allah
when it was the four hundred and thirty fourth night she said
that when king hasan was quit of the divan
till day end when the divan broke up after the goodliest fashion and all the troops withdrew and each went his own way then he arose and repaired to the palace where he found his father in law's sickness grown heavy upon him
and said to him may no ill befal thee at this the old king opened his eyes and said
and he replied at thy service o my lord quoth the old king mine appointed hour is at hand be thou careful of thy wife and her mother
and king hasan replied i hear and obey now after this the old king lingered three days and then departed into the mercy of almighty allah so they laid him out
and shrouded and buried him and held over him readings and perlections of the koran to the end of the customary forty days and king hasan son of the wazir reigned in his stead and his subjects joyed in him
and all his days were gladness moreover his father ceased not to be his chief wazir on his right hand and he took to himself another wazir to be at his left hand his reign was a prosperous and well ordered
and he lived a long life as king of baghdad and allah blessed him by the old king's daughter with three sons who inherited the kingdom after him and they abode in the solace of life and its pleasures
and the glory be to him who is eternal and in whose hand are annulling and confirming and of the tales they tell is one of the pilgrim man and the old woman
a man of the pilgrims once slept a long sleep and awaking found no trace of the caravan so he rose up and walked on
but lost his way and presently came to a tent where he saw an old woman standing at the entrance and by her side a dog asleep he went up to the tent and saluting the old woman sought of her food when she replied
go to yonder wady and catch thy sufficiency of serpents that i may broil of them for thee and give thee to eat rejoined the pilgrim i dare not catch serpents nor did i ever eat them
that when the palmer man drank the bitter draught for stress of thirst he returned and said i marvel o ancient dame at thy choosing to sojourn in this place and thy putting up with such meat and drink she asked and how is it then in thy country
in my country are houses wide and spacious and fruits ripe and delicious
and meats fat and full of juice and flocks innumerous and all things pleasant and all the goods of life the like whereof are not
replied she all this have i heard but tell me have ye a sultan who ruleth over you and is tyrannical in his rule and under whose hand you are one who if any of you commit an offence taketh his goods and ruineth him
and uprooteth you stock and branch replied the man indeed that may be
with tyranny and oppression are but a searching poison while our coarse meat which in freedom and safety we eat
an hundred years of the sultan's tyranny but not one year of the people's tyranny one over other when the lieges oppress one another allah setteth over them a tyrannical sultan and a terrible king
thus it is told in history that one day there was sent to al hajjaj bin yusuf a slip of paper whereon was written fear allah and oppress not his servants with all manner of oppression when he read this
he mounted the pulpit for he was eloquent and ever ready of speech and said o folk allah almighty hath made me ruler over you by reason of your frowardness
fasting by day and praying through the night moreover he vowed many vows to the living the eternal and visited the pious and was constant in supplication
fair of face and of tongue fluent
and his cheeks were red and flower white was his forehead and his side face waxed brown with tender down even as saith one describing him the spring of the down on cheeks right clearly shows
dost thou not see that the growth upon his cheek is violet bloom that from its leaves outgrows he abode awhile in ease and happiness with his father who rejoiced and delighted in him till he came to man's estate
o my son the appointed term draweth near my hour of death is at hand and it remaineth but to meet allah to whom belong majesty and might i leave thee what shall suffice thee
even to thy son's son of monies and mansions
not long after he sickened and died
lady blessington and count d'orsay often there has arisen some man who either by his natural gifts or by his impudence or by the combination of both has made himself a recognized leader in the english fashionable world
was richard nash usually known as beau nash who flourished in the eighteenth century nash was a man of doubtful origin nor was he attractive in his looks for he was a huge clumsy creature with features that were both irregular and harsh nevertheless for nearly fifty years beau nash
was an arbiter of fashion goldsmith who wrote his life declared that his supremacy was due to his pleasing manners his assiduity flattery fine clothes and as much wit as the ladies had whom he addressed he converted the town of bath from a rude little hamlet
into an english newport of which he was the social autocrat he actually drew up a set of written rules which some of the best born and best bred people follow slavishly even better known to us is george bryan brummel commonly called beau brummel
was an oracle at court on everything that related to dress and etiquette and the proper mode of living his memory has been kept alive most of all by richard mansfield's famous impersonation of him the play is based upon the actual facts for after brummel had lost the royal favor
he died an insane pauper in the french town of caen he too had a distinguished biographer since bulwer lytton's novel pelham is really the narrative of brummel's curious career long after brummel
led the gilded youth of london and it was at this time that the notorious lola montez made her first appearance in the british capital these three men
had the advantage of being englishmen and therefore of not incurring the old time english suspicion of foreigners a much higher type of social arbiter was a frenchman who for twenty years during the early part of queen victoria's reign gave law to the great world of fashion
besides exercising a definite influence upon english art and literature this was count albert guillaume d'orsay the son of one of napoleon's generals and descended by a morganatic marriage
and he had made some distinguished friends there among whom were lord byron and thomas moore on his return to france he began his garrison life at valence where he showed some of the finer qualities of his character it is not merely that he was handsome and accomplished
and that he had the gift of winning the affections of those about him unlike nash and brummel he was a gentleman in every sense and his courtesy was of the highest kind at the balls given by his regiment although he was more courted than any other officer he always sought out the plainest girls
and showed them the most flattering attentions no wallflowers were left neglected when d'orsay was present it is strange how completely human beings are in the hands of fate here was a young french officer quartered in a provincial town in the valley of the rhone
who would have supposed that he was destined to become not only a londoner but a favorite at the british court a model of fashion a dictator of etiquette widely known for his accomplishments the patron of literary men and of distinguished artists
but all these things were to come to pass by a mere accident of fortune during his firsts visit to london which has already been mentioned count d'orsay was invited once or twice to receptions given by the earl and countess of blessington where he was well received
though this was only an incident of his english sojourn before the story proceeds any further it is necessary to give an account of the earl and of lady blessington since both of their careers had been to say the least unusual lord blessington was an irish peer
for whom an ancient title had been revived he was remotely descended from the stuarts of scotland and therefore had royal blood to boast of he had been well educated and in many ways was a man of pleasing manner on the other hand he had early inherited a very large property
which yielded him an income of about thirty thousand pounds a year he had estates in ireland and he owned nearly the whole of a fashionable street in london with the buildings erected on it this fortune and the absence of any one who could control him had made him wilful and extravagant
and had wrought in him a curious love of personal display even as a child he would clamor to be dressed in the most gorgeous uniforms and when he got possession of his property his love of display became almost a monomania
and imported players from london and elsewhere to act in it he loved to mingle with the mummers to try on their various costumes and to parade up and down now as an oriental prince and now as a roman emperor in london he hung about the green rooms
and was a well known figure wherever actors or actresses were collected such was his love of the stage that he sought to marry into the profession and set his heart on a girl named mary campbell browne who was very beautiful to look at but who was not conspicuous either for her mind or for her morals
when lord blessington proposed marriage to her she was obliged to tell him that she already had one husband still alive but she was perfectly willing to live with him and dispense with the marriage ceremony so for several years she did live with him and bore him two children
it speaks well for the earl that when the inconvenient husband died a marriage at once took place and missus browne became a countess then after other children had been born the lady died leaving the earl a widower at about the age of forty
the only legitimate son born of this marriage followed his mother to the grave and so for the third time the earldom of blessington seemed likely to become extinct the death of his wife however gave the earl a special opportunity to display his extravagant tastes
importing from france a huge black velvet catafalque which had shortly before been used at the public funeral of napoleon's marshal duroc while the house blazed with enormous wax tapers and glittered with cloth of gold
lord blessington soon plunged again into the busy life of london having now no heir there was no restraint on his expenditures and he borrowed large sums of money in order to buy additional estates and houses and to experience the exquisite joy of spending lavishly
a town house in saint james's square another in seymour place and still another which was afterward to become famous as gore house in kensington some years before he had met in ireland a lady called missus maurice farmer and it happened that she now came to london
the earlier story of her still young life must here be told because her name afterward became famous
crude lawless period of the regency when england was fighting her long war with napoleon when the prince regent was imitating all the vices of the old french kings when prize fighting deep drinking dueling and dicing were practised without restraint
in all the large cities and towns of the united kingdom it was as sir arthur conan doyle has said an age of folly and of heroism for while it produced some of the greatest black guards known to history it produced also such men as wellington and nelson the two pitts sheridan
byron shelley and sir walter scott missus maurice farmer was the daughter of a small irish landowner named robert power himself the incarnation of all the vices of the time there was little law in ireland not even that which comes from public opinion
and robert power rode hard to hounds gambled recklessly and assembled in his house all sorts of reprobates with whom he held frightful orgies that lasted from sunset until dawn his wife and his young daughters viewed him with terror
and the life they led was a perpetual nightmare because of the bestial carousings in which their father engaged wasting his money and mortgaging his estates until the end of his wild career was in plain sight there happened to be stationed at clonmel a regiment of infantry
in which there served a captain named maurice saint leger farmer he was a man of some means but eccentric to a degree his temper was so utterly uncontrolled that even his fellow officers could scarcely live with him and he was given to strange caprices it happened
that at a ball in clonmel he met the young daughter of robert power then a mere child of fourteen years captain farmer was seized with an infatuation for the girl and he went almost at once to her father asking for her hand in marriage and proposing to settle a sum of money
upon her if she married him the hard riding squireen jumped at the offer his own estate was being stripped bare here was a chance to provide for one of his daughters or rather to get rid of her and he agreed that she should be married out of hand
going home he roughly informed the girl that she was to be the wife of captain farmer he so bullied his wife that she was compelled to join him in this command what was poor little margaret power to do she was only a child she knew nothing of the world
she was accustomed to obey her father as she would have obeyed some evil genius who had her in his power there were tears and lamentations she was frightened half to death yet for her there was no help therefore while not yet fifteen her marriage took place
and she was the unhappy slave of a half crazy tyrant she had then no beauty whatsoever she was wholly undeveloped thin and pale and with rough hair that fell over her frightened eyes yet farmer wanted her and he settled his money on her
the life she led with him for a few months showed him to be more of a devil than a man he took a peculiar delight in terrifying her in subjecting her to every sort of outrage nor did he refrain even from beating her with his fists the girl could stand a great deal
but this was too much she returned to her father's house where she was received with the bitterest reproaches but where at least she was safe from harm since her possession of a dowry made her a person of some small importance not long afterward
captain farmer fell into a dispute with his colonel lord caledon and in the course of it he drew his sword on his commanding officer
would probably have had him shot were it not for the very general belief that he was insane so he was simply cashiered and obliged to leave the service and betake himself elsewhere thus the girl whom he had married was quite free free to leave her wretched home
and even to leave ireland she did leave ireland and establish herself in london where she had some acquaintances among them the earl of blessington as already said he had met her in ireland while she was living with her husband and now from time to time he saw her in a friendly way
he became infatuated with margaret farmer she was a good deal alone and his attentions gave her entertainment her past experience led her to have no real belief in love
not yet in her life had love come to her her first husband had been thrust upon her and had treated her outrageously her second husband was much older than she and though she was not without a certain kindly feeling for one who had been kind to her she married him first of all
for his title and position having been reared in poverty she had no conception of the value of money and though the earl was remarkably extravagant the new countess was even more so one after another their london houses were opened
and decorated with the utmost lavishness they gave innumerable entertainments not only to the nobility and to men of rank but because this was lady blessington's peculiar fad to artists and actors and writers of all degrees
the american n p willis in his pencilings by the way has given an interesting sketch of the countess and her surroundings while the younger disraeli lord beaconsfield has depicted d'orsay as count mirabel in henrietta temple
in a long library lined alternately with splendidly bound books and mirrors and with a deep window of the breadth of the room opening upon hyde park i found lady blessington alone the picture to my eye as the door opened was a very lovely one
a woman of remarkable beauty half buried in a fauteuil of yellow satin reading by a magnificent lamp suspended from the center of the arched ceiling sofas couches ottomans and busts arranged
in rather a crowded sumptuousness through the room enameled tables covered with expensive and elegant trifles in every corner and a delicate white hand in relief on the back of a book to which the eye was attracted by the blaze of diamond rings
all this crowded sumptuousness was due to the taste of lady blessington amid it she received royal dukes statesmen such as palmerston canning castlereagh russell and brougham actors such as kemble and matthews
artists such as lawrence and wilkie and men of letters such as moore bulwer lytton and the two disraelis to maintain this sort of life lord blessington raised large amounts of money totaling about half a million pounds sterling by mortgaging his different estates
and giving his promissory notes to money lenders of course he did not spend this vast sum immediately he might have lived in comparative luxury upon his income but he was a restless eager improvident nobleman and his extravagances were prompted by the urgings of his wife
in all this display which lady blessington both stimulated and shared there is to be found a psychological basis she was now verging upon the thirties a time which is a very critical period in a woman's emotional life
if she has not already given herself over to love and been loved in return during lady blessington's earlier years she had suffered in many ways and it is probable that no thought of love had entered her mind she was only too glad if she could escape from the harshness of her father
and the cruelty of her first husband then came her development into a beautiful woman content for the time to be languorously stagnant and to enjoy the rest and peace which had come to her when she married lord blessington her love life had not yet commenced
and in fact there could be no love life in such a marriage a marriage with a man much older than herself scatter brained showy and having no intellectual gifts so for a time she sought satisfaction in social triumphs in capturing political and literary lions
in order to exhibit them in her salon and in spending money right and left with a lavish hand but after all in a woman of her temperament none of these things could satisfy her inner longings beautiful full of celtic vivacity
imaginative and eager such a nature as hers would in the end be starved unless her heart should be deeply touched and unless all her pent up emotion could give itself up entirely in the great surrender after a few years of london she grew restless and dissatisfied
her surroundings wearied her there was a call within her for something more than she had yet experienced the earl her husband was by nature no less restless and so without knowing the reason which indeed she herself did not understand he readily assented to
as they traveled southward they reached at length the town of valence where count d'orsay was still quartered with his regiment a vague indefinable feeling of attraction swept over this woman
who was now a woman of the world and yet quite inexperienced in affairs relating to the heart the mere sound of the french officer's voice the mere sight of his face the mere knowledge of his presence stirred her as nothing had ever stirred her until that time
yet neither he nor she appears to have been conscious at once of the secret of their liking
oddly enough the earl of blessington became as devoted to d'orsay as did his wife the two urged the count
and the seductive influence of romantic italy just what passed between count d'orsay and margaret blessington at this time cannot be known for the secret of it has perished with them but it is certain that before very long they came to know that each was indispensable to the other
the situation was complicated by the earl of blessington who entirely unsuspicious proposed that the count should marry lady harriet gardiner his eldest legitimate daughter by his first wife he pressed the match upon the embarrassed d'orsay
and offered to settle the sum of forty thousand pounds upon the bride the girl was less than fifteen years of age she had no gifts either of beauty or of intelligence and in addition d'orsay was now deeply in love with her stepmother on the other hand
his position with the blessingtons was daily growing more difficult people had begun to talk of the almost open relations between count d'orsay and lady blessington lord byron in a letter written to the countess spoke to her openly and in a playful way of your d'orsay
the manners and morals of the time were decidedly irregular yet sooner or later the earl was sure to gain some hint of what every one was saying therefore much against his real desire yet in order to shelter his relations with lady blessington
d'orsay agreed to the marriage with lady harriet who was only fifteen years of age this made the intimacy between d'orsay and the blessingtons appear to be not unusual but as a matter of fact the marriage was no marriage the unattractive girl
who had become a bride merely to hide the indiscretions of her stepmother was left entirely to herself while the whole family returning to london made their home together in seymour place could d'orsay have foreseen the future
he would never have done what must always seem an act so utterly unworthy of him for within two years lord blessington fell ill and died had not d'orsay been married he would now have been free to marry lady blessington as it was
he was bound fast to her stepdaughter and since at that time there was no divorce court in england and since he had no reason for seeking a divorce he was obliged to live on through many years in a most ambiguous situation he did however separate himself from his childish bride
and having done so he openly took up his residence with lady blessington at gore house by this time however the companionship of the two had received a sort of general sanction and in that easy going age most people took it as a matter of course
the two were now quite free to live precisely as they would lady blessington became extravagantly happy and count d'orsay was accepted in london as an oracle of fashion every one was eager to visit gore house and there they received all the notable men of the time
the improvidence of lady blessington however was in no respect diminished she lived upon her jointure recklessly spending capital as well as interest and gathering under her roof a rare museum of artistic works from jewels and curios
up to magnificent pictures and beautiful statuary d'orsay had sufficient self respect not to live upon the money that had come to lady blessington from her husband he was a skilful painter and he practised his art in a professional way
his portrait of the duke of wellington was preferred by that famous soldier to any other that had been made of him the iron duke was in fact a frequent visitor at gore house and he had a very high opinion of count d'orsay lady blessington herself engaged in writing novels of high life
some of which were very popular in their day but of all that she wrote there remains only one book which is of permanent value her conversations with lord byron a very valuable contribution to our knowledge of the brilliant poet but a nemesis was destined to overtake the pair
money flowed through lady blessington's hands like water and she could never be brought to understand that what she had might not last for ever finally it was all gone yet her extravagance continued debts were heaped up mountain high she signed notes of hand without even reading them
she incurred obligations of every sort without a moment's hesitation for a long time her creditors held aloof not believing that her resources were in reality exhausted but in the end there came a crash as sudden as it was ruinous
those to whom she owed money took out judgments against her and descended upon gore house in a swarm this was in the spring of eighteen forty nine when lady blessington was in her sixtieth year and d'orsay fifty one it is a curious coincidence
that her earliest novel had portrayed the wreck of a great establishment such as her own of the scene in gore house mister madden lady blessington's literary biographer has written numerous creditors bill discounters money lenders jewelers lace venders
tax collectors gas company agents all persons having claims to urge pressed them at this period simultaneously an execution for a debt of four thousand pounds was at length put in by a house largely engaged in the silk lace
india shawl and fancy jewelry business this sum of four thousand pounds was only a nominal claim but it opened the flood gates for all of lady blessington's creditors
and very soon she was on her way to paris whither count d'orsay had already gone having been threatened with arrest by a boot maker to whom he owed five hundred pounds d'orsay very naturally went to paris for like his father he had always been an ardent bonapartist
and now prince louis bonaparte had been chosen president of the second french republic during the prince's long period of exile he had been the guest of count d'orsay who had helped him both with money and with influence d'orsay now expected some return for his former generosity
it came but it came too late in eighteen fifty two shortly after prince louis assumed the title of emperor the count was appointed director of fine arts but when the news was brought to him he was already dying
lady blessington died soon after coming to paris before the end of the year eighteen forty nine comment upon this tangled story is scarcely needed yet one may quote some sayings from a sort of diary which lady blessington called her night book
they seem to show that her supreme happiness lasted only for a little while and that deep down in her heart she had condemned herself a woman's head is always influenced by her heart but a man's heart is always influenced by his head
the separation of friends by death is less terrible than the divorce of two hearts that have loved but have ceased to sympathize while memory still recalls what they once were to each other people are seldom tired of the world
until the world is tired of them a woman should not paint sentiment until she has ceased to inspire it
an episode under the terror
towards eight o'clock in the evening an old gentlewoman came down the sharp declivity of the faubourg saint martin
snow had fallen throughout the day so that footfalls could be scarcely heard the streets were deserted
the old lady had met no one her failing sight hindered her from perceiving in the distance a few pedestrians sparsely scattered like shadows along the broad road of the faubourg she was walking bravely through the solitude
as if her age were a talisman to guard her from danger but after passing the rue des morts she fancied that she heard the firm heavy tread of a man coming behind her the thought seized her mind that she had been listening to it unconsciously for some time
terrified at the idea of being followed she tried to walk faster to reach a lighted shop window and settle the doubt which thus assailed her when well beyond the horizontal rays of light thrown across the pavement
she turned abruptly and saw a human form looming through the fog the indistinct glimpse was enough she staggered for an instant under the weight of terror
the hope of escaping such a spy lent strength to her feeble limbs incapable of reasoning she quickened her steps to a run as if it were possible to escape a man necessarily more agile than she after running for a few minutes
she reached the shop of a pastry cook entered it and fell rather than sat down on a chair which stood before the counter as she lifted the creaking latch of the door a young woman who was at work on a piece of embroidery
looked up and recognized through the glass panes the antiquated mantle of purple silk which wrapped the old lady
the action and the expression of the young woman not only implied a wish to get rid of the stranger as of some one most unwelcome but she let fall an exclamation of impatience at finding the drawer empty then without looking at the lady
she came rapidly from behind the counter and went towards the back shop to call her husband who appeared at once where have you put she asked him mysteriously calling his attention to the old lady by a glance and not concluding her sentence
although the pastry cook could see nothing but the enormous black silk hood circled with purple ribbons which the stranger wore he disappeared with a glance at his wife which seemed to say do you suppose i should leave that on your counter
surprised at the silence and immobility of her customer the wife came forward and was seized with a sudden movement of compassion as well as of curiosity when she looked at her though the complexion of the old gentlewoman was naturally livid
like that of a person vowed to secret austerities it was easy to see that some recent alarm had spread an unusual paleness over her features
whitened no doubt by age for the cleanly collar of her dress proved that she wore no powder the concealment of this natural adornment gave to her countenance a sort of conventual severity but its features were grave and noble
in former days the habits and manners of people of quality were so different from those of all other classes that it was easy to distinguish persons of noble birth
and one who had probably belonged to the court madame she said with involuntary respect forgetting that the title was proscribed the old lady made no answer
her eyes were fixed on the glass of the shop window as if some alarming object were painted upon it what is the matter citoyenne asked the master of the establishment re entering
it is nothing nothing my friends she answered in a gentle voice as she raised her eyes to give the man a thankful look seeing a phrygian cap upon his head a cry escaped her ah it is you who have betrayed me
the young woman and her husband replied by a deprecating gesture of horror which caused the unknown lady to blush either for her harsh suspicion or from the relief of feeling it unjust excuse me she said with childlike sweetness
then taking a gold louis from her pocket she offered it to the pastry cook here is the sum we agreed upon she added there is a poverty which poor people quickly divine
the shopkeeper and his wife looked at each other with a glance at the old lady that conveyed a mutual thought the louis was doubtless her last the hands of the poor woman trembled as she offered it and her eyes rested upon it sadly yet not with avarice
she seemed to feel the full extent of her sacrifice hunger and want were traced upon her features in lines as legible as those of timidity and ascetic habits her clothing showed vestiges of luxury it was of silk well worn
the mantle was clean though faded the laces carefully darned in short here were the rags of opulence the two shopkeepers divided between pity and self interest began to soothe their conscience with words citoyenne you seem very feeble
would madame like to take something asked the wife cutting short her husband's speech we have some very good broth he added it is so cold perhaps madame is chilled by her walk but you can rest here and warm yourself
said the man with the phrygian cap wait for me citoyenne he gave the louis to his wife
he went to put on his uniform as a national guard took his hat slung on his sabre and reappeared under arms but the wife meantime had reflected reflection as often happens in many hearts had closed the open hand of her benevolence
uneasy and alarmed lest her husband should be mixed up in some dangerous affair she pulled him by the flap of his coat intending to stop him but the worthy man obeying the impulse of charity promptly offered to escort the poor lady to her home
suppose he should be a spy perhaps it is a conspiracy don't go take back the box these words whispered in the pastry cook's ear by the wife of his bosom chilled the sudden compassion that had warmed him well
well i will just say two words to the man and get rid of him he said opening the door and hurrying out the old gentlewoman passive as a child and half paralyzed with fear sat down again
the shopkeeper almost instantly reappeared but his face red by nature and still further scorched by the fires of his bakery had suddenly turned pale
miserable aristocrat he cried furiously do you want to cut off our heads go out from here let me see your heels and don't dare to come back don't expect me to supply you with the means of conspiracy
so saying the pastry cook endeavored to get back the little box which the old lady had already slipped into one of her pockets hardly had the bold hands of the shopkeeper touched her clothing
than preferring to encounter danger with no protection but that of god rather than lose the thing she had come to buy she recovered the agility of youth and sprang to the door through which she disappeared abruptly leaving the husband and wife amazed and trembling
as soon as the poor lady found herself alone in the street she began to walk rapidly but her strength soon gave way for she once more heard the snow creaking under the footsteps of the spy as he trod heavily upon it she was obliged to stop short
the man stopped also she dared not speak to him nor even look at him either because of her terror or from some lack of natural intelligence presently she continued her walk slowly
the man measured his step by hers and kept at the same distance behind her he seemed to move like her shadow nine o'clock struck as the silent couple repassed the church of saint laurent
for manifold as our feelings may be our bodily powers are limited thus the old lady receiving no injury from her apparent persecutor
as if to find plausible grounds for this consoling opinion and took pleasure in crediting him with good rather than sinister intentions
the place is to this day one of the loneliest in paris
whistled among the houses or rather cottages scattered through the sparsely inhabited little valley
this dismal region seems the natural home of poverty and despair the man who was intent on following the poor creature who had had the courage to thread these dark and silent streets seemed struck with the spectacle they offered
he stopped as if reflecting and stood in a hesitating attitude dimly visible by a street lantern whose flickering light scarcely pierced the fog fear gave eyes to the old gentlewoman
who now fancied that she saw something sinister in the features of this unknown man all her terrors revived and profiting by the curious hesitation that had seized him she glided like a shadow to the doorway of the solitary dwelling touched a spring
and disappeared with phantasmagoric rapidity the man standing motionless gazed at the house which was as it were a type of the wretched buildings of the neighborhood the tottering hovel built of porous stone in rough blocks
was coated with yellow plaster much cracked and looked ready to fall before a gust of wind
the lonely house seemed like an ancient tower that time had forgotten to destroy
but the rest of the house was in complete obscurity the old woman went up the rough and clumsy stairs with difficulty holding fast to a rope which took the place of baluster she knocked furtively at the door of a lodging under the roof
yourself she cried though we go out so seldom our errands are known our steps are watched what has happened asked another old woman sitting near the fire the man who has hung about the house since yesterday followed me to night
at these words the occupants of the hovel looked at each other with terror in their faces the old man was the least moved of the three possibly because he was the one in greatest danger
under the pressure of misfortune or the yoke of persecution a man of courage begins as it were by preparing for the sacrifice of himself he looks upon his days as so many victories won from fate the eyes of the two women
fixed upon the old man showed plainly that he alone was the object of their extreme anxiety why distrust god my sisters he said in a hollow but impressive voice
and disposes of them according to his will it is of you not of me that we should think no said one of the women what is our life in comparison with that of a priest
said the nun beside the fire i have given myself up for dead
here are the sacramental wafers listen she cried interrupting herself i hear some one on the stairs at these words all three listened intently the noise ceased
do not be frightened said the priest even if some one asks to enter a person on whose fidelity we can safely rely has taken measures to cross the frontier and he will soon call here for letters which i have written to the duc de langeais
and the marquis de beauseant advising them as to the measures they must take to get you out of this dreadful country and save you from the misery or the death you would otherwise undergo here shall you not follow us
said the two nuns softly but in a tone of despair my place is near the victims said the priest simply the nuns were silent looking at him with devout admiration sister martha he said addressing the nun who had fetched the wafers
this messenger must answer fiat voluntas to the word hosanna
exclaimed the other nun hastily opening a hiding place burrowed at the edge of the roof this time it was easy to hear the steps of a man sounding through the deep silence on the rough stairs which were caked with patches of hardened mud
the priest slid with difficulty into a narrow hiding place and the nuns hastily threw articles of apparel over him you can shut me in sister agatha he said in a smothered voice
he was scarcely hidden when three knocks upon the door made the sisters tremble and consult each other with their eyes for they dared not speak forty years separation from the world had made them like plants of a hot house which wilt when brought into the outer air
accustomed to the life of a convent they could not conceive of any other and when one morning their bars and gratings were flung down they had shuddered at finding themselves free
it is easy to imagine the species of imbecility which the events of the revolution enacted before their eyes had produced in these innocent souls quite incapable of harmonizing their conventual ideas with the exigencies of ordinary life
not even comprehending their own situation they were like children who had always been cared for and who now torn from their maternal providence had taken to prayers as other children take to tears
so it happened that in presence of immediate danger they were dumb and passive and could think of no other defence than christian resignation the man who sought to enter interpreted their silence as he pleased he suddenly opened the door and showed himself
the two nuns trembled when they recognized the individual who for some days had watched the house and seemed to make inquiries about its inmates they stood quite still and looked at him with uneasy curiosity
like the children of savages examining a being of another sphere the stranger was very tall and stout but nothing in his manner or appearance denoted that he was a bad man he copied the immobility of the sisters and stood motionless
two bundles of straw placed on two planks served as beds for the nuns a table was in the middle of the room upon it a copper candlestick a few plates three knives and a round loaf of bread
the fire on the hearth was very low and a few sticks of wood piled in a corner of the room testified to the poverty of the occupants the walls once covered with a coat of paint now much defaced
showed the wretched condition of the roof through which the rain had trickled making a network of brown stains
adorned the mantel shelf of the chimney three chairs two coffers and a broken chest of drawers completed the furniture of the room a doorway cut near the fireplace showed there was probably an inner chamber
the strange silence in which they all three stood and faced each other lasted but a moment for the stranger seemed to guess the moral weakness and inexperience of the poor helpless creatures and he said in a voice which he strove to render gentle
i have not come as an enemy citoyennes then he paused but resumed my sisters if harm should ever happen to you be sure that i shall not have contributed to it i have come to ask a favor of you they still kept silence
but believe me i am heartily devoted to you and if there is any service that i could render you you may employ me without fear
the ring of truth in these words induced sister agatha
and whose manners indicated that she had once lived amid the festivities of life and breathed the air of courts to point to a chair as if she asked their guest to be seated the unknown gave vent to an expression of joy mingled with melancholy
as he understood this gesture he waited respectfully till the sisters were seated and then obeyed it you have given shelter he said to a venerable priest not sworn in by the republic
who escaped miraculously from the massacre at the convent of the carmelites hosanna said sister agatha suddenly interrupting the stranger and looking at him with anxious curiosity that is not his name i think he answered
but monsieur we have no priest here cried sister martha hastily and then you should take better precautions said the unknown gently stretching his arm to the table and picking up a breviary i do not think you understand latin
and he stopped short for the extreme distress painted on the faces of the poor nuns made him fear he had gone too far they trembled violently and their eyes filled with tears
during the last three days i have learned your poverty and your great devotion to the venerable abbe of hush exclaimed sister agatha ingenuously putting a finger on her lip you see my sisters
that if i had the horrible design of betraying you i might have accomplished it again and again as he uttered these words the priest emerged from his prison and appeared in the middle of the room i cannot believe monsieur he said courteously that you are one of our persecutors
i trust you what is it you desire of me the saintly confidence of the old man and the nobility of mind imprinted on his countenance might have disarmed even an assassin he who thus mysteriously agitated this home of penury and resignation
stood contemplating the group before him then he addressed the priest in a trustful tone with these words my father i came to ask you to celebrate a mass for the repose of the soul of
of a sacred being whose body can never lie in holy ground the priest involuntarily shuddered the nuns not as yet understanding who it was of whom the unknown man had spoken
the ecclesiastic looked intently at the stranger unequivocal anxiety was marked on every feature and his eyes offered an earnest and even ardent prayer yes said the priest at length
return here at midnight and i shall be ready to celebrate the only funeral service that we are able to offer in expiation of the crime of which you speak the unknown shivered a joy both sweet and solemn seemed to rise in his soul above some secret grief
respectfully saluting the priest and the two saintly women
two hours later the stranger returned knocked cautiously at the door of the garret
between two flues of the chimney
a large ebony and ivory crucifix hanging on the discolored wall stood out in strong relief from the surrounding bareness and necessarily caught the eye
four slender little tapers which the sisters had contrived to fasten to the altar with sealing wax threw a pale glimmer dimly reflected by the yellow wall these feeble rays scarcely lit up the rest of the chamber
but as their light fell upon the sacred objects it seemed a halo falling from heaven upon the bare and undecorated altar the floor was damp the attic roof which sloped sharply on both sides of the room was full of chinks through which the wind penetrated
in default of a missal the priest had placed his breviary on a corner of the altar a common earthenware platter was provided for the washing of those innocent hands pure and unspotted with blood all was majestic and yet paltry
poor but noble profane and holy in one the unknown man knelt piously between the sisters suddenly as he caught sight of the crape upon the chalice and the crucifix
for in default of other means of proclaiming the object of this funeral rite the priest had put god himself into mourning the mysterious visitant was seized by some all powerful recollection and drops of sweat gathered on his brow
the four silent actors in this scene looked at each other with mysterious sympathy their souls acting one upon another communicated to each the feelings of all blending them into the one emotion of religious pity
it seemed as though their thought had evoked from the dead the sacred martyr whose body was devoured by quicklime but whose shade rose up before them in royal majesty they were celebrating a funeral mass without the remains of the deceased
beneath these rafters and disjointed laths four christian souls were interceding with god for a king of france and making his burial without a coffin it was the purest of all devotions
an act of wonderful loyalty accomplished without one thought of self doubtless in the eyes of god it was the cup of cold water that weighed in the balance against many virtues the whole of monarchy was there in the prayers of the priest and the two poor women
the priest with divine intuition glanced at his three assistants who represented all christian france and said in words which effaced the penury and meanness of the hovel we enter now into the sanctuary of god
at these words uttered with penetrating unction a solemn awe seized the participants beneath the dome of saint peter's in rome god had never seemed more majestic to man than he did now in this refuge of poverty
and to the eyes of these christians so true is it that between man and god all mediation is unneeded for his glory descends from himself alone the fervent piety of the nameless man was unfeigned
and the feeling that held these four servants of god and the king was unanimous the sacred words echoed like celestial music amid the silence there was a moment when the unknown broke down and wept it was at the pater noster
to which the priest added a latin clause which the stranger doubtless comprehended and applied
and forgive the regicides
the two nuns saw the tears coursing down the manly cheeks of their visitant and dropping fast on the tiled floor the office of the dead was recited the domine salvum fac regem sung in low tones
touched the hearts of these faithful royalists as they thought of the infant king now captive in the hands of his enemies for whom this prayer was offered the unknown shuddered
perhaps he feared an impending crime in which he would be called to take an unwilling part when the service was over the priest made a sign to the nuns
and said in the tone of a father
at the first words of the ecclesiastic an involuntary motion of terror escaped the stranger but he quickly recovered himself and looked at the astonished priest with calm assurance my father he said in a voice that nevertheless trembled
no one is more innocent than i of the blood shed i believe it said the priest he paused a moment during which he examined afresh his penitent then persisting in the belief that he was one of those timid members of the assembly who sacrificed the inviolate
he resumed in a grave voice reflect my son that something more than taking no part in that great crime is needed to absolve from guilt those who kept their sword in the scabbard when they might have defended their king
have a heavy account to render to the king of kings oh yes added the venerable man moving his head from right to left with an expressive motion yes heavy indeed for standing idle they made themselves the accomplices of a horrible transgression
the soldier ordered to form the line do you think he was guilty the priest hesitated
glad of the dilemma that placed this puritan of royalty between the dogma of passive obedience which according to the partisans of monarchy should dominate the military system and the other dogma equally imperative which consecrates the person of the king
the stranger hastened to accept the hesitation of the priest as a solution of the doubts that seemed to trouble him then so as not to allow the old jansenist time for further reflection he said quickly
and for the discharge of my conscience we can only pay for inestimable things by offerings which are likewise beyond all price deign to accept monsieur the gift which i now make to you of a holy relic the day may come when you will know its value
as he said these words he gave the ecclesiastic a little box of light weight the priest took it as it were involuntarily for the solemn tone in which the words were uttered
and the awe with which the stranger held the box struck him with fresh amazement they re entered the outer room where the two nuns were waiting for them you are living said the unknown in a house whose owner
is noted in the section for his patriotism he is however secretly attached to the bourbons he was formerly huntsman to monseigneur the prince de conti to whom he owes everything
as long as you stay in this house you are in greater safety than you can be in any other part of france remain here pious souls will watch over you and supply your wants and you can await without danger the coming of better days
a year hence on the twenty first of january as he uttered these last words he could not repress an involuntary shudder i shall return to celebrate once more the mass of expiation he could not end the sentence
he cast a last look upon the signs of their poverty and disappeared to the two simple minded women this event had all the interest of a romance as soon as the venerable abbe told them of the mysterious gift so solemnly offered by the stranger
they placed the box upon the table and the three anxious faces faintly lighted by a tallow candle betrayed an indescribable curiosity
as she unfolded it they saw dark stains that is blood exclaimed the priest it is marked with the royal crown cried the other nun the sisters let fall the precious relic with gestures of horror
to these ingenuous souls the mystery that wrapped their unknown visitor became inexplicable and the priest from that day forth forbade himself to search for its solution
the three prisoners soon perceived that in spite of the terror a powerful arm was stretched over them first they received firewood and provisions next the sisters guessed that a woman was associated with their protector
for linen and clothing came to them mysteriously and enabled them to go out without danger of observation from the aristocratic fashion of the only garments they had been able to secure
advice as to the necessary means of insuring the safety of the venerable priest often came to them from unexpected quarters and proved so singularly opportune that it was quite evident it could only have been given by some one in possession of state secrets
in spite of the famine which then afflicted paris they found daily at the door of their hovel rations of white bread laid there by invisible hands
the agent of these mysterious benefactions which were always timely and intelligent but the noble occupants of the poor garret had no doubt whatever that the unknown individual who had celebrated the midnight mass
was their secret protector they added to their daily prayers a special prayer for him night and day these pious hearts made supplication for his happiness his prosperity his redemption
they prayed that god would keep his feet from snares and save him from his enemies and grant him a long and peaceful life their gratitude renewed as it were daily
the circumstances attending the appearance of the stranger were a ceaseless topic of conversation and of endless conjecture and soon became a benefit of a special kind from the occupation and distraction of mind which was thus produced
they resolved that the stranger should not be allowed to escape the expression of their gratitude
so impatiently awaited came at length at midnight the heavy steps resounded up the wooden stairway the room was prepared for the service the altar was dressed this time the sisters opened the door and hastened to light the entrance
come she said in a trembling and affectionate voice come you are expected the man raised his head gave the nun a gloomy look and made no answer she felt as though an icy garment had fallen upon her and she kept silence
at his aspect gratitude and curiosity died within their hearts he may have been less cold less taciturn less terrible than he seemed to these poor souls
and they acquiesced with resignation but the priest fancied he saw a smile quickly repressed upon the stranger's lip
he heard the mass and prayed but immediately disappeared
to remain and partake of the humble collation they had prepared for him after the ninth thermidor
the first visit of the old priest was to a perfumery at the sign of the queen of flowers
formerly perfumers to the court
the abbe dressed as the times required was leaving the doorstep of the shop situated between the church of saint roch and the rue des fondeurs
ah we saw enough of that last year but now four days after the anniversary of the twenty first of january we can look at the horrid procession without distress why so asked the abbe what you say is not christian
but this is the execution of the accomplices of robespierre they have fought it off as long as they could but now they are going in their turn where they have sent so many innocent people
yielding to an impulse saw standing erect in the cart the stranger who three days before had assisted for the second time in the mass of commemoration who is that he asked the one standing
that is the executioner answered monsieur ragon calling the man by his monarchical name help help cried madame ragon monsieur l'abbe is fainting she caught up a flask of vinegar and brought him quickly back to consciousness
he must have given me said the old priest the handkerchief with which the king wiped his brow as he went to his martyrdom poor man that steel knife had a heart when all france had none
mister cheesacre's disappointment when missus greenow was left alone in her lodgings after the little entertainment which she had given to her two lovers she sat herself down to think seriously
in the way of courting they were very persistent no doubt but she thought that she would know how to make them understand her
that she would have neither one nor the other she was going to leave norwich after easter and they knew that such was her purpose something had been said of her returning to yarmouth in the summer she was a just woman at heart and justice required that each of them should know
what was to be his prospect if she did so return there was a good deal to be said on mister cheesacre's behalf mahogany furnitured bedrooms assist one's comfort in this life and heaps of manure though they are not brilliant in romance
are very efficacious in farming missus greenow by no means despised these things and as for the owner of them though she saw that there was much amiss in his character she thought that his little foibles were of such a nature that she as his wife
or any other woman of spirit might be able to repress them if not to cure them but she had already married for money once as she told herself very plainly on this occasion and she thought that she might now venture on a little love her marriage for money
and she really did feel grateful to his memory i almost think that among those plentiful tears some few drops belonged to sincerity she was essentially a happy tempered woman blessed with a good digestion
who looked back upon her past life with contentment and forward to her future life with confidence she would not be greedy she said to herself she did not want more money and therefore she would have none of mister cheesacre
so far she resolved resolving also that if possible the mahogany furnitured bedrooms should be kept in the family and made over to her niece
but should she marry for love and if so should captain bellfield be the man strange to say his poverty and his scampishness and his lies almost recommended him to her at any rate
it was not of those things that she was afraid she had a woman's true belief in her own power and thought that she could cure them as far as they needed cure as for his stories about inkerman and his little debts she cared nothing about that
she also had her inkermans and was quite aware that she made as good use of them as the captain did of his and as for the debts what was a man to do who hadn't got any money
in the ante greenow days of her adventures but there was this danger that there might be more behind of which she had never heard another missus bellfield was not impossible and what
if instead of being a real captain at all he should be a returned ticket of leave man such things had happened her chief security was in this that cheesacre had known the man for many years
brought to her some arrowroot with a little sherry in it she usually dined early and it was her habit to take a light repast before she retired for the night jeannette she said as she stirred the lumps of white sugar in the bowl i'm afraid those two gentlemen have quarrelled
oh laws ma'am in course they have how was they to help it jeannette on these occasions was in the habit of standing beside the chair of her mistress and chatting with her and then if the chatting was much prolonged
she would gradually sink down upon the corner of a chair herself and then the two women would be very comfortable together over the fire jeannette never forgetting that she was the servant and missus greenow never forgetting that she was the mistress
and why should they quarrel jeannette it's very foolish i don't know about being foolish ma'am but it's the most natural thing in life
in course i should expect as they would punch each other's heads there's some girls do it a purpose because they like to see it one at a time's what i say
well ma'am yes i am young no doubt but i won't say but what i've had a beau young as i look but you don't suppose that i want beaux as you call them i don't know ma'am as you wants em exactly that's as may be there they are
in the gig to night i shouldn't be a bit surprised for one there's nothing won't quiet them at oileymead to night if brandy and water don't do it
jeannette slipt into her chair and held up her hands in token of the intensity of her fears why you silly child they're not going home together at all did not the captain go away first the captain did go away first certainly
but i thought perhaps it was to get his pistols and fighting things ready they won't fight jeannette gentlemen have given over fighting have they ma'am that makes it much easier for ladies no doubt perhaps them peaceable ways will come down to such as us in time
it'd be a comfort i know to them as are quiet given like me i hate to see men knocking each other's heads about i do so mister cheesacre and the captain won't fight ma'am of course they won't you little fool you
i wonder which it would have been i always made up my mind that
unless it was his heart you know ma'am but why should they quarrel at all jeannette it is the most foolish thing well ma'am i don't know about that what else is they to do there's some things as you can cry halves about
jeannette i wonder how you can say such things as if i in my position had ever said a word to encourage either of them you know it's not true jeannette and you shouldn't say so whereupon missus greenow put her handkerchief to her eyes
and jeannette probably in token of contrition put her apron to hers to be sure ma'am no lady could have behaved better through it than you have done and goodness knows you have been tried hard indeed i have jeannette
and if gentlemen will make fools of themselves it isn't your fault is it ma'am but i'm so sorry that they should have quarrelled they were such dear friends you know quite all in all to each other when you've settled which it's to be ma'am that'll all come right again
then there was a little pause i suppose ma'am it won't be mister cheesacre to be sure he's a man as is uncommonly well to do in the world what's all that to me jeannette i shall ever regard mister cheesacre as a dear friend
who has been very good to me at a time of trouble but he'll never be more than that then it'll be the captain ma'am i'm sure for my part i've always thought the captain was the nicer gentleman of the two and have always said so he's nothing to me girl
and as for money what's the good of having more than enough if he can bring love you can bring money can't you ma'am he's nothing to me girl repeated missus greenow but he will be said jeannette plainly asking a question well i'm sure
what's the world come to i wonder when you sit yourself down there and cross examine your mistress in that way get to bed will you it's near ten o'clock i hope i haven't said anything amiss ma'am and jeannette rose from her seat
it's my fault for encouraging you said missus greenow go down stairs and finish your work do and then take yourself off to bed
and there'll be all my things to see to before that so jeannette got up and departed and after some few further thoughts about captain bellfield missus greenow herself went to her bedroom mister cheesacre
when he drove back to oileymead alone from norwich after dining with missus greenow had kept himself hot and almost comfortable with passion against bellfield and his heat if not his comfort had been sustained by his seeing the captain
with his portmanteau escaping just as he reached his own homestead but early on the following morning his mind reverted to missus greenow and he remembered with anything but satisfaction some of the hard things which she had said to him
he had made mistakes in his manner of wooing he was quite aware of that now and was determined that they should be rectified for the future she had rebuked him for having said nothing about his love he would instantly mend that fault
and she had bidden him not to be so communicative about his wealth henceforth he would be dumb on that subject nevertheless he could not but think that the knowledge of his circumstances which the lady already possessed must be of service to him
he was very far from feeling that the battle was already lost her last word to him had been an assurance of her friendship and then why should she have been at so much trouble to tell him the way in which he ought to address her if she were herself indifferent as to his addresses
he could not trust himself to think that she could really wish to refuse him after all the encouragement she had given him on this occasion he put on no pink shirt or shiny boots being deterred from doing so
but nevertheless he dressed himself with considerable care
declining health of jane austen elasticity of her spirits her resignation and humility her death early in the year eighteen sixteen
and recalled old recollections connected with them in a particular manner as if she did not expect ever to see them again
some of her letters were of a graver tone than had been customary with her and expressed resignation rather than cheerfulness in reference to these troubles in a letter to her brother charles after mentioning that she had been laid up with an attack of bilious fever
she says i live up stairs for the present and am coddled i am the only one of the party who has been so silly but a weak body must excuse weak nerves and again to another correspondent but i am getting too near complaint
it has been the appointment of god however secondary causes may have operated but the elasticity of her spirits soon recovered their tone it was in the latter half of that year
to a nephew one while he was at winchester school the other soon after he had left it chawton july ninth eighteen sixteen my dear e many thanks
a thank for every line and as many to mister w digweed for coming we have been wanting very much to hear of your mother and are happy to find she continues to mend but her illness must have been a very serious one indeed
when she is really recovered she ought to try change of air and come over to us tell your father that i am very much obliged to him for his share of your letter and most sincerely join in the hope of her being eventually much the better
for her present discipline she has the comfort moreover of being confined in such weather as gives one little temptation to be out it is really too bad and has been too bad for a long time
much worse than any one can bear and i begin to think it will never be fine again this is a finesse of mine for i have often observed that if one writes about the weather it is generally completely changed before the letter is read
i wish it may prove so now and that when mister w digweed reaches steventon to morrow
that you might be detained at winchester by severe illness
and quite unable to hold a pen and only dating from steventon in order with a mistaken sort of tenderness
which went by the cheese i cannot bear not to be thanked you will not pay us a visit yet of course we must not think of it your mother must get well first and you must go to oxford
as i wanted to see the improvement mister woolls is making
but not soon enough to avoid a pelter all the way home we met mister woolls i talked of its being bad weather for the hay and he returned me the comfort of its being much worse for the wheat we hear that missus s does not quit tangier
do you know that our browning is gone you must prepare for a william when you come a good looking lad civil and quiet and seeming likely to do
will be astonished at my writing so much
jane austen in the next letter will be found her description of her own style of composition which has already appeared
chawton monday december sixteenth eighteen sixteen my dear e one reason for my writing to you now is that i may have the pleasure
i give you joy of having left winchester now you may own how miserable you were there now it will gradually all come out your crimes and your miseries how often you went up by the mail to london and threw away fifty guineas at a tavern
and how often you were on the point of hanging yourself restrained only as some ill natured aspersion upon poor old winton has it by the want of a tree within some miles of the city charles knight and his companions passed through chawton
about nine this morning later than it used to be uncle henry and i had a glimpse of his handsome face looking all health and good humour i wonder when you will come and see us i know what i rather speculate upon
but shall say nothing we think uncle henry in excellent looks look at him this moment and think so too if you have not done it before and we have the great comfort of seeing decided improvement in uncle charles
both as to health spirits and appearance and they are each of them so agreeable in their different way and harmonise so well that their visit is thorough enjoyment uncle henry writes very superior sermons
you and i must try to get hold of one or two and put them into our novels it would be a fine help to a volume and we could make our heroine read it aloud on a sunday evening just as well as isabella wardour in the antiquary
in the ruins of saint ruth though i believe on recollection lovell is the reader by the bye my dear e i am quite concerned for the loss your mother mentions in her letter two chapters and a half to be missing is monstrous
and therefore cannot be suspected of purloining them two strong twigs and a half towards a nest of my own would have been something i do not think however that any theft of that sort
what should i do with your strong manly vigorous sketches full of variety and glow how could i possibly join them on to the little bit two inches wide of ivory on which i work with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labour
you will hear from uncle henry how well anna is she seems perfectly recovered ben was here on saturday to ask uncle charles and me to dine with them as to morrow but i was forced to decline it the walk is beyond my strength
though i am otherwise very well and this is not a season for donkey carriages and as we do not like to spare uncle charles he has declined it too tuesday ah ah mister e
i doubt your seeing uncle henry at steventon to day the weather will prevent your expecting him i think tell your father with aunt cass's love and mine that the pickled cucumbers are extremely good and tell him also tell him what you will
no don't tell him what you will but tell him that grandmamma begs him to make joseph hall pay his rent if he can you must not be tired of reading the word uncle for i have not done with it
uncle charles thanks your mother for her letter it was a great pleasure to him to know that the parcel was received and gave so much satisfaction and he begs her to be so good as to give three shillings for him
j austen i cannot tell how soon she was aware of the serious nature of her malady by god's mercy it was not attended with much suffering so that she was able to tell her friends as in the foregoing letter
and perhaps sometimes to persuade herself that excepting want of strength she was otherwise very well but the progress of the disease became more and more manifest as the year advanced the usual walk
was at first shortened and then discontinued and air was sought in a donkey carriage gradually too her habits of activity within the house ceased and she was obliged to lie down much the sitting room contained only one sofa
which was frequently occupied by her mother who was more than seventy years old jane would never use it even in her mother's absence but she contrived a sort of couch for herself with two or three chairs
and was pleased to say that this arrangement was more comfortable to her than a real sofa her reasons for this might have been left to be guessed but for the importunities of a little niece which obliged her to explain that if she herself had shown any inclination to use the sofa
her mother might have scrupled being on it so much as was good for her it is certain however that the mind did not share in this decay of the bodily strength persuasion was not finished before the middle of august in that year and the manner in which it was then completed
affords proof that neither the critical nor the creative powers of the author were at all impaired the book had been brought to an end in july and the re engagement of the hero and heroine effected in a totally different manner in a scene
laid at admiral croft's lodgings but her performance did not satisfy her she thought it tame and flat and was desirous of producing something better this weighed upon her mind the more so probably on account of the weak state of her health
the sense of power revived and imagination resumed its course she cancelled the condemned chapter and wrote two others entirely different in its stead
of the musgrove party to bath the crowded and animated scenes at the white hart hotel and the charming conversation between captain harville and anne elliot overheard by captain wentworth by which the two faithful lovers
were at last led to understand each other's feelings the tenth and eleventh chapters of persuasion then rather than the actual winding up of the story contain the latest of her printed compositions her last contribution to the entertainment of the public
three days before she began her last work which will be noticed in another chapter and shows that she was not at that time aware of the serious nature of her malady chawton january twenty fourth
eighteen seventeen my dear alethea i think it time there should be a little writing between us though i believe the epistolary debt is on your side and i hope
neither carried away by the flood nor rheumatic through the damps such mild weather is you know delightful to us and though we have a great many ponds and a fine running stream through the meadows on the other side of the road it is nothing
but what beautifies us and does to talk of i have certainly gained strength through the winter and am not far from being well and i think i understand my own case now so much better than i did as to be able by care
to keep off any serious return of illness i am convinced that bile is at the bottom of all i have suffered
thus much of me i am sure we have just had a few days visit from edward who brought us a good account of his father and the very circumstance of his coming at all of his father's being able to spare him is itself a good account
he grows still and still improves in appearance at least in the estimation of his aunts who love him better and better as they see the sweet temper and warm affections of the boy confirmed
though we hear that he acquits himself with as much ease and collectedness as if he had been used to it all his life we have no chance we know of seeing you between streatham and winchester you go the other road and are engaged to two or three houses
if there should be any change however you know how welcome you would be we have been reading the poet's pilgrimage to waterloo and generally with much approbation nothing will please all the world you know
but parts of it suit me better than much that he has written before the opening the proem i believe he calls it is very beautiful poor man
j austen the real object of this letter is to ask you for a receipt but i thought it genteel not to let it appear early we remember some excellent orange wine at manydown made from seville oranges entirely or chiefly
i should be very much obliged to you for the receipt if you can command it within a few weeks on the day before january twenty third she had written to her niece in the same hopeful tone i feel myself getting stronger than i was
and can so perfectly walk to alton or back again without fatigue that i hope to be able to do both when summer comes alas summer came to her only on her deathbed march
seventeenth is the last date to be found in the manuscript on which she was engaged and as the watch of the drowned man indicates the time of his death so does this final date seem to fix the period when her mind could no longer pursue its accustomed course and here
i cannot do better than quote the words of the niece to whose private records of her aunt's life and character i have been so often indebted i do not know how early the alarming symptoms of her malady came on
it was in the following march that i had the first idea of her being seriously ill it had been settled that about the end of that month or the beginning of april i should spend a few days at chawton in the absence of my father and mother
who were just then engaged with missus leigh perrot in arranging her late husband's affairs but aunt jane became too ill to have me in the house and so i went instead to my sister missus lefroy at wyards the next day we walked over to chawton
to make enquiries after our aunt she was then keeping her room but said she would see us and we went up to her she was in her dressing gown and was sitting quite like an invalid in an arm chair but she got up and kindly greeted us and then
pointing to seats which had been arranged for us by the fire she said there is a chair for the married lady
but those trifling words were the last of hers that i can remember for i retain no recollection of what was said by anyone in the conversation that ensued i was struck by the alteration in herself she was very pale
her voice was weak and low and there was about her a general appearance of debility and suffering but i have been told that she never had much acute pain
and our visit to the sick room was a very short one aunt cassandra soon taking us away i do not suppose we stayed a quarter of an hour and i never saw aunt jane again
in may eighteen seventeen she was persuaded to remove to winchester for the sake of medical advice from mister lyford the lyfords have for some generations maintained a high character in winchester for medical skill
and the mister lyford of that day was a man of more than provincial reputation in whom great london practitioners expressed confidence mister lyford spoke encouragingly it was not of course his business to extinguish hope in his patient
but i believe that he had from the first very little expectation of a permanent cure all that was gained by the removal from home was the satisfaction of having done the best that could be done together with such alleviations of suffering
as superior medical skill could afford jane and her sister cassandra took lodgings in college street they had two kind friends living in the close missus heathcote and miss bigg the mother and aunt of the present sir wm heathcote of hursley
between whose family and ours a close friendship has existed for several generations these friends did all that they could to promote the comfort of the sisters during that sad sojourn in winchester both by their society and by supplying those little conveniences
in which a lodging house was likely to be deficient it was shortly after settling in these lodgings that she wrote to a nephew the following characteristic letter no longer alas in her former strong clear hand missus david's
winton tuesday may twenty seventh there is no better way my dearest e of thanking you for your affectionate concern for me during my illness than by telling you myself as soon as possible that i continue to get better
i will not boast of my handwriting neither that nor my face have yet recovered their proper beauty but in other respects i gain strength very fast i am now out of bed from nine in the morning to ten at night
but i eat my meals with aunt cassandra in a rational way and can employ myself and walk from one room to another mister lyford says he will cure me and if he fails i shall draw up a memorial and lay it before the dean and chapter
and have no doubt of redress from that pious learned
was performed with very little fatigue and had it been a fine day i think i should have felt none but it distressed me to see uncle henry and wm knight who kindly attended us on horseback riding in the rain almost the whole way
we expect a visit from them to morrow and hope they will stay the night and on thursday which is a confirmation and a holiday we are to get charles out to breakfast we have had but one visit from him poor fellow
as he is in sick room but he hopes to be out to night
and william is to call upon us soon god bless you my dear e if ever you are ill may you be as tenderly nursed as i have been may the same blessed alleviations of anxious sympathising friends be yours
watchful indefatigable nurse has not been made ill by her exertions as to what i owe her and the anxious affection of all my beloved family on this occasion i can only cry over it and pray god to bless them more and more
both were with her when she died two of her brothers who were clergymen lived near enough to winchester to be in frequent attendance and to administer the services suitable for a christian's death bed while she used the language of hope to her correspondents
that there was much to attach her to life she was happy in her family she was just beginning to feel confidence in her own success and no doubt the exercise of her great talents was an enjoyment in itself
we may well believe that she would gladly have lived longer but she was enabled without dismay or complaint to prepare for death she was a humble believing christian her life had been passed in the performance of home duties
and the cultivation of domestic affections without any self seeking or craving after applause she had always sought as it were by instinct to promote the happiness of all who came within her influence and doubtless she had her reward
in the peace of mind which was granted her in her last days her sweetness of temper never failed she was ever considerate and grateful to those who attended on her at times when she felt rather better her playfulness of spirit revived
and she amused them even in their sadness once when she thought herself near her end she said what she imagined might be her last words to those around her and particularly thanked her sister in law for being with her saying
you have always been a kind sister to me mary when the end at last came she sank rapidly and on being asked by her attendants
her reply was nothing but death these were her last words in quietness and peace
eighteen seventeen on the twenty fourth of that month she was buried in winchester cathedral near the centre of the north aisle almost opposite to the beautiful chantry tomb of william of wykeham
a large slab of black marble in the pavement marks the place her own family only attended the funeral her sister returned to her desolated home there to devote herself for ten years to the care of her aged mother and to live much
on the memory of her lost sister till called many years later to rejoin her her brothers went back sorrowing to their several homes they were very fond and very proud of her they were attached to her by her talents her virtues
and her engaging manners and each loved afterwards to fancy a resemblance in some niece or daughter of his own to the dear sister jane whose perfect equal
chapter three proportions of doric temples one some of the ancient architects said that the doric order ought not to be used for temples because faults and incongruities were caused by the laws of its symmetry
arcesius and pytheos said so as well as hermogenes he for instance after getting together a supply of marble for the construction of a doric temple
changed his mind and built an ionic temple to father bacchus with the same materials this is not because it is unlovely in appearance or origin or dignity of form
two for the triglyphs ought to be placed so as to correspond to the centres of the columns
but in violation of this rule at the corner columns triglyphs are placed at the outside edges and not corresponding to the centre of the columns
but are too broad by half the width of a triglyph
for this reason the ancients appear to have avoided the scheme of the doric order in their temples three
so that if anybody cares to set to work with attention to these laws
let the front of a doric temple at the place where the columns are put up be divided if it is to be tetrastyle into twenty seven parts if hexastyle into forty two
four the thickness of the columns will be two modules and their height including the capitals fourteen the height of a capital will be one module and its breadth two and one sixth modules
and the third the necking the diminution of the column should be the same as described for ionic columns in the third book the height of the architrave including taenia and guttae is one module and of the taenia one seventh of a module
including their regula the depth of the architrave on its under side should answer to the necking at the top of the column
they are to be arranged so that one is placed to correspond to the centre of each corner and intermediate column
should be divided into six parts and five of these marked off in the middle by means of the rule and two half parts at the right and left let one part that in the centre form a femur
on each side of it are the channels to be cut in to fit the tip of a carpenter's square
to the outsides are relegated the semichannels
with the width of half a module
as all the arrangements have been made with uniformity six the capitals of each triglyph are to measure one sixth of a module over the capitals of the triglyphs the corona is to be placed with a projection of two thirds of a module
so the corona with its cymatia is half a module in height
in straight lines and the guttae arranged in rows six guttae broad and three deep
just at the edge of the corona a line should be cut in called the scotia
then describe a circle with a circumference touching the angles of the square and let the channellings have the contour of the segment formed by the circumference and the side of the square
the fluting of the doric column will thus be finished in the style appropriate to it ten
it is necessary next to explain the arrangements of the cella and the pronaos chapter four the cella and pronaos one
the length of a temple is adjusted so that its width may be half its length and the actual cella one fourth greater in length than in width including the wall in which the folding doors are placed
let the remaining three parts constituting the pronaos extend to the antae terminating the walls which antae ought to be of the same thickness as the columns if the temple is to be more than twenty feet in width
let two columns be placed between the two antae to separate the pteroma from the pronaos
or of joiner's work with doors in them to afford passages into the pronaos two if the width is to be more than forty feet let columns be placed inside and opposite to the columns between the antae
they should have the same height as the columns in front of them but their thickness should be proportionately reduced thus if the columns in front are in thickness one eighth of their height these should be one tenth if the former are one ninth or one tenth
these should be reduced in the same proportion for their reduction will not be discernible as the air has not free play about them still in case they look too slender when the outer columns have twenty or twenty four flutes these may have
since we can help out by a duly proportionate number of flutings four the walls of the cella itself should be thick in proportion to its size provided that their antae are kept of the same thickness as the columns
but if they are to be of dimension stone or marble
chapter five how the temple should face one the quarter toward which temples of the immortal gods ought to face is to be determined on the principle that
this will enable those who approach the altar with offerings or sacrifices to face the direction of the sunrise in facing the statue in the temple
as they pray and sacrifice two but if the nature of the site is such as to forbid this then the principle of determining the quarter should be changed so that the widest possible view of the city may be had from the sanctuaries of the gods
chapter one the birth of reason
existence always has an order called chaos when incompatible with a chosen good whether chaos or order lay at the beginning of things is a question once much debated in the schools but afterward long in abeyance
not so much because it had been solved as because one party had been silenced by social pressure
in regeneration the order now established in the world may be traced back to a situation in which it did not appear dialecticians on the other hand
refute this presumption by urging that every collocation of things must have been preceded by another collocation in itself no less definite and precise and further that some principle of transition or continuity
must always have obtained else successive states would stand in no relation to one another notably not in the relation of cause and effect expressed in a natural law which is presupposed in this instance
potentialities are dispositions and a disposition involves an order as does also the passage from any specific potentiality into act thus the world we are told must always have possessed a structure
chaos doubtless has existed and will return nay it reigns now very likely in the remoter and inmost parts of the universe
a nature such that human life and human thought would be impossible
but this nature must be presumed to have an order an order directly importing if the tendency of its movement be taken into account all the complexities and beauties all the sense and reason which exist now
order is accordingly continual but only when order means not a specific arrangement favourable to a given form of life but any arrangement whatsoever
the process by which an arrangement which is essentially unstable gradually shifts cannot be said to aim at every stage which at any moment it involves for the process passes beyond
it presently abolishes all the forms which may have arrested attention and generated love its initial energy defeats every purpose which we may fondly attribute to it
nor is it here necessary to remind ourselves that to call results their own causes is always preposterous for in this case even the mythical sense which might be attached to such language is inapplicable
here the process taken in the gross does not even by mechanical necessity support the value which is supposed to guide it that value is realised for a moment only
so that if we impute to cronos any intent to beget his children we must also impute to him an intent to devour them
absolute order or truth is static impotent indifferent of course the various states of the world when we survey them retrospectively constitute another and now static order called historic truth
to this absolute and impotent order every detail is essential if we wished to abuse language so much as to speak of will in an absolute where change is excluded
or be conceived beyond it we might say that the absolute willed everything that ever exists and that the eternal order terminated in every fact indiscriminately
adventures all pre supposing refractory materials and excluded from eternal truth by its very essence the only function those traditional metaphors have is to shield confusion and sentimentality
because jehovah once fought for the jews we need not continue to say that the truth is solicitous about us when it is only we that are fighting to attain it
the universe can wish particular things only in so far as particular beings wish them only in its relative capacity can it find things good and only in its relative capacity can it be good for anything
may accordingly be termed a relative chaos a chaos because the values suggested and supported by the second moment could not have belonged to the first but merely a relative chaos
first because it probably carried values of its own which rendered it an order in a moral and eulogistic sense and secondly because it was potentially by virtue of its momentum a basis for the second moment's values as well
in experience order is relative to interests which determine the moral status of all powers human life when it begins to possess intrinsic value
is an incipient order in the midst of what seems a vast though to some extent a vanishing chaos
this reputed chaos can be deciphered and appreciated by man only in proportion as the order in himself is confirmed and extended
for man's consciousness is evidently practical it clings to his fate registers so to speak the higher and lower temperature of his fortunes and so far as it can
represents the agencies on which those fortunes depend when this dramatic vocation of consciousness has not been fulfilled at all consciousness is wholly confused
the world it envisages seems consequently a chaos later if experience has fallen into shape
the inference is drawn that the original disposition of things was also orderly and indeed mechanically conducive to just those feats of instinct and intelligence which have been since accomplished
a theory of origins of substance and of natural laws may thus be framed and accepted and may receive confirmation in the further march of events it will be observed however
that what is credibly asserted about the past is not a report which the past was itself able to make when it existed
nor one it is now able in some oracular fashion to formulate and to impose upon us the report is a rational construction based and seated in present experience
it has no cogency for the inattentive and no existence for the ignorant although the universe then may not have come from chaos human experience certainly has begun in a private and dreamful chaos of its own
out of which it still only partially and momentarily emerges the history of this awakening is of course not the same as that of the environing world ultimately discovered it is the history however
of that discovery itself of the knowledge through which alone the world can be revealed
nature the absolute and the gods we shall make their acquaintance in due season and better appreciate their moral status
the discovered conditions of reason not its beginning to revert to primordial feeling is an exercise in mental disintegration not a feat of science we might indeed
as in animal psychology retrace the situations in which instinct and sense seem first to appear and write as it were a genealogy of reason based on circumstantial evidence reason was born
as it has since discovered into a world already wonderfully organised in which it found its precursor in what is called life
on which they depend it did not arise until the will or conscious stress by which any modification of living bodies inertia seems to be accompanied
began to respond to represented objects and to maintain that inertia not absolutely by resistance but only relatively and indirectly through labour
reason has thus supervened at the last stage of an adaptation which had long been carried on by irrational and even unconscious processes nature preceded
such a matrix or cradle for reason belongs only externally to its life the description of conditions involves their previous discovery and a historian equipped with many data and many analogies of thought
such scientific resources are absent in those first moments of rational living which we here wish to recall
chapter three the course of the sun through the twelve signs one the sun after entering the sign aries and passing through one eighth of it determines the vernal equinox
on reaching the tail of taurus and the constellation of the pleiades from which the front half of taurus projects he advances into a space greater than half the firmament moving toward the north
and after traversing one eighth of it he determines the summer solstice continuing on he reaches the head and breast of leo portions which are reckoned as belonging to cancer two
after leaving the breast of leo and the boundaries of cancer the sun traversing the rest of leo makes the days shorter diminishing the size of his circuit and returning to the same course that he had in gemini
next crossing from leo into virgo and advancing as far as the bosom of her garment he still further shortens his circuit making his course equal to what it was in taurus
advancing from virgo by way of the bosom of her garment which forms the first part of libra he determines the autumn equinox at the end of one eighth of libra here his course is equal to what his circuit was in the sign aries three
from scorpio he enters sagittarius and on reaching the thighs his daily course is still further diminished from the thighs of sagittarius which are reckoned as part of capricornus he reaches the end of the first eighth of the latter
where his course in heaven is shortest consequently this season from the shortness of the day is called bruma
which they had when he was in sagittarius
and here his course is the same as in scorpio in this way the sun passes round through the signs lengthening or shortening the days and hours at definite seasons
i shall next speak of the other constellations formed by arrangements of stars and lying to the right and left of the belt of the signs in the southern and northern portions of the firmament chapter four
the foot of the kneeler rests on the temple of that serpent which is entwined between the she bears called septentriones the little dolphin moves in front of the horse opposite the bill of the bird is the lyre
the crown is arranged between the shoulders of the warden and the kneeler in the northern circle are the two she bears with their shoulder blades confronting and their breasts turned away from one another the greeks call the lesser bear
for the tails of both stick up over them six the serpent is said to lie stretched out between their tails and in it there is a star called polus shining near the head of the greater bear at the nearest point the serpent
winds its head round but is also flung in a fold round the head of the lesser bear and stretches out close to her feet here it twists back making another fold and lifting itself up bends its snout and right temple from the head of the lesser bear
round towards the greater above the tail of the lesser bear are the feet of cepheus and at this point at the very top are stars forming an equilateral triangle
i have now mentioned the constellations which are arranged in the heaven to the right of the east between the belt of the signs and the north
chapter five the southern constellations one first under the he goat lies the southern fish facing towards the tail of the whale the censer is under the scorpion's sting
and he holds in his hands the figure which astronomers call the beast beneath the virgin lion and crab is the twisted girdle formed by the snake
extending over a whole line of stars his snout raised near the crab supporting the bowl with the middle of his body near the lion and bringing his tail on which is the raven under and near the hand of the virgin
the region above his shoulders is equally bright two
the stern of the vessel joining the dog at the tip of his tail the little dog follows the twins and is opposite the snake's head the greater dog follows the lesser orion lies aslant under the bull's hoof
three at his feet is the dog following a little behind the hare the whale lies under the ram and the fishes and from his mane
harpedonai regularly disposed towards each of the fishes this ligature by which they hang is carried a great way inwards but reaches out to the top of the mane of the whale the river
formed of stars flows from a source at the left foot of orion but the water said to pour from the waterman flows between the head of the southern fish and the tail of the whale four
these constellations whose outlines and shapes in the heavens were designed by nature and the divine intelligence i have described according to the view of the natural philosopher democritus
but only those whose risings and settings we can observe and see with our own eyes just as the bears turn round the pivot of the axis without ever setting or sinking under the earth there are likewise stars that keep turning round the southern pivot
which on account of the inclination of the firmament lies always under the earth and being hidden there they never rise and emerge above the earth
the star canopus proves this it is unknown to our vicinity but we have reports of it from merchants who have been to the most distant part of egypt and to regions bordering on the uttermost boundaries of the earth chapter six
astrology and weather prognostics one i have shown how the firmament and the twelve signs with the constellations arranged to the north and south of them fly round the earth so that the matter may be clearly understood
for it is from this revolution of the firmament from the course of the sun through the signs in the opposite direction and from the shadows cast by equinoctial gnomons that we find the figure of the analemma two
to whom belongs the art of casting nativities
first of all by berosus who settled in the island state of cos and there opened a school afterwards antipater pursued the subject then there was archinapolus who also left rules for casting nativities
based not on the moment of birth but on that of conception three
chapter ten baths
five the laconicum and other sweating baths must adjoin the tepid room and their height to the bottom of the curved dome should be equal to their width
by raising and lowering it the temperature of the sweating bath can be regulated the chamber itself ought as it seems to be circular so that the force of the fire and heat may spread evenly from the centre all round the circumference chapter eleven
the palaestra one next although the building of palaestrae is not usual in italy i think it best to set forth the traditional way and to show how they are constructed among the greeks
let three of its colonnades be single but let the fourth which is on the south side be double so that when there is bad weather accompanied by wind the drops of rain may not be able to reach the interior two
rhetoricians and others who delight in learning may sit and converse in the double colonnade let the rooms be arranged thus
three but on the outside let three colonnades be arranged one as you leave the peristyle and two at the right and left with running tracks in them that one of them which faces the north should be a double colonnade of very ample breadth while the other should be single
great numbers of people may have plenty of room to look on at the contests between the athletes i have now described all that seemed necessary for the proper arrangement of things within the city walls chapter twelve
harbours breakwaters and shipyards one
but if by reason of currents or the assaults of the open sea the props cannot hold the cofferdam together then let a platform of the greatest possible strength be constructed beginning on the ground itself or on a substructure
with the surface above mentioned next let the sloping part be filled in with sand and levelled off with the marginal wall and the surface of the platform then upon this level surface construct a block as large as is required
and this will cause the block to fall into the sea by this method repeated as often as necessary an advance into the water can be made five but in places where this powder is not found the following method must be employed
a cofferdam with double sides composed of charred stakes fastened together with ties should be constructed in the appointed place and clay in wicker baskets made of swamp rushes should be packed in among the props
after this has been well packed down and filled in as closely as possible set up your water screws wheels and drums and let the space now bounded by the enclosure be emptied and dried then
and then filled in with masonry consisting of rubble lime and sand six but if the place proves to be soft the bottom must be staked with piles made of charred alder or olive wood
finally build the wall of dimension stone with the bond stones as long as possible so that particularly the stones in the middle may be held together by the joints
and these buildings must by no means be constructed of wood for fear of fire as for their size no definite limit need be set but they must be built to suit the largest type of ship so that if even larger ships are hauled up they may find plenty of room there
i have described in this book the construction and completion of all that i could remember as necessary for general use in the public places of cities
chapter ten the queen of navarre the sun had just risen when maitre bertram accompanied by four men in the attire of peasants went down to the port
two of them wore steel caps and had the appearance of discharged soldiers the other two looked like fresh countrymen and wore the low caps in use by the peasantry on their heads carrying steel caps slung by cords from their shoulder
and find that they are too fast for you put them ashore wherever they may direct if you are too hotly chased to escape after landing them you had best also disembark and make your way back by land as best you can leaving them to do what they will with the boat as like as not they would cut your throats did they take you
and if not would want to know whom you had landed and other matters i do not want to lose the craft which has done me good service in her time and is a handy little coaster but i would rather lose it than that you should fall into the hands of the bordeaux boats and get into trouble
the fact that you made for shore to land passengers would be sufficient to show that those passengers were of some importance now good luck to you master philip i trust to see you back here again before long they kept straight out from la rochelle to the isle of oleron
lest boats coming out from the charente might overhaul them from the southern end of the island it was only a run of some eight miles into the mouth of the seudre a brisk wind had blown and they made the forty miles voyage in seven hours they could see several white sails far to the south as they ran in
they were rowed ashore in the little boat the craft carried
so as to avoid any questionings from persons they might meet as to where they had come from
and two or three flasks of good wine
they did not approach the town but keeping behind it came down upon the road running along the shore three miles beyond it and walked along it until about ten o'clock by which time all were thoroughly tired with their unaccustomed exercise leaving the road they found a sheltered spot among the sand hills
ate a hearty meal and then lay down to sleep they were afoot again at daylight the country was sparsely populated they passed through a few small villages but no place of any importance until late in the afternoon they approached blaye after a long day's tramp
they passed through the gates half an hour before they were closed and entered a small cabaret here calling for some bread and common wine they sat down in a corner and listened to the talk of the men who were drinking there it was all about the movements of troops and the scraps of news that had come in from all quarters
the queen of navarre has no troops
they say they hadn't fifty men with them it seems to me they are making a great fuss about nothing i have just heard a report a man who had two or three minutes before entered the room said to the effect that they arrived four days since at la rochelle
with some five or six hundred men who joined them on the way an exclamation of surprise broke from his hearers then we shall have trouble one exclaimed la rochelle is a hard nut to crack in itself
and may give a good deal of trouble after all what can the catholic lords have been about that they managed to let them slip through their hands in that way they must have seen for some time that they were making for the one place where they would be safe unless indeed they were making down for navarre
i expect they are watching both ways another said
and if so they will be moving in all directions to join him there
that will be as good as any other way and save much trouble it is a long chase to catch a pack of wolves scattered all over the country but one can make short work of them all when you get them penned up in an inclosure
for he felt so inclined to retort himself that he feared they might give way to a similar impulse
were munching their bread stolidly
it must be owned another of the group said that these wolves bite hard
well we laughed when we saw the three parties of white wolves ride out from saint denis but i tell you there was no laughing when they got among us we were in the constable's troop and though as far as i know we were all pretty stout men at arms and were four to one against them at least
we had little to boast of when the fight was over at any rate i got a mark of the wolves teeth which has put a stop to my hunting as you see and he held out his arm i left my right hand on the field of battle it was in the fight round conde a
so there is no more wolf hunting for me but even if i had my right hand back again i should not care for any more such rough sport as that philip congratulated himself that he was sitting with his back to the speaker for he remembered the incident well
and it was his arm that had struck the blow his visor had been up but as his face was shaded by the helmet and cheek pieces
ah well we shall do better this time the first speaker said we are better prepared than we were then and except la rochelle and four or five small towns every place in france is in our hands
then when that pestilent queen of navarre and her boy are in our hands the whole thing will be over and the last edict will be carried out and each huguenot will have the choice between the mass and the gallows well i will have one more stoup of wine
for we march at daybreak how many ride out with you the man who had lost his hand asked a hundred the town has voted the funds and we march to join d'escars tomorrow i believe we are not going to perigueux
the frequenters of the cabaret presently dropped off
who acted as spokesman had on entering asked the landlord if they could sleep there
as his duties were now over he came across to them which way are you going lads he asked
we come from near there i thought your tongue had a smack of gascon in it
for my comrade here and i served under de brissac in italy we would rather enlist under our own lord than under a stranger yes that i can understand the landlord said
when every bridge and ford across the rivers is watched by armed men and all who pass are questioned sharply as to their business well if they won't let us pass
we must join some leader here
your best plan would have been to have gone by boat to bordeaux
there will be no difficulty about that there is not a day passes now that the wind is fair that three or four boats do not go off to bordeaux with produce from the farms and vineyards of course you wouldn't get up without paying
who is starting in the morning and has chartered a boat to carry his produce if i say a word to him i have no doubt he would give the four of you a passage for a crown
it would save us some thirty or forty miles walking and perhaps some expense for ferrys to say nought of trouble with the troops who are apt enough moreover to search the pockets of those who pass i think it would be a good plan his brother replied
and the other two also assented very well then the landlord said my cousin will be here in the morning for he is going to leave two or three barrels of last year's vintage with me
and aid him with his other goods it will save him from having to employ men there
i will make you up a basket for your journey shall i say a bottle of wine each and some bread
and we thank you for having put us in the way of saving our legs tomorrow what time do you think your cousin will be in he will have his carts at the gates by the time they open them he is not one to waste time besides every minute is of importance
for with this wind he may well hope to arrive at bordeaux in time to get his cargo discharged by nightfall that was a lucky stroke indeed
having hung up a lantern had left them alone half our difficulties will be over when we get to bordeaux
chapter seventeen principal causes maintaining the democratic republic part two influence of the laws upon the maintenance of the democratic republic in the united states
three principal causes of the maintenance of the democratic republic federal constitutions municipal institutions judicial power
the principal aim of this book has been to make known the laws of the united states if this purpose has been accomplished the reader is already enabled to judge for himself which are the laws that really tend to maintain the democratic republic
and which endanger its existence if i have not succeeded in explaining this in the whole course of my work i cannot hope to do so within the limits of a single chapter it is not my intention to retrace the path i have already pursued
what i have previously explained three circumstances seem to me to contribute most powerfully to the maintenance of the democratic republic in the united states the first is that federal form of government which the americans have adopted
and which enables the union to combine the power of a great empire with the security of a small state the second consists in those municipal institutions which limit the despotism of the majority
and at the same time impart a taste for freedom and a knowledge of the art of being free to the people the third is to be met with in the constitution of the judicial power
i have shown in what manner the courts of justice serve to repress the excesses of democracy and how they check and direct the impulses of the majority without stopping its activity
influence of manners upon the maintenance of the democratic republic in the united states i have previously remarked that the manners of the people may be considered as one of the general
causes to which the maintenance of a democratic republic in the united states is attributable i here used the word manners with the meaning which the ancients attached to the word mores
for i apply it not only to manners in their proper sense of what constitutes the character of social intercourse but i extend it to the various notions and opinions current among men and to the mass of those ideas which constitute their character of mind
i comprise therefore under this term the whole moral and intellectual condition of a people my intention is not to draw a picture of american manners but simply to point out such features of them
religion considered as a political institution which powerfully contributes to the maintenance of the democratic republic amongst the americans north america peopled by men who professed a democratic and republican christianity
arrival of the catholics for what reason the catholics form the most democratic and the most republican class at the present time every religion is to be found in juxtaposition to a
political opinion which is connected with it by affinity if the human mind be left to follow its own bent it will regulate the temporal and spiritual institutions of society upon one uniform principle and man will endeavor if i may use the expression
to harmonize the state in which he lives upon earth with the state which he believes to await him in heaven the greatest part of british america was peopled by men who after having shaken off the authority of the pope acknowledged no other religious supremacy
they brought with them into the new world a form of christianity which i cannot better describe than by styling it a democratic and republican religion this sect contributed powerfully to the establishment of a democracy and a republic
and from the earliest settlement of the emigrants politics and religion contracted an alliance which has never been dissolved about fifty years ago ireland began to pour a catholic population into the united states
they are fervent and zealous in the support and belief of their doctrines nevertheless they constitute the most republican and the most democratic class of citizens
the priest and the people the priest alone rises above the rank of his flock and all below him are equal on doctrinal points the catholic faith places all human capacities upon the same level
it subjects the wise and ignorant the man of genius and the vulgar crowd to the details of the same creed it imposes the same observances upon the rich and needy it inflicts the same austerities upon the strong and the weak
it listens to no compromise with mortal man but reducing all the human race to the same standard it confounds all the distinctions of society at the foot of the same altar even as they are confounded in the sight of god
if catholicism predisposes the faithful to obedience it certainly does not prepare them for inequality but the contrary may be said of protestantism which generally tends to make men independent more than to render them equal
catholicism is like an absolute monarchy if the sovereign be removed all the other classes of society are more equal than they are in republics
it has not unfrequently occurred that the catholic priest has left the service of the altar to mix with the governing powers of society and to take his place amongst the civil gradations of men
this religious influence has sometimes been used to secure the interests of that political state of things to which he belonged at other times catholics have taken the side of aristocracy from a spirit of religion
but no sooner is the priesthood entirely separated from the government as is the case in the united states
if then the catholic citizens of the united states are not forcibly led by the nature of their tenets to adopt democratic and republican principles at least they are not necessarily opposed to them
obliges them to adopt these opinions most of the catholics are poor and they have no chance of taking a part in the government unless it be open to all the citizens they constitute a minority
these two causes induce them unconsciously to adopt political doctrines which they would perhaps support with less zeal if they were rich and preponderant
but it seeks rather to justify its results the priests in america have divided the intellectual world into two parts in the one they place the doctrines of revealed religion which command their assent
in the other they leave those truths which they believe to have been freely left open to the researches of political inquiry
are at the same time the most faithful believers and the most zealous citizens it may be asserted that in the united states no religious doctrine displays the slightest hostility to democratic and republican institutions
the clergy of all the different sects hold the same language
and the human intellect flows onwards in one sole current i happened to be staying in one of the largest towns in the union when i was invited to attend a public meeting which had been called for the purpose of assisting the poles and of sending them supplies of arms and money
i found two or three thousand persons collected in a vast hall which had been prepared to receive them in a short time a priest in his ecclesiastical robes advanced to the front of the hustings the spectators rose and stood uncovered
whilst he spoke in the following terms almighty god the god of armies thou who didst strengthen the hearts and guide the arms of our fathers when they were fighting for the sacred rights of national independence
thou who didst make them triumph over a hateful oppression and hast granted to our people the benefits of liberty and peace turn o lord a favorable eye upon the other hemisphere
pitifully look down upon that heroic nation which is even now struggling as we did in the former time and for the same rights which we defended with our blood thou who didst create man in the likeness of the same image
let not tyranny mar thy work and establish inequality upon the earth almighty god do thou watch over the destiny of the poles and render them worthy to be free may thy wisdom direct their councils
and may thy strength sustain their arms shed forth thy terror over their enemies scatter the powers which take counsel against them and vouchsafe that the injustice which the world has witnessed for fifty years
be not consummated in our time o lord who holdest alike the hearts of nations and of men in thy powerful hand raise up allies to the sacred cause of right arouse the french nation from the apathy in which its rulers retain it
that it go forth again to fight for the liberties of the world lord turn not thou thy face from us and grant that we may always be the most religious
almighty god hear our supplications this day save the poles we beseech thee in the name of thy well beloved son our lord jesus christ who died upon the cross for the salvation of men
amen the whole meeting responded amen with devotion indirect influence of religious opinions upon political society in the united states
christian morality common to all sects influence of religion upon the manners of the americans respect for the marriage tie
opinion of the americans on the political utility of religion their exertions to extend and secure its predominance
i have just shown what the direct influence of religion upon politics is in the united states but its indirect influence appears to me to be still more considerable and it never instructs the americans more fully in the art of being free
than when it says nothing of freedom
they all differ in respect to the worship which is due from man to his creator but they all agree in respect to the duties which are due from man to man each sect adores the deity in its own peculiar manner
but all the sects preach the same moral law in the name of god if it be of the highest importance to man as an individual that his religion should be true the case of society is not the same
society has no future life to hope for or to fear and provided the citizens profess a religion the peculiar tenets of that religion are of very little importance to its interests moreover
almost all the sects of the united states are comprised within the great unity of christianity and christian morality is everywhere the same it may be believed without unfairness that a certain number of americans pursue a peculiar form of worship
from habit more than from conviction in the united states the sovereign authority is religious and consequently hypocrisy must be common but there is no country in the whole world in which the christian religion
retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in america and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is most powerfully felt over the most enlightened
and free nation of the earth i have remarked that the members of the american clergy in general without even excepting those who do not admit religious liberty are all in favor of civil freedom but they do not support any particular political system
they keep aloof from parties and from public affairs in the united states religion exercises but little influence upon the laws and upon the details of public opinion but it directs the manners of the community and by regulating domestic life
it regulates the state i do not question that the great austerity of manners which is observable in the united states arises in the first instance from religious faith
religion is often unable to restrain man from the numberless temptations of fortune nor can it check that passion for gain which every incident of his life contributes to arouse but its influence over the mind of woman is supreme
and women are the protectors of morals
or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated in europe almost all the disturbances of society arise from the irregularities of domestic life
to despise the natural bonds and legitimate pleasures of home is to contract a taste for excesses a restlessness of heart and the evil of fluctuating desires agitated by the tumultuous passions which frequently disturb his dwelling
of the state exact but when the american retires from the turmoil of public life to the bosom of his family he finds in it the image of order and of peace there his pleasures are simple and natural
his joys are innocent and calm and as he finds that an orderly life is the surest path to happiness he accustoms himself without difficulty to moderate his opinions as well as his tastes
whilst the european endeavors to forget his domestic troubles by agitating society the american derives from his own home that love of order which he afterwards carries with him into public affairs
in the united states the influence of religion is not confined to the manners but it extends to the intelligence of the people amongst the anglo americans there are some who profess the doctrines of christianity
and others who do the same because they are afraid to be suspected of unbelief christianity therefore reigns without any obstacle by universal consent the consequence is
although the political world is abandoned to the debates and the experiments of men thus the human mind is never left to wander across a boundless field and whatever may be its pretensions
it is checked from time to time by barriers which it cannot surmount before it can perpetrate innovation certain primal and immutable principles are laid down and the boldest conceptions of human device are subjected to certain forms
which retard and stop their completion the imagination of the americans even in its greatest flights is circumspect and undecided its impulses are checked and its works unfinished
these habits of restraint recur in political society and are singularly favorable both to the tranquillity of the people and to the durability of the institutions it has established
with which they seek for fortune if the mind of the americans were free from all trammels they would very shortly become the most daring innovators and the most implacable disputants in the world
but the revolutionists of america are obliged to profess an ostensible respect for christian morality and equity which does not easily permit them to violate the laws that oppose their designs
nor would they find it easy to surmount the scruples of their partisans even if they were able to get over their own hitherto no one in the united states has dared to advance the maxim that everything is permissible with a view to the interests of society
to shelter all the tyrants of future ages thus whilst the law permits the americans to do what they please religion prevents them from conceiving and forbids them to commit what is rash or unjust
religion in america takes no direct part in the government of society but it must nevertheless be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country for if it does not impart a taste for freedom
it facilitates the use of free institutions indeed it is in this same point of view that the inhabitants of the united states themselves look upon religious belief i do not know whether all the americans have a sincere faith in their religion
for who can search the human heart but i am certain that they hold it to be indispensable to the maintenance of republican institutions this opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society
if a political character attacks a sect this may not prevent even the partisans of that very sect from supporting him but if he attacks all the sects together everyone abandons him and he remains alone
whilst i was in america a witness who happened to be called at the assizes of the county of chester
which seems to vegetate in the soul rather than to live i have known of societies formed by the americans to send out ministers of the gospel into the new western states
to found schools and churches there lest religion should be suffered to die away in those remote settlements and the rising states be less fitted to enjoy free institutions than the people from which they emanated
i met with wealthy new englanders who abandoned the country in which they were born in order to lay the foundations of christianity and of freedom on the banks of the missouri or in the prairies of illinois
eternity is only one motive of their devotion to the cause and if you converse with these missionaries of christian civilization you will be surprised to find how much value they set upon the goods of this world
and that you meet with a politician where you expected to find a priest they will tell you that all the american republics are collectively involved with each other if the republics of the west were to fall into anarchy or to be mastered by a despot
the republican institutions which now flourish upon the shores of the atlantic ocean would be in great peril it is therefore our interest that the new states should be religious in order to maintain our liberties
such are the opinions of the americans and if any hold that the religious spirit which i admire is the very thing most amiss in america
is to believe in some blind cosmogony or to assert with cabanis the secretion of thought by the brain i can only reply that those who hold this language have never been in america and that they have never seen a religious or a free nation
when they return from their expedition we shall hear what they have to say there are persons in france who look upon republican institutions as a temporary means of power of wealth and distinction men who are the condottieri of liberty
and who fight for their own advantage whatever be the colors they wear it is not to these that i address myself but there are others who look forward to the republican form of government as a tranquil and lasting state
towards which modern society is daily impelled by the ideas and manners of the time and who sincerely desire to prepare men to be free when these men attack religious opinions they obey the dictates of their passions
despotism may govern without faith but liberty cannot religion is much more necessary in the republic which they set forth in glowing colors than in the monarchy which they attack and it is more needed in democratic republics
how is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie be not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed
had he possessed the power of putting a veto upon it but there had been a transaction lately between him and his son with reference to the cutting off a certain entail under which money was to be paid to lord percival this money had not yet been forthcoming
and therefore the earl was constrained to assent this was very distasteful to the earl and he came home therefore in a bad humour and said a great many disagreeable things to his daughter you know papa if i could do anything i would
this she said in answer to a threat which he had made often before and now repeated of getting rid altogether of the house in belgrave square whenever he made this threat he did not scruple to tell her that the house had to be kept up solely for her welfare
i don't see why the deuce you don't get married you'll have to do it sooner or later that was not a pleasant speech for a daughter to hear from her father as to that she said it must come or not as chance will have it if you want me to sign anything i will sign it
for she had been asked to sign papers or in other words to surrender rights but for that other matter it must be left to myself then he had been very disagreeable indeed they dined out together of course with all the luxury that wealth can give
there was a well appointed carriage to take them backwards and forwards to the next square such as an earl should have she was splendidly dressed as became an earl's daughter and he was brilliant with some star which had been accorded to him by his sovereign's grateful minister in return for staunch parliamentary support
that she must marry herself out of the way because as an unmarried girl she was a burden during the dinner she was very gay to be gay was the habit we may almost say the work of her life it so chanced that she sat between sir timothy beeswax
who in these days was a very great man indeed and that very dolly longstaff whom silverbridge in his irony had proposed to her as a fitting suitor for her hand isn't lord silverbridge a cousin of yours asked sir timothy a very distant one he has come over to us you know it is such a triumph
i was so sorry to hear it this however as the reader knows was a fib sorry said sir timothy surely lord grex's daughter must be a conservative oh yes i am a conservative because i was born one
i think that people in politics should remain as they are born unless they are very wise indeed when men come to be statesmen and all that kind of thing of course they can change backwards and forwards i hope that is not intended for me lady mabel
certainly not i don't know enough about it to be personal that however was again not quite true but i have the greatest possible respect for the duke and i think it a pity that he should be made unhappy by his son don't you like the duke well
yes in a way he is a most respectable man and has been a good public servant all our lot are ruined you know said dolly talking of the races who are your lot mister longstaff
i'm one myself i suppose so i'm utterly smashed then there's percival i hope he has not lost much of course you know he's my brother oh laws so he is i always put my foot in it
well he has lost a lot and so have silverbridge and tifto perhaps you don't know tifto i have not the pleasure of knowing mister tifto he is a major i think you'd like major tifto he's a sort of racing coach to silverbridge you ought to know tifto and tregear is pretty nearly cleared out
mister tregear frank tregear i'm told he has been hit very heavy i hope he's not a friend of yours lady mabel indeed he is a very dear friend and a cousin that's what i hear he's very much with silverbridge you know
i hope he hasn't i know i have i wish someone would stick up for me and say that it was impossible but that is not mister tregear's way of living i can understand that lord silverbridge or percival should lose money or me or you if you like to say so or tifto
i don't know anything about mister tifto major tifto or major tifto what does it signify no of course we inferior people may lose our money just as we please but a man who can look as clever as mister tregear ought to win always
there could be no question but that tregear when he disliked his company
now tell the truth lady mabel does he not look conceited sometimes he generally looks as if he knew what he was talking about which is more than some other people do
or you so stupid that's what you ought to say now sometimes mister longstaff i deny myself the pleasure of saying what i think when all this was over she was very angry with herself for the anxiety she had expressed about tregear
should dissipate their fortunes and their reputations by every kind of extravagance her father had done so and she had never even ventured to hope that her brother would not follow her father's example
but tregear if he gave way to such follies as these would soon fall headlong into a pit from which there would be no escape and if he did fall
she could see him marry and smile and perhaps even like his wife and while he was doing so she could also marry and resolve that the husband whom she took should be made to think that he had a loving wife but were frank to die
as though he had been known by all the world to be her lover something of this feeling came upon her now when she heard that he had been betting and had been unfortunate
but she had believed it it was so natural that tregear should have done as the others did with whom he lived but then the misfortune would be to him so terrible so irremediable the reader however
after the dinner she went home alone there were other festivities to be attended had she pleased to attend them
but miss cassewary was quite satisfied to be allowed to go to bed in lieu of missus montacute jones's great ball
i am glad you are alone she said because i want to speak to you is anything wrong everything is wrong papa says he must give up this house
he says that almost always when he comes back from the races and very often when he comes back from the club percival has lost ever so much i don't think my lord will hamper himself for your brother
it is hard upon you and me who am i said miss cassewary about the dearest friend that ever a poor girl had it is hard upon you and upon me i have given up everything and what good have i done it is hard my dear
what is it then ah yes what is it how am i to tell you
frank tregear has taken to gambling like the rest of them who says so
told me so he is one of the beargarden set and of course he knows all about it did he say how much how is he to pay anything of all things that men do this is the worst a man who would think himself disgraced
a real gentleman should never want the money out of another man's pocket should never think of money at all i don't know how that is to be helped my dear you have got to think of money yes i have to think of it and do think of it
psha you know what i mean i might have had the feelings of a gentleman as well as the best man that ever was born i haven't but i have never done anything so mean as gambling now i have got something else to tell you what is it you do frighten me so when you look like that
for if this all comes round i shall very soon be able to dispense with you altogether his royal highness lord silverbridge
well then his serene highness the heir of the duke of omnium has done me the inexpressible honour of asking me to marry him no you may well say no and to tell the truth exactly he didn't
did he mean it yes poor boy he meant it with a word with a look
he asked me whether i liked him well enough
what did you do i spared him
out of sheer downright christian charity i said to myself love your neighbours don't be selfish do unto him as you would he should do unto you that is think of his welfare though i had him in my net i let him go
shall i go to heaven for doing that i don't know said miss cassewary who was so much perturbed by the news she had heard as to be unable to come to any opinion on the point just raised or mayn't i rather go to the other place
from how much embarrassment should i have relieved my father
how much i might have been able to do for frank and then what a wife i should have made him i think you would he'll never get another half so good and he'll be sure to get one before long
it is a sort of tenderness that is quite inefficacious he will become a prey as i should have made him a prey but where is there another who will treat him so well
i cannot bear to hear you speak of yourself in that way but it is true i know the sort of girl he should marry in the first place she should be two years younger and four years fresher she should be able not only to like him and love him but to worship him
two inches shorter than me and the delight of her life
if he was in earnest he will come again he was quite in earnest then he will come again i don't think he will said lady mabel i told him that i was too old for him and i tried to laugh him out of it
he does not like being laughed at he has been saved and he will know it but if he should come again i shall not spare him again no not twice
i felt it to be hard to do so once because i so nearly love him
oh mabel but he is as sweet as a rose if i were his sister or his servant or his dog i could be devoted to him
that is what a wife ought to feel
during the next day or two the shooting went on without much interruption from love making the love making was not prosperous all round poor lady mary had nothing to comfort her
could she have been allowed to see the letter which her lover had written to her father the comfort would have been if not ample still very great mary told herself again and again that she was quite sure of tregear
but it was hard upon her that she could not be made certain that her certainty was well grounded had she known that tregear had written though she had not seen a word of his letter it would have comforted her but she had heard nothing of the letter
in june last she had seen him by chance for a few minutes in lady mabel's drawing room since that she had not heard from him or of him that was now more than five months since how could her love serve her
how could her very life serve her if things were to go on like that how was she to bear it thinking of this she resolved she almost resolved that she would go boldly to her father and desire that she might be given up to her lover
her brother though more triumphant for how could he fail to triumph after such words as isabel had spoken to him still felt his difficulties very seriously she had imbued him with a strong sense of her own firmness
and she had declared that she would go away and leave him altogether if the duke should be unwilling to receive her he knew that the duke would be unwilling the duke who certainly was not handy in those duties of match making
which seemed to have fallen upon him at the death of his wife showed by a hundred little signs his anxiety that his son and heir should arrange his affairs with lady mabel these signs were manifest to mary
were disagreeably manifest to silverbridge were unfortunately manifest to lady mabel herself they were manifest to missus finn who was clever enough to perceive that the inclinations of the young heir were turned in another direction
and gradually they became manifest to isabel boncassen the host himself as host was courteous to all his guests they had been of his own selection
but he selected two for his peculiar notice and those two were miss boncassen and lady mabel while he would himself walk and talk and argue after his own peculiar fashion with the american beauty
explaining to her matters political and social till he persuaded her to promise to read his pamphlet upon decimal coinage he was always making awkward efforts to throw silverbridge and lady mabel together
and knew well how the matter was knew that they were rivals and knew each the ground on which she herself and on which the other stood but neither was satisfied with her advantage or nearly satisfied
isabel would not take the prize without the duke's consent and mabel could not have it without that other consent
there is the duke himself i never saw a man more absolutely in love but i do not want to marry an english duke said isabel and i pity any girl who has any idea of marriage
except that which comes from a wish to give back love for love through it all the father never suspected the real state of his son's mind he was too simple to think it possible that the purpose which silverbridge had declared to him
as they walked together from the beargarden had already been thrown to the winds he did not like to ask why the thing was not settled young men he thought were sometimes shy and young ladies not always ready to give immediate encouragement
but when he saw them together he concluded that matters were going in the right direction it was however an opinion which he had all to himself during the three or four days which followed the scene in the billiard room
isabel kept herself out of her lover's way she had explained to him that which she wished him to do
and knew that it had not been done she was sure that it could not have been done while the duke was explaining to her the beauty of quints and expatiating on the horrors of twelve pennies and twelve inches and twelve ounces
variegated in some matters by sixteen and fourteen he could not know that she was ambitious of becoming his daughter in law while he was opening out to her the mysteries of the house of lords
and explaining how it came to pass that while he was a member of one house of parliament his son should be sitting as a member of another how it was that a nobleman could be a commoner and how a peer of one part of the empire
could sit as the representative of a borough in another part she was an apt scholar had there been a question of any other young man marrying her he would probably have thought that no other young man could have done better
silverbridge was discontented with himself the greatest misfortune was that lady mabel should be there while she was present to his father's eyes he did not know how to declare his altered wishes
every now and then she would say to him some little word indicating her feelings of the absurdity of his passion i declare i don't know whether it is you or your father that miss boncassen most affects she said
but to this and to other similar speeches he would make no answer
and might use it against him if she pleased in his present frame of mind he was not disposed to joke with her upon the subject on that second sunday the boncassens were to return to london on the following tuesday
he found himself alone with isabel's father the american had been brought out at his own request to see the stables and had been accompanied round the premises by silverbridge and by mister warburton by isabel and by lady mary
as they got out into the park the party were divided and silverbridge found himself with mister boncassen then it occurred to him that the proper thing for a young man in love was to go not to his own father but to the lady's father
isabel no doubt had suggested a different course but that which isabel had suggested was at the present moment impossible to him now at this instant without a moment's forethought he determined to tell his story to isabel's father
as any other lover might tell it to any other father i am very glad to find ourselves alone mister boncassen he said mister boncassen bowed and showed himself prepared to listen though so many at matching had seen the whole play
mister boncassen had seen nothing of it i don't know whether you are aware of what i have got to say i cannot quite say that i am my lord but whatever it is i am sure i shall be delighted to hear it
i want to marry your daughter said silverbridge isabel had told him that he was downright and in such a matter he had hardly as yet learned how to express himself with those paraphrases in which the world delights
mister boncassen stood stock still and in the excitement of the moment pulled off his hat the proper thing is to ask your permission to go on with it you want to marry my daughter
yes that is what i have got to say is she aware of your intention quite aware i believe i may say that if other things go straight she will consent and your father the duke
he knows nothing about it as yet really this takes me quite by surprise i am afraid you have not given enough thought to the matter i have been thinking about it for the last three months said lord silverbridge
marriage is a very serious thing of course it is and men generally like to marry their equals i don't know about that i don't think that counts for much
people don't always know who are their equals that is quite true if i were speaking to you or to your father theoretically i should perhaps be unwilling to admit superiority on your side because of your rank and wealth
i could make an argument in favour of any equality with the best briton that ever lived as would become a true born republican that is just what i mean but when the question becomes one of practising
a question for our lives for our happiness for our own conduct then knowing what must be the feelings of an aristocracy in such a country as this i am prepared to admit that your father would be as well justified
in objecting to a marriage between a child of his and a child of mine as i should be in objecting to one between my child and the son of some mechanic in our native city he wouldn't be a gentleman said silverbridge
that is a word of which i don't quite know the meaning i do said silverbridge confidently but you could not define it if a man be well educated and can keep a good house over his head
perhaps you may call him a gentleman but there are many such with whom your father would not wish to be so closely connected as you propose but i may have your sanction mister boncassen again took off his hat and walked along thoughtfully
i hope you don't object to me personally my dear young lord your father has gone out of his way to be civil to me am i to return his courtesy by bringing a great trouble upon him he seems to be very fond of miss boncassen
will he continue to be fond of her when he has heard this what does isabel say she says the same as you of course why of course
except that it is evident to you as it is to me that she could not with propriety say anything else i think she would would like it you know she would like to be your wife
well yes if it were all serene i think she would consent i dare say she would consent if it were all serene why should she not do not try her too hard lord silverbridge you say you love her
i do indeed then think of the position in which you are placing her you are struggling to win her heart silverbridge as he heard this assured himself that there was no need for any further struggling in that direction
perhaps you have won it yet she may feel that she cannot become your wife she may well say to herself that this which is offered to her is so great that she does not know how to refuse it
and may yet have to say at the same time that she cannot accept it without disgrace you would not put one that you love into such a position as for disgrace that is nonsense i beg your pardon mister boncassen
would it be no disgrace that she should be known here in england to be your wife and that none of those of your rank of what would then be her own rank should welcome her into her new world that would be out of the question
if your own father refused to welcome her would not others follow suit you don't know my father you seem to know him well enough to fear that he would object yes that is true
what more do i want to know if she were once my wife he would not reject her of all human beings he is in truth the kindest and most affectionate and therefore you would try him after this fashion
no my lord i cannot see my way through these difficulties you can say what you please to him as to your own wishes but you must not tell him that you have any sanction from me that evening the story was told to missus boncassen
and the matter was discussed among the family isabel in talking to them made no scruple of declaring her own feelings and though in speaking to lord silverbridge she had spoken very much as her father had done afterwards
yet in this family conclave she took her lover's part that is all very well father she said i told him the same thing myself but if he is man enough to be firm i shall not throw him over not for all the dukes in europe
i shall not stay here to be pointed at i will go back home if he follows me then i shall choose to forget all about his rank if he loves me well enough to show that he is in earnest i shall not disappoint him for the sake of pleasing his father
to this neither mister nor missus boncassen was able to make any efficient answer missus boncassen dear good woman could see no reason why two young people who loved each other should not be married at once
dukes and duchesses were nothing to her if they couldn't be happy in england then let them come and live in new york she didn't understand that anybody could be too good for her daughter was there not an idea that mister boncassen would be the next president
and was not the president of the united states as good as the queen of england lord silverbridge when he left mister boncassen wandered about the park by himself king cophetua married the beggar's daughter
he was sure of that king cophetua probably had not a father and the beggar probably was not high minded but the discrepancy in that case was much greater he intended to persevere
trusting much to a belief that when once he was married his father would come round his father always did come round but the more he thought of it the more impossible it seemed to him that he should ask his father's consent at the present moment
lady mabel's presence in the house was an insuperable obstacle he thought that he could do it if he and his father were alone together or comparatively alone he must be prepared for an opposition at any rate of some days
which opposition would make his father quite unable to entertain his guests while it lasted but as he could not declare his wishes to his father
he must explain the difficulty to her he felt already that she would despise him for his cowardice that she would not perceive the difficulties in his way or understand that he might injure his cause by precipitation
then he considered whether he might not possibly make some bargain with his father how would it be if he should consent to go back to the liberal party on being allowed to marry the girl he loved as far as his political feelings were concerned
he did not think that he would much object to make the change there was only one thing certain that he must explain his condition to miss boncassen before she went he found no difficulty now in getting the opportunity
she was equally anxious and as well disposed to acknowledge her anxiety after what had passed between them she was not desirous of pretending that the matter was one of small moment to herself she had told him
that it was all the world to her and had begged him to let her know her fate as quickly as possible on that last monday morning they were in the grounds together and lady mabel who was walking with missus finn
saw them pass through a little gate which led from the gardens into the priory ruins it all means nothing mabel said with a little laugh to her companion if so i am sorry for the young lady said missus finn
don't you think that one always has to be sorry for the young ladies young ladies generally have a bad time of it
but it would always come back upon him that gentleman i believe never succeeded said missus finn the young ladies i suppose do sometimes in the meantime isabel and silverbridge were among the ruins together
this is where the old pallisers used to be buried he said oh indeed and married i suppose i dare say they had a priest of their own no doubt which must have been convenient
this block of a fellow without any legs left is supposed to represent sir guy he ran away with half a dozen heiresses they say i wish things were as easily done now nobody should have run away with me
i have no idea of going on such a journey except on terms of equality just step and step alike then she took hold of his arm and put out one foot are you ready i am very willing
but are you ready for a straightforward walk off to church before all the world none of your private chaplains such as sir guy had at his command just the registrar if there is nothing better so that it be public before all the world
i wish we could start this instant but we can't can we no dear so many things have to be settled and what have you settled on since you last spoke to me i have told your father everything
yes i know that what good does that do father is not a duke of omnium no one supposed that he would object but he did said silverbridge yes as i do for the same reason
but to your own father you have not ventured to speak then he told his story as best he knew how it was not that he feared his father but that he felt that the present moment was not fit
he wishes you to marry that lady mabel grex she said he nodded his head
never i might have done so had i not seen you i should have done so if she had been willing but now i never can never never her hand had dropped from his arm
but now she put it up again for a moment so that he might feel the pressure of her fingers
i think you do i am sure i hope you do
with all my heart i do then i am as proud as a queen
as soon as you are gone as soon as we are alone together i will and then i will follow you to london now shall we not say good bye good bye my own she whispered
her hand was in his and she looked about as though to see that no eyes were watching them but then as the thoughts came rushing to her mind she changed her purpose
his eminence came in softly lightly and as silently as a shadow and surprised the countenance of the comte as he was accustomed to do pretending
to divine by the simple expression of the face of his interlocutor what would be the result of the conversation but this time
he read nothing upon the face of athos not even the respect he was accustomed to see on all faces
rummaged a long time in his somewhat troubled memory to recall the name he ought to give to this icy figure but he did not succeed i am told said he at length you have a message from england for me
and he sat down
graciously looking through his fingers at the holy ghost garter and golden fleece but more particularly at the face of the messenger i am not an englishman but a frenchman monsieur le cardinal
it is remarkable that the king of england should choose a frenchman for his ambassador it is an excellent augury
to the throne of his ancestors this shade did not escape his cunning eminence
was too much accustomed to mankind not to see in the cold
an index of hostility which was not of the temperature of that hot house called a court
in a short querulous tone yes monseigneur and the word monseigneur came so painfully from the lips of athos that it might be said it skinned them
a dispatch the cardinal held out his hand for it
said athos my dispatch is for the king since you are a frenchman monsieur you ought to know the position of a prime minister at the court of france there was a time replied athos
who began to be irritated you will neither see the minister nor the king mazarin rose
bowed gravely and made several steps towards the door this coolness exasperated mazarin what strange diplomatic proceedings are these cried he
have we returned to the times when cromwell sent us bullies in the guise of charges d'affaires you want nothing monsieur but the steel cap on your head and a bible at your girdle
i have never had as you have the advantage of treating with cromwell and i have only seen his charges d'affaires sword in hand i am therefore ignorant of how he treated with prime ministers
you had not recognized me before always refractory and grumbling
now i have it delighted to see you again
why monsieur have your antipathies survived mine if any one has cause to complain i think it could not be you who got out of the affair not only in a sound skin
my lord cardinal replied athos permit me not to enter into considerations of that kind i have a mission to fulfill will you facilitate the means of my fulfilling that mission or will you not
i am astonished said mazarin quite delighted at having recovered his memory and bristling with malice
for the perfidious mazarin as used to be said in the good old times
in spite of a painful cough which cut short his sentences converting them into sobs i have only accepted the mission near the king of france monsieur le cardinal retorted the comte though with less asperity
for he thought he had sufficiently the advantage to show himself moderate and yet monsieur le frondeur
the affair which you have taken in charge must
with which i have been given in charge monseigneur i do not run after affairs
i say that this negotiation must pass through my hands let us lose no precious time then tell me the conditions i have had the honor of assuring your eminence
contains the revelation of his wishes
it is plain you have kept company with the puritans yonder as to your secret i know it better than you do and you have done wrongly perhaps
in not having shown some respect for a very old and suffering man who has labored much during his life
very well come with me into my chamber you shall speak to the king and before the king now then one last word who gave you the fleece i remember you passed for having the garter but as to the fleece i do not know
a brevet of the fleece in blank
immediately transmitted it to me filling up the blank with my name
and leaning on the arm of bernouin
lens and nordlingen was in fact
followed by his gentlemen and had already saluted the king when the prime minister raised his curtain
which the comte de guiche had won in a run of luck after his eminence had confided his cards to him so forgetting ambassador embassy and prince his first thought was of the gold what cried the old man all that
replied the comte de guiche rising
or shall i continue give up give up you are mad you would lose all you have won peste my lord
at witnessing with stupor this monstrous alliance of words
when the parties are conde and mazarin
i have the honor of presenting to your majesty
ambassador from his britannic majesty an affair of state gentlemen added he
and who the prince de conde at their head all disappeared at the simple gesture raoul after a last look cast at the comte
appeared to be consulting about departing a family affair
demands an alliance between monsieur the brother of the king and mademoiselle
stupefied how could the minister possibly know the contents of the letter which had never been out of his keeping for a single instant nevertheless always master of himself he held out the dispatch to the young king
with a blush a solemn silence reigned in the cardinal's chamber
on the evening of the arrival of the two frenchmen the whole court was assembled
who gave a card party to the king and queen a small screen separated three prepared tables at one of these tables the king and the two queens were seated
smiled upon her with an expression of real happiness anne of austria held the cards against the cardinal and her daughter in law assisted her in the game when she was not engaged in smiling at her husband
as for the cardinal who was lying on his bed with a weary and careworn face
and he watched them with an incessant look of interest and cupidity
but the rouge which glowed only on his cheeks
monseigneur neither won nor lost he was therefore neither gay nor sad it was a stagnation in which full of pity for him anne of austria would not have willingly left him
but in order to attract the attention of the sick man by some brilliant stroke she must have either won or lost to win would have been dangerous
the courtiers were chatting when not in a bad humor
prince and he who prevented nobody from singing provided they paid was not tyrant enough to prevent people from talking provided they made up their minds to lose they were therefore chatting
at the first table the king's younger brother philip duc d'anjou was admiring his handsome face in the glass of a box his favorite
leaning over the back of the prince's chair was listening with secret envy to the comte de guiche another of philip's favorites who was relating in choice terms the various vicissitudes of fortune
he told as so many fabulous events all the history of his perigrinations in scotland and his terrors when the enemy's party was so closely on his track
of nights spent in trees and days spent in hunger and combats by degrees the fate of the unfortunate king interested his auditors so greatly that the play languished even at the royal table
and the young king with a pensive look and downcast eye followed without appearing to give any attention to it the smallest details of this odyssey
confess count you are inventing madame i am repeating like a parrot all the stories related to me by different englishmen to my shame i am compelled to say i am as exact as a copy
madame said he in a grave tone still partaking something of the timid child monsieur le cardinal will tell you that during my minority the affairs of france were in jeopardy and that
if i had been older and obliged to take sword in hand it would sometimes have been for the purpose of procuring the evening meal thanks to god said the cardinal who spoke for the first time your majesty exaggerates
and your supper has always been ready with that of your servants the king colored oh cried philip inconsiderately from his place and without ceasing to admire himself i recollect once at melun
with the remembrance of past distresses as with the hopes of future good fortune it is not to be denied that the crown of france has always remained firm upon the heads of its kings anne of austria hastened to say
and that it has fallen off of that of the king of england and when by chance that crown oscillated a little for there are throne quakes as well as earthquakes every time i say that rebellion threatened it
a good victory restored tranquillity with a few gems added to the crown said mazarin the comte de guiche was silent the king composed his countenance
exchanged looks with anne of austria as if to thank her for her intervention it is of no consequence said philip smoothing his hair my cousin charles is not handsome
and fought like a landsknecht and if he continues to fight thus no doubt he will finish by gaining a battle
he has no soldiers
the king of holland his ally will give him some
if i had been king of france
resumed the comte de guiche the fortune of this unhappy prince is decided if he has been deceived by monk he is ruined imprisonment perhaps death will finish what exiles battles and privations have commenced
mazarin's brow became clouded it is certain
has quitted the hague quite certain your majesty replied the young man my father has received a letter containing all the details it is even known that the king has landed at dover some fishermen saw him entering the port
the rest is still a mystery i should like to know the rest
first smiling at his brother and then at his mother
that a group was about to be formed in the corner of the room
inviting anne of austria to throw perturbation in the midst of the unlawful assembly when suddenly bernouin entering from behind the tapestry of the bedroom
and approaching his eminence wished him good night all the assembly had risen with a great noise of rolling of chairs and tables being pushed away let everybody depart by degrees
i am going to dispatch an affair about which i wish to converse with your majesty this very evening and the queens
said he in a fretful voice whilst putting on behind the curtain his dressing gown
i am here my lord said the young man as he approached
yes my lord the young man sat down at the table from which the king withdrew to talk with the two queens a serious game was commenced between the comte and several rich courtiers
in the meantime philip was discussing the questions of dress
and they had ceased to hear the rustling of the cardinal's silk robe from behind the curtain
the maliciousness of the cardinal did not leave much for the ambassador to say nevertheless the word restoration had struck the king who
upon whom his eyes had been fixed since his entrance
said he will you have the kindness to give us some details concerning the affairs of england you come from that country you are a frenchman and the orders which i see glittering upon your person announce you to be a man of merit
as well as a man of quality monsieur said the cardinal turning towards the queen mother is an ancient servant of your majesty's monsieur le comte de la fere
anne of austria was as oblivious as a queen whose life had been mingled with fine and stormy days
by another look an explanation monsieur continued the cardinal was a treville musketeer in the service of the late king monsieur is well acquainted with england
whither he has made several voyages at various periods he is a subject of the highest merit these words made allusion to all the memories which anne of austria trembled to evoke england
and her love for buckingham a treville musketeer that was the whole odyssey of the triumphs which had made the heart of the young woman throb and of the dangers
which had been so near overturning the throne of the young queen these words had much power for they rendered mute and attentive all the royal personages who with very various sentiments
set about recomposing at the same time the mysteries which the young had not seen and which the old had believed to be forever effaced speak monsieur
yes speak
to whom the little malicious thrust directed against anne of austria had restored energy and gayety
that which men till that time had been unable to do god resolved to accomplish mazarin coughed while tossing about in his bed
left the hague neither as a fugitive nor a conqueror but as an absolute king who after a distant voyage from his kingdom returns amidst universal benedictions
a great miracle indeed said mazarin for if the news was true
the king remained impassible philip younger and more frivolous could not repress a smile
as an applause of his pleasantry it is plain said the king there is a miracle but god who does so much for kings monsieur le comte nevertheless employs the hand of man
to bring about the triumph of his designs
why interrupted mazarin without any regard for the king's pride does not your majesty know
i ought to know it
and yet i ask my lord ambassador the causes of the change in this general monk and your majesty touches precisely the question
god willed that a strange bold and ingenious idea should enter into the mind of a certain man whilst a devoted and courageous idea took possession of the mind of another man the combinations of these two ideas
that from an inveterate enemy he became a friend to the deposed king these are exactly the details i asked for said the king who and what are the two men of whom you speak two frenchmen
yes murmured the king the second idea the devoted reasonable idea the least important sir was to go and dig up a million in gold
and to purchase with that gold the adherence of monk oh oh said mazarin reanimated by the word million
yes monsieur le cardinal and that is why i venture to call the idea courageous as well as devoted it was necessary if monk refused the offers of the negotiator
which was to be torn as it were from the loyalty and not the loyalism of general monk this was effected in spite of many difficulties the general proved to be loyal and allowed the money to be taken away
it seems to me rejoined the cardinal maliciously that his majesty the king of great britain knew perfectly well of this million but that he preferred having two millions to having one
the king of england whilst in france was so poor that he had not even money to take the post so destitute of hope that he frequently thought of dying he was so entirely ignorant of the existence of the million at newcastle
that but for a gentleman one of your majesty's subjects the moral depositary of the million
that prince would still be vegetating in the most cruel forgetfulness let us pass on to the strange bold and ingenious idea
whose sagacity foresaw a check what was that idea
this m monk formed the only obstacle to the re establishment of the fallen king a frenchman imagined the idea of suppressing this obstacle
but only to suppress him the words of the french language have a value which the gentlemen of france know perfectly besides this is an affair of war and when men serve kings against their enemies
they are not to be condemned by a parliament god is their judge this french gentleman then formed the idea of gaining possession of the person of monk and he executed his plan
the king became animated at the recital of great actions the king's younger brother struck the table with his hand
that is fine he carried off monk said the king why monk was in his camp and the gentleman was alone sire that is marvelous said philip marvelous indeed cried the king
there are the two little lions unchained murmured the cardinal and with an air of spite which he did not dissemble i am unacquainted with these details
will you guarantee their authenticity monsieur all the more easily my lord cardinal from having seen the events
the king gave back his freedom to monk and the grateful general in return
for which so many valiant men had fought in vain philip clapped his hands with enthusiasm
turned towards the comte de la fere is this true said he in all its details
that one of my gentlemen knew the secret of the million and kept it
the name of that gentleman it was your humble servant
it is the triumph of a good cause which fills the whole house of france with joy said anne of austria i continue
that a single man penetrated to monk in his camp and carried him off that man had ten auxiliaries taken from a very inferior rank and nothing more but them nothing more
and he is named monsieur d'artagnan formerly lieutenant of the musketeers of your majesty anne of austria colored
at the moment had not concealed his head under his pillow monsieur said the young duc d'anjou placing his hand delicate and white as that of a woman upon the arm of athos
and on finishing those words the young man perceiving that his enthusiasm had deranged one of his ruffles set to work to put it to rights with the greatest care imaginable
who never was enthusiastic and who wore no ruffles yes monsieur
athos immediately began and offered in due form the hand of the princess henrietta stuart to the young prince the king's brother the conference lasted an hour
i cannot converse freely with you here because we are observed but i shall return home presently and shall expect you as soon as your duty permits raoul bowed and at that moment
the prince had that clear and keen look which distinguishes birds of prey of the noble species his physiognomy itself presented several distinct traits of this resemblance it is known
that in the prince de conde the aquiline nose rose out sharply and incisively from a brow slightly retreating rather low than high and according to the railers of the court a pitiless race
without mercy even for genius constituted rather an eagle's beak than a human nose in the heir of the illustrious princes of the house of conde this penetrating look
this imperious expression of the whole countenance generally disturbed those to whom the prince spoke more than either majesty or regular beauty could have done
besides this the fire mounted so suddenly to his projecting eyes that with the prince every sort of animation resembled passion now on account of his rank
with the marked intention of being saluted by the one
no man bowed with more reserved grace than the comte de la fere he disdained to put into a salutation all the shades which a courtier ordinarily borrows from the same color the desire to please
and bowed to the prince like a man correcting by something sympathetic and undefinable that which might have appeared offensive to the pride of the highest rank in the inflexibility of his attitude
one of the most honorable men in the kingdom continued the prince one of the first gentlemen of france and of whom i have heard so much that i have frequently desired to number him among my friends
an honor of which i should be unworthy replied athos but for the respect and admiration i entertain for your royal highness
and it is plainly seen that he has been to a good school
in your time generals had soldiers that is true my lord but nowadays soldiers have generals this compliment which savored so little of flattery gave a thrill of joy
to the man whom already europe considered a hero and who might be thought to be satiated with praise i regret very much continued the prince that you should have retired from the service monsieur le comte
for it is more than probable that the king will soon have a war with holland or england and opportunities for distinguishing himself would not be wanting for a man who like you knows great britain as well as you do france
i believe i may say monseigneur that i have acted wisely in retiring from the service
france and great britain will henceforward live like two sisters if i can trust my presentiments your presentiments
listen to what is being said yonder at the table of my lord the cardinal where they are playing yes my lord the cardinal had just raised himself on one elbow and made a sign to the king's brother who went to him my lord
said the cardinal pick up if you please all those gold crowns and he pointed to the enormous pile of yellow and glittering pieces which the comte de guiche had raised by degrees before him
by a surprising run of luck at play for me cried the duc d'anjou those fifty thousand crowns yes monseigneur they are yours do you
give them to me i have been playing on your account monseigneur replied the cardinal getting weaker and weaker as if this effort of giving money had exhausted all his physical and moral faculties oh good heavens
exclaimed philip wild with joy what a fortunate day and he himself making a rake of his fingers drew a part of the sum into his pockets which he filled and still full a third remained on the table
was considered by the persons present only as a touching kind of family fete the cardinal assumed the airs of a father with the sons of france and the two princes had grown up under his wing
no one then imputed to pride or even impertinence as would be done nowadays this liberality on the part of the first minister the courtiers were satisfied with envying the prince the king turned away his head
said the young prince joyously as he crossed the chamber with his favorite to go to his carriage no never what a weight these crowns are
of the comte de la fere he must be very ill the dear cardinal
he looks very ill as your royal highness may perceive but surely he will die of it
oh it is incredible but comte tell me a reason for it patience monseigneur i beg of you
talking with the chevalier de lorraine i should not be surprised if they spared us the trouble of being indiscreet listen to them in fact the chevalier said to the prince in a low voice
take care you will let some of the pieces fall my lord what design has the cardinal upon you to make him so generous as i said whispered athos in the prince's ear
that perhaps is the best reply to your question tell me my lord repeated the chevalier impatiently as he was calculating by weighing them in his pocket the quota of the sum which had fallen to his share by rebound
without perceiving at the moment he was passing the prince and athos who both bowed respectfully the chevalier darted at the young duke a glance so strange and so malicious
that the comte de la fere quite started on beholding it you you to be married repeated he oh that's impossible you would not commit such a folly bah i don't do it myself i am made to do it
come quick let us get rid of our money thereupon he disappeared with his companion laughing and talking whilst all heads were bowed on his passage then
i believe so the prince reflected for a moment and his eye shot forth one of its not infrequent flashes humph said he slowly as if speaking to himself
our swords are once more to be hung on the wall for
and he sighed
for he alone heard that sigh immediately after the prince took leave and the king left the apartment athos
by degrees the chamber was deserted
a prey to suffering which he could no longer dissemble bernouin
cried he in a broken voice
said his eminence i think i'm dying bernouin in great terror rushed into the cabinet to give the order
despite the best spyglasses this boat had always been mistaken for a marine animal near the middle of the platform the skiff was half set in the ship's hull making a slight bulge
fore and aft stood two cupolas of moderate height their sides slanting and partly inset with heavy biconvex glass one reserved for the helmsman steering the nautilus the other for the brilliance of the powerful electric beacon lighting his way
the sea was magnificent the skies clear this long aquatic vehicle could barely feel the broad undulations of the ocean a mild breeze out of the east rippled the surface of the water
free of all mist the horizon was ideal for taking sights there was nothing to be seen not a reef not an islet no more abraham lincoln a deserted immenseness raising his sextant
captain nemo took the altitude of the sun which would give him his latitude he waited for a few minutes until the orb touched the rim of the horizon while he was taking his sights he didn't move a muscle
and the instrument couldn't have been steadier in hands made out of marble noon he said professor whenever you're ready i took one last look at the sea a little yellowish near the landing places of japan and i went below again to the main lounge
there the captain fixed his position and used a chronometer to calculate his longitude which he double checked against his previous observations of hour angles then he told me
west of which meridian i asked quickly hoping the captain's reply might give me a clue to his nationality
paris greenwich and washington d c but in your honor i'll use the one for paris this reply told me nothing i bowed and the commander went on
in other words about three hundred miles from the shores of japan at noon on this day of november eighth we hereby begin our voyage of exploration under the waters may god be with us i replied and now professor the captain added
i'll leave you to your intellectual pursuits i've set our course east northeast at a depth of fifty meters here are some large scale charts on which you'll be able to follow that course the lounge is at your disposal and with your permission i'll take my leave
i was left to myself lost in my thoughts they all centered on the nautilus's commander
his sworn hate for humanity a hate that perhaps was bent on some dreadful revenge what had provoked it was he one of those unappreciated scholars one of those geniuses embittered by the world as conseil expressed it a latter day galileo
or maybe one of those men of science like america's commander maury whose careers were ruined by political revolutions i couldn't say yet as for me whom fate had just brought aboard his vessel whose life he had held in the balance
he had received me coolly but hospitably only he never took the hand i extended to him he never extended his own for an entire hour i was deep in these musings trying to probe this mystery that fascinated me so
then my eyes focused on a huge world map displayed on the table and i put my finger on the very spot where our just determined longitude and latitude intersected like the continents the sea has its rivers
these are exclusive currents that can be identified by their temperature and color the most remarkable being the one called the gulf stream science has defined the global paths of five chief currents one in the north atlantic
a second in the south atlantic a third in the north pacific a fourth in the south pacific and a fifth in the southern indian ocean also it's likely that a sixth current used to exist in the northern indian ocean when the caspian and aral seas
now then at the spot indicated on the world map one of these seagoing rivers was rolling by the kuroshio of the japanese the black current heated by
perpendicular rays from the tropical sun it leaves the bay of bengal crosses the strait of malacca
goes up the shores of asia and curves into the north pacific as far as the aleutian islands carrying along trunks of camphor trees and other local items the pure indigo of its warm waters sharply contrasting with the ocean's waves
it was this current the nautilus was about to cross i watched it on the map with my eyes i saw it lose itself in the immenseness of the pacific and i felt myself swept along with it when ned land and conseil appeared in the lounge doorway
my two gallant companions stood petrified at the sight of the wonders on display where are we the canadian exclaimed in the quebec museum begging master's pardon conseil answered but this seems more like the sommerard artifacts exhibition
my friends i replied signaling them to enter you're in neither canada nor france but securely aboard the nautilus fifty meters below sea level
if master says so then so be it conseil answered but in all honesty this lounge is enough to astonish even someone flemish like myself indulge your astonishment my friend and have a look
because there's plenty of work here for a classifier of your talents conseil needed no encouraging bending over the glass cases the gallant lad was already muttering choice words from the naturalist's vocabulary
class gastropoda family buccinoidea genus cowry
meanwhile ned land
had i discovered who he was where he came from where he was heading how deep he was taking us in short a thousand questions i had no time to answer i told him everything i knew or rather everything i didn't know and i asked him what he had seen or heard on his part
haven't seen or heard a thing the canadian replied i haven't even spotted the crew of this boat by any chance could they be electric too electric oh ye gods i'm half
tempted to believe it but back to you professor aronnax ned land said still hanging on to his ideas can't you tell me how many men are on board ten twenty fifty a hundred i'm unable to answer you mister land and trust me on this
for the time being get rid of these notions of taking over the nautilus or escaping from it this boat is a masterpiece of modern technology
and i'd be sorry to have missed it many people would welcome the circumstances that have been handed us just to walk in the midst of these wonders so keep calm and let's see what's happening around us
there's nothing to see nothing we'll ever see from this sheet iron prison we're simply running around blindfolded ned land was just pronouncing these last words when we were suddenly plunged into darkness utter darkness the ceiling lights went out so quickly my eyes literally ached
just as if we had experienced the opposite sensation of going from the deepest gloom to the brightest sunlight we stood stock still not knowing what surprise was waiting for us whether pleasant or unpleasant but a sliding sound became audible
you could tell that some panels were shifting over the nautilus's sides it's the beginning of the end
suddenly through two oblong openings daylight appeared on both sides of the lounge the liquid masses came into view brightly lit by the ship's electric outpourings we were separated from the sea by two panes of glass
initially i shuddered at the thought that these fragile partitions could break but strong copper bands secured them giving them nearly infinite resistance the sea was clearly visible for a one mile radius around the nautilus what a sight
the transparency of salt water has long been recognized its clarity is believed to exceed that of spring water
and the penetrating power of the sun's rays seems to give out only at a depth of three hundred meters but in this fluid setting traveled by the nautilus our electric glow was being generated in the very heart of the waves
it was no longer illuminated water it was liquid light if we accept the hypotheses of the microbiologist ehrenberg
who believes that these underwater depths are lit up by phosphorescent organisms nature has certainly saved one of her most prodigious sights for residents of the sea and i could judge for myself from the thousandfold play of the light
on both sides i had windows opening over these unexplored depths the darkness in the lounge enhanced the brightness outside and we stared as if this clear glass were the window of an immense aquarium the nautilus seemed to be standing still
this was due to the lack of landmarks but streaks of water parted by the ship's spur sometimes threaded before our eyes with extraordinary speed in wonderment
we leaned on our elbows before these show windows and our stunned silence remained unbroken until conseil said you wanted to see something ned my friend well now you have something to see
how unusual the canadian put in setting aside his tantrums and getaway schemes while submitting to this irresistible allure a man would go an even greater distance just to stare at such a sight
i see our captain's way of life he's found himself a separate world that saves its most astonishing wonders just for him but where are the fish the canadian ventured to observe i don't see any fish
why would you care ned my friend conseil replied since you have no knowledge of them me a fisherman ned land exclaimed and on this subject a dispute arose between the two friends since both were knowledgeable about fish but from totally different standpoints
possibly the canadian was familiar with this distinction but conseil knew far more about it
so he told the harpooner ned my friend you're a slayer of fish a highly skilled fisherman you've caught a large number of these fascinating animals but i'll bet you don't know how they're classified
sure i do the harpooner replied in all seriousness they're classified into fish we eat and fish we don't eat spoken like a true glutton conseil replied but tell me are you familiar with the differences between bony fish and cartilaginous fish
just maybe conseil and how about the subdivisions of these two large classes i haven't the foggiest notion the canadian replied all right listen and learn ned my friend bony fish are subdivided into six orders
primo the acanthopterygians whose upper jaw is fully formed and free moving and whose gills take the shape of a comb this order consists of fifteen families in other words three quarters of all known fish example the common perch
pretty fair eating ned land replied secundo conseil went on the abdominals whose pelvic fins hang under the abdomen to the rear of the pectorals
pike ugh the canadian put in with distinct scorn
conseil said the subbrachians whose pelvic fins are attached under the pectorals and hang directly from the shoulder bone this order contains four families examples
flatfish such as sole turbot dab plaice brill et cetera excellent really excellent the harpooner exclaimed interested in fish only from an edible viewpoint quarto conseil went on unabashed the apods
with long bodies that lack pelvic fins and are covered by a heavy often glutinous skin an order consisting of only one family examples common eels and electric eels so so just so so ned land replied
quinto conseil said the lophobranchians which have fully formed free moving jaws but whose gills consist of little tufts arranged in pairs along their gill arches
this order includes only one family examples seahorses and dragonfish bad very bad the harpooner replied sexto and last conseil said
the plectognaths whose maxillary bone is firmly attached to the side of the intermaxillary that forms the jaw
are you grasping all this ned my friend asked the scholarly conseil not a lick of it conseil my friend the harpooner replied but keep going because you fill me with fascination as for cartilaginous fish conseil went on unflappably
they consist of only three orders good news ned put in primo the cyclostomes whose jaws are fused into a flexible ring and whose gill openings are simply a large number of holes an order consisting of only one family
example the lamprey an acquired taste ned land replied secundo the selacians with gills resembling those of the cyclostomes but whose lower jaw is free moving
this order which is the most important in the class consists of two families examples the ray and the shark what ned land exclaimed rays and man eaters in the same order well conseil my friend on behalf of the rays
whose gill opening is the usual single slit adorned with a gill cover an order consisting of four genera example the sturgeon
and that's all of em yes my gallant ned conseil replied and note well even when one has grasped all this one still knows next to nothing because these families are subdivided into genera subgenera species varieties
all right conseil my friend the harpooner said leaning toward the glass panel
yes fish conseil exclaimed one would think he was in front of an aquarium no i replied because an aquarium is nothing more than a cage and these fish are as free as birds in the air
well conseil my friend identify them start naming them ned land exclaimed me conseil replied i'm unable to that's my employer's bailiwick and in truth although the fine lad was a classifying maniac
he was no naturalist and i doubt that he could tell a bonito from a tuna in short he was the exact opposite of the canadian who knew nothing about classification but could instantly put a name to any fish a triggerfish i said
it's a chinese triggerfish ned land replied genus balistes family scleroderma order plectognatha conseil muttered
assuredly ned and conseil in combination added up to one outstanding naturalist the canadian was not mistaken cavorting around the nautilus was a school of triggerfish
with flat bodies grainy skins armed with stings on their dorsal fins and with four prickly rows of quills quivering on both sides of their tails nothing could have been more wonderful than the skin covering them white underneath gray above
with spots of gold sparkling in the dark eddies of the waves around them rays were undulating like sheets flapping in the wind and among these i spotted much to my glee
a chinese ray yellowish on its topside a dainty pink on its belly and armed with three stings behind its eyes
a rare species whose very existence was still doubted in lacepede's day since that pioneering classifier of fish had seen one only in a portfolio of japanese drawings
for two hours a whole aquatic army escorted the nautilus in the midst of their leaping and cavorting while they competed with each other in beauty radiance and speed i could distinguish some green wrasse bewhiskered mullet marked with pairs of black lines
white gobies from the genus eleotris with curved caudal fins and violet spots on the back wonderful japanese mackerel from the genus scomber with blue bodies and silver heads glittering azure goldfish
whose name by itself gives their full description several varieties of porgy or gilthead some banded gilthead with fins variously blue and yellow some with horizontal heraldic bars and enhanced by a black strip around their caudal area
some with color zones and elegantly corseted in their six waistbands trumpetfish with flutelike beaks that looked like genuine seafaring woodcocks and were sometimes a meter long
japanese salamanders serpentine moray eels from the genus echidna that were six feet long with sharp little eyes and a huge mouth bristling with teeth et cetera
our wonderment stayed at an all time fever pitch our exclamations were endless ned identified the fish conseil classified them and as for me i was in ecstasy over the verve of their movements and the beauty of their forms
never before had i been given the chance to glimpse these animals alive and at large in their native element given such a complete collection from the seas of japan and china i won't mention every variety that passed before our dazzled eyes
more numerous than birds in the air these fish raced right up to us no doubt attracted by the brilliant glow of our electric beacon suddenly daylight appeared in the lounge the sheet iron panels slid shut
the magical vision disappeared but for a good while i kept dreaming away until the moment my eyes focused on the instruments hanging on the wall
corresponding to a depth of fifty meters
i waited for captain nemo but he didn't appear the clock marked the hour of five ned land and conseil returned to their cabin as for me i repaired to my stateroom there i found dinner ready for me
it consisted of turtle soup made from the daintiest hawksbill a red mullet with white slightly flaky flesh whose liver when separately prepared makes delicious eating plus loin of imperial angelfish whose flavor struck me as even better than salmon
there was no counter in front only some tables on which lay strewn fancy boxes of thread and other useless knick knacks to which certain shopkeepers appear to cling though they can seldom find customers for them
a woman stood at one of these tables untangling a skein of red yarn behind her i saw another leaning in an abstracted way over a counter which ran from wall to wall
across the extreme end of the shop this i took to be bess
the woman with the skein appeared on the contrary as eager to see as the other seemed indifferent i had to buy something and i did so in as matter of fact a way as possible considering
that my attention was more given to the woman in the rear than to the articles i was purchasing you have a very convenient place here i casually remarked as i handed out my money
with this i turned squarely about and looked directly at her whom i believed to be bess a voluble answer from the woman at my side but not the wink of an eye from the one whose attention i had endeavored to attract
i live in the house opposite i carelessly went on taking in every detail of the strange being i was secretly addressing
you live opposite in mayor packard's house i approached her smiling she had dropped her hands from her chin and seemed very eager now more eager than the other woman to interest me in what she had about her and so hold me
to the shop look at this she cried holding up an article of such cheap workmanship that i wondered so sensible an appearing woman would cumber her shelves with it i am glad you live over there
for i had nodded to her question i'm greatly interested in that house
i met her look it was sharp and very intelligent then you know its reputation i laughingly suggested she made a contemptuous gesture the woman was really very good looking but baffling in her manner
as mister robinson had said and very hard to classify that isn't what interests me she protested i've other reasons
no nor even a friend i am in their employ just now as a companion to missus packard her health is not very good and the mayor is away a great deal
business is very poor in this shop i was standing directly in front of her turning quickly about i looked through the narrow panes of the door and found that my eyes naturally rested on the stoop of the opposite house
indeed this stoop was about all that could be seen from the spot
we are quite surrounded the house should certainly hold treasure to warrant all this interest but what could this one time domestic know of the missing bonds an old fashioned doorway i remarked
it makes the house conspicuous but in a way i like i don't wonder you enjoy looking at it to me such a house and such a doorway suggest mystery and a romantic past if the place is not haunted
and only a fool believes in ghosts something strange must have happened there or i should never have the nervous feeling i have in going about the halls and up and down the stairways did you never have that feeling never i'm not
given to feelings i live one day after another and just wait not given to feelings with such eyes in such a face you should have looked down when you said that bess i might have believed you then wait
i softly repeated wait for what for fortune to enter your little shop door no for my husband to come back was her unexpected answer uttered grimly enough to have frightened that husband away again
had he been fortunate or unfortunate enough to hear her i'm a married woman miss and shouldn't be working like this and i won't be always my man'll come back and make a lady of me again it's that i'm waiting for
here a customer came in naturally i drew back for our faces were nearly touching don't go she pleaded catching me by the sleeve and turning astonishingly pale for one ordinarily so ruddy
i want to ask a favor of you come into my little room behind you won't regret it this last in an emphatic whisper
and congratulating myself greatly upon my success in insuring her immediate confidence i slipped through the opening she made for me between the tables serving for a counter and followed her into a room at the rear which
from its appearance answered the triple purpose of sleeping room parlor and kitchen pardon my impertinence said she as she carefully closed the door behind us it's not my habit to make friends with strangers but
i've taken a fancy to you and think you can be trusted will she hesitated then burst out will you do something for me if i can i smiled how long do you expect to stay over there oh that i can't say
a month a week probably a week then you can do what i want miss saunders i put in there is something in that house which belongs to me i started this was hardly what i expected her to say
something of great importance to me something which i must have and have very soon
one day when my future looked doubtful and i didn't know
missus packard would think it strange if she saw where and might make it very uncomfortable for me but you can get what i want without trouble if you are not afraid of going about the house at night
it's a little box with my name on it and it is hidden where behind a brick i loosened in the cellar wall i can describe the very place oh you think i am asking too much of you a stranger and a lady
in the box so that i shall know exactly what i am doing i can't tell i do not dare to tell till i have it again in my own hand then we will look it over together do you hesitate
you needn't no inconvenience will follow to any one if you are careful to rely on yourself and not let any other person see or handle this box
how large is it i asked quite as breathless as herself as i realized the possibilities underlying this remarkable request it is so small that you can conceal it under
an apron or in the pocket of your coat in exchange for it i will give you all i can afford ten dollars no more than that i asked testing her no more at first
if it brings me what it ought to
does that satisfy you are you willing to risk an encounter with the ghost for just ten dollars and a promise the smile with
i think it gave me a more thrilling consciousness of human terror in face of the supernatural than anything which i had yet heard in this connection surely her motive for remaining in the haunted house
had been extraordinarily strong
when the time comes from going into that cellar at night i shook my head i had already regained both my will power and the resolution to carry out this adventure to the end
yes and bring it to me here as early the next day as you can leave missus packard yes oh you don't know what this means to me
and get this box for me all by yourself yes if you demand it i do you will see why some day very well you can trust me now tell me where i am to find the brick you designate
it's in the cellar wall about half way down on the right hand side you will see nothing but stone for a foot or two above the floor but after that comes the brick wall
on one of these bricks you will detect a cross scratched that's the one
feel behind with your hand and you will find the box a questionable task what if i should be seen at it the ghost will protect you again that smile of mingled sarcasm and innuendo
it was no common servant girl's smile any more than her language was that of the ignorant domestic i believe the ghost fails to walk since the present tenants came into the house i remarked but its reputation remains
i can find some way of letting you in
bitter determination yet you have never been frightened by anything there i know but i have suffered that is for one who has no feelings the box
will have to remain in its place undisturbed if you won't get it for me positively yes miss nothing would induce me even to cross the street
chapter eleven the red cloud departs well dad i wish you were going along with us said tom to his father next morning you don't know what you're going to miss
a fine trip of several hundred miles through the air seeing strange sights and experiencing new sensations yes i wish you would reconsider
your determination and accompany us added mister damon i would enjoy your company there's plenty of room we can carry six persons with ease said mister sharp
i have too much work to do here at home he replied
resolution as this and tom and the others considered the decision of the aged inventor as final the airship was ready for the start and every
than usual on this account the bag of tools for which tom had gone to town were put in their proper place the last of the supplies were taken abroad
the motor had been given a trial spin disconnected from the propellers and then the balloonist announced well tom and mister damon you had better begin to think of starting
we've had breakfast here but there's no telling where we will eat dinner bless my soul don't you talk that way exclaimed mister damon you make me exceedingly nervous
what part of the united states we would be when dinner time came explained the aeronaut oh that's different bless my pocket knife but i thought
might be dashed to pieces and incapable of eating any dinner hardly remarked mister sharp the red cloud is not that kind of an airship i hope but get aboard if you please tom and mister damon
entered the car it was resting on the ground on the small wheels used to start the airship when the gas inflation method was not used in this case however it had been decided to rise in the air by means
and not to use the wings and planes until another time consequently the ship was swaying slightly and tugging at the restraining cables as tom and mister damon entered the cabin
there drove into the swift yard a dilapidated wagon drawn by a bony mule
to tell tom that his friend eradicate sampson was on hand as for eradicate as soon as he saw the great airship which he had never before beheld fully rigged
is dat yo flyin machine mistah swift he asked that's it rad
don't you want to come and take a ride with us me
and the whitewasher who had descended from his wagon edged away as if the airship might suddenly put out a pair of hands and grab him no indeedy i doant
i'se gwine on mah way but dat's a pow'ful fine ship it suah am better come and try a flight rad added mister damon i'll look after you no sah an i doan't take it kind
spoke eradicate but when he saw that the craft was stationary he ventured to approach closer gingerly he put out one hand and touched the framework of the wheels just forward of the cabin
the negro grasped the timber and lifted it slightly to his astonishment the whole front of the airship tilted up for it was about ready to fly and a child might have lifted it so buoyant was it
wonderingly he looked at the great bulk of the ship looming above him then he glanced at his arm
was elsewhere he lifted the craft
no wonder day calls me sampson i done lifted dis monstrousness airship wif one hand
i kin do it once more he raised the red cloud slightly and a delighted grin not unmixed with a look of awe spread over his honest countenance i suppose you'll give up whitewashing
now boomerang yo suah has
sot yo down on yo back i suah will and the negro feeling of his biceps walked over to where the mule stood with its eyes closed
tom called mister sharp as he entered the car having seen that everything was all right we'll not go up very far at first until mister damon gets used to the thin air bless my soul
i believe i'm getting nervous announced the eccentric man bless my liver but i hope nothing happens nothing will happen mister sharp assured him just keep calm when it feels
are you casting off those ropes tom is all clear all but the bow and stern lines you attend to the bow line and i'll go to the stern
mister sharp started it
this had the effect of rendering the airship more buoyant
than ever at the ropes good by tom called mister swift reaching up to shake hands with his son drop me a line when you get a chance
implored missus baggert her kind face showing her anxiety may i kiss you good by
the motherly housekeeper had not done this since he was a little chap she had to stand on a soap box which eradicate brought in order to reach tom's face and when she had kissed him she said oh i'm so worried
i just know you'll be killed risking your lives in that terrible airship ha not a very cheerful view to take madam observed mister damon don't
hold that view i beg of you bless my eyelashes but you'll see us coming home covered with glory and star dust i'm sure i hope so answered missus baggert laughing a little in spite of herself
the last ropes were cast off good bys were shouted as the airship shot into the air and mister sharp started the motor to warm it up before the propellers were thrown into gear
the twenty cylinders began exploding with a terrific racket as the muffler was open and tom looking down saw boomerang awaken with a jump the mule was so frightened
that he started off on a dead run swinging the rickety old wagon along behind him eradicate sampson who had been feeling his muscle since he discovered what he thought was his marvelous strength saw what was happening
he shouted then as the tailboard of the wagon swung past him he reached out and grabbed it perhaps he thought he could bring the runaway mule up standing but if he did he was grievously disappointed
boomerang pulled his master along the gravel walk and kept running in spite
it might have gone hard with him had not garret jackson the engineer running in front of boomerang
eradicate picked himself up and gazed sadly at his arms the navigators of the air could not hear what he said but what he thought was evident to them then as mister sharp
deadened the explosions of the powerful motor
noted that their height was seven hundred feet high enough called mister sharp and it was time for mister damon
was getting pale the gas was shut off the propellers thrown into gear and with a rush the red cloud shot toward the south passing over the swift homestead and high above the heads of the crowd
that had gathered to witness the start
chapter twenty five the mountain shattered conclusion can't we get some of the diamonds cried mister damon as he raced along behind tom now's our chance
those fellows have all gone the odd man made a grab for something as he ran it's as much as our lives are worth declared the young inventor we dare not stop come on i'd like to investigate some of the machinery
spoke mister jenks but i wouldn't stop even for that the storm is too dangerous called bill renshaw i can show you a shorter way out
no way can be too short said mister parker solemnly this mountain will go to pieces shortly i think tom shuddered he remembered how narrow had been their escape when earthquake island sank into the sea and that
some terrific upheaval was now imminent might be judged from the awful reports that sounded more plainly as the adventurers raced toward the opening of the cave it was like the bombardment of some doomed city
mister jenks and tom cast one longing look behind at the complicated and expensive machinery that had been installed in the cave by the diamond makers they had abandoned it and in it lay the secret of making precious gems
but there was no time to stop now and investigate this way urged bill renshaw we'll soon be out but won't it be dangerous to go outside asked mister damon shan't we be struck by lightning there is some protection in here none at all
said mister parker quickly this mountain is a natural lightning rod to stay here in this cave will be sure death when the storm gets directly over it and that will be very soon we must get on insulated ground
that does not contain iron ore the scientist asked of the former spirit yes
that's good then we may be saved on they ran they had no lanterns but the blue light of the electricity as it leaped from point to point inside the cave
outcroppings of iron ore made the place bright enough to see here we are cried bill renshaw at length here's the way out making a sudden turn in the winding passage he showed the adventurers a small opening
in the side of the crag in an instant they had passed through and found themselves in daylight once more the sudden glare almost blinded them for though the sky was overcast by clouds
from which jagged tongues of lightning played the outside was much lighter than the dark cave i should say it was a storm cried tom swift see it is striking every minute and all around us
in fact lightning bolts were falling on every side of the adventurers every time the balls of fire struck they burst open great stones or seared a livid scar on the face of some cliff
as for tom and the others they stood on a dry dirt hill in which fortunately there was no iron ore to this fact they undoubtedly owed their lives though had there been rain to moisten the ground and make the earth a good conductor of electricity
they probably would have been badly shocked but the electrical outburst was not accompanied by rain tom looked up he saw a compact mass of cloud moving
toward the summit of the mountain on the slope of which they stood from this cloud there played shafts of reddish green fire look called the young inventor to mister parker
that is the center of the storm as soon as it gets over the mountain where that lightning rod is all the electrical fluid will be discharged in one bolt at the mountain and it will be destroyed we must run
but keep on the dirt places run for your lives they needed no second warning turning they fled down the steep side of the mountain slipping and stumbling but taking care not to step on any iron ore
behind them flashed the lightning bolts suddenly there was a most awful crash it seemed as if the end of the world had come and the ear drums of tom and his companion almost burst with the fearful report
and they lay stunned for a moment following the terrible report there was a low rumbling sound hardly knowing whether he was dead or alive tom opened his eyes and looked about him what he saw
caused him to cry out in terror the whole mountain seemed bathed in fire
then the towering cliff seemed to melt and crumble up and the great peak the top of it containing the diamond makers cave from which they had fled but a few minutes before the entire summit was toppled over into the valley on the other side
and in the direction opposite to that where the adventurers stood then came a profound silence and the lightning ceased the storm was over and only the rattle of stones and boulders as they came to rest in the valley below
reached the ears of our friends phantom mountain has been destroyed just as i said it would be spoke mister parker solemnly once more he had prophesied correctly
then tom remarked as calmly as possible well it's all over i guess we may as well get back to our airship what became of munson and the others asked mister damon mister jenks pointed to the trail far below
the figures of some men running madly could be seen there they go he said i fancy we have seen the last of them and they had for some time at least there was little use lingering any longer on phantom mountain indeed
little of it was left on which to remain looking back toward the place where the cave had been tom and the others started forward again the diamond making machinery had all been destroyed
no one would ever have them now tom and mister jenks felt a sense of disappointment but they were glad to have escaped with their lives
they sought their former camp but the tent and all their food was buried under tons of earth and rocks three days later after rather severe hardships
for they had no food supplies and had it not been that bill renshaw knew the haunts of some game of which they managed to snare some they would have fared badly for they had left their guns in the cave
well there are the trees behind which i hope my airship is hidden announced tom as they came to the spot good old red cloud
there's somebody walking around the place spoke mister jenks i hope it's no one who has damaged the ship came from tom apprehensively
he broke into a run and soon confronted an aged miner who seemed to have established a rude sort of camp near the airship is anything the matter asked tom breathlessly is my airship all right
and i've been waiting until the owner came along why asked tom wonderingly because i've got a proposition to make to you went on the miner
and i'm just back from alaska prospecting around here i haven't had any luck but i know of a gold mine in alaska that will make us all rich only it needs an airship to get to it and i've been figuring how to hire one then i comes along
and i sees this big one and i makes up my mind to stay here until the owners come back that's what i've done now if i prove that i'm telling the truth will you go to alaska to the valley of gold with me i don't know answered tom
to whom the proposition was rather sudden we've just had some pretty startling adventures and we're almost starved wait until we get something to eat and we'll talk come aboard the red cloud and the lad led the way to his craft
as when he left it to go to the diamond cave
packed up a great many costly things jewels and gold and silver trinkets fine dresses and in short everything that became a royal bride for she loved her child very dearly
and she gave her a waiting maid to ride with her and give her into the bridegroom's hands and each had a horse for the journey now the princess's horse was called falada and could speak
when the time came for them to set out the old queen went into her bed chamber and took a little knife and cut off a lock of her hair and gave it to her daughter and said take care of it dear child for it is a charm that may be of use to you on the road
then they took a sorrowful leave of each other and the princess put the lock of her mother's hair into her bosom got upon her horse and set off on her journey to her bridegroom's kingdom one day as they were riding along by the side of a brook the princess began to feel very thirsty
and said to her maid pray get down and fetch me some water in my golden cup out of yonder brook for i want to drink nay said the maid if you are thirsty get down yourself and lie down by the water and drink i shall not be your waiting maid any longer
for she was frightened and dared not bring out her golden cup and then she wept and said alas what will become of me
then all rode further on their journey till the day grew so warm and the sun so scorching that the bride began to feel very thirsty again
she forgot her maid's rude speech and said pray get down and fetch me some water to drink in my golden cup but the maid answered her and even spoke more haughtily than before drink if you will but i shall not be your waiting maid
then the princess was so thirsty that she got off her horse and lay down and held her head over the running stream and cried and said what will become of me and the lock of hair answered her again alas alas if thy mother knew it
the lock of hair fell from her bosom
the maid said i shall ride upon falada and you may have my horse instead so she was forced to give up her horse and soon afterwards to take off her royal clothes and put on her maid's shabby ones at last as they drew near the end of the journey
this treacherous servant threatened to kill her mistress if she ever told anyone what had happened but falada saw it all and marked it well
there was great joy at their coming
and as she was looking out upon the snow she pricked her finger and three drops of blood fell upon it then she gazed thoughtfully upon the red drops which sprinkled the white snow and said would that my little daughter
may be as white as that snow as red as the blood and as black as the ebony window frame and so the little girl grew up her skin was as white as snow
and she was called snow white
but so proud that she could not bear to think that any one could surpass her
tell me glass tell me true of all the ladies in the land who is fairest tell me who and the glass answered thou queen art fairest in the land
and when she was seven years old she was as bright as the day and fairer than the queen herself then the glass one day answered the queen when she went to consult it as usual thou queen may'st fair and beauteous be
but snow white is lovelier far than thee when she heard this she turned pale with rage and envy and calling to one of her servants said take snow white away into the wide wood that i may never see her more
i will not hurt thee thou pretty child
for her weary feet would carry her no further everything was spruce and neat in the cottage on the table was spread a white cloth
and knives and forks laid in order and by the wall stood seven little beds then as she was very hungry she picked a little piece off each loaf and drank a very little wine out of each glass and after that she thought she would lie down and rest
so she tried all the little beds and one was too long
they lighted up their seven lamps and saw directly that all was not right the first said who has been sitting on my stool the second who has been eating off my plate the third who has been picking at my bread the fourth who has been meddling with my spoon
the fifth who has been handling my fork the sixth who has been cutting with my knife the seventh who has been drinking my wine
but her cheeks were still rosy and her face looked just as it did while she was alive
and the coffin was placed upon the hill and one of the dwarfs always sat by it and watched and the birds of the air came too and bemoaned snow white first of all came an owl and then a raven
and thus snow white lay for a long long time and still only looked as though she were asleep
but they said we will not part with her for all the gold in the world
but the moment he lifted it up to carry it home with him the piece of apple fell from between her lips and snow white awoke and said where am i and the prince answered
always be a good girl and i will look down from heaven and watch over you
but by the time the sun had melted it away again
then they took away her fine clothes and gave her an old frock to put on and laughed at her and turned her into the kitchen
to bring the water to make the fire to cook and to wash besides that the sisters plagued her in all sorts of ways and laughed at her
and then as she was of course always dusty and dirty they called her cinderella it happened once that the father was going to the fair and asked his wife's daughters what he should bring them fine clothes said the first pearls and diamonds said the second
now child said he to his own daughter
a sprig of hazel brushed against him and almost pushed off his hat
and there it grew and became a fine tree three times every day she went to it and wept and soon a little bird came and built its nest upon the tree and talked with her and watched over her and brought her whatever she wished for
and cinderella's two sisters were asked to come so they called her up and said now comb our hair brush our shoes and tie our sashes for us
and at last she begged her mother very hard to let her go you cinderella said she
no clothes at all and who cannot even dance you want to go to the ball
blackbird thrush and chaffinch gay hither hither haste away one and all come help me quick
and flew down into the ashes and the little doves stooped their heads down and set to work
at the end of one hour the work was done and all flew out again at the windows then cinderella brought the dish to her mother overjoyed at the thought that now she should go to the feast but she said no no girl you have no clothes and cannot dance you shall not go
hither hither through the sky turtle doves and linnets fly blackbird thrush and chaffinch gay hither hither haste away one and all come help me quick haste ye haste ye pick pick pick
then first came two white doves in at the kitchen window and next came the turtle doves and after them all the little birds under heaven came chirping and hopping about
before half an hour's time all was done and out they flew again
rejoicing to think that she should now go to the ball but her mother said it is all of no use you cannot go
and off she went with her two daughters to the feast now when all were gone and nobody left at home cinderella went sorrowfully and sat down under the hazel tree and cried out shake shake hazel tree gold and silver over me then her friend the bird
flew out of the tree and brought a gold and silver dress for her and slippers of spangled silk and she put them on and followed her sisters to the feast
the shoe is too small and not made for you prince prince look again for thy bride for she's not the true one that sits by thy side
let the other sister try and put on the slipper then she went into the room and got her foot into the shoe all but the heel which was too large but her mother squeezed it in till the blood came
would he have been grateful women when they are fond of men do think much of men's comfort in small matters and men are apt to take the good things provided almost as a matter of course
having left london over night by the limited mail train the pony at once presented itself to them it was a little shaggy black beast with a boy almost as shaggy as itself but they were both good of their kind oh you're the laddie with the pownie are you said frank
in answer to an announcement made to him by the boy he did at once perceive that lizzie had taken notice of the word in his note in which he had suggested that some means of getting over to portray would be needed
his friend was a man a couple of years younger than himself
but who was nevertheless a clever diligent well instructed man
he was not much known as a sportsman
but he dearly loved the hills and fresh air and the few grouse which were or were not on lady eustace's mountains would go as far with him as they would with any man before he had consented to come with frank
till he had been assured that there was no officer attached to the estate worthy of such a name
i don't clearly know what a gillie is he said in answer to one of frank's explanations if a gillie means a lad without any breeches on i don't mind
and herriot had come greystock brought with him two guns two fishing rods a man servant
arthur herriot whom the attorneys had not yet loved brought some very thick boots
digest of the common law the best of the legal profession consists in this
an aspirant must learn everything but a man may make his fortune at it and know almost nothing he may examine a witness with judgment see through a case with precision
and yet be altogether ignorant of law but he must be believed to be a very pundit before he will get a chance of exercising his judgment his precision or his eloquence the men whose names
but till that blessed time has come
greystock never thought of the law now unless he had some special case in hand
then he started and herriot at once went to work on stone and toddy with a pipe in his mouth he had travelled all night
so also had frank travelled all night but the pony and the fresh air kept him awake the boy had offered to go with him but that he had altogether refused and therefore to his other cares was added that of finding his way the sweep of the valleys however is long and not abrupt
through a gap in a certain wall which lay half way between the cottage and the castle he was thinking of the work in hand
when through that he ascended the hill for two miles
and portray castle lying as it seemed to him at that distance close upon the sea shore upon my word lizzie has not done badly for herself he said almost aloud as he looked down upon the fair sight beneath him and round upon the mountains and remembered that
for her life at least it was all hers and after her death would belong to her son what more does any human being desire of such a property than that he rode down to the great doorway the mountain track which fell on to the road about half a mile from the castle having been plain enough
gowran had watched the pony coming down the mountain side and had desired to see of what like was her leddyship's cousin in telling the whole truth of mister gowran it must be acknowledged that he thought that his late master had made a very great mistake in the matter of his marriage he could not imagine bad things enough of lady eustace
the name of admiral greystock as having been the father of his mistress had indeed reached his ears but andy gowran was a suspicious man
or having had a wife it's my fer rm opeenion she's jist naebody and waur he had said more than once to his own wife nodding his head with great emphasis at the last word he was very anxious therefore to see her leddyship's cousin
mister gowran thought that he knew a gentleman when he saw one he thought also that he knew a lady and that he didn't see one when he was engaged with his mistress cousin indeed
so mister gowran was on the grand sweep before the garden gate and took the pony from frank's hand
mister gowran perceived that frank was a gentleman and was disappointed
oh ever so wicked mister gowran who was a stern moralist was certainly disappointed at frank's appearance
at some corner of the castle which seemed a long way from the great door it was a cheerful little room with chintz curtains
the wide expanse of glittering waves
of course she was alone
well frank she said with her sweetest smile as she gave him her hand
as she could not rush into his arms
so i am at portray castle at last he said still holding her hand yes at the dullest dreariest deadliest spot in all christendom i think if ayrshire be christendom but never mind about that now perhaps
i thought you were to be so happy here
is just the fact that men can get along without women and women can't without men my life has been a burthen to me but never mind tell me about my lord my lord and master lord fawn who else what other lord and master
my bosom's own my heart's best hope my spot of terra firma my cool running brook of fresh water my rock my love my lord my all
does he still toil at downing street oh dear do you remember frank when he told us that
i have seen him
i suppose i had better let you tell your story she said
he means to ill treat you and you will let him you had better listen as you promised lizzie
is he prepared to prove that the property is not my own
you had better however hear my whole story certainly said lizzie
she had no gems about her but what she might well wear in her ordinary life
on without reference to her cousin frank
giving herself all the luxuries of solitude
mister camperdown continued greystock has consented to prepare a case for opinion
what is the opinion of some lawyer qualified to understand the circumstances of the case why isn't your opinion as good as that of any lawyer i couldn't give an opinion not otherwise than as a private friend to you which is worth nothing unless for your private guidance mister camperdown
i don't care one straw for mister camperdown just let me finish oh certainly and you mustn't be angry with me frank the matter is so much to me isn't it i won't be angry
he has no power nor has john eustace any power to decide that the property which may belong to a third person shall be jeopardised by any arbitration the third person could not be made to lose his legal right by any such arbitration
and his claim if made would still have to be tried who is the third person frank your own child at present and will not he have it any way
from what i have heard in conversation with mister camperdown and john eustace
nor can i said lizzie
who is mister dove mister dove is a barrister and no doubt a very clever fellow if his opinion be such as mister camperdown expects he will at once proceed against you at law for the immediate recovery of the necklace
and as she spoke all her little feminine softnesses were for the moment laid aside if mister dove's opinion be in your favour well said lizzie what then in that case mister camperdown acting on behalf of john eustace and young florian
said lizzie holding up her hands piteously well
who says that i want to sell them demanded lizzie indignantly
that is everything i care nothing for mister camperdown nor yet for mister dove if that is his absurd name lord fawn is of more moment to me though indeed he has given me but little cause to say so
he may thank himself for it
that the match must be regarded as broken off unless you will at once restore the necklace he does he has commissioned me to give you that message
that he repents his engagement she now rose from her chair and began to walk about the room he shall not go back from it he shall learn that i am not a creature at his own disposal in that way he shall find that i have some strength if you have none
taken him by the throat said lizzie taking by the throat in these days seldom forwards any object
i think lord fawn is behaving very badly and i have told him so no doubt he is under the influence of others mother and sisters who are not friendly to you false faced idiots said lizzie he himself is somewhat afraid of me is much afraid of you
is afraid of what people will say of him and to give him his due is afraid also of doing what is wrong he is timid weak conscientious and wretched if you have set your heart upon marrying him my heart said lizzie scornfully or your mind
whatever may be his wishes in that case he will redeem his word
then your loss will be so much the less but what right has he to treat me so
what punishment would you wish
i think i could almost do it myself
all the world has been told of the engagement there must be some punishment
i would wish to do whatever would hurt him most without hurting myself said lizzie you won't give up the necklace said frank certainly not said lizzie give it up for his sake a man that i have always despised
till sir florian had settled that account for her
and it is you that tell me so oh frank let us understand each other lizzie i will not fight him that is with pistols nor will i attempt to thrash him
perhaps at that moment he almost wished that she would quarrel with him but she was otherwise disposed oh frank she said do not desert me i will not desert you you feel that i am ill used frank i do
i think that his conduct is inexcusable and there is to be no punishment she asked with that strong indignation at injustice which the unjust always feel when they are injured
i don't believe a bit of it
lucy morris is one of that sort
i have no such tame virtues i'll tell him to his face what he is
love him i hate him i always despised him and now i hate him and yet you would marry him not for worlds frank no because you advised me i thought that i would do so yes you did frank
there was something beautifully sincere and real about aunt helen she never fussed over any one or pretended to sympathize just to make out how nice she was she was real and you felt that no matter what wild or awful rubbish you talked to her
it would never be retailed for any one's amusement and better than all she never lectured she sat down beside me and i impulsively threw my arms around her neck and sobbed forth my troubles in a string
she heard me to the end and then said quietly
i controlled myself instantly and waited expectantly what would she say surely not that tame old yarn anent this world being merely a place of probation wherein we were allowed time to fit ourselves for a beautiful world to come
that was another piece of old croaking of the job's comforter order of which i was sick unto death
i need not have feared aunt helen holding forth in that strain
and my selfish conceited egotism i understand you sybylla she said slowly and distinctly but you must not be a coward there is any amount of love and good in the world but you must search for it
being misunderstood is one of the trials we all must bear i think that even the most common minded person in the land has inner thoughts and feelings which no one can share with him
i am acquainted with a great number of young girls some of them good and true but you have a character containing more than any three of them put together with this power if properly managed you can gain the almost universal love of your fellows
but you are wild and wayward
else you will be worse than a person with the emptiest of characters
but take this comfort it as frequently passes by on the other side of those with well chiselled features as those with faces of plainer mould she turned her face away sighed and forgetful of my presence lapsed into silence
i knew she was thinking of herself love not friendship love for anyone knowing her must give her love and respect but the other sort of love had passed her by twelve years before i went to caddagat when helen bossier had been eighteen
and one of the most beautiful and lovable girls in australia there had come to caddagat on a visit a dashing colonel of the name of bell in the enjoyment of a most extended furlough for the benefit of his health
i have heard them say she worshipped colonel bell
and becoming enamoured of another woman he tried to obtain a divorce on account of his wife's spotless character he was unable to do this he therefore deserted her and openly lived with the other woman as his mistress this forced aunt helen to return to caddagat
and her mother had induced her to sue for a judicial separation which was easily obtained when a woman is separated from her husband it is the religion of the world at large to cast the whole blame on the wife
by reason of her youth and purity missus bell had not as much to suffer in this way as some others but comparatively speaking her life was wrecked she had been humiliated and outraged in the cruellest way by the man whom she loved and trusted
neither a wife widow nor maid
one of the most estimably lovable and noble women i have ever met come sybylla she said starting up brightly i have a plan will you agree to it
a very ugly spectacle i thought aunt helen turned the face of the large mirror flat against the wall while i remarked despondently you can make me only middling ugly you must be a magician come now
i'll take you in hand in the morning i hope you will like your room
and now good night and happy dreams i awoke next morning in very fine spirits
with their faces to the wall at present hairpins fancy combs ribbons galore and a pretty work basket greeted my sight
it was stuffed full with all kinds of paper of good quality fancy all colours sizes and shapes plain foreign note pens ink and a generous supply of stamps
i refer to a nice little bookcase containing copies of all our australian poets and two or three dozen novels which i had often longed to read i read the first chapters of four of them and then lost myself in gordon
and sat on my dressing table in my nightgown regardless of cold until brought to my senses by the breakfast bell i made great pace scrambled into my clothes helter skelter and appeared at table when the others had been seated and unfolded their serviettes
aunt helen's treatment for making me presentable was the wearing of gloves and a shady hat every time i went outside
rub off some of your gloomy pessimism and cultivate a little more healthy girlish vanity and you will do very well she would say i observed these rites most religiously for three days then i contracted a slight attack of influenza
a servant girl tipped a pot of boiling pot liquor over my right foot scalding it rather severely aunt helen and grannie put me to bed where i yelled with pain for hours like a mad red indian despite their applying every alleviative possible
i was not sufficiently ill to be miserable and being a pampered invalid was therefore fine fun aunt helen was a wonderful nurse she dressed my foot splendidly every morning and put it in a comfortable position many times throughout the day
grannie brought me every dainty in the house and sent special messengers to gool gool for more had i been a professional glutton i would have been in paradise even mister hawden condescended so far as to express his regret concerning the accident
and favoured me with visits throughout each day and one sunday his gallantry carried him to a gully
and put them in a bowl beside my bed
the bossiers and beechams were leaders of swelldom among the squattocracy up the country and firm and intimate friends the beechams resided at five bob downs twelve miles from caddagat
and were a family composed of two maiden ladies and their nephew harold one of these ladies was aunt helen's particular friend and the other had stood in the same capacity to my mother in days gone by but of late years on account of her poverty
mother had been too proud to keep up communication with her
while harold beecham was immensely wealthy
one miss beecham was away in melbourne and the other not well enough to come and see me but harold came regularly to inquire how i was progressing he always brought me a number of beautiful apples
this kindness was because the caddagat orchard had been too infested with codlin moth for grannie to save any last season aunt helen used to mischievously tease me about this attention here comes harry beecham with some more apples she would say
no doubt he is far more calculating and artful than i thought he was capable of being
and when he sees me won't be vexed that all his work has been for nothing perhaps though it would be better not to describe me or i will get no more apples i would reply aunt helen was a clever needlewoman she made all grannie's dresses and her own
now she was making some for me which however i was not to see until i wore them aunt helen had this as a pleasant surprise
while in bed grannie and auntie being busy i was often left hours alone
devoured the contents of my bookshelf the pleasure so exquisite as to be almost pain which i derived from the books and especially the australian poets is beyond description
but at last here was congeniality here was companionship the weird witchery of mighty bush the breath of wide sunlit plains
the sound of camp bells and jingle of hobble chains floating on the soft twilight breezes had come to these men
and bitter disappointment held out his hand and took me with him the regret of it all was i could never meet them byron thackeray dickens longfellow gordon kendall the men i loved all were dead
but blissful thought caine paterson and lawson were still living breathing human beings
chapter ten everard grey uncle julius had taken a run down to sydney before returning to caddagat
he was grandmamma's adopted son and was the orphan of very aristocratic english parents who had left him to the guardianship of distant relatives they had proved criminally unscrupulous by finding a flaw in deeds or something which none but lawyers understand
they had deprived him of all his property and left him to sink or swim grannie had discovered reared and educated him among professions he had chosen the bar and was now one of sydney's most promising young barristers
his foster mother was no end proud of him and loved him as her own son in due time a telegram arrived from uncle julius
by this time i had quite recovered from influenza and my accident and as they would not arrive till near nightfall
also i was to be favoured with a look at my reflection in a mirror for the first time since my arrival
and meeting mister hawden some distance from the house he took it upon himself to accompany me everywhere i went he followed after much to my annoyance because grannie gave me many and serious talkings to about the crime of encouraging young men
frank hawden had changed his tune and told me now that it mattered not that i was not pretty as pretty or not i was the greatest brick of a girl he had met
and because he had arrived at that overflowing age when young men have to be partial to some female whether she be ugly or pretty fat or lean old or young that i should be the object of these puerile emotions in a fellow like frank hawden
filled me with loathing and disgust it was late in the afternoon when hawden and i returned
approaching at the going for the doctor pace at which uncle julius always drove aunt helen hustled me off to dress but i was only half rigged when they arrived and so was unable to go out and meet them uncle julius inquired for that youngster of lucy's and aunt helen replied that she would be forthcoming
uncle julius said and auntie helen came to finish my toilet while they were making theirs there now you have nothing to complain of in the way of looks she remarked at the completion of the ceremony
i was decked in my first evening dress as it was a great occasion
what can be more foolish than to endanger one's health by exposing at night the chest and arms two of the most vital spots of the body which have been covered all day on the other hand what can be more beautiful than a soft white bosom rising and falling amid a dainty nest of silk and lace
every woman looks more soft and feminine in a decollete gown and is there any of the animal lines known pleasanter to the eye than the contour of shapely arms some there are who cry down evening dress as being immodest and indecent
a heavy lamp was on each of the four brackets in the corners
and candelabra threw many lights from the piano
but we never lighted more than a single candle on the piano this had been ample light for our purpose aunt helen would sing in her sweet sad voice all the beautiful old songs i loved while i curled myself on a mat at her side and read books the music often compelling me to forget the reading
but through both ever came the solemn rush of the stream outside in its weird melancholy like a wind ceaselessly endeavouring to outstrip a wild vain regret which relentlessly pursued your uncle julius always has the drawing room lighted like this
he does not believe in shadowy half light calls it sentimental bosh said aunt helen in explanation is uncle like that i remarked but my question remained unanswered leaving a hand mirror with me aunt helen had slipped away
but this evening the blue silken curtains were looped up and it was before this that i stood i looked and looked again in pleased surprise i beheld a young girl with eyes and skin of the clearest and brightest and lips of brilliant scarlet
and a chest and pair of arms which would pass muster with the best if nature had been in bad humour when moulding my face she had used her tools craftily in forming my figure aunt helen had proved a clever maid and dressmaker
my pale blue cashmere dress fitted my fully developed yet girlish figure to perfection
the remainder tied simply with a piece of ribbon hung in thick waves nearly to my knees my toilet had altered me almost beyond recognition it made me look my age sixteen years and ten months whereas before
when dressed carelessly and with my hair plastered in a tight coil people not knowing me would not believe that i was under twenty joy and merriment lit up my face which glowed with youth health and happiness
which rippled my lips in smiles which displayed a splendid set of teeth and i really believe that on that night i did not look out of the way ugly i was still admiring my reflection when aunt helen returned to say that everard and uncle julius were smoking on the veranda and asking for me
what do you think of yourself sybylla oh aunt helen tell me that there is something about me not completely hideous she took my face between her hands saying silly child there are some faces with faultless features
which would receive nothing more than an indifferent glance while beside other faces which might have few if any pretensions to beauty yours is one of those last mentioned but that does not say i am not ugly no one would dream of calling you plain let alone ugly
brilliant is the word which best describes you uncle julius had the upper part of his ponderous figure arrayed in a frock coat he did not take kindly to what he termed those skittish sparrow tailed affairs frock coats suited him but i am not partial to them on every one
but on a skinny one they hang with such a forlorn dying duck expression that they invariably make me laugh julius john bossier better known as j j bossier and better still as jay jay big fat burly broad a jovial bachelor of forty
too fond of all the opposite sex ever to have settled his affections on one in particular was well known respected and liked from wagga wagga to albury forbes to dandaloo bourke to hay from tumut to monaro and back again to peak hill
i was very proud to call him uncle so this is yourself is it he exclaimed giving me a tremendous hug oh uncle i expostulated wipe your old kisses off your breath smells horribly of whisky and tobacco
gammon that's what makes my kisses so nice he answered and after holding me at arm's length for inspection by george you're a wonderful looking girl you're surely not done growing yet though you are such a little nipper i could put you in my pocket with ease
you aren't a scrap like your mother i'll give the next shearer who passes a shilling to cut that hair off it would kill a dog in the hot weather everard this is my niece sybylla aunt helen was introducing us
i suppose i'm a kind of uncle and brother in one
a tremendous scamper ensued round and round the flower beds we ran uncle jay jay's beard opened in a broad smile which ended in a loud laugh
gammon mother i bet you were often kissed when that youngster's age
grannie's face melted in a smile as she commenced a little anecdote with that pathetic beginning when i was young
so that i should not miss the conversation i should think your niece is very excitable mister grey was saying to aunt helen oh very yes i have never seen any but very highly strung temperaments have that transparent brilliance of expression she is very variable
one moment all joy and the next the reverse she has a very striking face i don't know what it is that makes it so it may be her complexion said aunt helen her skin is whiter than the fairest blonde and her eyebrows and lashes very dark
be very careful you do not say anything that would let her know you think her not nice looking she broods over her appearance in such a morbid manner it is a weak point with her so be careful not to sting her sensitiveness in that respect plain looking
why i think she has one of the most fascinating faces i've seen for some time and her eyes are simply magnificent what colour are they the grass is not bad about sydney i think i will send a truck of fat wethers away next week said uncle jay jay to grannie
it is getting quite dark let's get in to dinner at once said grannie during the meal i took an opportunity of studying the appearance of everard grey he had a typically aristocratic english face even to the cold rather heartless expression
which is as established a point of an english blue blood as an arched neck is of a thoroughbred horse a ringer whose wife had been unexpectedly confined came for grannie when dinner was over
uncle jay jay bawled the vicar of bray and drink puppy drink in a stentorian bass voice holding me on his knee pinching tickling pulling my hair and shaking me up and down between whiles mister hawden favoured us by rendering the holy city
as he had a well trained and musical baritone voice he was a veritable carpet knight and though not a fop was exquisitely dressed in full evening costume
when she was weary uncle jay jay said to me now it's your turn me fine lady
can you sing no can this youngster sing helen she sings very nicely to herself sometimes but i do not know how she would manage before company will you try something sybylla
uncle jay jay waited to hear no more but carrying me to the music stool and depositing me thereon warned me not to attempt to leave it before singing something
and sing and sing till i made the echoes ring was one of the chief joys of my existence but i had never made a success in singing to company besides losing all nerve i had a very queer voice
however tonight i made an effort in my old favourite three fishers went sailing the beauty of the full toned ronisch piano and everard's clever and sympathetic accompanying caused me to forget my audience and sing as though to myself alone
forgetting that my voice was odd when the song ceased mister grey wheeled abruptly on the stool and said do you know that you have one of the most wonderful natural voices i have heard why there is a fortune in such a voice if it were trained
such chest notes such feeling such rarity of tone don't be sarcastic mister grey i said shortly upon my word as a man i mean every word i say he returned enthusiastically
he dabbled in all the arts writing music acting and sketching and went to every good concert and play in sydney though he was clever at law it was whispered by some that he would wind up on the stage as he had a great leaning that way
i walked away from the piano treading on air would i really make a singer i with the voice which had often been ridiculed
everard grey's opinion gave me an intoxicated sensation of joy can you recite he inquired yes i answered firmly give us something said uncle jay jay i recited longfellow's the slave's dream
everard grey was quite as enthusiastic over this as he had been about my singing such a voice such depth and width why she could fill the centennial hall without an effort all she requires is training by george she's a regular dab
said uncle jay jay i let myself go
i exclaimed very well i will
uncle jay jay was laughing like fun even aunt helen deigned to smile and everard was looking on with critical interest go on said uncle but mister hawden got huffy at the ridicule which he suspected i was calling down upon him
and jumped up looking fit to eat me i acted several more impromptu scenes with the other occupants of the drawing room mister hawden emitted humph from the corner where he grumpily sat but mister grey was full of praise splendid splendid he exclaimed
such versatility your fortune would be made on the stage it is a sin to have such exceptional talent wasting in the bush i must take her to sydney and put her under a good master indeed you'll do no such thing said uncle i'll keep her here to liven up the old barracks
you've got enough puppets on the stage without a niece of mine ever being there
i want you to throw them all aside and fancy yourself to be in a pretty country garden on a hot summer's morning
close to the flower bed on the lawn and would almost like to go to sleep if it were not too early in the day as you lie there thinking of nothing in particular except how pleasant it is to be idle now and then you notice a gentle buzzing close to you
and you see that on the flower bed close by several bees are working busily among the flowers
that great humble bee takes it leisurely enough as she goes lumbering along poking her head into the larkspurs and remaining so long in each you might almost think she had fallen asleep
the brown hive bee on the other hand moves busily and quickly among the stocks sweet peas and mignonette
so as to carry a good load back to the hive
but over the full blossoms she lingers a little and then scrambles out again with her drop of honey and goes off to seek more in the next flower let us watch her a little more closely
there are plenty of different plants growing in the flower bed but curiously enough she does not go first to one kind and then to another but keeps to one perhaps the mignonette the whole time till she flies away rouse yourself up to follow her and you will see she takes her way back to the hive
then when she comes back again she may perhaps go to another kind of flower such as the sweet peas for instance and keep to them during the next journey but it is more likely that she will be true to her old friend the mignonette for the whole day
we all know why she makes so many journeys between the garden and the hive and that she is collecting drops of honey from each flower and carrying it to be stored up in the honeycomb for winter's food how she stores it and how she also gathers pollen dust for her bee bread we saw in the last lecture
while they are so useful to her what she is doing for them in return
are all so many baits and traps set by nature to entice insects to come to the flowers and carry this pollen dust from one to the other
so far as we know it is entirely for this purpose that the plants form honey in different parts of the flower sometimes in little bags or glands as in the petals of the buttercup flower sometimes in clear drops as in the tube of the honeysuckle
this food they prepare for the insects and then they have all sorts of contrivances to entice them to come and fetch it you will remember that the plants of the coal had no bright or conspicuous flowers now we can understand why this was
for there were no flying insects at that time to carry the pollen dust from flower to flower and therefore there was no need of coloured flowers to attract them but little by little as flies butterflies moths and bees began to live in the world flowers too began to appear
and plants hung out these gay coloured signs as much as to say come to me and i will give you honey if you will bring me pollen dust in exchange so that my seeds may grow healthy and strong
but we will learn something about the way they attract them now and how you may see it for yourselves if you keep your eyes open for example if you watch the different kinds of grasses sedges and rushes which have such tiny flowers that you can scarcely see them
you will find that no insects visit them neither will you ever find bees buzzing round oak trees nut trees willows elms or birches but on the pretty and sweet smelling apple blossoms or the strongly scented lime trees you will find bees wasps and plenty of other insects
the reason of this is that grasses sedges rushes nut trees willow and the others we have mentioned have all of them a great deal of pollen dust and as the wind blows them to and fro
it wafts the dust from one flower to another and so these plants do not want the insects and it is not worth their while to give out honey or to have gaudy or sweet scented flowers to attract them
but wherever you see bright or conspicuous flowers you may be quite sure that the plants want the bees or some other winged insect to come and carry their pollen for them snowdrops hanging their white heads among their green leaves crocuses with their violet and yellow flowers
the gaudy poppy the large flowered hollyhock or the sunflower the flaunting dandelion the pretty pink willow herb the clustered blossoms of the mustard and turnip flowers the bright blue forget me not and the delicate little yellow trefoil
all these are visited by insects which easily catch sight of them as they pass by and hasten to sip their honey sir john lubbock has shown that bees are not only attracted by bright colours but that they even know one colour from another
he put some honey on slips of glass with coloured papers under them and when he had accustomed the bees to find the honey always on the blue glass he washed this glass clean and put the honey on the red glass instead
now if the bees had followed only the smell of the honey they would have flown to the red glass but they did not they went first to the blue glass expecting to find the honey on the usual colour
is it not beautiful to think that the bright pleasant colours we love so much in flowers are not only ornamental
neither must we forget what sweet scents can do
from the small hidden bunches of laurustinus blossom or from the tiny flowers of the privet these plants have found another way of attracting the insects they have no need of bright colours for their scent is quite as true and certain a guide
so we find some flowers like the beautiful lily the lovely rose and the delicate hyacinth which have colour and scent and graceful shapes all combined but we are not yet nearly at an end of the contrivances of flowers to secure the visits of insects
spread out their flowers just as the daisy is going to bed what do you think is the reason of this
the daisy opens by day because it is visited by day insects but those particular moths which can carry the pollen dust of the evening primrose fly only by night and if this flower opened by day other insects might steal its honey
it is the same if you pass by a honeysuckle in the evening
this is because the sphinx hawk moth is the favourite visitor of that flower and comes at nightfall guided by the strong scent to suck out the honey with its long proboscis and carry the pollen dust
while other flowers do it to protect the drop of honey at the bottom of their corolla look at the daisies for example
and now you will see why cup shaped flowers so often droop their heads think of the harebell the snowdrop the lily of the valley the campanula and a host of others how pretty they look with their bells hanging so modestly from the slender stalk
they are bending down to protect the honey glands within them for if the cup became full of rain or dew the honey would be useless and the insects would cease to visit them week twenty nine
but it is not only necessary that the flowers should keep their honey for the insects they also have to take care and keep it for the right kind of insect ants are in many cases great enemies to them for they like honey as much as bees and butterflies do
yet you will easily see that they are so small that if they creep into a flower they pass the anthers without rubbing against them and so take the honey without doing any good to the plant
therefore we find numberless contrivances for keeping the ants and other creeping insects away
those little hairs are like a forest to a tiny ant and they protect the flower from his visits
and so we are gradually learning that everything which a plant does has its meaning if we can only find it out
if we open our eyes to all that is going on in it but as we cannot wander among many plants to day
noticed some soft hairs growing in the centre of this flower just round the stamens
that he set himself to find out what these hairs meant
except of those which open by night and in these they would be useless for the insects would not see them when the geranium first opens all its ten stamens are lying flat on the corolla or coloured crown as in the left hand flower in fig fifty eight
and then the bee cannot get at the honey but in a short time five stamens begin to raise themselves
as in the middle flower now you would think they would leave their dust there but no the stigma is closed up so tight that the dust cannot get on to the sticky part now however the bee can get at the honey glands on the outside of the raised stamens
and as he sucks it his back touches the anthers or dust bags and he carries off the pollen then as soon as all their dust is gone these five stamens fall down and the other five spring up
still however the stigma remains closed and the pollen of these stamens too may be carried away to another flower
at last these five also fall down and then and not till then the stigma opens and lays out its five sticky points as you may see in the right hand flower fig fifty eight but its own pollen is all gone how then will it get any
takes still more care of its pollen dust it hides its honey down at the end of its long spur and only sends out one stamen at a time instead of five like the geranium and then when all the stamens have had their turn the sticky knob comes out last for pollen from another flower
all this you may see for yourselves if you find geraniums in the hedges and nasturtiums in you garden
and which you can find in any field or lane even near london the common dead nettle fig fifty nine takes a great deal of trouble in order that the bee may carry off its pollen
there just at the very bottom you will find a thick fringe of hairs
then as she must push far in to reach the honey before she comes out again has carried away the yellow powder on her back ready to give it to the next flower do you remember how we noticed at the beginning of the lecture that a bee always likes to visit the same kind of plant in one journey
if the bee went from a dead nettle to a geranium the dust would be lost for it would be of no use to any other plant but a dead nettle
she goes to the same kind of flowers and places the pollen dust just where it is wanted
with a hood and a broad lip but instead of four stamens it has only two the other two being shrivelled up
now when the bee puts her head into the tube to reach the honey she passes right between these two swinging anthers and knocking against the end pushes it before her and so brings the dust bag plump down on her back scattering the dust there
you can easily try this by thrusting a pencil into any salvia flower and you will see the anther fall you will notice that all this time the be does not touch the sticky stigma which hangs high above her
but after the anthers are empty and shrivelled the stalk of the stigma grows longer and it falls lower down
she rubs against the stigma and leaves upon it the dust from another flower tell me has not the salvia while remaining so much the same shape as the dead nettle devised a wonderful contrivance to make use of the visits of the bee
the common sweet violet viola odorata or the dog violet viola canina which you can gather in any meadow give up their pollen dust in quite a different way from the salvia and yet it is equally ingenious
everyone has noticed what an irregular shape this flower has and that one of its purple petals has a curious spur sticking out behind
and to reach it the bee must press past the curious ring of orange tipped bodies in the middle of the flower
two of these stamens have spurs which lie in the coloured spur of the flower and have honey at the end of them now when the bee shakes the end of the stigma it parts the ring of anthers and the fine dust falls through upon the insect
let us see for a moment how wonderfully this flower is arranged to bring about the carrying of the pollen as sprengel pointed out years ago
in the first place it hangs on a thin stalk and bends its head down so that the rain cannot come near the honey in the spur and also so that the pollen dust falls forward into the front of the little box made by the closed anthers
then the pollen is quite dry instead of being sticky as in most plants this is in order that it may fall easily through the cracks then the style or stalk of the stigma is very thin
and its tip very broad so that it quivers easily when the bee touches it and so shakes the anthers apart while the anthers themselves fold over to make the box and yet not so tightly but that the dust can fall through when they are shaken
lastly if you look at the veins of the flower you will find that they all point towards the spur where the honey is to be found so that when the sweet smell of the flower has brought the bee
two more flowers still i want us to examine together and then i hope you will care to look at every flower you meet to try and see what insects visit it and how its pollen dust is carried
these two flowers are the common bird's foot trefoil lotus corniculatus and the early orchis orchis mascula
the bird's foot trefoil fig sixty two you will find almost anywhere all through the summer and you will know it from other flowers very like it by its leaf which is not a true trefoil for behind the three usual leaflets of the clover and the shamrock leaf
it has two small leaflets near the stalk the flower you will notice is shaped very like the flower of a pea and indeed it belongs to the same family
because the flowers look something like an insect flying in all these flowers the top petal stands up like a flag to catch the eye of the insect and for this reason botanists call it the standard below it are two side petals called the wings
and if you pick these off you will find that the remaining two petals are joined together at the tip in a shape like the keel of a boat for this reason they are called the keel
a curious little hollow or depression
we shall see by and by that this is important week thirty
there are ten stamens in all enclosed with the stigma in the keel
the anthers of five of these stamens burst open while the flower is still a bud
right up into the tip of the keel
but as we saw before in the geranium the stigma is not ripe and sticky yet and so it does not use the pollen grains now suppose that a bee comes to the flower the honey she has to fetch lies inside the tube
and the one stamen being loose she is able to get her proboscis in
see how cunningly the flower has contrived this in order to put her head into the tube the bee must stand upon the wings and her weight bends them down but they are locked to the keel by the knob fitting in the hole and so the keel is pushed down too
as soon as she has done feeding and flies away up go the wings and the keel with them covering up any pollen that remains ready for next time then when the bee goes to another flower as she touches the stigma as well as the pollen she leaves some of the foreign dust upon it
and the flower uses that rather than its own because it is better for its seeds if however no bee happens to come to one of these flowers after a time the stigma becomes sticky and it uses its own pollen and this is perhaps one reason why the bird's foot trefoil is so very common
because it can do its own work if the bee does not help it now we come lastly to the orchis flower mister darwin has written a whole book on the many curious and wonderful ways in which orchids tempt bees and other insects to fertilize them
we can only take the simplest but i think you will say that even this blossom is more like a conjuror's box than you would have supposed it possible that a flower could be let us examine it closely
three belonging to the calyx or outer cup and three belonging to the corolla or crown of the flower but all six are coloured alike except that the large on in front called the lip has spots and lines upon it
but where are the anthers and where is the stigma look just under the arch made by those three bending flower leaves and there you will see two small slits and in these some little club shaped bodies which you can pick out with the point of a needle
one of these enlarged is shown it is composed of sticky grains of pollen held together by fine threads on the top of a thin stalk
when these masses of pollen or pollinia as they are called are within the flower the knob at the bottom is covered by a little lid shutting them in like the lid of a box
these are the top of the stigma
now let us see how this flower gives up its pollen
where by biting the inside skin she gets some juicy sap notice that she has to bite which takes time
but she also touches the little lid and it flies instantly open bringing the glands at the end of the pollen masses against her head
darwin once caught a bee with as many as sixteen of these pollen masses clinging to her head but if the bee went into the next flower with these pollinia sticking upright
if you will gather some of these orchids during your next spring walk in the woods and will put a pencil down the tube to represent the head of the bee you may see the little box open and the two pollen masses cling to the pencil then if you draw it out
you may see them gradually bend forwards and by thrusting your pencil into the next flower you may see the grains of pollen bread away
do not such wonderful contrivances as these make us long to know and understand all the hidden work that is going on around us among the flowers the insects and all forms of life i have been able to tell you but very little
but i can promise you that the more you examine the more you will find marvellous histories such as these in simple field flowers long as we have known how useful honey was to the bee and how it could only get it from flowers
but now that we have once had our eyes opened every flower teaches us something new and we find that each plant adapts itself in a most wonderful way to the insects which visit it both so as to provide them with honey and at the same time to make them unconsciously do it good service
and so we learn that even among insects and flowers those who do most for others receive most in return the bee and the flower do not either of them reason about the matter they only go on living their little lives as nature guides them helping and improving each other
think for a moment how it would be if a plant used up all its sap for its own life and did not give up any to make the drop of honey in its flower the bees would soon find out that these particular flowers were not worth visiting and the flower would not get its pollen dust carried
and would have to do its own work and grow weakly and small or suppose on the other hand that the bee bit a hole in the bottom of the flower and so got at the honey as indeed they sometimes do
then she would not carry the pollen dust and so would not keep up the healthy strong flowers which make her daily food but this as you see is not the rule on the contrary the flower feeds the bee and the bee quite unconsciously helps the flower to make its healthy seed
nay more when you are able to read all that has been written on this subject you will find that we have good reason to think that the flowerless plants of the coal period
in consequence of the necessity of attracting insects
and is there nothing beyond this surely there is
but the law of mutual help which guides them is the same which bids you and me be kind and good
and when we see that the great power which rules over our universe makes each work for the good of all even in such humble things as bees and flowers and that beauty and loveliness come out of the struggle and striving of all living things
then if our own life be sometimes difficult and the struggle hard to bear we learn from the flowers that the best way to meet our troubles is to lay up our little drop of honey for others sure that when they come to sip it they will even if unconsciously give us new vigour and courage in return
and now we have arrived at the end of those subjects which we selected out of the fairy land of science you must not for a moment imagine however that we have in any way exhausted our fairy domain on the contrary we have scarcely explored even the outskirts of it
while a flash of lightning an explosion in a coal mine or the eruption of a volcano would bring us into the presence of terrible giants known and dreaded from time immemorial
and that it lies quite close to us hidden in every dewdrop and gust of wind in every brook and valley in every little plant or animal we have only to stretch out our hand and touch them with the wand of inquiry
and they will answer us and reveal the fairy forces which guide and govern them and thus pleasant and happy thoughts may be conjured up at any time
is it not strange then that people should pass them by so often without a thought and be content to grow up ignorant of all the wonderful powers ever active in the world around them neither is it pleasure alone which we gain by a study of nature
we cannot examine even a tiny sunbeam and picture the minute waves of which it is composed travelling incessantly from the sun
without being filled with wonder and awe at the marvellous activity and power displayed in the infinitely small as well as in the infinitely great things of the universe we cannot become familiar with the facts of gravitation cohesion or crystallization
without realizing that the laws of nature are fixed orderly and constant and will repay us with failure or success according as we act ignorantly or wisely and thus we shall begin to be afraid of leading careless useless and idle lives
then she sat and looked about her calling
she went to the door of the hut and looked about the fire was still burning but there was no sign of the black boy before she had time to be frightened however kadok's black face peered from between the trees across the little clearing which lay in front of the hut
he smiled when he caught sight of her little missa sleep good feel good this morning he said
fine fruit got it top of tree he said handing her a large purple plum like fruit which she ate and thought delicious kadok then roasted in the ashes some scrub turkey eggs he had found and these too tasted good and there was damper and cool water
missa must hurry start now said kadok we long way to go to day to get to mother first i must try to fix my hair she said it catches in the branches so that it hurts kadok help he said briefly
pinning it tight with some long thorns then he tied about her head a bright handkerchief which he had worn knotted around the open neck of his shirt and rolling up the blankets and packing up the ration bag he shouldered his swag gave her a hand and they were off for the day
he would go ahead before telling her to follow him why do you always look around kadok she asked curiously fraid debil debil get little missa or buba or maybe yo wi or ya wi he answered briefly who are they she asked
all very bad for little missa and he shook his black head he did not tell her there were others more to be feared than these monsters of the blacks demonology but he was worried by tracks he saw in the sand tracks of both blacks and whites
mounted police been here he muttered to himself look for little missa see horse's tracks plain here black man's tracks think bad blacks and he knit his brows
kadok was at a loss to know what to do he did not want to take jean into the bush again fearing that hard walking such as they had had the day before would make her too sick to go on yet he was afraid to keep on the beaten track
they kept on till noon however and he drew her aside into the woods to rest and eat her dinner he gave her damper of which she began to be tired
and which she thought delicious she was hungry but kadok gave her some roots to chew as they walked saying we eat gain before long must walk some now fraid we have big storm and he looked anxiously at the sky
over which heavy clouds were passing obediently she followed him again and he walked quickly peering through the bushes as if looking for something the wind was so fierce that they made slow progress
it blew so that jean was terribly frightened and at last kadok stopped in his quick walk and took her hand missa fraid storm debil he said i find place to hide from him come and he pulled her into the bushes which covered a high hill
skirting round the hill he pushed through a thicket which seemed almost like a wall dragging jean along as the storm broke with a sudden crash of thunder which frightened the child terribly
we find cave now and he pushed aside some close growing tree branches and showed her the entrance of a little cave hollowed out of the rock here we be safe till storm go over he said and jean gladly crouched in the shelter
watching with frightened eyes the play of the lightning kadok gave her more roots to chew and talked kindly to her to soothe her fears this not much storm he said see many worse than this soon over and we go on
think missa see mother to morrow not many hours far now kadok said jean why are you so good to me what you mean asked kadok why do you take me home she asked
black boy not forget friend he said not forget enemy do mean to kadok kadok do mean to you if he has to wait five ten years do kadok good he do good to you when he make chance
but i never did you any good said jean puzzled no little missa not missa mc donald do me heap good fifteen
there was bad man at station he no like blacks near his cattle camp blacks not bad not hurt white man white man very bad he make feast and tell blacks to eat black men all eat
next day all black men dead all but kadok and his father great chief they very sick but they not had eat much of white man's pudding chief tell missa mc donald they very sick here putting his hand on his stomach
she look very sorry and give them hot drink it make them very sick and all white man's pudding come up think very strange that kadok and chief only ones not die but like missa mc donald very well for hot drink
chief father say to me some day do kind to missa mc donald and i say yes when little missa taken by bad blacks chief say to me now time to pay missa mc donald take little missa home i go take
and the boy nodded his head jean did not understand all of his story
and she felt that the boy would do all he could for her the storm had ceased and the rain lay in sparkling drops upon bush and leaf very wet said kadok as he peered out
maybe we go on maybe not jean did not want to stay alone in the cave let me go with you she said pleadingly but kadok shook his head not good for missa big snakes come out of holes too many kadok not go far away
and moved about the little cave finding little to interest her however it was hollowed out like a tunnel deep into the cliff but was so dark except right at the mouth that she was afraid to explore it she took off her shoes
pulled leaves to bind on them as kadok had taught her to do then she took off the handkerchief he had tied about her head let down her long hair and tried to smooth out the tangles with her fingers it was no easy task for the hair was long fine and curly
and it was terribly matted down and snarled she took a long thorn and tried to use it for a comb and after working a long time had the locks smoothed out into a fluffy mass of gold on either side her face
she had been so interested in her work that she had not noticed how late it was getting until suddenly it seemed to be growing dark she looked out of the cave and saw the gleams of the golden sunset through the leaves she felt hungry where can kadok be
she thought to herself he has been gone a long long time oh supposing something has happened to him
but there was nothing for her to do but wait and she sat at the door of the cave too frightened to cry fearing a thousand dangers the worse because they were imaginary then she heard a crackling of the branches near the cave and sprang to her feet joyfully
expecting to see kadok's black face through the bushes kadok she cried eagerly the leaves parted and a black face peered through the bushes fierce black eyes gazed at the child as she stood
speechless with astonishment gazing at a perfectly strange black she did not speak she was too frightened to scream and the black too was silent with her floating golden hair her wide blue eyes her fair cheek turned to gold by the rays of the setting sun
which shone full upon her the rest of her body concealed by the branches with which kadok had filled the mouth of the cave she looked like a creature of air rather than earth
chapter nine housekeeping in a cave she heard kadok's voice and called to him excitedly oh kadok come quick i am so frightened what matter little missa asked kadok as he parted the bushes and looked at her with anxious face
oh a strange black looked at me and ran away she said bursting into tears little missa not cry said kadok brought little missa meat for supper what did black man say a strange word something like curry curry she said
he looked frightened too that good said kadok he think little missa not real child golden child think him not come again kadok glad for we must stay here one two days
her voice was full of tears and the boy's face clouded kadok very sorry for little missa he said but no can help kadok got bad hurt on foot no can walk one two days little missa help kadok get well
oh kadok how did you hurt yourself she asked as she saw that his foot was covered with blood
though the boy had managed to get away from him
for he was always doing things to himself he always had at least one finger tied up in a rag little missa good said kadok as he sat wearily down beside her he was worn out and even his brave spirit sank at this new trouble
it would be several days before he could walk well he knew
would they be safe even for a few hours he wondered his chief hope lay in the fact that if the black had thought her a vision he would fear to return jean scooped up water which stood in a pool at the door of the cave
washed her pocket handkerchief and tore it into strips then bathed kadok's foot and tied it up as she had seen her mother do thank little missa said kadok feel better make eat now
no i shall make supper to night said jean it is time i tried to do something for you she gathered up sticks and bits of bark and laid the fire which kadok carefully lighted taking one from a box of matches which he had in his swag and which he kept tied
up in the skin of an animal to keep them from getting damp he had brought back a yopolo
from his hunt in the forest and wild bee's honey and he said to jean better not make damper to night save meal for some day we have not meat i am tired of damper anyway said jean how shall i cook the meat
put leaves over hot stones set yopolo on all in his skin cover him over with earth and he cook very tender said kadok and she followed his receipt there was only a little water left in the water hole and that not fresh
where do you get water kadok asked jean from the spring he answered not far just ten steps in the bushes straight ahead from cave but not safe for little missa go why not
we are both so thirsty she pleaded little missa's shoes make tracks bad black come long see tracks know white child here steal little missa away oh if that's the trouble i can take my shoes off she said laughing
for you said it was only ten steps away and she picked up the billy and hurried out of the cave in spite of kadok's little missa not go debil debil get her she was back before kadok thought she could have found the spring saying brightly
kadok found cup for little missa he said
think white man drop it little missa can have honey water to drink he cut a piece of the honeycomb and put it in the cup of water jean drank the sweet drink and almost smacked her lips
it tastes like the sugar water the american children's black mammy used to give us who was that he asked curiously there were three children of america came to stay at my uncle's place oh a long time ago before we came to australia
they had a nurse a black woman she was ever so black not brown like you kadok and so good and nice i used to like her very much that was the reason i was not afraid when the black man told me to come and see the gin who was sick
i thought he would be good like dinah and bring me right back black people very much like white people said kadok some black face white heart some black all way through some white face very black heart and the boy shook his head
think yopolo cooked him smell fine he said sniffing the scent which came from the fire the yopolo was indeed done and delicious it was very tender and tasted like spring chicken
seated cross legged on the floor of the cave as she drank honey water and cut off bits of meat for herself and kadok the little housekeeper enjoyed her supper thoroughly having finished she put fresh green wood on the fire that the smoke might keep off the mosquitos
and wrapped the rest of the meat in leaves to keep for breakfast
and tied it up and then under the boy's directions cut down some leafy branches and moss to make herself a bed and wrapped herself in her blanket to sleep when morning came it seemed as if the mother's desire that the little girl should have experiences to make her less childish
was to be fulfilled for kadok's foot was so painful that he could not even drag himself about the cave and jean had to wait on him as well as to care for herself she made breakfast and gathered fresh leaves and branches
then she made fresh damper and cut strips of the yopolo meat drying it in the sun and smoke under kadok's directions there were provisions enough to last a day or two and she tried not to worry about things but she wished she had something else to do
kadok saw she was growing restless and tried to talk to her afraid that she would cry little missa not see cave before not have at home tell about home oh it's not at all like this she said it's very cold
and the mountains are high and beautiful and there are no snakes nor wild things it's all farms and sheep and not wild like australia and in the winter the snow is lovely what is snow asked kadok don't you know what snow is
she laughed i hardly know how to tell you it looks like soft white feathers and it floats down from the sky when it's very cold and covers up the ground like a white blanket then it is lovely but when the sun comes out and melts it it's not nice didn't you ever see snow
never did said kadok oh kadok what's that exclaimed jean as a mournful sound came through the forest
how does debil debil make lightning don't know said kadok old chief say he not make say great baiame make he want to smoke big pipe up in sky strike match to light pipe throw match down to earth while smoke
match make lightning if we are going to have another storm i am going to bring water from the spring while i can go out of the cave she was getting very tired of sitting still kadok not like little missa to run round by herself said kadok
but jean said wilfully i must go by myself if there is no one to go with me mustn't i we've got to have water and she picked up the billy and started for the spring it was cool and pleasant in the woods
then went back to kadok you see nothing happens to me she said you go once too often you not good little missa you not mind kadok he grumbled i will be good but really i can't sit still all day she said see what pretty leaves
very good leaves said kadok when little missa have no water chew these not be thirsty white men call them hibiscus i'll remember that said jean kadok tell me a story about when you were a little boy what did you used to do at home
blacks not have much home like white people like woods better than wuuries like hunt make many fine hunt sometimes hunt animals sometimes hunt other blacks very good eat before white man comes
he hastened to add as he saw jean's expression of terror not eat people now i should hope not cried the child little missa keep quiet said kadok raising himself on his elbow grasping a stick he had and peering through the bushes
something coming think not black man don't move they sat so quiet it seemed to jean that she could hear her heart beat but heard nothing more just as she was about to speak kadok raised his stick quickly
and brought it down with great force and jean saw something black whirl and twist at the opening of the cave missa help quick this hard to hold cried kadok take stick hold very tight here and he gave her the handle of the forked stick which to her horror
she saw held down by its neck a large snake she shut her eyes tight but held the stick bearing down with all her might while kadok struck the snake over and over with his stick good missa let go stick snake very dead now
and she looked with a shudder at the dead body of the serpent him tree python said kadok calmly him make very good supper for missa oh i couldn't eat snake really i couldn't she said but kadok laughed
make very good eat for black boy save yopolo for missa he said think dinner time now missa eat meat kadok eat snake it made jean feel very queer to see him cut off a piece of the tail roast it and eat with great enjoyment
but before night she was to look upon the snake as her greatest friend she dropped asleep after eating and did not waken until almost time for supper when she found that kadok had been sleeping too
as she sat up and rubbed her eyes little missa not cry be good missa we be all right time to eat again i'm not very hungry she said
little missa not go to the spring kadok not like he said so earnestly that she said well never mind i can drink the old water and chew some hibiscus leaves think i can go for missa said kadok as he rose and tried his foot
not very bad oh never mind she said but he took the billy and his stick and limped through the bushes he was gone only a moment or two when she felt a strange feeling as of some one looking at her and she raised her head to see staring through the bushes
the same savage eyes which had frightened her the day before kadok she screamed but the black reached forth a long arm and tried to catch her she drew back into the cave and screamed again she had no weapon but she grasped the dead snake by the tail and with
all the strength she could muster threw it straight into the black's face the man gave a loud wouf as the reptile struck his face and darted back just as kadok came up behind and
attacked before and behind the black man thought his enemies were many and he fled through the bushes as fast as he could go fear lent him wings and he did not stop until far from the scene of his terror kadok limped into the cave
little missa hurt he asked anxiously no but i was dreadfully frightened it was the same black i saw yesterday what little missa do asked the boy i hadn't anything else so i hit him with your snake and he ran away
she said simply the boy looked at her in astonishment
he said one thing very much scare black is snake in the face missa do just right thing i didn't know just what to do but i had to do something she said what shall we do now kadok not know he said frowning
arrival from washington d c et cetera eighteen fifty seven george carroll randolph branson john clagart and william royan these four journeyed from egypt together
but did not leave the same kind protector george was a full black ordinary size
who was a merchant c c hirara a man about sixty years of age and a member of the methodist church
three of george's brothers escaped to canada many years prior to his leaving
randolph physically was a superior man he was thirty one years of age and of a dark chestnut color weary with bondage he came to the conclusion that he had served a master long enough without privileges
against his master richard reed he had no hard things to say however he was not a crabbed cross man had but little to say
three of his brothers had been sold south left his father two sisters and one brother randolph was worth probably one thousand seven hundred dollars john was a well made yellow man
besides having experienced the effects of it
to kill or be killed in trying to reach free land somewhere having always been hired out amongst very hard white people he was unhappy his owner george coleman lived near fairfax virginia
and was a member of the methodist church but in his ways was very sly and deadly against anything like freedom
for john's hire he received one hundred and fifty dollars a year he was therefore ranked with first class stock valued at one thousand five hundred dollars william was about thirty five years of age neat and pleasing in his manners
he would be the first selected in a crowd by a gentleman or a lady who might want a very neat looking man to attend to household affairs
arrival from unionville eighteen fifty seven israel todd and bazil aldridge israel was twenty three years of age yellow tall well made and intelligent
he fled from frederick county maryland through the sweat of his brow doctor greenberry sappington and his family had been living at ease the doctor was a catholic owning only one other and was said to be a man of right disposition
israel was prompted to escape to save his wife had lately been married
his detestation of slavery in every shape was very decided he was a valuable man worth to a trader fifteen hundred dollars perhaps bazil was only seventeen years of age about as near a kin to the white folks as to the colored people
and about as strong an opponent of slavery as any saxon going of his age he was a brother in law of israel and accompanied him on the underground rail road bazil was held to service or labor by thornton pool a store keeper and also farmer
and at the same time an ardent lover of the cretur so much so that he kept about half drunk all the time so bazil affirmed the good spirit moved two of bazil's brothers to escape the spring before
a few months afterwards a brother and sister were sold south to manage the matter smoothly previous to selling them the master pretended that he was only going to hire them out a short distance from home but instead of doing so he sold them south
bazil might be put down at nine hundred dollars arrival from maryland eighteen fifty seven ordee lee
ordee was about thirty five years of age gingerbread color well made and intelligent being allowed no chances to make anything for himself was the excuse offered for his escape though as will appear presently other causes also helped to make him hate his oppression
was a notorious gambler by the name of elijah thompson residing in maryland by his bad habits he had run through with his property though in society he stood pretty tolerably high amongst some people
then again some didn't like him he was a mean man all for himself he was a man that didn't care anything about his servants except to get work out of them when he came where the servants were working
he would snap and bite at them and if he said anything at all it was to hurry the work on he never gave me said ordee a half a dollar in his life didn't more than half feed said that meat and fish was too high to eat
as for clothing he never gave me a new hat for every day nor a sunday rag in his life of his mistress he said she was stingy and close made him his master
left three brothers and two sisters in chains
richard was about twenty two years of age well grown and a very likely looking article of a chestnut color with more than common intelligence for a slave
with no feeling of indebtedness or regret and as to his cross and ill natured mistress with her four children
his master had however some eighteen or twenty others to rob for the support of himself and family so they were in no great danger of starving would your owner be apt to pursue you said a member of the committee i don't think he will
he was after two uncles of mine one time saw them and talked with them but was made to run richard left behind his mother step father two sisters and one brother as a slave he would have been considered cheap at sixteen hundred dollars
he was a fine specimen arrival from cambridge eighteen fifty seven silas long and solomon light silas and solomon both left together from cambridge maryland
a man about sixty years of age and had his name up to be the hardest man in the county the sheriff's wife was about pretty much such a woman as he was a man there was not a pin's point of difference between them
the fear of having to be sold caused this silas to seek the underground rail road
of course when slaves reached this desperate point the way to canada was generally found solomon was about twenty three years of age a good natured looking article
but spent it pretty freely for liquor he would not allow enough to eat or clothing sufficient and he sold sol s brother the year before he fled because he could not whip him
the thumb of one of them being badly bit and the other used roughly
unhesitatingly he started for the underground rail road and canada and his efforts were not in vain damages one thousand five hundred dollars
the mother of twelve children old jane davis fled to escape the auction block the appended letter from thomas garrett will serve to introduce one of the most remarkable cases that it was our privilege to report or assist
mo ninth eighteen fifty seven esteemed friend william still we have here in this place at comegys munson's an old colored woman the mother of twelve children
she has been so ill used that she was compelled to leave husband and children behind and is desirous of getting to a brother who lives at buffalo she was nearly naked she called at my house on seventh day night but being from home did not see her till last evening
i have procured her two under garments one new two skirts one new a good frock with cape one of my wife's bonnets and stockings and gave her five dollars in gold which if properly used will put her pretty well on the way
i also gave her a letter to thee since i gave them to her she has concluded to stay where she is till seventh day night when comegys munson says he can leave his work and will go with her to thy house
they ought to arrive between eleven and twelve o'clock perhaps thee may find some fugitive that will be willing to accompany her
jane did not know how old she was she was probably sixty or seventy she fled to keep from being sold
poorly fed and poorly clothed by a certain roger mc zant of the new market district eastern shore of maryland his wife was a bad woman too
on asking him if the rumor was true he was silent he had been asking one hundred dollars for her remembering that four of her children had been snatched away from her and sold south
rather than trust herself any longer under the protection of her kind owner before reaching a place of repose she was three weeks in the woods almost wholly without nourishment jane doubtless represented thousands of old slave mothers
chapter six beth finds the palace beautiful the big house did prove a palace beautiful though it took some time for all to get in and beth found it very hard to pass the lions old mister laurence was the biggest one
but after he had called said something funny or kind to each one of the girls and talked over old times with their mother nobody felt much afraid of him except timid beth the other lion was the fact that they were poor and laurie rich for this made them shy of accepting favors which they could not return
but after a while they found
their cheerful society and the comfort he took in that humble home of theirs so they soon forgot their pride and interchanged kindnesses without stopping to think which was the greater
all sorts of pleasant things happened about that time for the new friendship flourished like grass in spring every one liked laurie and he privately informed his tutor that the marches were regularly splendid girls
with the delightful enthusiasm of youth they took the solitary boy into their midst and made much of him and he found something very charming in the innocent companionship of these simple hearted girls
never having known mother or sisters he was quick to feel the influences they brought about him and their busy lively ways made him ashamed of the indolent life he led
he was tired of books and found people so interesting now that mister brooke was obliged to make very unsatisfactory reports for laurie was always playing truant and running over to the marches never mind let him take a holiday and make it up afterward
i suspect she is right and that i've been coddling the fellow as if i'd been his grandmother let him do what he likes as long as he is happy
he can't get into mischief in that little nunnery over there and missus march is doing more for him than we can what good times they had to be sure
meg could walk in the conservatory whenever she liked and revel in bouquets jo browsed over the new library voraciously and convulsed the old gentleman with her criticisms
amy copied pictures and enjoyed beauty to her heart's content and laurie played lord of the manor in the most delightful style but beth though yearning for the grand piano could not pluck up courage to go to the mansion of bliss as meg called it she went once with jo
but the old gentleman not being aware of her infirmity stared at her so hard from under his heavy eyebrows and said hey
and she ran away declaring she would never go there any more not even for the dear piano no persuasions or enticements could overcome her fear till the fact coming to mister laurence's ear in some mysterious way he set about mending matters
during one of the brief calls he made he artfully led the conversation to music and talked away about great singers whom he had seen fine organs he had heard
and told such charming anecdotes that beth found it impossible to stay in her distant corner but crept nearer and nearer as if fascinated
eyes wide open and her cheeks red with excitement of this unusual performance
he said to missus march the boy neglects his music now and i'm glad of it for he was getting too fond of it but the piano suffers for want of use
wouldn't some of your girls like to run over and practice on it now and then just to keep it in tune you know ma'am beth took a step forward and pressed her hands tightly together to keep from clapping them for this was an irresistible temptation and the thought of practicing on that splendid instrument quite took her breath away
before missus march could reply mister laurence went on with an odd little nod and smile they needn't see or speak to anyone but run in at any time for i'm shut up in my study at the other end of the house laurie is out a great deal
and the servants are never near the drawing room after nine o'clock here he rose as if going and beth made up her mind to speak for that last arrangement left nothing to be desired
and if they don't care to come why never mind here a little hand slipped into his and beth looked up
in her earnest yet timid way oh sir they do care very very much are you the musical girl he asked without any startling hey as he looked down at her very kindly i'm beth
i love it dearly and i'll come if you are quite sure nobody will hear me and be disturbed she added fearing to be rude and trembling at her own boldness as she spoke not a soul my dear the house is empty half the day
so come and drum away as much as you like and i shall be obliged to you how kind you are sir beth blushed like a rose under the friendly look he wore but she was not frightened now
the old gentleman softly stroked the hair off her forehead and stooping down he kissed her saying in a tone few people ever heard i had a little girl once with eyes like these god bless you my dear good day madam
and away he went in a great hurry beth had a rapture with her mother and then rushed up to impart the glorious news to her family of invalids as the girls were not home
how blithely she sang that evening and how they all laughed at her because she woke amy in the night by playing the piano on her face in her sleep
next day having seen both the old and young gentleman out of the house beth after two or three retreats fairly got in at the side door and made her way as noiselessly as any mouse to the drawing room where her idol stood
and straightway forgot her fear herself and everything else but the unspeakable delight which the music gave her for it was like the voice of a beloved friend
she stayed till hannah came to take her home to dinner but she had no appetite and could only sit and smile upon everyone in a general state of beatitude
she never saw laurie mount guard in the hall to warn the servants away
so she enjoyed herself heartily and found what isn't always the case that her granted wish was all she had hoped perhaps it was because she was so grateful for this blessing that a greater was given her at any rate she deserved both
can i do it asked beth a few weeks after that eventful call of his yes dear it will please him very much
the girls will help you about them and i will pay for the making up replied missus march who took peculiar pleasure in granting beth's requests because she so seldom asked anything for herself
after many serious discussions with meg and jo the pattern was chosen the materials bought and the slippers begun
a cluster of grave yet cheerful pansies on a deeper purple ground was pronounced very appropriate and pretty and beth worked away early and late with occasional lifts over hard parts she was a nimble little needlewoman and they were finished before anyone got tired of them
when this excitement was over beth waited to see what would happen
on the afternoon of the second day she went out to do an errand and give poor joanna the invalid doll her daily exercise as she came up the street on her return she saw three yes four heads popping in and out of the parlor windows
and the moment they saw her several hands were waved and several joyful voices screamed here's a letter from the old gentleman come quick and read it oh beth he's sent you began amy gesticulating with unseemly energy
but she got no further for jo quenched her by slamming down the window
look there look there beth did look and turned pale with delight and surprise for there stood a little cabinet piano with a letter lying on the glossy lid directed like a sign board to miss elizabeth march
isn't it splendid of him don't you think he's the dearest old man in the world here's the key in the letter we didn't open it but we are dying to know what he says
you read it i can't i feel so queer oh it is too lovely and beth hid her face in jo's apron quite upset by her present jo opened the paper and began to laugh for the first words she saw were miss march
dear madam how nice it sounds i wish someone would write to me so said amy who thought the old fashioned address very elegant i have had many pairs of slippers in my life but i never had any that suited me so well as yours continues jo
heart's ease is my favorite flower and these will always remind me of the gentle giver
i like to pay my debts so i know you will allow the old gentleman to send you something which once belonged to the little grand daughter he lost with hearty thanks and best wishes i remain your grateful friend and humble servant james laurence
there beth that's an honor to be proud of i'm sure laurie told me how fond mister laurence used to be of the child who died and how he kept all her little things carefully
and the pretty rack and stool all complete added meg opening the instrument and displaying its beauties
said amy much impressed by the note try it honey let's hear the sound of the baby pianny said hannah who always took a share in the family joys and sorrows so beth tried it and everyone pronounced it the most remarkable piano ever heard
you'll have to go and thank him said jo by way of a joke for the idea of the child's really going never entered her head
yes i mean to i guess i'll go now before i get frightened thinking about it and to the utter amazement of the assembled family beth walked deliberately down the garden through the hedge and in at the laurences door well
she'd never have gone in her right mind cried hannah staring after her while the girls were rendered quite speechless by the miracle they would have been still more amazed if they had seen what beth did afterward
if you will believe me she went and knocked at the study door before she gave herself time to think and when a gruff voice called out come in she did go in right up to mister laurence who looked quite taken aback and held out her hand saying
oh dear yes he liked it amazingly and was so touched and pleased by that confiding little kiss that all his crustiness vanished and he just set her on his knee and laid his wrinkled cheek
against her rosy one feeling as if he had got his own little granddaughter back again beth ceased to fear him from that moment and sat there talking to him as cozily as if she had known him all her life for love casts out fear
and gratitude can conquer pride
said beth contentedly from her corner the four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words but darkened again as jo said sadly we haven't got father and shall not have him for a long time
she didn't say perhaps never but each silently added it thinking of father far away where the fighting was nobody spoke for a minute then meg said in an altered tone
you know the reason mother proposed not having any presents this christmas was because it is going to be a hard winter for everyone and she thinks we ought not to spend money for pleasure when our men are suffering so in the army
we can't do much but we can make our little sacrifices and ought to do it gladly but i am afraid i don't and meg shook her head as she thought regretfully of all the pretty things she wanted
but i don't think the little we should spend would do any good we've each got a dollar and the army wouldn't be much helped by our giving that
i've wanted it so long said jo who was a bookworm i planned to spend mine in new music said beth with a little sigh which no one heard but the hearth brush and kettle holder i shall get a nice box of faber's drawing pencils
i really need them said amy decidedly mother didn't say anything about our money and she won't wish us to give up everything let's each buy what we want and have a little fun i'm sure we work hard enough to earn it cried jo examining the heels of her shoes in a gentlemanly manner
i know i do teaching those tiresome children nearly all day when i'm longing to enjoy myself at home began meg in the complaining tone again you don't have half such a hard time as i do said jo
how would you like to be shut up for hours with a nervous fussy old lady who keeps you trotting is never satisfied and worries you till you're ready to fly out the window or cry it's naughty to fret but i do think washing dishes and keeping things tidy is the worst work in the world
it makes me cross and my hands get so stiff i can't practice well at all and beth looked at her rough hands with a sigh that any one could hear that time i don't believe any of you suffer as i do cried amy
for you don't have to go to school with impertinent girls who plague you if you don't know your lessons and laugh at your dresses and label your father if he isn't rich and insult you when your nose isn't nice
it's proper to use good words and improve your vocabilary returned amy with dignity don't peck at one another children
dear me how happy and good we'd be if we had no worries said meg who could remember better times
well i think we are for though we do have to work we make fun of ourselves and are a pretty jolly set as jo would say jo does use such slang words observed amy with a reproving look at the long figure stretched on the rug
that's why i do it i detest rude unladylike girls i hate affected niminy piminy chits
you are old enough to leave off boyish tricks and to behave better josephine it didn't matter so much when you were a little girl but now you are so tall and turn up your hair
i'm not and if turning up my hair makes me one i'll wear it in two tails till i'm twenty cried jo pulling off her net and shaking down a chestnut mane
it's bad enough to be a girl anyway when i like boy's games and work and manners
i can't get over my disappointment in not being a boy and it's worse than ever now for i'm dying to go and fight with papa and i can only stay home and knit like a poky old woman and jo shook the blue army sock till the needles rattled like castanets and her ball bounded across the room poor jo
it's too bad but it can't be helped so you must try to be contented with making your name boyish and playing brother to us girls
as for you amy continued meg you are altogether too particular and prim your airs are funny now but you'll grow up an affected little goose if you don't take care i like your nice manners and refined ways of speaking when you don't try to be elegant
if jo is a tomboy and amy a goose what am i please asked beth ready to share the lecture you're a dear and nothing else answered meg warmly and no one contradicted her for the mouse was the pet of the family
as young readers like to know how people look we will take this moment to give them a little sketch of the four sisters who sat knitting away in the twilight while the december snow fell quietly without and the fire crackled cheerfully within
it was a comfortable room though the carpet was faded and the furniture very plain for a good picture or two hung on the walls books filled the recesses chrysanthemums and christmas roses bloomed in the windows and a pleasant atmosphere of home peace pervaded it
fifteen year old jo was very tall thin and brown and reminded one of a colt for she never seemed to know what to do with her long limbs which were very much in her way
she had a decided mouth a comical nose and sharp gray eyes which appeared to see everything and were by turns fierce funny or thoughtful her long thick hair was her one beauty but it was usually bundled into a net to be out of her way
round shoulders had jo big hands and feet a flyaway look to her clothes and the uncomfortable appearance of a girl who was rapidly shooting up into a woman and didn't like it elizabeth or beth as everyone called her
whom she trusted and loved amy though the youngest was a most important person in her own opinion at least a regular snow maiden with blue eyes and yellow hair curling on her shoulders pale and slender and always carrying herself like a young lady mindful of her manners
what the characters of the four sisters were we will leave to be found out the clock struck six and having swept up the hearth beth put a pair of slippers down to warm somehow the sight of the old shoes had a good effect upon the girls for mother was coming and everyone
brightened to welcome her meg stopped lecturing and lighted the lamp amy got out of the easy chair without being asked and jo forgot how tired she was as she sat up to hold the slippers nearer to the blaze they are quite worn out marmee must have a new pair
i thought i'd get her some with my dollar said beth no i shall cried amy i'm the oldest began meg but jo cut in with a decided
and i shall provide the slippers for he told me to take special care of mother while he was gone
let's each get her something for christmas and not get anything for ourselves that's like you dear what will we get exclaimed jo everyone thought soberly for a minute then meg announced as if the idea was suggested by the sight of her own pretty hands
army shoes best to be had cried jo some handkerchiefs all hemmed said beth
how will we give the things asked meg
said beth who was toasting her face and the bread for tea at the same time let marmee think we are getting things for ourselves and then surprise her we must go shopping tomorrow afternoon meg there is so much to do about the play for christmas night
said jo marching up and down with her hands behind her back and her nose in the air i don't mean to act any more after this time i'm getting too old for such things observed meg who was as much a child as ever about dressing up frolics
you won't stop i know as long as you can trail round in a white gown with your hair down and wear gold paper jewelry you are the best actress we've got and there'll be an end of everything if you quit the boards said jo we ought to rehearse tonight
come here amy and do the fainting scene for you are as stiff as a poker in that i can't help it i never saw anyone faint and i don't choose to make myself all black and blue tumbling flat as you do if i can go down easily i'll drop if i can't i shall fall into a chair and be graceful
i don't care if hugo does come at me with a pistol returned amy who was not gifted with dramatic power but was chosen because she was small enough to be borne out shrieking by the villain of the piece do it this way clasp your hands so and stagger across the room crying frantically
amy followed but she poked her hands out stiffly before her and jerked herself along as if she went by machinery and her ow was more suggestive of pins being run into her than of fear and anguish
jo gave a despairing groan and meg laughed outright while beth let her bread burn as she watched the fun with interest it's no use do the best you can when the time comes and if the audience laughs don't blame me come on meg
then things went smoothly for don pedro defied the world in a speech of two pages without a single break hagar the witch chanted an awful incantation over her kettleful of simmering toads with weird effect
it's the best we've had yet said meg as the dead villain sat up and rubbed his elbows i don't see how you can write and act such splendid things jo
but i'd like to try macbeth if we only had a trapdoor for banquo
is that a dagger that i see before me muttered jo rolling her eyes and clutching at the air as she had seen a famous tragedian do no it's the toasting fork with mother's shoe on it instead of the bread
glad to find you so merry my girls said a cheery voice at the door and actors and audience turned to welcome a tall motherly lady with a can i help you look about her which was truly delightful
she was not elegantly dressed but a noble looking woman and the girls thought the gray cloak and unfashionable bonnet covered the most splendid mother in the world well dearies how have you got on today
has anyone called beth how is your cold meg jo you look tired to death come and kiss me baby while making these maternal inquiries missus march got her wet things off her warm slippers on and sitting down in the easy chair
drew amy to her lap preparing to enjoy the happiest hour of her busy day the girls flew about trying to make things comfortable each in her own way meg arranged the tea table jo brought wood and set chairs dropping over turning and clattering everything she touched
beth trotted to and fro between parlor kitchen quiet and busy while amy gave directions to everyone as she sat with her hands folded as they gathered about the table missus march said with a particularly happy face i've got a treat for you after supper
a quick bright smile went round like a streak of sunshine beth clapped her hands regardless of the biscuit she held and jo tossed up her napkin crying a letter a letter three cheers for father
yes a nice long letter he is well and thinks he shall get through the cold season better than we feared he sends all sorts of loving wishes for christmas and an especial message to you girls said missus march patting her pocket as if she had got a treasure there
hurry and get done don't stop to quirk your little finger and simper over your plate amy cried jo choking on her tea and dropping her bread butter side down on the carpet in her haste to get at the treat
beth ate no more but crept away to sit in her shadowy corner and brood over the delight to come till the others were ready i think it was so splendid in father to go as chaplain when he was too old to be drafted and not strong enough for a soldier said meg warmly
don't i wish i could go as a drummer a vivan what's its name or a nurse so i could be near him and help him exclaimed jo with a groan it must be very disagreeable to sleep in a tent and eat all sorts of bad tasting things and drink out of a tin mug
sighed amy when will he come home marmee asked beth with a little quiver in her voice not for many months dear unless he is sick
now come and hear the letter they all drew to the fire
very few letters were written in those hard times that were not touching especially those which fathers sent home
it was a cheerful hopeful letter full of lively descriptions of camp life marches and military news and only at the end did the writer's heart over flow with fatherly love and longing for the little girls at home
so that these hard days need not be wasted i know they will remember all i said to them that they will be loving children to you will do their duty faithfully fight their bosom enemies bravely and conquer themselves so beautifully
that when i come back to them i may be fonder and prouder than ever of my little women everybody sniffed when they came to that part
but i'll truly try to be better so he mayn't be disappointed in me by and by we all will cried meg i think too much of my looks and hate to work but won't any more if i can help it
a little woman and not be rough and wild but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else said jo thinking that keeping her temper at home was a much harder task than facing a rebel or two down south beth said nothing but wiped away her tears
with the blue army sock and began to knit with all her might losing no time in doing the duty that lay nearest her while she resolved in her quiet little soul to be all that father hoped to find her when the year brought round the happy coming home
missus march broke the silence that followed jo's words by saying in her cheery voice do you remember how you used to play pilgrims progress when you were little things
nothing delighted you more than to have me tie my piece bags on your backs for burdens give you hats and sticks and rolls of paper and let you travel through the house from the cellar which was the city of destruction up up to the housetop where
you had all the lovely things you could collect to make a celestial city what fun it was especially going by the lions fighting apollyon and passing through the valley where the hob goblins were said jo
if i wasn't too old for such things i'd rather like to play it over again said amy who began to talk of renouncing childish things at the mature age of twelve we never are too old for this my dear because it is a play we are playing all the time in one way or another
our burdens are here our road is before us and the longing for goodness and happiness is the guide that leads us through many troubles and mistakes to the peace which is a true celestial city now my little pilgrims suppose you begin again
not in play but in earnest and see how far on you can get before father comes home really mother where are our bundles asked amy who was a very literal young lady each of you told what your burden was just now except beth
i rather think she hasn't got any said her mother yes i have mine is dishes and dusters and envying girls with nice pianos and being afraid of people beth's bundle was such a funny one that everybody wanted to laugh but nobody did for it would have hurt her feelings very much
let us do it said meg thoughtfully it is only another name for trying to be good and the story may help us
look under your pillows christmas morning and you will find your guidebook replied missus march they talked over the new plan while old hannah cleared the table then out came the four little work baskets and the needles flew as the girls made sheets for aunt march
it was uninteresting sewing but tonight no one grumbled they adopted jo's plan of dividing the long seams into four parts and calling the quarters europe asia africa and america and
at nine they stopped work and sang as usual before they went to bed no one but beth could get much music out of the old piano but she had a way of softly touching the yellow keys and making a pleasant accompaniment to the simple songs they sang
and protected from wild beasts by the usual heaped rocks leaving only a narrow passage
but they made brief stay in a locality where the food and odors were not quite to their accustomed taste
there came an autumn morning when ab and oak who had met at daybreak determined to visit the shell people and go with them upon a fishing expedition the shell people often fished from boats and the boats were excellent
each consisted of four or five short logs of the most buoyant wood
it had been learned that the waves sometimes encountered
it was fun for the young men whose tale is told here to go with the shell people and assist in spearing fish or drawing them from the river's depths upon rude hooks and the shell people did not object
but were rather proud of the attendance of representatives of the hillside aristocracy the morning was one to make men far older than these two
the mast had already begun to fall and the nuts lay thickly among the leaves every morning and more regularly than it comes now there was a spread of glistening hoar frost upon the lowlands and the little open lands in the forest
and upon every spot not tree protected
it came most strikingly in spring and autumn
doubtless there came a greater vigor to them in the keen air of the hoar frost time
temperate with a wonderful keenness to it
even in the days of the cave men the gulf stream swinging from the equator in the great warm current already formed laved the then peninsula as it now laves the british isles the climate as has been told
was almost as equable then as now but with a certain crispness which was a heritage from the glacial epoch
it was a time to live in and the two were merry on their journey in the glittering morning the young men idled on their way and wasted an hour or two in vain attempts to approach a feeding deer nearly enough for effective spear throwing
and there learned that the party had already gone they decided that they might perhaps overtake the fishermen and so with the hunter's easy lope started briskly down the river bank they were not destined to fish that day
three or four miles had been passed and a straight stretch of the river had been attained at the end of which
but there was something else in sight perched comfortably upon a rock the sides of which were so precipitous that they afforded a foothold only for human beings was a young woman of the shell people who had before attracted ab's attention
and something of his admiration she was fishing diligently she had been left by the fishing party to be taken up on their return because in the rush of waters about the base of the rock was a haunt of a small fish esteemed particularly
it was not this young woman
but the maiden interested him
to carry her away to a new home with him
that he wanted to know her better there might he didn't know
i'll swim to the rock
and oak laughed loudly short time elapsed between decision and action in those days
and though there had never been a test was confident that among all the shell people
were not his arms and legs longer and stronger than theirs and his chest deeper he felt that he could outswim easily any bold fisherman among them and as for this girl he would overtake her very quickly
and draw her to the bank and then there would be an interview of much enjoyment at least to him his strong arm swept the water back and his strong legs working with them
drove his body forward swiftly toward the brown object not very far ahead along the bank ran the laughing and shouting oak yard by yard
she was swimming breast forward as was he for that was his only way she with a dog like paddling stroke and often she turned her head to look backward at the man she did not even yet
appear affrighted and this ab wondered at for it was seldom that a girl of the time thus hunted was not and with reason terrified she possibly understood
for she and her pursuer had often met but there was at least reason enough for avoiding too close contact on this day she swam on steadily and as steadily ab gained upon her
and plain and woodland went the chase while the panting and cheering oak strong legged and enduring as he was barely kept pace with the two heads he could see bobbing not far apart now in the tossing waters
ab had long since forgotten oak
his thought was only what now made up an overmastering aim he must reach and seize upon the girl before him closer and closer
and the occasional up flip of her brown heels as she went high in her stroke
in a fiercer stroke and came so close that he could discern her outline through the water
how could a woman outswim a man like him it was just at the time when this thought came that ab saw the shell girl lift her head and turn it toward him and laugh laugh recklessly
almost in his very face so close together were they now and then she taught him something
but this was only a demonstration made in sheer audacity and blithesome insolence
she was like the birds which swim and dive and dip and know of nothing which they fear if only they are in the water far enough
it was not that the shell girl was other than at home on land she was quite at home there and reasonably fleet but the creek and river had so been her element from babyhood that the chase of the hill man had been
ab lifted himself in the waters and gazed upon the dark spot far away and piqued and maddened put forth
what was little more than a dot upon the surface far ahead
and in a moment it was carried around the bend and lost to sight ab drifted to the turn and saw below
what she would tell them he did not know that was not a matter to be much considered there was but one thing to be done
ab swam now with a somewhat tired and languid stroke to the shore where oak awaited him hilariously they almost came to blows that afternoon and blows between such as they might have easily meant sudden death
but they were not rivals yet and there was much to talk of good naturedly after some slight outflamings of passion on the part of ab
the sum of all the day was that there had been much exercise and fun for oak at least
had he caught her and talked with her upon the river bank
starting from the hall a few minutes before doctor middleton and sir willoughby had entered the drawing room overnight vernon parted company with colonel de craye at the park gates and betook himself to the cottage of the dales where
gifted with the lives of a cat became violent and rapped punch like blows on the window sill at vernon's refusal to take shelter and rest vernon's excuse was that he had
no one but that fellow to care for and he strode off naming a farm five miles distant doctor corney howled an invitation to early breakfast to him in the event of his passing on his way back and retired to bed to think of him
the result of a variety of conjectures caused him to set vernon down as miss middleton's knight and he felt a strong compassion for his poor friend though thought he a hopeless attachment is as pretty an accompaniment
to the tune of life as a gentleman might wish to have for it's one of those big doses of discord which make all the minor ones fit in like an agreeable harmony and so he shuffles along as pleasantly as the fortune favoured
when they come to compute sir willoughby was the fortune favoured in the little doctor's mind that high stepping gentleman having wealth and public consideration and the most ravishing young lady in the world for a bride
still though he reckoned all these advantages enjoyed by sir willoughby at their full value he could imagine the ultimate balance of good fortune to be in favour of vernon but to do so he had to reduce the whole calculation
to the extreme abstract and feed his lean friend as it were on dew and roots and the happy effect for vernon lay in a distant future on the borders of old age where he was to be blessed with his lady's regretful preference
the reviewing mind was irish sir willoughby was a character of man profoundly opposed to doctor corney's nature the latter's instincts bristled with antagonism not to his race for vernon was of the same race
while it held him silent as if under a law heaped stores of insurgency in the celtic bosom corney contemplating sir willoughby and a trotting kern governed by strongbow
have a point of likeness between them with the point of difference that corney was enlightened to know of a friend better adapted for eminent station and especially better adapted to please a lovely lady
another idea of manliness than the formal carved in wood idol of their national worship doctor corney breakfasted very early without seeing vernon he was off to a patient while the first lark of the morning carolled above
and the business of the day not yet fallen upon men in the shape of cloud was happily intermixed with nature's hues and pipings turning off the high road tip a green lane an hour later
by the peculiar strenuous twist
indicative of a frame plunged on the pursuit in hand he clearly distinguished young crossjay out came eggs the doctor pulled up what bird he bellowed yellowhammer crossjay yelled back
now sir you'll drop a couple of those eggs in the nest don't order me crossjay was retorting oh it's you doctor corney good morning i said that because i always do drop a couple back
i promised mister whitford i would and miss middleton too had breakfast not yet not hungry i should be if i thought about it jump up i think i'd rather not doctor corney
you're fond of miss middleton instead of answering crossjay heaved the sigh of love that bears a burden and so am i pursued the doctor you'll have to put up with a rival it's worse than fond i'm in love with her
how do you like that i don't mind how many love her said crossjay you're worthy of a gratuitous breakfast in the front parlour of the best hotel of the place they call arcadia
and how about your bed last night pretty middling hard was it where the bones haven't cushion
but you're fond of miss middleton anyhow and that's a virtue to his great surprise doctor corney beheld two big round tears force their way out of this tough youngster's eyes and all the while the boy's face was proud
crossjay said when he could trust himself to disjoin his lips i want to see mister whitford have you got news for him i've something to ask him it's about what i ought to do
that's melancholy what do you say to asking my advice crossjay sighed i can't speak to anybody but mister whitford and you're hot to speak to him i want to
and i found you running away from him you're a curiosity mister crossjay patterne ah so'd anybody be who knew as much as i do said crossjay with a
sober sadness that caused the doctor to treat him seriously the fact is he said mister whitford is beating the country for you my best plan will be to drive you to the hall i'd rather not go to the hall
crossjay spoke resolutely you won't see miss middleton anywhere but at the hall i don't want to see miss middleton if i can't be a bit of use to her no danger threatening the lady is there
crossjay treated the question as if it had not been put now tell me said doctor corney would there be a chance for me supposing miss middleton were disengaged the answer was easy
the doctor asked why and crossjay said it was because mister whitford was the best man in the world to which with a lusty amen to that doctor corney remarked i should have fancied colonel de craye would have had the first chance
he's more of a lady's man crossjay surprised him again by petulantly saying don't the boy added i don't want to talk except about birds and things what a jolly morning it is i saw the sun rise no rain to day
the kindly little man swung his whip crossjay informed him of his disgrace at the hall and of every incident connected with it from the tramp to the baronet save miss middleton's adventure and the night scene in the drawing room
you'll not let miss middleton know of my affection after all it's only a little bit of love but as patrick said to kathleen when she owned to such a little bit that's the best bit of all
and he was as right as i am about hungry crossjay scorned to talk of loving he declared i never tell miss middleton what i feel why there's miss dale's cottage
it's nearer to your empty inside than my mansion said the doctor and we'll stop just to inquire whether a bed's to be had for you there to night and if not i'll have you with me and bottle you and exhibit you for you're a rare specimen
breakfast you may count on from mister dale i spy a gentleman it's colonel de craye come after news of you i wonder miss middleton sends him of course she does crossjay turned his full face to the doctor
i haven't seen her for such a long time but he saw me last night and he might have told her that if she's anxious good morning colonel i've had a good walk and a capital drive and i'm as hungry as the boat's crew of captain bligh
he jumped down the colonel and the doctor saluted smiling i've rung the bell said de craye a maid came to the gate and upon her steps appeared miss dale who flung herself at crossjay mingling kisses and reproaches
she scarcely raised her face to the colonel more than to reply to his greeting and excuse the hungry boy for hurrying indoors to breakfast i'll wait said de craye he had seen that she was paler than usual so had doctor corney
and the doctor called to her concerning her father's health she reported that he had not yet risen and took crossjay to herself that's well said the doctor if the invalid sleeps long the lady is not looking so well though
but ladies vary they show the mind on the countenance for want of the punching we meet with to conceal it they're like military flags for a funeral or a gala one day furled and next day streaming
men are ships figure heads about the same for a storm or a calm and not too handsome thanks to the ocean it's an age since we encountered last colonel on board the dublin boat i recollect and a night it was
though the cure of the soul is often the entire and total cure of the body and it's maliciously said that the body given over to our treatment is a signal to set the soul flying by the way colonel that boy has a trifle on his mind
doctor corney nodded i have to visit my patient here presently i'm too early for him so i'll make a call or two on the lame birds that are up he remarked and drove away de craye strolled through the garden
he was a gentleman of those actively perceptive wits which if ever they reflect do so by hops and jumps upon some dancing mirror within we may fancy he penetrated a plot in a flash
threw a series of images of everything relating to crossjay for the last forty hours into relief before him and as he did not in the slightest degree speculate on any one of them but merely shifted and surveyed them
gathers matter that makes the secret thing discourse to the brain by weight and balance he will get either the right clue or none more frequently none but he will escape the entanglement of his own cleverness
he will always be nearer to the enigma than the guesser or the calculator and he will retain a breadth of vision forfeited by them he must however to have his chance of success be acutely besides calmly perceptive
a reader of features audacious at the proper moment de craye wished to look at miss dale
owing to her father's illness and he remembered a redness of her eyelids when he passed her on the corridor one night she sent crossjay out to him as soon as the boy was well filled he sent crossjay back with a request
she stepped to the front door reluctantly and seemed disconcerted de craye begged for a message to miss middleton there was none to give he persisted but there was really none at present she said
you won't entrust me with the smallest word said he and set her visibly thinking whether she could dispatch a word she could not she had no heart for messages
i shall see her in a day or two colonel de craye she will miss you severely we shall soon meet and poor willoughby laetitia coloured and stood silent
a butterfly of some rarity allured crossjay i fear he has been doing mischief she said i cannot get him to look at me his appetite is good very good indeed de craye nodded
a boy with a noble appetite is never a hopeless lock the colonel and crossjay lounged over the garden and now said the colonel we'll see if we can't arrange a meeting between you and miss middleton
you're a lucky fellow for she's always thinking of you i know i'm always thinking of her said crossjay if ever you're in a scrape she's the person you must go to yes if i know where she is
i want to see mister whitford so much he said something to tell him i don't know what to do i don't understand it the secret wriggled to his mouth he swallowed it down yes
i want to talk to mister whitford he's another of miss middleton's friends i know he is he's true steel we're all her friends crossjay i flatter myself i'm a toledo when i'm wanted
how long had you been in the house last night before you ran into me i don't know sir i fell asleep for some time and then i woke where did you find yourself i was in the drawing room
we couldn't box him or play cards or stand a chance with him as a rival in love did you now catch a sight of a ghost they weren't ghosts crossjay said what he was sure of and his voice pronounced his conviction
i doubt whether miss middleton is particularly happy remarked the colonel why why you upset her you know now and then the boy swelled i'd do i'd go
so you made yourself up a comfortable bed in the drawing room luckily sir willoughby didn't see you he didn't though a close shave was it
the secret threatened crossjay to be out or suffocate him de craye gave him a respite you like sir willoughby don't you crossjay produced a still born affirmative he's kind to you said the colonel
he'll set you up and look after your interests yes i like him said crossjay with his customary rapidity in touching the subject i like him he's kind and all that and tips and plays with you and all that
but i never can make out why he wouldn't see my father when my father came here to see him ten miles and had to walk back ten miles in the rain to go by rail a long way down home as far as devonport
captain patterne is as brave a man as ever lived said de craye i'm positive you'd like him colonel i know of his deeds and i admire him and that's a good step to liking he warmed the boy's thoughts of his father
we're very poor at home and lots of us and all hungry
he's only a marine he's a hero said de craye he came home very tired with a cold and had a doctor but sir willoughby did send him money and mother wished to send it back
and my father said she was not like a woman with our big family he said he thought sir willoughby an extraordinary man not at all very common indigenous said de craye
the art of cutting is one of the branches of a polite education in this country and you'll have to learn it if you expect to be looked on as a gentleman and a patterne my boy i begin to see how it is miss middleton takes to you so
follow her directions but i hope you did not listen to a private conversation miss middleton would not approve of that
that his motive was to be well in advance of vernon whitford to whom after all the knowledge imparted by crossjay would be of small advantage that fellow would probably trot of to willoughby
to row him for breaking his word to miss middleton there are men thought de craye who see nothing feel nothing he crossed a stile into the wood above the lake where as he was in the humour to think himself signally lucky
espying her he took it as a matter of course that the lady who taught his heart to leap should be posted by the fates and he wondered little at her power for rarely had the world seen such union of princess and
sylph as in that lady's figure she stood holding by a beech branch gazing down on the water she had not heard him
but she was not startled the colour overflowed a grave face and tis not quite the first time that willoughby has played this trick de craye said to her keenly smiling with a parted mouth
clara moved her lips to recall remarks introductory to so abrupt and strange a plunge he smiled in that peculiar manner of an illuminated comic perception for the moment he was all falcon and he surprised himself more than clara who
was not in the mood to take surprises it was the sight of her which had animated him to strike his game he was down on it another instinct at work they spring up in twenties oftener than in twos when the heart is the hunter
prompted him to directness and quickness to carry her on the flood of the discovery she regained something of her mental self possession as soon as she was on a level with a meaning she had not yet inspected but she had to submit to his lead
distinctly perceiving where its drift divided to the forked currents of what might be in his mind and what was in hers miss middleton i bear a bit of a likeness to the messenger to the glorious despot
my head is off if i speak not true everything i have is on the die did i guess wrong your wish i read it in the dark by the heart but here's a certainty willoughby sets you free
you have come from him she could imagine nothing else and she was unable to preserve a disguise she trembled from miss dale ah clara drooped she told me that once tis the fact that tells it now
you have not seen him since you left the house darkly clear enough not unlike the hand of destiny through a veil he offered himself to miss dale last night about between the witching hours of twelve and one miss dale
i have reason to know it cannot be if i have a head it is a fresh and blooming truth and more i stake my vanity on it let me go to her she stepped consider said he
miss dale and i are excellent friends it would not seem indelicate to her she has a kind of regard for me through crossjay oh can it be there must be some delusion you have seen
you wish to be of service to me you may too easily be deceived last night he last night and this morning tis not the first time our friend has played the trick miss middleton but this is incredible that last night
i think i felt that when i first saw you will you let me hear why you are so certain miss middleton when i first had the honour of looking on you it was in a posture that necessitated my looking up
himself is the principal consideration with himself and ever was you discovered it said clara he uncovered it said de craye the miracle was that the world wouldn't see
but the world is a piggy wiggy world for the wealthy fellow who fills a trough for it and that he has always very sagaciously done only women besides myself have detected him i have never exposed him i have been an observer pure and simple
and because i apprehended another catastrophe making something like the fourth to my knowledge one being public you knew miss durham and harry oxford too and they're a pair as happy as blackbirds in a cherry tree
in a summer sunrise with the owner of the garden asleep because of that apprehension of mine i refused the office of best man till willoughby had sent me a third letter he insisted on my coming i came saw
and was conquered i trust with all my soul i did not betray myself i owed that duty to my position of concealing it as for entirely hiding that i had used my eyes i can't say they must answer for it
the colonel was using his eyes with an increasing suavity that threatened more than sweetness i believe you have been sincerely kind said clara we will descend to the path round the lake she did not refuse her hand on the descent
and he let it escape the moment the service was done as he was performing the admirable character of the man of honour he had to attend to the observance of details and sure of her though he was beginning to feel
there was a touch of the unknown in clara middleton which made him fear to stamp assurance despite a barely resistible impulse coming of his emotions and approved by his maxims
willoughby settled his chance was great who else was in the way no one he counselled himself to wait for her she might have ideas of delicacy her face was troubled speculative
the brows clouded the lips compressed you have not heard this from miss dale she said last night they were together this morning she fled i saw her this morning distressed
she is unwilling to send you a message she talks vaguely of meeting you some days hence and it is not the first time he has gone to her for his consolation that is not a proposal clara reflected he is too prudent
he did not propose to her at the time you mention have you not been hasty colonel de craye shadows crossed her forehead she glanced in the direction of the house and stopped her walk last night miss middleton
there was a listener who crossjay was under that pretty silk coverlet worked by the miss patternes he came home late found his door locked and dashed downstairs into the drawing room where he snuggled up and dropped asleep
the two speakers woke him they frightened the poor dear lad in his love for you and after they had gone he wanted to run out of the house and i met him just after i had come back from my search bursting and took him to my room and laid him on the sofa
corney told me the boy had you on his brain and was miserable so crossjay and i had a talk crossjay did not repeat to you the conversation he had heard said clara no she smiled rejoicingly proud of the boy as she walked on
such a man could do anything that conclusion fortified her to pursue her walk to the house and give battle for freedom willoughby appeared to her scarce human unreadable save by the key that she could supply
she determined to put faith in colonel de craye's marvellous divination of circumstances in the dark marvels are solid weapons when we are attacked by real prodigies of nature her countenance cleared
she conversed with de craye of the polite and the political world throwing off her personal burden completely and charming him at the edge of the garden on the bridge that crossed the haha from the park he had a second impulse
are equal to any in speed and comfort
but to havre and the additional trip from havre to southampton would render phileas fogg's last efforts of no avail the inman steamer did not depart till the next day
which gave him the daily movements of the trans atlantic steamers
it overwhelmed him to lose the boat by three quarters of an hour it was his fault for instead of helping his master he had not ceased putting obstacles in his path and when he recalled all the incidents of the tour
when he counted up the sums expended in pure loss and on his own account when he thought that the immense stake added to the heavy charges of this useless journey would completely ruin mister fogg
he overwhelmed himself with bitter self accusations mister fogg however did not reproach him and on leaving the cunard pier only said we will consult about what is best to morrow come
the party crossed the hudson in the jersey city ferryboat and drove in a carriage to the saint nicholas hotel on broadway rooms were engaged and the night passed briefly to phileas fogg who slept profoundly
but very long to aouda and the others whose agitation did not permit them to rest the next day was the twelfth of december from seven in the morning of the twelfth to a quarter before nine in the evening of the twenty first
there were nine days thirteen hours and forty five minutes if phileas fogg had left in the china one of the fastest steamers on the atlantic he would have reached liverpool and then london within the period agreed upon
mister fogg left the hotel alone after giving passepartout instructions to await his return and inform aouda to be ready at an instant's notice he proceeded to the banks of the hudson
and looked about among the vessels moored or anchored in the river for any that were about to depart several had departure signals and were preparing to put to sea at morning tide
for in this immense and admirable port there is not one day in a hundred that vessels do not set out for every quarter of the globe but they were mostly sailing vessels of which of course phileas fogg could make no use
a cable's length off at most a trading vessel with a screw well shaped whose funnel puffing a cloud of smoke indicated that she was getting ready for departure phileas fogg hailed a boat got into it
and soon found himself on board the henrietta iron hulled wood built above he ascended to the deck and asked for the captain who forthwith presented himself he was a man of fifty a sort of sea wolf with big eyes
a complexion of oxidised copper red hair and thick neck and a growling voice the captain asked mister fogg i am the captain i am phileas fogg of london
and i am andrew speedy of cardiff you are going to put to sea in an hour you are bound for bordeaux and your cargo no freight
going in ballast have you any passengers
is your vessel a swift one between eleven and twelve knots the henrietta well known will you carry me and three other persons to liverpool to liverpool
the captain spoke in a tone which did not admit of a reply but the owners of the henrietta resumed phileas fogg the owners are myself replied the captain
the vessel belongs to me i will freight it for you no i will buy it of you no phileas fogg did not betray the least disappointment
now money failed still some means must be found to cross the atlantic on a boat unless by balloon which would have been venturesome besides not being capable of being put in practice
it seemed that phileas fogg had an idea for he said to the captain well will you carry me to bordeaux no not if you paid me two hundred dollars
i offer you two thousand apiece apiece
four captain speedy began to scratch his head there were eight thousand dollars to gain without changing his route for which it was well worth conquering the repugnance he had for all kinds of passengers
besides passengers at two thousand dollars are no longer passengers but valuable merchandise i start at nine o'clock said captain speedy simply are you and your party ready
we will be on board at nine o'clock replied no less simply mister fogg it was half past eight to disembark from the henrietta jump into a hack hurry to the saint nicholas and return with aouda
and even the inseparable fix was the work of a brief time and was performed by mister fogg with the coolness which never abandoned him they were on board when the henrietta made ready to weigh anchor
he said to himself that the bank of england would certainly not come out of this affair well indemnified
in which the reader is introduced to the very best of company at last becky's kindness and attention to the chief of her husband's family
were destined to meet with an exceeding great reward a reward which though certainly somewhat unsubstantial the little woman coveted with greater eagerness than more positive benefits
if she did not wish to lead a virtuous life at least she desired to enjoy a character for virtue and we know that no lady in the genteel world
until she has put on a train and feathers and has been presented to her sovereign at court from that august interview they come out stamped as honest women the lord chamberlain gives them a certificate of virtue
and as dubious goods or letters are passed through an oven at quarantine sprinkled with
many a lady whose reputation would be doubtful otherwise and liable to give infection passes through the wholesome ordeal of the royal presence and issues from it free from all taint
my lady tufto missus bute crawley in the country and other ladies who had come into contact with missus rawdon crawley to cry fie at the idea of the odious little adventuress making her curtsey before the sovereign
and to declare that if dear good queen charlotte had been alive she never would have admitted such an extremely ill regulated personage
but when we consider that it was the first gentleman in europe in whose high presence missus rawdon passed her examination and as it were took her degree in reputation it surely must be flat disloyalty
to doubt any more about her virtue i for my part look back with love and awe to that great character in history ah what a high and noble appreciation of gentlewomanhood
there must have been in vanity fair when that revered and august being was invested by the universal acclaim of the refined and educated portion of this empire with the title of premier gentilhomme
of his kingdom do you remember
the hypocrite being acted elliston being manager dowton and liston performers two boys had leave from their loyal masters to go out from slaughter house school where they were educated
and to appear on drury lane stage amongst a crowd which assembled there to greet the king the king there he was beefeaters were before the august box the marquis of steyne lord of the powder closet
and other great officers of state were behind the chair on which he sat he sat florid of face portly of person covered with orders and in a rich curling head of hair how we sang god save him
how the house rocked and shouted with that magnificent music how they cheered and cried and waved handkerchiefs ladies wept
some fainted with emotion people were suffocated in the pit shrieks and groans rising up amidst the writhing and shouting mass there of his people who were and indeed showed themselves almost to be ready to die for him
yes we saw him fate cannot deprive us of that others have seen napoleon some few still exist who have beheld frederick the great doctor johnson
be it our reasonable boast to our children that we saw george the good the magnificent the great well there came a happy day in missus rawdon crawley's existence
when this angel was admitted into the paradise of a court which she coveted
in their great family carriage just newly built and ready for the baronet's assumption of the office of high sheriff of his county drove up to the little house in curzon street to the edification of raggles
who was watching from his greengrocer's shop and saw fine plumes within and enormous bunches of flowers in the breasts of the new livery coats of the footmen sir pitt in a glittering uniform
descended and went into curzon street his sword between his legs little rawdon stood with his face against the parlour window panes smiling and nodding with all his might to his aunt in the carriage within
and presently sir pitt issued forth from the house again leading forth a lady with grand feathers covered in a white shawl and holding up daintily a train of magnificent brocade she stepped into the vehicle
as if she were a princess and accustomed all her life to go to court smiling graciously on the footman at the door and on sir pitt who followed her into the carriage then rawdon followed in his old guards uniform
which had grown woefully shabby and was much too tight he was to have followed the procession and waited upon his sovereign in a cab but that his good natured sister in law insisted that they should be a family party the coach was large
the ladies not very big they would hold their trains in their laps finally the four went fraternally together and their carriage presently joined the line of royal equipages which was making its way down piccadilly
and saint james's street towards the old brick palace where the star of brunswick was in waiting to receive his nobles and gentlefolks becky felt as if she could bless the people out of the carriage windows
so elated was she in spirit and so strong a sense had she of the dignified position which she had at last attained in life even our becky had her weaknesses and as one often sees how men pride themselves upon excellences
which others are slow to perceive how for instance comus firmly believes that he is the greatest tragic actor in england how brown the famous novelist longs to be considered not a man of genius but a man of fashion
so to be and to be thought a respectable woman was becky's aim in life and she got up the genteel with amazing assiduity readiness and success we have said there were times when she believed herself to be a fine lady
and forgot that there was no money in the chest at home duns round the gate tradesmen to coax and wheedle no ground to walk upon in a word and as she went to court in the carriage the family carriage
she adopted a demeanour so grand self satisfied deliberate and imposing that it made even lady jane laugh she walked into the royal apartments with a toss of the head which would have befitted an empress
and i have no doubt had she been one she would have become the character perfectly
of her presentation to the sovereign
some ladies we may have seen we who wear stars and cordons and attend the saint james's assemblies or we who in muddy boots dawdle up and down pall mall and peep into the coaches as they drive up with the great folks in their feathers some ladies of fashion
as the laced jacketed band of the life guards are blowing triumphal marches seated on those prancing music stools their cream coloured chargers who are by no means lovely and enticing objects
a stout countess of sixty decolletee painted wrinkled with rouge up to her drooping eyelids and diamonds twinkling in her wig is a wholesome and edifying but not a pleasant sight
as it may be seen of an early morning when half the lamps are out and the others are blinking wanly as if they were about to vanish like ghosts before the dawn such charms
passes should appear abroad at night alone if even cynthia looks haggard of an afternoon as we may see her sometimes in the present winter season
of countenance from the opposite side of the heavens how much more can old lady castlemouldy
with which time has marked her face no drawing rooms should be announced for november
should drive up in closed litters
and make their curtsey to the sovereign under the protection of lamplight our beloved rebecca had no need however of any such a friendly halo to set off her beauty
her complexion could bear any sunshine as yet and her dress though if you were to see it now any present lady of vanity fair would pronounce it to be the most foolish and preposterous attire ever worn was as handsome in her eyes and those of the public
some five and twenty years since as the most brilliant costume of the most famous beauty of the present season a score of years hence that too that milliner's wonder will have passed into the domain of the absurd
along with all previous vanities but we are wandering too much missus rawdon's dress was pronounced to be charmante on the eventful day of her presentation
as she looked at her kinswoman and owned sorrowfully to herself that she was quite inferior in taste to missus becky
the brocade was an old remnant becky said and as for the lace it was a great bargain she had had it these hundred years my dear missus crawley
which was not nearly so good and then examining the quality of the ancient brocade which formed the material of missus rawdon's court dress she felt inclined to say that she could not afford such fine clothing but checked that speech with an effort
as one uncharitable to her kinswoman and yet if lady jane had known all i think even her kindly temper would have failed her the fact is when she was putting sir pitt's house in order
missus rawdon had found the lace and the brocade in old wardrobes the property of the former ladies of the house and had quietly carried the goods home
to her own little person briggs saw her take them asked no questions told no stories but i believe quite sympathised with her on this matter and so would many another honest woman and the diamonds
where the doose did you get the diamonds becky said her husband admiring some jewels
with brilliance and profusion becky blushed a little and looked at him hard for a moment pitt crawley blushed a little too and looked out of window the fact is he had given her a very small portion of the brilliants a pretty diamond clasp
which confined a pearl necklace which she wore and the baronet had omitted to mention the circumstance to his lady becky looked at her husband and then at sir pitt with an air of saucy triumph as much as to say shall i betray you
why you silly man she continued where do you suppose i got them all except the little clasp which a dear friend of mine gave me long ago i hired them to be sure i hired them at mister polonius's in coventry street
you don't suppose that all the diamonds which go to court belong to the wearers like those beautiful stones which lady jane has and which are much handsomer than any which i have i am certain
the carriage rolled down the street until its cargo was finally discharged at the gates of the palace where the sovereign was sitting in state the diamonds which had created rawdon's admiration
never went back to mister polonius of coventry street and that gentleman never applied for their restoration but they retired into a little private repository in an old desk which amelia sedley had given her years and years ago
and in which becky kept a number of useful and perhaps valuable things
to know nothing or little is in the nature of some husbands to hide in the nature of how many women oh ladies how many of you have surreptitious milliners bills how many of you have gowns and bracelets which you daren't show or which you wear trembling
trembling and coaxing with smiles the husband by your side who does not know the new velvet gown from the old one or the new bracelet from last year's or has any notion that the ragged looking yellow lace scarf cost forty guineas
and that madame bobinot is writing dunning letters every week for the money thus rawdon knew nothing about the brilliant diamond ear rings or the superb brilliant ornament which decorated the fair bosom of his lady but lord steyne who was in his place at court
as lord of the powder closet and one of the great dignitaries and illustrious defences of the throne of england and came up with all his stars garters collars and cordons and paid particular attention to the little woman
knew whence the jewels came and who paid for them as he bowed over her he smiled
but i hope your lordship is orthodox said the little lady with a toss of her head and many ladies round about whispered and talked and many gentlemen nodded and whispered as they saw what marked attention the great nobleman was paying to the little adventuress
what were the circumstances of the interview between rebecca crawley
it does not become such a feeble and inexperienced pen as mine to attempt to relate the dazzled eyes close before that magnificent idea loyal respect and decency tell even the imagination not to look too keenly
and audaciously about the sacred audience chamber but to back away rapidly silently and respectfully making profound bows out of the august presence this may be said
that in all london there was no more loyal heart than becky's after this interview the name of her king was always on her lips and he was proclaimed by her to be the most charming of men she went to colnaghi's
and ordered the finest portrait of him that art had produced and credit could supply she chose that famous one in which the best of monarchs is represented in a frock coat
and breeches and silk stockings simpering on a sofa from under his curly brown wig she had him painted in a brooch and wore it
she amused and somewhat pestered her acquaintance with her perpetual talk about his urbanity and beauty who knows perhaps the little woman thought she might play the part of a maintenon or a pompadour
but the finest sport of all after her presentation was to hear her talk virtuously
not it must be owned of the very highest reputation in vanity fair
becky would not consort any longer with these dubious ones and cut lady crackenbury when the latter nodded to her from her opera box and gave missus washington white the go by in the ring one must my dear show one is somebody she said
you may go and dine with them as you like your rubber but i mustn't and won't
the particulars of becky's costume were in the newspapers feathers lappets superb diamonds and all the rest lady crackenbury read the paragraph in bitterness of spirit and discoursed to her followers
about the airs which that woman was giving herself missus bute crawley and her young ladies in the country had a copy of the morning post from town
if you had been sandy haired green eyed and a french rope dancer's daughter missus bute said to her eldest girl who on the contrary was a very swarthy short and snub nosed young lady
you might have had superb diamonds forsooth and have been presented at court by your cousin the lady jane
you have only some of the best blood in england in your veins and good principles and piety for your portion i myself the wife of a baronet's younger brother too never thought of such a thing as going to court nor would other people
if good queen charlotte had been alive in this way the worthy rectoress consoled herself and her daughters sighed and sat over the peerage all night a few days after the famous presentation
another great and exceeding honour was vouchsafed to the virtuous becky lady steyne's carriage drove up to mister rawdon crawley's door and the footman instead of driving down the front of the house as by his tremendous knocking he appeared to be inclined to do
relented and only delivered in a couple of cards on which were engraven the names of the marchioness of steyne and the countess of gaunt if these bits of pasteboard
a hundred yards of malines lace rolled round them worth twice the number of guineas becky could not have regarded them with more pleasure you may be sure they occupied a conspicuous place in the china bowl
on the drawing room table where becky kept the cards of her visitors
how poor missus washington white's card and lady crackenbury's card which our little friend had been glad enough to get a few months back and of which the silly little creature was rather proud once lord lord i say
how soon at the appearance of these grand court cards did those poor little neglected deuces sink down to the bottom of the pack steyne bareacres johnes of helvellyn and caerylon of camelot
we may be sure that becky and briggs looked out those august names in the peerage and followed the noble races up through all the ramifications of the family tree my lord steyne
coming to call a couple of hours afterwards and looking about him and observing everything as was his wont found his ladies cards already ranged as the trumps of becky's hand and grinned
as this old cynic always did at any naive display of human weakness becky came down to him presently
and other female gimcracks arranged and she seated in some artless and agreeable posture ready to receive him whenever she was surprised of course
and to trip down again to wait upon the great peer she found him grinning over the bowl she was discovered and she blushed a little thank you monseigneur she said
i couldn't come before i was in the kitchen making a pudding i know you were i saw you through the area railings as i drove up replied the old gentleman
he said good naturedly you silly little fibster i heard you in the room overhead where i have no doubt you were putting a little rouge on you must give some of yours to my lady gaunt whose complexion is quite preposterous
and i heard the bedroom door open and then you came downstairs
answered missus rawdon plaintively and she rubbed her cheek with her handkerchief as if to show there was no rouge at all only genuine blushes and modesty in her case about this who can tell
i know there is some rouge that won't come off on a pocket handkerchief and some so good that even tears will not disturb it well said the old gentleman twiddling round his wife's card you are bent on becoming a fine lady
you won't be able to hold your own there you silly little fool you've got no money you will get us a place interposed becky as quick as possible you've got no money and you want to compete with those who have
you poor little earthenware pipkin you want to swim down the stream along with the great copper kettles
and we had neck of mutton and turnips
you will go to gaunt house you give an old fellow no rest until you get there it's not half so nice as here you'll be bored there i am my wife is as gay as lady macbeth and my daughters as cheerful as regan and goneril
i daren't sleep in what they call my bedroom the bed is like the baldaquin of saint peter's and the pictures frighten me i have a little brass bed in a dressing room and a little hair mattress like an anchorite i am an anchorite
you'll be asked to dinner next week and gare aux femmes look out and hold your own how the women will bully you this was a very long speech for a man of few words like my lord steyne
nor was it the first which he uttered for becky's benefit on that day briggs looked up from the work table at which she was seated in the farther room and gave a deep sigh
if you don't turn off that abominable sheep dog said lord steyne with a savage look over his shoulder at her
laughing mischievously and having enjoyed for some time the discomfiture of my lord who hated poor briggs for interrupting
missus rawdon at length had pity upon her admirer and calling to briggs praised the fineness of the weather to her and bade her to take out the child for a walk i can't send her away becky said presently
after a pause and in a very sad voice her eyes filled with tears as she spoke and she turned away her head
worse than that said becky still casting down her eyes i have ruined her ruined her
asked men do that becky answered bitterly women are not so bad as you
she gave us everything she shall never leave me until we are ruined utterly ourselves
said the peer with an oath and becky reflecting on the largeness of his means mentioned not only the sum which she had borrowed from miss briggs but one of nearly double the amount this caused the lord steyne to break out in another brief and energetic expression of anger
at which rebecca held down her head the more and cried bitterly i could not help it it was my only chance i dare not tell my husband he would kill me if i told him what i have done i have kept it a secret from everybody but you and you forced it from me
ah what shall i do lord steyne for i am very very unhappy lord steyne made no reply except by beating the devil's tattoo and biting his nails at last he clapped his hat on his head and flung out of the room
then she rose up with the queerest expression of victorious mischief glittering in her green eyes
as she sat at work and sitting down to the piano she rattled away a triumphant voluntary on the keys which made the people pause under her window to listen to her brilliant music that night
there came two notes from gaunt house for the little woman the one containing a card of invitation from lord and lady steyne to a dinner at gaunt house next friday while the other enclosed a slip of gray paper bearing lord steyne's signature and the address of messrs jones
lombard street rawdon heard becky laughing in the night once or twice it was only her delight at going to gaunt house and facing the ladies there she said which amused her so but the truth was that she was occupied with a great number of other thoughts
should she pay off old briggs and give her her conge should she astonish raggles by settling his account she turned over all these thoughts on her pillow
in a modest dress with a veil on whipped off in a hackney coach to the city and being landed at messrs jones and robinson's bank
she gently said she would take a hundred and fifty pounds in small notes and the remainder in one note and passing through saint paul's churchyard stopped there and bought the handsomest black silk gown for briggs which money could buy and which
then she walked to mister raggles inquired about his children affectionately and gave him fifty pounds on account then she went to the livery man from whom she jobbed her carriages and gratified him with a similar sum
and i hope this will be a lesson to you spavin she said and that on the next drawing room day my brother sir pitt
to wait upon his majesty because my own carriage is not forthcoming it appears there had been a difference on the last drawing room day hence the degradation which the colonel had almost suffered of being obliged to enter the presence of his sovereign in a hack cab
these arrangements concluded becky paid a visit upstairs to the before mentioned desk which amelia sedley had given her years and years ago and which contained a number of useful and valuable little things in which private museum she placed the one note which
messrs jones and robinson's
they went on a long way until they caught sight of a hind with a gold ring on its horns the prince was eager to catch it if possible so they gave chase and rode on without stopping
until all the horses began to founder beneath them at last the prince's horse gave way too and then there came over them a darkness so black that they could no longer see the hind
by this time they were far away from any house and thought it was high time to be making their way home again but they found they had got lost now
but soon each began to think that he knew the right way best so they separated and all went in different directions the prince too had got lost like the rest
and wandered on for a time until he came to a little clearing in the forest not far from the sea where he saw a woman sitting on a chair and a big barrel standing beside her
the prince went up to her and saluted her politely and she received him very graciously he looked down into the barrel then and saw lying at the bottom an unusually beautiful gold ring
which pleased him so much that he could not take his eyes off it
to get it for which the prince thanked her and said it was at least worth trying so he leaned over into the barrel which did not seem very deep and thought he would easily reach the ring
saying that now he could take up his quarters there then she fixed the top on the barrel and threw it out into the sea the prince thought himself in a bad plight now
as he felt the barrel floating out from the land
but at last he felt that the barrel was knocking against rocks at which he was a little cheered thinking it was probably land and not merely a
being something of a swimmer he at last made up his mind to kick the bottom out of the barrel
for the rocks by the sea were smooth and level but overhead there were high cliffs it seemed difficult to get up these but he went along the foot of them for a little till at last he tried to climb up which at last he did
which was covered with forest with apples growing and altogether pleasant as far as the land was concerned after he had been there several days he one day heard a great noise in the forest which made him terribly afraid
so that he ran to hide himself among the trees then he saw a giant approaching dragging a sledge loaded with wood and making straight for him so that he could see nothing for it
when the giant came across him he stood still and looked at the prince for a little
and carried him home to his house and was exceedingly kind to him he gave him to his wife
and she could have it to help her in the house the old woman was greatly pleased and began to fondle the prince with the utmost delight he stayed there with them and was very willing and obedient to them in everything
every day one day the giant took him round and showed him all his rooms except the parlour
thinking there must be some very rare treasure there so one day when the giant had gone into the forest he tried to get into the parlour and managed to get the door open half way then
he saw that some living creature moved inside and ran along the floor towards him and said something which made him so frightened that he sprang back from the door and shut it again
as soon as the fright began to pass off he tried it again for he thought it would be interesting to hear what it said but things went just as before with him he then got
and summoning up all his courage tried it
and opened the door of the room and stood firm then he saw that it was a big dog which spoke to him and said choose me prince ring
the prince went away rather afraid thinking with himself that it was no great treasure after all but all the same what it had said to him stuck in his mind
but one day the latter came to him and said he would now take him over to the mainland out of the island for he himself had no long time to live he also thanked him for his good service
and told him to choose some one of his possessions
ring thanked him heartily and said there was no need to pay him for his services they were so little worth
the giant was taken by surprise and said there you chose my old woman's right hand but i must not break my word upon this he went to get the dog
which came running with signs of great delight but the prince was so much afraid of it that it was all he could do to keep from showing his alarm
where he saw a stone boat which was just big enough to hold the two of them
on reaching the mainland the giant took a friendly farewell of ring
he might take possession of all that was in the island after he and his wife died which would happen within two weeks from that time the prince thanked him
and the giant returned home while ring went up some distance from the sea but he did not know what land he had come to and was afraid to speak to the dog
you don't seem to have much curiosity seeing you never ask my name the prince then forced himself to ask what is your name you had best call me snati snati said the dog
now we are coming to a king's seat and you must ask the king to keep us all winter and to give you a little room for both of us
to keep them all the winter to which he agreed when the king's men saw the dog they began to laugh at it and make as if they would tease it but when the prince saw this he advised them not to do it
or they might have the worst of it they replied that they didn't care a bit what he thought
anything the king replied that it was only a short time since he had come there red then asked him to send them both to cut down wood next morning and see which of them could do most work
snati snati heard this and told it to ring advising him to ask the king for two axes so that he might have one in reserve if the first one got broken next morning the king
and both agreed ring got the two axes and each went his own way but when the prince had got out into the wood snati took one of the axes and began to hew along with him
was more than twice as big i suspected said the king that ring was not quite useless
ring was now in far greater esteem with the king than before and red was all the more discontented one day he came to the king and said if ring is such a mighty man
i think you might ask him to kill the wild oxen in the wood here and flay them the same day
and one day asked ring to go and kill the oxen that were in the wood for him and bring their horns and hides to him in the evening
ring was quite ready and went off at once to the great delight of red who was now sure of his death
they came bellowing to meet him one of them was tremendously big the other rather less ring grew terribly afraid how do you like them asked snati not well at all
said the prince we can do nothing else said snati than attack them
and i shall take the other with this snati leapt at the big one
and by the time snati came to help him the ox had nearly got him under but snati was not slow in helping his master to kill it each of them then began to flay their own ox
in the evening after they had finished this task the prince thought himself unfit to carry all the horns and both the hides so snati told him to lay them all on his back until they got to the palace gate
the prince agreed and laid everything on the dog except the skin of the smaller ox which he staggered along with himself at the palace gate he left everything lying went before the king
and asked him to come that length with him and there handed over to him the hides and horns of the oxen the king was greatly surprised at his valour and said he knew no one like him and thanked him heartily for what he had done
and held him to be a great hero nor could red any longer say anything against him
destroy him one day a good idea came into his head he came to the king and said he had something to say to him what is that said the king red said
that he had just remembered the gold cloak gold chess board and bright gold piece that the king had lost about a year before don't remind me of them said the king red however
went on to say that since ring was such a mighty man that he could do everything it had occurred to him to advise the king to ask him to search for these treasures
his daughter the king replied that he thought it altogether unbecoming to propose such a thing to ring
until the king gave in to him one day a month or so before christmas the king spoke to ring saying that he wished to ask a great favour of him
what is that said ring
that you find for me my gold cloak my gold chess board and my bright gold piece that were stolen from me
if you can bring them to me before christmas
said the king i don't know ring now left the king and was very silent for he saw he was in a great difficulty but on the other hand
he thought it was excellent to have such a chance of winning the king's daughter snati noticed that his master was at a loss and said to him that he should not disregard what the king had asked him to do
otherwise he would get into great difficulties the prince assented to this and began to prepare for the journey after he had taken leave of the king and was setting out on the search
snati said to him now you must first of all go about the neighbourhood and gather as much salt as ever you can the prince did so and gathered so much salt
that he could hardly carry it but snati said throw it on my back which he accordingly did and the dog then ran on before the prince until they came to the foot of a steep cliff
we must go up here said snati i don't think that will be child's play said the prince hold fast by my tail said snati
up on the lowest shelf of the rock the prince began to get giddy but up went snati on to the second shelf ring was nearly swooning by this time but snati
and reached the top of the cliff where the prince fell down in a faint after a little however he recovered again and they went a short distance along a level plain until they came
to a cave this was on christmas eve they went up above the cave and found a window in it through which they looked and saw four trolls lying asleep beside the fire over which
a large porridge pot was hanging now you must empty all the salt into the porridge pot said snati ring did so and soon the trolls wakened up
she said the porridge is salt i got the milk by witchcraft yesterday out of four kingdoms
but after they had finished it the old hag grew so thirsty that she could stand it no longer and asked her daughter to go out and bring her some water from the river that ran near by
i won't go said she unless you lend me your bright gold piece
said the hag die then said the girl
as soon as she came to the river she lay down to take a drink of the water
had got down off the roof and thrust her head first into the river the old hag began now to long for the water and said that the girl would be running about with the gold piece all over the plain
so she asked her son to go and get her a drop of water i won't go said he unless i get the gold cloak
die then said the son
he put on the cloak and when he came outside it shone so bright that he could see to go with it on reaching the river he went to take a drink like his sister but at that moment ring and snati
sprang upon him took the cloak from him and threw him into the river the old hag could stand the thirst no longer and asked her husband to go for a drink for her the brats she said
were of course running about and playing themselves just as she had expected they would little wretches that they were i won't go said the old troll unless you lend me the gold chess board
said the hag i think you may just as well do that said he since you won't grant me such a little favour take it then you utter disgrace said the old hag
since you are just like these two brats the old troll now went out with the gold chess board and down to the river and was about to take a drink when ring and snati came upon him took the chess board from him
and threw him into the river before they had got back again however and up on top of the cave
snati immediately sprang upon him and ring assisted in the attack and after a hard struggle they mastered him a second time when they got back again
now we must go in at once said snati
she is the worst witch that ever lived and no iron can cut her one of us must pour boiling porridge out of the pot on her and the other punch her with red hot iron in they went then
so you have come prince ring you must have seen to my husband and children snati saw that she was about to attack them and sprang at her with a red hot iron from the fire while ring
kept pouring boiling porridge on her without stopping
then they burned the old troll and her to ashes and explored the cave where they found plenty of gold and treasures the most valuable of these they carried with them as far as the cliff
and left them there then they hastened home to the king with his three treasures where they arrived late on christmas night and ring handed them over to him the king
was beside himself with joy and was astonished at how clever a man ring was in all kinds of feats so that he esteemed him still more highly than before and betrothed his daughter to him
and as soon as he had finished eating and drinking in the hall went off to sleep in his own room snati however asked permission to sleep in the prince's bed
ring said he was welcome to do so
so snati went up into the prince's bed but after a time he came back and told ring he could go there himself now but to take care not to meddle with anything that was in the bed
his intended son in law was for he had done this to him without any cause whatever the king became very angry and said he would soon find out the truth about it and if ring had cut off his hand
he should be hanged but if it was otherwise then red should die so the king sent for ring and asked him for what reason he had done this snati however
had just told ring what had happened during the night and in reply he asked the king
and saw lying on the bed
this hand said ring came over the partition during the night
if i had not defended myself the king
his own life and that red was well worthy of death so red was hanged and ring married the king's daughter
and saw an ugly dog's skin lying near him and a beautiful prince in the bed
and then shook the prince who was lying unconscious until he woke up the bridegroom then
he had lost his mother and in her place his father had married a witch who had laid a spell on him that he should turn into a dog and never be released from the spell
unless a prince of the same name as himself allowed him to sleep at his feet the first night after his marriage he added further as soon
so that you might not free me from the spell she was the hind that you and your companions chased she was the woman that you found in the clearing with the barrel and the old hag that we just now killed in the cave
after the feasting was over the two namesakes along with other men went to the cliff and brought all the treasure home to the palace
the close of esther's narrative
i have been the mistress of bleak house
to what i have written are soon penned then i and the unknown friend to whom i write will part for ever not without much dear remembrance on my side not without some i hope on his or hers
they gave my darling into my arms and through many weeks i never left her the little child who was to have done so much was born before the turf was planted on its father's grave it was a boy
and i my husband and my guardian gave him his father's name the help that my dear counted on did come to her though it came in the eternal wisdom for another purpose
though to bless and restore his mother not his father was the errand of this baby its power was mighty to do it when i saw the strength of the weak little hand and how its touch could heal my darling's heart
and raised hope within her i felt a new sense of the goodness and the tenderness of god they throve and by degrees i saw my dear girl pass into my country garden and walk there with her infant in her arms
i was married then i was the happiest of the happy it was at this time that my guardian joined us and asked ada when she would come home both houses are your home my dear
said he but the older bleak house claims priority when you and my boy are strong enough to do it come and take possession of your home ada called him
her dearest cousin john but he said no it must be guardian now he was her guardian henceforth and the boy's and he had an old association with the name
so she called him guardian and has called him guardian ever since the children know him by no other name i say the children i have two little daughters it is difficult to believe that charley
round eyed still and not at all grammatical is married to a miller in our neighbourhood yet so it is and even now looking up from my desk as i write early in the morning at my summer window i see the very mill beginning to go round
i hope the miller will not spoil charley but he is very fond of her and charley is rather vain of such a match for he is well to do and was in great request so far as my small maid is concerned
i might suppose time to have stood for seven years as still as the mill did half an hour ago since little emma charley's sister is exactly what charley used to be as to tom charley's brother
i am really afraid to say what he did at school in ciphering but i think it was decimals he is apprenticed to the miller whatever it was and is a good bashful fellow always falling in love with somebody and being ashamed of it
caddy jellyby passed her very last holidays with us and was a dearer creature than ever perpetually dancing in and out of the house with the children as if she had never given a dancing lesson in her life
caddy keeps her own little carriage now instead of hiring one and lives full two miles further westward than newman street she works very hard her husband an excellent one being lame
very little still she is more than contented and does all she has to do with all her heart mister jellyby spends his evenings at her new house with his head against the wall as he used to do in her old one
i have heard that missus jellyby was understood to suffer great mortification from her daughter's ignoble marriage and pursuits but i hope she got over it in time she has been disappointed
in consequence of the king of borrioboola wanting to sell everybody who survived the climate for rum but she has taken up with the rights of women to sit in parliament
involving more correspondence than the old one i had almost forgotten caddy's poor little girl she is not such a mite now but she is deaf and dumb i believe there never was a better mother than caddy
who learns in her scanty intervals of leisure innumerable deaf and dumb arts to soften the affliction of her child as if i were never to have done with caddy i am reminded here of peepy and old mister turveydrop
peepy is in the custom house and doing extremely well old mister turveydrop very apoplectic still exhibits his deportment about town still enjoys himself in the old manner
is still believed in in the old way he is constant in his patronage of peepy and is understood to have bequeathed him
which is not his property with the first money we saved at home we added to our pretty house by throwing out a little growlery expressly for my guardian which we inaugurated with great splendour the next time he came down to see us
i try to write all this lightly because my heart is full in drawing to an end but when i write of him my tears will have their way i never look at him but i hear
our poor dear richard calling him a good man to ada and her pretty boy he is the fondest father to me he is what he has ever been and what name can i give to that
he is my husband's best and dearest friend he is our children's darling he is the object of our deepest love and veneration yet while i feel towards him as if he were a superior being i am so familiar with him
and so easy with him that i almost wonder at myself i have never lost my old names nor has he lost his nor do i ever when he is with us sit in any other place than in my old chair at his side
dame trot dame durden little woman all just the same as ever and i answer yes dear guardian just the same i have never known the wind to be in the east
for a single moment since the day when he took me to the porch to read the name i remarked to him once that the wind seemed never in the east now and he said no truly it had finally departed from that quarter on that very day
the sorrow that has been in her face for it is not there now seems to have purified even its innocent expression and to have given it a diviner quality sometimes when i raise my eyes and see her
in the black dress that she still wears teaching my richard i feel
as if it were so good to know that she remembers her dear esther in her prayers i call him my richard
and i am one we are not rich in the bank but we have always prospered and we have quite enough
but i hear the people bless him i never go into a house of any degree but i hear his praises or see them in grateful eyes i never lie down at night but i know that in the course of that day he has alleviated pain
and soothed some fellow creature in the time of need i know that from the beds of those who were past recovery thanks have often often gone up in the last hour for his patient ministration
is not this to be rich the people even praise me as the doctor's wife the people even like me as i go about and make so much of me that i am quite abashed i owe it all to him my love
my pride they like me for his sake as i do everything i do in life for his sake a night or two ago after bustling about preparing for my darling and my guardian and little richard who are coming to morrow
i was sitting out in the porch of all places that dearly memorable porch when allan came home so he said my precious little woman what are you doing here and i said
the moon is shining so brightly allan and the night is so delicious
what have you been thinking about my dear said allan then how curious you are said i i am almost ashamed to tell you but i will i have been thinking
about my old looks such as they were
said allan i have been thinking that i thought it was impossible that you could have loved me any better even if i had retained them such as they were said allan laughing
chapter twenty day after day as he bent his steps homeward returning from some new effort to procure employment kit raised his eyes to the window of the little room he had so much commended to the child
and hoped to see some indication of her presence his own earnest wish coupled with the assurance he had received from quilp filled him with the belief that she would yet arrive to claim the humble shelter he had offered and from the death of each day's hope
another hope sprung up to live to morrow i think they must certainly come to morrow eh mother said kit laying aside his hat with a weary air and sighing as he spoke they have been gone a week
they surely couldn't stop away more than a week could they now the mother shook her head and reminded him how often he had been disappointed already for the matter of that said kit
you speak true and sensible enough as you always do mother still
don't you say so quite long enough kit longer than enough but they may not come back for all that kit was for a moment disposed to be vexed by this contradiction
and not the less so from having anticipated it in his own mind and knowing how just it was but the impulse was only momentary and the vexed look became a kind one before it had crossed the room
you don't think they've gone to sea anyhow not gone for sailors certainly returned the mother with a smile but i can't help thinking that they have gone to some foreign country i say
cried kit with a rueful face don't talk like that mother i am afraid they have and that's the truth she said it's the talk of all the neighbours and there are some even that know of their having been seen on board ship
which is more than i can my dear for it's a very hard one
they may be wrong of course returned the mother i can't tell about that though i don't think it's at all unlikely that they're in the right for the talk is that the old gentleman
and they will never be disturbed that don't seem very far out of the way now do it kit scratched his head mournfully in reluctant admission that it did not and clambering up to the old nail took down the cage
and set himself to clean it and to feed the bird his thoughts reverting from this occupation to the little old gentleman who had given him the shilling he suddenly recollected that that was the very day nay nearly the very hour
at which the little old gentleman had said he should be at the notary's house again he no sooner remembered this than he hung up the cage with great precipitation and hastily explaining the nature of his errand went off at full speed to the appointed place
it was some two minutes after the time when he reached the spot which was a considerable distance from his home but by great good luck the little old gentleman had not yet arrived at least there was no pony chaise to be seen
and it was not likely that he had come and gone again in so short a space greatly relieved to find that he was not too late kit leant against a lamp post to take breath and waited the advent of the pony and his charge sure enough before long
the pony came trotting round the corner of the street looking as obstinate as pony might and picking his steps as if he were spying about for the cleanest places and would by no means dirty his feet or hurry himself inconveniently
behind the pony sat the little old gentleman and by the old gentleman's side sat the little old lady carrying just such a nosegay as she had brought before the old gentleman the old lady the pony and the chaise
came up the street in perfect unanimity until they arrived within some half a dozen doors of the notary's house when the pony deceived by a brass plate beneath a tailor's knocker came to a halt and maintained by a sturdy silence that that was the house they wanted
this is not the place said the old gentleman the pony looked with great attention into a fire plug which was near him
the pony having thoroughly satisfied himself as to the nature and properties of the fire plug looked into the air after his old enemies the flies
he shook his head and whisked his tail after which he appeared full of thought but quite comfortable and collected the old gentleman having exhausted his powers of persuasion alighted to lead him whereupon the pony perhaps because he held this to be a sufficient concession
perhaps because he happened to catch sight of the other brass plate or perhaps because he was in a spiteful humour darted off with the old lady and stopped at the right house leaving the old gentleman to come panting on behind
it was then that kit presented himself at the pony's head and touched his hat with a smile
i said i'd be here sir said kit patting whisker's neck i hope you've had a pleasant ride sir he's a very nice little pony my
said the old gentleman this is an uncommon lad a good lad i'm sure i'm sure he is rejoined the old lady
kit acknowledged these expressions of confidence by touching his hat again and blushing very much the old gentleman then handed the old lady out and after looking at him with an approving smile they went into the house talking about him as they went
kit could not help feeling presently mister witherden smelling very hard at the nosegay came to the window and looked at him and after that mister abel came and looked at him
and after that they all came and looked at him together which kit feeling very much embarrassed by made a pretence of not observing therefore he patted the pony more and more and this liberty the pony most handsomely permitted
the faces had not disappeared from the window many moments when mister chuckster in his official coat and with his hat hanging on his head just as it happened to fall from its peg appeared upon the pavement
and telling him he was wanted inside bade him go in and he would mind the chaise the while in giving him this direction mister chuckster remarked that he wished that he might be blessed if he could make out whether he kit
or precious deep but intimated by a distrustful shake of the head that he inclined to the latter opinion kit entered the office in a great tremor for he was not used to going among strange ladies and gentlemen and the tin boxes and bundles of dusty papers
had in his eyes an awful and venerable air mister witherden too was a bustling gentleman who talked loud and fast and all eyes were upon him and he was very shabby
said mister witherden you came to work out that shilling not to get another hey no indeed sir replied kit taking courage to look up i never thought of such a thing father alive
said the notary dead sir mother yes sir married again eh kit made answer not without some indignation that she was a widow with three children
at this reply mister witherden buried his nose in the flowers again and whispered behind the nosegay to the old gentleman that he believed the lad was as honest a lad as need be now said mister garland when they had made some further inquiries of him
i am not going to give you anything thank you sir kit replied and quite seriously too for this announcement seemed to free him from the suspicion which the notary had hinted but resumed the old gentleman
perhaps i may want to know something more about you so tell me where you live and i'll put it down in my pocket book
and the old lady hurrying to the window cried that whisker had run away upon which kit darted out to the rescue and the others followed
and occasionally insulting him with such admonitions as stand still
and the like which by a pony of spirit cannot be borne
had at length started off and was at that moment rattling down the street mister chuckster with his hat off and a pen behind his ear hanging on in the rear of the chaise and making futile attempts to draw it the other way to the unspeakable admiration of all beholders
even in running away however whisker was perverse
and before assistance could be rendered commenced backing at nearly as quick a pace as he had gone forward by these means mister chuckster was pushed and hustled to the office again in a most inglorious manner and arrived in a state of great exhaustion and discomfiture
the old lady then stepped into her seat and mister abel whom they had come to fetch into his
there is a hush upon chesney wold in these altered days as there is upon a portion of the family history
to hold their peace but it is a lame story feebly whispering and creeping about and any brighter spark of life it shows soon dies away it is known for certain that the handsome lady dedlock
lies in the mausoleum in the park where the trees arch darkly overhead and the owl is heard at night making the woods ring but whence she was brought home to be laid among the echoes of that solitary place or how she died
is all mystery some of her old friends principally to be found among the peachy cheeked charmers with the skeleton throats did once occasionally say as they toyed in a ghastly manner with large fans
like charmers reduced to flirting with grim death after losing all their other beaux did once occasionally say when the world assembled together that they wondered the ashes of the dedlocks entombed in the mausoleum
never rose against the profanation of her company but the dead and gone dedlocks take it very calmly and have never been known to object up from among the fern in the hollow
comes sometimes to this lonely spot the sound of horses hoofs then may be seen sir leicester invalided bent and almost blind but of worthy presence yet
riding with a stalwart man beside him constant to his bridle rein when they come to a certain spot before the mausoleum door sir leicester's accustomed horse stops of his own accord and sir leicester pulling off his hat
is still for a few moments before they ride away war rages yet with the audacious boythorn though at uncertain intervals and now hotly and now coolly flickering like an unsteady fire
mister boythorn showed a manifest desire to abandon his right of way and do whatever sir leicester would which sir leicester conceiving to be a condescension to his illness or misfortune took in such high dudgeon and was so magnificently aggrieved by
that mister boythorn found himself under the necessity of committing a flagrant trespass to restore his neighbour to himself similarly mister boythorn continues to post tremendous placards on the disputed thoroughfare
and with his bird upon his head to hold forth vehemently against sir leicester in the sanctuary of his own home similarly also he defies him as of old in the little church by testifying a bland unconsciousness of his existence
but it is whispered that when he is most ferocious towards his old foe he is really most considerate and that sir leicester in the dignity of being implacable little supposes how much he is humoured
as little does he think how near together he and his antagonist have suffered in the fortunes of two sisters and his antagonist who knows it now is not the man to tell him so the quarrel goes on
to the satisfaction of both in one of the lodges of the park that lodge within sight of the house where once upon a time when the waters were out down in lincolnshire my lady used to see the keeper's child the stalwart man
the trooper formerly is housed some relics of his old calling hang upon the walls and these it is the chosen recreation of a little lame man about the stable yard to keep gleaming bright a busy little man he always is
in the polishing at harness house doors of stirrup irons bits curb chains harness bosses anything in the way of a stable yard that will take a polish leading a life of friction a shaggy little damaged man withal
not unlike an old dog of some mongrel breed who has been considerably knocked about he answers to the name of phil a goodly sight it is to see the grand old housekeeper harder of hearing now going to church on the arm of her son
and to observe which few do for the house is scant of company in these times the relations of both towards sir leicester and his towards them they have visitors in the high summer weather when a grey cloak and umbrella
are seen among the leaves when two young ladies are occasionally found gambolling in sequestered saw pits and such nooks of the park and when the smoke of two pipes wreathes away into the fragrant evening air from the trooper's door
then is a fife heard trolling within the lodge on the inspiring topic of the british grenadiers and as the evening closes in a gruff inflexible voice is heard to say while two men pace together up and down but
i never own to it before the old girl discipline must be maintained the greater part of the house is shut up and it is a show house no longer yet sir leicester holds his shrunken state
in the long drawing room for all that and reposes in his old place before my lady's picture closed in by night with broad screens and illumined only in that part
the light of the drawing room seems gradually contracting and dwindling until it shall be no more a little more in truth and it will be all extinguished for sir leicester and the damp door in the mausoleum which shuts so tight
and looks so obdurate will have opened and received him volumnia growing with the flight of time pinker as to the red in her face and yellower as to the white reads to sir leicester in the long evenings
and is driven to various artifices to conceal her yawns of which the chief and most efficacious is the insertion of the pearl necklace between her rosy lips long winded treatises on the buffy and boodle question
showing how buffy is immaculate and boodle villainous and how the country is lost by being all boodle and no buffy or saved by being all buffy and no boodle
are the staple of her reading sir leicester is not particular what it is and does not appear to follow it very closely further than that he always comes broad awake the moment volumnia ventures to leave off
and sonorously repeating her last words begs with some displeasure to know if she finds herself fatigued however volumnia in the course of her bird like hopping about and pecking at papers has alighted on a memorandum
concerning herself in the event of anything happening to her kinsman which is handsome compensation for an extensive course of reading and holds even the dragon boredom at bay
the cousins generally are rather shy of chesney wold in its dullness but take to it a little in the shooting season when guns are heard in the plantations and a few scattered beaters and keepers wait at the old places of appointment
for low spirited twos and threes of cousins the debilitated cousin more debilitated by the dreariness of the place gets into a fearful state of depression groaning under penitential sofa pillows in his gunless hours and protesting that
such fernal old jail's nough t'sew fler up frever the only great occasions for volumnia in this changed aspect of the place in lincolnshire are those occasions rare and widely separated
when something is to be done for the county or the country in the way of gracing a public ball then indeed does the tuckered sylph come out in fairy form and proceed with joy under cousinly escort to the exhausted old assembly room
fourteen heavy miles off which during three hundred and sixty four days and nights of every ordinary year is a kind of antipodean lumber room full of old chairs and tables upside down
then indeed does she captivate all hearts by her condescension by her girlish vivacity and by her skipping about as in the days when the hideous old general with the mouth too full of teeth had not cut one of them at two guineas each
then does she twirl and twine a pastoral nymph of good family through the mazes of the dance then do the swains appear with tea with lemonade with sandwiches with homage then is she kind and cruel
stately and unassuming various beautifully wilful then is there a singular kind of parallel between her and the little glass chandeliers of another age embellishing that assembly room which
with their meagre stems their spare little drops their disappointing knobs where no drops are their bare little stalks from which knobs and drops have both departed and their little feeble prismatic twinkling
all seem volumnias for the rest lincolnshire life to volumnia is a vast blank of overgrown house looking out upon trees sighing wringing their hands bowing their heads
and casting their tears upon the window panes in monotonous depressions a labyrinth of grandeur less the property of an old family of human beings and their ghostly likenesses than of an old family of echoings and thunderings
which start out of their hundred graves at every sound and go resounding through the building a waste of unused passages and staircases in which to drop a comb upon a bedroom floor at night is to send a stealthy footfall on an errand through the house
a place where few people care to go about alone where a maid screams if an ash drops from the fire takes to crying at all times and seasons becomes the victim of a low disorder of the spirits and gives warning and departs
thus chesney wold with so much of itself abandoned to darkness and vacancy with so little change under the summer shining or the wintry lowering so sombre and motionless always
no flag flying now by day no rows of lights sparkling by night with no family to come and go no visitors to be the souls of pale cold shapes of rooms no stir of life about it
even to the stranger's eye have died away from the place in lincolnshire
in northumberland the triumph of sir john fenwick a courtier whose name afterwards obtained a melancholy celebrity was attended by circumstances which excited interest in london
newcastle was lighted up with great piles of coal
secure of parliamentary support he might now indulge in the luxury of revenge his nature was not placable and while still a subject he had suffered some injuries and indignities
which might move even a placable nature to fierce and lasting resentment one set of men in particular had with a baseness and cruelty beyond all example and all description attacked his honour and his life
the witnesses of the plot he may well be excused for hating them
two bills of indictment against him for perjury had been found by the grand jury of middlesex a few weeks before the death of charles soon after the close of the elections the trial came on among the upper and middle classes
oates had few friends left the most respectable whigs were now convinced that even if his narrative had some foundation in fact he had erected on that foundation a vast superstructure of romance a considerable number of low fanatics however
still regarded him as a public benefactor these people well knew that if he were convicted his sentence would be one of extreme severity and were therefore indefatigable in their endeavours to manage an escape
though he was as yet in confinement only for debt he was put into irons by the authorities of the king's bench prison and even so he was with difficulty kept in safe custody the mastiff that guarded his door was poisoned
and on the very night preceding the trial a ladder of ropes was introduced into the cell
westminster hall was crowded with spectators among whom were many roman catholics
his legs uneven the vulgar said as those of a badger his forehead low as that of a baboon his purple cheeks and his monstrous length of chin had been familiar to all who frequented the courts of law he had then been the idol of the nation
wherever he had appeared men had uncovered their heads to him the lives and estates of the magnates of the realm had been at his mercy times had now changed
one of them the earl of huntingdon bitterly reproached him with having deceived the houses and drawn on them the guilt of shedding innocent blood the judges browbeat and reviled the prisoner with an intemperance which
even in the most atrocious cases ill becomes the judicial character he betrayed however no sign of fear or of shame and faced the storm of invective which burst upon him from bar bench and witness box
with the insolence of despair he was convicted on both indictments his offence though in a moral light murder of the most aggravated kind was in the eye of the law merely a misdemeanour the tribunal however
was desirous to make his punishment more severe than that of felons or traitors and not merely to put him to death but to put him to death by frightful torments he was sentenced to be stripped of his clerical habit to be pilloried in palace yard
to be led round westminster hall with an inscription declaring his infamy over his head to be pilloried again in front of the royal exchange to be whipped from aldgate to newgate and after an interval of two days
he was brought forth to undergo his first flogging at an early hour an innumerable multitude filled all the streets from aldgate to the old bailey the hangman laid on the lash with such unusual severity as showed that he had received special instructions
the blood ran down in rivulets for a time the criminal showed a strange constancy but at last his stubborn fortitude gave way his bellowings were frightful to hear he swooned several times but the scourge still continued to descend
when he was unbound it seemed that he had borne as much as the human frame can bear without dissolution james was entreated to remit the second flogging his answer was short and clear he shall go through with it if he has breath in his body
an attempt was made to obtain the queen's intercession but she indignantly refused to say a word in favour of such a wretch after an interval of only forty eight hours oates was again brought out of his dungeon he was unable to stand
and it was necessary to drag him to tyburn on a sledge
a person who counted the stripes on the second day said that they were seventeen hundred the bad man escaped with life but so narrowly that his ignorant and bigoted admirers thought his recovery miraculous
the doors of the prison closed upon him during many months he remained ironed in the darkest hole of newgate it was said that in his cell he gave himself up to melancholy and sate whole days uttering deep groans
his arms folded and his hat pulled over his eyes it was not in england alone that these events excited strong interest millions of roman catholics who knew nothing of our institutions or of our factions
had heard that a persecution of singular barbarity had raged in our island against the professors of the true faith that many pious men had suffered martyrdom and that titus oates had been the chief murderer there was therefore
great joy in distant countries when it was known that the divine justice had overtaken him engravings of him looking out from the pillory and writhing at the cart's tail were circulated all over europe and epigrammatists in many languages
the worst of murderers to the guilt of shedding innocent blood
into which man can enter with his fellow men and of making institutions to which it is desirable that the public should look with respect and confidence instruments of frightful wrong and objects of general distrust
the pain produced by ordinary murder bears no proportion to the pain produced by murder of which the courts of justice are made the agents the mere extinction of life is a very small part of what makes an execution horrible
the prolonged mental agony of the sufferer the shame and misery of all connected with him the stain abiding even to the third and fourth generation are things far more dreadful than death itself in general it may be safely affirmed
that the father of a large family would rather be bereaved of all his children by accident or by disease than lose one of them by the hands of the hangman murder by false testimony is therefore the most aggravated species of murder
and oates had been guilty of many such murders nevertheless the punishment which was inflicted upon him cannot be justified in sentencing him to be stripped of his ecclesiastical habit and imprisoned for life the judges exceeded their legal power
they were undoubtedly competent to inflict whipping nor had the law assigned a limit to the number of stripes but the spirit of the law clearly was that no misdemeanour should be punished more severely than the most atrocious felonies
the worst felon could only be hanged the judges as they believed sentenced oates to be scourged to death that the law was defective is not a sufficient excuse for defective laws should be altered by the legislature and not strained by the tribunals
that oates was a bad man is not a sufficient excuse for the guilty are almost always the first to suffer those hardships which are afterwards used as precedents against the innocent thus it was in the present case
merciless flogging soon became an ordinary punishment for political misdemeanours of no very aggravated kind
to pains so excruciating that they with unfeigned earnestness begged to be brought to trial on capital charges and sent to the gallows happily the progress of this great evil was speedily stopped by the revolution
one of these was roger palmer earl of castelmaine in ireland and husband of the duchess of cleveland his title had notoriously been purchased by his wife's dishonour and his own his fortune was small his temper
naturally ungentle had been exasperated by his domestic vexations by the public reproaches and by what he had undergone in the days of the popish plot he had been long a prisoner and had at length been tried for his life
happily for him he was not put to the bar till the first burst of popular rage had spent itself and till the credit of the false witnesses had been blown upon he had therefore escaped
henry jermyn whom james had lately created a peer by the title of lord dover jermyn had been distinguished more than twenty years before by his vagrant amours and his desperate duels he was now ruined by play
and was eager to retrieve his fallen fortunes by means of lucrative posts
and who had been rewarded for his services with the title
this reckless faction was strengthened by an important reinforcement richard talbot earl of tyrconnel the fiercest and most uncompromising of all those who hated the liberties and religion of england arrived at court from dublin
talbot was descended from an old norman family which had been long settled in leinster which had there sunk into degeneracy which had adopted the manners of the celts which had like the celts adhered to the old religion
and which had taken part with the celts in the rebellion of sixteen forty one in his youth he had been one of the most noted sharpers and bullies of london he had been introduced to charles and james when they were exiles in flanders
as a man fit and ready for the infamous service of assassinating the protector soon after the restoration talbot attempted to obtain the favour of the royal family by a service more infamous still
a plea was wanted which might justify the duke of york in breaking that promise of marriage by which he had obtained from anne hyde the last proof of female affection such a plea talbot in concert with some of his dissolute companions
undertook to furnish they agreed to describe the poor young lady as a creature without virtue shame or delicacy and made up long romances about tender interviews and stolen favours
by laying the blame of the accident on her monkey these stories which if they had been true would never have passed the lips of any but the basest of mankind were pure inventions talbot was soon forced to own that they were so
and he owned it without a blush the injured lady became duchess of york had her husband been a man really upright and honourable he would have driven from his presence with indignation and contempt the wretches who had slandered her
but one of the peculiarities of james's character was that no act however wicked and shameful which had been prompted by a desire to gain his favour ever seemed to him deserving of disapprobation
talbot continued to frequent the court appeared daily with brazen front before the princess whose ruin he had plotted and was installed into the lucrative post of chief pandar to her husband in no long time
whitehall was thrown into confusion by the news that dick talbot as he was commonly called had laid a plan to murder the duke of ormond the bravo was sent to the tower but in a few days
not to countenance this bad man who had nothing to recommend him except his fine person and his taste in dress talbot was not only welcome at the palace when the bottle or the dicebox was going round
but was heard with attention on matters of business he affected the character of an irish patriot and pleaded with great audacity and sometimes with success the cause of his countrymen whose estates had been confiscated he took care however
to be well paid for his services and succeeded in acquiring partly by the sale of his influence partly by gambling and partly by pimping an estate of three thousand pounds a year for under an outward show of levity profusion
improvidence and eccentric impudence he was in truth one of the most mercenary and crafty of mankind he was now no longer young and was expiating by severe sufferings the dissoluteness of his youth
but age and disease had made no essential change in his character and manners he still whenever he opened his mouth
set him down for the wildest of libertines the multitude was unable to conceive that a man who even when sober was more furious and boastful than others when they were drunk
could really be a coldhearted farsighted scheming sycophant yet such a man was talbot in truth his hypocrisy was of a far higher and rarer sort
for the consummate hypocrite is not he who conceals vice behind the semblance of virtue but he who makes the vice which he has no objection to show a stalking horse to cover darker and more profitable vice
which it is for his interest to hide talbot raised by james to the earldom of tyrconnel had commanded the troops in ireland during the nine months
which elapsed between the death of charles and the commencement of the viceroyalty of clarendon when the new lord lieutenant was about to leave london for dublin the general was summoned from dublin to london dick talbot
had long been well known on the road which he had now to travel between chester and the capital there was not an inn where he had not been in a brawl wherever he came he pressed horses in defiance of law
swore at the cooks and postilions and almost raised mobs by his insolent rodomontades the reformation he told the people had ruined everything but fine times were coming
the catholics would soon be uppermost the heretics should pay for all raving and blaspheming incessantly like a demoniac
he allied himself closely with castelmaine dover and albeville these men called with one voice for war on the constitution of the church and the state
that he owed it to his religion and to the dignity of his crown to stand firm against the outcry of heretical demagogues and to let the parliament see from the first that he would be master in spite of opposition
and that the only effect of opposition would be to make him a hard master each of the two parties into which the court was divided had zealous foreign allies the ministers of spain of the empire and of the states general
were now as anxious to support rochester as they had formerly been to support halifax all the influence of barillon was employed on the other side and barillon was assisted by another french agent
inferior to him in station but far superior in abilities bonrepaux barillon was not without parts and possessed in large measure the graces and accomplishments which then distinguished the french gentry
but his capacity was scarcely equal to what his great place required he had become sluggish and self indulgent liked the pleasures of society and of the table better than business and on great emergencies
and even for reprimands from versailles
by the intelligence and industry which he had exhibited as a clerk in the department of the marine and was esteemed an adept in the mystery of mercantile politics at the close of the year sixteen eighty five
he was sent to london charged with several special commissions of high importance he was to lay the ground for a treaty of commerce he was to ascertain and report the state of the english fleets
and dockyards and he was to make some overtures to the huguenot refugees who it was supposed
that they would thankfully accept almost any terms of reconciliation the new envoy's origin was plebeian his stature was dwarfish his countenance was ludicrously ugly
and his accent was that of his native gascony but his strong sense his keen penetration and his lively wit eminently qualified him for his post
in spite of every disadvantage of birth and figure he was soon known as a most pleasing companion and as a most skilful diplomatist he contrived while flirting with the duchess of mazarin
discussing literary questions with waller and saint evremond and corresponding with la fontaine to acquire a considerable knowledge of english politics
his skill in maritime affairs recommended him to james who had during many years paid close attention to the business of the admiralty and understood that business as well as he was capable of understanding anything
they conversed every day long and freely about the state of the shipping and the dock yards the result of this intimacy was as might have been expected that the keen and vigilant frenchman
conceived a great contempt for the king's abilities and character the world he said had much overrated his britannic majesty who had less capacity than charles
though pursuing one object very judiciously took different paths they made a partition of the court bonrepaux lived chiefly with rochester and rochester's adherents barillon's connections
were chiefly with the opposite faction the consequence was that they sometimes saw the same event in different points of view
a time had arrived at which it was important to the public safety that there should be entire concord between the prince and princess till after the suppression of the western insurrection grave causes of dissension had separated william
both from whigs and tories he had seen with displeasure the attempts of the whigs to strip the executive government of some powers which he thought necessary to its efficiency and dignity
he had seen with still deeper displeasure the countenance given by a large section of that party to the pretensions of monmouth the opposition it seemed wished first to make the crown of england not worth the wearing
and then to place it on the head of a bastard and impostor at the same time the prince's religious system differed widely from that which was the badge of the tories they were arminians and prelatists
they looked down on the protestant churches of the continent and regarded every line of their own liturgy and rubric as scarcely less sacred than the gospels his opinions touching the metaphysics of theology were calvinistic
his opinions respecting ecclesiastical polity and modes of worship were latitudinarian he owned that episcopacy was a lawful and convenient form of church government but he spoke with sharpness and scorn of the bigotry of those
who thought episcopal ordination essential to a christian society he had no scruple about the vestments and gestures prescribed by the book of common prayer but he avowed that he should like the rites of the church of england better
if they reminded him less of the rites of the church of rome he had been heard to utter an ominous growl when first he saw in his wife's private chapel an altar decked after the anglican fashion
but without feeling a strong predilection for either side nor in truth did he ever to the end of his life become either a whig or a tory he wanted that which is the common groundwork of both characters
for he never became an englishman he saved england it is true but he never loved her and he never obtained her love to him she was always a land of exile visited with reluctance and quitted with delight
even when he rendered to her those services of which at this day we feel the happy effects her welfare was not his chief object whatever patriotic feeling he had was for holland
there was the stately tomb where slept the great politician whose blood whose name whose temperament and whose genius he had inherited
was a spell which had through three generations called forth the affectionate enthusiasm of boors and artisans the dutch language was the language of his nursery among the dutch gentry he had chosen his early friends
the amusements the architecture the landscape of his native country had taken hold on his heart to her he turned with constant fondness from a prouder and fairer rival in the gallery of whitehall
he pined for the familiar house in the wood at the hague and never was so happy as when he could quit the magnificence of windsor for his far humbler seat at loo during his splendid banishment
it was his consolation to create round him by building planting and digging a scene which might remind him of the formal piles of red brick of the long canals and of the symmetrical flower beds amidst which his early life had been passed
yet even his affection for the land of his birth was subordinate to another feeling which early became supreme in his soul which mixed itself with all his passions which impelled him to marvellous enterprises which supported him
when sinking under mortification pain sickness and sorrow which towards the close of his career seemed during a short time to languish but which soon broke forth again fiercer than ever and continued to animate him
even while the prayer for the departing was read at his bedside that feeling was enmity to france and to the magnificent king who in more than one sense
represented france and who to virtues and accomplishments eminently french joined in large measure that unquiet unscrupulous and vainglorious ambition which has repeatedly drawn on france the resentment of europe
it is not difficult to trace the progress of the sentiment which gradually possessed itself of william's whole soul when he was little more than a boy his country had been attacked by lewis in ostentatious defiance of justice and public law
that if they desired peace they must resign their independence and do annual homage to the house of bourbon the injured nation driven to despair had opened its dykes
it was in the agony of that conflict when peasants were flying in terror before the invaders when hundreds of fair gardens and pleasure houses were buried beneath the waves when the deliberations of the states were interrupted by the fainting
and the loud weeping of ancient senators who could not bear the thought of surviving the freedom and glory of their native land that william had been called to the head of affairs for a time it seemed to him that resistance was hopeless
he looked round for succour and looked in vain spain was unnerved germany distracted england corrupted nothing seemed left to the young stadtholder but to perish sword in hand
and to create another holland in countries beyond the reach of the tyranny of france no obstacle would then remain to check the progress of the house of bourbon a few years and that house might add to its dominions
loraine and flanders
naples and milan mexico and peru
might place a prince of his family on the throne of poland might be sole master of europe from the scythian deserts to the atlantic ocean and of america from regions north of the tropic of cancer
to regions south of the tropic of capricorn such was the prospect which lay before william when first he entered on public life and which never ceased to haunt him till his latest day the french monarchy
was to him what the roman republic was to hannibal what the ottoman power was to scanderbeg
was to wallace religion gave her sanction to that intense and unquenchable animosity hundreds of calvinistic preachers proclaimed that the same power which had set apart samson from the womb
he had a great work to do and till it was done nothing could harm him therefore it was that
he recovered from maladies which seemed hopeless that bands of assassins conspired in vain against his life that the open skiff to which he trusted himself on a starless night on a raging ocean and near a treacherous shore
brought him safe to land and that on twenty fields of battle the cannon balls passed him by to right and left the ardour and perseverance with which he devoted himself to his mission
to think very lightly of the bloodshed and devastation inseparable from great martial exploits and the heart of william was steeled not only by professional insensibility but by that sterner insensibility
which is the effect of a sense of duty three great coalitions three long and bloody wars in which all europe from the vistula to the western ocean was in arms are to be ascribed to his unconquerable energy
when in sixteen seventy eight the states general exhausted and disheartened were desirious of repose his voice was still against sheathing the sword if peace was made it was made only because he could not breathe into other men
a spirit as fierce and determined as his own at the very last moment
he fought one of the most bloody and obstinate battles of that age from the day on which the treaty of nimeguen was signed
his contest with lewis transferred from the field to the cabinet was soon exasperated by a private feud in talents temper manners and opinions the rivals were diametrically opposed to each other
lewis polite and dignified profuse and voluptuous fond of display and averse from danger a munificent patron of arts and letters and a cruel persecutor of calvinists
presented a remarkable contrast to william simple in tastes ungracious in demeanour indefatigable and intrepid in war regardless of all the ornamental branches of knowledge
and firmly attached to the theology of geneva the enemies did not long observe those courtesies which men of their rank even when opposed to each other at the head of armies seldom neglect william indeed
went through the form of tendering his best services to lewis but this civility was rated at its true value and requited with a dry reprimand the great king affected contempt for the petty prince
who was the servant of a confederacy of trading towns and to every mark of contempt the dauntless stadtholder replied by a fresh defiance william took his title
a title which the events of the preceding century had made one of the most illustrious in europe from a city which lies on the banks of the rhone not far from avignon and which like avignon
though inclosed on every side by the french territory was properly a fief not of the french but of the imperial crown lewis with that ostentatious contempt of public law which was characteristic of him
occupied orange dismantled the fortifications and confiscated the revenues william declared aloud at his table before many persons that he would make the most christian king repent the outrage
and when questioned about these words by the count of avaux positively refused either to retract them or to explain them away
i will fetch you a tooth picker now from the farthest inch of asia bring you the length of prester john's foot fetch you a hair off the great cham's beard do you any embassage to the pigmies much ado about nothing
the next day after dinner mister arnold said to the tutor well mister sutherland how does harry get on with his geography mister arnold be it understood had a weakness for geography
we have not done anything at that yet mister arnold not done anything at geography and the boy getting quite robust now i am astonished mister sutherland why when he was a mere child he could repeat all the counties of england
perhaps that may be the reason for the decided distaste he shows for it now mister arnold but i will begin to teach him at once if you desire it i do desire it mister sutherland
a thorough geographical knowledge is essential to the education of a gentleman ask me any question you please mister sutherland on the map of the world or any of its divisions hugh asked a few questions which mister arnold answered at once
pooh pooh said he this is mere child's play let me ask you some mister sutherland his very first question posed hugh whose knowledge in this science was not by any means minute
i fear i am no gentleman said he laughing but i can at least learn as well as teach we shall begin to morrow what books have you oh no books if you please just yet if you are satisfied with harry's progress so far
let me have my own way in this too but geography does not seem your strong point no but i may be able to teach it all the better from feeling the difficulties of a learner myself well you shall have a fair trial
next morning hugh and harry went out for a walk to the top of a hill in the neighbourhood when they reached it hugh took a small compass from his pocket and set it on the ground contemplating it and the horizon alternately
what are you doing mister sutherland i am trying to find the exact line that would go through my home said he is that funny little thing able to tell you yes
this along with other things isn't it curious harry to have in my pocket a little thing with a kind of spirit in it that understands the spirit that is in the big world and always points to its north pole explain it to me
it is nearly as much a mystery to me as to you where is the north pole look the little thing points to it but i will turn it away oh it won't go it goes back and back do what i will
yes it will if you turn it away all day long look harry if you were to go straight on in this direction you would come to a laplander harnessing his broad horned reindeer to his sledge he's at it now i daresay
if you were to go in this line exactly you would go through the smoke and fire of a burning mountain in a land of ice if you were to go this way straight on you would find yourself in the middle of a forest with a lion glaring at your feet
for it is dark night there now and so hot and over there straight on there is such a lovely sunset the top of a snowy mountain is all pink with light though the sun is down oh such colours all about like fairyland
and there there is a desert of sand and a camel dying and all his companions just disappearing on the horizon and there there is an awful sea without a boat to be seen on it dark and dismal with huge rocks all about it
and waste borders of sand so dreadful how do you know all this mister sutherland you have never walked along those lines i know for you couldn't geography has taught me no mister sutherland said harry incredulously
well shall we travel along this line just across that crown of trees on the hill yes do let us then said hugh drawing a telescope from his pocket this hill is henceforth geography point
and all the world lies round about it do you know we are in the very middle of the earth are we indeed yes don't you know any point you like to choose on a ball is the middle of it
oh yes of course very well what lies at the bottom of the hill down there arnstead to be sure and what beyond there i don't know look through here
oh that must be the village we rode to yesterday i forget the name of it hugh told him the name and then made him look with the telescope all along the receding line to the trees on the opposite hill just as he caught them a voice beside them said
what are you about harry hugh felt a glow of pleasure as the voice fell on his ear it was euphra's oh replied harry mister sutherland is teaching me geography with a telescope it's such fun
he's a wonderful tutor that of yours harry yes isn't he just but harry went on turning to hugh what are we to do now we can't get farther for that hill
ah we must apply to your papa now to lend us some of his beautiful maps they will teach us what lies beyond that hill and then we can read in some of his books about the places and so go on and on till we reach the beautiful wide restless sea
over which we must sail in spite of wind and tide straight on and on till we come to land again but we must make a great many such journeys before we really know what sort of a place we are living in and we shall have ever so many things to learn that will surprise us
oh it will be nice cried harry after a little more geographical talk they put up their instruments and began to descend the hill harry was in no need of hugh's back now but euphra was in need of his hand
how awkward of me i am stumbling over the heather shamefully she was in fact stumbling over her own dress which she would not hold up hugh offered his hand and her small one seemed quite content to be swallowed up in his large one
why do you never let me put you on your horse said hugh you always manage to prevent me somehow or other
mister sutherland i beg your pardon i can make no excuse for euphra for she had positively never heard him called hugh there was no one to do so but the slip had not therefore the less effect
for it sounded as if she had been saying his name over and over again to herself i beg your pardon repeated euphra hastily for as hugh did not reply she feared her arrow had swerved from its mark
for a sweet fault euphra i beg your pardon miss cameron you punish me with forgiveness returned she with one of her sweetest looks hugh could not help pressing the little hand
was the pressure returned so slight so airy was the touch that it might have been only the throb of his own pulses all consciously vital about the wonderful woman hand that rested in his
if he had claimed it she might easily have denied it so ethereal and uncertain was it yet he believed in it he never dreamed that she was exercising her skill upon him what could be her object in bewitching a poor tutor ah what indeed
meantime this much is certain that she was drawing hugh closer and closer to her side that a soothing dream of delight had begun to steal over his spirit soon to make it toss in feverous unrest
as the first effects of some poisons are like a dawn of tenfold strength the mountain wind blew from her to him sometimes sweeping her garments about him and bathing him in their faint sweet odours
odours which somehow seemed to belong to her whom they had only last visited sometimes so kindly strong did it blow compelling her or at least giving her excuse enough to leave his hand and cling closely to his arm
a fresh spring began to burst from the very bosom of what had seemed before a perfect summer a spring to summer what would the following summer be ah and what the autumn and what the winter
for if the summer be tenfold summer then must the winter be tenfold winter
and though love be good a tempest of it in the brain will not ripen the fruits like a soft steady wind or waft the ships home to their desired haven perhaps what enslaved hugh most was the feeling that the damsel stooped to him
without knowing that she stooped she seemed to him in every way above him she knew so many things of which he was ignorant could say such lovely things could he did not doubt write lovely verses could sing like an angel
though scotch songs are not of essentially angelic strain nor italian songs either in general and they were all that she could do was mistress of a great rich wonderful house with a history
and more than all was or appeared to him to be a beautiful woman it was true that his family was as good as hers but he had disowned his family so his pride declared and the same pride made him
despise his present position and look upon a tutor's employment as as well as other people look upon it as a rather contemptible one in fact
the influence of euphrasia was not of the best upon him from the first for it had greatly increased this feeling about his occupation it could not affect his feelings towards harry so the boy did not suffer as yet
but it set him upon a very unprofitable kind of castle building he would be a soldier like his father he would leave arnstead to revisit it with a sword by his side and a sir before his name
sir hugh sutherland would be somebody even in the eyes of the master of arnstead yes a six foot fellow though he may be sensible in the main is not therefore free from small vanities
griggs shouted chris excitedly why there you are the doctor's gone the other way to see if he could find a gully by which he could climb up to try and find you i came this way same purpose and i've got all the luck take care
mind these stones are slippery yes i'll mind said chris as he descended the rocks backwards this is nothing but hadn't you better run and tell father you've found me nay i'm not going to brag i didn't find you you seem to have found me
then you haven't broken your neck no how many legs are snapped
arms then i'm all right i tell you only a bit knocked about but where's ned
but can they do it alone oh yes the brutes are sad cowards and don't like powder and shot at all there cried chris
now then i want to join father
but they'll be pretty shy of showing themselves now after our bit of shooting walk quicker said chris but tell me how did the enemy attack you that's what we want you to tell us lad when they began we were afraid they had got you
how did it all happen chris explained in a few words and then began questioning to learn how those he had left behind were nearly taken by surprise but their preparations proved too perfect and a few shots had driven the indians back
spoiled our night's rest though said griggs dryly for there was no sleep for fear of the redskins stealing by us in the dark and driving off the cattle ah said chris with a sigh my poor mustang
i liked that pony he made me jealous of you don't talk about him said chris quickly i tried so hard to save him you did my lad you did
how do i know why didn't i tell you the redskins spoiled our night's rest yes well that means we were all wide awake at daybreak then you saw all cried chris
why certainly ned had the glass and was telescoping in all directions up and down the valley looking out for squalls when he suddenly made us all jump nearly out of our skins for joy by shouting out there's chris and then you saw all that happened
to be sure we did said griggs everything and precious unpleasant some of it was it brought us into action pretty soon though making us hurry up towards the head of the valley here on the chance of getting a good shot or two in amongst our savage friends
you know what i mean yes who was firing your father of course you're prevaricating griggs cried chris huskily tell me at once who fired that shot which one we tumbled two or three or more of the enemy down so did you
i heard your rifle crack and saw them come off the cliff no nonsense griggs you know what i mean i say who fired that shot and i say which one there were so many the one that saved my life oh i see cried the american
that one well i think it was either me or the doctor but we were in such a state of excitement that it's doubtful there i was sure of it from the first cried chris holding out his hand it was you griggs
i don't say it was and i don't say it wasn't my lad said the american turning away carelessly as if not seeing the extended hand but look here it was bad enough for you that set to with the redskins but it was all excitement and action
you had no time to think it was a hundred times worse for us down below here indeed said chris half mockingly yes indeed i tell you my lad i never passed such a bad half hour before in my life
we could see every movement except when you galloped out of sight it all stood out like a picture against the clear morning sky while there we were nearly all the time
my word i felt bad enough
poor father said chris
very foolish of him i suppose but then he don't know you so well as i do he's prejudiced you see i suppose so said chris my word he did take on when he saw the mustang come over the cliff and drag you after it
don't talk about it cried chris with a shudder why not
but as soon as we heard you begin to pop and the redskins came down we nearly went mad with joy i saw though he didn't say much out loud but i just caught sight of his lips moving now and then and the way he shot afterwards
i don't believe he made a miss i say the redskins were soon tired of showing their faces over the edge of the cliff but my word chris lad you had a narrow escape several said chris smiling ah yes
ought i yes that you ought those fellows shoot very straight and send those thin splints of wood with tremendous force they do sighed chris my poor mustang ah
poor plucky little thing he nearly killed you too in his agony poor creature he was shot savagely ah yes seems rather hard on him a horse to be shot by means of a horse
i don't understand you said chris staring no don't you know what some of their bows are oh you mean the strings made out of twisted gut perhaps that's quite right my lad but not what i meant i meant the bows themselves
some very tough wood i suppose like the yew with which the english used to make bows nay lots of them are made of horses or buffaloes ribs they're handy and short and tough you know with what a whing they can send an arrow
i didn't know that said chris thoughtfully didn't you now said griggs mockingly
but as i was saying you ought to have been a dead one over that job squire the redskins meant you but they got the worst of it i say though i could teach you a many things
well yes a few said the american coolly but they're just about nothing to what you could teach me i cried chris staring at him in wonder
how to tumble over a cliff like that without doing yourself any worse damage than making a few scratches tearing your jacket and getting yourself full of dust they had been tramping together across the head of the valley as they talked about their experiences
with chris keeping a keen lookout ahead for the first glimpse of his father and giving an occasional look up towards the edge of the cliff which he noted was wonderfully broken up into hollows and prominences rifts and gorges that had been invisible from a distance
and all overhung by a level band of apparently impassable rock but during the last few minutes of their chat they had been so deeply interested that neither had glanced upward to their right and the first warning they had of danger
was given in a quick sharp shout in the doctor's familiar voice ah look out he cried and followed up his words by firing but before the bullet left his rifle chris heard a loud whirring and saw his companion start violently
from where it had stuck in the ground that's not bad shooting said griggs coolly hit him doctor
you must keep a sharper lookout griggs he cried you forget that we are within range of their arrows i shall remember in future doctor said the american dryly did that arrow touch you said the doctor anxiously
went right through the leg of my boot sir said griggs coolly but it did not graze you why man you're bleeding fast oh it's nothing sir said the man how do you know cried the doctor
here let's get behind that stone they can't touch us there griggs walked firmly enough half the distance to the shelter sought for but he limped the rest of the way and was ready enough to sit down behind the rock
hah sighed the doctor only a clean little cut in the flesh i'll put a stitch or two in it why it's as clean as if done with a knife
the diagonal cut you don't think there's poison in it do you doctor said the american with a look of amusement any form of dirt is poison to a wound said the doctor drying the place
and then after deftly drawing the edges of the wound together cutting some strips of plaister with the bright scissors ready and applying them to keep all protected from the air hurt much he said as he worked away chris watching the while as if taking a lesson
well yes i won't say it don't doctor but not worse than i feel somewhere else i say though hadn't we better make haste back to the fort yes you feel faint don't you horribly said griggs giving chris a comical look let's go then
put your foot as lightly as you can to the ground and lean on me we must get out of bowshot as quickly as we can
only my nonsense doctor said griggs cheerily my faintness is the same as squire's here we want our breakfast horribly oh cried the doctor smiling
i don't wonder that you are faint chris
no father not unless they are ready to drop as i did how far can't tell said chris with an involuntary shudder it was rather horrible and i wonder i wasn't killed and i wonder too said the doctor solemnly
i don't think that they will dare to descend in the daytime for they will be afraid that we are waiting to fire at all who show so come on are you sure you can walk griggs walk sir i should like to run but your leg must smart
hardly smarts sir it's just as if somebody was playing at sewing it up with a red hot skewer nice bold refreshing sort of pain tchah that's all right
but where are the mules and ponies father said chris as they hurried now in the direction of the terraced cliff on their right hobbled and grazing at the foot of our cliff under shelter of a couple of rifles but there are more indians at the mouth of the gulch
i don't know said the doctor they had a fire burning there last night yes said chris dryly i know but he did not then attempt to explain how he knew they haven't shown since they felt the effect of our bullets but they're as cunning as they are treacherous
and one never knows what they may be about some quarter of an hour later the adventurers were all in shelter one of the cells of the lower range having been turned into a temporary mess room
while the next showed signs of cooking in the shape of a curling little column of smoke there was water in buckets outside on the terrace where behind a kind of breastwork hastily piled up watch was being kept
chris felt like a hero after the warmth of his welcome was beginning to cool down
but now the great desire from which he suffered was want of sleep for he was utterly weary and so stiff that he could hardly refrain from uttering a groan
such of them as had not been seen from the valley but at last he was lying down in the cool shade in one of the cells and dropping off but only to be aroused by the coming in of ned who was eager to hear more
you are a lucky one chris he said in an ill used tone what cried the boy angrily but the next moment the remark presented such a ludicrous side that he began to laugh
and then possibly from exhaustion and the result of the exciting passages he had gone through his mirth grew at once almost hysterical so that he could not check himself why what's the matter cried ned wonderingly have i said anything comic
horribly panted chris but i do wish you'd go and let me sleep i will soon said ned
i do said chris it was lovely being shot at with arrows and tumbling down those precipices better than any dream i ever had the boy's face looked mirthful
and ned did not notice the bitterly sarcastic ring there was in his comrade's words as he said in an envious tone well it's all very fine but i shall tell father that it isn't fair for you to be made the favourite and i don't think you've behaved well
don't you said chris sobering down i'm very sorry but i've done the best i could perhaps so but i don't think that if i had lost my pony i could have lain there and grinned as you've done poor brute
i almost believe i would rather have died myself chris was perfectly sobered now and as ned walked away he lay there in the cool shadow with a peculiar look in his weary eyes while far from desiring sleep he could only lie hot headed and in feverish pain
thinking of the gallant way in which the pony had galloped to save his life
the olden folk pull pull pull cried chris wildly no no came from below i'm all right only a big stone i loosened wait a moment and then let me go on chris uttered a hoarse gasp and turned faint
and slippery in his hands go on gently
the rasping of boots on the blocks of stone below continued and at the end of another minute ceased as griggs shouted up there i'm all right standing on a big block with the water rushing along about a foot below me keep tight hold now
you boys ease down the barrel till i shout don't let it go when the water grabs it lower away right i have it now ease a little more and a little more now keep tight
it seemed to chris that he could see everything quite plainly as their hands which held the hide ropes were drawn lower and lower that's right came up in griggs hoarse
though only a few minutes a terribly long time all right at last she's full now then haul up
two hold my rope up with the barrel those at the surface needed no second order but began to haul away
and that thought was what would be the consequence if the rope broke or the barrel slipped from its fastenings he shuddered again and again at the idea as with bourne now helping the barrel was drawn higher and higher
lower it a little whispered chris huskily and the weight was allowed to descend a few inches being in the gloom as it went down up now cried chris again
as he anticipated another check when the projection was reached
got it came from below yes cried the doctor all right can you climb up there was no answer for some seconds and then the american said in a peculiarly husky voice coming up haul steady
three pairs of hands were at the rope now and their owners exchanged glances as they kept up a steady strain feeling that griggs was trying to climb but jerking the line again and again as if his efforts resulted in a series of slips
till griggs hands came within reach when chris and ned each seized one to give the final tug which drew him over the edge of the hole
feel overdone said the doctor a little sir was the faint reply can you give me a drop of the water this was quickly obtained and the poor fellow swallowed it with difficulty and then seemed to revive a little
while the doctor who looked anxious held one of his hands better now panted griggs that's beautiful water cold and sweet but i should have to be very bad before i dared go down to get any more i didn't know i was such a cur
i felt that it was too much for a man to do griggs said the doctor quietly so did i sir was the feeble reply but it had to be done and i thought i could make a better finish out of the job
ugh it was very horrid when that stone gave way
there you succeeded now don't think any more about it
i say i hope that the people who lived here didn't all disappear down that hole and never come up again it has quite unnerved you griggs said the doctor kindly i don't know about that sir but it has made me feel that i daren't go down that place again even if it was to save my life
i did try to be plucky but that place below there with the water trying to sweep you off into the black darkness and the end was too much for me i believe i nearly lost my senses once
well he cried half fiercely after a short pause during which he looked keenly at first one and then the other of the boys
did you ever see such a coward before come along down below there and see about a fire and a meal said the doctor quietly let it go now griggs you didn't feel more nervous than i did i was worse i believe for i felt guilty as well for letting you go down
there i don't think we shall want to get our water from that place again why not said ned suddenly
every one glared at the speaker as if wroth with him for proposing so simple and self evident a means of getting at the water at a time when they had only succeeded at the risk of losing a valuable life but no one spoke
all preparing to descend the slope at the bottom of which the barrel was slung and carried between wilton and bourne to the spot chosen for their camp here a good fire was soon made dead wood being plentiful and over the evening meal hastily prepared
griggs joining in calmly enough now
i was thinking of moving off said the doctor quietly and getting to somewhere better suited for a temporary camp you couldn't get a better place than this doctor said griggs quietly
i'm quite right now very well said the doctor we'll have another day at all events but i do not anticipate making much of a find here i don't know sir said griggs gravely
i shouldn't be a bit surprised to find traces of mining with furnaces and crucibles for melting the gold somewhere through these openings
we shall find that out to morrow said the doctor
not a bit sir replied the american
no sir not of indians such as rove the plains
your regular red indian thinks of nothing but his horse his hunting and a fight with his enemies so as to get plunder the people who mined for gold were a different kind of folk altogether well we shall see to morrow said the doctor there are sure to be some traces of them in their old homes
i don't care what they were or what they did said chris that night as they laid down to sleep in the dark bottom of the depression gazing up at the great lustrous stars but i don't want any more water got like that ugh
it almost had a nasty taste when it was made into tea didn't you notice it he said after a pause but there was no reply
oh what a fellow you are cried the boy impatiently such a one as you are for eating and noticing everything
working the oracle the evening drew near at last with everything made ready that was possible the water and provisions near at hand saddles and bridles examined
and according to his custom chris was about to go out into the valley and see to his pony examining the wounds and giving him something a little extra in the way of food
don't start he said but go on just as usual something wrong said chris doing exactly what he had been told not to do call it something wrong if you like said griggs laughing but it's only what i expected
i've been up at the lookout with your father and we made out two indians crawling to the top of the cliff over there just like a couple of big red slugs on a wet night then they're watching us panted chris just as they always have been my lad
and looking out to try and turn us into pin cushions for their arrows if we'd only go out far enough which we wouldn't do on any consideration but this will quite upset our plans for to night said chris oh no we shall go on for this looks promising my lad
they've always been watching us more or less then they've seen us hunting for a hiding place for the ponies and mules yes of course and climbing about among the rocks at the narrows to be sure they have then what's the good of our going on
everything is the good they've seen everything we've done but they couldn't think with our brains could they my lad but what could they think of our hunting about as we did
well seeing that i made a point of shooting a bird or two each time we were planning out our places and all we meant to do i should say that they thought we were providing for the pot now then come and have a turn at your pony and spend a good deal of time looking at his hurts
you'd better ask me some questions about them and lift up his hoofs and point at them yes i see said chris p'r'aps i shall act a bit too for our friends benefit so don't be surprised
then we shall end up by driving all the beasts in for the night close up under the shelter of our fire shall we be saluted with any arrows do you think no said griggs i don't think so we've rather sickened them of that
they know there are rifles and good shots up at the top yonder and i dare say some of them have been hit now come along the pair strolled out towards where the animals were grazing
and went through the bit of performance arranged chris marvelling the while at the perfect coolness displayed by his companion who was on the brink of a most daring adventure the very thought of which sent the blood dancing through the boy's veins and made the palms of his hands turn wet
the shades of night were approaching as after a long examination of chris's pony the animals were headed towards the camp and driven slowly in towards where they were regularly watered every night and so well had all the preparations been timed
that it was too dark for any scouts on the opposite side to see that after the watering every beast was hobbled and held in readiness for the start that was to be made and now the business preparatory to the start was set about eagerly
the mules were laden with the much reduced loads skeeter had his but his bell was muffled so that it would be perfectly silent and the water barrels were hung in position across the back of their regular bearer
there was plenty of time and the doctor's principal efforts were directed towards arresting hurry
if they have gone back he said in a low voice as the adventurous party sat together talking in a low tone each with his weapons ready yes said wilton if they have gone back suppose they have chosen this of all nights for an attack
but it is possible said bourne sadly so's everything else sir replied the american but don't you think it's a pity to begin fancying what might happen perhaps so said bourne i beg pardon i'm afraid i do anticipate a good deal
well boys he added turning to where the pair sat together whispering how do you feel about to night's work horrid father whispered ned as if he felt that indians might be listening and you chris continued bourne
i feel as if i shall be glad when it's to morrow and we know the worst or the best my boy said the doctor cheerily there i think we might start now the moon has set and we have a long dark night before us for our work
ready and willing sir i go first don't i yes with chris as advance guard
one shot each and then you stand fast to give us time to start the train back before coming to your support yes sir it's all cut deep into me but i don't think we shall have any trouble there i hope not said the doctor
within half an hour from these words being spoken the little baggage train was in motion dimly seen beneath the band of stars overhead
these stood out strongly marked against the edge of the black cliffs on either side towering up and seeming to the excited imagination of the two lads double their real height and overhanging more and more as the valley sides gradually closed in towards the mouth of the gulch
chris suffered from a peculiar sense of excitement and dread of attack as he and griggs rode cautiously on through the darkness each with his rifle cocked and resting upon his knee straining his eyes the while for the first sign of danger
and it was during this ride that the boy began to wonder whether the eyesight of the indians was much better than their own for he soon found that once more he was obliged to leave out any attempt at guidance and trust entirely to his pony
think the enemy can see better than we do he ventured to say during a temporary halt to make out if possible what had caused a sudden rushing sound through the bushes in front
they're made differently to what we are if they can whispered the american dryly i'm leaving everything to my nag and you'd better do the same that's what i've been doing said chris you don't think that was an indian then no only some little animal that we started
it sounded loud because everything's so still and we expect that everything means danger keep close behind me now
and they went on and on through the darkness till griggs suddenly drew rein here we are he whispered it's narrow enough and it oughtn't to take many minutes to stop this gap so that no horse could get through
while in an hour it might be made so that it would take a week to make it passable come along and mind we don't miss the gully he led on again slowly pausing at intervals to listen and make sure
once more griggs stopped short and chris's heart began to beat more heavily than ever during the few minutes silence that ensued i'm done whispered griggs at last what do you mean what's the matter asked chris
the gully ought to be somewhere about here but for the life of me i can't make out where it is and we must wait till morning chris laughed softly i don't see anything to grin at grumbled griggs i don't believe any indian could find his way along here
i was laughing because i could find the place how asked griggs sharply by coming first my pony knows his way here come in front said griggs shortly
and chris moved forward gave the pony his head once more and the clever little animal paced steadily on for about a hundred yards and then turned off to its left and began to ascend hah who wouldn't be a pony said griggs as chris drew rein
then all we have to do now is to wait till they come up it did not seem long before the doctor joined them and then the whole train filed up the side gully
where the grassy patch in a hollow had been selected off the track and here the halt was made the beasts beginning to graze at once
it's a risk indeed said the doctor if the indians should happen to ride in this direction where should we be shooting at them would be the best thing said wilton it's a thousand to one against their finding the beasts here said griggs
even if they did happen to come but we've got to chance it sir everything's gone right so far and let's hope we shall keep on the same track i hope so replied the doctor then now we have nothing to do but get back to the narrow gateway
the sooner the better sir for the night's wearing away fast but ought we after all to leave one of us in charge of the beasts here no sir said griggs sharply
you'll want all your strength after i've passed to tumble down the rocks the more the better it mustn't be half done no said the doctor gravely the entrance must be well blocked all ready yes came in a whisper
back then at once griggs will lead and all keep in touch and observe perfect silence the distance seemed to have doubled before they got to the descent and this slope to be three times as long as they tramped slowly down into the gulch
where the doctor called a halt once more but all was still and blacker than ever as griggs with chris at his side turned off to the right to lead the party slowly onward towards the narrows where all stood at last hot and weary
everything seems to have stretched out said griggs in a whisper i thought we were never going to get here then to the doctor
no said the doctor that might mean failure every one must be in his place before the darkness fails us yes i suppose you're right sir but make sure as soon as there's light enough that every one is well hidden
birds will not enter a trap if they see anything strange nor indians neither said the doctor quietly we shall see to that and you'll let them get well out of hearing before you begin to stop the gap of course said the doctor
that's all right then said griggs so now as you are going to divide into two parties each to take a side i'll say good bye and stop below
that's right sir i'll say my lesson as soon as it's daybreak i shall move down the gully right on in the direction where i believe the indians are encamped and as soon as i think i'm near enough i'm going to begin shooting wherever i see a chance and picking up my birds
till the indians hear me and come out to see what's the matter then we suppose they'll mount the whole herd of them and come after me mounted men against one on foot said the doctor with a sigh i don't suppose they'll catch me said griggs coolly
well naturally enough when i see the enemy after me i begin to run but suppose they don't all come griggs said chris shan't suppose anything of the kind and don't you talk so loudly growled the american
and come crowding after me i run as i never ran before straight for the narrow way here dash through making for the old camp and they tear away to cut me off before i can get under cover of our marksmen
but all at once i dodge in among the stones and begin to climb up to the terraces get up to the top step way in the square pit and loosen out the stones there after blocking the place below
and when i begin to fire at them pretty sharply they'll turn back at once get to their horses and join their mates to have a palaver and come to the conclusion that it isn't safe to stop in the valley because they'll be expecting every moment for fire to be opened by us
then they'll ride back without another shot being fired at them for the simple reason that i'm hurrying round to join your people here by the top way and the gully i shan't lose any time and if i'm lucky i may get here soon enough to join you in giving the enemy a few bullets
when they come riding back to find their way stopped as it ought to be said the doctor dubiously
by the old calendar another day elapsed before another move was made it was a protracted game it had in fact already lasted some months the players being so deliberate
and so fearful of taking a step without the most mature consideration that even now they were only making the twentieth move both of them moreover were rigid disciples of the renowned philidor
is the soul of chess and accordingly not one pawn had been sacrificed without a most vigorous defense the men who were thus beguiling their leisure were two officers in the british army colonel heneage finch murphy
remarkably similar in personal appearance they were hardly less so in personal character both of them were about forty years of age both of them were tall and fair with bushy whiskers and mustaches both of them were phlegmatic in temperament
and both much addicted to the wearing of their uniforms they were proud of their nationality and exhibited a manifest dislike verging upon contempt of everything foreign probably they would have felt no surprise
they might in a certain way be compared
english like the two officers had made themselves thoroughly at home in the station abroad in which it had been their lot to be quartered the faculty of colonization seems to be indigenous to the native character
and it would not be long before a colony was established round it the officers had a servant named kirke and a company of ten soldiers of the line
which on the first of january had transformed an enormous rock garrisoned with well nigh two thousand troops into an insignificant island far out to sea but although the transformation had been so marvelous
it cannot be said that either colonel murphy or major oliphant
this is all very peculiar sir john observed the colonel yes colonel very peculiar replied the major england will be sure to send for us said one officer no doubt she will answered the other accordingly they came to the mutual resolution that they would
they had but one small boat therefore it was well that they made a virtue of necessity and resigned themselves to patient expectation of the british ship which in due time would bring relief
they had no fear of starvation their island was mined with subterranean stores more than ample for thirteen men nay for thirteen englishmen for the next five years at least preserved meat ale brandy all were in abundance consequently
of course the physical changes that had taken place had attracted the notice both of officers and men but the reversed position of east and west the diminution of the force of gravity
and her projection upon a new orbit were all things that gave them little concern
which had been disturbed by the convulsion any surprise they might have felt at the chess men losing some portion of their weight
one phenomenon however did not fail to make its due impression upon the men
on behalf of himself and his comrades solicited a formal interview with the officers the request having been granted pim with the nine soldiers all punctiliously wearing the regimental tunic of scarlet
and trousers of invisible green presented themselves at the door of the colonel's room where he and his brother officer were continuing their game raising his hand respectfully to his cap
which he wore poised jauntily over his right ear and scarcely held on by the strap below his under lip the corporal waited permission to speak
of the chess board the colonel slowly lifted his eyes and said with official dignity well men what is it
and then we wish to have a word with the major about our rations say on then said colonel murphy what is it about your pay just this sir as the days are only half as long as they were
we should like to know whether our pay is to be diminished in proportion the colonel was taken somewhat aback and did not reply immediately
he indicated that he thought the question very reasonable
it must i think be allowed that your pay was calculated from sunrise to sunrise there was no specification of what the interval should be your pay will continue as before england can afford
burst involuntarily from all the men but military discipline and the respect due to their officers kept them in check from any boisterous demonstration of their satisfaction
we want to know whether as the days are only six hours long we are to have but two meals instead of four the officers looked at each other and by their glances agreed that the corporal was a man of sound common sense
eccentricities of nature said the major cannot interfere with military regulations it is true that there will be but an interval of an hour and a half between them but the rule stands good four meals a day
england is too rich to grudge her soldiers any of her soldiers due yes four meals a day hurrah shouted the soldiers unable this time to keep their delight within the bounds of military decorum and turning to the right about they marched away
however confident everyone upon the island might profess to be that succor would be sent them from their native land for britain never abandons any of her sons
many and various were the conjectures to account for the delay
absorbed in diplomatic difficulties or perchance more likely than all northern europe had received no tidings of the convulsion that had shattered the south the whole party throve remarkably well upon the liberal provisions of the
the island itself
was not strictly speaking the only land that was visible for about twelve miles to the south there was another island apparently the very counterpart of what was now occupied by the englishmen
it was only natural that this should awaken some interest even in the most imperturbable minds and there was no doubt that the two officers during one of the rare intervals when they were not absorbed in their game
had decided that it would be desirable at least to ascertain whether the island was deserted or whether it might not be occupied by some others like themselves survivors from the general catastrophe certain it is that
one morning when the weather was bright and calm they had embarked alone in the little boat and been absent for seven or eight hours not even to corporal pim did they communicate the object of their excursion
nor say one syllable as to its result and it could only be inferred from their manner that they were quite satisfied with what they had seen and very shortly afterwards major oliphant was observed to draw up a lengthy document
which was no sooner finished than it was formally signed and sealed with the seal of the thirty third regiment it was directed to the first lord of the admiralty london and kept in readiness for transmission
by the first ship that should hail in sight but time elapsed and here was the eighteenth of february without an opportunity having been afforded for any communication with the british government at breakfast that morning the colonel observed to the major
that he was under the most decided impression that the eighteenth of february was a royal anniversary and he went on to say that although he had received no definite instructions on the subject
he did not think that the peculiar circumstances under which they found themselves should prevent them from giving the day its due military honors the major quite concurred
and it was mutually agreed that the occasion must be honored by a bumper of port and by a royal salute corporal pim must be sent for the corporal soon made his appearance smacking his lips
having by a ready intuition found a pretext for a double morning ration of spirits the eighteenth of february you know pim said the colonel we must have a salute of twenty one guns
very good replied pim a man of few words and take care that your fellows don't get their arms and legs blown off added the officer very good sir said the corporal and he made his salute and withdrew
of all the bombs howitzers and various species of artillery with which the fortress had been crowded one solitary piece remained this was a cumbrous muzzle loader of nine inch caliber
and in default of the smaller ordnance generally employed for the purpose had to be brought into requisition for the royal salute a sufficient number of charges having been provided the corporal brought his men
to the reduct whence the gun's mouth projected over a sloping embrasure the two officers in cocked hats and full staff uniform
and the firing commenced not unmindful
every vestige of fire was extinguished so as to prevent an untimely explosion while the men were reloading and accidents such as so frequently mar public rejoicings were all happily avoided
and there was consequently none of the reverberation like rolling thunder that ordinarily follows the discharge of heavy artillery
when the colonel laid his hand upon the arm of the man who had the ramrod stop he said we will have a ball this time let us put the range of the piece
to the curve that the projectile would make and at a signal from the major
heavens by all that's good exclaimed both officers in one breath as standing open mouthed they hardly knew whether they were to believe the evidence of their own senses is it possible the diminution
of the force of attraction at the earth's surface was so considerable that the ball had sped beyond the horizon incredible ejaculated the colonel
ay more than that replied the other awhile they gazed at the sea and at each other in mute amazement but in the midst of their perplexity what sound was that which startled them was it mere fancy
was it the reverberation of the cannon still booming in their ears or was it not truly the report of another and a distant gun in answer to their own attentively and eagerly they listened twice
thrice did the sound repeat itself it was quite distinct there could be no mistake i told you so cried the colonel triumphantly i knew our country would not forsake us it is an english ship no doubt
in half an hour two masts were visible above the horizon see was i not right our country was sure to send to our relief here is the ship yes replied the major she responded to our gun
it is to be hoped muttered the corporal that our ball has done her no damage before long the hull was full in sight a long trail of smoke betokened her to be a steamer and very soon
by the aid of the glass it could be ascertained
into this cove the dobryna was duly signaled and as soon as she was safely moored she lowered her four oar and count timascheff and captain servadac made their way at once to land colonel heneage finch murphy
and major sir john temple oliphant stood grave and prim formally awaiting the arrival of their visitors captain servadac with the uncontrolled vivacity natural to a frenchman was the first to speak a joyful sight gentlemen he exclaimed
it will give us unbounded pleasure to shake hands again with some of our fellow creatures you no doubt have escaped the same disaster as ourselves but the english officers neither by word nor gesture made the slightest acknowledgment of this familiar greeting
what news can you give us of france england or russia continued servadac perfectly unconscious of the stolid rigidity with which his advances were received
ah how stupid i forgot said servadac with the slightest possible shrug of the shoulders we have not been introduced
allow me to introduce you to count wassili timascheff major sir john temple oliphant replied the colonel
i have the pleasure of introducing captain servadac said the count in his turn and this is colonel heneage finch murphy was the major's grave rejoinder more bows were interchanged and the ceremony brought to its due conclusion
it need hardly be said that the conversation had been carried on in french a language which is generally known both by russians and englishmen a circumstance that is probably in some measure
the formal preliminaries of etiquette being thus complete there was no longer any obstacle to a freer intercourse the colonel signing to his guests to follow
led the way to the apartment occupied jointly by himself and the major which although only a kind of casemate hollowed in the rock nevertheless wore a general air of comfort major oliphant accompanied them and all four having
taken their seats the conversation was commenced irritated and disgusted at all the cold formalities hector servadac resolved to leave all the talking to the count and he quite aware that the englishmen would adhere to the
fiction that they could be supposed to know nothing that had transpired previous to the introduction felt himself obliged to recapitulate matters from the very beginning you must be aware gentlemen began the count
that a most singular catastrophe occurred on the first of january last its cause its limits we have utterly failed to discover but from the appearance of the island on which we find you here you have evidently experienced its devastating consequences
the englishmen in silence bowed assent captain servadac who accompanies me continued the count has been most severely tried by the disaster engaged as he was in an important mission as a staff officer in algeria
a french colony i believe interposed major oliphant half shutting his eyes with an expression of supreme indifference servadac was on the point of making some cutting retort but count timascheff
it was near the mouth of the shelif that a portion of africa on that eventful night was transformed into an island which alone survived the rest of the vast continent disappeared as completely as if it had never been
the announcement seemed by no means startling to the phlegmatic colonel indeed was all he said and where were you asked major oliphant i was out at sea cruising in my yacht hard by and i look upon it as a miracle and nothing less
that i and my crew escaped with our lives i congratulate you on your luck replied the major the count resumed it was about a month after the great disruption that i was sailing my engine having sustained some damage in the shock
along the algerian coast and had the pleasure of meeting with my previous acquaintance captain servadac who was resident upon the island with his orderly ben zoof ben who inquired the major
zoof ben zoof ejaculated servadac who could scarcely shout loud enough to relieve his pent up feelings
ebullition of the captain's spleen the count went on to say captain servadac was naturally most anxious to get what news he could accordingly he left his servant on the island in charge of his horses and came on board the dobryna with me
we were quite at a loss to know where we should steer but decided to direct our course to what previously had been the east in order that we might if possible discover the colony of algeria but of algeria not a trace remained
the colonel curled his lip insinuating only too plainly that to him it was by no means surprising that a french colony should be wanting in the element of stability servadac observed the supercilious look and half rose to his feet
but smothering his resentment took his seat again without speaking the devastation gentlemen said the count who persistently refused to recognize the frenchman's irritation everywhere was terrible and complete not only was algeria lost but there was no trace of tunis
except one solitary rock which was crowned by an ancient tomb of one of the kings of france louis the ninth i presume observed the colonel saint louis blurted out servadac savagely colonel murphy slightly smiled
proof against all interruption count timascheff as if he had not heard it went on without pausing he related how the schooner had pushed her way onwards to the south and had reached the gulf of cabes and how she had ascertained for certain that the sahara sea
had no longer an existence the smile of disdain again crossed the colonel's face he could not conceal his opinion that such a destiny for the work of a frenchman could be no matter of surprise our next discovery continued the count
was that a new coast had been upheaved right along in front of the coast of tripoli the geological formation of which was altogether strange and which extended to the north as far as the proper place of malta and malta cried servadac
unable to control himself any longer malta town forts soldiers governor and all has vanished just like algeria for a moment a cloud rested upon the colonel's brow only to give place to an expression of decided incredulity
the statement seems highly incredible he said incredible repeated servadac
did not prevent the colonel from replying coolly because malta belongs to england i can't help that answered servadac sharply it has gone just as utterly as if it had belonged to china colonel murphy turned deliberately away from servadac and appealed to the count
count in reckoning the bearings of your yacht no colonel i am quite certain of my reckonings and not only can i testify that malta has disappeared but i can affirm that a large section of the mediterranean has been closed in by a new continent
after the most anxious investigation we could discover only one narrow opening in all the coast and it is by following that little channel that we have made our way hither england i fear has suffered grievously by the late catastrophe
not only has malta been entirely lost but of the ionian islands that were under england's protection there seems to be but little left
your grand resident lord high commissioner has not much to congratulate himself about in the condition of corfu the englishmen were mystified corfu did you say asked major oliphant yes corfu i said corfu replied servadac
with a sort of malicious triumph the officers were speechless with astonishment the silence of bewilderment was broken at length by count timascheff
making inquiry whether nothing had been heard from england either by telegraph or by any passing ship no said the colonel not a ship has passed and the cable is broken but do not the italian telegraphs assist you
continued the count italian i do not comprehend you you must mean the spanish surely how demanded timascheff confound it cried the impatient servadac what matters whether it be spanish or italian
tell us have you had no communication at all from europe no news of any sort from london hitherto none whatever replied the colonel adding with a stately emphasis but we shall be sure to have tidings from england before long
whether england is still in existence or not i suppose said servadac in a tone of irony the englishmen started simultaneously to their feet england in existence the colonel cried england ten times more probable that france
france shouted servadac in a passion france is not an island that can be submerged france is an integral portion of a solid continent france at least is safe a scene appeared inevitable and count timascheff's efforts
to conciliate the excited parties were of small avail you are at home here said servadac with as much calmness as he could command it will be advisable i think for this discussion to be carried on in the open air and hurriedly he left the room
followed immediately by the others he led the way to a level piece of ground which he considered he might fairly claim as neutral territory now gentlemen he began haughtily
permit me to represent that in spite of any loss france may have sustained in the fate of algeria france is ready to answer any provocation that affects her honor here i am the representative of my country and here on neutral ground
neutral ground objected colonel murphy i beg your pardon this captain servadac is english territory do you not see the english flag and as he spoke he pointed with national pride to the british standard floating over the top of the island pshaw cried servadac
with a contemptuous sneer that flag you know has been hoisted but a few short weeks that flag has floated where it is for ages asserted the colonel an imposture shouted servadac as he stamped with rage
recovering his composure in a degree he continued can you suppose that i am not aware that this island on which we find you is what remains of the ionian representative republic over which you english exercise the right of protection but have no claim of government
although count timascheff secretly sympathized with servadac
but he was on the point of interfering when the colonel in a greatly subdued tone begged to be allowed to speak
england's by right of conquest ceded to england by the treaty of utrecht three times indeed in seventeen twenty seven seventeen seventy nine and seventeen ninety two france and spain have disputed our title
but always to no purpose you are i assure you at the present moment as much on english soil as if you were in london in the middle of trafalgar square it was now the turn of the captain and the count to look surprised
are we not then in corfu they asked you are at gibraltar replied the colonel gibraltar the word fell like a thunderclap upon their ears gibraltar the western extremity of the mediterranean why had they not been sailing persistently to the east
could they be wrong in imagining that they had reached the ionian islands what new mystery was this count timascheff was about to proceed with a more rigorous investigation when the attention of all was arrested by a loud outcry turning round
they saw that the crew of the dobryna was in hot dispute with the english soldiers a general altercation had arisen from a disagreement between the sailor panofka and corporal pim it had transpired that the cannon ball fired in experiment from the island
had not only damaged one of the spars of the schooner but had broken panofka's pipe and moreover had just grazed his nose which for a russian's was unusually long the discussion over this mishap
almost come to blows with the garrison servadac was just in the mood to take panofka's part which drew from major oliphant the remark that england could not be held responsible for any accidental injury done by her cannon
and if the russian's long nose came in the way of the ball the russian must submit to the mischance this was too much for count timascheff and having poured out a torrent of angry invective against the english officers
he ordered his crew to embark immediately we shall meet again said servadac as they pushed off from shore whenever you please was the cool reply the geographical mystery haunted the minds of both the count and the captain
and they felt they could never rest till they had ascertained what had become of their respective countries
johnny she said suddenly i want you to write down the words of that mexican serenade you used to sing you know rosa de noche it's an unusual song i'm going to study it
i know enough spanish for that johnny looked up from his roller with his bright affable smile si but it is low for you i think
nonsense i can do more with my low voice than i used to i'll show you sit down and write it out for me please thea beckoned him with the short yellow pencil tied to his order book
johnny ran his fingers through his curly black hair if you wish i do not know if that serenata all right for young ladies down there it is more for married ladies
they sing it for husbands or somebody else may bee johnny's eyes twinkled and he apologized gracefully with his shoulders
he sat down at the table and while thea looked over his arm began to write the song down in a long slanting script with highly ornamental capitals
presently he looked up this a song not exactly mexican he said thoughtfully it come from farther down brazil venezuela may bee
i learn it from some fellow down there and he learn it from another fellow it is a most like mexican but not quite thea did not release him but pointed to the paper
there were three verses of the song in all and when johnny had written them down he sat looking at them meditatively his head on one side i don think for a high voice senorita
he objected with polite persistence how you accompany with piano oh that will be easy enough for you may bee johnny smiled and drummed on the table with the tips of his agile brown fingers
you know something listen i tell you he rose and sat down on the table beside her putting his foot on the chair he loved to talk at the hour of noon when you was a little girl no bigger than that
you come to my house one day bout noon like this and i was in the door playing guitar you was barehead barefoot you run away from home you stand there and make a frown at me an listen
by n by you say for me to sing i sing some lil ting and then i say for you to sing with me you don know no words of course but you take the air and you sing it justa beauti ful
i never see a child do that outside mexico you was oh i do know seven year may bee by n by the preacher come look for you and begin for scold i say don scold meester kronborg
she come for hear guitar she gotta some music in her that child where she get then he tell me bout your gran'papa play oboe in the old country
i never forgetta that time johnny chuckled softly thea nodded i remember that day too i liked your music better than the church music when are you going to have a dance over there johnny
johnny tilted his head well saturday night the spanish boys have a lil party some danza
come from torreon they going to salt lake for some job a and stay off with him two three days and he mus have a party you like to come that was how thea came to go to the mexican ball
mexican town had been increased by half a dozen new families during the last few years and the mexicans had put up an adobe dance hall that looked exactly like one of their own dwellings
except that it was a little longer and was so unpretentious that nobody in moonstone knew of its existence the spanish boys are reticent about their own affairs
ray kennedy used to know about all their little doings but since his death there was no one whom the mexicans considered simpatico
missus kronborg smiled she noticed that thea had put on a white dress and had done her hair up with unusual care and that she carried her best blue scarf
thea made a feeble suggestion that her mother might go with her but missus kronborg was too wise for that she knew that thea would have a better time if she went alone
and she watched her daughter go out of the gate and down the sidewalk that led to the depot thea walked slowly it was a soft rosy evening the sand hills were lavender the sun had gone down a glowing copper disk
and the fleecy clouds in the east were a burning rose color flecked with gold thea passed the cottonwood grove and then the depot where she left the sidewalk and took the sandy path toward mexican town
she could hear the scraping of violins being tuned the tinkle of mandolins and the growl of a double bass where had they got a double bass she did not know there was one in moonstone
she found later that it was the property of one of ramas's young cousins who was taking it to utah with him to cheer him at his job a the mexicans never wait until it is dark to begin to dance
and thea had no difficulty in finding the new hall because every other house in the town was deserted even the babies had gone to the ball a neighbor was always willing to hold the baby while the mother danced
johnny bowed to her from the platform at the end of the room where he was playing the mandolin along with two fiddles and the bass the hall was a long low room with whitewashed walls a fairly tight plank floor
wooden benches along the sides and a few bracket lamps screwed to the frame timbers there must have been fifty people there counting the children the mexican dances were very much family affairs
the fathers always danced again and again with their little daughters as well as with their wives one of the girls came up to greet thea her dark cheeks glowing with pleasure and cordiality
and introduced her brother with whom she had just been dancing you better take him every time he asks you she whispered he's the best dancer here except johnny
thea soon decided that the poorest dancer was herself even missus tellamantez who always held her shoulders so stiffly danced better than she did the musicians did not remain long at their post
when one of them felt like dancing he called some other boy to take his instrument put on his coat and went down on the floor johnny who wore a blousy white silk shirt did not even put on his coat
the dances the railroad men gave in firemen's hall were the only dances thea had ever been allowed to go to and they were very different from this
the boys played rough jokes and thought it smart to be clumsy and to run into each other on the floor for the square dances there was always the bawling voice of the caller who was also the county auctioneer
this mexican dance was soft and quiet there was no calling the conversation was very low the rhythm of the music was smooth and engaging the men were graceful and courteous
some of them thea had never before seen out of their working clothes smeared with grease from the round house or clay from the brickyard sometimes when the music happened to be a popular mexican waltz song
the dancers sang it softly as they moved there were three little girls under twelve in their first communion dresses and one of them had an orange marigold in her black hair just over her ear they danced with the men and with each other
there was an atmosphere of ease and friendly pleasure in the low dimly lit room and thea could not help wondering whether the mexicans had no jealousies or neighborly grudges as the people in moonstone had
there was no constraint of any kind there to night but a kind of natural harmony about their movements their greetings their low conversation their smiles ramas brought up his two young cousins
they were dressed alike in black velvet jackets and soft silk shirts with opal shirt buttons and flowing black ties looped through gold rings
they had charming manners and low guitar like voices they knew almost no english but a mexican boy can pay a great many compliments with a very limited vocabulary
the ramas boys thought thea dazzlingly beautiful they had never seen a scandinavian girl before and her hair and fair skin bewitched them
white and gold like easter they exclaimed to each other
the elder was more crafty he asked miguel ramas whether there would be plenty more girls like that a salt lake maybee silvo overhearing gave his brother a contemptuous glance
plenty more a paraiso may bee he retorted when they were not dancing with her their eyes followed her over the coiffures of their other partners that was not difficult
one blonde head moving among so many dark ones thea had not meant to dance much but the ramas boys danced so well and were so handsome and adoring that she yielded to their entreaties
when she sat out a dance with them they talked to her about their family at home and told her how their mother had once punned upon their name rama in spanish meant a branch they explained
once when they were little lads their mother took them along when she went to help the women decorate the church for easter some one asked her whether she had brought any flowers and she replied that she had brought her ramas
this was evidently a cherished family story when it was nearly midnight
he began to put out the lights and missus tellamantez led the way across the square to her casa the ramas brothers escorted thea and as they stepped out of the door silvo exclaimed
most of the company followed missus tellamantez and they sat about on the gravel in her little yard while she and johnny and missus miguel ramas served the ice cream
the youths lay down on the shining gravel beside her one on her right and one on her left johnny already called them los acolitos the altar boys the talk all about them was low and indolent
one of the girls was playing on johnny's guitar another was picking lightly at a mandolin the moonlight was so bright that one could see every glance and smile and the flash of their teeth
the moonflowers over missus tellamantez's door were wide open and of an unearthly white the moon itself looked like a great pale flower in the sky after all the ice cream was gone
johnny approached thea his guitar under his arm and the elder ramas boy politely gave up his place johnny sat down took a long breath struck a fierce chord and then hushed it with his other hand
now we have some lil serenata eh you wan a try when thea began to sing instant silence fell upon the company
she felt all those dark eyes fix themselves upon her intently she could see them shine the faces came out of the shadow like the white flowers over the door
silvo dropped on his back and lay looking at the moon under the impression that he was still looking at thea when she finished the first verse thea whispered to johnny again i can do it better than that
she had sung for churches and funerals and teachers but she had never before sung for a really musical people and this was the first time she had ever felt the response that such a people can give
they turned themselves and all they had over to her for the moment they cared about nothing in the world but what she was doing their faces confronted her open eager unprotected
she felt as if all these warm blooded people debouched into her missus tellamantez's fateful resignation johnny's madness the adoration of the boy who lay still in the sand
in an instant these things seemed to be within her instead of without as if they had come from her in the first place when she finished her listeners broke into excited murmur
the men began hunting feverishly for cigarettes famos serranos the barytone bricklayer touched johnny's arm gave him a questioning look then heaved a deep sigh
johnny dropped on his elbow wiping his face and neck and hands with his handkerchief senorita he panted if you sing like that once in the city of mexico they just a go crazy
in the city of mexico they ain't a sit like stumps when they hear that not a much when they like
his voice was thin unsteady husky in the middle tones but it was distinctly a voice and sometimes he managed to get something very sweet out of it certainly it made him happy to sing
thea kept glancing down at him as he lay there on his elbow his eyes seemed twice as large as usual and had lights in them like those the moonlight makes on black running water
thea remembered the old stories about his spells she had never seen him when his madness was on him but she felt something tonight at her elbow that gave her an idea of what it might be like
for the first time she fully understood the cryptic explanation that missus tellamantez had made to doctor archie long ago there were the same shells along the walk she believed she could pick out the very one
there was the same moon up yonder and panting at her elbow was the same johnny fooled by the same old things when they had finished famos the barytone murmured something to johnny who replied
we have no alto but all the girls can sing alto and make some noise the women laughed mexican women of the poorer class do not sing like the men perhaps they are too indolent
in the evening when the men are singing their throats dry on the doorstep or around the camp fire beside the work train the women usually sit and comb their hair
while johnny was gesticulating and telling everybody what to sing and how to sing it thea put out her foot and touched the corpse of silvo with the toe of her slipper aren't you going to sing silvo she asked teasingly
not this night senorita he pleaded softly not this night he dropped back again and lay with his cheek on his right arm the hand lying passive on the sand above his head
how does he flatten himself into the ground like that thea asked herself i wish i knew it's very effective somehow
across the gulch the kohlers little house slept among its trees a dark spot on the white face of the desert the windows of their upstairs bedroom were open
and paulina had listened to the dance music for a long while before she drowsed off she was a light sleeper and when she woke again after midnight johnny's concert was at its height
she lay still until she could bear it no longer then she wakened fritz and they went over to the window and leaned out they could hear clearly there
whispered missus kohler it must be ach wunderschon fritz was not so wide awake as his wife he grunted and scratched on the floor with his bare foot
they were listening to a mexican part song the tenor then the soprano then both together the barytone joins them rages is extinguished the tenor expires in sobs
and the soprano finishes alone when the soprano's last note died away fritz nodded to his wife ja he said schon
johnny's reedy tenor they knew well
the others might be anybody over there just mexican voices then at the appointed at the acute moment the soprano voice like a fountain jet
how it leaped from among those dusky male voices how it played in and about and around and over them like a goldfish darting among creek minnows
like a yellow butterfly soaring above a swarm of dark ones ah said missus kohler softly
missus kronborg had said that thea was not to be disturbed on sunday morning and she slept until noon when she came downstairs the family were just sitting down to dinner
mister kronborg at one end of the long table missus kronborg at the other anna stiff and ceremonious in her summer silk sat at her father's right
and the boys were strung along on either side of the table there was a place left for thea between her mother and thor during the silence which preceded the blessing thea felt something uncomfortable in the air
anna and her older brothers had lowered their eyes when she came in missus kronborg nodded cheerfully and after the blessing as she began to pour the coffee turned to her
i expect you had a good time at that dance thea i hope you got your sleep out high society that remarked charley giving the mashed potatoes a vicious swat
anna's mouth and eyebrows became half moons thea looked across the table at the uncompromising countenances of her older brothers why
what's the matter with the mexicans she asked flushing they don't trouble anybody and they are kind to their families and have good manners nice clean people got some style about them
do you really like that kind thea or do you just pretend to that's what i'd like to know gus looked at her with pained inquiry but he at least looked at her they're just as clean as white people
and they have a perfect right to their own ways of course i like em i don't pretend things everybody according to their own taste remarked charley bitterly quit crumbing your bread up thor
ain't you learned how to eat yet children children said mister kronborg nervously looking up from the chicken he was dismembering he glanced at his wife whom he expected to maintain harmony in the family
that's all right charley drop it there said missus kronborg no use spoiling your sunday dinner with race prejudices the mexicans suit me and thea very well
they are a useful people now you can just talk about something else conversation however did not flourish at that dinner everybody ate as fast as possible charley and gus said
they had engagements and left the table as soon as they finished their apple pie anna sat primly and ate with great elegance when she spoke at all she spoke to her father about church matters
and always in a commiserating tone as if he had met with some misfortune mister kronborg quite innocent of her intentions replied kindly and absent mindedly after the dessert
he went to take his usual sunday afternoon nap and missus kronborg carried some dinner to a sick neighbor thea and anna began to clear the table
i should think you would show more consideration for father's position thea anna began as soon as she and her sister were alone thea gave her a sidelong glance why what have i done to father
everybody at sunday school was talking about you going over there and singing with the mexicans all night when you won't sing for the church somebody heard you and told it all over town
of course we all get the blame for it anything disgraceful about singing thea asked with a provoking yawn i must say you choose your company you always had that streak in you thea
we all hoped that going away would improve you of course it reflects on father when you are scarcely polite to the nice people here and make up to the rowdies oh it's my singing with the mexicans you object to
thea put down a tray full of dishes well i like to sing over there and i don't like to over here i'll sing for them any time they ask me to they know something about what i'm doing
talented anna made the word sound like escaping steam i suppose you think it's smart to come home and throw that at your family thea picked up the tray
by this time she was as white as the sunday tablecloth well she replied in a cold even tone i'll have to throw it at them sooner or later it's just a question of when
and it might as well be now as any time she carried the tray blindly into the kitchen tillie who was always listening and looking out for her took the dishes from her with a furtive frightened glance at her stony face
thea went slowly up the back stairs to her loft her legs seemed as heavy as lead as she climbed the stairs and she felt as if everything inside her had solidified and grown hard
after shutting her door and locking it she sat down on the edge of her bed this place had always been her refuge but there was a hostility in the house now which this door could not shut out
this would be her last summer in that room its services were over its time was done she rose and put her hand on the low ceiling two tears ran down her cheeks
as if they came from ice that melted slowly she was not ready to leave her little shell she was being pulled out too soon she would never be able to think anywhere else as well as here she would never sleep so well
or have such dreams in any other bed even last night such sweet breathless dreams thea hid her face in the pillow wherever she went she would like to take that little bed with her
when she went away from it for good she would leave something that she could never recover memories of pleasant excitement of happy adventures in her mind of warm sleep on howling winter nights
and joyous awakenings on summer mornings there were certain dreams that might refuse to come to her at all except in a little morning cave facing the sun where they came to her so powerfully
where they beat a triumph in her the room was hot as an oven the sun was beating fiercely on the shingles behind the board ceiling she undressed and before she threw herself upon her bed in her chemise
she frowned at herself for a long while in her looking glass yes she and it must fight it out together the thing that looked at her out of her own eyes was the only friend she could count on
oh she would make these people sorry enough there would come a time when they would want to make it up with her but never again she had no little vanities
her mother was all right
in the nature of things her mother had to be on both sides thea felt that she had been betrayed a truce had been broken behind her back she had never had much individual affection for any of her brothers except thor
but she had never been disloyal never felt scorn or held grudges as a little girl she had always been good friends with gunner and axel whenever she had time to play even before she got her own room
when they were all sleeping and dressing together like little cubs and breakfasting in the kitchen she had led an absorbing personal life of her own but she had a cub loyalty to the other cubs
she thought them nice boys and tried to make them get their lessons she once fought a bully who picked on axel at school she never made fun of anna's crimpings and curlings and beauty rites
thea had always taken it for granted that her sister and brothers recognized that she had special abilities and that they were proud of it she had done them the honor she told herself bitterly
to believe that though they had no particular endowments they were of her kind and not of the moonstone kind now they had all grown up and become persons
their ambitions and sacred proprieties were meaningless to her she had neglected to congratulate charley upon having been promoted from the grocery department of commings's store to the drygoods department
her mother had reproved her for this omission and how was she to know thea asked herself that anna expected to be teased because bert rice now came and sat in the hammock with her every night
no it was all clear enough nothing that she would ever do in the world would seem important to them and nothing they would ever do would seem important to her thea lay thinking intently all through the stifling afternoon
tillie whispered something outside her door once but she did not answer she lay on her bed until the second church bell rang and she saw the family go trooping up the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street
anna and her father in the lead anna seemed to have taken on a very story book attitude toward her father patronizing and condescending it seemed to thea the older boys were not in the family band
tillie had stayed at home to get supper thea got up washed her hot face and arms and put on the white organdie dress she had worn last night it was getting too small for her and she might as well wear it out
after she was dressed she unlocked her door and went cautiously downstairs she felt as if chilling hostilities might be awaiting her in the trunk loft on the stairway almost anywhere
and thus they plod in sluggish misery rotting from sire to son and age to age proud of their trampled nature and so die
bequeathing their hereditary rage to the new race of inborn slaves who wage war for their chains and rather than be free
but of things allowed averred and known and daily hourly seen the yoke that is upon us doubly bowed and the intent of tyranny avowed
the edict of earth's rulers who are grown the apes of him who humbled once the proud
and vile ambition that built up between man and his hopes an adamantine wall and the base pageant last upon the scene are grown the pretext for the eternal thrall which nips life's tree
and dooms man's worst
yet freedom yet thy banner torn but flying streams like the thunder storm against the wind thy trumpet voice though broken now and dying
the loudest still the tempest leaves behind thy tree hath lost its blossoms and the rind chopped by the axe looks rough and little worth but the sap lasts
and still the seed we find sown deep even in the bosom of the north
standing with half its battlements alone and with two thousand years of ivy grown the garland of eternity where wave the green leaves over all by time o'erthrown what was this tower of strength
within its cave what treasure lay so locked so hid
tombed in a palace was she chaste and fair worthy a king's or more a roman's bed what race of chiefs and heroes did she bear what daughter of her beauties was the heir
how lived how loved how died she was she not so honoured
such have been even in the olden time rome's annals say was she a matron of cornelia's mien or the light air of egypt's graceful queen profuse of joy or gainst it did she war inveterate in virtue
did she lean to the soft side of the heart or wisely bar love from amongst her griefs
a cloud might gather o'er her beauty and a gloom in her dark eye prophetic of the doom heaven gives its favourites early death yet shed a sunset charm around her and illume with hectic light the hesperus of the dead
surviving all charms kindred children with the silver grey on her long tresses
which might yet recall it may be still a something of the day when they were braided and her proud array and lovely form were envied praised
but whither would conjecture stray thus much alone we know metella died the wealthiest roman's wife behold his love
and other days come back on me with recollected music though the tone is changed and solemn like the cloudy groan of dying thunder on the distant wind
yet could i seat me by this ivied stone till i had bodied forth the heated mind forms from the floating wreck
built me a little bark of hope once more to battle with the ocean and the shocks of the loud breakers and the ceaseless roar which rushes on the solitary shore where all lies foundered that was ever dear
but could i gather from the wave worn store enough for my rude boat where should i steer there woos no home nor hope nor life
their harmony shall henceforth be my music and the night the sound shall temper with the owlet's cry
with their large eyes all glistening grey and bright and sailing pinions
and history with all her volumes vast hath but one page
where gorgeous tyranny hath thus amassed all treasures all delights
away with words
despise laugh weep
man thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear ages and realms are crowded in this span this mountain whose obliterated plan the pyramid of empires pinnacled
of glory's gewgaws shining in the van till the sun's rays with added flame were filled where are its golden roofs
what are the laurels of the caesar's brow crown me with ivy from his dwelling place whose arch or pillar meets me in the face titus or trajan's no tis that of time
and the deep root of life and sufferance make its firm abode in bare and desolate bosoms mute the camel labours with the heaviest load
it may be a sound a tone of music summer's eve or spring a flower the wind the ocean
but feel the shock renewed nor can efface the blight and blackening which it leaves behind
which out of things familiar undesigned when least we deem of such calls up to view the spectres whom no exorcism can bind the cold the changed perchance the dead
anew the mourned the loved the lost too many
my soul wanders i demand it back to meditate amongst decay and stand a ruin amidst ruins
and must ever be the master mould of nature's heavenly hand wherein were cast the heroic and the free
thy very weeds are beautiful
a sea of glory streams along the alpine height of blue friuli's mountains heaven is free from clouds but of all colours seems to be
melted to one vast iris of the west where the day joins the past eternity while on the other hand
as day and night contending were
a paler shadow strews its mantle o'er the mountains parting day dies like the dolphin whom each pang imbues with a new colour as it gasps away the last still loveliest till
reared in air pillared in their sarcophagus repose the bones of laura's lover here repair many familiar with his well sung woes the pilgrims of his genius
he arose to raise a language and his land reclaim from the dull yoke of her barbaric foes
and tis their pride an honest pride and let it be their praise to offer to the passing stranger's gaze his mansion and his sepulchre both plain and venerably simple
such as raise a feeling more accordant with his strain
which shows a distant prospect far away of busy cities now in vain displayed
tis solitude should teach us how to die it hath no flatterers
making the sun like blood
and then survey his cell and see how dearly earned torquato's fame
the miserable despot could not quell the insulted mind he sought to quench and blend with the surrounding maniacs in the hell where he had plunged it
with a glory round his furrowed brow which emanated then and dazzles now in face of all his foes the cruscan quire
but how long the tide of generations shall roll on and not the whole combined and countless throng compose a mind like thine though all in one condensed their scattered rays
yet paralleled by those thy countrymen before thee born to shine the bards of hell and chivalry first rose the tuscan father's comedy divine
the southern scott the minstrel who called forth a new creation with his magic line and like the ariosto of the north sang ladye love and war
nor was the ominous element unjust for the true laurel wreath which glory weaves is of the tree no bolt of thunder cleaves and the false semblance but disgraced his brow
and as it is that what we have of feeling most intense outstrips our faint expression e'en so this outshining and o'erwhelming edifice fools our fond gaze
and greatest of the great defies at first our nature's littleness till growing with its growth
there is more in such a survey than the sating gaze of wonder pleased or awe which would adore the worship of the place
or the mere praise of art and its great masters who could raise what former time nor skill nor thought could plan the fountain of sublimity displays its depth
and thence may draw the mind of man its golden sands
go see laocoon's torture dignifying pain a father's love and mortal's agony with an immortal's patience blending vain the struggle
the old man's clench the long envenomed chain rivets the living links the enormous asp enforces pang on pang
the god of life and poesy and light the sun in human limbs arrayed and brow all radiant from his triumph in the fight the shaft hath just been shot the arrow bright with an immortal's vengeance
in his eye and nostril beautiful disdain
a dream of love shaped by some solitary nymph whose breast longed for a deathless lover from above and maddened in that vision
are expressed all that ideal beauty ever blessed the mind within its most unearthly mood when each conception was a heavenly guest a ray of immortality
it was repaid by him to whom the energy was given which this poetic marble hath arrayed with an eternal glory which if made by human hands
his wanderings done his visions ebbing fast and he himself as nothing
till glory's self is twilight and displays a melancholy halo scarce allowed to hover on the verge of darkness rays sadder than saddest night
and lay low some less majestic less beloved head in the sad midnight while thy heart still bled
death hushed that pang for ever with thee fled the present happiness and promised joy
can it be o thou that wert so happy so adored those who weep not for kings shall weep for thee
cease to hoard her many griefs for one for she had poured her orisons for thee and o'er thy head beheld her iris
thou too lonely lord and desolate consort vainly wert thou wed
in the dust the fair haired daughter of the isles is laid the love of millions how we did entrust futurity to her and though it must darken above our bones
yet fondly deemed our children should obey her child
good without effort great without a foe but now a bride and mother and now there how many ties did that stern moment tear
from thy sire's to his humblest subject's breast is linked the electric chain of that despair whose shock was as an earthquake's
that the uprooting wind which tears the oak from his foundation and which spills the ocean o'er its boundary and bears its foam against the skies reluctant spares the oval mirror of thy glassy lake
and calm as cherished hate its surface wears a deep cold settled aspect nought can shake
albano's scarce divided waves shine from a sister valley
but rome is as the desert where we steer stumbling o'er recollections
and livy's pictured page but these shall be her resurrection all beside
and that so supine by aught than romans rome should thus be laid she who was named eternal
but beneath his fate the moral lurks of destiny his day of double victory and death beheld him win two realms
on the self same day deposed him gently from his throne of force
at thy bathed base the bloody caesar lie folding his robe in dying dignity an offering to thine altar from the queen of gods and men great nemesis
have ye been victors of countless kings
and thou the thunder stricken nurse of rome she wolf whose brazen imaged dugs impart the milk of conquest yet within the dome where
as a monument of antique art thou standest mother of the mighty heart which the great founder sucked from thy wild teat
and thy limbs blacked with lightning dost thou yet guard thine immortal cubs
but all thy foster babes are dead the men of iron
men bled in imitation of the things they feared
save one vain man who is not in the grave
and a kind of bastard caesar following him of old with steps unequal for the roman's mind was modelled in a less terrestrial mould with passions fiercer yet a judgment cold
and an immortal instinct which redeemed the frailties of a heart so soft yet bold
and conquered but the man who would have tamed his eagles down to flee like a trained falcon in the gallic van which he in sooth long led to victory
with a deaf heart which never seemed to be a listener to itself was strangely framed with but one weakest weakness vanity coquettish in ambition
still he aimed at what
nor could wait for the sure grave to level him few years had fixed him with the caesars in his fate on whom we tread for this the conqueror rears the arch of triumph
and for this the tears and blood of earth flow on as they have flowed an universal deluge which appears without an ark for wretched man's abode
life short and truth a gem which loves the deep and all things weighed in custom's falsest scale
was located far on the other side of the planet in a hall like the one the four had first visited and that he was making the demonstration before a great gathering of scientists too bad you cannot see as we do commented the venusian however
savarona may go into the details of if the committeemen are entirely finished with their measurements stated the unseen experimenter i would like to have the results compared with the recorded figures of pario camenol
of the year twenty one thousand seven hundred and four another rest and estra said they are examining a boy who appears to be about twelve years of age then came other voices
as much so as our finger prints the measurements correspond identically with those of pario camenol beyond a doubt this boy can be none other than pario then the high pitched voice went on
then notice the formula i have written on this blackboard using this solution i have supplied nourishment to this lad from the hour of his birth until a few days ago i was not satisfied with the results
the patient showed a tiny variation from the allowable subconscious maximum together with only nine tenths the required motor reaction but i have corrected this briefly i have incorporated in pario camenol's standard diet
these elements are derivatives of the potash group for the most part together with phosphates which need a new classification their effect impressively has been to postpone age indefinitely
the speaker's voice shook with excitement as he went on we have sought in vain friends for a way to cheat death of his due we have succeeded in postponing his advent
until our average longevity is several times greater than on our neighboring planet but so far it has been a mere reprieve what i have done is to prevent age itself this lad
is a hundred and twenty two years old mentally and still only twelve years old as to body in short i offer you the fountain of youth itself the speaker paused
there was no comment evidently all had been as greatly impressed as the explorers then the voice of the man savarona finished very deliberately i regret to say that my treatment
despite all that i have been able to do cannot be adapted to the female constitution it would be fatal to any but males i repeat i can offer eternal youth absolutely
but only to new born males this time there was a definite response from the telephone came a confused murmuring at which van emmon's face lighted up with delight the murmuring had an angry sound
this is outrageous a loud contralto voice was raised above the rest you are unethical savarona to announce such a thing before adapting it to both sexes the high pitched voice replied shortly
at the same time they noted that estra his eyes tightly closed and his fists clenched in the intensity of his concentration suddenly gave a sigh of relief next second he began to speak into the telephone
in a voice so loud as to silence all the clamor savarona and the people of venus listen the prophets were right when they said today would witness many great things i have just learned of another experiment
all that is gross and bemeaning in us even to the extent of reducing the flavors of our foods to the lowest tolerable point and despite all this we have not been able to get rid of sex jealousy
we still have the beast within us no matter how pure our love may be it is always tainted with rivalry always the husband and wife are held down by this mutual envy forever dragging at their heels
constantly holding them back from the lofty heights of spiritual power to which they aspire he paused and savarona's voice broke in triumphantly you are right estra you are right except you did not mention that this jealousy
becomes less and less as one grows older now my discovery will put an end to your beast estra my experiments took this lad before he had become a man and allowed his brain to develop while his body stopped growing
he is a man in mentality and an innocent boy in body estra i have done the thing you wish this boy will never know jealousy because he will never know love the man in the room with the four answered in a flash
so you have savarona but only for men no female can benefit by what you have done but i tell you that within the past few minutes a child has been born under circumstances which can be repeated at any time
and for any sex in this case the venusian's voice changed curiously in this case however it was a girl for the mother controlled the sex in the customary manner at this the doctor's interest became acute
nightfall overtakes me as after travelling several miles of variable road i commence
of a tributary of the arasces toward ovahjik where resides the pasha khan to whom i have a letter but the crescent shaped moon sheds abroad a silvery glimmer
that exerts a softening influence upon the mountains outlined against the ever arching dome from whence here and there a star begins to twinkle it is one of those beautiful calm autumn evenings
when all nature seems hushed in peaceful slumbers when the stars seem to first peep cautiously from the impenetrable depths of their hiding place and then to commence blinking benignantly and approvingly upon the world
and when the moon looks almost as though fair luna has been especially decorating herself to embellish a scene that without her lovely presence would be incomplete
such is my first autumn evening beneath the cloudless skies of persia soon the village of ovahjik is reached and some peasants guide me to the residence of the pasha khan
the servant who presents my letter of introduction fills the untutored mind of his master with wonderment concerning what the peasants have told him about the bicycle the pasha khan makes his appearance without having taken the trouble
to open the envelope he is a dull faced unintellectual lookiug personage and without any preliminary palaver he says bin bacalem in a dictatorial tone of voice
bacalem yole lazim bacalem saba i reply for it is too dark to ride on unknown ground this evening bin bacalem repeats the pasha khan even more dictatorial than before
ordering a servant to bring a tallow candle so that i can have no excuse there appears to be such a total absence of all consideration for myself that i am not disposed to regard very favorably or patiently
the obtrusive meddlesomeness of two younger men whom i afterward discover to be sons of the pasha khan who seem almost inclined to take the bicycle out of my charge altogether
in their excessive impatience and inordinate inquisitiveness to examine everything about it one of them thinking the cyclometer to be a watch puts his ear down to see if he can hear it tick
after telling him several times not to meddle with it and receiving overbearing gestures in reply i deliberately throw him backward into an irrigating ditch a gleam of intelligence overspreads the stolid countenance of the pasha khan
at seeing his offspring floundering about on his back in the mud and water and he gives utterance to a chuckle of delight the discomfited young man betrays nothing of the spirit of resentment upon recovering himself from the ditch
and the other son involuntarily retreats as though afraid his turn was coming next the servant now arrives with the lighted candle and the pasha kahn leads the way into his garden
where there is a wide brick paved walk the house occupies one side of the garden the other three sides are inclosed by a high mud wall after riding a few times along the brick paved walk
and promising to do better in the morning i naturally expect to be taken into the house instead of which the pasha khan orders the people to show me the way to the caravanserai arriving at the caravanserai
of the persian commercial mind while this question is being mooted a figure appears in the doorway
respectfully salaam and give way it is the great pasha khan
and having perused it and discovered who it was from and all about me he now comes and squats down in the most friendly manner by my side for a minute as though to remove any unfavorable impressions
and then bids me accompany him back to his residence after permitting him to eat a sufficiency of humble pie in the shape of coaxing to atone for his former incivility
i agree to his proposal and accompany him back tea is at once provided
while thus partaking freely of the bread and cheese i do not fail to notice that the others partake very sparingly and that they seem to be rather astonished because i am not following their example
being chiefly interested in satisfying my appetite however their silent observations have no effect save to further mystify my understanding of the persian character the secret of all this soon reveals itself
with the domestic customs of a country when first entering upon its experiences there seems to be no material difference between the social position of the women here and in turkey they eat their meals by themselves
and occupy entirely separate apartments which are unapproachable to members of the opposite sex save their husbands the pasha khan of ovahjik however seems to be a kind indulgent husband and father
requesting me next morning to ride up and down the brick paved walk for the benefit of his wives and daughters in the seclusion of their own walled premises the persian females are evidently not so particular about concealing their features
and i obtained a glimpse of some very pretty faces oval faces with large dreamy black eyes and a flush of warm sunset on brownish cheeks
of our ancestress in the garden of eden and over this they hastily don a flimsy shawl like garment to come out and see me ride they are always much less concerned about concealing their nether extremities
than about their faces and
after riding for them i have to congratulate myself that so far as sight seeing is concerned the ladies leave me rather under obligations than otherwise
after supper the pasha khan's falconer brings in several fine falcons for my inspection and in reply to questions concerning one with his eyelids tied up in what appears to be a cruel manner
and the ends tied together over the head sufficiently tight to prevent them opening their eyes falconing is considered the chief out door sport of the persian nobility
but the average persian is altogether too indolent for out door sport and the keeping of falcons is fashionable because regarded as a sign of rank and nobility rather than for sport in the morning the pasha khan is wonderfully agreeable
and appears anxious to atone as far as possible for the little incivility of yesterday evening and to remove any unfavorable impressions i may perchance entertain of him on that account before i leave
his two sons and a couple of soldiers accompany me on horseback some distance up the valley the valley is studded with villages and at the second one we halt at the residence of a gentleman named abbas koola khan
to something akin to a free circus for crowds of barelegged ryots i soon discover that with characteristic persian truthfulness he has likewise been spreading the interesting report
are little different from the turkish but such valuable property as melon gardens vineyards et cetera
are usually surrounded by substantial mud walls ten or twelve feet high
and altogether more thoughtful of number one than the turks are on the whole a trifle less ragged but that is saying very little indeed and their condition is anything but enviable during the summer they fare comparatively well
needing but little clothing and they are happy and contented in the absence of actual suffering they are perfectly satisfied with a diet of bread and fruit and cucumbers rarely tasting meat of any kind
but fuel is as scarce as in asia minor and like the turks and armenians in winter they have resource to a peculiar and economical arrangement to keep themselves warm
placing a pan of burning tezek beneath a low table the whole family huddle around it covering the table and themselves save of course their heads up with quilts facing each other in this ridiculous manner
they chat and while away the dreary days of winter at the third village after leaving the sons of the pasha khan my tartar eyed escort with much garrulous injunction to his successor
delivers me over to another soldier himself returning back this is my favorable opportunity and soon after leaving the village i bid my valiant protector return the man seems totally unable to comprehend why
i should order him to leave me and makes an elaborate display of his pantomimic abilities to impress upon me the information that the country ahead is full of very bad koords
appears to be the favorite method of signifying personal danger among all these people but i already understand that the persians live in deadly fear of the nomad koords consequently his warnings although evidently sincere
fall on biased ears and i peremptorily order him to depart the tabreez trail is now easily followed without a guide and with a sense of perfect freedom and unrestraint
evidently from a servile desire to cater to his pleasure
an appeal to the revolver will invariably secure my release but one naturally gets ashamed of threatening people's lives even under the exasperating circumstances of a forcible detention
once to day i managed to outwit them beautifully pretending acquiescence in their proposition of waiting till the arrival of their khan i propose mounting and riding a few yards for their own edification while waiting
in their eagerness to see they readily fall into the trap and the next minute sees me flying down the road with a swarm of bare legged ryots in full chase after me yelling for me to stop
fortunately they have no horses handy but some of these lanky fellows can run like deer almost and nothing but an excellent piece of road enables me to outdistance my pursuers
owing to their eagerness to see the bicycle ridden
i was gratified to learn from the persian consul at erzeroum that my stock of turkish would answer me as far as teheran
kardash when accosting me the distance is now reckoned by farsakhs roughly four miles instead of hours but although the farsakh is a more tangible and comprehensive measurement than the turkish hour
towards evening i ascend into a more mountainous region inhabited exclusively by nomad koords from points of vantage their tents are observable
which embraces both persian and turkish territory and the occasion is most opportune for seeing something of these wild nomads in their own mountain pastures the greensward is ridable and i
and when i dismount they conduct me and the bicycle at once into the tent of their chieftain
and it is divided into compartments similar to a previous description the sheikh is a big burly fellow of about forty five wearing a turban the size of a half bushel measure
and dressed pretty much like a well to do turk as a matter of fact the koords admire the osmanlis and despise the persians the bicycle is reclined against a carpet partition and after the customary interchange of questions
and proceeds to make himself agreeable rolling me cigarettes asking questions and curiously investigating anything about me that strikes him as peculiar i show them among other things a cabinet photograph of myself
in all the glory of needle pointed mustache and dress parade apparel after a critical examination and a brief conference among themselves they pronounce me an english pasha
like a person in possession of something he doesn't know what to do with noticing that the women are regarding these proceedings with much interest from behind a low partition and not having yet become reconciled to the mohammedan idea
they seem much confused at finding themselves the object of direct attention and they appear several degrees wilder than the men so far as comprehending such a product of civilization as a photograph is an indication
it requires more material objects than sketches and photos to meet the appreciation of these semi civilized children of the desert they bring me their guns and spears to look at and pronounce upon and then my stalwart entertainer
grows inquisitive about my revolver first extracting the cartridges to prevent accident i hand it to him
and that others are not procurable in koordistan or neighboring countries recognizing immediately its uselessness to him under such circumstances he then returns it without remark
whether he would have confiscated it without this timely explanation it is difficult to say shortly after the evening meal an incident occurs which causes considerable amusement everything being unusually quiet
happens to hear the obtrusive ticking of my waterbury and strikes a listening attitude at which everybody else likewise begins listening the tick tick
is plainly discernible to everybody in the compartment and they become highly interested and amused and commence looking at me for an explanation with a view to humoring the spirit of amusement thus awakened
i likewise smile but affect ignorance and innocence concerning the origin of the mysterious ticking
from occupying their dearly beloved stamboul itself their admiration knows no bounds along the trail not over a mile from camp a large persian caravan
has been halting during the day late in the evening loud shouting and firing of guns announces them as prepared to start on their night's journey it is customary when going through this part of koordistan
for the caravan men to fire guns and make as much noise as possible in order to impress the koords with exaggerated ideas concerning their strength and number
thoroughly understands the meaning of the noisy demonstration and the men exchange significant smiles the firing and the shouting produce a truly magical effect upon
a blood thirsty youngster of ten or twelve summers he becomes wildly hilarious gamboling about the tent and rolling over and kicking up his heels he then goes to the sheikh
points to me and draws his finger across his throat intimating that he would like the privilege of cutting somebody's throat and why not let him cut mine
behaving themselves as well as they do quilts are provided for me and i occupy this same compartment of the tent in common with several of the younger men in the morning before departing i am regaled with bread
and rich new cream and when leaving the tent i pause a minute to watch the busy scene in the female department some are churning butter in sheep skin churns which are suspended from poles and jerked back and forth
others are weaving carpets preparing curds for cheese baking bread and otherwise industriously employed i depart from the koordish camp thoroughly satisfied with my experience of their hospitality
but the cerulean waist scarf bestowed upon me by our hungarian friend igali at belgrade no longer adds its embellishments to my personal adornments whenever a favorable opportunity presents
certain young men belonging to the noble army of hangers on about the sheikh's apartments invariably glide inside and importune the guest from frangistan for any article of his clothing
that excites the admiration of their semi civilized minds this scarf they were doubtless penetrating enough to observe formed no necessary part of my wardrobe and a dozen times in the evening
and again in the morning i was worried to part with it so i finally presented it to one of them he hastily hid it away among his clothes and disappeared as though fearful
might take a fancy to it and summarily appropriate it to his own use not more than five miles eastward from the camp while trundling over a stretch of stony ground
but as the country immediately around is wild and unfrequented save by koords and knowing something of their little weaknesses toward travellers under tempting one sided conditions
i deem it advisable to pay as little heed to them as possible seeing that i have no intention of halting they come running up and undertake to forcibly detain me by seizing hold of the bicycle
at the same time making no pretence of concealing their eager curiosity concerning the probable contents of my luggage naturally disapproving of this arbitrary conduct
with a growl more like the voice of a wild animal than of human beings one draws his sword and the other picks up a thick knobbed stick that he had dropped
without giving them time to reveal whether they seriously intend attacking me or only to try intimidation i have them nicely covered with the smith and wesson they seem to comprehend in a moment
tawny coated monsters larger than the largest mastiffs who now proceed to make things lively and interesting around myself and the bicycle keeping the revolver in my hand
in favor of smooth camel paths about a hundred yards farther on at this juncture i notice several other gentle shepherds
or to prevent a conflict between us will always remain an uncertainty i am afraid however that with the advantage on their side the koordish herdsmen rarely trouble themselves
and chased by a dozen of their dogs upon sober second thought when well away from the vicinity i conclude this to have been a rather ticklish incident
had they attacked me in the absence of anything else to defend myself with i should have been compelled to shoot them the nearest persian village is about ten miles distant the absence of anything like continuously ridable road
the road is not so favorable for spurting as yesterday and the racing ryots grab me amid much boisterous merriment ere i overcome the obstruction
they take particular care not to give me another chance until the arrival of the khan the country hereabouts consists of gravelly undulating plateaus between the mountains
and well worn camel paths afford some excellent wheeling near mid day while laboriously ascending a long but not altogether unridable ascent i meet a couple of mounted soldiers
they obstruct my road and proceed to deliver themselves of voluble tabreez turkish by which i understand that they are the advance guard of a party in which there is a ferenghi
the persian term for an occidental while talking with them i am somewhat taken by surprise at seeing a lady on horseback and two children in a kajaveh mule panier
appear over the slope accompanied by about a dozen persians if i am surprised the lady herself not unnaturally evinces even greater astonishment
at the apparition of a lone wheelman here on the caravan roads of persia of course we are mutually delighted with the assistance of her servant
the lady alights from the saddle and introduces herself as missus e the wife of one of the persian missionaries her husband has lately returned home and she is on the way to join him
the persians accompanying her comprise her own servants some soldiers procured of the governor of tabreez by the english consul to
and a couple of unattached travellers keeping with the party for company and society a mule driver has charge of pack mules carrying boxes containing among other things her husband's library
during the course of ten minutes conversation the lady informs me that she is compelled to travel in this manner the whole distance to trebizond
from which point there would be steam communication with europe ere the poor lady gets to trebizond she will be likely to reflect that a government so civilized as the czar's might relax its gloomy laws
to a box of books and permit its transportation through the country on condition if they will that it should not be opened in transit surely there would be no danger of the people's minds being enlightened
not even a little bit by coming in contact with a library tightly boxed and sealed at the frontier an escort of turkish zaptiehs will take the place of the persian soldiers and at erzeroum
the missionaries will of course render her every assistance to trebizond but it is not without feelings of anxiety for the health of a lady travelling in this rough manner unaccompanied by her natural protector
is the most romantic incident in her whole experiences of missionary life in persia like many another she says
that i am travelling without attendants and without being able to speak the languages one of the unattached travellers gives me a note of introduction to mohammed ali khan the governor of peri a suburban village of khoi
merciful midas bunny said henriette one morning as i was removing the breakfast tray from her apartment did you see the extent of mister carnegie's benefactions in the published list this morning i have not received my paper yet said i moreover
i doubt if it will contain any reference to such matters when it does come
you cannot pick up a newspaper in any part of the land without discovering somewhere in its columns some reference to a new variety of house breaking some new and highly artistic method of writing another man's autograph so that when appended to a check and presented at his bank it will bear the closest scrutiny to which the paying teller will subject it
some truly napoleonic method of entirely novel design for the sudden parting of the rich from their possessions
would fail as ignobly as though it should forget to teach the fundamental principles of high finance i was not aware of their proficiency in that direction said i
because you are not quick to seize opportunities that lie directly under your nose how do you suppose i first learned of all this graft at newport why by reading the newspaper accounts of their jewels in the sunday and daily newspapers
and plays bridge there every night after the opera how do i know just how to walk from my hall bedroom in my little east side tenement up fifth avenue into missus gaster's dining room
only by an assiduous devotion to the contents of the daily newspapers in their reports of the doings of the socially elect i have a scrap book bunny
not a gem that has appeared at the opera the theatre the charity ball the horse show
fully described and in a sense located if it wasn't for that knowledge i could not hope for success any more than you could if you went hunting mountain lions in the desert of sahara or tried to lure speckled trout from the depths of an empty goldfish globe i see said i meekly
i have missed a great opportunity i will subscribe to the tribune and evening post right away
with a peal of silvery laughter that fairly made the welkin ring
i must have a carnegie library that is all there is about it and you must help the iron master has already spent thirty nine million dollars on that sort of thing and i don't see why if other people can get em we can't
possibly because we are not a city town or hamlet i suggested for i had been looking over the daily papers since my morning's talk with the lady and had observed just who had been the beneficiaries of mister carnegie's benefactions he don't give em to individuals but to communities
of course not she responded quickly but what is to prevent our becoming a municipality my answer was an amazed silence for frankly i could not for the life of me guess how we were to do any such thing it's the easiest thing in the world she continued
advertise the lots for sale on the instalment plan elect your mayor and raffleshurst by the sea swept by ocean breezes fifteen cents from the battery is a living breathing reality by the jumping disraeli henriette but you are a marvel i cried with enthusiasm
but i added my ardor cooling a little won't it cost money about fifteen hundred dollars said henriette i can win that at bridge in an hour well said i you know you can command my services henriette what shall i do
organize the city she replied here is fifty dollars
go down to long island buy the farm put up a few signs calling on people to own their own homes advertise the place in big capital letters in the sunday papers as likely to be the port of the future consider yourself duly elected mayor
stop in at some photograph shop in new york on your way back and get a few dozen pictures of street scenes in binghamton oberlin kalamazoo and other well populated cities and then come back here for further instructions meanwhile i will work out the other details of the scheme according to my habit
i had mapped out about twelve thousand corner lots on the thing and thanks to my knack at draughtsmanship
in this or any other country i then secured the photographs desired by my mistress
nothing would do but that henriette should visit the place in person the ads were so phrased she said as to be irresistible
and noted how well i had fulfilled her orders under proper direction you are a most able workman nothing could be better nothing absolutely nothing and now for mister carnegie i still did not see how the thing was coming out
but such was my confidence in my leader that i had no misgivings here is a letter from missus gaster
mayor of raffleshurst to mister carnegie said henriette you will call at once on the iron master
show him these photographs of the city hall at binghamton
then frankly and fearlessly put in your application for a one hundred and fifty thousand dollar library one picture this beautiful photograph of the music hall at the saint louis exhibition you must seem to overlook always
suppose missus gaster asks for further information about mayor higginbotham
i haven't studied penmanship for nothing you know missus gaster will never know so just put on your boldest front remember your name and don't forget to be modest about your own two hundred thousand dollar art gallery
were accustomed to helping ourselves to everything we could lay our hands on
seemed to strike him pleasantly what is that handsome structure you always pass over he asked as i contrived to push the music hall photograph aside for the fifth time i laughed deprecatingly oh that i said modestly
his face lighting up with real pleasure well mister higginbotham i guess i guess i'll do it i can't be outdone in generosity by you sir and er
well of course i began
yours and call it an even two hundred thousand dollars he interrupted you overwhelm me said i of course if you wish to and the raffleshurst common council will appropriate five per cent of that amount annually for its maintenance he inquired
such a resolution has already been passed said i taking a paper from my pocket here is the ordinance
again that extraordinary woman to provide me with so necessary a document the millionaire rose with alacrity and with his own hand drew me the required check mister mayor said he i like the quick business like way in which you do things
pray present my compliments to the citizens of raffleshurst by the sea and tell them i am only too glad to help them if you ever want a lake sir don't fail to call upon me with which gracious words the millionaire bowed me out
two hundred thousand dollars bunny cried henriette when i handed her the check yep said i well that is a good day's sport she said gazing at the slip twice as much as i expected yes said i
but see here henrietta suppose mister carnegie should go down to raffleshurst to see the new building
in the first place he suffers acutely from lumbago in winter and can't travel and in the second place he'd have to find raffleshurst by the sea before he could make the discovery that somebody'd put up a game on him i think by the time he is ready to start we can arrange matters to have raffleshurst taken off the map
well i think this is the cleverest trick you've turned yet henriette said i
how mabel was received by the party in the kitchen and of the quarrel between the two jesters addressing himself to a stout built yeoman of the guard who was standing within the doorway nicholas clamp demanded admittance to the kitchen
lighted by narrow loopholes pierced through the walls which were of immense thickness this passage described the outer side of the whole upper quadrangle and communicated with many other lateral passages and winding stairs leading to the chambers allotted to the household
or to the state apartments tracking it for some time nicholas clamp at length turned off on the right and crossing a sort of ante room
lighted by a great window at the lower end this was the royal kitchen and in it yawned no fewer than seven huge arched fireplaces in which fires were burning and before which various goodly joints were being roasted
while a number of cooks and scullions were congregated round them at a large table in the centre of the kitchen were seated some half dozen yeomen of the guard together with the clerk of the kitchen the chief bargeman and the royal cutler or bladesmith as he was termed
these worthies were doing ample justice to a chine of beef a wild boar pie a couple of fat capons a peacock pasty
behind this party stood giovanni joungevello an italian minstrel much in favour with anne boleyn and domingo lamellino or lamelyn as he was familiarly termed a lombard
astrology and alchemy and who was a constant attendant on henry at the head of the bench on the right of the table sat will sommers the jester was not partaking of the repast but was chatting with simon quanden the chief cook
and at his feet were two playful little turnspits with long backs and short forelegs as crooked almost as sickles on seeing mabel will sommers immediately arose and advancing towards her with a mincing step
bowed with an air of mock ceremony and said in an affected tone welcome fair mistress to the king's kitchen we are all right glad to see you are we not mates ay that we are replied a chorus of voices
by my troth the wench is wondrously beautiful said kit coo one of the yeomen of the guard no wonder the king is smitten with her said launcelot rutter the bladesmith her eyes shine like a dagger's point
and she carries herself like a wafter on the river said the bargeman her complexion is as good as if i had given her some of my sovereign balsam of beauty said domingo lamelyn much better observed joungevello the minstrel
and get flouted for thy pains by the lady anne said kit coo the damsel is not so comely as i expected to find her observed amice lovekyn one of the serving women to hector cutbeard the clerk of the kitchen
why if you come to that she is not to be compared to you pretty amice said cutbeard who was a red nosed red faced fellow with a twinkling merry eye
excuse my getting up to receive you fair mistress cried simon quanden who seemed fixed to his chair i have been bustling about all day and am sore fatigued sore fatigued but will you not take something
a sugared cate and a glass of hypocras jelly or a slice of capon go to the damsel dame and prevail on her to eat
what shall it be sweetheart we have a well stored larder here you have only to ask and have i thank you but i am in want of nothing replied mabel
i am sorry i must prove an exception then returned mabel smiling for i have no appetite well well i will not force you to eat against your will replied the good dame but a cup of wine will do you good after your walk
i will wait upon her said the duke of shoreditch who vied with paddington and nick clamp in attention to the damsel let me pray you to cast your eyes upon these two dogs fair mabel
they are special favourites of the king's highness
are fast friends when hob gets into the box to turn the spit nob will watch beside it till his brother is tired and then he will take his place they always eat out of the same platter and drink out of the same cup i once separated them for a few hours to see what would happen
but they howled so piteously that i was forced to bring them together again it would have done your heart good to witness their meeting and to see how they leaped and rolled with delight here hob he added taking a cake from his apron pocket divide this with thy brother
placing his paws upon his master's knees the nearest turnspit took the cake in his mouth and proceeding towards nob broke it into two pieces and pushed the larger portion towards him while mabel was admiring this display of sagacity and affection
a bustling step was heard behind her and turning she beheld a strange figure in a parti coloured gown and hose with a fool's cap and bells on his head whom she immediately recognised as the cardinal's jester patch the new comer recognised her too
stared in astonishment and gave a leering look at will sommers what brings you here gossip patch cried will sommers i thought you were in attendance upon your master at the court at blackfriars so i have been replied patch
and i am only just arrived with his grace what is the decision pronounced cried will sommers eagerly is the queen divorced is the king single again let us hear the sentence
stimulated by curiosity the whole of the party rose from the table simon quanden got out of his chair the other cooks left their joints to scorch at the fire the scullions suspended their work and hob and nob fixed their large inquiring black eyes upon the jester
i never talk thirsting said patch marching to the table and filling himself a flagon of mead here's to you fair maiden he added kissing the cup to mabel and swallowing its contents at a draught and now be seated my masters
and you shall hear all i have to relate and it will be told in a few words the court is adjourned for three days queen catherine having demanded that time to prepare her allegations and the delay has been granted her
the delay is some trick of your crafty and double dealing master cried will sommers
of all his thousand servitors replied will this shall to his grace's ears screamed patch amid the laughter of the company and see whether your back does not smart for it i fear him not replied will sommers
i have not yet told the king my master of the rare wine we found in his cellar what wine was that will cried jack of the bottles you shall hear replied will sommers enjoying the disconcerted look of the other jester i was at the palace at hampton
and accordingly to the cellar we went this wine will surprise you quoth he as we broached the first hogshead and truly it did surprise me for no wine followed the gimlet
upon this i seized a hammer which was lying by and sounded the casks but none of them seeming empty i at last broke the lid of one and what do you think it contained
during which patch sought to impose silence upon his opponent but will sommers was not to be checked it contained neither vinegar nor oil nor lead he said but gold
ay solid bars of gold ingots
credit him not my masters
the whole is a mere fable an invention his grace has no such treasure the truth is will sommers got drunk upon some choice malmsey and then dreamed he had been broaching casks of gold
this will be a richer result to him than was ever produced by your alchemical experiments good signor domingo lamelyn
screamed patch let the cellars be searched and i will stake my head nothing is found stake thy cap and there may be some meaning in it said will plucking patch's cap from his head and elevating it on his truncheon here is an emblem of the cardinal of york he cried pointing to it
and hob and nob looked up in placid wonderment
laughing cried simon quanden holding his fat sides and addressing his spouse who was leaning upon his shoulder in the meantime patch sprang to his feet and gesticulating with rage and fury cried
who is the fool now i should like to know rejoined will sommers gravely i call you all to witness that he has spoken treason while this was passing shoreditch had advanced with a flagon of malmsey to mabel
neither did she attend to nicholas clamp
now that it is all over i do not know whether she was really worn out
at any rate one morning in mid august when the newport season was in full feather
i just can't stand it for another minute bunny she faltered real tears coursing down her cheeks i haven't slept a wink of natural sleep for five days and yet when night comes it is all i can do to keep my eyes open
at the rockerbilt ball last night i dozed off four times while talking with the duchess of snarleyow and when the chinese ambassador asked me to sit out the gavotte with him i'm told i actually snored in his face a woman who can't keep awake all night and sleep properly by day is not fit for newport society
there is no use of trying to do too much and you have begun to show the strain to which you have been subjecting yourself your failure last friday night to land missus gollet's ruby dog collar
by all means go away and rest up i'll take care of things around here thank you dear said she with a grateful smile you need a change too bunny what would you say if i sent all the servants away too
so that you could have a week of absolute tranquillity it must be awful for a man of your refined sensibilities to have to associate so constantly with the housemaids the under butlers and the footmen nothing would please me better
for to tell the truth society below stairs was rapidly becoming caviar to my taste the housemaids were all right
i could wither when they grew too familiar but the footmen were intolerable guyers on more than one occasion their quick irish wit had put me to my trumps to maintain my dignity and i had noticed of late that their alleged fun at my expense had made even the parlormaid giggle in a most irritating fashion
the constant scrappes have a very excellent library and a line of reading in abstract morals in full calf that i should very much like to get at so be it then said henriette with a sigh of relief i will take my departure next saturday after the innitt's clam bake on honk island
i lived for months on the chafing dish before i found you again
and so the matter was arranged the servants were notified that owing to missus van raffles's illness they might take a vacation on full pay for ten days and henriette herself prepared society for her departure by fainting twice at the innit's clam bake on honk island
no less a person than missus gaster herself brought her home at four o'clock in the morning
for all our sakes saturday morning henriette departed saturday afternoon the servants followed suit
and oh how i revelled in it the beauties of bolivar lodge had never so revealed themselves to me as then the house as dark as the tomb without
but a blaze of light within from cellar to roof
a marvellous collection though for the most part wholly uncut everything moved along serenely until wednesday afternoon when i thought i heard a noise in the cellar
true i did not go down to see if any one were there
where i had left off at the moment of the interruption that evening i cooked myself a welsh rabbit
a bottle of champagne and a box of vencedoras prepared for a quiet evening of absolute luxury i read in the waning light of the dying midsummer day for a little while and then as darkness came on
the lamp would not light i pressed and pressed every button in the room but with no better results and then going through the house i tried every other button i could find but everywhere conditions were the same
i realized that after all nothing could be pleasanter than to sit in the moonlight and smoke and quaff bumpers of champagne until the crack of doom
and kept at it pretty steadily until i should say about eleven o'clock when i heard unmistakable signs of a large automobile coming up the drive
and then stood panting like an impatient steam engine while the chauffeur a person of medium height well muffled in his automobile coat his features concealed behind his goggles and his mouth covered by his collar rapped loudly on the front door once then a second time
if i sought the name i was not to be gratified
before i could get a word from my already somewhat champagne twisted tongue lead me to the dining room well there i was defenceless taken by surprise unarmed not too wide awake comfortably filled with champagne and in no particularly fighting mood what could i do but yield
and to tell the truth so imbued was i with the politer spirit of the gentle art of house breaking that this sudden confrontation with the ruder rough house methods of the highwayman left me entirely unable to cope with the situation certainly said i turning and ushering him down the hall
take me to my lady's boudoir there is room in the car for a few more objects of virtu i obeyed on the instant
pictures bric a brac and other things to the tune of twenty thousand dollars more were removed
good night sir when i am safely out of town i'll telegraph the police to come and rescue you from your present awkward position and let me tell you if you give them the slightest hint of my personal appearance by the hopping harcourt i'll come back and kill you see and with that he made off
the highwayman had at least been true to his word
accurate stories in detail under huge scare type headlines appeared in all the papers
the whole country rang with it and the afternoon train brought not only detectives by the score but the representative of the constant scrappes and henriette herself she was highly hysterical over the loss not only of her own property but that of her landlord as well but nobody blamed me the testimony of the police
as to my condition when found fully substantiated my story and was accepted as ample evidence that i had no criminal connection with the robbery this was a great relief to me but it was greater when henriette stroked my hand and called me poor old bunny for i must say
i was worried as to what she would think of me for having proven so poor a guardian of her property since then months have passed and not a vestige of the stolen property has been recovered the constant scrappes bore their loss with equanimity as became them
since no one could have foreseen such a misfortune as overtook them and as for missus van raffles she never mentioned the matter again to me save once
he was a clever rascal you say bunny she asked one morning
a big fellow she grinned with a queer smile oh about your height said i well
if you give them the slightest hint of my personal appearance i'll come back and kill you see the man's very words and then she laughed what i cried it was you was it she returned airily
when you had the stuff right here is what puzzles me said i oh it wasn't any trouble she replied just sport you looked so funny sitting up there in your pajamas and besides a material fact such as that hold up is apt to be more convincing to the police
to say nothing of the constant scrappes than any mere story we could invent well you'd better be careful henriette i said with a shiver the detectives are clever true bunny she answered gravely but you see the highwayman was a man and well i'm a woman dear i can prove an alibi
by the way you left the cellar door unlocked that wednesday
they have been playing on the lawns since seven o'clock this morning
missus rockerbilt gives a tea for the benefit of the fresh air fund
so as to get them in shape for the function get them in shape for the function bunny asked henriette yes one of the features of the tea is the presence of the youngsters
said i for digby had explained the scheme in detail to me you see their ideas of fun are rather primitive and if they were suddenly introduced into polite society without any previous training
as between eating an over ripe peach and throwing it at the pot hat of a willie boy the ragamuffin would deny even the cravings of his stomach for that tender morsel it is his delight too to heave tin cans wash boilers flat irons pies anything he can lay his hands on
at the automobilly boys if i may use the term of all of which before he is turned loose in the highest social circles of the land it is desirable that he shall be cured i see said henriette and so missus rockerbilt has them here on a ten days probation
during which time they acquire that degree of savoir faire and veneer of etiquette which alone makes it possible for her to exhibit them at her tea precisely said i she lets them sleep in the big box stalls of her stable where the extra coach horses were kept before the motor car craze came in
all at missus rockerbilt's expense
i think there is a better method ah i want you to run down to new york for a few days shortly bunny i have a letter i wish you to mail nothing more was said on the subject until the following tuesday
when i was despatched to new york with instructions to organize myself into a winter fresh air society to have letter heads printed with the names of some of the most prominent ladies in society as patronesses henriette had secured permission from missus gaster missus sloyd jinks missus rockerbilt
missus gushington andrews missus r u innitt the duchess of snarleyow missus willie k van pelt and numerous others to use their names in connection with the new enterprise and to write her a letter asking if she would not interest herself and her friends in the needs of the new society
it is quite as important the letter ran that there should be a fund to take the little sufferers of our dreadful winters away from the sleet and snow burdened streets of the freezing city as it is to give them their summer outing
this society is in great need of twenty five thousand dollars properly to prosecute its work during the coming winter and we appeal to you for aid henriette's personal response to this request was a check for ten thousand dollars
which as secretary and treasurer of the fund i acknowledged and then of course returned to her whereupon her campaign began in earnest her own enthusiasm for the project backed up by her most generous contribution proved contagious and inside of two weeks not counting henriette's check
we were in possession of over seventeen thousand dollars one lady going so far as to give us all her bridge winnings for a week and now for the grand coup bunny said missus van raffles when i had returned with the spoil great scot i cried haven't you got enough
no bunny not a quarter enough she replied these winter resorts are very expensive places and while seventeen thousand dollars would do very nicely for running a farm in summer we shall need quite a hundred thousand to send our beneficiaries to palm beach in proper style
palm beach eh yes said henriette palm beach i have always wanted to go there and the one hundred thousand dollars
i shall give a lawn fete and bazaar for the benefit of the fund it will differ from missus rockerbilt's tea in that i shall charge ten dollars admission ten dollars to get out and we shall sell things besides
i have already spoken to missus gaster about it and she is delighted with the idea she has promised to stock the flower table with the cream of her conservatories missus rockerbilt has volunteered to take charge of the refreshments
and raffled at five dollars a guess
where we shall sell gold match boxes solid silver automobile head lights cigar cutters cocktail shakers and other necessities of life among the select i don't see how the thing can fail do you not so far said i
each of the twelve lady patronesses has promised to be responsible for the sale of a hundred tickets of admission at ten dollars apiece that makes twelve thousand dollars in admissions it will cost each person ten dollars more to get out which if only half of the tickets are used will be six thousand dollars or
gad i ejaculated wall street would have been an infant in your hands well the fateful day came henriette to do her justice had herself spared no pains or expense to make the thing a success i doubt if the gardens of the constant scrappes ever looked so beautiful
there were flowers everywhere and hanging from tree to tree from one end of their twenty acres to the other were long and graceful garlands of multicolored electric lights that when night came down upon the fete made the scene appear like a veritable glimpse of fairyland
who may always be counted upon to pay well to see their names in print or to get a view of society at close range of course there was music of an entrancing sort the numbers being especially designed to touch the flintiest of hearts and henriette was everywhere no one great or small
in that vast gathering but received one of her gracious smiles and it is no exaggeration to say that half of the flowers purchased at rates that would make a fifth avenue tailor hang his head in shame were bought by the gallant gentlemen of newport
these were immediately placed on sale again so that on the flower account the receipts were perceptibly swelled a more festal occasion has never been known even in this festal environment the richest of the land vied with one another in making the affair a vast financial success
the ever gallant tommy dare left the scene twenty times for the mere privilege of paying his way in and out that many times over at ten dollars each way the doll which senator defew had named was also the cause of much merriment
since when all was over and some thirteen thousand five hundred dollars had been taken in for guesses it was found that the senator had forgotten the name he had given it when the laughter over this incident had subsided
which plan was immediately followed out with the result that the handiwork of the duchess of snarleyow was knocked down for eight thousand six hundred and seventy five dollars to a cincinnati brewer who had been trying for eight years to get his name
thank goodness that's over said henriette when the last guest had gone and the lights were out it has been a very delightful affair but towards the end it began to get on my nerves i am really appalled bunny at the amount of money we have taken in
did you get the full one hundred thousand dollars i asked full hundred thousand she cried hysterically listen to this and she read the following memorandum of the day's receipts flower table thirty six thousand dollars doll
great heavens what a haul i cried but how much did you spend yourself oh about twenty thousand dollars bunny i really felt i could afford it we'll net not less than one hundred and fifty thousand i was suddenly seized with a chill
the thing scares me henriette i murmured
oh laughed henriette i shall immediately turn the money over to the fund you can send me a receipt and that will let us out
even then i began tush bunny said she there isn't going to be any even then six months from now these people will have forgotten all about
their memory for faces and the money they spend is shorter than the purse of a bankrupt have no fear and as usual henriette was right for the next february when the beneficiaries of the winter fresh air fund spent a month at palm beach
enjoying the best that favored spot afforded in the way of entertainment and diversion not a word of criticism was advanced by anybody although the party consisted solely of missus van raffles her maid and bunny her butler in fact the contrary was the truth
the people we met while there many of whom had contributed most largely to the fund welcomed us with open arms little suspecting how intimately connected they were with our sources of supply missus gaster it is true
that it was doing very well the beneficiaries did very well here said henriette i have seen nothing of them observed missus gaster well no said henriette the managers thought it was better to send them here before the season was at its height
the moral influences of palm beach at the top of the season are well a trifle strong for the young don't you think she explained the tin type i hand you will give you some idea of how much one of the beneficiaries enjoyed himself
to the patriarch abraham and preserved at mecca the patriarch had perhaps asked the archangel for bread cabbage n a familiar kitchen garden vegetable
the cabbage is so called from cabagius a prince who on ascending the throne issued a decree appointing a high council of empire consisting of the members
had been beheaded and his murmuring subjects were appeased calamity
a more than commonly plain and unmistakable reminder
calamities are of two kinds misfortune to ourselves and good fortune to others callous
gifted with great fortitude to bear the evils afflicting another when zeno was told that one of his enemies was no more he was observed to be deeply moved what said one of his disciples
ah tis true replied the great stoic but you should see me smile at the death of a friend calumnus
of great value to the show business
the camel proper and the camel improper it is the latter that is always exhibited cannibal
who preserves the simple tastes and adheres to the natural diet of the pre pork period cannon
canonicals
the motley worm by jesters of the court of heaven capital
the seat of misgovernment that which provides the fire the pot the dinner the table
the part of the repast that himself supplies is the disgrace before meat capital punishment a penalty regarding the justice and expediency of which many worthy persons including all the assassins
entertain grave misgivings carmelite
across mount camel he took his way where he met a mendicant monk some three or four quarters drunk
who held out his hands and cried give give in charity's name i pray
give that her holy sons may live and death replied smiling long and wide i'll give holy father i'll give thee a ride
the monarch laughed loud with a sound that fell like clods on the coffin's sounding shell ho ho a beggar on horseback they say
and thump fell the flat of his dart on the rump
road were dim and blended and blue
death laughed again as a tomb might laugh at a burial service spoiled
many a year and many a day have passed since these events away the monk has long been a dusty corse
with barley and oil and bread
and so in due course was appointed prior
carnivorous a d j addicted to the cruelty of devouring the timorous vegetarian his heirs and assigns cartesian a d
a famous philosopher author of the celebrated dictum
whereby he was pleased to suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence the dictum might be improved however thus
i think that i think therefore i think that i am as close an approach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made cat
a soft indestructible automaton
when things go wrong in the domestic circle
run dog mew cat jump frog gnaw rat
cemetery
an isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies
olympian games his virtues were so conspicuous that his enemies unable to overlook them
to whose loose lives they were a rebuke represented them as vices they are here commemorated by his family who shared them
thomas m and mary frazer
centaur
a race of persons who lived before the division of labor had
economic maxim every man his own horse the best of the lot was chiron
the watch dog of hades whose duty it was to guard the entrance against whom or what does not clearly appear
professor graybill whose clerky erudition and profound knowledge of greek give his opinion great weight has averaged all the estimates and makes the number twenty seven a judgment that would be entirely conclusive
is professor graybill had known a something about dogs and b something about arithmetic childhood
the period of human life intermediate between the idiocy of infancy
two removes from the sin of manhood and three from the remorse of age christian
one who believes that the new testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited
one who follows the teachings of christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin i dreamed i stood upon a hill and lo the godly multitudes walked to and fro
beneath in sabbath garments fitly clad with pious mien appropriately sad while all the church bells made a solemn din a fire alarm to those who lived in sin then saw i gazing thoughtfully below with tranquil face
upon that holy show a tall spare figure
i exclaimed you are no doubt your habit shows it from afar
like these good people are a christian too he raised his eyes and with a look so stern it made me with a thousand blushes burn replied his manner with disdain was spiced what i a christian
no indeed i'm christ
circus
a place where horses ponies and elephants are permitted to see men women and children acting the fool clairvoyant
namely that he is a blockhead
instrument of torture operated by a person with cotton in his ears there are two instruments that are worse than a clarionet two clarionets clergyman
as a method of bettering his temporal ones clio n one of the nine muses clio's function was to preside over history which she did with great dignity
many of the prominent citizens of athens occupying seats on the platform the meetings being addressed by messrs xenophon
clock n a machine of great moral value to man
a busy man complained one day i get no time what's that you say cried out his friend a lazy quiz you have sir all the time there is there's plenty too and don't you doubt it we're never for an hour without it
crofe close fisted
close fisted scotchman johnson cried to thrifty j macpherson
o coenobite monastical gregarian you differ from the anchorite that solitudinarian with vollied prayers you wound old nick with dropping shots he makes him sick
comfort n a state of mind produced by contemplation of a neighbor's uneasiness commendation
the tribute that we pay to achievements that resembles but do not equal our own commerce
a kind of transaction in which a plunders from b the goods of c and for compensation b picks the pocket of d of money belonging to e commonwealth n an
of political parasites logically active but fortuitously efficient this commonwealth's capitol's corridors view so thronged with a hungry and indolent crew of clerks pages porters and all attaches whom rascals appoint and the populace pays
misfortune attend and disaster befall may life be to them a succession of hurts may fleas by the bushel inhabit their shirts may aches and diseases encamp in their bones their lungs full of tubercles bladders of stones
may corn cobs be snared without hope in their hair and frequent impalement their pleasure impair
by chairs acrobatic and wavering floors the mattress that kicks and the pillow that snores sons of cupidity cradled in sin your criminal ranks may the death angel thin avenging the friend whom i couldn't work in
compromise
such an adjustment of conflicting interests
and is deprived of nothing except what was justly his due compulsion
condole
to show that bereavement is a smaller evil than sympathy confidant confidante
one entrusted by a with the secrets of b confided by him to c congratulation
the civility of envy congress
a body of men who meet to repeal laws connoisseur
specialist who knows everything about something and nothing about anything else
some wine was pouted on his lips to revive him pauillac eighteen seventy three he murmured and died conservative
a statesman who is enamored of existing evils as distinguished from the liberal who wishes to replace them with others consolation
the knowledge that a better man is more unfortunate than yourself consul
in american politics a person
is given one by the administration on condition that he leave the country consult
to seek another's disapproval of a course already decided on contempt
controversy
a battle in which spittle or ink replaces the injurious cannon ball and the inconsiderate bayonet in controversy with the facile tongue that bloodless warfare of the old and young
so seek your adversary to engage that on himself he shall exhaust his rage and like a snake that's fastened to the ground with his own fangs inflict the fatal wound you ask me how this miracle is done adopt his own opinions
one by one and taunt him to refute them
pitilessly from his path advance then gently all you wish to prove each proposition prefaced with as you've so well remarked or as you wisely say and i cannot dispute or by the way this view of it which better far expressed
runs through your argument then leave the rest to him secure that he'll perform his trust and prove your views intelligent and just
apel brune convent
a place of retirement for woman who wish for leisure to meditate upon the vice of idleness conversation
each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor coronation n the ceremony of investing a sovereign with the outward and visible signs of his
with a dynamite bomb corporal
a man who occupies the lowest rung of the military ladder fiercely the battle raged and sad to tell our corporal heroically fell fame from her height looked down upon the brawl and said he hadn't very far to fall
corporation
an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility corsair
a politician of the seas court fool n the plaintiff coward
one who in a perilous emergency
desolating incursions cremona n a high priced violin made in connecticut critic
where saints apparelled all in white fling back the critic's mud and as he legs it through the skies his pelt a sable hue he sorrows sore to recognize the missiles that he threw
to the rites of primitive peoples we have to day the white cross as a symbol of chastity and the red cross as a badge of benevolent neutrality in war having in mind the former the reverend father gassalasca jape
be good be good the sisterhood cry out in holy chorus
parade their various charms before us
flaunting the white cross banner now where's the need of speech and screed to better our behaving
from bad thoughts that beset him
and wants to sin don't let him cui bono latin what good would that do me cunning
the faculty that distinguishes a weak animal or person from a strong one it brings its possessor much mental satisfaction and great material adversity an italian proverb says
the furrier gets the skins of more foxes than asses cupid
to the wounds of an arrow of introducing this pudgy homunculus into art grossly to materialize the subtle spirit and suggestion of the work this is eminently worthy of the age that giving it birth laid it on the doorstep of prosperity
curiosity
an objectionable quality of the female mind
and insatiable passions of the masculine soul curse
particularly in the drama is commonly fatal to the victim nevertheless the liability to a cursing is a risk that cuts but a small figure in fixing the rates of life insurance cynic
a blackguard whose faulty vision
the lower world the residence of departed spirits the place where the dead live
many of the most respectable men of antiquity residing there in a very comfortable kind of way indeed the elysian fields themselves were a part of hades though they have since been removed to paris
evolution the pious and learned men engaged in the work insisted by a majority vote on translating the greek word
as hell but a conscientious minority member secretly possessed himself of the record and struck out the objectional word
at the next meeting the bishop of salisbury looking over the work
with considerable excitement gentlemen somebody has been razing hell here years afterward the good prelate's death was made sweet by the reflection that he had been the means under providence
serviceable and immortal addition to the phraseology of the english tongue hag
sometimes called also a hen or cat
baleful lumination or nimbus hag being the popular name of that peculiar
drayton speaks of a beautiful hag all smiles much as shakespeare said
half
one of two equal parts into which a thing may be divided or considered as divided in the fourteenth century a heated discussion arose among theologists and philosophers as to whether omniscience could part an object
aldrovinus publicly prayed
in some signal and unmistakable way and particularly if it should please him upon the body of that hardy blasphemer
who maintained the negative procinus however
halo
properly a luminous ring encircling an astronomical body but not infrequently confounded with aureola or nimbus a somewhat similar phenomenon worn as a head dress by divinities and saints
the halo is a purely optical illusion
in the manner of a rainbow but the aureola is conferred as a sign of superior sanctity in the same way as a bishop's mitre
but an ass nibbling hay from the sacred manger is similarly decorated and to his lasting honor be it said appears to bear his unaccustomed dignity with a truly saintly grace
and commonly thrust into somebody's pocket
a small square of silk or linen used in various ignoble offices
our ancestors knew nothing of it
shakespeare's introducing it into the play of othello is an anachronism
an evidence that revolutions sometimes go backward hangman
an officer of the law charged with duties of the highest dignity and utmost gravity and held in hereditary disesteem by a populace having a criminal ancestry
as in new jersey where executions by electricity have recently been ordered
of hanging jerseymen happiness
an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another harangue
a speech by an opponent who is known as an
harbor
a place where ships taking shelter from stores are exposed to the fury of the customs harmonists
a sect of protestants now extinct
and dissensions hash x there is no definition for this word nobody knows what hash is hatchet
a young axe known among indians as a thomashawk o bury the hatchet irascible red
the white man said the savage concurred and that weapon interred with imposing rites in the white man's head
hatred
a sentiment appropriate to the occasion of another's superiority head money
a capitation tax or poll tax in ancient times there lived a king whose tax collectors could not wring from all his subjects gold enough
for pleasure's highway like the dames whose premises adjoin it claims perpetual repairing so the tax collectors in a row appeared before the throne to pray their master
so great said they are the demands of state a tithe of all that we collect will scarcely meet them pray reflect how if one tenth we must resign
the monarch asked them in reply has it occurred to you to try the advantage of economy it has the spokesman said we sold all of our gray garrotes of gold with plated ware we now compress
the necks of those whom we assess plain iron forceps we employ
that which your majesty requires deep lines of thought were seen to plow their way across the royal brow your state is desperate no question pray favor me with a suggestion o king of men the spokesman said
if you'll impose upon each head a tax the augmented revenue we'll cheerfully divide with you as flashes of the sun illume the parted storm cloud's sullen gloom the king smiled grimly i decree that it be so and
not to be in generosity outdone declare you each and every one exempted from the operation of this new law of capitation but lest the people censure me because they're bound
the monarch from the throne room walked and straightway in among them stalked a silent man with brow concealed bare armed his gleaming axe revealed
hearse
death's baby carriage heart
an automatic muscular blood pump figuratively
becomes a feeling tender or not
the marvelous functional methods of converting a hard boiled egg into religious contrition or a cream puff into a sigh of sensibility
and by him expounded with convincing lucidity
and certain intestinal gases freed in digestion
delectatio demonorum john camden hotton
love as a product of alimentary maceration heat
crede expertum i have seen them child
heathen
that he can see and feel according to professor howison of the california state university hebrews are heathens the hebrews are heathens says howison he's a christian philosopher i'm
a scurril agnostical chap if you please addicted too much to the crime
a place where the wicked cease from troubling you with talk of their personal affairs and the good listen with attention while you expound your own hebrew
a male jew as distinguished from the shebrew an altogether superior creation helpmate
a wife or bitter half now why is yer wife called a helpmate pat says the priest since the time o yer wooin
a plant from whose fibrous bark is made an article of neckwear
hermit
a person whose vices and follies are not sociable hers pron his hibernate
many believe that the bear hibernates during the whole winter
so lean that it had to try twice
three or four centuries ago in england no fact was better attested than that swallows passed the winter months in the mud at the bottom of their brooks clinging together in globular masses
and account of the foulness of the brooks
by some investigators
a modified form of hibernation
but this view was strenuously opposed by that eminent authority
a one quarter eagle which is two dollars and fifty cents in gold
historian
a broad gauge gossip history n an account mostly false of events mostly unimportant which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves and soldiers mostly fools
of roman history great niebuhr's shown tis nine tenths lying faith i wish twere known ere we accept great niebuhr as a guide wherein he blundered and how much he lied
hog n
and serving to illustrate that of ours among the mahometans and jews the hog is not in favor
and the melody of its voice it is chiefly as a songster that the fowl is esteemed the cage of him in full chorus has been known to draw tears from two persons at once the scientific name of this dicky bird is porcus rockefelleri
but it is considered his by right of resemblance
the humorist of the medical profession homoeopathy
a school of medicine midway between allopathy and christian science to the last both the others are distinctly inferior for christian science will cure imaginary diseases and they can not homicide
the slaying of one human being by another there are four kinds of homocide felonious excusable justifiable and praiseworthy but it makes no great difference to the person slain
whether he fell by one kind or another the classification is for advantage of the lawyers homiletics
the science of adapting sermons to the spiritual needs capacities and conditions of the congregation so skilled the parson was in homiletics that all his normal purges and emetics
with a most just discrimination founded upon a rigorous examination
then having diagnosed each one's condition his scriptural specifics this physician administered his pills so efficacious and pukes of disposition so vivacious that souls afflicted with ten kinds of adam
were convalescent ere they knew they had em but slander's tongue itself all coated
her bilious mind and scandalously muttered that in the case of patients having money the pills were sugar and the pukes were honey
honorable
afflicted with an impediment in one's reach
as honorable as the honorable gentleman is a scurvy cur hope
desire and expectation rolled into one delicious hope when naught to man it left of fortune destitute of friends bereft when even his dog deserts him and his goat
with tranquil disaffection chews his coat while yet it hangs upon his back then thou the star far flaming on thine angel brow descendest radiant from the skies to hint the promise of a clerkship in the mint
hospitality
the virtue which induces us to feed and lodge certain persons who are not in need of food and lodging hostility
a peculiarly sharp and specially applied sense of the earth's overpopulation hostility is classified as active and passive as respectively the feeling of a woman for her female friends
and that which she entertains for all the rest of her sex
inhabiting the mohammedan paradise to make things cheery for the good mussulman
by that good lady the houris are said to be held in deficient esteem house
a hollow edifice erected for the habitation of man rat mouse beetle cockroach fly mosquito flea bacillus and microbe
house of correction a place of reward for political
and appropriations house of god a building with a steeple and a mortgage on it house dog
to insult persons passing by
house maid a youngerly person of the opposing sex
in the station in which it has pleased god to place her houseless
having paid all taxes on household goods hovel
twaddle had a hovel
a sentiment as novel as a castor on a chalice
who began to lift his noddle feed upon the fiddle faddle flummery unswaddle a new born self sufficiency and think himself a mockery
humanity
the human race collectively exclusive of the anthropoid poets humorist
a plague that would have softened down the hoar austerity of pharaoh's heart and persuaded him to dismiss israel with his best wishes cat quick lo the poor humorist whose tortured mind
see jokes in crowds though still to gloom inclined whose simple appetite untaught to stray his brains renewed by night consumes by day he thinks admitted to an equal sty a graceful hog would bear his company
alexander poke hurricane
and is preferred by certain old fashioned sea captains
but generally speaking the hurricane's usefulness has outlasted it hurry
the dispatch of bunglers husband
one who having dined is charged with the care of the plate hybrid
a pooled issue hydra
a kind of animal that the ancients catalogued under many heads hyena
a beast held in reverence by some oriental nations from its habit of frequenting at night the burial places of the dead but the medical student does that hypochondriasis
depression of one's own spirits some heaps of trash upon a vacant lot where long the village rubbish had been shot displayed a sign among the stuff and stumps
mode fowls to be tender should be killed a couple of days before they are dressed when the feathers come out easily then let them be picked and cooked in drawing them be careful not to break the gall bag
the liver and gizzard should also be preserved truss them in the following manner after having carefully picked them cut off the head and skewer the skin of the neck down over the back cut off the claws
dip the legs in boiling water and scrape them turn the pinions under run a skewer through them and the middle of the legs which should be passed through the body to the pinion and leg on the other side one skewer securing the limbs on both sides
the liver and gizzard should be placed in the wings the liver on one side and the gizzard on the other tie the legs together by passing a trussing needle threaded with twine through the backbone
if trussed like a capon the legs are placed more apart when firmly trussed singe them all over put them down to a bright clear fire paper the breasts with a sheet of buttered paper and keep the fowls well basted
and ten minutes before serving remove the paper dredge the fowls with a little fine flour put a piece of butter into the basting ladle and as it melts baste the fowls with it when nicely frothed and of a rich colour
a little of which should be poured over the fowls
mushroom oyster or egg sauce are very suitable accompaniments to roast fowl chicken is roasted in the same manner time a very large fowl quite one hour
average cost in full season
sufficient for six or seven persons seasonable all the year but scarce in early spring the diseases of fowls and how to cure them the diseases to which gallus domesticus is chiefly liable are roup
pip scouring and chip the first mentioned is the most common of all and results from cold the ordinary symptoms swollen eyes running at the nostrils and the purple colour of the wattles
part birds so affected from the healthy ones as when the disease is at its height it is as contagious as glanders among horses wash out the nostrils with warm water give daily a peppercorn inclosed in dough
bathe the eyes and nostrils with warm milk and water if the head is much swollen bathe with warm brandy and water when the bird is getting well put half a spoonful of sulphur in his drinking water
some fanciers prescribe for this disease half a spoonful of table salt dissolved in half a gill of water in which rue has been steeped others pills composed of ground rice and fresh butter
but the remedy first mentioned will be found far the best as there is a doubt respecting the wholesomeness of the eggs laid by roupy hens it will be as well to throw them away the pip is a white horny skin growing on the tip of the bird's tongue
it should be removed with the point of a penknife and the place rubbed with salt fowl and rice croquettes an entree
minced fowl egg and bread crumbs mode put the rice into the above proportion of cold stock or broth
then add the butter and simmer it till quite dry and soft when cold make it into balls hollow out the inside
cover over with rice dip the balls into egg sprinkle them with bread crumbs and fry a nice brown dish them and garnish with fried parsley
may be stirred into the rice before it cools
average cost exclusive of the fowl
at any time chip if the birds are allowed to puddle about on wet soil or to be much out in the rain they will get chip young chicks are especially liable to this complaint they will sit shivering in out of the way corners
though on handling them they are found to be in high fever a wholesale breeder would take no pains to attempt the cure of fowls so afflicted but they who keep chickens for the pleasure and not for the profit they yield will be inclined to recover them if possible
give them none but warm food half a peppercorn rolled in a morsel of dough every night and a little nitre in their water above all keep them warm a corner in the kitchen fender
will do more to effect a cure than the run of a druggist's warehouse croquettes of fowl an entree
one teaspoonful of flour white sauce pepper salt and pounded mace to taste
the remains of cold roast fowls the yolks of two eggs egg and bread crumbs mode mince the fowl carefully removing all skin and bone and fry the shalots in the butter add the minced fowl
dredge in the flour put in the pepper salt mace pounded sugar and sufficient white sauce to moisten it stir to it the yolks of two well beaten eggs and set it by to cool then make the mixture up into balls
egg and bread crumb them and fry a nice brown they may be served on a border of mashed potatoes with gravy or sauce in the centre time
seasonable at any time the turn what is termed turrling with song birds is known as regard fowls as the turn its origin is the same in both cases over feeing and want of exercise
without a moment's warning a fowl so afflicted will totter and fall from its perch and unless assistance be at hand speedily give up the ghost the veins of the palate should be opened and a few drops of mixture
composed of six parts of sweet nitre and one of ammonia poured down its throat i have seen ignorant keepers plunge a bird stricken with the turn into cold water but i never saw it taken out again alive and for a good reason
the sudden chill has the effect of driving the blood to the head of aggravating the disease indeed instead of relieving it hashed fowl an entree cold meat cookery
ingredients the remains of cold roast fowl one pint of water one onion two or three small carrots
an onion sliced and fried of a nice brown
lay in the fowl thoroughly warm it through add the ketchup and garnish with sippets of toasted bread time
average cost exclusive of the cold fowl
seasonable at any time skin disease in fowls skin disease is nine times out of ten caused by the feathers being swarmed by parasites poor feeding will induce this even if cleanliness be observed
uncleanliness however liberal the bill of fare will be taken as an invitation by the little biting pests and heartily responded to mix half a teaspoonful of hydro oxalic acid with twelve teaspoonfuls of water
apply to the itching parts with an old shaving brush obstruction of the crop obstruction of the crop is occasioned by weakness or greediness you may know when a bird is so afflicted by his crop being distended almost to bursting
mowbray tells of a hen of his in this predicament when the crop was opened a quantity of new beans were discovered in a state of vegetation the crop should be slit from the bottom to the top with a sharp pair of scissors the contents taken out
minced fowl an entree cold meat cookery
ingredients the remains of cold roast fowl two hard boiled eggs salt cayenne and pounded mace one onion one faggot of savoury herbs six tablespoonfuls of cream
two teaspoonfuls of flour a half teaspoonful of finely minced lemon peel one tablespoonful of lemon juice mode cut out from the fowl all the white meat and mince it finely without any skin or bone
put the bones skin and trimmings into a stewpan with an onion a bunch of savoury herbs a blade of mace and nearly a pint of water let this stew for an hour then strain the liquor chop the eggs small mix them with the fowl
add salt cayenne and pounded mace put in the gravy and remaining ingredients let the whole just boil and serve with sippets of toasted bread time rather more than one hour average cost exclusive of the fowl
note another way to make this is to mince the fowl
three or four poached eggs may be placed on the top oysters or chopped mushrooms or balls of oyster forcemeat may be laid round the dish the moulting season during the moulting season beginning properly at the end of september
the fowls will require a little extra attention
if he is weakly or should take cold during the time he will not thoroughly recover in less than three months it is seldom or ever that hens will lay during the moult while the cock
keep him by himself till he perfectly recovers a moulting chicken makes but a sorry dish hashed fowl indian fashion an entree
ingredients the remains of cold roast fowl three or four sliced onions one apple
pounded mace pepper and salt to taste one tablespoonful of curry powder two tablespoonfuls of vinegar one tablespoonful of flour one teaspoonful of pounded sugar one pint of gravy mode
cut the onions into slices mince the apple and fry these in the butter add pounded mace pepper salt curry powder vinegar flour and sugar in the above proportions when the onion is brown
add the fowl cut into nice sized joints let it warm through and when quite tender serve
average cost exclusive of the fowl
the scour or dysentery the scour or dysentery or diarrhoea is induced variously a sudden alteration in diet will cause it as will a superabundance of green food
the best remedy is a piece of toasted biscuit sopped in ale if the disease has too tight a hold on the bird to be quelled by this
and six drops of castor oil mixed with a little oatmeal or ground rice
fowl scollops
cut the meat into thin slices
it has ramified into many varieties none of which are destitute of elegance and some indeed remarkable for their beauty all are or ought to be of small size but lively and vigorous
exhibiting in their movements both grace and stateliness the variety shown in the engraving is remarkable for the tarsi or beams of the legs being plumed to the toes with stiff long feathers which brush the ground
owing possibly to the little care taken to preserve this variety from admixture it is now not frequently seen another variety is often red
and single dentated comb the tarsi are smooth and of a dusky blue when this sort of bantam is pure it yields in courage and spirit to none
being as beautiful and graceful as it is spirited a pure white bantam possessing all the qualifications just named
an indian dish of fowl an entree
ingredients the remains of cold roast fowl three or four sliced onions one tablespoonful of curry powder salt to taste mode divide the fowl into joints slice and fry the onions in a little butter
taking care not to burn them sprinkle over the fowl a little curry powder and salt fry these nicely pile them high in the centre of the dish cover with the onion and serve with a cut lemon on a plate care must be taken that the onions are not greasy
they should be quite dry but not burnt time
ten minutes to fry the fowl average cost exclusive of the fowl
there are two varieties the golden speckled and the silver speckled the general colour of the former is golden or orange yellow each feather having a glossy dark brown or black tip particularly remarkable on the hackles of the cock and the wing coverts
the female is yellow or orange brown the feathers in like manner being margined with black the silver speckled variety is distinguished by the ground colour of the plumage being of a silver white with perhaps a tinge of straw yellow
both of these varieties are extremely beautiful the hens laying freely first rate birds command a high price fowl saute with peas an entree
ingredients the remains of cold roast fowl
pepper salt and pounded mace to taste one dessertspoonful of flour
one pint of green peas one teaspoonful of pounded sugar mode cut the fowl into nice pieces put the butter into a stew pan sautez or fry the fowl a nice brown colour
dredge in the flour shake the ingredients well round then add the stock and peas and stew till the latter are tender
egg and bread crumbs mode take the breasts and nice white meat from the fowls cut it into small dice of an equal size and throw them into some good bechamel
season with salt and cayenne and put the mixture into a dish to cool when this preparation is quite cold cut it into two equal parts
the size of the dish they are intended to be served on roll them in flour egg and bread crumb them and be careful that the ends are well covered with the crumbs otherwise they would break in the frying pan fry them a nice colour
and serve with the remainder of the bechamel poured round
called sir john sebright's silver bantams this breed which sir john brought to perfection after years of careful trials is very small with un feathered legs and a rose comb and short hackles
the plumage is gold or silver spangled every feather being of a golden orange or of a silver white with a glossy jet black margin the cocks have the tail folded like that of a hen with the sickle feathers shortened straight or nearly so
and broader than usual the term hen cocks is in consequence often applied to them but although the sickle feathers are thus modified no bird possesses higher courage or a more gallant carriage
the attitude of the cock is indeed singularly proud and he is often seen to bear himself so haughtily that his head thrown back as if in disdain nearly touches the two upper feathers sickles they can scarcely be called
half bred birds of this kind are not uncommon but birds of the pure breed are not to be obtained without trouble and expense
the finest says the writer whom we have consulted as to this breed we have ever seen were in sir john's poultry yard adjacent to turnham green common in the byroad leading to acton fowl a la mayonnaise
four or five young lettuces four hard boiled eggs a few water cresses
mode cut the fowl into neat joints
and garnish the dish with young lettuces cut in halves
these may be sliced in rings or laid on the dish whole cutting off at the bottom a piece of the white to make the egg stand all kinds of cold meat and solid fish may be dressed a la mayonnaise and make excellent luncheon or supper dishes
the sauce should not be poured over the fowls until the moment of serving should a very large mayonnaise be required use two fowls instead of one with an equal proportion of the remaining ingredients
sufficient for a moderate sized dish
and the large development of its comb and wattle the hens are excellent layers and their eggs are of a very large size
bad nurses consequently their eggs should be laid in the nest of other varieties to be hatched in purchasing spanish says an authority blue legs the entire absence of white or coloured feathers in the plumage and a large white face
with a very large high comb which should be erect in the cock though pendent in the hens should be insisted on the flesh of this fowl is esteemed but from the smallness of its body when compared with that of the dorking
otherwise however they are profitable birds
face and plumage are a high recommendation to them as kept fowls for a town fowl they are perhaps better adapted than any other variety
two hard boiled eggs mode well wash one pounds of the best patna rice put it into a frying pan with the butter which keep moving over a slow fire until the rice is lightly browned truss the fowl as for boiling
put it into a stewpan with the stock or broth pound the spices and seeds thoroughly in a mortar tie them in a piece of muslin and put them in with the fowl let it boil slowly until it is nearly done
then add the rice which should stew until quite tender and almost dry cut the onions into slices sprinkle them with flour and fry without breaking them of a nice brown colour have ready the slices of bacon curled and grilled
and the eggs boiled hard lay the fowl in the form of a pyramid upon a dish smother with the rice garnish with the bacon fried onions and the hard boiled eggs cut into quarters and serve very hot before taking the rice out remove the spices
this fowl is the size of our english polands and is the latest species introduced to england they have a white and flowing plumage a full sized compact poland tuft on the head are muffed have a full flowing tail
short legs well feathered and five toes upon each foot their comb consists merely of two little points and their wattles are very small their colour is that of a pure white in january eighteen fifty four
they arrived in this country from constantinople and they take their name from sarai the turkish word for sultan's palace and ta ook the turkish for fowl they are thus called the fowls of the sultan
a name which has the twofold advantage of being the nearest to be found to that by which they have been known in their own country and of designating the country whence they come their habits are described as being generally brisk and happy tempered
they are excellent layers but they are non sitters and small eaters their eggs are large and white brahmas or cochins will clear the crop of a grass run long before they will and with scattered food
they soon satisfy themselves and walk away poulet aux cressons
ingredients a fowl a large bunch of water cresses three tablespoonfuls of vinegar
taking care that it is nicely frothed and brown wash and dry the water cresses pick them nicely and arrange them in a flat layer on a dish sprinkle over a little salt and the above proportion of vinegar
a little gravy should be served in a tureen when not liked the vinegar may be omitted
according to size average cost in full season
sufficient for three or four persons seasonable at any time roast fowl stuffed
mode select a large plump fowl fill the breast with forcemeat
the same as for a plain roast fowl dredge it with flour and put it down to a bright fire roast it for nearly or quite an hour should it be very large remove the skewers and serve with a good brown gravy and a tureen of bread sauce
time large fowl nearly or quite one hour average cost in full season
sufficient for four or five persons seasonable all the year but scarce in early spring note sausage meat stuffing may be substituted for the above
the hens of both should have the body clearly pencilled across with several bars of black and the hackle in both sexes should be perfectly free from dark marks the cocks do not exhibit the pencillings but are white or brown in the golden or silver birds respectively
their form is compact and their attitudes graceful and sprightly the hens do not sit but lay extremely well hence one of their common names that of dutch every day layers they are also known in different parts of the country
and in some parts of yorkshire by the wrong name of corsican fowls they are imported in large numbers from holland but those bred in this country are greatly superior in size giblet pie
a set of duck or goose giblets one pounds of rump steak one onion
to prevent the crust taking too much colour time
about one hour to bake the pie
sufficient for five or six persons the brent goose this is the smallest and most numerous species of the geese which visit the british islands it makes its appearance in winter
annually resort to the extensive sandy and muddy flats which lie between the mainland and holy island on the northumbrian coast and which are covered by every flow of the tide
where they have always received the name of ware geese no doubt from their continually feeding on marine vegetables their flesh is very agreeable hashed goose
the remains of cold roast goose two onions
one pint of boiling water one dessertspoonful of flour
one tablespoonful of port wine two tablespoonfuls of mushroom ketchup mode cut up the goose into pieces of the size required
slice and fry the onions in the butter of a very pale brown add these to the trimmings and pour over about a pint of boiling water
then skim and strain the liquor thicken it with flour and flavour with port wine and ketchup in the above proportion add a seasoning of pepper and salt and put in the pieces of goose let these get thoroughly hot through but do not allow them to boil
and serve with sippets of toasted bread time altogether rather more than one hour average cost exclusive of the cold goose
seasonable from september to march the wild goose this bird is sometimes called the gray lag and is the original of the domestic goose
the only species which the britons could take young and familiarize the gray lag says mister gould is known to persia
it is the bird that saved the capitol by its vigilance
select a goose with a clean white skin plump breast and yellow feet if these latter are red the bird is old should the weather permit let it hang for a few days by so doing the flavour will be very much improved
pluck singe draw and carefully wash and wipe the goose cut off the neck close to the back leaving the skin long enough to turn over cut off the feet at the first joint and separate the pinions at the first joint
beat the breast bone flat with a rolling pin put a skewer through the under part of each wing and having drawn up the legs closely put a skewer into the middle of each and pass the same quite through the body
insert another skewer into the small of the leg bring it close down to the side bone run it through and do the same to the other side now cut off the end of the vent and make a hole in the skin sufficiently large for the passage of the rump
put it into the body of the goose and secure it firmly at both ends by passing the rump through the hole made in the skin
of the two methods the mild seasoning is far superior a ragout or pie should be made of the giblets or they may be stewed down to make gravy be careful to serve the goose before the breast falls
or its appearance will be spoiled by coming flattened to table as this is rather a troublesome joint to carve a large quantity of gravy should not be poured round the goose but sent in a tureen time
sufficient for eight or nine persons note a teaspoonful of made mustard a saltspoonful of salt a few grains of cayenne
but in england there is only one species which is supposed to be a native breed the best geese are found on the borders of suffolk and in norfolk and berkshire
they thrive best where they have an easy access to water and large herds of them are sent every year to london to be fattened by the metropolitan poulterers a michaelmas goose says doctor kitchener is as famous in the mouths of the million
as the minced pie at christmas yet for those who eat with delicacy
is when it has just acquired its full growth and not begun to harden if the march goose is insipid
the fine time is between both from the second week in june to the first in september
her majesty happened to dine on one
and the butter to moisten it inside roast before a clear fire
froth and brown it nicely and serve with a brown gravy and when liked gooseberry sauce this dish should be garnished with water cresses time
sufficient for five or six persons seasonable
especial attention has been directed to this bird by herodotus
which has been partially confirmed by modern travellers mister salt remarks
in the most imminent danger at the risk of their own lives which i have myself frequently witnessed vielpanser is the goose of the nile
the resemblance may be clearly traced the goose is also said to have been a bird under the care of isis
ingredients a guinea fowl lardoons flour and salt mode when this bird is larded it should be trussed the same as a pheasant if plainly roasted truss it like a turkey
after larding and trussing it put it down to roast at a brisk fire keep it well basted and a short time before serving dredge it with a little flour and let it froth nicely serve with a little gravy in the dish and a tureen of the same
sufficient for six persons seasonable in winter note the breast if larded should be covered with a piece of paper
in africa where it is found wild and in great abundance it is gregarious in its habits associating in flocks of two or three hundred delighting in marshy grounds and at night perching upon trees or on high situations
its size is about the same as that of a common hen but it stands higher on its legs though domesticated it retains much of its wild nature and is apt to wander the hens lay abundantly and the eggs are excellent
in their flesh however they are not so white as the common fowl but more inclined to the colour of the pheasant for which it frequently makes a good substitute at table
and is in season when game is out of season lark pie an entree
a few thin slices of beef the same of bacon
one teaspoonful of minced parsley
puff paste mode make a stuffing of bread crumbs minced lemon peel parsley and the yolk of an egg all of which should be well mixed together roll the larks in flour and stuff them
line the bottom of a pie dish with a few slices of beef and bacon over these place the larks and season with salt pepper minced parsley and chopped shalot in the above proportion pour in the stock or water
cover with crust and bake for an hour in a moderate oven during the time the pie is baking shake it two or three times to assist in thickening the gravy and serve very hot time
sufficient for five or six persons seasonable in full season in november roast larks
ingredients larks egg and bread crumbs fresh butter mode these birds are by many persons esteemed a great delicacy and may be either roasted or broiled pick gut and clean them
when they are trussed brush them over with the yolk of an egg sprinkle with bread crumbs and roast them before a quick fire baste them continually with fresh butter and keep sprinkling with the bread crumbs until the birds are well covered
dish them on bread crumbs fried in clarified butter and garnish the dish with slices of lemon broiled larks are also very excellent
but as i told your mother and that dear quaint grandmamma of yours
how delightfully well and pretty you are looking and isn't this the sweetest little place and oh i nearly forgot did you find missus van duser's note i assure you i pounced upon that
and is she going to do something nice for you in a social way elizabeth's cheeks burned uncomfortably it was only a a friendly at least i think i am sure she meant it to be a friendly letter she said so anyway
forestalling the urgent appeal in miss tripp's luminous gaze well i am sure that was most sweet and gracious of missus van duser didn't you find it so my dear so dear of her to personally welcome you to boston you'll call of course as soon as she returns from her country place
she will expect it i am sure
you'll forgive me for saying this much won't you dear elizabeth was conscious of a distinct sense of displeasure as she met miss tripp's anxiously solicitous eyes
but sam mister brewster thinks it will be best for us not to she paused her candid face suffused with blushes i'd prefer not to talk about missus van duser if you please we don't ever expect to go and see her
the tactful miss tripp looked sadly puzzled but she felt that it would not be the part of wisdom to press the issue for the moment her face wreathed itself anew in forgiving smiles as she flitted about the little rooms
isn't this the most convenient cosy little apartment she twittered i am so glad i was able to secure it for you i assure you i was obliged to use all of my diplomacy with the agent and your pretty things do light up the dark corners so nicely
and speaking of corners somehow reminds me i have found you a perfect treasure of a maid but you must take her at once she's a cousin of our marie and has always been employed by the best people she was with missus paget smythe last
she told marie last night that she would be willing to come to you for only twenty dollars a month and that's very reasonable considering the fact that she is willing to do part of the laundry work the towels sheets and plain things you know expensive indeed it's not dear
for boston why i could tell you of plenty of people who are glad to pay twenty five and put all their laundry out i'd advise you to engage annita without delay really you couldn't do better elizabeth shook her head
i mean to do my own work she said decidedly i shall want something to do while sam is away and why not this when i like it but you won't like it after a while my poor child when the shine is once worn off your new pans and things
and think of your hands it's absolutely impossible to keep one's nails in any sort of condition and besides the heat from the gas range is simply ruinous for the complexion didn't you know that of course you are all milk and roses now
but how long do you suppose that will last if you are to be cooped up in a hot stuffy little kitchen from morning till night miss tripp paused dramatically her eyes wide with sympathy and apprehension but we i am sure we oughtn't to afford to keep a maid
demurred elizabeth in a small weak voice so please don't oh of course it is nothing to me my dear
i thought i was doing you a kindness when i asked annita to call and see you this morning it will be perfectly easy for you to tell her that you don't care to engage her but when it comes to affording i think you can scarcely afford to waste your good looks over a cooking range
it is your duty to your husband to keep yourself young and lovely as long as you possibly can it is only too easy to lose it all and then miss tripp concluded her remarks with a shrug of her shapely shoulders
which aroused the too impressionable elizabeth to vague alarms i am sure faltered the bride of two months that sam would like me just as well even if i of course you think so dear every woman does till it is too late observed miss tripp plaintively
i'm sure i hope it will turn out differently in your case but i could tell you things about some of my married friends that would well all i have to say is that i never dared try it matrimony i mean and if i were in your place but there i mustn't meddle
i solemnly promised myself years and years ago that i wouldn't the trouble with me is that i love my friends too fondly and i simply cannot endure to see them making mistakes which might so easily have been avoided i'm coming to take you out to morrow
and we'll lunch down town in the nicest most inexpensive little place and dear if you finally decide not to engage annita would you mind telling her that through a slight misunderstanding you had secured some one else
these high class servants are so easily offended you know and on account of our marie a perfect treasure oh thank you
till to morrow perhaps it is not altogether to be wondered at that immediately after miss tripp's departure elizabeth found occasion to glance into her mirror yes she was undoubtedly prettier than ever she decided but suppose it should be true
about the withering heat of the gas range and then there were the rose tinted polished nails to which elizabeth had only lately begun to pay particular attention the day's work had already left perceptible blemishes upon their dainty perfection
elizabeth recalled her mother's hands marred with constant household labour with a kind of terror her own would look the same before many years had passed and would sam could he love her just the same when the delicate beauty of which he was so fond and proud had faded
and what after all was twenty dollars a month when one looked upon it as the price of one's happiness elizabeth sat down soberly with pencil and paper to contemplate the matter arithmetically
the latter sum representing the young engineer's monthly salary left an undeniable balance of sixty two dollars to be expended in food clothing and other expenses after half an hour of careful calculation
based on what she could remember of innisfield prices elizabeth had reached very satisfactory conclusions clothing would cost next to nothing for the first year at least and food for two came to a ridiculously small sum
there appeared in short to be a very handsome remainder left over for what sam called contingencies this would include of course the fixed amount which they had prudently resolved to lay by on the arrival of every cheque this much had already been settled between them
sam had a promising nest egg in a boston bank and both had dreams of its ultimate hatching into a house and lot or into some comfortable interest bearing bonds elizabeth was firmly resolved to be prudent
and helpful to her husband in every possible way but was it not her duty to keep herself young and lovely as long as possible the idea so cogently presented to her attention by miss tripp not an hour since
that she did not recognise it as borrowed property it was at this psychological instant that a second summons announced the presence of a certain annita mc murtry in the entrance hall below did missus brewster wish to see this person
elizabeth hesitated for the fraction of a minute you may tell her to come up was the message that finally found its way
with a penetrating black eye a ready smile and a well poised not to say supercilious bearing in response to elizabeth's timid questions she vouchsafed the explanation that she could do everything and was prepared to take full charge
and by that you mean i mean that the lady where i work doesn't have to worry herself about anything i take full charge of everything ordering cooking laundry and waiting on table
and i don't mind wiping up the floors in a small apartment like this window cleaning and rugs the janitor attends to of course when could you come if i decide to engage you
asked elizabeth finding herself vaguely uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the alert black eyes if you please madam i'd rather speak first about wages and days out i'd like my alternate thursdays and three evenings a week
i don't care for that unless i get paid extra i left my last place on account of it i can't stand it to be up all hours of the night and do my work next day i should think not returned elizabeth with ready sympathy
we should not require anything of the sort as to wages miss tripp said you would be willing to come for twenty dollars it seemed very high to me for only two in the family elizabeth spoke in a very dignified way
she felt that she appeared quite the experienced housekeeper in the eyes of the maid who was surveying her with a faint inscrutable smile i never work for a family where there is more than two said miss mc murtry pointedly
but miss tripp must have misunderstood me twenty two was what i said but you'll find i earn it i'll come to morrow morning about this time and thank you kindly madam
which put the finishing touch upon the interview and accomplished her exit with the practised ease of a society woman
elizabeth asked herself ready to run undignifiedly after the girl
but sam was found to be of the opinion that his elizabeth had done exactly right he hadn't thought of hiring a servant to be sure
it was surely not to be expected that a man's wife should spend her time and strength toiling over his food in a dark little den of a kitchen no decent fellow would stand for that sort of thing he wanted his wife to have time to go out he said
to enjoy herself to see pictures and hear music as for the expense he guessed they could swing it he was sure to get another rise in salary before long and much more of the same sort all of which proved pleasantly soothing to elizabeth's somewhat disturbed conscience
if you can give me just a minute richard before you go out it was missus north's timidly apologetic voice which broke in upon her husband's hasty preparations for a day's professional engagements doctor north faced about with a laughing twinkle in his eyes
i know your minutes lizzie he said absent mindedly sniffling at the cork of a half emptied bottle this gentian's no good i've a mind to ship it back to avery's
it's an outrage on suffering humanity
you know you gave me some money for her wedding clothes last month but it isn't it won't be nearly enough
i should think with what she has already the money i gave you would go quite a ways that's just it sighed missus north bessie thinks none of the things she has are suitable she hesitated a little over the hard worked word of course living in boston and
pooh boston's no different from any other town put in the doctor you tell bess i said so she doesn't need to worry about boston
he plumped down in his office chair and began an indignant protest addressed to the firm of avery and co wholesale druggists and dealers in surgical supplies
miss tripp says they're very much worn now she paused suggestively while the doctor's pen raced busily over his page you didn't hear what i said did you richard she ventured after a while yes m dear heard every word you were saying you'd bought bess a lace wedding dress
and that miss tripp says they're very much worn replied her husband fixing on a stamp with a sounding thump of his big fist glad to hear it well i'll have to be moving now good bye m dear home to dinner if i can if not
if you could let me have two hundred and fifty dollars richard said missus north rather faintly we'll try to manage with that for the present well now lizzie when it comes to your wanting anything i always get it for you if i can and you know that
but i sent off cheques to frank and elliot this morning and i'm what you'd call strapped couldn't you collect the doctor kissed his wife cheerfully how can i wifey when folks leave their doctor's bills till the last cent's paid to everybody else
don't know as i blame em it's hard enough to be sick without having to pay out money for it now isn't it oh dick if that isn't just like you but i i've thought of a way good what is it we might borrow some money on the house
other people do and mortgage our house for wedding finery i guess you're joking lizzie at any rate i'll call it a joke and let it pass good bye the quick slam of the office door put a conclusive finish to the doctor's words
and his wife went back to her work on one of elizabeth's elaborate garments with a heavy heart what did richard say grandma carroll wanted to know when the girl had gone into another room to be fitted he said he couldn't possibly let me have anything more just now said richard's wife with a shade of reserve in her voice
you know mother people are so slow in paying their bills the doctor has any amount outstanding if he could only get it such folks had ought to be made to pay before they get ary a pill or a powder
was grandma's trenchant opinion but i expected he'd say that all along and i wanted to give you this for lizzie she slipped a little roll of bills into her daughter's lap don't say anything to the child about it she whispered nodding her kind old head it would worry her
besides i don't approve of the amount of money she's putting into perishable things
but if she'd rather have lace frills that'll fall to pieces in the washtub
missus north's eyes were moist and shining it's what you've been putting by for years mother she whispered for hush said grandma i guess when it comes right down to it i'm full as foolish as lizzie
once i set foot in the golden streets i know i sha'n't mind whether i leave a marble monument in the cemetery or not and you don't need to either daughter now remember
upon this hushed conversation entered elizabeth in a flutter of excitement and rosy pleasure over a letter which the postman had just handed her
she says she will help me pick out all my dresses and i'd better have my wedding dress and my going away gown made there anyway isn't that lovely then as she met her mother's dubious gaze you know malvina bennett hasn't a particle of style
and we don't know anything about the best places to buy things in boston or the dressmakers or anything i've shopped in boston for years said missus north with a show of firmness and i'm sure everything at cooper's gives perfect satisfaction oh cooper's laughed the girl
why mother dear nobody goes to cooper's nowadays it's just for country people from out of town what are we i'd like to know grandma carroll wanted to know with a humorous twinkle in her shrewd eyes i shouldn't wonder if you'd better do your shopping with your mother lizzie
and more in a line with what you can afford you should remember that samuel isn't a rich man and you'll need good substantial dresses that'll last i remember i had a blue russell cord poplin when i was married
that i wore for fifteen years then i made it over for your mother and she looked as pretty as a pink in it for two more then she outgrew it and i gave it away but the cloth in it was as good as new a dress like that pays elizabeth laughed somewhat impatiently
i've heard about that wonderful poplin ever since i can remember she said
i'm sure sam can buy me more dresses when i want them i may go to boston mayn't i mother missus north looked wistfully at the pretty eager face she had looked forward with pleasure somewhat tempered it is true by the knowledge of her meagre resources yet still with pleasure
i had thought of a silk muslin she said rather faintly or perhaps a cream satin if you'd like it better dear and i shouldn't like either of those said the girl decidedly and there's so much to do that it will really save time if you don't have to bother with any of that evelyn
if i can't afford the lace of course i wouldn't buy a cheap lace that night when doctor north came home he tossed a handful of bills into his daughter's lap for the wedding gown bess he said worse luck that you want one oh why do you say that you darling daddy murmured the girl
when i'm going to be so happy she was radiantly happy now it appeared and the doctor's keen eyes grew moist as he looked at her guess i was thinking about myself principally he confessed gruffly and about your mother
the boys will be at home summers she said and i'll come back to visit often you know i sha'n't be far away daddy she clung to him for a minute without a word a faint realisation of the irrevocable change so near at hand sweeping over her of course you will betsey jane
the next day the bride elect journeyed to boston carrying what appeared to her a small fortune in her little hand bag you've all been so good she said i can just buy everything i need with all this evelyn tripp met elizabeth in south station with open arms
she exclaimed effusively now if we can only keep those roses through all the shopping and dressmaking it is so exhausting
has at last consented to make your gowns if you knew what i've been through with that woman she simply will not take a new customer but when i mentioned the fact that you were to marry a nephew of missus mortimer van duser she finally capitulated
i could have embraced her but
i believe his mother was missus van duser's second cousin oh well that doesn't signify i'm sure i had to say something convincing
when samuel herrick brewster b s and civil engineer late of the massachusetts school of technology came to innisfield for the purpose of joining the corps of engineers already at work on a new and improved system of water works
he had not the slightest intention of falling seriously in love by seriously sam brewster himself might have told you
and anxiously solicitous of the young man's general well being that he meant that sort and quality of affection which would naturally and inevitably lead a man into matrimony he had always been fond of the society of pretty and amiable women and well used to it too
his further ideas with regard to matrimony though delightfully vague in their general character
which he had been careful to expound at length to those impetuous undergraduates of his fraternity who had appeared to need friendly counsel from their elders a man said young brewster conclusively has no business to marry
till he can feel solid ground under his feet he should be thoroughly established in his profession and well able to pay the shot
when this sapient young gentleman first met elizabeth north at a picnic given by the leading citizens of innisfield to celebrate the completion of the new aqueduct he was disposed to regard her as a very nice intelligent sort of a girl
with remarkably handsome brown eyes on the occasion of his third meeting with the young lady he found himself rather to his surprise telling her about his successful work in the tech and of how he hoped to get somewhere in his profession some day
elizabeth in her turn had confided to him her disappointment in not being able to go to wellesley and her ambitious attempts to keep up with marian evans who was in the sophomore year in literature and music
you don't mean to tell me that you have been thinking of of getting married and to a man i don't know even doctor north shook his head decidedly but you do know him daddy he's been here ever so many times of course she added with a touch of laughing malice
he's perfectly well and you seldom notice well people even when they're in your own family i don't have time bess admitted the doctor soberly there are too many of the other sort but now about this young man brewster eh you have him come round in office hours say
and i'll now daddy please don't straighten out your mouth like that it isn't a bit becoming
especially when you are talking about sam the doctor pinched his daughter's pink ear i'm sorry to appear such an ogre he said with a touch of grimness but i know too much about the world in general and the business of getting married in particular to allow my one daughter to go into it blindly
i'll be obliged to make the young man's further acquaintance bess before we talk about an engagement the girl's scarlet lips were set in firm lines which strongly resembled the paternal expression to which she had objected she kissed her father dutifully
i want you to get acquainted with him daddy she said sweetly but we are engaged that same afternoon doctor north looking worried and anxious
found himself face to face with a tall fresh faced young man this new visitor came into the office bringing with him a breath of the wintry air and a general appearance of breezy health which caused the hypochondriac to look up sourly in the act of putting on her rubbers
if that new medicine doesn't relieve that terrible feelin in my epigastrium doctor an i don't believe it's a goin to i'll let you know she remarked acidly you needn't be surprised to be called most any time between now an mornin for as i told mister salter
i ain't a goin to suffer as i did last night for nobody good afternoon missus salter said the doctor emphatically now then young man what can i do for you
that i couldn't and wouldn't consider an engagement between you at present did she tell you that i was told that you wished to make my further acquaintance i should like if you have the time to tell you something about myself you have the right to know the doctor nodded frowningly
if you expect me at any time in the future you understand to give you my only daughter i certainly am entitled to know everything the young man looked the doctor squarely in the eyes during the longish pause that followed there isn't much to tell he said
i have one sister older than i married to one of the best fellows in the world and living west i made my home with them till i came to the tech you can ask any of the professors there about me they'll tell you that i worked
i graduated a year ago last june since then i've been at work at my profession i'm getting twelve hundred a year now but stop right there why did you ask my girl to marry you
and she er fancies that she loves you eh a dark flush swept over samuel brewster's ingenuous young face she does love me was all he said but he said it in a tone which suddenly brought back the older man's vanished youth
there was a short silence then the doctor arose so abruptly that he nearly upset his chair well he said i've got to go to boston to morrow on a case and i'll see those professors of yours for one thing i know collins well
not that he or anybody else can tell me all about you not by a long shot i know boys and young men well enough for that but you see sir i love my girl too and i i'll say good afternoon sir
ah missus tewksbury you're next i believe walk right in an hour later when the door had finally closed on his last patient doctor north sat still in his chair apparently lost in thought his dinner was waiting he knew and a round of visits must be made immediately thereafter
yet he did not stir he was thinking curiously enough of the time when his daughter elizabeth was a baby what a round pink little face she had to be sure and what a strong healthy plump little body
he could almost hear the unsteady feet toddling across the breadth of dingy oilcloth which carpeted his office floor daddy daddy her sweet imperious voice was crying i'm tomin to see you daddy
and a dozen butterfly kisses dropped on his cheeks his hair his forehead daddy dear he came didn't he i saw him go away i hope you weren't cruel to him oh daddy
no daddy i thought he would of course but he just waved his hand for good bye and i was frightened for fear
say i like that to tell you the truth bess i rather like him good clear steady eyes good all round constitution i should say and if oh come come child
but i want you to understand miss that your old daddy has no notion of playing second fiddle to any youngster's first however tall and good looking he may be and singularly enough elizabeth appeared to be perfectly satisfied with this paternal dictum
this bold creature under a princess's coronet this diana by pride as yet untaken by the first comer just because chance had so willed it this bastard of a low lived king who had not the intellect to keep his place
this overbearing strumpet because one day he barkilphedro had not money enough to buy his dinner and to get a lodging she had had the impudence
a little better than her valets a little worse than her horses she had abused his distress his barkilphedro's in hastening to do him treacherous good a thing which the rich do in order to humiliate the poor
and to tie them like curs led by a string besides what did the service she rendered him cost her a service is worth what it costs she had spare rooms in her house she came to barkilphedro's aid
a great thing indeed had she eaten a spoonful the less of turtle soup for it had she deprived herself of anything in the hateful overflowing of her superfluous luxuries no
i lavish kindness i fill the mouths of men of letters i am his benefactress how lucky the wretch was to find me out what a patroness of the arts i am all for having set up a truckle bed in a wretched garret in the roof
as for the place in the admiralty barkilphedro owed it to josiana by jove a pretty appointment josiana had made barkilphedro what he was she had created him be it so yes created
nothing less than nothing for in his absurd situation he felt borne down tongue tied disfigured what did he owe josiana the thanks due from a hunchback to the mother who bore him deformed
behold your privileged ones your folks overwhelmed with fortune your parvenus your favourites of that horrid stepmother fortune and that man of talent barkilphedro
to be courteous assiduous pleasant respectful and to have ever on his muzzle a respectful grimace was not it enough to make him gnash his teeth with rage and all the while she was putting pearls round her neck and making
amorous poses to her fool lord david dirry moir the hussy never let any one do you a service they will abuse the advantage it gives them
never allow yourself to be taken in the act of inanition they would relieve you because he was starving this woman had found it a sufficient pretext to give him bread from that moment he was her servant a craving of the stomach
and there is a chain for life to be obliged is to be sold the happy the powerful make use of the moment you stretch out your hand to place a penny in it and at the crisis of your weakness make you a slave and a slave of the worst kind
the slave of an act of charity a slave forced to love the enslaver what infamy what want of delicacy what an assault on your self respect then all is over you are sentenced for life to consider
this man good that woman beautiful to remain in the back rows to approve to applaud to admire to worship to prostrate yourself
to blister your knees by long genuflections to sugar your words when you are gnawing your lips with anger when you are biting down your cries of fury
and when you have within you more savage turbulence and more bitter foam than the ocean it is thus that the rich make prisoners of the poor this slime of a good action performed towards you
an alms is irremediable gratitude is paralysis a benefit is a sticky and repugnant adherence which deprives you of free movement those odious opulent and spoiled creatures whose pity has thus injured you are well aware of this it is done
you are their creature they have bought you and how by a bone taken from their dog and cast to you they have flung that bone at your head you have been stoned as much as benefited it is all one have you gnawed the bone
then be thankful be ever thankful adore your masters kneel on indefinitely a benefit implies an understood inferiority accepted by you it means that you feel them to be gods and yourself a poor devil
your diminution augments them your bent form makes theirs more upright in the tones of their voices there is an impertinent inflexion their family matters their marriages their baptisms their child bearings their progeny
you are a poet because you are low isn't it enough to make the stars fall a little more and they would make you wear their old shoes who have you got there my dear how ugly he is who is that man
i do not know a sort of scholar whom i feed thus converse these idiots without even lowering their voice you hear and remain mechanically amiable if you are ill your masters will send for the doctor
not their own occasionally they may even inquire after you being of a different species from you and at an inaccessible height above you they are affable their height makes them easy
they know that equality is impossible by force of disdain they are polite at table they give you a little nod sometimes they absolutely know how your name is spelt
they only show that they are your protectors by walking unconsciously over all the delicacy and susceptibility you possess they treat you with good nature is all this to be borne no doubt he was eager to punish josiana
o my rich gentry because you cannot eat up everything because opulence produces indigestion seeing that your stomachs are no bigger than ours because it is after all better to distribute the remainder than to throw it away
to the pitch of believing that we are grateful the bread is the bread of servitude the shelter is a footman's bedroom the clothes are a livery the employment is ridiculous paid for it is true but brutalizing
oh you believe in the right to humiliate us with lodging and nourishment and you imagine that we are your debtors and you count on our gratitude very well we will eat up your substance we will devour you alive
and gnaw your heart strings with our teeth this josiana was it not absurd what merit had she she had accomplished the wonderful work of coming into the world as a testimony of the folly of her father and the shame of her mother
she had done us the favour to exist and for her kindness in becoming a public scandal they paid her millions she had estates and castles warrens parks lakes forests and i know not what besides and with all that
she was making a fool of herself and verses were addressed to her and barkilphedro
and stuffed his eyes and his brain with great books who had grown mouldy in old works and in science who was full of wit who could command armies who could if he would write tragedies like otway and dryden who was made to be an emperor
could the usurpation of the rich the hateful elect of chance go further they put on the semblance of being generous to us of protecting us and of smiling on us and we would drink their blood and lick our lips after it that this low woman of the court
should have the odious power of being a benefactress
and what social system is this which has for its base disproportion and injustice would it not be best to take it by the four corners
and the orgies and the tippling and drunkenness and the guests and those with their elbows on the table and those with their paws under it and the insolent who give and the idiots who accept
all the wild forms of hateful passions went and came in the intellect of this ferocious being at the corners of old maps of the world of the fifteenth century are great vague spaces without shape or name on which are written
these three words hic sunt leones such a dark corner is there also in man passions grow and growl somewhere within us and we may say of an obscure portion of our souls there are lions here
does it lack a certain justice we must confess it does not it is fearful to think that judgment within us is not justice
think of the difference between a judge and a just man wicked men lead conscience astray with authority there are gymnastics of untruth a sophist is a forger and this forger sometimes brutalizes good sense
a certain logic very supple very implacable and very agile is at the service of evil and excels in stabbing truth in the dark these are blows struck by the devil at providence
the worst of it was that barkilphedro had a presentiment he was undertaking a heavy task and he was afraid that after all the evil achieved might not be proportionate to the work
to be corrosive as he was to have within himself a will of steel a hate of diamond a burning curiosity for the catastrophe and to burn nothing to decapitate nothing to exterminate nothing
to be what he was a force of devastation a voracious animosity a devourer of the happiness of others to have been created for there is a creator whether god or devil
could this be possible could it be that barkilphedro should miss his aim to be a lever powerful enough to heave great masses of rock and when sprung to the utmost power to succeed
only in giving an affected woman a bump in the forehead to be a catapult dealing ruin on a pole kitten
to crush an ant to sweat all over with hate and for nothing at all
to put into movement all the wheels within wheels to work in the darkness
in pinching the end of a little rosy finger he was to turn over and over blocks of marble perchance with the result of ruffling a little the smooth surface of the court providence has a way of thus expending forces grandly
the movement of a mountain often only displaces a molehill besides this when the court is the dangerous arena nothing is more dangerous than to aim at your enemy and miss him in the first place it unmasks you
and irritates him but besides and above all it displeases the master kings do not like the unskilful let us have no contusions no ugly gashes
he who kills is clever he who wounds awkward kings do not like to see their servants lamed they are displeased if you chip a porcelain jar on their chimney piece or a courtier in their cortege the court must be kept neat
break and replace that does not matter besides all this agrees perfectly with the taste of princes for scandal speak evil do none or if you do let it be in grand style stab
do not scratch unless the pin be poisoned this would be an extenuating circumstance and was we may remember the case with barkilphedro every
microscopic the dragon immense a formidable condensation awaiting the gigantic hour of dilation ennui consoled by the premeditation of explosion the prisoner is larger than the prison a latent giant
how wonderful a minnow in which is contained a hydra to be this fearful magical box to contain within him a leviathan is to the dwarf both a torture and a delight
nor would anything have caused barkilphedro to let go his hold he awaited his time was it to come what mattered that he watched for it self love is mixed up in the malice of the very wicked man
to make holes and gaps in a court fortune higher than your own to undermine it at all risks and perils while encased and concealed yourself is we repeat exceedingly interesting the player at such a game becomes eager
even to passion he throws himself into the work as if he were composing an epic to be very mean and to attack that which is great is in itself a brilliant action it is a fine thing to be a flea on a lion
feels the sting of the insect and the flea can say i have in my veins the blood of a lion however these reflections but half appeased the cravings of barkilphedro's pride consolations palliations at most
to vex is one thing to torment would be infinitely better barkilphedro had a thought which returned to him without ceasing his success might not go beyond just irritating the epidermis of josiana what could he hope for more he
so obscure against her so radiant a scratch is worth but little to him who longs to see the crimson blood of his flayed victim
barkilphedro was a giant among such men usually ingratitude is forgetfulness with this man patented in wickedness it was fury the vulgar ingrate is full of ashes what was within barkilphedro
a furnace furnace walled round by hate silence and rancour awaiting josiana for fuel never had a man abhorred a woman to such a point without reason how terrible she was his dream
we think we remember we forget whence arise those strange visible changes which occur in the soul of man gwynplaine had been at the same moment raised to a summit and cast into an abyss
his head swam with double giddiness the giddiness of ascent and descent a fatal combination he felt himself ascend and felt not his fall it is appalling to see a new horizon
a perspective affords suggestions
he had before him the fairy glade a snare perhaps seen through opening clouds and showing the blue depths of sky so deep that they are obscure he was on the mountain whence he could see all the kingdoms of the earth
a mountain all the more terrible that it is a visionary one those who are on its apex are in a dream palaces castles power opulence all human happiness extending as far as eye could reach
a map of enjoyments spread out to the horizon a sort of radiant geography of which he was the centre a perilous mirage imagine what must have been the haze of such a vision not led up to
such was the state of gwynplaine giddiness is a dangerous kind of glare particularly that which bears you at once towards the day and towards the night forming two whirlwinds one opposed to the other
he saw too much and not enough he saw all and nothing his state was what the author of this book has somewhere expressed as the blind man dazzled
his mind liquefied as it boiled he began to recall things to his memory it is surprising how we find that we have heard so clearly that to which we scarcely listened the declaration of the shipwrecked men
read by the sheriff in the southwark cell came back to him clearly and intelligibly he recalled every word he saw under it his whole infancy suddenly he stopped his hands clasped behind his back
looking up to the ceilings the sky no matter what whatever was above him quits he cried he felt like one whose head rises out of the water it seemed to him that he saw everything
the past the future the present in the accession of a sudden flash of light oh he cried for there are cries in the depths of thought oh it was so was it i was a lord all is discovered
they stole betrayed destroyed abandoned disinherited murdered me the corpse of my destiny floated fifteen years on the sea all at once it touched the earth and it started up erect and living
i am reborn i am born i felt under my rags that the breast there palpitating was not that of a wretch and when i looked on crowds of men i felt that they were the flocks and that i was not the dog but the shepherd
shepherds of the people leaders of men guides and masters such were my fathers and what they were i am i am a gentleman and i have a sword i am a baron and i have a casque
i am a marquis and i have a plume i am a peer and i have a coronet lo they deprived me of all this i dwelt in light they flung me into darkness those who proscribed the father
sold the son when my father was dead they took from beneath his head the stone of exile which he had placed for his pillow and tying it to my neck they flung me into a sewer oh those scoundrels who tortured my infancy
yes they rise and move in the depths of my memory yes i see them again i was that morsel of flesh pecked to pieces on a tomb by a flight of crows i bled and cried under all those horrible shadows
lo it was there that they precipitated me under the crush of those who come and go under the trampling feet of men under the undermost of the human race lower than the serf baser than the serving man
clasped his head with his hands began to pace the room again and his tempestuous monologue continued within him where am i on the summit where is it that i have just alighted on the highest peak this pinnacle
this grandeur this dome of the world this great power is my home this temple is in air i am one of the gods i live in inaccessible heights this supremacy which i looked up to from below
and from whence emanated such rays of glory that i shut my eyes this ineffaceable peerage this impregnable fortress of the fortunate i enter i am in it i am of it
ah what a decisive turn of the wheel i was below i am on high on high for ever behold me a lord i shall have a scarlet robe i shall have an earl's coronet on my head
to the zenith i have palaces in town and country houses gardens chases forests carriages millions i will give fetes i will make laws i shall have the choice of joys and pleasures
and the vagabond gwynplaine who had not the right to gather a flower in the grass may pluck the stars from heaven melancholy overshadowing of a soul's brightness
thus it was that in gwynplaine who had been a hero and perhaps had not ceased to be one moral greatness gave way to material splendour a lamentable transition virtue broken down by a troop of passing demons
a surprise made on the weak side of man's fortress all the inferior circumstances called by men superior ambition the purblind desires of instinct passions covetousness
driven far from gwynplaine by the wholesome restraints of misfortune took tumultuous possession of his generous heart and from what had this arisen from the discovery of a parchment in a waif drifted by the sea
conscience may be violated by a chance attack gwynplaine drank in great draughts of pride and it dulled his soul such is the poison of that fatal wine
giddiness invaded him he more than consented to its approach he welcomed it this was the effect of previous and long continued thirst are we an accomplice of the cup which deprives us of reason
his eyes had always turned towards the great to watch is to wish the eaglet is not born in the eyrie for nothing now however at moments
a few hours only had passed and yet the past of yesterday seemed so far off gwynplaine had fallen into the ambuscade of better who is the enemy of good unhappy is he of whom we say
how lucky he is adversity is more easily resisted than prosperity we rise more perfect from ill fortune than from good there is a charybdis in poverty and a scylla in riches
those who remain erect under the thunderbolt are prostrated by the flash thou who standest without shrinking on the verge of a precipice fear lest thou be carried up on the innumerable wings of mists and dreams
the ascent which elevates will dwarf thee an apotheosis has a sinister power of degradation it is not easy to understand what is good luck chance is nothing but a disguise
nothing deceives so much as the face of fortune is she providence is she fatality a brightness may not be a brightness because light is truth and a gleam may be a deceit you believe that it lights you
but no it sets you on fire at night a candle made of mean tallow becomes a star if placed in an opening in the darkness the moth flies to it in what measure is the moth responsible
the sight of the candle fascinates the moth as the eye of the serpent fascinates the bird is it possible that the bird and the moth should resist the attraction is it possible that the leaf should resist the wind
is it possible that the stone should refuse obedience to the laws of gravitation these are material questions which are moral questions as well after he had received the letter of the duchess
for in destiny as in nature there are successive convulsions the first shock loosens
alas how do the oaks fall thus he who when a child of ten stood alone on the shore of portland ready to give battle who had looked steadfastly at all the combatants whom he had to encounter
the blast which bore away the vessel in which he had expected to embark the gulf which had swallowed up the plank the yawning abyss of which the menace was its retrocession the earth which refused him a shelter the sky which refused him a star
as hercules of old had held his own with death he who in the unequal struggle had thrown down this defiance that he a child adopted a child that he encumbered himself with a load when tired and exhausted
thus rendering himself an easier prey to the attacks on his weakness and as it were himself unmuzzling the shadowy monsters in ambush around him he who a precocious warrior had immediately and from his first steps out of the cradle
struggled breast to breast with destiny he whose disproportion with strife had not discouraged from striving he who perceiving in everything around him a frightful occultation of the human race
had accepted that eclipse and proudly continued his journey he who had known how to endure cold thirst hunger valiantly he who a pigmy in stature had been a colossus in soul
this gwynplaine who had conquered the great terror of the abyss under its double form tempest and misery staggered under a breath vanity
on an unflinching man fatality begins to smile and her victim suddenly intoxicated staggers the smile of fatality can anything more terrible be imagined
it is the last resource of the pitiless trier of souls in his proof of man the tiger lurking in destiny caresses man with a velvet paw sinister preparation
in gwynplaine's brain was the giddy whirlwind of a crowd of new circumstances all the light and shade of a metamorphosis inexpressibly strange confrontations the shock of the past against the future
two gwynplaines himself doubled behind an infant in rags crawling through night wandering shivering hungry provoking laughter in front a brilliant nobleman luxurious proud dazzling all london
he was casting off one form and amalgamating himself with the other he was casting the mountebank and becoming the peer change of skin is sometimes change of soul now and then the past seemed like a dream
it was complex bad and good he thought of his father it was a poignant anguish never to have known his father he tried to picture him to himself he thought of his brother of whom he had just heard
then he had a family he gwynplaine he lost himself in fantastic dreams he saw visions of magnificence unknown forms of solemn grandeur moved in mist before him he heard flourishes of trumpets
and then he said i shall be eloquent he pictured to himself a splendid entrance into the house of lords he should arrive full to the brim with new facts and ideas what could he not tell them
what an advantage to be in the midst of them a man who had seen touched undergone and suffered who could cry aloud to them i have been near to everything from which you are so far removed
he would hurl reality in the face of those patricians crammed with illusions they should tremble for it would be the truth they would applaud for it would be grand he would arise amongst those powerful men
more powerful than they i shall appear as a torch bearer to show them truth and as a sword bearer to show them justice what a triumph and building up these fantasies in his mind
clear and confused at the same time he had attacks of delirium sinking on the first seat he came to sometimes drowsy sometimes starting up he came and went looked at the ceiling examined the coronets
studied vaguely the hieroglyphics of the emblazonment felt the velvet of the walls moved the chairs turned over the parchments read the names spelt out the titles buxton homble grundraith hunkerville clancharlie
approached the window listened to the splash of the fountain contemplated the statues counted with the patience of a somnambulist the columns of marble and said it is real
then he touched his satin clothes and asked himself is it i yes he was torn by an inward tempest in this whirlwind did he feel faintness and fatigue
did he drink eat sleep if he did so he was unconscious of the fact in certain violent situations instinct satisfies itself according to its requirements unconsciously
besides his thoughts were less thoughts than mists at the moment that the black flame of an irruption disgorges itself from depths full of boiling lava
the hours passed the dawn appeared and brought the day a bright ray penetrated the chamber and at the same instant broke on the soul of gwynplaine
would probably have been the restoration of miss sally brass to the supreme authority over her person not unmindful of the risk she ran however the marchioness no sooner left the house than she dived into the first dark by way that presented itself
and without any present reference to the point to which her journey tended made it her first business to put two good miles of brick and mortar between herself and bevis marks when she had accomplished this object
she began to shape her course for the notary's office to which shrewdly inquiring of apple women and oyster sellers at street corners rather than in lighted shops or of well dressed people at the hazard of attracting notice
she easily procured a direction as carrier pigeons on being first let loose in a strange place beat the air at random for a short time before darting off towards the spot for which they are designed
so did the marchioness flutter round and round until she believed herself in safety and then bear swiftly down upon the port for which she was bound she had no bonnet nothing on her head but a great cap
which in some old time had been worn by sally brass whose taste in head dresses was as we have seen peculiar and her speed was rather retarded than assisted by her shoes which being extremely large and slipshod
flew off every now and then and were difficult to find again among the crowd of passengers indeed the poor little creature experienced so much trouble and delay from having to grope for these articles of dress in mud and kennel
that by the time she reached the street in which the notary lived she was fairly worn out and exhausted and could not refrain from tears but to have got there at last was a great comfort especially as there were lights still burning in the office window
and therefore some hope that she was not too late so the marchioness dried her eyes with the backs of her hands and stealing softly up the steps peeped in through the glass door mister chuckster was standing behind the lid of his desk
making such preparations towards finishing off for the night as pulling down his wristbands and pulling up his shirt collar settling his neck more gracefully in his stock and secretly arranging his whiskers by the aid of a little triangular bit of looking glass
before the ashes of the fire stood two gentlemen one of whom she rightly judged to be the notary and the other who was buttoning his great coat and was evidently about to depart immediately mister abel garland
having made these observations the small spy took counsel with herself and resolved to wait in the street until mister abel came out as there would be then no fear of having to speak before mister chuckster and less difficulty in delivering her message
with this purpose she slipped out again and crossing the road sat down upon a door step just opposite she had hardly taken this position when there came dancing up the street with his legs all wrong and his head everywhere by turns a pony
this pony had a little phaeton behind him and a man in it but neither man nor phaeton seemed to embarrass him in the least as he reared up on his hind legs or stopped or went on or stood still again or backed
just as the fancy seized him
when they came to the notary's door the man called out in a very respectful manner
intimating that if he might venture to express a wish it would be that they stopped there the pony made a moment's pause but as if it occurred to him that to stop when he was required might be to establish an inconvenient and dangerous precedent
he immediately started off again rattled at a fast trot to the street corner wheeled round came back and then stopped of his own accord oh you're a precious creatur
i wish i had the rewarding of you i do what has he been doing said mister abel tying a shawl round his neck as he came down the steps he's enough to fret a man's heart out replied the hostler
he'll never stand still if you call him names said mister abel getting in and taking the reins he's a very good fellow if you know how to manage him this is the first time he has been out this long while for he has lost his old driver
and wouldn't stir for anybody else till this morning the lamps are right are they that's well be here to take him to morrow if you please good night and after one or two strange plunges quite of his own invention
the pony yielded to mister abel's mildness and trotted gently off all this time mister chuckster had been standing at the door and the small servant had been afraid to approach she had nothing for it now therefore but to run after the chaise
she was unable to make him hear the case was desperate for the pony was quickening his pace the marchioness hung on behind for a few moments and feeling that she could go no farther and must soon yield
and in so doing lost one of the shoes for ever mister abel being in a thoughtful frame of mind and having quite enough to do to keep the pony going went jogging on without looking round little dreaming of the strange figure that was close behind him
until the marchioness having in some degree recovered her breath and the loss of her shoe and the novelty of her position
and stopping the pony cried with some trepidation
what do you want with me said mister abel
i got in behind replied the marchioness oh please drive on sir don't stop and go towards the city will you and oh do please make haste because it's of consequence there's somebody wants to see you there
he sent me to say would you come directly and that he knowed all about kit and could save him yet and prove his innocence what do you tell me child the truth upon my word and honour i do but please to drive on quick please
i've been such a time gone he'll think i'm lost mister abel involuntarily urged the pony forward the pony impelled by some secret sympathy or some new caprice burst into a great pace and neither slackened it
nor indulged in any eccentric performances until they arrived at the door of mister swiveller's lodging where marvellous to relate he consented to stop when mister abel checked him
said the marchioness pointing to one where there was a faint light come mister abel who was one of the simplest and most retiring creatures in existence and naturally timid withal hesitated
for he had heard of people being decoyed into strange places to be robbed and murdered under circumstances very like the present and for anything he knew to the contrary by guides very like the marchioness his regard for kit however
overcame every other consideration so entrusting whisker to the charge of a man who was lingering hard by in expectation of the job he suffered his companion to take his hand and to lead him up the dark and narrow stairs
he was not a little surprised to find himself conducted into a dimly lighted sick chamber where a man was sleeping tranquilly in bed an't
said his guide in an earnest whisper oh you'd say it was if you had only seen him two or three days ago mister abel made no answer and to say the truth kept a long way from the bed and very near the door
his guide who appeared to understand his reluctance trimmed the candle and taking it in her hand approached the bed as she did so the sleeper started up and he recognised in the wasted face the features
of richard swiveller why how is this said mister abel kindly as he hurried towards him you have been ill very replied dick nearly dead
you might have chanced to hear of your richard on his bier but for the friend i sent to fetch you another shake of the hand marchioness if you please sit down sir mister abel seemed rather astonished to hear of the quality of his guide
and took a chair by the bedside i have sent for you sir said dick
she did i am quite bewildered by all this i really don't know what to say or think replied mister abel you'll say that presently retorted dick marchioness take a seat on the bed will you
now tell this gentleman all that you told me and be particular don't you speak another word sir the story was repeated it was in effect exactly the same as before without any deviation or omission
richard swiveller kept his eyes fixed on his visitor during its narration and directly it was concluded took the word again you have heard it all and you'll not forget it i'm too giddy and too queer to suggest anything
but you and your friends will know what to do after this long delay every minute is an age if ever you went home fast in your life go home fast to night don't stop to say one word to me but go she will be found here
whenever she's wanted and as to me you're pretty sure to find me at home for a week or two there are more reasons than one for that marchioness a light if you lose another minute in looking at me sir i'll never forgive you
he was gone in an instant and the marchioness returning from lighting him down stairs reported that the pony without any preliminary objection whatever had dashed away at full gallop that's right said dick
and hearty of him and i honour him from this time but get some supper and a mug of beer for i am sure you must be tired do have a mug of beer it will do me as much good to see you take it as if i might drink it myself
nothing but this assurance could have prevailed upon the small nurse to indulge in such a luxury having eaten and drunk to mister swiveller's extreme contentment given him his drink and put everything in neat order she wrapped herself in an old coverlet
and lay down upon the rug before the fire mister swiveller was by that time murmuring in his sleep strew then oh strew a bed of rushes
or to take a cruise round the world it would be difficult to suppose that there ever was a box which was opened and shut so many times within four and twenty hours as that which contained his wardrobe and necessaries and certainly
there never was one which to two small eyes presented such a mine of clothing as this mighty chest with its three shirts and proportionate allowance of stockings and pocket handkerchiefs disclosed to the astonished vision of little jacob
at last it was conveyed to the carrier's at whose house at finchley kit was to find it next day and the box being gone there remained but two questions for consideration firstly whether the carrier would lose
or dishonestly feign to lose the box upon the road secondly whether kit's mother perfectly understood how to take care of herself in the absence of her son i don't think there's hardly a chance of his really losing it
but carriers are under great temptation to pretend they lose things no doubt said missus nubbles apprehensively in reference to the first point no doubt about it returned kit with a serious look upon my word mother
i don't think it was right to trust it to itself somebody ought to have gone with it i'm afraid we can't help it now said his mother but it was foolish and wrong people oughtn't to be tempted
kit inwardly resolved that he would never tempt a carrier any more save with an empty box and having formed this christian determination he turned his thoughts to the second question you know you must keep up your spirits mother and not be lonesome because i'm not at home
said missus nubbles i know who has been putting that in your head rejoined her son disconsolately that's little bethel again now i say mother
pray don't take to going there regularly for if i was to see your good humoured face that has always made home cheerful turned into a grievous one and the baby trained to look grievous too and to call itself a young sinner bless its heart and a child of the devil
which is calling its dead father names if i was to see this and see little jacob looking grievous likewise i should so take it to heart that i'm sure i should go and list for a soldier and run my head on purpose against the first cannon ball i saw coming my way
oh kit don't talk like that i would indeed mother and unless you want to make me feel very wretched and uncomfortable you'll keep that bow on your bonnet which you'd more than half a mind to pull off last week
which calls upon me to be a snivelling solemn whispering chap sneaking about as if i couldn't help it and expressing myself in a most unpleasant snuffle on the contrary don't i see every reason why i shouldn't just hear this ha ha ha
an't that as nat'ral as walking and as good for the health ha ha ha an't that as nat'ral as a sheep's bleating or a pig's grunting or a horse's neighing or a bird's singing ha ha ha isn't it mother there was something contagious in kit's laugh
for his mother who had looked grave before first subsided into a smile and then fell to joining in it heartily which occasioned kit to say that he knew it was natural and to laugh the more kit and his mother laughing together in a pretty loud key
woke the baby who finding that there was something very jovial and agreeable in progress was no sooner in its mother's arms than it began to kick and laugh most vigorously this new illustration of his argument so tickled kit
that he fell backward in his chair in a state of exhaustion
after recovering twice or thrice
and a very cheerful meal their scanty supper was with more kisses and hugs and tears than many young gentlemen who start upon their travels and leave well stocked homes behind them would deem within the bounds of probability
if matter so low could be herein set down kit left the house at an early hour next morning and set out to walk to finchley feeling a sufficient pride in his appearance to have warranted his excommunication from little bethel from that time forth
if he had ever been one of that mournful congregation lest anybody should feel a curiosity to know how kit was clad it may be briefly remarked that he wore no livery but was dressed in a coat of pepper and salt with waistcoat of canary colour
and nether garments of iron grey besides these glories he shone in the lustre of a new pair of boots and an extremely stiff and shiny hat which on being struck anywhere with the knuckles sounded like a drum and in this attire
rather wondering that he attracted so little attention and attributing the circumstance to the insensibility of those who got up early he made his way towards abel cottage without encountering any more remarkable adventure on the road
than meeting a lad in a brimless hat the exact counterpart of his old one on whom he bestowed half the sixpence he possessed kit arrived in course of time at the carrier's house where to the lasting honour of human nature
he found the box in safety receiving from the wife of this immaculate man a direction to mister garland's he took the box upon his shoulder and repaired thither directly to be sure
it was a beautiful little cottage with a thatched roof and little spires at the gable ends and pieces of stained glass in some of the windows almost as large as pocket books on one side of the house was a little stable
just the size for the pony with a little room over it just the size for kit white curtains were fluttering and birds in cages that looked as bright as if they were made of gold were singing at the windows plants were arranged on either side of the path
and clustered about the door and the garden was bright with flowers in full bloom which shed a sweet odour all round and had a charming and elegant appearance everything within the house and without
seemed to be the perfection of neatness and order in the garden there was not a weed to be seen and to judge from some dapper gardening tools a basket and a pair of gloves which were lying in one of the walks
old mister garland had been at work in it that very morning kit looked about him and admired and looked again and this a great many times before he could make up his mind to turn his head another way and ring the bell
but at last as he was sitting upon the box thinking about giants castles and princesses tied up to pegs by the hair of their heads and dragons bursting out from behind gates and other incidents of the like nature
common in story books to youths of low degree on their first visit to strange houses the door was gently opened and a little servant girl very tidy modest and demure but very pretty too appeared i suppose you're christopher sir
said the servant girl kit got off the box and said yes he was i'm afraid you've rung a good many times perhaps she rejoined but we couldn't hear you because we've been catching the pony
kit rather wondered what this meant but as he couldn't stop there asking questions he shouldered the box again and followed the girl into the hall where through a back door he descried mister garland leading whisker in triumph up the garden
after that self willed pony had as he afterwards learned dodged the family round a small paddock in the rear for one hour and three quarters the old gentleman received him very kindly and so did the old lady
whose previous good opinion of him was greatly enhanced by his wiping his boots on the mat until the soles of his feet burnt again he was then taken into the parlour to be inspected in his new clothes and when he had been surveyed several times
and had afforded by his appearance unlimited satisfaction he was taken into the stable where the pony received him with uncommon complaisance and thence into the little chamber he had already observed which was very clean and comfortable and thence into the garden
that the brim suffered considerably when the old gentleman had said all he had to say in the way of promise and advice and kit had said all he had to say in the way of assurance and thankfulness he was handed over again to the old lady
with everything in it as bright and glowing and as precisely ordered too as barbara herself
to eat cold meat and drink small ale and use his knife and fork the more awkwardly because there was an unknown barbara looking on and observing him it did not appear however
that there was anything remarkably tremendous about this strange barbara who having lived a very quiet life blushed very much and was quite as embarrassed and uncertain what she ought to say or do as kit could possibly be when he had sat for some little time
attentive to the ticking of the sober clock he ventured to glance curiously at the dresser and there among the plates and dishes were barbara's little work box with a sliding lid to shut in the balls of cotton and barbara's prayer book and barbara's hymn book
and barbara's bible barbara's little looking glass hung in a good light near the window and barbara's bonnet was on a nail behind the door from all these mute signs and tokens of her presence he naturally glanced at barbara herself
who sat as mute as they shelling peas into a dish and just when kit was looking at her eyelashes and wondering quite in the simplicity of his heart what colour her eyes might be
chapter twenty day after day as he bent his steps homeward returning from some new effort to procure employment kit raised his eyes to the window of the little room he had so much commended to the child
and hoped to see some indication of her presence his own earnest wish
filled him with the belief that she would yet arrive to claim the humble shelter he had offered and from the death of each day's hope another hope sprung up to live to morrow i think they must certainly come to morrow eh mother
said kit laying aside his hat with a weary air and sighing as he spoke they have been gone a week they surely couldn't stop away more than a week could they now the mother shook her head and reminded him how often he had been disappointed already
longer than enough but they may not come back for all that kit was for a moment disposed to be vexed by this contradiction and not the less so from having anticipated it in his own mind and knowing how just it was
but the impulse was only momentary and the vexed look became a kind one before it had crossed the room then what do you think mother has become of em you don't think they've gone to sea anyhow not gone for sailors certainly
returned the mother with a smile but i can't help thinking that they have gone to some foreign country i say cried kit with a rueful face don't talk like that mother i am afraid they have and that's the truth she said
it's the talk of all the neighbours and there are some even that know of their having been seen on board ship and can tell you the name of the place they've gone to which is more than i can my dear for it's a very hard one i don't believe it said kit
not a word of it a set of idle chatterboxes how should they know they may be wrong of course returned the mother i can't tell about that though i don't think it's at all unlikely that they're in the right
for the talk is that the old gentleman had put by a little money that nobody knew of
what's his name quilp and that he and miss nell have gone to live abroad where it can't be taken from them and they will never be disturbed that don't seem very far out of the way now do it kit scratched his head mournfully
in reluctant admission that it did not and clambering up to the old nail took down the cage and set himself to clean it and to feed the bird his thoughts reverting from this occupation to the little old gentleman who had given him the shilling
he suddenly recollected that that was the very day nay nearly the very hour at which the little old gentleman had said he should be at the notary's house again he no sooner remembered this
went off at full speed to the appointed place it was some two minutes after the time when he reached the spot which was a considerable distance from his home but by great good luck the little old gentleman had not yet arrived
at least there was no pony chaise to be seen and it was not likely that he had come and gone again in so short a space greatly relieved to find that he was not too late kit leant against a lamp post to take breath
and waited the advent of the pony and his charge sure enough before long the pony came trotting round the corner of the street looking as obstinate as pony might
and would by no means dirty his feet or hurry himself inconveniently behind the pony sat the little old gentleman and by the old gentleman's side sat the little old lady carrying just such a nosegay as she had brought before
until they arrived within some half a dozen doors of the notary's house when the pony deceived by a brass plate beneath a tailor's knocker came to a halt and maintained by a sturdy silence that that was the house they wanted
now sir will you ha the goodness to go on this is not the place said the old gentleman the pony looked with great attention into a fire plug which was near him and appeared to be quite absorbed in contemplating it
cried the old lady after being so good too and coming along so well i am quite ashamed of him i don't know what we are to do with him i really don't
the pony having thoroughly satisfied himself as to the nature and properties of the fire plug looked into the air after his old enemies the flies and as there happened to be one of them tickling his ear at that moment he shook his head and whisked his tail
after which he appeared full of thought but quite comfortable and collected the old gentleman having exhausted his powers of persuasion alighted to lead him whereupon the pony perhaps because he held this to be a sufficient concession
perhaps because he happened to catch sight of the other brass plate or perhaps because he was in a spiteful humour darted off with the old lady and stopped at the right house leaving the old gentleman to come panting on behind
it was then that kit presented himself at the pony's head and touched his hat with a smile why bless me cried the old gentleman the lad is here my dear do you see
said kit patting whisker's neck i hope you've had a pleasant ride sir he's a very nice little pony my dear said the old gentleman this is an uncommon lad a good lad i'm sure i'm sure he is
rejoined the old lady a very good lad and i am sure he is a good son kit acknowledged these expressions of confidence by touching his hat again and blushing very much
the old gentleman then handed the old lady out and after looking at him with an approving smile they went into the house talking about him as they went kit could not help feeling presently
mister witherden smelling very hard at the nosegay came to the window and looked at him and after that mister abel came and looked at him and after that the old gentleman and lady came and looked at him again
and after that they all came and looked at him together which kit feeling very much embarrassed by made a pretence of not observing therefore he patted the pony more and more and this liberty the pony most handsomely permitted
that he inclined to the latter opinion kit entered the office in a great tremor for he was not used to going among strange ladies and gentlemen and the tin boxes and bundles of dusty papers had in his eyes an awful and venerable air
mister witherden too was a bustling gentleman who talked loud and fast and all eyes were upon him and he was very shabby well boy said mister witherden you came to work out that shilling not to get another hey
no indeed sir replied kit taking courage to look up i never thought of such a thing father alive said the notary dead sir mother yes sir married again eh
kit made answer not without some indignation that she was a widow with three children and that as to her marrying again if the gentleman knew her he wouldn't think of such a thing at this reply mister witherden buried his nose in the flowers again
and whispered behind the nosegay to the old gentleman that he believed the lad was as honest a lad as need be now said mister garland when they had made some further inquiries of him
and quite seriously too for this announcement seemed to free him from the suspicion which the notary had hinted but resumed the old gentleman perhaps i may want to know something more about you so tell me where you live and i'll put it down in my pocket book
kit told him and the old gentleman wrote down the address with his pencil he had scarcely done so when there was a great uproar in the street and the old lady hurrying to the window cried that whisker had run away
upon which kit darted out to the rescue and the others followed it seemed that mister chuckster had been standing with his hands in his pockets looking carelessly at the pony and occasionally insulting him with such admonitions as
and the like which by a pony of spirit cannot be borne consequently the pony being deterred by no considerations of duty or obedience and not having before him the slightest fear of the human eye had at length started off
and was at that moment rattling down the street mister chuckster with his hat off and a pen behind his ear hanging on in the rear of the chaise and making futile attempts to draw it the other way to the unspeakable admiration of all beholders
by these means mister chuckster was pushed and hustled to the office again in a most inglorious manner and arrived in a state of great exhaustion and discomfiture the old lady then stepped into her seat
and mister abel whom they had come to fetch into his the old gentleman after reasoning with the pony on the extreme impropriety of his conduct
chapter fourteen the bird tragedy on laysan island this chapter is a curtain dropper to the preceding chapter as a clearly cut concrete case the reader will find it unique and unsurpassed
it should be of lively interest to every american because the tragedy occurred on american territory in the far away north pacific ocean about seven hundred miles from honolulu west b north
lies the small island of laysan it is level sandy poorly planted by nature and barren of all things likely to enlist the attention of predatory man to the harassed birds of mid ocean
it seemed like a secure haven and for ages past it has been inhabited only by them there several species of sea birds large and small have found homes and breeding places
until nineteen o nine the inhabitants consisted of the laysan albatross black footed albatross sooty tern gray backed tern noddy tern hawaiian tern white tern
bonin petrel two shearwaters the red tailed tropic bird two boobies and the man of war bird laysan island is two miles long by one and one half miles broad
and at times it has been literally covered with birds its bird life was first brought prominently to notice in eighteen ninety one by henry palmer the agent of hon walter rothschild
walter k fisher and w a bryan made further observations ever since eighteen ninety one the bird life on laysan has been regarded as one of the wonders of the bird world one of the photographs
taken prior to nineteen o nine shows a vast plain apparently a square mile in area covered and crowded with laysan albatrosses they stand there on the level sand serene bulky and immaculate
thousands of birds appear in one view a very remarkable sight naturally man the ever greedy began to cast about for ways by which to convert some product of that feathered host into money
at first guano and eggs were collected a tramway was laid down and small box cars were introduced in which the collected material was piled and pushed down to the packing place for several years this went on
and the birds themselves were not molested at last however a tentacle of the feather trade octopus reached out to laysan in an evil moment in the spring of nineteen o nine
a predatory individual of honolulu and elsewhere named max schlemmer decided that the wings of those albatross gulls and terns
and turned them loose upon the birds for several months they slaughtered diligently and without mercy apparently it was the ambition of schlemmer to kill every bird on the island
by the time the bird butchers had accumulated between three and four car loads of wings and the carnage was half finished william a bryan professor of zoology in the college of honolulu heard of it
and promptly wired the united states government without the loss of a moment the secretary of the navy despatched the revenue cutter thetis to the shambles of laysan when captain jacobs arrived
he found that in round numbers about three hundred thousand birds had been destroyed and all that remained of them were several acres of bones and dead bodies and about three carloads of wings feathers and skins
it was evident that schlemmer's intention was to kill all the birds on the island and only the timely arrival of the thetis frustrated that bloody plan the twenty three japanese poachers were arrested
the iowa state university despatched to laysan a scientific expedition in charge of professor homer r dill the party landed on the island on april twenty fourth
and the report of professor dill u s department of agriculture is consumedly interesting to the friends of birds here is what he has said regarding the evidences of bird slaughter
our first impression of laysan was that the poachers had stripped the place of bird life an area of over three hundred acres on each side of the buildings was apparently abandoned
only the shearwaters moaning in their burrows the little wingless rail skulking from one grass tussock to another and the saucy finch remained
it is an excellent example of what professor nutting calls the survival of the inconspicuous here on every side are bones bleaching in the sun showing where the poachers had piled the bodies of the birds
in this way the fatty tissue lying next to the skin was used up and the skin was left quite free from grease so that it required little or no cleaning during preparation
many other revolting sights such as the remains of young birds that had been left to starve and birds with broken legs and deformed beaks were to be seen
killing clubs nets and other implements used by these marauders were lying all about hundreds of boxes to be used in shipping the bird skins were packed in an old building it was very evident
they intended to carry on their slaughter as long as the birds lasted not only did they kill and skin the larger species but they caught and caged the finch honey eater and miller bird
cages and material for making them were found report of an expedition to laysan island in nineteen eleven by homer r dill page twelve the report of professor bryan contains the following pertinent paragraphs
this wholesale killing has had an appalling effect on the colony it is conservative to say that fully one half the number of birds of both species of albatross that were so abundant everywhere
the colonies that remain are in a sadly decimated condition over a large part of the island in some sections a hundred acres in a place that ten years ago were thickly inhabited by albatrosses
not a single bird remains while heaps of the slain lie as mute testimony of the awful slaughter of these beautiful harmless and without doubt beneficial inhabitants of the high seas
while the main activity of the plume hunters was directed against the albatrosses they were by no means averse to killing anything in the bird line that came in their way fortunately
serious as were the depredations of the poachers their operations were interrupted before any of the species had been completely exterminated
but the work of the evil genius of laysan did not stop with the slaughter of three hundred thousand birds mister schlemmer introduced rabbits and guinea pigs and these rapidly multiplying rodents now are threatening
to consume every plant on the island if the plants disappear many of the insects will go with them and this will mean the disappearance of the small insectivorous birds
rachel had known of course of the rumors against stephen and had been both indignant and sorrowful she alone knew where he was and how to find him for deeming it impossible because of his trouble with the coketown workmen
to get work under his own name he had taken another now that he was directly charged with the crime she wrote him the news at once so that he might lose no time in returning to face the unjust accusation
being so certain herself of his innocence she made no secret of what she had done and all coketown waited wondering whether he would appear or not two days passed and he had not come
messengers were sent who came back with the report that stephen had received her letter and had left at once saying he was going to coketown
another day with no stephen and now almost every one believed he was guilty had taken rachel's letter as a warning and had fled all the while tom waited nervously biting his nails and with fevered lips
knowing that stephen when he came would tell the real reason why he had loitered near the bank and so point suspicion to himself on the third day missus sparsit saw a chance to distinguish herself she recognized on the street missus pegler
the old countrywoman who also had been suspected she seized her and regardless of her entreaties dragged her to bounderby's house and into his dining room with a curious crowd flocking at their heels
she plumed herself on catching one of the robbers but what was her astonishment when the old woman called bounderby her dear son pleading that her coming to his house was not her fault
mister gradgrind who was present when they entered having always heard bounderby tell such dreadful tales of his bringing up reproached her for deserting her boy in his infancy to a drunken grandmother
at this the old woman nearly burst with indignation calling on bounderby himself to tell how false this was and how she had pinched and denied herself for him till he had begun to be successful everybody laughed at this
for now the true story of the bullying mill owner's tales was out bounderby who had turned very red was the only one who did not seem to enjoy the scene
he vented his anger on missus sparsit for meddling as he called it with his own family affairs
and inviting her to take herself off at once so missus sparsit for all her cap setting and spying
peevish tormenting one of her noble relatives an invalid with a lame leg but meanwhile another day had passed
and still stephen had not come on this day full of her trouble rachel had wandered with sissy now her fast friend some distance out of the town through some fields where mining had once been carried on suddenly she cried out
she had picked up a hat and inside it was the name stephen blackpool an instant later a scream broke from her lips that echoed over the country side
half hidden by rubbish and grasses yawned the ragged mouth of a dark abandoned shaft that instant both rachel and sissy guessed the truth that stephen returning had not seen the chasm in the darkness and had fallen into its depths
they ran and roused the town crowds came from coketown rope and windlass were brought and two men were lowered into the pit the poor fellow was there alive but terribly injured
a surgeon was at hand with wine and medicines but it was too late stephen spoke with rachel first then called mister gradgrind to him and asked him to clear the blemish from his name
he told him simply that he could do so through his son tom this was all he died while they bore him home holding the hand of rachel whom he loved stephen's last words had told the truth to mister gradgrind
he read in them that his own son was the robber tom's guilty glance had seen also with suspicion removed from stephen he felt his own final arrest sure sissy noted tom's pale face and trembling limbs
guessing that he would attempt flight too late and longing to save the heartbroken father from the shame of seeing his son's arrest and imprisonment she drew the shaking thief aside
the proprietor of the circus to which her father had once belonged she told him where the circus was to be found at that season of the year and bade him ask sleary to hide him for her sake till she came tom obeyed
he disappeared that night and later sissy told his father what she had done mister gradgrind with sissy and louisa followed as soon as possible intending to get his son to the nearest seaport and so out of the country on a vessel
for he knew that soon he himself tom's father would be questioned and obliged to tell the truth
sleary for sissy's sake had provided tom with a disguise in which not even his father recognized him
and dressed him in a moth eaten greatcoat and a mad cocked hat in which attire he played the role of a black servant in the performance tom met them grimy and defiant ashamed to meet louisa's eyes brazen to his father
anxious only to be saved from his deserved punishment a seaport was but three hours away he was soon dressed and plans for his departure were completed but at the last moment danger appeared it
he had watched the gradgrind house followed its master when he left and now laid hands on tom vowing he would take him back to coketown in this moment of the father's despair sleary the showman saved the day for the shivering thief
he agreed with the porter that as tom was guilty of a crime he must certainly go with him
he winked at sissy as he proposed this and she was not alarmed the porter accepted the proposal at once
sleary's horse was an educated horse at a certain word from its owner it would stop and begin to dance and would not budge from the spot till he gave the command in a particular way
with this horse hitched to the carriage and this dog trotting innocently behind the showman set off with the porter and tom while mister gradgrind and louisa whom sissy had told to trust in sleary waited all night for his return
it was morning before sleary came back with the news that tom was undoubtedly safe from pursuit if not already aboard ship he told them how at the word from him the educated horse had begun to dance how tom had slipped down and got away
while the educated dog at his command had penned the frightened porter in the carriage all night fearing to stir thus tom who did not deserve any such good luck got safely away
but though his father was spared the shame of ever seeing his son behind the bars of a jail yet he was a broken man ever after the truth became known what was the fate of all these bounderby a bully to the last
he had grown rich in the hardware business and was a school director of the town he believed in nothing but facts
one would have thought he carried in his pocket a rule and scales and the multiplication table
for her imagination was quite starved under their teachings
i wish he used to say
and i wish i could put a thousand pounds of gunpowder under them and blow them all up together
and the only love she knew was for her selfish worthless brother who repaid her with very little affection of their mother they saw very little she was a thin white pink eyed bundle of shawls feeble and ailing
and had too little mind to oppose her husband in anything strangely enough
and down beneath the facts of his system he had it still though it had been covered up so long that nobody would have guessed it least of all perhaps his own children mister gradgrind's intimate friend one whom he was foolish enough to admire
was josiah bounderby a big loud staring man with a puffed head whose skin was stretched so tight it seemed to hold his eyes open he owned the coketown mills and a bank besides and was very rich and pompous
bounderby was a precious hypocrite of an odd sort
deserted by his wicked mother and brought up a vagabond by a drunken grandmother
as a matter of fact his grandmother had been a respectable honest soul and his mother had pinched and saved to bring him up decently had given him some schooling and finally apprenticed him in a good trade
but bounderby was so ungrateful and so anxious to have people think he himself deserved all the credit
and made her live in a little shop in the country forty miles from coketown but in her good and simple heart the old woman was so proud of her son that she used to spend all her little savings to come into town
sometimes walking a good part of the way cleanly and plainly dressed and with her spare shawl and umbrella just to watch him go into his fine house or to look in admiration at the mills or the fine bank he owned
on such occasions she called herself missus pegler and thought no one else would be the wiser the house in which bounderby lived had no ornaments it was cold and lonely and rich
he made his mill hands more than earn their wages and when any of them complained he sneered that they wanted to be fed on turtle soup and venison with a golden spoon bounderby had for housekeeper a missus sparsit
she was a busybody and when she sat of an evening cutting out embroidery with sharp scissors
picking out the eyes of a very tough little bird in her own mind she had set her cap at bounderby so firmly had mister gradgrind put his trust in the gospel of facts which he had taught louisa
and tom that he was greatly shocked one day to catch them instead of studying any one of the dry sciences ending in ology which he made them learn
along the road at the performance of a traveling circus the circus which was run by a man named sleary
the pegasus's arms the show was given every day and at the moment of mister gradgrind's appearance one signor jupe the clown was showing the tricks of his trained dog merrylegs
and entertaining the audience with his choicest jokes mister gradgrind dumb with amazement seized both louisa and tom and led them home repeating at intervals with indignation
he reminded mister gradgrind that there was an evil influence in the school the children attended which no doubt had led them to such idle pursuits this evil influence being the little daughter of jupe the circus clown
the name of the clown's little daughter was cecelia but every one called her sissy she was a dark eyed dark haired appealing child frowned upon by mister m'choakumchild the schoolmaster
because somehow many figures would not stay in her head at one time when the circus first came her father who loved her very much
mister gradgrind had consented now however at bounderby's advice he wished he had not done so and started off with the other to the pegasus's arms to find signor jupe and deny to little sissy the right of any more schooling
poor jupe had been in great trouble that day
his joints were getting stiff he missed in his tumbling and he could no longer make the people laugh as he had once done
he had therefore made up his mind to leave the company and disappear
loving her as he did he decided to leave her there
he had come to this melancholy conclusion this very day and had sent sissy out on an errand so that he might slip away accompanied only by his dog merrylegs while she was absent
sissy was returning when she met mister gradgrind and bounderby and came with them to find her father but at the public house she met only sympathizing looks
they told her as gently as they could but poor sissy was at first broken hearted in her grief and was comforted only by the assurance that her father would certainly come back to her before long
he saw here an excellent chance to put his system to the test to take this untaught girl and bring her up from the start entirely on facts would be a good experiment with this in view then he proposed to take sissy to his house
and to care for and teach her provided
sissy knew how anxious her father had been to have her learn
and set to work upon facts but alas mister gradgrind's education seemed to make sissy low spirited but no wiser every day she watched and longed for some message from her father but none came
she was loving and lovable and louisa liked her and comforted her as well as she could
several years went by sissy's father had never returned she had grown into a quiet lovely girl the only ray of light in that gloomy home mister gradgrind had realized one of his ambitions
had been elected to parliament and now spent much time in london
tom had grown to be a young man a selfish and idle one and bounderby had made him a clerk in his bank louisa not blind to her brother's
in this time an especial object of bounderby's notice indeed the mill owner had determined to marry her louisa had always been repelled by his coarseness and rough ways and when he proposed for her
hand she shrank from the thought if her father had ever encouraged her confidence
but to mister gradgrind marriage was only a cold fact with no romance in it and his manner chilled her tom in his utter selfishness thought only of what a good thing it would be for him if his sister married his employer
and urged it on her with no regard whatever for her own liking at length
that could not be put down in black and white
and believing that at least it would help tom she consented she married bounderby the richest man in coketown and went to live in his fine house while missus sparsit the housekeeper
two persons however had a suspicion of the truth one of these was the porter of the bank whose suspicion was strong the other was louisa who though her love denied it room
hid in her secret heart a fear that her brother had had a share in the crime in the night she went to tom's bedside
but he answered sullenly that he did not know what she meant missus sparsit's fine bred nerves so she insisted were so shaken by the robbery that she came to bounderby's house to remain till she recovered
the feeble pink eyed bundle of shawls that was missus gradgrind happening to die at this time and louisa being absent at her mother's funeral missus sparsit saw her opportunity she had never forgiven louisa for marrying bounderby
that the vulgar bully began to think his cold proud wife much too regardless of him and of his importance what pleased the hawk faced old busybody most was the game the suave harthouse was playing
if louisa would only disgrace herself by running away with harthouse thought missus sparsit bounderby might be free again and she might marry him so she watched narrowly the growing intimacy between them hoping for louisa's ruin
there came a day when bounderby was summoned on business to london and louisa stayed meanwhile at the bounderby country house which lay some distance from coketown missus sparsit guessed that harthouse would use this chance to see louisa alone
reaching there at nightfall she went afoot from the station to the grounds opened the gate softly and crept close to the house here and there in the dusk through garden and wood she stole and at length she found what she sought
there under the trees stood harthouse his horse tied near by
missus sparsit stood behind a tree like robinson crusoe
she could not hear all but caught enough to know that he was telling her he loved her and begging her to leave her husband her home and friends and to run away with him in her delight and in the noise of rain upon the foliage
for a thunder storm was rolling up missus sparsit did not catch louisa's answer where and when harthouse asked her to join him she could not hear but as he mounted and rode away she thought he said to night
she waited in the rain rejoicing till her patience was at length rewarded by seeing louisa cloaked and veiled as if for a journey come from the house and go toward the railroad station
wet to the skin her feet squashing in her shoes her clothes spoiled and her bonnet looking like an over ripe fig with a terrible cold that made her voice only a whisper and sneezing herself almost to pieces
missus sparsit found bounderby at his city hotel exploded with the combustible information she carried and fainted quite away on his coat collar furious at the news she brought bounderby hustled her into a fast train and together
of his daughter's doings but where meanwhile was louisa not run away with harthouse as missus sparsit so fondly imagined but safe in her own father's house in coketown she had suffered much without complaint
added to all the insults she had suffered at her husband's hands and her fearful suspicion of tom's guilt it had proven too much for her to bear she had pretended to agree to harthouse's plan only that she might the more quickly rid herself of his presence
mister gradgrind astonished at her sudden arrival at stone lodge was shocked no less at her ghastly appearance than by what she said she told him she cursed the hour when she had been born to grow up a victim to his teachings
that her whole life had been empty
she told him the whole truth about her marriage to bounderby that she had married him solely for the advancement of tom the only one she had ever loved and that now she could no longer live with her husband or bear the life she had made for herself
and when she had said this louisa the daughter his system had brought to such despair fell at his feet at her pitiful tale the tender heart that mister gradgrind had buried in his long past youth
under his mountain of facts stirred again and began to beat the mountain crumbled away and he saw in an instant as by a lightning flash that the plan of life to which he had so rigidly held was a complete and hideous failure
he had thought there was but one wisdom that of the head he knew at last that there was a deeper wisdom of the heart also which all these years he had denied when she came to herself louisa found her father sitting by her bedside
his face looked worn and older he told her he realized at last his life mistake and bitterly reproached himself sissy too was there her love shining like a beautiful light on the other's darkness she knelt beside the bed
and then for the first time louisa burst into sobs next day sissy sought out harthouse who was waiting full of sulky impatience at the failure of louisa to appear as he had expected sissy told him plainly what had occurred
and that he should never see louisa again harthouse realizing that his plan had failed suddenly discovered that he had a great liking for camels and left the same hour for egypt never to return to coketown
it was while sissy was absent on this errand of her own that the furious bounderby and the triumphant missus sparsit the latter voiceless and still sneezing appeared at stone lodge
mister gradgrind took the mill owner greatly aback with the statement that louisa had had no intention whatever of eloping and was then in that same house and under his care angry and blustering at being made such a fool of
bounderby turned on missus sparsit but in her disappointment at finding it a mistake she had dissolved in tears when mister gradgrind told him he had concluded it would be better for louisa to remain for some time there with him
bounderby flew into a still greater rage and stamped off swearing his wife should come home by noon next day or not at all to be sure louisa did not go and next day bounderby sent her clothes to mister gradgrind
advertised his country house for sale and needing something to take his spite out upon redoubled his efforts to find the robber of the bank
the robbery of bounderby's bank in one of bounderby's weaving mills a man named stephen blackpool had worked for years he was sturdy and honest but had a stooping frame a knitted brow and iron gray hair
for in his forty years he had known much trouble many years before he had married unhappily for through no fault or failing of his own his wife took to drink left off work and became a shame and a disgrace to the town
when she could get no money to buy drink with she sold his furniture
and his wife stretched on the floor in drunken slumber at last he was compelled to pay her to stay away and even then he lived in daily fear lest she return to disgrace him afresh
what made this harder for stephen to bear was the true love he had for a sweet patient working woman in the mill named rachel she had an oval delicate face with gentle eyes and dark shining hair
she knew his story and loved him too he could not marry her because his own wife stood in the way nor could he even see or walk with her often for fear busy tongues might talk of it
but he watched every flutter of her shawl one night stephen went home to his lodging to find his wife returned she was lying drunk across his bed a besotted creature
all that night
next day at the noon hour he went to his employer's house to ask his advice he knew the law sometimes released two people from the marriage tie when one or the other lived wickedly
and his whole heart longed to marry rachel but bounderby told him bluntly that the law he had in mind was only for rich men who could afford to spend a great deal of money and he further added according to his usual custom
stephen went home that night hopeless knowing what he should find there but rachel had heard and was there before him
there was an angel's halo about her head soon the wretched creature she had aided passed out of his daily life again to go he knew not where and this act of rachel's remained to make his love and longing greater
about this time a stranger came to coketown he was james harthouse a suave polished man of the world good looking well dressed with a gallant yet indolent manner and bold eyes
being wealthy he had tried the army tried a government position tried jerusalem tried yachting and found himself bored by them all at last he had tried facts and figures
in london he had met the great believer in facts mister gradgrind and had been sent by him to coketown to make the acquaintance of his friend bounderby harthouse thus met the mill owner who introduced him to louisa now his wife
the year of married life had not been a happy one for her she was reserved and watchful and cold as ever but harthouse easily saw that she was ashamed of bounderby's bragging talk and shrank from his coarseness as from a blow
he soon perceived too that the only love she had for any one was given to tom though the latter little deserved it in his own mind harthouse called her father a machine her brother a whelp and her husband a bear
harthouse was attracted by louisa's beauty no less than by her pride he was without conscience or honor and determined though she was already married to make her fall in love with him
he knew the surest way to her liking was to pretend an interest in tom and he at once began to flatter the sullen young fellow under his influence the latter was not long in telling the story of louisa's marriage
to louisa harthouse spoke regretfully of the lad's idle habits yet hopefully of his future so that she deeming him honestly tom's friend confided in him telling him of her brother's love of gambling
and how she had more than once paid his debts by selling some of her own jewelry in such ways as these harthouse step by step gained an intimacy with her while harthouse was thus setting his net
stephen blackpool the mill worker was on trial it was a time of great dissatisfaction among workmen throughout the country
in order to gain more privileges and higher wages from their employers this movement in time had reached coketown
believing they would in the end do their members more harm than good and knowing her mind
the day had come however when a workman who thus declined was looked on with suspicion and dislike by his fellows and at length though all had liked and respected stephen
day after day he went to and from his work alone
and not seeing rachel in these days was lonely and disheartened this condition of things did not escape the eye of bounderby who sent for stephen and questioned him but even in his trouble
thinking his fellow workmen believed themselves in the right stephen refused to complain or to bear tales of them
and discharged him forthwith so that now stephen found himself without friends money or work not wholly without friends either for rachel was still the same and he had gained another friend too
while he told her that evening in his lodgings what had occurred
louisa came to him she had witnessed the interview in which her husband had discharged this faithful workman had found out where he lived and had made her brother tom bring her there that she might tell stephen how sorry she was
this kindness touched stephen he thanked her and took as a loan a small portion of the money she offered him
while he listened now a thought came to him as louisa talked with rachel he beckoned stephen from the room and told him that he could perhaps aid him in finding work
he told him to wait during the next two or three evenings near the door of bounderby's bank and promised that he himself would seek stephen there and tell him further there was no kindness however in this proposal
it was a sudden plan wicked and cowardly tom had become a criminal he had stolen money from the bank and trembled daily lest the theft become known what would be easier now he thought
than to hide his crime by throwing suspicion on some one else he could force the door of the safe before he left at night and drop a key of the bank door which he had secretly made
he himself then next morning could appear to find the safe open and the money missing stephen he considered would be just the one to throw suspicion upon all unconscious of this plot
walking past the building again and again watching vainly for tom to appear
wondered to see his bowed form haunting the place nothing came of his waiting however and the fourth morning saw him with his thoughts on rachel trudging out of town along the highroad bravely and uncomplainingly
toward whatever new lot the future held for him tom's plot worked well next day there was a sensation in coketown bounderby's bank was found to have been robbed
the safe tom declared he had found open with a large part of its contents missing a key to the bank door was picked up in the street this it was concluded the thief had thrown away after using who had done it had any suspicious person been seen about the place
many people remembered a strange old woman apparently from the country who called herself missus pegler and who had often been seen standing looking fixedly at the bank what more natural than to suspect her then another rumor began to grow
stephen blackpool discharged from the mill by bounderby himself the workman who had been shunned by all his comrades to whom no one spoke he had been seen recently loitering night after night near the robbed bank
chapter seventeen how captain dobbin bought a piano if there is any exhibition in all vanity fair which satire and sentiment can visit arm in arm together where you light on the strangest contrasts
laughable and tearful where you may be gentle and pathetic or savage and cynical with perfect propriety it is at one of those public assemblies a crowd of which are advertised every day in the last page of the times newspaper
and over which the late mister george robins used to preside with so much dignity there are very few london people as i fancy who have not attended at these meetings and all with a taste for moralizing must have thought
with a sensation and interest not a little startling and queer of the day when their turn shall come too
or will be instructed by the executors to offer to public competition the library furniture plate wardrobe
even with the most selfish disposition the vanity fairian
my lord dives's remains are in the family vault the statuaries are cutting an inscription veraciously commemorating his virtues and the sorrows of his heir who is disposing of his goods
the familiar house of which the lights used to shine so cheerfully at seven o'clock of which the hall doors opened so readily
as you passed up the comfortable stair sounded your name from landing to landing until it reached the apartment where jolly old dives welcomed his friends what a number of them he had and what a noble way of entertaining them
and how courteous and friendly men who slandered and hated each other everywhere else
he was rather dull perhaps but would not such wine make any conversation pleasant we must get some of his burgundy at any price the mourners cry at his club
pincher says handing it round
pretty thing is it not sweet miniature
how changed the house is though the front is patched over with bills
the hall swarms with dingy guests of oriental countenance
old women and amateurs have invaded the upper apartments pinching the bed curtains poking into the feathers shampooing the mattresses and clapping the wardrobe drawers to and fro
enterprising young housekeepers are measuring the looking glasses and hangings
and mister hammerdown is sitting on the great mahogany dining tables in the dining room below waving the ivory hammer and employing all the artifices of eloquence enthusiasm entreaty reason despair
shouting to his people satirizing mister
inspiriting mister moss into action imploring commanding bellowing
and we pass to the next lot o dives who would ever have thought as we sat round the broad table sparkling with plate and spotless linen
the excellent drawing room furniture by the best makers the rare and famous wines selected regardless of cost and with the well known taste of the purchaser the rich and complete set of family plate had been sold on the previous days
certain of the best wines which all had a great character among amateurs in the neighbourhood had been purchased for his master who knew them very well by the butler of our friend john osborne esquire of russell square
it happened that the orator on the table was expatiating on the merits of a picture which he sought to recommend to his audience it was by no means so select or numerous a company as had attended the previous days of the auction
roared mister hammerdown portrait of a gentleman on an elephant who'll bid for the gentleman on the elephant lift up the picture blowman and let the company examine this lot a long pale military looking gentleman
turn the elephant to the captain blowman
blushing in a very hurried and discomfited manner turned away his head shall we say twenty guineas for this work of art fifteen five name your own price the gentleman without the elephant is worth five pound
there was a general giggle in the room don't be trying to deprecate the value of the lot mister moss mister hammerdown said let the company examine it as a work of art
his gun in his hand is going to the chase in the distance a banyhann tree and a pagody most likely resemblances of some interesting spot in our famous eastern possessions how much for this lot come gentlemen
don't keep me here all day some one bid five shillings
and there saw another officer with a young lady on his arm who both appeared to be highly amused with the scene and to whom finally
he at the table looked more surprised and discomposed than ever when he spied this pair and his head sank into his military collar and he turned his back upon them so as to avoid them altogether
it is not our purpose to make mention
a little square piano which came down from the upper regions of the house the state grand piano having been disposed of previously this the young lady tried with a rapid and skilful hand making the officer blush and start again
and for it when its turn came her agent began to bid but there was an opposition here
the hebrew aide de camp in the service of the officer at the table bid against the hebrew gentleman employed by the elephant purchasers and a brisk battle ensued over this little piano the combatants being greatly encouraged by mister hammerdown at last
when the competition had been prolonged for some time the elephant captain and lady desisted from the race
the auctioneer said mister lewis twenty five and mister lewis's chief thus became the proprietor of the little square piano having effected the purchase he sate up as if he was greatly relieved and the unsuccessful competitors catching a glimpse of him at this moment
the lady said to her friend why rawdon it's captain dobbin i suppose becky was discontented with the new piano her husband had hired for her or perhaps the proprietors of that instrument had fetched it away declining farther credit
recollecting it in old days when she used to play upon it in the little sitting room of our dear amelia sedley the sale was at the old house in russell square
good old john sedley was a ruined man his name had been proclaimed as a defaulter on the stock exchange
and one dozen dessert ditto ditto there were three young stockbrokers messrs dale spiggot and dale of threadneedle street indeed who having had dealings with the old man
sent this little spar out of the wreck with their love to good missus sedley and with respect to the piano as it had been amelia's and as she might miss it and want one now and as captain william dobbin could no more play upon it than he could dance on the tight rope
it is probable that he did not purchase the instrument for his own use in a word it arrived that evening at a wonderful small cottage in a street leading from the fulham road one of those streets which have the finest romantic names this was called saint adelaide villas
anna maria road west where the houses look like baby houses where the people looking out of the first floor windows must infallibly as you think sit with their feet in the parlours
whence you hear the sound of jingling spinets and women singing where little porter pots hang on the railings sunning themselves whither of evenings you see city clerks padding wearily
the clerk of mister sedley had his domicile and in this asylum the good old gentleman hid his head with his wife and daughter when the crash came jos sedley had acted as a man of his disposition would
this done jos went on at the boarding house at cheltenham pretty much as before he drove his curricle he drank his claret he played his rubber he told his indian stories
and the irish widow consoled and flattered him as usual his present of money needful as it was made little impression on his parents
after the failure was on the receipt of the packet of forks and spoons with the young stockbrokers love over which he burst out crying like a child being greatly more affected than even his wife to whom the present was addressed edward dale
the junior of the house who purchased the spoons for the firm was in fact very sweet upon amelia and offered for her in spite of all he married miss louisa cutts daughter of higham and cutts the eminent cornfactors
muswell hill but we must not let the recollections of this good fellow cause us to diverge from the principal history
ransacked by brokers and bargainers and its quiet family treasures given up to public desecration and plunder a month after her flight
and rawdon with a horse laugh had expressed a perfect willingness to see young george osborne again he's a very agreeable acquaintance beck the wag added i'd like to sell him another horse beck i'd like to play a few more games at billiards with him
coming to a month had elapsed rawdon was denied the door by mister bowls
what an artful little woman ejaculated rebecca well i don't regret it if you don't the captain cried
who rewarded him with a kiss by way of reply and was indeed not a little gratified by the generous confidence of her husband
i might make something of him but she never let him perceive the opinion she had of him
felt the greatest interest in jack spatterdash whose cab horse had come down and bob martingale
when he stayed at home she played and sang for him made him good drinks superintended his dinner warmed his slippers and steeped his soul in comfort the best of women i have heard my grandmother say are hypocrites
we don't know how much they hide from us how watchful they are when they seem most artless and confidential how often those frank smiles which they wear so easily are traps to cajole or elude or disarm
or coax the fury of a savage one we accept this amiable slavishness and praise a woman for it we call this pretty treachery truth a good housewife is of necessity a humbug and cornelia's husband was hoodwinked
as potiphar was only in a different way by these attentions that veteran rake
his former haunts knew him not they asked about him once or twice at his clubs but did not miss him much
his secluded wife ever smiling and cheerful his little comfortable lodgings snug meals and homely evenings had all the charms of novelty and secrecy the marriage was not yet declared to the world
or published in the morning post all his creditors would have come rushing on him in a body had they known that he was united to a woman without fortune
and she was quite contented to wait until the old aunt should be reconciled before she claimed her place in society so she lived at brompton and meanwhile saw no one
these were all charmed with her the little dinners the laughing and chatting the music afterwards delighted all who participated in these enjoyments
captain cinqbars was perfectly enchanted with her skill in making punch and young lieutenant spatterdash
was evidently and quickly smitten by missus crawley but her own circumspection and modesty never forsook her for a moment and crawley's reputation as a fire eating and jealous warrior was a further and complete defence to his little wife
there are gentlemen of very good blood and fashion in this city who never have entered a lady's drawing room so that though rawdon crawley's marriage might be talked about in his county where of course missus bute had spread the news in london it was doubted or not heeded
or not talked about at all he lived comfortably on credit he had a large capital of debts which laid out judiciously will carry a man along for many years and on which certain men about town contrive to live a hundred times better than even men with ready money can do
indeed who is there that walks london streets but can point out a half dozen of men riding by him splendidly while he is on foot courted by fashion bowed into their carriages by tradesmen denying themselves nothing
and living on who knows what we see jack thriftless prancing in the park or darting in his brougham down pall mall we eat his dinners served on his miraculous plate how did this begin we say or where will it end
my dear fellow i heard jack once say i owe money in every capital in europe the end must come some day but in the meantime jack thrives as much as ever people are glad enough to shake him by the hand
and pronounce him a good natured jovial reckless fellow
everything was plentiful in his house but ready money
and reading the gazette one day and coming upon the announcement of lieutenant g osborne to be captain by purchase vice smith who exchanges rawdon uttered that sentiment regarding amelia's lover which ended in the visit to russell square
the captain had vanished and such information as they got was from a stray porter or broker at the auction look at them with their hooked beaks becky said getting into the buggy her picture under her arm in great glee they're like vultures after a battle don't know
never was in action my dear ask martingale he was in spain aide de camp to general blazes he was a very kind old man mister sedley rebecca said i'm really sorry he's gone wrong
o stockbrokers bankrupts used to it you know rawdon replied cutting a fly off the horse's ear
the wife continued sentimentally five and twenty guineas was monstrously dear for that little piano
how cut up your pretty little friend will be hey becky
is nothing but a man on a gray ass like my own who carries something shiny on his head just so answered don quixote and that resplendent object is the helmet of mambrino
sir humphry davy said mister brooke over the soup in his easy smiling way taking up sir james chettam's remark that he was studying davy's agricultural chemistry well now sir humphry davy
i dined with him years ago at cartwright's and wordsworth was there too the poet wordsworth you know now there was something singular
when wordsworth was there and i never met him and i dined with him twenty years afterwards at cartwright's there's an oddity in things now but davy was there he was a poet too or
as i may say wordsworth was poet one and davy was poet two that was true in every sense you know dorothea felt a little more uneasy than usual
in the beginning of dinner the party being small and the room still these motes from the mass of a magistrate's mind fell too noticeably she wondered how a man like mister casaubon would support such triviality
his manners she thought were very dignified the set of his iron gray hair and his deep eye sockets made him resemble the portrait of locke he had the spare form and the pale complexion which became a student
as different as possible from the blooming englishman of the red whiskered type represented by sir james chettam i am reading the agricultural chemistry said this excellent baronet
because i am going to take one of the farms into my own hands and see if something cannot be done in setting a good pattern of farming among my tenants do you approve of that miss brooke a
great mistake chettam interposed mister brooke going into electrifying your land and that kind of thing and making a parlor of your cow house it won't do i went into science a great deal myself at one time
but i saw it would not do it leads to everything you can let nothing alone no no see that your tenants don't sell their straw and that kind of thing
and give them draining tiles you know but your fancy farming will not do the most expensive sort of whistle you can buy you may as well keep a pack of hounds
it is not a sin to make yourself poor in performing experiments for the good of all she spoke with more energy than is expected of so young a lady but sir james had appealed to her he was accustomed to do so
mister casaubon turned his eyes very markedly on dorothea while she was speaking and seemed to observe her newly
young ladies don't understand political economy you know said mister brooke smiling towards mister casaubon i remember when we were all reading adam smith there is a book now
i took in all the new ideas at one time human perfectibility now but some say history moves in circles and that may be very well argued i have argued it myself
the fact is human reason may carry you a little too far over the hedge in fact it carried me a good way at one time but i saw it would not do i pulled up i pulled up in time
but not too hard i have always been in favor of a little theory we must have thought else we shall be landed back in the dark ages but talking of books there is southey's peninsular war
i am reading that of a morning you know southey no said mister casaubon not keeping pace with mister brooke's impetuous reason and thinking of the book only
i have little leisure for such literature just now i have been using up my eyesight on old characters lately the fact is i want a reader for my evenings but i am fastidious in voices
and i cannot endure listening to an imperfect reader it is a misfortune in some senses i feed too much on the inward sources i live too much with the dead my mind is something like the ghost of an ancient
wandering about the world and trying mentally to construct it as it used to be in spite of ruin and confusing changes but i find it necessary to use the utmost caution about my eyesight
he delivered himself with precision as if he had been called upon to make a public statement and the balanced sing song neatness of his speech occasionally corresponded to by a movement of his head
was the more conspicuous from its contrast with good mister brooke's scrappy slovenliness
not excepting even monsieur liret the vaudois clergyman who had given conferences on the history of the waldenses to reconstruct a past world doubtless with a view to the highest purposes of truth
what a work to be in any way present at to assist in though only as a lamp holder this elevating thought lifted her above her annoyance at being twitted with her ignorance of political economy
that never explained science which was thrust as an extinguisher over all her lights but you are fond of riding miss brooke sir james presently took an opportunity of saying i should have thought you would enter a little into the pleasures of hunting
i wish you would let me send over a chestnut horse for you to try it has been trained for a lady i saw you on saturday cantering over the hill on a nag not worthy of you my groom shall bring corydon for you every day
if you will only mention the time thank you you are very good i mean to give up riding i shall not ride any more said dorothea urged to this brusque resolution by a little annoyance that sir james would be soliciting her attention
when she wanted to give it all to mister casaubon no that is too hard said sir james in a tone of reproach that showed strong interest your sister is given to self mortification is she not he continued
turning to celia who sat at his right hand i think she is said celia feeling afraid lest she should say something that would not please her sister and blushing as prettily as possible above her necklace
but there may be good reasons for choosing not to do what is very agreeable said dorothea mister brooke was speaking at the same time but it was evident that mister casaubon was observing dorothea and she was aware of it
exactly said sir james
no indeed not exactly
answered dorothea reddening unlike celia she rarely blushed and only from high delight or anger at this moment she felt angry with the perverse sir james why did he not pay attention to celia
if that learned man would only talk instead of allowing himself to be talked to by mister brooke who was just then informing him that the reformation either meant something or it did not that he himself was a protestant to the core
i made a great study of theology at one time said mister brooke as if to explain the insight just manifested i know something of all schools i knew wilberforce in his best days
do you know wilberforce mister casaubon said no well wilberforce was perhaps not enough of a thinker but if i went into parliament
i should sit on the independent bench as wilberforce did and work at philanthropy
and observed that it was a wide field yes said mister brooke with an easy smile but i have documents i began a long while ago to collect documents they want arranging but when a question has struck me
of effort ah pigeon holes will not do i have tried pigeon holes but everything gets mixed in pigeon holes
mister casaubon gravely smiled approval and said to mister brooke you have an excellent secretary at hand you perceive no no said mister brooke shaking his head
i cannot let young ladies meddle with my documents young ladies are too flighty dorothea felt hurt
whereas the remark lay in his mind as lightly as the broken wing of an insect among all the other fragments there and a chance current had sent it alighting on her when the two girls were in the drawing room alone celia said
how very ugly mister casaubon is celia he is one of the most distinguished looking men i ever saw he is remarkably like the portrait of locke he has the same deep eye sockets
had locke those two white moles with hairs on them oh i dare say when people of a certain sort looked at him said dorothea walking away a little
why should i make it before the occasion came it is a good comparison the match is perfect miss brooke was clearly forgetting herself and celia thought so i wonder you
show temper dorothea it is so painful in you celia that you will look at human beings as if they were merely animals with a toilet and never see the great soul in a man's face
has mister casaubon a great soul celia was not without a touch of naive malice yes i believe he has said dorothea with the full voice of decision
everything i see in him corresponds to his pamphlet on biblical cosmology he talks very little said celia there is no one for him to talk to celia thought privately
dorothea quite despises sir james chettam i believe she would not accept him celia felt that this was a pity she had never been deceived as to the object of the baronet's interest sometimes indeed
she had reflected that dodo would perhaps not make a husband happy who had not her way of looking at things and stifled in the depths of her heart was the feeling that her sister was too religious for family comfort notions and scruples were like spilt needles
making one afraid of treading or sitting down or even eating when miss brooke was at the tea table sir james came to sit down by her not having felt her mode of answering him at all offensive why should he
and manners must be very marked indeed before they cease to be interpreted by preconceptions either confident or distrustful she was thoroughly charming to him but of course he theorized a little about his attachment
he was made of excellent human dough and had the rare merit of knowing that his talents even if let loose would not set the smallest stream in the county on fire hence he liked the prospect of a wife to whom he could say what shall we do
about this or that who could help her husband out with reasons
as to the excessive religiousness alleged against miss brooke he had a very indefinite notion of what it consisted in and thought that it would die out with marriage in short
he felt himself to be in love in the right place and was ready to endure a great deal of predominance which after all a man could always put down when he liked
in whose cleverness he delighted why not a man's mind what there is of it has always the advantage of being masculine
and even his ignorance is of a sounder quality sir james might not have originated this estimate but a kind providence furnishes the limpest personality with a little gum or starch in the form of tradition
let me hope that you will rescind that resolution about the horse miss brooke said the persevering admirer i assure you riding is the most healthy of exercises i am aware of it said dorothea coldly
i think it would do celia good
excuse me i have had very little practice and i should be easily thrown then that is a reason for more practice every lady ought to be a perfect horsewoman that she may accompany her husband
and spoke with cold brusquerie very much with the air of a handsome boy in amusing contrast with the solicitous amiability of her admirer i should like to know your reasons for this cruel resolution
it is not possible that you should think horsemanship wrong it is quite possible that i should think it wrong for me oh why said sir james in a tender tone of remonstrance
mister casaubon had come up to the table teacup in hand and was listening we must not inquire too curiously into motives he interposed in his measured way
the aroma is mixed with the grosser air we must keep the germinating grain away from the light dorothea colored with pleasure and looked up gratefully to the speaker
here was a man who could understand the higher inward life and with whom there could be some spiritual communion nay
who could illuminate principle with the widest knowledge a man whose learning almost amounted to a proof of whatever he believed dorothea's inferences may seem large
but really life could never have gone on at any period but for this liberal allowance of conclusions which has facilitated marriage under the difficulties of civilization has any one ever pinched
certainly said good sir james
i am sure her reasons would do her honor he was not in the least jealous of the interest with which dorothea had looked up at mister casaubon it never occurred to him that a girl to whom he was meditating an offer of marriage
except indeed in a religious sort of way
however since miss brooke had become engaged in a conversation with mister casaubon about the vaudois clergy sir james betook himself to celia
spoke of a house in town and asked whether miss brooke disliked london away from her sister celia talked quite easily
though not as some people pretended more clever and sensible than the elder sister he felt that he had chosen the one who was in all respects the superior and a man naturally likes to look forward to having the best
but i fixed her till she came round to her senses you can bid her go to the grange at once if she be able and carry a message from me that her young lady will follow in time to attend the squire's funeral
zillah no no sit you down my good mistress she replied you're right sickly yet he's not dead
doctor kenneth thinks he may last another day i met him on the road and asked instead of sitting down i snatched my outdoor things and hastened below for the way was free on entering the house i looked about for some one to give information of catherine
the place was filled with sunshine and the door stood wide open but nobody seemed at hand as i hesitated whether to go off at once or return and seek my mistress a slight cough drew my attention to the hearth linton lay on the settle sole tenant
sucking a stick of sugar candy and pursuing my movements with apathetic eyes where is miss catherine i demanded sternly supposing i could frighten him into giving intelligence by catching him thus alone he sucked on like an innocent is she gone i said
direct me to her room immediately or i'll make you sing out sharply papa would make you sing out if you attempted to get there he answered he says i'm not to be soft with catherine she's my wife
he says she hates me and wants me to die that she may have my money but she shan't have it and she shan't go home she never shall she may cry and be sick as much as she pleases he resumed his former occupation closing his lids as if he meant to drop asleep
master heathcliff i resumed have you forgotten all catherine's kindness to you last winter when you affirmed you loved her
she wept to miss one evening because you would be disappointed and you felt then that she was a hundred times too good to you and now you believe the lies your father tells though you know he detests you both and you join him against her that's fine gratitude is it not
did she come to wuthering heights because she hated you i continued think for yourself
you who have felt what it is to be so neglected you could pity your own sufferings and she pitied them too but you won't pity hers i shed tears master heathcliff you see an elderly woman
after pretending such affection and having reason to worship her almost
ah you're a heartless selfish boy i can't stay with her he answered crossly i'll not stay by myself she cries so i can't bear it and she won't give over though i say i'll call my father
i did call him once and he threatened to strangle her if she was not quiet but she began again the instant he left the room moaning and grieving all night long though i screamed for vexation that i couldn't sleep
is mister heathcliff out i inquired perceiving that the wretched creature had no power to sympathize with his cousin's mental tortures he's in the court he replied talking to doctor kenneth who says uncle is dying truly at last
i'm glad for i shall be master of the grange after him catherine always spoke of it as her house it isn't hers it's mine papa says everything she has is mine all her nice books are mine she offered to give me them and her pretty birds and her pony minny
if i would get the key of our room and let her out but i told her she had nothing to give they were all all mine and then she cried and took a little picture from her neck and said i should have that two pictures in a gold case
that was yesterday i said they were mine too and tried to get them from her the spiteful thing wouldn't let me she pushed me off and hurt me i shrieked out that frightens her
she heard papa coming and she broke the hinges and divided the case and gave me her mother's portrait the other she attempted to hide but papa asked what was the matter and i explained it he took the one i had away and ordered her to resign hers to me
she refused and he he struck her down and wrenched it off the chain and crushed it with his foot and were you pleased to see her struck i asked having my designs in encouraging his talk i winked he answered
i wink to see my father strike a dog or a horse he does it so hard yet i was glad at first she deserved punishing for pushing me but when papa was gone
and her mouth filling with blood and then she gathered up
and she has never spoken to me since and i sometimes think she can't speak for pain
and you can get the key if you choose i said yes when i am up stairs he answered but i can't walk up stairs now in what apartment is it i asked oh he cried i shan't tell you where it is it is our secret
i considered it best to depart without seeing mister heathcliff and bring a rescue for my young lady from the grange
but i bespoke the announcement of it myself how changed i found him even in those few days he lay an image of sadness and resignation awaiting his death very young he looked
though his actual age was thirty nine one would have called him ten years younger at least he thought of catherine for he murmured her name i touched his hand and spoke catherine is coming dear master i whispered she is alive and well and will be here i hope to night
i trembled at the first effects of this intelligence he half rose up looked eagerly round the apartment and then sank back in a swoon as soon as he recovered i related our compulsory visit and detention at the heights
i said heathcliff forced me to go in which was not quite true i uttered as little as possible against linton nor did i describe all his father's brutal conduct my intentions being to add no bitterness if i could help it to his already over flowing cup
as well as the estate to his son or rather himself yet why he did not wait till his decease was a puzzle to my master because ignorant how nearly he and his nephew would quit the world together however he felt that his will had better be altered
instead of leaving catherine's fortune at her own disposal he determined to put it in the hands of trustees for her use during life and for her children if she had any after her by that means it could not fall to mister heathcliff should linton die
having received his orders i despatched a man to fetch the attorney and four more provided with serviceable weapons to demand my young lady of her jailor both parties were delayed very late the single servant returned first he said mister green the lawyer
was out when he arrived at his house and he had to wait two hours for his re entrance and then mister green told him he had a little business in the village that must be done but he would be at thrushcross grange before morning the four men came back unaccompanied also
they brought word that catherine was ill too ill to quit her room and heathcliff would not suffer them to see her i scolded the stupid fellows well for listening to that tale which i would not carry to my master resolving to take a whole bevy up to the heights at day light
and storm it literally unless the prisoner were quietly surrendered to us her father shall see her i vowed and vowed again if that devil be killed on his own doorstones in trying to prevent it happily i was spared the journey and the trouble
i had gone down stairs at three o'clock to fetch a jug of water and was passing through the hall with it in my hand when a sharp knock at the front door made me jump oh it is green i said recollecting myself
and i went on intending to send somebody else to open it but the knock was repeated not loud and still importunately i put the jug on the banister and hastened to admit him myself the harvest moon shone clear outside
it was not the attorney my own sweet little mistress sprang on my neck sobbing ellen ellen is papa alive yes i cried yes my angel he is god be thanked you are safe with us again
she wanted to run breathless as she was up stairs to mister linton's room but i compelled her to sit down on a chair and made her drink and washed her pale face chafing it into a faint colour with my apron then i said i must go first and tell of her arrival
imploring her to say she should be happy with young heathcliff she stared but soon comprehending why i counselled her to utter the falsehood she assured me she would not complain i couldn't abide to be present at their meeting
i stood outside the chamber door a quarter of an hour and hardly ventured near the bed then all was composed however catherine's despair was as silent as her father's joy she supported him calmly in appearance
and he fixed on her features his raised eyes that seemed dilating with ecstasy he died blissfully mister lockwood he died so kissing her cheek he murmured am going to her and you darling child shall come to us and never stirred or spoke again
none could have noticed the exact minute of his death it was so entirely without a struggle whether catherine had spent her tears or whether the grief were too weighty to let them flow she sat there dry eyed till the sun rose
she sat till noon and would still have remained brooding over that deathbed but i insisted on her coming away and taking some repose it was well i succeeded in removing her
having called at wuthering heights to get his instructions how to behave he had sold himself to mister heathcliff that was the cause of his delay in obeying my master's summons
fortunately no thought of worldly affairs crossed the latter's mind to disturb him after his daughter's arrival mister green took upon himself to order everything and everybody about the place he gave all the servants but me notice to quit
he would have carried his delegated authority to the point of insisting that edgar linton should not be buried beside his wife but in the chapel with his family there was the will however to hinder that
and my loud protestations against any infringement of its directions the funeral was hurried over catherine missus linton heathcliff now was suffered to stay at the grange till her father's corpse had quitted it
she told me that her anguish had at last spurred linton to incur the risk of liberating her she heard the men i sent disputing at the door and she gathered the sense of heathcliff's answer it drove her desperate
linton who had been conveyed up to the little parlour soon after i left was terrified into fetching the key before his father re ascended he had the cunning to unlock and re lock the door without shutting it
and when he should have gone to bed he begged to sleep with hareton and his petition was granted for once catherine stole out before break of day she dared not try the doors lest the dogs should raise an alarm she visited the empty chambers and examined their windows
she got easily out of its lattice and on to the ground by means of the fir tree close by
he had gone out and got his feet wet
so his mother undressed him put him to bed and had the tea pot brought in to make him a good cup of elderflower tea just at that moment the merry old man came in who lived up a top of the house all alone for he had neither wife nor children but he liked children very much
and knew so many fairy tales that it was quite delightful
if i had but something new to tell said the old man but how did the child get his feet wet that is the very thing that nobody can make out said his mother
yes if you can tell me exactly for i must know that first how deep the gutter is in the little street opposite
just up to the middle of my boot said the child but then i must go into the deep hole ah ah that's where the wet feet came from said the old man i ought now to tell you a story but i don't know any more you can make one in a moment said the little boy
my mother says that all you look at can be turned into a fairy tale and that you can find a story in everything yes but such tales and stories are good for nothing the right sort come of themselves they tap at my forehead and say here we are
won't there be a tap soon asked the little boy
do tell me something pray do yes if a fairy tale would come of its own accord but they are proud and haughty and come only when they choose
i have it pay attention there is one in the tea pot
the cover rose more and more and the elder flowers came forth so fresh and white and shot up long branches out of the spout even did they spread themselves on all sides and grew larger and larger
it was a splendid elderbush a whole tree and it reached into the very bed and pushed the curtains aside how it bloomed and what an odour in the middle of the bush sat a friendly looking old woman in a most strange dress
it was quite green like the leaves of the elder and was trimmed with large white elder flowers so that at first one could not tell whether it was a stuff or a natural green and real flowers
and under it sat of an afternoon in the most splendid sunshine two old people an old old seaman and his old old wife they had great grand children and were soon to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage
but they could not exactly recollect the date and old granny sat in the tree and looked as pleased as now i know the date said she
for they were talking about old times yes can't you remember when we were very little said the old seaman and ran and played about it was the very same court yard where we now are and we stuck slips in the ground and made a garden
i remember it well said the old woman i remember it quite well we watered the slips and one of them was an elderbush it took root
to be sure said he and there in the corner stood a waterpail where i used to swim my boats true but first we went to school to learn somewhat said she and then we were confirmed
we both cried but in the afternoon we went up the round tower and looked down on copenhagen and far far away over the water then we went to friedericksberg where the king and the queen were sailing about in their splendid barges
and that too for many a year a long way off on great voyages
many a night have i got up to see if the wind had not changed and changed it had sure enough but you never came i remember so well one day when the rain was pouring down in torrents the scavengers were before the house where i was in service
and i had come up with the dust and remained standing at the door it was dreadful weather when just as i was there the postman came and gave me a letter it was from you what a tour that letter had made i opened it instantly and read
i laughed and wept i was so happy in it i read that you were in warm lands where the coffee tree grows
you related so much and i saw it all the while the rain was pouring down and i standing there with the dust box at the same moment came someone who embraced me yes but you gave him a good box on his ear that made it tingle but i did not know it was you
you arrived as soon as your letter and you were so handsome that you still are and had a long yellow silk handkerchief round your neck and a bran new hat on oh you were so dashing good heavens what weather it was and what a state the street was in
and then we married said he don't you remember and then we had our first little boy and then mary and nicholas and peter and christian
and were beloved by everybody and their children also have children said the old sailor yes those are our grand children full of strength and vigor it was methinks about this season that we had our wedding yes
this very day is the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage said old granny sticking her head between the two old people who thought it was their neighbor who nodded to them they looked at each other and held one another by the hand
soon after came their children and their grand children for they knew well enough that it was the day of the fiftieth anniversary and had come with their gratulations that very morning but the old people had forgotten it
and the elderbush sent forth a strong odour in the sun that was just about to set and shone right in the old people's faces they both looked so rosy cheeked and the youngest of the grandchildren danced around them
and called out quite delighted that there was to be something very splendid that evening
but that is no fairy tale said the little boy who was listening to the story the thing is you must understand it said the narrator let us ask old nanny that was no fairy tale tis true said old nanny
but now it's coming the most wonderful fairy tales grow out of that which is reality were that not the case you know my magnificent elderbush could not have grown out of the tea pot and then she took the little boy out of bed laid him on her bosom
and the branches of the elder tree full of flowers closed around her they sat in an aerial dwelling and it flew with them through the air oh it was wondrous beautiful old nanny had grown all of a sudden a young and pretty maiden
but her robe was still the same green stuff with white flowers which she had worn before
her eyes were so large and blue that it was a pleasure to look at them she kissed the boy and now they were of the same age and felt alike hand in hand they went out of the bower and they were standing in the beautiful garden of their home
near the green lawn papa's walking stick was tied and for the little ones it seemed to be endowed with life
the animal was strong and handsome and away they went at full gallop round the lawn huzza now we are riding miles off said the boy we are riding away to the castle where we were last year and on they rode round the grass plot
and the little maiden who we know was no one else but old nanny kept on crying out now we are in the country don't you see the farm house yonder
and the cock is scraping away the earth for the hens look how he struts and now we are close to the church it lies high upon the hill between the large oak trees one of which is half decayed and now we are by the smithy where the fire is blazing
and where the half naked men are banging with their hammers till the sparks fly about away away to the beautiful country seat
the boy saw it all and yet they were only going round the grass plot then they played in a side avenue and marked out a little garden on the earth and they took elder blossoms from their hair planted them and they grew just like those the old people planted when they were children as related before
they went hand in hand as the old people had done when they were children but not to the round tower or to friedericksberg no the little damsel wound her arms round the boy and then they flew far away through all denmark and spring came and summer
and then it was autumn and then winter and a thousand pictures were reflected in the eye and in the heart of the boy and the little girl always sang to him this you will never forget and during their whole flight the elder tree smelt so sweet and odorous
but the elder tree had a more wondrous fragrance for its flowers hung on the breast of the little maiden and there too did he often lay his head during the flight
and they stood in a beech wood that had just put on its first green where the woodroof at their feet sent forth its fragrance
and she flew past old castles of by gone days of chivalry where the red walls and the embattled gables were mirrored in the canal where the swans were swimming and peered up into the old cool avenues in the fields the corn was waving like the sea
and blooming convolvuluses were creeping in the hedges and towards evening the moon rose round and large and the haycocks in the meadows smelt so sweetly this one never forgets it is lovely here in autumn said the little maiden
and suddenly the atmosphere grew as blue again as before the forest grew red and green and yellow colored the dogs came leaping along
the sea was dark blue covered with ships full of white sails and in the barn old women maidens and children were sitting picking hops into a large cask the young sang songs but the old told fairy tales of mountain sprites and soothsayers
nothing could be more charming it is delightful here in winter said the little maiden and all the trees were covered with hoar frost they looked like white corals the snow crackled under foot as if one had new boots on
and one falling star after the other was seen in the sky the christmas tree was lighted in the room presents were there and good humor reigned in the country the violin sounded in the room of the peasant the newly baked cakes were attacked even the poorest child said
yes it was delightful
the flag under which the old seaman in the new booths had sailed and the boy grew up to be a lad and was to go forth in the wide world far far away to warm lands where the coffee tree grows
but at his departure the little maiden took an elder blossom from her bosom and gave it him to keep and it was placed between the leaves of his prayer book and when in foreign lands he opened the book it was always at the place where the keepsake flower lay
and the more he looked at it the fresher it became
and from among the leaves of the flowers he could distinctly see the little maiden peeping forth with her bright blue eyes and then she whispered it is delightful here in spring summer autumn and winter and a hundred visions glided before his mind
thus passed many years and he was now an old man and sat with his old wife under the blooming tree they held each other by the hand as the old grand father and grand mother yonder in the new booths did
and they talked exactly like them of old times and of the fiftieth anniversary of their wedding
sat in the tree nodded to both of them and said to day is the fiftieth anniversary and then she took two flowers out of her hair and kissed them first they shone like silver then like gold
so there they both sat like a king and a queen under the fragrant tree that looked exactly like an elder the old man told his wife the story of old nanny as it had been told him when a boy and it seemed to both of them it contained much that resembled their own history
and those parts that were like it pleased them best thus it is said the little maiden in the tree some call me old nanny others a dryad but in reality my name is remembrance tis i who sit in the tree that grows and grows
i can remember i can tell things let me see if you have my flower still and the old man opened his prayer book there lay the elder blossom as fresh as if it had been placed there but a short time before
and remembrance nodded and the old people decked with crowns of gold sat in the flush of the evening sun they closed their eyes and and yes that's the end of the story the little boy lay in his bed
he did not know if he had dreamed or not or if he had been listening while someone told him the story the tea pot was standing on the table but no elder tree was growing out of it and the old man who had been talking
and he did go how splendid that was said the little boy mother i have been to warm countries so i should think said his mother when one has drunk two good cupfuls of elder flower tea tis likely enough one goes into warm climates
and she tucked him up nicely least he should take cold
and where is old nanny asked the little boy
tell me that pray a strange requirement i did not resent it i am a timid man but here they have actually made me out mad an artist painted my portrait as it happened
after all you are a literary man he said i submitted he exhibited it i read go and look at that morbid face suggesting insanity it may be so but
think of putting it so bluntly into print in print everything ought to be decorous there ought to be ideals while instead of that
that's what you have style for but no he doesn't care to do it indirectly nowadays humour and a fine style have disappeared and abuse is accepted as wit i do not resent it
but god knows i am not enough of a literary man to go out of my mind
they have been refused those articles i took about from one editor to another everywhere they refused them you have no salt they told me what sort of salt do you want
i asked with a jeer attic salt they did not even understand for the most part i translate from the french for the booksellers i write advertisements for shopkeepers too
unique opportunity fine tea from our own plantations i made a nice little sum over a panegyric on his deceased excellency pyotr matveyitch i compiled the
art of pleasing the ladies a commission from a bookseller
but am afraid it may seem a little flat to our people voltaire's no good now nowadays we want a cudgel not voltaire we knock each other's last teeth out nowadays
well so that's the whole extent of my literary activity
the letter i sent last week to an editor's office was the fortieth i had sent in the last two years i have wasted four roubles over stamps alone for them my temper is at the bottom of it all i believe
that the artist who painted me did so not for the sake of literature but for the sake of two symmetrical warts on my forehead a natural phenomenon he would say they have no ideas
so now they are out for phenomena and didn't he succeed in getting my warts in his portrait to the life that is what they call realism
and as to madness a great many people were put down as mad among us last year and in such language
and yet after all it appears however one ought to have foreseen it long ago that is rather artful so that from the point of view of pure art one may really commend it well but after all
these so called madmen have turned out cleverer than ever
but they cannot produce any one better the wisest of all in my opinion is he who can if only once a month call himself a fool a faculty unheard of nowadays in old days
once a year at any rate a fool would recognise that he was a fool but nowadays not a bit of it and they have so muddled things up that there is no telling a fool from a wise man they have done that on purpose
i remember a witty spaniard saying when two hundred and fifty years ago the french built their first madhouses they have shut up all their fools in a house apart to make sure that they are wise men themselves
k has gone out of his mind means that we are sane now no it doesn't mean that yet hang it though why am i maundering on i go on
grumbling and grumbling even my maidservant is sick of me yesterday a friend came to see me your style is changing he said it is choppy you
then you begin chopping and chopping again the friend is right something strange is happening to me my
not voices exactly but as though some one beside me were muttering bobok bobok bobok
what's the meaning of this bobok i must divert my mind i went out in search of diversion i hit upon a funeral a distant relation
a collegiate counsellor however a widow and five daughters all marriageable young ladies what must it come to even to keep them in slippers their father managed it but now there is only a little pension
they will have to eat humble pie they have always received me ungraciously and indeed i should not have gone to the funeral now had it not been for a peculiar circumstance
i followed the procession to the cemetery with the rest they were stuck up and held aloof from me my uniform was certainly rather shabby it's five and twenty years i believe since i was at the cemetery
what a wretched place to begin with the smell there were fifteen hearses with palls varying in expensiveness there were actually two catafalques
one was a general's and one some lady's there were many mourners a great deal of feigned mourning and a great deal of open gaiety the clergy have nothing to complain of it brings them a good income
but the smell the smell i should not like to be one of the clergy here i kept glancing at the faces of the dead cautiously distrusting my impressionability
some had a mild expression some looked unpleasant as a rule the smiles were disagreeable and in some cases very much so i don't like them they haunt one's dreams
during the service i went out of the church into the air it was a grey day but dry it was cold too but then it was october i walked about among the tombs
they are of different grades the third grade cost thirty roubles it's decent and not so very dear the first two grades are tombs in the church and under the porch they cost a pretty penny
on this occasion they were burying in tombs of the third grade six persons among them the general and the lady i looked into the graves and it was horrible water and
such water absolutely green and but there why talk of it the gravedigger was baling it out every minute i went out while the service was going on and strolled outside the gates
close by was an almshouse and a little further off there was a restaurant it was not a bad little restaurant there was lunch and everything there were lots of the mourners here i noticed a great deal of gaiety and genuine heartiness
i had something to eat and drink then i took part in the bearing of the coffin from the church to the grave why is it that corpses in their coffins are so heavy
they say it is due to some sort of inertia that the body is no longer directed by its owner or some nonsense of that sort in opposition to the laws of mechanics and common sense i don't
like to hear people who have nothing but a general education venture to solve the problems that require special knowledge and with us that's done continually civilians love to pass opinions about subjects that are the province of the soldier
and even of the field marshal while men who have been educated as engineers prefer discussing philosophy and political economy i did not go to the requiem service i have some pride
and if i am only received owing to some special necessity why force myself on their dinners even if it be a funeral dinner the only thing i don't understand is why i stayed at the cemetery
i sat on a tombstone and sank into appropriate reflections i began with the moscow exhibition and ended with reflecting upon astonishment in the abstract
my deductions about astonishment were these to be surprised at everything is stupid of course and to be astonished at nothing is a great deal more becoming and for some reason accepted as good form
but that is not really true to my mind to be astonished at nothing is much more stupid than to be astonished at everything and moreover to be astonished at nothing is almost the same as feeling respect for nothing
he thirsts to feel respect goodness i thought what would happen to you if you dared to print that nowadays at that point i sank into forgetfulness
i don't like reading the epitaphs of tombstones they are everlastingly the same an unfinished sandwich was lying on the tombstone near me stupid and inappropriate
i threw it on the ground as it was not bread but only a sandwich though i believe it is not a sin to throw bread on the earth but only on the floor i must look it up in suvorin's calendar
i suppose i sat there a long time too long a time in fact i must have lain down on a long stone which was of the shape of a marble coffin and how it happened i don't know
but i began to hear things of all sorts being said at first i did not pay attention to it but treated it with contempt but the conversation went on i heard
muffled sounds as though the speakers mouths were covered with a pillow and at the same time they were distinct and very near i came to myself sat up and began listening attentively
you led hearts i return your lead and here you play the seven of diamonds you ought to have given me a hint about diamonds what play by hard and fast rules where is the charm of that
one can't do anything without something to go upon we must play with dummy let one hand not be turned up well you won't find a dummy here what conceited words
and it was queer and unexpected one was such a ponderous dignified voice the other softly suave i should not have believed it if i had not heard it myself
i had not been to the requiem dinner i believe and yet how could they be playing preference here and what general was this that the sounds came from under the tombstones of that there could be no doubt
i bent down and read on the tomb here lies the body of major general pervoyedov
passed away in august of this year fifty seven
dash it it really is a general there was no monument on the grave from which the obsequious voice came there was only a tombstone he must have been a fresh arrival from his voice he was a lower court councillor
the voice belonged to a man and a plebeian mawkish with its affectation of religious fervour
oh here he is hiccupping again cried the haughty and disdainful voice of an irritated lady apparently of the highest society it is an affliction to be by this shopkeeper
i didn't hiccup why i've had nothing to eat it's simply my nature
then why did you come and lie down here
the mystery of death and i would not have lain down beside you not for any money i lie here as befitting my fortune judging by the price
for we can always do that pay for a tomb of the third grade you made money i suppose you fleeced people
there's a little bill against you at the shop well that's really stupid to try and recover debts here is too stupid to my thinking go to the surface ask my niece she is my heiress
we have both reached our limit and before the judgment seat of god are equal in our sins
the lady mimicked him contemptuously don't dare to speak to me oh ho ho ho you see the shopkeeper obeys the lady your excellency
why shouldn't he why your excellency because as we all know things are different here different how
dead so to speak your excellency oh yes but still well this is an entertainment it is a fine show i must say
if it has come to this down here what can one expect on the surface but what a queer business i went on listening however though with extreme indignation
i should like a taste of life i heard a new voice suddenly somewhere in the space between the general and the irritable lady
do you hear your excellency our friend is at the same game again for three days at a time he says nothing and then he bursts out with
and such frivolity it gets hold of him your excellency and do you know he is growing sleepy quite sleepy
i should like a taste of life it is rather dull though observed his excellency it is your excellency
no spare me please i can't endure that quarrelsome virago
cried the virago disdainfully you are both of you bores and can't tell me anything ideal i know one little story about you your excellency don't turn up your nose please
how a man servant swept you out from under a married couple's bed one morning
the general muttered through his teeth
the shopkeeper wailed suddenly again my dear lady don't be angry but tell me am i going through the ordeal by torment now or is it something else ah
he is at it again as i expected for there's a smell from him which means he is turning round
i am not turning round ma'am and there's no particular smell from me for i've kept my body whole as it should be while you're regularly high
for the smell is really horrible even for a place like this i don't speak of it
horrid insulting wretch he positively stinks and talks about me oh ho ho ho if only the time for my requiem would come quickly
i should hear their tearful voices over my head my wife's lament
well that's a thing to fret for they'll stuff themselves with funeral rice and go home oh i wish somebody would wake up avdotya ignatyevna
said the insinuating government clerk wait a bit the new arrivals will speak and are there any young people among them yes there are avdotya ignatyevna there are some not more than lads
oh how welcome that would be haven't they begun yet inquired his excellency even those who came the day before yesterday haven't awakened yet your excellency
as you know they sometimes don't speak for a week it's a good job that to day and yesterday and the day before they brought a whole lot as it is they are all last year's for seventy feet round
yes it will be interesting yes your excellency they buried tarasevitch the privy councillor to day i knew it from the voices
it's not for me to make advances oh he will begin of himself your excellency he will be flattered leave it to me your excellency and i oh oh
croaked the frightened voice of a new arrival
and how quick he's been sometimes they don't say a word for a week oh i believe it's a young man avdotya ignatyevna cried shrilly i i it was a complication and so sudden
faltered the young man again
there's a complication and i died suddenly before morning oh oh well there's no help for it young man the general observed graciously evidently pleased at a new arrival
you must be comforted you are kindly welcome to our vale of jehoshaphat so to call it we are kind hearted people you will come to know us and appreciate us
and i couldn't breathe and you know
you know i kept meaning to go to botkin's and all at once botkin is quite prohibitive observed the general oh no he is not forbidding at all i've heard he is so attentive and foretells everything beforehand
the government clerk corrected him
and he makes such an examination and gives you a prescription and i was very anxious to see him for i have been told well gentlemen had i better go to ecke or to botkin what to whom
the general's corpse shook with agreeable laughter the government clerk echoed it in falsetto dear boy dear delightful boy how i love you
avdotya ignatyevna squealed ecstatically i wish they had put some one like you next to me no that was too much and these were the dead of our times
still i ought to listen to more and not be in too great a hurry to draw conclusions that snivelling new arrival i remember him just now in his coffin had the expression of a frightened chicken
the most revolting expression in the world however let us wait and see but what happened next was such a bedlam that i could not keep it all in my memory for a great many woke up at once
an official a civil councillor woke up and began discussing at once the project of a new sub committee in a government department and of the probable transfer of various functionaries in connection with the sub committee
which very greatly interested the general i must confess i learnt a great deal that was new myself so much so that i marvelled at the channels by which one may sometimes in the metropolis learn government news
then an engineer half woke up but for a long time muttered absolute nonsense so that our friends left off worrying him and let him lie till he was ready at last the distinguished lady who had been buried in the morning under the catafalque
showed symptoms of the reanimation of the tomb lebeziatnikov for the obsequious lower court councillor whom i detested and who lay beside general pervoyedov was called it appears lebeziatnikov
became much excited and surprised that they were all waking up so soon this time i must own i was surprised too though some of those who woke had been buried for three days as for instance a very young girl of sixteen who kept
giggling giggling in a horrible and predatory way your excellency privy councillor tarasevitch is waking lebeziatnikov announced with extreme fussiness eh what
the privy councillor waking up suddenly mumbled with a lisp of disgust there was a note of ill humoured peremptoriness in the sound of his voice i listened with curiosity
for during the last few days i had heard something about tarasevitch shocking and upsetting in the extreme it's i your excellency so far only i
every one feels at first as it were oppressed general pervoyedov wishes to have the honour of making your excellency's acquaintance and hopes
surely your excellency general pervoyedov vassili vassilitch are you general pervoyedov no your excellency
i am only the lower court councillor lebeziatnikov at your service but general pervoyedov nonsense and i beg you to leave me alone let him be
general pervoyedov at last himself checked with dignity the disgusting officiousness of his sycophant in the grave he is not fully awake your excellency you must consider that
it's the novelty of it all when he is fully awake he will take it differently
repeated the general vassili vassilitch hey your excellency a perfectly new voice shouted loudly and aggressively from close beside avdotya ignatyevna
it was a voice of gentlemanly insolence with the languid pronunciation now fashionable and an arrogant drawl i've been watching you all for the last two hours do you remember me vassili vassilitch
i am sure i don't know why what count pyotr petrovitch can it be really you and at such an early age how sorry i am to hear it
oh i am sorry myself
and i want to amuse myself as far as i can everywhere and i am not a count but a baron only a baron we are only a set of scurvy barons risen from being flunkeys but why i don't know
and i don't care i am only a scoundrel of the pseudo aristocratic society and i am regarded as a charming
and only fancy i was engaged to be married to a girl still at school three months under sixteen with a dowry of ninety thousand avdotya ignatyevna
ah that's you you rascal well you are a godsend anyway for here
the stench came from me they had to bury me in a nailed up coffin
still i am glad you are here you can't imagine the lack of life and wit here quite so quite so and i intend to start here something original your excellency
i don't mean you pervoyedov your excellency the other one tarasevitch the privy councillor
i simply want to kiss you dear old man but luckily i can't
what this grand pere's little game was he died three or four days ago
he was the sole person in control of it for some reason so that his accounts were not audited for the last eight years i can fancy what long faces they all have now and what they call him
it's a delectable thought isn't it i have been wondering for the last year how a wretched old man of seventy gouty and rheumatic succeeded in preserving the physical energy for his debaucheries
and now the riddle is solved those widows and orphans the very thought of them must have egged him on i knew about it long ago i was the only one who did know it was julie told me
and as soon as i discovered it i attacked him in a friendly way at once in easter week give me twenty five thousand if you don't they'll look into your accounts to morrow
he had only thirteen thousand left then so it seems it was very apropos his dying now grand pere grand pere do you hear
i quite agree with you and there was no need for you to go into such details life is so full of suffering and torment and so little to make up for it
that i wanted at last to be at rest and so far as i can see i hope to get all i can from here too
who what katiche there was a rapacious quiver in the old man's voice
why here on the left five paces from me and ten from you
of good family and breeding and a monster a regular monster i did not introduce her to any one there i was the only one who knew her katiche
he and a little blonde
the old man faltered breathlessly cherished the dream of a little fair thing of fifteen and just in such surroundings ach the monster
cried avdotya ignatyevna enough
captain will ratlin the watch below after completing the work which had summoned them for the time being on deck tumbled helter skelter down the fore hatch once more
and left on the deck of the sea witch about a dozen able seamen who formed the watch upon deck a number of these were now gathered in a knot on the forecastle and while they were sitting cross legged picking old rope
and preparing it in suitable form for caulking the ship's seams one of their number was spinning a yarn
the object of their remarks meanwhile stood once more quietly leaning over the monkey rail on the weather side of the quarter deck quite unconscious that he was supplying a theme of entertainment to the forecastle there was an absent expression in his handsome face
a look as though his heart was far distant from the scene about him and yet a habit of watchful caution seemed ever and anon to recall his senses and his quick keen glance would run over the craft from stem to stern with a searching and comprehensive power
that showed him master of his profession and worthy his trust trust what was the trust he held surely no legitimate commerce could warrant the outfit of such a vessel as he controlled
a man of war could hardly have been more fully equipped with means of offence and defence amidship beneath that long boat was a long heavy metalled gun that worked on a traverse and which could command nearly every point of the compass
while the ship kept her course just inside the rise of the low quarter deck the cabin being entered from the deck by the descent of a couple of steps there were ranged boarding pikes muskets cutlasses and pistols ready for instant use
in shape they formed stars hearts and diamonds dangerous but fantastic ornaments the brightness of these arms and the handy way in which they were arranged in the sockets made to receive them showed at once that they were designed for use
while the various other fixtures of the cabin and docks plainly bespoke preparation for conflict a strong and lofty boarding netting being stowed also told of the readiness of the sea witch to repel boarders
that all these preparations had been made merely as ordinary precautions in a peaceful trade was by no means probable and yet there they were and there stood the bright eyed handsome and youthful commander upon the quarter deck but he did not look the desperado
where an english or french cruiser was very likely to cross his track he handles a ship as prettily as ever a true blue did yet said one of the forecastle group in replying to some remark of a comrade concerning the commander
that's true answered another he seems to have a sort of natural way with him
and as to that matter there may be them on board who say as much of him that isn't far from the truth answered bill marline seein he started so arly on the sea he can't tell when he wasn't there himself
how was that matter bill asked one of his messmates they say you have kept the captain's reckoning man and boy these fifteen years that have i and never a truer heart floated than the man you see yonder leaning over the rail on the quarterdeck where he belongs
answered bill marline how did you first fall in with him bill tell us that said one of the crew well do ye see messmates it must have been the matter of thirteen years ago there or thereabouts but i can't exactly say
seeing's i never have kept a log and can't write but must have been about that length of time when i was a foremast hand on board the sea lion as fine an indiaman as you would wish to see we were lying in the liverpool docks with sails bent and cargo stowed
under sailing orders when one afternoon there strolled alongside a boy rather ragged and dirty
well do ye see we were lazing away time on board and waiting the captain's coming before we hauled out into the stream and so we coaxed the lad aboard he either didn't know where he came from or wouldn't tell
and when we proposed to take him to sea with us he readily agreed and sure enough he sailed in the sea lion well heave ahead bill said one of the group as the narrator stopped to stove a fresh instalment of the virginia weed in his larboard cheek
heave ahead we hadn't got fairly clear of the channel continued bill marline before the boy had become a general favorite all over the ship we washed him up and bent on a new suit of toggery on him with a reg'lar tarpaulin
and there was almost a fight whether the forecastle or the cabin should have him at last it was left to the boy himself and he chose to remain with us in the forecastle the boy wasn't sick an hour on the passage until after we left the cape of good hope when the flag halliards getting fouled
he was sent up to the peak to loosen it
but the boy was crazy for near a month from the blow on his head which he got in falling but he gradually got cured under our captain's care well do ye see our captain was a regular whole souled fellow
though he did sometimes work up a hand's old iron pretty close for him
and as he grew better took to teaching him the use of his instruments and mathematics and the like the boy they said was wonderful ready and learned like a book and could take the sun and work up the ship's course as well as the captain
but what was the funniest of all was that after he got well he didn't know one of us he had forgotten or even how he came on board the ship
to my mind howdsomever it wasn't much to forget seeing he was little better than a baby and hadn't been to sea at all and you know there aint anything worth knowing on shore more'n one can overhaul in a day's leave more or less within hail of the sea
that's true growled one or two of his messmates our ship was a first class freighter and passage vessel and on the home voyage we had plenty of ladies
he was constantly learning something
and then as i said before
and when master will ratlin for that was a name we give him when he first came on board and he's kept it ever since was a matter of fourteen years he was nearly as big as he is now and acted as mate
i never seed a better seaman of twice his years always savin present company messmates in course bill growled three or four of his messmates heartily well do ye see messmates we continued together in the same ship for the matter of five years
and then master will and i shipped in another indiaman and we were in the birmingham for three years or more one day we lay off the cape on the home passage
and somehow i got rather more grog aboard than i could stow and when i came off the captain swore at me like a pirate and after i got sober triced me up to the main rigging for a round dozen
shiver my timbers if master will ratlin who was the first mate didn't walk boldly up to the captain and say blunt and honest captain brace marline is an old and favorite seaman and if you will let this offence pass without further punishment
i will answer for his future good behaviour at all times i ask it sir as a personal favor but discipline discipline must be observed mister ratlin i acknowledge he's in fault sir said our mate
and deserves the punishment said the captain i fear he does sir but yet i can't bear to see a good seaman flogged said the mate apologetically nor i either said the captain but bill marline deserves the cat
though as you make it a personal matter why i'll let him off this time mister ratlin the captain didn't wish to let me go but he said he wished to gratify his mate and so i was cast loose and after a broadside of advice and a hurricane of oaths
was turned over to duty again i didn't forget that favor messmates and sink me if i wouldn't go to the bottom to serve him any time he commanded a brig in the south american trade after that and would have made a mate of me
but somehow i've got a weakness for grog that isn't very safe and so he knows twont do you see him there now messmates as calm as a lady but he's awake when there's need of it the man don't live that can handle a ship better than he and as for fighting
do ye see messmates we were running on this here same tack just off the but avast upon that i haven't any more to say messmates said the speaker demurely
bill marline evidently found himself treading upon dangerous ground and wisely cut short his yarn thereby creating a vast amount of curiosity among his messmates but he sternly refused to speak further upon the subject
either his commander had prohibited him or he found that by speaking he should in some way compromise the credit or honor of one upon whom he evidently looked as being little less than one of a superior order of beings to himself
pay out old fellow there's plenty of sea room and no land sharks to fear said one of the group encouragingly never you mind messmates there's nothing like keeping a civil tongue in your head especially being quiet about other people's business added bill
what think you bill of this present vocation eh asked another companion i shipped for six months that's all i know and no questions asked i understand very well that captain ratlin wouldn't ship me where he wouldn't go himself
well do you see bill most of us are new on board here though we have knocked about long enough to get the number of our mess and to work ship together and don't perhaps feel so well satisfied as you do
why look ye messmates arnt you satisfied so long as the articles you signed are kept by captain and crew asked bill marline somewhat tartly why yes as to that matter but where are we bound bill asked the other
any boy in the ship can make out the sea witch's course said the old tar evasively we're in these here northern trades close hauled and heading according to my reckoning due east and any man who has stood his trick at the wheel of a ship
knows that such a course steered from the west indies will if well followed run down the cape verds that's all i know port praya and a port that was in the articles sure enough answered he who had questioned bill marline
but the sea witch will scarce anchor there before she is off again according to my reckoning that the old tar knew more than he chose to divulge however was apparent to his comrades but they knew him to be fixed when he chose
and so did not endeavor by importunity to gather anything further from him so the conversation gradually changed into some other channel in the meantime while the crew gathered about bill marline were thus speculating the vessel bowled along gracefully
with a speed that was in itself exhilarating to her young commander who still gazed idly at the passing current once or twice a slight frown clouded his features and his lips moved as though he was striving within himself
either against real or imaginary evil and then the same calm placid manliness of countenance radiated his handsome features and his lips were composed
in the latitude of cuba and the cape verd islands the delightful trade winds had not fanned the sea on a finer summer's day for a twelvemonth and the waves were daintily swelling upon the heaving bosom of the deep as though indicating the respiration of the ocean
it was scarcely a day's sail beyond the flow of the caribbean sea that one of those noblest results of man's handiwork a fine ship might have been seen gracefully ploughing her course through the sky blue waters of the atlantic
that gave her taut rig and saucy air a dash of mystery which would have set him to speculating at once as to her character
all so complete and well controlled
no wonder he discourses of her charms with the eloquence of true love and confiding trust no landsman can be more enamored of his promised bride but the craft to which we especially refer at the present writing
was a coquette of the first class beautiful in the extreme and richly meriting the name that her owners had placed in golden letters on her stern the sea witch she was one of that class of vessels known as flat upon the floor
a model that caused her to draw but little water and enabled her to run free over a sandbar or into an inlet where an ordinary ship's long boat would have grounded she was very long and sharp with graceful concave lines
and might have measured some five hundred tons speed had evidently been the main object aimed at in her construction the flatness of her floor giving her great buoyancy and her length ensuring fleetness these were points that would at once have struck a sailor's eye
as he beheld the ship bowling gracefully on her course by the power of the trade winds that so constantly befriend the mariners in these latitudes
and so indeed she was contrary to the usual rig of what are called clipper ships her masts instead of raking were perfectly upright for the purpose of enabling her to carry more press of sail when need be and to hold on longer when speed should be of vital importance
having tremendous square yards enabling the canvass to act more immediately upon the hull instead of operating as a lever aloft and keeping the ship constantly off an even keel
though low in the waist yet her ends rose gracefully in a curve towards the terminations fore and aft making her very dry on either the quarter deck or forecastle she might have numbered fifty men for her crew
and if you had looked in board over her bulwarks you would have seen that her complement was made up of men there were none there but real able bodied seamen sea dogs who had roughed it in all weather and on all sorts of allowance
there was a quiet and orderly mien about the deck and among the watch that spoke of the silent yet potent arm of authority the men spoke to each other now and then but it was in an under tone and there was no open levity
a few men were lounging about the heel of the bowsprit on the forecastle one or two were busy in the waist coiling cable an officer of second or third caste a quiet but decided character
to judge from his features stood with folded arms just abaft the mizzen mast and a youthful figure almost too young seemingly for so responsible a post leaned idly against the monkey rail near the sage old tar who was at the helm
at first you might have supposed him a supercargo an owner's son as passenger or something of that sort from the quite at home air he exhibited but now and then he cast one of those searching and understanding glances aloft and fore and aft
taking in the whole range of the ship's trim and the way she did her duty that you realized at once the fact of his position and you could not mistake the fact that he was her commander he wore a glazed tarpaulin hat of coarse texture
and his dress was of little better material than that of the crew he commanded but it set it somehow quite jauntily upon his fine well developed form and there was an unmistakable air of conscious authority about him that showed him to be no stranger to control
or the position which he filled the hair escaping in glossy curls from beneath his hat added to a set of very regular features a fine effect while a clear full blue eye and an open ingenuous expression of countenance
told of manliness of heart and chivalric hardihood of character exposure to the elements had bronzed his skin but there were no wrinkles there and captain will ratlin could not have seen more than two and twenty years
though most of them had doubtless been passed upon the ocean for his well knit form showed him to be one thoroughly inured to service she does her work daintily captain ratlin
said he who was evidently an officer and who had been standing by the mainmast but now walked aft yes mister faulkner daintily is the word i wish our beauty could be a little more spunky time is money in our business sir was the prompt reply
but the willing craft does all she can sir i don't know mister faulkner we can make her do almost anything but talk added the mate ay she will do that in her own way and eloquently too continued his superior
in coming out of matanzas when you made her back and fill like a saddle horse i thought she was little less than a human being said the mate honestly she minds her helm like a beauty
she eats right into it and yet has not shaken a foot of canvass this half hour that is well it's uncommon sir continued the other she must and can do better though said the young commander with an air of slight impatience
call the watch below mister faulkner we will treat our mistress to a new dress this bright day and flatter her pride a little she is of the coquette school and will bear a little dalliance
and with a few quick blows with a handspike and a clear call he summoned that portion of the crew whose hours of release from duty permitted them below the signal rang sharply through the ship and caused an instant response a score of dark forms issued forth from the forecastle
embracing representatives from nearly half the nations of the globe but they were sturdy sailors and used to obey the word of command men to be relied upon in an emergency rough in exterior but within either soft as women or hard as steel according to the occasion
suddenly the mizzen royal disappeared followed by the top gallant sail topsail and cross jack courses seeming to melt away under the eye like a misty veil while almost in a moment of time there appeared a spanker gaff topsail
and gaff top gallantsail in their place while the vessel still held on her course a moment later and the royal top gallantsail topsail and mainsail disappear from the main mast
upon which appears a regular fore and aft suit of canvass consisting of mainsail gaff topsail and gaff top gallantsail reducing the vessel to a square rig forward and a plain fore and aft rig aft
a few minutes more and the foremast passed through the same metamorphose leaving the sea witch a three masted schooner with fore and aft sails on every mast and every stay
each man requiring to work with marked intelligence fifty well drilled men thorough sea dogs can turn a five hundred ton ship inside out
if the controlling mind understands his position on the quarter deck she wears that dress as though it suited her taste exactly mister faulkner said the captain running his eye over the vessel and glancing over the side to mark her headway
any rig becomes the sea witch answered the officer with evident pride that is true returned the captain luff sir luff a bit so well he continued to the man at the helm we will have all of her weatherly points that site will give
the wind is rather more unsteady than it was an hour past said mister faulkner rather puffy and twice i thought it would haul right about but here we have it still from the north'rd and east'rd replied the captain
here it is again added the mate as the wind hauled once more the immediate object of the change in the vessel's rig which we have described was at once apparent enabling the vessel to lie nearer the wind in her course
as well its giving her increased velocity by bringing more canvass to draw than a square rig could do when close hauled but a shrewd observer would have been led to ask what other reason save that of disguise
could have been the actuating motive in thus giving to the sea witch a double character in her rig for though temporary and somewhat important advantage could at times be thus gained
as we have seen yet such an object alone would not have warranted the increased outlay that was necessarily incurred to say nothing of the imperative necessity of a vessel's being very strongly manned in order to enable her
to thus change her entire aspect with any ordinary degree of celerity
chapter three the gale the wind seems to be hauling said the mate walking aft and addressing his superior keep her a good full said the captain to the man at the helm ay ay sir said the old tar
as he tried to make the sails draw by altering the vessel's course a point or two more free here it is sure enough said the captain from the southwest up with the men forward once more mister faulkner we must humor our beauty
all hands oil deck shouted the mate at the hatch an order which as before was perfectly obeyed almost as quickly as the foremast had been stripped of the square rig it had at first borne it was once more clothed again with its topsail and mainsail
and in less than fifteen minutes the sea witch was under a cloud of canvass with studd'nsails out on both sides while the fore and aft sails on the main and mizzen were boomed out wing and wing dead before the wind the staysails and jibs were hauled down now as useless
and the vessel flew like a courser the change of wind had brought the sea up and the vessel had a gradual roll causing the waves now and then to come gracefully in over the waist while the extreme fore and aft parts of the handsome craft
were perfectly dry it has set her to waltzing mister faulkner said his superior but she improves her speed upon to it and i think the breeze freshens from this new quarter yes sir do you see the long bank of white hereaway to the south southwest
it looks like a fog bank but may be a squall said the mate there are few squalls in these latitudes mister faulkner and yet i don't like the looks of the weather in the southern board said the captain as he gazed to windward
and now and then a damp puff and lull that were too significant tokens for a seaman to disregard captain ratlin jumped upon the inner braces of the taffrail and shading his eyes with his hands for a moment looked steadily to windward
then glanced at his well filled sails as though he was loth to lose even a minute of such a fair wind he delayed however but a second when jumping down to the deck again he issued his orders in those brief but significant tones of voice
which at the same time imparts promptness and confidence in a waiting crew on shipboard in studd'nsails gaff topsails fore royal and top gallantsails with a will men cheerily cheerily o
these were tones that the crew of the sea witch were no strangers to and sounds they loved for they betokened a thorough and complete feeling of confidence between commander and men and they worked with spirit
lay aft here and brail the spanker up continued the captain promptly ay ay sir was the response of a half dozen ready hands as they sprang to do his bidding the vessel was thus by the consummation of these orders
quickly reduced to her mainsail foresail and foretopsail while she flew before the on coming gale at the rate of seventeen or eighteen knots an hour
that a severe gale of wind was gathering and its force was momentarily more powerfully exercised upon the vessel she staggers under it mister faulkner said his superior with a calmness that evinced perfect self reliance and coolness
while he regarded the increasing gale ay sir you can drive her at almost any speed answered the mate she's like a mettled courser sir and loves the fleet track scud while you can mister faulkner it's a true nautical rule
some men will always heave a ship to if there is a cap fill of double reef the mainsail shouted the captain interrupting himself to give an order that he saw was imperative wind but i believe in scudding if you can he added
double reef foretopsail and look ye mister faulkner have presenter sheets bent on the foresail this wind is in earnest said his superior more seriously as he jumped into the mizzen shrouds and scanned the sea to windward again
the gale still increased and everything being now made snug on board the sea witch she was run before it with almost incredible speed it would have been a study to have regarded the calm self possession and complete coolness of the young commander
during this startling gale he never once left his post every inch of the vessel seemed under his eye and not the least trifle of duty was for a moment forgotten if possible
he was more particular than usual that his orders in the smallest item were strictly observed and thus with his iron will and strong intelligence he mastered every contingency of the hour imparting that indispensable confidence among his people
so requisite to perfect control there was a firmness now expressed in the compressed lips and a sternness in the eye that had not before been manifested while there was a breathing of authority in his smallest order
in an instant more the scene was changed with terrific violence the vessel flew up in the wind with the rapidity of thought and a report like that of a score of cannons fired at the same moment was heard above the roar of the winds
what lubberly trick is this shouted the captain fiercely to the old tar who held his station at the wheel and on whose faithfulness everything depended the wheel rope has parted on the larboard side your honor was the reply
that is no man's fault said his commander bear a hand here mister faulkner and bend on a fresh wheel rope be lively sir be lively the sails had been blown from the bolt ropes in an instant of time and the vessel now lay wallowing in the sea
now once more was seen the power of discipline and the coolness of the young commander whose word was law in that floating community fifty voices were raised in shouts above the storm suggesting this expedient and that but that agile figure which we have already described
sprang lightly into the mizzen shrouds and with a voice that was heard by every soul on board the sea witch shouted sternly silence in the ship not a voice was heard and every man quietly awaited his order
cast the gasket off the foot of the fore and aft foresail ay ay sir responded the mate who having secured the rudder now hastened by his commander
haul the sheet to port ay ay sir belay that as the vessel felt the power of the canvass thus opportunely loosed and brought to bear she gradually paid off before the wind and once more had steerage way
another foresail was now bent and this time double reefed the foretopsail too was bent close reefed and furled while the fore and aft foresail was once more stowed
then the wind once more hauled to the northwest and the sea witch donned heir fore and aft rig on all her masts
until the lofty headlands of the cape de verds hove gradually in sight and the fleet clipper craft made her anchorage in the harbor of port praya the sea witch whatever her business in this harbor
seemed able to transact it without venturing inside the forts or taking stronger moorings than a single anchor could afford her at this she rode with mysterious quiet not a soul of the full complement of men on board were visible from the shore
now and then perhaps the head of some taller hand than his fellows might loom up above the bulwarks at the waist or a solitary seaman creep quietly aloft to reave a sheet through some block or secure some portion of the rigging
the captain scarcely waited for his land tackle to hold the vessel before a quarter boat was lowered away and with a half dozen sturdy fellows as its crew pulled boldly towards the main landing where he stepped ashore and disappeared
and the way in which she was moored if need be three minutes would have covered her with canvass and slipping her cable she could in that space of time had the order been issued from her quarter deck have been under way and looking once more seaward
whatever her business it was very clear that promptness secrecy and large precaution were elements of its success nor had these characteristics which we have named escaped entire observation of the people on shore
make a large book a folio boswell
many of shakspeare's plays are the worse for being acted
what sir is nothing gained by decoration and action
johnson my dear sir had i mentioned him i must have mentioned many more missus pritchard missus cibber nay and mister cibber too
i could not bear such nonsense and would not let him read it to the end
boswell but is not the fear of death natural to man johnson
he then in a low and earnest tone talked of his meditating upon the aweful hour of his own dissolution and in what manner he should conduct himself upon that occasion i know not said he
whether i should wish to have a friend by me or have it all between god and myself talking of our feeling for the distresses of others johnson
i should do what i could to bail him and give him any other assistance but if he were once fairly hanged i should not suffer boswell would you eat your dinner that day sir
recommending to him an industrious young man who kept a pickle shop johnson ay sir here you have a specimen of human sympathy a friend hanged and a cucumber pickled
we know not whether baretti or the pickle man has kept davies from sleep nor does he know himself and as to his not sleeping sir tom davies is a very great man tom has been upon the stage and knows how to do those things
i have not been upon the stage and cannot do those things boswell i have often blamed myself sir for not feeling for others as sensibly as many say they do johnson sir don't be duped by them any more
you will find these very feeling people are not very ready to do you good they pay you by feeling boswell foote has a great deal of humour johnson yes sir boswell
it is what others abstain from it is not comedy which exhibits the character of a species as that of a miser gathered from many misers it is farce which exhibits individuals boswell
johnson i do not know sir that the fellow is an infidel but if he be an infidel he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel
i suppose sir he has thought superficially and seized the first notions which occurred to his mind johnson why then sir still he is like a dog
he again talked of the passage in congreve with high commendation and said shakspeare never has six lines together without a fault perhaps you may find seven but this does not refute my general assertion
if i come to an orchard and say there's no fruit here and then comes a poring man
next day october twentieth he appeared for the only time i suppose in his life as a witness in a court of justice
johnson gave his evidence in a slow deliberate and distinct manner which was uncommonly impressive it is well known that mister baretti was acquitted on the twenty sixth of october we dined together at the mitre tavern i found fault with foote
for indulging his talent of ridicule at the expence of his visitors which i colloquially termed making fools of his company johnson why sir when you go to see foote you do not go to see a saint
who will entertain you at his house for the very purpose of bringing you on a publick stage sir he does not make fools of his company they whom he exposes are fools already he only brings them into action talking of trade
he observed it is a mistaken notion that a vast deal of money is brought into a nation by trade it is not so commodities come from commodities but trade produces no capital accession of wealth however
though there should be little profit in money there is a considerable profit in pleasure as it gives to one nation the productions of another
boswell yes sir and there is a profit in pleasure by its furnishing occupation to such numbers of mankind johnson
a thing which men dislike before they have tried it and when they have tried it boswell but sir the mind must be employed and we grow weary when idle johnson that is sir because others being busy we want company
but if we were all idle there would be no growing weary we should all entertain one another there is indeed this in trade it gives men an opportunity of improving their situation if there were no trade many who are poor would always remain poor
medicated baths can be no better than warm water their only effect can be that of tepid moisture one of the company took the other side maintaining that medicines of various sorts and some too of most powerful effect
are introduced into the human frame by the medium of the pores and therefore when warm water is impregnated with salutiferous substances it may produce great effects as a bath this appeared to me very satisfactory johnson
did not answer it but talking for victory and determined to be master of the field he had recourse to the device which goldsmith imputed to him in the witty words of one of cibber's comedies
there is no arguing with johnson for when his pistol misses fire he knocks you down with the butt end of it he turned to the gentleman
but be sure that the steam be directed to thy head for that is the peccant part this produced a triumphant roar of laughter from the motley assembly of philosophers printers and dependents male and female
i know not how so whimsical a thought came into my mind but i asked if sir you were shut up in a castle and a newborn child with you what would you do johnson why sir i should not much like my company
boswell but would you take the trouble of rearing it
but upon my persevering in my question replied why yes sir i would but i must have all conveniencies if i had no garden i would make a shed on the roof and take it there for fresh air i should feed it
and wash it much and with warm water to please it not with cold water to give it pain boswell but sir does not heat relax johnson sir you are not to imagine the water is to be very hot i would not coddle the child
no sir the hardy method of treating children does no good i'll take you five children from london who shall cuff five highland children sir a man bred in london will carry a burthen or run or wrestle
johnson why sir i don't know that it does
have been brought up upon potatoes quantity makes up for quality boswell would you teach this child that i have furnished you with any thing johnson no i should not be apt to teach it boswell
would not you have a pleasure in teaching it johnson no sir i should not have a pleasure in teaching it boswell have you not a pleasure in teaching men there i have you you have the same pleasure in teaching men that i should have in teaching children
russia being mentioned as likely to become a great empire by the rapid increase of population johnson why sir i see no prospect of their propagating more
they can have no more children than they can get i know of no way to make them breed more than they do it is not from reason and prudence that people marry but from inclination a man is poor he thinks i cannot be worse and so i'll e e n take peggy boswell
but have not nations been more populous at one period than another johnson yes sir but that has been owing to the people being less thinned at one period than another whether by emigrations war or pestilence not by their being more or less prolifick
births at all times bear the same proportion to the same number of people boswell but to consider the state of our own country
though the people may be disposed of in different ways we see if corn be dear and butchers meat cheap the farmers all apply themselves to the raising of corn till it becomes plentiful and cheap and then butchers meat becomes dear
so that an equality is always preserved no sir let fanciful men do as they will depend upon it it is difficult to disturb the system of life boswell but sir
is it not a very bad thing for landlords to oppress their tenants by raising their rents johnson very bad but sir it never can have any general influence it may distress some individuals for consider this landlords cannot do without tenants
now tenants will not give more for land than land is worth if they can make more of their money by keeping a shop or any other way they'll do it
in order that they may get tenants land in england is an article of commerce a tenant who pays his landlord his rent thinks himself no more obliged to him than you think yourself obliged to a man in whose shop you buy a piece of goods
he knows the landlord does not let him have his land for less than he can get from others in the same manner as the shopkeeper sells his goods no shopkeeper sells a yard of ribband for sixpence when seven pence is the current price boswell
but sir is it not better that tenants should be dependant on landlords johnson why sir as there are many more tenants than landlords perhaps strictly speaking we should wish not
but if you please you may let your lands cheap and so get the value part in money and part in homage i should agree with you in that boswell so sir you laugh at schemes of political improvement johnson
why sir most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things he observed providence has wisely ordered that the more numerous men are the more difficult it is for them to agree in any thing and so they are governed
they could easily do it were it not that they can't agree so the common soldiers
are governed by them for the same reason he said mankind have a strong attachment to the habitations to which they have been accustomed you see the inhabitants of norway do not with one consent quit it
no sir their affection for their old dwellings and the terrour of a general change keep them at home thus we see many of the finest spots in the world thinly inhabited and many rugged spots well inhabited
being brought the office of reading it aloud was assigned to me i was diverted by his impatience he made me pass over so many parts of it that my task was very easy
johnson why no sir if he has no objection you can have none boswell so sir you are no great enemy to the roman catholick religion johnson no more sir than to the presbyterian religion boswell you are joking
johnson no sir i really think so
johnson why sir the presbyterians have no church no apostolical ordination boswell and do you think that absolutely essential sir johnson why sir as it was an apostolical institution i think it is dangerous to be without it
and sir the presbyterians have no public worship they have no form of prayer in which they know they are to join they go to hear a man pray and are to judge whether they will join with him boswell but sir their doctrine is the same with that of the church of england
their confession of faith and the thirty nine articles contain the same points even the doctrine of predestination johnson why yes sir predestination was a part of the clamour of the times
boswell
johnson why sir that is a question which has been much agitated
others have considered them to be only articles of peace
it appears to me sir that predestination or what is equivalent to it cannot be avoided
johnson why sir does not god every day see things going on without preventing them boswell true sir but if a thing be certainly foreseen it must be fixed and cannot happen otherwise
and if we apply this consideration to the human mind there is no free will
he mentioned doctor clarke and bishop bramhall on liberty and necessity and bid me read south's sermons on prayer but avoided the question which has excruciated philosophers and divines beyond any other
i did not press it further
of an attribute usually ascribed to the divinity however irreconcilable in its full extent with the grand system of moral government his supposed orthodoxy here cramped the vigorous powers of his understanding
he was confined by a chain which early imagination and long habit made him think massy and strong but which had he ventured to try he could at once have snapt asunder i proceeded
johnson why sir it is a very harmless doctrine they are of opinion that the generality of mankind are neither so obstinately wicked as to deserve everlasting punishment nor so good as to merit being admitted into the society of blessed spirits
and therefore that god is graciously pleased to allow of a middle state where they may be purified by certain degrees of suffering you see sir there is nothing unreasonable in this boswell but then sir their masses for the dead johnson why sir
it is as proper to pray for them as for our brethren of mankind who are yet in this life boswell the idolatry of the mass johnson sir there is no idolatry in the mass they believe god to be there and they adore him
i grant you that in practice purgatory is made a lucrative imposition and that the people do become idolatrous as they recommend themselves to the tutelary protection of particular saints i think their giving the sacrament only in one kind is criminal
because it is contrary to the express institution of christ
boswell confession johnson why i don't know but that is a good thing the scripture says
then it must be considered that their absolution is only upon repentance and often upon penance also you think your sins may be forgiven without penance upon repentance alone
i thus ventured to mention all the common objections against the roman catholick church that i might hear so great a man upon them
but it is not improbable that if one had taken the other side he might have reasoned differently i must however mention that he had a respect for the old religion
even while he was exerting himself for its reformation in some particulars sir william scott informs me that he heard johnson say a man who is converted from protestantism to popery may be sincere he parts with nothing
he is only superadding to what he already had but a convert from popery to protestantism gives up so much of what he has held as sacred as any thing that he retains
may be confirmed by many and eminent instances some of which will occur to most of my readers when we were alone i introduced the subject of death and endeavoured to maintain that the fear of it might be got over i told him that david hume said to me
than that he had not been before he began to exist johnson sir if he really thinks so his perceptions are disturbed he is mad if he does not think so he lies he may tell you
he holds his finger in the flame of a candle without feeling pain would you believe him when he dies he at least gives up all he has boswell foote sir told me that when he was very ill he was not afraid to die johnson
and threaten to kill them and you'll see how they behave boswell
here i am sensible i was in the wrong
for although when in a celestial frame in his vanity of human wishes he has supposed death to be kind nature's signal for retreat
full of dismal apprehensions his mind resembled the vast amphitheatre the colisaeum at rome in the centre stood his judgement which like a mighty gladiator combated those apprehensions that like the wild beasts of the arena
were all around in cells ready to be let out upon him after a conflict he drives them back into their dens but not killing them they were still assailing him to my question
he answered in a passion no sir let it alone it matters not how a man dies but how he lives
a man knows it must be so and submits it will do him no good to whine i attempted to continue the conversation he was so provoked that he said give us no more of this and was thrown into such a state of agitation
that he expressed himself in a way that alarmed and distressed me shewed an impatience that i should leave him and when i was going away called to me sternly don't let us meet to morrow i went home exceedingly uneasy
all the harsh observations which i had ever heard made upon his character crowded into my mind and i seemed to myself like the man who had put his head into the lion's mouth a great many times with perfect safety but at last had it bit off
next morning i sent him a note stating that i might have been in the wrong but it was not intentionally he was therefore i could not help thinking too severe upon me that notwithstanding our agreement not to meet that day
i would call on him in my way to the city and stay five minutes by my watch you are said i in my mind since last night surrounded with cloud and storm let me have a glimpse of sunshine
upon entering his study i was glad that he was not alone which would have made our meeting more awkward
for he received me very complacently so that i unexpectedly found myself at ease and joined in the conversation he said the criticks had done too much honour
a line by phillips and a line by tickell
well sir you are now in good humour johnson yes sir i was going to leave him and had got as far as the staircase he stopped me and smiling said get you gone in
a curious mode of inviting me to stay which i accordingly did for some time longer this little incidental quarrel and reconciliation which perhaps i may be thought to have detailed too minutely
begging that he would meet me in town on the ninth but if this should be very inconvenient to him i would go thither his answer was as follows
dear sir upon balancing the inconveniences of both parties i find it will less incommode you to spend your night here than me to come to town i wish to see you and am ordered by the lady of this house to invite you hither whether you can come or not
and therefore tell you now that with great sincerity i wish you happiness i am dear sir your most affectionate humble servant sam johnson november nine seventeen sixty nine i was detained in town till it was too late on the ninth
now said he that you are going to marry do not expect more from life than life will afford you may often find yourself out of humour and you may often think your wife not studious enough to please you
and yet you may have reason to consider yourself as upon the whole very happily married talking of marriage in general he observed our marriage service is too refined it is calculated only for the best kind of marriages
whereas we should have a form for matches of convenience of which there are many he agreed with me that there was no absolute necessity for having the marriage ceremony performed by a regular clergyman for this was not commanded in scripture
i was volatile enough to repeat to him a little epigrammatick song of mine on matrimony
a matrimonial thought in the blithe days of honey moon with kate's allurements smitten i lov'd her late i lov'd her soon and call'd her dearest kitten but now my kitten's grown a cat and cross like other wives
o by my soul my honest mat i fear she has nine lives my illustrious friend said it is very well sir but you should not swear upon which i altered o by my soul to alas alas
he was so good as to accompany me to london and see me into the post chaise which was to carry me on my road to scotland
an essay on matrimony socrates being asked whether it were better for a man to marry or to remain single replied let him do either he will repent of it
the philosopher spoke like an oracle leaving the world as much in the dark as to his views of the comparative advantages of matrimony and celibacy as they could have been before
but a vast majority of men have chosen since they must repent of one or the other to repent of marrying deeming perhaps that this repentance is the repentance
which needeth not to be repented of we shall conclude our little treatise on the sex with a few remarks on the subject of we were about to say happiness but as we are content that every married man and woman
we will simply style it an essay on matrimony no event is more important and none is conducted on many occasions with less prudence than marriage
providence has allowed the passions to exercise a powerful influence in this matter otherwise the cares and anxieties with which it is attended would deter most persons
from launching their bark of earthly happiness on the great ocean of matrimony but too frequently the passions are the only guide and these stimulate to bewilder
they exhibit pleasing and attractive imagery and then the possession destroys the bliss love is a pleasing but exciting passion the eye is delighted
by form manners and the expression of the features the ears by musical language and the imagination paints future joys all of which contribute to one great principle
that of receiving happiness from those we love and evincing love for those from whom we derive our happiness as the crystal streams are absorbed by the sun
and distributed as brilliant clouds in the heavens and then fall and run in their accustomed channels and thus the rivers supply the clouds and the vapors the rivers so is the interchange between love and happiness
this will agree with the opinion that love may be occasioned suddenly because enjoyment is expected or it may arise gradually because the unattractiveness which first existed
and astonishing coincidences human beings appear to be left in this respect as in many others to their own judgment if they act discreetly they enjoy the comfort of it
but if otherwise they bring upon themselves a disadvantage the happiness arising from an union depends chiefly on the character of the persons who are concerned in it if
men and women were as consistent and virtuous as they should be the connubial bond would be soft and pleasant but as these effects do not always arise where is the fault
which is better or more worthy the male or the female sex this is rather a difficult question and let the palm of superior merit be awarded to either the imputation of prejudice would be connected with the decision
but fortunately there is little difference one varies from the other in particular qualities but if the aggregate of merit be taken in each the amount will not differ much education forms the principal variation
men are instructed in the more active and laborious employments women in the more sedentary and domestic doctor southey says that if women are not formed of finer clay
richard flecknoe a contemporary with dryden observes of the female sex i have always been conversant with the best and worthiest in all places where i came and among the rest with ladies
in whose conversation as in an academy of virtue i learnt nothing but goodness and saw nothing but nobleness it must be granted that women in general possess more of the sweetness and softness of human nature
while men are endowed with more vigorous virtues women are gifted with more fortitude and men with more valor jeremy taylor says marriage hath in it the labor of love and the delicacies of friendship
the blessings of society and the union of hands and hearts cowper has also alluded to the advantages of a matrimonial settlement o friendly to the best pursuits of man
friendly to thought to virtue and to peace
a continuance of the union constitutes no small part of the bliss the expectation of a durable connection makes men careful otherwise they would marry and unmarry every week there is by the arrangement of the almighty
a comparative power or influence vested in the man because agreeably with all good government some are and must be greater than the rest but then as doctor beattie observes
has the actual power like as the helme doth rule the shippe so she regulates all the household affairs this is proper when the husband allows it and he ought to do so when his wife
is capable of managing these things but when the inclinations of his eve run perversely when he is conscious that he has reason on his side and she only folly and yet he is vacillating and yielding he is unmanly and inconsistent
he sacrifices future happiness to present peace every woman it must be granted is not a sensible one
than a she foole if socrates
it would have contributed to her happiness and his own prince eugene observed on one occasion rather satirically that love was a mere amusement and calculated for nothing more
than to enlarge the influence of the woman and abridge the power of the man goldsmith's hermit
and love is still an emptier sound the modern fair one's jest on earth unseen or only found to warm the turtle's nest but love is an actual a powerful
and a beneficial principle if it be properly regulated
matrimony should be something like the union of the ivy and the oak the latter is firm and capable of supporting its more tender companion the ivy however must follow in some measure the humors and windings of the oak
but they grow together and the longer they continue the more closely they are united there have been many instances of great attachment porcia the wife of brutus
swallowed burning coals that she might go with him
sacrificed herself for the safety of her husband this monarch was ill and when the oracle was consulted it was declared that he would not recover except some friend would die for him
the wife heroically drank a cup of poison paulina the wife of seneca in his old age was young beautiful and accomplished
that when the veins of seneca were opened by the command of nero she caused her own to be cut that she might also bleed to death
when professions are sincere and the practice agreeable therewith when health is enjoyed and as many comforts as are necessary for this life when children grow up in vigor good behaviour and mental improvement
when old age is solaced by the company of each other and the kind attention of daughters and sons then matrimony is a cause of happiness but if all these enjoyments were the lot of every married person
men would become too much contented with the present life and they would scarcely think as they sail on smoothly of the haven for which they are bound besides
the fascinations of domestic life would attract them from many duties which they owe to their fellow creatures there are then many disadvantages connected with matrimony there is so much ignorance perverseness undue inclination for power
disposition to contradict anger jealousy hatred and versatility among human beings that many unpleasant occurrences will necessarily arise and especially in the marriage state because here
most of these feelings are brought into action and are most sensibly felt by those who are subject to their influence he that paints the experience of human life in brilliant colors only gives a flattering
hence arises the advantage of examining of pointing out and endeavoring to avoid the ills which flesh is heir to the perpetuity of marriage under pleasing circumstances
is its most lovely character but the same peculiarity under a different aspect is its principal source of misery it is too frequently a state of bondage which thousands once fast chained to quit no more
but what exists and cannot be removed should always be borne as patiently as possible and thus we may keep a cheerful heart when another less prudent would be gloomy besides an ill temper
makes every condition of life unhappy a cheerful disposition will throw a gleam of sunshine over the scenery of a november day some people very foolishly make themselves uneasy because they are bound
and this we may hope would not occur frequently after the romans had introduced a law of divorce no respectable person for the space of forty years availed himself of it
divorcement was much practised among the jews and was productive of great evil one of the jewish doctors asserted that if a man beheld a woman who was handsomer than his wife he might put away his wife and marry her
and thus all the wives in judea except the handsomest might have been divorced josephus observes on one occasion very coolly about this time i put away my wife who had borne me three children not being pleased with her manners
one cause of unhappiness in a married state is too little affection and in other instances although affection may be possessed it is not shown montesquieu observes that women
commonly reserve their love for their husbands until their husbands are dead sometimes a mortal hatred springs up
like livia to poison her husband not only is a great dissimilarity of rank and condition a cause of dislike but a great variation in age is frequently the cause of distrust and unhappiness
the proportion which aristotle suggests a man of thirty seven to a woman of eighteen may be appropriate in one respect but it is objectionable in others
the life of the female is just as long as that of the male and the union of middle age and youth where the one is twice as old as the other will not always allow an uniformity of feelings and disposition the case of seneca to which we have alluded
and that of sir matthew hale are exceptions youth is generally gay thoughtless and frivolous but life in more advanced periods is sober thoughtful and dignified
a husband should not be deemed a teacher or guardian for the wife so much as a companion and the wife should not be considered as guardian for the husband there ought to be a mutual sympathy
saint valentine's day on saint valentine's day it is customary in many parts of italy for an unmarried lady to choose from among the young gentlemen of her acquaintance one to be her guardian or gallant
who in return for the honor of this appointment presents to her some nosegays or other trifles and thereby obliges himself to attend her in the most obsequious manner in all her parties of pleasure and to all her public amusements for the space of one year
in the times of the chivalry we have seen that the men gloried in protecting the women and the women thought themselves safe and happy when they obtained that protection it is probable therefore that this custom
almost all europe has joined in distinguishing it by some particular ceremony as it always happens about that time of the year when the genial influences of the spring begin to operate it has been believed by the vulgar that upon it the birds
in imitation therefore of their example the vulgar of both sexes in many parts of britain meet together and having upon slips of paper wrote down the names of all their acquaintances and put them into two different bags
the men drew the female names by lot and the women the male the man makes the woman who drew his name some trifling present and in the rural gambol becomes her partner and she considers him as her sweetheart till he is otherwise disposed of
or till next valentine's day provide her with another courts of love in spain during the middle ages courts of love were established these courts were composed of ladies summoned to meet together
for the purpose of discussing in the most formal and serious manner beautiful and subtle questions of love they decided the precise amount of inconstancy which a lady might forgive without lowering her own dignity
provided her lover made certain supplications and performed certain penances they took it into solemn consideration whether a lover was justified under any circumstances in expressing the slightest doubt of his lady's fidelity
they laid down definite rules and ceremonials of behavior to be observed by those who wished to be beloved and gravely discussed the question whether sentiment or sight the heart or the eyes contributed most powerfully
to inspire affection immodesty at babylon that modesty and chastity which we now esteem as the chief ornament of the female character does not appear
in times of remote antiquity to have been much regarded by either sex at babylon the capital of the assyrian empire it was so little valued that a law of the country even obliged every woman once in her life to depart from it
was promulgated by an oracle ordained that every woman should once in her life repair to the temple of venus that on her arrival there her head should be crowned with flowers and in that attire she should wait
till some stranger performed with her the rites sacred to the goddess of debauchery this temple was constructed with a great many winding galleries appropriated to the reception of the women and the strangers who allured by debauchery
never failed to assemble there in great numbers being allowed to choose any woman they thought proper from among those who came there in obedience to the law when the stranger accosted the object of his choice he was obliged to present her with some pieces of money
or the request of the stranger who offered them whatever was the value of the money or however mean or disagreeable the donor these preliminaries being settled they retired together to fulfil the law after which the woman returned and offered the goddess the sacrifice prescribed by custom
in some other countries a certain number only were doomed to prostitution
to induce the goddess of debauchery to save the rest when a woman had once entered the temple of venus she was not allowed to depart from it till she had fulfilled the law and it frequently happened that those to whom nature had been less indulgent than to others
remained there a long time before any person offered to perform with them the condition of their release a custom we think some times alluded to in scripture and expressly delineated in the book of baruch the women also with cords about them
sitting in the ways burn bran for perfume but if any of them drawn by some that passeth by lie with him she reproacheth her fellow that she was not thought worthy as herself nor her cord broken
though this infamous law was at first strictly observed by all the women of babylon yet it would seem that in length of time they grew ashamed of and in many cases dispensed with it for we are informed
that women of the superior ranks of life who were not willing literally to fulfil the law were allowed a kind of evasion
presented themselves before the statue of the goddess and returned home possibly this was done by the assistance of a bribe to those who had the care of the temple indecency at adrianople
the women have public baths which are a part of their religion and of their amusement and a bride the first time she appears there after her marriage is received in a particular manner the matrons and widows being seated round the room
singing an epithalamium in which all the virgins join in chorus the procession ended the bride is led up to every matron who bestows on her some trifling presents and to each she returns thanks till she has been led round the whole
jealousy is a passion which allows the hapless possessor to enjoy neither rest nor confidence it is frequently the companion of love shakspeare says
for where love reigns disturbing jealousy doth call himself affection's sentinel when this principle obtains possession of the breast it destroys the health and spirits the streams which gladden the heart become corrupted
and productive of rage and melancholy jealousy is like the snake which insidiously entwines itself around its victim or like the bohun upas of java which diffuses death
the bright beams of hope which cheered the possessor
moliere the poet was endowed with an eminent genius he was esteemed as the first wit in europe but his wife was faithless and no enjoyment or success or honor could tranquillize his mind and make him happy
the attractions of youth and beauty will sometimes excite an illicit passion but the indulgence of this feeling is the path to anxiety and degradation the female may be less faulty
but she will be the greater sufferer for with regard to her lawful companion confidence is changed to timidity love to hypocrisy and a continual fear torments her lest accident or malice should discover her imprudence
and thus make others unhappy where virtue only exists it is a most grievous hardship
nothing should be made with more caution than a decision in which the innocent may receive the odium which belongs to the guilty sometimes the worst sort of accomplishments are brought by a lady into the marriage state
she may be capable of singing admirably of dancing of painting of performing skilfully on the harp or piano of making ingenious trinkets and ornaments
all this may be well enough for an unmarried lady but of what use are they in a state of matrimony it is true that if she be favored with a handsome fortune she may indulge herself agreeably with her inclination
and employ others to manage her household affairs but not many are thus situated and even in this case there are duties which belong to the wife
it is still worse if she be fond of dissipation of routs balls and public amusements if she fly abroad in pursuit of a phantom while domestic enjoyment is neglected a good wife will endeavor to make herself happy at home
and that the children may be regulated with all necessary care a good temper is essential for matrimonial happiness an habitually irritable or gloomy disposition is a source of misery to the possessor and to others
cannot be easily broken if one be perverse the other must bend if two trees be bound tightly together and both be stiff the cords will probably break if not immediately they will when the cords become weaker
and thus with regard to matrimony what god has joined together the perversity of human beings will put asunder obstinacy in trifling matters in the marriage state is an evidence of little love and a bad heart
but if trifling matters appear important and the gaining of every point be as the taking of a citadel the person is wrong in his judgment he is insane or partially so
many worthy women have been cursed with worthless husbands but unfortunately the grievances of the female sex have been less frequently known than those of the men for women are not authors and men are frequently so
consequently in all estimates of the comparative merit of the sexes it must be remembered that more has been said on the one side than on the other home however is the castle of the wife if she be a good one here she keeps
her permanent abode agreeably with the injunction of saint paul the husband is absent the principal part of his time may there not therefore on some occasions be too greet an inclination in the lady to consider herself as the governor of the establishment
while the husband may be deemed a visiter rather than the master this would not arise in the breast of an amiable and affectionate wife but it has sometimes arisen for unfortunately all wives have not been good ones
jerome cardan was so unfortunate as to have a wife who was proverbial for her ill temper and arbitrary conduct john knox said of lord erskine
salmasius the opponent of milton was made perpetually uneasy by a similar thorn the unfortunate husband was a frenchman and milton said as doctor johnson observes tu es gallus et ut aiunt
nimium gallinaceus milton himself seems to have suffered from a similar cause for he evinces so much hostility to the female sex that no other reason would so naturally account for it he exclaims o
why did god creator wise that peopled highest heaven with spirits masculine create at last this novelty on earth this fair defect of nature
and not fill the world at once with men and angels without feminine milton adds a great deal more which if he had a high opinion of woman
even his anxiety to make his character of adam consistent would not have demanded an amiable temper on the part of a wife with her own natural softness and an inclination to yield in unimportant matters will not only increase love but power
for in this respect agreeably to the opinion of prince eugene love is power marriage is sometimes made a matter of mere convenience
people enter into it with as much indifference as they would into any other speculation and when one companion dies they take another in the book of tobit we have an account
who had been favored with seven husbands whom asmodeus the evil spirit had killed love must be exceedingly pliable it must be love to man and not to a man
burst their cerements and visit their former dwelling what astonishment what uplifted hands and distended eyeballs what speechlessness and violent speeches reproaches and animosities
marriage may be well extended to two wives and two husbands in succession this in some cases is necessary
the man who moves from place sometimes living here and sometimes there will never gain a pure and ardent love of home by the same rule a succession of wives will only induce an habitual or mechanical regard to the wife
for the time being in the same way as loyalty may be transferred from one sovereign to another besides a family with different degrees of relationship and with different interests is formed and this contributes nothing towards domestic tranquillity
there may be some particular cases in which the evils to which we have alluded may not arise these may be deemed exceptions there are some sorrows peculiar to matrimony
and some which though they fall on other conditions of life are felt more heavily when they intrude themselves within the boundary of connubial love poverty and sickness are more grievous evils under circumstances of this sort
because a man feels not only for himself but for others how dreadful must it be when the husband beholds his wife in squalid misery what are the feelings of a mother when she sees her innocent children suffering from hunger
and when the iron hand of affliction presses upon the brow of a husband or a wife and the sharp arrows of pain occasion groans is there not an almost equal anguish
who had lived in the bonds of harmony when the chilly arms of death are held out to clasp him or her who had been used to a more tender embrace how dreadful is that period
is not the woe of separating generally in the same proportion as the bliss of uniting and is it not a valuable loan to be paid by a mighty sacrifice
unhappiness may be occasioned by indulging an undue degree of love sentimental bliss is generally followed by sentimental sorrow consequently people may love one another too ardently
so as to make the thought of parting a source of misery if two plants grow up together imparting to each other shelter and fragrance it may contribute to their mutual advantage
but if they become so closely united as to grow from the same stalk and depend on the same nutriment then take away one and both will perish connubial love should therefore be regulated by reason
it is not an uncommon event for external enemies to occasion harmony at home and harmony at home or the yielding to the foolish notions of each other may occasion enemies without so difficult is it to act consistently
property enough to supply the wants of a family good health children not too many nor too few nor all of one sex a continuance in each other's society
till both pass away gradually as the twilight into darkness but if chilly poverty exert its influence if the husband or the wife be ill tempered if he or she be unfaithful or jealous if love be followed by hatred
if one be taken and the other left in solitude if children be imperfect in birth or habitually sickly or drop off in early years as unripe fruit
if sons prove vicious and daughters bring disgrace on themselves and their families if the extravagance of children bring their aged parents in sorrow to the grave where then will be the pleasure of matrimony
are more perplexing than the cares of a state cardan confessed that out of four great troubles which he had experienced two arose from his children
because i want no children one of the ancient sages was so much impressed with the disappointments and anxieties of matrimony that when he was asked at what time a man should marry replied if he be young not yet
if older not at all this sentiment however so repugnant to all our ideas of social improvement as well as to the command of our creator who presented woman to man as a helpmate
too deeply rooted in the breast of man and the reality of domestic felicity has been too long tested by experience for either to be sacrificed on the altar of the revilers of matrimony whether they be libertines
there is a sympathy of heart which consecrates the social shrine robs grief of gloom
the leads used for the confinement of state prisoners are in fact the lofts of the ducal palace and take their name from the large plates of lead with which the roof is covered one can only reach them through the gates of the palace the prison buildings
and their secretary has the sole charge of the key
whilst he is attending to the prisoners this is done at day break because otherwise the guards as they came and went would be in the way of those who have to do with the council of ten as the council meets every day in a hall called the bussola which the guards have to cross every time they go to the leads
the prisons are under the roof on two sides of the palace three to the west mine being among the number and four to the east on the west the roof looks into the court of the palace and on the east straight on to the canal called rio di palazzo
on this side the cells are well lighted and one can stand up straight which is not the case in the prison where i was
on account of the enormous beam which deprived me of light the floor of my cell was directly over the ceiling of the inquisitors hall
of which the whole three are members as i knew my ground and the habits of the inquisitors perfectly well the only way to escape the only way at least which i deemed likely to succeed was to make a hole in the floor of my cell but to do this tools must be obtained
a difficult task in a place where all communication with the outside world was forbidden
to bribe a guard a good deal of money would be necessary and i had none
for my hands were my only weapons there was always a third guard on duty at the door of the passage which he locked and would not open till his fellow who wished to pass through gave him the password in spite of all these difficulties my only thought was how to escape
and as i was certain that the difficulty was only to be solved by stress of thinking
and thinks of nought but his design he must succeed despite all difficulties in his path such an one may make himself pope or grand vizier he may overturn an ancient line of kings provided that he knows how to seize on his opportunity and be a man of wit and pertinacity
to succeed one must count on being fortunate and despise all ill success but it is a most difficult operation
businello had ordered to be placed in the worst cell and who consequently was going to share mine he told me that on the secretary's reminding him that i looked upon it as a favour to be left alone he answered that i had grown wiser in the four months of my imprisonment
i was not sorry to hear the news or that there was a new secretary
he afterwards went to london as ambassador of the republic in the afternoon i heard the noise of the bolts and presently lawrence and two guards entered leading in a young man who was weeping bitterly and after taking off his handcuffs they shut him up with me
and went out without saying a word i was lying on my bed and he could not see me i was amused at his astonishment being fortunately for himself seven or eight inches shorter than i
and he began to inspect my arm chair which he doubtless thought was meant for his own use glancing at the ledge above the grating he saw boethius took it up opened it and put it down with a kind of passion probably because being in latin it was of no use to him
and groping about was much surprised to find clothes he approached the recess and stretching out his hand he touched me and immediately begged my pardon in a respectful manner i asked him to sit down and we were friends who are you said i
my father who was a coachman kept me at school till i was eleven by which time i had learnt to read and write i was afterwards apprenticed to a barber
after that i became valet to the count of x i had been in the service of the nobleman for two years when his daughter came from the convent it was my duty to do her hair and by degrees i fell in love with her and inspired her with a reciprocal passion
after having sworn a thousand times to exist only for one another we gave ourselves up to the task of shewing each other marks of our affection
an old and devoted servant was the first to find out our connection and the condition of my mistress and she told her that she felt in duty bound to tell her father but my sweetheart succeeded in making her promise to be silent
saying that in the course of the week she herself would tell him through her confessor she informed me of all this and instead of going to confession we prepared for flight she had laid hands on a good sum of money and some diamonds which had belonged to her mother
but to day the count called me after dinner and giving me a letter he told me to start at once and to deliver it with my own hand to the person to whom it was addressed at venice he spoke to me so kindly and quietly that i had not the slightest suspicion of the fate in store for me
i went to get my cloak said good bye to my little wife telling her that i should soon return seeing deeper below the surface than i and perchance having a presentiment of my misfortune she was sick at heart i came here in hot haste and took care to deliver the fatal letter
they made me wait for an answer and in the mean time i went to an inn but as i came out i was arrested and put in the guard room where i was kept till they brought me here i suppose sir i might consider the young countess as my wife you make a mistake but nature
nature when a man listens to her and nothing else takes him from one folly to another till she puts him under the leads i am under the leads then am i as i am
the poor young man shed some bitter tears he was a well made lad open honest and amorous beyond words
in all his tears and lamentations he thought not of himself but always of his sweetheart
but i undeceived him and offered him a share of what i had his heart however was too full for him to eat in the evening i gave him my mattress on which he passed the night
dreading the results of a lover's dreams
as a cloak to the honour of his daughter and his house the next day he was given a mattress and a dinner to the value of fifteen sous which the tribunal had assigned to him either as a favour or a charity for the word justice would not be appropriate in speaking of this terrible body
he agreed willingly and having told him that he was lucky to be in my company he said that we could walk in the garret for half an hour i found this walk an excellent thing for my health and my plan of escape which however i could not carry out for eleven months afterwards
at the end of this resort of rats i saw a number of old pieces of furniture thrown on the ground to the right and left of two great chests and in front of a large pile of papers sewn up into separate volumes
and i found them to be accounts of trials and very diverting for i was allowed to read these papers which had once contained such secrets i found some curious replies to the judges questions respecting the seduction of maidens gallantries carried a little too far by persons employed in girls schools
facts relating to confessors who had abused their penitents schoolmasters convicted of pederasty with their pupils and guardians who had seduced their wards some of the papers dating two or three centuries back
among the pieces of furniture on the floor i saw a warming pan a kettle a fire shovel a pair of tongs some old candle sticks some earthenware pots and even a syringe
but what interested me most was a straight iron bar as thick as my thumb and about a foot and a half long however i left everything as it was as my plans had not been sufficiently ripened by time for me to appropriate any object in particular
one day towards the end of the month my companion was taken away and lawrence told me that he had been condemned to the prisons known as the fours which are within the same walls as the ordinary prisons but belong to the state inquisitors
the prisons are gloomy but there is an oil lamp in the midst which gives the necessary light and there is no fear of fire as everything is made of marble i heard a long time after that the unfortunate maggiorin was there for five years and was afterwards sent to cerigo for ten
i do not know whether he ever came from there he had kept me good company and this i discovered as soon as he was gone for in a few days i became as melancholy as before fortunately i was still allowed my walk in the garret and i began to examine its contents with more minuteness
pieces of cardboard uncut pens and clews of pack thread the other was fastened down a piece of polished black marble an inch thick six inches long and three broad attracted my attention and i possessed myself of it without knowing what i was going to do with it
and i secreted it in my cell covering it up with my shirts a week after maggiorin had gone lawrence told me that in all probability i should soon get another companion this fellow lawrence who at bottom was a mere gabbling fool
began to get uneasy at my never asking him any questions this fondness for gossip was not altogether appropriate to his office but where is one to find beings absolutely vile there are such persons but happily they are few and far between and are not to be sought for in the lower orders
and thought that the reason i asked no questions must be that i thought him incapable of answering them and feeling hurt at this and wishing to prove to me that i made a mistake he began to gossip without being solicited i believe you will often have visitors said he
as the other six cells have each two prisoners who are not likely to be sent to the fours i made him no reply but he went on in a few seconds they send to the fours all sorts of people after they have been sentenced though they know nothing of that
the prisoners whom i have charge of under the leads are like yourself persons of note
he then commenced to sing his own praises which consisted of negative clauses i'm no thief nor traitor nor greedy nor malicious nor brutal as all my predecessors were and when i have drunk a pint over and above i am all the better for
my wife who cooks for you every day and is only twenty four goes to see him when she will and he will have her come in without ceremony even if he be in bed and that's more than he'll do for a senator i promise you you will be always having the new comers in your cell but never for any length of time
and if they be foreigners they are sent across the frontier for our government does not hold itself master of the subjects of other princes if they be not in its service the clemency of the court is beyond compare there's not another in the world that treats its prisoners so well
they say it's cruel to disallow writing and visitors but that's foolish for what are writing and company but waste of time
such was almost word for word the first harangue with which the fellow honoured me and i must say i found it amusing i saw that if the man had been less of a fool he would most certainly have been more of a scoundrel
the next day brought me a new messmate who was treated as maggiorin had been and i thus found it necessary to buy another ivory spoon for as the newcomers were given nothing on the first day of their imprisonment
my new mate made me a low bow for my beard now four inches long was still more imposing than my figure lawrence often lent me scissors to cut my nails but he was forbidden under pain of very heavy punishment to let me touch my beard
i knew not the reason of this order but i ended by becoming used to my beard as one gets used to everything the new comer was a man of about fifty approaching my size a little bent thin with a large mouth and very bad teeth
he had small grey eyes hidden under thick eyebrows of a red colour which made him look like an owl and this picture was set off by a small black wig which exhaled a disagreeable odour of oil and by a dress of coarse grey cloth
he accepted my offer of dinner but was reserved and said not a word the whole day and i was also silent thinking he would soon recover the use of his tongue as he did the next day
what he would have for dinner and for money to pay for it i have no money what a moneyed man like you have no money i haven't a sou very good in that case i will get you some army biscuit and water according to instructions
he went out and returned directly afterwards with a pound and a half of biscuit and a pitcher which he set before the prisoner and then went away left alone with this phantom i heard a sigh and my pity made me break the silence don't sigh sir you shall share my dinner
but i think you have made a great mistake in coming here without money i have some but it does not do to let those harpies know of it and so you condemn yourself to bread and water truly a wise proceeding do you know the reason of your imprisonment
my name is squaldo nobili my father was a countryman who had me taught reading and writing and at his death left me his cottage and the small patch of ground belonging to it i lived in friuli about a day's journey from the marshes of udine
as a torrent called corno often damaged my little property i determined to sell it and to set up in venice which i did ten years ago
all men enjoyed the blessings of liberty i believed that by utilizing my capital i might make a little income and i began to lend money on security relying on my thrift my judgment and my knowledge of the world i chose this business in preference to all others
though i had expended two thousand on household expenses as i wished to live in comfort in this fashion i saw myself in a fair way of making a respectable fortune in time but one day having lent a jew two sequins upon some books
it was then i found out how good a thing it is to be able to read for this book which you sir may not have read contains all that a man need know purging him of all the prejudices of his childhood
one's eyes are opened one knows the way to bliss one becomes wise indeed
this curious discourse made me know my man
the author who was a great admirer of montaigne thought to surpass his model but toiled in vain he is not much read despite the prohibition to read his works which should have given them some popularity he had the impudence to give his book the title of one of solomon's treatises
a circumstance which does not say much for his modesty my companion went on as follows
i pushed my business in such sort that at the end of six years i could lay my hand on ten thousand sequins
and in continual need of money so do the wise gather what the fool drops three years ago a certain count seriman came and asked me to take from him five hundred sequins to put them in my business and to give him half profits
at the end of a year i sent him seventy five sequins which made fifteen per cent on his money he gave me a receipt for it but was ill pleased he was wrong for i was in no need of money and had not used his for business purposes
at the end of the second year out of pure generosity i sent him the same amount
certainly i said but i must deduct the hundred and fifty you have already received enraged at this he served me with a writ for the payment of the whole sum a clever lawyer undertook my defence and was able to gain me two years three months ago i was spoken to as to an agreement
the spanish ambassador's secretary and for a small sum he let me a house in the precincts of the embassy
but i claimed a reduction of a hundred sequins on account of the costs of the lawsuit a week ago the lawyers on both sides came to me i shewed them a purse of two hundred and fifty sequins and told them they might take it but not a penny more they went away without saying a word
to send their men at once to my house to make search therein i thought the thing impossible under the shelter of a foreign ambassador and instead of taking the usual precautions i waited the approach of the men at arms only putting my money in a place of safety
and on my telling him that i hadn't a farthing he seized me and here i am i shuddered less at having such an infamous companion than at his evidently considering me as his equal for if he had thought of me in any other light he would certainly not have told me this long tale
doubtless in the belief that i should take his part in all the folly about charron with which he tormented me in the three days we were together i found by bitter experience the truth of the italian proverb guardati da colui
by reading the work of the misguided priest he had become an atheist and of this he made his boast all the day long
and took out of his shoes two purses containing three hundred and fifty sequins
he went to take them to the secretary a few moments afterwards he returned and taking his cloak went away lawrence told me that he had been set at liberty i thought and with good reason that to make him acknowledge his debt and pay it the secretary had threatened him with the torture
who detest the principle of torture
on new year's day seventeen thirty three i received my presents lawrence brought me a dressing gown lined with foxskin a coverlet of wadded silk and a bear skin bag for me to put my legs in which i welcomed gladly
for the coldness was unbearable as the heat in august lawrence told me that i might spend to the amount of six sequins a month that i might have what books i liked and take in the newspaper
the man who would know what were my feelings at all this must have been in a similar situation to my own in the first gush of feeling i forgave my oppressors and was on the point of giving up the idea of escape so easily shall you move a man that you have brought low and overwhelmed with misfortune
and that on his knees and with tears in his eyes he had entreated them to let him give me this mark of his affection if i were still in the land of the living the inquisitors were moved and were not able to refuse his request
i wrote down without delay the names of the books i wanted one fine morning as i was walking in the garret my eyes fell on the iron bar i have mentioned and i saw that it might very easily be made into a defensive or offensive weapon
i took possession of it and having hidden it under my dressing gown i conveyed it into my cell as soon as i was alone i took the piece of black marble and i found that i had to my hand an excellent whetstone for by rubbing the bar with the stone i obtained a very good edge
my interest roused in this work in which i was but an apprentice and in the fashion in which i seemed likely to become possessed of an instrument totally prohibited under the leads impelled perhaps
also by my vanity to make a weapon without any of the necessary tools and incited by my very difficulties
and without a drop of oil to soften the iron i made up my mind to persevere in my difficult task my saliva served me in the stead of oil and i toiled eight days to produce eight edges terminating in a sharp point the edges being an inch and a half in length
my bar thus sharpened formed an eight sided dagger and would have done justice to a first rate cutler no one can imagine the toil and trouble i had to bear nor the patience required to finish this difficult task without any other tools than a loose piece of stone
i put myself in fact to a kind of torture unknown to the tyrants of all ages my right arm had become so stiff that i could hardly move it the palm of my hand was covered with a large scar the result of the numerous blisters caused by the hardness and the length of the work
no one would guess the sufferings i underwent to bring my work to completion proud of what i had done without thinking what use i could make of my weapon my first care was to hide it in such a manner as would defy a minute search
i cast my eyes on my arm chair and there i contrived to hide it so as to be secure from all suspicion thus did providence aid me to contrive a wonderful and almost inconceivable plan of escape i confess to a feeling of vanity not because i eventually succeeded
for i owed something to good luck but because i was brave enough to undertake such a scheme in spite of the difficulties which might have ruined my plans and prevented my ever attaining liberty after thinking for three or four days as to what i should do with the bar i had made into an edged tool
as thick as a walking stick and twenty inches long i determined that the best plan would be to make a hole in the floor under my bed
i knew that this room was opened every morning and i felt persuaded that after i had made my hole i could easily let myself down with my sheets which i would make into a rope and fasten to my bed once there i would hide under the table of the court and in the morning when the door was opened
i could escape and get to a place of safety before anyone could follow me i thought it possible that a sentry might be placed in the hall but my short pike ought to soon rid me of him the floor might be of double or even of triple thickness and this thought puzzled me
for in that case how was i to prevent the guard sweeping out the room throughout the two months my work might last if i forbade them to do so i might rouse suspicion all the more as to free myself of the fleas i had requested them to sweep out the cell every day
i must find some way out of this difficulty i began by forbidding them to sweep without giving any reason a week after lawrence asked me why i did so i told him because of the dust which might make me cough violently and give me some fatal injury
i will make them water the floor said he that would be worse lawrence for the damp might cause a plethora in this manner i obtained a week's respite but at the end of that time the lout gave orders that my cell should be swept
he had the bed carried out into the garret and on pretence of having the sweeping done with greater care he lighted a candle this let me know that the rascal was suspicious of something but i was crafty enough to take no notice of him and so far from giving up my plea i only thought how i could put it on good train
next morning i pricked my finger and covered my handkerchief with the blood and then awaited lawrence in bed
which had made me bring up all the blood he saw get me a doctor the doctor came ordered me to be bled and wrote me a prescription
the doctor blamed him for doing so and just as if i had asked him he told us of a young man who had died from the same cause and said that there was nothing more dangerous than breathing in dust lawrence called all the gods to witness that he had only had the room swept for my sake
when the doctor was gone lawrence begged my pardon and assured me that all the other prisoners were in good health although their cells were swept out regularly but what the doctor says is worth considering said he and i shall tell them all about it for i look upon them as my children
the blood letting did me good as it made me sleep and relieved me of the spasms with which i was sometimes troubled
but the time to set about my work was not yet come it was still too cold and i could not hold the bar for any length of time without my hand becoming stiff my scheme required much thought
i had to exercise boldness and foresight to rid myself of troubles which chance might bring to pass or which i could foresee the situation of a man who had to act as i had is an unhappy one but in risking all for all half its bitterness vanishes
the long nights of winter distressed me for i had to pass nineteen mortal hours in darkness and on the cloudy days which are common enough at venice the light i had was not sufficient for me to be able to read without any distractions i fell back on the idea of my escape
and a man who always thinks on one subject is in danger of becoming a monomaniac a wretched kitchen lamp would have made me happy but how am i to get such a thing o blessed prerogative of thought how happy was i when i thought i had found a way to possess myself of such a treasure
to make such a lamp i required a vase wicks oil a flint and steel tinder and matches a porringer would do for the vase and i had one which was used for cooking eggs in butter
pretending that the common oil did not agree with me i got them to buy me lucca oil for my salad and my cotton counterpane would furnish me with wicks i then said i had the toothache and asked lawrence to get me a pumice stone
black jitney the auto biography of a ford a twentieth century revision
along with several hundred brothers and sisters all the men in that factory wore diamond shirt studs while i was wondering at this an old motor truck named mercury said to me with feeling
ah if all the workmen in the world could be as well off as the ones here
i was loaded on a freight car and carried many many miles the car jolted so terribly that i should have gone all to pieces had i not been built for jarring none of the train crew showed me any sympathy
they were wicked men and used language that frequently sent a tinkle of shame to my mudguards i did not then know as i do now that the purest minded automobile has to endure all its life
words and tones of the most shocking sort my first master was a careful and conscientious man he had a large garage full of fords and he always kept a sharp eye on the door
to make sure that nobody who walked out carried off one of us one day a man came in with a twenty dollar bill that he wanted changed sorry said my master but all i have in my cash drawer is
i'll have to give you the rest in fords whereupon he handed him me and one of my brothers and three extra tires which just made up the amount this new master whose name was mister pious
was very good and humane he drove me with a gentle foot
be kind to black jitney never scratch him or bend him the chubby little fellows grew so fond of me
was a cold imperious woman she cared nothing for the feelings of a ford she would drive me at a heartless pace till my radiator was parched with thirst and my gears fairly cried out for oil speed was her one desire
and naturally i could not satisfy her even when i ran so fast that the effort made me shake from top to tires and i was in danger of losing my lamps she would call me ice wagon and rattle trap
and other cruel names and refer unkindly to the fact that she could count the palings of the fences that we passed finally this hard hearted woman prevailed upon her husband to sell me
and buy a big sixteen cylinder pope gregory this car as i afterward learned was so vicious that the very first time she took it out for an airing it assaulted three helpless chickens and a pig
my next master was a young man whose private life was such as no well brought up automobile could have approved of every evening after he had kept me in the garage all day long fuming with impatience and spilled gasolene
he would make me carry him for hours and hours with some young woman who ought to have known better what sights and sounds i had to endure i who had always kept the strictest decorum worst of all
his deplorable conduct began to affect me i found myself thinking thoughts which i had never permitted to enter my mind before and looking with more interest than i should at seductive satin trimmed limousines
my morality was in danger of skidding one evening while my master was dining with a young woman at a roadside inn i was left to wait in the adjoining garage but i was not alone
the most immorally alluring car i had ever seen her lines were exquisitely shapely she was a goddess on wheels good evening she sparked enticingly
aren't you the car that stood next to me at the country club last thursday night there was a daredevil gleam in her lamps which set my carbureter a splutter
infatuated i knew you even though you tried to hide your name wasn't it lovely just us two in the moonlight touching tires a quiver ran through me
i knew that unless i could back out in a hurry i was lost i tried hastily to reverse she had me completely short circuited heaven knows what might have happened had not my master entered at that moment and saved me
the instant he laid hold of my crank i gave vent to my pent up emotions in a way that nearly burst my muffler and when he pressed down the pedal i fairly leaped through the door in flight as it was
i was seething with nervousness my motor throbbed so violently that i could hardly hold still while the young woman climbed into her seat off we sped down a dark and narrow road
or over themselves all at once my left fore tire exploded violently veering me aside into a mile post my master and the young woman landed in a clump of bushes but i was maimed for life
bad example and bad association had ruined me many an innocent unsophisticated car is thus driven to destruction all because its owner fails to live up to his moral responsibility
i lay there all the rest of the night while my gasolene ebbed away drop by drop in the morning
and grafting on several feet of tin then before i was really convalescent i was sold to a new master this person was a harsh speaking unfeeling man who cared for nothing but money
he drove up and down the streets all day inviting people to get in and ride and when they did get in he forced each one of them to surrender a nickel he was very cruel to me
instead of showing any consideration for my broken health he would say openly well i'll get what use i can out of this one and then buy another not once did he ever throw a blanket over my hood in cold weather
or steady my slipping wheels with chains
he would shut off my gasolene
it declines into squalid neglect no amount of painting and enameling can restore its youthful bloom one day this master was driving me through an amusement park when i broke down completely he got out
and prodded me brutally in the magneto
to budge he grew very angry and the people in the tonneau demanded their money back a crowd of idlers gathered to witness my humiliation becoming purple in the face my master nearly
unjust imprecations as though it were my fault that my health was gone even making distressing insinuations as to my ancestry words failing him
i'd sell the thing for fifty cents he exclaimed with a shocking oath suddenly an elderly kindly faced man pushed his way forward through the crowd i'll give you that for it he said only stop battering it
from that moment to this i have never known anything but happiness for my dear old master is a retired gas fitter whose hobby is landscape gardening relieving me of my tired wheels
he has pastured me in the center of his front yard and planted me full of geraniums i am lovingly taken care of
it's nearly half past eight what exclaimed her husband sitting up vehemently and staring at the clock where is maria she's supposed to be here by seven isn't she perhaps she didn't come today
that good for nothing darky
plunging energetically into his bath robe and slippers he sallied forth on a tour of the apartment
no maria straightening up the living room or library no maria dusting in the dining room no maria preparing breakfast in the kitchen how provoking sighed missus brush
provoking i call it outrageous yes i'm sorry dear that this will make you late to your office oh i'm not bothered about that for i've just put through some new efficiency systems
what i can't stand is having that darky impose on us but dearest maybe she's sick then she could have sent us word by telephone no
she's taking advantage of the fact that you are young and inexperienced but she'll be sorry for it i'll discharge her myself now please don't get excited dear if you discharged her
it might be days and days before we could get another that wouldn't make any difference we'd simply take our meals out except breakfast of course i'd get that you
if you'll attend to the dusting later in the day i mean i'll bring you your coffee before you get up just as you're used to having it but henry it won't be any trouble at all nothing is
no matter how unfamiliar it may be to you if you go at it intelligently scientifically
it was useless to oppose him the best policy was to let it take its course
mister brush opened the sanitary garbage closet and screwing up his face and tooth brush seized something that was mighty unlike a rose
he held the pail out at arm's length as he carried it to the dumb waiter
gurgled mister brush nervously swallowing a generous amount of tooth paste
repeated the voice mister brush looked helplessly at the can on the dumb waiter and then at his incapacitated hands put your garbage on roared the voice mister brush sputtered
then extracting the tooth brush with the fourth and fifth knuckles of his left hand he shouted back indignantly i id then why didn't you say so and down went the dumb waiter with a jerk
mister brush returned to the bathroom as he was in the midst of shaving the buzzer sounded again this time he was on the alert and ready for any argument leaving his razor but not his lather
he hurried back to the kitchen in a combative mood
there was no answer but facing him on the shelf of the car stood his empty pail silent stolid indifferent to his bravado he snatched it off
and returned to his ablutions on account of the extreme lateness of the hour he decided to finish off with a quick shower bath first hot and then cold just as he removed his last garment
the buzzer sounded again aw go ahead and buzz he said between his teeth as he stepped into the hot downpour the door bell rang whoever that is can wait
but apparently the person in question had no desire to do so for the bell sounded again and again to complete the symphony the telephone chimed in with its merry tune gwendolyn
called mister brush distractedly amid the roar of waters but she having fallen into a pleasant doze while waiting for her breakfast did not hear him the bells and buzzer had by this time settled into a sustained chord
like that of the whistles at new year's bounding out of the tub to the mat mister brush wrapped his form which still glistened with pearly drops in his bath robe and slip slopped frigidly down the hall
hello he cried snatching off the telephone receiver no this is not schmittberger the butcher then he darted to the front door opening it he found the postman waiting with a letter
two cents due please the buzzer continued its heavy droning and the telephone started up again two cents two cents repeated mister brush in befuddlement the postman stared
two cents yes two cents reiterated mister brush groping immodestly for pockets where there were none you said that before oh excuse me i'll get it right off now
let me think but thinking in the neighborhood of that telephone was an impossibility he would have to quiet the thing so clapping the receiver to his ear he protested hello hello
will you kindly give me schmittberger's butcher shop good grief he exclaimed letting the receiver fall it swung by its tail pendulum wise barking infuriated clicks
mister brush staggered to the bedroom with reeling brain he ransacked all his chiffonier drawers for the purse which was lying in plain view on top by the time he had discovered it and started back to the door
the buzzer in the kitchen was having delirium tremens floundering to the spot he gasped what do you want ice was the husky reply all right i'll send it down no
i mean you send it up as the dumb waiter rose the temperature fell and mister brush soon found himself in the presence of a beautiful blue berg with chattering teeth he reached forward and drew it to him
the door of the dumb waiter closed automatically and he was left alone in the kitchen with the iceberg in his arms how to open the ice box was a problem after attempting unsuccessfully to cajole the catch
by fondling it with the corner of the berg he tried nudging it with his elbow it would not take the hint indeed it refused utterly to move until he got down on his knees before it and rubbed it with his shoulder finally however
the door opened disclosing a rival berg attended by a throng of bottles siphons and butter crocks a cold inhospitable crowd they were resenting any intrusion
thus rebuffed mister brush who felt as though he were being frozen and cauterized at the same time deposited the berg upon the cover of the wash tubs it coasted forward threatening an avalanche
clutching it at the brink he paused and wondered what he would do next the door bell saved him the trouble of deciding he had entirely forgotten the postman setting the berg upon a chair
he scurried out and offered him a dollar bill chattering apologies for the delay haven't you anything smaller
then why did you keep me here all this time i'll have to come back later he started off stop
rather make you a present of the ninety eight cents oh glory that'll have to be gone through with all over again discouraged and shivering he leaned against the side of the doorway in so doing
his eye fell upon a collection of objects that had been deposited in front of the sill the morning newspaper a bottle of milk one of cream and a bag containing a long loaf of bread he stooped over and gathered them up carefully one by one
and gripped the bag with his left hand and the two bottles with his right the chilliness in him culminated in a sneeze and everything fell both bottles smashed landing just on the sill
they distributed their contents impartially outside and inside
though they did what they could mister brush hastily procured a bucket and rag from the kitchen where the ice was indulging in a flood of its own and set to work mopping as he sprawled out into the hallway
gingerly squeezing out ragfuls of cream and broken glass the door opposite was opened and a handsome woman appeared attired in fashionable street dress she looked him straight in the eye mister brush clasped his bath robe to him
made a frenzied recoil slammed the door and collapsed into the pool of milk henry dear is breakfast nearly ready called his loving wife enraged and dripping
he leaped up with sudden strength and started for the bedroom spluttering incoherent expostulations as he went at that moment there was heard the sound of a latch key and a grinning black face appeared
good mawnin sah somefin seems to be spilt heah fetching a large cloth she set to work with easy dexterity mister brush fascinated watched the lake disappear
ah'll have yo breakfas ready in a couple o minutes thank heaven you're here maria he said fervently
consequently when molly said in her most decisive tone nonsense i won't hear of your going back tonight before you've even seen our new tennis court he realized that he would have to stay over the week end
not that he didn't want to in one way for he liked molly and admired the way she bossed the servants and ran the house for her mother then too the weather which seemed to be growing hotter every minute
would be far more endurable out here in avondale manor than in the city what troubled him was the fact that he had not brought a handbag i'll lend you some of father's things she went on it will be no bother at all
when the evening drew to a close and bed ward migration began he was shown to the guest room i hope you will find everything all right said his hostess as she bid him good night he replied
that he was sure he would then he opened the door the heat met him like a solid wall throwing off his coat he went to the two windows to see if they could really be open
but the thick fly screening kept out any air that might have desired to enter he glanced at the bed there was something blue and white lying folded on it as he drew nearer
he could see that this something was fuzzy picking it up he discovered it to be a pair of woolen pajamas horrors not even in the bitterest winter could his skin endure the feel of wool
he wondered if molly's father ever really wore such things perhaps his wife had given them to him and perhaps that was why the old gentleman was staying so long in south america
an awful thought was in his mind what would molly and her mother think of him if they found them unrumpled and therefore unused he slid one leg into the proper section
the flannel drew like a mild mustard plaster then he pulled on the other he was engulfed a hippopotamus would have felt comfortable in them at the north pole
he drew the fuzzy cord several feet before he tied it then put on the ulster it had a huge pocket capable of containing a tablecloth that hung over the spot where his appendix would have been
if he had been internally left handed noting that his feet had disappeared he turned up the bottoms of the trousers four times so that each ankle was neatly encircled with a doughnut shaped buffer then
after throwing back all the covers he snapped out the light and got into bed it had one of those patent soft mattresses that sinking in hold the body in bas relief he rolled and floundered on the thing
but at every flounder he sank deeper it was a quicksand of a bed he recalled victor hugo's account of the unfortunate traveler who perished in just such a way
how first his feet disappeared then his knees then his waist till at last there was nothing but a waving hand and then that went he was just preparing to wave
when his attention was distracted by the realization that his whole body was tingling with the heat he seized the jacket by the middle button and pumped it in and out trying to pump in some cool air there was none to pump
gasping for breath he crawled to a window still no air he decided to remove the fly screening there was a little groove in the side of the frame where you were supposed to put in your fingers and pull
he put in his fingers and pulled nothing happened then he did so again considerably harder and the screen went sailing out of the window
he leaned out just in time to see it crash upon a row of potted plants his heart stood still had any one heard the noise he listened for several minutes in agonizing suspense
here at the window it was a little cooler than in the bed why not emulate the japanese and sleep on the floor splendid no more squashy clinging mattress for him
fetching a pillow he stretched out in true oriental style quite right the floor did not sink or yield in any manner it even gave prominence to certain bony places which the bed had kindly overlooked
resisting the thick woolen anklets it complicated the disposal of his lower limbs finally however a gentle sleep slid into his soul
but about an hour later the slippery thing slid out again at the mere announcement by a rooster that dawn had arrived other roosters wishing to remove all doubts on the subject
repeated with emphasis that joyous day was at hand then a large fly buzzed in through the window to say good morning it perched sociably on his left temple
but wimley was in no mood for holding a levee he brushed the fly away it executed a boomerang trajectory lit again on the same spot and began rubbing its legs as before he brushed it away again
it perched again in exactly the same spot he was indignant was he to be at the mercy of a miserable little fly it seemed he was he got up and paced the floor
happening to catch a glimpse of his face in the mirror he beheld a flourishing crop of black bristles his whiskers stood ready to be harvested and his faithful razor was fifty miles away panic seized him
he thought of the window screen catastrophe of the quicksand bed of the hard floor his heart sank but when he thought of a day in those whiskers another night in those pajamas
and then tomorrow's whiskers he felt that instant flight was the only thing possible hastily he pulled on his clothes which felt sticky and moldy and spoke eloquently of yesterday's dust and heat
then he opened the door and peered out into the hall no one was in sight but other doors were open and out of one of these came a rumbling snore could it be molly's
this ominous sound was more than he could bear he retreated back in the room once more he tiptoed over to the screenless window to see what his chances would be in that quarter ah
there close by was a vine covered trellis that reached down to the ground with palpitating heart he swung himself over to it it oscillated slightly as it received his weight
the thorny crimson rambler was decidedly cloying he no sooner succeeded in detaching himself from one twig than two more just like it whipped out and hooked him he reached down with his right foot
down down where the devil was that next cross piece at last he found it together with about a dozen new thorns but when he started to bring down his left foot
and a tear and something gave way the next instant he and the vine were descending rapidly in each other's embrace a clump of lofty hollyhocks suffered martyrdom in breaking his fall
they gave their sap to save him and complete the ruin of his clothes disentangling himself from the wreckage he dashed off down the nearest path
under arbors and pergolas around sun dials and summer houses past marble seats with mottos that spoke of rest till
he found himself at the end of a blind alley in front of him was a dribbling fountain a vapid faced female clad in dew and idiotically pouring water out of a parlor ornament
on the pedestal was carved a garden is a lovesome spot god wot a brown measuring worm was measuring the lady for garments she needed but would never wear
and the water dribbled and dribbled but wimley wasn't thirsty striding over a row of conch shells and broad jumping a plot of geraniums
he made for a six foot hedge that appeared to be the boundary of the garden a desperate spring followed by a frantic scramble brought him to the top of it he wriggled there like a bareback rider on a bucking porcupine
sounded a tennis racket close beside him lifting his face from the foliage he beheld molly enjoying an early morning game with her thirteen year old brother my advantage
she called as she raised her racket to serve but catching an astonished look on the boy's face she stopped short and glanced at the hedge a tramp she exclaimed moving toward the spot
the would be fugitive struggled to tumble back on the other side his head and one shoulder disappeared from view grab him don't let him get away she cried excitedly the boy did so
seizing one foot while she seized the other then from the depths of the foliage came a voice as shy and as plaintive as that of the hermit thrush murmuring
groups of men and women never intermixing
women making mochi as fast as the buyers ate it broad rice fields rolling like a green sea on the right an ocean of liquid turquoise on the left the grey roofs of kubota looking out from their green surroundings
vans and kurumas policemen and horsemen all on their way to a mean looking town minato the junk port of kubota which was keeping matsuri or festival in honour of the birthday of the god shimmai
dismissing the kurumas which could go no farther we dived into the crowd which was wedged along a mean street nearly a mile long a miserable street of poor tea houses and poor shop fronts but in fact
monkey theatres and dog theatres two mangy sheep and a lean pig attracting wondering crowds for neither of these animals is known in this region of japan
a booth in which a woman was having her head cut off every half hour for two sen a spectator cars with roofs like temples on which with forty men at the ropes dancing children of the highest class were being borne in procession
a theatre with an open front on the boards of which two men in antique dresses with sleeves touching the ground were performing with tedious slowness a classic dance of tedious posturings
which consisted mainly in dexterous movements of the aforesaid sleeves and occasional emphatic stampings
it is needless to say that a foreign lady was not the least of the attractions of the fair
all sorts of masks dolls sugar figures toys and sweetmeats were exposed for sale on mats on the ground and found their way into the hands and sleeves of the children for no japanese parent would ever attend a matsuri without making an offering to his child
the police told me that there were twenty two thousand strangers in minato yet for thirty two thousand holiday makers a force of twenty five policemen was sufficient
when i left nor a solitary instance of rude or improper behaviour
for even where the crowd was densest the people of their own accord formed a ring and left me breathing space
we went to the place where the throng was greatest round the two great matsuri cars whose colossal erections we had seen far off these were structures of heavy beams thirty feet long with eight huge solid wheels
and two special peaks of unequal height at the top the whole being nearly fifty feet from the ground all these projections were covered with black cotton cloth from which branches of pines protruded
in the middle three small wheels one above another over which striped white cotton was rolling perpetually represented a waterfall at the bottom another arrangement of white cotton represented a river
and an arrangement of blue cotton fitfully agitated by a pair of bellows below represented the sea
but anything more rude and barbarous could scarcely be seen on the fronts of each car under a canopy were thirty performers on thirty diabolical instruments which rent the air with a truly infernal discord
and suggested devils rather than their conquerors high up on the flat projections there were groups of monstrous figures on one a giant in brass armour much like the nio of temple gates was killing a revolting looking demon
on another a daimiyo's daughter in robes of cloth of gold with satin sleeves richly flowered was playing on the samisen on another a hunter thrice the size of life was killing a wild horse equally magnified
and this was its third and greatest day we left on mild tempered horses quite unlike the fierce fellows of yamagata ken
connected with the sea by a narrow channel guarded by two high hills called shinzan and honzan two dutch engineers are now engaged in reporting on its capacities and if its outlet could be deepened without enormous cost
it would give north western japan the harbour it so greatly needs extensive rice fields and many villages lie along the road which is an avenue of deep sand and ancient pines much contorted and gnarled
down the pine avenue hundreds of people on horseback and on foot were trooping into minato from all the farming villages glad in the glorious sunshine which succeeded four days of rain there were hundreds of horses
carrying two grave and stately looking children in each and sometimes a father or a fifth child on the top of the pack saddle
in a loft alive with fleas where the rice was too dirty to be eaten and where the house master's wife who sat for an hour on my floor was sorely afflicted with skin disease the clay houses have disappeared and the villages are now built of wood
for the entanglement of unwary passengers the village smith was opposite but he was not a man of ponderous strength nor were there those wondrous flights and scintillations of sparks
which were the joy of our childhood in the tattenhall forge a fire of powdered charcoal on the floor always being trimmed and replenished by a lean and grimy satellite
a man still leaner and grimier clothed in goggles and a girdle always sitting in front of it heating and hammering iron bars with his hands with a clink which went on late into the night and blowing his bellows with his toes
bars and pieces of rusty iron pinned on the smoky walls and a group of idle men watching his skilful manipulation were the sights of the abukawa smithy and kept me thralled in the balcony
which turned into a tremendous torrent which has lasted for sixteen hours low hills broad rice valleys in which people are puddling the rice a second time to kill the weeds bad roads pretty villages much indigo few passengers
were the features of the day's journey
i noticed that if you see one large high well built house standing in enclosed grounds
and these are of all sorts from the mangy bit of fir which has seen long service to the vigorous truss of pine constantly renewed it is curious that this should formerly have been the sign of the sale of wine in england
the wind and rain were something fearful all that afternoon i could not ride so i tramped on foot for some miles under an avenue of pines through water a foot deep and with my paper waterproof soaked through
reached toyoka half drowned and very cold to shiver over a hibachi in a clean loft hung with my dripping clothes which had to be put on wet the next day by five a m all toyoka assembled
and while i took my breakfast i was not only the cynosure of the eyes of all the people outside but of those of about forty more who were standing in the doma looking up the ladder when asked to depart by the house master they said
dona victorina however was just turning up her nose in disdain when she suddenly became as furious as a trampled serpent the lieutenant had stepped on the train of her gown
she demanded yes senora two better than yours but the fact is that i was admiring your frizzes retorted the rather ungallant soldier as he moved away from her
as if from instinct the two friars both started toward the head of the table perhaps from habit
who openly exalt the qualifications and superiority of their opponents later giving to understand that just the contrary was meant and who murmur and grumble when they do not receive the appointment for you fray damaso
an older friend of the family confessor of the deceased lady age dignity and authority
replied fray damaso sourly without taking his hand from the back of the chair since you command it i obey concluded fray sibyla disposing himself to take the seat i don't command it
according to clerical opinion in the philippines the highest secular official is inferior to a friar cook cedant arma togae said cicero in the senate
lieutenant here we are in the world and not in the church the seat of honor belongs to you to judge from the tone of his voice however even in the world it really did belong to him
this fiesta is for the special purpose of giving thanks to the virgin for your safe arrival
bring on the tinola i ordered tinola as you doubtless have not tasted any for so long a time a large steaming tureen was brought in
began to serve the contents but whether from carelessness or other cause
while the others were eating legs and breasts especially ibarra to whose lot fell the second joints observing all this the franciscan mashed up some pieces of squash barely tasted the soup dropped his spoon noisily
and roughly pushed his plate away the dominican was very busy talking to the rubicund youth how long have you been away from the country
almost seven years then you have probably forgotten all about it quite the contrary even if my country does seem to have forgotten me i have always thought about it
how do you mean that it has forgotten you inquired the rubicund youth
this statement drew a sudden exclamation from the lieutenant and where were you that you didn't telegraph
for the past two years i have been in the northern part of europe in germany and russian poland doctor de espadana who until now had not ventured upon any conversation
went on the doctor taking courage
spanish very b badly those are good clues but unfortunately while there i talked spanish only in a few consulates how then did you get along asked the wondering dona victorina
and who was a master of pidgin english that adulteration of shakespeare's tongue used by the sons of the celestial empire i stayed in england a year among people who talked nothing but english
which country of europe pleased you the most asked the rubicund youth
tell us what do you consider the most notable thing that you have seen
in general in its essential features as a whole ibarra paused thoughtfully before replying frankly i like everything in those people setting aside the national pride of each one
but before visiting a country i tried to familiarize myself with its history its exodus if i may so speak
i have observed that the prosperity or misery of each people is in direct proportion to its liberties or its prejudices and accordingly to the sacrifices or the selfishness of its forefathers
and haven't you observed anything more than that broke in the franciscan with a sneer since the beginning of the dinner he had not uttered a single word his whole attention having been taking up no doubt with the food it
he was about to say the dinner is nearly over and his reverence is now satiated but restrained himself and merely remarked to the others gentlemen don't be surprised at the familiarity with which our former curate treats me
he treated me so when i was a child and the years seem to make no difference in his reverence i appreciate it too because it recalls the days when his reverence visited our home and honored my father's table
the dominican glanced furtively at the franciscan who was trembling visibly ibarra continued as he rose from the table you will now permit me to retire since as i have just arrived and must go away tomorrow morning
saying this he drained his glass which he had not before touched the old lieutenant silently followed his example don't go whispered capitan tiago maria clara will be here
meanwhile the franciscan had recovered himself do you see he said to the rubicund youth at the same time flourishing his dessert spoon
they even think that they are respectable persons
and how about the lieutenant dona victorina chimed in upon the franciscan he didn't get the frown off his face the whole evening he did well to leave us so old and still only a lieutenant
the lady could not forget the allusion to her frizzes and the trampled ruffles of her gown that night the rubicund youth wrote down among other things the following title for a chapter in his colonial studies
having explained the effects of waves of light which spread in a homogeneous matter we will examine next that which happens to them on encountering other bodies
we will first make evident how the reflexion of light is explained by these same waves and why it preserves equality of angles let there be a surface a b plane and polished
of some metal glass or other body which at first i will consider as perfectly uniform reserving to myself to deal at the end of this demonstration with the inequalities from which it cannot be exempt
represent a portion of a wave of light the centre of which is so distant that this portion ac may be considered as a straight line for i consider all this as in one plane
imagining to myself that the plane in which this figure is cuts the sphere of the wave through its centre and intersects the plane a b at right angles
will in a certain space of time advance as far as the plane a b at b following the straight line c b which may be supposed to come from the luminous centre and which in consequence is perpendicular to ac
now in this same space of time the portion a of the same wave which has been hindered from communicating its movement beyond the plane a b or at least partly so
making its own partial spherical wave according to what has been said above which wave is here represented by the circumference s n r the centre of which is a and its semi diameter
equal to c b if one considers further the other pieces h of the wave ac it appears that they will not only have reached the surface a b by straight lines h k
that is to say to the continuations of h k
but all these circumferences have as a common tangent the straight line b n namely the same which is drawn from b as a tangent to the first of the circles of which a is the centre
comprised between b and the point n where the perpendicular from the point a falls
which is as it were formed by all these circumferences and which terminates the movement which is made by the reflexion of the wave ac
and it is also the place where the movement occurs in much greater quantity than anywhere else wherefore according to that which has been explained
b n is the propagation of the wave ac at the moment when the piece c of it has arrived at b for there is no other line which like b n is a common tangent to all the aforesaid circles
and if one wishes to see how the wave ac has come successively to b n
for the triangles acb b n a being rectangular and having the side a b common
marks the direction of the reflected ray hence these rays are equally inclined to the plane a b but in considering the preceding demonstration
one might aver that it is indeed true that b n is the common tangent of the circular waves in the plane of this figure but that these waves being in truth spherical have still an infinitude of similar tangents
namely all the straight lines which are drawn from the point b in the surface
i say then that the wave ac being regarded only as a line produces no light for a visible ray of light however narrow it may be has always some width
and consequently it is necessary in representing the wave whose progression constitutes the ray to put instead of a line ac some plane figure such as the circle hc in the following figure
by supposing as we have done the luminous point to be infinitely distant now it is easy to see following the preceding demonstration
that each small piece of this wave hc having arrived at the plane a b and there generating each one its particular wave these will all have when c arrives at b
a common plane which will touch them namely a circle b n similar to c h and this will be intersected at its middle and at right angles by the same plane which likewise intersects the circle c h
cannot have any common tangent plane other than the circle b n so that it will be this plane where there will be more reflected movement than anywhere else
and which will therefore carry on the light in continuance from the wave c h i have also stated in the preceding demonstration
is not able to communicate itself beyond the plane a b or at least not wholly
whence it is to be remarked that though the movement of the ethereal matter might communicate itself partly to that of the reflecting body this could in nothing alter the velocity of progression of the waves
this comes about from the property of bodies which act as springs of which we have spoken above namely that whether compressed little or much they recoil in equal times
equally so in every reflexion of the light against whatever body it may be the angles of reflexion and incidence ought to be equal notwithstanding that the body might be of such a nature
that it takes away a portion of the movement made by the incident light and experiment shows that in fact there is no polished body the reflexion of which does not follow this rule
is that it does not require that the reflecting surface should be considered as a uniform plane as has been supposed by all those who have tried to explain the effects of reflexion
but only an evenness such as may be attained by the particles of the matter of the reflecting body being set near to one another which particles are larger than those of the ethereal matter
as will appear by what we shall say in treating of the transparency and opacity of bodies for the surface consisting thus of particles put together and the ethereal particles being above and smaller
it is evident that one could not demonstrate the equality of the angles of incidence and reflexion by similitude to that which happens to a ball thrown against a wall of which writers have always made use
in our way on the other hand the thing is explained without difficulty for the smallness of the particles of quicksilver for example being such that one must conceive millions of them in the smallest visible surface proposed
arranged like a heap of grains of sand which has been flattened as much as it is capable of being this surface then becomes for our purpose as even as a polished glass is
and although it always remains rough with respect to the particles of the ether it is evident that the centres of all the particular spheres of reflexion of which we have spoken are almost in one uniform plane
chapter nine local affairs
and he was on his way to the house which the youth had just left where are you going
who were about to enter a silver mounted carriage in the midst of his preoccupation padre damaso stroked the maiden's cheek lightly to the convent to get my things
ahaa aha
we'll see muttered the friar abstractedly as with bowed head and slow step he turned to the stairway leaving the two women not a little amazed he must have a sermon to preach and is memorizing it commented aunt isabel
get in maria or we'll be late whether or not padre damaso was preparing a sermon we cannot say but it is certain that some grave matter filled his mind for he did not extend his hand to capitan tiago
who had almost to get down on his knees to kiss it santiago said the friar at once i have an important matter to talk to you about let's go into your office
the astute dominican is not at the rectory for very soon after celebrating mass he had gone to the convent of his order
he entered passed along several corridors and knocked at a door come in sighed a weak voice may god restore health to your reverence
was the young dominican's greeting as he entered seated in a large armchair was an aged priest wasted and rather sallow like the saints that rivera painted
his eyes were sunken in their hollow sockets over which his heavy eyebrows were almost always contracted thus accentuating their brilliant gleam
gazed at him feelingly then bowed his head and waited in silence ah sighed the old man they advise an operation
i am suffering too much but i have made many suffer i am paying my debt and how are you what has brought you here i've come to talk about the business which you committed to my care
ah what about it pish answered the young man disgustedly as he seated himself and turned away his face with a contemptuous expression they've been telling us fairy tales
he doesn't seem to be a fool but i believe that he is a good lad you believe so hostilities began last night already
fray sibyla then recounted briefly what had taken place between padre damaso and ibarra besides he said in conclusion the young man is going to marry capitan tiago's daughter
who was educated in the college of our sisterhood he's rich and won't care to make enemies and to run the risk of ruining his fortune and his happiness the sick man nodded in agreement yes i think as you do
if not so much the better for him to declare himself an enemy of ours
for the good of our holy order i mean of course he added breathing heavily i prefer open attacks to the silly praises and flatteries of friends which are really paid for
our power will last as long as it is believed in if they attack us the government will say they attack them because they see in them an obstacle to their liberty so then let us preserve them
but if it should listen to them sometimes the government it will not listen
if there should be some bold and daring one
besides we need their attacks to keep us awake that makes us see our weaknesses so that we may remedy them exaggerated flattery will deceive us and put us to sleep
while outside our walls we shall be laughed at and the day in which we become an object of ridicule we shall fall as we fell in europe money will not flow into our churches
no one will buy our scapularies or girdles or anything else and when we cease to be rich we shall no longer be able to control consciences
but we shall always have our estates our property all will be lost as we lost them in europe and the worst of it is that we are working toward our own ruin
for example this unrestrained eagerness to raise arbitrarily the rents on our lands each year
the native sees himself obliged to purchase farms in other places which bring him as good returns as ours or better i fear that we are already on the decline
the people are already murmuring you have decided well let us leave the others to settle their accounts in that quarter let us preserve the prestige that remains to us
and as we shall soon appear before god let us wash our hands of it and may the god of mercy have pity on our weakness so your reverence thinks that the rent or tax
broke in fray sibyla with a faint smile but this morning i saw him and he told me that he was sorry for what occurred last night that the sherry had gone to his head and that he believed that padre damaso was in the same condition and your threat
i asked him jokingly padre he answered me i know how to keep my word when my honor is affected but i am not nor have ever been an informer for that reason i wear only two stars
it was true that the lieutenant had not gone to the palace but the captain general heard what had occurred while talking with some of his aides about the allusions that the manila newspapers were making to him under the names of comets and celestial apparitions
one of them told him about the affair of padre damaso with a somewhat heightened coloring although substantially correct as to matter from whom did you learn this asked his excellency smiling
the captain general again smiled and said a woman or a friar can't insult one i contemplate living in peace for the time that i shall remain in this country and i don't want any more quarrels with men who wear skirts
besides i've learned that the provincial has scoffed at my orders i asked for the removal of this friar as a punishment and they transferred him to a better town monkish tricks as we say in spain
but when his excellency found himself alone he stopped smiling
he sighed to himself but every people deserves its fate so let's do as everybody else does capitan tiago meanwhile had concluded his interview with padre damaso or rather to speak more exactly
padre damaso had concluded with him so now you are warned said the franciscan on leaving all this could have been avoided if you had consulted me beforehand if you had not lied when i asked you
try not to play any more foolish tricks and trust your protector
one might shun a vile thing for i feared lest i should become identified even remotely with any faith or sect other than congregationalism yet i noticed that in moments of
fear or of joy or of the sense of any other emotion i invariably experienced a feeling of goneness in the pit of my stomach as if forsooth the center of my physical system
and intellectual system the point at which were focused all those devious lines of communication by means of which sensation is instantaneously transmitted
from one part of the body to another i mentioned this circumstance to judge methuen and it seemed to please him my friend said he you have a particularly sensitive soul
i beg of you to exercise the greatest prudence in your treatment of it it is the best type of the bibliomaniac soul for the quickness of its apprehensions betokens
that it is alert and keen and capable of instantaneous impressions and enthusiasms what you have just told me convinces me that you are by nature qualified for rare exploits in the science and art
of book collecting you will presently become bald perhaps as bald as thomas hobbes was for a vigilant and active soul invariably compels baldness so close are the relations between the soul and the brain
has inherited from those grosser animals our prehistoric ancestors you see by this
of intellectuality and spirituality he has collected much literature upon the subject and has promised the academy of science to prepare and read for the instruction of that learned body an essay
proves a departure from the instincts and practices of brute humanity and indicates surely the growth of the understanding
it occurred to the judge long ago to prepare a list of the names of the famous bald men in the history of human society and this list has grown until it includes the names of thousands
representing every profession and vocation homer
aristotle plato cicero pliny maecenas julius caesar horace shakespeare bacon
napoleon bonaparte dante pope cowper goldsmith wordsworth israel putnam john quincy adams patrick henry these geniuses
bald but the baldest of all was the philosopher hobbes of whom the revered john aubrey has recorded that
yet within dore he used to study and sitt bare headed and said he never took cold in his head but that the greatest trouble was to keepe off the flies from pitching on the baldness
which depends upon the emperor's forehead and gives to the face a pleasant degree of picturesque distinction yet this was a vanity
for early in life bonaparte began to get bald and this so troubled him that he sought to overcome the change it made in his appearance by growing a long strand of hair upon his occiput
and bringing it forward a goodly distance in such artful wise that it right ingeniously served the purposes of that hyperion curl
which had been the pride of his youth but which had fallen early before the ravages of time as for myself i do not know that i ever shared
that derisive opinion in which the unthinking are wont to hold baldness nay on the contrary i have always had especial reverence for this mark of intellectuality
should serve the honorable purpose of indicating to humanity that bald heads are favored with the approval and the protection of divinity in my own case
i have imputed my early baldness to growth in intellectuality and spirituality induced by my fondness
books miss susan my sister lays it to other causes first among which she declares to be my unnatural practice of reading in bed and the second my habit of eating welsh rarebits late of nights
over my bed i have a gas jet so properly shaded that the rays of light are concentrated and reflected downward upon the volume which i am reading miss susan insists
that much of this light and its attendant heat falls upon my head compelling there a dryness of the scalp whereby the follicles have been deprived of their natural nourishment and have consequently died she furthermore maintains
that the welsh rarebits of which i partake invariably at the eleventh hour every night breed poisonous vapors and subtle megrims within my stomach which humors rising by their natural courses to my brain
do therein produce a fever that from within burneth up the fluids necessary to a healthy condition of the capillary growth upon the super adjacent and exterior cranial integument now
this very declaration of miss susan's
being bald would not a neglect of those means whereby warmth is engendered where it is needed result in colds quinsies asthmas and a thousand other banes
tempereth the wind to the shorn lamb provideth defence and protection for the bald had i not loved books the soul in my midriff
had not done away with those capillary vestiges of my simian ancestry which originally flourished upon my scalp had i not become bald the delights and profits of reading in bed might never have fallen to my lot
and indeed baldness has its compensations when i look about me and see the time the energy and the money that are continually expended upon the nurture and tending of the hair
to thy vain employments thou becurled and pomaded absalom
and from constant companionship with sages and philosophers
let me paraphrase my dear chaucer and tell thee thou waster of substances that for me was lever han at my beddes hed
a twenty bokes clothed in black and red of aristotle and his philosophie than robes rich or fidel or sautrie but all be that i ben a philosopher
give me ever more books for they are the caskets wherein we find the immortal expressions of humanity words the only things that live forever
i bow reverently to the bust in yonder corner whenever i recall what sir john herschel god rest his dear soul said and wrote
that should stand me in stead under every variety of circumstances and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to me during life
and a shield against its ills however things might go amiss and the world frown upon me it would be a taste for reading
and a means of gratifying it and you can hardly fail of making him a happy man unless indeed you put into his hands a most perverse selection of books
you place him in contact with the best society in every period of history with the wisest the wittiest the tenderest the bravest
you make him a denizen of all nations a contemporary of all ages the world has been created for him
for one phrase particularly do all good men methinks bless burly bearish phrase making old tom carlyle of all things quoth he
books and judge methuen's favorite quotation is from babington macaulay to this effect i would rather be a poor man
in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading kings indeed
i would give this right hand if the same attention had been paid to my education
he could hardly write his name at first as samuel pegge tells us he formed it out of six straight strokes and a line of beauty thus
which he afterward perfected as best he could
the goodness of alexander to aristotle for without alexander we should hardly have known of aristotle his royal patron provided the philosopher with every advantage for the acquisition of learning
to all parts of the earth to gather books and manuscripts and every variety of curious thing likely to swell the store of aristotle's knowledge yet
set them up in a line and survey them these wearers of crowns and these wielders of scepters and how pitiable are they in the paucity and vanity of their accomplishments
what knew they of the true happiness of human life they and their courtiers are dust and forgotten
first the appetitive powers in general second sensuality third the will fourth the free will under the first there are two points of inquiry one
whether the appetite should be considered a special power of the soul two whether the appetite should be divided into intellectual and sensitive as distinct powers first article
objection one it would seem that the appetite is not a special power of the soul for no power of the soul is to be assigned for those things which are common
to animate and to inanimate things but appetite is common to animate and inanimate things since all desire good as the philosopher says
therefore the appetite is not a special power of the soul
further powers are differentiated by their objects
therefore the appetitive power is not distinct from the apprehensive power
further the common is not divided from the proper but each power of the soul desires some particular desirable thing namely its own suitable object therefore with regard to this object
which is the desirable in general we should not assign some particular power distinct from the others called the appetitive power on the contrary the philosopher distinguishes
damascene also
distinguishes the appetitive from the cognitive powers i answer that it is necessary to assign an appetitive power to the soul to make this evident
we must observe that some inclination follows every form for example fire by its form is inclined to rise and to generate its like now the form is found
to have a more perfect existence in those things which participate knowledge
for in those which lack knowledge the form is found to determine each thing only to its own being that is to its nature therefore this natural form is followed
by a natural inclination which is called the natural appetite but in those things which have knowledge each one is determined to its own natural being by its natural form
in such a manner that it is nevertheless receptive of the species of other things for example sense receives the species of all things sensible and the intellect of all things intelligible
so that the soul of man is in a way all things by sense and intellect and thereby those things that have knowledge in a way approach to a likeness to god
in whom all things pre exist
as forms exist in those things that have knowledge in a higher manner and above the manner of natural forms so must there be in them an inclination surpassing the natural inclination
which is called the natural appetite and this superior inclination belongs to the appetitive power of the soul
through which the animal is able to desire what it apprehends and not only that to which it is inclined by its natural form and so it is necessary to assign an appetitive power to the soul
appetite is found in things which have knowledge above the common manner in which it is found in all things as we have said above therefore it is necessary to assign to the soul
a particular power reply
what is apprehended and what is desired are the same in reality
for a thing is apprehended as something sensible or intelligible whereas it is desired as suitable or good now it is diversity of aspect in the objects and not material diversity
which demands a diversity of powers
each power of the soul is a form or nature and has a natural inclination to something wherefore each power desires by the natural appetite that object
which is suitable to itself above which natural appetite is the animal appetite which follows the apprehension and by which something is desired not as suitable to this or that power
such as sight for seeing or sound for hearing but simply as suitable to the animal second article
whether the sensitive and intellectual appetites are distinct powers objection one it would seem that the sensitive and intellectual appetites are not distinct powers
for powers are not differentiated by accidental differences as we have seen above question seventy seven
but it is accidental to the appetible object whether it be apprehended by the sense or by the intellect therefore the sensitive and intellectual appetites are not distinct powers
further intellectual knowledge is of universals
distinct from sensitive knowledge which is of individual things but there is no place for this distinction in the appetitive part for since the appetite
seemingly every act of the appetite regards an individual thing therefore the intellectual appetite is not distinguished from the sensitive
further as under the apprehensive power the appetitive is subordinate as a lower power so also is the motive power but the motive power
which in man follows the intellect is not distinct from the motive power which in animals follows sense therefore for a like reason neither is there distinction in the appetitive part
on the contrary the philosopher
distinguishes a double appetite and says
that the higher appetite moves the lower i answer that we must needs say that the intellectual appetite is a distinct power from the sensitive appetite
for the appetitive power is a passive power which is naturally moved by the thing apprehended wherefore the apprehended appetible is a mover which is not moved while the appetite
is a mover moved as the philosopher says in
and movable are differentiated according to the distinction of the corresponding active and motive principles because the motive must be proportionate to the movable and the active to the passive
indeed the passive power itself has its very nature
therefore since what is apprehended by the intellect and what is apprehended by sense are generically different consequently the intellectual appetite
it is not accidental to the thing desired to be apprehended by the sense or the intellect on the contrary this belongs to it by its nature
for the appetible does not move the appetite except as it is apprehended wherefore differences in the thing apprehended are of themselves differences of the appetible and so
the appetitive powers are distinct according to the distinction of the things apprehended
the intellectual appetite though it tends to individual things which exist outside the soul yet tends to them as standing under the universal as when it desires something because it is good
wherefore the philosopher says
that hatred can regard a universal as when we hate every kind of thief in the same way by the intellectual appetite we may desire the immaterial good
once in the old old times for all the strange things which i tell you about happened long before anybody can remember a fountain gushed out of a hillside in the marvellous land of greece
and for aught i know after so many thousand years
at any rate there was the pleasant fountain welling freshly forth and sparkling adown the hillside in the golden sunset when a handsome young man named bellerophon drew near its margin
in his hand he held a bridle studded with brilliant gems and adorned with a golden bit seeing an old man and another of middle age and a little boy near the fountain and likewise a maiden
who was dipping up some of the water in a pitcher he paused and begged that he might refresh himself with a draught this is very delicious water he said to the maiden as he rinsed and filled her pitcher
after drinking out of it will you be kind enough to tell me whether the fountain has any name yes it is called the fountain of pirene answered the maiden and then she added
my grandmother has told me that this clear fountain was once a beautiful woman and when her son was killed by the arrows of the huntress diana she melted all away into tears and so the water
which you find so cool and sweet is the sorrow of that poor mother's heart i should not have dreamed observed the young stranger that so clear a well spring with its gush and gurgle
and its cheery dance out of the shade into the sunlight had so much as one tear drop in its bosom and this then is pirene i thank you pretty maiden for telling me its name
a middle aged country fellow he had driven his cow
remarked he if you come so far only to find the fountain of pirene but pray have you lost a horse i see you carry the bridle in your hand and a very pretty one it is with that double row of bright stones upon it
if the horse was as fine as the bridle you are much to be pitied for losing him i have lost no horse said bellerophon with a smile but i happen to be seeking a very famous one which
as wise people have informed me must be found hereabouts if anywhere do you know whether the winged horse pegasus still haunts the fountain of pirene as he used to do in your forefathers days
some of you my little friends have probably heard that this pegasus was a snow white steed with beautiful silvery wings who spent most of his time on the summit of mount helicon he was as wild
and as swift and as buoyant in his flight through the air as any eagle that ever soared into the clouds there was nothing else like him in the world he had no mate he never had been backed or bridled by a master
and for many a long year
oh how fine a thing it is to be a winged horse sleeping at night
pegasus seemed hardly to be a creature of the earth whenever he was seen up very high above people's heads with the sunshine on his silvery wings you would have thought that he belonged to the sky
and that skimming a little too low he had got astray among our mists and vapours and was seeking his way back again it was very pretty to behold him plunge into the fleecy bosom of a bright cloud
and be lost in it for a moment or two and then break forth from the other side or in a sullen rain storm when there was a gray pavement of clouds over the whole sky
it would sometimes happen that the winged horse descended right through it and the glad light of the upper region would gleam after him in another instant it is true both pegasus and the pleasant light would be gone away together
but anyone that was fortunate enough to see this wondrous spectacle felt cheerful the whole day afterward and as much longer as the storm lasted in the summer time and in the beautifullest of weather
pegasus often alighted on the solid earth and closing his silvery wings would gallop over hill and dale for pastime as fleetly as the wind oftener than in any other place
he had been seen near the fountain of pirene drinking the delicious water or rolling himself upon the soft grass of the margin sometimes too but pegasus was very dainty in his food
he would crop a few of the clover blossoms that happened to be sweetest to the fountain of pirene therefore people's great grandfathers had been in the habit of going
as long as they were youthful and retained their faith in winged horses in hopes of getting a glimpse at the beautiful pegasus but of late years he had been very seldom seen
indeed there were many of the country folks dwelling within half an hour's walk of the fountain who had never beheld pegasus and did not believe that there was any such creature in existence
the country fellow to whom bellerophon was speaking chanced to be one of those incredulous persons and that was the reason why he laughed pegasus indeed cried he
turning up his nose as high as such a flat nose could be turned up pegasus indeed a winged horse truly why friend are you in your senses of what use would wings be to a horse
could he drag the plough so well think you to be sure there might be a little saving in the expense of shoes but then how would a man like to see his horse flying out of the stable window yes or
whisking him up above the clouds when he only wanted to ride to mill no no i don't believe in pegasus
i have some reason to think otherwise said bellerophon quietly and then he turned to an old gray man who was leaning on a staff and listening very attentively
with his head stretched forward and one hand at his ear because for the last twenty years he had been getting rather deaf and what say you venerable sir inquired he
in your younger days i should imagine you must frequently have seen the winged steed ah young stranger my memory is very poor said the aged man
but nowadays i hardly know what to think and very seldom think about the winged horse at all if i ever saw the creature it was a long long while ago and
to tell you the truth i doubt whether i ever did see him one day to be sure when i was quite a youth i remember seeing some hoof tramps round about the brink of the fountain
pegasus might have made those hoof marks and so might some other horse and have you never seen him my fair maiden asked bellerophon of the girl
you certainly could see pegasus if anybody can for your eyes are very bright once i thought i saw him replied the maiden with a smile and a blush
it was either pegasus or a large white bird a very great way up in the air and one other time as i was coming to the fountain with my pitcher i heard a neigh
oh such a brisk and melodious neigh as that was my very heart leaped with delight at the sound but it startled me nevertheless
said bellerophon and he turned to the child whom i mentioned at the beginning of the story and who was gazing at him as children are apt to gaze at strangers with his rosy mouth wide open
well my little fellow cried bellerophon playfully pulling one of his curls i suppose you have often seen the winged horse that i have answered the child very readily i saw him yesterday
you are a fine little man said bellerophon drawing the child closer to him come tell me all about it why replied the child
i often come here to sail little boats in the fountain and to gather pretty pebbles out of its basin and sometimes when i look down into the water i see the image of the winged horse in the picture of the sky that is there
i wish he would come down and take me on his back and let me ride him up to the moon but if i so much as stir to look at him he flies far away out of sight and bellerophon put his faith in the child
who had seen the image of pegasus in the water and in the maiden who had heard him neigh so melodiously rather than in the middle aged clown who believed only in cart horses
or in the old man who had forgotten the beautiful things of his youth therefore he haunted about the fountain of pirene for a great many days afterward he kept continually on the watch
looking upward at the sky or else down into the water hoping forever that he should see either the reflected image of the winged horse or the marvellous reality he held the bridle
with its bright gems and golden bit always ready in his hand the rustic people who dwelt in the neighbourhood and drove their cattle to the fountain to drink would often laugh at poor bellerophon
and sometimes take him pretty severely to task they told him that an able bodied young man like himself
they offered to sell him a horse if he wanted one and when bellerophon declined the purchase they tried to drive a bargain with him for his fine bridle even the country boys thought him so very foolish
that they used to have a great deal of sport about him and were rude enough not to care a fig although bellerophon saw and heard it one little urchin for example would play pegasus
and cut the oddest imaginable capers by way of flying while one of his schoolfellows would scamper after him holding forth a twist of bulrushes which was intended to represent bellerophon's ornamental bridle
but the gentle child who had seen the picture of pegasus in the water comforted the young stranger more than all the naughty boys could torment him the dear little fellow in his play hours
often sat down beside him and without speaking a word would look down into the fountain and up toward the sky with so innocent a faith that bellerophon could not help feeling encouraged
now you will perhaps wish to be told why it was that bellerophon had undertaken to catch the winged horse and we shall find no better opportunity to speak about this matter than while he is waiting for pegasus to appear
if i were to relate the whole of bellerophon's previous adventures they might easily grow into a very long story it will be quite enough to say that
in a certain country of asia a terrible monster called a chimaera had made its appearance and was doing more mischief than could be talked about between now and sunset
according to the best accounts which i have been able to obtain this chimaera was nearly if not quite the ugliest and most poisonous creature and the strangest and unaccountablest
and the hardest to fight with and the most difficult to run away from that ever came out of the earth's inside it had a tail like a boa constrictor
and it had three separate heads one of which was a lion's the second a goat's and the third an abominably great snake's and a hot blast of fire
came flaming out of each of its three mouths being an earthly monster i doubt whether it had any wings but wings or no
and wriggled along like a serpent and thus contrived to make about as much speed as all the three together oh the mischief and mischief and mischief that this naughty creature did
with its flaming breath it could set a forest on fire or burn up a field of grain or for that matter a village with all its fences and houses
and cook them afterward in the burning oven of its stomach mercy on us little children i hope neither you nor i will ever happen to meet a chimaera while the hateful beast
horrible things it so chanced that bellerophon came to that part of the world on a visit to the king
and lycia was the country which he ruled over bellerophon was one of the bravest youths in the world and desired nothing so much as to do some valiant and beneficent deed
such as would make all mankind admire and love him in those days
either with the enemies of his country or with wicked giants or with troublesome dragons or with wild beasts
perceiving the courage of his youthful visitor proposed to him to go and fight the chimaera which everybody else was afraid of and which unless it should be soon killed was likely to convert lycia
into a desert bellerophon hesitated not a moment but assured the king that he would either slay this dreaded chimaera or perish in the attempt but in the first place
as the monster was so prodigiously swift he bethought himself that he should never win the victory by fighting on foot the wisest thing he could do therefore was to get the very best and fleetest horse that could
anywhere be found and what other horse in all the world was half so fleet as the marvellous horse pegasus who had wings as well as legs and was even more active in the air than on the earth
to be sure a great many people denied that there was any such horse with wings and said that the stories about him were all poetry and nonsense but wonderful as it appeared
bellerophon believed that pegasus was a real steed and hoped that he himself might be fortunate enough to find him and once fairly mounted on his back
at better advantage and this was the purpose with which he had travelled from lycia to greece
it was an enchanted bridle if he could only succeed in putting the golden bit into the mouth of pegasus the winged horse would be submissive and would own bellerophon for his master
but indeed it was a weary and anxious time while bellerophon waited and waited for pegasus in hopes that he would come and drink at the fountain of pirene
he was afraid lest king iobates should imagine that he had fled from the chimaera it pained him too to think how much mischief the monster was doing while he himself
was compelled to sit idly poring over the bright waters of pirene
and as pegasus came thither so seldom in these latter years and scarcely alighted there more than once in a lifetime bellerophon feared that he might grow an old man and have no strength left in his arms
nor courage in his heart before the winged horse would appear oh how heavily passes the time while an adventurous youth is yearning to do his part in life and to gather in the harvest of his renown how hard a lesson it is to wait
our life is brief and how much of it is spent in teaching us only this well was it for bellerophon that the gentle child had grown so fond of him and was never weary of keeping him company
every morning the child gave him a new hope to put in his bosom instead of yesterday's withered one dear bellerophon he would cry looking up hopefully into his face
i think we shall see pegasus to day and at length if it had not been for the little boy's unwavering faith
among the company which came to visit the two officers was an old acquaintance of harry esmond that gentleman of the guards namely who had been so kind to harry when captain westbury's troop had been quartered at castlewood more than seven years before
dick the scholar was no longer dick the trooper now but captain steele of lucas's fusiliers and secretary to my lord cutts that famous officer of king william's the bravest and most beloved man of the english army
the two jolly prisoners had been drinking with a party of friends for our cellar and that of the keepers of newgate too were supplied with endless hampers of burgundy and champagne that the friends of the colonels sent in and harry having no wish for their drink or their conversation
being too feeble in health for the one and too sad in spirits for the other was sitting apart in his little room reading such books as he had one evening when honest colonel westbury flushed with liquor and always good humored in and out of his cups
came laughing into harry's closet and said ho young killjoy
he'll pray with thee or he'll drink with thee or he'll drink and pray turn about dick my christian hero here's the little scholar of castlewood dick came up and kissed esmond on both cheeks imparting a strong perfume of burnt sack along with his caress to the young man
and wanted to measure swords with mohun did you i protest that mohun said at the guard dinner yesterday where there was a pretty company of us that the young fellow wanted to fight him and was the better man of the two
i wish we could have tried and proved it mister steele says esmond thinking of his dead benefactor and his eyes filling with tears
mister esmond heard nothing from her
a good nature and a friendly disposition towards all who were in ill fortune no doubt prompting him to make his visits and good fellowship and good wine to prolong them faith says westbury the little scholar was the first to begin the quarrel i mind me of it now
at lockit's i always hated that fellow mohun what was the real cause of the quarrel betwixt him and poor frank i would wager twas a woman twas a quarrel about play on my word about play harry said
angry words passed between them and though lord castlewood was the kindest and most pliable soul alive his spirit was very high and hence that meeting which has brought us all here says mister esmond
resolved never to acknowledge that there had ever been any other cause but cards for the duel
but if my lord mohun were a commoner i would say twas a pity he was not hanged he was familiar with dice and women at a time other boys are at school being birched he was as wicked as the oldest rake
years ere he had done growing and handled a sword and a foil and a bloody one too before he ever used a razor he held poor will mountford in talk that night when bloody dick hill ran him through
he will come to a bad end will that young lord and no end is bad enough for him says honest mister westbury whose prophecy was fulfilled twelve years after upon that fatal day when mohun fell
dragging down one of the bravest and greatest gentlemen in england in his fall from mister steele then who brought the public rumor
esmond learned the movements of his unfortunate mistress steele's heart was of very inflammable composition and the gentleman usher spoke in terms of boundless admiration both of the widow that most beautiful woman as he said and of her daughter
who in the captain's eyes was a still greater paragon if the pale widow whom captain richard in his poetic rapture compared to a niobe in tears
to a weeping belvidera was an object the most lovely and pathetic which his eyes had ever beheld
even her ripened perfections and beauty were as nothing compared to the promise of that extreme loveliness which the good captain saw in her daughter
steele composed sonnets whilst he was on duty in his prince's ante chamber to the maternal and filial charms he would speak for hours about them to harry esmond and indeed
he could have chosen few subjects more likely to interest the unhappy young man whose heart was now as always devoted to these ladies and who was thankful to all who loved them or praised them or wished them well not that his fidelity was recompensed by any answering kindness
or show of relenting even on the part of a mistress obdurate now after ten years of love and benefactions the poor young man getting no answer save tusher's to that letter which he had written and being too proud to write more
opened a part of his heart to steele than whom no man when unhappy could find a kinder hearer or more friendly emissary described in words which were no doubt pathetic for they came
to weep plentifully his youth his constancy his fond devotion to that household which had reared him his affection how earned and how tenderly requited until but yesterday and as far as he might
a prisoner under sentence a widow and orphans of those whom in life he held dearest in terms that might well move a harder hearted man than young esmond's confidant for indeed the speaker's own heart was half broke as he uttered them
he described a part of what had taken place in that only sad interview which his mistress had granted him
how she had accused him of the guilt of that blood
indeed in this the lord mohun the lord warwick and all the gentlemen engaged as well as the common rumor out of doors steele told him bore out the luckless young man and with all his heart and tears
he besought mister steele to inform his mistress of her kinsman's unhappiness and to deprecate that cruel anger she showed him half frantic with grief at the injustice done him and contrasting it with a thousand soft recollections of love
and confidence gone by that made his present misery inexpressibly more bitter the poor wretch passed many a lonely day and wakeful night in a kind of powerless despair and rage against his iniquitous fortune
it was the softest hand that struck him the gentlest and most compassionate nature that persecuted him i would as lief he said have pleaded guilty to the murder and have suffered for it like any other felon as
have to endure the torture to which my mistress subjects me although the recital of esmond's story and his passionate appeals and remonstrances drew so many tears from dick who heard them they had no effect upon the person
with a sad blank face and a shake of the head which told that there was no hope for the prisoner and scarce a wretched culprit
felt more cast down than mister esmond innocent and condemned as had been arranged between the prisoner and his counsel in their consultations mister steele had gone to the dowager's house in chelsey where it has been said
the widow and her orphans were had seen my lady viscountess and pleaded the cause of her unfortunate kinsman and i think i spoke well my poor boy says mister steele
for who would not speak well in such a cause and before so beautiful a judge i did not see the lovely beatrix sure her famous namesake of florence was never half so beautiful
eldest son but these young gentlemen went off to the garden i could see them from the window tilting at each other with poles in a mimic tournament grief touches the young but lightly and i remember that i beat a drum at the coffin of my own father
my lady viscountess looked out at the two boys at their game and said
and to make a sport of murder and as she spoke she looked so lovely and stood there in herself so sad and beautiful an instance of that doctrine whereof i am a humble preacher that had i not dedicated my little volume of the christian hero'
i think i never saw such a beautiful violet as that of her eyes harry her complexion is of the pink of the blush rose she hath an exquisite turned wrist
did you come to tell me about the dimples on my lady's hand broke out mister esmond sadly
says the poor captain who indeed was but too often in a state to see double and so checked he resumed the interrupted thread of his story
as i spoke my business mister steele said and narrated to your mistress what all the world knows and the other side hath been eager to acknowledge
i recounted the general praises of your gallantry besides my lord mohun's particular testimony to it
looked up at mine once or twice but after i had spoken on this theme for a while she suddenly broke away with a cry of grief i would to god sir she said i had never heard that word gallantry which you use or known the meaning of it
my lord might have been here but for that my home might be happy
a poor widowed mother of orphans whose home was happy until the world came into it the wicked godless world that takes the blood of the innocent and lets the guilty go free
as the afflicted lady spoke in this strain sir mister steele continued it seemed as if indignation moved her even more than grief compensation she went on passionately her cheeks and eyes kindling
what compensation does your world give the widow for her husband and the children for the murderer of their father the wretch who did the deed has not even a punishment conscience what conscience has he who can enter the house of a friend
whisper falsehood and insult to a woman that never harmed him and stab the kind heart that trusted him my lord my lord wretch's my lord villain's my lord murderer's peers
meet to try him and they dismiss him with a word or two of reproof and send him into the world again to pursue women with lust and falsehood and to murder unsuspecting guests that harbor him that day my lord my lord murderer
i will never name him was let loose a woman was executed at tyburn for stealing in a shop but a man may rob another of his life or a lady of her honor and shall pay no penalty i take my child
run to the throne and on my knees ask for justice and the king refuses me the king
robbed the throne from the king his father the true king and he has gone unpunished as the great do i then thought to speak for you mister steele continued and i interposed by saying there was one madam who at least
would have put his own breast between your husband's and my lord mohun's sword your poor young kinsman harry esmond hath told me that he tried to draw the quarrel on himself are you come from him asked the lady
so mister steele went on rising up with a great severity and stateliness i thought you had come from the princess i saw mister esmond in his prison and bade him farewell
he brought misery into my house he never should have entered it madam madam he is not to blame i interposed continued mister steele do i blame him to you sir asked the widow
and that it bids me to part from him and to see him no more
at least for years to come it may be in years hence when when our knees and our tears and our contrition have changed our sinful hearts sir and wrought our pardon we may meet again but not now after what has passed i could not bear to see him
i wish him well sir but i wish him farewell too and if he has that that
which he speaks of i beseech him to prove it by obeying me in this i shall break the young man's heart madam by this hard sentence mister steele said the lady shook her head continued my kind scholar
the hearts of young men mister steele
nor would i have him write to me except no i would have him never write to me nor see him more give him if you will my parting hush not a word of this before my daughter here the fair beatrix
entered from the river with her cheeks flushing with health and looking only the more lovely and fresh for the mourning habiliments which she wore and my lady viscountess said beatrix this is mister steele gentleman usher to the prince's highness
when does your new comedy appear mister steele i hope thou wilt be out of prison for the first night harry
and yet as i came down the river and thought about the pair
and with comforts very different to those which were awarded to the poor wretches there his insensibility to their misery their gayety still more frightful their curses and blasphemy hath struck with a kind of shame since as proving how selfish during his imprisonment
his own particular grief was and how entirely the thoughts of it absorbed him if the three gentlemen lived well under the care of the warden of newgate it was because they paid well and indeed the cost at the dearest ordinary or the grandest tavern in london
could not have furnished a longer reckoning than our host of the handcuff inn as colonel westbury called it our rooms were the three in the gate over newgate on the second story looking up newgate street towards cheapside and paul's church
where as harry esmond remembered dick the scholar and his friend tom tusher had had their schooling harry could never have paid his share of that prodigious heavy reckoning which my landlord brought to his guests once a week
for he had but three pieces in his pockets that fatal night before the duel when the gentlemen were at cards and offered to play five but whilst he was yet ill at the gatehouse after lady castlewood had visited him there
and before his trial there came one in an orange tawny coat and blue lace the livery which the esmonds always wore and brought a sealed packet for mister esmond which contained twenty guineas and a note saying that a counsel had been appointed for him
and that more money would be forthcoming whenever he needed it twas a queer letter from the scholar as she was or as she called herself the dowager viscountess castlewood written in the strange barbarous french
which she and many other fine ladies of that time witness her grace of portsmouth employed indeed spelling was not an article of general commodity in the world then
had but a little share of this part of grammar mong coussin
viscount castlewood here was h r h the prince of wales born in the same year and month with frank and just proclaimed at saint germains
like a wet muddy trench then crossing a very broad thoroughfare entered a public edifice and sought speech with a young private secretary unpaid of a great personage this fair smooth faced young man
whose symmetrically arranged hair gave him the air of a large and neat schoolboy met the assistant commissioner's request with a doubtful look and spoke with bated breath would he see you
he might have sent for him but he does it for the sake of a little exercise i suppose it's all the exercise he can find time for while this session lasts i don't complain i rather enjoy these little strolls he leans on my arm and doesn't open his lips but i say he's very tired
it's in connection with that greenwich affair oh i say he's very bitter against you people but i will go and see if you insist do that's a good fellow said the assistant commissioner
the unpaid secretary admired this pluck composing for himself an innocent face he opened a door and went in with the assurance of a nice and privileged child and presently he reappeared
with a nod to the assistant commissioner who passing through the same door left open for him
vast in bulk and stature with a long white face which broadened at the base by a big double chin appeared egg shaped in the fringe of thin greyish whisker the great personage seemed an expanding man
unfortunate from a tailoring point of view the cross folds in the middle of a buttoned black coat added to the impression as if the fastenings of the garment were tried to the utmost from the head set upward on a thick neck the eyes with puffy lower lids
stared with a haughty droop on each side of a hooked aggressive nose nobly salient in the vast pale circumference of the face a shiny silk hat and a pair of worn gloves lying ready on the end of a long table looked expanded too
enormous he stood on the hearthrug in big roomy boots and uttered no word of greeting
don't go into details i have no time for that the assistant commissioner's figure before this big and rustic presence had the frail slenderness of a reed addressing an oak and indeed
the unbroken record of that man's descent surpassed in the number of centuries the age of the oldest oak in the country no as far as one can be positive about anything i can assure you that it is not yes but your idea of assurances over there
look a fool i have been told positively in this very room less than a month ago that nothing of the sort was even possible
that so far i have had no opportunity to give you assurances of any kind the haughty droop of the eyes was focussed now upon the assistant commissioner true confessed the deep smooth voice i sent for heat
you are still rather a novice in your new berth and
of course of course i hope you will get on thank you sir ethelred i've learned something to day and even within the last hour or so there is much in this affair of a kind that does not meet the eye in a usual anarchist outrage even if one looked into it as deep as can be
the great man put his arms akimbo the backs of his big hands resting on his hips very well go on only no details pray spare me the details you shall not be troubled with them sir ethelred
the assistant commissioner began with a calm and untroubled assurance while he was speaking the hands on the face of the clock behind the great man's back a heavy glistening affair of massive scrolls in the same dark marble as the mantelpiece
and with a ghostly evanescent tick had moved through the space of seven minutes he spoke with a studious fidelity to a parenthetical manner into which every little fact that is every detail fitted with delightful ease
not a murmur nor even a movement hinted at interruption the great personage might have been the statue of one of his own princely ancestors stripped of a crusader's war harness and put into an ill fitting frock coat
the assistant commissioner felt as though he were at liberty to talk for an hour but he kept his head and at the end of the time mentioned above he broke off with a sudden conclusion which reproducing the opening statement pleasantly surprised sir ethelred
by its apparent swiftness and force the kind of thing which meets us under the surface of this affair otherwise without gravity is unusual in this precise form at least and requires special treatment
the tone of sir ethelred was deepened full of conviction i should think so involving the ambassador of a foreign power oh the ambassador protested the other erect and slender allowing himself a mere half smile
it would be stupid of me to advance anything of the kind and it is absolutely unnecessary because if i am right in my surmises whether ambassador or hall porter it's a mere detail
sir ethelred opened a wide mouth like a cavern into which the hooked nose seemed anxious to peer there came from it a subdued rolling sound as from a distant organ
what do they mean by importing their methods of crim tartary here a turk would have more decency you forget sir ethelred that strictly speaking we know nothing positively as yet no but how would you define it shortly
we can't put up with the innocence of nasty little children said the great and expanded personage expanding a little more as it were
they'll have to get a hard rap on the knuckles over this affair we must be in a position to what is your general idea stated shortly no need to go into details no sir ethelred in principle
i should lay it down that the existence of secret agents should not be tolerated as tending to augment the positive dangers of the evil against which they are used that the spy will fabricate his information is a mere commonplace but in the sphere of
political and revolutionary action relying partly on violence the professional spy has every facility to fabricate the very facts themselves and will spread the double evil of emulation in one direction and of panic
hasty legislation unreflecting hate on the other however this is an imperfect world
with big elbows stuck out said hastily be lucid please yes sir ethelred an imperfect world therefore directly the character of this affair suggested itself to me i thought it should be dealt with with special secrecy
and ventured to come over here that's right approved the great personage glancing down complacently over his double chin i am glad there's somebody over at your shop
the assistant commissioner
an amused smile i was really thinking that it might be better at this stage for heat to be replaced by what heat
not at all pray sir ethelred don't put that unjust interpretation on my remarks then what too clever by half neither at least not as a rule all the grounds of my surmises i have from him
the only thing i've discovered by myself is that he has been making use of that man privately who could blame him he's an old police hand he told me virtually that he must have tools to work with it occurred to me
that this tool should be surrendered to the special crimes division as a whole instead of remaining the private property of chief inspector heat i extend my conception of our departmental duties to the suppression of the secret agent but
chief inspector heat is an old departmental hand he would accuse me of perverting its morality and attacking its efficiency he would define it bitterly as protection extended to the criminal class of revolutionists it would mean just that to him
yes but what do you mean i mean to say first that there's but poor comfort in being able to declare that any given act of violence damaging property or destroying life is not the work of anarchism at all
but of something else altogether some species of authorised scoundrelism this i fancy is much more frequent than we suppose next it's obvious that the existence of these people in the pay of foreign governments destroys in a measure the efficiency of our supervision
a spy of that sort can afford to be more reckless than the most reckless of conspirators his occupation is free from all restraint he's without as much faith as is necessary for complete negation and without that much law as is implied in lawlessness
thirdly the existence of these spies amongst the revolutionary groups which we are reproached for harbouring here does away with all certitude
it was by no means groundless and yet this episode happens i call it an episode because this affair i make bold to say is episodic it is no part of any general scheme however wild
the very peculiarities which surprise and perplex chief inspector heat establish its character in my eyes i am keeping clear of details sir ethelred
had been listening with profound attention
intimated by an earnest deferential gesture that he was anxious to be concise
peculiar stupidity and feebleness in the conduct of this affair which gives me excellent hopes of getting behind it and finding there something else than an individual freak of fanaticism for it is a planned thing undoubtedly
and then abandoned hurriedly to his own devices
unless one were to accept the fantastic theory that he was a deaf mute
not an extraordinary accident but an extraordinary little fact remains the address on his clothing discovered by the merest accident too it is an incredible little fact so incredible that the explanation which will account for it is bound to touch the bottom of this affair
instead of instructing heat to go on with this case my intention is to seek this explanation personally by myself
that is in a certain shop in brett street and on the lips of a certain secret agent once upon a time the confidential and trusted spy
to the court of saint james the assistant commissioner paused then added those fellows are a perfect pest
the personage on the hearthrug had gradually tilted his head farther back which gave him an aspect of extraordinary haughtiness why not leave it to heat because he is an old departmental hand
they have their own morality my line of inquiry would appear to him an awful perversion of duty for him the plain duty is to fasten the guilt upon as many prominent anarchists as he can
on some slight indications he had picked up in the course of his investigation on the spot whereas i he would say am bent upon vindicating their innocence i am trying to be as lucid as i can in presenting this obscure matter to you without details
muttered the proud head of sir ethelred from its lofty elevation i am afraid so with an indignation and disgust of which you or i can have no idea he's an excellent servant we must not put an undue strain on his loyalty
that's always a mistake besides i want a free hand
i haven't the slightest wish to spare this man verloc
brought home to him so quickly frightening him will not be very difficult but our true objective lies behind him somewhere
as i may think proper certainly said the personage on the hearthrug find out as much as you can find it out in your own way
sir ethelred shifted one hand under his coat tails and tilting back his head looked at him steadily we'll have a late sitting to night he said come to the house with your discoveries if we are not gone home
i'll warn toodles to look out for you he'll take you into my room the numerous family and the wide connections of the youthful looking private secretary cherished for him the hope of an austere and exalted destiny
meantime the social sphere he adorned in his hours of idleness chose to pet him under the above nickname and sir ethelred
mostly at breakfast time had conferred upon it the dignity of unsmiling adoption the assistant commissioner was surprised and gratified extremely
i shall certainly bring my discoveries to the house on the chance of you having the time to i won't have the time interrupted the great personage but i will see you
and you are going yourself yes sir ethelred i think it the best way the personage had tilted his head so far back that in order to keep the assistant commissioner under his observation he had to nearly close his eyes
how do you propose will you assume a disguise hardly a disguise i'll change my clothes of course of
the gilt hands had taken the opportunity to steal through no less than five and twenty minutes behind his back the assistant commissioner who could not see them grew a little nervous in the interval but the great man presented to him a calm and undismayed face
but what first put you in motion in this direction
that's of course but the immediate motive what shall i say sir ethelred a new man's antagonism to old methods a desire to know something at first hand some impatience it's my old work but the harness is different
the assistant commissioner shook it and withdrew in the outer room toodles who had been waiting perched on the edge of a table advanced to meet him subduing his natural buoyancy well satisfactory
he asked with airy importance perfectly you've earned my undying gratitude
that's all right but seriously you can't imagine how irritated he is by the attacks on his bill for the nationalisation of fisheries they call it the beginning of social revolution
remarked the assistant commissioner odious eh and you have no notion what a mass of work he has got to get through every day he does it all himself seems unable to trust anyone with these fisheries and yet
he's given a whole half hour to the consideration of my very small sprat interjected the assistant commissioner small is it i'm glad to hear that
this fight takes it out of him frightfully the man's getting exhausted i feel it by the way he leans on my arm as we walk over
is he safe in the streets mullins has been marching his men up here this afternoon
it will get on his nerves presently i say these foreign scoundrels aren't likely to throw something at him are they it would be a national calamity the country can't spare him not to mention yourself he leans on your arm suggested the
it would be an easy way for a young man to go down into history not so many british ministers have been assassinated as to make it a minor incident
i am afraid that if you want to go down into history you'll have to do something for it seriously there's no danger whatever for both of you but from overwork the sympathetic toodles welcomed this opening for a chuckle
i am used to late hours he declared with ingenuous levity but feeling an instant compunction he began to assume an air of statesman like moodiness as one draws on a glove his massive intellect will stand any amount of work
it's his nerves that i am afraid of the reactionary gang with that abusive brute cheeseman at their head insult him every night if he will insist on beginning a revolution murmured the assistant commissioner the time has come
and he is the only man great enough for the work protested the revolutionary toodles flaring up under the calm speculative gaze of the assistant commissioner somewhere in a corridor a distant bell tinkled urgently
the assistant commissioner went out by another door in a less elastic manner again he crossed the wide thoroughfare walked along a narrow street and re entered hastily his own departmental buildings
he kept up this accelerated pace to the door of his private room
he stood still for a moment then walked up
sat down in his chair rang a bell and waited chief inspector heat gone yet
he nodded that will do and sitting still with his hat pushed off his forehead
but he thought this without animosity old and valued servants will take liberties the piece of overcoat with the address sewn on was certainly not a thing to leave about
he wrote and despatched a note to his wife charging her to make his apologies to michaelis great lady with whom they were engaged to dine that evening the short jacket and the low round hat he assumed in a sort of curtained alcove containing a washstand a row of wooden pegs and a shelf
he stepped back into the full light of the room looking like the vision of a cool reflective don quixote with the sunken eyes of a dark enthusiast and a very deliberate manner he left the scene of his daily labours quickly like an unobtrusive shadow
his descent into the street was like the descent into a slimy aquarium from which the water had been run off
the walls of the houses were wet
glistened with an effect of phosphorescence and when he emerged into the strand out of a narrow street by the side of charing cross station the genius of the locality assimilated him he might have been but one more of the queer foreign fish
that can be seen of an evening about there flitting round the dark corners he came to a stand on the very edge of the pavement and waited his exercised eyes had made out in the confused movements of lights and shadows thronging the roadway
the crawling approach of a hansom he gave no sign but when the low step gliding along the curbstone came to his feet he dodged in skilfully in front of the big turning wheel and spoke up through the little trap door
it was not a long drive it ended by signal abruptly nowhere in particular between two lamp posts before a large drapery establishment a long range of shops already lapped up in sheets of corrugated iron for the night
tendering a coin through the trap door the fare slipped out and away leaving an effect of uncanny eccentric ghastliness upon the driver's mind but the size of the coin was satisfactory to his touch and his education not being literary
he remained untroubled by the fear of finding it presently turned to a dead leaf in his pocket
he contemplated their actions with a limited interest the sharp pulling of his horse right round expressed his philosophy meantime the assistant commissioner was already giving his order to a waiter in a little italian restaurant round the corner
one of those traps for the hungry long and narrow baited with a perspective of mirrors and white napery without air but with an atmosphere of their own an atmosphere of fraudulent cookery
mocking an abject mankind in the most pressing of its miserable necessities in this immoral atmosphere the assistant commissioner reflecting upon his enterprise seemed to lose some more of his identity he had a sense of loneliness
of evil freedom it was rather pleasant when after paying for his short meal he stood up and waited for his change he saw himself in the sheet of glass and was struck
then by sudden inspiration raised the collar of his jacket this arrangement appeared to him commendable
he was satisfied by the subtle modification
he thought i'll get a little wet a little splashed he became aware of the waiter at his elbow and of a small pile of silver coins on the edge of the table before him the waiter kept one eye on it
who passed up to a distant table looking perfectly sightless and altogether unapproachable she seemed to be a habitual customer on going out
all their national and private characteristics and this was strange since the italian restaurant is such a peculiarly british institution but these people
dishes set before them with every circumstance of unstamped respectability neither was their personality stamped in any way professionally socially or racially they seemed created for the italian restaurant
unless the italian restaurant had been perchance created for them but that last hypothesis was unthinkable since one could not place them anywhere outside those special establishments
it was impossible to form a precise idea what occupations they followed by day and where they went to bed at night and he himself had become unplaced
a pleasurable feeling of independence possessed him when he heard the glass doors swing to behind his back with a sort of imperfect baffled thud he advanced at once into an immensity of greasy slime
and damp plaster interspersed with lamps and enveloped oppressed penetrated choked and suffocated by the blackness of a wet london night which is composed of soot and drops of water
brett street was not very far away it branched off narrow from the side of an open triangular space
temples of petty commerce emptied of traders for the night only a fruiterer's stall at the corner made a violent blaze of light and colour beyond all was black and the few people passing in that direction vanished at one stride
beyond the glowing heaps of oranges and lemons no footsteps echoed they would never be heard of again the adventurous head of the special crimes department watched these disappearances from a distance with an interested eye he felt light hearted
this joyousness and dispersion of thought before a task of some importance seems to prove that this world of ours is not such a very serious affair after all for the assistant commissioner was not constitutionally inclined to levity
the policeman on the beat projected his sombre and moving form against the luminous glory of oranges and lemons and entered brett street without haste the assistant commissioner as though he were a member of the criminal classes
lingered out of sight awaiting his return but this constable seemed to be lost for ever to the force he never returned must have gone out at the other end of brett street the assistant commissioner reaching this conclusion entered the street in his turn
and came upon a large van arrested in front of the dimly lit window panes of a carter's eating house the man was refreshing himself inside and the horses their big heads lowered to the ground fed out of nose bags steadily farther on
on the opposite side of the street another suspect patch of dim light issued from mister verloc's shop front hung with papers heaving with vague piles of cardboard boxes and the shapes of books the assistant commissioner
stood observing it across the roadway there could be no mistake by the side of the front window encumbered by the shadows of nondescript things the door standing ajar
let escape on the pavement a narrow clear streak of gas light within behind the assistant commissioner the van and horses merged into one mass seemed something alive
a square backed black monster blocking half the street with sudden iron shod stampings fierce jingles and heavy blowing sighs the harshly festive ill omened glare of a large and prosperous public house faced the other end of brett street across a wide road
this barrier of blazing lights opposing the shadows gathered about the humble abode of mister verloc's domestic happiness seemed to drive the obscurity of the street back upon itself make it more sullen brooding
dominique francois a
seventeen eighty six eighteen fifty three by edward
and carried on his observations under their protection as it were in eighteen o seven
yet the worst criminals lived unmolested in the cathedrals for the right of asylum was still in force his geodetic observations were mysteries to the inhabitants
in this prison under the care of spanish officers arago found sufficient occupation in calculating observations which he had made in reading the accounts in the spanish journals of his own execution at valencia
and in listening to rumors that it was proposed by a spanish monk to do away with the french prisoner by poisoning his food
was induced to connive at the escape of arago and m berthemie an aide de camp of napoleon and on the twenty eighth of july eighteen o eight they stole away from the coast of spain in a small boat with three sailors
let arago describe the crew and cargo the vessel belonged to the emir of seca the commander was a greek captain named spiro calligero
superseded by the bakri as kings of the jews two maroccan ostrich feather merchants captain krog from bergen in norway
and a great number of monkeys
worst of all a former spanish servant of arago's pablo was a sailor in the corsair's crew at rosas the prisoners were brought before an officer for interrogation it was now arago's turn the officer begins
who are you a poor traveling merchant from whence do you come from a country where you certainly have never been well from what country
i feared to answer for the passports steeped in vinegar to prevent infection were in the officer's hands and i had entirely forgotten whether i was from schwekat or from leoben
i am from schwekat fortunately this answer agreed with the passport you're from schwekat about as much as i am said the officer you're a spaniard and a spaniard from valencia to boot as i can tell by your accent
sir you are inclined to punish me simply because i have by nature the gift of languages i readily learn the dialects of the various countries where i carry on my trade for example i know the dialect of iviza
well i will take you at your word here is a soldier who comes from iviza talk to him very well i will even sing the goat song
affirms without hesitation that i am surely a frenchman the officer begins to be impatient have done with these trials they prove nothing
my foremost desire is to find an answer which will satisfy you i am the son of the innkeeper at mataro i know that man you are not his son you are right
i told you that i should change my answers till i found one to suit you i am a marionette player from lerida a huge laugh from the crowd which had listened to the interrogatory put an end to the questioning
this watch subsequently fell into the hands of his family and he was mourned in france as dead
a fearful tempest drove them to the harbor of bougie an african port a hundred miles east of algiers thence they made the perilous journey by land to their place of starting
eleven months to make a journey of four days the intelligence of the safe arrival after so many perils of the young astronomer with his packet of precious observations soon reached paris he was welcomed with effusion
soon afterward at the age of twenty three years he was elected a member of the section of astronomy of the academy of sciences and from this time forth he led the peaceful life of a savant
he was the director of the paris observatory for many years the friend of all european scientists
of deceased academicians of his collected works in fourteen volumes
published in paris eighteen sixty five three volumes are given to these notices biographiques
thomas young and james watt which translated rather carelessly into english have been published under the title biographies of distinguished men and can be found in the larger libraries the collected works contain biographies
they present in a lucid and popular form the achievements of scientific men whose works have changed the accepted opinion of the world and they give general views not found in the original writings themselves
and his own original contributions to astronomy and physics enabled him to speak as an expert not merely as an expositor the extracts are from his admirable estimate of laplace which he prepared in connection with the proposal
before him and other members of a state committee to publish a new and authoritative edition of the great astronomer's works the translation is mainly that of the biographies of distinguished men cited above
and much of the felicity of style is necessarily lost in translation but the substance of solid and lucid exposition from a master's hand remains arago was a deputy in eighteen thirty
two of his brothers jacques and etienne were dramatic authors of note another jean was a distinguished general in the service of mexico one of his sons alfred is favorably known as a painter
to the slight of the detractor or aspersion of the defamer and we ask thy forgiveness should our frailties betray us into ambiguities as we ask thy forgiveness should our steps advance to the verge of improprieties
and sagacity whereby we may attain discrimination that thou wilt aid us by thy guidance unto right conceptions and enable us with thy help to express them with clearness and thou wilt guard us from error in narration
and keep us from folly even in pleasantry so that we may be safe from the censure of sarcastic tongues and secure from the fatal effects of false ornament and may not resort to any improper source
and occupy no position that would entail regret nor be assailed by any ill consequences or blame nor be constrained to apology for inconsideration o god fulfill for us this our desire
and put us in possession of this our earnest wish and exclude us not from thy ample shade nor leave us to become the prey of the devourer for we stretch to thee the hand of entreaty and profess entire submission to thee
so the charms of conversation fascinated us while wakefulness still prevailed among us until the moon had at length disappeared in the west but when the gloom of night had thus drawn its curtain and nothing but slumber remained abroad
we heard from the door the low call of a benighted traveler and then followed the knock of one seeking admission and we answered
and the stranger replied listen ye who here are dwelling may you so be kept from ill so may mischief ne'er befall you long as life your breast shall fill gloom of dismal night and dreary drives a wretch to seek your door
whose disheveled hoary tresses all with dust are sprinkled o'er who though destitute and lonely far has roamed on hill and dale
we hasted to open the door and received him with welcome saying to the servant
bring whatever is ready but the stranger said by him who brought me to your abode i will not taste of your hospitality unless you pledge to me that you will not permit me to be an incumbrance to you
nor impose on yourselves necessity of eating on my account now it was just as if he had been informed of our wishes or had shot from the same bow as our sentiments so we gratified him by acceding to the condition
and highly commended him for his accommodating disposition but when the servant had produced what was ready and the candle was lighted up in the midst of us i regarded him attentively and lo it was abu zeid
whereupon i addressed my companions in these words may you have joy of the guest who has repaired to you for though the moon of the heavens has set the full moon of poetry has arisen and though the moon of the eclipse has disappeared
the full moon of eloquence has shone forth so the wine of joy infused itself into them
and they rejected the slumber which they had contemplated and began to resume the pleasantry which they had laid aside while abu zeid remained intent on the business in hand
i said to him entertain us with one of thy strange anecdotes or with an account of one of thy wonderful journeys and he said the result of long journeys brought me to this land myself being in a state of hunger and distress
and by fate so justly called the parent of adventures i stood at the door of a house and improvised these words inmates of this abode all hail all hail
long may you live in plenty's verdant vale oh grant your aid to one by toil opprest way worn benighted destitute distrest whose tortured entrails only hunger hold
for since he tasted food two days are told a wretch who finds not where to lay his head though brooding night her weary wing hath spread but roams in anxious hope a friend to meet
whose bounty like a spring of water sweet may heal his woes a friend who straight will say come in tis time thy staff aside to lay but there came out to me a boy in a short tunic who said
by him who hospitable rites ordained and first of all and best those rites maintained i swear that friendly converse and a home is all we have for those who nightly roam and i replied
what can i do with an empty house and a host who is himself thus utterly destitute but what is thy name boy for thy intelligence charms me he replied
and i was reared at faid and my mother barrah who is such as her name implies told me she married one of the nobles of serong and ghassan who deserted her stealthily and there was an end of him
now i knew by these distinct signs that he was my child
whereupon he returned thanks for this our bounty and was so profusely lavish in his acknowledgments that we thought his expression of gratitude excessive
though i ne'er had expected my fraud undetected or doubtful my meaning to make
and by these are my gains ever made such schemes i devise that the cunning and wise never practiced the like or conceived nor asmai nor komait any wonders relate like those that my wiles have achieved
from geoffrey of monmouth's historia britonum arthur succeeds uther his father in the kingdom of britain and besieges colgrin uther pendragon being dead
the nobility from several provinces assembled together at silchester and proposed to dubricius archbishop of legions that he should consecrate arthur
dubricius therefore grieving for the calamities of his country in conjunction with the other bishops set the crown upon arthur's head arthur was then only fifteen years old but a youth of such unparalleled courage and generosity
joined with that sweetness of temper and innate goodness as gained for him universal love when his coronation was over he according to usual custom
and such a number of soldiers flocked to him upon it that his treasury was not able to answer that vast expense but such a spirit of generosity joined with valor can never long want means to support itself
arthur therefore the better to keep up his munificence resolved to make use of his courage and to fall upon the saxons that he might enrich his followers with their wealth to this he was also moved by the justice of the cause
since the entire monarchy of britain belonged to him by hereditary right hereupon assembling the youth under his command he marched to york of which when colgrin had intelligence he met with a very great army
composed of saxons scots and picts by the river duglas where a battle happened with the loss of the greater part of both armies notwithstanding the victory fell to arthur who pursued colgrin to york and there besieged him
dubricius's speech against the treacherous saxons of whom arthur slays many in battle when he had done speaking saint dubricius archbishop of legions going to the top of a hill cried out with a loud voice
whose sufferings by the treachery of the pagans will be an everlasting reproach to you if you do not courageously defend them it is your country which you fight for and for which you should when required voluntarily suffer death
for that itself is victory and the cure of the soul for he that shall die for his brethren offers himself a living sacrifice to god and has christ for his example who condescended to lay down his life for his brethren
instantly armed themselves upon arthur's shield the picture of the blessed mary mother of god was painted in order to put him frequently in mind of her in this manner was a great part of that day also spent whereupon arthur
rushed forward with great fury into the thickest of the enemy's ranks of whom such was the merit of his prayers not one escaped alive that felt the fury of his sword neither did he give over the fury of his assault until he had
with his caliburn alone killed four hundred and seventy men the britons seeing this followed their leader in great multitudes and made slaughter on all sides so that colgrin and baldulph his brother
fell before them but cheldric in his imminent danger of his men betook himself to flight arthur increases his dominions
after this having invited over to him all persons whatsoever that were famous for valor in foreign nations he began to augment the number of his domestics
and introduced such politeness into his court as people of the remotest countries thought worthy of their imitation so that there was not a nobleman who thought himself of any consideration
unless his clothes and arms were made in the same fashion as those of arthur's knights at length the fame of his munificence and valor spreading over the whole world he became a terror to the kings of other countries
who grievously feared the loss of their dominions if he should make any attempt upon them arthur formed a design for the conquest of all europe at the end of nine years in which time all the parts of gaul were entirely reduced
arthur returned back to paris where he kept his court and calling an assembly of the clergy and people established peace and the just administration of the laws in that kingdom then he bestowed neustria
thus having settled the peace of the cities and the countries there he returned back in the beginning of spring to britain arthur holds a solemn festival upon the approach of the feast of pentecost
and for the more solemn observation of that festival and reconciling the minds of the princes that were now subject to him resolved during that season to hold a magnificent court to place the crown upon his head
and to invite all the kings and dukes under his subjection to the solemnity
he pitched upon the city of legions as a proper place for his purpose
upon the river uske near the severn sea was most pleasant and fit for so great a solemnity for on one side it was washed by that noble river so that the kings and princes from the countries beyond the seas
might have the convenience of sailing up to it on the other side the beauty of the meadows and groves and magnificence of the royal palaces with lofty gilded roofs that adorned it made it even rival the grandeur of rome
it was also famous for two churches whereof one was built in honor of the martyr julius and adorned with a choir of virgins who had devoted themselves wholly to the service of god but the other which was founded in memory of saint aaron
his companion and maintained a convent of canons was the third metropolitan church of britain besides there was a college of two hundred philosophers who being learned in astronomy and the other arts
and gave arthur true predictions of the events that would happen at that time in this place therefore which afforded such delights were preparations made for the ensuing festival
made himself ready to celebrate the office and undertook the ordering of whatever related to it as soon as the king was invested with his royal habiliments he was conducted in great pomp to the metropolitan church
supported on each side by two archbishops and having four kings viz of albania cornwall demetia and venedotia whose right it was bearing four golden swords before him
which made most excellent harmony on another part was the queen dressed out in her richest ornaments conducted by the archbishops and bishops to the temple of virgins the four queens also of the kings last mentioned
bearing before her four white doves according to ancient custom and after her there followed a retinue of women making all imaginable demonstrations of joy when the whole procession was ended
so transporting was the harmony of the musical instruments and voices whereof there was a vast variety in both churches that the knights who attended were in doubt which to prefer and therefore crowded from the one to the other by turns
and were far from being tired with the solemnity though the whole day had been spent in it at last when divine service was over at both churches the king and queen put off their crowns and putting on their lighter ornaments went to the banquet
he to one palace with the men she to another with the women for the britons still observed the ancient custom of troy by which the men and women used to celebrate their festivals apart when they had all taken their seats according to precedence
who waited with all kinds of cups and drinking vessels in the queen's palace were innumerable waiters dressed with variety of ornaments all performing their respective offices which if i should describe particularly
i should draw out the history to a tedious length for at that time britain had arrived at such a pitch of grandeur that in abundance of riches luxury of ornaments and politeness of inhabitants it far surpassed all other kingdoms
and esteemed none worthy of their love but such as had given a proof of their valor in three several battles thus was the valor of the men an encouragement for the women's chastity and the love of the women a spur to the soldiers bravery
after a variety of sports at the coronation arthur amply rewards his servants as soon as the banquets were over they went into the fields without the city to divert themselves with various sports the military men
in a sportive manner darted their amorous glances at the courtiers the more to encourage them others spent the remainder of the day in other diversions such as shooting with bows and arrows tossing the pike casting of heavy stones and rocks
playing at dice and the like and all these inoffensively and without quarreling whoever gained the victory in any of these sports was awarded with a rich prize by arthur in this manner were the first three days spent and on the fourth
all who upon account of their titles bore any kind of office at this solemnity were called together to receive honors and preferments in reward of their services and to fill up the vacancies in the governments of cities and castles
archbishoprics bishoprics abbeys and other hosts of honor
and engages in a war with rome at the beginning of the following summer as he was on his march toward rome and was beginning to pass the alps he had news brought him that his nephew modred to whose care he had intrusted britain
had by tyrannical and treasonable practices set the crown upon his own head
made a very great slaughter of his men after they had at last with much difficulty got ashore
for by long practice in war
were employed either in an assault or upon the defensive the horse would come in at full speed obliquely break through the enemy's ranks and so force them to flee nevertheless this perjured usurper got his forces together again
and the night following entered winchester as soon as queen guanhumara
heard this she immediately despairing of success fled from york to the city of legions where she resolved to lead a chaste life among the nuns in the church of julius the martyr and entered herself one of their order
and being carried thence to the isle of avallon to be cured of his wounds he gave up the crown of britain to his kinsman constantine
duke of cornwall in the five hundred and forty second year of our lord's incarnation the holy grail from malory's morte d'arthur faire knight said the king what is your name
then either of them made much of the other and so they went into the castle for to take their repast and anon there came in a dove at the window and in her bill there seemed a little censer of gold and therewithal
there was such a savor as though all the spicery of the world had been there and forthwithal there was upon the table all manner of meates and drinkes that they could thinke upon so there came
what may this meane this is said king pelles the richest thing that any man hath living and when this thing goeth about the round table shall bee broken and wit ye well said king pelles that this is the holy sanegreall
among the smaller principalities of italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries none was more brilliant than the court of ferrara and none more intimately connected with the literature of the times here on september eighth fourteen seventy four
was born ludovico ariosto the great poet of the renaissance here like boiardo before him and tasso after him he lived and wrote
in which are seen as in a mirror the gay life the intellectual brilliancy and the sensuous love for beauty which mark the age at seventeen he began the study of the law which he soon abandoned for the charms of letters most of his life was passed in the service
and afterward of the duke of ferrara but the courtier never overcame the poet
the literary activity of ariosto showed itself in the composition of comedies and satires as well as in that of his immortal epic
the later comedies are much better than the early ones which are but little more than translations from plautus and terence in general however the efforts of ariosto in this direction are far less important than the orlando or the satires
and was the leader of that movement in italy and france which prepared the way for moliere of more importance than the comedies and second only in interest to the orlando are the satires seven in number the first written in fifteen seventeen
nor a man of affairs and his life as ambassador of cardinal ippolito
was not at all to his liking
he was not stirred to profound indignation by the evils about him of which there were enough in that brilliant but corrupt age he discussed in easy familiar style the foibles of his fellow men and especially the events of his own life
and the traits of his own character the same views of life the same tolerant temper which are seen in the satires form an important part of the orlando furioso where they take the form of little dissertations
introduced at the beginning of a canto or scattered through the body of the poem these reflections are full of practical sense and wisdom and remind us of the familiar conversation with the reader which forms so great a charm in thackeray's novels
in the italian renaissance there is a curious mingling of classical and romantic influences and the generation which gave itself up passionately to the study of greek and latin still read with delight
the stories of the paladins of charlemagne and the knights of the round table what sir thomas malory had done in english prose boiardo did in latin poetry when ariosto entered the service of cardinal ippolito
under king agramante driving the army of charlemagne before them until the christians had finally been shut up within the walls of paris it was at this critical moment in his poem that boiardo died
ariosto took up the story where he had left it and carried it on until the final defeat of agramante and his death at the hands of orlando
and by means of winged horses tremendous distances are traveled over in a day on closer examination we find that this confusion is only apparent the poet himself is never confused but with sure hand
he manipulates the many colored threads which are wrought into the fabric of the poem
and both afford some of the finest episodes have no organic connection with the whole the real subject if any there be is the loves of ruggiero and bradamante
and it is with their final union after many vicissitudes that the poem ends but the real purpose of ariosto was to amuse the reader by countless stories of romantic adventure it was not as a great creative genius
that love for form that perfection of style which is characteristic of the latin races as distinguished from the teutonic it is this that makes the orlando furioso the great epic of the renaissance
and that caused galileo to bestow upon the poet the epithet divine for nearly thirty years ariosto changed and polished these lines
so that the edition of fifteen thirty two is quite different from that of fifteen sixteen the stanzas in which the poem is written are smooth and musical the language is so chosen as always to express the exact shade of thought
the interest never flags what seems the arbitrary breaking off of a story before its close is really the art of the poet for he knows were each episode to be told by itself we should have only a string of novelle
its hippogriffs and dragons and all the paraphernalia of magic art ariosto's treatment of chivalry is peculiar to himself spenser in the sixteenth century and lord tennyson in our own day
nor did the poet himself hence there is an air of unreality about the poem the figures that pass before us although they have certain characteristics of their own are not real beings but those that dwell in a land of fancy
and the voyage of astolfo to the moon he does approach dangerously near to the burlesque we are not inspired by large and noble thoughts in reading the orlando furioso
no lofty principles are inculcated even the pathetic scenes such as the death of zerbino and isabella stir no real emotion in us but we experience a sense of the artistic effect of a poetic death it is not often
with serious purpose will soon find himself under the spell of an attraction which comes from unflagging interest and from perfection of style and construction no translation can convey an adequate sense of this beauty of color and form
chapter ten
the mock turtle sighed deeply and drew the back of one flapper across his eyes he looked at alice and tried to speak
but for a minute or two sobs choked his voice same as if he had a bone in his throat said the gryphon and it set to work shaking him
and punching him in the back at last the mock turtle recovered his voice and with tears running down his cheeks he went on again
you may not have lived much under the sea i haven't said alice
alice began to say i once tasted but checked herself hastily and said no never
so you can have no idea what a delightful thing a lobster quadrille is no indeed said alice
what sort of a dance is it why said the gryphon you first form into a line along the sea shore
two lines cried the mock turtle seals turtles salmon and so on then when you've cleared all the jelly fish out of the way
that generally takes some time interrupted the gryphon you advance twice each with a lobster as a partner
cried the gryphon of course the mock turtle said advance twice set to partners
continued the gryphon then you know the mock turtle went on you throw the the lobsters shouted the gryphon with a bound into the air
as far out to sea as you can swim after them screamed the gryphon turn a somersault in the sea
cried the mock turtle capering wildly about change lobsters again yelled the gryphon at the top of its voice back to land again
and that's all the first figure said the mock turtle suddenly dropping his voice and the two creatures who had been jumping about like mad things all this time
sat down again very sadly and quietly and looked at alice it must be a very pretty dance said alice timidly
would you like to see a little of it said the mock turtle very much indeed said alice come let's try the first
figure said the mock turtle to the gryphon we can do without lobsters you know which shall sing oh you sing
said the gryphon i've forgotten the words so they began solemnly dancing round and round alice
too close and waving their forepaws to mark the time
very slowly and sadly will you walk a little faster said a whiting to a snail
there's a porpoise close behind us and he's treading on my tail see how eagerly the lobsters
they are waiting on the shingle will you come and join the dance will you won't you will you won't you will you join the dance
will you won't you will you won't you won't you join the dance you can really have no notion how delightful it will be
when they take us up and throw us with the lobsters out to sea but the snail replied too far too far
and gave a look askance said he thanked the whiting kindly but he would not join the dance would not could not
would not could not would not join the dance would not could not would not could not could not join the dance what matters it how far we go
his scaly friend replied there is another shore you know upon the other side the further off from england the nearer is to france
then turn not pale beloved snail but come and join the dance will you won't you will you won't you
will you won't you will you won't you won't you join the dance thank you it's a very interesting dance to watch said alice
feeling very glad that it was over at last and i do so like that curious song about the whiting oh
as to the whiting said the mock turtle they you've seen them of course yes said alice i've often seen them at dinn she checked herself hastily
i don't know where dinn may be said the mock turtle but if you've seen them so often of course you know what they're like
i believe so alice replied thoughtfully they have their tails in their mouths and they're all over crumbs
you're wrong about the crumbs said the mock turtle crumbs would all wash off in the sea
but they have their tails in their mouths and the reason is here the mock turtle yawned and shut his eyes
he said to the gryphon the reason is said the gryphon that they would go with the lobsters to the dance so they got thrown out to sea
so they had to fall a long way so they got their tails fast in their mouths so they couldn't get them out again that's all
thank you said alice it's very interesting i never knew so much about a whiting before
said the gryphon do you know why it's called a whiting i never thought about it said alice why
the gryphon replied very solemnly alice was thoroughly puzzled does the boots and shoes she repeated in a wondering tone
why what are your shoes done with said the gryphon i mean what makes them so shiny alice looked down at them
and considered a little before she gave her answer
i believe boots and shoes under the sea the gryphon went on in a deep voice
alice asked in a tone of great curiosity soles and eels of course the gryphon replied rather impatiently any shrimp
could have told you that if i'd been the whiting said alice whose thoughts were still running on the song i'd have said to the porpoise
keep back please we don't want you with us they were obliged to have him with them the mock turtle said
no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise wouldn't it really
chapter three a caucus race and a long tale
that assembled on the bank the birds with draggled feathers the animals with their fur clinging close to them and all dripping wet cross
and uncomfortable the first question of course was how to get dry again they had a consultation about this and after a few minutes
it seemed quite natural to alice to find herself talking familiarly with them as if she had known them all her life indeed
she had quite a long argument with the lory who at last turned sulky and would only say i am older than you and must know better
and this alice would not allow without knowing how old it was and as the lory positively refused to tell its age
there was no more to be said at last the mouse who seemed to be a person of authority among them called out sit down all of you
and listen to me i'll soon make you dry enough they all sat down at once in a large ring with the mouse in the middle
alice kept her eyes anxiously fixed on it for she felt sure she would catch a bad cold if she did not get dry very soon
ahem said the mouse with an important air are you all ready this is the driest thing i know silence all round if you please
william the conqueror whose cause was favoured by the pope was soon submitted to by the english who wanted leaders and had been of late
much accustomed to usurpation and conquest edwin and morcar the earls of mercia and northumbria ugh
said the lory with a shiver i beg your pardon said the mouse frowning but very politely did you speak not i said the lory hastily
i proceed edwin and morcar the earls of mercia and northumbria declared for him and even stigand
the patriotic archbishop of canterbury found it advisable found what said the duck found it the mouse replied rather crossly
of course you know what it means i know what it means well enough when i find a thing said the duck
is what did the archbishop find the mouse did not notice this question but hurriedly went on
found it advisable to go with edgar atheling to meet william and offer him the crown
but the insolence of his normans how are you getting on now my dear it continued turning to alice as it spoke
as wet as ever said alice in a melancholy tone it doesn't seem to dry me at all in that case said the dodo solemnly
rising to its feet i move that the meeting adjourn for the immediate adoption of more energetic remedies speak english said the eaglet
i don't know the meaning of half those long words and what's more i don't believe you do either and the eaglet bent down its head to hide a smile
some of the other birds tittered audibly what i was going to say said the dodo in an offended tone was that
what is a caucus race said alice not that she wanted much to know but the dodo had paused
as if it thought that somebody ought to speak and no one else seemed inclined to say anything
the best way to explain it is to do it
first it marked out a race course in a sort of circle the exact shape doesn't matter it said and then all the party
were placed along the course here and there there was no one two
but they began running when they liked and left off when they liked so that it was not easy to know when the race was over however
when they had been running half an hour or so and were quite dry again the dodo suddenly called out the race is over and they all crowded round it panting and asking
but who has won
and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead the position in which you usually see shakespeare in the pictures of him
while the rest waited in silence at last the dodo said everybody has won and all must have prizes
but who is to give the prizes quite a chorus of voices asked why she of course said the dodo
pointing to alice with one finger and the whole party at once crowded round her calling out in a confused way prizes prizes
alice had no idea what to do and in despair she put her hand in her pocket and pulled out a box of comfits
luckily the salt water had not got into it and handed them round as prizes there was exactly one a piece
of course the dodo replied very gravely what else have you got in your pocket he went on turning to alice only a thimble said alice sadly
hand it over here said the dodo then they all crowded round her once more while the dodo solemnly presented the thimble saying
we beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble and when it had finished this short speech they all cheered
alice thought the whole thing very absurd but they all looked so grave that she did not dare to laugh and as she could not think of anything to say
she simply bowed and took the thimble looking as solemn as she could the next thing was to eat the comfits this caused some noise and confusion
as the large birds complained that they could not taste theirs and the small ones choked and had to be patted on the back however it was over at last
and they sat down again in a ring and begged the mouse to tell them something more you promised to tell me your history you know said alice
and why it is you hate c and d she added in a whisper half afraid that it would be offended again
looking down with wonder at the mouse's tail but why do you call it sad and she kept on puzzling about it while the mouse was speaking so that
her idea of the tale was something like this
that he met in the house let us both go to law i will prosecute you come i'll take no denial we must have a trial
for really this morning i've nothing to do said the mouse to the cur such a trial dear sir with no jury or judge
would be wasting our breath i'll be judge i'll be jury said cunning old fury i'll try the whole cause and condemn you to death
you are not attending said the mouse to alice severely what are you thinking of i beg your pardon said alice very humbly
you had got to the fifth bend i think i had not cried the mouse sharply and very angrily a knot said alice
always ready to make herself useful and looking anxiously about her oh do let me help to undo it i shall do nothing of the sort said the mouse
getting up and walking away you insult me by talking such nonsense i didn't mean it pleaded poor alice but you're so easily offended you know
the mouse only growled in reply please come back and finish your story alice called after it and the others all joined in chorus
yes please do but the mouse only shook its head impatiently and walked a little quicker what a pity it wouldn't stay sighed the lory as soon
as it was quite out of sight and an old crab took the opportunity of saying to her daughter ah my dear let this be a lesson to you never to lose your temper
you're enough to try the patience of an oyster
addressing nobody in particular she'd soon fetch it back and who is dinah if i might venture to ask the question said the lory alice replied eagerly
for she was always ready to talk about her pet dinah's our cat and she's such a capital one for catching mice you can't think
and oh i wish you could see her after the birds why she'll eat a little bird as soon as look at it
this speech caused a remarkable sensation among the party some of the birds hurried off at once one old magpie began wrapping itself up
very carefully remarking i really must be getting home the night air doesn't suit my throat and a canary called out in a trembling voice to its children
come away my dears it's high time you were all in bed on various pretexts they all moved off and alice was soon left alone
nobody seems to like her down here and i'm sure she's the best cat in the world oh my dear dinah i wonder if i shall ever see you any more
and here poor alice began to cry again for she felt very lonely and low spirited in a little while however she again heard
a little pattering of footsteps in the distance and she looked up eagerly half hoping that the mouse had changed his mind
o mara bahia o calamity then went on speaking a little louder there's no worse enemy and no better friend than a brother tuan for one brother knows another and in perfect knowledge is strength for good or evil
i loved my brother i went to him and told him that i could see nothing but one face hear nothing but one voice he told me open your heart so that she can see what is in it and wait
patience is wisdom inchi midah may die or our ruler may throw off his fear of a woman i waited
you remember the lady with the veiled face tuan and the fear of our ruler before her cunning and temper and if she wanted her servant what could i do but i fed the hunger of my heart on short glances and stealthy words
and when the sun had fallen behind the forest i crept along the jasmine hedges of the women's courtyard unseeing we spoke to one another through the scent of flowers through the veil of leaves
through the blades of long grass that stood still before our lips so great was our prudence so faint was the murmur of our great longing the time passed swiftly and there were whispers amongst women and our enemies watched
my brother was gloomy and i began to think of killing and of a fierce death
like you whites there is a time when a man should forget loyalty and respect might and authority are given to rulers but to all men is given love and strength and courage my brother said
you shall take her from their midst we are two who are like one and i answered let it be soon for i find no warmth in sunlight that does not shine upon her
our time came when the ruler and all the great people went to the mouth of the river to fish by torchlight there were hundreds of boats and on the white sand
between the water and the forests dwellings of leaves were built for the households of the rajahs the smoke of cooking fires was like a blue mist of the evening and many voices rang in it joyfully
while they were making the boats ready to beat up the fish my brother came to me and said to night i looked to my weapons and when the time came our canoe took its place in the circle of boats carrying the torches
the lights blazed on the water but behind the boats there was darkness when the shouting began and the excitement made them like mad we dropped out the water swallowed our fire and we floated back to the shore that was dark
with only here and there the glimmer of embers we could hear the talk of slave girls amongst the sheds then we found a place deserted and silent we waited there she came she came running along the shore rapid and leaving no trace
like a leaf driven by the wind into the sea my brother said gloomily go and take her carry her into our boat i lifted her in my arms she panted her heart was beating against my breast i said
you came to the cry of my heart but my arms take you into my boat against the will of the great it is right said my brother we are men who take what we want and can hold it against many we should have taken her in daylight i said
let us be off for since she was in my boat i began to think of our ruler's many men yes let us be off said my brother we are cast out and this boat is our country now and the sea is our refuge
he lingered with his foot on the shore and i entreated him to hasten for i remembered the strokes of her heart against my breast and thought that two men cannot withstand a hundred we left paddling downstream close to the bank
and as we passed by the creek where they were fishing the great shouting had ceased but the murmur of voices was loud like the humming of insects flying at noonday
the boats floated clustered together in the red light of torches under a black roof of smoke and men talked of their sport men that boasted and praised and jeered men that would have been our friends in the morning
but on that night were already our enemies we paddled swiftly past we had no more friends in the country of our birth she sat in the middle of the canoe with covered face silent as she is now
unseeing as she is now and i had no regret at what i was leaving because i could hear her breathing close to me as i can hear her now he paused listened with his ear turned to the doorway
then shook his head and went on my brother wanted to shout the cry of challenge one cry only to let the people know we were freeborn robbers who trusted our arms and the great sea
and again i begged him in the name of our love to be silent could i not hear her breathing close to me i knew the pursuit would come quick enough my brother loved me he dipped his paddle without a splash he only said
there is half a man in you now the other half is in that woman i can wait when you are a whole man again you will come back with me here to shout defiance we are sons of the same mother i made no answer
for i longed to be with her in a safe place beyond the reach of men's anger and of women's spite
if i could only escape from inchi midah's fury and from our ruler's sword we paddled with haste breathing through our teeth the blades bit deep into the smooth water
we passed out of the river we flew in clear channels amongst the shallows we skirted the black coast we skirted the sand beaches where the sea speaks in whispers to the land and the gleam of white sand flashed back past our boat
so swiftly she ran upon the water we spoke not only once i said sleep diamelen for soon you may want all your strength
the sun rose and still we went on water fell from my face like rain from a cloud we flew in the light and heat i never looked back but i knew that my brother's eyes behind me were looking steadily ahead
for the boat went as straight as a bushman's dart when it leaves the end of the sumpitan there was no better paddler no better steersman than my brother many times together we had won races in that canoe
then when for the last time we paddled together there was no braver or stronger man in our country than my brother i could not spare the strength to turn my head and look at him but every moment i heard the hiss of his breath
and his voice was firm he was strong he was brave he knew not fear and no fatigue my brother a murmur powerful and gentle a murmur vast and faint
a breath of warm air touched the two men's faces and passed on with a mournful sound a breath loud and short like an uneasy sigh of the dreaming earth arsat went on in an even low voice
and through the jungle of that land there is a narrow path we made a fire and cooked rice then we lay down to sleep on the soft sand in the shade of our canoe while she watched no sooner had i closed my eyes than i heard her cry of alarm
we leaped up the sun was halfway down the sky already and coming in sight in the opening of the bay we saw a prau manned by many paddlers we knew it at once it was one of our rajah's praus
they beat the gong and turned the head of the prau into the bay i felt my heart become weak within my breast diamelen sat on the sand and covered her face there was no escape by sea my brother laughed he had the gun you had given him tuan before you went away
but there was only a handful of powder he spoke to me quickly run with her along the path i shall keep them back for they have no firearms and landing in the face of a man with a gun is certain death for some run with her
when i have fired all the shots i will follow i am a great runner and before they can come up we shall be gone i will hold out as long as i can for she is but a woman that can neither run nor fight but she has your heart in her weak hands
he dropped behind the canoe the prau was coming
my brother fired once twice and the booming of the gong ceased there was silence behind us that neck of land is narrow before i heard my brother fire the third shot i saw the shelving shore and i saw the water again
the mouth of a broad river we crossed a grassy glade we ran down to the water i saw a low hut above the black mud and a small canoe hauled up i heard another shot behind me i thought that is his last charge
we rushed down to the canoe a man came running from the hut but i leaped on him and we rolled together in the mud then i got up and he lay still at my feet
i and diamelen pushed the canoe afloat i heard yells behind me and i saw my brother run across the glade many men were bounding after him i took her in my arms and threw her into the boat then leaped in myself when i looked back
i saw that my brother had fallen he fell and was up again but the men were closing round him he shouted i am coming the men were close to him i looked many men then i looked at her tuan i pushed the canoe i pushed it into deep water
she was kneeling forward looking at me and i said take your paddle while i struck the water with mine tuan i heard him cry i heard him cry my name twice and i heard voices shouting kill strike i never turned back
and i never turned my head my own name my brother three times he called but i was not afraid of life was she not there in that canoe
where death is unknown the white man sat up arsat rose and stood an indistinct and silent figure above the dying embers of the fire
over the lagoon a mist drifting and low had crept erasing slowly the glittering images of the stars and now a great expanse of white vapour covered the land it flowed cold and gray in the darkness
and about the platform of the house which seemed to float upon a restless and impalpable illusion of a sea only far away the tops of the trees stood outlined on the twinkle of heaven like a sombre and forbidding shore
a coast deceptive pitiless and black arsat's voice vibrated loudly in the profound peace i had her there i had her to get her i would have faced all mankind
but i had her and his words went out ringing into the empty distances he paused and seemed to listen to them dying away very far beyond help and beyond recall then he said quietly
tuan i loved my brother a breath of wind made him shiver high above his head high above the silent sea of mist the drooping leaves of the palms rattled together with a mournful and expiring sound
the white man stretched his legs his chin rested on his chest and he murmured sadly without lifting his head we all love our brothers arsat burst out with an intense whispering violence
what did i care who died i wanted peace in my own heart he seemed to hear a stir in the house listened then stepped in noiselessly the white man stood up a breeze was coming in fitful puffs
the stars shone paler as if they had retreated into the frozen depths of immense space after a chill gust of wind there were a few seconds of perfect calm and absolute silence
then from behind the black and wavy line of the forests a column of golden light shot up into the heavens and spread over the semicircle of the eastern horizon the sun had risen the mist lifted broke into drifting patches
vanished into thin flying wreaths and the unveiled lagoon lay polished and black in the heavy shadows at the foot of the wall of trees a white eagle rose over it with a slanting and ponderous flight
reached the clear sunshine and appeared dazzlingly brilliant for a moment then soaring higher became a dark and motionless speck before it vanished into the blue as if it had left the earth forever
shivered and stood still for some time with fixed eyes then he said she burns no more before his face the sun showed its edge above the tree tops rising steadily
the breeze freshened a great brilliance burst upon the lagoon sparkled on the rippling water the forests came out of the clear shadows of the morning became distinct as if they had rushed nearer
to stop short in a great stir of leaves of nodding boughs of swaying branches in the merciless sunshine the whisper of unconscious life grew louder
arsat's eyes wandered slowly then stared at the rising sun i can see nothing he said half aloud to himself there is nothing said the white man
moving to the edge of the platform and waving his hand to his boat a shout came faintly over the lagoon and the sampan began to glide towards the abode of the friend of ghosts
if you want to come with me i will wait all the morning said the white man looking away upon the water no tuan said arsat softly i shall not eat or sleep in this house
but i must first see my road now i can see nothing see nothing
but there is death death for many we are sons of the same mother and i left him in the midst of enemies but i am going back now he drew a long breath and went on in a dreamy tone
in a little while i shall see clear enough to strike to strike but she has died and now darkness
then stood still with unmoved face and stony eyes staring at the sun the white man got down into his canoe the polers ran smartly along the sides of the boat looking over their shoulders at the beginning of a weary journey
high in the stern his head muffled up in white rags the juragan sat moody letting his paddle trail in the water
before the sampan passed out of the lagoon into the creek he lifted his eyes arsat had not moved
the white man leaning with both arms over the roof of the little house in the stern of the boat said to the steersman we will pass the night in arsat's clearing it is late the malay only grunted and went on looking fixedly at the river
the white man rested his chin on his crossed arms and gazed at the wake of the boat at the end of the straight avenue of forests cut by the intense glitter of the river the sun appeared unclouded and dazzling
poised low over the water that shone smoothly like a band of metal the forests sombre and dull stood motionless and silent on each side of the broad stream at the foot of big towering trees
trunkless nipa palms rose from the mud of the bank in bunches of leaves enormous and heavy that hung unstirring over the brown swirl of eddies
every tendril of creeper and every petal of minute blossoms seemed to have been bewitched into an immobility perfect and final nothing moved on the river but the eight paddles that rose flashing regularly
dipped together with a single splash while the steersman swept right and left with a periodic and sudden flourish of his blade describing a glinting semicircle above his head
the churned up water frothed alongside with a confused murmur and the white man's canoe advancing upstream in the short lived disturbance of its own making seemed to enter the portals of a land from which the very memory of motion had forever departed
the white man turning his back upon the setting sun looked along the empty and broad expanse of the sea reach for the last three miles of its course the wandering hesitating river
as if enticed irresistibly by the freedom of an open horizon flows straight into the sea flows straight to the east to the east that harbours both light and darkness astern of the boat the repeated call of some bird
a cry discordant and feeble skipped along over the smooth water and lost itself before it could reach the other shore in the breathless silence of the world the steersman dug his paddle into the stream and held hard with stiffened arms
his body thrown forward the water gurgled aloud and suddenly the long straight reach seemed to pivot on its centre the forests swung in a semicircle and the slanting beams of sunset touched the broadside of the canoe with a fiery glow
throwing the slender and distorted shadows of its crew upon the streaked glitter of the river the white man turned to look ahead the course of the boat had been altered at right angles to the stream
it glided through brushing the overhanging twigs and disappeared from the river like some slim and amphibious creature leaving the water for its lair in the forests the narrow creek was like a ditch tortuous fabulously deep
filled with gloom under the thin strip of pure and shining blue of the heaven immense trees soared up invisible behind the festooned draperies of creepers here and there near the glistening blackness of the water
a twisted root of some tall tree showed amongst the tracery of small ferns black and dull writhing and motionless like an arrested snake
the short words of the paddlers reverberated loudly between the thick and sombre walls of vegetation darkness oozed out from between the trees through the tangled maze of the creepers from behind the great fantastic and unstirring leaves
the darkness mysterious and invincible the darkness scented and poisonous of impenetrable forests the men poled in the shoaling water
the creek broadened opening out into a wide sweep of a stagnant lagoon the forests receded from the marshy bank leaving a level strip of bright green reedy grass to frame the reflected blueness of the sky
near it two tall nibong palms that seemed to have come out of the forests in the background leaned slightly over the ragged roof with a suggestion of sad tenderness and care in the droop of their leafy and soaring heads
the steersman pointing with his paddle said arsat is there i see his canoe fast between the piles the polers ran along the sides of the boat glancing over their shoulders at the end of the day's journey
moreover they disliked arsat first as a stranger and also because he who repairs a ruined house and dwells in it proclaims that he is not afraid to live amongst the spirits that haunt the places abandoned by mankind
such a man can disturb the course of fate by glances or words while his familiar ghosts are not easy to propitiate by casual wayfarers upon whom they long to wreak the malice of their human master
white men care not for such things being unbelievers and in league with the father of evil who leads them unharmed through the invisible dangers of this world to the warnings of the righteous they oppose an offensive pretence of disbelief
what is there to be done so they thought throwing their weight on the end of their long poles the big canoe glided on swiftly noiselessly and smoothly towards arsat's clearing till in a great rattling of poles thrown down
and the loud murmurs of allah be praised it came with a gentle knock against the crooked piles below the house the boatmen with uplifted faces shouted discordantly arsat o arsat nobody came
the white man began to climb the rude ladder giving access to the bamboo platform before the house the juragan of the boat said sulkily we will cook in the sampan and sleep on the water
pass my blankets and the basket said the white man curtly he knelt on the edge of the platform to receive the bundle then the boat shoved off and the white man standing up confronted arsat who had come out through the low door of his hut
he was a man young powerful with broad chest and muscular arms he had nothing on but his sarong his head was bare his big soft eyes stared eagerly at the white man but his voice and demeanour were composed
no said the visitor in a startled tone no why is there sickness in the house enter and see replied arsat in the same calm manner and turning short round passed again through the small doorway
the white man dropping his bundles followed in the dim light of the dwelling he made out on a couch of bamboos a woman stretched on her back under a broad sheet of red cotton cloth she lay still as if dead
but her big eyes wide open glittered in the gloom staring upwards at the slender rafters motionless and unseeing she was in a high fever and evidently unconscious
her cheeks were sunk slightly her lips were partly open and on the young face there was the ominous and fixed expression the absorbed contemplating expression of the unconscious who are going to die the two men stood looking down at her in silence
has she been long ill asked the traveller i have not slept for five nights answered the malay in a deliberate tone at first she heard voices calling her from the water and struggled against me who held her but since the sun of to day rose she hears nothing
she hears not me she sees nothing she sees not me me he remained silent for a minute then asked softly tuan will she die i fear so said the white man sorrowfully
he had slept many times there in his journeys up and down the river he liked the man who knew how to keep faith in council and how to fight without fear by the side of his white friend he liked him not so much perhaps as a man likes his favourite dog
about the lonely man and the long haired woman with audacious face and triumphant eyes who lived together hidden by the forests alone and feared
the white man came out of the hut in time to see the enormous conflagration of sunset put out by the swift and stealthy shadows that rising like a black and impalpable vapour above the tree tops spread over the heaven
extinguishing the crimson glow of floating clouds and the red brilliance of departing daylight in a few moments all the stars came out
resembled an oval patch of night sky flung down into the hopeless and abysmal night of the wilderness the white man had some supper out of the basket then collecting a few sticks that lay about the platform made up a small fire
not for warmth but for the sake of the smoke which would keep off the mosquitos he wrapped himself in the blankets and sat with his back against the reed wall of the house smoking thoughtfully arsat came through the doorway with noiseless steps
the white man moved his outstretched legs a little she breathes said arsat in a low voice anticipating the expected question
tuan will she die the white man moved his shoulders uneasily and muttered in a hesitating manner if such is her fate no tuan said arsat calmly
if such is my fate i hear i see i wait i remember tuan do you remember the old days do you remember my brother yes said the white man the malay rose suddenly and went in
the other sitting still outside could hear the voice in the hut arsat said hear me speak his words were succeeded by a complete silence o diamelen he cried suddenly
after that cry there was a deep sigh arsat came out and sank down again in his old place they sat in silence before the fire there was no sound within the house there was no sound near them
but far away on the lagoon they could hear the voices of the boatmen ringing fitful and distinct on the calm water the fire in the bows of the sampan shone faintly in the distance with a hazy red glow then it died out
the voices ceased the land and the water slept invisible unstirring and mute
streaming ceaseless and vain through the black stillness of the night the white man gazed straight before him into the darkness with wide open eyes the fear and fascination the inspiration and the wonder of death of death near
unavoidable and unseen soothed the unrest of his race and stirred the most indistinct the most intimate of his thoughts the ever ready suspicion of evil the gnawing suspicion that lurks in our hearts
flowed out into the stillness round him into the stillness profound and dumb and made it appear untrustworthy and infamous like the placid and impenetrable mask of an unjustifiable violence
in that fleeting and powerful disturbance of his being the earth enfolded in the starlight peace became a shadowy country of inhuman strife a battle field of phantoms terrible and charming august or ignoble
an unquiet and mysterious country of inextinguishable desires and fears a plaintive murmur rose in the night a murmur saddening and startling
as if the great solitudes of surrounding woods had tried to whisper into his ear the wisdom of their immense and lofty indifference sounds hesitating and vague floated in the air round him shaped themselves slowly into words
and at last flowed on gently in a murmuring stream of soft and monotonous sentences he stirred like a man waking up and changed his position slightly arsat motionless and shadowy sitting with bowed head under the stars
was speaking in a low and dreamy tone
a man must speak of war and of love you tuan know what war is and you have seen me in time of danger seek death as other men seek life a writing may be lost a lie may be written
but what the eye has seen is truth and remains in the mind i remember said the white man quietly arsat went on with mournful composure therefore i shall speak to you of love
speak in the night speak before both night and love are gone and the eye of day looks upon my sorrow and my shame upon my blackened face upon my burnt up heart
marked an almost imperceptible pause and then his words flowed on without a stir without a gesture after the time of trouble and war was over and you went away from my country in the pursuit of your desires
which we men of the islands cannot understand i and my brother became again as we had been before the sword bearers of the ruler you know we were men of family belonging to a ruling race
and more fit than any to carry on our right shoulder the emblem of power and in the time of prosperity si dendring showed us favour as we in time of sorrow
it was a time of peace a time of deer hunts and cock fights of idle talks and foolish squabbles between men whose bellies are full and weapons are rusty but the sower watched the young rice shoots grow up without fear
and the traders came and went departed lean and returned fat into the river of peace they brought news too brought lies and truth mixed together so that no man knew when to rejoice and when to be sorry
we heard from them about you also they had seen you here and had seen you there and i was glad to hear for i remembered the stirring times and i always remembered you tuan
till the time came when my eyes could see nothing in the past because they had looked upon the one who is dying there
never was there a beautiful soul in such a frightful little body but in spite of his appearance everybody loved him the queen his mother called him curlicue because it was a name she rather liked and it seemed to suit him king grumpy who cared a great deal more for his own grandeur than for his son's happiness
whose great estates joined his own for he thought that this alliance would make him more powerful than ever and as for the princess she would do very well for prince curlicue for she was as ugly as himself indeed though she was the most amiable creature in the world
there was no concealing the fact that she was frightful and so lame that she always went about with a crutch and people called her princess cabbage stalk the king having asked for and received a portrait of this princess had it placed in his great hall under a canopy and sent for prince curlicue
to whom he said that as this was the portrait of his future bride he hoped the prince found it charming the prince after one glance at it turned away with a disdainful air which greatly offended his father am i to understand that you are not pleased he said very sharply
certainly it is becoming in you to object to that said king grumpy since you are ugly enough to frighten anyone yourself that is the very reason said the prince that i wish to marry someone who is not ugly i am quite tired enough of seeing myself i tell you that you shall marry her
cried king grumpy angrily and the prince seeing that it was of no use to remonstrate bowed and retired as king grumpy was not used to being contradicted in anything he was very much displeased with his son
and ordered that he should be imprisoned in the tower that was kept on purpose for rebellious princes but had not been used for about two hundred years because there had not been any the prince thought all the rooms looked strangely old fashioned with their antique furniture but as there was a good library he was pleased
for he was very fond of reading and he soon got permission to have as many books as he liked
would soon get tired of being in prison and so consent to marry the princess cabbage stalk that he sent ambassadors to her father proposing that she should come and be married to his son who would make her perfectly happy the king was delighted to receive so good an offer for his unlucky daughter
though to tell the truth he found it impossible to admire the prince's portrait which had been sent to him however he had it placed in as favourable a light as possible and sent for the princess but the moment she caught sight of it she looked the other way and began to cry
the king who was very much annoyed to see how greatly she disliked it took a mirror and holding it up before the unhappy princess said i see you do not think the prince handsome but look at yourself and see if you have any right to complain about that sire she answered
i do not wish to complain only i beg of you do not make me marry at all i had rather be the unhappy princess cabbage stalk all my life than inflict the sight of my ugliness on anyone else
but all the princess guards were so fond of him that they did everything they dared in spite of the king to make the time pass pleasantly
and to be forced to marry an equally frightful princess he looked up suddenly and noticed that the painted windows were particularly bright and beautiful and for the sake of doing something that would change his sad thoughts he began to examine them attentively
he found that the pictures seemed to be scenes from the life of a man who appeared in every window and the prince fancying that he saw in this man some resemblance to himself began to be deeply interested in the first window there was a picture of him in one of the turrets of the tower
farther on he was seeking something in a chink in the wall in the next picture he was opening an old cabinet with a golden key and so it went on through numbers of scenes and presently the prince noticed that another figure occupied the most important place in each scene
and this time it was a tall handsome young man poor prince curlicue found it a pleasure to look at him he was so straight and strong by this time it had grown dark and the prince had to go back to his own room and to amuse himself he took up a quaint old book
and began to look at the pictures but his surprise was great to find that they represented the same scenes as the windows of the gallery and what was more that they seemed to be alive in looking at pictures of musicians he saw their hands move and heard sweet sounds
there was a picture of a ball and the prince could watch the little dancing people come and go he turned a page and there was an excellent smell of a savoury dinner and one of the figures who sat at the feast looked at him and said we drink your health curlicue
try to give us our queen again for if you do you will be rewarded if not it will be the worse for you at these words the prince who had been growing more and more astonished was fairly terrified and dropping the book with a crash he sank back insensible
the noise he made brought his guards to his aid and as soon as he revived they asked him what was the matter he answered that he was so faint and giddy with hunger that he had imagined he saw and heard all sorts of strange things thereupon in spite of the king's orders the guards gave him an excellent supper
and when he had eaten it he again opened his book but could see none of the wonderful pictures which convinced him that he must have been dreaming before however
and looked at the painted windows again he found that they moved and the figures came and went as if they had been alive and after watching the one who was like himself find the key in the crack of the turret wall and open the old cabinet he determined to go and examine the place himself
and try to find out what the mystery was so he went up into the turret and began to search about and tap upon the walls and all at once he came upon a place that sounded hollow taking a hammer he broke away a bit of the stone and found behind it a little golden key
the next thing to do was to find the cabinet and the prince soon came to it hidden away in a dark corner though indeed it was so old and battered looking that he would never have noticed it of his own accord at first he could not see any keyhole but after a careful search he found one hidden in the carving
and the golden key just fitted it so the prince gave it a vigorous turn and the doors flew open ugly and old as the cabinet was outside nothing could have been more rich and beautiful than what met the prince's astonished eyes every drawer was made of crystal
of amber or of some precious stone and was quite full of every kind of treasure prince curlicue was delighted he opened one after another
i believe that this must open that little golden door in the middle said the prince to himself and he fitted in the little key and turned it the tiny door swung back and a soft crimson light gleamed over the whole cabinet
the prince found that it proceeded from an immense glowing carbuncle made into a box which lay before him he lost no time in opening it but what was his horror when he found that it contained a man's hand which was holding a portrait
his first thought was to put back the terrible box and fly from the turret but a voice in his ear said this hand belonged to one whom you can help and restore look at this beautiful portrait the original of which was the cause of all my misfortunes
and if you wish to help me go without a moment's delay to the great gallery notice where the sun's rays fall most brightly and if you seek there you will find my treasure the voice ceased and though the prince in his bewilderment asked various questions he received no answer
so he put back the box and locked the cabinet up again and having replaced the key in the crack in the wall hastened down to the gallery when he entered it all the windows shook and clattered in the strangest way but the prince did not heed them
he was looking so carefully for the place where the sun shone most brightly and it seemed to him that it was upon the portrait of a most splendidly handsome young man he went up and examined it and found that it rested against the ebony and gold panelling
just like any of the other pictures in the gallery he was puzzled not knowing what to do next until it occurred to him to see if the windows would help him and looking at the nearest he saw a picture of himself lifting the picture from the wall
the prince took the hint and lifting aside the picture without difficulty found himself in a marble hall adorned with statues from this he passed on through numbers of splendid rooms until at last he reached one all hung with blue gauze
the walls were of turquoises and upon a low couch lay a lovely lady who seemed to be asleep her hair black as ebony was spread across the pillows making her face look ivory white and the prince noticed that she was unquiet
and when he softly advanced fearing to wake her he could hear her sigh and murmur to herself ah how dared you think to win my love by separating me from my beloved florimond
and prince curlicue began to comprehend that she was under an enchantment and that it was the hand of her lover that he had found at this moment a huge eagle flew into the room holding in its talons a golden branch upon which were growing what looked like clusters of cherries
only every cherry was a single glowing ruby this he presented to the prince who guessed by this time that he was in some way to break the enchantment that surrounded the sleeping lady taking the branch he touched her lightly with it saying fair one i know not by what enchantment thou art bound
but in the name of thy beloved florimond i conjure thee to come back to the life which thou hast lost but not forgotten instantly the lady opened her lustrous eyes and saw the eagle hovering near ah stay dear love stay she cried
but the eagle uttering a dolorous cry fluttered his broad wings and disappeared then the lady turned to prince curlicue and said
madam said prince curlicue i wish to be allowed to restore your beloved florimond to his natural form since i cannot forget the tears you shed for him that is very amiable of you dear prince said the fairy but it is reserved for another person to do that
i cannot explain more at present but is there nothing you wish for yourself madam cried the prince flinging himself down at her feet only look at my ugliness i am called curlicue and am an object of derision i entreat you to make me less ridiculous
as soon as sir galahad was buried sir perceval retired to a hermitage out of the city and took a religious clothing and sir bohort was always with him but did not change his secular clothing because he purposed to return to the realm of loegria
thus a year and two months lived sir perceval in the hermitage a full holy life and then passed out of this world and sir bohort buried him by his sister and sir galahad then sir bohort armed himself and departed from sarras and entered into a ship
and sailed to the kingdom of loegria and in due time arrived safe at camelot where the king was then was there great joy made of him in the whole court for they feared he had been dead then the king made great clerks to come before him that they should chronicle of the high adventures of the good knights
and sir bohort told him of the adventures that had befallen him and his two fellows sir perceval and sir galahad and sir launcelot told the adventures of the sangreal that he had seen all this was made in great books and put up in the church at salisbury
and in especial sir agrivain sir gawain's brother for he was ever open mouthed so it happened sir gawain and all his brothers were in king arthur's chamber and then sir agrivain said thus openly
i marvel that we all are not ashamed to see and to know so noble a knight as king arthur so to be shamed by the conduct of sir launcelot and the queen then spoke sir gawain and said brother sir agrivain i pray you and charge you move not such matters any more before me
for be ye assured i will not be of your counsel neither will we said sir gaheris and sir gareth then will i said sir modred i doubt you not said sir gawain for to all mischief ever were ye prone yet i would that ye left all this for i know what will come of it
modred's narrow foxy face heart hiding smile and gray persistent eye henceforward too the powers that tend the soul to help it from the death that cannot die and save it even in extremes began to vex and plague guinevere
fall of it what fall may said sir agrivain i will disclose it to the king with that came to them king arthur now brothers hold your peace said sir gawain we will not said sir agrivain then said sir gawain i will not hear your tales nor be of your counsel
no more will i said sir gareth and sir gaheris and therewith they departed making great sorrow then sir agrivain told the king all that was said in the court of the conduct of sir launcelot and the queen
sir agrivain and sir modred led a party for this purpose
then sir launcelot hastened to his friends and told them what had happened and withdrew with them to the forest but he left spies to bring him tidings of whatever might be done so sir launcelot escaped but the queen remained in the king's power
and arthur could no longer doubt of her guilt and the law was such in those days that they who committed such crimes of what estate or condition soever they were must be burned to death
then said king arthur to sir gawain i pray you make you ready in your best armor with your brethren sir gaheris and sir gareth to bring my queen to the fire there to receive her death nay my most noble lord said sir gawain
that will i never do for know thou well my heart will never serve me to see her die and it shall never be said that i was of your counsel in her death then the king commanded sir gaheris and sir gareth to be there and they said we will be there as ye command us sire
but in peaceable wise and bear no armor upon us so the queen was led forth and her ghostly father was brought to her to shrive her and there was weeping and wailing of many lords and ladies and one went and told sir launcelot that the queen was led forth to her death
then sir launcelot and the knights that were with him fell upon the troop that guarded the queen and dispersed them and slew all who withstood them
and sir launcelot carried away the queen to his castle of la joyeuse garde then there came one to sir gawain and told him how that sir launcelot had slain the knights and carried away the queen o lord defend my brethren
said sir gawain truly said the man sir gareth and sir gaheris are slain alas said sir gawain now is my joy gone and then he fell down and swooned and long he lay there as he had been dead
when he arose out of his swoon sir gawain ran to the king crying o king arthur mine uncle my brothers are slain then the king wept and he both my king my lord and mine uncle said sir gawain bear witness now that i make you a promise that i shall hold by my knighthood
and from this day i will never fail sir launcelot until the one of us have slain the other i will seek sir launcelot throughout seven kings realms but i shall slay him or he shall slay me ye shall not need to seek him said the king for as i hear sir launcelot will abide me and you in the joyeuse garde
and much people draweth unto him as i hear say that may i believe said sir gawain but my lord summon your friends and i will summon mine it shall be done said the king so then the king sent letters and writs throughout all england
thereof heard sir launcelot and collected all whom he could and many good knights held with him both for his sake and for the queen's sake but king arthur's host was too great for sir launcelot to abide him in the field and he was full loath to do battle against the king
so sir launcelot drew him to his strong castle with all manner of provisions then came king arthur with sir gawain and laid siege all about la joyeuse garde both the town and the castle but in no wise would sir launcelot ride out of his castle
neither suffer any of his knights to issue out until many weeks were past then it befell upon a day in harvest time sir launcelot looked over the wall and spoke aloud to king arthur and sir gawain my lords both all is in vain that ye do at this siege
for here ye shall win no worship but only dishonor for if i list to come out and my good knights i shall soon make an end of this war come forth said arthur if thou darest and i promise thee i shall meet thee in the midst of the field
loved thee more than all my kin therefore know thou well i shall make war to thee all the while that i may live when sir bohort and sir hector de marys and sir lionel heard this outcry they called to them sir palamedes and sir saffire his brother
lawayn with many more and all went to sir launcelot and they said my lord sir launcelot we pray you if you will have our service keep us no longer within these walls for know well all your fair speech and forbearance will not avail you
alas said sir launcelot to ride forth and to do battle i am full loath then he spake again unto the king and sir gawain and willed them to keep out of the battle but they despised his words so then sir launcelot's fellowship came out of the castle in full good array
and always sir launcelot charged all his knights in any wise to save king arthur and sir gawain then came forth sir gawain from the king's host and offered combat and sir lionel encountered with him and there sir gawain smote sir lionel through the body that he fell to the earth as if dead
then there began a great conflict and much people were slain but ever sir launcelot did what he might to save the people on king arthur's party and ever king arthur followed sir launcelot to slay him but sir launcelot suffered him and would not strike again
then sir bohort encountered with king arthur and smote him down and he alighted and drew his sword and said to sir launcelot shall i make an end of this war
either slain or shamed and therewith sir launcelot alighted off his horse and took up the king and horsed him again and said thus my lord arthur for god's love cease this strife and king arthur looked upon sir launcelot
and the tears burst from his eyes thinking on the great courtesy that was in sir launcelot more than in any other man and therewith the king rode his way then anon both parties withdrew to repose them and buried the dead
but the war continued and it was noised abroad through all christendom and at last it was told afore the pope and he considering the great goodness of king arthur and of sir launcelot called unto him a noble clerk which was the bishop of rochester
so by means of this bishop peace was made for the space of one year and king arthur received back the queen and sir launcelot departed from the kingdom with all his knights and went to his own country so they shipped at cardiff and sailed unto benwick which some men call bayonne
and all the people of those lands came to sir launcelot and received him home right joyfully
and many others and made them lords of lands and castles till he left himself no more than any one of them then arthur made vast banquets and strange knights from the four winds came in and each one sat tho served with choice from air land stream and sea
oft in mid banquet measuring with his eyes his neighbor's make and might pelleas and ettarre but when the year was passed king arthur and sir gawain came with a great host and landed upon sir launcelot's lands and burned and wasted all that they might overrun
then spake sir bohort and said my lord sir launcelot give us leave to meet them in the field and we shall make them rue the time that ever they came to this country then said sir launcelot i am full loath to ride out with my knights for shedding of christian blood so we will yet a while keep our walls
and i will send a messenger unto my lord arthur to propose a treaty for better is peace than always war so sir launcelot sent forth a damsel and a dwarf with her requiring king arthur to leave his warring upon his lands and so she started on a palfrey and the dwarf ran by her side
the butler and said fair damsel come ye from sir launcelot du lac yea sir she said i come hither to speak with the king alas said sir lucan my lord arthur would be reconciled to sir launcelot but sir gawain will not suffer him
and with this sir lucan led the damsel to the king where he sat with sir gawain to hear what she would say so when she had told her tale the tears ran out of the king's eyes and all the lords were forward to advise the king to be accorded with sir launcelot save only sir gawain and he said
my lord mine uncle what will ye do will you now turn back now you are so far advanced upon your journey if ye do all the world will speak shame of you nay said king arthur i will do as ye advise me but do thou give the damsel her answer for i may not speak to her for pity
then said sir gawain damsel say ye to sir launcelot that it is waste labor to sue to mine uncle for peace and say that i sir gawain send him word that i promise him by the faith i owe unto god and to knighthood i shall never leave him till he have slain me or i him
so the damsel returned and when sir launcelot had heard this answer the tears ran down his cheeks then it befell on a day sir gawain came before the gates armed at all points and cried with a loud voice
where art thou now thou false traitor sir launcelot why hidest thou thyself within holes and walls like a coward look out now thou traitor knight and i will avenge upon thy body the death of my three brethren all this language heard sir launcelot and the knights which were about him
and they said to him sir launcelot now must ye defend you like a knight or else be shamed for ever
then sir launcelot spake on high unto king arthur and said my lord arthur now i have forborne long and suffered you and sir gawain to do what ye would and now must i needs defend myself inasmuch as sir gawain hath appealed me of treason
then sir launcelot armed him and mounted upon his horse and the noble knights came out of the city and the host without stood all apart and so the covenant was made that no man should come near the two knights nor deal with them till one were dead or yielded
and then they came together with all their horses might and each smote the other in the middle of their shields but neither of them was unhorsed but their horses fell to the earth and then they leapt from their horses and drew their swords and gave many sad strokes so that the blood burst out in many places
now sir gawain had this gift from a holy man that every day in the year from morning to noon his strength was increased threefold and then it fell again to its natural measure sir launcelot was aware of this and therefore during the three hours that sir gawain's strength was at the height
sir launcelot covered himself with his shield and kept his might in reserve and during that time sir gawain gave him many sad brunts that all the knights that looked on marvelled how sir launcelot might endure them then when it was past noon sir gawain had only his own might
and when sir launcelot felt him so brought down he stretched himself up and doubled his strokes and gave sir gawain such a buffet that he fell down on his side
why withdrawest thou false traitor then said sir gawain now turn again and slay me for if thou leave me thus when i am whole again i shall do battle with thee again i shall endure you sir by god's grace said sir launcelot
but know thou well sir gawain i will never smite a felled knight
the attention of our readers is now to be directed to the history of two female pirates a history which is chiefly remarkable from the extraordinary circumstance of the softer sex assuming a character peculiarly distinguished for every vice that can disgrace humanity
and at the same time for the exertion of the most daring though brutal courage mary read was a native of england but at what place she was born is not recorded her mother married a sailor when she was very young who soon after their marriage
went to sea and never returned the fruit of that marriage was a sprightly boy the husband not returning she again found herself with child and to cover her shame took leave of her husband's relations and went to live in the country taking her boy along with her
her son in a short time died and she was relieved from the burden of his maintenance and education the mother had not resided long in the country before mary read the subject of the present narrative was born after the birth of mary
her mother resided in the country for three or four years until her money was all spent and her ingenuity was set at work to contrive how to obtain a supply she knew that her husband's mother was in good circumstances and could easily support her child
provided she could make her pass for a boy and her son's child but it seemed impossible to impose upon an old experienced mother she however presented mary in the character of her grandson the old woman proposed to take the boy to live with her
but the mother would not on any account part with her boy the grandmother therefore allowed a crown per week for his support the ingenuity of the mother being successful she reared the daughter as a boy but as she grew up
she informed her of the secret of her birth in order that she might conceal her sex the grandmother however dying the support from that quarter failed and she was obliged to hire her out as a footboy to a french lady the strength and manly disposition of this supposed boy
increased with her years and leaving that servile employment she engaged on board a man of war the volatile disposition of the youth did not permit her to remain long in this station and she next went into flanders and joined a regiment of foot as a cadet
yet she could not obtain a commission
she accordingly quitted that service and enlisted into a regiment of horse there she behaved herself so valiantly that she gained the esteem of all her officers it however happened that her comrade was a handsome young fleming
and she fell passionately in love with him the violence of her feelings rendered her negligent of her duty and effected such a change in her behaviour as attracted the attention of all both her comrade and the rest of the regiment deemed her mad
love however is inventive and as they slept in the same tent she found means to discover her sex without any seeming design he was both surprised and pleased supposing that he would have a mistress to himself but he was greatly mistaken
and he found that it was necessary to court her for his wife a mutual attachment took place and as soon as convenient women's clothes were provided for her and they were publicly married
the singularity of two troopers marrying caused a general conversation and many of the officers honored the ceremony with their presence and resolved to make presents to the bride to provide her with necessaries after marriage they were desirous to quit the service
and their discharge being easily obtained they set up an ordinary under the sign of the three shoes and soon acquired a considerable run of business but mary read's felicity was of short duration the husband died and peace being concluded
her business diminished under these circumstances she again resumed her man's dress and going into holland enlisted into a regiment of foot quartered in one of the frontier towns but there being no prospect of preferment in time of peace
she went on board a vessel bound for the west indies during the voyage the vessel was captured by english pirates and as mary was the only english person on board they detained her and having plundered the vessel of what they chose allowed it to depart
mary continued in that unlawful commerce for some time but the royal pardon being tendered to all those in the west indies who should before a specified day surrender the crew to which she was attached availed themselves of this
but from the want of their usual supplies their money became exhausted and being informed that captain rogers in the island of providence was fitting out some vessels for privateering mary with some others repaired to that island
to serve on board his privateers we have already heard that scarcely had the ships sailed when some of their crews mutinied and ran off with the ships to pursue their former mode of life among these was mary read she indeed frequently declared
that the life of a pirate was what she detested and that she was constrained to it both on the former and present occasion it was however sufficiently ascertained that both mary read and anne bonney were among the bravest and most resolute fighters of the whole crew
that when the vessel was taken these two heroines along with another of the pirates were the last three upon deck and that mary having in vain endeavored to rouse the courage of the crew who had fled below discharged a pistol amongst them
killing one and wounding another nor was mary less modest than brave for though she had remained many years in the character of a sailor yet no one had discovered her sex
that anne supposing her to be a handsome fellow became greatly enamored of her and discovered her sex and wishes to mary who was thus constrained to reveal her secret to anne rackam being the paramour of bonney and observing her partiality towards mary
threatened to shoot her lover so that to prevent any mischief anne also informed the captain of the sex of her companion rackam was enjoined to secrecy and here he behaved honorably but love again assailed the conquered mary
it was usual with the pirates to retain all the artists who were captured in the trading vessels among these was a very handsome young man of engaging manners who vanquished the heart of mary in a short time her love became so violent
that she took every opportunity of enjoying his company and conversation and after she had gained his friendship discovered her sex
and a mutual flame burned in the hearts of these two lovers an occurrence soon happened that put the attachment of mary to a severe trial her lover having quarrelled with one of the crew they agreed to fight a duel on shore mary was all anxiety for the fate of her lover
than that of her own but she could not entertain the idea that he could refuse to fight and so be esteemed a coward accordingly she quarrelled with the man who challenged her lover and called him to the field two hours before his appointment with her lover
engaged him with sword and pistol and laid him dead at her feet though no esteem or love had formerly existed this action was sufficient to have kindled the most violent flame but this was not necessary for the lover's attachment was equal
if not stronger than her own they pledged their faith which was esteemed as binding as if the ceremony had been performed by a clergyman captain rackam one day before he knew that she was a woman asked her why she followed a line of life that exposed her to so much danger
and at last to the certainty of being hanged she replied that as to hanging she thought it no great hardship for were it not for that every cowardly fellow would turn pirate and so infest the seas and men of courage would starve
she would not have the punishment less than death the fear of which kept some dastardly rogues honest that many of those who are now cheating the widows and orphans and oppressing their poor neighbors who have no money to obtain justice would then rob at sea
and the ocean would be as crowded with rogues as the land so that no merchants would venture out and the trade in a little time would not be worth following
has retained the throne of tartarus they have both been more lucky than their brother jupiter who had to suffer specially the vicissitudes of fortune this third son of saturn who after the fall of his sire assumed the sovereignty of the heavens
reigned for a long series of years on the summit of olympus
their celestial ladies of the bedchamber and maids of honor who all led a joyous life replete with ambrosia and nectar
alas when the reign of the cross the empire of suffering was proclaimed the supreme chronide emigrated and disappeared amidst the tumult of the barbarian tribes which invaded the roman world all traces of the ex god were lost
and i have questioned in vain old chronicles and old women no one has been able to furnish me with any information as to his destiny i have burrowed in many a library where i made them bring me the most magnificent codex
enriched with gold and jewels veritable odalisques in the harem of science and as is the custom i here render my public thanks to the erudite eunuchs who without too much grumbling and sometimes even with affability
have given me access to these luminous treasures confided to their care i am now convinced that the middle ages have not bequeathed to us any traditions concerning the fate of jupiter after the fall of paganism
is the history told me long ago by my friend niels andersen i have just mentioned niels andersen and this good figure at once so droll and so lovable
i must devote a few lines to him here for the rest i like to indicate my authorities and to show their good or bad qualities in order that the reader may be in a position to judge himself how far these authorities deserve to be trusted
niels andersen born at drontheim in norway was one of the most skilful and intrepid whalers i have ever known it is to him that i am indebted for what knowledge i have of the whale fishery
he taught me all the subtleties of the art he made me acquainted with all the stratagems and dodges which the intelligent animal employs to baffle these subtle snares and make its escape it was niels andersen who taught me the management of the harpoon
he showed me how you should fix the knee of the right leg against the gun whale of the boat when launching the harpoon and how with the left leg you launch a vigorous kick at the imbecile sailor who don't pay out quickly enough the rope attached to the harpoon to him i owe all
and if i have not become a famous whaler the fault rests neither with niels andersen nor with myself but with my evil star which has never allowed me in the course of my life to encounter any whale with which i might have engaged in honorable combat
i have only encountered vulgar stockfish and miserable herrings of what use is the best harpoon when you have to deal with a herring now that my limbs are paralysed i must renounce for ever the hope of pursuing whales
when at ritzebuttel near cuxhaven i made the acquaintance of niels andersen he was scarcely more nimble himself for off the coast of senegal a young shark which no doubt took his right leg for a stick of barley sugar had snapped it off
with a snap of his teeth since then poor niels andersen went limping upon an artificial leg manufactured from one of the firs of his country and which he extolled as a masterpiece of norwegian carpentry his greatest pleasure at this period
on the belly of which he drummed away with his wooden leg i often helped him to climb upon this barrel but sometimes when he wished to get down again i would not give him my help except on the condition that he told me one of his curious traditions of the arctic sea
so niels andersen prefaced all his narratives with a panegyrical enumeration of the qualities of the whale he of course commenced with such a panegyric the legend we give here the whale he said
is not only the largest but also the most magnificent of animals
moreover this beast is sympathetic he has a good character and much taste for conjugal life it is a touching sight he added to see a family of whales grouped around its venerable patriarch and couched upon an enormous mass of ice basking in the sun
and at length all plunge into the sea to play at hide and seek among the immense ice blocks the purity of manners and the chastity of the whales should be attributed less to moral principles
nor can it unhappily be denied went on niels anderson that they have not any pious sentiment that they are totally devoid of religion i believe this is an error i cried interrupting my friend
i have lately read the report of a dutch missionary wherein he describes the magnificence of the creation
which according to him reveals itself even in the polar regions at the hour of sunrise and when the teams of day transfiguring the gigantic rocks of ice make them resemble those castles of diamonds we read of in fairy tales
all this beauty of the creation in the judgment of the good dominie is a proof of the power of god which influences every living creature so that not only man but likewise a great brute of a fish ravished by this spectacle adores the creator
and addresses to him its prayers the dominie assures us that he has seen with his own eyes a whale which held itself erect against the wall of a block of ice and swayed the upper part of its body as men do in prayer niels andersen admitted
propping themselves against a cliff of ice indulged in movements very similar to those we remark in the oratories of the various religious sects
he explained it on physiological grounds he called my attention to the fact that the whale this chimborazo of animals
has beneath its skin strata of fat of a depth so prodigious that a single whale often furnishes a hundred to a hundred and fifty barrels of tallow and oil these layers of fat are so thick that while the colossus sleeps
hundreds of water rats can come and settle in it
immensely larger and more voracious than the rats of the mainland lead joyous life under the skin of the whale
without being obliged to quit their holes these banquets of vermin at length trouble their involuntary host and even cause him excessive sufferings not having hands as we have who god be thanked can scratch ourselves when we feel an itching
the whale tries to mitigate his pangs by placing himself against the protruding and sharp angles of a rock of ice and by there rasping his back with a real fervor and with vigorous movements up and down
as we see the dogs rasping their skin against a bed post when the fleas bite them overmuch now in these movements the good dominie thought he saw the edifying act of prayer and he attributed to devotion the jerkings occasioned by the orgies of the rats
enormous as is the quantity of oil in the whale it has not the least religious sentiment it is only among animals of mediocre stature that we find any religion the very great the creatures gigantic like the whale are not endowed with it
what can be the reason is it that they cannot find a church sufficiently spacious to afford them entrance into its pale nor have the whales any taste for the prophets and the one which swallowed jonah was not able to digest that great preacher
seized with nausea it vomited him after three days most certainly that proves the absence of all religious sentiment in these monsters the whale therefore would never choose an ice block for prayer cushion
and sway itself in attitudes of devotion it adores as little the true god who resides above there in heaven as the false pagan god who dwells near the arctic pole in the isle of the rabbits where the dear beast goes sometimes to pay him a visit
what is this isle of rabbits i asked niels andersen drumming on the barrel with his wooden leg he answered it is exactly in this isle that the events took place of which i am going to tell you
since its first discovery no one has been able to visit it again the enormous mountains of ice accumulated around it bar the approach once only has it been visited
and that was more than a hundred years ago when these sailors reached it with their ship they found it deserted and uncultivated sickly stalks of broom swayed sadly upon the quicksands
here and there were scattered some dwarf shrubs and stunted firs crouching on the sterile soil rabbits ran about everywhere in great numbers and this is the reason the sailors call the islet the isle of rabbits
a cabin the only one they discovered announced the presence of a human being when the mariners had entered the hut they saw an old man
and miserably muffled in rabbit skins he was seated upon a stone settle and warmed his thin hands and trembling knees at the grate where some brushwood was burning at his right hand stood a monstrously large bird which seemed to be an eagle
but the moulting of time had so cruelly stripped it that only the great stiff main plumes of its wings were left so that the aspect of this naked animal was at once ludicrous and horribly ugly
on the left of the old man was couched upon the ground an aged bald skinned she got yet with a gentle look and which in spite of its great age had the dugs swollen with milk and the teats fresh and rosy
among the sailors who had landed on the isle of rabbits there were some greeks and one of these thinking that the man of the hut could not understand his tongue said to his comrades in greek
this queer old fellow must be either a ghost or an evil spirit at these words the old man trembled and rose suddenly from his seat and the sailors to their great astonishment saw a lofty and imposing figure
which with imperious and even majestic dignity held itself erect in spite of the weight of years so that the head reached the rafters of the roof his lineaments though worn and ravaged conserved traces of beauty
they were noble and perfectly regular thin locks of silver hair fell upon the forehead wrinkled by pride and by age his eyes though glazed and lustreless
these words resonant and harmonious
i am an unfortunate who has seen better days but you what are you at this demand the seamen acquainted their host with the accident which had driven them out of their course and they begged him to tell them all about the isle
but the old man could give them but scant information
of which the ramparts of ice offered him a sure refuge against his implacable enemies who had usurped his legitimate rights
that every year at the season when the floating ice blocks formed a compact mass troops of savages in sledges visited him who in exchange for his rabbit skins gave him all sorts of articles most necessary to life
were his favorite society nevertheless he added that he felt much pleasure at this moment in speaking his native language being greek by birth he begged his compatriots to inform him as to the then state of greece he learnt with a malicious joy badly dissimulated
he showed less satisfaction when they told him that this christian symbol had been replaced by the crescent the most singular thing was that none of the seamen knew the names of the towns concerning which he questioned them and which according to him had been flourishing cities in his time
on the other hand the names by which the seamen designated the towns and villages of modern greece were completely unknown to him and the old man shook his head often as if quite overwhelmed and the sailors looked at each other with wonder
they saw well that he knew perfectly the localities of the country
for he described clearly and exactly the gulfs the peninsulas the capes often even the most insignificant hills and isolated groups of rocks his ignorance of the commonest typographical names therefore astonished them all the more
the old man asked with the most lively interest and even with a certain anxiety about an ancient temple which he said had been of old the grandest in all greece none of his hearers recognised the name which he pronounced with tender emotion at last
when he had minutely described the place where this monument stood a young seaman suddenly recognised the spot the village where i was born he exclaimed is situated precisely there during my childhood i have long watched there the pigs of my father
on this site there are in fact the ruins of very ancient constructions which must have been incredibly magnificent here and there you see some columns still erect they are isolated or connected by fragments of roofing
whence hang tendrils of honeysuckle and red bind weeds other columns some of them red marble lie fractured on the grass the ivy has invaded their superb capitals formed of flowers and foliage delicately chiselled
great slabs of marble squared fragments of wall and triangular pieces of roofing are scattered about half buried in the earth i have often continued the young man passed hours at a time in examining the combats and the games
the dances and the processions the beautiful and ludicrous figures which are sculptured there unfortunately these sculptures are much injured by time and are covered with moss and creepers my father whom i once asked what these ruins were
of old inhabited by a pagan god
but who was moreover guilty of incest and other infamous vices that in their blindness the idolators had nevertheless immolated oxen
my father assured me that we still saw the marble basin wherein they had gathered the blood of the victims
and in which i also preserved the refuse which my animals devoured with so much appetite when the young sailor had thus spoken the old man gave a deep sigh of the most bitter anguish he sank nerveless upon the stone seat
and hiding his visage in his hands wept like a child the bird at his side emitted terrible cries spread its enormous wings and menaced the strangers with talons and beak
the she goat moaned and licked the hands of her master whose sorrows she seemed trying to comfort by her humble caresses at this sight a strange trouble swelled in the hearts of the seamen they hastily quitted the hut
and did not feel at ease until they could no more hear the sobbings of the old man the croakings of the hideous bird and the bleatings of the goat when they got on board their vessel again they related their adventures among the crew there chanced to be a scholar
who declared that it was an event of the highest importance applying with a sagacious air his right forefinger to his nose he assured the seamen that the old man of the isle of rabbits was beyond all doubt the ancient god jupiter
son of saturn and rhea once sovereign lord of the gods
was evidently the famous eagle which used to bear the thunderbolts in its talons and that in all probability the goat was the old nurse amalthea which had of old suckled the god in the isle of crete
and which now continued to nourish him with its milk in the isle of rabbits such was the history of niels andersen and it made my heart bleed i will not dissemble
already his revelations concerning the secret sufferings of the whale had profoundly saddened me poor animal against this vile mob of rats which house themselves in your body and gnaw you incessantly
no remedy avails and you carry them about with you to the end of your days rush as you will to the north and to the south
but pained as i had been by the outrage wreaked upon the poor whales my soul was infinitely more troubled by the tragical fate of this old man who according to the mythological theory of the learned russian
was the heretofore king of the gods jupiter the chronide yes he
from which not the immortals themselves can escape and the spectacle of such calamities horrifies us in filling us with pity and indignation be jupiter be the sovereign lord of the world
be adored by a hundred nations during long centuries be the lover of semele of danae of europa of alcmena
and after all nothing will remain at the end but a decrepit old man who to gain his miserable livelihood has to turn dealer in rabbit skins like any poor savoyard
such a spectacle will no doubt give pleasure to the vile multitude which insults to day that which it adored yesterday perhaps among these worthy people are to be found some of the descendants of those unlucky bulls which were of old immolated in hecatombs
upon the altar of jupiter let such rejoice in his fall and mock him at their ease in revenge for the blood of their ancestors victims of idolatry as for me
it would seem that the soul does not know bodies through the intellect
that bodies cannot be understood by the intellect nor indeed anything corporeal
therefore the soul cannot know bodies through the intellect
further as sense is to the intelligible so is the intellect to the sensible but the soul can by no means through the senses understand spiritual things which are intelligible therefore by no means can it through the intellect know bodies which are sensible
further the intellect is concerned with things that are necessary and unchangeable but all bodies are mobile and changeable therefore the soul cannot know bodies through the intellect on the contrary science is in the intellect
if therefore the intellect does not know bodies it follows that there is no science of bodies and thus perishes natural science which treats of mobile bodies i answer that it should be said in order to elucidate this question
that the early philosophers who inquired into the natures of things thought there was nothing in the world save bodies and because they observed that all bodies are mobile and considered them to be ever in a state of flux
they were of opinion that we can have no certain knowledge of the true nature of things for what is in a continual state of flux cannot be grasped with any degree of certitude for it passes away
ere the mind can form a judgment thereon according to the saying of heraclitus that it is not possible twice to touch a drop of water in a passing torrent
after these came plato who wishing to save the certitude of our knowledge of truth through the intellect maintained that besides these things corporeal there is another genus of beings separate from matter and movement
by participation of which each one of these singular and sensible things is said to be either a man or a horse or the like wherefore he said that sciences and definitions and whatever appertains to the act of the intellect
are not referred to these sensible bodies but to those beings immaterial and separate so that according to this the soul does not understand these corporeal things but the separate species thereof now this may be shown to be false for two reasons first
because since those species are immaterial and immovable knowledge of movement and matter would be excluded from science which knowledge is proper to natural science and likewise all demonstration through moving and material causes
when we seek for knowledge of things which are to us manifest to introduce other beings which cannot be the substance of those others since they differ from them essentially
we cannot for that reason claim to form a judgment concerning these sensible things now it seems that plato strayed from the truth because having observed that all knowledge takes place through some kind of similitude he thought that the form of the thing known must of necessity be in the knower
then he observed that the form of the thing understood is in the intellect under conditions of universality immateriality and immobility which is apparent from the very operation of the intellect whose act of understanding
has a universal extension and is subject to a certain amount of necessity for the mode of action corresponds to the mode of the agent's form wherefore he concluded that the things which we understand must have in themselves
an existence under the same conditions of immateriality and immobility but there is no necessity for this for even in sensible things it is to be observed that the form is otherwise in one sensible than in another for instance
whiteness may be of great intensity in one and of a less intensity in another in one we find whiteness with sweetness in another without sweetness in the same way the sensible form is conditioned differently in the thing which is external to the soul
and in the senses which receive the forms of sensible things without receiving matter such as the color of gold without receiving gold so also the intellect according to its own mode receives under conditions of immateriality and immobility
the species of material and mobile bodies for the received is in the receiver according to the mode of the receiver we must conclude therefore that through the intellect the soul knows bodies by a knowledge which is immaterial universal and necessary
these words of augustine are to be understood as referring to the medium of intellectual knowledge and not to its object for the intellect knows bodies by understanding them not indeed through bodies nor through material and corporeal species
but through immaterial and intelligible species
is that the lower power does not extend to those things that belong to the higher power whereas the higher power operates in a more excellent manner those things which belong to the lower power
every movement presupposes something immovable for when a change of quality occurs
that the soul collects and lays hold of the images of bodies which are formed in the soul and of the soul for in forming them it gives them something of its own substance but the soul understands bodies by images of bodies
therefore the soul knows bodies through its essence which it employs for the formation of such images and from which it forms them
since therefore like is known by like it seems that the soul knows corporeal things through itself
further the soul is superior to corporeal creatures now lower things are in higher things in a more eminent way than in themselves
exist in a more excellent way in the soul than in themselves therefore the soul can know corporeal creatures through its essence on the contrary augustine says
that the mind gathers knowledge of corporeal things through the bodily senses but the soul itself cannot be known through the bodily senses therefore it does not know corporeal things through itself i answer that
the ancient philosophers held that the soul knows bodies through its essence for it was universally admitted that like is known by like but they thought that the form of the thing known is in the knower in the same mode as in the thing known
the platonists however were of a contrary opinion for plato having observed that the intellectual soul has an immaterial nature and an immaterial mode of knowledge held that the forms of things known subsist immaterially
while the earlier natural philosophers observing that things known are corporeal and material held that things known must exist materially even in the soul that knows them and therefore in order to ascribe
they held that it has the same nature in common with all and because the nature of a result is determined by its principles they ascribed to the soul the nature of a principle so that those who thought fire to be the principle of all
held that the soul had the nature of fire and in like manner as to air and water lastly empedocles who held the existence of our four material elements and two principles of movement
said that the soul was composed of these consequently since they held that things exist in the soul materially they maintained that all the soul's knowledge is material thus failing to discern intellect from sense but this opinion will not hold
first because in the material principle of which they spoke the various results do not exist save in potentiality but a thing is not known according as it is in potentiality but only according as it is in act
wherefore neither is a power known except through its act it is therefore insufficient to ascribe to the soul the nature of the principles in order to explain the fact that it knows all
unless we further admit in the soul natures and forms of each individual result for instance of bone flesh and the like thus does aristotle argue against empedocles
secondly because if it were necessary for the thing known to exist materially in the knower there would be no reason why things which have a material existence outside the soul should be devoid of knowledge why for instance if by fire the soul knows fire
that fire also which is outside the soul should not have knowledge of fire we must conclude therefore that material things known must needs exist in the knower not materially
the reason of this is because the act of knowledge extends to things outside the knower for we know things even that are external to us now by matter the form of a thing is determined to some one thing
wherefore it is clear that knowledge is in inverse ratio of materiality and consequently things that are not receptive of forms save materially have no power of knowledge whatever such as plants
moreover among the senses sight has the most perfect knowledge because it is the least material as we have remarked above
while among intellects the more perfect is the more immaterial it is therefore clear from the foregoing that if there be an intellect which knows all things by its essence then its essence must needs have all things in itself immaterially
thus the early philosophers held that the essence of the soul that it may know all things must be actually composed of the principles of all material things
now this is proper to god that his essence comprise all things immaterially as effects pre exist virtually in their cause god alone therefore understands all things through his essence but neither the human soul nor the angels can do so
augustine in that passage is speaking of an imaginary vision which takes place through the image of bodies to the formation of such images the soul gives part of its substance just as a subject is given in order to be informed by some form
in this way the soul makes such images from itself not that the soul or some part of the soul be turned into this or that image but just as we say that a body is made into something colored because of its being informed with color that this is the sense
is clear from what follows for he says that the soul keeps something namely not informed with such image which is able freely to judge of the species of these images and that this is the mind or intellect
and he says that the part which is informed with these images namely the imagination is common to us and beasts
aristotle did not hold that the soul is actually composed of all things as did the earlier philosophers he said that the soul is all things after a fashion forasmuch as it is in potentiality to all through the senses to all things sensible
through the intellect to all things intelligible
every creature has a finite and determinate essence wherefore although the essence of the higher creature has a certain likeness to the lower creature forasmuch as they have something in common generically
it is said that every intelligence is full of forms therefore the soul also has innate species of things by means of which it understands corporeal things
further the intellectual soul is more excellent than corporeal primary matter but primary matter was created by god under the forms to which it has potentiality therefore
much more is the intellectual soul created by god under intelligible species and so the soul understands corporeal things through innate species
the philosopher speaking of the intellect says
that it is like a tablet on which nothing is written i answer that since form is the principle of action a thing must be related to the form which is the principle of an action as it is to that action for instance
if upward motion is from lightness then that which only potentially moves upwards must needs be only potentially light but that which actually moves upwards must needs be actually light
now we observe that man sometimes is only a potential knower both as to sense and as to intellect and he is reduced from such potentiality to act through the action of sensible objects on his senses
by instruction or discovery to the act of understanding wherefore we must say that the cognitive soul is in potentiality both to the images which are the principles of sensing and to those which are the principles of understanding for this reason aristotle
but is at first in potentiality to all such species
as a light thing may be hindered from moving upwards for this reason did plato hold that naturally man's intellect is filled with all intelligible species but that by being united to the body it is hindered from the realization of its act
but this seems to be unreasonable first because if the soul has a natural knowledge of all things it seems impossible for the soul so far to forget the existence of such knowledge as not to know itself to be possessed thereof
for no man forgets what he knows naturally that for instance the whole is larger than the part and such like and especially unreasonable does this seem if we suppose that it is natural to the soul
for it is unreasonable that the natural operation of a thing be totally hindered by that which belongs to it naturally secondly
the knowledge of what is apprehended through that sense is wanting also for instance a man who is born blind can have no knowledge of colors
whereas the matter of heavenly bodies is totally completed by its form
two in the same way the angelic intellect is perfected by intelligible species in accordance with its nature whereas the human intellect is in potentiality to such species
primary matter has substantial being through its form consequently it had need to be created under some form else it would not be in act
it is in potentiality to others on the other hand the intellect does not receive substantial being through the intelligible species and therefore there is no comparison
if questions be put in an orderly fashion they proceed from universal self evident principles to what is particular now by such a process knowledge is produced in the mind of the learner wherefore when he answers the truth to a subsequent question
this is not because he had knowledge previously but because he thus learns for the first time for it matters not whether the teacher proceed from universal principles to conclusions by questioning or by asserting
objection one it would seem that the intelligible species are derived by the soul from some separate forms for whatever is such by participation is caused by what is such essentially for instance
that which is on fire is reduced to fire as the cause thereof but the intellectual soul forasmuch as it is actually understanding participates the thing understood for in a way the intellect in act is the thing understood in act
therefore what in itself and in its essence is understood in act
therefore the intelligible species by which the soul understands are caused by some separate forms
further the intelligible is to the intellect as the sensible is to the sense but the sensible species which are in the senses and by which we sense are caused by the sensible object which exists actually outside the soul therefore the intelligible species by which our intellect understands
are caused by some things actually intelligible existing outside the soul but these can be nothing else than forms separate from matter therefore the intelligible forms of our intellect are derived from some separate substances
further whatever is in potentiality is reduced to act by something actual if therefore our intellect previously in potentiality afterwards actually understands this must needs be caused by some intellect which is always in act
but this is a separate intellect therefore the intelligible species by which we actually understand are caused by some separate substances on the contrary if this were true we should not need the senses in order to understand
and this is proved to be false especially from the fact that if a man be wanting in a sense he cannot have any knowledge of the sensibles corresponding to that sense i answer that
some have held that the intelligible species of our intellect are derived from certain separate forms or substances and this in two ways
one held that the forms of sensible things subsist by themselves without matter for instance the form of a man which he called per se man
and so forth he said therefore that these forms are participated both by our soul and by corporeal matter by our soul to the effect of knowledge thereof and by corporeal matter to the effect of existence so that
just as corporeal matter by participating the idea of a stone becomes an individuating stone so our intellect by participating the idea of a stone is made to understand a stone now participation
of an idea takes place by some image of the idea in the participator just as a model is participated by a copy so just as he held that the sensible forms which are in corporeal matter are derived from the ideas as certain images thereof
so he held that the intelligible species of our intellect are images of the ideas derived therefrom and for this reason
he referred sciences and definitions to those ideas
held that the intelligible species of all sensible things instead of subsisting in themselves without matter pre exist immaterially in the separate intellects from the first of which said he such species are derived by a second
and so on to the last separate intellect which he called the active intelligence from which according to him intelligible species flow into our souls and sensible species into corporeal matter
and so avicenna agrees with plato in this that the intelligible species of our intellect are derived from certain separate forms but these plato held to subsist of themselves while avicenna placed them in the active intelligence
they differ too in this respect that avicenna held that the intelligible species do not remain in our intellect after it has ceased actually to understand and that it needs to turn to the active intellect in order to receive them anew
consequently he does not hold that the soul has innate knowledge as plato who held that the participated ideas remain immovably in the soul but in this opinion no sufficient reason can be assigned for the soul being united to the body
for neither is form for the sake of matter nor is the mover for the sake of the moved but rather the reverse especially does the body seem necessary to the intellectual soul for the latter's proper operation which is to understand since as to its being
the soul does not depend on the body but if the soul by its very nature had an inborn aptitude for receiving intelligible species through the influence of only certain separate principles and were not to receive them from the senses
it would not need the body in order to understand wherefore to no purpose would it be united to the body but if it be said that our soul needs the senses in order to understand through being in some way awakened by them to the consideration of those things
the intelligible species of which it receives from the separate principles even this seems an insufficient explanation for this awakening does not seem necessary to the soul
and thus the senses would be of no use to the intellectual soul except for the purpose of removing the obstacle which the soul encounters through its union with the body consequently the reason of the union of the soul with the body still remains to be sought
and if it be said with avicenna that the senses are necessary to the soul because by them it is aroused to turn to the active intelligence from which it receives the species neither is this a sufficient explanation
because if it is natural for the soul to understand through species derived from the active intelligence it follows that at times the soul of an individual wanting in one of the senses
either from the inclination of its very nature or through being roused by another sense to the effect of receiving the intelligible species of which the corresponding sensible species are wanting and thus a man born blind could have knowledge of colors which is clearly untrue
we must therefore conclude that the intelligible species by which our soul understands are not derived from separate forms
the intelligible species which are participated by our intellect are reduced as to their first cause to a first principle which is by its essence intelligible namely god but they proceed from that principle by means of the sensible forms and material things from which we gather knowledge
material things as to the being which they have outside the soul may be actually sensible but not actually intelligible wherefore there is no comparison between sense and intellect
and yet astonished even uneasy though they were they still felt that they would not like to be absent the recent events the solitary and eccentric position of the count his enormous nay almost incredible fortune
and all present even including cavalcanti and his son notwithstanding the stiffness of the one and the carelessness of the other were thoughtful on finding themselves assembled at the house of this incomprehensible man
on the count's invitation offered his arm
when he felt the arm of the baroness press upon his own none of this had escaped the count and even by this mere contact of individuals the scene had already acquired considerable interest for an observer
the repast was magnificent monte cristo had endeavored completely to overturn the parisian ideas
but of such a kind as the arabian fairies might be supposed to prepare every delicious fruit that the four quarters of the globe could provide was heaped in vases from china and jars from japan
rare birds retaining their most brilliant plumage enormous fish spread upon massive silver dishes together with every wine produced in the archipelago asia minor or the cape
sparkling in bottles whose grotesque shape seemed to give an additional flavor to the draught all these like one of the displays with which apicius of old gratified his guests passed in review before the eyes of the astonished parisians
who understood that it was possible to expend a thousand louis upon a dinner for ten persons but only on the condition of eating pearls like cleopatra or drinking refined gold like lorenzo de medici
monte cristo noticed the general astonishment and began laughing and joking about it gentlemen he said you will admit that when arrived at a certain degree of fortune the superfluities of life are all that can be desired
what is it that we really desire that which we cannot obtain now to see things which i cannot understand to procure impossibilities these are the study of my life i gratify my wishes by two means
a culprit to death you m debray in pacifying a kingdom
and you morrel in breaking a horse that no one can ride for example you see these two fish
the other five leagues from naples is it not amusing to see them both on the same table what are the two fish asked danglars
and major cavalcanti who is an italian will tell you the name of the other this one is i think a sterlet said chateau renaud and that one if i mistake not a lamprey just so
now m danglars ask these gentlemen where they are caught sterlets said chateau renaud are only found in the volga and said cavalcanti i know that lake fusaro alone supplies lampreys of that size
exactly one comes from the volga and the other from lake fusaro impossible cried all the guests simultaneously well this is just what amuses me said monte cristo i am like nero cupitor impossibilium
and that is what is amusing you at this moment this fish which seems so exquisite to you is very likely no better than perch or salmon
and here it is but how could you have these fish brought to france oh nothing more easy each fish was brought over in a cask one filled with river herbs and weeds the other with rushes and lake plants
they were placed in a wagon built on purpose and thus the sterlet lived twelve days the lamprey eight and both were alive when my cook seized them killing one with milk and the other with wine you do not believe me m danglars
four servants carried in two casks covered with aquatic plants and in each of which was breathing a fish similar to those on the table
merely because one might have died carelessly answered monte cristo you are certainly an extraordinary man said danglars and philosophers may well say it is a fine thing to be rich and to have ideas added madame danglars
oh do not give me credit for this madame it was done by the romans who much esteemed them and pliny relates that they sent slaves from ostia to rome who carried on their heads fish which he calls the mulus and which from the description must probably be the goldfish
it was also considered a luxury to have them alive it being an amusing sight to see them die for when dying they change color three or four times and like the rainbow when it disappears pass through all the prismatic shades after which they were sent to the kitchen
their agony formed part of their merit if they were not seen alive they were despised when dead yes said debray but then ostia is only a few leagues from rome true said monte cristo
yes said madame de villefort the door was towards the road before and on the day of my miraculous escape you brought me into the house from the road i remember yes madame said monte cristo
i recollect coming for my mother to look at it when m de saint meran advertised it for sale two or three years ago
it looked so gloomy i should never have bought it if my steward had not taken the matter into his own hands perhaps the fellow had been bribed by the notary
an idea which carries you back to other times to other places which very likely have no connection with the present time and place
and then we will take coffee in the garden after dinner the play monte cristo looked inquiringly at his guests
monte cristo did the same and the rest followed their example
were already scattered in different parts of the house for they thought the visit would not be limited to the one room and that at the same time they would obtain a view of the rest of the building of which monte cristo had created a palace each one went out by the open doors
monte cristo waited for the two who remained then when they had passed he brought up the rear and on his face was a smile
would have alarmed them much more than a visit to the room they were about to enter they began by walking through the apartments many of which were fitted up in the eastern style with cushions and divans instead of beds and pipes instead of furniture
the drawing rooms were decorated with the rarest pictures by the old masters the boudoirs hung with draperies from china of fanciful colors fantastic design and wonderful texture at length they arrived at the famous room
there was nothing particular about it excepting that although daylight had disappeared it was not lighted and everything in it was old fashioned while the rest of the rooms had been redecorated these two causes were enough to give it a gloomy aspect
many observations were made the import of which was a unanimous opinion that there was something sinister about the room is it not so asked monte cristo look at that large clumsy bed hung with such gloomy blood colored drapery
and those two crayon portraits that have faded from the dampness do they not seem to say with their pale lips and staring eyes we have seen villefort became livid
madame danglars fell into a long seat placed near the chimney oh said madame de villefort smiling are you courageous enough to sit down upon the very seat perhaps upon which the crime was committed madame danglars rose suddenly
and then said monte cristo this is not all what is there more said debray who had not failed to notice the agitation of madame danglars
we have at pisa ugolino's tower at ferrara tasso's prison at rimini the room of francesca and paolo yes but you have not this little staircase said monte cristo opening a door concealed by the drapery
look at it and tell me what you think of it what a wicked looking crooked staircase said chateau renaud with a smile
but certainly everything appears to me black in this house said debray ever since valentine's dowry had been mentioned morrel had been silent and sad can you imagine said monte cristo
ah madame cried debray what is the matter with you how pale you look it is very evident what is the matter with her said madame de villefort m de monte cristo is relating horrible stories to us doubtless intending to frighten us to death
what is the matter asked debray in a whisper of madame danglars nothing she replied with a violent effort i want air that is all
no no she answered i would rather remain here are you really frightened madame said monte cristo oh no sir said madame danglars but you suppose scenes in a manner which gives them the appearance of reality
ah yes said monte cristo smiling it is all a matter of imagination why should we not imagine this the apartment of an honest mother and this bed with red hangings a bed visited by the goddess lucina
and that mysterious staircase the passage through which not to disturb their sleep the doctor and nurse pass or even the father carrying the sleeping child
uttered a groan and fainted
she passed over to monte cristo a bottle full of the same kind of red liquid whose good properties the count had tested on edward ah said monte cristo taking it from her hand yes she said at your advice i have made the trial
and have you succeeded i think so
but as he was not especially interested in poetical ideas he had gone into the garden and was talking with major cavalcanti on the projected railway from leghorn to florence monte cristo seemed in despair
really madame he said did i alarm you much oh no sir she answered but you know things impress us differently according to the mood of our minds
and then you know he said an idea a supposition is sufficient well said monte cristo you may believe me if you like but it is my opinion that a crime has been committed in this house take care said madame de villefort the king's attorney is here
yes before witnesses oh this is very interesting said debray if there really has been a crime we will investigate it there has been a crime said monte cristo come this way gentlemen
for a declaration to be available should be made before the competent authorities he then took villefort's arm
where the shade was thickest all the other guests followed
well my man digging found a box or rather the iron work of a box in the midst of which was the skeleton of a newly born infant monte cristo felt the arm of madame danglars stiffen while that of villefort trembled
and that their exteriors carried the impress of their characters this house was gloomy because it was remorseful it was remorseful because it concealed a crime
this garden has never been a cemetery what is done to infanticides in this country asked major cavalcanti innocently oh their heads are soon cut off said danglars ah indeed said cavalcanti
monte cristo seeing that the two persons for whom he had prepared this scene could scarcely endure it and not wishing to carry it too far said come gentlemen some coffee we seem to have forgotten it
and he conducted the guests back to the table on the lawn indeed count said madame danglars i am ashamed to own it but all your frightful stories have so upset me that i must beg you to let me sit down and she fell into a chair
when to morrow where in my office or in the court if you like that is the surest place i will be there
half screened from view by the large chestnut trees which on all sides spread their luxuriant branches we shall find some people of our acquaintance this time maximilian was the first to arrive
he was intently watching for a shadow to appear among the trees and awaiting with anxiety the sound of a light step on the gravel walk at length the long desired sound was heard and instead of one figure as he had expected
he perceived that two were approaching him the delay had been occasioned by a visit from madame danglars and eugenie which had been prolonged beyond the time at which valentine was expected
she proposed to mademoiselle danglars that they should take a walk in the garden being anxious to show that the delay which was doubtless a cause of vexation to him was not occasioned by any neglect on her part
the young man with the intuitive perception of a lover quickly understood the circumstances in which she was involuntarily placed and he was comforted besides although she avoided coming within speaking distance
valentine arranged so that maximilian could see her pass and repass and each time she went by she managed unperceived by her companion to cast an expressive look at the young man which seemed to say have patience
you see it is not my fault and maximilian was patient and employed himself in mentally contrasting the two girls one fair with soft languishing eyes a figure gracefully bending like a weeping willow
the other a brunette with a fierce and haughty expression and as straight as a poplar it is unnecessary to state that in the eyes of the young man valentine did not suffer by the contrast in about half an hour the girls went away
and maximilian understood that mademoiselle danglars visit had at last come to an end in a few minutes valentine re entered the garden alone for fear that any one should be observing her return she walked slowly
and instead of immediately directing her steps towards the gate she seated herself on a bench and carefully casting her eyes around to convince herself that she was not watched she presently arose and proceeded quickly to join maximilian
good evening valentine said a well known voice good evening maximilian i know i have kept you waiting but you saw the cause of my delay yes i recognized mademoiselle danglars
that will account to you for the unreserved manner which you observed between me and eugenie as in speaking of the man whom i could not love my thoughts involuntarily reverted to him on whom my affections were fixed
ah how good you are to say so valentine you possess a quality which can never belong to mademoiselle danglars it is that indefinable charm which is to a woman what perfume is to the flower and flavor to the fruit
for the beauty of either is not the only quality we seek it is your love which makes you look upon everything in that light no valentine i assure you such is not the case i was observing you both when you were walking in the garden
and on my honor without at all wishing to depreciate the beauty of mademoiselle danglars i cannot understand how any man can really love her the fact is maximilian
that i was there and my presence had the effect of rendering you unjust in your comparison no but tell me it is a question of simple curiosity and which was suggested by certain ideas passing in my mind relative
to mademoiselle danglars i dare say it is something disparaging which you are going to say it only proves how little indulgence we may expect from your sex interrupted valentine you cannot at least deny that you are very harsh judges of each other
if we are so it is because we generally judge under the influence of excitement but return to your question does mademoiselle danglars object to this marriage with m de morcerf on account of loving another
i told you i was not on terms of strict intimacy with eugenie yes but girls tell each other secrets without being particularly intimate own now that you did question her on the subject ah i see you are smiling
if you are already aware of the conversation that passed the wooden partition which interposed between us and you has proved but a slight security come what did she say she told me that she loved no one said valentine
you are the subject on which i wish to speak true we must be quick for we have scarcely ten minutes more to pass together ma foi said maximilian in consternation yes you are right i am but a poor friend to you
well what does it signify valentine so long as i am satisfied and feel that even this long and painful suspense is amply repaid by five minutes of your society or two words from your lips
and i have also a deep conviction that heaven would not have created two hearts harmonizing as ours do and almost miraculously brought us together to separate us at last those are kind and cheering words
but why must you leave me so soon i do not know particulars
as she had a communication to make on which a part of my fortune depended let them take my fortune i am already too rich and perhaps when they have taken it they will leave me in peace and quietness
you would love me as much if i were poor would you not maximilian oh i shall always love you what should i care for either riches or poverty if my valentine was near me and i felt certain that no one could deprive me of her
but do you not fear that this communication may relate to your marriage i do not think that is the case however it may be valentine you must not be alarmed
well monsieur franz is his friend you know what then monsieur de morcerf has received a letter from franz announcing his immediate return valentine turned pale and leaned her hand against the gate
why not because i scarcely know why
not be in such a hurry to do that said valentine with a sad smile if she objects to your marrying m d'epinay she would be all the more likely to listen to any other proposition no maximilian it is not suitors to which madame de villefort objects
it is marriage itself marriage if she dislikes that so much why did she ever marry herself you do not understand me maximilian about a year ago i talked of retiring to a convent
the only person in the world whom he loves and i had almost said by whom he is beloved in return when he learned my resolution i shall never forget the reproachful look which he cast on me
they may do what they will with me i will never leave you when i had ceased speaking he thankfully raised his eyes to heaven but without uttering a word ah maximilian i may have much to suffer
but i feel as if my grandfather's look at that moment would more than compensate for all
and i am sure i do not know what i sabring right and left among the bedouins can have done to merit your being revealed to me unless indeed heaven took into consideration the fact that the victims of my sword were infidels
did i not tell you just now that i was rich maximilian too rich
but could you not compromise matters and give up a portion of your fortune to her son how could i make such a proposition especially to a woman who always professes to be so entirely disinterested valentine
will you permit me to make a confidant of a friend and reveal to him the love i bear you valentine started a friend maximilian and who is this friend i tremble to give my permission
nay further have you never endeavored to recall the time place and circumstances of your former intercourse and failing in this attempt have almost believed that your spirits must have held converse with each other in some state of being anterior to the present
and that you are only now occupied in a reminiscence of the past yes
extraordinary did you say yes you have known him for some time then scarcely longer than eight or ten days
ah maximilian i had hoped you set a higher value on the title of friend your logic is most powerful valentine but say what you will i can never renounce the sentiment which has instinctively taken possession of my mind
and his hand endowed with the power of directing events according to his own will he must be a prophet then said valentine smiling indeed said maximilian i have often been almost tempted to attribute to him the gift of prophecy
ah said valentine in a mournful tone do let me see this man maximilian he may tell me whether i shall ever be loved sufficiently to make amends for all i have suffered my poor girl you know him already i know him
yes it was he who saved the life of your step mother and her son the count of monte cristo the same
it cannot be surely valentine you are mistaken no indeed i am not for i assure you his power over our household is almost unlimited courted by my step mother who regards him as the epitome of human wisdom
admired by my father who says he has never before heard such sublime ideas so eloquently expressed idolized by edward who notwithstanding his fear of the count's large black eyes runs to meet him the moment he arrives
and opens his hand in which he is sure to find some delightful present m de monte cristo appears to exert a mysterious and almost uncontrollable influence over all the members of our family if such be the case my dear valentine
he appears rather to avoid me ah he is not generous neither does he possess that supernatural penetration which you attribute to him for if he did he would have perceived that i was unhappy and if he had been generous seeing me sad and solitary
ah valentine i assure you you are mistaken if it were otherwise if he treated me diplomatically that is to say like a man who wishes by some means or other to obtain a footing in the house so that he may ultimately gain the power of dictating to its occupants
it is not just that he should despise me so without any reason ah forgive me said valentine perceiving the effect which her words were producing on maximilian
i have done wrong for i have given utterance to thoughts concerning that man which i did not even know existed in my heart i do not deny the influence of which you speak or that i have not myself experienced it
but with me it has been productive of evil rather than good well valentine said morrel with a sigh we will not discuss the matter further i will not make a confidant of him alas said valentine
i see that i have given you pain i can only say how sincerely i ask pardon for having griefed you but indeed i am not prejudiced beyond the power of conviction tell me what this count of monte cristo has done for you
i own that your question embarrasses me valentine for i cannot say that the count has rendered me any ostensible service still as i have already told you i have an instinctive affection for him the source of which i cannot explain to you
has the sun done anything for me no he warms me with his rays and it is by his light that i see you nothing more has such and such a perfume done anything for me no its odor charms one of my senses
that is all i can say when i am asked why i praise it my friendship for him is as strange and unaccountable as his for me a secret voice seems to whisper to me that there must be something more than chance in this unexpected reciprocity of friendship
in his most simple actions as well as in his most secret thoughts i find a relation to my own
however i have managed to live thirty years without this protection you will say but i will endeavor a little to illustrate my meaning he invited me to dine with him on saturday which was a very natural thing for him to do well what have i learned since
i shall meet them there and who knows what future advantages may result from the interview this may appear to you to be no unusual combination of circumstances nevertheless i perceive some hidden plot in the arrangement
something in fact more than is apparent on a casual view of the subject i believe that this singular man who appears to fathom the motives of every one
has purposely arranged for me to meet m and madame de villefort and sometimes i confess i have gone so far as to try to read in his eyes whether he was in possession of the secret of our love my good friend said valentine
i should take you for a visionary and should tremble for your reason
is it possible that you can see anything more than the merest chance in this meeting pray reflect a little my father who never goes out has several times been on the point of refusing this invitation madame de villefort on the contrary
is burning with the desire of seeing this extraordinary nabob in his own house therefore she has with great difficulty prevailed on my father to accompany her no no it is as i have said maximilian
there is no one in the world of whom i can ask help but yourself and my grandfather who is little better than a corpse
but the gentle voice which usually has such power over me fails to convince me to day i feel the same as regards yourself said valentine and i own that if you have no stronger proof to give me i have another replied maximilian
but i fear you will deem it even more absurd than the first so much the worse said valentine smiling it is nevertheless conclusive to my mind my ten years of service have also confirmed my ideas on the subject of sudden inspirations
dear maximilian why not attribute your escape to my constant prayers for your safety when you are away i no longer pray for myself but for you yes since you have known me said morrel smiling
but that cannot apply to the time previous to our acquaintance valentine
but let me hear this second proof which you yourself own to be absurd well look through this opening and you will see the beautiful new horse which i rode here ah what a beautiful creature cried valentine
why did you not bring him close to the gate so that i could talk to him and pat him he is as you see a very valuable animal said maximilian you know that my means are limited and that i am what would be designated a man of moderate pretensions
well i went to a horse dealer's where i saw this magnificent horse which i have named medeah i asked the price
i was therefore obliged to give it up as you may imagine but i own i went away with rather a heavy heart for the horse had looked at me affectionately had rubbed his head against me and when i mounted him had pranced in the most delightful way imaginable
so that i was altogether fascinated with him the same evening some friends of mine visited me m de chateau renaud m debray and five or six other choice spirits whom you do not know even by name
i never play for i am not rich enough to afford to lose or sufficiently poor to desire to gain but i was at my own house you understand so there was nothing to be done but to send for the cards which i did just as they were sitting down to table
medeah was standing at the rack eating his hay i immediately put on the saddle and bridle to which operation he lent himself with the best grace possible
as i rode by the count's house i perceived a light in one of the windows and fancied i saw the shadow of his figure moving behind the curtain now valentine i firmly believe that he knew of my wish to possess this horse
and that he lost expressly to give me the means of procuring him my dear maximilian you are really too fanciful you will not love even me long a man who accustoms himself to live in such a world of poetry and imagination
must find far too little excitement in a common every day sort of attachment such as ours but they are calling me do you hear ah valentine said maximilian give me but one finger through this opening in the grating one finger
the littlest finger of all that i may have the happiness of kissing it maximilian we said we would be to each other as two voices two shadows as you will valentine shall you be happy if i do what you wish oh yes
valentine mounted on a bench and passed not only her finger but her whole hand through the opening maximilian uttered a cry of delight and springing forwards seized the hand extended towards him and imprinted on it a fervent and impassioned kiss
the little hand was then immediately withdrawn
miss clarissa harlowe to miss howe friday march tenth you will permit me my dear to touch upon a few passages in your last letter that affect me sensibly
in the first place you must allow me to say low as i am in spirits that i am very angry with you for your reflections on my relations particularly on my father and mother and on the memory of my grandfather
nor my dear does your own mother always escape the keen edge of your vivacity one cannot one's self forbear to write or speak freely of those we love and honour when grief from imagined hard treatment
wrings the heart but it goes against one to hear any body else take the same liberties then you have so very strong a manner of expression where you take a distaste that when passion has subdued and i come
if her meekness should not be rewarded is the want of reward or the want even of a grateful acknowledgement a reason for us to dispense with what we think our duty they were my father's lively spirits that first made him
an interest in her gentle bosom they were the same spirits turned inward as i have heretofore observed that made him so impatient when the cruel malady seized him he always loved my mother
and would not love and pity excusably nay laudably make a good wife
as well as more and more severe give up her own will
to whom i dare complain unhappily circumstanced as i am it is but too probable that i shall complain because it is but too probably that i shall have more and more cause given me for complaint
but be it your part if i do to sooth my angry passions and to soften my resentments and this the rather as you know what an influence your advice has upon me and as you must also know
that the freedoms you take with my friends can have no other tendency but to weaken the sense of my duty to them without answering any good end to myself
that i am pleased to have you join with me in opinion of the contempt which mister solmes deserves from me but yet permit me to say that he is not quite so horrible a creature as you make him
as to his person i mean for with regard to his mind by all i have heard you have done him but justice but you have such a talent at an ugly likeness and such a vivacity
in short my dear i have known you in more instances than one sit down resolved to write all that wit rather than strict justice could suggest upon the given occasion perhaps it may be thought
that i should say the less on this particular subject because your dislike of him arises from love to me but should it not be our aim to judge of ourselves and of every thing that affects us as we may reasonably imagine other people would judge of us and of our actions
as to the advice you give to resume my estate i am determined not to litigate with my father let what will be the consequence to myself i may give you at another time
that lovelace himself would hardly think me worth addressing were he to know this would be my resolution these men my dear
indeed it is fit they should for love must be a very foolish thing to look back upon
and laid a generous mind under obligation and dependence you very ingeniously account for the love we bear to one another from the difference in our tempers i own i should not have thought of that
there may possibly be something in it but whether there be or not whenever i am cool and give myself time to reflect i will love you the better for the correction you give be as severe as you will upon me
spare me not therefore my dear friend whenever you think me in the least faulty i love your agreeable raillery you know i always did nor however over serious you think me did i ever think you flippant
as you harshly call it one of the first conditions of our mutual friendship was each should say or write to the other whatever was upon her mind without any offence to be taken a condition
that is indeed indispensable in friendship i knew your mother would be for implicit obedience in a child i am sorry my case is so circumstanced that i cannot comply it would be my duty to do so if i could
how happy i should be to be treated with so much lenity i should blush to have my mother say that she begged and prayed me and all in vain to encourage a man so unexceptionable as mister hickman
indeed my beloved miss howe i am ashamed to have your mother say with me in her view
this touches me the more sensibly because you yourself my dear are so ready to persuade me into it i should be very blamable
this lovelace is a man that might be liked well enough if he bore such a character as mister hickman bears and even if there were hopes of reclaiming him and further still i will acknowledge
by violent measures step by step as it were into something that might be called i don't know what to call it a conditional kind of liking or so but as to the word
in which it may be properly called divine
the man too so little to be approved of for his morals if
the better for your friendly freedom but methinks i could be glad that you would not let this imputation pass so glibly from your pen or your lips as attributable to one of your own sex whether i be the person or not
as a silly love sick creature i could make some other observations upon the contents of your last two letters but my mind is not free enough at present
miss clarissa harlowe to miss howe
i have another letter from mister lovelace although i had not answered his former this man somehow or other knows every thing that passes in our family
my confinement hanna's dismission and more of the resentments and resolutions of my father uncles and brother than i can possibly know and almost as soon as the things happen which he tells me of
he cannot come at these intelligencies fairly he is excessively uneasy upon what he hears and his expressions both of love to me and resentment to them are very fervent he solicits me
to engage my honour to him never to have mister solmes i think i may fairly promise him that i will not he begs
that he is perpetually reproached for not resenting it and that as well by lord m and lady sarah and lady betty as by all his other friends and if he must have no hope from me
he cannot answer for what his despair will make him do indeed he says his relations the ladies particularly advise him to have recourse to a legal remedy but how he asks can a man of honour
he is full of the favours of the ladies of his family to me to whom nevertheless i am personally a stranger except that i once saw miss patty montague at missus knolly's
it is natural i believe for a person to be the more desirous of making new friends
yet had i rather appear amiable in the eyes of my own relations and in your eyes
but these four ladies of his family have such excellent characters that one cannot but wish to be thought well of by them cannot there be a way to find out
or by mister hickman who has some knowledge of lord m covertly however what their opinions are of the present situation of things in our family and of the little likelihood there is that ever the alliance once approved of by them
can take effect i cannot for my own part think so well of myself as to imagine that they can wish their kinsman to persevere in his views with regard to me through such contempts and discouragements
not that it would concern me should they advise him to the contrary by my lord's signing mister lovelace's former letter by mister lovelace's assurances of the continued favour of all his relations and by the report of others
i seem still to stand high in their favour but methinks i should be glad to have this confirmed to me as from themselves by the lips of an indifferent person and the rather because of their fortunes and family
and take it amiss as they have reason to be included by ours in the contempt thrown upon their kinsman curiosity at present is all my motive
notwithstanding your questionable throbs even were the merits of mister lovelace much greater than they are i have answered his letters if he takes me at my word
i shall need to be less solicitous for the opinions of his relations in my favour and yet one would be glad to be well thought of by the worthy this is the substance of my letter
i express my surprise at his knowing and so early all that passes here i assure him
i would not have mister solmes i tell him that to return as i understand he does defiances for defiances to my relations is far from being a proof with me either of his politeness
that the moment i hear he visits any of my friends without their consent i will make a resolution never to see him more if i can help it i apprize him
that mister wyerley and other gentlemen knew it to be my choice before himself was acquainted with any of us that i had never been induced to receive a line from him on the subject
i should have very great objections to him were i to get over my choice of a single life so really preferable to me as it is and that i should have declared as much to him had i not regarded him as more than a common visiter
may be the very last and that only to acquaint me with his acquiescence that it shall be so at least till happier times this last i put in that he may not be quite desperate
but if he take me at my word i shall be rid of one of my tormentors i have promised to lay before you all his letters and my answers i repeat that promise and am the less solicitous
for that reason to amplify upon the contents of either but i cannot too often express my vexation to be driven to such streights and difficulties here at home as oblige me to answer letters from a man
i had not absolutely intended to encourage and to whom i had really great objections filled as his are with such warm protestations and written to me with a spirit of expectation for my dear
you never knew so bold a supposer as commentators find beauties in an author to which the author perhaps was a stranger so he sometimes compliments me in high strains of gratitude for favours and for a consideration
the attributed goodness to him which if i shewed i should have the less opinion of myself in short my dear like a restiff horse as i have heard described by sportsmen he pains one's hands
and half disjoints one's arms to rein him in and when you see his letters you must form no judgment upon them till you have read my answers if you do you will indeed think you have cause to attribute self deceit
and throbs and glows to your friend and yet at other times the contradictory nature complains that i shew him as little favour and my friends as much
he had been the aggressor and as if the catastrophe had been as fatal as it might have been if he has a design by this conduct sometimes complaining of my shyness at others exalting in my imaginary favours
to induce me at one time to acquiesce with his compliments at another to be more complaisant for his complaints and if the contradiction be not the effect of his inattention and giddiness i shall think him as deep and as artful too probably as practised
that he is to be married in a few days to one of the shyest women in england that my brother explains his meaning this shy creature he says is me and he assures every one
that his younger sister is very soon to be mister solmes's wife he tells me of the patterns bespoken which my mother mentioned to me not one thing escapes him that is done or said in this house
my sister he says reports the same things and that with such particular aggravations of insult upon him that he cannot but be extremely piqued as well at the manner
as from the occasion and expresses himself with great violence upon it he knows not he says what my relations inducements can be to prefer such a man as solmes to him
if advantageous settlements be the motive solmes shall not offer what he will refuse to comply with as to his estate and family the first cannot be excepted against and for the second
he will not disgrace himself by a comparison so odious he appeals to lord m for the regularity of his life and manners ever since he has made his addresses to me or had hope of my favour
i suppose he would have his lordship's signing to this letter to be taken as a voucher for him he desires my leave in company with my lord in a pacific manner
to attend my father and uncles in order to make proposals that must be accepted
and hear what they are and tells me that he will submit to any measures that i shall prescribe in order to bring about a reconciliation he presumes to be very earnest with me
to give him a private meeting some night in my father's garden attended by whom i please really my dear were you to see his letter you would think i had given him great encouragement
and that i am in direct treaty with him or that he is sure that my friends will drive me into a foreign protection for he has the boldness to offer in my lord's name an asylum to me
i suppose it is the way of this sex to endeavour to entangle the thoughtless of ours by bold supposals and offers in hopes that we shall be too complaisant or bashful to quarrel with them
but i will take an opportunity to send you the letter itself or a copy of it for my own part i am very uneasy to think how i have been drawn on one hand and driven on the other
in short into a mere loverlike correspondence which my heart condemns it is easy to see if i do not break it off that mister lovelace's advantages by reason of my unhappy situation
yet if i do put an end to it without making it a condition of being freed from mister solmes's address may i my dear is it best to continue it a little longer in order to extricate myself out of the other difficulty
by giving up all thoughts of mister lovelace
but yours all my relations are met they are at breakfast together mister solmes is expected i am excessively uneasy i must lay down my pen
they are all going to church together grievously disordered they appear to be as hannah tells me she believes something is resolved upon
sunday noon what a cruel thing is suspense i will ask leave to go to church this afternoon i expect to be denied but if i do not ask
they may allege that my not going is owing to myself i desired to speak with shorey shorey came
i directed her to carry to my mother my request for permission to go to church this afternoon what think you was the return tell her that she must direct herself to her brother for any favour she has to ask
so my dear i am to be delivered up to my brother i was resolved however to ask of him this favour accordingly
i gave the messenger a billet in which i made it my humble request through him to my father to be permitted to go to church this afternoon this was the contemptuous answer
tell her that her request will be taken into consideration to morrow patience will be the fittest return i can make to such an insult but this method will not do with me
indeed it will not and yet it is but the beginning i suppose of what i am to expect from my brother now i am delivered up to him on recollection
i thought it best to renew my request i did the following is a copy of what i wrote and what follows that of the answer sent me sir
i know not what to make of the answer brought to my request of being permitted to go to church this afternoon if you designed to shew your pleasantry by it i hope that will continue and then my request will be granted
you know that i never absented myself
when i was advised not to go my present situation is such that i never more wanted the benefit of the public prayers i will solemnly engage only to go thither and back again
i hope it cannot be thought that i would do otherwise my dejection of spirits will give a too just excuse on the score of indisposition for avoiding visits nor will i but by distant civilities
return the compliments of any of my acquaintances my disgraces if they are to have an end need not be proclaimed to the whole world i ask this favour therefore for my reputation's sake
is an absurdity you are recommended miss to the practice of your private devotions may they be efficacious upon the mind of one of the most pervicacious young creatures
the intention is i tell you plainly to mortify you into a sense of your duty the neighbours you are so solicitous to appear well with already know that you defy that so miss
if you have a real value for your reputation shew it as you ought it is yet in your own power to establish or impair it
to miss howe harlowe place
i will now resume my narrative of proceedings here my brother being in a good way although you may be sure that his resentments are rather heightened
than abated by the galling disgrace he has received my friends my father and uncles however if not my brother and sister begin to think that i have been treated unkindly
my mother been so good as to tell me this since i sent away my last nevertheless i believe they all think that i receive letters from mister lovelace
but lord m being inclined rather to support than to blame his nephew
that they do not put it to me
conniving on the contrary
at the only method left to allay the vehemence of a spirit which they have so much provoked for he still insists upon satisfaction from my uncles and this possibly
for he wants not art as the best way to be introduced again with some advantage into our family
has put it to my mother whether it were not best to prevail upon my brother to take a turn to his yorkshire estate which he was intending to do before
but this is very far from being his intention for he has already began to hint again that he shall never be easy or satisfied till i am married
and finding neither mister symmes nor mister mullins will be accepted has proposed mister wyerley once more
and but yesterday he mentioned one who has applied to him by letter making high offers this is mister solmes rich solmes you know they call him
but this application has not met with the attention of one single soul
he has thoughts i am told of proposing to me to go to scotland that as the compliment is i may put his house there in such order as our own is in but this my mother intends to oppose for her own sake
because having relieved her as she is pleased to say of the household cares for which my sister you know has no turn they must again devolve upon her if i go and if she did not oppose it
i should for believe me i have no mind to be his housekeeper and i am sure were i to go with him i should be treated rather as a servant than a sister perhaps not the better because i am his sister
and if mister lovelace should follow me things might be worse than they are now but i have besought my mother who is apprehensive of mister lovelace's visits
and armed servants my brother also being near well enough to go abroad to procure me permission to be your guest for a fortnight or so will your mother think you my dear give me leave
i dare not ask to go to my dairy house as my good grandfather would call it for i am now afraid of being thought to have a wish to enjoy that independence to which his will has entitled me and as matter are situated
to whom they have now so great an antipathy and indeed could i be as easy and happy here as i used to be i would defy that man and all his sex and never repent that i have given the power of my fortune
into my father's hands just now my mother has rejoiced me with the news that my requested permission is granted every one thinks it best that i should go to you except my brother
and to be acquainted with this concession in form you know my dear that there is a
so that they are advised with upon every article relating to us or that may affect us it is therefore the less wonder at a time when they understand that mister lovelace is determined to pay
us an amicable visit as he calls it but which i am sure cannot end amicably that they should both be consulted upon the permission i had desired to attend you
and their motives for permitting me to go clary said my mother as soon as i entered the great parlour your request to go to miss howe's for a few days has been taken into consideration and granted
much against my liking i assure you said my brother rudely interrupting her son james said my father and knit his brows
his arm was in a sling he often has the mean art to look upon that when any thing is hinted that may be supposed to lead toward the least favour to
with mister lovelace let the girl then i am often the girl with him be prohibited seeing that vile libertine nobody spoke
do you hear sister clary taking their silence for approbation of what he had dictated you are not to receive visits
every one still remained silent do you so understand the license you have miss interrogated he i would be glad sir said i
to understand that you are my brother
o the fond fond heart with a sneer of insult lifting up his hands sir said i to my father to your justice i appeal
if i have deserved reflection
but if i am to be answerable for the rashness no more no more of either side said my father you are not to receive the visits of that lovelace though nor are you son james
to reflect upon your sister she is a worthy child sir i have done replied he and yet i have her honour at heart as much as the honour of the rest of the family
and hence sir retorted i your unbrotherly reflections upon me well but you observe miss said he
but your father that tells you that you are not to receive the visits of that lovelace cousin harlowe
allow me to say that my cousin clary's prudence may be confided in i am convinced it may joined my mother but aunt but madam put in my sister
there is no hurt i presume in letting my sister know the condition she goes to miss howe upon since if he gets a nack of visiting her there you may be sure interrupted my uncle harlowe
he will endeavour to see her there so would such an impudent man here said my uncle antony and tis better done there than here better no where said my father
i command you turning to me on pain of displeasure that you see him not at all i will not sir in any way of encouragement i do assure you not at all
if i can properly avoid it you know with what indifference said my mother she has hitherto seen him her prudence may be trusted to as my sister hervey says with what appa
drawled my brother son james said my father sternly i have done sir said he but again in a provoking manner he reminded me of the prohibition
thus ended the conference will you engage my dear that the hated man shall not come near your house but what an inconsistence is this when they consent to my going
the soft bluish forest shadows had lengthened and the barred sun rays filtering through were tinged with a rosy hue before jake kloon the hootch runner and earl leverett trap thief came to drowned valley
they were still a mile distant from the most southern edge of that vast desolation but already tamaracks appeared in the beauty of their burnt gold little pools glimmered here and there patches of amber sphagnum and crimson pitcher plants became frequent
and once or twice kloon's big boots broke through the crust of fallen leaves soaking him to the ankles with black silt leverett always a coward had pursued his devious and larcenous way through the world always in deadly fear of sink holes
his movements and paths were those of a weasel preferring always solid ground but he lacked the courage of that sinuous little beast though he possessed all of its ferocity and far more cunning now trotting lightly and tirelessly in the broad and careless spoor of jake kloon
his narrow pointed head alert and every fear sharpened instinct tensely observant the trap thief continued to meditate murder like all cowards he had always been inclined to bold and ruthless action
yet even in his pitiable misdemeanours he slunk through life in terror of that strength which never hesitates at violence in his petty pilfering he died a hundred deaths for every trapped mink or otter he filched
as he slunk from the bagged trout brook or crawled away belly dragging and pockets full of snared grouse
which always he had hated because they seemed to spy on him from their sky blue heights
one shot from behind and twenty thousand dollars or if it proved a better deal the contents of the packet for if quintana's bribery had dazzled them
always in his mean and busy brain he was trying to figure to himself what that packet must contain and to make the bribe worth while leverett had concluded that only a solid packet of thousand dollar bills could account for the twenty thousand offered
there might easily be half a million in bills pressed together in that heavy flat packet bills were absolutely safe plunder but kloon had turned a deaf ear to his suggestions kloon who never entertained ambitions beyond his hootch rake off
whose miserable imagination stopped at a wretched percentage satisfied one shot there was the back of kloon's bushy head one shot and fear which had shadowed him from birth was at an end forever
ended too privation the bitter rigour of black winters scorching days bodily squalor ills that such as he endured
a single shot would settle all problems for him but if he missed
no use always the coward's if blocked him and the coward's rage fiercest of all fury ravaged him almost crazing him with his own impotence tamaracks sphagnum crimson pitcher plants grew thicker
we gotta travel a piece yet say jake be you a man or be you a poor dumb critter what ain't got no spunk
i bet you it's thousand dollar bills more'n a billion million dollars likely kloon's dogged silence continued leverett licked his dry lips his rifle lay on his knees almost imperceptibly he moved it moved it again
froze stiff as kloon spat then by infinitesimal degrees continued to edge the muzzle toward kloon jake aw shut your head grumbled kloon disdainfully you allus was a dirty rat
jake no answer say jake no notice jake i wanta take a peek at them bills merely another stream of tobacco soiling the crimson pitcher i'm i'm desprit i gotta take a peek
something in leverett's unsteady voice made kloon turn his head you gol rammed fool he said
in the intense stillness of the place suddenly the dead man made a sound and the trap robber nearly fainted but it was only air escaping from the slowly collapsing lungs and leverett
his eyes never stirring from the sprawling thing on the ground
the sun's level rays glimmered ruddy through the woods a green fly appeared buzzing about the dead man another zig zagged through the sunshine lacing it with streaks of greenish fire others appeared whirling gyrating filling the silence with their humming
and still leverett dared not budge dared not search the dead and take from it that for which the dead had died a little breeze came by and stirred the bushy hair on kloon's head and fluttered the ferns around him where he lay
two delicate pure white butterflies rare survivors of a native species driven from civilization into the wilderness by the advent of the foreign white fluttered in airy play over the dead man
squeaking squealing chattering his opinion of murder and leverett shaking with the shock
but as he bent over he changed his mind turned
searching about him as though sniffing in a few minutes he discovered what he was looking for took his bearings carefully picked his way back over a leafy crust that trembled under his cautious tread he bent over kloon
and from the left inside coat pocket he drew the packet and placed it inside his own flannel shirt then turning his back to the dead he squatted down and clutched kloon's burly ankles as a man grasps the handles of a wheelbarrow to draw it after him
dragging rolling bumping over roots jake kloon took his last trail through the wilderness leaving a redder path than was left by the setting sun through fern and moss and wastes of pitcher plants
always as leverett crept on pulling the dead behind him the floor of the woods trembled slightly and a black ooze wet the crust of withered leaves at the quaking edge of a little pool of water leverett halted
the water was dark but scarcely an inch deep over its black bed of silt beside this sink hole the trap
the sapling was about twenty feet in height leverett thrust the butt of it into the pool without any effort he pushed the entire sapling out of sight in the depthless silt he had to manoeuvre very gingerly to dump kloon into the pool and keep out of it himself
dully iridescent floated broke strings of blood hung suspended in the clouding water leverett went back to the little ridge and covered
muzzle first driving it downward out of sight as he rose from the pool's edge somebody laid a hand on his shoulder that was the most real death that leverett ever had died two a coward dies many times before old man death really gets him
the swimming minutes passed his mind ceased to live for a space then as through the swirling waters of the last dark whirlpool a dulled roar of returning consciousness filled his being somebody was shaking him shouting at him
fought his way blindly through tangled undergrowth toward the hard ridge no human power could have blocked the frantic creature thrashing toward solid ground but there quintana held him in his wiry grip fool mule crazee fellow
for why you make jumps like rabbits eh you expec quintana yes alors
what you do by that pond hole eh i come and touch you and my god one would think i have stab you such an ass
in a suburban town on a country road it seemed childishly absurd that he could not at least differentiate to that extent and yet from the moment he had been placed in the automobile in which he now found himself he was forced to admit that he could not tell
it would be impossible do what they would to prevent it
to the location of what he now called appropriately enough it seemed the crime club but he had never ridden blindfolded in a car before he could see absolutely nothing and if that increased or accentuated his sense of hearing it helped little
they were running on an asphalt road that was obvious enough but city streets and suburban streets and hundreds of miles of country road around new york were of asphalt traffic he was quite sure for he had strained his ears in an effort to detect it
that there was little or no traffic but then it must be one or two o'clock in the morning and at that hour the city streets certainly those that would be chosen by these men would be quite as deserted as any country road and as for a sense of direction
he had none whatever even if the car had not been persistently swerving and changing its course every little while if he had been able to form even an approximate idea of the compass direction in which they had started
he might possibly have been able in a general way to counteract this further effort of theirs to confuse him but without the initial direction
he was essentially befogged with these conclusions finally thrust home upon him jimmie dale philosophically subordinated the matter in his mind and leaning back composed himself as comfortably as he could upon his seat there was a man beside him
and he could feel the legs of two men on the seat facing him these with the driver would make four he was still well guarded the car itself was a closed car not hooded the sense of touch told him therefore a limousine of some description
these facts in a sense inconsequential were absorbed subconsciously and then jimmie dale's brain remorselessly active in spite of the pain from his throbbing head was at work again
in the early evening as larry the bat he had burrowed so ironically for refuge in chang foo's den from her it seemed like some mocking unreality some visionary dream that so short a while before
he had read those words of hers that had sent the blood coursing and leaping through his veins
in an hour an hour and he was to have seen her the woman whose face he had never seen the woman whom he loved and the hour instead
the hours since then had brought a nightmare of events so incredible as to seem but phantoms of the imagination phantoms he sat up suddenly with a jerk the face of the dead chauffeur the limp form lashed in that chair
every detail standing out in ghastly relief took form before him god knew there was no phantom there the man beside him at the sudden start lifted a hand and felt hurriedly over the bandage across jimmie dale's eyes
he had had neither time nor opportunity to think before
all shock when he had entered that room but now like an inspiration he saw it all from another angle there was a glaring fallacy in the game these men had played for his benefit to night a fallacy which they had counted on glossing over
based on a supposition which might after all be wrong and being wrong meant death but it was not supposition either he was right now or these men were childish immature fools and whatever else they might be
they were not that not a single drop of poison had passed the chauffeur's lips the man had not been murdered in that room he had not in a sense been murdered at all the man absolutely unquestionably without a loophole for doubt
had either been killed outright in the automobile accident
probably without regaining consciousness certainly without supplying any of the information that was so determinedly sought yes he saw it now their backs were against the wall they were at their wits end these men the knowledge that the chauffeur possessed
that they knew he possessed was evidently life and death to them to kill the man before they had wormed out of him what they wanted to know
it could be only speculation he had decided that once before the man at his side felt again over the scarf to see that it was in place
if they had deliberately murdered the chauffeur because of a refusal to answer
fool that he had been not to have seen that before and yet would it have made any difference he shook his head
if the chauffeur had suffered death rather than talk even admitting the fact that they had more grounds for suspecting the chauffeur's complicity would his jimmie dale's mere denial his choice too of death
where it had not saved the other's a certain added respect for these men against whom until the end now his victory or theirs he realised he was fighting for his life came over him as he recognised the touch of a master hand
they did not know where to find the tocsin the package that she had said was vital to them was still beyond their reach the chauffeur was dead and he jimmie dale alone remained a clew that they had still to prove valid or invalid it was true
but the only clew in their possession and gaining nothing from him by a show of force to throw him off his guard they had let him go meaning him to believe they were convinced he knew nothing and that the episode
the adventure of the night was as far as they were concerned ended finished and done with time passed a very long time as he sat there it might have been an hour he could only hazard a guess not one of the men in the car had spoken a word
but to jimmie dale the car itself the ride its duration these three strange companions were for the time being extraneous even that sick giddiness in his head had at least temporarily gone from him
and so all unsuspectingly he was to lead them to the tocsin and fall into the trap himself his hands thrust deep in his pockets were tightly clenched they were clever enough
and he with her he had played blindly into their hands and through him she should have fallen into their power
and then fury anger
to strangle to stamp out this inhuman band of criminals that with intolerable effrontery
for their monstrous purposes and then jimmie dale in the darkness smiled again grimly as the leader's reference to the gray seal recurred to him well perhaps who knew they would have reason more than they dreamed of to wish the gray seal enrolled in their own ranks
it was strange curious he had thought all that was ended only a few short hours before he had hidden away all everything that was incident to the life of the gray seal the clothes of larry the bat
that little metal case with the gray coloured adhesive seals a dozen other things believing that it only remained for him to return and destroy them at his leisure as a finishing touch to the gray seal's career
that she had ever called upon him to undertake
where they now certainly believed him to be entirely off his guard he was thoroughly on his guard and where they might suspect him watch him they would suspect and watch only the character the person of jimmie dale
and count not at all upon either larry the bat or the gray seal a sort of savage elation fell upon jimmie dale his brain that had been stagnant confused physically sick with pain and suffering was working now with its old time vigour
and ease mapping planning scheming the way ahead to strike and strike quickly to strike first it must be his move next not theirs and he must act to night at once the moment he was given this pretence to liberty
that they had in store for him before they had an opportunity of closing down around him with a network of spies that he could not elude by morning jimmie dale would be larry the bat and inhabiting the sanctuary again and a tip to jason his old butler
to the effect say that he had gone away for a trip would account for his disappearance satisfactorily enough it would not necessarily arouse their suspicions when they eventually discovered he was gone
and now with his mind made up to his course of action
an irritation at the useless twistings and turnings of the car that had latterly become more frequent took hold upon him how much longer was this to last they must have been fully an hour and a half on the road already and ah the car was stopping now
he straightened up in his seat as the machine came to a halt but the man at his side laid a restraining hand upon him the car door opened and one of the men got out jimmie dale caught an indistinct murmur of voices from without
what was the ulterior motive behind that pretence what did this package that had already cost a man his life to night contain who was the chauffeur
could she supply the links that would forge the chain into an unbroken whole and then for the second time the car slowed down and this time the man on the seat beside jimmie dale reached up and untied the scarf
since the window curtains of the car were tightly drawn
the car stopped the door was opened he was pushed toward it
he was standing on a corner on riverside drive within a few doors of his own house
where was this crime club they had been as nearly as he could estimate two hours in making the journey
granting then an average speed of forty miles an hour which was overgenerous to be on the safe side and the fact that they certainly had not crossed the hudson which now lay before him flanking the drive the crime club was somewhere within the area of a semicircle
whose centre was the corner on which he now stood and whose radius was forty miles or forty yards he forced a laugh it was just that no more no less
mounted the steps and with his latch key they had at least permitted him to retain the contents of his pockets when they had forced him to change his clothes opened the front door softly and stepping inside closed the door as silently as he had opened it he paused for an instant to listen
there was not a sound the servants naturally would have been in bed hours ago even old jason jimmie dale smiled half whimsically half affectionately whose paternal custom it was to sit up for his master jim
who as he was fond of saying he had dandled as a baby on his knee had evidently given it up as a bad job on this occasion
jimmie dale stepped to the switch and turned off the light then stood hesitant in the darkness
money he shook his head again a little grimly this time
there was plenty of money now hidden in the sanctuary enough for any emergency enough to last him indefinitely he stepped forward along the hall his tread noiseless on the rich heavy rug passed into the rear of the house descended the back stairs
and reached the cellar it was below the level of the ground of course but a narrow window here
gave on the driveway at the side of the house that led to the garage in the rear cautiously now for the cement flooring was in the stillness little less than a sounding board jimmie dale reached the wall
the lower edge of whose sill was just slightly below the level of his shoulder it opened inward if he remembered correctly his fingers were feeling for the fastenings it was too dark to see a thing he muttered in annoyance where were the fastenings at the sides or at the bottom
what did this mean wires
his fingers were working now with feverish haste telegraphing their message to his brain
tiny fragments of wood as from an auger were still on the sill and here was a small particle of wire insulation that those sensitive finger tips proclaimed was fresh a cold thrill ran through jimmie dale and there came again that sickening sense of impotency
devilish cunning arrayed against him that once before he had experienced that night
and he had been forestalled himself this could only have been done they had had no interest in him before then while they held him at the crime club while he was spending that two hours in the car was that why they had taken so long in coming
was that why the car had stopped that time that those with him might be told that the work here had been completed and he need no longer be kept away he edged away from the window and as cautiously as he had come retraced his steps across the cellar and up the stairs
and then the possibility of being heard from without gone he broke into a run there was no need to wonder long what those wires meant they could mean only one of two things and the crime club would have little concern in his electric light they had tapped his telephone
the mains he knew ran into the cellar from the underground service in the street he was racing like a madman now how long ago how many hours ago had they done that great scott she was to have telephoned had she done so
was the game all everything she herself at their mercy already if she had telephoned
he would look there first afterward he would waken jason he gained the door of his den on the first landing
jason he cried out the old butler fully dressed
jimmie dale demanded sharply well sir said jason
the telephone sir the telephone yes sir a woman begging your pardon master jim a lady sir has been telephoning every hour or so and she yes
yes yes what did she say quick man good lord master jim faltered jason i she jason said jimmie dale suddenly as cold as ice what did she say think man every word
she didn't say anything master jim nothing at all sir except to keep asking each time if she could speak to you nothing else jason
i'm sure master jim
yes sir said jason mechanically how long ago was it since she telephoned last asked jimmie dale quickly well sir i couldn't rightly say you see as i said master jim i must have gone to sleep but
they were staring tensely into each other's face the telephone on the desk was ringing vibrantly clamourously through the stillness of the room jason white frightened bewildered touched his lips with the tip of his tongue
that'll be her again sir he said hoarsely wait said jimmie dale tersely he was trying to think to think faster than he had ever thought before
they knew he was in it would be but showing his hand to that some one who would be listening now on the wire he dared not speak to her or above all allow her to expose herself by a single inadvertent word
calling him he could not speak to her and it was life and death almost that she should know
life and death almost for both of them that he should know all and everything she could tell him
only a minute to cut those wires
the fact that he had discovered their trick admit as though in so many words that their suspicions of him were justified
by means of which there was a chance that he could hoist them with their own petard the telephone rang again imperatively persistently listen jason jimmie dale was speaking rapidly earnestly
in a vile humour that you told me a lady had been calling but that i said if she called again i wasn't to be disturbed
jason lifted the receiver from the hook yes hello he said yes ma'am mister dale has come in but he has retired yes i told him but begging your pardon ma'am
he was in what i might say was a bit of a temper and said he wasn't to be disturbed by any one jimmie dale snatched the receiver from jason and put it to his own ear kindly tell mister dale that unless he comes to the phone now a feminine voice her voice
in well simulated indignation was saying it will be a very long day before i shall trouble myself to jimmie dale clapped his hand firmly over the mouthpiece of the instrument thank god for that clever brain of hers she understood
then say good night he removed his hand from the mouthpiece it's quite useless ma'am said jason apologetically in the rare temper he was in he wouldn't come to use his own words ma'am not for the queen of sheba herself ma'am
good night ma'am jimmie dale hung the receiver back on the hook and with his hand flirted away a bead of moisture that had sprung to his forehead good lord master jim what's wrong sir what's happened sir
jason ventured anxiously jason said jimmie dale switch off the light and go to the front window and look out keep well behind the curtains don't show yourself tell me if you see anything yes sir said jason obediently the light went out
jimmie dale moved to the rear of the room to the window overlooking the garage and yard i don't see anything sir jason called watch jimmie dale answered a minute passed two three
jimmie dale was staring down into the black of the yard she understood she knew of course before she phoned that something had gone wrong to night she knew that only peril of the gravest moment would have kept him from the phone and her she knew now
as a logical conclusion that it was dangerous to attempt to communicate with him at his home those wires where did they lead to not far away that would be almost a mechanical impossibility
or the basement say of that apartment house across the driveway or where and then jimmie dale spoke again
i'm not sure sir jason answered hesitantly i thought i saw a man move behind a tree out there across the road a minute ago sir
there was a thin mirthless smile on jimmie dale's lips
and was still again what time is it jason jimmie dale asked presently it'll be about half past four sir go to bed jason yes sir but jason's voice low troubled came through the darkness from the upper end of the room
master jim sir i go to bed jason and not a word of this yes sir good night master jim good night jason jimmie dale groped his way to the big lounging chair in which he had found jason asleep and flung himself into it
they had struck quickly these ingenious dress suited murderers of the crime club the house was already watched would be watched now untiringly unceasingly not a movement of his henceforth but would be under their eyes
his hands resting on the arms of the chair closed slowly until they became tight clenched knotted fists what was he to do it was not only the crime club it was not only the tocsin and her peril
his life even before this in his fight against the underworld and the police had depended upon his freedom of action and now at one and the same time that freedom was cut away from beneath his feet as it were and a third foe
equally as deadly as the others was added to the list for months to preserve and sustain the character of larry the bat
for in that sordid empire below the dead line whose one common bond and aim was the gray seal's death where suspicion one of the other was rampant and extravagant where each might be the one against whom all swore their vengeance
larry the bat could not mysteriously disappear from his accustomed haunts without inviting suspicion in an active and practical form an inquisitorial visit to his squalid lodgings the sanctuary and the end of larry the bat
if as he had thought only a few hours before he was through forever with his dual life that would not have mattered
and what must be an obvious fact to her that their plans had miscarried that it was dangerous to communicate with him as jimmie dale she would expect him count on him to make that move
she would be watching waiting hoping seeking for him more anxiously and with far more at stake than he had ever sought for her until now he got up impulsively from his chair and in the blackness began to pace the room
the next move was clear pitifully clear it had been clear from the first it had been clear even in that ride in the car it was so clear that it seemed veritably to mock him as he prodded his brains for some means of putting it into execution
he must get to the sanctuary become larry the bat but how how the question seemed at last to become resonant to ring through the room with the weight of doom upon it schemes plans ideas came
bringing a momentary uplift only to be discarded the next instant with a sort of bitter desperate regret these men were not men of mere ordinary intelligence
their cleverness their power the amazing scope of their organisation all bore grim witness to the fact that they would be blinded not at all by any paltry ruse
that was obvious enough and so long as he pursued the usual avocations of jimmie dale he would not be interfered with only watched it was useless to consider that plan for a moment
but he could hardly hope to accomplish anything like that without their knowing that it was done deliberately and that he dared not risk
besides there was another reason why such a plan would not do for granting even that he succeeded in eluding them on the way and managed to reach the sanctuary
he would have to return to his home here again within a reasonable time as jimmie dale within a few hours at most
when he had entered the house half an hour previously
then he had counted on getting away without their knowing it before they as he had fondly thought would have had a chance to establish their espionage
for a time at least that he was not still within the house when they would have been watching as it were an empty cage he stopped in his walk and after a moment dropped down into the lounging chair again that was it of course an empty cage if he could escape from the house
but escape and leave them in possession of a sort of guarantee or assurance that he was still there that would give him the freedom of action that he must have he smiled with bitter irony that solved the problem that was all there was to it just that
it was very simple exceedingly simple it was only impossible
forsooth said his host i will tell you i was but late at a jousting and there i jousted with a knight that is brother unto king pellam and twice smote i him down and then he promised to quit me on my best friend
and so he wounded my son that cannot be whole till i have of that knight's blood
invisible but i know not his name ah said balin i know that knight his name is garlon he hath slain two knights of mine in the same manner therefore
i had liefer meet with that knight than all the gold in this realm for the despite he hath done me well said his host i shall tell you
hath made do cry in all this country a great feast that shall be within these twenty days and no knight may come there but if he bring his wife with him or his paramour and that knight your enemy and mine ye shall see that day
then i behote you said balin part of his blood to heal your son withal we will be forward to morn said his host
and that same day began the great feast and so they alighted and stabled their horses and went into the castle but balin's host might not be let in because he had no lady then balin was well received and brought unto a chamber and unarmed him
and there were brought him robes to his pleasure
that do i not for it is the custom of my country
and that custom will i keep or else i will depart as i came then they gave him leave to wear his sword and so he went unto the castle
among knights of worship and his lady afore him soon balin asked a knight is there not a knight in this court whose name is garlon yonder he goeth said a knight he with the black face he is the marvellest knight that is now living
for he destroyeth many good knights for he goeth invisible ah well said balin is that he then balin advised him long if i slay him here i shall not escape and if i leave him now
and much harm he will do an he live therewith
and then he came and smote balin on the face with the back of his hand and said knight why beholdest me so for shame therefore eat thy meat and do that thou came for thou sayest sooth said balin
this is not the first despite that thou hast done me and therefore i will do what i came for and rose up fiercely and clave his head to the shoulders give me the truncheon said balin to his lady wherewith he slew your knight
anon she gave it him for alway she bare the truncheon with her and therewith balin smote him through the body and said openly with that truncheon thou hast slain a good knight and now it sticketh in thy body
yes said king pellam
sunder and when balin was weaponless he ran into a chamber for to seek some weapon and so from chamber to chamber and no weapon he could find and always king pellam after him and at the last he entered into a chamber that was marvellously well dight and richly
and one lying therein and thereby stood a table of clean gold with four pillars of silver that bare up the table and upon the table stood a marvellous spear strangely wrought and when balin saw that spear he gat it in his hand
and turned him to king pellam and smote him passingly sore with that spear that king pellam fell down in a swoon and therewith the castle roof
balin lo said merlin
and king pellam lay so many years sore wounded and might never be whole till galahad the haut prince healed him in the quest of the sangreal for in that place was part of the blood of our lord jesus christ that joseph of arimathea
brought into this land and there himself lay in that rich bed and that was the same spear that longius smote our lord to the heart and king pellam was nigh of joseph's kin and that was the most worshipful man that lived in those days
and great pity it was of his hurt for through that stroke turned to great dole tray and tene then departed balin from merlin and said in this world we meet never no more
so he rode forth through the fair countries and cities and found the people dead slain on every side and all that were alive cried o balin thou hast caused great damage in these countries for the dolorous stroke thou gavest unto king pellam three countries are destroyed
and doubt not but the vengeance will fall on thee at the last when balin was past those countries he was passing fain so he rode eight days or he met with adventure and at the last he came into a fair forest in a valley and was ware of a tower
and there beside he saw a great horse of war tied to a tree and there beside sat a fair knight on the ground and made great mourning
why be ye so heavy tell me and i will amend it an i may to my power sir knight said he again thou dost me great grief for i was in merry thoughts and now thou puttest me to more pain
ah fair lady why have ye broken my promise for thou promisest me to meet me here by noon and i may curse thee that ever ye gave me this sword for with this sword i slay myself and pulled it out
an ye will tell me where she is what is your name said the knight my name is balin le savage ah sir i know you well enough
your hands living what is your name said balin
and gave me lands his name is duke hermel and his daughter is she that i love and she me as i deemed how far is she hence said balin but six mile said the knight
said these two knights so they rode more than a pace till that they came to a fair castle well walled and ditched i will into the castle said balin and look if she be there so he went in and searched from chamber to chamber and found her bed but she was not there
then balin looked into a fair little garden and under a laurel tree he saw her lie upon a quilt of green samite and a knight in her arms fast halsing either other and under their heads grass and herbs
then balin went through all the chambers again and told the knight how he found her
god knoweth i did none other but as i would ye did to me alas said garnish now is my sorrow double that i may not endure
and so he rode forth and within three days he came by a cross and thereon were letters of gold written that said
to ride toward this castle then saw he an old hoar gentleman coming toward him that said balin le savage thou passest thy bounds to come this way therefore turn again and it will avail thee
the death of a beast that blast said balin is blown for me for i am the prize and yet am i not dead
that welcomed him with fair semblant and made him passing good cheer unto his sight
and there was dancing and minstrelsy
knight with the two swords ye must have ado and joust with a knight hereby that keepeth an island
well said balin
but travelling men are oft weary and their horses too but though my horse be weary my heart is not weary i would be fain there my death should be sir said a knight to balin methinketh your shield is not good i will lend you a bigger thereof i pray you
and so he took the shield that was unknown and left his own and so rode unto the island and put him and his horse in a great boat and when he came on the other side he met with a damosel and she said o knight balin
alas ye have put yourself in great danger for by your shield ye should have been known it is great pity of you as ever was of knight for of thy prowess and hardiness thou hast no fellow living
me repenteth said balin that ever i came within this country
and what adventure shall fall to me be it life or death
and then he looked on his armour
and so they aventryd
and they smote each other in the shields but their spears and their course were so big that it bare down horse and man that they lay both in a swoon but balin was bruised sore with the fall of his horse for he was weary of travel
was the first that rose on foot and drew his sword and went toward balin
up his shield and smote him through the shield and tamed his helm then balin
and so they fought there together till their breaths failed then balin looked up to the castle and saw the towers stand full of ladies so they went unto battle again and wounded everych other dolefully
and then they breathed ofttimes and so went unto battle that all the place there as they fought was blood red and at that time there was none of them both but they had either smitten other seven great wounds
to hear of that battle for the great blood shedding and their hauberks unnailed that naked they were on every side at last balan the younger brother withdrew him a little and laid him down
then said balin le savage what knight art thou for or now i found never no knight that matched me my name is
then balan yede on all four feet and hands and put off the helm off his brother and might not know him by the visage it was so ful hewn and bled
wherefore all the wide world shall speak of us both alas said balan that ever i saw this day
alas said balin all that made an unhappy knight in the castle
for here it happed me to slay a knight that kept this island and since might i never depart and no more should ye brother an ye might have slain me as ye have and escaped yourself with the life
right so came the lady of the tower with four knights and six ladies and six yeomen unto them and there she heard how they made their moan either to other and said
out of one tomb that is to say one mother's belly and so shall we lie both in one pit so balan prayed the lady of her gentleness for his true service that she would bury them both in that same place there the battle was done
and she granted them with weeping it should be done richly in the best manner now will ye send for a priest that we may receive our sacrament and receive the blessed body of our lord jesus christ yea
lady it shall be done and so she sent for a priest and gave them their rights now said balin when we are buried in one tomb and the mention made over us how two brethren slew each other
there will never good knight nor good man see our tomb but they will pray for our souls and so all the ladies and gentlewomen wept for pity then anon balan died but balin died not till the midnight after
and so were they buried both and the lady let make a mention of balan how he was there slain by his brother's hands
that there should never man lie therein but he went out of his wit
fordid that bed through his noblesse and anon after balin was dead merlin took his sword and took off the pommel and set on another pommel so merlin bade a knight that stood afore him handle that sword and he assayed
and he might not handle it then merlin laughed why laugh ye said the knight this is the cause said merlin there shall never man handle this sword but the best knight of the world and that shall be sir launcelot or else galahad his son
and launcelot with this sword shall slay the man that in the world he loved best that shall be sir gawaine all this he let write in the pommel of the sword
into that island and it was but half a foot broad and there shall never man pass that bridge nor have hardiness to go over but if he were a passing good man and a good knight without treachery or villainy
also the scabbard of balin's sword merlin left it on this side the island that galahad should find it also merlin
and the stone hoved always above the water and did many years and so by adventure it swam down the stream to the city of camelot that is in english winchester and that same day galahad the haut prince came with king arthur
and so galahad brought with him the scabbard and achieved the sword that was there in the marble stone
and on whitsunday he achieved the sword as it is rehearsed in the book of sangreal soon after this was done merlin came to king arthur and told him of the dolorous stroke that balin gave to king pellam
and how balin and balan fought together the marvellest battle that ever was heard of and how they were buried both in one tomb alas said king arthur
this is the greatest pity that ever i heard tell of two knights for in the world i know not such two knights
they entered with the night a sullen horde spattered with slime faint with hunger and exhaustion there was little disorder at first
and the throng at the gates parted silently as the troops tramped along the freezing streets confusion came as the hours passed swiftly and more swiftly crowding squadron after squadron and battery on battery
horses plunging and caissons jolting the remnants from the front surged through the gates a chaos of cavalry and artillery struggling for the right of way close upon them stumbled the infantry
here a skeleton of a regiment marching with a desperate attempt at order there a riotous mob of mobiles crushing their way to the streets then a turmoil of horsemen cannon troops without officers officers without men
then again a line of ambulances the wheels groaning under their heavy loads dumb with misery the crowd looked on all through the day the ambulances had been arriving
at noon the crowd was increased ten fold filling the squares about the gates and swarming over the inner fortifications at four o'clock in the afternoon the german batteries suddenly wreathed themselves in smoke
and the shells fell fast on montparnasse at twenty minutes after four two projectiles struck a house in the rue de bac and a moment later the first shell fell in the latin
quarter braith was painting in bed when west came in very much scared i wish you would come down our house has been knocked into a cocked hat
and i'm afraid that some of the pillagers may take it into their heads to pay us a visit to night braith jumped out of bed and bundled himself into a garment which had once been an overcoat anybody hurt
he inquired struggling with a sleeve full of dilapidated lining no colette is barricaded in the cellar and the concierge ran away to the fortifications there will be a rough gang there if the bombardment keeps up you might help us
of course said braith
that the latter cried have you seen jack trent to day no replied braith looking troubled he was not at ambulance headquarters he stayed to take care of sylvia i suppose
a bomb came crashing through the roof of a house at the end of the alley and burst in the basement showering the street with slate and plaster a second struck a chimney and plunged into the garden followed by an avalanche of bricks
and another exploded with a deafening report in the next street they hurried along the passage to the steps which led to the cellar here again braith stopped
don't you think i had better run up to see if jack and sylvia are well entrenched i can get back before dark no go in and find colette and i'll go no no let me go there's no danger
i know it replied west calmly and dragging braith into the alley pointed to the cellar steps the iron door was barred colette colette he called
the door swung inward and the girl sprang up the stairs to meet them at that instant braith glancing behind him gave a startled cry and pushing the two before him into the cellar jumped down after them and slammed the iron door
a few seconds later a heavy jar from the outside shook the hinges they are here muttered west very pale that door observed colette calmly
now trembling with the blows rained on it from without west glanced anxiously at colette who displayed no agitation and this comforted him i don't believe they will spend much time here said braith
they only rummage in cellars for spirits i imagine unless they hear that valuables are buried there but surely nothing is buried here exclaimed braith uneasily unfortunately there is growled west
that miserly landlord of mine a crash from the outside followed by a yell cut him short then blow after blow shook the doors until there came a sharp snap a clinking of metal and a triangular bit of iron fell inwards
leaving a hole through which struggled a ray of light instantly west knelt and shoving his revolver through the aperture fired every cartridge for a moment the alley resounded with the racket of the revolver then absolute silence followed
presently a single questioning blow fell upon the door and a moment later another and another and then a sudden crack zigzagged across the iron plate here said west seizing colette by the wrist
you follow me braith and he ran swiftly toward a circular spot of light at the further end of the cellar the spot of light came from a barred man hole above
push it over you must with little effort braith lifted the barred cover scrambled out on his stomach and easily raised colette from west's shoulders quick old chap cried the latter
braith twisted his legs around a fence chain and leaned down again the cellar was flooded with a yellow light and the air reeked with the stench of petroleum torches the iron door still held but a whole plate of metal was gone
and now as they looked a figure came creeping through holding a torch quick whispered braith jump and west hung dangling until colette grasped him by the collar and he was dragged out
then her nerves gave way and she wept hysterically but west threw his arm around her and led her across the gardens into the next street where braith after replacing the man hole cover and piling some stone slabs from the wall over it
rejoined them it was almost dark they hurried through the street now only lighted by burning buildings or the swift glare of the shells they gave wide berth to the fires
but at a distance saw the flitting forms of pillagers among the debris sometimes they passed a female fury crazed with drink shrieking anathemas upon the world or some slouching lout whose blackened face and hands
betrayed his share in the work of destruction at last they reached the seine and passed the bridge and then braith said i must go back i am not sure of jack and sylvia
as he spoke he made way for a crowd which came trampling across the bridge and along the river wall by the d'orsay barracks
a file of bayonets then another lantern which glimmered on a deathly face behind and colette gasped hartman and he was gone they peered fearfully across the embankment
holding their breath there was a shuffle of feet on the quay and the gate of the barracks slammed a lantern shone for a moment at the postern the crowd pressed to the grille
and now the whole square was in motion down from the champs elysees and across the place de la concorde straggled the fragments of the battle a company here and a mob there
they poured in from every street followed by women and children and a great murmur borne on the icy wind swept through the arc de triomphe and down the dark avenue
perdus a ragged end of a battalion was pressing past the spectre of annihilation west groaned then a figure sprang from the shadowy ranks and called west's name
and when he saw it was trent he cried out trent seized him white with terror sylvia west stared speechless but colette moaned oh sylvia sylvia
trent shouted braith but he was gone and they could not overtake them
but the entrance to the rue de seine was blocked by a heap of smoking bricks everywhere the shells had torn great holes in the pavement the cafe was a wreck of splinters and glass the book store tottered
ripped from roof to basement and the little bakery long since closed bulged outward above a mass of slate and tin he climbed over the steaming bricks and hurried into the rue de tournon
on the corner a fire blazed lighting up his own street and on the bank wall beneath a shattered gas lamp a child was writing with a bit of cinder here fell the first shell
the letters stared him in the face the rat killer finished and stepped back to view his work but catching sight of trent's bayonet screamed and fled and as trent staggered across the shattered street
from holes and crannies in the ruins fierce women fled from their work of pillage cursing him at first he could not find his house for the tears blinded him but he felt along the wall and reached the door
a lantern burned in the concierge's lodge and the old man lay dead beside it faint with fright he leaned a moment on his rifle then snatching the lantern sprang up the stairs he tried to call
but his tongue hardly moved on the second floor he saw plaster on the stairway and on the third the floor was torn and the concierge lay in a pool of blood across the landing the next floor was his
theirs the door hung from its hinges the walls gaped he crept in and sank down by the bed and there two arms were flung around his neck and a tear stained face sought his own
sylvia o jack jack jack from the tumbled pillow beside them a child wailed they brought it it is mine she sobbed ours he whispered
when he got into the yard he found the stable door just opened i'm the early bird i think he said to himself i hope i shall catch the worm he would not ask any one to help him
fearing his project might meet with disapproval and opposition with great difficulty but with the help of a broken chair he brought down from his bedroom he managed to put the harness on diamond
if the old horse had had the least objection to the proceeding of course he could not have done it but even when it came to the bridle he opened his mouth for the bit just as if he had been taking the apple which diamond sometimes gave him he
fastened the cheek strap very carefully just in the usual hole for fear of choking his friend or else letting the bit get amongst his teeth it was a job to get the saddle on
but with the chair he managed it if old diamond had had an education in physics to equal that of the camel he would have knelt down to let him put it on his back but that was more than could be expected of him
and then diamond had to creep quite under him to get hold of the girth the collar was almost the worst part of the business but there diamond could help diamond
he held his head very low till his little master had got it over and turned it round and then he lifted his head and shook it on to his shoulders the yoke was rather difficult but when he had laid the traces over the horse's neck
got them up one after the other into the loops fastened the traces the belly band the breeching and the reins then he got his whip the moment he mounted the box the men broke into a hearty cheer of delight at his success
but they would not let him go without a general inspection of the harness and although they found it right for not a buckle had to be shifted they never allowed him to do it for himself again all the time his father was ill
the cheer brought his mother to the window and there she saw her little boy setting out alone with the cab in the gray of morning she tugged at the window but it was stiff and before she could open it
diamond who was in a great hurry was out of the mews and almost out of the street she called diamond diamond but there was no answer except from jack never fear for him ma'am said jack
it ud be only a devil as would hurt him and there ain't so many o them as some folk ud have you believe a boy o diamond's size as can arness a oss t'other diamond's size and put him to right as a trivet
but he won't upset the cab will he jack not he ma'am leastways he won't go for to do it i know as much as that myself what do you mean i mean he's a little likely to do it as the oldest man in the stable
how's the gov'nor to day ma'am a good deal better thank you she answered closing the window in some fear lest her husband should have been made anxious by the news of diamond's expedition he knew pretty well however what his boy was capable of
and although not quite easy was less anxious than his mother but as the evening drew on the anxiety of both of them increased and every sound of wheels made his father raise himself in his bed and his mother peep out of the window
diamond had resolved to go straight to the cab stand where he was best known and never to crawl for fear of getting annoyed by idlers before he got across oxford street however he was hailed by a man who wanted to catch a train
and was in too great a hurry to think about the driver having carried him to king's cross in good time and got a good fare in return he set off again in great spirits and reached the stand in safety he was the first there after all
as the men arrived they all greeted him kindly and inquired after his father ain't you afraid of the old oss running away with you asked one no he wouldn't run away with me
or if he did he would only run home well you're a plucky one for all your girl's looks
i'll do what i can i came to the old place you see because i knew you would let me have my turn here in the course of the day one man did try to cut him out but he was a stranger and the shout the rest of them raised
let him see it would not do and made him so far ashamed besides that he went away crawling once in a block a policeman came up to him and asked him for his number
diamond showed him his father's badge saying with a smile father's ill at home and so i came out with the cab there's no fear of me i can drive besides the old horse could go alone
just as well i daresay you're a pair of em but you are a rum un for a cabby ain't you now said the policeman i don't know as i ought to let you go i ain't done nothing
said diamond it's not my fault i'm no bigger i'm big enough for my age that's where it is said the man you ain't fit how do you know that asked diamond with his usual smile
and turning his head like a little bird why how are you to get out of this ruck now when it begins to move just you get up on the box said diamond and i'll show you
there that van's a moving now jump up the policeman did as diamond told him and was soon satisfied that the little fellow could drive well he said as he got down again
good luck to you my little man thank you sir said diamond and drove away in a few minutes a gentleman hailed him are you the driver of this cab he asked
yes sir said diamond showing his badge of which he was proud you're the youngest cabman i ever saw how am i to know you won't break all my bones i would rather break all my own said diamond but if you're afraid
never mind me i shall soon get another fare i'll risk it said the gentleman and opening the door himself he jumped in he was going a good distance and soon found that diamond got him over the ground well
now when diamond had only to go straight ahead and had not to mind so much what he was about his thoughts always turned to the riddle mister raymond had set him
he had given up all hope of finding it out for himself and he could not plague his father about it when he was ill he had thought of the answer himself but fancied it could not be the right one
for to see how it all fitted required some knowledge of physiology so when he reached the end of his journey he got down very quickly and with his head just looking in at the window said as the gentleman gathered his gloves and newspapers
please sir can you tell me the meaning of a riddle you must tell me the riddle first answered the gentleman amused diamond repeated the riddle oh that's easy enough he returned it's a tree
well it ain't got no mouth sure enough but how then does it eat all day long it sucks in its food through the tiniest holes in its leaves he answered its breath is its food
returned diamond i'm sorry i couldn't find it out myself mister raymond would have been better pleased with me but you needn't tell him any one told you
diamond gave him a stare which came from the very back of the north wind
he said at last ain't you a cabby then cabbies don't cheat
what's your fare young innocent well i think the distance is a good deal over three miles that's two shillings only father says sixpence a mile is too little though we can't ask for more
you're a deep one but i think you're wrong it's over four miles not much but it is then that's half a crown said diamond
it'll help father to get well again it will i hope it may my man i shouldn't wonder if you're as good as you look after all as diamond returned
it was time to give diamond his bag of chopped beans and oats the men got about him and began to chaff him he took it all good humouredly until one of them
who was an ill conditioned fellow began to tease old diamond by poking him roughly in the ribs and making general game of him that he could not bear and the tears came in his eyes he undid the nose bag
put it in the boot and was just going to mount and drive away when the fellow interfered and would not let him get up diamond endeavoured to persuade him and was very civil but he would have his fun out of him as he said
in a few minutes a group of idle boys had assembled and diamond found himself in a very uncomfortable position another cab drew up at the stand and the driver got off and approached the assemblage
what's up here he asked and diamond knew the voice it was that of the drunken cabman do you see this young oyster he pretends to drive a cab said his enemy yes i do see him
and i sees you too you'd better leave him alone he ain't no oyster he's a angel come down on his own business you be off or i'll be nearer you than quite agreeable the drunken cabman was a tall stout man
who did not look one to take liberties with oh if he's a friend of yours said the other drawing back diamond got out the nose bag again old diamond should have his feed out now
yes he is a friend o mine one o the best i ever had it's a pity he ain't a friend o yourn you'd be the better for it
when diamond went home at night he carried with him one pound one shilling and sixpence besides a few coppers extra which had followed some of the fares his mother had got very anxious indeed
so much so that she was almost afraid when she did hear the sound of his cab to go and look lest she should be yet again disappointed and should break down before her husband but there was the old horse and there was the cab all right
and there was diamond in the box his pale face looking triumphant as a full moon in the twilight when he drew up at the stable door jack came out and after a good many friendly questions and congratulations said
you go in to your mother diamond i'll put up the old oss i'll take care on him
said diamond and bounded into the house and into the arms of his mother who was waiting him at the top of the stair the poor anxious woman led him into his own room sat down on his bed
took him on her lap as if he had been a baby and cried how's father asked diamond almost afraid to ask better my child she answered but uneasy about you my dear
didn't you tell him i was the early bird gone out to catch the worm that was what put it in your head was it you monkey said his mother
beginning to get better that or something else answered diamond so very quietly that his mother held his head back and stared in his face well of all the children she said and said no more
but to see her face as he poured the shillings and sixpences and pence into her lap she burst out crying a second time and ran with the money to her husband
and how pleased he was it did him no end of good but while he was counting the coins
chapter nine a jester and a bear yes we were in the garden once more and to escape that horrid discordant voice we hurried indoors and found ourselves in the library
the professor standing by with a bewildered air and my lady with her arms clasped round her son's neck repeating over and over again and did they give him nasty lessons to learn my
what's all this noise about the vice warden angrily enquired as he strode into the room and who put the hat stand here and he hung his hat up on bruno
who was standing in the middle of the room too much astonished by the sudden change of scene to make any attempt at removing it though it came down to his shoulders making him look something like a small candle
with a large extinguisher over it the professor mildly explained that his highness had been graciously pleased to say he wouldn't do his lessons
thundered the vice warden and take this and a resounding box on the ear made the unfortunate professor reel across the room
as he sank half fainting at my lady's feet shave you of
he shouted hammer it in i say hammer it
blow after blow
and he flung his arms round the neck of the terrified professor who raised a wild shriek but whether he received the threatened kiss or not i was unable to see as bruno who had by this time released himself from his extinguisher
that i hurried after them we must go to father sylvie panted as they ran down the garden
i'll ask the gardener to let us out again
and after lending them a hand in hauling up their boat i lingered yet awhile to watch them disembark a goodly assortment of the hard won treasures of the deep when at last i reached our lodgings i was tired and sleepy
and glad enough to settle down again into the easy chair while arthur hospitably went to his cupboard to get me out some cake and wine without which he declared he could not as a doctor permit my going to bed
and how that cupboard door did creak it surely could not be arthur who was opening and shutting it so often moving so restlessly about and muttering like the soliloquy of a tragedy queen no
it was a female voice also the figure half hidden by the cupboard door was a female figure massive and in flowing robes could it be the landlady the door opened
and a strange man entered the room what is that donkey doing he said to himself pausing aghast on the threshold the lady thus rudely referred to was his wife
she had got one of the cupboards open and stood with her back to him smoothing down a sheet of brown paper on one of the shelves and whispering to herself so so deftly done
craftily contrived her loving husband stole behind her on tiptoe and tapped her on the head boh he playfully shouted at her ear
my lady wrung her hands
she groaned yet no he is one of us reveal it not oh man
her husband testily replied dragging out the sheet of brown paper what
i insist upon knowing my lady cast down her eyes and spoke in the littlest of little voices
she pleaded it's it's don't you understand it's a
sneered his excellency we've only got to make people think he's dead
him and made of tin too he snarled contemptuously bending the blade round his thumb now madam you'll be good enough to explain first what
one must have an alias you know oh
what did you get this dagger for come no evasions you ca'n't deceive me
the detected conspirator stammered trying her best to put on the assassin expression that she had been practising at the looking glass
that's what i got it for
groaned the other conspirator why they aren't worth half the money put together on my birthday my lady concluded in a meek whisper one must have a dagger you know it's
oh don't talk of conspiracies her husband savagely interrupted as he tossed the dagger into the cupboard
now just look at this and with pardonable pride he fitted on the cap and bells
and winked at her and put his tongue in his cheek is that the sort of thing now he demanded my lady's eyes flashed with all a conspirator's enthusiasm
she exclaimed clapping her hands you do look
the fool smiled a doubtful smile
you mean a jester yes that's what i intended and what do you think your disguise is to be and he proceeded to unfold the parcel the lady watching him in rapture
when at last the dress was unfolded
as a harsh voice yelled through the room
but it was only the gardener singing under the open window the vice warden stole on tip toe to the window and closed it noiselessly before he ventured to go on yes lovey
a bear but not without a head i hope
and if any one knows us they'll have sharp eyes that's all
my lady said looking out through the bear's mouth
laying hold of the chain that hung from the bear's collar with one hand while with the other he cracked a little whip
who had just come into the room and was now standing with his hands spread out and eyes and mouth wide open the very picture of stupid amazement
was all he could gasp out the keeper pretended to be adjusting the bear's collar
my fault i'm afraid quite forgot to fasten the door plot's ruined if he finds it out keep it up a minute or two longer be savage then while seeming to pull it back with all his strength
he let it advance upon the scared boy my lady with admirable presence of mind kept up what she no doubt intended for a savage growl though it was more like the purring of a cat
an accident to which even his doting mother paid no heed in the excitement of the moment the vice warden shut and bolted the door off with the disguises he panted
and in another minute the disguises were stowed away in the cupboard the door unbolted and the two conspirators seated lovingly side by side on the sofa
earnestly discussing a book the vice warden had hastily snatched off the table which proved to be the city directory of the capital of outland the door opened very slowly and cautiously and the professor peeped in
the vice warden was saying with enthusiasm you see my precious one that there are fifteen houses in green street before you turn into west street
and so intent were they on this interesting question that neither of them even looked up till the professor
stood close before them my lady was the first to notice their approach why here's the professor she exclaimed in her blandest tones and my precious child too are lessons over
the professor began in a trembling tone
and a court jester the vice warden and his wife shook with well acted merriment not in this room darling said the fond mother
we've been sitting here this hour or more reading here she referred to the book lying on her lap reading the the city directory let me feel your pulse my boy
said the anxious father now put out your tongue ah i thought so he's a little feverish professor
put him to bed at once and give him a cooling draught i ain't been dreaming his exalted fatness remonstrated as the professor led him away bad grammar sir
his father remarked with some sternness kindly attend to that little matter professor as soon as you have corrected the feverishness and by the way professor
the professor left his distinguished pupil standing at the door and meekly returned there is a rumour afloat that the people wish to elect an
no certainly not
she glanced at her husband
the professor fervently responded quite failing to take the hint the vice warden resumed the thread of his discourse the reason i mentioned it professor
it would make the thing respectable no suspicion of anything underhand
the old man faltered
the vice warden interrupted your position as court professor makes it awkward i admit
and a cooling draught
a ride on a lion the next day glided away pleasantly enough partly in settling myself in my new quarters and partly in strolling round the neighbourhood under arthur's guidance
and trying to form a general idea of elveston and its inhabitants when five o'clock arrived arthur proposed without any embarrassment this time to take me with him up to the hall
in order that i might make acquaintance with the earl of ainslie who had taken it for the season and renew acquaintance with his daughter lady muriel
my first impressions of the gentle dignified and yet genial old man were entirely favourable and the real satisfaction that showed itself on his daughter's face as she met me with the words
was very soothing for whatever remains of personal vanity the failures and disappointments of many long years and much buffeting with a rough world had left in me yet i noted and was glad to note
in her meeting with arthur though this was as i gathered an almost daily occurrence and the conversation between them in which the earl and i were only occasional sharers
rarely met with except between very old friends and as i knew that they had not known each other for a longer period than the summer which was now rounding into autumn i felt certain that love
and love alone could explain the phenomenon how convenient it would be
lady muriel laughingly remarked a propos of my having insisted on saving her the trouble of carrying a cup of tea across the room to the earl if cups of tea had no weight at all then perhaps
said the earl tell us how it could be we shall never guess it well suppose this house just as it is placed a few billion miles above a planet and with nothing else near enough to disturb it
of course it falls to the planet the earl nodded
and is five o'clock tea to be going on all the while said lady muriel that and other things said arthur the inhabitants would live their lives grow up and die
and still the house would be falling falling falling but now as to the relative weight of things nothing can be heavy you know except by trying to fall and being prevented from doing so you all grant that
we all granted that well now if i take this book and hold it out at arm's length of course i feel its weight it is trying to fall and i prevent it
but if we were all falling together it couldn't be trying to fall any quicker you know for if i let go what more could it do than fall and as my hand would be falling too at the same rate
it would never leave it for that would be to get ahead of it in the race and it could never overtake the failing floor
how can you make us do it there is a more curious idea yet i ventured to say suppose a cord fastened to the house from below and pulled down by some one on the planet
then of course the house goes faster than its natural rate of falling but the furniture with our noble selves
said the earl the inevitable result of which would be concussion of brain to avoid that said arthur let us have the furniture fixed to the floor and ourselves tied down to the furniture
then the five o'clock tea could go on in peace with one little drawback lady muriel gaily interrupted we should take the cups down with us but what about the tea
i had forgotten the tea arthur confessed that no doubt would rise to the ceiling unless you chose to drink it on the way
is quite nonsense enough for one while said the earl
this drew me into the conversation which now took a more conventional tone after a while arthur gave the signal for our departure and in the cool of the evening we strolled down to the beach
enjoying the silence broken only by the murmur of the sea and the far away music of some fishermen's song almost as much as our late pleasant talk we sat down among the rocks
by a little pool so rich in animal vegetable and zoophytic or whatever is the right word life that i became entranced in the study of it and when arthur proposed returning to our lodgings
i begged to be left there for a while to watch and muse alone the fishermen's song grew ever nearer and clearer as their boat stood in for the beach and i would have gone down to see them land their cargo of fish
had not the microcosm at my feet stirred my curiosity yet more keenly one ancient crab that was for ever shuffling frantically from side to side of the pool
he's not hungry but we want to see him so will you please
and he flung the door open and let us out upon the dusty high road we soon found our way to the bush which had so mysteriously sunk into the ground and here
sylvie drew the magic locket from its hiding place turned it over with a thoughtful air and at last appealed to bruno in a rather helpless way what was it we had to do with it bruno
it's all gone out of my head kiss it was bruno's invariable recipe in cases of doubt and difficulty sylvie kissed it but no result followed
was bruno's next suggestion which is the wrong way sylvie most reasonably enquired the obvious plan was to try both ways rubbing from left to right had no visible effect whatever
for a number of trees on the neighbouring hillside were moving slowly upwards in solemn procession while a mild little brook that had been rippling at our feet a moment before
and hiss and bubble
up and down did it and the landscape which had been showing signs of mental aberration in various directions returned to its normal condition of sobriety with the exception of a small yellowish brown mouse
which continued to run wildly up and down the road lashing its tail like a little lion let's follow it said sylvie
the mouse at once settled down into a business like jog trot with which we could easily keep pace the only phenomenon that gave me any uneasiness
was the rapid increase in the size of the little creature we were following which became every moment more and more like a real lion
and seated herself behind him pillion fashion bruno took a good handful of mane in each hand
the lion at once broke into an easy canter and we soon found ourselves in the depths of the forest i say we for i am certain that i accompanied them
though how i managed to keep up with a cantering lion i am wholly unable to explain but i was certainly one of the party when we came upon an old beggar man cutting sticks at whose feet
the lion made a profound obeisance sylvie and bruno at the same moment dismounting and leaping in to the arms of their father
the old man said to himself dreamily when the children had finished their rather confused account of the ambassador's visit gathered no doubt from general report as they had not seen him themselves from bad to worse
that is their destiny i see it but i cannot alter it the selfishness of a mean and crafty man the selfishness of an ambitious and silly woman the selfishness of a spiteful and loveless child
all tend one way from bad to worse and you my darlings must suffer it awhile i fear yet when things are at their worst you can come to me
gathering up a handful of dust and scattering it in the air he slowly and solemnly pronounced some words that sounded like a charm the children looking on in awe struck silence
ambition spite be quenched in reason's night
till what is dark be light till what is wrong
a discordant voice yelled in our ears were
lady muriel and her father gave me a delightfully warm welcome they were not of the folk we meet in fashionable drawing rooms who conceal all such feelings as they may chance to possess beneath
the impenetrable mask of a conventional placidity
when they looked pleased it meant that they were pleased and when lady muriel said with a bright smile i'm very glad to see you again i knew that it was true
still i did not venture to disobey the injunctions crazy as i felt them to be of the lovesick young doctor by so much as alluding to his existence
and it was only after they had given me full details of a projected picnic to which they invited me that lady muriel exclaimed almost as an after thought
bring doctor forester with you i'm sure a day in the country would do him good i'm afraid he studies too much
his only books are woman's looks but i checked myself just in time
and has been all but run over by a passing hansom and i think he has too lonely a life she went on with a gentle earnestness that left no room whatever to suspect a double meaning
do get him to come and don't forget the day tuesday week we can drive you over it would be a pity to go by rail there is so much pretty scenery on the road
and our open carriage just holds four oh i'll persuade him to come i said with confidence thinking it would take all my powers of persuasion to keep him away the picnic
was to take place in ten days
nothing that i could say would induce him to call either with me or without me on the earl and his daughter in the meanwhile no he feared to wear out his welcome he said
they had seen enough of him for one while and when at last the day for the expedition arrived he was so childishly nervous and uneasy that i thought it best so to arrange our plans
that we should go separately to the house my intention being to arrive some time after him so as to give him time to get over a meeting with this object
i purposely made a considerable circuit on my way to the hall as we called the earl's house and if i could only manage to lose my way a bit i thought to myself that would suit me capitally
in this i succeeded better and sooner than i had ventured to hope for the path through the wood had been made familiar to me by many a solitary stroll in my former visit to elveston
and how i could have so suddenly and so entirely lost it even though i was so engrossed in thinking of arthur and his lady love that i heeded little else was a mystery to me
and this open place i said to myself seems to have some memory about it i cannot distinctly recall surely it is the very spot where i saw those fairy children
but i hope there are no snakes about i mused aloud taking my seat on a fallen tree i certainly do not like snakes and i don't suppose bruno likes them either
no he doesn't like them said a demure little voice at my side he's not afraid of them you know but he doesn't like them he says they're too waggly
words fail me to describe the beauty of the little group couched on a patch of moss on the trunk of the fallen tree
but you like a dog when it wags its tail sylvie interrupted
bruno appealed to me you wouldn't like to have a dog if it hadn't got nuffin but a head and a tail i admitted that a dog of that kind would be uninteresting
there isn't such a dog as that sylvie thoughtfully remarked but there would be cried bruno if the professor shortened it up for us
shortened it up i said
he's got a curious machine sylvie was beginning to explain a welly curious machine bruno broke in not at all willing to have the story thus taken out of his mouth
sylvie echoed and one day when we was in outland oo know before we came to fairyland
and then its eyes looked unhappy not both its eyes sylvie interrupted course not said the little fellow
i asked as the story was getting a little complicated half as short again as when we caught it so long said bruno spreading out his arms to their full stretch
i tried to calculate what this would come to but it was too hard for me please make it out for me dear child who reads this
sylvie and me took it back again and we got it stretched to to how much was it sylvie two times and a half and a little bit more said sylvie
i don't believe no crocodile never walked along its own forehead sylvie cried
bruno scornfully retorted it had a welly good reason i heerd it say why shouldn't i walk on my own
so a course it did oo know if that's a good reason bruno i said
said bruno soon as we've done talking
it appeared to me that a conversation would scarcely be comfable while trees were being climbed even if both the peoples were doing it
but it was evidently dangerous to oppose any theory of bruno's so i thought it best to let the question drop and to ask for an account of the machine that made things longer this time
bruno was at a loss and left it to sylvie it's like a mangle she said if things are put in
sylvie accepted the correction but did not attempt to pronounce the word which was evidently new to her
like that and they come out oh ever so long once bruno began again sylvie and me writed
sylvie whispered well we wroted a nursery song and the professor mangled it longer for us it were there was a little man and he had a little gun
and the bullets i know the rest i interrupted but would you say it long i mean the way that it came out of the mangle we'll get the professor to sing it for you said sylvie
it would spoil it to say it i would like to meet the professor i said
i don't think the professor would like to come said sylvie he's very shy but we'd like it very much only we'd better not come this size you know
the difficulty had occurred to me already and i had felt that
what size will you be i enquired
common children sylvie thoughtfully replied that's the easiest size to manage could you come to day i said thinking then we could have you at the picnic
sylvie considered a little not to day she replied we haven't got the things ready we'll come on tuesday next if you like
and now really bruno you must come and do your lessons
and he threw his arms round her neck for this novel but apparently not very painful operation it's very like kissing sylvie remarked
bruno replied with much severity as he marched away sylvie turned her laughing face to me shall we come on tuesday she said very well i said let it be tuesday next
though mild and gentle disadvantage inconvenience or penalty with every transgression in this chapter is to be considered another mode which is in some respects the converse of the first
or as it may be stated summarily the cautious encouragement of obedience by rewards this method of action is more difficult than the other in the sense that it requires more skill
tact and delicacy of perception and discrimination to carry it successfully into effect the other demands only firm but gentle and steady persistence if the penalty however slight it may be
always comes the effect will take care of itself but judiciously to administer a system of rewards or even of commendations requires tact discrimination and skill
it requires some observation of the peculiar characteristics of the different minds acted upon and of the effects produced and often some intelligent modification of the measures is required
to fit them to varying circumstances and times obedience must not be bought if the bestowing of commendation and rewards is made a matter of mere blind routine
as the assigning of gentle penalties may be the result will become a mere system of bribing or rather paying children to be good and goodness that is bought if it deserves the name of virtue at all
is certainly virtue of a very inferior quality whether a reward conferred for obedience shall operate as a bribe or rather as a price paid for a bribe strictly speaking is a price paid
not for doing right but for doing wrong depends sometimes on very slight differences in the management of the particular case
a mother for example going into the village on a summer afternoon leaves her children playing in the yard under the general charge of susan who is at work in the kitchen whence she can observe them from time to time through the open window
she thinks the children will be safe provided they remain in the yard
two different modes of management under some circumstances
as for example where the danger to which they would be exposed in going into the road was very great or where the mother can not rely upon her power to control her children's conduct by moral means in any way
the only safe method would be to fasten the gate but if she prefers to depend for their safety on their voluntary obedience to her commands and wishes moreover to promote the spirit of obedience by rewarding
rather than punishing she can make her rewards of the nature of hire or not according to her mode of management
if she wishes to hire obedience she has only to say to the children that she is going into the village for a little time and that they may play in the yard while she is gone but must not go out of the gate
adding that she is going to bring home some oranges or candies which she will give them if she finds that they have obeyed her but which she will not give them if they have disobeyed such a promise
namely first a full belief that she will really bring home the promised rewards if they obey her and secondly
and this is a confidence much less frequently felt by children and much less frequently deserved by their mothers a conviction that in case they disobey no importunities on their part or promises for the next time will induce their mother to give them the good things but that the rewards will certainly be lost to them
unless they are deserved according to the conditions of the promise in such a case that is when this double confidence exists the promise will have great influence upon the children still it is
in its nature hiring them to obey i do not say that this is necessarily a bad plan
children may perhaps be trained gradually to habits of obedience by a system of direct rewards and in a manner too far more agreeable to the parent and better for the child than by a system of compulsion
through threats and punishment the method of indirect rewarding
to parental authority in the minds of children as a means of alluring them to the habit of obedience
suppose for example in the case above described the mother on leaving the children simply gives them the command that they are not to leave the yard but makes no promises and then on returning from the village with the bonbons in her bag
simply asks susan when she comes in whether the children have obeyed her injunction not to leave the yard if susan says yes she nods to them with a look of satisfaction and pleasure
and adds i thought they would obey me i am very glad now i can trust them again then by and by towards the close of the day perhaps and when the children suppose that the affair is forgotten
she takes an opportunity to call them to her saying that she has something to tell them you remember when i went to the village to day i left you in the yard and said that you must not go out of the gate and you obeyed
perhaps you would have liked to go out into the road and play there but you would not go because i had forbidden it i am very glad that you obeyed i thought of you when i was in the village and i thought you would obey me i felt quite safe about you
i should have felt uneasy and anxious but i felt safe
it may perhaps be said by the reader that this is substantially the same as giving a direct reward for the obedience i admit that it is in some sense substantially the same thing
but it is not the same in form and this is one of those cases where the effect is modified very greatly by the form where children are directly promised a reward if they do so and so
they naturally regard the transaction as of the nature of a contract or a bargain such that when they have fulfilled the conditions on their part the reward is their due
and they come and demand it as such
the tendency then is to divest their minds of all sense of obligation in respect to doing right and to make them feel that it is in some sense optional with them whether to do right and earn the reward or not
to do right and lose it in the case however last described which seems at first view to differ only in form from the preceding one the commendation and the bonbons would be so connected with the act of obedience as to associate very agreeable ideas with it in the children's minds
and thus to make doing right appear attractive to them on future occasions
while at the same time they would not in any degree deprive the act itself of its spontaneous character as resulting from a sense of duty on their part or produce the impression on their minds that their remaining within the gate was of the nature of a service rendered to their mother for hire and afterwards duly paid for
the lesson which we deduce from this illustration and the considerations connected with it may be stated as follows the general principle
when you are at play and having a very pleasant time i know very well that it is hard for you to be called away to puzzle over your letters and your reading it was very hard for me when i was a child
it is very hard for all children but then it must be done the way in this
not to attempt to convince or persuade the child but to put the performance of them simply on the ground of submission to authority
the child must leave his play and come to take his lesson not because he sees that it is better for him to learn to read than to play all the time
or a lump of sugar or bestow upon him any other little gratification it is better not to promise these things beforehand so as to give to the coming of the child when called the character of a service rendered for hire let him come simply because he is called and then let the gratifications be bestowed as the expressions of his mother's satisfaction and happiness in view of her boy's ready
obedience to her commands and faithful performance of his duty obedience though implicit need not be blind
because a mother is not to rely upon the reason and forecast of the child in respect to future advantages to accrue from efforts or sacrifices as motives of present action
that she is not to employ the influence of these motives at all it is true that those faculties of the mind by which we apprehend distant things and govern our conduct by them are not yet developed in the child
and the aid of the parent will be of the greatest service in promoting the development of them
at proper times then the pleasures and advantages of knowing how to read should be described to the child and presented moreover in the most attractive form the proper time for doing this would be when no lesson is in question
during a ride or a walk or in the midst of a story or while looking at a book of pictures a most improper time would be when a command had been given and was disregarded
as a plant by being long held up by a stake comes in the end not to be able to stand alone so a mother can not in any way more effectually undermine her authority as authority
than by attempting to eke out its force by arguments and coaxings authority not to be made oppressive while the parent
must thus take care to establish the principle of authority as the ground of obedience on the part of his children and must not make their doing what he requires
any the less acts of obedience through vainly attempting to diminish the hardship of obeying a command by mingling the influence of reasonings and persuasions with it
he may in other ways do all in his power and that will be a great deal to make the acts of obedience easy or
one mode by which this may be done is by not springing disagreeable obligations upon a child suddenly but
by giving his mind a little time to form itself to the idea of what is to come when johnny and mary are playing together happily with their blocks upon the floor and are perhaps just completing a tower which they have been building
if their mother comes suddenly into the room announces to them abruptly that it is time for them to go to bed throws down the tower and brushes the blocks into the basket and then hurries the children away to the undressing
she gives a sudden and painful shock to their whole nervous system and greatly increases the disappointment and pain which they experience in being obliged to give up their play
the delay of a single minute would be sufficient to bring their minds round easily and gently into submission to the necessity of the case if she comes to them with a smile
and pleasure upon her countenance and then says it is bed time children but i would like to see you finish your tower one minute of delay like this to soften the suddenness of the transition
will make the act of submission to the necessity of giving up play and going to bed in obedience to the mother's command
as it very likely would otherwise have been extremely vexatious and painful give a little time in the same way
if the lady of the house comes a little before the time and says to them that after one more play or two more plays as the case may be the party must come to an end the closing of it would be made easy
while by waiting till the hour had come and then suddenly interrupting the gayety perhaps in the middle of a game by the abrupt announcement to the children that the clock has struck and they must stop their plays and begin to get ready to go home
she brings upon them a sudden shock of painful surprise disappointment and perhaps irritation so
if children are to be called away from their play for any purpose whatever it is always best to give them a little notice if it be only a moment's notice beforehand john
in a minute or two i shall wish you to go and get some wood you can be getting your things ready to be left mary it is almost time for your lesson
on the same principle
and are to be recalled by a bell obedience to the call will be made much more easy to them by a preliminary signal as a warning given five minutes before the time
of course it will not always be convenient to give these signals and these times of preparation nor will it be always necessary to give them
to determine how and in what cases it is best to apply the principle here explained will require some tact and good judgment on the part of the parent
all that is desirable is that the mother should understand the principle and that she should apply it as far as she conveniently and easily can do so she will find in practice that when she once appreciates the value of it
and observes its kind and beneficent working she will find it convenient and easy to apply it far more generally than she would suppose no weakening of authority in this
it is very plain that softening thus the hardship for the child of any act of obedience required of him by giving him a little time implies no abatement of the authority of the parent nor does it
detract at all from the implicitness of the obedience on the part of the child the submission to authority is as complete in doing a thing in five minutes if the order was to do it in five minutes
as in doing it at once if the order was to do it at once
when thus trying to make obedience more easy by allowing time that it should be prompt and absolute when the time has expired the idea is that though the parent is bound fully to maintain his authority over his children
in all its force he is also bound to make the exercise of it
all in his power to make the yoke of obedience light and easily to be borne influence on the healthful development of the brain indeed besides the bearing of these views on the happiness of the children
it is not at all improbable that the question of health may be seriously involved in them for
it is a perfectly well established fact that all its operations and functions as an animating spirit in the human body are fulfilled through the workings of material organs in the brain
tender and delicate condition and that all sudden sharp and especially painful emotions greatly excite and sometimes cruelly irritate them
is often interfered with by mental anxiety or distress how frequently in persons subject to headaches the paroxysm is brought on by worryings or perplexities endured incidentally on the preceding day
and especially how often violent and painful emotions when they are extreme result in decided and sometimes in permanent and hopeless insanity that is
in an irreparable damage to some delicate mechanism in the brain we shall see that there is every reason for supposing that all sudden shocks to the nervous system of children
all violent and painful excitements all vexations and irritations and ebullitions of ill temper and anger have a tendency to disturb the healthy development of the cerebral organs
in many cases seriously affect the future health and welfare as well as the present happiness of the child it is true that mental disturbances and agitations of this kind can not be wholly avoided
but they should be avoided as far as possible and the most efficient means for avoiding them is a firm though calm and gentle establishment and maintenance of parental authority
and not as many mothers very mistakingly imagine
by unreasonable indulgences and by endeavors to manage their children by persuasions bribings and manoeuvrings instead of by commands the most indulged children and the least governed
are always the most petulant and irritable while a strong government if regular uniform and just and if administered by gentle measures
of calmness and peace in a word while the mother is bound to do all in her power to render submission to her authority easy and agreeable to her children
and discovered a dwarf caught in a pit which had been dug to trap wild animals after the hunter had rescued the dwarf from his prison the little man said to him go ten leagues to the north
till you arrive at a gigantic pine then turn to the east and go ten leagues more till you come to a black castle enter the castle without fear and you will discover a round room
help yourself to the treasure and return home at once and do not now mark me well go up into the turret of the castle for if you do evil will come of it
so the hunter thanked the dwarf and after making sure that he had plenty of bread and cheese in his knapsack hurried northwards as fast as his legs could carry him through bramble and brier
through valley and wooded dale went he and at dusk he came to a gigantic pine standing solitary in a rocky field wearied with his long journey the hunter lay down beneath the pine and slept
when it was dawn he woke refreshed and turning his eyes toward the level rays of the rising sun began his journey to the east presently he reached a height in the forest and from this height
he saw not very far away a black turret rising over the ocean of bright leaves at high noon he arrived at the castle it was ruinous and quite deserted
grass grew in the courtyard and between the bricks of the terrace and the oaken door was as soft and rotten as a log that has long been buried in mire entering the castle the hunter soon discovered the round room
stood in the centre of the chamber directly under a shower of sunlight pouring through a half ruined window in the mildewed wall how the diamonds and precious stones sparkled and gleamed
now while the hunter was filling his pockets the flash of a jewel lying on the floor happened to catch his eye and looking down he saw that a kind of trail of jewels lay along the floor leading out of the room
following the scattered gems which had the appearance of having been spilled from some treasure casket heaped too high the hunter came to a low door and opening this door
he discovered a flight of stone steps leading to the turret the steps were strewn carelessly with the finest emeralds topazes beryls moonstones rubies and crystal diamonds
remembering the counsel of his friend the dwarf however the hunter did not go up the stairs but hurried home with his treasure when the hunter returned to his country
the wonderful treasures which he had taken from the castle in the wood made him a very rich man and in a short time the news of his prosperity came to the ears of the king this king was the wickedest of rogues
and his two best friends the chamberlain and the chancellor were every bit as unscrupulous as he they oppressed the people with taxes they stole from the poor they robbed the churches
indeed there was no injustice which they were not ready to commit so when the chamberlain heard of the hunter's wealth he being a direct straightforward rascal declared that the simplest thing to do
would be to kill the hunter and take his money the chancellor who was somewhat more cunning and worldly declared that it would be better to throw the hunter into a foul dark dungeon
till he was ready to buy his freedom with all his wealth the king who was the wickedest and wisest of the precious three declared that the best thing to do was to find out whence the hunter had got his treasure
so that if there happened to be any left they could go and get it then of course they could kill the hunter and take his treasure too thus it came to pass that by a royal order
the hunter was thrown into a horrible prison and told that his only hope of release lay in revealing the origin of his riches so after he had been slowly starved and cruelly beaten
he told of the treasure castle in the wood on the following morning the king the chamberlain and the chancellor taking with them some strong linen bags and some pack mules rode forth in quest of the treasure
great was their joy when they found the treasure castle and the treasure room just as the hunter had described the chancellor poured the shining gems through his claw like fingers and the king and the chamberlain
threw their arms around each others shoulders and danced a jig as well as their age and dignity would permit the first fine careless rapture over they began pouring the treasure into the linen sacks they had brought with them
and these filled to the brim they carried to the castle door soon not the tiniest gem was left on the table suddenly
the chamberlain happened to catch sight of the gems strewn along the floor see see he cried his voice shrill and greedy there is yet more to be had so the three rogues
got down on their hands and knees and began stuffing the stray jewels into their bulging pockets the trail of jewels led them across the hall to the little door opening on the stairway and up this stairway
in the turret they found another round room lit by three narrow barred windows and in the centre of this turret chamber likewise laden with gold and jewels
they found another ebony table with shrieks of delight the king and the chancellor and the chamberlain ran to this second treasure and plunged their hands in the glittering golden mass
suddenly a great bell rang in the castle a great brazen bell whose deep clang beat about them in throbbing singing waves what's that
said the three rogues in one breath and rushed together to the door it was locked an instant later there was a heavy explosion which threw them all to the floor
tossing the treasure over them and then wonder of wonders the castle turret with the three rogues imprisoned in it detached itself from the rest of the castle
and flew off into the air from the barred windows the king the chamberlain and the chancellor saw league upon league of the forest rushing by beneath them suddenly
the flying room began to descend swiftly and landed lightly as a bird in the middle of a castle courtyard strange looking fellows with human bodies and heads of horses came rushing
toward the enchanted turret and seized its prisoners in a few moments they were brought before the king to whom the treasure belonged now this king was a brother of the dwarf
whom the hunter had rescued from the pit he had a little gold crown on his head and sat on a little golden throne with cushions of crimson velvet
said the dwarf king with having tried to rob the treasure castle your majesty replied one of the horse headed servitors in a firm stable tone then send for the lord chief justice at once
said the dwarf king the three culprits were left standing uneasily in a kind of cage they would have tried to speak but every time they opened their mouths one of the guards gave them a dig in the ribs
for a space of five minutes there was quiet in the crowded throne room a quiet broken now and then by a veiled cough or the noise of shuffling feet presently from far away
came the clear sweet call of silver trumpets he's coming he's coming murmured many voices a buzz of excitement filled the room
the trumpets sounded a second time the excitement increased the trumpets sounded a third time near at hand a man's voice announced in solemn tones the lord chief justice approaches
the audience grew very still hardly a rustle or a flutter was heard suddenly the great tapestry curtains which overhung the door parted and there appeared first of all
an usher clad in red velvet and carrying a golden wand then came two golden haired pages also clad in red velvet and carrying a flat black lacquer box
on a velvet cushion last of all came an elderly man dressed in black and carrying a golden perch on which sat a fine green parrot on reaching the centre of the hall
the parrot flapped its wings arranged an upstart feather or two and then resumed that solemn dignity for which birds and animals are so justly famous with great ceremony
the gentleman in black placed the lord chief justice on a lacquer stand close by the throne of the dwarf king trumpets sounded two servitors hurried forward with the captive king
your venerability spoke the dwarf king to the parrot who watched him intently out of its round yellow eye and nodded its head
this rascal has been taken in the act of robbing the treasure castle what punishment do you suggest at these words the two golden haired pages advancing with immense solemnity
lifted the lacquer box to within reach of the parrot's beak the box was full of cards over them swaying from one leg to the other as he did so the parrot swept his head
an icy silence fell over the throng the king the chancellor and the chamberlain quaked in their shoes presently the parrot picked out a card
and the gentleman in black handed it to the dwarf king prisoner said the dwarf king to the other king the lord chief justice condemns you to be for the rest of your natural life
master sweeper of the palace chimneys discreet applause was heard the chancellor was then hurried forward and the bird picked out a second card prisoner said the dwarf king
the lord chief justice condemns you to be for the rest of your natural life master washer of the palace windows more discreet applause was heard and now the chamberlain was brought to the bar
the parrot gave him quite a wicked eye and hesitated for some time before drawing a card prisoner said the dwarf king reading the card which the parrot had finally chosen
the lord chief justice condemns you for the rest of your natural life to be master beater of the palace carpets great applause followed this sage judgment
so the three rogues were led away and unless you have heard to the contrary they are still making up for their wicked lives by enforced diligence at their tasks
eight thousand seven hundred and fifty three windows and eleven hundred and ninety nine large dust gathering carpets and the chimneys windows and carpets have to be swept
at least once a week now when the king the chancellor and the chamberlain failed to return the people took the hunter out of his prison and made him king because he was the richest
and most powerful of them all as for the treasure of the treasure castle it is still there packed in the linen sacks lying just inside the great door perhaps some day you may find it
pitcher confidential clerk in the office of harvey maxwell broker allowed a look of mild interest and surprise to visit his usually expressionless countenance when his employer briskly entered at half past nine
in company with his young lady stenographer with a snappy good morning pitcher maxwell dashed at his desk as though he were intending to leap over it and then plunged into the great heap of letters and telegrams waiting there for him
the young lady had been maxwell's stenographer for a year she was beautiful in a way that was decidedly unstenographic she forewent the pomp of the alluring pompadour
she wore no chains bracelets or lockets she had not the air of being about to accept an invitation to luncheon her dress was grey and plain but it fitted her figure with fidelity and discretion
in her neat black turban hat was the gold green wing of a macaw on this morning she was softly and shyly radiant her eyes were dreamily bright her cheeks genuine peachblow her expression a happy one
pitcher still mildly curious noticed a difference in her ways this morning instead of going straight into the adjoining room where her desk was she lingered slightly irresolute in the outer office
once she moved over by maxwell's desk near enough for him to be aware of her presence the machine sitting at that desk was no longer a man it was a busy new york broker moved by buzzing wheels
and uncoiling springs well what is it anything asked maxwell sharply his opened mail lay like a bank of stage snow on his crowded desk his keen grey eye
impersonal and brusque flashed upon her half impatiently nothing answered the stenographer moving away with a little smile mister pitcher she said to the confidential clerk
did mister maxwell say anything yesterday about engaging another stenographer he did answered pitcher he told me to get another one i notified the agency yesterday afternoon to send over a few samples this morning
and not a single picture hat or piece of pineapple chewing gum has showed up yet i will do the work as usual then said the young lady until some one comes to fill the place and she went to her desk at once
and hung the black turban hat with the gold green macaw wing in its accustomed place he who has been denied the spectacle of a busy manhattan broker during a rush of business is handicapped for the profession of anthropology
the poet sings of the crowded hour of glorious life the broker's hour is not only crowded but the minutes and seconds are hanging to all the straps and packing both front and rear platforms
and this day was harvey maxwell's busy day the ticker began to reel out jerkily its fitful coils of tape the desk telephone had a chronic attack of buzzing men began to throng into the office
jovially sharply viciously excitedly messenger boys ran in and out with messages and telegrams the clerks in the office jumped about like sailors during a storm
even pitcher's face relaxed into something resembling animation on the exchange there were hurricanes and landslides and snowstorms and glaciers and volcanoes and those elemental disturbances
were reproduced in miniature in the broker's offices maxwell shoved his chair against the wall and transacted business after the manner of a toe dancer he jumped from ticker to phone
from desk to door with the trained agility of a harlequin
the broker became suddenly aware of a high rolled fringe of golden hair under a nodding canopy of velvet and ostrich tips an imitation sealskin sacque and a string of beads as large as hickory nuts
ending near the floor with a silver heart there was a self possessed young lady connected with these accessories and pitcher was there to construe her lady from the stenographer's agency to see about the position said pitcher maxwell turned half around
with his hands full of papers and ticker tape what position he asked with a frown position of stenographer said pitcher you told me yesterday to call them up and have one sent over this morning you are losing your mind pitcher said maxwell
miss leslie has given perfect satisfaction during the year she has been here the place is hers as long as she chooses to retain it there's no place open here madam countermand that order with the agency pitcher and don't bring any more of em in here
the silver heart left the office swinging and banging itself independently against the office furniture as it indignantly departed pitcher seized a moment to remark to the bookkeeper
that the old man seemed to get more absent minded and forgetful every day of the world the rush and pace of business grew fiercer and faster on the floor they were pounding half a dozen stocks in which maxwell's customers were heavy investors
orders to buy and sell were coming and going as swift as the flight of swallows some of his own holdings were imperilled and the man was working like some high geared delicate strong machine strung to full tension going at full speed
accurate never hesitating with the proper word and decision and act ready and prompt as clockwork stocks and bonds loans and mortgages margins and securities here was a world of finance
and there was no room in it for the human world or the world of nature when the luncheon hour drew near there came a slight lull in the uproar maxwell stood by his desk with his hands full of telegrams and memoranda
with a fountain pen over his right ear and his hair hanging in disorderly strings over his forehead his window was open for the beloved janitress spring had turned on a little warmth through the waking registers of the earth
and through the window came a wandering perhaps a lost odour a delicate sweet odour of lilac that fixed the broker for a moment immovable for this odour belonged to miss leslie
it was her own and hers only the odour brought her vividly almost tangibly before him the world of finance dwindled suddenly to a speck and she was in the next room
twenty steps away by george i'll do it now said maxwell half aloud i'll ask her now i wonder i didn't do it long ago he dashed into the inner office with the haste of a short
trying to cover he charged upon the desk of the stenographer she looked up at him with a smile a soft pink crept over her cheek and her eyes were kind and frank
maxwell leaned one elbow on her desk he still clutched fluttering papers with both hands and the pen was above his ear miss leslie he began hurriedly i have but a moment to spare
will you be my wife
talk quick please those fellows are clubbing the stuffing out of union pacific oh what are you talking about exclaimed the young lady she rose to her feet and gazed upon him round eyed
don't you understand said maxwell restively i want you to marry me i love you miss leslie i wanted to tell you and i snatched a minute when things had slackened up a bit
they're calling me for the phone now tell em to wait a minute pitcher won't you miss leslie the stenographer acted very queerly at first she seemed overcome with amazement
then tears flowed from her wondering eyes and then she smiled sunnily through them and one of her arms slid tenderly about the broker's neck i know now she said softly
it's this old business that has driven everything else out of your head for the time
it was a windy day in early january
as she was slipping along down beacon street on her way home from school
one hand was kept in constant use holding down the brim of her hat
another gust and i should have had to compose a new poem to take the place
she had begun to say looking up in his face then suddenly she gave a start surely she had seen that face before but where
yet almost in a shorter time than i have taken to tell it she recognized the owner of the papers he was certainly no other than doctor oliver wendell holmes the famous autocrat of the breakfast table
several of whose poems she knew almost by heart all her old shyness came back to her she did not exactly dare to say that she recognized him
were were they some of your own poems she managed to stammer it would have been dreadful if they had been lost not half as dreadful he replied smiling as if they had been written by some one else
as a matter of fact these were sent me by an unfledged poet who wished me to tell him whether he would stand a chance
he told me to take great care of them as he had no copy
the poet of course did not speak to julia in precisely these words but this was the drift of what he said and it was in about this form that she repeated it to her aunt and brenda at the luncheon table what else did he say
her aunt had asked with great interest oh he thanked me again for picking up the papers complimented me for being so sure footed on such a slippery sidewalk
when he heard that i had not long been in boston he asked me to call some afternoon to see him he is always at home after four i walked along until he reached his door step
have you ever been there brenda no said brenda shaking her head i did not exactly notice whom you were talking about why
oh said brenda with a stare that seemed to imply that this name did not mean much to her why you know brenda oliver wendell holmes prompted her mother and still brenda looked rather blank brenda
said missus barlow i am surprised surely you remember how pleased you were with the last leaf
i dare say answered brenda carelessly but i had forgotten i don't see why julia should be so excited about meeting a poet there must be ever so many of them everywhere
responded her mother i do wish that you would take more interest in the affairs of your own city here is julia who has been in boston but a short time
than you who have lived here all your life for a wonder brenda did not laugh at what her mother said nor take offence
so when julia asked her one afternoon if she would not like to go with her to call on doctor holmes she declined with thanks and left julia free to invite edith
it seemed to be merely a reception room
and large flowered yellow paper there was a carved table in the centre with writing materials and ink stand and little other furniture besides a few handsome chairs tall bookcases matching the woodwork occupied the recesses and they were filled with books in substantial bindings
in a moment the maid had returned and asked them to follow her at the head of the broad stairs they saw the poet himself standing to meet them with outstretched hand when julia mentioned edith's name ah
that is a good old boston name and if i mistake not i used to know your grandfather and then when edith had satisfied him on this point he turned to julia and in a bantering way spoke of the service she had done him that windy day
they make a pretty fair showing for one man but my publishers are getting ready to bring out a complete edition of my works and that well that makes me realize my age after a moment as if reflecting he asked quickly
does either of you write poetry oh no sir answered edith quickly we couldn't why it isn't so very hard he said
at least i should judge not by the numbers of copies of verses that are sent to me to examine poetry deals with common human emotion
it depends i suppose said edith shyly on whose work it is i am afraid replied the poet that there is no absolute standard for verse makers
it has always seemed to me that the writer of verse is almost in the position of a man who makes a mold for a plaster cast or something of that kind
and from his point of view it is sure to fit though edith may not have grasped the full force of the poet's meaning
she asked every mail he answered brings me letters from strangers from every corner of the globe some contain poems in my honor as specimens of what the poet can do
others are accompanied by long manuscripts on which my opinion is asked
for publishers have a way of quoting very unfairly in their advertisements
the publisher quotes merely very charming and prints this in large type both girls smiled at the expression of droll sorrow that came over the poet's face as he spoke and i am so very unfortunate myself he added
when i try to get an autograph of any consequence
he wrote his thanks on a postcard
perhaps you would like to hear me read something
and taking a volume from the table he began in a voice that was a trifle husky though full of expression
sails the unshadowed main the venturous bark that flings on the sweet summer wind its venturous wings in gulfs enchanted where the siren sings
and coral reefs lie bare where the cold sea maids raise
the chambered nautilus
she answered then with a smile of appreciation adjusting his glasses doctor holmes read to the end of the poem in his wonderfully musical voice
now i wish to show you my favorite view
it was much the same view to which julia was accustomed in her uncle's house and yet
seven or eight in number which he could see from that window somerville medford belmont arlington charlestown brookline and one or two others perhaps
besides cambridge with its spires and chimneys in winter said doctor holmes there is not much to see besides the tug boats and the gulls but
but what it was he did not say for as edith turned her eyes toward an oil painting on the wall near by he said
now look at the portrait closely and tell me what you think of that cheek
when both girls admitted that they could not see the scar
that only shows he said how clever the man was who made the repairs before they turned from the window he made them notice the tall factory chimneys on the other side of the river which he called his thermometers
because according to the direction in which the smoke curled upwards he was able to tell how the wind blew and decide in what direction he should walk
yet during their call how many things they had to see and to remember he let each of them hold for a moment the gold pen with which he had written elsie venner and the autocrat papers
doctor holmes called their attention to the beautiful landscape hanging on one wall done in fine needlework by the hands of his accomplished daughter in law and he told them a story or two connected with another picture in the room
all so simple and yet so dignified
exclaimed edith almost breathlessly
edith gave julia a little nudge they were both at the age when the possession of an autograph of a famous man is something to be ardently desired but neither of them had quite dared to ask doctor holmes for his
it is possible that he saw the little nudge or perhaps he read the eager expression on their faces for almost before they realized it he had placed in the hand of each of them a small volume in a white cover and bidding them open their books he said well i must put something on
that bare fly leaf so seating himself at his table with a quill pen in his hand he wrote slowly and evidently with some effort the name of each of them followed by the words with the regards of oliver wendell holmes
as he handed them the books he opened the door and with a word or two more of half bantering thanks to julia for her assistance on that windy day he bowed them down the stairs so impressed were they by the visit that they had little to say until they reached home
where they found missus barlow a very sympathetic listener
well you might have taken me too
they all laughed at this a proceeding which this time did not annoy brenda missus barlow admired the little books
and its last days or hours generally seem to melt away thus when the four realized that less than two weeks lay between a certain april afternoon when they met to sew and the day appointed for the opening of the bazaar they began to feel a little nervous
oh i dare say responded the unpractical brenda
oh nonsense interposed nora with a smile
i am sure that we had all the time we wished
for my own part i shall be awfully glad to have the bazaar over with the weather is altogether too fine to waste indoors on fancy work but until we have that money for manuel
now the plans for the bazaar had received much attention from the older persons in the families of the young workers and the encouragement that they had had from their elders was now their chief incentive
edith's mother had offered them the use of a large drawing room in her house which was just adapted to an affair of this kind
its walls paneled with mirrors would reflect the tables of fancy work in such a way as to make it seem
brenda and belle wished a small orchestra engaged to play during the evening of the bazaar and furnish music for dancing at the close of the sale edith and nora were afraid that this would eat up too much of their profits but brenda was very decided in her views
just quantities and then the refreshment table and
what good will that do enquired the practical nora we can't make much out of things that we can't sell
i shouldn't wonder if we should have more than five hundred dollars to give to missus rosa don't count your chickens too soon brenda said belle suppose it should rain on the day of the sale or suppose oh
why brenda no one is probably going to be to blame for the bazaar will be a great success interposed the peace loving edith
and this year easter fell almost in the middle of april during the last days of school preceding the easter vacation the four did much canvassing among their friends to see whether all the articles promised were finished of course there were several disappointments
but had collected many pretty and even valuable articles from their friends all the school girls near the age of the four were invited to assist at the tables the four resolved themselves into an executive committee adding to their number julia
to whom the remark happened to be made
you are growing very tiresome and if i were you i should try to be less narrow minded
perhaps that is what i do think answered frances we can't make intimate friends of every one in the world and we might as well have nothing to do with those who are not in our own set i hate these people who are always trying to push in if you mean ruth
she thinks quite as well of herself as you do of yourself
even if they were not governors of massachusetts now despite the fact that this speech when quoted sounds rather
that she had herself so although both girls turned away from each other with an annoyed expression on their faces their next meeting was perfectly amicable
cannot do this or i cannot do that because i am a pounder missus gostar laughed at this speech and the gesture and tossing back of the head with which nora emphasized it frances hardly says that does she she enquired
and i am sure that she feels like saying it all the time
and other people like that in her family somewhere in the dim past
there there interrupted her mother aren't you growing uncharitable yourself
her family has had position for a long time and all the advantages of education but among your schoolmates and hers there are probably other girls of good descent who have had advantages hardly inferior to those
well said nora i don't value people for their ancestors
whose part in making history may have been almost as important if less conspicuous then i would rather see a girl or a boy without family pride in connection with this let me tell you a story
years ago a murder was committed by a member of a good old family and sometime afterwards a lady who bore the same name though she was not closely related to the murderer was out shopping it seemed to her a certain clerk was not sufficiently deferential
no madame i do not
indeed he answered you surprise me
as to make you contemptuous of your schoolmates i know that mother dear
with a smile about the virginia lady of whom i was reading the other day her little niece was remarking with pride that her grandfather had been the son of a baronet
aunt smiled at the expression of relief on her niece's face on hearing this
nora realized that she was fortunate in having a mother who was always ready to advise her in the small matters that seem so important to schoolgirls
that really are of consequence
missus blair and missus barlow were also ready to advise their daughters
the wilful brenda too was more apt to seek her mother's advice after she had done a certain thing
edith with a rather phlegmatic disposition seldom did anything wrong
as to frances those who knew her best realized that her family pride had been nurtured at home and that her unfortunate way of looking at things was not wholly her own fault yet that nora had been able to influence her somewhat was proved by a slight change in frances demeanor towards others
the latter was even known one day to offer to go out to ruth roberts house to help her finish a piece of work for the bazaar in those last days too before the easter vacation there seemed to be an unusual unity among the schoolgirls
that shows said miss south who had come up behind brenda while she was talking that it is never worth while to borrow trouble about anything
to whom brenda had been talking for my own part i am never surprised or disappointed about anything for i never expect too much beforehand
then you are really a philosopher edith said miss south some persons take almost a lifetime to learn this simple lesson and indeed some persons never learn it at all
as the preparations for the bazaar advanced it was very pleasant for julia to find herself counted in among the band of workers it is true that she often had to take a sharp word from brenda
but these things did not disturb her she had become accustomed to her cousin's little ways and she realized that her bark
oh i suppose you are right brenda acknowledged with a sigh but i should be ever so much better pleased with a hotel it would seem so much more as if we were grown up i hope that this won't seem like a
you know that edith always had her birthday parties in that room
a sandshore wooing fir cottage plover sands july sixth we arrived here late last night and all day aunt martha has kept her room to rest
so i had to keep mine also
my name is marguerite forrester an absurdly long name for so small a girl
with an accent of strong disapproval she does not like my name but she gives me the full benefit of it connie shelmardine used to call me rita connie was my roommate last year at the seminary we correspond occasionally but aunt martha frowns on it
i have always lived with aunt martha my parents died when i was a baby aunt martha says i am to be her heiress if i please her which means but oh you do not know what pleasing aunt martha means aunt is a determined and inveterate man hater
she has no particular love for women indeed and trusts nobody but missus saxby her maid i rather like missus saxby
i expect the process will soon begin on me but it hasn't yet my flesh and blood are still unreasonably warm and pulsing and rebellious aunt martha would be in danger of taking a fit if she ever saw me talking to a man
in the disguise of nineteenth century masculine attire
we have come down to spend a few weeks at fir cottage our good landlady is a capacious kindly souled creature and i think she has rather a liking for me
july tenth this sort of life is decidedly dull the program of every day is the same i go to the sandshore with aunt martha and missus saxby in the morning
and mope around by my disconsolate self in the evenings missus blake has lent me for shore use a very fine spyglass which she owns she says her man brought it home from furrin parts before he died
while aunt and missus saxby meander up and down the shore leaving me free to a certain extent i amuse myself by examining distant seas and coasts through it thus getting a few peeps into a forbidden world
our shore haunts do not seem to be popular with its guests they prefer the rocks this suits aunt martha admirably
every morning he has reappeared on the same spot he seems to be a solitary individual given to prowling by himself i wonder what aunt would say if she knew what i am so earnestly watching through my glass at times july eleventh
i shall have to cease looking at the unknown i am afraid this morning i turned my glass as usual on his pet haunt
and yet my curiosity was so strong that a few minutes afterward i peeped back again
he coolly laid down his glass
i dropped my glass and smiled in a mixture of dismay and amusement then i remembered that he was probably watching me again and might imagine my smile was meant for him i banished it immediately
soon after we came home july twelfth something has happened at last
but in the end i had to take a peep and saw him on the rocks with his glass levelled at me when he saw that i was looking he laid down the glass held up his hands and began to spell out something in the deaf mute alphabet now i know that same alphabet
i am francis shelmardine are you not miss forrester my sister's friend francis shelmardine now i knew whom he resembled and have i not heard endless dissertations from connie on this wonderful brother of hers francis the clever the handsome the charming
right hand yes left no i gasped suppose he were to come what would happen i waved my left hand sorrowfully
why not would your friends disapprove i signalled yes are you displeased at my boldness was his next question where had all aunt martha's precepts flown to then i blush to record that i lifted my left hand shyly
then i reached for my glass mister shelmardine and i had quite a conversation under the circumstances there could be no useless circumlocution
it was religiously boiled down and ran something like this
i am quite respectable that is not the question cannot her prejudices be overcome absolutely no
then it is hopeless yes would you object to knowing me on your own account
no aunt would not permit me must she know yes i would not come without her permission you will not refuse to chat with me thus now and then i don't know perhaps not i had to go home then as we went missus saxby complimented me on my good colour
but she would be just as well pleased to see me properly pale and subdued at all times and not looking as if i were too well contented in this vale of tears july seventeenth i have talked a good deal with mister shelmardine these past four days he is to be at the beach for some weeks longer
this morning he signalled across from the rocks i mean to see you at last tomorrow i will walk over and pass you you must not aunt will suspect no danger don't be alarmed i will do nothing rash i suppose he will he seems to be very determined
of course i cannot prevent him from promenading on our beach all day if he chooses but then if he did aunt would speedily leave him in sole possession of it i wonder what i had better wear tomorrow july nineteenth yesterday morning aunt martha was serene and unsuspicious
it is dreadful of me to be deceiving her and i do feel guilty i sat down on the sand and pretended to read the memoirs of a missionary aunt likes cheerful books like that in an agony of anticipation presently aunt said majestically
and we moved poor aunt mister shelmardine came bravely on i felt my heart beating to my very finger tips he halted by the fragment of an old stranded boat aunt had turned her back on him i ventured on a look he lifted his hat with a twinkle in his eye
home we came accordingly this morning he signalled across letter from connie message for you i mean to deliver it personally do you ever go to church now i do go regularly to church at home but aunt martha and missus saxby are both such rigid church people
but it was impossible to make this long explanation so i merely replied not here will you not go tomorrow morning aunt will not let me coax her
so i said it would be useless i will ask aunt if i may go but i feel almost sure that she will not consent this evening when aunt was in an unusually genial mood i plucked up heart of grace and asked her
you know that i do not attend church here but aunt i persisted quakingly couldn't i go alone
aunt merely gave me a look that said about forty distinct and separate things and i was turning away in despair when missus saxby bless her heart said
she looked at me relentingly and said
july twentieth this morning was perfect and after breakfast aunt said condescendingly
it is a delicate shimmering grey stuff with pearly tints about it every time i get anything new aunt martha and i have a battle royal over it i verily believe that aunt would like me to dress in the fashions in vogue in her youth
there is always a certain flavour of old fashionedness about my gowns and hats connie used to say that it was delicious and gave me a piquant uniqueness a certain unlikeness to other people that possessed a positive charm that is only connie's view of it however
i wore a little silvery grey chip hat
and i pinned at my belt the sweetest cluster of old fashioned blush rosebuds from the garden then i borrowed a hymn book from missus blake and ran down to undergo aunt martha's scrutiny dear me child she said discontentedly
you have gotten yourself up very frivolously it seems to me why aunty i protested
the first person i saw there was mister shelmardine
i did not look at him again through the service i was subdued enough to have satisfied even aunt martha when church came out he waited for me at the entrance to his pew
heaven bless missus saxby he remarked fervently
if so i am ready to risk it there is none aunt martha is very good and kind to me but she will never stop trying to bring me up the process will be going on when i am fifty and she hates men i don't know what she would do if she saw me now
mister shelmardine frowned and switched the unoffending daisies viciously with his cane then there is no hope of my seeing you openly and above board not at present i said faintly
after a brief silence we began to talk of other things he told me how he happened to see me first i was curious to know who the people were who were always in the same place at the same time so one day i took my telescope i could see you plainly
when we reached the lane i held out my hand for the hymnal you mustn't come any further mister shelmardine i said hurriedly aunt aunt might see you he took my hand and held it looking at me seriously suppose i were to walk up to the cottage tomorrow and ask for you
i gasped he looked so capable of doing anything he took it into his head to do oh you wouldn't i said piteously aunt martha would you are not in earnest i suppose not he said regretfully
of course i would not do anything that would cause you unpleasantness but this must not shall not be our last meeting aunt will not let me come to church again i said does she ever take a nap in the afternoon he queried i wriggled my parasol about in the dust uneasily
sometimes i shall be at the old boat tomorrow afternoon at two thirty he said i pulled my hand away i couldn't you know i couldn't i cried and then i blushed to my ears are you sure you couldn't bending a little nearer
quite sure i murmured he surrendered my hymnal at last will you give me a rose i unpinned the whole cluster and handed it to him he lifted it until it touched his lips as for me i scuttled up the lane in the most undignified fashion
at the turn i looked back he was still standing there with his hat off july twenty fourth
this is very kind of you he said i ought not to have come i said repentantly
will you come and meet them how nice of him to bring them i knew i should like missus allardyce just because aunt martha didn't we had a delightful stroll i never thought of the time until mister shelmardine said it was four o'clock oh is it so late as that i cried
i'm sorry we have kept you so long remarked mister shelmardine in a tone of concern
i'm sorry mister shelmardine but you mustn't come any further we will be here tomorrow afternoon he said mister shelmardine i protested i wish you wouldn't put such ideas into my head they won't come out no not if i read a whole volume of sermons right through
i was there today and i'm going tomorrow for a boat sail with mister shelmardine and the allardyces
this afternoon he said i don't think i can stand this much longer stand what i asked you know very well he answered recklessly
well i hardly meant that he said grimly
that is the worst threat you could make he said
and i am the most miserable girl in the world
at least almost everything i didn't tell about the telescopes and deaf mute alphabet and aunt was too horror stricken to think
she listened in stony silence i had expected a terrible scolding but i suppose my crimes simply seemed to her too enormous for words when i had sobbed out my last word she rose swept me one glance of withering contempt and left the room presently missus saxby came up looking concerned
your aunt says that we are to go home on the afternoon train tomorrow she is terribly upset i just curled up on the bed and cried while missus saxby packed my trunk
he will just think me a feather brained flirt oh i am so unhappy july twenty sixth i am the happiest girl in the world that is quite a different strain from yesterday
we leave fir cottage in an hour but that doesn't matter now i did not sleep a wink last night and crawled miserably down to breakfast aunt took not the slightest notice of me but to my surprise she told missus saxby that she intended taking a farewell walk to the shore i knew i would be taken too to be kept out of mischief
perhaps i would have a chance to send word to francis
as soon as aunt martha and missus saxby were at a safe distance i began my message all discovered aunt is very angry we go home today then i snatched my glass his face expressed the direst consternation and dismay he signalled i must see you before you go
impossible aunt will never forgive me good bye i saw a look of desperate determination cross his face
i could not have torn my eyes from that glass i love you you know it do you care for me i must have my answer now
aunt and missus saxby had almost reached the point where they invariably turned
blunt yes and read his answer i shall go home at once get mother and connie follow you and demand possession of my property i shall win the day have no fear till then good bye my darling
i got up obediently aunt martha was as grim and uncompromising as ever and missus saxby looked like a chief mourner
missy when nekhludoff had finished his coffee he went to his study to look at the summons and find out what time he was to appear at the court before writing his answer to the princess passing through his studio
where a few studies hung on the walls and facing the easel stood an unfinished picture a feeling of inability to advance in art a sense of his incapacity came over him he had often had this feeling of late
and explained it by his too finely developed aesthetic taste still the feeling was a very unpleasant one seven years before this he had given up military service feeling sure that he had a talent for art
and had looked down with some disdain at all other activity from the height of his artistic standpoint and now it turned out that he had no right to do so and therefore everything that reminded him of all this was unpleasant
he looked at the luxurious fittings of the studio with a heavy heart and it was in no cheerful mood that he entered his study a large lofty room fitted up with a view to comfort convenience and elegant appearance
he found the summons at once in a pigeon hole labelled immediate of his large writing table he had to appear at the court at eleven o'clock nekhludoff sat down to write a note in reply to the princess
thanking her for the invitation and promising to try and come to dinner having written one note he tore it up as it seemed too intimate he wrote another but it was too cold he feared it might give offence so he tore it up too
he pressed the button of an electric bell and his servant an elderly morose looking man with whiskers and shaved chin and lip wearing a grey cotton apron entered at the door send to fetch an isvostchik please yes sir
yes sir it is not very polite but i can't write no matter i shall see her today thought nekhludoff and went to get his overcoat when he came out of the house an isvostchik he knew
with india rubber tires to his trap was at the door waiting for him
turning half round when i drove up and the swiss at the door says just gone the isvostchik knew that nekhludoff visited at the korchagins and called there on the chance of being engaged by him
even the isvostchiks know of my relations with the korchagins thought nekhludoff and again the question whether he should not marry princess korchagin presented itself to him and he could not decide it either way
any more than most of the questions that arose in his mind at this time it was in favour of marriage in general that besides the comforts of hearth and home it made a moral life possible and chiefly that a family would
against marriage in general was the fear common to bachelors past their first youth of losing freedom and an unconscious awe before this mysterious creature a woman
in this particular case in favour of marrying missy her name was mary but as is usual among a certain set a nickname had been given her was that she came of good family and differed in everything
manner of speaking walking laughing from the common people not by anything exceptional but by her good breeding he could find no other term for this quality though he prized it very highly
therefore evidently understood him this understanding of him
was to nekhludoff a proof of her good sense and correct judgment against marrying missy in particular was that in all likelihood a girl with even higher qualities could be found that she was already twenty seven
and that he was hardly her first love this last idea was painful to him his pride would not reconcile itself with the thought that she had loved some one else even in the past
of course she could not have known that she should meet him but the thought that she was capable of loving another offended him so that he had as many reasons for marrying as against it at any rate they weighed equally with nekhludoff
who laughed at himself and called himself the ass of the fable remaining like that animal undecided which haycock to turn to at any rate before i get an answer from mary vasilievna
the marechal's wife and finish completely with her i can do nothing he said to himself and the conviction that he might and was even obliged to delay his decision was comforting well
i shall consider all that later on he said to himself as the trap drove silently along the asphalt pavement up to the doors of the court now i must fulfil my public duties conscientiously as i am in the habit of always doing
still spring was spring even in the town the sun shone warm the air was balmy
between the paving stones
all were glad the plants the birds the insects and the children but men grown up men and women did not leave off cheating and tormenting themselves and each other
it was not this spring morning men thought sacred and worthy of consideration not the beauty of god's world given for a joy to all creatures this beauty which inclines the heart to peace
to harmony and to love but only their own devices for enslaving one another thus in the prison office of the government town
it was not the fact that men and animals had received the grace and gladness of spring that was considered sacred and important but that a notice numbered and with a superscription had come the day before
a man and two women one of these women as the chief criminal to be conducted separately
called out maslova to the court and closed the door again even into the prison yard the breeze had brought the fresh vivifying air from the fields
the air was laden with the germs of typhoid
putrefaction and tar every newcomer felt sad and dejected in it the woman warder felt this though she was used to bad air she had just come in from outside
from inside the cell came the sound of bustle and women's voices and the patter of bare feet on the floor
and in a minute or two a small young woman with a very full bust came briskly out of the door and went up to the jailer she had on a grey cloak over a white jacket and petticoat on her feet
she wore linen stockings and prison shoes and round her head was tied a white kerchief from under which a few locks of black hair were brushed over the forehead
her small broad hands and full neck which showed from under the broad collar of her cloak were of the same hue her black sparkling eyes one with a slight squint
appeared in striking contrast to the dull pallor of her face she carried herself very straight expanding her full bosom with her head slightly thrown back
looking straight into the eyes of the jailer ready to comply with any order the jailer was about to lock the door
and began speaking to maslova but the jailer closed the door pushing the old woman's head with it a woman's laughter was heard from the cell and maslova smiled
and said in a hoarse voice
well it could not be worse than it is now anyhow i only wish it was settled one way or another
and maslova stepped out into the middle of the corridor
they descended the stone stairs
and entered the office where two soldiers were waiting to escort her
reeking of tobacco and pointing to the prisoner remarked take her the soldier
put the paper into the sleeve of his coat winked
tradespeople cooks
stopped and looked curiously at the prisoner some shook their heads and thought
conduct unlike ours leads to the children stopped and gazed at the robber with frightened looks but the thought that the soldiers were preventing her from doing more harm quieted their fears
a peasant who had sold his charcoal and had had some tea in the town came up and after crossing himself gave her a copeck the prisoner blushed and muttered something
it fluttered up and flew close to her ear fanning her with its wings
maslova's mother was the unmarried daughter of a village woman
this unmarried woman had a baby every year and as often happens among the village people
was neglected by its mother whom it hindered at her work
five children had died in this way
the sixth baby whose father was a gipsy tramp would have shared the same fate had it not so happened that one of the maiden ladies came into the farmyard to scold the dairymaids for sending up cream that smelt of the cow
the old maiden lady scolded the maids again
and was about to go away but seeing the baby her heart was touched
the old ladies spoke of her as the saved one when the child was three years old her mother fell ill and died
the little black eyed maiden grew to be extremely pretty and so full of spirits that the ladies found her very entertaining the younger of the ladies sophia ivanovna
who had stood godmother to the girl had the kinder heart of the two sisters
sophia ivanovna dressed the little girl in nice clothes and taught her to read and write meaning to educate her like a lady
she was exacting she punished and when in a bad temper even struck the little girl growing up under these two different influences the girl turned out half servant half young lady
they called her katusha which sounds less refined than katinka but is not quite so common as katka she used to sew tidy up the rooms
and do other light work and sometimes she sat and read to the ladies though she had more than one offer she would not marry she felt that life as the wife of any of the working men who were courting her
before proceeding to join his regiment
and after giving her a one hundred rouble note went away five months later
everything seemed repugnant to her
for the time of her confinement was drawing near
infected katusha and her baby boy had to be sent to the foundlings hospital
twenty five went to get the baby into the foundlings hospital and forty the midwife borrowed to buy a cow with
katusha had to look out for a place again
began beating her katusha defended herself and they had a fight
without being paid her wages
and spent all he could lay hands on at the public house
and managed to support herself her children and her wretched husband
but seeing what a life of misery and hardship her aunt's assistants led katusha hesitated and applied to a registry office
pupils at a public day school
the elder a big fellow with moustaches
his mother laid all the blame on katusha and gave her notice it so happened that after many fruitless attempts to find a situation katusha again went to the registry office
and there met a woman with bracelets on her bare plump arms and rings on most of her fingers hearing that katusha was badly in want of a place the woman gave her her address and invited her to come to her house katusha went
the woman received her very kindly set cake and sweet wine before her then wrote a note and gave it to a servant to take to somebody in the evening a tall man with long grey hair and a white beard
entered the room and sat down at once near katusha smiling and gazing at her with glistening eyes he began joking with her the hostess called him away into the next room and katusha heard her say a fresh one from the country
and told her that the man was an author and that he had a great deal of money and that if he liked her he would not grudge her anything he did like her and gave her twenty five roubles promising to see her often
the twenty five roubles soon went some she paid to her aunt for board and lodging the rest was spent on a hat ribbons and such like a few days later the author sent for her and she went
he gave her another twenty five roubles and offered her a separate lodging next door to the lodging rented for her by the author there lived a jolly young shopman with whom katusha soon fell in love she told the author
the shopman who promised to marry her
having evidently thrown her up and katusha remained alone she meant to continue living in the lodging by herself
who stood washing or ironing with their thin arms in the fearfully hot front room
that she might have shared the same fate
as the fact that it gave her a chance of forgetting the misery she suffered
and the shopman and all those who had injured her
velvet silk satin low necked ball dresses anything she liked
trimmed with black velvet with low neck and short sleeves conquered her
and drove her to the notorious house kept by carolina albertovna kitaeva from that day a life of chronic sin against human and divine laws commenced for katusha maslova
a life which is led by hundreds of thousands of women and which is not merely tolerated but sanctioned by the government anxious for the welfare of its subjects
prince dmitri ivanovitch nekhludoff who had seduced her was still lying on his high bedstead with a feather bed on the top of the spring mattress in a fine clean well ironed linen night shirt
smoking a cigarette and considering what he had to do to day and what had happened yesterday recalling the evening he had spent with the korchagins
a wealthy and aristocratic family whose daughter every one expected he would marry he sighed and throwing away the end of his cigarette was going to take another out of the silver case but changing his mind
he resolutely raised his solid frame and putting down his smooth white legs stepped into his slippers threw his silk dressing gown over his broad shoulders and passed into his dressing room walking heavily and quickly
there he carefully cleaned his teeth many of which were filled with tooth powder and rinsed his mouth with scented elixir after that he washed his hands with perfumed soap cleaned his long nails with particular care
then from a tap fixed to his marble washstand he let a spray of cold water run over his face and stout neck having finished this part of the business he went into a third room where a shower bath stood ready for him
having refreshed his full white muscular body and dried it with a rough bath sheet he put on his fine undergarments and his boots and sat down before the glass to brush his black beard and his curly hair
that had begun to get thin above the forehead everything he used everything belonging to his toilet his linen his clothes boots necktie pin
was of the best quality very quiet simple durable and costly nekhludoff dressed leisurely and went into the dining room
a table which looked very imposing with its four legs carved in the shape of lions paws and a huge side board to match stood in the oblong room the floor of which had been polished by three men the day before on the table
which was covered with a fine starched cloth stood a silver coffeepot full of aromatic coffee a sugar basin a jug of fresh cream and a bread basket filled with fresh rolls rusks and biscuits
and beside the plate lay the last number of the revue des deux mondes a newspaper and several letters nekhludoff was just going to open his letters when a stout middle aged woman in mourning
a lace cap covering the widening parting of her hair glided into the room this was agraphena petrovna formerly lady's maid to nekhludoff's mother her mistress had died quite recently in this very house
and she remained with the son as his housekeeper agraphena petrovna had spent nearly ten years at different times abroad with nekhludoff's mother and had the appearance and manners of a lady
she had lived with the nekhludoffs from the time she was a child and had known dmitri ivanovitch at the time when he was still little mitinka good morning dmitri ivanovitch good morning agraphena petrovna
what is it you want nekhludoff asked a letter from the princess either from the mother or the daughter the maid brought it some time ago and is waiting in my room
handing him the letter with a significant smile all right directly said nekhludoff taking the letter and frowning as he noticed agraphena petrovna's smile that smile meant that the letter was from the younger princess korchagin
whom agraphena petrovna expected him to marry this supposition of hers annoyed nekhludoff then i'll tell her to wait and agraphena petrovna took a crumb brush which was not in its place
put it away and sailed out of the room nekhludoff opened the perfumed note and began reading it the note was written on a sheet of thick grey paper with rough edges the writing looked english
this note was a continuation of that skilful manoeuvring which the princess korchagin had already practised for two months in order to bind him closer and closer with invisible threads and yet
beside the usual hesitation of men past their youth to marry unless they are very much in love
he could not propose at once it was not that ten years previously he had betrayed and forsaken maslova he had quite forgotten that and he would not have considered it a reason for not marrying no the reason was
that he had a liaison with a married woman and though he considered it broken off she did not nekhludoff was rather shy with women and his very shyness awakened in this married woman
the unprincipled wife of the marechal de noblesse of a district where nekhludoff was present at an election the desire of vanquishing him this woman drew him into an intimacy which entangled him more and more
while it daily became more distasteful to him having succumbed to the temptation nekhludoff felt guilty and had not the courage to break the tie without her consent
and this was the reason he did not feel at liberty to propose to korchagin even if he had wished to do so among the letters on the table was one from this woman's husband seeing his writing and the postmark
nekhludoff flushed and felt his energies awakening as they always did when he was facing any kind of danger but his excitement passed at once the marechal do noblesse of the district in which his largest estate lay
wrote only to let nekhludoff know that there was to be a special meeting towards the end of may and that nekhludoff was to be sure and come to
at the important debates concerning the schools and the roads as a strong opposition by the reactionary party was expected the marechal was a liberal and was quite engrossed in this fight
also the terrible scene he had with her when she ran out into the park and in her excitement tried to drown herself in the pond
a week ago he had written her a decisive letter in which he acknowledged his guilt and his readiness to atone for it
for her own good as he expressed it to this letter he had as yet received no answer this might prove a good sign
nekhludoff had heard that there was some officer who was paying her marked attention and this tormented him by awakening jealousy and at the same time encouraged him with the hope of escape from the deception that was oppressing him
the other letter was from his steward the steward wrote to tell him that a visit to his estates was necessary in order to enter into possession and also to decide about the further management of his lands
whether it was to continue in the same way as when his mother was alive or whether as he had represented to the late lamented princess and now advised the young prince they had not better increase their stock
and farm all the land now rented by the peasants themselves the steward wrote that this would be a far more profitable way of managing the property
due on the first this money would be sent on by the next mail
this letter was partly disagreeable and partly pleasant it was pleasant to feel that he had power over so large a property and yet disagreeable
because nekhludoff had been an enthusiastic admirer of henry george and herbert spencer being himself heir to a large property he was especially struck by the position taken up by spencer in social statics
that justice forbids private landholding and with the straightforward resoluteness of his age had not merely spoken to prove that land could not be looked upon as private property and written essays on that subject at the university
and considering it wrong to hold landed property
to the peasants inheriting his mother's large estates and thus becoming a landed proprietor he had to choose one of two things either to give up his property as he had given up his father's land ten years before
or silently to confess that all his former ideas were mistaken and false he could not choose the former because he had no means but the landed estates he did not care to serve
moreover he had formed luxurious habits which he could not easily give up besides he had no longer the same inducements
were gone as to the second course that of denying those clear and unanswerable proofs of the injustice of landholding which he had drawn from spencer's social statics
and the brilliant corroboration of which he had at a later period found in the works of henry george
the attendants hurried out of breath dragging their feet along the ground without lifting them backwards and forwards with all sorts of messages and papers
passed hither and thither plaintiffs and those of the accused who were not guarded wandered sadly along the walls or sat waiting where is the law court nekhludoff asked of an attendant
which there is the civil court and the criminal court i am on the jury the criminal court you should have said here to the right then to the left the second door nekhludoff followed the direction
meanwhile some of the criminal court jurymen who were late had hurriedly passed into a separate room at the door mentioned two men stood waiting one a tall fat merchant a kind hearted fellow
had evidently partaken of some refreshments and a glass of something and was in most pleasant spirits the other was a shopman of jewish extraction they were talking about the price of wool when nekhludoff came up and asked them if this was the jurymen's room
yes my dear sir this is it one of us on the jury are you asked the merchant with a merry wink
after nekhludoff had answered in the affirmative my name is baklasheff merchant of the second guild he said putting out his broad soft flexible hand with whom have i the honour
nekhludoff gave his name and passed into the jurymen's room inside the room were about ten persons of all sorts they had come but a short while ago and some were sitting others walking up and down
looking at each other and making each other's acquaintance there was a retired colonel in uniform some were in frock coats others in morning coats and only one wore a peasant's dress
their faces all had a certain look of satisfaction at the prospect of fulfilling a public duty although many of them had had to leave their businesses and most were complaining of it the jurymen talked among themselves about the weather
the early spring and the business before them some having been introduced others just guessing who was who those who were not acquainted with nekhludoff made haste to get introduced evidently looking upon this as an honour
and he taking it as his due as he always did when among strangers had he been asked why he considered himself above the majority of people he could not have given an answer
the fact of his speaking english french and german with a good accent
bought from the most expensive dealers in these goods he quite knew would not serve as a reason for claiming superiority at the same time he did claim superiority and accepted the respect paid him as his due
and was hurt if he did not get it in the jurymen's room his feelings were hurt by disrespectful treatment among the jury there happened to be a man whom he knew a former teacher of his sister's children peter gerasimovitch
nekhludoff never knew his surname and even bragged a bit about this this man was now a master at a public school nekhludoff could not stand his familiarity his self satisfied laughter
his vulgarity in short ah ha you're also trapped these were the words accompanied with boisterous laughter with which peter gerasimovitch greeted nekhludoff have you not managed to get out of it
i never meant to get out of it replied nekhludoff gloomily and in a tone of severity well i call this being public spirited but just wait until you get hungry or sleepy you'll sing to another tune then
in russian as in many other languages thou is used generally among people very familiar with each other or by superiors to inferiors
and walked away with such a look of sadness on his face as might have been natural if he had just heard of the death of all his relations he came up to a group that had formed itself round a clean shaven tall dignified man
who was recounting something with great animation this man was talking about the trial going on in the civil court as of a case well known to himself mentioning the judges and a celebrated advocate by name
he was saying that it seemed wonderful how the celebrated advocate had managed to give such a clever turn to the affair that an old lady though she had the right on her side would have to pay a large sum to her opponent
the advocate is a genius he said the listeners heard it all with respectful attention and several of them tried to put in a word but the man interrupted them as if he alone knew all about it
though nekhludoff had arrived late he had to wait a long time
sometimes the greedy fellow swallows great stones and chunks of wood
and when he is smacking his great jaws over his food he makes such a greedy terrible noise that the other animals steal away nervously and hide until it shall be master crocodile's
sleepy time he is too lazy to waddle in search of a dinner far from the river where he lives but any animal or even a man swimmer
for what seems to be a greenish brown knobby log of wood floating on the water has little bright eyes which are on the lookout for anything which moves
and below the water two great jaws are ready to open and swallow in the prey of mister hungry mouth but no matter how hungry the crocodile may be
he will not touch the hen even if she should venture into his very jaws at least that is what the black men of the congo river will tell you
and surely as they are the nearest neighbors of the big reptile they ought to know if any one does now this is the story which they tell to explain why the crocodile will not eat the hen
once upon a time there was a hen a common plump clucky mother hen who used every day to go down to the river and pick up bits of food on the moist banks
were many she did not know that this congo river was the home of the crocodile the biggest fiercest
hungriest crocodile in all africa but one day when she went down to the water as usual she hopped out onto what looked like a mossy log saying to herself
aha this is a fine old timber house it is full of juicy bugs i know i shall have a great feast tap tap
pick pick the hen began to scratch and peck upon the rough bark of the log
suddenly she began to feel very seasick
the log was teetering up on end like a boat in a storm and before she knew what was really happening the poor hen found herself floundering in the water in the very jaws of the terrible crocodile
ha ha cried the crocodile in his harsh voice you took me for a log just as the other silly creatures do but i am no log missus hen as you shall soon see
the hen was frightened almost to death but she kept her presence of mind and gasped frantically as she saw the great jaws opening to swallow her o brother don't
now the crocodile was so surprised at hearing the hen call him brother that he kept his jaws wide open and forgot to swallow his dinner he kept them open for some time
gaping foolishly wondering what the hen could mean and how he could possibly be her brother and by the time he had remembered how hungry he was there was nothing for him to eat
for the hen had skipped away just as fast as her feet would take her pouf
what a fool i was to be caught by such a word
now though the hen had had so narrow an escape it had not sufficiently taught her a lesson a few days afterwards once more she went down to the river
for she could not resist the temptation of the bug dinner which she knew she should find there but she kept her eyes open sharply for any greeny log which might be floating on the water
saying to herself old hungry mouth shall not catch me napping this time i know his wicked tricks but this time the crocodile was not floating on the water like a greeny log
cocking her head knowingly on one side as she spied a real log floating out beyond which she took to be her enemy and as she scratched in the soft mud chuckling to think how sly she was
with a rush and a rustle down pounced the crocodile upon her and once more before she knew it she found herself in the horrid gateway of his jaws threatened by the double rows of long white
you shall not escape me this time i am a log am i look at me again missus hen am i a log and he came at her to swallow her at once
but again the hen squawked
again the crocodile paused thunderstruck by this extraordinary word oh bother the hen he cried
she lives in a town on the land and i live in my kingdom of mud and water how could two creatures possibly be more unlike how
but while he had been thinking of these hows once more the hen had managed to escape and was pelting back to her barnyard as fast as she could go
then indeed the crocodile was angry he determined to go and see nzambi the wise witch princess about the matter
but it was a long journey to her palace and he was awkward and slow in traveling upon land before he had gone very far he was tired and out of breath and stopped to rest under a banana tree
what can it be dear friend that is troubling you this day she said amiably surely no one would be so rude or rash as to offend the king of congo river but tell me your trouble and perhaps i can advise you
so delightfully fat and tempting comes to my river to feed well why don't i make her my dinner you ask now hearken each time
and carry her to my home she startles me by calling me brother
twice i have let her escape because of the word but i can stand it no longer
by palaver the slangy crocodile meant a long serious talk
do nothing of the kind
now listen to me don't you know dear crocodile that the duck lives on the water though she is neither a fish nor a reptile and the duck lays eggs
as for you dear old hungry mouth
here she whispered discreetly looking around to see that no one was listening at this moment in a snug nest dug out of the sand on the banks of the congo
missus crocodile has covered with leaves to hide them from your enemies
and in a few weeks out of these will scamper sixty little wiggly crocodiles your dear homely scaly hungry mouthed children yes
as the hen has said sh
whispered the crocodile nervously
what you say is undoubtedly true he added pensively after thinking a few moments then i suppose i must give up my tempting dinner of hen i cannot eat my sister can i
of course you cannot said the mbambi as he rustled away through the jungle we can't have everything we want in this world no i see we cannot sighed the crocodile
as he waddled back towards the banks of the congo now in the same old spot he found the hen who had been improving his absence by greedily stuffing herself on beetle bugs flies and mosquitoes
until she was so fat that she could not run away at the crocodile's approach she could only stand and squawk feebly fluttering her ridiculous wings but the crocodile only said
the greeks left no child forms in art the student of original sources of history learns little about children in his searches few in number
and comparatively meagre in quality are the literary remains that even refer to them we know little of the childhood days of our forbears
and have scant opportunity to make comparisons or note progress the child of colonial days was emphatically to be seen
as his childish successor is of great importance to day
hence there was none of that exhaustive study of the motives thoughts and acts of a child which is now rife the accounts of oldtime child life gathered for this book
are wholly unconscious
the attitude of the child but from that of his parents guardians and friends the records have been made from affectionate interest
are beautiful to read and to know the quotations from manuscript letters records diaries and accounts which are here given
could only have been acquired by precisely the method which has been followed a constant and distinct search for many years
combined with an alert watchfulness for items or even hints relating to the subject during as many years of extended historical reading
many private collections and many single treasured relics have been freely offered for use and nearly all the sentences and pages selected from these sources
now appear in print for the first time the portraits of children form a group as rare as it is beautiful they are specially valuable
as a study of costume nearly all of these also are as true emblems of the generous friendship of the present owners as they are of the life of the past
the rich stores of our many historical associations of the essex institute the american antiquarian society the long island historical society
the deerfield memorial hall the lenox library have been generously
and to these bountiful societies and libraries can scarcely be emphasized by any public thanks yet
it would seem that for such assistance thanks could never be offered too frequently nor too publicly nor have i in gathering for this as for my other books
failed to exercise what emerson calls the catlike love of garrets presses and cornchambers and of the conveniences of long housekeeping
has yielded conveniences for this book though this is a record of the life of children in the american colonies i have freely compared the conditions in this country with similar ones in england at the same date
both for the sake of fuller elucidation and also to attempt to put on a proper basis the civilization which the colonists left behind them
many statements of conditions in america do not convey correct ideas of our past comfort and present and liberal progress unless we compare them with facts in english life
we must not overrate seventeenth and eighteenth century life in england either in private or public england was not a first class power among nations till the time of the treaty of paris
in seventeen sixty three when our colonies were settled it was third rate life among the nobility was magnificent
the colonial laws plainly show this increased valuation and the child responded to this regard of him by a growing sense of his own importance which in time has produced
young america it is my hope that children as well as grown folk will find in these pages much to interest them in the accounts of the life of children of olden times
though i have made no attempt nor had i any intent to write in a style for the perusal of children for i have not found that intelligent children care much or long for such books
except in the very rare cases of the few great books that have been written for children and which are loved and read as much by the old as by the young as our tired
century has grown gray it has developed an interest in things youthful in the beginnings of things its attitude is akin to that of an old man still in health and clear headed but weary
has been the allotted day and hour for the writing of this book there has been a trend of destiny which has brought not only a book on oldtime child life
and that book at this century end but has included the fate that it should be written by alice morse earle
the little flower of jesus my song of to day oh how i love thee jesus
come reign within my heart smile tenderly on me
but if i dare take thought of what the morrow brings it fills my fickle heart with dreary dull
i crave indeed my god the cross and sufferings but only for
o sweetest star of heaven
mother beneath thy veil let my tired spirit rest for this brief passing day soon shall i fly afar among the holy choirs
then shall be mine the joy that knoweth no decay and then my lips shall sing to heaven's angelic lyres the eternal glad to day
june eighteen ninety four memories selected stanzas
the lonely and wooded vales the distant isles the murmur of the waters the soft whisper of the zephyrs
i hold full sweet your memory my childhood days so glad so free to keep my innocence dear lord for thee thy love came to me night and day
alway i loved the swallows graceful flight the turtle doves low chant at night the pleasant sound of insects gay and bright
the grassy vale where doth belong their song i loved the glow worm on the sod the countless stars so near to god but most i loved in all the sky abroad
my isle in far off seas pearl i most prize sweet spring and butterflies i see in thee
in thee i have the springs the rills the mignonette the daffodils
the homage that to thee belongs soon let me fly away to join their songs oh let me die of love i pray one day i hear e e n i
thy last and least the music from thy heavenly feast there deign receive me as thy loving guest and to my harp let me but sing my king
for love in wondrous love thou didst come down from heaven to immolate thyself o christ for me so in my turn my love to thee is given
i wish to suffer and to die for thee thou lord didst speak this truth benign to die for one loved tenderly of greatest love on earth is sign
helped by thy cross i mount the rocky crest oh come to guide me on my heavenward way to be like thee is my desire thy voice finds echo in my soul
the seraphim all heaven cry to me that even thou to conquer sin and crime upon this earth a sufferer needs must be
for me upon life's dreary way what scorn what anguish thou didst bear let me but hide me day by day be least of all alway thy lot to share
ah christ thy great example teaches me myself to humble honours to despise a little one as thou i choose to be
forgetting self so i may charm thine eyes my peace i find in solitude nor ask i more dear lord than this
thou dwell'st a prisoner for me night and day and every hour i hear thy voice implore i thirst i thirst
april thirtieth eighteen ninety six to scatter flowers
jesus o my love each eve i come to fling my springtide roses sweet before thy cross divine by their plucked petals fair my hands so gladly bring
to scatter flowers that means each sacrifice my lightest sighs and pains my heaviest saddest hours my hopes my joys my prayers i will not count the price
for this my fairest flowers all things in my control how fondly gladly would i give to scatter flowers behold my chosen sword for saving sinners souls and filling heaven's bowers
the victory is mine yea i disarm thee lord with these my flowers the petals in their flight caress thy holy face they tell thee that my heart is thine and thine alone
thou knowest what these leaves are saying in my place on me thou smilest from thy throne to scatter flowers that means to speak of thee my only pleasure here where tears fill all the hours
but soon with angel hosts my spirit shall be free to scatter flowers june twenty eighth eighteen ninety six why i love thee mary
concluding stanzas henceforth thy shelter in thy woe was john's most humble dwelling
replaced the son whom heaven adored
in grace excelling
but oh i think that silence means that high in heaven's glory when time is past and to their house thy children safe are come
the eternal word my mother dear himself will tell thy story to charm our souls thy children's souls in our eternal home soon i shall hear that harmony
that blissful wondrous singing soon unto heaven that waits for us my soul shall swiftly fly
come once again to smile on me mother the night is nigh i fear no more thy majesty so far removed above me for i have suffered sore with thee
now hear me mother mild oh let me tell thee face to face dear mary how i love thee and say to thee for evermore i am thy little child
note the above poems are reprinted from the translation of the little flower's poems made by susan l emery
unless for a very little while you wish to feel sorry long long ago when the world was new there lived a beautiful princess named
she was the daughter of old a eolus king of the winds and lived with him on his happy island where it was his chief business
to keep in order the four boisterous brothers boreas the north wind zephyrus the west wind auster the south wind
and eurus the east wind sometimes indeed a eolus had a hard time of it for the winds would escape from his control and rush out upon the sea
the cruelties which they practiced at every opportunity one day the prince
grew to love each other dearly and at last with the consent of good king a eolus but to the wrath of the four winds
to visit a temple in a far country
knowing well the cruelty of the winds
she knew how the mischievous brothers loved to rush down upon venturesome sailors and blow them into danger and she knew that they especially hated her husband
because he had carried her away from the island where she had watched the winds at their terrible play
but he said that it was necessary then she prayed that if he must go he would take her with him for she could not bear to remain behind dreading what might happen
should not go the good king longed to take her with him no more than she could he smile at the thought of separation but he also feared the sea
as now he spoke the day of separation came standing heart broken upon the shore
until as a little speck it dropped below the horizon then sobbing bitterly she returned to the palace now the king and his men
had completed but half their journey when a terrible storm arose the wicked winds had escaped from the control of good old a eolus and were rushing down upon the ocean to punish
fiercely they blew the lightning flashed and the sea ran high and in the midst of the horrible tumult the good ship went to the bottom with all on board
and far from his dear wife
perished in the cruel waves that very night when the shipwreck occurred
as soon as it was light she rose and hastened to the seashore trembling with a horrible dread standing on the very spot whence she had last seen the fated ship
she looked wistfully over the waste of stormy waters at last she spied a dark something tossing on the waves the object floated nearer and nearer
the body of her drowned husband
which advanced and retreated seething around his body but a different fate was to be hers as she leaped forward
the first kingfisher who ever flew lamenting above the waters of the world the sad bird fluttered through the spray straight to the body that was tossed upon the surf
as her wings touched the wet shoulders
what was once so dear
the limbs stirred a faint color returned to the cheeks
he too was becoming a kingfisher he too felt the thrill of wings upon his shoulders wings which were to bear him up
and away out of the sea which had been his death he too was clad in soft plumage with a kingly crest upon his kingly head with a faint cry half of sorrow for what had happened
half of joy for the future in which these two loving ones were at least to be together
where his lifeless limbs had lain
so those unhappy mortals became the first kingfishers happy at last in being reunited so we see them still flying up and down over the waters of the world
which floated on the waves as safely as any little boat and while their children the baby halcyons lay in this rocking cradle for seven days in the heart of winter
no storms ever troubled the ocean and mariners could set out upon their voyages without fear for while his little grandchildren rocked in their basket the good king a eolus
was always especially careful to chain up in prison those wicked brothers the winds
a halcyon time has come to mean
rode into the palace yard where the servants fell on their faces before him and the guard presented arms to the sound of drums and trumpets his holiness saluted the army and went to the bathing chambers
on the north to sunnu and pilak on the south at this intelligence the nomarchs the nobility the army the people and the foreigners were wild with delight but the sacred order of priests mourned the more zealously the dead pharaoh
and behind him the chief judges of thebes and memphis some of the nearer nomarchs the chief treasurer also the overseers of the house of wheat the house of cattle the house of garments the house of slaves the house of silver and gold
and a multitude of other dignitaries
and said with emotion lord
of the orphan kingdom be greeted therefore o lord and ruler of the world and holiness may thou live through eternity cham sem merer amen rameses neter haq an those present repeated this salutation with enthusiasm
they expected the new ruler to show some emotion or feeling to the astonishment of all he merely moved his brow and answered in accordance with the will of his holiness my father and with the laws of egypt i take possession of government
and will conduct it to the glory of the state and the happiness of the people he turned suddenly to herhor and looking him sharply in the eyes inquired on thy mitre worthiness i see the golden serpent why hast thou put that symbol of regal power on thy head
to the most powerful person in the state more powerful perhaps
deign to remember holiness explained he that for twenty four hours egypt has been deprived of its legal ruler meanwhile some one had to wake and put to sleep the god osiris to impart blessings to the people
and render homage to the ancestors of the pharaoh in such a grievous time the supreme council commanded me to wear this holy relic so that the order of the state and the service of the gods might not be neglected
but the moment that we have a lawful and mighty ruler i set aside the wondrous relic then herhor took from his head the mitre
threatening face of the pharaoh grew calm and he turned his steps toward the throne
deign holy lord to hear my most submissive prayer but neither in his voice nor his eyes
he continued i have words from the supreme council of high priests utter them said the pharaoh it is known to thee holiness that a pharaoh who has not received ordination as high priest cannot perform the highest sacrifices
that is dress and undress the miraculous osiris i understand
the supreme council begs thee submissively holiness to appoint a high priest to take thy place in religious functions
trembled and squirmed as if standing on hot stones and the generals touched their swords as if involuntarily
and fixed his cold glance again on the face of the pharaoh but the lord of the world showed no trouble even this time it is well said he that thou hast reminded me worthiness of this important duty the military profession and affairs of state
to occupy myself with the ceremonies of our holy religion so i must appoint a substitute while speaking he looked around at the men assembled on the left of herhor stood the holy sem
rameses glanced into his mild and honest face and inquired suddenly who and what art thou worthiness my name is sem
said the pharaoh pointing toward him with his finger a murmur of astonishment ran through the assembly
to select a more worthy priest for that high office
tightly and dropped his eyelids a moment later the new pharaoh sat on his throne which instead of feet had the carved figures of princes and the kings of nine nations soon herhor gave to the lord on a golden plate
a white and also a red crown the sovereign placed the crowns on his own head in silence while those present fell prostrate that was not the solemn coronation it was merely taking possession of power when the priests had incensed the pharaoh
then rameses took a gold spoon and repeating a prayer which the holy sem pronounced aloud he incensed the statues of the gods arranged in line on both sides of the pharaoh's chapel
what am i to do now inquired he show thyself to the people replied herhor through a gilded widely opened door his holiness ascended marble steps to a terrace and raising his hands
and from the summits of pylons banners were hung out whoso was in a field in a yard on the street
was lowered without giving the blow
state who had been sentenced that day received grace descending from the terrace the pharaoh inquired have i something more to do refreshments and affairs of state are awaiting thee holiness replied herhor
after that i may rest said the pharaoh where are the remains of his holiness my father
will repeat those beautiful words to us remember quoted sem that she gave birth to thee and nourished thee in every manner speak further speak insisted the pharaoh striving always to command himself
and gave thee birth when thy months had expired she carried thee in her arms afterward
increase thy divine inheritance the pharaoh embraced and kissed his mother repeatedly then he seated her on the wooden couch and sat on the stone himself has my father left commands to me inquired he he begged thee only to remember him
but he said to the supreme council i leave you my heir who is a lion and an eagle in one person obey him and he will elevate egypt to incomparable power dost thou think that the priests will obey me
remember answered the queen that the device of the pharaoh is a serpent and a serpent means prudence which is silent
said she and the gods have endowed thee with great wisdom were it not for that i should fear terribly a struggle with herhor i do not dispute with him i remove him egypt is thine repeated the queen but i fear a struggle with the priests
but it is not wise to bring them to despair through severity besides think of this who will replace them in counsel they know everything that has been that is and that will be on earth and in heaven they know the most secret thoughts of mankind
and they direct hearts as the wind directs tree leaves without them
i do not reject their wisdom but i want service answered the pharaoh i know that their understanding is great but it must be controlled so that it may not deceive and it must be directed lest it ruin the state tell me thyself mother
the treasury is empty and meanwhile two months distance from us assyria is increasing like dough containing leaven and to day is forcing on us treaties
and only because every day i took some mad but decisive step if i had not rushed to the desert against them which by the way was a great indiscretion we should have the libyans outside memphis at this moment
chapter twenty three in the city of anu a series of feasts and amusements now followed the worthy nomarch brought the choicest wines from his cellars from the three neighboring provinces
came the most beautiful dancers the most famous musicians the adroitest of jugglers the prince's time was occupied thoroughly every morning reviews of troops and receptions later feasts
spectacles hunting and feasts again but just when ranuzer felt certain that the viceroy was tired of questions of administration and economy the latter summoned him and asked
thy province worthiness is among the richest in egypt is it not yes
replied ranuzer and again his heart sank and his legs began to tremble but this astonishes me said the prince that year after year the income of his holiness decreases
canst thou not explain to me the cause of this lord said the nomarch bending his head to the earth i see that my enemies have sown distrust in thy soul whatever i might say therefore
would not convince thee permit me not to speak better let scribes come with documents which thou canst touch with thy hand and verify the prince was somewhat astonished at the unexpected outburst
and with him his assistants they brought from ten to twenty rolls of papyrus written on both sides when unwound they formed a strip three spans of a great hand in width and in length sixty paces
for the first time the prince saw so gigantic a document containing an inventory of one province only and that for one year the chief scribe sat on the floor with his legs doubled under him and began
in the thirty third year of the reign of his holiness mer amen rameses the nile was late in its overflow earth tillers ascribing this misfortune to the black art of foreigners resident in the province of hak
fell to wrecking the houses of hittites jews and phoenicians during which time a number of persons were slain by them at command of his worthiness the nomarch those guilty were brought to the court
twenty five earth tillers two masons and five sandal makers were condemned to the quarries one boatman was strangled what is that document interrupted the prince it is the report of the court
intended for the feet of his holiness put it aside and read about the income of the treasury the assistants of the chief scribe folded the rejected document and gave him others again the official began
on the fifth day of the month thoth six hundred measures of wheat were brought to the granaries of the pharaoh
was issued by the chief overseer on the seventh day of thoth the chief scribe discovered and verified a statement that from the supply of the previous year one hundred and forty eight measures of wheat had vanished
during the verification two laborers stole a measure of grain and hid it among bricks when this was proven they were brought to judgment
twenty cows and eighty four sheep were sent to the slaughter these at command of the overseer of oxen were issued to the sparrow hawk regiment in this manner
the viceroy learned day after day how much wheat barley beans and lotus seed were weighed into the granaries how much given out to the mills how much stolen and how many laborers were condemned to the quarries for stealing
everything which thy worthiness commands and he began again at the beginning but from memory on the fifth of the month thoth they brought to the granaries of the pharaoh enough cried the enraged prince
and he commanded the man to depart the scribes fell on their faces gathered up their papyruses quickly and bore them away in a twinkle the prince summoned the nomarch he came with crossed hands but with a calm face
for he had learned from the scribes that the viceroy could understand nothing from reports and that he did not give ear to them tell me worthiness began the heir do they read reports to thee every day
and dost thou understand them pardon most worthy lord but could i manage a province if i did not understand the prince was confused and fell to thinking
could it be really that he rameses was the only incompetent but in this case what would become of his power sit down said he after a while indicating a chair to the nomarch
on the contrary i know no man who could manage better but i am young and curious to know the art of government so i beg thee to deal out to me crumbs of thy knowledge thou art ruling the province
i know that now explain to me the process the nomarch drew breath and began i will relate worthiness the whole course of my life so thou shalt know how weighty my work is
in the morning i bathe then i give offerings to the god amut next i summon the treasurer and ask him whether the taxes for his holiness are collected properly
when he answers yes i praise him when he says that these and those people have not paid i issue an order to imprison the disobedient then i summon the overseers of the royal granaries
to learn how much grain has been delivered if much i praise them if little i issue an order to inflict stripes on the guilty later comes the chief scribe
officials and laborers and i command to send them in return for a receipt when he gives out less i praise him when more i commence an investigation in the afternoon come phoenician merchants to whom i sell wheat
and bring money to the treasury of the pharaoh afterward i pray and confirm the sentences of the court toward evening the police inform me of what has happened no longer ago than the day before yesterday people from my province
and desecrated a statue of the god sebak i was delighted in heart for that god is not our patron still i condemned some of the guilty to strangulation some of them to the quarries
hence peace and good habits prevail in my province and the taxes flow in daily
added rameses thou speakest truth lord sighed the worthy nomarch the priests say that the gods are angry with egypt because of the influx of foreigners but i see that even the gods do not contemn gold
both dignitaries consented and the nomarch exhibited so much piety that the prince was astonished
herhor i beg thee to explain one thing which fills my heart with anxiety shall i be able to explain asked the prophet thou wilt answer me for thou art filled with wisdom of which thou art the servant
thou knowest why his holiness sent me hither he sent thee prince to become familiar with the wealth of the country and its institutions said mentezufis i am obeying
i examine the nomarchs i look at the country and the people i listen to reports of scribes but i understand nothing this poisons my life and astounds me when i have to do with the army
there is a hostile corps i must take two corps to beat it if the enemy is in a defensive position i should not move without three corps when the enemy is undisciplined and fights in unordered crowds against a thousand
i send five hundred of our soldiers and beat him when the opposing side has a thousand men with axes and i a thousand i rush at them and finish those troops if i have a hundred men with slings in addition
in the army holy father continued rameses
as the fingers on my hand and to every question an answer is ready which my mind comprehends meanwhile in the management of a province i not only see nothing but there is such confusion in my head
the holy prophet fell to thinking whether they attempt to deceive thee worthiness answered he i know not for i have not examined their acts it seems to me however
that they explain nothing because they themselves comprehend nothing the nomarchs and their scribes continued the priest are like decurions in an army each one knows his ten men and reports on them each commands those under him
but the decurion knows not the general plan made by leaders of the army the nomarchs and the scribes write down everything that happens in their province and lay those reports at the feet of the pharaoh
how is that then if i do not become a priest will ye not explain to me there are things worthiness which thou mayest know even now
when thou art the pharaoh there are still others which only a high priest may know every pharaoh is a high priest interrupted the prince not every pharaoh besides even among high priests
there are grades of difference then
ye hide the order of the state from me and i shall not be able to carry out the commands of my father what the prince needs may be known answered mentezufis quietly for thou hast the inferior priestly consecration
those things however are hidden behind the veil in temples which no one will dare to draw aside without due preparation i will draw it may the gods defend egypt from such a misfortune
replied the priest as he raised both his hands dost thou not know worthiness that a thunderbolt would kill any man who without the needed ceremonies should touch the veil
were the prince to take to the temple any slave or condemned criminal and let him stretch out his hand the man would die that same instant for ye would kill him
each one of us would die just like an ordinary criminal were he to approach the altar sacrilegiously in presence of the gods my prince a pharaoh or a priest means as little as a slave
what am i to do then asked rameses seek an answer to thy trouble in the temple after thou hast purified thyself by prayers and fasting answered the priest
while egypt is egypt no ruler has gained wisdom of state in another way i will meditate over this said the prince though i see from thy words that the most venerable
april and may the sun stood high heralding the most violent season of heat for egypt a mighty wind from the desert had blown in repeatedly men and beasts fell because of heat and on fields and trees
a gray dust had begun to settle under which vegetation was dying roses had been harvested and turned into oil wheat had been gathered as well as the second crop of clover
well sweeps and buckets moved with double energy irrigating the earth with dirty water to fit it for new seed men had begun to gather grapes and figs the nile had fallen water in canals was low
and of evil odor above the whole country a fine dust was borne along in a deluge of burning sun rays in spite of this
in the province of habu lived people of another origin not the old egyptians
the old egyptians despised this remnant of a conquering race expelled from power afterward but rameses looked on them with satisfaction they were large and strong their bearing was proud and there was manly energy in their faces
with scars from beating the scribes respected them because they knew that if a hyksos were beaten he would return the blows and might kill the man who gave them moreover the hyksos enjoyed the pharaoh's favor
for their people furnished the choicest warriors as the retinue of the heir
whose temples and palaces were visible through the haze of dust as through a veil of muslin the neighborhood grew more active along the broad highway and the canals men were taking to market cattle
wheat fruit wine flowers bread and a multitude of other articles of daily consumption the torrent of people and goods moving toward the city was as noisy and dense as that outside memphis in the holiday season
bore itself kindly toward these pilgrims who brought it a considerable income the priests endured them and the people of neighboring provinces
the mud huts and tents of strangers covered the open country as one neared the city those huts increased in number and transient inhabitants swarmed more and more densely around them some were preparing food under the open sky
others were purchasing provisions which came in continually still others were going in procession to the temple here and there were large crowds before places of amusement where beast tamers serpent charmers athletes
female dancers and jugglers exhibited their adroitness above all this multitude of people were heat and uproar before the gate of the city rameses was greeted by his court and by the nomarch of habu
surrounded by his officials but the greeting despite cordiality
what does this mean that he looks on me as if i had come to measure out punishment because thou hast the face of a man who has been associating with divinity he spoke truth
or the society of priests or of long meditation the prince had changed greatly he had grown thin his complexion had darkened and in his face and bearing much dignity was evident in the course of weeks he had grown some years older
the heir and his retinue but these people did not greet the prince
as if waiting for some person what is this asked rameses of the nomarch
touched the prince disagreeably here dwells hiram answered the nomarch a prince of tyre a man of great charity every day he distributes bountiful alms therefore poor people rush to him
rameses turned on his horse looked and said i see there laborers of the pharaoh so they too go for alms to the rich phoenician the nomarch was silent happily they approached the official palace and the prince forgot hiram
feasts in honor of the viceroy continued a number of days in succession but they did not please him gladness was lacking and disagreeable incidents happened one day a favorite of the prince was dancing before him she burst into tears
at first she hesitated but emboldened by the kindness of her lord she answered shedding tears in still greater abundance we are thy women o ruler we come from great families and respect is due to us thou speakest truth said rameses
meanwhile thy treasurer stints us in allowance and would deprive us of serving maids without whom we cannot bathe or dress our hair rameses summoned his treasurer and commanded sternly
that his women should have all that belonged to their birth and position the treasurer fell on his face before the prince and promised to carry out all commands of the women a couple of days later a rebellion broke out among the court slaves who complained that their wine had been taken
still two days later a great uproar at the palace roused him in the morning rameses inquired what the cause was
the trembling treasurer fell on his face again and groaned slay me lord but what am i to do when thy treasury thy granaries and thy storehouses are empty in spite of his anger
he commanded him to withdraw and then summoned tutmosis listen to me said rameses to the favorite things are done here which i do not understand and to which i am not accustomed my women the slaves the army the pharaoh's workmen
do not receive what is due them or their supplies are curtailed when i asked the treasurer what this means
he told truth how is that burst out the prince for my journey his holiness assigned two hundred talents in gold and goods can it be that all this is expended yes answered tutmosis how is that
cried the viceroy did not the nomarchs entertain us all the way yes but we paid them for doing so then they are rogues and robbers if they receive us as guests and then plunder us be not angry and i will explain
sit down tutmosis took a seat dost thou know asked he that for a month past i have eaten food from thy kitchen drunk wine from thy pitchers and dressed from thy wardrobe thou hast a right to that privilege
for they have nothing to pay with some time i will reward them now continued tutmosis we take from thy treasury for want is oppressing us the nomarchs do the same
if they had means they would give feasts and receptions at their own cost but as they have not the means they receive recompense wilt thou call them rogues now i condemned them too harshly anger like smoke covered my eyes said rameses
i am ashamed of my words none the less i wish that neither courtiers soldiers nor working men should suffer injustice but since my means are exhausted it will be necessary to borrow would a hundred talents suffice what thinkest thou
dismiss me from thy presence said tutmosis sadly but i have told the truth at present no one will make us a loan for there is no one to do so what is dagon for wondered the prince
in prayer and penance why such devotion is it because that i was in a temple that my banker thinks he too should take counsel of the gods tutmosis turned on the stool the phoenicians said he are alarmed
they are even crushed by the news about what some one has spread the report worthiness that when thou shalt mount the throne all phoenicians will be expelled and their property confiscated well they have time enough before that
laughed rameses tutmosis hesitated further they say continued he in a lowered voice that in recent days the health of his holiness may he live through eternity has failed notably that is untrue interrupted the prince in alarm
the priests are praying for him but tell me nothing they say that the illness of his holiness may last a year oh thou hearest fables and art disturbing me better tell me about the phoenicians i have heard said tutmosis
only what every one has heard that while in the temple thou wert convinced of the harm done by phoenicians and didst bind thyself to expel them in the temple repeated the heir but who knows what that is of which i convinced myself in the temple
was there treason too in the temple thought the prince summon dagon in every case said he aloud i must know the source of these lies and by the gods i will end them thou wilt do well for all egypt is frightened
even to day there is no one to lend money and if those reports continue all commerce will cease our aristocracy have fallen into trouble from which none see the issue and even thy court is in want a month hence
the same thing may happen in the palace of his holiness silence interrupted the prince and call dagon this moment tutmosis ran out
the banker covered his face and wept what does this mean asked the prince quickly lord exclaimed dagon as he fell on his knees seize all my property sell me and my family take everything even our lives
but a hundred talents where could i find wealth like that neither in egypt nor phoenicia continued he sobbing set has seized thee o dagon
couldst thou believe that i thought of expelling thy phoenicians the banker fell at the prince's feet a second time i know nothing i am a common merchant and thy slave as many days as there are between the new and the full moon
prince hiram an old man wise and tremendously wealthy summon him erpatr ask of him a hundred talents perhaps he will be able to gratify thee since rameses could get no explanations from the banker
chapter eighty the accusation
oh death is in my house cried villefort say rather crime replied the doctor
i cannot tell you all i feel at this moment terror grief madness
i can no longer bear to be in possession of these secrets without the hope of seeing the victims and society generally revenged villefort cast a gloomy look around him in my house murmured he
in my house come magistrate
show yourself a man as an interpreter of the law do honor to your profession by sacrificing your selfish interests to it you make me shudder doctor do you talk of a sacrifice i do
do you then suspect any one i suspect no one death raps at your door it enters it goes not blindfolded but circumspectly from room to room
well i follow its course i track its passage i adopt the wisdom of the ancients and feel my way for my friendship for your family and my respect for you are as a twofold bandage over my eyes well
oh speak speak doctor i shall have courage well sir you have in your establishment or in your family perhaps one of the frightful monstrosities of which each century produces only one
locusta and agrippina living at the same time were an exception and proved the determination of providence to effect the entire ruin of the roman empire sullied by so many crimes
brunehilde and fredegonde were the results of the painful struggle of civilization in its infancy
were it even by an emissary from the realms of darkness all these women had been or were beautiful the same flower of innocence had flourished or was still flourishing on their brow
that is seen on the brow of the culprit in your house
clasped his hands and looked at the doctor with a supplicating air but the latter went on without pity seek whom the crime will profit says an axiom of jurisprudence doctor
cried villefort alas doctor how often has man's justice been deceived by those fatal words i know not why but i feel that this crime
because his system is accustomed to that very poison and the dose was trifling to him which would be fatal to another because no one knows not even the assassin that for the last twelve months
brucine for his paralytic affection while the assassin is not ignorant for he has proved that brucine is a violent poison oh have pity have pity murmured villefort wringing his hands
follow the culprit's steps
what i heard of his symptoms agrees too well with what i have seen in the other cases villefort ceased to contend he only groaned
villefort wiped the perspiration from his forehead listen attentively alas stammered villefort i do not lose a single word
against your family in favor of the poor in fact
because nothing is expected from him but he has no sooner destroyed his first will and made a second than for fear he should make a third he is struck down the will was made the day before yesterday i believe
you see there has been no time lost
no mercy sir the physician has a sacred mission on earth and to fulfil it he begins at the source of life and goes down to the mysterious darkness of the tomb
when crime has been committed and god doubtless in anger turns away his face it is for the physician to bring the culprit to justice have mercy on my child sir murmured villefort
you see it is yourself who have first named her
i denounce mademoiselle de villefort do your duty doctor i resist no longer i can no longer defend myself i believe you but for pity's sake spare my life my honor
if your daughter had committed only one crime and i saw her meditating another i would say warn her punish her let her pass the remainder of her life in a convent weeping and praying
if she had committed two crimes i would say
one that has no known antidote quick as thought rapid as lightning mortal as the thunderbolt give her that poison recommending her soul to god and save your honor and your life
for it is yours she aims at and i can picture her approaching your pillow with her hypocritical smiles and her sweet exhortations
this is what i would say had she only killed two persons but she has seen three deaths has contemplated three murdered persons has knelt by three corpses to the scaffold with the poisoner to the scaffold
do you talk of your honor do what i tell you and immortality awaits you
listen said he i have not the strength of mind you have or rather that which you would not have if instead of my daughter valentine your daughter madeleine were concerned the doctor turned pale
doctor every son of woman is born to suffer and to die i am content to suffer and to await death
it may come slowly you will see it approach after having struck your father your wife perhaps your son
listen cried he pity me help me no my daughter is not guilty if you drag us both before a tribunal i will still say no my daughter is not guilty there is no crime in my house
i will not acknowledge a crime in my house for when crime enters a dwelling it is like death it does not come alone listen what does it signify to you if i am murdered are you my friend are you a man have you a heart
no you are a physician well i tell you i will not drag my daughter before a tribunal and give her up to the executioner the bare idea would kill me would drive me like a madman to dig my heart out with my finger nails
and if you were mistaken doctor if it were not my daughter if i should come one day pale as a spectre and say to you assassin you have killed my child hold if that should happen
well said the doctor after a moment's silence i will wait villefort looked at him as if he had doubted his words only
with a slow and solemn tone if any one falls ill in your house if you feel yourself attacked do not send for me for i will come no more i will consent to share this dreadful secret with you
but i will not allow shame and remorse to grow and increase in my conscience as crime and misery will in your house then you abandon me doctor yes for i can follow you no farther
and i only stop at the foot of the scaffold some further discovery will be made which will bring this dreadful tragedy to a close
i entreat you doctor all the horrors that disturb my thoughts make your house odious and fatal
one word one single word more doctor
after increasing it by what you have revealed to me but what will be reported of the sudden death of the poor old servant
the doctor went out first
the terrified servants were on the stairs and in the passage where the doctor would pass sir
so loud that all might hear poor barrois has led too sedentary a life of late accustomed formerly to ride on horseback or in the carriage to the four corners of europe
the monotonous walk around that arm chair has killed him his blood has thickened he was stout had a short thick neck he was attacked with apoplexy and i was called in too late by the way
added he in a low tone take care to throw away that cup of syrup of violets in the ashes the doctor without shaking hands with villefort without adding a word to what he had said
went out amid the tears and lamentations of the whole household the same evening all villefort's servants who had assembled in the kitchen and had a long consultation
that they wished to leave no entreaty no proposition of increased wages could induce them to remain to every argument they replied we must go for death is in this house
they all left in spite of prayers and entreaties testifying their regret at leaving so good a master and mistress
blue fox was no lover of solitude and seeing that the only solitude he knew was the immeasurable desolation of the arctic barrens this was not strange the loneliness of these unending and unbroken plains
rolled out flat beneath the low hung sky to a horizon of white haze might have weighed down even so dauntless a spirit as his had he not taken care to fortify himself against it this he did very sagaciously
by cultivating the companionship of his kind his snug burrow beneath the stunted bush growth of the plains was surrounded by the burrows of perhaps a score of his race during the brief but brilliant arctic summer
which flared across the lonely wastes with a fervor which strove to compensate for the weary duration of its absence the life of blue fox was not arduous but during the long sunless winters with their wild snows
their yelling gales their interminable night and their sudden descents of still intense frost so bitter that it seemed as if the incalculable cold of outer space were invading this undefended outpost of the world
then blue fox and his fellows would have had a sorry time of it but for two considerations they had their cheer of association in the snug burrows deep beneath the covering of the snows
and they had their food supplies laid by with wise forethought in the season when food was abundant therefore when the old bear grown too restless and savage to hibernate had often to roam the darkness hungry
and when the wolf pack was forced to range the frozen leagues for hardly meat enough to keep their gaunt flanks from falling in the provident foxes had little to fear from either cold or famine
the burrow of blue fox was dug in a patch of dry sandy soil that formed a sort of island half a dozen acres broad in the vast surrounding sea of the swampy tundra
the island was not high enough or defined enough to be called a knoll to the eye it was nothing more than an almost imperceptible bulge in the enormous monotony of the levels
but its elevation was enough to secure it good drainage and a growth of more varied herb and bush than that of the moss covered tundra with here and there a little open space of turf and real grass
which afforded its tenants room to bask deliciously in the glow of the precipitate summer hot and melting as the arctic summer might be it could never reach with its ardent fingers the foundations of eternal frost
which underlay all that land at a depth of a very few feet so blue fox dug his burrow not too deep but rather on a gentle slant and formed his chamber at a depth
of not much more than two feet below the roots of the bushes abundantly lined with fine dry grasses which he and his family kept scrupulously clean it was always warm and dry and sweet
it was an afternoon in the first of the summer one of those long unclouded glowing warm afternoons of the arctic when the young shoots of herb and bush seem to lengthen visibly under the eye of the watcher
and the flower buds open impetuously as if in haste for the caresses of the eager moths and flies for the moment the vast expanses of the barren were not lonely
the nesting juncos and snow buntings twittered cheerfully among the busy growths the mating ducks clamored harshly along the bright coils of the sluggish stream which wound its way through the marshes
on an islet in the middle of a reedy mere some half mile to the east a pair of great white trumpeter swans had their nest scornful of concealment
a mile or more off to the west a herd of caribou browsed the young green shoots of the tundra growth moving slowly northward
the windless air was faintly musical with the hum of insects and with the occasional squeaks and scurryings of unseen lemming mice in their secret roadways under the dense green sphagnum
blue fox sat up not far from the entrance to his tunnel
and watching the play of his fuzzy cubs and their slim young blue gray mother in and out their doorway scattered here and there over their naked little domain he saw the families of his kindred
similarly care free and content with life but care free as he was blue fox never forgot that the price of freedom from care was eternal vigilance between his eyes and the pallid horizon he detected a wide winged bird
swinging low over the marshes he knew at once what it was that with slow moving deliberate wings came up nevertheless so swiftly it was no goose or brant or fish loving merganser
or inland wandering saddleback gull that flew in such a fashion he gave a shrill yelp of warning answered at once from all over the colony and at once the playing cubs whisked into their burrows or drew close to their mothers
and sat up to stare with bright suspicious eyes at the strong winged flier blue fox himself like most of his full grown fellows never stirred
but his eyes never swerved for a second from the approach of that ominous winnowing shape it was a great arctic hawk owl white mottled with chocolate and it seemed to be hunting in a leisurely fashion as if well fed
and seeking excitement rather than a meal it came straight on toward the colony of the foxes flying lower and lower till blue fox began to gather his steel like muscles to be ready for a spring at its throat
if it should come within reach it passed straight over his head its terrible hooked beak half open its wide implacable eyes jewel bright and hard as glass glaring downward with still menace
but with all its courage it did not dare attack any one of the calmly watchful foxes it made a sweeping half circuit of the colony and then sailed on toward the mere of the white swans
just at the edge of the mere it dropped suddenly into a patch of reeds to flap up again a second later with a limp form trailing from its talons the form of a luckless mother duck surprised in brooding her eggs
a great hubbub of startled and screaming water fowl pursued the marauder but the swans from their islet as the foxes from their colony looked on with silent indifference blue fox basking in the sun
was by and by seized with a restlessness a sense of some duty left undone he was not hungry for the wastes were just now so alive with nesting birds and swarming lemmings and their fat little cousins the lemming mice
that his hunting was a swift and easy matter he did not even have to help his mate occupied though she was in a leisurely way with the care of her cubs but across his mind came an insistent memory of the long and bitter arctic night
when the world would seem to snap under the deadly intensity of the cold
and there would be no birds but a few ptarmigan in the snow and the fat lemmings would be safe beneath the frozen roofs of their tunnels and his cleverest hunting would hardly serve him to keep the keen edge off his hunger
in the first sweet indolence of spring he had put far from him the remembrance of the famine season but now it was borne in upon him that he must make provision against it
shaking off his nonchalance he got up stretched himself elaborately and trotted down briskly into the tundra he picked his way daintily over the wide beds of moist sphagnum
making no more sound as he went than if his feet had been of thistledown at some distance from the skirts of the colony the moss was full of scurrying and squeaking noises presently he crouched and crept forward like a cat
the next instant he pounced with an indescribable speed and lightness his head and forepaws disappearing into the moss he had penetrated into one of the screened runways of the little people of the sphagnum
the next moment he lifted his head with a fat lemming dangling from either side of his fine jaws he laid down the prize and inspected it with satisfaction a round bodied creature some six inches long
of a gray color mottled with rusty red with a mere apology for a tail and with the toes of its forepaws exaggeratedly developed for use perhaps in constructing its mossy tunnels
for a few seconds blue fox pawed his prey playfully as one of his cubs would have done then bethinking himself of the serious business which he had in hand he picked it up and trotted off to a dry spot which he knew of just on the fringe of the island
now of one thing blue fox was well aware it having been borne in upon him by experience
but he knew something else which he could only have arrived at by the strictly rational process of putting two and two together he understood the efficacy of cold storage burrowing down through the light soil
he dug himself a little cellar the floor of which was the stratum of perpetual frost here in this preservative temperature he deposited the body of the fat lemming and covered the place from prying eyes with herbage and bush
drawn lightly over it hunting easily and when the mood was upon him he brought three more lemmings to the storehouse that same day on the next day and the next an arctic tempest swept over the plain
an icy rain drove level in whipping sheets the low sky was crowded with hurrying ranks of torn black vapor and the wise foxes kept to their holes then the sun came back to the waste places and blue fox returned to his hunting
without in any way pushing himself without stinting his own repasts or curtailing his hours of indolence or of play blue fox attended to his problem of supply so efficiently
that in the course of a couple of weeks he had perhaps two score plump carcasses lemmings and mice laid out in this cold storage cellar of his
then he filled it in right to the top with grass roots turf and other dry stuff that would not freeze into armor plate
in the course of the summer blue fox like all his fellows established a number of these lemming caches till by the time when the southward bird flight proclaimed the summer at an end
the question of supply was one to give him no further anxiety when the days were shrunken to an hour or two of sunlight and the tundra was frozen to stone and the winds drove the fine snow before them in blinding drifts
then blue fox dismissed his stores from his mind and devoted himself merrily to the hunting of his daily rations the arctic hares were still abundant and not yet overwild from ceaseless harrying
it was by no means too arduous for the tastes of an enterprising and active forager like blue fox in the meantime the household of blue fox like all the other households in the little colony
had been substantially reduced in numbers all the cubs by this time grown nearly to full stature if not to full wisdom had migrated there was neither room nor supply for them now in the home burrows and they had not yet arrived at the sense of responsibility
and forethought that would lead them to dig burrows for themselves gently enough perhaps but with a firmness which left no room for argument the youngsters had all been turned out of doors
there seemed but one thing for them to do to follow the southward migration of the game and lightly they had done it they had a hard winter before them but with good hunting and fair luck in dodging the traps
and other perils that were bound to dog their inexperienced feet they would return next spring ripe with wisdom and experience dig burrows of their own and settle down to the responsibilities of arctic family life
to blue fox sleeping warm in his dry burrow when he would and secure in the knowledge of his deep stored supplies the gathering menace of the cold brought no terrors by the time the sun had disappeared altogether
and the often brilliant but always terrible and mysterious arctic night had settled firmly upon the barrens game had grown so scarce and shy that even so shrewd a hunter as blue fox might often range a whole day without the luck to capture a ptarmigan or a hare
the hare of course like the ptarmigan was at this season snowy white and blue fox would have had small fortune indeed in the chase had he himself remained in summer livery
with the setting in of the snow he had quickly changed his coat to a like color and therefore with his wariness his unerring nose and his marvelous lightness of tread he was sometimes able to surprise the swift hare asleep
in this fashion too he would often capture a ptarmigan pouncing upon it just as the startled bird was spreading its wings for flight when he failed in either venture which was often enough the case
he felt himself in no way cast down he had the excitement of the chase the satisfaction of stretching his strong lithe muscles in the race across the hard snow
and then when the storm clouds were down close upon the levels and all the world was black and the great winds from the pole bitterer than death raved southward with their sheeted ghosts of fine drift then blue fox with his furry mate beside him
lay blinking contentedly in the deep of his burrow with food and to spare close at hand but happy as he was in the main blue fox was not without his cares two enemies he had so strong and cunning that the menace of them
was never very far from his consciousness the wolf his master in strength though not in craft was always ready to hunt him with a bitter combination of hunger and of hate and the wolverine cunning beyond all the other kindreds of the wild
and of a sullen ferocity which few would dare to cross was forever on the search for the stored supplies of the foxes the wolverine solitary and morose slow of movement and defiant even toward the polar storm
prowled in all weathers one day chance led him upon one of blue fox's storage cellars the snow had been recently pawed away and the wolverine quick to take the hint began instantly to dig
it was astonishingly easy work his short powerful forepaws made the dry turf and light earth fly and speedily he came to the store of frozen lemmings but before he had quite glutted his great appetite he was interrupted
though the storm was raging over the outer world to blue fox in his burrow had come a monition of evil he had whisked out to inspect his stores he found the wolverine head downward in his choicest cellar
hot as was his rage it did not burn up his discretion this was a peril to be dealt with drastically he knew that if the robber was merely driven off he would return and haunt the purlieus of the colony
he knew that had the race before him been a long one it could have but one result a glance over his shoulder as he ran showed him that the gray shapes were overhauling him and knowing that the distance to his burrow was not long
he felt that he had a chance a sporting chance however small was enough for his courageous spirit and he raced on with good heart at a pace which soon stretched his lungs near to bursting
but he spared breath for a sharp yelp of warning which carried far in the stillness and signaled to his fellows the peril that approached as the wolves came up the fugitive could hear the strong relentless padding of their feet
and then half a minute later the measured hiss of their breathing the occasional hard click of their fangs but he did not look back his ears gave him all the information he required and he could not afford to risk the loss of the slenderest fraction of a second
as he reached the nearest burrow it was not his own it seemed as if the dreadful sounds were already overwhelming him he dived into the burrow and jaws of steel clashed at his tail as he vanished
with a chorus of snarls the disappointed pack brought up abruptly checking themselves back upon their haunches the leaders fell to digging at the burrow while others scattered off to try the same experiment at the other burrows of the colony
but blue fox breathless and triumphant only showed his teeth derisively he knew that no wolf claws could make any impression on the hard frozen earth surrounding the inner portals of the colony
once upon a time there lived a woman who had a pretty cottage and garden right in the middle of a forest all through the summer she was quite happy tending her flowers and listening to the birds singing in the trees but in the winter
when snow lay on the ground and wolves came howling about the door she felt very lonely and frightened if i only had a child to speak to however small what a comfort it would be she said to herself and the heavier the snow fell
the oftener she repeated the words and at last a day arrived when she could bear the silence and solitude no longer and set off to walk to the nearest village to beg someone to sell her or lend her a child the snow was very deep
and reached above her ankles and it took her almost an hour to go a few hundred yards it will be dark at this rate before i get to the first house thought she and stopped to look about her suddenly
a little woman in a high crowned hat stepped from behind a tree in front of her this is a bad day for walking are you going far inquired the little woman well i want to go to the village but i don't see how i am ever to get there answered the other
and may i ask what important business takes you there asked the little woman who was really a witch my house is so dreary with no one to speak to i cannot stay in it alone and i am seeking for a child i don't mind how small she is who will keep me company
oh if that is all you need go no further replied the witch putting her hand in her pocket look here is a barley corn as a favour you shall have it for twelve shillings and if you plant it in a flower pot and give it plenty of water
in a few days you will see something wonderful this promise raised the woman's spirits she gladly paid down the price and as soon as she returned home she dug a hole in a flower pot and put in the seed for three days she waited
hardly taking her eyes from the flower pot in its warm corner and on the third morning she saw that while she was asleep a tall red tulip had shot up sheathed in green leaves what a beautiful blossom cried the woman
stooping to kiss it when as she did so the red petals burst asunder and in the midst of them was a lovely little girl only an inch high this tiny little creature was seated on a mattress of violets and covered with a quilt of rose leaves
and she opened her eyes and smiled at the woman as if she had known her all her life oh you darling i shall never be lonely any more she exclaimed in rapture
no of course you won't the woman lost no time in seeking for a roomy walnut shell which she lined thickly with white satin and on it she placed the mattress with the child whom she called maia upon it
this was her bed and stood on a chair close to where her foster mother was sleeping but in the morning she was lifted out and placed on a leaf in the middle of a large bowl of water and given two white horse hairs to row herself about with
and passed the whole day singing to herself in a language of her own that nobody else could understand for some weeks the two lived together and never grew tired of each other's society and then a terrible misfortune happened one night
when the foster mother lay sound asleep after a hard day's work a big ugly wet frog hopped in through the open window and stood staring at maia under her quilt of rose leaves dear me that is quite a pretty little girl thought the frog to herself
she would make a nice wife for my son and picking up the walnut cradle in her mouth she hopped with it to the edge of a stream which ran through the garden come and see what i have brought you called the old frog when she reached her home in the mud
gazing with pleasure at the sleeping child hush don't make such a noise or you will wake her whispered the mother i mean her to be a wife for you and while we are preparing for the wedding we will set her on that water lily leaf in the middle of the brook
so that she may not be able to run away from us it was on this green floating prison that maia awoke frightened and puzzled with the first rays of the sun she stood up straight on the leaf looking about her for a way of escape and finding none
she sat down again and began to weep bitterly at length her sobs were heard by the old frog who was busy in her house at the bottom of the marsh twisting rushes into a soft carpet for maia's feet and twining reeds and grapes over the doorway to make it look pretty for the bride
ah the poor child feels lost and unhappy she thought pitifully for her heart was kind well i have just done and then my son and i will go to fetch her when she sees how handsome he is she will be all smiles again
and in a few minutes they both appeared beside the leaf this is your future husband did you ever see anyone like him asked the proud mother pushing him forward but after one glance maia only cried the more
and the little fishes who lived in the stream came swimming round to see what was the matter it is absurd that such a pretty creature should be forced to take a husband whom she does not want said they to each other and such an ugly one too however we can easily prevent it
and by turns they gnawed the stem of the lily leaf close to the root till at length it was free and taking it in their mouths they bore maia far away till the little stream grew into a great river
past many towns she went and the people on the banks all turned to look at her and exclaimed what a lovely little girl where can she have come from what a lovely little girl twittered the birds in the bushes and a blue butterfly fell in love with her and would not leave her
so she took off her sash which just matched him and tied it round his body so that with this new kind of horse she travelled much faster than before unluckily a great cockchafer who was buzzing over the river happened to catch sight of her and caught her up in his claws
the poor butterfly was terribly frightened at the sight of him and he struggled hard to free himself so that the sash bow gave way and he flew off into the sunshine but maia wasn't so fortunate and though the cockchafer collected honey from the flowers for her dinner
and told her several times how pretty she was she could not feel at ease with him the cockchafer noticed this and summoned his sisters to play with her but they only stared rudely and said where did you pick up that strange object
she is very ugly to be sure but one ought to pity her for she has only two legs yes and no feelers added another
and really was not at all unhappy she ventured to walk about by herself and wove herself a bed of some blades of grass and placed it under a clover leaf for shelter the red cups that grew in the moss held as much dew as she wanted and the cockchafer had taught her how to get honey
but summer does not last for ever and by and by the flowers withered and instead of dew there was snow and ice maia did not know what to do for her clothes were worn to rags and though she tried to roll herself up in a dry leaf it broke under her fingers
so gathering up all her courage she left the forest and crossed the road into what had been in the summer a beautiful field of waving corn but was now only a mass of hard stalks she wandered on seeing nothing but the sky above her head
till she suddenly found herself close to an opening which seemed to lead underground it will be warm at any rate thought maia and perhaps the person who lives there will give me something to eat at any rate i can't be worse off than i am now
and she walked boldly down the passage by and by she came to a door which stood ajar and peeping in discovered a whole room full of corn
this gave her heart and she went on more swiftly till she reached a kitchen where an old field mouse was baking a cake you poor little animal cried the mouse who had never seen anything like her before you look starved to death
come and sit here and get warm and share my dinner with me maia almost wept with joy at the old mouse's kind words she needed no second bidding but ate more than she had ever done in her life though it was not a breakfast for a humming bird
when she had quite finished she put out her hand and smiled and the old mouse said to her can you tell stories if so you may stay with me till the sun gets hot again and you shall help me with my house but it is dull here in the winter unless you have somebody clever enough to amuse you
yes maia had learned a great many stories from her foster mother and besides there were all her own adventures and her escapes from death she knew also how a room should be swept and never failed to get up early in the morning and have everything clean and tidy for the old mouse
so the winter passed away pleasantly and maia began to talk of the spring and of the time when she would have to go out into the world again and seek her fortune oh you need not begin to think of that for a while yet answered the field mouse
up on the earth they have a proverb when the day lengthens then the cold strengthens it has been quite warm up to now and the snow may fall any time never a winter goes by without it and then you will be very thankful you are here and not outside
she added and i have invited my neighbour the mole to come and pay us a visit he has been asleep all these months but i hear he is waking up again you would be a lucky girl if he took into his head to marry you only unfortunately he is blind and cannot see how pretty you are
and for this blindness maia felt truly glad as she did not want a mole for a husband however by and by he paid his promised visit and maia did not like him at all he might be as rich and learned as possible
but he hated the sun and the trees and the flowers and all that maia loved best to be sure being blind he had never seen them and like many other people he thought that anything he did not know was not worth knowing but maia's tales amused him
though he would not for the world have let her see it and he admired her voice when she sang mary mary quite contrary how does your garden grow
though he told her that it was all nonsense and that trees and gardens were mere foolishness when she was his wife he would teach her things better worth learning meanwhile he said with a grand air
i have burrowed a passage from this house to my own in which you can walk but i warn you not to be frightened at a great dead creature that has fallen through a hole in the roof and is lying on one side what sort of creature is it asked maia eagerly
oh i really can't tell you answered the mole indifferently it is covered with something soft and it has two thin legs and a long sharp thing sticking out of its head it is a bird cried maia joyfully and i love birds it must have died of cold
she added dropping her voice oh good mister mole do take me to see it
and calling to the old field mouse to accompany them they all set out here it is said the mole at last dear me how thankful i am fate did not make me a bird they can't say anything but twit twit and die with the first breath of cold
ah yes poor useless creature answered the field mouse but while they were talking maia crept round to the other side and stroked the feathers of the little swallow and kissed his eyes all that night she lay awake
thinking of the swallow lying dead in the passage at length she could bear it no longer and stole away to the place where the hay was kept and wove a thick carpet next she went to the field mouse's store of cotton which she picked in the summer from some of the marsh flowers
and carrying them both down the passage she tucked the cotton underneath the bird and spread the hay quilt over him perhaps you were one of the swallows who sang to me in the summer said she i wish i could have brought you to life again but now good bye
and she laid her face wet with tears on the breast of the bird surely she felt a faint movement against her cheek yes there it was again suppose the bird was not dead after all but only senseless with cold and hunger
and at this thought maia hastened back to the house and brought some grains of corn and a drop of water in a leaf this she held close to the swallow's beak which he opened unconsciously and when he had sipped the water she gave him the grains one by one
make no noise so that no one may guess you are not dead she said to night i will bring you some more food and i will tell the mole that he must stuff up the hole again as it makes the passage too cold for me to walk in and now farewell
and off she went back to the field mouse who was sound asleep after some days of maia's careful nursing the swallow felt strong enough to talk and he told maia how he came to be in the place where she found him before he was big enough to fly very high
he had torn his wing in a rosebush so that he could not keep up with his family and friends when they took their departure to warmer lands in their swift course they never noticed that their little brother was not with them
and at last he dropped on the ground from sheer fatigue and must have rolled down the hole into the passage it was very lucky for the swallow that both the mole and the field mouse thought he was dead and did not trouble about him
and blue hyacinths grew in the woods and primroses in the hedges
you have saved my life dear little maia said he but now the time has come for me to leave you unless he added you will let me carry you on my back far away from this gloomy prison maia's eyes sparkled at the thought
but she shook her head bravely yes you must go but i must stay behind she answered the field mouse has been good to me and i cannot desert her like that do you think you can open the hole for yourself she asked anxiously if so
you had better begin now for this evening we are to have supper with the mole and it would never do for my foster mother to find you working at it that is true answered the swallow and flying up to the roof which after all was not very high above them he set to work with his bill
and soon let a flood of sunshine into the dark place won't you come with me maia said he and though her heart longed for the trees and the flowers she answered as before no i cannot
that one glimpse of the sun was all maia had for some time for the corn sprung up so thickly over the hole and about the house that there might almost as well have been no sun at all however though she missed her bird friend every moment
she had no leisure to be idle for the field mouse had told her that very soon she was to be married to the mole and kept her spinning wool and cotton for her outfit and as she had never in her life made a dress four clever spiders were persuaded to spend the days underground
turning the wool and cotton into tiny garments maia liked the clothes but hated the thought of the blind mole only she did not know how to escape him
she would walk with them to the door and wait till a puff of wind blew the corn ears apart and she could see the sky if the swallow would only come now she said to herself i would go with him to the end of the world
which was so very far under ground that maia's tiny legs could never bring her up even as high as the field mouse's dwelling from which she might see the sunlight her heart grew heavier and heavier as the days went by
farewell farewell she said
that is one comfort she answered weeping
and you will soon forget that such a creature as a mole ever existed yes i will come said maia then the swallow tore off one of the corn stalks with his strong beak and bade her tie it safely to his wing
and they started off flying flying south for many a day oh how happy maia was to see the beautiful earth again a hundred times she longed for the swallow to stop but he always told her that the best was yet to be
and they flew on and on only halting for short rests till they reached a place covered with tall white marble pillars some standing high wreathed in vines out of which endless swallows heads were peeping others lying stretched among the flowers
white yellow and blue i live up there said the swallow pointing to the tallest of the pillars but such a house would never do for you as you would only fall out of it and kill yourself so choose one of those flowers below
and you shall have it for your own and sleep all night curled up in its leaves i will have that one answered maia pointing to a white flower shaped like a star with a tiny crinkled wreath of red and yellow in its centre and a long stem that swayed in the wind
that one is the prettiest of all and it smells so sweet then the swallow flew down towards it but as they drew near they saw a tiny little manikin with a crown on his head and wings on his shoulders balancing himself on one of the leaves
ah that is the king of the flower spirits whispered the swallow and the king stretched out his hands to maia and helped her to jump from the swallow's back i have waited for you for a long while said he and now you have come at last to be my queen
and maia smiled and stood beside him as all the fairies that dwelt in the flowers ran to fetch presents for her and the best of them all was a pair of lovely gauzy blue wings to help fly about like one of themselves
the web was drawing more and more tightly every moment round the beloved life which had become dearer than all to see her husband once again to tell him how she had suffered how much she had wronged
and how little understood him had become now her only aim she had abandoned all hope of saving him she saw him gradually hemmed in on all sides and in despair she gazed round her into the darkness
and wondered whence he would presently come to fall into the death trap which his relentless enemy had prepared for him
the occasional dismal cry of an owl or a sea gull filled her with unspeakable horror she thought of the ravenous beasts in human shape who lay in wait for their prey
and destroyed them as mercilessly as any hungry wolf for the satisfaction of their own appetite of hate marguerite was not afraid of the darkness she only feared that man on ahead who was sitting at the bottom of a rough wooden cart
nursing thoughts of vengeance which would have made the very demons in hell chuckle with delight her feet were sore her knees shook under her from sheer bodily fatigue
she had not had a quiet rest for three nights now she had walked on a slippery road for nearly two hours and yet her determination never swerved for a moment she would see her husband tell him all
which she had committed in her blind ignorance
she must have walked on almost in a trance instinct alone keeping her up and guiding her in the wake of the enemy when suddenly her ears attuned to the slightest sound by that same blind instinct
told her that the cart had stopped and that the soldiers had halted they had come to their destination no doubt on the right somewhere close ahead was the footpath that led to the edge of the cliff and to the hut heedless of any risks
she crept up quite close up to where chauvelin stood surrounded by his little troop he had descended from the cart and was giving some orders to the men these she wanted to hear what little chance she yet had of being useful to percy
consisted in hearing absolutely every word of his enemy's plans the spot where all the party had halted must have lain some eight hundred meters from the coast the sound of the sea came only very faintly as from a distance
apparently on to the footpath which led to the cliffs the jew had remained on the road with his cart and nag marguerite with infinite caution and literally crawling on her hands and knees had also turned off to the right
to accomplish this she had to creep through the rough low shrubs trying to make as little noise as possible as she went along tearing her face and hands against the dry twigs intent only upon hearing without being seen or heard
fortunately as is usual in this part of france the footpath was bordered by a low rough hedge beyond which was a dry ditch filled with coarse grass in this marguerite managed to find shelter
she was quite hidden from view yet could contrive to get within three yards of where chauvelin stood giving orders to his men now he was saying in a low and peremptory whisper where is the pere blanchard's hut
said the soldier who had lately been directing the party and half way down the cliff very good you shall lead us before we begin to descend the cliff you shall creep down to the hut as noiselessly as possible and ascertain if the traitor royalists are there
now listen very attentively all of you continued chauvelin impressively and addressing the soldiers collectively for after this we may not be able to exchange another word so remember every syllable i utter
as if your very lives depended on your memory perhaps they do he added drily we listen citoyen
and a soldier of the republic never forgets an order you who have crept up to the hut will try to peep inside if an englishman is there with those traitors a man who is tall above the average or who stoops as if he would disguise his height
all of you he added once more speaking to the soldiers collectively then quickly surround and rush into the hut and each seize one of the men there before they have time to draw their firearms if any of them struggle
shoot at their legs or arms but on no account kill the tall man do you understand we understand citoyen the man who is tall above the average is probably also strong above the average
it will take four or five of you at least to overpower him there was a little pause then chauvelin continued
which is more than likely to be the case then warn your comrades who are lying in wait there and all of you creep and take cover behind the rocks and boulders round the hut and wait there in dead silence until the tall englishman arrives
then only rush the hut when he is safely within its doors but remember that you must be as silent as the wolf is at night when he prowls around the pens i do not wish those royalists to be on the alert
the firing of a pistol a shriek or call on their part would be sufficient perhaps to warn the tall personage to keep clear of the cliffs and of the hut and he added emphatically
it is the tall englishman whom it is your duty to capture tonight you shall be implicitly obeyed citoyen
and i will follow you what about the jew citoyen
as silently like noiseless shadows one by one the soldiers began to creep along the rough and narrow footpath ah yes i had forgotten about the jew said chauvelin and turning towards the jew
he called him peremptorily here you aaron moses abraham or whatever your confounded name may be he said to the old man who had quietly stood beside his lean nag as far away from the soldiers as possible
benjamin rosenbaum so it please your honour he replied humbly it does not please me to hear your voice but it does please me to give you certain orders which you will find it wise to obey
so it please your honour hold your confounded tongue you shall stay here do you hear with your horse and cart until our return you are on no account to utter the faintest sound or to even breathe louder than you can help
nor are you on any consideration whatever to leave your post until i give you orders to do so do you understand
there is no question of but or of any argument said chauvelin in a tone that made the timid old man tremble from head to foot if when i return i do not find you here i most solemnly assure you that
wherever you may try to hide yourself i can find you and that punishment swift sure and terrible will sooner or later overtake you do you hear me but your excellency i said do you hear me
the soldiers had all crept away the three men stood alone together in the dark and lonely road with marguerite there behind the hedge
i heard your honour protested the jew again while he tried to draw nearer to chauvelin and i swear by abraham isaac and jacob that i would obey your honour most absolutely
and that i would not move from this place until your honour once more deigned to shed the light of your countenance upon your humble servant but remember your honour i am a poor man my nerves are not as strong as those of a young soldier
if midnight marauders should come prowling round this lonely road i might scream or run in my fright and is my life to be forfeit is some terrible punishment to come on my poor old head for that which i cannot help
the jew seemed in real distress he was shaking from head to foot clearly he was not the man to be left by himself on this lonely road the man spoke truly he might unwittingly in sheer terror
utter the shriek that might prove a warning to the wily scarlet pimpernel chauvelin reflected for a moment
he asked roughly i fancy citoyen
that they will be safer without that dirty cowardly jew than with him there seems no doubt that if he gets scared he will either make a bolt of it or shriek his head off but what am i to do with the brute
will you send him back to calais citoyen no for we shall want him to drive back the wounded presently said chauvelin with grim significance there was a pause again
and the old jew whining beside his nag well you lazy lumbering old coward said chauvelin at last
who solemnly began winding it round the jew's mouth meekly benjamin rosenbaum allowed himself to be gagged he evidently preferred this uncomfortable state to that of being left alone on the dark saint martin road
then the three men fell in line quick said chauvelin impatiently we have already wasted much valuable time
the shuffling gait of the old jew soon died away along the footpath marguerite had not lost a single one of chauvelin's words of command her every nerve was strained to completely grasp the situation first
then to make a final appeal to those wits which had so often been called the sharpest in europe and which alone might be of service now certainly the situation was desperate enough a tiny band of unsuspecting men
quietly awaiting the arrival of their rescuer who was equally unconscious of the trap laid for them all it seemed so horrible this net as it were drawn in a circle at dead of night on a lonely beach round a few defenceless men
defenceless because they were tricked and unsuspecting of these one was the husband she idolised another the brother she loved she vaguely wondered who the others were
while death lurked behind every boulder of the cliffs for the moment she could do nothing but follow the soldiers and chauvelin she feared to lose her way or she would have rushed forward and found that wooden hut
and perhaps been in time to warn the fugitives and their brave deliverer yet for a second the thought flashed through her mind of uttering the piercing shrieks
in the wild hope that they would hear and have yet time to escape before it was too late but she did not know if her shrieks would reach the ears of the doomed men her effort might be premature
and she would never be allowed to make another her mouth would be securely gagged like that of the jew and she
like a ghost she flitted noiselessly behind that hedge she had taken her shoes off and her stockings were by now torn off her feet she felt neither soreness nor weariness indomitable will to reach her husband
in spite of adverse fate and of a cunning enemy killed all sense of bodily pain within her and rendered her instincts doubly acute she heard nothing save the soft and measured footsteps of percy's enemies on in front
she saw nothing but in her mind's eye that wooden hut and he her husband walking blindly to his doom suddenly those same keen instincts within her made her pause in her mad haste
and cower still further within the shadow of the hedge the moon which had proved a friend to her by remaining hidden behind a bank of clouds now emerged in all the glory of an early autumn night and in a moment
flooded the weird and lonely landscape with a rush of brilliant light there not two hundred metres ahead was the edge of the cliff and below stretching far away to free and happy england
the sea rolled on smoothly and peaceably marguerite's gaze rested for an instant on the brilliant silvery waters and as she gazed her heart which had been numb with pain for all these hours seemed to soften and distend
and her eyes filled with hot tears not three miles away with white sails set a graceful schooner lay in wait marguerite had guessed rather than recognized her it was the day dream
percy's favourite yacht and all her crew of british sailors her white sails glistening in the moonlight seemed to convey a message to marguerite of joy and hope which yet she feared could never be
she waited there out at sea waited for her master like a beautiful white bird all ready to take flight and he would never reach her never see her smooth deck again never gaze any more on the white
cliffs of england the land of liberty and of hope the sight of the schooner seemed to infuse into the poor wearied woman the superhuman strength of despair there was the edge of the cliff
and some way below was the hut where presently her husband would meet his death but the moon was out she could see her way now she would see the hut from a distance run to it rouse them all
warn them at any rate to be prepared and to sell their lives dearly rather than be caught like so many rats in a hole she stumbled on behind the hedge in the low thick grass of the ditch
for presently she reached the edge of the cliff and heard their footsteps distinctly behind her but only a very few yards away and now the moonlight was full upon her
her figure must have been distinctly silhouetted against the silvery background of the sea only for a moment though the next she had cowered like some animal doubled up within itself she peeped down the great rugged cliffs
the descent would be easy enough as they were not precipitous and the great boulders afforded plenty of foothold suddenly as she gazed she saw at some little distance on her left and about midway down the cliffs
a rough wooden construction through the wall of which a tiny red light glimmered like a beacon her very heart seemed to stand still the eagerness of joy was so great that it felt like an awful pain
she could not gauge how distant the hut was but without hesitation she began the steep descent creeping from boulder to boulder caring nothing for the enemy behind
or for the soldiers who evidently had all taken cover since the tall englishman had not yet appeared on she pressed forgetting the deadly foe on her track running stumbling foot sore
but still on when suddenly a crevice or stone or slippery bit of rock threw her violently to the ground she struggled again to her feet
and started running forward once more to give them that timely warning to beg them to flee before he came and to tell him to keep away away from this death trap away from this awful doom
but now she realised that other steps quicker than her own were already close at her heels the next instant a hand dragged at her skirt
whilst something was wound round her mouth to prevent her uttering a scream bewildered half frantic with the bitterness of disappointment she looked round her helplessly and bending down quite close to her
she saw through the mist which seemed to gather round her a pair of keen malicious eyes
she lay in the shadow of a great boulder chauvelin could not see her features but he passed his thin white fingers over her face a woman he whispered by all the saints in the calendar
we cannot let her loose that's certain
i wonder now suddenly he paused after a few moments of deadly silence he gave forth a long low curious chuckle while once again marguerite felt with a horrible shudder
his thin fingers wandering over her face dear me dear me he whispered with affected gallantry this is indeed a charming surprise
and marguerite felt her resistless hand raised to chauvelin's thin mocking lips the situation was indeed grotesque had it not been at the same time so fearfully tragic the poor weary woman broken in spirit
and half frantic with the bitterness of her disappointment
of her deadly enemy her senses were leaving her half choked with the tight grip round her mouth
seemed at once to have subsided and the feeling of blank despair to have completely paralyzed her brain and nerves chauvelin must have given some directions which she was too dazed to hear for she felt herself
lifted from off her feet the bandage round her mouth was made more secure and a pair of strong arms carried her towards that tiny red light on ahead which she had looked upon as a beacon
but she very likely did not take his fancy for continuing to walk on he addressed to the marshal these remarkable words which juliette must have overheard we have handsomer women here in the afternoon i called upon the venetian ambassador
i found him in numerous company with madame querini sitting on his right she addressed me in the most flattering and friendly manner it was extraordinary conduct on the part of a giddy woman who had no cause to like me for she was aware that i knew her thoroughly
and that i had mastered her vanity but as i understood her manoeuvring i made up my mind not to disoblige her and even to render her all the good offices i could it was a noble revenge
the ambassador congratulated her upon her marriage with him
and adding i was not aware of your marriage yet it took place more than two years since said juliette i know it for a fact i said in my turn
for two years ago the lady was introduced as madame querini and with the title of excellency by general spada to all the nobility in cesena where i was at that time i have no doubt of it answered the ambassador fixing his eyes upon me
for querini has himself written to me on the subject a few minutes afterwards as i was preparing to take my leave the ambassador under pretense of some letters the contents of which he wished to communicate to me
and he asked me what people generally thought of the marriage in venice nobody knows it and it is even rumoured that the heir of the house of querini is on the point of marrying a daughter of the grimani family
she did perhaps she has altered her mind
then i can guess remarked the ambassador why juliette does not wish to be presented to the king
had called after mass on the handsome venetian and had told her that the king of france had most certainly very bad taste because he had not thought her beauty superior to that of several ladies of his court juliette left fontainebleau the next morning
in the first part of my memoirs i have spoken of juliette's beauty
and her beauty was beginning to fade when she arrived in fontainebleau i met her again in paris at the ambassador's and she told me with a laugh that she had only been in jest when she called herself madame querini
and that i should oblige her if for the future i would call her by her real name of countess preati she invited me to visit her at the hotel de luxembourg where she was staying
but i was wise enough not to meddle with them
secretary of the venetian embassy an amiable and learned man he was so deeply in love that he had made up his mind to marry her but through a caprice which she perhaps regretted afterwards she ill treated him and the fool died of grief
as well as the count of zinzendorf the person who arranged these transient and short lived intrigues was a certain guasco an abbe not over favoured with the gifts of plutus
paris did not prove an el dorado for my handsome countrywoman for she was obliged to pledge her diamonds and to leave them behind her after her return to venice she married the son of the uccelli who sixteen years before had taken her out of her poverty
she died ten years ago i was still taking my french lessons with my good old crebillon yet my style which was full of italianisms
but generally my quid pro quos only resulted in curious jokes which made my fortune
several ladies of the best society begged me to teach them italian
madame preodot who was one of my pupils received me one morning
foolishly translating an italian idiom i asked her
sir what a question you are unbearable i repeated my question she broke out angrily again never utter that dreadful word you are wrong in getting angry it is the proper word a very dirty word sir
but enough about it will you have some breakfast no i thank you i have taken a cafe and two savoyards dear me what a ferocious breakfast pray explain yourself
you are stupid my good friend a cafe is the establishment in which coffee is sold and you ought to say that you have drunk use tasse de cafe good indeed do you drink the cup in italy we say a caffs and we are not foolish enough to suppose that it means the coffee house
how did you swallow them soaked in my coffee for they were not larger than these on your table and you call these savoyards say biscuits in italy we call them savoyards because they were first invented in savoy
big fellows whom you call in paris savoyards although very often they have never been in savoy her husband came in at that moment and she lost no time in relating the whole of our conversation he laughed heartily but he said i was right her niece arrived a few minutes after
i had given her five or six lessons in italian and as she was very fond of that language and studied diligently
it lasted a week that uncouth blunder soon got known throughout paris and gave me a sort of reputation which i lost little by little but only when i understood the double meanings of words better
crebillon was much amused with my blunder and he told me that i ought to have said after instead of behind ah why have not all languages the same genius but if the french laughed at my mistakes in speaking their language
i took my revenge amply by turning some of their idioms into ridicule sir i once said to a gentleman how is your wife you do her great honour sir
i meet in the bois de boulogne a young man riding a horse which he cannot master and at last he is thrown i stop the horse run to the assistance of the young man and help him up did you hurt yourself sir oh many thanks sir au contraire
why au contraire the deuce it has done you good then begin again sir and a thousand similar expressions entirely the reverse of good sense but it is the genius of the language
i was one day paying my first visit to the wife of president de n when her nephew a brilliant butterfly came in and she introduced me to him mentioning my name and my country indeed sir you are italian said the young man
sir when i saw you i was near making the same mistake i would have betted you were italian another time i was dining at lady lambert's in numerous and brilliant company
a young marquise who had the reputation of being a great wit said to me in the most serious tone it is truly an antique the stone madam undoubtedly
who did not take any notice of it towards the end of the dinner someone spoke of the rhinoceros which was then shewn for twenty four sous at the saint germain's fair let us go and see it was the cry
i was the only gentleman i was taking care of two ladies in the midst of the crowd and the witty marquise was walking in front of us
there was a man placed to receive the money of the visitors it is true that the man dressed in the african fashion was very dark and enormously stout yet he had a human and very masculine form and the beautiful marquise had no business to make a mistake
nevertheless the thoughtless young creature went up straight to him and said are you the rhinoceros sir go in madam go in we were dying with laughing
and the marquise when she had seen the animal thought herself bound to apologize to the master assuring him that she had never seen a rhinoceros in her life and therefore he could not feel offended if she had made a mistake one evening i was in the foyer of the italian comedy
where between the acts the highest noblemen were in the habit of coming in order to converse and joke with the actresses who used to sit there waiting for their turn to appear on the stage and i was seated near camille coraline's sister whom i amused by making love to her
attacked me upon some remark i made respecting an italian play and took the liberty of shewing his bad temper by criticizing my native country i was answering him in an indirect way looking all the time at camille who was laughing
everybody had congregated around us and was attentive to the discussion which being carried on as an assault of wit had nothing to make it unpleasant but it seemed to take a serious turn when the young fop turning the conversation on the police of the city
during the last month he added the place de greve has seen the hanging of seven men
an extraordinary circumstance nothing extraordinary in that i answered honest men generally contrive to be hung far away from their native country and as a proof of it sixty frenchmen have been hung in the course of last year between naples rome and venice
five times twelve are sixty so you see that it is only a fair exchange the laughter was all on my side and the fine councillor went away rather crestfallen one of the gentlemen present at the discussion finding my answer to his taste
came up to camille and asked her in a whisper who i was we got acquainted at once
and the academy of painting was under his jurisdiction i mentioned my brother to him and he graciously promised to protect him another young nobleman who conversed with me invited me to visit him it was the duke de matalona
i told him that i had seen him then only a child eight years before in naples and that i was under great obligations to his uncle don lelio the young duke was delighted and we became intimate friends
he began at once to work with success for private individuals but his main idea being to compose a picture to be submitted to the judgment of the academy
he immediately set to work with great diligence
and he tendered a friendly welcome both to me and to my brother in whose favour he felt interested as a venetian and as a young artist seeking to build up a position by his talent
he liked gambling although he was always unlucky at cards he loved women and he was not more fortunate with them because he did not know how to manage them two years after his arrival in paris he fell in love with madame de colande
and finding it impossible to win her affections he killed himself
when i see what the same nation is doing against the king the people want to be free it is a noble ambition for mankind are not made to be the slaves of one man but with a nation populous great witty and giddy what will be the end of that revolution
time alone can tell us the duke de matalona procured me the acquaintance of the two princes don marc antoine and don jean baptiste borghese from rome who were enjoying themselves in paris yet living without display
it was the same with the russian princes to whom the title of prince was refused when they wanted to be presented they were called knees but they did not mind it because that word meant prince the court of france has always been foolishly particular on the question of titles
although it is common enough everywhere every man who was not titled was called sieur i have remarked that the king never addressed his bishops otherwise
although they were generally very proud of their titles the king likewise affected to know a nobleman only when his name was inscribed amongst those who served him
of having been seen by the king but that was all nevertheless
even with his mistresses when in public whoever failed in respect towards them in the slightest manner was sure of disgrace and no king ever possessed to a greater extent the grand royal virtue which is called dissimulation he kept a secret faithfully
and he was delighted when he knew that no one but himself possessed it
and all the long discussions which the false chevalier had with the office for foreign affairs was a comedy which the king allowed to go on only because it amused him
but how could he possibly have supposed himself faulty in anything when everyone around him repeated constantly that he was the best of kings a king in the opinion of which he was imbued respecting his own person
to a god sad destiny of kings vile flatterers are constantly doing everything necessary to reduce them below the condition of man
the king consented and presented his god son with a regiment but the mother who did not like the military career for her son refused it the marshal de richelieu told me that he had never known the king laugh so heartily as when he heard of that singular refusal
who was called lolotte she was the mistress of lord albemarle the english ambassador a witty and very generous nobleman one evening he complained of his mistress praising the beauty of the stars which were shining brightly over her head
saying that she ought to know he could not give them to her if lord albemarle had been ambassador to the court of france at the time of the rupture between france and england he would have arranged all difficulties amicably
there is no doubt that the harmony between two nations depends very often upon their respective ambassadors when there is any danger of a rupture as to the noble lord's mistress there was but one opinion respecting her
she was fit in every way to become his wife and the highest families of france did not think that she needed the title of lady albemarle to be received with distinction no lady considered it debasing to sit near her although she was well known as the mistress of the english lord
and her conduct was always of the highest respectability she bore children whom the ambassador acknowledged legally
i shall have to mention her again in my memoirs
with a lady from venice the widow of an english baronet named wynne she was then coming from london with her children where she had been compelled to go in order to insure them the inheritance of their late father which they would have lost if they had not declared themselves members of the church of england
she was on her way back to venice much pleased with her journey she was accompanied by her eldest daughter a young girl of twelve years who notwithstanding her youth carried on her beautiful face all the signs of perfection
she is now living in venice the widow of count de rosenberg who died in venice ambassador of the empress queen maria theresa she is surrounded by the brilliant halo of her excellent conduct
no one can accuse her of any fault except that of being poor but she feels it only because it does not allow her to be as charitable as she might wish
chapter twenty eight the tale of the rainbow bridge felix so far as my remembrance goes never attained to success in the ordeal of bitter apples he gave up trying after awhile
we were all of us too tired those nights to do any special praying sometimes i fear our regular prayers were slurred over or mumbled in anything but reverent haste
october was a busy month on the hill farms the apples had to be picked and this work fell mainly to us children we stayed home from school to do it it was pleasant work and there was a great deal of fun in it
but it was hard too and our arms and backs ached roundly at night in the mornings it was very delightful in the afternoons tolerable but in the evenings we lagged and the laughter and zest of fresher hours were lacking
mingled with the woodsy odours of the withering grasses the hens and turkeys prowled about pecking at windfalls and pat made mad rushes at them amid the fallen leaves
waved blood red banners over the sombre cone bearers the story girl generally had her head garlanded with their leaves they became her vastly
those two girls were of a domestic type that assorted ill with the wildfire in nature's veins but when the story girl wreathed her nut brown tresses with crimson leaves it seemed as peter said that they grew on her
as if the gold and flame of her spirit had broken out in a coronal as much a part of her as the pale halo seems a part of the madonna it encircles what tales she told us on those far away autumn days
peopling the russet arcades with folk of an elder world many a princess rode by us on her palfrey many a swaggering gallant ruffled it bravely in velvet and plume adown uncle stephen's walk many a stately lady silken clad
walked in that opulent orchard when we had filled our baskets they had to be carried to the granary loft and the contents stored in bins or spread on the floor to ripen further we ate a good many of course
we might dispose of them as we willed felicity sold hers to uncle alec's hired man and was badly cheated to boot for he levanted shortly afterwards taking the apples with him having paid her only half her rightful due
felicity has not gotten over that to this day cecily dear heart sent most of hers to the hospital in town and no doubt gathered in therefrom dividends of gratitude and satisfaction of soul
we used to throw them up in the air and let them fall on the ground until they were bruised and battered to the bursting point then we sucked on the juice
peter and the story girl knew all about them and imparted their knowledge to us generously i recall peter standing on the pulpit stone one night ere moonrise and pointing them out to us
occasionally having a difference of opinion with the story girl over the name of some particular star job's coffin and the northern cross were to the west of us south of us flamed fomalhaut
the great square of pegasus was over our heads cassiopeia sat enthroned in her beautiful chair in the north east and north of us the dippers swung untiringly around the pole star
cecily and felix were the only ones who could distinguish the double star in the handle of the big dipper and greatly did they plume themselves thereon the story girl told us the myths and legends woven around these immemorial clusters
her very voice taking on a clear remote starry sound as she talked of them when she ceased we came back to earth feeling as if we had been millions of miles away in the blue ether
and that all our old familiar surroundings were momentarily forgotten and strange that night when he pointed out the stars to us from the pulpit stone was the last time for several weeks that peter shared our toil and pastime
the next day he complained of headache and sore throat and seemed to prefer lying on aunt olivia's kitchen sofa to doing any work as it was not in peter to be a malingerer he was left in peace while we picked apples
felix alone must unjustly and spitefully declared that peter was simply shirking he's just lazy that's what's the matter with him he said
there's no sense in calling peter lazy you might as well say i had black hair of course peter being a craig has his faults but he's a smart boy his father was lazy but his mother hasn't a lazy bone in her body and peter takes after her
uncle roger says peter's father wasn't exactly lazy said the story girl the trouble was there were so many other things he liked better than work
just think how dreadful it would be if our father had left us like that our father is a king said felicity loftily and peter's father was only a craig a member of our family couldn't behave like that
they say there must be a black sheep in every family said the story girl there isn't any in ours said cecily loyally why do white sheep eat more than black asked felix
is that a conundrum asked cecily cautiously if it is i won't try to guess the reason i never can guess conundrums it isn't a conundrum said felix it's a fact they do and there's a good reason for it
we stopped picking apples sat down on the grass and tried to reason it out
since felix solemnly vowed cross his heart white sheep did eat more than black
well what is the reason asked felicity because there's more of them said felix grinning i forget what we did to felix
a shower came up in the evening and we had to stop picking after the shower there was a magnificent double rainbow we watched it from the granary window and the story girl told us an old legend culled
from one of aunt olivia's many scrapbooks long long ago in the golden age when the gods used to visit the earth so often that it was nothing uncommon to see them odin made a pilgrimage over the world
odin was the great god of the northland you know and wherever he went among men he taught them love and brotherhood and skilful arts
and great cities sprang up where he had trodden and every land through which he passed was blessed because one of the gods had come down to men but many men and women followed odin himself
giving up all their worldly possessions and ambitions and to these he promised the gift of eternal life all these people were good and noble and unselfish and kind but the best and noblest of them all was a youth named ving
for his beauty and strength and goodness always he walked on odin's right hand and always the first light of odin's smile fell on him
tall and straight was he as a young pine and his long hair was the colour of ripe wheat in the sun and his blue eyes were like the northland heavens on a starry night in odin's band was a beautiful maiden named alin
where the rainbow touched the earth and the rainbow was a great bridge built of living colours so dazzling and wonderful that beyond it the eye could see nothing only far away a great blinding sparkling glory
where the fountain of life sprang up in a shower of diamond fire but under the rainbow bridge rolled a terrible flood deep and wide and violent full of rocks and rapids and whirlpools
there was a warder of the bridge a god dark and stern and sorrowful and to him odin gave command that he should open the gate and allow his followers to cross the rainbow bridge
that they might drink of the fountain of life beyond and the warder set open the gate pass on and drink of the fountain he said to all who taste of it shall immortality be given
but only to that one who shall drink of it first shall be permitted to walk at odin's right hand forever then the company passed through in great haste all fired with a desire
to be the first to drink of the fountain and win so marvellous a boon last of all came ving he had lingered behind to pluck a thorn from the foot of a beggar child he had met on the highway and he had not heard the warder's words
strong noble and valiant he said rainbow bridge is not for thee very dark grew ving's face hot rebellion rose in his heart and rushed over his pale lips
ford that flood on the furthest bank is the fountain of life thou mockest me muttered ving sullenly no mortal could cross that flood oh master he prayed turning beseechingly to odin
thou mayest return to earth if thou fearest to essay the flood said the warder nay said ving wildly earthly life without alin is more dreadful than the death which awaits me in yon dark river
and he plunged fiercely in he swam and struggled he buffetted the turmoil the waves went over his head again and again the whirlpools caught him and flung him on the cruel rocks
the wild cold spray beat on his eyes and blinded him so that he could see nothing and the roar of the river deafened him so that he could hear nothing but he felt keenly the wounds and bruises of the cruel rocks
had not the thought of sweet alin's loving eyes brought him the strength and desire to struggle as long as it was possible long long long to him seemed that bitter and perilous passage
but at last he won through to the furthest side breathless and reeling his vesture torn his great wounds bleeding he found himself on the shore where the fountain of immortality sprang up
he staggered to its brink and drank of its clear stream then all pain and weariness fell away from him and he rose up a god beautiful with immortality
and as he did there came rushing over the rainbow bridge a great company the band of fellow travellers but all were too late to win the double boon ving had won to it through the danger and suffering of the dark river
chapter thirty three pinocchio having become a donkey is bought by the owner of a circus who wants to teach him to do tricks the donkey becomes lame and is sold to a man who wants to use his skin for a drumhead
very sad and downcast were the two poor little fellows as they stood and looked at each other outside the room the little man grew more and more impatient
and finally gave the door such a violent kick that it flew open with his usual sweet smile on his lips he looked at pinocchio and lamp wick and said to them fine work boys you have brayed well
and here i am on hearing this the two donkeys bowed their heads in shame
satisfied with the looks of the two little animals he bridled them and took them to a market place far away from the land of toys in the hope of selling them at a good price in fact he did not have to wait very long for an offer
lamp wick was bought by a farmer whose donkey had died the day before pinocchio went to the owner of a circus who wanted to teach him to do tricks for his audiences
this horrid little being whose face shone with kindness went about the world looking for boys lazy boys boys who hated books boys who wanted to run away from home boys who were tired of school all these were his joy
in a few years he had become a millionaire what happened to lamp wick my dear children i do not know pinocchio i can tell you met with great hardships even from the first day
after putting him in a stable his new master filled his manger with straw but pinocchio after tasting a mouthful spat it out then the man filled the manger with hay
but pinocchio did not like that any better ah you don't like hay either he cried angrily wait my pretty donkey i'll teach you not to be so particular without more ado he took a whip
and gave the donkey a hearty blow across the legs pinocchio screamed with pain and as he screamed he brayed haw haw haw i can't digest straw then eat the hay answered his master
who understood the donkey perfectly haw haw haw hay gives me a headache do you pretend by any chance that i should feed you duck or chicken asked the man again
and angrier than ever he gave poor pinocchio another lashing at that second beating pinocchio became very quiet and said no more after that the door of the stable was closed and he was left alone
and he started to yawn from hunger as he yawned he opened a mouth as
finally not finding anything else in the manger he tasted the hay after tasting it he chewed it well closed his eyes and swallowed it this hay is not bad he said to himself
but how much happier i should be if i had studied just now instead of hay i should be eating some good bread and butter patience next morning when he awoke pinocchio looked in the manger for more hay
he had eaten it all during the night he tried the straw but as he chewed away at it he noticed to his great disappointment that it tasted neither like rice nor like macaroni patience he repeated as he chewed
that i have brought you here only to give you food and drink oh no you are to help me earn some fine gold pieces do you hear come along now i am going to teach you to jump and bow
and even to stand on your head poor pinocchio whether he liked it or not had to learn all these wonderful things but it took him three long months and cost him many many lashings before he was pronounced perfect
the day came at last when pinocchio's master was able to announce an extraordinary performance the announcements posted all around the town and written in large letters read thus
great spectacle tonight leaps and exercises by the great artists and the famous horses of the company first public appearance of the famous donkey called pinocchio the star of the dance
the theater will be as light as day that night as you can well imagine the theater was filled to overflowing one hour before the show was scheduled to start not an orchestra chair could be had
not a balcony seat nor a gallery seat not even for their weight in gold the place swarmed with boys and girls of all ages and sizes wriggling and dancing about in a fever of impatience to see the famous donkey dance
when the first part of the performance was over the owner and manager of the circus in a black coat white knee breeches and patent leather boots presented himself to the public and in a loud pompous voice made the following announcement
most honored friends gentlemen and ladies your humble servant the manager of this theater presents himself before you tonight in order to introduce to you the greatest
the most famous donkey in the world a donkey that has had the great honor in his short life of performing before the kings and queens and emperors of all the great courts of europe we thank you for your attention
this speech was greeted by much laughter and applause and the applause grew to a roar when pinocchio the famous donkey appeared in the circus ring he was handsomely arrayed
a new bridle of shining leather with buckles of polished brass was on his back two white camellias were tied to his ears ribbons and tassels of red silk adorned his mane which was divided into many curls
a great sash of gold and silver was fastened around his waist and his tail was decorated with ribbons of many brilliant colors he was a handsome donkey indeed the manager when introducing him to the public
observe i beg of you the savage look of his eye all the means used by centuries of civilization in subduing wild beasts failed in this case i had finally to resort to the gentle language of the whip
in order to bring him to my will with all my kindness however i never succeeded in gaining my donkey's love he is still today as savage as the day i found him he still fears and hates me
but i have found in him one great redeeming feature do you see this little bump on his forehead it is this bump which gives him his great talent of dancing and using his feet as nimbly as a human being
admire him o signori and enjoy yourselves i let you now be the judges of my success as a teacher of animals before i leave you i wish to state that there will be another performance tomorrow night
pinocchio obediently bent his two knees to the ground and remained kneeling until the manager with the crack of the whip cried sharply walk the donkey lifted himself on his four feet and walked around the ring
a few minutes passed and again the voice of the manager called quickstep and pinocchio obediently changed his step gallop and pinocchio galloped full speed
a shower of applause greeted the donkey as he arose to his feet cries and shouts and handclappings were heard on all sides at all that noise pinocchio lifted his head and raised his eyes
there in front of him in a box sat a beautiful woman around her neck she wore a long gold chain from which hung a large medallion on the medallion was painted the picture of a marionette
that beautiful lady is my fairy said pinocchio to himself recognizing her he felt so happy that he tried his best to cry out oh my fairy my own fairy
but instead of words a loud braying was heard in the theater so loud and so long that all the spectators men women and children but especially the children burst out laughing
then in order to teach the donkey that it was not good manners to bray before the public the manager hit him on the nose with the handle of the whip the poor little donkey stuck out a long tongue and licked his nose for a long time
and he wept bitterly no one knew it however least of all the manager who cracking his whip cried out bravo pinocchio now show us how gracefully you can jump through the rings
pinocchio tried two or three times but each time he came near the ring he found it more to his taste to go under it the fourth time at a look from his master he leaped through it but as he did so
his hind legs caught in the ring and he fell to the floor in a heap when he got up he was lame and could hardly limp as far as the stable pinocchio we want pinocchio we want the little donkey
cried the boys from the orchestra saddened by the accident no one saw pinocchio again that evening the next morning the veterinary that is the animal doctor declared that he would be lame for the rest of his life
four dollars i'll give you four cents don't think i'm buying him for work i want only his skin it looks very tough and i can use it to make myself a drumhead i belong to a musical band in my village and i need a drum
as soon as the buyer had paid the four cents the donkey changed hands his new owner took him to a high cliff overlooking the sea put a stone around his neck tied a rope to one of his hind feet gave him a push
and threw him into the water pinocchio sank immediately and his new master sat on the cliff waiting for him to drown
one other short call in harley street in which elinor received her brother's congratulations on their travelling so far towards barton without any expense
completed the intercourse of the brother and sisters in town and a faint invitation from fanny to come to norland whenever it should happen to be in their way which of all things was the most unlikely to occur
with a more warm though less public assurance from john to elinor of the promptitude with which he should come to see her at delaford was all that foretold any meeting in the country
it amused her to observe that all her friends seemed determined to send her to delaford a place in which of all others she would now least chuse to visit or wish to reside
for not only was it considered as her future home by her brother and missus jennings but even lucy when they parted gave her a pressing invitation to visit her there very early in april
and tolerably early in the day the two parties from hanover square and berkeley street set out from their respective homes to meet by appointment on the road for the convenience of charlotte and her child
they were to be more than two days on their journey and mister palmer travelling more expeditiously with colonel brandon was to join them at cleveland soon after their arrival marianne few as had been her hours of comfort in london
and eager as she had long been to quit it could not when it came to the point bid adieu to the house in which she had for the last time enjoyed those hopes and that confidence in willoughby which were now extinguished for ever without great pain
nor could she leave the place in which willoughby remained busy in new engagements and new schemes in which she could have no share
she was pleased to be free herself from the persecution of lucy's friendship she was grateful for bringing her sister away unseen by willoughby since his marriage and she looked forward with hope to what a few months of tranquility at barton might do towards restoring marianne's peace of mind
and confirming her own their journey was safely performed the second day brought them into the cherished or the prohibited county of somerset for as such was it dwelt on by turns in marianne's imagination
and like every other place of the same degree of importance it had its open shrubbery and closer wood walk a road of smooth gravel winding round a plantation led to the front the lawn was dotted over with timber the house itself was under the guardianship of the fir
the mountain ash and the acacia and a thick screen of them altogether interspersed with tall lombardy poplars shut out the offices marianne entered the house with a heart swelling with emotion
from the consciousness of being only eighty miles from barton and not thirty from combe magna and before she had been five minutes within its walls while the others were busily helping charlotte to show her child to the housekeeper she quitted it again
stealing away through the winding shrubberies now just beginning to be in beauty to gain a distant eminence where from its grecian temple her eye wandering over a wide tract of country to the south east
could fondly rest on the farthest ridge of hills in the horizon and fancy that from their summits combe magna might be seen in such moments of precious invaluable misery
she returned just in time to join the others as they quitted the house on an excursion through its more immediate premises and the rest of the morning was easily whiled away in lounging round the kitchen garden examining the bloom upon its walls
and listening to the gardener's lamentations upon blights in dawdling through the green house where the loss of her favourite plants unwarily exposed and nipped by the lingering frost
and in visiting her poultry yard where in the disappointed hopes of her dairy maid by hens forsaking their nests or being stolen by a fox or in the rapid decrease of a promising young brood she found fresh sources of merriment
the morning was fine and dry and marianne in her plan of employment abroad had not calculated for any change of weather during their stay at cleveland with great surprise therefore
and wondered whether mister palmer and colonel brandon would get farther than reading that night elinor however little concerned in it joined in their discourse and marianne who had the knack of finding her way in every house to the library
however it might be avoided by the family in general soon procured herself a book nothing was wanting on missus palmer's side that constant and friendly good humour could do to make them feel themselves welcome
the openness and heartiness of her manner more than atoned for that want of recollection and elegance which made her often deficient in the forms of politeness her kindness recommended by so pretty a face was engaging her folly
affording a pleasant enlargement of the party and a very welcome variety to their conversation which a long morning of the same continued rain had reduced very low elinor had seen so little of mister palmer and in that little
had seen so much variety in his address to her sister and herself that she knew not what to expect to find him in his own family she found him however perfectly the gentleman in his behaviour to all his visitors
and only occasionally rude to his wife and her mother she found him very capable of being a pleasant companion and only prevented from being so always by too great an aptitude to fancy himself as much superior to people in general
as he must feel himself to be to missus jennings and charlotte for the rest of his character and habits they were marked as far as elinor could perceive with no traits at all unusual in his sex and time of life he was nice in his eating
she liked him however upon the whole much better than she had expected and in her heart was not sorry that she could like him no more not sorry to be driven by the observation of his epicurism his selfishness and his conceit
to rest with complacency on the remembrance of edward's generous temper simple taste and diffident feelings of edward or at least of some of his concerns she now received intelligence from colonel brandon
who had been into dorsetshire lately and who treating her at once as the disinterested friend of mister ferrars and the kind of confidant of himself talked to her a great deal of the parsonage at delaford described its deficiencies
and told her what he meant to do himself towards removing them his behaviour to her in this as well as in every other particular his open pleasure in meeting her after an absence of only ten days his readiness to converse with her
and his deference for her opinion might very well justify missus jennings's persuasion of his attachment and would have been enough perhaps had not elinor still as from the first believed marianne his real favourite to make her suspect it herself
but as it was such a notion had scarcely ever entered her head except by missus jennings's suggestion and she could not help believing herself the nicest observer of the two she watched his eyes while missus jennings thought only of his behaviour
and while his looks of anxious solicitude on marianne's feeling in her head and throat the beginning of a heavy cold because unexpressed by words entirely escaped the latter lady's observation she could discover in them the quick feelings
and needless alarm of a lover two delightful twilight walks on the third and fourth evenings of her being there not merely on the dry gravel of the shrubbery but all over the grounds and especially in the most distant parts of them
by increasing ailments on the concern of every body and the notice of herself prescriptions poured in from all quarters and as usual were all declined though heavy and feverish with a pain in her limbs and a cough and a sore throat
so we set off to familiarize ourself with vesey street this amiable byway perhaps on account of the proximity of washington market bases its culture
on a solid appreciation of the virtue of good food an admirable trait in any street upon this firm foundation it erects a seemly interest in letters
the wanderer who passes up the short channel of our street from the docks to saint paul's churchyard must not be misled by the character of the books the bibliothecaries display in their windows
outwardly they lure the public by bob ingersoll's lectures napoleon's dream book efficiency encyclopaedias
and those odd and highly coloured small brochures of smoking car tales of the slow train through arkansaw type but once you penetrate you may find quarry of a more stimulating kind
for fifteen cents we eloped with a first edition of bunner's love in old cloathes which we were glad to have in memory of the old red box on vesey street which banner
immortalized in rhyme and which still stands is it the same box by the railing of saint paul's also even nobler treasure to our way of thinking
did we not just now find for fifteen cents hilaire belloc's hills and the sea that enchanting little volume of essays which we are almost afraid to read again
belloc the rogue the devil is in him such a lusty beguilery moves in his nimble prose that after reading him
it is hard not to fall into a clumsy imitation of his lively and frolic manner there is at least one essayist in this city who fell subject to the hilarious hilaire years ago
it is an old jape but not such a bad one our friend murray hill will never return to the status quo ante belloc but we were speaking of vesey street
it looks down to the water and the soft music of steamship whistles comes tuning on a cold gusty air
thoroughly mundane little street yet not unmindful of matters spiritual bounded as it is by divine providence at one end saint paul's
the providence line pier at the other perhaps it is the presence of the graveyard that has startled vesey street into a curious reversal of custom
on most other streets we think the numbers of the houses run even on the south side odd on the north but just the opposite on vesey you will find all even numbers on the north odd on the south
still wall street errs in the same way if marooned or quarantined on vesey street a man might lead a life of gayety and sound nourishment for a considerable while
without having recourse to more exalted thoroughfares there are lodging houses in that row of old buildings down toward the docks from the garret windows he could see masts moving on the river
for food he would live high indeed where will one see such huge glossy blue black grapes such enormous indian river grapefruit such noble display of fish
scallops herrings smelts and the larger kind with their dead and desolate eyes there are pathetic rows of rabbits frozen stiff in the bitter cold wind
huge white hares hanging in rows a tray of pigeons with their iridescent throat feathers catching gleams of the pale sunlight there are great sacks of nuts barrels of cranberries
kegs of olive oil thick slabs of yellow cheese on such a cold day it was pleasant to see a sign peanut roasters and warmers passing the gloomy vista of greenwich street
under the l is one of those mysterious little vents in the floor of the street from which issues a continual spout of steam our vesey grows more intellectual
the first thing one sees going easterly is a sign the truth seeker one flight up the temptation is almost irresistible
but then truth is always one flight higher up so one reflects what's the use in this block while there is still much doing in the way of food
and even food in the live state a window full of entertaining chicks and ducklings clustered round a colony brooder another of vesey street's interests begins to show itself tools
every kind of tool that gladdens the heart of man is displayed in various shops one realizes more and more that this is a man's street and indeed except at the meat market
few of the gayer sex are to be seen along its pavements one of the tool shops has open air boxes with all manner of miscellaneous oddments from mouse traps to oil cans
and you may see delighted enthusiasts poring over the assortment with the same professional delight that ladies show at a notion counter one of the tool merchants however
for he has put up a placard wanted to rent small farm must have fruit and spring water how many years of repressed yearning
may speak behind that modest ambition our own taste for amusement leads us once luncheon dispatched
to the second hand bookshops our imagined castaway condemned to live on vesey street for a term of months would never need to languish for mental stimulation were he devout
there is always saint paul's as we have said and were he atheist what a collection of bob ingersoll's essays greets the faring eye
there is the customary number of copies of the pentecost of calamity it seems to the frequenter of second hand bazaars
must have sold it again since the armistice much rarer we saw a copy of hopkins's pond that little volume of agreeable sketches written so long ago by doctor robert t morris the well known surgeon
there are only two of the really necessary delights of life that the vesey street maroon would miss there is no movie there are no doughnuts
that has ravaged philadelphia in the past months as soon as prohibition became a certainty certain astute merchants of the quaker city devoted themselves to inoculating the public with a taste for these humble fritters
and now they bubble gayly in the windows of philadelphia's most aristocratic thoroughfare it is really a startling sight to see philadelphia lining up for its noonday quota of doughnuts and the merchants over there
have devised an ingenious method of tempting the crowd a funnel erected over the frying sinkers carries the fragrant fumes out through a transom and gushes it into the open air so that the sniff of doughnuts
is perceptible all down the block there is a fortune waiting on vesey street for the man who will establish a doughnut foundry and we solemnly pledge our own appetite and that of all our friends toward his success
its upper end perhaps in memory of the vanished astor house vesey street stirs itself into a certain magnificence devoting its window space to jewellery
and silver mounted books of prayer at this window one may regulate his watch at a clock warranted by charles frodsham of eighty four strand to whose solid british accuracy
we hereby pay decent tribute over all this varied scene lifts the shining javelin head of the woolworth building seen now and then
in an almost disbelieved glimpse of sublimity and the golden lightning of the telephone and telegraph pinnacle
edwin m stanton edwin m stanton whom president lincoln selected for his secretary of war notwithstanding the fact that he had served in the cabinet of buchanan was born at steubenville ohio december nineteenth eighteen fourteen
and died in washington d c december twenty fourth eighteen sixty nine when fifteen years old he became a clerk in a book store in his native town and with money thus accumulated was enabled to attend kenyon college
but at the end of two years was obliged to re enter the book store as a clerk thus through poverty he was deterred from graduating but knowledge is just as beneficial whether acquired in school or out
thurlow weed never had the advantages of a college but stretched prone before the sap house fire he laid the foundation upon which he built that splendid reputation as an able editor elihu buritt never saw the inside of a college school room
as a student but while at the anvil at work as a blacksmith with book laying on a desk near he framed the basis of that classical learning which made him as master of forty different languages
the esteemed friend of john bright and others of the most noted people the world has ever known as it was with them so it was with stanton he had but little advantages but he would not down it is said that if henry ward beecher had gone to sea
as he desired to do he would not have long remained for in him was even then a slumbering genius but he himself once said that had it not been for his great love of work he never could have half succeeded
ah that's it if ability to accomplish hard digging is not genius it is the best possible substitute for it a man may have in him a slumbering genius
they would argue that if you are to be a milton a cromwell a webster or a clay that you cannot help it do what you will possibly this may be so it may not be thought proper for me to dispute their lordship
but it does seem to me that such arguments can give but little hope if they have influence at all it cannot be an inspiring one no never mind the reputation never pine to be a lincoln or a garfield
but if you feel that your chances in youth are equal to theirs take courage work
if a boot black make up your mind to monopolize the business on your block faculty to do this is the best possible substitute for a slumbering genius if perchance you should lack that most essential
faculty to success at any rate never wait for the slumbering genius to show itself if you do it will never awake but slumber on through endless time and leave you
groping on in midnight darkness but to return to stanton whether he possessed a slumbering genius does not appear but certain it is that by down right hard work he gained a knowledge of the law
and was admitted to the bar in eighteen thirty six when in his twenty first year while yet a young lawyer he was made prosecuting attorney of harrison county
in eighteen forty two he was chosen reporter of the ohio supreme court and published three volumes of reports in eighteen forty seven he moved to pittsburgh pennsylvania but for nine years afterward retained his office in steubenville
as well as that in pittsburgh in eighteen fifty seven his business had so expanded that he found it necessary to move to washington d c the seat of the united states supreme court
his first appearance before the united states supreme court was in defence of the state of pennsylvania against the wheeling and belmont bridge company and thereafter his practice rapidly increased
this great legal success together with several others won for him a national reputation it has been stated by one of the leading jurists in the united states that the cause of nine out of ten of the failures in the legal profession
is laziness so common in lawyers after being admitted to the bar once in they seem to think that they have but to sit and wait for business possibly their eye has at one time or another
caught those sentiments so dear to some writers in regard to the slumbering genius be that as it may it is very evident that stanton had never been idle
and was seldom obliged to refer to his library before answering questions in relation to the law he was called to the high position of attorney general in president buchanan's cabinet and on january eleventh eighteen sixty two
nine months after the inauguration of lincoln he was placed in the most responsible position in his cabinet at that time secretary of war his labors in this department were indefatigable and many of the most important
and successful movements of the war originated with him never perhaps was there a more illustrious example of the right man in the right place it seemed almost as if
it were a special provincial interposition to incline the president to go out of his own party and select this man for this most responsible of all trusts save his own with an unflinching force
and exacted brave mighty endeavor of all yet only like what he exacted of himself he reorganized the war with herculean toil through all those long years of war he thought of saw
labored for one end victory the amount of work he does in some of these critical months was absolutely amazing by its comprehension of details the solution of vexed questions
the mastery of formidable difficulties wonder was it his word sometimes cut like a sharp quick blow or that the stroke of his pen was sometimes like a thunderbolt
it was not the time for hesitation or doubt or even argument he meant his imperiled country should be saved and whatever by half loyalty or self seeking seemed to stand in the way only attracted
the lightning of his power the nation owes as much to him as to any one who in council or in field contributed to its salvation and his real greatness was never more conspicuous
than at the time of mister lincoln's assassination his presence of mind his prompt decision his unfailing faith and courage strengthened those about him
and disorder following that unexpected assault upon the life of the republic to have equipped fed clothed and organized a million and a half of soldiery
and when their work was done in two days to have remanded them back to the peaceful industries from which they had been called to have had the nation's wealth at his disposal and yet so incorruptible
such a man so true so intent upon great objects must many a time have thwarted the greed of the corrupt been impatient with the hesitation of the imbecile and fiercely indignant against half heartedness
and disloyalty whatever faults therefore his enemies may allege these will all fade away in the splendor with which coming ages will ennoble the greatest of war ministers in the nineteenth century
he will be remembered as one who never thought of self and who held the helm in sunshine and in storm with the same untiring grip
nor were his services less valuable to his country when after the surrender of the confederate armies the rebellion was transferred to the white house and he stood the fearless unflinching patriot
against the schemes and usurpations of its accidental occupant mister stanton entered on his great trust in the fullest prime of manhood equal seemingly to any possible toil and strain
he left his department incurably shorn of health he entered upon it in affluence with a large and remunerative practice he left it without a stain on his hands but with his fortune lessened
and insufficient yet when it was contemplated by some of his friends after his retirement to tender him a handsome gift of money he resolutely and unhesitatingly forbade it and the project had to be abandoned
he was as truly a sacrifice to his country as was the brave soldier who laid down his life in the prison pen or sanctified the field with his blood for an unswerving and passionate patriotism
for a magnificent courage for rare unselfishness for transcendent abilities for immeasurable services to his country the figure of the greatest war minister in modern times
will tower with a noble grandeur as undimmed and enviable a splendor as that of any in the history of the republic which like his friend and co worker the great lincoln
in canada with a lynx by roe l hendrick this adventure came about through an invitation which ray churchill received from his friend jacques pourbiere of two rivers new brunswick
ray had half promised to visit his new brunswick acquaintance during the deer hunting season and late in august was reminded of the fact a second letter came in september the carefully worded school english of the writer
not being able to conceal the warmth and urgency of the invitation so ray telegraphed his acceptance and four days later arrived at fredericton where he secured a hunting license the next morning he reached two rivers and jacques met him
he promised ray at least one deer within a couple of days and another within a week the pourbiere home resembled those of the better class of habitants but with a difference due to the greater prosperity of the family in preceding generations
the main room had a huge fireplace used only occasionally for there was an air tight stove connected with the chimney just above it to afford greater warmth in winter the other rooms were chiefly detached
were in the rear each being a rectangular building of heavy logs with low lofts above the homestead was in fact a cluster of houses rather than a single dwelling
what most attracted ray's attention were the huge bedsteads in the living room they were tall four posters such as he had seen elsewhere but with the difference that a canopy covered them
each had a carved wooden frame surmounting the top of the posts like a roof the wood was black with age its surface being covered with elaborate foliage and armorial devices
representing the toil of some old french artisan of the seventeenth century they probably had been brought across the atlantic by the original emigrant and carefully preserved ever since
they stood in diagonally opposite corners of the room and upheld the hugest of feather beds with gay home made worsted coverlets and valances that shamed the hues of the rainbow
they certainly tempted to rest in that climate and at that season but would have seemed suffocating in a warmer region that evening ray said see here jacques you have double windows
and your fireplace is closed to make a better draft for this stove i'm used to fresh air at night if i leave the end door ajar you won't be afraid of burglars will you the canadian shrugged his shoulders
at this exhibition of his guest's eccentricity but his hospitality was more than equal to the strain non non he replied
and his white teeth flashed ray laughed softly as he thrust a billet of wood between the door and its frame
he asked co old
if you breathed purer air when you slept oui was the polite reply and nothing more was said long before dawn ray sprang from bed closed the door and stirred up the fire
the moon although low in the west was still brilliant when they made their way to where a stream trickled down to cedar lake and within a half hour got their first deer a fine three year old buck
they secured some smaller game during the morning and in the afternoon took the deer home and skinned and dressed it
but jacques carried a hind quarter in and suspended it beside the closed fireplace later cutting off steaks for supper and breakfast they passed a merry evening each telling stories of his experiences
which were so different in quality that they possessed all the charm of novelty to the respective listeners again ray set the door ajar after they had undressed and in a few moments both were asleep several hours passed
had either young man been awake he might have heard soft footfalls about the door a squatty heavily built animal with huge feet bob tail and pointed ears adorned with tufts of hair
had traced the slaughtered deer to the farmhouse by means of drops of blood and now was searching eagerly for the meat he sought the milk room again and again and even sprang to the window ledge but could not get inside
then he came back and sniffed at the partly open door of the living room the human smell was there and he hesitated but so too was the odor of fresh venison and his mouth watered
a round head was thrust inside the door the moon peering above the hemlocks to the southeastward cast its rays through a window directly upon the fresh meat the temptation was greater than the intruder was able to withstand
inch by inch he crowded past the swaying door and silently crept toward the venison the two men were breathing very loudly but neither stirred
and at last he gathered supreme courage and leaped upon the meat it fell with a crash against the stove and the two were awakened simultaneously as jacques sprang from the bed
the animal backed dragging the quarter of venison toward the door he collided with it knocking the billet of wood outside and the latch fell into place with a clash finding himself a prisoner
the creature advanced spitting and growling straight at jacques who crying
but the pursuit did not end there seeing that the beast was about to leap upon the bed
not a second too soon and ensconced himself on the edge of the canopy top with his back pressed against the timbers of the loft floor above ray had been too much amazed to interfere at first but now the time seemed ripe to reopen the door
and drive the lynx out he made a rush but the angry creature turned and dashed at his legs so viciously that in a couple of seconds he too found himself perched precariously on the canopy of his own bed
with prick ears spitting and snarling on the coverlet can that beast climb up here like a cat he asked with no little anxiety in his tones oui was the reply he can
went back to the venison and began eating it voraciously only stopping to snarl when the young men spoke or moved the fire was very low the room had been well aired and the two were thinly clad
before long their teeth were chattering eef ah can get heem away from door
jacques said with marked ill will underlying his quaint english he clambered about the creaking canopy frame which threatened to collapse at any moment
had been concealed beneath this bed during the preceding scrimmage she now thrust out her head just in time to be seen by the lynx and the liveliest sort of chase about the room ensued when hard pressed she somehow reached a shelf
climbed recklessly over him her claws stabbing him in a dozen places and hid behind him the lynx was thoroughly aroused and although clumsier and heavier set out sturdily to follow
ray's hand fell on the shelf and clutched a flat iron of which there were a half dozen in a row leaning forward he struck the oncomer a hard blow over the head prick ears fell to the floor and rolled writhing struggling
and half stunned under the bed now jacques now ray yelled his host jumped and was outside the door in an instant ray grasped another flat iron and waited the sound of struggling beneath the bed was unabated
in five minutes he heard a plaintive voice calling outside
oui but where ah'm freezing i i don't remember jacques saying many things in a patois he had never learned in the provincial school went back to the milk room the lynx ventured to show his head
and a flat iron dented the floor close beside it then the animal circled the room dodged another missile and hid in a dark corner ray could hear jacques tossing things about in the obscurity of the milk room
but plainly finding no guns and as plainly getting colder every minute something must be done at once he clutched a flat iron in each hand screwed his courage to the sticking point and dropped to the floor
as he flung the door wide open he heard the rasping of the lynx's claws on the boards behind him he dashed outside threw both flat irons wildly at his pursuer and jumped as far as he could to one side
the lynx kept straight on headed for the woods a few rods away jacques had found his gun at last he took a flying shot in the moonlight hitting a tree at least a rod at the lynx's right
then the two went inside enlivened the fire and dressed as hastily as possible consumption is bad ver bad for canadians said jacques a half hour later picking his words with care
ray grinned but made no reply
he was the chiefest as he was the youngest of the war correspondents and his experiences dated from the birth of the needle gun saving only his ally keneu the great war eagle there was no man higher in the craft than he
torpenhow laughed as he entered
those little states are always screeching you've heard about dick's luck yes he has been called up to notoriety hasn't he i hope you keep him properly humble he wants suppressing from time to time he does
he's beginning to take liberties with what he thinks is his reputation already by jove he has cheek i don't know about his reputation but he'll come a cropper if he tries that sort of thing
so i told him i don't think he believes it they never do when they first start off what's that wreck on the ground there specimen of his latest impertinence
torpenhow thrust the torn edges of the canvas together and showed the well groomed picture to the nilghai who looked at it for a moment and whistled it's a chromo said he chromo litholeomargarine fake
what possessed him to do it and yet how thoroughly he has caught the note that catches a public who think with their boots and read with their elbows the cold blooded insolence of the work almost saves it
but he mustn't go on with this hasn't he been praised and cockered up too much you know these people here have no sense of proportion they'll call him a second detaille
it's windy diet for a colt i don't think it affects dick much you might as well call a young wolf a lion and expect him to take the compliment in exchange for a shin bone dick's soul is in the bank
he's working for cash now he has thrown up war work i suppose he doesn't see that the obligations of the service are just the same only the proprietors are changed how should he know
he thinks he is his own master does he i could undeceive him for his good if there's any virtue in print he wants the whiplash lay it on with science then
i'd flay him myself but i like him too much i've no scruples he had the audacity to try to cut me out with a woman at cairo once i forgot that but i remember now
did he cut you out you'll see when i have dealt with him but after all what's the good leave him alone and he'll come home if he has any stuff in him dragging or wagging his tail behind him
there's more in a week of life than in a lively weekly none the less i'll slate him i'll slate him ponderously in the cataclysm good luck to you but i fancy nothing short of a crowbar would make dick wince
he's intensely suspicious and utterly lawless matter of temper said the nilghai it's the same with horses some you wallop and they work
some you wallop and they jib and some you wallop and they go out for a walk with their hands in their pockets that's exactly what dick has done said torpenhow wait till he comes back in the meantime you can begin your slating here
dick had instinctively sought running water for a comfort to his mood of mind he was leaning over the embankment wall watching the rush of the thames through the arches of westminster bridge
he began by thinking of torpenhow's advice but as of custom lost himself in the study of the faces flocking past some had death written on their features and dick marvelled that they could laugh
others clumsy and coarse built for the most part were alight with love others were merely drawn and lined with work
the poor at least should suffer that he might learn and the rich should pay for the output of his learning thus his credit in the world and his cash balance at the bank would be increased so much the better for him
he had suffered now he would take toll of the ills of others the fog was driven apart for a moment and the sun shone a blood red wafer on the water
dick watched the spot till he heard the voice of the tide between the piers die down like the wash of the sea at low tide
and a shift of the same wind that had opened the fog drove across dick's face the black smoke of a river steamer at her berth below the wall he was blinded for the moment then spun round and found himself face to face with
maisie there was no mistaking the years had turned the child to a woman but they had not altered the dark gray eyes the thin scarlet lips or the firmly modelled mouth and chin
and that all should be as it was of old she wore a closely fitting gray dress since the human soul is finite and not in the least under its own command dick advancing said
after the manner of schoolboys
every pulse of dick's body throbbed furiously and his palate dried in his mouth the fog shut down again and maisie's face was pearl white through it no word was spoken
but dick fell into step at her side and the two paced the embankment together keeping the step
then dick a little hoarsely
he died dick not cartridges over eating he was always greedy
yes no do you mean amomma ye es no this
over there he pointed eastward through the fog and you oh i'm in the north the black north across all the park i am very busy what do you do
i paint a great deal that's all i have to do
you had three hundred a year i have that still i am painting that's all are you alone then there's a girl living with me don't walk so fast dick
you're out of step then you noticed it too of course i did you're always out of step so i am i'm sorry you went on with the painting
of course i said i should i was at the slade then at merton's in saint john's wood the big studio then i pepper potted i mean i went to the national and now i'm working under kami
but kami is in paris surely no he has his teaching studio in vitry sur marne i work with him in the summer and i live in london in the winter i'm a householder
do you sell much now and again but not often there is my bus i must take it or lose half an hour good bye dick good bye maisie won't you tell me where you live
i must see you again and perhaps i could help you i i paint a little myself i may be in the park to morrow if there is no working light
but of course i shall see you again she stepped into the omnibus and was swallowed up by the fog well i am damned exclaimed dick and returned to the chambers
repeating the phrase with an awful gravity you'll be more damned when i'm done with you said the nilghai upheaving his bulk from behind torpenhow's shoulder and waving a sheaf of half dry manuscript dick
it is of common report that you are suffering from swelled head halloo nilghai back again how are the balkans and all the little balkans one side of your face is out of drawing as usual
never mind that i am commissioned to smite you in print torpenhow refuses from false delicacy i've been overhauling the pot boilers in your studio they are simply disgraceful
oho that's it is it if you think you can slate me you're wrong you can only describe
as a p and o cargo boat but continue and be swift i'm going to bed
here's the peroration for work done without conviction for power wasted on trivialities for labour expended with levity for the deliberate purpose of winning the easy applause of a fashion driven public
that's his last shot second edition go on public
the oblivion that is preceded by toleration and cenotaphed with contempt from that fate mister heldar has yet to prove himself out of danger wow wow wow wow wow said dick profanely
it's a clumsy ending and vile journalese but it's quite true and yet he sprang to his feet and snatched at the manuscript
they have no arenas now but they must have special correspondents you're a fat gladiator who comes up through a trap door and talks of what he's seen you stand on precisely the same level as an energetic bishop
an affable actress a devastating cyclone or mine own sweet self and you presume to lecture me about my work nilghai if it were worth while i'd caricature you in four papers
the nilghai winced he had not thought of this as it is i shall take this stuff and tear it small so the manuscript fluttered in slips down the dark well of the staircase
go home nilghai said dick go home to your lonely little bed and leave me in peace
why it isn't seven yet said torpenhow with amazement it shall be two in the morning if i choose said dick backing to the studio door i go to grapple with a serious crisis
and i shan't want any dinner the door shut and was locked what can you do with a man like that said the nilghai leave him alone he's as mad as a hatter
at eleven there was a kicking on the studio door is the nilghai with you still said a voice from within then tell him he might have condensed the whole of his lumbering nonsense into an epigram
only the free are bond and only the bond are free tell him he's an idiot torp and tell him i'm another
you're smoking on an empty stomach
he knew where the doe made a couch for her fawn and he looked to his strength for his prey but the moon swept the smoke wreaths away
and he turned from his meal in the villager's close and he bayed to the moon as she rose in seonee well and how does success taste
said torpenhow some three months later he had just returned to chambers after a holiday in the country good said dick as he sat licking his lips before the easel in the studio i want more heaps more
the lean years have passed and i approve of these fat ones be careful old man that way lies bad work
torpenhow was sprawling in a long chair with a small fox terrier asleep on his chest while dick was preparing a canvas a dais a background and a lay figure were the only fixed objects in the place
they rose from a wreck of oddments that began with felt covered water bottles belts and regimental badges and ended with a small bale of second hand uniforms and a stand of mixed arms
the mark of muddy feet on the dais showed that a military model had just gone away the watery autumn sunlight was falling and shadows sat in the corners of the studio yes
said dick deliberately i like the power i like the fun i like the fuss and above all i like the money i almost like the people who make the fuss and pay the money almost but they're a queer gang an amazingly queer gang
did you see that the papers called it the wild work show never mind i sold every shred of canvas i wanted to and on my word i believe it was because they believed i was a self taught flagstone artist
limited isn't the word to describe em i met a fellow the other day who told me that it was impossible that shadows on white sand should be blue ultramarine as they are i found out later that the man had been as far as brighton beach
but he knew all about art confound him he gave me a lecture on it and recommended me to go to school to learn technique i wonder what old kami would have said to that
when were you under kami man of extraordinary beginnings i studied with him for two years in paris he taught by personal magnetism
and you had to make the best you could of that he had a divine touch and he knew something about colour
said torpenhow with a provoking drawl dick squirmed in his place don't it makes me want to get out there again what colour that was opal and umber and amber and claret and brick red and sulphur
cockatoo crest sulphur against brown with a nigger black rock sticking up in the middle of it all and a decorative frieze of camels festooning in front of a pure pale turquoise sky he began to walk up and down and yet you know
modest man go on
dickie you've been promenading among the toy shops and hearing people talk
and it was lonely these long evenings a man can't work for ever a man might have gone to a pub and got decently drunk i wish i had but i forgathered with some men of sorts
they said they were artists and i knew some of them could draw but they wouldn't draw they gave me tea tea at five in the afternoon and talked about art and the state of their souls
as if their souls mattered i've heard more about art and seen less of her in the last six months than in the whole of my life do you remember cassavetti who worked for some continental syndicate out with the desert column
he was a regular christmas tree of contraptions when he took the field in full fig with his water bottle lanyard revolver writing case housewife gig lamps and the lord knows what all he used to fiddle about with em and show us how they worked
but he never seemed to do much except fudge his reports from the nilghai see dear old nilghai he's in town fatter than ever he ought to be up here this evening i see the comparison perfectly
you should have kept clear of all that man millinery serves you right and i hope it will unsettle your mind it won't it has taught me what art holy sacred art means
you've learnt something while i've been away what is art give em what they know and when you've done it once do it again dick dragged forward a canvas laid face to the wall
here's a sample of real art it's going to be a facsimile reproduction for a weekly i called it his last shot it's worked up from the little water colour i made outside el maghrib
well i lured my model a beautiful rifleman up here with drink i drored him and i redrored him and i redrored him and i made him a flushed dishevelled bedevilled scallawag
with his helmet at the back of his head and the living fear of death in his eye and the blood oozing out of a cut over his ankle bone he wasn't pretty but he was all soldier and very much man
once more modest child dick laughed well it's only to you i'm talking i did him just as well as i knew how making allowance for the slickness of oils
then the art manager of that abandoned paper said that his subscribers wouldn't like it it was brutal and coarse and violent man being naturally gentle when he's fighting for his life they wanted something more restful
i could have said a good deal
i took my last shot back behold the result
that is art i polished his boots observe the high light on the toe that is art i cleaned his rifle rifles are always clean on service because that is art i pipeclayed his helmet
pipeclay is always used on active service and is indispensable to art i shaved his chin i washed his hands and gave him an air of fatted peace result military tailor's pattern plate price thank heaven
and do you suppose you're going to give that thing out as your work why not i did it alone i did it in the interests of sacred home bred art and dickenson's weekly
torpenhow smoked in silence for a while then came the verdict delivered from rolling clouds if you were only a mass of blathering vanity dick i wouldn't mind
i'd let you go to the deuce on your own mahl stick but when i consider what you are to me and when i find that to vanity
thus the canvas ripped as torpenhow's booted foot shot through it and the terrier jumped down thinking rats were about if you have any bad language to use use it you have not i continue
you are an idiot because no man born of woman is strong enough to take liberties with his public even though they be which they ain't all you say they are but they don't know any better
dick pointed to the yellow fog if they want furniture polish let them have furniture polish so long as they pay for it they are only men and women you talk as if they were gods
that sounds very fine but it has nothing to do with the case they are the people you have to do work for whether you like it or not they are your masters don't be deceived dickie you aren't strong enough to trifle with them
or with yourself which is more important moreover come back binkie that red daub isn't going anywhere unless you take precious good care you will fall under the damnation of the check book and that's worse than death
on easily acquired money for that money and your own infernal vanity you are willing to deliberately turn out bad work you'll do quite enough bad work without knowing it and dickie as i love you and as i know you love me
i am not going to let you cut off your nose to spite your face for all the gold in england that's settled now swear don't know said dick i've been trying to make myself angry but i can't
you're so abominably reasonable there will be a row on dickenson's weekly i fancy why the dickenson do you want to work on a weekly paper it's slow bleeding of power
it brings in the very desirable dollars said dick his hands in his pockets torpenhow watched him with large contempt why i thought it was a man said he it's a child
no it isn't said dick wheeling quickly
pig chinese pig i've worked for this i've sweated and i've starved for this line on line and month after month and now i've got it i am going to make the most of it while it lasts let them pay they've no knowledge
what does your majesty please to want you can't smoke more than you do you won't drink you're a gross feeder and you dress in the dark by the look of you you wouldn't keep a horse the other day when i suggested
because you said it might fall lame and whenever you cross the street you take a hansom even you are not foolish enough to suppose that theatres and all the live things you can buy thereabouts mean life what earthly need have you for money
it's there bless its golden heart said dick it's there all the time providence has sent me nuts while i have teeth to crack em with i haven't yet found the nut i wish to crack but i'm keeping my teeth filed
perhaps some day you and i will go for a walk round the wide earth with no work to do nobody to worry us and nobody to compete with you would be unfit to speak to in a week besides
i shouldn't go i don't care to profit by the price of a man's soul for that's what it would mean dick it's no use arguing you're a fool don't see it when i was on that chinese pig boat
our captain got credit for saving about twenty five thousand very seasick little pigs when our old tramp of a steamer fell foul of a timber junk now taking those pigs as a parallel
oh confound your parallels whenever i try to improve your soul you always drag in some anecdote from your very shady past pigs aren't the british public and self respect is self respect the world over
go out for a walk and try to catch some self respect and i say if the nilghai comes up this evening can i show him your diggings
chapter thirty five myerst explains it had been apparent to spargo from the moment of his entering the cottage that the two old men were suffering badly from shock
and fright cardlestone still sat in his corner shivering and trembling he looked incapable of explaining anything elphick was scarcely more fitted to speak
and when breton issued his peremptory invitation to his guardian to tell the truth spargo intervened far better leave him alone breton he said in a low voice
don't you see the old chap's done up they're both done up we don't know what they've gone through with this fellow before we came and it's certain they've had no sleep leave it all till later
after all we've found them and we've found him he jerked his thumb over his shoulder in myerst's direction and breton involuntarily followed the movement
he caught the prisoner's eye and myerst laughed i daresay you two young men think yourselves very clever he said sneeringly don't you now
we've been clever enough to catch you anyway retorted breton and now we've got you we'll keep you till the police can relieve us of you oh
said myerst with another sneering laugh and on what charge do you propose to hand me over to the police it strikes me you'll have some difficulty in formulating one mister breton well see about that later
said breton you've extorted money by menaces from these gentlemen at any rate have i how do you know they didn't entrust me with these cheques as their agent
exclaimed myerst answer me that or rather let them answer if they dare here you cardlestone you elphick
speak up now and quick spargo watching the two old men saw them both quiver at the sound of myerst's voice cardlestone indeed began to whimper softly
look here breton he said whispering
leave them alone it would be best for them if they could get some rest hold your tongue you he added aloud turning to myerst when we want you to speak we'll tell you
but myerst laughed again all very high and mighty mister spargo of the watchman he sneered you're another of the cock sure lot and you're very clever
but not clever enough now look here supposing spargo turned his back on him he went over to old cardlestone and felt his hands and he turned to breton
with a look of concern i say he exclaimed he's more than frightened he's ill what's to be done i asked the police to bring a doctor along with them answered breton
in the meantime let's put him to bed there are beds in that inner room we'll get him to bed and give him something hot to drink that's all i can think of for the present between them they managed to get
and spargo with a happy thought boiled water on the rusty stove and put hot bottles to his feet when that was done they persuaded elphick to lie down in the inner room presently
both old men fell asleep
said breton beginning to rummage they've generally had a good stock of tinned things here we are spargo these are tongues and sardines
make some hot coffee while i open one of these tins the prisoner watched the preparations for a rough and ready breakfast with eyes that eventually began to glisten
i may remind you that i'm hungry too he said as spargo set the coffee on the table and you've no right to starve me even if you've the physical ability to keep me tied up
give me something to eat if you please you shan't starve said breton carelessly he cut an ample supply of bread and meat filled a cup with coffee and placed cup and plate before myerst
untie his right arm spargo he continued i think we can give him that liberty we've got his revolver anyhow for a while the three men ate and drank in silence
he looked scrutinizingly at his two captors look here he said you think you know a lot about all this affair spargo but there's only one person who knows all about it that's me
we're taking that for granted said spargo we guessed as much when we found you here you'll have ample opportunity for explanation you know later on
i'll explain now if you care to hear said myerst with another of his cynical laughs and if i do i'll tell you the truth i know you've got an idea in your heads that isn't favourable to me but you're utterly wrong
whatever you may think look here i'll make you a fair offer there are some cigars in my case there give me one and mix me a drink of that whisky a good un and i'll tell you what i know about this matter come on
anything's better than sitting here doing nothing
then breton nodded let him talk if he likes he said we're not bound to believe him and we may hear something that's true
myerst took a stiff pull at the contents of the tumbler
which spargo presently set before him he laughed as he inhaled the first fumes of his cigar as it happens you'll hear nothing but the truth he observed now that things are as they are
there's no reason why i shouldn't tell the truth the fact is i've nothing to fear you can't give me in charge for it so happens that i've got a power of attorney
old chaps inside there to act for them in regard to the money they entrusted me with it's in an inside pocket of that letter case
and if you look at it breton you'll see it's in order
you're a barrister and you'll respect the law but that's a fact and if anybody's got a case against anybody i have against you two for assault and illegal detention but i'm not a vindictive man and
breton took up myerst's letter case and examined its contents and presently he turned to spargo he's right he whispered
he turned to myerst all the same he said addressing him we shan't release you because we believe you're concerned in the murder of john marbury we're justified in holding you on that account
said myerst have your own stupid way but i said i'd tell you the plain truth well
than i know of what is going on in
i do not know who killed john maitland that's a fact it may have been the old man in there who's already at his own last gasp or it mayn't
i tell you i don't know though like you spargo i've tried hard to find out that's the truth i do not know you expect us to believe that
exclaimed breton incredulously believe it or not as you like it's the truth answered myerst now look here
i said nobody knew as much of this affair as i know and that's true also and here's the truth of what i know
whom you know as nicholas cardlestone is in reality chamberlayne the stockbroker of market milcaster whose name was so freely mentioned when your father was tried there
that's another fact how asked breton sternly can you prove it how do you know it because replied myerst with a cunning grin
i helped to carry out his mock death and burial i was a solicitor in those days and my name was something else there were three of us at it chamberlayne's nephew
a doctor of no reputation and myself we carried it out very cleverly and chamberlayne gave us five thousand pounds apiece for our trouble it was not the first time that i had helped him
and been well paid for my help the first time was in connection with the cloudhampton hearth and home mutual benefit society affair aylmore or ainsworth was as innocent
as a child in that chamberlayne was the man at the back but unfortunately chamberlayne didn't profit he lost all he got by it pretty quick
you can prove all this i suppose remarked spargo every word every letter but about the market milcaster affair your father
breton was right in what he said about chamberlayne having all the money that was got from the bank he had and he engineered that mock death and funeral so that he could disappear
and he paid us who helped him generously as i've told you the thing couldn't have been better done when it was done the nephew disappeared the doctor disappeared
chamberlayne disappeared i had bad luck to tell you the truth i was struck off the rolls for a technical offence
and eventually what i am now and it was not until three years ago that i found chamberlayne i found him in this way
after i became secretary to the safe deposit company i took chambers in the temple above cardlestone's and i speedily found out who he was
instead of going abroad the old fox though he was a comparatively young un then had shaved off his beard settled down in the temple and given himself up to his two hobbies collecting curiosities and stamps
and nobody had ever recognized or suspected him indeed
he lived such a quiet secluded life with his collections his old port and his little whims and fads but i knew him
replied myerst and i was glad to take it and naturally i gained a considerable knowledge of him he had only one friend mister elphick in there now
i'll you about him
of him said breton sternly i've no reason to do otherwise elphick is the man who ought to have married your mother when things turned out as they did elphick took you and brought you
so that you should never know of your father's disgrace elphick never knew until last night that cardlestone is chamberlayne even the biggest scoundrels have friends elphick's very fond of
he spargo turned sharply on myerst you say elphick didn't know until last night he exclaimed why then this running away what were they running from
i have no more notion than you have spargo replied myerst
elphick i gather took fright from you and went to cardlestone then they both vanished it may be that cardlestone did kill maitland i don't know
but i'll tell you what i know about the actual murder for i do know a good deal about it though
now first
maitland's having papers and valuables and gold on him very well i've got all that the whole lot is locked up safely
when we go back to town and the necessary proof is given as it will be that you're maitland's son myerst paused to see the effect of this announcement
and laughed when he saw the blank astonishment which stole over his hearers faces
i've got all the contents of that leather box which maitland deposited with me that's safely locked up too and at your disposal i took possession
of that the day after the murder then for purposes of my own i went to scotland yard as spargo there is aware you see i was playing a game and it required some ingenuity
a game exclaimed breton good heavens what game i never knew until i had possession of all these things that marbury was maitland of market milcaster
answered myerst when i did know then i began to put things together and to pursue my own line independent of everybody i tell you i had all maitland's papers and possessions
by that time except one thing that packet of australian stamps and i found out that those stamps were in the hands of
chapter thirty one the penitent window cleaner that afternoon spargo had another of his momentous interviews with his proprietor and his editor the first result
was that all three drove to the offices of the legal gentleman who catered for the watchman when it wanted any law and that things were put in shape for an immediate application to the home office
for permission to open the chamberlayne grave at market milcaster the second was that on the following morning there appeared in the watchman
a notice which set half the mouths of london a watering that notice penned by spargo ran as follows one thousand pounds reward
whereas on some date within the past twelve months there was stolen abstracted or taken from the chambers in fountain court temple
occupied by mister stephen aylmore m p under the name of mister anderson a walking stick or stout staff of foreign make and of curious workmanship
which stick was probably used in the murder of john marbury or maitland in middle temple lane
and is now in the hands of the police this is to give notice that the proprietor of the watchman newspaper will pay the above mentioned reward
one thousand pounds sterling at once and in cash to whosoever will prove that he or she stole abstracted or took away the said stick from the said chambers
and will further give full information as to his or her disposal of the same and the proprietor of the watchman moreover engages
to treat any revelation affecting the said stick in the most strictly private and confidential manner and to abstain from using it in any way detrimental to the informant
who should call at the watchman office and ask for mister frank spargo at any time between eleven and one o'clock midday and seven and eleven o'clock in the evening
and you really expect to get some information through that asked breton who came into spargo's room about noon on the day on which the promising announcement came out you really do
said spargo confidently there is more magic in a thousand pound reward than you fancy breton i'll have the history of that stick before midnight how are you to tell
that you won't be imposed upon suggested breton anybody can say that he or she stole the stick whoever comes here with any tale of a stick
and what was done with the stick said spargo i haven't the least doubt that that stick was stolen or taken away from aylmore's rooms in fountain court
and that it got into the hands of yes of whom that's what i want to know in some fashion i've an idea already but i can afford to wait for definite information
i know one thing when i get that information as i shall we shall be a long way on the road towards establishing aylmore's innocence breton made no remark upon this
spargo he said suddenly do you think you'll get that order for the opening of the grave at market milcaster
answered spargo they've every confidence about it in fact it's possible it may be made this afternoon in that case the opening will be made early tomorrow morning
shall you go asked breton certainly and you can go with me if you like better keep in touch with us all day in case we hear you ought to be there you're concerned i should like to go
empty i'll i'll tell you something spargo looked up with sharp instinct you'll tell me something something what never mind
wait until we see if that coffin contains a dead body or lead and sawdust if there's no body there at that moment one of the senior messenger boys came in and approached spargo
his countenance usually subdued to an official stolidity showed signs of something very like excitement
and he won't fill up a form sir says all he wants is a word or two with you bring him up at once commanded spargo he turned to breton
laughing this is the man about the stick you see if it isn't you're such a cock sure chap spargo
you're always going on a straight line trying to you mean retorted spargo well stop here and hear what this chap has to say it'll no doubt be amusing the messenger boy
deeply conscious that he was ushering into spargo's room an individual who might shortly carry away a thousand pounds of good watchman money in his pocket opened the door and introduced a shy and self conscious young man
whose nervousness was painfully apparent to everybody and deeply felt by himself he halted on the threshold looking round the comfortably furnished room and at the two well dressed young men
which it framed as if he feared to enter on a scene of such grandeur come in come in said spargo rising and pointing to an easy chair at the side of his desk take a seat
you've called about that reward of course the man in the chair eyed the two of them cautiously and not without suspicion
he said it's all on the strict private name of edward mollison sir and where do you live and what do you do asked spargo you might put it down rowton house whitechapel
answered edward mollison leastways that's where i generally hang out when i can afford it and window cleaner leastways i was window cleaning when
when when you came in contact with the stick we've been advertising about suggested spargo just so well mollison what about the stick
and then at the windows and then at breton
he asked cause if there is i ain't a going to say a word no not for no thousand pounds me never having been in no trouble of any sort guv'nor
not the slightest danger in the world mollison replied spargo not the least
and prove that it is the truth
was it mollison appeared to find this direct question soothing to his feelings he smiled weakly it was cert'nly me as took it sir he said not that i meant to pinch
it not me and as you might say i didn't take it when all's said and done it was put on me put on you was it said spargo
that's interesting and how was it put on you mollison grinned again and rubbed his chin it was this here way he answered you see i was working at that time
near on to nine months since it is for the universal daylight window cleaning company and i used to clean a many windows here and there in the temple
and them windows at mister aylmore's only i knew them as mister anderson's among em and i was there one morning early it was
i wish you'd take these two or three hearthrugs she says and give em a good beating she says and me being always a ready one to oblige
all right i says and takes em here's something to wallop em with she says and pulls that there old stick out of a lot that was in a stand in a corner of the lobby
and that's how i came to handle it sir i see said spargo a good explanation
what then mollison smiled his weak smile again well sir i looked at that there stick and i see it was something uncommon he answered and i thinks
he's got a bundle of sticks and walking canes up there hell never miss this old thing i thinks and so i left it in a corner when i'd done beating the rugs and when i went away with my things
i took it with me you took it with you said spargo just so to keep as a curiosity i suppose mollison's weak smile turned to one of cunning
he was obviously losing his nervousness the sound of his own voice and the reception of his news was imparting confidence to him not half he answered you see guv'nor
or was cause i ain't been there since a collector of antikities like and i'd sold him a queer old thing time and again and of course i had him in my eye
when i took the stick away see i see and you took the stick to him i took it there and then replied mollison pitched him a tale i did
by uncle simon which i never had no uncle simon made out it was a rare curiosity
exactly and the old cove took a fancy to it eh bought it there and then answered mollison with something very like a wink
bought it there and then and how much did he give you for it asked spargo something handsome i hope couple o quid replied mollison
me not wishing to part with a family heirloom for less just so
which they've painted on his entry the fifth or sixth as you go down middle temple lane answered mollison mister nicholas cardlestone first floor up the staircase
spargo rose from his seat without as much as a look at breton
we'll go and see about your little reward excuse me breton breton kicked his heels in solitude for half an hour then spargo came back there
the home secretary's made the order for the opening of the grave at market milcaster i'm going down there at once and i suppose you're coming and remember if that grave's empty
if that grave's empty said breton
the bragging peacock the farmyard people will never forget the coming of the peacock or rather they will never forget the first day that he spent with them he came in the evening after all the fowls had gone to roost
and their four legged friends were dozing comfortably in meadow and pasture corners so nobody saw him until the next morning you can imagine how surprised they were when a beautiful great fowl of greenish blue
strutted across the yard holding his head well in the air and dragging his splendid train behind him the fowls were just starting out for their daily walks and they stopped and held one foot in the air and stared and stared and stared they did not mean to be rude
but they were so very much surprised that they did not think what they were doing most of them thought they were asleep and dreaming and the dream was such a beautiful one that they did not want to move and break it off they had never seen a peacock and did not even know that there was such a fowl
one of the cloud birds is walking in the farmyard
and watched the clouds and thought that they were birds and dropped shining worms from their beaks then the peacock who understood the sheep language perfectly said paon i am no cloud bird i am a peacock
he said this in a very haughty way as though to be a peacock were the grandest thing in the world far better than having one's home in the sky and bringing showers to refresh the thirsty earth people the turkey gobbler never could stand it to have
others speak in that way when he was around so he thought he would show the newcomer how important he was he drew up his neck and puffed out his chest he pulled his skin muscles by thinking about them
they were a little afraid of him themselves but they liked to have him show the newcomer that turkeys are important people their children looked at each other and murmured isn't the gobbler fine though
but the peacock did not seem to feel at all sorry he stood and looked at them all without saying a word and they all wondered what he was thinking then a duckling who stood near him exclaimed look at his train oh
everybody looked and saw all those beautiful long feathers rising into the air up and up they went and spreading as they rose until there was a wonderful great circle of them back of his body
then he stalked off with the meek hen turkeys following and the children lagging behind they did so want to stay and see the peacock and they thought the ducklings and goslings were much luckier than they the geese were delighted with the newcomer
and hoped he would be quite friendly with them they wished he were a swimmer
he did not have the trim boat shaped body that swimmers have and then his feet were not webbed the gander noticed that they were remarkably homely feet he thought he would remember this and speak of it to the geese some time when they were praising the peacock's train
the drake was the first to speak politely to the peacock we are glad to meet you sir he said will you be with us long thank you answered the peacock i have come to stay
we should be very glad of your company if you did you will excuse us if we go on to the brook we are late already
a fine looking fellow said he heartily even my cousins the mallard ducks have not such a beautiful sheen on their neck feathers the drake was a kind warm hearted fellow and it never troubled him to know that other people were handsomer than he
the geese were eager to reach the water too but they could not leave without asking one question first they told the gander to ask it but he replied that if they wanted to know they should ask it for themselves then they hung back and said to each other
you ask him i can't at last the gray goose stepped forward saying excuse us sir
i work cried he paon never the farmer invited me here to be beautiful that is all we are so glad cackled the geese and the gander joined with them so many of the people here work they are very good but not at all genteel you understand
haven't you been plucked this was very embarrassing to the geese why yes they said we do let the farmer's wife have some feathers once in a while when the weather is warm but that is very different from really working you know perhaps said the peacock
if they want any of my feathers they can wait until i moult
not tail if you please every bird has a tail but i have a train they carry it carefully into the house to be made into a duster for the parlor i never give away any but my cast off plumage i am so very very beautiful that i do not have to work
this impressed the geese very much we are glad to know you
and they bowed their uncrested and very silly ones
the peacock thought them most agreeable because they admired him and they thought him the best sort of acquaintance because he didn't work it was all very foolish but there are always foolish people in the world you know and it is much better to be amused by it and a little sorry for them
than for us to lose our tempers and become cross about it that was the way the shanghais black spanish dorking and bantam fowls felt they were polite enough to the newcomer but they did not run after him the chickens used to laugh when the peacock uttered his cry of
paon paon his voice was harsh and disagreeable and it did seem so funny to hear such dreadful sounds coming from such a lovely throat the black spanish cock reproved the chickens sharply for this it is very rude said he to laugh at people for things they cannot help
he has only two legs hello little two legs how can you walk it is just as bad for you to laugh at his harsh voice because he cannot help it if he should say foolish and silly things you might laugh because he could help that if he tried
don't ever again let me hear you laughing when he is just saying paon the chickens minded the black spanish cock for they knew he was right and that he did not do rude things himself they remembered everything he said too one day the peacock was standing on the fence alone
he did this most of the time he usually stood with his back to the farmyard so that people who passed could see his train but not his feet a party of young fowls of all families came along their mothers had let them go off by themselves and they stopped to look at the peacock
he never understood a joke anyway he was always so busy thinking about himself that he couldn't see the point now he cleared his throat and spoke to the bantam chicken i hope you don't think that i grew my train in a minute said he it took me a long long time
although i kept all the feathers going at once look at his crest exclaimed one young turkey in his piping voice the peacock turned his head so that they could see it more plainly that is a crest to be proud of he said
i have never seen a finer one myself have you noticed the beauty of my neck charming wonderful beautiful exclaimed the young fowls
what homely feet you have this squab exclaimed are you not dreadfully ashamed of them the young fowls thought this rude not one of them would have said it the peacock became very angry
i know my feet are not so handsome as they might be he said but that is no reason why i should be ashamed of them i couldn't help having that kind of feet they run in my family i don't feel ashamed of things i can't help
the young fowls felt so uncomfortable after this that they walked away and the squab flew back to the dove cote
then a gosling who had heard her mother talk about the peacock said i should think he would be proud of his train and his crest and his neck and and everything everything except his feet giggled the bantam chicken and you know he couldn't help having them
i wonder if he could help having his train and his crest and his neck and and everything said a young turkey they all stopped where they were we never thought of that they cried we never thought of that
he is a good friend of mine and he knows almost everything they stalked and waddled over to the blind horse and the duckling told him what was puzzling them the blind horse laughed very heartily so the peacock is proud of having grown such a fine train and crest
but he isn't ashamed of his homely feet because he couldn't help having those there is no reason for either pride or shame with the peacock he has just such a body as was given him and he couldn't make one feather grow differently if he tried
the big house stood in the middle of a big open space with wide lawns about it shaded by cherry trees and lilac bushes
its doors were locked and its windows shuttered now for no one had lived in it for several years three little girls lived in the big house lois who was eight years old and emmy who was seven were sisters
kitty their cousin also seven had lived with them so long that she seemed like another sister there was besides marianne the cook's baby but as she was not quite three she did not count for much with the older ones
though they sometimes condescended to play with her it was a place of endless pleasure to these happy country children and they needed no wider world than it afforded them all summer long they played in the open air they built bowers in the feathery asparagus
they knew every bird's nest in the syringa bushes and the thick guelder roses and were so busy all the time that they rarely found a moment in which to quarrel one day in july their mother and father had occasion to leave home for a long afternoon and evening
then you must come in to tea and at half past seven you must go to bed as usual you may play where you like in the grounds but you must not go outside the gate she kissed them for good by remember to be good she said
then she got into the carriage and drove away the children were very good for several hours they played that little marianne was their baby and was carried off by a gypsy lois was the gypsy and the chase and recapture of the stolen child made an exciting game
at last they got tired of this and the question arose what shall we do next i wish mother would let us play down the road said emmy the noyse children's mother lets them i'll tell you what we'll do said lois
let's go down to the shut up house that isn't outside the gate o lois yes it is you can't go to the front door without walking on the road well who said anything about the front door
i'm going to look in at the back windows mother never said we mustn't do that still it was with a sense of guilt that the three stole across the lawn and they kept in the shadow of the hedge as if afraid some one would see and call them back
there's that little plague tagging us said kitty go back marianne we don't want you then when marianne would not go back they all ran away and left her crying the shut up house looked dull and ghostly enough
the front was in deep shadow from the tall row of elms that bordered the road but at the back the sun shone hotly it glowed through the low dusty window of a cellar and danced and gleamed on something bright which lay on the floor within what
do you suppose it is said emmy as they all stooped to look it looks like real gold perhaps some pirates hid it there and no one has come since but us or perhaps it's a mine cried lois a mine of jewels
see it's all purple like the stones in mother's breastpin wouldn't it be fun if it was we wouldn't tell anybody and we could buy such splendid things we must get in and find out added kitty
just then a wail sounded close at hand and a very woful tear stained little figure appeared it was marianne the poor baby had trotted all the long distance in the sun after her unkind playfellows oh dear
you little nuisance what made you come demanded emmy i ant to was all marianne's explanation well don't cry now you've come you can play remarked lois and marianne was consoled they began to try the windows in turn
kitty scrambled in and admitted the others first into the wood shed and then into a very dusty kitchen the cellar stairs opened from this they all ran down but oh disappointment
the jewel mine proved to be only the half of a broken teacup with a pattern on it in gold and lilac this was a terrible come down from a pirate treasure pshaw said kitty only an old piece of crockery i don't think it's fair to cheat like that
little marianne had been afraid to venture down into the cellar and now stayed at the top waiting for them let's run away from her suggested kitty who was cross after her disappointment
so they all hopped over marianne and deaf to her cries ran upstairs to the second story as fast as they could go there were four bare dusty chambers all unfurnished there she comes cried kitty
as marianne was heard climbing the stairs where shall we hide from her oh here's a place she had spied a closet door fastened with a large old fashioned iron latch
she flew across the room it was a narrow closet with a shelf across the top of it hurry hurry called kitty the others made haste they squeezed themselves into the closet and banged the door to behind them not till it was firmly fastened did they notice
that there was no latch inside or handle of any sort and that they had shut themselves in and had no possible way of getting out again their desire to escape from marianne changed at once into dismay
they kicked and pounded but the stout old fashioned door did not yield marianne could be heard crying without there was a round hole in the door just above the latch putting her eye to this lois could see the poor little thing
marianne she called here we are in the closet come and let us out that's a good baby put your little hand up and push the latch you can if you will only try i'll show you how added kitty taking her turn at the peep hole
see come close to the door and kitty will tell you what to do
doing anything helpful i tan't i tan't she wailed not venturing near the door oh do try please do pleaded lois i'll give you my china doll if you will marianne and i'll give you my doll's bedstead added emmy
you'd like that i know dear little marianne do try to let us out please do we're so tired of this old closet
and at last she sat down on the floor and wept the imprisoned children wept with her i've thought of a plan said emmy at last if you'll break one of the teeth out of your shell comb lois i think i can push it through the hole and raise the latch up alas
the hole was above the latch not below it half the teeth were broken out of lois's comb in their attempt and with no result except that they fell through the hole to the floor outside
at intervals they renewed their banging and pounding on the door but it only tired them out and did no good it was a very warm afternoon and as time went on the closet became unendurably hot
emmy sank down exhausted on the floor and she and kitty began to sob wildly lois alone kept her calmness little marianne had grown wonderfully quiet peeping through the hole lois saw that she had gone to sleep on the floor
don't cry so kitty she said it's no use we were naughty to come here i suppose we've got to die in this closet and it is my fault we shall starve to death pretty soon and no one will know what has become of us till somebody takes the house
and when they come to clean it and they open the closet door they will find our bones kitty screamed louder than ever at this terrible picture oh hush said her cousin the only thing we can do now is to pray god is the only person that can help us
mamma says he is close to every person who prays he can hear us if we are in the closet then lois made this little prayer our father who art in heaven we have been naughty and came down here when mamma didn't give us leave to come
but please forgive us we won't disobey again if only thou wilt we make a promise help us show us the way to get out of this closet don't let us die here with no one to know where we are we ask it for jesus christ's sake
it was a droll little prayer but lois put all her heart into it a human listener might have smiled at the odd turn of the phrases but god knew what she meant and he never turns away from real prayer he answered lois how did he answer her
he might have done that you know as he did for peter in prison but that was not the way he chose in this instance what he did was to put a thought into lois's mind she stood silent for a while after she had finished praying
children she said i have thought of something kitty you are the lightest do you think emmy and i could push you up on to the shelf it was not an easy thing to do for the place was narrow but at last with lois and emmy boosting
and kitty scrambling it was accomplished now kitty put your back against the wall said lois and when i say one two three
kitty braced herself and at the word three they all exerted their utmost strength one second more and oh joy the latch gave way and the door flew open kitty tumbled from the shelf the others fell forward on the floor
they were out lois had bumped her head and emmy's shoulder was bruised but what was that they were free let us run run cried lois
so they ran downstairs and out through the wood shed into the open air oh how sweet the sunshine looked and the wind felt after their fear and danger their mother taught them a little verse next morning after they had told her all about their adventure and made confession of their fault
and lois said it to herself every day all her life afterward this is it god is never far away god is listening all the day when we tremble when we fear the dear lord is quick to hear
under a syringa bush the old syringa at the foot of the wade's lawn was rather a tree than a bush many years of growth had gone to the thickening of its interlaced boughs which grew close to the ground and made an impervious covert
except on the west side where a hollow recess existed into which a small person boy or girl might squeeze and be quite hidden sundry other small persons with wings and feathers had discovered the advantages of the syringa
all manner of unsuspected housekeepings went on within its fastnesses from the lark's nest in a tuft of grass at the foot of the main stem to the robin's home on the topmost bough
solicitous little mothers brooded unseen over minute families while the highly decorative bird papa sat on a neighboring hedge carrying out his mission
in the dusk of the evening soft thrills and twitters sounded from the bush like whispered conversation and very entertaining it must have been no doubt to any one who understood the language
so altogether the old syringa bush was an interesting little world of itself elly wade found it so as she sat in the green hiding place on the west side crying as if her heart would break the syringa recess had been her favorite secret
ever since she discovered it nearly two years before no one else knew about it there she went when she felt unhappy or was having a mood once the boughs had closed in behind her no one could suspect that she was there a fact which gave her infinite pleasure
for she was a child who loved privacies and mysteries what are moods does any one exactly understand them some people attribute them to original sin others to nerves or indigestion but i am not sure that either explanation is right
they sweep across the gladness of our lives as clouds across the sun and seem to take the color out of everything grown people learn to conceal if not to conquer their moods but children cannot do this elly wade least of all
it has witnessed some stormy moments in her life when she sat there hot and grieved and in her heart believing everybody cruel or unjust ralph had teased her or cora who was older than she had put on airs
or little kitty had been troublesome or some schoolmate hateful she even accused her mother of unkindness at these times though she loved her dearly all the while she thinks the rest are always right and i wrong she would say to herself
oh well she'll be sorry some day what was to make missus wade sorry elly did not specify but i think it was to be when she herself was found dead somewhere on the premises of a broken heart
elly was very fond of depicting this broken heart and tragical ending imaginative children often are all the same if she felt ill or cut her finger
day elly had fled to the syringa bush with no idea of ever coming out again a great wrong had been done her cora was going with a yachting party and she was not
mamma had said she was too young to be trusted and must wait till she was older and steadier it is cruel she said with a fresh burst of sobs as she recalled the bitter moment when she heard the verdict it was just as unkind as could be for her to say that
cora is only four years the oldest and i can do lots of things that she can't she doesn't know a bit about crocheting she just knits and she never made sponge cake and i have and when she rows she pulls the hardest with her left hand and makes the boat wabble
i've a much better stroke than she has papa said so
they all hate me i don't suppose anybody would care a bit if i did die but this thought was too hard to be borne yes they would she went on they'd feel remorse if i died and they ought to then they would recollect all the mean things they've done to me
and they would groan and say too late too late like the bad people in story books comforted by this idea she resolved on a plan of action i'll just stay here forever and not come out at all of course i shall starve to death
then all summer long they'll be hunting and wondering and wondering what has become of me and when the autumn comes and the leaves fall off they'll know and they'll say poor elly how we wish we'd treated her better she settled herself into a more comfortable position
it isn't necessary to have cramps you know even if you are starving to death and went on with her reflections so still was she that the birds forgot her presence and continued their twittering gossip and their small domestic arrangements undisturbed
the lark talked to her young ones with no fear of being overheard the robins flew in and out with worms the thrush who occupied what might be called the second story of the syringa disciplined a refractory fledgling
and papa thrush joined in with a series of musical expostulations elly found their affairs so interesting that for a moment she forgot her own which was good for her a big bumble bee came sailing through the air like a wind blown drum
and stopped for a minute to sip at a syringa blossom next a soft whir drew elly's attention and a shape in green and gold and ruby red glanced across her vision like a flying jewel it was a humming bird the first of the season
elly had never been so near one before nor had so long a chance to look and she watched with delight as the pretty creature darted to and fro dipping its needle like bill into one flower cup after another in search of the honey drop
which each contained she held her breath not to startle it but its fine senses seemed to perceive her presence in some mysterious fashion and presently it flew away elly's mind no longer diverted went back to its unhappiness
i wonder how long it is since i came here she thought it seems like a great while i guess it must be as much as three hours they're all through dinner now and beginning to wonder where i am but they won't find me i can tell them
she set her lips firmly and again shifted her position at the slight rustle every bird in the bush became silent
i'm not like ralph he's real bad to birds sometimes once he took some eggs out of a dear cunning little song sparrow's nest and blew the yolks i'd never do such a mean thing as that
but though she tried to lash herself up to her old sharpness of feeling the interruption of wrathful thoughts had somewhat soothed her mood
and all to morrow and to morrow night and then a yawn pretty soon i shall be dead i suppose and they'll be sorry another yawn and elly was asleep when she woke
the bright noon sunshine had given place to a dusky light which made the syringa recess very dark the robins had discovered her whereabouts and hopping nearer and nearer had perched upon a branch close to her feet and were talking about her
she was dimly conscious of their voices but had no idea what they were saying why did it come here any way asked missus robin a great heavy thing like that in our bush i don't know i'm sure replied mister robin
it makes a strange noise but it keeps its eyes shut while it makes it these great creatures are so queer pursued missus robin there it's beginning to move i wish it would go away i don't like its being so near the children they might see it and be frightened
the two birds flitted hastily off as elly stretched herself and rubbed her eyes a very uncomfortable gnawing sensation began to make itself evident it wasn't exactly pain but elly felt that it might easily become so
the sensation increased
she began to meditate whether her family had perhaps not been sufficiently punished i've been away a whole day she reflected and a whole night and i guess they've felt badly enough
they'll be sorry they acted so and any way i'm so dreadfully hungry that i must have something to eat and i want to see mamma too perhaps she'll have repented and will say poor elly she may go
in short elly was seized with a sudden desire for home and always rapid in decision she lost no time in wriggling herself out of the bush there it's gone chirped the female robin i'm glad of it i hope it will never come back
very cautiously elly crept through the shrubbery on to the lawn
great thunder cloud which was gathering overhead
edward had reached his native country before he could as usual on former occasions look round for enjoyment upon the face of nature he then for the first time since leaving edinburgh began to experience that pleasure
which almost all feel who return to a verdant populous and highly cultivated country from scenes of waste desolation or of solitary and melancholy grandeur
but how were those feelings enhanced when he entered on the domain so long possessed by his forefathers recognised the old oaks of waverley chace thought with what delight he should introduce rose to all his favourite haunts
the happiness of their meeting was not tarnished by a single word of reproach on the contrary whatever pain sir everard and missus rachel had felt during waverley's perilous engagement with the young chevalier
it assorted too well with the principles in which they had been brought up to incur reprobation or even censure colonel talbot also had smoothed the way with great address for edward's favourable reception by dwelling upon his gallant behaviour in the military character
particularly his bravery and generosity at preston until warmed at the idea of their nephew's engaging in single combat making prisoner and saving from slaughter so distinguished an officer as the colonel himself the imagination of the baronet and his sister
ranked the exploits of edward with those of wilibert hildebrand and nigel the vaunted heroes of their line the appearance of waverley embrowned by exercise and dignified by the habits of military discipline
had acquired an athletic and hardy character which not only verified the colonel's narration but surprised and delighted all the inhabitants of waverley honour they crowded to see to hear him and to sing his praises
mister pembroke who secretly extolled his spirit and courage in embracing the genuine cause of the church of england censured his pupil gently nevertheless for being so careless of his manuscripts which indeed he said
had occasioned him some personal inconvenience as upon the baronet's being arrested by a king's messenger he had deemed it prudent to retire to a concealment called the priest's hole from the use it had been put to in former days where he assured our hero
not to mention that sometimes his bed had not been arranged for two days together waverley's mind involuntarily turned to the patmos of the baron of bradwardine who was well pleased with janet's fare and a few bunches of straw stowed in a cleft in the front of a sand cliff
but he made no remarks upon a contrast which could only mortify his worthy tutor all was now in a bustle to prepare for the nuptials of edward an event to which the good old baronet and missus rachel looked forward as if to the renewal of their own youth
and they now carried on business as messrs clippurse and hookem these worthy gentlemen had directions to make the necessary settlements on the most splendid scale of liberality as if edward were to wed a peeress in her own right
with her paternal estate tacked to the fringe of her ermine but before entering upon a subject of proverbial delay i must remind my reader of the progress of a stone rolled downhill by an idle truant boy
a pastime at which i was myself expert in my more juvenile years it moves at first slowly avoiding by inflection every obstacle of the least importance but when it has attained its full impulse and draws near the conclusion of its career
it smokes and thunders down taking a rood at every spring clearing hedge and ditch like a yorkshire huntsman and becoming most furiously rapid in its course when it is nearest to being consigned to rest for ever
even such is the course of a narrative like that which you are perusing the earlier events are studiously dwelt upon that you kind reader may be introduced to the character rather by narrative than by the duller medium of direct description
but when the story draws near its close we hurry over the circumstances however important which your imagination must have forestalled and leave you to suppose those things which it would be abusing your patience to relate at length
we are therefore so far from attempting to trace the dull progress of messrs clippurse and hookem or that of their worthy official brethren who had the charge of suing out the pardons of edward waverley and his intended father in law
that we can but touch upon matters more attractive the mutual epistles for example which were exchanged between sir everard and the baron upon this occasion though matchless specimens of eloquence in their way must be consigned to merciless oblivion
moreover the reader will have the goodness to imagine that job houghton and his dame were suitably provided for although they could never be persuaded that their son fell otherwise than fighting by the young squire's side so that alick
who as a lover of truth had made many needless attempts to expound the real circumstances to them was finally ordered to say not a word more upon the subject he indemnified himself however by the liberal allowance of desperate battles grisly executions
and raw head and bloody bone stories with which he astonished the servants hall but although these important matters may be briefly told in narrative like a newspaper report of a chancery suit yet with all the urgency which waverley could use the real time which the law proceedings occupied
joined to the delay occasioned by the mode of travelling at that period rendered it considerably more than two months ere waverley having left england alighted once more at the mansion of the laird of duchran to claim the hand of his plighted bride
the day of his marriage was fixed for the sixth after his arrival the baron of bradwardine with whom bridals christenings and funerals were festivals of high and solemn import felt a little hurt that including the family of the duchran
or two of highland lairds who never got on horseback
but his pride found some consolation in reflecting that he and his son in law having been so lately in arms against government it might give matter of reasonable fear and offence to the ruling powers
and frank stanley acted as bridesman having joined edward with that view soon after his arrival lady emily and colonel talbot had proposed being present but lady emily's health when the day approached was found inadequate to the journey
in amends it was arranged that edward waverley and his lady who with the baron proposed an immediate journey to waverley honour should in their way spend a few days at an estate which colonel talbot had been tempted to purchase in scotland as a very great bargain
chapter twenty one the chieftain's sister the drawing room of flora mac ivor was furnished in the plainest and most simple manner
for the purpose of maintaining in its full dignity the hospitality of the chieftain and retaining and multiplying the number of his dependants and adherents but there was no appearance of this parsimony in the dress of the lady herself
which was in texture elegant and even rich and arranged in a manner which partook partly of the parisian fashion and partly of the more simple dress of the highlands blended together with great taste her hair was not disfigured by the art of the friseur
but fell in jetty ringlets on her neck confined only by a circlet richly set with diamonds this peculiarity she adopted in compliance with the highland prejudices which could not endure that a woman's head should be covered before wedlock
flora mac ivor bore a most striking resemblance to her brother fergus
and her brother mister william murray in these characters they had the same antique and regular correctness of profile the same dark eyes eye lashes and eye brows the same clearness of complexion
excepting that fergus's was embrowned by exercise and flora's possessed the utmost feminine delicacy but the haughty and somewhat stern regularity of fergus's features was beautifully softened in those of flora their voices were also similar in tone though differing in the key
reminded edward of a favourite passage in the description of emetrius whose voice was heard around loud as a trumpet with a silver sound that of flora on the contrary was soft and sweet excellent thing in woman
the eager glance of the keen black eye
had in his sister acquired a gentle pensiveness his looks seemed to seek glory
early education had impressed upon her mind as well as on that of the chieftain the most devoted attachment to the exiled family of stuart she believed it the duty of her brother of his clan of every man in britain
at whatever personal hazard to contribute to that restoration which the partisans of the chevalier saint george had not ceased to hope for for this she was prepared to do all to suffer all to sacrifice all
excelled it also in purity accustomed to petty intrigue and necessarily involved in a thousand paltry and selfish discussions ambitious also by nature his political faith was tinctured at least if not tainted
by the views of interest and advancement so easily combined with it and at the moment he should unsheathe his claymore
this indeed was a mixture of feeling which he did not avow even to himself but it existed nevertheless
in flora's bosom on the contrary the zeal of loyalty burnt pure and unmixed with any selfish feeling she would have as soon made religion the mask of ambitious and interested views as have shrouded them under the opinions
which she had been taught to think patriotism such instances of devotion were not uncommon among the followers of the unhappy race of stuart of which many memorable proofs will recur to the minds of most of my readers
and to themselves when orphans had riveted their faith fergus upon the death of his parents had been for some time a page of honour in the train of the chevalier's lady and from his beauty and sprightly temper was uniformly treated
by her with the utmost distinction this was also extended to flora who was maintained for some time at a convent of the first order at the princess's expense and removed from thence into her own family where she spent nearly two years
both brother and sister retained the deepest and most grateful sense of her kindness having thus touched upon the leading principle of flora's character i may dismiss the rest more slightly she was highly accomplished and had acquired those elegant manners to be expected from one
who in early youth had been the companion of a princess yet she had not learned to substitute the gloss of politeness for the reality of feeling when settled in the lonely regions of glennaquoich she found that her resources in french english and italian literature
whose perceptions of literary merit were more blunt rather affected for the sake of popularity than actually experienced her resolution was strengthened in these researches by the extreme delight which her inquiries seemed to afford those to whom she resorted for information
her love of her clan an attachment which was almost hereditary in her bosom was like her loyalty a more pure passion than that of her brother he was too thorough a politician
regarded his patriarchal influence too much as the means of accomplishing his own aggrandisement that we should term him the model of a highland chieftain flora felt the same anxiety for cherishing and extending their patriarchal sway
the savings of her income for she had a small pension from the princess sobieski were dedicated not to add to the comforts of the peasantry for that was a word which they neither knew nor apparently wished to know but to relieve their absolute necessities when in sickness or extreme old age
at every other period they rather toiled to procure something which they might share with the chief as a proof of their attachment than expected other assistance from him save what was afforded by the rude hospitality of his castle and the general division and subdivision of his estate among them
flora was so much beloved by them that when mac murrough composed a song in which he enumerated all the principal beauties of the district and intimated her superiority by concluding that the fairest apple hung on the highest bough
more seed barley than would have sowed his highland parnassus the bard's croft as it was called ten times over from situation as well as choice miss mac ivor's society was extremely limited her most intimate friend had been rose bradwardine
to whom she was much attached and when seen together they would have afforded an artist two admirable subjects for the gay and the melancholy muse indeed rose was so tenderly watched by her father and her circle of wishes was so limited
that none arose but what he was willing to gratify and scarce any which did not come within the compass of his power with flora it was otherwise while almost a girl she had undergone the most complete change of scene from gaiety and splendour to absolute solitude and comparative poverty
and stood very high in the opinion of the old baron who used to sing along with her such french duets of lindor and cloris et cetera
it was generally believed though no one durst have hinted it to the baron of bradwardine that flora's entreaties had no small share in allaying the wrath of fergus upon occasion of their quarrel she took her brother on the assailable side
both because the baron had on a former occasion shed blood of the clan though the matter had been timely accommodated and on account of his high reputation for address at his weapon which fergus almost condescended to envy
for the same reason she had urged their reconciliation which the chieftain the more readily agreed to as it favoured some ulterior projects of his own
chapter thirty eight a nocturnal adventure
and the highlander who assumed the command and who in waverley's awakened recollection seemed to be the same tall figure who had acted as donald bean lean's lieutenant by whispers and signs imposed the strictest silence
he delivered to edward a sword and steel pistol and pointing up the track laid his hand on the hilt of his own claymore as if to make him sensible they might have occasion to use force to make good their passage he then placed himself at the head of the party who moved up the pathway in single
or indian file waverley being placed nearest to their leader he moved with great precaution as if to avoid giving any alarm and halted as soon as he came to the verge of the ascent waverley was soon sensible of the reason
for he heard at no great distance an english sentinel call out all's well the heavy sound sunk on the night wind down the woody glen and was answered by the echoes of its banks a second third and fourth time the signal was repeated fainter and fainter as if at a greater and greater distance
it was obvious that a party of soldiers were near and upon their guard though not sufficiently so to detect men skilful in every art of predatory warfare like those with whom he now watched their ineffectual precautions when these sounds had died upon the silence of the night
the highlanders began their march swiftly yet with the most cautious silence waverley had little time or indeed disposition for observation and could only discern that they passed at some distance from a large building in the windows of which a light or two yet seemed to twinkle
and advanced in this posture to reconnoitre in a short time he returned and dismissed his attendants excepting one and intimating to waverley that he must imitate his cautious mode of proceeding all three crept forward on hands and knees
after proceeding a greater way in this inconvenient manner than was at all comfortable to his knees and shins waverley perceived the smell of smoke which probably had been much sooner distinguished by the more acute nasal organs of his guide
skirted indeed with copse wood and stunted trees in the quarter from which they had come but open and bare to the observation of the sentinel
and probably extended to the verge of the glen where waverley had been so long an inhabitant
and advancing boldly upon the open heath as if to invite discovery he levelled his piece and fired at the sentinel a wound in the arm proved a disagreeable interruption to the poor fellow's meteorological observations as well as to the tune of nancy dawson which he was whistling
the highlander after giving them a full view of his person dived among the thickets for his ruse de guerre had now perfectly succeeded while the soldiers pursued the cause of their disturbance in one direction waverley adopting the hint of his remaining attendant
they still heard however at a distance the shouts of the soldiers as they hallooed to each other upon the heath and they could also hear the distant roll of a drum beating to arms in the same direction but these hostile sounds were now far in their rear
and died away upon the breeze as they rapidly proceeded when they had walked about half an hour still along open and waste ground of the same description they came to the stump of an ancient oak which from its relics appeared to have been at one time a tree of very large size
in an adjacent hollow they found several highlanders with a horse or two they had not joined them above a few minutes which waverley's attendant employed in all probability in communicating the cause of their delay for the words duncan duroch were often repeated
when duncan himself appeared out of breath indeed and with all the symptoms of having run for his life but laughing and in high spirits at the success of the stratagem by which he had baffled his pursuers this indeed waverley could easily conceive might be a matter of
no great difficulty to the active mountaineer who was perfectly acquainted with the ground and traced his course with a firmness and confidence to which his pursuers must have been strangers the alarm which he excited seemed still to continue
for a dropping shot or two were heard at a great distance which seemed to serve as an addition to the mirth of duncan and his comrades the mountaineer now resumed the arms with which he had entrusted our hero giving him to understand that the dangers of the journey were happily surmounted
waverley was then mounted upon one of the horses a change which the fatigue of the night and his recent illness rendered exceedingly acceptable his portmanteau was placed on another pony duncan mounted a third and they set forward at a round pace accompanied by their escort
no other incident marked the course of that night's journey and at the dawn of morning they attained the banks of a rapid river the country around was at once fertile and romantic steep banks of wood were broken by corn fields
whose bonnet and plaid streaming in the wind declared him to be a highlander as a broad white ensign which floated from another tower announced that the garrison was held by the insurgent adherents of the house of stuart passing hastily through a small and mean town
where their appearance excited neither surprise nor curiosity in the few peasants whom the labours of the harvest began to summon from their repose the party crossed an ancient and narrow bridge of several arches and turning to the left up an avenue of huge old sycamores
waverley found himself in front of the gloomy yet picturesque structure which he had admired at a distance a huge iron grated door which formed the exterior defence of the gateway was already thrown back to receive them and a second
heavily constructed of oak and studded thickly with iron nails being next opened admitted them into the interior court yard a gentleman dressed in the highland garb and having a white cockade in his bonnet assisted waverley to dismount from his horse
and with much courtesy bid him welcome to the castle the governor for so we must term him having conducted waverley to a half ruinous apartment where however there was a small camp bed and having offered him any refreshment which he desired was then about to leave him
will you not add to your civilities said waverley after having made the usual acknowledgment by having the kindness to inform me where i am and whether or not i am to consider myself as a prisoner
by the honour of donald stewart governor of the garrison and lieutenant colonel in the service of his royal highness prince charles edward so saying he hastily left the apartment as if to avoid further discussion
being as waverley well knew the constant reply of a highlander
gilfillan but neither did this produce any mark of recognition from his escort the twilight had given place to moonshine when the party halted upon the brink of a precipitous glen which as partly enlightened by the moonbeams
and as it seemed by the side of a brook for waverley heard the rushing of a considerable body of water although its stream was invisible in the darkness the party again stopped before a small and rudely constructed hovel the door was open
and the inside of the premises appeared as uncomfortable and rude as its situation and exterior foreboded there was no appearance of a floor of any kind the roof seemed rent in several places the walls were composed of loose stones and turf
and the thatch of branches of trees the fire was in the centre and filled the whole wigwam with smoke which escaped as much through the door as by means of a circular aperture in the roof an old highland sibyl the only inhabitant of this forlorn mansion
that they should wear the tartan striped in the mode peculiar to their race a mark of distinction anciently general through the highlands and still maintained by those chiefs who were proud of their lineage or jealous of their separate and exclusive authority
edward had lived at glennaquoich long enough to be aware of a distinction which he had repeatedly heard noticed and now satisfied that he had no interest with his attendants he glanced a disconsolate eye around the interior of the cabin
the only furniture excepting a washing tub and a wooden press called in scotland an ambry sorely decayed was a large wooden bed planked as is usual all around and opening by a sliding panel
to dispel them shivering violent headache and shooting pains in his limbs succeeded these symptoms and in the morning it was evident to his highland attendants or guard for he knew not in which light to consider them
after a long consultation among themselves six of the party left the hut with their arms leaving behind an old and a young man the former addressed waverley and bathed the contusions which swelling and livid colour now made conspicuous his own portmanteau
which the highlanders had not failed to bring off supplied him with linen and to his great surprise was with all its undiminished contents freely resigned to his use the bedding of his couch seemed clean and comfortable and his aged attendant closed the door of the bed
after a few words of gaelic from which waverley gathered that he exhorted him to repose so behold our hero for a second time the patient of a highland esculapius but in a situation much more uncomfortable than when he was the guest of the worthy tomanrait
when it gave way to the care of his attendants and the strength of his constitution and he could now raise himself in his bed though not without pain he observed however that there was a great disinclination on the part of the old woman who acted as his nurse
as well as on that of the elderly highlander to permit the door of the bed to be left open so that he might amuse himself with observing their motions and at length after waverley had repeatedly drawn open and they had as frequently shut the hatchway of his cage
the old gentleman put an end to the contest by securing it on the outside with a nail so effectually that the door could not be drawn till this exterior impediment was removed while musing upon the cause of this contradictory spirit in persons whose conduct
intimated no purpose of plunder and who in all other points appeared to consult his welfare and his wishes it occurred to our hero that during the worst crisis of his illness a female figure younger than his old highland nurse had appeared to flit around his couch
and why should she apparently desire concealment fancy immediately aroused herself and turned to flora mac ivor but after a short conflict between his eager desire to believe she was in his neighbourhood guarding like an angel of mercy the couch of his sickness
waverley was compelled to conclude that his conjecture was altogether improbable since to suppose she had left her comparatively safe situation at glennaquoich to descend into the low country now the seat of civil war
of softness and delicacy hold dialogue with the hoarse inward croak of old janet for so he understood his antiquated attendant was denominated having nothing else to amuse his solitude
he employed himself in contriving some plan to gratify his curiosity in despite of the sedulous caution of janet and the old highland janizary
at length upon accurate examination the infirm state of his wooden prison house appeared to supply the means of gratifying his curiosity for out of a spot which was somewhat decayed he was able to extract a nail through this minute aperture he could perceive a female form
but since the days of our grandmother eve the gratification of inordinate curiosity
nor was the face visible and to crown his vexation while he laboured with the nail to enlarge the hole that he might obtain a more complete view a slight noise betrayed his purpose and the object of his curiosity instantly disappeared
nor so far as he could observe did she again revisit the cottage all precautions to blockade his view were from that time abandoned and he was not only permitted but assisted to rise
and quit what had been in a literal sense his couch of confinement but he was not allowed to leave the hut for the young highlander had now rejoined his senior and one or other was constantly on the watch
and opposed his exit accompanying his action with signs which seemed to imply there was danger in the attempt and an enemy in the neighbourhood
better than he could have conceived for poultry and even wine were no strangers to his table the highlanders never presumed to eat with him and unless in the circumstance of watching him treated him with great respect his sole amusement was gazing from the window
or rather the shapeless aperture which was meant to answer the purpose of a window upon a large and rough brook which raged and foamed through a rocky channel closely canopied with trees and bushes
upon the sixth day of his confinement waverley found himself so well that he began to meditate his escape from this dull and miserable prison house thinking any risk which he might incur in the attempt preferable to the stupefying and intolerable uniformity of janet's retirement
the question indeed occurred whither he was to direct his course when again at his own disposal two schemes seemed practicable yet both attended with danger and difficulty one was to go back to glennaquoich and join fergus mac ivor
by whom he was sure to be kindly received and in the present state of his mind the rigour with which he had been treated fully absolved him in his own eyes from his allegiance to the existing government the other project was to endeavour to attain a scottish seaport
and thence to take shipping for england his mind wavered between these plans and probably if he had effected his escape in the manner he proposed
but his fortune had settled that he was not to be left to his option
and two highlanders entered whom waverley recognised as having been a part of his original escort to this cottage they conversed for a short time with the old man and his companion and then made waverley understand by very significant signs that he was to prepare to accompany them
this was a joyful communication what had already passed during his confinement made it evident that no personal injury was designed to him and his romantic spirit having recovered during his repose much of that elasticity which anxiety resentment disappointment
which merely gives dignity to the feeling of the individual exposed to it had sunk under the extraordinary and apparently insurmountable evils by which he appeared environed at cairnvreckan in fact this compound of intense curiosity
and exalted imagination forms a peculiar species of courage which somewhat resembles the light usually carried by a miner sufficiently competent indeed to afford him guidance and comfort during the ordinary perils of his labour but certain to be extinguished should he encounter
the more formidable hazard of earth damps or pestiferous vapours it was now however once more rekindled and with a throbbing mixture of hope awe and anxiety waverley watched the group before him
as those who were just arrived snatched a hasty meal and the others assumed their arms and made brief preparations for their departure as he sat in the smoky hut at some distance from the fire around which the others were crowded he felt a gentle pressure upon his arm
he looked round it was alice the daughter of donald bean lean she showed him a packet of papers in such a manner that the motion was remarked by no one else
and passed on as if to assist old janet in packing waverley's clothes in his portmanteau it was obviously her wish that he should not seem to recognise her yet she repeatedly looked back at him as an opportunity occurred of doing so unobserved
and when she saw that he remarked what she did she folded the packet with great address and speed
here then was fresh food for conjecture was alice his unknown warden and was this maiden of the cavern the tutelar genius that watched his bed during his sickness was he in the hands of her father and if so what was his purpose
spoil his usual object seemed in this case neglected for not only waverley's property was restored but his purse which might have tempted this professional plunderer had been all along suffered to remain in his possession all this perhaps the packet might explain
but it was plain from alice's manner that she desired he should consult it in secret nor did she again seek his eye after she had satisfied herself that her manoeuvre was observed and understood
and it was only as she tript out from the door that favoured by the obscurity she gave waverley a parting smile and nod of significance ere she vanished in the dark glen the young highlander was repeatedly
despatched by his comrades as if to collect intelligence at length when he had returned for the third or fourth time the whole party arose and made signs to our hero to accompany them before his departure however he shook hands with old janet
and added substantial marks of his gratitude for her attendance
there was quite a row of them on the mantel piece they were all facing front and it looked as if they had come out of the wall behind and were on their little stage facing the audience
there was the bronze monk reading a book by the light of a candle who had a private opening under his girdle so that sometimes his head was thrown violently back
and one looked down into him and found him full of brimstone matches then the little boy leaning against a greyhound he was made of parian
so that one would expect to find a glass cover over him but no the glass cover stood over a cat and a cat made of worsted too still it was a very old cat
fifty years old in fact there was another young person there young like the boy leaning on a greyhound and she too was of parian she was very fair in front but behind ah
that is a secret which is not quite time yet to tell one other stood there at least she seemed to stand but nobody could see her feet for her dress was so very wide and so finely flounced
she was the china girl that rose out of a pen wiper the fire in the grate below was of soft coal and flashed up and down
that made very pretty foot lights so here was a stage and here were the actors but where was the audience oh the audience was in the arm chair in front he had a special seat he was a critic
and could get up when he wanted to when the play became tiresome and go out it is painful to say such things out loud said the boy leaning against a greyhound with a trembling voice
but we have been together so long and these people round us never will go away dear girl will you you know it was the parian girl that he spoke to but he did not look at her he could not
he was leaning against the greyhound he only looked at the audience i am not quite sure she coughed if now you were under a glass case
spoke up the cat made of worsted marry me i am fifty years old marry me and live under a glass case shocking said she how can you fifty years old too that would indeed be a match
marry muttered the bronze monk reading a book a match i am full of matches but i don't marry folly you stand up very straight neighbor said the cat made of worsted i never bend
said the bronze monk reading a book life is earnest i read a book by candle i am never idle the cat made of worsted grinned to himself you've got a hinge in your back said he they open you in the middle
your head flies back how the blood must run down and then you're full of brimstone matches he he
and sighed i am of parian you know and there is no one else here of parian except yourself and the greyhound said the parian girl yes and the greyhound said he eagerly
he belongs to me come a glass case is nothing to it we could roam oh we could roam i don't like roaming then we could stay at home and lean against the greyhound no
said the parian girl i don't like that why i have private reasons what no matter i know said the cat made of worsted i saw her behind she's hollow
she's stuffed with lamp lighters he he and the cat made of worsted grinned again
said the steadfast boy leaning against a greyhound and i don't believe the cat go away said the parian girl angrily you're all hateful i won't have you ah sighed the boy leaning against a greyhound
ah came another sigh it was from the china girl rising out of a pen wiper how i pity you do you said he eagerly do you then i love you will you marry me ah said she but
she can't said the cat made of worsted she can't come to you she hasn't got any legs i know it i'm fifty years old i never saw them never mind the cat said the boy leaning against a greyhound
but i do mind the cat said she weeping i haven't it's all pen wiper do i care said he she has thoughts said the bronze monk reading a book that lasts longer than beauty
and she is solid behind and she has no hinge in her back grinned the cat made of worsted come neighbors let us congratulate them you begin keep out of disagreeable company
said the bronze monk reading a book that is not congratulation that is advice
never mind go on my dear to the parian girl what
friends may your love last as long as your courtship now i'll congratulate you but before he could speak the audience got up you shall not say a word it must end happily
he went to the mantel piece and took up the china girl rising out of a pen wiper why she has legs after all said he they're false said the cat made of worsted they're false i know it i'm fifty years old
i never saw true ones on her the audience paid no attention but took up the boy leaning against a greyhound ha said the cat made of worsted come i like this he's hollow they're all hollow he he
neighbor monk you're hollow he he and the cat made of worsted never stopped grinning
and the china girl rising out of a pen wiper
eliminating non essentials
of hewing to the line letting the chips fall where they may most of the things that steal your time strength money and energy are nothing but chips if you pay too much attention to them
you will never hew out anything worth while no vain regrets
don't regret the fact that you are not a one decision a year man
your quickness if called into counsel will enable you to see from what instincts your mistakes habitually arise and the direction in which most of them have pointed
than the average person that you will lose little time
that you may guard against their recurrence always slightly thrilled even when apparently composed
everything he sees hears touches tastes or smells gives him such keen sensations that he lives momentarily in some kind of adventure he languishes in an unchanging environment
and finds monotony almost unbearable lights and shadows never two minutes the same fitly describes this type he passes rapidly from one vivid sensation to another and expresses each one so completely
that he is soon ready for the next he has fewer complexes than any other type because he does not inhibit as much the uncorked bottle
this being the case he suffers little from mental congestion though he sometimes pays a high price for his self expression everybody is interesting most of us are much more interesting than the world suspects
even your dearest friends are seldom given a peep into the actual you and this despite the fact that we all recognize this as a deficiency in others we bottle up ourselves and defy the world's cork screws all save the thoracic
he allows his associates to see much of what is passing in his mind all the time
not secretive the thoracic does not by preference cover up he does not by preference secrete he does not except when necessary keep his plans and ways dark
he is likely to tell not only his family but his newest acquaintances just what he is planning to do and how he expects to do it the naturally secretive person
is the exact opposite of this type his human interest we are all interested in the little comings and goings of our friends upon this fact every magazine and newspaper builds its human interest stories
we may be indifferent to what the president of the united states is doing about international relations
but if the president would write
it would be a best seller naturally confidential personal experiences personal secrets and personal preferences are subjects we are all interested in
regales his friends and about which he is more frank and outspoken than any other type he makes many friends by his obvious openness and his capacity for seeing the interesting details which others overlook charming conversationalist
colorful vivid words and phrases come easily to the tongue of this type for he sees the unusual the fascinating in everything since any one can make a thing interesting to others if he is really interested in it himself
the thoracic makes others see and feel what he describes he is therefore known as the most charming conversationalist beautiful voice
this is due as we have said before to physiological causes the high chest sensitive vocal cords capacious sounding boards in the nose and roof of the mouth all tend to give the voice of the thoracic many nuances and accents
never found in other types his pleasing voice
and his lack of reticence in giving the intimate and interesting details are other traits which help to make the thoracic a lively companion the lure of spontaneity the most beloved people in the world are the spontaneous
we lead such drab lives ourselves and keep back so much
the thoracic feels everything keenly life's experiences make vivid records on the sensitive plate of his mind
and proceeds to run them off for your entertainment
a constant stream of talk must have been first said in describing this type
more sedate and somber types call the thoracics bubblers or spouters just for this reason the incessant talker that person's talk gets on my nerves is a remark often made by one of the staid stiff types
concerning the seldom silent extremely florid individual so
he is entirely unconscious of the wearing effect he has on other people a sense of humor seeing the funny side of everything is a capacity which comes more naturally to this type than to others this is due to the psychological fact that
nothing is truly humorous save what is slightly out of plumb
individuals of other types sometimes possess a keen sense of humor this trait is not confined to the thoracic but it is a significant fact that almost every humorist of note
has had this type as the first or second element in his makeup the human fireworks he is a skyrocket or she is a firefly are phrases often used to describe that vivacious individual
these people are always largely or purely thoracic they never belong predominately to the fourth type the next time you find such a person note how his eyes flash how his color comes and goes
and the many indescribable gradations of voice which make him the center of things he is always shooting sparks said a man recently in describing a florid high chested friend never dull company his line may not interest you
he is an actual curiosity to the quiet inexpressive people who never can fathom how he manages to talk so frankly and so fast such a person is seldom dull he is everything from a condiment to a cocktail
and has the same effect on the average group of more or less drab personalities lives in the heights and depths glad one moment and sad the next
is the way the ticker would read if it could make a record of the inner feelings of the average thoracic these feelings often come and go
ordinarily these unaccountable moods are due to sensations reaching his subconscious mind of which no cognizance is taken by his conscious processes called intuitive this ability to get things
to respond quickly with his physical reactions while devoting his mental ones to something else has obtained for this type
is now agreed by psychologists the thing we have called intuition they maintain is not due to irregular or supernatural causes but to our own normal natural mental processes
the impression that he gets this knowledge or suspicion from the outside is due the scientists say to the fact that his thinking has proceeded at such lightning like speed that he was unable to watch the wheels go round the only thing of which he is conscious
he is not aware of the addition and subtraction which his mind went through to get it for him easily excited off like a shot is a term often applied to the thoracic he is the most easily excited of all types
but also the most easily calmed he recovers from every mood more quickly and more completely than other types under the influence of emotion he often does things for which he is sorry immediately afterward on the spur of the moment
this type usually does a thing quickly or not at all he is a gun that is always cocked
and leads the most exciting existence of any type being able to get thrills out of the most commonplace event because of seeing elements in it which others overlook he finds in everyday life more novelty than others ever see
the adventurers romance and adventure always interest this type he lives for thrills and novel reactions and usually spares no pains or money to get them
i got a real kick out of that this craving for adventure suspense and zest
gambling and various games of chance
deep sea diving auto racing and similar fields has a strong appeal for this type
is of this type tires of sameness
he wrings the utmost out of each experience so quickly and so completely that he is forever on the lookout for new worlds to conquer past experiences are to him as so many lemons out of which he has taken all the juice
he anticipates those of the future
likes responsive people we all like answers we want to be assured that what we have said or done has registered the thoracic is always saying or doing something and can't understand why other people are so unresponsive
he is as responsive as a radio wire everything hits the mark with him and he lets you know it so naturally he enjoys the same from others and considers those less expressive than himself stiff formal or dull
but who will not interrupt his stream of talk people he dislikes the stolid indifferent or cold are people the thoracic comes very near disliking their evident self complacency and immobility
are things he does not understand at all and with which he has little patience such people seem to him to be cold
so he steers clear of them it was surely a thoracic who first called these people sticks but the reason for their acting like sticks will be apparent in another chapter his pet aversions
whereas the alimentive avoids people he does not care for the thoracic is inclined to betray his aversions he occasionally delights to put people he dislikes at a disadvantage by his wit or satire the stony individual who walks through life
and the pillar returns the compliment we do not like anything we do not understand and we seldom understand anything that differs decidedly from ourselves thus we distrust and dislike foreigners and to a greater or lesser extent other families
people from other sections of the country et cetera the easterner and westerner have a natural distrust of each other and the civil war is not the only reason for the incompatibility of southerners and northerners so it is with individuals
those who differ too widely in type never understand each other they have too little of the chief thing that builds friendships emotions in common the forgiving man
and a quarrel comes between you he may be ever so bitter and biting in the moment of his anger but in most cases he will forgive you eventually really forgets disagreements it is not as easy for other types to forgive
they often refrain from attempting a reconciliation but the thoracic's forgiveness is not only spontaneous but genuine the alimentive bears no grudges because it is too much trouble
the thoracic finds it hard to maintain a grudge because he gets over it just as he gets over everything else
and finds like the boy recovering from the chickenpox that he simply hasn't it any more diseases he is most susceptible to acute diseases are the ones chiefly affecting this type
everything in his organism tends to suddenness and not to sameness just as he is inclined to get into and out of psychological experiences quickly so he is inclined to sudden illnesses and to sudden recuperations
a thoracic seldom has any kind of chronic ailment
he is in danger of apoplexy the combination of extreme thoracic and extreme alimentive tendencies is the cause of this disease likes fancy foods variety and novelty in food
the alimentive likes lots of rich food
you can not mention any kind of strange new dish whose investigation won't appeal to some one in the crowd and that person is always somewhat thoracic it gives him another promise of newness foreign dishes of all kinds
depend for their introduction into this country almost entirely upon these florid patrons according to the statements of restauranteurs
i will try anything once many course dinners if the food is good are especially popular with them the trimmings at dinner out of the ordinary surroundings in which to dine are always welcome to this type
the hangings pictures and furniture mean much to him most people like music at meals but to the thoracic it is almost indispensable he is so alive in every nerve
that he demands more than other types an attentive waiter who ministers to every movement and anticipates every wish is also a favorite with the thoracic when out for dinner sensitive to his surroundings
colorful surroundings are more necessary to the thoracic than to other types the ever changing fashions in house decorations are welcome innovations to him he soon grows tired of a thing regardless of how much he liked it to begin with
take notice amongst your friends
it makes me feel that i have changed my location and takes the place of a trip explained one girl not long ago wants something different the exact color of hangings wall paper interior decorations and accessories
whereas the alimentives demand comfort the thoracics ask for something different
that makes an instantaneous impression upon the onlooker and gives him one more thing by which to remember the personality of the one who lives there
and takes the pains with them which he bestows upon his clothes when he is rich wealth to the thoracic means unlimited opportunity for achieving the unusual in everything
uncommon works of art are usually found in the homes of this type the most extraordinary things from the most extraordinary places are especial preferences with him he carries out his desire for attention here
as in everything else and what he buys will serve that end directly or indirectly fashion and flare
in all that touches him and his personality it must have verve and go and distinctiveness
he is the last type of all to submit to wearing last year's suit singing last year's songs
likes dash the thoracic wants everything he wears drives lives in or owns to get across to make an impression the fat man loves comfort above all else but the florid man loves distinction
he does not demand such easy to wear garments as the fat man on the contrary he will undergo extreme discomfort if it gives him a distinctive appearance he wants his house to be elegant the grounds different
whereas the fat man when furnishing a home devotes his attention to soft beds steam heat and plenty of cushioned divans the thoracic thinks of the chandeliers the unusual chairs the pretty front doorstep the landscape gardening and the color schemes
when he is in moderate circumstances when only well to do this type will be found to have carried out furnishings and decorations with the taste worthy of much larger purses when merely well to do he wears the very best clothes he can possibly afford
and often a good deal better this type does not purpose to be outwitted by life he tries always to put up a good showing when he is poor the thoracic is seldom poor he has so much personality
that he usually has a good position he may not like the position but in spite of the fact that he finds it harder to tolerate disagreeable things than any other type
for he knows that the rewards he is after can not be had by the down and outer the natural and normal vanity of the thoracic stands him in hand here more than in almost any other place in life the world entertained by them
behind every row of foot lights you will find more people of this type than any other the alimentive manages the world but the thoracic entertains it he comprises more of the dancers actors operatic stars and general entertainers
than any other two types combined in everything save acrobatics and oratory he holds the platform laurels as already pointed out his adaptability spontaneity and love of approval
his fastidious habits the thoracic is the most fastidious of all the types his thin skin and sensitive nerves
the result is that he is what is called more particular about his person than are other types the fat man often wears an old pair of shoes long past their usefulness but the florid man thinks more of the impression he creates
than of his own personal comfort and will wear the shiniest of patent leathers on the hottest day if they are the best match for his suit likes all music every kind of music is enjoyed by the pure thoracic
because he experiences so many moods entertainment he prefers social affairs of an exclusive order where he wears his best bib and tucker and everybody else does the same
other reasons for this preference are his brilliant conversational powers his charm and his enjoyment of other people
the thoracic is also exceedingly fond of dancing enjoys vaudeville the average thoracic enjoys vaudeville
because they are full of quick changes of program he enjoys as does every type certain kinds of movies but he constitutes no such percentage of the movie going audience as some other types reading
books and stories that are romantic adventurous and different are the favorites of this type detective stories are often in high favor with him also physical assets
the physical advantages of this type are his quick energy based on his wonderful breathing system
produced by his wonderful heart system he is noted for his ability to get his second wind and has remarkable capacity for rising to sudden physical emergencies physical liabilities a tendency to over excitement
and the consequent running down of his batteries is a physical pitfall often fatal to this type favorite sports hurdling sprinting tennis and all sports
social assets
he has a better natural start in human relationships than any other type social liabilities quick temper his inflammable nature and appearances of vanity are his greatest social liabilities
they stand between him and success many times he must learn to control them if he desires to reap the full benefit of his remarkable assets emotional assets instantaneous sympathy and the lack of poisonous inhibitions
are the outstanding emotional assets of this type emotional liabilities impatience mercurial emotions and the expenditure of too much of his electricity in every little experience are the tendencies most to be guarded against
that he is a good mixer and has the magnetism to interest and attract others are his most valuable business traits business liabilities an appearance of flightiness and his tendency to hop from one subject to another
stand in the way of the thoracic's promotion many times domestic strength the ability to entertain and please his own family and to give of himself to them as freely as he gives himself to the world at large
is one of the most lovable thoracic traits domestic weakness the temperament and temper of this type
but they are so forgiving themselves
should aim at
and of wasting less energy in unnecessary words and motions should avoid all situations conditions and people who slip the belt off the will who tend to cut life up into bits by dissipation or pleasure seeking
strong points personal ambition adaptability and quick physical energy are the strongest points of the thoracic weakest points too great excitability irresponsibility and supersensitiveness
are the weakest points of this type how to deal with this type socially give him esthetic surroundings encourage him to talk
how to deal with this type in business get his name on the dotted line now or don't expect it if he is an employee let him come into direct contact with people give his personality a chance to get business for you
don't forget to praise him when deserved and don't pin him down to routine this type succeeds best in professions
and does not belong in any strictly commercial business remember the chief distinguishing marks of the thoracic in the order of their importance
high chest and long waist any person who has these is largely of the thoracic type
now that death menaced them they longed fiercely for the chance of escape which seemed permitted to freemen let us get out they said each man speaking to his particular friend we are locked up here to die like sheep
by and by in some inexplicable way it came to be understood that there was a conspiracy afloat that they were to be released from their shambles that some amongst them had been plotting for freedom the tween decks held its foul breath
the mutineers headed by gabbett vetch and the moocher were nearest to the door the timid boys old men innocent poor wretches condemned on circumstantial evidence or rustics condemned to be turned into thieves for pulling a turnip
huddling together in alarm and the prudent that is to say all the rest ready to fight or fly advance or retreat
occupied the middle space the mutineers proper numbered perhaps some thirty men and of these thirty only half a dozen knew what was really about to be done the ship's bell strikes the half hour
and as the cries of the three sentries passing the word to the quarter deck die away gabbett who has been leaning with his back against the door nudges jemmy vetch
tell em the whisper being heard by those nearest the giant a silence ensues which gradually spreads like a ripple over the surface of the crowd reaching even the bunks at the further end gentlemen
says mister vetch politely sarcastic in his own hangdog fashion myself and my friends here are going to take the ship for you those who like to join us had better speak at once for in about half an hour they will not have the opportunity
he pauses and looks round with such an impertinently confident air that
you needn't be afraid mister vetch continues we have arranged it all for you there are friends waiting for us outside and the door will be open directly all we want gentlemen is your vote and interest i mean your
interrupts the giant angrily come to business carn't yer tell em they may like it or lump it but we mean to have the ship and them as refuses to join us we mean to chuck overboard that's about the plain english of it
this practical way of putting it produces a sensation and the conservative party at the other end look in each other's faces with some alarm a grim murmur runs round and somebody near mister gabbett
laughs a laugh of mingled ferocity and amusement not reassuring to timid people what about the sogers asked a voice from the ranks of the cautious
go on old man cries jemmy vetch to the giant rubbing his thin hands with eldritch glee they're all right and then his quick ears catching the jingle of arms he said stand by now for the door one rush'll do it
it was eight o'clock and the relief guard was coming from the after deck the crowd of prisoners round the door held their breath to listen it's all planned says gabbett in a low growl
and we're in among the guard afore they know where they are drag em back into the prison
the tone was an ordinary one and miles was the soldier whom sarah purfoy had bribed not to fire all had gone well the keys clashed and turned and the bravest of the prudent party
who had been turning in his mind the notion of risking his life for a pardon to be won by rushing forward at the right moment and alarming the guard checked the cry that was in his throat as he saw the men round the door draw back a little for their rush and caught a glimpse
of the giant's bristling scalp and bared gums now cries jemmy vetch as the iron plated oak swung back and with the guttural snarl of a charging wild boar
the red line of light which glowed for an instant through the doorway was blotted out by a mass of figures all the prison surged forward and before the eye could wink five ten twenty of the most desperate were outside
it was as though a sea breaking against a stone wall had found some breach
the contagion of battle spread caution was forgotten
responded to his grin of encouragement by rushing furiously forward suddenly a horrible roar like that of a trapped wild beast was heard the rushing torrent choked in the doorway
a flash broke followed by a groan as the perfidious sentry fell back shot through the breast the mass in the doorway hung irresolute and then by sheer weight of pressure from behind burst forward and as it so burst
all this took place by one of those simultaneous movements which are so rapid in execution so tedious to describe in detail at one instant the prison door had opened at the next it had closed
the report of another shot and then a noise of confused cries mingled with the clashing of arms informed the imprisoned men that the ship had been alarmed
would they succeed in overcoming the guards or would they be beaten back they would soon know and in the hot dusk straining their eyes to see each other they waited for the issue suddenly the noises ceased
what had taken place this the men pouring out of the darkness into the sudden glare of the lanterns rushed bewildered across the deck miles true to his promise did not fire
but the next instant vickers had snatched the firelock from him and leaping into the stream
the attack was more sudden then he had expected but he did not lose his presence of mind the shot would serve a double purpose it would warn the men in the barrack and perhaps check the rush by stopping up the doorway with a corpse
beaten back struggling and indignant amid the storm of hideous faces his humanity vanished and he aimed deliberately at the head of mister james vetch the shot however missed its mark and killed the unhappy miles
gabbett and his companions had by this time reached the foot of the companion ladder there to encounter the cutlasses of the doubled guard gleaming redly in the glow of the lanterns
a glance up the hatchway showed the giant that the arms he had planned to seize were defended by ten firelocks and that behind the open doors of the partition which ran abaft the mizenmast the remainder of the detachment stood to their arms
just in time to see the crowd in the gangway recoil from the flash of the musket fired by vickers the next instant pine and two soldiers taking advantage of the momentary cessation of the press shot the bolts and secured the prison
the mutineers were caught in a trap the narrow space between the barracks and the barricade was choked with struggling figures some twenty convicts and half as many soldiers struck and stabbed at each other in the crowd there was barely elbow room
fought almost without knowing whom they struck gabbett tore a cutlass from a soldier shook his huge head and calling on the moocher to follow bounded up the ladder desperately determined to brave the fire of the watch the moocher
close at the giant's heels flung himself upon the nearest soldier and grasping his wrist struggled for the cutlass
dashed his clenched fist in the soldier's face and the man maddened by the blow let go the cutlass and drawing his pistol shot his new assailant through the head
at the sight of this unexpected adversary and too close to strike him locked him in his arms the two men were drawn together the guard on the quarter deck dared not fire at the two bodies that twined about each other rolled across the deck
and for a moment mister frere's cherished existence hung upon the slenderest thread imaginable the moocher spattered with the blood and brains of his unfortunate comrade had already set his foot upon the lowest step of the ladder
when the cutlass was dashed from his hand by a blow from a clubbed firelock and he was dragged roughly backwards as he fell upon the deck he saw the crow spring out of the mass of prisoners who had been an instant before struggling with the guard and
gaining the cleared space at the bottom of the ladder hold up his hands as though to shield himself from a blow
and upon the group before the barricade had fallen that mysterious silence which had perplexed the inmates of the prison they were not perplexed for long the two soldiers who with the assistance of pine had forced to the door of the prison
rapidly unbolted that trap door in the barricade of which mention has been made in a previous chapter and at a signal from vickers three men ran the loaded howitzer from its sinister shelter near the break of the barrack berths and
training the deadly muzzle to a level with the opening in the barricade stood ready to fire surrender cried vickers
there was an awful moment of silence broken only by a skurrying noise in the prison as though a family of rats disturbed at a flour cask were scampering to the ship's side for shelter
this skurrying noise was made by the convicts rushing to their berths to escape the threatened shower of grape to the twenty desperadoes cowering before the muzzle of the howitzer it spoke more eloquently than words the charm was broken
on each side of this horrible window almost pushed before it by the pressure of one upon the other stood pine vickers and the guard in front of the little group lay the corpse of the miserable boy whom sarah purfoy had led to ruin
and forced close upon yet shrinking back from the trampled and bloody mass crouched in mingled terror and rage the twenty mutineers behind the mutineers withdrawn from the patch of light thrown by the open hatchway the mouth of the howitzer threatened destruction
and behind the howitzer backed up by an array of brown musket barrels
but the guard had already closed in upon it and some of the ship's crew with that carelessness of danger characteristic of sailors were peering down upon them escape was hopeless one minute cried vickers
confident that one second would be enough one minute to go quietly or surrender mates for god's sake shrieked some unknown wretch
jemmy vetch feeling by that curious sympathy which nervous natures possess that his comrades wished him to act as spokesman
we surrender he said it's no use getting our brains blown out and raising his hands he obeyed the motion of vickers's fingers and led the way towards the barrack bring the irons forward there shouted vickers hastening from his perilous position
disposed in the attitudes of the day before even mister maurice frere recovered from his midnight fatigues was lounging on the same coil of rope in precisely the same position yet the eye of an acute observer
would have detected some difference beneath this outward varnish of similarity the man at the wheel looked round the horizon more eagerly and spit into the swirling unwholesome looking water with a more dejected air than before
the fishing lines still hung dangling over the catheads but nobody touched them the soldiers and sailors on the forecastle collected in knots had no heart even to smoke but gloomily stared at each other vickers was in the cuddy
writing blunt was in his cabin and pine with two carpenters at work under his directions was improvising increased hospital accommodation the noise of mallet and hammer echoed in the soldiers berth ominously
the workmen might have been making coffins the prison was strangely silent with the lowering silence which precedes a thunderstorm and the convicts on deck no longer told stories nor laughed at obscene jests but sat together
moodily patient as if waiting for something three men two prisoners and a soldier had succumbed since rufus dawes had been removed to the hospital and though as yet
or symptom of panic the face of each man soldier sailor or prisoner wore an expectant look as though he wondered whose turn would come next on the ship rolling ceaselessly from side to side
like some wounded creature on the opaque profundity of that stagnant ocean a horrible shadow had fallen the malabar seemed to be enveloped in an electric cloud whose sullen gloom a chance spark might flash into a blaze that should consume her
the woman who held in her hands the two ends of the chain that would produce this spark paused came up upon deck and after a glance round leant against the poop railing and looked down into the barricade
and to one group in particular her glance was directed three men leaning carelessly against the bulwarks watched her every motion there she is right enough growled mister gabbett as if in continuation of a previous remark
patience is a virtue most noble knuckler says the crow with affected carelessness give the young woman time
says the giant licking his coarse blue lips
and kep dancin round the dandy's wench like a parcel o dogs the fever's aboard and we've got all ready what's the use o waitin
i'm for bizness at once there look at that he added with an oath as the figure of maurice frere appeared side by side with that of the waiting maid and the two turned away up the deck together it's all right you confounded muddlehead cried the crow
losing patience with his perverse and stupid companion how can she give us the office with that cove at her elbow gabbett's only reply to this question was a ferocious grunt and a sudden elevation of his clenched fist which caused mister vetch to retreat precipitately
the giant did not follow and mister vetch folding his arms and assuming an attitude of easy contempt directed his attention to sarah purfoy she seemed an object of general attraction
for at the same moment a young soldier ran up the ladder to the forecastle and eagerly bent his gaze in her direction maurice frere had come behind her and touched her on the shoulder
the girl was evidently playing with him and he would show her that he was not to be trifled with well sarah well mister frere dropping her hand and turning round with a smile how well you are looking to day positively lovely
you have told me that so often says she with a pout have you nothing else to say except that i love you this in a most impassioned manner that is no news i know you do curse it sarah what is a fellow to do his profligacy was failing him rapidly
fellow should be able to take care of himself mister frere i didn't ask you to fall in love with me did i if you don't please me it is not your fault perhaps what do you mean you soldiers have so many things to think of your guards and sentries and visits and things
she cast her eyes down to the deck and a modest flush rose in her cheeks i have so much to do she said in a half whisper there are so many eyes upon me
and to give effect to her words looked round the deck her glance crossed that of the young soldier on the forecastle
miles was jealous frere smiling with delight at her change of manner came close to her and whispered in her ear
i will come at eight o'clock said she with modestly averted face they relieve the guard at eight he said deprecatingly she tossed her head very well then
i don't care but sarah consider as if a woman in love ever considers said she turning upon him a burning glance which in truth might have melted a more icy man than he she loved him then what a fool he would be to refuse
to get her to come was the first object how to make duty fit with pleasure would be considered afterwards besides the guard could relieve itself for once without his supervision very well at eight then dearest
and as frere left her she turned and with her eyes fixed on the convict barricade dropped the handkerchief she held in her hand over the poop railing it fell at the feet of the amorous captain
and with a quick upward glance that worthy fellow picked it up and brought it to her oh thank you captain blunt
did you take the laudanum whispered blunt with a twinkle in his eye some of it said she i will bring you back the bottle to night blunt walked aft humming cheerily and saluted frere with a slap on the back the two men laughed each at his own thoughts
but their laughter only made the surrounding gloom seem deeper than before sarah purfoy casting her eyes toward the barricade
they were together once more and the crow having taken off his prison cap held it at arm's length with one hand while he wiped his brow with the other her signal had been observed during all this rufus dawes
was lying flat on his back staring at the deck above him trying to think of something he wanted to say
he could give such information as would avert that danger and save the ship but
he was as one possessed he could move nor hand nor foot the place where he lay was but dimly lighted the ingenuity of pine had constructed a canvas blind
and this blind absorbed much of the light he could but just see the deck above his head and distinguish the outlines of three other berths apparently similar to his own the only sounds that broke the silence were the gurgling of the water below him
and the tap tap tap tap of pine's hammers at work upon the new partition by and by
could hear gasps and moans and mutterings
yet lived all at once a voice called out
why i've given four hundred pounds for a freak of my girl sarah
missus lionel crofton of the crofts sevenoaks kent sevenoaks kent seven a gleam of light broke in on the darkness which wrapped rufus dawes's tortured brain the man was john rex his berth mate with an effort he spoke
rex yes yes i'm coming don't be in a hurry the sentry's safe and the howitzer is but five paces from the door a rush upon deck lads and she's ours that is mine mine and my wife's missus lionel crofton of seven crofts
no oaks sarah purfoy lady's maid and nurse ha ha lady's maid and nurse this last sentence contained the name clue to the labyrinth in which rufus dawes's bewildered intellects were wandering
sarah purfoy he remembered now each detail of the conversation he had so strangely overheard and how imperative it was that he should without delay reveal the plot that threatened the ship how that plot was to be carried out he did not pause to consider
he was conscious that he was hanging over the brink of delirium and that unless he made himself understood before his senses utterly deserted him all was lost
he made an effort to speak but his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth and his jaws stuck together he could not raise a finger nor utter a sound the boards over his head waved like a shaken sheet and the cabin whirled round
he closed his eyes with a terrible sigh of despair and resigned himself to his fate at that instant the sound of hammering ceased and the door opened it was six o'clock and pine had come to have a last look at his patients before dinner
it seemed that there was somebody with him for a kind though somewhat pompous voice remarked upon the scantiness of accommodation and the necessity the absolute necessity of complying with the king's regulations
and had sternly come to visit the sick men aware as he was that such a visit would necessitate his isolation from the cabin where his child lay missus vickers
had often said that poor dear john was such a disciplinarian quite a slave to the service here they are said pine six of em this fellow
if he had not a constitution like a horse i don't think he could live out the night three eighteen seven four muttered rex dot and carry one is that an occupation for a gentleman no sir good night my lord good night
hark the clock is striking nine five six seven eight well you've had your day and can't complain a dangerous fellow says pine with the light upraised a very dangerous fellow
but what can one do come let us get on deck said vickers with a shudder of disgust rufus dawes felt the sweat break out into beads on his forehead they suspected nothing they were going away he must warn them
eh water is it there steady with it now and he lifted a pannikin to the blackened froth fringed lips
sarah purfoy to night the prison mutiny the last word almost shrieked out in the sufferer's desperate efforts to articulate recalled the wandering senses of john rex hush he cried is that you jemmy
sarah's right wait till she gives the word he's raving said vickers pine caught the convict by the shoulder what do you say my man a mutiny of the prisoners with his mouth agape and his hands clenched rufus dawes
incapable of further speech made a last effort to nod assent but his head fell upon his breast the next moment the flickering light
the whole thing is perhaps some absurdity of that fellow dawes and should we once put the notion of attacking us into the prisoners heads there is no telling what they might do but the man seemed certain said the other he mentioned my wife's maid too
to tell them that we have found them out this time won't prevent em trying it again we don't know what their scheme is either
no captain vickers allow me as surgeon superintendent to settle our course of action you are aware that that by the king's regulations you are invested with full powers interrupted vickers
of course i merely suggested and i know nothing about the girl except that she brought a good character from her last mistress a missus crofton i think the name was we were glad to get anybody to make a voyage like this well says pine look here
suppose we tell these scoundrels that their design whatever it may be is known very good they will profess absolute ignorance and try again on the next opportunity when perhaps we may not know anything about it
at all events we are completely ignorant of the nature of the plot and the names of the ringleaders let us double the sentries and quietly get the men under arms
clap all the villains we get in irons
i am not a cruel man sir but we have got a cargo of wild beasts aboard and we must be careful but surely mister pine have you considered the probable loss of life i really some more humane course perhaps prevention you know
pine turned round upon him with that grim practicality which was a part of his nature have you considered the safety of the ship captain vickers you know or have heard of the sort of things that take place in these mutinies
have you considered what will befall those half dozen women in the soldiers berths have you thought of the fate of your own wife and child vickers shuddered have it your way mister pine you know best perhaps
i am acting for the best upon my soul i am you don't know what convicts are or rather
but if you use that argument to them when they have taken the vessel it won't avail you much let me manage sir and for god's sake say nothing to anybody our lives may hang upon a word
vickers promised and kept his promise so far as to chat cheerily with blunt and frere at dinner only writing a brief note to his wife to tell her that whatever she heard she was not to stir from her cabin until he came to her
he knew that with all his wife's folly she would obey unhesitatingly when he couched an order in such terms according to the usual custom on board convict ships the guards relieved each other every two hours and at six p m the poop guard was removed to the quarter deck
and the arms which in the daytime were disposed on the top of the arm chest were placed in an arm rack constructed on the quarter deck for that purpose trusting nothing to frere who indeed by pine's advice was as we have seen
kept in ignorance of the whole matter vickers ordered all the men save those who had been on guard during the day to be under arms in the barrack forbade communication with the upper deck and placed as sentry at the barrack door his own servant
an old soldier on whose fidelity he could thoroughly rely he then doubled the guards took the keys of the prison himself from the non commissioned officer whose duty it was to keep them and saw that the howitzer on the lower deck was loaded with grape
would have seen an unusual sight that gallant commander was sitting on the bed place with a glass of rum and water in his hand and the handsome waiting maid of missus vickers was seated on a stool by his side at a first glance it was perceptible that the captain was very drunk
his grey hair was matted all ways about his reddened face and he was winking and blinking like an owl in the sunshine he had drunk a larger quantity of wine than usual at dinner in sheer delight at the approaching assignation
glided through the carefully adjusted door he had been persuaded to go on drinking cuc come sarah he hiccuped it's all very fine my lass but you needn't be so hic proud you know i'm a plain sailor
sarah allowed a laugh to escape her and artfully protruded an ankle at the same time the amorous phineas lurched over and made shift to take her hand you lovsh me and i hic lovsh you sarah
and a preshus tight little craft you hic are giv'sh kiss sarah sarah got up and went to the door wotsh this goin sarah don't go and he staggered up
and with the grog swaying fearfully in one hand made at her the ship's bell struck the half hour now or never was the time blunt caught her round the waist with one arm and hiccuping with love and rum
approached to take the kiss he coveted she seized the moment surrendered herself to his embrace drew from her pocket the laudanum bottle and passing her hand over his
poured half its contents into the glass think i'm hic drunk do yer nun not i my wench you will be if you drink much more come finish that and be quiet or i'll go away but she threw a provocation into her glance as she spoke
which belied her words and which penetrated even the sodden intellect of poor blunt he balanced himself on his heels for a moment and holding by the moulding of the cabin stared at her with a fatuous smile of drunken admiration
hiccuped with much solemnity thrice and as though struck with a sudden sense of duty unfulfilled swallowed the contents at a gulp the effect was almost instantaneous he dropped the tumbler lurched towards the woman at the door
and then making a half turn in accordance with the motion of the vessel fell into his bunk and snored like a grampus sarah purfoy watched him for a few minutes and then having blown out the light
stepped out of the cabin and closed the door behind her the dusky gloom which had held the deck on the previous night enveloped all forward of the main mast a lantern swung in the forecastle and swayed with the motion of the ship
and in the cuddy at her right hand the usual row of oil lamps burned she looked mechanically for vickers who was ordinarily there at that hour but the cuddy was empty so much the better she thought
as she drew her dark cloak around her and tapped at frere's door
with a strong effort she dispelled the dizziness that had almost overpowered her and held herself erect it would never do to break down now the door opened and maurice frere drew her into the cabin so you have come said he
seen nonsense who is to see you captain vickers doctor pine anybody not they besides
they're all right gone off to pine's cabin the intelligence struck her with dismay what was the cause of such an unusual proceeding surely they did not suspect what do they want there she asked maurice frere was not in the humour to argue questions of probability
who knows i don't confound em he added what does it matter to us we don't want them do we sarah she seemed to be listening for something and did not reply her nervous system was wound up to the highest pitch of excitement
the success of the plot depended on the next five minutes
the mutiny had begun the sound awoke the soldier to a sense of his duty he sprang to his feet and disengaging the arms that clung about his neck made for the door the moment for which the convict's accomplice had waited approached
she hung upon him with all her weight her long hair swept across his face her warm breath was on his cheek her dress exposed her round smooth shoulder he intoxicated conquered had half turned back when suddenly the rich crimson
died away from her lips leaving them an ashen grey colour her eyes closed in agony loosing her hold of him she staggered to her feet pressed her hands upon her bosom and uttered a sharp cry of pain the fever which had been on her two days
and which by a strong exercise of will she had struggled against encouraged by the violent excitement of the occasion had attacked her at this supreme moment
chapter twelve two letters nancy ellen and robert were sitting on the side porch not seeming in the least sleepy when kate entered the house as she stepped out to them she found them laughing mysteriously
take this chair kate said nancy ellen come on robert let's go stand under the maple tree and let her see whether she can see us if you're going to rehearse any momentous moment of your existence said kate
i shouldn't think of even being on the porch i shall keep discreetly in the house even going at once to bed good night pleasant dreams now we've made her angry said robert
i think there was a little touch of asperity as agatha would say in that said nancy ellen but kate has a good heart she'll get over it before morning
would agatha use such a common word as little asked robert indeed no said nancy ellen she would say infinitesimal but all the same he kissed her
if she didn't step up and kiss him never again shall i trust my eyes said the doctor hush cautioned nancy ellen she's provoked now if she hears that she'll never forgive us
kate did not need even a hint to start her talking in the morning the day was fine a snappy tinge of autumn in the air her head and heart were full
nancy ellen would understand and sympathize of course kate told her all there was to tell and even at that said nancy ellen he hasn't just come out right square and said kate
will you marry me as i understand it same here laughed kate he said he had to be sure about his mother and there was one other thing he'd write me about this week and he'd come again next sunday
then if things were all right with me the deluge and what is the other thing asked nancy ellen there he has me guessing
we had six long lovely weeks of daily association at the lake i've seen his home and his inventions and as much of his business as is visible to the eye of a woman who doesn't know a tinker about business
his mother has told me minutely of his life every day since he was born i think she insists that he never paid the slightest attention to a girl before and he says the same so
he is thoughtful quick kind a self made business man he looks well enough he acts like a gentleman
he doesn't say enough to make any mistakes i haven't yet heard him talk freely give an opinion or discuss a question said nancy ellen neither have i
said kate he's very silent thinking out more inventions maybe the worst thing about him is a kind of hard headed self assurance
he got it fighting for his mother from boyhood he knew she would freeze and starve if he didn't take care of her he had to do it he soon found he could it took money to do what he had to do
he got the money then he began performing miracles with it he lifted his mother out of poverty he dressed her in purple and fine linen
he housed her in the same kind of home other rich men of the lake shore drive live in and gave her the same kind of service as most men do when things begin to come their way
he lived for making money alone he was so keen on the chase he wouldn't stop to educate and culture himself
piling up more far more than any one man should be allowed to have so you can see that it isn't strange that he thinks there's nothing on earth that money can't do
you can see that sticking out all over him at the hotel on boats on the trains anywhere we went he pushed straight for the most conspicuous place
the most desirable thing the most expensive i almost prayed sometimes that in some way he would strike one single thing that he couldn't make come his way with money but
he never did no i haven't an idea what he has in his mind yet but he's going to write me about it this week and if i agree to whatever it is he is coming sunday
then he has threatened me with a deluge whatever he means by that he means providing another teacher for walden taking you to chicago shopping for a wonderful trousseau
marrying you in his lake shore palace no doubt well if that's what he means by a deluge said kate he'll find the flood coming his way
he'll strike the first thing he can't do with money i shall teach my school this winter as i agreed to i shall marry him in the clothes i buy with what i earn i shall marry him quietly here
or at adam's or before a justice of the peace if neither of you wants me he can't pick me up and carry me away and dress me and marry me as if i were a pauper
you're right about it said nancy ellen i don't know how we came to be so different i should do at once any way he suggested to get such a fine looking man and that much money
i wouldn't think about until the humiliation began and then i'd have no way to protect myself you're right but i'd get out of teaching this winter if i could i'd love to have you here
but i must teach to the earn money for my outfit i'll have to go back to school in the same old sailor don't you care laughed nancy ellen we know a secret that we do
agreed kate wednesday kate noticed nancy ellen watching for the boy robert had promised to send with the mail as soon as it was distributed
because she was herself twice thursday kate hoped in vain that the suspense would be over it had to end friday if john were coming saturday night
she began to resent the length of time he was waiting it was like him to wait until the last minute and then depend on money to carry him through he is giving me a long time to think things over
kate said to nancy ellen when there was no letter in the afternoon mail thursday it may have been lost or delayed said nancy ellen it will come to morrow surely both of them
saw the boy turn in at the gate friday morning each saw that he carried more than one letter nancy ellen was on her feet and nearer to the door she stepped to it and took the letters
giving them a hasty glance as she handed them to kate two she said tersely one with the address written in the clear bold hand of a gentleman
kate smiled as she took the letters i'll wager my hat which is my most precious possession she said that the one with the beautifully written address comes from the clod hopper and the straggle
from the gentleman she glanced at the stamping and addresses and smiled again so it proves she said while i'm about it i'll see what the clod hopper has to say
and then i shall be free to give my whole attention to the gentleman oh kate how can you cried nancy ellen way i'm made i spect said kate anyway
she dropped the big square letter in her lap and ran her finger under the flap of the long thin beautifully addressed envelope and drew forth several quite as perfectly written sheets
she read them slowly and deliberately sometimes turning back a page and going over a part of it again
when she finished she glanced at nancy ellen while slowly folding the sheets just for half a cent i'd ask you to read this she said
but i'll read it if you want me to offered nancy ellen all right go ahead said kate it might possibly teach you that you can't always judge a man by appearance or hastily
though just why george holt looks more like a clod hopper
or andrew it passes me to tell she handed nancy ellen the letter and slowly ripped open the flap of the heavy white envelope
she drew forth the sheet and sat an instant with it in her fingers watching the expression of nancy ellen's face while she read the most restrained yet impassioned plea
that a man of george holt's nature and opportunities could devise to make to a woman after having spent several months in the construction of it it was a masterly letter perfectly composed spelled and written
george holt had taught several terms of country school and taught them with much success
after a page as she turned the second sheet nancy ellen glanced at kate and saw that she had not opened the creased page in her hands she flamed with sudden irritation you do beat the band she cried
you've watched for two days and been provoked because that letter didn't come
that you're not ever reading john jardine's letter that is to tell you what both of us are crazy to know if you were in any mood to be fair and honest
said kate as for this i never was so afraid in all my life look at that she threw the envelope in nancy ellen's lap that is the very first line of john jardine's writing
i have ever seen she said do you see anything about it to encourage me to go farther you goose cried the exasperated nancy ellen
i suppose he transacts so much business he scarcely ever puts pen to paper
go on and read his letter kate arose and walked to the window turning her back to nancy ellen who sat staring at her while she read john jardine's letter
as if she were choking then she heard a great gulping sob down in her throat finally kate turned and stared at her with dazed incredulous eyes slowly she dropped the letter
deliberately set her foot on it and leaving the room climbed the stairs nancy ellen threw george holt's letter aside and snatched up john jardine's
my derest kate
so i never write them but it was not fare to you for you not to know what kind of a letter i would write if i did write one
at all to do with my pashion for you and the aughful time i will have till i here from you if you can stand for this telagraf me and i will come first train
and we will forget this and i will never write another letter with derest love from mother and from me all the love of my hart forever yours only john jardine the writing
would have been a discredit to a ten year old schoolboy nancy ellen threw the letter back on the floor with a stiffly extended finger she poked it into the position in which she thought she had found it
and slowly stepped back great god she said amazedly what does the man mean where does that dainty and wonderful little mother come in she must be a regular parasite
to take such ease and comfort for herself out of him and not see that he had time and chance to do better than that for himself kate will never endure it never in the world
and by the luck of the very devil there comes that school proof thing in the same mail from that abominable george holt and kate reads it first it's too bad i can't believe it what
suddenly nancy ellen began to cry bitterly between sobs she could hear kate as she walked from closet and bureau
the lid slammed heavily and a few minutes later kate entered the room dressed for the street why are you weeping she asked casually her eyes were flaming
her cheeks scarlet and her lips twitching nancy ellen sat up and looked at her she pointed to the letter i read that she said well what do i care said kate
if he has no more respect for me than to write me such an insult as that why should i have the respect for him to protect him in it publish it in the paper if you want to kate
what are you going to do demanded nancy ellen three things said kate slowly putting on her long silk gloves first i'm going to telegraph john jardine that i never shall see him again
if i can possibly avoid it second i'm going to send a drayman to get my trunk and take it to walden third i'm going to start out and walk miles
i don't know or care where but in the end i'm going to walden to clean the schoolhouse and get ready for my winter term of school oh kate you are such a fine teacher teach him
don't be so hurried take more time to think you will break his heart pleaded nancy ellen kate threw out both hands palms down p a
a u g h h a r t d o u t d e r e she slowly spelled out the letters
what about my heart and my pride think i can respect that or ask my children to respect it but thank you and robert and come after me as often as you can
as a mercy to me if john persists in coming to try to buy me as he thinks he can buy anything he wants you needn't let him come to walden for probably
i won't be there until i have to and i won't see him or his mother so he needn't try to bring her in say good bye to robert for me
she walked from the house head erect shoulders squared and so down the street from sight in half an hour a truckman came for her trunk
so nancy ellen made everything kate had missed into a bundle to send with it when she came to the letters she hesitated i guess she didn't want them she said i'll just keep them awhile
and if she doesn't ask about them the next time she comes i'll burn them robert must go after her every friday evening and we'll keep her until monday and do all we can to cheer her
and this very day he must find out all there is to know about that george holt that is the finest letter i ever read she does kind of stand up for him and in the reaction
impulsive as she is and self confident of course she wouldn't but you never can tell what kind of fool a girl will make of herself in some cases
kate walked swiftly finished two of the errands she set out to do then her feet carried her three miles from hartley on the walden road before she knew where she was
so she proceeded to the village missus holt was not at home but the house was standing open kate found her room cleaned shining and filled with flowers
she paid the drayman opened her trunk and put away her dresses laying out all the things which needed washing
put on heavy shoes and old skirt and waist and crossing the road sat in a secluded place in the ravine and looked stupidly at the water she noticed that everything was as she had left it in the spring
she closed her eyes leaned against a big tree and slow cold and hot shudders alternated in shaking her frame
she did not open her eyes when she heard a step and her name called she knew without taking the trouble to look that george had come home found her luggage in her room
and was hunting for her she heard him come closer and knew when he seated himself that he was watching her but she did not care enough even to move finally
she shifted her position to rest herself opened her eyes and looked at him without a word he returned her gaze steadily smiling gravely she had never seen him looking so well
he had put in the summer grooming himself he had kept up the house and garden and spent all his spare time on the ravine and farming on the shares with his mother's sister who lived three miles east of them
at last she roused herself and again looked at him i had your letter this morning she said i was wondering about that he replied yes i got it just before i started
said kate are you surprised to see me no he answered after last year we figured you might come the last of this week or the first of next so we got your room ready monday
thank you said kate it's very clean and nice i hope soon to be able to offer you such a room and home as you should have he said i haven't opened my office yet
it was late and hot when i got home in june and mother was fussing about this winter that she had no garden and didn't do her share at aunt ollie's so i have farmed most of the summer and lived on hope but
like the best of them you bet i am going to make things hum so i can offer you anything you want you haven't opened an office yet she asked for the sake of saying something and because a practical thing would naturally suggest itself to her
i haven't had a breath of time he said in candid disclaimer why don't you ask me what's the matter didn't figure that it was any of my business in the first place he said and i have a pretty fair idea in the second
but how could you have she asked in surprise when your sister wouldn't give me your address she hinted that you had all the masculine attention you cared for then
tilly nepple visited town again last week and she had been sick and called doctor gray
with the rich new friends you'd made i was watching for you about this time and i just happened to be at the station in hartley last saturday when you got off the train with your fine gentleman
so i stayed over with some friends of mine and i saw you several times sunday i saw that i'd practically no chance with you at all but i made up my mind
i'd stick until i saw you marry him so i wrote just as i would if i hadn't known there was another man in existence that was a very fine letter said kate it is a very fine
deep sincere love that i am offering you said george holt of course i could see prosperity sticking out all over that city chap but it didn't bother me much because i knew that you of all women
a rising young professional man is not to be sneered at at least until he makes his start and proves what he can do i couldn't get an early start because
i've always had to work just as you've seen me last summer and this so i couldn't educate myself so fast
kate winced this was getting on places that hurt and to matters she well understood but she was the soul of candour you did very well to educate yourself as you have
with no help at all she said i've done my best in the past
and whatever i do it is all for you and yours for the taking he said grandiosely thank you said kate but are you making that offer when you can't help seeing that i'm in deep trouble
all i want to know about your trouble is whether there is anything a man of my size and strength can do to help you not a thing said kate in the direction of slaying a gay deceiver
if that's what you mean the extent of my familiarities with john jardine
for the first and last time once for himself and once for his mother whom i have since ceased to respect george holt was watching her with eyes lynx sharp but kate never saw it
when she mentioned her farewell of sunday night a queer smile swept over his face and instantly disappeared i should thing any girl might be permitted that much in saying a final good bye to a man
who had shown her a fine time for weeks he commented casually but i didn't know i was saying good bye explained kate i expected him back in a week and that i would then arrange to marry him
that was the agreement we made then
george holt's face flashed triumph at having led her on at what she said it fell perceptibly
in any event it was your own business it was said kate i had given no man the slightest encouragement i was perfectly free
and any one who happened to be around i intended to marry him i liked him as much as any man need be liked i don't know whether it was the same feeling nancy ellen had for robert gray or not
but it was a whole lot of feeling of some kind i was satisfied with it and he would have been i meant to be a good wife to him and a good daughter to his mother
and i could have done much good in the world and extracted untold pleasure from the money he would have put in my power to handle all was going merry as a marriage bell and then this morning came my waterloo in the same post with your letter
do you know what you are doing cried george holt roughly losing self control with hope you are proving to me and admitting to yourself that you never loved that man at all you were flattered
but your heart was not his or you would be mighty sure of it don't you forget that i am not interested in analyzing exactly what i felt for him said kate
it made small difference then it makes none at all now
then in a few seconds i turned squarely against him and lost my respect for him you couldn't marry me to him
but it hurt terribly let me tell you that george holt suddenly arose and went to kate he sat down close beside her and leaned toward her
there isn't the least danger of my trying to marry you to him he said because i am going to marry you myself at the very first opportunity why not now why not have a simple ceremony somewhere at once
and go away until school begins and forget him having a good time by ourselves come on kate let's do it we can go stay with aunt ollie and if he comes trying to force himself on you he'll get what he deserves
but i don't love you said kate neither did you love him retorted george holt i can prove it by what you say neither did you love him but you were going to marry him
and use all his wonderful power of position and wealth and trust to association to bring love you can try that with me as for wealth who cares we are young and strong and we have a fine chance in the world
you go on and teach this year
but then the torrent broke at the first hint that she would consider his proposal george holt drew her to him and talked volumes of impassioned love to her he gave her no chance to say anything
he said all there was to say himself he urged that jardine would come and she should not be there he begged he pleaded he reasoned night found kate sitting on the back porch at aunt ollie's
with a confused memory of having stood beside the little stream with her hand in george holt's while she assented to the questions of a justice of the peace in the presence of the school director and missus holt
she knew that immediately thereafter they had walked away along a hot dusty country road she had tried to eat something that tasted like salted ashes
she could hear george's ringing laugh of exultation breaking out afresh every few minutes
one day friday ran up to me in great glee and said they are back they are back a mile from shore there was a boat with a sail which stood in for the land
but i knew it could not be the one which our two friends had gone out in for it was on the wrong side of the isle for that i saw too through my glass a ship out at sea there were twelve men in the boat three of whom were bound in chains
and four had fire arms bye and bye i saw one of the men raise his sword to those who were in chains and i felt sure that all was not right then i saw that the three men who had been bound were set free
and when they had come on shore they lay on the ground in the shade of a tree i was soon at their side for their looks so sad and worn brought to my mind the first few hours i had spent in this wild spot
where all to me was wrapt in gloom i went up to these men and said who are you sirs they gave a start at my voice and at my strange dress and made a move as if they would fly from me i said
do not fear me for it may be that you have a friend at hand though you do not think it he must be sent from the sky then said one of them with a grave look and he took off his hat to me at the same time
all help is from thence sir i said but what can i do to aid you you look as if you had some load of grief on your breast i saw one of the men lift his sword as if to kill you
the tears ran down the poor man's face as he said is this a god or is it but a man have no doubt on that score sir said i for a god would not have come with a dress like this
no do not fear nor raise your hopes too high for you see but a man yet one who will do all he can to help you your speech shows me that you come from the same land as i do
i will do all i can to serve you tell me your case our case sir is too long to you while they who would kill us are so near my name is paul to be short sir my crew have thrust me out of my ship
which you see out there and have left me here to die it was as much as i could do to make them sheath their swords which you saw were drawn to slay me they have set me down in this isle with these two men my friend here and the ship's mate
where have they gone said i there in the wood close by i fear they may have seen and heard us if they have they will be sure to kill us all have they fire arms they have four guns one of which is in the boat
well then leave all to me there are two of the men said he who are worse than the rest all but these i feel sure would go back to work the ship i thought it was best to speak out to paul at once and i said
now if i save your life there are two things which you must do but he read my thoughts and said if you save my life you shall do as you like with me and my ship and take her where you please i saw that the two men in whose charge the boat had been left
had come on shore so the first thing i did was to send friday to fetch from it the oars the sail and the gun and now the ship might be said to be in our hands when the time came for the men to go back to the ship they were in a great rage
nor oars they knew not how to get out to their ship we heard them say that it was a strange sort of isle for that sprites had come to the boat to take off the sails and oars
we could see them run to and fro with great rage then go and sit in the boat to rest and then come on shore once more when they drew near to us paul and friday would fain have had me fall on them at once but my wish was to spare them
and kill as few as i could i told two of my men to creep on their hands and feet close to the ground so that they might not be seen and when they got up to the men not to fire till i gave the word they had not stood thus long when three of the crew came up to us
till now we had but heard their voice but when they came so near as to be seen paul and friday stood up and shot at them two of the men fell dead and they were the worst of the crew and the third ran off
at the sound of the guns i came up but it was so dark that the men could not tell if there were three of us or three score it fell out just as i could wish for i heard the men ask to whom must we yield and where are they
friday told them that paul was there with the king of the isle who had brought with him a crowd of men at this one of the crew said if paul will spare our lives we will yield then said friday you shall know the king's will
then paul said to them you know my voice if you lay down your arms the king will spare your lives they fell on their knees to beg the same of me i took good care that they did not see me but i gave them my word that they should all live
that i should take four of them to work the ship and that the rest would be bound hand and foot for the good faith of the four this was to show them what a stern king i was of course i soon set them free and i put them in a way to take my place on the isle
i gave them a house to live in fire arms tools
he held out his hand to point to the ship and with much warmth took me to his arms and said my dear friend there is your ship for she is all yours and so are we and all that is in her
yes there she stood the ship that was to set me free and to take me where i might choose to go she set her sails to the wind and her flags threw out their gay stripes in the breeze such a sight was too much for me and i fell down faint with joy
paul then took out a flask which he had brought for me and gave me a dram which i drank but for a good while i could not speak to him
we did not start that night but at noon the next day i left the isle that lone isle where i had spent so great a part of my life not much less than thrice ten long years when i came back to the dear land of my birth
all was strange and new to me i went to my old home at york but none of my friends were there and to my great grief i saw on the stone at their grave the sad tale of their death as they had thought
of course that i was dead they had not left me their wealth and lands
but in this time of need i had the luck to find my good friend who once took me up at sea he was now grown too old for work and had put his son in the ship in his place he did not know me at first
i felt no wish to go and live there so i made up my mind to sell it and in the course of a few months i got for it a sum so large as to make me a rich man all at once weeks months and years went by
i had a farm a wife and two sons and was by no means young
and that was to set foot once more in my old isle i had now no need to work for food or for means of life all i had to do was to teach my boys to be wise and good to live at my ease and see my wealth grow day by day
yet the wish to go back to my wild haunts clung round me like a cloud and i could in no way drive it from me so true is it that what is bred in the bone will not come out of the flesh
at length i lost my wife which was a great blow to me and my home was now so sad that i made up my mind to launch out once more on the broad sea and go with my man friday
i took with me as large a store of tools clothes and such like goods as i had room for and men of skill in all kinds of trades to live in the isle when we set sail we had a fair wind for some time but one night the mate
who was at the watch told me he saw a flash of fire and heard a gun go off at this we all ran on deck from whence we saw a great light and as there was no land that way we knew that it must be some ship on fire at sea which could not be far off
for we heard the sound of the gun the wind was still fair so we made our way for the point where we saw the light and in half an hour it was but too plain that a large ship was on fire in the midst of the broad sea
i gave the word to fire off five guns and we then lay by to wait till break of day but in the dead of the night the ship blew up in the air the flames shot forth and what there was left of the ship sank
at eight o'clock the next day we found by the aid of the glass that two of the ship's boats were out at sea quite full of men they had seen us and had done their best to make us see them and in half an hour we came up with them
it would be a hard task for me to set forth in words the scene which took place in my ship when the poor french folk for such they were came on board as to grief and fear these are soon told sighs tears and groans make up the sum of them
but such a cause of joy as this was in sooth too much for them to bear weak and all but dead as they were some would send up shouts of joy that rent the sky some would cry and wring their hands as if in the depths of grief
some would dance laugh and sing not a few were dumb sick faint in a swoon or half mad and two or three were seen to give thanks to god in this strange group there was a young french priest who did his best to soothe those round him
and i saw him go up to some of the crew and say to them why do you scream and tear your hair and wring your hands my men let your joy be free and full give it full range and scope
they were all in a right frame of mind so i gave them what stores i could spare and put them on board a ship that we met with on her way to france all save five who with the priest had a wish to join me
but we had not set sail long when we fell in with a ship that had been blown out to sea by a storm and had lost her masts and worse than all her crew had not had an ounce of meat or bread for ten days
i gave them all some food which they ate like wolves in the snow but i thought it best to check them as i had fears that so much all at once would cause the death of some of them
there were a youth and a young girl in the ship who the mate said he thought must be dead but he had not had the heart to go near them for the food was all gone
i found that they were faint for the want of it and as it were in the jaws of death but in a short time they both got well and as they had no wish to go back to their ship i took them with me
so now i had eight more on board my ship than i had when i first set out in three months from the time when i left home i came in sight of my isle and i brought the ship safe up
by the side of the creek which was near my old house i went up to friday to ask if he knew where he was he took a look round him and soon with a clap of the hands said o yes o there o yes o there
bye and bye he set up a dance with such wild glee that it was as much as i could do to keep him on deck well what think you friday said i shall we find those whom we left still here
shall we see poor old jaf he stood quite mute for a while but when i spoke of old jaf whose son friday was the tears ran down his face and the poor soul was as sad as could be
no no said he no more no no more as we caught sight of some men at the top of the hill i gave word to fire three guns to show that we were friends
and soon we saw smoke rise from the side of the creek i then went on shore in a boat with the priest and friday and hung out a white flag of peace the first man i cast my eyes on at the creek was my old friend carl
who when i was last on the isle had been brought here in bonds i gave strict charge to the men in the boat not to go on shore but friday could not be kept back
for with his quick eye he had caught sight of old jaf it brought the tears to our eyes to see his joy when he met the old man he gave him a kiss took him up in his arms set him down in the shade then stood a short way off to look at him
as one would look at a work of art then felt him with his hand and all this time he was in full talk and told him one by one all the strange tales of what he had seen since they had last met
he came up to me and with much warmth shook my hands and then took me to my old house which he now gave up to me i could no more have found the place than if i had not been there at all the rows of trees stood so thick and close
that the house could not be got at save by such blind ways as none but those who made them could find out why have you built all these forts said i
carl told me that he felt sure i should say there was much need of them when i heard how they had spent their time since they had come to the isle
sir all these men owe their lives to you then one by one they came up to me not as if they had been the mere crew of a ship but like men of rank who had come to kiss the hand of their king
till we had laid two of the men in chains the next day these two men stole each of them a gun and some small arms and took the ship's boat and ran off with it to join the three bad men on shore
as soon as i found this out i sent the long boat on shore with twelve men and the mate and off they went to seek the two who had left the ship but their search was in vain nor could they find one of the rest
for they had all fled to the woods when they saw the boat we had now lost five of the crew but the three first were so much worse than the last two that in a few days they sent them out of doors and would have no more to do with them
nor would they for a long while give them food to eat so the two poor men had to live as well as they could by hard work and they set up their tents on the north shore of the isle to be out of the way of the wild men
who were wont to land on the east side here they built them two huts one to lodge in and one to lay up their stores in and the men from spain gave them some corn for seed as well as some peas which i had left them
they soon learned to dig and plant and hedge in their land in the mode which i had set for them and in short to lead good lives so that i shall now call them the two good men but when the three bad men saw this
they were full of spite and came one day to tease and vex them they told them that the isle was their own and that no one else had a right to build on it if they did not pay rent the two good men thought at first that they were in jest
and told them to come and sit down and see what fine homes they had built and say what rent they would ask
and would have set it on fire had not one of the two good men trod the fire out with his feet the bad man was in such a rage at this that he ran at him with a pole he had in his hand
and this brought on a fight the end of which was that the three men had to stand off but in a short time they came back and trod down the corn and shot the goats and young kids which the poor men had got to bring up tame for their store
one day when the two men were out they came to their home and said ha there's the nest but the birds are flown they then set to work to pull down both the huts and left not a stick nor scarce a sign on the ground to show where the tents had stood
they tore up too all the goods and stock that they could find and when they had done this they told it all to the men of spain and said you sirs shall have the same sauce if you do not mend your ways
they then fell to blows and hard words but carl had them bound in cords and took their arms from them the men of spain then said they would do them no harm and if they would live at peace they would help them
one night carl whom i shall call the chief as he took the lead of all the rest felt a great weight on his mind and could get no sleep though he was quite well in health
but as it was too dark to see far and he heard no noise he went back to his bed still it was all one he could not sleep and though he knew not why his thoughts would give him no rest he then woke up one of his friends
and told him how it had been with him say you so said he what if there should be some bad plot at work near us they then set off to the top of the hill where i was wont to go and from thence they saw the light of a fire quite a short way from them
and heard the sounds of men not of one or two but of a great crowd we need not doubt that the chief and the man with him now ran back at once to tell all the rest what they had seen and when they heard the news
they could not be kept close where they were but must all run out to see how things stood at last they thought that the best thing to do would be while it was dark to send old jaf out as a spy to learn who they were and what they meant to do
when the old man had been gone an hour or two he brought word back that he had been in the midst of the foes though they had not seen him and that they were in two sets or tribes who were at war and had come there to fight
and so it was for in a short time they heard the noise of the fight which went on for two hours and at the end with three loud shouts or screams they left the isle in their boats
thus my friends were set free from all their fears and saw no more of their wild foes for some time one day a whim took the three bad men that they would go to the main land from whence the wild men came
and try if they could not seize some of them and bring them home as slaves so as to make them do the hard part of their work for them the chief gave them all the arms and stores that they could want and a large boat to go in
but when they bade them god speed no one thought that they would find their way back to the isle but lo in three weeks and a day they did in truth come back one of the two good men was the first to catch sight of them and tell the news to his friends
the men said that they had found the land in two days and that the wild men gave them roots and fish to eat and were so kind as to bring down eight slaves to take back with them three of whom were men and five were girls
so they gave their good hosts an axe an old key and a knife and brought off the slaves in their boat to the isle
my dearest friend it blows strong from the westward and is a very dirty day
as they believe it may blow a heavy gale to morrow but what comfort could i have had for two whole days at deal i hope the morning will be fine
but i have ordered a deal boat as they understand the beach better than our's and if i cannot land here i shall go to ramsgate pier and come to deal in a carriage has missus cadogan got my peer's robe
to day and he is to be one of my introducers he wanted me to dine with him the twenty fourth but i'll be damned if i dine from home that day and it would be as likely we should dine out
for it would be worse than death to me to dine in so large a party
for i never expect that you will suffer any to be killed i am glad sir william has got the duke's poney riding will do him much good
that i am told it is very probable he may never recover
for both cough and bowels are still very much out of order you are now writing your last letter for deal so am i for merton from deal at least i hope so for
if i can help it i will not return to it i have much to do being the last day on board but ever my dearest friend believe me your truly affectionate nelson and bronte
i am literally starving with cold but my heart is warm i suppose i shall dine with lutwidge but i am not very desirous of it for i shall have sutton bedford and hardy with me
you must prepare banti's mother as it is a peace for some other line of life than the navy yesterday he sold a pair of silver buckles he would soon ruin poor charles who is really a well disposed boy
on the idea that he may keep the victory
it will make it truly uncomfortable but i cannot help myself i assure you my dear emma that i feel a thorough conviction that we shall meet again with honour riches and health and remain together till a good old age
i look at your and my god's child's picture but till i am sure of remaining here i cannot bring myself to hang them up be assured that my attachment and affectionate regard is unalterable nothing can shake it
and pray say so to my dear missus t when you see her
and if she should have more it will extend to all of them in short my dear emma
we are very comfortable mister elliot is happy has quite recovered his spirits he was very low at portsmouth george elliot is very well say so to lord minto murray sutton in short
every body in the ship seems happy and if we should fall in with a french man of war i have no fears but they will do as we used to do hardy is gone into plymouth to see our dutchman safe i think
she will turn out a good prize gaetano desires his duty to miledi he is a good man and i dare say will come back for i think it cannot be a long war
just enough to make me independent in pecuniary matters if the wind stands on tuesday we shall be on the coast of portugal and before next sunday in the mediterranean to missus cadogan say every kind thing
if you like you may tell him about the entailing of the pension but perhaps he will be so much taken up with canterbury
only tell missus t that i will write her the first safe opportunity i am not sure of this i shall direct to merton after june first therefore as you change make davison take a direction to nepean but
i would not trouble him with too many directions for fear of embroil
yesterday and found by a frigate that admiral cornwallis had a rendezvous at sea thither we went but to this hour cannot find him it blows strong what wind we are losing
and leave the victory to my great mortification so much for the wisdom of my superiors i keep my letter open to the last for i still hope as i am sure there is no good reason for my not going out in the victory
may god in heaven bless you prays your most sincere nelson and bronte stephens's publication i should like to have i have left my silver seal at least i cannot find it
my dearest emma although i have wrote letters from various places merely to say here i am and there i am yet
it was impossible for me to say more than here i am and well and i see no prospect of any certain mode of conveyance but by sea which
has given me of small vessels can be but seldom our passages have been enormously long from gibraltar to malta we were eleven days arriving the fifteenth in the evening and sailing
in the night of the sixteenth that is three in the morning of the seventeenth and it was the twenty sixth before we got off capri
which carried mister elliot to naples to join me i send you copies of the king and queen's letters i am vexed that she did not mention you i can only account for it by her's being a political letter
when i wrote to the queen i said
your majesty never had a more sincere attached and real friend than your dear emma you will be sorry to hear that good sir william did not leave her in such comfortable circumstances as his fortune would have allowed
he has given it amongst his relations but she will do honour to his memory although every one else of his friends call loudly against him on that account
if she can forget emma i hope god will forget her but you think that she never will or can now is her time to shew it
the king is very low lives mostly at belvidere mister elliot had not seen either him or the queen from the seventeenth the day of his arrival to the twenty first on the next day he was to be presented
i have made up my mind that it is part of the plan of that corsican scoundrel to conquer the kingdom of naples he has marched thirteen thousand men into the kingdom on the adriatic side and he will take possession
and if the poor king remonstrates or allows us to secure sicily
i have cautioned general acton not to risk the royal family too long but naples will be conquered sooner or later as it may suit buonaparte's convenience the morea and egypt are likewise in his eye
an army of full seventy thousand men are assembling in italy gibbs and noble are gone to malta i am you may believe very anxious to get off toulon to join the fleet
we passed monte christo
yesterday and are now moving slowly direct for toulon
some say nine sail of the line some seven some five if the former they will come out for we have only the same number including sixty fours and very shortly manned however
i left this hole to put down what force the french have at toulon seven sail of the line ready five frigates and six corvettes
of the line to morrow seven including two sixty four gun ships you will readily believe how rejoiced i shall be to get one of your dear excellent letters that i may know every thing which has passed since my absence
i sincerely hope that mister booth has settled all your accounts never mind my dear emma a few hundred pounds which is all the rigid gripe of the law not justice can wrest from you i thank god that you cannot want
whilst i have sixpence you shall not want for fivepence of it but you have bought your experience that there is no friendship in money concerns and
independence is a blessing and although i have not yet found out the way to get prize money what has been taken has run into our mouths however it must turn out very hard if i cannot get enough to pay off my debts
and that will be no small comfort
but if naples remains much longer i shall ask the question but i expect nothing from them i believe even acton wishes himself well and safely removed
i think from what i hear that the king's spirits are so much depressed that he will give up the reins of naples at least to his son and retire to sicily sir william you know always thought that he would end his life so
certainly his situation must be heart breaking gaetano returned in the frigate i believe he saw enough of naples he carried his family money and mister falconet
gibbs being absent will pay mister greville's pension to gaetano's family i have now sent gaetano to the post and he desires to present his duty and to tell you that mister ragland
will not pay any more pensions without orders from mister greville vincenzo has had none paid he is very poor keeps a shop
i cannot afford to maintain him therefore i shall give no encouragement old antonio was allowed a carline a day that is now not paid sabatello lives with mister elliot
nicolo and mary antonio have left mister gibbs for some cause gaetano says he believes for amore francesca has two children living and another coming she lives the best amongst them like gallant homme
pasqual lives with the duke montelione and joseph with the old russian your house is a hotel the upper parts are kept for the marquis the owner
inquired kindly after us and all the women at santa lucia expected when they saw gaetano that you was arrived bread never was so dear
we are very much gratified by your kind and friendly letters they are very interesting to us and they give an additional zest to our breakfast indeed they are the only things give us any comfort in our absence
how unfortunate it was we left town as we did i had a letter yesterday morning from my great and beloved brother
god grant it may have the desired effect but they are all so engaged that i fear it much at any rate our good friend has done what he can he tells me he shall be at yarmouth to morrow or next day
a near relation of our's who has not seen my lord since his return to england
so we set out on sunday afternoon for we parsons can't go till the sunday duty is over we sleep at norwich and hope to be at yarmouth early on monday i have written to my brother by this post so that
if he is likely to have sailed before monday he has time to stop us yarmouth is sixty miles from hence i have written you all these particulars because
missus nelson does not go with us so you must be charitable to her and give her a letter or two we shall return by the following sunday i see by the papers the king was better on tuesday
she will thank you to keep the two guineas my lord left for charlotte till you hear from her as she has thought of laying it out in a frock for her
we both join in united regards to sir william and believe me your ladyship's faithful and most obliged and affectionate friend wm nelson
hilborough march twenty ninth eighteen o one my dear lady as i have duty to day both morning and afternoon and to preach twice i have only time to scrawl a few lines to you between the services i will write to my deary to morrow
unless it changes it may be some time first pray god it may be good when it does arrive i was rather surprised to hear tom tit that bad bird had taken his flight to town
but he is a prying little animal and wishes to know every thing and as he is so small and insignificant his movements are not always observed
but if i should accidentally your ladyship shall depend on hearing from me immediately
and that you think him so like his great his glorious his immortal uncle why should he not be like him is it so very uncommon for such near relations to have some similitude they who say otherwise
only say it out of envy malice and hatred and all uncharitableness
god bless you my dear lady and believe me your's faithfully wm nelson tell me in your next whether you have seen that little bird called tom tit
my dear lady hamilton i have written two long letters to my jewel but i still seem to have more to say
i hope sir william will be able to amuse himself with fishing a little the weather is too hot for me to come to london and i can't leave my parish at this time tell my brother i should have great pleasure in seeing him and will go with him to plymouth
or any where else if he particularly desires it when you have seen parker and langford you can give me a particular account of the state of their wounds i feel much for them
it will save some trouble i wish you could get a comfortable house near london you will find mister nayler of the herald's office a pleasant young man
if jove gets a higher title perhaps things may be settled more to our minds now we are already in the patent as barons it will be no difficult matter
if my brother wishes this i only mention entre nous without having a desire on the subject i am perfectly satisfied that i am in the patent i don't mean to say more to my brother
i wish you was here and you should not laugh at me for nothing i would give you as good as you brought at any time
without being obliged to go to others to assume a name which scarcely belongs to them
but i hope to god the present young horatio will go on as we all wish and transmit a long race to posterity i am delighted with doctor heath's letter to my brother and the character he gives of him
my only fear is that we shall spoil him among us i have not yet heard from him how he felt himself i should have liked to have peeped slyly into his room and seen how he acted on first receiving the joyful intelligence
i don't know enough how to thank my brother for all his goodness to me and mine my heart overflows whenever i think of it but i can't sit down and write a formal letter of thanks it would be too absurd for me to write or him to read
he well knows me and i leave it to your ladyship my best and truest friend to say every thing to him for and from me
i wish my brother had done with this business i hope a peace will soon put an end to his toils and dangers
my dear lady hamilton i hope you will have received my long letter of sunday's date by this time i wonder you should accuse me of remissness in not writing to you i told you then and i repeat it now
that i would always give you as good as you brought and upon looking back to the last week's letters i find i have always answered your's whenever i had one and generally by the same post
i said i should write no more till you got back to london nor should i now
i am glad missus nelson is likely to come home soon but i hear nothing about your intentions i shall write to her to morrow and direct my letter to piccadilly where i hope it will find her
and if this letter travels to deal and follows you to london it is no matter
i gave public notice were intended in a great degree for the whole party missus bolton is here for a day to help my solitary life i find lady n has taken a house in somerset street
portman square she and my father are to spend the winter in london and i am informed he is to pay half whether it is ready furnished or not i can't tell mister edwards is this moment gone
and begs his compliments to you all believe me your's most faithfully wm nelson compliments to parker and langford
canterbury february ninth eighteen o five dear lady hamilton i send you a small parcel which i will thank you to forward to my brother if you think there is a chance of his getting it before he leaves the mediterranean but
if you have reason to expect him home very soon
chapter fourteen jem's interview with poor esther know the temptation ere you judge the crime look on this tree
yet now save these few shoots how dry and rotten thou canst not tell the cause not long ago a neighbour oak with which its roots were twined
in falling wrenched them with such cruel force that though we covered them again with care its beauty withered and it pined away so could we look into the human breast how oft the fatal blight that meets our view
should we trace down to the torn bleeding fibres of a too trusting heart where it were shame for pitying tears to give contempt or blame street walks the month was over
the honeymoon to the newly married the exquisite convalescence to the living mother of a living child the first dark days of nothingness to the widow and the child bereaved the term of penance of hard labour
sick and in prison and ye visited me shall you or i receive such blessing
from the only shelter she could meet with houseless and pennyless as she was on that dreary day but it was but for an instant that she stood there doubting one thought had haunted her both by night and by day
with monomaniacal incessancy and that thought was how to save mary her dead sister's only child her own little pet in the days of her innocence from following in the same downward path to vice
to whom could she speak and ask for aid she shrank from the idea of addressing john barton again her heart sank within her at the remembrance of his fierce repulsing action and far fiercer words
it seemed worse than death to reveal her condition to mary else she sometimes thought that this course would be the most terrible the most efficient warning she must speak to that she was soul compelled but to whom
she dreaded addressing any of her former female acquaintance even supposing they had sense or spirit or interest enough to undertake her mission to whom shall the outcast prostitute tell her tale
who will give her help in her day of need hers is the leper sin and all stand aloof dreading to be counted unclean in her wild night wanderings
you may easily imagine that a double interest was attached by her to the ways and companionships of those with whom she had been acquainted in the days which when present
but which now in retrospection seemed so happy and unclouded accordingly she had as we have seen known where to meet with john barton on that unfortunate night which had only produced irritation in him and a month's imprisonment to her
she had seen him walking and talking with both father and son her old friends too and she had shed unregarded unvalued tears when some one had casually told her of george wilson's sudden death
it now flashed across her mind that to the son to mary's play fellow her elder brother in the days of childhood her tale might be told
all these thoughts had passed through her mind while yet she was in prison so when she was turned out her purpose was clear and she did not feel her desolation of freedom as she would otherwise have done that night
she stationed herself early near the foundry where she knew jem worked he stayed later than usual being detained by some arrangements for the morrow she grew tired and impatient
many workmen had come out of the door in the long dead brick wall and eagerly had she peered into their faces deaf to all insult or curse he must have gone home early one more turn in the street and she would go
during that turn he came out and in the quiet of that street of workshops and warehouses she directly heard his steps
but still she was not daunted from her purpose painful as its fulfilment was sure to be she laid her hand on his arm as she expected
after a momentary glance at the person who thus endeavoured to detain him he made an effort to shake it off and pass on but trembling as she was
you must listen to me jem wilson she said with almost an accent of command go away missis i've nought to do with you either in hearkening or talking he made another struggle you must listen
she said again authoritatively for mary barton's sake the spell of her name was as potent as that of the mariner's glittering eye he listened like a three year child
he interrupted his earnest gaze into her face with the exclamation and who can yo be to know mary barton or to know that she's ought to me
there was a little strife in esther's mind for an instant between the shame of acknowledging herself and the additional weight to her revelation which such acknowledgment would give then she spoke do you remember esther
the sister of john barton's wife the aunt to mary and the valentine i sent you last february ten years yes i mind her well but yo are not esther are you he looked again into her face
and seeing that indeed it was his boyhood's friend he took her hand and shook it with a cordiality that forgot the present in the past why esther
the question was asked thoughtlessly but answered with fierce earnestness where have i been what have i been doing why do you torment me with questions like these can you not guess
afterwards i will tell it you nay don't change your fickle mind now and say you don't want to hear it you must hear it and i must tell it and then see after mary and take care she does not become like me as she is loving now
so did i love once one above me far she remarked not in her own absorption the change in jem's breathing the sudden clutch at the wall which told the fearfully vivid interest he took in what she said
he was so handsome so kind well the regiment was ordered to chester did i tell you he was an officer and he could not bear to part from me nor i from him
i never thought poor mary would have taken it so to heart
they all do then came three years of happiness
but i was i had a little girl too oh the sweetest darling that ever was seen but i must not think of her putting her hand wildly up to her forehead or i shall go mad i shall
don't tell me any more about yoursel said jem soothingly what you're tired already are you
you shall hear it i won't recall the agony of the past for nothing i will have the relief of telling it
sinking her voice into a plaintive child like manner
and must leave me behind at bristol we then were jem muttered some words she caught their meaning and in a pleading voice continued oh don't abuse him don't speak a word against him
you don't guess how kind he was he gave me fifty pound before we parted and i knew he could ill spare it don't jem please as his muttered indignation rose again for her sake he ceased
i might have done better with the money i see now
formerly i had earned it easily enough at the factory
while i lived with him i had it for asking and fifty pounds would i thought go a long way so i went back to chester where i'd been so happy and set up a small ware shop and hired a room near we should have done well
but alas alas my little girl fell ill and i could not mind my shop and her too and things grew worse and worse
i wrote over and over again to her father for help but he must have changed his quarters
the landlord seized the few bobbins and tapes i had left for shop rent and the person to whom the mean little room
threatened to turn us out unless his rent was paid
and it was winter cold bleak winter
almost amounting to insanity and shaking jem's arm in order to force an answer from him
her voice had lost its wildness and she spoke with the quiet of despair but it's no matter i've done that since which separates us as far asunder as heaven and hell can be
her voice rose again to the sharp pitch of agony my darling my darling
like a little angel what is that text i don't remember that text mother used to teach me when i sat on her knee long ago it begins
for they shall see god ay that's it
it did break mary's heart you see
you know mary barton don't you said she trying to collect her thoughts yes jem knew her how well his beating heart could testify well
he deeply pitied her but oh how he longed to recall her mind to the subject of mary and the lover above her in rank and the service to be done for her sake but he controlled himself to silence
after awhile she spoke again and in a calmer voice when i came to manchester
i found you all out very soon
i used to watch about the court where john lived for many and many a night and gather all i could about them from the neighbours talk
many's the time i've watched the policeman off his beat and peeped through the chink of the window shutter to see the old room
i found out mary went to learn dress making
and after many an hour of weary work they're ready to follow after any novelty that makes a little change but i made up my mind that bad as i was i could watch over mary and perhaps keep her from harm
often when she little knew any one was near her there was one of her companions i never could abide
by and bye mary's walks homewards were not alone she was joined soon after she came out by a man a gentleman i began to fear for her for i saw she was light hearted and pleased with his attentions
and i thought worse of him for having such long talks with that bold girl i told you of but i was laid up for a long time with spitting of blood and could do nothing i'm sure it made me worse thinking about what might be happening to mary
and when i came out all was going on as before
and oh jem her father won't listen to me and it's you must save mary you're like a brother to her and maybe could give her advice and watch over her and at any rate john will hearken to you only he's so stern and so cruel
but jem cut her short by his hoarse stern inquiry who is this spark that mary loves tell me his name it's young carson old carson's son that your father worked for there was a pause
she broke the silence oh jem i charge you with the care of her i suppose it would be murder to kill her but it would be better for her to die than to live to lead such a life as i do
better we were all dead this was said as if thinking aloud but he immediately changed his tone and continued esther you may trust to my doing all i can for mary that i have determined on
and now listen to me you loathe the life you lead else you would not speak of it as you do come home with me come to my mother she and my aunt alice live together
then she said god bless you jem
some years ago you might have saved me as i hope and trust you will yet save mary
too late she added with accents of deep despair still he did not relax his hold come home he said i tell you i cannot
i could not lead a virtuous life if i would i should only disgrace you if you will know all said she as he still seemed inclined to urge her i must have drink such as live like me could not bear life if they did not drink
it's the only thing to keep us from suicide if we did not drink we could not stand the memory of what we have been and the thought of what we are for a day if i go without food and without shelter i must have my dram
and glaring round with terrified eyes as if dreading to see some spiritual creature with dim form near her
whispering in tones of wildness although so low spoken there they go round and round my bed the whole night through my mother carrying little annie i wonder how they got together
and mary and all looking at me with their sad stony eyes oh jem it is so terrible they don't turn back either but pass behind the head of the bed and i feel their eyes on me everywhere if i creep under the clothes i still see them
hissing out her words with fright
oh could he then do nothing for her she spoke again but in a less excited tone although it was thrillingly earnest you are grieved for me
i am past hope you can yet save mary you must she is innocent
jem you will save her with heart and soul though in few words jem promised that if aught earthly could keep her from falling he would do it then she blessed him and bade him good night
stay a minute said he as she was on the point of departure
where do you live she laughed strangely and do you think one sunk so low as i am has a home decent good people have homes we have none no if you want me
come at night and look at the corners of the streets about here the colder the bleaker the more stormy the night the more certain you will be to find me for then she added with a plaintive fall in her voice
and i want a dram more than ever again she rapidly turned off and jem also went on his way but before he reached the end of the street even in the midst of the jealous anguish that filled his heart his conscience smote him
he had not done enough to save her one more effort and she might have come nay twenty efforts would have been well rewarded by her yielding he turned back but she was gone
in the tumult of his other feelings his self reproach was deadened for the time but many and many a day afterwards he bitterly regretted his omission of duty his weariness of well doing
now the great thing was to reach home and solitude mary loved another oh how should he bear it he had thought her rejection of him a hard trial but that was nothing now
he only remembered it to be thankful he had not yielded to the temptation of trying his fate again not in actual words but in a meeting where her manner should tell far more than words that her sweeter smiles her dainty movements
her pretty household ways were all to be reserved to gladden another's eyes and heart and he must live on that seemed the strangest that a long life and he knew men did live long even with deep biting sorrow corroding at their hearts
must be spent without mary nay with the consciousness she was another's that hell of thought he would reserve for the quiet of his own room the dead stillness of night he was on the threshold of home now
he entered there were the usual faces the usual sights he loathed them and then he cursed himself because he loathed them
alice her dulled senses deadening day by day sat mutely near the fire
knowing that his voice repeated what was passing to her deafened ear that his arm removed each little obstacle to her tottering steps and will out of the very kindness of his heart talked more and more merrily than ever
he saw jem was downcast and fancied his rattling might cheer him at any rate it drowned his aunt's muttered grumblings and in some measure concealed the blank of the evening at last bed time came
and will withdrew to his neighbouring lodging and jane and alice wilson had raked the fire and fastened doors and shutters and pattered up stairs with their tottering foot steps and shrill voices jem too went to the closet termed his bed room
there was no bolt to the door but by one strong effort of his right arm a heavy chest was moved against it and he could sit down on the side of his bed and think mary loved another
that idea would rise uppermost in his mind and had to be combated in all its forms of pain it was perhaps no great wonder that she should prefer one so much above jem in the external things of life but the gentleman
why did he with his range of choice among the ladies of the land why did he stoop down to carry off the poor man's darling with all the glories of the garden at his hand why did he prefer to cull the wild rose
jem's own fragrant wild rose his own oh never now his own gone for evermore then uprose the guilty longing for blood the frenzy of jealousy
some one should die he would rather mary were dead cold in her grave than that she were another's a vision of her pale sweet face with her bright hair all bedabbled with gore seemed to float constantly before his aching eyes
but hers were ever open and contained in their soft deathly look such mute reproach what had she done to deserve such cruel treatment from him she had been wooed by one whom jem knew to be handsome gay and bright
that was all it was the wooer who should die yes die knowing the cause of his death jem pictured him and gloated on the picture lying smitten yet conscious
and listening to the upbraiding accusation of his murderer how he had left his own rank and dared to love a maiden of low degree and oh stinging agony of all how she in return had loved him
then the other nature spoke up and bade him remember the anguish he should so prepare for mary at first he refused to listen to that better voice or listened only to pervert he would glory in her wailing grief
he would take pleasure in her desolation of heart no he could not said the still small voice it would be worse
than it was now to bear his present heavy burden but it was too heavy too grievous to be borne and live he would slay himself and the lovers should love on
and the sun shine bright and he with his burning woeful heart would be at rest
had he not promised with such earnest purpose of soul as makes words more solemn than oaths to save mary from becoming such as esther should he shrink from the duties of life into the cowardliness of death
who would then guard mary with her love and her innocence would it not be a goodly thing to serve her although she loved him not to be her preserving angel through the perils of life and she unconscious all the while
he braced up his soul and said to himself that with god's help he would be that earthly keeper and now the mists and the storms seemed clearing away from his path though it still was full of stinging thorns
having done the duty nearest to him of reducing the tumult of his own heart to something like order the second became more plain before him poor esther's experience had led her perhaps too hastily
to the conclusion that mister carson's intentions were evil towards mary
it was possible nay to jem's heart very probable that he might only be too happy to marry her she was a lady by right of nature jem thought in movement grace and spirit
what was birth to a manchester manufacturer many of whom glory and justly too in being the architects of their own fortunes and as far as wealth was concerned judging another by himself
jem could only imagine it a great privilege to lay it at the feet of the loved one harry carson's mother had been a factory girl so after all what was the great reason for doubting his intentions towards mary
there might probably be some little awkwardness about the affair at first mary's father having such strong prejudices on the one hand and something of the same kind being likely to exist on the part of mister carson's family
but jem knew he had power over john barton's mind and it would be something to exert that power in promoting mary's happiness and to relinquish all thought of self in so doing
oh why had esther chosen him for this office it was beyond his strength to act rightly why had she singled him out the answer came when he was calm enough to listen for it
because mary had no other friend capable of the duty required of him the duty of a brother as esther imagined him to be in feeling from his long friendship he would be unto her as a brother
as such he ought to ascertain harry carson's intentions towards her in winning her affections he would ask him straightforwardly as became man speaking to man not concealing if need were
the interest he felt in mary then with the resolve to do his duty to the best of his power peace came into his soul he had left the windy storm and tempest behind two hours before day dawn
chapter two the science of deduction we met next day as he had arranged
of which he had spoken at our meeting they consisted of a couple of comfortable bed rooms and a single large airy sitting room cheerfully furnished and illuminated by two broad windows
so desirable in every way were the apartments and so moderate did the terms seem when divided between us that the bargain was concluded upon the spot and we at once entered into possession
that very evening i moved my things round from the hotel and on the following morning sherlock holmes followed me with several boxes and portmanteaus
we were busily employed in unpacking and laying out our property to the best advantage that done we gradually began to settle down and to accommodate ourselves to our new surroundings holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with
he was quiet in his ways and his habits were regular it was rare for him to be up after ten at night and he had invariably breakfasted and gone out before i rose in the morning
sometimes in the dissecting rooms and occasionally in long walks which appeared to take him into the lowest portions of the city nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him but now and again
a reaction would seize him and for days on end he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting room hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night on these occasions i have noticed such a dreamy vacant expression in his eyes
that i might have suspected him of being addicted to the use of some narcotic had not the temperance and cleanliness of his whole life forbidden such a notion as the weeks went by
my interest in him and my curiosity as to his aims in life gradually deepened and increased his very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer
in height he was rather over six feet and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller his eyes were sharp and piercing save during those intervals of torpor to which i have alluded
and his thin hawk like nose gave his whole expression an air of alertness and decision his chin too had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of determination
his hands were invariably blotted with ink and stained with chemicals yet he was possessed of extraordinary delicacy of touch
as i frequently had occasion to observe when i watched him manipulating his fragile philosophical instruments the reader may set me down as a hopeless busybody when i confess how much this man stimulated my curiosity
and how often i endeavoured to break through the reticence which he showed on all that concerned himself before pronouncing judgment however be it remembered how objectless was my life and how little there was to engage my attention
my health forbade me from venturing out unless the weather was exceptionally genial and i had no friends who would call upon me and break the monotony of my daily existence under these circumstances
i eagerly hailed the little mystery which hung around my companion and spent much of my time in endeavouring to unravel it he was not studying medicine he had himself in reply to a question
neither did he appear to have pursued any course of reading
yet his zeal for certain studies was remarkable and within eccentric limits his knowledge was so extraordinarily ample and minute that his observations have fairly astounded me surely no man would work so hard
or attain such precise information unless he had some definite end in view desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning no man burdens his mind with small matters
unless he has some very good reason for doing so his ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge of contemporary literature philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing
upon my quoting thomas carlyle he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done my surprise reached a climax however when i found incidentally that he was ignorant of the copernican theory
and of the composition of the solar system that any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that i could hardly realize it
you appear to be astonished he said smiling at my expression of surprise now that i do know it i shall do my best to forget it to forget it you see he explained
i consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose a fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out
now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain attic he will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work
it is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before it is of the highest importance therefore
not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones but the solar system i protested what the deuce is it to me he interrupted impatiently you say that we go round the sun if we went round the moon
it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work i was on the point of asking him what that work might be but something in his manner showed me that the question would be an unwelcome one i pondered over our short conversation however
and endeavoured to draw my deductions from it he said that he would acquire no knowledge which did not bear upon his object therefore all the knowledge which he possessed was such as would be useful to him i enumerated in my own mind
i even took a pencil and jotted them down i could not help smiling at the document when i had completed it it ran in this way sherlock holmes his limits one
knowledge of literature nil two philosophy nil three astronomy nil four politics feeble
five botany variable well up in belladonna opium and poisons generally knows nothing of practical gardening six geology
practical but limited tells at a glance different soils from each other after walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of london he had received them seven
chemistry profound eight anatomy accurate but unsystematic nine sensational literature immense
he appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century ten plays the violin well eleven is an expert singlestick player boxer and swordsman twelve
has a good practical knowledge of british law when i had got so far in my list i threw it into the fire in despair if i can only find what the fellow is driving at by reconciling all these accomplishments
and discovering a calling which needs them all i said to myself i may as well give up the attempt at once i see that i have alluded above to his powers upon the violin these were very remarkable
but as eccentric as all his other accomplishments that he could play pieces and difficult pieces i knew well because at my request he has played me some of mendelssohn's lieder and other favourites when left to himself however
he would seldom produce any music or attempt any recognized air leaning back in his arm chair of an evening he would close his eyes
sometimes the chords were sonorous and melancholy occasionally they were fantastic and cheerful clearly they reflected the thoughts which possessed him but whether the music aided those thoughts
or whether the playing was simply the result of a whim or fancy was more than i could determine i might have rebelled against these exasperating solos had it not been that he usually terminated them by playing in quick succession
a whole series of my favourite airs as a slight compensation for the trial upon my patience during the first week or so we had no callers and i had begun to think that my companion was as friendless a man as i was myself
presently however i found that he had many acquaintances and those in the most different classes of society there was one little sallow rat faced dark eyed fellow who was introduced to me as mister lestrade
and who came three or four times in a single week one morning a young girl called fashionably dressed and stayed for half an hour or more the same afternoon brought a grey headed seedy visitor
who appeared to me to be much excited and who was closely followed by a slip shod elderly woman on another occasion an old white haired gentleman had an interview with my companion and on another a railway porter
in his velveteen uniform when any of these nondescript individuals put in an appearance
study in scarlet
being a reprint from the reminiscences of john h watson m d
in the year eighteen seventy eight i took my degree of doctor of medicine of the university of london and proceeded to netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army
having completed my studies there i was duly attached to the fifth northumberland fusiliers as assistant surgeon the regiment was stationed in india at the time and before i could join it
the second afghan war had broken out on landing at bombay i learned that my corps had advanced through the passes and was already deep in the enemy's country i followed however
with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself and succeeded in reaching candahar in safety where i found my regiment and at once entered upon my new duties
the campaign brought honours and promotion to many but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster i was removed from my brigade
with whom i served at the fatal battle of maiwand there i was struck on the shoulder
which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery i should have fallen into the hands of the murderous ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by murray my orderly who threw me across a pack horse
and succeeded in bringing me safely to the british lines worn with pain and weak from the prolonged hardships which i had undergone i was removed with a great train of wounded sufferers to the base hospital at peshawar
here i rallied and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards and even to bask a little upon the verandah when i was struck down by enteric fever that curse of our indian possessions
and when at last i came to myself and became convalescent i was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to england i was dispatched accordingly
in the troopship orontes and landed a month later on portsmouth jetty with my health irretrievably ruined but with permission from a paternal government to spend the next nine months in attempting to improve it
i had neither kith nor kin in england and was therefore as free as air or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be under such circumstances i naturally gravitated to london
that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the empire are irresistibly drained there i stayed for some time at a private hotel in the strand leading a comfortless meaningless existence
and spending such money as i had considerably more freely than i ought so alarming did the state of my finances become that i soon realized that i must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country
or that i must make a complete alteration in my style of living choosing the latter alternative i began by making up my mind to leave the hotel
and to take up my quarters in some less pretentious and less expensive domicile on the very day that i had come to this conclusion i was standing at the criterion bar when some one tapped me on the shoulder
and turning round i recognized young stamford who had been a dresser under me at barts the sight of a friendly face in the great wilderness of london is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man in old days
stamford had never been a particular crony of mine but now i hailed him with enthusiasm and he in his turn appeared to be delighted to see me in the exuberance of my joy i asked him to lunch with me at the holborn
and we started off together in a hansom whatever have you been doing with yourself watson he asked in undisguised wonder as we rattled through the crowded london streets
i gave him a short sketch of my adventures and had hardly concluded it by the time that we reached our destination poor devil he said commiseratingly after he had listened to my misfortunes
that's a strange thing remarked my companion you are the second man to day that has used that expression to me and who was the first
and which were too much for his purse by jove i cried if he really wants someone to share the rooms and the expense i am the very man for him i should prefer having a partner to being alone
young stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wine glass
perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion why what is there against him
he is a little queer in his ideas an enthusiast in some branches of science as far as i know he is a decent fellow enough a medical student i suppose said i no
i have no idea what he intends to go in for i believe he is well up in anatomy and he is a first class chemist but as far as i know he has never taken out any systematic medical classes
his studies are very desultory and eccentric but he has amassed a lot of out of the way knowledge which would astonish his professors did you never ask him what he was going in for i asked no
though he can be communicative enough when the fancy seizes him i should like to meet him i said if i am to lodge with anyone i should prefer a man of studious and quiet habits
i am not strong enough yet to stand much noise or excitement i had enough of both in afghanistan to last me for the remainder of my natural existence how could i meet this friend of yours
returned my companion he either avoids the place for weeks or else he works there from morning to night
we shall drive round together after luncheon certainly i answered and the conversation drifted away into other channels as we made our way to the hospital after leaving the holborn
stamford gave me a few more particulars about the gentleman whom i proposed to take as a fellow lodger you mustn't blame me if you don't get on with him he said
you proposed this arrangement so you must not hold me responsible if we don't get on it will be easy to part company i answered it seems to me stamford i added looking hard at my companion
that you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter is this fellow's temper so formidable or what is it don't be mealy mouthed about it it is not easy to express the inexpressible he answered with a laugh
holmes is a little too scientific for my tastes it approaches to cold bloodedness i could imagine his giving a friend a little pinch of the latest vegetable alkaloid not out of malevolence you understand but
simply out of a spirit of inquiry in order to have an accurate idea of the effects to do him justice i think that he would take it himself with the same readiness he appears to have a passion for definite and exact knowledge
very right too yes but it may be pushed to excess when it comes to beating the subjects in the dissecting rooms with a stick it is certainly taking rather a bizarre shape beating the subjects
yes to verify how far bruises may be produced after death i saw him at it with my own eyes and yet you say he is not a medical student no heaven knows what the objects of his studies are
but here we are and you must form your own impressions about him as he spoke we turned down a narrow lane and passed through a small side door which opened into a wing of the great hospital it was familiar ground to me
and i needed no guiding as we ascended the bleak stone staircase and made our way down the long corridor with its vista of whitewashed wall and dun coloured doors near the further end a low arched passage branched away from it
this was a lofty chamber lined and littered with countless bottles broad low tables were scattered about which bristled with retorts test tubes
who was bending over a distant table absorbed in his work at the sound of our steps he glanced round and sprang to his feet with a cry of pleasure i've found it i've found it he shouted to my companion running towards us with a test tube in his hand
had he discovered a gold mine greater delight could not have shone upon his features doctor watson mister sherlock holmes said stamford introducing us
how are you he said cordially gripping my hand with a strength for which i should hardly have given him credit you have been in afghanistan i perceive how on earth did you know that i asked in astonishment never mind said he chuckling to himself
no doubt you see the significance of this discovery of mine it is interesting chemically no doubt i answered but practically why man it is the most practical medico legal discovery for years
come over here now he seized me by the coat sleeve in his eagerness and drew me over to the table at which he had been working let us have some fresh blood he said digging a long bodkin into his finger
and drawing off the resulting drop of blood in a chemical pipette now i add this small quantity of blood to a litre of water you perceive that the resulting mixture has the appearance of pure water the proportion of blood cannot be more than one in a million
i have no doubt however that we shall be able to obtain the characteristic reaction as he spoke he threw into the vessel a few white crystals and then added some drops of a transparent fluid in an instant
the contents assumed a dull mahogany colour and a brownish dust was precipitated to the bottom of the glass jar ha ha he cried clapping his hands and looking as delighted as a child with a new toy what do you think of that
it seems to be a very delicate test i remarked beautiful beautiful the old guiacum test was very clumsy and uncertain so is the microscopic examination for blood corpuscles
the latter is valueless if the stains are a few hours old now this appears to act as well whether the blood is old or new had this test been invented
indeed i murmured criminal cases are continually hinging upon that one point a man is suspected of a crime months perhaps after it has been committed his linen or clothes are examined
and brownish stains discovered upon them are they blood stains or mud stains or rust stains or fruit stains or what are they that is a question which has puzzled many an expert and why
because there was no reliable test now we have the sherlock holmes test and there will no longer be any difficulty his eyes fairly glittered as he spoke and he put his hand over his heart
and bowed as if to some applauding crowd conjured up by his imagination you are to be congratulated i remarked considerably surprised at his enthusiasm there was the case of von bischoff at frankfort last year
he would certainly have been hung had this test been in existence then there was mason of bradford and the notorious muller and lefevre of montpellier and samson of new orleans
you seem to be a walking calendar of crime said stamford with a laugh you might start a paper on those lines call it the police news of the past
remarked sherlock holmes sticking a small piece of plaster over the prick on his finger i have to be careful he continued turning to me with a smile for i dabble with poisons a good deal he held out his hand as he spoke
and i noticed that it was all mottled over with similar pieces of plaster and discoloured with strong acids we came here on business said stamford sitting down on a high three legged stool and pushing another one in my direction with his foot
my friend here wants to take diggings and as you were complaining that you could get no one to go halves with you
together sherlock holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with me i have my eye on a suite in baker street he said which would suit us down to the ground you don't mind the smell of strong tobacco i hope
i answered that's good enough i generally have chemicals about and occasionally do experiments would that annoy you by no means let me see what are my other shortcomings i get in the dumps at times and don't open my mouth for days on end
you must not think i am sulky when i do that just let me alone and i'll soon be right what have you to confess now
i laughed at this cross examination i keep a bull pup i said and i object to rows because my nerves are shaken and i get up at all sorts of ungodly hours and i am extremely lazy
i have another set of vices when i'm well but those are the principal ones at present
it depends on the player i answered a well played violin is a treat for the gods a badly played one oh that's all right he cried with a merry laugh i think we may consider the thing as settled that is if the rooms are agreeable to you
when shall we see them call for me here at noon to morrow and we'll go together and settle everything he answered all right noon exactly said i shaking his hand we left him working among his chemicals
and we walked together towards my hotel by the way i asked suddenly stopping and turning upon stamford
my companion smiled an enigmatical smile that's just his little peculiarity he said a good many people have wanted to know how he finds things out
oh a mystery is it i cried rubbing my hands this is very piquant i am much obliged to you for bringing us together the proper study of mankind is man you know
you must study him then stamford said as he bade me good bye you'll find him a knotty problem though i'll wager he learns more about you than you about him good bye good bye i answered
in my own judgment the most important service that i rendered to peace was the voyage of the battle fleet round the world i had become convinced that for many reasons it was essential that we should have it clearly understood
by our own people especially but also by other peoples that the pacific was as much our home waters as the atlantic and that our fleet could and would at will pass from one to the other of the two great oceans
it seemed to me evident that such a voyage would greatly benefit the navy itself would arouse popular interest in and enthusiasm for the navy and would make foreign nations accept as a matter of course
that our fleet should from time to time be gathered in the pacific just as from time to time it was gathered in the atlantic
and that its presence in one ocean was no more to be accepted as a mark of hostility to any asiatic power than its presence in the atlantic was to be accepted as a mark of hostility to any european power i determined on the move
without consulting the cabinet precisely as i took panama without consulting the cabinet a council of war never fights and in a crisis the duty of a leader is to lead
and not to take refuge behind the generally timid wisdom of a multitude of councillors at that time as i happen to know neither the english nor the german authorities believed it possible to take a fleet of great battleships round the world
they did not believe that their own fleets could perform the feat and still less did they believe that the american fleet could i made up my mind that it was time to have a show down in the matter
many persons publicly and privately protested against the move on the ground that japan would accept it as a threat to this i answered nothing in public in private i said that i did not believe japan would so regard it
because japan knew my sincere friendship and admiration for her
and that if there were any such feeling on the part of japan as was alleged that very fact rendered it imperative that that fleet should go when in the spring of nineteen ten i was in europe
i was interested to find that high naval authorities in both germany and italy had expected that war would come at the time of the voyage
i answered that i did not expect it that i believed that japan would feel as friendly in the matter as we did but that if my expectations had proved mistaken it would have been proof positive that we were going to be attacked anyhow
and that in such event it would have been an enormous gain to have had the three months preliminary preparation which enabled the fleet to start perfectly equipped in a personal interview before they left i had explained to the officers in command
that i believed the trip would be one of absolute peace but that they were to take exactly the same precautions against sudden attack of any kind as if we were at war with all the nations of the earth
and that no excuse of any kind would be accepted if there were a sudden attack of any kind and we were taken unawares my prime purpose was to impress the american people and this purpose was fully achieved
the cruise did make a very deep impression abroad boasting about what we have done does not impress foreign nations at all except unfavorably but positive achievement does
and the two american achievements that really impressed foreign peoples during the first dozen years of this century were the digging of the panama canal and the cruise of the battle fleet round the world
but the impression made on our own people was of far greater consequence no single thing in the history of the new united states navy has done as much to stimulate popular interest and belief in it as the world cruise
this effect was forecast in a well informed and friendly english periodical the london spectator writing in october nineteen o seven a month before the fleet sailed from hampton roads the spectator said
all over america the people will follow the movements of the fleet they will learn something of the intricate details of the coaling and commissariat work under warlike conditions and in a word their attention will be aroused
next time mister roosevelt or his representatives appeal to the country for new battleships they will do so to people whose minds have been influenced one way or the other the naval programme will not have stood still
we are sure that apart from increasing the efficiency of the existing fleet this is the aim which mister roosevelt has in mind he has a policy which projects itself far into the future
but it is an entire misreading of it to suppose that it is aimed narrowly and definitely at any single power i first directed the fleet of sixteen battleships to go round through the straits of magellan to san francisco
from thence i ordered them to new zealand and australia then to the philippines china and japan and home through suez they stopped in the mediterranean to help the sufferers from the earthquake at messina by the way
and did this work as effectively as they had done all their other work admiral evans commanded the fleet to san francisco there admiral sperry took it admirals thomas wainwright and schroeder rendered distinguished service under evans and sperry
the coaling and other preparations were made in such excellent shape by the department that there was never a hitch not so much as the delay of an hour in keeping every appointment made all the repairs were made without difficulty
the ship concerned merely falling out of column for a few hours and when the job was done steaming at speed until she regained her position
as soon as it was known that the voyage was to be undertaken men crowded to enlist just as freely from the mississippi valley as from the seaboard and for the first time since the spanish war the ships put to sea overmanned
and by as stalwart a set of men of war's men as ever looked through a porthole
that in all the ports in which they landed their conduct was exemplary the fleet practiced incessantly during the voyage both with the guns and in battle tactics and came home a much more efficient fighting instrument than when it started sixteen months before
the best men of command rank in our own service were confident that the fleet would go round in safety in spite of the incredulity of foreign critics even they however
did not believe that it was wise to send the torpedo craft around i accordingly acquiesced in their views
but shortly before the fleet started i went in the government yacht mayflower to inspect the target practice off provincetown i was accompanied by two torpedo boat destroyers in charge of a couple of naval lieutenants thorough gamecocks
towards the end of the dinner they could not refrain from asking if the torpedo flotilla was to go round with the big ships i told them no that the admirals and captains did not believe that the torpedo boats could stand it
and believed that the officers and crews aboard the cockle shells would be worn out by the constant pitching and bouncing and the everlasting need to make repairs my two guests chorused an eager assurance that the boats could stand it
they assured me that the enlisted men were even more anxious to go than were the officers mentioning that on one of their boats the terms of enlistment of most of the crew were out and the men were waiting to see whether or not to reenlist
as they did not care to do so unless the boats were to go on the cruise i answered that i was only too glad to accept the word of the men who were to do the job and that they should certainly go and within half an hour i sent out the order for the flotilla to be got ready
it went round in fine shape not a boat being laid up i felt that the feat reflected even more credit upon the navy than did the circumnavigation of the big ships
may eighteenth nineteen o eight my dear captain cone a great deal of attention has been paid to the feat of our battleship fleet in encircling south america and getting to san francisco
yet if i should draw any distinction at all it would be in favor of you and your associates who have taken out the torpedo flotilla yours was an even more notable feat
and every officer and every enlisted man in the torpedo boat flotilla has the right to feel that he has rendered distinguished service to the united states navy and therefore to the people of the united states and i wish i could thank each of them personally
will you have this letter read by the commanding officer of each torpedo boat to his officers and crew sincerely yours theodore roosevelt lieutenant commander hutch i cone u s n
commanding second torpedo flotilla
there were various amusing features connected with the trip most of the wealthy people and leaders of opinion in the eastern cities were panic struck at the proposal to take the fleet away from atlantic waters
the great new york dailies issued frantic appeals to congress to stop the fleet from going the head of the senate committee on naval affairs announced that the fleet should not and could not go because congress would refuse to appropriate the money he being from an eastern seaboard state
however i announced in response that i had enough money to take the fleet around to the pacific anyhow that the fleet would certainly go and that if congress did not choose to appropriate enough money to get the fleet back why it would stay in the pacific
there was no further difficulty about the money it was not originally my intention that the fleet should visit australia but the australian government sent a most cordial invitation which i gladly accepted
for i have as every american ought to have a hearty admiration for and fellow feeling with australia and i believe that america should be ready to stand back of australia in any serious emergency the reception accorded the fleet in australia was wonderful
the considerate generous and open handed hospitality with which the entire australian people treated our officers and men could not have been surpassed had they been our own countrymen the fleet first visited sydney which has a singularly beautiful harbor
the day after the arrival one of our captains noticed a member of his crew trying to go to sleep on a bench in the park he had fixed above his head a large paper with some lines evidently designed to forestall any questions from friendly would be hosts
i am delighted with the australian people i think your harbor the finest in the world i am very tired and would like to go to sleep
the most noteworthy incident of the cruise was the reception given to our fleet in japan in courtesy and good breeding the japanese can certainly teach much to the nations of the western world
i had been very sure that the people of japan would understand aright what the cruise meant and would accept the visit of our fleet as the signal honor which it was meant to be a proof of the high regard and friendship i felt
and which i was certain the american people felt for the great island empire the event even surpassed my expectations i cannot too strongly express my appreciation of the generous courtesy the japanese showed the officers and crews of our fleet
and i may add that every man of them came back a friend and admirer of the japanese admiral sperry wrote me a letter of much interest dealing not only with the reception in tokyo but with the work of our men at sea i herewith give it almost in full
twenty eight october nineteen o eight dear mister roosevelt my official report of the visit to japan goes forward in this mail but there are certain aspects of the affair so successfully concluded which cannot well be included in the report
you are perhaps aware that mister denison of the japanese foreign office was one of my colleagues at the hague
desiring to avoid every possibility of trouble or misunderstanding i wrote to him last june explaining fully the character of our men which they have so well lived up to
very few of them go into a drinking place except to get a resting place not to be found elsewhere paying for it by taking a drink i also explained our system of landing with liberty men an unarmed patrol properly officered
to quietly take in charge and send off to their ships any men who showed the slightest trace of disorderly conduct this letter he showed to the minister of the navy who highly approved of all our arrangements including the patrol of which i feared they might be jealous
mister denison's reply reached me in manila with a memorandum from the minister of the navy which removed all doubts three temporary piers were built for our boat landings each three hundred feet long brilliantly lighted and decorated
the sleeping accommodations did not permit two or three thousand sailors to remain on shore but the ample landings permitted them to be handled night and day with perfect order and safety
reputable money changers and as many as a thousand english speaking japanese college students acted as volunteer guides besides japanese sailors and petty officers detailed for the purpose in tokyo there were a great many excellent refreshment places
where the men got excellent meals and could rest smoke and write letters and in none of these places would they allow the men to pay anything though they were more than ready to do so the arrangements were marvelously perfect as soon as your telegram of october eighteenth
giving the address to be made to the emperor was received i gave copies of it to our ambassador to be sent to the foreign office it seems that the emperor had already prepared a very cordial address to be forwarded through me to you after delivery at the audience
but your telegram reversed the situation and his reply was prepared i am convinced that your kind and courteous initiative on this occasion helped cause the pleasant feeling which was so obvious in the emperor's bearing at the luncheon which followed the audience x
who is reticent and conservative told me that not only the emperor but all the ministers were profoundly gratified by the course of events i am confident that not even the most trifling incident has taken place which could in any way mar the general satisfaction
and our ambassador has expressed to me his great satisfaction with all that has taken place owing to heavy weather encountered on the passage up from manila the fleet was obliged to take about thirty five hundred tons of coal
the yankton remained behind to keep up communication for a few days and yesterday she transmitted the emperor's telegram to you which was sent in reply to your message through our ambassador after the sailing of the fleet
it must be profoundly gratifying to you to have the mission on which you sent the fleet terminate so happily and i am profoundly thankful that owing to the confidence which you displayed in giving me this command
as for the effect of the cruise upon the training discipline and effectiveness of the fleet the good cannot be exaggerated it is a war game in every detail the wireless communication has been maintained with an efficiency hitherto unheard of
between honolulu and auckland
we were out of communication with a cable station for only one night
between auckland and sydney were only able to do so for a few hours the officers and men as soon as we put to sea turn to their gunnery and tactical work far more eagerly than they go to functions
every morning certain ships leave the column and move off seven or eight thousand yards as targets for range measuring fire control and battery practice for the others and at night certain ships do the same thing for night battery practice
i am sorry to say that this practice is unsatisfactory and in some points misleading owing to the fact that the ships are painted white at portland in nineteen o three i saw admiral barker's white battleships under the searchlights of the army at a distance of fourteen thousand yards
seven sea miles without glasses while the hartford a black ship was never discovered at all though she passed within a mile and a half i have for years while a member of the general board
i do not know that any one now dissents from my view admiral wainwright strongly concurs and the war college conference recommended it year after year without a dissenting voice
in the afternoons the fleet has two or three hours practice at battle maneuvers which excite as keen interest as gunnery exercises the competition in coal economy goes on automatically and reacts in a hundred ways
it has reduced the waste in the use of electric light and water and certain chief engineers are said to keep men ranging over the ships all night turning out every light not in actual and immediate use
perhaps the most important effect is the keen hunt for defects in the machinery causing waste of power the yankton by resetting valves increased her speed from ten to eleven and a half knots on the same expenditure all this has been done but the field is widening
the work has only begun c s sperry when i left the presidency i finished seven and a half years of administration during which not one shot had been fired against a foreign foe we were at absolute peace
and there was no nation in the world with whom a war cloud threatened no nation in the world whom we had wronged or from whom we had anything to fear the cruise of the battle fleet was not the least of the causes which ensured so peaceful an outlook
when the fleet returned after its sixteen months voyage around the world i went down to hampton roads to greet it the day was washington's birthday february twenty second nineteen o seven literally on the minute the homing battlecraft came into view
on the flagship of the admiral i spoke to the officers and enlisted men as follows admiral sperry officers and men of the battle fleet over a year has passed since you steamed out of this harbor and over the world's rim
and this morning the hearts of all who saw you thrilled with pride as the hulls of the mighty warships lifted above the horizon you have been in the northern and the southern hemispheres four times you have crossed the line you have steamed through all the great oceans
you have touched the coast of every continent ever your general course has been westward and now you come back to the port from which you set sail this is the first battle fleet that has ever circumnavigated the globe
those who perform the feat again can but follow in your footsteps the little torpedo flotilla went with you around south america through the straits of magellan to our own pacific coast the armored cruiser squadron met you
and left you again when you were half way round the world you have falsified every prediction of the prophets of failure in all your long cruise not an accident worthy of mention has happened to a single battleship
nor yet to the cruisers or torpedo boats you left this coast in a high state of battle efficiency and you return with your efficiency increased better prepared than when you left not only in personnel but even in material
during your world cruise you have taken your regular gunnery practice and skilled though you were before with the guns you have grown more skilful still and through practice you have improved in battle tactics though here there is more room for improvement than in your gunnery
incidentally i suppose i need hardly say that one measure of your fitness must be your clear recognition of the need always steadily to strive to render yourselves more fit
you can make up your minds that from that moment you will begin to go backward as a war machine the fleet comes back in better shape than it went out in addition you the officers and men of this formidable fighting force
have shown yourselves the best of all possible ambassadors and heralds of peace wherever you have landed you have borne yourselves so as to make us at home proud of being your countrymen
you have shown that the best type of fighting man of the sea knows how to appear to the utmost possible advantage when his business is to behave himself on shore and to make a good impression in a foreign land
chapter thirty nine in the morning we went up to the village and bought a wire rat trap and fetched it down and unstopped the best rat hole and in about an hour we had fifteen of the bulliest kind of ones
and opened the door of it to see if the rats would come out and they did and aunt sally she come in
and the rats was doing what they could to keep off the dull times for her so she took and dusted us both with the hickry and we was as much as two hours catching another fifteen or sixteen
because the first haul was the pick of the flock
we got a splendid stock of sorted spiders and bugs and frogs and caterpillars and one thing or another and we like to got a hornet's nest but we didn't the family was at home we didn't give it right up
but stayed with them as long as we could because we allowed we'd tire them out or they'd got to tire us out and they done it
and was pretty near all right again but couldn't set down convenient
and a rattling good honest day's work and hungry oh no i reckon not and there warn't a blessed snake up there when we went backwe didn't half tie the sack and they worked out somehow and left but it didn't matter much
because they was still on the premises somewheres so we judged we could get some of them again no
you'd see them dripping from the rafters and places every now and then and they generly landed in your plate or down the back of your neck
well they was handsome and striped
she despised snakes be the breed what they might and she couldn't stand them no way you could fix it
she would just lay that work down and light out
she disturbed the old man so that he said he could most wish there hadn't ever been no snakes created why after every last snake had been gone clear out of the house for as much as a week aunt sally warn't over it yet she warn't near over it
it was very curious but tom said all women was just so he said they was made that way for some reason or other we got a licking every time one of our snakes come in her way
and she allowed these lickings warn't nothing to what she would do if we ever loaded up the place again with them i didn't mind the lickings because they didn't amount to nothing but i minded the trouble we had to lay in another lot but we got them laid in
and all the other things and you never see a cabin as blithesome as jim's was when they'd all swarm out for music and go for him jim didn't like the spiders and the spiders didn't like jim and so they'd lay for him and make it mighty warm for him
and he said that between the rats and the snakes and the grindstone there warn't no room in bed for him skasely and when there was a body couldn't sleep
because they never all slept at one time but took turn about so when the snakes was asleep the rats was on deck and when the rats turned in the snakes come on watch so he always had one gang under him in his way
and t'other gang having a circus over him and if he got up to hunt a new place the spiders would take a chance at him as he crossed over
well by the end of three weeks everything was in pretty good shape the shirt was sent in early in a pie
we reckoned we was all going to die but didn't it was the most undigestible sawdust i ever see and tom said the same but as i was saying
but hadn't got no answer because there warn't no such plantation
and i see we hadn't no time to lose so tom said now for the nonnamous letters what's them i says warnings to the people that something is up
when louis x v i was going to light out of the tooleries a servant girl done it it's a very good way and so is the nonnamous letters
let them find it out for themselvesit's their lookout yes i know but you can't depend on them it's the way they've acted from the very startleft us to do everything they're so confiding and mullet headed they don't take notice of nothing at all
and so after all our hard work and trouble this escape ll go off perfectly flat won't amount to nothingwon't be nothing to it well as for me tom that's the way i'd like shucks he says and looked disgusted so i says
but i ain't going to make no complaint any way that suits you suits me
you'll be her you slide in in the middle of the night and hook that yaller girl's frock why tom that ll make trouble next morning because of course she prob'bly hain't got any but that one
i know but you don't want it but fifteen minutes to carry the nonnamous letter and shove it under the front door all right then i'll do it
you wouldn't look like a servant girl then would you
that ain't got nothing to do with it the thing for us to do is just to do our duty and not worry about whether anybody sees us do it or not hain't you got no principle at all all right i ain't saying nothing i'm the servant girl
who's jim's mother i'm his mother i'll hook a gown from aunt sally well then you'll have to stay in the cabin when me and jim leaves not much i'll stuff jim's clothes full of straw and lay it on his bed to represent his mother in disguise
and jim ll take the nigger woman's gown off of me and wear it and we'll all evade together
it's always called so when a king escapes f'rinstance and the same with a king's son it don't make no difference whether he's a natural one or an unnatural one
and shoved it under the front door the way tom told me to it said beware trouble is brewing keep a sharp lookout unknown friend
and next night another one of a coffin on the back door i never see a family in such a sweat
if a door banged aunt sally she jumped and said ouch if anything fell she jumped and said ouch if you happened to touch her when she warn't noticing she done the same she couldn't face noway and be satisfied
and she was afraid to go to bed but she dasn't set up so the thing was working very well tom said he said he never see a thing work more satisfactory he said it showed it was done right so he said now for the grand bulge
so the very next morning at the streak of dawn we got another letter ready and was wondering what we better do with it
and he stuck it in the back of his neck and come back this letter said don't betray me i wish to be your friend there is a desprate gang of cutthroats from over in the indian territory going to steal your runaway nigger to night
and they have been trying to scare you so as you will stay in the house and not bother them i am one of the gang but have got religgion and wish to quit it and lead an honest life again and will betray the helish design
they will sneak down from northards along the fence at midnight exact with a false key and go in the nigger's cabin to get him i am to be off a piece and blow a tin horn if i see any danger
but stead of that i will baa like a sheep soon as they get in and not blow at all then whilst they are getting his chains loose you slip there and lock them in and can kill them at your leasure don't do anything but just the way i am telling you
i was overcome by the kindly sympathy of eumolpus and was especially sorry for the latest injury i had done him i began to repent my jealousy which had been the cause of so many unpleasant happenings and with many tears i begged and pled with him to admit me into favor
as lovers cannot control their furious jealousy and vowing at the same time that i would not by word or deed give him cause for offense in the future and he like a learned and cultivated gentleman ought to remove all irritation from his mind
and leave no trace of it behind the snows belong upon the ground in wild and uncultivated regions but where the earth has been beautified by the conquest of the plough the light snow melts away while you speak of it
that you may experience the truth of what you say exclaimed eumolpus see i end my anger with a kiss may good luck go with us get your baggage together and follow me or go on ahead if you prefer while he was speaking a knock sounded at the door
giton and i pack together whatever we have for the voyage and after praying to the stars we went aboard chapter the one hundredth we picked out a retired spot on the poop and eumolpus dozed off as it was not yet daylight
it is unfortunate said i to myself that the lad has so taken our friend's fancy but what of it is not nature's every masterpiece common to all
yet it flows for common use shall love alone then be stolen rather than be regarded as a prize to be won no indeed i desire no possession unless the world envies me for possessing it a solitary old man can scarcely become a serious rival
even should he wish to take advantage he would lose it through lack of breath when but without any confidence i had arrived at these conclusions and beguiled my uneasy spirit i covered my head with my tunic and began to feign sleep when all of a sudden
as though fortune were bent upon annihilating my peace of mind a voice upon the ship's deck gritted out something like this so he fooled me after all as this voice which was a man's and was only too familiar struck my ears my heart fluttered
as though i were enveloped in some turbulent nightmare was a long time finding my voice but at last with trembling hands i tugged at the hem of eumolpus clothing just as he was sinking into slumber father i quavered on your word of honor
can you tell me whose ship this is and whom she has aboard peeved at being disturbed so he snapped this was the reason you wished to have us quartered in the most inaccessible spot on deck was it so we could get no rest
what good will it do you when i've informed you that lycas of tarentum is master of this ship and that he carries tryphaena as an exile to tarentum chapter the one hundred and first i shivered horror struck at this thunderbolt and
beating my throat oh destiny i wailed you've vanquished me completely at last as for giton he fell in a faint upon my bosom and remained unconscious for quite a while until a sweat finally relieved our tension whereupon hugging eumolpus around the knees
take pity upon the perishing i besought him in the name of our common learning aid us death himself hangs over us and he will come as a relief unless you help us overwhelmed by this implication eumolpus swore by all the gods and goddesses that he knew nothing of what had happened
but that he had brought his companions upon this voyage which he himself had long intended taking with the most upright intentions and in the best of good faith but demanded he what is this ambush who is this hannibal who sails with us
lycas of tarentum is a most respectable citizen and the owner not only of this ship which he commands in person but of landed estates as well as commercial houses under the management of slaves he carries a cargo consigned to market he is the cyclops the arch pirate to whom we owe our passage
a most charming woman travelling about here and there in search of pleasure
whereupon he explained to the astonished eumolpus the reasons for their enmity and for the danger which threatened us
that he lost the power of thinking and requested each of us to offer his own opinion just imagine said he
some way out must be found unless we bring about a shipwreck and free ourselves from all dangers
and the pilot may be moved to mercy and grant your prayer eumolpus denied the practicability of this it is only with difficulty affirmed he that large ships are warped into landlocked harbors
how could we leave the ship in such a manner as not to be stared at by all the rest with muffled heads with bare if muffled who would not want to lend the sick man a hand if bare what would it mean if not proscribing ourselves chapter the one hundred and second
why would it not be better to take refuge in boldness i asked slide down a rope into the ship's boat cut the painter and leave the rest to luck and furthermore i would not involve eumolpus in this adventure for what is the good of getting an innocent man into troubles with which he has no concern
i shall be well content if chance helps us into the boat not a bad scheme eumolpus agreed if it could only be carried out but who could help seeing you when you start especially the man at the helm who stands watch all night long and observes even the motions of the stars
but it could be done in spite of that when he dozed off for a second that is if you chose some other part of the ship from which to start as it is it must be the stern you must even slip down the rudder itself for that is where the painter that holds the boat in tow is made fast
lying in the boat night and day you couldn't get rid of that watchman except by cutting his throat or throwing him overboard by force consult your own courage as to whether that can be done or not and as far as my coming with you is concerned i shirk no danger which holds out any hopes of success
but to throw away life without a reason as if it were a thing of no moment is something which i do not believe that even you would sanction see what you think of this i will wrap you up in two hide baggage covers
leaving the ends somewhat open of course so you can breathe and get your food then i will raise a hue and cry because my slaves have thrown themselves into the sea fearing worse punishment and when the ship makes port i will carry you out as baggage without exciting the slightest suspicion
oh so you would bundle us up like we were solid i sneered our bellies wouldn't make trouble for us of course and we'll never sneeze nor snore and all because a similar trick turned out successfully before think the matter over being tied up could be endured for one day but suppose it might have to be for longer
what could we do then even clothes will cut through at the wrinkles when they are tied up too long
could endure the filthy rags and lashings necessary to such an operation as statues do no that's settled some other road to safety must be found i have thought up a scheme see what you think of it eumolpus is a man of letters he will have ink about him of course
as if color alone could change one's figure
suppose that the garment did not stick to the ink as it often does where no gum is used tell me we can't make our lips so hideously thick can we we can't kink our hair with a curling iron can we we can't harrow our foreheads with scars can we
can we trim our beards after the foreign style no artificial color dirties the body without changing it
chapter the one hundred and third gods and men forbid that you should make so base an ending of your lives cried eumolpus no it will be better to do as i direct as you may gather from his razor my servant is a barber
let him shave your heads and eyebrows too and quickly at that i will follow after him and i will mark my inscription so cleverly upon your foreheads that you will be mistaken for slaves who have been branded the same letters will
serve both to quiet the suspicions of the curious and to conceal under semblance of punishment your real features we did not delay the execution of this scheme but
that he might shave them clean eumolpus covered our foreheads completely with large letters and
he threw himself into his bunk pretending not to hear his puking curses we reverted to our melancholy train of thought and settling ourselves down in silence we passed the remaining hours of the night in fitful slumber on the following morning
after some conversation upon the happy voyage of which the fine weather gave promise lycas turned to tryphaena and remarked chapter the one hundred and fourth priapus appeared to me in a dream and seemed to say know that encolpius whom you seek
has by me been led aboard your ship
dreams that delude the mind with flitting shades by neither powers of air nor gods are sent each makes his own and when relaxed in sleep the members lie the mind without restraint can flit and re enact by night the deeds that occupied the day
the warrior fierce who cities shakes and towns destroys by fire maneuvering armies sees and javelins and funerals of kings and bloody fields the cringing lawyer dreams of courts and trials the miser hides his hoard new treasures finds
for that was the name of the fellow who had caught us at our furtive transformation in the night a rotten thing to do i swear from what i hear it's unlawful for any living man aboard ship to shed hair or nails unless the wind has kicked up a heavy sea
chapter the one hundred and fifth lycas was greatly disturbed by this information and flew into a rage so someone aboard my ship cut off his hair did he he bawled and at dead of night too
bring the offenders aft on deck here and step lively so that i can tell whom to punish from their heads that the ship may be freed from the curse i ordered it done eumolpus broke in and i didn't order it as an unlucky omen either
seeing that i had to be aboard the same vessel i did it because the scoundrels had long matted hair i ordered the filth cleared off the wretches because i did not wish to even seem to make a prison out of your ship besides
in addition to their other misdemeanors they blew in my money on a street walker whom they kept in common only last night i dragged them away from her reeking with wine and perfumes as they were
and they still stink of the remnants of my patrimony thereupon forty stripes were ordered for each of us that the tutelary genius of the ship might be propitiated and they were not long about it either
it's giton it's giton the maids all screamed in unison hold your hands you brutes help madame it's giton
turned willing ears she had recognized that voice herself and flew to the boy
that established his identity since this man so keenly observant had in spite of the most skillful disguise of every feature and the obliteration of every identifying mark upon my body so surely hit upon the sole means of identifying his fugitive
believing that the marks upon our foreheads were in truth the brands of prisoners
chapter the one hundred and eleventh there was a certain married lady at ephesus once upon a time so noted for her chastity that she even drew women from the neighboring states to come to gaze upon her when she carried out her husband she was by no means content to comply with the conventional custom
beating her naked breast in sight of the onlookers she followed the corpse even into the tomb and when the body had been placed in the vault in accordance with the greek custom she began to stand vigil over it weeping day and night
neither parents nor relations could divert her from punishing herself in this manner and from bringing on death by starvation the magistrates the last resort were rebuffed and went away
and the lady mourned by all as an unusual example dragged through the fifth day without nourishment a most faithful maid was in attendance upon the poor woman she either wept in company with the afflicted one or replenished the lamp which was placed in the vault as the occasion required
throughout the whole city there was but one opinion men of every calling agreed that here shone the one solitary example of chastity and of love in the meantime the governor of the province had ordered some robbers crucified near the little vault in which the lady was bewailing her recent loss
so he descended into the tomb and catching sight of a most beautiful woman he stood still afraid at first that it was some apparition or spirit from the infernal regions but he finally comprehended the true state of affairs as his eye took in the corpse lying there
he then brought his own scanty ration into the vault and exhorted the sobbing mourner not to persevere in useless grief
the same end awaited us all the same last resting place and other platitudes by which anguished minds are recalled to sanity but oblivious to sympathy she beat and lacerated her bosom more vehemently than before and tearing out her hair
she strewed it upon the breast of the corpse notwithstanding this the soldier would not leave off
until the maid seduced by the smell of the wine i suppose
what good will it do you to die of hunger she asked or to bury yourself alive or to surrender an uncondemned spirit before the fates demand it
would you recall the dead from the reluctant fates why not shake off this womanish weakness and enjoy the blessings of light while you can
when pressed to eat or to live no one listens unwillingly and the lady thirsty after an abstinence of several days finally permitted her obstinacy to be overcome nor did she take her fill of nourishment with less avidity than had the maid who had surrendered first
did the young man seem uncouth or wanting in address the maid pled in his behalf and kept repeating why will you fight with a passion that to you is pleasure remembering not in whose lands you are taking your leisure
but why should i keep you longer in suspense the lady observed the same abstinence when it came to this part of her body and the victorious soldier won both of his objectives so they lay together not only that night
shutting the doors of the vault of course so that anyone acquaintance or stranger coming to the tomb would be convinced that this most virtuous of wives had expired upon the body of her husband as for the soldier so delighted was he with the beauty of his mistress and the secrecy of the intrigue
that he purchased all the delicacies his pay permitted and smuggled them into the vault as soon as darkness fell meanwhile the parents of one of the crucified criminals observing the laxness of the watch dragged the hanging corpse down at night and performed the last rite
the soldier was hoodwinked while absent from his post of duty and when on the following day he caught sight of one of the crosses without its corpse he was in terror of punishment and explained to the lady what had taken place he would await no sentence of court martial
but would punish his neglect of duty with his own sword let her prepare a place for one about to die let that fatal vault serve both the lover and the husband not that
i would rather hang the dead than slay the living so saying she gave orders for the body of her husband to be lifted out of the coffin and fastened upon the vacant cross
but lycas did not laugh if that governor had been a just man said he shaking his head angrily he would have ordered the husband's body taken down and carried back into the vault and crucified the woman no doubt the memory of hedyle haunted his mind and the looting of his ship in that wanton excursion
uneasy and chagrined at this new league
every kiss was a wound to me every artful blandishment which the wanton woman employed and i could not make up my mind as to whether i was more angered at the boy for having supplanted me with my mistress or at my mistress for debauching the boy both were hateful to my sight and more galling than my late servitude
nor even speak to me in the course of the common conversation i suppose he was afraid of reopening a tender scar at the moment when a return to her good graces had commenced to draw it together tears of vexation dropped upon my breast and the groan i smothered in a sigh nearly wracked my soul
the vulture tearing at the liver's deep and vital parts that wracks our breasts and rends our very heartstrings is not that bird the charming poet sings with all his arts t'is jealousy or hate that human hearts stings
in spite of my ill humor lycas saw how well my golden curls became me and becoming enamoured anew began winking his wanton eyes at me and sought admission to my good graces upon a footing of pleasure
nor did he put on the arrogance of a master but spoke as a friend asking a favor long and ardently he tried to gain his ends but all in vain till at last meeting with a decisive repulse his passion turned to fury and he tried to carry the place by storm
she sprang at us and tore us apart thoroughly enraged at the disappointment of her lecherous passion
i pressed her earnestly to tell me the reason for her sobs and after pretending to be reluctant she broke out you will think no more of her than of a common prostitute if you have a drop of decent blood in your veins you will not resort to that female catamite if you are a man
this disturbed my mind but
being a very sarcastic individual might revenge my supposed injury in some poetic lampoon in which event his ardent zeal would without doubt expose me to ridicule and i greatly dreaded that but while i was debating with myself as to the best means of preventing him from getting at the facts
and had tried to indemnify herself for my repulse at the expense of my little friend
when he had heard all the facts eumolpus swore roundly that he would certainly avenge us as the gods were just and would not suffer so many villainies to go unpunished chapter the one hundred and fourteenth
but the gale did not drive the waves in any one direction and the helmsman lost his bearings and did not know what course to steer at one moment the wind would set towards sicily but the next the north wind prevailing on the italian coast
would drive the unlucky vessel hither and yon and what was more dangerous than all the rain squalls a pall of such black density blotted out the light that the helmsman could not even see as far forward as the bow
at last as the savage fury of the sea grew more malignant the trembling lycas stretched out his hands to me imploringly save us from destruction encolpius he shouted restore that sacred robe and holy rattle to the ship
be merciful for heaven's sake just as you used to be he was still shouting when a windsquall swept him into the sea the raging elements whirled him around and around in a terrible maelstrom and sucked him down
embracing giton i wept aloud did we deserve this from the gods i cried to be united only in death no malignant fortune grudges even that look in an instant the waves will capsize the ship think in an instant the sea will sever this lover's embrace
if you ever loved encolpius truly kiss him while yet you may and snatch this last delight from impending dissolution
giton removed his garment and creeping beneath my tunic he stuck out his head to be kissed then fearing some more spiteful wave might separate us as we clung together he passed his belt around us both if nothing else he cried
the sea will at least bear us longer joined together and if in pity it casts us up
or the last rites will be performed by the drifting sand in spite of the angry waves i submit to this last bond and as though i were laid out upon my death bed await an end no longer dreaded meanwhile accomplishing the decrees of the fates
the storm stripped the ship of all that was left no mast no helm not a rope nor an oar remained on board her
but seeing men alive and ready to defend their property they changed their predatory designs into offers of help chapter the one hundred and fifteenth just then amid that clamor of voices we heard a peculiar noise and from beneath the captain's cabin there
came a bellowing as of some wild beast trying to get out we then followed up the sound and discovered eumolpus sitting there scribbling verses upon an immense sheet of parchment astounded that he could find time to write poetry at death's very door
we hauled him out in spite of his protests and ordered him to return to his senses but he flew into a rage at being interrupted leave me alone until i finish this sentence he bawled the poem labors to its birth
and help me drag the bellowing bard ashore i laid hands upon the lunatic when this job had at last been completed we came wet and wretched to a fisherman's hut and refreshed ourselves somewhat with stores from the wreck spoiled though they were
by salt water and passed a night that was almost interminable as we were holding a council next day to determine to what part of the country we had best proceed i suddenly caught sight of a human body turning around in a gentle eddy and floating towards the shore
stricken with melancholy i stood still and began to brood with wet eyes upon the treachery of the sea
awaits this man or a son who little dreams of storms or wrecks or perhaps he left behind a father whom he kissed good by at parting such is the end of mortal's plans such is the outcome of great ambitions see how man rides the waves
until now i had been sorrowing for a mere stranger but a wave turned the face which had undergone no change towards the shore
you who boasted but a little while ago of the strength of your command now you have not a single plank left of your great ship go on mortals set your hearts upon the fulfillment of great ambitions go on schemers
and in your wills control for a thousand years the disposal of the wealth you got by fraud only yesterday this man audited the accounts of his family estate yea even reckoned the day he would arrive in his native land and settled it in his mind
gods and goddesses how far he lies from his appointed destination but the waves of the sea are not alone in thus keeping faith with mortal men the warrior's weapons fail him the citizen is buried beneath the ruins of his own penates
another falls from his chariot and dashes out his ardent spirit the glutton chokes at dinner
after these reflections we made ready to pay the last rites to the corpse and lycas was burned upon a funeral pyre raised by the hands of enemies while eumolpus fixing his eyes upon the far distance to gain inspiration composed an epitaph for the dead man
his fate was unavoidable no rock hewn tomb
chapter the one hundred and sixth in a towering passion lycas leaped forward oh you silly woman he shouted as if those scars were made by the letters on the branding iron
but lycas remembered the seduction of his wife and the insults to which he had been subjected in the portico of the temple of hercules
you are aware i believe that the immortal gods have a hand in human affairs
by a coincidence of dreams of what they had done can you then see how it would be possible to let off those whom a god has himself delivered up to punishment i am not a cruel man what moves me is this
offerings received the changing seasons of the year the superstition spread throughout the world and ignorance and awe the toiling boor to ceres from his harvest the first fruits compelled to yield
and bacchus with the fruitful vine to crown
the shepherd's gains to share beneath the waves of every sea swims neptune pallas guards the shops and those impelled by avarice or guilt create new gods
whereupon eumolpus endeavored to appease him as follows chapter the one hundred and seventh lycas said he these unfortunates upon whom you intend to wreak your vengeance implore your compassion and have chosen me for this task
i believe that i am a man by no means unknown and they desire that somehow i will effect a reconciliation between them and their former friends surely you do not imagine that these young men fell into such a snare by accident
when the very first thing that concerns every prospective passenger is the name of the captain to whom he intrusts his safety be reasonable then forego your revenge and permit free men to proceed to their destination without injury
when penitence manages to lead their fugitives back harsh and implacable masters restrain their cruelty and we are merciful to enemies who have surrendered what could you ask or wish for more
these well born and respectable young men be suppliant before your eyes and what ought to move you more strongly still
if they had embezzled your money or repaid your faith in them with treachery by hercules you have ample satisfaction from the punishment already inflicted
look can you read slavery on their foreheads and see upon the faces of free men the brand marks of a punishment which was self inflicted lycas broke in upon this plea for mercy
don't try to confuse the issue he said let every detail have its proper attention and first of all
the effects of our resentment and be careful that you do not spoil your case by over confidence when you attempt to sow prejudice among us by calling them well born and respectable
and inasmuch as they were our friends by that they deserve more drastic punishment still for whoever commits an assault upon a stranger is termed a robber but whoever assaults a friend is little better than a parricide
i am well aware eumolpus replied to rebut this damning harangue that nothing can look blacker against these poor young men than their cutting off their hair at night
nor could i find anything to say out of countenance as i was and hideous for to the disgrace of a shaven poll was added an equal baldness in the matter of eyebrows the case against me was only too plain
there was not a thing to be said or done finally a damp sponge was passed over my tear wet face and thereupon the smut dissolved and spread over my whole countenance blotting out every feature in a sooty cloud anger turned into loathing
whose participation served rather to inflame the disagreement than to be of help to us for myself i asked no quarter
but i shook my fists in tryphaena's face and told her in a loud voice that unless she stopped hurting giton i would use every ounce of my strength against her reprobate woman that she was the only person aboard the ship who deserved a flogging
lycas was furiously angry at my hardihood nor was he less enraged at my abandoning my own cause to take up that of another in so wholehearted a manner inflamed as she was by this affront tryphaena was as furious as he
so the whole ship's company was divided into two factions on our side the hired barber armed himself with a razor and served out the others to us
the pilot was neutral but he declared that unless this madness stirred up by the lechery of a couple of vagabonds died down he would let go the helm the fury of the combatants continued to rage none the less fiercely
nevertheless they fighting for revenge we for life many fell on each side though none were mortally wounded and more bleeding from wounds retreated as from a real battle but the fury of neither side abated
at last the gallant giton turned the menacing razor against his own virile parts and threatened to cut away the cause of so many misfortunes this was too much for tryphaena she prevented the perpetration of so horrid a crime by the out and out promise of quarter
which he had already cut his throat the lines still stood at the ready
but passion scorned becomes a power alas who courts his end by drawing sword amidst these waves why die before our time
strive not with angry seas to vie and to their fury lend your rage by piling waves upon its savage floods sublime chapter the one hundred and ninth the woman poured out this rhapsody in a loud excited voice
signed a treaty of peace which was drawn up as follows
that you do not enfold said giton in the sexual embrace except under immediate forfeiture of one hundred denarii item it is hereby
agreed on your part lycas that you do refrain from annoying encolpius with abusive word or reproachful look that you do not seek to ascertain where he sleep at night
the treaty was signed upon these terms and we laid down our arms it seemed well to wipe out the past with kisses after we had taken oath for fear any vestige of rancor should persist in our minds
factious hatreds died out amidst universal good fellowship and a banquet served on the field of battle crowned our reconciliation with joviality the whole ship resounded with song and as a sudden calm had caused her to lose headway
one tried to harpoon the leaping fish another hauled in the struggling catch on baited hooks
the breeze caught up the down but the wing and tail feathers twisted spirally as they fell into the sea foam lycas was already beginning to be on good terms with me and
when eumolpus who was himself almost drunk was seized with the notion of satirizing bald pates and branded rascals but when he had exhausted his chilly wit
gone are those locks that to thy beauty lent such lustrous charm and blighted are the locks of spring by bitter winter's sway thy naked temples now in baldness mourn their vanished form
poor wretch but late thy locks did brighter glister than those of great apollo or his sister now smoother is thy crown than polished grasses or rounded mushrooms when a shower passes
know that thy head is partly dead this day chapter the one hundred and tenth it is my opinion that he intended favoring
led giton away below and fitted the lad out in
then producing some eyebrows from a vanity box she skillfully traced out the lines of the lost features and restored him to his proper comeliness
but in a little while eumolpus mouthpiece of the distressed and author of the present good understanding fearing that the general good humor might flag for lack of amusement began to indulge in sneers at the fickleness of women
how easily they fell in love how readily they forgot even their own sons no woman could be so chaste but that she could be roused to madness by a chance passion
after which the duchess explains velma's laryngitis let us hope she will not call it appendicitis' and then i usher you up are you ready
had sought jane champion on the terrace and stood before her in the soft light of the hanging chinese lanterns the crimson rambler in his button hole and his red silk socks which matched it lent an artistic touch of colour to the conventional black and white of his evening clothes
jane looked up from the comfortable depths of her wicker chair then smiled at his anxious face i am ready she said and rising walked beside him has it gone well she asked is it a good audience packed replied garth
and the duchess has enjoyed herself it has been funnier than usual
it obviates the bother of turning over they passed into the concert room and stood behind screens and a curtain close to the half dozen steps leading from the side up on to the platform oh hark to the duchess whispered garth
my niece jane champion has kindly consented to step into the breach which means that you will have to step up on to that platform in another half minute
there appendicitis i told you so poor madame velma let us hope it won't get into the local papers oh goodness
i say miss champion i was chaffing this afternoon about sharps and flats i can play that accompaniment for you if you like no well just as you think best
now the duchess has done come on mind the bottom step hang it all how dark it is behind this curtain garth gave her his hand and jane mounted the steps and passed into view of the large audience assembled in the overdene concert room
her tall figure seemed taller than usual as she walked alone across the rather high platform
with old lace at her bosom and one string of pearls round her neck when she appeared the audience gazed at her and applauded doubtfully velma's name on the programme had raised great expectations and here was miss champion who certainly played very nicely
volunteering to sing velma's song
voicing its generous appreciation of her effort and sanguine expectation of her success this audience expressed its astonishment in the dubiousness of its faint applause jane smiled at them good naturedly sat down at the piano
a bechstein grand glanced at the festoons of white roses and the cross of crimson ramblers then without further preliminaries struck the opening chord and commenced to sing the deep perfect voice thrilled through the room
a sudden breathless hush fell upon the audience each syllable penetrated the silence borne on a tone so tender and so amazingly sweet that casual hearts stood still and marvelled at their own emotion
and those who felt deeply already responded with a yet deeper thrill to the magic of that music the hours i spent with thee dear heart are as a string of pearls to me i count them over ev'ry one apart my rosary
my rosary softly thoughtfully tenderly the last two words were breathed into the silence holding a world of reminiscence a large hearted woman's faithful remembrance of tender moments in the past
the listening crowd held its breath this was not a song this was the throbbing of a heart and it throbbed in tones of such sweetness that tears started unbidden then the voice which had rendered the opening lines so quietly
rose in a rapid crescendo of quivering pain each hour a pearl each pearl a prayer to still a heart in absence wrung i tell each bead unto the end and there a cross is hung
the last four words were given with a sudden power and passion
but in another moment the quiet voice fell soothingly expressing a strength of endurance which would fail in no crisis nor fear to face any depths of pain yet gathering to itself a poignancy of sweetness
rendered richer by the discipline of suffering o memories that bless and burn o barren gain and bitter loss i kiss each bead and strive at last to learn to kiss the cross to kiss the cross
can possibly realise how she sang i kiss each bead the lingering retrospection in each word breathed out a love so womanly so beautiful so tender that her identity was forgotten even by those in the audience who knew her best
in the magic of her rendering of the song the accompaniment which opens with a single chord closes with a single note jane struck it softly lingeringly then rose turned from the piano
and was leaving the platform when a sudden burst of wild applause broke from the audience jane hesitated paused looked at her aunt's guests as if almost surprised to find them there then the slow smile dawned in her eyes and passed to her lips
then moved on as men's voices began to shout encore
left the platform by the side staircase but there behind the scenes in the semi darkness of screens and curtains a fresh surprise awaited jane more startling than the enthusiastic tumult of her audience
at the foot of the staircase stood garth dalmain his face was absolutely colourless and his eyes shone out from it like burning stars he remained motionless until she stepped from the last stair and stood close to him then with a sudden movement
he caught her by the shoulders and turned her round go back he said and the overmastering need quivering in his voice drew jane's eyes to his in mute astonishment go back at once and sing it all over again note for note word for word
go back at once don't you know that you must jane looked into those shining eyes something she saw in them excused the brusque command of his tone
without a word she quietly mounted the steps and walked across the platform to the piano people were still applauding and redoubled their demonstrations of delight as she appeared but jane took her seat at the instrument without giving them a thought
she was experiencing a very curious and unusual sensation never before in her whole life had she obeyed a peremptory command in her childhood's days
an unreasonable order or a reasonable one unexplained promptly met with a point blank refusal and this characteristic still obtained though modified by time and even the duchess as a rule said please to jane
but now a young man with a white face and blazing eyes had unceremoniously swung her round ordered her up the stairs and commanded her to sing a song over again note for note word for word and she was meekly going to obey
as she took her seat jane suddenly made up her mind not to sing the rosary again she had many finer songs in her repertoire the audience expected another why should she disappoint those expectations because of the imperious demands of
a very highly excited boy she commenced the magnificent prelude to handel's where'er you walk but as she played it her sense of truth and justice intervened she had not come back to sing again at the bidding of a highly excited boy
but of a deeply moved man and his emotion was of no ordinary kind that garth dalmain should have been so moved as to forget even momentarily
while she played the handel theme
she suddenly realised though scarcely understanding it the must of which garth had spoken and made up her mind to yield to its necessity so when the opening bars were ended
she paused for a moment struck once more the rosary's opening chord and did as garth had bidden her to do the hours i spent with thee dear heart are as a string of pearls to me i count them over ev'ry one apart
my rosary my rosary each hour a pearl each pearl a prayer to still a heart in absence wrung i tell each bead unto the end and there a cross is hung o memories that bless and burn
o barren gain and bitter loss i kiss each bead and strive at last to learn to kiss the cross to kiss the cross when jane left the platform garth was still standing motionless at the foot of the stairs
his face was just as white as before but his eyes had lost that terrible look of unshed tears which had sent her back at his bidding without a word of question or remonstrance a wonderful light now shone in them a light of adoration which touched jane's heart
she smiled as she came slowly down the steps
with an unconscious movement of gracious friendliness garth stepped close to the bottom of the staircase and took them in his while she was still on the step above him for a moment he did not speak then in a low voice vibrant with emotion
my god he said oh my god hush said jane i never like to hear that name spoken lightly dal spoken lightly he exclaimed no speaking lightly would be possible for me to night
every perfect gift is from above when words fail me to speak of the gift can you wonder if i apostrophise the giver
so you liked my song she said liked
repeated garth a shade of perplexity crossing his face i do
because said garth very low you lifted the veil and i i passed within
and as he spoke the last two words he turned them gently over and bending kissed each palm with an indescribably tender reverence then loosing them
mister briggerland it seemed had some other object in life than the regeneration of the criminal classes he was a sociologist a loose title which covers a great deal of inquisitive investigation into other people's affairs
moreover he had published a book on the subject his name was on the title page and the book had been reviewed to his credit though in truth he did no more than suggest the title
for a consideration had allowed mister briggerland to adopt the child of his brain on a morning when pale yellow sunlight brightened his dining room
he had a club in the east end of london and his manager had telephoned that morning sending a somewhat unhappy report do you remember that man talmot my dear he asked she nodded and looked up quickly yes what about him
he's in hospital said mister briggerland i fear that he and hoggins were engaged in some nefarious plan and that in making an attempt to enter as of course they had no right to enter
a block of flats in cavendish place poor talmot slipped and fell from the fourth floor window sill breaking his leg hoggins had to carry him to hospital the girl reached for bacon from the hot plate
he should have broken his neck she said calmly i suppose now the police are making tender inquiries no no mister briggerland hastened to assure her nobody knows anything about it not even the er
anyway i'm glad they didn't succeed said jean after a while the possibility of their trying rather worried me the hoggins type is such a bungler that it was almost certain they would fail
it was a curious fact that whilst her father made the most guarded references to all their exploits and clothed them with garments of euphemism his daughter never attempted any such disguise
the psychologist would find in mister briggerland's reticence the embryo of a once dominant rectitude no trace of which remained in his daughter's moral equipment
i have been trying to place this man jaggs she went on with a little puzzled frown and he completely baffles me
sometimes from london bridge station do you think he is a detective i don't know she said thoughtfully if he is he has been imported from the provinces
he is not a scotland yard man he may of course be an old police pensioner and i have been trying to trace him from that source it should not be difficult to find out all about him said mister briggerland easily
a man with his afflictions should be pretty well known he looked at his watch my appointment at norwood is at eleven o'clock he said he made a little grimace of disgust would you rather i went asked the girl
mister briggerland would much rather that she had undertaken the disagreeable experience which lay before him but he dare not confess as much you my dear of course not i would not allow you to have such an experience
no no i don't mind it a bit nevertheless he tossed down two long glasses of brandy before he left his car set him down before the iron gates of a squat and ugly stucco building surrounded by high walls
and the uniformed attendant having examined his credentials admitted him he had to wait a little while before a second attendant arrived to conduct him to the medical superintendent an elderly man who did not seem overwhelmed with joy at the honour mister briggerland was paying him
i'm sorry i shan't be able to show you round mister briggerland he said i have an engagement in town but my assistant doctor carew will conduct you over the asylum and give you all the information you require this of course as you know is a private institution
i should have thought you would have got more material for your book in one of the big public asylums the people who are sent to norwood you know are not the mild cases and you will see some rather terrible sights you are prepared for that
mister briggerland nodded he was prepared to the extent of two full noggins of brandy moreover he was well aware that norwood was the asylum to which the more dangerous of lunatics were transferred
doctor carew proved to be a young and enthusiastic alienist whose heart and soul was in his work i suppose you are prepared to see jumpy things he said with a smile as he conducted mister briggerland along a stone vaulted corridor
he opened a steel gate the bars of which were encased with thick layers of rubber crossed a grassy plot there were no stone flagged paths at norwood and entered one of the three buildings which constituted the asylum proper
it was a harrowing heart breaking and to some extent a disappointing experience for mister briggerland true his heart did not break because it was made of infrangible material and his disappointment was counter balanced by a certain vague relief
at the end of two hours inspection they were standing out on the big playing fields watching the less violent of the patients wandering aimlessly about except one they were unattended by keepers
but in the case of this one man two stalwart uniformed men walked on either side of him who is he asked briggerland that is rather a sad case said the alienist cheerfully
he had pointed out many sad cases in the same bright manner he's a doctor and a genuine homicide luckily they detected him before he did any mischief
aren't you ever afraid of these men escaping asked mister briggerland you asked that before said the doctor in surprise no you see an insane asylum is not like a prison
to make a good get away from prison you have to have outside assistance nobody wants to help a lunatic escape otherwise it would be easier than getting out of prison because we have no patrols in the grounds
would you like to talk to doctor thun mister briggerland hesitated only for a second yes he said huskily there was nothing in the appearance of the patient to suggest that he was in any way dangerous
a fair bearded man with pale blue eyes he held out his hand impulsively to the visitor and after a momentary hesitation mister briggerland took it and found his hand in a grip like a vice
the two attendants exchanged glances with the asylum doctor and strolled off i think you can talk to him without fear said the doctor in a low voice not so low however that the patient did not hear it for he laughed
the doctor was the general who was responsible for the losses at caperetto explained doctor carew that was where the italians lost so heavily thun nodded
of course i was perfectly innocent he explained to briggerland seriously and taking the visitor's arm he strolled across the field the doctor and the two attendants following at a distance
mister briggerland breathed a little more quickly as he felt the strength of the patient's biceps my conviction said doctor thun seriously was due to the fact that women were sitting on the court martial
which is of course against all regulations certainly murmured mister briggerland keeping me here thun went on
naturally they do not wish me to get at my enemies who i have every reason to believe are in london mister briggerland drew a long breath they are in london he said a little hoarsely
i happen to know where they are
they are safe from my vengeance he said a little sadly as long as they keep me in this place pretending that i am mad there is no possible chance for me
the visitor looked round and saw that the three men who were following were out of ear shot suppose i came to morrow night he said lowering his voice and helped you to get away what is your ward
said the other in the same tone his eyes were blazing do you think you will remember asked briggerland thun nodded you will come to morrow night
you will not fail me if i thought you'd fail me his eyes lit up again i shall not fail you said mister briggerland hastily when the clock strikes twelve you may expect me
you must be marshal foch murmured thun
who had noticed his excitement drew nearer believe me mister briggerland he went on airily
ten minutes later mister briggerland was in his car driving homeward a little breathless more than a little terrified at the unpleasant task he had set himself jubilant too at his amazing success
jean had said he might have to visit a dozen asylums before he found his opportunity and the right man and he had succeeded at the first attempt yet he shuddered at the picture he conjured
that climb over the high wall he had already located the ward for he had followed the general and the attendants and had seen him safely put away the midnight association with a madman he burst in upon jean with his news
at the first attempt my dear what do you think of that his dark face glowed with almost childish pride and she looked at him with a half smile i thought you would she said quietly
that's the rough work done at any rate the rough work he said indignantly
chapter five real live pirates after neatly and carefully turning up the bottoms of his trousers so that they should not get wet the false hare bounded on a rock that rose out of the water a few feet from shore
and stood ready to direct the landing of the boat there was some sense in this for certainly neither of the two mice was what could be called good oarsmen one of them had just unshipped the little sail and not seeming to know what else to do with it
had cut it loose from the oar that served as a mast and wrapped it round and round his body tying himself tightly with a piece of string rudolf thought he had never in his life seen people in a boat do so many queer and unnecessary things
in so short a time as those two mice did they would stop rowing every few minutes and begin sweeping out the floor of their boat with a small broom dusting seats cushions and oar locks with a little feather duster tied with a pink ribbon then after a few rapid nervous strokes at the oars
one or the other of them would pull his blade out of the water and polish it anxiously with his handkerchief as if the important thing was to keep it dry they would probably never have reached land that day if this had depended on their own efforts
but luckily the breeze was blowing them in the right direction all this time the false hare had been waiting on the rock and now as the boat was almost within reach he began leaping up and down clapping his paws and calling out in the heartiest tones
you're a pair of swell old sea dogs you are only don't hurt yourselves you know
work it seemed as if the white mice knew the false hare and the value of his remarks for they made no attempt to answer him but only looked more and more frightened and uncomfortable when their boat was at last beached they jumped out of it turned their backs to the rest of the party
and standing as close together as they could get
yes even though they had grown a great deal and had disguised themselves by the simple method of licking the chocolate off each other rudolf and ann hoped peter would not notice it but nothing of the sort ever escaped him
looked at them long and earnestly and said
ann shook her head at peter hush she whispered you mustn't be rude to them when they are going to lend us their boat so kindly then she asked in a loud voice hoping to change the subject who is going to row will you mister false hare
why certainly dearie i adore rowing said the false hare sweetly then you will have to rudolf and i will look after peter he is always so apt to fall out of a boat
they all got into the boat rudolf took the oars ann sat in the bow with peter beside her and the false hare settled himself comfortably in the stern with a mouse squeezed on either side of him he wanted to pet them a little so he said
but from the strained expressions on their faces and the startled squeaks they gave from time to time it seemed as if they were hardly enjoying his attentions the children loved being on the water better than anything else
and they would have been perfectly happy now if the false hare had not had quite so many nice compliments to make to rudolf on his rowing and if the white mice had not complained so bitterly of them all for sitting all over the boat cushions and wetting the nice dry oars
they were enjoying themselves very much in spite of this when suddenly ann who had very sharp eyes called out sail ahead at first rudolf thought she had said this just because it sounded well
but on turning his head he saw for himself a small boat heading toward them as fast as it could come a moment more and the children could see the black flag floating at its masthead oh oh screamed ann
shuddering all over to the tips of his whiskers if there's one thing i do dote on it is pirates dear old things as for the two white mice after one glance at the ship they gave two little shrieks
and hid their faces in their paws rudolf shipped his oars while he loosened his sword i shall be prepared to fight said he though i am afraid we must make up our minds to being captured our enemy's boat is not so large it's not much more than a catboat
but there are only four of us as the mice don't count and i suppose there must be at least a dozen of the pirates the false hare smiled
and such nice ones he murmured such gentle well behaved well brought up polite pirates just the sort your dear parents would like to have you meet those fellows don't know anything about shooting stabbing mast heading or plank walking
ann turned pale at the false hare's words but rudolf only laughed what luck he exclaimed i'm nine years old and i've never seen a real live pirate and goodness knows when i ever will again i wouldn't miss this for anything
then as he saw how really worried his little sister looked he added cheerfully they may sail right past without speaking to us you know but this was not to be the case
nearer and nearer came the pirate craft until at last the children could see painted in black letters on her side her name the merry mouser a group of pirates was gathered at the rail staring at the rowboat through their glasses
there was no mistake about these fellows being pirates that was easy enough to see from their queer bright colored clothes and the number of weapons they carried even if the ugly black flag had not been floating over their heads at the bow stood he who was evidently the pirate chief
he was dressed in some kind of tight gray and white striped suit with a red sash tied round his waist stuck full of shiny barreled pistols and long bright bladed knives a red turban decorated his head and under it his brows met in the fiercest kind of frown
his arms were folded on his breast as rudolf looked at this fellow he began to have the queerest feeling that somewhere somehow under very different conditions
just at that instant he heard the sound of a struggle behind him
and breaking loose from ann's hold he stood up and leaned so far over the side of the boat that he lost his balance and fell into the water ann screamed the false hare i am ashamed to say merely yawned and kept his paws in his pockets rudolf had kicked off his shoes and was ready to jump in after peter
when he saw that quick as a flash on an order from their chief the pirates had lowered a long rope with something bobbing at the end of it peter when he came to the surface seized this rope and was rapidly hauled on board the pirate ship ann came near falling overboard herself in her excitement
oh ruddy ruddy she begged let's surrender right away quick we can't leave poor darling peter to be carried off by those terrible cats cats said rudolf staring stupidly at the pirates why so they are cats ann
somehow i hadn't noticed that before but look they are sending a boat to us now in a small boat which had been towed behind the catboat a couple of pirates big rough looking fellows were sculling rapidly toward the children
cats indeed they were but such cats as ann and rudolf had never seen before so big and black and bold were they their teeth so sharp and white their eyes so round and yellow one had a red sash and one a green
and each carried knives and pistols enough to set up a shop surrender they cried in a businesslike kind of way as they laid hold of the bow of the rowboat or have your throats cut just as you like you know of course the children didn't like
and then as ann said they had to remember peter much against his will rudolf was now forced to surrender his beloved sword the false hare handed over all his belongings his jewelry his suit case and his little umbrella
but his voice cracked and ann and rudolf noticed that the tip of his nose had turned quite pale the prisoners were quickly transferred to the other boat and the pirate with the green sash took the oars just as all was ready for the start the cat in red cried hold on a minute growler
i'll just jump back into their old tub to see if we've left any vallybles behind all right prowler it was then and only then that rudolf and ann remembered the two white mice the last time they had noticed them was at the moment of peter's ducking
when in their excitement the foolish creatures had hidden their faces on each other's shoulders rolled themselves into a kind of ball and stowed themselves under a seat prowler leaped into the little boat which the pirates had fastened by a tow rope to their own
and during his search he kept his back turned to his companions he was gone but a moment and when he returned his whiskers were very shiny and he was looking extremely jolly as he hummed a snatch of a pirate song find anything
if you did and don't fork it out before the chief you'll catch it twill be as much as your nine lives are worth oh twas nothing nothing of any importance answered prowler airily rudolf and ann looked at each other but neither of them spoke
both the pirate cats now settled to the oars and the boat skimmed along the water in the direction of the merry mouser as they drew alongside growler muttered in a not unfriendly whisper look here youngsters here's a word of advice that may save you your skins
don't show any cheek not to me or prowler we're the mates and above all not to the chief what is your chief's name mister growler dear sir asked ann timidly growler flashed his white teeth at her
then he looked at prowler and both mates repeated together as if they were saying a lesson the name of our illustrious chief is captain mittens mittens the pitiless pirate mittens the monster of the main why
whether it would be better to try and tell the story from the beginning as if it were a story or whether to tell it from this distance of time as it reached me from the lips of leonora or from those of edward himself
and i shall go on talking in a low voice while the sea sounds in the distance and overhead the great black flood of wind polishes the bright stars from time to time we shall get up and go to the door and look out at the great moon and say
why it is nearly as bright as in provence and then we shall come back to the fireside with just the touch of a sigh because we are not in that provence where even the saddest stories are gay consider the lamentable history of peire vidal
which is in the black mountains in the middle of a tortuous valley there rises up an immense pinnacle and on the pinnacle are four castles las tours the towers
and the immense mistral blew down that valley which was the way from france into provence so that the silver grey olive leaves appeared like hair flying in the wind
and the tufts of rosemary crept into the iron rocks that they might not be torn up by the roots it was of course poor dear florence who wanted to go to las tours
she was yet a graduate of poughkeepsie i never could imagine how she did it the queer chattery person that she was with the far away look in her eyes which wasn't however in the least romantic
i mean that she didn't look as if she were seeing poetic dreams or looking through you for she hardly ever did look at you holding up one hand as if she wished to silence any objection or any comment for the matter of that she would talk
she would talk about william the silent about gustave the loquacious about paris frocks about how the poor dressed in thirteen thirty seven about fantin latour
over the rhone to take another look at beaucaire we never did take another look at beaucaire of course beautiful beaucaire with the high triangular white tower that looked as thin as a needle and as tall as the flatiron between fifth and broadway
beneath the tallness of the stone pines what a beautiful thing the stone pine is no we never did go back anywhere not to heidelberg not to hamelin not to verona not to mont majour
not so much as to carcassonne itself we talked of it of course but i guess florence got all she wanted out of one look at a place she had the seeing eye i haven't unfortunately so that the world is full of places to which i want to return
towns with the blinding white sun upon them stone pines against the blue of the sky corners of gables all carved and painted with stags and scarlet flowers and crowstepped gables with the little saint at the top
and grey and pink palazzi and walled towns a mile or so back from the sea on the mediterranean between leghorn and naples not one of them did we see more than once
perhaps if it weren't so i should have something to catch hold of now is all this digression or isn't it digression again i don't know you the listener sit opposite me but
you are so silent you don't tell me anything i am at any rate trying to get you to see what sort of life it was i led with florence and what florence was like well she was bright and she danced
she seemed to dance over the floors of castles and over seas and over and over and over the salons of modistes and over the plages of the riviera like a gay tremulous beam reflected from water upon a ceiling
florence's aunts used to say that i must be the laziest man in philadelphia they had never been to philadelphia and they had the new england conscience you see the first thing they said to me when i called in on florence in the little ancient colonial wooden house
beneath the high thin leaved elms the first question they asked me was not how i did but what did i do and i did nothing
i didn't see any call to do it why does one do things i just drifted in and wanted florence
which was then still residential i don't know why i had gone to new york i don't know why i had gone to the tea i don't see why florence should have gone to that sort of spelling bee
i guess florence wanted to raise the culture of the stuyvesant crowd and did it as she might have gone in slumming intellectual slumming that was what it was she always wanted to leave the world a little more elevated than she found it poor dear thing
i have heard her lecture teddy ashburnham by the hour on the difference between a franz hals and a wouvermans and why the pre mycenaean statues were cubical with knobs on the top i wonder what he made of it perhaps he was thankful
i know i was for do you understand my whole attentions my whole endeavours were to keep poor dear florence on to topics like the finds at cnossos and the mental spirituality of walter pater
i had to keep her at it you understand or she might die for i was solemnly informed that if she became excited over anything or if her
emotions were really stirred her little heart might cease to beat for twelve years i had to watch every word that any person uttered in any conversation and i had to head it off what the english call things off love poverty crime
that is what makes me think of that fellow peire vidal because of course his story is culture and i had to head her towards culture and at the same time it's so funny and she hadn't got to laugh and it's so full of love and she wasn't to think of love
las tours of the four castles had
and she wouldn't have anything to do with him so out of compliment to her the things people do when they're in love he dressed himself up in wolfskins and went up into the black mountains and the
they polished him up and her husband remonstrated seriously with her vidal was you see a great poet and it was not proper to treat a great poet with indifference so peire vidal declared himself emperor of jerusalem or somewhere
and the husband had to kneel down and kiss his feet though la louve wouldn't and peire set sail in a rowing boat with four companions to redeem the holy sepulchre and they struck on a rock somewhere and at great expense the husband had to fit out an expedition to fetch him back and
peire vidal fell all over the lady's bed while the husband who was a most ferocious warrior remonstrated some more about the courtesy that is due to great poets but i suppose la louve was the more ferocious of the two anyhow
that a story you haven't an idea of the queer old fashionedness of florence's aunts the misses hurlbird nor yet of her uncle an extraordinarily lovable man that uncle john
thin gentle and with a heart that made his life very much what florence's afterwards became he didn't reside at stamford his home was in waterbury where the watches come from
for nine months or so it would manufacture buttons out of bone then it would suddenly produce brass buttons for coachmen's liveries then it would take a turn at embossed tin lids for candy boxes
the fact is that the poor old gentleman with his weak and fluttering heart didn't want his factory to manufacture anything at all he wanted to retire and he did retire when he was seventy but he was so worried at having all the street boys in the town point after him and exclaim
that he tried taking a tour round the world and florence and a young man called jimmy went with him
he had to keep him for instance out of political discussions
he had a great deal of influence in forming the character of my poor dear wife just before they set out from san francisco for the south seas
and it struck him that the things to take for that purpose were oranges because california is the orange country and comfortable folding chairs so he bought i don't know how many cases of oranges the great cool california oranges
and half a dozen folding chairs in a special case that he always kept in his cabin there must have been half a cargo of fruit for to every person on board the several steamers that they employed to every person with whom he had so much as a nodding acquaintance
he gave an orange every morning and they lasted him right round the girdle of this mighty globe of ours when they were at north cape even he saw on the horizon poor dear thin man that he was a lighthouse
these fellows must be very lonely let's take them some oranges so he had a boatload of his fruit out and had himself rowed to the lighthouse on the horizon the folding chairs he lent to any lady that he came across and liked or who seemed tired and invalidish on the ship
and so guarded against his heart and having his niece with him he went round the world he wasn't obtrusive about his heart you wouldn't have known he had one he only left it to the physical laboratory at waterbury for the benefit of science
it had certainly jumped or squeaked or something just sufficiently to take in the doctors but it appears that that was because of an odd formation of the lungs i don't much understand about these matters
and i had to appoint trustees i didn't like the idea of their not being properly handled yes it was a great worry and just as i had got things roughly settled i received the extraordinary cable from ashburnham begging me to come back and
have a talk with him and immediately afterwards came one from leonora saying yes please do come you could be so helpful it was as if he had sent the cable without consulting her and had afterwards told her indeed that was pretty much what had happened except that
he had told the girl and the girl told the wife i arrived however too late to be of any good if i could have been of any good and then i had my first taste of english life it was amazing it was overwhelming
the animal's action its high stepping its skin that was like satin and the peace and the red cheeks and the beautiful beautiful old house just near branshaw teleragh it was
and we descended on it from the high clear windswept waste of the new forest i tell you it was amazing to arrive there from waterbury and it came into my head
that it was unbelievable that anything essentially calamitous could happen to that place and those people i tell you it was the very spirit of peace and leonora beautiful and smiling with her coils of yellow hair
stood on the top doorstep with a butler and footman and a maid or so behind her and she just said so glad you've come as if i'd run down to lunch from a town ten miles away instead of having come half the world over at the call of two urgent telegrams
the girl was out with the hounds i think and that poor devil beside me was in an agony
from my boyish days i had always felt a great perplexity on one point in macbeth it was this the knocking at the gate which succeeds to the murder of duncan
produced to my feelings an effect for which i never could account the effect was that it reflected back upon the murder a peculiar awfulness and a depth of solemnity
yet however obstinately i endeavored with my understanding to comprehend this for many years i never could see why it should produce such an effect here i pause for one moment to exhort the reader
and the most to be distrusted and yet the great majority of people trust to nothing else which may do for ordinary life but not for philosophical purposes of this out of ten thousand instances that i might produce
i will cite one ask of any person whatsoever who is not previously prepared for the demand by a knowledge of perspective to draw in the rudest way the commonest appearance which depends upon the laws of that science as for instance
to represent the effect of two walls standing at right angles to each other or the appearance of the houses on each side of a street as seen by a person looking down the street from one extremity now in all cases
unless the person has happened to observe in pictures how it is that artists produce these effects he will be utterly unable to make the smallest approximation to it yet why
for he has actually seen the effect every day of his life the reason is that he allows his understanding to overrule his eyes
his understanding which includes no intuitive knowledge of the laws of vision can furnish him with no reason why a line which is known and can be proved to be a horizontal line should not appear a horizontal line
in which not only the understanding is allowed to overrule the eyes but where the understanding is positively allowed to obliterate the eyes as it were
he does not know that he has seen
that which he has seen every day of his life but to return from this digression my understanding
in fact my understanding said positively that it could not produce any effect but i knew better i felt that it did and i waited and clung to the problem until further knowledge should enable me to solve it
at length in eighteen twelve mister williams made his debut on the stage of ratcliffe highway and executed those unparalleled murders which have procured for him such a brilliant and undying reputation
on which murders by the way i must observe that in one respect they have had an ill effect by making the connoisseur in murder very fastidious in his taste
and dissatisfied by anything that has been since done in that line all other murders look pale by the deep crimson of his and as an amateur once said to me in a querulous tone
there has been absolutely nothing doing since his time or nothing that's worth speaking of but this is wrong for it is unreasonable to expect all men to be great artists and born with the genius of mister williams
now it will be remembered that in the first of these murders that of the marrs the same incident
did actually occur which the genius of shakspeare has invented and all good judges and the most eminent dilettanti acknowledged the felicity of shakspeare's suggestion
and i again set myself to study the problem at length i solved it to my own satisfaction and my solution is this murder
in ordinary cases where the sympathy is wholly directed to the case of the murdered person is an incident of coarse and vulgar horror and for this reason that it flings the interest exclusively upon the natural
but ignoble instinct by which we cleave to life an instinct which as being indispensable to the primal law of self preservation
different in degree amongst all living creatures this instinct therefore because it annihilates all distinctions and degrades the greatest of men to the level of the poor beetle that we tread on
exhibits human nature in its most abject and humiliating attitude such an attitude would little suit the purposes of the poet what then must he do he must throw the interest on the murderer
our sympathy must be with him of course i mean a sympathy of comprehension a sympathy by which we enter into his feelings and are made to understand them
all strife of thought all flux and reflux of passion and of purpose are crushed by one overwhelming panic the fear of instant death smites him with its petrific mace
but in the murderer such a murderer as a poet will condescend to there must be raging some great storm of passion jealousy ambition vengeance hatred
which will create a hell within him and into this hell we are to look footnote one
it seems almost ludicrous to guard and explain my use of a word in a situation where it would naturally explain itself but it has become necessary to do so in consequence of the unscholarlike use of the word sympathy
at present so general by which instead of taking it in its proper sense as the act of reproducing in our minds the feelings of another whether for hatred indignation love pity or approbation
for the sake of gratifying his own enormous and teeming faculty of creation shakspeare has introduced two murderers and as usual in his hands they are remarkably discriminated
but though in macbeth the strife of mind is greater than in his wife the tiger spirit not so awake and his feelings caught chiefly by contagion from her
this was to be expressed and on its own account as well as to make it a more proportionable antagonist to the unoffending nature of their victim the gracious duncan and adequately to expound the
deep damnation of his taking off this was to be expressed with peculiar energy
and as this effect is marvellously accomplished in the dialogues and soliloquies themselves so it is finally consummated by the expedient under consideration and it is to this that i now solicit the reader's attention
if the reader has ever witnessed a wife daughter or sister in a fainting fit
and chancing to walk near the course through which it passed has felt powerfully in the silence and desertion of the streets and in the stagnation of ordinary business the deep interest which at that moment was possessing the heart of man
if all at once he should hear the death like stillness broken up by the sound of wheels rattling away from the scene and making known that the transitory vision was dissolved he will be aware that at no moment
and made apprehensible by reaction now apply this to the case in macbeth here as i have said
and made sensible another world has stepped in
they are transfigured lady macbeth is unsexed macbeth has forgot that he was born of woman both are conformed to the image of devils and the world of devils is suddenly revealed
and made palpable in order that a new world may step in this world must for a time disappear the murderers and the murder must be insulated
locked up and sequestered in some deep recess we must be made sensible that the world of ordinary life is suddenly arrested laid asleep tranced racked into a dread armistice time must be annihilated
relation to things without abolished and all must pass self withdrawn into a deep syncope and suspension of earthly passion hence it is that when the deed is done when the work of darkness is perfect
then the world of darkness passes away like a pageantry in the clouds the knocking at the gate is heard and it makes known audibly that the reaction has commenced the human has made its reflux upon the fiendish
hail storm and thunder which are to be studied with entire submission of our own faculties and in the perfect faith that in them there can be no too much or too little nothing useless or inert
the more he felt the impossibility of going to sleep on such a night
after which there was generally a drinking bout finishing with visits of a kind pierre was very fond of
i should like to go to kuragin's thought he but he immediately recalled his promise to prince andrew not to go there then as happens to people of weak character
he desired so passionately once more to enjoy that dissipation he was so accustomed to that he decided to go the thought immediately occurred to him that his promise to prince andrew was of no account
or something so extraordinary may happen to one that honor and dishonor will be all the same pierre often indulged in reflections of this sort nullifying all his decisions and intentions he went to kuragin's
cards and supper were over but the visitors had not yet dispersed pierre threw off his cloak and entered the first room in which were the remains of supper a footman thinking no one saw him
was drinking on the sly what was left in the glasses from the third room came sounds of laughter the shouting of familiar voices the growling of a bear and general commotion
some eight or nine young men were crowding anxiously round an open window three others were romping with a young bear one pulling him by the chain and trying to set him at the others i bet a hundred on stevens shouted one
mind no holding on cried another i bet on dolokhov cried a third kuragin you part our hands there leave bruin alone here's a bet on at one draught or he loses shouted a fourth jacob bring a bottle shouted the host
a tall handsome fellow who stood in the midst of the group without a coat and with his fine linen shirt unfastened in front wait a bit you fellows here is petya good man cried he addressing pierre
sober ring cried from the window come here part the bets this was dolokhov an officer of the semenov regiment a notorious gambler and duelist who was living with anatole pierre smiled looking about him merrily
i don't understand what's it all about wait a bit he is not drunk yet a bottle here said anatole taking a glass from the table he went up to pierre first of all you must drink pierre drank one glass after another
looking from under his brows at the tipsy guests who were again crowding round the window and listening to their chatter anatole kept on refilling pierre's glass while explaining that dolokhov was betting with stevens an english naval officer
no i won't said pierre pushing anatole aside and he went up to the window dolokhov was holding the englishman's hand and clearly and distinctly repeating the terms of the bet addressing himself particularly to anatole and pierre
dolokhov was of medium height with curly hair and light blue eyes he was about twenty five like all infantry officers he wore no mustache so that his mouth the most striking feature of his face was clearly seen
the lines of that mouth were remarkably finely curved the middle of the upper lip formed a sharp wedge and closed firmly on the firm lower one
this together with the resolute insolent intelligence of his eyes produced an effect which made it impossible not to notice his face dolokhov was a man of small means and no connections
dolokhov could play all games and nearly always won however much he drank he never lost his clearheadedness both kuragin and dolokhov were at that time notorious among the rakes and scapegraces of petersburg
the bottle of rum was brought the window frame which prevented anyone from sitting on the outer sill was being forced out by two footmen who were evidently flurried and intimidated by the directions and shouts of the gentlemen around
anatole with his swaggering air strode up to the window he wanted to smash something pushing away the footmen he tugged at the frame but could not move it he smashed a pane
first rate said pierre looking at dolokhov who with a bottle of rum in his hand was approaching the window from which the light of the sky the dawn merging with the afterglow of sunset was visible dolokhov the bottle of rum still in his hand
jumped onto the window sill listen cried he standing there and addressing those in the room all were silent
fifty imperials he spoke french that the englishman might understand him but he did not speak it very well i bet fifty imperials or do you wish to make it a hundred added he addressing the englishman no
fifty replied the latter all right fifty imperials that i will drink a whole bottle of rum without taking it from my mouth sitting outside the window on this spot
he stooped and pointed to the sloping ledge outside the window and without holding on to anything is that right quite right said the englishman anatole turned to the englishman and taking him by one of the buttons of his coat
began repeating the terms of the wager to him in english wait cried dolokhov hammering with the bottle on the window sill to attract attention wait a bit kuragin listen
the englishman nodded but gave no indication whether he intended to accept this challenge or not anatole did not release him and though he kept nodding to show that he understood anatole went on translating dolokhov's words into english
a thin young lad an hussar of the life guards who had been losing that evening climbed on the window sill leaned over and looked down oh oh oh he muttered
dolokhov climbed carefully and slowly through the window and lowered his legs pressing against both sides of the window he adjusted himself on his seat
anatole brought two candles and placed them on the window sill though it was already quite light dolokhov's back in his white shirt and his curly head were lit up from both sides everyone crowded to the window the englishman in front
pierre stood smiling but silent one man older than the others present suddenly pushed forward with a scared and angry look and wanted to seize hold of dolokhov's shirt i say this is folly he'll be killed said this more sensible man
anatole stopped him don't touch him you'll startle him and then he'll be killed eh what then eh
arranged himself on his seat if anyone comes meddling again said he emitting the words separately through his thin compressed lips i will throw him down there now then saying this he again turned round
dropped his hands took the bottle and lifted it to his lips threw back his head and raised his free hand to balance himself
one of the footmen who had stooped to pick up some broken glass remained in that position without taking his eyes from the window and from dolokhov's back anatole stood erect with staring eyes
the man who had wished to stop the affair ran to a corner of the room and threw himself on a sofa with his face to the wall pierre hid his face from which a faint smile forgot to fade though his features now expressed horror and fear all were still
pierre took his hands from his eyes dolokhov still sat in the same position
and the hand holding the bottle was lifted higher and higher and trembled with the effort the bottle was emptying perceptibly and rising still higher and his head tilting yet further back why is it so long thought pierre
it seemed to him that more than half an hour had elapsed suddenly dolokhov made a backward movement with his spine and his arm trembled nervously this was sufficient to cause his whole body to slip as he sat on the sloping ledge as he began slipping down
his head and arm wavered still more with the strain one hand moved as if to clutch the window sill but refrained from touching it pierre again covered his eyes and thought he would never open them again suddenly he was aware of a stir all around he looked up
empty he threw the bottle to the englishman who caught it neatly dolokhov jumped down he smelt strongly of rum well done fine fellow there's a bet for you devil take you came from different sides
the englishman took out his purse and began counting out the money dolokhov stood frowning and did not speak pierre jumped upon the window sill gentlemen
i'll do the same thing he suddenly cried even without a bet there tell them to bring me a bottle i'll do it bring a bottle let him do it let him do it said dolokhov smiling what next have you gone mad no one would let you why
i'll drink it let's have a bottle of rum shouted pierre banging the table with a determined and drunken gesture and preparing to climb out of the window
but in the drawing room the conversation was already over
though she looked resolute at the moment alyosha and madame hohlakov entered ivan fyodorovitch stood up to take leave his face was rather pale and alyosha looked at him anxiously
for this moment was to solve a doubt a harassing enigma which had for some time haunted alyosha during the preceding month it had been several times suggested to him that his brother ivan
was in love with katerina ivanovna and what was more that he meant to carry her off from dmitri until quite lately the idea seemed to alyosha monstrous though it worried him extremely
he loved both his brothers and dreaded such rivalry between them meantime dmitri had said outright on the previous day that he was glad that ivan was his rival
and that it was a great assistance to him dmitri in what way did it assist him to marry grushenka but that alyosha considered the worst thing possible
besides all this alyosha had till the evening before implicitly believed that katerina ivanovna had a steadfast and passionate love for dmitri
but he had only believed it till the evening before he had fancied too that she was incapable of loving a man like ivan and that she did love dmitri and loved him just as he was
in spite of all the strangeness of such a passion but during yesterday's scene with grushenka another idea had struck him the word lacerating which madame hohlakov had just uttered almost made him start
because half waking up towards daybreak that night he had cried out laceration laceration probably applying it to his dream he had been dreaming all night of the previous day's scene at katerina ivanovna's
now alyosha was impressed by madame hohlakov's blunt and persistent assertion that katerina ivanovna was in love with ivan and only deceived herself through some sort of pose from self laceration
and tortured herself by her pretended love for dmitri from some fancied duty of gratitude yes he thought perhaps the whole truth lies in those words but in that case
alyosha felt instinctively that a character like katerina ivanovna's must dominate and she could only dominate some one like dmitri and never a man like ivan
for dmitri might at last submit to her domination to his own happiness which was what alyosha would have desired but ivan no ivan could not submit to her
and such submission would not give him happiness alyosha could not help believing that of ivan and now all these doubts and reflections flitted through his mind as he entered the drawing room
another idea too forced itself upon him what if she loved neither of them neither ivan nor dmitri it must be noted that alyosha felt as it were
ashamed of his own thoughts and blamed himself when they kept recurring to him during the last month what do i know about love and women and how can i decide such questions he thought reproachfully
after such doubts and surmises and yet it was impossible not to think about it he felt instinctively that this rivalry was of immense importance in his brothers lives and that a great deal depended upon it
one reptile will devour the other ivan had pronounced the day before speaking in anger of his father and dmitri so ivan looked upon dmitri as a reptile
was it perhaps since he had known katerina ivanovna that phrase had of course escaped ivan unawares yesterday but that only made it more important if he felt like that what chance was there of peace
were there not on the contrary new grounds for hatred and hostility in their family and with which of them was alyosha to sympathize and what was he to wish for each of them he loved them both
but what could he desire for each in the midst of these conflicting interests he might go quite astray in this maze and alyosha's heart could not endure uncertainty because his love was always of an active character
he was incapable of passive love if he loved any one he set to work at once to help him and to do so he must know what he was aiming at he must know for certain what was best for each
and having ascertained this it was natural for him to help them both but instead of a definite aim he found nothing but uncertainty and perplexity on all sides it was lacerating
as was said just now but what could he understand even in this laceration he did not understand the first word in this perplexing maze seeing alyosha katerina ivanovna said quickly and joyfully to ivan
i want to hear the opinion of this person here whom i trust absolutely don't go away she added addressing madame hohlakov she made alyosha sit down beside her and madame hohlakov sat opposite by ivan
you are all my friends here
and alyosha's heart warmed to her at once you alexey fyodorovitch
and saw what i did you did not see it ivan fyodorovitch he did what he thought of me yesterday i don't know i only know one thing that if it were repeated to day this minute
i should express the same feelings again as yesterday the same feelings the same words the same actions you remember my actions alexey fyodorovitch you checked me in one of them as she said that
she flushed and her eyes shone i must tell you that i can't get over it listen alexey fyodorovitch i don't even know whether i still love him i feel pity for him
and that is a poor sign of love if i loved him if i still loved him
but should hate him her voice quivered and tears glittered on her eyelashes
that girl is truthful and sincere he thought and she does not love dmitri any more that's true that's true cried madame hohlakov wait dear i haven't told you the chief
the final decision i came to during the night i feel that perhaps my decision is a terrible one for me but i foresee that nothing will induce me to change it nothing it will be so all my life
he knows it yes i approve of it ivan assented in a subdued but firm voice but i should like alyosha too ah alexey fyodorovitch
forgive my calling you simply alyosha i should like alexey fyodorovitch too to tell me before my two friends whether i am right i feel instinctively that you alyosha my dear brother
for you are a dear brother to me she said again ecstatically taking his cold hand in her hot one i foresee that your decision your approval
will bring me peace in spite of all my sufferings for after your words i shall be calm and submit i feel that i don't know what you are asking me said alyosha flushing
i only know that i love you and at this moment wish for your happiness more than my own but i know nothing about such affairs something impelled him to add hurriedly in such affairs alexey fyodorovitch in such affairs
the chief thing is honor and duty and something higher i don't know what but higher perhaps even than duty i am conscious of this irresistible feeling in my heart and it compels me irresistibly
but it may all be put in two words i've already decided even if he marries that creature she began solemnly whom i never never can forgive
even then i will not abandon him henceforward i will never never abandon him she cried breaking into a sort of pale hysterical ecstasy not that i would run after him continually
get in his way and worry him oh no i will go away to another town where you like but i will watch over him all my life i will watch over him all my life unceasingly
when he becomes unhappy with that woman and that is bound to happen quite soon let him come to me and he will find a friend a sister only a sister of course and so for ever but
i will be a god to whom he can pray and that at least he owes me for his treachery and for what i suffered yesterday through him and let him see that all my life i will be true to him
and the promise i gave him in spite of his being untrue and betraying me i will i will become nothing but a means for his happiness or how shall i say an instrument a machine for his happiness
and that for my whole life my whole life and that he may see that all his life that's my decision ivan fyodorovitch fully approves me she was breathless
she had perhaps intended to express her idea with more dignity art and naturalness but her speech was too hurried and crude it was full of youthful impulsiveness
it betrayed that she was still smarting from yesterday's insult and that her pride craved satisfaction
no any other woman would have been wrong but you are right i don't know how to explain it but i see that you are absolutely genuine and therefore you are right
and what does this moment stand for nothing but yesterday's insult
but she could not refrain from this very just comment quite so quite so cried ivan with peculiar eagerness obviously annoyed at being interrupted
in any one else this moment would be only due to yesterday's impression and would be only a moment but with katerina ivanovna's character that moment will last all her life
what for any one else would be only a promise is for her an everlasting burdensome grim perhaps but unflagging duty and she will be sustained by the feeling of this duty being fulfilled
your life katerina ivanovna will henceforth be spent in painful brooding over your own feelings your own
and your own suffering but in the end that suffering will be softened and will pass into sweet contemplation of the fulfillment of a bold and proud design yes proud it certainly is
and desperate in any case but a triumph for you and the consciousness of it will at last be a source of complete satisfaction and will make you resigned to everything
else this was unmistakably said with some malice and obviously with intention even perhaps with no desire to conceal that he spoke ironically and with intention oh dear
how mistaken it all is madame hohlakov cried again alexey fyodorovitch you speak i want dreadfully to know what you will say cried katerina ivanovna and burst into tears
alyosha got up from the sofa it's nothing nothing she went on through her tears i'm upset i didn't sleep last night but by the side of two such friends as you and your brother i still feel strong
unluckily i am obliged to return to moscow perhaps to morrow
and unluckily it's unavoidable ivan said suddenly to morrow to moscow her face was suddenly contorted but but dear me
how fortunate she cried in a voice suddenly changed in one instant there was no trace left of her tears she underwent an instantaneous transformation which amazed alyosha
instead of a poor insulted girl weeping in a sort of laceration he saw a woman completely self possessed and even exceedingly pleased as though something agreeable had just happened
oh not fortunate that i am losing you of course not she corrected herself suddenly with a charming society smile such a friend as you are could not suppose that
i am only too unhappy at losing you she rushed impulsively at ivan and seizing both his hands pressed them warmly but what is fortunate is that you will be able in moscow
to see auntie and agafya and to tell them all the horror of my present position you can speak with complete openness to agafya but spare dear auntie you will know how to do that
you can't think how wretched i was yesterday and this morning wondering how i could write them that dreadful letter for one can never tell such things in a letter now it will be easy for me to write
for you will see them and explain everything oh how glad i am but i am only glad of that believe me of course no one can take your place i will run at once to write the letter she finished suddenly
and took a step as though to go out of the room and what about alyosha and his opinion which you were so desperately anxious to hear cried madame hohlakov there was a sarcastic angry note in her voice
i had not forgotten that cried katerina ivanovna coming to a sudden standstill and why are you so antagonistic at such a moment she added with warm and bitter reproachfulness
what i said i repeat i must have his opinion more than that i must have his decision as he says so it shall be you see how anxious i am for your words alexey fyodorovitch
and you cry out that you are glad you said that on purpose and you begin explaining that you are not glad of that but sorry to be losing a friend
as in a theater in a theater what what do you mean exclaimed katerina ivanovna profoundly astonished flushing crimson and frowning
though you assure him you are sorry to lose a friend in him you persist in telling him to his face that it's fortunate he is going said alyosha breathlessly he was standing at the table and did not sit down
what are you talking about i don't understand i don't understand myself i seemed to see in a flash i know i am not saying it properly but i'll say it all the same alyosha went on
in the same shaking and broken voice what i see is that perhaps you don't love dmitri at all and never have from the beginning and dmitri too has never loved you and only esteems you
i really don't know how i dare to say all this but somebody must tell the truth for nobody here will tell the truth what truth cried katerina ivanovna and there was an hysterical ring
in her voice i'll tell you alyosha went on with desperate haste as though he were jumping from the top of a house call dmitri i will fetch him and let him come here and take your hand
and join your hands for you're torturing ivan simply because you love him and torturing him because you love dmitri through self laceration' with an unreal love because you've persuaded yourself
alyosha broke off and was silent you you you are a little religious idiot that's what you are katerina ivanovna snapped her face was white
and her lips were moving with anger ivan suddenly laughed and got up his hat was in his hand you are mistaken my good alyosha he said with an expression alyosha had never seen
in his face before an expression of youthful sincerity and strong irresistibly frank feeling
she has known all the time that i cared for her though i never said a word of my love to her she knew but she didn't care for me i have never been her friend either not for one moment she is too proud to need my friendship
she kept me at her side as a means of revenge she revenged with me and on me all the insults which she has been continually receiving from dmitri ever since their first meeting for even that first meeting
that's what her heart is like she has talked to me of nothing but her love for him i am going now but believe me katerina ivanovna you really love him and the more he insults you the more you love him
that's your laceration you love him just as he is you love him for insulting you if he reformed you'd give him up at once and cease to love him but you need him so as to contemplate
continually your heroic fidelity and to reproach him for infidelity and it all comes from your pride oh there's a great deal of humiliation and self abasement about it but it all comes from pride
i am too young and i've loved you too much i know that i ought not to say this that it would be more dignified on my part simply to leave you and it would be less offensive for you but i am going far away
and shall never come back it is for ever i don't want to sit beside a laceration but i don't know how to speak now i've said everything good by katerina ivanovna
good by i don't want your hand
he added with a forced smile showing however that he could read schiller and read him till he knew him by heart which alyosha would never have believed
he went out of the room without saying good by even to his hostess madame hohlakov alyosha clasped his hands ivan he cried desperately after him come back ivan no
nothing will induce him to come back now he cried again regretfully realizing it but it's my fault my fault i began it ivan spoke angrily wrongly unjustly and angrily
he must come back here come back alyosha kept exclaiming frantically katerina ivanovna went suddenly into the next room
you behaved beautifully like an angel madame hohlakov whispered rapidly and ecstatically to alyosha i will do my utmost to prevent ivan fyodorovitch from going her face beamed with delight
to the great distress of alyosha but katerina ivanovna suddenly returned she had two hundred rouble notes in her hand i have a great favor to ask of you alexey fyodorovitch she began
addressing alyosha with an apparently calm and even voice as though nothing had happened a week yes i think it was a week ago dmitri fyodorovitch was guilty of a hasty and unjust action
a very ugly action there is a low tavern here and in it he met that discharged officer that captain whom your father used to employ in some business
dmitri fyodorovitch somehow lost his temper with this captain seized him by the beard and dragged him out into the street and for some distance along it in that insulting fashion and i am told that his son a boy
quite a child who is at the school here saw it and ran beside them crying and begging for his father appealing to every one to defend him while every one laughed
i can't describe it even i can't find my words i've made inquiries about his victim and find he is quite a poor man his name is snegiryov he did something wrong in the army and was discharged
i can't tell you what and now he has sunk into terrible destitution with his family an unhappy family of sick children and i believe an insane wife he has been living here a long time
he used to work as a copying clerk but now he is getting nothing i thought if you that is i thought i don't know i am so confused you see
i wanted to ask you my dear alexey fyodorovitch to go to him to find some excuse to go to them i mean to that captain oh goodness how badly i explain it and delicately carefully
as only you know how to alyosha blushed manage to give him this assistance these two hundred roubles he will be sure to take it i mean persuade him to take it or rather
what do i mean you see it's not by way of compensation to prevent him from taking proceedings for i believe he meant to but simply a token of sympathy of a desire to assist him from me
dmitri fyodorovitch's betrothed not from himself but you know i would go myself but you'll know how to do it ever so much better he lives in lake street in the house of a woman called kalmikov
for god's sake alexey fyodorovitch do it for me and now now i am rather tired good by she turned and disappeared behind the portiere so quickly
that alyosha had not time to utter a word though he wanted to speak he longed to beg her pardon to blame himself to say something for his heart was full and he could not bear to go out of the room without it
but madame hohlakov took him by the hand and drew him along with her in the hall she stopped him again as before she is proud she is struggling with herself but kind charming generous
oh how i love her especially sometimes and how glad i am again of everything dear alexey fyodorovitch you didn't know but i must tell you that we all all
both her aunts i and all of us lise even have been hoping and praying for nothing for the last month but that she may give up your favorite dmitri who takes no notice of her
and does not care for her and may marry ivan fyodorovitch such an excellent and cultivated young man who loves her more than anything in the world we are in a regular plot to bring it about
and i am even staying on here perhaps on that account but she has been crying she has been wounded again cried alyosha never trust a woman's tears alexey fyodorovitch
i am always on the side of the men mamma you are spoiling him lise's little voice cried from behind the door no it was all my fault i am horribly to blame alyosha repeated
unconsoled hiding his face in his hands in an agony of remorse for his indiscretion quite the contrary you behaved like an angel like an angel i am ready to say so a thousand times over
mamma how has he behaved like an angel lise's voice was heard again i somehow fancied all at once alyosha went on as though he had not heard
that she loved ivan and so i said that stupid thing what will happen now to whom to whom
mamma you really want to be the death of me i ask you and you don't answer
katerina ivanovna is ill she is crying struggling hysterics
in a tone of real anxiety
lise for mercy's sake don't scream don't persecute me at your age one can't know everything that grown up people know i'll come and tell you everything you ought to know
hysterics is a good sign alexey fyodorovitch it's an excellent thing that she is hysterical that's just as it ought to be in such cases i am always against the woman
against all these feminine tears and hysterics run and say yulia that i'll fly to her as for ivan fyodorovitch's going away like that it's her own fault but he won't go away
oh yes you are not screaming
forgive your mamma but i am delighted delighted delighted did you notice alexey fyodorovitch how young how young ivan fyodorovitch was just now when he went out when he said all that and went out
i thought he was so learned such a savant and all of a sudden he behaved so warmly openly and youthfully with such youthful inexperience and it was all so fine like you
and the way he repeated that german verse it was just like you but i must fly i must fly alexey fyodorovitch make haste to carry out her commission and then make haste back
do you want anything now for mercy's sake don't keep alexey fyodorovitch a minute he will come back to you at once madame hohlakov at last ran off
on no account cried lise on no account now speak through the door how have you come to be an angel that's the only thing i want to know
i'll be back directly but i have a great great sorrow
mister skaggs had no qualms of conscience about the manner in which he had come by the damaging evidence against maurice oakley it was enough for him that he had it
a corporation he argued had no soul and therefore no conscience how much less then should so small a part of a great corporation as himself
be expected to have them he had his story it was vivid interesting dramatic it meant the favour of his editor
a big thing for the universe and a fatter lining for his own pocket he sat down to put his discovery on paper before he attempted anything else
although the impulse to celebrate was very strong within him he told his story well with an eye to every one of its salient points
he sent an alleged picture of berry hamilton as he had appeared at the time of his arrest he sent a picture of the oakley home and of the cottage where the servant and his family
had been so happy there was a strong pen picture of the man oakley grown haggard and morose from carrying his guilty secret of his confusion when confronted with the
supposed knowledge of it the old southern city was described and the opinions of its residents in regard to the case given it was there
clear interesting and strong one could see it all as if every phase of it were being enacted before one's eyes skaggs surpassed himself
when the editor first got hold of it he said huh over the opening lines a few short sentences
that instantly pricked the attention awake he read on with increasing interest this is good stuff he said at the last page
here s a chance for the universe to look into the methods of southern court proceedings
the universe had always claimed to be the friend of all poor and oppressed humanity and every once in a while it did something to substantiate its claim
whereupon it stood off and said to the public look you what we have done and behold how great we are the friend of the people the universe was yellow
it was very so but it had power and keenness and energy it never lost an opportunity to crow and if one was not forthcoming it made one
in this way it managed to do a considerable amount of good and its yellowness became forgivable even commendable in skaggs's story the editor saw
an opportunity for one of its periodical philanthropies he seized upon it with headlines that took half a page and with cuts authentic and otherwise
the tale was told and the people of new york were greeted next morning with the announcement of a burning shame a poor and innocent negro made to suffer for a rich man's crime
a universe reporter to the rescue the whole thing to be aired that the people may know
then skaggs received a telegram that made him leap for joy he was to do it he was to go to the capital of the state he was to beard the governor in his den
and he with the force of a great paper behind him was to demand for the people the release of an innocent man then there would be another write up and much glory for him and more shekels
in an hour after he had received his telegram he was on his way to the southern capital meanwhile in the house of maurice oakley there were sad times
from the moment that the master of the house had fallen to the floor in impotent fear and madness there had been no peace within his doors at first his wife had tried to control him alone
and had humoured the wild babblings with which he woke from his swoon but these changed to shrieks and cries and curses
and she was forced to throw open the doors so long closed and call in help the neighbours and her old friends went to her assistance and what the reporter's story had not done
the ravings of the man accomplished for with a show of matchless cunning he continually clutched at his breast laughed and babbled his secret openly
even then they would have smothered it in silence for the honour of one of their best families but too many ears had heard and then came the yellow journal
bearing all the news in emblazoned headlines colonel saunders was distinctly hurt to think that his confidence had been imposed on and that
he had been instrumental in bringing shame upon a southern name to think suh he said generally to the usual assembly of choice spirits to think of that
man's being a reporter suh a common ordinary reporter and that i sat and talked to him as if he were a gentleman
said old horace talbot you ve done no more than any other gentleman would have done
has no sense of honour suh no sense of honour if this particular man had had he would have kept still and everything would have gone on smooth and quiet
instead of that a distinguished family is brought to shame and for what to give a nigger a few more years of freedom when likely as not
he don't want it and berry hamilton's life in prison has proved nearer the ideal reached by slavery than anything he has found since emancipation why suhs
i fancy i see him leaving his prison with tears of regret in his eyes old horace was inanely eloquent for an hour over his pet theory
but there were some in the town who thought differently about the matter and it was their opinions and murmurings that backed up skaggs and made it easier for him when at the capital
he came into contact with the official red tape he was told that there were certain forms of procedure and certain times for certain things but he hammered persistently away
the murmurings behind him grew louder while from his sanctum the editor of the universe thundered away against oppression and high handed tyranny other papers took it up
and asked why this man should be despoiled of his liberty any longer and when it was replied that the man had been convicted and that the wheels of justice could not be stopped or turned back
by the letter of a romantic artist or the ravings of a madman there was a mighty outcry against the farce of justice that had been played out in this man's case
the trial was reviewed the evidence again brought up and examined the dignity of the state was threatened at this time the state
to save its tottering reputation it would not surrender but it capitulated and berry hamilton was pardoned
berry heard the news with surprise and a half bitter joy he had long ago lost hope that justice would ever be done to him he marvelled at the word
and he could not understand the strange cordiality of the young white man who met him at the warden's office five years of prison life had made a different man of him
he no longer looked to receive kindness from his fellows and he blinked at it
brightness of the sun the lines about his mouth where the smiles used to gather had changed and grown stern with the hopelessness of years
his lips drooped pathetically and hard treatment had given his eyes a lowering look his hair
that had hardly shown a white streak was as white as maurice oakley's own his erstwhile quick wits were dulled and imbruted
he had lived like an ox working without inspiration or reward and he came forth like an ox from his stall
all the higher part of him he had left behind dropping it off day after day through the wearisome years he had
put behind him the berry hamilton that laughed and joked and sang and believed for even his faith
shaking his hand heartily berry did not answer what had this slim glib young man to do with him what had any white man
to do with him after what he had suffered at their hands you know you are to go new york with me to new yawk
skaggs did not tell him that now that the universe had done its work it demanded the right to crow to its heart's satisfaction he said only
you want to see your wife of course berry had forgotten fannie and for the first time his heart thrilled within him at the thought of seeing her again
time i
become of em how s kit an joe
in this the first hour of his freedom let him have time to drink the sweetness of that all in there would be time afterwards to taste all of the bitterness
once in new york he found that people wished to see him some fools some philanthropists and a great many reporters
he had to be photographed all this before he could seek those whom he longed to see they printed his picture as he was before he went to prison
and as he was now a sort of before and after taking comment and in the morning that it all appeared when the universe spread itself
to tell the public what it had done and how it had done it they gave him his wife's address it would be better they thought for her to tell him herself
all that happened no one of them was brave enough to stand to look in his eyes when he asked for his son and daughter and they shifted their responsibility
by pretending to themselves that they were doing it for his own good
who had been his wife berry took the address and inquired his way timidly hesitatingly but with a swelling heart to the door of the flat
a farewell dinner maurice oakley was not a man of sudden or violent enthusiasms conservatism was the quality that had been the foundation of his fortunes
at a time when the disruption of the country had involved most of the men of his region in ruin without giving any one ground to charge him with
being lukewarm or renegade to his cause he had yet so adroitly managed his affairs
with a rare genius for adapting himself to new conditions he accepted the changed order of things with a passive resignation but with a stern determination to make the most out of any good
that might be in it it was a favourite remark of his that there must be some good in every system and it was the duty of the citizen to find out that good and make it pay
he had done this his house his reputation his satisfaction were all evidences that he had succeeded a childless man
he bestowed upon his younger brother francis the enthusiasm he would have given to a son his wife shared with her husband this feeling for her brother in law and with him played
the role of parent which had otherwise been denied her it was true that francis oakley was only a half brother to maurice the son of a second
and not too fortunate marriage but there was no halving of the love which the elder man had given to him from childhood up at the first intimation that francis had artistic ability
his brother had placed him under the best masters in america and later when the promise of his youth had begun to blossom he sent him to paris although the expenditure just at that time
demanded a sacrifice which might have been the ruin of maurice's own career francis's promise had never come to entire fulfilment he was always trembling on the verge of
a great success without quite plunging into it despite the joy which his presence gave his brother and sister in law most of his time was spent abroad where he could
find just the atmosphere that suited his delicate artistic nature after a visit of two months he was about returning to paris for a stay of five years
at last he was going to apply himself steadily and try to be less the dilettante the company which maurice oakley
brought together to say good bye to his brother on this occasion was drawn from the best that this fine old southern town afforded there were colonels there at whose titles and the owners rights to them no one could laugh
there were brilliant women there who had queened it in richmond baltimore louisville and new orleans and every southern capital under the old regime and there were younger ones there of wit
and beauty who were just beginning to hold their court for francis was a great favourite both with men and women he was a handsome man tall slender and graceful
he had the face and brow of a poet a pallid face framed in a mass of dark hair there was a touch of weakness in his mouth but this was shaded
and half hidden by a full mustache that made much forgivable to beauty loving eyes it was generally conceded
that missus oakley was a hostess whose guests had no awkward half hour before dinner no praise could be higher than this
and to night she had no need to exert herself to maintain this reputation her brother in law was the life of the assembly he had wit and daring and about him there was
just that hint of charming danger that made him irresistible to women the guests heard the dinner announced with surprise an unusual thing except in this house
both maurice oakley and his wife looked fondly at the artist as he went in with claire lessing he was talking animatedly to the girl
having changed the general trend of the conversation to a manner and tone directed more particularly to her while she listened to him her face glowed
and her eyes shone with a light that every man could not bring into them as maurice and his wife followed him with their gaze the same thought was in their minds and it had not just come to them
why could not francis marry claire lessing and settle in america instead of going back ever and again to that life in the latin quarter they did not believe that it was a bad life or a dissipated one
but from the little that they had seen of it when they were in paris it was at least a bit too free and unconventional for their traditions there were too temptations which must assail any man
of francis's looks and talents they had perfect faith in the strength of his manhood of course but could they have had their way
it would have been their will to hedge him about so that no breath of evil invitation could have come nigh to him but this younger brother this half ward of theirs was an unruly member
he talked and laughed rode and walked with claire lessing with the same free abandon the same show of uninterested good comradeship that
when they were boy and girl together there was not a shade more of warmth or self consciousness in his manner towards her than there had been fifteen years before in fact there was less
for there had been a time when he was six and claire three that francis with a boldness that the lover of maturer years tries vainly to attain had announced to claire that
he was going to marry her but he had never renewed this declaration when it came time that it would carry weight with it they made a fine picture as they sat together to night
one seeing them could hardly help thinking on the instant that they were made for each other something in the woman's face in her expression perhaps supplied
a palpable lack in the man the strength of her mouth and chin helped the weakness of his she was the sort of woman who if ever he came to a great moral crisis in his life
would be able to save him if she were near and yet he was going away from her giving up the pearl that he had only to put out his hand to take
some of these thoughts were in the minds of the brother and sister now five years does seem a long while francis was saying
but if a man accomplishes anything after all it seems only a short time to look back upon all time is short to look back upon
it is the looking forward to it that counts it does n't though with a man i suppose he's doing something all the while yes a man is always doing something
even if only waiting but waiting is such unheroic business that is the part that usually falls to a woman's lot
i have no doubt that some dark eyed mademoiselle is waiting for you now francis laughed and flushed hotly claire noted the flush and wondered at it
had she indeed hit upon the real point was that the reason that he was so anxious to get back to paris the thought struck a chill through her gaiety she did not want to be suspicious
but what was the cause of that tell tale flush he was not a man easily disconcerted then why so to night but her companion talked on with such innocent composure
that she believed herself mistaken as to the reason for his momentary confusion someone cried gayly across the table to her oh miss claire
you will not dare to talk with such little awe to our friend when he comes back with his ribbons and his medals why we shall all have to bow to you frank
the flower of approval from the fair women of my own state hear cried the ladies trust artists and poets to pay pretty compliments and this wily friend of mine
pays his at my expense a good bit of generalship that frank an old military man broke in esterton opened the breach and you at once galloped in that s the highest art of war
claire was looking at her companion had he meant the approval of the women or was it one woman that he cared for had the speech had a hidden meaning for her
she could never tell she could not understand this man who had been so much to her for so long and yet did not seem to know it
the men lingered over their cigars the wine was old and the stories new what more could they ask there was a strong glow in francis oakley's face
and his laugh was frequent and ringing some discussion came up which sent him running up to his room for a bit of evidence when he came down it was not to come directly to the dining room
he paused in the hall and despatched a servant to bring his brother to him maurice found him standing weakly against the railing of the stairs something in his air impressed his brother strangely
what is it francis he questioned hurrying to him i have just discovered a considerable loss
is gone from my bureau what when did it disappear i went to my bureau to night for something and found the money gone then i remembered that
when i opened it two days ago i must have left the key in the lock as i found it to night
but don't let s talk of it now come
don't look so cut up about it frank old man
and re entered the room with his brother in a few minutes his gaiety had apparently returned when they rejoined the ladies even their quick eyes could detect in his demeanour
no trace of the annoying thing that had occurred his face did not change until with a wealth of fervent congratulations he had bade the last guest good bye
when leslie is in bed come into the library i will wait for you there he said and walked sadly away poor foolish frank mused his brother
mammon and the archer old anthony rockwall retired manufacturer and proprietor of rockwall's eureka soap looked out the library window of his fifth avenue mansion and grinned his neighbour to the right
the aristocratic clubman g van schuylight suffolk jones came out to his waiting motor car wrinkling a contumelious nostril as usual at the italian renaissance sculpture of the soap palace's front elevation stuck up old statuette of nothing doing
commented the ex soap king the eden musee'll get that old frozen nesselrode yet if he don't watch out i'll have this house painted red white and blue next summer and see if that'll make his dutch nose turn up any higher and then anthony rockwall who never cared for bells
went to the door of his library and shouted mike in the same voice that had once chipped off pieces of the welkin on the kansas prairies tell my son said anthony to the answering menial to come in here before he leaves the house when young rockwall entered the library
the old man laid aside his newspaper looked at him with a kindly grimness on his big smooth ruddy countenance rumpled his mop of white hair with one hand and rattled the keys in his pocket with the other richard said anthony rockwall what do you pay for the soap that you use
he had not yet taken the measure of this sire of his who was as full of unexpectednesses as a girl at her first party six dollars a dozen i think dad and your clothes i suppose about sixty dollars as a rule you're a gentleman
said anthony decidedly i've heard of these young bloods spending twenty four dollars a dozen for soap and going over the hundred mark for clothes you've got as much money to waste as any of em and yet you stick to what's decent and moderate now i use the old eureka not only for sentiment but it's the purest soap made
but fifty cents is doing very well for a young man in your generation position and condition as i said you're a gentleman
i'm nearly as impolite and disagreeable and ill mannered as these two old knickerbocker gents on each side of me that can't sleep of nights because i bought in between em there are some things that money can't accomplish remarked young rockwall rather gloomily
now don't say that said old anthony shocked
i'm for money against the field tell me something money won't buy for one thing answered richard rankling a little it won't buy one into the exclusive circles of society
oho won't it thundered the champion of the root of evil you tell me where your exclusive circles would be if the first astor hadn't had the money to pay for his steerage passage over richard sighed
and that's what i was coming to said the old man less boisterously that's why i asked you to come in there's something going wrong with you boy i've been noticing it for two weeks out with it
ah said anthony keenly what's her name richard began to walk up and down the library floor there was enough comradeship and sympathy in this crude old father of his to draw his confidence why don't you ask her
demanded old anthony she'll jump at you you've got the money and the looks and you're a decent boy your hands are clean you've got no eureka soap on em you've been to college but she'll overlook that i haven't had a chance said richard make one said anthony
take her for a walk in the park or a straw ride or walk home with her from church chance pshaw you don't know the social mill dad she's part of the stream that turns it every hour and minute of her time is arranged for days in advance
she's at larchmont now at her aunt's i can't go there
we drive down broadway to wallack's at a gallop
no and what chance would i have in the theatre or afterward none
we can't buy one minute of time with cash if we could rich people would live longer there's no hope of getting a talk with miss lantry before she sails
i'm glad it ain't your liver but don't forget to burn a few punk sticks in the joss house to the great god mazuma from time to time you say money won't buy time well of course you can't order eternity wrapped up and delivered at your residence for a price but i've seen father time get pretty bad stone bruises on his heels
when he walked through the gold diggings that night came aunt ellen gentle sentimental wrinkled sighing oppressed by wealth in to brother anthony at his evening paper and began discourse on the subject of lovers woes
he told me all about it said brother anthony yawning i told him my bank account was at his service
oh anthony
all your gold cannot bring happiness to your son at eight o'clock the next evening
she asked me to give it to you when you had found the one you loved young rockwall took the ring reverently and tried it on his smallest finger it slipped as far as the second joint and stopped
said richard loyally they whirled up forty second to broadway and then down the white starred lane that leads from the soft meadows of sunset to the rocky hills of morning at thirty fourth street young richard quickly thrust up the trap and ordered the cabman to stop
i've dropped a ring he apologised as he climbed out
i won't detain you a minute i saw where it fell in less than a minute he was back in the cab with the ring but within that minute a crosstown car had stopped directly in front of the cab the cabman tried to pass to the left but a heavy express wagon cut him off he tried the right
and had to back away from a furniture van that had no business to be there he tried to back out but dropped his reins and swore dutifully he was blockaded in a tangled mess of vehicles and horses
he saw a congested flood of wagons trucks cabs vans and street cars filling the vast space where broadway sixth avenue and thirty fourth street cross one another as a twenty six inch maiden fills her twenty two inch girdle
and still from all the cross streets they were hurrying and rattling toward the converging point at full speed and hurling themselves into the struggling mass locking wheels and adding their drivers imprecations to the clamour
the oldest new yorker among the thousands of spectators that lined the sidewalks had not witnessed a street blockade of the proportions of this one i'm very sorry said richard as he resumed his seat
they won't get this jumble loosened up in an hour
at eleven o'clock that night somebody tapped lightly on anthony rockwall's door
emblem of true love
was the cause of our richard finding his happiness
sister said anthony rockwall i've got my pirate in a devil of a scrape his ship has just been scuttled and he's too good a judge of the value of money to let drown i wish you would let me go on with this chapter the story should end here
i wish it would as heartily as you who read it wish it did
the next day a person with red hands and a blue polka dot necktie who called himself kelly
well said anthony reaching for his chequebook it was a good bilin of soap
the boys was on time to the fraction of a second
thirteen hundred there you are kelly said anthony tearing off a check
you don't despise money do you kelly
the blow had been the more painful on account of its being unexpected it was some time before the marquise recovered herself but once recovered she began to reflect upon the events so heartlessly announced to her she therefore returned at the risk even of losing her life in the way
treason then deep menaces concealed under the semblance of public interest such were colbert's maneuvers a detestable delight at an approaching downfall untiring efforts to attain this object means of seduction no less wicked than the crime itself
such were the weapons marguerite employed the crooked atoms of descartes triumphed to the man without compassion was united a woman without heart
with sorrow rather than indignation
and the avarice of mazarin at a period of life when he had not had the opportunity of gorging himself with french gold the spirit of this courageous woman soon resumed its energy no longer overwhelmed by indulgence in compassionate lamentations
the marquise was not one to weep when action was necessary nor to waste time in bewailing a misfortune as long as means still existed of relieving it for some minutes she buried her face in her cold fingers and then raising her head
is everything prepared for my departure
yes madame but it was not expected that your ladyship would leave for belliere for the next few days all my jewels and articles of value then are packed up yes madame but hitherto we have been in the habit of leaving them in paris your ladyship does not generally take your jewels with you into the country
but they are all in order you say yes in your ladyship's own room the gold plate in the chest and the silver plate in the great oak closet
let my goldsmith be sent for her attendants quitted the room to execute the order the marquise however had entered her own room and was inspecting her casket of jewels with the greatest attention
never until now had she bestowed such close attention upon riches in which women take so much pride never until now had she looked at her jewels except for the purpose of making a selection according to their settings or their colors
on this occasion however she admired the size of the rubies and the brilliancy of the diamonds she grieved over every blemish and every defect she thought the gold light and the stones wretched the goldsmith as he entered found her thus occupied
she said i believe you supplied me with my gold service i did your ladyship
of the new service madame or of that which m de belliere presented to you on your marriage for i have furnished both first of all the new one the covers the goblets and the dishes with their covers the eau epergne the ice pails
the dishes for the preserves and the tea and coffee urns cost your ladyship sixty thousand francs no more your ladyship thought the account very high yes yes i remember in fact that it was dear but it was the workmanship i suppose
yes madame the designs the chasings all new patterns what proportion of the cost does the workmanship form do not hesitate to tell me a third of its value madame
that which belonged to my husband yes madame there is less workmanship in that than in the other its intrinsic value does not exceed thirty thousand francs thirty thousand murmured the marquise but m faucheux
there is also the service which belonged to my mother all that massive plate which i did not wish to part with on account of the associations connected with it ah madame that would indeed be an excellent resource for those who unlike your ladyship
might not be in position to keep their plate in chasing that they worked in solid metal but that service is no longer in fashion its weight is its only advantage that is all i care about how much does it weigh fifty thousand livres at the very least
one hundred and thirty
let us now turn to another subject said madame de belliere and she opened one of her jewel boxes i recognize these emeralds
they are the most beautiful in the whole court no i am mistaken madame de chatillon has the most beautiful set
your set madame comes next what are they worth mounted no supposing i wished to sell them
that is the very thing i ask they could be sold then all your jewels could be sold madame it is well known that you possess the most beautiful jewels in paris you are not changeable in your tastes when you make a purchase it is of the very best and what you purchase you do not part with
what could these emeralds be sold for then a hundred and thirty thousand francs the marquise wrote down upon her tablets the amount which the jeweler mentioned the ruby necklace she said are they balas rubies madame
they are beautiful magnificent i did not know your ladyship had these stones what is their value
rings necklaces sprigs ear rings clasps
the jeweler took his magnifying glass and scales
and silently made his calculations these stones he said must have cost your ladyship an income of forty thousand francs you value them at eight hundred thousand francs nearly so
but the settings are not included no madame but if i were called upon to sell or to buy i should be satisfied with the gold of the settings alone as my profit upon the transaction i should make a good twenty five thousand francs an agreeable sum
very much so madame
give me an answer simply you are an honorable man with whom my family has dealt for thirty years you knew my father and mother whom your own father and mother served i address you as a friend will you accept the gold of the settings in return for a sum of ready money to be placed in my hands
eight hundred thousand francs it is enormous i know it impossible to find not so
you can get sets of false jewels made for me similar to the real do not answer a word i insist upon it sell them separately sell the stones only in that way it is easy monsieur is looking out for some sets of jewels as well as single stones for madame's toilette
there will be a competition for them i can easily dispose of six hundred thousand francs worth to monsieur i am certain yours are the most beautiful when can you do so in less than three days time very well
the remainder you will dispose of among private individuals
i entreat you to reflect madame for if you force the sale you will lose a hundred thousand francs if necessary i will lose two hundred i wish everything to be settled this evening do you accept i do your ladyship
i will not conceal from you that i shall make fifty thousand francs by the transaction so much the better for you in what way shall i have the money either in gold
return home and bring the sum in question in notes as soon as possible yes madame but for heaven's sake
by the by i was forgetting the silver plate
you will take away with you both the gold and silver plate i can assign as a pretext that i wish it remodeled on patters more in accordance with my own taste melt it down and return me its value in money at once it shall be done your ladyship
you will be good enough to place the money in a chest and direct one of your clerks to accompany the chest and without my servants seeing him and order him to wait for me in a carriage
if you will allow it and i will call for it at your house certainly your ladyship
she said the jeweler bowed and left the house directing that the van should follow him closely saying aloud that the marquise was about to have her plate melted down in order to have other plate manufactured of a more modern style
and received from him eight hundred francs in gold inclosed in a chest
as the daughter of a president of accounts
who was syndic of the goldsmiths these thirty thousand crowns had become very fruitful during twenty years the jeweler though a millionaire was a modest man he had purchased a substantial carriage built in sixteen forty eight ten years after the king's birth
this carriage or rather house upon wheels excited the admiration of the whole quarter in which he resided it was covered with allegorical paintings and clouds scattered over with stars
robin hood when the wicked john tried to sway england many honest men turned outlaws rather than obey or suffer his evil rule for john and his noblemen tortured and oppressed the poor driving them from house and hearth to make a hunting ground
and taxing them so heavily that they frequently starved to death forests were plentiful in england in those days but john often tore down houses of his subjects to make the forests even greater so that he might have more sport in hunting the deer and the boar that ran wild there
and while he did not scruple to take the peasants lands for such a purpose it was a terrible crime for a peasant to shoot the deer that often fed upon his crops even were he starving he might not slay a deer in his own yard and if he so transgressed
he was punished with the most inhuman cruelty now as has been said many men were too high spirited to suffer the injustice that john laid upon them they fled into the forests instead and formed armed bands setting upon travelers and robbing them of their goods
and they lived by shooting the king's deer and whatever game they could catch and kill among these men was an outlaw called robin hood whose fame was known through the length and breadth of england although many men at arms had pursued him they never could catch him and his daring surpassed belief
he surrounded himself with the bravest and boldest young men in all england and if he encountered any stout hearted man among those whom he robbed or even among those that the sheriff sent to pursue him that man was often added to his band of outlaws robin hood became an outlaw through no fault of his own
but through the common injustice of the day when he was a very young man he was journeying to the town of nottingham where the sheriff had prepared a bout in archery and had promised a butt of ale to whatever man should draw the best bow and shoot the most skilful arrow
as robin hood was passing through the forest on his way to nottingham he met a group of the king's foresters who were there to see that nobody transgressed the laws and they made fun of his beardless face and boyish figure still more of the bow he carried since they knew he was on his way to shoot at nottingham
and they did not believe that such a youth could ever hope to gain the prize after bearing their jests for a time robin became angry and challenged any one of them to test his skill with the bow they replied that he did but boast for they had no target and then looking down the glade
done cried one of the foresters whereupon robin laid an arrow to his bow and shot so cleverly that the deer lay dead in its tracks the foresters were greatly angered that he had succeeded and not only refused to pay him
but when he set forth again one of them sprang to his feet and sent an arrow after him whereupon robin turned like a flash and made even a better shot than his first one for the fellow who had loosed his bow upon him lay dead on the greensward with an arrow in his heart
the king's foresters could not be slain with impunity in those days and robin was made an outlaw not only because he had slain his man but because he had killed the king's deer and in such a way it came to pass that he gathered a band of followers about him in sherwood forest
and his fame as an outlaw soon became known throughout the land but although robin hood was a robber the common people soon learned to love him for no poor man was ever the poorer on account of his outlawry rather were the countryfolk in the neighborhood of sherwood forest better off than before
because he made it a point of honor to rob the rich only to bestow large gifts upon the poor and many a present of food and gold was brought by him to the starving serfs and humble people in the neighborhood now the sheriff of nottingham was eager for the king's favor
and the deeds of robin hood were soon brought to his notice he sought more than once to capture the bold outlaw but always failed and he was so clumsy and so cowardly that robin hood became emboldened to defy him openly and enter the town of nottingham under his very eyes
there are so many tales about robin hood that it would be impossible to tell them all here and one or two will have to suffice to show what manner of life he led and what sort of men his followers were one of these was called little john because he was seven feet tall and broad to match
and in all england there could scarce be found his equal with the cudgel another was a great brawny priest or friar who loved his wine better than prayers and believed a pasty made of the king's deer was better for the heart than any amount of fasting this jovial priest was named friar tuck
and took upon himself the task of looking after the spiritual welfare of robin's band
and he was clad in the most brilliant manner imaginable in rosy scarlet from head to heel he seemed a very ladylike kind of person and carried in his hand a rose of which he smelled now and then as he walked along and he sang a little song that sounded for all the world as though it were being sung by a girl in her teens
and robin's gorge rose at the sight of him for he hated unmanliness and thought that this gaily clad ladylike fellow who seemed to turn his nose up at the ground he walked upon must be a courtier or some nobleman that had never done an honest day's work or robbery in his life when he comes nearer
said robin to little john i'll show him that there be some honest folk abroad who are not afraid to earn their living for by my faith i'll take his purse and use the gold therein to far better advantage than he could do so when the young man approached robin stepped out into the path to meet him with his trusty cudgel in his hand
the young man however seemed in no way to be afraid of the bold and resolute outlaw who stood in front of him and when robin demanded his purse he smiled and said it would be better to fight for that article and the better man should have it
and to the amazement of robin and little john laid hold of a young oak tree and tore it up by the roots with apparently but little exertion of his strength then trimming off the branches he stood on guard robin was warned by this exhibition of power and approached him warily
but the stranger struck with such force that nobody could stand up to him and although robin put up a long and furious fight
with an aching head but with admiration of the strange young man in his heart robin asked him to join his band promising him food booty and good lincoln green to wear and the stranger after learning who robin was
disclosed himself as no other than robin's own nephew will scarlet whom the outlaw had not seen since he was a baby delighted at the meeting will scarlet little john and robin hood made haste to join the rest of the band beneath the greenwood tree
on another occasion robin and his band married two lovers who had been forced to part because the maiden's father had determined that she was to become the bride of a wicked but wealthy old nobleman the outlaws surrounded the chapel in which the wedding was to take place and when the ceremony was begun
robin stepped between the bride and groom and declared that the ceremony could not continue
only this time a different groom was substituted and one more after the maiden's heart for they gave her the man she loved there are many tales about the english king richard the lion hearted and none is more interesting than that of his meeting with robin hood in sherwood forest
king richard was the brother of the base hearted john who tried to steal the throne from him when he was imprisoned on the continent after the crusades but richard won back his kingdom and pardoned his brother and later on john regained the english throne richard traveled a great deal in england
and in the course of his journeying came to nottingham which was near the woodland retreat of robin hood now although robin hood was an outlaw and had transgressed the king's laws richard held something approaching admiration for him because robin's adventures greatly resembled his own when he had been wandering as a knight errant
without a kingdom so richard told the sheriff of nottingham that he himself would do what the sheriff had so often tried to do and always failed in namely drive robin hood's band away from the woods and with some followers he disguised himself as a monk and started across the forest
hoping that robin hood and his outlaws would fall on him and attempt to rob him this is just what happened the outlaws fell on richard and took him prisoner and after taking his purse they led him to their secluded hiding place and set before him a feast of meat and wine
a custom of theirs whenever they robbed a worthy monk or priest to remove some of the sting from the consciousness of his loss i have heard said the supposed monk after he had eaten and drunk his fill
telling them that they must shoot to good purpose for he that missed were it only by a hair should be knocked down by will scarlet one after one of the outlaws shot and they all struck the mark but when robin himself shot something happened that his band had never before seen
robin disliked to do this for he was the leader of the others and did not think it good for discipline that his men should behold their leader undergo such an indignity however he ended the matter by asking the monk who was richard
for the english king was the strongest man in all christendom if not in the entire world rising to his feet he drew back his heavy fist
doubly stunned from the force with which he had hit the earth the outlaws were amazed when they saw what had befallen their leader still more so when a band of the king's horsemen rode up and surrounded them and called the monk who had so lately been feasting with them your majesty then richard took off his monk's dress
and appeared in his own royal garments he gave the outlaws a free pardon on condition that they serve with him thenceforward and be archers in his army for he ever had liked brave men and he knew that these would lay down their lives to serve him
he returned to his old haunts however and again became an outlaw when king richard died and the wicked john came to the throne once more one day robin hood was stricken with a fever and he went to a woman who lived nearby to be bled which he believed would lessen his pain and cure his sickness
but this woman was an enemy of robin's although he knew it not and she rejoiced at her chance to do him evil so she opened a vein in his arm and gave him a drink that threw him into a deep slumber and when he awoke he saw that he had lost so much blood that he had not long to live
with the last of his strength the dying outlaw blew his horn that called his followers around him
saying that where the arrow fell he desired to be buried bending the bow with the last of his power he let loose the arrow which flew out of the window and struck the ground beside a little path at the edge of the greenwood
the answer to this question did not arrive till late in the day and was in the negative mister sherwin had not found his daughter she had left the hospital before he got there and no one could tell him whither she had gone his language and manner as he himself admitted
had been so violent that he was not allowed to enter the ward where mannion lay when he returned home he found his wife at the point of death and on the same evening she expired
he only mentioned his daughter to declare in terms almost of fury that he would accuse her before his wife's surviving relatives of having been the cause of her mother's death and called down the most terrible denunciations on his own head if he ever spoke to his child again
though he should see her starving before him in the streets in a postscript ralph informed me that he would call the next morning and concert measures for tracking sherwin's daughter to her present retreat every sentence in this letter bore warning of the crisis which was now close at hand
yet i had as little of the desire as of the power to prepare for it a superstitious conviction that my actions were governed by a fatality which no human foresight could alter or avoid began to strengthen within me
from this time forth i awaited events with the uninquiring patience the helpless resignation of despair my brother came punctual to his appointment when he proposed that i should at once accompany him to the hospital i never hesitated at doing as he desired
we reached our destination and ralph approached the gates to make his first enquiries he was still speaking to the porter when a gentleman advanced towards them on his way out of the hospital i saw him recognise my brother and heard ralph exclaim bernard
why not was the answer i got every surgical testimonial the hotel dieu could give me six months ago and couldn't afford to stay in paris only for my pleasure do you remember calling me a mute inglorious liston long ago when we last met well
and blaze into a shining light of the profession plenty of practice at the hospital here very little anywhere else i am sorry to say you don't mean that you belong to this hospital my dear fellow i am regularly on the staff i'm here every day of my life
you're the very man to enlighten us here basil cross over and let me introduce you to an old paris friend of mine mister bernard my brother you've often heard me talk basil of a younger son of old sir william bernard's who preferred a cure of bodies to a cure of souls
and actually insisted on working in a hospital when he might have idled in a family living this is the man the best of doctors and good fellows are you bringing your brother to the hospital to follow my mad example asked mister bernard as he shook hands with me not exactly jack
but we really have an object in coming here can you give us ten minutes talk somewhere in private we want to know about one of your patients he led us into an empty room on the ground floor of the building leave the matter in my hands whispered ralph to me as we sat down i'll find out everything
now bernard he said you have a man here who calls himself mister turner are you a friend of that mysterious patient wonderful the students call him the great mystery of london
and which i am sure you won't inquire into when i tell you that it is our interest to keep them secret
then without any more words about it our object here to day is to find out everything we can about mister turner
did a woman come the day before yesterday yes and behaved rather oddly i believe i was not here when she came but was told she asked for turner in a very agitated manner she was directed to the victoria ward where he is
and when she got there looked excessively flurried and excited seeing the ward quite full and perhaps not being used to hospitals however it was though the nurse pointed out the right bed to her she ran in a mighty hurry to the wrong one i understand said ralph
the nurse was at her side and led her to the right bed there i'm told another scene happened at sight of the patient's face which is very frightfully disfigured she was on the point as the nurse thought of going into a fit but turner stopped her in an instant
he just laid his hand on her arm and whispered something to her and though she turned as pale as ashes she was quiet directly the next thing they say he did was to give her a slip of paper coolly directing her to go to the address written on it
and to come back to the hospital again as soon as she could show a little more resolution
has nobody asked where yes a fellow who said he was her father and who behaved like a madman he came here about an hour after she had left and wouldn't believe that we knew nothing about her how the deuce should we know anything he threatened turner
whom by the bye he called manning or some such name in such an outrageous manner
you find the room rather close no indeed not at all i have just recovered from a serious illness but pray go on i have very little more to say the father went away in a fury just as he came the daughter has not yet made her appearance a second time
she must if she wants to see turner he won't be out i suspect for another fortnight he has been making himself worse by perpetually writing letters we were rather afraid of erysipelas but he'll get over that danger i think
about the woman said ralph it is of the greatest importance that we should know where she is now living is there any possibility we will pay well for it of getting some sharp fellow to follow her home from this place the next time she comes here
mister bernard hesitated a moment and considered i think i can manage it for you with the porter after you are gone he said provided you leave me free to give any remuneration i may think necessary
have you got pen and ink i'll write down my brother's address you can communicate results to him as soon as they occur while mister bernard went to the opposite end of the room in search of writing materials ralph whispered to me if he wrote to my address missus ralph might see the letter
she is the most amiable of her sex but if written information of a woman's residence directed to me fell into her hands you understand basil besides it will be easy to let me know the moment you hear from jack look up young one it's all right we are sailing with wind and tide
here mister bernard brought us pen and ink while ralph was writing my address his friend said to me i hope you will not suspect me of wishing to intrude on your secrets if assuming your interest in turner to be the reverse of a friendly interest
i warn you to look sharply after him when he leaves the hospital either there has been madness in his family or his brain has suffered from his external injuries legally he may be quite fit to be at large
for he will be able to maintain the appearance of perfect self possession in all the ordinary affairs of life but morally i am convinced that he is a dangerous monomaniac his mania being connected with some fixed idea which evidently never leaves him day or night
i would lay a heavy wager that he dies in a prison or a madhouse and i'll lay another wager if he's mad enough to annoy us that we are the people to shut him up said ralph there is the address and now we needn't waste your time any longer
i have taken a little place at brompton jack you and basil must come and dine with me as soon as the carpets are down we left the room as we crossed the hall a gentleman came forward and spoke to mister bernard that man's fever in the victoria ward has declared itself at last he said
and what do they indicate typhus of the most malignant character not a doubt of it come up and look at him i saw mister bernard start and glance quickly at my brother ralph fixed his eyes searchingly on his friend's face exclaimed
victoria ward why you mentioned that
the next moment he drew mister bernard aside saying i want to ask you whether the bed in victoria ward occupied by this man whose fever has turned to typhus
after talking together in whispers for a few moments they rejoined me mister bernard was explaining the different theories of infection to ralph my notion he said is that infection is taken through the lungs
one breath inhaled from the infected atmosphere hanging immediately around the diseased person and generally extending about a foot from him being enough to communicate his malady to the breather provided there exists at the time in the individual exposed to catch the malady
a constitutional predisposition to infection this predisposition we know to be greatly increased by mental agitation or bodily weakness but in the case we have been talking of he looked at me the chances of infection or non infection may be equally balanced
at any rate i can predict nothing about them at this stage of the discovery you will write the moment you hear anything said ralph shaking hands with him the very moment i have your brother's address safe in my pocket we separated
ralph was unusually silent and serious on our way back he took leave of me at the door of my lodging very abruptly without referring again to our visit to the hospital a week passed away and i heard nothing from mister bernard during this interval i saw little of my brother
he was occupied in moving into his new house towards the latter part of the week he came to inform me that he was about to leave london for a few days
on business connected with the local management of the estates ralph still retained all his old dislike of the steward's accounts and the lawyer's consultations
and go to the country as he was desired he did not expect to be absent more than two or three days but earnestly charged me to write to him if i had any news from the hospital while he was away during the week clara came twice to see me escaping from home by stealth as before
and to sustain me in hope i saw with a sorrow and apprehension which i could not altogether conceal from her that the weary look in her face had never changed never diminished since i had first observed it
ralph had from motives of delicacy avoided increasing the hidden anxieties which were but too evidently preying upon her health by keeping her in perfect ignorance of our visit to the hospital and indeed of the particulars of all our proceedings since his return
i took care to preserve the same secrecy during her short interviews with me she bade me farewell after her third visit with a sadness which she vainly endeavoured to hide
i little thought then that the tones of her sweet clear voice had fallen on my ear for the last time before i wandered to the far west of england where i now write at the end of the week it was on a saturday i remember i left my lodgings early in the morning to go into the country
with no intention of returning before evening i had felt a sense of oppression on rising which was almost unendurable the perspiration stood thick on my forehead though the day was not unusually hot the air of london grew harder and harder to breathe with every minute
my heart felt tightened to bursting my temples throbbed with fever fury my very life seemed to depend on escaping into pure air into some place where there was shade from trees and water that ran cool and refreshing to look on so i set forth
evening was changing into night as i got back to london i inquired of the servant at my lodging when she let me in whether any letter had arrived for me
i eagerly opened the letter and read these words private friday my dear sir on the enclosed slip of paper you will find the address of the young woman of whom your brother spoke to me when we met at the hospital i regret to say
that the circumstances under which i have obtained information of her residence are of the most melancholy nature
who begged that i would visit her professionally as he had no confidence in the medical man who was then in attendance on her many circumstances combined to make my compliance with his request anything but easy or desirable but knowing that you or your brother i ought perhaps rather to say
were interested in the young woman i determined to take the very earliest opportunity of seeing her and consulting with her medical attendant
when i arrived i found her suffering from one of the worst attacks of typhus i ever remember to have seen and i think it my duty to state candidly that i believe her life to be in imminent danger at the same time it is right to inform you that the gentleman in attendance on her does not share my opinion
he still thinks there is a good chance of saving her there can be no doubt whatever that she was infected with typhus at the hospital
when she entered the ward and how she ran to the wrong bed before the nurse could stop her the man whom she thus mistook for turner was suffering from fever which had not then specifically declared itself but which did so declare itself as a typhus fever
on the morning when you and your brother came to the hospital this man's disorder must have been infectious when the young woman stooped down close over him under the impression that he was the person she had come to see although she started back at once on discovering her mistake she had breathed the infection into her system
as i have since understood by some physical weakness
since the first symptoms of her disease appeared on saturday last i cannot find that any error has been committed in the medical treatment as reported to me i remained some time by her bedside to day observing her
the delirium which is more or less an invariable result of typhus is particularly marked in her case and manifests itself both by speech and gesture it has been found impossible to quiet her by any means hitherto tried
while i was watching by her she never ceased calling on your name and entreating to see you
occasionally she mixes other names with yours and mentions them in terms of abhorrence but her persistency in calling for your presence is so remarkable that i am tempted merely from what i have heard myself to suggest that you really should go to her
on the bare chance that you might exercise some tranquillising influence at the same time if you fear infection or for any private reasons into which i have neither the right nor the wish to inquire feel unwilling to take the course i have pointed out
i can conscientiously assure you that duty is not involved in it i have however another suggestion to make which is of a positive nature and which i am sure will meet with your approval it is that her parents or some of her other relations if her parents are not alive
should be informed of her situation possibly you may know something of her connections and can therefore do this good office she is dying in a strange place among people who avoid her as they would avoid a pestilence
i shall visit her twice to morrow in the morning and at night if you are not willing to risk seeing her and i repeat that it is in no sense imperative that you should combat such unwillingness perhaps you will communicate with me at my private address i remain dear sir
faithfully yours john bernard p s i open my letter again to inform you that turner acting against all advice has left the hospital to day
he attempted to go on tuesday last when i believe he first received information of the young woman's serious illness but was seized with a violent attack of giddiness on attempting to walk and fell down just outside the door of the ward
it had been left for me to watch her dying moments it was left for me to bestow on her remains the last human charity which the living can extend to the dead if i could have looked into the future on our fatal marriage day
and could have known that the only home of my giving which she would ever inhabit would be the home of the grave her father had written me a letter which i destroyed at the time and which if i had it now i should forbear from copying into these pages
let it be enough for me to relate here that he never forgave the action by which she thwarted him in his mercenary designs upon me and upon my family that he diverted from himself the suspicion and disgust of his wife's surviving relatives
whose hostility he had some pecuniary reasons to fear by accusing his daughter as he had declared he would accuse her of having been the real cause of her mother's death and that he took care to give the appearance of sincerity to the indignation which he professed to feel against her
by refusing to follow her remains to the place of burial
with an affectionate earnestness that i had never seen him display towards me before but mister bernard had generously undertaken to relieve me of every responsibility which could be assumed by others and on this occasion therefore
i had no need to put my brother's ready kindness in helping me to the test i stood alone by the grave mister bernard had taken leave of me the workers and the idlers in the churchyard had alike departed there was no reason why i should not follow them
and yet i remained with my eyes fixed upon the freshly turned earth at my feet thinking of the dead some time had passed thus when the sound of approaching footsteps attracted my attention i looked up and saw a man clothed in a long cloak drawn loosely around his neck
advancing slowly towards me walking with the help of a stick he came on straight to the grave and stopped at the foot of it stopped opposite me as i stood at the head do you know me again he said
do you know me for robert mannion as he pronounced his name he raised the shade and looked at me
with its ghastly discolouration of sickness its hideous deformity of feature its fierce and changeless malignity of expression glaring full on me in the piercing noonday sunshine glaring with the same unearthly look of fury and triumph
which i had seen flashing through the flashing lightning when i parted from him on the night of the storm struck me speechless where i stood and has never left me since i must not i dare not describe that frightful sight though it now rises before my imagination
vivid in its horror as on the first day when i saw it though it moves hither and thither before me fearfully while i write though it lowers at my window a noisome shadow on the radiant prospect of earth and sea and sky
if he had seen him on the morning of his execution standing under the gallows with the cap over his face still i could neither speak nor move i could only look away from him in horror and fix my eyes on the ground
he lowered the shade to its former position on his face then spoke again under this earth that we stand on he said setting his foot on the grave down here where you are now looking lies buried with the buried dead
did you think of the one last chance that you were losing when you came to see her die i watched you and i watched her i heard as much as you heard i saw as much as you saw i know when she died and how as you know it
i shared her last moments with you to the very end it was my fancy not to give her up as your sole possession even on her death bed it is my fancy now not to let you stand alone as if her corpse was your property
over her grave while he uttered the last words i felt my self possession returning i could not force myself to speak as i would fain have spoken i could only move away to leave him stop he said
what i have still to say concerns you i have to tell you face to face standing with you here over her dead body that what i wrote from the hospital is what i will do that i will make your whole life to come one long expiation of this deformity
and of that death he set his foot once more on the grave go where you will this face of mine shall never be turned away from you this tongue which you can never silence but by a crime shall awaken against you the sleeping superstitions and cruelties of all mankind
the noisome secret of that night when you followed us shall reek up like a pestilence in the nostrils of your fellow beings be they whom they may you may shield yourself behind your family and your friends i will strike at you through the dearest and the bravest of them
now you have heard me go the next time we meet you shall acknowledge with your own lips that i can act as i speak live the free life which margaret sherwin has restored to you by her death you will know it soon for the life of cain
he turned from the grave and left me by the way that he had come but the hideous image of him and the remembrance of the words he had spoken never left me never for a moment while i lingered alone in the churchyard never when i quitted it
and walked through the crowded streets the horror of the fiend face was still before my eyes
and found ralph waiting to see me as soon as i entered my room at last you have come back he said i was determined to stop till you did if i stayed all day is anything the matter have you got into some worse difficulty than ever no ralph no
what have you to tell me something that will rather surprise you basil i have to tell you to leave london at once leave it for your own interests and for everybody else's my father has found out that clara has been to see you good heavens how
he won't tell me but he has found it out you know how you stand in his opinion i leave you to imagine what he thinks of clara's conduct in coming here no no tell me yourself ralph tell me how she bears his displeasure as badly as possible
after having forbidden her ever to enter this house again he now only shows how he is offended by his silence and it is exactly that of course which distresses her between her notions of implicit obedience to him and her opposite notions just as strong of her sisterly duties to you
she is made miserable from morning to night what she will end in if things go on like this i am really afraid to think and i'm not easily frightened as you know now basil listen to me it is your business to stop this and my business to tell you how i will do anything you wish
anything for clara's sake then leave london and so cut short the struggle between her duty and her inclination if you don't my father is quite capable of taking her at once into the country though i know he has important business to keep him in london write a letter to her
saying that you have gone away for your health for change of scene and peace of mind gone away in short to come back better some day don't say where you're going and don't tell me for she is sure to ask and sure to get it out of me if i know
then she might be writing to you and that might be found out too she can't distress herself about your absence if you account for it properly as she distresses herself now that is one consideration and you will serve your own interests as well as clara's by going away
that is another never mind my interests clara i can only think of clara but you have interests and you must think of them i told my father of the death of that unhappy woman and of your noble behaviour when she was dying
don't interrupt me basil it was noble i couldn't have done what you did i can tell you i saw he was more struck by it than he was willing to confess an impression has been made on him by the turn circumstances have taken only leave that impression to strengthen and you're safe
but if you destroy it by staying here after what has happened and keeping clara in this new dilemma my dear fellow you destroy your best chance there is a sort of defiance of him in stopping there is a downright concession to him in going away i will go ralph
you have more than convinced me that i ought i will go to morrow though where you have the rest of the day to think where i should go abroad and amuse myself but your ideas of amusement are most likely not mine
at any rate wherever you go i can always supply you with money when you want it you can write to me after you have been away some little time and i can write back as soon as i have good news to tell you
and i'll answer for it you will be back in your own study at home before you are many months older i will put it out of my power to fail in my resolution by writing to clara at once and giving you the letter to place in her hands to morrow evening when i shall have left london some hours
that's right basil that's acting and speaking like a man i wrote immediately accounting for my sudden absence as ralph had advised me wrote with a heavy heart all that i thought would be most reassuring and cheering to clara and then
without allowing myself time to hesitate or to think gave the letter to my brother she shall have it to morrow night he said and my father shall know why you have left town at the same time depend on me in this as in everything else and now basil i must say good bye
unless you're in the humour for coming to look at my new house this evening ah i see that won't suit you just now so good bye old fellow write when you are in any necessity get back your spirits and your health and never doubt that the step you are now taking will be the best for clara
and the best for yourself he hurried out of the room evidently feeling more at saying farewell than he was willing to let me discover i was left alone for the rest of the day to think whither i should turn my steps on the morrow i knew that it would be best that i should leave england
a yearning towards my own country that i had never felt before a home sickness for the land in which my sister lived not once did my thoughts wander away to foreign places while i now tried to consider calmly in what direction i should depart when i left london
by the descriptions of the scenery the customs and the people of her native land with which she was ever ready to amuse me as i grew older it had always been one of my favourite projects to go to cornwall to explore the wild western land on foot from hill to hill throughout and now
when no motive of pleasure could influence my choice now when i was going forth homeless and alone in uncertainty in grief in peril the old fancy of long past days still kept its influence and pointed out my new path to me among the rocky boundaries of the cornish shore
my last night in london was a night made terrible by mannion's fearful image in all my dreams made mournful in my waking moments by thoughts of the morrow which was to separate me from clara but i never faltered in my resolution to leave london for her sake
when the morning came i collected my few necessaries added to them one or two books and was ready to depart my way through the streets took me near my father's house as i passed by the well remembered neighbourhood my self control so far deserted me
that i stopped and turned aside into the square in the hope of seeing clara once more before i went away cautiously and doubtfully as if i was a trespasser even on the public pavement i looked up at the house which was no more my home at the windows side by side of my sister's sitting room and bed room
she was neither standing near them nor passing accidentally from one room to another at that moment still i could not persuade myself to go on i thought of many and many an act of kindness that she had done for me which i seemed never to have appreciated until now
i thought of what she had suffered and might yet suffer for my sake and the longing to see her once more though only for an instant still kept me lingering near the house and looking up vainly at the lonely windows it was a bright cool autumnal morning
it used often to be her habit when i was at home to go there and read at this hour i walked round outside the railings
and had nearly made the circuit of the garden thus before the figure of a lady sitting alone under one of the trees attracted my attention i stopped looked intently towards her and saw that it was clara her face was almost entirely turned from me but i knew her by her dress
by her figure even by her position simple as it was she was sitting with her hands on a closed book which rested on her knee a little spaniel that i had given her lay asleep at her feet she seemed to be looking down at the animal as far as i could tell by the position of her head
when i moved aside to try if i could see her face the trees hid her from sight i was obliged to be satisfied with the little i could discern of her through the one gap in the foliage which gave me a clear view of the place where she was sitting to speak to her
to risk the misery to both of us of saying farewell was more than i dared trust myself to do i could only stand silent and look at her it might be for the last time until the tears gathered in my eyes so that i could see nothing more
i resisted the temptation to dash them away while they still hid her from me while i could not see her again if i would i turned from the garden view and left the square
amid all the thoughts which thronged on me as i walked farther and farther away from the neighbourhood of what was once my home amid all the remembrances of past events from the first day when i met margaret sherwin to the day when i stood by her grave which were recalled by the mere act of leaving london
there now arose in my mind for the first time a doubt which from that day to this has never left it a doubt whether mannion might not be tracking me in secret along every step of my way i stopped instinctively and looked behind me many figures were moving in the distance
after this i let a longer interval elapse before i stopped and then for the third time i turned round and scanned the busy street scene behind me with eager suspicious eyes
i caught sight of a man who was standing still as i was standing amid the moving throng his height was like mannion's height and he wore a cloak like the cloak i had seen on mannion when he approached me at margaret's grave more than this i could not detect without crossing over
the passing vehicles and foot passengers constantly intercepted my view from the position in which i stood was this figure thus visible only by intervals the figure of mannion and was he really tracking my steps as the suspicion strengthened in my mind that it was so
you may shield yourself behind your family and your friends i will strike at you through the dearest and the bravest of them suddenly recurred to me and brought with it a thought which urged me instantly to proceed on my way i never looked behind me again as i now walked on
for i said within myself if he is following me i must not and will not avoid him it will be the best result of my departure that i shall draw after me that destroying presence and thus at least remove it far and safely away from my family
and my home so i neither turned aside from the straight direction nor hurried my steps nor looked back any more at the time i had resolved on i left london for cornwall without making any attempt to conceal my departure
and though i knew that he must surely be following me still i never saw him again never discovered how close or how far off he was on my track two months have passed since that period
missus wallace had wanted to go to some fashionable watering place but her husband had bluntly told her he couldn't afford it stay in the city when all her set were out she would not and the aforesaid farmhouse had been the compromise
i shouldn't suppose it could make any difference to you who she is said missus wallace impatiently i do wish pauline that you were more careful in your choice of associates you hobnob with everyone
pauline hid a rather undutiful smile behind her napkin aunt olivia's snobbish opinions always amused her you've no idea what an interesting old man he is she said he can talk more entertainingly than any other man i know
what is the use of being so exclusive aunt olivia you miss so much fun you wouldn't be so horribly bored as you are if you fraternized a little with the natives as you call them no thank you said missus wallace disdainfully
what do you suppose the morgan knowles would think if they saw you taking up with some tomboy girl on a farm i don't see why it should make a great deal of difference what they would think since they don't seem to be aware of my existence or even of yours aunty said pauline with twinkling eyes
she knew it was her aunt's dearest desire to get in with the morgan knowles set a desire that seemed as far from being realized as ever missus wallace could never understand why the morgan knowles shut her from their charmed circle
they certainly associated with people much poorer and of more doubtful worldly station than hers the markhams for instance
just before she had left colchester missus wallace had seen missus knowles and missus markham together in the former's automobile james wallace and morgan knowles were associated in business dealings but in spite of missus wallace's schemings and aspirations and heart burnings
the association remained a purely business one and never advanced an inch in the direction of friendship as for pauline she was hopelessly devoid of social ambitions and she did not in the least mind the morgan knowles remote attitude besides continued pauline
she isn't a tomboy at all she looks like a very womanly well bred sort of girl why should you think her a tomboy because she drives cows cows are placid useful animals witness this delicious cream which i am pouring over my blueberries and they have to be driven it's an honest occupation
not a mite said pauline cheerfully one of the very nicest girls i ever knew was a maid mother had the last year of her dear life i loved that girl aunt olivia and i correspond with her she writes letters that are ten times more clever and entertaining than those stupid epistles clarisse gray sends me
ada cameron i guess was missus boyd's response she lives with the embrees down on the old embree place just below here they're pasturing their cows on the upper farm this summer
is she as nice as she looks
but i hope better things of ada missus boyd to the contrary notwithstanding
i think they must mellow occasionally into fun and jollity and wholesome nonsense
and if i can only get that cove with all its beautiful lights and shadows it will be the gem of my collection
she carried herself with a pretty dignity but when her eyes met pauline's she looked as if she would smile on the slightest provocation pauline promptly gave her the provocation
won't you please stop a few moments and look me over
ada cameron did more than smile she laughed outright and went over to the fence where pauline was sitting on a stump she looked down into the merry black eyes of the town girl she had been half envying for a week and said humorously
if i'm one you'll have to be the other i'm the other shake said pauline holding out her hand that was the beginning of a friendship that made poor missus wallace groan outwardly as well as inwardly
they walked rowed berried and picnicked together ada did not go to missus boyd's a great deal for some instinct told her that missus wallace did not look favourably on her
she had never met any girl she thought so nice as ada she is nice every way she told the unconvinced aunt olivia
witness her liking for your niece she can talk interestingly and she can also be silent when silence is becoming
aunt olivia may i ask her to visit me next winter no indeed said missus wallace with crushing emphasis
oh aunty dear can't you see that ada is just the same girl in cotton print that she would be in silk attire she is really far more distinguished looking than any girl in the knowles set pauline said aunt olivia looking as shocked as if pauline had committed blasphemy
pauline laughed again but she sighed as she went to her room aunt olivia has the kindest heart in the world she thought what a pity she isn't able to see things as they really are my friendship with ada can't be perfect if i can't invite her to my home
the summer waned and august burned itself out
the two girls were in the embree garden where pauline was preparing to take a photograph of ada standing among the asters with a great sheaf of them in her arms
i don't think i shall be here then said ada with a sigh you see it is time i was doing something for myself pauline
but they have a large family and are not very well off so i think i'll try for a situation in one of the remington stores this fall it's such a pity you couldn't have gone to the academy and studied for a teacher's licence said pauline
you couldn't look anything else laughed pauline don't smile too broadly i want you to be looking over the asters with a bit of a dream on your face and in your eyes if the picture turns out as beautiful as i fondly expect
there that's the very expression
all ready now don't move there dearie it is all over when pauline went back to colchester she was busy for a month preparing her photographs for the exhibition
a tall girl with a wistful face standing in an old fashioned garden with her arms full of asters the very day after the exhibition was opened the morgan knowles automobile stopped at the wallace door
missus wallace was out but it was pauline whom stately missus morgan knowles asked for pauline was at that moment buried in her darkroom developing photographs and she ran down just as she was
but missus morgan knowles did not seem to mind at all she liked pauline's simplicity of manner it was more than she had expected from the aunt's rather vulgar affectations
the resemblance to a very dear childhood friend of mine is so startling that i am sure it cannot be accidental
she must be ada frame's daughter then exclaimed missus knowles in excitement then seeing pauline's puzzled face she explained years ago when i was a child i always spent my summers on the farm of my uncle john frame my cousin ada frame was the dearest friend i ever had
but after we grew up we saw nothing of each other for i went with my parents to europe for several years and ada married a neighbour's son alec cameron and went out west
when somebody told me she was dead and had left no family
i believe she is said pauline quickly ada was born out west and lived there until she was eight years old when her parents died and she was sent east to her father's half sister
she couldn't be anything else if she is ada frame's daughter said missus knowles
but to hear aunt olivia talk now you would suppose that she and not pauline had discovered ada
and the summer friendship proved a life long one and was for the wallaces the open sesame to the enchanted ground of the knowles
in this he was unsuccessful
but she always disappeared as soon as seen occasionally as he crossed the point he saw her working in her garden but he never went very near the house feeling that he had no right to spy on it or her in any way he soon became convinced that she avoided him purposely
and the conviction piqued him he felt an odd masterful desire to meet her face to face and make her look at him
yet he inevitably went
something had come between his soul and the soul of the wilderness something he did not recognize or formulate a nameless haunting longing that shaped itself about the memory of a cold sweet face and starry indifferent eyes grey as the lake at dawn
of captain anthony he never got even a glimpse
but after gazing at him a moment in a somewhat scrutinizing manner she said briefly you may if you like alan took the pails and followed her the path not being wide enough for two
she strode on before him at a rapid vigorous pace until they came out into the yard by the house alan felt his heart beating foolishly would he see lynde oliver would you may carry the water there the old woman said pointing to a little outhouse near the pines
i'm washing the spring water is softer than the well water thank you as alan set the pails down on a bench i'm not so young as i was and bringing the water so far tires me lynde always brings it for me when she's home
it did not occur to him to wonder why it should please him if he had hunted that feeling down he might have been surprised to discover that it had its origin in a curious gratification
he preferred her unsmiling dourness to vulgar garrulity are you the young minister up at rexton she asked bluntly yes i thought so lynde said she had seen you on the shore once well
she cast an uncertain glance over her shoulder at the house i'm much obliged to you alan had an idea that that was not what she had thought of saying
there seemed nothing for him to do but to go wait a moment
i believe no ill of anyone until i have absolute proof of it said alan smiling he was quite unconscious what a winning smile he had which was the best of it and i never put faith in gossip of course you are gossipped about you know that yes i know it grimly
we are a queer pair just as queer as they make us out you can believe what you like about us but don't you believe a word they say against lynde
if his object were to prolong the conversation about lynde he was disappointed for the old woman had turned abruptly to her work again and though alan lingered for a few moments longer she took no further notice of him
and that was all she's ever seen of marriage
on his way home that night alan met isabel king on the main shore road she carried an armful of pine boughs and said she wanted the needles for a cushion
yet the thought came into alan's mind that she was spying on him and although he tried to dismiss it as unworthy it continued to lurk there for a week he avoided the shore
there was no sign of life about four winds and the shore seemed as lonely and virgin as if human foot had never trodden it
and though every flutter of wind in the scrub firs made alan's heart beat expectantly he saw nothing of lynde oliver he was on the point of turning homeward with an unreasoning sense of disappointment
instantly he set off after him and the dog with a final sharp bark of satisfaction sprang up the low bank into the spruces alan followed him across the peninsula and then along the further shore which rapidly grew steep and high
half a mile down the cliffs were rocky and precipitous while the beach beneath them was heaped with huge boulders alan followed the dog along one of the narrow paths with which the barrens abounded until nearly a mile from four winds then the animal halted
the extreme danger of her position was manifest at a glance
lynde lay movelessly her face was white and both fear and appeal were visible in her large dilated eyes yet she was quite calm and a faint smile crossed her pale lips as she saw the man and the dog good faithful pat so you did bring help she said
but how can i help you miss oliver said alan hoarsely
and leave you here alone in such danger pat will stay with me besides there is nothing else to do you
father and emily are away i think i am quite safe here if i don't move at all
and much as he hated to leave her alone thus he realized that he must lose no time in doing it i'll be back as quickly as possible he said hurriedly
when he reached the scene of the accident he dreaded to look over the broken edge but she was lying there safely and she smiled when she saw him
and then draw yourself up the slope hand over hand asked alan anxiously yes she answered fearlessly alan passed down one end of the rope and then braced himself firmly to hold it for there was no tree near enough to be of any assistance the next moment the full weight of her body swung from it
for at her first movement the soil beneath her slipped away alan's heart sickened what if she went with it could she cling to the rope while he drew her up then he saw she was still safe on the sloping shelf carefully and painfully she drew herself to her knees
when she came within his reach he grasped her arms and lifted her up into safety beside him thank god he said with whiter lips than her own for a few moments lynde sat silent on the sod
finally she looked up into alan's anxious face and their eyes met it was something more than the physical reaction that suddenly flushed the girl's cheeks she sprang lithely to her feet can you walk back home alan asked
when i came here i saw some junebells growing right out on the ledge and i crept out to gather them
i thought it would go right over the brink she gave a little involuntary shudder but just at the very edge it stopped i knew i must lie very still or it would go right over
he could think of nothing more to say
you saved my life she said you and pat for doggie must have his share of credit a much larger share than mine said alan smiling if pat had not come for me i would not have known of your danger what a magnificent fellow he is
isn't he she agreed proudly and so is laddie my other dog he went with father today i love my dogs more than people she looked at him with a little defiance in her eyes i suppose you think that terrible
i think many dogs are much more lovable and worthy of love than many people said alan laughing how childlike she was in some ways that trace of defiance it was so like a child who expected to be scolded for some wrong attitude of mind
and yet there were moments when she looked the tall proud queen sometimes when the path grew narrow she walked before him her hand on the dog's head
which today was wound about her head when she dropped back beside him in the wider spaces he could only have stolen glances at her profile delicately strongly cut virginal in its soft curves childlike in its purity
a power which her hitherto unfettered spirit had never before felt the cold indifference he had seen in her face at their first meeting was gone and something told him it was gone forever
when they came in sight of four winds they saw two people walking up the road from the harbour and a few further steps brought them face to face with captain anthony oliver and his old housekeeper the captain's appearance was a fresh surprise to alan
instead captain anthony was a tall well built man of perhaps fifty his face beneath its shock of iron grey hair was handsome but wore a somewhat forbidding expression
apart from line or feature which did not please alan
the front door of four winds opened directly into a wide low ceilinged living room furnished with simplicity and good taste leaving the two men there lynde and the old cousin vanished and alan found himself talking freely with the captain who could as it appeared
talk well on many subjects far removed from four winds he was evidently a clever self educated man somewhat opinionated and given to sarcasm he never made any references to his own past life or experiences
but alan discovered him to be surprisingly well read in politics and science
presently lynde came in
and her long thick braid of hair hung over her shoulder
emily came in and lighted the lamp on the table she was as grim and unsmiling as ever yet she cast a look of satisfaction on alan as she passed out one dog lay down at lynde's feet the other sat on his haunches by her side and laid his head on her lap
and he wondered a little if this were not all a dream when he went away the captain invited him back if you like to come that is he said brusquely
i never talk religion said alan emphatically i try to live it i'll not come to your house as a self appointed missionary sir
oh i won't insult your god said the captain with a faint sneer alan went home in a tumult of contending feelings he did not altogether like captain anthony that was very clear to him and yet there was something about the man that attracted him
intellectually he was a worthy foeman and alan had often longed for such since coming to rexton he missed the keen stimulating debates of his college days and now there seemed a chance of renewing them he was eager to grasp it
and lynde how beautiful she was what though she shared as was not unlikely in her father's lack of belief she could not be essentially irreligious that were impossible in a true woman might not this be his opportunity to help her
to lead her into dearer light alan douglas was a sincere man with himself as well as with others
as he had that day rescued her from bodily danger
it was high time his next sunday's sermon was written but he could not concentrate his thoughts on his chosen text for one thing he did not like it and had selected it only because elder trewin in his call of the evening before
alan hated doctrines the soul's staylaces he called them but elder trewin was a man to be reckoned with and alan preached an occasional sermon to please him it's no use he said wearily
i could have written a sermon in keeping with that text in november or midwinter but now when the whole world is reawakening in a miracle of beauty and love i can't do it if a northeast rainstorm doesn't set in before next sunday mister trewin will not have his sermon
i shall take as my text instead the flowers appear on the earth the time of the singing of birds has come
outside of which a young vine was glowing in soft tender green tints its small dainty leaves casting quivering shadows on the opposite wall where the portrait of alan's mother hung she had a fine strong sweet face the same face cast in a masculine mould
was repeated in her son and the resemblance was striking as he stood in the searching evening sunshine the black hair grew around his forehead in the same way his eyes were steel blue like hers with a similar expression
had caused elder trewin some qualms of doubt regarding the fitness of this young man for his high and holy vocation
but then as elder trewin being a just man had to admit
to more empty pews than full ones while now the church was crowded to its utmost capacity on sundays and people came to hear mister douglas
all things considered elder trewin decided to overlook the dimple there was sure to be some drawback in every minister alan from his study looked down on all the length of the rexton valley
and thought that eden might have looked so in its innocence for all the orchards were abloom and the distant hills were tremulous and aerial in springtime gauzes of pale purple and pearl but in any garden despite its beauty
is an element of tameness and domesticity and alan's eyes after a moment's delighted gazing strayed wistfully off to the north
beyond it stretched the wide expanse of the lake flashing in the molten gold and crimson of evening its lure was irresistible alan had been born and bred beside a faraway sea and the love of it was strong in his heart
so strong that he knew he must go back to it sometime meanwhile the great lake mimicking the sea in its vast expanse and the storms that often swept over it was his comfort and solace
leaving the snug bounds of cultivated home lands behind him with something like a sense of relief down there by the lake was a primitive wilderness where man was as naught and man made doctrines had no place there one might walk hand in hand with nature
and so come very close to god many of alan's best sermons were written after he had come home rapt eyed from some long shore tramp
and the pines had called to him in their soft sibilant speech with a half guilty glance at the futile sermon he took his hat and went out the sun of the cool spring evening was swinging low over the lake as he turned into the unfrequented
deep rutted road leading to the shore it was two miles to the lake but half way there alan came to where another road branched off
he had sometimes wondered where it led but he had never explored it now he had a sudden whim to do so and turned into it it was even rougher and lonelier than the other between the ruts the grasses grew long and thickly
sometimes the pine boughs met overhead again the trees broke away to reveal wonderful glimpses of gleaming water purple islets dark feathery coasts still the road seemed to lead nowhere
and alan was half repenting the impulse which had led him to choose it when he suddenly came out from the shadow of the pines and found himself gazing on a sight which amazed him before him was a small peninsula running out into the lake
and terminating in a long sandy point beyond it was a glorious sweep of sunset water the peninsula itself seemed barren and sandy covered for the most part with scrub firs and spruces through which the narrow road
wound on to what was the astonishing feature in the landscape a grey and weather beaten house built almost at the extremity of the point and shadowed from the western light by a thick plantation of tall pines behind it it was the house which puzzled alan
he had never known there was any house near the lake shore had never heard mention made of any yet here was one and one which was evidently occupied for a slender spiral of smoke was curling upward from it on the chilly spring air
the barrens swept almost up to its door in front but at the side sheltered from the lake winds by the pines was a garden where there was a fine show of gay tulips and golden daffodils no living creature was visible and in spite of the blossoming geraniums
and muslin curtains at the windows and the homely spiral of smoke the place had a lonely almost untenanted look when alan reached the shore he found that it was of a much more open and less rocky nature
than the part which he had been used to frequent the beach was of sand and the scrub barrens dwindled down to it almost insensibly to right and left fir fringed points ran out into the lake shaping a little cove with the house in its curve
alan walked slowly towards the left headland intending to follow the shore around to the other road as he passed the point he stopped short in astonishment the second surprise and mystery of the evening confronted him a little distance away a girl was standing
a girl who turned a startled face at his unexpected appearance alan douglas had thought he knew all the girls in rexton but this lithe glorious creature was a stranger to him she stood with her hand on the head of a huge tawny collie dog
emphasized the grace and strength of her supple form her face was oval and pale with straight black brows and a finely cut crimson mouth a face whose beauty bore the indefinable stamp of race and breeding mingled with a wild sweetness
none of the rexton girls looked like that who in the name of all that was amazing could she be as the thought crossed alan's mind the girl turned
and alan stood like a man rooted to the ground until he saw her enter the grey house then he went homeward in a maze all thought of sermons doctrinal or otherwise for the moment knocked out of his head she is the most beautiful woman i ever saw he thought
probably it is the summer residence of people who have only recently come to it i'll ask missus danby she'll know if anybody will that good woman knows everything about everybody in rexton for three generations back alan found isabel king with his housekeeper when he got home
much more than professional interest isabel herself showed it with sufficient distinctness moreover he felt a certain personal dislike of her and of her hard insistent beauty
the ruse was a little too patent and amused alan although he carefully hid his amusement and treated isabel with the fine unvarying deference which his mother had engrained into him for womanhood a deference that flattered isabel
she was the daughter of the richest man in rexton and inclined to give herself airs on that account but alan's gentle indifference always brought home to her an unwelcome feeling of inferiority you've been tiring yourself out again tramping that lake shore i suppose
sat quickly up as he asked his question dear me you don't mean to say you've never heard of captain anthony captain anthony oliver said missus danby he lives down there at four winds as they call it he and his daughter and an old cousin
isabel king bent forward her brown eyes on alan's face did you see lynde oliver she asked with suppressed eagerness alan ignored the question perhaps he did not hear it have they lived there long he asked
he's an old story and of course they never go anywhere not even to church the captain is a rank infidel and they say his daughter is just as bad to be sure nobody knows much about her but it stands to reason that a girl who's had her bringing up must be odd
nobody ever goes there the captain doesn't want visitors he must have done something dreadful in his time if it was only known when he's so set on living like a hermit away down on that jumping off place did you see any of them
i saw miss oliver i suppose said alan briefly at least i met a young lady on the shore but where did these people come from surely more is known of them than this precious little the truth is mister douglas
folks don't think the olivers respectable and don't want to have anything to do with them eighteen years ago captain anthony came from goodness knows where bought the four winds point and built that house he said he'd been a sailor all his life and couldn't live away from the water
this lynde wasn't more than two years old then people went to call but they never saw any of the women and the captain let them see they weren't wanted some of the men who'd been working round the place saw his wife and said she was sickly but real handsome and like a lady
but she never seemed to want to see anyone or be seen herself there was a story that the captain had been a smuggler
oh there were all sorts of yarns mostly coming from the men who worked there for nobody else ever got inside the house well four years ago his wife disappeared it wasn't known how or when
whether she died or was murdered or went away nobody ever knew there was some talk of an investigation but nothing came of it as for the girl she's always lived there with her father
queer sort of characters who came up the lake in vessels from the american side i haven't heard any reports of such these past few years though
he keeps a yacht and goes sailing in it sometimes he cruises about for weeks that's about all he ever does and now you know as much about the olivers as i do mister douglas alan had listened to this gossipy narrative with an interest that did not escape isabel king's observant eyes
much of it he mentally dismissed as improbable surmise but the basic facts were probably as missus danby had reported them he had known that the girl of the shore could be no commonplace primly nurtured young woman
bless you yes every minister that's ever been in rexton has had a try at it
mister strong was the most persistent he didn't like being beaten he went again and again and finally the captain sent him word that when he wanted parsons or pill dosers he'd send for them and till he did he'd thank them to mind their own business
and she laughed in his face and told him she knew more about god now than he did or ever would perhaps the story isn't true or if it was maybe he provoked her into saying it mister strong wasn't overly tactful
i believe in judging the poor girl as charitably as possible and making allowances for her seeing how she's been brought up
a plump barnyard fowl might as well have talked of making allowances for a seagull alan walked home with isabel king
bordered by its white orchards isabel put her own construction on his absent replies to her remarks and presently she asked him did you think lynde oliver handsome the question gave alan an annoyance out of all proportion to its significance
but maybe they're not all true said isabel unable to keep the sneer of malice out of her voice at that moment alan's secret contempt for her crystallized into pronounced aversion he made no reply and they went the rest of the way in silence at her gate isabel said
you haven't been over to see us very lately mister douglas
all the more coldly for the personal note in her tone a minister's time is not his own you know
i have not considered that question good night miss king on his way back to the manse alan did consider the question should he make any attempt to establish friendly relations with the residents of four winds it surprised him to find how much he wanted to
but he finally concluded that he would not
when he got home although it was late
for elder trewin's seemed utterly out of the question even with the new one he did not get on very well at last in exasperation he leaned back in his chair why can't i stop thinking of those four winds people
here let me put these haunting thoughts into words and see if that will lay them that girl had a beautiful face but a cold one would i like to see it lighted up with the warmth of her soul set free yes frankly i would she looked upon me with indifference
do i believe that she is wild unwomanly heathenish as missus danby says no i do not most emphatically
though she is doubtless unconventional having said all this i do not see what more there is to be said and i am going to write this sermon alan wrote it
putting all thought of lynde oliver sternly out of his mind for the time being he had no notion of falling in love with her he knew nothing of love and imagined that it counted for nothing in his life
the young women he knew in rexton whose simple pleasant friendship he valued
there was nothing more personal in his thought of her
and strength of mind sufficient to persevere in a steady adherence to a general and a distant interest in opposition to the allurements of present pleasure and advantage there had never in that case been any such thing as government or political society
but each man following his natural liberty had lived in entire peace and harmony with all others what need of positive law where natural justice is of itself a sufficient restraint
why create magistrates where there never arises any disorder or iniquity why abridge our native freedom when in every instance
if government were totally useless it never could have place and that the sole foundation of the duty of allegiance is the advantage which it procures to society by preserving peace and order among mankind
and maintain a great intercourse together a new set of rules are immediately discovered to be useful in that particular situation and accordingly take place under the title of laws of nations of this kind are
abstaining from poisoned arms quarter in war with others of that kind which are plainly calculated for the advantage of states and kingdoms in their intercourse with each other the rules of justice
such as prevail among individuals are not entirely suspended among political societies all princes pretend a regard to the rights of other princes and some no doubt without hypocrisy
alliances and treaties are every day made between independent states which would only be so much waste of parchment if they were not found by experience to have some influence and authority but here is the difference between kingdoms and individuals
human nature cannot by any means subsist without the association of individuals and that association never could have place were no regard paid to the laws of equity and justice disorder confusion the war of all against all
but nations can subsist without intercourse they may even subsist in some degree under a general war the observance of justice though useful among them
his step mother and her children were as much shut up from him as the woman of any other family and there was as little danger of any criminal correspondence between them
uncles and nieces for a like reason might marry at athens but neither these nor half brothers and sisters could contract that alliance at rome where the intercourse was more open between the sexes
public utility is the cause of all these variations to repeat to a man's prejudice anything that escaped him in private conversation or to make any such use of his private letters is highly blamed
the free and social intercourse of minds must be extremely checked where no such rules of fidelity are established
the giving of one's author is regarded as a piece of indiscretion if not of immorality these stories in passing from hand to hand and receiving all the usual variations frequently come about to the persons concerned and produce animosities and quarrels among people
whose intentions are the most innocent and inoffensive to pry into secrets to open or even read the letters of others to play the spy upon their words and looks and actions
what habits of consequence more blameable this principle is also the foundation of most of the laws of good manners a kind of lesser morality calculated for the ease of company and conversation
too much or too little ceremony are both blamed and everything which promotes ease without an indecent familiarity is useful and laudable constancy in friendships attachments and familiarities is commendable
and is requisite to support trust and good correspondence in society but in places of general
public conveniency has dispensed with this maxim and custom there promotes an unreserved conversation for the time by indulging the privilege of dropping afterwards every indifferent acquaintance without breach of civility or good manners
i hate a drinking companion says the greek proverb who never forgets
among nations where an immoral gallantry if covered with a thin veil of mystery is in some degree authorized by custom there immediately arise a set of rules calculated for the conveniency of that attachment
the famous court or parliament of love in provence formerly decided all difficult cases of this nature in societies for play there are laws required for the conduct of the game and these laws are different in each game the foundation i own
of such societies is frivolous
though not altogether capricious and arbitrary so far is there a material difference between them and the rules of justice fidelity and loyalty the general societies of men are absolutely requisite for the subsistence of the species
and the public conveniency which regulates morals is inviolably established in the nature of man and of the world in which he lives the comparison therefore
we may only learn from it the necessity of rules wherever men have any intercourse with each other they cannot even pass each other on the road without rules waggoners coachmen and postilions have principles by which they give the way
and these are chiefly founded on mutual ease and convenience
every man had framed the model of a republic and however new it was or fantastical he was eager in recommending it to his fellow citizens or even imposing it by force upon them
every man had adjusted a system of religion which being derived from no traditional authority was peculiar to himself
and its professors and on pretence of rendering more simple the distribution of justice were desirous of abolishing the whole system of english jurisprudence
even those among the republicans who adopted not such extravagancies were so intoxicated with their saintly character that they supposed themselves possessed of peculiar privileges and all professions oaths
had in a great measure lost their influence over them the bands of society were every where loosened and the irregular passions of men were encouraged by speculative principles still more unsocial and irregular
the royalists consisting of the nobles and more considerable gentry being degraded from their authority and plundered of their property were inflamed with the highest resentment and indignation
against those ignoble adversaries who had reduced them to subjection
were enraged to find that by the treachery or superior cunning of then associates the fruits of all their successful labors were ravished from them the former party from inclination and principle
whose memory they respected and whose tragical death they deplored
many fears and jealousies to be allayed ere they could cordially entertain thoughts of restoring the family which they had so grievously offended and whose principles they regarded with such violent abhorrence
the only solid support of the republican independent faction which though it formed so small a part of the nation had violently usurped the government of the whole was a numerous army of near fifty thousand men but this army
formidable from its discipline and courage as well as its numbers
which had assumed the command over it accustomed to indulge every chimera in politics every frenzy in religion the soldiers knew little of the subordination of citizens and had only learned from apparent necessity
some maxims of military obedience
they were ready to break out into any new disorder wherever they had the prospect of a like sanction and authority what alone gave some stability to all these unsettled humors was the great influence both civil and military
acquired by oliver cromwell this man suited to the age in which he lived and to that alone was equally qualified to gain the affection and confidence of men by what was mean vulgar and ridiculous in his character
as to command their obedience by what was great daring and enterprising familiar even to buffoonery with the meanest sentinel he never lost his authority
transported to a degree of madness with religious ecstasies he never forgot the political purposes to which they might serve hating monarchy while a subject despising liberty while a citizen
though he retained for a time all orders of men under a seeming obedience to the parliament he was secretly paving the way by artifice and courage to his own unlimited authority
the parliament for so we must henceforth call a small and inconsiderable part of the house of commons having murdered their sovereign with so many appearing circumstances of solemnity and justice and so much real violence
and even fury began to assume more the air of a civil legal power and to enlarge a little the narrow bottom upon which they stood they admitted a few of the excluded and absent members
such as were liable to least exception but on condition that these members should sign an approbation of whatever had been done in their absence with regard to the king's trial
and some of them were willing to acquire a share of power on such terms the greater part disdained to lend their authority to such apparent usurpations they issued some writs for new elections
they named a council of state thirty eight in number to whom all addresses were made who gave orders to all generals and admirals who executed the laws and who digested
poor and neglected living sometimes in holland sometimes in france sometimes in jersey comforted himself amidst his present distresses with the hopes of better fortune
the situation alone of scotland and ireland gave any immediate inquietude to the new republic after the successive defeats of montrose
the whole authority in scotland
that party which was most averse to the interests of the royal family their enmity however against the independents who had prevented the settlement of presbyterian discipline in england
carried them to embrace opposite maxims in their political conduct though invited by the english parliament to model their government into a republican form they resolved still to adhere to monarchy which had ever prevailed in their country
and which by the express terms of their covenant they had engaged to defend they considered besides
it would be difficult to establish a common wealth or
invested with royal authority to preserve peace or justice in the community the execution therefore of the king against which they had always protested having occasioned a vacancy of the throne
but upon condition of his good behavior and strict observance of the covenant and his entertaining no other persons about him but such as were godly men and faithful to that obligation
these unusual clauses inserted in the very first acknowledgment of their prince sufficiently showed their intention of limiting extremely his authority
allowed the scots for the present to take their own measures in settling their government the dominion which england claimed over ireland demanded more immediately their efforts for subduing that country
and to relate briefly those transactions which had passed during the memorable revolutions in england when the late king agreed to that cessation of arms with the popish rebels which was become so requisite
as well for the security of the irish protestants as for promoting his interests in england the parliament in order to blacken his conduct reproached him with favoring that odious rebellion
they even went so far as to declare it entirely null and invalid because finished without their consent and in this declaration the scots in ulster and the earl of inchiquin a nobleman of great authority in munster
professed to adhere by their means the war was still kept alive but as the dangerous distractions in england hindered the parliament from sending any considerable assistance to their allies in ireland the marquis of ormond lord lieutenant
being a native of ireland and a person endowed with great prudence and virtue formed a scheme for composing the disorders of his country and for engaging the rebel irish to support the cause of his royal master
there were many circumstances which strongly invited the natives of ireland to embrace the king's party
who pretended a right to be consulted as before in the administration of the commonwealth they now practised against their officers the same lesson which they had been taught against the parliament
they framed a remonstrance and sent five agitators to present it to the general and council of war
one lockier having carried his sedition further was sentenced to death but this punishment was so far from quelling the mutinous spirit that above a thousand of his companions showed their adherence to him by attending his funeral
and wearing in their hats black and sea green ribbons by way of favors about four thousand assembled at burford under the command of thomson a man formerly condemned for sedition by a court martial but pardoned by the general
colonel reynolds and afterwards fairfax and cromwell fell upon them while unprepared for defence and seduced by the appearance of a treaty four hundred were taken prisoners some of them capitally punished the rest pardoned
and this tumultuous spirit though it still lurked in the army and broke out from time to time seemed for the present to be suppressed petitions
were presented to the parliament by lieutenant colonel lilburn the person who for dispersing seditious libels had formerly been treated with such severity by the star chamber his liberty was at this time as ill relished by the parliament
and he was thrown into prison as a promoter of sedition and disorder in the commonwealth the women applied by petition for his release but were now desired to mind their household affairs and leave the government of the state to the men
from all quarters the parliament was harassed with petitions of a very free nature which strongly spoke the sense of the nation and proved how ardently all men longed for the restoration of their laws and liberties
even in a feast which the city gave to the parliament and council of state it was deemed a requisite precaution if we may credit walker and dugdale
would first be attempted by cromwell and he was desirous to employ the enemy some time in that siege while he himself should repair his broken forces but cromwell knew the importance of despatch having made a breach he ordered a general assault
and himself along with ireton led on his men all opposition was overborne by the furious valor of the troops the town was taken sword in hand and orders being issued to give no quarter a cruel slaughter was made of the garrison
even a few who were saved by the soldiers satiated with blood were next day miserably butchered by orders from the general one person alone of the garrison escaped to be a messenger of this universal havoc and destruction
cromwell pretended to retaliate by this severe execution the cruelty of the irish massacre but he well knew that almost the whole garrison was english and his justice was only a barbarous policy in order to terrify all other garrisons from resistance
his policy however had the desired effect having led the army without delay to wexford he began to batter the town the garrison after a slight defence offered to capitulate but before they obtained a cessation they imprudently neglected their guards
the same severity was exercised as at tredah every town before which cromwell presented himself now opened its gates without resistance ross though strongly garrisoned was surrendered by lord taffe having taken estionage
cromwell threw a bridge over the barrow and made himself master of passage and carrie the english had no further difficulties to encounter than what arose from fatigue
fluxes and contagious distempers crept in among the soldiers who perished in great numbers jones himself
died at wexford and cromwell had so far advanced with his decayed army that he began to find it difficult either to subsist in the enemy's country
but while he was in these straits corke kinsale
this desertion of the english put an end to ormond's authority
tredah and wexford the irish actuated by national and religious prejudices could no longer be kept in obedience by a protestant governor who was so unsuccessful in all his enterprises the clergy renewed their excommunications against him
and his adherents and added the terrors of superstition to those which arose from a victorious enemy cromwell having received a reenforcement from england again took the field early in the spring
ormond soon after left the island and delegated his authority to clanricarde
above forty thousand men passed into foreign service and cromwell
while cromwell proceeded with such uninterrupted success in ireland which in the space of nine months he had almost entirely subdued fortune was preparing for him a new scene of victory and triumph in scotland charles was at the hague
when sir joseph douglas brought him intelligence that he was proclaimed king by the scottish parliament at the same time
which might arise from his being recognized sovereign in one of his kingdoms charles too considered that those who pretended to acknowledge his title were at that very time in actual rebellion against his family and would be sure to intrust
very little authority in his hands and scarcely would afford him personal liberty and security as the prospect of affairs in ireland was at that time not unpromising he intended
rather to try his fortune in that kingdom from which he expected more dutiful submission and obedience meanwhile he found it expedient to depart from holland
the people in the united provinces were much attached to his interests besides his connection with the family of orange which was extremely beloved by the populace all men regarded with compassion his helpless condition
and expressed the greatest abhorrence against the murder of his father a deed to which nothing they thought but the rage of fanaticism and faction
but though the public in general bore great favor to the king the states were uneasy at his presence they dreaded the parliament
he had risen to great credit and favor with the ruling party they sent him envoy to holland but no sooner had he arrived at the hague than he was set upon by some royalists chiefly retainers to montrose
they rushed into the room where he was sitting with some company dragged him from the table put him to death as the first victim to their murdered sovereign f very leisurely and peaceably separated themselves
and though orders were issued by the magistrates to arrest them these were executed with such slowness and reluctance that the criminals had all of them the opportunity of making their escape
made his retreat into jersey where his authority was still acknowledged here winram laird of liberton
he gave a civil answer to winram and desired commissioners to meet him at breda in order to enter into a treaty with regard to these conditions the earls of cassilis and lothian lord burley the laird of liberton and other commissioners arrived at breda
but without any power of treating the king must submit without reserve to the terms imposed upon him the terms were that he should issue a proclamation banishing from court all excommunicated persons that is all those who
either under hamilton or montrose had ventured their lives for his family that no english subject who had served against the parliament should be allowed to approach him that he should bind himself by his royal promise to take the covenant
and that in civil affairs he should entirely conform himself to the direction of parliament and in ecclesiastical to that of the assembly these proposals the commissioners after passing some time in sermons and prayers
in order to express the more determined resolution very solemnly delivered to the king the king's friends were divided with regard to the part which he should act in this critical conjuncture
most of his english counsellors dissuaded him from accepting conditions so disadvantageous and dishonorable they said
which notwithstanding his gentle government had first excited a rebellion against the late king after the most unlimited concessions had renewed their rebellion and stopped the progress of his victories in england
had basely sold him together with their own honor to his barbarous enemies
displayed the same anti monarchical principles and the same jealousy of their sovereign by which they had ever been actuated that nothing could be more dishonorable than that the king in his first enterprise should sacrifice merely for the empty name of royalty
those principles for which his father had died a martyr and in which he himself had been strictly educated that by this hypocrisy
it had sufficiently appeared by the event of hamilton's engagement
how unequal their force was to so great an enterprise that on the first check which they should receive argyle and his partisans would lay hold of the quickest expedient for reconciling themselves to the english parliament and would betray the king
as they had done his father into the hands of his enemies and that
the earl of laneric now duke of hamilton
that nothing would more gratify the king's enemies than to see him fall into the snare laid for him and by so scrupulous a nicety leave the possession of his dominions to those who desired but a pretence for excluding him
had embraced this expedient by which he hoped to make charles dethrone himself and refuse a kingdom which was offered him that it was not to be doubted but the same national spirit
assisted by hamilton and his party would rise still higher in favor of their prince after he had intrusted himself to their fidelity and would much abate the rigor of the conditions now imposed upon him that whatever might be the present intentions of the ruling party
they must unavoidably be engaged in a war with england and must accept the assistance of the king's friends of all parties in order to support themselves against a power so much superior that how much soever a steady
uniform conduct might have been suitable to the advanced age and strict engagements of the late king no one would throw any blame on a young prince for complying with conditions which necessity had extorted from him that even the rigor of those principles professed by his father
though with some it had exalted his character had been extremely prejudicial to his interests
than to give all parties room to hope for more equal and more indulgent maxims of government and that where affairs were reduced to so desperate a situation dangers ought little to be regarded
and the king's honor lay rather in showing some early symptoms of courage and activity than in choosing strictly a party among theological controversies with which it might be supposed he was as yet very little acquainted these arguments
the king's brother in law who both of them thought it ridiculous to refuse a kingdom merely from regard to episcopacy had great influence on charles but what chiefly determined him to comply was the account brought him of the fate of montrose who
with all the circumstances of rage and contumely had been put to death by his zealous countrymen though in this instance the king saw more evidently the furious spirit by which the scots were actuated
having laid down his arms at the command of the late king had retired into france
her mother who since the death of the king her father had nothing in the world she cared for so much as this little princess was so terribly afraid of losing her that she quite spoiled her
and never tried to correct any of her faults the consequence was that this little person who was as pretty as possible and was one day to wear a crown
grew up so proud and so much in love with her own beauty that she despised everyone else in the world the queen her mother by her caresses and flatteries helped to make her believe that there was nothing too good for her
she was dressed almost always in the prettiest frocks as a fairy or as a queen going out to hunt and the ladies of the court followed her dressed as forest fairies and to make her more vain than ever
the queen caused her portrait to be taken by the cleverest painters and sent it to several neighboring kings with whom she was very friendly
every one of them but upon each it had a different effect one fell ill one went quite crazy
never has there been a gayer court twenty delightful kings did everything they could think of to make themselves agreeable and after having spent ever so much money in giving a single entertainment
thought themselves very lucky if the princess said that's pretty all this admiration vastly pleased the queen not a day passed but she received seven or eight thousand sonnets
and as many elegies madrigals and songs which were sent her by all the poets in the world
was about bellissima for that was the princess's name and all the bonfires that they had were made of these verses which crackled and sparkled better than any other sort of wood bellissima was already fifteen years old
and every one of the princes wished to marry her
five or six times a day just to please her
so little did she care you may imagine how hard hearted her lovers thought her and the queen who wished to see her married did not know how to persuade her to think of it seriously bellissima she said i
do wish you would not be so proud what makes you despise all these nice kings i wish you to marry one of them and you do not try to please me i am so happy bellissima answered
do leave me in peace madam i don't want to care for anyone but you would be very happy with any of these princes said the queen
and i shall be very angry if you fall in love with anyone who is not worthy of you but the princess thought so much of herself that she did not consider any one of her lovers clever or handsome enough for her
and her mother who was getting really angry at her determination not to be married began to wish that she had not allowed her to have her own way so much at last not knowing what else to do
now this was very difficult to do as she was guarded by some terrible lions but happily the queen had heard a long time before that whoever wanted to pass these lions safely must throw to them a cake made of millet flour
sugar candy and crocodile's eggs this cake she prepared with her own hands and putting it in a little basket she set out to seek the fairy but as she was not used to walking far
she soon felt very tired and sat down at the foot of a tree to rest and presently fell fast asleep when she awoke she was dismayed to find her basket empty the cake was all gone and to make matters worse
at that moment she heard the roaring of the great lions who had found out that she was near and were coming to look for her
i shall be eaten up and being too frightened to run a single step she began to cry and leaned against the tree under which she had been asleep
and then up the tree and there she saw a little tiny man who was eating oranges oh queen said he i know you very well and i know how much afraid you are of the lions
and you are quite right too for they have eaten many other people
i must make up my mind to die said the poor queen alas i should not care so much if only my dear daughter were married oh you have a daughter cried the yellow dwarf
who was so called because he was a dwarf and had such a yellow face and lived in the orange tree i'm really glad to hear that for i've been looking for a wife all over the world now if you will promise that she shall marry me
not one of the lions tigers or bears shall touch you the queen looked at him and was almost as much afraid of his ugly little face as she had been of the lions before so that she could not speak a word
you hesitate madam cried the dwarf
and as he spoke the queen saw the lions which were running down a hill toward them each one had two heads eight feet and four rows of teeth
and were bright red at this dreadful sight the poor queen who was trembling like a dove when it sees a hawk cried out as loud as she could
bellissima shall marry you
bellissima is pretty enough but i don't particularly want to marry her you can keep her oh noble sir said the queen in great distress do not refuse her
out of charity i will take her but be sure and don't forget that she is mine as he spoke a little door opened in the trunk of the orange tree
the queen was so confused that at first she did not notice another little door in the orange tree but presently it opened and she found herself in a field of thistles and nettles it was encircled by a muddy ditch
and a little further on was a tiny thatched cottage out of which came the yellow dwarf with a very jaunty air
and as he had no hair and very long ears he looked altogether a shocking little object i am delighted
with these thistles and nettles she can feed a donkey which she can ride whenever she likes under this humble roof no weather can hurt her she will drink the water of this brook and eat frogs which grow very fat about here
and then she will have me always with her handsome agreeable and gay as you see me now for if her shadow stays by her more closely than i do i shall be surprised
the unhappy queen seeing all at once what a miserable life her daughter would have with this dwarf could not bear the idea and fell down insensible without saying a word when she revived
she found to her great surprise that she was lying in her own bed at home and what was more that she had on the loveliest lace night cap that she had ever seen in her life at first she thought that all her adventures
the terrible lions and her promise to the yellow dwarf that he should marry bellissima must have been a dream but there was the new cap with its beautiful ribbon and lace to remind her that it was all true which made her so unhappy
that she could neither eat drink nor sleep for thinking of it the princess who in spite of her wilfulness really loved her mother with all her heart was much grieved when she saw her looking so sad and often asked her what was the matter
but the queen who didn't want her to find out the truth only said that she was ill or that one of her neighbors was threatening to make war against her bellissima knew quite well that something was being hidden from her
and that neither of these was the real reason of the queen's uneasiness so she made up her mind that she would go and consult the fairy of the desert about it especially as she had often heard how wise she was
or not so with great care she made some of the proper cake to pacify the lions
pretending that she was going to bed but instead of that she wrapped herself in a long white veil and went down a secret staircase and set off all by herself to find the witch but when she got as far as the same fatal orange tree
and saw it covered with flowers and fruit she stopped and began to gather some of the oranges and then putting down her basket she sat down to eat them but when it was time to go on again the basket had disappeared and though she looked everywhere
not a trace of it could she find the more she hunted for it the more frightened she got and at last she began to cry then all at once she saw before her the yellow dwarf what's the matter with you my pretty one said he
what are you crying about
seeing that i have lost the basket of cake
and what do you want with her pretty one said the little monster for i am a friend of hers and for the matter of that i am quite as clever as she is the queen my mother replied the princess
that i fear that she will die and i am afraid that perhaps i am the cause of it for she very much wishes me to be married
so for all these reasons i wished to talk to the fairy do not give yourself any further trouble princess answered the dwarf i can tell you all you want to know better than she could
the queen your mother has promised you in marriage has promised me interrupted the princess oh no i'm sure she has not
i am too much interested in the matter for her to promise anything without my consent you must be mistaken beautiful princess cried the dwarf suddenly
i flatter myself that you will not be displeased at her choice when i tell you
you cried bellissima starting back my mother
cried the dwarf angrily but here are the lions coming they'll eat you up in three mouthfuls and there will be an end of you and your pride and indeed at that moment the poor princess heard their dreadful howls coming nearer
and nearer what shall i do she cried must all my happy days come to an end like this the malicious dwarf looked at her and began to laugh spitefully at least said he
you have the satisfaction of dying unmarried a lovely princess like you must surely prefer to die rather than be the wife of a poor little dwarf like myself oh don't be angry with me cried the princess clasping her hands
look at me well princess before you give me your word said he i don't want you to promise me in a hurry oh cried she the lions are coming i have looked at you enough i am so frightened
save me this minute or i shall die of terror indeed as she spoke she fell down insensible
how she got there she could not tell but she was dressed in the most beautiful lace and ribbons and on her finger was a little ring made of a single red hair
when the princess saw all these things and remembered what had happened she too fell into the deepest sadness
and the queen more than anyone else a hundred times she asked bellissima if anything was the matter with her
at last the chief men of the kingdom anxious to see their princess married sent to the queen to beg her to choose a husband for her as soon as possible she replied that nothing would please her better
but that her daughter seemed so unwilling to marry and she recommended them to go and talk to the princess about it themselves so this they at once did now bellissima was much less proud since her adventure with the yellow dwarf
and she could not think of a better way of getting rid of the little monster than to marry some powerful king therefore she replied to their request much more favorably than they had hoped saying that though she was very happy as she was
but had not thought that she would ever care about him at all you can easily imagine how delighted he was when he heard the news and how angry it made all the other kings to lose for ever the hope of marrying the princess but after all
bellissima could not have married twenty kings indeed she had found it quite difficult enough to choose one for her vanity made her believe that there was nobody in the world who was worthy of her
preparations were begun at once for the grandest wedding that had ever been held at the palace the king of the gold mines sent such immense sums of money
messengers were sent to all the gayest and most refined courts
to seek out everything rare and precious to adorn the princess although her beauty was so perfect that nothing she wore could make her look prettier at least that is what the king of the gold mines thought and he was never happy unless he was with her
as for the princess the more she saw of the king the more she liked him he was so generous so handsome and clever that at last she was almost as much in love with him as he was with her
this is one that she liked very much
hoping she may tread on them
as through this enchanted land
all the king's unsuccessful rivals had gone home in despair they said good by to the princess so sadly that she could not help being sorry for them ah madam the king of the gold mines said to her
how is this why do you waste your pity on these princes who love you so much that all their trouble would be well repaid by a single smile from you i should be sorry answered bellissima
if you had not noticed how much i pitied these princes who were leaving me for ever but for you sire it is very different you have every reason to be pleased with me
so you must not grudge them my compassion the king of the gold mines was quite overcome by the princess's good natured way of taking his interference and throwing himself at her feet he kissed her hand a thousand times
and begged her to forgive him at last the happy day came everything was ready for bellissima's wedding the trumpets sounded
the queen was so overjoyed that she had hardly been able to sleep at all and she got up before it was light to give the necessary orders and to choose the jewels that the princess was to wear these were nothing less than diamonds
even to her shoes which were covered with them and her dress of silver brocade was embroidered with a dozen of the sun's rays you may imagine how much these had cost
except the beauty of the princess upon her head she wore a splendid crown her lovely hair waved nearly to her feet and her stately figure could easily be distinguished among all the ladies who attended her
the king of the gold mines was not less noble and splendid it was easy to see by his face how happy he was and everyone who went near him returned loaded with presents
for all round the great banqueting hall had been arranged a thousand barrels full of gold and numberless bags made of velvet embroidered with pearls and filled with money each one containing at least a hundred thousand gold pieces
which were given away to everyone who liked to hold out his hand which numbers of people hastened to do you may be sure indeed some found this by far the most amusing part of the wedding festivities
the queen and the princess were just ready to set out with the king when they saw advancing toward them from the end of the long gallery two great basilisks dragging after them a very badly made box
behind them came a tall old woman whose ugliness was even more surprising than her extreme old age she wore a ruff of black taffeta a red velvet hood and a farthingale all in rags
and she leaned heavily upon a crutch this strange old woman without saying a single word hobbled three times round the gallery followed by the basilisks then stopping in the middle
and brandishing her crutch threateningly she cried
ho ho princess do you think you are going to break with impunity the promise that you made to my friend the yellow dwarf i am the fairy of the desert
without the yellow dwarf and his orange tree
and in fairyland we do not suffer ourselves to be insulted like this make up your minds at once what you will do for i vow that you shall marry the yellow dwarf if you don't
may i burn my crutch ah princess said the queen weeping what is this that i hear what have you promised ah my mother replied bellissima sadly
what did you promise yourself the king of the gold mines indignant at being kept from his happiness by this wicked old woman went up to her and threatening her with his sword said get away out of my country at once
and for ever miserable creature lest i take your life and so rid myself of your malice he had hardly spoken these words when the lid of the box fell back on the floor with a terrible noise
rash youth he cried rushing between the fairy of the desert and the king dare to lay a finger upon this illustrious fairy your quarrel is with me only i am your enemy and your rival
that faithless princess who would have married you is promised to me see if she has not upon her finger a ring made of one of my hairs just try to take it off
and you will soon find out that i am more powerful than you are wretched little monster said the king do you dare to call yourself the princess's lover and to lay claim to such a treasure
do you know that you are a dwarf that you are so ugly that one cannot bear to look at you and that i should have killed you myself long before this if you had been worthy of such a glorious death
the yellow dwarf deeply enraged at these words set spurs to his cat which yelled horribly and leaped hither and thither terrifying everybody except the brave king who pursued the dwarf closely till he
drawing a great knife with which he was armed challenged the king to meet him in single combat and rushed down into the courtyard of the palace with a terrible clatter the king quite provoked followed him hastily
but they had hardly taken their places facing one another and the whole court had only just had time to rush out upon the balconies to watch what was going on
and it was so dark that they could scarcely see at all the thunder crashed and the lightning seemed as if it must burn up everything the two basilisks appeared
like giants mountains high and fire flew from their mouths and ears until they looked like flaming furnaces none of these things could terrify the noble young king and the boldness of his looks and actions reassured those who were looking on
and perhaps even embarrassed the yellow dwarf himself but even his courage gave way when he saw what was happening to his beloved princess for the fairy of the desert looking more terrible than before mounted upon a winged griffin
and with long snakes coiled round her neck had given her such a blow with the lance she carried that bellissima fell into the queen's arms bleeding and senseless her fond mother feeling as much hurt by the blow as the princess herself
uttered such piercing cries and lamentations that the king hearing them entirely lost his courage and presence of mind giving up the combat he flew toward the princess
but the yellow dwarf was too quick for him leaping with his spanish cat upon the balcony he snatched bellissima from the queen's arms and before any of the ladies of the court could stop him he had sprung upon the roof of the palace and disappeared with his prize
the king motionless with horror looked on despairingly at this dreadful occurrence which he was quite powerless to prevent and to make matters worse his sight failed him
everything became dark and he felt himself carried along through the air by a strong hand this new misfortune was the work of the wicked fairy of the desert who had come with the yellow dwarf to help him carry off the princess
she thought that if she carried him off to some frightful cavern and chained him to a rock then the fear of death would make him forget bellissima and become her slave so as soon as they reached the place
she gave him back his sight but without releasing him from his chains and by her magic power she appeared before him as a young and beautiful fairy and pretended to have come there quite by chance what do i see she cried
is it you dear prince what misfortune has brought you to this dismal place the king who was quite deceived by her altered appearance replied alas beautiful fairy the fairy who brought me here first took away my sight
but by her voice i recognized her as the fairy of the desert though what she should have carried me off for i cannot tell you ah cried the pretended fairy if you have fallen into her hands you won't get away until you have married her
and knew in a moment that this must be the fairy of the desert for her feet were the one thing she could not change however pretty she might make her face without seeming to have noticed anything he said in a confidential way
but i really cannot endure the way in which she protects the yellow dwarf and keeps me chained here like a criminal it is true that i love a charming princess but if the fairy should set me free my gratitude would oblige me to love her only
do you really mean what you say prince said the fairy quite deceived surely replied the prince how could i deceive you you see it is so much more flattering to my vanity to be loved by a fairy than by a simple princess
i shall pretend to hate her until i am set free the fairy of the desert quite taken in by these words resolved at once to transport the prince to a pleasanter place
so making him mount her chariot to which she had harnessed swans instead of the bats which generally drew it away she flew with him but imagine the distress of the prince when from the giddy height at which they were rushing through the air
he saw his beloved princess in a castle built of polished steel the walls of which reflected the sun's rays so hotly that no one could approach it without being burnt to a cinder
but just as they passed she looked up and saw the king and the fairy of the desert now the fairy was so clever that she could not only seem beautiful to the king but even the poor princess thought her the most lovely being she had ever seen
what she cried was i not unhappy enough in this lonely castle to which that frightful yellow dwarf brought me must i also be made to know that the king of the gold mines ceased to love me
as soon as he lost sight of me but who can my rival be whose fatal beauty is greater than mine while she was saying this the king who really loved her as much as ever
was feeling terribly sad at being so rapidly torn away from his beloved princess but he knew too well how powerful the fairy was to have any hope of escaping from her except by great patience and cunning
the fairy of the desert had also seen bellissima and she tried to read in the king's eyes the effect that this unexpected sight had had upon him no one can tell you what you wish to know better than i can said he
this chance meeting with an unhappy princess for whom i once had a passing fancy before i was lucky enough to meet you has affected me a little i admit but you are so much more to me than she is that i would rather die than leave you
ah prince she said can i believe that you really love me so much time will show madam replied the king but if you wish to convince me that you have some regard for me do not i beg of you
refuse to aid bellissima do you know what you are asking said the fairy of the desert frowning and looking at him suspiciously do you want me to employ my art against the yellow dwarf who is my best friend
and take away from him a proud princess
the king sighed but made no answer indeed what was there to be said to such a clear sighted person at last they reached a vast meadow gay with all sorts of flowers a deep river surrounded it
and many little brooks murmured softly under the shady trees where it was always cool and fresh a little way off stood a splendid palace the walls of which were of transparent emeralds
as soon as the swans which drew the fairy's chariot had alighted under a porch which was paved with diamonds and had arches of rubies they were greeted on all sides by thousands of beautiful beings
who came to meet them joyfully singing these words when love within a heart would reign useless to strive against him tis the proud but feel a sharper pain
and make a greater triumph his the fairy of the desert was delighted to hear them sing of her triumphs she led the king into the most splendid room that can be imagined and left him alone for a little while
just that he might not feel that he was a prisoner but he felt sure that she had not really gone quite away but was watching him from some hiding place so walking up to a great mirror he said to it
trusty counsellor let me see what i can do to make myself agreeable to the charming fairy of the desert for i can think of nothing but how to please her and he at once set to work to curl his hair
and seeing upon a table a grander coat than his own he put it on carefully the fairy came back so delighted that she could not conceal her joy i am quite aware of the trouble you have taken to please me said she
and i must tell you that you have succeeded perfectly already you see it is not difficult to do if you really care for me
did not spare pretty speeches and after a time he was allowed to walk by himself upon the sea shore the fairy of the desert had by her enchantments raised such a terrible storm that the boldest pilot would not venture out in it
so she was not afraid of her prisoner's being able to escape
without being interrupted by his cruel captor presently after walking wildly up and down he wrote these verses upon the sand with his stick at last may i upon this shore
lighten my sorrow with soft tears alas alas i see no more my love who yet my sadness cheers and thou o raging stormy sea
stirred by wild winds from depth to height thou hold'st my loved one far from me and i am captive to thy might my heart is still more wild than thine
spiritualist humbugs waking up foster heard from s b brittan heard from the boston artists and their spiritual portraits the washington medium and his spiritual hands
the davenport brothers and the sea captain's wheat flour the davenport brothers roughly shown up
how a shingle stumped the spirits
for instance i received not long ago from my good friends messrs cauldwell and whitney an anonymous letter to them dated at washington and suggesting that if i would attend what the latter calls
a seance of that celebrated humbug foster i should see something that i could not explain now this anonymous letter as i know by a spiritual communication or otherwise
is in a handwriting very wonderfully like that of mister foster himself and as for the substance of it it is very likely that foster has now gotten up some new tricks he needs them
the exhibiting mediums must of course contrive new tricks
show up their old ones it is the universal method of all sorts of impostors
s b brittan the ex universalist minister the very surprisingly efficient man friday of andrew jackson davis in the production of the revelations of the said davis
and also ghost fancier in general who has gently aired part of his vocabulary in a communication to the banner of light with the heading exposed for two shillings i can afford very well to expose friend brittan
and his spiritualist humbugs for two shillings the honester the cheaper it evidently vexes the spiritualists
they can't help it though and it is my deliberate opinion that the monkeys are much the most respectable i have no wish to displease any honest person
the more they show that i am hurting them or does my friend brittan himself want an engagement at the museum will he produce some manifestations there
a valued friend of mine has furnished me a pleasant and true narrative of a fine spiritual humbug which took place in a respectable massachusetts village not very long ago i give the story in his own graphic words
two artists of boston tired of the atmosphere of their studios resolved themselves in joint session into spiritual mediums as a means of raising the wind or the devil and of getting a little fresh air in the rural districts
and that of writing on the arms they had large handbills printed announcing that mister w howard the celebrated test medium
one of the artists preceded the other by a few hours engaged rooms and attended to sundry preliminaries mister howard donned a white choker put his hair behind his ears
and mounted a pair of plain glass spectacles and such was his profoundly spiritual appearance on entering his apartments at the hotel that he had to lock the door
and give his partner opportunity to explode and absolutely roll about on the floor with laughter well they rigged a clothes horse for a screen and to heighten the effect the assistant who was expert in portraiture
covered this screen and indeed the walls of the room with scraggy outlines of the human countenance upon large sheets of paper these they said were executed by the draftsman whose right hand when under spiritual influence
uncontrollably jerked off these likenesses they added that the spirits had given information that before the mediums left town
as they were from time to time recognized by surviving friends the operation of drawing portraits was also illustrated at certain hours admission fifty cents if not satisfactory the money returned
other tricks of various kinds were performed with pleasure to all parties and profit to the performers the artists stood it as long as they could and then departed
but there was every indication that the towns people would have stood it until this day thus far my friend's curious and truthful account a little while ago there was exhibiting at washington a test medium whose name i would print
were it not that i do not want to advertise him one of his most impressive feats was to cause spiritual hands and other parts of the human frame to appear in the air a la davenport brothers
a gentleman whose name i also know very well indeed but have particular reasons for not mentioning went one day to see this test medium along with a friend and asked to see a hand
certainly the medium said and the room was darkened and the circle made round the table in the usual manner after about five minutes my friend who had contrived to place himself pretty near the medium
saw sure enough a dim glimmering blue light in the air a foot or so before and above the head of the medium in a minute he could see dimly outlined in this blue light the form of a hand
back toward him fingers together and no thumb why is no thumb visible asked my friend of the medium in a solemn manner the reason is said the medium still more solemnly that the spirits have not power enough
strange to relate he caught it and held it stoutly to a light was quickly had when still stranger the spirit hand was clearly seen to be the fleshy paw of the medium
and a fat paw it was too mister medium took the matter with the coolness of a thorough rascal and lighting a cigar merely observed well gentlemen you needn't trouble yourselves to come here any more
he also insisted on his usual fee of five dollars until threatened with a prosecution for swindling the secret of this worthy gentleman is simple and soon told holding one hand up in the air
he held up with the other between the thumb and finger a little pinch of phosphorus and bi sulphide of carbon which gave the blue light if inconvenient to hold up the other hand
under that invisible thumb it is a curious instance of the thorough credulity of genuine spiritualists
at an exhibition by a certain pair of spiritual brothers since well known as the davenport brothers these chaps after the fashion of their kind caused themselves to be tied up in a rope an old sea captain tying them
this done their shop or cabinet was shut upon them as usual and the bangs throwing of sticks et cetera through a window and the like took place well this sly and inconvenient old sea captain
now slipped out of the hall a few minutes and came back with some wheat flour having tied up the brothers again he remarked now gentlemen please to take each your two hands full of wheat flour
the brothers got mad and flatly refused then they cooled down and argued saying it wouldn't make any difference and was of no use well said the ancient mariner if it won't make any difference
you can just as well do it can't you the audience seeing the point were so evidently pleased with the old sailor that the grumbling brothers though with a very bad grace took their fists full of flour and were shut up
there was not the least sign of a manifestation no more than if the wheat flour had shot the brothers dead in their tracks
the brothers since that time have learned to perform some tricks with flour in their fists but only when tied by their own friends since these facts came to my knowledge
the davenport brothers have suffered an unpleasant exposure in liverpool in england
by attentive friends there the circumstances in question occurred on the evenings of tuesday and wednesday february fourteenth and fifteen eighteen sixty five on the first of these evenings a gentleman named cummins
selected by the audience as one of the tying committee tied one of the brothers and a mister hulley the other committee man the other but the brothers saw instantly that they could not wriggle out of these knots
they therefore refused to let the tying be finished saying that it was brutal although a surgeon present said it was not one tied brother was untied by ferguson the agent
and then the brothers went to work and performed their various tricks without the supervision of any committee but amid a constant fire of derision laughter groans shouts and epithets from the audience on the next evening
the audience insisted on having the same committee the brothers were very reluctant to allow it but had to do so after a long time ira davenport refused again however instantly to be tied
as soon as he saw what knot mister cummins was going to use cummins however though ira squirmed most industriously got him tied fast and then ira called to ferguson to cut the knot ferguson did so
and cut ira's hand ira now shewed the blood to the audience and the brothers with an immense pretense of indignation went off the stage cummins at once explained
the audience became disgusted and enraged at the impudence of the imposture broke over the foot lights knocked ferguson backward into the cabinet and when the discomfited agent had scrambled out and run away smashed the thing fairly into kindling wood
which they did not see the very thorough exposure of the davenports thus made is an additional proof if such were needed
by them and their mysterious brethren of the exhibiting sort once the spirits were stumped with a shingle a very proper yankee jaw bone of an ass to route such disembodied philistines
upon the floor there said he coolly if you can trot those tables about in that style do it with that shingle
mother roundabout's daughter once on a time there was a goody who had a son and he was so lazy and slow he would never turn his hand to anything that was useful but singing and dancing he was very fond of
and more and more was spent in clothing as he grew bigger and bigger and it was soon worn out i should think for he danced and sprang about both in wood and field at last the goody thought it too bad
so she told the lad that now he must begin to turn his hand to work and live steadily or else there was nothing before both of them but starving to death but that the lad had no mind to do
he would be able to live well and softly all his days and sing and dance and never do one stroke of work when his mother heard this she too thought it would be a very fine thing and so she fitted out the lad
as well as she could that he might look tidy when he reached mother roundabout's house and so he set off on his way now when he got out of doors the sun shone warm and bright but it had rained the night before so that the ways were soft and miry
the lad took a short cut to mother roundabout's and he sang and jumped as was ever his wont but just as he sprang and leaped he came to a bog hole and over it lay a little bridge
and from the bridge he had to make a spring across a hole on to a tuft of grass that he might not dirty his shoes but plump it went all at once and just as he put his foot on the tuft it gave way under him
with a bunch of keys at the tip of her tail what you here my boy said the rat thank you kindly for coming to me i have waited long for you you come of course to woo me and you are eager at it i can very well see
with all sorts of bits and scraps such as rats are wont to eat and set them before him and said now you must sit down and eat i am sure you must be both tired and hungry but the lad thought he had no liking for such food
if i were only well away from this above ground again he thought to himself but he said nothing out loud now i dare say you'd be glad to go home again said the rat i know your heart is set on this wedding and i'll make all the haste i can
and you must take with you this linen thread
you must not look round but go straight home and on the way you must mind and say nothing but short before and long back
and as she said this she put the linen thread into his hand
when he got above ground thither i'll never come again if i can help it but he still had the thread in his hand
as he was wont but even though he thought no more of the rat hole
he turned round and there lay many many hundred ells of the whitest linen so fine that the handiest weaving girl could not have woven it finer mother mother come out he cried and roared out came the goody in a bustle
and asked whatever was the matter but when she saw the linen woof which stretched as far back as she could see and a bit besides she couldn't believe her eyes till the lad told her how it had all happened
and when she had heard it and tried the woof between her fingers she grew so glad that she too began to dance and sing so she took the linen and cut it out and sewed shirts out of it both for herself and her son
but the lad had more mind to go to mother roundabout and woo her daughter well the goody thought that a very fine thing for now he had good clothes on his back and he was not such a bad looking fellow either
so she made him smart and fitted him out as well as she could and he took out his new shoes and brushed them till they were as bright as glass and when he had done that off he went but all happened just as it did before
when he got out of doors the sun shone warm and bright but it had rained overnight so that it was soft and miry and all the bog holes were full of water the lad took the short cut to mother roundabout and he sang and sprang as he was ever wont
but just as he leaped and jumped he got upon the bridge over the moor again and from it he had to jump over a bog hole on to a turf that he might not soil his shoes but plump it went and down it went under him
and there was no stopping till he found himself in a nasty deep dark hole at first he could see nothing but when he had been there a while he caught a glimpse of a rat with a bunch of keys at the tip of her tail who came wiggle waggle up to him
what you here my boy said the rat that was nice of you to wish to see me so soon again you are very eager that i can see but you really must wait a while
it shall be all right when she had said this she set before him all kinds of scraps and bits in eggshells
i dare say now you would be glad to get home again but i'll hasten on the wedding
and as she said that she gave him a thread of wool in his hand heaven be praised said the lad that i got away thither i'll never go again if i can help it and so he sang and jumped as he was wont
as for the rat hole he thought no more about it
and so he kept on the whole way home when he had got into the yard at home again he turned and looked behind him and there lay the finest cloth more than many hundred ells aye almost above half a mile long
and so fine that no town dandy could have had finer cloth to his coat mother mother come out cried the lad so the goody came out of doors and clapped her hands and was almost ready to swoon for joy
when she saw all that lovely cloth
from first to last then they had a fine time of it you may fancy the lad got new clothes of the finest sort and the goody went off to the town and sold the cloth by little and little and made heaps of money
then she decked out her cottage and looked as smart in her old days as though she had been born a lady so they lived well and happily but at last that money came to an end too and so the day came
when the goody had no more food in the house and then she told her son he really must turn his hand to work and live like the rest of the world else there was nothing but starvation staring both of them in the face
but the lad thought it far better to go to mother roundabout and woo her daughter this time the goody thought so too and said not a word against it for now he had new clothes of the finest kind
and he looked so well she thought it quite out of the question that anyone could say no to so smart a lad so she smartened him up and made him as tidy as she could and he himself brought out his new shoes
and when he had done that off he went this time he did not take the short cut but made a great bend for down to the rats he would not go if he could help it he was so tired of all that wiggle waggle
and that everlasting bridal gossip as for the weather and the ways they were just as they had been twice before the sun shone so that it was dazzling on the pools and bog holes
he was on the very same bridge across the bog again
on to a tuft that he might not dirty his bright shoes plump it went and it gave way with him and there was no stopping till he was down in the same nasty deep dark hole again at first he was glad
for he could see nothing but when he had been there a while he had a glimpse of the ugly rat and loath he was to see her with the bunch of keys at the end of her tail good day my boy said the rat you are heartily welcome again
thank you thank you kindly but now everything is ready for the wedding and we shall set off to church at once something dreadful is going to happen thought the lad but he said nothing out loud
such a lot of small rats and mice of all the holes and crannies and six big rats came harnessed to a frying pan two mice got up behind as footmen and two got up before and drove some too got into the pan
and the rat with the bunch of keys at her tail took her seat among them
very fine that will be i dare say thought the lad if i were only well above ground i'd run away from the whole pack of you that was what he thought but he said nothing out loud so he followed them as well as he could
for the road was low and narrow in places but when it got broader he went on in front and looked about him how he might best give them the slip and run away but as he went forward he heard a clear sweet voice behind him which said
now the road is good come my dear and get up into the carriage the lad turned round in a trice and had near lost both nose and ears there stood the grandest carriage with six white horses to it
they were a princess and her playfellows who had been bewitched all together but now they were free because he had come down to them and never said a word against them come now said the princess so the lad stepped up
into the carriage and they drove to church and when they drove from church again the princess said now we will drive first to my house and then we'll send to fetch your mother
he thought it would be better to go home to his mother than down into that nasty rat hole but just as he thought that they came to a grand castle into it they turned and there they were to dwell
chapter thirty one conclusion in the midst of this the paupers and the hags talked earnestly together some of those who had been nearest in rank to the late chief pauper and chief hag were conspicuous in the debate
all looked at me and at almah and pointed toward the sun which was wheeling along behind the distant mountain crest showing a golden disc then they pointed to the dead bodies and the hags took the chief hag
and the paupers the chief pauper and laid them side by side on the central altar after this a hag and a pauper advanced toward us each carrying the sacrificial knife which had belonged to the deceased
the hag spoke first addressing almah in accordance with the kosekin custom which requires women to take the precedence in many things
and co ruler of clouds and darkness henceforth you shall be
she then handed almah the sacrificial knife of the chief hag which almah took in silence then the pauper presented me with the sacrificial knife of the chief pauper with the following words
and ruler of clouds and darkness henceforth you shall be judge of death to the men of the kosekin and sar tabakin over the whole nation i received the knife in silence for i had nothing to say
but now almah spoke as was fitting for her to do since with the kosekin the women must take the precedence and here it was expected that she should reply in behalf of both of us so almah holding the sacrificial knife
stood looking at them full of dignity and spoke as follows
and we will reward you all
with memorable acts of mercy these two great victims shall be enough for the mista kosek of this season the victims designed for this sacrifice shall have to deny themselves the blessing of death
yet they shall be rewarded in other ways and all the land from the highest to the lowest shall have reason to rejoice in our rule to all you hags and paupers we grant the splendid and unparalleled boon
in the abundance of our mercy we are willing ourselves to bear the burden of all the offerings that may be necessary in order to accomplish this all in the land may at once give up one quarter of their whole wealth to us
as to live in the light and in open palaces we will consent to undergo the pains of light and splendor to endure all the evils of luxury magnificence and boundless wealth for the good of the kosekin nation
we will consent to forego the right of separation and agree to live together even though we love one another above all we will refuse death and consent to live can any rulers do more than this for the good of their people
another outburst of applause followed in three joms continued almah all you hags and paupers shall be sent to exile and death on magones as for the rest of the kosekin hear our words
tell them from us that the laborers shall all be elevated to the rank of paupers the artisans shall be made laborers the tradesmen artisans the soldiers tradesmen the athons soldiers
the kohens athons and the meleks kohens there shall be no meleks in all the land we in our love for the kosekin will henceforth be the only meleks then all the misery of that low station
will rest on us and in our low estate as meleks we shall govern this nation in love and self denial tell them that we will forego the sacrifice and consent to live that we will give up darkness and cavern gloom and live in light
tell them to prepare for us the splendid palaces of the meleks for we will take the most sumptuous and magnificent of them all tell all the people to present their offerings tell them that we consent to have endless retinues of servants soldiers followers and attendants
and riches shall be unknown in the land these extraordinary words seemed to fill the paupers with rapture exclamations of joy burst from them they prostrated themselves in an irrepressible impulse
of grateful admiration as though such promises could only come from superior beings then most of them hurried down to communicate to the people below the glorious intelligence soon it spread from mouth to mouth
and all the people were filled with the wildest excitement for never before had such a thing been known and never had such self sacrifice been imagined or thought possible as that the rulers of the kosekin could consent to be rich when they might be paupers
to live together when they might be separate to dwell in the light when they might lurk in the deepest cavern gloom to remain in life when they might have the blessing of death selfishness fear of death love of riches
a selfish ruler might be popular by making others poor hence the words of almah as they were made known gave rise to the wildest excitement and enthusiasm and the vast multitude poured forth their feelings
in long shouts of rapturous applause amid this the bodies of the dead were carried down from the pyramid and were taken to the mista kosek in a long and solemn procession
accompanied by the singing of wild and dismal chants and now the sun rolling along behind the icy mountain crest rose higher and higher every moment and the bright light of a long day began to illumine the world
there sparkled the sea rising far away like a watery wall with the horizon high up in the sky there rose the circle of giant mountains sweeping away till they were blended with the horizon there rose the terraces of the amir
all glowing in the sunlight with all its countless houses and cavern openings and arching trees and pointing pyramids above was the canopy of heaven no longer black no longer studded with stars or glistening with the fitful shimmer
of the aurora but all radiant with the glorious sunlight and disclosing all the splendors of the infinite blue at that sight a thrill of joy passed through me the long long night at last was over
a sun that would never set until his long course of many months should be fully run my heart swelled with rapture my eyes filled with tears o light i cried o gleaming golden sunlight o light of heaven
light that brings life and hope to man and i could have fallen on my knees and worshipped that rising sun but the light which was so glorious to us was painful and distressing to the kosekin
shading their eyes the crowd below began to disperse in all directions so as to betake themselves to their coverts and to the caverns where they might live in the dark
soon nearly all were gone except the paupers at the foot of the pyramid who were awaiting our commands and a crowd of meleks and athons at a distance at a gesture from me the few paupers near us descended and joined those below
i caught her in my arms in a rapture of joy this revulsion from the lowest despair from darkness and from death back to hope and light and life was almost too much to endure we both wept but our tears were those of happiness
her arms were about me and she did not draw away but looked up in sweet confusion and said why as to that i i cannot be more your your wife than i am
the most sacred form of marriage it is the religious form the other is merely the civil form this was unintelligible nor did i try to understand it it was enough to hear this from her own sweet lips but it was a strange feeling
without knowing it as to flight continued almah who had quite adopted the kosekin fashion which makes women take the lead as to flight we need not hurry we are all powerful now and there is no more danger
we must wait until we send embassies to my people and when they are ready to receive us we will go
the younger members of the family arthur
when elsie seeing a gold chain depending from the pocket of arthur's jacket exclaimed
do put it away for you will be almost sure to injure it hold your tongue elsie i'll do as i please was the polite rejoinder but arthur you know that grandpa would never let you take it
i have often heard him say that it was very valuable
and you know i cannot tell a lie and if he asks me if it was you i cannot say no yes i'll trust you for telling tales replied arthur sneeringly
he ran down the avenue as he spoke walter and enna following and elsie slowly bringing up the rear looking the picture of distress for she knew not what to do seeing that arthur would not listen to her remonstrances and as often happened
all the older members of the family were out
once she thought of turning back
but remembering that her father told her she must walk with the others that afternoon
her testimony would be sufficient to convict him even if she saw no more she gave up the idea and hurried on with the faint hope that she might be able to induce arthur to refrain from indulging in such sports as would be likely to endanger the watch or else to give it into her charge
but now she felt so sure it would be safer with her than with him
the walk was far from being a pleasure that afternoon
striking with considerable force elsie uttered a scream and arthur now thoroughly frightened himself
the crystal was broken the back dented and how much the works were injured they could not tell but it had ceased to run
while elsie stood pale and trembling not speaking a word you hush exclaimed arthur fiercely i'll tell you what
i don't care who gets punished so that papa does not find out that i did it said he furiously
i'll pay you for it i shall say nothing unless it becomes necessary to save the innocent or i am forced to speak but in that case i shall tell the truth replied elsie firmly arthur doubled up his fist and made a plunge at her as if he meant to knock her down
but elsie sprang behind the tree and then ran so fleetly toward the house that he was not able to overtake her until his passion had had time to cool when they reached the house arthur replaced the watch on his father's table whence he had taken it
he looked at her again a little anxiously but said no more and as soon as the meal was concluded elsie hastened away to her own room again it was still early in the evening
for once bringing no company with them and he had not been many minutes in the house ere he took up his watch and of course instantly discovered the injury it had sustained his suspicions at once fell upon arthur whose character for mischief was well established and burning with rage
watch in hand he repaired to the drawing room which he entered asking in tones tremulous with passion
he added holding up the injured article my dear how can you say so have you any proof asked his wife deprecatingly
my poor boy seems to get the blame of everything that goes wrong he gets no more than he deserves replied her husband angrily arthur arthur i say where are you
the father instantly despatched a servant to bring him in sending a second in search of the overseer while a third was ordered to assemble all the house servants i will sift this matter to the bottom and child or servant the guilty one shall suffer for it
exclaimed the old gentleman pacing angrily up and down the room arthur
how dared you meddle with my watch i didn't sir i never touched it he replied boldly yet avoiding his father's eye as he uttered the deliberate falsehood there my dear i told you so exclaimed his mother triumphantly
i didn't do it sir it was jim
i'll keep no such meddlers about my house he looked at enna
did you see it too walter asked his father yes sir replied the little fellow in a low reluctant tone but please papa don't punish him i'm sure he didn't mean to break it hold your tongue he shall be punished as he deserves cried the old gentleman furiously
elsie was sitting in her own room trying to learn a lesson for the next day but finding great difficulty in fixing her thoughts upon it when she was startled by the sudden entrance of aunt chloe who with her apron to her eyes was sobbing violently
starting to her feet and dropping her book in her haste and fright why sobbed chloe
and seizing his hand looked up eagerly into his face exclaiming with a burst of tears and sobs o papa papa don't oh don't let them whip poor jim
but jim has done very wrong and deserves his punishment and i cannot interfere
is it possible said he in a tone of surprise
and he looked searchingly into her face
oh do stop them quickly before they begin to whip him aunt chloe said mister dinsmore go down to my father and tell him it is my request that the punishment should be delayed a few moments until i come down
elsie i think you would be doing very wickedly to allow an innocent person to suffer when you can prevent it and besides i will add the weight of my authority and say you must do it at once
have i not said enough to convince you of your duty he asked yes papa i will tell you all about it
and the moment she had finished he rose and again taking her hand led her from the room saying as he did so you must repeat this story to your grandfather o papa must i won't you tell him please don't make me do it she pleaded tremblingly and hanging back
for he had heard chloe deliver his brother's message and feared that exposure awaited him walter had stolen away to cry over jim's punishment and wish that he had had the courage to tell the truth at first but saying to himself that it was too late now his father wouldn't believe him
and he would make it up to jim somehow even if it took all his pocket money for a month none of the other members of the family had left the room and all wore an anxious expectant look as mister dinsmore entered leading elsie by the hand
i have brought you another witness sir he said for it seems elsie was present when the mischief was done ah exclaimed the old gentlemen then i may hope to get at the truth elsie who broke my watch it was not jim grandpa indeed indeed it was not but
elsie exclaimed her father in a tone of stern reproof o papa how can i she sobbed trembling and clinging to his hand as she caught a threatening look from arthur come come child you must tell us all you know about it said her grandfather
or else i can't let jim off mister dinsmore was looking down at his little girl and following the direction of her glance perceived the cause of her terror don't be afraid to speak out and tell all you know daughter for i will protect you he said
no one shall hurt you for telling the truth exclaimed her grandfather impatiently
i knew it from the first cried the old gentleman striding across the room seizing the boy by the shoulder and shaking him roughly but go on elsie let us have the whole story he added turning to her again but still keeping his hold upon arthur
you young dog he added when she had finished yes i'll forgive you
will you arthur let me pay for the watch grandpa and don't punish him i would so like to do it it isn't the moneyed value of the watch i care for child replied the old gentleman contemptuously
said the elder gentleman with almost fierce determination as he tightened his grasp upon the boy's arm and dragged him from the room arthur cast a look of hatred and defiance at elsie as he went out that made her grow pale with fear and tremble so that she could scarcely stand
her father saw both the look and its effect and drawing the little trembler closer to him he put his arm around her and stroking her hair said in a low soothing tone
and he was just about to take her on his knee when visitors were announced and changing his mind he dismissed her to her room and she saw no more of him that evening oh if they only hadn't come just now thought the sorely disappointed child
dear dear papa if you could only know how i long to sit there but missus dinsmore who had hastily retired on the exit of arthur and his father from the drawing room was now sailing majestically down the hall on her return thither
the poor old creature was overflowing with gratitude and her fervent outpouring of thanks and blessings almost made elsie forget her disappointment for the time then jim came to the door asking to see miss elsie and poured out his thanks amid many sobs and tears
but at length phoebe remembered that she had some baking to do and calling on jim to come right along and split up some dry wood to heat her oven she went down to the kitchen followed by her son and elsie was left alone with her nurse
chloe sat silently knitting and the little girl with her head leaning upon her hand and her eyes fixed thoughtfully upon the floor was rehearsing again and again in her own mind all that had just passed between her papa and herself
dwelling with lingering delight upon everything approaching to a caress every kind word every soothing tone of his voice and then picturing to herself all that he might have done and said if those unwelcome visitors had not come in and put an end to the interview
and half hoping that he would send for her when they had gone she watched the clock and listened intently for every sound but her bedtime came and she dared not stay up any longer for his orders had been peremptory that she should always retire precisely at that hour
unless she had his express permission to remain up longer she lay awake for some time thinking of his unwonted kindness and indulging fond hopes for the future then fell asleep to dream
that she was on her father's knee and felt his arms folded lovingly about her and his kisses warm upon her cheek her heart beat quickly as she entered the breakfast room the next morning the family were just taking their places at the table
excepting to see that her plate was well supplied with such articles of food as he allowed her to eat elsie was sadly disappointed and lingered about the room in the vain hope of obtaining a smile or caress but presently her father went out
saying to the elder mister dinsmore that he was going to ride over to ion and would probably not return before night then with a sigh the little girl went back to her own room to prepare her morning lessons
elsie was now happily free from arthur's persecutions for a time for even after his release he was too much afraid of his brother openly to offer her any very serious annoyance though he plotted revenge in secret
yet the little girl's situation was far from comfortable and her patience often severely tried for missus dinsmore was excessively angry with her on arthur's account and whenever her father was not present treated her in the most unkind manner and from the same cause the rest of the family
were unusually cold and distant while her father although careful to see that all her wants were attended to seldom took any further notice of her unless to reprove her for some childish fault which however trifling never escaped his eye
you seem said adelaide to him one day as he sent elsie from the room for some very slight fault to expect that child to be a great deal more perfect than any grown person i ever saw and to understand all about the rules of etiquette
if you please adelaide said he haughtily i should like to be allowed to manage my own child as i see proper without any interference from others
requiring quite an exertion of strength to hold them in i don't exactly like the actions of those horses ajax remarked mister dinsmore as he came out putting on his gloves i did not intend to have them put in harness to day why did you not give us the old bays
ole kate she's got a lame foot
an i reckoned i mout jis as well use em to day do you feel quite sure of being able to hold them in asked his master glancing uneasily first at the horses and then at elsie
exclaimed the negro exhibiting a double row of dazzlingly white teeth an besides i'se drove dese here hosses twice fore now an dey went splendid hold em in yes sah easy as nuffin
elsie said her father still looking a little uneasy in spite of ajax's boasting i think it would be just as well for you to stay at home elsie made no reply in words but her answering look spoke such intense disappointment
such earnest entreaty that saying ah well i suppose there is no real danger and since you seem so anxious to go i will not compel you to stay at home he lifted her into the carriage and seating himself beside her ordered the coachman to drive on as carefully as he could
elsie change seats with me
no replied mister dinsmore laying his hand on his little daughter's shoulder elsie's place is by me and she shall sit nowhere else
do you think we are in any danger of being run away with asked adelaide a little anxiously as she observed him glancing once or twice out of the window
the horses are young and fiery but ajax is an excellent driver he replied evasively adding you may be sure that if i had thought the danger very great i would have left elsie at home they reached the church without accident
but on their return the horses took fright while going down a hill and rushed along at a furious rate which threatened every instant to upset the carriage elsie thought they were going very fast but did not know that there was real danger
until her father suddenly lifted her from her seat and placing her between his knees held her tightly as though he feared she would be snatched from his grasp elsie looked up into his face
dear papa she whispered god will take care of us i would give all i am worth to have you safe at home he answered hoarsely pressing her closer and closer to him o even in that moment of fearful peril
when death seemed just at hand those words and the affectionate clasp of her father's arm sent a thrill of intense joy to the love famished heart of the little girl but destruction seemed inevitable lora was leaning back half fainting with terror
adelaide scarcely less alarmed while enna clung to her sobbing most bitterly elsie alone preserved a cheerful serenity she had built her house upon the rock and knew that it would stand her destiny was in her heavenly father's hands
and she was content to leave it there even death had no terrors
who had put her trust in jesus but they were not to perish thus for at that moment a powerful negro
the sudden and unexpected check throwing them upon their haunches and bringing the carriage to an instant stand still thank god we are saved that fellow shall be well rewarded for his brave deed exclaimed mister dinsmore throwing open the carriage door
then leaping to the ground he lifted elsie out set her down and gave his hand to his sisters one after the other they were almost at the entrance of the avenue and all preferred to walk the short distance to the house rather than again trust themselves to the horses
mister dinsmore lingered a moment to speak to the man who had done them such good service and to give some directions to the coachman and then taking the hand of his little girl who had been waiting for him he walked slowly on
asking very kindly if she had recovered from her fright yes papa she answered in a quiet tone i knew that god would take care of us oh wasn't he good to keep us all from being killed yes he said very gravely
go now and let mammy get you ready for dinner as elsie was sitting alone in her room that afternoon
what if we had been killed where would we all be now where would i have been i believe you would have gone straight to heaven elsie but
i was thinking said elsie gently turning over the leaves of her little bible as she spoke of this sweet verse yea though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil for thou art with me
so that i only had time to think of papa and myself and i have prayed so much for him
don't look so as if you had done something very wicked elsie
but oh elsie if you can only tell me how to be a christian i mean now to try very hard indeed i am determined never to rest until i am one oh lora how glad i am cried elsie joyfully
for i know that if you are really in earnest you will succeed
that is what means am i to use to get rid of my sins and get a new heart how make myself pleasing in the sight of god what must i do to be saved
and he answered believe on the lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved
and in answer to your other question how shall i get rid of my sins see here in that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of david and to the inhabitants of jerusalem for sin and for uncleanliness that is in zechariah
then john tells us what that fountain is when he says the blood of jesus christ his son cleanseth us from all sin and again unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood
and now we have nothing at all to do but go to him and be washed in that fountain believe him when he says i give unto them eternal life just accept the gift and trust and love him that is the whole of it
and it is so simple that even such a little girl as i can understand it but surely elsie i can i must do something yes god tells us to repent and he says give me thine heart you can do that
you can love jesus at least he will enable you to if you ask him and he will teach you to be sorry for your sins the bible says he is exalted to give repentance and remission of sins and if you ask him he will give them to you
it is true we cannot do anything good of ourselves without the help of the holy spirit we can do nothing right because we are so very wicked but then we can always get that help if we ask for it jesus said
your heavenly father is more willing to give his holy spirit to them that ask him than parents are to give good gifts unto their children oh lora don't be afraid to ask for it don't be afraid to come to jesus for he says
and he is such a precious saviour so kind and loving but remember that you must come very humbly feeling that you are a great sinner and not worthy to be heard and only hoping to be forgiven because jesus died the bible says
god resisteth the proud but giveth grace unto the humble
elsie answered the summons with a light heart a heart that thrilled with a new and strange sense of happiness as she remembered her father's evident anxiety for her safety during their perilous ride recalling each word and look
and feeling again in imagination the clasp of his arm about her waist ah surely papa does love me she murmured to herself over and over again and when he met her at the table with a kind smile
how does my little daughter do this evening her cheeks flushed and her eyes grew bright with happiness and she longed to throw her arms around his neck and tell him how very very much she loved him but that was quite impossible at the table and before all the family
so she merely raised her glad eyes to his face and answered i am very well thank you papa but after all this occurrence produced but little change in elsie's condition her father treated her a little more affectionately for a day or two
and then gradually returned to his ordinary stern cold manner indeed before the week was out she was again in sad disgrace she was walking alone in the garden one afternoon when her attention was attracted by a slight fluttering noise
which seemed to proceed from an arbor near by and on hastily turning in to ascertain the cause she found a tiny and beautiful humming bird confined under a glass vase in its struggles to escape it was fluttering and beating against the walls of its prison
and had often drawn his persecutions upon herself by interfering in behalf of the poor victim and now the thought instantly flashed upon her that this was some of his work and that he would return ere long to carry out his cruel purposes
then she began to think with a little tremor how angry arthur would be but it was too late to think of that now and after all she did not stand in very great dread of the consequences especially as she felt nearly sure of her father's approval of what she had done
having several times heard him reprove arthur for his cruel practices not caring to meet arthur then however she hastily retreated to the house where she seated herself in the veranda with a book it was a very warm afternoon
arthur walter and enna sat on the floor playing jack stones a favorite game with them
hush she said as walter gave a sudden shout at a successful toss enna had just made can't you be quiet
elsie wondered why arthur did not go to see after his bird but soon forgot all about it in the interest with which she was poring over the story of the swiss family robinson the jack stone players were just finishing their game
when they were all startled by the sudden appearance of mister horace dinsmore upon the scene
who had been down in the garden and liberated the humming bird he had been at such pains to catch because it was one of a rare species
grew pale and red by turns while she seemed choking with the vain effort to speak and acknowledge herself the culprit as conscience told her she ought but her father was not looking at her his eye was fixed on arthur
i presume it was you sir he said very angrily and if so you may prepare yourself for either a flogging or a return to your prison for one or the other i am determined you shall have i didn't do it any such thing replied the boy fiercely
of course you will deny it said his brother but we all know that your word is good for nothing papa
arthur did not do it it was i
as he turned his flashing eye upon her
elsie's book fell on the floor and covering her face with both hands she burst into sobs and tears come here to me this instant he said seating himself on the settee from which louise had risen on his entrance
come here and tell me what you mean by meddling with my affairs in this way please papa please don't be so very angry with me
it was only the other day you broke a valuable vase he forgot in his anger how little she had really been to blame for that and now you have caused me the loss of a rare specimen which i had spent a great deal of time and effort in procuring
really elsie i am sorely tempted to administer a very severe punishment elsie caught at the arm of the settee for support tell me what you did it for was it pure love of mischief asked her father sternly taking hold of her arm and holding her up by it
no papa she answered almost under her breath i was sorry for the little bird i thought arthur had put it there to torture it and so i let it go
and the tears fell faster and faster indeed said he you had no business to meddle with it let who would have put it there which hand did it this one papa sobbed the child indicating her right hand he took it in his and held it a moment
and for a moment he was half inclined to kiss and forgive her but no he had been very much irritated at his loss and the remembrance of it again aroused his anger and well nigh extinguished the little spark of love and compassion
she should be punished though he would not inflict physical pain see elsie laughed louise maliciously
hush louise exclaimed her brother sternly you know you are not speaking truly and that i would as soon think of cutting off my own hand as my child's you should never speak anything but truth especially to children
no said her brother that is a very bad plan and one which i shall never adopt elsie will learn in time if she does not know it now that i never utter a threat which i do not intend to carry out and never break my word he had drawn a handkerchief from his pocket while speaking
i shall tie this hand up elsie he said proceeding to do so those who do not use their hands aright must be deprived of the use of them there let me see if that will keep it out of mischief i shall tie you up hand and foot before long if you continue such mischievous pranks
walter who was far more tender hearted than either his brother or sister felt touched by the sight of her distress and ran after her to say never mind elsie i am ever so sorry for you and i don't think you were the least bit naughty she thanked him with a grateful look
then hurried on to her room where she seated herself in a chair by the window and laying her arms upon the sill rested her head upon them and while the bitter tears fell fast from her eyes she murmured half aloud
then an earnest importunate prayer for help to do right and wisdom to understand how to gain her father's love went up from the almost despairing little heart to him whose ear is ever open unto the cry of his suffering children
and thus between weeping mourning and praying an hour passed slowly away and the tea bell rang elsie started up but sat down again feeling that she would much rather do without her supper
yes sir she answered in a low tremulous tone very well then remember that you are always to come down the moment the bell rings unless you are directed otherwise or are sick and the next time you are so late i shall send you away without your meal
i don't want any supper papa she said humbly hush he replied severely i will have no pouting or sulking you must just eat your supper and behave yourself
or i shall take you away from the table and if i do you will be very sorry
what is your hand tied up for elsie asked her grandfather have you been hurt elsie's face flushed painfully but she made no reply
papa tied it up
her father made a movement as if about to lead her from the table o papa don't she cried in terror i will be good let me have no more crying then said he this is shameful behavior for a girl eight years old
it would be bad enough in a child of enna's age he took out his handkerchief and wiped her eyes now said he begin to eat your supper at once and don't let me have to reprove you again elsie tried to obey but it seemed very difficult
maybe i could keep from crying then she sent up a silent prayer for help struggling hard to keep back the tears and sobs that were almost suffocating her and taking up her slice of bread tried to eat
asked the timid little voice as they rose from the table no he said taking her hand and leading her out to the veranda where he settled himself in an easy chair and lighted a cigar bring me that book that lies yonder on the settee he commanded she brought it
now said he bring that stool and set yourself down here close at my knee and let me see if i can keep you out of mischief for an hour or two may i get a book to read papa she asked timidly no said he shortly
she admired her father and loved him oh so dearly as she often whispered to herself but would she ever meet with anything like a return of her fond affection there was an aching void in her heart which nothing else could fill
must it always be thus was her craving for affection never to be satisfied o papa my own papa will you never love me mourned the sad little heart ah if i could only be good always perhaps he would
and then it is all over oh i wish i could be good i will try very very hard ah if i might climb on his knee now and lay my head on his breast and put my arms round his neck and tell him how sorry i am that i have been naughty
and made him lose his bird and how much oh how much i love him but i know i never could tell him that i don't know how to express it no words could i am sure and if he would forgive me and kiss me and call me his dear little daughter
papa there is a carriage coming up the avenue it must be visitors please please papa let me go to my room why he asked coolly looking up from his book why do you wish to go
because i don't want to see them papa she said hanging her head and blushing deeply i don't want them to see me you are not usually afraid of visitors he replied in the same cool tone but they will see that my hand is tied up
and they will ask what is the matter o papa do please do let me go quickly before they get here she pleaded in an agony of shame and haste no said he
if it were only to punish you for getting off the seat where i bade you stay without permission you will have to learn that i am to be obeyed at all times and under all circumstances sit down and don't dare to move again until i give you leave elsie sat down without another word
but two bitter scalding tears rolled quickly down her burning cheeks you needn't cry elsie said her father
and the relief was so great that for once she scarcely heeded her father's rebuke another half hour passed and mister dinsmore still sat reading taking no notice of elsie who afraid to speak or move was growing very weary and sleepy
she longed to lay her head on her father's knee but dared not venture to take such a liberty but at length she was so completely overpowered by sleep as to do so unconsciously the sound of his voice pronouncing her name aroused her
you are tired and sleepy said he if you would like to go to bed you may do so thank you papa she replied rising to her feet
he asked in a cold grave tone yes sir i will try to be a good girl always said the humble little voice then i will forgive you he replied taking the handkerchief off her hand still elsie lingered
she felt as if she could not go without some little token of forgiveness and love some slight caress he looked at her with an impatient well then in answer to her mute request
as far as i can remember it was very soon after this that i first began to have the pain in my hip which has ended in making me a cripple for life i hardly recollect more than one walk after our return under mister gray's escort from mister lathom's
indeed at the time i was not without suspicions which i never named that the beginning of all the mischief was a great jump i had taken from the top of one of the stiles on that very occasion well it is a long while ago and god disposes of us all
and i am not going to tire you out with telling you how i thought and felt and how when i saw what my life was to be i could hardly bring myself to be patient but rather wished to die at once
missus medlicott was great as a nurse and i am sure i can never be grateful enough to her memory for all her kindness but she was puzzled to know how to manage me in other ways i used to have long hard fits of crying
and thinking that i ought to go home and yet what could they do with me there and a hundred and fifty other anxious thoughts some of which i could tell to missus medlicott and others i could not her way of comforting me was hurrying away for some kind of tempting or strengthening food
there take it dear take it she would say
but i think she got puzzled at length at the non efficacy of good things to eat and one day after i had limped down to see the doctor in missus medlicott's sitting room a room lined with cupboards containing preserves and dainties of all kinds which she perpetually made and never touched herself
when i was returning to my bed room to cry away the afternoon under pretence of arranging my clothes john footman brought me a message from my lady with whom the doctor had been having a conversation to bid me go to her in that private sitting room at the end of the suite of apartments
about which i spoke in describing the day of my first arrival at hanbury i had hardly been in it since as when we read to my lady she generally sat in the small withdrawing room out of which this private room of hers opened
i mean privacy i do not think that there was a room which my lady occupied that had not two doors and some of them had three or four
and it was missus medlicott's duty to sit within call as it were in a sort of anteroom that led out of my lady's own sitting room on the opposite side to the drawing room door
beyond which lay the farm buildings and offices so that people could come in this way to my lady on business while if she were going into the garden from her own room she had nothing to do but to pass through missus medlicott's apartment out into the lesser hall
and then turning to the right as she passed on to the terrace she could go down the flight of broad shallow steps at the corner of the house into the lovely garden with stretching sweeping lawns and gay flower beds and beautiful bossy laurels and other blooming or massy shrubs
with full grown beeches or larches feathering down to the ground a little farther off the whole was set in a frame as it were by the more distant woodlands the house had been modernized in the days of queen anne i think
so it was only the suite of withdrawing rooms and the terrace rooms as far as the private entrance that had the new long high windows put in and these were old enough by this time to be draped with roses and honeysuckles and pyracanthus winter and summer long
well to go back to that day when i limped into my lady's sitting room trying hard to look as if i had not been crying and not to walk as if i was in much pain i do not know whether my lady saw how near my tears were to my eyes
but although i found one there a morning or two afterwards when i came down
i tried it one day some time afterwards when my lady was out of the room and i had a fancy for seeing how i could move about and very uncomfortable it was now my chair as i learnt to call it and to think it was soft and luxurious
and seemed somehow to give one's body rest just in that part where one most needed it i was not at my ease that first day nor indeed for many days afterwards notwithstanding my chair was so comfortable
yet i forgot my sad pain in silently wondering over the meaning of many of the things we turned out of those curious old drawers i was puzzled to know why some were kept at all a scrap of writing maybe with only half a dozen common place words written on it or a bit of broken riding whip
but it seems that was just my ignorance for my lady told me they were pieces of valuable marble used to make the floors of the great roman emperors palaces long ago
she had done so and meant to have had them made into a table but somehow that plan fell through
then in this bureau were many other things the value of which i could understand locks of hair carefully ticketed which my lady looked at very sadly and lockets and bracelets with miniatures in them very small pictures to what they make now a days and called miniatures
some of them had even to be looked at through a microscope before you could see the individual expression of the faces or how beautifully they were painted i don't think that looking at these made may lady seem so melancholy as the seeing and touching of the hair did
but to be sure the hair was as it were a part of some beloved body which she might never touch and caress again but which lay beneath the turf all faded and disfigured except perhaps the very hair from which the lock she held had been dissevered whereas the pictures were but pictures after all
likenesses but not the very things themselves this is only my own conjecture mind my lady rarely spoke out her feelings for to begin with she was of rank and i have heard her say that people of rank do not talk about their feelings except to their equals
thirdly she had long been a widow without any companion of her own age with whom it would have been natural for her to refer to old associations past pleasures or mutual sorrows missus medlicott came nearest to her as a companion of this sort
and her ladyship talked more to missus medlicott in a kind of familiar way than she did to all the rest of the household put together but missus medlicott was silent by nature and did not reply at any great length adams indeed was the only one who spoke much to lady ludlow
after we had worked away about an hour at the bureau her ladyship said we had done enough for one day and as the time was come for her afternoon ride she left me with a volume of engravings from mister hogarth's pictures on one side of me
i don't like to write down the names of them though my lady thought nothing of it i am sure and upon a stand her great prayer book open at the evening psalms for the day on the other but as soon as she was gone i troubled myself little with either but amused myself with looking round the room at my leisure
and up and down the ceiling as well there was very little looking glass in the room though one of the great drawing rooms was called the mirror room because it was lined with glass which my lady's great grandfather had brought from venice when he was ambassador there
there were china jars of all shapes and sizes round and about the room and some china monsters or idols of which i could never bear the sight they were so ugly though i think my lady valued them more than all
the room was full of scent partly from the flowers outside and partly from the great jars of pot pourri inside the choice of odours was what my lady piqued herself upon saying nothing showed birth like a keen susceptibility of smell
we never named musk in her presence her antipathy to it was so well understood through the household her opinion on the subject was believed to be that no scent derived from an animal could ever be of a sufficiently pure nature to give pleasure to any person of good family
where of course the delicate perception of the senses had been cultivated for generations
no more were bergamot or southern wood although vegetable in their nature she considered these two latter as betraying a vulgar taste in the person who chose to gather or wear them she was sorry to notice sprigs of them in the button hole of any young man in whom she took an interest
as he came out of church on a sunday afternoon
but she distinguished between vulgar and common violets pinks and sweetbriar were common enough roses and mignionette for those who had gardens honeysuckle for those who walked along the bowery lanes but wearing them betrayed no vulgarity of taste
a beau pot as we called it of pinks and roses freshly gathered was placed every morning that they were in bloom on my lady's own particular table
sweet woodroof again grew in wild woodland places where the soil was fine and the air delicate the poor children used to go and gather it for her up in the woods on the higher lands and for this service she always rewarded them with bright new pennies of which my lord her son
but the great hereditary faculty on which my lady piqued herself and with reason for i never met with any person who possessed it was the power she had of perceiving the delicious odour arising from a bed of strawberries in the late autumn when the leaves were all fading and dying
bacon's essays was one of the few books that lay about in my lady's room and if you took it up and opened it carelessly it was sure to fall apart at his essay on gardens listen her ladyship would say to what that great philosopher and statesman says
of which you remember the great bush at the corner of the south wall just by the blue drawing room windows that is the old musk rose shakespeare's musk rose which is dying out through the kingdom now but to return to my lord bacon
and thought that it was in some ostentation of her own powers that she ordered the gardener to plant a border of strawberries on that side of the terrace that lay under her windows i have wandered away from time and place
sometimes sitting in the easy chair doing some little piece of dainty work for my lady
than as being my lord ludlow with half a dozen other minor titles with this wish of releasing her property from the mortgage skilful care was much needed in the management of it and as far as my lady could go she took every pains
she had a great book in which every page was ruled into three divisions on the first column was written the date and the name of the tenant who addressed any letter on business to her on the second was briefly stated the subject of the letter which generally contained a request of some kind
now in the second column of this book the grain of meaning was placed clean and dry before her ladyship every morning she sometimes would ask to see the original letter sometimes she simply answered the request by a yes or a no
with mister horner at her elbow to see if such petitions as to be allowed to plough up pasture fields were provided for in the terms of the original agreement on every thursday she made herself at liberty to see her tenants from four to six in the afternoon
mornings would have suited my lady better as far as convenience went and i believe the old custom had been to have these levees as her ladyship used to call them held before twelve but as she said to mister horner when he urged returning to the former hours
and my lady liked to see her tenants come in their sunday clothes she would not say a word maybe but she would take her spectacles slowly out and put them on with silent gravity and look at a dirty or raggedly dressed man so solemnly and earnestly
and resolve that however poor he might be
for my lady said though there were not many hours left of a working man's day when their business with her was ended
at any rate no more liquor was given them the tenants one and all called her madam for they recognized in her the married heiress of the hanburys not the widow of a lord ludlow of whom they and their forefathers knew nothing
i am sure for you can understand i was behind the scenes as it were and had many an opportunity of seeing and hearing as i lay or sat motionless in my lady's room with the double doors open between it and the anteroom beyond
and some time or other he had probably spoken his mind out to my lady
while every now and then there was an implied protest whenever the payments of the interest became due or whenever my lady stinted herself of any personal expense such as mister horner thought was only decorous and becoming in the heiress of the hanburys
and my lady would have lived on bread and water sooner than have called upon him to help her in paying off the mortgage although he was the one who was to benefit by it in the end mister horner was a very faithful steward and very respectful to my lady
perhaps because she knew that although he never said anything he disapproved of the hanburys being made to pay for the earl ludlow's estates and state the late lord had been a sailor and had been as extravagant in his habits as most sailors are i am told for i never saw the sea
and yet he had a long sight to his own interests but whatever he was my lady loved him and his memory with about as fond and proud a love as ever wife gave husband i should think
though his new fangled notions were what folk at the present day would think sadly behindhand and some of mister gray's ideas fell on mister horner's mind like sparks on tow though they started from two different points
and therefore he fell into the new cry for education mister gray did not care much mister horner thought not enough for this world and where any man or family stood in their earthly position
and capable of understanding and receiving certain doctrines for which latter purpose it stands to reason he must have heard of these doctrines and therefore mister gray wanted education the answer in the catechism that mister horner was most fond of calling upon a child to repeat was that to
what is thy duty towards thy neighbour the answer mister gray liked best to hear repeated with unction was that to the question what is the inward and spiritual grace
what is thy duty towards god but neither mister horner nor mister gray had heard many answers to the catechism as yet up to this time there was no sunday school in hanbury mister gray's desires were bounded by that object
from the beating of his heart up to the roll of the heavy carts in the distance he wondered whether virginie would have reached the place of rendezvous and yet he was unable to compute the passage of minutes his mother slept soundly that was well
by this time virginie must have met the faithful cousin if indeed morin had not made his appearance at length he felt as if he could no longer sit still awaiting the issue but must run out and see what course events had taken
in vain his mother half rousing herself called after him to ask whither he was going he was already out of hearing before she had ended her sentence and he ran on until stopped by the sight of mademoiselle cannes walking along at so swift a pace that it was almost a run
pierre had just turned the corner of the street when he came upon them
pierre felt her tremble from head to foot and was afraid lest she would fall there where she stood in the hard rough street begone pierre said morin i cannot replied pierre who indeed was held firmly by virginie besides i won't he added
she came upon a crowd attracted by the arrest of an aristocrat and their cries alarmed her i offered to take charge of her home mademoiselle should not walk in these streets alone we are not like the cold blooded people of the faubourg saint germain virginie did not speak
will mademoiselle condescend to take my arm said morin with sulky and yet humble uncouthness
but though she still kept silence she shuddered up away from him as you shrink from touching a toad he had said something to her during that walk you may be sure which had made her loathe him he marked and understood the gesture
he held himself aloof while pierre gave her all the assistance he could in their slow progress homewards but morin accompanied her all the same he had played too desperate a game to be baulked now
so swiftly were terrible deeds done in those days but clement defended himself desperately virginie was punctual to a second and though the wounded man was borne off to the abbaye amid a crowd of the unsympathising jeerers who mingled with the armed officials of the directory
at any rate pierre saw that his cousin was deeply mortified by the whole tenor of his behaviour during their walk home when they arrived at madame babette's virginie fell fainting on the floor her strength had but just sufficed for this exertion of reaching the shelter of the house
her first sign of restoring consciousness consisted in avoidance of morin he had been most assiduous in his efforts to bring her round quite tender in his way pierre said and this marked instinctive repugnance to him evidently gave him extreme pain
i suppose frenchmen are more demonstrative than we are for pierre declared that he saw his cousin's eyes fill with tears
or as she shut her eyes when he passed before her madame babette was urgent with her to go and lie down on the bed in the inner room but it was some time before she was strong enough to rise and do this when madame babette returned from arranging the girl comfortably the three relations sat down in silence
a silence which pierre thought would never be broken he wanted his mother to ask his cousin what had happened but madame babette was afraid of her nephew and thought it more discreet to wait for such crumbs of intelligence as he might think fit to throw to her
but after she had twice reported virginie to be asleep without a word being uttered in reply to her whispers by either of her companions morin's powers of self containment gave way it is hard he said
it came upon me before i was aware before i had ever thought about it at all i loved her better than all the world beside all my life before i knew her seems a dull blank i neither know nor care for what i did before then and now there are just two lives before me
hush victor said she there are other women in the world if this one will not have you none other for me he said sinking back as if hopeless i am plain and coarse not one of the scented darlings of the aristocrats say that i am ugly brutish
not i as strong as my love is so strong is my will it can be no stronger continued he gloomily aunt babette you must help me you must make her love me he was so fierce here that pierre said he did not wonder that his mother was frightened
or to such as they and i'll do it and welcome but to mademoiselle de crequy why you don't know the difference those people the old nobility i mean why they don't know a man from a dog out of their own rank
but the latter will be but a short career for both of us you said aunt that the talk went in the conciergerie of her father's hotel that she would have nothing to do with this cousin whom i put out of the way to day so the servants said how could i know
all i know is that he left off coming to our hotel and that at one time before then he had never been two days absent so much the better for him he suffers now for having come between me and my object in trying to snatch her away out of my sight take you warning pierre
i did not like your meddling to night and so he went off leaving madam babette rocking herself backwards and forwards in all the depression of spirits consequent upon the reaction after the brandy and upon her knowledge of her nephew's threatened purpose combined
and it was some time before either she or pierre or morin could get the slightest clue to the missing girl and now i must take up the story as it was told to the intendant flechier by the old gardener jacques with whom clement had been lodging on his first arrival in paris
the old man could not i dare say remember half as much of what had happened as pierre did the former had the dulled memory of age while pierre had evidently thought over the whole series of events as a story as a play if one may call it so during the solitary hours in his after life
wherever they were passed whether in lonely camp watches or in the foreign prison where he had to drag out many years clement had as i said returned to the gardener's garret after he had been dismissed from the hotel duguesclin
there were several reasons for his thus doubling back one was that he put nearly the whole breadth of paris between him and an enemy though why morin was an enemy and to what extent he carried his dislike or hatred clement could not tell of course
it was through jacques that the plan of communication by means of a nosegay of pinks had been devised and it was jacques who procured him the last disguise that clement was to use in paris as he hoped and trusted
jacques following at a little distance with a bundle under his arm containing articles of feminine disguise for virginie saw four men attempt clement's arrest
saw his agile figure spring to his guard and saw him defend himself with the rapidity and art of a man skilled in arms but what good did it do as jacques piteously used to ask monsieur flechier told me
a great blow from a heavy club on the sword arm of monsieur de crequy laid it helpless and immovable by his side jacques always thought that that blow came from one of the spectators who by this time had collected round the scene of the affray
the next instant his master his little marquis was down among the feet of the crowd and though he was up again before he had received much damage so active and light was my poor clement it was not before the old gardener had hobbled forwards and with many an old fashioned oath and curse
proclaimed himself a partisan of the losing side
aristocrat it was quite enough he received one or two good blows which were in fact aimed at his master and then almost before he was aware he found his arms pinioned behind him with a woman's garter which one of the viragos in the crowd had made no scruple of pulling off in public
poor jacques was stunned and unhappy his master was out of sight on before and the old gardener scarce knew whither they were taking him
the starling whose nest clement sent to urian you remember and discussing the merits of different espalier pears which grew and may grow still in the old garden of the hotel de crequy towards morning both fell asleep the old man wakened first
his frame was deadened to suffering i suppose for he felt relieved of his pain but clement moaned and cried in feverish slumber his broken arm was beginning to inflame his blood he was besides much injured by some kicks from the crowd as he fell
contorted with suffering even in his sleep clement gave a sharp cry which disturbed his miserable neighbours all slumbering around in uneasy attitudes
and then turning round tried again to forget their own misery in sleep
had not been sated with guillotining and hanging all the nobility they could find but were now informing right and left even against each other and when clement and jacques were in the prison there were few of gentle blood in the place and fewer still of gentle manners
the motion aroused clement and he began to talk in a strange feverish way
in case poor clement he knew it must come to that no escape for him now in norman disguise or otherwise either by gathering fever or guillotine death was sure of his prey well when that happened jacques was to go and find mademoiselle de crequy
and tell her that her cousin loved her at the last as he had loved her at the first but that she should never have heard another word of his attachment from his living lips that he knew he was not good enough for her his queen and that no thought of earning her love by his devotion had prompted his return to france
only that if possible he might have the great privilege of serving her whom he loved and then he went off into rambling talk about petit maitres and such kind of expressions said jacques to flechier the intendant
little knowing what a clue that one word gave to much of the poor lad's suffering the summer morning came slowly on in that dark prison and when jacques could look round his master was now sleeping on his shoulder still the uneasy starting sleep of fever he saw that there were many women among the prisoners
i have heard some of those who have escaped from the prisons say that the look of despair and agony that came into the faces of the prisoners on first wakening as the sense of their situation grew upon them was what lasted the longest in the memory of the survivors
this look they said passed away from the women's faces sooner than it did from those of the men poor old jacques kept falling asleep and plucking himself up again for fear lest if he did not attend to his master some harm might come to the swollen helpless arm
yet his weariness grew upon him in spite of all his efforts and at last he felt as if he must give way to the irresistible desire if only for five minutes but just then there was a bustle at the door jacques opened his eyes wide to look
all this time a parley was going on at the door
the door was shut to and locked behind her she only advanced a step or two for it was too sudden a change out of the light into that dark shadow for any one to see clearly for the first few minutes jacques had his eyes fairly open now and was wide awake
he whispered as her gown would have touched him in passing without her perceiving him in the heavy obscurity of the place the good god bless you my friend she murmured
as if the young man had been a helpless baby while one of the poor gardener's hands supported the broken limb in the easiest position virginie sat down by the old man and held out her arms softly she moved clement's head to her own shoulder
softly she transferred the task of holding the arm to herself clement lay on the floor but she supported him and jacques was at liberty to arise and stretch and shake his stiff weary old body he then sat down at a little distance and watched the pair until he fell asleep
as they half roused him by their movements out of his stupor but jacques thought he was only dreaming nor did he seem fully awake when once his eyes opened and he looked full at virginie's face bending over him and growing crimson under his gaze though she never stirred for fear of hurting him if she moved
clement looked in silence until his heavy eyelids came slowly down and he fell into his oppressive slumber again either he did not recognize her or she came in too completely as a part of his sleeping visions for him to be disturbed by her appearance there
he must have slept soundly he looked for his master he and virginie had recognized each other now hearts as well as appearance they were smiling into each other's faces as if that dull vaulted room in the grim abbaye were the sunny gardens of versailles with music and festivity all abroad
jacques felt more desponding by far than they did
holding out both hands and refusing to allow him to rise while she thanked him with pretty eagerness for all his kindness to monsieur monsieur himself came towards him following virginie but with tottering steps as if his head was weak and dizzy to thank the poor old man who now on his feet stood between them
for loyalty was like an instinct in the good old days before your educational cant had come up and so two days went on
but by and by so said jacques the conversation or amusements began again human nature cannot stand the perpetual pressure of such keen anxiety without an effort to relieve itself by thinking of something else
were for ever talking together of the past days it was do you remember this or do you remember that perpetually he sometimes thought they forgot where they were and what was before them
and the latter stayed a few minutes talking with his visitor before leaving him in prison
as the pair sat at breakfast the said breakfast being laid as well as jacques knew how on a bench fastened into the prison wall virginie sitting on her low stool and clement half lying on the ground by her side and submitting gladly to be fed by her pretty white fingers
all three prisoners looked round at the sound clement's face expressed little but scornful indifference
to that in which the stranger stood still motionless still watching he came a step nearer at last mademoiselle he said not the quivering of an eyelash showed that she heard him
mademoiselle he said again with an intensity of beseeching that made jacques not knowing who he was almost pity him when he saw his young lady's obdurate face
then again the voice hesitatingly saying monsieur clement could not hold the same icy countenance as virginie he turned his head with an impatient gesture of disgust but even that emboldened the man monsieur do ask mademoiselle to listen to me
just two words mademoiselle de crequy only listens to whom she chooses very haughtily my clement would say that i am sure but mademoiselle lowering his voice and coming a step or two nearer virginie must have felt his approach though she did not see it
but to morrow your name is down on the list i can save you if you will listen still no word or sign
hist said the stranger you are jacques the gardener arrested for assisting an aristocrat
you shall escape if you will only take this message from me to mademoiselle you heard she will not listen to me i did not want her to come here i never knew she was here and she will die to morrow they will put her beautiful round throat under the guillotine
tell her good old man tell her how sweet life is and how i can save her and how i will not ask for more than just to see her from time to time she is so young and death is annihilation you know why does she hate me so i want to save her i have done her no harm
good old man tell her how terrible death is and that she will die to morrow unless she listens to me jacques saw no harm in repeating this message clement listened in silence watching virginie with an air of infinite tenderness will you not try him my cherished one he said
towards you he may mean well which makes me think that virginie had never repeated to clement the conversation which she had overheard that last night at madame babette's you would be in no worse a situation than you were before no worse clement and i should have known what you were and have lost you
my clement said she reproachfully ask him said she turning to jacques suddenly if he can save monsieur de crequy as well if he can o clement we might escape to england we are but young and she hid her face on his shoulder
jacques returned to the stranger and asked him virginie's question his eyes were fixed on the cousins he was very pale and the twitchings or contortions which must have been involuntary whenever he was agitated convulsed his whole body he made a long pause
your wife jacques could not help exclaiming that she will never be never ask her said morin hoarsely
begone said he not one word more virginie touched the old man as he was moving away tell him he does not know how he makes me welcome death and smiling as if triumphant she turned again to clement
listen i have influence with the gaoler he shall let thee pass out with the victims to morrow no one will notice it or miss thee
speak to her as the time draws on life is very sweet tell her how sweet speak to him he will do more with her than thou canst let him urge her to live
by remaining in prison until the next day he should have rendered every service in his power to his master and the young lady
and to bring him word if mademoiselle de crequy relented jacques had no expectation that she would
this bargaining with so base a man for so slight a thing as life was the only flaw that i heard of in the old gardener's behaviour of course the mere reopening of the subject was enough to stir virginie to displeasure
at the fatal call of the muster roll of victims the next morning he feeble from his wounds and his injured health she calm and serene only petitioning to be allowed to walk next to him in order that she might hold him up when he turned faint and giddy from his extreme suffering
together they stood at the bar together they were condemned
and now he followed them to the place de la greve he saw them mount the platform saw them kneel down together till plucked up by the impatient officials could see that she was urging some request to the executioner the end of which seemed to be that clement advanced first to the guillotine
was executed and just at this moment there was a stir among the crowd as of a man pressing forward towards the scaffold then she standing with her face to the guillotine slowly made the sign of the cross and knelt down jacques covered his eyes blinded with tears
chapter nine the exposure the next morning at twelve o'clock i took a taxi cab round to banton street the hall porter who was beginning to know me well seemed a little surprised at my appearance
went off this morning he continued two taxi cabs full of luggage aren't they coming back no signs of it did they leave any address none are you sure i persisted
please ask at the office the porter left me for a moment but returned shaking his head mister parker said there would be no messages or letters and accordingly he left no address i turned slowly away
the hall porter followed me he was drawing something from his waistcoat pocket i wouldn't do a thing he declared to get mister parker into any trouble for a nicer freer handed gentleman never came inside the hotel
but i don't know as there's much harm in showing you this being as you're a friend i picked it up in the sitting room after they'd gone he held out a cablegram before i realized what i was doing i had read it
only in the hope that i might find there a note or a message there was nothing however just as i was starting to go out the telephone bell rang i took up the receiver it was eve's voice is that mister walmsley
it is i admitted how are you eve quite well thank you still in london certainly would you like to come and have tea with me rather i replied enthusiastically
where are you hiding that's all right i replied i shan't give it away where shall i find you well she said we talked it over and decided that the best hiding place was one of the larger hotels
we are at the ritz i'll come right along if i may very well she agreed ask for mister bundercombe i groaned under my breath but i made no further comment and in a very few minutes i
presented myself at the ritz hotel i was escorted upstairs and ushered into a very delightful suite on the second floor eve rose to meet me from behind a little tea table she was charmingly dressed and looking exceedingly well
who was walking up and down the apartment with his hands behind his back was distinctly nervous he nodded at my entrance how are you walmsley he said how are you i am quite well sir thank you
i replied a little stupefied say i'm afraid we are making a great mistake here he went on anxiously we've slipped a point too near to the wind this time
if you'll allow me to tell you exactly what i think i ventured frankly i think you have made a mistake there's that matter of reggie sidley he was worrying me all yesterday morning to find out where you were
and when i evaded the point he told me straight that he didn't believe you were the bundercombes at all he is always in and out of this place and if he sees your name on the register or his mother lady enterdean sees it
it seems to me it's about all up a piece of bravado i must admit mister parker muttered a piece of absolute bravado but there's the young woman who's responsible he added shaking his fist at eve
but it was eve's idea that we put up this little piece of bluff now i'm all for paris he went on insinuatingly at that precise moment i felt that there was nothing i wanted so much as to get eve away from the ritz
and i fell in with the scheme we'll all go i suggested i haven't had a week in paris for a long time eve handed me my tea don't count me in she begged i never felt less inclined to move from anywhere
if being eve bundercombe means living at the ritz i think i'd rather go on the life of an adventuress is after all just a little strenuous and i am tired of living on the thin edge of nothing
perhaps before you know where you are mister bundercombe remarked gloomily you'll be living on the thin edge of a little less than nothing there was a knock at the door we all looked at one another
a magnificent person with powdered hair breeches and silk stockings presented himself lord reginald sidley he announced in walked reggie
paused for one second to shake his fist at me and advanced toward eve with both hands outstretched at last i have found you then he exclaimed miss bundercombe well i am glad to see you
hello reggie she answered sweetly what a time you've been looking us up he was taken aback well i like that he gasped and how are you mister bundercombe
glad to see you mister bundercombe replied cheerlessly the meeting had taken place and i seemed to be the only person in the room who was suffering from any sort of shock reggie was still holding one of eve's hands and was almost incoherent
come i like that i like that he exclaimed a long time looking you up indeed why didn't you let me know you were here there hasn't been a line from you or from your father we couldn't believe it when we heard that you had been at the dinner the other evening
i was never so disappointed in my life i gripped mister bundercombe by the arm and led him firmly to one side look here i said is your name bundercombe it is he admitted gloomily
multi he groaned then what the blazes what the i stopped short once more the door was opened this time without the formality of a knock
if mister bundercombe had seemed anxious and depressed before it was obvious now that the worst had happened all the cheerful life seemed to have faded from his good humored face he had literally collapsed in his clothes
even eve gave a little shriek upon the threshold stood mister cullen and by his side a lady who might have been anywhere between fifty and sixty years old
she was dressed in a particularly unattractive checked traveling suit with a little satchel suspended from a shiny black leather band round her waist
which she had pushed on one side hung nearly to the floor her complexion was very yellow she had a square jaw and through her spectacles her eyes glittered in a most unpleasant fashion her greeting was scarcely
conciliatory so i've got you at last have i say this is a pretty chase you've led me do you know i've had to desert my post as president of the great amalgamated meeting of the free women of the west to come and look after you two
do you know that three thousand women had to listen to a substitute last thursday and after i'd spent two months getting my facts for them do you know that you're the laughing stock of okata
no one asked you to come mother eve remarked with a sigh asked me to come indeed the newcomer retorted look at you both i've heard all about your doings this gentleman by my side has told me a few things
but say is there anywhere on the face of this earth such a miserable addle headed lunatic as that man whom it's my misfortune to call my husband she shook her fist at mister bundercombe who seemed to have become still smaller
then she looked at me and at reggie who was standing with his mouth wide open she fixed upon us as her audience look at him she went on stretching out her hands there's a respectable american for you
for thirty years he works as a man should for it's what a man's made for and thanks to his wife's help and advice he prospers look at him i ask you a baby can see that he hasn't the brains of a chicken yet there he stands
with eight million dollars worth of stock to his name i saw reggie's eyes go up to the ceiling and i knew he was dividing eight million dollars by five an expression almost of reverence passed into his face as he achieved the result
we none of us felt the slightest inclination to interrupt
then she coughed the short dry cough of the professional speaker and continued wouldn't you believe that was success enough for any reasonable mortal wouldn't you say that with a wife holding an honored and great position in the state
not he first of all he wants to travel what does he do then but take up what he calls a hobby he buys and gloats over every silly detective story that was ever written
practises disguises and making himself up as he calls it takes lessons in conjuring haunts the police courts consorts with criminals in short behaves like a great overgrown child in his own native city
from the feminine standpoint realizes everything that stands for freedom and greatness the time came when it was necessary for me to put down my foot once and for all i called him to me joseph henry bundercombe i said
there shall be he promised the next day he and eve my misguided stepdaughter were on their way to europe and i am credibly informed they cheated a commercial traveler at cards on the way to new york that i find him at liberty now
it seems to me is entirely owing to the clemency and kindness of this gentleman who recognized my description at scotland yard and brought me here say all i'm prepared to admit about that is that it was somehow fortunate
mister bundercombe remarked with a sudden revival of his old self that it fell to my lot to have mister cullen investigate some of my small adventures mister bundercombe said cullen severely
i think you will do well to listen to your wife and to take her advice there are one or two of these little affairs you must remember that are not entirely closed yet mister bundercombe sighed he adopted an attitude of resignation
well cullen he replied if my career of crime is really to come to an end i don't want to bear you any ill will we'll just take a stroll downstairs and talk about it missus bundercombe with a quick movement to the left blocked the way
that means a visit to the bar she declared i know you mister bundercombe you'll stay right here and listen to a little more of what i've got to say who this gentleman may be i don't at present know she went on turning suddenly upon me
but i am agreeable to listen to his name if any one has the manners to mention it walmsley madam i told her quickly paul walmsley i have the honor to be engaged to marry your stepdaughter
missus bundercombe looked at me in stony silence twice she opened her lips and i am quite sure that if words had come they would have been unkind ones twice apparently however her command of language seemed inadequate
dear me dear me i hadn't heard of this mister bundercombe remarked with interest you and i will go downstairs and have a little chat about it mister walmsley he made another strategic movement toward the door
which was promptly and effectually frustrated by his wife no you don't missus bundercombe prohibited i've a good deal more to say yet i haven't been dragged over the ocean three thousand miles to have you all slip away directly i arrive
a nice state of things indeed my husband joseph h bundercombe a suspect at scotland yard followed everywhere by detectives and my daughter stepdaughter please eve interrupted
stepdaughter then talking about marrying a man she's probably known about twenty four hours and met at a bar or in a thieves kitchen or something of the sort if you must marry an englishman she continued with rising voice why don't you marry lord reginald sidley there
his father is an earl anyway his uncle's one reggie put in gloomily jerking his head toward me old walmsley's all right eve patted his hand good boy she said you know i never encouraged you
did i reggie encouraged me he protested i think on the whole you said the rudest things to me i ever heard in my life from a girl anyway
i imagine he added taking up his hat that it's up to me to leave this little domestic gathering i'll see you out mister bundercombe declared with alacrity missus bundercombe with her eyes steadily fixed upon her husband
i think i suggested a little taxi drive your mother and father no doubt have a great deal to say to one another and you can receive your little lecture later eve assented at once
and missus bundercombe for some reason or other only entered a faint protest against our departure it was about five o'clock in the afternoon and the streets were crowded with every description of vehicle the sun was still warm
there was a faint pink light in the sky a perfume of lilac in the air from the window boxes and flower barrows i took eve's fingers in mine and held them i think she knew that something in the nature of an inquisition was coming
for she sat very demure her eyes fixed on the road ahead eve i asked how about missus samuelson's jewels they were returned to her from a repentant criminal eve murmured
and the forged banknotes made by the young man in the adelphi they were all destroyed as fast as father could buy them she explained he has found the boy a post now with some printer in america
and the two thousand pounds at the gaming club that first night daddy made it three and sent it to a hospital he thought it would do them more good you know you're a shocking pair i said severely
paul she sighed you never can know how dull it was at okata i'm jolly glad it was i told her it gives me a better chance doesn't it and we'll give daddy a good time whenever we can she pleaded
always i promised he's one of the best he's so clever too clever without a doubt i admitted only i think perhaps we might get him to use his talents in a more orthodox way
by the by i added putting my head out of the window i think it's getting a little chilly i ordered the taxi closed and we returned to the hotel the hall porter drew me on one side confidentially
i read the particulars breathlessly daring burglary in hampstead lady loses two thousand pounds worth of jewelry the burglary had taken place at the house of a mister and missus samuelson in wood grove hampstead
which had engaged the attention of the whole of the staff of four servants and that for an hour or so
the paragraph even concluded without the usual formula as to the police having a clew on the whole i put the paper down with a slight feeling of relief i felt that it might have been worse
i breakfasted at nine o'clock after having read the announcement through again trying to see whether there was any possible connection between it and my friends then i lit a pipe
and sat down to wait until i could ring up thirty seven seventy one a gerrard about ten o'clock however my own telephone bell rang and i was informed that a gentleman who desired to see me was waiting below
i told the man to send him up and in a moment or two there was a knock at my door in response to my invitation to enter a short dark jewish looking person with olive complexion
shiny black hair and black mustache presented himself he carried a very immaculate silk hat and was dressed with great neatness he had the air however of a man who is suffering from some agitation
mister walmsley i believe he asked mister paul walmsley that is my name know you by hearsay quite well sir my visitor assured me with a flash of his white teeth
very glad to meet you indeed i have done business once or twice with your sister the countess of aynesley business in curios you know my place i dare say in saint james street my name is samuelson
i could scarcely repress a little start which he was quick to notice perhaps you've been reading about that affair at my house last night he asked that is precisely what i have been doing i admitted please sit down mister samuelson
i wheeled an easy chair up for him and placed a box of cigarettes at his elbow quite a mysterious affair i continued
any clew at all i asked rather hard to say mister samuelson replied you'll be wondering what i've come to see you about well i'll just explain of course there's always the chance that some one may have entered the house while we were all at dinner
crept upstairs quietly and got away with the jewel case but this johnny i was telling you about from scotland yard seems to have got hold of a theory that has rather knocked me of a heap very delicate matter mister samuelson continued
seems a little far fetched to me i remarked but one never knows you see mister samuelson explained there's no back exit from my house without climbing walls and that sort of thing
and it happened to be a particularly light evening as you may remember there are policemen at both ends of the road who seem unusually confident that no one carrying a parcel of any sort passed at anything like the time when the thing was probably done
this is where the johnny from scotland yard comes in he has got the idea into his head that the jewels might have been taken away in the carriage of one of my guests well i remarked
only two mister samuelson replied we were ten altogether he went on counting upon his fingers and a very nice little party too first of all my wife and myself then mister and missus max solomon
solomon the great fruiterers in covent garden you know man worth a quarter of a million of money and a distant connection of my wife very distant worse luck then there was mister sidney hollingworth a young man in my office
but he doesn't count because he stayed on chatting with me about business after the others had gone and he was with us when the theft was discovered then there was my wife's widowed sister missus rosenthal we can leave her out
that's six then there was alderman sir henry dabbs and his wife you may know the name
and certain to be lord mayor before long his wife was wearing jewelry herself last night worth i should say from twenty to twenty five thousand pounds so my wife's little bit wouldn't do them much good eh it certainly doesn't seem like it i admitted
so far your list of guests seems to have been entirely reputable the only two left mister samuelson concluded are an american gentleman and his daughter a mister and miss parker whom we met on the train coming up from brighton
a very delightful gentleman and most popular he was with all of us the young lady too was perfectly charming to hear him talk i should have put him down myself as a man worth all the money he needed and more
real style i should have said both of them still
that it waited for them and that this detective from scotland yard mister cullen i think his name is has fairly got his knife into them and now i remarked smiling you are perhaps coming to the object of your visit to me
exactly mister samuelson admitted the fact of it is that in the course of conversation your name was mentioned i forget exactly how it cropped up but it did crop up
at any rate he claims it now if his claim is a just one and if you can tell me mister parker is a friend of yours why that ends the matter so far as i am concerned
i thank goodness i can afford to lose them if they must be lost and i can replace them this afternoon without feeling it now you know where we are mister walmsley
i pressed another cigarette upon him and lit one myself i do understand mister samuelson i told him and i appreciate your visit very much indeed i am exceedingly glad you came
he is a gentleman for whom i have the utmost respect and esteem i consider his daughter too one of the most charming young ladies i have ever met i am planning to give a dinner party within the course of the next few evenings
and i am hoping that almost immediately afterward they will be staying with my sister at her place down in suffolk with the countess of aynesley mister samuelson said slowly certainly i agreed
i am quite sure my sister will be as charmed with them as i and many other of my friends are mister samuelson rose to his feet brushed the cigarette ash from his trousers and took up his hat
mister walmsley he said holding out his hand i am glad i came
i can assure you i appreciate it not under any circumstances would i allow friends of yours to be irritated by the indiscriminate inquiries of detectives the jewels can go hang sir
he shook hands with me and permitted me to show him out
determined to have me understand that a trifling loss of two thousand pounds worth of jewelry was in reality nothing i stood for some time with my back to the fire smoking thoughtfully then the telephone bell rang
my gloomier reflections were at once forgotten it was eve who spoke good morning mister walmsley good morning miss eve i replied are you very busy this morning she asked
nothing in the world to do i answered promptly then please come round she directed ringing off almost at once i was there in ten minutes the hall porter who had not yet completed his morning toilet
conducted me upstairs in the morning sunlight the whole appearance of the place seemed shabbier and dirtier than ever inside the sitting room however everything was different my own flowers had apparently been supplemented by many others mister parker
as pink and white as usual looking the very picture of content and good digestion was smoking a large cigar and reading a newspaper eve was seated at the writing table
but she swung round at my entrance and held out both her hands the flowers are lovely she murmured
i shook hands with mister parker he laid down the newspaper and smiled at me a pleasant dinner last night i trust i inquired his eyes twinkled most humorous affair he declared
i wouldn't have missed it for worlds from a business point of view i began dryly mister parker shook his head mister samuelson's jewels he complained were like his wines all sparkle and outside
no body to them two thousand pounds indeed why we shall be lucky if we clear four hundred the man's coolness absolutely took me aback for a moment i simply stared at him
he'll be round to see you this morning sometime about my character mister parker proceeded he has already paid me a visit i said grimly he was round at ten o'clock this morning you don't say mister parker murmured he looked at me hopefully
i told him you were a close personal friend a sort of amateur millionaire a person of the highest respectability everything you ought to be in fact he went away perfectly satisfied and determined to have nothing to do with the guest theory
mister parker patted me on the shoulder my boy he said i knew i could rely on you i propose i continued elaborating upon the scheme that had come into my head on the way to do more than this for you
i am asking some friends to dine to night whom i wish you and your daughter to meet you will then be able to refer to other reputable acquaintances in london besides myself eve turned round in her chair to listen
mister parker whose first expression had been one of unfeigned delight suddenly paused my boy he expostulated i don't want to take advantage of you
you know what it means i know perfectly well i agreed but as some day or other i'm going to marry eve it seems to me the thing might as well be done they were both perfectly silent for several moments
they looked at each other there were questions in his face other things in hers i strolled across to the window if you'd like to talk it over i suggested don't mind me all the same i insist upon the party
it's uncommonly kind of you sure mister parker said thoughtfully
but do you know there's something about the proposition i can't quite cotton to seems to me you've some little scheme of your own at the back of your head you haven't got it in your mind have you that you're sort of putting us on our honor
i have no ulterior motive at all i declared mendaciously eve rose to her feet and came across to me she was wearing a charming morning gown of some light blue material with large buttons tight fitting
alluring and there was a little quiver of her lips a provocative gleam in her eyes which i found perfectly maddening i think we won't come thank you she decided why not
you see she explained i am rather afraid we might get you into no end of trouble with some of your most particular friends there are one or two people you know in london especially among the americans
i don't know what to do with him daddy she exclaimed turning toward her father in despair i'm afraid you'll have to marry him if he goes on mister parker declared gloomily
meantime i ventured we will dine at eight o'clock at the milan mister parker groaned at the milan he echoed worse and worse we shall be recognized for certain
there's a man lives there whom i did out of a hundred pounds just a little variation of the confidence trick nothing he can get hold of you understand but he knows very well that i had him look here walmsley be reasonable
hadn't you better drop this chivalrous scheme of yours young fellow the dinner is a fixture i replied firmly can i borrow miss eve please i want to take her for a motor ride
you cannot sir mister parker told me eve has a little business of her own or rather mine to attend to this morning you are not going to let her run any more risks are you mister parker frowned at me
look here young man he said she is my daughter remember i am looking after her for the present you leave that to me eve touched me on the arm really i am busy to day she assured me i have to do something for daddy this morning
something quite harmless and this afternoon i have to go to my dressmaker's we'll come at eight o'clock we'll come on this condition mister parker suddenly determined my name is getting a little too well known and it isn't my own anyway
why on earth bundercombe i demanded for the reason i have just stated mister parker said obstinately parker isn't my name at all and between you and me i think i have made it a bit notorious
now there is a mister bundercombe and his daughter who live out in a far western state of america who've never been out of their own country and who are never likely to set foot on this side she's a pretty little girl just like eve might be
and he's a big handsome fellow just like me
the dawn the clock of kylmington church which was as much behind any other public timekeeper i had ever encountered as the town of kylmington was behind any other town i had ever explored
struck eight as i opened the little wooden gate of the churchyard and went into the shade of an avenue of stunted sycamores which was supposed to be the chief glory of kylmington
it was twenty minutes past eight by london time and the summer sun had gone down leaving all the low western sky bathed in vivid yellow light which deepened into crimson as i watched it
i had taken some slight refreshment at the principal hotel a queer old fashioned place with a ruinous weedy appearance pervading it and the impress of incurable melancholy stamped on the face of every scrap of rickety furniture and lopsided window blind
i had taken some slight refreshment to this hour i don't know what it was i ate upon that balmy summer evening so entirely was my mind absorbed by that bright hope which was growing brighter and brighter every moment
i had been to the stationer's shop which still bore above its window the faded letters of the name jakins though the last of the jakinses had long left kylmington i had been to this shop and from a good natured but pensive matron
i had heard tidings that made my bright hope a still brighter certainty i began business by asking if there was any lady in kylmington who gave lessons in music and singing yes mister jakins's successor told me
there were two music mistresses in the town one was madame carinda who taught at grove house the fashionable ladies school the other was miss wilson whose terms were lower than madame carinda's
and who was much respected in the town
and being quite a picture of respectability with his venerable pious looking grey hair i gave a little start as i heard this miss wilson lived with her papa did she i asked yes the woman told me
oh he was dead then yes mister wilson had died in the previous december of a kind of decline fading away like almost unbeknown and being
oh so faithfully nursed and cared for by that blessed daughter of his and people did say that he had once been very wealthy and had lost his money in some speculation and the loss of it had preyed upon his mind and he had fallen into a settled melancholy like
and was never seen to smile the woman opened a drawer as she talked to me and after turning over some papers took out a card
a card on which there was written in the hand i knew so well an announcement that miss wilson of the hermitage would give instruction in music and singing for a guinea a quarter
i had been about to ask for a description of the young music mistress but i had no need to do so now miss wilson is the young lady i wish to see i said will you direct me to the hermitage i will call there early to morrow morning
the proprietress of jakins's who was i dare say something of a matchmaker after the manner of all good natured matrons smiled significantly i know where you could see miss wilson nearer than the hermitage she said and sooner than to morrow morning
she works very hard all day poor dear delicate looking young thing but every evening when it's tolerably fine she goes to the churchyard it's the only walk i've ever seen her take since her father's death
she goes past my window regular every night just about when i'm shutting up and from my door i can see her open the gate and go into the churchyard
there was no living creature except myself in the churchyard as i came out of the shadow of the trees on to the flat where the grass grew long among the unpretending headstones i looked at all the newest stones till i came at last to one standing in the obscurest corner of the churchyard
almost hidden by the low wall there was a very brief inscription on this modest headstone but it was enough to tell me whose ashes lay buried under the spot on which i stood to the memory of j w who died december nineteenth
eighteen fifty three lord have mercy upon me a sinner i was still looking at this brief memorial when i heard a woman's dress rustling upon the long rank grass and turning suddenly saw my darling coming towards me
very pale very pensive but with a kind of seraphic resignation upon her face which made her seem to me more beautiful than i had ever seen her before she started at seeing me but did not faint she only grew paler than she had been before
and pressed her two hands on her breast as if to still the sudden tumult of her heart i made her take my arm and lean upon it and we walked up and down the narrow path talking until the last low line of light faded out of the dusky sky
all that i could say to her was scarcely enough to shake her resolution to uproot her conviction that her father's guilt was an insurmountable barrier between us but when i told her of my broken life
when in the earnestness of my pleading she perceived the proof of a constancy that no time could shake i could see that she wavered
i will tell them that she is the noblest and dearest of women and that her history is a story of unparalleled virtue and devotion i sent a telegraphic message to my mother early the next morning
and in the afternoon the dear soul arrived at kylmington to embrace her future daughter we sat late in the little parlour of the hermitage a dreary cottage looking out on the flat shore half sand half mud and the low water lying in greenish pools
margaret told us of her father's penitence no repentance was ever more sincere clement she said for she seemed afraid we should doubt the possibility of penitence in such a criminal as joseph wilmot
my poor father my poor wronged unhappy father yes wronged clement you must not forget that you must never forget that in the first instance he was wronged and deeply wronged by the man who was murdered
when first we came here his mind brooded upon that and he seemed to look upon what he had done as an ignorant savage would look upon the vengeance which his heathenish creed had taught him to consider a justifiable act of retaliation
little by little i won my poor father away from such thoughts as these till by and by he grew to think of henry dunbar as he was when they were young men together
linked by a kind of friendship before the forging of the bills and all the trouble that followed he thought of his old master as he knew him first and his heart was softened towards the dead man's memory and from that time his penitence began
and gave him time to repent the end of the story the epilogue added by clement austin seven years afterwards
my wife and i hear sometimes through my old friend arthur lovell of the new master and mistress of maudesley abbey sir philip and lady jocelyn who oscillate between the rock and the abbey when they are in warwickshire
lady jocelyn is a beautiful woman frank generous noble hearted beloved by every creature within twenty miles radius of her home and idolized by her husband the sad history of her father's death has been softened by the hand of time
no prying eye would ever read in margaret's bright face the sad story of her early life a new existence has begun for her as wife and mother she has little time to think of that miserable past but i think that
sound protestant though she may be in every other article of faith amidst all her prayers those are not the least fervent which she offers up for the guilty soul of her wretched father we are very happy
the secret of my wife's history is hidden in our own breasts a dark chapter in the criminal romance of life never to be revealed upon earth the winchester murder is forgotten amongst the many other guilty mysteries which are never entirely solved
indeed there are people who go farther and say they have seen him in america my mother keeps house for us and in very nearly seven years experience we have never found any disunion to arise from this arrangement
the pretty clapham villa is gay with the sound of children's voices and the shrill carol of singing birds and the joyous barking of skye terriers we have added a nursery wing already to one side of the house and have balanced it on the other by a vinery
built after the model of those which adorn the mansion of my senior the misses balderby have taken what they call a great fancy to my wife and they swarm over our drawing room carpets in blue or pink flounces very often
on what they call social evenings for a little music i find that a little music is only a synonym with the misses balderby for a great deal of noise
as i run my fingers through the pages of the limp morocco covered volume i almost wonder at my wasted labour the random notes jotted down now and then sometimes with long intervals between their dates make such a mass of worthless literature
this diary keeping is a very foolish habit after all why do i keep this record of a most commonplace existence for my own edification and improvement
scarcely since i very rarely read these uninteresting entries and i very much doubt if posterity will care to know that i went to the office at ten o'clock on wednesday morning that i couldn't get a seat in the omnibus and was compelled to take a hansom which cost me two shillings
that i dined tete a tete with my mother and finished the third volume of carlyle's french revolution in the course of the evening is there any use in such a journal as mine will the celebrated new zealander that is to be discover the volumes amidst the ruins of clapham
and shall i be quoted as the pepys of the nineteenth century but then i am by no means as racy as that worldly minded little government clerk or perhaps it may be that the time in which i live
wants the spice and seasoning of that golden age of rascality in which my lady castlemain's white petticoats were to be seen flaunting in the wind by any frivolous minded lounger who chose to take notes about those garments after all it is a silly old fogeyish habit this of diary keeping
and i think the renowned pepys himself was only a bachelor spoiled just now however i have something more than cab drives lost omnibuses and the perusal of a favourite book to jot down inasmuch as my mother and myself have lately had all our accustomed habits
in a manner disorganized by the advent of a lady she is a very young lady being in point of fact still at a remote distance from an epoch to which she appears to look forward as a grand and enviable period of existence
she has not yet entered what she calls her teens and two years must elapse before she can enter them as she is only eleven years old she is the only daughter of my only sister marian lester and has been newly imported from sydney
where my sister marian and her husband have been settled for the last twelve years miss elizabeth lester became a member of our family upon the first of july and has since that time continued to make herself quite at home with my mother and myself
and non piu mesta brings me to another strange figure in the narrow circle of my acquaintance
and the sound of the melody brings before me the image of a sweet pale face and dove like brown eyes i never fully realized the number and extent of feminine requirements until a hack cab deposited my niece and her deal travelling cases at our hall door
miss elizabeth lester seemed to want everything that it was possible for the human mind to imagine or desire she had grown during the homeward voyage her frocks were too short
her boots were too small her bonnets tumbled off her head and hung forlornly at the back of her neck she wanted parasols and hair brushes frilled and furbelowed mysteries of muslin and lace copybooks penholders and pomatum
a backboard and a pair of gloves drawing pencils dumb bells geological specimens for the illustration of her studies and a hundred other items whose very names are as a strange language to my masculine comprehension
and last of all she wanted a musical governess
the little girl was supposed to be very tolerably advanced in her study of the piano and my sister was anxious that she should continue that study under the superintendence of a duly qualified instructress whose terms should be moderate
my sister marian underlined this last condition the buying and making of the new frocks and muslin furbelows seemed almost to absorb my mother's mind and she was fain to delegate to me the duty of finding a musical governess for miss lester
i began my task in the simplest possible way by consulting the daily newspapers where i found so many advertisements emanating from ladies who declared themselves proficients in the art of music
that i was confused and embarrassed by the wealth of my resources but i took the ladies singly and called upon them in the pleasant summer evenings after office hours sometimes with my mother sometimes alone
it may be that the seal of old bachelorhood is already set upon me and that i am that odious and hyper sensitive creature commonly called a fidget
one young lady declared that she was fonder of music than anything in the world some were a great deal too enthusiastic and were prepared to adore my little niece at a moment's notice
many who seemed otherwise eligible demanded a higher rate of remuneration than we were prepared to give so somehow or other the business languished and after the researches of a week
had our resources been reduced we should most likely have been much easier to please but my mother said that as there were so many people to be had we should do well to deliberate before we came to any decision
so it happened that when i went out for a walk one evening at the end of the second week in july miss lester was still without a governess
she was still without a governess but i was tired of catechizing the fair advertisers as to their qualifications and went out on this particular evening for a solitary ramble amongst the quiet surrey suburbs
it was a lovely evening
set my face towards the yellow light in the west and walked across wandsworth common
wandsworth common was as lonely this evening as a patch of sand in the centre of africa and being something of a day dreamer i liked the place because of its stillness and solitude something of a dreamer
i know what i thought of as i went home in the dim light of the newly risen moon the pale crescent that glimmered high in a cloudless heaven
i went into the little town of wandsworth the queer old fashioned high street the dear old street which seems to me like a town in a dutch picture where all the tints are of a sombre brown
yet in which there is nevertheless so much light and warmth the lights were beginning to twinkle here and there in the windows and upon this july evening there seemed to be flowers blooming in every casement
what could i have thought of that evening and how was it that i did not think the world blank and empty while i was looking idly in at one of those shop windows it was a fancy shop and stationer's a kind of bazaar in its humble way
my eye was attracted by the word music and on a little card hung in the window i read that a lady would be happy to give lessons on the piano forte at the residences of her pupils or at her own residence on very moderate terms
the word very was underscored i thought it had a pitiful look somehow that underscoring of the adverb
the inscription on the card was in a woman's hand and a very pretty hand elegant but not illegible firm and yet feminine i was in a very idle frame of mind ready to be driven by any chance wind
and i thought i might just as well turn my evening walk to some account by calling upon the proprietress of the card
any more than the other ladies i had seen but i should at least be able to return home with the consciousness of having made another effort to find an instructress for my niece
and was told to take the second turning on my right the second turning on my right took me into a kind of lane or by road where there were some old fashioned semi detached cottages sheltered by a row of sycamores and shut in by wooden palings
i opened the low gate before the third cottage and went into the garden a primly kept little garden with a grass plat and miniature gravel walks and with a grotto of shells and moss and craggy blocks of stone in a corner
i saw this almost immediately for the bright colour faded out of her face while i was speaking to her i have come to inquire for a lady who teaches music i said i saw a card just now in the high street and as i am searching for an instructress for my little niece
i took the opportunity of calling but i fear i have chosen an inconvenient time for my visit i scarcely know why i made this apology since i had omitted to apologize to the other ladies on whom i had ventured to intrude at abnormal hours
i fear that i was weak enough to feel bewildered by the pensive loveliness of the face at which i looked and that my confidence ebbed away under the influence of those grave hazel eyes
and when do i not think of her shall i describe her for the new zealander when the best description must fall so far below the bright reality and when the very act of reducing her beauty into hard commonplace words seems in some manner a sacrilege against the sanctity of that beauty
yes i will describe her not for the sake of the new zealander who may have new and extraordinary ideas as to female loveliness and may require a blue nose or pea green tresses in the lady he elects as the only type of beautiful womanhood
i will describe her because it is sweet to me to dwell upon her image and to translate that dear image no matter how poorly into words
were i a poet i should cover reams of paper with wild rhapsodies about her beauty being only a cashier in a bank i can do nothing but enshrine her in the commonplace pages of my diary i have said that she is pale
hers is that ivory pallor which sometimes accompanies hazel eyes and hazel brown hair her eyes are of that rare hazel that soft golden brown so rarely seen so beautiful wherever they are seen
these eyes are unvarying in their colour it is only the expression of them that varies with every emotion but in repose they have a mournful earnestness in their look a pensive gravity that seems to tell of a life in which there has been much shadow
the hair parted above the most beautiful brow i ever looked upon is of exactly the same colour as the eyes and has a natural ripple in it
for the rest of the features i must refer my new zealander to the pictures of the old italian masters of which i trust he may retain a handsome collection for only on the canvases of signori raffaello sanzio d'urbino titian and the pupils who emulated them
will he find that exquisite harmony that purity of form and tender softness of outline which i beheld that summer evening in the features of margaret wentworth margaret wentworth that is her name
in some awkward vague manner who i was and how it was i wanted to engage her services throughout that interview i think i must have been intoxicated by her presence as by some subtle and mysterious influence stronger than the fumes of opium or the juice of lotus flowers
i only know that after ten minutes conversation during which she was perfectly self possessed i opened the little garden gate again
and went back out of that little paradise of twenty feet square into the dusty lane i went home in triumph to my mother and told her that i had succeeded at last in engaging a lady who was in every way suitable
and that she was coming the following morning at eleven o'clock to give her first lesson but i was somewhat embarrassed when my mother asked if i had heard the lady play if i had inquired her terms
if i had asked for references as to respectability capability and so forth i was fain to confess with much confusion that i had not done any one of these things
and then my mother asked me why in that case did i consider the lady suitable which question increased my embarrassment by tenfold
nor could i declare that i had judged of her proficiency as a teacher of the piano by the exquisite line of her pencilled eyebrows so in this dilemma i had recourse to a piece of jesuitry of which i was not a little proud
i told my dear mother that miss wentworth's head was from a phrenological point of view magnificent and that the organs of time and tune were developed to an unusual degree
i was almost ashamed of myself when my mother rewarded this falsehood by a kiss declaring that i was a dear clever boy and such a judge of character and that she would rather confide in a stranger upon the strength of my instinct
than upon any inferior person's experience after this i could only trust to the chance of miss wentworth's proficiency and when i went home from the city upon the following afternoon
my mind was far less occupied with the business events of the day than with abstruse speculations at to the probabilities with regard to that young lady's skill upon the piano forte
it was with an air of supreme carelessness that i asked my mother whether she had been pleased with miss wentworth pleased with her cried the good soul why she plays magnificently clement
such a touch such brilliancy in my young days it was only concert players who played like that but nowadays girls of eighteen and twenty sit down and dash away at the keys like a professor
i think you'll be charmed with her clem' i'm afraid i blushed as my mother said this had i not been charmed with her already
she is passionately fond of music i know not because she went into any ridiculous sentimental raptures about it as some girls do but because her eyes lighted up when she told me what a happiness her piano
had been to her ever since she was a child she gave a little sigh after saying that and i fancied poor girl that she had perhaps known very little other happiness and her terms mother i said
heaven bless her innocent heart
but i'm afraid you'll think it an objection i eagerly asked the nature of this objection was there some cold chill of disappointment in store for me after all
well you see clem said my mother with some little hesitation miss wentworth is engaged almost all through the day as her pupils live at long distances from one another
so the only time she can possibly give lizzie is either very early in the morning or rather late in the evening now i should prefer the evening as i should like to hear the dear child's lessons
but the question is would you object to the noise of the piano while you are at home would i object would i object to the music of the spheres
in spite of the grand capabilities for falsehood and hypocrisy which had been developed in my nature since the previous evening it was as much as i could do to answer my mother's question deliberately to the effect that i didn't think i should mind the music lessons
much you'll be out generally you know clem my mother said yes i replied of course if i found the music in any way a nuisance
coming home from the city the next day i felt like a schoolboy who turns his back upon all the hardships of his life on some sunny summer holiday the rattling hansom seemed a fairy car that was bearing me in triumph through a region of brightness and splendour
the sunlit suburban roads were enchanted glades and i think i should have been scarcely surprised to see aladdin's jewelled fruit hanging on the trees in the villa gardens or the gigantic wings of sinbad's roc overshadowing the hills of sydenham
oh was i in love was i really in love at last with a young lady whose face i had only looked upon eight and forty hours before was i who had flirted with the miss balderbys and half lost my heart to lucy sedwicke the surgeon's sister
only to be jilted ignominiously for the sake of an evangelical curate
i have one of miss carpenter's long tresses in the desk on which i am writing sealed in a sheet of letter paper with swift's savage inscription only a woman's hair on the cover
i was ashamed of my silly fancy in one moment and proud of my love in the next i was ten years younger all of a sudden and my heart was all a glow with chivalrous devotion for this beautiful stranger
i reasoned with myself and ridiculed my madness and yet yielded like the veriest craven to the sweet intoxication i gave the driver of the hansom five shillings
had i not a right to pay him a trifle extra for driving me through fairy land what had we for dinner that day
i know that the meal seemed to endure for the abnormal period of half a dozen hours or so and yet it was only seven o'clock when we adjourned to the drawing room and miss wentworth was not due until half past seven
my niece was all in a flutter of expectation and ran out of the drawing room window every now and then to see if the new governess was coming she need not have had that trouble poor child had i been inclined to give her information since
from the chair in which i had seated myself to read the evening papers i could see the road along which miss wentworth must come my eyes wandered very often from the page before me and fixed themselves upon this dusty suburban road and presently i saw a parasol
and then a slender figure coming quickly towards our gate and then the face which i am weak enough to think the most beautiful face in christendom
since then miss wentworth has come three times a week and somehow or other i have never found myself in any way bored by non piu mesta or even the major and minor scales which as interpreted by a juvenile performer
are not especially enthralling to the ear of the ordinary listener i read my books or papers or stroll upon the lawn while the lesson is going on and every now and then i hear margaret's
i really must write of her as margaret it is such a nuisance to write miss wentworth pretty voice explaining the importance of a steady position of the wrist or the dexterous turning over or under of a thumb or something equally interesting
and then when the lesson is concluded my mother rouses herself from her after dinner nap and asks margaret to take a cup of tea and even insists on her accepting that feminine hospitality
and then we sit talking in the tender summer dusk or in the subdued light of a shaded lamp on the piano we talk of books and it is wonderful to me to find how margaret's tastes and opinions coincide with mine
miss carpenter was stupid about books and used to call carlyle nonsensical and never really enjoyed dickens half as much as she pretended
i have lent margaret some of my books and a little shower of withered rose leaves dropped from the pages of wilhelm meister after she had returned me the volume i have put them in an envelope and sealed it
farther than ever perhaps from understanding each other but with margaret i need no words to tell me that i am understood a look a smile a movement of the graceful head is a more eloquent answer than the most elaborate of miss carpenter's rhapsodies
she was one of those girls whom her friends call gushing and she called byron a love and shelley an angel but if you tried her with a stanza that hasn't been done to death in gems of verse or strings of poetic pearls
or drawing room table lyrics she couldn't tell whether you were quoting byron or ben jonson but with margaret margaret sweet name if it were not that i live in perpetual terror of the day when the dilettante new zealander will edit this manuscript
i think i should write that lovely name over and over again for a page or so if the new zealander should exercise his editorial discretion and delete my raptures it wouldn't matter
but i might furnish him with the text for an elaborate disquisition on the manners and customs of english lovers let me be reasonable about my dear love if i can my dear love
we seem to be old friends and yet i know so little of her she shuns all allusion to her home or her past history now and then she has spoken of her father always tenderly but always with a sigh
and i fancy that a deepening shadow steals over her face when she mentions that name friendly as we are i can never induce her to let me see her home though my mother has suggested that i should do so
she is accustomed to go about by herself she says after dark as well as in the daytime
a disputed authorship how are you charon said shakespeare as the janitor assisted him on board any one here to night yes sir said charon lord bacon is up in the library
and doctor johnson is down in the billiard room playing pool with nero ha ha laughed shakespeare pool eh does nero play pool not as well as he does the fiddle sir said the janitor with a twinkle in his eye
shakespeare entered the house and tossed up an obolus heads bacon tails pool with nero and johnson he said the coin came down with heads up and shakespeare went into the pool room
just to show the fates that he didn't care a tuppence for their verdict as registered through the obolus it was a peculiar custom of shakespeare's to toss up a coin to decide questions of little consequence and then do the thing the coin decided he should not do
it showed in shakespeare's estimation his entire independence of those dull persons who supposed that in them was centred the destiny of all mankind the fates however only smiled at these little acts of rebellion
and it was common gossip in erebus that one of the trio had told the furies that they had observed shakespeare's tendency to kick over the traces and always acted accordingly they never let the coin fall so as to decide a question the way they wanted it
so that unwittingly the great dramatist did their will after all it was a part of their plan that upon this occasion shakespeare should play pool with doctor johnson and the emperor nero
hullo william said the doctor pocketing three balls on the break how's our little swanlet of avon this afternoon worn out shakespeare replied i've been hard at work on a play this morning and i'm tired
all work and no play makes jack a dull boy said nero grinning broadly you are a bright spirit said shakespeare with a sigh i wish i had thought to work you up into a tragedy i've often wondered why you didn't
said doctor johnson he'd have made a superb tragedy nero would i don't believe there was any kind of a crime he left uncommitted was there emperor yes i never wrote an english dictionary returned the emperor dryly
i've murdered everything but english though i could have made a fine tragedy out of you said shakespeare just think what a dreadful climax for a tragedy it would be johnson to have nero as the curtain fell playing a violin solo
pretty good returned the doctor but what's the use of killing off your audience that way it's better business to let em live i say suppose nero gave a london audience that little musicale he provided at queen elizabeth's wednesday night
not one said shakespeare i was mighty glad that night that we were an immortal band if it had been possible to kill us we'd have died then and there that's all right said nero with a significant shake of his head
what do you mean my attributing those words to bacon demanded shakespeare getting red in the face oh come now william remonstrated nero
it's all right to pull the wool over the eyes of the mortals that's what they're there for but as for us we're all in the secret here what's the use of putting on nonsense with us we'll see in a minute what the use is retorted the avonian we'll have bacon down here
get some ice for the emperor and ask lord bacon to step down here a minute i don't want any ice said nero not now retorted shakespeare but you will in a few minutes when we have finished with you you'll want an iceberg
i'm getting tired of this idiotic talk about not having written my own works there's one thing about nero's music that i've never said because i haven't wanted to hurt his feelings but since he has chosen to cast aspersions upon my honesty i haven't any hesitation in saying it now
i believe it was one of his fiddlings that sent nature into convulsions and caused the destruction of pompeii so there put that on your music rack and fiddle it my little emperor nero's face grew purple with anger
for the enraged roman poising his cue on high as though it were a lance hurled it at the impertinent dramatist with all his strength and with such accuracy of aim withal that it pierced the spot beneath which in life the heart of shakespeare used to beat
good shot said doctor johnson nonchalantly
you can't kill me said shakespeare shrugging his shoulders i know seven dozen actors in the united states who are trying to do it but they can't
i went over to boston one night last week and unknown to anybody i waylaid a fellow who was to play hamlet that night i drugged him and went to the theatre and played the part myself it was the coldest house you ever saw in your life
favorable asked the doctor they all dismissed me with a line said the dramatist said my conception of the part was not shakespearian and that's criticism
no said the shade of emerson which had strolled in while shakespeare was talking that isn't criticism that's boston who discovered boston anyhow asked doctor johnson it wasn't columbus was it
oh no said emerson old governor winthrop is to blame for that when he settled at charlestown he saw the old indian town of shawmut across the charles and shawmut was the boston microbe was it asked johnson yes
said emerson spelt with a p i suppose said shakespeare p s h a w pshaw m u t mut pshawmut so called because the inhabitants are always muttering pshaw eh pretty good said johnson
i wish i'd said that well tell boswell said shakespeare
lord bacon accompanied by charon and the ice for nero and the ale for doctor johnson appeared as shakespeare spoke the philosopher bowed stiffly at doctor johnson as though he hardly approved of him extended his left hand to shakespeare
and stared coldly at nero did you send for me william he asked languidly i did said shakespeare
what nonsense said bacon the only plays of yours i wrote were ham sh said shakespeare shaking his head madly hush nobody's said anything about that this is purely a discussion of othello
the fiddling ex emperor nero said bacon loudly enough to be heard all about the room is mistaken when he attributes othello to me aha master nero cried shakespeare triumphantly what did i tell you
then i erred that is all said nero and i apologize but really my lord he added addressing bacon i fancied i detected your fine italian hand in that no i had nothing to do with the othello said bacon
bacon smiled and nodded approvingly at the blushing avonian
ha ha it was the greatest joke of the century well the laugh is on you said doctor johnson if you wrote hamlet and didn't have the sense to acknowledge it
you present to my mind a closer resemblance to simple simon than to socrates for my part i don't believe you did write it and i do believe that shakespeare did i can tell that by the spelling in the original edition
shakespeare was my stenographer gentlemen said lord bacon if you want to know the whole truth he did write hamlet literally but it was at my dictation i deny it said shakespeare
i admit you gave me a suggestion now and then so as to keep it dull and heavy in spots so that it would seem more like a real tragedy than a comedy punctuated with deaths but beyond that you had nothing to do with it i side with shakespeare put in emerson
i've seen his autographs and no sane person would employ a man who wrote such a villanously bad hand as an amanuensis it's no use bacon we know a thing or two i'm a new englander i am
well said bacon shrugging his shoulders as though the results of the controversy were immaterial to him have it so if you please there isn't any money in shakespeare these days so what's the use of quarrelling i wrote hamlet
and shakespeare knows it others know it ah here comes sir walter raleigh we'll leave it to him he was cognizant of the whole affair i leave it to nobody said shakespeare sulkily what's the trouble asked raleigh
sauntering up and taking a chair under the cue rack talking politics not we said bacon it's the old question about the authorship of hamlet will as usual claims it for himself he'll be saying he wrote genesis next
we all know will and his droll ways no doubt put in nero but the question of hamlet always excites him so that we'd like to have it settled once and for all as to who wrote it bacon says you know
there's one thing this house boat needs wrote homer in the complaint book that adorned the centre table in the reading room and that is a poets corner there are smoking rooms for those who smoke billiard rooms for those who play billiards and a card room for those who play cards
i do not smoke i can't play billiards and i do not know a trey of diamonds from a silver salver all i can do is write poetry why discriminate against me by all means let us have a poets corner where a man can be inspired in peace
for four days this entry lay in the book apparently unnoticed
and it reluctantly took the subject in hand at an early meeting i find here said demosthenes to the chairman as the committee gathered a suggestion from homer and samson that this house boat be provided with a poets corner
i do not know that i approve of the suggestion myself but in order to bring it before the committee for debate i am willing to make a motion that the request be granted excuse me put in doctor johnson
here is not very definite where is here in the complaint book which i hold in my hand returned demosthenes putting a pebble in his mouth so that he might enunciate more clearly a frown ruffled the serenity of doctor johnson's brow
i thought house committees were not expected to pay any attention to complaints in complaint books i never heard of its being done before well i can't say that i have either replied demosthenes chewing thoughtfully on the pebble
but i suppose complaint books are the places for complaints you don't expect people to write serial stories or dialect poems in them do you that isn't the point as the man said to the assassin who tried to stab him with the hilt of his dagger
retorted doctor johnson with some asperity of course complaint books are for the reception of complaints nobody disputes that
i fancy we have a legal right to take the matter up said blackstone wearily though i don't know of any precedent for such action
in all the clubs i have known the house committees have invariably taken the ground that the complaint book was established to guard them against the annoyance of hearing complaints this one however has been forced upon us by our secretary
and in view of the age of the complainants i think we cannot well decline to give them a specific answer respect for age is de rigueur at all times like clean hands i'll second the motion
i think the poets corner entirely unnecessary said confucius this isn't a class organization and we should resist any effort to make it or any portion of it so
we ought to discourage rather than encourage these poets they are always littering the club up with themselves only last wednesday i came here with a guest no less a person than a recently deceased emperor of china
and what was the first sight that greeted our eyes i give it up said doctor johnson it must have been a catacornered sight whatever it was if the emperor's eyes slanted like yours
no personalities please doctor said sir walter raleigh the chairman rapping the table vigorously with the shade of a handsome gavel that had once adorned the roman senate chamber
he's only a chinaman muttered johnson what was the sight that greeted your eyes confucius asked cassius omar khayyam stretched over five of the most comfortable chairs in the library returned confucius
and when i ventured to remonstrate with him he lost his temper and said i'd spoiled the whole second volume of the rubaiyat i told him he ought to do his rubaiyatting at home and he made a scene to avoid which i hastened with my guest over to the billiard room
and there stretched at full length on the pool table was robert burns trying to write a sonnet on the cloth with chalk in less time than villon could turn out another with two lines start on the billiard table with the same writing materials
now i ask you gentlemen if these things are to be tolerated are they not rather to be reprehended whether i am a chinaman or not what would you have us do then asked sir walter raleigh a little nettled
oh but not much of one sir walter put in doctor johnson deprecatingly no said confucius i don't want them excluded but they should be controlled you don't let a shoemaker who has become a member of this club
turn the library sofas into benches and go pegging away at boot making so why should you let the poets turn the place into a verse factory that's what i'd like to know i don't know but what your point is well taken said blackstone
though i can't say i think your parallels are very parallel a shoemaker my dear confucius is somewhat different from a poet certainly said doctor johnson very different in fact different enough to make a conundrum of the question
what is the difference between a shoemaker and a poet one makes the shoes and the other shakes the muse all the difference in the world still i don't see how we can exclude the poets it is the very democracy of this club that gives it life we take in everybody
to say that this man shall not enter because he is this or that or the other thing would result in our ultimately becoming a class organization which as confucius himself says we are not and must not be
if we put out the poet to please the sage we'll soon have to put out the sage to please the fool and so on we'll keep it up once the precedent is established
a plumbers club for instance and how absurd that would be in hades no gentlemen it can't be done the poets must and shall be preserved what's the objection to class clubs anyhow asked cassius i don't object to them
if we could have had political organizations in my day i might not have had to fall on my sword to get out of keeping an engagement i had no fancy for class clubs have their uses no doubt said demosthenes
have all the class clubs you want but do not make one of this an authors club where none but authors are admitted is a good thing
poets clubs are a good thing
pugilists clubs are good so are all other class clubs but so also are clubs like our own which takes in all who are worthy
we must stick to our original idea then let us do something to abate the nuisance of which i complain said confucius can't we adopt a house rule
that poets must not be inspired between the hours of eleven a m and five p m or in the evening after eight that any poet discovered using more than five arm chairs in the composition of a quatrain will be charged two oboli an hour for each chair in excess of that number
and that the billiard marker shall be required to charge a premium of three times the ordinary fee for tables used by versifiers in lieu of writing pads that wouldn't be a bad idea said sir walter raleigh
i as a poet would not object to that i do all my work at home anyhow there's another phase of this business that we haven't considered yet and it's rather important said demosthenes
that's in the matter of stationery this club like all other well regulated clubs provides its members with a suitable supply of writing materials
charon informs me that the waste baskets last week turned out forty two reams of our best correspondence paper on which these poets had scribbled the first draft of their verses
now i don't think the club should furnish the poets with the raw material for their poems any more than to go back to confucius's shoemaker
what do you mean by raw material for poems asked sir walter with a frown pen ink and paper what else said demosthenes doesn't it take brains to write a poem said raleigh
doesn't it take brains to make a pair of shoes retorted demosthenes swallowing a pebble in his haste they've got a right to the stationery though put in blackstone a clear legal right to it
that's their own affair well they're very wasteful said demosthenes we can meet that easily enough observed cassius furnish each writing table with a slate i should think they'd be pleased with that it's so much easier to rub out the wrong word
most poets prefer to rub out the right word growled confucius besides i shall never consent to slates in this house boat the squeaking of the pencils would be worse than the poems themselves that's true
said cassius i never thought of that if a dozen poets got to work on those slates at once a fife corps wouldn't be a circumstance to them well it all goes to prove what i have thought all along said doctor johnson homer's idea is a good one
and samson was wise in backing it up the poets need to be concentrated somewhere where they will not be a nuisance to other people and where other people will not be a nuisance to them homer ought to have a place to compose in where the vingt et un players will not interrupt his frenzies
and on the other hand the vingt et un and other players should be protected from the wooers of the muse i'll vote to have the poets corner and in it i move that cassius's slate idea be carried out it will be a great saving
and if the corner we select be far enough away from the other corners of the club the squeaking of the slate pencils need bother no one i agree to that said blackstone only i think it should be understood that in granting the petition of the poets
we do not bind ourselves to yield to doctors and lawyers and shoemakers and plumbers in case they should each want a corner to themselves a very wise idea said sir walter whereupon the resolution was suitably worded and passed unanimously
chapter ten result of the success she had been dismissed towards the end of the winter the summer passed but winter came again short days less work winter no warmth no light
no noonday the evening joining on to the morning fogs twilight the window is gray it is impossible to see clearly at it the sky is but a vent hole the whole day is a cavern the sun has the air of a beggar
a frightful season winter changes the water of heaven and the heart of man into a stone her creditors harrassed her fantine earned too little her debts had increased
wrote to her constantly letters whose contents drove her to despair and whose carriage ruined her one day they wrote to her that her little cosette was entirely naked in that cold weather that she needed a woollen skirt
she received the letter and crushed it in her hands all day long that evening she went into a barber's shop at the corner of the street and pulled out her comb her admirable golden hair fell to her knees
what splendid hair exclaimed the barber how much will you give me for it said she
cut it off she purchased a knitted petticoat
it was the money that they wanted they gave the petticoat to eponine the poor lark continued to shiver fantine thought my child is no longer cold i have clothed her with my hair
she put on little round caps which concealed her shorn head and in which she was still pretty dark thoughts held possession of fantine's heart when she saw that she could no longer dress her hair
she began to hate every one about her she had long shared the universal veneration for father madeleine yet by dint of repeating to herself that it was he who had discharged her that he was the cause of her unhappiness she came to hate him also and most of all
she affected to laugh and sing an old workwoman who once saw her laughing and singing in this fashion said there's a girl who will come to a bad end she took a lover the first who offered a man whom she did not love
out of bravado and with rage in her heart he was a miserable scamp a sort of mendicant musician a lazy beggar who beat her and who abandoned her as she had taken him in disgust she adored her child
the lower she descended the darker everything grew about her the more radiant shone that little angel at the bottom of her heart she said when i get rich i will have my cosette with me and she laughed
her cough did not leave her and she had sweats on her back
cosette is ill with a malady which is going the rounds of the neighborhood a miliary fever they call it expensive drugs are required this is ruining us and we can no longer pay for them
the little one will be dead she burst out laughing and said to her old neighbor
the idea that makes two napoleons where do they think i am to get them these peasants are stupid truly nevertheless she went to a dormer window in the staircase and read the letter once more
then she descended the stairs and emerged running and leaping and still laughing some one met her and said to her what makes you so gay she replied
they demand forty francs of me so much for you you peasants
upon the top of which stood a man dressed in red who was holding forth he was a quack dentist on his rounds who was offering to the public full sets of teeth opiates powders and elixirs
fantine mingled in the group and began to laugh with the rest at the harangue which contained slang for the populace and jargon for respectable people
you have beautiful teeth you girl there who are laughing if you want to sell me your palettes i will give you a gold napoleon apiece for them what are my palettes asked fantine the palettes replied the dental professor
are the front teeth the two upper ones how horrible exclaimed fantine two napoleons grumbled a toothless old woman who was present
fantine fled and stopped her ears that she might not hear the hoarse voice of the man shouting to her reflect my beauty two napoleons they may prove of service
fantine returned home she was furious and related the occurrence to her good neighbor marguerite can you understand such a thing is he not an abominable man how can they allow such people to go about the country
pull out my two front teeth why i should be horrible my hair will grow again but my teeth ah what a monster of a man i should prefer to throw myself head first on the pavement from the fifth story
and what did he offer asked marguerite two napoleons
yes said fantine
she remained thoughtful and began her work at the expiration of a quarter of an hour she left her sewing
what is a miliary fever do you know yes answered the old spinster it is a disease does it require many drugs oh terrible drugs how does one get it
it is a malady that one gets without knowing how then it attacks children children in particular do people die of it they may said marguerite
fantine left the room and went to read her letter once more on the staircase that evening she went out and was seen to turn her steps in the direction
the next morning when marguerite entered fantine's room before daylight for they always worked together and in this manner used only one candle for the two she found fantine seated on her bed pale and frozen
she had not lain down her cap had fallen on her knees her candle had burned all night and was almost entirely consumed marguerite halted on the threshold petrified at this tremendous wastefulness and exclaimed
lord the candle is all burned out something has happened then she looked at fantine
fantine had grown ten years older since the preceding night jesus said marguerite what is the matter with you fantine nothing replied fantine quite the contrary
my child will not die of that frightful malady for lack of succor i am content so saying she pointed out to the spinster two napoleons which were glittering on the table ah jesus god
cried marguerite why it is a fortune
i got them replied fantine at the same time she smiled the candle illuminated her countenance it was a bloody smile a reddish saliva soiled the corners of her lips
and she had a black hole in her mouth the two teeth had been extracted
cosette was not ill fantine threw her mirror out of the window she had long since quitted her cell on the second floor for an attic with only a latch to fasten it
one of those attics whose extremity forms an angle with the floor and knocks you on the head every instant the poor occupant can reach the end of his chamber as he can the end of his destiny only by bending over more and more she had no longer a bed
a rag which she called her coverlet a mattress on the floor and a seatless chair still remained a little rosebush which she had had dried up forgotten in one corner in the other corner was a butter pot to hold water which froze in winter
she had lost her shame she lost her coquetry a final sign she went out with dirty caps whether from lack of time or from indifference she no longer mended her linen as the heels wore out she dragged her stockings down into her shoes
this was evident from the perpendicular wrinkles she patched her bodice which was old and worn out with scraps of calico which tore at the slightest movement the people to whom she was indebted made scenes and gave her no peace
she found them in the street she found them again on her staircase she passed many a night weeping and thinking her eyes were very bright and she felt a steady pain in her shoulder towards the top of the left shoulder blade she coughed a great deal
she deeply hated father madeleine but made no complaint she sewed seventeen hours a day but a contractor for the work of prisons who made the prisoners work at a discount suddenly made prices fall
which reduced the daily earnings of working women to nine sous seventeen hours of toil and nine sous a day her creditors were more pitiless than ever the second hand dealer
said to her incessantly when will you pay me you hussy what did they want of her good god she felt that she was being hunted and something of the wild beast developed in her about the same time thenardier wrote to her that he had waited with decidedly too much amiability
otherwise he would turn little cosette out of doors convalescent as she was from her heavy illness into the cold and the streets and that she might do what she liked with herself and die if she chose
thought fantine but in what trade can one earn a hundred sous a day come said she let us sell what is left
i propose that we drop the subject there's nothing to keep us here for the next ten days we'll motor up to the lakes and get some climbing and see nobody all day and sit bored to death with each other every night not for me thanks
why not run up to town run's the exact word in this case isn't it we're both in such a blessed funk pull yourself together eustace and let's have another look at the hand as you like said eustace there's the key
they went into the library and opened the desk the box was as they had left it on the previous night what are you waiting for asked eustace i am waiting for you to volunteer to open the lid
however since you seem to funk it allow me there doesn't seem to be the likelihood of any rumpus this morning at all events he opened the lid and picked out the hand cold asked eustace tepid
a bit below blood heat by the feel soft and supple too if it's the embalming it's a sort of embalming i've never seen before is it your uncle's hand oh yes it's his all right said eustace
i should know those long thin fingers anywhere put it back in the box saunders never mind about the screws i'll lock the desk so that there'll be no chance of its getting out we'll compromise by motoring up to town for a week
if we get off soon after lunch we ought to be at grantham or stamford by night right said saunders and to morrow oh well by to morrow we shall have forgotten all about this beastly thing if when the morrow came they had not forgotten
it was certainly true that at the end of the week they were able to tell a very vivid ghost story at the little supper eustace gave on hallow e e n
how perfectly awful i'll take my oath on it and so would saunders here wouldn't you old chap any number of oaths said saunders it was a long thin hand you know and it gripped me just like that
don't mister saunders don't how perfectly horrid now tell us another one do only a really creepy one please here's a pretty mess said eustace on the following day as he threw a letter across the table to saunders
it's your affair though missus merrit if i understand it gives a month's notice oh that's quite absurd on missus merrit's part saunders replied she doesn't know what she's talking about let's see what she says
dear sir he read this is to let you know that i must give you a month's notice as from tuesday the thirteenth for a long time i've felt the place too big for me but when jane parfit and emma laidlaw go off with scarcely as much
as an if you please after frightening the wits out of the other girls so that they can't turn out a room by themselves or walk alone down the stairs for fear of treading on half frozen toads or hearing it run along the passages at night
all i can say is that it's no place for me so i must ask you mister borlsover sir to find a new housekeeper that has no objection to large and lonely houses which some people do say not that i believe them for a minute
are haunted yours faithfully elizabeth merrit p s i should be obliged if you would give my respects to mister saunders i hope that he won't run no risks with his cold saunders said eustace
you've always had a wonderful way with you in dealing with servants you mustn't let poor old merrit go of course she shan't go said saunders she's probably only angling for a rise in salary
no there's nothing like a personal interview we've had enough of town we'll go back to morrow and you must work your cold for all it's worth don't forget that it's got on to the chest and will require weeks of feeding up and nursing
all right i think i can manage missus merrit but missus merrit was more obstinate than he had thought she was very sorry to hear of mister saunders's cold and how he lay awake all night in london coughing
very sorry indeed she'd change his room for him gladly and get the south room aired and wouldn't he have a basin of hot bread and milk last thing at night but she was afraid that she would have to leave at the end of the month
try her with an increase of salary was the advice of eustace it was no use missus merrit was obdurate though she knew of a missus handyside who had been housekeeper to lord gargrave
who might be glad to come at the salary mentioned what's the matter with the servants morton asked eustace that evening when he brought the coffee into the library what's all this about missus merrit wanting to leave if you please sir
i was going to mention it myself i have a confession to make sir when i found your note asking me to open that desk and take out the box with the rat i broke the lock as you told me and was glad to do it because i could hear the animal in the box making a great noise
and i thought it wanted food so i took out the box sir and got a cage and was going to transfer it when the animal got away what in the world are you talking about i never wrote any such note
excuse me sir it was the note i picked up here on the floor on the day you and mister saunders left i have it in my pocket now it certainly seemed to be in eustace's handwriting it was written in pencil
and began somewhat abruptly get a hammer morton he read or some other tool and break open the lock in the old desk in the library take out the box that is inside you need not do anything else the lid is already open eustace borlsover
and you opened the desk yes sir and as i was getting the cage ready the animal hopped out what animal the animal inside the box sir what did it look like
well sir i couldn't tell you said morton nervously my back was turned and it was halfway down the room when i looked up what was its color asked saunders black oh no sir a grayish white
it crept along in a very funny way sir i don't think it had a tail what did you do then i tried to catch it but it was no use so i set the rat traps and kept the library shut
then that girl emma laidlaw left the door open when she was cleaning and i think it must have escaped and you think it was the animal that's been frightening the maids well no sir not quite they said it was you'll excuse me sir
a hand that they saw emma trod on it once at the bottom of the stairs she thought then it was a half frozen toad only white and then parfit was washing up the dishes in the scullery she wasn't thinking about anything in particular it was close on dusk
she took her hands out of the water and was drying them absent minded like on the roller towel when she found that she was drying someone else's hand as well only colder than hers what nonsense exclaimed saunders exactly sir
that's what i told her but we couldn't get her to stop you don't believe all this said eustace turning suddenly towards the butler me sir oh no sir i've not seen anything nor heard anything
well sir if you must know the bells do ring at odd times and there's nobody there when we go and when we go round to draw the blinds of a night as often as not somebody's been there before us but as i says to missus merrit
a young monkey might do wonderful things and we all know that mister borlsover has had some strange animals about the place very well morton that will do what do you make of it asked saunders when they were alone i mean of the letter he said you wrote
oh that's simple enough said eustace see the paper it's written on i stopped using that years ago but there were a few odd sheets and envelopes left in the old desk we never fastened up the lid of the box before locking it in the hand got out found a pencil
wrote this note and shoved it through a crack on to the floor where morton found it that's plain as daylight but the hand couldn't write couldn't it you've not seen it do the things i've seen and he told saunders more of what had happened at eastbourne
well said saunders in that case we have at least an explanation of the legacy it was the hand which wrote unknown to your uncle that letter to your solicitor bequeathing itself to you your uncle had no more to do with that request than i
in fact it would seem that he had some idea of this automatic writing and feared it then if it's not my uncle what is it i suppose some people might say that a disembodied spirit had got your uncle to educate
and prepare a little body for it now it's got into that little body and is off on its own well what are we to do we'll keep our eyes open said saunders and try to catch it if we can't do that
we shall have to wait till the bally clockwork runs down after all if it's flesh and blood it can't live for ever for two days nothing happened then saunders saw it sliding down the banister in the hall
he was taken unawares and lost a full second before he started in pursuit only to find that the thing had escaped him three days later eustace writing alone in the library at night saw it sitting on an open book at the other end of the room
the fingers crept over the page feeling the print as if it were reading but before he had time to get up from his seat it had taken the alarm and was pulling itself up the curtains eustace watched it grimly
flicking thumb and forefinger at him in an expression of scornful derision i know what i'll do he said if i only get it into the open i'll set the dogs on to it he spoke to saunders of the suggestion it's jolly good idea he said
only we won't wait till we find it out of doors we'll get the dogs there are the two terriers and the under keeper's irish mongrel that's on to rats like a flash your spaniel has not got spirit enough for this sort of game
they brought the dogs into the house and the keeper's irish mongrel chewed up the slippers and the terriers tripped up morton as he waited at table but all three were welcome even false security is better than no security at all
for a fortnight nothing happened then the hand was caught not by the dogs but by missus merrit's gray parrot
when once at liberty peter would show no inclination to return and would often be about the house for days now after six consecutive weeks of captivity peter had again discovered a new means of unloosing his bolts and was at large
exploring the tapestried forests of the curtains and singing songs in praise of liberty from cornice and picture rail it's no use your trying to catch him said eustace to missus merrit as she came into the study one afternoon towards dusk with a step ladder
you'd much better leave peter alone starve him into surrender missus merrit and don't leave bananas and seed about for him to peck at when he fancies he's hungry you're far too softhearted well sir i see he's right out of reach now on that picture rail
when you leave the room i'll bring his cage in to night and put some meat inside it he's that fond of meat though it does make him pull out his feathers to suck the quills
which he closed with a bang frightened by the noise the parrot shook its wings preparatory to flight and as it did so the fingers of the hand got hold of it by the throat there was a shrill scream from peter as he fluttered across the room
wheeling round in circles that ever descended borne down under the weight that clung to him the bird dropped at last quite suddenly and eustace saw fingers and feathers rolled into an inextricable mass on the floor the struggle abruptly ceased
as finger and thumb squeezed the neck the bird's eyes rolled up to show the whites and there was a faint half choked gurgle but before the fingers had time to loose their hold eustace had them in his own
send mister saunders here at once he said to the maid who came in answer to the bell tell him i want him immediately then he went with the hand to the fire there was a ragged gash across the back where the bird's beak had torn it
but no blood oozed from the wound he noticed with disgust that the nails had grown long and discolored i'll burn the beastly thing he said but he could not burn it
but his own hands as if restrained by some old primitive feeling would not let him and so saunders found him pale and irresolute with the hand still clasped tightly in his fingers
i've got it at last he said in a tone of triumph good let's have a look at it not when it's loose get me some nails and a hammer and a board of some sort can you hold it all right yes the thing's quite limp
tired out with throttling poor old peter i should say and now said saunders when he returned with the things what are we going to do drive a nail through it first so that it can't get away then we can take our time over examining it
do it yourself said saunders i don't mind helping you with guinea pigs occasionally when there's something to be learned partly because i don't fear a guinea pig's revenge this thing's different all right you miserable skunk i won't forget the way you've stood by me
he took up a nail and before saunders had realised what he was doing had driven it through the hand deep into the board oh my aunt he giggled hysterically look at it now for the hand was writhing in agonized contortions
squirming and wriggling upon the nail like a worm upon the hook well said saunders you've done it now i'll leave you to examine it don't go in heaven's name cover it up man cover it up shove a cloth over it here
and wrapped the board in it now get the keys from my pocket and open the safe chuck the other things out oh lord it's getting itself into frightful knots and open it quick he threw the thing in and banged the door
we'll keep it there till it dies he said may i burn in hell if i ever open the door of that safe again missus merrit departed at the end of the month her successor certainly was more successful in the management of the servants
early in her rule she declared that she would stand no nonsense and gossip soon withered and died eustace borlsover went back to his old way of life old habits crept over and covered his new experience
he was if anything less morose and showed a greater inclination to take his natural part in country society i shouldn't be surprised if he marries one of these days said saunders well i'm in no hurry for such an event
i know eustace far too well for the future missus borlsover to like me it will be the same old story again a long friendship slowly made marriage and a long friendship quickly forgotten
he was too fond of old slippers and tobacco the cooking too under missus handyside's management was excellent and she seemed too to have a heaven sent faculty in knowing when to stop dusting little by little
the old life resumed its old power then came the burglary the men it was said broke into the house by way of the conservatory it was really little more than an attempt
for they only succeeded in carrying away a few pieces of plate from the pantry the safe in the study was certainly found open and empty but as mister borlsover informed the police inspector he had kept nothing of value in it during the last six months
then you're lucky in getting off so easily sir the man replied by the way they have gone about their business i should say they were experienced cracksmen they must have caught the alarm when they were just beginning their evening's work yes said eustace
i suppose i am lucky i've no doubt said the inspector that we shall be able to trace the men i've said that they must have been old hands at the game the way they got in and opened the safe shows that but there's one little thing that puzzles me
one of them was careless enough not to wear gloves and i'm bothered if i know what he was trying to do i've traced his finger marks on the new varnish on the window sashes in every one of the downstairs rooms they are very distinct ones too
right hand or left or both asked eustace oh right every time that's the funny thing he must have been a foolhardy fellow and i rather think it was him that wrote that he took out a slip of paper from his pocket that's what he wrote sir
i've got out eustace borlsover but i'll be back before long some gaol bird just escaped i suppose it will make it all the easier for us to trace him do you know the writing sir no said eustace
it's not the writing of anyone i know i'm not going to stay here any longer said eustace to saunders at luncheon i've got on far better during the last six months than ever i expected but i'm not going to run the risk of seeing that thing again
i shall go up to town this afternoon get morton to put my things together and join me with the car at brighton on the day after to morrow and bring the proofs of those two papers with you we'll run over them together how long are you going to be away
i can't say for certain but be prepared to stay for some time we've stuck to work pretty closely through the summer and i for one need a holiday i'll engage the rooms at brighton you'll find it best to break the journey at hitchin
i'll wire to you there at the crown to tell you the brighton address the house he chose at brighton was in a terrace he had been there before it was kept by his old college gyp a man of discreet silence
by an excellent cook the rooms were on the first floor the two bedrooms were at the back and opened out of each other saunders can have the smaller one though it is the only one with a fireplace he said i'll stick to the larger of the two
since it's got a bathroom adjoining i wonder what time he'll arrive with the car saunders came about seven cold and cross and dirty we'll light the fire in the dining room said eustace
and get prince to unpack some of the things while we are at dinner what were the roads like rotten swimming with mud and a beastly cold wind against us all day and this is july dear old england
yes said eustace i think we might do worse than leave dear old england for a few months they turned in soon after twelve you oughtn't to feel cold saunders said eustace when you can afford to sport a great cat skin lined coat like this
you do yourself very well all things considered look at those gloves for instance who could possibly feel cold when wearing them they are far too clumsy though for driving try them on and see and he tossed them through the door on to eustace's bed
and went on with his unpacking a minute later he heard a shrill cry of terror oh lord he heard it's in the glove quick saunders quick then came a smacking thud eustace had thrown it from him
i've chucked it into the bathroom he gasped it's hit the wall and fallen into the bath come now if you want to help saunders with a lighted candle in his hand looked over the edge of the bath there it was old and maimed dumb and blind
with a ragged hole in the middle crawling staggering trying to creep up the slippery sides only to fall back helpless stay there said saunders i'll empty a collar box or something and we'll jam it in it can't get out while i'm away
yes it can shouted eustace it's getting out now it's climbing up the plug chain no you brute you filthy brute you don't come back saunders it's getting away from me i can't hold it it's all slippery curse its claw
shut the window you idiot the top too as well as the bottom you utter idiot it's got out there was the sound of something dropping on to the hard flagstones below and eustace fell back fainting
for a fortnight he was ill i don't know what to make of it the doctor said to saunders i can only suppose that mister borlsover has suffered some great emotional shock you had better let me send someone to help you nurse him
and by all means indulge that whim of his never to be left alone in the dark i would keep a light burning all night if i were you but he must have more fresh air it's perfectly absurd this hatred of open windows eustace however
would have no one with him but saunders i don't want the other men he said they'd smuggle it in somehow i know they would don't worry about it old chap this sort of thing can't go on indefinitely you know i saw it this time as well as you
it wasn't half so active it won't go on living much longer especially after that fall i heard it hit the flags myself as soon as you're a bit stronger we'll leave this place not bag and baggage but with only the clothes on our backs
so that it won't be able to hide anywhere we'll escape it that way we won't give any address and we won't have any parcels sent after us cheer up eustace you'll be well enough to leave in a day or two the doctor says i can take you out in a chair to morrow
what have i done asked eustace why does it come after me i'm no worse than other men i'm no worse than you saunders you know i'm not it was you who were at the bottom of that dirty business in san diego and that was fifteen years ago
it's not that of course said saunders we are in the twentieth century and even the parsons have dropped the idea of your old sins finding you out before you caught the hand in the library it was filled with pure malevolence to you and all mankind
after you spiked it through with that nail it naturally forgot about other people and concentrated its attention on you it was shut up in the safe you know for nearly six months that gives plenty of time for thinking of revenge
eustace borlsover would not leave his room but he thought that there might be something in saunders's suggestion to leave brighton without notice he began rapidly to regain his strength
though at midday the windows had been wide open they had been shut an hour or so before dusk missus prince had long since ceased to wonder at the strange habits of the gentlemen on the first floor soon after their arrival
she had been told to take down the heavy window curtains in the two bedrooms
nothing was left lying about mister borlsover doesn't like to have any place where dirt can collect saunders had said as an excuse he likes to see into all the corners of the room couldn't i open the window just a little he said to eustace that evening
we're simply roasting in here you know no leave well alone we're not a couple of boarding school misses fresh from a course of hygiene lectures get the chessboard out they sat down and played
at ten o'clock missus prince came to the door with a note i am sorry i didn't bring it before she said but it was left in the letter box open it saunders and see if it wants answering it was very brief there was neither address nor signature
will eleven o'clock to night be suitable for our last appointment who is it from asked borlsover it was meant for me said saunders there's no answer missus prince and he put the paper into his pocket a dunning letter from a tailor
i suppose he must have got wind of our leaving it was a clever lie and eustace asked no more questions they went on with their game
blurting out the quarter hours check said eustace the clock struck eleven at the same time there was a gentle knocking on the door it seemed to come from the bottom panel who's there asked eustace
there was no answer missus prince is that you she is up above said saunders i can hear her walking about the room then lock the door bolt it too your move saunders while saunders sat with his eyes on the chessboard
eustace walked over to the window and examined the fastenings he did the same in saunders's room and the bathroom there were no doors between the three rooms or he would have shut and locked them too now saunders he said don't stay all night over your move
i've had time to smoke one cigarette already it's bad to keep an invalid waiting there's only one possible thing for you to do what was that the ivy blowing against the window there it's your move now eustace
it wasn't the ivy you idiot it was someone tapping at the window and he pulled up the blind on the outer side of the window clinging to the sash was the hand what is it that it's holding it's a pocket knife
it's going to try to open the window by pushing back the fastener with the blade well let it try said eustace those fasteners screw down they can't be opened that way anyhow we'll close the shutters it's your move saunders i've played
but saunders found it impossible to fix his attention on the game he could not understand eustace who seemed all at once to have lost his fear what do you say to some wine he asked you seem to be taking things coolly
but i don't mind confessing that i'm in a blessed funk you've no need to be there's nothing supernatural about that hand saunders i mean it seems to be governed by the laws of time and space it's not the sort of thing that vanishes into thin air
or slides through oaken doors and since that's so i defy it to get in here we'll leave the place in the morning i for one have bottomed the depths of fear fill your glass man the windows are all shuttered
the door is locked and bolted pledge me my uncle adrian drink man what are you waiting for saunders was standing with his glass half raised it can get in he said hoarsely it can get in we've forgotten
there's the fireplace in my bedroom it will come down the chimney quick said eustace as he rushed into the other room we haven't a minute to lose what can we do light the fire saunders give me a match quick they must be all in the other room i'll get them
hurry man for goodness sake look in the bookcase look in the bathroom here come and stand here i'll look be quick shouted saunders i can hear something then plug a sheet from your bed up the chimney no here's a match he had found one at last
that had slipped into a crack in the floor is the fire laid good but it may not burn i know the oil from that old reading lamp and this cotton wool now the match quick pull the sheet away you fool we don't want it now
there was a great roar from the grate as the flames shot up saunders had been a fraction of a second too late with the sheet the oil had fallen on to it it too was burning the whole place will be on fire cried eustace
as he tried to beat out the flames with a blanket it's no good i can't manage it you must open the door saunders and get help saunders ran to the door and fumbled with the bolts the key was stiff in the lock hurry shouted eustace
the key turned in the lock at last for half a second saunders stopped to look back afterwards
but at the time he thought that something black and charred was creeping slowly very slowly from the mass of flames towards eustace borlsover for a moment he thought of returning to his friend
but the noise and the smell of the burning sent him running down the passage crying fire fire he rushed to the telephone to summon help and then back to the bathroom he should have thought of that before for water
to rostov who was crimson with excitement the staff captain kirsten had twice been reduced to the ranks for affairs of honor and had twice regained his commission
i will allow no one to call me a liar cried rostov he told me i lied and i told him he lied and there it rests he may keep me on duty every day
because if he as commander of this regiment thinks it beneath his dignity to give me satisfaction then you just wait a moment my dear fellow and listen interrupted the staff captain in his deep bass
calmly stroking his long mustache
but i am not a diplomatist that's why i joined the hussars thinking that here one would not need finesse and he tells me that i am lying
that's all right no one thinks you a coward but that's not the point ask denisov whether it is not out of the question for a cadet to demand satisfaction of his regimental commander
denisov sat gloomily biting his mustache and listening to the conversation evidently with no wish to take part in it he answered the staff captain's question by a disapproving shake of his head
you speak to the colonel about this nasty business before other officers continued the staff captain and bogdanich the colonel was called bogdanich shuts you up he did not shut me up
he said i was telling an untruth well have it so and you talked a lot of nonsense to him and must apologize not on any account exclaimed rostov
i did not expect this of you said the staff captain seriously and severely you don't wish to apologize but man
you go and blurt it all straight out before the officers now what was the colonel to do
is that how you look at it we don't see it like that and bogdanich was a brick he told you you were saying what was not true it's not pleasant
but what's to be done my dear fellow you landed yourself in it and now when one wants to smooth the thing over some conceit prevents your apologizing and you wish to make the whole affair public
you are offended at being put on duty a bit but why not apologize to an old and honorable officer whatever bogdanich may be anyway he is an honorable and brave old colonel
but you don't mind disgracing the whole regiment the staff captain's voice began to tremble
there are thieves among the pavlograd officers but it's not all the same to us am i not right denisov
denisov remained silent and did not move but occasionally looked with his glittering black eyes at rostov you value your own pride and don't wish to apologize continued the staff captain
but we old fellows who have grown up in and god willing are going to die in the regiment we prize the honor of the regiment and bogdanich knows it oh we do prize it old fellow
and all this is not right it's not right you may take offense or not but i always stick to mother truth it's not right and the staff captain rose and turned away from rostov
jumping up now then wostov now then rostov growing red and pale alternately looked first at one officer and then at the other no gentlemen no you mustn't think i quite understand
you're wrong to think that of me i for me for the honor of the regiment i'd ah well i'll show that in action and for me the honor of the flag well never mind it's true i'm to blame to blame all round
well what else do you want come that's right count cried the staff captain turning round and clapping rostov on the shoulder with his big hand i tell you shouted denisov he's a fine fellow
that's better count said the staff captain beginning to address rostov by his title as if in recognition of his confession go and apologize your excellency yes go gentlemen i'll do anything
no one shall hear a word from me said rostov in an imploring voice but i can't apologize by god i can't do what you will how can i go and apologize like a little boy asking forgiveness
denisov began to laugh it'll be worse for you bogdanich is vindictive and you'll pay for your obstinacy said kirsten no on my word it's not obstinacy
i can't describe the feeling i can't well it's as you like said the staff captain and what has become of that scoundrel he asked denisov he has weported himself sick he's to be stwuck off the list tomowwow
muttered denisov it is an illness there's no other way of explaining it said the staff captain illness or not he'd better not cwoss my path i'd kill him shouted denisov in a bloodthirsty tone
just then zherkov entered the room what brings you here cried the officers turning to the newcomer we're to go into action gentlemen mack has surrendered with his whole army it's not true
i've been sent back to the regiment all on account of that devil mack an austrian general complained of me i congratulated him on mack's arrival what's the matter rostov you look as if you'd just come out of a hot bath
oh my dear fellow we're in such a stew here these last two days
they were under orders to advance next day we're going into action gentlemen
all kept awake a long time that night is he really to be my husband this stranger who is so kind yes kind that is the chief thing
thought princess mary and fear which she had seldom experienced came upon her she feared to look round
black eyebrows and red lips she rang for her maid and asked her to sleep in her room
walked up and down the conservatory for a long time that evening vainly expecting someone now smiling at someone
rebuking her for her fall the little princess grumbled to her maid that her bed was badly made she could not lie either on her face or on her side
and her burden oppressed her now more than ever because anatole's presence had vividly recalled to her the time when she was not like that and when everything was light and gay
i told you it was all lumps and holes the little princess repeated i should be glad enough to fall asleep so it's not my fault and her voice quivered like that of a child about to cry
the old prince did not sleep either
he kept telling himself that he would consider the whole matter and decide what was right and how he should act but instead of that he only excited himself more and more
the first man that turns up she forgets her father and everything else
no she has no pride but i'll let her see the old prince knew that if he told his daughter she was making a mistake
princess mary's self esteem would be wounded and his point not to be parted from her would be gained so pacifying himself with this thought he called tikhon and began to undress
what devil brought them here thought he
i never invited them they came to disturb my life and there is not much of it left
gone to bed asked the prince
they have gone to bed and put out their lights your excellency no good no good said the prince rapidly and thrusting his feet into his slippers and his arms into the sleeves of his dressing gown he went to the couch on which he slept
up to the appearance of the pauvre mere they understood that they had much to say to one another in private and so they had been seeking an opportunity since morning to meet one another alone
when princess mary went to her father's room at the usual hour
it seemed to her that not only did everybody know that her fate would be decided that day but that they also knew what she thought about it she read this in tikhon's face
and in that of prince vasili's valet who made her a low bow when she met him in the corridor carrying hot water the old prince was very affectionate and careful in his treatment of his daughter that morning
the same words several times over he came to the point at once treating her ceremoniously i have had a proposition made me concerning you he said with an unnatural smile
i expect you have guessed that prince vasili has not come and brought his pupil with him
last night a proposition was made me on your account and as you know my principles
how am i to understand you mon pere said the princess growing pale and then blushing how understand me cried her father angrily
prince vasili finds you to his taste as a daughter in law and makes a proposal to you on his pupil's behalf that's how it's to be understood how understand it and i ask you
i do not know what you think father whispered the princess i i what of me leave me out of the question i'm not going to get married what
that's what i want to know the princess saw that her father regarded the matter with disapproval but at that moment the thought occurred to her that her fate would be decided now or never
she lowered her eyes so as not to see the gaze under which she felt that she could not think but would only be able to submit from habit and she said i wish only to do your will
but if i had to express my own desire she had no time to finish the old prince interrupted her that's admirable he shouted
the prince stopped he saw the effect these words had produced on his daughter she lowered her head and was ready to burst into tears now then now then i'm only joking he said
remember this princess i hold to the principle that a maiden has a full right to choose i give you freedom only remember that your life's happiness depends on your decision never mind me but i do not know father
there's no need to talk
but you are free to choose go to your room think it over and come back in an hour and tell me in his presence yes or no i know you will pray over it well pray if you like but you had better think it over
go yes or no yes or no yes or no he still shouted when the princess as if lost in a fog had already staggered out of the study her fate was decided and happily decided
it was untrue to be sure but still it was terrible and she could not help thinking of it she was going straight on through the conservatory neither seeing nor hearing anything
she raised her eyes and two steps away saw anatole embracing the frenchwoman and whispering something to her with a horrified expression on his handsome face anatole looked at princess mary
anatole's face seemed to say
in silence she could not understand it
as if inviting her to join in a laugh at this strange incident and then shrugging his shoulders went to the door that led to his own apartments an hour later tikhon came to call princess mary to the old prince
he added that prince vasili was also there
and gently stroking her hair
said princess mary and i will try to do all i can for your happiness but you despise me
oh only my poor mother i quite understand answered princess mary with a sad smile calm yourself my dear i will go to my father she said and went out
prince vasili with one leg thrown high over the other and a snuffbox in his hand was sitting there with a smile of deep emotion on his face as if stirred to his heart's core and himself regretting and laughing at his own sensibility
when princess mary entered he hurriedly took a pinch of snuff ah my dear my dear he began rising and taking her by both hands then sighing he added my son's fate is in your hands
whom i have always loved as a daughter
the prince is making a proposition to you in his pupil's i mean his son's
yes or no my desire is never to leave you father
i don't wish to marry she answered positively glancing at prince vasili and at her father with her beautiful eyes
cried prince bolkonski frowning and taking his daughter's hand he did not kiss her but only bending his forehead to hers just touched it and pressed her hand so that she winced and uttered a cry prince vasili rose
my dear i must tell you that this is a moment i shall never never forget but my dear will you not give us a little hope of touching this heart so kind and generous say perhaps the future is so long
say perhaps prince what i have said is all there is in my heart i thank you for the honor but i shall never be your son's wife well so that's finished my dear fellow
my vocation is a different one thought princess mary my vocation is to be happy with another kind of happiness the happiness of love and self sacrifice
she loves him so passionately and so passionately repents
how brave walter hunted wolves
there stands a house which is called hemgard perhaps you remember the two beautiful mountain ash trees by the reddish brown palings and the high gate
and the garden with the beautiful barberry bushes which are always the first to become grown in spring and which in summer are weighed down with their beautiful berries behind the garden
there is a hedge with tall aspens which rustle in the morning wind behind the hedge is a road
in the pretty house which has white window frames a neat porch and clean steps which are always strewn with finely cut juniper leaves walter's parents live his brother frederick
his sister lotta old lena jonah caro and bravo
caro lives in the dog house bravo in the stable putte with the stableman
that is his kingdom walter is six years old and he must soon begin to go to school he cannot read yet but he can do many other things he can turn cartwheels
stand on his head ride see saw throw snowballs play ball crow like a cock eat bread and butter and drink sour milk tear his trousers
wear holes in his elbows break the crockery in pieces throw balls through the windowpanes draw old men on important papers
and forgets his father's and his mother's admonitions and so often gets into trouble and meets with adventures as you shall hear but first of all i must tell you how brave he was
and how he hunted wolves once in the spring a little before midsummer walter heard that there were a great many wolves in the wood and that pleased him
he was wonderfully brave when he was in the midst of his companions or at home with his brothers and sister
one wolf is nothing there ought to be at least four when he wrestled with klas bogenstrom or frithiof waderfelt and struck them in the back he would say that is what i shall do to a wolf
but one must indeed believe him since he said so himself so jonas and lena used to say of him look there goes walter who shoots the wolves and other boys and girls would say
look there goes brave walter who is brave enough to fight with four there was no one so fully convinced of this as walter himself and one day
he prepared himself for a real wolf hunt he took with him his drum which had holes in one end since the time he had climbed up on it to reach a cluster of rowan berries and his tin sabre
which was a little broken because he had with incredible courage fought his way through a whole unfriendly army of gooseberry bushes he did not forget to arm himself quite to the teeth with his pop gun his bow
and his air pistol he had a burnt cork in his pocket to blacken his moustache and a red cock's feather to put in his cap to make himself look fierce he had besides in his trouser pocket
a clasp knife with a bone handle to cut off the ears of the wolves as soon as he had killed them for he thought it would be cruel to do that while they were still living
for walter got a seat on the load while caro ran barking beside them as soon as they came to the wood walter looked cautiously around him to see perchance there was a wolf in the bushes
and he did not omit to ask jonas if wolves were afraid of a drum of course they are that is understood said jonas
thereupon walter began to beat his drum with all his might while they were going through the wood when they came to the mill walter immediately asked if there had been any wolves in the neighbourhood lately
alas yes said the miller last night the wolves have eaten our fattest ram there by the kiln not far from here
we don't know
i should know if i should take jonas with me i could manage
i might not have time to kill them all before they ran away in walter's place
it is more manly said jonas no it is better for you to come too said walter perhaps there are many no i have not time said jonas and besides
there are sure not to be more than three walter can manage them very well alone yes said walter certainly i could but
me i certainly think that there will not be more than two said jonas there are never more than two when they slay children and rams walter can very well shake them without me
but you see jonas
and thrown him living on to his back and he can kick as much as he likes i shall hold him fast now when i really think over the thing said jonas i am almost sure there will not be more than one
what would two do with one ram there will certainly not be more than one but you should come with me all the same jonas said walter you see i can very well manage one
but i am not quite accustomed to wolves yet and he might tear holes in my new trousers well just listen said jonas
i am beginning to think that walter is not so brave as people say first of all walter would fight against four and then against three then two and then one and now
walter wants help with one
not at all frightened
walter can take the miller's little lisa with him she can sit on a stone and look on said jonas no she would certainly be frightened said walter
and you shall have the skin and i will be content with the ears and the tail no thank you said jonas walter can keep the skin for himself
now i see quite well that he is frightened
shame on him this touched walter's pride very near i shall show that i am not frightened he said and so he took his drum sabre
cock's feather clasp knife pop gun and air pistol and went off quite alone to the wood to hunt wolves it was a beautiful evening
and the birds were singing in all the branches walter went very slowly and cautiously at every step he looked all round him to see if perchance
there was anything lurking behind the stones he quite thought something moved away there in the ditch
it is better for me to beat the drum a little before i go there thought walter br r r so he began to beat his drum
walter immediately regained courage it was well i took my drum with me he thought and went straight on with courageous steps very soon he came quite close to the kiln
where the wolves had killed the ram but the nearer he came
it was so gray and old who knew how many wolves there might be hidden there perhaps
the very ones which killed the ram were still sitting there in a corner yes it was not at all safe here and there were no
other people to be seen in the neighbourhood it would be horrible to be eaten up here in the daylight thought walter to himself and the more he thought about it
and the more horrible and dreadful it seemed to become the food of wolves shall i go back and say that i struck one wolf and it escaped thought walter
do you not remember that a lie is one of the worst sins both in the sight of god and man if you tell a lie to day and say you struck a wolf to morrow surely it will eat you up
no i will go to the kiln thought walter and so he went but he did not go quite near he went only so near
that he could see the ram's blood which coloured the grass red and some tufts of wool which the wolves had torn from the back of the poor animal it looked so dreadful
when they ate him up thought walter to himself
ran through him from his collar right down to his boots it is better for me to beat the drum he thought to himself again and so he began to beat it
yes sure enough just then a shaggy reddish brown wolf's head looked out from under the kiln what did walter do now yes the brave walter who alone could manage four
threw his drum far away took to his heels and ran
but alas the wolf ran after him walter looked back the wolf was quicker than he and only a few steps behind him then walter ran faster but fear got the better of him
he neither heard nor saw anything more he ran over sticks stones and ditches he lost drum sticks sabre bow and air pistol and in his terrible hurry he tripped
over a tuft of grass there he lay
jumped on to him it was a gruesome tale now you may well believe that it was all over with walter and all his adventures that would have been a pity
but do not be surprised if it was not quite so bad as that for the wolf was quite a friendly one he certainly jumped on to walter but he only shook his coat and rubbed his nose against his face
and walter shrieked yes he shrieked terribly happily jonas heard his cry of distress for walter was quite near the mill now and he ran and helped him up what has happened he asked
i don't see any wolf take care
then jonas began to laugh yes he laughed so that he nearly burst his skin belt well well was that the wolf was that the wolf which walter
was to take by the neck and shake and throw down on its back no matter how much it struggled just look a little closer at him he is your old friend your own good old caro
i quite expect he found a leg of the ram in the kiln when walter beat his drum caro crept out and when walter ran away caro ran after him
down caro you ought to be rather ashamed to have put such a great hero to flight
down caro he said both relieved and annoyed it was only a dog then if it had been a wolf i certainly should have killed him if walter would listen to my advice
and boast a little less and do a little more said jonas consolingly walter is not a coward is he i you shall see jonas
you see i like so much better to fight with bears
suggestions to teachers possibly this book seems made up of four or five disconnected stories they are however strung upon one thread the westward emigration from norway
it gives the general setting that continues throughout the book in costume houses ideals habits
the mother country it is really an introductory chapter as for the other stories they are distinctly steps in the progress of the plot
a chain of islands loosely connects norway with america orkneys and shetlands faroes iceland greenland
discoveries were made by accident
these two points the island connection that made possible the long voyage from norway to america and the contribution of storm to discovery i have stated in the book only dramatically
i emphasize them here hoping that the teacher will make sure that the children see them and possibly that they state them abstractly let me speak as to the proper imaging of the stories
i have not often interrupted incident with special description not because i do not consider the getting of vivid and detailed images most necessary to full enjoyment
but because i trusted to the pictures of this book and to the teacher to do what seemed to me inartistic to do in the story
some of these descriptions and explanations i have introduced into the book in the form of notes hoping that the children
begin the habit of reference reading
and will greatly assist in giving reality and definiteness
materials for this study are not difficult of access foreign colored photographs of norwegian landscape are becoming common in our art stores there are good illustrations in the
geographical works referred to in the book list these
coast of norway by walton travels in the island of iceland by mackenzie voyage
by j p gaimard if the landscape is studied from the point of view of formation the images will be more accurate and more easily gained and
the study will have a general value that will continue past the reading of these stories into all work in geography trustworthy pictures of norse houses and costumes are difficult to obtain in
viking age and story of norway by boyesen g p putnam's sons new york are many copies of norse antiquities in the fashion of weapons shield bosses
coins jewelry wood carving these are of course accurate but of little interest to children their
metal working and wood carving were the most important arts of the norse if children study
and an appreciation of their power they may perhaps make something to merely illustrate norse work for instance a carved ship's head or a copper shield
but better they may apply norse ideas of form and decoration and norse processes
this work should lead out
frequent drawn or painted illustration by the children of costumes landscapes houses feast halls and ships will help to make these images clear but
if at last through the dramatization and the handwork the children should come into sufficient understanding and enthusiasm
to turn skalds and compose songs in the norse manner this requires only a small vocabulary and a rough feeling for simple rhythm but an intensity of emotion and a great vividness of image
these norse stories have to my thinking three values the men
the faithfulness to plighted word
again in form and in matter old norse literature is well worth our reading i should deem it a great thing accomplished if the children who read these stories
tempted after a while to read those fine old books to enjoy the tales to appreciate straightforwardness and simplicity of style
ericsson and the others seems to me to be not to learn the fact that norsemen discovered america before columbus did but to gain a conception of the conditions of early navigation
of the dangers of the sea and a consequent realization of
necessary to be done before
norse story is only one chapter in that tale of american discovery
on the subject that was once followed by
the idea in it is to give importance sequence reasonableness broad connections to the discovery of america
the head of the history department who planned this course says it is in a sense a dramatization of the development of geographical knowledge following is a bare topical outline of the work evolution
of the forms of boats viking tales a crusade as a tale of travel and discovery monasteries as centers of work printing
in brazil the beetles have such beautifully coloured hard shelled coats upon their backs that they are often set in pins and necklaces like precious stones once upon a time years and years ago
they had ordinary plain brown coats this is how it happened that the brazilian beetle earned a new coat one day a little brown beetle was crawling along a wall when a big grey rat
ran out of a hole in the wall and looked down scornfully at the little beetle o ho he said to the beetle how slowly you crawl along you'll never get anywhere in the world just look at me
and see how fast i can run the big grey rat ran to the end of the wall wheeled around and came back to the place where the little beetle was slowly crawling along
don't you wish that you could run like that
replied the little brown beetle politely her mother had taught her always to be polite
that a really polite beetle never boasts about her own accomplishments the little brown beetle never boasted a single boast
a bright green and gold parrot in the mango tree over the wall had heard the conversation
and just to make the race exciting
i'd like a yellow coat with stripes like the tiger's said the big grey rat
i'd like a beautiful bright coloured new coat too said the little brown beetle the big grey rat laughed long and loud until his gaunt grey sides were shaking why
you talk just as if you thought you had a chance to win the race he said when he could speak the bright green and gold parrot set the royal palm tree at the top of the cliff as the goal of the race
he gave the signal to start and then he flew away to the royal palm tree to watch for the end of the race the big grey rat ran as fast as he could then he thought how very tired he was getting
he said to himself the little brown beetle can not possibly win
it would be very different then he started to run more slowly but every time his heart beat it said hurry up hurry up the big grey rat decided
he could hardly believe his eyes he thought he must be having a bad dream there was the little brown beetle sitting quietly beside the bright green and gold parrot the big grey rat had never been so surprised in all his life
nobody said anything about having to run to win the race she replied so i flew instead
after this said the bright green and gold parrot never judge any one by his looks alone
find concealed wings you have lost the prize until this day even in brazil where the flowers and birds and beasts and insects have such gorgeous colouring the rat wears a plain dull grey coat
turned to the little brown beetle who was waiting quietly at his side what colour do you want your new coat to be he asked the little brown beetle looked up at the bright green and gold parrot at the green and gold palm trees above their heads
i choose a coat of green and gold she said from that day to this the brazilian beetle has worn a coat of green with golden lights upon it
for years and years the brazilian beetles were all very proud to wear green and gold coats like that of the beetle who raced with the rat then once upon a time it happened
she talked about it so much that finally her mother took her to the parrot who lived
you may change your coat for a blue one said the parrot but if you change you'll have to give up something oh i'll gladly give up
green and gold one said the discontented little beetle when she received her new coat she thought it was very beautiful
the blue beetles coats have not been hard and firm that is the reason why the jewellers have difficulty
from the moment that the little beetle put on her new blue coat she never grew again from that day to this the blue beetles have been much smaller than the green and gold ones when the brazilians made their flag they
the colour of the green beetle's coat within this square they placed a diamond of gold like the golden lights which play upon the green beetle's back
upon the blue circle they placed stars of silvery white like the silvery white lights on the back of the blue beetle about the blue circle of the earth
the puppy chewed my other golly i forgot i suppose i mustn't use this but it's my birthday next month and i want steen things
and i thought i'd better make a list to pin on the dining room door where the family could take their pick what to give me lorraine gave me this blank book and told me that if
i'd write down everything that i knew about peggy and harry goward and all that stuff she'd have sally make me three pounds of crumbly cookies with currants on top in a box
i'm going to keep them in the extra bureau drawer where peg puts her best party dress so i guess they'll be et up before anybody goes there peggy's feeling pretty sick now
to dress up for parties but
wouldn't alice be hopping
know a whacking secret that they'd all be excited about would make her mad enough to
burst she thinks she can read my ingrown soul too but i rather think i have my own interior thoughts that miss alice doesn't tumble to for instance doctor denbigh
golly i forgot lorraine said she'd cut down the cookies if
so i've got to begin back first then i've had the best time since peggy got engaged that i've ever had in my own home
and nobody asked if i'd taken a bath that was a sensible way to live but yet
wash stand drawer but i didn't care it doesn't hurt the towels and it's cosey for the toad i had a little snake a stunner but
he looked awfully cunning inside the collars but
let well enough alone and tried to be contented
he's my best friend i've had him six months
i wouldn't rather lose mother than him because you can get a step mother
a year ago i was fishing one day
river squatting under a bush on a bank when
came and plumped right over my head they didn't see me
they weren't noticing much
except their personal selves i thought
bother about a girl like peg who can't do anything
and was on the foot ball team
you can see he's a jim dandy and
let anybody else abuse
yet all the same it's true i distinctly heard him say he loved her better than anything on earth i don't think he
it was the easter vacation and how she was only a stupid girl and
never forget her one minute all his life
she'd had sally make for me to entirely eat by myself and
heard him ask her what is it dear dear your grandmother she said then why wouldn't he let her be engaged to him like anybody else
and it was hard on a girl
a little and they didn't either of them say anything for a while but there were soft rustling sounds a trout was after my bait so i didn't
listen carefully when i noticed again doctor denbigh was saying how
it was his duty to take care of her and not allow her to make a mistake that might ruin her life
and a lot more peg said that forty wasn't old and he was young enough for her and she was certain certain i don't know
and then doctor denbigh said
and they said the same thing over a lot i heard him murmur call me jack just once and she murmured back as if it was a stunt jack and then rustlings
then after another
that i stood up to see what they were up to getting to my feet i swung the line around and the bait flopped up the bank and hit peg square in the mouth i give you my word i didn't mean to
didn't she squeal bloody murder
she's no sort of sport
she can't see a joke at all now alice is a horrid meddler she and maria yet alice is a sport
i've seen that girl with a beetle in her hair which i put there keep her teeth shut and not make a sound only a low gurgle
then she lammed me i tell you i respected her for it too but
oh golly
house in a rich norseman's home were many buildings the finest and largest was the great feast hall next were the bower where the women worked
besides these were storehouses stables
a sleeping house for thralls
covered with tar to fill the cracks and to keep the wood from rotting the ends of the logs the door posts the peaks of gables were carved into shapes of men and animals and were painted
with bright colors these gay buildings were close together
that yard was a busy and pleasant place with men and women running across from one bright building to another sometimes a high fence with one gate went around all this and only the tall carved peaks of
roofs showed from the outside names an old norse story says most men had two names in one and thought it likeliest to lead to long life and good luck to have double names
to be called after a
thorstein means thor's stone thorkel means thor's fire thorbiorn means thor's bear gudbrand means gunnr's sword
gudrid means gunnr's rider gudrod means
most of the land in old norway was covered with forests when a man got new land he had to clear off the trees in those olden days a man did not have a surname that belonged to everyone in his family
sometimes there were two or three men of the same name in a neighborhood that caused trouble people thought of two ways of making it easy to tell which man was being spoken of each was given a nickname suppose
one would be called haki the black because he had black hair the other would be called haki the ship chested because his chest was broad and strong these nicknames were often given only for the fun of it
most men had them eric the red leif the lucky harald hairfair rolf go afoot the other way of knowing
was to tell his father's name
eric's son
if you speak these names quickly they sound like haki ericsson
and men handed them on to their sons and daughters
way swanson anderson peterson jansen there was another reason for these last names a man was proud to have people
know who his father was drinking horns the norsemen had few cups or goblets they
polished and trimmed with gold or silver or bronze they were often very beautiful and a man was almost as proud of his drinking horn
tables before a meal thralls
hall and set them before the benches then they laid long boards across from trestle to trestle
people sat at the outside edge only so the thralls served from the middle of the room they put baskets of bread and wooden platters of meat upon these bare boards at the end of
and the drinking horns went round in a clean room beds around the sides of the feast hall were shut beds they were like big boxes with doors opening into the hall
on the floor of this box was straw with blankets thrown over it
and so shut themselves in olaf's men
then the people
for on the other side of the bed was the thick outside wall
and there were no windows in it
down the middle of the room were flat stones in the dirt floor here the fires burned in the roof above these fires were holes for the smoke to go out
there were no large windows in a feast hall
high up under the eaves or in the roof itself were narrow slits that were called wind's eyes
for the norsemen did not know how to make it but there were instead covers made of thin oiled skin these were put into the wind's eyes in stormy weather there were covers too
so on dark days the people needed the fire as much for light as for warmth foster father
a norse father sent his children away from home to grow up they went when they were three or four years old and stayed until they were grown the father thought
much petting foster brothers
then they went and cut three long pieces of turf
telling the duties of foster brothers the two men walked under this arch and each made a little cut in his palm
of the two flowed together and they said now we are of one blood
i will fight for my foster brother whenever he shall need me if he is killed before i am i will punish the man who did it whatever things i own are as much my foster brother's as mine
and all the gods to hear my vow may they hate me if i break it ran ran was the wife of aegir
they lived in a cave at the bottom of the ocean ran had a great net and she caught in it all men who were shipwrecked and took them to her cave
she also caught all the gold and rich treasures that went down in ships so her cave was filled with shining things valkyrias these were the maidens of odin
they waited on the table in valhalla but whenever a battle was being fought they rode through the air on their horses and watched to see what warriors were brave enough to go to valhalla
sometimes during the fight a man would think that he saw the valkyrias
an old norse story says
with lightning around them with bloody shirts of mail and with shining spears they ride through the air and the ocean when their horses shake their manes
dew falls on the deep valleys and hail on the high forests odin's ravens odin had a great throne in his palace in asgard when he sat in it he could look all over the world
all that they have heard and seen
at dawn of day to see over the whole world they return at evening near meal time
reykjavik reykjavik means smoky sea ingolf called it that because of the steaming hot springs by the sea the place is still called reykjavik
a little city has grown up there the only city in iceland it is the capital of the country peace bands a norseman always carried his sword even at a feast
for he did not know when he might need it but when he went somewhere on an errand of peace and had no quarrel he tied his sword
at once something happened to make him need his sword he broke the peace bands and drew it out eskimos now the eskimos live in greenland and alaska and
on the very northern shores of canada but once they lived farther south in pleasanter lands
that the eskimos had so they fought again and again with those people and
were on the very shores of the cold sea with the indians still pushing them on so some of them got into their boats and rowed across the narrow water and came to greenland and lived there
some people think that these things happened before eric found greenland in that case he found eskimos there and thorfinn saw red indians in wineland
that this happened after eric went to greenland
the sun had scarcely shone strictly speaking during the day which nevertheless had been unpleasantly warm a smoky mist resembling that of the indian summer enveloped all things and of course added to my uncertainty
not that i cared much about the matter if i did not hit upon the village before sunset or even before dark it was more than possible that a little dutch farmhouse or something of that kind would soon make its appearance
although in fact the neighborhood perhaps on account of being more picturesque than fertile was very sparsely inhabited at all events with my knapsack for a pillow and my hound as a sentry
i sauntered on therefore quite at ease
until at length just as i had begun to consider whether the numerous little glades that led hither and thither
even to the passage of a virginian mountain wagon the most aspiring vehicle i take it of its kind the road however except in being open through the wood if
wheel tracks bore no resemblance to any road i had before seen the tracks of which i speak were but faintly perceptible having been impressed upon the firm yet pleasantly moist surface of what looked more like
green genoese velvet than any thing else it was grass clearly but grass such as we seldom see out of england
kind of half precise half negligent and wholly picturesque definition clumps of wild flowers grew everywhere luxuriantly in the interspaces what to make of all this of course
i knew not here was art undoubtedly that did not surprise me all roads in the ordinary sense are works of art nor can i say that there was much to wonder at in the mere excess of art manifested
all that seemed to have been done might have been done here with such natural capabilities as they have it in the books on landscape gardening with very little labor and expense no
it was not the amount but the character of the art which caused me to take a seat on one of the blossomy stones and gaze up and down this fairy like avenue for half an hour or more in bewildered admiration one thing became more and more evident the longer i gazed
an artist and one with a most scrupulous eye for form had superintended all these arrangements the greatest care had been taken to preserve a due medium between the neat and graceful on the one hand
everywhere was variety in uniformity it was a piece of composition in which the most fastidiously critical taste
presently the murmur of water fell gently upon my ear and in a few moments afterward as i turned with the road somewhat more abruptly than hitherto i became aware that a building of some kind
lay at the foot of a gentle declivity just before me i could see nothing distinctly on account of the mist which occupied all the little valley below a gentle breeze however now arose as the sun was about descending and
the fog gradually became dissipated into wreaths
as it came fully into view thus gradually as i describe it piece by piece here a tree there a glimpse of water and here again the summit of a chimney
the sun had made its way down behind the gentle hills and thence
had come again fully into sight glaring with a purplish lustre through a chasm that entered the valley from the west suddenly therefore and as if by the hand of magic this whole valley and
every thing in it became brilliantly visible
not even the monstrosity of color was wanting for the sunlight came out through the chasm tinted all orange and purple while the vivid green of the grass in the valley was reflected more or less upon all objects from the curtain of vapor that still hung overhead
the little vale into which i thus peered down from under the fog canopy could not have been more than four hundred yards long while in breadth it varied from
but with no very precise regularity the widest portion was within eighty yards of the southern extreme the slopes which encompassed the vale could not fairly be called hills unless at their northern face here
and as i have mentioned the valley at this point was not more than fifty feet wide but as the visiter proceeded southwardly from the cliff he found on his right hand and on his left
declivities at once less high less precipitous and less rocky all in a word sloped and softened to the south and yet the whole vale was engirdled by eminences more or less high except at two points
one of these i have already spoken of it lay considerably to the north of west and was where the setting sun made its way as i have before described into the amphitheatre through a cleanly cut natural cleft in the granite embankment
this fissure might have been ten yards wide at its widest point so far as the eye could trace it it seemed to lead up
here generally the slopes were nothing more than gentle inclinations extending from east to west about
in the middle of this extent was a depression
up sprang the magnificent trunks of numerous hickories black walnuts and chestnuts
spread far over the edge of the cliff
at first the same class of trees
salvatorish in character then he saw the gentler elm succeeded by the sassafras and locust these again by the softer linden red bud catalpa and maple
these yet again by still more graceful and more modest varieties the whole face of the southern declivity was covered with wild shrubbery alone an occasional silver willow or white poplar excepted
in the bottom of the valley itself for it must be borne in mind that the vegetation hitherto mentioned grew only on the cliffs or hillsides were to be seen three insulated trees
one was an elm of fine size and exquisite form it stood guard over the southern gate of the vale another was a hickory much larger than the elm and altogether a much finer tree although both were exceedingly beautiful
springing from a group of rocks in the very jaws of the ravine and throwing its graceful body at an angle of nearly forty five degrees far out into the sunshine of the amphitheatre about thirty yards east of this tree stood
however the pride of the valley and beyond all question the most magnificent tree i have ever seen unless perhaps among the cypresses of the itchiatuckanee it was a triple stemmed tulip tree
one of the natural order of magnolias
and diverging very slightly and gradually
shot out into foliage this was at an elevation of about eighty feet
upon the whole averse to matrimony she had told miss macnulty of her prospects
and the poor dependant though she knew that she must be turned out into the street had congratulated her patroness the vulturess will
go lizzie had said displaying indeed some accurate discernment of her aunt's character but after lady fawn's visit she spoke of the marriage in a different tone of course my dear i shall have to look
i suppose the lawyers will do that said miss macnulty yes lawyers that's all very well i know what lawyers are
any lawyer to give away my property of course we shall live at portray because his place is in ireland and nothing shall take me to ireland i told him that from the very first but i don't mean to give up my own income
it may seem unjust to accuse her of being stupidly unacquainted with circumstances and a liar at the same time but she was both
and miss macnulty did not comprehend the depth of the ignorance of her patroness thus the lies which lizzie told were amazing to miss macnulty to say that lord fawn was in the cabinet when
all the world knew that he was an under secretary what
lord fawn was a lord and even commoners were in the cabinet of course he is said lizzie but i sha'n't have my drawing room made a cabinet they sha'n't come here and then again on the tuesday evening
she displayed her independence as for those women down at richmond i don't mean to be overrun by them i can tell you i said i would go there and of course i shall keep my word
i think you had better go said miss macnulty of course i shall go
and where i'm not but it'll be about the first and the last visit and as for bringing those dowdy girls out in london it's the last thing i shall think of doing indeed i doubt whether they can afford to dress themselves
dislike to everything appertaining to the fawn family she had even ridiculed lord fawn himself declaring that he understood nothing about anything beyond his office and in truth
lizzie almost had made up her mind to break it off all that she would gain did not seem to weigh down with sufficient preponderance all that she would lose such were her feelings on the tuesday night but on the wednesday morning
which threw her back violently upon the fawn interest the note was as follows
they have received instructions to proceed by law for the recovery of the eustace diamonds now in lady eustace's hands and will feel obliged to lady eustace if she will communicate to them
the name and address of her attorney sixty two new square
effect of this note was to drive lizzie back upon the fawn interest she was frightened about the diamonds and was nevertheless almost determined not to surrender them at any rate
in such a strait she would want assistance either in keeping them or in giving them up the lawyer's letter afflicted her with a sense of weakness
as lord fawn was so poor perhaps he would adhere to the jewels she knew that she could not fight mister camperdown with no other assistance than what
and therefore her heart softened towards her betrothed i suppose frederic will be here to day she said to miss macnulty as they sat at breakfast together about noon miss macnulty nodded
you can have a cab you know if you like to go anywhere miss macnulty said she thought she would go to the national gallery and you can walk back you know said lizzie i can walk there
so that she might put her hand upon it at once
frederic sat himself beside her and the intercourse for awhile was such as might be looked for between two lovers of whom one was a widow
talking chiefly of things material each flattering the other and each hinting now and again at certain little circumstances of which a more accurate knowledge seemed to be desirable
the one was conversant with things in general but was slow the other was quick as a lizard in turning hither and thither but knew almost nothing
her own to do what she liked with she did not know that he would certainly find out the truth from other sources before he married her indeed she was not quite sure herself
whether the statement was true or false though she would not have made it so frequently had her idea of the truth been a fixed idea it had all been explained to her
but there had been something about a second son and there was no second son perhaps she might have a second son yet a future little lord fawn and he might inherit it in regard to honesty
the man was superior to the woman because his purpose was declared and he told no lies but the one was as mercenary as the other it was not love that had brought lord fawn to mount street
there is no house you know but there was one frederic the town land where the house used to be is called killeagent
and and does it go a great many miles lord fawn explained that it did run a good many miles up into the mountains how beautifully romantic said lizzie but the people live on the mountain
but he did inquire who was lizzie's solicitor of course there will be things to be settled he said and my lawyer had better see yours mister camperdown is a mister camperdown
almost shrieked lizzie lord fawn then explained with some amazement that mister camperdown was his lawyer as far as his belief went
had any objection to mister camperdown mister camperdown was sir florian's lawyer said lizzie that will make it all the easier i should think said lord fawn i
don't know how that may be said lizzie trying to bring her mind to work upon the subject steadily mister camperdown has been very uncourteous to me i must say that and as i think unfair
he wishes to rob me now of a thing that is quite my own what sort of a thing asked lord fawn slowly a very valuable thing i'll tell you all about it frederic of course
i'll tell you everything now i never could keep back anything from one that i loved it's not my nature there you might as well read that note then she put her hand back and brought mister camperdown's letter from under the bible
in the discretion and honesty of his own family lawyer what his lawyer tells him to do he does what his lawyer tells him to sign he signs
altogether my own sir florian gave them to me when he put them into my hands he said that they were to be my own for ever and ever there said he
to do what you choose with them after that
ought they if you had been married before and your wife had given you a keepsake to keep for ever and ever would you give it up to a lawyer you would not like it would you frederic she had put her hand on his
again perhaps the acting was a little overdone
diamonds family diamonds said lord fawn what do they consist of what are they worth i'll show them to you said lizzie jumping up
to demand from her the surrender of any trinket which her late husband
in the manner she had described but it was to his thinking most improbable that the eustace people or the lawyer should be harsh to a widow bearing the eustace name the eustaces were
by disposition lavish and old mister camperdown was not one who would be strict in claiming little things for rich clients and yet here was his letter threatening the widow of the late baronet with legal proceedings
for the recovery of jewels which had been given by sir florian himself to his wife as a keepsake perhaps sir florian had made some mistake
some jewel which he had thought to be his own but which had in truth been an heirloom if so the jewel should of course be surrendered or replaced by one of equal value he was making out some such solution
when lizzie returned with the morocco case in her hand it was the manner in which he gave it to me said lizzie as she opened the clasp which makes its value to me lord fawn
knew nothing about jewels but even he knew that if the circle of stones which he saw with a maltese cross appended to it was constituted of real diamonds the thing must be of great value
that such a necklace is not given by a husband even to a bride
or brooch or perhaps a bracelet a lover or a loving lord may bring in his pocket but such an ornament as this on which lord fawn was now looking is given in another sort of way he felt sure
that it was so even though he was entirely ignorant of the value of the stones do you know what it is worth he asked lizzie
and then remembered that frederic in his present position in regard to herself might be glad to assist her in maintaining the possession of a substantial property
thousand pounds she replied ten thousand pounds lord fawn riveted his eyes upon them that's what i am told by a jeweller
by what jeweller a man had to come and see them about some repairs or something of that kind poor sir florian wished it
what was the man's name i forget his name said lizzie who was not quite sure whether her acquaintance with mister benjamin would be considered respectable ten thousand pounds you don't keep them in the house
do you i have an iron case up stairs for them ever so heavy and did sir florian give you the iron case lizzie hesitated for a moment yes said she that is no
but he ordered it to be made and then it came after he was dead he knew their value then oh dear yes though he never named any sum he told me however that they were very very valuable
and almost of dismay an action for the recovery of jewels brought against the lady whom he was engaged to marry
and a greedy man but he would have abandoned his official salary at a moment's notice rather than there should have fallen on him a breath of public opinion hinting that it ought to be abandoned
he was especially timid and lived in a perpetual fear lest the newspapers should say something hard of him
he had been very wretched because frank greystock had accused him of being an administrator of tyranny he would have liked his wife to have ten thousand pounds worth of diamonds very well
and without a wife's fortune
i think said he at last that
and then let the matter be settled by arbitration
that means going to law no dearest that means not going to law the diamonds would be entrusted to mister camperdown and then some one would be appointed to decide whose property they were
but he says they belong to the family he'll say anything said lizzie my dearest girl there can't be a more respectable man than mister camperdown you must do something of the kind you know
i sha'n't do anything of the kind said lizzie sir florian eustace gave them to me and i shall keep them she did not look at her lover as she spoke
and did not like the change which he saw on her countenance and he did not like the circumstances in which he found himself placed why should mister camperdown interfere continued lizzie if they don't belong to me they belong to my son and
as i have but they belong to me they should not be kept in a private house like this at all if they are worth all that money if i were to let them go mister camperdown would get them
there's nothing he wouldn't do to get them oh frederic i hope you'll stand to me and not see me injured of course i only want them for my darling child frederic's face had become very long
and he was much disturbed in his mind he could only suggest that he himself would go and see mister camperdown and ascertain what ought to be done
he adhered to his assurance that mister camperdown could do no evil till lizzie in her wrath asked him whether he believed mister camperdown's word before hers i think he would understand a matter of business
better than you said the prudent lover
when lord fawn took his leave
and again to leave the matter in mister camperdown's hands the two were not in good accord together it was his fixed purpose as he declared to her to see mister camperdown and it was her fixed purpose
so at least she declared to him to keep the diamonds in spite of mister camperdown but my dear if it's decided against you said lord fawn gravely
then lizzie looked at him and her look which was very eloquent called him a poltroon as plain as a look could speak then they parted
were not satisfactory the door was hardly closed behind him before lizzie began to declare to herself that he shouldn't escape her it was not yet twenty four hours since she had been telling herself
and would break it off and now she was stamping her little feet and clenching her little hands and swearing to herself by all her gods that this wretched timid lordling should not get out of her net
she did in truth despise him because he would not clutch the jewels she looked upon him as mean and paltry because he was willing to submit to mister camperdown but still she was prompted to demand
because she thought that she perceived a something in him which might produce in him a desire to be relieved from it no he should not be relieved he should marry her and she would keep the key of that iron box with the diamonds and
i do not suppose that even you can say anything against such an alliance i am your affectionate niece
then she wrote to missus eustace the wife of the bishop of bobsborough missus eustace had been very kind to her in the first days of her widowhood and had fully recognised her as the widow of the head of her husband's family
they were according to her ideas slow respectable and dull but they had not found much open fault with her and she was aware that it was for her interest
her letter therefore to missus eustace
acrid than that written to her aunt linlithgow my dear missus eustace i hope you will be glad to hear from me and will not be sorry to hear my news
i am going to be married again of course
which is in every way so very important without thinking about it a great deal but i am sure
every way and as for myself i have felt for the last two years how unfitted i have been to manage everything myself i have therefore accepted an offer made to me
by lord fawn who is as you know a peer of parliament and a most distinguished member of her majesty's government
and has a property in ireland extending over ever so many miles and running up into the mountains his mansion there
but i am not sure that i remember the name quite rightly i hope i may see you there some day and the dear bishop i look forward with delight to doing something to make those dear irish happier
the idea of rambling up into our own mountains charms me for nothing suits my disposition so well as that kind of solitude of course lord fawn is not so rich a man as sir florian
but i have never looked to riches for my happiness not but what lord fawn has a good income from his irish estates and then of course he is paid for doing her majesty's government
so there is no fear that he will have to live upon my jointure which of course would not be right pray tell the dear bishop and dear margaretta all this with my love
you will be happy i know to hear that my little flo is quite well he is already so fond of his new papa lizzie's turn for lying was exemplified in this last statement for
there were two other letters one to her uncle the dean and the other to her cousin frank
the letter to the dean need not be given in full as it was very similar to that written to the bishop's wife the same mention was made of her intended husband's peerage
a phrase which she had heard from lord fawn himself she spoke of the irish property but in terms less glowing than she had used in writing to the lady and ended by asking for her uncle's congratulation
and blessing her letter to frank was as follows and doubtless as she wrote it there was present to her mind
might have offered to her and have had her if he would my dear cousin as i would rather that you should hear my news from myself than from any one else i write to tell you that
but still i do not doubt but you will think that he is quite able to take care of your poor little cousin it was only settled a day or two since but it has been coming on ever so long
and if the dean doesn't come up to town you must give me away and you must come and see me ever so often for i have a sort of feeling that
call really my own except you and
must give up saying that he doesn't do his work properly
except cousin frank i am going down next week to richmond lady fawn has insisted on my staying there for a fortnight oh dear what shall i do all the time
you must positively come down and see me and see somebody else too
your affectionate cousin
somebody in speaking on lady eustace's behalf and making the best of her virtues had declared that she did not have lovers hitherto that had been true of her
she would be willing to share even them it was but a dream but nevertheless it pervaded her fancy constantly lord fawn peer of parliament and member of her majesty's government as he was
if nothing more a mutual sympathy which should be chiefly shown in the abuse of all their friends and in this
the observatory in arizona in eighteen ninety four after a careful search for the best atmospheric conditions
very dry and uniform climate
besides two smaller ones all of the best quality to these he added in eighteen ninety six a telescope with twenty four inch object glass the last work of the celebrated firm of alvan clark and sons with which he has made his later discoveries
besides doing much valuable astronomical work on other planets
mister lowell published an illustrated volume giving a full account of his observations of mars
chiefly for the use of astronomers and he has now given us a popular volume summarising the whole of his work on the planet and published both in america and england by the macmillan company this very interesting volume
is fully illustrated with twenty plates four of them coloured and more than forty figures in the text showing the great variety of details from which the larger general maps have been constructed
both as to the habitability of mars and as to its being actually inhabited by beings comparable with ourselves in intellect the larger part of the work is in fact devoted to a detailed description of what he terms
the non natural features of the planet's surface including especially
the oases as he terms the dark spots at their intersections
depending partly on the martian seasons while the five concluding chapters deal with the possibility of animal life and the evidence in favour of it he also upholds the theory of the canals having been constructed for the purpose of
husbanding the scanty water supply that exists and throughout the whole of this argument he clearly shows that he considers the evidence to be satisfactory
and that the only intelligible explanation of the whole of the phenomena he so clearly sets forth is that the inhabitants of mars have carried out on their small and naturally inhospitable planet
a vast system of irrigation works far greater both in its extent in its utility and its effect upon their world as a habitation for civilised beings
where our destructive agencies are perhaps more prominent than those of an improving and recuperative character a challenge to the thinking world this volume is therefore in the nature of a challenge
not so much to astronomers as to the educated world at large to investigate the evidence for so portentous a conclusion to do this requires only a general acquaintance with modern science
that the features termed canals are really works of art and necessitate the presence of intelligent organic beings requires only care and judgment in drawing conclusions from admitted facts
judging from the evidence then available and
of so speculative a subject i propose here to point out what the facts as stated by mister lowell himself do not render even probable much less prove
or superior to ourselves as most popular works on astronomy for the last ten years at least as well as many scientific periodicals and popular magazines have reproduced some of the maps of mars by schiaparelli lowell and others
be fully able to appreciate mister lowell's account of his own further discoveries
and often extending to a thousand or even over two thousand miles in length they are seen to cross both the light and the dark regions of the planet's surface often extending up to or starting from the polar snow caps most of these lines
ever occur at lowland stations even with the best instruments and almost all are seen to be as perfectly straight as if drawn with a ruler the double canals
under exceptionally favourable conditions many of the lines that have been already seen single appear double a pair of equally fine lines exactly parallel
throughout their whole length and appearing as mister lowell says clear cut upon the disc its twin lines
mister lowell says he has now seen them hundreds of times and that his first view of one was the most startlingly impressive sight he has ever witnessed dimensions of the canals
in order that readers may appreciate their full strangeness and inexplicability
or occasionally seen to be double the appearance of duplicity being more or less
curious triangulation has been traced over almost every portion of the planet's surface whether dark or light whether greenish ochre or brown in colour in some parts they are much closer together than in others
was a matter of extreme difficulty two such portions are figured at pages two hundred forty seven and two hundred fifty six of mister lowell's volume the oases
the curious circular black spots which are seen at the intersections of many of the canals and which in some parts of the surface are very numerous are said to be more difficult of detection than even the lines
being often blurred or rendered completely invisible by slight irregularities in our own atmosphere while the canals themselves continue visible
are estimated to vary from seventy five to one hundred miles in diameter there are however many much smaller down to minute and barely visible black points yet they all seem a little larger than the canals which enter them
where the canals are double the spots or oases as mister lowell terms them lie between the two parallel canals no one can read this book without admiration for the extreme perseverance in long continued
and successful observation the results of which are here recorded and i myself accept unreservedly the substantial accuracy of the whole series
and that much of it has only been seen under very rare and exceptional conditions it is therefore quite possible that if at some future time a further considerable advance in instrumental power should be made
or a still more favourable locality be found the new discoveries might so modify present appearances as to render a satisfactory explanation of them more easy than it is at present but though i wish to do the
fullest justice to mister lowell's technical skill and long years of persevering work which have brought to light the most complex and remarkable appearances that any of the heavenly bodies present to us i am obliged
absolutely to part company with him as regards the startling theory of artificial production which he thinks alone adequate to explain them so much is this the case that the very phenomena
which to him seem to demonstrate the intervention of intelligent beings working for the improvement of their own environment
this fact gave the impulse to that idea of similarity in the conditions of mars and the earth
and the more ruddy and brighter portions as land further increased added to this a day only about half an hour longer than our own and a succession of seasons of the same character as ours but of nearly double the length owing to its much longer year
the canals discovered by schiaparelli
at each successive favourable opposition these strange objects called canali channels by their discoverer but rather misleadingly canals in england and america
were observed by means of all the great telescopes in the world and their reality and general features became well established in schiaparelli's first map they were represented as being much broader and less sharply defined than he himself
and other observers found by later and equally favourable observations that they really were discovery of the double canals in eighteen eighty one another strange feature was discovered by schiaparelli
who found that about twenty canals which had previously been seen single were now distinctly double
equally distinct and either very close together or a considerable distance apart this curious appearance was at first thought to be due to some instrumental defect or optical illusion
it became in time accepted as a real phenomenon of the planet's surface round spots discovered in eighteen ninety two at the favourable opposition of eighteen ninety two mister w h pickering
noticed that besides the seas of various sizes there were numerous very small black spots apparently quite circular and occurring at every intersection or starting point of the canals
but mister pickering's observatory was at arequipa in peru about eight thousand feet above the sea and with such perfect atmospheric conditions as were in his opinion equal to a
doubling of telescopic aperture they were soon detected by other observers especially by mister lowell in eighteen ninety four
scattered over the orange ochre groundwork of the continental regions of the planet are any number of dark round spots
the more of them there seem to be in spite however of their great number there is no instance of one unconnected with a canal
reversely all the junctions appear to be provided with spots
make a most curious network over
a mass of lines and knots the one marking being as omnipresent as the other
it was fully recognised that a regular course of change occurred dependent upon the succession of the seasons
as the polar snows melt the adjacent seas appear to overflow and spread out as far as the tropics and are often seen to assume a distinctly green colour
these remarkable changes and the extraordinary phenomena of perfect straight lines crossing each other over a large portion of the planet's surface with the circular spots at their intersections had such an appearance of artificiality
was first hinted at and then adopted as the only intelligible explanation by mister lowell and a few other persons this at once seized upon the public imagination and was spread by the newspapers and magazines
over the whole civilised world existence of seas doubted at this time eighteen ninety four it began to be doubted whether there were any seas at all on mars professor pickering
thought they were far more limited in size than had been supposed
professor barnard with the lick thirty six inch telescope discerned an astonishing wealth of detail on the surface of mars so intricate minute and abundant that it baffled all attempts to delineate it and these peculiarities
as well as on the land surfaces in fact under the best conditions these seas lost all trace of uniformity their appearance being that of a mountainous country broken by ridges rifts and canyons seen from a great elevation
chapter eight summary and conclusion this little volume has necessarily touched upon a great variety of subjects in order to deal in a tolerably complete manner with the very
it may therefore be well to sum up the main points of the arguments against his view introducing a few other facts and considerations which greatly strengthen my argument
the one great feature of mars which led mister lowell to adopt the view of its being inhabited by a race of highly intelligent beings and with ever increasing discovery to uphold this theory to the present time
their enormous length their great abundance and their extension over the planet's whole surface from one polar snow cap to the other
the very immensity of this system and its constant growth and extension during fifteen years of persistent observation have so completely taken possession of his mind that after a very hasty glance
at analogous facts and possibilities he has declared them to be non natural' therefore to be works of art therefore to necessitate the presence of highly intelligent beings
who have designed and constructed them this idea has coloured or governed all his writings on the subject the innumerable difficulties which it raises have been either ignored or brushed aside on the flimsiest evidence
as examples he never even discusses the totally inadequate water supply for such worldwide irrigation or the extreme irrationality of constructing so vast a canal system the waste from which by evaporation
when exposed to such desert conditions as he himself describes would use up ten times the probable supply again he urges the purpose displayed in these canals their being all so straight
all describing great circles of the sphere all being so evidently arranged as he thinks either to carry water to some oasis two thousand miles away or to reach some arid region far over the equator in the opposite hemisphere
but he never considers the difficulties this implies everywhere these canals run for thousands of miles across waterless deserts forming a system and indicating a purpose the wonderful perfection of which
but which i myself can nowhere perceive yet he never even attempts to explain how the martians could have lived before this great system was planned and executed or why they did not
first utilise and render fertile the belt of land adjacent to the limits of the polar snows
and channels to irrigate the land close to the source of the water
fourths of mars to be did the inhabitants ever get to know anything of the equatorial regions and its needs
right away to supply those needs all this to my mind is quite opposed to the idea of their being works of art
as peculiar in origin and internal structure as it is in its surface features
and is i suggest far more scientific as well as more satisfactory than mister lowell's wholly unsupported speculation this view i have explained in some detail in the preceding chapter
mister lowell never even refers to the important question of loss by evaporation in these enormous open canals or considers the undoubted fact that the only intelligent and practical way
such great distances would be by a system of water tight and air tight tubes laid under the ground the mere attempt to use open canals for such a purpose
while it is certain that long before half of them were completed their failure to be of any use would have led any rational beings to cease constructing them he also fails to consider the difficulty that
how did the inhabitants ever reach a sufficiently large population with surplus food and leisure enabling them to rise from the low condition of savages to one of civilisation and ultimately to scientific knowledge
here again is a dilemma which is hard to overcome only a dense population with ample means of subsistence could possibly have constructed such gigantic works but given these two conditions
no adequate motive existed for the conception and execution of them even if they were likely to be of any use which i have shown they could not be further considerations on the climate of mars
recurring now to the question of climate which is all important mister lowell never even discusses the essential point the temperature that must necessarily result from an atmospheric envelope
one twelfth or at most one seventh the density of our own in either case corresponding to an altitude far greater than that of our highest mountains
surely this phenomenon everywhere manifested on the earth even under the equator of a regular decrease of temperature with altitude the only cause of which is a less dense atmosphere
should have been fairly grappled with and some attempt made to show why it should not apply to mars except the weak remark that on a level surface
but it does have the same effect or very nearly so on our lofty plateaux often hundreds of miles in extent in proportion to their altitude quito
at the mouth of the rio negro this is about a degree for each four hundred feet while the general fall for isolated mountains is about one degree in three hundred forty feet according to humboldt who notes
or more usually sheltered valleys in which the towns are situated
but if this were the case the soil at great altitudes not having so much of its heat taken up by the air should be warmer than below
but it certainly does not become warmer the more correct view seems to be that the loss of heat by radiation is increased so much through the rarity of the air above it as to more than counterbalance the increased insolation
so that though the surface of the earth at a given altitude may receive ten per cent more direct sun heat it loses by direct radiation combined with diminished air and cloud radiation perhaps twenty or twenty five per cent more
whence there is a resultant cooling effect of ten or fifteen per cent this acts by day as well as by night
with a denser atmosphere this effect is further intensified by the fact that a less dense cannot absorb and transmit so much heat as a more dense atmosphere
this law is that reduced atmospheric pressure increases radiation or loss of heat more rapidly than it increases insolation or gain of heat so that the result is always a considerable lowering of temperature
what this lowering is can be seen in the universal fact that even within the tropics perpetual snow covers the higher mountain summits while on the high plains of the andes at fifteen thousand or sixteen thousand feet altitude
travellers are often frozen to death when delayed by storms yet at this elevation the atmosphere has much more than double the density of that of mars
the error in mister lowell's argument is that he claims for the scanty atmosphere of mars that it allows more sun heat to reach the surface but he omits to take account of the enormously increased loss of heat by direct radiation
a fact which also serves to indicate a very low temperature for mars
these two independent arguments from alpine temperatures and from those of the moon support and enforce each other and afford a conclusive proof as against anything advanced by mister lowell that the temperature of mars must be far too low to support animal life
a third independent argument leading to the same result is doctor johnstone stoney's proof
to put the whole case in the fewest possible words
all physicists are agreed that owing to the distance of mars from the sun it would have a mean temperature
at about three times as high as on mars proves
as high as the freezing point of water and this proof is supported by langley's determination of the low maximum temperature of the full moon the combination of these two results must bring down the temperature of mars
to a degree wholly incompatible with the existence of animal life three the quite independent proof that water vapour cannot exist on mars and that therefore the first essential of organic life water
is non existent the conclusion from these three independent proofs which enforce each other in the multiple ratio of their respective weights is therefore irresistible that animal life
especially in its higher forms cannot exist on the planet mars therefore is not only uninhabited by intelligent beings such as mister lowell postulates but is absolutely
chapter four is animal life possible on mars having now shown that even admitting the accuracy of all mister lowell's observations
and provisionally accepting all his chief conclusions as to the climate the nature of the snow caps the vegetation and the animal life of mars yet his interpretation of the lines on its surface as being veritably canals
constructed by intelligent beings for the special purpose of carrying water to the more arid regions is wholly erroneous and rationally inconceivable i now proceed to discuss his more fundamental position
as to the actual habitability of mars by a highly organised and intellectual race of material organic beings water and air essential to life
here fortunately the issue is rendered very simple
and of physical laws throughout the solar system and that for any high form of organic life certain conditions which are absolutely essential on our earth must also exist in mars
and that an abundant vegetation is essential and these of course involve a surface temperature
that renders the existence of these especially of water possible and available for the purposes of a high and abundant animal life blue colour the only evidence of water
in attempting to show that these essentials actually exist on mars he is not very successful he adduces evidence of an atmosphere but of an exceedingly scanty one
since the greatest amount he can give to it is not more than about four inches of barometric pressure as we reckon it
and he assumes as he has a fair right to do till disproved that it consists of oxygen and nitrogen with carbon dioxide and water vapour in approximately the same proportions as with us
with regard to the last item the water vapour there are however many serious difficulties
oceans lakes and rivers as well as from the evaporation from heated lands and tropical forests of much of the moisture produced by frequent and abundant rains
no rain and tropical regions which are almost entirely desert
supposing that the snow caps are not formed of frozen water but of carbon dioxide or some other heavy gas in a frozen state and mister lowell evidently feels this to be a difficulty
in favour of the melting snows of the polar caps producing water is that at the time they are melting a marginal blue band appears which accompanies them in their retreat
is said to prove conclusively that the liquid is not carbonic acid but water this point he dwells upon repeatedly
it cannot possibly be the cause of the deep blue tint
but there is a very weighty argument depending on the molecular theory of gases against the polar caps of mars being composed of frozen water at all the mass and elastic force of the several gases is due to the greater
or less rapidity of the vibratory motion of their molecules under identical conditions
and it is found to be so great as in certain cases to enable them to overcome the force of gravity and escape from a planet's surface into space doctor g johnstone stoney
has specially investigated this subject and he finds
all the gases composing its atmosphere but not sufficient to retain hydrogen and as a consequence
and by decomposing vegetation yet no trace of it is found in our atmosphere the moon however having only one eightieth the mass of the earth cannot retain any gas hence its airless
and waterless condition water vapour cannot exist on mars now doctor stoney finds that in order to retain water vapour permanently a planet must have a mass
at least a quarter that of the earth but the mass of mars is only one ninth that of the earth
that prevent its loss this gas cannot be present in the atmosphere mister lowell does not refer to this argument against his view neither does he claim the evidence of spectroscopy in his favour
but of late years it has been doubted and
and inconclusive argument as that
shows that he himself does not think the fact to be thus proved if he did
the melting of the caps on the one hand and their re forming on the other affirm the presence of water vapour in the martian atmosphere
yet absolutely the only proof he gives that the caps are frozen water is the almost frivolous colour argument above referred to no spectroscopic evidence of water vapour
history of astronomy in eighteen ninety three
he also informs me that marchand
slipher at mister lowell's observatory
in the spectrum of mars it thus appears that spectroscopic observations are quite accordant with the calculations founded on the molecular theory of gases
and therefore presumably of liquid water from mars it is true that the spectroscopic argument is purely negative
against its presence and till shown to be erroneous must be held to be conclusive this absence of water is of itself conclusive against the existence of animal life
and that liquid being as omnipresent there as water is here mister lowell however never takes this ground but bases his whole theory on the fundamental identity of the substance of the bodies of living organisms
wherever they may exist in the solar system in the next two chapters i shall discuss an equally essential condition that of temperature
i hope i didn't frighten you i stammered out at last i have no idea what i said i was dreaming you said uggug indeed the young lady replied with quivering lips that would curve themselves into a smile
at least you didn't say it you shouted it i'm very sorry was all i could say feeling very penitent and helpless she has sylvie's eyes i thought to myself
but sylvie hasn't got that calm resolute mouth nor that far away look of dreamy sadness like one that has had some deep sorrow very long ago and the thick coming fancies almost prevented my hearing the lady's next words
something about ghosts or dynamite or midnight murder one could understand it those things aren't worth the shilling unless they give one a nightmare but really with only a medical treatise you know and she glanced with a pretty shrug of contempt at the book over which i had fallen asleep
her friendliness and utter unreserve took me aback for a moment yet there was no touch of forwardness or boldness about the child for child almost she seemed to be i guessed her at scarcely over twenty
all was the innocent frankness of some angelic visitant new to the ways of earth and the conventionalisms or if you will the barbarisms of society even so i mused will sylvie look and speak in another ten years
you don't care for ghosts then i ventured to suggest unless they are really terrifying quite so the lady assented the regular railway ghosts i mean the ghosts of ordinary railway literature
i feel inclined to say with alexander selkirk
they couldn't welter in gore to save their lives weltering in gore is a very expressive phrase certainly can it be done in any fluid i wonder
for instance you might welter in bread sauce that being white would be more suitable for a ghost
you have a real good terrifying ghost in that book i hinted how could you guess she exclaimed with the most engaging frankness and placed the volume in my hands i opened it eagerly
with a not unpleasant thrill like what a good ghost story gives one at the uncanny coincidence of my having so unexpectedly divined the subject of her studies it was a book of domestic cookery open at the article bread sauce
i returned the book looking i suppose a little blank as the lady laughed merrily at my discomfiture it's far more exciting than some of the modern ghosts i assure you now there was a ghost last month
three score years and ten baldness and spectacles have their advantages after all i said to myself instead of a bashful youth and maiden gasping out monosyllables at awful intervals
here we have an old man and a child quite at their ease talking as if they had known each other for years then you think i continued aloud that we ought sometimes to ask a ghost to sit down but have we any authority for it
the lady looked puzzled and thoughtful for a moment then she almost clapped her hands
he makes hamlet say rest rest perturbed spirit and that i suppose means an easy chair an american rocking chair i think fayfield junction my lady change for elveston the guard announced flinging open the door of the carriage
and we soon found ourselves with all our portable property around us on the platform the accommodation provided for passengers waiting at this junction was distinctly inadequate a single wooden bench apparently intended for three sitters only
in a smock frock who sat with rounded shoulders and drooping head and with hands clasped on the top of his stick so as to make a sort of pillow for that wrinkled face with its look of patient weariness come you be off the station master roughly accosted the poor old man
this way my lady he added in a perfectly different tone if your ladyship will take a seat
to the address legible on the pile of luggage which announced their owner to be lady muriel orme passenger to elveston via fayfield junction as i watched the old man slowly rise to his feet and hobble a few paces down the platform
the lines came to my lips from sackcloth couch the monk arose
i moved away a few steps and waited to follow her into the carriage where i resumed the conversation
perturbed spirit is such a happy phrase perturbed referring no doubt she rejoined
if steam has done nothing else it has at least added a whole new species to english literature no doubt of it i echoed the true origin of all our medical books and all our cookery books
but the booklets the little thrilling romances where the murder comes at page fifteen and the wedding at page forty surely they are due to steam and when we travel by electricity if i may venture to develop your theory we shall have leaflets instead of booklets
a development worthy of darwin the lady exclaimed enthusiastically only you reverse his theory
i thought i saw i murmured sleepily and then the phrase insisted on conjugating itself and ran into you thought you saw he thought he saw and then it suddenly went off into a song
he thought he saw an elephant that practised on a fife he looked again and found it was a letter from his wife at length i realise he said the bitterness of life and what a wild being it was who sang these wild words
a gardener he seemed to be yet surely a mad one by the way he brandished his rake madder by the way he broke ever and anon into a frantic jig
that he had the feet of an elephant but the rest of him was skin and bone and the wisps of loose straw that bristled all about him suggested that he had been originally stuffed with it and that nearly all the stuffing had come out
then sylvie advanced alone bruno having suddenly turned shy
please i'm sylvie and who's that other thing said the gardener what thing said sylvie looking round oh that's bruno he's my brother
i could but rub my eyes and say where then are the rags gone to for the old man was now dressed in royal robes that glittered with jewels and gold embroidery
the pleasure we all seek so madly and enjoy so mournfully bruno ran eagerly to the wall and picked a fruit that was shaped something like a banana but had the colour of a strawberry he ate it with beaming looks that became gradually more gloomy and were very blank indeed by the time he had finished
hard word sylvie it was a phlizz sylvie gravely replied
because you don't belong to elfland yet but to me they are real bruno looked puzzled i'll try anuvver kind of fruits he said and jumped down off the king's knee there's some lovely striped ones just like a rainbow and off he ran
meanwhile the fairy king and sylvie were talking together but in such low tones that i could not catch the words
but it was like grasping air and i soon gave up the attempt and returned to sylvie look well at it my darling the old man was saying and tell me how you like it
a heart shaped locket apparently cut out of a single jewel of a rich blue colour with a slender gold chain attached to it it are welly pretty
love sylvie he made them out at last and so they doos he cried clasping his arms round her neck everybody loves sylvie but we love her best don't we bruno said the old king
as he took possession of the locket now sylvie look at this and he showed her lying on the palm of his hand a locket of a deep crimson colour the same shape as the blue one and like it attached to a slender golden chain lovelier and lovelier exclaimed sylvie
all now you see the difference said the old man different colours and different words
and then made her decision it's very nice to be loved she said but it's nicer to love other people
but i could see his eyes fill with tears as he bent his head and pressed his lips to her forehead in a long loving kiss
it's for you to keep you know he said in a low voice not for other people to see you'll remember how to use it yes i'll remember said sylvie and now darlings it's time for you to go back or they'll be missing you and then that poor gardener will get into trouble
once more a feeling of wonder rose in my mind as to how in the world we were to get back again since i took it for granted that wherever the children went i was to go
in a handsome livery came forwards and respectfully touched his hat the carriage is here my lady he said taking from her the wraps and small articles she was carrying
from which the luggage was being taken out and after giving directions to have my boxes sent after me i made my way on foot to arthur's lodgings and soon lost my lonely feeling in the hearty welcome my old friend gave me
well you do look a bit pulled down and he put on a solemn professional air i prescribe ozone quant suff social dissipation
to be taken feasting three times a day but doctor i remonstrated
at home lawn tennis three p m at home kettledrum five p m at home music elveston doesn't give dinners eight p m carriages at ten there you are it sounded very pleasant i was obliged to admit
and i know some of the lady society already i added one of them came in the same carriage with me what was she like then perhaps i can identify her the name was lady muriel orme
and the grave doctor coloured slightly as he added yes i agree with you she is beautiful i quite lost my heart to her i went on mischievously
and he steadily resisted all my attempts to return to the subject of lady muriel until the evening had almost worn itself away then as we sat gazing into the fire and conversation was lapsing into silence he made a hurried confession
naming no names as if there were only one she in the world till you had seen more of her and formed your own judgment of her
but i can trust you with a secret old friend yes it's true of me what i suppose you said in jest in the merest jest believe me i said earnestly why man i'm three times her age
and i leaned back drowsily in my easy chair filled with bright and beautiful imaginings of arthur and his lady love
i pictured them to myself walking together lingeringly and lovingly under arching trees in a sweet garden of their own and welcomed back by their faithful gardener on their return from some brief excursion
less natural that he should show it by such wild dances such crazy songs
and we therefore entreat you graciously to accept the kingship
but what's the difficulty said my lady why don't you see the ambassador that brought this is waiting in the house and he's sure to see sylvie and bruno and then when he sees uggug and remembers all that about
don't you be a great blethering goose
i'll make him believe uggug to be a model of cleverness and all that
humph no he said musingly wouldn't do
you're right my dear
he isn't indeed my lady was appeased
which room is he waiting in she inquired in the library madam and what did you say his name was said the vice warden
a cunning conspiracy the warden entered at this moment and close behind him came the lord chancellor
but where is my precious child my lady enquired as the four took their seats at the small side table devoted to ledgers and bundles and bills he left the room a few minutes ago with the lord chancellor the sub warden briefly explained
for an entirely stupid woman my lady's remarks were curiously full of meaning of which she herself was wholly unconscious the chancellor bowed but with a very uneasy air
he remarked evidently anxious to change the subject but my lady would not be checked he is a clever boy she continued with enthusiasm but he needs a man like your lordship to draw him out the chancellor bit his lip
and was silent he evidently feared that stupid as she looked she understood what she said this time and was having a joke at his expense he might have spared himself all anxiety whatever accidental meaning her words might have she herself never meant anything at all
wasting no time over preliminaries the sub wardenship is abolished and my brother is appointed to act as vice warden whenever i am absent
so as i am going abroad for a while he will enter on his new duties at once and there will really be a vice after all my lady enquired i hope so the warden smilingly replied my lady looked much pleased
and tried to clap her hands but you might as well have knocked two feather beds together for any noise it made when my husband is vice she said it will be the same as if we had a hundred vices hear hear cried the sub warden
and am i vice wardeness if you choose to use that title said the warden
he unrolled a large parchment scroll and read aloud the words item that we will be kind to the poor the chancellor worded it for me he added glancing at that great functionary
i suppose now that word item has some deep legal meaning undoubtedly replied the chancellor as articulately as he could with a pen between his lips he was nervously rolling and unrolling several other scrolls
and making room among them for the one the warden had just handed to him these are merely the rough copies he explained and as soon as i have put in the final corrections making a great commotion among the different parchments a semi colon or two that i have accidentally omitted
here he darted about pen in hand from one part of the scroll to another spreading sheets of blotting paper over his corrections
should it not be read out first my lady enquired no need no need
your husband and i have gone through it together it provides that he shall exercise the full authority of warden
or failing that until bruno comes of age and that he shall then hand over to myself or to bruno as the case may be the wardenship the unspent revenue and the contents of the treasury which are to be preserved intact under his guardianship
all this time the sub warden was busy with the chancellor's help shifting the papers from side to side and pointing out to the warden the place whew he was to sign he then signed it himself and my lady and the chancellor added their names as witnesses
short partings are best said the warden all is ready for my journey my children are waiting below to see me off he gravely kissed my lady shook hands with his brother and the chancellor
then to my surprise they broke into peals of uncontrollable laughter
and he and the vice warden joined hands and skipped wildly about the room my lady was too dignified to skip but she laughed like the neighing of a horse and waved her handkerchief above her head it was clear to her very limited understanding that something very clever had been done
but what it was she had yet to learn you said i should hear all about it when the warden had gone she remarked as soon as she could make herself heard and so you shall tabby her husband graciously replied as he removed the blotting paper
and showed the two parchments lying side by side this is the one he read but didn't sign and this is the one he signed but didn't read
and began comparing the two agreements item that he shall exercise the authority of warden in the warden's absence why that's been changed into shall be absolute governor for life with the title of emperor if elected to that office by the people
what are you emperor darling not yet dear the vice warden replied it won't do to let this paper be seen just at present all in good time my lady nodded and read on item that we will be kind to the poor
good said my lady with emphasis and read on again
all the jewels only think may i go and put them on directly well not just yet lovey her husband uneasily replied
we must feel our way of course we'll have the coach and four out at once and i'll take the title of emperor as soon as we can safely hold an election but they'll hardly stand our using the jewels as long as they know the warden's alive
we must spread a report of his death a little conspiracy a conspiracy cried the delighted lady clapping her hands of all things i do like a conspiracy it's so interesting
it'll do no harm and when
and sylvie and bruno came in with their arms twined lovingly round each other bruno sobbing convulsively with his face hidden on his sister's shoulder and sylvie more grave and quiet
mustn't cry like that the vice warden said sharply but without any effect on the weeping children cheer em up a bit he hinted to my lady cake my lady muttered to herself with great decision
crossing the room and opening a cupboard from which she presently returned with two slices of plum cake eat and don't cry were her short and simple orders and the poor children sat down side by side but seemed in no mood for eating for the second time the door opened
he's not to have any food the vice warden was beginning but the chancellor interrupted him
he's just under here said uggug who had gone to the window and was looking down into the court yard
all of us except sylvie and bruno who took no notice of what was going on followed her to the window the old beggar looked up at us with hungry eyes
but looked sadly ill and worn a crust of bread is what i crave he repeated a single crust and a little water here's some water drink this
well done my boy cried the vice warden that's the way to settle such folk
take a stick to him shouted the vice warden as the old beggar shook the water from his ragged cloak and again gazed meekly upwards
my lady again chimed in possibly there was no red hot poker handy but some sticks were forthcoming in a moment and threatening faces surrounded the poor old wanderer who waved them back with quiet dignity no need to break my old bones he said i am going
bruno was at the window trying to throw out his slice of plum cake but sylvie held him back
bruno cried passionately struggling out of sylvie's arms yes
but don't throw it out he's gone away don't you see let's go after him
the conspirators returned to their seats and continued their conversation in an undertone so as not to be heard by uggug who was still standing at the window by the way
the chancellor chuckled just the same word for word he said with one exception my lady instead of bruno i've taken the liberty to put in
i exclaimed in a burst of indignation i could no longer control to bring out even that one word seemed a gigantic effort
the easter egg it was distinctly hard lines for lady barbara who came of good fighting stock and was one of the bravest women of her generation
that her son should be so undisguisedly a coward whatever good qualities lester slaggby may have possessed and he was in some respects charming courage could certainly never be imputed to him
as a child he had suffered from childish timidity as a boy from unboyish funk and as a youth he had exchanged unreasoning fears for others which were more formidable
from the fact of having a carefully thought out basis he was frankly afraid of animals nervous with firearms and never crossed the channel without mentally comparing the numerical proportion of lifebelts to passengers
on horseback he seemed to require as many hands as a hindu god at least four for clutching the reins and two more for patting the horse soothingly on the neck
lady barbara no longer pretended not to see her son's prevailing weakness with her usual courage she faced the knowledge of it squarely and mother like loved him none the less
continental travel anywhere away from the great tourist tracks was a favoured hobby with lady barbara and lester joined her as often as possible
an upland township in one of those small princedoms that make inconspicuous freckles on the map of central europe a long standing acquaintanceship with the reigning family
to open a sanatorium outside the town all the usual items in a programme of welcome some of them fatuous and commonplace others quaint and charming had been arranged for
but the burgomaster hoped that the resourceful english lady might have something new and tasteful to suggest in the way of loyal greeting the prince was known to the outside world if at all as an old fashioned reactionary
to his own people he was known as a kindly old gentleman with a certain endearing stateliness which had nothing of standoffishness about it knobaltheim was anxious to do its best
lady barbara discussed the matter with lester and one or two acquaintances in her little hotel but ideas were difficult to come by
asked a sallow high cheek boned lady to whom the englishwoman had spoken once or twice and whom she had set down in her mind as probably a southern slav might i suggest something for the reception fest
she went on with a certain shy eagerness our little child here our baby we will dress him in little white coat with small wings as an easter angel and he will carry a large white easter egg
and inside shall be a basket of plover eggs of which the prince is so fond and he shall give it to his highness as easter offering it is so pretty an idea we have seen it done once in styria
lady barbara looked dubiously at the proposed easter angel a fair wooden faced child of about four years old she had noticed it the day before in the hotel
and wondered rather how such a towheaded child could belong to such a dark visaged couple as the woman and her husband probably she thought an adopted baby especially as the couple were not young
pursued the woman but he will be quite good and do as he is told
said the husband the small child and lady barbara seemed equally unenthusiastic about the pretty idea lester was openly discouraging
but when the burgomaster heard of it he was enchanted the combination of sentiment and plovers eggs appealed strongly to his teutonic mind
on the eventful day the easter angel really quite prettily and quaintly dressed was a centre of kindly interest to the gala crowd marshalled to receive his highness
the mother was unobtrusive and less fussy than most parents would have been under the circumstances
merely stipulating that she should place the easter egg herself in the arms that had been carefully schooled how to hold the precious burden then lady barbara moved forward
the child marching stolidly and with grim determination at her side it had been promised cakes and sweeties galore if it gave the egg well and truly to the kind old gentleman who was waiting to receive it
lester had tried to convey to it privately that horrible smackings would attend any failure in its share of the proceedings but it is doubtful if his german caused more than an immediate distress
lady barbara had thoughtfully provided herself with an emergency supply of chocolate sweetmeats children may sometimes be time servers but they do not encourage long accounts
as they approached nearer to the princely dais lady barbara stood discreetly aside and the stolid faced infant walked forward alone with staggering but steadfast gait
encouraged by a murmur of elderly approval lester standing in the front row of the onlookers turned to scan the crowd for the beaming faces of the happy parents
entering the cab with every appearance of furtive haste
the sharpened instinct of cowardice lit up the situation to him in one swift flash the blood roared and surged to his head as though thousands of floodgates had been opened in his veins and arteries
and his brain was the common sluice in which all the torrents met he saw nothing but a blur around him then the blood ebbed away in quick waves till his very heart seemed drained and empty
and he stood nervelessly helplessly dumbly watching the child
nearer and nearer to the group that waited sheep like to receive him a fascinated curiosity compelled lester to turn his head towards the fugitives
the cab had started at hot pace in the direction of the station the next moment lester was running running faster than any of those present had ever seen a man run and
he was not running away for that stray fraction of his life some unwonted impulse beset him some hint of the stock he came from and he ran unflinchingly towards danger
he stooped and clutched at the easter egg as one tries to scoop up the ball in rugby football what he meant to do with it he had not considered the thing was to get it
but the child had been promised cakes and sweetmeats if it safely gave the egg into the hands of the kindly old gentleman it uttered no scream but it held to its charge with limpet grip
lester sank to his knees tugging savagely at the tightly clasped burden and angry cries rose from the scandalized onlookers a questioning threatening ring formed round him
then shrank back in recoil as he shrieked out one hideous word lady barbara heard the word and saw the crowd race away like scattered sheep saw the prince forcibly hustled away by his attendants
also she saw her son lying prone in an agony of overmastering terror his spasm of daring shattered by the child's unexpected resistance still clutching frantically as though for safety
unable to crawl even from its deadly neighbourhood able only to scream and scream and scream in her brain she was dimly conscious of balancing or striving to balance
the abject shame which had him now in thrall against the one compelling act of courage which had flung him grandly and madly on to the point of danger
it was only for the fraction of a minute that she stood watching the two entangled figures the infant with its woodenly obstinate face
and the boy limp and already nearly dead with a terror that almost stifled his screams and over them the long gala streamers flapping gaily in the sunshine
she never forgot the scene but then it was the last she ever saw
it happened quite a while ago when i was about twenty three i wasn't living apart from my husband then you see neither of us could afford to make the other a separate allowance in spite of everything that proverbs may say
poverty keeps together more homes than it breaks up but we always hunted with different packs all this has nothing to do with the story we haven't arrived at the meet yet i suppose there was a meet
said clovis of course there was a meet said the baroness all the usual crowd were there especially constance broddle constance is one of those strapping florid girls that go so well with autumn scenery
or christmas decorations in church i feel a presentiment that something dreadful is going to happen she said to me am i looking pale she was looking about as pale as a beetroot that has suddenly heard bad news
you're looking nicer than usual i said but that's so easy for you before she had got the right bearings of this remark we had settled down to business hounds had found a fox lying out in some gorse bushes
i knew it said clovis in every fox hunting story that i've ever heard there's been a fox and some gorse bushes constance and i were well mounted continued the baroness serenely
and we had no difficulty in keeping ourselves in the first flight though it was a fairly stiff run
for we lost the hounds and found ourselves plodding aimlessly along miles away from anywhere it was fairly exasperating and my temper was beginning to let itself go by inches
when on pushing our way through an accommodating hedge we were gladdened by the sight of hounds in full cry in a hollow just beneath us there they go cried constance
and then added in a gasp in heaven's name what are they hunting it was certainly no mortal fox it stood more than twice as high had a short ugly head and an enormous thick neck
it's a hyaena i cried it must have escaped from lord pabham's park at that moment the hunted beast turned and faced its pursuers and the hounds there were only about six couple of them
stood round in a half circle and looked foolish evidently they had broken away from the rest of the pack on the trail of this alien scent and were not quite sure how to treat their quarry now they had got him
the hyaena hailed our approach with unmistakable relief and demonstrations of friendliness it had probably been accustomed to uniform kindness from humans
while its first experience of a pack of hounds had left a bad impression the hounds looked more than ever embarrassed as their quarry paraded its sudden intimacy with us
and the faint toot of a horn in the distance was seized on as a welcome signal for unobtrusive departure constance and i and the hyaena were left alone in the gathering twilight what are we to do
asked constance what a person you are for questions i said well we can't stay here all night with a hyaena she retorted i don't know what your ideas of comfort are i said
my home may be an unhappy one but at least it has hot and cold water laid on and domestic service and other conveniences which we shouldn't find here we had better make for that ridge of trees to the right
i imagine the crowley road is just beyond we trotted off slowly along a faintly marked cart track with the beast following cheerfully at our heels what on earth are we to do with the hyaena came the inevitable question
what does one generally do with hyaenas i asked crossly i've never had anything to do with one before said constance well neither have i if we even knew its sex we might give it a name
that would do in either case there was still sufficient daylight for us to distinguish wayside objects and our listless spirits gave an upward perk as we came upon a small half naked gipsy brat
picking blackberries from a low growing bush the sudden apparition of two horsewomen and a hyaena set it off crying and in any case we should scarcely have gleaned any useful geographical information from that source
we rode on hopefully but uneventfully for another mile or so i wonder what that child was doing there said constance presently picking blackberries obviously
i don't like the way it cried pursued constance somehow its wail keeps ringing in my ears i did not chide constance for her morbid fancies
who had lagged somewhat behind with a few springy bounds he drew up level and then shot past us the wailing accompaniment was explained the gipsy child was firmly and i expect painfully
held in his jaws merciful heaven screamed constance what on earth shall we do what are we to do
i am perfectly certain that at the last judgment constance will ask more questions than any of the examining seraphs can't we do something
personally i was doing everything that occurred to me at the moment i stormed and scolded and coaxed in english and french and gamekeeper language i made absurd ineffectual cuts in the air with my thongless hunting crop
i hurled my sandwich case at the brute in fact i really don't know what more i could have done and still we lumbered on through the deepening dusk with that dark uncouth shape lumbering ahead of us
and a drone of lugubrious music floating in our ears
where we could not follow the wail rose to a shriek and then stopped altogether this part of the story i always hurry over because it is really rather horrible
when the beast joined us again after an absence of a few minutes there was an air of patient understanding about him as though he knew that he had done something of which we disapproved but which he felt to be thoroughly justifiable
how can you let that ravening beast trot by your side asked constance she was looking more than ever like an albino beetroot in the first place i can't prevent it i said
and in the second place whatever else he may be i doubt if he's ravening at the present moment constance shuddered do you think the poor little thing suffered much came another of her futile questions
the indications were all that way i said on the other hand of course it may have been crying from sheer temper children sometimes do it was nearly pitch dark when we emerged suddenly into the highroad
and a sharp screeching yell followed a second later the car drew up and when i had ridden back to the spot i found a young man bending over a dark motionless mass lying by the roadside you have killed my esme i
i'm so awfully sorry said the young man i keep dogs myself so i know what you must feel about it i'll do anything i can in reparation
please bury him at once i said that much i think i may ask of you bring the spade william he called to the chauffeur evidently hasty roadside interments were contingencies that had been provided against
the digging of a sufficiently large grave took some little time i say what a magnificent fellow said the motorist as the corpse was rolled over into the trench i'm afraid he must have been rather a valuable animal
i said resolutely constance snorted loudly don't cry dear i said brokenly it was all over in a moment he couldn't have suffered much
look here said the young fellow desperately you simply must let me do something by way of reparation i refused sweetly but as he persisted i let him have my address
of course we kept our own counsel as to the earlier episodes of the evening lord pabham never advertised the loss of his hyaena when a strictly fruit eating animal strayed from his park a year or two previously
he was called upon to give compensation in eleven cases of sheep worrying and practically to re stock his neighbours poultry yards
i don't suppose in large encampments they really know to a child or two how many they've got the baroness paused reflectively and then continued there was a sequel to the adventure though
incidentally too i lost the friendship of constance broddle you see when i sold the brooch i quite properly refused to give her any share of the proceeds
james cushat prinkly was a young man who had always had a settled conviction that one of these days he would marry up to the age of thirty four he had done nothing to justify that conviction
he liked and admired a great many women collectively and dispassionately without singling out one for especial matrimonial consideration
just as one might admire the alps without feeling that one wanted any particular peak as one's own private property his lack of initiative in this matter
aroused a certain amount of impatience among the sentimentally minded women folk of his home circle his mother his sisters an aunt in residence and two or three intimate matronly friends
regarded his dilatory approach to the married state with a disapproval that was far from being inarticulate his most innocent flirtations were watched with the straining eagerness which a group of unexercised terriers
concentrates on the slightest movements of a human being who may be reasonably considered likely to take them for a walk no decent souled mortal can long resist the pleading of several pairs of walk beseeching dog eyes
james cushat prinkly was not sufficiently obstinate or indifferent to home influences to disregard the obviously expressed wish of his family that he should become enamoured of some nice marriageable girl
and when his uncle jules departed this life and bequeathed him a comfortable little legacy it really seemed the correct thing to do to set about discovering some one to share it with him
the process of discovery was carried on more by the force of suggestion and the weight of public opinion than by any initiative of his own
a clear working majority of his female relatives and the aforesaid matronly friends had pitched on joan sebastable as the most suitable young woman in his range of acquaintance to whom he might propose marriage
and james became gradually accustomed to the idea that he and joan would go together through the prescribed stages of congratulations present receiving norwegian or mediterranean hotels
and eventual domesticity it was necessary however to ask the lady what she thought about the matter the family had so far conducted and directed the flirtation with ability and discretion
as the thing was going to be done he was glad to feel that he was going to get it settled and off his mind that afternoon proposing marriage even to a nice girl like joan was a rather irksome business
but one could not have a honeymoon in minorca and a subsequent life of married happiness without such preliminary he wondered what minorca was really like as a place to stop in
in his mind's eye it was an island in perpetual half mourning with black or white minorca hens running all over it probably it would not be a bit like that when one came to examine it
people who had been in russia had told him that they did not remember having seen any muscovy ducks there so it was possible that there would be no minorca fowls on the island
his mediterranean musings were interrupted by the sound of a clock striking the half hour half past four a frown of dissatisfaction settled on his face
he would arrive at the sebastable mansion just at the hour of afternoon tea joan would be seated at a low table spread with an array of silver kettles and cream jugs and delicate porcelain tea cups
behind which her voice would tinkle pleasantly in a series of little friendly questions about weak or strong tea how much if any sugar milk cream and so forth is it one lump
i forgot you do take milk don't you would you like some more hot water if it's too strong cushat prinkly had read of such things in scores of novels
and hundreds of actual experiences had told him that they were true to life thousands of women at this solemn afternoon hour were sitting behind dainty porcelain and silver fittings
with their voices tinkling pleasantly in a cascade of solicitous little questions cushat prinkly detested the whole system of afternoon tea according to his theory of life
a woman should lie on a divan or couch talking with incomparable charm
or merely silent as a thing to be looked on and from behind a silken curtain a small nubian page should silently bring in a tray with cups and dainties to be accepted silently as a matter of course
without drawn out chatter about cream and sugar and hot water if one's soul was really enslaved at one's mistress's feet how could one talk coherently about weakened tea
cushat prinkly had never expounded his views on the subject to his mother all her life she had been accustomed to tinkle pleasantly at tea time behind dainty porcelain and silver
and if he had spoken to her about divans and nubian pages she would have urged him to take a week's holiday at the seaside
now as he passed through a tangle of small streets that led indirectly to the elegant mayfair terrace for which he was bound a horror at the idea of confronting joan sebastable at her tea table seized on him
a momentary deliverance presented itself on one floor of a narrow little house at the noisier end of esquimault street lived rhoda ellam a sort of remote cousin
who made a living by creating hats out of costly materials the hats really looked as if they had come from paris the cheques she got for them unfortunately never looked as if they were going to paris
the important business which lay before him by spinning out his visit he could contrive to reach the sebastable mansion after the last vestiges of dainty porcelain had been cleared away
rhoda welcomed him into a room that seemed to do duty as workshop sitting room and kitchen combined and to be wonderfully clean and comfortable at the same time i'm having a picnic meal
she announced there's caviare in that jar at your elbow begin on that brown bread and butter while i cut some more find yourself a cup the teapot is behind you now tell me about hundreds of things
she made no other allusion to food but talked amusingly and made her visitor talk amusingly too at the same time she cut the bread and butter with a masterly skill
and produced red pepper and sliced lemon where so many women would merely have produced reasons and regrets for not having any cushat prinkly found that he was enjoying an excellent tea
without having to answer as many questions about it as a minister for agriculture might be called on to reply to during an outbreak of cattle plague and now tell me why you have come to see me said rhoda suddenly
you arouse not merely my curiosity but my business instincts i hope you've come about hats i heard that you had come into a legacy the other day
and of course it struck me that it would be a beautiful and desirable thing for you to celebrate the event by buying brilliantly expensive hats for all your sisters they may not have said anything about it
but i feel sure the same idea has occurred to them of course with goodwood on us i am rather rushed just now but in my business we're accustomed to that we live in a series of rushes like the infant moses
i didn't come about hats said her visitor in fact i don't think i really came about anything i was passing and i just thought i'd look in and see you since i've been sitting talking to you however
if you'll forget goodwood for a moment and listen to me i'll tell you what it is some forty minutes later james cushat prinkly returned to the bosom of his family bearing an important piece of news
i'm engaged to be married he announced a rapturous outbreak of congratulation and self applause broke out ah we knew
i'll bet you didn't said cushat prinkly if any one had told me at lunch time to day that i was going to ask rhoda ellam to marry me and that she was going to accept me i would have laughed at the idea
the romantic suddenness of the affair in some measure compensated james's women folk for the ruthless negation of all their patient effort and skilled diplomacy
it was rather trying to have to deflect their enthusiasm at a moment's notice from joan sebastable to rhoda ellam but after all it was james's wife who was in question
and his tastes had some claim to be considered on a september afternoon of the same year after the honeymoon in minorca had ended
there was a pleasant tinkling note in her voice as she handed him a cup you like it weaker than that don't you shall i put some more hot water to it
mister sutherland was busily engaged with a law paper when his son entered his presence
he dropped the paper with an alacrity which frederick was too much engaged with his own thoughts to notice father he began without preamble or excuse
i am in serious and immediate need of nine hundred and fifty dollars i want it so much
to night conscious though i am that you have every right to deny me this request and that my debt to you already passes the bound of presumption on my part and indulgence on yours
i cannot tell you why i want it or for what that belongs to my past life the consequences of which i have not yet escaped but i feel bound to state
that you will not be the loser by this material proof of confidence in me as i shall soon be in a position to repay all my debts among which
the old gentleman looked startled and nervously fingered the paper he had let fall why do you say you will soon be in a position to repay me what do you mean by that
the flash which had not yet subsided from the young man's face ebbed slowly away as he encountered his father's eye i mean to work he murmured
i mean to make a man of myself as soon as possible the look which mister sutherland gave him was more inquiring than sympathetic and you need this money for a start said he frederick bowed
the clock over the mantel had told off five of the precious moments i will give it to you said his father and drew out his check book but he did not hasten to open it
his eyes still rested on his son now murmured the young man there is a train leaving soon i wish to get it away on that train his father frowned with natural distrust
i wish you would confide in me said he frederick did not answer the hands of the clock were moving on i will give it to you but i should like to know what for
it is impossible for me to tell you groaned the young man starting as he heard a step on the walk without your need has become strangely imperative proceeded the other
he whispered it goes into other hands mister sutherland who had turned over the document as his son approached breathed more easily taking up his pen he dipped it in the ink frederick watched him with constantly whitening cheek
the step on the walk had mounted to the front door nine hundred and fifty inquired the father nine hundred and fifty answered the son the judge
the hands of the clock pointed to a quarter to ten father i have my whole future in which to thank you cried frederick seizing the check his father held out to him and making rapidly for the door
i will be back before midnight and he flung himself down stairs just as the front door opened and wattles stepped in ah
as his eye fell on the paper fluttering in the other's hand i expected money not paper the paper is good
drawing him swiftly out of the house it has my father's signature upon it your father's signature yes wattles gave it a look then slowly shook his head at frederick
is it as well done as the one you tried to pass off on brady frederick cringed and for a moment looked as if the struggle was too much for him
you have a right to distrust me but you are on the wrong track wattles what i did once i can never do again and i hope i may live to prove myself a changed man as for that check
i will soon prove its value in your eyes follow me up stairs to my father his energy the energy of despair no doubt seemed to make an impression on the other
you might as well proclaim yourself a forger outright as to force your father to declare this to be his signature he observed i know it said frederick
if you oblige me wattles shrugged his shoulders he was a magnificent looking man and towered in that old colonial hall like a youthful giant i bear you no ill will
and i begin to think it does but listen sutherland something has happened to you
i think i know what that something is to save yourself from being thought guilty of a big crime you are willing to incur suspicion of a small one
when miss le breton reached the hall a footman was at the outer door reciting lady henry's excuses as each fresh carriage drove up while in the inner vestibule which was well screened from the view of the street
was a group of men still in their hats and over coats talking and laughing in subdued voices julie le breton came forward the hats were removed and the tall stooping form of montresor advanced
said julie in a soft lowered voice but i am sure she would like me to give you her message and to tell you how she is she would not like her old friends to be alarmed would you come in for a moment there is a fire in the library
mister delafield don't you think that would be best will you tell hutton not to let in anybody else she looked at him uncertainly as though appealing to him as a relation of lady henry's to take the lead by all means
said that young man after perhaps a moment's hesitation and throwing off his coat only please make no noise said miss le breton turning to the group lady henry might be disturbed
every one came in as it were on tiptoe in each face a sense of the humor of the situation fought with the consciousness of its dangers as soon as montresor saw the little duchess by the fire
he threw up his hands in relief i breathe again he said greeting her with effusion duchess where thou goest i may go but i feel like a boy robbing a hen roost let me introduce my friend general fergus
on the contrary said the duchess as she returned general fergus's bow
for they were both in uniform and the general was resplendent with stars and medals
said montresor we want some relaxation he put on his eye glasses looked round the room and gently rubbed his hands how very agreeable this is what a charming room
is it a party why shouldn't it be meredith
ah i see for julie le breton was already conversing with the distinguished frenchman
she came forward and in a french which was a joy to the ear
and jacob the director of the french foreign office said montresor in an aside to the duchess
meanwhile the frenchman his introductions over looked curiously round the room studied its stately emptiness the books on the walls under a trellis work faintly gilt the three fine pictures
these englishwomen overdo their jewels he thought with distaste but they overdo everything that is a handsome fellow by the way who was with la petite fee when we arrived
and his shrewd small eyes travelled from warkworth to the duchess his mind the while instinctively assuming some hidden relation between them
this is the first time for twenty years that i have not found her on a wednesday evening he said with a sudden touch of feeling which became him at our age the smallest break in the old habit he sighed
and then quickly threw off his depression nonsense next week she will be scolding us all with double energy meanwhile may we sit down mademoiselle ten minutes
and upon my word the very thing my soul was longing for a cup of coffee
entered with trays containing tea and coffee lemonade and cakes shut the door hutton please mademoiselle le breton implored and the door was shut at once we mustn't mustn't
make any noise she said her finger on her lip looking first at montresor and then at delafield
and once more lowered their voices but the coffee brought a spirit of festivity chairs were drawn up the blazing fire shone out upon a semicircle of people representing just those elements of mingled intimacy and novelty
which go to make conversation and in five minutes mademoiselle le breton was leading it as usual a brilliant french book had recently appeared dealing with certain points of the egyptian question in a manner so interesting
supple and apparently impartial that the attention of europe had been won its author had been formerly a prominent official of the french foreign office and was now somewhat out of favor with his countrymen
the frenchman feeling himself among comrades worthy of his steel
relinquished the half disdainful reserve with which he had entered and took pains he drew the man in question en silhouette with a hostile touch so sure an irony so light that his success was instant and great
lord lackington woke up handsome white haired dreamer that he was he had been looking into the fire half smiling more occupied in truth with his own thoughts than with his companions delafield had brought him in
except that he liked mademoiselle le breton and often wondered how the deuce lady henry had ever discovered such an interesting and delightful person to fill such an uncomfortable position but this frenchman challenged and excited him
he too began to talk french and soon
which quickly made itself apparent in english she was a link a social conjunction she eased all difficulties she pieced all threads but in french her tongue was loosened
though never beyond the point of grace the point of delicate adjustment to the talkers round her so that presently and by insensible gradations she was the queen of the room the duchess in ecstasy pinched jacob delafield's wrist
whispered rapturously in his ear isn't she enchanting julie to night that gentleman made no answer the duchess remembering shrank back and spoke no more
till jacob looked round upon her with a friendly smile which set her tongue free again
meanwhile began to consider this lady in black with more and more attention the talk glided into a general discussion of the egyptian position
when elements of danger and of doubt abounded and none knew what a month might bring forth with perfect tact julie guided the conversation so that all difficulties whether for the french official or the english statesman
were avoided with a skill that no one realized till each separate rock was safely passed presently
to du bartas with a grin the frenchman's eyes were round with astonishment
she had been touching incidents and personalities known only to the initiated with a restrained gayety which often broke down into a charming shyness which was ready to be scared away in a moment by a tone too serious or too polemical
which jarred with the general key of the conversation which never imposed itself
and this modest gayety was the mark of an intimate and first hand knowledge ah i see thought montresor amused p has been writing to her the little minx
so he gave the conversation a turn and mademoiselle le breton took the hint at once
while she rested no less charming as a listener than as a talker
and radiant with the animation of success but one thing at last she had forgotten she had forgotten to impose any curb upon the voices round her the duchess and lord lackington were sparring like a couple of children
and montresor broke in from time to time
meredith the frenchman warkworth and general fergus were discussing a grand review which had been held the day before delafield had moved round to the back of julie's chair and she was talking to him
and her brain was puzzling as to how she was to secure the five minutes talk
he was one of the intimates of the commander in chief she herself had suggested to montresor of course in lady henry's name that he should be brought to bruton street some wednesday evening presently
there was a little shifting of groups julie saw that montresor and captain warkworth were together by the fireplace
was putting sharp little questions from time to time with as few words as might be julie understood that an important conversation was going on that montresor
had been endeavoring to make up for him was now perhaps engaged in making it up for himself with a quickened pulse she turned to find general fergus beside her what a frank and soldierly countenance a little roughly cut
with a strong mouth slightly underhung and a dogged chin the whole lit by eyes that were the chosen homes of truth humanity and will presently she discovered as they drew their chairs a little back from the circle that she too
was to be encouraged to talk about warkworth the general was of course intimately acquainted with his professional record but there were certain additional indian opinions a few incidents in the young man's earlier career
including especially a shooting expedition of much daring in the very district
was now to be addressed together with some quotations from private letters of her own or lady henry's which julie with her usual skill was able to slip into his ear all on the assumption delicately maintained
as lady henry herself would have talked to much better effect had she been present the general gave her a grave and friendly attention few men had done sterner or more daring feats in the field yet here he sat
relaxed courteous kind trusting his companions simply as it was his instinct to trust all women julie's heart beat fast what an exciting what an important evening
suddenly there was a voice in her ear do you know i think we ought to clear out it must be close on midnight she looked up startled to see jacob delafield his expression of doubt
or discomfort recalled her at once to the realities of her own situation but before she could reply a sound struck on her ear she sprang to her feet what was that she said a voice was heard in the hall
julie le breton caught the chair behind her and delafield saw her turn pale but before she or he could speak again the door of the library was thrown open good heavens said montresor springing to his feet
lifted astonished eyes on the threshold of the room stood an old lady leaning heavily on two sticks she was deathly pale and her fierce eyes blazed upon the scene before her
the social comedy was being played at its best but here surely was tragedy or fate who was she what did it mean the duchess rushed to her and fell of course upon the one thing she should not have said
oh aunt flora dear aunt flora but we thought you were too ill to come down so i perceive said lady henry putting her aside
so you and this lady she pointed a shaking finger at julie have held my reception for me i am enormously obliged you have also
provided my guests with refreshment i thank you i trust my servants have given you satisfaction gentlemen she turned to the rest of the company who stood stupefied
i fear i cannot ask you to remain with me longer the hour is late and i am as you see indisposed but i trust on some future occasion i may have the honor
montresor went up to her my dear old friend let me introduce to you
and her social chivalry lady henry looked grimly at the frenchman
i am charmed to make your acquaintance with your leave i will pursue it when i am better able to profit by it to morrow i will write to you to propose another meeting should my health allow
montresor again approached her let me tell you he said imploringly
another time if you please she said with a most cutting calm as i said before it is late if i had been equal to entertaining you she looked round upon them all
i should not have told my butler to make my excuses as it is i must beg you to allow me to bid you good night jacob will you kindly get the duchess her cloak good night good night
as you see she pointed to the sticks which supported her i have no hands to night my infirmities have need of them montresor approached her again
dear lady henry go she said under her breath looking him in the eyes and he turned and went without a word so did the duchess whimpering her hand in delafield's arm as she passed julie who stood
she made a little swaying movement towards her dear julie she cried imploringly but lady henry turned you will have every opportunity to morrow she said as far as i am concerned
miss le breton will have no engagements lord lackington quietly said good night lady henry and without offering to shake hands walked past her as he came to the spot where julie le breton stood
that lady made a sudden impetuous movement towards him strange words were on her lips a strange expression in her eyes you must help me she said brokenly it is my right
was that what she said lord lackington looked at her in astonishment he did not see that lady henry was watching them with eagerness leaning heavily on her sticks her lips parted in a keen expectancy
then julie withdrew i beg your pardon she said hurriedly i beg your pardon good night lord lackington hesitated his face took a puzzled expression then he held out his hand
and she placed hers in it mechanically it will be all right he whispered kindly lady henry will soon be herself again shall i tell the butler to call for some one her maid julie shook her head
and in another moment he too was gone doctor meredith and general fergus stood beside her the general had a keen sense of humor and as he said good night to this unlawful hostess whose plight he understood no more than his own
his mouth twitched with repressed laughter but doctor meredith did not laugh
looking behind him he saw that jacob delafield who had just returned from the hall was endeavoring to appease lady henry he bent towards julie don't deceive yourself he said quickly in a low voice this is the end
remember my letter let me hear to morrow as doctor meredith left the room julie lifted her eyes only jacob delafield and lady henry were left harry warkworth too was gone without a word
she looked round her piteously she could not remember that he had spoken that he had bade her farewell a strange pang convulsed her
yet the words were emphatic enough much obliged to you jacob
you and evelyn crowborough have meddled a good deal too much in them already good night
lady henry motioned towards the door jacob hesitated then quietly took his departure he threw julie a look of anxious appeal as he went out but she did not see it
her troubled gaze was fixed on lady henry that lady eyed her companion with composure though by now even the old lips were wholly blanched
there is really no need for any conversation between us miss le breton said the familiar voice but if there were
in a condition to say it so when you came up to say good night to me you had determined on this adventure you had been good enough i see to rearrange my room
to give my servants your orders julie stood stonily erect
we meant no harm she said coldly it all came about very simply a few people came in to inquire after you i regret they should have stayed talking so long
lady henry smiled in contempt you hardly show your usual ability by these remarks the room you stand in she glanced significantly at the lights and the chairs gives you the lie
don't contradict it distresses me to hear you well now we part of course
i think not this will cost me dear said lady henry her white lips twitching say them now mademoiselle you are suffering julie made an uncertain step forward you ought to be in bed
that has nothing to do with it
i wished to see the duchess it is not worth while to prevaricate the duchess was not your first visitor julie flushed captain warkworth arrived first that was a mere chance
it was to see him that you risked the whole affair you have used my house for your own intrigues julie felt herself physically wavering under the lash of these sentences but with a great effort
she walked towards the fireplace recovered her gloves and handkerchief which were on the mantel piece and then turned slowly to lady henry i have done nothing in your service that i am ashamed of on the contrary
i have borne what no one else would have borne i have devoted myself to you and your interests and you have trampled upon and tortured me
and an inferior lady henry nodded grimly it is true she said interrupting i was not able to take your romantic view of the office of companion you need only have taken a human view
said julie in a voice that pierced i was alone poor worse than motherless you might have done what you would with me a little indulgence and i should have been your devoted slave but you chose to humiliate and crush me
and in return to protect myself i in defending myself have been led i admit it into taking liberties there is no way out of it i shall of course leave you to morrow morning
said lady henry with a laugh
she moved heavily on her sticks julie stood aside to let her pass one of the sticks slipped a little on the polished floor julie with a cry ran forward but lady henry fiercely motioned her aside
don't touch me don't come near me she paused
then she resumed her difficult walk julie followed her kindly put out the electric lights said lady henry and julie obeyed they entered the hall in which one little light was burning
lady henry with great difficulty and panting began to pull herself up the stairs oh do let me help you
you will kill yourself let me at least call dixon you will do nothing of the kind said lady henry indomitable
you should have thought of the consequences of this before you embarked upon it if i were to die in mounting these stairs i would not let you help me oh cried julie as though she had been struck and hid her eyes with her hand
slowly laboriously lady henry dragged herself from step to step
some one softly opened the door of the dining room and entered the hall julie looked round her startled she saw jacob delafield who put his finger to his lip moved by a sudden impulse she bowed her head
on the banister of the stairs against which she was leaning and broke into stifled sobs
she felt his own tremble and yet its grasp was firm and supporting courage he said bending over her try not to give way you will want all your fortitude listen
the labored breath the slow painful step oh she wouldn't let me help her she said she would rather die perhaps i have killed her and i could i could yes i could have loved her
jacob delafield held her hand close in his and when at last the sounds had died in the distance he lifted it to his lips you know that i am your friend and servant he said in a queer muffled voice you promised i should be
she tried to withdraw her hand but only feebly
she could hardly have resisted but he did not attempt to conquer more than her hand he stood beside her letting her feel the whole mute impetuous offer of his manhood thrown at her feet to do what she would with presently
go to the duchess to morrow morning as soon as you can get away she told me to say that hutton gave me a little note from her
but now good night try to sleep evelyn and i will do all we can with lady henry julie drew herself out of his hold
tell evelyn i will come to see her at any rate as soon as i can put my things together good night and she too dragged herself up stairs sobbing
to that chosen group of personages in which he loves to trace the development of the more serious elements of character amid the refinements and artifices of modern society and which make such good company
the proper function of fictitious literature in affording us a refuge into a world slightly better better conceived or better finished than the real one
than by the imaginary persons to whom he introduces us
tragic crises inherent in the general conditions of human nature itself or which arise necessarily out of the special conditions of modern society still
with him in the actual result they become subordinate as it is their tendency to do in real life to the characters they help to form often his most attentive reader will have forgotten the actual details of his plot
shaped by it remains as a well fixed type in the memory he may return a second or third time to sibylle or le journal d'une femme or les amours de philippe and watch surprised afresh
the clean dainty word sparing literary operation word sparing yet with no loss of real grace or ease which sometimes in a few pages with the perfect logic of a problem of euclid complicates and then unravels some moral embarrassment
maurice de fremeuse many others to whom must now be added bernard and aliette de vaudricourt how i love those people
this uncle an artificial old parisian in manner but honest in purpose a good talker and full of real affection for his heir bernard
one of the quietly humorous figures with which he relieves his more serious company bernard with whom the refinements of a man of fashion in the parisian world by no means disguise a powerful intelligence cultivated by wide reading
has had thoughts during his tedious stay at la saviniere of writing a history of the reign of louis the fourteenth
is bent on providing him with a wife and indeed has one in view the accomplished bernard with many graces of person by his own confession takes nothing seriously as to that matter of religious beliefs
makes us see the place and the enterprise has at least sufficient interest to keep bernard in the country which the young parisian detests this piquant episode of my life he writes seems to me to be really deserving of study
to be worth etching off day by day by an observer well informed on the subject recognising in himself though as his one real fault that he can take nothing seriously in heaven or earth bernard de vaudricourt
so often erring or corrupt is a man of scrupulous honour
at least in this first part of his journal
of understanding and being touched by the presence of great matters in spite of that happy lightness of heart so jealously fenced about
as he is worthy to be by the serious the generous influence of things in proportion to his immense worldly strength is his capacity for the immense pity which breaks his heart
as if it were indeed a thing of ordinary existence
your father i observed had a strong predilection for the age of louis the fourteenth my father lived in that age she answered gravely and as i looked at her with surprise
then seating herself on the step of the book case she said i must explain my father to you she was half a minute collecting her thoughts then speaking with an expansion of manner not habitual with her
that might seem a shade too serious for lips so youthful my father she proceeded died of the consequences of a wound he had received at patay that may show you that he loved his country but he was no lover of his own age
he possessed in the highest degree the love of order and order was a thing nowhere to be seen he had a horror of disorder and he saw it everywhere in those last years especially his reverence his beliefs his tastes
all alike were ruffled to the point of actual suffering
rose mallows immortelles rose pinks in short what people call parsonage flowers
you see too that all our furniture from presses and sideboards down to our little tables and our arm chairs is in the severest style of louis the fourteenth my father did not appreciate the dainty research of our modern luxury
it was thus that my father endeavoured by the very aspect and arrangement of outward things to promote in himself the imaginary presence of the epoch in which his thoughts delighted as for myself
need i tell you that i was the confidant of that father so well beloved a confidant touched by his sorrows full of indignation at his disappointments charmed by his consolations here precisely surrounded by those books which we read together
it is here that i have passed the pleasantest hours of my youth
the quiet life its blissful hours of leisure well secured for the french language in its beauty and purity the delicate the noble urbanity which was then the honour and the special mark of our country but has ceased to be so
she paused with a little confusion as i thought at the warmth of her last words
you have explained i said an impression which i have experienced again and again in my visits here and which has sometimes reached the intensity of an actual illusion though a very agreeable one
the look of your house its style its tone and keeping carried me two centuries back so completely that i should hardly have been surprised
most truly mademoiselle i said the age which you regret had its rare merits merits which i appreciate as you do but then need one say that that society so regular so choice in appearance had like our own
below the surface its troubles its disorders
but i have read enough of it to know that my friends in that past age had
their weaknesses their mistakes but as my father used to say to me all that did but pass over a ground of what was solid and serious which always discovered itself again anew there were great faults then
but there were also great repentances there was a certain higher region to which everything conducted even what as evil she blushed deeply then rising a little suddenly a long speech she said forgive me
i am not usually so very talkative it is because my father was in question and i should wish his memory to be as dear and as venerable to all the rest of the world as it is to me
we pass over the many little dramatic intrigues and misunderstandings with the more or less adroit interferences of the uncle which raise and lower alternately bernard's hopes
he has beautiful silvery hair flying in vagrant locks over his forehead and beautiful bishop's hands as he becomes calm he has an imposing way of gently resettling himself in his sacerdotal dignity
to sum up his is a physiognomy full of passion consumed with zeal yet still frank and sincere i was hardly seated
monseigneur i said i come to you you understand me as to my last resource what i am now doing is almost an act of despair
must show himself more pitiless than yourself towards the faults with which i am reproached i am an unbeliever you are an apostle and yet monseigneur it is often at the hands of saintly priests such as yourself
that the guilty find most indulgence and then i am not indeed guilty i have but wandered i am refused the hand of your niece because i do not share her faith your own faith but monseigneur
unbelief is not a crime it is a misfortune i know people often say a man denies god when by his own conduct he has brought himself into a condition in which he may well desire that god does not exist in this way he is made guilty
for myself monseigneur i have consulted my conscience with an entire sincerity and although my youth has been amiss i am certain that my atheism proceeds from no sentiment of personal interest on the contrary
i may tell you with truth that the day on which i perceived my faith come to nought the day on which i lost hope in god i shed the bitterest tears of my life in spite of appearances i am not so light a spirit as people think
believe me a man may love sport his club his worldly habits and yet have his hours of thought of self recollection do you suppose that in those hours one does not feel the frightful discomfort of an existence with no moral basis
without principles with no outlook beyond this world and yet what can one do you would tell me forthwith in the goodness the compassion which i read in your eyes confide to me your objections to religion and i will try to solve them
as if on the wings of the wind and they leave in us as they pass ruins only and darkness such has been my experience and that of many others and it has been as involuntary as it is irreparable and i
monsieur said the bishop suddenly casting on me one of his august looks do you suppose that i am but a play actor in my cathedral church monseigneur yes listening to you one would suppose that we were come to a period of the world
personally i claim to be neither one nor the other
need i say that i did not come here to give you offence doubtless
you know as well as and better than i the condition of the world and of our country at this time you know that unhappily i am not an exception that men of faith are rare in it and permit me to tell you my whole mind
if i must needs suffer the inconsolable misfortune of renouncing the happiness i had hoped for are you quite sure that the man to whom one of these days you will give your niece may not be something more than a sceptic or even an atheist
what monsieur a hypocrite monseigneur
as for me
a man of honour
a man of honour yes i believe it then after an interval come monsieur he said gently your case is not as desperate as you suppose my aliette is one of those young enthusiasts through whom heaven sometimes works miracles
and bernard refusing any encouragement of that hope the very roots of faith are dead in him for ever
four doorkeepers brought and placed on each side of the throne four high candelabra filled with wax lights the throne thus illuminated shone in a kind of purple light it was empty but august
the presence of the queen herself could not have added much majesty to it the usher of the black rod entered with his wand and announced the lords commissioners of her majesty
the hum of conversation immediately subsided a clerk in a wig and gown
these documents were bills from each hung the bille or bulle by a silken string from which laws are called bills in england and bulls at rome behind the clerk walked three men in peers robes and wearing plumed hats
the second the lord president of the council pembroke the third the lord of the privy seal newcastle they walked one by one according to precedence not of their rank but of their commission
godolphin first newcastle last although a duke they reached the bench in front of the throne to which they bowed took off and replaced their hats and sat down on the bench
the lord chancellor turned towards the usher of the black rod and said order the commons to the bar of the house the usher of the black rod retired
placed on the table between the four woolsacks the cushion on which lay the bills then there came an interruption which continued for some minutes two doorkeepers placed before the bar a stool with three steps
the great door which had been closed was reopened and a voice announced the faithful commons of england it was the usher of the black rod announcing the other half of parliament the lords put on their hats
preceded by their speaker all with uncovered heads they stopped at the bar they were in their ordinary garb for the most part dressed in black and wearing swords the speaker the right honourable john smith an esquire
got up on the stool which was at the centre of the bar the speaker of the commons wore a robe of black satin with large hanging sleeves embroidered before and behind with brandenburgs of gold and a wig smaller than that of the lord chancellor
he was majestic but inferior the commons both speaker and members stood waiting with uncovered heads before the peers who were seated with their hats on
amongst the members of commons might have been remarked the chief justice of chester joseph jekyll the queen's three serjeants at law hooper powys and parker james montagu solicitor general
and the attorney general simon harcourt with the exception of a few baronets and knights and nine lords by courtesy hartington windsor woodstock mordaunt granby scudamore fitzharding hyde and berkeley
sons of peers and heirs to peerages all were of the people a sort of gloomy and silent crowd when the noise made by the trampling of feet had ceased the crier of the black rod standing by the door exclaimed
the clerk of the crown arose he took unfolded and read the first of the documents on the cushion it was a message from the queen naming three commissioners to represent her in parliament with power to sanction the bills
to wit here the clerk raised his voice sidney earl godolphin the clerk bowed to lord godolphin lord godolphin raised his hat the clerk continued
thomas herbert earl of pembroke and montgomery the clerk bowed to lord pembroke lord pembroke touched his hat the clerk resumed john holles duke of newcastle the duke of newcastle nodded
the clerk of the crown resumed his seat the clerk of the parliaments arose his under clerk who had been on his knees behind him got up also both turned their faces to the throne and their backs to the commons
there were five bills on the cushion these five bills
awaited the royal sanction the clerk of the parliaments read the first bill
amounting to a million sterling the reading over the clerk bowed low to the throne the under clerk bowed lower still then half turning his head towards the commons he said
the clerk read the second bill it was a law condemning to imprisonment and fine whosoever withdrew himself from the service of the trainbands the trainbands were a militia
recruited from the middle and lower classes serving gratis which in elizabeth's reign furnished on the approach of the armada one hundred and eighty five thousand foot soldiers and forty thousand horse
the two clerks made a fresh bow to the throne after which the under clerk again half turning his face to the commons said
and coventry which was one of the richest in england for making an increased yearly allowance to the cathedral for augmenting the number of its canons and for increasing its deaneries and benefices
to the benefit of our holy religion as the preamble set forth the fourth bill added to the budget fresh taxes one on marbled paper one on hackney coaches fixed at the number of eight hundred in london
and taxed at a sum equal to fifty two francs yearly each one on barristers attorneys and solicitors at forty eight francs a year a head one on tanned skins notwithstanding said the preamble
the complaints of the workers in leather one on soap notwithstanding the petitions of the city of exeter and of the whole of devonshire where great quantities of cloth and serge were manufactured one on wine at four shillings one on flour
one on barley and hops and one renewing for four years the necessities of the state said the preamble requiring to be attended to before the remonstrances of commerce tonnage dues varying from six francs per ton
for ships coming from the westward to eighteen francs on those coming from the eastward finally the bill declaring the sums already levied for the current year insufficient concluded by decreeing a poll tax
on each subject throughout the kingdom of four shillings per head adding that a double tax would be levied on every one who did not take the fresh oath to government the fifth bill forbade the admission into the hospital of any sick person
spoken over his shoulder to the commons then the under clerk knelt down again before the fourth woolsack and the lord chancellor said
the speaker bent double before the chancellor descended from the stool backwards lifting up his robe behind him
chapter three the old hall
placed the house of lords in the other the house of commons neither the two wings nor the two chambers are now in existence the whole has been rebuilt
we have already said and we must repeat that there is no resemblance between the house of lords of the present day and that of the past in demolishing the ancient palace they somewhat demolished its ancient usages
place in a round room a parliament which has been hitherto held in a square room and it will no longer be the same thing a change in the shape of the shell changes the shape of the fish inside
if you wish to preserve an old thing human or divine a code or a dogma a nobility or a priesthood never repair anything about it thoroughly even its outside cover
patch it up nothing more for instance jesuitism is a piece added to catholicism treat edifices as you would treat institutions shadows should dwell in ruins
worn out powers are uneasy in chambers freshly decorated ruined palaces accord best with institutions in rags to attempt to describe the house of lords of other days
would be to attempt to describe the unknown history is night in history there is no second tier that which is no longer on the stage immediately fades into obscurity
the scene is shifted and all is at once forgotten the past has a synonym the unknown the peers of england sat as a court of justice in westminster hall
but superior to all other jurisdiction sat in westminster hall at the end of that hall they occupied adjoining compartments the first was the court of king's bench
in which the chancellor presided the one was a court of justice the other a court of mercy it was the chancellor who counselled the king to pardon only rarely though
as it best may legislation was worked up and applied in the severity of the great hall of westminster the rafters of which were of chestnut wood over which spiders could not spread their webs
there are enough of them in all conscience in the laws to sit as a court and to sit as a chamber are two distinct things this double function constitutes supreme power
felt the revolutionary necessity for this two edged sword so it declared that as house of lords it possessed judicial as well as legislative power this double power has been from time immemorial
vested in the house of peers
as legislators they had another chamber this other chamber properly called the house of lords was oblong and narrow all the light in it came from four windows in deep embrasures
fastened to the wall the chamber of venice was darker still a certain obscurity is pleasing to those owls of supreme power a high ceiling adorned with many faced relievos and gilded cornices
circled over the chamber where the lords assembled the commons had but a flat ceiling there is a meaning in all monarchical buildings at one end of the long chamber of the lords was the door
at the other opposite to it the throne a few paces from the door the bar a transverse barrier and a sort of frontier marked the spot where the people ended and the peerage began
representing one the victory of cuthwolf over the britons in five hundred seventy two the other the geometrical plan of the borough of dunstable which had four streets parallel to the four quarters of the world
the throne was approached by three steps it was called the royal chair on the two walls opposite each other were displayed in successive pictures on a huge piece of tapestry given to the lords by elizabeth
the adventures of the armada from the time of its leaving spain until it was wrecked on the coasts of great britain the great hulls of the ships were embroidered with threads of gold and silver which had become blackened by time
against this tapestry cut at intervals by the candelabra fastened in the wall were placed to the right of the throne three rows of benches for the bishops and to the left three rows of benches for the dukes
marquises and earls in tiers and separated by gangways on the three benches of the first section sat the dukes on those of the second the marquises on those of the third the earls
the viscounts bench was placed across
durham and winchester and the other bishops on the lowest bench there is between the archbishop of canterbury and the other bishops this considerable difference that he is bishop by divine providence
whilst the others are only so by divine permission on the right of the throne was a chair for the prince of wales and on the left folding chairs for the royal dukes and behind the latter
who had not the privilege of voting
and the great escutcheon of england over the four walls above the peers as well as above the king the sons of peers and the heirs to peerages assisted at the debates standing behind the throne between the dais and the wall
a large square space was left vacant between the tiers of benches placed along three sides of the chamber and the throne
were four woolsacks one in front of the throne on which sat the lord chancellor between the mace and the seal one in front of the bishops on which sat the judges counsellors of state who had the right to vote but not to speak
one in front of the dukes marquises and earls on which sat the secretaries of state and one in front of the viscounts and barons on which sat the clerk of the crown and the clerk of the parliament and on which the two under clerks wrote kneeling
in the middle of the space was a large covered table heaped with bundles of papers registers and summonses with magnificent inkstands of chased silver and with high candlesticks at the four corners
the peers took their seats in chronological order each according to the date of the creation of his peerage they ranked according to their titles and within their grade of nobility according to seniority
at the bar stood the usher of the black rod his wand in his hand inside the door was the deputy usher and outside the crier of the black rod
near the crier stood the serjeant mace bearer of the chancellor in royal ceremonies the temporal peers wore coronets on their heads and the spiritual peers mitres
the archbishops wore mitres with a ducal coronet and the bishops who rank after viscounts mitres with a baron's cap it is to be remarked as a coincidence at once strange and instructive
that this square formed by the throne the bishops and the barons with kneeling magistrates within it was in form similar to the ancient parliament in france under the two first dynasties the aspect of authority was the same in france as in england
in the eighteenth century strange indeed a description given nine hundred years before the existence of the thing described but what is history an echo of the past in the future
a reflex from the future on the past the assembly of parliament was obligatory only once in every seven years the lords deliberated in secret with closed doors
the debates of the commons were public publicity entails diminution of dignity the number of the lords was unlimited to create lords was the menace of royalty a means of government
at the beginning of the eighteenth century the house of lords already contained a very large number of members it has increased still further since that period to dilute the aristocracy is politic
elizabeth most probably erred in condensing the peerage into sixty five lords the less numerous the more intense is a peerage in assemblies the more numerous the members the fewer the heads
a hundred and eighty six if we subtract from the peerages the two duchies of royal favourites portsmouth and cleveland under anne the total number of the lords including bishops was two hundred and seven
not counting the duke of cumberland husband of the queen there were twenty five dukes of whom the premier norfolk did not take his seat being a catholic and of whom the junior cambridge the elector of hanover did
although a foreigner winchester termed first and sole marquis of england as astorga was termed sole marquis of spain was absent being a jacobite
so that there were only five marquises of whom the premier was lindsay and the junior lothian
nine viscounts of whom hereford was premier and lonsdale junior and sixty two barons of whom abergavenny was premier and hervey junior
derby of whom oxford shrewsbury and kent took precedence and who was therefore but the fourth under
became under anne premier earl two chancellors names had disappeared from the list of barons verulam under which designation history finds us bacon and wem under which it finds us jeffreys
bacon and jeffreys both names overshadowed though by different crimes in seventeen o five the twenty six bishops were reduced to twenty five the see of chester being vacant
amongst the bishops some were peers of high rank such as william talbot bishop of oxford who was head of the protestant branch of that family others were eminent doctors like john sharp
archbishop of york formerly dean of norwich the poet thomas spratt bishop of rochester an apoplectic old man and that bishop of lincoln who was to die archbishop of canterbury wake the adversary of bossuet
on important occasions and when a message from the crown to the house was expected the whole of this august assembly in robes in wigs in mitres or plumes formed out and displayed their rows of heads in tiers
along the walls of the house where the storm was vaguely to be seen exterminating the armada
chapter thirty seven the catacombs of saint sebastian in his whole life perhaps franz had never before experienced so sudden an impression so rapid a transition
as in this moment it seemed as though rome under the magic breath of some demon of the night had suddenly changed into a vast tomb by a chance which added yet more to the intensity of the darkness the moon which was on the wane
did not rise until eleven o'clock
which the young man traversed were plunged in the deepest obscurity the distance was short and at the end of ten minutes his carriage or rather the count's stopped before the hotel de londres
dinner was waiting but as albert had told him that he should not return so soon franz sat down without him signor pastrini
inquired into the cause of his absence but franz merely replied that albert had received on the previous evening an invitation which he had accepted the sudden extinction of the moccoletti the darkness
which had replaced the light and the silence which had succeeded the turmoil had left in franz's mind a certain depression which was not free from uneasiness he therefore dined very silently in spite of the officious attention of his host
who presented himself two or three times to inquire
anything franz resolved to wait for albert as late as possible
he ordered the carriage therefore for eleven o'clock desiring signor pastrini to inform him the moment that albert returned to the hotel at eleven o'clock albert had not come back franz dressed himself and went out telling his host
that he was going to pass the night at the duke of bracciano's the house of the duke of bracciano is one of the most delightful in rome the duchess one of the last heiresses of the colonnas does its honors with the most consummate grace and thus their fetes
have a european celebrity franz and albert had brought to rome letters of introduction to them and their first question on his arrival was to inquire the whereabouts of his travelling companion franz replied that he had left him at the moment
and that he had lost sight of him in the via macello then he has not returned said the duke i waited for him until this hour replied franz
no not precisely however i think it was something very like a rendezvous diavolo said the duke this is a bad day or rather a bad night to be out late is it not countess these words were addressed to the countess g
who had just arrived and was leaning on the arm of signor torlonia the duke's brother i think on the contrary
and those who are here will complain of but one thing its too rapid flight i am not speaking said the duke with a smile of the persons who are here
than that of falling in love with you and the women of falling ill of jealousy at seeing you so lovely i meant persons who were out in the streets of rome ah asked the countess who is out in the streets of rome at this hour unless
it be to go to a ball our friend albert de morcerf countess whom i left in pursuit of his unknown about seven o'clock this evening said franz and whom i have not seen since and don't you know where he is not at all
you should not have allowed him to go said the duke to franz you who know rome better than he does
who gained the prize in the race to day replied franz and then moreover what could happen to him who can tell
franz felt a shudder run through his veins
and the countess was so much in unison with his own personal disquietude i informed them at the hotel that i had the honor of passing the night here duke said franz and desired them to come and inform me of his return ah
replied the duke here i think is one of my servants who is seeking you the duke was not mistaken when he saw franz the servant came up to him your excellency he said the master of the hotel de londres
has sent to let you know that a man is waiting for you with a letter
exclaimed franz yes and who is the man i do not know why did he not bring it to me here the messenger did not say and where is the messenger he went away directly he saw me enter the ball room to find you oh
said the countess to franz go with all speed poor young man perhaps some accident has happened to him i will hasten replied franz shall we see you again to give us any information inquired the countess yes if it is not any serious affair
be prudent in any event said the countess oh pray be assured of that franz took his hat and went away in haste he had sent away his carriage with orders for it to fetch him at two o'clock fortunately
is hardly ten minutes walk from the hotel de londres as he came near the hotel franz saw a man in the middle of the street he had no doubt that it was the messenger from albert the man was wrapped up in a large cloak
he went up to him but to his extreme astonishment the stranger first addressed him what wants your excellency of me inquired the man retreating a step or two as if to keep on his guard
are not you the person who brought me a letter inquired franz
your excellency lodges at pastrini's hotel i do
i am your excellency's name
then it is to your excellency that this letter is addressed is there any answer inquired franz taking the letter from him yes your friend at least hopes so come up stairs with me and i will give it to you
i prefer waiting here said the messenger with a smile and why your excellency will know when you have read the letter
certainly franz entered the hotel on the staircase he met signor pastrini well said the landlord
you have seen the man who desired to speak with you from your friend he asked of franz yes i have seen him he replied and he has handed this letter to me light the candles in my apartment
to go before franz with a light the young man had found signor pastrini looking very much alarmed and this had only made him the more anxious to read albert's letter and so he went instantly towards the waxlight and unfolded it it was written
and signed by albert franz read it twice before he could comprehend what it contained it was thus worded my dear fellow the moment you have received this have the kindness to take the letter of credit from my pocket book
of the secretary add your own to it if it be not sufficient run to torlonia draw from him instantly four thousand piastres and give them to the bearer it is urgent that i should have this money without delay
i do not say more relying on you as you may rely on me your friend albert de morcerf p s i now believe in italian banditti below these lines were written in a strange hand the following in italian
se alle sei della mattina
non sono nelle mie mani alla sette
luigi vampa if by six in the morning the four thousand piastres are not in my hands by seven o'clock the count albert will have ceased to live this second signature explained everything to franz
the street was safer for him albert then had fallen into the hands of the famous bandit chief in whose existence he had for so long a time refused to believe there was no time to lose he hastened to open the secretary
and found the pocket book in the drawer and in it the letter of credit there were in all six thousand piastres but of these six thousand albert had already expended three thousand as to franz he had no letter of credit
as he lived at florence and had only come to rome to pass seven or eight days he had brought but a hundred louis and of these he had not more than fifty left thus seven or eight hundred piastres were wanting
to them both to make up the sum that albert required true he might in such a case rely on the kindness of signor torlonia he was therefore about to return to the palazzo bracciano without loss of time when suddenly a luminous idea crossed his mind
he remembered the count of monte cristo franz was about to ring for signor pastrini
yes your excellency he has this moment returned is he in bed i should say no then ring at his door
signor pastrini did as he was desired and returning five minutes after he said the count awaits your excellency franz went along the corridor and a servant introduced him to the count he was in a small room which franz had not yet seen
and which was surrounded with divans the count came towards him well what good wind blows you hither at this hour said he have you come to sup with me it would be very kind of you no i have come to speak to you of a very serious matter
a serious matter said the count looking at franz with the earnestness usual to him and what may it be are we alone yes replied the count going to the door and returning franz gave him albert's letter read that he said the count read it
well well said he did you see the postscript i did indeed se alle sei della mattina le quattro mile piastre non sono nelle mie mani
have you the money he demands yes all but eight hundred piastres the count went to his secretary opened it and pulling out a drawer filled with gold said to franz
have what you will and he made a sign to franz to take what he pleased is it absolutely necessary then to send the money to luigi vampa asked the young man looking fixedly in his turn at the count
the postscript is explicit i think that if you would take the trouble of reflecting you could find a way of simplifying the negotiation said franz how so returned the count with surprise if we were to go together to luigi vampa
i am sure he would not refuse you albert's freedom what influence can i possibly have over a bandit have you not just rendered him a service that can never be forgotten what is that have you not saved peppino's life well well said the count who told you that
no matter i know it the count knit his brows and remained silent an instant and if i went to seek vampa would you accompany me if my society would not be disagreeable be it so
any money it is useless where is the man who brought the letter in the street he awaits the answer yes i must learn where we are going i will summon him hither it is useless he would not come up to your apartments perhaps
but he will not make any difficulty at entering mine
and whistled in a peculiar manner the man in the mantle quitted the wall
in which he would have given an order to his servant the messenger obeyed without the least hesitation but rather with alacrity and mounting the steps at a bound entered the hotel five seconds afterwards he was at the door of the room ah it is you peppino
said the count but peppino instead of answering threw himself on his knees seized the count's hand and covered it with kisses ah said the count you have then not forgotten that i saved your life
no excellency and never shall i forget it returned peppino with an accent of profound gratitude never that is a long time
rise and answer peppino glanced anxiously at franz
is one of my friends you allow me to give you this title continued the count in french it is necessary to excite this man's confidence you can speak before me said franz i am a friend of the count's good returned peppino i
luigi's hands excellency the frenchman's carriage passed several times the one in which was teresa the chief's mistress yes the frenchman threw her a bouquet teresa returned it all this with the consent of the chief who was in the carriage
it was he who drove disguised as the coachman replied peppino well said the count well then the frenchman took off his mask
the frenchman asked for a rendezvous
who was on the steps of the church of san giacomo what exclaimed franz the peasant girl who snatched his mocoletto from him was a lad of fifteen replied peppino but it was no disgrace to your friend to have been deceived
plenty of others and beppo led him outside the walls said the count
beppo got in inviting the frenchman to follow him and he did not wait to be asked twice he gallantly offered the right hand seat to beppo and sat by him beppo told him he was going to take him to a villa a league from rome
the frenchman assured him he would
the coachman went up the via di ripetta and the porta san paola and when they were two hundred yards outside as the frenchman became somewhat too forward beppo put a brace of pistols to his head the coachman pulled up
who were concealed on the banks of the almo surrounded the carriage the frenchman made some resistance and nearly strangled beppo but he could not resist five armed men and was forced to yield they made him get out walk along the banks of the river
who were waiting for him in the catacombs of saint sebastian
what do you say to it why that i should think it very amusing replied franz if it had happened to any one but poor albert and in truth if you had not found me here said the count
it might have proved a gallant adventure which would have cost your friend dear but now be assured his alarm will be the only serious consequence and shall we go and find him inquired franz
i was never in them but i have often resolved to visit them
and it would be difficult to contrive a better have you a carriage no that is of no consequence i always have one ready day and night always ready yes
that sometimes when i rise or after my dinner or in the middle of the night i resolve on starting for some particular point and away i go the count rang and a footman appeared order out the carriage he said
and remove the pistols which are in the holsters you need not awaken the coachman ali will drive
and the carriage stopped at the door the count took out his watch half past twelve he said
and therefore we had better go with all speed to extricate him from the hands of the infidels are you still resolved to accompany me more determined than ever well then come along franz and the count went downstairs accompanied by peppino
at the door they found the carriage ali was on the box
franz and the count got into the carriage peppino placed himself beside ali and they set off at a rapid pace ali had received his instructions and went down the corso crossed the campo vaccino
went up the strada san gregorio and reached the gates of saint sebastian
allowing him to leave or enter the city at any hour of the day or night the portcullis was therefore raised the porter had a louis for his trouble
the road which the carriage now traversed was the ancient appian way and bordered with tombs from time to time
franz imagined that he saw something like a sentinel
and suddenly retreat into the darkness on a signal from peppino a short time before they reached the baths of caracalla the carriage stopped peppino opened the door and the count and franz alighted in ten minutes said the count to his companion
we shall be there he then took peppino aside gave him an order in a low voice and peppino went away taking with him a torch brought with them in the carriage five minutes elapsed during which franz saw the shepherd
going along a narrow path that led over the irregular and broken surface of the campagna and finally he disappeared in the midst of the tall red herbage which seemed like the bristling mane of an enormous lion now said the count
let us follow him franz and the count in their turn then advanced along the same path which at the distance of a hundred paces led them over a declivity to the bottom of a small valley they then perceived two men conversing in the obscurity
let us go on peppino will have warned the sentry of our coming one of the two men was peppino and the other a bandit on the lookout franz and the count advanced and the bandit saluted them your excellency said peppino addressing the count
if you will follow me the opening of the catacombs is close at hand go on then replied the count they came to an opening behind a clump of bushes and in the midst of a pile of rocks by which a man could scarcely pass
peppino glided first into this crevice after they got along a few paces the passage widened peppino passed lighted his torch and turned to see if they came after him the count first reached an open space and franz followed him closely
the passageway sloped in a gentle descent enlarging as they proceeded still franz and the count were compelled to advance in a stooping posture and were scarcely able to proceed abreast of one another
they went on a hundred and fifty paces in this way and then were stopped by who comes there at the same time they saw the reflection of a torch on a carbine barrel a friend responded peppino and advancing alone towards the sentry
he said a few words to him in a low tone and then he like the first saluted the nocturnal visitors making a sign that they might proceed behind the sentinel was a staircase with twenty steps franz and the count descended these and found themselves in a mortuary chamber
five corridors diverged like the rays of a star and the walls dug into niches which were arranged one above the other in the shape of coffins showed that they were at last in the catacombs down one of the corridors whose extent it was impossible to determine
rays of light were visible the count laid his hand on franz's shoulder would you like to see a camp of bandits in repose he inquired exceedingly replied franz come with me then peppino put out the torch peppino obeyed
and franz and the count were in utter darkness except that fifty paces in advance of them a reddish glare more evident since peppino had put out his torch was visible along the wall they advanced silently the count guiding franz
as if he had the singular faculty of seeing in the dark franz himself however saw his way more plainly in proportion as he went on towards the light
three arcades were before them and the middle one was used as a door these arcades opened on one side into the corridor where the count and franz were
were to be seen twenty brigands or more each having his carbine within reach
who was walking up and down before a grotto which was only distinguishable because in that spot the darkness seemed more dense than elsewhere when the count thought franz had gazed sufficiently on this picturesque tableau he raised his finger to his lips
to warn him to be silent and ascending the three steps which led to the corridor of the columbarium entered the chamber by the middle arcade
that he did not hear the noise of his footsteps who comes there cried the sentinel who was less abstracted and who saw by the lamp light a shadow approaching his chief at this challenge vampa rose quickly drawing at the same moment a pistol from his girdle
in a moment all the bandits were on their feet and twenty carbines were levelled at the count well said he in a voice perfectly calm and no muscle of his countenance disturbed well my dear vampa
it appears to me that you receive a friend with a great deal of ceremony ground arms exclaimed the chief with an imperative sign of the hand while with the other he took off his hat respectfully then turning to the singular personage who had caused this scene he said
your pardon your excellency but i was so far from expecting the honor of a visit that i did not really recognize you it seems that your memory is equally short in everything vampa said the count and that not only do you forget people's faces
but also the conditions you make with them what conditions have i forgotten your excellency inquired the bandit with the air of a man who having committed an error is anxious to repair it was it not agreed asked the count that not only my person but also that of my friends
should be respected by you and how have i broken that treaty your excellency you have this evening carried off and conveyed hither the vicomte
well continued the count in a tone that made franz shudder this young gentleman is one of my friends this young gentleman lodges in the same hotel as myself this young gentleman has been up and down the corso for eight hours in my private carriage
and yet i repeat to you you have carried him off and conveyed him hither and added the count taking the letter from his pocket you have set a ransom on him as if he were an utter stranger why did you not tell me all this
inquired the brigand chief turning towards his men who all retreated before his look why have you caused me thus to fail in my word towards a gentleman like the count who has all our lives in his hands
by heavens if i thought one of you knew that the young gentleman was the friend of his excellency i would blow his brains out with my own hand well said the count turning towards franz i told you there was some mistake in this are you not alone
and to whom i desired to prove that luigi vampa was a man of his word come your excellency the count added
at the mistake he has committed franz approached the chief advancing several steps to meet him welcome among us your excellency he said to him you heard what the count just said and also my reply let me add that i would not for the four thousand piastres
at which i had fixed your friend's ransom that this had happened but said franz looking round him uneasily
nothing has happened to him i hope said the count frowningly the prisoner is there replied vampa pointing to the hollow space in front of which the bandit was on guard and i will go myself and tell him he is free the chief went towards the place he had pointed
out as albert's prison and franz and the count followed him what is the prisoner doing inquired vampa of the sentinel ma foi captain replied the sentry i do not know for the last hour i have not heard him stir
come in your excellency said vampa the count and franz ascended seven or eight steps after the chief who drew back a bolt and opened a door then by the gleam of a lamp similar to that which lighted the columbarium albert was to be seen wrapped up in a cloak
which one of the bandits had lent him lying in a corner in profound slumber come said the count smiling with his own peculiar smile not so bad for a man who is to be shot at seven o'clock to morrow morning vampa looked at albert with a kind of admiration
you are right your excellency he said this must be one of your friends
to awaken albert stretched out his arms rubbed his eyelids and opened his eyes oh said he is it you captain
at torlonia's with the countess g then he drew his watch from his pocket that he might see how time sped half past one only said he why the devil do you rouse me at this hour to tell you that you are free your excellency my dear fellow
replied albert with perfect ease of mind remember for the future napoleon's maxim never awaken me but for bad news if you had let me sleep on i should have finished my galop and have been grateful to you all my life so then
they have paid my ransom no your excellency well then how am i free a person to whom i can refuse nothing has come to demand you come hither yes hither really then that person is a most amiable person
albert looked around and perceived franz what said he is it you my dear franz whose devotion and friendship are thus displayed no not i replied franz but our neighbor the count of monte cristo oh my dear count
said albert gayly arranging his cravat and wristbands
and i hope you will consider me as under eternal obligations to you in the first place for the carriage
and he put out his hand to the count who shuddered as he gave his own but who nevertheless did give it the bandit gazed on this scene with amazement he was evidently accustomed to see his prisoners tremble before him and yet
here was one whose gay temperament was not for a moment altered as for franz he was enchanted at the way in which albert had sustained the national honor in the presence of the bandit my dear albert he said if you will make haste
we shall yet have time to finish the night at torlonia's you may conclude your interrupted galop so that you will owe no ill will to signor luigi who has indeed throughout this whole affair acted like a gentleman
you are decidedly right and we may reach the palazzo by two o'clock signor luigi continued albert
none sir replied the bandit you are as free as air
and albert followed by franz and the count descended the staircase crossed the square chamber where stood all the bandits hat in hand peppino said the brigand chief give me the torch what are you going to do inquired the count i will show you the way back myself
said the captain that is the least honor that i can render to your excellency and taking the lighted torch from the hands of the herdsman he preceded his guests not as a servant who performs an act of civility but like a king who precedes ambassadors on reaching the door
he bowed and now your excellency added he allow me to repeat my apologies and i hope you will not entertain any resentment at what has occurred no my dear vampa replied the count besides you compensate for your mistakes in so
gentlemanly a way that one almost feels obliged to you for having committed them gentlemen added the chief turning towards the young men perhaps the offer may not appear very tempting to you but if you
should ever feel inclined to pay me a second visit wherever i may be you shall be welcome franz and albert bowed the count went out first then albert franz paused for a moment has your excellency anything to ask me said vampa with a smile
replied franz i am curious to know what work you were perusing with so much attention as we entered caesar's commentaries said the bandit
well are you coming asked albert yes replied franz here i am and he in his turn left the caves they advanced to the plain ah your pardon said albert turning round will you allow me captain
and he lighted his cigar at vampa's torch now my dear count he said let us on with all the speed we may i am enormously anxious to finish my night at the duke of bracciano's they found the carriage where they had left it
the count said a word in arabic to ali and the horses went on at great speed it was just two o'clock by albert's watch
their return was quite an event but as they entered together all uneasiness on albert's account ceased instantly
the fuzzy brown pelt which wraps the chilling earth with whoop and scream the wild november wind sweeps over the great rolling downs tossing the branches of the cosford beeches and rattling at the rude latticed windows the stout old knight of duplin
grown even a little stouter with whiter beard to fringe an ever redder face
a well heaped platter flanked by a foaming tankard stands before him at his right sits the lady mary her dark plain queenly face marked deep with those years of weary waiting
but bearing the gentle grace and dignity which only sorrow and restraint can give on his left is matthew the old priest long ago the golden haired beauty had passed from cosford to fernhurst
where the young and beautiful lady edith brocas is the belle of all sussex a sunbeam of smiles and merriment save perhaps when her thoughts
when she was plucked from under the very talons of the foul hawk of shalford
i had hoped to morrow to have a flight at a heron of the pool or a mallard in the brook how fares it with little katherine the peregrine mary i have joined the wing father
but i fear it will be christmas ere she can fly again this is a hard saying said sir john for indeed i have seen no bolder better bird
last sabbath sennight holy father and mary has the mending of it i trust my son that you had heard mass ere you turned to worldly pleasure upon god's holy day father matthew answered tut tut said the old knight laughing
shall i make confession at the head of my own table i can worship the good god amongst his own works the woods and the fields better than in yon pile of stone and wood but i call to mind a charm for a wounded hawk which was taught me by the fowler of gaston de foix
the root of david has conquered yes those were the words to be said three times as you walk round the perch where the bird is mewed the old priest shook his head nay these charms are tricks of the devil said he
holy church lends them no countenance for they are neither good nor fair but how is it now with your tapestry lady mary when last i was beneath this roof you had half done in five fair colors the story of theseus and ariadne
it is half done still holy father how is this my daughter have you then so many calls nay holy father her thoughts are otherwhere sir john answered
she will sit an hour at a time the needle in her hand and her soul a hundred leagues from cosford house ever since the prince's battle good father i beg you nay mary none can hear me save your own confessor father matthew
ever since the prince's battle i say when we heard that young nigel had won such honor she is brain wode and sits ever well even as you see her now an intent look had come into mary's eyes
her gaze was fixed upon the dark rain splashed window it was a face carved from ivory white lipped and rigid on which the old priest looked what is it my daughter
i see nothing father what is it then that disturbs you i hear father what do you hear there are horsemen on the road the old knight laughed so it goes on father
what day is there that a hundred horsemen do not pass our gate and yet every clink of hoofs sets her poor heart a trembling so strong and steadfast she has ever been my mary and now no sound too slight to shake her to the soul
nay daughter nay i pray you she had half risen from her chair her hands clenched and her dark startled eyes still fixed upon the window i hear them father i hear them amid the wind and the rain yes yes they are turning
they have turned my god they are at our very door by saint hubert the girl is right cried old sir john beating his fist upon the board ho varlets out with you to the yard set the mulled wine on the blaze once more there are travelers at the gate and it is no night to keep a dog waiting at our door
hurry hannekin hurry i say or i will haste you with my cudgel plainly to the ears of all men could be heard the stamping of the horses mary had stood up quivering in every limb an eager step at the threshold the door was flung wide and there
in the opening stood nigel the rain gleaming upon his smiling face his cheeks flushed with the beating of the wind his blue eyes shining with tenderness and love something held her by the throat the light of the torches danced up and down
but her strong spirit rose at the thought that others should see that inner holy of holies of her soul there is a heroism of women to which no valor of man can attain her eyes only carried him her message as she held out her hand welcome nigel said she
he stooped and kissed it saint catharine has brought me home said he a merry supper it was at cosford manor that night with nigel at the head betwixt the jovial old knight and the lady mary whilst at the farther end samkin aylward
wedged between two servant maids kept his neighbors in alternate laughter and terror as he told his tales of the french wars nigel had to turn his doeskin heels and show his little golden spurs as he spoke of what was passed sir john clapped him on the shoulder
while mary took his strong right hand in hers and the good old priest smiling blessed them both nigel had drawn a little golden ring from his pocket and it twinkled in the torchlight did you say that you must go on your way to morrow father
he asked the priest indeed fair son the matter presses but you may bide the morning it will suffice if i start at noon much may be done in a morning he looked at mary who blushed and smiled
by saint paul i have waited long enough good good chuckled the old knight with wheezy laughter even so i wooed your mother mary wooers were brisk in the olden time to morrow is tuesday and tuesday is ever a lucky day
the old hound must run us down nigel
but my heart will rejoice that before the end i may call you son give me your hand mary and yours nigel now
and give you your desert for i believe on my soul that in all this broad land there dwells no nobler man nor any woman more fitted to be his mate there let us leave them their hearts full of gentle joy
the golden future of hope and promise stretching out before their youthful eyes alas for those green spring dreaming how often do they fade and wither until they fall and rot a dreary sight by the wayside of life
but here by god's blessing it was not so for they burgeoned and they grew ever fairer and more noble until the whole wide world might marvel at the beauty of it it has been told elsewhere how as the years passed
nigel's name rose higher in honor but still mary's would keep pace with it each helping and sustaining the other upon an ever higher path in many lands did nigel carve his fame and ever as he returned spent and weary from his work
he drank fresh strength and fire and craving for honor from her who glorified his home at twynham castle they dwelled for many years beloved and honored by all then in the fullness of time they came back to the tilford manor house
and spent their happy healthy age amid those heather downs where nigel had passed his first lusty youth ere ever he turned his face to the wars thither also came aylward when he had left the pied merlin where for many a year he sold ale to the men of the forest
but the years pass the old wheel turns and ever the thread runs out the wise and the good the noble and the brave
whence whither and why who may say here is the slope of hindhead the fern still glows russet in november the heather still burns red in july but where now is the manor of cosford where is the old house of tilford
where but for a few scattered gray stones is the mighty pile of waverley and yet even gnawing time has not eaten all things away walk with me toward guildford reader upon the busy highway
here where the high green mound rises before us mark yonder roofless shrine which still stands foursquare to the winds
where nigel and mary plighted their faith below lies the winding river and over yonder you still see the dark chantry woods which mount up to the bare summit on which roofed and whole stands that chapel of the martyr
where the comrades beat off the archers of the crooked lord of shalford down yonder on the flanks of the long chalk hills one traces the road by which they made their journey to the wars and now turn hither to the north
down this sunken winding path it is all unchanged since nigel's day here is the church of compton pass under the aged and crumbling arch before the steps of that ancient altar unrecorded and unbrassed
lies the dust of nigel and of mary near them is that of maude their daughter and of alleyne edricson whose spouse she was their children and children's children are lying by their side
here too near the old yew in the churchyard
so lie the dead leaves but they and such as they nourish forever that great old trunk of england which still sheds forth another crop and another each as strong and as fair as the last
the body may lie in moldering chancel or in crumbling vault but the rumor of noble lives the record of valor and truth can never die but lives on in the soul of the people our own work lies ready to our hands
and yet our strength may be the greater and our faith the firmer if we spare an hour from present toils to look back upon the women who were gentle and strong or the men who loved honor more than life on this green stage of england
chapter three how hordle john cozened the fuller of lymington it is not however in the nature of things that a lad of twenty
and all the wide world before him should spend his first hours of freedom in mourning for what he had left
he was striding sturdily along swinging his staff and whistling as merrily as the birds in the thicket it was an evening to raise a man's heart the sun shining slantwise through the trees threw delicate traceries across the road with bars of golden light between
away in the distance before and behind the green boughs now turning in places to a coppery redness shot their broad arches across the track the still summer air was heavy with the resinous smell of the great forest here and there
a tawny brook prattled out from among the underwood and lost itself again in the ferns and brambles upon the further side save the dull piping of insects and the sough of the leaves there was silence everywhere the sweet restful silence of nature
and yet there was no want of life the whole wide wood was full of it now it was a lithe furtive stoat which shot across the path upon some fell errand of its own then it was a wild cat
which squatted upon the outlying branch of an oak and peeped at the traveller with a yellow and dubious eye once it was a wild sow which scuttled out of the bracken with two young sounders at her heels and once
and looked around him with the fearless gaze of one who lived under the king's own high protection alleyne gave his staff a merry flourish however and the red deer bethought him that the king was far off so streaked away from whence he came
the youth had now journeyed considerably beyond the furthest domains of the abbey he was the more surprised therefore when on coming round a turn in the path he perceived a man clad in the familiar garb of the order
and seated in a clump of heather by the roadside alleyne had known every brother well but this was a face which was new to him a face
working this way and that as though the man were sore perplexed in his mind once he shook both hands furiously in the air and twice he sprang from his seat and hurried down the road when he rose however alleyne observed that his robe
was much too long and loose for him in every direction trailing upon the ground and bagging about his ankles so that even with trussed up skirts he could make little progress he ran once but
and finally plumped into the heather once more young friend said he when alleyne was abreast of him
the clerk answered for i have spent all my days within its walls
then perhaps canst tell me the name of a great loathly lump of a brother wi freckled face an a hand like a spade his eyes were black an his hair was red an his
than brother john said alleyne i trust he has done you no wrong that you should be so hot against him wrong quotha cried the other jumping out of the heather wrong why he hath stolen every plack of clothing off my back if that be a wrong
and hath left me here in this sorry frock of white falding so that i have shame to go back to my wife lest she think that i have donned her old kirtle harrow and alas
asked the young clerk who could scarce keep from laughter at the sight
sitting down once more i was passing this way hoping to reach lymington ere nightfall when i came on this red headed knave seated
i uncovered and louted as i passed thinking that he might be a holy man at his orisons but he called to me and asked me if i had heard speak of the new indulgence in favor of the cistercians not i i answered
then the worse for thy soul said he and with that he broke into a long tale how that on account of the virtues of the abbot berghersh it had been decreed by the pope
for as long as he might say the seven psalms of david should be assured of the kingdom of heaven when i heard this i prayed him on my knees that he would give me the use of his gown which after many contentions he at last agreed to do
on my paying him three marks towards the regilding of the image of laurence the martyr having stripped his robe i had no choice but to let him have the wearing of my good leathern jerkin and hose for as he said it was chilling to the blood
and unseemly to the eye to stand frockless
he had scarce got them on and it was a sore labor seeing that my inches will scarce match my girth he had scarce got them on i say and i not yet at the end of the second psalm when he bade me do honor to my new dress
for myself i could no more run than
so here i sit and here i am like to sit before i set eyes upon my clothes again nay friend take it not so sadly said alleyne
canst change thy robe for a jerkin once more at the abbey unless perchance you have a friend near at hand
for his wife hath a gibing tongue and will spread the tale until i could not show my face in any market from fordingbridge to southampton but if you fair sir out of your kind charity would be pleased to go a matter of two bow shots out of your way
you would do me such a service as i could scarce repay with all my heart said alleyne readily then take this pathway on the left i pray thee and then the deer track which passes on the right
you will then see under a great beech tree the hut of a charcoal burner give him my name good sir the name of peter the fuller of lymington and ask him for a change of raiment that i may pursue my journey without delay
there are reasons why he would be loth to refuse me alleyne started off along the path indicated and soon found the log hut where the burner dwelt he was away faggot cutting in the forest but his wife a ruddy bustling dame
found the needful garments and tied them into a bundle while she busied herself in finding and folding them alleyne edricson stood by the open door looking in at her with much interest and some distrust
for he had never been so nigh to a woman before she had round red arms a dress of some sober woollen stuff and a brass brooch the size of a cheese cake stuck in the front of it peter the fuller
she kept repeating marry come up if i were peter the fuller's wife i would teach him better than to give his clothes to the first knave who asks for them but he was always a poor fond silly creature was peter
for helping to bury our second son wat
but who are you young sir
aye indeed hast been brought up at the abbey then i could read it from thy reddened cheek and downcast eye hast learned from the monks i trow to fear a woman as thou wouldst a lazar house out upon them
heaven forfend that such a thing should come to pass said alleyne amen and amen but thou art a pretty lad
that thou hast not spent thy days in the rain and the heat and the wind as my poor wat hath been forced to do i have indeed seen little of life good dame wilt find nothing in it to pay for the loss of thy own freshness
it were easy to see that there is no woman to tend to thee so
now buss me boy alleyne stooped and kissed her for the kiss was the common salutation of the age and as erasmus long afterwards remarked more used in england than in any other country
yet it sent the blood to his temples again and he wondered as he turned away what the abbot berghersh would have answered to so frank an invitation he was still tingling from this new experience when he came out upon the high road
and saw a sight which drove all other thoughts from his mind some way down from where he had left him the unfortunate peter was stamping and raving tenfold worse than before now however
instead of the great white cloak he had no clothes on at all save a short woollen shirt and a pair of leather shoes far down the road a long legged figure was running with a bundle under one arm and the other hand to his side
like a man who laughs until he is sore see him yelled peter look to him
he shall see winchester jail for this see where he goes with my cloak under his arm who then cried alleyne who but that cursed brother john he hath not left me clothes enough to make a gallybagger the double thief hath cozened me out of my gown
it was his gown objected alleyne it boots not he hath them all gown jerkin hosen and all gramercy to him that he left me the shirt and the shoon
but how came this asked alleyne open eyed with astonishment are those the clothes for dear charity's sake give them to me not the pope himself shall have these from me though he sent the whole college of cardinals to ask it how came it why
and when i oped mouth to reproach him he asked me whether it was indeed likely that a man of prayer would leave his own godly raiment in order to take a layman's jerkin he had he said but gone for a while that i might be the freer for my devotions
on this i plucked off the gown and he with much show of haste did begin to undo his points but when i threw his frock down he clipped it up and ran off all untrussed leaving me in this sorry plight
he laughed so the while like a great croaking frog that i might have caught him had my breath not been as short as his legs were long the young man listened to this tale of wrong with all the seriousness that he could maintain but
at the sight of the pursy red faced man and the dignity with which he bore him the laughter came so thick upon him that he had to lean up against a tree trunk the fuller looked sadly and gravely at him
but finding that he still laughed he bowed with much mock politeness and stalked onwards in his borrowed clothes alleyne watched him until he was small in the distance and then wiping the tears from his eyes
chapter fourteen outside in the streets it was full day and the color and life of charin had subsided into listlessness again a dim morning dullness and silence
only a few men lounged wearily in the streets as if the sun had sapped their energy and always the pale fleecy haired children human and furred nonhuman played their mysterious games on the curbs and gutters
and staring at us with neither curiosity nor malice miellyn was shaking when she set her feet into the patterned stones of the street shrine scared miellyn i know evarin you don't but her mouth twitched
in a pitiful attempt at the old mischief when i am with a great and valorous earthman cut it out i growled
i stooped and put my arms round her like this like this she whispered pressing herself against me a staggering whirl of dizzy darkness swung round my head the street vanished after an instant
the floor steadied and we stepped into the terminal room in the mastershrine under a skylight dim with the last red slant of sunset distant hammering noises rang in my ears miellyn whispered evarin's not here
but he might jump through at any second i wasn't listening where is this place miellyn where on the planet no one knows but evarin i think there are no doors anyone who goes in or out jumps through the transmitter
she pointed the scanning device is in there we'll have to go through the workroom she was patting her crushed robes into place smoothing her hair with fastidious fingers i don't suppose you have a comb i've no time to go to my own
i'd known she was a vain and pampered brat but this passed all reason and i said so exploding at her
nebran's priestess walk through their workroom all blown about and looking like the tag end of an orgy in ardcarran abashed
but used it to good purpose smoothing her hair swiftly rearranging her loose pinned robe
an artless and rather tempting view of some delicious curvature she replaced the starred tiara on her ringlets and finally opened the door of the workroom
and we walked through not for years had i known that particular sensation thousands of eyes boring holes in the center of my back somewhere there were eyes the round inhuman orbs of the dwarf chaks
the faceted stare of the prism eyes of the toys the workroom wasn't a hundred feet long but it felt longer than a good many miles i've walked here and there the dwarfs murmured an obsequious greeting to miellyn and she made some lighthearted answer
but i was drenched with cold sweat before the farther door finally closed safe and blessedly opaque behind us
steady kid where's the scanner she touched the panel i'd seen
evarin never let me touch it this was a fine time to tell me that how does it work it's an adaptation of the transmitter principle it lets you see anywhere but without jumping it uses a tracer mechanism like the one in the toys
if rakhal's electrical impulse pattern were on file just a minute she fished out the bird toy and unwrapped it here's how we find out which of you this is keyed to i looked at the fledgling bird lying innocently in her palm as she pushed aside the feathers exposing a tiny crystal
if it's keyed to you you'll see yourself in this as if the screen were a mirror if it's keyed to rakhal she touched the crystal to the surface of the screen little flickers of snow wavered and danced then abruptly
slowly he turned i saw the familiar set of his shoulders saw the back of his head come into an aquiline profile and the profile turn slowly into a scarred seared mask more hideously claw marked and disfigured than my own
rakhal i muttered shift the focus if you can miellyn get a look out the window or something charin's a big city
rakhal was talking soundlessly his lips moving as he spoke to someone out of sight range of the scanning device abruptly miellyn said there she had caught a window in the sight field of the pane i could see a high pylon
and two of three uprights that looked like a bridge just outside i said it's the bridge of summer snows i know where he is now turn it off miellyn we can find him i was turning away when miellyn screamed look
rakhal had turned his back on the scanner and for the first time i could see who he was talking to a hunched catlike shoulder twisted
evarin i swore that does it
come on girl we're getting out of here this time there was no pretense of normality as we dashed through the workroom fingers dropped from half completed toys as they stared after us toys i wanted to stop and smash them all
but if we hurried we might find rakhal and with luck we would find evarin with him
i'd reached a saturation point on adventure i'd had all i wanted i realized that i'd been up all night that i was exhausted i wanted to murder and smash and wanted to fall down somewhere and go to sleep all at once
we banged the workroom door shut and i took time to shove a heavy divan against it blockading it miellyn stared the little ones would not harm me she began i am sacrosanct i wasn't sure
i had a notion her status had changed plenty beginning when i saw her chained and drugged and standing under the hovering horror
maybe but there's nothing sacred about me she was already inside the recess where the toad god squatted there is a street shrine just beyond the bridge of summer snows we can jump directly there abruptly she froze in my arms with a convulsive shudder
he's jumping in quick space reeled round us and then can you split instantaneousness into fragments it didn't make sense but so help me that's what happened
and everything that happened occurred within less than a second we landed in the street shrine
then there was the giddy internal wrenching
miellyn clutched at me pray pray to the gods of terra if there are any she clung so violently that it felt as if her small body was trying to push through me and come out the other side i hung on tight miellyn knew what she was doing in the transmitter
we jumped again the sickness of disorientation forcing a moan from the girl and darkness shivered round us i looked on an unfamiliar street of black night and dust bleared stars she whimpered evarin knows what i'm doing
he's jumping us all over the planet he can work the controls with his mind psychokinetics i can do it a little but i never dared oh hang on tight then began one of the most amazing duels ever fought miellyn would make some tiny movement
and we would be falling blind and dizzy through blackness halfway through the giddiness a new direction would wrench us and we would be thrust elsewhere and look out into a new street
one instant i smelled hot coffee from the spaceport cafe near the kharsa an instant later it was blinding noon with crimson fronds waving above us and a dazzle of water we flicked in and out of the salty air of shainsa
moonlight noon red twilight flickered and went shot through with the terrible giddiness of hyperspace then suddenly i caught a second glimpse of the bridge and the pylon a moment's oversight had landed us for an instant in charin
the blackness started to reel down but my reflexes are fast and i made one swift scrabbling step forward we lurched sprawled locked together on the stones of the bridge of summer snows battered and bruised and bloody we were still alive
and where we wanted to be i lifted miellyn to her feet her eyes were dazed with pain the ground swayed and rocked under our feet as we fled along the bridge
judging from its angle we couldn't be more than a hundred feet from the window through which i'd seen that landmark in the scanner in this street there was a wineshop
i walked up and banged on the door silence i knocked again and had time to wonder if we'd find ourselves explaining things to some uninvolved stranger then i heard a child's high voice and a deep familiar voice hushing it
the door opened just a crack to reveal part of a scarred face it drew into a hideous grin
chapter seven shoals and quicksands when i arrived at endsley gardens miss gibson was at home and to my unspeakable relief missus hornby was not my veneration for that lady's moral qualities was excessive
but her conversation drove me to the verge of insanity an insanity not entirely free from homicidal tendencies it is good of you to come though i thought you would miss gibson said impulsively as we shook hands
both you and doctor thorndyke so free from professional stiffness my aunt went off to see mister lawley directly we got walter's telegram i am sorry for her i said and was on the point of adding and him
but fortunately a glimmer of sense restrained me she will find him dry enough yes i dislike him extremely do you know that he had the impudence to advise reuben to plead guilty he told us he had done so
and got a well deserved snubbing from thorndyke for his pains i am so glad exclaimed miss gibson viciously but tell me what has happened walter simply said transferred to higher court which we agreed was to mean committed for trial
has the defence failed and where is reuben the defence is reserved
and that being so decided that it was essential to keep the prosecution in the dark as to the line of defence you see if the police knew what the defence was to be they could revise their own plans accordingly i see that
but i am dreadfully disappointed i had hoped that doctor thorndyke would get the case dismissed
this was the question that i had dreaded and now that i had to answer it i cleared my throat and bent my gaze nervously on the floor the magistrate refused bail i said after an uncomfortable pause well
consequently reuben has been
detained in custody you don't mean to say that they have sent him to prison she exclaimed breathlessly not as a convicted prisoner you know he is merely detained pending his trial but in prison yes i was forced to admit
in holloway prison she looked me stonily in the face for some seconds pale and wide eyed but silent then with a sudden catch in her breath she turned away
and grasping the edge of the mantel shelf laid her head upon her arm and burst into a passion of sobbing now i am not in general an emotional man nor even especially impulsive but neither am i a stock or a stone or an effigy of wood
so natural and unselfish of this strong brave loyal hearted woman in effect i moved to her side and gently taking in mine the hand that hung down murmured some incoherent words of consolation in a particularly husky voice
presently she recovered herself somewhat and softly withdrew her hand as she turned towards me drying her eyes you must forgive me for distressing you as i fear i have she said for you are so kind and i feel that you are really my friend and reuben's
i am indeed dear miss gibson i replied and so i assure you is my colleague i am sure of it she rejoined but i was so unprepared for this i cannot say why excepting that i trusted so entirely in doctor thorndyke
and it is so horrible and above all so dreadfully suggestive of what may happen up to now the whole thing has seemed like a nightmare terrifying but yet unreal but now that he is actually in prison it has suddenly become a dreadful reality and i am overwhelmed with terror
for pity's sake doctor jervis tell me what is going to happen what could i do i had heard thorndyke's words of encouragement to reuben
doubtless my proper course would have been to keep my own counsel and put miss gibson off with cautious ambiguities but i could not she was worthy of more confidence than that you must not be unduly alarmed about the future i said
i have it from doctor thorndyke that he is convinced of reuben's innocence and is hopeful of being able to make it clear to the world but i did not have this to repeat i added with a slight qualm of conscience i know she said softly
and i thank you from my heart and as to this present misfortune i continued
try to think of it as of a surgical operation which is a dreadful thing in itself but is accepted in lieu of something which is immeasurably more dreadful i will try to do as you tell me she answered meekly but it is so shocking to think of a cultivated gentleman like reuben
herded with common thieves and murderers and locked in a cage like some wild animal think of the ignominy and degradation there is no ignominy in being wrongfully accused i said a little guiltily i must own
for thorndyke's words came back to me with all their force
and nothing but the recollection of a passing inconvenience to look back upon she gave her eyes a final wipe and resolutely put away her handkerchief
and chased away my terror i cannot tell you how i feel your goodness nor have i any thank offering to make except the promise to be brave and patient henceforth and trust in you entirely she said this with such a grateful smile
and looked withal so sweet and womanly that i was seized with an overpowering impulse to take her in my arms instead of this i said with conscious feebleness
which you must remember comes from me second hand after all it is to doctor thorndyke that we all look for ultimate deliverance i know but it is you who came to comfort me in my trouble so you see the honours are divided
and not divided quite equally i fear for women are unreasoning creatures as no doubt your experience has informed you
but before you go you must tell me how and when i can see reuben i want to see him at the earliest possible moment poor fellow he must not be allowed to feel that his friends have forgotten him even for a single instant you can see him to morrow if you like i said
and casting my good resolutions to the winds i added i shall be going to see him myself and perhaps doctor thorndyke will go
should i be much in the way it is rather an alarming thing to go to a prison alone it is not to be thought of i answered
it is on the way we can drive to holloway together i suppose you are resolved to go it will be rather unpleasant as you are probably aware i am quite resolved what time shall i come to the temple about two o'clock if that will suit you
very well i will be punctual and now you must go or you will be caught she pushed me gently towards the door and holding out her hand said i haven't thanked you half enough and i never can good bye she was gone and i stood alone in the street
up which yellowish wreaths of fog were beginning to roll
the light was failing and the houses dwindling into dim unreal shapes that vanished at half their height nevertheless i stepped out briskly and strode along at a good pace as a young man is apt to do when his mind is in somewhat of a ferment
in truth i had a good deal to occupy my thoughts and as will often happen both to young men and old those matters that bore most directly upon my own life and prospects were the first to receive attention what sort of relations were growing up between juliet gibson and me
and what was my position as to hers it seemed plain enough she was wrapped up in reuben hornby and i was her very good friend because i was his but for myself there was no disguising the fact that i was beginning to take an interest in her that boded ill for my peace of mind
never had i met a woman who so entirely realised my conception of what a woman should be nor one who exercised so great a charm over me her strength and dignity her softness and dependency to say nothing of her beauty
fitted her with the necessary weapons for my complete and utter subjugation and utterly subjugated i was there was no use in denying the fact even though i realised already that the time would presently come when she would want me no more
and there would remain no remedy for me but to go away and try to forget her but was i acting as a man of honour to this i felt i could fairly answer yes for i was but doing my duty and could hardly act differently if i wished to
besides i was jeopardising no one's happiness but my own and a man may do as he pleases with his own happiness no even thorndyke could not accuse me of dishonourable conduct presently my thoughts took a fresh turn
here was a startling development indeed and i wondered what difference it would make in thorndyke's hypothesis of the crime what his theory was i had never been able to guess but as i walked along through the thickening fog i tried to fit this new fact into our collection of data
and determine its bearings and significance in this for a time i failed utterly the red thumb mark filled my field of vision to the exclusion of all else to me as to everyone else but thorndyke this fact was final
and pointed to a conclusion that was unanswerable but as i turned the story of the crime over and over there came to me presently an idea that set in motion a new and very startling train of thought could mister hornby himself be the thief
his failure appeared sudden to the outside world
there indeed was the thumb mark on the leaf which he had torn from his pocket block yes but who had seen him tear it off no one the fact rested on his bare statement but the thumb mark well it was possible though unlikely
still possible that the mark might have been made accidentally on some previous occasion and forgotten by reuben or even unnoticed mister hornby had seen the thumbograph in fact his own mark was in it
and so would have had his attention directed to the importance of finger prints in identification he might have kept the marked paper for future use and on the occasion of the robbery
and slipped it into the safe as a sure means of diverting suspicion all this was improbable in the highest degree
and as to the unspeakable baseness of the deed what action is too base for a gambler in difficulties i was so much excited and elated by my own ingenuity in having formed an intelligible and practicable theory of the crime
that i was now impatient to reach home that i might impart my news to thorndyke and see how they affected him but as i approached the centre of the town the fog grew so dense that all my attention was needed to enable me to thread my way safely through the traffic
while the strange deceptive aspect that it lent to familiar objects and the obliteration of landmarks made my progress so slow
when i felt my way down middle temple lane and crept through crown office row towards my colleague's chambers on the doorstep i found polton peering with anxious face into the blank expanse of yellow vapour the doctor's late sir said he
detained by the fog i expect it must be pretty thick in the borough i may mention that to polton thorndyke was the doctor other inferior creatures there were indeed to whom the title of doctor in a way appertained
but they were of no account in polton's eyes surnames were good enough for them yes it must be i replied judging by the condition of the strand i entered and ascended the stairs
glad enough of the prospect of a warm and well lighted room after my comfortless groping in the murky streets and polton with a final glance up and down the walk reluctantly followed you would like some tea sir i expect said he as he let me in
though i had a key of my own now i thought i should and he accordingly set about the preparations in his deft methodical way but with an air of abstraction that was unusual with him the doctor said he should be home by five he remarked
as he laid the tea pot on the tray then he is a defaulter i answered we shall have to water his tea a wonderful punctual man sir is the doctor pursued polton keeps his time to the minute as a rule he does
you can't keep your time to a minute in a london particular i said a little impatiently for i wished to be alone that i might think over matters and polton's nervous flutterings irritated me somewhat he was almost as bad as a female housekeeper
the little man evidently perceived my state of mind for he stole away silently leaving me rather penitent and ashamed
resumed his vigil on the doorstep from this coign of vantage he returned after a time to take away the tea things and thereafter
chapter six committed for trial thorndyke's hint as to the possible danger foreshadowed by my growing intimacy with juliet gibson had come upon me as a complete surprise
and had indeed been resented by me as somewhat of an impertinence nevertheless it gave me considerable food for meditation and i presently began to suspect that the watchful eyes of my observant friend
suggestive of sentiments that had been unsuspected by myself
i had only met the girl three times and even now excepting for business relations was hardly entitled to more than a bow of recognition but yet when i considered the matter impartially and examined my own consciousness
i could not but recognise that she had aroused in me an interest
in the drama that was so slowly unfolding
full of dignity and character
and her personality was in other ways not less attractive for she was frank and open sprightly and intelligent and though evidently quite self reliant
that so strongly engages a man's sympathy in short i realised that had there been no such person as reuben hornby i should have viewed miss gibson with uncommon interest but unfortunately
reuben hornby was a most palpable reality and moreover the extraordinary difficulties of his position entitled him to very special consideration by any man of honour it was true that miss gibson had repudiated any feelings towards reuben
other than those of old time friendship but young ladies are not always impartial judges of their own feelings and as a man of the world i could not but have my own opinion on the matter which opinion i believed to be shared by thorndyke
the conclusions to which my cogitations at length brought me were first that i was an egotistical donkey and second that my relations with miss gibson were of an exclusively business character and must in future
be conducted on that basis with the added consideration that i was the confidential agent for the time being of reuben hornby and in honour bound to regard his interests as paramount i am hoping said thorndyke
as he held out his hand for my teacup that these profound reflections of yours are connected with the hornby affair in which case i should expect to hear that the riddle is solved and the mystery made plain why should you expect that i demanded reddening somewhat
i suspect as i met his twinkling eye there was something rather disturbing in the dry quizzical smile that i encountered and the reflection that i had been under observation and i felt as much embarrassed as i should suppose a self conscious water flea might feel
on finding itself on the illuminated stage of a binocular microscope
you have devoured your food with the relentless regularity of a sausage machine and you have from time to time
though there i'll wager the coffee pot was even with you
i roused myself from my reverie with a laugh at thorndyke's quaint conceit and a glance at the grotesquely distorted reflection of my face in the polished silver i am afraid i have been a rather dull companion this morning i admitted apologetically
by no means replied thorndyke with a grin on the contrary i have found you both amusing and instructive and i only spoke when i had exhausted your potentialities as a silent entertainer you are pleased to be facetious at my expense
said i well the expense was not a very heavy one he retorted i have been merely consuming a by product of your mental activity hallo that's anstey already a peculiar knock apparently delivered with the handle of a walking stick on the outer door
was the occasion of this exclamation and as thorndyke sprang up and flung the door open a clear musical voice was borne in the measured cadences of which proclaimed at once the trained orator hail learned brother it exclaimed
do i disturb you untimely at your studies here our visitor entered the room and looked round critically tis even so he declared physiological chemistry and its practical applications appears to be the subject
a physico chemical inquiry into the properties of streaky bacon and fried eggs do i see another learned brother he peered keenly at me through his pince nez and i gazed at him in some embarrassment
this is my friend jervis of whom you have heard me speak said thorndyke he is with us in this case you know the echoes of your fame have reached me sir said anstey holding out his hand i am proud to know you
anstey is a wag you understand explained thorndyke but he has lucid intervals he'll have one presently if we are patient patient snorted our eccentric visitor
you've been talking to lawley i see said thorndyke yes and he tells me that we haven't a leg to stand upon no we've got to stand on our heads as men of intellect should but lawley knows nothing about the case
he thinks he knows it all said anstey most fools do retorted thorndyke
and cheap travelling too we reserve our defence i suppose you agree to that i suppose so the magistrate is sure to commit unless you have an unquestionable alibi
for we are due at lawley's at half past ten is jervis coming with us yes you'd better come said thorndyke it's the adjourned hearing of poor hornby's case you know there won't be anything done on our side
i should like to hear what takes place at any rate i said and we accordingly sallied forth together in the direction of lincoln's inn on the north side of which mister lawley's office was situated ah said the solicitor as we entered
i am glad you've come i was getting anxious
i don't think you do he presented thorndyke and me to our client's cousin and as we shook hands we viewed one another with a good deal of mutual interest i have heard about you from my aunt said he addressing himself more particularly to me
i hope for my cousin's sake that you will be able to work the wonders that she anticipates poor old fellow he looks pretty bad doesn't he i glanced at reuben who was at the moment talking to thorndyke and as he caught my eye he held out his hand
with a warmth that i found very pathetic he seemed to have aged since i had last seen him and was pale and rather thinner but he was composed in his manner and seemed to me to be taking his trouble very well on the whole cab's at the door sir a clerk announced cab
we want an omnibus doctor jervis and i can walk walter hornby suggested
yes that will do said mister lawley you two walk down together now let us go we trooped out on to the pavement beside which a four wheeler was drawn up and as the others were entering the cab thorndyke stood close beside me for a moment don't let him pump you
then he sprang into the cab and slammed the door what an extraordinary affair this is walter hornby remarked after we had been walking in silence for a minute or two a most ghastly business i must confess that i can make neither head nor tail of it
how is that i asked
there are apparently only two possible theories of the crime and each of them seems to be unthinkable on the one hand there is reuben
committing a mean and sordid theft for which no motive can be discovered for he is not poor nor pecuniarily embarrassed nor in the smallest degree avaricious on the other hand
is tantamount to the evidence of an eye witness that he did commit the theft it is positively bewildering don't you think so as you put it i answered the case is extraordinarily puzzling but how else would you put it he demanded
with ill concealed eagerness i mean that if reuben is the man you believe him to be the thing is incomprehensible quite so he agreed though he was evidently disappointed at my colourless answer he walked on silently for a few minutes and then said
we are all naturally anxious about the upshot of the affair seeing what poor old reuben's position is naturally but the fact is that i know no more than you do and as to thorndyke you might as well cross examine a whitstable native as put questions to him
yes so i gathered from juliet
the microscopical and photographic work i mean i was never in the laboratory until last night when thorndyke took me there with your aunt and miss gibson
and his knowledge of the case i should say
no thorndyke is a man who plays a single handed game
my companion considered this statement in silence while i congratulated myself on having parried with great adroitness a rather inconvenient question but the time was not far distant when i should have occasion to reproach myself bitterly
for having been so explicit and emphatic my uncle's condition walter resumed after a pause is a pretty miserable one at present with this horrible affair added to his own personal worries has he any special trouble besides this then
i asked why haven't you heard
not that it is in any way a secret seeing that it is public property in the city the fact is that his financial affairs are a little entangled just now indeed i exclaimed considerably startled by this new development
yes things have taken a rather awkward turn though i think he will pull through all right it is the usual thing you know investments or perhaps one should say speculations he appears to have sunk a lot of capital in mines thought he was in the know
not unnaturally but it seems he wasn't after all and the things have gone wrong leaving him with a deal more money than he can afford locked up and the possibility of a dead loss if they don't revive then there are these infernal diamonds
he is not morally responsible we know but it is a question if he is not legally responsible though the lawyers think he is not anyhow there is going to be a meeting of the creditors to morrow
oh they will most probably let him go on for the present but of course if he is made accountable for the diamonds
as the sporting financier expresses it the diamonds were of considerable value then from twenty five to thirty thousand pounds worth vanished with that parcel i whistled this was a much bigger affair than i had imagined
and i was wondering if thorndyke had realised the magnitude of the robbery when we arrived at the police court
they must have got here before us this supposition was confirmed by a constable of whom we made inquiry and who directed us to the entrance to the court passing down a passage and elbowing our way through the throng of idlers we made for the solicitor's box
where we had barely taken our seats when the case was called unspeakably dreary and depressing were the brief proceedings that followed and dreadfully suggestive of the helplessness of even an innocent man on whom the law has laid its hand
and in whose behalf its inexorable machinery has been set in motion the presiding magistrate emotionless and dry dipped his pen while reuben who had surrendered to his bail
the counsel representing the police gave an abstract of the case with the matter of fact air of a house agent describing an eligible property then when the plea of not guilty had been entered the witnesses were called there were only two and when the name of the first
john hornby was called i glanced towards the witness box with no little curiosity i had not hitherto met mister hornby and as he now entered the box i saw an elderly man tall florid and well preserved
but strained and wild in expression and displaying his uncontrollable agitation by continual nervous movements which contrasted curiously with the composed demeanour of the accused man nevertheless he gave his evidence in a perfectly connected manner
in much the same words as i had heard mister lawley use though indeed he was a good deal more emphatic than that gentleman had been in regard to the excellent character borne by the prisoner after him came mister singleton of the finger print department at scotland yard
to whose evidence i listened with close attention
which had previously been identified by mister hornby and a paper bearing the print taken by himself of the prisoner's left thumb these two thumb prints he stated were identical in every respect
and you are of opinion that the mark on the paper that was found in mister hornby's safe was made by the prisoner's left thumb the magistrate asked in dry and business like tones i am certain of it
no mistake is possible your worship it is a certainty the magistrate looked at anstey inquiringly whereupon the barrister rose we reserve our defence your worship
the magistrate then in the same placid business like manner committed the prisoner for trial at the central criminal court refusing to accept bail for his appearance and as reuben was led forth from the dock the next case was called
by special favour of the authorities reuben was to be allowed to make his journey to holloway in a cab thus escaping the horrors of the filthy and verminous prison van and while this was being procured his friends were permitted to wish him farewell
when we three were for a few moments left apart from the others and as he spoke the warmth of a really sympathetic nature broke through his habitual impassivity but be of good cheer i have convinced myself of your innocence
and have good hopes of convincing the world though this is for your private ear you understand to be mentioned to no one reuben wrung the hand of this friend in need but was unable for the moment to speak
and as his self control was evidently strained to the breaking point thorndyke with a man's natural instinct wished him a hasty good bye and passing his hand through my arm turned away
and especially from the degradation of being locked up in a jail he exclaimed regretfully as we walked down the street there is surely no degradation in being merely accused of a crime i answered without much conviction however it may happen to the best of us
and he is still an innocent man in the eyes of the law
to be mere casuistry he rejoined the law professes to regard the unconvicted man as innocent but how does it treat him you heard how the magistrate addressed our friend
you know what will happen to reuben at holloway he will be ordered about by warders will have a number label fastened on to his coat he will be locked in a cell with a spy hole in the door through which any passing stranger may watch him his food will be handed to him in a tin pan
and driven round the exercise yard with a mob composed for the most part of the sweepings of the london slums if he is acquitted he will be turned loose without a suggestion of compensation or apology for these indignities or the losses he may have sustained through his detention
still i suppose these evils are unavoidable i said that may or may not be he retorted my point is that the presumption of innocence is a pure fiction
from the moment of his arrest is that of a criminal however he concluded hailing a passing hansom this discussion must be adjourned or i shall be late at the hospital what are you going to do i shall get some lunch and then call on miss gibson
to let her know the real position yes that will be kind i think baldly stated the news may seem rather alarming
and then we should have shown our hand to the prosecution he sprang into the hansom and was speedily swallowed up in the traffic while i turned back towards the police court to make certain inquiries concerning the regulations as to visitors at holloway prison
at the door i met the friendly inspector from scotland yard who gave me the necessary information
clean clothes for missus quinn selling chips or grubbing in the ash heaps for cinders but he was honestly earning his living doing his duty as well as he knew how and serving those poorer and more helpless than himself
and for this he paid by carrying the bundles and getting the cinders for her fire food and clothes he picked up as he could and his only friend was little nanny
her mother had been kind to him when the death of his father left him all alone in the world and when she too passed away the boy tried to show his gratitude by comforting the little girl
who thought there was no one in the world like her jack old missus quinn took care of her waiting till she was strong enough to work for herself but nanny had been sick and still sat about
a pale little shadow of her former self with a white film slowly coming over her pretty blue eyes this was jack's great trouble
for he was a cheery lad and when the baskets were heavy the way long the weather bitter cold his poor clothes in rags or his stomach empty he just whistled and somehow things seemed to get right
with such pathetic patience in her little face i don't see em but i know they're pretty and i like em lots
and when he tried to cheer himself up with a good whistle his lips trembled so they wouldn't pucker the poor dear's eyes could be cured i ain't a doubt
doctor wilkinson's cook told me once that he done something to a lady's eyes and asked a thousand dollars for it jack sighed a long hopeless sigh
and went away to fill the water pails but he remembered the doctor's name and began to wonder how many years it would take to earn a hundred dollars
nanny was very patient but by and by missus quinn began to talk about sending her to some almshouse for she was too poor to be burdened with a helpless child
the fear of this nearly broke jack's heart and he went about with such an anxious face that it was a mercy nanny did not see it jack was only twelve
but he had a hard load to carry just then for the thought of his little friend doomed to lifelong darkness for want of a little money tempted him to steal more than once
and gave him the first fierce bitter feeling against those better off than he when he carried nice dinners to the great houses and saw the plenty that prevailed there
he couldn't help feeling that it wasn't fair for some to have so much and others so little when he saw pretty children playing in the park or driving with their mothers so gay so well cared for
so tenderly loved the poor boy's eyes would fill to think of poor little nanny with no friend in the world but himself and he so powerless to help her
he can't be bothered with the like of you jack clenched his hands hard as he went down the steps and said to himself with a most unboyish tone
he did get it and in a most unexpected way but he never forgot the desperate feeling that came to him that day
as he was saved from doing by what seemed an accident some days after his attempt at the doctor's as he was grubbing in a newly deposited ash heap
with the bitter feeling very bad and the trouble very heavy he found a dirty old pocket book and put it in his bosom without stopping to examine it
for many boys and girls were scratching like a brood of chickens all round him and the pickings were unusually good so no time must be lost findings is havings
was one of the laws of the ash heap haunters and no one thought of disputing another's right to the spoons and knives that occasionally found their way into the ash barrels while bottles old shoes rags and paper
were regular articles of traffic among them jack got a good basketful that day and when the hurry was over sat down to rest and clear the dirt off his face with an old silk duster
which he had picked out of the rubbish thinking missus quinn might wash it up for a handkerchief but he didn't wipe his dirty face that day for with the rag out tumbled a pocket book
and on opening it he saw money yes a roll of bills with two figures on all of them three tens and one twenty it took his breath away for a minute
then he hugged the old book tight in both his grimy hands and rocked to and fro all in a heap among the oyster shells and rusty tin kettles saying to himself with tears running down his cheeks
for jack tore home at a great pace and burst into the room waving the old duster and shouting hooray i've got it i've got it it is no wonder missus quinn thought he had lost his wits
then showered the money into nanny's lap and hugged her with another hooray which ended in a choke when they got him quiet and heard the story missus quinn rather damped his joy by telling him the money wasn't his
and he ought to advertise it but i want it for nanny cried jack and how can i ever find who owns it when there was ever so many barrels emptied in that heap and no one knows where they came from
it's very like you won't find the owner and you can do as you please but it's honest to try i'm thinking for some poor girl may have lost her earnin's this way
and we wouldn't like that ourselves said missus quinn
nanny looked very sober and jack grabbed up the money as if it were too precious to lose but he wasn't comfortable about it
and after a hard fight with himself he consented to let missus quinn ask their policeman what they should do he was a kindly man and when he heard the story said he'd do what was right
and if he couldn't find an owner jack should have the fifty dollars back how hard it was to wait how jack thought and dreamed of his money day and night
how nanny ran to the door to listen when a heavy step came up the stairs and how wistfully the poor darkened eyes turned to the light which they longed to see again
honest john floyd did his duty but he didn't find the owner so the old purse came back at last and now jack could keep it with a clear conscience
nanny was asleep when it happened and as they sat counting the dingy bills missus quinn said to the boy jack you'd better keep this for yourself i
doubt if it's enough to do the child any good and you need clothes and shoes and a heap of things let alone the books you hanker after so much it ain't likely you'll ever find another wallet
it's all luck about nanny's eyes and maybe you are only throwing away a chance you'll never have again jack leaned his head on his arms and stared at the money all spread out there
his hearty boy's appetite did long for better food and oh
the books that would give him a taste of the knowledge which was more enticing to his wide awake young mind than clothes and food to his poor little body it wasn't an easy thing to do
to the dear little face in the trundle bed and he said with a decided nod i'll give nanny the chance
missus quinn was a matter of fact body
saying boldly to the gruff servant i want to see the doctor i can pay so you'd better let me in i'm afraid cross thomas would have shut the door in the boy's face again
if it had not been for the little blind girl who looked up at him so imploringly that he couldn't resist the mute appeal the doctor's going out but maybe he'll see you a minute
and with that he led them into a room where stood a tall man putting on his gloves
but he was so afraid that nanny would lose her chance that he forgot himself and told the little story as fast as he could told it well too i fancy for the doctor listened attentively
his eye going from the boy's eager flushed face to the pale patient one beside him as if the two little figures shabby though they were illustrated the story better than the finest artist could have done
when jack ended the doctor sat nanny on his knee gently lifted up the half shut eyelids and after examining the film a minute stroked her pretty hair and
said so kindly that she nestled her little hand confidingly into his i think i can help you my dear tell me where you live and i'll attend to it at once for it's high time something was done
jack told him adding with a manly air as he showed the money i can pay you sir if fifty dollars is enough quite enough said the doctor with a droll smile
if it isn't i'll work for the rest if you'll trust me please save nanny's eyes and i'll do any thing to pay you cried jack getting red and choky in his earnestness
the doctor stopped smiling and held out his hand in a grave respectful way as he said i'll trust you my boy we'll cure nanny first and you and i will settle the bill afterward
jack liked that it was a gentlemanly way of doing things and he showed his satisfaction by smiling all over his face and giving the big white hand a hearty shake with both his rough ones
the doctor was a busy man but he kept them some time for there were no children in the fine house
and it seemed pleasant to have a little girl sit on his knee and a bright boy stand beside his chair and when at last they went away they looked as if he had given them some magic medicine
which made them forget every trouble they had ever known next day the kind man came to give nanny her chance she had no doubt and very little fear
but looked up at him so confidingly when all was ready that he stooped down and kissed her softly before he touched her eyes let jack hold my hands then i'll be still and not mind if it hurts me
she said so jack pale with anxiety knelt down before her and kept the little hands steadily in his all through the minutes that seemed so long to him what do you see my child
asked the doctor when he had done something to both eyes with a quick skilful hand nanny leaned forward with the film all gone and answered with a little cry of joy
that went to the hearts of those who heard it jack's face i see it oh i see it only a freckled round face with wet eyes and tightly set lips
but to nanny it was as beautiful as the face of an angel and when she was laid away with bandaged eyes to rest it haunted all her dreams for it was the face of the little friend who loved her best
nanny's chance was not a failure and when she saw the next dandelions he brought her all the sunshine came back into the world brighter than ever for jack well might it seem so
for his fifty dollars bought him many things that money seldom buys the doctor wouldn't take it at first but when jack said in the manful tone the doctor liked although it made him smile
it was a bargain sir i wish to pay my debts and i shan't feel happy if nanny don't have it all for her eyes please do i'd rather then he took it
but in clothes and food and care many times over for it was invested in a bank that pays good interest on every mite so given jack discovered that fifty dollars was far less than most people would have had to pay
and begged earnestly to be allowed to work for the rest the doctor agreed to this and jack became his errand boy serving with a willingness that made a pleasure of duty
soon finding that many comforts quietly got into his life that much help was given without words and that the days of hunger and rags heavy burdens and dusty ash heaps were gone by for ever
for while he waited the boy studied or read and while they drove hither and thither the doctor talked with him finding an eager mind as well as a tender heart and a brave spirit
under the rough jacket of his little serving man
notwithstanding the aids and disguises of dress of figure external indications as to figure are required chiefly as to the limbs which are concealed by drapery
such indications are afforded by the walk to every careful observer in considering the proportion of the limbs to the body if even in a young woman the walk though otherwise good be heavy
or the fall on each foot alternately be sudden and rather upon the heel the limbs though well formed will be found to be slender compared with the body
and it is frequently observable in the woman of the saxon population of england
and upper part of the chest at every step in walking in considering
if viewed behind the feet at every step are thrown out backward and somewhat laterally the knees are certainly much inclined inward if viewed in front the dress at every step
is as it were gathered toward the front and then tossed more or less to the opposite side the knees are certainly too much inclined in considering the relative size of each portion of the limbs
and the knee and ancle joints which remain proportionally unemployed if in the walk the tripping pace be used as in an approach to walking on tiptoes the calf is large
for it is only by the power of its muscles that under the weight of the whole body the foot can be extended for this purpose if in the walk the foot be raised in a slovenly manner
and the heel be seen at each step to lift the bottom of the dress upward and backward neither the hip nor the calf is well developed
much deception occurs it is therefore necessary to understand the arts employed for this purpose at least by skilful women a person having a narrow face wears a bonnet
with wide front exposing the lower part of the cheeks one having a broad face wears a closer front and if the jaw be wide it is in appearance diminished by bringing the corners of the bonnet
sloping to the point of the chin a person having a long neck has the neck of the bonnet descending the neck of the dress rising and filling more or less of the intermediate space
one having a short neck has the whole bonnet short and close in the perpendicular direction and the neck of the dress neither high nor wide
persons with narrow shoulders have the shoulders or epaulets of the dress formed on the outer edge of the natural shoulder very full and both the bosom and back of the dress running in oblique folds
from the point of the shoulder to the middle of the bust persons with waists too large render them less before by a stomacher or something equivalent
and behind by a corresponding form of the dress making the top of the dress smooth across the shoulders and drawing it in plaits to a narrow point at the bottom of the waist
those who have the bosom too small enlarge it by the oblique folds of the dress being gathered above and by other means those who have the lower posterior part of the body too flat
elevate it by the top of the skirt being gathered behind and by other less skilful adjustments which though hid are easily detected
those who have the lower part of the body too prominent anteriorly render it less apparent by shortening the waist by a corresponding projection behind and by increasing the bosom above
those who have the haunches too narrow take care not to have the bottom of the dress too wide tall women have a wide skirt or several flounces or both of these
of beauty additional indications as to beauty are required chiefly where the woman observed precedes the observer
and may by her figure naturally and reasonably excite his interest while at the same time it would be rude to turn and look in her face on passing
there can therefore be no impropriety in observing that the conduct of those who may happen to meet the women thus preceding will differ according to the sex of the person who meets her
if the person meeting her be a woman the case becomes more complex if both be either ugly or beautiful or if the person meeting her be beautiful and the lady observed be ugly
casting merely an indifferent glance if on the contrary the woman meeting her be ugly and the lady observed be beautiful then the former will examine the latter with the severest scrutiny
and if she sees features and shape without defect she will instantly fix her eyes on the head dress or gown in order to find some object for censure of the beautiful woman and for consolation in her own ugliness
may be aided in determining whether it is worth his while to glance at her face in passing or to devise other means of seeing it even when the face is seen as in meeting in the streets or elsewhere
infinite deception occurs as to the degree of beauty this operates so powerfully that a correct estimate of beauty is perhaps never formed at first
for this reason it is necessary to understand the principles according to which colors are employed at least by skilful women when it is the fault of a face to contain too much yellow
then yellow around the face is used to remove it by contrast and to cause the red and blue to predominate when it is the fault of a face to contain too much red
then red around the face is used to remove by contrast and to cause the yellow and blue to predominate when it is the fault of a face to contain too much blue then blue around the face is used to remove it by contrast
then purple is used when it is the fault of a face to contain too much blue and yellow
in both these cases the color employed is no longer that which is placed around the face and which acts on it by contrast but the opposite
as green around the face heightens a faint red in the cheeks by contrast so the pink lining of the bonnet aids it by reflection
and care is then taken that these linings do not come into the direct view of the observer and operate prejudicially on the face by contrast overpowering the little color which by reflection they should heighten
the fronts of bonnets so lined therefore do not widen greatly forward and bring their color into contrast when bonnets do widen the proper contrast is used as a lining
but then it has not a surface much adapted for reflection otherwise it may perform that office and injure the complexion understanding then the application of these colors in a general way
it may be noticed that fair faces are by contrast best acted on by light colors and dark faces by darker colors dark faces are best affected by darker colors
evidently because they tend to render the complexion fairer and fair faces do not require dark colors because the opposition would be too strong
reflect their hues upon it always either improve or injure the complexion for this and some other reasons many persons look better at home in their apartments than in the streets
of mind external indications as to mind may be derived from figure
as to figure a certain symmetry or disproportion of parts either of which depends immediately upon the locomotive system or a certain softness or hardness of form
these reciprocally denote a locomotive symmetry or disproportion or a vital softness or hardness or a mental delicacy or coarseness
which will be found also indicated by the features of the face these qualities are marked in pairs as each belonging to its respective system for without this there can be no accurate or useful observation
as to gait that progression which advances unmodified by any lateral movement of the body or any perpendicular rising of the head and which belongs exclusively to the locomotive system
or that perpendicular rising or falling of the head at every impulse to step which belongs exclusively to the mental system these reciprocally indicate a corresponding locomotive or vital or mental character
which will be found also indicated by the features of the face to put to the test the utility of these elements of observation and indication let us take a few instances
if in any individual locomotive symmetry of figure is combined with direct and linear gait
but cold and insipid is indicated if vital softness of figure is combined with a gentle lateral rolling of the body in its gait voluptuous character and expression of countenance are indicated
if delicacy of outline in the figure be combined with perpendicular rising of the head levity perhaps vanity is indicated
the gait however is often formed in a great measure by local or other circumstances by which it is necessary that the observer should avoid being misled dress as affording indications
though less to be relied on than the preceding is not without its value the woman who possesses a cultivated taste and a corresponding expression of countenance will generally be tastefully dressed
and the vulgar woman with features correspondingly rude will easily be seen through the inappropriate mask in which her milliner or dressmaker may have invested her
of habits external indications as to the personal habits of women are both numerous and interesting
the habit of child bearing is indicated by a flatter breast a broader back and thicker cartilages of the bones of the pubis necessarily widening the pelvis
the same habit is also indicated by a high rise of the nape of the neck so that the neck from that point bends considerably forward and by an elevation which is diffused between the neck and shoulders
from the habit of throwing the shoulders backward during pregnancy and the head again forward to balance the abdominal weight
peculiarly expressive the same habit is likewise indicated by an excess of that lateral rolling of the body in walking which was already described as connected with voluptuous character
this is a very certain indication as it arises from temporary distensions of the pelvis which nothing else can occasion as in consequence of this lateral rolling of the body
and of the weight of the body being much thrown forward in gestation the toes are turned somewhat inward they aid in the indication
both in mothers and nursery maids by the right shoulder being larger and more elevated than the left the habits of the seamstress are indicated by the neck suddenly bending forward
and the arms being even in walking considerably bent forward or folded more or less upward from the elbows habits of labor are indicated by a considerable thickness of the shoulders below
where they form an angle with the inner part of the arm
the elbows are turned outward and the palms of the hands backward of age external indications of age are required chiefly where the face is veiled
or where the woman observed precedes the observer and may reasonably excite his interest in either of these cases if the foot and ankle have lost a certain moderate plumpness
and assumed a certain sinewy or bony appearance
then has the woman in general passed the meridian of life unlike the last indication this is apparent however the foot and ankle may be clothed
which unfits the muscles to receive the weight of the body by maintaining the extension of the ankle joint exceptions to this last indication are to be found chiefly in women in whom the developments of the body are proportionally much greater
sovereignty the term sovereign or sovereignty says judge story is used in different senses which often leads to a confusion of ideas and sometimes to very mischievous and unfounded conclusions
without any disrespect for judge story or any disparagement of his great learning and ability it may safely be added that he and his disciples have contributed not a little to the increase of this confusion of ideas
and the spread of these mischievous and unfounded conclusions there is no good reason whatever why it should be used in different senses or why there should be any confusion of ideas as to its meaning of all the terms employed in political science
it is one of the most definite and intelligible the definition of it given by that accurate and lucid publicist burlamaqui is simple and satisfactory that sovereignty
but he adds when once the people have transferred their right to a sovereign
they can not without contradiction
the peculiarity of which is that the people never do transfer their right of sovereignty either in whole or in part they only delegate to their governments the exercise of such of its functions as may be necessary
subject always to their own control and to reassumption whenever such government fails to fulfill the purposes for which it was instituted i think it has already been demonstrated that in this country the only political community
the only independent corporate unit through which the people can exercise their sovereignty is the state minor communities as those of counties cities and towns are merely fractional subdivisions of the state
and these do not affect the evidence that there was not such a political community as the people of the united states in the aggregate that the states were severally sovereign and independent when they were united under the articles of confederation is distinctly asserted in those articles
and is admitted even by the extreme partisans of consolidation of right they are still sovereign unless they have surrendered or been divested of their sovereignty and those who deny the proposition have been vainly called upon
to point out the process by which they have divested themselves or have been divested of it otherwise than by usurpation since webster spoke and story wrote upon the subject however the sovereignty of the states has been vehemently denied
or explained away as only a partial imperfect mutilated sovereignty paradoxical theories of divided sovereignty and delegated sovereignty have arisen to create that confusion of ideas
and engender those mischievous and unfounded conclusions of which judge story speaks confounding the sovereign authority of the people with the delegated powers conferred by them upon their governments
we hear of a government of the united states sovereign within its sphere and of state governments sovereign in their sphere of the surrender by the states of part of their sovereignty to the united states and the like now if there be
any one great principle pervading the federal constitution the state constitutions the writings of the fathers the whole american system as clearly as the sunlight pervades the solar system it is that no government is sovereign
that all governments derive their powers from the people and exercise them in subjection to the will of the people not a will expressed in any irregular lawless tumultuary manner but the will of the organized political community
expressed through authorized and legitimate channels the founders of the american republics never conferred nor intended to confer sovereignty upon either their state or federal governments
if then the people of the states in forming a federal union surrendered or to use burlamaqui's term transferred or if they meant to surrender or transfer part of their sovereignty to whom was the transfer made
for there was no such people in existence and they did not create or constitute such a people by merger of themselves not to the federal government for they disclaimed as a fundamental principle the sovereignty of any government there was no such surrender
no such transfer in whole or in part expressed or implied they retained and intended to retain their sovereignty in its integrity undivided and indivisible
but indeed says mister motley the words sovereign and sovereignty are purely inapplicable to the american system in the declaration of independence the provinces declare themselves free and independent states
but the men of those days knew that the word sovereign was a term of feudal origin when their connection with a time honored feudal monarchy was abruptly severed
we have seen that in the very front of their articles of confederation they set forth the conspicuous declaration that each state retained its sovereignty freedom and independence
massachusetts the state i believe of mister motley's nativity and citizenship in her original constitution drawn up by men of those days made this declaration the people inhabiting the territory formerly called the province of massachusetts bay
do hereby solemnly and mutually agree with each other to form themselves into a free sovereign and independent body politic or state by the name of the commonwealth of massachusetts
new hampshire in her constitution as revised in seventeen ninety two had identically the same declaration except as regards the name of the state and the word state instead of commonwealth mister madison
one of the most distinguished of the men of that day and of the advocates of the constitution in a speech already once referred to in the virginia convention of seventeen eighty eight explained that we the people who were to establish the constitution
do they the fundamental principles of the confederation require that in the establishment of the constitution the states should be regarded as distinct and independent sovereigns
another contemporary authority no less illustrious says in the federalist it is inherent in the nature of sovereignty not to be amenable to the suit of an individual without its consent this is the general sense and the general practice of mankind
and the exemption as one of the attributes of sovereignty
always with reference to the states respectively and severally
james wilson of pennsylvania said sovereignty is in the people before they make a constitution and remains in them
one of the warmest advocates in the convention of a strong central government spoke of the constitution as a compact
but why multiply citations it is very evident that the men of those days entertained very different views of sovereignty from those set forth by the new lights of our day far from considering it a term of feudal origin purely inapplicable to the american system
they seem to have regarded it as a very vital principle in that system and of necessity belonging to the several states and i do not find a single instance in which they applied it to any political organization except the states
their ideas were in entire accord with those of vattel who in his chapter of nations or sovereign states writes every nation that governs itself under what form soever without any dependence on foreign power
he says several sovereign and independent states may unite themselves together by a perpetual confederacy without each in particular ceasing to be a perfect state they will form together a federal republic
the deliberations in common will offer no violence to the sovereignty of each member though they may in certain respects
is explained by a subsequent passage
some objections considered the new states acquired territory allegiance false and true difference between nullification and secession secession a peaceable remedy no appeal to arms
two conditions noted it would be only adding to a superabundance of testimony to quote further from the authors of the constitution in support of the principle unquestioned in that generation that the people who granted
that is to say of course the people of the several states might resume their grants it will require but few words to dispose of some superficial objections that have been made to the application of this doctrine in a special case
it is sometimes said that whatever weight may attach to principles founded on the sovereignty and independence of the original thirteen states they can not apply to the states of more recent origin constituting now a majority of the members of the union
because these are but the offspring or creatures of the union and must of course be subordinate and dependent this objection would scarcely occur to any instructed mind though it may possess a certain degree of specious plausibility for the untaught
it is enough to answer that the entire equality of the states in every particular is a vital condition of their union every new member that has been admitted into the partnership of states came in as is expressly declared in the acts for their admission
on a footing of perfect equality in every respect with the original members this equality is as complete as the equality before the laws of the son with the father immediately on the attainment by the former of his legal majority
without regard to the prior condition of dependence and tutelage the relations of the original states to one another and to the union can not be affected by any subsequent accessions of new members
and furnishes the normal standard which is applicable to all the boston memorial to congress referred to in a foregoing chapter as prepared by a committee with mister webster at its head
says that the new states are universally considered as admitted into the union upon the same footing as the original states and as possessing in respect to the union
the same rights of sovereignty freedom and independence as the other states but with regard to states formed of territory acquired by purchase from france spain and mexico
they belong to the same and have no right to withdraw at will from an association the property which had been purchased by the other parties
happy would it have been if the equal rights of the people of all the states to the enjoyment of territory acquired by the common treasure could have been recognized at the proper time
as for the sordid claim of ownership of states on account of the money spent for the land which they contain i can understand the ground of a claim to some interest in the soil so long as it continues to be public property
but have yet to learn in what way the united states ever became purchaser of the inhabitants or of their political rights any question in regard to property has always been admitted to be matter for fair and equitable settlement in case of the withdrawal of a state
expressly provided that the inhabitants thereof should be admitted as soon as possible according to the principles of the federal constitution
indeed the denial of the right would be inconsistent with the character of american political institutions another objection made to the right of secession is based upon obscure indefinite and inconsistent ideas with regard to allegiance
it assumes various shapes and is therefore somewhat difficult to meet but as most frequently presented may be stated thus that the citizen owes a double allegiance or a divided allegiance partly to his state partly to the united states
that it is not possible for either of these powers to release him from the allegiance due to the other that the state can no more release him from his obligations to the union
this is the most moderate way in which the objection is put the extreme centralizers go further and claim that allegiance to the union or as they generally express it to the government meaning thereby the federal government
is paramount and the obligation to the state only subsidiary if indeed it exists at all this latter view if the more monstrous is at least the more consistent of the two
for it does not involve the difficulty of a divided allegiance nor the paradoxical position in which the other places the citizen in case of a conflict between his state and the other members of the union of being necessarily a rebel against the general government
or a traitor to the state of which he is a citizen as to true allegiance in the light of the principles which have been established there can be no doubt with regard to it the primary paramount allegiance of the citizen is due to the sovereign only
that sovereign under our system is the people the people of the state to which he belongs the people who constituted the state government which he obeys and which protects him in the enjoyment of his personal rights the people who alone
as far as he is concerned ordained and established the federal constitution and federal government the people who have reserved to themselves sovereignty which involves the power to revoke all agencies created by them
the obligation to support the state or federal constitution and the obedience due to either state or federal government are alike derived from and dependent on the allegiance due to this sovereign
if the sovereign abolishes the state government and ordains and establishes a new one the obligation of allegiance requires him to transfer his obedience accordingly if the sovereign withdraws from association with its confederates in the union
the allegiance of the citizen requires him to follow the sovereign any other course is rebellion or treason words which in the cant of the day have been so grossly misapplied and perverted as to be made worse than unmeaning
his relation to the union arose from the membership of the state of which he was a citizen and ceased whenever his state withdrew from it he can not owe obedience much less allegiance
to an association from which his sovereign has separated and thereby withdrawn him every officer of both federal and state governments is required to take an oath to support the constitution
a compact the binding force of which is based upon the sovereignty of the states a sovereignty necessarily carrying with it the principles just stated with regard to allegiance
every such officer is therefore virtually sworn to maintain and support the sovereignty of all the states military and naval officers take in addition an oath to obey the lawful orders of their superiors
such an oath has never been understood to be eternal in its obligations it is dissolved by the death dismissal or resignation of the officer who takes it and such resignation is not a mere optional right
but becomes an imperative duty when continuance in the service comes to be in conflict with the ultimate allegiance due to the sovereignty of the state to which he belongs a little consideration of these plain and irrefutable truths
would show how utterly unworthy and false are the vulgar taunts which attribute treason to those who in the late secession of the southern states were loyal to the only sovereign entitled to their allegiance
an oath which nobody ever could have been legally required to take and which must have been ignorantly confounded with the prescribed oath to support the constitution
nullification and secession are often erroneously treated as if they were one and the same thing it is true that both ideas spring from the sovereign right of a state to interpose for the protection of its own people
but they are altogether unlike as to both their extent and the character of the means to be employed the first was a temporary expedient intended to restrain action until the question at issue could be submitted to a convention of the states
it was a remedy which its supporters sought to apply within the union a means to avoid the last resort separation if the application for a convention should fail or if the state making it should suffer an adverse decision
the advocates of that remedy have not revealed what they proposed as the next step supposing the infraction of the compact to have been of that character which according to mister webster dissolved it
secession on the other hand was the assertion of the inalienable right of a people to change their government whenever it ceased to fulfill the purposes for which it was ordained and established
under our form of government and the cardinal principles upon which it was founded it should have been a peaceful remedy the withdrawal of a state from a league has no revolutionary or insurrectionary characteristic
the government of the state remains unchanged as to all internal affairs it is only its external or confederate relations that are altered to term this action of a sovereign a rebellion is a gross abuse of language
so is the flippant phrase which speaks of it as an appeal to the arbitrament of the sword in the late contest in particular there was no appeal by the seceding states to the arbitrament of arms there was on their part no invitation
nor provocation to war they stood in an attitude of self defense and were attacked for merely exercising a right guaranteed by the original terms of the compact
the new vocabulary the federal constitution a compact and the states acceded to it evidence of the constitution itself and of contemporary records
i have habitually spoken of the federal constitution as a compact and of the parties to it as sovereign states these terms should not and in earlier times would not have required explanation or vindication
but they have been called in question by the modern school of consolidation these gentlemen admit that the government under the articles of confederation was a compact
mister webster in his rejoinder to mister hayne on the twenty seventh of january eighteen thirty said when the gentleman says the constitution is a compact between the states he uses language exactly applicable to the old confederation
he speaks as if he were in congress before seventeen eighty nine he describes fully that old state of things then existing the confederation was in strictness a compact the states as states were parties to it
we had no other general government but that was found insufficient and inadequate to the public exigencies the people were not satisfied with it and undertook to establish a better
they undertook to form a general government which should stand on a new basis not a confederacy not a league not a compact between states
of the constitution he says does it call itself a compact certainly not it uses the word compact but once
a subsisting treaty between the states certainly not
that the constitution is not a compact because it is not so nominated in the bond as well as i can recollect there is no passage in the iliad or the a eneid in which either of those great works calls itself
or is called by its author an epic poem yet this would scarcely be accepted as evidence that they are not epic poems in an examination of mister webster's remarks i do not find that he announces them to be either a speech or an argument
yet their claim to both these titles will hardly be disputed notwithstanding the verbal criticism on the constitution just quoted the distinction attempted to be drawn between the language proper to a confederation
and that belonging to a constitution as indicating two different ideas will not bear the test of examination and application to the case of the united states it has been fully shown in previous chapters that the terms union
federal union federal constitution constitution of the federal government and the like were used not merely in colloquial informal speech but in public proceedings and official documents
with reference to the articles of confederation as freely as they have since been employed under the present constitution the former union was as mister webster expressly admits as nobody denies
a compact between states yet it nowhere calls itself a compact the word does not occur in it even the one time that it occurs in the present constitution
although the contracting states are in both prohibited from entering into any treaty confederation or alliance with one another or with any foreign power
without the consent of congress and the contracting or constituent parties are termed united states in the one just as in the other mister webster is particularly unfortunate in his criticisms upon what he terms the new vocabulary
in which the constitution is styled a compact and the states which ratified it are spoken of as having acceded to it in the same speech last quoted he says
has been chosen for use here doubtless not without a well considered purpose the natural converse of accession is secession and therefore
it may be more plausibly argued that they may secede from it if in adopting the constitution nothing was done but acceding to a compact nothing would seem necessary in order to break it up but to secede from the same compact
but the term is wholly out of place accession as a word applied to political associations implies coming into a league treaty or confederacy by one hitherto a stranger to it and secession implies departing from such league or confederacy
and attributing the use of the terms which he attacks to an ulterior purpose mister webster says this is the reason sir which makes it necessary to abandon the use of constitutional language for a new vocabulary
and to substitute in the place of plain historical facts a series of assumptions this is the reason why it is necessary to give new names to things
to speak of the constitution not as a constitution but as a compact and of the ratifications by the people not as ratifications
if the states had as states severally acceded to it all which propositions he denies then the sovereignty of the states and their right to secede from the union would be deducible
now it happens that these very terms compact confederacy accede and the like were the terms in familiar use by the authors of the constitution and their associates with reference to that instrument and its ratification
other writers who have examined the subject since the late war gave it an interest which it had never commanded before have collected such an array of evidence in this behalf that it is necessary only to cite a few examples
the following language of mister gerry of massachusetts in the convention of seventeen eighty seven has already been referred to if nine out of thirteen states can dissolve the compact six out of nine will be just as able to dissolve the new one hereafter
he came here to form a compact for the good of americans he was ready to do so with all the states he hoped and believed they all would enter into such a compact if they would not he would be ready to join with any states that would
if nine other states should accede to the constitution luther martin of maryland informs us that in a committee of the general convention of seventeen eighty seven
protesting against the proposed violation of the principles of the perpetual union already formed under the articles of confederation he made use of such language as this will you tell us we ought to trust you because you now enter into a solemn compact with us
this you have done before and now treat with the utmost contempt will you now make an appeal to the supreme being and call on him to guarantee your observance of this compact the same you have formerly done for your observance of the articles of confederation
was the very language they familiarly used
however eminent from authority second only if at all inferior to that of the text of the constitution itself that is from the acts or ordinances of ratification by the states they certainly ought to have been conclusive and should not have been unknown to mister webster
for they are the language of massachusetts the state which he represented in the senate and of new hampshire the state of his nativity the ratification of massachusetts is expressed in the following terms commonwealth of massachusetts
reported to congress by the convention of delegates from the united states of america and submitted to us by a resolution of the general court of the said commonwealth passed the twenty fifth day of october last past
and acknowledging with grateful hearts the goodness of the supreme ruler of the universe in affording the people of the united states in the course of his providence an opportunity deliberately and peaceably without fraud or surprise
of entering into an explicit and solemn compact with each other by assenting to and ratifying a new constitution in order to form a more perfect union establish justice insure domestic tranquillity
provide for the common defense promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity do in the name and in behalf of the people of the commonwealth of massachusetts assent to
and ratify the said constitution for the united states of america
or general court referred to and also the use of the word state instead of commonwealth both distinctly accept it as a compact of the states with each other which mister webster a son of new hampshire and a senator from massachusetts
declared it was not and not only so but he repudiated the very vocabulary from which the words expressing the doctrine were taken it would not need however this abounding wealth of contemporaneous exposition
it does not require the employment of any particular words in the constitution to prove that it was drawn up as a compact between sovereign states entering into a confederacy with each other
and that they ratified and acceded to it separately severally and independently the very structure of the whole instrument and the facts attending its preparation and ratification would suffice
the language of the final article would have been quite enough the ratification of the conventions of nine states shall be sufficient for the establishment of this constitution between the states so ratifying the same
this is not the language of a superior imposing a mandate upon subordinates the consent of the contracting parties is necessary to its validity and then it becomes not the acceptance and recognition of an authority over them
as mister motley represents but of a compact between them the simple word between is incompatible with any other idea than that of a compact by independent parties if it were possible that any doubt could still exist
there is one provision in the constitution which stamps its character as a compact too plainly for cavil or question the constitution
thereby bringing the matter of representation within the power of amendment in its fifth article contains a stipulation that no state without its own consent shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the senate if this is not a compact between the states
the smaller states have no guarantee for the preservation of their equality of representation in the united states senate
and shakspeare's strain one history there is one mind common to all individual men every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same
he that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate what plato has thought he may think what a saint has felt he may feel
for this is the only and sovereign agent of the works of this mind history is the record its genius is illustrated by the entire series of days
man is explicable by nothing less than all his history without hurry without rest the human spirit goes forth from the beginning to embody every faculty
every thought every emotion which belongs to it in appropriate events but the thought is always prior to the fact
all the facts of history preexist in the mind as laws each law in turn is made by circumstances predominant and the limits of nature give power to but one at a time
and this must read it the sphinx must solve her own riddle if the whole of history is in one man it is all to be explained from individual experience
there is a relation between the hours of our life and the centuries of time as the air i breathe is drawn from the great repositories of nature
every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind and when the same thought occurs to another man it is the key to that era every reform was once a private opinion
and when it shall be a private opinion again it will solve the problem of the age the fact narrated must correspond to something in me to be credible or intelligible
we as we read must become greeks romans turks priest and king martyr and executioner
must fasten these images to some reality in our secret experience or we shall learn nothing rightly what befell asdrubal or caesar borgia
is as much an illustration of the mind's powers and depravations as what has befallen us each new law and political movement has meaning for you stand before each of its tablets and say
under this mask did my proteus nature hide itself this remedies the defect of our too great nearness to ourselves this throws our actions into perspective
and as crabs goats scorpions the balance and the waterpot lose their meanness when hung as signs in the zodiac so i can see my own vices without heat
and we hedge it round with penalties and laws all laws derive hence their ultimate reason all express more or less distinctly some command of this supreme illimitable essence
property also holds of the soul covers great spiritual facts and instinctively we at first hold to it with swords and laws and wide and complex combinations
which belong to acts of self reliance it is remarkable that involuntarily we always read as superior beings universal history the poets the romancers
do not in their stateliest pictures in the sacerdotal the imperial palaces in the triumphs of will or of genius anywhere lose our ear
yonder slip of a boy that reads in the corner feels to be true of himself we sympathize in the great moments of history in the great discoveries the great resistances
the great prosperities of men because there law was enacted the sea was searched the land was found or the blow was struck
as we ourselves in that place would have done or applauded we have the same interest in condition and character
power and grace which we feel to be proper to man proper to us so all that is said of the wise man by stoic or oriental or modern essayist
describes to each reader his own idea describes his unattained but attainable self all literature writes the character of the wise man books
as by personal allusions a true aspirant therefore never needs look for allusions personal and laudatory in discourse he hears the commendation
not of himself but more sweet of that character he seeks in every word that is said concerning character yea further in every fact and circumstance
these hints dropped as it were from sleep and night let us use in broad day the student is to read history actively and not passively
there is no age or state of society or mode of action in history to which there is not somewhat corresponding in his life every thing tends in a wonderful manner to abbreviate itself
and yield its own virtue to him he should see that he can live all history in his own person he must sit solidly at home and not suffer himself to be bullied by kings or empires
but know that he is greater than all the geography and all the government of the world
from rome and athens and london to himself and not deny his conviction that he is the court and if england or egypt have any thing to say to him he will try the case
babylon troy tyre palestine and even early rome are passing already into fiction the garden of eden the sun standing still in gibeon
is poetry thenceforward to all nations who cares what the fact was when we have made a constellation of it to hang in heaven an immortal sign london and paris and new york must go the same way
what is history said napoleon but a fable agreed upon this life of ours is stuck round with egypt greece gaul england war colonization church court and commerce
i will not make more account of them i believe in eternity i can find greece asia italy spain and the islands
in my own mind we are always coming up with the emphatic facts of history in our private experience and verifying them here all history becomes subjective in other words there is properly
the better for him history must be this or it is nothing every law which the state enacts indicates a fact in human nature that is all
before a french reign of terror and a salem hanging of witches before a fanatic revival and the animal magnetism in paris or in providence
we assume that we under like influence should be alike affected and should achieve the like
our proxy has done all inquiry into antiquity
stonehenge the ohio circles mexico memphis is the desire to do away this wild savage and preposterous there or then and introduce in its place the here and the now
belzoni digs and measures in the mummy pits and pyramids of thebes until he can see the end of the difference between the monstrous work and himself
when he has satisfied himself in general and in detail that it was made by such a person as he so armed and so motived
his thought lives along the whole line of temples and sphinxes and catacombs passes through them all with satisfaction and they live again to the mind or are now
a gothic cathedral affirms that it was done by us and not done by us surely it was by man but we find it not in our man but we apply ourselves to the history of its production
we put ourselves into the place and state of the builder we remember the forest dwellers the first temples the adherence to the first type and the decoration of it as the wealth of the nation increased
the value which is given to wood by carving led to the carving over the whole mountain of stone of a cathedral when we have gone through this process
we have as it were been the man that made the minster we have seen how it could and must be we have the sufficient reason the difference between men is in their principle of association
some men classify objects by color and size and other accidents of appearance others by intrinsic likeness or by the relation of cause and effect
all events profitable all days holy all men divine for the eye is fastened on the life and slights the circumstance every chemical substance
every plant every animal in its growth teaches the unity of cause the variety of appearance upborne and surrounded as we are by this all creating nature
soft and fluid as a cloud or the air why should we be such hard pedants and magnify a few forms why should we make account of time or of magnitude or of figure the soul knows them not
and genius obeying its law knows how to play with them as a young child plays with graybeards and in churches
and far back in the womb of things sees the rays parting from one orb
by infinite diameters genius watches the monad through all his masks as he performs the metempsychosis of nature genius detects through the fly through the caterpillar
through the grub through the egg the constant individual through countless individuals the fixed species through many species the genus through all genera the steadfast type
through all the kingdoms of organized life the eternal unity nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same she casts the same thought into troops of forms
and whilst i look at it its outline and texture are changed again nothing is so fleeting as form yet never does it quite deny itself
in man we still trace the remains or hints of all that we esteem badges of servitude in the lower races yet in him they enhance his nobleness and grace
a beautiful woman with nothing of the metamorphosis left but the lunar horns as the splendid ornament of her brows the identity of history is equally intrinsic the diversity equally obvious
and what they did we have the same national mind expressed for us again in their literature in epic and lyric poems
and never transgressing the ideal serenity like votaries performing some religious dance before the gods and though in convulsive pain or mortal combat never daring to break the figure and decorum of their dance
every one must have observed faces and forms which without any resembling feature make a like impression on the beholder
will yet superinduce the same sentiment
but is occult and out of the reach of the understanding nature is an endless combination and repetition of a very few laws she hums the old well known air through innumerable variations
nature is full of a sublime family likeness
and the furrows of the brow suggested the strata of the rock there are men whose manners have the same essential splendor as the simple and awful sculpture on the friezes of the parthenon and the remains of the earliest greek art
and there are compositions of the same strain to be found in the books of all ages what is guido's rospigliosi aurora but a morning thought as the horses in it are only a morning cloud if any one will but take pains to observe the variety of actions
or draw a child by studying the outlines of its form merely
it is the spirit and not the fact that is identical by a deeper apprehension
it has been said that common souls pay with what they do nobler souls with that which they are and why because a profound nature awakens in us by its actions and words by its very looks and manners
santa croce and the dome of saint peter's
shall pronounce your name with all the ornament that titles of nobility could ever add the trivial experience of every day is always verifying some old prediction to us and converting into things the words and signs
which we had heard and seen without heed a lady with whom i was riding in the forest said to me that the woods always seemed to her to wait
in the fields my companion pointed out to me a broad cloud which might extend a quarter of a mile parallel to the horizon
which it was easy to animate with eyes and mouth
what appears once in the atmosphere may appear often and it was undoubtedly the archetype of that familiar ornament i have seen in the sky a chain of summer lightning
which at once showed to me that the greeks drew from nature when they painted the thunderbolt in the hand of jove
along the sides of the stone wall which obviously gave the idea of the common architectural scroll
by surrounding ourselves with the original circumstances we invent anew the orders and the ornaments of architecture
still betray the mounds and subterranean houses of their forefathers
says heeren in his researches on the ethiopians determined very naturally the principal character of the nubian egyptian architecture to the colossal form which it assumed
so that when art came to the assistance of nature it could not move on a small scale without degrading itself what would statues of the usual size or neat porches and wings have been
the gothic church plainly originated in a rude adaptation of the forest trees
still indicate the green withes that tied them no one can walk in a road
especially in winter when the barrenness of all other trees shows the low arch of the saxons in the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window
enter the old piles of oxford and the english cathedrals without feeling that the forest overpowered the mind of the builder and that his chisel his saw and plane still reproduced its ferns its spikes of flowers its locust
elm oak pine fir and spruce the gothic cathedral
as well as the aerial proportions and perspective of vegetable beauty in like manner all public facts are to be individualized all private facts are to be generalized then at once history becomes fluid and true
so the persian court in its magnificent era
to susa in summer and to babylon for the winter
nomadism and agriculture are the two antagonist facts the geography of asia and of africa
or the advantages of a market had induced to build towns agriculture therefore was a religious injunction because of the perils of the state from nomadism and in these late and civil countries of england and america
these propensities still fight out the old battle in the nation and in the individual the nomads of africa were constrained to wander by the attacks of the gad fly
follow the pasturage from month to month
the nomadism is of trade and curiosity a progress certainly
sacred cities to which a periodical religious pilgrimage was enjoined or stringent laws and customs tending to invigorate the national bond
a man of rude health and flowing spirits has the faculty of rapid domestication lives in his wagon and roams through all latitudes as easily as a calmuc at sea or in the forest or in the snow he sleeps as warm
or perhaps his facility is deeper seated in the increased range of his faculties of observation
and this intellectual nomadism
is that continence or content which finds all the elements of life in its own soil and
if not stimulated by foreign infusions
down to the domestic life of the athenians and spartans four or five centuries later what but this
the grecian state is the era of the bodily nature
in it existed those human forms which supplied the sculptor with his models of hercules phoebus and jove
sharply defined and symmetrical features whose eye sockets are so formed that it would be impossible for such eyes to squint and take furtive glances on this side and on that but they must turn the whole head the manners of that period are plain and fierce
the reverence exhibited is for personal qualities courage address self command justice strength swiftness a loud voice a broad chest
cook butcher and soldier and the habit of supplying his own needs educates the body to wonderful performances
throughout his army exists a boundless liberty of speech they quarrel for plunder they wrangle with the generals on each new order and xenophon is as sharp tongued as any and sharper tongued than most and so gives as good as he gets
who does not see that this is a gang of great boys with such a code of honor and such lax discipline as great boys have the costly charm of the ancient tragedy and indeed of all the old literature is that the persons speak simply
our admiration of the antique is not admiration of the old but of the natural
they combine the energy of manhood with the engaging unconsciousness of childhood the attraction of these manners is that they belong to man and are known to every man in virtue of his being once a child
besides that there are always individuals who retain these characteristics a person of childlike genius and inborn energy
in reading those fine apostrophes to sleep to the stars rocks mountains and waves i feel time passing away as an ebbing sea i feel the eternity of man the identity of his thought the greek had it seems
and do as it were run into one why should i measure degrees of latitude why should i count egyptian years the student interprets the age of chivalry by his own age of chivalry and the days of maritime adventure
merely echoes to him a sentiment of his infancy a prayer of his youth he then pierces to the truth through all the confusion of tradition and the caricature of institutions rare extravagant spirits come by us at intervals
hence evidently the tripod the priest the priestess inspired by the divine afflatus jesus astonishes and overpowers sensual people they cannot unite him to history or reconcile him with themselves
their own piety explains every fact every word how easily these old worships of moses of zoroaster of menu of socrates domesticate themselves in the mind i cannot find any antiquity in them
more than once some individual has appeared to me with such negligence of labor and such commanding contemplation a haughty beneficiary begging in the name of god as made good to the nineteenth century simeon the stylite
is expounded in the individual's private life the cramping influence of a hard formalist on a young child in repressing his spirits and courage
explained to the child when he becomes a man only by seeing that the oppressor of his youth is himself a child tyrannized over by those names and words and forms of whose influence he was merely the organ to the youth
was worshipped and how the pyramids were built better than the discovery by champollion of the names of all the workmen and the cost of every tile he finds assyria and the mounds of cholula at his door and himself has laid the courses
new perils to virtue he learns again what moral vigor is needed to supply the girdle of a superstition a great licentiousness treads on the heels of a reformation
doctor said his wife to martin luther one day
whilst now we pray with the utmost coldness and very seldom
his own secret biography he finds in lines wonderfully intelligible to him dotted down before he was born one after another he comes up in his private adventures with every fable of aesop of homer of hafiz
and verifies them with his own head and hands the beautiful fables of the greeks being proper creations of the imagination and not of the fancy are universal verities what a range of meanings and what perpetual pertinence has the story of prometheus
with some closeness to the faith of later ages prometheus is the jesus of the old mythology he is the friend of man stands between the unjust justice of the eternal father and the race of mortals
and readily suffers all things on their account
namely a discontent with the believed fact that a god exists and a feeling that the obligation of reverence is onerous
and live apart from him and independent of him the prometheus vinctus is the romance of skepticism not less true to all time are the details of that stately apologue
when the gods come among men they are not known jesus was not socrates and shakspeare were not antaeus was suffocated by the gripe of hercules but every time he touched his mother earth his strength was renewed
are invigorated by habits of conversation with nature the power of music the power of poetry to unfix and as it were clap wings to solid nature interprets the riddle of orpheus
what else am i who laughed or wept yesterday who slept last night like a corpse
tantalus is but a name for you and me tantalus means the impossibility of drinking the waters of thought which are always gleaming and waving within sight of the soul the transmigration of souls is no fable i would it were but men and women are only half human
ah brother stop the ebb of thy soul ebbing downward into the forms into whose habits thou hast now for many years slid as near and proper to us is also that old fable of the sphinx who was said to sit in the road side
she swallowed him alive if he could solve the riddle the sphinx was slain what is our life but an endless flight of winged facts or events in splendid variety these changes come all putting questions to the human spirit
serve them facts encumber them tyrannize over them and make the men of routine the men of sense in whom a literal obedience to facts has extinguished every spark of that light by which man is truly man
see in goethe's helena the same desire that every word should be a thing these figures he would say
phorkyas helen and leda are somewhat and do exert a specific influence on the mind so far then are they eternal entities as real to day as in the first olympiad
and although that poem be as vague and fantastic as a dream yet is it much more attractive than the more regular dramatic pieces of the same author for the reason that it operates a wonderful relief to the mind from the routine of customary images
awakens the reader's invention and fancy
of that which in grave earnest the mind of that period toiled to achieve magic and all that is ascribed to it
the shoes of swiftness the sword of sharpness the power of subduing the elements of using the secret virtues of minerals
the gift of perpetual youth and the like are alike the endeavour of the human spirit to bend the shows of things to the desires of the mind in perceforest and amadis de gaul a garland and a rose bloom on the head of her who is faithful
at the triumph of the gentle venelas and indeed all the postulates of elfin annals that the fairies do not like to be named that their gifts are capricious and not to be trusted that who seeks a treasure must not speak and the like
i find true in concord
sir william ashton is a mask for a vulgar temptation
only a bunyan disguise for honest industry we may all shoot a wild bull that would toss the good and beautiful by fighting down the unjust and sensual lucy ashton is another name for fidelity
he is the compend of time he is also the correlative of nature
in old rome the public roads beginning at the forum proceeded north south east west to the centre of every province of the empire making each market town of persia spain and britain pervious to the soldiers of the capital
transport him to large countries dense population
his substance is not here for what you see is but the smallest part and least proportion of humanity
columbus needs a planet to shape his course upon
one may say a gravitating solar system
anticipate the laws of organization
do not the constructive fingers of watt fulton whittemore arkwright
the properties of stone water and wood
or has heard an eloquent tongue or has shared the throb of thousands in a national exultation or alarm no man can antedate his experience or guess what faculty or feeling a new object shall unlock
any more than he can draw to day the face of a person whom he shall see to morrow for the first time i will not now go behind the general statement to explore the reason of this correspondency let it suffice that in the light of these two facts namely
history is to be read and written thus in all ways does the soul concentrate and reproduce its treasures for each pupil he too shall pass through the whole cycle of experience he shall collect into a focus the rays of nature
history no longer shall be a dull book it shall walk incarnate in every just and wise man
you shall make me feel what periods you have lived a man shall be the temple of fame he shall walk as the poets have described that goddess in a robe painted all over with wonderful events and experiences
his own form and features by their exalted intelligence shall be that variegated vest
the reformation the discovery of new lands the opening of new sciences and new regions in man he shall be the priest of pan
that we cannot strongly state one fact without seeming to belie some other
what do i know sympathetically morally of either of these worlds of life as old as the caucasian man perhaps older
our so called history is how many times we must say rome and paris and constantinople what does rome know of rat and lizard what are olympiads and consulates to these neighboring systems of being nay
for the kanaka in his canoe for the fisherman the stevedore the porter broader and deeper we must write our annals from an ethical reformation from an influx of the ever new
instead of this old chronology of selfishness and pride to which we have too long lent our eyes
chapter fourteen the king's supper the king while these matters were being arranged was sitting at the supper table and the not very large number of guests for that day had taken their seats too after the usual gesture intimating the royal permission
which he despaired of being able fully to realize the king therefore was seated alone at a small separate table which like the desk of a president overlooked the adjoining tables
although we say a small table we must not omit to add that this small table was the largest one there moreover it was the one on which were placed the greatest number and quantity of dishes
consisting of fish game meat fruit vegetables and preserves the king was young and full of vigor and energy very fond of hunting addicted to all violent exercises of the body
he delighted in criticising his cooks but when he honored them by praise and commendation the honor was overwhelming the king began by eating several kinds of soup either mixed together or taken separately
he intermixed or rather separated each of the soups by a glass of old wine he ate quickly and somewhat greedily porthos who from the beginning had out of respect been waiting for a jog of d'artagnan's arm
seeing the king make such rapid progress turned to the musketeer and said in a low voice it seems as if one might go on now his majesty is very encouraging from the example he sets look
the king eats said d'artagnan but he talks at the same time try and manage matters in such a manner that if he should happen to address a remark to you he will not find you with your mouth full which would be very disrespectful
the best way in that case said porthos is to eat no supper at all and yet i am very hungry i admit and everything looks and smells most invitingly as if appealing to all my senses at once
don't think of not eating for a moment said d'artagnan that would put his majesty out terribly the king has a saying that he who works well eats well and he does not like people to eat indifferently at his table
how can i avoid having my mouth full if i eat said porthos all you have to do replied the captain of the musketeers is simply to swallow what you have in it whenever the king does you the honor to address a remark to you
very good said porthos and from that moment he began to eat with a certain well bred enthusiasm
monsieur du vallon he said porthos was enjoying a salmi de lievre and swallowed half of the back his name pronounced in such a manner made him start and by a vigorous effort of his gullet he absorbed the whole mouthful
sire replied porthos in a stifled voice but sufficiently intelligible nevertheless let those
sire i like everything replied porthos d'artagnan whispered everything your majesty sends me porthos repeated everything your majesty sends me an observation which the king apparently received with great satisfaction
people eat well who work well replied the king
porthos received the dish of lamb and put a portion of it on his plate well said the king exquisite said porthos calmly have you as good mutton in your part of the country monsieur du vallon continued the king
sire i believe that from my own province as everywhere else the best of everything is sent to paris for your majesty's use but on the other hand i do not eat lamb in the same way your majesty does ah ah
and how do you eat it generally i have a lamb dressed whole whole yes sire in what manner monsieur du vallon in this sire my cook who is a german
first stuffs the lamb in question with small sausages he procures from strasburg force meat balls from troyes and larks from pithiviers by some means or other which i am not acquainted with
he bones the lamb as he would do a fowl leaving the skin on however which forms a brown crust all over the animal when it is cut in beautiful slices in the same way as an enormous sausage a rose colored gravy pours forth
which is as agreeable to the eye as it is exquisite to the palate and porthos finished by smacking his lips the king opened his eyes with delight and while cutting some of the
that is a dish i should very much like to taste monsieur du vallon is it possible a whole lamb absolutely an entire lamb sire
i perceive he is an amateur the order was immediately obeyed then continuing the conversation he said and you do not find the lamb too fat no sire the fat falls down at the same time as the gravy does and swims on the surface
then the servant who carves removes the fat with a spoon which i have had expressly made for that purpose where do you reside inquired the king at pierrefonds sire at pierrefonds
oh no sire pierrefonds is in the soissonnais i thought you alluded to the lamb on account of the salt marshes no sire i have marshes which are not salt it is true but which are not the less valuable on that account
the king had now arrived at the entrements but without losing sight of porthos who continued to play his part in the best manner
ah sire if your majesty were ever to pay a visit to pierrefonds we would both of us eat our lamb together for your appetite is not an indifferent one by any means d'artagnan gave porthos a kick under the table which made porthos color up
at your majesty's present happy age said porthos in order to repair the mistake he had made i was in the musketeers and nothing could ever satisfy me then your majesty has an excellent appetite as i have already had the honor of mentioning
but you select what you eat with quite too much refinement to be called for one moment a great eater the king seemed charmed at his guest's politeness will you try some of these creams he said to porthos sire
you majesty treats me with far too much kindness to prevent me speaking the whole truth
will sire with regard to sweet dishes i only recognize pastry and even that should be rather solid all these frothy substances swell the stomach and occupy a space which seems to me to be too precious to be so badly tenanted
here is indeed a model of gastronomy it was in such a manner that our fathers who so well knew what good living was
while we added his majesty do nothing but tantalize with our stomachs and as he spoke he took the breast of a chicken with ham while porthos attacked a dish of partridges and quails the cup bearer filled his majesty's glass
this was one of the greatest honors of the royal table d'artagnan pressed his friend's knee if you could only manage to swallow the half of that boar's head i see yonder said he to porthos
presently said porthos phlegmatically i shall come to that by and by in fact it was not long before it came to the boar's turn for the king seemed to take pleasure in urging on his guest
he did not pass any of the dishes to porthos until he had tasted them himself and he accordingly took some of the boar's head porthos showed that he could keep pace with his sovereign
is impossible said the king in an undertone that a gentleman who eats so good a supper every day and who has such beautiful teeth can be otherwise than the most straightforward upright man in my kingdom do you hear said d'artagnan in his friend's ear
yes i think i am rather in favor said porthos balancing himself on his chair oh you are in luck's way the king and porthos continued to eat in the same manner to the great satisfaction of the other guests
some of whom from emulation had attempted to follow them but were obliged to give up half way the king soon began to get flushed and the reaction of the blood to his face announced that the moment of repletion had arrived
porthos on the contrary was lively and communicative d'artagnan's foot had more than once to remind him of this peculiarity of the king
as soon as the king was gone la valliere raised herself from the ground and stretched out her arms as if to follow and detain him but when having violently closed the door the sound of his retreating footsteps could be heard in the distance
she had hardly sufficient strength left to totter towards and fall at the foot of her crucifix there she remained broken hearted absorbed and overwhelmed by her grief
a grief she only vaguely realized as though by instinct
she started and turned round thinking it was the king who had returned
what did she now care for madame again she sank down her head supported by her prie dieu chair it was madame agitated angry and threatening but what was that to her
this is very fine i admit to kneel and pray and make a pretense of being religious but however submissive you may be in your address to heaven it is desirable that you should pay some little attention to the wishes of those who reign and rule here below
la valliere raised her head painfully in token of respect not long since continued madame a certain recommendation was addressed to you i believe
la valliere's fixed and wild gaze showed how complete her forgetfulness or ignorance was the queen recommended you continued madame to conduct yourself in such a manner that no one could be justified in spreading any reports about you
i will not continued madame allow my household which is that of the first princess of the blood to set an evil example to the court you would be the cause of such an example
i beg you to understand therefore in the absence of any witness of your shame for i do not wish to humiliate you that you are from this moment at perfect liberty to leave and that you can return to your mother at blois la valliere could not sink
lower nor could she suffer more than she had already suffered her countenance did not even change but she remained kneeling with her hands clasped like the figure of the magdalen did you hear me said madame
a shiver which passed through her whole frame was la valliere's only reply and as the victim gave no other signs of life madame left the room and then her very respiration suspended and her blood almost congealed as it were in her veins
began to throb more and more painfully these pulsations as they gradually increased soon changed into a species of brain fever and in her temporary delirium she saw the figures of her friends contending with her enemies
floating before her vision she heard too mingled together in her deafened ears words of menace and words of fond affection
she saw the stone which covered her tomb upraised and the grim appalling texture of eternal night revealed to her distracted gaze but the horror of the dream which possessed her senses faded away
and she was again restored to the habitual resignation of her character a ray of hope penetrated her heart as a ray of sunlight streams into the dungeon of some unhappy captive her mind reverted to the journey from fontainebleau she saw the king riding beside her carriage
telling her that he loved her asking for her love in return requiring her to swear and himself to swear too that never should an evening pass by if ever a misunderstanding were to arise between them without a visit a letter
a sign of some kind being sent to replace the troubled anxiety of the evening with the calm repose of the night it was the king who had suggested that who had imposed a promise on her
it was impossible therefore she reasoned that the king should fail in keeping the promise which he had himself exacted from her unless indeed louis was a despot who enforced love as he enforced obedience
unless too the king were so indifferent that the first obstacle in his way was sufficient to arrest his further progress the king that kind protector who by a word a single word could relieve her distress of mind
the king even joined her persecutors oh his anger could not possibly last now that he was alone he would be suffering all that she herself was a prey to but he was not tied hand and foot as she was
he could act could move about could come to her while she could do nothing but wait and the poor girl waited and waited with breathless anxiety for she could not believe it possible that the king would not come
it was now about half past ten he would either come to her or write to her
if he were to come oh how she would fly to meet him how she would thrust aside that excess of delicacy which she now discovered was misunderstood how eagerly she would explain it is not i who do not love you
it is the fault of others who will not allow me to love you and then it must be confessed that she reflected upon it and also the more she reflected louis appeared to her to be less guilty in fact he was ignorant of everything
what must he have thought of the obstinacy with which she remained silent impatient and irritable as the king was known to be it was extraordinary that he had been able to preserve his temper so long
and yet had it been her own case she undoubtedly would not have acted in such a manner she would have understood have guessed everything yes but she was nothing but a poor simple minded girl and not a great and powerful monarch
oh if he would but come if he would but come how eagerly she would forgive him for all he had just made her suffer how much more tenderly she would love him because she had so cruelly suffered
and so she sat with her head bent forward in eager expectation towards the door
and heaven forgive her for the mental exclamation they were awaiting the kiss which the king's lips had in the morning so sweetly indicated when he pronounced the word love
if the king did not come at least he would write it was a second chance a chance less delightful certainly than the other but which would show an affection just as strong only more timid in its nature
oh how she would devour his letter how eager she would be to answer it and when the messenger who had brought it had left her how she would kiss it read it over and over again press to her heart the lucky paper which would have brought her ease of mind
tranquillity and perfect happiness at all events if the king did not come if the king did not write
even if it were a third person how openly she would speak to him the royal presence would not be there to freeze her words upon her tongue and then no suspicious feeling would remain a moment longer in the king's heart everything with la valliere
heart and look body and mind was concentrated in eager expectation she said to herself that there was an hour left in which to indulge hope that until midnight struck the king might come
every hope be lost whenever she heard any stir in the palace the poor girl fancied she was the cause of it whenever she heard any one pass in the courtyard below she imagined they were messengers of the king coming to her
eleven o'clock struck then a quarter past eleven then half past the minutes dragged slowly on in this anxiety and yet they seemed to pass too quickly and now it struck a quarter to twelve midnight midnight was near
the last the final hope that remained with the last stroke of the clock the last ray of light seemed to fade away and with the last ray faded her final hope and so the king himself had deceived her
it was he who had been the first to fail in keeping the oath which he had sworn that very day twelve hours only between his oath and his perjured vow it was not long alas to have preserved the illusion
and so not only did the king not love her but he despised her whom every one ill treated he despised her to the extent even of abandoning her to the shame of an expulsion which was equivalent to having an ignominious sentence passed on her
and yet it was he the king himself who was the first cause of this ignominy a bitter smile the only symptom of anger which during this long conflict had passed across the angelic face appeared upon her lips
what in fact now remained on earth for her after the king was lost to her nothing but heaven still remained and her thoughts flew thither she prayed that the proper course for her to follow might be suggested
it is from heaven she thought that i expect everything it is from heaven i ought to expect everything and she looked at her crucifix with a devotion full of tender love there she said hangs before me a master who never forgets
and never abandons those who neither forget nor abandon him it is to him alone that we must sacrifice ourselves and thereupon could any one have gazed into the recesses of that chamber they would have seen the poor despairing girl adopt a final resolution
and determine upon one last plan in her mind then as her knees were no longer able to support her she gradually sank down upon the prie dieu and with her head pressed against the wooden cross her eyes fixed
and her respiration short and quick she watched for the earliest rays of approaching daylight at two o'clock in the morning she was still in the same bewilderment of mind or rather the same ecstasy of feeling
her thoughts had almost ceased to hold communion with things of the world and when she saw the pale violet tints of early dawn
and vaguely revealing the outlines of the ivory crucifix which she held embraced she rose from the ground with a new born strength kissed the feet of the divine martyr descended the staircase leading from the room
and wrapped herself from head to foot in a mantle as she went along she reached the wicket at the very moment the guard of the musketeers opened the gate to admit the first relief guard belonging to one of the swiss regiments
lovers are tender towards everything that forms part of the daily life of the object of their affection raoul no sooner found himself alone with montalais than he kissed her hand with rapture there there said the young girl sadly
you are throwing your kisses away i will guarantee that they will not bring you back any interest how so why will you explain to me my dear aure madame will explain everything to you i am going to take you to her apartments
what silence and throw away your dark and savage looks the windows here have eyes the walls have ears have the kindness not to look at me any longer be good enough to speak to me aloud of the rain
of the fine weather and of the charms of england at all events interrupted raoul i tell you i warn you that wherever people may be i know not how madame is sure to have eyes and ears open
i am not very desirous you can easily believe of being dismissed or thrown in to the bastile let us talk i tell you or rather do not let us talk at all
raoul clenched his hands and tried to assume the look and gait of a man of courage it is true but of a man of courage on his way to the torture chamber montalais glancing in every direction walking along with an easy swinging gait
and holding up her head pertly in the air preceded him to madame's apartments where he was at once introduced well he thought this day will pass away without my learning anything guiche showed too much consideration for my feelings
he had no doubt come to an understanding with madame and both of them by a friendly plot agreed to postpone the solution of the problem why have i not a determined inveterate enemy
for instance that he would bite is very likely but i should not hesitate any more to hesitate to doubt better far to die the next moment raoul was in madame's presence
henrietta more charming than ever was half lying half reclining in her armchair her small feet upon an embroidered velvet cushion she was playing with a kitten with long silky fur
which was biting her fingers and hanging by the lace of her collar madame seemed plunged in deep thought so deep indeed that it required both montalais and raoul's voice to disturb her from her reverie your highness sent for me
repeated raoul madame shook her head as if she were just awakening and then said
yes i sent for you so you have returned from england yes madame and am at your royal highness's commands thank you leave us montalais and the latter immediately left the room
my life is at your royal highness's disposal raoul returned with respect guessing that there was something serious in these unusual courtesies nor was he displeased indeed to observe the seriousness of her manner
feeling persuaded that there was some sort of affinity between madame's sentiments and his own in fact every one at court of any perception at all
knew perfectly well the capricious fancy and absurd despotism of the princess's singular character madame had been flattered beyond all bounds by the king's attention she had made herself talked about
she had inspired the queen with that mortal jealousy which is the stinging scorpion at the heel of every woman's happiness madame in a word in her attempts to cure a wounded pride found that her heart had become deeply and passionately attached
although d'artagnan had guessed its contents who will undertake to account for that seemingly inexplicable mixture of love and vanity that passionate tenderness of feeling that prodigious duplicity of conduct
no one can indeed not even the bad angel who kindles the love of coquetry in the heart of a woman
have you returned satisfied bragelonne looked at madame henrietta and seeing how pale she was not alone from what she was keeping back but also from what she was burning to say said satisfied
what is there for me to be satisfied or dissatisfied about madame
how eager she is thought raoul almost terrified what venom is it she is going to distil into my heart and then frightened at what she might possibly be going to tell him and wishing to put off the opportunity of having everything explained
which he had hitherto so ardently wished for yet had dreaded so much he replied i left madame a dear friend in good health and on my return i find him very ill
with imperturbable self possession i have heard he is a very dear friend of yours he is indeed madame well it is quite true he has been wounded but he is better now oh
and then recovering herself added but has he anything to complain of has he complained of anything is there any cause of grief or sorrow that we are not acquainted with i allude only to his wound madame
he is always in very high spirits
for what in deed is such a wound after all raoul started alas he said to himself she is returning to it what did you say she inquired i did not say anything madame
you did not say anything you disapprove of my observation then you are perfectly satisfied i suppose raoul approached closer to her madame he said your royal highness wishes to say something to me
and your instinctive kindness and generosity of disposition induce you to be careful and considerate as to your manner of conveying it will your royal highness throw this kind forbearance aside i am able to bear everything and i am listening
ah replied henrietta what do you understand then that which your royal highness wishes me to understand said raoul trembling notwithstanding his command over himself as he pronounced these words
in point of fact murmured the princess it seems cruel but since i have begun yes madame once your highness has deigned to begin will you condescend to finish henrietta rose hurriedly and walked a few paces up and down her room
nothing madame nothing did he say nothing ah how well i recognize him in that no doubt he wished to spare me and that is what friends call friendship
no more than de guiche madame henrietta made a gesture full of impatience as she said at least you know all the court knows i know nothing at all madame
raoul whose head dropped like a blossom cut down by the reaper made an almost superhuman effort to smile as he replied with the greatest gentleness
that i am a poor unremembered outcast who has this moment arrived from england there have rolled so many stormy waves between myself and those i left behind me here that the rumor of none of the circumstances your highness refers to
has been able to reach me henrietta was affected by his extreme pallor his gentleness and his great courage the principal feeling in her heart at that moment was an eager desire to hear the nature of the remembrance
whom i like and esteem very much i will be your friend on this occasion you hold your head high as a man of honor should and i deeply regret that you may have to bow before ridicule and in a few days it might be contempt
ah exclaimed raoul perfectly livid it is as bad as that then if you do not know said the princess i see that you guess you were affianced i believe to mademoiselle de la valliere yes madame
by that right you deserve to be warned about her as some day or another i shall be obliged to dismiss mademoiselle de la valliere from my service
of course do you suppose i shall always be amenable to the tears and protestations of the king no no my house shall no longer be made a convenience for such practices but you tremble you cannot stand
i thought i should have died just now that was all your royal highness did me the honor to say that the king wept and implored you yes but in vain returned the princess
and the king's despair on his return she told him of his indulgence to herself and the terrible word with which the outraged princess the humiliated coquette had quashed the royal anger raoul stood with his head bent down
what do you think of it all she said the king loves her he replied but you seem to think she does not love him alas madame i was thinking of the time when she loved me
henrietta was for a moment struck with admiration at this sublime disbelief and then shrugging her shoulders she said you do not believe me i see how deeply you must love her and you doubt if she loves the king
i do until i have a proof of it forgive me madame but she has given me her word
turn about the thought of lanyard's pocket flash lamp offering itself immediately its wide circle of light enveloped his late antagonist that one was resting on a shoulder legs uncouthly a sprawl
quite without movement of any perceptible sort his face more than half turned to the floor and masked into the bargain incredulously lanyard stirred the body with a foot holding his weapon poised as though
half expecting it to quicken with instant and violent action but it responded in no way with a nod of satisfaction he shifted the light until it marked down the nearest electric bulb which proved in line with his inference
to have been extinguished by the socket key while the heat of its bulb indicated that the current had been shut off only an instant before his entrance the light full up
knelt and lifting the body turned it upon its back
upturned to the glare was that of the american who had made a fourth in the concert of the pack mister smith quickly unlatching the mask lanyard removed it but the countenance thus exposed told little more than he knew
he could have sworn he had never seen it before none the less something in its evil cast persistently troubled his memory with the same provoking and baffling effect that had attended their first encounter
already the american was struggling toward consciousness his lips and eyelids twitched spasmodically he shuddered and his flexed muscles began to relax in this process something fell from between the fingers of his right hand
something small and silver bright that caught lanyard's eye picking it up he examined with interest a small hypodermic syringe loaded to the full capacity of its glass cylinder plunger drawn back all ready for instant service
it was the needle of this instrument that had pricked the skin of lanyard's neck beyond reasonable doubt it contained a soporific if not exactly a killing dose of some narcotic drug cocaine at a venture
so it appeared that this agent of the pack had been commissioned to put the lone wolf to sleep for an hour or two or more perhaps not permanently that he might be out of the way long enough for their occult purposes
turn about he reflected is said to be fair play well why not he bent forward
all in a single movement so swift and deft that the drug was delivered before the pain could startle the victim from his coma as for that the man came to quickly enough
but only to have his clearing senses met and dashed by the muzzle of a pistol stamping a cold ring upon his temple lie perfectly quiet my dear mister smith lanyard advised don't speak above a whisper give the good dope a chance
it'll only need a moment or i'm no judge and you're a careless highbinder i'd like to know however if it's all the same to you but already the injection was taking effect
the look of panic which had drawn the features of the american and flickered from his eyes with dawning appreciation of his plight was clouding fading blending into one of daze and stupour the eyelids flickered and lay still
a long convulsive sigh shook the american's body and he rested with the immobility of the dead save for the slow but steady rise and fall of his bosom lanyard thoughtfully reviewed these phenomena
must kick like a mule that dope he reflected lucky it didn't get me before i guessed what was up if i'd even suspected its strength however i'd have been less hasty i could do with a little information from mister mysterious stranger here
suddenly conscious of a dry and burning throat he rose and going to the washstand drank deep and thirstily from a water bottle
in his abstraction he wandered to a chair over whose back hung a light dressing gown of wine coloured silk which because it would pack in small compass was in the habit of carrying with him on his travels lanyard had left this thrown across his bed
and he was wondering subconsciously what use the man had thought to make of it that he should have taken the trouble to shift it to the chair but even as he laid hold of it lanyard dropped the garment in sheer surprise to find it damp and heavy in his grasp sodden with viscid moisture
and when in a swift flash of intuition he examined his fingers he discovered them discoloured with a faint reddish stain had the dye run and how had the american come to dabble the garment in water to what end then
he stared incredulous moved forward bent over and picked it up clipping it gingerly between finger tips it was one of his razors a heavy hollow ground blade and it was foul with blood
with a low cry smitten with awful understanding lanyard wheeled and stared fearfully at the door communicating with roddy's room it stood ajar an inch or two
beyond the door darkness silence mustering up all his courage the adventurer strode determinedly into the adjoining room
the first flash of his hand lamp discovered to him sickening verification of his most dreadful apprehensions now he saw why his dressing gown had been requisitioned to protect a butcher's clothing after a moment he returned shut the door
and set his back against it as if to bar out that reeking shambles he was very pale his face drawn with horror and he was powerfully shaken with nausea the plot was damnably patent
roddy proving a menace to the pack and requiring elimination his murder had been decreed as well as that the blame for it should be laid at lanyard's door
that he might not escape before police could be sent to find him there he could no longer doubt that de morbihan had been left behind at the circle of friends of harmony solely to detain him if need be and afford smith time to finish his hideous job and set the trap for the second victim
and the plot had succeeded despite its partial failure despite the swift reverse chance and lanyard's cunning had meted out to the pack's agent it was his dressing gown that was saturate with roddy's blood just as they were his gloves pilfered from his luggage
which had measurably protected the killer's hands and which lanyard had found in the next room stripped hastily off and thrown to the floor twin crumpled wads of blood stained chamois skin
or else seek de morbihan and solicit his protection his boasted influence in high quarters but to give himself into the hands to become an associate of one who could be party to so cowardly a crime as this
lanyard told himself he would sooner pay the guillotine the penalty consulting his watch he found the hour to be no later than half past four so swiftly
events had moved since the incident of the somnambulist
november nights are long and black in paris it would hardly be even moderately light before seven o'clock but that were a respite none too long for lanyard's necessity
he must think swiftly in contemplation of instant action were he to extricate himself without the pack's knowledge and consent granted then he must fly this stricken field of paris but how de morbihan had promised that popinot's creatures would guard every outlet and lanyard didn't doubt him
an attempt to escape the city by any ordinary channel would be to invite either denunciation to the police on the charge of murder or one of those fatally expeditious forms of assassination of which the apaches are past masters he must and would find another way
but his decision was frightfully hampered by lack of ready money the few odd francs in his pocket were no store for the war chest demanded by this emergency true he had the omber jewels but they were not negotiable not at least in paris and the huysman plans
thunderstruck by something he thought to detect in the counterfeit presentment of his countenance heavy with fatigue as it was and haggard with contemplation of this appalling contretemps and instantly he was back beside the american studying narrowly the contours of that livid mask
here then was that resemblance which had baffled him and now that he saw it he could not deny that it was unflatteringly close feature for feature the face of the murderer reproduced his face
coarsened perhaps but recognizably a replica of that michael lanyard who confronted him every morning in his shaving glass almost the only difference residing in the scrubby black moustache that shadowed the american's upper lip
before rising he turned out the pockets of his counterfeit but this profited him little the assassin had dressed for action with forethought to evade recognition in event of accident lanyard collected only a cheap american watch
a briquet a common key that might fit any hotel door
nothing whatever that would serve as a mark of identification for though the grey clothing was tailor made the maker's labels had been ripped out of its pockets while the man's linen and underwear alike lacked even a laundry's hieroglyphic
with this harvest of nothing for his pains lanyard turned again to the wash stand and his shaving kit mixed a stiff lather stropped another razor to the finest edge he could manage fetched a pair of keen scissors from his dressing case and went back to the murderer
he worked rapidly at a high pitch of excitement as much through sheer desperation as through any appeal inherent in the scheme either to his common sense or to his romantic bent in two minutes he had stripped the moustache clean away from that stupid flaccid mask
unquestionably the resemblance was now most striking the american would readily pass for michael lanyard this much accomplished he pursued his preparations in feverish haste in spite of this he overlooked no detail
in less than twenty minutes he had exchanged clothing with the american in detail even down to shirts collars and neckties had packed in his own pockets the several articles taken from the other together with the jointed jimmy and a few of his personal effects
and was ready to bid adieu to himself to that michael lanyard whom paris knew the insentient masquerader on the floor had called himself good enough smith
as good enough lanyard at least for the lone wolf's purposes the police at all events would accept him as such
through this perfunctory decease the lone wolf would gain a freedom even greater than before the pack had contrived only to eliminate michael lanyard the amateur of fine paintings remained the lone wolf with not one faculty impaired
but rather with a deadlier purpose to shape his occult courses under the influence of his methodical preparations his emotions had cooled appreciably taking on a cast of cold malignant vengefulness he
who never in all his criminal record had so much as pulled trigger in self defence
with the most cold blooded intent given one of three targets while popinot's creatures if they worried him he meant to exterminate with as little compunction
he stepped quickly to a window and from one edge of its shade looked down into the street he was in time to see a stunted human silhouette detach itself from the shadow of a doorway on the opposite walk move to the curb and wave an arm
evidently signaling another sentinel on a corner out of lanyard's range of vision herein was additional proof if any lacked that de morbihan had not exaggerated the disposition of popinot this animal in the street
momentarily revealed by the corner light as he darted across to take position by the door this animal with sickly face and pointed chin with dirty muffler round its chicken neck shoddy coat clothing its sloping shoulders
baggy corduroy trousers flapping round its bony shanks this was popinot's and but one of a thousand differing in no essential save degree of viciousness
in co operation with roddy's murderer
but the adventurer was satisfied that in his proper guise as himself he needed only to open that postern door at the street end of the passage to feel a knife slip in between his ribs
most probably in his back beneath the shoulder blade he nodded grimly
an unfinished story we no longer groan and heap ashes upon our heads when the flames of tophet are mentioned for even the preachers have begun to tell us that god is radium or ether or some scientific compound
and that the worst we wicked ones may expect is a chemical reaction this is a pleasing hypothesis but there lingers yet some of the old goodly terror of orthodoxy
there are but two subjects upon which one may discourse with a free imagination and without the possibility of being controverted you may talk of your dreams and you may tell what you heard a parrot say
both morpheus and the bird are incompetent witnesses and your listener dare not attack your recital the baseless fabric of a vision then shall furnish my theme
chosen with apologies and regrets instead of the more limited field of pretty polly's small talk i had a dream that was so far removed from the higher criticism that it had to do with the ancient respectable
and those of us who could not follow suit were arraigned for examination i noticed at one side a gathering of professional bondsmen in solemn black and collars that buttoned behind but it seemed there was some trouble about their real estate titles
and they did not appear to be getting any of us out a fly cop an angel policeman flew over to me and took me by the left wing near at hand was a group of very prosperous looking spirits arraigned for judgment
the policeman asked who are they was my answer why
but this irrelevant stuff is taking up space that the story should occupy dulcie worked in a department store she sold hamburg edging or stuffed peppers or automobiles or
other little trinkets such as they keep in department stores of what she earned dulcie received six dollars per week the remainder was credited to her and debited to somebody else's account in the ledger kept by g
oh primal energy you say reverend doctor well then in the ledger of primal energy
dulcie was paid five dollars per week it would be instructive to know how she lived on that amount don't care very well
six dollars is a larger amount i will tell you how she lived on six dollars per week one afternoon at six
she said to her chum sadie the girl that waits on you with her left side say sade i made a date for dinner this evening with piggy
piggy's an awful swell and he always takes a girl to swell places he took blanche up to the hoffman house one evening
dulcie hurried homeward her eyes were shining and her cheeks showed the delicate pink of life's real life's approaching dawn
the streets were filled with the rush hour floods of people the electric lights of broadway were glowing calling moths from miles from leagues from hundreds of leagues out of darkness around to come in and attend the singeing school
men in accurate clothes with faces like those carved on cherry stones by the old salts in sailors homes turned and stared at dulcie as she sped unheeding past them manhattan the night blooming cereus
was beginning to unfold its dead white heavy odoured petals dulcie stopped in a store where goods were cheap and bought an imitation lace collar with her fifty cents
fifteen cents for supper ten cents for breakfast ten cents for lunch another dime was to be added to her small store of savings and five cents was to be squandered for licorice drops
the licorice was an extravagance
dulcie lived in a furnished room there is this difference between a furnished room and a boardinghouse in a furnished room other people do not know it when you go hungry dulcie went up to her room
she lit the gas scientists tell us that the diamond is the hardest substance known their mistake landladies know of a compound beside which the diamond is as putty they pack it in the tips of gas burners
and one may stand on a chair and dig at it in vain until one's fingers are pink and bruised a hairpin will not remove it therefore let us call it immovable so dulcie lit the gas
in its one fourth candlepower glow we will observe the room couch bed dresser table washstand chair of this much the landlady was guilty the rest was dulcie's
on the dresser were her treasures
a calendar issued by a pickle works a book on the divination of dreams some rice powder in a glass dish and a cluster of artificial cherries tied with a pink ribbon
against the wrinkly mirror stood pictures of general kitchener william muldoon the duchess of marlborough and benvenuto cellini
near it was a violent oleograph of a lemon coloured child assaulting an inflammatory butterfly this was dulcie's final judgment in art but it had never been upset
her rest had never been disturbed by whispers of stolen copes no critic had elevated his eyebrows at her infantile entomologist
while she swiftly makes ready let us discreetly face the other way and gossip for the room dulcie paid two dollars per week on week days her breakfast cost ten cents
she made coffee and cooked an egg over the gaslight while she was dressing on sunday mornings she feasted royally on veal chops and pineapple fritters at billy's restaurant at a cost of twenty five cents and tipped the waitress ten cents
new york presents so many temptations for one to run into extravagance she had her lunches in the department store restaurant at a cost of sixty cents for the week
came to six cents and two sunday papers one for the personal column and the other to read were ten cents
now one has to buy clothes and
i hear of wonderful bargains in fabrics and of miracles performed with needle and thread but i am in doubt i hold my pen poised in vain when i would add to dulcie's life some of those joys that belong to woman by virtue of all the unwritten sacred natural
inactive ordinances of the equity of heaven twice she had been to coney island and had ridden the hobby horses tis a weary thing to count your pleasures by summers instead of by hours piggy needs but a word
when the girls named him an undeserving stigma was cast upon the noble family of swine the words of three letters lesson in the old blue spelling book begins with piggy's biography he was fat he had the soul of a rat
the habits of a bat and the magnanimity of a cat he wore expensive clothes and was a connoisseur in starvation he could look at a shop girl and tell you to an hour how long it had been since she had eaten anything more nourishing than marshmallows and tea
he hung about the shopping districts and prowled around in department stores with his invitations to dinner men who escort dogs upon the streets at the end of a string look down upon him he is a type i can dwell upon him no longer
my pen is not the kind intended for him i am no carpenter at ten minutes to seven dulcie was ready she looked at herself in the wrinkly mirror the reflection was satisfactory the dark blue dress fitting without a wrinkle
the hat with its jaunty black feather the but slightly soiled gloves all representing self denial even of food itself were vastly becoming dulcie forgot everything else for a moment except that she was beautiful
and that life was about to lift a corner of its mysterious veil for her to observe its wonders no gentleman had ever asked her out before now she was going for a brief moment into the glitter and exalted show
no doubt she would be asked out again there was a blue pongee suit in a window that she knew by saving twenty cents a week instead of ten in let's see oh it would run into years but
there was a second hand store in seventh avenue where somebody knocked at the door dulcie opened it the landlady stood there with a spurious smile sniffing for cooking by stolen gas
by such epithet was piggy known to unfortunate ones who had to take him seriously dulcie turned to the dresser to get her handkerchief and then she stopped still and bit her underlip hard while looking in her mirror
she had seen fairyland and herself a princess just awakening from a long slumber she had forgotten one that was watching her with sad beautiful stern eyes
the only one there was to approve or condemn what she did straight and slender and tall with a look of sorrowful reproach on his handsome melancholy face general kitchener
fixed his wonderful eyes on her out of his gilt photograph frame on the dresser dulcie turned like an automatic doll to the landlady tell him i can't go she said dully
tell him i'm not going out after the door was closed and locked dulcie fell upon her bed crushing her black tip and cried for ten minutes general kitchener was her only friend he was dulcie's ideal of a gallant knight
he looked as if he might have a secret sorrow and his wonderful moustache was a dream and she was a little afraid of that stern yet tender look in his eyes she used to have little fancies that he would call at the house sometime and ask for her
with his sword clanking against his high boots once when a boy was rattling a piece of chain against a lamp post
but there was no use she knew that general kitchener was away over in japan leading his army against the savage turks and he would never step out of his gilt frame for her yet one look from him had vanquished piggy that night
yes for that night when her cry was over dulcie got up and took off her best dress and put on her old blue kimono she wanted no dinner she sang two verses of sammy
then she became intensely interested in a little red speck on the side of her nose and after that was attended to she drew up a chair to the rickety table and told her fortune with an old deck of cards
and i never gave him a word or a look to make him think it at nine o'clock dulcie took a tin box of crackers and a little pot of raspberry jam out of her trunk and had a feast she offered general kitchener some jam on a cracker
if there are butterflies in the desert don't eat it if you don't want to said dulcie
i wonder if you'd be so superior and snippy if you had to live on six dollars a week
face downward with a severe gesture
at half past nine dulcie took a last look at the pictures on the dresser
turned out the light and skipped into bed it's an awful thing to go to bed with a good night look at general kitchener william muldoon the duchess of marlborough and benvenuto cellini this story really doesn't get anywhere at all the rest of it comes later
sometime when piggy asks dulcie again to dine with him and she is feeling lonelier than usual and general kitchener happens to be looking the other way and then as i said before
i dreamed that i was standing near a crowd of prosperous looking angels
my father meets a rhinoceros
all sorts of animals might be using it too but he decided to follow the trail no matter what he met because it might lead to the dragon he kept a sharp lookout in front and behind and went on
just as he was feeling quite safe
boars one of them was saying to the other
but monkey's grandmother died a week ago so they must have seen something else i wonder what it was i told you that there was an invasion afoot
i simply can't stand invasions nee meither said a tiny little voice
well said the first boar you search the trail up this way to the dragon i'll go back down the other way through the big clearing
and the first boar walked right past him my father waited for the other boar to get a head start on him but he didn't wait very long because he knew that when the first boar saw the tigers chewing gum in the clearing
he'd be even more suspicious soon the trail crossed
and my father who by this time was very thirsty stopped to get a drink of water he still had on his rubber boots so he waded into a little pool of water
and was stooping down when something quite sharp picked him up by the seat of the pants and shook him very hard
but he said oh no i'm so sorry
but i do because i have such a big thing to weep about and i drown everybody i find using my weeping pool with that the animal tossed my father up and down over the water
and he thought over all the things he had in his pack oh i have many things to weep about but the biggest thing is the color of my tusk my father squirmed every which way trying to see the tusk
but it was through the seat of his pants where he couldn't possibly see it when i was a young rhinoceros my tusk was pearly white said the animal
just move your tusk a little nearer please and i'll show you how to begin my father wet the brush in the pool
then he told the rhinoceros to wash it off and when the pool was calm again
it was hard to see in the dim light of the jungle but sure enough the spot shone pearly white just like new the rhinoceros was so pleased that he grabbed the toothbrush and began scrubbing violently
forgetting all about my father just then my father heard hoofsteps and he jumped behind the rhinoceros it was the boar coming back from the big clearing where the tigers were chewing gum the boar looked at the rhinoceros
tell me rhinoceros he said where did you get that fine tube of tooth paste and that toothbrush
muttering to himself very suspicious
and are always looking for something to eat
he's always tied to a stake on a rope just long enough to go across the river his only friends are the crocodiles who say hello to him once a week if they don't forget really
he's the most miserable animal i've ever come across when i left i promised i'd try to help him someday although i couldn't see how
days to untie them all
and he was so angry
my father and the cat went down to the docks to see about ships going to the island of tangerina they found out that a ship would be sailing the next week so right away they started planning for the rescue of the dragon
the cat was a great help in suggesting things for my father to take with him and she told him everything she knew about wild island
of course she was too old to go along everything had to be kept very secret so when they found or bought anything to take on the trip
he took chewing gum two dozen pink lollipops a package of rubber bands black rubber boots a compass a tooth brush and a tube of tooth paste six magnifying glasses a very sharp jackknife a comb and a hairbrush
seven hair ribbons of different colors an empty grain bag with a label saying cranberry some clean clothes and enough food to last my father while he was on the ship
because that's all the apples he could find in the pantry when everything was packed my father and the cat went down to the docks to the ship a night watchman was on duty so while the cat made loud queer noises to distract his attention
chapter three my father finds the island my father hid in the hold for six days and nights twice he was nearly caught when the ship stopped to take on more cargo
and that they'd be unloading the wheat there my father knew that the sailors would send him home if they caught him so he looked in his knapsack
at the last moment my father got inside the bag knapsack and all folded the top of the bag inside and put the rubber band around the top he didn't look just exactly like the other bags
they lowered a big net into the hold and began moving the bags of wheat suddenly one sailor yelled
the other sailors looked at the bag too and my father who was in the bag of course tried even harder to look like a bag of wheat
this all happened in the late afternoon so late that the merchant in cranberry who had ordered the wheat didn't count his bags until the next morning he was a very punctual man and never late for dinner
the sailors told the captain and the captain wrote down on a piece of paper that they had delivered one hundred and sixty bags of wheat and one bag of dried corn on the cob they left the piece of paper for the merchant and sailed away that evening
my father heard later that the merchant spent the whole next day counting and recounting the bags and feeling each one trying to find the bag of dried corn on the cob he never found it because as soon as it was dark
just as he was looking to see if he had anything left to eat something hit him on the head it was a tangerine he had been sleeping right under a tree full of big fat tangerines
tangerine trees grew wild everywhere my father picked as many as he had room for which was thirty one and started off to find wild island
he walked and walked and walked along the shore looking for the rocks that joined the two islands he walked all day
the fisherman began to shake and couldn't talk for a long while it scared him that much just thinking about it finally he said many people have tried to explore wild island
at the end he could just see a tiny patch of green he quickly ate seven tangerines and started down the beach it was almost dark when he came to the rocks but there way out in the ocean was the patch of green
remembering that the cat had said
get there so my father picked seven more tangerines put on his black rubber boots and waited for dark
it was a very black night and my father could hardly see the rocks ahead of him sometimes they were quite high and sometimes the waves almost covered them
my father meets a gorilla my father was very hungry so he sat down under a baby banyan tree on the side of the trail and ate four tangerines
he packed away all the peels and was about to get up when he heard the familiar voices of the boars
old rhinoceros is so busy brushing his tusk that he doesn't even look around to see who's going by
now very close to my father they'll talk to me i'm going to get to the bottom of this if it's the last thing i do the voices passed my father and went around a curve and he hurried on because he knew how much more upset the boars would be
and he stopped to read the signs straight ahead an arrow pointed to the beginning of the river
the ocean rocks and to the right to the dragon ferry my father was reading all these signs when he heard pawsteps and ducked behind the signpost a
and turned down toward the clearings although she could have seen my father if she had bothered to glance at the post she was much too occupied looking dignified to see
he finally came to the river bank in the late afternoon and looked all around
and was trying to have a good idea when something big and black and hairy jumped out of the tree and landed with a loud crash at his feet
for which he was very sorry when he looked up and discovered he was talking to an enormous and very fierce gorilla well explain yourself said the gorilla i'll give you till ten to tell me your name
too slow i'll twist your arms the way i twist that dragon's wings and then we'll see if you can't hurry up a bit he grabbed my father's arms one in each fist
and was just about to twist them when he suddenly let go and began scratching his chest with both hands blast those fleas he raged they won't give you a moment's peace and the worst of it is that you can't even get a good look at them rosie
well said the gorilla it's still there we're looking we're looking said the six little monkeys but they're awfully hard to see you know
they'd be just the thing for hunting fleas
one to rachel one to ruthie one to ruby
it's easy to see the fleas now
and they went on hunting frantically a moment later many more
chapter five my father meets some tigers
and the jungle was very gloomy and dense the trees grew close to each other and what room there was between them was taken up by great high ferns with sticky leaves
he ate three tangerines making sure to keep all the peels this time and put on his rubber boots my father tried to follow the river bank but it was very swampy
and as he went farther the swamp became deeper when it was almost as deep as his boot tops he got stuck in the oozy mucky mud
here the jungle was so thick that he could hardly see where the river was he unpacked his compass and figured out the direction he should walk in order to stay near the river
he was getting farther and farther away from the river it was very hard to walk in the jungle
and he kept tripping over roots and rotten logs
he began to hear whispery noises but he couldn't see any animals anywhere the deeper into the jungle he went the surer he was that something was following him
and the noises only came nearer once or twice he thought he heard something laughing at him at last he came out into a clearing and ran right into the middle of it so that he could see anything that might try to attack him
when he looked and saw fourteen green eyes coming out of the jungle all around the clearing and when the green eyes turned into seven tigers the tigers walked around him in a big circle
said the third tiger my father thought of the cat and knew this wasn't true but of course he had too much sense to say so one doesn't contradict a hungry tiger
he quickly opened his knapsack and took out the chewing gum the cat had told him that tigers were especially fond of chewing gum which was very scarce on the island so he threw them each a piece but they only growled as fond as we are of
chewing gum we're sure we'd like you even better
but this is very special chewing gum said my father if you keep on chewing it long enough it will turn green and then if you plant it it will grow more chewing gum and the sooner you start chewing the sooner you'll have more the tigers said
as each one wanted to be the first to plant the chewing gum they all unwrapped their pieces and began chewing as hard as they could every once in a while one tiger would look into another's mouth and say nope it's not done yet
women in physics physics being one of the inductive sciences received little attention until modern times true the greeks were familiar with some of the fundamental facts of the mechanics of solids and fluids
were among the most successful investigators of their time respecting the laws and properties of matter and contributed materially to the advancement of knowledge regarding the phenomena of the material universe but the sum total of their information of what we now know as physics
could be embodied in a few pages in view of the foregoing facts we should not expect to find women engaged in the study much less in the teaching of physical science during ancient times and yet if we are to credit boccaccio
who bases his statements on those of early greek writers there was at least one woman that won distinction by her knowledge of natural philosophy as early as the days of socrates in his work de laudibus mulierum
which treats of the achievements of some of the illustrious representatives of the gentler sex
and is represented as being a veritable prodigy of learning for among her many claims to distinction she is said to have publicly taught natural and moral philosophy in the schools and academies of attica for thirty five years to have written forty books
and reflect on the advantages they enjoyed as pupils of the ablest teachers of the lyceum the portico and the academy when we remember further that they lived in an atmosphere of intelligence such as has since been unknown
when we peruse the fragmentary notices of their achievements as recorded in the pages of more recent investigators regarding the educational facilities of a certain class of women living in athens and the eminence which they attained in science philosophy and literature
and as a teacher have not been overestimated living in an age of prodigious mental activity when women as well as men were actuated by an abiding love of knowledge for its own sake
take charge of her husband's school after his death and does not antiquity credit her with being not only a successful teacher of philosophy but also a writer of books of recognized value
and about her eminence as a teacher of science and philosophy she was but one of many of the greek women of her age that won renown by their gifts of intellect and by their contributions to the educational work of their time and country
she too like her distinguished predecessor in athens was an instructor in natural philosophy
of her we know more than we do of the daughter of aristippus but even our knowledge of the acquisitions and achievements of hypatia is unfortunately extremely meager we do however know from the historian socrates and from synesius bishop of ptolemais
who was her pupil that she was one of the most richly dowered women of all time born and educated in alexandria when its schools and scholars were the most celebrated in the world
she was even at an early age regarded as a marvel of learning for
of which he was a distinguished professor she as suidas informs us devoted herself to the study of philosophy with such success that she was soon regarded as the ablest living exponent of the doctrines of plato and aristotle her knowledge
she had a well equipped physical cabinet in which she took special delight but in her time as in that of hypatia natural philosophy was far from being the broad experimental science
which it has become through the marvelous discoveries made in heat light electricity and magnetism during the last hundred years as well as through those countless brilliant investigations which have led up to our present doctrine of the correlation and conservation
of the various physical forces there was then no occasion for those delicate instruments of precision which are now found in every physical laboratory by means of which the man of science
is able to investigate phenomena and determine laws that were quite unknown until a few years ago
philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica the marquise's first scientific work was an investigation regarding the nature of fire the french academy of sciences had offered a prize for the best memoir on the subject
leonard euler the marquise was unsuccessful in the contest but her paper was of such value that the eminent physicist and astronomer arago was able to characterize it as an elegant piece of work
are both modes of motion the second book written by this remarkable woman is entitled institutions de physique and was dedicated to her son for whose benefit it was primarily written
it deals specially with the philosophy of leibnitz and discusses such questions as force time and space her views respecting the nature of the force called vis viva which was much discussed in her time
are of particular interest as they are not only opposed to those which were held by descartes and newton but also because they are in essential accord with those now accepted in the world of science all things considered
laura maria catarina bassi
and from her most tender years she exhibited an exceptional facility for the acquisition of knowledge after she had through the assistance of excellent masters become proficient in french and latin
her entering the lists against some of the most distinguished scholars of the time was made the occasion for an unusual demonstration in her honor
when the argumentation began the young girl found herself pitted against five of the most distinguished scholars of bologna but she was fully equal to the occasion and passed the ordeal to which she was subjected
in a manner that excited the admiration and won the plaudits of all present cardinal lambertini was so impressed with the brilliant defence which she had made against the five trained dialecticians and the evidence she gave of varied and profound learning
presented herself as a candidate for the doctorate in philosophy this was the occasion for a still more brilliant and imposing ceremony it was held in the spacious hall of hercules in the communal palace which was magnificently decorated for the splendid function
the heroine of the hour dressed in a black gown was ushered into the great hall preceded by two college beadles and accompanied by two of the most prominent ladies
she was given a seat between the chancellor and the prior of the university who in turn were flanked by the professors and officials of the institution after the usual preliminaries of the function were over the prior of the university doctor bazzani
rose and pronounced an eloquent discourse in latin to which laura made a suitable response in the same language
both symbols of the doctorate after this the young doctor proceeded to where the three cardinals were seated and in delicately chosen words also in latin expressed to them her thanks for the honor of their presence
long established custom required that she should pass a public examination on the subject matter which she was to teach five examiners were chosen by lot and all of them proved to be men whose names says fantuzzi
will always be held by our university in glorious remembrance
notwithstanding the difficulties she had to confront laura acquitted herself with even greater credit than on former occasions of a similar character there was no question in the mind of any one present at the examination
the first public lecture of the gifted young dottoressa was made the occasion of a demonstration such as the old walls of the university had rarely witnessed her lecture room was thronged by the elite of the city
as well as by a large class of enthusiastic students all were charmed by her eloquence and amazed at the complete mastery she evinced of the subject she had selected for discussion
from that day forth her reputation as a scholar and a teacher was established and her lectures were attended by appreciative students from all parts of europe she was especially popular with the students from greece germany and poland
and her popularity far from waning waxed greater with the passing years at the time of laura's entering upon her professional career the senate of bologna had a medal coined in her honor on the obverse of which was her name and effigy
while on the reverse there was an image of minerva with the inscription
far from interrupting her studies which had hitherto been the joy of her life laura's university work gave new zest to the literary and scientific pursuits which had always such a fascination for her among the subjects that specially engaged her attention
were studies so diverse as greek and the higher mathematics she was particularly interested in the great physico mathematical work of newton and did not rest until she had thoroughly mastered the contents of his epoch making principia
endowed with a soul and a genius far above that of ordinary mortals and as being the possessor of a talent that indicated something superhuman
laura bassi was in constant correspondence with the most celebrated scholars of europe and more especially with those who had attained eminence in her special line of work among the letters received from her illustrious correspondents were two from voltaire
and would at the same time be a biting satire on the demigods of french literature who had dared to exclude him from their society that he might not meet the same refusal on the part of the academy of bologna as he had experienced in paris
the first letter written in italian is so characteristic of the writer that it will bear reproduction most illustrious lady
and to salute the honor of her age and of women there is not a bassi in london
although it has produced a newton if your protection should obtain for me this title of which i am so ambitious the gratitude of my heart will be equal to my admiration for yourself
the second letter of voltaire is in response to one received from laura bassi announcing that he had been elected to membership in the bologna academy
of a deeply religious nature she was as pious as she was intelligent and was throughout her life the devoted friend of the poor and the afflicted the mother of twelve children she never permitted her scientific and literary work to conflict with her domestic duties
or to detract in the least from the singular affection which so closely united her to her husband and children she was as much at home with the needle and the spindle as she was with her books and the apparatus of her laboratory
and she was equally admirable whether superintending her household looking after her children entertaining the great and the learned of the world or in holding the rapt attention of her students in the lecture room
she was indeed a living proof that higher education is not incompatible with woman's natural avocations and that cerebral development does not lead to race suicide and all the other dire results attributed to it by a certain class of our modern sociologists and anti feminists
considering her manifold duties as a professor in the university and the mother of a large family it was scarcely to be expected that laura bassi would have much time for writing for the press she was however able to devote some of her leisure moments to the cultivation of the muses
her verses as well as her contributions to the science of physics are scattered through various publications but they suffice to show that the accounts of her transmitted to us by her contemporaries were not exaggerated
describes her as having a face that was sweet serious and modest her eyes were dark and sparkling and she was blessed with a powerful memory a solid judgment and a ready imagination
she conversed fluently with me in latin for an hour with grace and precision she is very proficient in metaphysics but she prefers modern physics particularly that of newton
it must not however be inferred from the foregoing statements regarding the great intellectual capacity of laura bassi or the enthusiastic demonstrations that were so frequently made in her honor that she was unique in this respect among her countrywomen
special attention has been called to her as a type
the name of laura bassi like that of her illustrious colleague luigi galvani is one to conjure with
she is known in the annals of science as mary somerville and was in every way a worthy successor of her famous sister in italy both as a woman and as a votary of science
although her chief title to fame is her notable work in mathematical astronomy especially her translation of laplace's mechanique celeste
she is likewise to be accorded a prominent place among scientific investigators for her contributions to physics and cognate branches of knowledge chief among these are her works on the connection of the physical sciences and physical geography
occurs the following paragraph to the great superiority you possess and which has so nobly illustrated your name on the high regions of mathematical analysis you add madam a variety of information in all parts of physics and descriptive natural history
after the mechanism of the heavens the philosophical connection of the physical sciences
treating of physical subjects or of subjects intimately related to physics are the form and rotation of the earth the tides of the ocean and atmosphere and an abstruse investigation
on molecular and microscopic science the last volume was published in eighteen sixty nine when its author was near her ninetieth year and bore as its motto saint augustine's sublime words
deus magnus in magnis maximus in minimis god is great in great things greatest in the least after missus somerville's death in eighteen seventy two at the advanced age of ninety two
the number of women who devoted themselves to the study and teaching of physics was greatly augmented the brilliant success of laura bassi and mary somerville had not been without results
and their notable achievements as authors and teachers had the effect of stimulating women everywhere to emulate their example and encouraging them to devote more attention to a branch of science which until then
beyond the sphere and capacity of what was assumed to be the intellectually weaker sex
her investigations on the electric arc and on the sand ripples of the seashore won for her the first medal ever awarded to a woman by the royal society
when however in nineteen o two she was formally nominated for fellowship in this same society she failed of election because the council of the society discovered that
how different it was in the case of laura bassi
where from time immemorial women have been as cordially welcomed to membership in its learned societies as to the chairs of its great universities
and by which they at the same time revolutionized the science of the stars for they had not only to design and make the specula but also the mountings of the mirrors as well and in order to obtain the money required for material and workmen
when sir william watson heard that this limited sum had been granted by george the third to the discoverer of georgium sidus the planet now known as uranus he exclaimed
never bought monarch honor so cheap shortly afterwards caroline was appointed as assistant to her brother
this we should now consider but a nominal sum but she managed to live on it
if not in the world to hold such a position in the government service
she devoted her time to what she quaintly called minding the heavens it was during this period that she made her most important discoveries as assistant however to so indefatigable an observer as sir william herschel
circumstances permitting without regard to seasons it was the business of his assistant to note the clocks and to write down the observations from his dictations as they were made
that she was able to devote herself to the newtonian sweeper which she used to such good purpose besides the eight comets by her discovered
that were most extraordinary that made caroline herschel so valuable as an assistant to her brother and enabled him to achieve the unique position which is his among the world's greatest astronomers had she been able to devote all her time to minding the heavens
it is certain that she would have made many more discoveries than are now credited to her but her service to astronomy would have been less than it was as the auxiliary of her illustrious brother no two ever did better teamwork
no two were ever more devoted to each other or exhibited greater enthusiasm in the task to which they so
and assistant to her brother caroline found time to prepare a number of works for the press among these were a catalogue of eight hundred and sixty stars observed by flamsteed but not included in the british catalogue
and a general index of reference to every observation of every star in the above mentioned british catalogue
another and a more valuable work was
it was for this catalogue that a gold medal was voted to her by the royal astronomical society in eighteen twenty eight a production that was characterized as a work of immense labor and
an extraordinary monument to the unextinguished ardor of a lady of seventy five in the cause of abstract science to her nephew sir john herschel it proved invaluable as it supplied the needful data
it was also a fitting prelude to sir john's cape observations a copy of which great work she received from her nephew nearly twenty years subsequently
after he had completed his famous observations of the southern heavens in his observatory at the cape of good hope by a most striking and happy coincidence writes missus john herschel
she whose unflagging toil had so greatly contributed to its successful prosecution in the hands of her beloved brother lived to witness its triumphant termination through the no less persistent industry and strenuous labor of his son
and her last days were crowned by the possession of the work which brought to its glorious conclusion sir william herschel's vast undertaking the survey
is evidenced by the honors of which she was the recipient the first of these honors came in the form of a gold medal unanimously awarded by the royal astronomical society for her reduction of twenty five hundred nebulae
discovered by her illustrious brother which may be considered as the completion of a series of exertions probably unparalleled either in magnitude or importance in the annals of astronomical labor
it was on this occasion when referring to the immensity of the task which sir william herschel had undertaken that the vice president of the society paid a deserving tribute to the great astronomer's devoted sister in which is found the following statement
she it was who noted the right ascensions and polar distances of the objects observed she it was who having passed the night near the instrument took the rough manuscripts to her cottage at the dawn of day
in recognition of the valuable services rendered by her as the fellow worker of her immortal brother sir william herschel
though upon what it might consider narrow grounds and false principles
should in no case be applied to the works of a woman less severely than to those of a man the sex of the former should no longer be an obstacle
and your council therefore
nothing in the power of man to bestow could have given such pleasure on her death bed as this last
we are told that a copy just from the press of his immortal work de orbium celestium revolutionibus
in which he had established the heliocentric theory of the planetary system was placed in the hands of copernicus on the day of his death just a few hours before he expired he seemed conscious of what it was
but after touching it and contemplating it for a moment he lapsed into a state of insensibility which soon terminated in death with miss herschel the case was different although in her ninety seventh
she still retained possession of all her faculties and was fully able to appreciate the volume which told of the crowning of her brother's life work a volume which must have given her additional satisfaction when she recalled her fifty years of loyal service at her brother's side
as his associate and ministering angel in the greatest work ever undertaken by a single man in the history of astronomy
which had occupied her mind for more than three quarters of a century her epitaph composed by herself is engraved on a heavy stone slab which covers her grave and contains the following words
the eyes of her who is glorified were here below turned to the starry heavens her own discoveries of comets and her participation in the immortal labors of her brother william herschel
secured for her so enviable a place among the mathematicians of her time and placed all english students of mathematical astronomy under such deep obligations it is true that she ever manifested a lively interest in celestial phenomena
but it is rather as a mathematician than as an astronomer that she will be remembered by the devotees of science the first american woman to win distinction in astronomy was miss maria mitchell
born in the island of nantucket in eighteen eighteen she at an early age displayed remarkable talent for astronomy and mathematics her first instructor was her father who besides being a school teacher
had from his youth been an enthusiastic student of astronomy
in which there was a small telescope at the age of thirteen
and from that time on she was his assiduous co worker in the study of the heavens after teaching school for some years she became the librarian of the nantucket atheneum a
position which she held for nearly twenty years here she continued the study of her favorite science and read all the books on astronomy which she could obtain
it was during this period that she read bowditch's translation of laplace's mecanique celeste and gauss's theoria motus corporum caelestium in the original
on the evening of october first eighteen forty seven she was the discoverer of a comet that attracted great attention because it secured for her a medal offered by the king of denmark in eighteen thirty one
for the first one who should discover a telescopic comet
by dawes in england on october seventh and by madame ruemker
as there was no atlantic cable in those days it was not known who was the fortunate winner of the prize until nearly a year afterward
when word was received from denmark announcing that the priority of miss mitchell's discovery had been recognized and that she would be the recipient of the prize which for a while it was thought would go to de vico or madame ruemker
for the nautical almanac a position she held for nineteen years during the same period she was employed by the united states coast survey when vassar college was opened in eighteen sixty five
for the higher education of women miss mitchell was called to fill the chair of astronomy and to be the first director of the observatory in this position she soon succeeded in giving astronomy a prominence that it never had had before in any other college for women
and in but few for men miss mitchell was a member of several learned societies and the author of a number of papers containing the results of her observations on jupiter and saturn and their satellites
she held her position at vassar until eighteen eighty nine when she died a few months before her seventy first birthday since the pioneer days of miss caroline herschel
niece of feliciano scarpellini professor of astronomy in rome
and founder of the capitoline observatory born in eighteen o eight she manifested at an early age a decided taste for astronomy which was carefully developed by her uncle she it was who organized the meteorologico
she exhibited a special interest in shooting stars and prepared the first catalogue of these meteors observed in italy in eighteen fifty four she discovered a comet she has also left valuable studies on the probable influence of the moon on earthquakes
another woman who has won enduring fame in the annals of astronomy
of san francisco while yet quite young
there she soon became proficient in a number of languages and then devoted herself to the study of mathematics and astronomy after securing her baccalaureate and licentiate in paris
she applied for admission as a student to the paris observatory the directors of the observatory consulted the statutes no woman had hitherto proposed herself as a colleague but there was no rule opposing it
which she made the subject of her thesis and when she had become doctor of science she was given a decoration by the institute and made an officier de l'academie
m darboux the president of the jury complimented the young american doctor on her splendid work and concluded a notable address in her honor in the following laudatory words
and places you in an honorable rank beside those women who have consecrated themselves to the study of mathematics in the last century
since then sophie germain
beside those of euler and lagrange
your thesis is the first which a woman has presented and successfully defended before our faculty for the degree of doctor in mathematics you worthily open the way
and the faculty unanimously makes haste to declare you worthy of obtaining the degree of doctor besides her thesis just referred to
she was the first woman to be elected a member of the astronomical society of france and the character of her work as an observer as well as a computer has given her an enviable position among the astronomers of the world
for many years missus w fleming
to her and her staff were assigned the reductions and measurements of the photographic and photometric work done in cambridge and arequipa peru she was singularly successful in her studies of photographic plates
and who have contributed to its advancement by their observations and writings would be a very long one
mention must be made of the misses antonia c maury florence cushman louisa d wells mabel c stephens
anna winlock annie j cannon and henrietta s leavitt
then too there are many women who occupy important positions as professors or assistant professors in our colleges and universities
mary w whitney of vassar mary e boyd of smith susan cunningham of swarthmore and annie s young of mt holyoke
either as observers and computers or as writers are miss alice everett who has done splendid work in the observatories of greenwich and potsdam misses m a orr mary ashley alice brown mary proctor
the countess bobinski in russia and miss pogson in the observatory of madras india in conclusion it is but just to observe that women's work in astronomy
has by no means been confined to their contributions as observers writers and computers reference must also be made to the financial aid which they have given to various observatories and learned societies
for the furtherance of astronomical research both in the new and the old world
of the henry draper memorial by missus henry draper in order that the work of photographing stellar spectra
it was missus poppets that woke me up next morning she said
nine o what i cried starting up nine o'clock she replied through the keyhole i thought you was a oversleeping yourselves i woke harris and told him he said
i thought you wanted to get up at six so i did i answered
i don't know why it should be i am sure but the sight of another man asleep in bed when i am up maddens me it seems to me so shocking to see the precious hours of a man's life the priceless moments that will never come back to him again
being wasted in mere brutish sleep there was george throwing away in hideous sloth the inestimable gift of time his valuable life every second of which he would have to account for hereafter passing away from him
unused he might have been up stuffing himself with eggs and bacon irritating the dog or flirting with the slavey instead of sprawling there sunk in soul clogging oblivion it was a terrible thought
harris and i appeared to be struck by it at the same instant we determined to save him and in this noble resolve our own dispute was forgotten we flew across and slung the clothes off him
and harris landed him one with a slipper and i shouted in his ear and he awoke wasermarrer he observed sitting up get up you fat headed chunk roared harris
what he shrieked jumping out of bed into the bath who the thunder put this thing here we told him he must have been a fool not to see the bath we finished dressing
we told him that he would have to go without shaving that morning as we weren't going to unpack that bag again for him nor for anyone like him he said don't be absurd how can i go into the city like this
we calmed them with an umbrella and sat down to chops and cold beef harris said the great thing is to make a good breakfast and he started with a couple of chops saying that he would take these while they were hot
as the beef could wait george got hold of the paper and read us out the boating fatalities
with general depression over the midland counties london and channel bar falling i do think that of all the silly irritating tomfoolishness by which we are plagued this weather forecast fraud
is about the most aggravating it forecasts precisely what happened yesterday or the day before and precisely the opposite of what is going to happen to day i remember a holiday of mine being completely ruined one late autumn
by our paying attention to the weather report of the local newspaper heavy showers with thunderstorms may be expected to day it would say on monday and so we would give up our picnic and stop indoors all day waiting for the rain
and people would pass the house going off in wagonettes and coaches as jolly and merry as could be the sun shining out and not a cloud to be seen ah we said as we stood looking out at them through the window won't they come home soaked
and we chuckled to think how wet they were going to get and came back and stirred the fire and got our books and arranged our specimens of seaweed and cockle shells by twelve o'clock with the sun pouring into the room the heat became quite oppressive
the landlady would come in to ask if we weren't going out as it seemed such a lovely day no no we replied with a knowing chuckle not we we don't mean to get wet no no and when the afternoon was nearly gone and still there was no sign of rain
and a lovely night after it the next morning we would read that it was going to be a warm fine to set fair day much heat and we would dress ourselves in flimsy things
it would commence to rain hard and a bitterly cold wind would spring up and both would keep on steadily for the whole day and we would come home with colds and rheumatism all over us and go to bed
the weather is a thing that is beyond me altogether i never can understand it the barometer is useless it is as misleading as the newspaper forecast
there was one hanging up in a hotel at oxford at which i was staying last spring and when i got there it was pointing to set fair it was simply pouring with rain outside and had been all day and i couldn't quite make matters out
and it jumped up and pointed to very dry the boots stopped as he was passing and said he expected it meant to morrow i fancied that maybe it was thinking of the week before last but boots said no he thought not
i tapped it again the next morning and it went up still higher and the rain came down faster than ever on wednesday i went and hit it again and the pointer went round towards set fair very dry and
much heat until it was stopped by the peg and couldn't go any further it tried its best
without breaking itself it evidently wanted to go on and prognosticate drought and water famine and sunstroke and simooms and such things but the peg prevented it
boots said it was evident that we were going to have a prolonged spell of grand weather some time and read out a poem which was printed over the top of the oracle about long foretold long last
short notice soon past the fine weather never came that summer i expect that machine must have been referring to the following spring then there are those new style of barometers
the long straight ones i never can make head or tail of those there is one side for ten a m yesterday and one side for ten a m to day but you can't always get there as early as ten you know
it rises or falls for rain and fine with much or less wind and one end is nly
what's ely got to do with it and if you tap it
and reduce it to fahrenheit and even then i don't know the answer but who wants to be foretold the weather
without our having the misery of knowing about it beforehand the prophet we like is the old man who on the particularly gloomy looking morning of some day when we particularly want it to be fine looks round the horizon with a particularly knowing eye
and says oh no sir
it will break all right enough sir ah
he did his best for the man that prophesies us bad weather on the contrary we entertain only bitter and revengeful thoughts going to clear up d'ye think we shout cheerily as we pass
well no sir i'm afraid it's settled down for the day he replies shaking his head stupid old fool we mutter what's he know about it and if his portent proves correct
we come back feeling still more angry against him and with a vague notion that somehow or other he has had something to do with it it was too bright and sunny on this especial morning for george's blood curdling readings about
he sneaked the cigarette that i had carefully rolled up for myself and went then harris and i having finished up the few things left on the table
there was the gladstone and the small hand bag and the two hampers and a large roll of rugs and some four or five overcoats and macintoshes and a few umbrellas
and a couple of pounds of grapes in another bag and a japanese paper umbrella and a frying pan which being too long to pack we had wrapped round with brown paper it did look a lot
and harris and i began to feel rather ashamed of it though why we should be i can't see no cab came by but the street boys did and got interested in the show apparently and stopped
biggs's boy was the first to come round biggs is our greengrocer and his chief talent lies in securing the services
we know that it is biggs's latest
it was promptly concluded by our street that biggs's boy for that period was at the bottom of it and had he not been able
when he called there for orders the morning after the crime assisted by no twenty one who happened to be on the step at the time to prove a complete alibi it would have gone hard with him i didn't know biggs's boy at that time but
from what i have seen of them since i should not have attached much importance to that alibi myself biggs's boy as i have said came round the corner he was evidently in a great hurry when he first dawned upon the vision
but on catching sight of harris and me and montmorency and the things he eased up and stared harris and i frowned at him this might have wounded a more sensitive nature
but biggs's boys are not as a rule touchy he came to a dead stop a yard from our step
and selecting a straw to chew fixed us with his eye he evidently meant to see this thing out in another moment the grocer's boy passed on the opposite side of the street biggs's boy hailed him
the grocer's boy came across and took up a position on the other side of the step then the young gentleman from the boot shop stopped and joined biggs's boy while the empty can superintendent from the blue posts
took up an independent position on the curb they ain't a going to starve are they said the gentleman from the boot shop ah you'd want to take a thing or two with you retorted the blue posts
and that i was probably the corpse's brother at last an empty cab turned up it is a street where as a rule and when they are not wanted empty cabs pass at the rate of three a minute and hang about and get in your way
and packing ourselves and our belongings into it and shooting out a couple of montmorency's friends who had evidently sworn never to forsake him we drove away amidst the cheers of the crowd biggs's boy shying a carrot after us for luck
nobody at waterloo ever does know where a train is going to start from or where a train when it does start is going to or anything about it the porter who took our things thought it would go from number two platform
we went upstairs and asked the traffic superintendent and he told us that he had just met a man who said he had seen it at number three platform we went to number three platform
or else the windsor loop but they were sure it wasn't the kingston train though why they were sure it wasn't they couldn't say then our porter said he thought that must be it on the high level platform said he thought he knew the train
or the ten a m express for the isle of wight or somewhere in that direction and we should all know when we got there we slipped half a crown into his hand
nobody will ever know on this line we said what you are or where you're going you know the way you slip off quietly and go to kingston well i don't know gents replied the noble fellow
and nobody knew what had become of it our boat was waiting for us at kingston just below bridge and to it we wended our way and round it we stored our luggage and into it we stepped are you all right sir
said the man right it is we answered and with harris at the sculls and i at the tiller lines and montmorency unhappy and deeply suspicious in the prow
a humbug my master was not immediately suited but in a few days
in fact he did a great deal of stroking and patting
he always brushed my mane and tail with water and my hoofs with oil before he brought me to the door to make me look smart
or grooming me thoroughly he thought no more of that than if i had been a cow he left my bit rusty my saddle damp and my crupper stiff alfred smirk
considered himself very handsome he spent a great deal of time about his hair whiskers and necktie before a little looking glass in the harness room when his master was speaking to him it was always yes sir
touching his hat at every word
while the strong vapors that rose made my eyes smart and inflame and i did not feel the same appetite for my food one day his master came in and said alfred the stable smells rather strong
well sir he said touching his cap i'll do so if you please sir but it is rather dangerous sir throwing down water in a horse's box they are very apt to take cold sir i should not like to do him an injury
but i'll do it if you please sir well said his master i should not like him to take cold but i don't like the smell of this stable do you think the drains are all right well sir now you mention it
i think the drain does sometimes send back a smell there may be something wrong sir
said his master yes sir i will the bricklayer came and pulled up a great many bricks but found nothing amiss so he put down some lime and charged the master five shillings
i don't know what is the matter with this horse he goes very fumble footed i am sometimes afraid he will stumble yes sir said alfred i have noticed the same myself when i have exercised him
now the fact was that he hardly ever did exercise me and when the master was busy i often stood for days together without stretching my legs at all and yet being fed just as high as if i were at hard work
this often disordered my health and made me sometimes heavy and dull but more often restless and feverish he never even gave me a meal of green food or a bran mash which would have cooled me
for he was altogether as ignorant as he was conceited and then instead of exercise or change of food i had to take horse balls and draughts which beside the nuisance of having them poured down my throat
used to make me feel ill and uncomfortable one day my feet were so tender
i made two such serious stumbles that as he came down lansdown into the city he stopped at the farrier's and asked him to see what was the matter with me
the man took up my feet one by one and examined them then standing up and dusting his hands one against the other he said your horse has got the thrush and badly too
his feet are very tender it is fortunate that he has not been down i wonder your groom has not seen to it before this is the sort of thing we find in foul stables where the litter is never properly cleaned out if you will send him here to morrow
i will attend to the hoof and i will direct your man how to apply the liniment which i will give him the next day i had my feet thoroughly cleansed and stuffed with tow soaked in some strong lotion
the farrier ordered all the litter to be taken out of my box day by day and the floor kept very clean then i was to have bran mashes a little green food and not so much corn
till my feet were well again with this treatment i soon regained my spirits but mister barry was so much disgusted at being twice deceived by his grooms that he determined to give up keeping a horse
and to hire when he wanted one i was therefore kept till my feet were quite sound
the tenth chapter the rarest animal of all pushmi pullyus are now extinct that means there aren't any more
but a head at each end and sharp horns on each head they were very shy and terribly hard to catch the black men get most of their animals by sneaking up behind them while they are not looking
but you could not do this with the pushmi pullyu because no matter which way you came towards him he was always facing you and besides only one half of him slept at a time the other head was always awake
in all weathers for pushmi pullyus not a single one had ever been caught even then years ago he was the only animal in the world with two heads well
and after they had gone a good many miles one of them found peculiar footprints near the edge of a river and they knew that a pushmi pullyu must be very near that spot then
the pushmi pullyu heard them coming and he tried hard to break through the ring of monkeys but he couldn't do it when he saw that it was no use trying to escape he sat down and waited to see what they wanted
they asked him if he would go with doctor dolittle and be put on show in the land of the white men but he shook both his heads hard and said certainly not
they explained to him that he would not be shut up in a menagerie but would just be looked at they told him that the doctor was a very kind man but hadn't any money and people would pay to see a two headed animal and the doctor would get rich
and could pay for the boat he had borrowed to come to africa in but he answered no you know how shy i am i hate being stared at and he almost began to cry
he said he would come with them and see what kind of a man the doctor was first so the monkeys traveled back with the pushmi pullyu and when they came to where the doctor's little house of grass was they knocked on the door the duck
who was packing the trunk said come in and chee chee very proudly took the animal inside and showed him to the doctor what in the world is it asked john dolittle gazing at the strange creature
lord save us cried the duck how does it make up its mind it doesn't look to me as though it had any said jip the dog
this doctor said chee chee is the pushmi pullyu the rarest animal of the african jungles the only two headed beast in the world take him home with you
and your fortune's made people will pay any money to see him but i don't want any money said the doctor yes you do said dab dab the duck
oh do be sensible cried dab dab where would you get all the wood and the nails to make one with and besides what are we going to live on we shall be poorer than ever when we get back chee chee's perfectly right
take the funny looking thing along do well perhaps there is something in what you say murmured the doctor it certainly would make a nice new kind of pet but does the er
really want to go abroad yes i'll go said the pushmi pullyu who saw at once from the doctor's face that he was a man to be trusted you have been so kind to the animals here
and the monkeys tell me that i am the only one who will do but you must promise me that if i do not like it in the land of the white men you will send me back why certainly of course of course said the doctor
excuse me surely you are related to the deer family are you not yes
to the abyssinian gazelles and the asiatic chamois on my mother's side my father's great grandfather was the last of the unicorns most interesting murmured the doctor
and he took a book out of the trunk which dab dab was packing and began turning the pages let us see if buffon says anything
can't the other head talk as well oh yes said the pushmi pullyu but i keep the other mouth for eating mostly in that way i can talk while i am eating without being rude our people have always been very polite
when the packing was finished and everything was ready to start the monkeys gave a grand party for the doctor and all the animals of the jungle came and they had pineapples and mangoes and honey
and all sorts of good things to eat and drink after they had all finished eating the doctor got up and said my friends i am not clever at speaking long words after dinner like some men
and i have just eaten many fruits and much honey but i wish to tell you that i am very sad at leaving your beautiful country because i have things to do in the land of the white men i must go
when the doctor stopped speaking and sat down all the monkeys clapped their hands a long time and said to one another let it be remembered always among our people that he sat and ate with us here under the trees
for surely he is the greatest of men and the grand gorilla who had the strength of seven horses in his hairy arms rolled a great rock up to the head of the table and said this stone
and even to this day in the heart of the jungle that stone still is there and monkey mothers passing through the forest with their families still point down at it from the branches
the doctor and his pets started out to go back to the seashore
how it ended it must have been nearly midnight when i heard at a great distance the sound of a horse's feet sometimes the sound died away then it grew clearer again
and nearer the road to earlshall led through woods that belonged to the earl the sound came in that direction and i hoped it might be some one coming in search of us as the sound came nearer and nearer
i was almost sure i could distinguish ginger's step
and stooped down over it it is reuben he said and he does not stir the other man followed and bent over him he's dead he said
feel how cold his hands are they raised him up but there was no life and his hair was soaked with blood they laid him down again and came and looked at me
they soon saw my cut knees why the horse has been down and thrown him
look here his hoof is cut all to pieces he might well come down poor fellow i tell you what ned i'm afraid it hasn't been all right with reuben just think of his riding a horse over these stones without a shoe
i'm afraid it has been the old thing over again poor susan she looked awfully pale when she came to my house to ask if he had not come home she made believe she was not a bit anxious
but for all that she begged me to go and meet him but what must we do there's the horse to get home as well as the body and that will be no easy matter
but she knew as well as i did what was going on and stood as still as a stone i noticed that because if she had a fault it was that she was impatient in standing
i shall never forget that night walk it was more than three miles robert led me on very slowly
with great pain i am sure he was sorry for me for he often patted and encouraged me talking to me in a pleasant voice at last i reached my own box and had some corn
and after robert had wrapped up my knees in wet cloths he tied up my foot in a bran poultice to draw out the heat and cleanse it before the horse doctor saw it in the morning and i managed to get myself down on the straw
and slept in spite of the pain the next day after the farrier had examined my wounds he said he hoped the joint was not injured and if so i should not be spoiled for work
but i should never lose the blemish i believe they did the best to make a good cure but it was a long and painful one proud flesh as they called it came up in my knees and was burned out with caustic
and when at last it was healed they put a blistering fluid over the front of both knees to bring all the hair off they had some reason for this and i suppose it was all right as smith's death had been so sudden
and my shoe was picked up among the stones so that the case was quite plain to them and i was cleared of all blame everybody pitied susan she was nearly out of her mind
so she went on till after he was buried and then as she had no home or relations
n naive manner naked eye nameless fear narcotic effect narrowing axioms
nautical venture neat refutation nebulous uncertainty
nerveless hand nervous solicitude nettled opponent neutral eye new perplexities
nice discrimination niggardly allowance nightmare fantasy nimble faculty noble condescension
nocturnal scene nodding approval noiseless reverie noisy platitudes nomadic life
nominal allegiance nonchalant manner non committal way nondescript garb nonsense rhymes
noonday splendor normal characteristics notable circumstance noteworthy friendship noticeably begrimed
notoriously profligate novel
ominous rumors omnipotent decree omniscient affirmation oncoming horde
organic assimilation oriental spicery originally promulgated oscillatory movement ostensible occupation
ostentatious display outlandish fashion outrageously vehement outspoken encouragement outstanding feature
outstretching sympathies outward pomp outworn creed overbearing style overestimated importance
overflowing sympathy overhanging darkness overmastering potency overpowering argument
and he chided himself that they were not uttered but then if she said no what lot would be his as for doris not being prepared to say yes she deferred decision
and checked earle on the verge of a finality for she was not ready to dismiss her suitor if he fled from brackenside what pleasure would be left in life she had soon ceased her efforts to flirt with gregory leslie
he regarded her with the eye of an artist what of his feeling that was not artistic was paternal at first she had hoped that an opening might be made for her to city life she had wild dreams
that he could get an engagement for her as an actress or concert singer where wonderful beauty would make up for lack of training she built wild castles in the air about titled ladies who would take her
for an adopted daughter or as a companion but gregory leslie was the last man to tempt a lovely heedless young girl to the vortex of city life she told him one day of some of her longings and distastes
she hated the farm the country she wanted the glory of the city dress theaters operas promenades can't you tell me how to get what i want child said gregory
you have a devoted young lover who offers you a comfortable home at lindenholm to live with my mother in law sneered doris an admirable woman i have met her
it would be just this dullness repeated all my life said doris tearful and pouting it would be love comfort safety goodness
besides this young moray is one of our coming men
i am much mistaken if he does not make a name fame place fortune
and be great yes i do i would like that
where learned people and musical wonders and famous actors and artists like you mister leslie come and we had flowers and pictures and song and gayety it is pleasant
well come by you might have it all as mister moray's wife if at first you waited patiently earle took new value in this ambitious girl's eyes meanwhile
warned by the experience with leslie which might have turned out so differently had leslie played lover and offered london life to doris earle resolved to press his suit and urge early marriage
he must have some way of holding fast the fair coquette to him the marriage tie was invulnerable once his wife he fancied she would be ever true yes
once betrothed he believed that she would be true as steel so one fine september morning when leslie's picture was nearly finished earle came up to the farm resolved to be silent
no longer he met mattie first he took her hand mattie dear sister friend
wish me success mattie's heart died within her but the true eyes did not quail as she said i hope she will consent for i know you love her
heaven send you all good gifts if she does not take me my life will be spoiled cried earle passionately hush said mattie
no man has a right to say such a word no one should ever throw away all good that heaven has given him because of one good withheld does she love me
there is no way but to ask her
in came doris her arms laden with lavender flowers cut for drying she came and filled the room with light you here earle
the hazel bushes are full she held out her hand frank and natural as a child and away they went together doris was fantastic as a butterfly that day she danced on before earle
she lingered till he overtook her and before he could say two words was off again
she noted his anxious grave face and setting her saucy little head on one side trilled forth prithee why so pale fond lover prithee why so pale
for if looking well won't move her looking ill must fail
he made a dash caught her drew her to his side and cried doris be quiet and hear me you shall hear me i have something to tell you something important
bless us cried doris in pretended terror is it going to rain are you going to tell me something dreadful about the weather and i have a set of new ribbons on
it is an old old story don't tell it by any means i hate old things but this is very beautiful to me so beautiful i must tell it
if you are so distracted about it after the fashion of the ancient mariner and his tale
never cried earle never once it is the story of my love
you have the advantage of me said doris with a charming air it seems you have loved once i never loved doris doris don't say that
cried earle in agony not why how many experiences should i have had at my age demanded doris
yes you are a child a sweet innocent child but love me doris love me and be my wife you know i adore you do not drive me to despair
i cannot live without you will you be my wife doris looked thoughtfully at earle from her eyes her face
one would have said that she was realizing for the first time the great problem of love that love was dawning in her young soul as she listened to earle's pleading
but in her heart she was telling herself that this play of love would give a new zest to her life at the farm would add a little excitement to daily dullness
she need not be bound if anything better came in her way earle moray might be the best husband she could find what was it mister leslie had said about him earle
sat watching the wide violet eyes the gently parted lips the pink flush growing like the morning on her rounded cheek he put his arm gently about her doris
answer me can't i wait an hour a
no a thousand times no suspense would kill me why i wouldn't die so easy as that doris answer me say yes
is that the way you mean to act laughed doris sweet and low
and get my hair rumpled and my dress all crushed up that way
my own doris tell me no one else shall ever make love to you or kiss you you will never be another's of course not said doris with delicious assurance
you will be true to me forever yes i will be true forever said doris if she played at love making she would play her part perfectly let come what would afterward
and you will marry me when will you marry me urged this impetuous young lover how can i tell this is all very pleasant being lovers and then
you must ask the people at the farm she spoke with reluctance it always irritated her to call the honest brace family parents sister i can't be married till they say so and
there's your mother they will all agree to what will make us happy and will you agree to what will make me happy yes my darling with all my heart and soul
then you must build up fame and get money and go to london to live for i do not love this country life only think to live in london among the literati
father benwell's correspondence to the secretary s j rome when i wrote last i hardly thought i should trouble you again so soon the necessity has however arisen
i must ask for instructions from our most reverend general on the subject of arthur penrose i believe that i informed you that i decided to defer my next visit to ten acres lodge for two or three days
in order that winterfield if he intended to do so might have time to communicate with missus romayne after his return from the country naturally enough perhaps considering the delicacy of the subject
he has not taken me into his confidence i can only guess that he has maintained the same reserve with missus romayne my visit to the lodge was duly paid this afternoon
i asked first of course for the lady of the house and hearing she was in the grounds joined her there she looked ill and anxious and she received me with rigid politeness fortunately
missus eyrecourt now convalescent was staying at ten acres and was then taking the air in her chair on wheels the good lady's nimble and discursive tongue offered me an opportunity of referring
in the most innocent manner possible to winterfield's favorable opinion of romayne's pictures i need hardly say that i looked at romayne's wife when i mentioned the name she turned pale
probably fearing that i had some knowledge of her letter warning winterfield not to trust me if she had already been informed that he was not to be blamed but to be pitied in the matter of the marriage at brussels
such at least is my experience drawn from recollections of other days
i ventured into the house to pay my respects to romayne he was in the study and his excellent friend and secretary was with him after the first greetings penrose left us
his manner told me plainly that there was something wrong i asked no questions waiting on the chance that romayne might enlighten me
i said i am very glad to have penrose with me he answered and then he frowned and looked out of the window at the two ladies in the grounds
it occurred to me that missus eyrecourt might be occupying the customary false position of a mother in law i was mistaken he was not thinking of his wife's mother he was thinking of his wife
i suppose you know that penrose had an idea of converting me he said suddenly i was perfectly candid with him i said i knew it and approved of it
may i hope that arthur has succeeded in convincing you i ventured to add he might have succeeded father benwell if he had chosen to go on this reply as you may easily imagine took me by surprise
are you really so obdurate that arthur despairs of your conversion i asked nothing of the sort i have thought and thought of it and i can tell you i was more than ready to meet him half way
then where is the obstacle i exclaimed he pointed through the window to his wife there is the obstacle he said in a tone of ironical resignation knowing arthur's character as i knew it
i at last understood what had happened for a moment i felt really angry under these circumstances the wise course was to say nothing until i could be sure of speaking with exemplary moderation
it doesn't do for a man in my position to show anger romayne went on we talked of my wife father benwell the last time you were here you only knew then that her reception of mister winterfield
had determined him never to enter my house again by way of adding to your information on the subject of petticoat government i may now tell you that missus romayne has forbidden penrose to proceed with the attempt to convert me
by common consent the subject is never mentioned between us the bitter irony of his tone thus far suddenly disappeared he spoke eagerly and anxiously
he said by this time my little fit of ill temper was at an end i answered and it was really in a certain sense true i know arthur too well to be angry with him
romayne seemed to be relieved i only troubled you with this last domestic incident he resumed to bespeak your indulgence for penrose
i am getting learned in the hierarchy of the church father benwell you are the superior of my dear little friend and you exercise authority over him oh he is the kindest and best of men it is not his fault
he submits to missus romayne against his own better conviction in the honest belief that he consults the interests of our married life
that this second indiscreet interference of his wife between his friend and himself will produce the very result which she dreads mark my words written after the closest observation of him
this new irritation of romayne's sensitive self respect will hasten his conversion
is to fill the place from which penrose has withdrawn i abstained from breathing a word of this to romayne it is he if i can manage it who must invite me to complete the work of conversion
and besides nothing can be done until the visit of penrose has come to an end romayne's secret sense of irritation may be safely left to develop itself with time to help it
i changed the conversation to the subject of his literary labors the present state of his mind is not favorable to work of that exacting kind even with the help of penrose to encourage him he does not get on to his satisfaction
and yet as i could plainly perceive the ambition to make a name in the world exercises a stronger influence over him than ever all in our favor my reverend friend all in our favor
i took the liberty of asking to see penrose alone for a moment and this request granted romayne and i parted cordially i can make most people like me when i choose to try
is no exception to the rule did i tell you by the by that the property has a little declined of late in value it is now not worth more than six thousand a year we will improve it when it returns to the church
my interview with penrose was over in two minutes dispensing with formality i took his arm and led him into the front garden i have heard all about it
but i know your disposition and i make allowances you have qualities dear arthur which perhaps
i shall be obliged to report what you have done but you may trust me to put it favorably shake hands my son and while we are still together let us be as good friends as ever
you may think that i spoke in this way with a view to my indulgent language being repeated to romayne and so improving the position which i have already gained in his estimation do you know i really believe i meant it at the time
the poor fellow gratefully kissed my hand when i offered it to him he was not able to speak i wonder whether i am weak about arthur say a kind word for him when his conduct comes under notice
but pray don't mention this little frailty of mine and don't suppose i have any sympathy with his weak minded submission to missus romayne's prejudices if i ever felt the smallest consideration for her and i cannot call to mind
in closing this letter i may quiet the minds of our reverend brethren if i assure them that my former objection to associating myself directly with the conversion of romayne no longer exists
yes even at my age and with my habits i am now resigned to hearing and confuting
i shall write a carefully guarded letter to romayne on the departure of penrose and i shall send him a book to read
arthur has been beforehand with me there
i look to that essentially readable book to excite romayne's imagination by vivid descriptions of the splendors of the church and the vast influence and power of the higher priesthood
does this sudden enthusiasm of mine surprise you and are you altogether at a loss to know what it means it means my friend that i see our position toward romayne in a new light
forgive me if i say no more for the present i prefer to be silent
during the office hours she studied those details of the business at frankfort which differed from the details of the business in london and soon mastered them sufficiently to be able to fill the vacancy which mister engelman had left
the position that he had held became with all its privileges and responsibilities missus wagner's position claimed not in virtue of her rank as directress of the london house
but in recognition of the knowledge that she had specially acquired to fit her for the post out of office hours she corresponded with the english writer on the treatment of insane persons
whose work she had discovered in her late husband's library and assisted him in attracting public attention to the humane system which he advocated even the plan for the employment of respectable girls
in suitable departments of the office was not left neglected by this indefatigable woman the same friendly consideration which had induced her to spare mister keller any allusion to the subject
still kept her silent until time had reconciled him to the calamity of his partner's death privately however she had caused inquiries to be made in frankfort
which would assist her in choosing worthy candidates for employment when the favorable time came probably after the celebration of fritz's marriage for acting in the interests of the proposed reform
pray send me away if i interrupt you said madame fontaine pausing modestly on the threshold before she entered the room she spoke english admirably
and made a point of ignoring missus wagner's equally perfect knowledge of german by addressing her always in the english language come in by all means missus wagner answered
i am only writing to david glenney to tell him at minna's request that the wedding day is fixed give your nephew my kind regards missus wagner he will be one of the party at the wedding of course
yes if he can be spared from his duties in london is there anything i can do for you madame fontaine nothing thank you except
and i want to make my peace with him jack looked up from his work with an air of lofty disdain oh dear me it doesn't matter he said in his most magnificent manner i was dressing when he knocked at my door
pursued madame fontaine and i asked him to come back and show me his keys in half an hour why didn't you return jack won't you show me the keys now you see it's a matter of business jack replied as loftily as ever
i am in the business keeper of the keys mistress is in the business mister keller is in the business you are not in the business it doesn't matter upon my soul it doesn't matter
missus wagner held up her forefinger reprovingly jack don't forget you are speaking to a lady jack audaciously put his hand to his head
which was a little too much to expect of him anything to please you mistress he said i'll show her the bag he exhibited to madame fontaine a leather bag with a strap fastened round it
the keys are inside he explained i wore them loose this morning and they made a fine jingle quite musical to my ear but mistress thought the noise likely to be a nuisance in the long run so i strapped them up in a bag to keep them quiet
and when i move about the bag hangs from my shoulder like this by another strap when the keys are wanted i open the bag you don't want them you're not in the business besides
i'm thinking of going out and showing myself and my bag in the fashionable quarter of the town on such an occasion i think i ought to present the appearance of a gentleman i ought to wear gloves oh it doesn't matter
i needn't detain you any longer good morning he made one of his fantastic bows and waved his hand dismissing madame fontaine from further attendance on him secretly he was as eager as ever to show the keys
but the inordinate vanity which was still the mad side of him and the incurable side of him shrank from opening the leather bag unless the widow first made a special request and a special favor of it
feeling no sort of interest in the subject she took the shorter way of making her peace with him she took out her purse let me make you a present of the gloves she said with her irresistible smile
jack lost all his dignity in an instant he leapt off the window seat and snatched at the money like a famished animal snatching at a piece of meat missus wagner caught him by the arm and looked at him he lifted his eyes to hers
then lowered them again as if he was ashamed of himself oh to be sure he said i have forgotten my manners i haven't said thank you a lapse of memory i suppose thank you missus housekeeper
in a moment more he and his bag were on their way to the fashionable quarter of the town you will make allowances for my poor little jack i am sure said missus wagner my dear madam jack amuses me
i have cured him of all the worst results of his cruel imprisonment in the mad house she went on but his harmless vanity seems to be inbred i can do nothing with him on that side of his character he is proud of being trusted with
anything especially with keys and he has been kept waiting for them while i had far more important matters to occupy me
of course you don't trust him said madame fontaine with keys that are of any importance
missus wagner's steady gray eyes began to brighten i can trust him with anything she answered emphatically madame fontaine
arched her handsome brows in a mutely polite expression of extreme surprise in my experience of the world missus wagner went on i have found that the rarest of all human virtues
is the virtue of gratitude in a hundred little ways my poor friendless jack has shown me that he is grateful to my mind that is reason enough for trusting him with money
the widow inquired certainly in london i trusted him with money with the happiest results i quieted his mind by an appeal to his sense of trust and self respect which he thoroughly appreciated
as yet i have not given him the key of my desk here because i reserve it as a special reward for good conduct in a few days more i have no doubt he will add it to the collection in his bag ah said madame fontaine
with the humility which no living woman knew better when and how to assume you understand these difficult questions you have your grand national common sense i am only a poor limited german woman
but as you say in england live and learn you have indescribably interested me good morning she left the room hateful woman she said in her own language on the outer side of the door
humbug said missus wagner in her language on the inner side of the door if there had been more sympathy between the two ladies or if madame fontaine had felt a little curiosity on the subject of crazy jack's keys
she might have taken away with her some valuable materials for future consideration as it was missus wagner had not troubled her with any detailed narrative
in london she had begun cautiously by only giving him some of the useless old keys which accumulate about a house in course of years when the novelty of merely keeping them had worn off
and had flattered his pride by asking him to open the box or the desk for her as the case might be proceeding on the same wisely gradual plan at frankfort she had asked mister keller to help her
and had been taken by him while jack was out of the way to a lumber room in the basement of the house on the floor of which several old keys were lying about take as many as you like he had said
and they might be sold for old iron if there were only enough of them missus wagner had picked up the first six keys that presented themselves
he found no fault with them for being rusty on the contrary he looked forward with delight to the enjoyment of cleaning away the rust they shall be as bright as diamonds
before i have done with them and what did madame fontaine lose by failing to inform herself of such trifles as these
not only were the fazender and his family to start on a voyage for several months but as we shall see
in beholding every one happy around him joam forgot the anxieties which appeared to trouble his life
he regained his former activity his people rejoiced exceedingly at seeing him again at work his moral self reacted against his physical self and joam again became the active energetic man of his earlier years
under the invigorating influences of forests fields and running waters moreover the few weeks that were to precede his departure had been well employed at this period as we have just remarked the course of the amazon was not yet furrowed by the numberless steam vessels
the service was worked by individuals on their own account alone and often the boats were only employed in the business of the riverside establishments
hollowed out by fire and finished with the ax pointed and light in front and heavy and broad in the stern able to carry from one to a dozen paddlers
and leaving on each side a gangway for the rowers or jangada rafts of no particular shape propelled by a triangular sail and surmounted by a cabin of mud and straw which served the indian and his family for a floating home
these three kinds of craft formed the lesser flotilla of the amazon and were only suited for a moderate traffic of passengers or merchandise larger vessels however existed either vigilingas
and which in calm weather were rowed by four long paddles
or cobertas of twenty tons burden a kind of junk with a poop behind and a cabin down below
and propelled when the wind fell by six long sweeps which indians worked from a forecastle but neither of these vessels satisfied joam garral from the moment that he had resolved to descend the amazon he had thought of making the most of the voyage by carrying a huge convoy of goods into para
who would for very good reasons have preferred some rapid steamboat but though the means of transport devised by joam were primitive in the extreme he was going to take with him a numerous following and abandon himself to the stream under exceptional conditions of comfort and security
had been cut away from the bank and carried down the amazon with all that composed the family of the fazender masters and servants in their dwellings their cottages and their huts the settlement of iquitos included a part of those magnificent forests which in the central districts of south america
are practically inexhaustible joam garral thoroughly understood the management of these woods which were rich in the most precious and diverse species adapted for joinery cabinet work ship building and carpentry and from them he annually drew considerable profits
the river was there in front of him and could it not be as safely and economically used as a railway if one existed so every year joam garral felled some hundreds of trees from his stock and formed immense rafts of floating wood of joists beams and slightly squared trunks
which were taken to para in charge of capable pilots who were thoroughly acquainted with the depths of the river and the direction of its currents
only when the raft was made up he was going to leave to benito
the beginning of june was the best season to start for the waters increased by the floods of the upper basin would gradually and gradually subside until the month of october the first steps had thus to be taken without delay
which was situated at the junction of the nanay and the amazon that is to say the whole river side of the fazenda to form the enormous mass for such were the jangadas or river rafts which attained the dimensions of a small island
it was in this jangada safer than any other vessel of the country larger than a hundred egariteas or vigilingas coupled together that joam garral proposed to embark with his family his servants and his merchandise excellent idea had cried minha
clapping her hands when she learned her father's scheme
won't it take rather long observed manoel
it would take some time obviously but the interested observation of the young doctor received no attention from any one joam garral then called in an indian who was the principal manager of the fazenda
the jangada must be built and ready to launch we'll set to work this very day sir it was a heavy task
they did wonders some people unaccustomed to these great tree massacres would perhaps have groaned to see giants many hundred years old fall in a few hours beneath the axes of the woodmen
that the felling of this half mile of forest would scarcely leave an appreciable void
which obstructed it before taking to the saw and the ax they had armed themselves with a felling sword that indispensable tool of every one who desires to penetrate the amazonian forests a large blade slightly curved wide and flat and two or three feet long
and strongly handled which the natives wield with consummate address in a few hours with the help of the felling sword they had cleared the ground cut down the underwood and opened large gaps into the densest portions of the wood in this way the work progressed
the ground was cleared in front of the woodmen the old trunks were divested of their clothing of creepers cacti ferns mosses and bromelias they were stripped naked to the bark until such time as the bark itself was stripped from off them then the whole of the workers before whom fled
an innumerable crowd of monkeys who were hardly their superiors in agility slung themselves into the upper branches sawing off the heavier boughs and cutting down the topmost limbs which had to be cleared away on the spot very soon there remained only a doomed forest
with long bare stems bereft of their crowns through which the sun luxuriantly rayed on to the humid soil which perhaps its shots had never before caressed
either in carpentry or cabinet work there shooting up like columns of ivory ringed with brown were wax palms one hundred and twenty feet high and four feet thick at their base white chestnuts which yield the three cornered nuts
unexcelled for building purposes barrigudos measuring a couple of yards at the swelling which is found at a few feet above the earth trees with shining russet bark dotted with gray tubercles each pointed stem of which supports a horizontal parasol
and bombax of superb stature with its straight and smooth white stem among these magnificent specimens of the amazonian flora there fell many quatibos whose rosy canopies towered above the neighboring trees whose fruits are like little cups with rows of chestnuts ranged within
and besides there was the ironwood
nearly black in its skin and so close grained that of it the indians make their battle axes jacarandas more precious than mahogany
sapucaias one hundred and fifty feet high buttressed by natural arches which starting from three yards from their base rejoin the tree some thirty feet up the stem twining themselves round the trunk
whose head expands in a bouquet of vegetable fireworks made up of the yellow purple and snowy white of the parasitic plants three weeks after the work was begun not one was standing of all the trees which had covered the angle of the amazon and the nanay the clearance was complete
not a stick of young or old wood was left to mark the boundary of a future clearing not even an angle to mark the limit of the denudation
over which the coming spring would still spread its verdant cloak this square space
coffee shrubs sugar canes arrowroot maize and peanuts would occupy the ground so recently covered by the trees the last week of the month had not arrived when the trunks classified according to their varieties and specific gravity
which with the different habitations for the accommodation of the crew would become a veritable floating village
would raise it and carry it for hundreds of leagues to the atlantic coast the whole time the work was going on joam garral had been engaged in superintending it from the clearing to the bank of the fazenda he had formed a large mound on which the portions of the raft were disposed
and to this matter he had attended entirely himself
with the preparations for the departure though the old negress could not be made to understand why they wanted to go or what they hoped to see
for them it was a permanent departure and there were a thousand details to look after for settling in the other country in which the young mulatto was to live with the mistress to whom she was so devotedly attached
minha valdez would be the same to her as minha garral and to check her spirits she would have to be separated from her mistress and that was never thought of
braza burning embers
it has been used to make the word brazil as descriptive of certain woods which yield a reddish dye from this has come the name brazil given to that vast district of south america which is crossed by the equator and in which these products are so frequently met with
in very early days these woods were the object of considerable trade
brazil was from the first occupied by the portuguese about the commencement of the sixteenth century alvarez cabral the pilot took possession of it and although france and holland partially established themselves there it has remained portuguese
it is to day the largest state of south america and has at its head the intelligent artist king dom pedro
the privilege of marching first to battle innocently answered the indian war we know was for a long time the surest and most rapid vehicle of civilization the brazilians did what this indian did they fought they defended their conquests they enlarged them
and we see them marching in the first rank of the civilizing advance it was in eighteen twenty four sixteen years after the foundation of the portugo brazilian empire that brazil proclaimed its independence by the voice of don juan whom the french armies had chased from portugal
it remained only to define the frontier between the new empire and that of its neighbor peru this was no easy matter
peru attempted to reach eight degrees further as far as the lake of ega but in the meantime brazil had to interfere to hinder the kidnaping of the indians from the amazon a practice which was engaged in much to the profit of the hispano brazilian missions
a little above tabatinga and there establishing a post this afforded the solution and from that time the frontier of the two countries passed through the middle of this island above the river is peruvian
as has been said below it is brazilian and takes the name of the amazon it was on the evening of the twenty fifth of june that the jangada stopped before tabatinga the first brazilian town situated on the left bank at the entrance of the river of which it bears the name
and belonging to the parish of saint paul established on the right a little further down stream joam garral had decided to pass thirty six hours here so as to give a little rest to the crew they would not start therefore until the morning of the twenty seventh
on this occasion yaquita and her children
had announced their intention of going on ashore and visiting the town
nearly all indians comprising no doubt many of those wandering families
and transferred to tabatinga it can thus be called a garrison town but the garrison is only composed of nine soldiers nearly all indians and a sergeant who is the actual commandant of the place a bank about thirty feet high in which are cut the steps of a not very solid staircase
which carries the pigmy fort the house of the commandant consists of a couple of huts placed in a square and the soldiers occupy an oblong building a hundred feet away at the foot of a large tree
although in them a flagstaff carrying the brazilian colors does not rise above a sentry box forever destitute of its sentinel nor are four small mortars present to cannonade
as for the village properly so called it is situated below at the base of the plateau a road which is but a ravine shaded by ficuses and miritis leads to it in a few minutes
there on a half cracked hill of clay stand a dozen houses covered with the leaves of the boiassu palm placed round a central space
which is of sufficient extent to contain the archipelago of the aramasa islands hereabouts are grouped many fine trees and among them a large number of the palms whose supple fibers are used in the fabrication of hammocks and fishing nets and are the cause of some trade
to conclude the place is one of the most picturesque on the upper amazon
and will no doubt rapidly develop for there will stop the brazilian steamers which ascend the river and the peruvian steamers which descend it there they will tranship passengers and cargoes it does not require much for an english or american village to become in a few years the center of considerable commerce
the influence of ordinary tides is not perceptible at tabatinga which is more than six hundred leagues from the atlantic but it is not so with the pororoca that species of eddy which for three days in the height of the syzygies raises the waters of the amazon and turns them back at the rate of seventeen kilometers per hour
they say that the effects of this bore are felt up to the brazilian frontier on the morrow the twenty sixth of june the garral family prepared to go off and visit the village
for them it was so to speak a taking possession it is conceivable therefore that yaquita and minha
if on his part fragoso in his capacity of wandering barber had already run through the different provinces of south america lina like her young mistress had never been on brazilian soil but before leaving the jangada fragoso had sought joam garral
and had the following conversation with him mister garral said he from the day when you received me at the fazenda of iquitos lodged clothed fed in a word took me in so hospitably i have owed you you owe me absolutely nothing my friend answered joam
so do not insist oh do not be alarmed exclaimed fragoso i am not going to pay it off let me add that you took me on board the jangada and gave me the means of descending the river but here we are on the soil of brazil which according to all probability i ought never to have seen again without that liana
it is to lina and to lina alone that you should tender your thanks said joam i know said fragoso and i will never forget what i owe here any more than what i owe you they tell me fragoso continued joam that you are going to say good by and intend to remain at tabatinga
well if that is your intention what were you going to ask me i was going to ask if you saw any inconvenience in my working at my profession on our route there is no necessity for my hand to rust and besides
would not be so bad at the bottom of my pocket more particularly if i had earned them
always finds customers in these upper amazon villages particularly among the brazilians answered joam as for the natives i beg pardon replied fragoso particularly among the natives ah although there is no beard to trim for nature has been very stingy toward them in that way
they are very fond of it these savages both the men and the women i shall not be installed ten minutes in the square at tabatinga with my cup and ball in hand the cup and ball i have brought on board and which i can manage with pretty pleasantly before a circle of braves and squaws will have formed around me
they will struggle for my favors
and the whole tribe of the ticunas would come to me to have their hair looked after they won't hesitate to make the acquaintance of curling tongs' that is what they will call me if i revisit the walls of tabatinga i have already had two tries here and my scissors and comb have done marvels
the indian ladies don't have their hair curled every day like the beauties of our brazilian cities
they will take every care not to endanger the edifice which i have raised with what talent i dare not say
and if it is not objectionable to you mister garral i would render myself again worthy of the reputation which i have acquired in these parts
i will not lose a minute answered fragoso
and i am off off you go fragoso said joam and may the reis rain into your pocket yes and that is a proper sort of rain
and so saying fragoso rapidly moved away a moment afterward the family with the exception of joam went ashore
a staircase in a miserable state cut in the cliff
a poor fellow who however knew the laws of hospitality and offered them some breakfast in his cottage
with their mothers of ticuna blood affording very poor specimens of the mixed race
the commandant did not wait for a second invitation and an appointment was made for eleven o'clock
went for a walk in the neighborhood leaving benito to settle with the commandant about the tolls he being chief of the custom house as well as of the military establishment that done benito as was his wont strolled off with his gun into the adjoining woods
on this occasion manoel had declined to accompany him fragoso had left the jangada but instead of mounting to the fort he had made for the village
he reckoned more on the native custom of tabatinga than on that of the garrison doubtless the soldiers wives would not have wished better
but the husbands scarcely cared to part with a few reis for the sake of gratifying the whims of their coquettish partners among the natives it was quite the reverse husbands and wives the jolly barber knew them well and he knew they would give him a better reception
behold then fragoso on the road coming up the shady lane beneath the ficuses and arriving in the central square of tabatinga as soon as he set foot in the place the famous barber was signaled recognized surrounded
not even a carriage of shining copper with resplendent lamps and ornamented glass panels nor a huge parasol no anything whatever to impress the public as they generally have at fairs no but fragoso had his cup and ball
with what address did he receive the turtle's head which did for the ball on the pointed end of the stick with what grace did he make the ball describe some learned curve of which mathematicians have not yet calculated the value even those who have determined the wondrous curve of the dog who follows his master
every native was there men women the old and the young in their nearly primitive costume looking on with all their eyes listening with all their ears the smiling entertainer half in portuguese half in ticunian favored them with his customary oration
in a tone of the most rollicking good humor what he said was what is said by all the charlatans who place their services at the public disposal whether they be spanish figaros or french perruqiers
the same description of threadbare witticisms the same amusing dexterity and on the part of the natives the same wide mouth astonishment the same curiosity the same credulity as the simple folk of the civilized world it followed then that ten minutes later the public were completely won
and crowded round fragoso who was installed in a loja of the place a sort of serving bar to the inn
the natives could get drinks of the crudest and particularly assai a liquor half sold half liquid made of the fruit of the palm tree and drunk from a coui or half calabash in general use in this district of the amazon
and then men and women with equal eagerness took their places on the barber's stool the scissors of fragoso had little to do
but the use to which he could put his comb and the tongs which were kept warming in the corner in a brasier
look here look here said he how will that do my friends if you don't sleep on the top of it
no he was not stingy with it true it was only a little grease with which he had mixed some of the juices of a few flowers but he plastered it on like cement
buckles rings clubs tresses crimpings rolls corkscrews curls everything found there a place nothing false no towers no chignons no shams
fragoso however was not above adding a few natural flowers two or three long fish bones and some fine bone or copper ornaments which were brought him by the dandies of the district assuredly the exquisites of the directory would have envied the arrangement of these high art coiffures three and four stories high
which rained into the pocket of fragoso and which he collected with evident satisfaction
the news of the arrival of fragoso was not slow to get abroad natives came to him from all sides ticunas from the left bank of the river mayorunas from the right bank
and those who come from the villages of the javary a long array of anxious ones formed itself in the square
showed themselves off without daring to shake themselves like the big children that they were it thus happened that when noon came the much occupied barber had not had time to return on board but had had to content himself
which he rapidly devoured between two applications of the curling tongs but it was a great harvest for the innkeeper
once there was a great king in britain named uther and when he died the other kings and princes disputed over the kingdom each wanting it for himself but king uther had a son named arthur the rightful heir to the throne
of whom no one knew for he had been taken away secretly while he was still a baby
who had him brought up in the family of a certain sir ector for fear of the malice of wicked knights even the boy himself thought sir ector was his father and he loved sir ector's son sir kay with the love of a brother
when the kings and princes could not be kept in check any longer and something had to be done to determine who was to be king merlin made the archbishop of canterbury send for them all to come to london it was christmas time
and prayer was made that some sign should be given to show who was the rightful king when the service was over there appeared a strange stone in the churchyard against the high altar it was a great white stone like marble with something sunk in it that looked like a steel anvil
and in the anvil was driven a great glistening sword the sword had letters of gold written on it which read whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise king born of all england all wondered at the strange sword and its strange writing
and when the archbishop himself came out and gave permission many of the knights tried to pull the sword from the stone hoping to be king but no one could move it a hair's breadth
but doubt not god will make him known then they set a guard of ten knights to keep the stone and the archbishop appointed a day when all should come together to try at the stone kings from far and near in the meantime splendid jousts were held outside london
and both knights and commons were bidden sir ector came up to the jousts with others and with him rode kay and arthur
but he had left his sword behind
i will well said arthur and rode back for it but when he came to the castle the lady and all her household were at the jousting
thereat arthur said to himself my brother sir kay shall not be without a sword this day and he remembered the sword he had seen in the churchyard i will to the churchyard he said and take that sword with me
tied his horse to the stile and went up to the stone
and the sword was there alone going up to the stone young arthur took the great sword by the hilt and lightly and fiercely he drew it out of the anvil then he rode straight to sir kay and gave it to him
sir lo here is the sword of the stone i must be king of the land but sir ector asked him where he got the sword and when sir kay said from my brother he asked arthur how he got it when arthur told him sir ector bowed his head before him
never man should have drawn out this sword but he that shall be rightwise king of this land now let me see whether ye can put the sword as it was in the stone and pull it out again straightway arthur put the sword back then sir ector tried to pull it out
and after him sir kay but neither could stir it then arthur pulled it out thereupon sir ector and sir kay kneeled upon the ground before him alas said arthur mine own dear father and brother why kneel ye to me
sir ector told him then all about his royal birth and how he had been taken privily away by merlin but when arthur found sir ector was not truly his father
and he begged his father and brother to love him still sir ector asked that sir kay might be seneschal when arthur was king arthur promised with all his heart then they went to the archbishop and told him that the sword had found its master
the archbishop appointed a day for the trial to be made in the sight of all men and on that day the princes and knights came together
but as before none could so much as stir it then came arthur and pulled it easily from its place the knights and kings were terribly angry that a boy from nowhere in particular had beaten them and they refused to acknowledge him king they appointed another day for another great trial
three times they did this and every time the same thing happened at last at the feast of pentecost arthur again pulled out the sword before all the knights and the commons and then the commons rose up and cried that he should be king and that they would slay any who denied him
so arthur became king of britain and all gave him allegiance tarpeia there was once a girl named tarpeia whose father was guard of the outer gate of the citadel of rome it was a time of war
their camp was close outside the city wall
and sometimes she stayed about and let the strange men talk with her because she liked to look at their bright silver ornaments
and they saw that she had greedy eyes for their ornaments so day by day they talked with her and showed her their silver rings and tempted her and at last tarpeia made a bargain to betray her city to them she said she would unlock the great gate and let them in if they would give her what they wore on their left arms
the night came when it was perfectly dark and still tarpeia stole from her bed took the great key from its place and silently unlocked the gate which protected the city outside in the dark stood the soldiers of the enemy waiting
as the first man came inside tarpeia stretched forth her hand for her price the soldier lifted high his left arm take thy reward he said and as he spoke he hurled upon her that which he wore upon it down upon her head crashed
not the silver rings of the soldier but the great brass shield he carried in battle she sank beneath it to the ground take thy reward said the next and his shield rang against the first thy reward said the next and the next and the next and the next
every man wore his shield on his left arm so tarpeia lay buried beneath the reward she had claimed
down by the river were fields of barley and rye and golden oats wheat grew there too and the heaviest and richest ears bent lowest in humility opposite the corn was a field of buckwheat but the buckwheat never bent
it held its head proud and stiff on the stem the wise old willow tree by the river looked down on the fields and thought his thoughts one day a dreadful storm came the field flowers folded their leaves together and bowed their heads
but the buckwheat stood straight and proud bend your head as we do called the field flowers i have no need to said the buckwheat bend your head as we do warned the golden wheat ears
i will not bend my head said the buckwheat then the old willow tree spoke close your flowers and bend your leaves do not look at the lightning when the cloud bursts even men cannot do that the sight of heaven would strike them blind
inferior indeed said the buckwheat now i will look and he looked straight up while the lightning flashed across the sky when the dreadful storm had passed the flowers and the wheat raised their drooping heads clean and refreshed in the pure sweet air
the willow tree shook the gentle drops from its leaves but the buckwheat lay like a weed in the field scorched black by the lightning
the greek god pan the god of the open air was a great musician he played on a pipe of reeds and the sound of his reed pipe was so sweet that he grew proud and believed himself greater than the chief musician of the gods apollo the sun god
so he challenged great apollo to make better music than he apollo consented to the test for he wished to punish pan's vanity and they chose the mountain tmolus for judge since no one is so old and wise as the hills
when pan and apollo came before tmolus to play their followers came with them to hear and one of those who came with pan was a mortal named midas first pan played he blew on his reed pipe
and out came a tune so wild and yet so coaxing that the birds hopped from the trees to get near the squirrels came running from their holes and the very trees swayed as if they wanted to dance the fauns laughed aloud for joy as the melody tickled their furry little ears
and midas thought it the sweetest music in the world then apollo rose his hair shook drops of light from its curls his robes were like the edge of the sunset cloud
and when he touched the strings of the lyre such music stole upon the air as never god nor mortal heard before the wild creatures of the wood crouched still as stone the trees kept every leaf from rustling earth and air were silent as a dream
to hear such music cease was like bidding farewell to father and mother when the charm was broken the hearers fell at apollo's feet and proclaimed the victory his all but midas
if thine ears are so dull mortal said apollo they shall take the shape that suits them and he touched the ears of midas and straightway the dull ears grew long pointed and furry and they turned this way and that they were the ears of an ass
for a long time midas managed to hide the tell tale ears from everyone but at last a servant discovered the secret he knew he must not tell yet he could not bear not to so one day he went into the meadow scooped a little hollow in the turf and whispered the secret into the earth
then he covered it up again and went away but alas a bed of reeds sprang up from the spot and whispered the secret to the grass the grass told it to the tree tops
and to this day when the wind sets the reeds nodding together they whisper laughing midas has the ears of an ass oh hush hush
this one is the story which grew up in my mind about the bare outline related to me by one of missus rutan's hearers what the original teller said i never knew but what the listener felt was clear
once there were two brothers one was rich and one was poor the rich one was rather mean when the poor brother used to come to ask for things it annoyed him and finally one day he said there
i'll give it to you this time but the next time you want anything you can go below for it
there was a chief man he had a long curly tail that curled up behind and two ugly little horns just over his ears and one foot was very queer indeed and as soon as anyone came in the door these men would catch him up and put him over one of the fires and turn him on a spit
eh how do you feel now how do you feel now and of course the poor people screamed and screeched and said let us out let us out that was just what the chief man wanted when the poor brother came in
and of course the chief man came up to him and said eh how do you feel now how do you feel now but the poor brother did not say let me out let me out he said pretty well thank you the chief man grunted and said to the other men make the fire hotter
the chief man did not like this at all because of course the whole object in life of the people below was to make their victims uncomfortable
but every time he asked the poor brother how he felt the poor brother would say very much better and at last he said perfectly comfortable thank you couldn't be better you see when the poor brother was on earth he had never once had money enough to buy coal enough to keep him warm
so he liked the heat at last the chief man could stand it no longer oh look here he said you can go home oh no thank you said the poor brother i like it here you must go home said the chief man
but i won't go home said the poor brother the chief man went away and talked with the other men but no matter what they did they could not make the poor brother uncomfortable
what have you got said the poor brother well said the chief man if you'll go home quietly i'll give you the little mill that stands behind my door what's the good of it said the poor brother it is the most wonderful mill in the world said the chief man
grind this little mill and grind quickly and the mill will grind that thing until you say the magic word to stop it that sounds nice said the poor brother i'll take it and he took the little mill under his arm and went up and up and up till he came to his own house
when he was in front of his little old hut he put the little mill down on the ground and said to it grind a fine house little mill and grind quickly
and just as the little mill ground the last step of the last flight of steps the poor brother said the magic word and it stopped then he took it round to where the barn was and said grind cattle little mill and grind quickly and the little mill ground and ground and ground
and out came great fat cows and little woolly lambs and fine little pigs
the poor brother said the magic word and it stopped he did the same thing with crops for his cattle pretty clothes for his daughters and everything else they wanted at last he had everything he wanted and so he stood the little mill behind his door
the poor brother told him all about it he said it all comes from that little mill behind my door all i have to do when i want anything is to name it to the little mill and say grind that little mill and grind quickly and the little mill will grind that thing until
will you lend me the little mill he said why yes said the poor brother i will so the rich brother took the little mill under his arm and started across the fields to his house when he got near home he saw the farm hands coming in from the fields for their luncheon now you remember
he was rather mean he thought to himself it is a waste of good time for them to come into the house they shall have their porridge where they are he called all the men to him and made them bring their porridge bowls
then he set the little mill down on the ground and said to it grind oatmeal porridge little mill and grind quickly the little mill ground and ground and ground and out came delicious oatmeal porridge each man held his bowl under the spout when the last bowl was filled
the porridge ran over on the ground that's enough little mill said the rich brother you may stop and stop quickly but this was not the magic word and the little mill did not stop it ground and ground and ground and the porridge ran all round and made a little pool the rich brother said
no no little mill i said stop grinding and stop quickly but the little mill ground and ground faster than ever and presently there was a regular pond of porridge almost up to their knees the rich brother said stop grinding in every kind of way he called the little mill names
but nothing did any good the little mill ground porridge just the same at last the men said go and get your brother to stop the little mill or we shall be drowned in porridge so the rich brother started for his brother's house
his brother laughed when he heard the story
and then the poor brother whispered the magic word and the little mill stopped but the porridge was a long time soaking into the ground and nothing would ever grow there afterwards except oatmeal
the rich brother didn't seem to care much about the little mill after this so the poor brother took it home again and put it behind the door and there it stayed a long long while years afterwards a sea captain came there on a visit
oh i daresay you have seen wonderful things but i don't believe you ever saw anything more wonderful than the little mill that stands behind my door what is wonderful about that said the sea captain why said the poor brother
anything in the world you want you have only to name it to the little mill and say grind that little mill and grind quickly and it will grind that thing until
will you lend me that little mill he said eagerly the poor brother smiled a little but he said yes and the sea captain took the little mill under his arm and went on board his ship and sailed away they had head winds and storms and they were so long at sea that some of the food gave out worst of all the salt gave out
bring up the salt box he said to the cook we will have salt enough
grind salt little mill and grind quickly and the little mill ground beautiful white powdery salt when they had enough the captain said now you may stop little mill and stop quickly the little mill kept on grinding and the salt began to pile up in little heaps on the deck
i said stop said the captain but the little mill ground and ground faster than ever and the salt was soon thick on the deck like snow the captain called the little mill names and told it to stop in every language he knew but the little mill went on grinding
the salt covered all the decks and poured down into the hold and at last the ship began to settle in the water salt is very heavy but just before the ship sank to the water line the captain had a bright thought he threw the little mill overboard it fell right down to the bottom of the sea
and it has been grinding salt ever since
i have ventured to give this in the somewhat hibernian phraseology suggested by the original because i have found that the humour of the manner of it appeals quite as readily to the boys and girls of my acquaintance as to maturer friends and they distinguish as quickly between the savour of it and any unintentional crudeness of diction
once upon a time
and they had one son whose name was billy and billy had a bull he was very fond of and the bull was just as fond of him and when the queen came to die she put it as her last request to the king that
then the good queen died and was buried after a time the king married again
no more could she stand the bull seeing him and billy so thick so she asked the king to have the bull killed but the king said he had promised come what might come what may he'd not part billy beg and his bull so he could not then the queen sent for the hen wife and asked what she should do
what will you give me said the hen wife and i'll very soon part them anything at all said the queen
and i'll do the rest so the queen took to her bed very sick with a complaint
till i have the medicine the hen wife ordered what is that said the king a mouthful of the blood of billy beg's bull i can't give you that said the king and went away sorrowful then the queen got sicker and sicker and each time the king asked what would cure her she said
so the king finally set a day for the bull to be killed at that the queen was so happy that she laid plans to get up and see the grand sight
when billy beg heard all this he was very sorrowful and the bull noticed his looks what are you doitherin about said the bull to him so billy told him don't fret yourself about me said the bull it's not i that'll be killed
the day came when billy beg's bull was to be killed all the people were there and the queen and billy and the bull was led out to be seen when he was led past billy he bent his head jump on my back billy my boy says he
billy jumped on his back and with that the bull leaped nine miles high and nine miles broad and came down with billy sticking between his horns then away he rushed over the head of the queen killing her dead where you wouldn't know day by night or night by day
over high hills low hills sheep walks and bullock traces the cove o cork and old tom fox with his bugle horn when at last he stopped he said now billy my boy you and i must undergo great scenery
but i'll be able for him but first we must have dinner put your hand in my left ear and pull out the napkin you'll find there and when you've spread it it will be covered with eating and drinking fit for a king so billy put his hand in the bull's left ear and drew out the napkin and spread it and
sure enough it was spread with all kinds of eating and drinking fit for a king and billy beg ate well
and the two bulls at it and fought
the rocks into spring wells and the spring wells into rocks it was a terrible fight but in the end billy beg's bull was too much for the other bull and he killed him and drank his blood then billy jumped on the bull's back and the bull off and away where you wouldn't know day from night or night from day
over high hills low hills sheep walks and bullock traces the cove o cork and old tom fox with his bugle horn
because he'd to fight another great bull of the forest
and sure enough just as billy finished eating there was a frightful roar and a mighty great bull greater than the first rushed out of the forest and the two bulls at it and fought it was a terrible fight
but in the end billy beg's bull killed the other bull and drank his blood then he off and away with billy
keep that then cut a strip of my hide for a belt for when you buckle it on there's nothing can kill you billy beg was very sad to hear that his friend must die and very soon he heard a more dreadful roar than ever he heard and a tremendous bull rushed out of the forest then came the worst fight of all
in the end the other bull was too much for billy beg's bull and he killed him and drank his blood
and he cut a strip of the hide for a belt and started off on his adventures presently he came to a fine place an old gentleman lived there so billy went up and knocked and the old gentleman came to the door are you wanting a boy says billy i am wanting a herd boy says the gentleman
to take my six cows six horses six donkeys and six goats to pasture every morning and bring them back at night maybe you'd do what are the wages says billy oh well says the gentleman it's no use to talk of that now
there's three giants live in the wood by the pasture and every day they drink up all the milk and kill the boy that looks after the cattle
the first day he drove the six cows six horses six donkeys and six goats to pasture and sat down by them
oh my fine fellow says he to billy you are too big for one swallow and not big enough for two
oh mercy mercy spare my life cried the giant i think not said billy and he cut off his heads
they gave so much milk that all the dishes in the house were filled
this is very queer said the old gentleman they never gave any milk before did you see nothing in the pasture nothing worse than myself said billy and next morning he drove the six cows six horses six donkeys and six goats to pasture again
you killed my brother he roared fire coming out of his six mouths and i'll very soon have your blood will you die by a cut of the sword or a swing by the back i'll fight you said billy
he ran in and grappled the giant at the first hold he sunk the giant up to the shoulders in the ground
i think not said billy and cut off his heads that night the cattle gave so much milk that it ran out of the house and made a stream and turned a mill wheel which had not been turned for seven years
nothing worse than myself said billy and the next morning the gentleman said billy do you know i only heard one of the giants roaring in the night and the night before only two what can ail them at all oh maybe they are sick or something says billy
and with that he drove the six cows six horses six donkeys and six goats to pasture at about ten o'clock there was a roar like a dozen bulls and the brother of the two giants came out of the wood with twelve heads on him and fire spouting from every one of them
but billy soon cut them short then he drove the beasts home and that night the milk overflowed the mill stream and made a lake nine miles long nine miles broad and nine miles deep and there are salmon and whitefish there to this day you are a fine boy said the gentleman and i'll give you wages so billy was herd
what will it be said billy the king's daughter is to be eaten by a fiery dragon said his master unless the champion fighter they've been feeding for six weeks on purpose kills the dragon oh said billy
and all asked billy why he was not on his way but billy said he didn't care about going when the last passer by was out of sight billy ran and dressed himself in his master's best suit of clothes took the brown mare from the stable and was off to the king's town
when he came there he saw a big round place with great high seats built up around it and all the people sitting there down in the midst was the champion walking up and down proudly with two men behind him to carry his heavy sword and up in the centre of the seats was the princess with her maidens she was looking very pretty but nervous
when suddenly there was heard a fearsome great roaring and the people shouted here he is now the dragon the dragon had more heads than the biggest of the giants and fire and smoke came from every one of them
and he never stopped till he came to a deep well where he jumped in and hid himself up to the neck when the princess saw that her champion was gone she began wringing her hands and crying oh please kind gentlemen fight the dragon some of you and keep me from being eaten will no one fight the dragon for me
but no one stepped up at all and the dragon made to eat the princess just then out stepped billy from the crowd
he walked up to the dragon with easy gait the princess and all the people were looking you may be sure and the dragon raged at billy with all his mouths and they at it and fought it was a terrible fight but in the end billy beg had the dragon down and he cut off his heads with the sword
there was great shouting then and crying that the strange champion must come to the king to be made prince and to the princess to be seen but in the midst of the hullabaloo
but quick as he was he was not so quick but that the princess caught hold of him as he jumped on his horse and he got away with one shoe left in her hand and home he rode to his master's house and had his old clothes on and the mare in the stable before his master came back
when his master came back he had a great tale for billy
wasn't it wonderful said the old gentleman to billy i should say so said billy to him
that he whom it fitted should be known to be the man on the day set
and billy's master was the first to go while billy was watching at last came along a raggedy man will you change clothes with me and i'll give you boot said billy to him shame to you to mock a poor raggedy man said the raggedy man to billy
it's no mock said billy and he changed clothes with the raggedy man and gave him boot when billy came to the king's town in his dreadful old clothes no one knew him for the champion at all and none would let him come forward to try the shoe but after all had tried billy spoke up that he wanted to try
they laughed at him and pushed him back with his rags but the princess would have it that he should try i like his face said she let him try now
then billy confessed that it was he that killed the dragon and that he was a king's son and they put a velvet suit on him and hung a gold chain round his neck and everyone said a finer looking boy they'd never seen so billy married the princess and was the prince of that place
a long way off across the ocean there is a little country where the ground is lower than the level of the sea instead of higher as it is here of course the water would run in and cover the land and houses if something were not done to keep it out but something is done
the people build great thick walls all round the country and the walls keep the sea out you see how much depends on those walls
even the small children in that country know that an accident to one of the walls is a terrible thing these walls are really great banks as wide as roads and they are called dikes once there was a little boy who lived in that country whose name was hans one day
he took his little brother out to play they went a long way out of the town and came to where there were no houses but ever so many flowers and green fields by and by hans climbed up on the dike and sat down the little brother was playing about at the foot of the bank
suddenly the little brother called out oh what a funny little hole it bubbles hole where said hans here in the bank said the little brother water's in it
there was the tiniest little hole in the bank just an air hole
it is a hole in the dike cried hans what shall we do he looked all round
he looked at the hole the little drops oozed steadily through he knew that the water would soon break a great gap because that tiny hole gave it a chance the town was so far away if they ran for help it would be too late what should he do once more he looked
the hole was larger now and the water was trickling suddenly a thought came to hans he stuck his little forefinger right into the hole where it fitted tight and he said to his little brother run dieting go to the town and tell the men there's a hole in the dike tell them i will keep it stopped till they get here
hans kneeling with his finger in the hole watched him grow smaller and smaller as he got farther away soon he was as small as a chicken then he was only a speck then he was out of sight hans was alone his finger tight in the bank
he could hear the water slap slap slap on the stones
it seemed very near by and by his hand began to feel numb he rubbed it with the other hand but it got colder and more numb colder and more numb every minute he looked to see if the men were coming the road was bare as far as he could see
then the cold began creeping creeping up his arm first his wrist then his arm to the elbow then his arm to the shoulder how cold it was and soon it began to ache ugly little cramp pains streamed up his finger
up his palm up his arm
he watched the road with all his eyes but no one came in sight then he leaned his head against the dike to rest his shoulder as his ear touched the dike he heard the voice of the great sea murmuring the sound seemed to say
i am the great sea no one can stand against me what are you a little child that you try to keep me out beware beware hans heart beat in heavy knocks would they never come he was frightened
a digression in the modern kind we whom the world is pleased to honour with the title of modern authors
if our endeavours had not been so highly serviceable to the general good of mankind this o universe is the adventurous attempt of me thy secretary
since with a world of pains and art dissected the carcass of human nature and read many useful lectures upon the several parts both containing and contained till at last it smelt so strong i could preserve it no longer
upon which i have been at a great expense to fit up all the bones with exact contexture and in due symmetry
but not to digress further in the midst of a digression as i have known some authors enclose digressions in one another like a nest of boxes i do affirm that having carefully cut up human nature
that the public good of mankind is performed by two ways instruction and diversion
that as mankind is now disposed he receives much greater advantage by being diverted than instructed his epidemical diseases being fastidiosity amorphy and oscitation whereas in the present universal empire of wit and learning
there seems but little matter left for instruction however in compliance with a lesson of great age and authority i have attempted carrying the point in all its heights and accordingly throughout this divine treatise have skilfully kneaded up both together
when i consider how exceedingly our illustrious moderns have eclipsed the weak glimmering lights of the ancients and turned them out of the road of all fashionable commerce to a degree that our choice town wits of most refined accomplishments are in grave dispute
whether there have been ever any ancients or no in which point we are like to receive wonderful satisfaction from the most useful labours and lucubrations of that worthy modern doctor bentley
in a small portable volume of all things that are to be known or believed or imagined or practised in life i am however forced to acknowledge that such an enterprise was thought on some time ago by a great philosopher of o brazile
the method he proposed was by a certain curious receipt a nostrum which after his untimely death i found among his papers and do here out of my great affection to the modern learned
present them with it not doubting it may one day encourage some worthy undertaker you take fair correct copies well bound in calf's skin and lettered at the back of all modern bodies of arts and sciences whatsoever
and in what language you please these you distil in balneo mariae infusing quintessence of poppy
letting all that is volatile evaporate you preserve only the first running which is again to be distilled seventeen times
this you keep in a glass vial hermetically sealed for one and twenty days then you begin your catholic treatise
three drops of this elixir snuffing it strongly up your nose it will dilate itself about the brain where there is any in fourteen minutes
medullas excerpta quaedams florilegias and the like all disposed into great order and reducible upon paper i must needs own it was
have adventured upon so daring an attempt never achieved or undertaken before but by a certain author called homer in whom though otherwise a person not without some abilities and for an ancient of a tolerable genius
wits i could never yet discover the least direction about the structure of that useful instrument a save all for want of which
but i have still behind a fault far more notorious to tax this author with i mean his gross ignorance in the common laws of this realm
mister wotton bachelor of divinity in his incomparable treatise of ancient and modern learning a book never to be sufficiently valued whether we consider the happy turns and flowings of the author's wit
the great usefulness of his sublime discoveries upon the subject of flies and spittle or the laborious eloquence of his style and i cannot forbear doing that author the justice of my public acknowledgments for the great helps and liftings i had
out of his incomparable piece while i was penning this treatise but besides these omissions in homer already mentioned the curious reader will also observe several defects in that author's writings for which he is not altogether so accountable
for whereas every branch of knowledge has received such wonderful acquirements since his age
he could be so very perfect in modern discoveries as his advocates pretend
and the circulation of the blood but i challenge any of his admirers to show me in all his writings a complete account of the spleen
what can be more defective and unsatisfactory than his long dissertation upon tea and as to his method of salivation without mercury
to be relied on it was to supply such momentous defects that i have been prevailed on after long solicitation to take pen in hand and i dare venture to promise the judicious reader shall find nothing neglected here
that can be of use upon any emergency of life i am confident to have included and exhausted all that human imagination can rise or fall to particularly i recommend to the perusal of the learned certain
whereof i shall only mention among a great many more my
a curious invention about mouse traps a universal rule of reason
together with a most useful engine for catching of owls all which the judicious reader will find largely treated on in the several parts of this discourse
of this polite and learned age when they would correct the ill nature of critical or inform the ignorance of courteous readers
both in verse and prose wherein if the writers had not been pleased out of their great humanity and affection to the public to give us a nice detail of the sublime and the admirable they contain
had been more proper in a preface and more agreeable to the mode which usually directs it there
i claim an absolute authority in right as the freshest modern which gives me a despotic power
disapprove and declare against that pernicious custom of making the preface a bill of fare to the book for i have always looked upon it as a high point of indiscretion in monstermongers and other retailers of strange sights to hang out a fair
large picture over the door drawn after the life with a most eloquent description underneath
though often invited by the urging and attending orator with his last moving and standing piece of rhetoric sir upon my word
advertisements introductions prolegomenas apparatuses to the readers's this expedient was admirable at first our great dryden has long carried it as far as it would go and with incredible success
would never have suspected him to be so great a poet if he had not assured them so frequently in his prefaces that it was impossible they could either doubt or forget it perhaps it may be so
however i much fear his instructions have edified out of their place and taught men to grow wiser in certain points where he never intended they should
considerable number is known to proceed critics and wits by reading nothing else into which two factions i think all present readers may justly be divided now for myself i profess to be of the former sort
and therefore having the modern inclination to expatiate upon the beauty of my own productions
where as it now lies it makes a very considerable addition to the bulk of the volume a circumstance by no means to be neglected by a skilful writer having thus paid my due deference and acknowledgment to an established custom of our newest authors
by a long digression unsought for and a universal censure unprovoked
a digression in praise of digressions
in an iliad there is no doubt that human life has received most wonderful advantages from both but to which of the two the world is chiefly indebted i shall leave among the curious as a problem worthy of their utmost inquiry
for the invention of the latter i think the commonwealth of learning is chiefly obliged to the great modern improvement of digressions the late refinements in knowledge running parallel to those of diet in our nation
which among men of a judicious taste are dressed up in various compounds consisting in soups and olios
there is a sort of morose detracting ill bred people who pretend utterly to disrelish these polite innovations
as to the similitude from diet they allow the parallel but are so bold as to pronounce the example itself
in a dish was at first introduced in compliance to a depraved and debauched appetite as well as to a crazy constitution and to see a man hunting through an olio after the head and brains of a goose a widgeon or a woodcock
is a sign he wants a stomach and digestion for more substantial victuals further they affirm that digressions in a book are like foreign troops in a state which argue the nation to want a heart and hands of its own
the society of writers would quickly be reduced to a very inconsiderable number if men were put upon making books with the fatal confinement of delivering nothing beyond what is to the purpose it is acknowledged that were the case the same among us
as with the greeks and romans when learning was in its cradle to be reared and fed and clothed by invention it would be an easy task
to fill up volumes upon particular occasions without further expatiating from the subject than by moderate excursions helping to advance or clear the main design but with knowledge it has fared as with a numerous army encamped in a fruitful country
which for a few days maintains itself
they send to forage many a mile among friends or enemies it matters not meanwhile the neighbouring fields trampled and beaten down become barren and dry affording no sustenance but clouds of dust
the whole course of things being thus entirely changed between us and the ancients and the moderns wisely sensible of it we of this age have discovered a shorter and more prudent method to become scholars and wits without the fatigue of reading
either first to serve them as some men do lords learn their titles exactly and then brag of their acquaintance or secondly
the profounder and politer method to get a thorough insight into the index by which the whole book is governed and turned like fishes by the tail for to enter the palace of learning at the great gate requires an expense of time and forms
therefore men of much haste and little ceremony are content to get in by the back door
by consulting only what comes from behind thus men catch knowledge by throwing their wit on the posteriors of a book as boys do sparrows with flinging salt upon their tails
thus human life is best understood by the wise man's rule of regarding the end thus are the sciences found like hercules oxen by tracing them backwards
thus are old sciences unravelled like old stockings by beginning at the foot besides all this the army of the sciences hath been of late
for this great blessing we are wholly indebted to systems and abstracts in which the modern fathers of learning like prudent usurers spent their sweat for the ease of us their children for labour is the seed of idleness
and it is the peculiar happiness of our noble age to gather the fruit now the method of growing wise learned and sublime having become so regular an affair and so established in all its forms the number of writers must needs have increased
accordingly and to a pitch that has made it of absolute necessity for them to interfere continually with each other besides it is reckoned that there is not at this present a sufficient quantity of new matter left in nature
to furnish and adorn any one particular subject to the extent of a volume this i am told by a very skilful computer who hath given a full demonstration of it from rules of arithmetic
this perhaps may be objected against by those who maintain the infinity of matter and therefore will not allow that any species of it can be exhausted for answer to which let us examine the noblest branch of modern wit or invention
planted and cultivated by the present age and which of all others hath borne the most and the fairest fruit for though some remains of it were left us by the ancients yet have not any of those as i remember been translated or compiled into systems
for modern use therefore we may affirm to our own honour that it has in some sort been both invented and brought to a perfection by the same hands
allusions and applications very surprising agreeable and apposite from the signs of either sex together with their proper uses and truly having observed how little invention bears any vogue besides what is derived into these channels
i have sometimes had a thought that the happy genius of our age and country was prophetically held forth by that ancient typical description of the indian pigmies
pertingentia now i have been very curious to inspect the late productions wherein the beauties of this kind have most prominently
and all endeavours have been used in the
of their mares that they might yield the more milk
be provided or else that we must e e n be content with repetition here as well as upon all other occasions this will stand as an uncontestable argument that our modern wits are not to reckon upon the infinity of matter
are to be nicely dwelt on by some called the sieves and boulters of learning though it is left undetermined whether they dealt in pearls or meal and consequently whether we are more to value that which passed through or what stayed
behind by these methods in a few weeks there starts up many a writer capable of managing the profoundest and most universal subjects
be full and if you will bate him but the circumstances of method and style and grammar and invention allow him but the common privileges of transcribing from others
and digressing from himself as often as he shall see occasion he will desire no more ingredients towards fitting up a treatise that shall make a very comely figure on a bookseller's shelf there to be preserved neat and clean for a long eternity
adorned with the heraldry of its title fairly inscribed on a label never to be thumbed or greased by students nor bound to everlasting chains of darkness in a library but when the fulness of time is come
shall happily undergo the trial of purgatory in order to ascend the sky without these allowances how is it possible we modern wits should ever have an opportunity to introduce our collections listed under so many thousand heads of a different nature
for want of which the learned world would be deprived of infinite delight as well as instruction and we ourselves buried beyond redress in an inglorious and undistinguished oblivion
a happiness derived to us with a great many others from our scythian ancestors among whom the number of pens was so infinite that the grecian eloquence had no other way of expressing it than by saying that in the regions far to the north it was hardly possible
for a man to travel the very air was so replete with feathers the necessity of this digression will easily excuse the length and i have chosen for it as proper a place as i could readily find
a digression in praise of digressions
but to which of the two the world is chiefly indebted i shall leave among the curious as a problem worthy of their utmost inquiry for the invention of the latter i think the commonwealth of learning is chiefly obliged
which among men of a judicious taste are dressed up
it is true there is a sort of morose detracting ill bred people who pretend utterly to disrelish these polite innovations
and as to the similitude from diet they allow the parallel but are so bold as to pronounce the example itself a corruption
they tell us that the fashion of jumbling fifty things together in a dish was at first introduced in compliance to a depraved and debauched appetite as well as to a crazy constitution
is a sign he wants a stomach and digestion for more substantial victuals further they affirm that digressions in a book are like foreign troops in a state which argue the nation to want a heart and hands of its own
and often either subdue the natives or drive them into the most unfruitful corners but after all that can be objected by these supercilious censors it is manifest the society of writers would quickly be reduced to a very
it is acknowledged that were the case the same among us as with the greeks and romans when learning was in its cradle to be reared and fed and clothed by invention it would be an easy task to fill up volumes upon
particular occasions without further expatiating from the subject than by moderate excursions helping to advance or clear the main design but with knowledge it has fared as
they send to forage many a mile among friends or enemies it matters not meanwhile the neighbouring fields trampled and beaten down become barren and dry
the whole course of things being thus entirely changed between us and the ancients and the moderns wisely sensible of it
the most accomplished way of using books at present is twofold either first to serve them as some men do lords learn their titles exactly and then brag of their acquaintance
therefore men of much haste and little ceremony are content to get in by the back door for the arts are all in a flying march and therefore more easily subdued by attacking them in the rear thus physicians discover the state
of the whole body by consulting only what comes from behind thus men catch knowledge by throwing their wit on the posteriors of a book as boys do sparrows with flinging salt upon their tails thus human life is best understood
by the wise man's rule of regarding the end thus are the sciences found like hercules oxen by tracing them backwards
so that a view or a muster may be taken of it with abundance of expedition for this great blessing we are wholly indebted to systems and abstracts in which the modern fathers of learning like prudent usurers
happiness of our noble age to gather the fruit now the method of growing wise learned and sublime having become so regular an affair and so established in all its forms the number of writers must needs have increased accordingly
with each other besides it is reckoned that there is not at this present a sufficient quantity of new matter left in nature to furnish and adorn any one particular subject to the extent of a volume
this i am told by a very skilful computer who hath given a full demonstration of it from rules of arithmetic this perhaps may be objected against by those who maintain the infinity of matter
and therefore will not allow that any species of it can be exhausted for answer to which let us examine the noblest branch of modern wit or invention planted and cultivated by the present age
and which of all others hath borne the most and the fairest fruit for though some remains of it were left us by the ancients yet have not any of those as i remember
been translated or compiled into systems for modern use therefore we may affirm to our own honour that it has in some sort been both invented and brought to a perfection by the same hands
what i mean is that highly celebrated talent among the modern wits of deducing similitudes allusions and applications very surprising agreeable and apposite from the signs of either sex together with their proper uses
and truly having observed how little invention bears any vogue besides what is derived into these channels i have sometimes had a thought that the happy genius of our age and
pertingentia now i have been very curious to inspect the late productions wherein the beauties of this kind
and all endeavours have been used
of their mares that they might yield the more milk yet i am under an apprehension it is near growing dry and past all recovery and that either some new fonde of wit should if possible be provided
or else that we must e e n be content with repetition here as well as upon all other occasions this will stand as an uncontestable argument that our modern wits
what remains therefore but that our last recourse must be had to large indexes and little compendiums quotations must be plentifully gathered and booked in alphabet to this end though authors need be little consulted
yet critics and commentators and lexicons carefully must but above all those judicious collectors of bright parts and flowers and observandas are to be nicely dwelt on by some called the sieves and boulters of learning
though it is left undetermined whether they dealt in pearls or meal
or what stayed behind by these methods in a few weeks there starts up many a writer capable of managing the profoundest and most universal subjects for what though his head be empty provided his commonplace book be full and if
you will bate him but the circumstances of method and style and grammar and invention allow him but the common privileges of transcribing from others and digressing from himself as often as he shall see occasion
he will desire no more ingredients towards fitting up a treatise that shall make a very comely figure on a bookseller's shelf
adorned with the heraldry of its title fairly inscribed on a label never to be thumbed or greased by students nor bound to everlasting
a farther digression it is an unanswerable argument of a very refined age the wonderful civilities that have passed of late years between the nation of authors
there can hardly pop out a play a pamphlet or a poem without a preface
in due deference to so laudable a custom i do here return my humble thanks to his majesty and both houses of parliament to the lords of the king's most honourable privy council
in short to all inhabitants and retainers whatsoever either in court or church or camp or city or country for their generosity and universal acceptance of this divine treatise i accept their approbation
and good opinion with extreme gratitude and to the utmost of my poor capacity shall take hold of all opportunities to return the obligation i am also happy
that fate has flung me into so blessed an age for the mutual felicity of booksellers and authors whom i may safely affirm to be at this day the two only satisfied parties in england ask an author how his last piece has succeeded
why truly he thanks his stars the world has been very favourable and he has not the least reason to complain and yet he wrote it in a week at bits and starts when he could steal an hour from his urgent affairs
and for the rest to the bookseller there you go as a customer and make the same question he blesses his god the thing takes wonderful he is just printing a second edition and has but three left in his shop you beat down the price sir we shall not differ
and in hopes of your custom another time lets you have it as reasonable as you please
now it is not well enough considered to what accidents and occasions the world is indebted for the greatest part of those noble writings
an ill run at dice a long tailor's bill a beggar's purse a factious head a hot sun costive diet want of books and a just contempt of learning but for these events i say and some others too long to recite
to confirm this opinion hear the words of the famous troglodyte philosopher it is certain said he some grains of folly are of course annexed as part in the composition of human nature only the choice is left
us whether we please to wear them inlaid or embossed and we need not go very far to seek how that is usually determined
there is in this famous island of britain a certain paltry scribbler very voluminous whose character the reader cannot wholly be a stranger to he deals in a pernicious kind of writings called second parts
and usually passes under the name of the author of the first i easily foresee that as soon as i lay down my pen this nimble operator will have stole it and treat me as inhumanly as he has already done doctor blackmore lestrange
and many others who shall here be nameless i therefore fly for justice and relief into the hands of that great rectifier of saddles and lover of mankind doctor bentley
begging he will take this enormous grievance into his most modern consideration and if it should so happen that the furniture of an ass in the shape of a second part must for my sins be clapped by mistake
upon my back that he will immediately please in the presence of the world to lighten me of the burthen and take it home to his own house till the true beast thinks fit to call for it in the meantime i do here give this public notice
that my resolutions are to circumscribe within this discourse the whole stock of matter i have been so many years providing since my vein is once opened i am content to exhaust it all at a running for the peculiar advantage of my dear country
therefore hospitably considering the number of my guests they shall have my whole entertainment at a meal and i scorn to set up the leavings in
to a scurvy meal of scraps
to receive and to relish the concluding part of this miraculous treatise readers may be divided into three classes
which clears the breast and the lungs is sovereign against the spleen
between whom and the former the distinction is extremely nice will find himself disposed to stare which is an admirable remedy for ill eyes serves to raise and enliven the spirits and wonderfully helps perspiration
but the reader truly learned chiefly for whose benefit i wake when others sleep and sleep when others wake will here find sufficient matter to employ his speculations
and shut them up close for seven years in seven chambers with a command to write seven ample commentaries on this comprehensive discourse
manifestly deducible from the text meantime it is my earnest request that so useful an undertaking may be entered upon if their majesties please with all convenient speed because i have a strong inclination before i leave the world
to taste a blessing which we mysterious writers can seldom reach till we have got into our graves whether it is that fame being a fruit grafted on the body
or whether she conceives her trumpet sounds best and farthest when she stands on a tomb by the advantage of a rising ground and the echo of a hollow vault
it is true indeed the republic of dark authors after they once found out this excellent expedient of dying have been peculiarly happy in the variety as well as extent of their reputation for night being the universal mother of things
wise philosophers hold all writings to be fruitful in the proportion they are dark and therefore the true illuminated that is to say the darkest of all have met with such numberless commentators
and yet may very justly be allowed the lawful parents of them the words of such writers being like seed which however scattered at random when they light upon a fruitful ground will multiply
and therefore in order to promote so useful a work i will here take leave to glance a few innuendos that may be of great assistance to those sublime spirits who shall be appointed
and first i have couched a very profound mystery in the number of zero s multiplied by seven and divided by nine also if a devout brother of the rosy cross will pray fervently for sixty three mornings with a lively faith
and then transpose certain letters and syllables according to prescription in the second and fifth section they will certainly reveal into a full receipt of the opus magnum
during some months been in constant danger of dissolution by what strenuous exertions by what ingenious expedients by what blandishments by what bribes he succeeded in preventing his allies
from throwing themselves one by one at the feet of france can be but imperfectly known the fullest and most authentic record of the labours and sacrifices by which he kept together during eight years
a crowd of fainthearted and treacherous potentates negligent of the common interest and jealous of each other is to be found in his correspondence with heinsius in that correspondence william is all himself
he had in the course of his eventful life to sustain some high parts for which he was not eminently qualified and in those parts his success was imperfect as sovereign of england he showed abilities and virtues
which entitle him to honourable mention in history but his deficiencies were great he was to the last a stranger amongst us cold reserved never in good spirits never at his ease his kingdom
was a place of exile his finest palaces were prisons he was always counting the days which must elapse before he should again see the land of his birth the clipped trees
the wings of the innumerable windmills the nests of the storks on the tall gables and the long lines of painted villas reflected in the sleeping canals he took no pains to hide the preference which he felt for his native soil
and for his early friends and therefore though he rendered great services to our country he did not reign in our hearts as a general in the field again he showed rare courage and capacity but from whatever cause
he was as a tactician inferior to some of his contemporaries who in general powers of mind were far inferior to him the business for which he was preeminently fitted was diplomacy
in the highest sense of the word it may be doubted whether he has ever had a superior in the art of conducting those great negotiations on which the welfare of the commonwealth of nations depends
his skill in this department of politics was never more severely tasked or more signally proved than during the latter part of sixteen ninety one and the earlier part of sixteen ninety two
one of his chief difficulties was caused by the sullen and menacing demeanour of the northern powers denmark and sweden had at one time seemed disposed to join the coalition
and were fast becoming hostile from france they flattered themselves that they had little to fear it was not very probable that her armies would cross the elbe or that her fleets would force a passage through the sound
questions such as in almost every extensive war of modern times have arisen between belligerents and neutrals the scandinavian princes complained that the legitimate trade between the baltic and france was tyrannically
interrupted though they had not in general been on very friendly terms with each other they began to draw close together
to heinsius i fear that the object of this third party is a peace which will bring in its train the slavery of europe the day will come when sweden and her confederates will know too late how great an error they have committed
had overcome their scruples innocent the eleventh and alexander the eighth had regarded william with ill concealed partiality he was not indeed their friend but he was their enemy's enemy and james had been
and if restored must again be their enemy's vassal to the heretic nephew therefore they gave their effective support to the orthodox uncle only compliments and benedictions but alexander the eighth
had occupied the papal throne little more than fifteen months his successor antonio pignatelli who took the name of innocent the twelfth was impatient to be reconciled to lewis
lewis was now sensible that he had committed a great error when he had roused against himself at once the spirit of protestantism and the spirit of popery he permitted the french bishops to submit themselves to the holy see
the dispute which had at one time seemed likely to end in a great gallican schism was accommodated and there was reason to believe that the influence of the head of the church would be exerted for the purpose of severing the ties
which bound so many catholic princes to the calvinist who had usurped the british throne meanwhile the coalition which the third party on one side and the pope on the other were trying to dissolve was in no
small danger of falling to pieces from mere rottenness two of the allied powers and two only were hearty in the common cause england drawing after her the other british kingdoms and holland
drawing after her the other batavian commonwealths england and holland were indeed torn by internal factions and were separated from each other by mutual jealousies and antipathies but both were fully resolved not to submit
to french domination and both were ready to bear their share and more than their share of the charges of the contest
but men an emperor a king electors dukes and of these men there was scarcely one whose whole soul was in the struggle scarcely one who did not hang back who did not find some excuse
for omitting to fulfil his engagements who did not expect to be hired to defend his own rights and interests against the common enemy but the war was the war of the people of england and of the people of holland had it not been so
the burdens which it made necessary would not have been borne by either england or holland during a single year when william said that he would rather die sword in hand than humble himself before france
he expressed what was felt not by himself alone but by two great communities of which he was the first magistrate with those two communities unhappily other states had little sympathy indeed
those two communities were regarded by other states as rich plaindealing generous dupes are regarded by needy sharpers england and holland were wealthy and they were zealous their wealth excited the cupidity of the whole alliance and to that wealth
their zeal was the key they were persecuted with sordid importunity by all their confederates from caesar who in the pride of his solitary dignity would not honour king william with the title of majesty
down to the smallest margrave who could see his whole principality from the cracked windows of the mean and ruinous old house which he called his palace it was not enough that england and holland furnished much more than their contingents
to the war by land and bore unassisted the whole charge of the war by sea they were beset by a crowd of illustrious mendicants some rude some obsequious but all indefatigable and insatiable
one prince came mumping to them annually with a lamentable story about his distresses a more sturdy beggar threatened to join the third party and to make a separate peace with france if his demands were not granted
as he had ever been to france but he had been ill used by the spanish government and he therefore would not suffer his soldiers
yet they could with difficulty be prevailed upon to lend the smallest assistance to the duke of savoy they seemed to think it the business of england and holland to defend the passes of the alps
france was in some sense a war against the catholic religion and the war against turkey was a crusade his recent campaign on the danube had been successful he might easily have concluded an honourable peace with the porte
and have turned his arms westward but he had conceived the hope that he might extend his hereditary dominions at the expense of the infidels visions of a triumphant entry into constantinople and of a te deum in saint sophia's
had risen in his brain he not only employed in the east a force more than sufficient to have defended piedmont and reconquered loraine but he seemed to think that england and holland were bound to reward him largely for neglecting their interests
and a sovereign of peru of the spain which had sent an army to the walls of paris and had equipped a mighty fleet to invade england nothing remained but an arrogance which had once excited terror and hatred
in extent indeed the dominions of the catholic king exceeded those of rome when rome was at the zenith of power but the huge mass lay torpid and helpless and could be insulted or despoiled with impunity
the whole administration military and naval financial and colonial was utterly disorganized charles was a fit representative of his kingdom
and in the netherlands it seemed probable that the fate of christendom would be decided he had discharged his trust as every public trust was then discharged in every part of that vast monarchy
he threw on england and holland the whole charge of defending it
would be furnished by the heretics it had never occurred to him that it was his business and not theirs to put mons in a condition to stand a siege the public voice loudly accused him of having sold that celebrated stronghold to france
there were moments when he felt himself overwhelmed when his spirits sank when his patience was wearied out and when his constitutional irritability broke forth i cannot he wrote offer a suggestion without being met
when he had been importuned for money it is impossible that the states general and england can bear the charge of the army on the rhine of the army in piedmont and of the whole defence of flanders to say nothing of the immense cost of the naval war
if our allies can do nothing for themselves
and put a strong curb on his temper weak mean false selfish as too many of the confederates were it was only by their help that he could accomplish what he had from his youth up considered as his mission if they abandoned him
france would be dominant without a rival in europe well as they deserved to be punished he would not to punish them acquiesce in the subjugation of the whole civilised world he set himself therefore to surmount
and innocent whose nature was gentle and irresolute shrank from taking a course directly opposed to the sentiments of all who surrounded him in private conversations with jacobite agents he declared himself devoted
to the interests of the house of stuart but in his public acts he observed a strict neutrality he sent twenty thousand crowns to saint germains but he excused himself
but merely an alms to be distributed among poor british catholics he permitted prayers for the good cause to be read in the english college at rome
and that no name should be mentioned
adjured him to take a more decided course god knows he exclaimed on one occasion that i would gladly shed my blood to restore the king of england but what can i do if i stir i am told that i am favouring the french
i am not like the old popes kings will not listen to me as they listened to my predecessors there is no religion now nothing but wicked worldly policy
nevertheless the jacobites did not despair one of the most zealous among them a gentleman named bulkeley who had formerly been on terms of intimacy with godolphin undertook to see what could be done
he called at the treasury and tried to draw the first lord into political talk this was no easy matter for godolphin was not a man to put himself lightly into the power of others his reserve was proverbial
and he was especially renowned for the dexterity with which he through life turned conversation away from matters of state to a main of cocks or the pedigree of a racehorse
the visit ended without his uttering a word indicating that he remembered the existence of king james bulkeley however was not to be so repulsed
he came again and introduced the subject which was nearest his heart godolphin then asked after his old master and mistress in the mournful tone of a man who despaired of ever being reconciled to them
bulkeley assured him that king james was ready to forgive all the past may i tell his majesty that you will try to deserve his favour at this godolphin rose said something about the trammels of office
and his wish to be released from them and put an end to the interview bulkeley soon made a third attempt by this time godolphin had learned some things which shook his confidence in the stability of the government
he began to think as he would himself have expressed it that he had betted too deep on the revolution and that it was time to hedge evasions would no longer serve his turn it was necessary to speak out
he spoke out and declared himself a devoted servant of king james i shall take an early opportunity of
but till then i am under a tie i must not betray my trust to enhance the value of the sacrifice which he proposed to make he produced a most friendly and confidential letter which he had lately received from william
you see how entirely the prince of orange trusts me he tells me that he cannot do without me and that there is no englishman for whom he has so great a kindness but all this weighs nothing with me
if the first lord of the treasury really had scruples about betraying his trust those scruples were soon so effectually removed that he very complacently continued during six years to eat the bread of one master
while secretly sending professions of attachment and promises of service to another the truth is that godolphin was under the influence of a mind far more powerful and far more depraved than his own his perplexities
had been imparted to marlborough to whom he had long been bound by such friendship as two very unprincipled men are capable of feeling for each other and to whom he was afterwards bound by close domestic ties
marlborough was in a very different situation from that of william's other servants lloyd might make overtures to russell and bulkeley to godolphin but all the agents of the banished court stood aloof from the traitor of salisbury
that shameful night seemed to have for ever separated the perjured deserter from the prince whom he had ruined james had even in the last extremity when his army was in full retreat when his whole kingdom had risen against him declared
that he would never pardon churchill never never by all the jacobites the name of churchill was held in peculiar abhorrence and in the prose and verse which came forth daily from their secret presses a precedence in infamy
among all the many traitors of the age was assigned to him in the order of things which had sprung from the revolution he was one of the great men of england high in the state high in the army he had been created an earl
he had a large share in the military administration the emoluments direct and indirect of the places and commands which he held under the crown were believed at the dutch embassy to amount to twelve thousand pounds a year
in the event of a counterrevolution it seemed that he had nothing in prospect but a garret in holland or a scaffold on tower hill it might therefore have been expected that he would serve his new master with fidelity
not indeed with the fidelity of nottingham which was the fidelity of conscientiousness not with the fidelity of portland which was the fidelity of affection but with the not less stubborn fidelity of despair
those who thought thus knew but little of marlborough confident in his own powers of deception he resolved since the jacobite agents would not seek him to seek them he therefore sent to beg an interview with colonel edward sackville
sackville was astonished and not much pleased by the message he was a sturdy cavalier of the old school he had been persecuted in the days of the popish plot for manfully saying what he thought
he had put his neck in peril for king james had been chased by officers with warrants and had been designated as a traitor in a proclamation to which marlborough himself
royalist crossed the hated threshold of the deserter he was repaid for his effort by the edifying spectacle of such an agony of repentance as he had never before seen will you
said marlborough be my intercessor with the king will you tell him what i suffer my crimes now appear to me in their true light and i shrink with horror from the contemplation the thought of them is with me day and night
i sit down to table but i cannot eat i throw myself on my bed but i cannot sleep i am ready to sacrifice every thing to brave every thing to bring utter ruin on my fortunes
if only i may be free from the misery of a wounded spirit if appearances could be trusted this great offender was as true a penitent as david or as peter sackville reported to his friends what had passed they could
not but acknowledge that if the arch traitor who had hitherto opposed to conscience and to public opinion the same cool and placid hardihood which distinguished him on fields of battle had really begun to feel remorse
it would be absurd to reject on account of his unworthiness the inestimable services which it was in his power to render to the good cause he sate in the interior council he held high command in the army
he had been recently entrusted and would doubtless again be entrusted with the direction of important military operations it was true that no man had incurred equal guilt but it was true also that no man had it in his power
to make equal reparation if he was sincere he might doubtless earn the pardon which he so much desired but was he sincere had he not been just as loud in professions of loyalty on the very eve of his crime
it was necessary to put him to the test several tests were applied by sackville and lloyd marlborough was required to furnish full information
it was thought a still stronger proof of his fidelity that he gave valuable intelligence
a deposition had been sworn against one zealous royalist a warrant was preparing against another these intimations saved several of the malecontents from imprisonment if not from the gallows and it was impossible for them not to feel
some relenting towards the awakened sinner to whom they owed so much he however in his secret conversations with his new allies laid no claim to merit he did not he said ask for confidence how could he
after the villanies which he had committed against the best of kings hope ever to be trusted again it was enough for a wretch like him to be permitted to make at the cost of his life some poor atonement to the gracious master
whom he had indeed basely injured but whom he had never ceased to love it was not improbable that in the summer he might command the english forces in flanders was it wished that he should bring them over in a body to the french camp
if such were the royal pleasure he would undertake that the thing should be done but on the whole he thought that it would be better to wait till the next session of parliament and then he hinted at a plan which he afterwards more fully matured
for expelling the usurper by means of the english legislature and the english army in the meantime he hoped that james would command godolphin not to quit the treasury a private man could do little for the good cause one
might render inestimable services marlborough's pretended repentance imposed so completely on those who managed the affairs of james in london that they sent lloyd to france with the cheering intelligence that the most depraved of all rebels
had been wonderfully transformed into a loyal subject the tidings filled james with delight and hope had he been wise they would have excited in him only aversion and distrust it was absurd to imagine that a man really heartbroken
by remorse and shame for one act of perfidy would determine to lighten his conscience by committing a second act of perfidy as odious and as disgraceful as the first the promised atonement was so wicked and base
he was laughing at them the loss of half a guinea would have done more to spoil his appetite and to disturb his slumbers than all the terrors of an evil conscience what his offers really proved was that his former crime had sprung
not from an ill regulated zeal for the interests of his country and his religion but from a deep and incurable moral disease which had infected the whole man james however
partly from dulness and partly from selfishness could never see any immorality in any action by which he was benefited to conspire against him to betray him to break an oath of allegiance sworn to him
were crimes for which no punishment here or hereafter could be too severe but to murder his enemies to break faith with his enemies was not only innocent but laudable the desertion at salisbury
had been the worst of crimes for it had ruined him a similar desertion in flanders would be an honourable exploit for it might restore him the penitent was informed by his jacobite friends that he was forgiven
the news was most welcome but something more was necessary to restore his lost peace of mind might he hope to have in the royal handwriting two lines containing a promise of pardon
it was not of course for his own sake that he asked this but he was confident that with such a document in his hands he could bring back to the right path some persons of great note who adhered to the usurper only because they imagined
that they had no mercy to expect from the legitimate king they would return to their duty as soon as they saw that even the worst of all criminals had on his repentance been generously forgiven the promise was written sent
and carefully treasured up marlborough had now attained one object an object which was common to him with russell and godolphin but he had other objects which neither russell nor godolphin had ever contemplated there is
as we shall hereafter see strong reason to believe that this wise brave wicked man was meditating a plan worthy of his fertile intellect and daring spirit and not less worthy of his deeply corrupted heart
a plan which if it had not been frustrated by strange means would have ruined william without benefiting james
the successful traitor master of england and arbiter of europe thus things stood when in may sixteen ninety one william after a short and busy sojourn in england set out again for the continent
where the regular campaign was about to open he took with him marlborough whose abilities he justly appreciated
soldiers and statesmen of the united provinces heinsius long after used to relate a conversation which took place at this time between william and the prince of vaudemont one of the ablest commanders in the dutch service
vaudemont spoke well of several english officers and among them of talmash and mackay but pronounced marlborough superior beyond comparison to the rest he has every quality of a general his very look shows it
he cannot fail to achieve something great i really believe cousin answered the king
with orders to collect all the english forces to form a camp in the neighbourhood of brussels and to have every thing in readiness for the king's arrival and now marlborough had an opportunity of proving the sincerity
of those professions by which he had obtained from a heart well described by himself as harder than a marble chimneypiece the pardon of an offence such as might have moved even a gentle nature to deadly resentment
he received from saint germains a message claiming the instant performance of his promise to desert at the head of his troops he was told that this was the greatest service which he could render to the crown his word was pledged
and the gracious master who had forgiven all past errors confidently expected that it would be redeemed the hypocrite evaded the demand with characteristic dexterity
in the most respectful and affectionate language he excused himself for not immediately obeying the royal commands the promise which he was required to fulfil had not been quite correctly understood
william arrived at the head quarters of the allied forces and took the chief command the military operations in flanders recommenced early in june and terminated at the close of september
no important action took place the two armies marched and countermarched drew near and receded during some time they confronted each other with less than a league between them but neither william nor luxemburg
would fight except at an advantage and neither gave the other any advantage languid as the campaign was it is on one account remarkable during more than a century our country had sent no great force to make war by land
in the brilliant circle which surrounded lewis at versailles
who had not been at some battle or siege but the immense majority of our peers baronets and opulent esquires had never served except in the trainbands
a part in any military exploit more serious than that of putting down a riot or of keeping a street clear for a procession the generation which had fought at edgehill and lansdowne had nearly passed away
the wars of charles the second had been almost entirely maritime during his reign therefore the sea service had been decidedly more the mode than the land service and repeatedly when our fleet sailed to encounter the dutch
such multitudes of men of fashion had gone on board that the parks and the theatres had been left desolate in sixteen ninety one at length for the first time since henry the eighth laid siege to boulogne
an english army appeared on the continent under the command of an english king a camp which was also a court was irresistibly attractive to many young patricians full of natural intrepidity and ambitious of the favour
to volunteer for flanders became the rage among the fine gentlemen who combed their flowing wigs and exchanged their richly perfumed snuffs at the saint james's coffeehouse william's headquarters were enlivened by a crowd of splendid
equipages and by a rapid succession of sumptuous banquets for among the high born and high spirited youths who repaired to his standard were some who though quite willing to face a battery
in a few months shadwell brought these valiant fops and epicures on the stage the town was made merry with the character of a courageous but prodigal and effeminate coxcomb who is impatient to cross swords
with the best men in the french household troops but who is much dejected by learning that he may find it difficult to have his champagne iced daily during the summer he carries with him cooks confectioners and laundresses
a waggonload of plate a wardrobe of laced and embroidered suits and much rich
the looting of zodanga as the great gate where i stood swung open my fifty tharks headed by tars tarkas himself rode in upon their mighty thoats
i led them to the palace walls which i negotiated easily without assistance once inside however the gate gave me considerable trouble
but i finally was rewarded by seeing it swing upon its huge hinges and soon my fierce escort was riding across the gardens of the jeddak of zodanga as we approached the palace
i could see through the great windows of the first floor into the brilliantly illuminated audience chamber of than kosis the immense hall was crowded with nobles and their women as though some important function was in progress
there was not a guard in sight without the palace due i presume to the fact that the city and palace walls were considered impregnable
at one end of the chamber upon massive golden thrones
surrounded by officers and dignitaries of state before them stretched a broad aisle lined on either side with soldiery and as i looked there entered this aisle at the far end of the hall the head of a procession
which advanced to the foot of the throne first there marched four officers of the jeddak's guard bearing a huge salver on which reposed upon a cushion of scarlet silk a great golden chain with a collar
and padlock at each end directly behind these officers came four others carrying a similar salver
of a prince and princess of the reigning house of zodanga at the foot of the throne these two parties separated and halted facing each other at opposite sides of the aisle then came more dignitaries and the officers of the palace and of the army
when the balance of the procession had entered and assumed their stations than kosis addressed the couple standing before him i could not hear his words but presently two officers advanced
and removed the scarlet robe from one of the figures and i saw that kantos kan had failed in his mission
than kosis now took a set of the ornaments from one of the salvers
after a few more words addressed to sab than he turned to the other figure from which the officers now removed the enshrouding silks disclosing to my now comprehending view
the object of the ceremony was clear to me in another moment dejah thoris would be joined forever to the prince of zodanga it was an impressive and beautiful ceremony i presume
but to me it seemed the most fiendish sight i had ever witnessed and as the ornaments were adjusted upon her beautiful figure and her collar of gold
swung open in the hands of than kosis i raised my long sword above my head and with the heavy hilt i shattered the glass of the great window and sprang into the midst of the astonished assemblage
with a bound i was on the steps of the platform beside than kosis and as he stood riveted with surprise i brought my long sword down upon the golden chain that would have bound dejah thoris to another
in an instant all was confusion a thousand drawn swords menaced me from every quarter and sab than sprang upon me with a jeweled dagger he had drawn from his nuptial ornaments
i could have killed him as easily as i might a fly but the age old custom of barsoom stayed my hand and grasping his wrist as the dagger flew toward my heart i held him as though in a vise
and with my long sword pointed to the far end of the hall zodanga has fallen i cried look all eyes turned in the direction i had indicated and there forging through the portals of the entranceway
rode tars tarkas and his fifty warriors on their great thoats a cry of alarm and amazement broke from the assemblage but no word of fear and in a moment the soldiers and nobles of zodanga
were hurling themselves upon the advancing tharks thrusting sab than headlong from the platform i drew dejah thoris to my side behind the throne was a narrow doorway and in this
than kosis now stood facing me with drawn long sword in an instant we were engaged and i found no mean antagonist as we circled upon the broad platform i saw sab than rushing up the steps to aid his father
but as he raised his hand to strike dejah thoris sprang before him and then my sword found the spot that made sab than jeddak of zodanga as his father rolled dead upon the floor
the new jeddak tore himself free from dejah thoris grasp and again we faced each other he was soon joined by a quartet of officers and with my back against a golden throne i fought once again for dejah thoris
i was hard pressed to defend myself and yet not strike down sab than and with him my last chance to win the woman i loved my blade was swinging with the rapidity of lightning as i sought to parry the thrusts and cuts of my opponents
two i had disarmed and one was down when several more rushed to the aid of their new ruler and to avenge the death of the old as they advanced there were cries of
kill her kill her calling to dejah thoris to get behind me i worked my way toward the little doorway back of the throne but the officers realized my intentions and three of them sprang in behind me and blocked my chances
for gaining a position where i could have defended dejah thoris against an army of swordsmen the tharks were having their hands full in the center of the room and i began to realize that nothing short of a miracle could save dejah thoris and myself
when i saw tars tarkas surging through the crowd of pygmies that swarmed about him with one swing of his mighty longsword he laid a dozen corpses at his feet and so he hewed a pathway before him
the bravery of the zodangans was awe inspiring not one attempted to escape and when the fighting ceased it was because only tharks remained alive in the great hall other than dejah thoris and myself
sab than lay dead beside his father and the corpses of the flower of zodangan nobility and chivalry covered the floor of the bloody shambles
and leaving dejah thoris in charge of tars tarkas
the jailers had all left to join the fighters in the throne room so we searched the labyrinthine prison without opposition i called kantos kan's name aloud in each new corridor and compartment
and finally i was rewarded by hearing a faint response guided by the sound we soon found him helpless in a dark recess he was overjoyed at seeing me and to know the meaning of the fight faint echoes of which had reached his prison cell
he told me that the air patrol had captured him before he reached the high tower of the palace
so at his suggestion i returned to search the bodies on the floor above for keys to open the padlocks of his cell and of his chains fortunately among the first i examined i found his jailer
and soon we had kantos kan with us in the throne room the sounds of heavy firing mingled with shouts and cries came to us from the city's streets and tars tarkas hastened away to direct the fighting without
kantos kan accompanied him to act as guide the green warriors commencing a thorough search of the palace for other zodangans and for loot and dejah thoris and i were left alone
she had sunk into one of the golden thrones and as i turned to her she greeted me with a wan smile
i know that barsoom has never before seen your like can it be that all earth men are as you alone a stranger hunted threatened persecuted
you have done in a few short months what in all the past ages of barsoom no man has ever done joined together the wild hordes of the sea bottoms
the answer is easy dejah thoris i replied smiling it was not i who did it it was love love for dejah thoris a power that would work greater miracles than this you have seen
a pretty flush overspread her face and she answered you may say that now john carter and i may listen for i am free and more still i have to say ere it is again too late
i returned i have done many strange things in my life many things that wiser men would not have dared but never in my wildest fancies have i dreamed of winning a dejah thoris for myself
for never had i dreamed that in all the universe dwelt such a woman as the princess of helium that you are a princess does not abash me but that you are you
is enough to make me doubt my sanity as i ask you my princess to be mine he does not need to be abashed who so well knew the answer to his plea before the plea were made
she replied rising and placing her dear hands upon my shoulders and so i took her in my arms and kissed her and thus in the midst of a city of wild conflict
filled with the alarms of war with death and destruction reaping their terrible harvest around her did dejah thoris princess of helium true daughter of mars the god of war
treachery the day following the coming of vas kor to the palace of the prince of helium great excitement reigned throughout the twin cities reaching its climax in the palace of carthoris
word had come of the abduction of thuvia of ptarth from her father's court and with it the veiled hint that the prince of helium might be suspected of considerable knowledge of the act and the whereabouts of the princess
jeddak of helium mors kajak his son jed of lesser helium carthoris and a score of the great nobles of the empire there must be no war between ptarth and helium my son said john carter
that you are innocent of the charge that has been placed against you by insinuation we well know
you must hasten at once to the court of ptarth and by your presence there as well as by your words assure him that his suspicions are groundless bear with you the authority of the warlord of barsoom and of the jeddak of helium
to offer every resource of the allied powers
whomsoever they may be go i know that i do not need to urge upon you the necessity for haste carthoris left the council chamber and hastened to his palace
here slaves were busy in a moment setting things to rights for the departure of their master several worked about the swift flier that would bear the prince of helium rapidly toward ptarth at last all was done but two armed slaves remained on guard
the setting sun hung low above the horizon in a moment darkness would envelop all one of the guardsmen a giant of a fellow across whose right cheek there ran a thin scar from temple to mouth
approached his companion his gaze was directed beyond and above his comrade when he had come quite close he spoke what strange craft is that he asked the other turned about quickly to gaze heavenward
scarce was his back turned toward the giant than the short sword of the latter was plunged beneath his left shoulder blade straight through his heart voiceless the soldier sank in his tracks stone dead
quickly the murderer dragged the corpse into the black shadows within the hangar then he returned to the flier drawing a cunningly wrought key from his pocket pouch
he removed the cover of the right hand dial of the controlling destination compass for a moment he studied the construction of the mechanism beneath then he returned the dial to its place set the pointer
and removed it again to note the resultant change in the position of the parts affected by the act a smile crossed his lips with a pair of cutters he snipped off the projection which extended through the dial from the external pointer
now the latter might be moved to any point upon the dial without affecting the mechanism below in other words the eastern hemisphere dial was useless now he turned his attention to the western dial
this he set upon a certain point afterward he removed the cover of this dial also and with keen tool cut the steel finger from the under side of the pointer as quickly as possible he replaced the second dial cover
and resumed his place on guard to all intents and purposes the compass was as efficient as before but as a matter of fact the moving of the pointers upon the dials resulted now in no corresponding shift of the mechanism beneath
and the device was set immovably upon a destination of the slave's own choosing presently came carthoris accompanied by but a handful of his gentlemen
he cast but a casual glance upon the single slave who stood guard the fellow's thin cruel lips and the sword cut that ran from temple to mouth aroused the suggestion of an unpleasant memory within him
he wondered where saran tal had found the man then the matter faded from his thoughts and in another moment the prince of helium was laughing and chatting with his companions though below the surface his heart was cold with dread
for what contingencies confronted thuvia of ptarth he could not even guess
had stolen the fair ptarthian but almost simultaneously with the report of the abduction
the court of his father it could not have been he thought carthoris for on the very night that thuvia was taken astok had been in dusar and yet he entered the flier
exchanging casual remarks with his companions as he unlocked the mechanism of the compass and set the pointer upon the capital city of ptarth with a word of farewell he touched the button which controlled the repulsive rays and
as the flier rose lightly into the air the engine purred in answer to the touch of his finger upon a second button the propellers whirred as his hand drew back the speed lever
and carthoris prince of helium was off into the gorgeous martian night beneath the hurtling moons and the million stars scarce had the flier found its speed ere the man wrapping his sleeping silks and furs about him
to sleep but sleep did not come at once at his bidding instead his thoughts ran riot in his brain driving sleep away he recalled the words of thuvia of ptarth
words that had half assured him that she loved him
she had answered only that she was promised to him now he saw that her reply was open to more than a single construction it might of course mean that she did not love kulan tith and so by inference be taken to mean that she loved another
but what assurance was there that the other was carthoris of helium the more he thought upon it the more positive he became that not only was there no assurance in her words that she loved him
but none either in any act of hers no the fact was she did not love him she loved another she had not been abducted she had fled willingly with her lover
with such pleasant thoughts filling him alternately with despair and rage carthoris at last dropped into the sleep of utter mental exhaustion the breaking of the sudden dawn found him still asleep
his flier was rushing swiftly above a barren ochre plain the world old bottom of a long dead martian sea in the distance rose low hills toward these the craft was headed as it approached them
a great promontory might have been seen from its deck stretching out into what had once been a mighty ocean and circling back once more to enclose the forgotten harbour of a forgotten city
an imposing pile of wondrous architecture of a long dead past the countless dismal windows vacant and forlorn stared sightless from their marble walls
the whole sad city taking on the semblance of scattered mounds of dead men's sun bleached skulls the casements having the appearance of eyeless sockets the portals grinning jaws closer came the flier
but now its speed was diminishing yet
within a hundred yards of the ground it came to rest floating gently in the light air and at the same instant an alarm sounded at the sleeper's ear carthoris sprang to his feet
there indeed was a great city but it was not ptarth no multitudes surged through its broad avenues no signs of life broke the dead monotony of its deserted roof tops no gorgeous silks no priceless furs
lent life and colour to the cold marble and the gleaming ersite no patrol boat lay ready with its familiar challenge silent and empty lay the great city empty and silent the surrounding air what had happened
carthoris examined the dial of his compass the pointer was set upon ptarth could the creature of his genius have thus betrayed him he would not believe it quickly he unlocked the cover
turning it back upon its hinge a single glance showed him the truth
steel projection that communicated the movement of the pointer upon the dial to the heart of the mechanism beneath had been severed
and why carthoris could not hazard even a faint guess but the thing now was to learn in what portion of the world he was and then take up his interrupted journey once more
the first having shown that its pointer had not been set at all beneath the second dial he found the steel pin severed as in the other but the controlling mechanism had first been set for a point upon the western hemisphere
he had just time to judge his location roughly at some place south west of helium and at a considerable distance from the twin cities when he was startled by a woman's scream beneath him
leaning over the side of the flier he saw what appeared to be a red woman being dragged across the plaza by a huge green warrior
one of those fierce cruel denizens of the dead sea bottoms and deserted cities of dying mars carthoris waited to see no more reaching for the control board he sent his craft racing plummet like toward the ground
who was employed in the infirmary attached to his dwelling a very remarkable degree of intelligence combined with a constant and deep commiseration for the sick poor to whom he gave with the utmost attention and care the medicine ordered by the doctors
and moreover so strong a prepossession for the study of botany as applied to medicine that without any tuition he had composed and classified a sort of flora of the plants around the dwelling and the vicinity
the establishment of mister willis situated on the borders of the sea was fifteen or twenty leagues from the nearest town and the medical men of the district ignorant as they were gave themselves
no great deal of care or trouble in consequence of the long distance and the difficulty in procuring any means of conveyance desirous of remedying so extreme an inconvenience in a country subject to violent epidemics
and to have at hand at all times a skilful practitioner the colonist made up his mind to send david to france to learn surgery and medicine
and the planter paid all the expenses of his course of study
received the degree of surgeon and physician with the most distinguished success and then returned to america to place himself and his skill under the direction of his master
but david ought to have considered himself free and emancipated in fact and in law when he set foot in france david's loyalty is very rare he had promised mister willis to return and he did so
he did not consider as his own the instruction which he had acquired with his master's money and besides he hoped to improve morally as well as physically the sufferings of the slaves his former companions he trusted to become not only their doctor
but soon restored through the careful attentions and efficacious remedies of david out of thirty negroes dangerously affected by this fatal disease only two perished mister willis
much gratified by the services which david had so auspiciously rendered
to the extreme gratification of the black doctor whose fellows regarded him as a divinity amongst them for he had with much difficulty it is true obtained from their master some few indulgences and was hoping to procure still more
in the meanwhile he consoled these poor people and exhorted them to patience spake to them of god who watches over the black and the white man with an equal eye of another world not peopled with masters and slaves
but with the just and the unjust of another life in eternity where man was no longer the beast of burden the property the thing of his fellow man but where the victims of this world were so happy that they prayed in heaven for their tormentors
to those unhappy wretches who contrary to other men count with bitter joy the hours which bring them nearer to the tomb to those unfortunate creatures who looked forward only to nothingness hereafter
david breathed the language and the hope of a free and happy immortality
he was their idol a year passed away in this manner
was a metisse about fifteen years of age named cecily and for this poor girl mister willis took a fancy for the first time in his life his advances were repulsed and obstinately resisted cecily was in love
and with david who during the late fearful distemper had attended her with the most vigilant care afterwards a deep and mutual love repaid him the debt of gratitude david's taste
was too refined to allow him to boast of his happiness before the time when he should marry cecily which was to be when she had turned her sixteenth year mister willis ignorant of their love had thrown his handkerchief right royally at the pretty metisse
and she in deep despair sought david and told him all the brutal attempts that she had been subjected to and with difficulty escaped the black comforted her and instantly went to mister willis to request her hand in marriage
he refused he did he said he had an inclination for the girl himself that in his life before he had never experienced the repulse of a slave he meant to possess her and he would
david might choose another wife or mistress whichsoever might best suit his inclination
as pretty as cecily david talked of his love love so long and tenderly shared and the planter shrugged his shoulders david urged but it was all in vain
the creole had the cool impudence to tell him that it was a bad example to see a master concede to a slave
he entreated supplicated and his master lost his temper david blushing to humiliate himself further spake in a firm tone of his services and disinterestedness
that he had been contented with a very slender salary mister willis was desperately enraged and telling him he was a contumacious slave threatened him with the chain david replied with a few bitter and violent words
and two hours afterwards bound to a stake his skin was torn with the lash whilst they bore cecily to the harem of the planter in his sight the conduct of the planter was brutal and horrible it was adding absurdity to cruelty
for he must after that have required the man's services precisely so for that very day the very fury into which he had worked himself joined to the drunkenness in which the brute indulged every evening
brought on an inflammatory attack of the most dangerous description the symptoms of which appeared with the rapidity peculiar to such affections the planter was carried to his bed
he sent off an express for a doctor but he could not reach his abode in less than six and thirty hours really this attack seems providential the desperate condition of the man was quite deserved by him
the malady made fearful strides david only could save the colonist but willis distrustful as all evil doers are imagined that the black would revenge himself
for after having scourged him with a rod he had thrown him into prison at last horrified at the progress of his illness broken down by bodily anguish and thinking that as death also stared him in the face
he had one chance left in trusting to the generosity of his slave after many distrusting doubts willis ordered david to be unchained and david saved the planter for five days and five nights
he watched and tended him as if he had been his father counteracting the disease step by step with great skill and perfect knowledge until at last he succeeded in defeating it to the extreme surprise of the doctor who had been sent for
and who did not arrive until the second day and when restored to health at last the colonist not desiring to blush before his own slave whose presence constantly oppressed him with the recollection of his excessive nobleness of conduct
horrible but by no means astonishing david must have been in the eyes of his brutal master a complete living remorse such conduct was dictated alike by revenge and jealousy
for he had saved them body and soul they knew the care he had bestowed on him when he lay tossing with fever between life and death and shaking off the deadening apathy which ordinarily besets slavery
these unfortunate creatures evinced their indignation or rather grief most powerfully when they saw david lacerated by the whip mister willis deeply exasperated affected to discover in this manifestation the appearance of revolt
and when he considered the influence which david had acquired over the slaves he believed him capable of placing himself at the head of a rebellion to avenge himself of his wrongs this fear was another motive with the colonist
for using david in the most shameful manner and entirely preventing him from effecting the malicious designs of which he suspected him considering him as actuated by an irrepressible amount of terror
this conduct seems less stupid but quite as ferocious a short time after these events we arrived in america monseigneur had freighted a danish brig at saint thomas's and we visited incognito all the settlements of the american coast
along which we were sailing we were most hospitably received by mister willis who the evening after our arrival after he had been drinking and as much from the excitement of wine as from a desire to boast told us in a horrid tone of brutal jesting
the history of david and cecily i forgot to say that after having maltreated the girl he had thrown her into a dungeon also as a punishment for her disdain of him his royal highness on hearing willis's fearful narration
well what followed in my life i never saw so distressing a spectacle pale wan meagre half naked and covered with wounds david and the unhappy girl chained by the middle of the body
looked like spectres the lantern that lighted us threw over this scene a still more ghastly hue david did not utter a word when he saw us his gaze was fixed and fearful
the colonist said to him with cruel irony well doctor how goes it you who are so clever why don't you cure yourself the black replied by a noble word and a dignified gesture he raised his right hand slowly
his forefinger pointed to the roof and without looking at the colonist said in a solemn tone god and then was silent god replied the planter bursting into a loud fit of laughter tell him then
tell god to come and snatch you from my power i defy him then willis overcome by fury and intoxication shook his fist to heaven and said in blasphemous language yes i defy god to carry off my slaves before they are dead
the man was mad as well as brutal we were utterly disgusted monseigneur did not say a word and we left the cell this dungeon was situated as well as the house on the seashore
we returned to our brig which was moored a short distance off and at one o'clock in the morning when all in the building were plunged in profound sleep monseigneur went on shore with eight men well armed and going straight to the prison
burst open the doors and freed david and cecily the two victims were carried on board so quietly that they were not perceived and then monseigneur and i went to the planter's house strange contrast
these men torture their slaves and yet do not take any precaution against them but sleep with doors and windows open we easily got access to the sleeping room of the planter which was lighted on the inside by a small glass lamp
who sat upright in his bed his brain still disturbed by the effect of his drunkenness you have to night defied god to carry off your two victims before their death and he has taken them said monseigneur
then taking a bag which i carried
he threw it on the fellow's bed and added
i oppose a violence that saves god will judge between us we then retreated leaving mister willis stupefied motionless and believing himself under the influence of a dream
a few minutes later we were again on board the brig which instantly set sail it appears to me my dear murphy
for in fact david no longer belonged to him we calculated as nearly as we could the expense which his studies had cost for eight years and then the price thrice over of himself and cecily as slaves
our conduct was contrary to the rights of property i know but if you had seen in what a horrible state we found this unfortunate and half dead couple if you had heard the sacrilegious defiance
drunk with wine and ferocity you would comprehend how monseigneur desired as he said on this occasion to act as it were in behalf of providence
all this is as assailable and as justifiable as the punishment of the schoolmaster my worthy squire and had not this adventure any consequences it could not
the incognito of his royal highness was closely kept we were taken for rich englishmen to whom could willis have addressed his complaints if he had any to make in fact he had told us himself
and the medical man of monseigneur declared it in a proces verbal that the two slaves could not have lived eight days longer in this frightful dungeon it required the greatest possible care to snatch david and cecily from almost certain death
from this period david has been attached to the suite of monseigneur as a medical man and is most devotedly attached to him david married cecily of course on arriving in europe this marriage
which ought to have been followed by results so happy took place in the chapel of the palace of monseigneur but by a most extraordinary revulsion of conduct hardly was she in the full enjoyment of an unhoped for position
when forgetting all that david had suffered for her and what she had suffered for him blushing in the new world to be wedded to a black cecily seduced by a man of most depraved morals committed her first fault
having till then slumbered was suddenly awakened and developed itself with fearful energy you know the rest and all the scandal of the adventures that followed after having been two years a wife david
whose confidence in her was only equalled by his love
they say he tried to kill his wife yes but through the interference of monseigneur
my dear baron but it is growing late and his royal highness is anxious that your courier should start for gerolstein with as little delay as possible in two hours time he shall be on the road
so now my dear murphy farewell till the evening till the evening adieu have you then forgotten that there is a grand ball at the embassy and that his royal highness will be present
true i have always forgotten that since the absence of colonel verner
i have the honour to fulfil the functions of chamberlain and aide de camp
when may we expect their return will they have soon completed their respective missions you know that monseigneur will keep them away as long as possible that he may enjoy more solitude and liberty
as to the errand on which his royal highness has employed each of them as an ostensible motive for getting rid of them in a quiet way sending one to avignon and the other to strasbourg i will tell you all about it some day
when we are both in a dull mood for i will defy the most hypochondriacal person in existence not to burst with laughter at the narrative as well as with certain passages in the despatches of these worthy gentlemen
who have assumed their pretended missions with so serious an air to tell the truth i have never clearly understood why his royal highness attached the colonel and the count to his private person
why my dear fellow
is there in the whole germanic confederation a more elegant figure more flourishing and splendid moustaches and a more complete military figure and when he is fully decorated screwed in
uniformed gold laced plumed et cetera et cetera it is impossible to see a more glorious self satisfied proud handsome animal true but it is his very good looks that prevent him
well and monseigneur says that thanks to the colonel he is in the habit of finding even the dullest people in the world bearable before certain audiences which are of necessity
quite ready to meet bores and defy them just as the roman soldier who before a forced march used to sole his sandals with lead and so found all fatigue light by leaving them off i now discover the usefulness of the colonel
is also very serviceable to our dear lord for always hearing at his side the tinkling of this old cracked bell shining and chattering continually seeing this soap bubble so puffed up with nothingness
so magnificently variegated and as such portraying the theatrical and puerile phase of sovereign power his royal highness feels the more sensibly the vanity of those barren pomps and glories of the world
and by contrast has often derived the most serious and happy ideas from the contemplation of his useless and pattering chamberlain well well but let us be just my dear murphy
tell me in what court in the world would you find a more perfect model of a chamberlain
the numberless rules and strict observances of etiquette who bears with more becoming demeanour an enamelled cross around his neck or more majestically comports himself
when the keys of office are suspended from his shoulders apropos baron monseigneur declares that the shoulders of a chamberlain have a peculiar physiognomy
an appearance at once constrained and repulsive which it is painful to look at for alas and alackaday it is at the back of a chamberlain that the symbol of his office glitters and as monseigneur avers
tempted to present himself backwards that his importance may at once be seen felt and acknowledged the fact is that the incessant subject of the count's meditations is to ascertain
by what fatal imagination and direction the chamberlain's key has been placed behind the chamberlain's back for it is related of him that he said with his accustomed good sense and with a kind of bitter grief
what the devil one does not open a door with one's back at all events baron the courier the courier said murphy pointing to the clock
taking his hat up in haste
milton my father was a gentleman and a man of considerable property
because they saw that my mind was far superior to my sickly frame and feared they should never raise me to manhood contrary however to their expectations i surmounted all these untoward appearances and attracted much notice from my liveliness quickness of repartee and impudence
qualities which have been of much use to me through life i can remember that i was both a coward and a boaster
is no more than implying a greater sense of danger and consequently a superior intellect we are all naturally cowards education and observation teach us to discriminate between real and apparent danger pride teaches the concealment of fear
and habit renders us indifferent to that from which we have often escaped with impunity it is related of the great frederick that he misbehaved the first time he went into action and it is certain that a novice in such a situation can no more command all his resources
than a boy when first bound apprentice to a shoemaker can make a pair of shoes we must learn our trade whether it be to stand steady before the enemy or to stitch a boot practice alone can make a hoby or a wellington i pass on to my school days
when the most lasting impressions are made the foundation of my moral and religious instruction had been laid with care by my excellent parents but alas from the time i quitted the paternal roof not one stone was added to the building
and even the traces of what existed were nearly obliterated by the deluge of vice which threatened soon to overwhelm me sometimes indeed i feebly but ineffectually endeavoured to stem the torrent
i was frank generous quick and mischievous and i must admit that a large portion of what sailors call devil was openly displayed and a much larger portion latently deposited in my brain and bosom my ruling passion
if i have gained a fair name in the service if i have led instead of followed
the world has often given me credit for better feelings as the source of action but i am not writing to conceal and the truth must be told i was sent to school to learn latin and greek which there are various ways of teaching some tutors attempt the suaviter in modo
my schoolmaster preferred the fortiter in re and as the boatswain said by the instigation of a large knotted stick he drove knowledge into our skulls as a caulker drives oakum into the seams of a ship
under such tuition we made astonishing progress and whatever my less desirable acquirements may have been my father had no cause to complain of my deficiency in classic lore superior in capacity to most of my schoolfellows
i seldom took the pains to learn my lesson previous to going up with my class the master's blessing as we called it did occasionally descend on my devoted head but that was a bagatelle i was too proud not to keep pace with my equals and too idle to do more
had my schoolmaster being a single man my stay under his care might have been prolonged to my advantage but unfortunately both for him and for me he had a helpmate and her peculiarly unfortunate disposition
her ruling passions were suspicion and avarice written in legible characters in her piercing eyes and sharp pointed nose she never supposed us capable of telling the truth so we very naturally never gave ourselves the trouble to cultivate a useless virtue
converted our candour and honesty into deceit and fraud never believed we cared little about the accuracy of our assertions half starved through her meanness and parsimony we were little scrupulous as to the ways and means provided we could satisfy our hunger
and thus we soon became as great adepts in the elegant accomplishments of lying and thieving under her tuition as we did in greek and latin under that of her husband a large orchard fields
garden and poultry yard attached to the establishment were under the care and superintendence of the mistress who usually selected one of the boys as her prime minister and confidential adviser this boy for whose education his parents were paying some sixty or eighty pounds per annum
was permitted to pass his time in gathering up the windfalls in watching the hens and bringing in their eggs when their cackling throats had announced their safe accouchement looking after the broods of young ducks and chickens et hoc genus omne in short
doing the duty of what is usually termed the odd man in the farmyard how far the parents would have been satisfied with this arrangement i leave my readers to guess but to us who preferred the manual to mental exertion
and any description of cultivation to that of cultivating the mind it suited extremely well and accordingly no place in the gift of government was ever the object of such solicitude and intrigue as was to us schoolboys the situation of collector and trustee
of the eggs and apples i had the good fortune to be early selected for this important post and the misfortune to lose it soon after owing to the cunning and envy of my schoolfellows and the suspicion of my employers on my first coming into office
by the revilings of suspicion and assailed on the other by the cravings of appetite my morning's collection was exacted from me to the very last nut and the greedy eyes of my mistress seemed to inquire for more suspected when innocent i became guilty out of revenge
was detected and dismissed a successor was appointed to whom i surrendered all my offices of trust and having perfect leisure i made it my sole business to supplant him it was an axiom in mathematics with me at that time though not found in euclid
that wherever i could enter my head my whole body might follow
i applied my head to the arched hole of the hen house door and by scraping away a little dirt contrived to gain admittance and very speedily transferred all the eggs to my own chest when the new purveyor arrived he found nothing but a beggarly account of empty boxes
and his perambulations in the orchard and garden for the same reason were equally fruitless the pilferings of the orchard and garden i confiscated as droits but when i had collected a sufficient number of eggs to furnish a nest
i gave information of my pretended discovery to my mistress who thinking she had not changed for the better dismissed my successor and received me into favour again i was like many greater men immediately reinstated in office
i once more became chancellor of the hen roost and ranger of the orchard with greater power than i had possessed before my disgrace had my mistress looked half as much in my face as she did into my hatful of eggs
for at that unsophisticated age i could blush a habit long since discarded in the course of my professional duties in order to preserve my credit and my situation i no longer contented myself with windfalls but assisted nature in her labours
and greatly lightened the burthen of many a loaded fruit tree by these means i not only gratified the avarice of my mistress at her own expense but also laid by a store for my own use on my restoration to office i had an ample fund in my exchequer to answer all present demands
and by a provident and industrious anticipation was enabled to lull the suspicions of my employers and to bid defiance to the opposition it will readily be supposed that a lad of my acuteness did not omit any technical management for the purpose of disguise
the fruits which i presented were generally soiled with dirt at the ends of the stalks in such a manner as to give them all the appearance of felo de se i e fell of itself
from the mismanagement of those into whose hands i was intrusted to be strengthened in religion and virtue fortunately for me as far as my education was concerned i did not long continue to hold this honourable and lucrative employment
one of those unhappy beings called an usher peeped into my chest and by way of acquiring popularity with the mistress and scholars forthwith denounced me to the higher powers the proofs of my peculation were too glaring and the amount too serious to be passed over
i was tried convicted condemned sentenced flogged and dismissed in the course of half an hour and such was the degree of turpitude attached to me on this occasion that i was rendered for ever incapable of serving in that or any other employment connected with the garden or farm
i was placed at the bottom of the list and declared to be the worst boy in the school this in many points of view was too true but there was one boy who bade fair to rival me on the score of delinquency this was tom crauford
who from that day became my most intimate friend tom was a fine spirited fellow up to everything loved mischief though not vicious and was ready to support me in everything through thick and thin and truly i found him sufficient employment i threw off all disguise
laughed at any suggestion of reform which i considered as not only useless but certain of subjecting me to ridicule and contempt among my associates i therefore adopted the motto of some great man to be rather than seem to be i led in every danger
stole everything that was eatable from garden orchard or hen house knowing full well that whether i did so or not i should be equally suspected thenceforward all fruit missed all arrows shot into pigs all stones thrown into windows
and all mud spattered over clean linen hung out to dry were traced to tom and myself
the space between apprehension and punishment was very short we were constantly brought before the master and as regularly dismissed with his blessing till we became hardened to blows and to shame thus by the covetousness of this woman
who was the grey mare and the folly of the master who in anything but greek and latin was an ass my good principles were nearly eradicated from my bosom and in their place were sown seeds which very shortly produced an abundant harvest
we nick named him johnny pagoda he was remarkable for nothing but ignorance impudence great personal strength and as we thought determined resolution he was about nineteen years of age
how is one to reconcile the want of manliness moral and intellectual which hadow asserts
here are the cannon buried in flowers of robert schumann here overwhelming evidences of versatility virility and passion chopin blinded his critics and admirers alike a delicate puny fellow
he could play the piano on occasion like a devil incarnate he too had his demon as well as liszt and only as ehlert puts it theoretical fear of this spirit driving him over the cliffs of reason made him curb its antics
it is not possible to conceive chopin as being irascible and almost brutal yet he was at times even this
wrestling with his wrath as one under the obsession of a fiend it is no desire to exaggerate this side of his nature that impels this plain writing chopin left compositions that bear witness to his masculine side diminutive in person
bad temper became him ill besides his whole education and tastes were opposed to scenes of violence so this energy spleen and raging at fortune found escape in some of his music
became psychical in its manifestations but you may say this is feminine hysteria the impotent cries of an unmanly weak nature read the e flat minor the c minor the a major the f sharp minor
and the two a flat major polonaises ballades scherzi studies preludes and the great f minor fantaisie are purposely omitted from this awing scheme chopin was weak in physique
there is no doubt he idealized his country and her wrongs
politically the poles and celts rub shoulders niecks points out that if chopin was a flattering idealist as a national poet as a personal poet he was an uncompromising realist so in the polonaises we find two distinct groups
in one the objective martial side predominates in the other is chopin the moody mournful and morose but in all the polish element pervades barring the mazurkas these dances are the most polish of his works
would have sparedthe world the false silly distorted portraits of him he had the warrior in him even if his mailed fist was seldom used there are moments when he discards gloves and soft phrases and deals blows
that reverberate with formidable clangor by all means read liszt's gorgeous description of the polonaise originating during the last half of the sixteenth century it was at first a measured procession of nobles and their womankind to the sound of music
in the court of henry of anjou in fifteen seventy four after his election to the polish throne the polonaise was born and throve in the hardy warlike atmosphere it became a dance political and had words set to it
thus came the kosciuszko the oginski the moniuszko
it is really a march a processional dance grave moderate flowing and by no means stereotyped liszt tells of the capricious life infused into its courtly measures by the polish aristocracy
it is at once the symbol of war and love a vivid pageant of martial splendor a weaving cadenced voluptuous dance the pursuit of shy coquettish woman by the fierce warrior the polonaise
is in three four time with the accent on the second beat of the bar in simple binary form ternary if a trio is added this dance has feminine endings to all the principal cadences the rhythmical cast of the bass is seldom changed
despite its essentially masculine mould it is given a feminine title formerly
liszt wrote of it in this form the noblest traditional feelings of ancient poland are represented the polonaise is the true and purest type of polish national character as in the course of centuries it was developed partly through the political position of the kingdom toward east and west
partly through an undefinable peculiar inborn disposition of the entire race in the development of the polonaise everything co operated which specifically distinguished the nation from others in the poles of departed times manly resolution was united
with glowing devotion to the object of their love their knightly heroism was sanctioned by high soaring dignity and even the laws of gallantry and the national costume exerted an influence over the turns of this dance
the polonaises are the keystone in the development of this form they belong to the most beautiful of chopin inspirations with their energetic rhythm they electrify to the point of excited demonstration even the sleepiest indifferentism
chopin was born too late and left his native hearth too early to be initiated into the original character of the polonaise as danced through his own observation but what others imparted to him in regard to it was supplemented by his fancy and his nationality
chopin wrote fifteen polonaises the authenticity of one in g flat major being doubted by niecks
this latter polonaise is preceded by an andante spianato in g in six eight time and unaccompanied it is a charming liquid toned nocturne like composition chopin in his most suave
his most placid mood a barcarolle scarcely a ripple of emotion disturbs the mirrored calm of this lake after sixteen bars of a crudely harmonized tutti comes the polonaise
in the widely remote key of e flat it is brilliant every note telling the figuration rich and novel the movement spirited and flowing perhaps it is too long and lacks relief the theme on each re entrance is
varied ornamentally the second theme in c minor has a polish and poetic ring while the coda is effective this opus is vivacious but not characterized by great depth crystalline gracious and refined
the piece is stamped paris the elegant paris of eighteen thirty composed in that year and published in july eighteen thirty six
chopin introduced it at a conservatoire concert for the benefit of habeneck april twenty sixth eighteen thirty five this according to niecks was the only time he played the polonaise with orchestral accompaniment
it was practically a novelty to new york when rafael joseffy played it here superlatively well in eighteen seventy nine the orchestral part seems wholly superfluous for the scoring is not particularly effective
and there is a rumor that chopin cannot be held responsible for it xaver scharwenka made a new instrumentation that is discreet and extremely well sounding with excellent tact
giving some thematic work of the slightest texture to the strings and in the pretty coda to the wood wind a delicately managed allusion is made by the horns to the second theme of the nocturne in g
there are even five faint taps of the triangle and the idyllic atmosphere is never disturbed scharwenka first played this arrangement
in chickering hall new york april eighteen ninety eight yet i cannot truthfully say the polonaise sounds so characteristic as when played solo
has had the misfortune of being sentimentalized to death what can be more appassionata than the opening with its grand rhythmical swing
the first three lines are hugely heroic but the indignation soon melts away leaving an apathetic humor after the theme returns and is repeated we get a genuine love motif tender enough in all faith wherewith to woo a princess
on this the polonaise closes an odd ending for such a fiery opening
in e flat minor it is variously known as the siberian the revolt polonaise it breathes defiance and rancor from the start what suppressed and threatening rumblings are there volcanic mutterings these
musical score excerpt it is a sinister page and all the more so because of the injunction to open with pianissimo one wishes that the shrill high g flat
had been written in full chords as the theme suffers from a want of massiveness then follows a subsidiary but the principal subject returns relentlessly the episode in b major gives pause for breathing
it has a hint of meyerbeer but again with smothered explosions the polonaise proper appears and all ends in gloom and the impotent clanking of chains it is an awe provoking work
it was published july eighteen thirty six and is dedicated to m j dessauer
le militaire to rubinstein this seemed a picture of poland's greatness as its companion in c minor is of poland's downfall although karasowski and kleczynski
give to the a flat major polonaise the honor of suggesting a well known story it is really the a major that provoked it so the polish portrait painter kwiatowski informed niecks the story runs that after composing it
chopin in the dreary watches of the night was surprised terrified is a better word by the opening of his door and the entrance of a long train of polish nobles and ladies richly robed who moved slowly by him
troubled by the ghosts of the past he had raised the composer hollow eyed fled the apartment
can anything be more impressive than this opening musical score excerpt it is indeed poland's downfall the trio in a flat with its kaleidoscopic modulations produces an impression of vague unrest and suppressed sorrow
there is loftiness of spirit and daring in it what can one say new of the tremendous f sharp minor polonaise willeby calls it noisy
whom vance thompson christened a prestidigious noctambulist has literally stormed over it it is barbaric it is perhaps pathologic and of it liszt has said most eloquent things it is for him a dream poem
the lurid hour that precedes a hurricane
the opening is very impressive the nerve pulp being harassed by the gradually swelling prelude there is defiant power in the first theme and the constant reference to it betrays the composer's exasperated mental condition
this tendency to return upon himself a tormenting introspection certainly signifies a grave state but consider the musical weight of the work the recklessly bold outpourings of a mind almost distraught
there is no greater test for the poet pianist than the f sharp minor polonaise it is profoundly ironical what else means the introduction of that lovely mazurka a flower between two abysses
this strange dance is ushered in by two of the most enigmatic pages of chopin
is not easily defensible on the score of form yet it unmistakably fits in the picture the mazurka is full of interrogation and emotional nuanciren the return of the tempest is not long delayed
it bursts wanes and with the coda comes sad yearning then the savage drama passes tremblingly into the night after fluid and wavering affirmations a roar in f sharp
and finally a silence that marks the cessation of an agitating nightmare no sabre dance this but a confession from the dark depths of a self tortured soul
de beauvau there are few editorial differences in the eighteenth bar from the beginning
fills out an octave not so in klindworth nor in the original at the twentieth bar klindworth differs from the original as follows the chopin text is the upper one musical score excerpts
and is said by karasowski to have been composed in eighteen forty
it is dedicated to a leo this is the one karasowski calls the story of chopin's vision of the antique dead in an isolated tower of madame sand's chateau at nohant
we have seen this legend disproved by one who knows this polonaise is not as feverish and as exalted as the previous one it is as kleczynski writes the type of a war song
and silver spur there is imaginative splendor in this thrilling work with its thunder of horses hoofs and fierce challengings what fire what sword thrusts and smoke and clash of mortal conflict
here is no psychical presentation but an objective picture of battle of concrete contours and with a cleaving brilliancy that excites the blood to boiling pitch that chopin ever played it as intended is incredible
none but the heroes of the keyboard may grasp its dense chordal masses its fiery projectiles of tone but there is something disturbing even ghostly in the strange intermezzo that separates the trio from the polonaise both mist and starlight are in it
yet the work is played too fast and has been nicknamed the drum polonaise losing in majesty and force because of the vanity of virtuosi the octaves in e major are spun out as if speed were the sole idea of this episode
follow kleczynski's advice and do not sacrifice the polonaise to the octaves karl tausig so joseffy and de lenz assert played this polonaise in an unapproachable manner powerful battle tableau as it is
it may still be presented so as not to shock one's sense of the euphonious of the limitations of the instrument this work becomes vapid and unheroic when transferred to the orchestra
given to the world september eighteen forty six is dedicated to madame a veyret one of three great polonaises it is just beginning to be understood having been derided as amorphous febrile
of little musical moment even liszt declaring that such pictures possess but little real value to art deplorable visions which the artist should admit with extreme circumspection within the graceful circle of his charmed realm
this was written in the old fashioned days when art was aristocratic and excluded the baser and more painful emotions for a generation accustomed to the realism of richard strauss the fantaisie polonaise seems vaporous and idealistic withal new
this polonaise at no time exhibits the solidity of its two predecessors its plasticity defies the imprint of the conventional polonaise though we ever feel its rhythms it may be full of monologues interspersed cadenzas
improvised preludes and short phrases as kullak suggests yet there is unity in the composition the units of structure and style it was music of the future when chopin composed it is now music of the present as much as richard wagner's
here is the duality of chopin the suffering man and chopin the prophet of poland undimmed is his poetic vision poland will be free undaunted his soul though oppressed by a suffering body
there are in the work throes of agony blended with the trumpet notes of triumph and what puzzled our fathers the shifting lights and shadows the restless tonalities are welcome for at the beginning of this new century the chromatic is king
the ending of this polonaise is triumphant recalling in key and climaxing the a flat ballade chopin is still the captain of his soul and poland will be free
are celt and slav doomed to follow ever the phosphorescent lights of patriotism liszt acknowledges the beauty and grandeur of this last polonaise which unites the characteristics of superb and original manipulation
the martial and the melancholic opus seventy one three posthumous polonaises given to the world by julius fontana are in d minor published in eighteen twenty seven
and f minor eighteen twenty nine they are interesting to chopinists the influence of weber
is felt of the three the last in f minor is the strongest although if chopin's age is taken into consideration the first in d minor is a feat for a lad of eighteen i agree with niecks that the posthumous polonaise without opus number
in g sharp minor was composed later than eighteen twenty two the date given in the breitkopf and hartel edition it is an artistic conception and in light winged figuration far more mature
than the chopin of op seventy one really a graceful and effective little composition of the florid order but like his early music without poetic depth the warsaw echo musicale
published a special number in october eighteen ninety nine with the picture of a farmer named krysiak born in eighteen ten the year after the composer thereat finck remarked
a fac simile reproduction of a hitherto unpublished polonaise in a flat written at the age of eleven is also included in this unique number this tiny dance shows it is said the characteristic physiognomy of the composer in reality
this polacca is thin a tentative groping after a form that later was mastered so magnificently by the composer
the autograph is chopin's musical score excerpt
it is preceded by an introduction and is dedicated to joseph merk the cellist chopin himself pronounced it a brilliant salon piece it is now not even that for it sounds antiquated and threadbare
the passage work at times smacks of chopin and weber a hint of the mouvement perpetuel and the cello has the better of the bargain evidently written for my lady's chamber two polonaises remain
one in b flat minor was composed in eighteen twenty six on the occasion of the composer's departure for reinerz a footnote to the edition of this rather elegiac piece tells this adieu
is the title and the trio in d flat is accredited to an air of gazza ladra with a sentimental au revoir inscribed kleczynski has revised the gebethner and wolff edition
the little cadenza in chromatic double notes on the last page is of a certainty chopin but the polonaise in g flat major published by schott is doubtful it has a shallow ring a brilliant superficiality
there are traces of the master throughout particularly in the e flat minor trio but there are some vile progressions and an air of vulgarity surely not chopin's this dance form since the death of the great composer has been chiefly developed on the virtuoso side
beethoven schubert weber and even bach in his b minor suite for strings and flute also indulged in this form wagner as a student wrote a polonaise for four hands in d and in schumann's papillons
there is a charming specimen rubinstein composed a most brilliant and dramatic example in e flat in le bal the liszt polonaises all said and done are the most remarkable in design and execution since chopin
i assure my friend it is perfectly safe
one may assert himself or assert his right to what he is willing to contend for or he may assert in discussion what he is ready to maintain by argument or evidence
and its noun assertion have an unfavorable sense we say a mere assertion a bare assertion his unsupported assertion he asserted his innocence has less force than he affirmed or maintained his innocence affirm
steep is said only of an incline where the vertical measurement is sufficiently great in proportion to the horizontal to make it difficult of ascent steep is relative
a rise of five hundred feet to the mile makes a steep wagon road
a sharp ascent or descent is one that makes a sudden decided angle with the plane from which it starts a sheer ascent or descent is perpendicular or nearly so precipitous applies to that which is of the nature of a precipice and is used especially of a descent
compare high antonyms easy flat gentle gradual horizontal level low slight storm synonyms agitation
disturbance tempest a storm is properly a disturbance of the atmosphere with or without rain snow hail or thunder and lightning thus we have rain storm snow storm et cetera and by extension magnetic storm
a tempest is a storm of extreme violence always attended with some precipitation as of rain from the atmosphere in the moral and figurative use storm and tempest are not closely discriminated except that tempest commonly implies greater intensity
we speak of agitation of feeling disturbance of mind a storm of passion a tempest of rage antonyms calm fair weather hush peace serenity stillness
history memoir stupidity
obtuseness sluggishness
apathy may be temporary and be dispelled by appeal to the feelings or by the presentation of an adequate motive but stupidity is inveterate and commonly incurable compare apathy
stupor antonyms
weakness or loss of sensibility the apathy of disease is a mental affection a state of morbid indifference lethargy is a morbid tendency to heavy and continued sleep from which the patient may perhaps be momentarily aroused
stertorous breathing and is due to brain oppression syncope or swooning is a sudden loss of sensation and of power of motion with suspension of pulse and of respiration and is due to failure of heart action as from sudden nervous shock or intense mental emotion
insensibility is a general term denoting loss of feeling from any cause as from cold intoxication or injury stupor is especially profound and confirmed insensibility properly comatose
asphyxia is a special form of syncope resulting from partial or total suspension of respiration as in strangulation drowning or inhalation of noxious gases subjective synonym objective
subjective and objective are synonyms in but one point of view being for the most part strictly antonyms subjective signifies relating to the subject of mental states that is to the person who experiences them
objective signifies relating to the object of mental states that is to something outside the perceiving mind in brief phrase it may be said that subjective relates to something within the mind
to supersede implies the putting of something that is wisely or unwisely preferred in the place of that which is removed to subvert does not imply substitution to supplant is more often personal signifying to take the place of another usually by underhanded means
one is superseded by authority supplanted by a rival compare abolish antonyms conserve keep perpetuate
when he broke the short silence it was to remark that concessions flew about thick in the air of costaguana any simple soul that just yearned to be taken in could bring down a concession at the first shot
our consuls get their mouths stopped with them he continued with a twinkle of genial scorn in his eyes but in a moment he became grave a conscientious upright man that cares nothing for boodle
and keeps clear of their intrigues conspiracies and factions soon gets his passports see that mister gould persona non grata that's the reason our government is never properly informed
on the other hand europe must be kept out of this continent and for proper interference on our part the time is not yet ripe i dare say but we here we are not this country's government neither are we simple souls your affair is all right
the main question for us is whether the second partner and that's you is the right sort to hold his own against the third and unwelcome partner which is one or another of the high and mighty robber gangs that run the costaguana government
he bent forward to look steadily into the unflinching eyes of charles gould who remembering the large box full of his father's letters put the accumulated scorn and bitterness of many years into the tone of his answer
as far as the knowledge of these men and their methods and their politics is concerned i can answer for myself i have been fed on that sort of knowledge since i was a boy i am not likely to fall into mistakes from excess of optimism
not likely eh that's all right tact and a stiff upper lip is what you'll want and you could bluff a little on the strength of your backing
but we won't be drawn into any large trouble this is the experiment which i am willing to make
but if you can't keep up your end we will stand our loss of course and then we'll let the thing go this mine can wait it has been shut up before as you know you must understand that under no circumstances
thus the great personage had spoken then in his own private office in a great city
and rather more than a year later during his unexpected appearance in sulaco he had emphasized his uncompromising attitude with a freedom of sincerity permitted to his wealth and influence
had impressed him with the conviction that charles gould was perfectly capable of keeping up his end
may yet become a power in the land this thought flattered him for hitherto the only account of this young man he could give to his intimates was
and sent him on to me with a letter he's one of the costaguana goulds pure bred englishmen but all born in the country his uncle went into politics was the last provincial president of sulaco and got shot after a battle
after a lot of revolutions and that's your costaguana in a nutshell of course he was too great a man to be questioned as to his motives even by his intimates the outside world was at liberty to wonder respectfully at the hidden meaning of his actions
he was so great a man that his lavish patronage of the purer forms of christianity
was looked upon by his fellow citizens as the manifestation of a pious and humble spirit but in his own circles of the financial world the taking up of such a thing as the san tome mine was regarded with respect indeed but rather as a subject
for discreet jocularity it was a great man's caprice in the great holroyd building
cobwebbed aloft by the radiation of telegraph wires the heads of principal departments exchanged humorous glances
the costaguana mail it was never large one fairly heavy envelope was taken unopened straight into the great man's room and no instructions dealing with it had ever been issued thence the office whispered that he answered personally and not by dictation either
but actually writing in his own hand with pen and ink and it was to be supposed taking a copy in his own private press copy book inaccessible to profane eyes
some scornful young men insignificant pieces of minor machinery in that eleven storey high workshop of great affairs expressed frankly their private opinion that the great chief had done at last something silly and was ashamed of his folly
used to mutter darkly and knowingly that this was a portentous sign that the holroyd connection meant by and by to get hold of the whole republic of costaguana lock stock and barrel but in fact the hobby theory was the right one
it interested the great man to attend personally to the san tome mine it interested him so much that he allowed this hobby to give a direction to the first complete holiday he had taken for quite a startling number of years he was not running a great enterprise there
no mere railway board or industrial corporation he was running a man a success would have pleased him very much on refreshingly novel grounds but on the other side of the same feeling it was incumbent upon him to cast it off utterly at the first sign of failure
the papers had unfortunately trumpeted all over the land his journey to costaguana if he was pleased at the way charles gould was going on he infused an added grimness into his assurances of support
hat in hand behind missus gould's white mules
you may begin sending out the machinery as soon as you like and the great man had liked this imperturbable assurance the secret of it was that to charles gould's mind these uncompromising terms were agreeable like this the mine preserved its identity
with which he had endowed it as a boy and it remained dependent on himself alone it was a serious affair and he too took it grimly of course he said to his wife alluding to this last conversation with the departed guest while they walked slowly up and down the corredor
of course a man of that sort can take up a thing or drop it when he likes
and some day will get hold of costaguana along with the rest of the world they had stopped near the cage the parrot catching the sound of a word belonging to his vocabulary was moved to interfere parrots are very human
viva costaguana he shrieked with intense self assertion and instantly ruffling up his feathers
this seems to me most awful materialism
my dear it's nothing to me interrupted her husband in a reasonable tone i make use of what i see what's it to me whether his talk is the voice of destiny or simply a bit of clap trap eloquence
there's a good deal of eloquence of one sort or another produced in both americas the air of the new world seems favourable to the art of declamation have you forgotten how dear avellanos can hold forth for hours here
oh but that's different protested missus gould almost shocked the allusion was not to the point don jose was a dear good man who talked very well and was enthusiastic about the greatness of the san tome mine
he has suffered and yet he hopes the working competence of men which she never questioned was very surprising to missus gould because upon so many obvious issues they showed themselves strangely muddle headed
charles gould with a careworn calmness which secured for him at once his wife's anxious sympathy assured her that he was not comparing he was an american himself after all and perhaps he could understand both kinds of eloquence
if it were worth while to try he added grimly but he had breathed the air of england longer than any of his people had done for three generations and really he begged to be excused his poor father could be eloquent too
and he asked his wife whether she remembered a passage in one of his father's last letters where mister gould had expressed the conviction that god looked wrathfully at these countries or else he
would let some ray of hope fall through a rift in the appalling darkness of intrigue bloodshed and crime that hung over the queen of continents missus gould had not forgotten you read it to me charley she murmured it was a striking pronouncement
how deeply your father must have felt its terrible sadness he did not like to be robbed it exasperated him said charles gould but the image will serve well enough what is wanted here is law good faith order security
any one can declaim about these things but i pin my faith to material interests only let the material interests once get a firm footing and they are bound to impose the conditions on which alone they can continue to exist
that's how your money making is justified here in the face of lawlessness and disorder it is justified because the security which it demands must be shared with an oppressed people a better justice will come afterwards that's your ray of hope
his arm pressed her slight form closer to his side for a moment and who knows whether in that sense even the san tome mine may not become that little rift in the darkness which poor father despaired of ever seeing she glanced up at him with admiration he was competent
he had given a vast shape to the vagueness of her unselfish ambitions charley she said you are splendidly disobedient he left her suddenly in the corredor to go and get his hat a soft grey sombrero an article of national costume
which combined unexpectedly well with his english get up he came back a riding whip under his arm buttoning up a dogskin glove his face reflected the resolute nature of his thoughts
his wife had waited for him at the head of the stairs and before he gave her the parting kiss he finished the conversation what should be perfectly clear to us he said is the fact that there is no going back where could we begin life afresh
we are in now for all that there is in us he bent over her upturned face very tenderly and a little remorsefully charles gould was competent because he had no illusions the gould concession had to fight for life with such weapons
he was prepared to stoop for his weapons for a moment he felt as if the silver mine which had killed his father had decoyed him further than he meant to go and with the roundabout logic of emotions he felt that the worthiness of his life was bound up with success
a colloquialism is an expression not coarse or low and perhaps not incorrect but below the literary grade educated persons are apt to allow themselves some colloquialisms in familiar conversation which they would avoid in writing or public speaking
there are also many expressions current in special senses in certain communities that may be characterized as slang as college slang club slang racing slang
in the evolution of language many words originally slang are adopted by good writers and speakers and ultimately take their place as accepted english a vulgarism is an expression decidedly incorrect and the use of which is a mark of ignorance or low breeding
cant as used in this connection denotes the barbarous jargon used as a secret language by thieves tramps et cetera compare diction
slow also applies to that which is a relatively long while in beginning or accomplishing something
tardy is applied to that which is behind the proper or desired time especially in doing a work or arriving at a place
a person is dilatory who lays aside or puts off as long as possible necessary or required action both words may be applied either to undertaking or to doing
antonyms see synonyms for nimble sneer synonyms fling gibe jeer mock
communism fabianism socialism as defined by its advocates is a theory of civil polity that aims to secure the reconstruction of society increase of wealth and a more equal distribution of the products of labor through the public collective ownership of land and capital
its aim is extended industrial cooperation socialism is a purely economic term applying to landownership and productive capital many socialists call themselves collectivists and their system collectivism
communism would divide all things including the profits of individual labor among members of the community
sound synonyms noise note tone sound is the sensation produced through the organs of hearing or the physical cause of this sensation
tone is sound considered as having some musical quality or as expressive of some feeling noise is sound considered without reference to musical quality or as distinctly unmusical or discordant
thus in the most general sense noise and sound scarcely differ and we say almost indifferently i heard a sound or i heard a noise we speak of a fine musical or pleasing sound but never thus of a noise
in music tone may denote either a musical sound or the interval between two such sounds but in the most careful usage the latter is now distinguished as the interval leaving tone to stand only for the sound
note in music strictly denotes the character representing a sound but in loose popular usage it denotes the sound also and becomes practically equivalent to tone aside from its musical use tone is chiefly applied to that quality of the human voice by which feeling is expressed as he spoke in a cheery tone
as used of a musical instrument tone denotes the general quality of its sounds collectively considered speak synonyms
utter to utter is to give forth as an audible sound articulate or not to talk is to utter a succession of connected words ordinarily with the expectation of being listened to
to speak is to give articulate utterance even to a single word the officer speaks the word of command but does not talk it to speak is also to utter words with the ordinary intonation as distinguished from singing
to chat is ordinarily to utter in a familiar conversational way to chatter is to talk in an empty ceaseless way like a magpie prepositions speak to address a person speak with a person converse with him
speak of or about a thing make it the subject of remark speak on or upon a subject in parliamentary language speak to the question speech synonyms
utterance speech is the general word for utterance of thought in language a speech may be the delivering of one's sentiments in the simplest way an oration is an elaborate and prepared speech
a discourse is a set speech on a definite subject intended to convey instruction compare conversation diction language antonyms hush silence speechlessness stillness taciturnity
spontaneous synonyms automatic
willing that is spontaneous which is freely done with no external compulsion and in human actions without special premeditation or distinct determination of the will that is voluntary which is freely done with distinct act of will
that is involuntary which is independent of the will and perhaps in opposition to it
thus voluntary and involuntary which are antonyms of each other are both partial synonyms of spontaneous we speak of spontaneous generation spontaneous combustion spontaneous sympathy an involuntary start
voluntary agreement willing submission
in physiology the action of the heart and lungs is called involuntary the growth of the hair and nails is spontaneous the action of swallowing is voluntary up to a certain point beyond which it becomes involuntary or automatic
in the fullest sense of that which is not only without the will but distinctly in opposition to it or compulsory involuntary becomes an antonym not only of voluntary but of spontaneous as involuntary servitude
a spontaneous outburst of applause is of necessity an act of volition but so completely dependent on sympathetic impulse that it would seem frigid to call it voluntary while to call it involuntary would imply some previous purpose or inclination not to applaud spy
synonyms detective emissary scout
the scout lurks on the outskirts of the hostile army with such concealment as the case admits of but without disguise a spy enters in disguise within the enemy's lines
an emissary is rather political than military sent rather to secretly influence opponents than to bring information concerning them so far as he does the latter he is not only an emissary but a spy
succeed synonyms achieve attain flourish prevail prosper thrive win a person succeeds when he accomplishes what he attempts or attains a desired object or result
an enterprise or undertaking succeeds that has a prosperous result
a solitary swimmer succeeds in reaching the shore if we say he wins the shore we contrast him with himself as a possible loser many students may succeed in study a few win the special prizes for which all compete compare follow antonyms
be defeated come short fail fall short lose miss miscarry suggestion synonyms hint implication innuendo insinuation intimation
brings something before the mind less directly than by formal or explicit statement as by a partial statement an incidental allusion an illustration a question or the like
suggestion is often used of an unobtrusive statement of one's views or wishes to another leaving consideration and any consequent action entirely to his judgment and is hence in many cases the most respectful way in which one can convey his views to a superior or a stranger
a suggestion may be given unintentionally and even unconsciously as when we say an author has a suggestive style an intimation is a suggestion in brief utterance or sometimes by significant act gesture or token of one's meaning or wishes
in the latter case it is often the act of a superior as god in his providence gives us intimations of his will
a hint is still more limited in expression and is always covert but frequently with good intent as to give one a hint of danger or of opportunity insinuation and innuendo are used in the bad sense
in to and nuo nod supernatural synonyms miraculous preternatural superhuman the supernatural super above
the preternatural preter beyond is aside from or beyond the recognized results or operations of natural law often in the sense of inauspicious as a preternatural gloom
miraculous is more emphatic and specific than supernatural as referring to the direct personal intervention of divine power some hold that a miracle
all that is beyond human power is superhuman as prophecy gives evidence of superhuman knowledge the word is sometimes applied to remarkable manifestations of human power surpassing all that is ordinary antonyms common commonplace
everyday natural ordinary
synonyms conjecture deem guess imagine surmise think to suppose is temporarily to assume a thing as true either with the expectation of finding it so or for the purpose of ascertaining what would follow if it were so
to suppose is also to think a thing to be true while aware or conceding that the belief does not rest upon any sure ground and may not accord with fact or yet again to suppose is to imply as true or involved as a necessary inference
to conjecture is to put together the nearest available materials for a provisional opinion always with some expectation of finding the facts to be as conjectured to imagine is to form a mental image of something as existing tho its actual existence may be unknown or even impossible
to think in this application is to hold as the result of thought what is admitted not to be matter of exact or certain knowledge as i do not know but i think this to be the fact a more conclusive statement than would be made by the use of conjecture or suppose compare
doubt hypothesis antonyms ascertain be sure conclude discover know prove surrender synonyms abandon
yield to surrender is to give up upon compulsion as to an enemy in war hence to give up to any person passion influence or power
a monarch or a state cedes territory perhaps for a consideration surrenders an army a navy or a fortified place to a conqueror a military commander abandons an untenable position or unavailable stores
we sacrifice something precious through error friendship or duty yield to convincing reasons a stronger will winsome persuasion or superior force compare abandon synonymous synonyms alike
strictly signifies being interchangeable names for the same thing or being one of two or more interchangeable names for the same thing
to say that we are morally developed is synonymous with saying that we have reaped what some one has suffered for us
in the strictest sense synonymous words scarcely exist rarely if ever are any two words in any language equivalent or identical in meaning
by synonymous words or synonyms we usually understand words that coincide or nearly coincide in some part of their meaning and may hence within certain limits be used interchangeably while outside of those limits they may differ very greatly in meaning and use
to consider synonymous words identical is fatal to accuracy to forget that they are similar to some extent equivalent and sometimes interchangeable is destructive of freedom and variety system synonyms manner
mode order regularity rule order in this connection denotes the fact or result of proper arrangement according to the due relation or sequence of the matters arranged as these papers are in order in alphabetical order
method denotes a process a general or established way of doing or proceeding in anything rule an authoritative requirement or an established course of things
as a system of theology a railroad system the digestive system manner refers to the external qualities of actions and to those often as settled and characteristic we speak of a system of taxation a method of collecting taxes
regularity applies to the even disposition of objects or uniform recurrence of acts in a series there may be regularity without order as in the recurrence of paroxysms of disease or insanity there may be order without regularity as in the arrangement of furniture in a room
where the objects are placed at varying distances order commonly implies the design of an intelligent agent or the appearance or suggestion of such design
regularity applies to an actual uniform disposition or recurrence with no suggestion of purpose and as applied to human affairs is less intelligent and more mechanical than order the most perfect order is often secured with least regularity as in a fine essay or oration
compare habit hypothesis
the assault upon maloney was now the talk of the town hallen who had enjoyed a respite from censure was again furiously blamed for inability and incompetence
none but our select few discerned that maloney was lying for none knew as much of the intricacies of the case as did we
all were crying out for the instant arrest of the one who had attempted to kill him but none but the few who had heard maloney's statement within headquarters knew that it was o'brien
the masses were in ignorance of the strides we had made twards the solution of the horrible happenings at mona and of course hallen was getting more than he deserved in the way of criticism
oakes told us that he momentarily expected some new developments in the case as hallen was endeavoring to find skinner and bring him to the mansion
his surmises proved true for it was found an easy matter to locate the old man and early in the evening hallen arrived at the mansion and joined us in the apartments upstairs and with him
were martin and skinner dowd the rival of the old man was with us having begged earnestly of oakes to be allowed to follow as close to the action as possible
and having stuck by us like a veritable leech since the morning dowd was a nice fellow and a newspaper man from start to finish and he seemed to have developed a great liking for oakes
we were all upstairs when martin ushered in the tall rather slender but powerful old man skinner none of us save hallen had seen him at close range before
but i saw a curious expression half of defiance half of dismay in his face that made me watch him most closely doctor moore was scanning his features carefully
in a way that showed he had detected something but quintus oakes rising from his seat and advancing politely to meet the old gentleman seemed neither to have seen anything nor to know anything
and then at the old man's eyes moore whispered he has excluded skinner as the criminal look see him take it all in oakes was leading skinner to a seat
and as he walked he spoke freely he had discovered that which doctor moore had also seen but which i had failed to detect
it's not well lighted here
on your cornea just in front of the pupil interferes somewhat with your vision yes mister clark it does interfere just a trifle just enough to spoil duck shooting eh i
for the assassin could shoot well and the old scar on the eye prevented that in skinner's case but to what do i owe the honor of a request to call at the mansion escorted by such a nice young man
and extending his hand to moore he said he guessed he was glad to know us all better then turning quietly to chief hallen he laughed and gave us a shock from which we were unable to rally for a few moments
well chief they're keeping you busy they tell me you don't like it because i exposed that fellow who palmed himself off as mister quintus oakes that man rogers you know
it interfered with my plans i am trying to catch the murderer of mister mark you know suppose you are you haven't got him yet you can search me chief
don't you the old fellow turned to oakes as he spoke the words that showed he was not to be fooled into believing oakes was clark we moved nearer skinner knew all apparently
then oakes arose to meet the occasion and stood before the old man mister skinner i thank you for warning me not to come to mona it was your letter i received but why did you warn me
was it to protect your secret oakes had acted all along as though he had learned some things he had not spoken of to us he and hallen had seemed to comprehend more than we others knew
but i was scarce prepared for such a sudden revelation stop cried the old man stop you have no right i did warn you to keep away from mona i knew of the mansion mysteries
i knew you by sight in new york i recognized you here on your first visit i did not want to see a good man get in trouble thank you said oakes thank you
your kindness was appreciated but you have another motive you are shielding someone none no one came the answer nonsense and oakes's eyes blazed as he spoke
you tried to send him away this morning you gave him money at the hut you were nearly killed by the man you are protecting can you explain it the old man was shaking violently
he arose tottered and sat down then burying his head in his hands he remained silent for a space of seconds then shaking his head he moaned no
i can't explain i had given him all mister oakes he was not robbing me he seemed angry he i
i can said oakes the man you have befriended these many years the man maloney who used to work with you in your shop to whom you gave among many other things
a red bandana handkerchief with your initial s upon it one of those handkerchiefs you use about the printing office that man we think is a maniac we surmise that he has the killing mania
did you not suspect it the old man's manner changed to one of terrified inquiry why i never suspected i i thought he was peculiar
i mistrusted he was at the bottom of the mansion mysteries i wanted to send him away to give him a show oakes hesitated then answered evasively but forcefully
maloney is probably irresponsible he is the man of the mansion the woman so called of the smith murder the murderer of mister mark we believe but we are without proof as yet
moore was at his side with a drink and we all placed him on the sofa and watched the color return to the yellow white face and the respirations deepen again oakes bent solicitously above him
there is something back of all this skinner maloney is more than a friend then as the old man rose the detective in tones gentle but strong called skinner's attention to the fact
that his conduct in using the influence of his journal against hallen and the discovery of the criminal needed an explanation skinner arose steadied himself
in a voice scarcely audible chief i have always been a good citizen till now i wanted maloney to get away he would not go i thought he might be at the bottom of the mansion mysteries
but i had no idea he could be a murderer i did not wish his identity revealed i tried to discourage mister oakes i tried to save my reputation chief
to save a name good as the world goes but this is my punishment study my face chief study my eyes my chin then imagine a handsome spanish face dark haired
dark skinned do you see why maloney has blue eyes and a square chin with hair black as the indian's and skin swarthy as night gentlemen do you understand she is dead
maloney does not know i cared for the lad he is my son
but although perhaps insane i had no proof i tried to hide my secret but if justice demands his capture chief i am at your disposal
the old man extended his hands his lips quivering with the words that spelled ruin and advanced to the chief as though expecting arrest while we all remained motionless
silence hallen glanced at him then the burly fellow turned suddenly to martin here you son of a dandy said he as we all smiled and oakes bit his lip in suppressed emotion
here you go on down to the stable and tell my coachman to drive round to the front door i am going to have him drive home with mister skinner then they walked to the door
the old man half leaning on the thick set muscular shoulders of hallen at the threshold the chief turned quickly if any of you ducks say anything you're a lot of dudes
and the two disappeared downstairs to the coach after hallen had returned to the room and as the rumble of the wheels died away in the distance dowd addressed a question to oakes
he wanted to know how oakes had secured advance information as to the history of skinner and the handkerchief well dowd as soon as skinner began antagonizing our moves i suspected
that he was the writer of the letter of warning then i ordered his history you know those things are easily obtained he came here years ago it seems comparatively unknown and worked his way up
this seems to have escaped general notice but doctor moore was not deceived a study of the eyes and the ears and the nose confirmed my suspicions of the paternity of maloney
that we have investigated him thoroughly we found he wore such handkerchiefs around his neck in the printing office we found missus cook was aware that maloney had some of them he told her
that mister skinner gave them to him he always was proud of skinner's friendship then you knew all about it this morning quintus i cried exasperated at the man's taciturnity
you knew when you said you would tell who o'brien was if i would tell whether the s had anything to do with skinner no but i mistrusted the proofs were only more recently secured
on the balcony when doctor moore was assaulted also that he was the man at the bridge who warned you stone of danger but who has kept his identity hidden we had strong proof
that he was at the hut watching as were we he accidentally left a part of his shirt with my man remember i also believe that he was wounded and is in hiding wounded by maloney
on the highway when he was about to close in upon him what do you mean cried moore what curious conduct for a man to keep in hiding no not at all answered oakes sharply
remember how you saw him on horseback one night revolver in hand well he was attending to business o'brien is working on the mansion mysteries
i believe he only knows half of the affair he does not realize maloney may be the murderer of mark his conduct is in accord with that of a brave detective working single handed
and desiring to keep his identity secret a detective yes i fancy so answered oakes with a smile on his face why not we are not the only bees around the honeysuckle
by george i never thought of that exclaimed moore indeed retorted oakes in dulcet tones why should you you have not played this game before it is new to you
and does hallen know does he mistrust that o'brien is a detective oakes laughed boys you're slow of course he does he has even found out there is a well known detective
by the name of larkin who is fond of the alias o'brien this larkin has a scar under his hair in front we will perhaps be able to identify o'brien soon
what made you first mistrust i asked why remember how curiously o'brien acted when we hunted the robe how indifferent he was how he used dialect
that was the first clue to explain the curious actions of maloney's loving friend who has stuck to him like molasses to a fly's leg let us go into town and have dinner at the hotel i cried
disgusted at my lack of perspicacity my invitation was accepted with the usual alacrity of hungry men and we soon were striding along hallen oakes and moore in front
and dowd elliott and myself behind we walked close together discussing the events and joking at one another in great good natured animal spirits for things were coming to a head now
and broadway was not so far off after all as the darkness closed in upon us relieved only by the faint glimmering of the rising moon we were in a compact body
an excellent target strong in the presence of each other we had for a moment forgotten that we were in the land where a brain disordered was at liberty we the criminal hunters were but human
feeling rather more than the usual reaction so well known to clergymen after the concentrated duties of the sunday i resolved on monday to have the long country walk i had been disappointed of on the saturday previous
it was not sunshiny it was not snowy it was not frosty it was not foggy it was not clear it was nothing but cloudy and quiet and cold
to give an assertion to its ungeniality i should not in the least have cared to tell what sort the day was had it not been an exact representation of my own mind
it was not the day that made me such as itself the weather could always easily influence the surface of my mind my external mood but it could never go much further
the smallest pleasure would break through the conditions that merely came of such a day but this morning my whole mind and heart seemed like the day the summer was thousands of miles off on the other side of the globe
ethelwyn up at the old house there across the river seemed millions of miles away the summer might come back she never would come nearer it was absurd to expect it for
in such moods stupidity constantly arrogates to itself the qualities and claims of insight in fact it passes itself off for common sense making the most dreary ever appear
the most reasonable in such moods a man might almost be persuaded that it was ridiculous to expect any such poetic absurdity as the summer
ever to come again nay to think that it ever had had any existence except in the fancies of the human heart one of its castles in the air the whole of life seemed faint and foggy
with no red in it anywhere and when i glanced at my present relations in marshmallows i could not help finding several circumstances to give some appearance of justice to this appearance of things
i seemed to myself to have done no good i had driven catherine weir to the verge of suicide while at the same time i could not restrain her from the contemplation of some dire revenge i had lost the man
upon whom i had most reckoned as a seal of my ministry namely thomas weir true there was old rogers but old rogers was just as good before i found him
i could not dream of having made him any better and so i went on brooding over all the disappointing portions of my labour all the time thinking about myself instead of god and the work that lay for me to do
in the days to come nobody i said but old rogers understands me nobody would care as far as my teaching goes if another man took my place from next sunday forward and for miss oldcastle
even if she intended that i should hear it could only indicate at most that she knew
or perhaps was afraid lest she should be accountable for any failure i might make in my sunday duties and therefore felt bound to do something to restore my equanimity
choosing though without consciously intending to do so the dreariest path to be found i wandered up the side of the slow black river with the sentinel pollards looking at themselves in its gloomy mirror
just as i was looking at myself in the mirror of my circumstances they leaned in all directions irregular
in the summer they looked like explosions of green leaves at the best now they looked like the burnt out cases of the summer's fireworks how different too was the river from the time when a whole fleet of shining white lilies
lay anchored among their own broad green leaves upon its clear waters filled with sunlight in every pore as they themselves would fill the pores of a million caverned sponge
but i could not even recall the past summer as beautiful i seemed to care for nothing the first miserable afternoon at marshmallows looked now as if it had been the whole of my coming relation to the place seen
through a reversed telescope and here i was in it now the walk along the side was tolerably dry although the river was bank full but when i came to the bridge i wanted to cross a wooden one
i found that the approach to it had been partly undermined and carried away for here the river had overflowed its banks in one of the late storms and all about the place was still very wet and swampy
i could therefore get no farther in my gloomy walk and so turned back upon my steps scarcely had i done so when i saw a man coming hastily towards me from far upon the straight line of the river walk
i could not mistake him at any distance it was old rogers i felt both ashamed and comforted when i recognized him well old rogers i said as soon as he came within hail trying to speak cheerfully
you cannot get much farther this way without wading a bit at least i don't want to go no farther now sir i came to find you nothing amiss i hope
nothing as i knows on sir i only wanted to have a little chat with you i told master i wanted to leave for an hour or so
but how did you know where to find me i saw you come this way you passed me right on the bridge and didn't see me sir
old rogers summat's amiss wi parson to day he never went by me like that afore this won't do you just go and see so i went home and told master and here i be sir
and i hope you're noways offended with the liberty of me did i really pass you on the bridge i said unable to understand it that you did sir i knowed parson must be a goodish bit in his own in'ards
afore he would do that i needn't tell you i didn't see you old rogers i could tell you that sir i hope there's nothing gone main wrong sir miss is well sir i hope quite well i thank you
no my dear fellow nothing's gone main wrong as you say some of my running tackle got jammed a bit that's all i'm a little out of spirits i believe well sir don't you be afeard i'm going to be troublesome
don't think i want to get aboard your ship except you fling me a rope there's a many things you mun ha to think about that an ignorant man like me couldn't take up if you was to let em drop and being a gentleman i do believe
and there's many a thing that no man can go talkin about
only the lord himself still you can't help us poor folks seeing when there's summat amiss
than the sailor's jackdaw that couldn't speak and sometimes we may be nearer the mark than you would suppose for god has made us all of one blood you know what are you driving at old rogers
i said with a smile which was none the less true that i suspected he had read some of the worst trouble of my heart for why should i mind an honourable man like him knowing what oppressed me though as things went
i certainly should not as he said choose to tell it to any but one
of a rough old tar with a heart as soft as the pitch that makes his hand hard to trim your sails a bit sir and help you to lie a point closer to the wind you're not just close hauled sir
say on old rogers i understand you and i will listen with all my heart for you have a good right to speak and old rogers spoke thus
we were becalmed in the south seas and weary work it wur
but when the water began to come up thick from the bottom of the water casks it was wearier a deal then a thick fog came on as white as snow a'most and we couldn't see more than a few yards ahead
or on any side of us but the fog didn't keep the heat off it only made it worse and the water was fast going done
and the men some of them were half mad with thirst and began to look bad at one another i kept up my heart by looking ahead inside me
for days and days the fog hung about us as if the air had been made o flocks o wool the captain took to his berth and several of the crew to their hammocks for it was just as hot on deck as anywhere else
the mate lay on a sparesail on the quarter deck groaning i had a strong suspicion that the schooner was drifting and hove the lead again and again but could find no bottom
some of the men got hold of the spirits and that didn't quench their thirst it drove them clean mad i had to knock one of them down myself with a capstan bar for he ran at the mate with his knife
at last i began to lose all hope and still i was sure the schooner was slowly drifting my head was like to burst and my tongue was like a lump of holystone in my mouth well
one morning i had just as i thought lain down on the deck to breathe my last hoping i should die before i went quite mad with thirst when all at once the fog lifted
like the foot of a sail i sprung to my feet there was the blue sky overhead but the terrible burning sun was there a moment more and a light air blew on my cheek and turning my face to it
as if it had been the very breath of god there was an island within half a mile and i saw the shine of water on the face of a rock on the shore i cried out land on the weather quarter
water in sight in a moment more a boat was lowered and in a few minutes the boat's crew of which i was one were lying clothes and all in a little stream that came down from the hills above
there mister walton that's what i wanted to say to you this is as near the story of my old friend as my limited knowledge of sea affairs allows me to report it i understand you
quite old rogers and i thank you heartily i said no doubt resumed he king solomon was quite right as he always was i suppose in what he said for his wisdom mun ha laid mostly in the tongue
right i say when he said boast not thyself of to morrow
whose boasting lay far to windward and he close on a lee shore wi breakers it wouldn't be amiss to say to him don't strike your colours to the morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth
there's just as many good days as bad ones as much fair weather as foul in the days to come and if a man keeps up heart he's all the better for that and none the worse when the evil day does come but
he held out his hand once more saying good day sir i must go back to my work i will go back with you i returned
but not a word did we speak the one to the other till we shook hands and parted upon the bridge where we had first met old rogers went to his work and i lingered upon the bridge i leaned upon the low parapet
and looked up the stream as far as the mists creeping about the banks and hovering in thinnest veils over the surface of the water would permit then i turned and looked down the river crawling on to the sweep it made
out of sight just where mister brownrigg's farm began to come down to its banks then i looked to the left and there stood my old church as quiet in the dreary day though not so bright as in the sunshine
even the graves themselves must look yet more solemn sad in a wintry day like this than they look when the sunlight that infolds them proclaims that god is not the god of the dead but of the living
one of the great battles that we have to fight in this world for twenty great battles have to be fought all at once and in one is the battle with appearances i turned me to the right and there once more i saw
as on that first afternoon the weathercock that watched the winds over the stables at oldcastle hall
nothing would grow there the ground was covered with stones and the sandy soil defied all attempts to enrich it a few stunted oaks rose here and there above the thorns and broom plant
for the floods of winter have deposited in some of the clefts of the rock sufficient soil to sustain them and the wild clematis and honeysuckle that cling to their branches on reaching this grove
maurice consulted his watch it marked the hour of mid day he had supposed that he was late but he was more than an hour in advance of the appointed time
he seated himself upon a high rock from which he could survey
and waited the day was magnificent the air intensely hot the rays of the august sun fell with scorching violence upon the sandy soil and withered the few plants which had sprung up since the last rain
the stillness was profound almost terrible not a sound broke the silence not even the buzzing of an insect nor a whisper of breeze in the trees all nature seemed sleeping and on no side
was there anything to remind one of life motion or mankind this repose of nature which contrasted so vividly with the tumult raging in his own heart exerted a beneficial effect upon maurice
these few moments of solitude afforded him an opportunity to regain his composure to collect his thoughts scattered by the storm of passion which had swept over his soul as leaves are scattered by the fierce november gale
with sorrow comes experience and that cruel knowledge of life which teaches one to guard one's self against one's hopes it was not until he heard the conversation of these peasants that maurice fully realized the horror
suddenly precipitated from the social eminence which he had attained he found in the valley of humiliations into which he was cast only hatred distrust and scorn
both factions despised and denied him traitor cried one thief cried the other he no longer held any social status he was the fallen man the man who had been and who was no more
was not the excessive misery of such a position a sufficient explanation of the strangest and wildest resolutions this thought made maurice tremble
connecting the stories of the peasants with the words addressed to chanlouineau at escorval
on the preceding evening he arrived at the conclusion that this report of marie anne's approaching marriage to the young fanner was not so improbable
to an uncultured peasant from mercenary motives certainly not since he had just refused an alliance of which he had been proud in his days of prosperity could it be in order to satisfy his wounded pride then
perhaps he did not wish it to be said that he owed anything to a son in law maurice was exhausting all his ingenuity and penetration in endeavoring to solve this mystery when at last on a foot path
which crosses the waste a woman appeared marie anne he rose but fearing observation did not venture to leave the shelter of the grove marie anne must have felt a similar fear for she hurried on
casting anxious glances on every side as she ran maurice remarked not without surprise that she was bare headed and that she had neither shawl nor scarf about her shoulders
as she reached the edge of the wood he sprang toward her
was now gently withdrawn with so sad a gesture that he could not help feeling there was no hope i came maurice she began because i could not endure the thought of your anxiety
by doing so i have betrayed my father's confidence he was obliged to leave home i hastened here and yet i promised him only two hours ago that i would never see you again you hear me never she spoke hurriedly
but maurice was appalled by the firmness of her accent had he been less agitated he would have seen what a terrible effort this semblance of calmness cost the young girl he would have understood it from her pallor from the contraction of her lips
from the redness of the eyelids which she had vainly bathed with fresh water and which betrayed the tears that had fallen during the night if i have come she continued it is only to tell you that for your own sake as well as for mine
even the slightest shadow of a hope all is over we are separated forever only weak natures revolt against a destiny which they cannot alter let us accept our fate uncomplainingly
i wished to see you once more and to say this have courage maurice go away leave escorval forget me forget you marie anne
exclaimed the wretched young man forget you his eyes met hers and in a husky voice he added will you then forget me i am a woman maurice but he interrupted her ah i did not expect this he said despondently
poor fool that i was i believed that you would find a way to touch your father's heart she blushed slightly hesitated and said i have thrown myself at my father's feet
he repulsed me maurice was thunderstruck but recovering himself it was because you did not know how to speak to him he exclaimed in a passion of fury but i shall know
what right has he to ruin my happiness with his caprices i love you by right of this love you are mine mine rather than his i will make him understand this you shall see where is he where can i find him
already he was starting to go he knew not where marie anne caught him by the arm remain she commanded remain so you have failed to understand me maurice ah well you must know the truth
i am acquainted now with the reasons of my father's refusal and though his decision should cost me my life i approve it do not go to find my father if moved by your prayers he gave his consent
i should have the courage to refuse mine maurice was so beside himself that this reply did not enlighten him
and with no remorse for the insult he addressed to this woman whom he loved so deeply he exclaimed is it for chanlouineau then that you are reserving your consent he believes so since he goes about everywhere saying that you will soon be his wife
marie anne shuddered as if a knife had entered her very heart and yet there was more sorrow than anger in the glance she cast upon maurice must i stoop so low as to defend myself from such an imputation she asked sadly
must i declare that if even i suspect such an arrangement between chanlouineau and my father i have not been consulted must i tell you that there are some sacrifices which are beyond the strength of poor human nature
understand this i have found strength to renounce the man i love i shall never be able to accept another in his place maurice hung his head abashed by her earnest words
dazzled by the sublime expression of her face reason returned he realized the enormity of his suspicions and was horrified with himself for having dared to give utterance to them oh pardon he faltered pardon
what did the mysterious causes of all these events which had so rapidly succeeded each other
or marie anne's reticence matter to him now he was seeking some chance of salvation he believed that he had found it we must fly he exclaimed fly at once without pausing to look back
before night we shall have passed the frontier he sprang toward her with outstretched arms as if to seize her and bear her away but she checked him by a single look fly said she reproachfully fly
what while misfortune is crushing my poor father to the earth shall i add despair and shame to his sorrows his friends have deserted him shall i his daughter also abandon him ah
if my father yesterday when i believed him the owner of sairmeuse had demanded the sacrifice to which i consented last evening i might perhaps have resolved upon the extreme measure you have counselled
in broad daylight i might have left sairmeuse on the arm of my lover it is not the world that i fear
one cannot consent to desert the poor abode of a despairing and penniless parent leave me maurice where honor holds me it will not be difficult for me who am the daughter of generations of peasants to become a peasant
go i cannot endure more go and remember that one cannot be utterly wretched if one's conscience is clean and one's duty fulfilled
or appearing to give all his attention to the brilliant illuminations the languishing music of the violins and hautboys the sparkling sheaves of the artificial fires which inflaming the heavens with glowing reflections
the superintendent was smiling on the ladies and the poets the fete was every whit as gay as usual
whose restless even jealous look
did not appear dissatisfied with the welcome given to the ordering of the evening's entertainment the fireworks over the company dispersed about the gardens
and beneath the marble porticoes with the delightful liberty which reveals in the master of the house so much forgetfulness of greatness
so much magnificent carelessness the poets wandered about arm in arm through the groves some reclined upon beds of moss to the great damage of velvet clothes and curled heads
into which little dried leaves and blades of grass insinuated themselves the ladies in small numbers listened to the songs of the singers and the verses of the poets others listened to the prose spoken with much art
by men who were neither actors nor poets but to whom youth and solitude gave an unaccustomed eloquence which appeared to them better than everything else in the world why said la fontaine
does not our master epicurus descend into the garden epicurus never abandoned his pupils the master is wrong
you yourself are in the wrong persisting in decorating yourself with the name of an epicurean indeed nothing here reminds me of the doctrine of the philosopher of gargetta
is it not written that epicurus purchased a large garden and lived in it tranquilly with his friends that is true
yes without doubt unfortunately it is neither the garden nor the friends which constitute the resemblance
next well i do not think we ought to consider ourselves unfortunate for my part at least a good repast
which they have the delicacy to go and fetch for me from my favorite cabaret not one impertinence heard during a supper an hour long in spite of the presence of ten millionaires and twenty poets i stop you there
and a good repast do you persist in that i persist anteco as they say at port royal then please to recollect that the great epicurus lived and made his pupils live upon bread vegetables and water
that is not certain said la fontaine
that the ancient philosopher was rather a bad friend of the gods and the magistrates oh
in an agitated voice or you would accredit the reports which are circulating concerning him and us what reports that we are bad frenchmen lukewarm with regard to the king deaf to the law
i return then to my text said la fontaine
this is the morality of epicurus whom besides i consider if i must tell you so as a myth antiquity is mostly mythical jupiter if we give a little attention to it is life
zeus that is zen to live
that is alce vigor well epicurus that is mild watchfulness that is protection
you talk etymology and not morality i say that we modern epicureans are indifferent citizens oh cried la fontaine if we become bad citizens it is not through following the maxims of our master
listen to one of his principal aphorisms i will pray for good leaders well well
when shall we be governed does he say so come conrart be frank he says so that is true well that is a doctrine of epicurus yes but that is a little seditious observe
certainly when those who govern are bad patience i have a reply for all even for what i have just said to you listen would you submit to those who govern ill oh it is written
you grant me the text pardieu i think so do you know you speak greek as well as aesop did my dear la fontaine is there any wickedness in that my dear conrart god
what an ass what a leech we must however submit to that fellow
did he say so or did he not i confess that he said it and even perhaps too often like epicurus my friend still like epicurus i repeat
we are epicureans and that is very amusing yes but i am afraid there will rise up by the side of us a sect like that of epictetus you know him well
vegetables prodigality and clear water drunkenness he who being beaten by his master said to him grumbling a little it is true but without being angry
and who won his wager he was a goose that fellow epictetus granted but he might easily become the fashion by only changing his name into that of colbert bah replied la fontaine
that is impossible never will you find colbert in epictetus you are right i shall find coluber there at the most ah
you are reduced to a play upon words
you have logic but you are a jansenist this peroration was hailed with a boisterous shout of laughter by degrees the promenaders had been attracted by the exclamations of the two disputants around the arbor under which they were arguing
the discussion had been religiously listened to and fouquet himself scarcely able to suppress his laughter had given an example of moderation but with the denouement of the scene he threw off all restraint and laughed aloud
everybody laughed as he did and the two philosophers were saluted with unanimous felicitations
was declared conqueror on account of his profound erudition and his irrefragable logic conrart obtained the compensation due
but scarcely was he out of sight than he threw off the mask well said he eagerly where is pelisson what is he doing pelisson has returned from paris
what did he not tell him he came from me he told him so but the concierge sent him this reply
it is useless monsieur said pelisson showing himself at the corner of the little wood useless go yourself and speak in your own name you are right
one last word of advice monseigneur replied the latter
do not go to the concierge save at the last minute it is brave but it is not wise excuse me monsieur pelisson if i am not of the same opinion as you but take my advice monseigneur send again a message to this concierge
he is a worthy man but do not carry it yourself i will think of it said fouquet
do not reckon too much on time were the hours we have twice as many as they are they would not be too much replied pelisson it is never a fault to arrive too soon
come with me pelisson gourville i commend my guests to your care and he set off the epicureans did not perceive that the head of the school had left them
what next asked the judge that
said the detective that fire eating swashbuckling soldier with his blustering barrack room ways i long to come to close quarters with him he ridiculed me taunted me said i knew nothing we will see
we will see in fact you wish to interrogate him yourself very well let us have him in
when sir charles collingham entered he included the three officials in one cold stiff bow waited a moment and then finding he was not offered a chair said with studied politeness
i presume i may sit down pardon of course pray be seated said the judge hastily and evidently a little ashamed of himself ah thanks
do you object went on the general taking out a silver cigarette case may i offer one he handed round the box affably we do not smoke on duty
nor is smoking permitted in a court of justice come come i wish to show no disrespect but i cannot recognize this as a court of justice and i think if you will forgive me
that i shall take three whiffs it may help me keep my temper he was evidently making game of them there was no symptom remaining of the recent effervescence when he was acting as the countess's champion and he was perfectly nay
insolently calm and self possessed you call yourself general collingham went on the chief i do not call myself i am general sir charles collingham of the british army retired
no i am still on the active list these points will have to be verified with all my heart you have already sent to the british embassy yes but no one has come
contemptuously if you disbelieve me why do you question me it is our duty to question you and yours to answer if not we have means to make you you are suspected
inculpated in a terrible crime and your whole attitude is is objectionable unworthy disgr
i am sure you cannot wish to impede or obstruct us we represent the law of this country
as he threw away his half burned cigarette no no i do not imply that in the least i only entreat you as a good and gallant gentleman to meet us in a proper spirit and give us your best help
indeed i am quite ready if there has been any unpleasantness it has surely not been of my making but rather of that little man there
rather contemptuously and nearly started a fresh disturbance well well let us say no more of that and proceed to business i understand
said the judge after fingering a few pages of the dispositions in front of him that you are a friend of the contessa di castagneto indeed she has told us so herself it was very good of her to call me her friend
i am proud to hear she so considers me how long have you known her four or five months since the beginning of the last winter season in rome did you frequent her house
if you mean was i permitted to call on her on friendly terms yes did you know all her friends how can i answer that i know whom i met there from time to time exactly
did you often meet among them a signor quadling quadling quadling i cannot say that i have the name is familiar somehow but i cannot recall the man
have you never heard of the roman bankers correse and quadling ah of course although i have had no dealing with them certainly i have never met mister quadling not at the countess's never
of that i am quite sure and yet we have had positive evidence that he was a constant visitor there it is perfectly incomprehensible to me not only have i never met him but i have never heard the countess mention his name
it will surprise you then to be told that he called at her apartment in the via margutta on the very evening of her departure from rome called was admitted was closeted with her for more than an hour
i can hardly believe it i have more surprises for you general what will you think when i tell you that this very quadling this friend acquaintance call him what you please
but at least intimate enough to pay her a visit on the eve of a long journey
cried sir charles almost starting from his chair
who calls you her friend but we are officials first and sentiment cannot be permitted to influence us we have good reasons for suspecting that lady i tell you that frankly
because she was in the car the only woman you understand between laroche and paris do you suspect a female hand then asked the general evidently much interested and impressed
that is so although i am exceeding my duty in revealing this
of the highest character believe me i know that to be the case whom you yet suspect of an atrocious crime was the only female in the car obviously who else what other woman could possibly have been in the car
no one got in at laroche the train never stopped till it reached paris on that last point at least you are quite mistaken i assure you why not upon the other also the train stopped
interjected the detective why has no one told us that possibly because you never asked but it is nevertheless the fact verify it every one will tell you the same the detective himself hurried to the door and called in the porter
he was within his rights of course but the action showed distrust at which the general only smiled but he laughed outright when the still stupid and half dazed porter of course corroborated the statement at once
at whose instance was the train pulled up asked the detective and the judge nodded his head approvingly to know that would fix fresh suspicion but the porter could not answer the question
some one had rung the alarm bell so at least the conductor had declared otherwise they should not have stopped yet he the porter
but there had been a halt yes assuredly this is a new light the judge confessed do you draw any conclusion from it he went on to ask the general that is surely your business i have only elicited the fact to disprove your theory
but if you wish i will tell you how it strikes me the judge bowed assent the bare fact that the train was halted would mean little that would be the natural act of a timid or excitable person involved indirectly in such a catastrophe
the fair inference is that there was some reason an unavowable reason for halting the train and that reason would be you must see it without my assistance surely why
but how could that be you would have seen that person some of you especially at such a critical time the aisle would be full of people both exits were thus practically overlooked
my idea is it is only an idea understand that the person had already left the car that is to say the interior of the car escaped how where what do you mean
escaped through the open window of the compartment where you found the murdered man you noticed the open window then quickly asked the detective when was that directly i entered the compartment at the first alarm
it occurred to me at once that some one might have gone through it but no woman could have done it
going at top speed would be an impossible feat for a woman
why should it be a woman more than a man because
the little detective was much concerned at the utter want of reticence displayed by his colleague because
because this was found in the compartment and he held out the piece of lace and the scrap of beading for the general's inspection adding quickly you have seen these or one of them or something like them before
i am sure of it i call upon you i demand no i appeal to your sense of honour sir collingham
the exact position of eden and its present condition
nor to have given rise among them to wild speculations the map of the tenth century in the british museum accompanying the periegesis of priscian is far more correct than the generality of maps
and paradise does not occupy the place of cochin china or the isles of japan as it did later
and had been specified by him as occupying a continent east of china beyond the ocean and still watered by the four great rivers pison
in fact is situated in the celestial empire it occupies the same position
in the british museum according to the fictitious letter of prester john to the emperor emanuel comnenus paradise
there are found emeralds sapphires carbuncles topazes chrysolites onyx beryl sardius
there too grows the plant called asbetos
from hour to hour and day by day the taste of this fountain varies and its source is hardly three days journey from paradise from which adam was expelled if any man drinks thrice of this spring
he will from that day feel no infirmity and he will as long as he lives appear of the age of thirty
this olympus is a corruption of alumbo which is no other than columbo in ceylon as is abundantly evident from sir john mandeville's travels though this important fountain
has escaped the observation of sir emmerson tennant
toward the heed of that forest he writes
and at the foot of that mount
in an unapproachable region of asia surrounded by flames and having an armed angel to guard the only gate lambertus floridus
preserved in the imperial library in paris describes it as
paradise is represented as an island a little south east of asia surrounded by rays and at some distance from the main land
close to this fountain is the tree of life the temperature of the country is equable neither frosts nor burning heats destroy the vegetation the four rivers already mentioned rise in it
paradise is however inaccessible to the traveller on account of the wall of fire which surrounds it paludanus
of course on incontrovertible authority that alexander the great was full of desire to see the terrestrial paradise and that he undertook his wars in
and obtaining admission into it he states that on his nearing eden
and they were about to conduct him to their monarch when the venerable man said
go and announce to alexander that it is in vain he seeks paradise his efforts will be perfectly fruitless for the way of paradise is the way of humility a way
of which he knows nothing take this stone and give it to alexander and say to him from this stone learn what you must think of yourself
now this stone was of great value and excessively heavy outweighing and excelling in value all other gems but when reduced to powder it was as light as a tuft of hay
in his book de situ terrarum expresses himself thus
paradise is a spot in the orient productive of all kind of woods and pomiferous trees it contains the tree of life there is neither cold nor heat there but perpetual equable temperature
it contains a fountain which flows forth in four rivers
many folk want to make out that the site of paradise is in the east of the earth though cut off by the longest intervening space of ocean or earth from all regions which man now inhabits consequently the waters of the deluge
which covered the highest points of the surface of our orb were unable to reach it however whether it be there or whether it be anywhere else god knows but that there was such a spot once and that it was on earth that is certain
jacques de vitry historia orientalis gervais of tilbury in his
and many others hold the same views as to the site of paradise that were entertained by hugo de saint victor
a florentine poet of the fifteenth century composed a geographical treatise in verse entitled della sfera and it is in asia that he locates the garden
but perhaps the most remarkable account of the terrestrial paradise ever furnished
v a d f arla an icelandic narrative of the fourteenth century giving the adventures of a certain norwegian
that he would explore the fabulous deathless land of pagan scandinavian mythology
the story purports to be nothing more than a religious novel but one audacious copyist has ventured to assert that it is all fact
king of drontheim and having taken upon him a vow to explore the deathless land he went to denmark where he picked up a friend of the same name as himself they then went to constantinople and called upon the emperor
who held a long conversation with them
relative to the truths of christianity
nor less than paradise the world said the monarch who had not forgotten his geography since he left school is precisely one hundred eighty thousand stages round about one million english miles
not a bit it is supported by the power of god and the distance between earth and heaven is one hundred thousand and forty five miles
and round about the earth is a big sea called ocean and what's to the south of the earth asked eirek o there is the end of the world and that is india
and pray where am i to find the deathless land that lies paradise i suppose you mean well it lies slightly east of india having obtained this information the two eireks started
furnished with letters from the greek emperor they traversed syria and took ship
then reaching india they proceeded on their journey on horseback till they came to a dense forest the gloom of which was so great through the interlacing of the boughs that even by day the stars could be observed twinkling
as though they were seen from the bottom of a well on emerging from the forest the two eireks came upon a strait separating them from a beautiful land which was unmistakably paradise
intent on displaying his scriptural knowledge pronounced the strait to be the river pison this was crossed by a stone bridge guarded by a dragon the danish eirek deterred by the prospect of an encounter with this monster
sword in hand into the maw of the dragon and next moment to his infinite surprise and delight found himself liberated from the gloom of the monster's interior and safely placed in paradise
the land was most beautiful and the grass as gorgeous as purple it was studded with flowers and was traversed by honey rills the land was extensive and level so that there was not to be seen mountain or hill
and the sun shone cloudless without night and darkness the calm of the air was great and there was but a feeble murmur of wind and that which there was breathed redolent with the odor of blossoms
after a short walk eirek observed what certainly must have been a remarkable object namely a tower or steeple self suspended in the air without any support whatever
though access might be had to it by means of a slender ladder by this eirek ascended into a loft of the tower and found there an excellent cold collation prepared for him after having partaken of this he went to sleep
and in vision beheld and conversed with his guardian angel who promised to conduct him back to his fatherland but to come for him again and fetch him away from it forever
and indeed which seems to have been notwithstanding his looks but a harmless and passive dragon
eirek reached his native land where he related his adventures
and to the delight and edification of the faithful
the saga of which i have given the merest outline is certainly striking
was published a poem on the subject entitled patriana decas in sixteen twenty nine in sixteen sixty two g c
bitter cries and long drawn moans
and at night wild shrieks and the burst of diabolical laughter would ring from it over the vale
but another popular belief respecting this mountain was that in it venus the pagan goddess of love held her court
and there were not a few who declared that they had seen fair forms of female beauty beckoning them from the mouth of the chasm and that they had heard dulcet strains of music well up from the abyss above the thunder of the falling
unseen torrent charmed by the music
various individuals had entered the cave and none had returned
where the landgrave hermann was holding a gathering of minstrels who were to contend in song for a prize
was a famous minnesinger and all his lays were of love and of women for his heart was full of passion and that not of the purest and noblest description it was towards dusk that he passed the cliff
he saw a white glimmering figure of matchless beauty standing before him and beckoning him to her he knew her at once by her attributes and by her superhuman perfection to be none other than venus
as she spake to him the sweetest strains of music floated in the air a soft roseate light glowed around her and nymphs of exquisite loveliness
and the minstrel's heart began to feel a strange void the beauty the magnificence the variety of the scenes in the pagan goddess's home and all its heathenish pleasures palled upon him
one look up at the dark night sky spangled with stars one glimpse of simple mountain flowers one tinkle of sheep bells at the same time his conscience began to reproach him
in vain did he entreat venus to permit him to depart
he called upon the virgin mother that a rift in the mountain side appeared to him and he stood again above ground how sweet was the morning air balmy with the scent of hay as it rolled up the mountain to him and fanned
his haggard cheek how delightful to him was the cushion of moss and scanty grass after the downy couches of the palace of revelry below he plucked the little heather bells and held them before him
the tears rolled from his eyes and moistened his thin and wasted hands he looked up at the soft blue sky and the newly risen sun and his heart overflowed what were the golden jewel incrusted
lamp lit vaults beneath to that pure dome of god's building the chime of a village church struck sweetly on his ear satiated with bacchanalian songs and he hurried down the mountain to the church which called him
there he made his confession but the priest horror struck at his recital dared not give him absolution but passed him on to another and so he went from one to another
till at last he was referred to the pope himself to the pope he went
and prayed for absolution urban was a hard and stern man and shocked at the immensity of the sin he thrust the penitent indignantly from him exclaiming guilt such as thine can never never be remitted
sooner shall this staff in my hand grow green and blossom than that god should pardon thee
full of despair and with his soul darkened went away and returned to the only asylum open to him the venusberg but lo three days after he had gone
urban discovered that his pastoral staff had put forth buds and had burst into flower
it is a very ancient myth christianized
scattered over europe it exists in various forms but in none so graceful
there are however other venusbergs in germany
near waldsee another near ufhausen at no great distance from freiburg the same story is told of this venusberg
in saxony there is a venusberg not far from wolkenstein paracelsus speaks of a venusberg in italy
new word roots and this is perfectly true the same story root remains but it is varied according to the temperament of the narrator or the exigencies of localization the story root of the venusberg is this
the underground folk seek union with human beings
a man is enticed into their abode where he unites with a woman of the underground race
now there is scarcely a collection of folk lore which does not contain a story founded on this root
and examples might be quoted from modern greek albanian neapolitan french german danish norwegian and swedish icelandic scotch welsh and other collections of popular tales i have only space to mention some
which is in its present form a production of the fourteenth century helgi and his brother thorstein went on a cruise to finnmark or lapland they reached a ness
and found the land covered with forest helgi explored this forest and lighted suddenly on a party of red dressed women riding upon red horses these ladies were beautiful
one surpassed the others in beauty and she was their mistress they erected a tent
observed that all their vessels were of silver and gold the lady who named herself ingibjorg advanced towards the norseman and invited him to live with her
he feasted and lived with the trolls for three days and then returned to his ship bringing with him
he had been forbidden to mention where he had been and with whom so he told no one whence he had obtained the chests the ships sailed and he returned home one winter's night
helgi was fetched away from home in the midst of a furious storm by two mysterious horsemen and no one was able to ascertain for many years what had become of him
obtained his release and then he was restored to his father and brother but he was thenceforth blind all the time of his absence he had been with the red vested lady in her mysterious abode
is the same story thomas met with a strange lady of elfin race beneath
he then returned to earth still however remaining bound to come to his royal mistress
accordingly while thomas was making merry with his friends in the tower of ercildoune a person came running in and told with marks of fear and astonishment that a hart and a hind had left the neighboring forest
and were parading the street of the village thomas instantly arose left his house and followed the animals into the forest from which he never returned according to popular belief
and is one day expected to revisit earth scott minstrelsy of the scottish border compare with this the ancient ballad of tamlane
during the space of seven years and at length came out but lived afterwards in great distress and fear lest they should again take him away wherefore people were obliged
there is a lofty mountain named cavagum at the foot of which runs a river with golden sands in the vicinity of which there are likewise silver mines this mountain is steep and almost inaccessible
on its top which is always covered with ice and snow is a black and bottomless lake into which if a stone be cast a tempest suddenly arises and near this lake is the portal of the palace of demons
a young man was on his way to his bride
by a beautiful elfin woman with her he lived forty years which passed as an hour on his return to earth all his old friends and relations were dead or had forgotten him and finding no rest there
he returned to his mountain elf land in pomerania a laborer's son jacob dietrich of rambin was enticed away in the same manner there is a curious story told by fordun
which has some interest in connection with the legend
he relates that in the year ten fifty a youth of noble birth had been married in rome and during the nuptial feast being engaged in a game of ball he took off his wedding ring and placed it
on the finger of a statue of venus when he wished to resume it he found that the stony hand had become clinched so that it was impossible to remove the ring thenceforth he was haunted by the goddess venus
i am venus whom you have wedded i will never restore your ring
forced to give it up to its rightful owner the classic legend of ulysses held captive for eight years by the nymph calypso in the island of ogygia
what may have been the significance of the primeval story radical it is impossible for us now to ascertain but the legend as it shaped itself in the middle ages is certainly indicative of the struggle between the new and the old faith
christian in name but heathen at heart
which seems to satisfy his poetic instincts and which gives full rein to his passions
leaves a great void in his breast he turns to christianity and at first it seems to promise all that he requires but alas he is repelled by its ministers on all sides he is met by practice widely at variance with profession
every one knows that the moon is inhabited by a man
that he is beyond the reach of death he has once visited this earth if the nursery rhyme is to be credited when it asserts that the man in the moon came down too soon
the same authority does not state the story as told by nurses is that this man was found by moses gathering sticks on a sabbath and that for this crime he was doomed to reside in the moon
till the end of all things and they refer
and while the children of israel were in the wilderness they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day and they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto moses and aaron
and they put him in ward because it was not declared what should be done to him and the lord said unto moses the man shall be surely put to death all the congregation
shall stone him with stones without the camp and all the congregation brought him without the camp and stoned him with stones till he died
the german tale is as follows ages ago
he cut a fagot and slung it on a stout staff cast it over his shoulder and began to trudge home with his burden on his way he met a handsome man in sunday suit walking towards the church
this man stopped and asked the fagot bearer do you know that this is sunday on earth when all must rest from their labors sunday on earth or monday in heaven it is all one to me laughed the wood cutter
then bear your bundle forever answered the stranger and as you value not sunday on earth yours shall be a perpetual moon day in heaven
a warning to all sabbath breakers thereupon the stranger vanished and the man was caught up with his stock and his fagot into the moon
and now at full moon he is to be seen seated with his bundle of fagots on his back
the story goes that a man and a woman stand in the moon the man because he strewed brambles and thorns on the church path so as to hinder people from attending mass on sunday morning the woman because she made butter on that day
the man carries his bundle of thorns the woman her butter tub a similar tale is told in swabia and in marken
superstitious people assert that the black flecks in the moon are a man who gathered wood on a sabbath and is therefore
the dutch household myth is that the unhappy man was caught stealing vegetables dante calls him cain
now doth cain with fork of thorns confine on either hemisphere touching the wave beneath the towers of seville yesternight the moon was round
tell i pray thee whence the gloomy spots upon this body which below on earth give rise to talk of cain in fabling quaint
chaucer in the testament of cresside adverts to the man in the moon and attributes to him the same idea of theft of lady cynthia or the moon he says
her gite was gray and full of spottis blake and on her brest
bering a bush of thornis on his backe whiche for his theft
ritson among his ancient songs
on the man in the moon but in very obscure language the first verse altered into more modern orthography
man in the moon stand and stit on his bot fork his burden he beareth it is much wonder that he do na doun slit for doubt lest he fall he shudd'reth and shivereth
when the frost freezes must chill he bide the thorns be keen his attire so teareth nis no wight in the world there wot when he syt ne bote it by the hedge
in commenting on the dispersed shadows in the moon thus alludes to the vulgar belief
rusticus in luna
monstrat per opinas nulli prodesse rapinas
which may be translated thus do you know what they call the rustic in the moon who carries the fagot of sticks so that one vulgarly speaking says see the rustic in the moon how his bundle weighs him down
one must come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern and say he comes in to disfigure or to present the person of moonshine and the
i the man in the moon this thorn bush my thorn bush and this dog my dog
also tempest act two scene two
hast thou not dropt from heaven
and i do adore thee my mistress showed me thee and thy dog and thy bush the dog i have myself had pointed out to me by an old devonshire crone
if popular superstition places a dog in the moon it puts a lamb in the sun
may behold in the orb the lamb and flag i believe this idea of locating animals in the two great luminaries of heaven to be very ancient
the roof of the chancel is divided into compartments
rudely yet effectively painted besides these symbols is delineated in each compartment an orb of heaven the sun the moon and two stars are placed at the feet of the angel
the bull the lion and the eagle the representation of the moon is as below in the disk is the conventional man with his bundle of sticks but without the dog
thirteen thirty five bearing the man in the moon
the deed is one of conveyance of a messuage barn and four acres of ground in the parish of kingston on thames from walter de grendesse clerk to margaret his mother on the seal
we see the man carrying his sticks and the moon surrounds him there are also
perhaps to show that he is in the sky the legend on the seal reads
and she has a butter tub with her in other localities
the belief in the moon man seems to exist among the natives of british columbia for i read in one of mister duncan's letters to the church missionary society
one very dark night i was told that there was a moon to see on the beach on going to see there was an illuminated disk with the figure of a man upon it the water was then very low
and one of the conjuring parties had lit up this disk at the water's edge they had made it of wax with great exactness and presently it was at full it was an imposing sight
now let us turn to scandinavian mythology
and carried them up to heaven their names were hjuki and bil they had been drawing water from the well
in the bucket sa gr suspended from the pole simul which they bore upon their shoulders
and so the swedish peasantry explain these spots to this day as representing a boy and a girl bearing a pail of water between them are we not reminded at once of our nursery rhyme
jack and jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of water jack fell down and broke his crown and jill came tumbling after
this verse which to us seems at first sight nonsense i have no hesitation in saying has a high antiquity and refers to the eddaic hjuki and bil the names indicate as much hjuki in norse would be pronounced
which would readily become jack and bil for the sake of euphony and in order to give a female name to one of the children would become jill the fall of jack
simply represent the vanishing of one moon spot after another as the moon wanes but the old norse myth had a deeper signification than merely an explanation of the moon spots hjuki is derived from the verb jakka
to heap or pile together to assemble and increase and bil from bila to break up or dissolve hjuki and bil therefore signify nothing more than the waxing
and the water they are represented as bearing signifies the fact that the rainfall depends on the phases of the moon waxing and waning were individualized and the meteorological fact of the connection of the rain with the moon
was represented by the children as water bearers
sticks or vegetables the theft was in some places exchanged for sabbath breaking
of the stick gatherer the indian superstition is worth examining because of the connection existing between indian and european mythology
according to a buddhist legend s ackyamunni himself in one of his earlier stages of existence was a hare and lived in friendship with a fox and an ape in order to test the virtue of the bodhisattwa
indra came to the friends
asking for food hare ape and fox went forth in quest of victuals for their guest the two latter returned from their foraging expedition successful but the hare had found nothing then
rather than that he should treat the old man with inhospitality the hare had a fire kindled and cast himself into the flames
in what is now western nebraska there was some relief from the dust the throng was visibly thinned out some had pushed on beyond the congested district while others had lagged behind
the dead too had left room upon the road when we reached the higher lands of wyoming our traveling became still more pleasant the nights were cooler and we had clearer purer water
as we gradually ascended the sweetwater life grew more tolerable and discomfort less acute we were now nearing the crest of the continent the climb was so gradual however
as to be hardly observable the summit of the rocky mountains through the south pass presents a wide open undulating country the pass offers therefore an easy gateway to the west
passing pacific springs at the summit we rolled over to big sandy creek
and took the sublette cut off over to bear river this was a shorter trail to the oregon country
steamboat spring was spouting at regular intervals as we passed just after leaving soda springs our little company of friends separated
the mc auleys and william buck took the trail to california while with oliver and the davenport brothers we went northwest to oregon jacob the younger of the brothers
fell sick and gradually grew worse as the journey grew harder shortly after reaching portland the poor boy died thomas mc auley settled in the hobart hills in california and became a respected citizen of that state
he was eighty eight years old william buck has long since lain down to rest a few years after we had parted on the big bend of the bear river
as we then called the eastern part of our country and returning to california by way of the isthmus of panama he had brought fifty swarms of bees three of these swarms he sent up to me in washington
as far as i know these were the first honey bees in that state william buck was a man who was always doing a good turn for his friends when snake river was reached and in fact even before that
the heat again became oppressive the dust stifling and the thirst at times almost maddening in some places we could see the water of the snake winding through the lava gorges but we could not reach it
as the river ran in the inaccessible depths of the canyon sickness again became prevalent and another outbreak of cholera claimed many victims there were but few ferries and none at all in many places where crossings were to be made
even where there was a ferry the charges were so high that they were out of reach of most of the emigrants as for me all my funds had been absorbed in procuring my outfit at eddyville in iowa
we had not dreamed that there would be use for money on the plains where there were neither supplies nor people but we soon found out our mistake the crossing of the snake river although late in the journey
gave us the opportunity to mend matters about thirty miles below salmon falls the dilemma confronted us of either crossing the snake river or having our teams starve on the trip down the river on the south bank
we found that some emigrants had calked two wagon beds and lashed them together and were using this craft for crossing but they would not help others across for less than three to five dollars a wagon
the party swimming their own stock if others could cross in wagon beds why couldn't we do likewise without more ado all the old clothing that could possibly be spared was assembled and tar buckets were scraped
old chisels and broken knives were hunted up and a boat repairing and calking campaign began very soon the wagon box rode placidly even if not gracefully on the waters of the snake river
now served me well i could row a boat my first venture across the snake river was with the wagon gear run over the wagon box the whole being gradually worked out into deep water the load was so heavy
that a very small margin was left to prevent the water from breaking over the sides and some water did enter as light ripples on the surface struck the mary jane for we had duly named our craft i got over safely
but after that i took lighter loads and i really enjoyed the work with the change from the intolerable dust to the clear atmosphere of the river some people were so infatuated with the idea of floating on the water
that they were easily persuaded by an unprincipled trader at the lower crossing to dispose of their teams for a song and to embark in their wagon beds for a voyage down the river
and some even lost their lives after terrible hardships the survivors reached the road again to become objects of charity i knew one survivor who was out seven days without food
other than a scant supply of berries and vegetable growth and
we had no trouble to get the cattle across although the river was wide dandy would do almost anything i asked of him so leading him to the water's edge with a little coaxing i got him into swimming water
and guided him across with the wagon bed the others all followed having been driven into deep water after the leader it seems almost incredible how passively obedient cattle will become after long training on such a journey
indeed the ox is always patient and usually quite obedient but when oxen get heated and thirsty they become headstrong and reckless and won't obey
i have known them to take off the road to a water hole when apparently nothing could stop them till they had gone so far into the mud and water that it was a hard job for them to get out again
we had not finished crossing when tempting offers came from others to cross them but all our party said no we must travel the rule had been adopted to travel some distance every day that it was possible
was the watchword and nothing could divert us from that resolution on the third day we were ready to pull out from the river with the cattle rested by the enforced wait
now the question was what about the lower crossing those who had crossed over the river must somehow get back it was less than a hundred and fifty miles to the place where we must again cross to the south side
the left bank of the river i could walk that distance in three days while it would take our teams ten could i go on ahead procure a wagon box and start a ferry of my own
the thought brought an affirmative answer at once with only food and a small blanket for load i walked to the lower crossing it may be ludicrous but it is true
that the most i remember about that tramp is the jack rabbits such swarms as i traveled down the boise valley
i soon obtained a wagon bed and all day long for several days i was at work crossing people i continued at this till our teams came up and for a few days after that
i left the river with a hundred and ten dollars in my pocket all but two dollars and seventy five cents of this was gone before i arrived in portland but we could not delay longer even to make money
i thought i could see signs of failing strength in my young wife and the baby not for mountains of gold would we jeopardize their lives all along the way the baby and the little mother had been tenderly cared for
we used to clear away a space in the wagon bed for them to take a nap together the slow swaying of the wagon over smooth sandy stretches made a rock a by movement that would lull them off to dreamland and make them forget the weary way
all that could be done by skill and care and love was done for firm our lady manager and head nurse never left him when she could be spared
and all the other ladies vied in zeal for this young soldier so that i could scarcely get near him his grandfather's sad and extraordinary tale was confirmed by a wounded prisoner
had been fatal perhaps to the cause he fought for or at least to its greatest captain returning from desperate victory the general wrapped in the folds of night
and perhaps in the gloom of his own stern thoughts while it seemed quite impossible that he should be seen encountered the fire of his own troops and the order to fire was given by his favorite officer
colonel firm gundry when the young man learned that he had destroyed by a lingering death the chief idol of his heart he called for a rifle
but all refused him knowing too well what his purpose was then under the trees without a word or sigh he set the hilt of his sword upon the earth and the point to his heart as well as he could find it
the blade passed through him and then snapped off but i can not bear to speak of it and now few people might suppose it but the substance of which he was made will be clear
but also the purest scientific reasoning established a truth more frankly acknowledged in the new world than in the old one it was proved that with a good constitution
it is safer to receive two wounds than one even though they may not be at the same time taken firm had been shot by the captain of mexican robbers as long ago related
he was dreadfully pulled down at the time and few people could have survived it but now that stood him in the very best stead not only as a lesson of patience but also in the question of cartilage
but not being certain what cartilage is i can only refer inquirers to the note book of the hospital which has been printed for us it was enough to know that shattered as he was and must be
this brave and single minded warrior struggled for the time successfully with that great enemy of the human race to whom the human race so largely consign one another and themselves
but some did say and emphatically uncle sam that colonel firm gundry for a colonel he was now not by courtesy but commission would never have held up his head to do it
but must have gone on with his ravings for death if somebody had not arrived in the nick of time and cried over him a female somebody from old england
and even after that they say that he never would have cared to be a man again never would have calmed his conscience with the reflection so commonplace and yet so high that having done our best according to our lights
we must not dwell always on our darkness if once again and for the residue of life there had not been some one to console him a consolation that need not have
and is better without pure reason coming as that would come from a quarter whence it is never quite welcome enough for me that he never laid hand to a weapon of war again
and never shall unless our own home is invaded for after many months each equal to a year of teaching and of humbling there seemed to be a good time for me to get away and attend to my duties in england
of these i had been reminded often by letters and once by a messenger but all money matters seemed dust in the balance where life and death were swinging but now uncle sam and his grandson
having their love knit afresh by disaster were eager to start for the saw mill and trust all except their own business to providence i had told them that when they went westward
my time would be come for starting eastward and being unlikely to see them again i should hope for good news frequently and then i got dear uncle sam by himself and begged him
for the sake of firm's happiness to keep him as far as he could from pennsylvania sylvester at the same time i thought that
i forgot her name or at any rate i told him so would make him a good straightforward wife so far as one could tell from having seen her and that seemed to have been settled in their infancy
and if he would let me know when it was to be i had seen a thing in london i should like to give them when i asked the sawyer to see to this instead of being sorry he seemed quite pleased
and nodded sagaciously and put his hat on as he generally did to calculate both of them gals have married long ago he said looking at me with a fine soft gaze and bad handfuls their mates have got of them
but what made you talk of them missy or
i can't tell what made me think of them how can i tell why i think of every thing still it was an odd thing for your ladyship to say uncle sam i am nobody's ladyship
least of all yours what makes you speak so i am your own little wandering child whose life you saved and whose father you loved and who loses all who love her even from you i am forced to go away
oh why is it always my fate my fate hush said the old man
to talk of fate my dearie shows either one thing or the other that we have no will of our own or else that we know not how to guide it i never knew a good man talk of fate
the lord in heaven is enough for me and he always hath allowed me my own free will though i may not have handled un cleverly and he giveth you your own will now my missy
and being as you are a very grand young woman now owning english land and income paid in gold instead of greenbacks the same as our nugget seems likely to my ideas it would be wrong if we was so much as to ask you
and what makes you so mysterious i did think that you knew me better and i had a right to hope so concerning of yourself alone is not what we must think of
you might do this or you might do that according to what you was told or even more according to what was denied you for poor honest people like firm and me to deal with such a case is out of knowledge
for us it is go by the will of the lord and dead agin your own desires but dear uncle sam i cried feeling that now i had him upon his own tenterhooks
you rebuked me as sharply as lies in your nature for daring to talk about fate just now but to what else comes your own conduct if you are bound to go against your own desire if you have such a lot of freewill
why must you do what you do not like to do well well perhaps i was talking rather large the will of the world is upon us as well and we must have respect for its settlements
now let me i said with a trembling wish to have every thing right and maidenly i have seen so much harm from misunderstandings and they are so simple when it is too late
let me ask you one or two questions uncle sam you always answer every body and to you a crooked answer is impossible business is business the sawyer said my dear i contract accordingly
very well then in the first place what do you wish to have done with me putting aside all the gossip i mean of people who have never even heard of me why to take you back to saw mill with us
where you always was so natural in the next place what does your grandson wish to take you back to saw mill with him and keep you there till death do you part
and now uncle sam what do i wish you say we all have so much free will it is natural that you should wish my dear to go and be a great lady
then i fly against nature and the fault is yours for filling me so with machinery
hard fisted farmer lass whose toils in the field for her father was in but very moderate circumstances had tawned her complexion and hardened her muscles at an early age
as she grew toward woman's estate necessity compelled her to leave her home and seek service in the city of exeter where for many years she plodded on very quietly in her obscure path
first as a domestic hireling and subsequently as a washer woman i have an old and esteemed friend on staten island whose father still living
recollects joanna well as she used to come regularly to his house of a monday morning to her task of cleansing the family linen he was then but a little lad yet he remembers her quite well with her stout robust frame
and buxom and rather attractive countenance and her queer ways even then she was beginning to invite attention by her singular manners and discourse which led many to believe her demented
it was at exeter that joanna became religiously impressed and joined the wesleyan methodists as a strict and extreme believer in the doctrines of that sect during her attendance upon the wesleyan rites
she became intimate with one sanderson who
pretended that he had discovered in the good washerwoman a bible prodigy
for which sanderson always had ready some very telling interpretation
sometimes transporting her to the courts of heaven and sometimes to a very opposite region celebrated for its latent and active caloric when she ranged into the lower world
she had a very unpleasant habit of seeing sundry scoffers and unbelievers in herself belonging to the congregation in very close but disadvantageous intercourse with the evil one
who was represented as having a particular eye to others around her even while they laid claim to special piety of course such revelations as these could not be tolerated in any well regulated community
and when some most astounding religious gymnastics performed by joanna in the midst of prayers and sermons occurred to heap up the measure of her offences it became full time to take the matter in hand
and the prophetess was expelled now those whom she had not served up openly with brimstone agreeing with her about those whom she had thus
seceded in considerable numbers and became joanna's followers this gave her a nucleus to work upon and between seventeen ninety and eighteen hundred she managed to make herself known throughout britain
proclaiming that she was to be the destined mother of the second messiah and although originally quite illiterate picking up enough general information and bible lore
though sometimes incoherent works one of the earliest and most startling of these was her
from the sealed prophecies of joanna southcott
in eighteen o five a shoemaker named tozer built her a chapel in exeter at his own expense and it was from the first constantly filled on service days with eager worshipers
here she gave exhortations and prophesied in a species of religious frenzy or convulsion sometimes uttering very heavy prose and sometimes the most fearful doggerel rhyme resembling well
perhaps our album effusions here at home indeed i can think of nothing else equally fearful
and to just about the same purpose yet it was astonishing to see how the thing went down crowds of intelligent people came from all parts of the united kingdom to listen be converted
that secured their fortunate possessor unimpeded and immediate admission to heaven of course tickets so precious could not be given away for nothing and the seal trade in this new form proved very lucrative
the most remarkable of all these conversions was that of the celebrated engraver william sharp who notwithstanding his eminent position as an artist by no means bore out his name in other things
he had previously become thoroughly imbued with the notions of swedenborg mesmer and the famous richard brothers and was quite ripe for anything fantastic such a convert was a perfect godsend to joanna
and she was easily persuaded to accompany him to london where her congregations rapidly increased to enormous proportions
the whole sect extended until in eighteen thirteen it numbered no less than one hundred thousand members signed and sealed mister sharp occupying a most conspicuous position
at the very footstool of the prophetess late in eighteen thirteen appeared the book of wonders in five parts and it was a clincher poor sharp came in largely for the expenses
but valiantly stood his ground against it all at length in eighteen fourteen the great joanna dazzled the eyes of her adherents and the world at large with her
this delectable manifesto flatly announced to mankind that the second shiloh so long expected would be born of the prophetess at midnight on october nineteenth in that same year
as she expressly and solemnly declared and in the sixty fourth year of her age among the other preternatural concomitants of this anticipated eventful birth
was the fact that the period of her pregnancy had lasted for several years of course this stupendous announcement threw the whole sect into ecstasies of religious exultation
while on the other hand it afforded a fruitful subject of ridicule for the utterly irreverent london pamphleteers poor sharp
who had caused a magnificent cradle and baby wardrobe to be got ready at his own expense was most unmercifully scored the infant was caricatured with a long gray beard and spectacles
with sharp in a duster carefully rocking him to sleep while joanna the prophetess treated the engraver to some cuts in her own style with a bunch of twigs
on the appointed night the street in which joanna lived was thronged with the faithful who undeterred by sarcasm fully credited her prediction
and as the hours wore on and their interest increased burst forth into spontaneous psalmody the adjacent thoroughfares were as densely jammed with curious and incredulous spectators
and the mutton pie and ballad businesses flourished extensively the interior of the house with the exception of the sick chamber was illuminated in all directions and the dignitaries of the sect held the ante rooms and corridors
to receive the expected guest but the evening passed
then morning but alas no shiloh and little by little the disappointed throngs dispersed poor joanna however kept her bed and finally after many fresh paroxysms and prophecies
on the twenty seventh of december eighteen fourteen gave up the ghost the indefatigable sharp still declaring that she had gone to heaven for a season
after four days with the shiloh in her arms so firm was this faith in him and many other respectable persons that the body of the prophetess was retained in her house until the very last moment
when the dissection demanded by the majority of the sect could no longer be delayed that operation was performed and it was found that the subject had died of ovarian dropsy but was
as she had always maintained herself to be a virgin doctor reece who had been a devout believer but was now undeceived published a full account of this and all the other circumstances of her death
and another equally earnest disciple bore the expenses of her burial at saint john's wood and placed over her a tombstone with appropriate inscriptions
as late as eighteen sixty three there were many families of believers still existing near chatham in kent and even in this country can here and there be found admirers of the creed of joanna southcott
it is not growing like a tree in bulk doth make man better be ben jonson it is a good thing to have a sound body better to have a sane mind
but neither is to be compared to that aggregate of virile and decent qualities which we call character theodore roosevelt the only effective remedy against inexorable necessity is to yield to it
petrarch when i go about among my patients most of them as it happens nervously sick i sometimes stop to consider why it is they are ill
there are so many rules that no one will ever know them all but it seems that we live in a world of laws and that if we transgress those laws by ever so little we must suffer equally
whether our transgression is a mistake or not and whether we happen to be saints or sinners there are laws also which have to do with the recovery of poise and balance when these have been lost
these laws are less well observed and understood than those which determine our downfall the more gross illnesses from accident contagion and malignancy we need not consider here
but only those intangible injuries that disable people who are relatively sound in the physical sense it is true that nervous troubles may cause physical complications and that physical disease very often coexists with nervous illness
but it is better for us now to make an artificial separation just what happens in the human economy when a nervous breakdown comes nobody seems to know
the hold up is severe usually and becomes in itself a thing to be managed the rules we have wittingly or unwittingly broken are often unknown to us but they exist in the all wise providence
and we may guess by our own suffering how far we have overstepped them if a man runs into a door in the dark we know all about that the case is simple
that is a mystery here is a girl who came out last year she was apparently strong and her mother was ambitious for her social progress
that meant four nights a week for several months at dances and dinners getting home at three a m or later it was gay and delightful while it lasted but it could not last and the girl went to pieces suddenly
her back gave out because it was not strong enough to stand the dancing and the long continued physical strain the nerves gave out because she did not give her faculties time to rest and perhaps because of a love affair that supervened
the result was a year of invalidism and then because the rules of recovery were not understood several years more of convalescence such common rules should be well enough understood
but they are broken everywhere by the wisest people the common case of the broken down school teacher is more unfortunate this tragedy and others like it are more often i believe
due to unwise choice of profession in the first place the women's colleges are turning out hundreds of young women every year who naturally consider teaching as the field most appropriate and available
probably only a very small proportion of these girls are strong enough physically or nervously to meet the growing demands of the schools they may do well for a time some of them unusually well
for it is the sensitive high strung organism that is appreciative and effective
the plight of such young women is particularly hard for they are usually dependent upon their work it is after all not so much the things we do as the way we do them and what we think about them
that accomplishes nervous harm strangely enough the sense of effort and the feeling of our own inadequacy damage the nervous system quite as much as the actual physical effort
the attempt to catch up with life and with affairs that go on too fast for us is a frequent and harmful deflection from the rules of the game few of us avoid it life comes at us and goes by very fast
tasks multiply and we are inadequate responsibilities increase before we are ready they bring fatigue and confusion we cannot shirk and be true
having done all you reasonably can stop whatever may be the consequences that is a rule i would enforce if i could to do more is to drag and fail so defeating the end of your efforts
if it turns out that you are not fit for the job you have undertaken give it up and find another or modify that one until it comes within your capacity it takes courage to do this
more courage sometimes than is needed to make us stick to the thing we are doing rarely however will it be necessary for us to give up if we will undertake and consider for the day only such part of our task as we are able to perform
the trouble is that we look at our work or our responsibility all in one piece and it crushes us if we cannot arrange our lives so that we may meet their obligations a little at a time
then we must admit failure and try again on what may seem a lower plane that is what i consider the brave thing to do i would honor the factory superintendent who
finding himself unequal to his position should choose to work at the bench where he could succeed perfectly the habit of uncertainty in thought and action bred as it sometimes is from a lack of faith in man and in god
is nevertheless a thing to be dealt with sometimes by itself not infrequently it is a petty habit that can be corrected by the exercise of a little will power
i believe it is better to decide wrong a great many times doing it quickly than to come to a right decision after weakly vacillating as a matter of fact we may trust our decisions to be fair and true
if our life's ideals are beautiful and true we may improve our indecisions a great deal by mastering their unhappy details but we shall not finally overcome them until life rings true
and until all our acts and thoughts become the solid and inevitable expression of a healthy growing regard for the best in life a call to right living that is no mean dictum of policy but which is renewed every morning as the sun comes out of the sea
however inconsequential the habit of indecision may seem it is really one of the most disabling of bad habits its continuance contributes largely to the sum of nervous exhaustion whatever its origin
whether it stands in the relation of cause or effect it is an indulgence that insidiously takes the snap and sparkle out of life and leaves us for the time being colorless and weak next to uncertainty
an uninspired certainty is wrecking to the best of human prospects the man whose one idea is of making himself and his family materially comfortable or even rich may not be coming to nervous prostration
but he is courting a moral prostration that will deny him all the real riches of life and that will in the end reward him with a troubled mind a great unsatisfied longing unless to be sure
he is too smug and satisfied to long for anything the larger life leads us inevitably away from ourselves away from the super requirements of our families
it demands of them and of ourselves an unselfishness that is born of a love that finds its expression in the service of god and what is the service of god if it is not such an entering into the divine purposes and spirit that we become with god
re creators in the world working factors in the higher evolution of humanity while we live we shall get and save we shall use and spend we shall serve the needs of those dependent upon us
but we shall not line the family nest so softly that our children become powerless we shall not confine our charities to the specified channels where our names will be praised and our credit increased
we shall give and serve in secret places with our hearts in our deeds then we may possess the untroubled mind a treasure too rich to be computed we shall not have it for the seeking
but it will exist in a very large sense and it will be ours the so called hard headed business man who never allows himself to be taken advantage of whose dealings are always strict and uncompromising
is very apt to be a particularly miserable invalid when he is ill i cannot argue in favor of business laxity i know the imperative need of exactness and finality but i do believe that if we are to possess the untroubled mind
we must make our lives larger than the field of dollars and cents the charity that develops in us will make us truly generous and free from the reaction of hardness it is a great temptation to go on multiplying the rules of the game
there are so many sensible and necessary pieces of advice which we all need to have emphasized that is the course we must try to avoid the child needs to be told arbitrarily for a while what is right
and what is wrong that he must do this and he must not do that the time comes however when the growing instinct toward right living is the thing to foster not the details of life which will inevitably take care of themselves
if the underlying principle is made right it must be the ideal of moral teaching to make clear and pure the source of action then the stream will be clear and pure
such a stream will purify itself and neutralize the dangerous inflow along its banks it is true that great harm may come from the polluted inflows but they will be less and less harmful as the increasing current from the good source flows down
the trials of sir isumbras
once upon a time there lived a knight so handsome
and so valiant that all eyes were turned upon him his name was isumbras and fortune had given him everything that the heart of man could wish for he had a splendid castle surrounded by vast forests
where every day he went hunting or hawking and so generous he was with his wealth that the poor flocked to him from every quarter and never went away empty handed
sir isumbras had a beautiful wife and three lovely sons to share the blessings of his lot but one thing he had not and that was an humble spirit
and took it as a matter of course that his life should flow on in ease and luxury one day when mounted on his favorite steed surrounded by his dogs and having his hawk on fist
sir isumbras cast up his eyes to the sky and there saw an angel who reproached him with his pride announcing that heaven had in store for him a speedy punishment sir isumbras fell to his knees in prayer
but hardly had the angel vanished from his sight when on remounting his horse the noble creature fell dead beneath him the hawk dropped lifeless from his fist and the faithful hounds expired in agonies at his feet
hastening on foot to his castle he was met by a servant who informed him his horses and oxen had been suddenly struck dead by lightning and that his fowls had all been stung to death by adders
next came forward a page who told him the castle was burned to the ground many of his servants had perished and that his wife and children had taken refuge half naked in a thorn bush close at hand
sir isumbras hastened to the aid of his beloved family stripping himself of his scarlet mantle and his surcoat to clothe them he embraced them fondly
these remained he then proposed to his wife that as a sign of repentance for their sins they should all go on foot to the holy city jerusalem begging their bread from land to land
he cut with his knife upon his bare shoulder the pilgrim's sign of the cross and then the afflicted family set forth on their travels long they journeyed eating crusts when they could beg them
or berries from wayside bushes until faint and weary they reached a broad but shallow stream taking his eldest son in his arms sir isumbras bore him across the river and placed him beneath a bush of broom plant
in like manner the second son became the prey of a fierce leopard and the poor mother who saw them so cruelly torn from her sight fainted away with her baby on her breast sir isumbras bowed to the will of god
and when his wife revived they journeyed on to the shore of the greek sea here they stood and through eyes that were full of tears
this was the navy of a famous heathen king and no sooner had he landed than the travellers who had not touched bread or meat for seven days hastened to implore his charity
the king soon observed the robust limbs and tall stature of the husband and perceived he was a knight in disguise
was in spite of her ragged clothes a lady of high degree so affecting to treat the poor couple with respect he offered them gold and treasure if the knight would renounce christianity and consent to fight under the saracen banners
this offer was at once declined and the angry king made up his mind to revenge himself by carrying away the knight's wife so upon an order to the attendants a purse of gold was pressed into the knight's hand
his infant son was put into his arms he was hurried ashore cruelly beaten by the king's servants and when he recovered himself saw a heathen ship with his wife on board set sail for africa
sir isumbras clasped his only remaining treasure to his heart and followed the vessel with his eyes until it vanished from sight night found him still there until father and babe fell asleep upon the bare ground
too weary to keep awake sir isumbras had laid the fatal present of the heathen king the purse of gold in the scarlet mantle which he wrapped around his child scarcely had the next day's sun risen upon the earth
when an eagle attracted by the red cloth darted down carrying off mantle child and purse in his talons the poor knight was at last in utter despair he fell on his knees
and offered what remained of his life to the god he had offended just then he heard the noise of a blacksmith's forge and saw not far off some men at work they took pity on him and fed him
he entered their service and bound himself for seven long years to learn their trade during this time he forged a complete suit of armor for himself being determined at the first opportunity to take up arms against the saracens
whose king had not only done him such a cruel wrong but was oppressing god's people at length his opportunity came the christian army was to fight the saracens on a field not far from the forge
sir isumbras buckled on his awkward armor and mounting a horse that had been used by the smith to carry coals proceeded to the field of battle his heart beat with wild joy when he saw the foe before him
uttering a fervent prayer he dashed into the thick of the combat attracting all eyes at first by his sorry steed and rough armor and again by the splendid skill and courage of his charge
early in the action his horse was killed under him and the christian chiefs made haste to present him another one also a suit of armor more worthy of the heroic soldier he had proved himself to be all that day the battle raged
by nightfall sir isumbras single handed had killed the heathen king and many of his followers
and when brought for reward before the christian king and asked his name could hardly falter out i am a smith's man sire
the king swore a great oath to make a knight of this valiant smith's man and with all honor and tenderness sir isumbras was carried into a nunnery where the good sisters nursed him until he recovered from his many wounds
sir isumbras was not satisfied to remain quiet long though he had slain the heathen king he went to the holy land and for seven years wandered about a pilgrim as before sleeping upon the ground by night
and vainly seeking tidings of his wife by day once during this time when he was starving upon the banks of a stream there appeared to him a cheering visitor and as he sat about midnight
there came angel fair and bright and brought him bread and wine he said palmer well thou be the king of heaven greeteth well thee forgiven is sin thine
very soon after this miraculous event sir isumbras found his wife who had dwelt holy and charitable in a secluded castle where she had been shut up by the saracen king
she welcomed him with rapture and together they shed many tears over their lost children they lived together for some years until sir isumbras was again summoned to do battle with the saracens
who had determined at all cost to kill him the fight was again hot and long and just when sir isumbras was about to be overpowered by numbers of the enemy three new champions appeared in the field
declaring themselves on the side of the christians these were three splendid knights the first mounted upon a lion the second upon a leopard and the third upon an eagle the saracen cavalry
terror stricken at sight of them dispersed in all directions but flight was in vain three and twenty thousand unbelievers were soon laid dead upon the plain by the lion leopard and eagle
fighting with tireless fury and driving all before them until the entire heathen army was utterly put to rout then coming back to sir isumbras the three champions knelt before him
announcing themselves his long lost sons mercifully protected and befriended by the savage creatures by whom they had been carried off sir isumbras embraced his valiant sons and led them to their mother
the christian king enriched the entire family restoring them to their former rank and now wealth titles honors and all that he had lost came back to sir isumbras
sir eliduc did not wish to forsake his country still less did he wish to part with the fair lady guildeluec to whom he was solemnly betrothed but the king's order was law and taking a fond leave of his promised wife
while vowing ever to be faithful sir eliduc called to him ten of the bravest of his followers and set sail for the english coast they had a short voyage with fair winds
and proceeded at once to exeter
to whose prince he had refused to marry his only daughter and heiress sir eliduc offered his services to the king which were gladly accepted after a few days a battle was fought in which eliduc's knowledge of the art of war
and his bravery as well as that of his ten followers helped to decide the fortunes of the king of exeter who had the satisfaction of seeing the foe put to flight as a reward for his aid
the king made eliduc the supreme commander of all his armies eliduc was the idol of the people
confiding to the king her father that she would have no other husband than this valiant stranger the king thought he could do no better than secure such a noble successor to his throne
and sent his chamberlain to inform eliduc of the honor in store for him eliduc was now in a sad plight he thought of his absent guildeluec who was no doubt even then
waiting and weeping for his return and his heart grew heavy within him on the other hand the princess guilliadun was by far the most beautiful creature he had ever seen and her love for him was strong
to refuse her offered hand would bring down on him the fierce wrath of a great king to whom no man said nay while sir eliduc was in this dilemma a message came to him from his former master the breton king
ordering his immediate return to protect their country from invasion all sir eliduc's love for his own land stirred within him to defend her borders he was ready to sacrifice his present rank and wealth
and be a simple knight again the image of his promised wife arose clear and bright before him and he forgot the lovely guilliadun who for a time had so dazzled his imagination with her charms
laying down his sword before the sovereign he resigned command of the exeter troops and in spite of the king's rich offers and temptations hurried to take ship for france
among his attendants was a youth muffled in a long mantle who when they were fairly out at sea revealed to the knight's astonished gaze the face and form of the wilful guilliadun
she had thus disguised herself to follow him and now vowed that unless he took her to be his wife she would die by her own fair hand there was no time for discussion for at that moment
arose a mighty tempest which threatened to engulf the ship in vain were the efforts of the sailors to manage the vessel and all prepared for immediate death as wind and waves beat furiously upon them
suddenly one of the sailors spoke up for the rest and in the hearing of guilliadun warned sir eliduc that heaven was angry with him for carrying off the princess in disguise when he was already promised in marriage to another woman
guilliadun hearing these words fell lifeless to the deck she appeared so like a dead person that the crew offered to throw her overboard but eliduc seizing an oar struck down the sailor who had spoken
should he do with the body of the unfortunate princess in this emergency he remembered that in a forest near by had once lived an aged hermit in whose cell he might possibly leave the corpse of the princess
until he should be able to dispose of it in a style suited to her rank he mounted his palfrey took the body in his arms rode to the hermit's retreat and gaining entrance to a little chapel
laid on a slab in the centre of it the unhappy guilliadun she was beautiful as ever and looked like a waxen image the knight kneeling beside her shed many bitter tears and then
springing to his saddle galloped off to place himself at the service of his king he found the affairs of his country in a bad way but the mere mention of his name sufficed to inspire the breton soldiers with new courage
marching at the head of the king's troops he led them to battle and in a short time had put the foe to confusion and rout covered with glory eliduc rode back to receive the king's congratulations and thanks
there among the ladies attending the queen was his faithful guildeluec but when she came forward with open arms to greet him a thought of the lady guilliadun who had died for love of him shot into his heart like an arrow
but hiding the anguish she felt she resolved to keep close watch upon her lover and if possible discover the cause of his coldness for some days the court was given up to gaiety and festivals of all kinds
guildeluec noticed that every day her knight would steal away to the forest and remain there for some hours returning to the palace more melancholy than before she set a little page to follow eliduc
and the boy traced his master to a retreat all overgrown with trees where the knight entered and was lost to sight dismissing the boy with a piece of gold the lady resolved herself to unravel the mystery
wrapped in a long veil she stole along the green alleys of the wood and soon reached the little hermitage lifting up a curtain of closely woven vines which drooped before it she entered the chapel door
there on a bier richly hung with velvet lay a young and lovely maiden apparently dead save that her cheeks bloomed like a new blown rose
when a noise of approaching footsteps startled her and she hid behind a tomb the new comer was none other than the brave knight eliduc who casting himself on the ground beside the bier gave way to bitter grief
calling the saints above to witness that he had been true to his pledge to guildeluec even to hastening to an untimely end the fair maiden before him guildeluec heard all and understood what had taken his love from her
just then a weasel running from behind the altar passed near the bier which angered the knight who at one blow
when eliduc had gone the watching lady saw another weasel run up to his slaughtered companion attempt to play with her and on finding her without life
directly the weasel came back again carrying a beautiful red flower from the wood which was carefully inserted in the mouth of his companion the effect was magical instantly the dead weasel sprang up dropped the flower
guildeluec stooped to pick up the fallen blossom for a moment she hesitated for her love for the knight was very great then she bent forward
and laid the stem of the flower between the rosy lips of the entranced guilliadun immediately there were signs of life the girl stirred a blush came into her cheeks and her lips parted
when her eyes opened guildeluec sighed and said truly never was there seen so fair a creature
and received her fervent thanks for delivery from so strange a spell with many tears guilliadun confessed to her unknown friend her love for the knight eliduc and the way she had followed him from her father's court
and when it was at an end led her away from the hermitage to the palace where the queen took the princess under her charge
when eliduc saw guilliadun alive and well richly clad and lovelier than before his heart rejoiced but he turned away from her then came forward guildeluec who
with the queen's permission released him from his pledge to her
he looked around there was no one in sight save the group of nuns behind a grating
ronald with kreta and two of his men now crept down to the very edge of the bushes at a spot where they could command a view of the entrance to the hut for a long time female figures came in and out
and the skin drawn across the entrance how long shall we give them kreta in an hour kreta will go see the chief said but better give two hours for all to be fast asleep
in about an hour ronald who had been half lying on the ground with his head on his hands looked round and found that the chief had stolen away he sat up and watched the hut intently
but there was still light enough for him looking intently to see a figure moving along once or twice he fancied he saw a dark shadow on the ground close to the hut but he was not sure and was still gazing intently when there was a touch on his shoulder and looking round
he saw the chief beside him two women watch he said others all quiet give a little time longer to make sure that all are asleep then we go on it seemed to ronald fully two hours although it was less than one before kreta again touched him
you go down with me to the hut but not quite close kreta bring girl to you you better not go kreta walk more quietly than white man noise spoil everything get all of us killed ronald gave his consent though reluctantly
but he felt it was right that the fingo who was risking his life for his sake should carry out his plans in his own way kreta ordered one of his men to rejoin his companions and with the other advanced towards the village
when within forty yards of the hut he touched ronald and whispered to him to remain there then he and his companion lay down on the ground and without the slightest sound that ronald could detect disappeared in the darkness
while ronald stood with his revolver in his hand ready at any moment to spring forward and throw himself upon the kaffirs mary armstrong lay awake with every faculty upon the stretch where the succour was to come from or how she could not imagine
but it was evident at least that some white man was here and was working for her she listened intently to every sound with her eyes wide open staring at the two women who were cooking mealies in the fire and keeping up a low murmured talk
she had not even a hope that they would sleep she knew that the natives constantly sit up talking and feasting until daylight is close at hand and as they had extra motives for vigilance she was sure that they would keep awake
a common mode among the kaffirs of putting any one to death the whole thing did not occupy a moment and as the women disappeared from her sight two natives rose to their feet and looked round
one of the natives put his finger upon his lips to indicate the necessity of silence and beckoned for her to rise and come to him when she did so he wrapped her in a dark blanket and led her to the door he pushed aside the hanging and went out
mary followed close behind him he now put the blanket over her head and lifted her in his arms a momentary dread seized her lest this might be an emissary of some other chief who had sent him to carry off macomo's new captive
but the thought of the english words reassured her
even if it were so her position could not possibly be worse than on the return of macomo the next morning she was carried a short distance then she heard her bearer say in english come along
she was carried on for some distance then there was a stop and she was placed on her feet the blanket was removed from her head and a moment later a dark figure seized her hand thank god we have got you out miss armstrong
who are you sir she asked trembling i am sergeant blunt miss armstrong no wonder you did not know me i am got up in native fashion you can trust yourself with me you know oh yes yes the girl sobbed
i know i can you saved my life once before how did you come here and oh can you tell me any news about my father he is hurt miss armstrong but i have every hope that he will recover now you must be strong
for we must be miles from here before morning can you walk oh yes i can walk any distance the girl said
and one of the fingoes went on ahead to see if the fires were out and all natives inside their huts several times although all the human beings were asleep the scout returned saying that they could not pass through the kraal for the dogs had scented him and growled fiercely
and would set up such a barking when the party passed as to bring all the village out to see what was the matter then long detours that would have been difficult through the thick bush
each time that this had to be done kreta lifted mary armstrong and carried her and she had now become so exhausted that she was unable even to protest ronald would have carried her himself but he felt that it would be worse than useless to attempt to do so
though unencumbered he had the greatest difficulty in making his way through the bushes which scratched and tore his flesh terribly but the chief seemed to be possessed of the eyes of a bat and glided through them scarcely moving a twig as he passed
they stopped by a little stream running down the valley here a native refilled the gourds
i think ronald said to her that if you were to bathe your face and hands it would refresh you there is a rock here just at the edge of the stream
you to take off your shoes and stockings and paddle your feet in the water that would be refreshing the girl said my feet are aching dreadfully now please tell me all that has happened and how you came to be here
i don't suppose we shall go far but no doubt he will find some sort of hiding place kreta in fact was just giving instructions to his men we are going out to find some good place to hide away in to day he said
in the morning they search all about the woods we must get into shelter before it light enough for the men on hill tops to see down through trees you stop here quiet in half an hour we come back again there is plenty time they no find out yet that woman gone
in a few minutes mary armstrong joined ronald how do you feel now he asked all the fresher and better for the wash she said but i really don't think i could walk very far my feet are very much blistered i don't see why they should be so bad
and i always considered that i could walk twenty miles without difficulty it makes all the difference how you walk miss armstrong no doubt if you had been in good spirits and with a pleasant party
although that is certainly a long distance for a woman but depressed and almost despairing as you were it told upon you generally and doubtless you rather dragged your feet along than walked
some day i will tell you about it but i cannot now here are some mealies and some cold meat we each brought a week's supply with us when we left the waggons i am sure that you will be all the better for eating something
i am sure i could go on walking now it was not the pain that stopped me
i wish you would not call me miss armstrong it seems so formal and stiff when you are running such terrible risks to save me please call me mary and i will call you harry i think i heard you tell my father your name was harry blunt that is the name i enlisted under
it is not my own name men very seldom enlist under their own names why not she asked in surprise partly i suppose because a good many of us get into scrapes before we enlist and don't care for our friends to be able to trace us
i am sure you never got into a scrape the girl said looking up into ronald's face
if we get out of this i shall be sergeant blunt again but i should like you to call me ronald now
i flatter myself that my get up is very good ronald laughed
each day before starting we have gone to our fires and got fresh charcoal and mixed it with some grease we brought with us and rubbed it in afresh your hair is your weak point ronald but of course no european could make his hair like a native's
kreta listened to the reports of each of his men and they held a short consultation then he came up to ronald one of my men has found a place that will do well he said it is time we were going one of the fingoes now took the lead the others followed
kreta uttered an expression of approval two of the natives crept in with their assegais in their hands in two or three minutes one of them returned with the bodies of two puff adders they had killed these were dropped in among some rocks
you can go in now kreta said there are no more of them
it is lucky those men came in first and found the snakes mary armstrong said for we have not got here the stuff we always use in the colony as an antidote and their bite is almost always fatal unless that can be used in time
ronald was aware of this and had indeed during the night's march had snakes constantly in his mind for he knew that they abounded in the hills
out of the opening half an hour after they had entered the cave he turned round and spoke to the chief the kaffirs are hunting kreta said listening at the opening they could hear distant shouts these were answered from many points some of them comparatively close
they will find where we stopped close to kraal kreta said the dead leaves were stirred by our feet after that not find too many people gone along path ground very hard
but we leave path many times and after i carry no find at all mountains very big much bush never find here the chief now told his follower to replace the stone and join
and one party came so near that their words could be plainly heard in the cave they were discussing the manner in which the fugitive had escaped
for that an enemy should have penetrated into the heart of the amatolas did not strike them as possible the argument was only as to which of the other chiefs would have ventured to rob macomo
and the opinion inclined to the fact that it must have been sandilli himself who would doubtless have heard from the messenger sent over on the previous afternoon to inform macomo of the return of the band with a pretty young white woman as a captive
macomo had of course been drunk and sandilli might have determined to have the prize carried off for himself mary armstrong shuddered as she listened to the talk but when they had gone on kreta said good thing the kaffirs have that thought
not search so much here search in sandilli's country perhaps make great quarrel between macomo and sandilli good thing that
as the day went on the spirits of the fingoes rose and in low tones they expressed their delight at having outwitted the kaffirs no footsteps had been heard in their neighbourhood for some time and they felt sure that the search had been abandoned in that quarter
towards sunset all ate a hearty meal and as soon as it became dark the stones at the entrance were removed and the party crept out mary armstrong had slept the greater part of the day and ronald and the fingoes had also passed a portion of their time in sleep
they started therefore refreshed and strong it took them many hours of patient work before they arrived at the edge of the forest on the last swell of the amatolas they had been obliged to make many detours to avoid kraals
and to surmount the precipices that often barred their way they had started about eight in the evening and it was as they knew from the stars fully three o'clock in the morning when they emerged from the forest mary armstrong had kept on well with the rest
her feet were extremely painful but she was now strong and hopeful and no word of complaint escaped her ronald and the chief kept by her side helping her up or down difficult places and assisting her to pass through the thorny bushes which caught her dress
once out of the bush the party hurried down the grassy slope and then kept on a mile further the chief now gave a loud call it was answered faintly from the distance in five minutes the sound of a horse's hoofs were heard and in a short time
the fingo who had been left in charge of it galloped up with ronald's horse mary armstrong was sitting on the ground for she was now so utterly exhausted she could no longer keep her feet and had
since they left the bush been supported and half carried by ronald and kreta she made an effort to rise as the horse came up please wait a moment i will not be above two minutes ronald said but i really cannot ride into williamstown like this
he unstrapped his valise took the jack boots that were hanging from the saddle and moved away in the darkness in two or three minutes he returned in his uniform i feel a civilised being again he said laughing
a handful of sand at the first stream we come to will get most of this black off my face
now i will shift the saddle a few inches further back i think you had better ride before me for you are completely worn out and i can hold you there better than you could hold yourself if you were to sit behind me he strapped on his valise shifted his saddle
they were not out of danger yet for parties of kaffirs might be met with at any time until they arrived within musket shot of king williamstown the fingoes ran at a pace that kept the horse at a sharp trot
it was very pleasant to ronald mervyn to feel mary armstrong in his arms and to know as he did how safe and confident she felt there but he did not press her more closely than was necessary to enable her to retain her seat
yes the girl said if i put one foot on yours i could certainly hold on i could twist one of my hands in the horse's mane can you use a pistol of course i can she replied i was as good a shot as my father
that is all right then i will give you one of my pistols then i can hold you with my right arm for the horse may plunge if a spear strikes him i will use my pistol in my left hand i will see that no one catches the bridle on that side do you attend to the right
i hope it won't come to that still there's never any saying and we shall have one or two nasty places to pass through on our way down we have the advantage that should there be any kaffirs there they will not be keeping a watch this way
and we may hope to get pretty well through them before they see us will you promise me one thing ronald she asked will you shoot me if you find that we cannot get past ronald nodded
death would be nothing to that i would rather die a thousand times than fall into the hands of the kaffirs again i promise you mary my last shot but one shall be for you my last for myself
thank god you didn't said ronald earnestly though i could not have blamed you they paused at the entrance to each kloof through which they had to pass and the fingoes went cautiously ahead searching through the bushes
it was not until he heard their call on the other side that ronald galloped after them i begin to hope that we shall get through now ronald said after emerging from one of these kloofs we have only one more bad place to pass but of course the danger is greatest there
but me and my men can creep through but we must not call to you incos the kaffirs would hear us and be on the watch safest plan for us to go through first not go along paths but through bush then for you to gallop straight through even if they close to path
you get past before they time to stop you i think that best way i think so too kreta if they hear the horse's hoofs coming from behind they will suppose it is a mounted messenger from the hills anyhow i think that a dash for it is our best chance
i think you get through safe if go fast how long will you be getting through kreta quarter of an hour the chief said must go slow your ride four five minutes kreta stood thoughtfully for a minute or two
me don't like it incos me tell you what we do we keep over to left and then when we get just through the bush we fire our guns then the kaffirs very much surprised and all run that way and you ride straight through
when the fingoes had been gone about ten minutes ronald assured that the kaffirs would be gathered at the far side of the kloof went forward at a walk presently he heard six shots fired in rapid succession
this was followed by an outburst of yells and cries in front and he set spurs to his horse and dashed forward at a gallop he was nearly through the kloof when a body of kaffirs who were running through the wood from the right burst suddenly from the bushes into the path
so astonished were they at seeing a white man within a few yards of them that for a moment they did not think of using their weapons and ronald dashed through them scattering them to right and left but others sprang from the bushes
ronald shot down two men who sprang at the horse's bridle and he heard mary armstrong's pistol on the other side he had drawn his sword before setting off at a gallop hold tight mary he said
as he relaxed his hold of her and cut down a native who was springing upon him from the bushes another fell from a bullet from her pistol and then he was through them stoop down mary he said pressing her forward on the horse's neck and bending down over her
he felt his horse give a sudden spring and knew that it was hit with an assegai while almost at the same instant he felt a sensation as of a hot iron running from his belt to his shoulder as a spear ripped up cloth and flesh and then glanced along over him
a moment later and they were out of the kloof and riding at full speed across the open looking over his shoulder he saw that the kaffirs gave up pursuit after following for a hundred yards over on the left he heard dropping shots
and presently caught a glimpse in that direction of the fingoes running in a close body pursued at the distance of a hundred yards or so by a large number of kaffirs but others had heard the sound of firing for in a minute or two he saw a
in the direction of the firing he at once checked the speed of his horse we are safe now mary that is a troop of our corps are you hit no i am not touched are you hurt ronald i thought i felt you start
i have got a bit of a scratch on the back but it's nothing serious i will get off in a moment mary the horse has an assegai in his quarters and i must get it out take me down too please i feel giddy now it is all over
you are bleeding dreadfully the girl exclaimed as she caught sight of his back it's a terrible wound to look at then it looks worse than it is he laughed the spear only glanced along on the ribs it's lucky i was stooping so much
after going through what we have we may think ourselves well off indeed that we have escaped with such a scratch as this between us it's not a scratch at all the girl said indignantly it's a very deep bad cut perhaps it is a bad cut ronald smiled
to the spot where ronald and mary armstrong were standing by the horse ah it is you sergeant lieutenant daniels exclaimed for it was a portion of ronald's own troop that had ridden up i never expected to see you again for we heard the day before yesterday
from the officer who came in with the ammunition waggons that you had gone off to try to rescue three ladies who had been carried off by the kaffirs it was a mad business but you have partly succeeded i am glad to see and he lifted his cap to mary armstrong partly sir ronald said
i am not surprised at that miss armstrong you must have gone through a terrible time and i heartily congratulate sergeant blunt on the success of his gallant attempt to rescue you have you heard from my father how is he
your father miss armstrong i have heard nothing about him since i heard from sergeant blunt that you had all got safely away after that attack he was in the waggon sir ronald explained he was hurt in the fight with the kaffirs and mister nolan brought him back in the waggons
nolan said he had been badly wounded but the surgeon told me he thought he might get round
perhaps sir ronald said faintly you will let one of the troop ride on with miss armstrong at once i think i must wait for a bit why what is it sergeant the lieutenant asked catching him by the arm for he saw that he was on the point of falling
two of the troop leapt from their horses and laid ronald down for he had fainted overcome partly by the pain and loss of blood but more by the sudden termination of the heavy strain of the last four days it is only a flesh wound miss armstrong there is no occasion for fear
it seems very unkind to leave him the girl said after all he has done for me he will understand it my dear young lady and you can see him in the hospital directly you get there mary reluctantly allowed herself to be lifted into the saddle and rode off with the trooper
it's a nasty rip that he has got i suppose he was leaning forward in the saddle when the spear touched him it's lucky it glanced up instead of going through him the soldiers
for he had not waited to put one on when he mounted the troopers had heard from their comrades on the return of the escort that the sergeant had before starting got himself up as a native and they were not therefore surprised as they otherwise would have been at his black skin
put your hand into the left holster of my saddle the lieutenant said you will find two or three bandages and some lint there they are things that come in handy for this work lay the lint in the gash that's right press it down a little and put some more in
there i think he will do now but there's no doubt it is a nasty wound it has cut right through the muscles of the back
some brandy and water was poured between ronald's lips and he soon opened his eyes don't move sergeant or you will set your wound off bleeding again we will soon get you comfortably into hospital
i think i can sit a horse now ronald said trying to rise
the reader will pardon this passing homily while we return to our narrative we were saying that the day dreams of isabella and her husband
these were the heart wasting trials of watching over her children scattered and imminently exposed to the temptations of the adversary with few if any fixed principles to sustain them oh she says
how little did i know myself of the best way to instruct and counsel them yet i
when they did wrong i scolded at and whipped them isabella and her son had been free about a year when they went to reside in the city of new york a place which she would doubtless have avoided could she have foreseen what was there in store for her
her son peter was at the time of which we are speaking just at that age when no lad should be subjected to the temptations of such a place unprotected as he was save by the feeble arm of a mother herself a servant there
he was growing up to be a tall well formed active lad of quick perceptions mild and cheerful in his disposition
as will be readily believed he was soon drawn into a circle of associates who did not improve either his habits or his morals
two years passed before isabella knew what character peter was establishing for himself among his low and worthless comrades passing under the assumed name of peter williams and she began to feel a parent's pride in the promising appearance of her only son
ingenuity and open confessions of peter when driven into a corner and who she said was so smart he ought to have an education if any one ought paid ten dollars as tuition fee for him to attend a navigation school
along with the ten dollars of missus and while his mother and her friend believed him improving at school he was to their latent sorrow improving in a very different place or places and on entirely opposite principles
they also procured him an excellent place as a coachman but wanting money he sold his livery and other things belonging to his master
still he continued to abuse his privileges and to involve himself in repeated difficulties from which his mother as often extricated him at each time she talked much and reasoned and remonstrated with him
and he would with such perfect frankness lay open his whole soul to her telling her he had never intended doing harm how he had been led along little by little till before he was aware he found himself in trouble how he had tried to be good
and how when he would have been so evil was present with him indeed he knew not how it was his mother beginning to feel that the city was no place for him urged his going to sea and would have shipped him on board a man of war
but peter was not disposed to consent to that proposition while the city and its pleasures were accessible to him isabella now became a prey to distressing fears dreading lest the next day or hour come fraught with the report of some dreadful crime
committed or abetted by her son she thanks the lord for sparing her that giant sorrow as all his wrong doings never ranked higher in the eye of the law than misdemeanors but as she could see no improvement in peter
peter again fell into the hands of the police and sent for his mother as usual but she went not to his relief in his extremity he sent for peter williams a respectable colored barber whose name he had been wearing
and who sometimes helped young culprits out of their troubles and sent them from city dangers by shipping them on board of whaling vessels the curiosity of this man was awakened by the culprit's bearing his own name
he went to see his mother and informed her of what had happened to him she listened incredulously as to an idle tale he asked her to go with him and see for herself she went giving no credence to his story
till she found herself in the presence of mister williams and heard him saying to her i am very glad i have assisted your son he stood in great need of sympathy and assistance but i could not think he had such a mother here although he assured me he had
so afraid was she that he was still unfaithful and doing wrong but he did not appear and at length she believed him really gone he left in the summer of eighteen thirty nine and his friends heard nothing further from him
till his mother received the following letter dated october seventeenth
my dear and beloved mother
i am got on board the same unlucky ship done of nantucket
that my parents will receive me with thanks i would like to know how my sisters are does my cousins live in new york yet have you got my letter if not inquire to mister pierce whiting's
i am your only son that is so far from your home in the wide briny ocean
and if i ever should return home safe i will tell you all my troubles and hardships mother i hope you do not forget me your dear and only son i should like to know how sophia and betsey and hannah come on
i hope you all will forgive me for all that i have done your son peter van wagener
my dear mother i take this opportunity to write to you and inform you that i have been well and in good health i have wrote you a letter before but have received no answer from you and was very anxious to see you i hope to see you in a short time
very hard luck but are in hopes to have better in time to come i should like if my sisters are well and all the people round the neighborhood i expect to be home in twenty two months or thereabouts i have seen samuel laterett
beware there has happened very bad news to tell you that peter jackson is dead he died within two days sail of otaheite one of the society islands
the peter jackson that used to live at laterett's he died on board the ship done of nantucket captain miller
i have no more to say at present but write as soon as possible your only son peter van wagener another containing the last intelligence she has had from her son reads as follows and was dated september nineteen
and in hopes to find you in the same this is the fifth letter that i have wrote to you and have received no answer and it makes me very uneasy so pray write as quick as you can and tell me how all the people is about the neighborhood
we are out from home twenty three months and in hope to be home in fifteen months i have not much to say but tell me if you have been up home since i left or not i want to know what sort of a time is at home
we had very bad luck when we first came out but since we have had very good so i am in hopes to do well yet but if i do n't do well you need not expect me home these five years so write as quick as you can won't you
so now i am going to put an end to my writing at present notice when this you see remember me and place me in your mind get me to my home that's in the far distant west to the scenes of my childhood that i like the best
there the tall cedars grow and the bright waters flow where my parents will greet me white man let me go let me go to the spot where the cateract plays where oft i have sported in my boyish days and there is my poor mother whose heart ever flows
at the sight of her poor child to her let me go let me go your only son peter van wagener since the date of the last letter isabella has heard no tidings from her long absent son
though ardently does her mother's heart long for such tidings as her thoughts follow him around the world
i have no doubt i feel sure that he has persevered and kept the resolve he made before he left home he seemed so different before he went so determined to do better
chapter twenty one winter quarters the habitation that had now revealed itself well lighted and thoroughly warm was indeed marvelous
not only would it afford ample accommodation for hector servadac and his subjects as ben zoof delighted to call them but it would provide shelter for the two horses and for a considerable number of domestic animals
this enormous cavern was neither more or less than the common junction of nearly twenty tunnels similar to that which had been traversed by the explorers forming ramifications in the solid rock and the pores
as it were by which the internal heat exuded from the heart of the mountain here as long as the volcano retained its activity every living creature on the new asteroid
and as count timascheff justly remarked since it was the only burning mountain they had sighted it was most probably the sole outlet for gallia's subterranean fires and consequently the eruption might continue unchanged for ages to come
but not a day not an hour was to be lost now the steam launch returned to gourbi island and preparations were forthwith taken in hand for conveying man and beast corn and fodder across to the volcanic headland
loud and hearty were the acclamations of the little colony especially of the spaniards and great was the relief of nina when servadac announced to them the discovery of their future domicile and with requickened energies they labored hard at packing
anxious to reach their genial winter quarters without delay for three successive days the dobryna laden to her very gunwale made a transit to and fro ben zoof was left upon the island to superintend the stowage of the freight
whilst servadac found abundant occupation in overlooking its disposal within the recesses of the mountain first of all the large store of corn and fodder the produce of the recent harvest was landed and deposited in one of the vaults
then on the fifteenth about fifty head of live cattle bullocks cows sheep and pigs were conveyed to their rocky stalls these were saved for the sake of preserving the several breeds
the bulk of the island cattle being slaughtered as the extreme severity of the climate insured all meat remaining fresh for almost an indefinite period the winter which they were expecting would probably be of unprecedented length
it was quite likely that it would exceed the six months duration by which many arctic explorers have been tried but the population of gallia had no anxiety in the matter of provisions their stock was far more than adequate while as for drink
as long as they were satisfied with pure water a frozen sea would afford them an inexhaustible reservoir the need for haste in forwarding their preparations became more and more manifest the sea threatened to be un navigable very soon
and if haste were necessary so also were care ingenuity and forethought it was indispensable that the space at their command should be properly utilized and yet that the several portions of the store should all be readily accessible
on further investigation an unexpected number of galleries was discovered so that in fact the interior of the mountain was like a vast bee hive perforated with innumerable cells
it was unanimously voted by the colony that their new home should be called nina's hive
by opening fresh vents in the solid rock
the stream of burning lava was diverted into several new channels
and thus mochel the dobryna's cook was furnished with an admirable kitchen provided with a permanent stove where he was duly installed with all his culinary apparatus
what a saving of expense it would be exclaimed ben zoof if every household could be furnished with its own private volcano the large cavern at the general junction of the galleries was fitted up as a drawing room
and arranged with all the best furniture both of the gourbi and of the cabin of the dobryna hither was also brought the schooner's library containing a good variety of french and russian books lamps were suspended over the different tables
the curtain of fire extending over the opening of the cavern provided it
and was evidently the aperture of a deep abyss of which the waters heated by the descent of the eruptive matter would no doubt retain their liquid condition long after the gallian sea had become a sheet of ice
a small excavation to the left of the common hall was allotted for the special use of servadac and the count
whilst a third recess immediately at the back made a convenient little chamber for nina the spaniards and the russian sailors took up their sleeping quarters in the adjacent galleries and found the temperature quite comfortable
such were the internal arrangements of nina's hive the refuge where the little colony were full of hope that they would be able to brave the rigors of the stern winter time that lay before them
a winter time during which gallia might possibly be projected even to the orbit of jupiter where the temperature would not exceed one twenty fifth of the normal winter temperature of the earth the only discontented spirit was isaac hakkabut
throughout all the preparations which roused even the spaniards to activity the jew still incredulous and deaf to every representation of the true state of things insisted upon remaining in the creek at gourbi island
nothing could induce him to leave his tartan where like a miser he would keep guard over his precious cargo ever grumbling and growling but with his weather eye open in the hope of catching sight of some passing sail
it must be owned that the whole party were far from sorry to be relieved of his presence his uncomely figure and repulsive countenance was a perpetual bugbear he had given out in plain terms that he did not intend to part with any of his property
except for current money and servadac equally resolute had strictly forbidden any purchases to be made hoping to wear out the rascal's obstinacy hakkabut persistently refused to credit the real situation
he could not absolutely deny that some portions of the terrestrial globe had undergone a certain degree of modification but nothing could bring him to believe that he was not sooner or later to resume his old line of business in the mediterranean
he regarded every argument that was urged upon him only as evidence of a plot that had been devised to deprive him of his goods repudiating as he did utterly the hypothesis that a fragment had become detached from the earth
he scanned the horizon for hours together with an old telescope
hoping to descry the passing trader with which he might effect some bartering upon advantageous terms at first he professed to regard the proposed removal into winter quarters as an attempt to impose upon his credulity
but the frequent voyages made by the dobryna to the south and the repeated consignments of corn and cattle soon served to make him aware that captain servadac and his companions were really contemplating a departure from gourbi island the movement set him thinking
what he began to ask himself what if all that was told him was true what if this sea was no longer the mediterranean what if he should never again behold his german fatherland
what if his marts for business were gone for ever a vague idea of ruin began to take possession of his mind he must yield to necessity he must do the best he could
as the result of his cogitations he occasionally left his tartan and made a visit to the shore at length he endeavored to mingle with the busy group who were hurrying on their preparations but his advances were only met by jeers and scorn
and ridiculed by all the rest he was fain to turn his attention to ben zoof to whom he offered a few pinches of tobacco
keep your cargo to yourself eat and drink it all if you can we are not to touch it finding the subordinates incorruptible isaac determined to go to the fountain head he addressed himself to servadac and begged him to tell him the whole truth
piteously adding that surely it was unworthy of a french officer to deceive a poor old man like himself tell you the truth man cried servadac confound it i have told you the truth twenty times
once for all i tell you now you have left yourself barely time enough to make your escape to yonder mountain god and mahomet have mercy on me muttered the jew whose creed frequently assumed a very ambiguous character
i will tell you what continued the captain you shall have a few men to work the hansa across if you like but i want to go to algiers whimpered hakkabut how often am i to tell you that algiers is no longer in existence only say yes or no
god of israel what is to become of all my property but mind you continued the captain not heeding the interruption if you do not choose voluntarily to come with us i shall have the hansa by my orders
removed to a place of safety i am not going to let your cursed obstinacy incur the risk of losing your cargo altogether merciful heaven i shall be ruined moaned isaac in despair you are going the right way to ruin yourself
but be off i have no more to say and turning contemptuously on his heel servadac left the old man vociferating bitterly and with uplifted hands protesting vehemently against the rapacity of the gentiles
by the twentieth all preliminary arrangements were complete and everything ready for a final departure from the island the thermometer stood on an average at eight degrees below zero and the water in the cistern was completely frozen
it was determined therefore for the colony to embark on the following day and take up their residence in nina's hive a final consultation was held about the hansa
lieutenant procope pronounced his decided conviction that it would be impossible for the tartan to resist the pressure of the ice in the harbor of the shelif and that there would be far more safety in the proximity of the volcano
and accordingly orders were given four russian sailors were sent on board and only a few minutes elapsed after the dobryna had weighed anchor before the great lateen sail of the tartan was unfurled and the shop ship
as ben zoof delighted to call it was also on her way to the southward long and loud were the lamentations of the jew he kept exclaiming that he had given no orders that he was being moved against his will
that he had asked for no assistance and needed none but it required no very keen discrimination to observe that all along there was a lurking gleam of satisfaction in his little gray eyes and when a few hours later he found himself securely anchored
and his property in a place of safety he quite chuckled with glee god of israel he said in an undertone they have made no charge the idiots have piloted me here for nothing for nothing
his whole nature exulted in the consciousness that he was enjoying a service that had been rendered gratuitously destitute of human inhabitants gourbi island was now left to the tenancy of such birds and beasts
as had escaped the recent promiscuous slaughter birds indeed that had migrated in search of warmer shores had returned proving that this fragment of the french colony
was the only shred of land that could yield them any sustenance but their life must necessarily be short
the colony took possession of their new abode with but few formalities everyone however approved of all the internal arrangements of nina's hive
and were profuse in their expressions of satisfaction at finding themselves located in such comfortable quarters the only malcontent was hakkabut he had no share in the general enthusiasm refused even to enter or inspect any of the galleries
and insisted on remaining on board his tartan he is afraid said ben zoof that he will have to pay for his lodgings but wait a bit we shall see how he stands the cold out there the frost no doubt will drive the old fox out of his hole
towards evening the pots were set boiling and a bountiful supper to which all were invited was spread in the central hall the stores of the dobryna contained some excellent wine
some of which was broached to do honor to the occasion the health of the governor general was drunk as well as the toast success to his council to which ben zoof was called upon to return thanks the entertainment passed off merrily
the spaniards were in the best of spirits one of them played the guitar another the castanets and the rest joined in a ringing chorus
well known throughout the french army but rarely performed in finer style
misti goth dar dar tire lyre flic floc flac
far la rira
tour la ribaud ricandeau sans repos repit
repos ris pot
unquestionably the first that had ever taken place in gallia the russian sailors exhibited some of their national dances which gained considerable applause even although they followed upon the marvelous fandangos of the spaniards
ben zoof in his turn danced a pas seul often performed in the elysee
with an elegance and vigor
it was nine o'clock before the festivities came to an end and by that time the company heated by the high temperature of the hall and by their own exertions felt the want of a little fresh air accordingly the greater portion of the party
escorted by ben zoof made their way into one of the adjacent galleries that led to the shore servadac with the count and lieutenant did not follow immediately but shortly afterwards they proceeded to join them
their first impression was that they were cries of distress and they were greatly relieved to find that they were shouts of delight which the dryness and purity of the atmosphere caused to re echo like a volley of musketry
reaching the mouth of the gallery they found the entire group pointing with eager interest to the sky well ben zoof asked the captain what's the matter now
anything of what you ask
and quite early the old woman appeared and took out a little pipe and blew in it and in a moment all the crows in the world were flying about her not one was missing
then she asked if they knew anything about the three bulrushes but not one of them did the prince went on his way and a little further on he found another hut in which lived an old man
on being questioned the old man said he knew nothing but begged the prince to stay overnight and the next morning the old man called all the ravens together but they too had nothing to tell
the prince bade him farewell and set out he wandered so far that he crossed seven kingdoms and at last one evening he came to a little house in which was an old woman
said he politely good evening to you my dear son answered the old woman it is lucky for you that you spoke to me or you would have met with a horrible death
i am seeking the three bulrushes do you know anything about them i don't know anything myself but wait till to morrow perhaps i can tell you then so the next morning she blew on her pipe
and lo and behold every magpie in the world flew up that is to say all the magpies except one who had broken a leg and a wing the old woman sent after it at once
and when she questioned the magpies the crippled one was the only one who knew where the three bulrushes were
now prince said the magpie
the prince wasted no time he set his horse at the wall and leaped over it then he looked about for the three bulrushes pulled them up and set off with them on his way home
as he rode along one of the bulrushes happened to knock against something it split open and only think out sprang a lovely girl who said my heart's love you are mine and i am yours
do give me a glass of water but how could the prince give it her when there was no water at hand so the lovely maiden flew away he split the second bulrush as an experiment and just the same thing happened
how careful he was of the third bulrush he waited till he came to a well and there he split it open and out sprang a maiden seven times lovelier than either of the others
and she too said my heart's love i am yours and you are mine do give me a glass of water this time the water was ready and the girl did not fly away
but she and the prince promised to love each other always then they set out for home they soon reached the prince's country and as he wished to bring his promised bride back in a fine coach
he went on to the town to fetch one in the field where the well was the king's swineherds and cowherds were feeding their droves and the prince left ilonka for that was her name in their care
unluckily the chief swineherd had an ugly old daughter and whilst the prince was away he dressed her up in fine clothes and threw ilonka into the well
the prince returned before long bringing with him his father and mother and a great train of courtiers to escort ilonka home but how they all stared when they saw the swineherd's ugly daughter
however there was nothing for it but to take her home
but he had no peace he knew very well he had been cheated though he could not think how once
the coachman went for it and in the bucket he pulled up a pretty little duck was swimming he looked wonderingly at it and all of a sudden it disappeared and he found a dirty looking girl standing near him
of course she was very busy all day long but whenever she had a little spare time she sat down to spin her distaff turned of itself and her spindle span by itself
and the flax wound itself off and however much she might use there was always plenty left when the queen or rather the swineherd's daughter heard of this
she very much wished to have the distaff but the girl flatly refused to give it to her however at last she consented on condition that she might sleep one night in the king's room
the queen was very angry and scolded her well but as she longed to have the distaff she consented though she gave the king a sleeping draught at supper
then the girl went to the king's room looking seven times lovelier than ever she bent over the sleeper and said my heart's love i am yours and you are mine speak to me but once
i am your ilonka but the king was so sound asleep he neither heard nor spoke and ilonka left the room sadly thinking he was ashamed to own her
the girl agreed to let her have it on the same conditions as before but this time also the queen took care to give the king a sleeping draught
and once more ilonka went to the king's room and spoke to him whisper as sweetly as she might she could get no answer
as for two nights running she had given him a sleeping draught the queen had no idea that her doings had been discovered and when a few days later she wanted the flax
and had to pay the same price for it she felt no fears at all at supper that night the queen offered the king all sorts of nice things to eat and drink but he declared he was not hungry and went early to bed
the queen repented bitterly her promise to the girl but it was too late to recall it for ilonka had already entered the king's room where he lay anxiously waiting for something
once upon a time there was a king who had an only son when the lad was about eighteen years old his father had to go to fight in a war against a neighbouring country and the king led his troops in person
he bade his son act as regent in his absence but ordered him on no account to marry till his return time went by the prince ruled the country and never even thought of marrying
to think that it might be rather nice to have a wife
he remembered however what his father had said and waited some time longer till at last it was ten years since the king went out to war then the prince called his courtiers about him and set off with a great retinue
to seek a bride he hardly knew which way to go so he wandered about for twenty days when suddenly he found himself in his father's camp the king was delighted to see his son
and had a great many questions to ask and answer but when he heard that instead of quietly waiting for him at home the prince was starting off to seek a wife he was very angry and said you may go where you please
but i will not leave any of my people with you only one faithful servant stayed with the prince and refused to part from him they journeyed over hill and dale till they came to a place called goldtown
and the prince who soon heard about her beauty could not rest till he saw her he was very kindly received for he was extremely good looking and had charming manners
so he lost no time in asking for her hand and her parents gave her to him with joy the wedding took place at once and the feasting and rejoicings went on for a whole month
at the end of the month they set off for home but as the journey was a long one they spent the first evening at an inn everyone in the house slept and only the faithful servant kept watch
about midnight he heard three crows who had flown to the roof talking together that's a handsome couple which arrived here tonight it seems quite a pity they should lose their lives so soon
truly said the second crow
but listen whoever overhears and tells what we have said
the crows had hardly done speaking when away they flew
they will perish said they for the king is going to send a carriage to meet them
but anyone who hears and betrays what we have said will be turned to stone up to his waist with that the pigeons flew off and three eagles took their places and this is what they said
the king means to send them each a splendid gold embroidered robe when they put these on they will be burnt up at once but whoever hears and repeats this will turn to stone from head to foot
at last the servant said gracious prince i dreamt that if your royal highness would grant all i asked we should get home safe and sound but if you did not we should certainly be lost
my dreams never deceive me so i entreat you to follow my advice during the rest of the journey don't make such a fuss about a dream said the prince dreams are but clouds
still to prevent your being anxious i will promise to do as you wish with that they set out on their journey
when they got to the bridge the servant said let us leave the carriage here my prince and walk a little way the town is not far off and we can easily get another carriage there
for the wheels of this one are bad and will not hold out much longer the prince looked well at the carriage he did not think it looked so unsafe as his servant said but he had given his word and he held to it
they got down and loaded the horses with the luggage the prince and his bride walked over the bridge but the servant said he would ride the horses through the stream so as to water and bathe them
they reached the other side without harm and bought a new carriage in the town which was quite near and set off once more on their travels but they had not gone far when they met a messenger from the king who said to the prince
his majesty has sent your royal highness this beautiful carriage
the prince was so delighted that he could not speak but the servant said my lord let me examine this carriage first and then you can get in if i find it is all right
otherwise we had better stay in our own the prince made no objections and after looking the carriage well over the servant said it is as bad as it is smart and with that
he knocked it all to pieces and they went on in the one that they had bought at last they reached the frontier there another messenger was waiting for them
who said that the king had sent two splendid robes for the prince and his bride and begged that they would wear them for their state entry but the servant implored the prince to have nothing to do with them
and never gave him any peace till he had obtained leave to destroy the robes the old king was furious when he found that all his arts had failed
that his son still lived and that he would have to give up the crown to him now he was married for that was the law of the land he longed to know how the prince had escaped and said my dear son
i do indeed rejoice to have you safely back but i cannot imagine why the beautiful carriage and the splendid robes i sent did not please you why you had them destroyed indeed sire said the prince
i was myself much annoyed at their destruction but my servant had begged to direct everything on the journey and i had promised him that he should do so he declared that we could not possibly get home safely unless i did as he told me
he called his council together and condemned the servant to death the gallows was put up in the square in front of the palace the servant was led out and his sentence read to him
on our journey home he said we spent the first night at an inn i did not sleep but kept watch all night and then he went on to tell what the crows had said
and as he spoke he turned to stone up to his knees the prince called to him to say no more as he had proved his innocence but the servant paid no heed to him and by the time his story was done
he had turned to stone from head to foot oh how grieved the prince was to lose his faithful servant and what pained him most was the thought that he was lost through his very faithfulness
and he determined to travel all over the world and never rest till he found some means of restoring him to life now there lived at court an old woman who had been the prince's nurse
to her he confided all his plans and left his wife the princess in her care
said the old woman you must never return till you have met with lucky luck if he cannot help you no one on earth can
he walked and walked till he got beyond his own country and he wandered through a wood for three days but did not meet a living being in it at the end of the third day
he came to a river near which stood a large mill here he spent the night
my gracious lord where are you going all alone and the prince told him then i beg your highness to ask lucky luck this question why is it that though i have an excellent mill
with all its machinery complete and get plenty of grain to grind i am so poor that i hardly know how to live from one day to another the prince promised to inquire and went on his way
he wandered about for three days more and at the end of the third day saw a little town it was quite late when he reached it but he could discover no light anywhere and walked
almost right through it without finding a house where he could turn in
he went straight to it and in the house were three girls playing a game together the prince asked for a night's lodging and they took him in
next morning when he was leaving they asked where he was going and he told them his story gracious prince said the maidens do ask lucky luck how it happens that here we are over thirty years old
and no lover has come to woo us though we are good pretty and very industrious the prince promised to inquire and went on his way
then he came to a great forest and wandered about in it from morning to night and from night to morning before he got near the other end here he found a pretty stream which was different from other streams
as instead of flowing it stood still and began to talk sir prince tell me what brings you into these wilds i must have been flowing here a hundred years and more
and no one has ever yet come by i will tell you answered the prince if you will divide yourself so that i may walk through the stream parted at once and the prince walked through without wetting his feet and directly
he got to the other side he told his story as he had promised oh do ask lucky luck cried the brook why though i am such a clear bright rapid stream
i never have a fish or any other living creature in my waters the prince said he would do so and continued his journey when he got quite clear of the forest
he walked on through a lovely valley till he reached a little house thatched with rushes and he went in to rest for he was very tired everything in the house was beautifully clean and tidy
and a cheerful honest looking old woman was sitting by the fire good morning mother said the prince may luck be with you my son what brings you into these parts
i am looking for lucky luck replied the prince then you have come to the right place my son for i am his mother he is not at home just now he is out digging in the vineyard
do you go too here are two spades when you find him begin to dig but don't speak a word to him it is now eleven o'clock
after dinner he will question you and then tell him all your troubles freely he will answer whatever you may ask with that she showed him the way and the prince went and did just as she had told him
after dinner they lay down to rest all of a sudden lucky luck began to speak and said tell me what sort of man are you for since you came here you have not spoken a word
i am not dumb replied the young man but i am that unhappy prince whose faithful servant has been turned to stone and i want to know how to help him
and you do well for he deserves everything go back and when you get home your wife will just have had a little boy take three drops of blood from the child's little finger
rub them on your servant's wrists with a blade of grass and he will return to life i have another thing to ask said the prince when he had thanked him
is a fine stream but not a fish or other living creature in it why is this because no one has ever been drowned in the stream
but take care in crossing to get as near the other side as you can before you say so or you may be the first victim yourself another question please before i go
on my way here i lodged one night in the house of three maidens all were well mannered hard working and pretty and yet none has had a wooer why was this
because they always throw out their sweepings in the face of the sun and why is it that a miller who has a large mill with all the best machinery and gets plenty of corn to grind
is so poor that he can hardly live from day to day because the miller keeps everything for himself and does not give to those who need it the prince wrote down the answers to his questions
when he reached the stream it asked if he brought it any good news when i get across i will tell you said he so the stream parted he walked through
and on to the highest part of the bank
lucky luck says you will never have any living creature in your waters until someone is drowned in you the words were hardly out of his mouth when the stream swelled and overflowed
till it reached the rock up which he had climbed and dashed so far up it that the spray flew over him but he clung on tight and after failing to reach him three times
the stream returned to its proper course then the prince climbed down dried himself in the sun and set out on his march home he spent the night once more at the mill and gave the miller his answer
and by and by he told the three sisters not to throw out all their sweepings in the face of the sun the prince had hardly arrived at home when some thieves tried to ford the stream with a fine horse they had stolen
when they were half way across the stream rose so suddenly that it swept them all away from that time it became the best fishing stream in the country side the miller too
began to give alms and became a very good man and in time grew so rich that he hardly knew how much he had and the three sisters now that they no longer insulted the sun
when the prince got home he found that his wife had just got a fine little boy he did not lose a moment in pricking the baby's finger till the blood ran and he brushed it on the wrists of the stone figure
which shuddered all over and split with a loud noise in seven parts and there was the faithful servant alive and well when the old king saw this he foamed with rage
stared wildly about flung himself on the ground and died the servant stayed on with his royal master and served him faithfully all the rest of his life and
if neither of them is dead he is serving him still
for the last two days i have been i may say in pursuit of you my friend having to talk over most urgent business with you and i cannot come across you anywhere yesterday while we were at semyon alexeyitch's my wife made a very good joke about you
saying that tatyana petrovna and you were a pair of birds always on the wing
and you already neglect your domestic hearth we all laughed heartily from our genuine kindly feeling for you of course but joking apart my precious friend
semyon alexeyitch said to me that you might be going to the ball at the social union's club leaving my wife with semyon alexeyitch's good lady i flew off to the social union it was funny and tragic fancy my position me at the ball and alone without my wife
meeting me in the porter's lodge and seeing me alone at once concluded the rascal that i had a passion for dances and taking me by the arm wanted to drag me off by force to a dancing class saying that it was too crowded at the social union that an ardent spirit had not room to turn
i found neither you nor tatyana petrovna
at the alexandrinsky theatre i flew off to the alexandrinsky theatre you were not there either this morning i expected to find you at tchistoganov's no sign of you there tchistoganov sent to the perepalkins' the same thing there in fact i am quite worn out
now i am writing to you there is nothing else i can do my business is by no means a literary one you understand me it would be better to meet face to face
it is extremely necessary to discuss something with you and as quickly as possible and so i beg you to come to us to day with tatyana petrovna to tea
my anna mihalovna will be extremely pleased to see you you will truly as they say oblige me to my dying day by the way my precious friend since i have taken up my pen i'll go into all i have against you
i have a slight complaint i must make in fact i must reproach you my worthy friend for an apparently very innocent little trick which you have played at my expense you are a rascal a man without conscience
about the middle of last month you brought into my house an acquaintance of yours yevgeny nikolaitch you vouched for him by your friendly and for me of course sacred recommendation i rejoiced at the opportunity of receiving the young man with open arms
and when i did so i put my head in a noose a noose it hardly is but it has turned out a pretty business i have not time now to explain and
only a very humble request to you my malicious friend
that there are a great many houses in the metropolis besides ours it's more than i can stand my dear fellow we fall at your feet as our friend semyonovitch says i will tell you all about it when we meet
i don't mean to say that the young man has sinned against good manners or is lacking in spiritual qualities or is not up to the mark in some other way
but wait we shall meet meanwhile if you see him for goodness sake whisper a hint to him my good friend i would do it myself but you know what i am i simply can't and that's all about it
you introduced him but i will explain myself more fully this evening anyway now good bye
p s my little boy has been ailing for the last week and gets worse and worse every day he is cutting his poor little teeth my wife is nursing him all the time and is depressed poor thing be sure to come
you will give us real pleasure my precious friend two
at once on getting your letter i set out with my wife i went to the expense of taking a cab and reached your house about half past six you were not at home but we were met by your wife
and went on myself to the perepalkins thinking i might meet you there
i felt uneasy in the morning i drove round to you three times at nine at ten and at eleven three times i went to the expense of a cab and again you left me in the lurch i read your letter and was amazed you write about yevgeny nikolaitch
but all letters are not alike and i don't give documents of importance to my wife for curl papers i am puzzled in fact to know with what motive you wrote all this to me however if it comes to that why should i meddle in the matter i don't poke my nose into other people's business
i only see that i must have a brief and decisive explanation with you and moreover time is passing and i am in straits and don't know what to do if you are going to neglect the terms of our agreement a journey for nothing a journey costs something too
and my wife's whining for me to get her a velvet mantle of the latest fashion about yevgeny nikolaitch i hasten to mention that when i was at pavel semyonovitch perepalkin's yesterday i made inquiries without loss of time he has five hundred serfs
in the province of yaroslav and he has expectations from his grandmother of an estate of three hundred serfs near moscow how much money he has i cannot tell i think you ought to know that better i beg you once for all to appoint a place where i can meet you
and you write that he told you that i was at the alexandrinsky theatre with my wife i write that he is a liar and it shows how little he is to be trusted in such cases that only the day before yesterday he did his grandmother out of eight hundred roubles i have the honour to remain
et cetera p s my wife is going to have a baby she is nervous about it and feels depressed at times at the theatre they sometimes have fire arms going off and sham thunderstorms and so for fear of a shock to my wife's nerves
i do not take her to the theatre i have no great partiality for the theatre myself three from pyotr ivanitch to ivan petrovitch my precious friend
i am to blame to blame a thousand times to blame but i hasten to defend myself between five and six yesterday just as we were talking of you with the warmest affection a messenger from uncle stepan alexeyitch galloped up
with the news that my aunt was very bad being afraid of alarming my wife i did not say a word of this to her
i drove off to my aunt's house i found her almost dying just at five o'clock she had had a stroke the third she has had in the last two years karl fyodoritch their family doctor told us that she might not live through the night you can judge of my position dearest friend
i lay down on the sofa i forgot to tell them to wake me
my aunt was better i drove home to my wife she poor thing was quite worn out expecting me i snatched a bite of something embraced my little boy reassured my wife and set off to call on you you were not at home at your flat i found yevgeny nikolaitch
when i got home i took up a pen and here i am writing to you don't grumble and be cross to me my true friend beat me chop my guilty head off my shoulders but don't deprive me of your affection from your wife i learned that you will be at the slavyanovs this evening
i will certainly be there i look forward with the greatest impatience to seeing you i remain et cetera p s we are in perfect despair about our little boy karl fyodoritch prescribes rhubarb he moans
this morning he did know us
my wife was in tears the whole morning
my dear sir pyotr ivanitch i am writing to you in your room at your bureau and before taking up my pen i have been waiting for more than two and a half hours for you
now allow me to tell you straight out pyotr ivanitch my frank opinion about this shabby incident from your last letter i gathered that you were expected at the slavyanovs that you were inviting me to go there i turned up i stayed for five hours
and there was no sign of you why am i to be made a laughing stock to people do you suppose excuse me my dear sir
in conclusion i beg to inform you that if you do not give me a satisfactory explanation to day first in writing and then personally face to face and do not make a fresh statement in your letter of the chief points of the agreement existing between us
and do not explain fully your views in regard to yevgeny nikolaitch i shall be compelled to have recourse to measures that will be highly unpleasant to you and indeed repugnant to me also allow me to remain et cetera
my dear and honoured friend
i was cut to the heart by your letter i wonder you were not ashamed my dear but unjust friend to behave like this to one of your most devoted friends why be in such a hurry and without explaining things fully
wound me with such insulting suspicions but i hasten to reply to your charges
because i was suddenly and quite unexpectedly called away to a death bed my aunt yefimya nikolaevna passed away yesterday evening at eleven o'clock in the night by the general consent of the relatives
i had so much to do that i had not time to see you this morning nor even to send you a line i am grieved to the heart at the misunderstanding which has arisen between us my words about yevgeny nikolaitch uttered casually and in jest you have taken in quite a wrong sense
you refer to money and express your anxiety about it but without wasting words i am ready to satisfy all your claims
that the three hundred and fifty roubles i had from you last week were in accordance with a certain agreement and not by way of a loan in the latter case there would certainly have been a receipt i will not condescend to discuss the other points mentioned in your letter i see that it is a misunderstanding
i see it is your habitual hastiness hot temper and obstinacy i know that your goodheartedness and open character will not allow doubts to persist in your heart and that you will be in fact the first to hold out your hand to me
although your letter has deeply wounded me i should be prepared even to day to come to you and apologise but i have been since yesterday in such a rush and flurry that i am utterly exhausted and can scarcely stand on my feet
to complete my troubles my wife is laid up i am afraid she is seriously ill our little boy thank god is better
allow me my dear friend to remain et cetera
dear sir pyotr
i have been waiting for three days i tried to make a profitable use of them
since my last letter of the tenth of this month i have neither by word nor deed reminded you of my existence partly in order to allow you undisturbed to perform the duty of a christian in regard to your aunt
partly because i needed the time for certain considerations and investigations in regard to a business you know of now i hasten to explain myself to you in the most thoroughgoing and decisive manner i frankly confess that on reading your first two letters
i seriously supposed that you did not understand what i wanted that was how it was that i rather sought an interview with you and explanations face to face i was afraid of writing and blamed myself for lack of clearness in the expression of my thoughts on paper
and that i shun a hollow show of gentility because i have learned from bitter experience how misleading appearances often are and that a snake sometimes lies hidden under flowers but you understood me you did not answer me as you should have done because
in the treachery of your heart you had planned beforehand to be faithless to your word of honour and to the friendly relations existing between us you have proved this absolutely by your abominable conduct towards me of late which is fatal to my interests which i did not expect
now i recognise clearly that there are many people who under a flattering and brilliant exterior hide venom in their hearts who use their cleverness to weave snares for their neighbour and for unpardonable deception and so are afraid of pen and paper
and at the same time use their fine language not for the benefit of their neighbour and their country but to drug and bewitch the reason of those who have entered into business relations of any sort with them your treachery to me my dear sir can be clearly seen from what follows
in the first place when in the clear and distinct terms of my letter i described my position sir and at the same time asked you in my first letter what you meant by certain expressions and intentions of yours
principally in regard to yevgeny nikolaitch you tried for the most part to avoid answering and confounding me by doubts and suspicions
you began writing that you were wounded pray what am i to call that sir then when every minute was precious to me and when you had set me running after you all over the town you wrote pretending personal friendship
you spoke of utterly irrelevant matters to wit of the illnesses of your good lady for whom i have in any case every respect and of how your baby had been dosed with rhubarb and was cutting a tooth all this you alluded to
in every letter with a disgusting regularity that was insulting to me of course i am prepared to admit that a father's heart may be torn by the sufferings of his babe but why make mention of this when something different far more important
and interesting was needed i endured it in silence but now when time has elapsed i think it my duty to explain myself finally treacherously deceiving me several times by making humbugging appointments you tried it seems
to make me play the part of a fool and a laughing stock for you which i never intend to be then after first inviting me and thoroughly deceiving me you informed me that you were called away to your suffering aunt who had had a stroke
precisely at five o'clock as you stated with shameful exactitude luckily for me sir in the course of these three days i have succeeded in making inquiries and have learnt from them that your aunt had a stroke on the day before the seventh not long before midnight
from this fact i see that you have made use of sacred family relations in order to deceive persons in no way concerned with them finally in your last letter you mention the death of your relatives
about various business matters but here the vileness of your arts and calculations exceeds all belief for from trustworthy information which i was able by a lucky chance to obtain just in the nick of time i have found out that your aunt died twenty four hours later
i shall never have done if i enumerate all the signs by which i have discovered your treachery in regard to me it is sufficient indeed for any impartial observer that in every letter you style me your true friend and call me all sorts of polite names
which you do to the best of my belief for no other object than to put my conscience to sleep i have come now to your principal act of deceit and treachery in regard to me to wit your continual silence of late in regard to everything concerning our common interests
though in language somewhat obscure and not perfectly intelligible to me our mutual agreements your barbarous forcible loan of three hundred and fifty roubles which you borrowed from me as your partner without giving any receipt and finally
your abominable slanders of our common acquaintance yevgeny nikolaitch i see clearly now that you meant to show me that he was if you will allow me to say so like a billy goat good for neither milk nor wool
that he was neither one thing nor the other neither fish nor flesh which you put down as a vice in him in your letter
i know also that every evening for the last fortnight you've put into your pocket dozens and sometimes even hundreds of roubles playing games of chance with yevgeny nikolaitch now you disavow all this and not only refuse to compensate me for what i have suffered
but have even appropriated money belonging to me
and luring me with various advantages which were to accrue after having appropriated in a most illegal way money of mine and of yevgeny nikolaitch's you decline to compensate me resorting for that object to calumny
with which you have unjustifiably blackened in my eyes a man whom i by my efforts and exertions introduced into your house while on the contrary from what i hear from your friends you are still almost slobbering over him and give out to the whole world
that he is your dearest friend though there is no one in the world such a fool as not to guess at once what your designs are aiming at and what your friendly relations really mean i should say that they mean deceit treachery forgetfulness of human duties and proprieties contrary to the law of god
and why have you treated me in this godless fashion i will end my letter i have explained myself now in conclusion if sir you do not in the shortest possible time after receiving this letter
first the three hundred and fifty roubles i gave you and secondly all the sums that should come to me according to your promise i will have recourse to every possible means to compel you to return it even to open force secondly to the protection of the laws
and finally i beg to inform you that i am in possession of facts which if they remain in the hands of your humble servant may ruin and disgrace your name in the eyes of all the world allow me to remain et cetera
but i have preserved it as a curiosity i do however sincerely regret our misunderstandings and unpleasant relations i did not mean to answer you but i am compelled by necessity
i must in these lines inform you that it would be very unpleasant for me to see you in my house at any time my wife feels the same she is in delicate health and the smell of tar upsets her my wife sends your wife the book don quixote de la mancha
i must regretfully inform you that they are nowhere to be found they are still being looked for but if they do not turn up then i will buy you a new pair i have the honour to remain
pyotr ivanitch received by post two letters addressed to him opening the first envelope he took out a carefully folded note on pale pink paper the handwriting was his wife's it was addressed to yevgeny nikolaitch and dated november the second
there was nothing else in the envelope pyotr ivanitch read dear eugene yesterday was utterly impossible my husband was at home the whole evening be sure to come to morrow punctually at eleven at half past ten my husband is going to tsarskoe
many thanks dear i see that you love me don't be angry but for goodness sake come to morrow a
pyotr ivanitch tore open the other letter pyotr ivanitch
next week i am going to simbirsk yevgany nikolaitch remains your precious and beloved friend i wish you luck and don't trouble about the galoshes
opening the first letter he took out a hasty and carelessly written note the handwriting was his wife's it was addressed to yevgeny nikolaitch and dated august the fourth there was nothing else in the envelope
good bye good bye yevgeny nikolaitch the lord reward you for this too
but my lot is bitter terribly bitter it is your choice if it had not been for my aunt i should not have put such trust in you do not laugh at me nor at my aunt to morrow is our wedding aunt is relieved that a good man has been found and that he will take me without a dowry
i took a good look at him for the first time to day he seems good natured they are hurrying me
there was a poor husbandman who had many children and little to give them in the way either of food or clothing they were all pretty but the prettiest of all was the youngest daughter who was so beautiful
that there were no bounds to her beauty so once it was late on a thursday evening in autumn and wild weather outside terribly dark
and raining so heavily and blowing so hard that the walls of the cottage shook again they were all sitting together by the fireside each of them busy with something or other
when suddenly some one rapped three times against the window pane the man went out to see what could be the matter and when he got out there stood a great big white bear
will you give me your youngest daughter said the white bear if you will you shall be as rich as you are now poor truly the man would have had no objection to be rich
but he thought to himself
who had faithfully promised to make them all rich if he might but have the youngest daughter she said no and would not hear of it so the man went out again and settled with the white bear
that he should come again next thursday evening and get her answer then the man persuaded her and talked so much to her about the wealth that they would have and what a good thing it would be for herself
and washed and mended all her rags made herself as smart as she could and held herself in readiness to set out little enough had she to take away with her next thursday evening
the white bear came to fetch her she seated herself on his back with her bundle and thus they departed when they had gone a great part of the way the white bear said are you afraid
that i am not said she keep tight hold of my fur and then there is no danger said he and thus she rode far far away
until they came to a great mountain then the white bear knocked on it and a door opened and they went into a castle where there were many brilliantly lighted rooms
which shone with gold and silver likewise a large hall in which there was a well spread table and it was so magnificent
that it would be hard to make anyone understand how splendid it was the white bear gave her a silver bell and told her that when she needed anything she had but to ring this bell
and what she wanted would appear so after she had eaten and night was drawing near she grew sleepy after her journey and thought she would like to go to bed
she rang the bell and scarcely had she touched it before she found herself in a chamber where a bed stood ready made for her which was as pretty as anyone could wish to sleep in
it had pillows of silk and curtains of silk fringed with gold and everything that was in the room was of gold or silver but when she had lain down and put out the light
a man came and lay down beside her and behold it was the white bear who cast off the form of a beast during the night she never saw him however
for he always came after she had put out her light and went away before daylight appeared so all went well and happily for a time but then she began to be very sad and sorrowful
for all day long she had to go about alone and she did so wish to go home to her father and mother and brothers and sisters then the white bear asked what it was that she wanted and she told him
that it was so dull there in the mountain and that she had to go about all alone and that in her parents house at home there were all her brothers and sisters and it was because she could not go to them that she was so sorrowful
if you would but promise me never to talk with your mother alone but only when the others are there too
but that you must by no means do or you will bring great misery on both of us so one sunday the white bear came and said that they could now set out to see her father and mother
and they journeyed thither she sitting on his back and they went a long long way and it took a long long time but at last they came to a large white farmhouse
and her brothers and sisters were running about outside it playing and it was so pretty that it was a pleasure to look at it
but do not forget what i said to you or you will do much harm both to yourself and me no indeed said she i shall never forget
and as soon as she was at home the white bear turned round and went back again there were such rejoicings when she went in to her parents that it seemed as if they would never come to an end
and everything was as good as it could be they all asked her how she was getting on where she was all was well with her too she said and she had everything that she could want what other answers she gave
i cannot say but i am pretty sure that they did not learn much from her but in the afternoon after they had dined at midday all happened
her mother wanted to talk with her alone in her own chamber but she remembered what the white bear had said and would on no account go what we have to say can be said at any time
she answered but somehow or other her mother at last persuaded her
the white bear asked her if everything had not happened just as he had foretold and she could not but own that it had then if you have done what your mother wished
said he you have brought great misery on both of us no she said
and had gone to bed it was just the same as it had been before and a man came and lay down beside her and late at night when she could hear that he was sleeping she got up and kindled a light
lit her candle let her light shine on him and saw him and he was the handsomest prince that eyes had ever beheld
and she loved him so much that it seemed to her that she must die if she did not kiss him that very moment so she did kiss him
but while she was doing it she let three drops of hot tallow fall upon his shirt and he awoke what have you done now
said he you have brought misery on both of us if you had but held out for the space of one year i should have been free
i have a step mother who has bewitched me so that i am a white bear by day and a man by night but now all is at an end between you and me
and i must leave you and go to her
and west of the moon and there too is a princess with a nose which is three ells long
she wept and lamented but all in vain for go he must
but no that could not be
you may do that said he but there is no way thither it lies east of the sun and west of the moon
and never would you find your way there when she awoke in the morning both the prince and the castle were gone
and she was lying on a small green patch in the midst of a dark thick wood by her side lay the self same bundle of rags which she had brought with her from her own home
so when she had rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and wept till she was weary she set out on her way
until at last she came to a great mountain outside it an aged woman was sitting playing with a golden apple
the girl asked her if she knew the way to the prince who lived with his stepmother in the castle
so it is you then said the old woman
castle which is east of the sun and west of the moon you will be a long time in getting to it if ever you get to it at all
and then you can ride on it to an old woman who is a neighbor of mine
when you have got there
beneath the left ear and bid it go home again but you may take the golden apple with you so the girl seated herself on the horse and rode for a long long way
i know nothing about it but that it is east of the sun and west of the moon
if ever you get there at all but you shall have the loan of my horse to an old woman who lives the nearest to me perhaps she may know where the castle is and when you have got to her
you may just strike the horse beneath the left ear and bid it go home again then she gave her the gold carding comb for it might perhaps be of use to her she said
so the girl seated herself on the horse
she came to a great mountain where an aged woman was sitting spinning at a golden spinning wheel of this woman too she inquired if she knew the way to the prince
and where to find the castle which lay east of the sun and west of the moon but it was only the same thing once again
i should have been the one said the girl but this old crone knew the way no better than the others it was east of the sun and west of the moon she knew that
and you will be a long time in getting to it if ever you get to it at all she said but you may have the loan of my horse and i think you had better ride to the east wind and ask him
perhaps he may know where the castle is and will blow you thither but when you have got to him you must just strike the horse beneath the left ear and he will come home again and then she gave her the golden spinning wheel
saying perhaps you may find that you have a use for it the girl had to ride for a great many days and for a long and wearisome time before she got there
but at last she did arrive and then she asked the east wind if he could tell her the way to the prince who dwelt east of the sun and west of the moon well said the east wind
he may know that
so she seated herself on his back and they did go so swiftly
the east wind went in and said that the girl whom he had brought was the one who ought to have had the prince up at the castle which lay east of the sun and west of the moon and that now she was traveling about to find him again
so he had come there with her and would like to hear if the west wind knew whereabout the castle was
but if you like i will go with you to the south wind
and perhaps he can tell you what you want to know
so she did this and journeyed to the south wind neither was she very long on the way when they had got there the west wind asked him if he could tell her the way to the castle
that lay east of the sun and west of the moon for she was the girl who ought to marry the prince who lived there
well said he i have wandered about a great deal in my time and in all kinds of places
if you like however i will go with you to my brother the north wind he is the oldest and strongest of all of us
so she seated herself on his back and off he went from his house in great haste and they were not long on the way
and they froze as they heard said the south wind it is i and this is she who should have had the prince
gladly find him again yes
get there i must said she
for if we are ever to get there we must have the day before us the north wind woke her betimes next morning and puffed himself up and made himself so
and away they went high up through the air as if they would not stop until they had reached the very end of the world
woods and houses and when they were above the sea the ships were wrecked by hundreds
a long time went by and then yet more time passed and still they were above the sea and the north wind grew tired
and more tired and at last so utterly weary that he was scarcely able to blow any longer
lower and lower until at last he went so low
said the north wind i have no fear said she and it was true but they were not very very far from land
and there was just enough strength left in the north wind to enable him to throw her on to the shore immediately under the windows of a castle which lay east of the sun and west of the moon
next morning she sat down beneath the walls of the castle to play with the golden apple and the first person she saw
said she opening the window it can't be bought either for gold or money answered the girl
well if i may go to the prince who is here and be with him to night you shall have it
said the princess for she had made up her mind what she would do
for the princess had so contrived it the poor girl called to him and shook him and between whiles she wept but she could not wake him in the morning as soon as day dawned
and drove her out again in the daytime she sat down once more beneath the windows of the castle and began to card with her golden carding comb
the princess asked her what she wanted for it and she replied that it was not for sale either for gold or money but that if she could get leave to go to the prince and be with him during the night she should have it
but when she went up to the prince's room he was again asleep and let her call him or shake him or weep as she would he still slept on and she could not put any life in him
and once more drove her away when day had quite come the girl seated herself under the castle windows to spin with her golden spinning wheel
and asked what she would take for it the girl said what she had said on each of the former occasions that it was not for sale either for gold or for money
but if she could get leave to go to the prince who lived there and be with him during the night
but in that place there were some christian folk who had been carried off and they had been sitting in the chamber which was next to that of the prince and had heard how a woman had been in there who had wept and called on him two nights running
so that evening when the princess came once more with her sleeping drink
and she had to tell him how she had come there you have come just in time said the prince for i should have been married to morrow but i will not have the long nosed princess
and you alone can save me i will say that i want to see what my bride can do and bid her wash the shirt
for she does not know that it is you who let them fall on it but no one can wash them out but one born of christian folk it cannot be done by one of a pack of trolls
and then i will say that no one shall ever be my bride but the woman who can do this and i know that you
there was great joy and gladness between them all that night but the next day when the wedding was to take place the prince said i must see what my bride can do
that you may do said the stepmother i have a fine shirt which i want to wear as my wedding shirt but three drops of tallow have got upon it
which i want to have washed off and i have vowed to marry no one but the woman who is able to do it if she cannot do that she is not worth having
well that was a very small matter they thought and agreed to do it
but the more she washed and rubbed the larger the spots grew
but she too had not had the shirt very long in her hands before it looked worse still and the more she washed it and rubbed it the larger and blacker grew the spots
so the other trolls had to come and wash but the more they did the blacker and uglier grew the shirt until at length it was as black as if it had been up the chimney
cried the prince not one of you is good for anything at all there is a beggar girl sitting outside the window and i'll be bound that she can wash better than any of you come in you girl there he cried
so she came in can you wash this shirt clean he cried oh i don't know she said but i will try
and dipped it in the water than it was white as driven snow
that she burst
and all the little trolls must have burst too for they have never been heard of since the prince and his bride set free all the christian folk who were imprisoned there
and took away with them all the gold and silver that they could carry and moved far away from the castle which lay east of the sun and west
chapter twenty three the city of the absent when i think i deserve particularly well of myself and have earned the right to enjoy a little treat i stroll from covent garden into the city of london
after business hours there on a saturday or better yet on a sunday and roam about its deserted nooks and corners it is necessary to the full enjoyment of these journeys that they should be made in summer time
for then the retired spots that i love to haunt are at their idlest and dullest a gentle fall of rain is not objectionable and a warm mist sets off my favourite retreats to decided advantage
among these city churchyards hold a high place such strange churchyards hide in the city of london churchyards sometimes so entirely detached from churches always so pressed upon
by houses so small so rank so silent so forgotten except by the few people who ever look down into them from their smoky windows as i stand
peeping in through the iron gates and rails i can peel the rusty metal off like bark from an old tree the illegible tombstones are all lop sided the grave mounds lost their shape in the rains
of a hundred years ago the lombardy poplar or plane tree that was once a drysalter's daughter and several common councilmen has withered like those worthies and its departed leaves are dust beneath it
contagion of slow ruin overhangs the place the discoloured tiled roofs of the environing buildings stand so awry that they can hardly be proof against any stress of weather
old crazy stacks of chimneys seem to look down as they overhang dubiously calculating how far they will have to fall in an angle of the walls what was once the tool house of the grave digger rots away
encrusted with toadstools pipes and spouts for carrying off the rain from the encompassing gables broken or feloniously cut for old lead long ago now let the rain drip and splash as it list
upon the weedy earth sometimes there is a rusty pump somewhere near and as i look in at the rails and meditate i hear it working under an unknown hand with a creaking protest
as though the departed in the churchyard urged let us lie here in peace don't suck us up and drink us one of my best beloved churchyards i call the churchyard of saint ghastly grim
touching what men in general call it i have no information it lies at the heart of the city and the blackwall railway shrieks at it daily it is a small small churchyard with a ferocious
strong spiked iron gate like a jail this gate is ornamented with skulls and cross bones
wrought in stone but it likewise came into the mind of saint ghastly grim that to stick iron spikes a top of the stone skulls as though they were impaled would be a pleasant device
therefore the skulls grin aloft horribly thrust through and through with iron spears hence there is attraction of repulsion for me in saint ghastly grim and having often contemplated it
in the daylight and the dark i once felt drawn towards it in a thunderstorm at midnight why not i said in self excuse i have been to see the colosseum by the light of the moon
is it worse to go to see saint ghastly grim by the light of the lightning i repaired to the saint in a hackney cab and found the skulls most effective having the air of a public execution and
seeming as the lightning flashed to wink and grin with the pain of the spikes having no other person to whom to impart my satisfaction i communicated it to the driver so far from being responsive
he surveyed me he was naturally a bottled nosed red faced man with a blanched countenance and as he drove me back he ever and again glanced in over his shoulder through the little front window of his carriage
as mistrusting that i was a fare originally from a grave in the churchyard of saint ghastly grim who might have flitted home again without paying sometimes the queer hall of some queer company
gives upon a churchyard such as this and
you may hear them if you are looking in through the iron rails which you never are when i am toasting their own worshipful prosperity sometimes a wholesale house of business
requiring much room for stowage
will lumber up the windows as if they were holding some crowded trade meeting of themselves within sometimes the commanding windows are all blank and show no more sign of life than the graves below not so much
for they tell of what once upon a time was life undoubtedly such was the surrounding of one city churchyard that i saw last summer on a volunteering saturday evening towards eight of the clock
when with astonishment i beheld an old old man and an old old woman in it making hay yes of all occupations in this world making hay it was a very confined patch of churchyard
lying between gracechurch street and the tower capable of yielding say an apronful of hay by what means the old old man and woman had got into it with an almost toothless hay making rake
i could not fathom no open window was within view no window at all was within view sufficiently near the ground to have enabled their old legs to descend from it the rusty churchyard gate was locked
gravely among the graves they made hay all alone by themselves they looked like time and his wife there was but the one rake between them and they both had hold of it
in a pastorally loving manner and there was hay on the old woman's black bonnet as if the old man had recently been playful the old man was quite an obsolete old man in knee breeches and coarse grey stockings
and the old woman wore mittens
they took no heed of me as i looked on unable to account for them the old woman was much too bright for a pew opener the old man much too meek for a beadle
on an old tombstone in the foreground between me and them were two cherubim but for those celestial embellishments being represented as having no possible use for knee breeches stockings or mittens
i should have compared them with the hay makers and sought a likeness i coughed
they used the rake with a measured action drawing the scanty crop towards them and so i was fain to leave them under three yards and a half of darkening sky gravely making hay among the graves all alone
by themselves perhaps they were spectres and i wanted a medium in another city churchyard of similar cramped dimensions i saw that selfsame summer two comfortable charity children they were making love
tremendous proof of the vigour of that immortal article for they were in the graceful uniform under which english charity delights to hide herself and they were overgrown and their legs his legs at least
for i am modestly incompetent to speak of hers were as much in the wrong as mere passive weakness of character can render legs o it was a leaden churchyard but no doubt a golden ground to those young persons
i first saw them on a saturday evening and perceiving from their occupation that saturday evening was their trysting time i returned that evening se'nnight and renewed the contemplation of them
they came there to shake the bits of matting which were spread in the church aisles and they afterwards rolled them up he rolling his end she rolling hers until they met and over the two once divided
now united rolls sweet emblem gave and received a chaste salute it was so refreshing to find one of my faded churchyards blooming into flower thus that i returned a second time and a third
and ultimately this befell they had left the church door open in their dusting and arranging walking in to look at the church i became aware by the dim light of him in the pulpit of her in the reading desk
of him looking down of her looking up exchanging tender discourse immediately both dived and became as it were non existent on this sphere with an assumption of innocence i turned to leave the sacred edifice
when an obese form stood in the portal puffily demanding joseph or in default of joseph celia taking this monster by the sleeve and luring him forth on pretence of showing him whom he sought
i gave time for the emergence of joseph and celia who presently came towards us in the churchyard bending under dusty matting a picture of thriving and unconscious industry it would be superfluous
but such instances or any tokens of vitality are rare indeed in my city churchyards a few sparrows occasionally try to raise a lively chirrup in their solitary tree perhaps
as taking a different view of worms from that entertained by humanity but they are flat and hoarse of voice like the clerk the organ
and all the rest of the church works when they are wound up for sunday
that the ruffian is tolerated among us to an extent that goes beyond all unruffianly endurance i take the liberty to believe that if the ruffian besets my life a professional ruffian at large in the open streets of a great city
notoriously having no other calling than that of ruffian and of disquieting and despoiling me as i go peacefully about my lawful business interfering with no one then the government under which i have the great constitutional privilege
is it possible what a wonderful police here is a straight broad public thoroughfare of immense resort half a mile long gas lighted by night with a great
gas lighted railway station in it extra the street lamps full of shops traversed by two popular cross thoroughfares of considerable traffic itself the main road to the south of london and the admirable police have
after long infestment of this dark and lonely spot by a gang of ruffians actually got hold of two of them why can it be doubted that any man of fair london knowledge
and common resolution armed with the powers of the law could have captured
the saving up of the ruffian class by the magistracy and police to the conventional preserving of them as if they were partridges that their number and audacity must be in great part referred
why is a notorious thief and ruffian ever left at large he never turns his liberty to any account but violence and plunder he never did a day's work
as a proved notorious thief
when he comes out he is surely as notorious a thief as he was when he went in then send him back again just heaven cries the society for the protection
i demand to have the ruffian employed perforce in hewing wood and drawing water somewhere for the general service instead of hewing at her majesty's subjects and drawing their watches out of their pockets
as to the magistracy with a few exceptions they know nothing about it but what the police choose to tell them there are disorderly classes of men who are not thieves as railway navigators
brickmakers wood sawyers costermongers these classes are often disorderly and troublesome but it is mostly among themselves and at any rate they have their industrious avocations
they work early and late and work hard the generic ruffian honourable member for what is tenderly called the rough element is either a thief or the companion of thieves
when he infamously molests women coming out of chapel on sunday evenings for which i would have his back scarified often and deep it is not only for the gratification of his pleasant instincts
but that there may be a confusion raised by which either he or his friends may profit in the commission of highway robberies or in picking pockets when he gets a police constable down and kicks him helpless for life
it is because that constable once did his duty in bringing him to justice when he rushes into the bar of a public house and scoops an eye out of one of the company there or bites his ear off
it is because the man he maims gave evidence against him when he and a line of comrades extending across the footway say of that solitary mountain spur of the abruzzi the waterloo road advance towards me
skylarking among themselves my purse or shirt pin is in predestined peril from his playfulness always a ruffian always a thief always a thief always a ruffian now when i
who am not paid to know these things know them daily on the evidence of my senses and experience when i know that the ruffian never jostles a lady in the streets or knocks a hat off but in order that the thief may profit
is it surprising that i should require from those who are paid to know these things prevention of them look at this group at a street corner number one is a shirking fellow of five and twenty
in an ill favoured and ill savoured suit his trousers of corduroy his coat of some indiscernible groundwork for the deposition of grease his neckerchief like an eel his complexion like dirty dough
his mangy fur cap pulled low upon his beetle brows to hide the prison cut of his hair his hands are in his pockets he puts them there when they are idle as naturally as in other people's pockets when they are busy
for he knows that they are not roughened by work and that they tell a tale hence whenever he takes one out to draw a sleeve across his nose which is often for he has weak eyes
and a constitutional cold in his head he restores it to its pocket immediately afterwards number two is a burly brute of five and thirty in a tall stiff hat is a composite
as to his clothes of betting man and fighting man is whiskered has a staring pin in his breast along with his right hand has insolent and cruel eyes large shoulders strong legs
booted and tipped for kicking number three is forty years of age is short thick set strong and bow legged wears knee cords and white stockings a very long sleeved waistcoat
a very large neckerchief doubled or trebled round his throat and a crumpled white hat crowns his ghastly parchment face this fellow looks like an executed postboy of other days cut down from the gallows too soon
numbers five six and seven are hulking idle slouching young men patched and shabby too short in the sleeves and too tight in the legs slimily clothed foul spoken
repulsive wretches inside and out in all the party there obtains a certain twitching character of mouth and furtiveness of eye that hint how the coward is lurking under the bully the hint is quite correct
for they are a slinking sneaking set far more prone to lie down on their backs and kick out when in difficulty than to make a stand for it this may account for the street mud on the backs of numbers five
six and seven being much fresher than the stale splashes on their legs these engaging gentry a police constable stands contemplating his station with a reserve of assistance is very near at hand
they cannot pretend to any trade not even to be porters or messengers it would be idle if they did for he knows them and they know that he knows them to be nothing but professed thieves and ruffians
he knows where they resort knows by what slang names they call one another knows how often they have been in prison and how long and for what all this is known at his station too and is
or ought to be known at scotland yard too but does he know or does his station know or does scotland yard know or does anybody know why these fellows should be here at liberty when as reputed thieves
to whom a whole division of police could swear they might all be under lock and key at hard labour not he
that these are members of the notorious gang which according to the newspaper police office reports of this last past september have so long infested the awful solitudes of the waterloo road
and out of which almost impregnable fastnesses the police have at length dragged two to the unspeakable admiration of all good civilians the consequences of this contemplative habit
on the part of the executive a habit to be looked for in a hermit but not in a police system are familiar to us all the ruffian becomes one of the established orders of the body politic
under the playful name of rough as if he were merely a practical joker his movements and successes are recorded on public occasions whether he mustered in large numbers or small
amiable horse play and a gracious consideration for life and limb all this is chronicled as if he were an institution is there any city in europe out of england in which these terms are held
with the pests of society or in which at this day
not thieves yet but training for scholarships and fellowships in the criminal court universities molest quiet people and their property to an extent that is hardly credible the throwing of stones in the streets
has become a dangerous and destructive offence which surely could have got to no greater height though we had had no police but our own riding whips and walking sticks the police
to which i myself appeal on these occasions the throwing of stones at the windows of railway carriages in motion an act of wanton wickedness with the very arch fiend's hand in it had become a crying evil
when the railway companies forced it on police notice constabular contemplation had until then been the order of the day within these twelve months there arose among the young gentlemen of london
to be thus humorously torn from her face
on westminster bridge to another young ruffian who in full daylight early on a summer evening had nearly thrown a modest young woman into a swoon of indignation and confusion by his shameful manner
of attacking her with this cry as she harmlessly passed along before me
some time since awakened a little pleasantry by writing of his own experience of the ruffian of the streets i have seen the ruffian act in exact accordance with mister carlyle's description innumerable times
and i never saw him checked the blaring use of the very worst language possible in our public thoroughfares especially in those set apart for recreation
is another disgrace to us and another result of constabular contemplation the like of which i have never heard in any other country to which my uncommercial travels have extended years ago
when i had a near interest in certain children who were sent with their nurses for air and exercise into the regent's park i found this evil to be so abhorrent and horrible there that i called public attention to it
and also to its contemplative reception by the police looking afterwards into the newest police act and finding that the offence was punishable under it i resolved when striking occasion should arise
to try my hand as prosecutor the occasion arose soon enough and i ran the following gauntlet the utterer of the base coin in question was a girl of seventeen or eighteen who with a suitable attendance
of blackguards youths and boys was flaunting along the streets returning from an irish funeral in a progress interspersed with singing and dancing she had turned round to me and expressed herself in the most audible manner
i attended the party on the opposite side of the way for a mile further and then encountered a police constable the party had made themselves merry at my expense until now but seeing me speak
to the constable its male members instantly took to their heels leaving the girl alone i asked the constable did he know my name yes he did take that girl into custody on my charge
for using bad language in the streets he had never heard of such a charge i had would he take my word that he should get into no trouble yes
so he took the girl and i went home for my police act with this potent instrument in my pocket i literally as well as figuratively returned to the charge and presented myself at the police station
of the district there i found on duty a very intelligent inspector they are all intelligent men who likewise had never heard of such a charge i showed him my clause
it was plain and i engaged to wait upon the suburban magistrate to morrow morning at ten o'clock in the morning i put my police act in my pocket again and waited on the suburban magistrate i was not quite so courteously received by him
as i should have been by the lord chancellor or the lord chief justice but that was a question of good breeding on the suburban magistrate's part and i had my clause ready with its leaf turned down
which was enough for me conference took place between the magistrate and clerk respecting the charge during conference i was evidently regarded as a much more objectionable person than the prisoner one giving trouble by coming there voluntarily
which the prisoner could not be accused of doing the prisoner had been got up since i last had the pleasure of seeing her with a great effect of white apron and straw bonnet she reminded me of an elder sister of red
riding hood and i seemed to remind the sympathising chimney sweep by whom she was attended of the wolf the magistrate was doubtful mister uncommercial traveller whether this charge could be entertained it was not known
mister uncommercial traveller replied that he wished it were better known and that if he could afford the leisure he would use his endeavours to make it so there was no question about it however he contended here was the clause
the clause was handed in and more conference resulted after which i was asked the extraordinary question mister uncommercial do you really wish this girl to be sent to prison to which i grimly answered
staring if i didn't why should i take the trouble to come here finally i was sworn and gave my agreeable evidence in detail and white riding hood was fined ten shillings under the clause
or sent to prison for so many days why lord bless you sir said the police officer who showed me out with a great enjoyment of the jest of her having been got up so effectively and caused so much hesitation
if she goes to prison that will be nothing new to her she comes from charles street drury lane the police all things considered are an excellent force and i have borne my small testimony to their merits
constabular contemplation is the result of a bad system a system which is administered not invented by the man in constable's uniform employed at twenty shillings a week he has his orders
and would be marked for discouragement if he overstepped them that the system is bad there needs no lengthened argument to prove because the fact is self evident
the results that have attended it could not possibly have come to pass who will say that under a good system our streets could have got into their present state the objection to the whole police system as concerning the ruffian
may be stated and its failure exemplified as follows it is well known that on all great occasions when they come together in numbers the mass of the english people are their own trustworthy police it is well known
that wheresoever there is collected together any fair general representation of the people a respect for law and order and a determination to discountenance lawlessness and disorder may be relied upon as to one another
the people are a very good police and yet are quite willing in their good nature that the stipendiary police should have the credit of the people's moderation but we are all of us powerless against the ruffian because we submit to the law
and it is his only trade by superior force and by violence to defy it moreover we are constantly admonished from high places like so many sunday school children out for a holiday of buns and milk and water
that we are not to take the law into our own hands but are to hand our defence over to it it is clear that the common enemy to be punished and exterminated first of all is the ruffian it is clear that he is
of all others the offender for whose repressal we maintain a costly system of police him therefore we expressly present to the police to deal with conscious that on the whole we can and do
deal reasonably well with one another him the police deal with so inefficiently and absurdly that he flourishes and multiplies and with all his evil deeds upon his head as notoriously as his hat is
chapter thirty six how the doctor found a patient ready to his hand we waited for some minutes crouched there among the bushes listening to the coming of those who forced their way through the trees
while moment by moment the morning light grew clearer the small birds twittered and the parrots screamed
the wounded man uttered a low groan that thrilled me and then sent a cold shudder through my veins for i was almost touching him and set aside the feeling of horror at having been as it were partner in inflicting his injury
there was the sensation that he might recover sufficiently to revenge himself upon us by a blow with his spear the sounds came nearer and it was now so light that as we watched we could see the bushes moving
and it seemed to me that more of this horrible bloodshed must ensue we were crouching close but the wounded man was moaning and his companions might at any moment hear him and then discovery must follow
while if on the other hand we did not resist all hope of rescuing my poor father would be gone we must fight i said to myself setting my teeth hard and bringing my gun to bear on the spot where i could see something moving
at the same time i tried to find where jack penny was hiding but he was out of sight at the risk of being seen i rose up a little so as to try and get a glimpse of the coming enemy
but though the movement among the bushes was plain enough i only caught one glimpse of a black body and had i been disposed to shoot it was too quick for me and was gone in an instant
they were coming nearer and in an agony of excitement i was thinking of attempting to back away and try to reach the cave when i felt that i could not get jack penny and the black to act with me unless i showed myself
and this meant revealing our position and there all the time were the enemy steadily making their way right towards us what shall i do i said to myself as i realised in a small way what must be the feelings of a general who finds that the battle is going against him
i must call to jack penny cooey rang out just then from a little way to my right and jimmy looked up from his hiding place is carstairs there cried the familiar voice of the doctor
and as with beating heart i sprang up he came staggering wearily towards me through the clinging bushes my dear boy he cried with his voice trembling what i have suffered on your account i thought you were a prisoner
no i exclaimed delighted at this turn in our affairs jimmy helped me to escape i say you don't think i ran away and deserted you my dear boy he cried i was afraid that you would think this of me
but there thank heaven you are safe and though we have not rescued your father we know enough to make success certain i'm afraid not i said hastily the savages have discovered our hiding place no
yes and one of them was approaching it just now when jack penny shot him down this is very unfortunate where what close here i had taken his hand to lead him to the clump of bushes where the poor wretch lay
and on parting the boughs and twigs we both started back in horror my boy what have you done cried the doctor as i stood speechless there by his side we have not so many friends that we could afford to kill them
but already he was busy feeling the folly of wasting words and down upon his knees to place the head of our friend the prisoner of the savages in a more comfortable position before beginning to examine him for his wound
bullet right through the shoulder said the doctor in a short abrupt manner and as he spoke he rapidly tore up his handkerchief and plugged and bound the wound supplementing the handkerchief with a long scarf which he wore round the waist
jimmy help me carry him to the cave jimmy carry um all long right way put um on jimmy's back cried my black companion and this seeming to be no bad way of carrying the wounded man in such a time of emergency
jimmy stooped down exasperating me the while by grinning as if it was good fun till the sufferer from our mistake was placed upon his back when he exclaimed lot much heavy heavy twice two sheep heavy
clear de bush we hastily drew the boughs aside and jimmy steadily descended the steep slope entered the rivulet crossed and then stopped for a moment beneath the overhanging boughs before climbing to the cabin
here let me help you said the doctor holding out his hand yes said jimmy drawing his waddy and boomerang from his belt hold um tight um all in black fellow way
then seizing the boughs he balanced the wounded man carefully and drew himself steadily up step by step exhibiting wonderful strength of muscle till he had climbed to the entrance of the cave
where he bent down and crawled in on hands and knees waiting till his burden was removed from his back and then getting up once more to look round smiling jimmy carry lot o men like that way
and here the doctor set himself to work to more securely bandage his patient's shoulder jack penny looking on resting upon his gun and wearing a countenance full of misery there said the doctor when he had finished
i think he will do now two inches lower master penny and he would have been a dead man i couldn't help it drawled jack penny i thought he was a savage coming to kill us i'm always doing something
oh you meant what you did for the best said the doctor laying his hand on jack penny's shoulder what did he want to look like a savage for grumbled jack who was going to know that any one dressed up
no i mean dressed down like that was an englishman it was an unfortunate mistake penny you must be more careful if you mean to handle a gun here take it away said jack penny bitterly
i won't fire it off again i was very nearly making the same mistake i said out of compassion for jack penny he seemed so much distressed
then i'm glad you did not fire he said there keep your piece penny we may want its help
but i don't think any evil will result from it hist he is coming to our conversation had been carried on in a whisper and we now stopped short and watched the doctor's patient in the dim twilight of the cavern
as he unclosed his eyes and stared first up at the ceiling and then about him till his eyes rested upon us when he smiled am i much hurt he said in a low calm voice oh no said the doctor
a bullet wound not a dangerous one at all to my astonishment he went on talking quite calmly and without any of the dazed look and the strange habit of forgetting his own tongue to continue in that of the people among whom he had been a prisoner for so long
i thought i should find you here he said and i came on thinking that perhaps i could help you help us yes of course you can you shall help us to get mister carstairs away
poor fellow yes he said softly and in so kindly a way that i crept closer and took his hand we tried several times to escape but they overtook us and treated us so hard that of late we had grown resigned to our fate
i exchanged glances with the doctor who signed to me to be silent it was a very hard one very hard the wounded man continued and then he stopped short
looking straight before him at the forest seen through the opening of the cave by degrees his eyelids dropped were raised again and then fell and he seemed to glide into a heavy sleep
the doctor motioned us to keep away and we all went to the mouth of the cave to sit down and talk over the night's adventure the conversation changing at times to a discussion of our friend's mental affection
the shock of the wound has affected his head beneficially it seems the doctor said at last whether it will last i cannot say
at least it seemed to me that the doctor was saying those or similar words from out of a mist and then all was silent
the second and third years of which period eighteen o six and eighteen o seven were comparatively sterile but the rest from eighteen o five to eighteen fifteen inclusively furnished a long succession of victories
the least of which in a contest of that portentous nature had an inappreciable value of position partly for its absolute interference with the plans of our enemy
but still more from its keeping alive in central europe the sense of a deep seated vulnerability in france even to tease the coasts of our enemy to mortify them by continual blockades
to insult them by capturing if it were but a baubling schooner under the eyes of their arrogant armies repeated from time to time a sullen proclamation of power lodged in a quarter to which the hopes of christendom turned in secret
and having beaten them in pitched battles
five years of life it was worth paying down for the privilege of an outside place on a mail coach when carrying down the first tidings of any such event and it is to be noted that
from our insular situation and the multitude of our frigates disposable for the rapid transmission of intelligence
the government official news was generally the first news from eight p m to fifteen or twenty minutes later imagine the mails assembled on parade in lombard street where at that time was seated the general post office
in what exact strength we mustered i do not remember but from the length of each separate attelage we filled the street though a long one and though we were drawn up in double file on any night the spectacle was beautiful
the absolute perfection of all the appointments about the carriages and the harness and the magnificence of the horses were what might first have fixed the attention every carriage on every morning in the year was taken down to an inspector for examination
every part of every carriage had been cleaned every horse had been groomed with as much rigor as if they belonged to a private gentleman and that part of the spectacle offered itself always
but the night before us is a night of victory and behold to the ordinary display what a heart shaking addition horses men carriages all are dressed in laurels and flowers oak leaves and ribbons the guards
who are his majesty's servants and the coachmen who are within the privilege of the post office wear the royal liveries of course and as it is summer for all the land victories were won in summer
they wear on this fine evening these liveries exposed to view without any covering of upper coats such a costume and the elaborate arrangement of the laurels in their hats dilated their hearts
by giving to them openly an official connection with the great news in which already they have the general interest of patriotism that great national sentiment surmounts and quells all sense of ordinary distinctions
those passengers who happen to be gentlemen are now hardly to be distinguished as such except by dress the usual reserve of their manner in speaking to the attendants has on this night melted away
one heart one pride one glory connects every man by the transcendent bond of his english blood the spectators who are numerous beyond precedent express their sympathy with these fervent feelings by continual hurrahs
every moment are shouted aloud by the post office servants the great ancestral names of cities known to history through a thousand years lincoln winchester portsmouth gloucester oxford bristol
manchester york newcastle edinburgh perth glasgow expressing the grandeur of the empire by the antiquity of its towns and the grandeur of the mail establishment by the diffusive radiation of its separate missions
every moment you hear the thunder of lids locked down upon the mail bags that sound to each individual mail is the signal for drawing off which process is the finest part of the entire spectacle
then come the horses into play horses can these be horses that unless powerfully reined in would bound off with the action and gestures of leopards what stir what sea like ferment
what a thundering of wheels what a trampling of horses what farewell cheers what redoubling peals of brotherly congratulation connecting the name of the particular mail liverpool for ever with the name of the particular victory
badajoz for ever or salamanca for ever the half slumbering consciousness that all night long and all the next day perhaps for even a longer period many of these mails like fire racing along a train of gunpowder
will be kindling at every instant new successions of burning joy has an obscure effect of multiplying the victory itself by multiplying to the imagination into infinity the stages of its progressive diffusion
a fiery arrow seems to be let loose
northwards for six hundred and the sympathy of our lombard street friends at parting is exalted a hundred fold by a sort of visionary sympathy with the approaching sympathies yet unborn which we are going to evoke
in the broad light of the summer evening the sun perhaps only just at the point of setting we are seen from every story of every house
heads of every age crowd to the windows young and old understand the language of our victorious symbols and rolling volleys of sympathizing cheers run along behind and before our course
the beggar rearing himself against the wall forgets his lameness real or assumed thinks not of his whining trade but stands erect with bold exulting smiles as we pass him the victory has healed him and says be thou whole
women and children from garrets alike and cellars look down or look up with loving eyes upon our gay ribbons and our martial laurels sometimes kiss their hands sometimes hang out as signals of affection
pocket handkerchiefs aprons dusters anything that lies ready to their hands on the london side of barnet to which we draw near within a few minutes after nine observe that private carriage which is approaching us
the weather being so warm the glasses are all down and one may read as on the stage of a theatre everything that goes on within the carriage it contains three ladies one likely to be mama and two of seventeen or eighteen
who are probably her daughters what lovely animation what beautiful unpremeditated pantomime explaining to us every syllable that passes in these ingenuous girls by the sudden start and raising of the hands
on first discovering our laurelled equipage by the sudden movement and appeal to the elder lady from both of them and by the heightened color on their animated countenances we can almost hear them saying
see see look at their laurels oh mama there has been a great battle in spain and it has been a great victory in a moment we are on the point of passing them we passengers i on the box and the two on the roof behind me raise our hats
the coachman makes his professional salute with the whip the guard even though punctilious on the matter of his dignity as an officer under the crown touches his hat the ladies move to us in return with a winning graciousness of gesture
all smile on each side in a way that nobody could misunderstand and that nothing short of a grand national sympathy could so instantaneously prompt will these ladies say that we are nothing to them
oh no they will not say that they cannot deny they do not deny that for this night they are our sisters gentle or simple scholar or illiterate servant for twelve hours to come we on the outside have the honor to be their brothers
those poor women again who stop to gaze upon us with delight at the entrance of barnet and seem by their air of weariness to be returning from labor do you mean to say that they are washerwomen and char women
oh my poor friend you are quite mistaken they are nothing of the kind i assure you they stand in a higher rank for this one night they feel themselves by birthright to be daughters of england and answer to no humbler title
every joy however even rapturous joy such is the sad law of earth may carry with it grief or fear of grief to some
three miles beyond barnet we see approaching us another private carriage nearly repeating the circumstances of the former case here also the glasses are all down here also is an elderly lady seated
but the two amiable daughters are missing for the single young person sitting by the lady's side seems to be an attendant so i judge from her dress and her air of respectful reserve the lady is in mourning
and her countenance expresses sorrow at first she does not look up so that i believe she is not aware of our approach until she hears the measured beating of our horses hoofs then she raises her eyes to settle them painfully on our triumphal equipage
our decorations explain the case to her at once but she beholds them with apparent anxiety or even with terror
some time before this i finding it difficult to hit a flying mark when embarrassed by the coachman's person and reins intervening had given to the guard a courier evening paper containing the gazette for the next carriage that might pass
glorious victory might catch the eye at once to see the paper however at all interpreted as it was by our ensigns of triumph explained everything and if the guard were right in thinking the lady to have received it with a gesture of horror
it could not be doubtful that she had suffered some deep personal affliction in connection with this spanish war
here now was the case of one who having formerly suffered might erroneously perhaps be distressing herself with anticipations of another similar suffering that same night and hardly three hours later occurred the reverse case
a poor woman who too probably would find herself in a day or two to have suffered the heaviest of afflictions by the battle blindly allowed herself to express an exultation so unmeasured in the news and its details
this was at some little town i forget what where we happened to change horses near midnight
we saw many lights moving about as we drew near and perhaps the most impressive scene on our route was our reception at this place the flashing of torches and the beautiful radiance of blue lights technically bengal lights upon the heads of our horses
the fine effect of such a showery and ghostly illumination falling upon flowers and glittering laurels whilst all around the massy darkness seemed to invest us with walls of impenetrable blackness together with the prodigious enthusiasm of the people
composed a picture at once scenical and affecting as we staid for three or four minutes i alighted and immediately from a dismantled stall in the street where perhaps she had been presiding at some part of the evening
advanced eagerly a middle aged woman the sight of my newspaper it was that had drawn her attention upon myself the victory which we were carrying down to the provinces on this occasion was the imperfect one of talavera
i told her the main outline of the battle but her agitation though not the agitation of fear but of exultation rather and enthusiasm had been so conspicuous when listening and when first applying for information
that i could not but ask her if she had not some relation in the peninsular army oh yes her only son was there in what regiment
my heart sank within me as she made that answer this sublime regiment which an englishman should never mention without raising his hat to their memory
they leaped their horses over a trench where they could into it and with the result of death or mutilation when they could not what proportion cleared the trench is nowhere stated
those who did closed up and went down upon the enemy with such divinity of fervor i use the word divinity by design the inspiration of god must have prompted this movement to those whom even then he was calling to his presence that two results followed
paralyzed a french column six thousand strong then ascending the hill and fixed the gaze of the whole french army as regarded themselves
but eventually i believe not so many as one in four survived and this then was the regiment a regiment already for some hours known to myself and all london as stretched by a large majority upon one bloody aceldama
in which the young trooper served whose mother was now talking with myself in a spirit of such hopeful enthusiasm did i tell her the truth had i the heart to break up her dreams no
i said to myself to morrow or the next day she will hear the worst for this night wherefore should she not sleep in peace after to morrow the chances are too many that peace will forsake her pillow
but if i told her not of the bloody price that had been paid there was no reason for suppressing the contributions from her son's regiment to the service and glory of the day
for the very few words that i had time for speaking i governed myself accordingly i showed her not the funeral banners under which the noble regiment was sleeping
i lifted not the overshadowing laurels from the bloody trench in which horse and rider lay mangled together but i told her how these dear children of england privates and officers
had leaped their horses over all obstacles as gaily as hunters to the morning's chase i told her how they rode their horses into the mists of death saying to myself but not saying to her
poured out their noble blood as cheerfully as ever after a long day's sport when infants they had rested their wearied heads upon their mother's knees or had sunk to sleep in her arms
i have saved him it was not another of the dreams in which he had often come back he was really here and yet his wife trembled and a vague but heavy fear was upon her all the air round was so thick and dark
the people were so passionately revengeful and fitful the innocent were so constantly put to death on vague suspicion and black malice it was so impossible to forget that many as blameless as her husband and as dear to others as he was to her
every day shared the fate from which he had been clutched that her heart could not be as lightened of its load as she felt it ought to be the shadows of the wintry afternoon were beginning to fall and even now the dreadful carts were rolling through the streets
her mind pursued them looking for him among the condemned and then she clung closer to his real presence and trembled more her father cheering her showed a compassionate superiority to this woman's weakness which was wonderful to see
no garret no shoemaking no one hundred and five north tower now he had accomplished the task he had set himself his promise was redeemed he had saved charles let them all lean upon him
their housekeeping was of a very frugal kind not only because that was the safest way of life involving the least offence to the people but because they were not rich and charles throughout his imprisonment had had to pay heavily for his bad food
and for his guard and towards the living of the poorer prisoners partly on this account and partly to avoid a domestic spy they kept no servant the citizen and citizeness who acted as porters at the courtyard gate rendered them occasional service
and jerry almost wholly transferred to them by mister lorry had become their daily retainer and had his bed there every night it was an ordinance of the republic one and indivisible of liberty equality fraternity or death
that on the door or doorpost of every house the name of every inmate must be legibly inscribed in letters of a certain size at a certain convenient height from the ground mister jerry cruncher's name therefore duly embellished the doorpost down below
and as the afternoon shadows deepened the owner of that name himself appeared from overlooking a painter whom doctor manette had employed to add to the list the name of charles evremonde called darnay in the universal fear and distrust that darkened the time
all the usual harmless ways of life were changed in the doctor's little household as in very many others the articles of daily consumption that were wanted were purchased every evening in small quantities and at various small shops
to avoid attracting notice and to give as little occasion as possible for talk and envy was the general desire for some months past miss pross and mister cruncher had discharged the office of purveyors the former carrying the money
the latter the basket every afternoon at about the time when the public lamps were lighted they fared forth on this duty and made and brought home such purchases as were needful although miss pross through her long association with a french family
might have known as much of their language as of her own if she had had a mind she had no mind in that direction consequently she knew no more of that nonsense as she was pleased to call it than mister cruncher did
at the head of a shopkeeper without any introduction in the nature of an article and if it happened not to be the name of the thing she wanted to look round for that thing lay hold of it and hold on by it until the bargain was concluded she always made a bargain for it by holding up
as a statement of its just price one finger less than the merchant held up whatever his number might be now mister cruncher said miss pross whose eyes were red with felicity if you are ready i am jerry hoarsely professed himself at miss pross's service
he had worn all his rust off long ago but nothing would file his spiky head down there's all manner of things wanted said miss pross and we shall have a precious time of it we want wine among the rest nice toasts these redheads will be drinking wherever we buy it
it will be much the same to your knowledge miss i should think retorted jerry whether they drink your health or the old un's who's he said miss pross mister cruncher with some diffidence explained himself as meaning old nick's
they have but one and it's midnight murder and mischief hush dear pray pray be cautious cried lucie
going on in the streets now ladybird never you stir from that fire till i come back take care of the dear husband you have recovered and don't move your pretty head from his shoulder as you have it now till you see me again
may i ask a question doctor manette before i go i think you may take that liberty the doctor answered smiling for gracious sake don't talk about liberty we have quite enough of that said miss pross hush dear again
lucie remonstrated well my sweet said miss pross nodding her head emphatically
miss pross curtseyed at the name and as such my maxim is confound their politics frustrate their knavish tricks on him our hopes we fix god save the king
but the question doctor manette is there it was the good creature's way to affect to make light of anything that was a great anxiety with them all
i fear not yet it would be dangerous for charles yet
said miss pross cheerfully repressing a sigh as she glanced at her darling's golden hair in the light of the fire then we must have patience and wait that's all we must hold up our heads and fight low as my brother solomon used to say now mister cruncher
don't you move ladybird they went out leaving lucie and her husband her father and the child by a bright fire mister lorry was expected back presently from the banking house miss pross had lighted the lamp
but had put it aside in a corner that they might enjoy the fire light undisturbed little lucie sat by her grandfather with her hands clasped through his arm and he in a tone not rising much above a whisper began to tell her a story of a great and powerful fairy
who had opened a prison wall and let out a captive who had once done the fairy a service all was subdued and quiet and lucie was more at ease than she had been what is that she cried all at once my dear
said her father stopping in his story and laying his hand on hers command yourself what a disordered state you are in the least thing nothing startles you you your father's daughter
that i heard strange feet upon the stairs my love the staircase is as still as death as he said the word a blow was struck upon the door
oh father father what can this be hide charles save him my child said the doctor rising and laying his hand upon her shoulder i have saved him what weakness is this my dear let me go to the door
he took the lamp in his hand
a rude clattering of feet over the floor and four rough men in red caps armed with sabres and pistols entered the room the citizen evremonde called darnay said the first who seeks him
answered darnay i seek him we seek him i know you evremonde i saw you before the tribunal to day you are again the prisoner of the republic the four surrounded him where he stood with his wife and child clinging to him
tell me how and why am i again a prisoner it is enough that you return straight to the conciergerie and will know to morrow you are summoned for to morrow doctor manette whom this visitation had so turned into stone
that he stood with the lamp in his hand
moved after these words were spoken put the lamp down and confronting the speaker and taking him not ungently by the loose front of his red woollen shirt said you know him you have said do you know me yes i know you citizen doctor
we all know you citizen doctor said the other three
and said in a lower voice after a pause will you answer his question to me then how does this happen citizen doctor said the first reluctantly he has been denounced to the section of saint antoine this citizen
pointing out the second who had entered is from saint antoine the citizen here indicated nodded his head and added
of what asked the doctor citizen doctor said the first with his former reluctance ask no more if the republic demands sacrifices from you
the republic goes before all the people is supreme evremonde we are pressed one word the doctor entreated will you tell me who denounced him it is against rule answered the first but you can ask him of saint antoine here
the doctor turned his eyes upon that man who moved uneasily on his feet rubbed his beard a little and at length said well truly it is against rule but he is denounced and gravely
by the citizen and citizeness defarge and by one other what other do you ask citizen doctor yes
chapter five manicamp and malicorne
he had a fortnight before extorted from the comte de guiche a hundred pistoles all he had
he had drawn from malicorne three days before fifty pistoles the price of the brevet obtained for montalais he had then no expectation of anything else having exhausted all his resources with the exception of selling a handsome suit of cloth and satin
embroidered and laced with gold which had been the admiration of the court but to be able to sell this suit the last he had left
manicamp had been obliged to take to his bed no more fire no more pocket money no more walking money
companies and balls it has been said he who sleeps dines but it has never been affirmed he who sleeps plays or he who sleeps dances manicamp reduced to this extremity of neither playing nor dancing
for a week at least was consequently very sad he was expecting a usurer and saw malicorne enter a cry of distress escaped him eh what said he in a tone which nothing can describe is that you again dear friend
humph you are very polite said malicorne ay but look you i was expecting money and instead of money i see you
but for the purse malicorne pretended to be mistaken and gave him his hand and the money said manicamp my dear friend if you wish to have it earn it what must be done for it earn it parbleu
and after what fashion oh that is rather trying i warn you the devil
i get up said manicamp stretching himself in his bed complacently oh no thank you you have sold all your clothes no i have one suit left the handsomest even but i expect a purchaser
well if you look you will see them on that chair
left put your legs into the first and your back into the other have a horse saddled and set off not i and why not
i should be obliged to take fifteen sell them for whatever you like but i must have a second commission of maid of honor good for whom is montalais doubled then vile fellow it is you who are doubled
that is true honor where it is due but i return to my brevet
i have already obtained for you what twelve hundred women are trying for
oh yes i know you have been quite heroic my dear friend
to whom do you tell that when i am king i promise you one thing what to call yourself malicorne the first no to make you superintendent of my finances but that is not the question now unfortunately
the present affair is to procure for me a second place of maid of honor my friend if you were to promise me the price of heaven i would decline to disturb myself at this moment malicorne chinked the money in his pocket there are twenty pistoles here said malicorne
and what would you do with twenty pistoles mon dieu well said malicorne a little angry suppose i were to add them to the five hundred you already owe me you are right replied manicamp stretching out his hand again and from that point of view i can accept them give them to me
shall i have my brevet to be sure you shall soon to day oh take care monsieur de manicamp you undertake much and i do not ask that thirty leagues in a day is too much you would kill yourself
i think nothing impossible when obliging a friend you are quite heroic where are the twenty pistoles here they are said malicorne showing them that's well
no no make yourself easy on that score pardon me why it is fifteen leagues from this place to etampes fourteen well fourteen be it fourteen leagues makes seven posts at twenty sous the post seven livres
as much for bed and supper
and fixing his two great eyes upon malicorne you are right said he
and he took the twenty pistoles now then be off well as i cannot be back before to morrow we have time time for what time to play what do you wish to play with your twenty pistoles pardieu
no you always win i will wager them then against what against twenty others and what shall be the object of the wager this we have said it was fourteen leagues to etampes yes
and fourteen leagues back doubtless well for these twenty eight leagues you cannot allow less than fourteen hours that is agreed one hour to find the comte de guiche go on
just so sixteen hours in all
what were you saying said malicorne putting his watch quickly back into his fob ah true
that you will have the comte de guiche's letter in how soon in eight hours have you a winged horse then that is no matter will you bet i shall have the comte's letter in eight hours yes in hand
in hand well be it so i lay said malicorne curious enough to know how this seller of clothes would get through is it agreed it is pass me the pen ink and paper here they are thank you
de manicamp this painful task accomplished he laid himself down in bed again well asked malicorne what does this mean that means that if you are in a hurry to have the letter from the comte de guiche for monsieur i have won my wager how the devil is that
that is transparent enough i think you take that paper
ah you put your horses to their best speed good in six hours you will be at etampes in seven hours you have the letter from the comte and i shall have won my wager without stirring from my bed which suits me and you too at the same time i am very sure
decidedly manicamp you are a great man
directly i am to go to the comte de guiche with this order he will give you a similar one for monsieur monsieur will approve instantly and i shall have my brevet you will ah
well i hope i behave genteely adorably thank you you do as you please then with the comte de guiche manicamp except making money of him everything
what something important
well suppose one of your friends asked you to render him a service i would not render it to him selfish fellow or at least i would ask him what service he would render me in exchange ah that perhaps is fair well that friend speaks to you
what you malicorne yes i
exactly the sum i want where are those fifty pistoles here said malicorne slapping his pocket then speak my friend what do you want malicorne took up the pen ink and paper again and presented them all to manicamp write said he dictate
you mistook me my friend you did not hear plainly what did you say then i said five hundred and the five hundred here they are manicamp devoured the rouleau with his eyes
eh what do you say to that five hundred pistoles i say it is for nothing my friend said manicamp taking up the pen again and you exhaust my credit dictate malicorne continued which my friend the comte de guiche will obtain for my friend malicorne
that's it said manicamp pardon me you have forgotten to sign ah that is true the five hundred pistoles here are two hundred and fifty of them and the other two hundred and fifty
manicamp made a face in that case give me the recommendation back again what to do to add two words to it two words yes two words only what are they in haste
malicorne returned the recommendation manicamp added the words good said malicorne taking back the paper manicamp began to count out the pistoles there want twenty said he how so the twenty i have won
in what way by laying that you would have the letter from the comte de guiche in eight hours ah that's fair and he gave him the twenty pistoles
and pour it in cascades upon his bed this second place murmured malicorne whilst drying his paper which at first glance appears to cost me more than the first but he stopped took up the pen in his turn and wrote to montalais mademoiselle
that will be twenty eight leagues i shall have gone for the love of you then with his sardonic smile taking up the interrupted sentence
but the benefit will be i hope in proportion with the expense and mademoiselle de la valliere will bring me back more than mademoiselle de montalais or else or else my name is not malicorne
for the rest a joyous beam of the sun for the sun appeared to care little for the loss france had just suffered a sunbeam we say descended upon them drawing perfumes from the neighboring flowers and animating the walls themselves
these two persons so occupied not by the death of the duke but by the conversation which was the consequence of that death
with a mien sometimes lively and sometimes dull making good use of two large eyes shaded with long eye lashes was short of stature and swart of skin he smiled with an enormous but well furnished mouth and his pointed chin which appeared to enjoy a mobility
leant from time to time very lovingly towards his interlocutrix who we must say did not always draw back so rapidly as strict propriety had a right to require the young girl
the young girl presented a singular mixture of shyness and reflection she was charming when she laughed beautiful when she became serious but let us hasten to say she was more frequently charming than beautiful these two appeared to have attained the culminating point of a discussion half bantering half serious
now monsieur malicorne said the young girl does it at length please you that we should talk reasonably you believe that that is very easy mademoiselle aure replied the young man to do what we like when we can only do what we are able good
who i yes you quit that lawyer's logic my dear another impossibility clerk i am mademoiselle de montalais demoiselle i am monsieur malicorne alas i know it well and you overwhelm me by your rank so i will say no more to you
well no i don't overwhelm you say what you have to tell me say it i insist upon it well i obey you that is truly fortunate monsieur is dead ah peste that's news and where do you come from to be able to tell us that
ah no i am come to tell you that madame henrietta of england is coming to marry the king's brother indeed malicorne you are insupportable with your news of the last century now mind if you persist in this bad habit of laughing at people i will have you turned out
oh yes for really you exasperate me there there patience mademoiselle you want to make yourself of consequence i know well enough why go tell me and i will answer you frankly yes if the thing be true
who i malicorne cast down his eyes joined his hands and assumed his sullen air and what credit can the poor clerk of a procurer have pray
your father is not in the secrets of monsieur le prince for nothing an advantage which is confined to lending monseigneur money
you flatter me who i yes you how so since i maintain that i have no credit and you maintain i have well then my commission well your commission shall i have it or shall i not you shall have it
ay but when when you like where is it then in my pocket how in your pocket yes and with a smile malicorne drew from his pocket a letter upon which mademoiselle seized as a prey and which she read eagerly
as she read her face brightened malicorne cried she after having read it in truth you are a good lad what for mademoiselle
but malicorne sustained the attack bravely
i have declared my sentiments to you continued malicorne
that you did not love me you have embraced me once without laughing and that is all i want all said the proud and coquettish montalais in a tone through which the wounded pride was visible absolutely all mademoiselle replied malicorne ah
he shook his head quietly listen montalais said he without heeding whether that familiarity pleased his mistress or not let us not dispute about it and why not because during the year which i have known you you might have had me turned out of doors twenty times if i did not please you
because i have been sufficiently impertinent for that oh that yes that's true you see plainly that you are forced to avow it said malicorne monsieur malicorne don't let us be angry if you have retained me then it has not been without cause
it is not at least because i love you cried montalais
oh you have never spoken so truly well on my part i detest you ah i take the act
at this moment you would allow yourself to be thrown out of that window rather than allow me to kiss the tip of your finger i would precipitate myself from the top of the balcony rather than touch the hem of your robe but in five minutes you will love me and i shall adore you oh it is just so
i doubt it and i swear it coxcomb and then that is not the true reason
when it pleases you to be gay i make you laugh when it suits me to be loving i look at you i have given you a commission of lady of honor which you wished for you will give me presently something i wish for i will yes you will but at this moment my dear aure
you are a frightful man malicorne i was going to rejoice at getting this commission and thus you quench my joy good there is no time lost you will rejoice when i am gone go then and after so be it but in the first place a piece of advice what is it
resume your good humor you are ugly when you pout coarse come let us tell the truth to each other while we are about it oh malicorne bad hearted man oh montalais ungrateful girl the young man leant with his elbow upon the window frame
montalais took a book and opened it malicorne stood up brushed his hat with his sleeve smoothed down his black doublet montalais though pretending to read looked at him out of the corner of her eye good cried she furious he has assumed his respectful air and he will pout for a week
a fortnight mademoiselle said malicorne bowing montalais lifted up her little doubled fist monster said she oh that i were a man what would you do to me i would strangle you ah very well then said malicorne i believe i begin to desire something
and what do you desire monsieur demon that i should lose my soul from anger malicorne was rolling his hat respectfully between his fingers but all at once he let fall his hat seized the young girl by the shoulders pulled her towards him and sealed her mouth with two lips that were very warm
aure would have cried out but the cry was stifled in his kiss nervous and apparently angry the young girl pushed malicorne against the wall good said malicorne philosophically that's enough for six weeks adieu mademoiselle accept my very humble salutation
well no you shall not go cried montalais stamping with her little foot stay where you are i order you you order me yes am i not mistress of my heart and soul without doubt a pretty property ma foi the soul is silly and the heart dry
beware montalais i know you said malicorne you are going to fall in love with your humble servant well yes said she hanging round his neck with childish indolence rather than with loving abandonment well yes for i must thank you at least and for what
for the commission is it not my whole future and mine montalais looked at him it is frightful said she that one can never guess whether you are speaking seriously or not i cannot speak more seriously i was going to paris you are going there
we are going there and so it was for that motive only you have served me selfish fellow what would you have me say aure i cannot live without you well in truth it is just so with me you are nevertheless it must be confessed a very bad hearted young man
and so saying malicorne drew the young girl a second time towards him but at that instant a step resounded on the staircase the young people were so close that they would have been surprised in the arms of each other if montalais had not violently pushed malicorne with his back against the door just then opening
chapter sixteen thanksgiving with the southards thanksgiving dinner was served at exactly half past twelve o'clock and eaten with much merriment and good cheer at half past one
mister southard was obliged to leave his sister and guests and at two o'clock they were getting into their wraps preparatory to accompanying miss southard to another theatre to see one of the most successful plays of the season that night they saw the actor in hamlet
and his remarkable portrayal of the ill fated prince of denmark was something long to be remembered by the three girls as well as by the rest of the enthusiastic assemblage that witnessed it i shall never forget the awful look in his poor eyes said grace solemnly
then she joined in the insistent applause that everett southard's art had evoked presently the actor appeared and bowed his appreciation of the tribute then he made his exit nor could he be induced to appear again anne sat as though turned to stone
his own personality was completely submerged in that of the melancholy ghost ridden youth who dedicating his life to the purpose of avenging his father's murder welcomed death with open arms when his purpose had been accomplished she had seen a great play and a great actor
the first time she saw hamlet she left the theatre heartsick and discouraged to night she was leaving it alert and triumphant anne has been touched by the finger of genius smiled miss southard as she marshaled her charges to their automobile
how did you know asked anne but in spite of her smiling lips her brown eyes were full of tears my dear living with everett has taught me the signs said his sister simply i should like to play ophelia to mister southard's hamlet said anne dreamily
perhaps you will have the chance to do so some day everett thinks you would be a more convincing ophelia than the young woman you saw in the part to night encouraged miss southard anne looked so delighted at those words that miriam and grace exchanged swift glances
we will go for a short drive then come back for everett planned miss southard he has promised to hurry to night
their hostess and her brother had agreed that there should be no after the theatre suppers at any of the so called fashionable restaurants for their young guests i am sure their mothers would not approve of it miss southard had said
the party at home was an informal affair in which there were many cooks but no broth spoiled to see mister southard earnestly engaged in making a welsh rarebit an accomplishment in which he claimed to be highly proficient
i can't believe that only two hours ago you were hamlet laughed grace you look anything but tragic now he looked every bit as tragic just a moment ago i saw a distinct hamlet like expression creep into his face stated miriam boldly
you have sharp eyes smiled mister southard i happened to remember that i had forgotten what goes into this rarebit next i could feel myself growing cold with despair
the rarebit was voted a success after decorating the actor with a bit of blue ribbon on which miriam painstakingly printed first premium with a lead pencil he was escorted to the head of the table
and congratulated roundly upon being able not only to act but to cook the next morning every one confessed to being a trifle sleepy but appeared at breakfast at the usual time
after breakfast mister southard carried anne off to met mister forest while miss southard miriam and grace decided to go for a drive through central park it was a clear cold sparkling day with just enough snow to make it seem like real thanksgiving weather
too bad anne can't be with us said grace regretfully everett will take her for a drive before bringing her home replied miss southard shortly after their return to the house mister southard and anne returned from their drive
anne's eyes were sparkling and her cheeks rosy as she ran up the steps anne must have heard good news exclaimed grace running from her post at one of the drawing room windows into the hall miriam at her heels the deed is done girls laughed anne
behold in me the future star of the forest stock company it doesn't sound much like rosalind does it and it means awfully hard work but i'll earn enough money next summer to almost finish paying my way through college hurrah cried grace we won't allow you to become lonesome
we will come and visit you during vacation that ought to reconcile me to having to work all summer smiled anne i shall be selfish and manage to have some of you girls with me all the time how do you like mister forest asked miriam
ever so much returned anne like most successful men he is quiet and unassuming mister southard and he did almost all the talking i spoke when i was spoken to and did as i was bid good little anne jeered miriam as a reward of merit
we will take you shopping this afternoon how would you like to go to the opera to night asked mister southard madame butterfly is to be sung better than anything else now that i've seen hamlet exclaimed grace with shining eyes
miriam and anne both expressed an eager desire to hear puccini's exquisite opera and miss southard called two of her friends on the telephone inviting them to join the box party the same evening gowns had to do duty for the opera as well as for hamlet
but this did not detract one whit from their pleasant anticipations the people who saw us at the theatre the other night won't see us at the opera argued grace the three girls were in grace's room holding a consultation on the subject of what to wear
that is if they saw us at all laughed miriam elfreda says oakdale isn't down on the map you know that reminds me what excuse did you make to miss southard about elfreda not coming with us anne asked grace i merely said she had changed her mind about coming
did you mention that she changed it violently slyly put in miriam i did not was the smiling assertion i don't like to think about it let alone mention it
i don't know said grace briefly let us put her out of our minds for now it won't do any good to worry about what she may or may not do when we go back to overton we shall know
that night the girls listened to the wonderful voice of the prima donna whose name has become synonymous with that of chu chu san the little japanese maid anne wondered as she drank in the music whether this beautiful young prima donna had ever had any scruples about appearing before the public
miriam was thinking that david would be bitterly disappointed when he knew that anne was going back to the stage during vacation while though she would not have confessed it for worlds
she wanted her mother and she wanted her badly
when the curtain shut out the still form of the japanese girl and the prima donna received her usual ovation
on saturday morning the girls went on another shopping expedition
after the recital instead of going home miss southard surprised her guests
mister southard had arranged that they should be admitted to his dressing room it was the same theatre in which anne had played the previous winter and several of the stage hands recognized her and bowed respectfully to her as she passed through to the actor's dressing room
they found him still in costume he never changed to street clothing on matinee days
i have ordered dinner for six o'clock eating dinner in a dressing room was an innovation as far as grace and miriam were concerned
as it was after five o'clock when they arrived
which mister southard ordered arranged on the table that had been brought in for the occasion
and later on the visitors were introduced to the various members of the company unlike many professionals who have achieved greatness mister southard was thoroughly democratic and displayed none of the snobbish tactics with his company
which so often humiliate and embitter the lesser lights of a theatrical company at eight o'clock they said good bye to the actor through the courtesy of mister forest they were to witness a play in which a wonderful little girl of fifteen
who had taken new york by storm was to appear after the play they were to pick up mister southard at his theatre and go home together
then three sleepy young women fairly tumbled into their beds completely tired out by their eventful day as the return to overton was to be made on the noon train the southard household rose in good season on sunday morning breakfast was rather a quiet meal
for the shadow of saying good bye hung over the little house party when shall we see you again i wonder sighed miss southard regretfully you are going home for christmas i suppose oh yes replied grace quickly i wish you might spend it with us
but i suppose it would be out of the question you must come to oakdale next summer
but we can get up boating and gypsy parties
when the last good byes had been said and the girls were comfortably settled for the afternoon's ride that lay before them
we have had a perfectly wonderful holiday asserted grace and the southards are the most hospitable people in the world but it seems as though i'd never make up my lost sleep i shall become a rabid advocate of the half past ten o'clock rule for the next week at least
i wonder how the boys spent thanksgiving of course they went to the football game i'll warrant hippy ate too much i wish jessica and nora could have been with us remarked anne miss southard wrote them too but they couldn't come did you see nora's telegram
yes replied grace it said a letter would follow i suppose she'll explain in that well it's back to college again for us i wonder if elfreda has moved we shall know in due season returned miriam grimly
i have visions of the appearance of my hapless room if she has vacated it i expect to see my best beloved belongings scattered to the four corners or else piled in a heap in the middle of the floor
the early winter darkness was falling when the three girls hurried up the stairs at wayne hall as fast as the weight of their suit cases would permit miriam's door was closed she knocked on it at first softly then with more force
hearing no sound from within she turned the knob flung open the door and stepped inside
chapter twenty three virginia changes her mind what the vanquished sophomores thought of the trick that had been played on them was a matter for speculation once back in overton the truth of the situation had dawned upon them
their common sense told them that real ghosts if there were any never congregated in companies the size of the one that had risen to haunt them the previous night obviously some one had overheard their plan to picnic at hunter's rock
and treated them to an unwelcome surprise it did not occur to any one of them until they had returned to their respective houses that they had left j elfreda locked in the haunted abode of the two brothers
directly after chapel the next morning eight young women were to be seen in an anxious group just outside the chapel several freshmen and two or three juniors glanced appraisingly at them then passed on
did you notice the way that miss wells looked at me this morning muttered mary hampton to her satellites never mind a little thing like that snapped alberta wicks the question is where is j elfreda
nonsense bert scoffed one of the sophomores you are nervous we may not be found out found out j elfreda will be raging she'll go straight to the dean the minute she is free
what made you lock her in there then if you were afraid she'd tell asked one of the others rather sarcastically yes that's what i say exclaimed a second this affair has been very silly from start to finish
i'm ashamed of myself for having been drawn into it and in future you may count me out of any more such stunts you girls don't understand declared alberta wicks angrily we only meant to even an old score with the briggs person
we were going to call for her on the way home and tell her that we had evened our score
she knew that we'd make life miserable for her next year if she did she wouldn't tell a little thing like that but to leave her there all night that really was dreadful
if i'm not mistaken there goes miss briggs now exclaimed a girl who had been idly watching the students as they passed out of the chapel
the sophomore pointed yes it is j elfreda almost wailed alberta wicks i'm going straight back to stuart hall and pack my trunk come on mary
better wait a little dryly advised the sophomore who had announced her disapproval of the night's escapade you may be sorry if you don't
now that j elfreda is among us
she hurried away followed by mary hampton that was my first and if i get safely out of this will be my last offense said another sophomore firmly all those who agree with me say aye five ayes were spoken simultaneously
in the meantime grace was trying vainly to make up her mind what to do should she go directly to the two mischievous sophomores revealing the identity of the ghosts or should she leave them in a quandary as to the outcome of their unwomanly trick
one thing had been decided upon definitely by grace and her friends they would tell no tales grace could not help thinking that a little anxiety would be the just due of the plotters
and that person was elfreda grace had forgotten to tell her that the night's happenings were to be kept a secret
she pursued them with the air of an avenger before they realized her presence she had begun a furious arraignment of their treachery you ought to be sent home for it she concluded savagely and if grace harlowe wasn't
grace harlowe exclaimed alberta turning pale do you mean to tell me that it was she who planned that ghost party i shall tell you nothing retorted elfreda i'm sorry i said even that much i want you to understand though that if you ever try to play a trick on me again
just remember that and mind your own business strictly from now on turning on her heel the stout girl marched off
had we better go and see miss harlowe asked mary hampton rather unsteadily the question is do we care to come back here next year returned alberta grimly i'd like to come back said mary in a low voice
i don't know was the perverse answer i don't wish to humble myself to any one i'm going to take a chance on her keeping quiet about last night i have an idea she is not a telltale if worse comes to worst there are other colleges you know mary
i thought perhaps if we were to go to miss harlowe we might straighten out matters and be friends said mary rather hesitatingly those girls have nice times together and they are the cleverest crowd in the freshman class
i'm tired of being at sword's points with people then go over to them by all means sneered alberta don't trouble yourself about your old friends they don't count
it was several minutes before mary succeeded in conciliating her sulky friend by that time the tiny sprouts of good fellowship that had vainly tried to poke their heads up
into the light had been hopelessly blighted by the chilling reception they met with and mary had again been won over to alberta's side
and elfreda to her utter astonishment was made the guest of honor during the progress of the dinner alberta wicks mary hampton and two other sophomores dropped in for ice cream by their furtive glances and earnest conversation
it was apparent that they strongly suspected the identity of the avenging specters elfreda's presence too confirmed their suspicions in a spirit of pure mischief mabel ashe pulled a leaf from her note book borrowing a pencil
she made an interesting little sketch of two frightened young women fleeing before a band of sheeted specters underneath she wrote it is sometimes difficult to lay ghosts
it was passed from hand to hand and resulted in four young women leaving martell's without finishing their ice cream you spoiled their taste for ice cream mabel laughed frances marlton glancing at the now vacant table i imagine they are shaking in their shoes
they did not think that the juniors had taken a hand in things remarked constance fuller hardly laughed helen burton did you see their faces when they read that note
her charming face had grown grave i think that miss wicks and miss hampton both ought to be sent home
i don't like to say unkind things about an overton girl
last night's trick however was completely overstepping the bounds if miss briggs had been a timid nervous girl matters might have resulted quite differently then it would have been our duty to report the mischief makers
that is my opinion of the matter too agreed grace
during vacation certain girls will have plenty of time to think things over
i shouldn't like to think that almost my last act before going home to my mother
impatient to learn just what had happened the night before
finding them out she managed to learn the news from the very girl who had declared herself sorry for her part in the escapade this particular sophomore now that the reaction had set in was loud in her denunciation of the trick and congratulated virginia
on not being one of those intimately concerned in it but virginia now conscience stricken had little to say she still lingered in the hall as the quartette entered but they passed her on their way upstairs without speaking
and she finally went to her room wishing regretfully that she had been less ready to quarrel with the girls who bade fair to lead their class both in scholarship and popularity
after making sure that anne was out knocked one afternoon at grace's door how do you do miss gaines said grace civilly but without warmth won't you come in virginia entered but refused the chair grace offered her
no thank you i'll stand she replied then in a halting fashion she said miss harlowe i
awfully sorry for for being so hateful all this year she stopped biting her lip which quivered suspiciously grace stared at her caller in amazement could it be possible that insolent virginia gaines was meekly apologizing to her
then thoughtful of the other girl's feelings she smiled and stretched out her hand don't say anything further about it miss gaines i hope we shall be friends
and college is the best place in the world for us to find ourselves
i will promised virginia then impulsively she caught one of grace's hands in hers you're the dearest girl she said and i'll try to be worthy of your friendship please tell the girls i'm sorry i'll tell them myself to night
with that she fairly ran from the room and going to her own shed tears of real contrition later it took all grace's reasoning powers to put elfreda in a state of mind that verged even slightly on charitable but after much coaxing
she promised to behave with becoming graciousness toward virginia over the tea and cakes the clouds gradually dispersed and when virginia went to her room that night after declaring that she had had a perfectly lovely time grace took from her writing case
the note that miriam had found and tore it into small pieces
the few intervening days that lay between commencement and home were filled with plenty of pleasant excitement there were calls to make farewell spreads and merry makings to attend and momentous questions concerning what to leave behind
and what to take home to be decided the majority of the girls at wayne hall had asked for their old rooms for the next year two sophomores had succeeded in getting into wellington house
one poor little freshman having studied too hard had brought on a nervous affection and was obliged to give up her course at overton for a year at least there was also one other sophomore whose mother was coming to the town of overton to live
and keep house for her daughter in a bungalow not far from the college it now lacked only two days until the end of the spring term and what to pack and when to pack it were the burning questions of the hour
her arms piled high with skirts and gowns depositing them on the floor
i don't believe i can ever make all those things go into that trunk i have all my clothes that i brought here last fall and another lot that i brought back at christmas
if i had had a particle of forethought i would have taken home a few things each trip don't dare to leave the house until this trunk is packed anne for i shall need you to help me sit on it if our combined weight isn't enough
we'll invite elfreda and miriam in to the sitting i am perfectly willing to perform the same kind offices for them oh dear i hate to begin i'm wild to go home but i can't help feeling sad to think my freshman joys are over
it seems to me that the two most important years in college are one's freshman and senior years being a freshman is like beginning a garden one plants what one considers the best seeds and when the little green shoots come up
it is only by constant care that they are made to thrive and all sorts of storms are likely to rise out of a clear sky and blight them some of the seeds one thought would surely grow the fastest are total disappointments while others that one just planted to fill in
fairly astonish one by their growth
it's safe to say it will keep on growing through the sophomore and junior years and bloom at the end of four years that's the peculiarity about college gardens one has to begin to plant the very first day of the freshman year to be sure of flowers when the four years are over
in the sophomore year the hardest task is keeping the weeds out
it will be easier to neglect one's garden then
grace laid the gown she had been folding in the trunk and looked earnestly at anne as she finished her long speech what a nice idea exclaimed anne warmly i think i shall have to begin gardening too
your garden has always been in a flourishing condition from the first laughed grace the chief trouble with mine
nettles that i never planted but that sting just as sharply nevertheless it hurts me to go home with the knowledge that there are two girls here who don't like me i know i ought not to care for i have nothing to regret as far as my own conduct is concerned
perhaps when certain girls come back in the fall they will be on their good behavior perhaps repeated grace sceptically the entrance into the room of elfreda and miriam who had been out shopping
we've a new kind of cakes exulted miriam they are three stories high and each story is a different color they have icing half an inch thick and an english walnut on top
we bought a dozen declared elfreda and now i'm going out to buy ice cream
i've thought of a lovely plan to lighten my labors
this is practical announced the stout girl i'm going to give away my clothes
i found a poor woman the other day who does scrubbing for the college who needs them i found out where she lives and i'm going to bundle them all together and send them to her
i'll just write a card and the three broadly smiling faces of her friends caused her to stop short and regard them suspiciously what's the matter she said in an offended tone grace ran over and slipped her arm about the stout girl's shoulders
you are the one who sent ruth her lovely clothes last christmas don't try to deny it i was sure of it then
you confess threatened miriam seizing the little brass tea kettle and brandishing it over elfreda's head i won't defied elfreda
one two counted miriam grasping the kettle firmly all right i did confessed elfreda nonchalantly
present you with your christmas gifts now smiled miriam you wouldn't look at us last christmas so we've been saving our gifts ever since wait a minute girls until i go for mine as she darted from the room grace said softly
we hoped that you would understand about thanksgiving and that everything would be all right by christmas
then when when we didn't see you before going home for the holidays anne suggested that we put them away because we all hoped that you'd be friends with us again some day rummaging in the tray of her trunk she produced a long flat package which she offered to elfreda
anne who at grace's first words had stepped to the chiffonier took out a beribboned bundle and stood holding it toward the stout girl another moment and miriam had returned bearing her offering
i wish you a merry june declared miriam with an infectious giggle that was echoed by the others then elfreda opened the package from miriam which contained a japanese silk kimono similar to one of her own that her roommate had greatly admired
grace's package contained a pair of long white gloves and anne had remembered her with a book she had once heard the stout girl express a desire to own you had no business to do it muttered elfreda then gathering up her presents
she made a dash for the door and with a muffled i'll be back soon was gone it was several minutes before she reappeared with red eyes but smiling lips then a long talk ensued during which time the art of trunk packing languished
it was renewed with vigor that evening and continued spasmodically for the next two days in the campus houses the real packing dragged along in most instances until within two hours of the time when the trunks were to be called for
then a wholesale scramble began to make up for lost minutes one of the most frequent and painful sights during those last two days was that of a wrathful expressman glaring in impotent rage while an enterprising damsel opened her trunk
on the front porch to take out or put in one or several of her various possessions which until that moment had been completely forgotten the night before leaving overton the four girls paid a visit to ruth denton
but had accepted a position in overton with a dress maker the last two weeks of her vacation she had promised to spend with arline at the sea shore their last morning at overton dawned fair and sunshiny grace who had risen early
stood at the window looking out at the glory of the sparkling june day the campus was a vast green velvet carpet and the pale green of the trees had not yet changed to that darker dustier shade that belongs only to summer
grace's heart swelled with pride as she gazed at the stately old building surrounded by its silent leafy guard overton my alma mater she said softly
i love overton don't you anne anne nodded i'm glad we didn't go to wellesley or vassar or even smith i'd rather be here so would i sighed grace next to home there is no place like overton
i almost wish i were coming back here next fall as a freshman but it's against the law of progress to wish one's self back smiled anne and being a sophomore surely has its rainbow side and it rests with us to find it replied grace softly
placing her hand on her friend's shoulder a little later laden with bags and suit cases the three oakdale girls accompanied by elfreda
when next we see this house it will be as sophomores observed elfreda i'm glad we are all going home on the same train do you remember the day i met you i thought i owned the earth then
that there are other people to consider besides myself that is what being a freshman at overton has taught me
i'm going to try to practise it next year you won't have to try very hard returned elfreda dryly how much time have we almost an hour replied miriam looking at her watch then we've time to stop at vinton's for a farewell sundae
it's our last freshman treat come on everybody invited the stout girl no more sundaes here until next fall lamented miriam as they sat waiting for their order i shall miss vinton's there is nothing in oakdale quite like it
and i shall miss you girls declared elfreda bluntly why don't you pay us a visit then suggested miriam we expect to be at home part of the time this summer perhaps i will reflected elfreda but you must write to me at any rate
at the station groups of happy faced girls stood waiting for the train we are going to have plenty of company observed anne do you remember how forlorn we felt when we were cast away on this station platform last fall we won't feel so strange next september
we shall feel very important instead laughed miriam it will be our turn to escort bewildered freshmen to their boarding places yes and we'll see that they don't stray too retorted elfreda grimly or mistake the register for the registrar smiled grace
and she had enlarged opportunities for studying the noble example set before her by slowbridge on his arrival in new york martin bassett telegraphed to his daughter and sister per atlantic cable informing them that he might be detained a couple of months
and bidding them to be of good cheer the arrival of the message in its official envelope so alarmed miss belinda
while it was read to her by octavia who received it without any surprise whatever for some time after its completion slowbridge had privately disbelieved in the atlantic cable
and until this occasion had certainly disbelieved in the existence of people who received messages through it in fact
miss belinda had made immediate preparations for fainting quietly away being fully convinced that a shipwreck had occurred
and that his executors had chosen this delicate method of breaking the news
trust in providence my love and and bear up ah how i wish i had a stronger mind and could be of more service to you
nothing is the matter he's all right he got in on saturday ah panted miss belinda are you quite sure my dear are you quite sure that's what he says listen
got in saturday piper met me shares looking up may be kept here two months will write keep up your spirits martin bassett thank heaven sighed miss belinda thank heaven why
said octavia why echoed miss belinda ah my dear if you knew how terrified i was i felt sure that something had happened a cable message my dear
i never received a telegram in my life before and to receive a cable message was really a shock well i don't see why said octavia it seems to me it is pretty much like any other message miss belinda regarded her timidly
does your papa often send them she inquired
i don't suppose it's cheap octavia replied but it saves time and worry
very true said miss belinda but
her simple ideas of economy and quiet living were frequently upset in these times
and yet octavia had not been doing any thing at all remarkable in her own eyes and considered her life pretty dull if the elder miss bassett her parents and grandparents had not been so thoroughly well known and so universally respected
there is an awful possibility that slowbridge might even have gone so far as not to ask octavia out to tea at all but even lady theobald felt that it would not do to slight belinda bassett's niece and guest
and place her through the medium of this young lady who alone deserved condemnation beyond the pale of all social law it is only to be regretted said her ladyship that belinda bassett has not arranged things better
in secret lucia felt much soft hearted sympathy for both miss bassett and her guest
it really did not seem probable
or that she had in a distinct manner
perhaps dear grandmamma the girl ventured it is because miss octavia bassett is so young that may i ask inquired lady theobald in fell tones how old you are i was nineteen in in december
miss octavia bassett said her ladyship was nineteen last october and it is now june i have not yet found it necessary to apologize for you on the score of youth
and set an evening for entertaining miss belinda and her niece in company with several other ladies with the best bohea thin bread and butter plum cake and various other delicacies what do they do at such places asked octavia
half past five is pretty early we spend some time at the tea table my dear explained miss belinda
i feel as if i were not clever enough and i get flurried too easily by by differences of opinion
she was really no fonder of masculine society than the generality of girls but she could not help wondering if there would be any young men present and if indeed
there were any young men in slowbridge who might possibly be produced upon festive occasions even though ordinarily kept in the background she had not heard miss belinda mention any masculine name so far
but that of the curate of saint james's and when she had seen him pass the house she had not found his slim black figure and faint ecclesiastic whiskers especially interesting
a tea at lady theobald's house constituted formal presentation to the slowbridge world each young lady within the pale of genteel society having arrived at years of discretion on returning home from boarding school
was invited to tea at oldclough hall during an entire evening she was the subject of watchful criticism her deportment was remarked her accomplishments displayed she performed her last new pieces upon the piano
she was drawn into conversation by her hostess and upon the timid modesty of her replies and the reverence of her listening attitudes depended her future social status
so it was very natural indeed that miss belinda should be anxious i would wear something rather quiet and and simple my dear octavia she said a white muslin perhaps with blue ribbons
i've got one that would do if it's warm enough to wear it i bought it in new york but it came from paris i've never worn it yet
nothing is so charming in the dress of a young girl as pure simplicity our slowbridge young ladies rarely wear any thing but white for evening
all after one simple design of her own
i should be glad one of the fifteen didn't belong to me i should feel as if people might say when i came into a room good gracious there's another the first was made for miss lucia gaston who is lady theobald's niece replied miss belinda mildly
i think i should draw the line there but she said it without any ill nature and sensitive as miss belinda was upon the subject of her cherished ideals she could not take offence
in the most ornate and startling manner it was well known that only lady theobald's fine appreciation of miss belinda bassett's feelings
i would prefer my dear said more than one discreet matron to her daughter as they attired themselves
before we know how this young lady may turn out let your manner toward her be kind but not familiar it is well to be upon the safe side what precise line of conduct it was generally anticipated
that this gold digging and silver mining young person would adopt it would be difficult to say it is sufficient that the general sentiments regarding her were of a distrustful if not timorous nature to miss bassett
who felt all this in the very air she breathed the girl's innocence of the condition of affairs was even a little touching with all her splendor she was not at all hard to please
and had quite awakened to an interest in the impending social event she seemed in good spirits and talked more than was her custom
giving miss belinda graphic descriptions of various festal gatherings she had attended in new york when she seemed to have been very gay indeed and to have worn very beautiful dresses and also to have had rather more than her share of partners
the phrases she used and the dances she described were all strange to miss belinda and tended to reducing her to a bewildered condition in which she felt much timid amazement at the intrepidity of the new york young ladies
and no slight suspicion of the german as a theatrical kind of dance involving extraordinary figures and an extraordinary amount of attention from partners of the stronger sex
it must be admitted however that by this time notwithstanding the various shocks she had received miss belinda had begun to discover in her young guest divers good qualities which appealed to her affectionate and susceptible old heart
in the first place the girl had no small affectations indeed if she had been less unaffected she might have been less subject to severe comment she was good natured and generous to extravagance
her manner toward mary anne never ceased to arouse miss belinda to interest there was not any condescension whatever in it and yet it could not be called a vulgarly familiar manner it was rather an astonishingly simple manner
somehow suggestive of a subtile recognition of mary anne's youth and ill luck in not having before her more lively prospects she gave mary anne presents in the shape of articles of clothing
at which slowbridge would have exclaimed in horror if the recipient had dared to wear them but when miss belinda expressed her regret at these indiscretions octavia was quite willing to rectify her mistakes
ah well she said i can give her some money and she can buy some things for herself which she proceeded to do and when under her mistress's direction mary anne purchased a stout brown merino
she took quite an interest in her struggles at making it i wouldn't make it so short in the waist and so full in the skirt if i were you she said there's no reason why it shouldn't fit you know thereby winning the house maiden's undying adoration
and adding much to the shapeliness of the garment i am sure she has a good heart miss belinda said to herself as the days went by she is like martin in that i dare say she finds me very ignorant and silly
but she never seems to laugh at me nor think of me unkindly
children are carried off the pirate attack had been a complete surprise a sure proof that the unscrupulous hook had conducted it improperly for to surprise redskins fairly is beyond the wit of the white man
by all the unwritten laws of savage warfare it is always the redskin who attacks and with the wiliness of his race he does it just before the dawn at which time he knows the courage of the whites to be at its lowest ebb
the white men have in the meantime made a rude stockade on the summit of yonder undulating ground at the foot of which a stream runs for it is destruction to be too far from water
the inexperienced ones clutching their revolvers and treading on twigs but the old hands sleeping tranquilly until just before the dawn through the long black night the savage scouts wriggle
snake like among the grass without stirring a blade the brushwood closes behind them as silently as sand into which a mole has dived not a sound is to be heard
save when they give vent to a wonderful imitation of the lonely call of the coyote the cry is answered by other braves and some of them do it even better than the coyotes who are not very good at it
so the chill hours wear on and the long suspense is horribly trying to the paleface who has to live through it for the first time
those ghastly calls and still ghastlier silences are but an intimation of how the night is marching
that in disregarding it he cannot be excused on the plea of ignorance the piccaninnies on their part trusted implicitly to his honour and their whole action of the night stands out in marked contrast to his
they left nothing undone that was consistent with the reputation of their tribe with that alertness of the senses which is at once the marvel and despair of civilised peoples
they knew that the pirates were on the island from the moment one of them trod on a dry stick and in an incredibly short space of time
every foot of ground between the spot where hook had landed his forces and the home under the trees was stealthily examined by braves wearing their mocassins with the heels in front
they found only one hillock with a stream at its base so that hook had no choice here he must establish himself and wait for just before the dawn everything being thus mapped out with almost diabolical cunning
the main body of the redskins folded their blankets around them and in the phlegmatic manner that is to them the pearl of manhood squatted above the children's home awaiting the cold moment when they should deal pale death
here dreaming though wide awake of the exquisite tortures to which they were to put him at break of day those confiding savages were found by the treacherous hook
from the accounts afterwards supplied by such of the scouts as escaped the carnage he does not seem even to have paused at the rising ground though it is certain that in that grey light he must have seen it
no thought of waiting to be attacked appears from first to last to have visited his subtle mind he would not even hold off till the night was nearly spent on he pounded with no policy but to fall to
what could the bewildered scouts do masters as they were of every warlike artifice save this one but trot helplessly after him exposing themselves fatally to view
around the brave tiger lily were a dozen of her stoutest warriors and they suddenly saw the perfidious pirates bearing down upon them fell from their eyes then the film through which they had looked at victory no more would they torture at the stake
for them the happy hunting grounds now they knew it but as their fathers sons they acquitted themselves even then they had time to gather in a phalanx
had they risen quickly but this they were forbidden to do by the traditions of their race it is written that the noble savage must never express surprise in the presence of the white
they remained stationary for a moment not a muscle moving as if the foe had come by invitation then indeed the tradition gallantly upheld they seized their weapons and the air was torn with the warcry
but it was now too late it is no part of ours to describe what was a massacre rather than a fight thus perished many of the flower of the piccaninny tribe not all unavenged did they die
for with lean wolf fell alf mason to disturb the spanish main no more and among others who bit the dust were geo scourie chas turley and the alsatian foggerty turley fell to the tomahawk of the terrible panther
who ultimately cut a way through the pirates with tiger lily and a small remnant of the tribe to what extent hook is to blame for his tactics on this occasion is for the historian to decide
he and his men would probably have been butchered and in judging him it is only fair to take this into account what he should perhaps have done was to acquaint his opponents that he proposed to follow a new method on the other hand this
as destroying the element of surprise would have made his strategy of no avail so that the whole question is beset with difficulties one cannot at least withhold a reluctant admiration for the wit that had conceived so bold a scheme
and the fell genius with which it was carried out what were his own feelings about himself at that triumphant moment fain would his dogs have known as breathing heavily and wiping their cutlasses they gathered at a discreet distance from his hook
and squinted through their ferret eyes at this extraordinary man elation must have been in his heart but his face did not reflect it ever a dark and solitary enigma he stood aloof from his followers in spirit as in substance
for it was not the redskins he had come out to destroy they were but the bees to be smoked
it was pan he wanted pan and wendy and their band but chiefly pan peter was such a small boy that one tends to wonder at the man's hatred of him true
he had flung hook's arm to the crocodile but even this and the increased insecurity of life to which it led owing to the crocodile's pertinacity hardly account for a vindictiveness so relentless and malignant
which goaded the pirate captain to frenzy it was not his courage it was not his engaging appearance it was not there is no beating about the bush for we know quite well what it was and have got to tell it was peter's cockiness
it made his iron claw twitch and at night it disturbed him like an insect while peter lived the tortured man felt that he was a lion in a cage into which a sparrow had come
or how to get his dogs down he ran his greedy eyes over them
in the meantime what of the boys we have seen them at the first clang of weapons turned as it were into stone figures open mouthed all appealing with outstretched arms to peter
and we return to them as their mouths close and their arms fall to their sides the pandemonium above has ceased almost as suddenly as it arose passed like a fierce gust of wind but they know that in the passing
it has determined their fate which side had won
heard the question put by every boy and alas they also heard peter's answer if the redskins have won he said they will beat the tom tom it is always their sign of victory
now smee had found the tom tom and was at that moment sitting on it you will never hear the tom tom again he muttered but inaudibly of course for strict silence had been enjoined
to his amazement hook signed to him to beat the tom tom and slowly there came to smee an understanding of the dreadful wickedness of the order never probably had this simple man admired hook so much
twice smee beat upon the instrument and then stopped to listen gleefully the tom tom the miscreants heard peter cry an indian victory the doomed children answered with a cheer
that was music to the black hearts above and almost immediately they repeated their goodbyes to peter this puzzled the pirates but all their other feelings were swallowed by a base delight that the enemy were about to come up the trees
they smirked at each other and rubbed their hands rapidly and silently hook gave his orders one man to each tree
the happy home one important result of the brush on the lagoon was that it made the redskins their friends peter had saved tiger lily from a dreadful fate and now there was nothing she and her braves would not do for him
all night they sat above keeping watch over the home under the ground and awaiting the big attack by the pirates which obviously could not be much longer delayed even by day they hung about smoking the pipe of peace
and looking almost as if they wanted tit bits to eat they called peter the great white father prostrating themselves before him and he liked this tremendously so that it was not really good for him
the great white father he would say to them in a very lordly manner as they grovelled at his feet is glad to see the piccaninny warriors protecting his wigwam from the pirates
me tiger lily that lovely creature would reply peter pan save me me his velly nice friend me no let pirates hurt him she was far too pretty to cringe in this way
but peter thought it his due and he would answer condescendingly it is good peter pan has spoken always when he said peter pan has spoken it meant that they must now shut up and they accepted it humbly in that spirit
but they were by no means so respectful to the other boys whom they looked upon as just ordinary braves they said how do to them and things like that and what annoyed the boys was that peter seemed to think this all right
secretly wendy sympathised with them a little but she was far too loyal a housewife to listen to any complaints against father father knows best she always said whatever her private opinion must be
her private opinion was that the redskins should not call her a squaw we have now reached the evening that was to be known among them as the night of nights because of its adventures and their upshot
and now the redskins in their blankets were at their posts above while below the children were having their evening meal all except peter who had gone out to get the time the way you got the time on the island
this meal happened to be a make believe tea and they sat round the board guzzling in their greed and really what with their chatter and recriminations the noise as wendy said was positively deafening to be sure
she did not mind noise but she simply would not have them grabbing things and then excusing themselves by saying that tootles had pushed their elbow there was a fixed rule that they must never hit back at meals
i complain of so and so but what usually happened was that they forgot to do this or did it too much silence cried wendy when for the twentieth time she had told them that they were not all to speak at once
is your calabash empty slightly darling not quite empty mummy slightly said after looking into an imaginary mug he hasn't even begun to drink his milk nibs interposed
this was telling and slightly seized his chance i complain of nibs
john however had held up his hand first well john may i sit in peter's chair as he is not here sit in father's chair john
he is not really our father john answered he didn't even know how a father does till i showed him this was grumbling we complain of john cried the twins tootles held up his hand
he was so much the humblest of them indeed he was the only humble one that wendy was specially gentle with him i don't suppose tootles said diffidently that i could be father no tootles
once tootles began which was not very often he had a silly way of going on as i can't be father he said heavily i don't suppose michael you would let me be baby no i won't
michael rapped out he was already in his basket as i can't be baby tootles said getting heavier and heavier do you think i could be a twin no indeed replied the twins it's awfully difficult to be a twin
would any of you like to see me do a trick no they all replied then at last he stopped i hadn't really any hope he said the hateful telling broke out again slightly is coughing on the table
the twins began with mammee apples curly is taking both tappa rolls and yams nibs is speaking with his mouth full i complain of the twins i complain of curly i complain of nibs
i'm sure i sometimes think that children are more trouble than they are worth she told them to clear away and sat down to her work basket
wendy remonstrated michael i'm too big for a cradle i must have somebody in a cradle she said almost tartly and you are the littlest
while she sewed they played around her such a group of happy faces and dancing limbs lit up by that romantic fire it had become a very familiar scene this in the home under the ground but we are looking on it for the last time
there was a step above and wendy you may be sure was the first to recognise it children i hear your father's step he likes you to meet him at the door above the redskins crouched before peter
watch well braves i have spoken and then as so often before the gay children dragged him from his tree as so often before but never again he had brought nuts for the boys
as well as the correct time for wendy peter you just spoil them you know wendy simpered ah old lady said peter hanging up his gun it was me told him mothers are called old lady michael whispered to curly i complain of michael
said curly instantly the first twin came to peter father we want to dance dance away my little man said peter who was in high good humour but we want you to dance
peter was really the best dancer among them but he pretended to be scandalised me my old bones would rattle and mummy too what cried wendy the mother of such an armful dance
but on a saturday night slightly insinuated it was not really saturday night at least it may have been for they had long lost count of the days but always if they wanted to do anything special
they said this was saturday night and then they did it of course it is saturday night peter wendy said relenting people of our figure wendy but it is only among our own progeny true true
wendy said frightfully gratified peter i think curly has your nose michael takes after you she went to him and put her hand on his shoulder dear peter she said with such a large family of course
i have now passed my best but you don't want to change me do you no wendy certainly he did not want a change but he looked at her uncomfortably blinking you know like one not sure whether he was awake or asleep peter what is it
i was just thinking he said a little scared it is only make believe isn't it that i am their father oh yes wendy said primly you see he continued apologetically
but they are ours peter yours and mine but not really wendy he asked anxiously not if you don't wish it she replied
what are your exact feelings for me those of a devoted son wendy
you are so queer he said frankly puzzled and tiger lily is just the same there is something she wants to be to me but she says it is not my mother no indeed it is not wendy replied with frightful emphasis
now we know why she was prejudiced against the redskins then what is it it isn't for a lady to tell oh very well peter said a little nettled perhaps tinker bell will tell me
oh yes tinker bell will tell you wendy retorted scornfully she is an abandoned little creature here tink who was in her boudoir eavesdropping squeaked out something impudent
he had a sudden idea perhaps tink wants to be my mother you silly ass cried tinker bell in a passion she had said it so often that wendy needed no translation
i almost agree with her wendy snapped fancy wendy snapping
let us rejoice that there were sixty glad minutes in it they sang and danced in their night gowns such a deliciously creepy song it was in which they pretended to be frightened at their own shadows
little witting that so soon shadows would close in upon them from whom they would shrink in real fear so uproariously gay was the dance
it was a pillow fight rather than a dance and when it was finished the pillows insisted on one bout more like partners who know that they may never meet again the stories they told before it was time for wendy's good night story
even slightly tried to tell a story that night but the beginning was so fearfully dull that it appalled even himself and he said gloomily yes it is a dull beginning i say
let us pretend that it is the end and then at last they all got into bed for wendy's story the story they loved best
the streets of the burg of the four friths he went about the streets and found them all much like to the one which they had entered by the north gate he saw no poor or wretched houses
and none very big as of great lords they were well and stoutly builded
there were folk enough in the streets and now ralph as was like to be looked specially at the women and thought many of them little better favoured than the men being both dark and low neither were they gaily clad
though their raiment like the houses was stout and well wrought but here and there he came on a woman taller and whiter than the others as though she were of another blood all such of these
as he saw were clad otherwise than the darker women their heads uncoifed uncovered save for some garland or silken band their gowns yellow like wheat straw but gaily embroidered sleeveless withal and short
twisted about their heads these he took for merchants as they were oftenest standing in and about the booths and shops whereof
which was the fish and fowl market he came into a long street that led him down to a gate right over against that whereby he had entered the burg
he saw that there was a wide way clear of all houses inside of the wall so that men at arms might go freely from one part to the other and he had also noted that a wide way led from each port out of the great place
and each ended not but in a gate but as to any castle in the town he saw none and when he asked a burgher thereof
and that it would turn out to be none of the easiest to win and forsooth ralph himself was much of that mind now he was just within the south gate when he held this talk and there were many folk thereby already
so he stood there to see what should betide and anon he heard great blowing of horns and trumpets all along the wall and as he deemed other horns answered from without and so it was for soon
foot men with bills some and some with bows and all armed knights and sergeants a horseback so streamed in these weaponed men till ralph saw that it was a great host that was entering the burg and his heart rose within him
after a while among the warriors came herds of neat and flocks of sheep and strings of horses of the spoil which the host had lifted and then wains filled some with weapons and war gear
and some with bales of goods and household stuff
some going afoot and some for weariness borne in wains for all these war taken thralls were women and women children of males there was not so much as a little lad of the women
many seemed fair to ralph despite their grief and travel and as he looked on them he deemed that they must be of the kindred and nation of the fair white women he had seen in the streets though they were not clad like those but diversely
and he was weary with the heat and the dust and the confused clamour of shouting and laughter and talking and whereas most of the folk followed after the host and their spoil the streets of the town there about were soon left empty and peaceful
so he turned into a street narrower than most that went east from the south gate and was much shaded from the afternoon sun and went slowly down it meaning to come about the inside of the wall till he should hit the east gate
when the folk should have gone their ways home he saw no folk in the street save here and there an old woman sitting at the door of her house and maybe a young child with her as he came to where the street turned somewhat
even such a carline was sitting on a clean white door step on the sunny side somewhat shaded by a tall rose laurel tree in a great tub and she sang as she sat spinning and ralph stayed to listen in his idle mood
and he heard how she sang in a dry harsh voice
red flames war's candle wick on roof and rick
with blood on their feet for yet twixt the burg gate and battle half won the dust driven highway creeps uphill and on and the smoke
the moon's o'erhead and we need the clear our spoil to share shake the lots in the helm then for brethren are we and the goods of my missing
and nought have i won but the maiden unmerry by battle undone even as her song ended came one of those fair yellow gowned damsels round the corner of the street
and it was pleasant to ralph to behold her for she was as fair as need be
the rosiness of her ancles showed amidst her white sandal thongs and there were silver rings and gold on her arms along with the iron ring now she lifted up her eyes and looked shyly at ralph
and he smiled at her well pleased and deemed it would be good to hear her voice so he went up to her and greeted her and she seemed to take his greeting well though she glanced swiftly at the carline in the doorway said ralph
now wilt thou tell me before i ask the next question who will be those war taken thralls whom even now i saw brought into the burg by the host of what nation be they and of what kindred
she left her dainty tricks and drew herself up straight and stiff
flushing red and with knit brows a moment and then passed by him with swift and firm feet as one both angry and ashamed but the carline who had beheld the two with a grin on her wrinkled face
and cried out fiercely after the damsel and said what dost thou flee from the fair young man and he so kind and soft with thee thou jade
ah if i had but money to buy some one of you and a good one
till she should curse her fate that she had not been born little and dark skinned and free and with heels un bloodied with the blood of her back thus she went on though the damsel was long out of ear shot of her curses
and ralph tarried not to get away from her spiteful babble which he now partly understood and that all those yellow clad damsels were thralls to the folk of the burg
whom he had seen amidst the host at its entering into the burg so he wandered away thence thinking on what he should do till the sun was set and he had come into the open space underneath the walls and had gone along it till he came to the east gate
there he looked around him a little
since they sundered at the want way
for he felt himself unfree therein and he said to himself
that he had better never have stolen himself away from his father and mother and whiles even he thought
there seemed to him a lack and when he questioned himself as to what that lack was straightway he seemed to see that lady of the wildwood standing before the men at arms in her scanty raiment the minute before his life was at adventure because of them
and in sooth he smiled to himself then with a beating heart
whatever she might be and that he would follow his adventure to the end until he met her
that whereas you people on the earth have only begun to use the hothouse principle we here have perfected it i suggest that you waste no time looking for faults van emmon stared at the doctor
how does this idea fit your theory kinney that venus is simply the earth plus several thousand extra generations of civilization fit echoed the doctor fits like a glove
turning to their guide is that you use your legs for their original purpose estra smiled and pointed out something standing a few feet away it was a small shuttle shaped air craft
with clear glass sides which had actually made them overlook it at first peering closer they saw that the plaza and surrounding streets were nearly filled with these all but invisible cars the venusian explained
i am glad you have brought up this point because it is a fact that our people use mechanisms instead of bodily energy almost altogether these cars you see are universally used for transportation i am one of the very few
who appreciate the value of natural exercise do you mean to say demanded van emmon that the average venusian does no walking not a mile a year said estra gravely
just what he is obliged to do indoors from room to room and he involuntarily glanced down at his own extremely thin legs
i see now she murmured that's why there was no one else to greet us the venusian smiled gratefully we thought it best you'd have been shocked outright i am sure
without any explanation they fell silent still without moving from the point where they had left the elevator
was a particularly large structure like all the rest it was of hopelessly irregular design yet it had a large domed central portion which gave it the appearance of an auditorium
and smith tried to stare through the translucent walls of the thing the other buildings within immediate reach were of every possible appearance some would have passed for cottages others for stores still others
for the most fanciful of studios and nowhere was there such a thing as a sign even at the street corners much less on a building not that we would be able to read your signs if you had them commented the doctor
but i'd like to know how your people find their way without something of that kind to guide them estra's smile did not change that is something you will understand better before long said he
provided you feel ready to explore a little further the four looked at each other in question and suddenly it struck them all
in their cumbersome suits of armor and formidable helmets the doctor turned to estra you ought to know he appealed whether we can take off these suits now it would be best was the reply
van emmon and billie followed more slowly the one because he did not share the doctor's confidence in their guide the other because of a sudden shyness in his presence the venusian noted this
you need not feel any embarrassment said he to billie's vast astonishment there is no distinction here between the dress of the two sexes and again all four marveled that he should know so much about them
once out of the armor the visitors felt much more at ease the slightly reduced gravitation gave them a sense of lightness and freedom which more than balanced the junglelike oppressiveness of the air
they found themselves guarding against a certain exuberance perhaps it was the extra oxygen too they strode toward the large structure directly ahead at its entrance a wide square portal
which opened into a fan shaped lobby estra paused and smiled apologetically as he mopped his forehead and upper lip with a paper handkerchief
trap covered opening in the wall at his side these little doors by the way were to be seen at frequent intervals wherever they went incidentally not a scrap of paper or other refuse was to be noted anywhere
streets and all were spotless as for estra i am not accustomed to moving at such speed he explained his discomfort if you do not mind please walk a little more leisurely
were most remarkably ornamented they were fairly covered with what appeared at first glance to be absolutely lifelike paintings and sculptures they were so arranged as to strengthen the structural lines of the place and of course
footnote the specialist in architecture and related subjects is referred to e williams jackson's report to the a i a for details of these basrelief photographs
desiring to examine some of the work far overhead billie clambered up on a convenient pedestal in order to look more closely she took the strength of things for granted
and put her weight too heavily on a molding on the edge of the pedestal with the result that there was a sharp crack and the girl struck the floor in a heap she got to her feet before van emmon could reach her side but her face was white with pain
i am sorry this happened it will not be easy to explain but you will find all venusians very unsympathetic not
but because we simply lost the power of sympathy we do not know what pity is we have eliminated everything that is disagreeable all that is painful from our lives to such an extent that
there is never any cause for pity the three young people could say nothing in answer the doctor however spoke thoughtfully perhaps it is superfluous but tell me have you done away with injustice estra
turned to examine other work but at the moment another venusian approached from the upper end of the lobby walking slowly he carried four small parcels with a great deal of effort and the explorers had time to scrutinize him closely
he was built much like estra but shorter and with a little more flesh about the torso his forehead bulged directly over his eyes instead of above his ears as did estra's
also his eyes were smaller and not as far apart his whole expression was equally kind and affable despite a curiously shriveled appearance of his lips
in a way it was spanish or rather the pure castilian tongue but it seemed to be devoid of dental consonants
few of us have mastered it there are difficulties as for these machines
i must apologize in advance for certain defects in their design i invented them under pressure so to speak having to perfect the whole idea in the rather short time that has elapsed since you doctor began the sky car and
what is the purpose of the machines from billie as she was about to accept the first of the devices from the venusian for some reason he appeared to be especially interested in the girl and addressed half of his remarks to her and
it was while his smiling gaze was fixed upon her eyes that he gave the answer they are to serve very carefully partly as lexicons and partly as grammars
how ralph departed from the burg of the four friths himseemed he had scarce been asleep a minute ere awoke with a sound of someone saying softly master
that they should not clash and down they came into the hall and found the door on the latch so out they went and ralph saw that it was somewhat cloudy the moon was set and it was dark but ralph knew by the scent
and a little stir of blended sounds that it was hard on dawning and even therewith he heard the challenge of the warders on the walls and their crying of the hour and the chimes of the belfry rang clear and loud and seeming close above him
to ask of his horse since he durst not ask of his life so they went on silently till they were out of the great place and came into a narrow street
roger led right on as if he knew the way well
betwixt the east gate and the south by the said postern ralph saw certain men standing and on the earth near by whereas he was keen eyed he saw more than one man lying moveless
who stood on their feet is the rope twined
said one of them then roger turned and whispered to ralph friends get out thy sword wherewithal the gate was opened and they all passed out through the wall and stood above the ditch in the angle nook of a square tower
then ralph saw some of the men stoop and shoot out a broad plank over the ditch which was deep but not wide thereabout and straightway he followed the others over it going last save roger
by then they were on the other side he saw a glimmer of the dawn in the eastern heaven but it was still more than dusk and no man spoke again they went on softly across the plain fields outside the wall
creeping from bush to bush and from tree to tree for here if nowhere about the circuit of the burg
thus they came into a little wood and passed through it and then ralph could see that the men were six besides roger by the glimmer of the growing dawn he saw before them a space of meadows with high hedges about them and a dim line
that he took for the roof of a barn or grange and beyond that a dark mass of trees still they pressed on without speaking a dog barked not far off and the cocks were crowing
and close by them in the meadow a cow lowed
and the long unbitten buttercups day grew apace and by then they were under the barn gable which he had seen aloof
and heard the bleating of sheep and now he saw those six men clearly and noted that one of them was very big and tall and one small and slender and it came into his mind
sitting in the hall of the flower de luce even therewith came a man to the gate of the sheep cote by the grange and caught sight of them and
and all ye out with you out a doors here be men ware the dry tree bows and bills bows and bills with that those fellows of ralph made no more ado
but set off running at their best toward the wood aforesaid which crowned the slope leading up from the grange
heeded the clashing of their armour ralph ran with the best and entered the wood alongside the slim youth aforesaid who stayed not at the wood's edge but went on running still but ralph stayed and turned to see what was toward
crying out ho thieves
the third time ran on with him after the rest of their company and whereas he was long legged and ralph lightfooted they speedily came up with them who were running still but laughing as they ran and jeering at the men of the burg
and the tall man shouted out to them yea lads the counterfeit dry tree that they have raised in the burg shall be dry enough this time truly said another
thou sayest sooth said he but thou art the longest winded of all in talking get on lads they laughed again at his word and sped on with less noise while ralph thought within himself that he was come into strange company
for now he knew well that the big man was even he whom he had first met at the churchyard gate of the thorp under bear hill yet he deemed that there was nought for it now but to go on within a while they all slacked somewhat
and they had with them as ralph judged some dozen of horses more than they needed for their own riding great was the joy at this meeting and there was embracing and kissing of friends but ralph noted
that no man embraced that slender youth and that he held him somewhat aloof from the others and all seemed to do him reverence now spake one of the runaways well lads
see ye to that then stood forth the big man and said he is a fair young knight as ye may see and he rideth seeking adventures and roger did us to wit that he was abiding in the burg at his peril
that it should be so all the more as i have a guess concerning what he is and a foreseeing man might think that luck should go with him therewith he turned to ralph and said how say ye fair sir
said ralph certain i am that whither ye will have me go thither must i yet i deem that i have an errand that lies not your way therefore if i go with you ye must so look upon it
that i am in your fellowship as one compelled to be short with you i crave leave to depart and go mine own road as he spoke he saw the youth walking up and down in short turns but his face he could scarce see at all
what for his slouched hat what for his cloak
the tall man nodded his head and as the youth drew right back nigh to the thicket spake to ralph again fair sir we grant thine asking
and in any case here is a good horse that we will give thee since thou hast lost thy steed
ralph looked hard at the big man who now had his salade thrown back from his face to see
as it were far away now deems ralph that as for a trap of the wood perilous he had already fallen into the trap for he scarce needed to be told that these were men of the dry tree
he knew also that it was roger who had led him into this trap although he deemed it done with no malice against him so he said to himself that if he went with roger he but went a roundabout road to the dry tree
so that he was well nigh choosing to go on with their company yet again he thought that something might well befall which would free him from that fellowship if he went with roger alone whereas if he went with the others it was not
that he might be but that he was already of the fellowship of the dry tree and most like would go straight thence to their stronghold so he spake as soberly as the tall man had done since ye give me the choice fair sir
i will depart hence with roger alone whom ye call my man though to me he seemeth to be yours howbeit he has led me to you once and belike will do so once more
the proof by experiments
terminated by parallel sides and with a perpendicular right line drawn cross from one side to the other distinguished it into two equal parts one of these parts i painted with a red colour and the other with a blue
through which the light passed to the eye were plane and well polished and contained an angle of about sixty degrees which angle i call the refracting angle of the prism and whilst i view'd it
made an angle with the paper equal to that angle which was made with the same paper by the light reflected from it to the eye beyond the prism was the wall of the chamber under the window covered over with black cloth
and the cloth was involved in darkness that no light might be reflected from thence which in passing by the edges of the paper to the eye might mingle itself with the light of the paper and obscure the phaenomenon thereof
these things being thus ordered i found that if the refracting angle of the prism be turned upwards so that the paper may seem to be lifted upwards by the refraction its blue half will be lifted higher by the refraction
than its red half but if the refracting angle of the prism be turned downward so that the paper may seem to be carried lower by the refraction its blue half will be carried something lower thereby than its red half
wherefore in both cases the light which comes from the blue half of the paper
which comes from the red half and by consequence is more refrangible illustration in the eleventh figure
the paper terminated with parallel sides
distinguished into two halfs the one
of an intensely blue colour the other
represents the prism whose refracting planes
meet in the edge of the refracting angle a a
being upward is parallel both to the horizon and to the parallel edges of the paper
is carried higher to
of very black silk in such manner
like so many black lines drawn over them or like long and slender dark shadows cast upon them i might have drawn black lines with a pen but the threds were smaller and better defined
this paper thus coloured and lined i set against a wall perpendicularly to the horizon so that one of the colours might stand to the right hand and the other to the left close before the paper
at the confine of the colours below i placed a candle to illuminate the paper strongly for the experiment was tried in the night the flame of the candle reached up to the lower edge of the paper or a very little higher
then at the distance of six feet and one or two inches from the paper upon the floor i erected a glass lens four inches and a quarter broad which might collect the rays coming from the several points of the paper and make them converge
towards so many other points at the same distance of six feet and one or two inches on the other side of the lens and so form the image of the coloured paper upon a white paper placed there after the same manner
the aforesaid white paper erected perpendicular to the horizon and to the rays which fell upon it from the lens i moved sometimes towards the lens sometimes from it to find the places where the images of the blue
the places where the images of the red and blue halfs of the coloured paper appeared most distinct i found that where the red half of the paper appeared distinct the blue half appeared confused so that the black lines drawn upon it
could scarce be seen and on the contrary where the blue half appeared most distinct the red half appeared confused so that the black lines upon it were scarce visible and between the two places
where these images appeared distinct there was the distance of an inch and a half the distance of the white paper from the lens when the image of the red half of the coloured paper appeared most distinct being greater by an inch and an half
than the distance of the same white paper from the lens when the image of the blue half appeared most distinct in like incidences therefore of the blue and red upon the lens the blue was refracted more by the lens than the red
the same paper in that place where the blue half appeared distinct the place
by an inch and an half
but in the description of these experiments i have set down such circumstances by which either the phaenomenon might be render'd more conspicuous or a novice might more easily try them or by which i did try them only
the same thing i have often done in the following experiments concerning all which this one admonition may suffice now from these experiments it follows not that all the light of the blue is more refrangible
for both lights are mixed of rays differently refrangible so that in the red there are some rays not less refrangible than those of the blue and in the blue there are some rays not more refrangible than those of the red
but these rays in proportion to the whole light are but few and serve to diminish the event of the experiment but are not able to destroy it for if the red and blue colours were more dilute and weak
the prince on his part came home also very much wearied and vexed becafico he said
she has slipped from me time after time with the most wondrous adroitness yet my arrows were so true that i marvel how she escaped at dawn to morrow i must be after her once more
so he did not fail to go at earliest dawn to her hiding place but the hind took care not to re visit her favourite haunt he sought her everywhere and could see nothing then
being very tired and hot he gathered some luscious apples which he saw hanging upon a tree over his head as soon as he ate them he fell fast asleep meantime the hind roaming stealthily about
came to the place where he lay came quite suddenly
but now seeing her enemy sound asleep she paused a minute to look at him and in his features wasted with grief but still so loveable and beautiful she recognised the face which had long been engraven on her heart the poor hind
her eyes beaming with joy then she sighed at length become bolder she approached nearer and softly touched him with her fore foot awaking
what was the prince's surprise to see beside him tame and familiar the pretty creature whom he had hunted all yesterday but when he put out his hand to seize her she fled away like lightning he followed with all the speed he could and thus
she flying and he pursuing they passed the whole day towards evening her strength failed and when the hunter came up to her it was a poor half dying deer that he found lying on the grass she thought her death was certain still
from his hands it did not seem so terrible as from any one else but instead of killing her he caressed her beautiful hind said he do not be afraid i only wish to take you home with me and have you with me always
he cut branches of trees wove them ingeniously into a sort of couch which he strewed with roses and moss then took the creature in his arms laid her gently down upon them
and sat beside her feeding her from time to time with the softest grass he could find she ate contentedly from his hand and he almost fancied she understood all the sweet things he said to her
and so time passed till it grew dusk my pretty hind said he i will go in search of a stream where you can drink and then we will take our way home together
but while he was absent she stole away and had only time to reach the cottage when the transformation happened and it was not a hind but a weeping princess who threw herself on the bed beside the faithful gilliflower i have seen him she cried
he was the hunter who has pursued me these two days and has taken me at last but he did not slay me he saved and caressed me ah he is gentler and sweeter even than the image in my heart here she began again to weep
but gilliflower consoled her and they went to sleep wondering much how this adventure would end the prince returning from the stream missed his beautiful white hind and came back to becafico full of grief
mingled with a certain anger at the ingratitude of the creature to whom he had been so kind but at break of day he rose determined again to pursue her
took a quite different route still
seized by an irresistible impulse he shot an arrow after her it struck her she felt a violent pain dart through one of her slender limbs and fell helpless on the grass when the prince came up to her he was overcome with remorse for his cruelty
made her a bed of branches and moss laid her head upon his knees and wept over her my lovely hind said he why did i wound you so cruelly you will hate me when i wish you to love me
so he tended and cherished her all day and towards nightfall
but she struggled with him and the struggle was so sore that gilliflower coming out in search of her dear mistress heard the rustling and saw her hind in the hunter's power she rushed to rescue her to the prince's great astonishment
whatever consideration i owe you madam said he you must know that you are committing a robbery this hind is mine no sir she is mine returned gilliflower respectfully she knows she is
and will prove it if you will only give her a little liberty my pretty pet come and embrace me the hind crept into her arms now kiss me on my right cheek she obeyed now
touch my heart she laid her foot against gilliflower's bosom i allow she is yours said the prince discontentedly take her and go your ways
he asked the old woman who the damsel was but she said she did not know except that the lady and the hind lived there together in solitude and paid her well
he recognised her at once here is some great mystery said he
do not utter that name which only recalls my grief said the prince sadly
made all sorts of inquiries and discovered that gilliflower was lodged in the next room i should like to see her again thought he and since only a thin partition divides us i will bore a hole through he did so
and beheld a wonderful sight there sat the fairest princess in all the world attired in a robe of silver brocade her hair falling in long curls and her eyes sparkling through tears gilliflower knelt before her
binding up her beautiful arm from which the blood was flowing do not heed it sighed the princess better let me die for death itself would be sweeter than the life i lead alas
how hard it is to be a hind all day to see my betrothed to feel his tenderness and goodness yet be unable to speak to him
words cannot describe his astonishment and delight he ran towards the prince who sat moodily at the window sir cried he only look through this hole and you will see the original of the portrait which so fascinated you
the prince looked and recognised at once his beloved princess he would have died with joy had he not believed himself deceived by some enchantment he knocked at the door gilliflower opened it he entered
and threw himself at the feet of desiree what followed of explanations
not even by gilliflower and becafico who were present but who considerately drew aside and spent the time in conversing with one another so passed the night and anxiously they awaited for the dawn
to see whether the beautiful princess would again become a hind of the forest but the day broke grew clearer brightened into sunrise and the princess with the prince sitting beside her remained a beautiful maiden still
then came a knock at the door and there entered the little old woman who had been such a kind hostess for all this while the period of enchantment is ended my children said she go home and be happy
and then they knew her as no longer the little old woman but the fairy tulip who had thus faithfully watched her charge so the bride and bridegroom returned to their capital
where the marriage was solemnized with all splendour and at desiree's request longthorn and her mother who had been imprisoned by the old king's order
than banishment to their own country
as for the faithful gilliflower she stayed at court with her beloved mistress and became the wife of the equally faithful becafico
the two were laden with wealth and honours and shared the happiness of the other two lovers which was as great as any mortal could desire
the biggest frog awakens the biggest frog stretched the four toes of his right forefoot then he stretched the four toes of his left forefoot
then he stretched all seventeen toes at once he should have had eighteen toes to stretch like his friends and neighbors but something had happened to the eighteenth one a great many years before
none of the pond people knew what had happened to it but something had
he only stared at them with his great eyes and said my children that story is too sad to tell after the biggest frog had stretched all his toes he stretched his legs and twitched his lips
he poked his head out of the mud a very very little way and saw a minnow swimming past good day said he is it time to get up
i should say it was why the watercress is growing now every one who lives in a pond knows that when the watercress begins to grow it is time for all the winter sleepers to awaken
the biggest frog crawled out of the mud and poked this way and that all around the spot where he had spent the cold weather wake up he said wake up wake up
the water grew dark and cloudy because he kicked up so much mud
seven of them had huddled close to him all winter come out he cried the spring is here and it is no time for frogs to be asleep asleep no indeed exclaimed his sister
an elderly and hard working frog as she swam to the shore and crawled out on it
the younger frogs followed through the warmer shallow water until they were partly out of it
all the young frogs thought how fine it would be to become the biggest frog of even a very small puddle for then they could tell the others what to do now they looked at their leader and each said to himself perhaps
the biggest frog found a comfortable place and sat down he toed in with his eight front toes as well bred frogs do and all his friends toed in with their eight front toes he toed out with his nine back toes
and all his friends toed out with their ten back toes one young yellow brown frog
it is so in the way besides there is such a style about having one's hind feet different he spoke just loud enough for the biggest frog to hear any one would know from this remark
that he was young and foolish for when people are wise they know that the most beautiful feet and ears and bodies are just the way that they were first made to be
now the biggest frog swallowed a great deal of air filled the sacs on each side of his neck with it opened his big mouth and sang croakily
and all the others sang frogs frogs frogs as long as he the gulls heard it and the muskrats heard it and all were happy because spring had come
a beautiful young green brown frog who had never felt grown up until now tried to sing with the others but she had not a strong voice and was glad enough to stop and visit with the biggest frog's sister
don't you wish we could sing as loudly as they can said she no answered the biggest frog's sister
work first you know and pleasure afterward oh said the green brown frog
you may be very sure i don't want to sing then answered the older frog i am too tired besides after the eggs are laid there is no reason for wanting to sing
why not asked the green brown frog i don't see what difference that makes that said the older frog wisely
the great time for singing is before the eggs are laid there is some singing afterward but that is only because people expect it of us and not because we have the same wish to sing
after she had said all this which was a great deal for a frog to say at once she shut her big mouth and slid her eyelids over her eyes
when she opened them again the biggest frog's sister had hopped away and in her place sat the yellow brown frog the same handsome young fellow who had found one of his toes in the way
it quite startled her to find him sitting so close to her
the yellow brown frog hopped a little nearer and sang as loudly as he could
and she was exceedingly happy she swallowed air very fast because she seemed to be out of breath from thinking what she should answer she had wanted to ask the biggest frog's sister what she should say if any one sang to her alone
all she had to do was to give a great jump and splash into the water she didn't want to go away yet she made believe that she did for she hopped a little farther from him
he knew she was only pretending though for she hadn't hopped more than the length of a grass blade
they stayed together for a long long time and he sang a great deal and very loudly
after a while she remembered that she was now a fully grown frog and had spring work to do and she said to him
which made them stick to each other as they floated in little heaps on the water the frogs thought that a good thing for then when the tadpoles hatched each would have playmates near one day
after the eggs were all laid and were growing finely for frogs eggs grow until the tadpoles are ready to eat their way out the green brown frog sat alone on the bank of the pond and the biggest frog's sister came to her
she had a queer smile around the corners of her mouth frogs have excellent mouths for smiling but it takes a very broad smile to go way across so when they smile a little
oh answered the green brown frog sadly
is there any reason why you should know which ones they are it isn't as though you were a bird and had to keep them warm or as though you were a mink and had to feed your children the sun will hatch them
i think said the green brown frog that my eggs were a little better than the rest yes croaked the biggest frog's sister every frog thinks that
and i wanted to have my own tadpoles to look after sighed the green brown frog why asked the biggest frog's sister
can't you take any comfort with a tadpole unless you laid the egg from which he was hatched i never know one of my own eggs a day after it is laid there are such a lot floating around that they are sure to get mixed
but i just make the best of it how asked the green brown frog looking a little more cheerful
poor sort of frog it would be who couldn't like other people's tadpoles
and then she added what a comfort it will be if any of them are cross or rude to think
and then adopt the best ones do you know i have almost decided that you are my daughter
there was but one snapping turtle in the pond and he was the only person there who had ever been heard to wish for another he had not always lived there
and could just remember leaving his brothers and sisters when he was young i was carried away from my people he said and kept on land for a few days then i was brought here
and have made it my home ever since one could tell by looking at him that he was related to the mud turtles he had upper and lower shells like them
and could draw in his head and legs and tail when he wanted to his shells were gray quite the color of a clay bank and his head was larger than those of the mud turtles
his tail was long and scaly and pointed and his forelegs were large and warty there were fine strong webs between his toes as there were between the toes of his relatives the mud turtles
when he first came to live in the pond people were sorry for him and tried to make him feel at home he had a chance to win many friends and have all his neighbors fond of him
but he was too snappy when the water was just warm enough and his stomach was full and he had slept well the night before and everything was exactly as he wished it to be ah then he was a very agreeable turtle
and was ready to talk in the most gracious way to his neighbors that was all very well anybody can be good natured when everything is exactly right and he can have his own way
but the really delightful people you know are the ones who are pleasant when things go wrong it was a mud turtle father who first spoke to him i hope you'll like the pond said he
i hope you dive where there is a soft bottom sometimes i do and sometimes i don't answered the snapping turtle i can't bother to swim down slowly and try it and then go back to dive when i want to dive
i want to dive and that's all there is to it yes said the mud turtle father i know how it is when one has the diving feeling
i hope your head will not trouble you much and that you will soon be used to our waters he spread his toes and swam strongly away
but i never shall i can hardly see now for the pain in the right side of my head where i bumped it or was it the left side i hit queer i can't remember
then he swam to shallow water and drew himself into his shell and lay there
and what poor company his neighbors were and what a disagreeable world this is for snapping turtles the mud turtle father went home and told his wife all about it what a disagreeable fellow she said
but then he is a bachelor and bachelors are often queer i never was said her husband oh said she and being a wise wife she did not say anything else
she knew however that mister mud turtle was a much more agreeable fellow since he had married and learned to think more of somebody else than of himself
who are most unhappy in this world the eels also tried to be friendly and when he dove to the bottom called to him to stay and visit with them you must excuse us from making the first call they said
do you good to get away from home more no wonder your eyes are weak when you lie around in the mud of the dark pond bottom all day indeed i'll not stay you can come to see me like other people
then he swam away and told the clams what he had said
it'll do them good to hear the truth said he i always speak right out they are as bad as the water adder they have no backbone the clams listened politely and said nothing they never did talk much
the snapping turtle was mistaken though when he said that the eels and the water adder had no backbone they really had much more than he but they wore theirs inside while his was spread out in the shape of a shell for everybody to see
he did not even try to keep his temper he became angry one day because belostoma the giant water bug ate something which he wanted for himself
you are a good for nothing bug he said you do no work and you eat more than any other person of your size here nobody likes you
and there isn't a little fish in the pond who would be seen with you if he could help it they all hide if they see you coming i'll be heartily glad when you get your wings and fly away
don't let any of your friends lay their eggs in this pond i've seen enough of your family
he would have chosen to be a crayfish or a stickleback rather than what he was as for his not working there was nothing for him to do so how could he work he had to eat or
he would not grow and since the snapping turtle was a hearty eater himself he should have had the sense to keep still about that belostoma told the mud turtles what the snapping turtle had said
and the mud turtle father spoke of it to the snapping turtle by that time the snapping turtle was feeling better natured and was very gracious
but then i get right over it i had almost forgotten my little talk with him i don't see any reason for telling him i am sorry he is very silly to think so much of it he lifted his big head quite high
he might just as sensibly ask people to admire him for not eating when his stomach was full
she was quite out of patience all he cares for said she is just snapping turtle snapping turtle snapping turtle
when he is good natured he thinks everybody else ought to be and when he is bad tempered he doesn't care how other people feel
and i don't see any chance of that happening there came a day though when the pond people were glad that the snapping turtle lived there
the sticklebacks turned pale all over as they do when they are badly frightened the yellow brown frog was so scared that he emptied out the water he had saved for wetting his skin in dry weather
he had a great pocket in his body filled with water for if his skin should get dry he couldn't breathe through it and unless he carried water with him he could not stay ashore at all
waving his feet in the air but not strong enough to get right side up again the snapping turtle was taking a nap in deep water when the frightened fishes came swimming toward him as fast as their tails would take them
what is the matter said he
humph said the snapping turtle i'll have to see about that how many are there
and there is only one of me said the snapping turtle to himself i must have somebody to help me
help me drive those boys away with pleasure said belostoma who liked nothing better than this kind of work off they started for the place where the boys were wading
jump onto my back cried he you are a light fellow hang tight belostoma jumped onto the snapping turtle's clay colored shell
and when he found himself slipping off the back end of it he stuck his claws into the snapping turtle's tail and held on in that way he knew that he was not easily hurt even if he did make a fuss when he bumped his head
as soon as they got near the boys the snapping turtle spoke over his back shell to belostoma slide off now said he and drive away the smaller boy
i'm about ready to leave the pond i think i'll go to morrow going to morrow exclaimed the snapping turtle i'm sorry
of course i know you can never come back but send your friends here to lay their eggs we mustn't be left without some of your family thank you said belostoma
and he did not show that he remembered some quite different things which the snapping turtle had said before about his leaving the pond
there is the mud turtle father on his back and he ran to him and pushed him over onto his feet
i was not strong enough to do that always glad to help my neighbors said the snapping turtle pleasant day isn't it i must tell the fishes that the boys are gone the poor little fellows were almost too scared to swim
and he went away with a really happy look on his face there said the mud turtle mother to her husband he has begun to help people and now he likes them and is contented
we might indeed we ought to have more evidence more definite evidence perhaps the judge was musing over the facts as he knew them
we will go together he said adding madame will remain here please until we return it may not be for long and afterwards asked the countess whose nervousness had if anything increased during the whispered colloquy of the officials
ah afterwards who knows was the reply with a shrug of the shoulders all most enigmatic and unsatisfactory what have we against her said the judge as soon as they had gained the absolute privacy of the sleeping car the bottle of laudanum
and the porter's condition he was undoubtedly drugged answered the detective and the discussion which followed took the form of a dialogue between them for the commissary took no part in it yes but why by the countess
how do we know that positively it is her bottle
her story may be true that she missed it that the maid took it we have nothing whatever against the maid we know nothing about her no except that she has disappeared but that tells more against her mistress it is all very vague
i do not see my way quite as yet but the fragment of lace the broken beading
they are a woman's and only one woman was in the car so far as we know but if these could be proved to be hers ah if you could prove that easy enough have her searched here at once in the station
there is a female searcher attached to the detention room
she is an englishwoman or with english connections titled too i hesitate upon my word suppose we are wrong it may lead to unpleasantness
as he spoke he bent over and taking a magnifier from his pocket examined the lace which still fluttered where it was caught it is fine lace i think
i believe it is valenciennes the trimming of some underclothing i should think
a prisoner practically friendless for the general was not within reach to resist was out of the question indeed she was plainly told that force would be employed unless she submitted with a good grace there was nothing for it but to obey
mother tontaine as the female searcher called herself was an evil visaged corpulent old creature with a sickly soft insinuating voice
and a greasy familiar manner that was most offensive they had given her the scrap of torn lace and the debris of the jet as a guide
she soon showed her quality
oh no no i will not trouble you dearie no trust to me
madame has money went on the old hag in a half threatening half coaxing whisper as she came up quite close and fastened on her victim like a bird of prey if you mean that i am to bribe you
one or two yellow bits twenty thirty forty francs you'd better she shook the soft arm she held roughly and anything seemed preferable than to be touched by this horrible woman
one two three said the searcher in a fat wheedling voice four yes four five and she clinked the coins together in her palm while a covetous light came into her faded eyes at the joyous sound five
or i'll call them in and tell them that will go against you my princess what
mother tontaine honest and incorruptible tontaine five then five with trembling haste the countess emptied the whole contents of her purse in the old hag's hand bon aubaine nice pickings
and i have children many babies you will not tell them the police you dare not no no no thus muttering to herself
where she stowed the money safely away then she came back
do you know this little one where it comes from where there is much more i was told to look for it to search for it on you
right and some day to day to morrow
you will remember mother tontaine the countess listened with dismay what had she done
and this my princess what have we here aha mere tontaine held up next the broken bit of jet ornament for inspection and as the countess leaned forward to examine it more closely gave it into her hand
you recognize it of course but be careful my pretty beware if any one were looking it would ruin you i could not save you then sh say nothing only look and quick give it me back i must have it to show
all this time the countess was turning the jet over and over in her open palm with a perplexed disturbed but hardly a terrified air yes she knew it or thought she knew it
it had been but how had it come here into the possession of this base myrmidon of the french police
remember mother tontaine put her long finger to her lip not a word i have found nothing of course nothing i can swear to that and you will not forget mother tontaine
the detective looked from one to the other from the hag he had employed in this unpleasant quest to the lady on whom it had been tried the countess to his surprise did not complain he had expected further and strong upbraidings
strange to say she took it very quietly there was no indignation in her face she was still pale and her hands trembled but she said nothing made no reference at least to what she had just gone through
again he took counsel with his colleague while the countess was kept apart
let her go answered the detective briefly what do you suggest this sir said the judge slyly after your strong and well grounded suspicions they are as strong as ever stronger
and i feel sure i shall yet justify them but what i wish now is to let her go at large under surveillance ah you would shadow her precisely by a good agent galipaud for instance he speaks english
and he can if necessary follow her anywhere even to england
on reflection he thinks it will be better to make a clean breast of it he has already half confessed and may as well admit his mother to full confidence about the secret he has been trying to keep from her unsuccessfully as he now knows
while still undetermined a circumstance occurs to hinder him from longer withholding it whether he would or not
as he opens it seeing his mother on the door step her attitude shows she has already seen him and observed the direction whence he has come her words declare the same
no use attempting to stuff the animal in again and seeing it is not he rejoins laughingly well mother to speak the truth
i'm glad the boat be all right as i ha got good news for you what he asks rejoiced at being so easily let off
well you spoke truth when ye sayed there was no knowin but that somebody might be wantin to hire ye any minnit there's been one arready who not the captain
but a grand livery chap footman or coachman i ain't sure which
oh i know squire powell
if they be bound to chepstow or even but tintern i don't think i could go unless they start monday mornin i'm gaged to the captain for thursday ye know an if i went the long trip there'd be all the bother o gettin the boat back an bare time monday
why it's the morrow they want ye sunday
that's just it the livery chap sayed it be a church they're goin to some curious kind o old worshippin place that lie in a bend o the river where carriages ha difficulty in gettin to it i think i know the one an can take them there well enough
what answer did you gie to the man
where do they weesh the boat to be took or am i to wait for em here
an at a very early hour six o'clock he sayed the clergyman be a friend o the family and they're to ha their breakfasts wi him afore goin to church all right i'll be ready for em come's as early as they may
in that case my son ye better get to your bed at once
she opens a cupboard brings forth a black bottle and fills him a tumbler of the dark red wine home made and by her own hands quaffing it he observes it be the best stuff i know of to put spirit into a man an makes him feel cheery
curious scientific fact i believe not generally known
getting into bed he lies for a while sweetly thinking of mary morgan and that satisfactory interview under the elm then goes to sleep as sweetly to dream of her
there is just a streak of daylight stealing in through the window as he awakes enough to warn him that it is time to be up and stirring up he instantly is and arrays himself not in his everyday boating habiliments but a suit worn only on sundays and holidays
the mother also astir betimes has his breakfast on the table soon as he is rigged and just as he finishes eating it the rattle of wheels on the road in front with voices tells him his fare has arrived
hastening out he sees a grand carriage drawn up at the gate double horsed with coachman and footman on the box inside young mister powell his pretty sister and two others a lady and gentleman also young soon they are all seated in the boat
the mary having seats for six rowed down stream the young people converse among themselves gaily now and then giving way to laughter as though it were any other day than sunday
and though not called upon to take part in their conversation he likes listening to it above all he is pleased with the appearance of miss powell a very beautiful girl and takes note of the attention paid her by the gentleman who sits opposite
while the boat is passing abergann
and by this mother and daughter will be on their way to matins and possibly confession at the rugg's ferry chapel
he dislikes to reflect on the last and longs for the day when he has hopes to cure his sweetheart of such a repulsive devotional practice pulling on down he ceases to think of it
and is given to caprices but further on it once more flows in gentle tide along the meadow lands of llangorren before turning the bend where gwen wynn and eleanor lees were caught in the rapid current
at the estuary of a sluggish inflowing brook whose waters are now beaten back by the flooded river he sees what causes him to start and hang on
asks young powell observing his strange behaviour oh a waif that plank floating yonder i suppose you'd like to pick it up but remember it's sunday and we must confine ourselves to works of necessity and mercy
nor does it leave him all that day
at the rectory where he is entertained and while rowing back up the river hangs heavy on his heart as lead
of all who assisted at the ceremony of mary morgan's funeral no one seemed so impatient for its termination as the priest
burying ground and into his own house near by such haste would have appeared strange
arriving there the charon attendant rows him across the river
along this he goes rapidly as his legs can carry him in a walk clerical dignity hinders him from proceeding at a run though judging by the expression of his countenance he is inclined to it
the route he is on would conduct to llangorren court several miles distant and thither is he bound
he does not visit nor would it serve him to show his face there least of all to gwen wynn
and is now on the way for it pretty sure of being able to accomplish his object true to her fashionable instincts and toilette necessities miss linton keeps a french maid
and through her aided by the confession kept advised of everything which transpires at the court or all he deems it worth while to be advised about
his confidence that he will not have long his walk for nothing rests on certain matters of pre arrangement with the foreign domestic he has succeeded in establishing a code of signals by which he can communicate
with almost a certainty of being able to see her not inside the house but at a place near enough to be convenient rare the park in herefordshire through which there is not a right of way path and one runs across that of llangorren
all the way through trees that screen it from view of the house there is a point however where it approaches the edge of the wood and there one traversing it might be seen from the upper windows
but only for an instant unless the party so passing should choose to make stop in the place exposed it is a thoroughfare not much frequented though free to father rogier as any one else and now hastening along it
he arrives at that spot where the break in the timber brings the house in view here he makes a halt
he draws back to the path and sits down upon a stile close by
his haste hitherto explained by the fact only at certain times are his signals likely to be seen or could they be attended to one of the surest and safest is during the early afternoon hours just after luncheon
when the ancient toast of cheltenham takes her accustomed siesta before dressing herself for the drive or reception of callers while the mistress sleeps the maid is free to dispose of herself as she pleases
it was to hit this interlude of leisure father rogier has been hurrying
recognisable as that of the femme de chambre gliding through the shrubbery and evidently with an eye to escape observation she is only visible at intervals
but he knows she will turn up again and she does
you've been prompt i didn't expect you quite so soon madame la chatelaine oblivious i apprehend in the midst of her afternoon nap
earlier than usual so i must get back immediately
when is it to be on thursday
it is to be a grand fete as you say they've been all last week preparing for it among the invited le capitaine ryecroft i presume o yes
i saw madame write the note inviting him indeed took it myself down to the hall table for the post boy he visits often at the court of late very often once a week sometimes twice and comes down the river by boat doesn't he
in a boat yes comes and goes that way her statement is reliable as father rogier has reason to believe having an inkling of suspicion that the damsel has of late been casting sheep's eyes not at captain ryecroft
but his young boatman and is as much interested in the movements of the mary as either the boat's owner or charterer always comes by water and returns by it observes the priest as if speaking to himself you're quite sure of that ma fille
mademoiselle appears to be very partial to him i think you told me she often accompanies him down to the boat stair at his departure often
either the boat stair or the pavilion
they hold their tete a tete there at times do they yes they do but not when he leaves at a late hour as for instance when he dines at the court
and why shouldn't she pere rogier is there any harm in it
which to say truth he never has oh no answers the priest with an assumed indifference no harm whatever and no business of ours
and whom we've just this day interred i suppose you've heard no i haven't
her question may appear strange rugg's ferry being so near to llangorren court and abergann still nearer but for reasons already stated as others the ignorance of the frenchwoman as to what has occurred at the farmhouse is not only intelligible
the sturdy dames and robust damsels now rambling over its grounds and gravelled walks are the dwellers in roadside cottages who at the words murdered or missing drop brooms upon half swept floors leave babies uncared for in their cradles and are off to the indicated spot
and such words have gone abroad from llangorren court coupled with the name of its young mistress gwen wynn is missing if she be not also murdered it is the second day after her disappearance as known to the household
and now it is known throughout the neighbourhood near and far the slight scandal dreaded by miss linton no longer has influence with her the continued absence of her niece with the certainty at length reached that she is not in the house of any neighbouring friend
would make concealment of the matter a grave scandal in itself besides since the half hearted search of yesterday new facts have come to light for one the finding of that ring on the floor of the pavilion
it has been identified not only by the finder but by eleanor lees and miss linton herself a rare cluster of brilliants besides of value it has more than once received the inspection of these ladies
both knowing the giver as the nature of the gift how comes it to have been there in the summer house dropped of course but under what circumstances questions perplexing while the thing itself seriously heightens the alarm
no one however rich or regardless would fling such precious stones away above all gems so bestowed and as miss lees has reason to know prized and fondly treasured
fast becoming belief that miss wynn went not away of her own accord instead has been taken robbed too before being earned off there were other rings upon her fingers diamonds emeralds and the like
possibly in the scramble on the robbers first seizing hold and hastily stripping her this particular one had slipped through their fingers fallen to the floor and so escaped observation at night and in the darkness all likely enough
so for a time run the surmises despite the horrible suggestion attaching to them almost as a consequence for if gwen wynn had been robbed she may also be murdered the costly jewels she wore in rings bracelets and chains worth many hundreds of pounds
may have been the temptation to plunder her but the plunderers identified and fearing punishment would also make away with her person it may be abduction but it has now more the look of murder by midday the alarm has reached its height
the hue and cry is at its loudest no longer confined to the family and domestics no more the relatives and intimate friends people of all classes and kinds take part in it the pleasure grounds of llangorren
are now trampled by heavy hobnailed shoes while men in smocks slops and sheepskin gaiters stride excitedly to and fro or stand in groups all wearing the same expression on their features that of a sincere honest anxiety
with a fear some sinister mischance has overtaken miss wynn many a young farmer is there who has ridden beside her in the hunting field often behind her no ways nettled by her giving him the lead instead admiring her courage and style of taking fences over which
on his cart nag he dares not follow enthusiastically proclaiming her pluck at markets race meetings and other gatherings wherever came up talk of tally ho
still others are there in the exercise of official duty several magistrates have arrived at llangorren among them sir george shenstone chairman of the district bench the police superintendent also with several of his blue coated subordinates
there is a man present about whom remark is made and who attracts more attention than either justice of the peace or policeman it is a circumstance unprecedented a strange sight indeed lewin murdock at the court
he is there nevertheless taking an active part in the proceedings it seems natural enough to those who but know him to be the cousin of the missing lady
but to these on reflection his behaviour is quite comprehensible they construe it differently from the others the outside spectators more than one of them observing the anxious expression upon his face
believe it but a semblance a mask to hide the satisfaction within his heart to become joy if gwen wynn be found dead it is not a thing to be spoken of openly and no one so speaks of it
the construction put upon lewin murdock's motives is confined to the few for only a few know how much he is interested in the upshot of that search again it is set on foot but not as on the day preceding
now no mad rushing to and fro of mere physical demonstration this day there is due deliberation a council held composed of the magistrates and other gentlemen of the neighbourhood aided by a lawyer or two and the talents of an experienced detective
the fields traversed the woods as well while parties proceed up and down the river and along both sides of the backwash
as yet the drag has not been called into requisition the deep flood with a swift strong current preventing it
that gwendoline wynn is dead and her body at the bottom of the wye
equally incredible that she has drowned herself
a third supposition that she has been the victim of revenge of a jealous lover's spite seems alike untenable
the thing is preposterous and yet this very thing begins to receive credence in the minds of many of more as new facts are developed by the magisterial enquiry carried on inside the house
there a strange chapter of evidence comes out or rather is elicited miss linton's maid clarisse is the author of it
and lingering there till after the latest guest had taken departure heard high voices speaking as in anger
and le capitaine by the latter meaning captain ryecroft startling testimony this when taken in connection with the strayed ring collateral to the ugly suspicion the latter had already conjured up nor is the femme de chambre telling any untruth
she had gone down to the boat dock in the hope of having a word with the handsome waterman and returned from it reluctantly finding he had betaken himself to his boat she does not thus state her reason for so being abroad but gives a different one
the lamps and transparencies still unextinguished all natural enough and questioned as to why she said nothing of it on the day before her answer is equally evasive partly that she did not suppose the thing worth speaking of
and partly because she did not like to let people know that mademoiselle had been behaving in that way quarrelling with a gentleman in the flood of light just let in no one any longer thinks that miss wynn has been robbed though it may be that she has suffered something worse
what for could have been the angry words and the quarrel how did it end and now the name ryecroft is on every tongue no longer in cautious whisperings but loudly pronounced
and he sometimes felt that it would have been worse if he had been in a dull uniform country instead of among mountain peaks and broad wooded valleys working hard too helped him not a little and conic sections served him almost as well as they served laura
a more real help was the neighbourhood of stylehurst on the first sunday after receiving mister edmonstone's letter
and he knew he needed all that could strengthen such a disposition many a question did he ask himself to certify whether he wilfully entertained malice or hatred or any uncharitableness it was a long difficult examination
but at its close he felt convinced that if such passions knocked at the door of his heart it was not at his own summons and that he drove them away without listening to them and surely he might approach to gain the best aid in that battle
especially as he was certain of his strong and deep repentance for his fit of passion and longing earnestly for the pledge of forgiveness the pardon and peace he sought came to him and in such sort that the comfort of that day when fresh from the first shock
was such as never to be forgotten they linked themselves with the grave shade of the clustered gray columns and the angel heads on roof of that old church
he wandered in the churchyard between the services all enmity to philip was absent now and he felt as if it would hardly return when he stood by the graves of the archdeacon and of the two frances morvilles and thought what that spot was to his cousin
there were a few flowers planted round missus morville's grave but they showed that they had long been neglected and no such signs of care marked her daughter fanny's
and when guy further thought of missus henley and recollected how philip had sacrificed all his cherished prospects and hopes of distinction and embraced an irksome profession for the sake of these two sisters he did not find it difficult to excuse the sternness severity and distrust which were an evidence
it was on trial and his failure his return to his old evil passions had sunk him beneath her he shuddered to think of her being united to anything so unlike herself and which might cause her so much misery
as she sat at her mother's feet though that remembrance was only another form of misery but amy would be tranquil pure and good whatever became of him
with bending head folded hands and a star on its brow in the paradiso of flaxman her serenity would be untouched and though she might be lost to him he could still be content while he could look up at it through his turbid life
better she were lost to him than that her peace should be injured he still of course earnestly longed to prove his innocence though his hopes lessened for as long as the evidence was withheld he had no chance
after writing as strongly as he could he could do no more except watch for something that might unravel the mystery and charles's warm sympathy and readiness to assist him were a great comfort
he saw missus dixon sitting on one of the benches which were placed on the paths cut out on the side of the hill looking very smart and smiling among several persons of her own class to be ashamed to recognise her was a weakness beneath him
held out his hand to her she ran up to him joyfully and he led her a few steps from her mother's party well little one how are you i have your piece of spar quite safe
called the soft voice but it needed a whistle from his master to bring him to be caressed by the little girl
but mamma says she has got a bone in her leg and cannot go do you think mamma would give you leave to go up with me should you like it she coloured all over too happy even to thank him
then said guy to his tutor i will meet you here when you have done your business in the town in an hour or so
as the ascent became steeper her breath grew shorter and she toiled on in a resolute uncomplaining manner after his long vigorous steps till he looked round and seeing her panting far behind turned to help her
lead her and carry her till the top was achieved and the little girl stood on the topmost stone gazing round at the broad sunny landscape with the soft green meadows
with its other peaks and cairns brown with withered bracken
he watched her in silence pleased and curious to observe how beautiful a scene struck the childish eye of the little londoner the first thing she said after three or four minutes contemplation a long time for such a child was
oh i never saw anything so pretty then presently after
oh do you know about felix you shall tell me said guy here sit on my knee and rest after your scramble mamma never lets me talk of felix because it makes her cry said marianne but i wish it sometimes
her little heart was soon open it appeared that felix was the last who had died the nearest in age to marianne
though to guy they seemed but the very proof of dreariness and dinginess she talked of walks to school when felix would tell what he would do when he was a man and how he took care of her at the crossings and how rude boys used to drive them
and how they would look in at the shop windows and settle what they would buy if they were rich then she talked of his being ill ill so very long how he sat in his little chair and could not play and then always lay in bed and she liked to sit by him there
but at last he died and they carried him away in a great black coffin and he would never come back again but it was so dull now there was no one to play with her though the little girl did not cry she looked very mournful and guy tried to comfort her but she did not understand him
standing upon it and mamma read it when felix died but it was a big book and the shell turkey cock always stood upon it in short it seemed only connected with mamma's tears and the loss of her brother
wellwood said he breaking silence when they had walked about half way back to the farm do you think your cousin would do me a great kindness you saw that child
on what terms what sort of an education is she to have the chief thing she wants is to be taught christianity poor child the rest miss wellwood may settle she is my first cousin i don't know whether you are acquainted with our family history
until his five and twentieth year might put his property in his own power
he next went to missus dixon expecting more difficulty with her but he found none she thought it better marianne should live at saint mildred's than die in london
and was ready to catch at the prospect of her being fitted for a governess indeed she was so strongly persuaded that the rich cousin might make marianne's fortune that she would have been very unwilling to interfere with the fancy he had taken for her
when another night came the columns changed to purple streaks filed across two pontoon bridges a glaring fire wine tinted the waters of the river
its rays shining upon the moving masses of troops brought forth here and there sudden gleams of silver or gold upon the other shore a dark and mysterious range of hills was curved against the sky
the insect voices of the night sang solemnly after this crossing the youth assured himself that at any moment they might be suddenly and fearfully assaulted from the caves of the lowering woods he kept his eyes watchfully upon the darkness
but his regiment went unmolested to a camping place
in the morning they were routed out with early energy and hustled along a narrow road that led deep into the forest it was during this rapid march that the regiment lost many of the marks of a new command
the men had begun to count the miles upon their fingers and they grew tired sore feet an damned short rations that's all said the loud soldier
there was perspiration and grumblings after a time they began to shed their knapsacks some tossed them unconcernedly down others hid them carefully asserting their plans to return for them at some convenient time
men extricated themselves from thick shirts presently few carried anything but their necessary clothing blankets haversacks canteens and arms and ammunition you can now eat and shoot
said the tall soldier to the youth that's all you want to do
to the light and speedy infantry of practice the regiment relieved of a burden received a new impetus but there was much loss of valuable knapsacks and on the whole very good shirts
but the regiment was not yet veteranlike in appearance
once when the command had first come to the field some perambulating veterans noting the length of their column had accosted them thus
the hats of a regiment should properly represent the history of headgear for a period of years and moreover there were no letters of faded gold speaking from the colors they were new and beautiful and the color bearer habitually oiled the pole
presently the army again sat down to think the odor of the peaceful pines was in the men's nostrils
and the insects nodding upon their perches crooned like old women the youth returned to his theory of a blue demonstration one gray dawn however he was kicked in the leg by the tall soldier
and then before he was entirely awake he found himself running down a wood road in the midst of men who were panting from the first effects of speed his canteen banged rythmically upon his thigh and his haversack bobbed softly
his musket bounced a trifle from his shoulder at each stride and made his cap feel uncertain upon his head he could hear the men whisper jerky sentences say what's all this about
yeh run like a cow and the loud soldier's shrill voice could be heard
the youth thought the damp fog of early morning moved from the rush of a great body of troops from the distance came a sudden spatter of firing he was bewildered as he ran with his comrades he strenuously tried to think
but all he knew was that if he fell down those coming behind would tread upon him all his faculties seemed to be needed to guide him over and past obstructions he felt carried along by a mob
the sun spread disclosing rays and one by one regiments burst into view like armed men just born of the earth the youth perceived that the time had come he was about to be measured
for a moment he felt in the face of his great trial like a babe and the flesh over his heart seemed very thin he seized time to look about him calculatingly
but he instantly saw that it would be impossible for him to escape from the regiment it inclosed him
he was in a moving box as he perceived this fact it occurred to him that he had never wished to come to the war he had not enlisted of his free will he had been dragged by the merciless government
and now they were taking him out to be slaughtered the regiment slid down a bank and wallowed across a little stream the mournful current moved slowly on and from the water shaded black
some white bubble eyes looked at the men as they climbed the hill on the farther side artillery began to boom here the youth forgot many things as he felt a sudden impulse of curiosity
he scrambled up the bank with a speed that could not be exceeded by a bloodthirsty man he expected a battle scene there were some little fields girted and squeezed by a forest
spread over the grass and in among the tree trunks he could see knots and waving lines of skirmishers who were running hither and thither and firing at the landscape a dark battle line lay upon a sunstruck clearing that gleamed orange color
a flag fluttered other regiments floundered up the bank the brigade was formed in line of battle and after a pause started slowly through the woods in the rear of the receding skirmishers
who were continually melting into the scene to appear again farther on they were always busy as bees deeply absorbed in their little combats the youth tried to observe everything
it looked to be a wrong place for a battle field the skirmishers in advance fascinated him
hidden mysterious solemn once the line encountered the body of a dead soldier he lay upon his back staring at the sky he was dressed in an awkward suit of yellowish brown
the youth could see that the soles of his shoes had been worn to the thinness of writing paper
in death it exposed to his enemies that poverty which in life he had perhaps concealed from his friends the ranks opened covertly to avoid the corpse the invulnerable dead man forced a way for himself
the youth looked keenly at the ashen face the wind raised the tawny beard it moved as if a hand were stroking it he vaguely desired to walk around and around the body and stare
during the march the ardor which the youth had acquired when out of view of the field rapidly faded to nothing his curiosity was quite easily satisfied
if an intense scene had caught him with its wild swing as he came to the top of the bank
this advance upon nature was too calm he had opportunity to reflect he had time in which to wonder about himself and to attempt to probe his sensations absurd ideas took hold upon him
he thought that he did not relish the landscape it threatened him a coldness swept over his back and it is true that his trousers felt to him that they were no fit for his legs at all
a house standing placidly in distant fields had to him an ominous look the shadows of the woods were formidable he was certain that in this vista there lurked fierce eyed hosts
the swift thought came to him that the generals did not know what they were about it was all a trap suddenly those close forests would bristle with rifle barrels ironlike brigades would appear in the rear
they were all going to be sacrificed the generals were stupids the enemy would presently swallow the whole command he glared about him expecting to see the stealthy approach of his death
he thought that he must break from the ranks and harangue his comrades they must not all be killed like pigs and he was sure it would come to pass unless they were informed of these dangers
the generals were idiots to send them marching into a regular pen there was but one pair of eyes in the corps he would step forth and make a speech
the line broken into moving fragments by the ground went calmly on through fields and woods the youth looked at the men nearest him and saw for the most part expressions of deep interest
as if they were investigating something that had fascinated them one or two stepped with overvaliant airs as if they were already plunged into war
the greater part of the untested men appeared quiet and absorbed they were going to look at war the red animal war the blood swollen god and they were deeply engrossed in this march
as he looked the youth gripped his outcry at his throat
they would jeer him and if practicable pelt him with missiles admitting that he might be wrong a frenzied declamation of the kind would turn him into a worm
he assumed then the demeanor of one who knows that he is doomed alone to unwritten responsibilities he lagged with tragic glances at the sky he was surprised presently by the young lieutenant of his company
no skulking ll do here he mended his pace with suitable haste and he hated the lieutenant who had no appreciation of fine minds he was a mere brute
after a time the brigade was halted in the cathedral light of a forest the busy skirmishers were still popping through the aisles of the wood could be seen the floating smoke from their rifles
sometimes it went up in little balls white and compact during this halt many men in the regiment began erecting tiny hills in front of them
some built comparatively large ones while others seems content with little ones this procedure caused a discussion among the men some wished to fight like duelists believing it to be correct to stand erect and be
from their feet to their foreheads a mark they said they scorned the devices of the cautious but the others scoffed in reply and pointed to the veterans on the flanks who were digging at the ground like terriers
in a short time there was quite a barricade along the regimental fronts directly however they were ordered to withdraw from that place
well then what did they march us out here for he demanded of the tall soldier the latter with calm faith began a heavy explanation
although he had been compelled to leave a little protection of stones and dirt to which he had devoted much care and skill when the regiment was aligned in another position each man's regard for his safety caused another line of small intrenchments
they ate their noon meal behind a third one they were moved from this one also they were marched from place to place with apparent aimlessness
he saw his salvation in such a change
he was in a fever of impatience he considered that there was denoted a lack of purpose on the part of the generals he began to complain to the tall soldier i can't stand this much longer he cried
i don't see what good it does to make us wear out our legs for nothin he wished to return to camp knowing that this affair was a blue demonstration
and was in truth a man of traditional courage
the philosophical tall soldier measured a sandwich of cracker and pork and swallowed it in a nonchalant manner
or to develop em or something
well cried the youth still fidgeting
so would i said the loud soldier it ain't right
oh shut up roared the tall private you little fool you little damn cuss
well i wanta do some fighting anyway interrupted the other i didn't come here to walk
the tall one red faced swallowed another sandwich as if taking poison in despair
he could not rage in fierce argument in the presence of such sandwiches during his meals he always wore an air of blissful contemplation of the food he had swallowed
objecting to neither gait nor distance
each of which had been an engineering feat worthy of being made sacred to the name of his grandmother in the afternoon the regiment went out over the same ground it had taken in the morning
when however they began to pass into a new region his old fears of stupidity and incompetence reassailed him but this time he doggedly let them babble he was occupied with his problem
and in his desperation he concluded that the stupidity did not greatly matter once he thought he had concluded that it would be better to get killed directly and end his troubles
regarding death thus out of the corner of his eye he conceived it to be nothing but rest and he was filled with a momentary astonishment that he should have made an extraordinary commotion over the mere matter of getting killed
he would die he would go to some place where he would be understood it was useless to expect appreciation of his profound and fine sense from such men as the lieutenant
he must look to the grave for comprehension the skirmish fire increased to a long clattering sound with it was mingled far away cheering a battery spoke
directly the youth could see the skirmishers running they were pursued by the sound of musketry fire after a time the hot dangerous flashes of the rifles were visible
smoke clouds went slowly and insolently across the fields like observant phantoms the din became crescendo like the roar of an oncoming train
a brigade ahead of them and on the right went into action with a rending roar it was as if it had exploded and thereafter it lay stretched in the distance behind a long gray wall
the youth forgetting his neat plan of getting killed gazed spell bound his eyes grew wide and busy with the action of the scene his mouth was a little ways open
of a sudden he felt a heavy and sad hand laid upon his shoulder awakening from his trance of observation he turned and beheld the loud soldier
said the latter with intense gloom he was quite pale and his girlish lip was trembling
it's my first and last battle old boy continued the loud soldier something tells me what
you to take these here things to my folks he ended in a quavering sob of pity for himself he handed the youth a little packet done up in a yellow envelope why what the devil began the youth again
but the other gave him a glance as from the depths of a tomb
chapter four the brigade was halted in the fringe of a grove the men crouched among the trees and pointed their restless guns out at the fields they tried to look beyond the smoke
out of this haze they could see running men some shouted information and gestured as the hurried the men of the new regiment watched and listened eagerly while their tongues ran on in gossip of the battle
they mouthed rumors that had flown like birds out of the unknown they say perry has been driven in with big loss
he said he was sick that smart lieutenant is commanding g company
hannises batt'ry is took
not more'n fifteen minutes ago well
an then he ses we'll do sech fightin as never another one reg'ment done
no sech thing hannises batt'ry was long here bout a minute ago that young hasbrouck he makes a good off'cer
bill wasn't scared either no sir it wasn't that
he was jest mad that's what he was when that feller trod on his hand
bill he raised a heluva row i hear he's a funny feller the din in front swelled to a tremendous chorus the youth and his fellows were frozen to silence they could see a flag that tossed in the smoke angrily
near it were the blurred and agitated forms of troops there came a turbulent stream of men across the fields a battery changing position at a frantic gallop
a shell screaming like a storm banshee went over the huddled heads of the reserves it landed in the grove and exploding redly flung the brown earth there was a little shower of pine needles
bullets began to whistle among the branches and nip at the trees twigs and leaves came sailing down
many of the men were constantly dodging and ducking their heads the lieutenant of the youth's company was shot in the hand he began to swear so wondrously that a nervous laugh went along the regimental line
the officer's profanity sounded conventional it relieved the tightened senses of the new men it was as if he had hit his fingers with a tack hammer at home
he held the wounded member carefully away from his side so that the blood would not drip upon his trousers the captain of the company tucking his sword under his arm
and they disputed as to how the binding should be done the battle flag in the distance jerked about madly it seemed to be struggling to free itself from an agony the billowing smoke was filled with horizontal flashes
men rushing swiftly emerged from it they grew in numbers until it was seen that the whole command was fleeing the flag suddenly sank down as if dying its motion as it fell was a gesture of despair
wild yells came from behind the walls of smoke a sketch in gray and red dissolved into a moblike body of men who galloped like wild horses the veteran regiments on the right and left of the three hundred fourth immediately began to jeer
with the passionate song of the bullets and the banshee shrieks of shells were mingled loud catcalls and bits of facetious advice concerning places of safety
whispered the man at the youth's elbow they shrank back and crouched as if compelled to await a flood the youth shot a swift glance along the blue ranks of the regiment the profiles were motionless
and afterward he remembered that the color sergeant was standing with his legs apart as if he expected to be pushed to the ground the following throng went whirling around the flank
here and there were officers carried along on the stream like exasperated chips they were striking about them with their swords and with their left fists punching every head they could reach they cursed like highwaymen
a mounted officer displayed the furious anger of a spoiled child he raged with his head his arms and his legs another
his hat was gone and his clothes were awry
the hoofs of his horse often threatened the heads of the running men but they scampered with singular fortune in this rush they were apparently all deaf and blind they heeded not the largest and longest of the oaths
that were thrown at them from all directions frequently over this tumult could be heard the grim jokes of the critical veterans but the retreating men apparently were not even conscious of the presence of an audience
the battle reflection that shone for an instant in the faces on the mad current made the youth feel that forceful hands from heaven would not have been able to have held him in place if he could have got intelligent control of his legs
there was an appalling imprint upon these faces the struggle in the smoke had pictured an exaggeration of itself on the bleached cheeks and in the eyes wild with one desire
the sight of this stampede exerted a floodlike force that seemed able to drag sticks and stones and men from the ground they of the reserves had to hold on they grew pale and firm and red and quaking
the youth achieved one little thought in the midst of this chaos the composite monster which had caused the other troops to flee had not then appeared
beatrice replaced the programme which she had been studying on the ledge of the box and turned towards philip who was seated in the background there was something a little new in her manner her tone was subdued her eyes curious
you really are a wonderful person philip she declared
and yet it isn't what is it that you have gained i wonder a sense of atmosphere breadth something strangely vital i am glad you like it he said simply like it it's amazing and what an audience
i never thought that the people were so fashionable here philip
you won't be ashamed to be seen anywhere with me then he drew his chair up to her side a little haggard and worn with the suspense of the evening she laughed at him mockingly what an idiot you are she exclaimed
you ought to be one of the happiest men in the world and you look like a death's head the happiest man in the world he repeated
and what's that booby she asked with some of her old familiarity a clear conscience she laid her hand upon his arm look here philip she said
the one thing i determined when i threw up the sponge was that whether the venture was a success or not i'd never waste a single moment in regrets things didn't turn out too brilliantly with me as you know but you
see what you've attained why it's wonderful your play the one thing you dreamed about produced in one of the greatest cities in the world and a packed house to listen to it people applauding all the time i didn't realise your success when we talked this evening
you're merton ware the great dramatist the coming man of letters you've won philip can't you see that it's puling cowardice to grumble at the price he for his part was wondering at her callousness
of which he was constantly discovering fresh evidences
if you can forget so soon he muttered i suppose i ought to be able to she made a little grimace but immediately afterwards he saw the cold tightening of her lips listen philip she said
i started life with the usual quiverful of good qualities but there's one i've lost and i don't want it back again
do you think he asked that it is possible to make that sort of bargain with one's self and fate she laughed scornfully there's room for a little stiffening in you even now philip no one but a weakling ever talks about fate
you'd think better of me i suppose if i stayed in my room and wept well i could do it if i let myself but i won't i should lose several hours of the life that belongs to me you think i didn't care about douglas
i am not at all sure that i didn't care for him as much as i ever did for you although of course he wasn't worthy of it
but he's gone and all the shudders and morbid regrets in the world won't bring him back again and i am here in new york and to morrow i shall have twenty thousand pounds and to night i am with you watching your play that's life enough for me at present no more no less
i hate missing the first act and i'm coming to see it again to morrow what time is it over
you shall take me out and give me some supper she decided
he made no remark but she surprised again something in his face which irritated her look here philip she said firmly
there are plenty of other women like me in the world even if they are not quite so frank about it i want to live and i will live and i grudge every moment out of which i am not extracting the fullest amount of happiness that's because i've paid
it's the woman's bargaining instinct you know she wants to get value now i want to hear about miss dalstan where did you meet her and how did you get her to accept your play
she was on the elletania he explained we crossed from liverpool together she sat at my table how much does she know about you beatrice asked bluntly everything he confessed i don't know what i should have done without her
she has been the most wonderful friend any one could have beatrice looked at him a little critically you're a queer person philip she exclaimed
good thing i came over to take care of you i think you don't understand he replied miss dalstan is well unlike anybody else she wants to see you i am to take you round after the next act if you would like to go
beatrice smiled at him in a gratified manner i've always wanted to go behind the scenes she admitted i'll come with you with pleasure perhaps if i decide that i'd like to go on the stage she may be able to help me how much is twenty thousand pounds in dollars philip
she went on ruminatingly the hotel where mister dane sent me it's nice enough in its way but very stuffy as regards the people is twice as expensive as it would be in london however we shall see
the curtain rang up on the third act and beatrice seated well back in the shadows followed the play attentively appreciated its good points and had every appearance of both understanding and enjoying it afterwards she rose promptly to her feet still clapping
i'm longing to meet miss dalstan philip she declared she is wonderful
she laughed at his embarrassment affecting to ignore the fact that it was less the author's modesty than some queer impulse of horror
he hurried on piloting her down the corridor to the door of elizabeth's dressing room in response to his knock they were bidden to enter and elizabeth who was lying on a couch whilst a maid was busy preparing her costume for the next act
held out her hand with a little welcoming smile i am so glad to see you miss wenderley she said
philip bring miss wenderley over here you'll forgive my not getting up won't you
its white walls hung with a few choice sketches
elizabeth herself so beautiful and gracious
she felt suddenly acutely conscious of the poverty of her travelling clothes of her own insignificance won't you sit down for a moment elizabeth begged pointing to a chair by her side you and i must be friends you know for philip's sake
she sank into the blue satin chair with its ample cushions and looked down at elizabeth with something very much like awe i am sure philip must feel very grateful to you for having taken his play she declared
it has given him a fresh chance in life after all he has gone through elizabeth said gently he certainly deserves it it is a wonderfully clever play you know don't blush mister author
her lips came together in familiar fashion i mean it to she declared i am going to make a start to morrow i wish miss dalstan you could get philip to look at things a little more cheerfully he has been like a ghost ever since i arrived
elizabeth turned and smiled at him sympathetically your coming must have been rather a shock she reminded beatrice
the girl nodded and glanced around for the maid who had disappeared however into an inner apartment they were always alike she confided the same figures
it was a shock though miss dalstan philip was sitting in the dark when i arrived at his rooms
elizabeth shivered a little don't let us talk about it she begged you must come and see me won't you miss wenderley philip will tell you where i live
it just depends elizabeth glanced at the little clock upon her table and philip threw away his cigarette and came forward we must go beatrice he announced miss dalstan has to change her dress for this act he held out his hand and elizabeth
rose lightly to her feet so far no word as to their two selves had passed their lips she smiled at him and all this sense of throbbing almost theatrical excitement subsided he was once more conscious of the beautiful things beyond
once more he felt the rest of her presence you must let me see something of you tomorrow philip she said telephone will you good night miss wenderley the maid who had just returned held the door open philip glanced back over his shoulder
there was another charwoman armed with pails and buckets outside cardlestone's door into which she was just fitting a key it was evident to spargo that she knew breton for she smiled at him as she opened the door
i don't think mister cardlestone'll be in sir she said he's generally gone out to breakfast at this time him and mister elphick goes together
groaned breton if the confusion in elphick's rooms had been bad
what had she better do spargo leave things exactly as they are lock up the chambers and as you're a friend of mister cardlestone's give you the
do that now and let's go i've something to do once outside with the startled charwoman gone away spargo turned to breton i'll tell you all i know presently breton he said
in the meantime i want to find out if the lodge porter saw mister elphick or mister cardlestone leave
all right responded breton gloomily we'll go and ask but this is all beyond me you don't mean to say
he knows you the porter duly interrogated responded with alacrity
soon after seven mister elphick said they were going to paris and they'd breakfast at charing cross before the train left say when they'd be back asked breton with an assumption of entire carelessness no sir mister elphick didn't answered the porter
all right said breton he turned away towards spargo who had already moved off what next he asked charing cross i suppose spargo smiled and shook his head no he answered i've no use for charing cross
they haven't gone to paris that was all a blind for the present let's go back to your chambers then i'll talk to you once within breton's inner room with the door closed upon them
breton he said i believe we're coming in sight of land you want to save your prospective father in law don't you of course growled breton that goes without saying but
for instance mister elphick breton's face grew dark speak plainly spargo he said it's best with
replied spargo mister elphick then is in some way connected with this affair you mean the murder i mean the murder so is cardlestone of that i'm now dead certain and that's why they're off i startled elphick last night
it's evident that he immediately communicated with cardlestone and that they made a rapid exit why why that's what i'm asking you why why why because they're afraid of something coming out
and being afraid their first instinct is to run they've run at the first alarm foolish but instinctive breton who had flung himself into the elbow chair at his desk
are you telling me that you accuse my guardian and his friend mister cardlestone of being murderers
i made him confess last night that he knew this dead man to be john maitland you did i did and now breton since it's got to come out
and first let me ask you a few questions do you know anything about your parentage
and what was that that my parents were old friends of his who died young leaving me unprovided for and that he took me up and looked after me
and he's never given you any documentary evidence of any sort to prove the truth of that story never i never questioned his statement why should i you never remember anything of your childhood
i mean of any person who was particularly near you in your childhood i remember the people who brought me up from the time i was three years old
all right breton he went on aloud i'm going to tell you the truth i'll tell it to you straight out and give you all the explanations afterwards your real name is not breton at all
what would he do what would he say what breton sat down quietly at his desk and looked spargo hard between the eyes prove that to me spargo he said in hard matter of fact tones
every word every word spargo spargo nodded
listen then it was a quarter to twelve spargo noticed throwing a glance at the clock outside as he began his story it was past one when he brought it to an end and all that time breton listened with the keenest attention only asking a question now and then
now and then making a brief note on a sheet of paper which he had drawn to him that's all said spargo at last it's plenty observed breton laconically he sat staring at his notes for a moment then he looked up at spargo
said spargo this flight of elphick's and cardlestone's i think as i said that they knew something which they think may be forced upon them
and it's evident that cardlestone shares in that fright or they wouldn't have gone off in this way together do you think they know anything of the actual murder
spargo went round again to the temple that night at nine o'clock asking himself over and over again two questions the first how much does elphick know the second how much shall i tell him
the old house in the temple to which he repaired and in which many a generation of old fogies had lived since the days of queen anne was full of stairs and passages and as spargo had forgotten to get the exact number
of the set of chambers he wanted he was obliged to wander about in what was a deserted building so wandering he suddenly heard steps firm decisive steps coming up a staircase which he himself had just climbed
he looked over the banisters down into the hollow beneath and there marching up resolutely
and spargo suddenly realized with a sharp quickening of his pulses
spargo's mind acted quickly knowing what he now knew from his extraordinary dealings with mother gutch he had no doubt whatever that miss baylis had come to see mister elphick come of course to tell mister elphick that he spargo had visited her that morning
and that he was on the track of the maitland secret history he had never thought of it before for he had been busily engaged since the departure of mother gutch but naturally miss baylis and mister elphick would keep in communication with each other
at any rate here she was and her destination was surely elphick's chambers and the question for him spargo was what to do what spargo did was to remain in absolute silence motionless tense
where he was on the stair and to trust to the chance that the woman did not look up but miss baylis neither looked up nor down she reached a landing turned along a corridor with decision and marched forward
sharp double knock on a door a moment after that he heard a door heavily shut he knew then that miss baylis had sought and gained admittance somewhere
to find out precisely where that somewhere was drew spargo down to the landing which miss baylis had just left there was no one about he had not in fact seen a soul since he entered the building
accordingly he went along the corridor into which he had seen miss baylis turn he knew that all the doors in that house were double ones and that the outer oak in each was solid and substantial enough to be sound proof yet
as men will under such circumstances he walked softly he said to himself smiling at the thought that he would be sure to start if somebody suddenly opened a door on him
on which was painted in white letters on a black ground mister elphick's chambers having satisfied himself as to his exact whereabouts spargo drew back as quietly as he had come
there was a window half way along the corridor from which he had noticed as he came along one could catch a glimpse of the embankment and the thames to this he withdrew and leaning on the sill looked out and considered matters should he go
and if he could gain admittance beard these two conspirators should he wait until the woman came out and let her see that he was on the track should he hide again until she went and then see elphick alone
in the end spargo did none of these things immediately he let things slide for the moment
and the buildings across on the surrey side ten minutes went by twenty minutes nothing happened then as half past nine struck from all the neighbouring clocks spargo flung away a second cigarette
marched straight down the corridor and knocked boldly at mister elphick's door greatly to spargo's surprise the door was opened before there was any necessity to knock again and there calmly confronting him
a benevolent yet somewhat deprecating expression on his spectacled and placid face stood mister elphick a smoking cap on his head
and a short pipe in his hand spargo was taken aback mister elphick apparently was not he held the door well open and motioned the journalist to enter come in mister spargo he said i was expecting you
walk forward into my sitting room spargo much astonished at this reception passed through an ante room into a handsomely furnished apartment full of books and pictures
in spite of the fact that it was still very little past midsummer there was a cheery fire in the grate and on a table set near a roomy arm chair was set such creature comforts as a spirit case a syphon a tumbler and a novel
but in another armchair on the opposite side of the hearth was the forbidding figure of miss baylis blacker gloomier more mysterious than ever she neither spoke nor moved when spargo entered she did not even look at him
and spargo stood staring at her until mister elphick having closed his doors touched him on the elbow and motioned him courteously to a seat yes i was expecting you mister spargo he said as he resumed his own chair
i have been expecting you at any time ever since you took up your investigation of the marbury affair in some of the earlier stages of which you saw me you will remember at the mortuary
i felt sure that it would not be more than a few hours before you would come to me why mister elphick should you suppose that i should come to you at all asked spargo now in full possession of his wits
because i felt sure that you would leave no stone unturned no corner unexplored replied mister elphick the curiosity of the modern pressman is insatiable spargo stiffened
i have no curiosity mister elphick he said i am charged by my paper to investigate the circumstances of the death of the man who was found in middle temple lane and if possible to track his murderer and
mister elphick laughed slightly and waved his hand my good young gentleman he said you exaggerate your own importance
in your own case you have got hold of some absurd notion that the man john marbury was in reality one john maitland once of market milcaster
spargo suddenly rose from his chair there was a certain temper in him which when once roused led him to straight hitting and it was roused now he looked the old barrister full in the face mister elphick he said
you are evidently unaware of all that i know so i will tell you what i will do i will go back to my office and i will write down what i do know and give the true and absolute proofs of what i know
and if you will trouble yourself to read the watchman tomorrow morning then you too will know dear me dear me said mister elphick banteringly
but i am a curious and inquisitive old man my good young sir so perhaps you will tell me in a word what it is you do know eh spargo reflected for a second
then he bent forward across the table and looked the old barrister straight in the face yes he said quietly i will tell you what i know beyond doubt
i know that the man murdered under the name of john marbury was without doubt john maitland of market milcaster and that ronald breton is his son whom you took from that woman
if spargo had desired a complete revenge for the cavalier fashion in which mister elphick had treated it he could not have been afforded a more ample one than that offered to him by the old barrister's reception of this news
mister elphick's face not only fell but changed his expression of almost sneering contempt was transformed to one clearly resembling abject terror he dropped his pipe fell back in his chair
recovered himself gripped the chair's arms and stared at spargo as if the young man had suddenly announced to him that in another minute he must be led to instant execution and spargo quick to see his advantage followed it up
that is what i know mister elphick and if i choose all the world shall know it tomorrow morning he said firmly
ronald breton is the son of the murdered man and ronald breton is engaged to be married to the daughter of the man charged with the murder do you hear that
it is fact fact mister elphick slowly turned his face to miss baylis he gasped out a few words
he didn't tell me he only told me this morning what what i've told you spargo picked up his hat good night mister elphick he said but before he could reach the door the old barrister had leapt from his chair and seized him with trembling hands
spargo turned and looked at him
well he growled my dear young gentleman implored mister elphick don't go i'll i'll do anything for you if
won't go away to print that i'll i'll give you a thousand pounds spargo shook him off that's enough he snarled now i am off what you'd try to bribe me
mister elphick wrung his hands
i i don't know what i meant stay young gentleman stay a little and let us let us talk let me have a word with you as many words as you please i implore you spargo made a fine pretence of hesitation
if i stay he said at last it will only be on the strict condition that you answer and answer truly whatever questions i like to ask you otherwise
he made another move to the door and again mister elphick laid beseeching hands on him stay he said
the stage is dependent upon three lines of tradition first that of greece and rome that came down through the french second the english style ripened from the miracle play and the shakespearian stage and third the ibsen precedent from norway
now so firmly established it is classic these methods are obscured by the commercialized dramas but they are behind them all let us discuss for illustration the ibsen tradition ibsen is generally the vitriolic foe of pageant
he must be read aloud he stands for the spoken word for the iron power of life that may be concentrated in a phrase like the all or nothing of brand though peer gynt has its spectacular side ibsen generally comes in through the ear alone
he can be acted in essentials from end to end with one table and four chairs in any parlor the alleged punch with which the movie culminates has occurred three or ten years before the ibsen curtain goes up
at the close of every act of the dramas of this norwegian one might inscribe on the curtain this the magnificent moving picture cannot achieve likewise after every successful film described in this book
could be inscribed this the trenchant ibsen cannot do but a photoplay of ghosts came to our town the humor of the prospect was the sort too deep for tears my pastor and i
that we might be alert for every antithesis together we went to the services since then the film has been furiously denounced by the literati floyd dell's discriminating assault upon it is quoted in current opinion october nineteen fifteen
and margaret anderson prints a denunciation of it in a recent number of the little review
it is not ibsen it should be advertised the iniquities of the fathers an american drama of eugenics in a palatial setting henry walthall as alving afterward as his son
shows the men much as ibsen outlines their characters of course the only way to be ibsen is to be so precisely in the new plot all is open as the day
the world is welcome and generally present when the man or his son go forth to see the elephant and hear the owl provincial hypocrisy is not implied
for his human volcanoes to burst through in the end mary alden as missus alving shows in her intelligent and sensitive countenance that she has a conception of that character she does not always have the chance to act the woman written in her face
the tart thinking handsome creature that ibsen prefers nigel debrullier looks the buttoned up pastor manders even to caricature but the crawling bootlicking carpenter jacob engstrand is changed into a respectable guileless man with an income
and his wife and daughter are helpless conventional upper class rabbits they do not remind one of the saucy originals the original ibsen drama is the result of mixing up five particular characters through three acts
there is not a situation but would go to pieces if one personality were altered here are two sadly tampered with engstrand and his daughter here is the mother who is only referred to in ibsen
here is the elder alving who disappears before the original play starts so the twenty great ibsen situations in the stage production are gone one new crisis has an ibsen irony and psychic tension
the boy is taken with the dreaded intermittent pains in the back of his head he is painting the order that is to make him famous the king's portrait while the room empties of people he writhes on the floor
but the thing is reiterated in tableau symbol he is looking sideways in terror a hairy arm with clutching demon claws comes thrusting in toward the back of his neck he writhes in deadly fear the audience
is appalled for him this visible clutch of heredity is the nearest equivalent that is offered for the whispered refrain ghosts in the original masterpiece this hand should
also be reiterated as a refrain three times at least before this tableau each time more dreadful and threatening it appears but the once and has no chance to become a part of the accepted hieroglyphics of the piece as it should be
to realize its full power the father's previous sins have been acted out the boy's consequent struggle with the malady has been traced step by step so the play should end here it would then be a rough equivalent of the ibsen irony in a contrary medium
motion picture punch when the doctor is the god from the machine there is no doctor on the stage in the original ghosts but there is a physician in the doll's house a scientific quietly moving oracle crisp spartan sophisticated
is this photoplay physician such a one the boy and his half sister are in their wedding clothes in the big church pastor manders is saying the ceremony the audience and building are indeed showy
the doctor charges up the aisle at the moment people are told to speak or forever hold their peace he has tact he simply breaks up the marriage right there he does not tell the guests why but he takes the wedding party into the pastor's study
always an orotund man he has the chautauqua manner indeed in this exigency he brings to one's mind the tearful book much loved in childhood parted at the altar or why was it thus
and four able actors have the task of telling the audience by facial expression only that they have been struck by moral lightning they stand in a row facing the people endeavoring to make the crisis of an alleged ibsen play out of a crashing melodrama
wherever in ghosts we have quiet voices that are like the slow drip of hydrochloric acid in the photoplay we have no quiet gestures that will do trenchant work instead
there are endless writhings and rushings about done with a deal of skill but destructive of the last remnants of ibsen up past the point of the clutching hand this film is the prime example for study for the person who would know once for all
the differences between the photoplays and the stage dramas along with it might be classed missus fiske's decorative moving picture tess in which there is every determination to convey the original missus fiske illusion without her voice and breathing presence
to people who know her well it is a surprisingly good tintype of our beloved friend for the family album the relentless thomas hardy is nowhere to be found there are two moments of dramatic life set among many of delicious pictorial quality
when tess baptizes her child and when she smooths its little grave with a wavering hand but in the stage version the dramatic poignancy begins with the going up of the curtain and lasts till it descends the prime example of complete failure
is sarah bernhardt's camille it is indeed a tintype of the consumptive heroine with every group entire and taken at full length much space is occupied by the floor and the overhead portions of the stage setting it lasts as long as would the spoken performance
and wherever there is a dialogue we must imagine said conversation if we can it might be compared to watching camille from the top gallery through smoked glass with one's ears stopped with cotton
it would be well for the beginning student to find some way to see the first two of these three or some other attempts to revamp the classic for instance missus fiske's painstaking reproduction of vanity fair
bearing in mind the list of differences which this chapter now furnishes there is no denying that many stage managers who have taken up photoplays are struggling with the shakespearian french and norwegian traditions in the new medium
many of the moving pictures discussed in this book are rewritten stage dramas and one judith of bethulia is a pronounced success but in order to be real photoplays the stage dramas must be overhauled indeed turned inside out and upside down
the successful motion picture expresses itself through mechanical devices that are being evolved every hour upon those many new bits of machinery are founded novel methods of combination in another field of logic not dramatic logic but tableau logic but the old line managers
taking up photoplays begin by making curious miniatures of stage presentations they try to have most things as before later they take on the moving picture technique in a superficial way but they and the host of talented actors in the prime of life and broadway success
retain the dramatic state of mind it is a principle of criticism the world over that the distinctions between the arts must be clearly marked even by those who afterwards mix those arts
take for instance the perpetual quarrel between the artists and the half educated about literary painting whistler fought that battle in england he tried to beat it into the head of john bull that a painting is one thing a mere illustration for a story another thing
but the novice is always stubborn to him hindu and arabic are both foreign languages therefore just alike the book illustration may be said to come in through the ear by reading the title aloud in imagination
and the other is effective with no title at all the scenario writer who will study to the bottom of the matter in whistler's gentle art of making enemies will be equipped to welcome the distinction between the old fashioned stage where the word rules and the photoplay
where splendor and ritual are all it is not the same distinction but a kindred one but let us consider the details of the matter the stage has its exits and entrances at the side and back the standard photoplays
have their exits and entrances across the imaginary footlight line even in the most stirring mob and battle scenes in judith of bethulia though the people seem to be coming from everywhere and going everywhere when we watch close we see that the individuals enter at the near right hand corner
and exit at the near left hand corner or enter at the near left hand corner and exit at the near right hand corner consider the devices whereby the stage actor holds the audience as he goes out at the side and back he sighs gestures howls and strides
the people left in the scene are pygmies compared with each disappearing cyclops likewise when the actor enters again his mechanical importance is overwhelming therefore for his first entrance the motion picture star does not require the preparations that are made on the stage
that his camera born opportunity to magnify persons and things instantly to interweave them as actors on one level to alternate scenes at the slightest whim
by alternating scenes rapidly flash after flash cottage field mountain top field mountain top cottage we have a conversation between three places rather than three persons by alternating the picture of a man
and the check he is forging we have his soliloquy when two people talk to each other it is by lifting and lowering objects rather than their voices the collector presents a bill the adventurer shows him the door
moving objects not moving lips make the words of the photoplay the old fashioned stage producer feeling he is getting nowhere but still helpless puts the climax of some puzzling lip debate often the climax of the whole film as a sentence on the screen
sentences should be used to show changes of time and place and a few such elementary matters before the episode is fully started the climax of a motion picture scene cannot be one word or fifty words
as has been discussed in connection with cabiria the crisis must be an action sharper than any that has gone before in organic union with a tableau more beautiful than any that has preceded the breaking of the tenth wave upon the sand
such remnants of pantomimic dialogue as remain in the main chase of the photoplay film are but guide posts in the race toward the goal they should not be elaborate toll gates of plot to be laboriously lifted and lowered while the horses stop mid career
the venus of milo that comes directly to the soul through the silence requires no quotation from keats to explain her though keats is the equivalent in verse her setting in the great french museum is enough we do not know that her name is venus
she is thought by many to be another statue of victory we may some day evolve scenarios that will require nothing more than a title thrown upon the screen at the beginning they come to the eye so perfectly this is not the only possible sort
but the self imposed limitation in certain films might give them a charm akin to that of the songs without words
in the beginning of the first act there is much moving about and extra talk on the part of the actors to hold the crowd while it is settling down
if he appears later he is glared at in the motion picture art gallery on the other hand the audience is around two hundred and these are not a unit and the only crime is to obstruct the line of vision the high school girls can do a moderate amount of giggling without breaking the spell
there is no spell in the stage sense to break people can climb over each other's knees to get in or out if the picture is political they murmur war cries to one another if the film suggests what some of the neighbors have been doing they can regale each other with the richest sewing society report
the people in the motion picture audience total about two hundred any time but they come in groups of two or three at no specified hour the newcomers do not as in vaudeville make themselves part of a jocular army strictly as individuals they judge the panorama
if they disapprove there is grumbling under their breath but no hissing i have never heard an audience in a photoplay theatre clap its hands even when the house was bursting with people yet they often see the film through twice
they manifest their favorable verdict by sending some other member of the family to see the picture if the people so delegated are likewise satisfied they may ask the man at the door if he is going to bring it back that is the moving picture kind of cheering
it was a theatrical sin when the old fashioned stage actor was rendered unimportant by his scenery but the motion picture actor is but the mood of the mob or the landscape or the department store behind him reduced to a single hieroglyphic
the stage interior is large the motion picture interior is small the stage out of door scene is at best artificial and little and is generally at rest or its movement is tainted with artificiality the waves dash but not dashingly
the water flows but not flowingly the motion picture out of door scene is as big as the universe and only pictures of the sahara are without magnificent motion
the photoplay is as far from the stage on the one hand as it is from the novel on the other its nearest analogy in literature is perhaps the short story or the lyric poem the key words of the stage are passion and character of the photoplay
splendor and speed the stage in its greatest power deals with pity for some one especially unfortunate with whom we grow well acquainted with some private revenge against some particular despoiler
traces the beginning and culmination of joy based on the gratification of some preference or love for some person whose charm is all his own the drama is concerned with the slow inevitable approaches to these intensities on the other hand the motion picture though often appearing to deal with these things
as a matter of fact uses substitutes many of which have been listed but to review its first substitute is the excitement of speed mania stretched on the framework of an obvious plot or it deals with delicate informal anecdote as the short story does or fairy legerdemain or
patriotic banners or great surging mobs of the proletariat or big scenic outlooks or miraculous beings made visible
the more it becomes like a mural painting from which flashes of lightning come the more it realizes its genius men like gordon craig and granville barker are almost wasting their genius on the theatre the splendor photoplays are the great outlet for their type of imagination
and it should last but three reels that is an hour edgar poe said there was no such thing as a long poem there is certainly no such thing as a long moving picture masterpiece the stage production depends most largely upon the power of the actors
the movie show upon the genius of the producer the performers and the dumb objects are on equal terms in his paint buckets the star system is bad for the stage because the minor parts are smothered and the situations distorted to give the favorite an orbit
it is bad for the motion pictures because it obscures the producer while the leading actor is entitled to his glory as are all the actors their mannerisms should not overshadow the latest inspirations of the creator of the films
the display of the name of the corporation is no substitute for giving the glory to the producer an artistic photoplay is not the result of a military efficiency system it is not a factory made staple article but the product of the creative force of one soul
the flowering of a spirit that has the habit of perpetually renewing itself once i saw mary fuller in a classic it was the life and death of mary queen of scots
not only was the tense fidgety over american mary fuller transformed into a being who was a poppy and a tiger lily and a snow queen and a rose but she and her company including marc macdermott radiated the old scotch patriotism they made the picture a memorial
it reminded one of maurice hewlett's novel the queen's quair evidently all the actors were fused by some noble managerial mood
and this rule may apply to the stage but by comparison to motion picture performers stage actors are their own managers for they have an approximate notion of how they look in the eye of the audience which is but the human eye they can hear and gauge their own voices they have the same ears as their listeners
as the audience will do later the actors have not the least notion of their appearance also the words in the motion picture are not things whose force the actor can gauge the book under the table is one word the dog behind the chair is another
the window curtain flying in the breeze is another this chapter has implied that the performers were but paint on the canvas they are both paint and models
they are models in the sense that the young ellen terry was the inspiration for watts sir galahad they resemble the persons in private life who furnish the basis for novels dickens mother was the original of missus nickleby his father entered into wilkins micawber
but these people are not perpetually thrust upon us as mister and missus dickens we are glad to find them in the dickens biographies when the stories begin it is micawber and missus nickleby we want and the charles dickens atmosphere
the photoplays of the future will be written from the foundations for the films the soundest actors photographers and producers will be those who emphasize the points wherein the photoplay is unique what is adapted to complete expression in one art
generally secures but half expression in another the supreme photoplay will give us things that have been but half expressed in all other mediums allied to it once this principle is grasped there is every reason why the same people who have interested themselves in the advanced experimental drama
should take hold of the super photoplay the good citizens who can most easily grasp the distinction should be there to perpetuate the higher welfare of these institutions side by side this parallel development should come if for no other reason because
the two arts are still roughly classed together by the public the elect cannot teach the public what the drama is till they show them precisely what the photoplay is and is not just as the university has departments of both history and english teaching in amity
each one illuminating the work of the other so these two forms should live in each other's sight in fine and friendly contrast at present
the part assumed by france on the borders of that new world was peculiar and is little recognized while the spaniard roamed sea and land burning for achievement red hot with bigotry and avarice
and while england with soberer steps and a less dazzling result followed in the path of discovery and gold hunting it was from france that those barbarous shores first learned to serve the ends of peaceful commercial industry
a french writer however advances a more ambitious claim in the year fourteen eighty eight four years before the first voyage of columbus america he maintains
was found by frenchmen cousin
being at sea off the african coast was forced westward it is said by winds and currents to within sight of an unknown shore where he presently descried the mouth of a great river on board his ship was one pinzon whose conduct
made complaint to the magistracy who thereupon dismissed the offender from the maritime service of the town pinzon went to spain became known to columbus told him the discovery and joined him on his voyage of fourteen ninety two
to leave this cloudland of tradition and approach the confines of recorded history the normans offspring of an ancestry of conquerors
the bretons that stubborn hardy unchanging race who among druid monuments changeless as themselves still cling with celtic obstinacy to the thoughts and habits of the past the basques that primeval people older than history all frequented
and it is well established that in fifteen seventeen fifty castilian french and portuguese vessels were engaged in it at once while in fifteen twenty seven on the third of august eleven sail of norman one of breton
and two of portuguese fishermen were to be found in the bay of saint john from this time forth the newfoundland fishery was never abandoned french english spanish and portuguese made resort to the banks always jealous
often quarrelling but still drawing up treasure from those exhaustless mines and bearing home bountiful provision against the season of lent on this dim verge of the known world there were other perils than those of the waves
the rocks and shores of those sequestered seas had so thought the voyagers other tenants than the seal the walrus and the screaming sea fowl the bears which stole away their fish before their eyes and the wild natives dressed in seal skins
griffius so ran the story infested the mountains of labrador two islands north of newfoundland were given over to the fiends from whom they derived their name the isles of demons an old map
pictures their occupants at length devils rampant with wings horns and tail the passing voyager heard the din of their infernal orgies and woe to the sailor or the fisherman who ventured alone into the haunted woods true it is
and i myself have heard it not from one but from a great number of the sailors and pilots with whom i have made many voyages that when they passed this way they heard in the air
on the tops and about the masts a great clamor of men's voices confused and inarticulate such as you may hear from the crowd at a fair or market place whereupon they well knew that the isle of demons was not far off
and he adds that he himself when among the indians had seen them so tormented by these infernal persecutors that they would fall into his arms for relief on which repeating a passage of the gospel of saint john he had driven the imps of darkness to a speedy exodus
they are comely to look upon he further tells us yet by reason of their malice that island is of late abandoned and all who dwelt there have fled for refuge to the main while french fishermen plied their trade along these gloomy coasts
the french government spent it's energies on a different field the vitality of the kingdom was wasted in italian wars milan and naples offered a more tempting prize than the wilds of baccalaos eager for glory and for plunder
a swarm of restless nobles followed their knight errant king the would be paladin who misshapen in body and fantastic in mind had yet the power to raise a storm which the lapse of generations could not quell under charles the eighth and his successor
war and intrigue ruled the day and in the whirl of italian politics there was no leisure to think of a new world yet private enterprise was not quite benumbed in fifteen o six one denis of honfleur
the baron de lery made an abortive attempt at settlement on sable island where the cattle left by him remained and multiplied
there were in his nature seeds of nobleness seeds destined to bear little fruit chivalry and honor were always on his lips but francis the first a forsworn gentleman a despotic king
and added to a still prevailing barbarism the pestilential vices which hung fog like around the dawn of civilization yet he esteemed arts and letters and still more coveted the eclat which they could give
the light which was beginning to pierce the feudal darkness gathered its rays around his throne italy was rewarding the robbers who preyed on her with the treasures of her knowledge and her culture and italian genius of whatever stamp found ready patronage at the hands of francis
among artists philosophers and men of letters enrolled in his service stands the humbler name of a florentine navigator john verrazzano he was born of an ancient family which could boast names eminent in florentine history
and of which the last survivor died in eighteen nineteen he has been called a pirate and he was such in the same sense in which drake hawkins and other valiant sea rovers of his own and later times merited the name that is to say
he would plunder and kill a spaniard on the high seas without waiting for a declaration of war the wealth of the indies was pouring into the coffers of charles the fifth and the exploits of cortes had given new lustre to his crown
francis the first begrudged his hated rival the glories and profits of the new world he would fain have his share of the prize and verrazzano with four ships was despatched to seek out a passage westward to the rich kingdom of cathay
some doubt has of late been cast on the reality of this voyage of verrazzano and evidence mainly negative in kind has been adduced to prove the story of it a fabrication
but the difficulties of incredulity appear greater than those of belief and no ordinary degree of scepticism is required to reject the evidence that the narrative is essentially true towards the end of the year fifteen twenty three
but a storm fell upon him and with two of the vessels he ran back in distress to a port of brittany what became of the other two does not appear neither is it clear why after a preliminary cruise against the spaniards he pursued his voyage with one vessel alone a caravel called
with her he made for madeira and on the seventeenth of january fifteen twenty four set sail from a barren islet in its neighborhood and bore away for the unknown world in forty nine days they neared a low shore
not far from the site of wilmington in north carolina a newe land exclaims the voyager never before seen of any man either auncient or moderne verrazzano steered southward in search of a harbor and finding none turned northward again
presently he sent a boat ashore the inhabitants who had fled at first soon came down to the strand in wonder and admiration pointing out a landing place and making gestures of friendship these people says verrazzano goe altogether naked
which they fasten onto a narrowe girdle made of grasse they are of colour russet and not much unlike the saracens their hayre blacke thicke and not very long which they tye togeather in a knot behinde and weare it like a taile
he describes the shore as consisting of small low hillocks of fine sand intersected by creeks and inlets and beyond these a country
and many other sortes of trees vnknowne in europe which yeeld most sweete sanours farre from the shore still advancing northward
the surf ran high and the crew could not land but an adventurous young sailor jumped overboard and swam shoreward with a gift of beads and trinkets for the indians who stood watching him his heart failed as he drew near he flung his gift among them turned and struck out for the boat
the surf dashed him back flinging him with violence on the beach among the recipients of his bounty who seized him by the arms and legs and while he called lustily for aid
next they kindled a great fire doubtless to roast and devour him before the eyes of his comrades gazing in horror from their boat on the contrary
when recovering from his bewilderment he betrayed a strong desire to escape to his friends whereupon with great love clapping him fast about with many embracings they led him to the shore and stood watching till he had reached the boat it only remained to requite this kindness
and an opportunity soon occurred for coasting the shores of virginia or maryland a party went on shore and found an old woman a young girl and several children hiding with great terror in the grass having by various blandishments gained their confidence
in his boat through the narrows under the steep heights of staten island he saw the harbor within dotted with canoes of the feathered natives coming from the shore to welcome him but what most engaged the eyes of the white men were the fancied signs of mineral wealth
in the neighboring hills following the shores of long island
chapter six how herod slew hyrcanus and then hasted away to caesar and obtained the kingdom from him also and how a little time afterward
yet did there come upon him a danger that would hazard his entire dominions after antony had been beaten at the battle of actium by caesar octarian for at that time both herod's enemies and friends despaired of his affairs
for it was not probable that he would remain without punishment who had showed so much friendship for antony so it happened that his friends despaired and had no hopes of his escape
but for his enemies they all outwardly appeared to be troubled at his case but were privately very glad of it as hoping to obtain a change for the better as for herod himself he saw that there was no one of royal dignity
left but hyrcanus and therefore he thought it would be for his advantage not to suffer him to be an obstacle in his way any longer for that in case he himself survived and escaped the danger he was in he thought
at such junctures of affairs as was more worthy of the kingdom than himself and in case he should be slain by caesar his envy prompted him to desire to slay him
there was a certain occasion afforded him for hyrcanus was of so mild a temper both then
nor to concern himself with innovations but left all to fortune
was a lover of strife and was exceeding desirous of a change of the government and spake to her father not to bear for ever herod's injurious treatment of their family but to anticipate their future hopes as he safely might
and desired him to write about these matters to malchus who was then governor of arabia to receive them and to secure them from herod for that if they went away and herod's affairs proved to be
as it was likely they would be by reason of caesar's enmity to him they should then be the only persons that could take the government and this both on account of the royal family they were of and on account of the good disposition of
the multitude to them while she used these persuasions hyrcanus put off her suit but as she showed that she was a woman and a contentious woman too and would not desist
either night or day but would always be speaking to him about these matters and about herod's treacherous designs she at last prevailed with him to intrust
with a letter wherein his resolution was declared and he desired the arabian governor to send to him some horsemen who should receive him and conduct him to the lake asphaltites which is from the bounds of jerusalem three hundred furlongs
and he did therefore trust dositheus with this letter because he was a careful attendant on him and on alexandra and had no small occasions to bear ill will to herod
for he was a kinsman of one joseph whom he had slain and a brother of those that were formerly slain at tyre by antony yet could not these motives induce dositheus to serve hyrcanus in this affair
for preferring the hopes he had from the present king to those he had from him he gave herod the letter so he took his kindness in good part and bid him besides do what he had already done that is go on in serving him by rolling up
malchus's intentions also
the arabian governor returned back for answer that he would receive hyrcanus and all that should come with him and even all the jews that were of his party that he would moreover send forces sufficient to secure them in their journey
and that he should be in no want of any thing he should desire now as soon as herod had received this letter he immediately sent for hyrcanus and questioned him about the league he had made with malchus
and when he denied it he showed his letter to the sanhedrim
as it is contained in the commentaries of king herod but other historians do not agree with them for they suppose that herod did not find but rather make this an occasion for thus putting him to death and that by treacherously laying a snare for him
for thus do they write that herod and he were once at a treat and that herod had given no occasion to suspect that he was displeased at him but put this question to hyrcanus
whether he had received any letters from malchus and when he answered that he had received letters but those of salutation only and when he asked further whether he had not received any presents from him
and when he had replied that he had received no more than four horses to ride on which malchus had sent him they pretended that herod charged these upon him as the crimes of bribery and treason and gave order that he should be led away and slain
of no offense when he was thus brought to his end they alleged how mild his temper had been and that even in his youth he had never given any demonstration of boldness or rashness
and that the case was the same when he came to be king but that he even then committed the management of the greatest part of public affairs to antipater and that he was now above fourscore years old
and knew that herod's government was in a secure state he also came over euphrates and left those who greatly honored him beyond that river
of innovation and not at all agreeable to his temper
and thus did he end his life after he had endured various and manifold turns of fortune in his lifetime for he was made high priest of the jewish nation
alexandra's reign who held the government nine years and when after his mother's death he took the kingdom himself and held it three months he lost it by the means of his brother aristobulus
and enjoyed them forty years but when he was again deprived by antigonus
the parthians and thence returned home again after some time on account of the hopes that herod had given him none of which came to pass according to his expectation but he still conflicted with many misfortunes
and what was the heaviest calamity of all as we have related already he came to an end which was undeserved by him his character appeared to be that of a man of a mild and moderate disposition
and suffered the administration of affairs to be generally done by others under him he was averse to much meddling with the public nor had shrewdness enough to govern a kingdom and both antipater
and herod came to their greatness by reason of his mildness and at last he met with such an end from them
made haste to caesar and because he could not have any hopes of kindness from him on account of the friendship he had for antony he had a suspicion of alexandra lest she should take this opportunity to bring the multitude to a revolt
and introduce a sedition into the affairs of the kingdom so he committed the care of every thing to his brother pheroras and placed his mother cypros and his sister salome and the whole family at masada
he should take care of the government
because of the misunderstanding between her and his sister and his sister's mother which made it impossible for them to live together he placed her at alexandrium with alexandra her mother and left his treasurer joseph
they also had it in charge that if they should hear any mischief had befallen him they should kill them both and as far as they were able to
preserve the kingdom for his sons and for his brother pheroras six when he had given them this charge he made haste to rhodes to meet caesar and when he had sailed to that city he took off his diadem but remitted nothing else of his usual dignity
and when upon his meeting him he desired that he would let him speak to him he therein exhibited a much more noble specimen of a great soul for he did not betake himself to supplications as men usually do upon such occasions
nor offered him any petition as if he were an offender but after an undaunted manner gave an account of what he had done for he spake thus to caesar that he had the greatest friendship for antony
and did every thing he could that he might attain the government that he was not indeed in the army with him because the arabians had diverted him but that he had sent him both money and corn which was but too little in comparison of what he ought to have done for him
to be a benefactor he is obliged to hazard every thing to use every faculty of his soul every member of his body and all the wealth he hath for him in which i confess i have been too deficient however
upon his defeat at actium nor upon the evident change of his fortune have i transferred my hopes from him to another but have preserved myself though not as a valuable fellow soldier yet certainly as a faithful counselor
to antony when i demonstrated to him that the only way that he had to save himself and not to lose all his authority was to slay cleopatra for when she was once dead there would be room for him to retain his authority
and rather to bring thee to make a composition with him than to continue at enmity any longer none of which advises would he attend to but preferred his own rash resolution before them which have happened unprofitably for him
but profitably for thee now therefore in case thou determinest about me and my alacrity in serving antony according to thy anger at him
nor will i be ashamed to own and that publicly too that i had a great kindness for him
that we shall do and be the same to thyself for it is but changing the names and the firmness of friendship that we shall bear to thee
procured him caesar's good will accordingly
as he had been to antony and then had him in great esteem
had very readily assisted him in the affair of the gladiators so when he had obtained such a kind reception and had beyond all his hopes procured his crown to be more entirely and firmly settled upon him than ever by caesar's donation
as well as by that decree of the romans which caesar took care to procure for his greater security he conducted caesar on his way to egypt and made presents even beyond his ability to both him and his friends and in general behaved himself with great
magnanimity he also desired that caesar would not put to death one alexander who had been a companion of antony but caesar had sworn to put him to death and so he could not obtain that his petition
and now he returned to judea again with greater honor and assurance than ever and affrighted those
as still acquiring from his very dangers greater splendor than before by the favor of god to him so he prepared for the reception of caesar as he was going out of syria to invade egypt and when he came he entertained him at ptolemais
he also bestowed presents on the army and brought them provisions in abundance he also proved to be one of caesar's most cordial friends and put the army in array and rode along with caesar
and had a hundred and fifty men well appointed in all respects after a rich and sumptuous manner for the better reception of him and his friends he also provided them with what they should want as they passed over the dry desert insomuch that they lacked
neither wine nor water which last the soldiers stood in the greatest need of and besides he presented caesar
the good will of them all because he was assisting to them in a much greater and more splendid degree than the kingdom he had obtained could afford by which means he more and more demonstrated to caesar the firmness of his friendship
or a system of signs representing the sounds of human speech without it our present civilization could scarcely have been possible no solution of the origin of our european alphabet has yet been obtained
hebrews and cushites but beyond this the light fails us
whom the egyptians call thouth
that both the phoenicians and egyptians referred the invention to a period older than their own separate political existence and to an older nation from which both peoples received it
the first hermes here referred to afterward called mercury by the romans was a son of zeus and maia a daughter of atlas this is the same maia whom the abbe brasseur de bourbourg identifies
with the maya of central america sir william drummond in his origines said there seems to be no way of accounting either for the early use of letters among so many different nations
or for the resemblance which existed between some of the graphic systems employed by those nations than by supposing hieroglyphical writing if i may be allowed the term to have been in use among the tsabaists in the first ages after the flood
when tsabaisin planet worship was the religion of almost every country that was yet inhabited sir henry rawlinson says so great is the analogy between the first principles of the science of writing as it appears to have been pursued in chaldea
and as we can actually trace its progress in egypt
or even of any one age like all our other acquisitions it must have been the slow growth and accretion of ages it must have risen step by step from picture writing through an intermediate condition like that of the chinese
where each word or thing was represented by a separate sign the fact that so old and enlightened a people as the chinese have never reached a phonetic alphabet
among whom it was invented and the lapse of time before they attained to it humboldt says according to the views which since champollion's great discovery have been gradually adopted regarding the earlier condition
are to be regarded as a phonetic alphabet that has originated from pictorial writing as one in which the ideal signification of the symbols is wholly disregarded
the nation that became mistress of the seas established communication with every shore and monopolized the commerce of the known world must have substituted a phonetic alphabet for the hieroglyphics
of commercial enterprise retained the hieroglyphic system
it must be remembered that some of the letters of our alphabet are inventions of the later nations
or y the two forms being used at first indifferently they added the x sign
of the phoenicians into th or theta z and s into signs for double consonants they turned the phoenician y
the greeks converted the phoenician alphabet which was partly consonantal into one purely phonetic a perfect instrument for the expression of spoken language the w was also added to the phoenician alphabet the romans added the y at first
indicated by the same sound a sign for j was afterward added we have also in common with other european languages added a double u that is v v or w
the letters then which we owe to the phoenicians are a b c d e h i k l m n o
which possessed a phonetic alphabet in any respect kindred to this phoenician alphabet it cannot be the chinese alphabet which has more signs than words it cannot be the cuneiform alphabet of assyria with its seven hundred arrow shaped characters
none of which bear the slightest affinity to the phoenician letters it is a surprising fact that we find in central america a phonetic alphabet this is in the alphabet of the mayas the ancient people of the peninsula of yucatan
who claim that their civilization came to them across the sea in ships from the east that is from the direction of atlantis the mayas succeeded to the colhuas whose era terminated one thousand years before the time of christ
has come to us through bishop landa one of the early missionary bishops
but the works of the devil he fortunately however preserved for posterity the alphabet of this people we present it herewith landa's alphabet
diego de landa was the first bishop of yucatan he wrote a history of the mayas and their country which was preserved in manuscript at madrid in the library of the royal academy of history
it contains a description and explanation of the phonetic alphabet of the mayas landa's manuscript seems to have lain neglected in the library for little
who by means of it has deciphered some of the old american writings he says the alphabet and signs explained by landa have been to me a rosetta stone
since and the ancient european forms it must however be remembered that the mayas are one of the most conservative peoples in the world they still adhere with striking pertinacity to the language they spoke when columbus landed on san salvador
and it is believed that that language is the same as the one inscribed on the most ancient monuments of their country senor pimental says of them the indians have preserved this idiom with such
tenacity that they will speak no other it is necessary for the whites to address them in their own language to communicate with them
as did the phoenician that it has not departed so widely from the original forms received from the colhuas the alphabet but when we consider the vast extent of time which has elapsed and the fact that we are probably
without the intermediate stages of the alphabet which preceded the archaic phoenician
even though we concede that they are related if we find decided affinities between two or three letters we may reasonably presume that similar coincidences existed as to many others which have disappeared under the attrition of centuries
the first thought that occurs to us on examining the landa alphabet is the complex and ornate character of the letters instead of the two or three strokes with which we indicate a sign
and we find that these are themselves simplifications of older forms of a still more complex character take for instance the letter
as in the following which we copy from the tablet of the cross at palenque we take
hieroglyphical figures six contain human faces
we can see therefore in the landa alphabet a tendency to simplification and this is what we would naturally expect when the emblems which were probably first intended for religious inscriptions
precisely the maya letter h simplified we turn to the archaic hebrew
so did the phoenicians slope their letters to the left hence the maya sign
in some of the phoenician alphabets we even find the letter h made with the double strokes above and below as in the maya h
in time the greeks carried the work of simplification still farther and eliminated the top lines
and they left the letter as it has come down to us h now it may be said that all this is coincidence if it is it is certainly remarkable
the m here is certainly indicated by the central part of this combination the figure where does that come from it is clearly taken from the heart of the original figure wherein it appears what does this prove
some characteristic mark with which they represented the whole figure now let us apply this rule we have seen in the table of alphabets that in every language from our own day to the time of the phoenicians o has been represented by a circle
or a circle within a circle now where did the phoenicians get it clearly from the mayas
to exist in the case of the maya m to these
found in each is the circle
as in the case of the m is proved by the very sign used at the foot of landa's alphabet
or mo it is probably the latter and in it we have the circle detached from the hieroglyph we find the precise maya o a circle in a circle or a dot within a
side of the circle instead of below it as in the maya are these another set of coincidences take another letter
this is something like our letter s but quite unlike our n but let us examine into the pedigree of our n we find in the archaic ethiopian a language as old as the egyptian and which represents the cushite branch of the atlantean stock
in archaic phoenician it comes still closer to the s shape thus
the old hebrew the moab stone
the later phoenicians
all these forms seem to be representations of a serpent we turn to the valley of the nile and we find that the egyptian
can anything be more significant than to find the serpent
and in all these old world languages
this does not look much like our letter k but let us examine it following the precedent
let us see what is the distinguishing feature here it is clearly the figure of a serpent standing erect with its tail doubled around its middle forming a circle
an erect serpent with an enlarged body a sacred emblem found in the hair of their deities
precisely as in the maya thus
the serpent and the protuberance
now we turn to the ancient ethiopian sign for k ka
that the two lines projecting from the upright stroke of our english k are a reminiscence of the convolution of the serpent in the maya original and the egyptian copy
what is the distinctive mark about this figure it is the cross composed of two curved lines
like a figure eight here again we turn to the valley of the nile
we even find the curved lines of the maya t which give
thus the punic t repeats the maya form almost exactly as
now suppose a busy people compelled to make this mark every day for a thousand years and generally in a hurry and the cross would soon be made without curving the lines it would become x
the first looks very much like the foot of a lion or tiger the third is plainly a foot or boot if one were required to give hurriedly a rude outline of either of these
the ancient greek was the foot reversed
the later greek became our a
now what is the peculiarity of this hieroglyph the circle below is not significant for there are many circular figures in the maya alphabet clearly if one was called upon to simplify this he would retain the two small circles joined side by side
at the top and would indicate the lower circle with a line or dash and when we turn to the egyptian q we find it in this shape
it would appear that the earliest phoenician alphabet did not contain the letter r
a very fair representation of an r lying upon its face is it not another remarkable coincidence that the p in both maya and phoenician should contain this singular sign
on the principle already indicated to reduce this to its elements we would use a figure like this
with the letter m that is draw from the inside of the hieroglyph some symbol that will briefly indicate the whole letter we will have one of two forms
and either of these forms brings us quite close to the letter l of the old world
while in the archaic hebrew we have the same crescent figure
we see this form on the maya monuments the dots in time were indicated by strokes
this is exactly the form found on the american monuments the maya
the left hand line was dropped and we come to the figure used on the stone of moab
this in time became the old hebrew or
there is however a symbol called ca
immediately above the letter k it is probable that the sign ca
as in our words citron circle civil circus et cetera as it is written in the maya alphabet ca and not k it evidently represents a different sound
a somewhat similar sign is found in the body of the symbol for k
to be a simplification of ca but turned downward if now we turn to the egyptian letters we find the sign
while the sign for k
the resemblance still more striking to kindred european letters
egyptian hieroglyph for s is
and the illyrian s
in some cases the pedigree is so plain as to be indisputable
surely all this cannot be accident but we find another singular proof of the truth of this theory it will be seen that the maya alphabet lacks the letter d and the letter r the mexican alphabet possessed a d the sounds d
and t were probably indicated in the
in the oldest known form of the phoenician alphabet that found on the moab stone we find in the same way but one sign to express the d and t d does not occur on the etruscan monuments t being used in its place
they added two new signs for the letters d and r
the same sign with very little modification which they had already obtained from the maya alphabet as the symbol for b to illustrate this we place the signs side by side
yet they tell us that taaut made records and delivered them to his successors and to foreigners
isiris osiris the egyptian god
in the alphabetical table which we herewith append we have represented the sign v or vau or f by the maya sign for u
some other kindred writings the vau takes the place of f and indicates
f occurs in the same place also on the idalian tablet of cyprus in lycian also in tuarik berber and some other writings american cyclopaedia
since now thou hast seen what is the form of the imperfect good and what the form of the perfect also
methinks i should next show in what manner this perfection of felicity is built up and here i conceive it proper to inquire first whether any excellence such as thou hast lately defined
can exist in the nature of things lest we be deceived by an empty fiction of thought to which no true reality answers
the source of all things good for everything which is called imperfect is spoken of as imperfect by reason of the privation of some perfection
so it comes to pass that whenever imperfection is found in any particular there must necessarily be a perfection in respect of that particular also for were there no such perfection
it is utterly inconceivable how that so called im perfection should come into existence nature does not make a beginning with things mutilated and imperfect
she starts with what is whole and perfect and falls away later to these feeble and inferior productions so if there is as we showed before a happiness of a frail and imperfect kind
it cannot be doubted but there is also a happiness substantial and perfect most true is thy conclusion and most sure said i next
to consider where the dwelling place of this happiness may be the common belief of all mankind agrees that god the supreme of all things is good for since nothing can be imagined better than god
how can we doubt him to be good than whom there is nothing better now reason shows god to be good in such wise as to prove that in him is perfect good for were it not so
he would not be supreme of all things for there would be something else more excellent possessed of perfect good which would seem to have the advantage in priority and dignity
but we have determined that true happiness is the perfect good therefore true happiness must dwell in the supreme deity i accept thy reasonings said i
they cannot in any wise be disputed but come see how strictly and incontrovertibly thou mayst prove this our assertion
of the highest good in what way pray said i do not rashly suppose that he who is the father of all things hath received that highest good of which he is said to be possessed either from some external source
or hath it as a natural endowment in such sort that thou mightest consider the essence of the happiness possessed
distinct and different for if thou deemest it received from without thou mayst esteem that which gives more excellent than that which has received
but him we most worthily acknowledge to be the most supremely excellent of all things if however it is in him by nature yet is logically distinct the thought is inconceivable
since we are speaking of god who is supreme of all things who was there to join these distinct essences finally when one thing is different from another the things so conceived as distinct
cannot be identical therefore that which of its own nature is distinct from the highest good is not itself the highest good an impious thought of him than whom tis plain nothing can be more excellent
for universally nothing can be better in nature than the source from which it has come therefore on most true grounds of reason would i conclude that which is the source of all things to be
in its own essence the highest good and most justly said i but the highest good has been admitted to be happiness yes then said she
it is necessary to acknowledge that god is very happiness yes said i i cannot gainsay my former admissions and i see clearly that this is a necessary inference therefrom
reflect also said she whether the same conclusion is not further confirmed by considering that there cannot be two supreme goods distinct one from the other for the goods which are different
clearly cannot be severally each what the other is wherefore neither of the two can be perfect since to either the other is wanting
by no means then can goods which are supreme be different one from the other but we have concluded that both happiness and god are the supreme good wherefore that which is highest divinity
to which they give the name deductions so will i add here a sort of corollary for since men become happy by the acquisition of happiness while happiness is very godship
it is manifest that they become happy by the acquisition of godship but as by the acquisition of justice men become just and wise by the acquisition of wisdom
so by parity of reasoning by acquiring godship they must of necessity become gods so every man who is happy is a god and though in nature god is one only yet there is nothing to hinder that very many
should be gods by participation in that nature a fair conclusion and a precious said i deduction or corollary by whichever name thou wilt call it and yet said she
why seeing happiness has many particulars included under it should all these be regarded as forming one body of happiness as it were made up of various parts
or is there some one of them which forms the full essence of happiness while all the rest are relative to this i would thou wouldst unfold the whole matter to me at large
we judge happiness to be good do we not yea the supreme good and this superlative applies to all for this same happiness is adjudged to be the completest independence
the highest power reverence renown and pleasure what then are all these goods independence power and the rest to be deemed members of happiness as it were
or are they all relative to good as to their summit and crown i understand the problem but i desire to hear how thou wouldst solve it well then listen to the determination of the matter
were all these members composing happiness they would differ severally one from the other for this is the nature of parts
all these however have been proved to be the same therefore they cannot possibly be members otherwise happiness will seem to be built up out of one member which cannot be
there can be no doubt as to that said i but i am impatient to hear what remains why it is manifest that all the others are relative to the good
for the very reason why independence is sought is that it is judged good and so power also because it is believed to be good the same too may be supposed of reverence of renown and of pleasant delight
good then is the sum and source of all desirable things that which has not in itself any good either in reality or in semblance can in no wise be desired contrariwise
even things which by nature are not good are desired as if they were truly good if they seem to be so
now that for the sake of which anything is desired itself seems to be most wished for for instance if anyone wishes to ride for the sake of health he does not so much wish for the exercise of riding
as the benefit of his health since then all things are sought for the sake of the good it is not these so much as good itself that is sought by all
was we agreed happiness wherefore thus also it appears that it is happiness alone which is sought from all which it is transparently clear that the essence of absolute good and of happiness
is one and the same i cannot see how anyone can dissent from these conclusions
that god and true happiness are one and the same yes said i then we can safely conclude also that god's essence is seated in absolute good and nowhere else
hither come all ye whose minds lust with rosy fetters binds lust to bondage hard compelling
here shall be your labour's close here your haven of repose come to your one refuge press wide it stands to all distress
not the tagus precious sands
emerald green and glistering white
but they rather leave the mind in its native darkness blind for the fairest beams they shed in earth's lowest depths were fed but the splendour that supplies strength and vigour to the skies
and the universe controls
found that the sun was going down i had already discovered that i was getting hungry i went out at the other door into the close or farmyard and ran across to the house no one was there
something moved me to climb on the form and look out of a little window from which i could see the manse and the road from it to my dismay there was missus mitchell coming towards the farm
i possessed my wits sufficiently to run first to kirsty's press and secure a good supply of oatcake with which i then sped like a hunted hare to her form
i had soon drawn the stopper of straw into the mouth of the hole where hearing no one approach i began to eat my oatcake and fell asleep again before i had finished
and as i slept i dreamed my dream the sun was looking very grave and the moon reflected his concern they were not satisfied with me at length the sun shook his head
on an axis and the moon thereupon shook herself in response then they nodded to each other as much as to say that is entirely my own opinion at last they began to talk
not as men converse but both at once yet each listening while each spoke i heard no word but their lips moved most busily their eyebrows went up
and down their eyelids winked and winked and their cheeks puckered and relaxed incessantly there was an absolute storm of expression upon their faces their very noses twisted and curled
it seemed as if in the agony of their talk their countenances would go to pieces for the stars they darted about hither and thither gathered into groups dispersed and formed new groups
and having no faces yet but being a sort of celestial tadpoles indicated by their motions alone that they took an active interest in the questions agitating their parents some of them kept darting up and down the ladder of rays
like phosphorescent sparks in the sea foam
i was in darkness but not in my own bed when i proceeded to turn i found myself hemmed in on all sides i could not stretch my arms and there was hardly room for my body between my feet and my head
i was dreadfully frightened at first and felt as if i were being slowly stifled
i recalled the horrible school
over whose defeat however i rejoiced with the pride of a dragon slayer
but what was my dismay to find that even when my hand went out into space no light came through the opening what could it mean surely i had not grown blind while i lay asleep
hurriedly i shot out the remainder of the stopper of straw and crept from the hole in the great barn there was but the dullest glimmer of light i had almost said the clumsiest reduction of darkness
i tumbled at one of the doors rather than ran to it i found it fast
which i could draw back the open door revealed the dark night before me was the cornyard as we called it full of ricks huge and very positive although dim they rose betwixt me and the sky
between their tops i saw only stars and darkness i turned and looked back into the barn it appeared a horrible cave filled with darkness i remembered there were rats in it
even to go out at the opposite door i forgot how soundly and peacefully i had slept in it i stepped out into the night with the grass of the corn yard under my feet
the awful vault of heaven over my head and those shadowy ricks around me it was a relief to lay my hand on one of them and feel that it was solid i half groped my way through them
and got out into the open field
but had in the course of a hundred years grown into the grimmest largest most grotesque trees i have ever seen of the kind i had always been a little afraid of them even in the daytime but they did me no hurt
alone there lay the awfulness of it i had never before known what the night was the real sting of its fear lay in this that there was nobody else in it
everybody besides me was asleep all over the world and had abandoned me to my fate whatever might come out of the darkness to seize me when i got round the edge of the stone wall
which on another side bounded the corn yard there was the moon crescent as i saw her in my dream but low down towards the horizon and lying almost upon her rounded back she looked very disconsolate and dim
the stars were high up away in the heavens they did not look like the children of the sun and moon at all and they took no heed of me yet there was a grandeur in my desolation that would have elevated my heart but for the fear
if i had had one living creature nigh me if only the stupid calf whose dull sleepy low startled me so dreadfully as i stood staring about me
for at this season of the year it is not dark there all night long when the sky is unclouded away in the north was the great bear i knew that constellation for by it one of the men had taught me to find the pole star
nearly under it was the light of the sun creeping round by the north towards the spot in the east where he would rise again
i gazed at that pale faded light and all at once i remembered that god was near me but i did not know what god is then as i know now and when i thought about him then which was neither much nor often
my idea of him was not like him it was merely a confused mixture of other people's fancies about him and my own i had not learned how beautiful god is
and must punish them to make them good when i thought of him now in the silent starry night a yet greater terror seized me and i ran stumbling over the uneven field does my reader
wonder whither i fled whither should i fly but home true missus mitchell was there but there was another there as well even kirsty would not do in this terror home was the only refuge
for my father was there i sped for the manse but as i approached it a new apprehension laid hold of my trembling heart i was not sure but i thought the door was always locked at night
i drew nearer the place of possible refuge rose before me i stood on the grass plot in front of it there was no light in its eyes its mouth was closed it was silent as one of the ricks
above it shone the speechless stars nothing was alive nothing would speak i went up the few rough hewn granite
i closed the door behind me and almost sick with the misery of a being where no other being was to comfort it i groped my way to my father's room when i once had my hand on his door
the warm tide of courage began again to flow from my heart i opened this door too very quietly for was not the dragon asleep down below papa papa i cried in an eager whisper
no voice came in reply and the place was yet more silent than the night or the hall he must be asleep i was afraid to call louder
i stretched out my hands to feel for him
i climbed up on the bed i felt all across it utter desertion seized my soul my father was not there was it a horrible dream should i ever awake
my heart sank totally within me i could bear no more i fell down on the bed weeping bitterly and wept myself asleep
and the desolation of this night was my key to that dream once more i awoke to a sense of misery and stretched out my arms crying papa papa the same moment i found my father's arms around me
he folded me close to him and said hush ranald my boy here i am you are quite safe i nestled as close to him as i could go and wept for blessedness oh papa i sobbed
i thought i had lost you and i thought i had lost you my boy tell me all about it between my narrative and my replies to his questionings he had soon gathered the whole story
and i in my turn learned the dismay of the household when i did not appear kirsty told what she knew they searched everywhere but could not find me and great as my misery had been
my father's had been greater than mine while i stood forsaken and desolate in the field they had been searching along the banks of the river but the herd had had an idea and although they had already searched the barn and every place they could think of
found me fast asleep on his so fast that he undressed me and laid me in the bed without my once opening my eyes the more strange as i had already slept so long but sorrow is very sleepy
indeed said i i see clearly enough that neither is independence to be found in wealth nor power in sovereignty nor reverence in dignities nor fame in glory nor true joy in pleasures
i seem to have some inkling but i should like to learn more at large from thee why truly the reason is hard at hand
that which is simple and indivisible by nature human error separates and transforms from the true and perfect to the false and imperfect dost thou imagine that which lacketh nothing can want power
certainly not right for if there is any feebleness of strength in anything in this there must necessarily be need of external protection that is so accordingly
the nature of independence and power is one and the same it seems so well but dost think that anything of such a nature as this can be looked upon with contempt
or is it rather of all things most worthy of veneration nay there can be no doubt as to that let us then add reverence to independence and power
and conclude these three to be one we must if we will acknowledge the truth thinkest thou then this combination of qualities to be obscure and without distinction
or rather famous in all renown just consider can that want renown which has been agreed to be lacking in nothing to be supreme in power
and so comes to appear somewhat poor in esteem i cannot but acknowledge that being what it is this union of qualities is also right famous it follows then
that we must admit that renown is not different from the other three it does said i that then which needs nothing outside itself which can accomplish all things in its own strength
how any sadness can find entrance into such a state wherefore i must needs acknowledge it full of joy at least if our former conclusions are to hold then for the same reasons
this also is necessary that independence power renown reverence and sweetness of delight are different only in name but in substance differ no wise one from the other
it is said i this then which is one and simple by nature human perversity separates and in trying to win a part of that which has no parts
since there are no portions but also the whole to which it does not dream of aspiring how so said i he who to escape want seeks riches gives himself no concern about power
he prefers a mean and low estate and also denies himself many pleasures dear to nature to avoid losing the money which he has gained but at this rate he does not even attain to independence
a weakling void of strength vexed by distresses mean and despised and buried in obscurity he again who thirsts alone for power squanders his wealth
and thinks fame and rank alike worthless without power but thou seest in how many ways his state also is defective sometimes it happens that he lacks necessaries
and since he cannot rid himself of these inconveniences even ceases to have that power which was his whole end and aim in like manner may we cast up the reckoning in case of rank
of glory or of pleasure for since each one of these severally is identical with the rest whosoever seeks any one of them without the others
does not even lay hold of that one which he makes his aim well said i what then suppose anyone desire to obtain them together
he does indeed wish for happiness as a whole but will he find it in these things which as we have proved
nay by no means said i then happiness must certainly not be sought in these things which severally are believed to afford some one of the blessings most to be desired they must not i admit
no conclusion could be more true so then the form and the causes of false happiness are set before thine eyes now turn thy gaze to the other side there
thou wilt straightway see the true happiness i promised
tis plain to the blind said i thou didst point it out even now in seeking to unfold the causes of the false
that is true and perfect happiness which crowns one with the union of independence power reverence renown and joy and to prove to thee with how deep an insight i have listened since all these are the same
that which can truly bestow one of them i know to be without doubt full and complete happiness happy art thou my scholar in this thy conviction only one thing shouldst thou add
what is that said i is there aught thinkest thou amid these mortal and perishable things which can produce a state such as this nay surely not
and this thou hast so amply demonstrated that no word more is needed well then these things seem to give to mortals shadows of the true good or some kind of imperfect good
but the true and perfect good they cannot bestow even so said i since then thou hast learnt what that true happiness is and what men falsely call happiness
it now remains that thou shouldst learn from what source to seek this yes to this i have long been eagerly looking forward well since as plato maintains in the timaeus
we ought even in the most trivial matters to implore the divine protection what thinkest thou should we now do in order to deserve to find the seat of that highest good
we must invoke the father of all things said i for without this no enterprise sets out from a right beginning
and forthwith lifted up her voice and sang
to all that moves the source of movement fixed thyself and moveless thee no cause impelled extrinsic this proportioned frame to shape from shapeless matter
but deep set within thy inmost being the form of perfect good from envy free and thou didst mould the whole to that supernal pattern beauteous the world in thee thus imaged
being thyself most beautiful so thou the work didst fashion in that fair likeness bidding it put on perfection through the exquisite perfectness of every part's contrivance
or weight of waters whelm the earth thou joinest and diffusest through the whole linking accordantly its several parts a soul of threefold nature moving all
this cleft in twain and in two circles gathered speeds in a path that on itself returns encompassing mind's limits and conforms the heavens to her true semblance
each to its starry car affixing
these by a law benign thou biddest turn again
and shine in thine own splendour
demi was one of the children who show plainly the effect of intelligent love and care for soul and body worked harmoniously together the natural refinement which nothing but home influence can teach gave him sweet and simple manners his mother had cherished an innocent and loving heart in him
not tasking it with long hard lessons parrot learned but helping it to unfold as naturally and beautifully as sun and dew help roses bloom he was not a perfect child by any means but his faults were of the better sort
and being early taught the secret of self control he was not left at the mercy of appetites and passions as some poor little mortals are and then punished for yielding to the temptations against which they have no armor
a quiet quaint boy was demi serious yet cheery quite unconscious that he was unusually bright and beautiful yet quick to see and love intelligence or beauty in other children very fond of books and full of lively fancies born of a strong imagination and a spiritual nature
these traits made his parents anxious to balance them with useful knowledge and healthful society lest they should make him one of those pale precocious children who amaze and delight a family sometimes and fade away like hot house flowers
so demi was transplanted to plumfield and took so kindly to the life there that meg and john and grandpa felt satisfied that they had done well mixing with other boys brought out the practical side of him roused his spirit and brushed away the
pretty cobwebs he was so fond of spinning in that little brain of his to be sure he rather shocked his mother when he came home by banging doors saying by george emphatically and demanding tall thick boots that clumped like papa's
but john rejoiced over him laughed at his explosive remarks got the boots and said contentedly he is doing well so let him clump i want my son to be a manly boy and this temporary roughness won't hurt him we can polish him up by and by
so don't hurry him daisy was as sunshiny and charming as ever with all sorts of womanlinesses budding in her for she was like her gentle mother and delighted in domestic things she had a family of dolls whom she brought up in the most exemplary manner
she could not get on without her little work basket and bits of sewing which she did so nicely that demi frequently pulled out his handkerchief display her neat stitches and baby josy had a flannel petticoat beautifully made by sister daisy
and help him with his lessons for they kept abreast there and had no thought of rivalry the love between them was as strong as ever and no one could laugh demi out of his affectionate ways with daisy
he fought her battles valiantly and never could understand why boys should be ashamed to say right out that they loved their sisters daisy adored her twin thought my brother the most remarkable boy in the world and every morning in her little wrapper
trotted to tap at his door with a motherly get up my dear it's most breakfast time and here's your clean collar
for he never was still fortunately he was not mischievous nor very brave
teddy was too young to play a very important part in the affairs of plumfield yet he had his little sphere and filled it beautifully every one felt the need of a pet at times and baby was always ready to accommodate for kissing and cuddling suited him excellently
missus jo seldom stirred without him so he had his little finger in all the domestic pies
dick brown and adolphus or dolly pettingill were two eight year olds dolly stuttered badly but was gradually getting over it for no one was allowed to mock him and mister bhaer tried to cure it by making him talk slowly dolly was a good little lad
quite uninteresting and ordinary but he flourished here and went through his daily duties and pleasures with placid content and propriety dick brown's affliction was a crooked back yet he bore his burden so cheerfully that demi once asked in his queer way do humps make people good natured
i'd like one if they do dick was always merry and did his best to be like other boys
oh i'm the dromedary don't you see the hump on my back was the laughing answer
as dick ambled past her looking like a very happy but a very feeble little dromedary beside stout stuffy who did the elephant with ponderous propriety jack ford was a sharp rather a sly lad who was sent to this school because it was cheap
many men would have thought him a smart boy but mister bhaer did not like his way of illustrating that yankee word and thought his unboyish keenness and money loving as much of an affliction as dolly's stutter or dick's hump ned barker was like a thousand other boys of fourteen all legs blunder and bluster
indeed the family called him the blunderbuss and always expected to see him tumble over the chairs bump against the tables and knock down any small articles near him he bragged a good deal about what he could do but seldom did any thing to prove it was not brave and a little given to tale telling
and then thought him too delicate to study so that at twelve years old he was a pale puffy boy dull fretful and lazy a friend persuaded her to send him to plumfield and there he soon got waked up for sweet things were seldom allowed much exercise required
billy ward was what the scotch tenderly call an innocent for though thirteen years old he was like a child of six
giving him all sorts of hard lessons keeping at his books six hours a day and expecting him to absorb knowledge as a strasburg goose does the food crammed down its throat he thought he was doing his duty but he nearly killed the boy for a fever gave the poor child a sad holiday
and when he recovered the overtasked brain gave out
it was a terrible lesson to his ambitious father he could not bear the sight of his promising child changed to a feeble idiot and he sent him away to plumfield scarcely hoping that he could be helped but sure that he would be kindly treated
day after day he pored over the alphabet proudly said a and b
mister bhaer had infinite patience with him and kept on in spite of the apparent hopelessness of the task not caring for book lessons but trying gently to clear away the mists from the darkened mind and give it back intelligence enough to make the boy less a burden and an affliction
or follow silas the man from place to place seeing him work
tommy bangs was the scapegrace of the school
as full of mischief as a monkey yet so good hearted that one could not help forgiving his tricks so scatter brained that words went by him like the wind
or proposed all sorts of queer punishments to be inflicted upon himself
from the breaking of tommy's own neck to the blowing up of the entire family with gunpowder and nursey had a particular drawer in which she kept bandages plasters and salves for his especial use for tommy was always being brought in half dead but nothing ever killed him
and he arose from every downfall with redoubled vigor the first day he came he chopped the top off one finger in the hay cutter
got run away with and had his ears boxed violent by asia who caught him luxuriously skimming a pan of cream with half a stolen pie undaunted however by any failures or rebuffs this indomitable youth went on amusing himself with all sorts of tricks till no one felt safe
if he did not know his lessons he always had some droll excuse to offer and as he was usually clever at his books and as bright as a button in composing answers when he did not know them
but out of school ye gods and little fishes how tommy did carouse he wound fat asia up in her own clothes line against the post and left here there to fume and scold for half an hour one busy monday morning
he dropped a hot cent down mary ann's back as that pretty maid was waiting at table one day when there were gentlemen to dinner whereat the poor girl upset the soup and rushed out of the room in dismay leaving the family to think that she had gone mad
that spoiled her clean frock and hurt her little feelings very much he put rough white pebbles in the sugar bowl when his grandmother came to tea
chapter four stepping stones when nat went into school on monday morning he quaked inwardly for now he thought he should have to display his ignorance before them all
but mister bhaer gave him a seat in the deep window where he could turn his back on the others and franz heard him say his lessons there so no one could hear his blunders or see how he blotted his copybook he was truly grateful for this and toiled away so diligently that mister bhaer said smiling
when he saw his hot face and inky fingers don't work so hard my boy you will tire yourself out and there is time enough
they know heaps and i don't know anything said nat
sitting down beside him while franz led a class of small students through the intricacies of the multiplication table do i and nat looked utterly incredulous yes for one thing you can keep your temper and jack who is quick at numbers cannot that is an excellent lesson
then you can play the violin and not one of the lads can though they want to do it very much but best of all nat you really care to learn something and that is half the battle
then he said aloud and so earnestly that demi heard him i do want to learn and i will try
they shan't laugh at you if they do i'll i'll tell them not to cried demi quite forgetting where he was the class stopped in the middle of seven times nine and everyone looked up to see what was going on
thinking that a lesson in learning to help one another was better than arithmetic just then mister bhaer told them about nat making such an interesting and touching little story out of it that the good hearted lads all promised to lend him a hand
this appeal established the right feeling among them and nat had few hindrances to struggle against for every one was glad to give him a boost up the ladder of learning till he was stronger much study was not good for him however
never was a garden more faithfully hoed mister bhaer really feared that nothing would find time to grow nat kept up such a stirring of the soil
where he worked and hummed as busily as the bees booming all about him this is the crop i like best missus bhaer used to say as she pinched the once thin cheeks now getting plump and ruddy
poverty demi was his little friend tommy his patron and daisy the comforter of all his woes for though the children were younger than he his timid spirit found a pleasure in their innocent society and rather shrunk from the rough sports of the elder lads
mister laurence did not forget him but sent clothes and books music and kind messages and now and then came out to see how his boy was getting on or took him into town to a concert on which occasions nat felt himself translated into the seventh heaven of bliss
for he went to mister laurence's great house saw his pretty wife and little fairy of a daughter had a good dinner and was made so comfortable that he talked and dreamed of it for days and nights afterward it takes so little to make a child happy that it is a pity
in a world so full of sunshine and pleasant things that there should be any wistful faces empty hands or lonely little hearts feeling this the bhaers gathered up all the crumbs they could find to feed their flock of hungry sparrows for they were not rich except in charity
and in mending these nat found an employment that just suited him he was very neat and skillful with those slender fingers of his and passed many a rainy afternoon with his gum bottle paint box and knife
repairing furniture animals and games while daisy was dressmaker to the dilapidated dolls as fast as the toys were mended
revelling over robinson crusoe arabian nights edgeworth's tales
and his eagerness to see what came next in the story helped him on till he could read as well as anybody
another helpful thing happened in a most unexpected and agreeable manner several of the boys were in business as they called it for most of them were poor and knowing that they would have their own way to make by and by the bhaers encouraged any efforts at independence tommy sold his eggs
jack speculated in live stock franz helped in the teaching and was paid for it ned had a taste for carpentry
while demi constructed water mills whirligigs and unknown machines of an intricate and useless nature and disposed of them to the boys let him be a mechanic if he likes said mister bhaer give a boy a trade and he is independent work is wholesome and whatever talent these lads possess
be it for poetry or ploughing it shall be cultivated and made useful to them if possible so when nat came running to him one day to ask with an excited face
can i go and fiddle for some people who are to have a picnic in our woods they will pay me and i'd like to earn some money as the other boys do and fiddling is the only way i know how to do it mister bhaer answered readily go and welcome
which he displayed with intense satisfaction
it is so much nicer than fiddling in the street for then i got none of the money and now i have it all and a good time besides
proudly patting the old pocketbook and feeling like a millionaire already he was in business truly for picnics were plenty as summer opened and nat's skill was in great demand he was always at liberty to go if lessons were not neglected and if the picnickers were respectable young people
for mister bhaer explained to him that a good plain education is necessary for everyone and that no amount of money should hire him to go where he might be tempted to do wrong nat quite agreed to this and it was a pleasant sight to see the innocent hearted lad go driving away in the gay wagons that stopped at the gate for him
i'm going to save up till i get enough to buy a violin for myself and then i can earn my own living can't i he used to say as he brought his dollars to mister bhaer to keep i hope so nat but we must get you strong and hearty first and put a little more knowledge into this musical head of yours
with much congenial work encouragement and hope nat found life getting easier and happier every day and made such progress in his music lessons that his teacher forgave his slowness in some other things knowing very well that where the heart is the mind works best
and she was often found sitting on the stairs outside nat's door while he was practising this pleased him very much and he played his best for that one quiet little listener for she never would come in but preferred to sit sewing her gay patchwork or tending one of her many dolls with an expression of dreamy pleasure on her face that made aunt jo say
with tears in her eyes so like my beth and go softly by lest even her familiar presence mar the child's sweet satisfaction nat was very fond of missus bhaer but found something even more attractive in the good professor who took fatherly care of the shy feeble boy
perhaps his love of music kept it sweet in spite of the discord all about him mister laurie said so and he ought to know however that might be father bhaer took pleasure in fostering poor nat's virtues and in curing his faults finding his new pupil as docile and affectionate as a girl
though you never would have guessed it for she petted him as she did daisy and he thought her a very delightful woman one fault of nat's gave the bhaers much anxiety although they saw how it had been strengthened by fear and ignorance i regret to say that nat sometimes told lies
not very black ones seldom getting deeper than gray and often the mildest of white fibs but that did not matter a lie is a lie and though we all tell many polite untruths in this queer world of ours it is not right and everybody knows it
you cannot be too careful watch your tongue and eyes and hands for it is easy to tell and look and act untruth
in one of the talks he had with nat about his chief temptation i know it and i don't mean to but it's so much easier to get along if you ain't very fussy about being exactly true
and now i do sometimes because the boys laugh at me i know it's bad but i forget and nat looked much depressed by his sins when i was a little lad i used to tell lies ach what fibs they were
my parents had talked and cried and punished but still did i forget as you then said the dear old grandmother i shall help you to remember and put a check on this unruly part with that she drew out my tongue and snipped the end with her scissors till the blood ran that was terrible you may believe
that i had time to think after that i was more careful and got on better for i feared the big scissors
but if you think it will cure me i'll let you snip my tongue said nat heroically for he dreaded pain yet did wish to stop fibbing mister bhaer smiled but shook his head
see now when you tell a lie i will not punish you but you shall punish me how asked nat startled at the idea you shall ferule me in the good old fashioned way i seldom do it myself but it may make you remember better to give me pain than to feel it yourself
strike you oh i couldn't cried nat then mind that tripping tongue of thine i have no wish to be hurt but i would gladly bear much pain to cure this fault this suggestion made such an impression on nat that for a long time he set a watch upon his lips
and was desperately accurate for mister bhaer judged rightly
nat declared he didn't and then was ashamed to own up that he did do it when jack was chasing him the night before he thought no one would find it out
tommy gave his evidence and mister bhaer heard it
and look at him with a frightened face he put the little boy down saying go to thy mother bubchen i will come soon
the boys looked at one another in silence for a minute
mister bhaer had just taken down the long rule that hung over his desk
wish i hadn't told thought good natured tommy for to be feruled was the deepest disgrace at this school
yes but please don't make me i can't bear it cried nat
why don't he up and take it like a man i would thought tommy though his heart beat fast at the sight i shall keep my word and you must remember to tell the truth obey me nat take this and give me six good strokes
tommy was so staggered by this last speech that he nearly tumbled down the bank but saved himself
looking as scared and guilty as if about to stab his master he gave two feeble blows on the broad hand held out to him then he stopped and looked up half blind with tears but mister bhaer said steadily go on and strike harder as if seeing that it must be done and eager to have the hard task soon over
nat drew his sleeve across his eyes and gave two more quick hard strokes that reddened the hand yet hurt the giver more isn't that enough he asked in a breathless sort of tone two more was all the answer and he gave them hardly seeing where they fell then threw the rule all across the room
and hugging the kind hand in both his own laid his face down on it sobbing out in a passion of love and shame and penitence i will remember oh i will then mister bhaer put an arm about him and said in a tone as compassionate as it had just now been firm
i think you will ask the dear god to help you and try to spare us both another scene like this tommy saw no more for he crept back to the hall looking so excited and sober that the boys crowded round him to ask what was being done to nat
for this reversing the order of things almost took their breath away he made me do the same thing once said emil as if confessing a crime of the deepest dye and you hit him dear old father bhaer by thunder i'd just like to see you do it now said ned
i'd rather have my head cut off than do it now
and i couldn't go on no sir
said tender hearted tommy of course we won't but it's awful to tell lies and demi looked as if he found the awfulness much increased when the punishment fell not upon the sinner but his best uncle fritz
nat did not come to dinner but missus jo took some up to him and said a tender word which did him good though he could not look at her by and by the lads playing outside heard the violin and said among themselves he's all right now he was all right but felt shy about going down
i'm going to walk want to come asked nat trying to look as if nothing was the matter yet feeling very grateful for her silent sympathy because he fancied everyone must look upon him as a wretch oh yes
for boys have a great deal more delicacy than they get credit for
when in disgrace gentle little daisy was their most congenial friend
and hung all over with daisy chains made by his little playmate while he lay on the grass and told her stories no one said a word about the scene of the morning but its effect was all the more lasting for that reason perhaps
fritz i've got a new idea cried missus bhaer as she met her husband one day after school well my dear what is it and he waited willingly to hear the new plan
then they must learn gentle ways and improve their manners and having girls about will do it better than any thing else you are right as usual now who shall we have asked mister bhaer
little annie harding what naughty nan as the lads call her cried mister bhaer looking very much amused yes she is running wild at home since her mother died and is too bright a child to be spoilt by servants
he said he would gladly if he could find as good a school for girls as ours was for boys i know he would rejoice to have her come so suppose we drive over this afternoon and see about it
asked mister bhaer patting the hand that lay on his arm oh dear no said mother bhaer briskly i like it and never was happier than since i had my wilderness of boys you see fritz i feel a great sympathy for nan because i was such a naughty child myself that i know all about it
she is full of spirits and only needs to be taught what to do with them to be as nice a little girl as daisy those quick wits of hers would enjoy lessons if they were rightly directed and what is now a tricksy midget would soon become a busy happy child
you will have done a magnificent work interrupted mister bhaer
cried missus jo tweaking him by the ear just as if he was one of the boys won't daisy's hair stand erect with horror at nan's wild ways
for they always flew at their father the minute school was done at first perhaps but it will do posy good she is getting prim and bettyish and needs stirring up a bit she always has a good time when nan comes over to play and the two will help each other without knowing it
dear me half the science of teaching is knowing how much children do for one another and when to mix them
my poor dan i never can quite forgive myself for letting him go sighed missus bhaer at the sound of the name little teddy who had never forgotten his friend struggled down from his father's arms and trotted to the door looked out over the sunny lawn with a wistful face
and then trotted back again saying as he always did when disappointed of the longed for sight
i've sometimes felt that myself
dinner's ready let me ring the bell and rob began a solo upon that instrument which made it impossible to hear one's self speak then i may have nan may i asked missus jo
hi daisy where are you daisy came and looked pleased to see her guest
as if it was impossible to keep still
and your aunt came and carried me off isn't it great fun why yes did you bring your big doll asked daisy hoping she had for on the last visit nan had ravaged the baby house and insisted on washing blanche matilda's plaster face
yes she's somewhere round returned nan with most unmaternal carelessness i made you a ring coming along and pulled the hairs out of dobbin's tail don't you want it
and nan presented a horse hair ring in token of friendship as they had both vowed they would never speak to one another again when they last parted won by the beauty of the offering daisy grew more cordial and proposed retiring to the nursery but nan said
no i want to see the boys and the barn and ran off swinging her hat by one string till it broke when she left it to its fate on the grass hullo nan cried the boys as she bounced in among them with the announcement i'm going to stay
i can beat you in running any way returned nan falling back on her strong point can she asked nat of jack
will you try said nan longing to display her powers it's too hot and tommy languished against the wall as if quite exhausted what's the matter with stuffy asked nan whose quick eyes were roving from face to face ball hurt his hand
he howls at every thing answered jack scornfully i don't i never cry no matter how i'm hurt it's babyish said nan loftily pooh i could make you cry in two minutes returned stuffy rousing up see if you can
go and pick that bunch of nettles then and stuffy pointed to a sturdy specimen of that prickly plant growing by the wall nan instantly grasped the nettle pulled it up and held it with a defiant gesture in spite of the almost unbearable sting
good for you cried the boys quick to acknowledge courage even in one of the weaker sex more nettled than she was stuffy determined to get a cry out of her somehow and he said tauntingly you are used to poking your hands into every thing so that isn't fair
now go and bump your head real hard against the barn and see if you don't howl then don't do it said nat who hated cruelty but nan was off and running straight at the barn she gave her head a blow that knocked her flat and sounded like a battering ram
do it again said stuffy angrily and nan would have done it but nat held her and tommy forgetting the heat flew at stuffy like a little game cock roaring out stop it or i'll throw you over the barn
and so shook and hustled poor stuffy that for a minute he did not know whether he was on his head or his heels she told me to was all he could say when tommy let him alone
never mind if she did it is awfully mean to hurt a little girl said demi reproachfully ho i don't mind i ain't a little girl i'm older than you and daisy so now cried nan ungratefully don't preach deacon you bully posy every day of your life
called out the commodore who just then hove in sight i don't hurt her do i daisy and demi turned to his sister who was pooring nan's tingling hands and recommending water for the purple lump rapidly developing itself on her forehead
you are the best boy in the world promptly answered daisy adding as truth compelled her to do you hurt me sometimes but you don't mean to put away the bats and things and mind what you are about my hearties no fighting allowed aboard this ship
how do you do madge wildfire
give the right hand little daughter and mind thy manners he added as nan offered him her left the other hurts me the poor little hand
what has it been doing to get those blisters he asked drawing it from behind her back where she had put it with a look which made him think she had been in mischief before nan could think of any excuse daisy burst out with the whole story during which stuffy tried to hide his face in a bowl of bread and milk
this rather belongs to your side of the house so i won't meddle with it my dear missus jo knew what he meant but she liked her little black sheep all the better for her pluck though she only said in her soberest way do you know why i asked nan to come here
here stuffy retired into his bowl again and did not emerge till demi made them all laugh by saying in his slow wondering way how can she when she's such a tomboy that's just it she needs help as much as you and i expect you set her an example of good manners
is she going to be a little gentleman too asked rob she'd like it wouldn't you nan added tommy no i shouldn't i hate boys said nan fiercely
i am sorry you hate my boys because they can be well mannered and most agreeable when they choose
missus bhaer had addressed herself to nan but the boys nudged one another and appeared to take the hint for that time at least and passed the butter said please and thank you yes sir and no ma'am with unusual elegance and respect nan said nothing
but kept herself quiet and refrained from tickling demi though strongly tempted to do so because of the dignified airs he put on
which evidently sweetened her temper for the last thing she said on going to bed was
her first remark in the morning was has my box come
till daisy was shocked she managed to exist however till five o'clock when she disappeared
she has run home little gypsy
it would be like her and mister bhaer caught up his hat to go and find the child
there was miss nan to be sure tugging along a very large band box tied up in linen bag very hot and dusty and tired did she look
i couldn't wait any longer so i went and got it but you did not know the way said tommy while the rest stood round enjoying the joke oh i found it i never get lost it's a mile how could you go so far
well it was pretty far but i rested a good deal wasn't that thing very heavy
don't see how the station master let you have it said tommy
another time you must wait for you will get into trouble if you run away
wiping the dust off nan's little hot face well i won't only papa tells me not to put off doing things so i don't
the boys thought it great fun and nan entertained them all supper time with an account of her adventures for a big dog had barked at her a man had laughed at her a woman had given her a doughnut and her hat had fallen into the brook when she stopped to drink exhausted with her exertion
giving away her things right and left as lavishly as if the big band box had no bottom it was those good traits that soon made little giddygaddy as they called her a favorite with every one daisy never complained of being dull again
for nan invented the most delightful plays and her pranks rivalled tommy's to the amusement of the whole school
daisy was in despair but nan took it to the painter who as at work about the house got him to paint it brick red with staring black eyes then she dressed it up with feathers and scarlet flannel and one of ned's leaden hatchets and in the character of an indian chief the late
poppydilla tomahawked all the other dolls and caused the nursery to run red with imaginary gore she gave away her new shoes to a beggar child hoping to be allowed to go barefoot but found it impossible to combine charity and comfort
and was ordered to ask leave before disposing of her clothes she delighted the boys by making a fire ship out of a shingle with two large sails wet with turpentine
she harnessed the old turkey cock to a straw wagon and made him trot round the house at a tremendous pace she gave her coral necklace for four unhappy kittens which had been tormented by some heartless lads and tended them for days as gently as a mother dressing their wounds with cold cream
feeding them with a doll's spoon and mourning over them when they died till she was consoled by one of demi's best turtles
so that when he spoke of her as being the person he cared most for in the world she naturally thought that he meant to except leonora and she was just glad it was like a father saying that he approved of a marriageable daughter
and edward when he realized what he was doing curbed his tongue at once she was just glad and she went on being just glad
ever did in his life and yet i am so near to all these people that i cannot think any of them wicked
as anything but straight upright and honourable that i mean is in spite of everything my permanent view of him i try at times by dwelling on some of the things that he did to push that image of him away
as you might try to push aside a large pendulum but it always comes back the memory of his innumerable acts of kindness of his efficiency of his unspiteful tongue he was such a fine fellow
so i feel myself forced to attempt to excuse him in this as in so many other things it is i have no doubt a most monstrous thing to attempt to corrupt a young girl just out of a convent
but i think edward had no idea at all of corrupting her i believe that he simply loved her he said that that was the way of it and i at least believe him and i believe too that she was the only woman he ever really loved
he said that that was so and he did enough to prove it and leonora said that it was so and leonora knew him to the bottom of his heart i have come to be very much of a cynic in these matters i mean
that it is impossible to believe in the permanence of man's or woman's love or at any rate it is impossible to believe in the permanence of any early passion as i see it at least with regard to man a love affair
a love for any definite woman is something in the nature of a widening of the experience with each new woman that a man is attracted to there appears to come a broadening of the outlook or if you like an acquiring of new territory
all these things and it is these things that cause to arise the passion of love all these things are like so many objects on the horizon of the landscape that tempt a man to walk beyond the horizon to explore
behind those eyebrows with the peculiar turn as if he desired to see the world with the eyes that they overshadow he wants to hear that voice applying itself to every possible proposition to
every possible topic he wants to see those characteristic gestures against every possible background of the question of the sex instinct i know very little and i do not think that it counts for very much in a really great passion
it can be aroused by such nothings by an untied shoelace by a glance of the eye in passing that i think it might be left out of the calculation i don't mean to say that any great passion
commonplace and to be therefore a matter needing no comment at all it is a thing with all its accidents that must be taken for granted as in a novel or a biography
you take it for granted that the characters have their meals with some regularity but the real
long continued and withering up
is the craving for identity with the woman that he loves he desires to see with the same eyes to touch with the same sense of touch to hear with the same ears to lose his identity to be enveloped
to be supported for whatever may be said of the relation of the sexes there is no man who loves a woman that does not desire to come to her for the renewal of his courage for the cutting asunder of his difficulties
and that will be the mainspring of his desire for her we are all so afraid we are all so alone
so for a time
the man will get what he wants he will get the moral support the encouragement the relief from the sense of loneliness
inevitably they pass away as the shadows pass across sundials it is sad but it is so the pages of the book will become familiar the beautiful corner of the road will have been turned too many times
this is the saddest story and yet i do believe that for every man there comes at last a woman
when the woman who then sets her seal upon his imagination has set her seal for good he will travel over no more horizons he will never again set the knapsack over his shoulders he will retire from those scenes
he will have gone out of the business that at any rate was the case with edward and the poor girl it was quite literally the case it was quite literally the case that his passions for the mistress of the grand duke
for little missus maidan for florence for whom you will these passions were merely preliminary canters compared to his final race with death for her
i am certain of that i am not going to be so american as to say that all true love
but i think that love will be truer and more permanent in which self sacrifice has been exacted and in the case of the other women edward just cut in and cut them out as he did with the polo ball from under the nose of count baron von leloeffel
in the endeavour to capture the other women but over her he wore himself to rags and tatters and death in the effort to leave her alone and in speaking to her on that night he wasn't
i am convinced committing a baseness it was as if his passion for her hadn't existed as if the very words that he spoke without knowing that he spoke them created the passion as they went along before he spoke
there was nothing afterwards it was the integral fact of his life
and my story was concerning itself with florence with florence who heard those words from behind the tree that of course is only conjecture but i think the conjecture is pretty well justified you have the fact that those two went out
her face was contorted with agony before ever her eyes fell upon me or upon him beside me but i dare say bagshawe may have been the determining influence in her suicide
leonora says that she had that flask apparently of nitrate of amyl but actually of prussic acid for many years and that she was determined to use it if ever i discovered the nature of her relationship
with that fellow jimmy you see the mainspring of her nature must have been vanity
that makes most of us keep straight if we do keep straight in this world
she would no doubt have made him scenes have threatened him have appealed to his sense of humour to his promises but mister bagshawe and the fact that the date was the fourth of august must have been too much for her superstitious mind
you see she had two things that she wanted she wanted to be a great lady installed in branshaw teleragh she wanted also to retain my respect
ashburnham to bolt with her she would have let the whole thing go with a run or perhaps she would have tried to exact from me a new respect for the greatness of her passion on the lines of all for love and the world well lost
in all matrimonial associations there is i believe one constant factor a desire to deceive the person with whom one lives as to some weak spot in one's character or in one's career
for it is intolerable to live constantly with one human being who perceives one's small meannesses it is really death to do so that is why so many marriages turn out unhappily
i for instance am a rather greedy man i have a taste for good cookery and a watering tooth at the mere sound of the names of certain comestibles if florence had discovered this secret of mine
that she extracted from me i am bound to say that florence never discovered this secret certainly she never alluded to it i dare say she never took sufficient interest in me and the secret weakness of florence
the weakness that she could not bear to have me discover was just that early escapade with the fellow called jimmy let me as this is in all probability the last time i shall mention florence's name
dwell a little upon the change that had taken place in her psychology she would not i mean have minded if i had discovered that she was the mistress of edward ashburnham
she would rather have liked it indeed the chief trouble of poor leonora in those days was to keep florence from making before me theatrical displays on one line or another
of that very fact she wanted in one mood to come rushing to me to cast herself on her knees at my feet and to declaim a carefully arranged frightfully emotional outpouring as to her passion
that was to show that she was like one of the great erotic women of whom history tells us in another mood she would desire to come to me disdainfully and to tell me that i was considerably less than a man
and that what had happened was what must happen when a real male came along she wanted to say that in cool balanced and sarcastic sentences that was when she wished to appear like the heroine of a french comedy
because of course she was always play acting but what she didn't want me to know was the fact of her first escapade with the fellow called jimmy she had arrived at figuring out the sort of low down bowery tough
for some small stupid action usually for some small quite genuine piece of emotionalism of your early life well it was that sort of shuddering that came over florence at the thought
that she had surrendered to such a low fellow
it was her footling old uncle's work he ought never to have taken those two round the world together and shut himself up in his cabin for the greater part of the time anyhow i am convinced that the sight of mister bagshawe
and the thought that mister bagshawe for she knew that unpleasant and toadlike personality the thought that mister bagshawe
would almost certainly reveal to me that he had caught her coming out of jimmy's bedroom at five o'clock in the morning on the fourth of august nineteen hundred
that was the determining influence in her suicide and no doubt the effect of the date was too much for her superstitious personality she had been born on the fourth of august she had started to go round the world on the fourth of august
she had become a low fellow's mistress on the fourth of august on the same day of the year she had married me on that fourth she had lost edward's love and bagshawe had appeared like a sinister omen
like a grin on the face of fate it was the last straw she ran upstairs arranged herself decoratively upon her bed she was a sweetly pretty woman with smooth
pink and white cheeks long hair the eyelashes falling like a tiny curtain on her cheeks
oh extremely charming and clear cut looking with a puzzled expression at the electric light bulb that hung from the ceiling or perhaps through it to the stars above who knows anyhow
there was an end of florence you have no idea how quite extraordinarily for me that was the end of florence
when it has been necessary to talk about her to leonora or when for the purpose of these writings i have tried to figure her out i have thought about her as i might do about a problem in algebra
but it has always been as a matter for study not for remembrance she just went completely out of existence like yesterday's paper i was so deadly tired and i dare say
of what was practically catalepsy was just the repose that my exhausted nature claimed after twelve years of the repression of my instincts after twelve years of playing the trained poodle
for that was all that i had been i suppose that it was the shock that did it the several shocks
it was as if an immensely heavy an unbearably heavy knapsack supported upon my shoulders by straps had fallen off and left my shoulders themselves that the straps had cut into numb and without sensation of life
what had i to regret i suppose that my inner soul my dual personality had realized long before that florence was a personality of paper that she represented a real human being with a heart
with feelings with sympathies and with emotions only as a bank note represents a certain quantity of gold i know that sort of feeling came to the surface in me the moment the man bagshawe told me that he had seen her coming out of that fellow's bedroom
it is even possible that if that feeling had not possessed me i should have run up sooner to her room and might have prevented her drinking the prussic acid but i just couldn't do it it would have been like
chasing a scrap of paper an occupation ignoble for a grown man
didn't interest me florence didn't matter i suppose you will retort that i was in love with nancy rufford
i am not seeking to avoid discredit i was in love with nancy rufford as i am in love with the poor child's memory quietly and quite tenderly in my american sort of way
i had never thought about it until i heard leonora state that i might now marry her but from that moment until her worse than death i do not suppose
that i much thought about anything else i don't mean to say that i sighed about her or groaned i just wanted to marry her
the sort of feeling that you must get certain matters out of the way smooth out certain fairly negligible complications before you can go to a place that has during all your life
i didn't attach much importance to my superior years i was forty five and she poor thing was only just rising twenty two but she was older than her years and quieter she seemed to have an odd quality of sainthood
but she had frequently told me that she had no vocation it just simply wasn't there the desire to become a nun well i guess that i was a sort of
or if he ever comes to do so that is the end of him but as soon as i came out of my catalepsy i seemed to perceive
that my problem that what i had to do to prepare myself for getting into contact with her was just to get back into contact with life i had been kept
what i then had to do was a little fighting with real life some wrestling with men of business some travelling amongst larger cities something harsh something masculine i didn't want to present myself to nancy rufford as a sort of an old maid
i remember laughing at the phrase accept the situation which she seemed to repeat with a gravity too intense i said to her something like it's hardly as much as that i mean
that i must claim the liberty of a free american citizen to think what i please about your co religionists and i suppose that florence must have liberty to think what she pleases and to say what
politeness allows her to say she had better leonora answered not say one single word against my people or my faith it struck me at the time that there was an unusual
an almost threatening hardness in her voice it was almost as if she were trying to convey to florence through me that she would seriously harm my wife if florence went to something that was an extreme
yes i remember thinking at the time that it was almost as if leonora were saying through me to florence you may outrage me as you will you may take all that i personally possess but do not
you care to say one single thing in view of the situation that that will set up against the faith that makes me become the doormat for your feet but obviously as i saw it that could not be her meaning
good people be they ever so diverse in creed do not threaten each other
it would be better if florence said nothing at all against my co religionists because it is a point that i am touchy about
she and edward came down from the tower and i want you to understand that from that moment until after edward and the girl and florence were all dead together i had never the remotest glimpse not the shadow of a suspicion that there was anything wrong
as the saying is for five minutes then i entertained the possibility that leonora might be jealous but there was never another flicker in that flame like personality how in the world should i get it for all that time
i was just a male sick nurse and what chance had i against those three hardened gamblers who were all in league to conceal their hands from me what earthly chance they were three to one
and they made me happy oh god they made me so happy that i doubt if even paradise that shall smooth out all temporal wrongs shall ever give me the like
and what could they have done better or what could they have done that could have been worse i don't know i suppose that during all that time i was a deceived husband and that leonora was pimping for edward
that was the cross that she had to take up during her long calvary of a life you ask how it feels to be a deceived husband just heavens i do not know it feels just nothing at all
it is not hell certainly it is not necessarily heaven so i suppose it is the intermediate stage what do they call it limbo no i feel nothing at all about that they are dead
they have gone before their judge who i hope will open to them the springs of his compassion it is not my business to think about it it is simply my business to say as leonora's people say requiem aeternam
memoria aeterna erit but
the just the unjust god knows i think that the pair of them were only poor wretches creeping over this earth in the shadow of an eternal wrath it is very terrible
it is almost too terrible the picture of that judgement as it appears to me sometimes at nights it is probably the suggestion of some picture that i have seen somewhere but upon an immense plain suspended in mid air
i seem to see three figures two of them clasped close in an intense embrace and one intolerably solitary it is in black and white my picture of that judgement an etching perhaps
only i cannot tell an etching from a photographic reproduction and the immense plain is the hand of god stretching out for miles and miles with great spaces above it and below it
and they are in the sight of god and it is florence that is alone and do you know at the thought of that intense solitude i feel an overwhelming desire to rush forward and comfort her
you cannot you see have acted as nurse to a person for twelve years without wishing to go on nursing them even though you hate them with the hatred of the adder and even in the palm of god
but in the nights with that vision of judgement before me i know that i hold myself back for i hate florence i hate florence with such a hatred that i would not spare her an eternity of loneliness
she need not have done what she did she was an american a new englander she had not the hot passions of these europeans she cut out that poor imbecile of an edward and i pray
god that he is really at peace clasped close in the arms of that poor poor girl and no doubt maisie maidan will find her young husband again and leonora will burn clear and serene
a northern light and one of the archangels of god and me
it was playing it too low down she cut out poor dear edward from sheer vanity
whilst she was edward's mistress
she would gabble on to leonora about forgiveness treating the subject from the bright american point of view and leonora would treat her like the whore she was once she said to florence in the early morning
you come to me straight out of his bed to tell me that that is my proper place i know it thank you but even that could not stop florence she went on saying that it was her ambition to leave this world a little brighter
by the passage of her brief life and how thankfully she would leave edward whom she thought she had brought to a right frame of mind if leonora would only give him a chance he needed she said tenderness beyond anything
and committing adultery in hired rooms i know the pair of you you know no i prefer the situation as it is half the time florence would ignore leonora's remarks she would think they were not quite ladylike the other half of the time
she would try to persuade leonora that her love for edward was quite spiritual on account of her heart once she said
why cannot you believe it of me leonora was i understand
she looked round coolly and calmly and said never do you dare to mention missus maidan's name again you murdered her you and i murdered her between us i am as much a scoundrel as you i don't like to be reminded of it
florence went off at once into a babble of how could she have hurt a person whom she hardly knew a person whom with the best intentions in pursuance of her efforts to leave the world a little brighter she had tried to save from edward
that was how she figured it out to herself she really thought that so leonora said patiently very well just put it that i killed her and that it's a painful subject
one does not like to think that one had killed someone naturally not i ought never to have brought her from india and that indeed is exactly how leonora looked at it
what had happened on the day of our jaunt to the ancient city of m had been this leonora who had been even then filled with pity and contrition for the poor child on returning to our hotel
had gone straight to missus maidan's room she had wanted just to pet her and she had perceived at first only on the clear round table covered with red velvet a letter addressed to her it ran something like oh
missus ashburnham how could you have done it i trusted you so you never talked to me about me and edward but i trusted you
in the hall they were talking about it edward and the american lady you paid the money for me to come here oh how could you how could you i am going straight back to bunny bunny was missus maidan's husband
and leonora said that as she went on reading the letter she had without looking round her a sense that that hotel room was cleared that there were no papers on the table
that there were no clothes on the hooks and that there was a strained silence a silence she said
that drank up such sounds as there were
whilst she read the postscript of the letter i did not know you wanted me for an adulteress the postscript began the poor child was hardly literate it was surely not right of you and i never wanted to be one
and i heard edward call me a poor little rat to the american lady he always called me a little rat in private and i did not mind but if he called me it to her i think he does not love me any more
oh missus ashburnham you knew the world and i knew nothing i thought it would be all right if you thought it could and i thought you would not have brought me if you did not too
out of the same convent leonora said that she screamed when she read that and then she saw that maisie's boxes were all packed and she began a search for missus maidan herself all over the hotel the manager said that missus maidan had paid her bill
and had gone up to the station to ask
to make her out a plan for her immediate return to chitral he imagined that he had seen her come back but he was not quite certain no one in the large hotel had bothered his head about the child
and she wandering solitarily in the hall had no doubt sat down beside a screen that had edward and florence on the other side i never heard then or after what had passed between that precious couple
as to the ravages he might be making in the girl's heart that would be the sort of way she would begin and edward would have sentimentally assured her
that there was nothing in it that maisie was just a poor little rat whose passage to nauheim his wife had paid out of her own pocket that would have been enough to do the trick for the trick was pretty efficiently done
leonora with panic growing and with contrition very large in her heart visited every one of the public rooms of the hotel the dining room the lounge
the winter garden god knows what they wanted with a winter garden
and then leonora ran yes she ran up the stairs to
she had determined to take that child right away from that hideous place it seemed to her to be all unspeakable i do not mean to say that she was not quite cool about it leonora was always leonora
but the cold justice of the thing demanded that she should play the part of mother to this child who had come from the same convent she figured it out to amount to that she would leave edward to florence and to me
and she would devote all her time to providing that child with an atmosphere of love until she could be returned to her poor young husband it was naturally too late she had not cared to look round maisie's rooms at first
now as soon as she came in she perceived sticking out beyond the bed a small pair of feet in high heeled shoes maisie had died in the effort to strap up a great portmanteau she had died so grotesquely
that her little body had fallen forward into the trunk and it had closed upon her like the jaws of a gigantic alligator the key was in her hand her dark hair
like the hair of a japanese had come down and covered her body and her face leonora lifted her up she was the merest featherweight and laid her on the bed with her hair about her she was smiling
i saw her with the long lashes on the cheeks with the smile about the lips with the flowers all about her the stem of a white lily rested in her hand so that the spike of flowers was upon her shoulder
she looked like a bride in the sunlight of the mortuary candles that were all about her and the white coifs of the two nuns that knelt at her feet with their faces hidden might have been two swans that were to bear her away
or wherever it is leonora showed her to me she would not let either of the others see her she wanted you know to spare poor dear edward's feelings he never could bear the sight of a corpse and
but work grew scarce while bread grew dear and wages lessened too for irish hordes were bidders here our half paid work to do corn law rhymes margaret was shown into the drawing room
the windows were half open because of the heat and the venetian blinds covered the glass
to make even margaret's own face as she caught it in the mirrors look ghastly and wan she sat and waited no one came every now and then the wind seemed to bear the distant multitudinous sound nearer
and yet there was no wind it died away into profound stillness between whiles fanny came in at last mamma will come directly miss hale she desired me to apologise to you as it is
perhaps you know my brother has imported hands from ireland and it has irritated the milton people excessively
and the stupid wretches here wouldn't work for him
so with their threats that we daren't let them out you may see them huddled in that top room in the mill and they're to sleep there to keep them safe from those brutes who will neither work nor let them work
for some of the women are crying to go back ah here's mamma missus thornton came in with a look of black sternness on her face which made margaret feel she had arrived at a bad time to trouble her with her request however
that she would ask for whatever they might want in the progress of her mother's illness missus thornton's brow contracted and her mouth grew set while margaret spoke with gentle modesty of her mother's restlessness and doctor donaldson's wish
that she should have the relief of a water bed she ceased missus thornton did not reply immediately then she started up and exclaimed they're at the gates call john fanny call him in from the mill they're at the gates
they'll batter them in call john i say and simultaneously the gathering tramp to which she had been listening instead of heeding margaret's words was heard
raged behind the wooden barrier which shook as if the unseen maddened crowd made battering rams of their bodies and retreated a short space only to come with more united steady impetus against it
till their great beats made the strong gates quiver like reeds before the wind the women gathered round the windows fascinated to look on the scene which terrified them missus thornton the women servants
margaret all were there fanny had returned screaming up stairs as if pursued at every step and had thrown herself in hysterical sobbing on the sofa missus thornton watched for her son who was still in the mill
he came out looked up at them the pale cluster of faces and smiled good courage to them before he locked the factory door then he called to one of the women to come down and undo his own door which fanny had fastened behind her in her mad flight
hitherto they had been voiceless wordless needing all their breath for their hard labouring efforts to break down the gates but now hearing him speak inside they set up such a fierce unearthly groan
that even missus thornton was white with fear as she preceded him into the room he came in a little flushed but his eyes gleaming as in answer to the trumpet call of danger and with a proud look of defiance on his face that made him a noble if not a handsome man
margaret had always dreaded lest her courage should fail her in any emergency and she should be proved to be
she forgot herself and felt only an intense sympathy intense to painfulness in the interests of the moment
i'm sorry miss hale you have visited us at this unfortunate moment when i fear you may be involved in whatever risk we have to bear mother hadn't you better go into the back rooms
but if not you will be safer there than here go jane continued he addressing the upper servant and she went followed by the others i stop here said his mother where you are there i stay
and indeed retreat into the back rooms was of no avail the crowd had surrounded the outbuildings at the rear and were sending forth their awful threatening roar behind
mister thornton smiled scornfully as he heard them he glanced at margaret standing all by herself at the window nearest the factory
as if she felt his look she turned to him and asked a question that had been for some time in her mind where are the poor imported work people
yes i left them cowered up in a small room at the head of a back flight of stairs bidding them run all risks and escape down there if they heard any attack made on the mill doors but it is not them it is me they want
when can the soldiers be here asked his mother in a low but not unsteady voice he took out his watch
he made some little calculation supposing williams got straight off when i told him and hadn't to dodge about amongst them
for the first time showing her terror in the tones of her voice shut down the windows instantly mother exclaimed he the gates won't bear such another shock shut down that window miss hale
as if to gain the interpretation of the sudden stillness from him his face was set into rigid lines of contemptuous defiance neither hope nor fear could be read there fanny raised herself up
are they gone asked she in a whisper gone replied he listen she did listen they all could hear the one great straining breath the creak of wood slowly yielding the wrench of iron
the mighty fall of the ponderous gates fanny stood up tottering made a step or two towards her mother and fell forwards into her arms in a fainting fit
and carried her away thank god said mister thornton as he watched her out had you not better go upstairs miss hale margaret's lips formed a no but he could not hear her speak for the tramp of innumerable steps right under the very wall of the house
and the fierce growl of low deep angry voices that had a ferocious murmur of satisfaction in them more dreadful than their baffled cries not many minutes before never mind said he thinking to encourage her
but it cannot last long now
oh god cried margaret suddenly there is boucher i know his face though he is livid with rage
who is boucher asked mister thornton coolly and coming close to the window to discover the man in whom margaret took such an interest as soon as they saw mister thornton they set up a yell to call it not human is nothing
it was as the demoniac desire of some terrible wild beast for the food that is withheld from his ravening
in five minutes more i only hope my poor irishmen are not terrified out of their wits by such a fiendlike noise
don't be afraid for me she said hastily
it is awful to see them the soldiers will be here directly and that will bring them to reason to reason said margaret quickly what kind of reason the only reason that does with men that make themselves into wild beasts
by heaven they've turned to the mill door mister thornton said margaret shaking all over with her passion go down this instant if you are not a coward go down and face them like a man
save these poor strangers whom you have decoyed here speak to your workmen as if they were human beings speak to them kindly don't let the soldiers come in and cut down poor creatures who are driven mad i see one there who is
if you have any courage or noble quality in you
he turned and looked at her while she spoke a dark cloud came over his face while he listened he set his teeth as he heard her words i will go
perhaps i may ask you to accompany me downstairs and bar the door behind me my mother and sister will need that protection
only but he was gone he was downstairs in the hall he had unbarred the front door all she could do was to follow him quickly and fasten it behind him and clamber up the stairs again with a sick heart and a dizzy head
again she took her place by the farthest window he was on the steps below
she threw the window wide open many in the crowd were mere boys cruel and thoughtless cruel because they were thoughtless some were men gaunt as wolves and mad for prey she knew how it was
they were like boucher with starving children at home relying on ultimate success in their efforts to get higher wages and enraged beyond measure at discovering that irishmen were to be brought in to rob their little ones of bread
margaret knew it all she read it in boucher's face forlornly desperate and livid with rage if mister thornton would but say something to them let them hear his voice only
that vouchsafed them no word even of anger or reproach but perhaps he was speaking now there was a momentary hush of their noise inarticulate as that of a troop of animals she tore her bonnet off and bent forwards to hear
she could only see for if mister thornton had indeed made the attempt to speak
and the people were raging worse than ever
still as a statue his face pale with repressed excitement they were trying to intimidate him to make him flinch each was urging the other on to some immediate act of personal violence
that in an instant all would be uproar the first touch would cause an explosion in which among such hundreds of infuriated men and reckless boys even mister thornton's life would be unsafe
that in another instant the stormy passions would have passed their bounds and swept away all barriers of reason or apprehension of consequence even while she looked
she saw lads in the back ground stooping to take off their heavy wooden clogs
she saw it was the spark to the gunpowder and with a cry which no one heard she rushed out of the room down stairs she had lifted the great iron bar of the door with an imperious force had thrown the door open wide and was there
in face of that angry sea of men her eyes smiting them with flaming arrows of reproach the clogs were arrested in the hands that held them the countenances so fell not a moment before now looked irresolute and as if asking what this meant
for she stood between them and their enemy she could not speak but held out her arms towards them till she could recover breath oh do not use violence he is one man and you are many but her words died away
for there was no tone in her voice it was but a hoarse whisper mister thornton stood a little on one side he had moved away from behind her as if jealous of anything that should come between him and danger go
and now her voice was like a cry
you shall have relief from your complaints whatever they are shall them irish blackguards be packed back again asked one from out the crowd with fierce threatening in his voice never for your bidding exclaimed mister thornton
and instantly the storm broke the hootings rose and filled the air but margaret did not hear them
she saw their gesture she knew its meaning she read their aim another moment and mister thornton might be smitten down he whom she had urged and goaded to come to this perilous place she only thought how she could save him she threw her arms around him
still with his arms folded he shook her off
if she thought her sex would be a protection if with shrinking eyes she had turned away from the terrible anger of these men in any hope that ere she looked again they would have paused and reflected and slunk away and vanished she was wrong
at least had carried some of them too far for it is always the savage lads with their love of cruel excitement
a clog whizzed through the air margaret's fascinated eyes watched its progress it missed its aim and she turned sick with affright but changed not her position
then she turned and spoke again for god's sake do not damage your cause by this violence you do not know what you are doing she strove to make her words distinct a sharp pebble flew by her
grazing forehead and cheek and drawing a blinding sheet of light before her eyes she lay like one dead on mister thornton's shoulder then he unfolded his arms and held her encircled in one for an instant
innocent stranger you fall you hundreds on one man and when a woman comes before you to ask you for your own sakes to be reasonable creatures
you do well they were silent while he spoke they were watching open eyed and open mouthed the thread of dark red blood which wakened them up from their trance of passion
those nearest the gate stole out ashamed there was a movement through all the crowd a retreating movement
but thou wert sheltered behind a woman mister thornton quivered with rage the blood flowing had made margaret conscious dimly vaguely conscious he placed her gently on the door step
her head leaning against the frame can you rest there he asked but without waiting for her answer he went slowly down the steps right into the middle of the crowd now kill me if it is your brutal will
there is no woman to shield me here you may beat me to death you will never move me from what i have determined upon not you he stood amongst them with his arms folded in precisely the same attitude
as he had been in on the steps but the retrograde movement towards the gate had begun as unreasoningly perhaps as blindly as the simultaneous anger
and the sight of that pale upturned face with closed eyes still and sad as marble though the tears welled out of the long entanglement of eyelashes and dropped down and heavier
slower plash than even tears came the drip of blood from her wound even the most desperate boucher himself drew back faltered away scowled and finally went off
muttering curses on the master who stood in his unchanging attitude looking after their retreat with defiant eyes the moment that retreat had changed into a flight as it was sure from its very character to do
he darted up the steps to margaret she tried to rise without his help it is nothing she said with a sickly smile the skin is grazed and i was stunned at the moment oh i am so thankful they are gone
and she cried without restraint he could not sympathise with her his anger had not abated it was rather rising the more as his sense of immediate danger was passing away
the distant clank of the soldiers was heard just five minutes too late to make this vanished mob feel the power of authority and order
he hoped they would see the troops and be quelled by the thought of their narrow escape while these thoughts crossed his mind margaret clung to the doorpost to steady herself but a film came over her eyes
come down they are gone and miss hale is hurt he bore her into the dining room and laid her on the sofa there laid her down softly
the sense of what she was to him
oh my margaret my margaret no one can tell what you are to me dead cold as you lie there you are the only woman i ever loved
inarticulately as he spoke kneeling by her and rather moaning than saying the words he started up ashamed of himself as his mother came in she saw nothing but her son a little paler
a little sterner than usual miss hale is hurt mother a stone has grazed her temple she has lost a good deal of blood i'm afraid she looks very seriously hurt
i could almost fancy her dead said missus thornton a good deal alarmed it is only a fainting fit she has spoken to me since but all the blood in his body seemed to rush inwards to his heart as he spoke
and he absolutely trembled go and call jane she can find me the things i want and do you go to your irish people who are crying and shouting as if they were mad with fright he went
he went away as if weights were tied to every limb that bore him from her he called jane he called his sister she should have all womanly care all gentle tendance but every pulse beat in him as he remembered
how she had come down and placed herself in foremost danger could it be to save him at the time he had pushed her aside and spoken gruffly
with every nerve in his body thrilling at the thought of her and found it difficult to understand enough of what they were saying to soothe and comfort away their fears there they declared they would not stop they claimed to be sent back
and so he had to think and talk and reason missus thornton bathed margaret's temples with eau de cologne as the spirit touched the wound which till then neither missus thornton nor jane had perceived margaret opened her eyes
but it was evident she did not know where she was nor who they were the dark circles deepened the lips quivered and contracted and she became insensible once more
is there any one who will go for a doctor not me ma'am if you please said jane shrinking back them rabble may be all about i don't think the cut is so deep ma'am as it looks
i will not run the chance she was hurt in our house if you are a coward jane i am not i will go pray ma'am let me send one of the police
and yet you're afraid to go i will not have their time taken up with our errands they'll have enough to do to catch some of the mob you will not be afraid to stop in this house she asked contemptuously and go on bathing miss hale's forehead shall you
no jane if you don't go i do missus thornton went first to the room in which she had left fanny stretched on the bed she started up as her mother entered oh mamma how you terrified me
i thought you were a man that had got into the house nonsense the men are all gone away
but that girl must not bleed to death bleed oh how horrid how
jane is with her and i trust it looks worse than it is jane has refused to leave the house cowardly woman and i won't put myself in the way of any more refusals from my servants so i am going myself
oh dear dear said fanny crying and preparing to go down rather than be left alone with the thought of wounds and bloodshed in the very house
did they throw stones into the drawing room margaret did indeed look white and wan although her senses were beginning to return to her but the sickly daze of the swoon made her still miserably faint
and of refreshment from the eau de cologne and a craving for the bathing to go on without intermission but when they stopped to talk she could no more have opened her eyes or spoken to ask for more bathing than the people who lie in death like trance can move or utter sound
to arrest the awful preparations for their burial while they are yet fully aware not merely of the actions of those around them but of the idea that is the motive for such actions jane paused in her bathing to reply to miss thornton's question
where was she then said fanny drawing nearer by slow degrees as she became accustomed to the sight of margaret's pale face just before the front door with master said jane significantly
did she get there nay miss that's not for me to say answered jane with a slight toss of her head sarah did' sarah what said fanny with impatient curiosity
jane resumed her bathing as if what sarah did or said was not exactly the thing she liked to repeat
well miss since you will have it sarah you see was in the best place for seeing being at the right hand window and she says and said at the very time too that she saw miss hale with her arms about master's neck
any one can see that and i dare say she'd give her eyes if he'd marry her which he never will i can tell her but i don't believe she'd be so bold and forward as to put her arms round his neck
it's my belief that the blow has given her such an ascendency of blood to the head as she'll never get the better from she looks like a corpse now
i never was in the room with a dead person before
her eye lids are quivering and here's wet tears a coming down her cheeks
asked fanny in a quavering voice no answer no sign of recognition but a faint pink colour returned to her lips although the rest of her face was ashen pale missus thornton came hurriedly in with the nearest surgeon she could find
missus thornton spoke loudly and distinctly as to a deaf person margaret tried to rise and drew her ruffled luxuriant hair instinctly over the cut
she let him take her hand and feel her pulse
and she glanced up at jane as if shrinking from her inspection more than from the doctor's
not until i have applied some strips of plaster and you have rested a little
now if you please said she i must go mamma will not see it i think it is under the hair is it not quite no one could tell but you must not go said missus thornton impatiently you are not fit to go
i must said margaret decidedly think of mamma
besides i must go said she vehemently i cannot stay here may i ask for a cab you are quite flushed and feverish observed mister lowe it is only with being here when i do so want to go
if her mother is so ill as you told me on the way here it may be very serious if she hears of this riot and does not see her daughter back at the time she expects the injury is not deep i will fetch a cab if your servants are still afraid to go out
oh thank you said margaret it will do me more good than anything it is the air of this room that makes me feel so miserable she leant back on the sofa and closed her eyes
fanny beckoned her mother out of the room and told her something that made her equally anxious with margaret for the departure of the latter not that she fully believed fanny's statement but she credited enough to make her manner to margaret appear very much constrained
at wishing her good bye mister lowe returned in the cab if you will allow me i will see you home miss hale the streets are not very quiet yet
margaret's thoughts were quite alive enough to the present to make her desirous of getting rid of both mister lowe and the cab before she reached crampton crescent for fear of alarming her father and mother beyond that one aim she would not look
that ugly dream of insolent words spoken about herself could never be forgotten but could be put aside till she was stronger
up toward us the gathering mists had been steadily rising still was their wavering crest a half score feet below us abruptly out of their dim nebulosity a faintly phosphorescent square broke it lifted slowly
then swept a dully lustrous six foot cube up the slope and came to rest almost at our feet it dwelt there contemplated us from its myriads of deep set sparkling striations
in its wake swam one by one six others their tops raising from the vapors like the first watchfully like shimmering backs of sea monsters like turrets of fantastic angled submarines from phosphorescent seas
back from them a pace ten paces twenty we retreated they lay immobile staring at us cleaving the mists silk of copper hair streaming wide unearthly eyes lambent
floated up behind them norhala for an instant she was hidden behind their bulk suddenly was upon them drifted over them like some spirit of light stood before us her veils were again about her golden girdle
sandals of gold and turquoise in their places pearl white her body gleamed no mark of lightning marred it she walked toward us turned and faced the watching cubes she uttered no sound
but as at a signal the central cube slid forward halted before her she rested a hand upon its edge ride with me she said to ruth norhala ventnor took a step forward
norhala we must go with her and this he pointed to the pony must go with us i meant you to come the faraway voice chimed but i had not thought of
that a moment she considered then turned to the six waiting cubes again as at a command four of the things moved swirled in toward each other with a weird precision with a monstrous martial mimicry
joined stood before us a platform twelve feet square six high mount sighed norhala ventnor looked helplessly at the sheer front facing him mount
there was half wondering impatience in her command see she caught ruth by the waist and with the same bewildering swiftness with which she had vanished from us when the aurora beckoned she stood holding the girl upon the top of the single cube
had been levitated with an incredible rapidity mount she murmured again looking down upon us slowly ventnor began to bandage the pony's eyes i placed my hand upon the edge of the quadruple sprang a myriad unseen hands caught me
raised me set me instantaneously on the upward surface lift the pony to me i called to ventnor lift it he echoed incredulously drake's grin cut like a sunray through the nightmare dread that shrouded my mind
catch he called placed one hand beneath the beast's belly the other under its throat his shoulders heaved and up shot the pony laden as it was landed softly upon four wide stretched legs beside me
the faces of the two gaped up ludicrous in their amazement follow cried norhala ventnor leaped wildly for the top drake beside him in the flash of a humming bird's wing they were gripping me
swearing feebly the unseen hold angled struck upward clutched from ankle to thigh held us fast men and beast away swept the block that bore ruth and norhala
head bent her arms around the knees of the woman they slipped into the mists vanished and after them like a log in a racing current we too dipped beneath the faintly luminous vapors
the cubes moved with an entire absence of vibration so smoothly and skimmingly indeed
and that now beat steadily upon our faces and the cloudy walls streaming by i would have thought ourselves at rest i saw the blurred form of ventnor drift toward the forward edge he walked as though wading i essayed to follow him
my feet i could not lift i could advance only by gliding them as though skating also the force whatever it was that held me seemed to pass me on from unseen clutch to clutch
it was as though up to my hips i moved through a closely woven yet fluid mass of cobwebs i had the fantastic idea that if i so willed i could slip over the edge of the blocks crawl about their sides without falling
his face drawn with anxiety his eyes feverish can you see them walter his voice shook god why did i ever let her go like that why did i let her go alone they'll be close ahead martin
whatever it is we're bound for wherever it is the woman's taking us she means to keep us together
new hope softened the haggard face that's true but is it we're reckoning with creatures that man's imagination never conceived nor could conceive and with this woman human in shape yes but human in thought never
how then can we tell he turned once more all his consciousness concentrated in his searching eyes drake's rifle slipped from his hand he stooped to pick it up then tugged with both hands the rifle lay immovable
i bent and strove to aid him for all the pair of us could do the rifle might have been a part of the gleaming surface on which it rested the tiny deepset star points winked up they're laughing at us grunted drake
as i saw it shake him nonsense these blocks are great magnets that's what holds the rifle what holds us too i don't mean the rifle he said i mean those points of lights the eyes
red gold tresses steaming and close beside her
a mile away was an opening in the valley's mountainous wall toward it we were speeding it was no ragged crevice no nature split fissure it gave the impression of a gigantic doorway look whispered drake
between us and the vast gateway gleaming triangles began to break through the vapors like the cutting fins of sharks glints of round bodies like gigantic porpoises the vapors seethed with them
the regal head of norhala sweeping over them the dull glint and gleam of the metal paradoxes flowing in ordered motion all about us the titanic gateway glowing before us we were at its threshold
a keening barrier against the avalanche of the thunder the blast bent us far back on thighs held rigid by the magnetic grip the pony spread its legs dropped its head
through the hurricane roaring its screaming pierced thinly that agonizing terrible lamentation which is of the horse and the horse alone when the limit of its endurance is reached ventnor crouched lower and lower
eyes shielded behind arms folded over his brows straining for a glimpse of ruth drake crouched beside him bracing him supporting him against the tempest our line of flight became less abrupt
but the speed increased the wind pressure became almost insupportable i twisted dropped upon my right arm thrust my head against my shoulder stared backward
when first i had looked upon the place i had sensed its immensity now i began to realize how vast it must really be for already the gateway through which we had come glimmered far away on high
shrunk to a hoop of incandescent brass and dwindling fast nor was it a cavern i saw the stars traced with deep relief the familiar northern constellations pit it might be
but whatever terror whatever ordeals were before us we would not have to face them buried deep within earth there was a curious comfort to me in the thought suddenly stars and sky were blotted out
we had plunged beneath the surface of the radiant sea lying in the position in which i was i was sensible of a diminution of the cyclonic force the blast streamed up and over the front of the cube
to me drifted only the wailings of our flight and the whimpering terror of the pony i turned my head cautiously upon the very edge of the flying blocks squatted drake and ventnor
grotesquely frog like i crawled toward them crawled literally
that whatever their activation their life they were metal there was no mistaking now the testimony of touch metal they were with a hint upon contact of highly polished platinum
also they had temperature a curiously pleasant warmth the surfaces were i judged around ninety five degrees fahrenheit
i knew organs of sight they were like the points of contact of innumerable intersecting crystal planes they held strangest paradoxical suggestion of being close to the surface and still infinite distances away and they were like
what was it they were like it came to me with a distinct shock they were like the galaxies of little aureate and sapphire stars in the clear gray heavens of norhala's eyes i crept beside drake struck him with my head
can't lift my hands stuck fast like a fly just as you said drag em over your knees he cried bending to me it slides em out of the attraction
acting as he had suggested i found to my astonishment i could slip my hands free i caught his belt tried to lift myself by it no use doc the old grin lightened for a moment
his tense young face you'll have to keep praying till the power's turned off nothing here you can slide your knees on i nodded waddling close to his side then sank back on my haunches
to relieve the strain upon my aching leg muscles can you see them ahead walter ruth and the woman ventnor turned his anxious eyes toward me i peered into the glimmering murk shook my head i could see nothing
it was indeed as though the clustered cubes sped within a bubble of the now wanly glistening vapors or rather as though in our passage as a projectile does in air we piled before us
a thick wave of the mists which streaming along each side closing in behind obscured all that lay around yet i had persistently the feeling that beyond these shroudings was vast and ordered movement
marchings and counter marchings of hosts greater even than those golden hordes of genghis which ages agone had washed about the outer bases of the very peaks that hid this place came too
rhythmic terrifying
poised for the signal which would send them pouring over it once again i seemed to stand upon the brink of an abyss of incredible revelation striving helplessly struggling for realization
and so struggling became aware that our speed was swiftly slackening the roaring blast dying down the veils before us thinning they cleared away i saw drake and ventnor straighten up
its mistily outlined edges impinging upon the towering scarp of the city it was as though before us lay upon its side a cone of crystalline clear air against whose curved sides
pressed the top arc of its prostrate base reached a thousand feet or more up the precipitous wall above it all was hidden in sparkling nebulosities
infinite distances through them suddenly thousands of bright beams began to dart to dance weaving and interweaving shooting hither and yon like myriads of great searchlights in a phosphorescent sea fog
like countless lances of the aurora thrusting through its own iridescent veils and in the play of these beams was something appallingly ordered appallingly rhythmic it was
purposeful purposeful as the geometric shiftings of the little things of the ruins of the summoning song of norhala of the protean changes of the smiting shape and the following thing and like all of these
it was as laden with that baffling certainty of hidden meanings of messages that the brain recognized as such yet knew it never could read the rays seemed to spring upward from the earth
now they were like countless lances of light borne by marching armies of titans
while through them thrusting them aside bending them passed vast vague shapes like mountains forming and dissolving like darkening monsters of some world of light pushing through thick forests of slender high reaching trees of cold flame
shifting shadows of monstrous chimerae slipping through jungles of bamboo with trunks of diamond fire phantasmal leviathans swimming through brakes of giant reeds of radiance
rising from the sparking ooze of a sea of star shine whence came the force the mechanism that produced this cone of clarity this not searchlight but unlight in the midst of light
not from behind that was certain for turning i saw that behind us the mist was as thick i turned again it came to me why i knew not yet with an absolute certainty that the energy the force emanated
was smooth utterly blank upon it was no trace of those flitting lights we had seen before we had plunged down toward the radiant sea it shone with a pale blue phosphorescence
it was featureless smooth a blind cliff of polished blue metal and that was all ruth groaned ventnor where is she aghast at my mental withdrawal from him angry at myself for my callousness
awkwardly i tried to crawl over to him to touch him comfort him as well as i might and then as though his cry had been a signal the great cone began to move
down steadily down
for the bottom of the cone was now at a decided angle while the upper edge of the circle had dropped a full two hundred feet below the place where it had rested and still it fell there came a gasp of relief from ventnor
a sigh from drake while from my own heart a weight rolled not ten yards ahead of us and still deep within the luminosity had appeared the regal head of norhala the lovely head of ruth
the two rose out of the glow like swimmers floating from the depths now they were clear before us and now we could see the surface of the cube on which they rode but neither turned to us each stared straightly motionless
along the axis of the sinking cone the woman's left arm holding ruth close to her side drake's hand caught my shoulder in a grip that hurt nor did he need to point toward that which had wrung the exclamation from him
the funnel had broken from its slow falling it had made one swift startling drop and had come to rest its recumbent side was now flattened into a triangular plane widening from the narrow tip in which we stood
to all of five hundred feet where its base rested against the blue wall and falling at a full thirty degree pitch the misty edged circle had become an oval a flattened ellipse another five hundred feet high and three times that in length
and in its exact center shining forth as though it opened into a place of pale azure incandescence was another rectangular cyclopean portal on each side of it
in the apparently solid face of the gleaming metallic cliffs a slit was opening they began as thin lines a hundred yards in height through which the intense light seemed to hiss
quickly they opened widening like monstrous cat pupils until at last their widening ceasing they glared forth the blue incandescence gushing from them like molten steel from an opened sluice
deep within them i sensed a movement scores of towering shapes swam within and glided out of them each reflecting the vivid light as though they themselves were incandescent around their crests spun wide and flaming coronets
they rushed forth wheeling whirling driven like leaves in a whirlwind out they swirled from the cat's eyes of the glimmering wall these dervish obelisks crowded with spinning fires they vanished in the mists
instantly with their going the eyes contracted were but slits were gone and before us within the oval was only the waiting portal the leading block leaped forward as abruptly
those that bore us followed again under that strain of projectile flight we clutched each other the pony screamed in terror the metal cliff rushed to meet us like a thunder cloud of steel the portal raced upon us
a square mouth of cold blue flame and into it we swept were devoured by it light in blinding intolerable flood beat about us blackening the sight with agony
we pressed the three of us against the side of the pony burying our faces in its shaggy coat striving to hide our eyes from the radiance which strain closely as we might seemed to pierce through the body of the little beast through our own heads
the picture a random choice among the three shows in the neighborhood was about seventeenth century buccaneers exciting action and a sound track loud with shots and cutlass clashing he let himself be drawn into it completely
and until it was finished he was able to forget both the college and the history of the future but as he walked home he was struck by the parallel
between the buccaneers of the west indies and the space pirates in the days of the dissolution of the first galactic empire in the tenth century of the interstellar era he hadn't been too clear on that period and he found new data rising in his mind
he hurried his steps almost running upstairs to his room it was long after midnight before he had finished the notes he had begun on his return home well that had been a mistake but he wouldn't make it again
he determined again to destroy his notes and began casting about for a subject which would occupy his mind to the exclusion of the future not the spanish conquistadores that was too much like the early period of interstellar expansion
he thought for a time of the sepoy mutiny and then rejected it he could remember something much like that on one of the planets of the beta hydrae system in the fourth century of the atomic era there were so few things in the history of the past
which did not have their counter parts in the future that evening too he stayed at home preparing for his various classes for the rest of the week and making copious notes on what he would talk about to each
whitburn gave him no more trouble
and spent his evenings trying not always successfully to avoid drifting into memories of the future he came into his office that morning tired and unrefreshed by the few hours sleep he had gotten the night before
edgy from the strain of trying to adjust his mind to the world of blanley college in mid april of nineteen seventy three pottgeiter hadn't arrived yet but marjorie fenner was waiting for him a newspaper in her hand almost bursting with excitement
here have you seen it doctor chalmers she asked as he entered he shook his head
but each morning he seemed to have less and less time to get ready for work well look look at that she thrust the paper into his hands still folded the big black headline where he could see it
he glanced over the leading paragraphs leader of islamic caliphate shot to death in basra leaving parliament building for his palace outside the city fanatic identified as an egyptian named mohammed noureed old american submachine gun
that would follow it were fixed in the matrix of the space time continuum including maybe the death of an obscure professor of modern history named edward chalmers
at least this'll be the end of that silly flap about what happened a month ago in modern four this is modern history now i can talk about it without a lot of fools yelling their heads off
no doubt horrified at his cold blooded attitude toward what was really a shocking and senseless crime yes of course the man's dead so's julius caesar but we've gotten over being shocked at his murder
explain why khalid's death was necessary to the policies of the eastern axis and what the consequences would be how it would hasten the complete dissolution of the old u n already weakened by the crisis over the eastern demands
for the demilitarization and internationalization of the united states lunar base and necessitate the formation of the terran federation and how it would lead eventually to the thirty days war no he couldn't talk about that
that was on the wrong side of the knife edge have to be careful about the knife edge too easy to cut himself on it
they were all crowded between the door and his desk he stood blinking
great heavens did it take the murder of the greatest moslem since saladin to convince people that he wasn't crazy before the period was over whitburn's secretary entered with a note in the college president's hand and over his signature
requesting chalmers to come to his office immediately and without delay just like that expected him to walk right out of his class he was protesting as he entered the president's office whitburn cut him off short
doctor chalmers whitburn had risen behind his desk as the door opened
i certainly hope that you can realize that there was nothing but the most purely coincidental connection between the event featured in this morning's newspapers and your performance a month ago in modern history four he began
i realize nothing of the sort
that your wild utterances of a month ago have now been vindicated as fulfilled prophesies and i suppose you intend to exploit this this coincidence to the utmost
you mean to tell me that you didn't give this story to the local newspaper the valley times whitburn demanded i did not i haven't mentioned the subject to anybody connected with the times or anybody else for that matter
except my attorney a month ago when you were threatening to repudiate the contract you signed with me i suppose i'm expected to take your word for that yes you are unless you care to call me a liar in so many words he moved a step closer
lloyd whitburn outweighed him by fifty pounds but most of the difference was fat whitburn must have realized that too
he said hastily but somebody did a reporter was here not twenty minutes ago he refused to say who had given him the story but he wanted to question me about it what did you tell him i refused to make any statement whatever
i also called colonel tighlman the owner of the paper and asked him very reasonably to suppress the story i thought that my own position and the importance of blanley college to this town entitled me to that much consideration
whitburn's face became almost purple he he laughed at me
not even by college presidents that's only made things worse personally i don't relish the prospect of having this publicized any more than you do
as a personal favor not to discuss the matter outside whitburn didn't take the hint instead he paced back and forth storming about the reporter the newspaper owner whoever had given the story to the paper and finally chalmers himself
he was livid with rage you certainly can't imagine that when you made those remarks in class you actually possessed any knowledge of a thing that was still a month in the future he spluttered
why it's ridiculous utterly preposterous unusual i'll admit but the fact remains that i did i should of course have been more careful and not confused future with past events the students didn't understand
whitburn half turned stopping short my god man you are crazy he cried horrified the period bell was ringing as he left whitburn's office that meant
that the twenty three students were scattering over the campus talking like mad he shrugged keeping them quiet about a thing like this wouldn't have been possible in any case when he entered his office stanly weill was waiting for him the lawyer drew him out
well if you haven't talked don't suppose somebody asks me a reporter no comment anybody else none of his damn business
and above all don't let anybody finagle you into making any claims about knowing the future i thought we had this under control now that it's out in the open what that fool whitburn'll do is anybody's guess
leonard fitch met him as he entered the faculty club sizzling with excitement ed this has done it he began jubilantly this is one nobody can laugh off it's direct proof of precognition
whitburn's trying to do that whitburn's a fool if he is another man said calmly turning he saw that the speaker was tom smith one of the math professors i figured the odds against that being chance
there are a lot of variables that might affect it one way or another but ten to the fifteenth power is what i get for a sort of median figure did you give that story to the valley times he asked fitch suspicion rising and dragging anger up
after it of course i did fitch said i'll admit i had to go behind your back and have some of my postgrads get statements from the boys in your history class but you wouldn't talk about it yourself tom smith was standing beside him
he was twenty years younger than chalmers he was an amateur boxer and he had good reflexes he caught chalmers arm as it was traveling back for an uppercut and held it take it easy ed
i don't know what you're sore about fitch defended himself
and if i hadn't collected signed and dated statements from your boys there'd have been no substantiation it happens that extrasensory perception means as much to me as history does to you i've believed in it ever since i read about rhine's work when i was a kid
i worked in e s p for a long time then i had a chance to get a full professorship by coming here and after i did i found that i couldn't go on with it because whitburn's president here and he's a stupid old bigot with an air locked mind
he thought for a moment what else did you do beside hand this story to the valley times i'd better hear all about it
well you got your publicity all right i'm up to my neck in it there was an uproar outside the doorman was saying firmly this is the faculty club gentlemen it's for members only
i don't care if you gentlemen are the press you simply cannot come in here
sir i am now availing myself of the liberty you have frequently honoured me with of dedicating one of my novels to you
yet fear that from me it will always remain so that as far as it is carried it should be so trifling and so unworthy of you is another concern to your obliged humble servant the author
please to pay jane austen spinster
you and margaret will i am certain take all the care of my dear little one that she might have received from an indulgent and affectionate and amiable mother tears rolled down his cheeks as he spoke these words
the remembrance of her who had so wantonly disgraced the maternal character and so openly violated the conjugal duties prevented his adding anything farther he embraced his sweet child
and after saluting matilda and me hastily broke from us and seating himself in his chaise pursued the road to aberdeen never was there a better young man ah
so good a husband to so bad a wife for you know my dear charlotte that the worthless louisa left him her child and reputation a few weeks ago in company with danvers
and dishonour never was there a sweeter face a finer form or a less amiable heart than louisa owned
her child already possesses the personal charms of her unhappy mother may she inherit from her father all his mental ones lesley is at present but five and twenty
and has already given himself up to melancholy and despair what a difference between him and his father sir george is fifty seven and still remains the beau
and that he has affected to appear ever since my remembrance while our father is fluttering about the streets of london gay dissipated and thoughtless at the age of fifty seven
which is situated two miles from perth on a bold projecting rock
but tho retired from almost all the world
and the macduffs we are neither dull nor unhappy on the contrary
not an hour in the day hangs heavy on our hands we read we work we walk and when fatigued with these employments releive our spirits either by a lively song a graceful dance or by some smart bon mot
and witty repartee we are handsome my dear charlotte very handsome and the greatest of our perfections is that we are entirely insensible of them ourselves but why do i thus dwell on myself
let me rather repeat the praise of our dear little neice the innocent louisa who is at present sweetly smiling in a gentle nap as she reposes on the sofa the dear creature is just turned of two years old
as handsome as tho two and twenty
to convince you of this i must inform you that she has a very fine complexion and very pretty features
and that she never tears her frocks if i have not now convinced you of her beauty sense and prudence i have nothing more to urge in support of my assertion and you will therefore have no way of deciding the affair
but by coming to lesley castle and by a personal acquaintance with louisa determine for yourself
should be so widely removed from each other is vastly moving i live in perthshire you in sussex we might meet in london were my father disposed to carry me there and were your mother to be there at the same time
we might meet at bath at tunbridge or anywhere else indeed could we but be at the same place together we have only to hope that such a period may arrive my father does not return to us till autumn
my brother will leave scotland in a few days he is impatient to travel mistaken youth he vainly flatters himself that change of air will heal the wounds of a broken heart you will join with me i am certain my dear charlotte
in prayers for the recovery of the unhappy lesley's peace of mind which must ever be essential to that of your sincere freind m lesley
i have a thousand excuses to beg for having so long delayed thanking you my dear peggy for your agreable letter which beleive me i should not have deferred doing
had not every moment of my time during the last five weeks been so fully employed in the necessary arrangements for my sisters wedding as to allow me no time to devote either to you or myself and now what provokes me more than
anything else is that the match is broke off and all my labour thrown away imagine how great the dissapointment must be to me
and by day in order to get the wedding dinner ready by the time appointed
through the honey moon i had the mortification of finding that i had been roasting broiling and stewing both the meat and myself to no purpose indeed my dear freind
i never remember suffering any vexation equal to what i experienced on last monday when my sister came running to me in the store room with her face as white as a whipt syllabub
and was pronounced by his surgeon to be in the most emminent danger good god said i you dont say so
we shall never be able to eat it while it is good however we'll call in the surgeon to help us i shall be able to manage the sir loin myself my mother will eat the soup and you and the doctor must finish the rest
i immediately called my mother and the maids and at last we brought her to herself again as soon as ever she was sensible she expressed a determination of going instantly to henry and was so wildly bent on this scheme
at last however more by force than entreaty we prevailed on her to go into her room
and she continued for some hours in the most dreadful convulsions my mother and i continued in the room with her and when any intervals of tolerable composure in eloisa would allow us
which this event must occasion and in concerting some plan for getting rid of them we agreed that the best thing we could do was to begin eating them immediately and accordingly we ordered up the cold ham and fowls
and instantly began our devouring plan on them with great alacrity
but she would not be persuaded she was however much quieter than she had been
we endeavoured to rouse her by every means in our power but to no purpose i talked to her of henry
there's no occasion for your crying so much about such a trifle
i beg you would not mind it you see it does not vex me in the least
for i shall not only be obliged to eat up all the victuals i have dressed already but must if henry should recover
dress as much for you again or should he die as i suppose he will i shall still have to prepare a dinner for you whenever you marry any one else
so you see that tho perhaps for the present it may afflict you to think of henry's sufferings yet i dare say he'll die soon and then his pain will be over and you will be easy whereas my trouble will last much longer
for work as hard as i may i am certain that the pantry cannot be cleared in less than a fortnight thus i did all in my power to console her but without any effect and at last as i saw that she did not seem to listen to me i said no more
but leaving her with my mother i took down the remains of the ham and chicken and sent william to ask how henry did he was not expected to live many hours he died the same day
in the tenderest manner yet in spite of every precaution her sufferings on hearing it were too violent for her reason and she continued for many hours in a high delirium she is still extremely ill
and her physicians are greatly afraid of her going into a decline we are therefore preparing for bristol where we mean to be in the course of the next week and now my dear margaret
that it is confidently reported your father is going to be married i am very unwilling to beleive so unpleasing a report and at the same time cannot wholly discredit it
i have written to my freind susan fitzgerald for information concerning it which as she is at present in town
i think your brother is extremely right in the resolution he has taken of travelling as it will perhaps contribute to obliterate from his remembrance those disagreable events which have lately so much afflicted him
i am happy to find that tho secluded from all the world neither you nor matilda are dull or unhappy that you may never know what it is to be either is the wish of your sincerely affectionate c l
p s i have this instant received an answer from my freind susan which i enclose to you and on which you will make your own reflections the enclosed letter
my dear charlotte you could not have applied for information concerning the report of sir george lesleys marriage to any one better able to give it you than i am
sir george is certainly married i was myself present at the ceremony which you will not be surprised at when i subscribe myself your affectionate susan lesley letter the third
to miss c lutterell lesley castle
i have made my own reflections on the letter you enclosed to me my dear charlotte and i will now tell you what those reflections were i reflected that if by this second marriage
sir george should have a second family our fortunes must be considerably diminushed that if his wife should be of an extravagant turn
she would encourage him to persevere in that gay and dissipated way of life to which little encouragement would be necessary and which has i fear already proved but too detrimental to his health and fortune
that she would now become mistress of those jewels which once adorned our mother and which sir george had always promised us that if they did not come into perthshire
i should not be able to gratify my curiosity of beholding my mother in law and that if they did matilda would no longer sit at the head of her father's table
these my dear charlotte were the melancholy reflections which crowded into my imagination after perusing susan's letter to you and which instantly occurred to matilda when she had perused it likewise
the same ideas the same fears immediately occupied her mind and i know not which reflection distressed her most whether the probable diminution of our fortunes or her own consequence
we both wish very much to know whether lady lesley is handsome and what is your opinion of her as you honour her with the appellation of your freind we flatter ourselves that she must be amiable my brother is already in paris
he intends to quit it in a few days and to begin his route to italy he writes in a most chearfull manner
by this you may perceive that he has entirely regained that chearful gaiety and sprightly wit for which he was once so remarkable when he first became acquainted with louisa which was little more than three years ago
he was one of the most lively the most agreable young men of the age i beleive you never yet heard the particulars of his first acquaintance with her it commenced at our cousin colonel drummond's
in which he attained the age of two and twenty louisa burton was the daughter of a distant relation of missus drummond who dieing a few months before in extreme poverty left his only child then about eighteen
to the protection of any of his relations who would protect her missus drummond was the only one who found herself so disposed louisa was therefore removed from a miserable cottage in yorkshire to an elegant mansion in cumberland
and from every pecuniary distress that poverty could inflict to every elegant enjoyment that money could purchase
louisa was naturally ill tempered and cunning but she had been taught to disguise her real disposition under the appearance of insinuating sweetness by a father who but too well knew that to be married
would be the only chance she would have of not being starved and who flattered himself that with such an extroidinary share of personal beauty joined to a gentleness of manners
and an engaging address she might stand a good chance of pleasing some young man who might afford to marry a girl without a shilling louisa perfectly entered into her father's schemes and was determined to forward them with all her care and attention
by dint of perseverance and application she had at length so thoroughly disguised her natural disposition under the mask of innocence and softness
as to impose upon every one who had not by a long and constant intimacy with her discovered her real character such was louisa when the hapless lesley first beheld her at drummond house
his heart which to use your favourite comparison was as delicate as sweet and as tender as a whipt syllabub could not resist her attractions in a very few days he was falling in love
shortly after actually fell and before he had known her a month he had married her my father was at first highly displeased at so hasty and imprudent a connection
the estate near aberdeen which my brother possesses by the bounty of his great uncle independant of sir george was entirely sufficient to support him and my sister in elegance and ease for the first twelvemonth
and no one more amiable to appearance than louisa and so plausibly did she act and so cautiously behave that tho matilda and i often spent several weeks together with them yet we neither of us had any suspicion of her real disposition
after the birth of louisa however which one would have thought would have strengthened her regard for lesley the mask she had so long supported was by degrees thrown aside
which did indeed appear if possible augmented by the birth of his child she seemed to take no pains to prevent that affection from ever diminushing
our absence was however never either mentioned or lamented by louisa who in the society of young danvers with whom she became acquainted at aberdeen he was at one of the universities there felt infinitely happier
than in that of matilda and your freind tho there certainly never were pleasanter girls than we are you know the sad end of all lesleys connubial happiness i will not repeat it adeiu my dear charlotte
although i have not yet mentioned anything of the matter i hope you will do me the justice to beleive that i think and feel a great deal for your sisters affliction
everybody who is older than a schoolboy remembers how mister rudyard kipling was once a modern he might indeed have been described at the time as a post imperialist raucous and young he had left behind him the ornate imperialism of disraeli
he sang of imperialism as it was or was about to be vulgar and canting and bloody and a world that was preparing itself for an imperialism that would be vulgar and canting and bloody bade him welcome
in one breath he would give you an invocation to jehovah in the next with a dig in the ribs he would be getting round the roguish side of you with the assurance that if you've ever stole a pheasant egg behind the keeper's back if you've ever snigged the washin from the line
this jumble which seems so curious nowadays of delight in piety and delight in twopence coloured mischiefs came as a glorious novelty and respite to the oppressed race of victorians hitherto they had been building up an empire
decently and in order no doubt many reprehensible things were being done but they were being done quietly outwardly so far as was possible a respectable front was preserved
it was mister kipling's distinction to tear off the mask of imperialism as a needless and irritating encumbrance he had too much sense of reality too much humour indeed to want to portray empire builders as a company of plaster saints
he was ready to proclaim aloud a host of things which had until then been kept as decorously in the dark as the skeleton in the family cupboard the thousand and one incidents of lust and loot of dishonesty and brutality and drunkenness
all of those things to which builders of empire like many other human beings are at times prone he never dreamed of treating as matters to be hushed up or apparently indeed to be regretted he accepted them quite frankly as all in the day's work
there was even a suspicion of enthusiasm in the heartiness with which he referred to them simple old clergymen with a sentimental vision of an imperialism that meant a chain of mission stations painted red encircling the earth
suddenly found themselves called upon to sing a new psalm ow the loot bloomin loot that's the thing to make the boys git up an shoot it's the same with dogs an men if you'd make em come again
clap em forward with a loo loo lulu loot whoopee tear im puppy loo loo lulu loot loot loot frankly i wish mister kipling had always written in this strain it might have frightened the clergymen away unfortunately
no sooner had the old fashioned among his readers begun to show signs of nervousness than he would suddenly feel in the mood for a tune on his old testament harp and taking it down would twang from its strings a lay of duty take up he would sing
take up the white man's burden send forth the best ye breed go bind your sons to exile to serve your captives need to wait in heavy harness on fluttered folk and wild your new caught sullen peoples half devil and half child
little willie in the tracts scarcely dreamed of a thornier path of self sacrifice no wonder the sentimentalists were soon all dancing to the new music music which perhaps
had more of the harmonium than the harp in it but was none the less suited on that account to its revivalistic purpose at the same time much as we may have been attracted to mister kipling in his sabbath moods it was with what we may call his saturday night moods
that he first won the enthusiasm of the young men they loved him for his bad language long before he had ever preached a sermon or written a leading article in verse
seemed to initiate them into a life at once more real and more adventurous than the quiet three meals a day ritual of their homes he sang of men who defied the laws of man still more exciting he sang of men who defied the laws of god
every oath he loosed rang heroically in the ear like a challenge to the universe for his characters talked in a daring swearing fashion that was new in literature
boys the wheel has gone to hell rig the winches aft not that anybody knew or cared what rigging the winches aft meant it was the familiar and fearless commerce with hell that seemed to give literature a new horizon
similarly it was the eternal flames in the background that made the tattered figure of gunga din the water carrier so favourite a theme with virgins and boys with what delight they would quote the verse so i'll meet im later on
at the place where e is gone where it's always double drill and no canteen e'll be squattin on the coals givin drink to poor damned souls
ever since the days of aucassin indeed who praised hell as the place whither were bound the men of fashion and the good scholars and the courteous fair ladies youth has taken a strange heretical delight in hell and damnation
mister kipling offered new meats to the old taste gentlemen rankers out on the spree damned from here to eternity began to wear halos in the undergraduate imagination those seven men from out of hell who went
rolling down the ratcliff road drunk and raising cain were men with whom youth would have rejoiced to shake hands one even wrote bad verses oneself in those days in which one loved to picture oneself as cursed with the curse of reuben
seared with the brand of cain though so far one's most desperate adventure into reality had been the consumption of a small claret hot with a slice of lemon in it in a back street public house thus mister kipling brought a new violence and wonder
a sort of debased byronism into the imagination of youth at least he put a crown upon the violence and wonder which youth had long previously discovered for itself in penny dreadfuls and in its rebellion against conventions and orthodoxies
it may be protested however that this is an incomplete account of mister kipling's genius as a poet he does something more in his verse it may be urged than drone on the harmonium of imperialism
and transmute the language of the ratcliff road into polite literature that is quite true he owes his fame partly also to the brilliance with which he talked adventure and talked shop to a generation that was exceptionally greedy for both
he more than any other writer of his time set to banjo music the restlessness of the young man who would not stay at home the romance of the man who lived and laboured at least a thousand miles away from the home of his fathers
he excited the imagination of youth with deft questions such as do you know the pile built village where the sago dealers trade do you know the reek of fish and wet bamboo if you did not know all about the sago dealers and the fish and the wet bamboo
mister kipling had a way of making you feel unpardonably ignorant and the moral of your ignorance always was that you must go go go away from here hence an immense increase in the number of passages booked to the colonies
mister kipling in his verse simply acted as a gorgeous poster artist of empire and even those who resisted his call to adventure were hypnotized by his easy and lavish manner of talking shop he could talk the shop of the army the sea
the engine room the art school the charwoman he was a perfect young bacon of omniscience how we thrilled at the unintelligible jingle of the anchor song with its cunning blend of shop and adventure
handsome to the cathead now o tally on the fall stop seize and fish and easy on the davit guy up well up the fluke of her and inboard haul well ah fare you well for the channel wind's took hold of us
choking down our voices as we snatch the gaskets free and its blowing up for night and she's dropping light on light and she's snorting and she's snatching for a breath of open sea the worst of mister kipling is that in verse like this
he is not only omniscient he is knowing he mistakes knowingness for knowledge he even mistakes it for wisdom at times as when he writes not of ships but of women his knowing attitude to women makes some of his verse not very much to be quite fair
absolutely detestable the ladies seems to me the vulgarest poem written by a man of genius in our time as one reads it one feels how right oscar wilde was when he said that mister kipling had seen many strange things through keyholes
mister kipling's defenders may reply that in poems like this he is merely dramatizing the point of view of the barrack room
which appears here and elsewhere in the author's verse one is conscious of a kind of malign cynicism in mister kipling's own attitude as one reads the young british soldier with a verse like if your wife should go wrong with a comrade be loth
to shoot when you catch em you'll swing on my oath make im take er and keep er that's hell for them both and you're shut o the curse of a soldier
that seems to me fairly to represent the level of mister kipling's poetic wisdom in regard to the relations between the sexes it is the logical result of the keyhole view of life and similarly
his imperialism is a mean and miserable thing because it is the result of a keyhole view of humanity spiritually mister kipling may be said to have seen thousands of miles and thousands of places through keyholes in him wide wanderings have produced the narrow mind
many of his poems are simply miser's shrieks when the hoard seems to be threatened he cannot even praise the flag of his country without a shrill note of malice winds of the world give answer they are whimpering to and fro
and what should they know of england who only england know the poor little street bred people that vapour and fume and brag they are lifting their heads in the stillness to yelp at the english flag
prudy's white tea blessings on the blessed children said aunt madge one morning soon after this so we little folks are going out to spend the day are we yes'm replied grace all but horace
yes said prudy dancing in high glee grandma wants me to go and i'm goin i mean to do every single thing grandma wants me to i wish you could go with us aunt madge said grace almost pouting we don't have half so good times with aunt louise
no we don't cried prudy she wants us to take care all the time she don't love little girls when she has the nervous almost while they were talking their aunt louise came into the room looking prettier than ever in her new pink dress she was a very young lady
hardly fifteen years old come prudy said she smiling please run up stairs and get my parasol there's a darling but prudy was picking a pebble out of her shoe and did not start at once ah said aunt louise drawing on her gloves
i see prudy isn't going to mind me well don't you see me getting up out of my chair said prudy there now
what shall i do all this long day with three noisy children i'm afraid some of them will get drowned or run over or break their necks you see if something awful doesn't happen before we get back
here is your parasol auntie said prudy coming back i know who i love best of any body in this house and it ain't the one that's got her bonnet on
for i do believe she thinks you children are as lovely as little white rose buds
o i'm so glad i'm alive cried little prudy hoping on one foot i do hope i shall never die i just mean to be careful and not get a speck of dirt on my clean apron whispered susy to grace aunt madge ironed it this morning
they had such a pleasant walk through the streets of the beautiful village in the sunshine calm and sweet grace thought the trees met overhead just as if they were clasping hands and playing a game of king's cruise for every body to march through
when they had almost reached aunt martha's house aunt louise stopped them saying now tell me if you are going to be good children so i shan't be ashamed of you why yes auntie said grace looking quite grieved and surprised o auntie said susy
did you think we were going to be naughty no you'll mean to be good i dare say answered aunt louise speaking more kindly if you don't forget it and you'll be a nice dear little girl won't you prudy i don't know
said prudy coolly don't know
well i didn't say i wouldn't said prudy with some dignity
i'm sure i hope you'll do the very best you can sighed aunt louise and not make any body crazy by this time they had gone up the nice gravel walk and aunt martha had come to the door opening her arms as if she wanted to embrace them all at once
dear little souls said she come right into the house and let me take off your things
this is my little nephew lonnie adams shake hands with the little girls my dear lonnie was a fair haired sickly little boy seven years old the children very soon felt at ease with him
it was so pleasant in aunt martha's shaded parlor and the children took such delight in looking at the books and pictures that they were all sorry when aunt louise got nervous and thought it was time they went off somewhere to play very well said dear aunt martha
they may go all over the house and grounds if they like with lonnie so all over the house and grounds they went in a very few minutes and at last came to a stand still in bridget's chamber over the kitchen
tired enough to sit down a while all but prudy who didn't have any kind of tiredness about her look here prudy parlin said grace you mustn't open that drawer who owns it said prudy putting in both hands
god owns this drawer and he's willing i should look into it as long as i'm a mind to well i'll tell aunt louise you see if i don't that's the way little paddy girls act that steal things i ain't a stealer cried prudy
i'm going to put it up at auction i'm mister nelson riding horseback said he jumping up on a stand
who'll buy my fine fresh ink please give it to me cried grace it isn't yours fresh ink red as a lobster this minute cried grace as green as a pea who'll bid going going
it's yours going gone for a ninepence knocked off to miss parlin
lonnie was dreadfully frightened
o dear o dear what is to be done
i guess this honey soap will take it out said susy
who scoured his face stop a minute cried grace soap makes it worse ma puts on milk o dear i wish we had some said susy how can we get it
i'll tell you what we'll do said grace we'll send prudy down stairs to bridget to ask for some milk to drink i like milk and water the best said prudy with sugar in
calling out o bridget may i have some white tea white tay said bridget and what may that be now o some white tea in a cup you know with sugar they let me have it every little once in a while
milk and water i suppose said aunt martha can't you wait till dinner my dear but the girls can't wait replied prudy they want it now o it's for the girls is it
yes but when they've washed the apron i can drink the rest with white sugar in the apron said aunt martha what apron
ink spilled cried aunt martha and she stopped beating the turnip
what have you been into who spilled that ink it got tipped over answered susy in a fright but not forgetting her promise
of course it got tipped over but not without hands you careless girl do you get your shaker and march home as quick as ever you can i must go with you i suppose
but he had run away o auntie said grace she wasn't to blame it don't say a word said aunt louise briskly if she was my little girl i'd have her sent to bed that dress and apron ought to be soaking this very minute
bridget listened at the foot of the stairs in a very angry mood muttering it's not much like the child's mother she is a mother can pass it by when the childers does such capers and wait till they get more sinse poor little susy had to go home
in the noonday sun hanging down her head like a guilty child and crying all the way some of the tears were for her soiled clothes
and some for the nice dinner she had left o aunt madge sobbed she when they had got home i kept as far behind aunt louise as i could so nobody would think i was her little girl she was ashamed of me i looked so
there there try not to cry
sometimes i wish there wasn't any such girl as me tears came into aunt madge's kind gray eyes and she made up her mind that the poor child should be comforted so she quietly put away the silk dress she was so anxious to finish and after dinner took the fresh tidy
happy little susy across the fields to aunt martha's again where the unlucky day was finished very happily after all the truth is louise said aunt madge that night after their return
o how unjust i have been said aunt louise who did not mean to be unkind in spite of her hasty way of speaking
only think what a trifling thing it is for a little child to soil her dress and what a great thing to have her keep her word
the violent fever into which i had fallen did not abate until the third day when i fell into a profound slumber from which i woke refreshed and saved i did not on awakening find myself in my own familiar cell
but in a spacious apartment new to me on a comfortable bed beside which edra was seated almost my first feeling was one of disappointment at not seeing yoletta there and presently i began to fear that in the ravings of delirium
i had spoken things which had plucked the scales from the eyes of my kind friends in a very rough way indeed and that the being i loved best had been permanently withdrawn from my sight
but unintelligibly continually asking questions about venus diana juno and many other persons whose names had never before been heard in the house how fortunate that my crazy brain had thus continued vexing itself
with this idle question she also told me that yoletta had watched day and night at my side that at last when the fever left me and i had fallen into that cooling slumber she too
with her hand on mine had dropped her head on the pillow and fallen asleep then without waking her they had carried her away to her own room and edra had taken her place by my side
have you nothing more to ask she said at length with an accent of surprise no nothing more what you have told me has made me very happy what more can i wish to know but there is more to tell you smith
imprudence and as soon as you are well enough to leave your room and bear it you must suffer the punishment what punished for being ill i exclaimed sitting bolt upright in my bed what do you mean edra
i never heard such outrageous nonsense in my life she was disturbed at this outburst but quietly and gravely repeated that i must certainly be punished for my illness
remembering what their punishments were i had the prospect of a second long separation from yoletta and the thought of such excessive severity or rather of such cruel injustice made me wild by heaven i shall not submit to it
i exclaimed punished for being ill who ever heard of such a thing i suppose that by and by it will be discovered that the bridge of my nose is not quite straight or that i can't see round the corner and that also will be set down as a crime
to be expiated in solitary confinement on a bread and water diet no you shall not punish me rather than give in to such tyranny i'll walk off and leave the house for ever
she regarded me with an expression almost approaching to horror on her gentle face and for some moments made no reply then i remembered that if i carried out that insane threat i should indeed lose yoletta and the very thought of such a loss was more than i could endure
so powerless to oppose their stupid and barbarous practices it would have been sweet then to have felt free free to fling them a curse and go away shaking the dust of their house from my shoes supposing that any dust had adhered to them
then edra began to speak again and gravely and sorrowfully but without a touch of austerity in her tone or manner censured me for making use of such irrational language and for allowing bitter resentful thoughts to enter my heart
but the despondence and sullen rage into which i had been thrown made me proof even against the medicine of an admonition imparted so gently and turning my face away i stubbornly refused to make any reply
offended to my own reflections do you not know that you are giving me pain she said at last drawing a little closer to me
a little while ago you told me that you loved me has that feeling faded so soon or do you take any pleasure in wounding those you love her words and more than her words her tender pleading tone pierced me with compunction and i could not resist
edra my sweet sister do not imagine such a thing i said i would rather endure many punishments than give you pain my love for you cannot fade while i have life and understanding it is in me like greenness in the leaf
that beautiful color which can only be changed by sere decay she smiled forgiveness and with a humid brightness in her eyes which somehow made me think of that joy of the angels over one sinner that repenteth bent down and touched her lips to mine
yes dear exceeds all others as the light of the sun exceeds that of the moon and the stars can you not understand that has no man ever loved you with a love like that my sister
she shook her head and sighed did she not understand my meaning now had not my words brought back some sweet and sorrowful memory with her hands folded idly on her lap and her face half averted she sat gazing at nothing
it seemed impossible that this woman so tender and so beautiful should never have experienced in herself or witnessed in another the feeling i had questioned her about but she made no further reply to my words and as i lay there watching her
the drowsy spirit the fever had left in me overcame my brain and i slept once more for several days which brought me so little strength that i was not permitted to leave the sick room i heard nothing further about my punishment
for i purposely refrained from asking any questions and no person appeared inclined to bring forward so disagreeable a subject at length i was pronounced well enough to go about the house
although still very feeble and i was conducted not to the judgment room where i had expected to be taken but to the mother's room
they all welcomed me and seemed glad to see me out again but i could not help remarking a certain subdued almost solemn air about them
my son said the father addressing me in a calm judicial tone which at once put my last remaining hopes to flight
or loosen the bonds of affection which unite you to us you are still feeble and perhaps a little confused in mind concerning the events of the last few days i do not therefore press you to give an account of them
the great love you have for yoletta he continued and at this i started and blushed painfully but the succeeding words served to show that i had only too little cause for alarm
the great love you have for yoletta caused you much suffering during her thirty days seclusion from us so that you lost all enjoyment of life and eating little and being in continual dejection your strength was much diminished
on the last day you were so much excited at the prospect of reunion with her that you went to your task in the woods almost fasting and probably after spending a restless night tell me if this is not so
i did not sleep that night i replied somewhat huskily unrefreshed by sleep and with lessened strength he continued you went to the woods and in order to allay that excitement in your mind you labored with such energy that by noon
you had accomplished a task which in another and calmer condition of mind and body
in thus acting you had already been guilty of a serious offense against yourself but even then you might have escaped the consequences if after finishing your work you had rested and refreshed yourself with food and drink
this however you neglected to do for when you had fallen insensible to the earth and yoletta had called the dog and sent it to the house to summon assistance the food you had taken with you was found untasted in the basket
and others being darkened by that failure of power from which there is no recovery wantonly or carelessly to endanger it in the flower of its strength and beauty is a great folly and a great offense
consider how deep our grief would have been especially the grief of yoletta
as it came so near ending
should be recompensed but it is a light offense not like one committed against the house or even against another person and we also remember the occasion of it since it was no unworthy motive but exceeding love which clouded your judgment and therefore
taking all these things into account it was my intention to put you away from us for the space of thirteen days here he paused as if expecting me to make some reply he had reproved me so gently even approving of the emotion
although still entirely in the dark as to its meaning which had caused my illness that i was made to feel very submissive and even grateful to him it is only just i replied that i should suffer for my fault
and you have tempered justice with more mercy than i deserve you speak with the wisdom of a chastened spirit my son he said rising and placing his hand on my head
and your words gladden me all the more for knowing that you were filled with surprise and resentment when told that your offense was one deserving punishment and now my son i have to tell you that you will not be separated from us
for the mother of the house has willed that your offense shall be pardoned i looked in surprise at chastel for this was very unexpected she was gazing at my face with the light of a strange tenderness in her eyes never seen there before
with poor success to speak my thanks for this rare and beautiful act of mercy then the others surrounded me to express their congratulations the men pressing my hands but not so the women for they all freely kissed me
when the maitre d'hotel had shown him all over the establishment
but also to determine whether or no roddy were disposed to keep an eye on him
in addition to a certain amount of temperate contempt for spies of the law and all their ways against the peril inherent in this last however he was self warned esteeming it the most fatal chink in the armour of the lawbreaker
this disposition to underestimate the acumen of the police far too many promising young adventurers like himself were annually laid by the heels in that snare of their own infatuate weaving
the mouse has every right if he likes to despise the cat for a heavy handed and bloodthirsty beast lacking wit and imagination a creature of simple force majeure but that mouse will not advisedly swagger in cat haunted territory
a blow of the paw is when all's said and done a blow of the paw something to numb the wits of the wiliest mouse considering roddy he believed it to be impossible to gauge the limitations of that essentially british intelligence
something as self contained as a london flat one thing only was certain roddy didn't always think in terms of beef and bass he was nobody's facile fool he could make a shrewd inference as well as strike a shrewd blow reviewing the scene in the restaurant
but that the frenchman was well aware of that interest and he resented sincerely his inability to feel as confident that the count with his gossip about the lone wolf had been merely seeking to divert roddy's interest to putatively larger game
it was just possible that de morbihan's identification of lanyard with that mysterious personage at least by innuendo had been unintentional but somehow lanyard didn't believe it had the two questions troubled him sorely
did de morbihan know did he merely suspect or had he only loosed an aimless shot which chance had sped to the right goal had the mind of roddy proved fallow to that suggestion or had it with its simple national tenacity
been impatient of such side issues or incredulous and persisted in focusing its processes upon the personality and activities of monsieur le comte remy de morbihan however one would surely learn something illuminating before very long
just at present reasoning from noises audible through the bolted door that communicated with the adjoining bed chamber the business of a sleuth seemed to comprise going to bed lanyard shaving and dressing
could distinctly hear a tuneless voice contentedly humming sally in our alley a rendition punctuated by one heavy thump and then another and then by a heartfelt sigh of relief as roddy kicked off his boots and followed by the tapping of a pipe against grate bars
the squeal of a window lowered for ventilation the click of an electric light and the creaking of bed springs finally and before lanyard had finished dressing the man from scotland yard began placidly to snore of course
but this was a question which the adventurer meant to have answered before he went out it was hard upon twelve o'clock when the mirror on the dressing table assured him that he was at length point device in the habit and apparel of a gentleman of elegant nocturnal leisure
but if he approved the figure he cut it was mainly because clothes interested him and he reckoned his own impeccable of their tenant he was feeling just then a bit less sure than he had half an hour since his regard was louring and mistrustful
he was in short suffering reaction from the high spirits engendered by his cross channel exploits his successful get away and the unusual circumstances attendant upon his return to this memory haunted mausoleum of an unhappy childhood
he even shivered a trifle as if under premonition of misfortune and asked himself heavily why not for logically considered a break in the run of his luck was due thus far he had played with a success almost too uniform
his dual role by day the amiable amateur of art by night the nameless mystery that prowled unseen and preyed unhindered could such success be reasonably expected to attend him always should he count de morbihan's yarn a warning
black must turn up every so often in a run of red every gambler knows as much and what was michael lanyard but a common gambler
who persistently staked life and liberty against the blindly impartial casts of chance with one last look round to make certain there was nothing in the calculated disorder of his room to incriminate him were it to be searched in his absence
lanyard enveloped himself in a long full skirted coat clapped on an opera hat and went out noisily locking the door he might as well have left it wide but it would do no harm to pretend he didn't know the bed chamber keys at troyon's were interchangeable
identically the same keys in fact that had been in service in the days of marcel the wretched a single half power electric bulb now modified the gloom of the corridor
he opened it and hesitated a moment looking out as though questioning the weather simultaneously his deft fingers wedged the latch back with a thin slip of steel no rain in fact had fallen within the hour
but still the sky was dense with a sullen rack and still the sidewalks were inky wet
stepping out he slammed the door and strode briskly round the corner as if making for the cab rank that lines up along the luxembourg gardens side of the rue de medicis his boot heels made a cheerful racket in that quiet hour he was quite audibly going away from troyon's
he turned the next corner and then the next rounding the block and presently reapproaching the entrance to troyon's paused in the recess of a dark doorway and lifting one foot after another slipped rubber caps over his heels
thereafter his progress was practically noiseless the smaller door yielded to his touch without a murmur inside he closed it gently and stood a moment listening with all his senses not with his ears alone but with every nerve and fibre of his being
with his imagination to boot but there was never a sound or movement in all the house that he could detect
and no shadow could have made less noise than he slipping cat footed across the courtyard and up the stairs avoiding with super developed sensitiveness every lift that might complain beneath his tread in a trice he was again in the corridor leading to his bed chamber
it was quite as gloomy and empty as it had been five minutes ago yet with a difference a something in its atmosphere that made him nod briefly in confirmation of that suspicion which had brought him back so stealthily for one thing roddy had stopped snoring
and lanyard smiled over the thought that the man from scotland yard might profitably have copied that trick of poor bourke's of snoring like the seven sleepers when most completely awake
it was naturally no surprise to find his bed chamber door unlocked and slightly ajar lanyard made sure of the readiness of his automatic strode into the room and shut the door quietly but by no means soundlessly
he had left the shades down and the hangings drawn at both windows and since these had not been disturbed something nearly approaching complete darkness reigned in the room but though promptly on entering his fingers closed upon the wall switch near the door
he refrained from turning up the lights immediately with a fancy of impish inspiration that it would be amusing to learn what move roddy would make when the tension became too much even for his trained nerves
several seconds passed without the least sound disturbing the stillness lanyard himself grew a little impatient finding that his sight failed to grow accustomed to the darkness because that last was too absolute
pressing against his staring eyeballs like a black fluid impenetrably opaque as unbroken as the hush still he waited surely roddy wouldn't be able much longer to endure such suspense and surely enough
the silence was abruptly broken by a strange and moving sound a hushed cry of alarm that was half a moan and half a sob lanyard himself was startled for that was never roddy's voice
in pity's name who are you and what do you want
some such acknowledgment of the value i place on your affection for me and of my grateful sense of the many acts of kindness by which that affection has been proved as i now gladly offer in this place in dedicating the present work to you
i fulfil therefore a purpose which for some time past i have sincerely desired to achieve and more than that i gain for myself the satisfaction of knowing that there is one page at least of my book on which i shall always look with unalloyed pleasure the page that bears your name
i have founded the main event out of which this story springs on a fact within my own knowledge in afterwards shaping the course of the narrative thus suggested i have guided it as often as i could
where i knew by my own experience or by experience related to me by others that it would touch on something real and true in its progress my idea was that the more of the actual i could garner up as a text to speak from
the more certain i might feel of the genuineness and value of the ideal which was sure to spring out of it fancy and imagination
can only grow towards heaven by taking root in earth is not the noblest poetry of prose fiction the poetry of every day truth
i have not hesitated to violate some of the conventionalities of sentimental fiction for instance the first love meeting of two of the personages in this book occurs where the real love meeting from which it is drawn occurred
in the very last place and under the very last circumstances which the artifices of sentimental writing would sanction will my lovers excite ridicule instead of interest because i have truly represented them as seeing each other where hundreds of other lovers have first seen each other
i am sanguine enough to think not so again in certain parts of this book where i have attempted to excite the suspense or pity of the reader i have admitted as perfectly fit accessories to the scene
the most ordinary street sounds that could be heard and the most ordinary street events that could occur at the time and in the place represented believing that by adding to truth they were adding to tragedy adding by all the force of fair contrast
adding as no artifices of mere writing possibly could add let them be ever so cunningly introduced by ever so crafty a hand allow me to dwell a moment longer on the story which these pages contain
believing that the novel and the play are twin sisters in the family of fiction that the one is a drama narrated as the other is a drama acted and that all the strong and deep emotions which the play writer is privileged to excite the novel writer is privileged to excite also
i have not thought it either politic or necessary while adhering to realities to adhere to every day realities only in other words i have not stooped so low as to assure myself of the reader's belief in the probability of my story
by never once calling on him for the exercise of his faith those extraordinary accidents and events which happen to few men seemed to me to be as legitimate materials for fiction to work with
by appealing to genuine sources of interest within the reader's own experience i could certainly gain his attention to begin with but it would be only by appealing to other sources as genuine in their way beyond his own experience
that i could hope to fix his interest and excite his suspense to occupy his deeper feelings or to stir his nobler thoughts in writing thus briefly and very generally for i must not delay you too long from the story i can but repeat though i hope almost unnecessarily
that i am now only speaking of what i have tried to do between the purpose hinted at here and the execution of that purpose contained in the succeeding pages lies the broad line of separation which distinguishes between the will and the deed
how far i may fall short of another man's standard remains to be discovered how far i have fallen short of my own i know painfully well one word more on the manner in which the purpose of the following pages is worked out and i have done
nobody who admits that the business of fiction is to exhibit human life can deny that scenes of misery and crime must of necessity while human nature remains what it is form part of that exhibition
nobody can assert that such scenes are unproductive of useful results when they are turned to a plainly and purely moral purpose if i am asked why i have written certain scenes in this book
my answer is to be found in the universally accepted truth which the preceding words express i have a right to appeal to that truth for i guided myself by it throughout
in drawing the two characters whose actions bring about the darker scenes of my story i did not forget that it was my duty while striving to portray them naturally to put them to a good moral use
i have shown the conduct of the vile as always in a greater or less degree associated with something that is selfish contemptible or cruel in motive whether any of my better characters may succeed in endearing themselves to the reader i know not
but this i do certainly know that i shall in no instance cheat him out of his sympathies in favour of the bad to those persons who dissent from the broad principles here adverted to who deny that it is the novelist's vocation to do more than merely amuse them
who shrink from all honest and serious reference in books to subjects which they think of in private and talk of in public everywhere who see covert implications where nothing is implied and improper allusions where nothing improper is alluded to whose innocence is in the word and not in the thought
to those persons i should consider it loss of time and worse to offer any further explanation of my motives than the sufficient explanation which i have given already i do not address myself to them in this book and shall never think of addressing myself to them in any other
those words formed part of the original introduction to this novel i wrote them nearly ten years since and what i said then i say now basil was the second work of fiction which i produced
on its appearance it was condemned off hand by a certain class of readers as an outrage on their sense of propriety conscious of having designed and written my story with the strictest regard to true delicacy as distinguished from false
i allowed the prurient misinterpretation of certain perfectly innocent passages in this book to assert itself as offensively as it pleased without troubling myself to protest against an expression of opinion which aroused in me no other feeling than a feeling of contempt
i knew that basil had nothing to fear from pure minded readers and i left these pages to stand or fall on such merits as they possessed slowly and surely my story forced its way through all adverse criticism to a place in the public favour which it has never lost since
some of the most valued friends i now possess were made for me by basil some of the most gratifying recognitions of my labours which i have received from readers personally strangers to me have been recognitions of the purity of this story from the first page to the last
all the indulgence i need now ask for basil is indulgence for literary defects which are the result of inexperience which no correction can wholly remove and which no one sees more plainly after a lapse of ten years than the writer himself
i have only to add that the present edition of this book is the first which has had the benefit of my careful revision while the incidents of the story remain exactly what they were the language in which they are told has been i hope in many cases greatly altered for the better
chapter two an investment anyway the natural result of these efforts was that miss belinda was moved to shed a few tears i hope you will excuse my being too startled to say i was glad to see you she said
i have not seen my brother for thirty years and i was very fond of him he said you were answered octavia and he was very fond of you too
and then he thought he would wait until he could come home and surprise you he was awfully disappointed when he had to go back without seeing you poor dear martin wept miss belinda gently such a journey octavia opened her charming eyes in surprise
and he doesn't mind the journey the journey is nothing you know nothing echoed miss belinda a voyage across the atlantic nothing when one thinks of the danger my dear octavia's eyes opened a shade wider
we have made the trip to the states across the isthmus twelve times and that takes a month she remarked so we don't think ten days much twelve times said miss belinda quite appalled dear dear dear
and for some moments she could do nothing but look at her young relative in doubtful wonder shaking her head with actual sadness but she finally recovered herself with a little start what am i thinking of she exclaimed remorsefully to let you sit here in this way
pray excuse me my dear you see i am so upset she left her chair in a great hurry and proceeded to embrace her young guest tenderly though with a little timorousness
did i upset you she inquired calmly the fact was that she could not see why the simple advent of a relative from nevada should seem to have the effect of an earthquake and result in tremor confusion and tears
it was true she herself had shed a tear or so but then her troubles had been accumulating for several days and she had not felt confused yet
and left her guest alone that young person glanced about her with a rather dubious expression it is a queer nice little place she said but i don't wonder that pa emigrated if they always get into such a flurry about little things i might have been a ghost
then she proceeded to unlock the big trunk and attire herself down stairs miss belinda was wavering between the kitchen and the parlor in a kindly flutter toast some muffins mary anne and bring in the cold roast fowl she said
and i will put out some strawberry jam and some of the preserved ginger dear me just to think how fond of preserved ginger poor martin was and how little of it he was allowed to eat
there really seems a special providence in my having such a nice stock of it in the house when his daughter comes home in the course of half an hour every thing was in readiness and then mary anne who had been sent up stairs to announce the fact
came down in a most remarkable state of delighted agitation suppressed ecstasy and amazement exclaiming aloud in every feature she's dressed mum she announced an ll be down immediate and retired to a shadowy corner of the kitchen passage
that she might lie in wait unobserved miss belinda sitting behind the tea service heard a soft flowing silken rustle sweeping down the staircase and across the hall and then her niece entered don't you think i've dressed pretty quick she said
and swept across the little parlor and sat down in her place with the calmest and most unconscious air in the world there was in slowbridge but one dressmaking establishment the head of the establishment miss letitia chickie
there were legends that she received her patterns from london and modified them to suit the slowbridge taste possibly this was true but in that case her labors as modifier must have been severe indeed
since they were so far modified as to be altogether unrecognizable when they left miss chickie's establishment and were borne home in triumph to the houses of her patrons the taste of slowbridge was quiet upon this slowbridge prided itself especially
and at the same time tended toward economy when gores came into fashion slowbridge clung firmly and with some pride to substantial breadths which did not cut good silk into useless strips which could not be utilized in after time
and it was only when after a visit to london lady theobald walked into saint james's one sunday with two gores on each side that miss chickie regretfully put scissors into her first breadth
each matronly member of good society possessed a substantial silk gown of some sober color which gown having done duty at two years tea parties descended to the grade of second best
and were worn during the latter half of any festive occasion in a flabby and hopeless condition miss chickie made the muslins festooning and adorning them after designs emanating from her fertile imagination
if they were a little short in the body and not very generously proportioned in the matter of train there was no rival establishment to sneer and miss chickie had it all her own way and at least it could never be said that slowbridge was vulgar or overdressed
judge then of miss belinda bassett's condition of mind when her fair relative took her seat before her what the material of her niece's dress was miss belinda could not have told it was a silken and soft fabric of a pale blue color
it clung to the slender lissome young figure like a glove a fan like train of great length almost covered the hearth rug there were plaitings and frillings all over it and yards of delicate satin ribbon cut into loops in the most recklessly extravagant manner
miss belinda saw all this at the first glance as mary anne had seen it and like mary anne lost her breath but on her second glance she saw something more on the pretty slight hands were three wonderful sparkling rings
composed of diamonds set in clusters there were great solitaires in the neat little ears and the thickly plaited lace at the throat was fastened by a diamond clasp my dear said miss belinda clutching helplessly at the teapot are you
surely it is a a little dangerous to wear such such priceless ornaments on ordinary occasions octavia stared at her for a moment uncomprehendingly your jewels i mean my love fluttered miss belinda surely you don't wear them often
i declare it quite frightens me to think of having such things in the house does it said octavia that's queer and she looked puzzled for a moment again then she glanced down at her rings i nearly always wear these she remarked father gave them to me
he says diamonds are an investment anyway and i might as well have them these touching the ear rings and clasp were given to my mother when she was on the stage a lot of people clubbed together and bought them for her she was a great favorite
miss belinda made another clutch at the handle of the teapot your mother she exclaimed faintly on the
answered octavia san francisco father married her there she was awfully pretty i don't remember her she died when i was born she was only nineteen the utter calmness and freedom from embarrassment with which these announcements were made
almost shook miss belinda's faith in her own identity strange to say until this moment she had scarcely given a thought to her brother's wife and to find herself sitting in her own genteel little parlor behind her own tea service with her hand upon her own teapot
hearing that this wife had been a young person who had been a great favorite upon the stage in a region peopled as she had been led to suppose by gold diggers and escaped convicts was almost too much for her to support herself under but she did support herself bravely
when she had time to rally help yourself to some fowl my dear she said hospitably even though very faintly indeed and take a muffin octavia did so her over splendid hands flashing in the light as she moved them
american girls always have more things than english girls she observed with admirable coolness they dress more i have been told so by girls who have been in europe and i have more things than most american girls father had more money than most people
that was one reason and he spoiled me i suppose he had no one else to give things to and he said i should have every thing i took a fancy to he often laughed at me for buying things but he never said i shouldn't buy them he was always generous sighed miss belinda
poor dear martin octavia scarcely entered into the spirit of this mournful sympathy she was fond of her father but her recollections of him were not pathetic or sentimental he took me with him wherever he went she proceeded
and we had a teacher from the states who travelled with us sometimes
it must be a marvel to you how after having five times met with shipwreck and unheard of perils i could again tempt fortune and risk fresh trouble
regardless of the entreaties of my friends and relations who did all they could to keep me at home
i travelled a considerable way overland and finally embarked from a distant indian port with a captain who meant to make a long voyage and truly he did so for we fell in with stormy weather which drove us completely out of our course so that for many days
neither captain nor pilot knew where we were nor where we were going when they did at last discover our position we had small ground for rejoicing for the captain casting his turban upon the deck and tearing his beard
declared that we were in the most dangerous spot upon the whole wide sea and had been caught by a current which was at that minute sweeping us to destruction it was too true in spite of all the sailors could do we were driven with frightful rapidity
towards the foot of a mountain which rose sheer out of the sea and our vessel was dashed to pieces upon the rocks at its base not however until we had managed to scramble on shore carrying with us the most precious of our possessions when we had done this the captain said to us
now we are here we may as well begin to dig our graves at once since from this fatal spot no shipwrecked mariner has ever returned this speech discouraged us much and we began to lament over our sad fate
the mountain formed the seaward boundary of a large island and the narrow strip of rocky shore upon which we stood was strewn with the wreckage of a thousand gallant ships while the bones of the luckless mariners shone white in the sunshine
and we shuddered to think how soon our own would be added to the heap all around too lay vast quantities of the costliest merchandise and treasures were heaped in every cranny of the rocks but all these things only added to the desolation of the scene
it struck me as a very strange thing that a river of clear fresh water which gushed out from the mountain not far from where we stood instead of flowing into the sea as rivers generally do turned off sharply and flowed out of sight under a natural archway of rock
and when i went to examine it more closely i found that inside the cave the walls were thick with diamonds and rubies and masses of crystal and the floor was strewn with ambergris
here then upon this desolate shore we abandoned ourselves to our fate for there was no possibility of scaling the mountain and if a ship had appeared it could only have shared our doom the first thing our captain did was to divide equally amongst us all the food we possessed
and then the length of each man's life depended on the time he could make his portion last i myself could live upon very little nevertheless
by the time i had buried the last of my companions my stock of provisions was so small that i hardly thought i should live long enough to dig my own grave which i set about doing while i regretted bitterly the roving disposition
which was always bringing me into such straits and thought longingly of all the comfort and luxury that i had left but luckily for me
this river which hid itself underground doubtless emerged again at some distant spot why should i not build a raft and trust myself to its swiftly flowing waters if i perished before i could reach the light of day once more
i should be no worse off than i was now for death stared me in the face while there was always the possibility that as i was born under a lucky star i might find myself safe and sound in some desirable land i decided at any rate to risk it
and speedily built myself a stout raft of drift wood with strong cords of which enough and to spare lay strewn upon the beach i then made up many packages of rubies emeralds rock crystal
ambergris and precious stuffs and bound them upon my raft being careful to preserve the balance and then i seated myself upon it having two small oars that i had fashioned laid ready to my hand and loosed the cord which held it to the bank
once out in the current my raft flew swiftly under the gloomy archway and i found myself in total darkness carried smoothly forward by the rapid river on i went as it seemed to me for many nights and days
though i only ate what was absolutely necessary to keep myself alive the inevitable moment came when after swallowing my last morsel of food i began to wonder if i must after all die of hunger then
was surrounded by friendly looking black men i rose and saluted them and they spoke to me in return but i could not understand a word of their language feeling perfectly bewildered by my sudden return to life and light i murmured to myself in arabic
close thine eyes and while thou sleepest heaven will change thy fortune from evil to good one of the natives who understood this tongue then came forward saying my brother
be not surprised to see us this is our land and as we came to get water from the river we noticed your raft floating down it and one of us swam out and brought you to the shore we have waited for your awakening tell us now whence you come and where you were going by that dangerous way
i replied that nothing would please me better than to tell them but that i was starving and would fain eat something first i was soon supplied with all i needed and having satisfied my hunger i told them faithfully all that had befallen me
and said that adventures so surprising must be related to their king only by the man to whom they had happened so procuring a horse they mounted me upon it and we set out
of serendib where the natives presented me to their king whom i saluted in the indian fashion prostrating myself at his feet and kissing the ground but the monarch bade me rise and sit beside him asking first
what was my name i am sindbad i replied whom men call the sailor for i have voyaged much upon many seas and how come you here asked the king i told my story concealing nothing
and his surprise and delight were so great that he ordered my adventures to be written in letters of gold and laid up in the archives of his kingdom
presently my raft was brought in and the bales opened in his presence and the king declared that in all his treasury there were no such rubies and emeralds as those which lay in great heaps before him seeing that he looked at them with interest
i ventured to say that i myself and all that i had were at his disposal but he answered me smiling nay sindbad
heaven forbid that i should covet your riches i will rather add to them for i desire that you shall not leave my kingdom without some tokens of my good will he then commanded his officers
that i praised his generosity and gave him grateful thanks nor did i fail to present myself daily in his audience chamber
the island of serendib being situated on the equinoctial line the days and nights there are of equal length the chief city is placed at the end of a beautiful valley formed by the highest mountain in the world which is in the middle of the island
i had the curiosity to ascend to its very summit for this was the place to which adam was banished out of paradise here are found rubies and many precious things and rare plants grow abundantly with cedar trees and cocoa palms
on the seashore and at the mouths of the rivers the divers seek for pearls and in some valleys diamonds are plentiful after many days i petitioned the king that i might return to my own country to which he graciously consented moreover he loaded me with rich gifts
and when i went to take leave of him he entrusted me with a royal present and a letter to the commander of the faithful our sovereign lord saying
i accepted the charge respectfully and soon embarked upon the vessel which the king himself had chosen for me the king's letter was written in blue characters upon a rare and precious skin of yellowish colour and these were the words of it
the king of the indies before whom walk a thousand elephants who lives in a palace of which the roof blazes with a hundred thousand rubies and whose treasure house contains twenty thousand diamond crowns to the caliph haroun al raschid sends greeting
though the offering we present to you is unworthy of your notice we pray you to accept it as a mark of the esteem and friendship which we cherish for you
and we ask of you a like regard if you deem us worthy of it adieu brother the present consisted of a vase carved from a single ruby six inches high and as thick as my finger this was filled with the choicest pearls
large and of perfect shape and lustre secondly a huge snake skin with scales as large as a sequin which would preserve from sickness those who slept upon it then quantities of aloes wood camphor and pistachio nuts
and lastly a beautiful slave girl whose robes glittered with precious stones after a long and prosperous voyage we landed at balsora and i made haste to reach bagdad
to whom after i had made my obeisance i gave the letter and the king's gift and when he had examined them he demanded of me whether the prince of serendib was really as rich and powerful as he claimed to be commander of the faithful i replied
again bowing humbly before him i can assure your majesty that he has in no way exaggerated his wealth and grandeur nothing can equal the magnificence of his palace when he goes abroad his throne is prepared upon the back of an elephant
and on either side of him ride his ministers his favourites and courtiers on his elephant's neck sits an officer his golden lance in his hand and behind him stands another bearing a pillar of gold at the top of which is an emerald as long as my hand
mounted upon richly caparisoned elephants go before him and as the procession moves onward the officer who guides his elephant cries aloud behold the mighty monarch the powerful and valiant sultan of the indies whose palace is covered with a hundred thousand rubies
who possesses twenty thousand diamond crowns behold a monarch greater than solomon and mihrage in all their glory then the one who stands behind the throne answers
further my lord in serendib no judge is needed for to the king himself his people come for justice the caliph was well satisfied with my report from the king's letter said he i judged that he was a wise man
after i had saluted him the caliph said i have sent for you sindbad because i need your services
commander of the faithful i answered i am ready to do all that your majesty commands but i humbly pray you to remember that i am utterly disheartened by the unheard of sufferings i have undergone indeed i have made a vow
never again to leave bagdad with this i gave him a long account of some of my strangest adventures to which he listened patiently i admit said he that you have indeed had some extraordinary experiences
seeing that there was no help for it i declared myself willing to obey and the caliph delighted at having got his own way gave me a thousand sequins for the expenses of the voyage i was soon ready to start and taking the letter and the present i embarked at balsora
after thanking him for the honour that he did me i displayed the caliph's gifts first a bed with complete hangings all cloth of gold which cost a thousand sequins and another like to it of crimson stuff fifty robes of rich embroidery
a hundred of the finest white linen from cairo suez cufa and alexandria then more beds of different fashion and an agate vase carved with the figure of a man aiming an arrow at a lion and finally a costly table
and now my task being accomplished i was anxious to depart
and making prisoners of those who were prudent enough to submit at once of whom i was one when they had despoiled us of all we possessed they forced us to put on vile raiment and sailing to a distant island there sold us for slaves
i fell into the hands of a rich merchant who took me home with him and clothed and fed me well and after some days sent for me and questioned me as to what i could do i answered that i was a rich merchant who had been captured by pirates and therefore i knew no trade
tell me said he can you shoot with a bow
so saying he gave me a supply of food and returned to the town and i perched myself high up in the tree and kept watch that night i saw nothing but just after sunrise the next morning a large herd of elephants came crashing and trampling by
and the others retreated leaving me free to come down from my hiding place and run back to tell my master of my success for which i was praised and regaled with good things then we went back to the forest together and dug a mighty trench in which we buried the elephant i had killed in order
that when it became a skeleton my master might return and secure its tusks for two months i hunted thus and no day passed without my securing an elephant of course i did not always station myself in the same tree but sometimes in one place sometimes in another
i had indeed good reason for my terror when an instant later the largest of the animals wound his trunk round the stem of my tree and with one mighty effort tore it up by the roots bringing me to the ground entangled in its branches
before i was once more set upon my feet by the elephant and i stood as if in a dream watching the herd
then recovering myself i looked about me and found that i was standing upon the side of a great hill strewn as far as i could see on either hand with bones and tusks of elephants
this then must be the elephants burying place i said to myself and they must have brought me here that i might cease to persecute them seeing that i want nothing but their tusks and here lie more than i could carry away in a lifetime
whereupon i turned and made for the city as fast as i could go not seeing a single elephant by the way which convinced me that they had retired deeper into the forest to leave the way open to the ivory hill and i did not know how sufficiently to admire their sagacity
ah poor sindbad he cried i was wondering what could have become of you when i went to the forest i found the tree newly uprooted and the arrows lying beside it and i feared i should never see you again pray
when we had loaded our elephant with as many tusks as it could carry and were on our way back to the city he said my brother since i can no longer treat as a slave one who has enriched me thus take your liberty and may heaven prosper you i will no longer conceal from you
you alone have escaped the wiles of these animals therefore you must be under the special protection of heaven now through you the whole town will be enriched without further loss of life therefore you shall not only receive your liberty but i will also bestow a fortune upon you
to which i replied master i thank you and wish you all prosperity for myself i only ask liberty to return to my own country it is well he answered the monsoon will soon bring the ivory ships hither then i will send you on your way with somewhat to pay your passage
so i stayed with him till the time of the monsoon and every day we added to our store of ivory till all his ware houses were overflowing with it by this time the other merchants knew the secret but there was enough and to spare for all
when the ships at last arrived my master himself chose the one in which i was to sail and put on board for me a great store of choice provisions also ivory in abundance and all the costliest curiosities of the country for which i could not thank him enough
and so we parted i left the ship at the first port we came to not feeling at ease upon the sea after all that had happened to me by reason of it and having disposed of my ivory for much gold and bought many rare and costly presents
i loaded my pack animals and joined a caravan of merchants our journey was long and tedious but i bore it patiently
from which i had suffered before and at length we reached bagdad my first care was to present myself before the caliph and give him an account of my embassy he assured me that my long absence had disquieted him much but he had nevertheless hoped for the best
as to my adventure among the elephants he heard it with amazement declaring that he could not have believed it had not my truthfulness been well known to him by his orders this story and the others i had told him were written by his scribes in letters of gold and laid up among his treasures
i took my leave of him well satisfied with the honours and rewards he bestowed upon me and since that time i have rested from my labours and given myself up wholly to my family and my friends thus sindbad ended the story of his seventh and last voyage
and turning to hindbad he added well my friend and what do you think now
is it not just that i should now enjoy a life of ease and tranquillity
who reigned in alba longa on the throne of aventine slain is the ponfiff camers who spake the words of doom the children to the tiber the mother
in alba's lake no fisher
on the dark rind of alba's oaks to day no axe is ringing the yoke hangs o'er the manger the scythe lies in the hay through all the alban villages no work is done
hath donned his whitest gown and every head in alba weareth a poplar crown and every alban door post with boughs and flowers is gay for to day the dead are living the lost are found
and smoothed his yellow foam and gently rocked the cradle that bore the fate of rome the ravening she wolf knew them
and gave them of her own fierce milk rich with raw flesh and gore twenty winters twenty springs since then have rolled away and to day the dead are living
the head of king amulius of the great sylvian line who reigned in alba longa
on the left side goes remus with wrists and fingers red and in his hand a boar spear and on the point a head a wrinkled head and aged with silver beard and hair and holy fillets round it
the head of ancient camers who spake the words of doom the children to the tiber the mother
four and forty valiant men with club and axe and bow on each side every hamlet pours forth its joyous crowd shouting lads and baying dogs and children laughing loud
and old men weeping fondly as rhea's boys go by
they marched by fold and stall by cornfield and by vineyard
capys capys the sightless seer from head to foot he trembled as romulus drew near and up stood stiff his thin white hair and his blind eyes flashed fire
but thou what dost thou here in the old man's peaceful hall what doth the eagle in the coop the bison in the stall our corn fills many a garner our vines clasp many a tree
our flocks are white on many a hill
for thee no ship brings precious bales across the libyan brine thou shalt not drink from amber thou shalt not rest on down
rich table and soft bed
whom woman's milk have fed thou wast not made for lucre for pleasure nor for rest
a glorious city thou shalt build and name it by thy name and there unquenched through ages
and woe to them that shear her and woe to them that goad when all the pack loud baying her bloody lair surrounds she dies in silence biting hard amidst the dying hounds
and liber loves the vine and pales loves the straw built shed warm with the breath of kine and venus loves the whispers of plighted youth and maid in april's ivory moonlight
of broadsword and of shield he loves to drink the steam that reeks from the fresh battlefield he smiles a smile more dreadful
the author of thy line and such as she who suckled thee even such be thou and thine
of the east beside him stalks to battle the huge earth shaking beast the beast on whom the castle with all its guards doth stand the beast who hath between his eyes the serpent for a hand
wedged close with shield and spear and the ranks of false tarentum are glittering
like hunted sheep shall fly
byrsa's thousand masts where fur clad hunters wander amidst the northern ice where through the sand of morning land the camel bears the spice where atlas flings his shadow
chapter twenty three how sir launcelot behaved him at the jousts and other men also
and sir galahad the haut prince
and then king arthur was wood wroth and ran to the king with the hundred knights and there king arthur smote him down and after with that same spear king arthur smote down three other knights and then when his spear was broken
king arthur did passingly well and so therewithal came in sir gawaine and sir gaheris sir agravaine and sir mordred
and sir gawaine smote down four knights and then there began a strong medley for then there came in the knights of launcelot's blood and sir gareth and sir palomides with them
but this duke galahad the haut prince was a noble knight
i warn you beware of him with the sleeve of gold upon his head for he is himself sir launcelot du lake and for great goodness sir bors warned sir gareth i am well apaid said sir gareth that i may know him
that is the good and gentle knight sir lavaine said sir bors so sir launcelot encountered with sir gawaine and there by force sir launcelot smote down sir gawaine and his horse to the earth and so he smote down sir agravaine and sir gaheris
and also he smote down sir mordred and all this was with one spear
and then were they horsed again and then met sir launcelot with sir palomides and there sir palomides had a fall and so sir launcelot or ever he stint as fast as he might get spears he smote down thirty knights
and the most part of them were knights of the table round and ever the knights of his blood withdrew them and made them ado in other places where sir launcelot came not
and so the king with these nine knights made them ready to set upon sir launcelot and upon sir lavaine
now i dread me sore said sir bors that my lord sir launcelot will be hard matched
i will ride unto my lord sir launcelot for to help him fall of him what fall may for he is the same man that made me knight ye shall not so said sir bors by my counsel unless that ye were disguised ye shall see me disguised said sir gareth
and to him sir gareth rode and prayed him of his knighthood to lend him his shield for his i will well said the welsh knight and when sir gareth had his shield the book saith it was green with a maiden that seemed in it
then sir gareth came driving to sir launcelot all that he might and said knight keep thyself for yonder cometh king arthur with nine noble knights with him to put you to a rebuke and so i am come to bear you fellowship for old love ye have shewed me
gramercy said sir launcelot sir said sir gareth encounter ye with sir gawaine and i shall encounter with sir palomides and let sir lavaine match with the noble king arthur and when we have delivered them let us three hold us sadly together
then came king arthur with his nine knights with him and sir launcelot encountered with sir gawaine and gave him such a buffet that the arson of his saddle brast and sir gawaine fell to the earth then sir gareth encountered with the good knight sir palomides
then sir launcelot smote down sir agravaine and sir gaheris and sir mordred and sir gareth smote down sir kay
and then sir lavaine was horsed again and he smote down sir lucan the butler and sir bedevere and then there began great throng of good knights
then sir launcelot hurtled here and there and raced and pulled off helms so that at that time there might none sit him a buffet with spear nor with sword and sir gareth did such deeds of arms that all men marvelled what knight he was with the green shield
for he smote down that day and pulled down mo than thirty knights and as the french book saith sir launcelot marvelled when he beheld sir gareth do such deeds what knight he might be and sir lavaine pulled down and smote down twenty knights
and on the one side sir bors sir ector de maris sir lionel sir lamorak de galis sir bleoberis sir galihud sir galihodin sir pelleas and with mo other of king ban's blood fought upon another party and held the king with the hundred knights
and the king of northumberland right strait chapter twenty four how king arthur marvelled much of the jousting in the field and how he rode and found sir launcelot
so this tournament and this jousts dured long till it was near night for the knights of the round table relieved ever unto king arthur for the king was wroth out of measure that he and his knights might not prevail that day then sir gawaine said to the king
they be not about you it is for some cause said sir gawaine by my head said sir kay sir bors is yonder all this day upon the right hand of this field and there he and his blood do more worshipfully than we do
i see well by his riding and by his great strokes and the other knight in the same colours is the good young knight sir lavaine also that knight with the green shield is my brother sir gareth and yet he hath disguised himself
for no man shall never make him be against sir launcelot because he made him knight
nephew i believe you therefore tell me now what is your best counsel sir said sir gawaine ye shall have my counsel let blow unto lodging for an he be sir launcelot du lake and my brother sir gareth with him with the help of that good young knight sir lavaine
trust me truly it will be no boot to strive with them but if we should fall ten or twelve upon one knight and that were no worship but shame ye say truth said the king and for to say sooth said the king
it were shame to us so many as we be to set upon them any more for wit ye well said king arthur they be three good knights and namely that knight with the sleeve of gold so then they blew unto lodging
but forthwithal king arthur let send unto the four kings and to the mighty duke and prayed them that the knight with the sleeve of gold depart not from them but that the king may speak with him then forthwithal king arthur alighted and unarmed him
and took a little hackney and rode after sir launcelot for ever he had a spy upon him
and there the king prayed them all unto supper
also arthur blamed sir gareth because he left his fellowship and held with sir launcelot my lord said sir gareth he made me a knight and when i saw him so hard bestead methought it was my worship to help him
and so many noble knights against him and when i understood that he was sir launcelot du lake i shamed to see so many knights against him alone truly said king arthur unto sir gareth ye say well and worshipfully have ye done
and to yourself great worship and all the days of my life said king arthur unto sir gareth wit you well i shall love you and trust you the more better for ever said arthur it is a worshipful knight's deed to help another worshipful knight when he seeth him in a great danger
for ever a worshipful man will be loath to see a worshipful man shamed and he that is of no worship and fareth with cowardice never shall he show gentleness nor no manner of goodness where he seeth a man in any danger
for then ever will a coward show no mercy and always a good man will do ever to another man as he would be done to himself so then there were great feasts unto kings and dukes and revel game and play and all manner of noblesse was used
and he that was courteous true and faithful to his friend was that time cherished chapter twenty five how true love is likened to summer and thus it passed on from candlemass until after easter that the month of may was come
when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom and to bring forth fruit for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in may in like wise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds
that lusty month of may in something to constrain him to some manner of thing more in that month than in any other month for divers causes for then all herbs and trees renew a man and woman
for in many persons there is no stability for we may see all day for a little blast of winter's rasure anon we shall deface and lay apart true love for little or nought that cost much thing this is no wisdom nor stability
whosomever useth this therefore like as may month flowereth and flourisheth in many gardens so in like wise let every man of worship flourish his heart in this world first unto god and next unto the joy of them that he promised his faith unto
for there was never worshipful man or worshipful woman but they loved one better than another and worship in arms may never be foiled but first reserve the honour to god and secondly the quarrel must come of thy lady and such love i call virtuous love
but nowadays men can not love seven night but they must have all their desires that love may not endure by reason for where they be soon accorded and hasty heat soon it cooleth right so fareth love nowadays soon hot soon cold this is no stability
but the old love was not so men and women could love together seven years and no licours lusts were between them and then was love truth and faithfulness and lo in like wise was used love in king arthur's days
nevertheless cornelie recovered her calmness when her pamphlet was finished she unpacked her trunks arranged her rooms a little more snugly and now more at her ease rewrote the pamphlet and
in the revision improved her style and even her ideas when she had done working in the morning she usually lunched at a small osteria
where she nearly always met duco van der staal and had her meal with him at a little table as a rule she dined at belloni's beside the van der staals in order to obtain a little diversion
the marchesa had not bowed to her at first though she suffered her to attend
at three lire an evening but after a time she bowed to cornelie again with a bitter sweet little smile for she had relet her two rooms at a higher price and cornelie in her calmer mood
found it pleasant to change in the evening to see missus van der staal and the girls to listen to their little stories about the roman salons and to cast a glance over the long tables
and they saw that the guests were ever again different as in a kaleidoscope of fleeting personalities rudyard had disappeared owing money to the marchesa no one knew whither
the von rothkirches had gone to greece but urania hope was still there and sat next to the marchesa belloni on her other side was the nephew the prince of forte
duke of san stefano who dined at belloni's every night and cornelie saw that a sort of conspiracy was in progress
laying siege to the vain little american from either side and next day she saw two monsignori seated in eager conversation with urania at the marchesa's table
all the visitors commented on it every eye was turned in that direction
and delighted in the romance cornelie was the only one who was not amused she would have liked to warn urania against the marchesa the prince and the monsignori who had taken rudyard's place
but especially against marriage even marriage with a prince and duke and growing excited she spoke to missus van der staal and the girls repeated phrases out of her pamphlet
glowing with her red young hatred against society and people and the world dinner was over and still eagerly talking she went with the van der staals
mevrouw and the girls and duco to the drawing room sat down in a corner resumed her conversation
and then suddenly saw a fat lady the girls had already nick named her the satin frigate come towards her with a smile and say while still at some distance i beg your pardon but there's something i want to say
look here i have been to belloni's regularly every winter for the last ten years from november to easter and every evening after dinner but only after dinner i sit in this corner at this table
on this sofa i hope you won't mind but i should be glad to have my own seat now and the satin frigate smiled amiably but when the van der staals and cornelie rose in mute amazement
she dumped herself down with a rustle on the sofa bobbed up and down for a moment on the springs laid her crochet work on the table with a gesture as though she were planting the union jack in a new colony and said
with her most amiable smile very much obliged so many thanks duco roared the girls giggled but the satin frigate merely nodded to them good humouredly and
not even yet realizing what had happened astounded but gay they sat down in another corner the girls still seized with an irrepressible giggle the two aesthetic ladies with the evening dress
and the jaegers who sat reading at the table in the middle of the room closed their two books with one slam rose and indignantly went away because people were laughing and talking in the drawing room
it's a shame they said aloud and angular arrogant and grimy they stalked out through the door what strange people thought duco smiling shadows of people
why do they cross our lines with their petty movements and why are ours never crossed by those which perhaps would be dearest to our souls
they walked slowly through the silent deserted streets sometimes it was late in the evening but sometimes it was immediately after dinner and then they would go through the corso
and he would generally ask her to come and sit at aragno's for a little
watching the bustle on the pavement outside they exchanged few words distracted by the passers by and the visitors to the cafe
but they both enjoyed this moment and felt at one with each other duco evidently did not give a thought to the unconventionality of their behaviour but cornelie thought of missus van der staal
and that she would not approve of it or consent to it in one of her daughters to sit alone with a gentleman in a cafe in the evening and cornelie also remembered the hague
and smiled at the thought of her hague friends and she looked at duco who sat quietly pleased to be sitting with her and drank his coffee and spoke a word now and again or pointed to a queer type
one evening after dinner he suggested that they should all go to the ruins
the girls of foot pads and duco and cornelie went by themselves the streets were quite empty the colosseum rose menacingly like a fortress in the night
but they went in and the moonlight blue of the night shone through the open arches the round pit of the arena was black on one side with shadow while the stream of moonlight poured in on the other side like a white flood
as though the colosseum were haunted by all the dead past of rome emperors gladiators and martyrs shadows prowled like lurking wild animals a patch of light suggested a naked woman
and the galleries seemed to rustle with the sound of the multitude and yet there was nothing and duco and cornelie were alone in the depths of the huge colossal ruin half in shadow and half in light and
though she was not afraid she was obsessed by that awful haunting of the past and pushed closer to him and clutched his arm and felt very very small he just pressed her hand with his simple ease of manner
to reassure her and the night oppressed her the ghostliness of it all suffocated her the moon seemed to whirl giddily in the sky and to expand to a gigantic size
and spin round like a silver wheel he said nothing he was in one of his dreams seeing the past before him and silently they went away and he led her through the arch of titus into the forum
on the left rose the ruins of the imperial palaces and all around them stood the black fragments with a few pillars soaring on high and the white moonlight pouring down
like a ghostly sea out of the night they met no one but she was frightened and clung tighter to his arm when they sat down for a moment on a fragment of the foundation of some ancient building
she shivered with cold he started up said that she must be careful not to catch a chill and they walked on and left the forum he took her home and she went upstairs alone
striking a match to see her way up the dark staircase once in her room she perceived that it was dangerous to wander about the ruins at night she reflected how little
duco had spoken not thinking of danger lost in his nocturnal dream peering into the awful ghostliness why why had he not gone alone why had he asked her to go with him
she fell asleep after a chaos of whirling thoughts the prince and urania the fat satin lady the colosseum and the martyrs and duco and missus van der staal his mother was so ordinary
his sisters charming but commonplace and he so strange so simple so unaffected so unreserved and for that very reason so strange he would be impossible at the hague
among her friends and she smiled as she thought of what he had said and how he had said it and how he could sit quietly silent for minutes on end with a smile about his lips as though thinking of something beautiful
chapter twenty three vows of vengeance calhoun chafing in his chamber was not the object of such assiduous solicitude
notwithstanding the luxurious appointments that surrounded him he could not comfort himself with the reflection
truly selfish in his own heart he had no faith in friendships and while confined to his couch not without some fears that it might be his death bed
he experienced the misery of a man believing that no human being cared a straw whether he should live or die any sympathy shown to him was upon the score of relationship
it could scarce have been otherwise his conduct towards his cousins had not been such as to secure their esteem while his uncle the proud woodley poindexter
felt towards him something akin to aversion mingled with a subdued fear it is true that this feeling was only of recent origin and rose out of
certain relations that existed between uncle and nephew as already hinted they stood to one another in the relationship of
the nephew being the latter to such an extent had this indebtedness been carried that cassius calhoun was in effect the real owner of
and could at any moment have proclaimed himself its master conscious of his power he had of late been using it to effect
a particular purpose that is the securing for his wife the woman he had long fiercely loved his cousin louise he had come to know that he stood but little chance of obtaining her consent
for she had taken but slight pains to conceal her indifference to his suit trusting to the peculiar influence established over her father he had determined on taking no slight denial
these circumstances considered it was not strange that the ex officer of volunteers when stretched upon a sick bed received less sympathy from his relatives
while dreading death which for a length of time he actually did he had become a little more amiable to those around him the agreeable mood however was of short continuance
and once assured of recovery all the natural savageness of his disposition was restored along with the additional bitterness arising from his recent discomfiture
the master of every crowd that might gather around him he could no longer claim this credit in texas and the thought harrowed his heart to its very core
to figure as a defeated man before all the women of the settlement above all in the eyes of her he adored defeated by one whom he suspected of being his rival in her affections
a more nameless adventurer was too much to be endured with equanimity even an ordinary man would have been pained by the infliction
he had no idea of enduring it as an ordinary man would have done if he could not escape from the disgrace he was determined to revenge himself upon its author
and as soon as he had recovered from the apprehensions entertained about the safety of his life he commenced reflecting upon this very subject maurice the mustanger must die if not by his
calhoun's own hand then by the hand of another
there could not be much difficulty in procuring a confederate
as well as within the walls of italian cities alas there is no spot upon earth where gold cannot
calhoun possessed gold more than sufficient for such a purpose
in the solitude of his sick chamber he set about maturing his plans which comprehended the assassination of the mustanger he did not purpose doing the deed himself
his late defeat had rendered him fearful of chancing a second encounter with the same adversary even under the advantageous circumstances of a surprise
he had become too much encowardised to play the assassin he wanted an accomplice an arm to strike for him where was he to find it unluckily he knew or fancied he knew the very man
there was a mexican at the time making abode in the village like maurice himself a mustanger but one of those with whom the young irishman had shown a disinclination to associate
as a general rule the men of this peculiar calling are amongst the greatest reprobates who have their home in the land of the lone star by birth and breed they are mostly mexicans or mongrel indians
though not unfrequently a frenchman or american finds it a congenial calling they are usually the outcasts of civilised society oftener its outlaws who
in the excitement of the chase and its concomitant dangers find perhaps some sort of salvo for a conscience that has been severely tried
while dwelling within the settlements these men are not unfrequently the pests of the society that surrounds them
and when abroad in the exercise of their calling they are not always to be encountered with safety
how a company of mustangers has for the nonce converted itself into a band of cuadrilla of salteadores or disguised as indians levied black mail upon the train of the prairie traveller
one of this kidney was the individual who had become recalled to the memory of cassius calhoun the latter remembered having met the man in the bar room of the hotel
upon several occasions but more especially on the night of the duel he remembered that he had been one of those who had carried him home on the stretcher and from some extravagant expressions he had made use of
when speaking of his antagonist calhoun had drawn the deduction that the mexican was no friend to maurice the mustanger since then he had learnt that he was maurice's deadliest enemy
himself excepted with these data to proceed upon the ex captain had called the mexican to his counsels and the two were often closeted together in the chamber of the invalid
there was nothing in all this to excite suspicion even had calhoun cared for that his visitor was a dealer in horses and horned cattle some transaction in horseflesh might be going on between them
so any one would have supposed and so for a time thought the mexican himself for in their first interview but little other business was transacted between them
the astute mississippian knew better than to declare his ultimate designs to a stranger who after completing an advantageous horse trade was well supplied with whatever he chose to drink
and cunningly cross questioned as to the relations in which he stood towards maurice the mustanger in that first interview the ex officer volunteers learnt enough
to know that he might depend upon his man for any service he might require even to the committal of murder the mexican made no secret of his heartfelt hostility to the young mustanger
he did not declare the exact cause of it but calhoun could guess by certain innuendos introduced during the conversation that it was the same as that by which he was himself actuated
the same to which may be traced almost every quarrel that has occurred among men from troy to texas a woman the helen in this case appeared to be some dark eyed doncella
where maurice had been in the habit of making an occasional visit in whose eyes he had found favour to the disadvantage of her own conpaisano the mexican did not give the name and calhoun
as he listened to his explanations only hoped in his heart that the damsel who had slighted him might have won the heart of his rival during his days of convalescence several interviews had taken place between the
ex captain and the intended accomplice in his purposes of vengeance enough one might suppose to have rendered them complete
whether they were so or not and what the nature of their hellish designs were things known only to the brace of kindred confederates
the outside world but knew that captain cassius calhoun and miguel diaz
chapter eighteen the last surrender lieutenant gatewood dismounted handed the reins of his horse to one of the couriers and shook hands with geronimo
geronimo searched the officer's face for some sign of fear but there was not even a slight nervousness lieutenant gatewood was indeed worthy of his reputation for both courage and gallantry
geronimo said your face is pale and drawn as though it has not seen the sun in too many days or perhaps you have been ill it is nothing said lieutenant gatewood
i have merely ridden far and fast so that i may talk with geronimo you did not say my friend geronimo geronimo pointed out you are not my friend
lieutenant gatewood said calmly you are the friend of no white man or mexican as long as you continue to live like a wild beast and raid and kill at your pleasure except for those who are with you now
even the apaches have turned against you for you have given a bad name to apaches who would live at peace it is true that many thirst for my blood geronimo said thoughtfully
it is equally true that you still speak with a straight tongue some have called me friend and when they thought i was no longer suspicious have tried to betray me but you say at once that you are not my friend
and that is honest talk what would you have from me lieutenant gatewood said for myself i want nothing and as a soldier i may ask nothing but for general miles
the great chief in command of the soldiers who are pursuing you i ask your surrender and the surrender of all your band geronimo asked and what does general miles offer in return
imprisonment in florida for you and your families lieutenant gatewood said is he mad
by white soldiers does your general miles not know that we are capable of carrying on the fight he knows lieutenant gatewood said
but if you fail to surrender general miles has another offer he will hunt you down and kill every one of you if it takes another fifty years take a message to your general miles geronimo said
tell him that we will return to arizona if we may go back to our homes in the white mountains and if we may live there as we did before fleeing into mexico that is childish talk geronimo
lieutenant gatewood said you have had many opportunities to prove that you would live in peace on the reservation there will not be another chance general miles orders stand accept imprisonment
in florida or be killed by soldiers we may also kill soldiers geronimo reminded him that you have proven many times lieutenant gatewood admitted but you remember the times of long ago
when for every white man in arizona there were a hundred apaches now for every apache there are two hundred white men and more to come you cannot kill all the soldiers nor can they kill us
geronimo said my terms stand we return to the white mountains and live as we once lived or we continue the war lieutenant gatewood
i saw your mother and daughter
they have been sent to florida with the rest but both inquired about you
eagerly very well lieutenant gatewood said they wish you to surrender so that you may join them and i am to remind you that an enemy more merciless than any soldiers lies in wait
it is winter that is just ahead geronimo do i have your final answer geronimo said may we talk again tomorrow we may said lieutenant gatewood they parted
lieutenant gatewood and his party returned to their camp while the apaches went to theirs the indians were sober and thoughtful it is true geronimo said
we have fought and fought well but we are very few and our enemies are very many we cannot continue to fight them forever
it is also true that we would like to see our friends and families again
all were desperately tired and lonely they had endured far more than flesh and blood should be expected to bear but they were willing to continue the fight
i fear to surrender even more than i fear to continue the battle mexicans south of the border and americans north of it would kill us as readily as we would kill a pack of rabid wolves
if we hand our arms over to lieutenant gatewood who will protect us until we are safe in florida suddenly geronimo who had been silent
there was old mangus coloradus advising his people to make peace with the white men since they could never hope to conquer them
to teach him what mangus coloradus had been taught by his own wisdom now almost twenty five years after the death of mangus coloradus geronimo finally understood
what one of these chiefs had known and the other had learned apaches could not fight the white men but neither could they surrender to them unless it was possible to work out a plan
guaranteeing their own safety when they resumed their talks the next day geronimo said bluntly to lieutenant gatewood forget you are a white man and pretend you are one of us
what would you do trust general miles and surrender to him lieutenant gatewood said promptly so you have spoken and so shall we do said geronimo but it is a long way to the border
where general miles awaits and this is enemy country we will not surrender our arms until we are met by general miles that is agreeable said lieutenant gatewood in addition
captain lawton and a company of soldiers are camped not far away i will ask them to march with you and help beat off any mexicans
captain lawton and his soldiers may come but they are to stay ahead or behind we do not care to mingle with white soldiers
lieutenant gatewood marched with them captain lawton provided an escort of american soldiers and a mob of two hundred mexicans who finally saw the hated apaches in captivity
trailed them all the way but the mexicans did not dare start a fight when they reached the camp where general miles was waiting geronimo stalked haughtily to the general who stared coldly
at the great apache leader geronimo and his warriors laid down the arms that they had carried so many miles and into so many battles the disarmed apaches were surrounded by soldiers
who took them first to prison cells at arizona's fort bowie then to the train that carried them to exile in florida
so ended the fighting days of geronimo the last and fiercest apache war chief and so also ended the indian wars in the southwest never again would men and women on lonely ranches
or in isolated villages awaken trembling in the middle of the night to hear the pound of ponies hoofs and the wild apache war cry never again would travelers in arizona new mexico
and northern mexico find it necessary to travel in groups and well armed for fear of apache attacks geronimo and his followers as well as many other
and warm springs apaches were imprisoned at old fort pickens or at fort marion in florida eventually they were moved to a reservation in what was then indian territory
and what is now the state of oklahoma there geronimo died at fort sill on february seventeenth nineteen o nine whether he was a great villain or a great patriot
depends on whether one looks at him with the eyes of the white men whom he plundered or the apaches whom he championed
ah we vikings are great folk there is no water that has not licked our boats sides this cape of mine came in a viking boat from france these cloak pins came from a far country called greece
in my father's house are golden cups from rome away on the southern sea every land pours rich things into our treasure chest
and wonderful sweet smelling waters oh when shall the white horses of the sea lead me out to strange lands and glorious battles but harald did something besides listen to stories every morning
he was up at sunrise and went with a thrall to feed the hunting dogs thorstein taught him to swim in the rough waters of the fiord often he went with the men a hunting in the woods and learned to ride a horse and pull a bow and throw a lance
and to make up songs he went much to the smithy
at first he only watched the men or worked the bellows but soon he could handle the tongs and hold the red hot iron and after a long time he learned to use the hammer and to shape metal one day he made himself a spear head
it was two feet long and sharp on both edges while the iron was hot he beat into it some runes when the men in the smithy saw the runes they opened their eyes wide and looked at the boy for few norsemen could read what does it say
put on his skees and started for a wood that was back from shore down the mountains he went twenty thirty feet at a slide
he looked like a flash of fire the wind shot past him howling his eyes danced at the fun it is like flying he thought and laughed i am an eagle now i soar as he leaped over a frozen river
he saw a slender ash growing on top of a high rock that is the handle for foes' fear he said the rock stood up like a ragged tower but he did not stop because of the steep climb
he went down sliding and jumping and tearing himself on the sharp stones with a last leap
as he did so a lean wolf jumped and snapped at him snarling harald shouted and swung his pole the wolf dodged but quickly jumped again
harald thought of the spear point in his belt
he drove it into the wolf's neck and threw him back on the snow
he made nails with beautiful heads and drove them into the pole in different places if it is heavy it will strike hard he said then he weighed the spear in his hand and found the balancing point and put another gold band there to mark it
harald answered by thor cried thorstein i see that you are ready for better wounds you bear this like a warrior
the lakes the vast morasses
the china of europe the end of the earth and the beginning of the ocean a measureless raft of mud and sand
it will vanish whenever the hollanders shall abandon it to comprehend this truth we must imagine holland as it was when first inhabited by the first german tribes that wandered away in search of a country it was almost uninhabitable
there were vast tempestuous lakes like seas touching one another morass beside morass one tract after another covered with brushwood immense forests of pines oaks and alders traversed by herds of wild horses and so thick were these forests
that tradition says one could travel leagues passing from tree to tree without ever putting foot to the ground the deep bays and gulfs carried into the heart of the country the fury of the northern tempests some provinces disappeared once every year under the waters of the sea
and were nothing but muddy tracts neither land nor water
swept by furious winds beaten by obstinate rains veiled in a perpetual fog where nothing was heard but the roar of the sea and the voices of wild beasts and birds of the ocean the first people who had the courage to plant their tents there
had to raise with their own hands dikes of earth to keep out the rivers and the sea and lived within them like shipwrecked men upon desolate islands venturing forth at the subsidence of the waters in quest of food in the shape of fish and game
exposed to the intemperance of a cruel sky and the fury of the mysterious northern sea and the imagination pictures the roman soldiers who from the heights of the uttermost citadels of the empire beaten by the waves contemplated with wonder and pity
but it must be added the conquest goes on forever to explain this fact to show how the existence of holland in spite of the great defensive works constructed by the inhabitants demands an incessant and most perilous struggle
from that time every gulf every island and it may be said every city in holland has its catastrophe to record in thirteen centuries it is recorded that one great inundation beside smaller ones has occurred every seven years
and the country being all plain these inundations were veritable floods towards the end of the thirteenth century the sea destroyed a part of a fertile peninsula near the mouth of the ems and swallowed up more than thirty villages in the course of the same century
a series of inundations opened an immense chasm in northern holland
causing the death of more than eighty thousand persons in fourteen twenty one a tempest swelled the meuse so that in one night the waters overwhelmed seventy two villages and one hundred thousand inhabitants
in fifteen thirty two the sea burst the dikes of zealand destroying hundreds of villages and covering forever a large tract of country in fifteen seventy a storm caused another inundation in zealand and in the province of utrecht
amsterdam was invaded by the waters and in friesland twenty thousand people were drowned other great inundations took place in the seventeenth century two terrible ones at the beginning and the end of the eighteenth
and another great one of the rhine in eighteen fifty five which invaded gueldres and the province of utrecht and covered a great part of north brabant beside these great catastrophes there happened in different centuries innumerable smaller ones
like the rising of the lake of haarlem itself the result of an inundation of the sea flourishing cities of the gulf of zuyder zee vanished under the waters the islands of zealand covered again and again by the sea and again emerging villages of the coast from helder to the mouths of the meuse
the enemy from which they had to wrest it was triple the sea the lakes the rivers they drained the lakes drove back the sea and imprisoned the rivers to drain the lakes the hollanders pressed the air into their service
thus vast tracts of land buried under the water saw the sun and were transformed as if by magic into fertile fields covered with villages and intersected by canals and roads in the seventeenth century in less than forty years
twenty six lakes were drained at the beginning of the present century in north holland alone more than six thousand hectares or fifteen thousand acres were thus redeemed from the waters in south holland before eighteen forty four
twenty nine thousand hectares in the whole of holland from fifteen hundred to eighteen fifty eight three hundred and fifty five thousand hectares substituting steam mills for windmills
and they are now meditating the prodigious work of drying up the zuyder zee which embraces an area of more than seven hundred square kilometres the rivers another eternal enemy cost no less of labor and sacrifice
some like the rhine which lost itself in the sands before reaching the sea had to be channeled and defended at their mouths against the tides by formidable cataracts others like the meuse bordered by dikes as powerful as those that were raised against the ocean
and in this way all the rivers that formerly spread their devastating floods about the country were disciplined into channels and constrained to do service but the most tremendous struggle was the battle with the ocean
holland is in great part lower than the level of the sea consequently everywhere that the coast is not defended by sand banks it has to be protected by dikes
the western coast of the island of walcheren is defended by a dike in which it is computed that the expense of construction added to that of preservation
around the city of helder at the northern extremity of north holland extends a dike ten kilometres long constructed of masses of norwegian granite which descends more than sixty metres into the sea
the whole province of friesland for the length of eighty eight kilometres is defended by three rows of piles sustained by masses of norwegian and german granite amsterdam
holland is an impenetrable fortress of whose immense bastions the mills are the towers the cataracts are the gates the islands the advanced forts and like a true fortress it shows to its enemy the sea only the tops of its bell towers and the roofs of its houses
as if in defiance and derision
on a war footing with the sea an army of engineers directed by the minister of the interior spread over the country and ordered like an army continually spy the enemy watch over the internal waters foresee the bursting of the dikes order and direct the defensive works
the peril is unceasing the sentinels are at their posts upon the bulwarks
and even when there is no great battle a quiet silent struggle is forever going on the innumerable mills even in the drained districts continue to work unresting
to absorb and turn into the canals the water that falls in rain and that which filters in from the sea every day the cataracts of the bays and rivers close their gigantic gates
the work of strengthening dikes fortifying sand banks with plantations throwing out new dikes where the banks are low straight as great lances vibrating in the bosom of the sea and breaking the first impetus of the wave is forever going on
and the sea eternally knocks at the river gates beats upon the ramparts growls on every side her ceaseless menace
piling up banks of sand before the gates to kill the commerce of the cities
and failing to overthrow the ramparts upon which she foams and fumes in angry effort she casts at their feet ships full of the dead that they may announce to the rebellious country her fury and her strength
in the midst of this great and terrible struggle holland is transformed holland is the land of transformations
transforming the sea men also are transformed the sea at some points drives back the land it takes portions from the continent leaves them and takes them again joins islands to the mainland with ropes of sand as in the case of zealand
breaks off bits from the mainland and makes new islands as in wieringen retires from certain coasts and makes land cities out of what were cities of the sea
is to cause the level of the sea to rise in some places and to sink in others
which is to separate it from south holland lakes as large as provinces disappear altogether like the lake of beemster by the extraction of peat land is converted into lakes and these lakes are again transformed into meadows
and thus the country changes its aspect according to the violence of nature or the needs of men and while one goes over it with the latest map in hand one may be sure that the map will be useless in a few years because even now there are new gulfs in process of formation
tracts of land just ready to be detached from the mainland and great canals being cut that will carry life to uninhabited districts but holland has done more than defend herself against the waters she has made herself mistress of them and has used them for her own defense
water was the source of her poverty she has made it the source of wealth over the whole country extends an immense network of canals which serves both for the irrigation of the land and as a means of communication
the cities by means of canals communicate with the sea canals run from town to town and from them to villages which are themselves bound together by these watery ways and are connected even to the houses scattered over the country
smaller canals surround the fields and orchards pastures and kitchen gardens serving at once as boundary wall hedge and road way every house is a little port ships boats rafts move about in all directions
as in other places carts and carriages the canals are the arteries of holland and the water her life blood but even setting aside the canals the draining of the lakes and the defensive works on every side are seen the traces of marvelous undertakings
the soil which in other countries is a gift of nature is in holland a work of men's hands holland draws the greater part of her wealth from commerce but before commerce comes the cultivation of the soil and the soil had to be created
there was no wood because the forests had already been destroyed by tempests when agriculture began there was no stone there were no metals
had refused all her gifts to holland the hollanders had to do everything in spite of nature they began by fertilizing the sand in some places they formed a productive soil with earth brought from a distance as a garden is made
they mixed with the sandy earth the remains of peat taken from the bottoms
they labored to break up the downs with the plow and thus in a thousand ways and continually fighting off the menacing waters they succeeded in bringing holland to a state of cultivation not inferior to that of more favored regions that holland
that sandy marshy country which the ancients considered all but uninhabitable
possesses about one million three hundred thousand head of cattle and in proportion to the extent of her territory may be accounted one of the most populous of european states
it is sufficient to contemplate the monuments of their great struggle with the sea in order to understand that their distinctive characteristics must be firmness and patience accompanied by a calm and constant courage that glorious battle
and the consciousness of owing everything to their own strength must have infused and fortified in them
the necessity of a constant struggle of a continuous labor and of perpetual sacrifices in defense of their existence forever taking them back to a sense of reality
economy one of their chief virtues they must be excellent in all useful arts sparing of diversion simple even in their greatness succeeding in what they undertake by dint of tenacity and a thoughtful and orderly activity
and by virtue of these qualities of prudence phlegmatic activity and the spirit of conservatism they are ever advancing though by slow degrees they acquire gradually but never lose what they have gained holding stubbornly to their ancient customs
it is enough also to remember its form in order to comprehend that this country of three millions and a half of inhabitants although bound in so compact a political union
although recognizable among all the other northern peoples by certain traits peculiar to the population of all its provinces must present a great variety and so it is in fact between zealand and holland proper
between holland and friesland between friesland and gueldres between groningen and brabant in spite of vicinity and so many common tics there is no less difference than between the more distant provinces of italy and france difference of language costume and character
difference of race and of religion the communal regime has impressed an indelible mark upon this people
the country is divided into various groups of interests organized in the same manner as the hydraulic system whence association and mutual help against the common enemy the sea but liberty for local institutions and forces
monarchy has not extinguished the ancient municipal spirit and this it is that renders impossible a complete fusion of the state in all the great states that have made the attempt the great rivers and gulfs
are at the same time commercial roads serving as national bonds between the different provinces and barriers which defend old traditions and old customs in each the dutch masters from holland and its people
the only two to which the title rigorously belongs the others being only daughters or younger sisters
thus even in painting holland offers that which is most sought after in travel and in books of travel the new dutch painting was born with the liberty and independence of holland
bloemart followed correggio and il moro copied titian not to indicate others and they were one and all pedantic imitators who added to the exaggerations of the italian style a certain german coarsenesss the result of which was a
bastard style of painting still inferior to the first childish stiff in design crude in color
but at least not a servile imitation and becoming as it were a faint prelude of the true dutch art that was to be with the war of independence liberty reform and painting also were renewed
the faculties which had been excited and strengthened in the grand undertaking of creating a nation now that the work was completed overflowed and ran into new channels the conditions of the country were favorable to the revival of art
to prosaic realities by the occupations of a vulgar burgher life cultivating its reason at the expense of its imagination living consequently more in clear ideas than in beautiful images taking refuge from abstractions
never darting its thoughts beyond that nature with which it is in perpetual battle seeing only that which is enjoying only that which it can possess making its happiness consist in the tranquil ease and honest sensuality of a life without violent passions
precision and delicacy though material like their lives in one word a realistic art in which they can see themselves as they are and as they are content to be
the artists began by tracing that which they saw before their eyes the house the long winters the persistent rains the dampness the variableness of the climate
he liked to look out from his well stopped windows at the falling snow and the drenching rain and to
rage tempest i am warm and safe snug in his shell his faithful housewife beside him his children about him
the dutch painters represented these houses and this life in little pictures proportionate to the size of the walls on which they were to hang the bedchambers that make one feel a desire to sleep the kitchens the tables set out the fresh and smiling faces of the house mothers
the men at their ease around the fire and with that conscientious realism which never forsakes them they depict the dozing cat the yawning dog the clucking hen the broom the vegetables the scattered pots and pans the chicken ready for the spit
the dance the conversazione the orgie the feast the game and thus did terburg
become famous after depicting the house they turned their attention to the country the stern climate allowed but a brief time for the admiration of nature but for this very reason dutch artists admired her all the more
they saluted the spring with a livelier joy and permitted that fugitive smile of heaven to stamp itself more deeply on their fancy the country was not beautiful but it was twice dear because it had been torn from the sea and from the foreign oppressor
the dutch artist painted it lovingly he represented it simply ingenuously with a sense of intimacy which at that time was not to be found in italian or belgian landscape the flat monotonous country had to the dutch painter's eyes
a marvelous variety he caught all the mutations of the sky and knew the value of the water with its reflections its grace and freshness and its power of illuminating everything having no mountains he took the dikes for background
asselyn but the palm remains with the landscapists of holland with wynants the painter of morning
with ruysdael the painter of melancholy with hobbema the illustrator of windmills cabins and kitchen gardens
as she is in holland simultaneously with landscape art was born another kind of painting especially peculiar to holland animal painting
that magnificent race of cattle which has no rival in europe for fecundity and beauty the hollanders who owe so much to them
and exciting in the spectator's heart a sentiment of arcadian gentleness and patriarchal serenity the dutch artists studied these animals in all their varieties in all their habits and divined as one may say their inner life and sentiments
animating the tranquil beauty of the landscape with their forms rubens luyders paul de vos and other belgian painters
berghem karel du jardin and by the prince of animal painters paul potter whose famous bull in the gallery of the hague deserves to be placed in the vatican beside the transfiguration by raphael in yet another field are the dutch painters great the sea
that turbulent north sea full of sinister color with a light of infinite melancholy upon it beating forever upon a desolate coast must subjugate the imagination of the artist he passes indeed long hours on the shore contemplating its tremendous beauty
ventures upon its waves to study the effects of tempests buys a vessel and sails with his wife and family observing and making notes follows the fleet into battle and takes part in the fight and in this way are made marine painters like william van der velde the elder and william the younger
like backhuysen dubbels and stork another kind of painting was to arise in holland as the expression of the character of the people and of republican manners a people which without greatness had done so many great things as michelet says
must have its heroic painters if we call them so destined to illustrate men and events but this school of painting precisely because the people were without greatness or to express it better without the form of greatness
modest inclined to consider all equal before the country because all had done their duty abhorring adulation and the glorification in one only of the virtues and the triumph of many this school has to illustrate not a few men who have excelled
and a few extraordinary facts but all classes of citizenship gathered among the most ordinary and pacific of burgher life from this come the great pictures which represent five ten thirty persons together arquebusiers mayors
officers professors magistrates administrators seated or standing around a table feasting and conversing of life size most faithful likenesses grave open faces expressing that secure serenity of conscience by which may be divined rather than seen
the nobleness of a life consecrated to one's country the character of that strong laborious epoch the masculine virtues of that excellent generation all this set off by the fine costume of the time
so admirably combining grace and dignity those gorgets those doublets those black mantles those silken scarves and ribbons those arms and banners in this field stand pre eminent van der helst hals
one leads all the rest as the distinctive feature of dutch painting the light the light in holland by reason of the particular conditions of its manifestation could not fail to give rise to a special manner of painting a pale light
waving with marvelous mobility through an atmosphere impregnated with vapor a nebulous veil continually and abruptly torn a perpetual struggle between light and shadow such was the spectacle which attracted the eye of the artist
he began to observe and to reproduce all this agitation of the heavens this struggle which animates with varied and fantastic life the solitude of nature in holland and in representing it the struggle passed into his soul and instead of representing
sunset reflections and the yellow rays of lamp light were blended with delicate manipulation into mysterious shadows and their dim depths were peopled with half seen forms and thus he created all sorts of contrasts enigmas
play and effect of strange and unexpected chiaroscuro in this field among many stand conspicuous gerard dow the author of the famous four candle picture and the great magician and sovereign illuminator
there is the fact that in a country so flat so uniform and so gray as holland there is the same need of color as in southern lands there is need of shade the dutch artists did but follow the imperious taste of their countrymen
who painted their houses in vivid colors as well as their ships and in some places the trunks of their trees and the palings and fences of their fields and gardens whose dress was of the gayest richest hues who loved tulips and hyacinths even to madness
and thus the dutch painters were potent colorists and rembrandt was their chief realism natural to the calmness and slowness of the dutch character was to give to their art yet another distinctive feature finish
which was carried to the very extreme of possibility it is truly said
every vein in the wood of a piece of furniture every fibre in a leaf the threads of cloth the stitches in a patch every hair upon an animal's coat every wrinkle in a man's face everything finished with microscopic precision as if done with a fairy pencil
but a defect carried to such a pitch of perfection that one admires and does not find fault in this respect the most famous prodigies of patience were dow
potter and van der heist but more or less all the dutch painters but realism which gives to dutch art so original a stamp and such admirable qualities is yet the root of its most serious defects
the artists desirous only of representing material truths gave to their figures no expression save that of their physical sentiments grief love enthusiasm and the thousand delicate shades of feeling that have no name or take a different one
is wanting in their pictures more in their faithful reproduction of everything even the ugly and especially the ugly they end by exaggerating even that making defects into deformities and portraits into caricatures
and certainly should not be looked at but even setting aside these excesses in the picture galleries of holland there is to be found nothing that elevates the mind or moves it to high and gentle thoughts you admire you enjoy you laugh
you stand pensive for a moment before some canvas but coming out you feel that something is lacking to your pleasure you experience a desire to look upon a handsome countenance to read inspired verses and sometimes you catch yourself murmuring half unconsciously
o raphael finally there are still two important excellences to be recorded of this school of painting its variety and its importance as the expression the mirror so to speak of the country
which was the worship of material truth have arrived at separate and distinct goals their realism then inciting them to disdain nothing as food for the pencil has so acted that dutch art succeeds in representing holland more completely
than has ever been accomplished by any other school in any other country
but suddenly we heard a shout outside
thirty against two hundred we shall all drink in valhalla to night well i cried odin shall have no unwilling guest in me
nor in me shouted thorkel
hot work is ahead of us
i drink to valhalla to night cried thorkel the thirsty and he plunged his horn deep into the tub when he brought it up his sleeve was dripping and the sweet mead was running over from the horn sloven
he fell against the wooden wall at the back and a carved panel swung open behind him he dropped down head first in a minute he put his head out of the hole again we all stood staring i think it is a secret passage
he said we will try it
i with four more will guard this door i said pointing to the east end immediately four men stepped to my side and i will guard the other
so we ten men stood at the doors and held back the king's soldiers it was dark in the room and the people out of doors could not tell how many were inside few were eager to be the first in
thirty swords are waiting in there to eat up the first man we heard some one say we chuckled at that but the king stood in the very doorway and fought our five swords held him back for a long time but at last he pushed in
and his men poured after him we ran back and hid behind some tubs in a dark corner the king's men went groping about and calling but they did not find us the room was full of shouting and running and sword clashing for in the dark and the noise
the men could not tell their own soldiers more than one fell by his friend's sword when it was less crowded about the doorway i whispered follow me in double line we will make for the ships keep close together
thorkel was standing by my side at that he laughed and said they do not answer he left but a handful to guard his ships
here we go up up up and here we go down down downee nursery song meanwhile at milton the chimneys smoked the ceaseless roar and mighty beat and dizzying whirl of machinery
struggled and strove perpetually senseless and purposeless were wood and iron and steam in their endless labours but the persistence of their monotonous work
were busy and restless in seeking after what in the streets there were few loiterers none walking for mere pleasure every man's face was set in lines of eagerness or anxiety news was sought for with fierce avidity
and men jostled each other aside in the mart and in the exchange as they did in life in the deep selfishness of competition there was gloom over the town few came to buy and those who did were looked at suspiciously by the sellers
for credit was insecure and the most stable might have their fortunes affected by the sweep in the great neighbouring port among the shipping houses hitherto there had been no failures in milton but from the immense speculations
that had come to light in making a bad end in america and yet nearer home it was known that some milton houses of business must suffer so severely that every day men's faces asked if their tongues did not what news who is gone
how will it affect me and if two or three spoke together
than dared to hint at those likely in their opinion to go for idle breath may at such times cause the downfall of some who might otherwise weather the storm and one going down drags many after thornton is safe say they
his business is large extending every year but such a head as he has and so prudent with all his daring then one man draws another aside and walks a little apart
and with head inclined into his neighbour's ear he says thornton's business is large but he has spent his profits in extending it he has no capital laid by his machinery is new within these two years
and has cost him we won't say what a word to the wise but that mister harrison was a croaker a man who had succeeded to his father's trade made fortune which he had feared to lose by altering his mode of business
to any having a larger scope yet he grudged every penny made by others more daring and far sighted but the truth was mister thornton was hard pressed
he felt it acutely in his vulnerable point his pride in the commercial character which he had established for himself architect of his own fortunes he attributed this to no special merit or qualities of his own
but to the power which he believed that commerce gave to every brave honest and persevering man to raise himself to a level from which he might see and read the great game of worldly success and honestly
far away in the east and in the west where his person would never be known his name was to be regarded and his wishes to be fulfilled and his word pass like gold that was the idea of merchant life
with which mister thornton had started her merchants be like princes said his mother reading the text aloud as if it were a trumpet call to invite her boy to the struggle he was but like many others
men women and children alive to distant and dead to near things he sought to possess the influence of a name in foreign countries and far away seas to become the head of a firm that should be known for generations
and it had taken him long silent years to come even to a glimmering of what he might be now to day here in his own town his own factory among his own people he and they had led parallel lives
very close but never touching till the accident or so it seemed of his acquaintance with higgins once brought face to face man to man with an individual of the masses around him and take notice
out of the character of master and workman in the first instance
that we have all of us one human heart it was the fine point of the wedge and until now when the apprehension of losing his connection with two or three of the workmen whom he had so lately begun to know as men
of having a plan or two which were experiments lying very close to his heart roughly nipped off without trial gave a new poignancy to the subtle fear that came over him from time to time until now he had never recognised how much
and how deep was the interest he had grown of late to feel in his position as manufacturer simply because it led him into such close contact and gave him the opportunity of so much power
shrewd ignorant but above all full of character and strong human feeling he reviewed his position as a milton manufacturer the strike a year and a half ago or more
for it was now untimely wintry weather in a late spring that strike when he was young and he now was old had prevented his completing some of the large orders he had then on hand
he had locked up a good deal of his capital in new and expensive machinery and he had also bought cotton largely for the fulfilment of these orders taken under contract
that he had not been able to complete them was owing in some degree to the utter want of skill on the part of the irish hands whom he had imported much of their work was damaged and unfit to be sent forth by a house which prided itself on turning out nothing
but first rate articles for many months the embarrassment caused by the strike had been an obstacle in mister thornton's way and often when his eye fell on higgins he could have spoken angrily to him without any present cause
just from feeling how serious was the injury that had arisen from this affair in which he was implicated but when he became conscious of this sudden quick resentment he resolved to curb it
it would not satisfy him to avoid higgins he must convince himself that he was master over his own anger by being particularly careful to allow higgins access to him
whenever the strict rules of business or mister thornton's leisure permitted and by and bye he lost all sense of resentment in wonder how it was or could be that two men like himself and higgins
living by the same trade working in their different ways at the same object could look upon each other's position and duties in so strangely different a way and thence arose that intercourse
which though it might not have the effect of preventing all future clash of opinion and action when the occasion arose would at any rate enable both master and man to look upon each other with far more charity and sympathy
and bear with each other more patiently and kindly besides this improvement of feeling both mister thornton and his workmen found out their ignorance as to positive matters of fact
to one side but not to the other but now had come one of those periods of bad trade when the market falling brought down the value of all large stocks mister thornton's fell to nearly half
no orders were coming in so he lost the interest of the capital he had locked up in machinery indeed it was difficult to get payment for the orders completed yet there was the constant drain of expenses for working the business
then the bills became due for the cotton he had purchased and money being scarce he could only borrow at exorbitant interest and yet he could not realise any of his property but he did not despair
he exerted himself day and night to foresee and to provide for all emergencies he was as calm and gentle to the women in his home as ever to the workmen in his mill he spoke not many words but they knew him by this time
and many a curt decided answer was received by them rather with sympathy for the care they saw pressing upon him than with the suppressed antagonism which had formerly been smouldering and ready for hard words and hard judgments on all occasions
said higgins one day as he heard mister thornton's short sharp inquiry why such a command had not been obeyed and caught the sound of the suppressed sigh which he heaved in going past the room where some of the men were working
higgins and another man stopped over hours that night unknown to any one to get the neglected piece of work done and mister thornton never knew but that the overlooker to whom he had given the command in the first instance had done it himself
thought higgins one day as he was approaching mister thornton in marlborough street
said he stopping his employer in his quick resolved walk and causing that gentleman to look up with a sudden annoyed start as if his thoughts had been far away
miss who replied mister thornton miss marget miss hale
yo known who i mean well enough if yo'll only think a bit there was nothing disrespectful in the tone in which this was said oh yes and suddenly the wintry frost bound look of care had left mister thornton's face
as if some soft summer gale had blown all anxiety away from his mind and though his mouth was as much compressed as before his eyes smiled out benignly on his questioner she's my landlord now you know higgins
i hear of her through her agent here every now and then she's well and among friends thank you higgins that thank you that lingered after the other words
let in a new light to the acute higgins
not yet the face was cloudy once more there is some talk of it as i understand with a connection of the family then she'll not be for coming to milton again i reckon no
then going up confidentially close he said
he enforced the depth of his intelligence by a wink of the eye
her brother as was over here yo known over here ay to be sure
yo need na be feared of my telling
only we held our peace for we got it through mary working in th house
it was her brother
yes i know all about him and he was over at missus hale's death nay i'm not going for to tell more i've maybe getten them into mischief already for they kept it very close
i nobbut wanted to know if they'd getten him cleared not that i know of i know nothing i only hear of miss hale now as my landlord and through her lawyer he broke off from higgins
to follow the business on which he had been bent when the latter first accosted him leaving higgins baffled in his endeavour it was her brother said mister thornton to himself i am glad
i may never see her again but it is a comfort a relief to know that much i knew she could not be unmaidenly
now i am glad it was a little golden thread running through the dark web of his present fortunes which were growing ever gloomier and more gloomy
which went down along with several others just at this time like a pack of cards the fall of one compelling other failures what were mister thornton's engagements could he stand
night after night he took books and papers into his own private room
he thought that no one knew of this occupation of the hours he should have spent in sleep one morning when daylight was stealing in through the crevices of his shutters and he had never been in bed
and in hopeless indifference of mind was thinking that he could do without the hour or two of rest which was all that he should be able to take before the stir of daily labour began again the door of his room opened and his mother stood there dressed
as she had been the day before she had never laid herself down to slumber any more than he their eyes met their faces were cold and rigid and wan from long watching mother
said she do you think i can sleep with an easy mind while you keep awake full of care you have not told me what your trouble is but sore trouble you have had these many days past trade is bad
and you dread i dread nothing replied he drawing up his head and holding it erect i know now that no man will suffer by me that was my anxiety
but how do you stand shall you will it be a failure
not a failure i must give up business but i pay all men i might redeem myself i am sorely tempted how oh john keep up your name try all risks for that how redeem it
by a speculation offered to me full of risk but if successful placing me high above water mark so that no one need ever know the strait i am in still if it fails and if it fails
said she advancing and laying her hand on his arm her eyes full of eager light she held her breath to hear the end of his speech
said he gloomily as i stand now my creditors money is safe every farthing of it but i don't know where to find my own it may be all gone and i penniless at this moment
therefore it is my creditors money that i should risk but if it succeeded they need never know is it so desperate a speculation
i should be a rich man and my peace of conscience would be gone why
no but i should have run the risk of ruining many for my own paltry aggrandisement mother i have decided you won't much grieve over our leaving this house shall you dear mother no
what can you do be always the same john thornton in whatever circumstances endeavouring to do right and making great blunders and then trying to be brave in setting to afresh but it is hard mother
i have so worked and planned i have discovered new powers in my situation too late and now all is over i am too old to begin again with the same heart it is hard mother
he turned away from her and covered his face with his hands i can't think said she with gloomy defiance in her tone how it comes about here is my boy
and he fails in all he sets his mind upon he finds a woman to love and she cares no more for his affection than if he had been any common man he labours and his labour comes to nought other people prosper and grow rich
and hold their paltry names high and dry above shame shame never touched me said he in a low tone but she went on i sometimes have wondered where justice was gone to and now i don't believe there is such a thing in the world
my own john thornton though you and i may be beggars together my own dear son she fell upon his neck and kissed him through her tears mother said he holding her gently in his arms
who has sent me my lot in life both of good and of evil she shook her head she would have nothing to do with religion just then mother he went on seeing that she would not speak
i too have been rebellious but i am striving to be so no longer help me as you helped me when i was a child then you said many good words
you said brave noble trustful words then mother which i have never forgotten though they may have lain dormant speak to me again in the old way mother do not let us have to think that the world has too much hardened our hearts
if you would say the old good words it would make me feel something of the pious simplicity of my childhood i say them to myself but they would come differently from you remembering all the cares and trials
you have had to bear i have had a many said she sobbing but none so sore as this to see you cast down from your rightful place
not for you god has seen fit to be very hard on you very she shook with the sobs that come so convulsively when an old person weeps the silence around her struck her at last
and she quieted herself to listen no sound she looked her son sate by the table his arms thrown half across it his head bent face downwards oh john she said
and she lifted his face up such a strange pallid look of gloom was on it that for a moment it struck her that this look was the forerunner of death but as the rigidity melted out of the countenance
and she saw that he was himself once again all worldly mortification sank to nothing before the consciousness of the great blessing that he himself by his simple existence was to her
she thanked god for this and this alone with a fervour that swept away all rebellious feelings from her mind he did not speak readily but he went and opened the shutters and let the ruddy light of dawn flood the room
but the wind was in the east the weather was piercing cold as it had been for weeks there would be no demand for light summer goods this year that hope for the revival of trade must utterly be given up
it was a great comfort to have had this conversation with his mother and to feel sure that however they might henceforward keep silence on all these anxieties they yet understood each other's feelings and were if not in harmony
at least not in discord with each other in their way of viewing them fanny's husband was vexed at thornton's refusal to take any share in the speculation which he had offered to him
and withdrew from any possibility of being supposed able to assist him with the ready money which indeed the speculator needed for his own venture there was nothing for it at last but that which mister thornton had dreaded for many weeks
he had to give up the business in which he had been so long engaged with so much honour and success and look out for a subordinate situation marlborough mills and the adjacent dwelling were held under a long lease they must if possible
be relet there was an immediate choice of situations offered to mister thornton mister hamper would have been only too glad to have secured him as a steady and experienced partner for his son whom he was setting up with a large capital
in a neighbouring town but the young man was half educated as regarded information and wholly uneducated as regarded any other responsibility than that of getting money and brutalised both as to his pleasures and his pains
mister thornton declined having any share in a partnership which would frustrate what few plans he had that survived the wreck of his fortunes he would sooner consent to be only a manager where he could have a certain degree of power beyond the mere money getting part
than have to fall in with the tyrannical humours of a moneyed partner with whom he felt sure that he should quarrel in a few months so he waited and stood on one side with profound humility as the news swept through the exchange
of the enormous fortune which his brother in law had made by his daring speculation it was a nine days wonder success brought with it its worldly consequence of extreme admiration
the fact is the disease came to us with a bad name for the french themselves deemed it incurable in this country the old fashioned plan of treatment was wont to be the usual rough remedies emetics purgatives
distemper has a certain course to run and in this disease nature seems to attempt the elimination of the poison through the secretions thrown out
our chief difficulty in the treatment of distemper lies in the complications thereof we may and often do have the organs of respiration attacked we have sometimes congestion of the liver
or whether the poison floats to the kennel on the wings of the wind or is carried there on a shoe or the point of a walking stick the following facts ought to be borne in mind one anything that debilitates the body or weakens the nervous system
paves the way for the distemper poison two the healthier the dog the more power does he possess to resist contagion three when the disease is epizootic it can often be kept at bay by proper attention to diet and exercise
frequent change of kennel straw and perfect cleanliness four the predisposing causes which have come more immediately under my notice are debility cold damp starvation filthy kennels
unwholesome food impure air and grief the age at which dogs take distemper they may take distemper at any age the most common time of life is from the fifth till the eleventh or twelfth month
symptoms there is first and foremost a period of latency or of incubation in which there is more or less of dullness and loss of appetite and this glides gradually into a state of feverishness
sometimes the bowels are at first constipated but they are more usually irregular sneezing will also be frequent and in some cases cough dry and husky at first the temperature should be taken
and if there is a rise of two or three degrees the case should be treated as distemper and not as a common cold at the commencement there is but little exudation from the eyes and nose but as the disease advances this symptom will become more marked
being clear at first so too will another symptom which is partially diagnostic of the malady namely increased heat of body combined with a rapid falling off in flesh sometimes indeed proceeding quickly on to positive emaciation
as the disease creeps downwards and inwards along the air passages the chest gets more and more affected the discharge of mucus and pus from the nostrils more abundant and the cough loses its dry character becoming moist
the discharge from the eyes is simply mucus and pus but if not constantly dried away will gum the inflamed lids together that from the nostrils is not only purulent but often mixed with dark blood the appetite is now clean gone
and there is often vomiting and occasional attacks of diarrhoea now in mild cases we may look for some abatement of the symptoms about the fourteenth day the fever gets less
if the liver becomes involved we shall very soon have the jaundiced eye and the yellow skin diarrhoea is another very common complication we have frequent purging and maybe sickness and vomiting
owing no doubt to degeneration of the nerve centres caused by blood poisoning there are many other complications and skin complaints are common after it treatment
we should not lose an hour if he be an indoor dog find him a good bed in a clean well ventilated apartment free from lumber and free from dirt if it be summer have all the windows out or opened if winter
a little fire will be necessary but have half the window opened at the same time only take precautions against his lying in a draught fresh air in cases of distemper and indeed in fevers of all kinds cannot be too highly extolled
the more rest the dog has the better he must be kept free from excitement
on the next day begin with a mixture such as the following solution of acetate of ammonia thirty drops to one hundred twenty sweet spirits of nitre fifteen drops to sixty salicylate of soda two grains to ten
ten drops to sixty sweet spirits of nitre ten drops to sixty in camphor water a few drops of dilute hydrochloric acid should be added to the dog's drink and two teaspoonfuls to a quart of water
of the chlorate of potash this makes an excellent fever drink especially if the dog can be got to take decoction of barley barley water instead of plain cold water best made of keen and robinson's patent barley
if there be persistent sickness and vomiting the medicine must be stopped for a time small boluses of ice frequently administered will do much good and doses of dilute prussic acid from one to four drops in a little water
will generally arrest the vomiting if constipation be present we must use no rough remedies to get rid of it a little raw meat cut into small pieces minced in fact or a small portion of raw liver may be given if there be little fever
if there be fever we are to trust for a time to injections of plain soap and water diarrhoea although often a troublesome symptom is it must be remembered a salutary one unless therefore it becomes excessive
do not interfere if it does give the simple chalk mixture three times a day but no longer than is needful the discharge from the mouth and nose is to be wiped away with a soft rag or better still some tow
which is afterwards to be burned wetted with a weak solution of carbolic the forehead eyes and nose may be fomented two or three times a day
it is not judicious to wet a long haired dog much but a short haired one may have the chest and throat well fomented several times a day and well rubbed dry afterwards
the following is an excellent tonic sulphate of quinine one eighth to three grains powdered rhubarb two to ten grains extract of taraxacum three to twenty grains
moderate exercise fresh air and protection from cold
the most prominent symptom perhaps is the frequent cough it is at first dry ringing and evidently painful in a few days however or sooner it softens and there is a discharge of frothy mucus with it
and in the latter stages of pus and ropy mucus treatment keep the patient in a comfortable well ventilated apartment with free access in and out if the weather be dry let the bowels be freely acted upon to begin with
but no weakening discharge from the bowels must be kept up after the bowels have been moved we should commence the exhibition of small doses of tartar emetic with squills and opium thrice a day if the cough is very troublesome
give this mixture tincture of squills five drops to thirty paregoric ten drops to sixty tartar emetic one sixteenth of a grain to one grain syrup and water a sufficiency thrice daily
we may give a full dose of opium every night in mild cases carbonate of ammonia may be tried it often does good the dose being from two grains to ten in camphor water or even plain water
a few drops to a teaspoonful of paregoric given at night will do good and the bowels should be kept regular and a simple laxative pill given now and then
to ten years it is often symptomatic of other ailments causes very numerous in weakly dogs exposure alone will produce it the weather too has no doubt much to do with the production of diarrhoea
in most kennels it is more common in the months of july and august although it often comes on in the very dead of winter puppies if overfed will often be seized with this troublesome complaint a healthy puppy hardly ever knows when it has had enough
and it will moreover stuff itself with all sorts of garbage acidity of the stomach follows with vomiting of the ingesta and diarrhoea succeeds brought on by the acrid condition of the chyme which finds its way into the duodenum
among other causes we find the eating of indigestible food drinking foul or tainted water too much green food raw paunches foul kennels and damp draughty kennels symptoms
the purging is of course the principal symptom and the stools are either quite liquid or semi fluid bilious looking dirty brown or clay coloured or mixed with slimy mucus in some cases they resemble dirty water
sometimes as already said a little blood will be found in the dejection owing to congestion of the mucous membrane from liver obstruction in case there be blood in the stools
a careful examination is always necessary in order to ascertain the real state of the patient blood it must be remembered might come from piles or polypi or it might be dysenteric and proceed from ulceration of the rectum and colon
in the simplest form of diarrhoea unless the disease continues for a long time there will not be much wasting and the appetite will generally remain good but capricious
in bilious diarrhoea with large brown fluid stools and complete loss of appetite there is much thirst and in a few days the dog gets rather thin although nothing like so rapidly as in the emaciation of distemper
which you can tell by the animal's countenance from five to twenty or thirty drops of laudanum or of the solution of the muriate of morphia this in itself will often suffice to cut short an attack the oil is preferable to rhubarb
but the latter may be tried the simple not the compound powder dose from ten grains to two drachms in bolus it the diarrhoea should continue next day proceed cautiously remember there is no great hurry
and a sudden check to diarrhoea is at times dangerous to administer dog doses of the aromatic chalk and opium powder or give the following medicine three times a day compound powdered catechu one grain to ten powdered chalk with opium
the fact that the usages actions and views of the well to do leisure class acquire the character of a prescriptive canon of conduct for the rest of society gives added weight and reach to the conservative influence of that class
there is a second way in which the influence of the leisure class acts in the same direction so far as concerns hindrance to the adoption of a conventional scheme of life
but it may as well be dealt with here since it has at least this much in common with the conservative habit of mind that it acts to retard innovation and the growth of social structure
so that any appreciable change in one point of the scheme involves something of a change or readjustment at other points also if not a reorganization all along the line when a change is made which immediately touches only a minor point in the scheme
when an attempted reform involves the suppression or thorough going remodelling of an institution of first rate importance in the conventional scheme it is immediately felt that a serious derangement of the entire scheme would result
it is felt that a readjustment of the structure to the new form taken on by one of its chief elements would be a painful and tedious if not a doubtful process in order to realize the difficulty
which such a radical change in any one feature of the conventional scheme of life would involve it is only necessary to suggest the suppression of the monogamic family or of the agnatic system of consanguinity or of private property
or of the theistic faith in any country of the western civilization or suppose the suppression of ancestor worship in china or of the caste system in india or of slavery in africa
or the establishment of equality of the sexes in mohammedan countries it needs no argument to show that the derangement of the general structure of conventionalities in any of these cases would be very considerable
in order to effect such an innovation
than the one immediately in question the aversion to any such innovation amounts to a shrinking from an essentially alien scheme of life the revulsion felt by good people at any proposed departure from the accepted methods of life
is a familiar fact of everyday experience it is not unusual to hear those persons who dispense salutary advice and admonition to the community express themselves forcibly upon the far reaching pernicious effects
which the community would suffer from such relatively slight changes as the disestablishment of the anglican church an increased facility of divorce adoption of female suffrage
prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages abolition or restriction of inheritances et cetera any one of these innovations would we are told shake the social structure to its base
but at the same time like all overstatement they are evidence of a lively sense of the gravity of the consequences which they are intended to describe the effect of these and like innovations in deranging the accepted scheme of life
are of minor importance a consequence of this increased reluctance due to the solidarity of human institutions is that any innovation calls for a greater expenditure of nervous energy
a more or less protracted and laborious effort to find and to keep one's bearings under the altered circumstances this process requires a certain expenditure of energy and so presumes for its successful accomplishment
no less effectually than by such a luxurious life as will shut out discontent by cutting off the occasion for it the abjectly poor and all those persons whose energies are entirely absorbed by the struggle for daily sustenance
from this proposition it follows that the institution of a leisure class acts to make the lower classes conservative by withdrawing from them as much as it may of the means of sustenance and so reducing their consumption
implies privation at the lower end of the scale it is a commonplace that wherever it occurs a considerable degree of privation among the body of the people is a serious obstacle to any innovation
the prevalence of conspicuous consumption as one of the main elements in the standard of decency among all classes is of course not traceable wholly to the example of the wealthy leisure class
but the practice and the insistence on it are no doubt strengthened by the example of the leisure class
is not infrequently diverted to the purpose of a conspicuous decency rather than to added physical comfort and fullness of life moreover such surplus energy as is available
is also likely to be expended in the acquisition of goods for conspicuous consumption or conspicuous boarding the result is that the requirements of pecuniary reputability tend one
to leave but a scanty subsistence minimum available for other than conspicuous consumption and two
the attitude of the class simply as influenced by its class interest should therefore be to let well enough alone this interested motive comes in to supplement the strong instinctive bias of the class
and so to render it even more consistently conservative than it otherwise would be all this of course has nothing to say in the way of eulogy or deprecation of the office of the leisure class as an exponent and vehicle of conservatism
or reversion in social structure the inhibition which it exercises may be salutary or the reverse wether it is the one or the other in any given case
there may be truth in the view as a question of policy so often expressed by the spokesmen of the conservative element that without some such substantial and consistent resistance to innovation as is offered by the conservative well to do classes
the only possible result of which would be discontent and disastrous reaction all this however is beside the present argument
consistently acts to retard that adjustment to the environment which is called social advance or development the characteristic attitude of the class may be summed up in the maxim
whereas the law of natural selection as applied to human institutions gives the axiom
but they are always and in the nature of things wrong to some extent they are the result of a more or less inadequate adjustment of the methods of living to a situation which prevailed at some point in the past development
they are applied simply from the morally colorless evolutionary standpoint
taking the latter word in the mechanical sense the latter class are not often recognized as institutions in great part because they do not immediately concern the ruling class and are therefore seldom the subject of legislation or of deliberate convention
these classes have little else than a business interest in things economic and on them at the same time it is chiefly incumbent to deliberate upon the community's affairs the relation of the leisure that is propertied non industrial
indirectly their economic office may of course be of the utmost importance to the economic life process
the purpose is simply to point out what is the nature of the relation of these classes to the industrial process and to economic institutions their office is of a parasitic character
of the ancient predatory culture but these pecuniary institutions do not entirely fit the situation of today for they have grown up under a past situation differing somewhat from the present even for effectiveness in the pecuniary way therefore
and the pecuniary classes have some interest in so adapting the pecuniary institutions as to give them the best effect for acquisition of private gain that is compatible with the continuance of the industrial process out of which this gain arises
is seen in those enactments and conventions that make for security of property enforcement of contracts facility of pecuniary transactions vested interests
of such bearing are changes affecting bankruptcy and receiverships limited liability banking and currency coalitions of laborers or employers trusts and pools the community's institutional furniture of this kind
is of immediate consequence only to the propertied classes and in proportion as they are propertied that is to say in proportion as they are to be ranked with the leisure class but indirectly these conventions of business life are of the gravest consequence
but also in shaping the industrial process proper the immediate end of this pecuniary institutional structure and of its amelioration is the greater facility of peaceable and orderly exploitation
but the resulting elimination of disturbances and complications calling for an exercise of astute discrimination in everyday affairs
and so they make also for the dispensability of the great leisure class function of ownership
make mention of a few of our laws which belong to purifications and the like sacred offices
these sacrifices were of two sorts of those sorts one was offered for private persons and the other for the people in general and they are done in two different ways in the one case what is slain is burnt
as a whole burnt offering whence that name is given to it but the other is a thank offering and is designed for feasting those that sacrifice
do indeed sacrifice the same creatures but such as are unblemished and above a year old however they may take either males or females they also sprinkle the altar with their blood
but they lay upon the altar the kidneys and the caul and all the fat and the lobe of the liver together with the rump of the lamb then giving the breast and the right shoulder to the priests the offerers feast upon the remainder of the flesh for two days
but we shall treat more accurately about the oblation of these creatures in our discourse concerning sacrifices but if a person fall into sin by ignorance he offers an ewe lamb or a female kid of the goats of the same age
but if any one sin and is conscious of it himself but hath nobody that can prove it upon him he offers a ram the law enjoining him so to do the flesh of which the priests eat as before in the holy place on the same day
that the finest flour be also brought for a lamb the measure of one tenth deal for a ram two and for a bull three this they consecrate upon the altar when it is mingled with oil
for oil is also brought by those that sacrifice for a bull the half of an hin and for a ram the third part of the same measure and one quarter of it for a lamb
or congiuses they bring the same quantity of oil which they do of wine and they pour the wine about the altar but if any one does not offer a complete sacrifice of animals but brings fine flour only for a vow
he throws a handful upon the altar as its first fruits while the priests take the rest for their food either boiled or mingled with oil but made into cakes of bread
of which it is not lawful to leave any part till the next day only the priests are to take their own share chapter ten concerning the festivals
a lamb of the first year be killed every day at the beginning and at the ending of the day but on the seventh day which is called the sabbath they kill two and sacrifice them in the same manner
which the macedonians call hyperberetaeus they make an addition to those already mentioned and sacrifice a bull a ram and seven lambs
they fast till the evening and this day they sacrifice a bull and two rams and seven lambs and a kid of the goats for sins and besides these they bring two kids of the goats
but the other is brought into a place of great cleanness within the limits of the camp and is there burnt with its skin without any sort of cleansing with this goat was burnt a bull not brought by the people but by the high priest
and about the golden altar he also at last brings it into the open court and sprinkles it about the great altar besides this they set the extremities and the kidneys and the fat with the lobe of the liver upon the altar
and fourteen lambs and fifteen rams with the addition of a kid of the goats as an expiation for sins and on the following days the same number of lambs and of rams with the kids of the goats
with a kid of the goats for an expiation of sins
and is the beginning of our year on the fourteenth day of the lunar month when the sun is in aries for in this month it was that we were delivered from bondage under the egyptians
the law ordained that we should every year slay that sacrifice which i before told you we slew when we came out of egypt and which was called the passover and so we do celebrate this passover in companies
leaving nothing of what we sacrifice till the day following the feast of unleavened bread succeeds that of the passover and falls on the fifteenth day of the month and continues seven days wherein they feed on unleavened bread
on every one of which days two bulls are killed and one ram and seven lambs now these lambs are entirely burnt
besides the kid of the goats which is added to all the rest for sins for it is intended as a feast for the priest on every one of those days but on the second day of unleavened bread
which is the sixteenth day of the month they first partake of the fruits of the earth for before that day they do not touch them and while they suppose it proper to honor god from whom they obtain this plentiful provision in the first place
they offer the first fruits of their barley and that in the manner following they take a handful of the ears and dry them then beat them small and purge the barley from the bran they then bring one tenth deal to the altar to god and
casting one handful of it upon the fire they leave the rest for the use of the priest and after this it is that they may publicly or privately reap their harvest they also at this participation of the first fruits of the earth sacrifice a lamb
which weeks contain forty and nine days on the fiftieth day which is pentecost but is called by the hebrews asartha which signifies pentecost they bring to god a loaf made of wheat flour
they offer burnt offerings they also allow themselves to rest on every one of them accordingly the law prescribes in them all what kinds they are to sacrifice and how they are to rest entirely
six on a heap one loaf still standing over against another where two golden cups full of frankincense were also set upon them and there they remained till another sabbath and then other loaves were brought in their stead
while the loaves were given to the priests for their food and the frankincense was burnt in that sacred fire wherein all their offerings were burnt also and so other frankincense was set upon the loaves instead of what was there before
the high priest also of his own charges offered a sacrifice and that twice every day it was made of flour mingled with oil and gently baked by the fire the quantity was one tenth deal of flour he brought the half of it to the fire in the morning
and the other half at night the account of these sacrifices i shall give more accurately hereafter but i think i have premised what for the present may be sufficient concerning them chapter eleven
and set them apart to be a holy tribe and purified them by water taken from perpetual springs and with such sacrifices as were usually offered to god on the like occasions
he delivered to them also the tabernacle and the sacred vessels and the other curtains which were made for covering the tabernacle that they might minister under the conduct of the priests
which matters when this work shall give me occasion shall be further explained
and that had a gonorrhea should not come into the city nay he removed the women when they had their natural purgations till the seventh day after which he looked on them as pure and permitted them to come in again
the one of which they are to purge by fire and for the other the priests take it for themselves in the same manner do those sacrifice who have had the gonorrhea but he that sheds his seed in his sleep
if he go down into cold water has the same privilege with those that have lawfully accompanied with their wives and for the lepers he suffered them not to come into the city at all nor to live with any others as if they were in effect dead persons
but if any one had obtained by prayer to god the recovery from that distemper and had gained a healthful complexion again
when he fled out of egypt and that he became the conductor of those who on that account left that country and led them into the land of canaan for had this been true moses would not have made these laws to his own dishonor
which indeed it was more likely he would have opposed if others had endeavored to introduce them and this the rather because there are lepers in many nations who yet are in honor
had been liable to such a misfortune in the color of his skin he might have made laws about them for their credit and advantage and have laid no manner of difficulty upon them accordingly
it is a plain case that it is out of violent prejudice only that they report these things about us but moses was pure from any such distemper and lived with countrymen who were pure of it also
moses forbade them to come into the temple or touch the sacrifices before forty days were over supposing it to be a boy
they kissed everyone the tutors and governesses made their bows and they went out only young nicholas and his tutor remained dessalles whispered to the boy to come downstairs
his face expressed entreaty agitation and ecstasy countess mary glanced at him and turned to pierre when you are here he can't tear himself away she said
i will bring him to you directly monsieur dessalles good night said pierre giving his hand to the swiss tutor and he turned to young nicholas with a smile you and i haven't seen anything of one another yet how like he is growing mary
he added addressing countess mary like my father asked the boy flushing crimson and looking up at pierre with bright ecstatic eyes pierre nodded and went on with what he had been saying when the children had interrupted
countess mary sat down doing woolwork natasha did not take her eyes off her husband nicholas and denisov rose asked for their pipes smoked went to fetch more tea from sonya
who sat weary but resolute at the samovar and questioned pierre the curly headed delicate boy sat with shining eyes unnoticed in a corner starting every now and then and muttering something to himself
and evidently experiencing a new and powerful emotion as he turned his curly head with his thin neck exposed by his turn down collar toward the place where pierre sat
the conversation turned on the contemporary gossip about those in power in which most people see the chief interest of home politics denisov dissatisfied with the government on account of his own disappointments in the service
and made forcible and sharp comments on what pierre told them one used to have to be a german now one must dance with tatawinova and madame kwudener
and the bwethwen oh they should let that fine fellow bonaparte loose he'd knock all this nonsense out of them fancy giving the command of the semenov wegiment to a fellow like that schwa'tz he cried
nicholas though free from denisov's readiness to find fault with everything also thought that discussion of the government was a very serious and weighty matter and the fact that a had been appointed minister of this
and b governor general of that and that the emperor had said so and so and this minister so and so
and so he thought it necessary to take an interest in these things and to question pierre the questions put by these two kept the conversation from changing its ordinary character of gossip about the higher government circles
but natasha knowing all her husband's ways and ideas saw that he had long been wishing but had been unable to divert the conversation to another channel and express his own deeply felt idea for the sake of which he had gone to petersburg
to consult with his new friend prince theodore and she helped him by asking how his affairs with prince theodore had gone what was it about asked nicholas always the same thing said pierre looking round at his listeners
everybody sees that things are going so badly that they cannot be allowed to go on so and that it is the duty of all decent men to counteract it as far as they can what can decent men do nicholas inquired frowning slightly
what can be done why this come into my study said nicholas natasha who had long expected to be fetched to nurse her baby now heard the nurse calling her and went to the nursery
countess mary followed her the men went into the study and little nicholas bolkonski followed them unnoticed by his uncle and sat down at the writing table in a shady corner by the window well what would you do asked denisov
always some fantastic schemes said nicholas why this began pierre not sitting down but pacing the room sometimes stopping short gesticulating and lisping the position in petersburg is this
pierre could not tolerate mysticism in anyone now
well everything is going to ruin robbery in the law courts in the army nothing but flogging drilling and military settlements the people are tortured enlightenment is suppressed all that is young and honest is crushed
everyone sees that this cannot go on everything is strained to such a degree that it will certainly break said pierre
i told them just one thing in petersburg told whom well you know whom said pierre with a meaning glance from under his brows prince theodore and all those to encourage culture and philanthropy is all very well of course
the aim is excellent but in the present circumstances something else is needed at that moment nicholas noticed the presence of his nephew his face darkened and he went up to the boy why are you here
why let him be said pierre taking nicholas by the arm and continuing that is not enough i told them something else is needed when you stand expecting the overstrained string to snap at any moment
when everyone is expecting the inevitable catastrophe as many as possible must join hands as closely as they can to withstand the general calamity everything that is young and strong is being enticed away and depraved
one is lured by women another by honors a third by ambition or money and they go over to that camp no independent men such as you or i are left what i say is widen the scope of our society
nicholas who had left his nephew irritably pushed up an armchair
but action with what aim he cried and what position will you adopt toward the government why the position of assistants the society need not be secret if the government allows it
a society of gentlemen in the full meaning of that word it is only to prevent some pugachev or other from killing my children and yours
we join hands only for the public welfare and the general safety yes but it's a secret society and therefore a hostile and harmful one which can only cause harm why did the tugendbund which saved europe
they did not then venture to suggest that russia had saved europe do any harm the tugendbund is an alliance of virtue it is love mutual help it is what christ preached on the cross
it was not what he was saying that pleased her that did not even interest her for it seemed to her that was all extremely simple and that she had known it a long time it seemed so to her because she knew that it sprang from pierre's whole soul
but it was his animated and enthusiastic appearance that made her glad the boy with the thin neck stretching out from the turn down collar whom everyone had forgotten gazed at pierre with even greater and more rapturous joy
every word of pierre's burned into his heart and with a nervous movement of his fingers he unconsciously broke the sealing wax and quill pens his hands came upon on his uncle's table it is not at all what you suppose
but that is what the german tugendbund was and what i am proposing no my fwiend
but i don't understand it and can't even pwonounce it interposed denisov in a loud and resolute voice i agwee that evewything here is wotten and howwible but the tugendbund i don't understand
pierre smiled natasha began to laugh but nicholas knitted his brows still more and began proving to pierre that there was no prospect of any great change and that all the danger he spoke of existed only in his imagination
pierre maintained the contrary and as his mental faculties were greater and more resourceful nicholas felt himself cornered this made him still angrier for he was fully convinced not by reasoning but by something within him stronger than reason
of the justice of his opinion i will tell you this he said rising and trying with nervously twitching fingers to prop up his pipe in a corner but finally abandoning the attempt i can't prove it to you you say that everything here is rotten
and that an overthrow is coming i don't see it but you also say that our oath of allegiance is a conditional matter and to that i reply you are my best friend as you know
be it what it may i know it is my duty to obey the government and if arakcheev ordered me to lead a squadron against you and cut you down i should not hesitate an instant but should do it and you may argue about that as you like
an awkward silence followed these words natasha was the first to speak defending her husband and attacking her brother her defense was weak and inapt but she attained her object the conversation was resumed
when they all got up to go in to supper little nicholas bolkonski went up to pierre pale and with shining radiant eyes uncle pierre you no if papa were alive would he agree with you he asked
and pierre suddenly realized what a special independent complex and powerful process of thought and feeling must have been going on in this boy during that conversation
he had however to give him an answer yes i think so he said reluctantly and left the study the lad looked down and seemed now for the first time to notice what he had done to the things on the table
he flushed and went up to nicholas uncle forgive me i did that unintentionally he said pointing to the broken sealing wax and pens nicholas started angrily all right all right he said throwing the bits under the table
and evidently suppressing his vexation with difficulty he turned away from the boy
chapter ten robert bruce if you ask a scot who is the greatest man that ever lived he will probably say robert bruce it does not matter that robert bruce died six hundred years ago
his name is as bright in scotland as though he had lived yesterday songs and stories are told about him there and every school boy hears of him as soon as he is old enough to listen to the tales of his country
the reason for this is that robert bruce made the scots free from the rule of england which country they used to hate also because he was a great warrior
when edward the first ruled over england he extended his power over the free land of scotland where the race and the speech were different from those of the english a dispute had arisen among the scottish chiefs
as to who was to succeed to the scottish throne many claimants came forward and as a result of this the chieftains were embroiled among themselves giving edward a chance to seize their country which he was not slow to take
so great had been the jealousy among the scots that many joined edward's army to fight against their fellow countrymen among them was a young nobleman named robert bruce
whose grandfather had himself been one of the claimants to the scottish throne it was not a noble deed on the part of robert bruce to serve under the english banner indeed in his younger years
he does not seem to have been a hero at all while the great scottish chief wallace was waging bitter war against king edward bruce was content to rest under edward's protection
even after wallace was captured and put to a cruel death in berwick castle where he was beheaded at edward's order
he did not do this all at once and in fact he acted treacherously both to the scots and to the english for he renounced his fealty to edward on two separate occasions and each time was won back to him and received gifts and forgiveness from him
from the english court and trust his fortunes to the scottish cause
that comyn must be slain he sent his two brothers as messengers to comyn asking this lord to accompany them to a church in dumfries where bruce was waiting for him at the altar
when comyn approached bruce told him that his treachery was discovered be assured you shall have your reward he cried loudly
was a crime that made the whole civilized world ring with horror and it blackened the name of robert bruce with a stain that has lasted to this day in spite of his great glory bruce however had been greatly provoked to this bloody deed
and was now to prove himself a true champion of the scottish people he sought safety in flight for a time and at last rallied the scots about him at lochmaven castle from which place he told them that he would make himself king over all scotland
and at scone he had placed on his head the scottish crown when king edward heard of what bruce had done how he had murdered comyn and been crowned king
he fell in such a rage that he could hardly speak for anger and swore a great oath that the rest of his life should be devoted to punishing bruce for his crimes a strong english army was promptly raised and sent against the new scottish king
the english soldiers under the earl of pembroke fell on the scots at night in the woods at a place called methven
and had taken off their armor as the english with shouts and battle cries attacked the unguarded scots bruce leaped to his horse and with his great two handed sword drove his enemies before him like chaff
but while the english recoiled before the blows of his powerful arm they succeeded in routing his followers
and he himself only escaped by killing with his own hand three men who laid hold of his equipment and were trying to drag him from his horse for the time being the scots were thoroughly defeated
and were obliged to take shelter wherever they could find it with his army scattered and only about five hundred followers remaining faithful to him bruce fled into the mountain forests of athole
his troubles had only begun for many fierce scottish noblemen themselves were his bitter enemies on account of wars between the different scottish clans
then began a period of wandering and suffering for bruce and his followers they made their way across the mountains to aberdeen where their wives joined them
where they were confronted in battle by a scottish chief called john of lorn bruce's men were in poor condition on account of the hardships they had undergone and were also outnumbered by their enemies the result of the battle
was a second defeat for bruce who now must hide more closely than ever as his enemies were hunting for him everywhere once more his wife had to part from him
for his state was now so dangerous and the hardships he endured so great that no woman could withstand them and the lords who remained in his company had likewise to say farewell to their wives and children
no spot in scotland was safe for them nowhere could bruce rest his head and be sure that his enemies would not attack him before morning english soldiers and scots who had become their allies were looking for him everywhere
moreover those scots who fell into the hands of the enemy could not hope for mercy if they were men of low degree and with no title of nobility they were hanged if they were of noble birth they suffered the more aristocratic fate of beheading
still further misfortunes were to follow bruce the pope could not forget his desecration of the church and passed on him what is known to all followers of the catholic faith as the sentence of excommunication this was a terrible punishment
and that power was absolute in those far days bruce could never be received in heaven or even have the privilege of repenting for his sins
he was cast out of the church into the outer darkness and the hands of every priest and of all righteous men were turned against him
where with a few followers he had a comparatively safe hiding place although the ships of king edward were hunting for him high and low
stronghold called kildrummy castle were captured by the english and kept in close confinement
in eluding vengeance but all the time he lay in concealment bruce considered how he could go back to scotland whose shores he could see from his hiding place and he and his followers were constantly making desperate plans to return
chief among them was one james douglas who was a brave and noble warrior second only to bruce himself in the strength of his arm and no way inferior to him in the quality of his courage
after many a talk with douglas and the rest of his followers as to what would be best for them in their extremity bruce decided to send a trusty messenger in a small boat to the scottish shore to learn if there was any discontent under the british rule
and if the time for a second uprising had not perhaps arrived for bruce knew he had many friends if he could only reach them and gather them to his side
the messenger who made this dangerous journey was to signal to bruce if it was safe for him to return by lighting a beacon fire on the headland that was most visible from the island of arran where bruce was then hiding
if bruce saw the fire on the following night he and his followers were to embark at once for scotland there they would be met by friends and their further course made clear to them how great was bruce's joy when the night fell
to see the beacon fire spring up on the distant headland with a high heart he and his followers embarked and pulled strongly at the oars they believed that scotland would be theirs again
but when bruce and his small band of followers arrived on the mainland they found the messenger awaiting them it seemed that some ill chance had befallen for the beacon had been kindled by accident and for some other purpose than to call bruce from his hiding place
so far from being prepared for his invasion scotland seemed more dangerous than ever for him
bruce learned also that the queen and her ladies whom he believed to be safe in kildrummy castle had fallen into english hands and were pent in dungeons like wild beasts discretion told the little band of adventurers to return to their island retreat
but after consulting together over their bitter fortunes they decided to make a bold stroke for success and die if it did not succeed an english garrison lay at turnberry castle not far off and had been divided in two parts
one being billeted in a nearby village while the other occupied the castle itself it was decided to attack the english soldiers who were in the village and not to leave a man of them alive silently bruce and his men stole up to the little town
as the frightened english came running half clad into the streets they were met by the swords and axes of the scots few escaped the grim vengeance of that attack and bruce retaliated heavily for the injuries the english had worked on his wife and his kinsmen in his absence
to escape the enemies who fell on his little band in far superior numbers and with better arms and equipment he was obliged to flee as swiftly as possible his enemies however had tracked bruce himself by a bloodhound
of this terrible animal which picked up his trail from among those of his followers at last with a few men he separated entirely from his soldiers telling them of a rendezvous where they were to meet him in case he should escape
and then had adventures which have become the subject of legends in his country at one time he was ambushed and attacked by three traitors of his own force who hoped to make their fortunes by bringing his head to the english
instead of this they dug their own graves for bruce slew all three with his own hand on another occasion he took refuge with a single companion in a deserted house where three more enemies endeavored to kill him as he slept
bruce had a companion at his side but both were worn out by the hardships they had undergone and were fast asleep as the ruffians with drawn swords and daggers stole upon them the good angel of scotland made one of them tread too heavily
all at once bruce awoke and leaped to his feet with his mighty two handed sword in his grasp his companion was slain but alone bruce struck down and killed the three murderers that had set upon him
we are told that on the day following his victory over the three would be assassins
and when he begged for food she replied that she would give it to him willingly for the sake of one wanderer that she loved and bruce inquired of her who that might be no other than king robert himself she responded
he is hunted now and without friends but the time will come when he shall rule all scotland know then woman said bruce overjoyed at this evidence of devotion that had followed him in his trouble
that i am he of whom you speak and have returned for no other purpose than to resume my crown and throne when the old woman recovered from her amazement she did him reverence as the rightful king of scotland
and called in her three strong sons to wait on him and join the ranks of his soldiers
and at loudon hill in may
had done everything in his power to make bruce come forth from his mountain retreat and do battle with the english for he believed that on open ground he could defeat the scots decisively and do away with the long chase of bruce that was wearying himself and his followers
so de valence sent bruce a letter in which he called him a base coward
bruce however had no intention of being defeated he arrived on the appointed spot several days before the english and studied his ground with the eye of a trained general he knew the route that must be taken by the english
and so arranged his forces that it would be impossible for his enemies to outflank him entrenching himself behind marshes and ditches that the english could not pass on the appointed day
he saw the gay banners and shining armor of his enemies they approached recklessly and hurled themselves against his line in a headlong charge but the scots held firm again and again the english sought to break the scottish ranks or to take them on the flank but to no avail
with a shout his men rushed forward and the english were routed victory had crowned the arms of a tattered and ragged band of outlaws who fought with english halters around their necks
then a terrible calamity befell the english and turned the scale still further
old king edward embittered because his cherished schemes regarding scotland had failed died
while edward had been the finest general of his time either in england or in europe the new king knew little of military art and was idle
he knew nothing of generalship and cared less
in the two years that followed king edward's death nearly the whole country of scotland rose against the english and threw off the foreign yoke acclaiming bruce as their rightful king
with varying success on either side in these raids sieges and forays one of bruce's followers particularly distinguished himself this was james douglas who had shared all his leader's hardships
while most of scotland was now under bruce's banner the english still held many important strongholds which were thorns in the side of bruce and his followers chief among these fortresses were those of stirling and berwick
realizing that the overthrow of these strong fortresses was necessary to the success of the scottish cause king robert in the autumn of thirteen thirteen sent his brother edward bruce to lay siege to stirling castle
so well did the scots succeed and so ruthlessly did they beset the strong walls of stirling that at last the english commander one sir philip mowbray agreed to surrender providing the besieged soldiers were not relieved by the english before the twenty fourth of june of the following year
to certain forms of warfare and certain conditions of fighting were still in operation but the english had no intention of allowing stirling castle to fall into the hands of the scots and before the stipulated date a strong army advanced into scotland
led by king edward the second in person it numbered we are told about one hundred thousand men while the total number that bruce was able to muster was thirty thousand
bruce sent out scouts to keep close watch of all the english movements and on the twenty second of june they brought him word that the english were advancing on stirling castle by way of a place called falkirk
this information enabled bruce to know exactly how his enemies must travel for to reach stirling after passing falkirk they would have to cross a stream called bannock burn and bruce was thoroughly acquainted with the country in the vicinity of this stream
when these pits were prepared they were covered up again with turf in such a way that they were practically invisible
bruce also took his position at a ford in the river knowing that his flanks would be protected by deep water and high banks so that the enemy could not get around him when his men had taken their positions he spoke to them
or die as they faced the foe if the men did not like his conditions he continued they were free to depart before the battle began but the scots stood firm
their confidence in their leader was so great that they had no doubt in their minds that victory would be theirs behind their rude fortifications with sharpened pikes and swords they awaited grimly the coming of edward's horsemen
the battle opened in a curious manner while sir thomas randolph one of bruce's kinsmen was fighting with a body of english cavalry that sought to outflank bruce and make its way to stirling castle
bruce himself engaged in single combat with an english knight named sir henry de bohun this knight had recognized bruce as the latter rode up and down in front of the line of scottish warriors and spurring his horse with lance in rest
he charged at the scotch king bruce was only mounted on a small pony while the englishman rode a heavy charger but when the knight was upon him bruce by a deft twist of the bridle avoided the deadly lance
and in another second had driven his battle axe through the skull of his enemy with so mighty a blow that the handle broke in his hand a great cheer rose from the scottish ranks as they beheld this deed and with the greatest bravery they routed the english as they charged
the english had not reckoned on such stubborn resistance from a force far inferior to their own both in size and equipment and as the day was waning they withdrew in good order planning to hold a council of war and gain the battle on the following day
early in the morning the scots were in position and with a great rush of horses and men the english surged upon them it was to no avail
at last the english lines wavered and with a deafening cheer the scots rushed upon them pell mell the english retreated and the battle was won
the victory that bruce won at the battle of bannockburn changed the entire course of english history instead of being a hunted fugitive he was now acknowledged as king and openly received the fealty of his subjects
the english strongholds in scotland were overthrown and scotland became a kingdom in fact as well as in name moreover bruce's wife and daughter who had been imprisoned in england were set at liberty
fighting was not yet over however and border warfare for a time continued with varying success on either side edward bruce the brother of king robert was killed when fighting in ireland
but the great king was not to enjoy for long the fruits of his victory his hardships in the wilderness when flying from his enemies and his great suffering and lack of food when he fled in the scotch heather like a hunted animal
had made him fall prey to a terrible malady the disease of leprosy
surrounded by friends bruce gradually wasted away and died in thirteen twenty nine his noble follower douglas who had won the name from the english of the black douglas
how great the scots are as soldiers has been shown in the recent war where they rendered the most distinguished service for great britain fighting under the british flag their former quarrels with england reconciled if not forgotten
but of all none was more glorious than robert bruce
we afterward passed prince edward's island leaving it also on our left then steering more to the northward made in fifteen days the islands of tristan d'acunha in latitude
the three islands together form a triangle and are distant from each other about ten miles
the land in all of them is very high especially in tristan d'acunha properly so called this is the largest of the group being fifteen miles in circumference
and so elevated that it can be seen in clear weather at the distance of eighty or ninety miles a part of the land toward the north rises more than a thousand feet perpendicularly from the sea a tableland at this height extends back nearly to the centre of the island
and from this tableland arises a lofty cone like that of teneriffe the lower half of this cone is clothed with trees of good size but the upper region is barren rock usually hidden among the clouds and covered with snow during the greater part of the year
there are no shoals or other dangers about the island the shores being remarkably bold and the water deep on the northwestern coast is a bay with a beach of black sand where a landing with boats can be easily effected provided there be a southerly wind
plenty of excellent water may here be readily procured also cod and other fish may be taken with hook and line the next island in point of size and the most westwardly of the group is that called the inaccessible
it is seven or eight miles in circumference and on all sides presents a forbidding and precipitous aspect its top is perfectly flat and the whole region is sterile nothing growing upon it except a few stunted shrubs nightingale island the smallest and most southerly
a few also of a similar appearance are seen to the northeast the ground is irregular and sterile and a deep valley partially separates it the shores of these islands abound in the proper season with sea lions sea elephants the hair and fur seal
together with a great variety of oceanic birds whales are also plenty in their vicinity owing to the ease with which these various animals were here formerly taken the group has been much visited since its discovery
the dutch and french frequented it at a very early period in seventeen ninety captain patten of the ship industry of philadelphia made tristan d'acunha where he remained seven months from august seventeen ninety to april seventeen ninety one
for the purpose of collecting sealskins in this time he gathered no less than five thousand six hundred
upon his arrival he found no quadrupeds with the exception of a few wild goats the island now abounds with all our most valuable domestic animals which have been introduced by subsequent navigators
i believe it was not long after captain patten's visit
touched at the largest of the islands for the purpose of refreshment he planted onions potatoes cabbages and a great many other vegetables
in eighteen eleven a captain haywood in the nereus visited tristan he found there three americans who were residing upon the island to prepare sealskins and oil one of these men was named jonathan lambert
and he called himself the sovereign of the country he had cleared and cultivated about sixty acres of land and turned his attention to raising the coffee plant and sugar cane with which he had been furnished by the american minister at rio janeiro
this settlement however was finally abandoned and in eighteen seventeen the islands were taken possession of by the british government who sent a detachment for that purpose from the cape of good hope they did not however retain them long
but upon the evacuation of the country as a british possession two or three english families took up their residence there independently of the government on the twenty fifth of march eighteen twenty four the berwick captain jeffrey from london to van diemen's land
arrived at the place where they found an englishman of the name of glass formerly a corporal in the british artillery he claimed to be supreme governor of the islands and had under his control twenty one men and three women
he gave a very favourable account of the salubrity of the climate and of the productiveness of the soil the population occupied themselves chiefly in collecting sealskins and sea elephant oil with which they traded to the cape of good hope glass owning a small schooner
at the period of our arrival the governor was still a resident but his little community had multiplied there being fifty six persons upon tristan besides a smaller settlement of seven on nightingale island we had no difficulty in procuring almost every kind of refreshment which we required
sheep hogs bullocks rabbits poultry goats fish in great variety and vegetables were abundant having come to anchor close in with the large island in eighteen fathoms we took all we wanted on board very conveniently
during which the prevailing winds were from the northward and westward and the weather somewhat hazy on the fifth of november we made sail to the southward and westward with the intention of having a thorough search for a group of islands called the auroras
respecting whose existence a great diversity of opinion has existed
by the commander of the ship aurora in seventeen ninety captain manuel de oyarvido in the ship princess belonging to the royal philippine company sailed as he asserts directly among them in seventeen ninety four
the spanish corvette atrevida went with the determination of ascertaining their precise situation and in a paper published by the royal hydrographical society of madrid in the year eighteen o nine the following language is used respecting this expedition
the corvette atrevida practised in their immediate vicinity from the twenty first to the twenty seventh of january all the necessary observations and measured by chronometers the difference of longitude between these islands and the port of soledad in the manillas
the islands are three
they are very nearly in the same meridian the centre one is rather low and the other two may be seen at nine leagues distance
longitude forty seven degrees
on the twenty seventh of january eighteen twenty captain james weddel of the british navy sailed from staten land also in search of the auroras
he reports that having made the most diligent search and passed not only immediately over the spots indicated by the commander of the atrevida but in every direction throughout the vicinity of these spots he could discover no indication of land
these conflicting statements have induced other navigators to look out for the islands and strange to say while some have sailed through every inch of sea where they are supposed to lie without finding them there have been not a few who declare positively that they have seen them
and even been close in with their shores it was captain guy's intention to make every exertion within his power to settle the question so oddly in dispute
when we found ourselves on the debated ground
that is to say very nearly upon the spot indicated as the situation of the most southern of the group not perceiving any sign of land we continued to the westward of the parallel of fifty three degrees south
as far as the meridian of fifty degrees west we then stood to the north as far as the parallel of fifty two degrees south when we turned to the eastward and kept our parallel by double altitudes morning and evening and meridian altitudes of the planets and moon
having thus gone eastwardly to the meridian of the western coast of georgia we kept that meridian until we were in the latitude from which we set out we then took diagonal courses throughout the entire extent of sea circumscribed
during which the weather was remarkably pleasant and fair with no haze whatsoever of course we were thoroughly satisfied that whatever islands might have existed in this vicinity at any former period no vestige of them remained at the present day
with all the pomp of wealth sir simon had never been popular and had been known widely as a hard gripping man yet his tragic fate and a certain pity therefore had drawn together a large concourse of people
distant relatives who hoped to be mentioned in the will were present clothed in deepest black although they cared very little for the dead julius who already regarded himself as in possession of gore hall was there with a long face and a satisfied heart
he was glad that he had inherited the wealth after which he had long hungered and gladder still that his rival bernard was dead with a stain on his name in fancied security he moved along
not knowing what retribution was in store for him even the pitying angels must have laughed at his complacency durham as the solicitor and executor of the dead man was present and directed operations conniston
had gone to cove castle to see bernard and hear his story and durham smiled as his eyes rested on the smug face of the presumed heir there was no love lost between the two men and julius privately determined that
and smiled ironically as he thought how this spite would be frustrated from far and near people were gathered for the murder had made a great stir everyone united in condemning bernard and not one person in the throng thought him innocent
lucy was weeping alone at the hall with missus gilroy offering her such cold comfort as she could think of for the girl was truly sorry for her cousin although she believed him to be guilty
he reprovingly advised her to keep her tears for sir simon
but lucy in spite of beryl's evil influence which had rather warped her better nature persisted in weeping for the miserable cousin who had so suddenly been cut off in the midst of his wickedness at least that in the face of circumstances
was the view she took of the matter and alice remained at the bower talking over the death with miss plantagenet her joy when the old lady returned with the good news that bernard was yet alive had been painful to witness
she wished to go at once to cove castle but this miss berengaria by durham's advice would not permit suspicion might be excited
as that would seem a natural thing for him to do the merest suspicion that bernard was alive and in hiding would set the bloodhounds of the law on the trail and beryl would be the first to loosen them therefore alice waited at home with miss berengaria
until the funeral was over then they intended to go to the hall to hear the will read miss berengaria had some idea of the punishment that awaited julius and would not have been absent for half of her income
she detested the young man with all the virulence of her honest nature and she insisted on alice coming also although the girl was unwilling this again was by durham's advice he wanted both ladies to understand exactly how matters stood
it would save him the trouble of an explanation and then since he and the two ladies and conniston were bent upon proving bernard's innocence durham wanted all who could be spared which did not include conniston to be present so as to daunt bernard's enemies
should julius lose his temper over the will it was probable that he might say something likely to afford a clue to the true assassin and then missus gilroy was an enemy also and she might be unguarded in her speech
durham had a vague idea that both knew more than they admitted as to lucy it was impossible to say whether she was friendly or hostile sir simon's body was duly interred and he left all his wealth behind him to take up his abode in the dark vault
made haste to go julius with durham returned in the carriage
flocking like vultures to the feast
he asked no said beryl raising his pale eyes and looking as sad as any owl i fear he is dead in his sin you can't be sure if he did sin mister beryl the jury thought so
a jury is not always infallible i think the case had a fair hearing mister durham so far as i am concerned i should have been pleased had the verdict been otherwise
but since he is dead let his evil rest with him you will not hear me say a word against his memory added the virtuous julius perhaps it will be as well replied durham dryly you never were a friend of bernard's
all the more praise to me that i should not run him down tell me beryl do you really believe he committed the crime i answered that indirectly before yes i believe he was guilty
then it is just as well he is dead just as well asserted beryl quickly
julius started what makes you think so he demanded uneasily well you see bernard was a good swimmer and the best swimmer in the world could do nothing against the current of the thames on a foggy night
on a fine day i dare say he might have gained the opposite bank but in the fog he must have circled round and round until he was exhausted yet his clothes were discovered on the bank persisted durham
i wonder if i offered a reward would anything be discovered his corpse might said beryl unpleasantly but no reward shall be offered better let sleeping dogs lie
but surely mister beryl if you inherit the property you will seek for the poor fellow's dead body no replied julius decisively
all the better for his memory and the position of the family i shall offer no reward durham seeing the young man was absolutely certain of his inheritance and that he was prepared to act in a most niggardly spirit
looked out of the window to hide a smile poor sir bernard he said sir bernard questioned the supposed heir raising his eyebrows certainly
on the death of sir simon bernard took the title he hasn't enjoyed it long said beryl with so villainous a sneer that the lawyer longed to pitch him out of the carriage and seeing he is dead i suppose the title becomes extinct
it does assented durham gravely bernard was the only heir in the direct line julius shrugged his shoulders well i'll be quite content with the money said he
here we are said durham as the carriage stopped by the way miss plantagenet and miss malleson have come to hear the will read i hope you don't object yes i do retorted beryl angrily as he alighted
but remember miss malleson has lost bernard all the better for her she would have had a miserable life with that fellow durham suppressed a violent inclination to punch the man's head
but knowing what punishment awaited him he walked up the steps with a contemptuous smile here was a change indeed from the meek julius of the old days this presumed heir was obnoxious and insolent
thinking he was absolutely certain of entering into his kingdom the lawyer was by no means a vindictive person
however when julius reached the drawing room in which those invited to hear the will read were assembled he adopted a more conciliatory manner several relatives were present and missus gilroy headed the servants at the end of the room
miss berengaria sat beside alice in a recess somewhat screened by the window curtain but lucy was nowhere to be seen however when durham took his seat at a small table and opened his bag she entered in deep mourning
julius went to meet her dear lucy he said we have buried our best friend lucy made no reply and drawing her hand away walked to where alice was seated
she kissed the girl whom bernard had loved in silence and in silence was the kiss returned even miss berengaria voluble as she was on all occasions held her peace
she saw that lucy was sincerely sorry for the loss of her cousin and from that moment she entertained a better opinion of her alice drew lucy into a seat beside her and the two girls sat side by side while julius
already assuming the airs of a master bade the company welcome i am glad to see you all he said in an important voice and i am sure that our deceased relative in his will has done all that his kind heart inspired him to do
mister durham will now read the will when he sat down some of the relatives smiled at the phrase about a kind heart for which the late baronet had been in no wise remarkable
durham took no notice of beryl's little speech but opened the will and began to read julius listened with a complacent smile which changed as the reading went on legacies were left to nearly all the servants who had been with the testator a long time
lucy became entitled to three hundred a year and missus gilroy received one hundred the sum allotted to her did not satisfy her as she frowned when it was mentioned beryl's name was not mentioned
but he did not mind as he was waiting for the disposal of the residue of the estate but when durham read out that the estate had been left entirely to bernard gore with the exceptions of the above named legacies he started to his feet
and with a ghastly white face i am the heir by a former will interposed durham or rather i should say by a will which sir simon afterwards destroyed
he disinherited bernard cried julius savagely no the will this will which gives mister gore the money was never cancelled
a new will was prepared leaving all to me you read it to me yourself in your office and in the presence of sir simon quite so rejoined the lawyer smoothly folding up the parchment
but after you left sir simon refusing to execute that will put it into the fire it is a lie it is the truth said durham his color rising
i can bring forward my clerks who were to witness the new will and they will state that it was never executed sir simon changed his mind the estate goes to sir bernard gore the new baronet
and as the executor of the will i will take charge of all monies and of the property until he comes forward to claim them but you know he is dead said julius clenching his hand
i know nothing of the sort he is supposed to be dead but we must have proof of the death a production of his body will be sufficient mister beryl added durham cynically
i think on your own account you had better offer that reward i spoke of you have been playing the fool with me said julius hardly able to speak for passion no i advised you what to do
one moment said a precise man who had not been mentioned in the will if young gore really is dead which i for one hope is not the case who inherits the money
said durham which i had intended to read when interrupted by mister beryl he re opened the parchment in it sir simon leaves the property to charity with the exception of any legacies this in the event of bernard gore making no will
but the property has been left unreservedly to him and should he be alive he has the power to will it to whomsoever he wishes and if he is dead the property goes to a charity yes
i will read the codicil and this durham did to the dismay of the company only miss berengaria chuckled she was delighted to see that beryl had been punished
as for alice remembering that bernard was alive and well she found it hard to contain her satisfaction that he had been fairly dealt with even the thought of the crime under the ban of which he lay faded for the moment from her mind
julius with a certain malignancy brought it back to her recollection
he cannot inherit as a felon said he pardon me interposed the lawyer you have yet to prove his guilt it was proved at the inquest
a jury at an inquest has not the right to condemn a man said durham sharply if sir bernard julius winced at the title is alive and comes forward i shall do my best to prove his innocence
and in any case said miss berengaria in clear tones mister beryl does not benefit julius turned on her with fury and seemed on the point of breaking out into wrathful speech
but his habitual dissimulation came to his aid and he suppressed himself more than that he attempted to smile i don't say that i do not feel hurt he said with a desperate attempt at cheerfulness
sir simon distinctly named me as his heir and moreover asked mister durham to read the new will in which i was named as such perfectly true said durham coldly
but sir simon changed his mind and burnt the new will it was never executed as i say sir simon had every right to do what he liked with his own
said the diplomatic beryl while miss berengaria wondering what was in his mind watched him with her keen eyes but as i say i am hurt i quite understood that sir simon had disinherited my cousin
but i was prepared to allow him an income had i received the property two hundred a year said the lawyer a munificent offer it was approved by sir simon said julius calmly
however it appears that sir simon rescinded the new will it was never executed then we will say he never executed it the money goes to bernard gore so far as i believe he is dead
but i hope mister durham as the executor of the estate will offer a reward to prove if he is dead or alive with regard to the commission of the crime the jury at the inquest found bernard guilty without one dissenting voice
however i am willing to give my cousin the benefit of the doubt and should he reappear and i hope he may i shall do my best to aid him to prove his innocence
i hope any words that may have escaped me in the heat caused by a disappointment will be overlooked whether any of those present believed this statement it is impossible to say everyone looked down and no response was made
save by miss plantagenet she rose and walking across the room offered her hand to the disappointed heir you are a good young man she said heartily and i hope you will come and see me
julius rather taken aback by this invitation from one whom he had cause to think loved him but little grasped her hand and thanked her with great fervency her speech was a relief to him
and he sat down with a calmer face when the old lady returned to her seat why did you do that aunt asked alice dismayed my dear whispered miss berengaria with a grim smile that young man
means mischief i am taking mister durham's advice and making friends with him that i may thwart his plans this was whispered so softly that lucy did not overhear
nor had it been spoken aloud would she have attended durham had come forward and was speaking earnestly to her i trust you will stop at the hall for the present he said until bernard comes home will bernard ever come home
asked lucy sighing let us hope so i doubt if he is dead and i will not believe he is until his body is laid before me as to the crime i do not believe he committed it however
i want you to stay here as the chatelaine of the hall all things will go on as before am i to stay sir asked missus gilroy coming forward yes nor will the servants be changed
but you i will stop on in my old position if miss randolph wishes lucy nodded yes let all things remain as they were she said missus gilroy made a stiff curtsey
and returned to the other servants who then filed in an orderly manner out of the room the relatives also took their leave amongst them julius now smiling at the door lucy said something to him about bernard
he smiled darkly we have yet to prove that bernard is alive he said danger thought miss berengaria
something about explosive balloons and the wonders of hydrogen one day the professor told me about some rainfall experiments
there was a theory
and some gentlemen in the department of agriculture were anxious to set off as loud an explosion as possible say a thousand feet up in the air professor myers received this commission
no said myers i should call it rather large
well said the professor i can see his eyes twinkling
they took the balloon some miles out of washington the professor insisted on this
and sent it up about a quarter of a mile with an anchor rope holding it and a wire hanging down to a little hand dynamo or blasting machine as they made ready to turn this dynamo professor myers lay flat on his back
eyes glued to the balloon confident but curious the handle turned a spark jumped at the other end and the ball of silk
on this came the sound
louder than any thunder crash or roar of cannon it flattened men to the ground
killed hundreds of little fish in a stream near by bursting their air bladders knocked over a bowling alley like a house of cards frightened cattle and brought down rain in torrents within eight minutes the agricultural gentlemen were more than satisfied
and adopted the professor's system for extended rainfall experiments only these for obvious reasons were removed to the lonely and arid plains of distant texas it wasn't much fun living down there said the professor
but we got rain whenever we wanted it what would happen i inquired if a very large balloon filled with this explosive mixture were set off over a crowded city the professor shook his head
it would work fearful destruction if large enough and there is no difficulty in obtaining such a size
and the people in them it would destroy an army in the course of our talks i discovered a mystic side very unexpected in the professor's nature he used to speak of hydrogen for instance
and i see nothing i hear nothing i smell nothing none of my senses answer any call yet somehow strangely in a way i can't explain i perceive a presence
it would not be at all the same to me were the balloon filled with air though it would be the same to all my senses again and again i have noted this thing that hydrogen makes itself known to men when they are near it
i made no remark but begged him to go on
that are very amazing it is the lightest of all things it passes through and beyond all things
nothing who can say that it is not related to the land of nothing to he hesitated you mean
don't know what i mean i only wonder
in vain i tried to get them free by poking at them with sticks and long handled things
there was nothing for it but to get inside that great gas bag and undo the tangle with my hands so i called fifteen or twenty men
minute i interrupted were you standing inside the balloon so that you had to breathe hydrogen the professor smiled i stood inside the balloon but i breathed nothing
you see i knew i could hold my breath one hundred and twenty seconds but no longer well we carried out the plan and i freed the cords in less than my limit of time
it is true i had at various times taken hydrogen into my lungs but never had i tried to speak in hydrogen now was my chance
i shouted as loud as i could inside that balloon think of it
and the men a few feet distant with only the
and a gas that was like nothing
to those outside the balloon it was as if i had not opened my lips they heard nothing not even a whisper
i believe you might fire a cannon inside a bag of hydrogen and no faintest rustle of the discharge would reach your ears so you see a world of hydrogen would be a voiceless world
yes i have breathed it up to the danger point i know all the sensations there is first a mild exhilaration then a sense of sickening and head throbbing
in making ascensions we have to be very careful not to breathe too much gas from the balloon neck which hangs open over the basket more than one aeronaut has been gradually overcome without realizing that he was in danger
the professor went on to tell of other singular things about this subtle gas notably that speaking within limits the higher you want a balloon to rise the less
if you fill a balloon full of hydrogen it will rise to no great height and is very apt to burst since the gas has no space to expand in
and more as it goes up each foot of added volume displacing a foot of the air ocean
general hazen and i said the professor once planned that some day when we got an appropriation we would go up in a balloon having a capacity of say forty thousand cubic feet
but carrying at the ground only ten thousand cubic feet of hydrogen in other words in a shrunken quarter filled balloon
of course as we rose and the air became rarefied this hydrogen would expand against the decreasing air pressure and at a height of two miles our original ten thousand feet of gas might have swelled to twenty thousand feet at five miles to thirty thousand feet
but certainly we calculated to the greatest height ever reached by a balloonist he explained that the balloon record of seven miles claimed for glaischer and coxwell the english aeronauts is not reliable since the barometer used in that famous ascension
in eighteen sixty two could not register above five miles and what was accomplished beyond that height
instead of nearly empty oh exclaimed the professor with regretful look
for all other rapids of the route the gallop rapids the split rock rapids the cascades and the rest there are pilots in plenty but not for those of lachine and to use the same simile again
i saw that the shooting of these lachine rapids is like the taming of a particularly fierce lion it is a business by itself that few men care to undertake so it came that i sought out one of these few
this unsought notoriety has made him shy he does not like to talk about his work or tell you how it feels to do this thing
yet certain facts he vouchsafed when i went to his home that help one to an understanding of the pilot's life he emphasized this for instance as essential in a man who would face that fury of waters he must not be afraid
betray him the rapids will have no mercy
if left alone every danger they can overcome but the one that lies in themselves they cannot brave their own fear
and always he postponed beginning and with one excuse or another took his boats through the lachine canal a safe but tame short cut not likely to draw tourists
now nevair he can learn heem right why how should he have started him i asked
and then in his jerky canadian speech he explained how this was
and it was hip bas hip bas
but his father would look at him and say do you know the river my son are you sure you know the river and fred would answer father i think i do
so it went on from year to year and ouillette was almost despairing of a chance to show himself worthy of his father's teaching when suddenly the chance came in a way never to be forgotten
besides that on this particular day they were carrying a heavy load and the wind was southeast blowing hard the very wind to make trouble at the bad places
my son do you know the river and fred answered as usual without any thought of what was coming next father i think i do
then take her through said the old man stepping back there is the wheel my fadder
at the wheel he stood and with a touch of his father's hand now and then to help him he brought the boat down safely
his idea was that could he once make his son face the worst of this business and come out unharmed then never would the boy know fear again for all the rest would be easier than what he had already done
have you lost any lives i asked reaching out for thrilling stories nevair said he ever come near it
and once the starboard rudder chain broke this last was all but a disaster for they were down so far that the river must surely have conquered the engines had they tried to head up stream
and putting the wheel hard aport for the port chain held he ran her on the rocks
made it quite clear what they were good for put off swiftly in their little barks straight into that reeling flood straight out to the helpless boat then back to shore each bearing two or three of the fear struck company
think of that hour after hour with paddles alone these dauntless sons of iroquois braves fought the rapids triumphed over the rapids and brought to land through the night and the rage of waters
at this very place where now they were about to overtake him
the surest time of year to find the pilots at home is the winter season for then with navigation frozen up they have weeks to spend drifting along in the sleepy village life waiting for the spring
only alas the hearth is a commonplace shiny stove more often than not
we may hear big baptiste
set in dignity and feathers
this is a time honored custom
he will give us the story too amid nods of approval
there sir is the paddle he used if you doubt the tale and the canoe lies out in the snow
and be sure we shall not have been long in caughnawaga without hearing of the proud part these indians took in the british expedition up the nile in eighteen eighty four to relieve khartum
they have on many occasions shown not only great skill but also great courage in navigating their boats through difficult and dangerous waters how many men did caughnawaga send on this expedition i inquired
fifty five men besides louis jackson said one of the indians oh said i and and who is louis jackson the indian's face showed plain disgust that there should be any one who did not know all about louis jackson louis jackson was the leader he is our chief man he lives over there
but we've got rapids all around here just plain every day rapids that will make their cataracts look sick of course we did it
where was our army back in alexandria sir and it makes a man sad to know that those boys in khartum were dying just then
think of it the relief party reached khartum about february first eighteen eighty five too late by less than a week khartum had fallen khartum sore stricken lay in fresh smoking ruins and when at last british gunboats firing as they came
general gordon was dead cut down ruthlessly by the arabs a few days before
it would be interesting indeed if we might hear the whole story of these months spent in fighting a river in battling with cataract after cataract in rowing and steering and sailing and hauling a fleet of boats and supplies for an army up up
up into unknown rapids through a burning desert such a long long way it would be an inspiration could we know in detail what these pilots did and suffered what perils they defied and how some of them perished in short
what problems of the river they went at and how they fared in solving them that would make a book by itself a few things we may know however this for instance that while the maps put down six cataracts in the nile between cairo and khartum
say fifteen hundred miles there are in truth many more than six between the second and third alone there are more than six and some of them bad
and the difficult thing was to reach the third cataract and upon this all the skill of the voyageurs was concentrated the first cataract about five hundred miles above cairo is fairly easy of ascent the second cataract some two hundred and fifty miles farther on
or in case of need give one swift severing hatchet stroke on the hauling rope
the black men harnessed on and the risk of a new channel encountered as before thus days or weeks would pass in getting the whale boats up a single cataract
and sometimes they would face the still more formidable task of dragging a whole steamboat up the rapids with troops aboard and stores to last for weeks then how the hauling men would swarm at the lines
until knees and shoulders scraped the ground
at least it seemed a miracle the day they started the big side wheeler nassif kheir up the second cataract with five hawsers on her
as he had steered other boats down other rapids on the old saint lawrence
at this they all laughed meekly i sat down as was befitting and listened to the talk they conversed in bad french or worse english
scotchmen who had never seen scotland and never would douglasses and browns
but could take a liner to the gulf day or night through the reefs of crane island past the menacing twin pilgrims by windings and dangers safe down to sea i asked the man what they were going to orleans island for
and he explained that they lived there through the winter months they and other pilots many others it was a pilot colony set out in midstream
sometimes they didn't come ashore for weeks it was not exactly fun fighting those ice floes and they all laughed again well not exactly meantime several jolly little cutters no higher than cradles
had jingled up with more men in furs and one woman also boxes and bundles pilots i asked the man nodded and the woman dees lady pilot's wife she been seek and he went on in a jargon that is charming but
not for imitation to explain that they would lay the sick lady in the bottom of the boat and pile coats over her and around her
from the way he spoke one would fancy they were about to start for the north pole but i presently understood that this two mile ice journey over the crackling saint lawrence
is about as hard a test of men's endurance as any arctic performance they were all gathered now save one whose cutter tarried still
he was a good pilot but overfond of the convivial glass and was no doubt this very moment in some uproarious company forgetful that the start was to be sharp on the hour well they would give him ten minutes more
a pilot in coon skins was sure it would come they would put on one of these new fangled ice crunching steamers to keep the main channel open
a pilot sir must have a certain time to smoke his pipe then one man told what the ice did to a sailing vessel he was taking down the river late one season he hoped never to take another down so late
he had got out of his course one night in the dangerous ways off crane island and finally dropped anchor to hold her against the crush of ice
so there they go through the ice choked river
shoulders heaving off for home
then all climb out and with dragging and pushing get ahead for a hundred feet or so see now they stop and swing their arms already the pitiless wind is biting through their furs and think of that poor woman
the stern man standing behind on the ice to push off and then with nicely judged effort spring aboard as he gives the last impulse that shoots her into the river
yes for there is this odd thing about the saint lawrence even at quebec that its current streams up and down up and down as the tide changes for seven hours the river conquers the tide and the water runs down to sea
then for five hours the tide conquers the river and the water runs up from the sea so now after all their toiling they are actually further from home than when they started
in college i was the illustrious lazy in my professional studies and avocations i have been so hard driven in order to make up for four idle years
that i am wasted almost to a shadow and fears are entertained that i shall wholly vanish into thin air my physician talks gravely about my having exhausted my nervous energy and sends me to ratborough
as the place of all others the most favorable for entire intellectual repose i am living with an old aunt tabitha flint who was wont to rock me
and trot me and wash my face in my helpless infancy
i beg you to believe is not wholly without claim to a glance of approbation now and then from a lady's eye you must not suppose i care at all about the matter but as i have not even a book
what can such a
she vanishes several hours at a time and i hear her humming to herself sometimes in one room sometimes in another
i could stamp i am so impatient of doing nothing but lounge about i am as snappish as a chained cur as cross as a caged bear and while i gnaw my nails and stretch and yawn
or about rooms which i do not frequent
there is a piano but as silent as she is i do not see her wince though i drum upon the keys with most ingenious discords and sing false on purpose as loud as i can bellow
who is looked for daily by stage coach flory says my aunt sings like a canary bird and plays a sight and at sight too it seems
this miss flora will be found to possess a tongue i hope and the disposition to give it exercise
by the way what is her real name i won't condescend to ask any question about her but really i wish i knew whether it is mehitable
i shall call her little ugly hark i have two or three times heard a very musical laugh in the direction of the kitchen heigh
and see who this very merry personage may be i will inquire into this gay outbreak in a land of stupidity hark again how refreshing i must and will know what caused such a gush of mirth irish humor perhaps
for norah is laughing after her guttural fashion too as i popped my head into the kitchen
i could not make norah tell me what miss etty put under her arm as she looked over her shoulder at me and darted out of sight o my noisy boots i might as well wear a bell round my neck stage wheels are rattling up the road
now they run upon the grass before the door i rush in undignified haste to the window shall i will i go and help this long expected miss flora to alight no
for i see forty boxes on the coach top a very handsome girl really
if such there be first impressions are important i wish my hair was cut i hear my aunt coming to inform me of flora's arrival i shall be hugely surprised humph will it be worth while to trouble myself about the
lop eared dickey little ugly will be amused if i do she can laugh it seems i had thought there was no fun in her mental composition yet i have imagined a glimmer or so in her eyes
instead of adonizing i will set my long locks on end and don my slipshod slippers yes aunt i hear good lady i will presently arrive to make my bow to little handsome
journal september twenty third d truly the presence of miss flora cooper makes willow valley a new place
though i have given up my afternoon slumber and play chess and backgammon instead of drumming on the table or piano
from that tedious companion my own self i never liked him very well i had rather do any thing than have a sober talk with a serious personage who always takes me to do for not making more of him he scolds me
just as a stay at home wife lectures a gay husband who never returns to his better half when he finds any thing to amuse him abroad good by old fellow i have found better company than your rememberings or hopings to wit
i was exceedingly well amused making all the saucy speeches i could think of in the pure spirit of mischief and taking no notice of her tossing her pretty head and turning her back upon me finding that her
the object of it i imagine the indignant beauty begins to plot a different revenge on me ha ha miss flora it is not because you like me better than you did that you are
all smiles and grace and sunshine i shall not flatter you the more i am determined i am on my guard you shall never boast of me on your list of obsequious admirers
never was flirted withal in my life i defy your smiles as stoutly as your frowns i like your pretty face yes it is exceedingly beautiful as far as form and coloring go to make up the beauty of a face and
yes very lively and pretty only too much of it you should not smile so often and i am tired of your pretty surprise your playful upbraidings and the raps of your fan
i am glad you have given up following little ugly out of the room the moment we rise from table
and demurely take out something that passes for work
i give you warning that i never hold skeins to be wound
so you need not offer me that sonnet to flora in manuscript nor your pet poet in print we will talk it is a comfort to have my wit appreciated
i like especially to rattle on when any nonsense will do chat is truly agreeable when one's brains are not severely taxed to keep it going
charming little canary i have spent the forenoon with her at the piano i like her playing when she does not attempt my favorite tunes it must be confessed she is apt to vary somewhat
it as that of a canary sweet and liquid and clear and sustained but all alike her throat is a fine instrument i shall teach her to use it with more expression and feeling
evening i am booked for a horseback ride with little handsome to morrow morning how did she make me offer i did not mean to all country girls ride i believe
i often see miss etty cantering through the shady lanes all by herself i saw the bars down at the end of the track through the wood one day i immediately concluded that little ugly had paced off that way that i need not see her from my window
i come forward as she comes near on that rat like pony of hers who holds his head down as if searching for something lost in the road i stand in doubt whether to laugh at her predicament
or advance in a gentlemanly manner to remove the obstacle i had put in her way
now this independent young lady shall be at liberty to take care of herself with no officious interference of mine
i hope miss flora knows enough to mount her pony for i am sure i do not know how to help her whew i hope we shall meet with no disasters
tangle her foot in the stirrup or riding skirt faint fall break her neck o horrors will not the dear old aunt tabitha forbid her going what a well proportioned and ladylike figure it was
now i think of it how gracefully she sat upon her flying dobbin
if aunt tabitha wants any little attention a needle threaded or a dropped stitch taken up miss etty quietly comes to her aid it is so entirely a matter of course
the old lady only smiles but any service from flora calls forth an acknowledgment it being a particular effort of good nature and generally the fruit of a direct appeal miss etty talks more than she did too
while i am talking nonsense with little handsome
her utterance having a peculiar distinctness and the lowest tones being fine and clear like those of a good singer on a
was she born and bred in ratborough i wonder she never speaks while we are singing does she like music then
such a question and that is all i elicited music again the forenoon occupation miss flora does not like being criticized i find
one must not presume to set her right in the smallest particular singers are proverbially irritable
cross or unreasonable i hate to be corrected but i hate more to be incorrect i could give canary a hint or two now and then that would be serviceable if she would permit it
i have no right however to take it upon me to instruct her and it puts her in a pet
i am hurt that i might not take so trifling a liberty in behalf of my favorite song i'll walk off as often as she sings it can her temper be perfectly good and yet one could not expect i ought not to be surprised
yet i can't help thinking suppose just suppose i had a right to find fault suppose i were a near friend would she bear it then supposing she were my companion for life humph
that startles one was i near thinking of it in earnest she is beautiful i should be proud of her abroad but at home at home where there should
be confidence would there not be constraint must no improvement ever be suggested because it implies imperfection i hope none of my friends will ever be on such terms with me
if i am touchy like a nettle may they grasp me hard and fear me not september
its face is like a human face full of varying expressions a slight haze made it so beautiful just before sunset i took my chair and put it out of the window upon the grass then followed it
and sat with it tipped back against the house close by the window of one of those mysterious rooms where miss etty immures herself i heard the canary say in a scolding tone i should think you might oblige me
it is such a trifle to do it is not worth refusing
i was wholly oblivious of myself or i should have taken myself away as in honor bound won't you now etty i'll only ask for one of our old duets just one no flora
said little ugly coldly enough why not no answer to be sure he might hear he would find out that you are musical what of that
where is the use of being able to sing to sing only when there's nobody to listen i sing only to friends i cannot sing i have never sung to persons in whom i have no confidence afraid
you never will silence again flora tuned up and of all tunes she must needs hum my song
with one foot advanced flora you should sharp that third note in the last line flora murdered it again with the most atrocious cold blooded cruelty
i almost mocked the sound aloud in my passion i do not tell you to vex you only i saw that mister ratcliffe you need not trouble yourself about his opinion
if i told you of a mistake but i supposed you would rectify it and i should have done you a kindness even against your will
if you can indeed i cannot etty for you are my very best friend but you are a horrid truth telling formidable body why not let me sing on my own way
i don't thank you a bit i had rather sing it wrong than be corrected it hurts my pride i think people should take my music as they find it if
it does not please them they are not obliged to ask me to sing one note wrong can surely be put up with if the rest is worth hearing i shall continue to sing it as i have done i think no
please don't if i will mend it when i think of it will you sing a duet yes though it will cost me more than you know poh and flora sang the song
without accompaniment the desired sharp rung upon my ears and set my nerves at rest bravo encore i cried beneath the window and was pelted
with peach stones i wonder
how much one loses under a false idea of its being a luxury to sleep in the morning reclining under farmer puddingstone's elm and looking upon the glassy pond in which the glowing sky mirrored itself
my soul was fired with poetic inspiration on the blank page of a letter i wrote how holy the calm in the stillness of morn and threw down my paper being suddenly quenched by self ridicule
as i was debating whether to write to ethelind over the top returning that way after my ramble i found the following conclusion pinned to the tree by a jackknife how holy the calm
and the childen chimes in with their plaintive boo hoo how holy the calm in the stillness of neune when the pot
while the tea kettle plays up the simperny arter how holy the calm in the stillness of night when the moon like a punkin looks yaller and bright
and underneath was added as if in scorn of my fruitless endeavor i wrote that are right off as fast as you could shell corn s p
that i find a great bunch of dahlias adorning my mantelpiece a brown earthen pitcher and in the middle of the dahlias a magnificent sunflower it must be my aunt's doing and its very homeliness pleases me
just as i love her homely sincerity of affection who arranges the glasses in the parlor etty i would not fear to affirm from the asters and golden rod cheek by jole with petunias and carnations
i wonder if she would not like some of the clematis i saw twining about a dead tree by the pond it is more beautiful in its present state than when it was in flower etty loves wild flowers because she is one herself
and loves to hide here in her native nook where no eye i might except my own gives her more than a casual glance noon
i shall think it quite uncivil of little ugly if she does not volunteer to arrange my share of the booty i am bringing now that i have almost broken my neck and quite my cane to obtain it
i can't said flora with a drawl yes do be coaxable for once it only makes me obstinate to coax why not go without me i beg
i can't do him any good it is dusty and my gown is long it would please him to see you i went to sit with him yesterday but timothy digfort came in with the same intent
so i went to church having walked in the graveyard till the bell rang owl that you are i don't envy you the lively meditations you must have had why don't you go it's of no use waiting for me what
will you let me carry both these baskets there
i don't think three or four peaches and a few flowers can add much to the weight it is tiresome enough to do what i don't want to do when it is really necessary
and little handsome danced into the parlor without perceiving me i laid a detaining hand on etty's basket as she put herself in motion on which she turned round with a look of
unfeigned astonishment may i not be a substitute for flora i inquired
said miss etty shyly it is not on that account i was urging flora please to let me have the basket
and shall i say that you sent this a view of my strange phiz will not refresh the old people like the sight of flora's fresh young face but i shall go in and make the agreeable as well as i can
are you really in earnest asked etty looking full in my face with a smile of wonder that made her radiantly beautiful she turned away blushing at my surprised and eager gaze and taking up her little basket joined me
without a word of answer on my part it was some time before i quite recovered from a strange flurry of spirits which made my heart bump very much as it does when i hear any unexpected good news
and then i dashed away upon the subject of old age and any thing else that came uppermost in the hope of drawing the soul lighted eyes to mine again with that transfiguring smile playing upon the lips
but i was like an unskilful magician i had lost the spell i could not again discover the spring i had touched in vain i said to myself i'll make her do it again little ugly would'nt
aged woman who at all reminds me of the grandmother so indulgent to my prankful boyhood the old man too interested me
and related his adventures in a most unhackneyed style i'll go and see them every day one of the captain's anecdotes was very good an old salt he said once
how very lovely etty looked sitting on a cricket at the old woman's feet and with a half smile on her face submitting her polished little head to be stroked by her trembling hands this i saw out of the corner of my eye hark
aunt tabitha's call to dinner i am glad of it i was scribbling such nonsense when i have so much to write better worth while twelve o'clock the night is beautiful
and it is a piece of self denial to close the shutter light my lamp and write in my journal peace of mind came yesterday positive happiness to day neither of which i can analyze
i only know i have not been so thoroughly content since the acquisition of my first jackknife nor so proud since the day when i first sported a shining beaver i have conquered etty's distrust she has actually promised me her friendship
i am rather surprised that i am so enchanted at this triumph over a prejudice i am hugely delighted not because it is a triumph however vanity has nothing to do with it it is a worthier feeling
one in which humility mingles with a more cordial self respect than i have hitherto been conscious of i can and i will deserve etty's good opinion she is an uncompromising judge
but i will surprise her by going beyond what she believes me capable of i never had a sister i shall adopt etty and when i go home we will write every week if not every day but how came it all about
till now as i hope it is broken up for ever people under the same roof cannot long mistake each other it seems else etty and i should never have become friends
as we left the door of captain black's house and turned into the field path to avoid the dust etty said i do not know whether you care much about it but you have given pleasure to these good old people
i thought she looked doubtful and surprised it was a good opening for egotism and i improved it
i saw that she was no uninterested listener but all along rather suspicious and incredulous as if what i was claiming for myself was inconsistent with her previous notions of my disposition
i believe i had made some little impression saturday night but her old distrust had come back by sunday morning now she was again shaken at last
i am going to tell you that i feel some apology due to you if my first impressions of your character are really incorrect i am puzzled what to think
i am to suppose that your first impressions were not as favorable as those of missus black whom i heard remark that i was an amiable youth with an uncommonly pleasant smile
who wants to know every body i thought the less i had to do with you the better i felt hurt and almost insulted i had not been mistaken then
she had disliked me and perhaps disliked me yet it was not that i stood in fear of your satire she continued i am indifferent to ridicule or censure in general
i had no claim to any forbearance any consideration for peculiarities of any sort i am perfectly resigned to being the theme of your wit in any circle
if you can find aught in my country bred ways to amuse you zounds i must speak my conduct to flora must have confirmed the charming impression produced by my unlucky phiz i imagine
but don't bear malice against me in her behalf you must have seen that she was perfectly able to revenge herself etty's light hearted laugh rung out
and reminded me of my once baffled curiosity when it reached my ear from norah's domain but though this unsuppressed mirth of hers revealed the prettiest row of teeth in the world
little ugly again no i did not refer to flora said she as you say she can avenge her own quarrel and we both were quite as ready to laugh at you as you could be to laugh at us i assure you
no doubt of it said i with some pique but what i cannot forgive you cannot think of with any toleration is what cried i astonished how have i offended
a man of any right feeling at all could not make game of an aged woman his own relative at the same time that he was receiving her hearty and affectionate hospitality
neither have i done so cried i in a towering passion you do me a great wrong in accusing me of it i would knock any man down who should treat my aunt with any disrespect
and if i have sometimes allowed flora to do it unrebuked you well know that she might once have pulled my hair or cuffed my ears and i should have thought it
i have played the fool under your eye and submit that you should entertain no high opinion of my wisdom but you have no right to judge so unfavorably of my heart
if i have spoken to my aunt with boyish petulance when she vexed me at least it was to her face and regretted and atoned for to her satisfaction
i am incapable of deceiving her much less of ridiculing her either behind her back or before her face i respond to her love for me with sincere gratitude and the sister of my grandmother shall never want any attention
that an own grandson could render while i live i shall find it hard to forgive you this accusation miss etty i said haughtily and shut my mouth as if i would never speak to her again
she made no answer but looked up into my face with one of those wondrous smiles it went as straight to my heart as a pistol bullet could do my high indignation proving no defence against it
i wonder what could have made me think of doing it after dinner
and a low congratulatory little murmur of good humor on etty's part i believe she is afraid to laugh loud lest i should hear her do it and rush to the spot the door is ajar i'll storm the castle
this is the pleasantest nook in the house it is a shame you have not been let in before said flora zealously you shall see etty's drawings
neither of us opened the portfolio she seized however but watched etty's eyes they were cast down with a diffident blush which gave me pain
i was indeed an intruder she gave us the permission we waited for however
those i did not dwell upon but the sketches spirited though imperfect i studied as if they had been those of an allston etty was evidently in a fidget
at this preference of the smallest line of original talent over the corrected performances which are like those of every body else i drew out a full length figure done in black chalk on brown paper
it was a young man with his chair tipped back his feet rested on a table with a slipper perched on each toe his hands were clasped upon the back of his head the face
really i was angry at the diabolical expression given it by eyes looking askance and lips pressed into an arch by a contemptuous smile it was a corner of this very brown sheet that i saw under her arm
when she vanished from the kitchen as i entered the vociferous mirth which attracted me was at my expense before flora could recognize my portrait little ugly pounced upon it
it fell in a crumpled lump into the bright little wood fire and ceased to exist i had totally forgotten it said she with a blush which avenged my wounded self love ironical pleasure
i could not indulge myself in expressing as i did not care to enlighten little handsome any lurking pique was banished when etty showed me with a smile the twilight view by the pond
do you draw she asked and flora cried he makes caricatures of his friends with pen and ink let him deny it if he can i
it must remain uncertain whether waverley be the work of a poet or a critic a lawyer or a clergyman or whether the writer to use missus malaprop's phrase be
to whom the reputation of being a novel writer might be prejudicial or he may be a man of fashion to whom writing of any kind might appear pedantic he may be too young to assume the character of an author or so old as to make it advisable to lay it aside
upon their national character nothing could be farther from his wish or intention the character of callum beg is that of a spirit naturally turned to daring evil and determined by the circumstances of his situation to a particular species of mischief
published about seventeen twenty six will find instances of such atrocious characters which fell under the writer's own observation
can be supposed to represent the english of the present day
and several to the extent and of the nature jocularly imputed to them by the baron were really laid to the charge of the highland insurgents for which many traditions and particularly one respecting the knight of the mirror may be quoted as good evidence
footnote a homely metrical narrative of the events of the period which contains some striking particulars and is still a great favourite with the lower classes gives a very correct statement
of the behaviour of the mountaineers respecting this same military license and as the verses are little known and contain some good sense we venture to insert them
the author's address to all in general now gentle readers i have let you ken my very thoughts from heart and pen tis needless for to conten or yet controule for there's not a word
so ye must thole for on both sides some were not good i saw them murd'ring in cold blood not the gentlemen but wild and rude the baser sort who to the wounded had no mood but murd'ring sport
that fatal night ere it grew mirk piercing the wounded with their durk caused many cry such pity's shown from savage and turk as peace to die a woe be to such hot zeal
to smite the wounded on the fiell it's just they got such groats in kail who do the same it only teaches crueltys real to them again i've seen the men call'd highland rogues
with lowland men make shangs a brogs sup kail and brose and fling the cogs out at the door
with a string of puddings hung on a pole whip'd o'er his shoulder skipped like a fole caus'd maggy bann lap o'er the midden and midden hole and aff he ran when check'd for this they'd often tell ye
indeed her nainsell's a tume belly
as leave them neither clothes nor food then burnt their houses to conclude
like popish tortures i believe such cruelty ev'n what was act on open stage at carlisle in the hottest rage when mercy was clapt in a cage and pity dead
such cruelty approv'd by every age i shook my head so many to curse so few to pray and some aloud
they cursed the rebel scots that day as they'd been nowt brought up for slaughter as that way too many rowt therefore alas dear countrymen o never do the like again to thirst for vengeance never ben
when reviewing the tales of my landlord for the quarterly review in eighteen seventeen the particulars were derived by the critic from the author's information
they are now inserted in their proper place the mutual protection afforded by waverley and talbot to each other upon which the whole plot depends is founded upon one of those anecdotes which soften the features even of civil war
and as it is equally honourable to the memory of both parties we have no hesitation to give their names at length when the highlanders on the morning of the battle of preston seventeen forty five made their memorable attack on sir john cope's army
a battery of four field pieces was stormed and carried by the camerons and the stewarts of appine the late alexander stewart of invernahylewas
the miller of invernahyle's mill was uplifted to dash his brains out when mister stewart with difficulty prevailed on him to yield he took charge of his enemy's property protected his person and finally obtained him liberty on his parole
the officer proved to be colonel whitefoord an ayrshire gentleman of high character and influence
yet such was the confidence existing between these two honourable men though of different political principles that while the civil war was raging and straggling officers from the highland army were executed without mercy invernahyle hesitated
not to pay his late captive a visit as he returned to the highlands to raise fresh recruits on which occasion he spent a day or two in ayrshire among colonel whitefoord's whig friends as pleasantly and as good humouredly as if all had been at peace around him
to the lord advocate and to all the officers of state and each application was answered by the production of a list in which invernahyle
appeared marked with the sign of the beast as a subject unfit for favour or pardon at length colonel whitefoord applied to the duke of cumberland in person from him also he received a positive refusal
he then limited his request for the present to a protection for stewart's house wife children and property this was also refused by the duke on which colonel whitefoord taking his commission from his bosom
laid it on the table before his royal highness with much emotion and asked permission to retire from the service of a sovereign who did not know how to spare a vanquished enemy the duke was struck and even affected he bade the colonel take up his commission
and granted the protection he required it was issued just in time to save the house corn and cattle at invernahyle from the troops who were engaged in laying waste what it was the fashion to call the country of the enemy
a small encampment of soldiers was formed on invernahyle's property which they spared while plundering the country around and searching in every direction for the leaders of the insurrection and for stewart in particular
were closely watched with ingenuity beyond her years the child used to stray about among the soldiers
and thus seize the moment when she was unobserved and steal into the thicket when she deposited whatever small store of provisions she had in charge at some marked spot where her father might find it invernahyle supported life for several weeks by means of these
by a party of the enemy who fired at and pursued him the fugitive being fortunate enough to escape their search they returned to the house and charged the family with harbouring one of the proscribed traitors
an old woman had presence of mind enough to maintain that the man they had seen was the shepherd why did he not stop when we called to him said the soldier he is as deaf poor man
as a peat stack answered the ready witted domestic let him be sent for directly the real shepherd accordingly was brought from the hill and as there was time to tutor him by the way
invernahyle was afterwards pardoned under the act of indemnity the author knew him well and has often heard these circumstances from his own mouth he was a noble specimen of the old highlander far descended gallant
was an active partaker in all the stirring scenes which passed in the highlands betwixt these memorable eras and i have heard was remarkable among other exploits for having fought a duel with the broadsword with the celebrated rob roy mac gregor
at the clachan of balquidder invernahyle chanced to be in edinburgh when paul jones came into the firth of forth and though then an old man i saw him in arms and heard him exult to use his own words
in the prospect of drawing his claymore once more before he died in fact on that memorable occasion when the capital of scotland was menaced by three trifling sloops or brigs
he was the only man who seemed to propose a plan of resistance he offered to the magistrates if broadswords and dirks could be obtained to find as many highlanders among the lower classes as would cut off any boat's crew
in quest of plunder i know not if his plan was attended to i rather think it seemed too hazardous to the constituted authorities who might not even at that time desire to see arms in highland hands
a steady and powerful west wind settled the matter by sweeping paul jones and his vessels out of the firth if there is something degrading in this recollection it is not unpleasant
besides regular forces and militia furnished a volunteer brigade of cavalry infantry and artillery to the amount of six thousand men and upwards which was in readiness to meet and repel a force of a far more formidable description
and manly character of a country willing to entrust its own protection to the arms of its children after having been obscured for half a century has during the course of his own lifetime recovered its lustre
other illustrations of waverley will be found in the notes at the foot of the pages to which they belong
nature in the aspect which she presented to a greek philosopher of the fourth century before christ is not easily reproduced to modern eyes the associations of mythology and poetry have to be added
and the unconscious influence of science has to be subtracted before we can behold the heavens or the earth as they appeared to the greek the philosopher himself was a child and also a man a child in the range of his attainments
but also a great intelligence having an insight into nature and often anticipations of the truth he was full of original thoughts and yet liable to be imposed upon by the most obvious fallacies he occasionally confused numbers with ideas and atoms with numbers
to his experience he was ready to explain the phenomena of the heavens by the most trivial analogies of earth the experiments which nature worked for him he sometimes accepted
but he never tried experiments for himself which would either prove or disprove his theories his knowledge was unequal
he had made considerable proficiency there were others such as chemistry electricity mechanics of which the very names were unknown to him he was the natural enemy of mythology and yet mythological ideas still retained their hold over him
he was endeavouring to form a conception of principles but these principles or ideas were regarded by him as real powers or entities to which the world had been subjected he was always tending to argue from what was near to what was remote from what was known to what was unknown
from man to the universe and back again from the universe to man while he was arranging the world he was arranging the forms of thought in his own mind and the light from within and the light from without often crossed and helped to confuse one another
he might be compared to a builder engaged in some great design who could only dig with his hands because he was unprovided with common tools or to some poet or musician like tynnichus
obliged to accommodate his lyric raptures to the limits of the tetrachord or of the flute the hesiodic and orphic cosmogonies were a phase of thought intermediate between mythology and philosophy and had a great influence on the beginnings of knowledge
there was nothing behind them they were to physical science what the poems of homer were to early greek history they made men think of the world as a whole they carried the mind back into the infinity of past time
they suggested the first observation of the effects of fire and water on the earth's surface to the ancient physics they stood much in the same relation which geology does to modern science but the greek was not like the enquirer of the last generation
laws or forms of art and music which had lasted not in word only but in very truth for ten thousand years
the ancient philosophers found in mythology many ideas which if not originally derived from nature were easily transferred to her such for example as love or hate corresponding to attraction or repulsion
or of justice symbolizing the law of compensation are of the fates and furies typifying the fixed order or the extraordinary convulsions of nature their own interpretations of homer and the poets were supposed by them to be the original meaning
in their vaster conceptions of chaos
the first rude attempts at generalization are dimly seen the gods themselves especially the greater gods such as zeus poseidon apollo athene are universals as well as individuals they were gradually becoming lost
in a common conception of mind or god they continued to exist for the purposes of ritual or of art but from the sixth century onwards or even earlier there arose and gained strength in the minds of men the notion of one god greatest among gods and men
who was all sight all hearing all knowing xenophanes under the influence of such ideas perhaps also deriving from the traditions of their own or of other nations scraps of medicine and astronomy men came to the observation of nature
the tumult of sense abated and the mind found repose in the thought which former generations had been striving to realize the first expression of this was some element rarefied by degrees into a pure abstraction and purged from any tincture of sense
soon an inner world of ideas began to be unfolded more absorbing more overpowering more abiding than the brightest of visible objects which to the eye of the philosopher looking inward seemed to pale before them retaining only a faint
and precarious existence
and of those who saw only a principle of rest in nature and in themselves there were born
aristotelians or platonists like some philosophers in modern times who are accused of making a theory first and finding their facts afterwards the advocates of either opinion never thought of applying either to themselves
and had all the animosities of a religious sect yet doubtless there was some first impression derived from external nature which as in mythology so also in philosophy worked upon the minds of the first thinkers
though incapable of induction or generalization in the modern sense they caught an inspiration from the external world
the air which is the breath of life the destructive force of fire the seeming regularity of the greater part of nature and the irregularity of a remnant the recurrence of day and night and of the seasons the solid earth
they could see resemblances but not differences and they were incapable of distinguishing illustration from argument analogy in modern times only points the way and is immediately verified by experiment
the dreams and visions which pass through the philosopher's mind of resemblances between different classes of substances or between the animal and vegetable world are put into the refiner's fire
and the dross and other elements which adhere to them are purged away but the contemporary of plato and socrates was incapable of resisting the power
he had no methods of difference or of concomitant variations by the use of which he could distinguish the accidental from the essential he could not isolate phenomena
has been the source of hasty generalizations yet this general grasp of nature led also to a spirit of comprehensiveness in early philosophy which has not increased but rather diminished as the fields of knowledge have become more divided
the modern physicist confines himself to one or perhaps two branches of science but he comparatively seldom rises above his own department and often falls under the narrowing influence which any single branch when pursued to the exclusion of every other
has over the mind language two exercised a spell over the beginnings of physical philosophy leading to error and sometimes to truth for many thoughts were suggested by the double meanings of words
they were bringing order out of disorder
and yet probably their first impressions the illusions and mirages of their fancy created a greater intellectual activity and made a nearer approach to the truth than any patient investigation of isolated facts for which the time had not yet come could have accomplished
the tendency to mere abstractions not perceiving that pure abstraction is only negation they thought that the greater the abstraction the greater the truth behind any pair of ideas a new idea which comprehended them
two are truer than three one than two the words being or unity or essence or good became sacred to them they did not see that they had a word only and in one sense the most unmeaning of words
they did not understand that the content of notions is in inverse proportion to their universality the element which is the most widely diffused is also the thinnest or in the language of the common logic the greater the extension the less the comprehension
but this vacant idea of a whole without parts of a subject without predicates a rest without motion
it is the beginning of a priori thought and indeed of thinking at all men were led to conceive it not by a love of hasty generalization but by a divine instinct
divine proportions and to comprehend all truth being or essence and similar words represented to them a supreme or divine being in which they thought that they found the containing and continuing principle of the universe
number and figure were the greatest instruments of thought which were possessed by the greek philosopher having the same power over the mind which was exerted by abstract ideas
they were also capable of practical application many curious and to the early thinker mysterious properties of them came to light when they were compared with one another they admitted of infinite multiplication and construction
in pythagorean triangles or in proportions of one two four eight and one three nine twenty seven or compounds of them the laws of the world seemed to be more than half revealed they were also capable of infinite subdivision
they were not like being or essence mere vacant abstractions but admitted of progress and growth
and so there began to be a real sympathy between the world within and the world without the numbers and figures which were present to the mind's eye became visible to the eye of sense the truth of nature was mathematics
the other properties of objects seemed to reappear only in the light of number law and morality also found a natural expression in number and figure instruments of such power and elasticity could not fail to be
a most gracious assistance to the first efforts of human intelligence there was another reason why numbers had so great an influence over the minds of early thinkers they were verified by experience every use of them even the most trivial
assured men of their truth they were everywhere to be found
little instrument out of which to create a world but from these and by the help of these all our knowledge of nature has been developed they were the measure of all things and seemed to give law to all things nature was rescued from chaos and confusion by their power the notes of music
the forms of atoms the evolution and recurrence of days months years the military divisions of an army the civil divisions of a state seemed to afford a present witness of them what would have become of man or of the world if deprived of number
the mystery of number and the mystery of music were akin there was a music of rhythm and of harmonious motion everywhere
a fanciful or imaginary relation was superadded there was a music of the spheres as well as of the notes of the lyre if in all things seen there was number and figure why should they not also pervade the unseen world
first they applied to external nature the relations of them which they found in their own minds and where nature seemed to be at variance with number
having long meditated on the properties of one two four eight or one three nine twenty seven or of three four five they discovered in them many curious correspondences and were disposed to find in them the secret of the universe
secondly they applied number and figure equally to those parts of physics such as astronomy or mechanics in which the modern philosopher expects to find them and to those in which he would never think of looking for them such as physiology and psychology
for the sciences were not yet divided and there was nothing really irrational in arguing that the same laws which regulated the heavenly bodies were partially applied to the erring limbs or brain of man
astrology was the form which the lively fancy of ancient thinkers almost necessarily gave to astronomy the observation that the lower principle
further tended to perplex them plato's doctrine of the same and the other ruling the courses of the heavens and of the human body is not a mere vagary but is a natural result of the state of knowledge and thought at which he had arrived
when in modern times we contemplate the heavens a certain amount of scientific truth imperceptibly blends even with the cursory glance of an unscientific person
and the cognate sciences a very different aspect of nature would have been present to the mind of the early greek philosopher he would have beheld the earth a surface only not mirrored however faintly in the glass of science but indissolubly
connected with some theory of one two or more elements
animated by a principle of motion immanent in a principle of rest he would have tried to construct the universe on a quantitative principle seeming to find in endless combinations of geometrical figures or in the infinite variety of their sizes
a sufficient account of the multiplicity of phenomena to these a priori speculations he would add a rude conception of matter and his own immediate experience of health and disease his cosmos would necessarily be imperfect and unequal
being the first attempt to impress form and order on the primaeval chaos of human knowledge he would see all things as in a dream
and others with wasting their fine intelligences in wrong methods of enquiry and their progress in moral and political philosophy has been sometimes contrasted with their supposed failure in physical investigations
no doubt the ancients often fell into strange and fanciful errors the time had not yet arrived for the slower and surer path of the modern inductive philosophy
are not as great upon the whole as those made by their successors
who first conceived the world to be a body moving round the sun in space there is no truer or more comprehensive principle
plato probably did more for physical science by asserting the supremacy of mathematics than aristotle or his disciples by their collections of facts when the thinkers of modern times following bacon undervalue or disparage the speculations of ancient philosophers
under which they carried on their investigations when we accuse them of being under the influence of words do we suppose that we are altogether free from this illusion when we remark that greek physics soon became stationary or extinct
which have been barren and unproductive we might as well maintain that greek art was not real or great because it had nihil simile aut secundum
they may be said more truly to have cleared up and defined by the help of experience ideas which they already possessed the beginnings of thought about nature must always have this character a true method is the result of many ages of experiment and observation and
early science is not a process of discovery in the modern sense but rather a process of correcting by observation
nurnberg at the time was not so much exploited as it has been since then
and casually remarked that he was going on to see the most all fired old methuselah of a town in yurrup and that he guessed that so much travelling alone was enough to send an intelligent active citizen into the melancholy ward of a daft house
we took the pretty broad hint and suggested that we should join forces we found on comparing notes afterwards that we had each intended to speak with some diffidence or hesitation so as not to appear too eager such not being a good compliment to the success of our married life
stopping simultaneously and then going on together again anyhow no matter how it was done and elias p hutcheson became one of our party straightway amelia and i found the pleasant benefit instead of quarrelling
as we had been doing we found that the restraining influence of a third party was such that we now took every opportunity of spooning in odd corners amelia declares that ever since she has as the result of that experience advised all her friends to take a friend on the honeymoon
well we did nurnberg together and much enjoyed the racy remarks of our transatlantic friend
and on the day appointed for the visit strolled round the outer wall of the city by the eastern side the burg is seated on a rock dominating the town and an immensely deep fosse guards it on the northern side nurnberg has been happy in that it was never sacked
had it been it would certainly not be so spick and span perfect as it is at present the ditch has not been used for centuries and now its base is spread with tea gardens and orchards of which some of the trees are of quite respectable growth as we wandered round the wall
dawdling in the hot july sunshine we often paused to admire the views spread before us and in especial the great plain covered with towns and villages and bounded with a blue line of hills like a landscape of claude lorraine from this we always turned with new delight to the city itself
with its myriad of quaint old gables and acre wide red roofs dotted with dormer windows tier upon tier a little to our right rose the towers of the burg and nearer still standing grim the torture tower which was and is perhaps the most interesting place in the city
for centuries the tradition of the iron virgin of nurnberg has been handed down as an instance of the horrors of cruelty of which man is capable we had long looked forward to seeing it and here at last was its home
the garden seemed quite fifty or sixty feet below us
beyond rose the grey grim wall seemingly of endless height and losing itself right and left in the angles of bastion and counterscarp trees and bushes crowned the wall and above again towered the lofty houses on whose massive beauty
or would raise her feet and push away the little one as an encouragement to further play they were just at the foot of the wall and elias p hutcheson in order to help the play stooped and took from the walk a moderate sized pebble see he said
i will drop it near the kitten and they will both wonder where it came from oh be careful said my wife you might hit the dear little thing not me ma'am said elias p why i'm as tender as a maine cherry tree lor bless ye
but the stone fell with a sickening thud that came up to us through the hot air right on the kitten's head and shattered out its little brains then and there the black cat cast a swift upward glance and we saw her eyes like green fire fixed an instant on elias p hutcheson
and then her attention was given to the kitten which lay still with just a quiver of her tiny limbs whilst a thin red stream trickled from a gaping wound with a muffled cry such as a human being might give she bent over the kitten licking its wounds and moaning
sharp teeth seemed to almost shine through the blood which dabbled her mouth and whiskers she gnashed her teeth and her claws stood out stark and at full length on every paw
there was a seat close by in shade of a spreading plane tree and here i placed her whilst she composed herself then i went back to hutcheson who stood without moving looking down on the angry cat below as i joined him he said
i kem on the camp just in time to see splinters pass in his checks
it's here now and he slapped the breast pocket of his coat
and at every tumble her appearance became more horrible
just shows what a clumsy fool of a man can do when he tries to play seems i'm too darned slipperhanded to even play with a cat say colonel it was a pleasant way he had to bestow titles freely
why i wouldn't have had it occur on no account he came over to amelia and apologised profusely and she with her usual kindness of heart hastened to assure him that she quite understood that it was an accident then we all went again to the wall and looked over
which would have been grotesque only that it was so frightfully real
recognises the voice of a master and bows to him like a squaw was the only comment of elias p hutcheson
took it in her mouth and so followed after a while however she abandoned this for we saw her following all alone she had evidently hidden the body somewhere amelia's alarm grew at the cat's persistence and more than once she repeated her warning
but the american always laughed with amusement till finally
i say ma'am you needn't be skeered over that cat i go heeled i du here he slapped his pistol pocket at the back of his lumbar region
as he spoke he looked over the wall but the cat on seeing him retreated with a growl into a bed of tall flowers and was hidden he went on
whence ran the steep paved roadway between the burg and the pentagonal torture tower as we crossed the bridge we saw the cat again down below us
and then we passed through the long dim archway and came to the gate of the burg
while those that are controverted by them are more elaborately elucidated
before mixed congregations in virginia and north carolina he has often felt that the salutary influence of such instructions especially on the occasion of a mission in the rural districts
and which could be read and pondered at leisure as his chief aim has been to bring home the truths of the catholic faith to our separated brethren
he has endeavored to fortify his statements by abundant reference to the sacred text he has thought proper however to add frequent quotations from the early fathers whose testimony at least as witnesses of the faith of their times
must be accepted even by those who call in question their personal authority though the writer has sought to be exact in all his assertions
you have no doubt heard and read many things regarding our church but has not your information come from teachers justly liable to suspicion you asked for bread and they gave you a stone you asked for fish
and they reached you a serpent instead of the bread of truth they extended to you the serpent of falsehood hence without intending to be unjust is not your mind biased against us because you listened to false witnesses
this at least is the case with thousands of my countrymen whom i have met in the brief course of my missionary career the catholic church is persistently misrepresented
it matters not to the artist that columbus could probably never have undertaken his voyage and discovery as the explorer himself avows were it not for the benevolent zeal of the monks antonio de marchena
in a large portion of the press and in pamphlets and especially in the pulpit which should be consecrated to truth and charity she is the victim of the foulest slanders
upon her fair and heavenly brow her enemies put a hideous mask and in that guise they exhibit her to the insults and mockery of the public just as jesus her spouse was treated
for the church teaches the same creed all over the world and most of the doctrinal books which i read were originally published in europe yet ministers who make these slanderous statements
who calumniate three hundred millions of human beings by attributing to them doctrines and practices which they repudiate and abhor
it is natural for an honest man to loathe an institution whose history he believes to be marked by bloodshed crime and fraud had i been educated as they were
and surrounded by an atmosphere hostile to the church perhaps i should be unfortunate enough to be breathing vengeance against her today instead of consecrating my life to her defence it is not of their hostility that i complain
but because the judgment they have formed of her is based upon the reckless assertions of her enemies and not upon those of impartial witnesses suppose that i wanted to obtain a correct estimate of the southern people
as men who always appeal to the sword and pistol instead of the law to vindicate your private grievances they heaped accusations against you which i will not here repeat instead of taking these publications as the basis of my information
study her history in the pages of truth examine her creed read her authorized catechisms and doctrinal books you will find them everywhere on the shelves of booksellers in the libraries of her clergy
on the tables of catholic families there is no freemasonry in the catholic church she has no secrets to keep back she has not one set of doctrines for bishops and priests and another for the laity
she has not one creed for the initiated and another for outsiders everything in the catholic church is open and above board she has the same doctrines for all for the pope and the peasant
i have imbibed her doctrine with my mother's milk i have made her history and theology the study of my life what motive can i have in misleading you not temporal reward since i seek not your money
but your soul for which jesus christ died i could not hope for an eternal reward by deceiving you for i would thereby purchase for myself eternal condemnation by gaining proselytes at the expense of truth
instead of wishing to bury this treasure in my breast i long to share it with you especially as i lose no part of my spiritual riches by communicating them to others it is to me a duty and a labor of love
to speak the truth concerning my venerable mother so much maligned in our days
i would not be attached to her ministry nor even to her communion for a single day i know these charges to be false the longer i know her the more i admire and venerate her
and call her blessed consider what you lose and what you gain in embracing the catholic religion your loss is nothing in comparison with your gain you do not surrender your manhood or your dignity or independence or reasoning powers
you acquire a full and connected knowledge of god's revelation you get possession of the whole truth as it is in jesus you no longer see it in fragments but reflected before you in all its beauty as in a polished mirror
you are inside worshiping the divine architect and saying devoutly with the psalmist
while others from without find in the stained glass windows only blurred and confused figures without symmetry or attraction or meaning you from within are gazing with silent rapture on god's glorified saints
you exchange opinion for certainty you are no longer tossed about by every wind of doctrine but you are firmly grounded on the rock of truth then you enjoy that profound peace which springs from the conscious possession of the truth
in coming to the church you are not entering a strange place but you are returning to your father's home the house and furniture may look odd to you but it is just the same as your forefathers left it three hundred years ago
in coming back to the church you worship where your fathers worshiped before you you kneel before the altar at which they knelt you receive the sacraments which they received and respect the authority of the clergy
whom they venerated you come back like the prodigal son to the home of your father and mother the garment of joy is placed upon you the banquet of love is set before you and you receive the kiss of peace as a pledge of your filiation and adoption
one hearty embrace of your tender mother will compensate you for all the sacrifices you may have made and you will exclaim with the penitent augustine too late have i known thee o beauty ever ancient and ever new
bring one soul to the knowledge of the church my labor will be amply rewarded remember that nothing is so essential as the salvation of your immortal soul for what doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world
and lose his own soul or what shall a man give
the persecution of men the loss of earthly possessions nor any other temporal calamity deter you from investigating and embracing the true religion for our present tribulation which is momentary and light
catholicity that catholicity is a prominent note of the church is evident from the apostles creed which says i believe in the holy catholic church the word catholic or universal
signifies that the true church is not circumscribed in its extent like human empires nor confined to one race of people like the jewish church but that she is diffused over every nation of the globe and counts her children among all tribes and peoples and tongues of the earth
he assigned to them the whole world as the theatre of their labors and the entire human race without regard to language color or nationality as the audience to whom they were to preach unlike the religion of the jewish people which was national
or that of the mohammedans which is local the catholic religion was to be cosmopolitan embracing all nations and all countries this is evident from the following passages
may not strike us today as especially remarkable accustomed as we are now to meet with christian civilization everywhere
bound so closely together by social and commercial relations but we must remember that when they were uttered the true god was known and adored only in an obscure almost isolated corner of the earth while triumphant idolatry
was the otherwise universal religion of the world the prophecies were fulfilled the apostles scattered themselves over the surface of the earth preaching the gospel of christ their sound says saint paul
i give thanks to my god through jesus christ because your faith is spoken of in the entire world
with the faith of the romans saint justin martyr was able to say about one hundred years after christ that there was no race of men
among whom the name of jesus christ was not invoked saint irenaeus writing at the end of the second century tells us that the religion so marvelously propagated throughout the whole world was not a vague ever changing form of christianity
but that this faith and doctrine and tradition preached throughout the globe is as uniform as if the church consisted of one family possessing one soul one heart and as if she had but one mouth for though the languages of the world are dissimilar
her doctrine is the same the churches founded in germany in the celtic nations in the east in egypt in lybia and in the centres of civilization do not differ from each other but as the sun gives the same light throughout the world
so does the light of faith shine everywhere the same
and already have we filled your cities towns islands your council halls and camps the palace senate forum
at the end of the second century writes the word of our master did not remain in judea as philosophy remained in greece but has been poured out over the whole world persuading greeks and barbarians alike race by race village by village
and origen in the early part of the next century observes in all greece and in all barbarous races within our world
for the law of moses and the word of jesus christ though to adhere to that law is to incur the hatred of idolaters and the risk of death besides to have embraced that word and considering how in so few years in spite of the attack made on us
even to the loss of life or property and with no great store of teachers the preaching of that word has found its way into every part of the world so that greek and barbarian wise and unwise adhere to the religion of jesus
doubtless it is a work greater than any work of man this catholicity or universality is not to be found in any or in all of the combined communions separated from the roman catholic church
the schismatic churches of the east have no claim to this title because they are confined within the turkish and russian dominions and number not more than sixty million souls the protestant churches even taken collectively
as separate communions they are a mere handful are too insignificant in point of numbers and too circumscribed in their territorial extent to have any pretensions to the title of catholic
all the protestant denominations are estimated at sixty five million or less than one fifth of those who bear the christian name
i believe in the holy catholic church that the roman catholic church alone deserves the name of catholic is so evident that it is ridiculous to deny it ours is the only church which adopts this name as her official title
we have possession which is nine tenths of the law we have exclusively borne this glorious appellation in troubled times when the assumption of this venerable title exposed us to insult persecution and death
and to attempt to deprive us of it at this late hour would be as fruitless as the efforts of the french revolutionists who sought to uproot all traces of the old civilization by assigning new names to the days and seasons of the year
so great is the charm attached to the name of catholic that a portion of the episcopal body sometimes usurp the title of catholic though in their official books they are named protestant episcopalians if they think that they have
should a stranger ask them to direct him to the catholic church they would instinctively point out to him the roman catholic church the sectarians of the fourth and fifth centuries as saint augustine tells us used to attempt the same pious fraud
but signally failed we must hold fast to the christian religion and to the communion of that church which is catholic and which is called catholic not only by those who belong to her but also by all her enemies
not with their own but with outsiders call that only catholic which is really catholic for they cannot be understood unless they distinguish her by that name
nearly eight hundred attended the opening session the rest being unavoidably absent all parts of the habitable globe were represented at the council the bishops assembled from great britain ireland france germany switzerland
and from almost every nation and principality in europe they met from canada the united states mexico and south america and from the islands of the atlantic and the pacific they were gathered together from different parts of africa and oceanica
that distinguished the human family they spoke every civilized language under the sun kneeling together in the same great council hall truly could those prelates exclaim in the language of the apocalypse thou hast redeemed us o lord to god in thy blood
out of every tribe and tongue and people
in north and south america never in her long history was she numerically so strong as she is at the present moment when her children amount to about three hundred millions or double the number of those who bear the name of christians outside of her communion
in her alone
for in every clime and in every nation under the sun are erected thousands of catholic altars
it is said with truth that the sun never sets on british dominions it may also be affirmed with equal assurance
planting the cross the symbol of salvation side by side with the banner of saint george quite recently a number of european emigrants arrived in richmond they were strangers to our country to our customs and to our language
every object that met their eye sadly reminded them that they were far from their own sunny italy but when they saw the cross surmounting our cathedral they hastened to it with a joyful step i saw and heard a group of them giving earnest expression
to their deep emotions entering this sacred temple they felt that they had found an oasis in the desert once more they were at home they found one familiar spot in a strange land they stood in the church of their fathers
in the home of their childhood and they seemed to say in their hearts as a tear trickled down their sun burnt cheeks how lovely are thy tabernacles o lord of hosts my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the lord
whom they had been accustomed to reverence from their youth they saw the baptismal font and the confessionals they beheld the altar and the altar rails where they received their maker they observed the priest at the altar in his sacred vestments they saw a multitude of worshipers kneeling around them
and they felt in their heart of hearts that they were once more among brothers and sisters with whom they had one lord one faith one baptism one god and father of all everywhere a catholic is at home
secret societies of whatever name form but a weak and counterfeit bond of union compared with the genuine fellowship created by catholic faith hope and charity the roman catholic church then
and comprise the vast majority of the christian family god forbid that i should write these lines or that my catholic readers should peruse them in a boasting and vaunting spirit god estimates men not by their numbers
but by their intrinsic worth it is no credit to us to belong to the body of the church catholic if we are not united to the soul of the church by a life of faith hope and charity it will avail us nothing to be citizens of that kingdom of christ
which encircles the globe unless the kingdom of god is within us by the reign of the holy spirit in our hearts one righteous soul that reflects the beauty and perfections of the lord is more precious in his sight than the mass of humanity
that has no spiritual life and is dead to the inspirations of grace the patriarch abraham was dearer to jehovah than all the inhabitants of the corrupt city of sodom
were more esteemed by him than the great roman empire which was seated in darkness and the shadow of death while we rejoice then in the inestimable blessing of being incorporated in the visible body of the catholic church
whose spiritual treasures are inexhaustible
the church is one holy catholic and apostolic preaching the same creed everywhere and at all times teaching holiness and truth she is of course essentially unerring in her doctrine
for what is one holy or unchangeable must be infallibly true that the church was infallible in the apostolic age is denied by no christian
the new testament was not completed till the close of the first century there is no just ground for denying to the apostolic teachers of the nineteenth century in which we live a prerogative clearly possessed by those of the first
the no less essential gift of infallibility god loves us as much as he loved the primitive christians christ died for us as well as for them and we have as much need of unerring teachers as they had
for an infallible book is of no use to me without an infallible interpreter as the history of protestantism too clearly demonstrates but besides these presumptive arguments we have positive evidence from scripture
a solemn prediction that no error shall ever invade his church and if she fell into error
that the gates of hell did prevail against her that from the sixth to the sixteenth century she was a sink of iniquity the book of homilies of the church of england says that the church
lay buried in damnable idolatry for eight hundred years or more the personal veracity of our savior and of the reformers is here at issue
which they contradict who is to be believed jesus or the reformers if the prediction of our savior about the preservation of his church from error be false then jesus christ is not god
cannot lie he is not even a prophet since he predicted falsehood nay he is an impostor and all christianity is a miserable failure and a huge deception since it rests on a false prophet
but if jesus predicted the truth when he declared that the gates of hell should not prevail against his church and who dare deny it
then the catholic church is infallible for she alone claims that prerogative and she is the only church that is acknowledged to have existed from the beginning truly is jesus that wise architect mentioned in the gospel
who built his house upon a rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and they beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded
since it was utterly impossible for the apostles personally to preach to the whole world not only does our lord empower his apostles to preach the gospel
if therefore the catholic church could preach error would not god himself be responsible for the error and could not the faithful soul say to god with all reverence and truth thou hast commanded me o lord to hear thy church
if i am deceived by obeying her thou art the cause of my error but we may rest assured that an all wise providence who commands his church to speak in his name will so guide her in the path of truth
that she shall never lead into error those that follow her teachings but as this privilege of infallibility was a very extraordinary favor our savior confers it on the rulers of his church in language which removes all doubt from the sincere inquirer
and under circumstances which add to the majesty of his word shortly before his death jesus consoles his disciples by this promise i will ask the father
go ye therefore and teach all nations
go ye therefore and teach all nations et cetera he does not instruct them to scatter bibles broadcast over the earth but to teach by word of mouth and behold our savior never arrests the attention of his hearers
by using the interjection behold
i who am the way the truth and the life
i will be with you not merely during your natural lives
without intermission even to the end of the world these words of jesus christ establish two important facts first a promise to guard his church from error
second a promise that his presence with the church will be continuous without any interval of absence to the consummation of the world and this is also the sentiment of the apostle of the gentiles
writing to the ephesians god gave some indeed apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and others pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry
they may be preaching falsehood to you instead of truth if so you are in doubt whether you are listening to truth or falsehood if you are in doubt you can have no faith for faith excludes doubt
and including such unquestioned veracity
you admit infallible certainty in the physical sciences why should you deny it in the science of salvation the astronomer can predict with accuracy a hundred years beforehand an eclipse of the sun or moon
he can tell what point in the heavens a planet will reach on a given day the mariner guided by his compass knows amid the raging storm and the darkness of the night that he is steering his course directly to the city of his destination
and is not an infallible guide as necessary to conduct you to the city of god in heaven is it not moreover a blessing and a consolation that amid the ever changing views of men amid the conflict of human opinion
for simply declaring that she speaks the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth the roman pantheon was dedicated to all the gods of the empire and their name was legion formidable also in numbers are the founders
of the religious sects existing in our country a pantheon as vast as westminster abbey would hardly be spacious enough to contain life sized statues for their accommodation if you were to confront those figures and to ask them one by one
to give an account of the faith they had professed and if they were endowed with the gift of speech you would find that no two of them were in entire accord but that they all differed among themselves on some fundamental principle of revelation
would you not be acting very unwisely
of so many discordant and conflicting oracles children of the catholic church give thanks to god that you are members of that communion which proclaims year after year the one same and unalterable message of truth peace and love
and that you are preserved from all errors in faith and from all illusion in the practice of virtue you are happily strangers to those interior conflicts to those perplexing doubts and to that frightful uncertainty
which distracts the souls of those whose private judgment is their only guide who are ever learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth
you are not as blind men led by blind guides you are not like those who are in the midst of a spiritual desert intersected by various by paths not knowing which to pursue
neither mormons nor millerites nor the advocates of free love or of women's rights so called find any recruits in the catholic church she will never suffer her children to be ensnared by these impostures
how specious soever they may be from what has been said in the preceding pages it follows that the catholic church cannot be reformed i do not mean of course that the pastors of the church are personally impeccable
or not subject to sin every teacher in the church from the pope down to the humblest priest is liable at any moment like any of the faithful to fall from grace and to stand in need of moral reformation
we all carry this treasure of innocence in earthen vessels my meaning is that the church is not susceptible of being reformed in her doctrines the church is the work of an incarnate god
like all god's works it is perfect it is therefore incapable of reform is it not the height of presumption for men to attempt to improve upon the work of god
for the luthers the calvins the knoxes and the henries and a thousand lesser lights to be offering their amendments to the constitution of the church as if it were a human institution our lord himself has never ceased to rule personally over his church
it is time enough for little men to take charge of the ship when the great captain abandons the helm a protestant gentleman of very liberal education remarked to me before the opening of the late ecumenical council
that the doctrinal decrees of the church were irrevocable and that the dogma of the immaculate conception was defined once and forever if only one instance could be given in which the church ceased to teach a doctrine of faith which had been previously held
that single instance would be the death blow of her claim to infallibility but it is a marvelous fact worthy of record that in the whole history of the church from the nineteenth century to the first
ought to be a sufficient warrant that she will tolerate no doctrinal variations in the future if as we have seen the church has authority from god to teach and if she teaches nothing but the truth
is it not the duty of all christians to hear her voice and obey her commands she is the organ of the holy ghost she is the representative of jesus christ who has said to her he that heareth you heareth me
he that despiseth you despiseth me she is the mistress of truth it is the property of the human mind to embrace truth wherever it finds it it would therefore be not only an act of irreverence
but of sheer folly to disobey the voice of this ever truthful mother if a citizen is bound to obey the laws of his country though these laws may not in all respects be conformable to strict justice
if a child is bound by natural and divine law to obey his mother though she may sometimes err in her judgments how much more strictly are not we obliged to be docile to the teachings of the catholic church our mother
whose admonitions are always just whose precepts are immutable for twenty years observed a recently converted minister of the protestant church i fought and struggled against the church with all the energy of my will
but when i became a catholic all my doubts ended my inquiries ceased i became as a little child and rushed like a lisping babe into the arms of my mother by baptism
christians become children of the church no matter who pours upon them the regenerating waters if she is our mother where is our love and obedience
the christian should have for his spiritual mother all the simplicity all the credulity i might say of a child guided by the instincts of faith unless ye become says our lord
our host answer'd o jankin be ye there now good men quoth our host hearken to me
this lollard here will preachen us somewhat
he woulde sowe some difficulty
and therefore host i warne thee beforn my jolly body shall a tale tell and i shall clinke you so merry a bell that i shall waken all this company but it shall not be of philosophy
all for his owen worship richely in which array we dance jollily and if that he may not paraventure or elles list not such dispence endure
then must another paye for our cost or lend us gold and that is perilous this noble merchant held a noble house
and for his wife was fair
amonges all these guestes great and smale there was a monk a fair man and a bold i trow a thirty winter he was old
acquainted was so with this goode man since that their firste knowledge began that in his house as familiar was he as it is possible any friend to be and for as muchel as this goode man
and eke this monk of which that i began
for to his heart it was a great pleasance thus be they knit with etern alliance and each of them gan other to assure of brotherhood while that their life may dure
in all that house but after their degree
for which they were as glad of his coming as fowl is fain when that the sun upriseth
but so befell this merchant on a day
a messenger and prayed hath dan john
as him list licence because he was a man of high prudence
who was so welcome as my lord dan john our deare cousin full of courtesy
this merchant and this monk a day or tway the thirde day the merchant up ariseth
as well may be of thilke year
and how that he dispended bad his good and if that he increased were or non his bookes and his bagges many a one he laid before him on his counting board full riche was his treasure and his hoard
for which full fast his countour door he shet and
and thus he sat till it was passed prime dan john was risen in the morn also and in the garden walked to and fro
the good wife came walking full privily into the garden where he walked soft and him saluted as she had done oft
it ought enough suffice five houres for to sleep upon a night
and with that word he laugh'd full merrily
gan for to shake her head
yea god wot all quoth she nay cousin mine it stands not so with me
for i may sing alas and well away that i was born but to no wight quoth she dare i not tell how that it stands with me wherefore i think out of this land to wend
or elles of myself to make an end so full am i of dread and eke of care this monk began upon this wife to stare and said alas my niece
and therefore telle me all your annoy
by god and by this portos i you swear though men me woulden all in pieces tear ne
and each of them told other what them list cousin quoth she if that i hadde space
what i have suffer'd since i was a wife
by god and saint martin he is no more cousin unto me than is the leaf
this gentle monk answer'd in this mannere now truely mine owen lady dear i have quoth he
for i will bringe you a hundred francs and with that word he caught her by the flanks
all still and soft and let us dine as soon as that ye may for by my cylinder
and be as true as i shall be
scarcely amonges twenty
we may well make cheer and good visage
and keepen our estate in privity till we be dead or elles that we play a pilgrimage or go out of the way and therefore have i great necessity
and come again as soon as e'er i may for which my deare wife i thee beseek
thou hast enough in every manner wise that to a thrifty household may suffice thee lacketh none array nor no vitail of silver in thy purse thou shalt not fail
and speedily the tables were laid and to the dinner faste they them sped and richely this monk the chapman fed and after dinner dan john soberly this chapman took apart and privily
he said him thus cousin it standeth so that well i see to bruges ye will go god and saint austin speede you and guide
god shielde you from care if any thing there be by day or night if it lie in my power and my might
but one thing ere ye go if it may be i woulde pray you for to lend to me
for certain beastes that i muste buy to store with a place that is ours god help me so i would that it were yours i shall not faile surely of my day
not for a thousand francs a mile way but let this thing be secret i you pray for yet to night these beastes must i buy and fare now well mine owen cousin dear grand mercy
now sickerly this is a small request
no wight in all this world wist of this loan saving the merchant and dan john alone they drink and speak and roam a while and play till that dan john rode unto his abbay
the morrow came and forth this merchant rideth to flanders ward his prentice well him guideth till he came unto bruges merrily now went this merchant fast and busily
but as a merchant shortly for to tell he led his life and there i let him dwell
with crown and beard all fresh and newly shave
for that my lord dan john was come again
the faire wife accorded with dan john that for these hundred francs he should all night have her in his armes bolt upright and this accord performed was in deed in mirth all night a busy life they lead
till it was day that dan john went his way and bade
nor no wight in the town had of dan john right no suspicioun
or where him list no more of him i say
and with his wife he made feast and cheer and tolde her
to paye twenty thousand shields anon
for great cherte and great affectioun love unto dan john he wente first to play not for to borrow of him no money
and he him told again full specially
thanked be god all whole his merchandise save that he must in alle manner wise maken a chevisance as for his best
be come borne again and if that i were rich as have i bliss of twenty thousand shields should ye not miss
lente me gold and as i can and may i thanke you by god and by saint jame but natheless i took unto our dame your wife at home the same gold again
she wot it well certain by certain tokens that i can her tell now by your leave i may no longer dwell our abbot will out of this town anon and in his company i muste gon
greet well our dame mine owen niece sweet and farewell deare cousin till we meet this merchant which that was full ware and wise creanced hath
the sum of gold and got of them his bond and home he went
that needes must he win in that voyage
his wife all new and kiss'd her in her face and up he went and maked it full tough no more quoth she by
and wantonly again with him she play'd till at the last this merchant to her said by god quoth he i am a little wroth
but natheless by god of heaven king i thoughte not to ask of him no thing i pray thee wife do thou no more so tell me alway
if any debtor hath in mine absence
lest through thy negligence i might him ask a thing that he hath paid this wife was not afeared nor afraid
god it wot i ween'd withoute doubt
that he hath had full often here
for i will pay you well and readily from day to day and if so be i fail i am your wife score it upon my tail and i shall pay as soon as ever i may
for by my troth i have on mine array and not in waste bestow'd it every deal and for i have bestowed it so well for your honour
the merchant saw none other remedy
the king at last began to think the matter worthy of his attention and having ordered elizabeth and her accomplices to be arrested he brought them before the star chamber where they freely without being put to the torture made confession of their guilt
the parliament in the session held the beginning of this year passed an act of attainder against some who were engaged in this treasonable imposture and elizabeth herself masters bocking deering rich
risby gold suffered for their crime the bishop of rochester abel addison lawrence and others were condemned for misprision of treason because they had not discovered some criminal speeches which they heard from elizabeth
and they were thrown into prison the better to undeceive the multitude the forgery of many of the prophetess's miracles was detected and even the scandalous prostitution of her manners was laid open to the public
those passions which so naturally insinuate themselves amidst the warm intimacies maintained by the devotees of different sexes had taken place between elizabeth and her confederates and it was found that a door to her dormitory
and instigated the king to take vengeance on them he suppressed three monasteries of the observantine friars and finding that little clamor was excited by this act of power
he was the more encouraged to lay his rapacious hands on the remainder meanwhile he exercised punishment on individuals who were obnoxious to him the parliament had made it treason to endeavor depriving the king of his dignity or titles
they had lately added to his other titles that of supreme head of the church it was inferred that to deny his supremacy was treason and many priors and ecclesiastics lost their lives for this new species of guilt
it was certainly a high instance of tyranny to punish the mere delivery of a political opinion
had overlooked all the principles by which a civilized much more a free people should be governed
but the violence of changing so suddenly the whole system of government and making it treason to deny what during many ages it had been heresy to assert is an event which may appear somewhat extraordinary
even the stern unrelenting mind of henry
and he went so far as to change his garb and dress pretending sorrow for the necessity by which he was pushed to such extremities still impelled however by his violent temper
and desirous of striking a terror into the whole nation he proceeded by making examples of fisher and more to consummate his lawless tyranny john fisher bishop of rochester was a prelate eminent for learning and morals
still more than for his ecclesiastical dignities and for the high favor which he had long enjoyed with the king when he was thrown into prison on account of his refusing the oath which regarded the succession
he was allowed nothing but rags which scarcely sufficed to cover his nakedness in this condition he lay in prison above a twelvemonth when the pope willing to recompense the sufferings of so faithful an adherent
created him a cardinal though fisher was so indifferent about that dignity that even if the purple were lying at his feet he declared that he would not stoop to take it
this promotion of a man merely for his opposition to royal authority roused the indignation of the king
who kept a cautious silence with regard to the supremacy he was only inveigled to say that any question with regard to the law which established that prerogative was a two edged sword
if a person answer one way it will confound his soul if another it will destroy his body no more was wanted to found an indictment of high treason against the prisoner his silence was called malicious and made a part of his crime
and these words which had casually dropped from him were interpreted as a denial of the supremacy trials were mere formalities during this reign the jury gave sentence against more who had long expected this fate
and he made a sacrifice of his life to his integrity with the same indifference that he maintained in any ordinary occurrence when he was mounting the scaffold he said to one friend help me up
and when i come down again let me shift for myself the executioner asking him forgiveness he granted the request but told him you will never get credit by beheading me my neck is so short
and paul the third of the name of farnese had succeeded to the papal throne this pontiff who while cardinal had always favored henry's cause had hoped that personal animosities being buried with his predecessor
and the king himself was so desirous of accommodating matters that in a negotiation which he entered into with francis a little before this time he required that that monarch should conciliate a friendship between him and the court of rome
but henry was accustomed to prescribe not to receive terms and even while he was negotiating for peace his usual violence often carried him to commit offences which rendered the quarrel totally incurable
the execution of fisher was regarded by paul as so capital an injury that he immediately passed censures against the king citing him and all his adherents to appear in rome
within ninety days in order to answer for their crimes if they failed he excommunicated them deprived the king of his crown laid the kingdom under an interdict declared his issue by anne boleyn illegitimate
dissolved all leagues which any catholic princes had made with him gave his kingdom to any invader commanded the nobility to take arms against him freed his subjects from all oaths of allegiance cut off their commerce with foreign states
and declared it lawful for any one to seize them to make slaves of their persons and to convert their effects to his own use but though these censures were passed they were not at that time openly denounced
the pope delayed the publication till he should find an agreement with england entirely desperate and till the emperor who was at that time hard pressed by the turks and the protestant princes in germany should be in a condition to carry the sentence into execution
and henry besides remitting them some money sent fox bishop of hereford as francis did bellay lord of langley to treat with them
but during the first fervors of the reformation an agreement in theological tenets was held as well as a union of interests to be essential to a good correspondence among states
these theologians were now of great importance in the world and no poet or philosopher even in ancient greece where they were treated with most respect
had ever reached equal applause and admiration with those wretched composers of metaphysical polemics the german princes told the king that they could not spare their divines and as henry had no hopes of agreement with such zealous disputants
because though they agreed in every thing else they differed in some minute particulars with regard to the eucharist he was the more indifferent on account of this refusal
would be ratified in heaven and that she had no other request to make than to recommend to him his daughter the sole pledge of their loves and to crave his protection for her maids and servants she concluded with these words
the king was touched even to the shedding of tears by this last tender proof of catharine's affection but queen anne is said to have expressed her joy for the death of a rival beyond what decency or humanity could permit
the emperor thought that as the demise of his aunt had removed all foundation of personal animosity between him and henry it might not now be impossible to detach him from the alliance of france
provided that prince would acknowledge that the former breach of friendship came entirely from himself as to the conditions proposed the proceedings against the bishop of rome
were so just and so fully ratified by the parliament of england that they could not now be revoked when christian princes should have settled peace among themselves
he would not fail to exert that vigor which became him against the enemies of the faith and after amity with the emperor was once fully restored he should then be in a situation
as head of the germanic body not to give umbrage however to the states of italy he professed his intention of bestowing that principality on some prince who should be obnoxious to no party
and he even made offer of it to the duke of angouleme third son of francis the french monarch who pretended that his own right to milan was now revived upon sforza's death was content to substitute his second son
and be able to carry an invasion into francis's dominions the ancient enmity between these princes broke out anew in bravadoes and in personal insults on each other ill becoming persons of their rank
and still less suitable to men of such unquestioned bravery charles soon after invaded provence in person with an army of fifty thousand men but met with no success his army perished with sickness fatigue
both that his ally francis was likely to support himself without foreign assistance and that his own tranquillity was fully insured
by these violent wars and animosities on the continent if any inquietude remained with the english court it was solely occasioned by the state of affairs in scotland james hearing of the dangerous situation of his ally francis
generously levied some forces and embarking them on board vessels which he had hired for that purpose landed them safely in france he even went over in person and making haste to join the camp of the french king
which then lay in provence and to partake of his danger
recommended by so agreeable and seasonable an instance of friendship the king of scots paid his addresses to magdalen daughter of the french monarch and this prince had no other objection to the match
than what arose from the infirm state of his daughter's health which seemed to threaten her with an approaching end but james having gained the affections of the princess and obtained her consent
the father would no longer oppose the united desires of his daughter and his friend they were accordingly married and soon after set sail for scotland where the young queen as was foreseen
died in a little time after her arrival francis however was afraid lest his ally henry whom he likewise looked on as his friend and who lived with him on a more cordial footing than is usual among great princes
and francis was apprehensive of a rupture with a prince who regulated his measures more by humor and passion than by the rules of political prudence
that he pursued no further this disgust against francis and in the end every thing remained in tranquillity both on the side of france and of scotland the domestic peace of england seemed to be exposed to more hazard by the violent innovations in religion
and it may be affirmed that in this dangerous conjuncture nothing insured public tranquillity so much as the decisive authority acquired by the king and his great ascendant over all his subjects
not only the devotion paid to the crown was profound during that age the personal respect inspired by henry was considerable and even the terrors with which he overawed every one
were not attended with any considerable degree of hatred his frankness his sincerity his magnificence his generosity were virtues which counterbalanced his violence cruelty and impetuosity
and the important rank which his vigor more than his address acquired him in all foreign negotiations flattered the vanity of englishmen and made them the more willingly endure those domestic hardships to which they were exposed
the king conscious of his advantages was now proceeding to the most dangerous exercise of his authority and after paving the way for that measure by several preparatory expedients
had sufficiently prepared the nation for a breach with the sovereign pontiff and men had penetration enough to discover abuses which were plainly calculated for the temporal advantages of the hierarchy and which they found destructive of their own
these subjects seemed proportioned to human understanding and even the people who felt the power of interest in their own breasts could perceive the purpose of those numerous inventions which the interested spirit of the roman pontiff had introduced into religion
but when the reformers proceeded thence to dispute concerning the nature of the sacraments the operations of grace the terms of acceptance with the deity
the profound ignorance in which both the clergy and laity formerly lived and their freedom from theological altercations
had produced a sincere but indolent acquiescence in received opinions and the multitude were neither attached to them by topics of reasoning
nor by those prejudices and antipathies against opponents which have ever a more natural and powerful influence over them as soon therefore
as a new opinion was advanced supported by such an authority as to call up their attention they felt their capacity totally unfitted for such disquisitions
hence the quick and violent movements by which the people were agitated even in the most opposite directions hence their seeming prostitution in sacrificing to present power the most sacred principles
and hence the rapid progress during some time and the sudden as well as entire check soon after of the new doctrines when men were once settled in their particular sects
and had fortified themselves in an habitual detestation of those who were denominated heretics they adhered with more obstinacy to the principles of their education and the limits of the two religions thenceforth remained fixed and unchangeable
and the summons given every one to examine the principles formerly imposed upon him though the multitude were totally unqualified for this undertaking they yet were highly pleased with it they fancied that they were exercising their judgment
while they opposed to the prejudices of ancient authority more powerful prejudices of another kind the novelty itself of the doctrines the pleasure of an imaginary triumph in dispute the fervent zeal of the reformed preachers
their patience and even alacrity in suffering persecution death and torments a disgust at the restraints of the old religion an indignation against the tyranny and interested spirit of the ecclesiastics
these motives were prevalent with the people and by such considerations were men so generally induced during that age to throw off the religion of their ancestors
but in proportion as the practice of submitting religion to private judgment was acceptable to the people
the very precedent of shaking so ancient and deep founded an establishment as that of the romish hierarchy might it was apprehended prepare the way for other innovations the republican spirit which naturally took place among the reformers
increased this jealousy the furious insurrections of the populace excited by muncer and other anabaptists in germany furnished a new pretence for decrying the reformation
nor ought we to conclude because protestants in our time prove as dutiful subjects as those of any other communion that therefore such apprehensions were altogether without any shadow of plausibility
and blinded by a natural arrogance and obstinacy of temper he had entertained the most lofty opinion of his own erudition and he received with impatience mixed with contempt any contradiction to his sentiments
luther also had been so imprudent as to treat in a very indecent manner his royal antagonist and though he afterwards made the most humble submissions to henry and apologized for the vehemence of his former expressions
had corrected one considerable part of his early prejudices he had made it a point of honor never to relinquish the remainder separate as he stood from the catholic church and from the roman pontiff the head of it
henry's ministers and courtiers were of as motley a character as his conduct and seemed to waver during this whole reign between the ancient and the new religion the queen engaged by interest as well as inclination
favored the cause of the reformers cromwell who was created secretary of state and who was daily advancing in the king's confidence had embraced the same views and as he was a man of prudence and abilities
he was able very effectually though in a covert manner to promote the late innovations cranmer
virtues which he possessed in as eminent a degree as those times equally distracted with faction and oppressed by tyranny could easily permit on the other hand
the duke of norfolk adhered to the ancient faith and by his high rank as well as by his talents both for peace and war he had great authority in the king's council gardiner lately created bishop of winchester
had enlisted himself in the same party and the suppleness of his character and dexterity of his conduct had rendered him extremely useful to it
all these ministers while they stood in the most irreconcilable opposition of principles to each other were obliged to disguise their particular opinions and to pretend an entire agreement with the sentiments of their master
cromwell and cranmer still carried the appearance of a conformity to the ancient speculative tenets but they artfully made use of henry's resentment to widen the breach with the see of rome
norfolk and gardiner feigned an assent to the king's supremacy and to his renunciation of the sovereign pontiff but they encouraged his passion for the catholic faith
and instigated him to punish those daring heretics who had presumed to reject his theological principles both sides hoped by their unlimited compliance to bring him over to their party
the king meanwhile who held the balance between the factions was enabled by the courtship paid him both by protestants and catholics to assume an unbounded authority and though in all his measures he was really driven by his ungoverned humor
he casually steered a course which led more certainly to arbitrary power than any which the most profound politics could have traced out to him artifice refinement and hypocrisy in his situation
would have put both parties on their guard against him and would have taught them reserve in complying with a monarch whom they could never hope thoroughly to have gained but while the frankness sincerity and openness of henry's temper were generally known
as well as the dominion of his furious passions each side dreaded to lose him by the smallest opposition and flattered themselves that a blind compliance with his will would throw him cordially and fully into their interests
the ambiguity of the king's conduct though it kept the courtiers in awe served in the main to encourage the protestant doctrine among his subjects and promoted that spirit of innovation
with which the age was generally seized and which nothing but an entire uniformity as will as a steady severity in the administration could be able to repress there were some englishmen tindal joye
constantine and others who dreading the exertion of the king's authority had fled to antwerp where the great privileges possessed by the low country provinces served during some time to give them protection
these men employed themselves in writing english books against the corruptions of the church of rome against images relics pilgrimages and they excited the curiosity of men with regard to that question the most important in theology
the terms of acceptance with the supreme being in conformity to the lutherans and other protestants they asserted that salvation was obtained by faith alone and that the most infallible road to perdition was a reliance on good works
but it was a translation of the scriptures by tindal that was esteemed the most dangerous to the established faith the first edition of this work composed with little accuracy was found liable to considerable objections
and tindal who was poor and could not afford to lose a great part of the impression was longing for an opportunity of correcting his errors of which he had been made sensible tonstal then bishop of london
soon after of durham a man of great moderation being desirous to discourage in the gentlest manner these innovations
gave private orders for buying up all the copies that could be found at antwerp and he burned them publicly in cheapside by this measure he supplied tindal with money enabled him to print a new and correct edition of his work
and gave great scandal to the people in thus committing to the flames the word of god the disciples of the reformation met with little severity during the ministry of wolsey who though himself a clergyman
it was even an article of impeachment against him that by his connivance he had encouraged the growth of heresy and that he had protected and acquitted some notorious offenders sir thomas more who succeeded wolsey as chancellor
is at once an object deserving our compassion and an instance of the usual progress of men's sentiments during that age this man whose elegant genius and familiar acquaintance with the noble spirit of antiquity
had given him very enlarged sentiments and who had in his early years advanced principles which even at present
and thrown into such a superstitious attachment to the ancient faith that few inquisitors have been guilty of greater violence in their prosecution of heresy
though adorned with the gentlest manners as well as the purest integrity he carried to the utmost height his aversion to heterodoxy and james bainham in particular a gentleman of the temple
and having refused to discover his accomplices the chancellor ordered him to be whipped in his presence and afterwards sent him to the tower where he himself saw him put to the torture
had been terrified into an abjuration but was so haunted by remorse that his friends dreaded some fatal effects of his despair
at last his mind seemed to be more relieved but this appearing calm proceeded only from the resolution which he had taken of expiating his past offence by an open confession of the truth and by dying a martyr to it
he went through norfolk teaching the people to beware of idolatry and of trusting for their salvation either to pilgrimages or to the cowl of saint francis to the prayers of the saints or to images
he was soon seized tried in the bishop's court and condemned as a relapsed heretic and the writ was sent down to burn him when brought to the stake he discovered such patience fortitude and devotion
those severe executions which in another disposition of men's minds would have sufficed to suppress it now served only to diffuse it the more among the people
and to inspire them with horror against the unrelenting persecutors but though henry neglected not to punish the protestant doctrine which he deemed heresy his most formidable enemies he knew
were the zealous adherents to the ancient religion chiefly the monks who having their immediate dependence on the roman pontiff apprehended their own ruin to be the certain consequence of abolishing his authority in england peyto
a friar preaching before the king had the assurance to tell him that many lying prophets had deceived him but he as a true micajah warned him that the dogs would lick his blood
a slanderer a dog and a traitor elston another friar of the same house interrupted the preacher and told him that he was one of the lying prophets who sought to establish by adultery the succession of the crown
but that he himself would justify all that peyto had said henry silenced the petulant friar but showed no other mark of resentment than ordering peyto and him to be summoned before the council
had been subject to hysterical fits which threw her body into unusual convulsions and having produced an equal disorder in her mind made her utter strange sayings which as she was scarcely conscious of them during the time
had soon after entirely escaped her memory the silly people in the neighborhood were struck with these appearances which they imagined to be supernatural and richard masters
vicar of the parish a designing fellow founded on them a project from which he hoped to acquire both profit and consideration he went to warham archbishop of canterbury then alive
and having given him an account of elizabeth's revelations he so far wrought on that prudent but superstitious prelate as to receive orders from him to watch her in her trances and carefully to note down all her future sayings
the regard paid her by a person of so high a rank soon rendered her still more the object of attention to the neighborhood and it was easy for masters to persuade them as well as the maid herself
that her ravings were inspirations of the holy ghost knavery as is usual soon after succeeding to delusion she learned to counterfeit trances and she then uttered in an extraordinary tone
such speeches as were dictated to her by her spiritual director
which stood in a chapel belonging to masters and to draw to it such pilgrimages as usually frequented the more famous images and relics
in prosecution of this design elizabeth pretended revelations which directed her to have recourse to that image for a cure
and being brought before it in the presence of a great multitude she fell anew into convulsions and after distorting her limbs and countenance during a competent time she affected to have obtained a perfect recovery by the intercession of the virgin
and the two priests finding the imposture to succeed beyond their own expectations began to extend their views and to lay the foundation of more important enterprises
they taught their penitent to declaim against the new doctrines which she denominated heresy against innovations in ecclesiastical government and against the king's intended divorce from catharine
she went so far as to assert that if he prosecuted that design and married another he should not be a king a month longer and should not an hour longer enjoy the favor of the almighty but should die the death of a villain
many monks throughout england either from folly or roguery or from faction which is often a complication of both
wrote a book of the revelations and prophecies of elizabeth miracles were daily added to increase the wonder and the pulpit every where resounded with accounts of the sanctity and inspirations of the new prophetess
messages were carried from her to queen catharine by which that princess was exhorted to persist in her opposition to the divorce the pope's ambassadors gave encouragement to the popular credulity
introduction to appendix ananzi stories the negroes in the west indies
which their fathers and grandfathers brought with them from africa some thirty years back these ananzi stories as they are called were invariably told at the negro wakes
which lasted for nine successive nights the reciters were always men in those days when the slaves were still half heathen
obeah was universally believed in such of the negroes as attended church or chapel kept their children away from these funeral gatherings the wakes are now it is believed
almost entirely discontinued and with them have gone the stories the negroes are very shy of telling them and both the clergyman of the church of england and the dissenting minister
set their faces against them and call them foolishness the translator whose early childhood was passed in those islands remembers to have heard such stories from his nurse who was an african born
but beyond a stray fragment here and there the rich store which she possessed has altogether escaped his memory the following stories have been taken down from the mouth of a west indian nurse
in his sister's house who born and bred in it is rather regarded as a member of the family than as a servant they are printed just as she told them
will be self evident thus we have the wishing tree of the hindoos the kalpa vriksha of somadeva
which throws down as many pumpkins as the poor widow wishes in one story we have boots to the life while the man whom he outwits is own brother to the norse trolls
in another we find a speaking beast which reminds us at once of the egyptian story of anessou and satou as well as of the machandelboom
we find here the woman who washes the dirty head rewarded and the man who refuses to wash it punished in the very words used in
we find too in nancy fairy the same story both in groundwork and incident as we have in the lassie and her godmother and most surprising of all
in the story of ananzi and quanqua we find the very trait about a trick played with the tail of an ox
boots who ate a match with the troll here is the variation whilst he was with the troll the lad was to go out to watch the swine
but first he cut their tails off and stuck them into the ground then he went home to the troll
but when the troll saw the swine's tails sticking out of the ground he wanted to pull them back again
and gave a great tug and then
they are called ananzi stories because so many of them turn on the feats of ananzi whose character is a mixture of the master thief and of boots
but the most curious thing about him is that he illustrates the beast epic in a remarkable way in all the west indian islands ananzi is the name of spiders in general
and of a very beautiful spider with yellow stripes in particular footnote compare crowther's yoruba glossary where alansasa is given as the yoruban for spider
the change of n into l is not uncommon even supposing the west indian word to be uncorrupt
the negroes think
but that his superior cunning enables him to take any shape he pleases in fact he is the example which the african tribes from which these stories came have chosen to take as pointing out the superiority of wit
in this way they have matched the cleverness and dexterity of the spider against the bone and muscle of the lion invariably to the disadvantage of the latter after this introduction
we let the tales speak for themselves only premising that the
is a very pretty fly of the wasp kind and like his european brother
that the cush cush is a little red yam which imparts a strong red dye to everything with which it is boiled
used to wander on earth they came to a smith's house he had made a bargain with the devil that the fiend should have him after seven years but during that time
he was to be the master of all masters in his trade and to this bargain both he and the devil had signed their names so he had stuck up in great letters over the door of his forge
the master over all
now when our lord passed by and saw that he went in who are you he said to the smith read what's written over the door said the smith
but maybe you can't read writing if so you must wait till some one comes to help you before our lord had time to answer him a man came with his horse which he begged the smith
to shoe might i have leave to shoe it asked our lord you may try if you like said the smith you can't do it so badly that i shall not be able to make it right again
so our lord went out and took one leg off the horse and laid it in the furnace and made the shoe red hot after that he turned up the ends of the shoe
and filed down the heads of the nails and clenched the points and then he put back the leg safe and sound on the horse again and when he was done with that leg
and did the same with it
and laid them in the furnace making the shoes red hot turning up the ends filing the heads of the nails and clenching the points and after all was done
all the while the smith stood by and looked on you're not so bad a smith after all said he oh you think so do you said our lord
a little while after came the smith's mother to the forge and called him to come home and eat his dinner she was an old old woman with an ugly crook on her back
and wrinkles in her face
mark now what you see said our lord then he took the woman and laid her in the furnace
out of her well said the smith i say now as i said before
there it stands over my door here dwells the master over all masters but for all that i say right out one learns
as long as one lives and with that he walked off to his house and ate his dinner so after dinner just after he had got back to his forge
a man came riding up to have his horse shod
said the smith for i have just learnt a new way to shoe
when the days are short
all the horse's legs off for he said i don't know why one should go pottering backwards and forwards
then he laid the legs in the furnace just as he had seen our lord lay them and threw on a great heap of coal and made his mates work the bellows bravely
but it went as one might suppose it would go
and the smith had to pay for the horse
he didn't care much about that but just then an old beggar woman came along the road and he thought to himself better luck next time
so he took the old dame and laid her in the furnace
you're so old you don't know what is good for you said the smith now you shall be a lovely young maiden in half no time and for all that
i'll not charge you a penny for the job
than with the horse's legs
said our lord oh for that matter said the smith
i'll be bound but it's a shame of the devil if this is the way he holds to what is written up over the door
said our lord what would you wish for only try me said the smith and you'll soon know
well said the smith first and foremost i wish that any one whom i ask to climb up into the pear tree
that stands outside by the wall of my forge may stay sitting there till i ask him to come down again the second wish i wish is
may stay sitting there till i ask him to get up last of all i wish that any one whom i ask to creep into the steel purse which i have in my pocket
you have wished as a wicked man said saint peter first and foremost
i durstn't look so high as that said the smith
bade him good bye and went on their way
the years went on and on and when the time was up the devil came to fetch the smith as it was written in their bargain are you ready he said as he stuck his nose in
at the door of the forge oh said the smith i must just hammer the head of this tenpenny nail first meantime you can just climb up into the pear tree
and pluck yourself a pear to gnaw at you must be both hungry and thirsty after your journey so the devil thanked him for his kind offer and climbed up into the pear tree
very good said the smith but now on thinking the matter over
this iron is so plaguey hard down you can't come in all that time but may sit up there
when the devil heard this he begged and prayed till his voice was as thin as a silver penny that he might have leave to come down but there was no help for it
there he was and there he must stay at last
not to come again till the four years were out which the smith had spoken of and then the smith said very well now you may come down so when the time was up
the devil came again to fetch the smith you're ready now of course said he you've had time enough to hammer the head of that nail i should think
the head is right enough now said the smith but still you have come a little
for i haven't quite done sharpening the point
iron i never hammered in all my born days so while i work at the point you may just as well sit down in my easy chair and rest yourself
i'll be bound you're weary after coming so far thank you kindly said the devil and down he plumped into the easy chair but just as he had made himself comfortable the smith said
he found he couldn't get the point sharp till four years were out first of all the devil begged so prettily to be let out of the chair and afterwards
waxing wroth he began to threaten and scold but the smith kept on all the while excusing himself and saying it was all the iron's fault
and telling the devil he was not so badly off to have to sit quietly in an easy chair and that he would let him out to the minute when the four years were over well at last
there was no help for it
not to fetch the smith till the four years were out and then the smith said well now you may get up and be off about your business
and away went the devil as fast as he could lay legs to the ground
and he called out as he stuck his nose in at the door of the forge now i know you must be ready ready aye ready answered the smith we can go now as soon as you please
i would ask you to tell me is it true what people say that the devil can make himself as small as he pleases
oh said the smith
then i wish you would just be so good as to creep into this steel purse of mine and see whether it is sound at the bottom for to tell you the truth i'm afraid my travelling money will drop out
with all my heart said the devil who made himself small in a trice and crept into the purse but he was scarce in when the smith snapped to the clasp
yes called out the devil inside the purse it's right and tight everywhere very good said the smith
but more haste the worse speed says the old saw and forewarned is forearmed says another so i'll just weld these links a little together
just for safety's sake and with that he laid the purse in the furnace and made it red hot au au screamed the devil are you mad
don't you know i'm inside the purse yes i do said the smith
one must strike while the iron is hot and as he said this he took up his sledge hammer laid the purse on the anvil and let fly at it as hard as he could
au au au bellowed the devil inside the purse dear friend
very well said the smith
the links are pretty well welded and you may come out so he unclasped the purse and away went the devil in such a hurry that he didn't once look behind him now some time after
it came across the smith's mind that he had done a silly thing in making the devil his enemy for he said to himself if as is like enough they won't have me in the kingdom of heaven
so he made up his mind it would be best to try to get either into hell or heaven and to try at once rather than to put it off any longer so that he might know how things really stood
then he threw his sledge hammer over his shoulder
bit of the way he came to a place where two roads met and where the path to the kingdom of heaven parts
and here he overtook a tailor who was pelting along with his goose in his hand good day said the smith whither are you off to to the kingdom of heaven
said the tailor if i can only get into it'
said the smith for i have made up my mind to try first in hell as the devil and i know something of one another from old times so they bade one another good bye and each went his way
and got over the ground far faster than the tailor
then he called the watch and bade him go and tell the devil there was some one outside who wished to speak a word with him go out said the devil to the watch
so that when the watch came and told him that the smith answered go and greet the devil in my name and say it is the smith who owns the purse he wots of
and beg him prettily to let me in at once for i worked at my forge till noon and i have had a long walk since
he charged the watch to go back and lock up all the nine locks on the gates of hell and besides he said you may as well put on a padlock for if he only once gets in
there's no lodging to be got here that's plain so i may as well try my luck in the kingdom of heaven and with that
and then he went along the path the tailor had taken and now as he was cross at having gone backwards and forwards so far for no good he strode along with all his might
and reached the gate of heaven just as saint peter was opening it a very little just enough to let the half starved tailor slip in the smith was still six or seven strides off the gate
so he thought to himself now there's no time to be lost and grasping his sledge hammer he hurled it into the opening of the door just as the tailor slunk in
tom totherhouse
who had a deaf husband a good easy man he was but that was just why she thought more of the lad next door whom they called tom totherhouse
now the lad that served the deaf man saw very well that the two had something between them and one day he said to the goody dare you wager ten dollars mother
that i don't make you lay bare your own shame yes i dare said she and so they wagered ten dollars so one day
while the lad and the deaf man stood thrashing in the barn the lad saw that tom totherhouse came to see the goody he said nothing but a good while before dinnertime he turned toward the barn door
and bawled out halloa what are we to go home already said the man who hadn't given any heed to what the lad did yes we must since mother calls
said the lad so when they got into the passage the lad began to hem and cough that the goody might get tom totherhouse out of the way but when they came into the room
there stood a whole bowl of custards on the table nay nay mother cried out the man shall we have custards to day yes that you shall dear said the goody
but she was as sour as verjuice and as cross as two sticks so when they had eaten and drank all the good cheer up off they went again to their work and the goody said to tom
deil take that lad's sharp nose this was all his fault but now you must be off as fast as you can
with a snack between meals this the lad stood outside in the passage and listened to do you know father he said i think we'd best go down into the hollow
and put our fence to rights which is blown down before the neighbours swine get in and root up our meadow aye aye let's go and do it said the man for he did all he was told good easy man
so when the afternoon was half spent down came the goody sneaking along into the mead with something under her apron nay nay mother said the man it can't be you any longer
are we to have a snack between meals too yes yes that you shall she said but she was sourer and wilder than ever so they made merry and crammed themselves with bannocks and butter
and had a drop of brandy into the bargain i'll go off to tom totherhouse with a snack shan't i mother said the lad he's had nothing between meals i'll be bound
the lad broke a bannock to bits and dropped the crumbs here and there as he walked but when he got to tom totherhouse he said
for our old cock has found out that you come too often to see our goody he won't stand it any longer
as soon as ever he can set eyes on you as for tom he was so frightened he scarce knew which way to turn and the lad went back again to his master there's something wrong he said
with tom's plough and he begs you to be so good as to take your axe and go and see if you can't set it right yes the man set off with his axe
but tom totherhouse had scarce caught sight of him
the man turned and twisted the plough round and round and looked at it on every side and when he couldn't see anything wrong with it he went off home again but on the way
he picked up the bits of broken bannock which the lad had let fall his old dame stood in the meadow and looked at him as he did this for a while and wondered and wondered
what it could be her husband was gathering up oh i know said the lad master's picking up stones i'll be bound for he has marked how often this tom totherhouse runs over here
and the old fellow won't stand it any longer and now he has sworn to stone mother to death off went the goody as fast as her legs could carry her what in the world is it
that mother is running after now asked the man when he reached the spot where she had stood
maybe the house at home is on fire so there ran the husband behind and the goody before
ah ah don't stone me to death don't stone me to death and i'll give you my word never to let tom totherhouse come near me again now the ten dollars are mine
chapter eleven repair
nature takes possession of his work regardless of his purposes dust gathers on unused clothes and moths burrow in them shut up a house and windows are shattered roofs leak and vermin swarm
to close a factory is to hasten the time when buildings and machinery
the most magnificent and solid works of man have crumbled under the finger of time the earth is strewn with ruins of gigantic engineering works aqueducts canals temples and monuments
whose restoration would be no less a task than was their first building everywhere vigilance and repairs are the conditions of continued uses of wealth some works of nature such as waterfalls
without repair but they bear rent only when used with other things that must be constantly mended a certain amount of labor on the banks of the mill stream and certain repairs on the dam the water wheel and the gates are necessary
by a fiction in business contracts the waterfall may be dealt with apart from those conditions to its use and may be rented as a field is with the agreement that the tenant keep up the repairs
the efficiency of land as mere standing room usually does not seem to be dependent on repairs but here again the land yields rent in connection with other rent bearing agents such as houses and other agents above ground
which must be repaired standing room on land is not a complete indirect agent it is but one of the conditions for carrying on an industry
they would be some of the works of nature in a sense all matter is indestructible man cannot annihilate it he can simply change its condition
but in economic discussion it is the value of things that is being considered and from this point of view everything is in some degree destructible the effects of bad husbandry are everywhere apparent
and in many regions fertile fields have been physically and economically destroyed in asia lands that once supported millions perhaps hundreds of millions of population are now deserts egypt
for a time reduced to a semi desert condition has only in the past century been restored to a certain extent by the use of new methods and a return to the old ones many of the areas that were the granaries of rome can now hardly support a sparse
yet every frost weakens every rain undermines a portion of it earthquake landslide and flood fill up the ditches or tear down the embankments
constant work is needed to keep it fit and safe for use above this is the track slightly less permanent more frequently changed the ties rot and even the rails of steel must be at times replaced
the rolling stock is still less durable and the different parts vary in length of life it is said that the wheel tires are renewed four times the boiler three times and the paint seven times
yet an average depreciation rate of one and one half per cent a year must be allowed to offset a reduction in its value of over fifty per cent in thirty years
machinery differs greatly in durability well made substantial machinery depreciates about five per cent yearly the engines and boilers depreciate more rapidly than the running gear
the loose tools have to be replaced every second to fourth year while the materials consumed in the industry
the neglect of one kind simply reduces present rental while not preventing the future restoration of the plant to its full efficiency if certain necessary tools wear out and are not replaced
the factory as a whole will be less efficient each part of the entire outfit being needed in due proportion the loss in rental will correspond not merely to the lost efficiency of the missing tools
but to the crippled efficiency of the remaining appliances failure to apply seed to the land causes the land as a whole to be useless for that year's crop in other cases neglect of repairs increases the expenses of repairs
and cuts off future rental the adages a stitch in time saves nine and
must be acted upon in every industry the neglect to repair a roof causes damage to an amount many times the cost of a new roof failure to replace a bolt costing five cents
it does not pay to keep an old hotel up to the same state of repair as when it had a great patronage
changes go on in the substance of things which cannot be prevented by any attention to repairs the wood in a framework will decay the metals crystallize there is also an unpreventable wear of parts
that cannot be replaced without replacing the whole machine it is the aim of the modern manufacturers to make machines like the wonderful one horse shay every part of equal durability
the development in america of the system of interchangable parts has greatly simplified and cheapened repairs and has lengthened the working life of machines nevertheless their lot is the scrap heap at last
this general depreciation appears to be nearly avoided in large factories where there is serial replacement of the parts but occasionally some invention or some improvement of process necessitates an almost completely new equipment
an old man once said to me i have lived in this house forty years it was well built has been repainted regularly has never been allowed to leak a drop and it is as good as it ever was
i see no reason why it could not be kept to eternity if always kept in repair but the same could not be said of the house now in general
that relation may be changed if some other agent is found fitted to serve these wants more directly
at every moment in a progressive society many rent earning agents are being thrown out of use the machinery in flour mills has been almost completely changed parts of it repeatedly
while the roller process has been substituted for the old millstones water power because of its uncertainty has been replaced in many places by steam power and in many places steam power in turn
has been rivaled by water power since the improvements in the generation and transmission of electricity a change in the process of making paper threw out of use much machinery
the exhaustion of materials on which machinery is employed may reduce its usefulness a sawmill located in the midst of a forest has a high earning power while the forest lasts but when the forest is cut off
the mill itself declines in value unless it can be removed to another forest and thus have its earning power renewed it will have the value only of scrap iron it has become an indirect agent in the wrong place
oil boring machinery where a rich supply of oil is found has a high rental for a time
grades in a more or less regular series it follows that as these changes are going on the place of agents on the scale of efficiency is constantly shifting the various agents represent all grades of efficiency
one depreciates possibly is restored later and takes a high place and again depreciates until finally it is thrown out of use
one loom embodies the latest improvements and corresponds to the most fertile field another can still be made to yield a little rent
a great mass of no rent agents lie just below the margin of utilization in every industry some of these are permanently abandoned some will be taken back into use when business conditions improve
when the iron industry is dull many forges are out of blast but when iron is again in demand there is a gradual taking up of the abandoned forges factories and machines
as they are brought within the margin of profitable utilization many agents not actually earning a rent may become rent earning through a change in business conditions
and of the needs of the older countries great quantities of wood have been used and still greater quantities wasted trees being girdled the ground burned over the timber destroyed in any way that would clear the soil
now the supplies of lumber must be sought on the very margins of our territory florida maine northern michigan and wisconsin washington and oregon the supplies in washington and oregon are almost unavailable in the eastern states
on account of the cost of transportation professor marsh thirty years ago strikingly characterized the policy that has been pursued we are breaking up the foundation timbers
forests greatly affect climate temperature and soil they influence the humidity they equalize the flow of streams moderate floods and by preventing the washing down of the rich soil
keep the mountain sides from becoming bare and sterile rocks so within the last two decades
a small city like ithaca probably uses to day a greater quantity of coal than was used in all europe two centuries ago the large deposits of coal and their early development in england
long gave a great advantage to english industry over that of other countries in england however has first been felt the fear of the exhaustion of the coal supply professor jevons in eighteen sixty one
sounded the note of alarm he prophesied that because the coal deposits of america were many times as great as those of england industrial supremacy must inevitably pass to america
already the supremacy in coal and iron production has passed to america and that in textiles soon will come in england the accessible supply of coal is limited deeper shafts must be sunk
and the coal gotten with greater difficulty and at greater expense coal has risen in price in england within the last few years and will continue to rise in the future
the coal deposits of america are thirty seven times as great as those of england but even these will soon be exhausted and yet on the part of all except the coal trust
there appears in america a thoughtless disregard for the future supplies of copper iron and lead in favored positions are likewise limited and are being rapidly centered in the hands of great companies
he uses the fruits that he finds and those fruits are almost without exception renewed the next year the only mines that were worked out in ancient times were gold and silver mines
while the mines of useful metals were touched but lightly within the last century the earth's crust has been exploited with startling rapidity scientific knowledge and mechanical improvement have combined
to unlock the storehouses of the geologic ages at the ever increasing rate of their use many important materials must be exhausted in the not far distant future
while it is probable that substitutes will be discovered for many of them the outlook in some directions has little promise to treat terminable incomes exhaustible sources of supply as permanent sources of income
chapter sixteen marianne would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able to sleep at all the first night after parting from willoughby she would have been ashamed to look her family in the face the next morning had she not risen from her bed
but the feelings which made such composure a disgrace left her in no danger of incurring it she was awake the whole night and she wept the greatest part of it she got up with a headache was unable to talk and unwilling to take any nourishment
giving pain every moment to her mother and sisters and forbidding all attempt at consolation from either her sensibility was potent enough when breakfast was over she walked out by herself and wandered about the village of allenham indulging
and crying over the present reverse for the chief of the morning
she played over every favourite song that she had been used to play to willoughby every air in which their voices had been oftenest joined and sat at the instrument gazing on every line of music that he had written out for her
till her heart was so heavy that no farther sadness could be gained and this nourishment of grief was every day applied she spent whole hours at the pianoforte alternately singing and crying her voice often totally suspended by her tears
in books too as well as in music she courted the misery which a contrast between the past and present was certain of giving she read nothing but what they had been used to read together
such violence of affliction indeed could not be supported for ever it sunk within a few days into a calmer melancholy but these employments to which she daily recurred her solitary walks and silent meditations
still produced occasional effusions of sorrow as lively as ever no letter from willoughby came and none seemed expected by marianne
but missus dashwood could find explanations whenever she wanted them which at least satisfied herself
how very often sir john fetches our letters himself from the post and carries them to it we have already agreed that secrecy may be necessary
elinor could not deny the truth of this
but there was one method so direct so simple and in her opinion so eligible of knowing the real state of the affair and of instantly removing all mystery
why do you not ask marianne at once said she
from you her mother and so kind so indulgent a mother the question could not give offence it would be the natural result of your affection for her
i would not ask such a question for the world supposing it possible that they are not engaged what distress would not such an enquiry inflict at any rate it would be most ungenerous i should never deserve her confidence again after forcing from her a confession
of what is meant at present to be unacknowledged to any one i know marianne's heart
considering her sister's youth and urged the matter farther but in vain common sense common care common prudence were all sunk in missus dashwood's romantic delicacy
it was several days before willoughby's name was mentioned before marianne by any of her family sir john and missus jennings indeed were not so nice
but one evening missus dashwood accidentally taking up a volume of shakespeare exclaimed we have never finished hamlet marianne our dear willoughby went away before we could get through it
months cried marianne with strong surprise no nor many weeks missus dashwood was sorry for what she had said
and knowledge of his intentions one morning about a week after his leaving the country marianne was prevailed on to join her sisters in their usual walk instead of wandering away by herself
hitherto she had carefully avoided every companion in her rambles if her sisters intended to walk on the downs she directly stole away towards the lanes
and could never be found when the others set off
who greatly disapproved such continual seclusion they walked along the road through the valley and chiefly in silence for marianne's mind could not be controlled
beyond the entrance of the valley where the country though still rich was less wild and more open a long stretch of the road which they had travelled on first coming to barton lay before them
and on reaching that point they stopped to look around them and examine a prospect which formed the distance of their view from the cottage from a spot which they had never happened to reach in any of their walks before
amongst the objects in the scene they soon discovered an animated one it was a man on horseback riding towards them in a few minutes they could distinguish him to be a gentleman
a third almost as well known as willoughby's joined them in begging her to stop and she turned round with surprise to see and welcome edward ferrars he was the only person in the world who could at that moment be forgiven for not being willoughby
the only one who could have gained a smile from her but she dispersed her tears to smile on him
whither he was purposely coming to visit them he was welcomed by them all with great cordiality
to marianne indeed the meeting between edward and her sister was but a continuation of that unaccountable coldness which she had often observed at norland in their mutual behaviour
on edward's side more particularly there was a deficiency of all that a lover ought to look and say on such an occasion he was confused seemed scarcely sensible of pleasure in seeing them looked neither rapturous nor gay said little but what was forced from him by questions
marianne saw and listened with increasing surprise she began almost to feel a dislike of edward and it ended as every feeling must end with her by carrying back her thoughts to willoughby
whose manners formed a contrast sufficiently striking to those of his brother elect
marianne asked edward if he came directly from london no he had been in devonshire a fortnight a fortnight she repeated surprised at his being so long in the same county with elinor without seeing her before
have you been lately in sussex said elinor i was at norland about a month ago and how does dear dear norland look cried marianne
the woods and walks thickly covered with dead leaves
with what transporting sensation have i formerly seen them fall
what feelings have they the season the air altogether inspired
but rousing herself again now edward said she calling his attention to the prospect here is barton valley look up to it and be tranquil if you can look at those hills did you ever see their equals to the left is barton park
amongst those woods and plantations you may see the end of the house and there beneath that farthest hill which rises with such grandeur is our cottage it is a beautiful country he replied but these bottoms must be dirty in winter
how can you think of dirt with such objects before you because replied he smiling
how strange said marianne to herself as she walked on
no not all answered marianne we could not be more unfortunately situated marianne cried her sister how can you say so how can you be so unjust
they are a very respectable family mister ferrars and towards us have behaved in the friendliest manner have you forgot marianne how many pleasant days we have owed to them no said marianne in a low voice nor how many painful moments
endeavoured to support something like discourse with him by talking of their present residence
let me now direct your attention to a scarcely less interesting and equally important subject
agriculture is both a science and an art
the origin of their elements and the sources of their nourishment forms its scientific basis
the principles upon which the mechanical operations of farming depend
and for removing every obnoxious influence no experience drawn from the exercise of the art can be opposed to true scientific principles because the latter should include all the results of practical operations
and are in some instances solely derived therefrom theory must correspond with experience because it is nothing more than the reduction of a series of phenomena to their last causes
a field in which we cultivate the same plant for several successive years becomes barren for that plant in a period varying with the nature of the soil
a third gives a plentiful crop of turnips but will not bear clover what is the reason that a field loses its fertility for one plant the same which at first flourished there
what is the reason one kind of plant succeeds in a field where another fails these questions belong to science
what to render one field fertile for two for three for all plants these last questions are put by art but they cannot be answered by art if a farmer without the guidance of just scientific principles
it otherwise will not bear his prospect of success is very small thousands of farmers try such experiments in various directions the result of which is a mass of practical experience forming a method of cultivation
which accomplishes the desired end for certain places but the same method frequently does not succeed it indeed ceases to be applicable to a second or third place in the immediate neighbourhood
how large a capital and how much power are wasted in these experiments very different and far more secure is the path indicated by science it exposes us to no danger of failing
but on the contrary it furnishes us with every guarantee of success if the cause of failure of barrenness in the soil for one or two plants has been discovered
the most exact observations prove that the method of cultivation must vary with the geognostical condition of the subsoil
and the presence of which renders them fertile this fully explains the difference in the necessary methods of culture for different places
wheat clover turnips for example each require certain elements from the soil they will not flourish where the appropriate elements are absent
science teaches us what elements are essential to every species of plants by an analysis of their ashes
the cause of its barrenness and its removal may now be readily accomplished the empiric attributes all his success to the mechanical operations of agriculture
he experiences and recognises their value without inquiring what are the causes of their utility their mode of action and yet this scientific knowledge is of the highest importance for regulating the application of power
and the expenditure of capital for insuring its economical expenditure and the prevention of waste can it be imagined that the mere passing of the ploughshare or the harrow through the soil the mere
contact of the iron can impart fertility miraculously nobody perhaps seriously entertains such an opinion nevertheless the modus operandi of these mechanical operations
is by no means generally understood the fact is quite certain that careful ploughing exerts the most favourable influence the surface is thus mechanically divided changed increased and renovated
but the ploughing is only auxiliary to the end sought in the effects of time in what in agriculture are technically called fallows the repose of the fields we recognise by science certain chemical actions
which are continually exercised by the elements of the atmosphere upon the whole surface of our globe by the action of its oxygen and its carbonic acid aided by water
these chemical actions poetically denominates the tooth of time
by their influence the necessary elements of the soil become fitted for assimilation by plants
they accelerate the decomposition of the soil in order to provide a new generation of plants with the necessary elements in a condition favourable to their assimilation it is obvious that the rapidity of the decomposition of a solid body
must increase with the extension of its surface the more points of contact we offer in a given time to the external chemical agent the more rapid will be its action the chemist in order to prepare a mineral for analysis
to decompose it or to increase the solubility of its elements proceeds in the same way as the farmer deals with his fields he spares no labour in order to reduce it to the finest powder he separates the impalpable from the coarser parts by washing
and repeats his mechanical bruising and trituration being assured his whole process will fail if he is inattentive to this essential and preliminary part of it
and upon the chemical action of air and moisture is strikingly illustrated upon a large scale
these are described in a very interesting manner by darwin the rock containing the gold ore is pounded by mills into the finest powder this is subjected to washing which separates the lighter particles from the metallic the gold sinks to the bottom
while a stream of water carries away the lighter earthy parts into ponds where it subsides to the bottom as mud when this deposit has gradually filled up the pond this mud is taken out and piled in heaps and left exposed to the action of the atmosphere and moisture
the washing completely removes all the soluble part of the disintegrated rock the insoluble part moreover cannot undergo any further change while it is covered with water and so excluded from the influence of the atmosphere at the bottom of the pond
but being exposed at once to the air and moisture a powerful chemical action takes place in the whole mass which becomes indicated by an efflorescence of salts covering the whole surface of the heaps in considerable quantity
and a considerable quantity of gold is obtained this having been separated by the chemical process of decomposition in the mass the exposure and washing of the same mud is repeated six or seven times
and we accelerate and increase it by the mechanical operations of our agriculture by these we sever and extend the surface
her joy and expression of regard long outlived her wonder
his affections seemed to reanimate towards them all and his interest in their welfare again became perceptible he was not in spirits however he praised their house admired its prospect was attentive and kind
but still he was not in spirits the whole family perceived it and missus dashwood attributing it to some want of liberality in his mother sat down to table indignant against all selfish parents
what are missus ferrars's views for you at present edward said she when dinner was over and they had drawn round the fire
no i hope my mother is now convinced that i have no more talents than inclination for a public life but how is your fame to be established for famous you must be to satisfy all your family and with no inclination for expense no affection for strangers
no profession and no assurance you may find it a difficult matter i shall not attempt it i have no wish to be distinguished and have every reason to hope i never shall thank heaven i cannot be forced into genius and eloquence
you have no ambition i well know your wishes are all moderate as moderate as those of the rest of the world i believe i wish as well as every body else to be perfectly happy
greatness will not make me so strange that it would cried marianne what have wealth or grandeur to do with happiness
money can only give happiness where there is nothing else to give it beyond a competence it can afford no real satisfaction as far as mere self is concerned
your competence and my wealth are very much alike i dare say and without them as the world goes now we shall both agree that every kind of external comfort must be wanting
come what is your competence about eighteen hundred or two thousand a year not more than that elinor laughed two thousand a year one is my wealth i guessed how it would end
and yet two thousand a year is a very moderate income said marianne
i am sure i am not extravagant in my demands a proper establishment of servants a carriage perhaps two and hunters cannot be supported on less
hunters repeated edward but why must you have hunters every body does not hunt marianne coloured as she replied but most people do i wish said margaret striking out a novel thought
that somebody would give us all a large fortune apiece
we are all unanimous in that wish i suppose said elinor in spite of the insufficiency of wealth
marianne looked as if she had no doubt on that point
what magnificent orders would travel from this family to london said edward in such an event what a happy day for booksellers music sellers and print shops you miss dashwood would give a general commission for every new print of merit to be sent you
and as for marianne i know her greatness of soul there would not be music enough in london to content her and books thomson cowper scott
but i was willing to shew you that i had not forgot our old disputes i love to be reminded of the past edward whether it be melancholy or gay i love to recall it and you will never offend me by talking of former times
some of it at least my loose cash would certainly be employed in improving my collection of music and books and the bulk of your fortune would be laid out in annuities on the authors or their heirs no edward i should have something else to do with it
that no one can ever be in love more than once in their life your opinion on that point is unchanged i presume undoubtedly at my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed it is not likely that i should now see or hear any thing to change them
she is not at all altered she is only grown a little more grave than she was nay edward said marianne you need not reproach me you are not very gay yourself why should you think so replied he with a sigh
nor do i think it a part of marianne's said elinor i should hardly call her a lively girl she is very earnest very eager in all she does sometimes talks a great deal and always with animation but she is not often really merry
i believe you are right he replied and yet i have always set her down as a lively girl i have frequently detected myself in such kind of mistakes said elinor in a total misapprehension of character in some point or other
fancying people so much more gay or grave or ingenious or stupid than they really are and i can hardly tell why or in what the deception originated
sometimes one is guided by what they say of themselves and very frequently by what other people say of them without giving oneself time to deliberate and judge
this has always been your doctrine i am sure no marianne never my doctrine has never aimed at the subjection of the understanding all i have ever attempted to influence has been the behaviour
you must not confound my meaning i am guilty i confess of having often wished you to
you have not been able to bring your sister over to your plan of general civility said edward to elinor do you gain no ground quite the contrary replied elinor looking expressively at marianne my judgment he returned is all on your side of the question
but i am afraid my practice is much more on your sister's
when i am only kept back by my natural awkwardness
marianne has not shyness to excuse any inattention of hers said elinor she knows her own worth too well for false shame replied edward
if i could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful i should not be shy but you would still be reserved said marianne and that is worse edward started reserved am i reserved marianne yes very
i do not understand you replied he colouring reserved how in what manner what am i to tell you what can you suppose elinor looked surprised at his emotion but trying to laugh off the subject she said to him
admires as rapturously as herself
each in a certain proportion and in addition to these the cerealia do not succeed in a soil destitute of silica in a soluble condition the combinations of this substance found as natural productions namely the silicates
differ greatly in the degree of facility with which they undergo decomposition in consequence of the unequal resistance opposed by their integral parts to the dissolving power of the atmospheric agencies thus the granite of corsica
some soils abound in silicates so readily decomposable
in every one or two years as much silicate of potash becomes soluble and fitted for assimilation
in hungary extensive districts are not uncommon where wheat and tobacco have been grown alternately upon the same soil for centuries
which were withdrawn in the grain and straw
the term fallow in agriculture designates that period in which the soil left to the influence of the atmosphere becomes enriched with those soluble mineral constituents
but only an interval in the growth of the cerealia that store of silicates and alkalies which is the principal condition of their success is obtained if potatoes or turnips are grown upon the same fields in the intermediate periods
since these crops do not abstract a particle of silica and therefore leave the field equally fertile for the following crop of wheat the preceding remarks will render it obvious to you
that the mechanical working of the soil is the simplest and cheapest method of rendering the elements of nutrition contained in it accessible to plants but it may be asked are there not other means of decomposing the soil besides its mechanical subdivision
are there not substances which by their chemical operation will equally well or better render its constituents suitable for entering into vegetable organisms yes we certainly possess such substances and one of them
namely quick lime has been employed for the last century past in england for this purpose and it would be difficult to find a substance better adapted to this service as it is simple and in almost all localities cheap
and easily accessible in order to obtain correct views respecting the effect of quick lime upon the soil let me remind you of the first process employed by the chemist when he is desirous of analysing a mineral
and for this purpose wishes to bring its elements into a soluble state
this substance taken alone even when reduced to the finest powder requires for its solution to be treated with an acid for weeks or months but if we first mix it with quick lime and expose the mixture to a moderately strong heat
the lime enters into chemical combination with certain elements of the feldspar
and now the acid even without heat
as to form a transparent jelly the same effect which the lime in this process with the aid of heat exerts upon the feldspar it produces when it is mixed with the alkaline argillaceous silicates
and they are for a long time kept together in a moist state common potters clay or pipe clay diffused through water and added to milk of lime thickens immediately upon mixing
the clay becomes gelatinous which would not occur without the admixture with the lime the lime in combining with the elements of the clay liquifies it and what is more remarkable
liberates the greater part of its alkalies these interesting facts were first observed by fuchs at munich they have not only led to a more intimate knowledge of the nature and properties of the hydraulic cements
but what is far more important they explain the effects of caustic lime upon the soil and guide the agriculturist in the application of an invaluable means of opening it and setting free its alkalies substances so important
which during the moist winter months exercises its beneficial influence upon the stiff clayey soil of those counties according to the humus theory quick lime ought to exert the most noxious influence upon the soil
because all organic matters contained in it are destroyed by it and rendered incapable of yielding their humus to a new vegetation the facts are indeed directly contrary to this now abandoned theory the fertility of the soil is increased by the lime
the cerealia require the alkalies and alkaline silicates which the action of the lime renders fit for assimilation by the plants if in addition to these there is any decaying organic matter present in the soil supplying carbonic acid
it may facilitate their development but it is not essential to their growth if we furnish the soil with ammonia and the phosphates which are indispensable to the cerealia with the alkaline silicates we have all the conditions necessary to ensure an abundant harvest
a no less favourable influence than that of lime is exercised upon the soil of peaty land by the mere act of burning it this greatly enhances its fertility
the observation was first made in the process of analysing the clay silicates many of these in their natural state are not acted on by acids but they become perfectly soluble if heated to redness before the application of the acid
this property belongs to potters clay pipe clay loam
in their natural state they may be boiled in concentrated sulphuric acid without sensible change but if feebly burned as is done with the pipe clay in many alum manufactories
they dissolve in the acid with the greatest facility the contained silica being separated like jelly in a soluble state potters clay belongs to the most sterile kinds of soil
and yet it contains within itself all the constituent elements essential to a most luxurious growth of plants
the soil must be accessible to the atmosphere to its oxygen to its carbonic acid
to a happy and vigorous development of the roots
plastic clay is wanting in these properties but they are imparted to it by a feeble calcination at hardwicke court near gloucester i have seen a garden mister baker's consisting of a stiff clay which was perfectly sterile
become by mere burning extremely fertile the operation was extended to a depth of three feet
but it was effectual the great difference in the properties of burnt and unburnt clay is illustrated by what is seen in brick houses built in moist situations in the town of flanders for instance
effloresences of salts cover the surfaces of the walls like a white nap within a few days after they are erected
and this is even observed on walls which
the influence of lime in their production is manifested by their appearing first at the place where the mortar and brick come into contact it will now be obvious to you that in a mixture of clay with lime
all the conditions exist for the solution of the silicated clay and the solubility of the alkaline silicates the lime gradually dissolving in water charged with carbonic acid acts like milk of lime upon the clay
this explains also the favourable influence which marl by which term all those varieties of clay rich in chalk are designated exerts upon most kinds of soil
there are marly soils which surpass all others in fertility for all kinds of plants but i believe marl in a burnt state must be far more effective as well as other materials possessing a similar composition
to the preparation of hydraulic cements for these carry to the soil not only the alkaline bases useful to plants but also silica in a state capable of assimilation the ashes of coals and lignite
and they are used in many places for this purpose
of forming a gelatinous mass when treated with acids or by becoming when mixed with cream of lime like hydraulic cement solid and hard as stone
i have now i trust explained to your satisfaction that the mechanical operations of agriculture the application of lime and chalk to lands and the burning of clay depend upon one and the same scientific principle
they are means of accelerating the decomposition of the alkaline clay silicates in order to provide plants at the beginning of a new vegetation
after supper that night banker perkins strolled leisurely across town to the cottage occupied by tad butler and his mother the house lay on the outskirts of the village surrounded by half an acre of ground part of which the boy tilled
keeping the little family in vegetables a great part of the year the rest of the plot had been seeded down and was now covered with a bright green carpet of new clover
tad being busy at the grocery store that night did not return home for his supper so that the banker's visit was all unknown to the boy who was going stoically about his duties over in the village
yet in his clear eyes there was nothing of regret at his own refusal to permit the desire of his life to be gratified mister perkins remained at the cottage for nearly an hour and a half and a quiet smile might have been observed hovering about his lips as he bade good night to missus butler
whose countenance reflected something of his own satisfaction i will attend to the matter on monday morning were his parting words at which missus butler bowed and withdrew into the cottage all unmindful of the important conference tad returned home at ten o'clock
his mother was awaiting him she greeted him with a hearty embrace and a kiss which the boy returned with no less fervor i have a nice warm supper ready for you tad she informed him
it does put an appetite into a fellow riding behind a horse even if it is an old lame one laughed tad i really believe you would find pleasure in driving a wooden horse such as i have seen in harness shops smiled missus butler you are so like your grandfather
he would miss a meal at any time for the sake of driving a horse or talking horse with a friend father didn't care so much about them did he no your father was not particularly interested in horses
he was in too poor health to be able to handle them after he reached a position where he might have afforded such a luxury tad nodded reflectively and you still want a pony do you my son asked missus butler leaning forward with a twinkle in her eyes
but the boy's gaze was fixed steadily on his plate and he failed to note the expression yes i do mother however i don't allow myself to think much about it i have got to take care of you first after i have made enough so that you can get along then i shall have a horse
but not until then perhaps you may have one sooner than you know breathed the mother veiling her eyes with her hands that he might not read what was plainly written there tad shot a keen glance at her then resumed his supper in silence
the subject was not again referred to between them and on monday afternoon tad butler was again at the grocery store prepared for work should there be any for him mister langdon the proprietor was talking with one of the men from his farm just outside the village
you say the old mare is unfit for further service jim yes
shoot her very well take the old mare out in the swamp and put her out of her misery directed mister langdon after he had thought a moment i beg pardon mister langdon interrupted tad butler who had been an interested listener to the interview
yes tad what is it is it old jinny that you are speaking of if i may ask it is smiled the grocer good naturedly what's the trouble with her trouble sniffed the farm hand jinny's got the heaves that bad she blows like a blacksmith's bellows
and that ain't all that ails her either i why do you ask tad said grocer langdon
as a bold plan suddenly occurred to him
i don't know but i should like to make a bargain with you of course if you want her you may have her provided you get her off the premises at once answered the grocer she'll die on our hands presently anyhow
no i don't want the mare that way but i'll tell you what i will do mister langdon yes i will clean out your store every morning for a month in payment for the mare yes i will make it two months if two months is not long enough i will work for you longer
the mare's not worth it however if you wish to have it that way i am sure i ought to be satisfied laughed the grocer then will you write on a piece of paper that the mare is sold to me
certainly if you wish it i wish you luck smiled mister langdon handing the agreement over the counter after he had prepared it with the precious document in his pocket tad butler sped homeward as fast as his legs could carry him
missus butler saw him coming and wondered what the boy's haste might mean i've got a horse i've got a horse shouted tad vaulting the fence lightly and bounding up the steps i surely have a horse at last mother
grasping his mother about the waist with both arms tad whirled her dizzily the full length of the porch and back finally dropping her into a rocking chair with a merry laugh
to be sure it is not much of a horse
missus butler gazed up at him in perplexity
with your leave i shall bring her home will you let me turn jinny in the clover patch there mother
went on the boy speaking rapidly very well tad the place is as much yours as it is mine agreed missus butler indulgently and i have been thinking of something else too something for you but i shall not tell you about that now
i am going to keep it as a surprise for you when i get it ready announced the boy mysteriously if you have nothing for me to do just now i think i'll go out to mister langdon's farm and bring the mare in i shall want to spend the evening making her comfortable
missus butler gave a ready permission and tad hounded away running every foot of the mile and a half to the langdon farm where old jinny was turned over to him together with a brand new halter and an old harness which the grocer had directed his man to furnish with the mare
tad petted and fondled the wheezy old creature who nosed him appreciatively how old is jinny he asked going on twelve answered the farm hand laconically tad opened the mare's mouth which he studied critically
humph he grunted flashing a glance of disapproval at the farm hand what's that younker i said as she was going on twelve i guess you have dropped five years out of your reckoning somewhere answered the boy
jinny is past seventeen but it's all right it is all the same to me i don't care if she's a hundred decided tad picking up the halter and leading the mare from the yard hope she don't run away with ye jeered the farm hand as boy and horse passed out into the highway
but to this tad made no reply he was too fully occupied with his new happiness to allow so little a thing as the farm hand's opinion to disturb him
huh he exclaimed heaves ringbone and spavin
still i think she will wiggle along for some time and be of real service if i can fix up the heaves a little they must have filled her up on dusty hay he decided examining the mare's throat and nostrils i'll get her home and look her over more carefully
tad's course led him through the principal residential street of the town but he thought nothing of this even though his new purchase was a mere bundle of bones and scarcely able to drag its weary body along
she's mine he whispered as the sense of possession took full hold of him mine all mine just ahead of him stood the home of stacy brown's uncle
he had observed the strange outfit coming down the street but at first the full meaning of it did not impress him
stacy's eyes gradually closed until they were mere slits through which he peered inquiringly hullo tad he greeted hello chunky returned the freckle faced boy with a grin
no this is a mare her name is jinny and she's mine huh skate i call her
bought her answered tad proudly chunky emitted a long drawn whistle
first i am going to doctor her up and make a real live horse of her then perhaps she will join the pony riders club what i said she might join the club reiterated tad then i resign declared chunky all right retorted tad
gid ap commanded tad his face sobering i don't care i'll show them yet he gritted urging old jinny along with sundry coaxes and promises of a real meal upon their arrival home
though the boy tried to keep his purchase a secret until he should have conditioned the mare a little stacy brown lost no time in informing the other members of the club
as a result tad was the butt of many jokes and jibes to all of which he returned a quiet smile registering a mental promise to show them in two weeks time he had worked a marvelous change in jinny
the old wind broken skeleton that she had appeared two weeks previously by this time tad was beginning to use her to haul up wood which he had gathered in a patch of forest below the village
he would first gather and pile the poles then wrapping a rope about all he thought the mare could draw would make her haul them home here he sawed the poles to stove lengths in preparation for the winter this work missus butler had always been obliged to hire done
and the saving now was of no small moment to her one hot afternoon however tad had left jinny in the shade of the trees to rest while he wandered out to the highway and sat down to think
it came tearing along swerved unsteadily from one side of the road to the other then was brought to a sudden grinding stop narrowly missing a plunge into the roadside ditch
you'd better not growled the driver
about a mile and a half replied the boy can i get a horse anywhere around here i reckon you can i've got a horse you
in the bushes back here a piece what'll you give me to pull you in i'll give you five dollars announced the driver eagerly but be quick about it tad rose slowly and stretched himself
i'll do it for two he announced to the surprise and amusement of the occupants of the car in a few moments jinny had been led out tad taking along the rope that he used in hauling the wood
one end he fastened securely to the front axle of the car attaching the other to the whiffletree that he had made to use in the woods now if you will start your engine and give me just a little lift i think i can draw you in can you steer the car enough to keep it in the road do you think
yet with the aid of the power of the car itself they managed to make the hill all right
tad however did not return to the woods that day instead he turned old jinny toward home which he made all haste to reach arriving there he placed the money he had earned in his mother's hands
just earned it with jinny he explained proudly in answer to her surprised look i'll get the wood to morrow and maybe i'll catch another automobile however tad's luck deserted him next day though three days later he earned a dollar and a half towing in a disabled car
this led the lad to ponder deeply the result being a hurried trip to the store followed by sundry mysterious preparations in the stable at the rear of the house
tad's early mornings were devoted to cleaning up the store so that he had no time then to give to his own affairs late one afternoon in the middle of the following week tad butler driving jinny and with a parcel under his arm moved down the street toward the woods
arriving at the woods he tied jinny to a tree and walked on around a bend in the highway where he unrolled his parcel a coil of clothes line dropped from it the bundle which proved to be a long strip of canvas tad stretched out tying an end of the clothes line on either side
the boy's next move was to climb a tree at one side of the road and make fast one of the lines descending he did the same on the opposite side of the highway
but to this he gave no heed he was bent on accomplishing a certain purpose and all else must give way before it hauling down on the rope which he had made fast to the second tree he caused a banner to flutter to the breeze directly over the highway
on it in big red letters had been painted autos towed in if you don't see any one yell for tad or call at langdon's store tow you in for two dollars
that makes fifteen dollars mother tad butler with flashing eyes and heightened color laid two crisp new one dollar bills in his mother's hand and nervously brushed a shock of hair from his forehead my that car was a big one he continued
jinny couldn't quite pull it so i had to get behind and push but we made it missus butler patted the disordered hair affectionately need a comb don't i he grinned now i am going to tell you about the surprise i promised you mother
i've pieced together that old broken down buggy out in the barn and
you needn't be ashamed of it for it's a dandy nobody will know it from a new one
proudly escorting his mother to the stable tad exhibited the vehicle that he had spent many nights putting together it was truly a creditable piece of work and missus butler made her son happy by telling him so
tad's business venture had proved more profitable than even he had dreamed and the owners of cars breaking down on the rough road made frequent use of the invitation extended on the sign soon however there were so many calls during the day when the young man was at school
the only reason tad hesitated was because he feared his assistant would not be considerate of jinny
during the past week there had been frequent conferences between missus butler and banker perkins and on several occasions tad's mother had called at the hank in person of all this the young man knew nothing
but one afternoon something did occur to stir him more profoundly than he ever had been stirred before
ned rector had called a meeting of the pony rider boys and the word was passed that important business was coining up for discussion tad said he could not spare the time from his business down the road
no why he said something about wanting you to drop in soon when i saw him downtown this morning answered missus butler softly now run along and attend your important meeting my boy all right answered tad cheerily after a second's hesitation
he ran lightly from the house whistling a merry tune as he went arriving at the headquarters of the club he found all the members there awaiting him hello how's the skate they cried in chorus howdy fellows greeted the freckle faced lad with a pleased smile
jinny goes when the automobile doesn't give me a horse every time
been too busy to drop in to look him over
that's no news jeered ned rector i guess we'll have to get a net for chunky to perform over however fellows as the notice stated we have some very very important matters to talk over to day president brown will please take his chair and call the meeting to order
that is if he is able to sit down if not i think there will be no objection to his standing up announced ned amid a general laugh
anticipation was reflected on each smiling face tad instinctively felt that there was something behind all of this that he knew nothing about but he bided his time what is the pleasure of the meeting asked the president
i move said ned rector that our friend and fellow member walter perkins now take the floor and outline the plans which i understand he has in mind
we are all ears mister perkins walter rose with great deliberation a smile playing over his thin pale features as he looked quietly from one to the other of his young friends fellow members he began hear hear muttered ned
the matter has all been arranged in the first place our doctor says that i must spend the summer in the open air that i must rough it you understand the rougher the life the better it will be for me he didn't say so to me but i overheard him telling father that i was liable to have consumption
if i did not you don't mean it interrupted ned with serious face yes that's what he said so they have planned a trip for me and all of you boys are to go along hooray shouted chunky ned fixed him with a stern eye
a president never should forget his dignity he warned mister perkins will now proceed we all now have our ponies except tad butler and when we get ready to start we shall have nothing to do but go professor zepplin is to accompany us
father has bought him a big new cob horse the professor was once an officer in the german army and he knows how to ride that is the way they ride over there he reminds me of a statue on horseback when he's up anyhow he will go along to see that we are taken care of
when do we go asked the president as soon after your school closes as is possible i am afraid our fathers and uncles will have something to say about that said chunky with a wry face uncle never would let me go off like that
it's all very well for you but with the rest of us it's different walter smiled knowingly that has all been taken care of fellows
yes is tad butler going on that old skate of his bristled chunky i can't say as to that answered walter well if he does it's me for home
he would be so slow does my uncle know about tad's old mare never mind about the mare growled ned rector we have other and more important matters to attend to just now
yes and we shall have to settle among ourselves what we are to take along though father said he had a man who would look out for all that we are going to rough it you understand so we shall have to leave behind all our fine clothes and sometimes we may go without meals even
but we all will sleep out of doors most likely every night after we get started in the meantime i would suggest that we practice riding that is form ourselves into a sort of company with a regular captain i move that tad butler be made captain and he can drill us
he already is master of horse it's now up to tad to get busy and drill us we will begin to morrow afternoon tad who had taken no part in the conversation now shook his head slowly which caused the others to shout in chorus
in the first place i am too busy answered tad with a wan smile
he has not told me everything yet but he directed me to give you the main points of the plan which i have done
and as quickly as he could do so tad slipped away and went home to fight out his boyish sorrow all alone tad's mother found him out in the barn half an hour later vigorously grooming the old mare
missus butler smiled to herself as she observed that he studiously managed to keep the mare between himself and her as he worked
tad was all attention now i said do you want to sell your horse no that is i might if i got enough for her but i can't say that i am anxious to why i am making plenty of money with her answered tad coining out from behind the mare
what made you ask that question mother i didn't know but you might be willing to part with her
a horse that you would be able to earn more money with tad studied his mother's face a moment inquiringly not with any money that i could get for jinny
not more than ten dollars i doubt if any one would be willing to pay that even who wants to buy her yes mister secor the butcher spoke to me about it while i was at his house this afternoon his delivery horse broke a leg yesterday and they had to shoot the animal to day
too bad muttered tad
it takes too much time to hitch a delivery horse at every stop you know tad nodded his understanding did you tell him what ailed jinny asked tad yes as well as i could but he said he knew all about her and was willing to take all chances
mister secor said he believed jinny was good for ten years yet with the kind of work he would require of her make an offer asked tad with an eye to business yes
and going out to the porch sat down with his head in his hands to think
wonderingly tad did as she had directed and there in a stall stood a sleek indian texas pony
you earned him tad and the money you brought home this evening will complete the purchase price
but mister perkins has arranged to have you go with walter to look after him you will be his companion and for this service mister perkins agrees to pay you the sum of five dollars a week and all expenses understand you are not going as a servant he wished that made very clear
but as the young man's companion you can easily get someone to do your work at the store for another month when your agreement will be worked out yes but but you mother i am invited to spend the summer with aunt jane so you need have no concern whatever about me
tad's eyes grew large as the full significance of it all was home in upon him
brother and sister a brother took his sister by the hand and said since our mother is dead we have no more happy hours our stepmother beats us every day and whenever we come near her she kicks us away
she gives us hard crusts and nasty scraps to eat and the dog under the table fares better than we do for he does sometimes get a nice bit thrown to him it would break our mother's heart if she knew it come we will go out into the wide world together
and when it rained the little sister said heaven and our hearts are crying together in the evening they came to a great wood and were so worn out with grief hunger and weariness that they sat down in a hollow tree and went to sleep
the next morning when they awoke the sun was already high in the heavens and shone down very hot on the tree upon which said the brother sister i am thirsty i would go and have a drink if i knew where there was a spring
i think i can hear one trickling he got up took his sister by the hand and they went to look for the spring the wicked stepmother however who was a witch and well knew how the children had run away had crept after them secretly
in the way witches do and had bewitched all the springs in the wood when they had found a spring that was dancing brightly over the stones the brother stooped down to drink but his sister heard a voice in its murmur which said whoever drinks of me will become a tiger
eagerly the little sister cried i pray thee brother do not drink lest thou become a wild beast and tear me to pieces the brother did not drink although he was so thirsty but said i will wait for the next spring when they came to the next
the little sister heard it say who drinks of me will become a wolf who drinks of me will become a wolf and cried out oh brother i pray thee do not drink lest thou become a wolf and eat me up the brother did not drink but said
i will wait till i come to the next spring but then i must drink say what you will for my thirst is getting unbearable and when they came to the third spring the little sister heard a voice in its murmur saying whoever drinks of me will become a roe and she cried
oh brother do not drink i pray thee lest thou become a roe and run away from me but the brother had already knelt down by the stream stooped down and drank of the water and as soon as the first drop touched his lips there he lay a white roe
the little sister cried over her poor bewitched brother and the roe cried also as he rested mournfully beside her at last the maiden said never mind dear roe i will never forsake you so she took off her golden garter
and put it round the roe's neck then pulled some rushes and wove them into a cord to this she tied the little animal and led him on and they both went still deeper into the wood when they had gone a long long way
they came at last to a little house into which the maiden peeped and as it was empty she thought here we may stay and live so she made a pretty bed of leaves and moss for the roe and every morning she went out and gathered roots berries and nuts for herself
and for the roe she brought tender grass which he ate out of her hand and played about and was very happy in the evening when the little sister was tired and had said her prayers she laid her head upon the roe who was her pillow and went sweetly to sleep
and if her brother had only kept his proper shape they would have led a very happy life they had lived alone in this way during a long time when it happened that the king of the country held a great hunt in the forest
through the trees might be heard the blowing of horns the barking of dogs and the joyous cries of the hunters which when the little roe heard he was almost beside himself with delight
i can no longer refrain and he begged hard till she consented but said she when you return at evening i shall have shut my door against the wild huntsmen and in order that i may know you knock and say my little sister let me in
but if you do not say so i shall not open the door now off sprang the roe and was so happy to find himself in the open air the king and his huntsmen saw the beautiful beast and set off after him but they could not catch him
for when they thought they had certainly got him he sprang over a bush and disappeared
my little sister let me in and when the door was opened he sprang in and rested all night on his pretty little bed next morning the hunt began again and when the roe heard the blast of the horns and the ho ho of the hunters he could not rest
and cried sister open the door i must go his sister opened the door and said but mind you must be back in the evening and make your little speech that i may let you in when the king and his huntsmen saw the white roe with the gold band once more
they all rode after him but he was too quick and agile for them this chase lasted the whole day at last towards evening the hunters surrounded him and wounded him with an arrow in the foot so that he was forced to limp and go slowly
one of the hunters creeping softly after him to the little house heard him say my sister let me in and saw that the door was opened and immediately shut to again
we will have another hunt to morrow said the king the little sister was greatly alarmed when she saw her white roe was wounded she washed off the blood laid herbs upon the place and said go now to thy bed dear roe and get well
the wound however was so slight that the next morning he felt nothing of it and when he heard the noise of the hunt he said i cannot keep away i must go and nothing shall keep me his sister cried and said
now you will go and be killed and leave me here alone in the forest forsaken by all the world i will not let you go out then i shall die here of grief answered the roe for when i hear the sound of the horn
i do feel as if i could jump out of my shoes so his sister could not do less than open the door with a heavy heart and the roe sprang out joyfully into the forest as soon as the king saw him he said to his huntsmen
now hunt him all day till evening but don't do anything to hurt him when the sun was set the king said to his huntsman now come and show me the little house you saw in the wood and when he was before the door he knocked and cried
dear little sister let me in immediately the door opened the king entered and there stood a maiden more beautiful than any one he had ever seen
but the king looked kindly at her took her hand and said wilt thou go with me to my castle and be my dear wife oh yes answered the maiden but the roe must come with me for i cannot forsake him the king replied
he shall remain with you as long as you live and shall want for nothing at this moment he came springing in his sister tied the cord of rushes round his neck led him with her own hand and they all left the little house together
the king took the beautiful maiden on his own horse and conducted her to his castle where the marriage was celebrated with great pomp she was now queen and they lived a long time very happily together while the roe was petted and taken care of
and played all day about the palace garden but the wicked stepmother on whose account these children had been driven into the wide world thought nothing less than that the little sister had been torn to pieces by wild beasts in the forest
and that the brother in the shape of a roe had been killed by the hunters when she now heard they were so happy and that everything went well with them envy and spite raged in her heart and gave her no rest
and her only thought was how she could do some mischief to them both her own daughter who was as ugly as the night and had only one eye was continually reproaching her and saying it is i who ought to have been made queen
never mind said the old witch to console her when the time comes i will manage it by and by the queen gave birth to a beautiful little boy
the old witch took upon herself the form of the lady in waiting entered the room where the queen lay and said to her come the bath is ready which will do you good and give you new strength make haste before it gets cold her daughter was also at hand
and they carried the poor weak queen between them into the bathroom and laid her in the bath then they shut the door and ran away but under the bath they had first lighted a great furnace fire
so that the beautiful young queen could not save herself from being scorched alive when that was done the old witch took her own daughter put a cap on her and laid her on the bed in the queen's room
she changed her also into the shape of the young queen all except her one eye and she could not give her another but in order that the king might not observe it she was obliged to lie on that side where there was no eye
in the evening when he was come home and heard that he had a little son he was very much delighted and wished to visit his dear wife and see how she was getting on on which the old woman cried out in a great hurry as you value your life don't touch the curtain
the queen must not see the light and must be left quite quiet so the king went away and never found out that it was a false queen in the bed but when it was midnight and all the world was asleep the nurse who was sitting beside the cradle
and who was the only person awake saw the door open and the true queen come in she took the baby out of the cradle laid it in her arms and nursed it tenderly she then shook up the pillows laid it down again
and covered it with the counterpane she did not forget the roe either but went into the corner where it lay and stroked it gently after this she passed out quite silently through the door and the nurse inquired next morning of the sentinels
whether any one had gained entrance into the palace during the night but they answered no we have seen nobody she continued to come in the same way for several nights though she spoke never a word the nurse always saw her but never dared to mention it
when some time had passed the queen at last began to speak and said how is my baby how is my roe i can come again twice then for ever must go the nurse could not answer her
but when she had disappeared she went to the king and told him all about it upon which he cried what does it mean i will myself watch by the child to night in the evening he came to the nursery and there at midnight the dead queen appeared and said
how is my baby how is my roe i can come but once more then for ever must go and nursed and fondled the baby as before then vanished the king did not dare to address her but watched again the following night
this time she said how is my baby how is my roe i can come but this once then for ever must go upon which the king could no longer contain himself but sprang forward and cried
thou canst surely be no one but my own dear wife she replied yes i am thy dear wife
little snowdrop once upon a time in the middle of winter when the flakes of snow fell like feathers from the sky a queen sat at a window set in an ebony frame and sewed while she was sewing and watching the snow fall she pricked her finger with her needle
oh that i had a child as white as snow as red as blood and as black as the wood of this ebony frame soon afterwards she had a little daughter who was as white as snow as red as blood and had hair as black as ebony
and when the child was born the queen died after a year had gone by the king took another wife she was a handsome lady but proud and haughty and could not endure that any one should surpass her in beauty she had a wonderful mirror
and whenever she walked up to it and looked at herself in it she said little glass upon the wall
then the mirror replied lady queen so grand and tall thou art the fairest of them all and she was satisfied for she knew the mirror always told the truth but snowdrop grew ever taller and fairer
and at seven years old was beautiful as the day and more beautiful than the queen herself so once
little glass upon the wall who is fairest among us all it answered lady queen you are grand and tall but snowdrop is fairest of you all then the queen was startled and turned yellow and green with envy
from that hour she so hated snowdrop that she burned with secret wrath whenever she saw the maiden pride and envy grew apace like weeds in her heart till she had no rest day or night so she called a huntsman and said take the child out in the forest
for i will endure her no longer in my sight kill her and bring me her lungs and liver as tokens that you have done it the huntsman obeyed and led the child away but when he had drawn his hunting knife and was about to pierce snowdrop's innocent heart she began to weep and said
the huntsman took pity on her because she looked so lovely and said run away then poor child the wild beasts will soon make an end of thee he thought but it seemed as if a stone had been rolled from his heart because he had avoided taking her life
and as a little bear came by just then he killed it took out its liver and lungs and carried them as tokens to the queen she made the cook dress them with salt and then the wicked woman ate them and thought she had eaten snowdrop's lungs and liver
the poor child was now all alone in the great forest and she felt frightened as she looked at all the leafy trees and knew not what to do so she began to run
and through the thorns and the wild beasts passed close to her but did her no harm she ran as long as her feet could carry her and when evening closed in she saw a little house and went into it to rest herself everything in the house was very small
but i cannot tell you how pretty and clean it was there stood a little table covered with a white tablecloth on which were seven little plates each little plate with its own little spoon also seven little knives and forks
and seven little cups round the walls stood seven little beds close together
snowdrop being so hungry and thirsty ate a little of the vegetables and bread on each plate and drank a drop of wine from every cup for she did not like to empty one entirely then being very tired she laid herself down in one of the beds
but could not make herself comfortable for one was too long and another too short the seventh luckily was just right so there she stayed said her prayers and fell asleep when it was grown quite dark home came the masters of the house
seven dwarfs who delved and mined for iron among the mountains they lighted their seven candles and as soon as there was a light in the kitchen
the first said who has been sitting on my stool the second who has eaten off my plate the third who has taken part of my loaf the fourth who has touched my vegetables the fifth who has used my fork the sixth
who has cut with my knife the seventh who has drunk out of my little cup
so he asked who has been lying in my little bed
some one has also been lying in my bed
saw snowdrop there fast asleep he called the others who flocked round with cries of surprise fetched their seven candles and cast the light on snowdrop oh heaven they cried what a lovely child and were so pleased that they would not wake her
but let her sleep on in the little bed the seventh dwarf slept with all his companions in turn an hour with each and so they spent the night when it was morning snowdrop woke up and was frightened when she saw the seven dwarfs
they were very friendly however and inquired her name snowdrop answered she how have you found your way to our house further asked the dwarfs so she told them how her stepmother had tried to kill her how the huntsman had spared her life
and how she had run the whole day through till at last she had found their little house then the dwarfs said if thou wilt keep our house cook make the beds wash sew and knit and make all neat and clean thou canst stay with us and shalt want for nothing
i will right willingly said snowdrop so she dwelt with them and kept their house in order every morning they went out among the mountains to seek iron and gold and came home ready for supper in the evening the maiden being left alone all day long the good dwarfs warned her saying
beware of thy wicked stepmother who will soon find out that thou art here take care that thou lettest nobody in the queen however after having as she thought eaten snowdrop's lungs and liver
had no doubt that she was again the first and fairest woman in the world so she walked up to her mirror and said little glass upon the wall who is fairest among us all the mirror replied lady queen so grand and tall here you are fairest of them all
she trembled knowing the mirror never told a falsehood she felt sure that the huntsman had deceived her and that snowdrop was still alive she pondered once more late and early early and late how best to kill snowdrop
for envy gave her no rest day or night while she herself was not the fairest lady in the land when she had planned what to do she painted her face dressed herself like an old pedlar woman and altered her appearance so much that no one could have known her
to where the seven dwarfs dwelt knocked at the door and cried
what have you to sell good wares smart wares answered the queen
and drew out one which was woven of coloured silk
thought snowdrop so she unfastened the door
the cruel stepmother walked up to her mirror when she reached home and said little glass upon the wall who is fairest among us all to which it answered as usual lady queen so grand and tall here you are fairest of them all
but over the hills with the seven dwarfs old
for she saw plainly that snowdrop was still alive this time said she i will think of some means that shall destroy her utterly and with the help of witchcraft in which she was skilful she made a poisoned comb
then she changed her dress and took the shape of another old woman again she crossed the seven hills to the home of the seven dwarfs knocked at the door and cried good wares very cheap snowdrop looked out and said
you may surely be allowed to look answered the old woman and she drew out the poisoned comb and held it up the girl was so pleased with it that she let herself be cajoled and opened the door when the bargain was struck the dame said
now let me dress your hair properly for once poor snowdrop took no heed and let the old woman begin but the comb had scarcely touched her hair before the poison worked and she fell down senseless paragon of beauty said the wicked woman
all is over with thee now and went away luckily it was near evening and the seven dwarfs soon came home when they found snowdrop lifeless on the ground they at once distrusted her stepmother they searched and found the poisoned comb
and as soon as they had drawn it out snowdrop came to herself and told them what had happened again they warned her to be careful and open the door to no one the queen placed herself before the mirror at home and said little glass upon the wall
lady queen so grand and tall here you are fairest of them all but over the hills with the seven dwarfs old lives snowdrop fairer a thousandfold when she heard the mirror speak thus she quivered with rage
snowdrop shall die she cried if it costs my own life
where no one ever disturbed her and compounded an apple of deadly poison ripe and rosy cheeked it was so beautiful to look upon that all who saw it longed for it but it brought death to any who should eat it
when the apple was ready she painted her face disguised herself as a peasant woman and journeyed over the seven hills to where the seven dwarfs dwelt at the sound of the knock snowdrop put her head out of the window and said
very well replied the peasant woman
art thou afraid of being poisoned asked the old woman look here i will cut the apple in two and you shall eat the rosy side and i the white now the fruit was so cunningly made that only the rosy side was poisoned
snowdrop longed for the pretty apple and when she saw the peasant woman eating it she could resist no longer but stretched out her hand and took the poisoned half she had scarcely tasted it when she fell lifeless to the ground
the queen laughing loudly watched her with a barbarous look and cried
red as blood and black as ebony the seven dwarfs cannot awaken thee this time and when she asked the mirror at home little glass upon the wall who is fairest among us all the mirror at last replied
lady queen so grand and tall you are the fairest of them all so her envious heart had as much repose as an envious heart can ever know
when the dwarfs came home in the evening they found snowdrop lying breathless and motionless on the ground they lifted her up searched whether she had anything poisonous about her unlaced her combed her hair washed her with water and with wine
and mourned for her three long days then they would have buried her but that she still looked so fresh and life like and had such lovely rosy cheeks we cannot lower her into the dark earth said they
and caused a transparent coffin of glass to be made so that she could be seen on all sides and laid her in it writing her name outside in letters of gold which told that she was the daughter of a king
then they placed the coffin on the mountain above and one of them always stayed by it and guarded it but there was little need to guard it for even the wild animals came and mourned for snowdrop
and afterwards a dove long long years did snowdrop lie in her coffin unchanged looking as though asleep for she was still white as snow red as blood and her hair was black as ebony
at last the son of a king chanced to wander into the forest and came to the dwarf's house for a night's shelter he saw the coffin on the mountain with the beautiful snowdrop in it and read what was written there in letters of gold then he said to the dwarfs let me have the coffin
but the dwarfs answered we would not part with it for all the gold in the world he said again yet give it me for i cannot live without seeing snowdrop and though she is dead i will prize and honour her as my beloved
then the good dwarfs took pity on him and gave him the coffin
they happened to stumble over a bush and the shock forced the bit of poisoned apple which snowdrop had tasted out of her throat immediately she opened her eyes raised the coffin lid and sat up alive once more
the prince answered joyfully thou art with me and told her what had happened saying i love thee more dearly than anything else in the world come with me to my father's castle and be my wife
snowdrop well pleased went with him and they were married with much state and grandeur the wicked stepmother was invited to the feast richly dressed she stood before the mirror and asked of it little glass upon the wall
who is fairest among us all the mirror answered lady queen so grand and tall here you are fairest among them all but the young queen over the mountains old is fairer than you a thousandfold
the evil hearted woman uttered a curse and could scarcely endure her anguish she first resolved not to attend the wedding but curiosity would not allow her to rest
who was the most beautiful in all the world when she came and found that it was snowdrop alive again she stood petrified with terror and despair then two iron shoes heated burning hot
were drawn out of the fire with a pair of tongs and laid before her feet she was forced to put them on and to go and dance at snowdrop's wedding
on monday there was the usual sitting of the commission of the second of june alexey alexandrovitch walked into the hall where the sitting was held greeted the members and the president as usual and sat down in his place putting his hand on the papers laid ready before him
all attention was turned upon him alexey alexandrovitch cleared his throat and not looking at his opponent but selecting as he always did while he was delivering his speeches the first person sitting
and also stung to the quick began defending himself and altogether a stormy sitting followed but alexey alexandrovitch triumphed and his motion was carried three new commissions were appointed and the next day in a certain petersburg circle
nothing else was talked of but this sitting alexey alexandrovitch's success had been even greater than he had anticipated next morning tuesday
recollected with pleasure his triumph of the previous day
when the chief secretary of his department anxious to flatter him informed him of the rumors that had reached him concerning what had happened in the commission absorbed in business with the chief secretary alexey alexandrovitch had completely forgotten that it was tuesday
the day fixed by him for the return of anna arkadyevna
anna had arrived in petersburg early in the morning the carriage had been sent to meet her in accordance with her telegram
she was told that he had not yet gone out but was busy with his secretary
that she had come went to her own room and occupied herself in sorting out her things expecting he would come to her but an hour passed he did not come
when she went into his study he was in official uniform obviously ready to go out sitting at a little table on which he rested his elbows looking dejectedly before him she saw him before he saw her and she saw that he was thinking of her
he went up to her took her by the hand and asked her to sit down i am very glad you have come he said sitting down beside her and obviously wishing to say something he stuttered several times he tried to begin to speak but stopped
she had schooled herself to despise and reproach him
no you did quite quite right to come he said and was silent again seeing that he was powerless to begin the conversation she began herself alexey alexandrovitch she said looking at him and not dropping her eyes under his persistent gaze at her hair
i'm a guilty woman i'm a bad woman but i am the same as i was
and i have come to tell you that i can change nothing i have asked you no question about that he said all at once resolutely and with hatred looking her straight in the face
that was as i had supposed under the influence of anger he apparently regained complete possession of all his faculties but as i told you then and have written to you
i repeat now that i am not bound to know this i ignore it not all wives are so kind as you to be in such a hurry to communicate such agreeable news to their husbands he laid special emphasis on the word agreeable i shall ignore it so long as the world knows nothing of it
and so i simply inform you that our relations
her aversion for him extinguished her pity for him
i cannot be your wife while i she began
the manner of life you have chosen is reflected i suppose in your ideas i have too much respect or contempt or both i respect your past and despise your present
the night spent by levin on the haycock did not pass without result for him the way in which he had been managing his land revolted him and had lost all attraction for him in spite of the magnificent harvest
never had there been or at least never it seemed to him had there been so many hindrances and so many quarrels between him and the peasants as that year and the origin of these failures and this hostility was now perfectly comprehensible to him
the delight he had experienced in the work itself and the consequent greater intimacy with the peasants the envy he felt of them of their life the desire to adopt that life which had been to him that night not a dream but an intention
as he had managed it that he could not take his former interest in it and could not help seeing that unpleasant relation between him and the workpeople which was the foundation of it all the herd of improved cows such as pava
with hedges the two hundred and forty acres heavily manured the seed sown in drills and all the rest of it it was all splendid if only the work had been done for themselves or for themselves and comrades
people in sympathy with them but he saw clearly now his work on a book of agriculture in which the chief element in husbandry was to have been the laborer greatly assisted him in this that the sort of farming he was carrying on
on the other side the natural order of things and in this struggle he saw that with immense expenditure of force on his side and with no effort or even intention on the other side
and that splendid tools splendid cattle and land were spoiled with no good to anyone worst of all the energy expended on this work was not simply wasted he could not help feeling now since the meaning of this system had become clear to him
that the aim of his energy was a most unworthy one in reality what was the struggle about he was struggling for every farthing of his share and he could not help it
while they were only struggling to be able to do their work easily and agreeably that is to say as they were used to doing it it was for his interests that every laborer should work as hard as possible and that while doing so he should keep his wits about him
so as to try not to break the winnowing machines the horse rakes the thrashing machines that he should attend to what he was doing
that summer levin saw this at every step he sent the men to mow some clover for hay picking out the worst patches where the clover was overgrown with grass and weeds and of no use for seed again
and again they mowed the best acres of clover justifying themselves by the pretense that the bailiff had told them to and trying to pacify him with the assurance that it would be splendid hay but he knew that it was owing to those acres
being so much easier to mow he sent out a hay machine for pitching the hay it was broken at the first row because it was dull work for a peasant to sit on the seat in front with the great wings waving above him and he was told
he strained the horses and tore up the ground and levin was begged not to mind about it the horses were allowed to stray into the wheat because not a single laborer would consent to be night watchman and in spite of orders to the contrary the laborers
that one of his neighbors had lost a hundred and twelve head of cattle in three days all this happened not because anyone felt ill will to levin or his farm on the contrary he knew that they liked him thought him a simple gentleman their highest praise
but it happened simply because all they wanted was to work merrily and carelessly and his interests were not only remote and incomprehensible to them but fatally opposed to their most just claims long before
he saw where his boat leaked but he did not look for the leak perhaps purposely deceiving himself nothing would be left him if he lost faith in it but now he could deceive himself no longer
the farming of the land as he was managing it had become not merely unattractive but revolting to him
shtcherbatskaya whom he longed to see and could not see darya alexandrovna oblonskaya had invited him when he was over there to come to come with the object of renewing his offer to her sister
he said to himself the thought of this made him cold and hostile to her i should not be able to speak to her without a feeling of reproach i could not look at her without resentment and she will only hate me all the more
and deigning to bestow my love on her what induced darya alexandrovna to tell me that by chance i might have seen her then everything would have happened of itself but as it is it's out of the question out of the question
and sent the saddle without any reply to write that he would go was impossible because he could not go to write that he could not come because something prevented him
who had splendid marshes for grouse in his neighborhood and had lately written to ask him to keep a long standing promise to stay with him the grouse marsh in the surovsky district
now he was glad to get away from the neighborhood of the shtcherbatskys
now we are necessarily passive
in so far as we have inadequate ideas and only in so far as we have such ideas are we passive
namely the pleasure which arises from say the object a involves the nature of that object a and the pleasure which arises from the object b involves the nature of the object b
wherefore these two pleasurable emotions are by nature different
so again the emotion of pain which arises from one object is by nature different from the pain arising from another object and similarly in the case of love hatred hope fear vacillation
now desire is each man's essence or nature in so far as it is conceived as determined to a particular action by any given modification of itself
according as his nature is disposed in this or that manner so will his desire be of one kind or another
from the nature of another desire as widely as the emotions differ wherefrom each desire arose thus there are as many kinds of desire as there are kinds of pleasure pain
displaying the nature of those emotions in a manner varying according to the object with which they are concerned
which we are wont to oppose to luxury drunkenness and lust are not emotions or passive states
we will prove it from the nature of the three primary emotions all emotions are attributable to desire pleasure or pain as their definitions above given show but desire is each man's nature or essence
is increased or diminished helped or hindered
pleasure and pain are identical with desire or appetite in so far as by external causes they are increased or diminished helped or hindered in other words they are every man's nature
differ from the pleasure and pain felt by another man only in so far as the nature or essence of the one man differs from the essence of the other consequently any emotion of one individual only differs
of the said individual and hence the joy of one only differs in nature from the joy of another
thus far i have treated of the emotions attributable to man in so far as he is passive it remains to add a few words on those attributable to him in so far as he is active
besides pleasure and desire which are passivities or passions there are other emotions derived from pleasure and desire which are attributable to us in so far as we are active proof
when the mind conceives itself and its power of activity it feels pleasure
the mind necessarily contemplates itself
but the mind does conceive certain adequate ideas
therefore it feels pleasure in so far as it conceives adequate ideas that is
has confused ideas endeavours to persist in its own being
therefore desire is also attributable to us
as their definitions already given show now by pain we mean that the mind's power of thinking is diminished or checked
therefore no painful emotions can be attributed to the mind in virtue of its being active but only emotions of pleasure and desire which
are attributable to the mind in that condition
which are attributable to the mind in virtue of its understanding i set down to strength of character fortitudo which i divide into courage animositas and highmindedness generositas
by courage i mean the desire whereby every man strives to preserve his own being in accordance solely with the dictates of reason by highmindedness i mean the desire whereby every man endeavours
solely under the dictates of reason to aid other men and to unite them to himself in friendship those actions therefore which have regard solely to the good of the agent i set down to courage those which aim at the good of others
i set down to highmindedness thus temperance sobriety and presence of mind in danger
it is evident from what i have said that we are in many ways driven about by external causes and that like waves of the sea driven by contrary winds we toss to and fro unwitting of the issue and of our fate but i have said
that i have only set forth the chief conflicting emotions not all that might be given for by proceeding in the same way as above we can easily show that love is united to repentance scorn
it is enough to have enumerated the most important to reckon up the rest which i have omitted would be more curious than profitable it remains to remark
concerning love that it very often happens that while we are enjoying a thing which we longed for the body from the act of enjoyment acquires a new disposition whereby it is determined in another way other images
if therefore when the body is thus otherwise disposed the image of the food which is present be stimulated and consequently the endeavour or desire to eat it be stimulated also the new disposition of the body
in the surovsky district there was no railway nor service of post horses and levin drove there with his own horses in his big old fashioned carriage he stopped halfway at a well to do peasant's to feed his horses a bald well preserved old man
with a broad red beard gray on his cheeks opened the gate
but began laughing at her own fright at once when she was told the dog would not hurt her pointing levin with her bare arm to the door into the parlor she bent down again hiding her handsome face
would you like the samovar she asked yes please the parlor was a big room with a dutch stove and a screen dividing it into two under the holy pictures stood a table painted in patterns a bench and two chairs
near the entrance was a dresser full of crockery the shutters were closed there were few flies and it was so clean that levin was anxious that laska
swinging the empty pails on the yoke ran on before him to the well for water look sharp my girl the old man shouted after her good humoredly and he went up to levin well sir
he began chatting leaning his elbows on the railing of the steps
and laborers came into the yard from the fields with wooden ploughs and harrows the horses harnessed to the ploughs and harrows were sleek and fat the laborers were obviously of the household
the two others were hired laborers in homespun shirts one an old man the other a young fellow moving off
but take it to the trough and we'll put the other in harness oh father the ploughshares i ordered has he brought them along asked the big healthy looking fellow obviously the old man's son there in the outer room answered the old man
bundling together the harness he had taken off and flinging it on the ground you can put them on
the good looking young woman came into the outer room with the full pails dragging at her shoulders more women came on the scene from somewhere young and handsome middle aged old and ugly
obviously accepting the invitation with pleasure but just a glass for company over their tea levin heard all about the old man's farming ten years before the old man had rented three hundred acres from the lady who owned them
and a year ago he had bought them and rented another three hundred from a neighboring landowner
he let out for rent while a hundred acres of arable land he cultivated himself with his family and two hired laborers the old man complained that things were doing badly
and that his farm was in a flourishing condition
and a nephew he would not have rebuilt twice after fires and each time on a larger scale in spite of the old man's complaints it was evident that he was proud and justly proud of his prosperity
and beginning to die down while levin's were only just coming into flower he earthed up his potatoes with a modern plough borrowed from a neighboring landowner he sowed wheat the trifling fact that
thinning out his rye the old man used the rye he thinned out for his horses specially struck levin how many times had levin seen this splendid fodder wasted and tried to get it saved
what have the wenches to do they carry it out in bundles to the roadside and the cart brings it away well we landowners can't manage well with our laborers said levin handing him a glass of tea
it's not looked after enough that's all it is but you work your land with hired laborers we're all peasants together we go into everything ourselves if a man's no use he can go
father finogen wants some tar said the young woman in the clogs coming in yes yes that's how it is sir said the old man getting up and crossing himself deliberately he thanked levin and went out
who was pouring cabbage soup into a bowl laughing most merrily of all very probably the good looking face of the young woman in the clogs had a good deal to do with the impression of well being this peasant household made upon levin
but the impression was so strong that levin could never get rid of it
even laid in a thousand fetters i yet am and i am not like freedom extant only in the future and in hopes
but even as the most abject of slaves i am present think that over well and decide whether you will place on your banner the dream of freedom or the resolution of egoism of ownness
he is nevertheless already working at freeing himself from this constraint ownness works in the little egoist and procures him the desired freedom thousands of years of civilization have obscured to you what you are
have made you believe you are not egoists but are called to be idealists good men shake that off do not seek for freedom which does precisely deprive you of yourselves in self denial but seek for yourselves become egoists
you have yet remained egoists all these thousands of years but sleeping self deceiving crazy egoists you
you self tormentors never yet has a religion been able to dispense with promises whether they referred us to the other world or to this long life et cetera for man is mercenary and does nothing gratis
but how about that doing the good for the good's sake without prospect of reward as if here too the pay was not contained in the satisfaction that it is to afford even religion therefore
calculated for our desires it stifles many others for the sake of one this then gives the phenomenon of cheated egoism where i satisfy not myself but one of my desires e g the impulse toward blessedness
religion promises me the supreme good to gain this i no longer regard any other of my desires and do not slake them all your doings are unconfessed secret covert and concealed egoism but because they are egoism
you are egoists and you are not since you renounce egoism where you seem most to be such you have drawn upon the word egoist loathing and contempt i secure my freedom with regard to the world in the degree that i make the world my own
gain it and take possession of it for myself by whatever might by that of persuasion of petition of categorical demand yes even by hypocrisy cheating et cetera
who has not cheated the police the law who has not quickly taken on an air of honorable loyalty before the sheriff's officer who meets him in order to conceal an illegality
he who has not done it has simply let violence be done to him he was a weakling from conscience i know that my freedom is diminished even by my not being able to carry out my will on another object
be this other something without will like a rock or something with will like a government
in presence of another i give myself up
give way desist submit therefore by loyalty submission for it is one thing when i give up my previous course because it does not lead to the goal and therefore turn out of a wrong road
i get around a rock that stands in my way till i have powder enough to blast it i get around the laws of a people till i have gathered strength to overthrow them because i cannot grasp the moon is it therefore to be sacred to me
you shall remain inapprehensible to me only till i have acquired the might for apprehension and call you my own i do not give myself up before you but only bide my time even if for the present i put up with
my inability to touch you i yet remember it against you vigorous men have always done so when the loyal had exalted an unsubdued power to be their master and had adored it when they had
demanded adoration from all then there came some such son of nature who would not loyally submit and drove the adored power from its inaccessible olympus he cried his stand still to the rolling sun
in vain for freedom and are lectured for it by the cabinet ministers
might is a fine thing and useful for many purposes for one goes further with a handful of might than with a bagful of right you long for freedom you fools if you took might freedom would come of itself
that i can have only so much freedom as i procure for myself by my ownness of what use is it to sheep that no one abridges their freedom of speech they stick to bleating give one who is inwardly a mohammedan
a jew or a christian permission to speak what he likes he will yet utter only narrow minded stuff if on the contrary certain others rob you of the freedom of speaking and hearing they know quite rightly wherein lies their temporary advantage
as you would perhaps be able to say and hear something whereby those certain persons would lose their credit if they nevertheless give you freedom they are simply knaves who give more than they have for then they give you nothing of their own
but stolen wares they give you your own freedom the freedom that you must take for yourselves and they give it to you only that you may not take it and call the thieves and cheats to an account to boot in their slyness they know well that given
chartered freedom is no freedom since only the freedom one takes for himself therefore the egoist's freedom rides with full sails donated freedom strikes its sails as soon as there comes a storm or calm it requires always a
behave as if you were of age and you are so without any declaration of majority if you do not behave accordingly you are not worthy of it
when the greeks were of age they drove out their tyrants and when the son is of age he makes himself independent of his father
graciously allowed them their majority they might have waited long a sensible father throws out a son who will not come of age and keeps the house to himself it serves the noodle right the man who is set free is nothing but a freedman
a libertinus a dog dragging a piece of chain with him he is an unfree man in the garment of freedom like the ass in the lion's skin emancipated jews are nothing bettered in themselves
but only relieved as jews although he who relieves their condition is certainly more than a churchly christian as the latter cannot do this without inconsistency but emancipated or not emancipated jew remains jew
he who is not self freed is merely an emancipated man the protestant state can certainly set free emancipate the catholics but because they do not make themselves free they remain simply catholics selfishness and unselfishness have already been spoken of
is directed against egoism for the egoist you know never takes trouble about a thing for the sake of the thing but for his sake the thing must serve him it is egoistic to ascribe to no thing a value of its own an absolute value
but to seek its value in me one often hears that pot boiling study which is so common counted among the most repulsive traits of egoistic behavior because it manifests the most shameful desecration of science
is a limited power but the egoistic element in it and the desecration of science only a possessed man can blame because christianity incapable of letting the individual count as an ego
thought of him only as a dependent and was properly nothing but a social theory a doctrine of living together and that of man with god as well as of man with man
formerly meant only bold brave frevel wanton outrage was only daring it is well known how askance the word reason was looked at for a long time
therefore selfishness is in a bad way too selfishness
i look only to see whether anything is of use to me as a sensual man but is sensuality then the whole of my ownness
do i follow myself my own determination when i follow that
instead of being mastered either by sensuality or by anything else god man authority law state church et cetera what is of use to me this self owned or self appertaining one my selfishness pursues
and sets forth in a detailed speech that removable dismissable transferable and pensionable judges in short such members of a court of justice as can by mere administrative process be damaged and endangered are wholly without reliability
yes lose all respect and all confidence among the people the whole bench welcker cries is demoralized by this dependence in blunt words this means nothing else than that the judges
would have them than to give it as the law would have them how is that to be helped perhaps by bringing home to the judges hearts the ignominiousness of their venality and then cherishing
the confidence that they will repent and henceforth prize justice more highly than their selfishness no the people does not soar to this romantic confidence for it feels that selfishness is mightier than any other motive therefore the same persons
who have been judges hitherto may remain so however thoroughly one has convinced himself that they behaved as egoists only they must not any longer
find their selfishness favored by the venality of justice but must stand so independent of the government that by a judgment in conformity with the facts they do not throw into the shade their own cause
only when they can count on selfishness what is one to think then of the countless phrases of unselfishness with which their mouths overflow at other times to a cause which i am pushing selfishly
i have another relation than to one which i am serving unselfishly the following criterion might be cited for it against the one i can sin or commit a sin the other i can only trifle away push from me deprive myself of
free trade is looked at in both ways being regarded partly as a freedom which may under certain circumstances be granted or withdrawn partly as one which is to be held sacred under all circumstances
and do not desire it for its own sake then i desire it solely as a means to an end for its usefulness for the sake of another end e g oysters for a pleasant flavor now will not every thing whose final end
he himself is serve the egoist as means
miss derrick had gone back into the drawing room and to emmeline's surprise remained there this retirement was ominous the girl must be taking some resolve emmeline on her part braced her courage for the step on which she had decided
luncheon awaited them but it would be much better to arrive at an understanding before they sat down to the meal she entered the room and found louise leaning on the back of a chair i dare say you heard the row miss derrick remarked coldly i'm very sorry
but nothing of that kind shall happen again her countenance was disturbed she seemed to be putting a restraint upon herself and only with great effort to subdue her voice
in a friendly tone but as it were from a distance i am going to ask you to do me a great kindness missus mumford there was no reply the girl paused a moment then resumed impulsively
mister higgins says that if i don't come home he won't let me have any more money they're going to write and tell you that they won't be responsible after this for my board and lodging of course i shall not go home i shouldn't dream of it i'd rather earn my living as
as a scullery maid i want to ask you missus mumford whether you will let me stay on and trust me to pay what i owe you it won't be for very long and i promise you i will pay every penny
she found it very difficult to maintain her purpose it shamed her to behave like the ordinary landlady to appear actuated by mean motives but the domestic strain was growing intolerable
and she felt sure that clarence would be exasperated if her weakness prolonged it now do let me advise you louise she answered gently are you acting wisely wouldn't it be very much better to go home louise lost all her self control
flushed with anger her eyes glaring she broke into vehement exclamations you want to get rid of me very well i'll go this moment i was going to tell you something
i'll send for my luggage you shan't be troubled with it long
i didn't think you were one of that kind i'll go this minute just as you please said emmeline your temper is really so very oh i know it's always my temper and nobody else is ever to blame
she flung out of the room and flew upstairs emmeline angered by this unwarrantable treatment determined to hold aloof and let the girl do as she would
and quite capable of taking care of herself or at all events ought to be perhaps this was the only possible issue of the difficulties in which they had all become involved neither louise nor her parents could be dealt with in the rational peaceful way preferred by well conditioned people
to get her out of the house was the main point if she chose to depart in a whirlwind that was her own affair all but certainly she would go home to morrow if not to day in less than a quarter of an hour her step sounded on the stairs
would she turn into the dining room where emmeline now sat at table no straight through the hall and out at the front door which closed however quite softly behind her that she did not slam it seemed wonderful to emmeline
the girl was not wholly a savage presently missus mumford went up to inspect the forsaken chamber louise had packed all her things
drawers were left open as if to exhibit their emptiness but in other respects the room looked tidy enough neatness and order came by no means naturally to miss derrick and emmeline did not know what pains the girl had taken ever since her arrival
to live in conformity with the habits of a nice household louise meanwhile had gone to the railway station intending to take a ticket for victoria but half an hour must elapse before the arrival of a train
and she walked about in an irresolute mood for one thing she felt hungry at sutton her appetite had been keen and meal times were always welcome she entered the refreshment room
and with inward murmurs made a repast which reminded her of the excellent luncheon she might now have been enjoying all the time she pondered her situation ultimately instead of booking for victoria she procured a ticket for epsom downs
and had not long to wait for the train it was a hot day at the end of june wafts of breezy coolness passed now and then over the high open country but did not suffice to combat the sun's steady glare after walking half a mile or so absorbed in thought
louise suffered so much that she looked about for shadow before her was the towering ugliness of the grand stand this she had seen and admired when driving past it with her friends it did not now attract her
in another direction the downs were edged with trees and that way she turned all but overcome with heat and weariness she at length found a shaded spot where her solitude seemed secure and after seating herself
the first thing she did was to have a good cry then for an hour she sat thinking and as she thought her face gradually emerged from gloom the better truer face which so often allowed itself to be disguised at the prompting of an evil spirit
her softening lips all but smiled as if at an amusing suggestion and her eyes in their reverie seemed to behold a pleasant promise unconsciously she plucked and tasted the sweet stems of grass that grew about her at length
the sun's movements having robbed her of shadow she rose looked at her watch and glanced around for another retreat hard by was a little wood delightfully grassy and cool fenced about with railings she could easily have climbed
but a notice board severely admonishing trespassers forbade the attempt with a petulant remark to herself on the selfishness of those people she sauntered past along this edge of the downs stands a picturesque row of pine trees
stunted bittered and twisted through many a winter by the upland gales louise noticed them only to think for a moment what ugly trees they were before her east west and north lay the wooded landscape
soft of hue beneath the summer sky spreading its tranquil beauty far away to the mists of the horizon in vivacious company she would have called it and perhaps have thought it a charming view alone she had no eye for such things
an indifference characteristic of her mind and not at all dependent upon its mood presently another patch of shade invited her to repose again and again she meditated for an hour or more the sun had grown less ardent
and a breeze no longer fitful made walking pleasant the sight of holiday making school children who in their ribboned hats and white pinafores were having tea not far away suggested to louise that she also would like such refreshment
doubtless it might be procured at the inn yonder near the racecourse and thither she began to move her thoughts were more at rest she had made her plan for the evening all that had to be done was to kill time for another hour or so
walking lightly over the turf she noticed the chalk marks significant of golf and wondered how the game was played without difficulty she obtained her cup of tea loitered over it as long as possible strayed yet awhile about the downs
and towards half past six made for the railway station she travelled no further than sutton and there lingered in the waiting room till the arrival of a certain train from london bridge as the train came in she took up a position near the exit
among the people who had alighted her eye soon perceived clarence mumford she stepped up to him and drew his attention oh have you come by the same train he asked shaking hands with her no
i've been waiting here because i wanted to see you mister mumford will you spare me a minute or two here in the station please if you don't mind astonished mumford drew aside with her to a quiet part of the long platform
louise keeping a very grave countenance told him rapidly all that had befallen since his departure from home in the morning i behaved horridly
after all missus mumford's kindness to me and yours i don't know how i could be so horrid
and i felt so miserable when missus mumford seemed to want to get rid of me i feel sure she didn't really want to send me away she was only advising me as she thought for my good but i can't and won't go home
and i've been waiting all the afternoon to see you no not here
and then came back just in time and do you think i might go back i don't mean now at once but this evening after you've had dinner i really don't know where to go for the night and it's such a stupid position to be in isn't it
with perfect naivete or with perfect simulation of it she looked him in the face and it was mumford who had to avert his eyes the young man felt very uncomfortable
oh i'm quite sure emmy will be glad to let you come for the night miss derrick yes but mister mumford i want to stay longer a few weeks longer do you think missus mumford would forgive me i have made up my mind what to do
and i ought to have told her i should have if i hadn't lost my temper well replied the other in grave embarrassment but feeling that he had no alternative let us go to the house oh i couldn't
it wouldn't be nice would it i thought if i came later after dinner and perhaps you could talk to missus mumford and and prepare her i mean
and then perhaps missus mumford she's so kind would say that she was sorry too and then i might come into the garden and find you both sitting there mumford despite his most uneasy frame of mind betrayed a passing amusement
he looked into the girl's face and saw its prettiness flush with pretty confusion and this did not tend to restore his tranquillity what shall you do in the meantime
and then walk about you must be dreadfully tired already just a little but i don't mind it serves me right i shall be so grateful to you mister mumford
i will arrange it come about half past eight we shall be in the garden by then avoiding her look he moved away and ran up the stairs but from the exit of the station he walked slowly in part to calm himself
and in part to think over the comedy he was going to play emmeline met him at the door herself too much flurried to notice anything peculiar in her husband's aspect she repeated the story with which he was already acquainted
and really after all i am so glad was her conclusion i didn't think she had really gone all the afternoon i've been expecting to see her back again but she won't come now and it is a good thing to have done with the wretched business
i only hope she will tell the truth to her people she might say that we turned her out of the house but i don't think so in spite of all her faults she never seemed deceitful or malicious mumford was strongly tempted to reveal what had happened at the station
but he saw danger alike in disclosure and in reticence when there enters the slightest possibility of jealousy a man can never be sure that his wife will act as a rational being
he feared to tell the simple truth lest emmeline should not believe his innocence of previous plotting with miss derrick or at all events should be irritated by the circumstances into refusing louise a lodging for the night
and with no less apprehension he decided at length to keep the secret which might so easily become known hereafter and would then have such disagreeable consequences well let us have dinner emmy i'm hungry
yes it's a good thing she has gone but i wish it hadn't happened in that way what a spitfire she is i never never saw the like and if you had heard missus higgins oh what dreadful people
it was my fault dear
it was wholly and entirely my fault by due insistence on this mumford of course put his wife into an excellent humour and after they had dined she returned to her regret that the girl should have gone so suddenly
clarence declaring that he would allow himself a cigar instead of the usual pipe to celebrate the restoration of domestic peace soon led emmeline into the garden heavens how hot it has been
eighty five in our office at noon eighty five fellows are discarding waistcoats and wearing what they call a cummerbund silk sash round the waist i think i must follow the fashion how should i look do you think
you don't really mind that we lose the money emmeline asked presently pooh we shall do well enough who's that someone was entering the garden by the side path and in a moment there remained no doubt who the person was
louise came forward her head bent her features eloquent of fatigue and distress missus mumford i couldn't without asking you to forgive me her voice broke with a sob she stood in a humble attitude and emmeline
though pierced with vexation had no choice but to hold out a welcoming hand have you come all the way back from london just to say this i haven't been to london i've walked about all day and oh i'm so tired and miserable
will you let me stay just for to night i shall be so grateful of course you may stay miss derrick it was very far from my wish to see you go off at a moment's notice but i really couldn't stop you mumford had stepped aside out of hearing
he forgot his private embarrassment in speculation as to the young woman's character that she was acting distress and penitence he could hardly believe indeed there was no necessity to accuse her of dishonest behaviour
the trivial concealment between him and her amounted to nothing did not alter the facts of the situation but what could be at the root of her seemingly so foolish existence emmeline held to the view that she was in love with the man cobb
though perhaps unwilling to admit it even in her own silly mind it might be so and if so it made her more interesting for one was tempted to think that louise had not the power of loving at all
yet for his own part he couldn't help liking her the eyes that had looked into his at the station haunted him a little and would not let him think of her contemptuously but what a woman to make ones wife unless unless
louise had gone into the house emmeline approached her husband there i foresaw it isn't vexing never mind dear she'll go to morrow or the day after
the cave was thus divided into three or four rooms if such dark dens with which a donkey would scarcely have been contented deserved the name but they were dry and there was space to stand upright at least in the principal room which occupied the center
the floor was covered with fine sand and taking all in all they were well pleased with it for want of a better perhaps said herbert while he and pencroft were working
very likely replied the seaman
better to have two strings to one's bow than no string at all oh exclaimed herbert how jolly it will be if they were to find captain harding and were to bring him back with them yes indeed said pencroft that was a man of the right sort was exclaimed herbert
do you despair of ever seeing him again god forbid replied the sailor their work was soon done and pencroft declared himself very well satisfied now said he our friends can come back when they like they will find a good enough shelter
they now had only to make a fireplace and to prepare the supper an easy task
this if the smoke did not take the heat out with it would be enough to maintain an equal temperature inside their wood was stowed away in one of the rooms and the sailor laid in the fireplace some logs and brushwood the seaman was busy with this when herbert asked him if he had any matches
certainly replied pencroft and i may say happily for without matches or tinder we should be in a fix still we might get fire as the savages do replied herbert by rubbing two bits of dry stick one against the other
well it's a very simple proceeding and much used in the islands of the pacific i don't deny it replied pencroft but the savages must know how to do it or employ a peculiar wood for more than once i have tried to get fire in that way but i could never manage it
i must say i prefer matches by the bye where are my matches
which was always there for he was a confirmed smoker he could not find it he rummaged the pockets of his trousers but to his horror he could nowhere discover the box here's a go said he looking at herbert
surely herbert you must have something a tinder box anything that can possibly make fire no i haven't pencroft the sailor rushed out followed by the boy
on the sand among the rocks near the river's bank they both searched carefully but in vain the box was of copper and therefore would have been easily seen pencroft asked herbert didn't you throw it out of the car
i knew better than that replied the sailor but such a small article could easily disappear in the tumbling about we have gone through i would rather even have lost my pipe confound the box where can it be look here the tide is going down said herbert
let's run to the place where we landed it was scarcely probable that they would find the box which the waves had rolled about among the pebbles at high tide but it was as well to try herbert and pencroft walked rapidly to the point where they had landed the day before
about two hundred feet from the cave they hunted there among the shingle in the clefts of the rocks but found nothing if the box had fallen at this place it must have been swept away by the waves as the sea went down
they searched every little crevice with no result it was a grave loss in their circumstances and for the time irreparable pencroft could not hide his vexation he looked very anxious but said not a word
herbert tried to console him by observing that if they had found the matches they would very likely have been wetted by the sea and useless no my boy replied the sailor they were in a copper box which shut very tightly and now what are we to do
we shall certainly find some way of making a fire said herbert captain harding or mister spilett will not be without them yes replied pencroft but in the meantime we are without fire
and our companions will find but a sorry repast on their return but said herbert quickly do you think it possible that they have no tinder or matches i doubt it replied the sailor shaking his head
and i believe that mister spilett would rather keep his note book than his match box herbert did not reply the loss of the box was certainly to be regretted but the boy was still sure of procuring fire in some way or other pencroft more experienced did not think so
although he was not a man to trouble himself about a small or great grievance at any rate there was only one thing to be done
but they must give up the feast of hard eggs which they had meant to prepare and a meal of raw flesh was not an agreeable prospect either for themselves or for the others before returning to the cave the sailor and herbert in the event of fire being positively unattainable
collected some more shell fish and then silently retraced their steps to their dwelling pencroft his eyes fixed on the ground still looked for his box he even climbed up the left bank of the river from its mouth to the angle where the raft had been moored
he returned to the plateau went over it in every direction searched among the high grass on the border of the forest all in vain it was five in the evening when he and herbert re entered the cave
it is useless to say that the darkest corners of the passages were ransacked before they were obliged to give it up in despair towards six o'clock when the sun was disappearing behind the high lands of the west herbert who was walking up and down on the strand
they were returning alone the boy's heart sank the sailor had not been deceived in his forebodings the engineer cyrus harding had not been found the reporter on his arrival sat down on a rock without saying anything
exhausted with fatigue dying of hunger he had not strength to utter a word
and the tears which he could not restrain told too clearly that he had lost all hope the reporter recounted all that they had done in their attempt to recover cyrus harding
and consequently much beyond the place where the balloon had fallen the last time but one a fall which was followed by the disappearance of the engineer and the dog top the shore was solitary not a vestige of a mark not even a pebble recently displaced
not a trace on the sand not a human footstep on all that part of the beach it was clear that that portion of the shore had never been visited by a human being the sea was as deserted as the land and it was there a few hundred feet from the coast
that the engineer must have found a tomb
exclaiming in a voice which showed how hope struggled within him no he is not dead he can't be dead it might happen to any one else but never to him he could get out of anything
oh i can do no more he murmured
we will find him god will give him back to us but in the meantime you are hungry and you must eat something so saying he offered the poor negro a few handfuls of shell fish which was indeed wretched and insufficient food
but he refused them he could not would not live without his master as to gideon spilett he devoured the shell fish then he laid himself down on the sand at the foot of a rock he was very weak but calm herbert went up to him and taking his hand
sir said he we have found a shelter which will be better than lying here night is advancing come and rest to morrow we will search farther the reporter got up and guided by the boy went towards the cave
on the way pencroft asked him in the most natural tone if by chance he happened to have a match or two the reporter stopped felt in his pockets but finding nothing said i had some but i must have thrown them away
confound it exclaimed the sailor the reporter heard him and seizing his arm have you no matches he asked not one and no fire in consequence
he would know what to do the four castaways remained motionless looking uneasily at each other herbert was the first to break the silence by saying mister spilett you are a smoker and always have matches about you
try again a single match will be enough the reporter hunted again in the pockets of his trousers waistcoat and great coat and at last to pencroft's great joy no less to his extreme surprise he felt a tiny piece of wood entangled in the lining of his waistcoat
he seized it with his fingers through the stuff but he could not get it out if this was a match and a single one it was of great importance not to rub off the phosphorus will you let me try said the boy and very cleverly without breaking it
he managed to draw out the wretched yet precious little bit of wood which was of such great importance to these poor men it was unused hurrah cried pencroft it is as good as having a whole cargo
he took the match and followed by his companions entered the cave this small piece of wood of which so many in an inhabited country are wasted with indifference and are of no value must here be used with the greatest caution
the sailor first made sure that it was quite dry that done we must have some paper said he here replied spilett after some hesitation tearing a leaf out of his note book pencroft took the piece of paper which the reporter held out to him
and knelt down before the fireplace some handfuls of grass leaves and dry moss were placed under the fagots and disposed in such a way that the air could easily circulate and the dry wood would rapidly catch fire
pencroft then twisted the piece of paper into the shape of a cone as smokers do in a high wind and poked it in among the moss taking a small rough stone he wiped it carefully and with a beating heart holding his breath
the first attempt did not produce any effect pencroft had not struck hard enough fearing to rub off the phosphorus no i can't do it said he my hand trembles the match has missed fire i cannot i will not
and rising he told herbert to take his place certainly the boy had never in all his life been so nervous prometheus going to steal the fire from heaven could not have been more anxious he did not hesitate however but struck the match directly
making a choking smoke herbert quickly turned the match so as to augment the flame and then slipped it into the paper cone which in a few seconds too caught fire and then the moss
a minute later the dry wood crackled and a cheerful flame assisted by the vigorous blowing of the sailor sprang up in the midst of the darkness at last cried pencroft getting up i was never so nervous before in all my life
the flat stones made a capital fireplace the smoke went quite easily out at the narrow passage the chimney drew and an agreeable warmth was not long in being felt they must now take great care not to let the fire go out
and always to keep some embers alight it only needed care and attention
pencroft's first thought was to use the fire by preparing a more nourishing supper than a dish of shell fish two dozen eggs were brought by herbert the reporter leaning up in a corner watched these preparations without saying anything
a threefold thought weighed on his mind was cyrus still alive if he was alive where was he if he had survived from his fall how was it that he had not found some means of making known his existence
he was roaming about the shore he was like a body without a soul pencroft knew fifty ways of cooking eggs but this time he had no choice and was obliged to content himself with roasting them under the hot cinders in a few minutes the cooking was done
and the seaman invited the reporter to take his share of the supper such was the first repast of the castaways on this unknown coast the hard eggs were excellent and as eggs contain everything indispensable to man's nourishment
these poor people thought themselves well off and were much strengthened by them oh if only one of them had not been missing at this meal if the five prisoners who escaped from richmond had been all there under the piled up rocks
before this clear crackling fire on the dry sand what thanksgiving must they have rendered to heaven but the most ingenious the most learned he who was their unquestioned chief cyrus harding was alas missing
and his body had not even obtained a burial place thus passed the twenty fifth of march night had come on outside could be heard the howling of the wind and the monotonous sound of the surf breaking on the shore
the waves rolled the shingle backwards and forwards with a deafening noise the reporter retired into a dark corner after having shortly noted down the occurrences of the day the first appearance of this new land the loss of their leader
the exploration of the coast the incident of the matches et cetera and then overcome by fatigue he managed to forget his sorrows in sleep herbert went to sleep directly as to the sailor he passed the night with one eye on the fire
on which he did not spare fuel but one of the castaways did not sleep in the cave
julie looked listlessly at her new home it was a two storied brick house built about seventeen eighty the front door boasted a pair of ionian columns and a classical canopy or pediment
the mansarde roof with its one dormer was untouched the little house had rather deep eaves three windows above two and the front door below it wore a prim old fashioned air a good deal softened and battered however by age
and it stood at the corner of two streets both dingily quiet and destined no doubt to be rebuilt before long in the general rejuvenation of mayfair as the duchess had said it occupied the site of what had once about seventeen forty
been the westerly end of a mews belonging to houses in cureton street long since pulled down the space filled by these houses was now occupied by one great mansion and its gardens the rest of the mews had been converted into three story houses of a fair size
looking south with a back road between them and the gardens of cureton house but at the southwesterly corner of what was now heribert street fronting west and quite out of line and keeping with the rest was this curious little place
built probably at a different date and for some special family reason the big planes in the cureton house gardens came close to it and overshadowed it one side wall of the house in fact formed part of the wall of the garden the duchess full of nervousness
ran up the steps put in the key herself and threw open the door an elderly scotchwoman the caretaker appeared from the back and stood waiting to show them over oh julie perhaps it's too queer and musty cried the duchess
i thought you know it would be a little out of the way and quaint unlike other people just what you ought to have but i think it's delightful said julie standing absently before a case of stuffed birds somewhat moth eaten
i love stuffed birds the duchess glanced at her uneasily what is she thinking about she wondered but julie roused herself why
it looks as though everything here had gone to sleep for a hundred years she said gazing in astonishment at the little hall with its old clock its two or three stiff hunting pictures its drab painted walls its poker work chest and the drawing room
the caretaker had opened the windows it was a mild march day and there were misty sun gleams stealing along the lawns of cureton house none entered the room itself for its two semi circular windows looked north over the gardens yet
it was not uncheerful its faded curtains of blue rep
a carpet of old and well preserved brussels blue arabesques on a white ground one or two pieces of old satin wood furniture very fine and perfect a heavy centre table its cloth garnished with some early victorian wool work
a set of indian chessmen under a glass shade and on another a collection of tiny animals stags and dogs for the most part deftly pinched out of soft paper also under glass and as perfect as when their slender limbs were first fashioned
by cousin mary leicester's mother somewhere about the year that marie antoinette mounted the scaffold these various elements ugly and beautiful combined to make a general effect clean fastidious
frugal and refined that was in truth full of a sort of acid charm oh i like it i like it so much cried julie throwing herself down into one of the straight backed arm chairs
to the gardens outside my dear said the duchess flitting from one thing to another frowning and a little fussed those curtains won't do at all i must send some from home no no evelyn not a thing shall be changed you shall lend it me just as it is or not at all
what a character it has i taste the person who lived here cousin mary leicester said the duchess well she was rather an oddity she was low church like my mother in law but oh so much nicer
once i let her come to grosvenor square and speak to the servants about going to church the groom of the chambers said she was a dear old lady and if she were his cousin he wouldn't mind her being a bit touched my maid
said she had no idea poke bonnets could be so sweet it made her understand what the queen looked like when she was young and none of them have ever been to church since that i can make out
added the duchess slowly she had second sight she saw her old mother in this room once or twice
ghosts too said julie crossing her hands before her with a little shiver that completes it sixty years said the duchess musing it was a long time wasn't it to live in this little house and scarcely ever leave it
oh she had quite a circle of her own for many years her funny little sister lived here too and there was a time freddie says when there was almost a rivalry between them and two other famous old ladies who lived in bruton street what was their name
said the duchess as she came to perch on the arm of julie's chair
after her little sister departed this life she became a very silent shrivelled thing
and very few people saw her she took a fancy to me which was odd wasn't it when i'm such a worldling and she let me come in and out every morning she read the psalms and lessons with her old maid who was just her own age in this very chair
freddie would slip round and read them with her you know freddie's very religious and then she'd work at flannel petticoats for the poor or something of that kind till lunch afterwards she'd go and read the bible to people in the workhouse or in hospital
when she came home the butler brought her the times and sometimes you'd find her by the fire straining her old eyes over a little dante
afterwards her maid played dominoes or spillikins with her
one morning the maid went in to wake her and she saw her dear sharp nose and chin against the light and her hands like that in front of her and well i suppose she'd gone to play hymns in heaven dear cousin mary julie isn't it strange the kind of lives so many of us have to lead
julie the little duchess laid her cheek against her friend's do you believe in another life you forget i'm a catholic said julie smiling rather doubtfully are you julie i'd forgotten the good nuns at bruges took care of that
sometimes then you're not a good catholic julie no
and they went rapidly through it all of it was stamped with the same character representing as it were the meeting point between an inherited luxury and a personal asceticism
for all the latter part of her life she had been half a mystic and half a great lady secretly hating the luxury from which she had not the strength to free herself dressing ceremoniously as the duchess had said for a solitary dinner and all the while going in sore remembrance of a master who had not where to lay his head
at any rate there was an ample supply of household stuff for a single woman and her maids in the china cupboard
the leeds and wedgewood dessert dishes that cousin mary leicester had used for half a century
and the linen gracious as the doors of another cupboard were opened to her but now i remember
at the worn monogram in the corners of the sheets at the little bags of lavender and pot pourri ranged along the shelves suddenly julie turned away and sat down by an open window
why should you get ugly new ones when you can use cousin mary's
she would have hated me with all her strength said miss le breton probably with much truth the two were silent a little through julie's stormy heart there swept longings and bitternesses inexpressible what did she care for the little house and all its luxuries
nearly four o'clock in the afternoon and no letter not a word julie said the duchess softly in her ear you know you can't live here alone i'm afraid freddie would make a fuss i've thought of that said julie wearily but shall we really go on with it evelyn
the duchess looked entreaty julie repented and drawing her friend towards her rested her head against the chinchilla cloak i'm tired i suppose she said in a low voice don't think me an ungrateful wretch well there's my foster sister and her child
what a word to apply to anybody or anything connected with last night are you very sore julie well on this very day of being turned out it hurts i wonder who is writing lady henry's letters for her this afternoon
i hope they are not getting written said the duchess savagely and that she's missing you abominably
julie rose and made her way down to the drawing room again the scotchwoman saw that she wanted to be alone and left her the windows were still open to the garden outside julie examined the paths the shrubberies the great plane trees
she strained her eyes towards the mansion itself but not much of it could be seen the little house at the corner had been carefully planted out what wealth it implied that space and size in london evidently the house was still shut up
which they would soon come up to live in the capital honors parks money birth all were theirs as naturally as the sun rose julie envied and hated the big house and all it stood for
she would not be able in truth to free herself from the ambition to live and shine in this world of the english rich and well born for after all as she told herself with rebellious passion
it was or ought to be her world and yet her whole being was sore from the experiences of these three years with lady henry from those above all of the preceding twenty four hours she wove no romance about herself
any one who could have compelled the disclosure of her thoughts
the presence in this very world where she had gained so marked a personal success of two clashing estimates of herself both of which she perfectly understood
she was not good enough not desirable enough to be the wife of the man she loved here was the plain fact that stung and stung
what a paradox was she living in the duchess might well ask why indeed
when upon that winter day now some six weeks past which had beheld lady henry more than commonly tyrannical and her companion more than commonly weary and rebellious delafield's stammered words as he and she were crossing grosvenor square in the january dusk
had struck for the second time upon her ear she was already under warkworth's charm but before the first time
the wild strength in her own nature had divined and shrunk from a similar strength in delafield's here indeed one came upon the fact which forever differentiated her from the adventuress had sir wilfrid known she wanted money and name there were days when she hungered for them
but she would not give too reckless a price for them she was a personality a soul not a vulgar woman not merely callous or greedy she dreaded to be miserable she had a thirst for happiness and the heart was after all stronger than the head
jacob delafield no her being contracted and shivered at the thought of him
but now as she believed invincible a mystic an ascetic
a man under whose modest or careless or self mocking ways she with her eye for character divined the most critical instincts and a veracity iron scarcely human a man before whom one must be always posing at one's best
unless indeed if it came to this that one must think no more of love but only of power why then a ring at the door resounding through the quiet side street
julie took the letter in astonishment
i don't understand him said the scotchwoman shaking her head
the groom of the chambers misinterpreting the man's queer english and thinking the matter urgent the note was marked immediate had sent him after the ladies to heribert street
she honors herself in sheltering you
this morning came your note about eleven it was angelic to think so kindly and thoughtfully of a friend angelic to write such a letter at such a time you announced your flight to crowborough house but did not say when so i crept to bruton street
seeing lady henry in every lamp post got a few clandestine words with hutton and knew at least what had happened to you outwardly and visibly last night did you think me a poltroon to vanish as i did it was the impulse of a moment
mister montresor had pulled me into a corner of the room away from the rest of the party nominally to look at a picture really that i might answer a confidential question he had just put to me with regard to a disputed incident in the afridi campaign
we were in the dark and partly behind a screen then the door opened i confess the sight of lady henry paralyzed me a great murderous six foot afridi that
my nerves suddenly failed me what right had i in her house after all
of either relationship or old acquaintance with lady henry compared to them i could have done nothing to shield you was it not best to withdraw yet all the way home i accused myself bitterly nor did i feel when i reached home
that one who had not grasped your hand under fire had any right to rest or sleep but anxiety for you regrets for myself took care of that i got my deserts
you have suffered and borne too much now we shall see you expand in a freer and happier life the duchess has asked me to dinner to morrow the note has just arrived so that i shall soon have the chance of hearing from you some of those details i so much want to know
but before then you will write as for me i am full of alternate hopes and fears
general fergus as we walked home was rather silent and bearish i could not flatter myself that he had any friendly intentions towards me in his mind but montresor was more than kind and gave me some fresh opportunities of which i was very glad to avail myself
well we shall know soon you told me once that if or when this happened you would turn to your pen and that
i have got a good deal of pleasure out of my small ones did you know that once long ago when i was stationed at gibraltar i wrote a military novel no
dear friend kind persecuted friend i thought of you in the watches of the night i think of you this morning let me soon have news of you julie put the letter down upon her knee her face stiffened
grief complaint no just a calm grasp of the game a quick playing of the pieces so long as the game was there to play
if not anyway two or three weeks were hers her mind seemed to settle and steady itself she got up and went once more carefully through the house giving her attention to it
yes the whole had character and a kind of charm the little place would make no doubt an interesting and distinguished background for the life she meant to put into it she would move in at once in three days at most
ways and means were for the moment not difficult during her life with lady henry she had saved the whole of her own small rentes three hundred pounds lay ready to her hand in an investment easily realized and she would begin to earn at once
that should be her room the cheerful blue papered room with the south window julie felt a strange rush of feeling as she thought of it how curious that these two
should be thus brought back into her life for she had no doubt whatever that they would accept with eagerness what she had to offer her foster sister had married a school master in one of the communal schools of bruges
old madame le breton to julie she had been at first unwelcome and repugnant then some quality in the frail creature had unlocked the girl's sealed and often sullen heart
when the two parties came to blows some of king al samandal's pages fled
and they told him what had happened but when he heard that the king was a prisoner
and fled saying in his heart verily all this turmoil is on my account and none is wanted but i so he sought safety in flight security to sight knowing not whither he went
but destiny from eternity fore ordained crave him to the very island where the princess had taken refuge and he came to the very tree whereon she sat and threw himself down like a dead man thinking to lie and repose himself
if she be indeed the she i will demand her in wedlock of herself and so win my wish so he stood up and said to her o end of all desire who art thou
came to blows with my sire and slew his troops and took him prisoner with some of his men wherefore i fled fearing for my very life presently adding and i weet not what fortune hath done with my father
he marvelled with exceeding marvel at this strange chance and thought doubtless i have won my wish by the capture of her sire then he looked at jauharah and said to her come down o my lady
for i am slain for love of thee and thine eyes have captivated me on my account and thine are all these broils and battles
as for me i have quitted my kingdom for thy sake and our meeting here is the rarest coincidence so come down to me and let us twain fare for thy father's palace that i may beseech uncle salih to release him and i may make thee my lawful wife
she said in herself twas on this miserable gallows bird's account then that all this hath befallen and that my father hath fallen prisoner and his chamberlains and suite have been slain and i have been departed from my palace
a miserable exile and have fled for refuge to this island but an i devise not against him some device to defend myself from him he will possess himself of me and take his will of me
o my lord and light of my eyes say me
yes o my lady and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the seven hundred and forty ninth night she resumed
art thou in very sooth
son of queen julnar and he answered yes o my lady then she may allah cut off my father and gar his kingdom cease from him
if he could desire a comelier than thou or aught goodlier than these fair qualities of thine by allah he is of little wit and judgment presently adding but o king of the age punish him not for that he hath done
more by token that an thou love me a span verily i love thee a cubit indeed
found himself transformed into a bird the handsomest of birds who shook himself and stood looking at her now jauharah had with her one of her slave girls
i would kill him allah never requite him with good how unlucky was his coming to us for all this trouble is due to his hard headedness but do thou o slave girl bear him to the thirsty island
so she went forth from that island and brought him to another abounding in trees and fruits and rills and setting him down there returned to her mistress and told her i have left him on the thirsty island
such was the case with badr basim but as regards king salih
after capturing the king and killing his folk but finding her not returned to his palace and said to his mother
when salih heard this he grieved for his nephew and said o my mother by allah we have dealt negligently by king badr and i fear lest he perish or lest one of king al samandal's soldiers
so should we come to shame with his mother and no good betide us from her for that i took him without her leave then he despatched guards and scouts throughout the sea
so they returned and told king salih wherefore cark and care redoubled on him and his breast was straitened for king badr basim so far concerning nephew and uncle but as for julnar the sea born
who sighting her rose to her and kissed her and embraced her as did the mermaids her cousins
and she answered saying o my daughter of a truth he came hither with his uncle who took jacinths and jewels and carrying them to king al samandal demanded his daughter in marriage for thy son but he consented not
and was violent against thy brother in words now i had sent salih nigh upon a thousand horse and a battle befel between him and king al samandal but allah aided thy brother against him and he slew his guards and troops
and took himself prisoner meanwhile tidings of this reached thy son and it would seem as if he feared for himself wherefore he fled forth from us without our will and returned not to us nor have we heard any news of him
then julnar enquired for king salih and his mother said he is seated on the throne of his kingship in the stead of king al samandal and hath sent in all directions to seek thy son and princess jauharah
when julnar heard the maternal words she mourned for her son with sad mourning and was highly incensed against her brother salih for that he had taken him and gone down with him into the sea without her leave and she said
she replied with love and gladness o my daughter ask not what we suffer by reason of his loss and absence then she sent to seek for her grandson whilst julnar returned to her kingdom
she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that when queen juluar returned from her mother to her own realm her breast was straitened and she was in ill case
and knowing not whither to go nor how to fly till one day there came a certain fowler to the island to catch somewhat wherewithal to get his living
with red bill and legs captivating the sight and bewildering the thought and looking thereat said in himself verily yonder is a beautiful bird never saw i its like in fairness or form
for how much this fowl o fowler quoth the fowler what wilt thou do with him an thou buy him
and placing him in a fine cage hung him up after setting meat and drink by him when the king came down from the divan he said to the eunuch where is the bird bring it to me that i may look upon it for by allah tis beautiful
so the eunuch brought the cage and set it between the hands of the king who looked and seeing the food untouched said by allah i wis not what it will eat that i may nourish it then he called for food
and all the bystanders marvelled and the king said to his attendants eunuchs and mamelukes in all my life i never saw a bird eat as doth this bird then he sent an eunuch to fetch his wife that she might enjoy looking upon the bird
and he went in to summon her and said o my lady the king desireth thy presence that thou mayst divert thyself with the sight of a bird he hath bought when we set on the food
it flew down from its cage and perching on the table
so arise o my lady and solace thee with the sight for it is goodly of aspect and is a wonder of the wonders of the age hearing these words she came in haste but when she noted the bird
answered she o king
this is too much of a jest how should he be other than a bird and she o king by allah i do not jest with thee
heard the words of his uncle salih and his mother julnar praising the daughter of king al samandal a flame of fire burnt in his heart full sore and he was drowned in a sea which hath nor bottom nor shore
then salih looking at his sister exclaimed by allah o my sister there is no greater fool among the kings of the sea than her father nor one more violent of temper than he
right is thy rede and they parleyed no more but
when it was morning the king and his uncle went to the hammam bath and washed after which they came forth and drank wine and the servants set food before them whereof they and julnar ate their sufficiency
and washed their hands then salih rose and said to his nephew and sister with your leave i would fain go to my mother and my folk for i have been with you some days and their hearts are troubled with awaiting me
lay down under a shady tree thinking to rest and sleep but he remembered his uncle's description of the maiden and her beauty and loveliness and shed railing tears
who shall save me from love of a lovely gazelle brighter browed than the sunshine my bonnibel my heart erst free from her love now burns with fire
for the maid of al samandal when salih heard what his nephew said he smote hand upon hand and said there is no god but the god
yes o my uncle and i fell in love with her by hearsay through what i heard you say indeed my heart cleaveth to her and i cannot live without her rejoined his uncle o king
let us return to thy mother and tell her how the case standeth and crave her leave that i may take thee with me and seek the princess in marriage of her sire after which we will farewell her and i and thou will return
indeed i fear to take thee and go without her leave lest she be wroth with me and verily the right would be on her side for i should be the cause of her separation from us moreover
o my uncle if i return to my mother
wherefore i will not return to my mother nor consult her and he wept before him and presently added i will go with thee and tell her not and after will return
was resolved to go with him whether his mother would let him or no he drew from his finger a seal ring whereon were graven certain of the names of allah the most high and gave it to him saying
put this on thy finger and thou shalt be safe from drowning and other perils and from the mischief of sea beasts and great fishes so
when it was the seven hundred and forty sixth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king
after diving into the deep fared on till they came to salih's palace
and embracing him kissed him between the eyes and said to him
how didst thou leave thy mother julnar he replied she is well in health and fortune and saluteth thee and her uncle's daughters then salih related to his mother what had occurred between him and his sister
had fallen in love with the princess jauharah daughter of al samandal by report and told her the whole tale from beginning to end adding he hath not come save to demand her in wedlock of her sire
which when the old queen heard she was wroth against her son with exceeding wrath and sore troubled and concerned and said
and violent little of wit and tyrannical of temper grudging his daughter to every suitor for all the monarchs of the main have sought her hand but he rejected them all nay
and we are a folk of high spirit and should return broken hearted hearing these words salih answered o my mother what is to do for
there is no help but that i seek her in marriage of her sire though i expend my whole kingdom
that an he take her not to wife he will die of love for her and longing and salih continued he is handsomer and goodlier than she his father was king of all the persians whose king he now is
wherefore i purpose to carry her father a gift of jacinths and jewels befitting his dignity and demand her of him in marriage an he object to us that he is a king behold
our man also is a king and the son of a king or if he object to us her beauty behold our man is more beautiful than she or again if he object to us the vastness of his dominion
behold our man's dominion is vaster than hers and her father's and numbereth more troops and guards for that his kingdom is greater than that of al samandal needs must
i do my endeavour to further the desire of my sister's son though it relieve me of my life because i was the cause of whatso hath betided and even as i plunged him into the ocean of her love so will i go about to marry him to her
and taking two bags full of gems such as rubies and bugles of emerald noble ores and all manner jewels gave them to his servants to carry and set out with his nephew for the palace of al samandal
when they came thither he sought audience of the king and being admitted to his presence kissed ground before him and saluted him with the goodliest salam the king rose to him
and honouring him with the utmost honour bade him be seated so he sat down and presently the king said to him
but what bringeth thee to us tell me thine errand that we may fulfil it to thee whereupon salih arose and kissing the ground a second time said o king of the age my errand is to allah
to all climes and countries hath sped thereupon he opened the two bags and displaying their contents before al samandal said to him o king of the age
haply wilt thou accept my gift and by showing favour to me heal my heart
is that the sovran show favour to me and heal my heart by accepting my present
with what object dost thou gift me with this gift tell me thy tale and acquaint me with thy requirement an its accomplishment be in my power i will straightway accomplish it to thee
and thou art master thereof and i impose not on the king a difficulty nor am i jinn demented that i should crave of the king
for one of the sages saith an thou wouldst be complied with ask that which can be readily supplied
that of which i am come in quest the king whom allah preserve is able to grant the king replied
wherefore o king disappoint thou not thy suitor now when the king heard this he laughed till he fell backwards in mockery of him and said o salih
hath befallen thy reason and urged thee to this monstrous matter and mighty hazard that thou seekest in marriage daughters of kings lords of cities and climates say me
to this great eminence and hath thy wit failed thee to this extreme pass that thou affrontest me with this demand replied salih allah amend the king
lord of the lands of the persians and son of king shahriman whose puissance thou knowest an thou object that thou art a mighty great king
if thou grant my request o king of the age
when king al samandal heard salih's words he was wroth with exceeding wrath his reason well nigh fled and his soul was like to depart his body for rage and he cried o
take yonder gallows bird's head so they drew their swords and made for salih but he fled and for the palace gate sped and reaching the entrance he found
and these when they saw salih come running out of the palace they having been sent by his mother to his succour questioned him and he told them what was to do whereupon they knew that the king was a fool
and violent tempered to boot so they dismounted and baring their blades went in to the king al samandal whom they found seated upon the throne of his kingship unaware of their coming and enraged against salih
with furious rage and they beheld his eunuchs and pages and officers unprepared when the king saw them enter drawn brand in hand he cried out to his people saying
take me the heads of these hounds but ere an hour had sped al samandal's party were put to the route and relied upon flight and salih and his kinsfolk seized upon the king and pinioned him
he gave the child up for lost and fell to weeping and wailing but julnar said to him o king of the age fear not neither grieve for thy son
for i love my child more than thou and he is with my brother so reck thou not of the sea neither fear for him drowning had my brother known that aught of harm would betide the little one
and king salih came forth and flew from the sea till he came up to them with the child lying quiet and showing a face like the moon on the night of fulness then looking at the king he said
for this is what we use to do with children newly born among us and now thou needst not fear for him drowning or suffocation
if he should go down into them for even as ye walk on the land so
besides three hundred bugles of emerald and other three hundred hollow gems as big as ostrich eggs whose light dimmed that of sun and moon quoth salih o king of the age
these jewels and jacinths are a present from me to thee we never yet brought thee a gift for that we knew not julnar's abiding place neither had we of her any tidings or trace
but now that we see thee to be united with her
we have brought thee this present and every little while we will bring thee the like thereof inshallah for that these jewels and jacinths are more plentiful with us than pebbles on the beach
and we know the good and the bad of them and their whereabouts and the way to them and they are easy to us when the king saw the jewels his wits were bewildered and his sense was astounded and he said
by allah one single gem of these jewels is worth my realm then he thanked for his bounty salih the sea born and looking towards queen julnar said i am abashed before thy brother
i had healed my soul before repentance came but she wept before i did her tears drew mine and i said the merit belongs to the precedent
and resumed salih the pious if we stood on our faces in thy service o king of the age a thousand years yet
at the end of which salih arose and kissed the ground before his brother in law who asked what wantest thou o salih he answered o king of the age indeed
thou hast done us overabundant favours and we crave of thy bounties that thou deal charitably with us and grant us permission to depart for we yearn after our people and country
nor that of my sister and my nephew and by allah o king of the age tis not pleasant to my heart to part from thee but how shall we do seeing that we have been reared in the sea
and that the sojourn of the shore liketh us not when the king heard these words he rose to his feet and farewelled salih the sea born and his mother and his cousins and all wept together because of parting
and presently they said to him anon we will be with thee again nor will we forsake thee but will visit thee every few days then they flew off
disappeared from sight and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the seven hundred and forty third night
she continued it hath reached me o auspicious king that the relations of julnar the sea born farewelled the king and her weeping together because of parting then they flew off
and descending into the depths disappeared from sight after this king shahriman showed the more kindness to julnar and honoured her with increase of honour and the little one grew up
and flourished whilst his maternal uncle and grandam and cousins visited the king every few days and abode with him a month or two months at a time
the boy ceased not to increase in beauty and loveliness with increase of years till he attained the age of fifteen and was unique in his perfection and symmetry he learnt writing
and koran reading history syntax and lexicography archery spearplay and horsemanship and what not else behoveth the sons of kings nor was there
one of the children of the folk of the city men or women but would talk of the youth's charms for he was of surpassing beauty and perfection even such an one
with ambergris on pearl two lines as twere with jet upon an apple line for line death harbours in his languid eye and slays with every glance
and in his cheek is drunkenness and not in any wine and in that of another upsprings from table
and grandees of his realm required of them a binding oath
king over them after his sire and they sware the oath gladly for the sovran was liberal to the lieges pleasant in parley and a very compend of goodness saying naught but that wherein was advantage for the people
on the morrow shahriman mounted with all his troops and emirs and lords and went forth into the city and returned when they drew near the palace the king dismounted
bearing it in his turn till they came to the vestibule of the palace where the prince alighted and his father and the emirs embraced him and seated him on the throne of kingship whilst they
when he descended from the throne and went in to his mother julnar the sea born with the crown upon his head as he were the moon
with the king standing before him she rose and kissing him gave him joy of the sultanate and wished him and his sire length of life and victory over their foes he sat with her and rested
till the hour of mid afternoon prayer when he took horse and repaired with the emirs before him to the maydan plain where he played at arms with his father and his lords till night fall when he returned to the palace preceded by all the folk
he rode forth thus every day to the tilting ground returning to sit and judge the people and do justice between earl and churl and thus he continued doing a whole year
he began to ride out a hunting and a chasing and to go round about in the cities and countries under his rule proclaiming security and satisfaction and doing after the fashion of kings and he was unique
the old king fell sick and his fluttering heart forebode him of translation to the mansion of eternity his sickness grew upon him till he was nigh upon death when he called his son
and commended his mother and subjects to his care and caused all the emirs and grandees once more swear allegiance to the prince and assured himself of them by strongest oaths after which he lingered a few days
till salih and his mother and cousins arrived and condoled with their grieving for the king and said o julnar though the king be dead yet hath he left this noble and peerless youth and not dead
is whoso leaveth the like of him the rending lion and the shining moon and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say
when it was the seven hundred and forty fourth night she pursued it hath reached me o auspicious king that salih brother of julnar and her mother and cousins said to her
albeit the king be dead yet hath he left behind him as successor this noble and peerless youth the rending lion and the shining moon thereupon the grandees and notables of the empire
o king there is no harm in mourning for the late sovran but over mourning beseemeth none save women wherefore occupy thou not thy heart and our hearts with mourning for thy sire
he hath left thee behind him and whoso leaveth the like of thee is not dead then they comforted him and diverted him
doing equal justice between strong and weak and exacting from the prince the dues of the pauper wherefore the people loved him with exceeding love thus he continued doing for a full year
for i know all the damsels of the sea kings daughters and others and if i judge her worthy of him i will demand her in marriage for him of her father though i spend on her whatso my hand possesseth
so recount to me all anent her and fear naught for my son sleepeth quoth salih i fear lest he be awake and the poet saith i loved him soon as his praise i heard
for ear oft loveth ere eye survey but julnar said speak out and be brief and fear not o my brother so he said
she enslaveth soon sweet lipped and soft sided indeed is she now when julnar heard what salih said she replied
by allah i have seen her many and many a time and she was my companion when we were little ones but now we have no knowledge of each other for constraint of distance nor have i set eyes on her for eighteen years
by allah none is worthy of my son but she
and mastered what had passed first and last of these praises bestowed
the frog tsarevna
in a certain kingdom in a certain empire there lived a tsar with his tsaritsa and he had three sons all of them young valiant and unwedded
and the youngest of them was called the tsarevich ivan footnote sixteen from russian fairy tales adapted london george g harrap and company
my dear children take unto you your darts gird on your well spanned bows and go hence in different directions and in whatsoever courts your arrows fall there choose ye your brides
and on this balcony was standing a lovely young maiden soul
tis thy fate to have her so the tsareviches all got married the eldest to the boyar's daughter the second to the merchant's daughter and the youngest to the quacking frog and the tsar called them to him and said
let your wives to morrow morning bake me soft white bread ivan returned home and he was not happy and his impetuous head hung down lower than his shoulders qua qua ivan tsarevich
wherefore art thou so sad asked the frog or hast thou heard unpleasant words from thy father the tsar why should i not be sad my father and sovereign lord hath commanded thee to bake soft white bread to morrow
do not afflict thyself o tsarevich lie down and rest the morning is wiser than the evening she made the tsarevich lie down and rest then casting her frog skin she turned into a maiden soul
upon her beautiful balcony and cried with a piercing voice nurseys nurseys assemble set to work and make me soft white bread such as i myself used to eat at my dear father's in the morning ivan awoke
the frog had got the bread ready long ago and it was so splendid that the like of it is neither to be imagined nor guessed at but is only to be told of in tales
the loaves were adorned with various cunning devices royal cities were modelled on the sides thereof with moats and ditches the tsar praised ivan greatly because of his bread and gave this command to his three sons
let your wives weave me a carpet in a single night ivan returned home and he was sad and his impetuous head hung lower than his shoulders qua qua tsarevich ivan wherefore art thou so sad
have i not cause to grieve my father and sovereign lord commands thee to weave him a silk carpet in a single night fret not tsarevich come lay thee down and sleep the morning is wiser than the evening
then she made him lie down to sleep and turning into the lovely maiden went forth upon her beautiful balcony and cried with a piercing voice nurseys nurseys assemble
set to work and weave me a silk carpet such as i was wont to sit upon at my dear father's no sooner said than done in the morning ivan woke
and it was such a wondrous carpet that the like of it can only be told in tales but may neither be imagined nor guessed at the carpet was adorned with gold and silver and with divers bright embroiderings
the tsar greatly praised ivan for his carpet and there and then gave the new command that all three tsareviches were to appear before him on the morrow to be inspected together with their wives
again ivan returned home and he was not happy and his impetuous head hung lower than his shoulders qua qua tsarevich ivan wherefore art thou grieved
or hast thou heard words unkind from thy father the tsar have i not cause to be sad my father and sovereign lord has commanded me to appear before him with thee to morrow how can i show thee to people
fret not tsarevich go alone to the tsar and pay thy visit and i will come after thee the moment you hear a rumbling and a knocking say hither comes my dear little froggy in her little basket
and behold the elder brothers appeared to be inspected with their richly attired and splendidly adorned consorts there they stood and laughed at the tsarevich ivan and said why brother
why hast thou come hither without thy wife why thou mightest have brought her with thee in a kitchen clout and where didst thou pick up such a beauty
the guests were all terribly frightened and rushed from their places and knew not what to do but ivan said fear not tis only my little froggy coming in her little basket
and then a golden coach drawn by six horses flew up the steps of the tsar's balcony and out of it stepped such a beauty as is only to be told of in tales
ivan took her by the hand and led her behind the oaken table behind the embroidered tablecloth the guests began to eat and drink and make merry the lovely tsarevna drank wine
but the dregs of her cup she poured behind her left sleeve she ate also of the roast swan but the bones thereof she concealed behind her right sleeve the wives of the elder brothers watched these devices and took care to do the same
afterward when tsarevna began dancing with ivan she waved her left hand and a lake appeared she waved her right hand and white swans were swimming in the water the tsar and his guests were astonished
and now the elder brides began dancing they waved their left hands and all the guests were squirted with water they waved their right hands and the bones flew right into the tsar's eyes the tsar was wroth
now one day the tsarevich waited his opportunity
soon the tsarevna missed her frog skin was sore troubled fell a weeping and said to the tsarevich alas tsarevich ivan what hast thou done if thou hadst but waited for a little
i should have been thine for ever more
what dost thou seek and whither art thou going the tsarevich told him all his misfortune alas tsarevich ivan why didst thou burn that frog skin thou didst not make
nor shouldst thou therefore have done away with it vasilisa thy wife was born wiser and more cunning than her father
and bade her be a frog for three years here is a little ball for thee follow it whithersoever it rolls ivan thanked the old man and followed after the ball
he went along the open plain and there met him a bear come now thought ivan
but the bear implored him slay me not tsarevich ivan i may perchance be of service to thee somehow he went on farther and lo
the tsarevich bent his bow he would have shot the bird when suddenly she greeted him with a human voice slay me not ivan tsarevich i also will befriend thee
ivan had pity upon her and went on farther to the blue sea and behold on the beach lay gasping a pike alas tsarevich ivan sighed the pike have pity on me and cast me into the sea
and he cast it into the sea and went on along the shore the ball rolled a short way and it rolled a long way and at last it came to a miserable hut the hut was standing on hen's legs and turning round and round
ivan said to it little hut little hut stand the old way as thy mother placed thee with thy front to me and thy back to the sea and the little hut turned round with its front to him and its back to the sea
the tsarevich entered in and saw the bony legged baba yaga lying on the stove on nine bricks and grinding her teeth hillo good youth why dost thou visit me asked the baba yaga
fie thou old hag thou call'st me a good youth but thou shouldst first feed and give me drink and prepare me a bath then only shouldst thou ask me questions the baba yaga fed him and gave him to drink
and made ready a bath for him and the tsarevich told her he was seeking his wife vasilisa i know said the baba yaga she is now with koshchei tis hard to get thither
and it is not easy to settle accounts with koshchei his death depends upon the point of a needle that needle is in a hare that hare is in a coffer that coffer is on the top of a high oak
and koshchei guards that tree as the apple of his eye the baba yaga then showed him in what place that oak grew ivan went thither but did not know what to do to get at the coffer suddenly
how who can tell the bear rushed at the tree and tore it up by the roots the coffer fell and was smashed to pieces the hare leaped out and with one bound had taken cover but look
the other hare bounded off in pursuit hunted him down and tore him to bits out of the hare flew a duck and rose high high in the air but the other duck
whereupon the duck laid an egg and the egg fell into the sea ivan seeing the irreparable loss of the egg burst into tears when suddenly the pike came swimming ashore holding the egg between its teeth
he took the egg broke it drew out the needle and broke off its little point then he attacked koshchei who struggled hard but wriggle about as he might he had to die at last then ivan went into the house of koshchei
took vasilisa and returned home
her skin was like velvet a rich clear rosy snow with the hot young blood glowing through it like the faint red tinge we sometimes see on the inner side of a white rose leaf
arras silk she was of medium height with a figure that venus might have envied
and apparently made for the sole purpose of driving mankind distracted in fact that seemed to be the paramount object in her creation
her greatest beauty was her glowing dark brown eyes which shone with an ever changing luster from beneath the shade of the longest blackest upcurving lashes ever seen her voice was soft and full
and except when angry which alas was not infrequent
she was a most adroit coaxer and knew her power full well although she did not always plead having the tudor temper and preferring to command when she could as before hinted
you could form some idea of mary's powers by that achievement alone will sommers the fool
but in fact harmless operation of wheedling the king out of his ears
then heir to the greatest inheritance that ever fell to the lot of one man spain the netherlands austria and heaven only knows what else
she had been made love to by so many men who had lost their senses in the dazzling rays of her thousand perfections of whom i am ashamed to say that i for a time had been insane enough to be one
and man a poor contemptible creature made to grovel at her feet not that she liked or encouraged it for never having been moved herself she held love and its sufferings in utter scorn
man's love was so cheap and plentiful that it had no value in her eyes and it looked as if she would lose the best thing in life by having too much of it
such was the royal maid to whose tender mercies i now tell you frankly my friend brandon was soon to be turned over he however was a blade of very different temper from any she had known
and when i first saw signs of a growing intimacy between them i felt from what little i had seen of brandon that the tables were very likely to be turned upon her ladyship then thought i god help her
for in a nature like hers charged with latent force strong and hot and fiery as the sun's stored rays it needed but a flash to make it patent when damage was sure to follow for somebody probably brandon
mary did not come home with us from westminster the morning after the joustings as we had expected but followed some four or five days later
as neither his duties nor mine were onerous we had a great deal of time on our hands which we employed walking and riding or sitting in our common room reading and talking of course as with most young men
that very attractive branch of natural history woman was a favorite topic and we accordingly discussed it a great deal that is to tell the exact truth i did although brandon had seen many an adventure during his life on the continent
which would not do to write down here he was as little of a boaster as any man i ever met and while i am in the truth telling business i was as great a braggart of my inches as ever drew the long bow in that line i mean
gods i flush up hot even now when i think of it so i talked a great deal and found myself infinitely pleased with brandon's conversational powers which were rare
being no less than the capacity for saying nothing and listening politely to an infinite deal of the same thing in another form from me i remember that i told him i had known the princess mary from a time when she was twelve years old
i fear i tried to convey the impression that it was her exalted rank only which made her look unfavorably upon my passion
the truth is she had always been kind and courteous to me and had admitted me to a degree of intimacy much greater than i deserved this partly at least
a road she traveled at an eager gallop for she dearly loved to learn from curiosity perhaps i am sure she held me in her light gentle heart as a dear friend but while her heart was filled with this mild warmth for me
mine began to burn with the flame that discolors everything and i saw her friendliness in a very distorting light she was much kinder to me than to most men but i did not see that it was by reason of my absolute harmlessness
and i suppose because i was a vain fool i gradually began to gather hope which goes with every vain man's love and what is more actually climbed to the very apex of idiocy and declared myself
i well knew the infinite distance between us but like every other man who came within the circle of this charming lodestone i lost my head and in short made a greater fool of myself than i naturally was
which is saying a good deal for that time in my life god knows i knew vaguely but did not fairly realize how utterly beyond my reach in every way she was until i opened the flood gates of my passion as i thought it
and saw her smile and try to check the coming laugh then came a look of offended dignity followed by a quick softening glance leave me one friend i pray you edwin i value you too highly to lose
and esteem you too much to torment do not make of yourself one of those fools who feel or pretend to feel i care not which such preference for me
you cannot know in what contempt a woman holds a man who follows her though she despises him no man can beg a woman's love he must command it do not join their ranks but let us be good friends
i will tell you the plain truth it would be no different were we both of the same degree even then i could not feel toward you as you think you wish but i can be your friend and will promise to be that always
if you will promise never again to speak of this to me i promised solemnly and have always kept my word as this true gracious woman so full of faults and beauties virtues and failings has
ever since that day and moment kept hers it seemed that my love or what i supposed was love
as she smiled upon my first avowal somewhat as disease may leave the sickened body upon a great shock and in its place came the restful flame of a friend's love which so softly warms without burning but the burning
there is nothing in life worth having compared with it for all its pains and agonies is there now if you must love somebody continued the princess
there is lady jane bolingbroke who is beautiful and good and admires you and i think could learn to
don't believe one word she says sir edwin cried lady jane if you do i never will like you the emphasis on the will held out such involuntary promise in case i did not believe the princess
that i at once protested total want of faith in a single syllable she had said about her and vowed that i knew it could not be true that i dared not hope for such happiness you see
and therefore i had not been much hurt in mary's case i had suffered merely a touch of the general epidemic not the lingering chronic disease that kills
then i knew that the best cure for the sting which lies in a luckless love is to love elsewhere and jane as she stood there so petite so blushing and so fair struck me as quite the most pleasing antidote i could possibly find
it was a happy thought for me one of those which come to a man now and then and for which he thanks his wits in every hour of his after life
but the winning of jane was not so easy a matter as my vanity had prompted me to think i started with a handicap
and i had to undo all that before i could do anything else
but find a continual tendency on the part of my own story to intrude for every man is a very important personage to himself i shall however try to keep it out in the course of my talk with brandon
i had as i have said told him the story of mary with some slight variations and coloring or rather discoloring
i told him also about jane and i grieve and blush to say expressed a confidence in that direction i little felt it had been perhaps a year since my adventure with mary
and i had taken all that time trying to convince jane that i did not mean a word i had said to her mistress
and that i was very earnest in everything i said to her but jane's ears would have heard just as much had they been the pair of beautiful little shells they so much resembled this troubled me a great deal
and the best i could hope was that she held me on probation on the evening of the day mary came home to greenwich brandon asked who and what on earth is this wonderful mary i hear so much about
they say she is coming home to day and the court seems to have gone mad about it i hear nothing but mary is coming mary is coming mary mary from morning until night
they say buckingham is beside himself for love of her he has a wife at home if i am right and is old enough to be her father is he not i assented and brandon continued
the men of the court must be poor creatures he had much to learn about the power of womanhood there is nothing on earth but you know as much about it as i do wait until you see her i answered
and you will be one of them also i flatter you by giving you one hour with her to be heels over head in love with an ordinary man it takes one sixtieth of that time
so you see i pay a compliment to your strength of mind nonsense broke in brandon do you think i left all my wits down in suffolk why man she is the sister of the king and is sought by kings and emperors
i might as well fall in love with a twinkling star then besides my heart is not on my sleeve you must think me a fool a poor enervated simpering fool
like like well like one of those nobles of england don't put me down with them caskoden if you would remain my friend we both laughed at this sort of talk which was a little in advance of the time
for a noble though an idiot to the most of england was a noble still god created and to be adored another great bond of sympathy between brandon and myself
and tolerance of religious thought we believed that these things would yet come in spite of kingcraft and priestcraft but wisely kept our pet theories to ourselves
that is between ourselves of what use is it to argue the equality of human kind to a man who honestly thinks he is better than any one else or to one who really believes that some one else is better than he
and why dispute about the various ways of saving one's soul when you are not even sure you have a soul to save when i open my mouth for public utterance the king is the best man in christendom
and his premier peer of the realm the next best when the king is a catholic i go to mass since praised be the lord
now when mary returned the whole court rejoiced and i was anxious for brandon to meet her and that they should become friends there would be no trouble in bringing this meeting about since as you know
i was upon terms of intimate friendship with mary and was the avowed and as i thought at least hoped all but accepted lover of her first lady in waiting and dearest friend lady jane bolingbroke
brandon it is true was not noble not even an english knight while i was both knighted and noble but he was of as old a family as england boasted and near of kin to some of the best blood of the land
the meeting came about sooner than i expected and was very near a failure it was on the second morning after mary's arrival at greenwich brandon and i were walking in the palace park when we met jane
and i took the opportunity to make these my two best loved friends acquainted how do you do master brandon said lady jane holding out her plump little hand so white and soft and dear to me
i have heard something of you the last day or so from sir edwin but had begun to fear he was not going to give me the pleasure of knowing you i hope i may see you often now and that i may present you to my mistress with this
her eyes bright as overgrown dew drops twinkled with a mischievous little smile as if to say ah another large handsome fellow to make a fool of himself brandon acquiesced in the wish she had made
and after the interchange of a few words jane said her mistress was waiting at the other side of the grounds and that she must go she then ran off with a laugh and a courtesy
and was soon lost to sight behind the shrubbery at the turning of the walk in a short time we came to a summer house near the marble boat landing
where we found the queen and some of her ladies awaiting the rest of their party for a trip down the river which had been planned the day before brandon was known to the queen and several of the ladies although he had not been formally presented at an audience
socially which goes with a formal presentation the queen seeing us sent me off to bring the king after i had gone she asked if any one had seen the princess mary
and brandon told her lady jane had said she was at the other side of the grounds thereupon her majesty asked brandon to find the princess and to say that she was wanted
brandon started off and soon found a bevy of girls sitting on some benches under a spreading oak weaving spring flowers he had never seen the princess so could not positively know her
all that he had heard of her wonderful power over men
he was wrong in this because mary was not a coquette in any sense of the word and did absolutely nothing to attract men except to be so beautiful sweet and winning that they could not let her alone
for all of which surely the prince of fault finders himself could in no way blame her she could not help that god had seen fit to make her the fairest being on earth
and the responsibility would have to lie where it belonged with god mary would have none of it her attractiveness was not a matter of volition or intention on her part she was too young for deliberate snare setting
though it often begins very early in life and made no effort to attract men man's love was too cheap a thing for her to strive for and i am sure in her heart
that is until the right one should come the right one is always on his way and first or last is sure to come to every woman sometimes alas too late
and when he comes be it late or early she crowns him even though he be a long eared ass
else there were fewer coronations so brandon stirred this antagonism and determined not to see her manifold perfections which he felt sure were exaggerated
but to treat her as he would the queen who was black and leathery enough to frighten a satyr with all respect due to her rank but with his own opinion of her nevertheless safely stored away in the back of his head
coming up to the group brandon took off his hat and with a graceful little bow that let the curls fall around his face asked have i the honor to find the princess mary among these ladies mary
who i know you will at once say was thoroughly spoiled without turning her face toward him replied is the princess mary a person of so little consequence about the court that she is not known to a mighty captain of the guard
he wore his guardsman's doublet and she knew his rank by his uniform she had not noticed his face quick as a flash came the answer i can not say of what consequence the princess mary is about the court
it is not my place to determine such matters i am sure however she is not here for i doubt not she would have given a gentle answer to a message from the queen i shall continue my search with this
he turned to leave and the ladies including jane who was there and saw it all and told me of it awaited the bolt they knew would come for they saw the lightning gathering in mary's eyes
mary sprang to her feet with an angry flush in her face exclaiming insolent fellow i am the princess mary if you have a message deliver it and be gone
you may be sure this sort of treatment was such as the cool headed daring brandon would repay with usury so turning upon his heel and almost presenting his back to mary he spoke to lady jane
will your ladyship say to her highness that her majesty the queen awaits her coming at the marble landing no need to repeat the message jane cried mary
then turning to brandon
i beg you to say to the queen that i shall be with her presently
had struck again doctor bird looked up impatiently as the door of his private laboratory in the bureau of standards swung open but the frown on his face changed to a smile
as he saw the form of operative carnes of the united states secret service framed in the doorway hello carnes he called cheerfully
i'll be with you as soon as i finish getting this weight carnes sat on the edge of a bench and watched with admiration the long nervous hands and the slim tapering fingers of the famous scientist
doctor bird stood well over six feet and weighed two hundred and six pounds stripped his massive shoulders and heavy shock of unruly black hair combined to give him the appearance of a prize fighter until one looked at his hands
acid stains and scars could not hide the beauty of those mobile hands the hands of an artist and a dreamer an artist doctor bird was
albeit his artistry expressed itself in the most delicate and complicated experiments in the realms of pure and applied science that the world has ever seen rather than in the commoner forms of art
the doctor finished his task of weighing a porcelain crucible set it carefully into a dessicator and turned to his friend what's on your mind carnes he asked you look worried is there another counterfeit on the market the operative shook his head
have you been reading those stories that the papers have been carrying about mammoth cave he asked doctor bird emitted a snort of disgust i read the first one of them part way through on the strength of its being an associated press dispatch he replied but that was enough
it didn't exactly impress me with its veracity and from a viewpoint of literature the thing was impossible i have no time to pore over the lucubrations of an inspired press agent so you dismissed them as mere press agent work
certainly what else could they be things like that don't happen fortuitously just as the tourist season is about to open
the public always responds well to sea serpent yarns mammoth cave has been closed to visitors for the season said carnes quietly what cried the doctor in surprise was there really something to those wild yarns there was
at least there is enough to it that i am leaving for kentucky this evening and i came here for the express purpose of asking you whether you wanted to come along
mammoth cave isn't a national park
it was a state matter until the governor asked for federal troops whenever the regulars get into trouble the federal government is rather apt to take a hand i didn't know that regulars had been sent there tell me about the case will you come along
doctor bird shook his head slowly i really don't see how i can spare the time carnes he said
sit down confound you cried the doctor you know better than to try to pull that on me tell me your case and then i'll tell you whether i'll go or not i can't spare the time but on the other hand if it sounds interesting enough
all right doctor he said i'll take enough time to tell you about it even if you can't go do you know anything about it
start at the beginning and tell me the whole thing
no it or rather they for while it is called mammoth cave it is really a series of caves are located in edmonson county in central kentucky on a spur railroad from glasgow junction on the louisville and nashville railroad
they are natural limestone caverns with the customary stalactite and stalagmite formation but are unusually large and very beautiful the caves are quite extensive and they are on different levels so that a guide is necessary if one wants to enter them
and be at all sure of finding the way out visitors are taken over a regular route
entered the cave with a regular guide the party consisted of a man and his wife and their two children
they went quite a distance back into the caves and then as the mother was feeling tired she and her husband sat down intending to wait until the guide showed the children some sights which lay just ahead and then return to them the guide and the children never returned
what happened no one knows all that is known is the bare fact that they have not been seen since a kidnapping case apparently not in the light of later happenings
at any rate they didn't impress her at the time when half an hour had passed they began to feel anxious and the father took a torch and started out to hunt for them the usual thing happened he got lost
now thoroughly alarmed made her way by some uncanny sense of direction to the entrance and gave the alarm
the father was soon located not far from the beaten trail but despite three days of constant search the children were not located the only trace of them that was found was a bracelet which the mother identified
when the bracelet was found the kidnapping theory gained vogue for john harrel the missing guide knew the cave well and natives of the vicinity scouted the idea that he might be lost inspired by the large reward offered by the father
fresh parties began to explore the unknown portions of the cave and then came the second tragedy two of the searchers failed to return this time there seemed to be little doubt of violence for screams and a pistol shot were faintly heard by other searchers
together with a peculiar screaming howl as it was described by those who heard it a search was at once made toward the spot where the bracelet had been picked up
the searchers said that the floor appeared to be rather more moist and slimy than usual but that was all
this observation was not confirmed by others who arrived a few moments later what happened next the governor was appealed to and a company of the national guard was sent from louisville to mammoth cave they took up camp at the mouth of the cave and prevented everyone from entering
soldiers armed with service rifles penetrated the caverns but found nothing visitors were excluded and the guardsmen established regular patrols and sentry posts in the cave with the result that one night
it had not been fired double guards were then posted and nothing happened for several days and then another sentry disappeared his companion came rushing out of the cave screaming
he flashed his electric torch all around
he swears however that he heard a slipping sliding noise approaching him and he felt that some one was looking at him
had he been drinking no it wasn't delirium either as was shown by the fact that a patrol found his gun where he had thrown it but no trace of the other sentry
a company of infantry was ordered down from fort thomas to relieve the guardsmen but they fared worse than their predecessors they lost two men the first night of their guard the regulars weren't caught napping for the main guard heard five shots fired
they rushed a patrol to the scene and found both of the rifles which had been fired but the men were gone the officer of the day made a thorough search of the vicinity and found some two hundred yards from the spot where the sentries had been posted
a crack in the wall through which the body of a man could be forced this bodycrack had fresh blood on each side of it
and entered himself that was last tuesday and he has not returned was there any disturbance heard from the crack none at all
a guard was posted with two machine guns pointed at the crack in the wall and a guard of eight men and a sergeant stationed there last night about six o'clock while the guard were sitting around their guns a faint smell of musk became evident
no one paid a great deal of attention to it but suddenly for no apparent reason at all one of the men on guard was jerked into the air feet upwards he gave a scream of fear and an unearthly screech answered him the guard
one man stuck by his gun and poured a stream of bullets into the crack the retreating men could hear the rattle of the gun for a few moments and then there was a choking scream followed by silence
when the officer of the day got back with a patrol there was a heavy smell of musk in the air and a good deal of blood was splashed around the machine guns were both there although one of them was twisted up until it looked like it had been through an explosion
the officer commanding the company investigated the place ordered all men out of the cave and communicated with the war department
the creases on doctor bird's high forehead had grown deeper and deeper as carnes had told his story but now they suddenly disappeared
with an adventure like this ahead of you leg irons and handcuffs wouldn't keep you away from mammoth cave
they introduced themselves to the major commanding the guard battalion which had been ordered down to reinforce the single company which had borne the first brunt of the affair and then interviewed the guards who had been routed by the unseen horror which was haunting the famous cave
nothing was learned which differed in any great degree from the tale which carnes had related to the doctor in washington
failed to entirely corroborate the smell of musk which had been reported by the other observers it might have been musk but to me it smelled differently he said were you ever near a rattlesnake den in the west doctor bird nodded
well this smell was somewhat similar although not the same by any manner of means it was musky all right but it was more snake than musk to me
none at all the men describe some rather peculiar noises and sergeant jervis is an old file and pretty apt to get things straight but they may have been made by the men who were in trouble
i saw a man caught by a boa in south america once and the noises he made might very well have been described in almost the same words as jervis used thanks lieutenant replied the doctor
now i think that we'll go into the cave my orders are to allow no one to enter doctor
where is that letter from the secretary of war carnes produced the document the lieutenant examined it and excused himself he returned in a few moments with the commanding officer in the face of that letter doctor bird said the major
i have no alternative to allowing you to enter the cave but i will warn you that it is at your own peril i'll give you an escort if you wish if lieutenant pearce will come with me as a guide
the lieutenant paled slightly but threw back his shoulders do you wish to start at once sir he asked in a few moments
in that case before we go in we want to put on baseball shoes with cleats on them so that we can run if we have to can you get us anything like that in a few moments sir
in the meantime may i look at that gun that was found the browning machine gun was laid before the doctor he looked it over critically and sniffed delicately at it
moistened a portion of the water jacket of the weapon and then rubbed the moistened part briskly with his hand he sniffed again he looked disappointed and again examined the gun closely carnes he said at length
nothing doctor neither do i there are some marks here which might quite conceivably be finger prints of a forty foot giant and those two parallel grooves look like the result of severe squeezing but there are no tooth marks
strange there is no persistent odor on the gun which is also strange well there's no use in theorizing we are confronted by a condition and not a theory
doctor bird led the way into the cave carnes and the lieutenant following closely with electric torches in each hand doctor bird carried a phosphorus hand grenade
i'm going first said the doctor follow me and indicate the turns by pressure on my shoulder
and the noise echoed back and forth between the walls dying out in little eerie whispers of sound that made carnes hair rise ever forward they pressed the lieutenant guiding the doctor by silent pressure on his shoulder
and carnes following closely for half a mile they went on until a restrainable pressure brought the doctor to a halt the lieutenant pointed silently toward a crack in the wall before them carnes started forward to examine it
but a warning gesture from the doctor stopped him slowly an inch at a time the doctor crept forward hand grenades in readiness presently he reached the crack and shifting one of the grenades into his pocket
he drew forth an electric torch and sent a beam of light through the crack into the dark interior of the earth for a moment he stood thus and then suddenly snapped off his torch and straightened up in an attitude of listening
the straining ears of carnes and lieutenant pearce could hear a faint slithering noise coming toward them
but from the interior of the cave simultaneously a faint musky reptilian odor became apparent run shouted the doctor run like hell it's loose in the cave
doctor bird paused for an instant straining his ears and then threw a grenade a blinding flash came from the point where the missile struck and a white cloud rose in the air the doctor turned and fled after his companions
not for nothing had doctor bird been an athlete of note in his college days despite the best efforts of his companions who were literally running for their lives he soon caught up with them as he did so a weird
blood curdling screech rose from the darkness behind them higher and higher in pitch the note rose until it ended suddenly in a gurgling grunt as though the breath which uttered it had been suddenly cut off
the slithering rustling noise became louder on their trail faster gasped the doctor as he put his hand on carnes shoulder and pushed him forward the noise of pursuit gained slightly on them and a sound as of intense breathing became audible
doctor bird paused and turned and faced the oncoming horror his electric torch revealed nothing but he listened for a moment and then threw his second grenade keenly he watched its flight it flew through the air for thirty yards
and then struck an invisible obstruction and bounded toward the ground
and it rose in the air as it rose it burst with a sharp report and a wild scream of pain filled the cavern with a deafening roar the doctor fled again after his companions by the time he overtook them the entrance of the cave loomed before them
with sobs of relief they
the guards sprang forward with raised rifles but doctor bird waved them back there's nothing after us men he panted
and it must have burned his fingers a little judging from the racket he made at any rate it stopped the pursuit the major hurried up did you see it doctor he asked no i didn't no one has ever seen it or anything like it
i heard it and from its voice i think it has a bad cold
i didn't get a glimpse of it for god's sake doctor what is it i can't tell you yet major so far i can tell it is something new to science
however i hope to be able to show it to you shortly is there a telegraph office here no but we have a signal corps detachment with us and they have a portable radio set which will put us in touch with the army net good can you place a tent at my disposal certainly doctor
i want to send a message to the bureau of standards to forward me some apparatus which i need i'll attend to it doctor have you any special advice to give me about the guarding yes have you or can you get any live stock live stock yes
cattle preferred although hogs or sheep will do at a pinch sheep will do quite well i'll see what i can do doctor get them by all means if it is possible to do so don't worry about paying for them
tell them to break and run i hope it won't come out but i can't tell
two hours later a series of horrible screams and bellowings were heard in the cave following their orders the sentries abandoned their posts and scattered but the noise came no nearer the mouth and in a few minutes silence again reigned
but you had better have a couple more cattle driven in in the morning
don't bother with military channels radio direct to the adjutant general quoting the secretary of the treasury as authority tell him that it's a rush matter and sign the message bird if you are afraid of getting your tail twisted
each time searching parties found the cattle gone in the morning a week after the doctor's arrival a special train came up
under the direction of the doctor the cases were unpacked and the apparatus put together before the assembly had been completed
the first apparatus which was installed in the tank consisted of an electric generator of peculiar design which was geared to the tank motor the electromotive force thus generated was led across a spark gap with points of a metallic substance
the light produced was concentrated by a series of parabolic reflectors directed against a large quartz prism and thence through a lens which was designed to throw a slightly divergent beam this apparatus doctor bird explained to the signal corps officer who was an interested observer
however such points could not be used for the handling of a steady current because of lack of durability and ease of fusion
thus we get the triple advantages of ultra violet light production durability and high resistance the system of reflectors catches all of the light thus produced except the relatively small portion which goes initially in the right direction
and directs it on this quartz prism where due to the refractive powers of the prism the light is broken up into its component parts the infra red rays and that portion of the spectrum which lies in the visible range that is from red to violet inclusive
are absorbed by a black body leaving only the ultra violet portion free to send a beam through this quartz lens i thought that a lens would absorb ultra violet light objected the signal officer a lens made of glass will but this lens is made of rock crystal
which is readily permeable to ultra violet the net result of this apparatus is that we can direct before us as we move in the tank a beam of light which is composed solely of the ultra violet portion of the spectrum in other words an invisible light
yes that is invisible to the human eye the effect of this beam of ultra violet light in the form of severe sunburn would be readily apparent if you exposed your skin to it for any length of time
it would produce a severe opthalmia and temporary impairment of the vision somewhat the same symptoms as are observed in snow blindness i see may i ask what is the object of the whole thing surely
before we can successfully combat this peculiar visitant from another world it is necessary that we gain some idea of the size and appearance of it nothing of the sort has before made its appearance so far as the annals of science go
and so i am forced to make some rather wild guesses at the nature of the animal you are probably aware of the fact that the property of penetration possessed by all waves is a function of their frequency or perhaps i should say of their wave length certainly
the longer rays of visible light will not penetrate as deeply into a given substance as the shorter ultra violet rays this visitor is evidently from some unexplored and indeed unknown cavern in the depths of the earth where visible light has never penetrated
pardon me you understand of course what color is when sunlight which is a mixture of all colors from infra red to ultra violet inclusive falls oh an object certain rays are reflected and certain others are absorbed
and all others absorbed the object appears red to our eyes if all the rays are reflected the object appears white
the human eye cannot detect ultra violet suppose then that we have an object either animate or inanimate the surface of which reflects only ultra violet light what will be the result the object will be invisible
i should think it would be black if all the rays except the ultra violet were absorbed it would but mark i did not say the others were absorbed are you familiar with fluorescein no i think you are
it is the dye used in making changeable silk if we fill a glass container with a fluorescein solution and look at it by reflected light it appears green if we look at it by transmitted light that is light which has traversed the solution
it appears red in other words this is a substance which reflects green light
if my theory is correct is composed of a substance which allows free passage to all of the visible light rays and at the same time reflects ultra violet light do i make this clear perfectly very well then
my apparatus will project forward a beam of ultra violet light which will be in much greater concentration than exists in an incandescent electric light
but won't your lens prevent the ultra violet light from reaching your plate
i have a camera here equipped with a rock crystal lens which will allow ultra violet light to pass through it practically unhindered and with very slight distortion when i add that i will have my camera charged with x ray film
a film which is peculiarly sensitive to the shorter wave lengths you will see that i will have a fair chance of success it sounds logical would you allow me to accompany you when you make your attempt i will be glad of your company if you can drive a tank
i can drive a tractor in that case you should master the tricks of tank driving in short order get familiar with it and we'll appoint you as driver we'll be ready to go in to night but i am going to wait a day
our friend was fed last night and there is less chance he'll be about the early part of the next evening was marked by howls and screams coming from the mouth of the cave
as the night wore on the noises were quite evidently coming nearer and the sentries watched the cave mouth nervously ready to bolt and scatter according to their orders at the first alarm about two a m the doctor and carnes climbed into the tank beside lieutenant leffingwell
and the machine moved slowly into the cave a search light on the front of the tank lighted the way for them and attached to a frame which held it some distance ahead of them was a luckless sheep
as soon as anything happens to it shut off the search light and let me try to get a picture as soon as i have made my exposures i'll tell you and you can snap it on again
forward the tank crawled
even as he spoke the sheep was suddenly lifted into the air it gave a final bleat of terror and then its head was torn from its body quick carnes shouted the doctor the search light went out
and carnes and the lieutenant could hear the slide of the ultra violet light which doctor bird was manipulating open
carnes snapped on the search light and lieutenant leffingwell swung the tank around and headed for the cave mouth for a few feet their progress was unhindered and then the tank ceased its forward motion
although the motor still roared and the track slid on the cave floor carnes watched with horror as one side of the tank bent slowly in toward him there was a rending sound and a portion of the heavy steel fabric was torn away
presently he straightened up and threw a small object into the darkness there was a flash of light and bits of flaming phosphorus flew in every direction the anchor which held the tank was suddenly loosed
and the machine crawled forward at full speed while a roar as of escaping air mingled with a bellowing shriek burdened the smoke laden air faster cried the doctor as he threw another grenade
lieutenant leffingwell got the last bit of speed possible out of the tank and they reached the cave mouth without further molestation
he must have been rather severely burned the other day and once burned is usually twice shy where is major brown the commanding officer stepped forward
i want to fill that brute up and keep him quiet for a while i'm going to develope my films lieutenant leffingwell and carnes peered over the doctor's shoulders as he manipulated his films in a developing bath
but the form was indistinct doctor bird dropped the films in a fixing tank and straightened up we have something gentlemen he announced but i can't tell yet how clear it is it will take those films fifteen minutes to fix and then we'll know
in a quarter of an hour he lifted the first film from the tank and held it to the light the film showed a blank with an exclamation of disappointment he lifted a second and third film from the tank with the same result he raised the fourth one good lord
gasped carnes in the plate could be plainly seen the hind quarters of the sheep held in the grasp of such a monster as even the drug laden brain of an opium smoker never pictured
judging from the sheep the monster stood about twenty feet tall and its frame was surmounted by a head resembling an overgrown frog enormous jaws were opened to seize the sheep
but to the amazement of the three observers the jaws were entirely toothless where teeth were to be expected long parallel ridges of what looked like bare bone appeared without even a rudimentary segregation into teeth
ending in feet with three long toes armed with vicious claws the crowning horror of the creature was its forelegs there were of enormous length thin and attenuated looking
and ended in huge misshapen hands knobby and blotched which grasped the sheep in the same manner as human hands the eyes were as large as dinner plates
and they were glaring at the camera with an expression of fiendish malevolence which made carnes shudder
doctor bird rubbed his head thoughtfully it's not an amphibian he muttered
john tells me how much you long for my coming but he says he told you he hoped something would happen to hinder it i am glad you did not tell him the occasion of my coming away for if my fellow servants should guess it were better so than to have it from you or me
besides i really am concerned that my master should cast away a thought upon such a poor creature as me for besides the disgrace it has quite turned his temper and i begin to believe what missus jervis told me
that he likes me and can't help it and yet strives to conquer it and so finds no way but to be cross to me don't think me presumptuous and conceited for it is more my concern than my pride to see such a gentleman so demean himself
and lessen the regard he used to have in the eyes of all his servants on my account but i am to tell you of my new dress to day and so when i had dined up stairs i went and locked myself into my little room
there i tricked myself up as well as i could in my new garb and put on my round eared ordinary cap but with a green knot however and my homespun gown and petticoat and plain leather shoes but yet they are what they call spanish leather
and my ordinary hose ordinary i mean to what i have been lately used to though i shall think good yarn may do very well for every day when i come home a plain muslin tucker i put on and my black silk necklace instead of the french necklace my lady gave me
and put the ear rings out of my ears and when i was quite equipped i took my straw hat in my hand with its two blue strings and looked about me in the glass as proud as any thing to say truth
i never liked myself so well in my life o the pleasure of descending with ease innocence and resignation indeed there is nothing like it an humble mind i plainly see cannot meet with any very shocking disappointment
let fortune's wheel turn round as it will so i went down to look for missus jervis to see how she liked me i met as i was upon the stairs our rachel who is the house maid and she made me a low courtesy and i found
did not know me so i smiled and went to the housekeeper's parlour and there sat good missus jervis at work making a shift and would you believe it she did not know me at first but rose up and pulled off her spectacles and said
why you surprise me said she what pamela thus metamorphosed how came this about as it happened in stept my master
and my back being to him he thought it was a stranger speaking to missus jervis and withdrew again and did not hear her ask if his honour had any commands for her
and she said sitting down why i am all in amaze i must sit down what can all this mean
and so it was better to begin here as i was soon to go away that all my fellow servants might see i knew how to suit myself to the state i was returning to well said she i never knew the like of thee
but this sad preparation for going away for now i see you are quite in earnest is what i know not how to get over o my dear pamela how can i part with you my master rung in the back parlour and so i withdrew and missus jervis went to attend him
it seems he said to her i was coming in to let you know that i shall go to lincolnshire
and be absent some weeks but pray what pretty neat damsel was with you she says she smiled and asked if his honour did not know who it was no said he i never saw her before
farmer nichols or farmer brady have neither of them such a tight prim lass for a daughter have they though i did not see her face neither said he if your honour won't be angry said she i will introduce her into your presence for i think says she
she outdoes our pamela now i did not thank her for this as i told her afterwards for it brought a great deal of trouble upon me as well as crossness as you shall hear that can't be he was pleased to say
for goodness sake let him find you out for he don't know you
how could you serve me so besides it looks too free both in me and to him i tell you said she you shall come in and pray don't reveal yourself till he finds you out so i went in foolish as i was
though i must have been seen by him another time if i had not then and she would make me take my straw hat in my hand i dropt a low courtesy but said never a word i dare say he knew me as soon as he saw my face
you far surpass your sister pamela i was all confusion and would have spoken but he took me about the neck why said he you are very pretty child i would not be so free with your sister you may believe but i must kiss you
o sir said i i am pamela indeed i am indeed i am pamela her own self he kissed me for all i could do and said impossible you are a lovelier girl by half than pamela
and sure i may be innocently free with you though i would not do her so much favour this was a sad trick upon me indeed and what i could not expect and missus jervis looked like a fool as much as i for her officiousness
at last i got away and ran out of the parlour most sadly vexed as you may well think he talked a good deal to missus jervis and at last ordered me to come in to him
come in said he you little villain for so he called me good sirs what a name was there who is it you put your tricks upon
you must disguise yourself to attract me and yet pretend like an hypocrite as you are i was out of patience then hold good sir said i don't impute disguise and hypocrisy to me
above all things for i hate them both mean as i am i have put on no disguise what a plague said he for that was his word do you mean then by this dress why and please your honour said i i mean one of the honestest things in the world
i have been in disguise indeed ever since my good lady your mother took me from my poor parents i came to her ladyship so poor and mean that these clothes i have on are a princely suit to those i had then
and her goodness heaped upon me rich clothes and other bounties and as i am now returning to my poor parents again so soon i cannot wear those good things without being hooted at
and so have bought what will be more suitable to my degree and be a good holiday suit too when i get home he then took me in his arms and presently pushed me from him
i thought he was mad for my share for he knew not what he would have i was going however but he stept after me and took hold of my arm and brought me in again
he sat down and looked at me and as i thought afterwards as sillily as such a poor girl as i at last he said well missus jervis as i was telling you you may permit her to stay a little longer till i see if my sister davers will have her if
mean time she humble herself and ask this as a favour and is sorry for her pertness and the liberty she has taken with my character out of the house and in the house your honour indeed told me so said missus jervis
said he to me you may stay a fortnight longer till i see my sister davers do you hear what i say to you statue can you neither speak nor be thankful
do you hear missus jervis do you hear how she retorts upon me was ever such matchless assurance
and i have been it seems guilty of indiscretions which have cost me my place and my master's favour
that i should return to my poor parents i am not suffered to go quietly good your honour what have i done that i must be used worse
and bring me to a trial for my life
now i was quite ignorant of his meaning though i did not like it when it was afterwards explained neither and well thought i what will this come to at last if poor pamela is esteemed a thief
i should shew my face to my honest poor parents if i was but suspected
i said something mutteringly and he vowed he would hear it i begged excuse but he insisted upon it why then said i if your honour must know i said that my good lady did not desire your care to extend to the summer house and her dressing room
well this was a little saucy you'll say and he flew into such a passion that i was forced to run for it and missus jervis said it was happy i got out of the way
why what makes him provoke one so then i'm almost sorry for it but i would be glad to get away at any rate for i begin to be more fearful now just now mister jonathan sent me these lines bless me what shall i do
dear missus pamela take care of yourself for rachel heard my master say to missus jervis who she believes was pleading for you
burn this instantly o pray for your poor daughter i am called to go to bed by missus jervis for it is past eleven and i am sure she shall hear of it for all this is owing to her though she did not mean any harm
but i have been and am in a strange fluster and i suppose too she'll say i have been full pert o my dear father and mother power and riches never want advocates
so good night may be i shall send this in the morning but may be not so won't conclude though i can't say too often that i am though with great apprehension your most dutiful daughter
o let me take up my complaint and say never was poor creature so unhappy and so barbarously used as poor pamela
indeed my dear father and mother my heart's just broke i can neither write as i should do nor let it alone for to whom but you can i vent my griefs and keep my poor heart from bursting wicked wicked man
i have no patience when i think of him but yet don't be frightened for i hope i hope i am honest but if my head and my hand will let me you shall hear all is there no constable nor headborough though to take me out of his house
for i am sure i can safely swear the peace against him but alas he is greater than any constable he is a justice himself such a justice deliver me from
but god almighty i hope in time will right me for he knows the innocence of my heart john went your way in the morning but i have been too much distracted to send by him and have seen nobody but missus jervis or rachel
and one i hate to see or be seen by and indeed i hate now to see any body strange things i have to tell you that happened since last night that good mister jonathan's letter and my master's harshness put me into such a fluster
but i will not keep you in suspense i went to missus jervis's chamber and o dreadful my wicked master had hid himself base gentleman as he is in her closet where she has a few books and chest of drawers and such like
i little suspected it though i used till this sad night always to look into that closet and another in the room and under the bed ever since the summer house trick but never found any thing and so i did not do it then being fully resolved to be angry with missus jervis
for what had happened in the day and so thought of nothing else i sat myself down on one side of the bed and she on the other and we began to undress ourselves but she on that side next the wicked closet that held the worst heart in the world so
said missus jervis you won't speak to me pamela i find you are angry with me why missus jervis said i so i am a little tis a folly to deny it
you see what i have suffered by your forcing me in to my master and a gentlewoman of your years and experience must needs know that it was not fit for me to pretend to be any body else for my own sake nor with regard to my master
ay said i little thinking who heard me lucifer always is ready to promote his own work and workmen you see presently what use he made of it pretending not to know me on purpose to be free with me and when he took upon himself to know me to quarrel with me and use me hardly
for that encouraged him do you think my dear said she that i would encourage him i never said so to you before but since you have forced it from me i must tell you that ever since you consulted me i have used my utmost endeavours
to divert him from his wicked purposes and he has promised fair but to say all in a word he doats upon you and i begin to see it is not in his power to help it i luckily said nothing of the note from mister jonathan
for i began to suspect all the world almost but i said to try missus jervis well then what would you have me do you see he is for having me wait on lady davers now why i'll tell you freely my dear pamela said she
and i trust to your discretion to conceal what i say my master has been often desiring me to put you upon asking him to let you stay yes said i missus jervis let me interrupt you i will tell you why i could not think of that
it was not the pride of my heart but the pride of my honesty for what must have been the case here my master has been very rude to me once and twice and you say he cannot help it though he pretends to be sorry for it well
he has given me warning to leave my place and uses me very harshly perhaps to frighten me to his purposes as he supposes i would be fond of staying as indeed i should if i could be safe
for i love you and all the house and value him if he would act as my master well then as i know his designs and that he owns he cannot help it must i have asked to stay knowing he would attempt me again
for all you could assure me of was he would do nothing by force so i a poor weak girl was to be left to my own strength and was not this to allow him to tempt me as one may say and to encourage him to go on in his wicked devices
how then missus jervis could i ask or wish to stay you say well my dear child says she
i cannot persuade you to stay and i shall be glad which is what i never thought i could have said that you were well at your father's
there's my good missus jervis said i
but pray what did he say when i was gone why says she he was very angry with you but he would hear it said i i think it was a little bold but then he provoked me to it
and had not my honesty been in the case i would not by any means have been so saucy besides missus jervis consider it was the truth if he does not love to hear of the summer house and the dressing room why should he not be ashamed to continue in the same mind but
said she when you had muttered this to yourself you might have told him any thing else well said i i cannot tell a wilful lie and so there's an end of it but i find you now give him up and think there's danger in staying
lord bless me i wish i was well out of the house so it was at the bottom of a wet ditch on the wildest common in england why said she it signifies nothing to tell you all he said
but it was enough to make me fear you would not be so safe as i could wish and upon my word pamela i don't wonder he loves you
than in that same new dress of yours and then it was such a surprise upon us all i believe truly you owe some of your danger to the lovely appearance you made then said i i wish the clothes in the fire i expected no effect from them
but if any a quite contrary one hush said i missus jervis did you not hear something stir in the closet no silly girl said she your fears are always awake but indeed said i i think i heard something rustle
may be says she the cat may be got there but i hear nothing
and went on undressing myself and missus jervis being by this time undressed stepped into bed and bid me hasten for she was sleepy i don't know what was the matter but my heart sadly misgave me
indeed mister jonathan's note was enough to make it do so with what missus jervis had said i pulled off my stays and my stockings and all my clothes to an under petticoat and then
hearing a rustling again in the closet i said heaven protect us but before i say my prayers i must look into this closet and so was going to it slip shod when o dreadful out rushed my master in a rich silk and silver morning gown
i'll do you no harm if you forbear this noise but otherwise take what follows
missus jervis rise and just step up stairs to keep the maids from coming down at this noise i'll do no harm to this rebel o for heaven's sake for pity's sake missus jervis said i if i am not betrayed don't leave me and i beseech you raise all the house
said she and kindly threw herself upon my coat clasping me round the waist
you shall not hurt this innocent said she for i will lose my life in her defence are there not said she enough wicked ones in the world for your base purpose but you must attempt such a lamb as this he was desperate angry and threatened to throw her out of the window and to turn her out of the house the next morning
you need not sir said she for i will not stay in it god defend my poor pamela till to morrow and we will both go together says he let me but expostulate a word or two with you pamela
pray pamela said missus jervis don't hear a word except he leaves the bed and goes to the other end of the room ay out of the room said i expostulate to morrow if you must expostulate
i found his hand in my bosom and when my fright let me know it i was ready to die and i sighed and screamed and fainted away and still he had his arms about my neck
and so to be sure i was for a time for i knew nothing more of the matter one fit following another till about three hours after as it proved to be i found myself in bed
and missus jervis sitting upon one side with her wrapper about her and rachel on the other and no master for the wicked wretch was gone but i was so overjoyed that i hardly could believe myself and i said which were my first words missus jervis missus rachel
where have i been hush my dear said missus jervis you have been in fit after fit i never saw any body so frightful in my life by this i judged rachel knew nothing of the matter and it seems
my wicked master had upon missus jervis's second noise on my fainting away slipt out and as if he had come from his own chamber disturbed by the screaming went up to the maids room who hearing the noise lay trembling and afraid to stir
and bid them go down and see what was the matter with missus jervis and me and he charged missus jervis and promised to forgive her for what she had said and done if she would conceal the matter so the maids came down and all went up again when i came to myself a little except rachel who staid to sit up with me
and bear missus jervis company i believe they all guess the matter to be bad enough though they dare not say any thing
i am almost distracted at first i was afraid of missus jervis but i am fully satisfied she is very good and i should have been lost but for her and she takes on grievously about it
what would have become of me had she gone out of the room to still the maids as he bid her he'd certainly have shut her out and then mercy on me what would have become of your poor pamela i must leave off a little for my eyes and my head are sadly bad
this was a dreadful trial this was the worst of all oh that i was out of the power of this dreadfully wicked man pray for your distressed daughter
i did not rise till ten o'clock and i had all the concerns and wishes of the family and multitudes of inquiries about me my wicked master went out early to hunt but left word he would be in to breakfast
and so he was he came up to our chamber about eleven and had nothing to do to be sorry for he was our master and so put on sharp anger at first i had great emotions at his entering the room
and threw my apron over my head and fell a crying as if my heart would break missus jervis said he since i know you and you me so well i don't know how we shall live together for the future sir said she
and especially in my chamber that i should think myself accessary to the mischief if i was not to take notice of it though my ruin therefore may depend upon it i desire not to stay but pray let poor pamela and me
go together with all my heart said he and the sooner the better she fell a crying i find says he this girl has made a party of the whole house in her favour against me her innocence deserves it of us all said she
very kindly and i never could have thought that the son of my dear good lady departed could have so forfeited his honour as to endeavour to destroy a virtue he ought to protect no more of this missus jervis said he i will not hear it
as for pamela she has a lucky knack of falling into fits when she pleases but the cursed yellings of you both made me not myself
and i did no harm neither but to myself for i raised a hornet's nest about my ears that as far as i know may have stung to death my reputation sir said missus jervis then i beg mister longman may take my accounts
and i will go away as soon as i can as for pamela she is at her liberty i hope to go away next thursday as she intends i sat still for i could not speak nor look up and his presence discomposed me extremely
but i was sorry to hear myself the unhappy occasion of missus jervis's losing her place and hope that may be still made up well said he let mister longman make up your accounts as soon as you will and missus jewkes who is his housekeeper in lincolnshire
shall come hither in your place and won't be less obliging i dare say than you have been
and let me tell you sir if you knew what belonged to your own reputation or honour no more no more said he of these antiquated topics i have been no bad friend to you and i shall always esteem you though you have not been so faithful to my secrets as i could have wished
and have laid me open to this girl which has made her more afraid of me than she had occasion well sir said she after what passed yesterday and last night i think i went rather too far in favour of your injunctions than otherwise
and i should have deserved every body's censure as the basest of creatures had i been capable of contributing to your lawless attempts
still missus jervis still reflecting upon me and all for imaginary faults for what harm have i done the girl i won't bear it i'll assure you but yet in respect to my mother i am willing to part friendly with you
which i should have resented more than i do but that i am conscious i had no business to demean myself so as to be in your closet where i might have expected to hear a multitude of impertinence between you well sir said she you have no objection i hope
to pamela's going away on thursday next you are mighty solicitous
and upon me more trouble than she can have had from me but i have overcome it all and will never concern myself about her i have a proposal made me added he since i have been out this morning that i shall go near to embrace
and so wish only that a discreet use may be made of what is past and there's an end of every thing with me as to pamela i'll assure you i clasped my hands together through my apron overjoyed at this though i was soon to go away
for naughty as he has been to me i wish his prosperity with all my heart for my good old lady's sake well pamela said he you need not now be afraid to speak to me tell me what you lifted up your hands at i said not a word
says he if you like what i have said give me your hand upon it i held my hand up through my apron for i could not speak to him and he took hold of it and pressed it though less hard than he did my arm the day before
what does the little fool cover her face for said he pull your apron away and let me see how you look after your freedom of speech of me last night no wonder you are ashamed to see me you know you were very free with my character
i could not stand this barbarous insult as i took it to be considering his behaviour to me and i then spoke and said o the difference between the minds of thy creatures good god how shall some be cast down in their innocence while others can triumph in their guilt
and that his wicked intentions were so happily overcome as to me and this made me a little easier and i hope i have passed the worst or else it is very hard
and yet i shan't think myself at ease quite till i am with you for methinks after all his repentance and amendment are mighty suddenly resolved upon
but the divine grace is not confined to space and remorse may and i hope has smitten him to the heart at once for his injuries to poor me yet i won't be too secure neither
one might classify the kings of england in many ways john was undoubtedly the most unpopular
and edward the third and william of orange did most for the foundation and development of england's constitutional law
have been contemptible hard working useful kings have been
if we consider those monarchs who have in some curious way touched the popular fancy without reference to their virtues we must go back to richard of the lion heart who saw but little of england yet was the best essentially english king
gallant soldier and conqueror of france
few of whom saw him near at hand but most of whom made him a sort of regal incarnation of john bull wrestling and tilting and boxing eating great joints of beef and staying his thirst with flagons of ale
a big healthy masterful animal in fact who gratified the national love of splendor and stood up manfully in his struggle with the pope but if you look for something more than ordinary popularity
something that belongs to sentiment and makes men willing to become martyrs for a royal cause we must find these among the stuart kings it is odd indeed that even at this day there are englishmen and englishwomen
who believe their lawful sovereign to be a minor bavarian princess
prayers are said for her at english shrines and toasts are drunk to her in rare old wine of course to day this cult of the stuarts is nothing but a fad no one ever expects to see a stuart on the english throne
but it is significant of the deep strain of romance which the six stuarts who reigned in england have implanted in the english heart the old jacobite ballads still have power to thrill
queen victoria herself used to have the pipers file out before her at balmoral to the skirling of bonnie dundee over the water to charlie and wha'll be king but charlie
it is a sentiment that has never died her late majesty used to say that when she heard these tunes she became for the moment a jacobite
just as the empress eugenie at the height of her power used pertly to remark that she herself was the only legitimist left in france it may be suggested that the stuarts are still loved by many englishmen because they were unfortunate
yet this is hardly true after all many of them were fortunate enough the first of them king james an absurd creature speaking broad scotch timid foolishly fond of favorites and having none of the dignity of a monarch
lived out a lengthy reign the two royal women of the family anne and mary had no misfortunes of a public nature
lapped in every kind of luxury and died a king the first charles was beheaded and afterward styled a saint yet the majority of the english people were against his arrogance or else he would have won his great struggle against parliament
the second james was not popular at all nevertheless no sooner had he been expelled and been succeeded by a dutchman gnawing asparagus and reeking of cheeses than there was already a stuart legend
even had there been no pretenders to carry on the cult the stuarts would still have passed into history as much loved by the people
it only shows how very little in former days the people expected of a regnant king many monarchs have had just a few popular traits and these have stood out brilliantly against the darkness of the background no one could have cared greatly for the first james
he was handsome as a man fully equaling the french princess who became his wife he had no personal vices he was brave and good to look upon
hence although he sought to make his rule over england a tyranny there were many fine old cavaliers to ride afield for him when he raised his standard and who when he died mourned for him as a martyr
many hardships they underwent while cromwell ruled with his iron hand and when that iron hand was relaxed in death and poor feeble richard cromwell slunk away to his country seat what wonder is it that young charles came back to england
with a smile for every one and a happy laugh upon his lips what wonder is it that the cannon in the tower thundered a loud welcome and that all over england at one season or another maypoles rose and christmas fires blazed
for englishmen at heart are not only monarchists
as a child even he had shown himself to be no faint hearted creature when the great civil war broke out he had joined his father's army
charles was then only a child of twelve and so his followers did wisely in hurrying him out of england
of course a child so very young could be of no value as a leader though his presence might prove an inspiration in sixteen forty eight however when he was eighteen years of age
taking prizes which he carried to the dutch ports when he was at holland's capital during his father's trial he wrote many messages to the parliamentarians and even sent them a blank charter which they might fill in with any stipulations they desired
if only they would save and restore their king when the head of charles rolled from the velvet covered block his son showed himself to be no loiterer or lover of an easy life he hastened to scotland skilfully escaping an english force
and was proclaimed as king and crowned at scone in sixteen fifty one with ten thousand men he dashed into england
but it was then that cromwell put forth his supreme military genius
charles knew that for the present all was lost he showed courage and address in covering the flight of his beaten soldiers but he soon afterward went to france
england had not been called merry england for nothing and cromwell's tyranny was likely to be far more resented than the heavy hand of one who was born a king so charles at paris and liege though he had little money at the time
managed to maintain a royal court such as it was here there came out another side of his nature as a child he had borne hardship and privation and had seen the red blood flow upon the battlefield now as it were
he allowed a certain sensuous pleasure loving ease to envelop him the red blood should become the rich red burgundy the sound of trumpets and kettledrums should give way to the melody of lutes and viols
and therefore his court even in exile was a court of gallantry and ease the pope refused to lend him money and the king of france would not increase his pension
but there were many who foresaw that charles would not long remain in exile and so they gave him what he wanted and waited until he could give them what they would ask for in their turn charles at this time was not handsome like his father
his complexion was swarthy his figure by no means imposing though always graceful when he chose he could bear himself with all the dignity of a monarch he had a singularly pleasant manner and a word from him could win over the harshest opponent
the old cavaliers who accompanied their master in exile were like napoleon's veterans in elba with their tall powerful forms they stalked about the courtyards sniffing their disapproval at these foreign ways
and longing grimly for the time when they could once more smell the pungent powder of the battle field but as charles had hoped the change was coming not merely were his own subjects beginning to long for him and to pray in secret for the king
but continental monarchs who maintained spies in england began to know of this to them charles was no longer a penniless exile he was a king who before long would take possession of his kingdom a very wise woman the queen regent of portugal
was the first to act on this information portugal was then very far from being a petty state it had wealth at home and rich colonies abroad while its flag was seen on every sea
the queen regent being at odds with spain and wishing to secure an ally against that power made overtures to charles asking him whether a match might not be made between him and the princess catharine of braganza
it was not merely her daughter's hand that she offered but a splendid dowry she would pay charles a million pounds in gold and cede to england two valuable ports the match was not yet made but by sixteen fifty nine it had been arranged
the spaniards were furious for charles's cause began to appear successful she was a quaint and rather piteous little figure she who was destined to be the wife of the merry monarch catharine was dark petite
and by no means beautiful yet she had a very sweet expression and a heart of utter innocence she had been wholly convent bred she knew nothing of the world she was told that in marriage she must obey in all things
and that the chief duty of a wife was to make her husband happy poor child it was a too gracious preparation for a very graceless husband charles in exile had already made more than one discreditable connection
and he was already the father of more than one growing son first of all he had been smitten by the bold ways of one lucy walters
chapter fourteen windsor park midsummer night's dream this is the fairy land o spite of spites we talk with goblins owls and elfish sprites
or else such stuff as madmen tongue and brain if music be the food of love play on give me excess of it
shakspere had blocked out the play of midsummer night's dream in the year fifteen ninety three and completed it in the summer of fifteen ninety nine the story of palamon and arcite by chaucer
and the love of athenian theseus for the amazonian queen hippolyta as told by plutarch gave william his first idea of composing a play where the acts of fairies and human beings would assimilate in their loves and jealousies
one evening while seated at the falcon tavern in company with the earl of southampton essex florio bacon cecil warwick burbage drayton and jonson william read the main points of the play
which was lauded to the skies by all present burbage the manager of the globe suggested to essex and southampton that it would be a grand idea to have the dream enacted in the park and woods of windsor it was a novel idea
and one sure to catch the romantic sentiments of queen elizabeth as old duke theseus the cross purposed lovers bottom and his rude theatrical troop and the fairies led by oberon titania and puck
in reading or viewing the play the mind wanders in a mystic grove by moonlight and breathes at every step odors of sweet flowers while listening to the musical murmurings of fantastic fairies and echoing hounds in forest glens
theseus was the first and greatest grecian in strength of body second only to his cousin hercules each reveling in the god like antics of seduction incest rape robbery and murder
the persian egyptian grecian and roman gods commingled with the heroes and heroines of mankind and committed unheard of crimes with impunity the most outrageous villain seeming to be honored as the greatest god
the amphitheater grove in front of windsor castle
was the place selected for the exhibition of the dream natural circular terraces for the spectators the virgin queen had sent out five thousand invitations to her wealthy and intellectual subjects
to attend the new and romantic play of shakspere midsummer night's dream on the fourth of july fifteen ninety nine everything had been prepared in the way of natural and artificial scenery by the direction of william
while the queen sat on a sylvan throne embowered in vines and roses surrounded by all her courtiers ladies and lords in grand golden array the night was calm bright and warm
while the young moon and twinkling stars shining over windsor lent a celestial radiance to the scene where lovers and fairies mingled in the meshes of affection candles torches chimes lanterns and stationary fire balloons
were interspersed through the royal domain in brilliant profusion essex and southampton were unfortunately absent in ireland putting down a rebellion william took the part of theseus field played hippolyta burbage played puck
while phillips and cooke played respectively hermia and helen jo taylor played oberon and robert benfield acted titania the fairy queen the characters pyramus and thisbe were played by peele and crosse
now fair hippolyta our mutual hour draws on apace four happy days bring in another moon but o methinks how slow this old moon wanes she lingers my desires
like to a step dame or a dowager long withering out a young man's revenue hippolyta four days will quickly steep themselves in nights and then the moon shall behold the night of our solemnities
egeus a wealthy athenian complains to duke theseus that his daughter hermia will not consent to marry demetrius but disobedient insists on wedding with lysander
theseus decides that she must obey her father or suffer death or enter a convent excluded from the world forever theseus reasons with hermia thus
to live a barren sister all your life chanting fair hymns to the cold fruitless moon
but earthlier happy is the rose distilled
this sentiment was cheered heartily by the great forest audience and queen bess led the applause lysander pleaded his own case for the heart of hermia and sighing says
hermia and helena compare notes and wonder at the perversity of their respective lovers hermia says the more i hate demetrius the more he follows me and helena says
the more i love him the more he hateth me hermia still sighing for lysander says
o then what graces in my love do dwell that he hath turned a heaven unto hell helena soliloquizes regarding the inconsistency of demetrius since he saw hermia
love looks not with the eyes but with the mind and therefore is winged cupid painted blind i will go tell him of fair hermia's flight then to the wood will he to morrow night pursue her
and for this intelligence if i have thanks it is a dear expense but herein mean i to enrich my pain
a number of rude workingmen of athens propose to give an impromptu play in the duke's palace in honor of his wedding it is a burlesque on all plays and being so very crude and bad is good by contrast
pyramus and thisby are the prince and princess who die for love bottom is to play the big blower in the improvised drama and the jackass among the fairies he says i could play a part to tear a cat in to make all split
puck the mischievous robin goodfellow who is ever playing pranks among his fairy tribe and human lovers enters the forest scene and addresses one of the fairies thus how now spirit whither wander you
fairy says over hill over dale through bush through brier over park over pale through flood through fire farewell thou wit of spirits i'll be gone
our queen and all her elves come here anon puck the funny tattler tells of the jealousy of king oberon because titania has adopted a lovely boy for oberon is passing fell and wrath
because that she as her attendant hath a lovely boy stolen from an indian king she never had so sweet a changeling this sly cut at queen elizabeth who had recently adopted a young american indian as her parlor page
oberon and titania meet and quarrel just as natural as if they belonged to earthly passion people
what jealous oberon fairy skip hence i have forsworn his bed and company oberon tarry rash woman am i not thy lord titania then i must be thy lady
oberon accuses titania with being in love with theseus and assisting him in the ravishment of antique beauties she replies these are the forgeries of jealousy
never met we on hill dale forest or mead or on the beached margent of the sea to dance our ringlets to the whistling wind but with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport
after the departure of queen titania and her fairy train king oberon calls in puck to aid in punishing her imagined infidelity my gentle puck come hither
and heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath the rude sea grew civil at her song and certain stars shot madly from their spheres to hear the sea maid's music puck replies
i remember oberon continues that very time i saw but thou could'st not flying between the cold moon and the earth cupid all armed a certain aim he took at a fair vestal throned by the west
and loosed his shaft smartly from his bow as it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts but i might see young cupid's fiery shaft quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon
and the imperial voteress passed on in maiden meditation fancy free yet marked i where the bolt of cupid fell it fell upon a little western flower before milk white now purple with love's wound
and maidens call it love in idleness fetch me that flower the herb i showed thee once the juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid will make or man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees
fetch me this herb and be thou here again ere the leviathan can swim a league puck replies i'll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes
was none other than queen elizabeth and therefore three cheers and a roaring lion were given for the delicate and eloquent compliment of shakspere to her virgin majesty tributes to the powerful
though undeserved are received with spontaneous applause while just praise for the poor receive no echo from the jealous throng poor toadying humanity the infatuated helena follows demetrius into the dark forest
and though he tells her that he does not and cannot love her she says and even for that do i love you the more i am your spaniel and demetrius the more you beat me i will fawn on you
and to be used as you use your dog i have seen fool women and fool men act just that way and the more they were spurned the more they clung to their infatuation
puck returns with the flower containing the juice that will make wanton women and licentious men return to their just lovers oberon grasping the herb says
i know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows where ox lips and the nodding violet grows quite over canopied with blooming woodbine
there sleeps titania sometime of the night
and with this juice i'll streak her eyes to make her full of hateful fantasies and take thou some of it and seek through this grove a sweet athenian lady is in love with a disdainful youth anoint his eyes
titania enters with her fairy train and orders them to sing her to sleep and be gone oberon finds his queen sleeping and squeezes some of the love juice on her eyelids saying
do it for thy true love take love and languish for his sake when thou makest it is thy dear wake when some vile thing is near
and sink down to rest he says one turf shall serve as pillow for us both one heart one bed two bosoms and one troth puck finds the lovers asleep and says to lysander
churl upon thy eyes i throw all the power that this charm doth owe when thou wakest let love forbid sleep his seat on thy eyelid
puck finds bottom in the woods rehearsing the play for the marriage of theseus and translates the weaver into an ass with a desire for love
she hears him sing and opening her eyes says what angel wakes me from my flowery bed thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me on the first view to say to swear i love thee
bottom says methinks mistress you should have little reason for that reason and love keep little company now a days oberon relents and releases his fairy queen from her dream of infatuation with bottom
disguised as an ass and says but first i will release the fairy queen be as thou wast wont to be touching her eyes with the herb see as thou wast wont to see
dian's bud o'er cupid's flower hath such force and blessed power now my titania wake you my sweet queen titania awakes and exclaims
methought i was enamored of an ass titania is not the only woman who is enamored by an ass in fact the mismatched cross purposed twisted infatuated affections of the sordid deceitful earth
are as thick as blackberries in july while pretense and pampered power greatly prevail around the globe theseus and his train wander through the woods in preparation for the grand hunt
and find lysander demetrius hermia and helena still asleep under the magic influence of puck theseus wonders how the lovers came to the wood and says to the father of hermia but speak egeus
egeus it is my lord theseus go bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns expresses surprise at their situation how comes this gentle concord in the world
that hatred is so far from jealousy to sleep by hate and fear no enmity the lovers are reconciled to their natural choice and theseus decides against the father egeus i will overbear your will
bottom wakes and tells his theatrical partners i have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was
eye of man hath not heard the ear of man hath not seen man's hand is not able to taste his tongue to conceive nor his heart to report what my dream was the vast audience laughed heartily
at the befuddled language of bottom the weaver and imagined themselves under the like spell of fantastic fairies the fifth and last act opens up with theseus and his amazonian queen in the palace prepared for the nuptial rites
more strange than true i never may believe these antique fables nor these fairy toys lovers and madmen have such seething brains such shaping fantasies that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends
the lunatic the lover and the poet are of imagination all compact one sees more devils than vast hell can hold that is the madman
the lover all as frantic sees helen's beauty in a brow of egypt the poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling doth glance from heaven to earth from earth to heaven and as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown
the poet's pen turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name the play of pyramus and thisby is then introduced to the palace audience
as the play proceeds hippolyta remarks this is the silliest stuff that i ever heard and theseus says the best in this kind are but shadows and the worst are no worse if imagination amend them
pyramus appeals to the moon thus sweet moon i thank thee for thy sunny beams i thank thee moon for shining now so bright i trust to taste of truest thisby's sight
pyramus and thisby commit suicide for disappointment in love in the climax scene and waking again bottom wishes to know if the duke wants any more of the burlesque play theseus replies your play needs no excuse
for when the players are all dead there need none to be blamed the iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve lovers to bed tis almost fairy time i fear we shall outsleep the coming morn
as much as we this night have overwatched this palpable gross play hath well beguiled the heavy gait of night sweet friends to bed a fortnight hold we this solemnity in nightly revels and new jollity
the forest scene is filled with fairies led by puck oberon and titania all fantastically dressed rehearsing and singing in their mystic revels puck leading says
now the hungry lion roars and the wolf beholds the moon whilst the heavy ploughman snores all with weary task foredone and we fairies that do run by the triple of hecate's team
from the presence of the sun following darkness like a dream oberon orders through this house give glimmering light by the dead and drowsy fire every elf and fairy sprite hop as light as bird from brier
and his ditty after me sing and dance it trippingly titania speaks
first rehearse this song by rote to each word a warbling note hand in hand with fairy grace will we sing and bless this place then all the fairies joining hands at the command of oberon dance and sing
every fairy take his gait and each several chamber bless through this palace with sweet peace all shall here in safety rest and the owner of it blest trip away make no stay meet me all by break of day
then mischievous little puck flies to the front makes his final bow and speech concluding the play of midsummer night's dream if we shadows have offended think but this and all is mended
that you have but slumbered here
and this weak and idle theme no more yielding but a dream gentles do not reprehend if you pardon we will mend and as i am honest puck
how to escape the serpent's tongue we will make amends ere long else the puck a liar call so good night unto you all give me your hands if we be friends and robin shall restore amends
unanimous cheers rang through windsor forest at the conclusion of this mystic play
is mysterious miss cramp was in the habit of calling upon some trustee to speak at the close of the exercises usually mister semple and then there was a little social time before the assemblage broke up
but the frown on the chairman's face did not suggest that that gentleman had anything very jovial to say at the moment and the teacher closed the exercises herself in a few words that were not at all personal to the winner of the spelling match
when the stir of people moving about aroused ruth her only thought was to get away from the schoolhouse perhaps not more than two dozen people had distinctly heard what julia so cruelly said to her but it seemed to the girl from the red mill
as though everybody in that throng knew that she was a charity child that as julia said the very frock she had on belonged to somebody else and to helen
she had never for a moment suspected that helen had been the donor of the three frocks of course everybody in the neighborhood had known all the time that she was wearing helen's cast off clothing everybody but ruth herself would have recognized the dresses
she had been in the neighborhood so short a time that of course she was not very well acquainted with helen's wardrobe at the moment she could not feel thankful to her chum she could only remember julia's cutting words
and feel the sting to her pride that she should have shown herself before all beholders the recipient of her friend's alms nobody spoke to her as she glided through the moving crowd and reached the door miss cramp was delayed in getting to her
helen and tom did not see her go for they were across the room and farthest from the door and so she reached the exit and slipped out the men and boys from outside thronged the tiny anteroom and the steps
as she pushed through them one man said
she'd oughter have a prize for that that's what she ought but ruth could not reply to this although she knew it was meant kindly she went out into the darkness there were many horses hitched about the schoolhouse
but she reached the clear road in safety and ran toward the red mill the girl came to the mill and went quietly into the kitchen
but aunt alviry's bright eyes discovered at once that she was unhappy
whispered the old woman creeping close to ruth nothing is the matter now returned ruth in the same low tone didn't you do well asked the old woman wistfully
i won the spelling match replied ruth i stood up longer than anybody else
she was the last one to fail before me ruth returned well well
the miller did not raise his head from his accounts only grunted and nodded
she told me before everybody gasped ruth fighting hard to keep back the tears she called me a pauper
said aunt alvirah with more sharpness then she usually expressed isn't that jest like the semples
yes but she has known it right along of course
least of all helen she meant it kindly ruthie it was kindly meant i wish i'd worn my old black dress to rags cried ruth who was too hurt to be sensible or just
i suppose helen meant it kindly and you did what you thought was right auntie but all the girls have turned up their noses at me let em stay turned up
for the moment ruth had forgotten his presence and she and aunt alvirah had been talking more loudly they both fell suddenly silent and stared at him are ye too proud to wear dresses that's give to ye demanded uncle jabez
ye ain't too proud to take food and shelter from me and i'm a poorer man than macy cameron an less able to give
but she said bravely people know that you're my uncle i was yer mother's uncle that's all the relationship ain't much declared uncle jabez
you've been a good friend to me
i've tried ter do for ye faithfully
you know that well yourself too don't blame the pretty leetle creetur for havin the nateral vanity that all young things hez remember jabez
through me growled the miller raising his countenance and scowling at the brave old woman for it took courage for aunt alvirah to speak to him in this way
urged aunt alvirah i s'pose i'm never to hear the last of that stormed the miller
admonished his housekeeper well well repeated aunt alvirah still speaking quietly but earnestly you know it ain't my way to interfere in your affairs jabez but right is right it was you lost ruthie's trunk
i never knew ye ter be dishonest what's that gasped mister potter
but it's dishonest for ye to never even perpose ter make good what ye lost if you'd lost a sack of grain for a neighbor ye'd made it up to him wouldn't ye what's thet gotter do with a lot of foolish fal lals
an rigamagigs belonging to a gal that i've taken in to help us and she does
she more'n airns her keep jabez ye know she does well grunted the miller again but he actually looked somewhat abashed and dropped his gaze to the ledger
and as sure as my name's alviry boggs if you do think it over something will come of it
and there seemed to be nothing for the miller to observe in answer to it ruth had ere this dried her eyes and it was soon bedtime it is a long time from friday night to monday morning especially to young folk the hurt
that ruth had felt over julia semple's unkind words had lost its keenness in ruth's mind ere school began again so ruth took up her school duties quite as usual wearing one of the pretty frocks in which however she could no longer take such pride and delight
there was really nothing for her to do but wear them she realized that she felt however that whenever any girl looked at her she remembered that it was helen cameron's cast off dress she wore
besides all the school was very busy now
about all ruth heard at recess and between sessions even among the smaller girls was the discussion of what they were to wear on the last day of the term
and miss cramp was to graduate from her care seven pupils four girls and three boys
ruth would not be ready to graduate but before fall if she was faithful to the tasks miss cramp set her
that she would be able to enter the higher school with this graduating class all the older girls and many of the others were to wear white miss cramp approved of this for even a simple white dress would look pretty and nice
and was within the means of most of the girl pupils nobody asked ruth what she would wear and she was glad of that for she knew that she had no choice but to don the shabby black cloth frock she had worn at first or one of the charity frocks
in this first week after the spelling bee she did not see helen or tom and only received a brief note from helen which she tried to answer with her usual cheerfulness helen and tom were going to the city for a few days
therefore ruth was not likely to see either until the end of the term at the red mill matters went much the same as usual
he was as moody as ever and spoke no more to ruth than before but once or twice the girl found him looking at her with a puzzled frown which she did not understand on saturday however at dinner mister potter said alviry
if the gal has got her work done she can go to town with me this afternoon ruth shrank a little and looked appealingly at the old woman
the old lady crying up the stairway after her advised her to look her smartest so as to please jabez forsooth indeed
for the purpose of satisfying herself that ruth was as nicely dressed as she could be
which mister potter usually drove it was piled high with bags of flour and meal which he proposed to exchange at the cheslow stores for such supplies as he might need the load seemed heavier than usual this day
it was not a bad wagon to ride in though dusty for there was a spring seat and over it a new hood to shield the riders from the sun
he followed her took up the reins and the boy ben stood away from the mules heads aunt alvirah stood on the porch and waved her apron at ruth every time the girl turned around until the wagon had crossed the bridge
and was way up the long hill on the cheslow road it was a delightful june afternoon and had ruth been traversing this pleasant highway in almost any other way
helen pinched ruth's arm it was plain that her guards did not hold helen as tightly as they did ruth and why was that ruth thought could it be possible that her chum had had warning of this midnight visitation not that ruth felt very much fear of the outcome of the exercises
but the possibility that her old friend had kept any secret knowledge of the raid from her troubled ruth immensely since they had come among the girls of briarwood hall and that so few hours before ruth felt that she and helen were not so close together
there was danger of their drifting apart and the possibility troubled ruth fielding exceedingly
naturally she was vitally interested in what was about to be done to her by the party of hazers i am pained said the girl sitting on the table that one of the neophytes comes before us with a bigger mouthful than she can swallow
if she understands fully that a single word above a whisper or any word at all unless she is addressed by the sisters will be punished by her being instantly corked up again the gag may be removed do you understand neophyte nod once
ruth glad to get rid of the unpleasant mouthful on any terms nodded vigorously immediately her captors let go of her arms and one of them pulled the stopper out of her mouth now remember
uttered the girl on the table warningly a word aloud and the plug goes back helen giggled again but ruth didn't feel like laughing herself
you must be judged for your temerity how dared you come to briarwood hall infants please ma'am whispered helen who seemed to think the whole affair a great lark
you may not so easily escape responsibility for your acts hissed the girl on the table those who enter briarwood hall must show themselves worthy of the high honor
it takes supernatural courage to come under the eye of picolet if she wasn't out of the house to night you may believe we wouldn't be out of bed murmured another of the midnight visitors
whom ruth was quite sure was belle tingley and i hope you made no mistake about that miss snapped the girl on the table you went to her door and knocked and asked for toothache drops giggled another of the shrouded figures
and she wasn't there i pushed the door open muttered the other girl i know she went out i heard the door open and shut half an hour before she's a sly one she is declared the girl on the table
it is these small infants we have to judge not that old cat
is it not so friends and fellow members ahem is it not so there was a responsive giggle from the shrouded figures about the room
they claim that they were sent here against their will and that it was not reckless bravery that brought them to these scholastic halls let them prove their courage then what say the sisters the sisters giggled a good deal
but the majority seemed to be of the opinion that proof of the infants courage should be exacted then let the golden goblet be brought commanded the leader her voice still carefully lowered for even if miss picolet was out of the dormitory
miss scrimp the matron was asleep in her own room likewise on the lower floor of the building somebody produced a vase which had evidently been covered with bright gold foil for the occasion here said the leader holding the vase out to helen
take this golden goblet and fill it at the fountain on the campus you will be taken down to the door by the guards who will await your return and will bring you back again and remember silence
nor shall you think to befool us miss take the golden goblet and fill and drink at the fountain but leave the goblet there that we may know you have accomplished the task set you this was said most solemnly but the solemnity
would not have bothered helen cameron at all had the task been given to somebody else the thought of venturing out there in the dark on the campus rather quelled her propensity for giggling but there seemed to be no way of begging off from the trial
helen cast a look of pleading at her chum but what could ruth do
she believed that these girls were really more friendly in feeling toward helen than toward herself at least
two of the sheeted visitors seized helen again and led her softly out of the room a sentinel had been left in the corridor and the word was whispered that all was silent in the house miss scrimp
was known to be a heavy sleeper and the french teacher was certainly absent from her room the girls led helen downstairs and to the outer door this opened with a spring lock the guards whispered that they would remain to await her return
and the new girl was pushed out of doors with nothing over her nightgown but a wrapper and only slippers on her feet although there was little breeze now it was not cold but it was dark under the trees ruth who could look out of the windows above
wondered how her chum was getting on to go clear to the center of the campus with that vase and leave it at the foot of the figure surmounting the fountain was no pleasant experience ruth felt the minutes passed slowly the girls in their shrouds whispering among themselves
suddenly there came a sound from outside a pattering of running feet on the cement walk
helen was running toward the house at a speed which betrayed her agitation besides
and instantly the ball of rags was driven into ruth's mouth again and she was held in spite of her struggles by her captors ruth was angry now helen had been tricked into going to the fountain and by some means the hazers had frightened her on her journey
but it was a couple of minutes before her chum was brought back to the room helen was shivering and sobbing between the guards indeed they held her up for she would have fallen what's the matter with the great booby demanded the girl on the table
she she says she heard something or saw something at the fountain said one of the other girls in a quavering voice of course she did they always do declared the leader isn't the fountain haunted we know it is so
this was all said for effect and to impress her ruth knew but she tried to go to helen they held her back however and she could not speak did the neophyte go to the fountain demanded the leader sternly
helen in spite of her tears nodded vigorously did she drink of the water there i
i heard somebody the ghost of the very beautiful woman whose statue adorns the fountain declared mary cox if it were she
ruth knew now why the story of the fountain had been told them earlier in the evening but personally she had not been much impressed by it then nor was she frightened now
and by these very girls for whom her chum had conceived such a fancy helen was still trembling they let her sit down upon her bed and ruth wanted to go to her more than ever and comfort her
she demanded sharply of helen helen bobbed her head and sobbed then said the leader of the hazing party you go and bring it here
the passengers in the seven oaks and lumberton stage sat facing one another on the two broad seats mademoiselle picolet had established herself in one corner of the forward seat riding with her back to the driver
ruth and helen were side by side upon the other seat and this newcomer slid quickly in beside them and smiled a very broad and friendly smile at the two chums
make your bargain before you get into the ark that's what we call this stage or he surely will overcharge you
she spoke to the french teacher so carelessly indeed in so scornful a tone that ruth was startled
and her eyes sparkle it was doubtless of an admonishing nature but ruth and helen did not understand it of course you are the two girls whom we ex that is who were expected to day the girl asked the chums quickly
we are going to briarwood hall said ruth timidly
their new acquaintance said with apparent frankness and cordiality i'm mary cox i'm a junior the school is divided into primary junior and senior of course there are many younger girls than either of you at briarwood but all newcomers are called infants
my friend is helen cameron and my name is ruth fielding
but yours is a duet room that's nice too when you are already friends she seemed to have informed herself regarding these particular newcomers even if she had met them quite by accident helen who evidently quite admired mary cox
now ventured to say that she presumed most of the girls were already gathered for the autumn term there are a good many on hand
missus tellingham is very strict about that those who arrive after that have a demerit to work off at the start mary cox explained the system under which briarwood was carried on too with much good nature
but all the time she never addressed the french teacher nor did she pay the least attention to her the cool way in which she conducted the conversation commenting upon the school system the teachers and all other matters discussed without the least reference to miss picolet
made ruth at least feel unhappy it was so plain that mary cox ignored and slighted the little foreign lady by intention
we'll slip out of the stage at the end of cedar walk it's farther to the dormitories that way but i fancy there'll be few of the girls there
but i fancy you girls would just as lief escape the warm greeting we usually give to the arriving infants and she laughed ruth and helen with a vivid remembrance of what they had seen at seven oaks coincided with this suggestion it seemed very kind of a junior to put herself out for them
lots of the girls especially girls of our age coming to briarwood for the first time get in with the wrong crowd
now the chums could not help being a little flattered by this statement mary cox was older than ruth and helen and the latter were at an age
i should suppose in a school like briarwood ruth said hesitatingly that all the girls are pretty nice oh they are to a degree oh yes cried mary cox
briarwood is very select and missus tellingham is very careful you must know that miss cameron she added point blank to helen or your father would not have sent you here helen flushed at this boldly implied compliment
and she wondered why the junior had done so
of course we all know who your father is miss cameron
and there's a good deal of rivalry at the beginning of each year especially rivalry over what queried ruth
helen became wonderfully interested at once everything pertaining to the life before her at briarwood was bound to interest helen and the suggestion of society in the way of clubs and associations appealed to her
what clubs are there she demanded of the junior why there are several associations in the school
anybody can belong to that who wishes to play and we have a good school team which often plays teams from other schools
are the upedes and the fussy curls said their new friend what ridiculous names cried helen i suppose they mean something though
the upedes are the up and doing club
what do the letters really stand for forward club i believe i don't know much about the fussy curls mary said with the same tone and air
yes said mary cox nodding and seemed to have finished with that subject but helen was interested
both clubs are anxious to get members mary cox said both are putting out considerable effort to gain new members
what are the objects of the rival clubs put in ruth quietly i couldn't tell you much about the fussy curls said mary carelessly not being one of them i couldn't be expected to take much interest in their objects
no slow coaches about the upedes we're all alive and wide awake
but before the discussion could be carried farther mary put her head out of the window and called to the driver
here's your ten cents meanwhile the little foreign lady had scarcely moved she had turned her face toward the open window all the time and being veiled the girls could not see whether she was asleep or awake she made no move to get out at this point
nor did she seem to notice the girls when mary flung open the door on the other side of the coach and ruth and helen picked up their bags to follow her the chums saw that the stage had halted where a shady winding path seemed to lead up a slight rise through a plantation of cedars
but the spot was not lonely several girls were waiting here for the coach and they greeted mary cox when she jumped down vociferously well mary cox i guess we know what you've been up to exclaimed one who seemed older than the other girls in waiting
did you rope any infants mary cried somebody else the fox never took all that long walk for nothing declared another but mary cox paid her respects to the first speaker only by saying
you fussy curls had better set your alarm clocks a little earlier ruth and helen were climbing out of the old coach now and the girl named madge steele looked them over sharply pledged are they she said to mary cox in a low tone
returned miss cox with a malicious smile ruth and helen did not distinctly hear this interchange of words between their new friend and madge steele
ruth liked her appearance much more than she did that of mary cox but the latter started at once into the cedar plantation up a serpentine walk and helen and ruth perforce went with her the other girls stood aside
some of them whispering together and smiling at the newcomers the chums could not help but feel strange and nervous and mary cox's friendship seemed of value to them just then ruth however looked back at the tall girl whose appearance had so impressed her
old dolliver did everything slowly but ruth fielding saw a hand beckoning at the coach window it was the hand of miss picolet the french teacher and it beckoned madge steele the latter young lady ran to the coach as it lurched forward on its way
there wasn't time then however to make any toilet before the train left they were off on the short run to seven oaks in a very few minutes after leaving the lanawaxa tom was very much excited now
he craned his head out of the car window to catch the first glimpse of the red brick barracks and dome of the gymnasium which were the two most prominent buildings belonging to the academy finally the hill on which the school buildings stood flashed into view
they occupied the summit of the knoll while the seven great oaks standing in a sort of druidical circle dotted the smooth sloping lawn that descended to the railroad cut oh how ugly
cried helen who had never seen the place before i do hope that briarwood hall will be prettier than that
that's just like a girl he said wanting a school to look pretty pshaw
i hope i'll get in with a good crowd i know gil wentworth who came here last year and he says he'll put me in with a nice bunch that's what i'm looking forward to the train was slowing down there was a handsome brick station and a long platform
this was crowded with boys all in military garb like tom's own they looked so very trim and handsome that helen and ruth were quite excited there were boys ranging from little fellows of ten in knickerbockers to big chaps whose mustaches were sprouting on their upper lips
that's all right tom said gruffly
there it stands yonder and a jolly old scarecrow of a carriage it is too he was evidently feeling somewhat flurried himself he was going to meet more than half the great school informally right there at the station
but the car in which our friends rode stopped well along the platform and very near the spot where the old brown battered and dust covered stage coach drawn by two great bony horses stood in the fall sunshine
most of the academy boys were at the other end of the platform gil wentworth tom's friend had given young cameron several pointers as to his attitude on arrival at the seven oaks station
he had passed the entrance examinations two months before so as to be less noticeable in the crowd very soon a slow and dirge like chant arose from the cadets gathered on the station platform from the rear cars of the train had stepped several boys in citizen's garb
and a doubtful air that proclaimed them immediately
filed off into the path leading up to the academy with their bags and other encumbrances the uniformed boys en masse got into step behind them and tramped up the hill singing this dreadful dirge
the unfortunate new arrivals had to listen to the chant all the way up the hill if they ran to get away from the crowd
the only sensible way was to endure it with a grin tom grinned widely himself for he had certainly been overlooked or he thought so until he had placed the two girls safely in the big omnibus had kissed helen good bye and shaken hands with ruth
but the girls looking out of the open door of the coach saw him descend from the step into the midst of a group of solemn faced boys who had only held back out of politeness to the girls whom tom escorted helen and ruth
stifling their amusement heard and saw poor tom put through a much more severe examination than the other boys
he was forced to endure a searching inquiry regarding his upbringing and private affairs right within the delighted hearing of the wickedly giggling girls and then a tall fellow started to put him through the manual of arms
poor tom was all at sea in that and the youth with gravity declared that he was insulting the uniform by his ignorance and caused him to remove his coat and turn it inside out
in a most ridiculous red flannel garment the lining of the coat which made him conspicuous from every barrack window and indeed from every part of the academy hill oh dear me sighed helen
he wasn't so cute as he thought he was but ruth suddenly became serious
oh there was being helped into the coach by the roughly dressed and bewhiskered driver the little doll like foreign woman whom they thought had been left behind at portageton
and started to shut the door then he glanced from ruth and helen to the little foreign lady i leave ye in good hands he said with a hoarse chuckle
it sounded like pickle yet on his tongue
said the little lady rather tartly i may venture to introduce myself is it not she did not raise her veil she spoke english with scarcely any accent
old dolliver the stage driver grinned broadly as he closed the door
you are going to briarwood hall then my young ladies said miss picolet yes ma'am said ruth shyly i shall be your teacher in the french language
helen after all was more shy than ruth with strangers when she became acquainted she gained confidence rapidly
helen is as far advanced as i am in all studies miss picolet good returned the teacher we shall get on famously with such bright girls and she nodded several times
but she was not really companionable she never raised her veil and she only talked with the girls by fits and starts there were long spaces of time when she sat huddled in the corner of her seat with her face turned from them and never said a word
but the nearer the rumbling old stagecoach approached the promised land of briarwood hall the more excited ruth and helen became they gazed out of the open windows of the coach doors and thought the country through which they traveled ever so pretty
occasionally old dolliver would lean out from his seat twist himself around in a most impossible attitude
suddenly as they surmounted a long ridge and came out upon the more open summit
through an open grove and across uncultivated fields beyond a vast blueberry pasture
she swung her hat by its strings in her hand and commenced to run up the hill when she spied the coach
she swung her hat excitedly and although the girls in the coach could not hear her they knew that she shouted to old dolliver he pulled up braking the lumbering wheels grumblingly the newcomer's sharp freckled face
grew plainer to the interested gaze of ruth and helen as she came out of the shadow of the trees into the sunlight of the dusty highway got any infants dolliver the girl asked breathlessly two on em miss cox replied the stage driver
then i'm in time of course nobody's met em hist
that's all right dolliver i'll get in ten cents mind you from here to briarwood that's enough
those who do not like him magnify it shrug up their shoulders and exclaim there he is again
rome has its corso naples its toledo ah that andersen there he is again they would cry yet i must to please my fancy continue quite quietly and add
a very large party in order as is often the case to get a return invitation from the others
now let us see what we can do to amuse ourselves they had got just so far and the conversation began to crystallise as it could but do with the scanty stream which the commonplace world supplied amongst other things they spoke of the middle ages
some praised that period as far more interesting far more poetical than our own too sober present indeed councillor knap defended this opinion so warmly that the hostess declared immediately on his side and both exerted themselves with unwearied eloquence
we will just step out into the antechamber where cloaks mackintoshes sticks umbrellas and shoes were deposited here sat two female figures a young and an old one one might have thought at first they were servants come to accompany their mistresses home
but on looking nearer one soon saw they could scarcely be mere servants
the younger it is true was not dame fortune herself but one of the waiting maids of her handmaidens who carry about the lesser good things that she distributes the other looked extremely gloomy it was care she always attends to her own serious business herself
as then she is sure of having it done properly they were telling each other with a confidential interchange of ideas where they had been during the day the messenger of fortune had only executed a few unimportant commissions such as saving a new bonnet from a shower of rain et cetera
but what she had yet to perform was something quite unusual i must tell you said she
which i am to carry to mankind these shoes possess the property of instantly transporting him who has them on to the place or the period in which he most wishes to be every wish as regards time or place or state of being will be immediately fulfilled and so at last man will be happy here below
replied care in a severe tone of reproach no he will be very unhappy and will assuredly bless the moment when he feels that he has freed himself from the fatal shoes stupid nonsense said the other angrily
some one will make a mistake for certain and take the wrong ones he will be a happy man such was their conversation two what happened to the councillor
it was late councillor knap deeply occupied with the times of king hans intended to go home and malicious fate managed matters so that his feet instead of finding their way to his own galoshes slipped into those of fortune
on which account his foot very naturally sank in the mud and puddles of the street there having been in those days no pavement in copenhagen well this is too bad how dirty it is here sighed the councillor
as to a pavement i can find no traces of one and all the lamps it seems have gone to sleep the moon was not yet very high it was besides rather foggy so that in the darkness all objects seemed mingled in chaotic confusion
the well known group of the virgin and the infant jesus
a few persons in the costume of the time of king hans passed quickly by him how strange they look the good folks come probably from a masquerade
the councillor stood still and watched a most strange procession pass by first came a dozen drummers who understood pretty well how to handle their instruments then came halberdiers and some armed with cross bows the principal person in the procession was a priest
astonished at what he saw the councillor asked what was the meaning of all this mummery and who that man was that's the bishop of zealand was the answer good heavens what has taken possession of the bishop sighed the councillor shaking his head it certainly could not be the bishop
even though he was considered the most absent man in the whole kingdom and people told the drollest anecdotes about him reflecting on the matter and without looking right or left the councillor went through east street and across the habro platz the bridge leading to palace square was not to be found
does your honor want to cross the ferry to the holme asked they across to the holme said the councillor who knew nothing of the age in which he at that moment was no i am going to christianshafen to little market street both men stared at him in astonishment
only just tell me where the bridge is said he it is really unpardonable that there are no lamps here and it is as dirty as if one had to wade through a morass the longer he spoke with the boatmen the more unintelligible did their language become to him
i don't understand your bornholmish dialect said he at last angrily and turning his back upon them he was unable to find the bridge there was no railway either it is really disgraceful what a state this place is in muttered he to himself
never had his age with which however he was always grumbling seemed so miserable as on this evening i'll take a hackney coach thought he but where were the hackney coaches not one was to be seen
he found however a little side door open and through this he went and stepped into our new market of the present time it was a huge desolate plain some wild bushes stood up here and there while across the field flowed a broad canal or river
some wretched hovels for the dutch sailors resembling great boxes and after which the place was named lay about in confused disorder on the opposite bank i either behold a fata morgana or i am regularly tipsy whimpered out the councillor but what's this
he turned round anew firmly convinced that he was seriously ill he gazed at the street formerly so well known to him and now so strange in appearance and looked at the houses more attentively most of them were of wood slightly put together and many had a thatched roof no
i am far from well sighed he and yet i drank only one glass of punch but i cannot suppose it it was too really very wrong to give us punch and hot salmon for supper
but no that would be too silly and heaven only knows if they are up still he looked for the house but it had vanished it is really dreadful groaned he with increasing anxiety i cannot recognise east street again
there is not a single decent shop from one end to the other nothing but wretched huts can i see anywhere just as if i were at ringstead oh i am ill i can scarcely bear myself any longer where the deuce can the house be
it must be here on this very spot yet there is not the slightest idea of resemblance to such a degree has everything changed this night at all events here are some people up and stirring oh oh i am certainly very ill he now hit upon a half open door
was a sort of hostelry of those times a kind of public house the room had some resemblance to the clay floored halls in holstein a pretty numerous company consisting of seamen copenhagen burghers and a few scholars sat here in deep converse over their pewter cans
and gave little heed to the person who entered by your leave said the councillor to the hostess who came bustling towards him i've felt so queer all of a sudden would you have the goodness to send for a hackney coach to take me to christianshafen
the woman examined him with eyes of astonishment and shook her head she then addressed him in german the councillor thought she did not understand danish and therefore repeated his wish in german this in connection with his costume strengthened the good woman in the belief that he was a foreigner
that he was ill she comprehended directly so she brought him a pitcher of water which tasted certainly pretty strong of the sea although it had been fetched from the well the councillor supported his head on his hand drew a long breath and thought over all the wondrous things he saw around him
he asked mechanically as he saw the hostess push aside a large sheet of paper the meaning of this councillorship query remained of course a riddle to her yet she handed him the paper without replying it was a coarse wood cut representing a splendid meteor
as seen in the town of cologne which was to be read below in bright letters that is very old said the councillor whom this piece of antiquity began to make considerably more cheerful pray how did you come into possession of this rare print
it is extremely interesting although the whole is a mere fable such meteorous appearances are to be explained in this way that they are the reflections of the aurora borealis and it is highly probable they are caused principally by electricity
those persons who were sitting nearest him and heard his speech stared at him in wonderment and one of them rose took off his hat respectfully and said with a serious countenance you are no doubt a very learned man monsieur
as indeed one must do according to the demands of the world at present
i am a bachelor in theologia answered the gentleman with a stiff reverence this reply fully satisfied the councillor the title suited the dress he is certainly thought he some village schoolmaster some queer old fellow
tales of every day life said our bachelor inquiringly i mean those new fangled novels twisting and writhing themselves in the dust of commonplace which also expect to find a reading public oh exclaimed the clerical gentleman smiling
there is much wit in them besides they are read at court the king likes the history of sir iffven and sir gaudian particularly which treats of king arthur and his knights of the round table he has more than once joked about it with his high vassals i have not read that novel said the councillor
it must be quite a new one that heiberg has published lately no answered the theologian of the time of king hans that book is not written by a heiberg but was imprinted by godfrey von gehmen oh is that the author's name said the councillor
it is a very old name and as well as i recollect he was the first printer that appeared in denmark yes he is our first printer replied the clerical gentleman hastily so far all went on well
some one of the worthy burghers now spoke of the dreadful pestilence that had raged in the country a few years back
the councillor imagined it was the cholera that was meant which people made so much fuss about and the discourse passed off satisfactorily enough
the english pirates had they said most shamefully taken their ships while in the roadstead and the councillor before whose eyes the herostratic event of eighteen o one still floated vividly
they poured out the liquor and made the most friendly gesticulations while a cold perspiration trickled down the back of the poor councillor what's to be the end of this what's to become of me
they took hold of the worthy man who hearing on every side that he was intoxicated
they however imagined he was talking russian never before he thought had he been in such a coarse and ignorant company
is the most dreadful moment of my life the whole world is leagued against me
he did so but just as he was going the others remarked what he was about they laid hold of him by the legs and now happily for him off fell his fatal shoes and with them the charm was at an end
all seemed to him in proper order as usual it was east street splendid and elegant as we now see it he lay with his feet towards a doorway and exactly opposite sat the watchman asleep gracious heaven said he have i lain here in the street and dreamed
yes tis east street how splendid and light it is but really it is terrible what an effect that one glass of punch must have had on me
he thought of the distress and agony he had endured and praised from the very bottom of his heart the happy reality our own time which with all its deficiencies is yet much better than that in which so much against his inclination he had lately been three
the watchman's adventure why there is a pair of galoshes as sure as i'm alive said the watchman awaking from a gentle slumber they belong no doubt to the lieutenant who lives over the way they lie close to the door
the worthy man was inclined to ring and deliver them at the house for there was still a light in the window
such a pair of shoes must be very warm and comfortable said he the leather is so soft and supple they fitted his feet as though they had been made for him tis a curious world we live in continued he soliloquizing
would to heaven i could but change with him how happy should i be while expressing his wish the charm of the shoes which he had put on began to work the watchman entered into the being and nature of the lieutenant
he stood in the handsomely furnished apartment and held between his fingers a small sheet of rose colored paper on which some verses were written written indeed by the officer himself
and if one then marks down one's thoughts poetry is produced
oh were i rich oh were i rich such was my wish yea such when hardly three feet high i longed for much oh were i rich an officer were i with sword and uniform and plume so high
and the time came and officer was i but yet i grew not rich alas poor me have pity thou who all man's wants dost see i sat one evening sunk in dreams of bliss a maid of seven years old
gave me a kiss i at that time was rich in poesy and tales of old though poor as poor could be but all she asked for was this poesy then was i rich but not in gold poor me
but i'm condemned to silence oh poor me as thou dost know who all men's hearts canst see oh were i rich in calm and peace of mind my grief you then would not here written find
o thou to whom i do my heart devote oh read this page of glad days now remote a dark dark tale which i tonight devote dark is the future now alas poor me have pity thou who all men's pains
dost see such verses as these people write when they are in love but no man in his senses ever thinks of printing them here one of the sorrows of life in which there is real poetry gave itself vent not that barren grief which the poet may only hint at
but never depict in its detail misery and want that animal necessity in short to snatch at least at a fallen leaf of the bread fruit tree if not at the fruit itself the higher the position in which one finds oneself transplanted the greater is the suffering
everyday necessity is the stagnant pool of life no lovely picture reflects itself therein lieutenant love and lack of money that is a symbolic triangle or much the same as the half of the shattered die of fortune
this the lieutenant felt most poignantly and this was the reason he leant his head against the window and sighed so deeply
he has a home a wife and children who weep with him over his sorrows who rejoice with him when he is glad
oh he is a hundred times happier than i
he took upon him the thoughts and feelings of the officer but as we have just seen he felt himself in his new situation much less contented and now preferred the very thing which but some minutes before he had rejected so then the watchman was again watchman
that was an unpleasant dream said he but twas droll enough altogether
i missed my good old mother and the dear little ones who almost tear me to pieces for sheer love he seated himself once more and nodded the dream continued to haunt him for he still had the shoes on his feet a falling star shone in the dark firmament
there falls another star said he but what does it matter there are always enough left i should not much mind examining the little glimmering things somewhat nearer especially the moon for that would not slip so easily through a man's fingers when we die
we shall fly about as light as a feather from one such a star to the other that's of course not true but twould be pretty enough if it were so if i could but once take a leap up there my body might stay here on the steps for what i care
but doubly careful must one be when we have the shoes of fortune on our feet now just listen to what happened to the watchman
every inch a man resembling the real personages even to the finest features and become the heroes or heroines of our world of dreams in reality such remembrances are rather unpleasant every sin every evil thought may like a clock with alarm or chimes
be repeated at pleasure then the question is if we can trust ourselves to give an account of every unbecoming word in our heart and on our lips
the proper authorities were informed of the circumstance people talked a good deal about it and in the morning the body was carried to the hospital now that would be a very pretty joke if the spirit when it came back and looked for the body in east street were not to find one
no doubt it would in its anxiety run off to the police and then to the hue and cry office to announce that
yet we may boldly assert that the soul is shrewdest when it shakes off every fetter and every sort of leading string the body only makes it stupid the seemingly dead body of the watchman wandered as we have said to the hospital
and the first thing that was done here was naturally to pull off the galoshes when the spirit that was merely gone out on adventures must have returned with the quickness of lightning to its earthly tenement it took its direction towards the body in a straight line
and a few seconds after life began to show itself in the man he asserted that the preceding night had been the worst that ever the malice of fate had allotted him he would not for two silver marks again go through what he had endured while moon stricken but now however it was over
but the shoes meanwhile remained behind four a moment of head importance an evening's dramatic readings a most strange journey every inhabitant of copenhagen knows from personal inspection how the entrance to frederick's hospital looks
may also read this little work we will beforehand give a short description of it the extensive building is separated from the street by a pretty high railing the thick iron bars of which are so far apart that in all seriousness
the part of the body most difficult to manage on such occasions was no doubt the head
long headed people get through best so much then for the introduction one of the young men whose head in a physical sense only might be said to be of the thickest
had the watch that evening the rain poured down in torrents yet despite these two obstacles the young man was obliged to go out if it were but for a quarter of an hour and as to telling the door keeper about it that he thought was quite unnecessary
if with a whole skin he were able to slip through the railings there on the floor lay the galoshes which the watchman had forgotten he never dreamed for a moment that they were those of fortune
so he put them on the question now was if he could squeeze himself through the grating for he had never tried before well there he stood would to heaven i had got my head through said he involuntarily
and instantly through it slipped easily and without pain notwithstanding it was pretty large and thick but now the rest of the body was to be got through ah i am much too stout groaned he aloud while fixed as in a vice
oh oh i really cannot squeeze myself through he now wanted to pull his over hasty head back again but he could not for his neck there was room enough but for nothing more his first feeling was of anger his next that his temper fell to zero
the shoes of fortune had placed him in the most dreadful situation and unfortunately it never occurred to him to wish himself free the pitch black clouds poured down their contents in still heavier torrents not a creature was to be seen in the streets to reach up to the bell was what he did not like
besides how ashamed would he have been to be found caught in a trap like an outwitted fox how was he to twist himself through he saw clearly that it was his irrevocable destiny to remain a prisoner till dawn or perhaps even late in the morning
then the smith must be fetched to file away the bars but all that would not be done so quickly as he could think about it the whole charity school just opposite would be in motion all the new booths with their not very courtier like swarm of seamen
would join them out of curiosity and would greet him with a wild hurrah while he was standing in his pillory there would be a mob a hissing and rejoicing and jeering ten times worse than in the rows about the jews some years ago
oh my blood is mounting to my brain tis enough to drive one mad i shall go wild i know not what to do oh were i but loose my dizziness would then cease oh were my head but loose
he hastened off to his room where the pains consequent on the fright the shoes had prepared for him did not so soon take their leave but you must not think that the affair is over now it grows much worse the night passed the next day also
but nobody came to fetch the shoes in the evening dramatic readings were to be given at the little theatre in king street the house was filled to suffocation and among other pieces to be recited was a new poem by h c andersen called my aunt's spectacles
the contents of which were pretty nearly as follows a certain person had an aunt who boasted of particular skill in fortune telling with cards and who was constantly being stormed by persons that wanted to have a peep into futurity but she was full of mystery about her art
in which a certain pair of magic spectacles did her essential service her nephew a merry boy who was his aunt's darling begged so long for these spectacles that at last she lent him the treasure after having informed him with many exhortations
that in order to execute the interesting trick he need only repair to some place where a great many persons were assembled and then from a higher position whence he could overlook the crowd pass the company in review before him through his spectacles immediately
yet without expressing his opinion openly he tells the people enough to set them all thinking and guessing but in order to hurt nobody he wraps his witty oracular judgments in a transparent veil or rather in a lurid thundercloud shooting forth bright sparks of wit
that they may fall in the powder magazine of the expectant audience the humorous poem was admirably recited and the speaker much applauded
he had on the shoes for as yet no lawful owner had appeared to claim them and besides it was so very dirty out of doors they were just the thing for him he thought the beginning of the poem he praised with great generosity he even found the idea original and effective
but that the end of it like the rhine was very insignificant proved in his opinion the author's want of invention he was without genius et cetera this was an excellent opportunity to have said something clever meanwhile he was haunted by the idea
i can now said he to himself fancy the whole row of ladies and gentlemen sitting there in the front row if one could but see into their hearts yes that would be a revelation a sort of bazar
in that lady yonder so strangely dressed i should find for certain a large milliner's shop in that one the shop is empty but it wants cleaning plain enough
alas sighed he i know one in which all is stately but there sits already a spruce young shopman which is the only thing that's amiss in the whole shop all would be splendidly decked out and we should hear
walk in gentlemen pray walk in here you will find all you please to want ah i wish to heaven i could walk in and take a trip right through the hearts of those present and behold to the shoes of fortune this was the cue
the first heart through which he came was that of a middle aged lady but he instantly fancied himself in the room of the institution for the cure of the crooked and deformed where casts of mis shapen limbs are displayed in naked reality on the wall
yet there was this difference in the institution the casts were taken at the entry of the patient
while the sound persons went away they were namely casts of female friends whose bodily or mental deformities were here most faithfully preserved with the snake like writhings of an idea he glided into another female heart but this seemed to him like a large holy fane
the white dove of innocence fluttered over the altar how gladly would he have sunk upon his knees but he must away to the next heart
with a sick bed rid mother revealed but god's warm sun streamed through the open window lovely roses nodded from the wooden flower boxes on the roof
whose name is certain to be found in the directory
the husband's portrait was used as a weather cock which was connected in some way or other with the doors and so they opened and shut of their own accord whenever the stern old husband turned round hereupon he wandered into a boudoir formed entirely of mirrors like the one in castle rosenburg
but here the glasses magnified to an astonishing degree on the floor in the middle of the room sat like a dalai lama the insignificant self of the person quite confounded at his own greatness he then imagined he had got into a needle case full of pointed needles of every size
a man as people said of talent and feeling in the greatest perplexity he now came out of the last heart in the row he was unable to put his thoughts in order and fancied that his too lively imagination had run away with him
and he now remembered the important event of the evening before how his head had got jammed in between the iron railings of the hospital that's what it is no doubt said he i must do something in time under such circumstances a russian bath might do me good
and as he gets accustomed to the heat moves to another higher up towards the ceiling where of course the vapor is warmest in this manner he ascends gradually to the highest and so there he lay on the uppermost bank in the vapor bath
but with all his clothes on in his boots and galoshes while the hot drops fell scalding from the ceiling on his face holloa cried he leaping down the bathing attendant on his side uttered a loud cry of astonishment when he beheld in the bath a man completely dressed
the other however retained sufficient presence of mind to whisper to him tis a bet and i have won it but the first thing he did as soon as he got home was to have a large blister put on his chest and back to draw out his madness
the next morning he had a sore chest and a bleeding back and excepting the fright that was all that he had gained by the shoes of fortune five metamorphosis of the copying clerk the watchman
whom we have certainly not forgotten thought meanwhile of the galoshes he had found and taken with him to the hospital
as on the continent in all law and police practices nothing is verbal but any circumstance however trifling is reduced to writing the labor as well as the number of papers that thus accumulate is enormous
in a police office consequently we find copying clerks among many other scribes of various denominations of which it seems our hero was one
one must have more than the eye of a shoemaker to know one pair from the other said he soliloquizing and putting at the same time the galoshes in search of an owner beside his own in the corner here sir said one of the men who panting brought him a tremendous pile of papers
the copying clerk turned round and spoke awhile with the man about the reports and legal documents in question but when he had finished and his eye fell again on the shoes he was unable to say whether those to the left or those to the right belonged to him
at all events it must be those which are wet thought he but this time in spite of his cleverness he guessed quite wrong
so he put them on quickly stuck his papers in his pocket and took besides a few under his arm intending to look them through at home to make the necessary notes it was noon and the weather that had threatened rain began to clear up while gaily dressed holiday folks filled the streets
tis a bitter crust alas at which i am condemned to gnaw nobody could be more steady or quiet than this young man we therefore wish him joy of the excursion with all our heart and
so you are going away again said the clerk you are a very free and happy being we others are chained by the leg and held fast to our desk yes but it is a chain friend which ensures you the blessed bread of existence answered the poet
each one kept to his own opinion and so they separated it's a strange race those poets said the clerk who was very fond of soliloquizing i should like some day just for a trial to take such nature upon me and be a poet myself
i am very sure i should make no such miserable verses as the others today methinks is a most delicious day for a poet nature seems anew to celebrate her awakening into life the air is so unusually clear the clouds sail on so buoyantly
and from the green herbage a fragrance is exhaled that fills me with delight for many a year have i not felt as at this moment we see already by the foregoing effusion that he is become a poet to give further proof of it however would in most cases be insipid
for it is a most foolish notion to fancy a poet different from other men among the latter there may be far more poetical natures than many an acknowledged poet when examined more closely could boast of
the difference only is that the poet possesses a better mental memory on which account he is able to retain the feeling and the thought till they can be embodied by means of words a faculty which the others do not possess but the transition from a commonplace nature
the sweet air continued he of the police office in his dreamy imaginings how it reminds me of the violets in the garden of my aunt magdalena yes then i was a little wild boy who did not go to school very regularly o heavens
the good old soul she lived behind the exchange she always had a few twigs or green shoots in water let the winter rage without as it might the violets exhaled their sweet breath
what change what magnificence yonder in the canal lay the ships frozen up and deserted by their whole crews with a screaming crow for the sole occupant but when the spring with a gentle stirring motion announced her arrival a new and busy life arose
with songs and hurrahs the ice was sawn asunder the ships were fresh tarred and rigged that they might sail away to distant lands but i have remained here
must always remain here sitting at my desk in the office and patiently see other people fetch their passports to go abroad such is my fate
was again silent great heaven what is come to me
he said to himself consolingly while his eye ran over the first page dame tigbrith tragedy in five acts what is that and yet it is undeniably my own handwriting have i written the tragedy wonderful very wonderful and this what have i here
hem hem said the clerk breathlessly and quite exhausted he seated himself on a bank
the bowden reunion it is very rare in country life
that any occasion of general interest proves to be less than great such is the hidden fire of enthusiasm in the new england nature that once given an outlet it shines forth
with almost volcanic light and heat in quiet neighborhoods such inward force does not waste itself upon those petty excitements of every day that belong to cities
but when at long intervals the altars to patriotism to friendship to the ties of kindred are reared in our familiar fields then the fires glow the flames come up
as if from the inexhaustible burning heart of the earth the primal fires break through the granite dust in which our souls are set each heart is warm and every face shines with the ancient light
such a day as this has transfiguring powers and easily makes friends of those who have been cold hearted and gives to those who are dumb their chance to speak
and lends some beauty to the plainest face oh i expect i shall meet friends today that i haven't seen in a long while said missus blackett with deep satisfaction
twill bring out a good many of the old folks tis such a lovely day i'm always glad not to have them disappointed
stealing a glance at me there's one thing certain there's nothing takes in this whole neighborhood like anything related to the bowdens yes i do feel
that when you call upon the bowdens you may expect most families to rise up between the landing and the far end of the back cove those that aren't kin by blood are kin by marriage
there used to be an old story goin about when i was a girl said missus blackett with much amusement there was a great many more bowdens then than there are now and the folks
was all setting in meeting a dreadful hot sunday afternoon and a scatter witted little bound girl came running to the meetin' house door all out o breath from somewheres in the neighborhood mis bowden mis bowden
your baby's in a fit they used to tell that the whole congregation was up on its feet in a minute and right out into the aisles all the mis bowdens was setting right out for home
the minister stood there in the pulpit tryin to keep sober an all at once he burst right out laughin he was a very nice man they said and he said he'd better give em the benediction and they could hear the sermon next sunday
so he kept it over my mother was there and she thought certain twas me none of our family was ever subject to fits interrupted missus todd severely no
we never had fits none of us and twas lucky we didn't way out there to green island now these folks right in front
i've had to favor old mis evins with dryin you can see it right in their expressions all them evins folks there just you look up to the crossroads mother she suddenly exclaimed see all the teams ahead of us
and oh look down on the bay yes look down on the bay see what a sight o boats all headin for the bowden place cove oh ain't it beautiful said missus blackett with all the delight of a girl
she stood up in the high wagon to see everything and when she sat down again she took fast hold of my hand hadn't you better urge the horse a little almiry she asked he's had it easy as we came along
and he can rest when we get there the others are some little ways ahead and i don't want to lose a minute we watched the boats drop their sails one by one in the cove as we drove along the high land
the old bowden house stood low storied and broad roofed in its green fields as if it were a motherly brown hen waiting for the flock that came straying toward it from every direction the first bowden settler
had made his home there and it was still the bowden farm five generations of sailors and farmers and soldiers had been its children and presently missus blackett
showed me the stone walled burying ground that stood like a little fort on a knoll overlooking the bay but as she said there were plenty of scattered bowdens who were not laid there some lost at sea and some out west
and some who died in the war most of the home graves were those of women we could see now that there were different footpaths from along shore and across country
in all these there were straggling processions walking in single file like old illustrations of the pilgrim's progress there was a crowd about the house as if huge bees were swarming in the lilac bushes
beyond the fields and cove a higher point of land ran out into the bay covered with woods which must have kept away much of the northwest wind in winter
now there was a pleasant look of shade and shelter there for the great family meeting we hurried on our way beginning to feel as if we were very late and it was a great satisfaction
at last to turn out of the stony highroad into a green lane shaded with old apple trees missus todd encouraged the horse until he fairly pranced with gayety as we drove round to the front of the house on the soft turf
there was an instant cry of rejoicing and two or three persons ran toward us from the busy group why dear mis blackett here's mis blackett i heard them say as if it were pleasure enough for one day to have a sight of her
missus todd turned to me with a lovely look of triumph and self forgetfulness an elderly man who wore the look of a prosperous sea captain put up both arms
and lifted missus blackett down from the high wagon like a child and kissed her with hearty affection i was master afraid she wouldn't be here he said looking at missus todd with a face like a happy sunburnt schoolboy
while everybody crowded round to give their welcome mother's always the queen said missus todd yes they'll all make everything of mother she'll have a lovely time to day i wouldn't have had her miss it
and there won't be a thing she'll ever regret except to mourn because william wa'n't here missus blackett having been properly escorted to the house missus todd received her own full share of honor and some of the men
with a simple kindness that was the soul of chivalry waited upon us and our baskets and led away the white horse i already knew some of missus todd's friends and kindred and felt like an adopted bowden in this happy moment
who presently had her court inside the house while missus todd large hospitable and preeminent was the centre of a rapidly increasing crowd about the lilac bushes
small companies were continually coming up the long green slope from the water and nearly all the boats had come to shore
i counted three or four that were baffled by the light breeze but before long all the bowdens small and great seemed to have assembled and we started to go up to the grove across the field
out of the chattering crowd of noisy children and large waisted women whose best black dresses fell straight to the ground in generous folds and sunburnt men who looked as serious as if it were town meeting day
there suddenly came silence and order i saw the straight soldierly little figure of a man who bore a fine resemblance to missus blackett and who appeared to marshal us with perfect ease he was imperative enough
but with a grand military sort of courtesy and bore himself with solemn dignity of importance we were sorted out according to some clear design of his own and stood as speechless as a troop to await his orders
even the children were ready to march together a pretty flock and at the last moment missus blackett and a few distinguished companions the ministers and those who were very old came out of the house together and took their places
we ranked by fours and even then we made a long procession there was a wide path mowed for us across the field and as we moved along
the birds flew up out of the thick second crop of clover and the bees hummed
there was a flashing of white gulls over the water where the fleet of boats rode the low waves together in the cove swaying their small masts as if they kept time to our steps
yet still be heard we might have been a company of ancient greeks going to celebrate a victory or to worship the god of harvests in the grove above it was strangely moving to see this and to make part of it
the sky the sea have watched poor humanity at its rites so long we were no more a new england family celebrating its own existence and simple progress
we carried the tokens and inheritance of all such households from which this had descended and were only the latest of our line we possessed the instincts of a far forgotten childhood
i found myself thinking that we ought to be carrying green branches and singing as we went
there was a thick growth of dark pines and firs with an occasional maple or oak that gave a gleam of color like a bright window in the great roof on three sides we could see the water shining behind the tree trunks
and feel the cool salt breeze
just as the day reached its highest point of heat we could see the green sunlit field we had just crossed as if we looked out at it from a dark room
and the old house and its lilacs standing placidly in the sun and the great barn with a stockade of carriages from which two or three care taking men who had lingered were coming across the field together
missus todd had taken off her warm gloves and looked the picture of content there she exclaimed i've always meant to have you see this place but i never looked for such a beautiful opportunity
weather an occasion both made to match yes it suits me i don't ask no more i want to know if you saw mother walkin at the head it choked me right up to see mother at the head walkin with the ministers
turned away to hide the feelings she could not instantly control who was the marshal i hastened to ask was he an old soldier don't he do well answered missus todd with satisfaction
he don't often have such a chance to show off his gifts said missus caplin a friend from the landing who had joined us that's sant bowden he always takes the lead such days
good for nothing else most o his time trouble is he i turned with interest to hear the worst missus caplin's tone was both zealous and impressive stim'lates she explained scornfully
no santin never was in the war said missus todd with lofty indifference it was a cause of real distress to him he kep enlistin and traveled far an wide about here an even took the bo't
and went to boston to volunteer but he ain't a sound man an they wouldn't have him they say he knows all their tactics an can tell all about the battle o waterloo well's he can bunker hill
i told him once the country'd lost a great general an i meant it too i expect you're near right said missus caplin a little crestfallen and apologetic i be right insisted missus todd with much
amiability twas most too bad to cramp him down to his peaceful trade but he's a most excellent shoemaker at his best an he always says it's a trade that gives him time to think an plan his maneuvers
over to the port they always invite him to march decoration day same as the rest an he does look noble he comes of soldier stock
i had been noticing with great interest the curiously french type of face which prevailed in this rustic company i had said to myself before that missus blackett was plainly of french descent
in both her appearance and her charming gifts
on this northern coast of new england were of huguenot blood and that it is the norman englishman not the saxon who goes adventuring to a new world they used to say in old times said missus todd modestly
that our family came of very high folks in france and one of em was a great general in some o the old wars i sometimes think that santin's ability has come way down from then tain't nothin he's ever acquired
twas born in him i don't know's he ever saw a fine parade or met with those that studied up such things he's figured it all out an got his papers so he knows how to aim a cannon
right for william's fish house five miles out on green island or up there on burnt island where the signal is he had it all over to me one day an i tried hard to appear interested his life's all in it
but he will have those poor gloomy spells come over him now an then an then he has to drink missus caplin gave a heavy sigh there's a great many such strayaway folks
just as there is plants continued missus todd who was nothing if not botanical i know of just one sprig of laurel that grows over back here in a wild spot
an i never could hear of no other on this coast i had a large bunch brought me once from massachusetts way so i know it this piece grows in an open spot where you'd think twould do well but it's sort o poor lookin
i've visited it time an again just to notice its poor blooms tis a real sant bowden out of its own place missus caplin looked bewildered and blank well all i know is
conference in platoons and got em all flustered up tryin to sense his ideas of a holler square she burst forth
and they'd been treated to a sermon on faith an works from old fayther harlow that never knows when to cease twa'n't no time for tactics then they wa'n't a'thinkin of the church military sant
he couldn't do nothin with em all he thinks of when he sees a crowd is how to march em tis all very well when he don't tempt too much he never did act like other folks
ain't i just been maintainin that he ain't like em urged missus todd decidedly strange folks has got to have strange ways for what i see
somebody observed once that you could pick out the likeness of most every sort of a foreigner when you looked about you in our parish said sister caplin her face brightening with sudden illumination i didn't see the bearin of it then quite so plain
i always did think mari harris resembled a chinee mari harris was pretty as a child i remember said the pleasant voice of missus blackett who after receiving the affectionate greetings of nearly the whole company
came to join us to see as she insisted that we were out of mischief yes mari was one o them pretty little lambs that make dreadful homely old sheep replied missus todd with energy cap'n littlepage
never'd look so disconsolate if she was any sort of a proper person to direct things she might divert him yes she might divert the old gentleman an let him think he had his own way stead o arguing everything down to the bare bone
twouldn't hurt her to sit down an hear his great stories once in a while the stories are very interesting i ventured to say yes you always catch yourself a thinkin what if they all was true and he had the right of it
answered missus todd he's a good sight better company though dreamy than such sordid creatur's as mari harris live and let live said dear old missus blackett gently i haven't seen the captain for a good while
she added wistfully we always have known each other why if it is a good pleasant day tomorrow
there they're callin out it's time to set the tables said missus caplin with great excitement here's cousin sarah jane blackett well i am pleased certain
exclaimed missus todd with unaffected delight and these kindred spirits met and parted with the promise of a good talk later on after this
there was no more time for conversation until we were seated in order at the long tables i'm one that always dreads seeing some o the folks that i don't like at such a time as this
after a season of reflection we were just waiting for the feast to begin
i remember the day i promised to nathan how it come over me
an it seemed as if die i should poor nathan saw somethin had crossed me he had very nice feelings
i told him i never could like her myself said he you sha'n't be bothered dear he says an twas one o the things that made me set a good deal by nathan
yes says i but think o thanksgivin times an funerals she's our relation an we've got to own her young folks don't think o those things
said missus todd with an alarming transition from general opinions to particular animosities i hate her just the same as i always did
i do try to remember that she's nathan's cousin oh dear well she's gone by after all an ain't seen me i expected she'd come pleasantin round just to show off an say afterwards she was acquainted
this was so different from missus todd's usual largeness of mind that i had a moment's uneasiness but the cloud passed quickly over her spirit and was gone with the offender
there never was a more generous out of door feast along the coast then the bowden family set forth that day to call it a picnic would make it seem trivial
which the boys and girls made we brought flowers from the fence thickets of the great field and out of the disorder of flowers and provisions suddenly appeared as orderly a scheme for the feast as the marshal had shaped for the procession
i began to respect the bowdens for their inheritance of good taste and skill and a certain pleasing gift of formality something made them do all these things in a finer way than most country people would have done them
as i looked up and down the tables there was a good cheer a grave soberness that shone with pleasure a humble dignity of bearing there were some who should have sat below the salt for lack of this good breeding
but they were not many so i said to myself their ancestors may have sat in the great hall of some old french house in the middle ages when battles and sieges and processions and feasts
were familiar things the ministers and missus blackett with a few of their rank and age were put in places of honor and for once that i looked any other way i looked twice at missus blackett's face
serene and mindful of privilege and responsibility the mistress by simple fitness of this great day missus todd looked up at the roof of green trees and then carefully surveyed the company
i see em better now they're all settin down she said with satisfaction
i wish they were sittin with us they're not among folks they can parley with an they look disappointed as the feast went on the spirits of my companion steadily rose
the excitement of an unexpectedly great occasion was a subtle stimulant to her disposition and i could see that sometimes when missus todd had seemed limited and heavily domestic
she had simply grown sluggish for lack of proper surroundings she was not so much reminiscent now as expectant and as alert and gay as a girl we who were her neighbors were full of gayety
which was but the reflected light from her beaming countenance it was not the first time that i was full of wonder at the waste of human ability in this world as a botanist wonders at the wastefulness of nature the thousand seeds that die
the unused provision of every sort the reserve force of society grows more and more amazing to one's thought more than one face among the bowdens showed that only opportunity and stimulus were lacking
and held it captive one sees exactly the same types in a country gathering as in the most brilliant city company
william missus todd had taken the onion out of her basket and laid it down upon the kitchen table there's johnny bowden come with us you know she reminded her mother he'll be hungry enough to eat his size
i've got new doughnuts dear said the little old lady
i expect you might have chose a somewhat larger fish but i'll try an make it do i shall have to have a few extra potatoes but there's a field full out there an the hoe's leanin against the well house
in mongst the climbin' beans she smiled
land sakes alive
insisted missus todd with some excitement
he'll know you need him for something particular an then we can call to him as he comes up the path i won't put him to no pain missus blackett's old face for the first time
wore a look of trouble and i found it necessary to counteract the teasing spirit of almira it was too pleasant to stay indoors altogether even in such rewarding companionship besides i might meet william
and straying out presently i found the hoe by the well house and an old splint basket at the woodshed door and also found my way down to the field where there was a great square patch of rough weedy potato tops and tall ragweed
one corner was already dug and i chose a fat looking hill where the tops were well withered there is all the pleasure that one can have in gold digging in finding one's hopes satisfied in the riches of a good hill of potatoes
i longed to go on but it did not seem frugal to dig any longer after my basket was full and at last i took my hoe by the middle and lifted the basket to go back up the hill
i was sure that missus blackett must be waiting impatiently to slice the potatoes into the chowder layer after layer with the fish you let me take holt o that basket ma'am said the pleasant anxious voice behind me i turned
startled in the silence of the wide field and saw an elderly man bent in the shoulders as fishermen often are gray headed and clean shaven and with a timid air it was william he looked just like his mother and i had been imagining
that he was large and stout like his sister almira todd and strange to say my fancy had led me to picture him not far from thirty and a little loutish it was necessary instead to pay william the respect due to age
i accustomed myself to plain facts on the instant and we said good morning like old friends the basket was really heavy and i put the hoe through its handle and offered him one end
then we moved easily toward the house together speaking of the fine weather and of mackerel which were reported to be striking in all about the bay william had been out since three o'clock and had taken an extra fare of fish
i could feel that missus todd's eyes were upon us as we approached the house and although i fell behind in the narrow path and let william take the basket alone and precede me at some little distance the rest of the way
i could plainly hear her greet him got round to comin in didn't you she inquired with amusement well now that's clever didn't know's i should see you to day william an i wanted to settle an account
i felt somewhat disturbed and responsible but when i joined them they were on most simple and friendly terms it became evident that with william it was the first step that cost and that having once joined in social interests
he was able to pursue them with more or less pleasure he was about sixty and not young looking for his years
has such a power of survival that i felt all the time as if one must try to make the occasion easy for some one who was young and new to the affairs of social life he asked politely if i would like to go up to the great ledge
while dinner was getting ready so not without a deep sense of pleasure and a delighted look of surprise from the two hostesses we started william and i as if both of us felt much younger than we looked
such was the innocence and simplicity of the moment that when i heard missus todd laughing behind us in the kitchen i laughed too but william did not even blush i think he was a little deaf and he stepped along
before me most businesslike and intent upon his errand we went from the upper edge of the field above the house into a smooth brown path among the dark spruces the hot sun brought out the fragrance of the pitchy bark
and the shade was pleasant as we climbed the hill william stopped once or twice to show me a great wasps' nest close by or some fishhawks' nests below in a bit of swamp
he picked a few sprigs of late blooming linnaea as we came out upon an open bit of pasture at the top of the island and gave them to me without speaking but he knew as well as i that one could not say half he wished about linnaea
through this piece of rough pasture ran a huge shape of stone like the great backbone of an enormous creature at the end near the woods we could climb up on it and walk along to the highest point
chapter eight we passed a few sad hours until eleven o'clock when the trial was to commence my father and the rest of the family being obliged to attend as witnesses i accompanied them to the court
the other far more dreadfully murdered with every aggravation of infamy that could make the murder memorable in horror justine also was a girl of merit and possessed qualities which promised to render her life happy now
in an ignominious grave and i the cause a thousand times rather would i have confessed myself guilty of the crime ascribed to justine but i was absent when it was committed and such a declaration would have been considered as the ravings of a madman
the appearance of justine was calm she was dressed in mourning and her countenance always engaging was rendered by the solemnity of her feelings exquisitely beautiful
yet she appeared confident in innocence and did not tremble although gazed on and execrated by thousands for all the kindness which her beauty might otherwise have excited was obliterated in the minds of the spectators
she worked up her mind to an appearance of courage when she entered the court she threw her eyes round it and quickly discovered where we were seated a tear seemed to dim her eye when she saw us but she quickly recovered herself
and a look of sorrowful affection seemed to attest her utter guiltlessness the trial began and after the advocate against her had stated the charge several witnesses were called several strange facts combined against her
which might have staggered anyone who had not such proof of her innocence as i had she had been out the whole of the night on which the murder had been committed and towards morning had been perceived by a market woman
not far from the spot where the body of the murdered child had been afterwards found the woman asked her what she did there but she looked very strangely and only returned a confused and unintelligible answer she returned to the house about eight o'clock
and when one inquired where she had passed the night she replied that she had been looking for the child and demanded earnestly if anything had been heard concerning him when shown the body she fell into violent hysterics and kept her bed for several days
the picture was then produced which the servant had found in her pocket and when elizabeth in a faltering voice proved that it was the same which an hour before the child had been missed she had placed round his neck
a murmur of horror and indignation filled the court justine was called on for her defence as the trial had proceeded her countenance had altered surprise
horror and misery were strongly expressed sometimes she struggled with her tears but when she was desired to plead she collected her powers and spoke in an audible
god knows she said how entirely i am innocent but i do not pretend that my protestations should acquit me
i rest my innocence on a plain and simple explanation of the facts which have been adduced against me and i hope the character i have always borne will incline my judges to a favourable interpretation where any circumstance appears doubtful or suspicious
she then related that by the permission of elizabeth she had passed the evening of the night on which the murder had been committed at the house of an aunt at chene
belonging to a cottage being unwilling to call up the inhabitants to whom she was well known most of the night she spent here watching towards morning she believed that she slept for a few minutes some steps disturbed her and she awoke
it was dawn and she quitted her asylum that she might again endeavour to find my brother if she had gone near the spot where his body lay it was without her knowledge that she had been bewildered when questioned by the market woman was not surprising
how heavily and fatally this one circumstance weighs against me but i have no power of explaining it and when i have expressed my utter ignorance i am only left to conjecture concerning the probabilities by which it might have been placed in my pocket
but here also i am checked i believe that i have no enemy on earth and none surely would have been so wicked as to destroy me wantonly did the murderer place it there i know of no opportunity afforded him for so doing
or if i had why should he have stolen the jewel to part with it again so soon i commit my cause to the justice of my judges yet i see no room for hope
i beg permission to have a few witnesses examined concerning my character and if their testimony shall not overweigh my supposed guilt i must be condemned although i would pledge my salvation on my innocence
several witnesses were called who had known her for many years and they spoke well of her but fear and hatred of the crime of which they supposed her guilty rendered them timorous and unwilling to come forward
elizabeth saw even this last resource her excellent dispositions and irreproachable conduct about to fail the accused when although violently agitated she desired permission to address the court
i am said she the cousin of the unhappy child who was murdered or rather his sister for i was educated by and have lived with his parents ever since and even long before his birth it may therefore be
judged indecent in me to come forward on this occasion but when i see a fellow creature about to perish through the cowardice of her pretended friends i wish to be allowed to speak that i may say what i know of her character
i am well acquainted with the accused i have lived in the same house with her at one time for five and at another for nearly two years during all that period she appeared to me the most amiable and benevolent of human creatures
she nursed madame frankenstein my aunt in her last illness with the greatest affection and care and afterwards attended her own mother during a tedious illness in a manner that excited the admiration of all who knew her
that notwithstanding all the evidence produced against her i believe and rely on her perfect innocence she had no temptation for such an action as to the bauble on which the chief proof rests
i should have willingly given it to her so much do i esteem and value her a murmur of approbation followed elizabeth's simple and powerful appeal but it was excited by her generous interference and not in favour of poor justine
on whom the public indignation was turned with renewed violence charging her with the blackest ingratitude she herself wept as elizabeth spoke but she did not answer my own agitation and anguish was extreme during the whole trial
i believed in her innocence i knew it could the demon who had
had already condemned my unhappy victim i rushed out of the court in agony the tortures of the accused did not equal mine she was sustained by innocence but the fangs of remorse tore my bosom and would not forgo their hold
i passed a night of unmingled wretchedness in the morning i went to the court my lips and throat were parched i dared not ask the fatal question but i was known
and the officer guessed the cause of my visit the ballots had been thrown they were all black and justine was condemned i cannot pretend to describe what i then felt i had before experienced sensations of horror
but words cannot convey an idea of the heart sickening despair that i then endured the person to whom i addressed myself added that justine had already confessed her guilt that evidence he observed
was hardly required in so glaring a case but i am glad of it and indeed none of our judges like to condemn a criminal upon circumstantial evidence be it ever so decisive this was strange and unexpected intelligence
what could it mean had my eyes deceived me and was i really as mad as the whole world would believe me to be if i disclosed the object of my suspicions i hastened to return home and elizabeth eagerly demanded the result
my cousin replied i it is decided as you may have expected all judges had rather that ten innocent should suffer than that one guilty should escape but she has confessed
this was a dire blow to poor elizabeth
alas said she how shall i ever again believe in human goodness justine whom i loved and esteemed as my sister how could she put on those smiles of innocence only to betray her mild eyes seemed incapable of any severity or guile
and yet she has committed a murder soon after we heard that the poor victim had expressed a desire to see my cousin my father wished her not to go but said that he left it to her own judgment and feelings to decide
yes said elizabeth i will go although she is guilty and you victor shall accompany me i cannot go alone the idea of this visit was torture to me yet i could not refuse
she threw herself at the feet of elizabeth weeping bitterly my cousin wept also oh justine said she why did you rob me of my last consolation i relied on your innocence and although i was then very wretched
i was not so miserable as i am now and do you also believe that i am so very very wicked do you also join with my enemies to crush me to condemn me as a murderer her voice was suffocated with sobs
rise my poor girl said elizabeth why do you kneel if you are innocent i am not one of your enemies i believed you guiltless notwithstanding every evidence until i heard that you had yourself declared your guilt
that report you say is false and be assured dear justine that nothing can shake my confidence in you for a moment but your own confession i did confess but i confessed a lie
i confessed that i might obtain absolution but now that falsehood lies heavier at my heart than all my other sins the god of heaven forgive me ever since i was condemned my confessor has besieged me
he threatened and menaced until i almost began to think that i was the monster that he said i was he threatened excommunication and hell fire in my last moments if i continued obdurate
all looked on me as a wretch doomed to ignominy and perdition what could i do in an evil hour i subscribed to a lie and now only am i truly miserable she paused weeping
and then continued i thought with horror my sweet lady
and whom you loved was a creature capable of a crime which none but the devil himself could have perpetrated dear william
i soon shall see you again in heaven where we shall all be happy and that consoles me going as i am to suffer ignominy and death oh justine
forgive me for having for one moment distrusted you why did you confess but do not mourn dear girl do not fear i will proclaim i will prove your innocence i will melt the stony hearts of your enemies
by my tears and prayers you shall not die you my playfellow my companion
justine shook her head mournfully i do not fear to die she said that pang is past god raises my weakness and gives me courage to endure the worst
during this conversation i had retired to a corner of the prison room where i could conceal the horrid anguish that possessed me despair who dared talk of that
the poor victim who on the morrow was to pass the awful boundary between life and death felt not as i did such deep and bitter agony i gnashed my teeth and ground them together
justine started when she saw who it was she approached me and said dear sir
i could not answer no justine said elizabeth he is more convinced of your innocence than i was for even when he heard that you had confessed he did not credit it i truly thank him
in these last moments i feel the sincerest gratitude towards those who think of me with kindness how sweet is the affection of others to such a wretch as i am it removes more than half my misfortune
and i feel as if i could die in peace now that my innocence is acknowledged by you dear lady and your cousin thus the poor sufferer tried to comfort others and herself
she indeed gained the resignation she desired but i the true murderer felt the never dying worm alive in my bosom which allowed of no hope or consolation elizabeth also wept and was unhappy
i bore a hell within me which nothing could extinguish we stayed several hours with justine and it was with great difficulty that elizabeth could tear herself away i wish cried she that i were to die with you
i cannot live in this world of misery justine assumed an air of cheerfulness while she with difficulty repressed her bitter tears she embraced elizabeth and said in a voice of half suppressed emotion
farewell sweet lady dearest elizabeth my beloved and only friend may heaven in its bounty bless and preserve you may this be the last misfortune that you will ever suffer live and be happy
and make others so and on the morrow justine died elizabeth's heart rending eloquence failed to move the judges from their settled conviction in the criminality of the saintly sufferer
and heard the harsh unfeeling reasoning of these men my purposed avowal died away on my lips thus i might proclaim myself a madman but not revoke the sentence passed upon my wretched victim she perished on the scaffold
as a murderess from the tortures of my own heart i turned to contemplate the deep and voiceless grief of my elizabeth this also was my doing and my father's woe and the desolation of that late so smiling home
all was the work of my thrice accursed hands ye weep unhappy ones but these are not your last tears again shall you raise the funeral wail and the sound of your lamentations shall again and again be heard frankenstein
he who would spend each vital drop of blood for your sakes who has no thought nor sense of joy except as it is mirrored also in your dear countenances who would fill the air with blessings and spend his life in serving you he bids you weep
to shed countless tears happy beyond his hopes if thus inexorable fate be satisfied and if the destruction pause before the peace of the grave have succeeded to your sad torments
thus spoke my prophetic soul as torn by remorse horror and despair i beheld those i loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of william and justine
my dear victor you have probably waited impatiently for a letter to fix the date of your return to us and i was at first tempted to write only a few lines merely mentioning the day on which i should expect you
victor he is murdered i will not attempt to console you but will simply relate the circumstances of the transaction last thursday may seventh i my niece and your two brothers went to walk in plainpalais
who had gone on before were not to be found we accordingly rested on a seat until they should return presently ernest came and enquired if we had seen his brother he said that he had been playing with him
that william had run away to hide himself and that he vainly sought for him
but that he did not return this account
when elizabeth conjectured that he might have returned to the house he was not there we returned again with torches for i could not rest when i thought that my sweet boy had lost himself and was exposed to all the damps and dews of night
elizabeth also suffered extreme anguish about five in the morning i discovered my lovely boy whom the night before i had seen blooming and active in health stretched on the grass livid and motionless
i attempted to prevent her but she persisted and entering the room where it lay hastily examined the neck of the victim and clasping her hands exclaimed o god i have murdered my darling child she fainted and was restored with extreme difficulty
when she again lived it was only to weep and sigh she told me that that same evening william had teased her to let him wear a very valuable miniature that she possessed of your mother this picture is gone
you alone can console elizabeth she weeps continually and accuses herself unjustly as the cause of his death her words pierce my heart we are all unhappy but will not that be an additional motive for you my son to return and be our comforter
but with feelings of peace and gentleness that will heal instead of festering the wounds of our minds enter the house of mourning my friend but with kindness and affection for those who love you and not with hatred for your enemies
your affectionate and afflicted father alphonse frankenstein geneva may twelfth
clerval who had watched my countenance as i read this letter was surprised to observe the despair that succeeded the joy i at first expressed on receiving new from my friends
your disaster is irreparable
to go instantly to geneva come with me henry to order the horses during our walk clerval endeavoured to say a few words of consolation he could only express his heartfelt sympathy poor william said he dear lovely child
he now sleeps with his angel mother who that had seen him bright and joyous in his young beauty but must weep over his untimely loss to die so miserably to feel the murderer's grasp how much more a murdered that could destroy radiant innocence poor little fellow
one only consolation have we his friends mourn and weep but he is at rest the pang is over his sufferings are at an end for ever a sod covers his gentle form and he knows no pain he can no longer be a subject for pity
we must reserve that for his miserable survivors clerval spoke thus as we hurried through the streets the words impressed themselves on my mind and i remembered them afterwards in solitude but now as soon as the horses arrived
i hurried into a cabriolet and bade farewell to my friend my journey was very melancholy at first i wished to hurry on for i longed to console and sympathise with my loved and sorrowing friends but when i drew near my native town
i slackened my progress i could hardly sustain the multitude of feelings that crowded into my mind i passed through scenes familiar to my youth but which i had not seen for nearly six years how altered every thing might be during that time
i remained two days at lausanne
i contemplated the lake the waters were placid all around was calm and the snowy mountains the palaces of nature were not changed by degrees the calm and heavenly scene restored me and i continued my journey towards geneva
the road ran by the side of the lake which became narrower as i approached my native town i discovered more distinctly the black sides of jura and the
i wept like a child dear mountains my own beautiful lake how do you welcome your wanderer your summits are clear the sky and lake are blue and placid is this to prognosticate peace or to mock at my unhappiness
i fear my friend that i shall render myself tedious by dwelling on these preliminary circumstances but they were days of comparative happiness and i think of them with pleasure my country my beloved country
who but a native can tell the delight i took in again beholding thy streams thy mountains and more than all thy lovely lake yet as i drew nearer home grief and fear again overcame me
night also closed around and when i could hardly see the dark mountains i felt still more gloomily the picture appeared a vast and dim scene of evil and i foresaw obscurely that i was destined to become the most wretched of human beings
alas i prophesied truly and failed only in one single circumstance that in all the misery i imagined and dreaded i did not conceive the hundredth part of the anguish i was destined to endure
a village at the distance of half a league from the city the sky was serene and as i was unable to rest i resolved to visit the spot where my poor william had been murdered as i could not pass through the town i was obliged to cross the lake in a boat to arrive at plainpalais
the storm appeared to approach rapidly and on landing i ascended a low hill that i might observe its progress it advanced the heavens were clouded and i soon felt the rain coming slowly in large drops but its violence quickly increased
i quitted my seat and walked on although the darkness and storm increased every minute and the thunder burst with a terrific crash over my head it was echoed from saleve the juras and the alps of savoy
until the eye recovered itself from the preceding flash the storm as is often the case in switzerland appeared at once in various parts of the heavens the most violent storm hung exactly north of the town over the part of the lake which lies between the promontory of belrive
i wandered on with a hasty step this noble war in the sky elevated my spirits i clasped my hands and exclaimed aloud william dear angel
its gigantic stature and the deformity of its aspect more hideous than belongs to humanity instantly informed me that it was the wretch the filthy daemon to whom i had given life what did he there
the murderer of my brother no sooner did that idea cross my imagination than i became convinced of its truth my teeth chattered and i was forced to lean against a tree for support the figure passed me quickly and i lost it in the gloom
nothing in human shape could have destroyed the fair child he was the murderer i could not doubt it the mere presence of the idea was an irresistible proof of the fact i thought of pursuing the devil
but it would have been in vain for another flash discovered him to me hanging among the rocks of the nearly perpendicular ascent
a hill that bounds plainpalais on the south he soon reached the summit and disappeared i remained motionless the thunder ceased
but the rain still continued and the scene was enveloped in an impenetrable darkness i revolved in my mind the events which i had until now sought to forget the whole train of my progress toward the creation the appearance of the works of my own hands at my bedside
its departure two years had now nearly elapsed since the night on which he first received life and was this his first crime alas i had turned loose into the world a depraved wretch whose delight was in carnage and misery
had he not murdered my brother no one can conceive the anguish i suffered during the remainder of the night which i spent cold and wet in the open air but i did not feel the inconvenience of the weather
my own spirit let loose from the grave and forced to destroy all that was dear to me day dawned and i directed my steps towards the town the gates were open and i hastened to my father's house
my first thought was to discover what i knew of the murderer and cause instant pursuit to be made but i paused when i reflected on the story that i had to tell a being whom i myself had formed and endued with life
had met me at midnight among the precipices of an inaccessible mountain
and which would give an air of delirium to a tale otherwise so utterly improbable i well knew that if any other had communicated such a relation to me
besides the strange nature of the animal would elude all pursuit even if i were so far credited as to persuade my relatives to commence it and then of what use would be pursuit who could arrest a creature capable of scaling the overhanging sides of mont saleve
six years had elapsed passed in a dream but for one indelible trace and i stood in the same place where i had last embraced my father before my departure for ingolstadt beloved and venerable parent
which stood over the mantel piece it was an historical subject
and represented caroline beaufort in an agony of despair kneeling by the coffin of her dead father her garb was rustic and her cheek pale but there was an air of dignity and beauty that hardly permitted the sentiment of pity
below this picture was a miniature of william and my tears flowed when i looked upon it while i was thus engaged ernest entered
a sense of mortal agony crept over my frame before i had only imagined the wretchedness of my desolated home the reality came on me as a new and a not less terrible disaster i tried to calm ernest
i enquired more minutely concerning my father
she most of all said ernest requires consolation she accused herself of having caused the death of my brother and that made her very wretched but since the murderer has been discovered the murderer discovered good god how can that be
who could attempt to pursue him it is impossible one might as well try to overtake the winds or confine a mountain stream with a straw
i do not know what you mean replied my brother in accents of wonder but to us the discovery we have made completes our misery no one would believe it at first and even now elizabeth will not be convinced
notwithstanding all the evidence indeed who would credit that justine moritz who was so amiable and fond of all the family could suddenly become so capable of so frightful so appalling a crime justine moritz
the morning on which the murder of poor william had been discovered justine had been taken ill and confined to her bed for several days during this interval one of the servants happening to examine the apparel she had worn on the night of the murder
had discovered in her pocket the picture of my mother which had been judged to be the temptation of the murderer the servant instantly showed it to one of the others who without saying a word to any of the family went to a magistrate and upon their deposition justine was apprehended
i know the murderer justine poor good justine is innocent at that instant my father entered i saw unhappiness deeply impressed on his countenance but he endeavoured to welcome me cheerfully
and after we had exchanged our mournful greeting would have introduced some other topic than that of our disaster had not ernest exclaimed good god papa
we do also unfortunately replied my father for indeed i had rather have been for ever ignorant than have discovered so much depravity and ungratitude in one i valued so highly my dear father you are mistaken justine is innocent
and indeed every human being was guiltless of this murder i had no fear therefore that any circumstantial evidence could be brought forward strong enough to convict her my tale was not one to announce publicly its astounding horror would be looked upon as madness by the vulgar
there was the same candour the same vivacity but it was allied to an expression more full of sensibility and intellect she welcomed me with the greatest affection your arrival my dear cousin said she fills me with hope
you perhaps will find some means to justify my poor guiltless justine alas who is safe if she be convicted of crime i rely on her innocence as certainly as i do upon my own our misfortune is doubly hard to us
we have not only lost that lovely darling boy but this poor girl whom i sincerely love is to be torn away by even a worse fate if she is condemned i never shall know joy more but she will not i am sure she will not
and then i shall be happy again even after the sad death of my little william she is innocent my elizabeth said i and that shall be proved fear nothing but let your spirits be cheered by the assurance of her acquittal
how kind and generous you are every one else believes in her guilt
he obeyed the orders of his usurping partner because he was obliged to do so but he did not hate blackbeard any the less because he had to keep quiet about it he accompanied his pirate chief on various cruises
among which was the famous expedition to the harbor of charles town where blackbeard traded mister wragg and his companions
having a very fine fleet under him blackbeard did a very successful business for some time but feeling that he had earned enough for the present and that it was time for him to take one of his vacations
he put into an inlet in north carolina where he disbanded his crew so long as he was on shore spending his money and having a good time he did not want to have a lot of men about him who would look to him to support them
when they had spent their portion of the spoils having no further use for bonnet he dismissed him also and did not object to his resuming possession of his own vessel
if the green pirate chose to go to sea again and perhaps drown himself and his crew it was a matter of no concern to blackbeard but this was a matter of very great concern to stede bonnet
and he proceeded to prove that there were certain branches of the piratical business
he wished to go pirating again and saw a way of doing this which he thought would be far superior to any of the common methods it was about this time that king george of england
very desirous of breaking up piracy issued a proclamation in which he promised pardon to any pirate who would appear before the proper authorities renounce his evil practices and take an oath of allegiance
it also happened that very soon after this proclamation had been issued england went to war with spain being a man who kept himself posted in the news of the world so far as it was possible
bonnet saw in the present state of affairs a very good chance for him to play the part of a wolf in sheep's clothing
piratical career by renouncing piracy
took oaths and did everything that was necessary to change himself from a pirate captain to a respectable commander
he was a loyal and law abiding subject of great britain
for saint thomas which was a british naval station and where he declared he was going in order to obtain a commission as a privateer now the wily
of course it would not do for him in his present respectable capacity to go about enlisting unemployed pirates but at this point fortune again favored him
he knew of a desert island not very far away where blackbeard at the end of his last cruise had marooned a large party of his men this heartless pirate had not wanted to take all of his followers into port
to live or die as the case might be bonnet went over to this island and finding the greater part of these men still surviving he offered to take them to saint thomas in his vessel if they would agree to work
the ship to port this proposition was of course joyfully accepted and very soon the revenge was manned with a complete crew of competent desperadoes
and at last when everything was ready for bonnet to start out on his piratical cruise he received information which caused him to change his mind
whom he had never forgiven for the shameful and treacherous manner in which he had treated him was still on shore enjoying himself but he was told by the captain of a small trading vessel that the old pirate was preparing for another cruise
and that he was then in ocracoke inlet now bonnet folded his arms and stamped his feet upon the quarter deck the time had come for him to show that the name of his vessel meant something
never before had he had an opportunity for revenging himself on anybody but now that hour had arrived he would revenge himself upon blackbeard the implacable bonnet sailed out to sea
he was not going forth to prey upon unresisting merchantmen he was on his way to punish a black hearted pirate a faithless scoundrel who had not only acted
but had behaved most disloyally and disrespectfully toward a fellow pirate chief if he could once run the revenge alongside the ship of the perfidious blackbeard he would show him what a green hand could do
when bonnet reached ocracoke inlet he was deeply disappointed to find that
but he did not give up the pursuit he made hot chase after the vessel of his pirate enemy keeping a sharp lookout in hopes of discovering some signs of him if the enraged bonnet
of two atrocious villains and captain maynard would have been deprived of the honor of having slain the most famous pirate of the day
and although he could not sail a ship he understood the use of the sword even better perhaps than blackbeard and there is good reason to believe that if the two ships had come together their respective crews
would have allowed their captains to fight out their private quarrel without interference for pirates delight in a bloody spectacle and this would have been to them a rare diversion of the kind
but bonnet never overtook blackbeard and the great combat between the rival pirates did not take place
for a trace or sight of blackbeard the baffled bonnet gave up the pursuit
the first thing he did was to change the name of his vessel if he could not be revenged he would not sail in the revenge casting about in his mind for a good name he decided to call her the royal james
having no intention of respecting his oaths or of keeping his promises he thought that as he was going to be disloyal he might as well be as disloyal
by the son of james the second who was a pretender to the throne
the next thing he did was to change his own name for he thought this would make matters better for him if he should be captured after entering upon his new criminal career so he called himself
captain thomas by which name he was afterwards known when these preliminaries had been arranged he gathered his crew together and announced that instead of going to saint thomas
to get a commission as a privateer he had determined to keep on in his old manner of life and that he wished them to understand that not only was he a pirate captain but that they were a pirate crew
a very natural thing for the green hand bonnet to give up pirating after he had been so thoroughly snubbed by blackbeard and they had not supposed that he would ever think again of sailing under a black flag
however the crew's opinion of the green hand captain had been a good deal changed in his various cruises
and could now give very fair orders and his furious pursuit of blackbeard had also given him a reputation for reckless bravery which he had not enjoyed before a man who was
chafing and fuming for a chance of a hand to hand conflict with the greatest pirate of the day
from their point of view moreover their strutting and stalking captain so recently balked of his dark revenge was a very savage looking man and it would not be pleasant either
to try to persuade him to give up his piratical intention or to decline to join him in carrying it out so the whole of the crew minor officers and men changed their minds about going to saint thomas
and agreed to hoist the skull and cross bones and to follow captain bonnet wherever he might lead bonnet now cruised about in grand style and took some prizes
on the virginia coast and then went up into delaware bay where he captured such ships as he wanted and acted generally in the most domineering and insolent fashion once when he stopped near the town of lewes
in order to send some prisoners ashore he sent a message to the officers of the town to the effect that if they interfered with his men when they came ashore he would open fire upon the town with his cannon
and blow every house into splinters of course the citizens having no way of defending themselves were obliged to allow the pirates to come on shore and depart unmolested
then after this the blustering captain captured two valuable sloops and wishing to take them along with him without the trouble of transferring their cargoes to his own vessel
he left their crews on board and ordered them to follow him wherever he went some days after that when one of the vessels seemed to be sailing at too great a distance bonnet quickly let her captain know
that he was not a man to be trifled with and sent him the message that if he did not keep close to the royal james he would fire into him and sink him to the bottom
after a time bonnet put into a north carolina port in order to repair the royal james which was becoming very leaky and seeing no immediate legitimate way of getting planks and beams
enough with which to make the necessary repairs he captured a small sloop belonging in the neighborhood and broke it up in order to get the material he needed to make his own vessel seaworthy
now the people of the north carolina coast very seldom interfered with pirates as we have seen and it is likely that bonnet might have stayed in port as long as he pleased and repaired and refitted
his vessel without molestation if he had bought and paid for the planks and timber he required but when it came to boldly seizing their property
and complaints of bonnet's behavior spread from settlement to settlement and it very soon became known all down the coast that there was a pirate in north carolina who was committing depredations
there and was preparing to set out on a fresh cruise
it had not been long since blackbeard had visited their harbor and had treated them with such brutal insolence
could prevent another visitation of the pirates that effort should be made
be sent out to meet the pirates who were coming down the coast
but the ocean with its ceaseless motion its wonderful rising and falling of the tides and its constant and mysterious moaning is not to be outdone in sublimity and offers a keen delight
to the lover of nature its sands and waters are ever changing its rugged coast with rocks scattered in wild profusion is one of the most interesting spots in all the world
a piece of wreckage is thrown upon the beach and you wonder what dire disaster happened far out at sea and if the rest of the ship went to the bottom with all on board
but take it home let it dry in the sun then place it on your open grate fire and as you watch the iridescent blaze curl up the chimney dream dreams and weave strange fancies
in the light of your driftwood fire a day at the seashore is one of pleasure a delightful change from woods and uplands to rocks and rushing waters
some prefer the smooth stretch of sandy beach where one may lie at luxurious ease in the warm sand and listen to the waves lapping along shore or discarding shoes and stockings
wade out until the white capped waves like policemen drive you back from encroaching upon old neptune's domain but we prefer the rocky cliffs combined with the sandy beach
and such a place is land's end near the golden gate in san francisco we started down the steep incline strewn with jagged rocks
to follow the narrow path along the cliffs but our outing was marred by meeting two men toiling up the path along the narrow way carrying an unfortunate sightseer who had ventured too near the edge of the cliff
and fallen into the ocean only the prompt action of a friend who scrambled down the rocks at the risk of his life saved him
judging by his agonizing groans but the ambulance officers had been summoned and the unfortunate sufferer was cared for at the hospital the incident served to make us more careful and at the narrowest place
for the rocks below rose up like dragon's teeth ready to impale us if we should make a false step
haunted us like a specter the path along the ocean is a narrow and tortuous one running about halfway between the water and the top of the cliff great granite rocks rise up like giants
is a deep dark cavern evidently worn by the action of the waves that have pounded against it for centuries looking out upon the ocean we see a wave mightier than all the others
sweeping onward as if challenging the rocks to mortal combat its mighty curving crest white and seething with foam
but fortune favored us and the much desired picture was secured but thus will men gamble with death to gratify a whim for a false step or sudden vertigo
would have sent us crashing on to the jagged rocks below overhead the sea gulls beat the air on tireless wings or skim close to the water intent upon their ceaseless search for food
far out the lighthouse stands anchored to the rocks the waves dashing against it as if to tear it from its firm foundation but it defies them all and sends the cheery beacon light
to guide the stately ships between the portals of the golden gate directly opposite the white buildings of point bonita
stand out against the green of the hills strongly fortified and ready at all times
against warlike intruders two hardy fishermen have ventured out at low tide to a large rock and are casting their lines into the boiling waters for rock cod or porgies
while the italian fishing boats with their queer striped sails form a striking contrast to the massive steamboats with smoke trailing from their twin funnels that are outward bound for china or japan
farther on where the rocks descend to the sea level we roam the beach and gather sea shells starfish and sea urchins and by a shallow pool we stop to watch the scarlet
waving back and forth with the action of the tide barnacles cover the top of every rock that the tide reaches and the long blackish snakelike seaweed is strewn along the beach
we watch the tide come creeping in each succeeding wave running a little farther up the beach and driving us back with relentless energy from its rightful possessions
the sun sinks down in golden splendor behind the ocean's rim leaving a track of molten gold that tips
we turn our faces homeward
i am told by one who ought to know for he is an old resident that if you follow its tortuous course far enough it will lead you to a town called
a weather beaten cottage nearly hidden by the pepper and acacia trees that surround it
to write that beautiful poem containing the lines let me live in a house by the side of the road and be a friend to man for the cooling draught passed out to me one hot afternoon from this house
would certainly class the occupant as a benefactor the dew was sparkling on the grass when i set out in the early morning gossamer spider webs strung from leaf and stem
glistened in the sunlight and up from a tuft of grass a meadow lark sprang on silent wing scattering his silvery notes a paean of praise to the early dawn
a bluebird's notes blend with those of the song sparrow and a robin swinging on the topmost branch of a eucalyptus after a few short notes
pours forth a perfect rhapsody of melody at this place a hill encroaches upon the road at the right covered thickly with underbrush and blackberry vines its crest
surmounted with a stately grove of eucalyptus trees while on the left there is an almost perpendicular drop to the valley below so narrow is the road that teams can hardly pass each other
why it should crowd itself into such narrow quarters when there is room to spare
nod to it from the meadow and the lavender snap dragons wave their threadlike fingers in silent greeting tall stately teasels stand like sentinels along the way
and the balsamic tarweed spreads its fragrance along the outer edge threading its way down a steep hill
through a wealth of tangled grasses past a grove of live oaks from whose twisted and contorted limbs the gray moss hangs in long festoons by indian paintbrush
gleaming like sparks of fire amid the green and bronze foliage it glides at last into a somber canon
there a bridge spans the brook that gurgles its elfin song to cheer the dusty traveler on its way the laurel madrone and manzanitas
running the whole gamut of tones from treble to bass hidden away amid the water grasses darning needles dodge in and out among the rushes in erratic flight and a blackbird teeters up and down
on a tulle stem while repeating over and over his pleasant
but the road does not stop to look or listen and once more it climbs the hill where the golden poppy basks in the sunshine and the dandelions spread their yellow carpet for it to pass over
or nodding silken heads scatter their tiny fleet of a hundred fairy balloons upon the wings of the summer winds down the road whistling blithely comes a slip of a boy
with fishing rod cut from the adjacent thicket over his shoulder and a can of bait tucked securely under his arm happy as a king in anticipation of the fish he may never catch at his heels trots
contentedly a yellow dog true companions of the highway are they for no country road would be complete without its boy and dog and as i pass them i call back good luck my doughty fisherman
and the road answers
good luck good luck
and hillside the soft light of evening touches the tops of tree and shrub with a rosy splendor
to gold from gold to purple and through the gathering dusk the road sinks into the surrounding gloom
with an account of his surprising the fort at gambia davis was born in monmouthshire and from a boy trained to the sea
this vessel was captured by the pirate england upon the guinea coast whose companions plundered the crew and murdered the captain as is related in england's life upon the death of captain skinner
davis pretended that he was urged by england to become a pirate but that he resolutely refused he added that england pleased with his conduct had made him captain in room of skinner
giving him a sealed paper which he was not to open until he was in a certain latitude and then expressly to follow the given directions when he arrived in the appointed place he collected the whole crew
and his crew requesting them to go to brazil and dispose of the cargo to the best advantage and make an equal division of the money davis then commanded the crew to signify whether they were inclined to follow that mode of life when
to his astonishment and chagrin the majority positively refused then in a transport of rage he desired them to go where they would knowing that part of the cargo was consigned to merchants in barbadoes
they directed their course to that place when arrived there they informed the merchants of the unfortunate death of skinner and of the proposal which had been made to them
davis was accordingly seized and committed to prison but he having never been in the pirate service nothing could be proved to condemn him and he was discharged without a trial
convinced that he could never hope for employment in that quarter after this detection he went to the island of providence which he knew to be a rendezvous for pirates
he was grievously disappointed because the pirates who frequented that place had just accepted of his majesty's pardon and had surrendered
davis obtained employment in one of these called the buck they were laden with european goods to a considerable value which they were to sell or exchange with the french and spanish they first touched at the island of martinique belonging to the french
and davis knowing that many of the men were formerly in the pirate service enticed them to seize the master and to run off with the sloop when they had effected their purpose
and coming to the greater part joined davis those who did not choose to adhere to them
after davis had pillaged her of what things he pleased in full possession of the vessel and stores and goods a large bowl of punch was made under its exhilarating influence it was proposed to choose a commander and to form their future mode of policy
the election was soon over and a large majority of legal votes were in favor of davis and no scrutiny demanded davis was declared duly elected he then drew up a code of laws to which he himself swore
he then addressed them in a short and appropriate speech the substance of which was a proclamation of war with the whole world they next consulted what part would be most convenient to clean the vessel
and it was resolved to repair to coxon's hole at the east end of the island of cuba where they could remain in perfect security as the entrance was so narrow that one ship could keep out a hundred
they however had no small difficulty in cleaning their vessel as there was no carpenter among them they performed that laborious task in the best manner they could and then made to the north side of hispaniola
the first sail they met with was a french ship of twelve guns which they captured and while they were plundering her another appeared in view
davis proposed to his crew to attack her assuring them that she would prove a rich prize this appeared to the crew such a hazardous enterprise that they were rather adverse to the measure
but he acquainted them that he had conceived a stratagem that he was confident would succeed they might therefore safely leave the matter to his management he then commenced chase and ordered his prize to do the same being a better sailer
he soon came up with the enemy and showed his black colors with no small surprise at his insolence in coming so near them they commanded him to strike he replied that he was disposed to give them employment until his companion came up who was able to contend with them
meanwhile assuring them that if they did not strike to him it would most certainly fare the worse for them then giving them a broadside he received the same in return when the other pirate ship drew near they
and struck davis ordered the captain with twenty of his men to come on board and they were all put in irons except the captain
at the same time he gave them a written paper with their proper instructions
and to go every man on board the new prize when his men were on board her
during three days these three vessels sailed in company but finding that his late prize was a heavy sailer he emptied her of everything that he stood in need of and then restored her to the captain with all his men
the french captain was so much enraged at being thus miserably deceived
had not his men prevented him captain davis then formed the resolution of parting with the other prize ship also and
he next directed his course towards the western islands and from cape de verd islands cast anchor at saint nicholas and hoisted english colors the portuguese supposed that he was a privateer and davis going on shore was hospitably received
he remained here five weeks and he and half of his crew visited the principal town of the island davis from his appearing in the dress of a gentleman was greatly caressed by the portuguese
and nothing was spared to entertain and render him and his men happy having amused themselves during a week they returned to the ship and allowed the other half of the crew to visit the capital and enjoy themselves in like manner
upon their return they cleaned their ship and put to sea
that they remained in the island and one of them married and settled there davis now sailed for bonavista and perceiving nothing in that harbor steered for the isle of may
he also received a considerable reinforcement of men the greater part of whom entered willingly into the piratical service he likewise made free with one of the ships equipped her for his own purpose and called her the king james
and expressed his suspicion of their being pirates upon this davis seemed highly affronted and expressed his displeasure in the most polite but determined manner he however hastened on board
accordingly all his men being well armed they advanced to the assault and from the carelessness of the guards they were in the garrison before the inhabitants were alarmed upon the discovery of their danger they took shelter in the governor's house
and fortified it against the pirates but the latter throwing in some grando shells ruined the furniture and killed several people the alarm was circulated in the morning and the country assembled to attack them
but unwilling to stand a siege the pirates dismounted the guns pillaged the fort and fled to their ships
and were divided in opinion but by a majority it was carried to sail for gambia on the coast of guinea of this opinion was the captain
who having been employed in that trade was acquainted with the coast and informed his companions that there was always a large quantity of money deposited in that castle and he was confident if the matter was entrusted to him he should successfully storm that fort
from their experience of his former prudence and courage they cheerfully submitted to his direction in the full assurance of success arrived at gambia he ordered all his men below except just so many as were necessary to work the vessel
that those from the fort seeing so few hands might have no suspicion that she was any other than a trading vessel
on assembling at the residence indicated the tchinovniks had occasion to remark that owing to all these cares and excitements every one of their number had grown thinner yes the appointment of a new governor general coupled with the rumours described
and the reception of the two serious documents above mentioned had left manifest traces upon the features of every one present more than one frockcoat had come to look too large for its wearer and more than one frame had fallen away
the director of the medical department and the public prosecutor even a certain semen ivanovitch who for some reason or another was never alluded to by his family name but who wore on his index finger a ring with which he was accustomed to dazzle his lady friends
had diminished in bulk yet as always happens at such junctures there were also present a score of brazen individuals who had succeeded in not losing their presence of mind even though they constituted a mere sprinkling of them
the postmaster formed one since he was a man of equable temperament who could always say we know you governor generals we have seen three or four of you come and go whereas we have been sitting on the same stools these thirty years nevertheless
a prominent feature of the gathering was the total absence of what is vulgarly known as common sense in general we russians do not make a good show at representative assemblies for the reason that unless there be in authority a leading spirit to control the rest
the affair always develops into confusion why this should be so one could hardly say but at all events a success is scored only by such gatherings as have for their object dining and festivity to wit
gatherings at clubs or in german run restaurants however on the present occasion the meeting was not one of this kind it was a meeting convoked of necessity and likely in view of the threatened calamity to affect every tchinovnik in the place
also in addition to the great divergency of views expressed thereat there was visible in all the speakers an invincible tendency to indecision which led them at one moment to make assertions
but on at least one point all seemed to agree namely that chichikov's appearance and conversation were too respectable for him to be a forger or a disguised brigand that is to say all seemed to agree on the point
until a sudden shout arose from the direction of the postmaster who for some time past had been sitting plunged in thought i can tell you he cried who chichikov is who then replied the crowd in great excitement
he is none other than captain kopeikin and who may captain kopeikin be taking a pinch of snuff
which he did with the lid of his snuff box half open lest some extraneous person should contrive to insert a not over clean finger into the stuff the postmaster related the following story
there was sent home wounded a certain captain kopeikin a headstrong lively blade who whether on duty or under arrest made things lively for everybody now
he set out to see his father unfortunately his father could only just support himself and was forced to tell his son so
and had lost much blood in its service
on a baggage waggon in the capital which is like no other city in the world before him there lay spread out the whole field of life like a sort of arabian nights a picture made up of the nevski prospect gorokhovaia street
countless tapering spires and a number of bridges apparently supported on nothing in fact a regular second nineveh well he made shift to hire a lodging but found everything so wonderfully furnished with blinds and persian carpets and so forth
true as one walks the streets of saint petersburg one seems to smell money by the thousand roubles but our friend kopeikin's bank was limited to a few score coppers and a little silver not enough to buy a village with at length
at the price of a rouble a day he obtained a lodging in the sort of tavern where the daily ration is a bowl of cabbage soup and a crust of bread and as he felt that he could not manage to live very long on fare of that kind he asked folk what he had better do
what you had better do they said well the government is not here it is in paris and the troops have not yet returned from the war but there is a temporary commission sitting and you had better go and see what it can do for you all right he said
and he got up early one morning and shaved himself with his left hand
and set out wooden leg and all to see the president of the commission but first he asked where the president lived and was told that his house was in naberezhnaia street and you may be sure that it was no peasant's hut
a fellow looking like a fat over fed pug dog however friend kopeikin managed to get himself and his wooden leg into the reception room and there squeezed himself away into a corner for fear lest he should knock down the gilded china with his elbow
and he stood waiting in great satisfaction at having arrived before the president had so much as left his bed and been served with his silver wash basin nevertheless it was only when kopeikin had been waiting four hours that a breakfast waiter entered to say
the president will soon be here
he brought with him oh such dignity and refinement and such an air of the metropolis
and then up to another saying what do you want and what do you want what can i do for you what is your business and at length he stopped before kopeikin and kopeikin said to him
i have shed my blood and lost both an arm and a leg for my country and am unable to work might i therefore dare to ask you for a little help
or for a gratuity or for a pension or something of the kind then the president looked at him
very well he said come to me again in a few days time upon this friend kopeikin felt delighted now i have done my job he thought to himself and you may imagine how gaily he trotted along the pavement
and how he dropped into a tavern for a glass of vodka and how he ordered a cutlet and some caper sauce and some other things for luncheon and how he called for a bottle of wine and how he went to the theatre in the evening in short he did himself thoroughly well
next he saw in the street a young english lady as graceful as a swan and set off after her on his wooden leg
to the devil with that sort of thing just now i will wait until i have drawn my pension
i should be glad to know he said whether by now you can do anything for me in return for my having shed my blood and suffered sickness and wounds on military service first of all said the president
i must tell you that nothing can be decided in your case without the authority of the supreme government
surely you see how things stand until the army shall have returned from the war all that i can advise you to do is wait for the minister to return
and if for the moment you have nothing to live upon this is the best that i can do for you
however that was not what kopeikin wanted
whereas instead of drink and be merry it was wait for the time is not yet thus though his head had been full of soup plates and cutlets and english girls he now descended the steps with his ears and his tail down
you see saint petersburg life had changed him not a little since first he had got a taste of it and now that the devil only knew how he was going to live
remember that a man in the prime of years has an appetite like a wolf and as he passed a restaurant he could see a round faced holland shirted snow white aproned fellow of a french chef
at a hundred roubles apiece imagine therefore his position
well he thought to himself let them do what they like with me at the commission but i intend to go and raise the whole place and to tell every blessed functionary there that i have a mind to do as i choose
and in truth this bold impertinence of a man did have the hardihood to return to the commission what do you want said the president
you have had your orders given you i daresay i have he retorted but i am not going to be put off with them i want some cutlets to eat and a bottle of french wine and a chance to go and amuse myself at the theatre
pardon me said the president what you really need if i may venture to mention it is a little patience you have been given something for food until the military committee shall have met and then doubtless you will receive your proper reward
please understand that we cannot help you but you must make your own resources and try as best you can to help yourself you can imagine that this went in at one of kopeikin's ears and out at the other that it was like shooting peas at a stone wall
accordingly he raised a turmoil which sent the staff flying one by one he gave the mob of secretaries and clerks a real good hammering you and you and you he said do not even know your duties you are law breakers yes he trod every man of them under foot
very well he said since you decline to rest satisfied with what has been given you and quietly to await the decision of your case in saint petersburg i must find you a lodging here constable
and armed with a carbine a man well fitted to guard a bank placed our friend in a police waggon well reflected kopeikin at least i shan't have to pay my fare for this ride that's one comfort
again after he had ridden a little way he said to himself they told me at the commission to go and make my own means of enjoying myself very good i'll do so however what became of kopeikin and whither he went is known to no one
but allow me gentlemen to piece together the further threads of the story
and of that band the chieftain was none other than allow me put in the head of the police department you have said that kopeikin had lost an arm and a leg whereas chichikov
though later he tried to excuse his mistake by saying that in england the science of mechanics had reached such a pitch
various other theories were then propounded among them a theory that chichikov was napoleon escaped from saint helena and travelling about the world in disguise and if it should be supposed that no such notion could possibly have been broached let the reader
remember that these events took place not many years after the french had been driven out of russia
since not only had the latter been the first to mention the dead souls
accordingly the chief of police dispatched a note by the hand of a commissionaire
and no visitors at all the business referred to consisted of the marking of several dozen selected cards in such a way as to permit of his relying upon them as upon his bosom friend naturally he did not like having his retirement invaded
and at first consigned the commissionaire to the devil but as soon as he learnt from the note that since a novice at cards was to be the guest of the chief of police that evening a call at the latter's house might prove not wholly unprofitable he relented
unlocked the door of his room threw on the first garments that came to hand and set forth to every question put to him by the tchinovniks he answered firmly and with assurance chichikov he averred had indeed purchased dead souls
and to the tune of several thousand roubles in fact he nozdrev had himself sold him some
next to the question of whether or not he considered chichikov to be a spy he replied in the affirmative and added that as long ago as his and chichikov's joint schooldays the said chichikov had been known as the informer
and repeatedly been thrashed by his companions on that account again to the question of whether or not chichikov was a forger of currency notes the deponent as before responded in the affirmative
on learning that two million roubles worth of counterfeit notes were lying in chichikov's house the authorities had placed seals upon the building and had surrounded it on every side with an armed guard whereupon chichikov had during the night changed each of these seals for a new one
and also so arranged matters that when the house was searched the forged notes were found to be genuine ones again to the question of whether or not chichikov had schemed to abduct the governor's daughter
and also whether it was true that he nozdrev had undertaken to aid and abet him in the act
the affair would never have come off at this point the witness pulled himself up on realising that he had told a lie which might get him into trouble but his tongue was not to be denied the details trembling on its tip were too alluring
and he even went on to cite the name of the village church where the pair had arranged to be married
the amount of the fees paid for the same seventy five roubles
a local corn dealer to his paramour and two that chichikov had ordered both a koliaska for the couple's conveyance and relays of horses from the post houses on the road
nay the narrative as detailed by nozdrev even reached the point of his mentioning certain of the postillions by name next the tchinovniks sounded him on the question of chichikov's possible identity with napoleon but before long they had reason to regret the step
finally the majority of the audience left the room and only the chief of police remained to listen in the hope of gathering something more but at last even he found himself forced to disclaim the speaker with a gesture which said
the devil only knows what the fellow is talking about and so voiced the general opinion that it was no use trying to gather figs of thistles meanwhile
chichikov knew nothing of these events for having contracted a slight chill coupled with a sore throat he had decided to keep his room for three days during which time he gargled his throat with milk and fig juice consumed the fruit from which the juice had been extracted
also to while away the hours he made new and more detailed lists of the souls which he had bought
looked through various articles and papers which he discovered in his dispatch box and found every one of these occupations tedious nor could he understand why none of his official friends had come to see him and inquire after his health
seeing that not long since there had been standing in front of the inn the drozhkis
he wondered and wondered and then with a shrug of his shoulders fell to pacing the room at length he felt better and his spirits rose at the prospect of once more going out into the fresh air
wherefore having shaved a plentiful growth of hair from his face he dressed with such alacrity as almost to cause a split in his trousers sprinkled himself with eau de cologne
and as he walked along certain thoughts concerning the governor's daughter would keep whirling through his head so that almost he forgot where he was and took to smiling and cracking jokes to himself
he was about to divest himself of his scarf when a swiss footman greeted him with the words
i have seen you before but have been ordered to admit any one else rather than monsieur chichikov indeed and why so those are my orders and they must be obeyed said the footman confronting chichikov
with none of that politeness with which on former occasions he had hastened to divest our hero of his wrappings
i cannot understand it said chichikov to himself
but so put about was that official by chichikov's entry that he could not utter two consecutive words he could only murmur some rubbish which left both his visitor and himself out of countenance
but failed to make head or tail of them next he visited in turn the chief of police the vice governor the postmaster and others
but in each case he either failed to be accorded admittance or was received so strangely and with such a measure of constraint and conversational awkwardness and absence of mind and embarrassment that he began to fear for the sanity of his hosts
again and again did he strive to divine the cause but could not do so so he went wandering aimlessly about the town without succeeding in making up his mind whether he or the officials had gone crazy
at length in a state bordering upon bewilderment he returned to the inn to the establishment whence that every afternoon he had set forth in such exuberance of spirits feeling the need of something to do he ordered tea
and still marvelling at the strangeness of his position was about to pour out the beverage when the door opened and nozdrev made his appearance what says the proverb he began to see a friend seven versts is not too long a round to make
now suppose i were to run up and pay him a visit it is unlikely that he will be asleep ah ha i see tea on your table good then i will drink a cup with you for i had wretched stuff for dinner and it is beginning to lie heavy on my stomach also
tell your man to fill me a pipe where is your own pipe i never smoke rejoined chichikov drily rubbish as if i did not know what a chimney pot you are what is your man's name hi vakhramei come here
petrushka is his name not vakhramei indeed but you used to have a man called vakhramei didn't you
what a lucky fellow that derebin is an aunt of his has gone and quarrelled with her son for marrying a serf woman and has left all her property to him to derebin would that i had an aunt of that kind to provide against future contingencies
but why have you been hiding yourself away i suppose the reason has been that you go in for abstruse subjects and are fond of reading why nozdrev should have drawn these conclusions no one could possibly have said
by the way i can tell you of something that would have found you scope for your satirical vein the conclusion as to chichikov's satirical vein was as before altogether unwarranted on nozdrev's part
losing a pile of money at play my word you would have laughed a fellow with me named perependev said would that chichikov had been here it would have been the very thing for him
however my friend you must admit that you treated me rather badly the day that we played that game of chess but as i won the game i bear you no malice a propos i am just from the president's and ought to tell you that the feeling against you in the town is very strong
for every one believes you to be a forger of currency notes
yes said nozdrev why have you gone and frightened everybody as you have done
in disguise or a spy yesterday the public prosecutor even died of it and is to be buried to morrow this was true in so far as that on the previous day the official in question had had a fatal stroke probably induced by the excitement of the public meeting
of course i don't suppose you to be anything of the kind but you see these fellows are in a blue funk about the new governor general for they think he will make trouble for them over your affair a propos he is believed to be a man who puts on airs and turns up his nose at everything
and if so he will get on badly with the dvoriane seeing that fellows of that sort need to be humoured a bit yes my word should the new governor general shut himself up in his study and give no balls there will be the very devil to pay
what scheme to you mean chichikov asked uneasily why that scheme of carrying off the governor's daughter however to tell the truth i was expecting something of the kind no sooner did i see you and her together at the ball than i said to myself ah ha
chichikov is not here for nothing for my own part i think you have made a poor choice for i can see nothing in her at all on the other hand the niece of a friend of mine named bikusov she is a girl and no mistake
a regular what you might call miracle in muslin
on condition that you will lend me three thousand roubles i will stand you the cost of the wedding the koliaska and the relays of horses i must have the money even if i die for it throughout nozdrev's maunderings
chichikov had been rubbing his eyes to ascertain whether or not he was dreaming what with the charge of being a forger the accusation of having schemed an abduction the death of the public prosecutor whatever might have been its cause
and the advent of a new governor general he felt utterly dismayed things having come to their present pass he reflected i had better not linger here i had better be off at once getting rid of nozdrev as soon as he could
and to have everything ready for a start at six o'clock yet though selifan replied very well paul ivanovitch he hesitated awhile by the door next chichikov bid petrushka get out the dusty portmanteau from under the bed
and then set to work to cram into it pell mell socks shirts collars both clean and dirty boot trees a calendar and a variety of other articles everything went into the receptacle just as it came to hand
since his one object was to obviate any possible delay in the morning's departure meanwhile the reluctant selifan slowly very slowly left the room as slowly descended the staircase on each separate step of which he left a muddy foot print
and finally halted to scratch his head what that scratching may have meant no one could say for with the russian populace such a scratching may mean
it may be well to review briefly some definitions that have been given in other connections
they neither toil nor clip coupons but they flourish in the favor of others parent husband wife friends patrons so long as the good will continues
these persons may be as well off as if they drew a salary or owned a bank if a person in control of goods shares them with another it is a matter that economists must recognize but cannot well reduce to rules of value
it is not the task of economists to explain why the impulses of generosity arise but only how they affect distribution
as gifts of value or lost and abandoned goods goods assigned to one by authority wealth inherited illegal gains by robbery goods secured on credit gifts either of things or of services
the uses of this university are a gift forming a part first of the student's income and finally of the social income such gifts can be traced back to large hearted public spirited men like ezra cornell but they must be looked upon as coming from some one
this list incomplete as it is suggests that the real income of most individuals has manifold sources let us undertake to examine and analyze the various methods in actual use in the distribution of income to the persons making up society
methods of personal distribution
this crude and primitive mode of distribution the negation of personal liberty
shade off into this form in them the ones from whom goods are taken or to whom they are given have no power to change the conditions here
willingly to the superior power and takes what that power accords him there are few despotisms in which the government is not based on the wishes and average capacities of the governed if the citizens as a body really desired and were deserving of better government
in most cases they could get it much is heard for example of despotism in russia and of the abject condition of the people but travelers testify that while many in the educated student classes are filled with the greatest discontent
and the intelligent subject peoples such as the finns detest their rulers such sentiments are far from general throughout the empire the power of the czar could not exist for a single moment if the mass of the people did not look to him as the great father whom they venerate and love
if this is true the despotism in russia though abhorrent to our ideals of freedom is fitted to the aspirations of the mass of the people so far as government determines income
distribution is by an accepted authority each person works at what he is commanded to do and some one in authority the patriarch head of the community the father of the monastic order
as boards of conciliation and arbitration and railway commissions the courts sometimes find themselves obliged to enter this field although they do so most unwillingly they try to confine their efforts to interpreting the contracts men have voluntarily entered into
and they avoid so far as possible
the authoritative method is followed literary and oratorical contests are passed upon by a set of judges whose opinion of merit determines the award it is a poor method often resulting in injustice as every defeated candidate will admit
but it is the only way practicable for deciding such contests yet there are literary and oratorical contests decided very differently if a man advertises himself as an orator and charges fifty cents admission to his lecture
everyone having money but staying away votes that he is not of such value the one is judgment by the authoritative the other by the competitive method
the essence of the method of distributing by authority is that one individual or group of individuals judges of the deserts or duties of others decides what others must get or must pay not what he himself is willing to pay
authoritative distribution is necessary in many cases but it is fraught with dangers it is the essence of socialism that it would make this plan universal four distribution of psychic income
but libraries and schools may practically be managed in this way they require both certain qualifications and certain sacrifices on the part of the user collective enjoyment is most completely possible
where the use of a permanent form of wealth such as a park can be made free to the public all individuals may enjoy equal privileges though general rules may limit the kind of use for example
no one may be permitted to pull flowers or to walk on the grass but all who make use of the park enjoy equal privileges henry van dyke in one of his essays puts into the mouth of his boy the question father who owns the mountains
and the answer is he who can enjoy them every man without covetousness
it is the essentially economic form as contrasted with the legal and personal forms just described because it is impersonal and reducible to a rule of value distribution under competition is made not with reference
to abstract ethical principles or to personal affection but to the value of the product so far as it is honestly controlled monopoly it may be noted never has ceased to rest under the ban of anglo saxon law
hence to exemplify compulsory as opposed to competitive distribution a striking feature of the competitive method is its decentralization each helps to value the economic services of each
it is not because he would rather listen to the singing than to eat
ill content with the share secured by the less skilled laborer say that the competitive plan is unsound at the core
they are not agreed which judged by a vague ethical standard but this involves the principle of authority in its extremest form it intrusts to some men
the function of passing upon the economic merits or desires of all others yet that alone is not a conclusive argument against all use of authoritative distribution in many practical cases
the others are minor and modifying none of them alone is sufficient each has its merits and each has its defects they must supplement each other
the complex interrelations of men in society make this inevitable but to appreciate the final effects of such action upon society one needs but to go back to the essential thought of wealth and its purposes
as the average efficiency and bounty of the world fall so fall the income and welfare of men as it rises the social and economic levels rise also every kind of economic wealth has potentially two kinds of uses
to gratify wants thus fulfilling its destiny or to be converted into higher and more efficient agents consumption or production that the possibilities of the latter are boundless is overlooked in the fallacies here criticized
an efficient world would be the result of economy and saving a wasted and used up world the result of the fallacy of the destruction and waste of wealth
typical instances are extravagant dress and elaborate balls where fine and costly flowers decorations music coaches require the expenditure of a large amount of money it is said of the empress eugenie wife of napoleon the third
that in order to help the glove industry of france she wore no pair of gloves more than once in order to help other french industries she purchased many silks and laces it is a very comfortable doctrine to some people that the oftener they change their dress
the greater benefactors to society they are a few years ago the bradley martin ball was given in new york city it was possibly little more elaborate and expensive than many another ball
but it chanced to be a dull time for news and the papers all over the land gave columns to its discussion in the many interviews with ministers and business men
but if it took place all the factories and agents used for non essentials would lose their value at once a great industrial crisis would follow as industry would have to adjust itself abruptly to an unprecedented standard of desires
what would happen if that standard continued would vary as human nature varies there might follow increase of population or a heightening of the efficiency of such agents as were of use or
more probable than all else a progressive lightening of labor a use of the surplus of energy in study rest and recreation it is of course illogical to suppose that with limited desires for the objective goods of the world there would continue undiminished efforts
to produce goods and to save for future superfluities in actual life changes of standard
my dear sir will you have the goodness to forward the inclosed to mister brand and to present my letter to lady hamilton every lover of his country will rejoice in our great and almost unexampled success to the honour of my lord hood
and to the shame of those who opposed his endeavours to serve his country general stewart i am happy to say is just arrived we shall now join heart and hand against calvi when conquered
which will give real pleasure to your very faithful and obliged horatio nelson
being intrusted by the admiral with the command of the small squadron in the gulph of genoa but think it right for me to beg that your excellency will apply for such vessels of war belonging to his sicilian majesty as may be judged proper to cruize in the gulph of genoa
and particularly off the point of the gulph of especia xebecs corvettes and frigates are the fittest to cruize and the first have the great advantage of rowing as well as sailing i am told very fast
general acton knows full as well as myself the vessels proper to prevent the disembarkation of troops on this coast therefore i shall not particularly point them out last campaign the word flotilla was misunderstood
i can only say that all vessels which can sail and row must be useful and for small craft port especia is a secure harbour whatever is to be done should be done speedily for by mister wyndham's account we have no time to lose
if we have the proper vessels i am confident the french will not be able to bring their ten thousand men by sea
i hope the austrians will prevent them but however should all our precautions not be able to prevent the enemy's possessing themselves of leghorn yet we are not to despair fourteen days from their entry if the allied powers unite heartily
where thirteen sail of the line and five frigates are ready for sea and others fitting with my best respects to lady hamilton believe me dear sir your excellency's most obedient servant horatio nelson
vanguard syracuse july twentieth seventeen ninety eight my dear sir it is an old saying the devil's children have the devil's luck i cannot find
or to this moment learn beyond vague conjecture where the french fleet are gone to all my ill fortune hitherto has proceeded from want of frigates off cape passaro on the twenty second of june at day light i saw two frigates which were supposed to be french
and it has been said since that a line of battle ship was to leeward of them with the riches of malta on board
these would have fell to me if i had had frigates but except the ship of the line i regard not all the riches in this world from my information off malta i believed they were gone to egypt
therefore on the twenty eighth i was communicating with alexandria in egypt where i found the turks preparing to resist them but knew nothing beyond report from thence i stretched over to the coast of caramania where not speaking a vessel who could give me information
i became distressed for the kingdom of the two sicilies and having gone a round of six hundred leagues at this season of the year with a single ship with an expedition incredible here i am as ignorant of the situation of the enemy as i was twenty seven days ago
mister littledale is i suppose sent up by the admiral to victual us and i hope he will do it cheaper than any other person but if i find out that he charges more than the fair price
for as no fleet has more fag than this nothing but the best food and greatest attention can keep them healthy at this moment we have not one sick man in the fleet in about six days i shall sail from hence
where if they are gone towards constantinople i shall hear of them
or any other part of syria or egypt i shall get information you will i am sure and so will our country easily conceive what has passed in my anxious mind but i have this comfort that i have no fault to accuse myself of this bears me up and this only
i send you a paper
which i may leave at any place and except those who have the key none can tell where i am gone to july twenty first the messenger is returned from cape passaro and says that your letters for me are returned to naples
what a situation am i placed in as yet i can learn nothing of the enemy therefore i have no conjecture but that they are gone to syria and at cyprus i hope to hear of them
i rely that every place in sicily would have information for me for it is too important news to leave me in one moment's doubt about
for hardly any person but myself would have continued on service so long in such a wretched state
but i durst not trust any person here to carry them even to naples pray send a copy of my letter to lord spencer he must be very anxious to hear of this fleet
pray forward it for me and believe me with the greatest respect your most obedient servant horatio nelson
that i am astonished i understood that private orders at least would have been given for our free admission if we are to be refused supplies pray send me by many vessels an account that i may in good time take the king's fleet to gibraltar
your most obedient servant horatio nelson p s i do not complain of the want of attention in individuals for all classes of people are remarkably attentive to us sent on shore to the charge of the governor of syracuse
vanguard mouth of the nile august eighth seventeen ninety eight my dear sir almighty god has made me the happy instrument in destroying the enemy's fleet which i hope will be a blessing to europe you will have the goodness to communicate this happy event to all the courts in italy
you will not send by post any particulars of this action as i should be sorry to have any accounts get home before my dispatches i hope there will be no difficulty in our getting refitted at naples culloden must be instantly hove down
and vanguard all new masts and bowsprit not more than four or five sail of the line will probably come to naples the rest will go with the prizes to gibraltar as this army never will return i hope to hear the emperor has regained the whole of italy
my dear sir as the greater part of this squadron is going down the mediterranean
therefore what is not already prepared had better be put a stop to i will settle all the matter if ever i live to see naples
vanguard off malta october twenty fourth seventeen ninety eight my dear sir i am just arrived off this place where i found captain ball
as the ministers at naples seem to think all the country it is true is in possession of the islanders and i believe the french have not many luxuries in the town but as yet their bullocks are not eat up
the islanders want arms victuals mortars and cannon to annoy the town when i get the elect of the people on board i shall desire them to draw up a memorial for the king of naples stating their wants and desires which i shall bring with me
the marquis sails for naples to morrow morning till he is gone i shall not do any thing about the island but i will be fully master of that subject before i leave this place god bless you is the sincere prayer of horatio nelson
october twenty seventh seventeen ninety eight my dear sir william
when i come to naples i can have nothing pleasant to say of the conduct of his sicilian majesty's ministers
who wish to be under the dominion of their legitimate sovereign the total neglect and indifference with which they have been treated appears to me cruel in the extreme had not the english supplied fifteen hundred stand of arms with
and kept the spirit of those brave islanders from falling off they must long ago have bowed again to the french yoke could you my dear sir william
in our various conversations relative to this island
i beg your excellency will state this in confidence to general acton i shall most assuredly tell it to the king the justice i owe myself now i feel employed in the service of their sicilian majesties demands it of me and also
the duty i owe our gracious king in order to shew that i am doing my utmost to comply with his royal commands as i have before stated had it not been for the english long long ago the maltese must have been overpowered
for offence two or three large mortars fifteen hundred shells with all necessaries and perhaps a few artillery two ten inch howitzers with a thousand shells the bormola and all the left side of the harbour with this assistance
will fall ten thousand men are required to defend those works the french can only spare twelve hundred therefore a vigorous assault in many parts some one must succeed but who have the government of naples sent to lead or encourage these people
a very good and i dare say brave old man enervated and shaking with the palsy
without any supply without even a promise of protection and without his bringing any answer to the repeated respectful memorials of these people to their sovereign i know their majesties must feel hurt when they hear these truths i may be thought presuming but i trust
general acton will forgive an honest seaman for telling plain truths as for the other minister i do not understand him we are different men he has been bred in a court and i in a rough element but i believe
my heart is as susceptible of the finer feelings as his and as compassionate for the distress of those who look up to me for protection the officer sent here should have brought supplies promises of protection and an answer from the king to their memorials
he should have been a man of judgment bravery and activity he should be the first to lead them to glory and the last when necessary to retreat the first to mount the walls of the bormola and never to quit it this is the man to send such many such are to be found
if he succeeds promise him rewards my life for it the business would soon be over god bless you i am anxious to get this matter finished i have sent ball this day to summon goza if it resists i shall send on shore and batter down the castle
but we shall have them i had almost forgot to mention that orders should be immediately given that no quarantine should be laid on boats going to the coast of sicily for corn
they have fourteen days only yesterday there was only four days bread in the island luckily we got hold of a vessel loaded with wheat
january tenth eighteen hundred sir your excellency having had the goodness to communicate to me a dispatch from general acton together with several letters from girganti
giving an account that a violence had been committed in that port by the seizing and carrying off to malta two vessels loaded with corn
that even the appearance of the slightest disrespect should be offered by any officers under my command to the flag of his sicilian majesty and i must request your excellency to state fully to general acton
that the act ought not to be considered as any intended disrespect to his sicilian majesty but as an act of the most absolute and imperious necessity either that the island of malta should have been delivered up to the french
or that the king's orders should be anticipated for these vessels carrying their cargoes of corn to malta i trust that the government of this country will never again force any of our royal master's servants to so unpleasant an alternative
march eighth eighteen hundred my dear sir william
it is my determination my health requiring it to come to palermo and to stay two weeks with you i must again urge that four gunb oats may be ordered for the service of malta they will most essentially assist in the reduction of the place
by preventing small vessels from getting in or out i think from the enemy on the night of the fourth
a very fast sailing polacca that vaubois is extremely anxious to send dispatches to france to say he cannot much longer hold out
palermo march thirtieth eighteen hundred my dear sir william as from the orders i have given to all the ships under my command to arrest and bring into port all the vessels and troops returning by convention with the porte to france
the fever will make such ravages as to be little short of the plague it is a very serious consideration for this country either to receive them or let them pass when they would invade probably these kingdoms
in my present situation in the king's fleet i have only to obey
i should have gone one short and direct road to avert this great evil viz to have sent a letter to the french and the grand vizir in egypt that i would not on any consideration permit a single frenchman to leave egypt
and i would do it at the risk of even creating a coldness for the moment with the turks of two evils choose the least and nothing can be so horrid as permitting that horde of thieves to return to europe
if all the wise heads had left them to god almighty after the bridge was broke all would have ended well for i differ entirely with my commander in chief
in the great importance of removing them from egypt no there they should perish has ever been the firm determination of your excellency's most obedient and faithful servant bronte nelson of the nile
it is fully known with what exactness i have adhered to the neutrality of this port for upon our arrival here from naples in december seventeen ninety eight from the conduct of his catholic majesty's minister i should have been fully justified in seizing those ships
we know that one object of the spanish fleet combined with the french was to wrest entirely from the hands of his sicilian majesty his kingdoms of the two sicilies the spaniards are by bad councils the tools of the french
and of course the bitter enemy of his sicilian majesty and family the conduct i have pursued towards these ships circumstanced as they are has been moderate and truly considerate towards his sicilian majesty the time is now come that
against not only great britain but also the two sicilies i have therefore to request that your excellency will convey my sentiments on this very delicate subject to his sicilian majesty's ministers that they may take measures to prevent such a truly unpleasant event happening
although my dearest emma from the length of time my other letters have been getting to you i cannot expect that this will share a better fate yet as the childers is going to rosas to get us some news from paris
i take my chance of the post but i expect the kent will be in england before this letter and by which ship i write to the admiralty relative to my health therefore i shall only say that i hope a little of your good nursing with ass's milk
will set me up for another campaign should the admiralty wish me to return in the spring for another year but i own i think we shall have peace the ambuscade arrived this day fortnight with our victuallers and c and very acceptable they were
through i suppose the admiralty the box you mention is not arrived nor have i a scrap of a pen from davison the weather in the mediterranean seems much altered
the stair window we settled was not to be stopped up the underground passage will i hope be made but i shall please god soon see it all i have wrote you my dear emma about horatia but
by the kent i shall write fully may god bless you my dearest best beloved emma and believe me ever your most faithful and affectionate kind love and regards to missus cadogan and all friends god bless you again and again
my dearest emma the kent left us three days ago and as the wind has been perfectly fair since her departure i think she will have a very quick passage and arrive long before this letter but as a ship is going to rosas i will not omit the opportunity of writing through spain
i have not yet received your muff i think probably i shall bring it with me i hope davison has done the needful in paying for the alterations at merton if not it is now too late and we will fix a complete plan and execute it next summer
i shall be clear of debt and what i have will be my own god bless you amen amen george elliot goes to malta for a convoy to england this day if you ever see lord minto say so
say thirtieth at evening therefore i wrote in fact this day through spain
yesterday i wrote to you through spain this goes by naples mister falconet i think will send it although i am sure he feels great fear from the french minister for having any thing to do with us mister greville is a shabby fellow
for when he made the will the income tax was double to what it is at present and the estate which it is paid from is increasing every year in value it may be law but it is not just nor in equity would i believe be considered as the will and intention of sir william never mind
i may fairly say all this because my actions are different even to a person who has treated me so ill
i know the full extent of the obligation i owe him and he may be useful to me again but i can never forget his unkindness to you but i guess many reasons influenced his conduct in bragging of his riches and my honourable poverty
but as i have often said and with honest pride what i have is my own it never cost the widow a tear or the nation a farthing i got what i have with my pure blood from the enemies of my country our house my own emma is built upon a solid foundation
and will last to us when his house and lands may belong to others than his children i would not have believed it from any one but you
i am working hard with gibbs about bronte but the calls upon me are very heavy next september i shall be clear i mean september eighteen o five i have wrote to both acton and the queen about you
i do not think she likes mister elliot and therefore i wish she had never shewn him my letters about you we also know that he has a card of his own to play doctor scott who is a good man although poor fellow very often wrong in the head
is going with staines in the cameleon just to take a peep at naples and palermo i have introduced him to acton who is very civil to every body from me the admiralty proceedings towards me you will know much sooner than i shall
i hope they will do the thing handsomely and allow of my return in the spring but i do not expect it i am very uneasy at your and horatia being on the coast for you cannot move if the french make the attempt
which i am told they have done and been repulsed pray god it may be true i shall rejoice to hear you and horatia are safe at merton and happy shall i be the day i join you gannam justem gaetano is very grateful for your remembrance of him
for they are no friends of mine who are not friends to emma god bless you again and again captain hardy has not been very well
he expects his flag may get up god bless you my dearest emma and be assured i am ever most faithfully your's
september twenty ninth eighteen o four this day my dearest emma which gave me birth i consider as more fortunate than common days as by my coming into this world it has brought me so intimately acquainted with you who my soul holds most dear
i well know that you will keep it and have my dear horatia to drink my health forty six years of toil and trouble how few more the common lot of mankind leads us to expect and therefore it is almost time to think of spending the few last years in peace and quietness
by this time i should think either my successor is named or permission is granted me to come home and if so you will not long receive this letter before i make my appearance which will make us i am sure both truly happy
and that i could have told you something comfortable for you from that quarter and it is now seven weeks since we heard from malta therefore i know nothing of what is passing in the world
i would not have you my dear emma allow the work of brick and mortar to go on in the winter months it can all be finished next summer when i hope we shall have peace or such an universal war as will upset that vagabond buonaparte
admiral campbell who is on board desires to be remembered to you he does not like much to stay here after my departure indeed we all draw so well together in the fleet that i flatter myself the sorrow for my departure will be
pretty general admiral murray will be glad to get home hardy is as good as ever and mister secretary scott is an excellent man god bless you my dearest emma and be assured i am ever your most faithful and affectionate
n and b kiss dear horatia i hope she is at merton fixed
two p m i wrote you my dearest emma this morning by way of lisbon but a boat which is going to torbay having brought out a cargo of potatoes will i think get home before the lisbon packet i shall only say guzelle gannam justem
i return you the inclosed my dearest emma which does equal honour to the excellent head and heart of the writer
to have a good opinion of myself after such honourable testimonials in the mean time i send you an extraordinary piece of news just written me from ratisbon a courier from the elector of mentz
desiring the empire to make a separate peace with france couriers have been sent from the diet to sweden and denmark desiring their mediation and it is clear says my letter somebody is at the bottom of all this
the elector of mentz only lends his name the suburbs of warsaw taken the capitulation of the city daily expected
oh emma who'd ever be wise if madness be loving of thee b
munich fourteenth july seventeen ninety five dearest emma here is great news from england my letters of the twenty sixth june assure me seven thousand men are embarked for saint pol de leon
together with an immense number of emigres that the week before a bishop and sixty priests were most prosperously landed at the same place and received with the greatest acclamations that six sail of the line from russia
were in sight and the pilots gone to conduct them that in amsterdam and other towns of holland there is the greatest insurrections in favour of that fool the stadtholder all this however can only tend to facilitate peace
but not at all to restore that despicable odious family of bourbons the head of which is now at verona where we left him eating two capons a day tis a pity the whole family are not capons and what is more dressing them himself
in a superb kitchen the true chapel of a bourbon prince emma if that dear queen of naples does not write herself to prince d'oria for me i won't look at your beautiful face these six months
to morrow for pyrmont near hanover emma
three there is no doubt but don luizi is implicated that very circumstance argues the extent of the mischief for so cautious a man and one whose sentiments are so publicly known would not engage without good support
one who is no stranger to his dearest secret the evidence will be difficult perhaps impracticable
but the character of the garrison at capua is of the most alarming complexion and yet is what i can best depend on i think wade could tell much if he would speak out
lovel and i were on vesuvius he goes like a true parson only to eat the better i foresee he will once more fall into nudi's hands procyta will be another duo for i hate large parties on such
and especially females unless they be phoenixes like yourself it is a great discouragement to a caserta party to view the whole town buried in a mist and the belvidere alone like a buoy to point out the shoal
sweet emma adieu every wish of my heart beats for the dear queen
the weather changed so unmercifully yesterday
and this makes me the more anxious to hear of our too sensible and inestimable queen my warmest wishes physical political and moral ever attend her b
here is my cousin's answer dearest emma
her brother assured me there is not the semblance of an insurrection
send me word where you will be adieu
yesterday we dined on mount vesuvius to day we were to have dined on its victim pompeii but by the grace of god which passeth all understanding since bartolomeo himself that weather soothsayer
did not foresee this british weather we are prevented in the mean time all this week and the next
write me word explicitly how you are what you are and where you are and be sure that wheresoever i am still i am your's my dearest emma
has quite bouleversee my already shattered frame i would not allow your friendly mind to learn an event so interesting to me from any other hand than that of your affectionate and devoted friend bristol
to day it is departed to morrow doctor nudi has secured us from its resurrection and after to morrow i hope virtue will be its own reward
this moment i receive your billet doux and
and should have seen you on the morning of your departure but was detained in the arms of murphy as lady eden expressed it and was too late you say nothing of the adorable queen i hope she has not forgot me
but as shakespeare says who doats must doubt and i verily deem her the very best edition of a woman i ever saw i mean of such as are not in folio and are to be had in sheets
i will come on friday or saturday but our british colony are so numerous that my duties obstruct my pleasures ever and invariably dearest dear emma most affectionately your b you see
i am but the second letter of your alphabet though you are the first of mine
milan twenty fourth november seventeen ninety eight i know not dearest emma whether friend sir william has been able to obtain my passport or not but this i know
for never was a malta orange better worth squeezing or sucking and if they leave me to die without a tombstone over me to tell the contents tant pis pour eux in the mean time i will frankly confess to you
that my health most seriously and urgently requires the balmy air of dear naples and the more balmy atmosphere of those i love and who love me and that i shall forego my garret with more regret than most people of my silly rank in society forego a palace or a drawing room
and from thence cross over to manfredonia a passage of a few hours and which in the year seventeen seventy two i performed with my horses on board and afterwards had a most delightful jaunt through that unexplored region dalmatia
is a modern city built within the precincts of an ancient palace for spalato stands within the innermost walls of diocletian's palace for that wise sovereign quitted the sceptre for the pleasures of an architect's rule
enjoyed that and life to a most advanced old age the world forgetting by the world forgot a propos to spalato do not fail hinting to sir william that a most safe convenient
and expeditious packet boat might be established in these perilous times between that and manfredonia by which all dispatches and all travellers either for business or pleasure might make a very short and safe cut between naples and vienna
and naples and the rest of europe without touching one palm of any ground but austrian and neapolitan and of course without the risk of being ever stopped the small towns too are in quick succession and the whole country being a limestone rock
the roads will make themselves and afterwards pay themselves by means of good turnpikes nothing can exceed the dreariness gloominess and humidity of a milanese sky in winter which i conclude under the old regime
led to all the hospitality and conviviality practised here by their voluptuous but social nobility now we have nothing left to comfort but another nudi a son of esculapius born in italy
but an enthusiast for england and all that is english an excellent physician but a still better friend and like nudi when he has a pint of madeira in his belly and the fumes of it in his brain a most cheerful and improving companion for i protest to you that
during my convalescence i made greater strides to recovery by his attic evenings than by his morning potions or even his beef broth
chapter three the muscular type the worker people in whom the muscular system is proportionately larger
this system consists of the muscles of the organism
the muscle system of the human body is simply a co ordinated organized arrangement of layers of lean meat of which every individual has a complete set an individual's muscles may be small flabby deficient in strength or so thin as to be almost imperceptible
but they are always there elementary in the infant full grown in the adult and remnants in the aged but they are so smoothly fitted together so closely knitted and usually so well covered
in the pure muscular type his muscles are firm and large such muscles can not be disguised but seem to stand out all over him helpless without them without them we would be helpless masses of fat and bone
we could not blink an eye nor lift a finger yet we are so accustomed to them that we rarely think of them and seldom give them credit for what they do without their wonder work to adjust the eyes we could not see without their power the heart would cease to beat
we can not smile sob speak nor sing without using them we would have no pianists
dancers aviators inventors or workers of any kind without them everything we put together from hooks and eyes to skyscrapers is planned by our brains but depends for its materialization upon the muscles of the human body
how to know him look at any individual
or thickly padded with fat in which case
or well upholstered with firm meat in the latter case he is largely muscular no matter what other types may be present in his makeup
or mostly muscle because fat is always round and soft while muscle is firm and definite physical solidity a general solidity of structure
and though it makes a dent that dent puffs back quickly
but stays there longer once the dent is made not so malleable
of the differences between these two natures throughout their entirety
is less suggestible is less tractable than the alimentive or thoracic but is less likely to revert afterwards built on the square on the square is a figurative expression usually applying to a moral tendency in this sense
but in a purely literal sense the muscular is actually built on the square his whole figure is a combination of squares the alimentive is built upon the circle the thoracic on the kite shape but the pure muscular always tends toward a squareness of outline
we repeat he is no more square morally than any other type
than to others each type has its own weaknesses and points of strength as differentiated from other types and these are responsible for most of the moral differences between people no type superior morally
and since each type possesses about as many weaknesses as the others it follows that no type is superior morally to any other and no type is morally inferior to any other type and temptation morality is mostly a matter of how much temptation you can withstand
is surrounded by temptations of some kind most of the time he does not want to yield to any of them
of which his particular type is capable under a given circumstance
he yields only to those which make such a strong appeal to his type that he lacks the power of resistance
in the grip of these temptations he may commit anything from discourtesy to crime according to the strength of the temptation plus his own leaning in that direction on the other hand certain immoralities which appeal strongly to some types have no attraction whatever for others
and these latter get credit for a virtuousness that has cost them nothing praise and punishment on the other hand each one of the five human types has certain points of strength and from these gets its natural moral qualities
we will give less of both to the individual and more of both to the creator type vs training the most that training can do is to brace up the weak spots in us to cultivate the strong ones
inimical environments and to constantly remind us of the penalties we pay whenever we digress child training as this great science of human analysis becomes known the world will understand for the first time how the other half lives
and why it lives that way we will know why one child just naturally tells fibs while his twin brother under identical training just naturally tells the truth
to each the kind of training which will weed out his worst and bring out his best short and stocky
though one of any height may be largely muscular the extreme type of which we are treating in this chapter
but his heaviness is due to muscle instead of fat he has the appearance of standing firmly solidly upon the ground of being stalwart and strong the square shouldered man
and are much broader in proportion to his height the alimentive has sloping shoulders and the thoracic inclines to high shoulders
you have known were not tall men but medium or below medium in height
who is a combination has proportionately long arms the arms of pure musculars are longer in proportion to the body than the arms of other types the arms of the alimentive are short for his body but the extreme muscular's arms
are always anywhere from slightly longer to very much longer than his height would lead you to expect the pure muscular head a square head is the first thing you think of when you look at a pure muscular his head has no such decided digressions from the normal as the round head
a sturdy neck is one of the most significant indications of physical prowess and longevity while the frail neck of which we shall speak in connection with the fifth type is always a sign of the physical frailty which endangers life
the thickness of his neck may sometimes give you the impression that the muscular head is small
his square face
as to give him a right angled face his square jaw a broad jaw is another characteristic of this type not only is it square looked at from the front
tend to make a right angled turn at the corners instead of a rounded curve
a box like appearance it is considered becoming to men
the typical muscular hand
their size shape and structure as seen from the back of the hand are especially significant and tell us much more about the individual's nature than the palm does perhaps you have thought that a hand was just a hand but there are hands and hands
each pure type has its own and no other is ever seen on the extreme of that type the hand of the muscular like all the rest of his body is built in a series of squares it runs out from the wrist and down in a straighter line
spatulate fingers meaning fingers that are square or paddle shaped at the tips
he may have other types in combination but if his fingers are really square sawed off at the ends in such a way as to give them large instead of tapering ends that person has more than average muscularity
and the activities of his life will tend in the directions referred to in this chapter the manual worker musculars are the hand workers of the world
the muscular's hand is proportionately larger than the hand of any other type it has more muscle that one element without which good hand work is impossible so it has followed inevitably that the manual work of the world is done largely by musculars their hands are also so much more powerful
the hand of the creative artist the artist's hand and the artistic hand are phrases long used but misused delicate tapering fingers were supposed in ancient times to denote artistic ability
the frail curving hand was also supposed to be a sign of artistic talent from the stage of old down to the movies of today the typical artist is pictured with a slight slender hand this tapering fingered hand denotes a keen sense of artistic values
a love of the esthetic refined and beautiful and real artistic appreciation but not the ability to create the hand arts before we explain this
or musical composition which could more properly be called artistic activities
upon the human hand such as painting architecture craftsmanship cartooning sculpture violin piano et cetera all these are created by square fingered people
we are too much inclined to think of the products of these arts as being created out of sheer artistic sense artistic taste or artistic insight but a moment's reflection will show that every tangible artistic creation
with gifted head work without a sure strong well knit hand
the lack of such a hand explains why the esthetic the artistic minded and the connoisseur do not create the beautiful things they appreciate head and hand partners the hand must execute what the brain plans
it must be a fifty per cent partner else its owner will never produce real art
co ordinated hand machine to any such degree as the muscular
or the execution will fall short of the ideal pictured in the artist's mind the pure muscular type seldom makes an artist for after all inspired brain work is the other important element in the creation of art and this is the forte of the fifth type
a combination of the fifth type with the muscular makes most hand artists
makes most singers every hand artist will be found to have spatulate fingered hands in short muscular hands the hand of the famous craftsman pianist sculptor and painter instead of being more frail and delicate
is always larger and heavier than that of the average person such a hand
in that individual's makeup his powerful movements forceful decisive movements also characterize this type he is inclined to go at even the most trivial things with as much force as if the world depended on it
recently we were exhibiting a small pencil sharpener to a muscular friend it was so sharp that it performed its work without pressure but she took hold of it as if it were a piece of artillery and pushed the pencil into it with all the force she had when we remonstrated smilingly
for her face and hands are ultra square she said but i can't do anything lightly i just naturally put that much force into everything his forceful walk heavy powerful forceful strides distinguish the walk of this type
if he has but ten steps to go he will start off as if beginning an around the world marathon you hear him coming all musculars notify people by their walk of their approach they are unconscious of this loud incisive tread
belongs almost always to a muscular
tone down this powerful voice his long suffering friends will testify to this characteristic his stentorian tones this loud voice is a serious social handicap to him his only chance of compensation for it lies
in its use before juries congregations or large audiences it might be noted here that every great orator has been largely of this type and also that his fame came not alone from the things he said but from the stentorian tones in which he said them
famous male singers caruso john mc cormack and all other famous male singers
but in every instance it was combined with a large muscular development the solid sitter when a muscular sits down he does it as he does everything with definiteness and force he does not spill over
as does the alimentive nor drape himself gracefully like the thoracic but planks himself as though he meant business activity his keynote because he is especially built for it the muscular is more active than any other type without muscles
no organism could move itself from the spot in which it was born biology teaches us that the stomach was the first thing evolved the original one call organism possessed but one function digestion as life progressed it became necessary to send nutriment
to those parts of the organism not touched by the stomach for the purpose of reaching these suburbs there was involved the circulatory or thoracic system and this gave rise as we have seen in the previous chapter to the thoracic type
movement and development as time went on movement became necessary full development not being possible to any static organism
it was only a wiggle at first but that wiggle has grown till today it includes every kind of labor globe trotting and immigration the muscular is fitted with the best traveling equipment of any type and invariably lives a life whose main reactions express these things
the immigrant muscular no matter what his work or play the muscular will make more moves during the course of a day than other types
being over equipped for it keep urging him from within to do things
italians poles greeks russians germans and jews are largely of this type
inertness irks him shut up a muscular and you destroy him his big muscle system cries out for something to do he becomes restless nervous and ill when confined or compelled to be idle
the alimentive loves an easy time but the muscular dislikes ease except when exhausted
must be doing something i can't bear to be doing nothing you often hear people say such a person always has plenty of muscle
up and doing accomplishing something if there is nothing near them that needs doing they are sure to go and find something the born worker work is second nature to this type he really prefers it everyone likes some kind of work when in the mood
for the activity's sake work palls on the alimentive and monotony on the thoracic but leisure is what palls on the muscular he may have worked ten years without a vacation and he may imagine he wants a long one
it may be nothing more than hanging the screen door chopping the wood or dusting the furniture but it will furnish him with some kind of activity because he enjoys action for its own sake and because work is only applied action this type makes the best worker
he can be trusted to work harder than any other type
it is no accident that the three hundred men gangs of foreign workmen who dig ditches tunnels and tubes construct buildings railroads and cities
seldom unemployed
keep at it while writing this book our windows overlook a public park in one of america's one million population cities hundreds of unemployed men sleep there day and night having occasion to pass through this park daily for several months
hardly one per cent belonged to the muscular type likes to do things because he is such a hard worker this type gets a good deal of praise and glory just as the fat people who manage to get out of work receive a good deal of blame
yet work is almost as pleasant to the muscular as leisure is to the alimentive the muscular's pugnacity fighters those who really enjoy a scrap occasionally are invariably musculars
their square jaws the sure sign of great muscularity are famous the world over and especially so in these days when war is once more in fashion the next time you look at the front faces of pershing haig hindenberg or even that of your traffic policeman
note the extremely muscular face and jaw combat or personal fighting is a matter of muscle action being well equipped for it this type actually enjoys it that is why he is oftener in trouble than any other type it was no accident that the phrase
big stick was the slogan of an almost pure muscular loves the strenuous life the strenuous life was another of roosevelt's pet phrases and came from the natural leanings of his type the true muscular is naturally strenuous
because we are prone to advise others to do what we enjoy doing ourselves it was inevitable that so strenuous a man as t r should advocate wholesale universal and almost compulsory strenuosity
do you good but the real reason usually is that we like to do it ourselves the acrobatic type the next time you go to a vaudeville show
if there are any other types taking part please observe that they are secondary to the acrobats they catch the handkerchiefs or otherwise act as foils for the real performers all the hard work in the act will be done by musculars
you do not need to wait for another show to realize how true this is
given at the beginning of this chapter acrobats always muscular we once had occasion to refer to this fact in a human analysis class one member declared
that just that week he had seen a very tall unmuscular man performing in an acrobatic act at the orpheum
and found the acrobat in question he had just finished his act and kindly consented to come over he turned out to be a pure muscular as we had stated
appeared taller than he really was high platforms always give this illusion furthermore his partner in the act was of diminutive height and the acrobat looked tall and slender by contrast why they don't do it
of the glory that should be theirs when they grew up and performed in red tights for the multitudes almost every boy has this ambition because he passes through a stage of decided muscular development in his early years
the others soon develop girth or the sitting still habit to the point where a cushioned seat in the first row of the parquet looks much better durability in clothes something that will wear well
is what this type asks for when he drops in to buy a suit musculars are not parsimonious nor stingy their buying the most durable in everything is not so much to save money as for the purpose of having something they do not need to be afraid to handle likes heavy materials
this type likes heavy stable materials whereas the alimentive wants comfortable clothes and the thoracic distinctive ones the muscular wants wearable everyday clothes he wants the materials to be of the best
but he cares less for color than the thoracic quality rather than style and plainness rather than prettiness are his standards in dress making over father's pants for johnnie is a job muscular women have excelled in and for which they have become famous
to it that father's pants are of the kind of stuff that won't wear out easily but she has the square creative hand that enjoys construction the plain dresser simple dresses blue serge for instance
are the ones the muscular woman likes this type cares little about clothes as ornamentation he is intent on getting his desires satisfied by doing things not by looking them he also resents the time and trouble that fashionable dressing demands
no matter how much money this type has he will not be inclined to extremes in dress musculars are not really interested in clothes for clothes sake
getting things done that he is likely to forget
and not because he enjoys preening himself
in the muscular a simple soul musculars
it is almost impossible for this type even though he may have
this explains why musculars constitute the large majority in every radical group humanness his hobby being human is an ideal to which this type adheres with almost religious zeal
he likes the commonplace things and is never a follower after the thing though he has no prejudices against it as the fourth type has an everyday individual the muscular does not care for show and except
when in trouble this type is not given to sliding out of difficulties like the alimentive nor to being temporarily submerged by them like the thoracic he stands up to them and backs them down when in trouble he acts
instead of merely thinking the most practical type
and is neither stingy nor extravagant he likes what works will it work is the question this type puts to everything if it won't
he will take little interest in it this type depends mostly upon his own hands and head to make his fortune for him and is seldom lured into risking money on things he has not seen the natural efficiency expert the shortest surest way
he insists on things being done in the most efficient way
but quick to reward merit the muscular does not necessarily demand money nor the things that money buys but he tries to get the workable out of life the property owner this type likes to have a fair bank account and to give his children
but he will plan years ahead for their education
but practical and very efficient in their parenthood
they bring up their children to work and teach them early in life how to do things as a result the children of this type become useful at an early age and usually know how to earn a living if necessary wants the necessities
the necessities of life are things this type demands and gets whereas the alimentive demands the comforts and the thoracic the unusual
but demands the things everyday men or women need for everyday existence
his heart and soul in things when some one shows great intensity of action directed toward a definite end we often say he puts his heart and soul into it
he makes no half hearted attempts an enthusiast enthusiasm does all things said emerson and therein explained why this type accomplishes so much the reason back of the muscular's enthusiasm is interesting
all emotions powerfully affect muscles a sad thought flits through your mind and instantly the muscles of your face droop
hundreds of similar illustrations
serve to prove how close is the connection between emotions and muscles the heart itself is nothing more nor less than a large tough leather like muscle possessing the best equipment for expressing emotion
this enthusiasm literally burns his way to the things he wants the plain talker when deeply moved this type talks well if the mental element is also strong he can become a good public speaker for he will
then have all the qualifications a powerful voice human sympathy democracy and simplicity
and to be too drastic in his statements accusations et cetera but he means what he tells you no more and usually not much less he avoids long words and complicated phrases even when well educated and speaks with directness and decisiveness
straightforward straight from the shoulder might be used to describe the method of the pure muscular in what he does and says
he goes through life over the shortest roads likes the common people
snubs the snobs the snob is disliked by every one but is the especial aversion of this type
the only person therefore whom the muscular is inclined to snub
taking him down a peg whenever he tries his high and mighty airs on him defends the under dog standing by the under dog is a kind of religion with this type
much of this vehemence in radicalism is due to the fact
the plutocrats when he furthers the causes of the proletariat
he is apt to say atrocious things and to exaggerate his grievances everything must yield to his dander once it is up
with every gun in place most of the time he is frequently in violent quarrels with his friends and since he does not recover from his anger quickly like the thoracic he often loses them for life the most generous friend when they like you
the musculars are the most abandoned in their generosity of all the types they go the limit for you as the westerner says and they go it with their money time love and enthusiasm all types do this for short periods occasionally
but the muscular often does it for people he scarcely knows if they strike his fancy or appeal to him
he feels from the first moment
this accounts for his democracy for his success as an orator and sometimes for his being broke not a quick forgiver but disappoint him in anything he considers vital
he finds it especially difficult to forgive people who take advantage of the generosity he so lavishly extends
with all his own giving to others he seldom takes much from others the naturally independent standing on his own legs
dependence is bred of necessity
rarely finds it necessary to call upon others for assistance love of self government plus fighting pluck both of which are inherent in the muscular irish race
likes plain foods meat and potatoes are the favorite diet of the average american muscular the alimentive wants richness and sweetness in food the thoracic wants variety and daintiness but the muscular wants large quantities of plain food
the alimentive specializes in desserts the thoracic in unusual dishes but the muscular wants solid fare
to confine himself to a vegetable diet when he is in moderate circumstances
far below or far above them
he does not feel the necessity for becoming a millionaire to obtain comforts like the alimentive nor for extravagances like the thoracic when he is rich philanthropy marks the expenditures of this type whenever he is rich
that is other human beings the most plain and durable things in furnishings architecture and service characterize the rich of this type in their homes the world's work done by musculars
broadly speaking the fat man manages the world the florid man entertains the world and the muscular man does the work of the world
or the food and drink things that lead toward laxity he is seldom a dissipator he likes to go to bed early work hard and make practical progress in his life he leads the simple and yet the most strenuous existence of any type entertainment he enjoys
plays about plain people their everyday experiences hopes and fears are the kind that interest this type most the problem play of a decade ago was a prime favorite with him
he frequently goes to serious lectures something the pure alimentive always avoids
because he feels they serve no practical purpose and get him nowhere this type does not attend the theater merely to be amused he goes for light on his everyday experiences and usually considers time wasted that is spent solely on entertainment music he likes
band music stirring tunes and all music with go to it appeals to this type reading true stories news and the sport page are the favorite newspaper reading of the muscular
nor to adventure so much as the thoracic but sticks to practical subjects almost exclusively
his favorite sports
football baseball handball tennis rowing and pugilism are his preferences all experts in these lines are largely muscular physical assets his wonderful muscular development upon which depends so much of life's happiness
since accomplishment is measured so largely thereby is the greatest physical asset of this type
physical liabilities a tendency to overwork is the chief physical pitfall of this type the disease to which he is most susceptible is rheumatism but owing to his love of activity he exercises more than any other type and thus forestalls many diseases
social assets
and thereby gains the confidence of those who meet him social liabilities
under which this type labors in social intercourse
his pugnacity is also a severe drawback emotional assets understanding enthusiasm and warmth of heart
these have made him the born orator the radical
emotional liabilities his tendency to anger and combat are shackles that seriously handicap him many times these lose him the big opportunities which his splendid traits might obtain for him business assets efficiency and willingness to work hard and long
are the greatest business assets of this type business liabilities pugnacity over trifles costs the average muscular many business chances he has to fight out every issue
this helps him as a lawyer or speaker but it hurts him in business curbing his combativeness in business should be one of his chief aims domestic strength
domestic weakness cruel angry words do the muscular much harm in his family life they cause his nearest and dearest to hold against him the resentments that follow should aim at
taking more frequent vacations relaxing each day and curbing his pugnacity should be the special aims of this type should avoid
should be avoided by this type strongest points democracy industry and great physical strength are the strongest points of this type weakest points inclination to overwork and to fight constitute the muscular's two weakest links
how to deal with this type socially don't put on airs nor expect him to when you are meeting this type socially be straightforward and genuine with him if you would win him how to deal with this type in business
the muscular is serious in business not a jollier like the alimentive nor a thriller like the thoracic and he wants you to be the same remember the chief distinguishing marks of the muscular in the order of their importance are
large firm muscles a square jaw and square hands
is largely of the muscular type
it was late in the afternoon
father van hove was still at work in the harvest field though the sun hung so low in the west that his shadow stretching far across the level green plain reached almost to the little red roofed house on the edge of the village which was its home
another shadow not so long and quite a little broader stretched itself beside his for mother van hove was also in the field
upon an old blue farm cart which stood near by
or carried handfuls of fresh grass to pier the patient white farm horse hitched to the cart these gay shadows belonged to jan and marie
and mie for short jan and marie were the twin son and daughter of father and mother van hove and though they were but eight years old they were already quite used to helping their father and mother with the work of their little farm
they knew how to feed the chickens and hunt the eggs and lead pier to water and pull weeds in the garden in the spring they had even helped sow the wheat and barley and now in the late summer they were helping to harvest the grain
the children had been in the field since sunrise but not all of the long bright day had been given to labor early in the morning their father's pitchfork had uncovered a nest of field mice and the twins had made another nest
to put the homeless field babies in hoping that their mother would find them again and resume her interrupted housekeeping then they had played for a long time in the tiny canal
there was also fidel the dog their faithful companion and friend
along the river bank for fidel
and what a pity it would be for jan and marie to miss a sight like that
had rested under a tree by the little river
which had been brought from home for their noon meal
for it is a long day that begins and ends with the midsummer sun the bees hummed so drowsily in the clover that mother van hove also took forty winks while father van hove led pier to the river for a drink
and tied him where he could enjoy the rich meadow grass for a while
the last level rays of the disappearing sun glistened on the red roofs of the village and the windows of the little houses gave back an answering flash of light on the steeple of the tiny church
the gilded cross shone like fire against the gray of the eastern sky the village clock struck seven and was answered faintly by the sound of distant chimes from the cathedral of malines
miles away across the plain for some time father van hove had been standing on top of the load catching the sheaves which mother van hove tossed up to him and stowing them away in the farm wagon
glanced at the western sky already rosy with promise of the sunset and at the weather cock above the cross on the church steeple then he looked down at the sheaves of wheat
we can finish in one more load let us go home now
as she lifted the last sheaf of wheat on her fork and tossed it at father van hove's feet
as for me i do not need a clock
and besides that there is bel at the pasture bars waiting to be milked and bellowing to call me i don't need a clock either chimed in marie patting her apron tenderly
i can tell time by my stomach it's a hundred years since we ate our lunch i know it is come then my starvelings said mother van hove pinching marie's fat cheek and you shall save your strength by riding home on the load
up you go she swung marie into the air as she spoke
she lifted jan to the horse's back while father van hove climbed down to earth once more and took up the reins fidel came back dripping wet from the river shook himself and fell in behind the wagon u u cried father van hove to old pier
and the little procession moved slowly up the cart path toward the shining windows of their red roofed house the home of the van hoves lay on the very outskirts of the little hamlet of meer beside it ran a yellow ribbon of road
as they turned from the cart path into the road the old blue cart became part of a little profession of similar wagons for the other men of meer were also late in coming home to the village from their outlying farms
how are your crops coming on
i have more wheat to the acre than ever before so have i thanks be to the good god answered father van hove the winter will find our barns full this year yes
that is if we have no bad luck
i shall believe nothing of the sort said father van hove stoutly are we not safe under the protection of our treaty no no neighbor there's nothing to fear belgium is neutral ground
mother van hove meanwhile had hastened ahead of the cart to stir up the kitchen fire and put the kettle on before the others should reach home and when father van hove at last drove into the farmyard
and what shall i do mother laughed father van hove you she called back you may
you've even so much as fed the pig let alone the other chores men are so slow she waved her hand gayly and disappeared behind the pasture bars as she spoke
but suddenly his hand touched the fairy whistle and he fell asleep at once
and the moon was so low in the sky that its slanting light had crept under the oak tree he slipped downstairs so lightly that his master heard nothing and then he found himself out in the beautiful night with the moonlight so bright that it was lighter than daytime
and there was robin goodfellow waiting for him under the tree he was so finely dressed that for a moment fairyfoot scarcely knew him
which was far finer than any ordinary velvet and he wore plumes and tassels and a ruffle around his neck and in his belt was thrust a tiny sword not half as big as the finest needle take me on your shoulder
he said to fairyfoot and i will show you the way fairyfoot took him up and they went their way through the forest
the moonlight seemed to grow brighter and purer at every step and the sleeping flowers sweeter and lovelier
robin goodfellow too seemed to be in very good spirits
he related a great many stories to fairyfoot and singularly enough they were all about himself and divers and sundry fairy ladies who had been so very much attached to him that he scarcely expected to find them alive at the present moment
he felt quite sure they must have died of grief in his absence i have caused a great deal of trouble in the course of my life he said regretfully shaking his head i have sometimes wished i could avoid it but that is impossible ahem
when my great aunt's grandmother rashly and inopportunely changed me into a robin i was having a little flirtation with a little creature who was really quite attractive
to morrow i shall go and place flowers on her tomb i thought fairies never died said fairyfoot
they were sounds of delicate music and of tiny laughter like the ringing of fairy bells ah said robin goodfellow there they are but it seems to me they are rather gay considering they have not seen me for so long
turn into the path almost immediately they found themselves in a beautiful little dell
for there were thousands of dewdrops and every dewdrop shone like a star there were also crowds and crowds of tiny men and women all beautiful all dressed in brilliant delicate dresses
all laughing or dancing or feasting at the little tables which were loaded with every dainty the most fastidious fairy could wish for now said robin goodfellow you shall see me sweep all before me put me down
fairyfoot put him down and stood and watched him while he walked forward with a very grand manner he went straight to the gayest and largest group he could see it was a group of gentlemen fairies
who were crowding around a lily of the valley on the bent stem of which a tiny lady fairy was sitting airily swaying herself to and fro and laughing and chatting with all her admirers at once she seemed to be enjoying herself immensely
indeed it was disgracefully plain that she was having a great deal of fun one gentleman fairy was fanning her one was holding her programme one had her bouquet
not with me the admirer with the fan whispered in her ear she gave him the most delightful little look just to make him believe she wanted to dance with him but really couldn't robin goodfelllow saw her and then she smiled sweetly upon all the rest every one of them
i am going to sit here and look at you and let you talk to me she said i do so enjoy brilliant conversation all the gentlemen fairies were so much elated by this that they began to brighten up and settle their ruffs
and fall into graceful attitudes and think of sparkling things to say because every one of them knew from the glance of her eyes in his direction that he was one whose conversation was brilliant
every one knew there could be no mistake about its being himself that she meant the way she looked just proved it
altogether it was more than robin goodfellow could stand for it was gauzita who was deporting herself in this unaccountable manner swinging on lily stems and going on so to speak with several parties at once
who hadn't any partner at all it was gauzita herself he made his way into the very centre of the group gauzita he said he thought of course she would drop right off her lily stem but she didn't
she simply stopped swinging a moment and stared at him gracious she exclaimed and who are you who am i cried mister goodfellow severely don't you remember me
no she said coolly i don't
robin goodfellow almost gasped for breath
what's your name robin goodfellow was almost paralyzed gauzita took up a midget of an eyeglass which she had dangling from a thread of a gold chain and she stuck it in her eye and tilted her impertinent little chin and looked him over
dear me she said you do look a trifle familiar
was changed into a robin you know she said such a ridiculous thing to be changed into what was his name oh yes
and he has been pecking at trees and things and hopping in and out of nests ever since i suppose how absurd and we have been enjoying ourselves so much since he went away
i think i never did have so lovely a time as i have had during these last two years i began to know you she added in a kindly tone just about the time he went away
i must smile and she did smile and nobody has pined away and died cried robin i haven't said gauzita swinging herself and ringing her bells again
he regarded this as insulting he went back to fairyfoot in such a hurry that he tripped on his sword and fell and rolled over so many times that fairyfoot had to stop him and pick him up is she dead asked fairyfoot
no said robin she isn't he sat down on a small mushroom and clasped his hands about his knees and looked mad just mad angry or indignant wouldn't express it i have a
great mind to go and be a misanthrope he said oh i wouldn't said fairyfoot he didn't know what a misanthrope was but he thought it must be something unpleasant wouldn't you
no answered fairyfoot well said robin i guess i won't let's go and have some fun they are all that way you can't depend on any of them never trust one of them i believe that creature has been engaged as much as twice since i left
but of course that's different i'm a man you know and well it's different we won't dwell on it let's go and dance but wait a minute first he took a little bottle from his pocket if you remain the size you are he continued
you will tread on whole sets of lancers and destroy entire germans if you drink this you will become as small as we are and then when you are going home i will give you something to make you large again fairyfoot drank from the little flagon
and immediately he felt himself growing smaller and smaller until at last he was as small as his companion now come on said robin on they went and joined the fairies
and they danced and played fairy games and feasted on fairy dainties and were so gay and happy that fairyfoot was wild with joy everybody made him welcome and seemed to like him and the lady fairies were simply delightful especially gauzita who took a great fancy to him
just before the sun rose robin gave him something from another flagon and he grew large again and two minutes and three seconds and a half before daylight the ball broke up and robin took him home and left him promising to call for him the next night
every night throughout the whole summer the same thing happened at midnight he went to the fairies dance and at two minutes and three seconds and a half before dawn he came home
and besides that all the fairies were his friends but when the summer was coming to an end robin goodfellow said to him this is our last dance at least it will be our last for some time
and gauzita gave him a tiny ring for a parting gift but the next night when robin did not come for him he felt very lonely indeed and the next day he was so sorrowful that he wandered far away into the forest
in the hope of finding something to cheer him a little he wandered so far that he became very tired and thirsty and he was just making up his mind to go home when he thought he heard the sound of falling water
it seemed to come from behind a thicket of climbing roses and he went towards the place and pushed the branches aside a little so that he could look through what he saw was a great surprise to him though it was the end of summer
inside the thicket the roses were blooming in thousands all around a pool as clear as crystal into which the sparkling water fell from a hole in the rock above it was the most beautiful clear pool that fairyfoot had ever seen
and he pressed his way through the rose branches and entering the circle they inclosed he knelt by the water and drank almost instantly his feeling of sadness left him and he felt quite happy and refreshed
he stretched himself on the thick perfumed moss and listened to the tinkling of the water and it was not long before he fell asleep when he awakened the moon was shining the pool sparkled like a silver plaque crusted with diamonds
and two nightingales were singing in the branches over his head and the next moment he found out that he understood their language just as plainly as if they had been human beings instead of birds
the water with which he had quenched his thirst was enchanted and had given him this new power poor boy said one nightingale he looks tired i wonder where he came from why my dear said the other
is it possible you don't know that he is prince fairyfoot what said the first nightingale the king of stumpinghame's son who was born with small feet yes said the second
is it possible you don't know about the pool where the red berries grow
never heard of it said the second nightingale rather crossly well explained the other you have to follow the brook for a day and three quarters and then take all the paths to the left until you come to the pool
it is very ugly and muddy and bushes with red berries on them grow around it well what of that said her companion
don't you know that either exclaimed her friend no ah said the first nightingale it was very sad she went out with her father the king who had a hunting party
and she lost her way and wandered on until she came to the pool her poor little feet were so hot that she took off her gold embroidered satin slippers and put them into the water
and the next minute they began to grow and grow and to get larger and larger until they were so immense she could hardly walk at all and though all the physicians in the kingdom have tried to make them smaller
nothing can be done and she is perfectly unhappy what a pity she doesn't know about this pool said the other bird
it is a pity said her companion but you know if we once let people know what this water will do we should be overrun with creatures bathing themselves beautiful and trampling our moss and tearing down our rose trees
and we should never have any peace that is true agreed the other very soon after they flew away and fairyfoot was left alone he had been so excited while they were talking that he had been hardly able to lie still
he was so sorry for the princess goldenhair and so glad for himself
he could go back to his father's court and his parents would perhaps be fond of him but he had so good a heart that he could not think of being happy himself and letting others remain unhappy when he could help them
so the first thing was to find the princess goldenhair and tell her about the nightingales fountain but how was he to find her the nightingales had not told him he was very much troubled indeed how was he to find her
suddenly quite suddenly he thought of the ring gauzita had given him when she had given it to him she had made an odd remark when you wish to go anywhere she had said hold it in your hand
he had thought it was one of her little jokes but now it occurred to him that at least he might try what would happen so he rose up held the ring in his hand closed his eyes and turned around twice what did happen
was that he began to walk not very fast but still passing along as if he were moving rapidly he did not know where he was going but he guessed that the ring did
he went on and on not getting in the least tired until about daylight he found himself under a great tree and on the ground beneath it was spread a delightful breakfast which he knew was for him he sat down and ate it
and then got up again and went on his way once more
he knew it was not stumpinghame because the people had not large feet but they all had sad faces and once or twice when he passed groups of them who were talking
he heard them speak of the princess goldenhair as if they were sorry for her and could not enjoy themselves while such a misfortune rested upon her so sweet and lovely and kind a princess they said
and it really seems as if she would never be any better the sun was just setting when fairyfoot came in sight of the palace it was built of white marble and had beautiful pleasure grounds about it but somehow there seemed to be a settled gloom in the air
fairyfoot had entered the great pleasure garden and was wondering where it would be best to go first when he saw a lovely white fawn with a golden collar about its neck come bounding over the flower beds
and he heard at a little distance a sweet voice saying sorrowfully come back my fawn i cannot run and play with you as i once used to do not leave me my little friend
and soon from behind the trees came a line of beautiful girls walking two by two all very slowly and at the head of the line first of all came the loveliest princess in the world dressed softly in pure white
that fairyfoot loved her in a moment and he knelt on one knee taking off his cap and bending his head until his own golden hair almost hid his face beautiful princess goldenhair beautiful and sweet princess may i speak to you he said
it surprised her to see one so poorly dressed kneeling before her in her palace gardens among the brilliant flowers but she always spoke softly to everyone what is there that i can do for you my friend she said
beautiful princess answered fairyfoot blushing i hope very much that i may be able to do something for you for me she exclaimed thank you friend
indeed i need a help i am afraid no one can ever give me gracious and fairest lady said fairyfoot it is that help i think nay i am sure
oh said the sweet princess you have a kind face and most true eyes and when i look at you i do not know why it is but i feel a little happier what is it you would say to me still kneeling before her
still bending his head modestly and still blushing fairyfoot told his story he told her of his own sadness and loneliness and of why he was considered so terrible a disgrace to his family he told her about the fountain of the nightingales
and while he told it her beautiful face changed from red to white and her hands closely clasped themselves together oh she said when he had finished
and how can i thank you for being so good to a poor little princess whom you had never seen only let me see you happy once more most sweet princess answered fairyfoot and that will be all i desire only if
perhaps i might once kiss your hand she held out her hand to him with so lovely a look in her soft eyes that he felt happier than he had ever been before even at the fairy dances
so no one was to go but the king himself the princess in a covered chair carried by two bearers the lord high chamberlain two maids of honour and fairyfoot before morning they were on their way
and the day after they reached the thicket of roses and fairyfoot pushed aside the branches and led the way into the dell the princess goldenhair sat down upon the edge of the pool and put her feet into it in two minutes they began to look smaller
she bathed them once twice three times and as the nightingales had said they became smaller and more beautiful than ever
as for the princess herself she really could not be more beautiful than she had been but the lord high chamberlain who had been an exceedingly ugly old gentleman after washing his face became so young and handsome
that the first maid of honour immediately fell in love with him whereupon she washed her face and became so beautiful that he fell in love with her and they were engaged upon the spot the princess could not find any words to tell fairyfoot how grateful she was and how happy
she could only look at him again and again with her soft radiant eyes and again and again give him her hand that he might kiss it she was so sweet and gentle that fairyfoot could not bear the thought of leaving her and when the king begged him to return to the palace with them
and live there always he was more glad than i can tell you to be near this lovely princess to be her friend to love and serve her and look at her every day was such happiness that he wanted nothing more
but first he wished to visit his father and mother and sisters and brothers in stumpinghame so the king and princess and their attendants went with him to the pool where the red berries grew and after he had bathed his feet in the water
even the king's and queen's seeming
he was received with unbounded rapture by his parents the king and queen felt that to have a son with feet of such a size was something to be proud of indeed they could not admire him sufficiently although the whole country was illuminated
and feasting continued throughout his visit but though he was glad to be no more a disgrace to his family it cannot be said that he enjoyed the size of his feet very much on his own account indeed he much preferred being prince fairyfoot
and he was quite glad to go to the fountain of the nightingales after his visit was at an end and bathe his feet small again and to return to the palace of the princess goldenhair with the soft and tender eyes there everyone loved him and he loved everyone
he loved the princess more dearly every day and of course as soon as they were old enough they were married and of course too they used to go in the summer to the forest and dance in the moonlight with the fairies who adored them both when they went to visit stumpinghame
they always bathed their feet in the pool of the red berries and when they returned they made them small again in the fountain of the nightingales they were always great friends with robin goodfellow and he was always very confidential with them about gauzita
who continued to be as pretty and saucy as ever some of these days he used to say severely i'll marry another fairy and see how she'll like that to see someone else basking in my society i'll get even with her
the weddin by jennie betts hartswick well it's over it's all over bein the last to leave i know that and i declare i'm that
how did i get two of em why it just
and when i came downstairs i found i'd clean forgot where i'd laid that box of cake i hunted
other one just as innocent on the hatrack stand where i had laid it so now i have three of em countin john's i just can't seem to realize that eleanor jamison is married at last can you
she took her time if ever anybody did they
eleanor's gone off a good deal lately don't you think so you hadn't noticed
but then you never was any great hand at noticin i've noticed you weren't why the other day when i was there offerin to help em get ready for the weddin i noticed that she looked real worn
but we all know that lines is a forerunner her hair's beginnin to turn too i noticed that comin out of church last sunday i dare say her knowing this made her less particular than she'd once have been and after all marryin any husband is a good deal like buyin a new black silk dress pattern
an awful risk you may look at it on both sides and hold it up to the light and pull it to see if it'll fray and try if it'll spot but you can't be sure what it'll do till after you've worn it a spell
there's one advantage to the dress pattern though you can make em take it back if you mistrust it won't wear if you haven't cut into it that is but when you've got a husband why you've got him to have and to hold for better and worse and good and all
thirty years and i'd just have gone anyway for i knew it was a mistake but john held out that twasn't that they didn't mean to have us to the house part so to settle it i went right over and told em
i told eleanor she mustn't feel put out about it we was all mortal and if it hadn't been for satisfyin john i'd never have let her know how careless she'd been of course i'd made allowance a weddin is upsettin to the intellect and so twas all right
i had a real good view of the ceremony but twasn't their fault that i had it just happened that way when john
but he said that all the front places was reserved for the relations of the bride and groom and then i noticed that they'd tied off the middle aisle about seven pews back with white satin ribbons and
it seemed real impolite to invite folks to a weddin and then take the best seats themselves well just then i happened to feel my shoelacin gettin loose and i stepped to one side to fix it and when i got up from stoopin
and my gloves on and buttoned i had to take em off to tie my shoe and straightened john's cravat for him why
and when we came up to the ribbons
and we all walked through and took seats i made john go into the pew ahead of me so's i could get out without disturbin anybody if i should have a headache or feel faint when john
do sit still i hear the bridal party comin
pretty near the whole of wrenville was there and i must say the church was a credit to the wrenville dressmakers i could pick out all their different fits without any trouble there was arabella satterlee's
she shapes her backs like the top of a coffin or sometimes they remind me more of a kite
you can always tell hers by the way the armholes draw she makes the minister's wife's but they'd
well when the organ
i whispered to john that they looked more as if eleanor was goin to give her pa away than him her eleanor's dress was elegant only awful plain it was made in new york at greenleaf's
well when they was all past i kept lookin round me for the groom and wonderin how i had come to miss him when all at once john nudged me and there he was right in front of me and the minister beginnin to marry em
and where he had sprung from i can't tell you this livin minute
over two years passed and the schlegel household continued to lead its life of cultured but not ignoble ease still swimming gracefully on the grey tides of london
concerts and plays swept past them money had been spent and renewed reputations won and lost and the city herself emblematic of their lives rose and fell in a continual flux
while her shallows washed more widely against the hills of surrey and over the fields of hertfordshire this famous building had arisen that was doomed today whitehall had been transformed it would be the turn of regent street tomorrow
and month by month the roads smelt more strongly of petrol and were more difficult to cross and human beings heard each other speak with greater difficulty breathed less of the air and saw less of the sky nature withdrew
the leaves were falling by midsummer the sun shone through dirt with an admired obscurity to speak against london is no longer fashionable the earth as an artistic cult has had its day
and the literature of the near future will probably ignore the country and seek inspiration from the town one can understand the reaction of pan and the elemental forces the public has heard a little too much
certainly london fascinates one visualizes it as a tract of quivering grey intelligent without purpose and excitable without love as a spirit that has altered before it can be chronicled
as a heart that certainly beats but with no pulsation of humanity it lies beyond everything nature with all her cruelty comes nearer to us than do these crowds of men
or liverpool street in the morning the city inhaling or the same thoroughfares in the evening the city exhaling her exhausted air we reach in desperation beyond the fog beyond the very stars the voids of the universe are ransacked to justify the monster
and stamped with a human face london is religion's opportunity not the decorous religion of theologians but anthropomorphic crude yes the continuous flow would be tolerable if a man of our own sort
not anyone pompous or tearful were caring for us up in the sky the londoner seldom understands his city until it sweeps him too away from his moorings
and margaret's eyes were not opened until the lease of wickham place expired she had always known that it must expire but the knowledge only became vivid about nine months before the event
it had seen so much happiness why had it to be swept away in the streets of the city she noted for the first time the architecture of hurry and heard the language of hurry on the mouths of its inhabitants
clipped words formless sentences potted expressions of approval or disgust month by month things were stepping livelier but to what goal the population still rose but what was the quality of the men born
the particular millionaire who owned the freehold of wickham place and desired to erect babylonian flats upon it what right had he to stir so large a portion of the quivering jelly he was not a fool
she had heard him expose socialism but true insight began just where his intelligence ended and one gathered that this was the case with most millionaires what right had such men but margaret checked herself
that way lies madness thank goodness she too had some money and could purchase a new home tibby now in his second year at oxford was down for the easter vacation and margaret took the opportunity of having a serious talk with him
did he at all know where he wanted to live tibby didn't know that he did know did he at all know what he wanted to do he was equally uncertain but when pressed remarked that he should prefer to be quite free of any profession
margaret was not shocked but went on sewing for a few minutes before she replied
he never strikes me as particularly happy
and finally dismissed him as having no possible bearing on the subject under discussion that bleat of tibby's infuriated helen but helen was now down in the dining room preparing a speech about political economy at times her voice could be heard declaiming through the floor
then there's guy that was a pitiful business besides shifting to the general every one is the better for some regular work groans i shall stick to it she continued smiling
men have developed the desire for work and they must not starve it it's a new desire it goes with a great deal that's bad but in itself it's good and i hope that for women too not to work will soon become as shocking as
not to be married was a hundred years ago i have no experience of this profound desire to which you allude enunciated tibby
said tibby faintly and leant so far back in his chair that he extended in a horizontal line from knees to throat and don't think i'm not serious because i don't use the traditional arguments
making money a sphere awaiting you and so on all of which are for various reasons cant she sewed on i'm only your sister i haven't any authority over you and i don't want to have any just to put before you
what i think the truth you see
nicer than women labouring under such a delusion why do you not marry i sometimes jolly well think i would if i got the chance has nobody arst you only ninnies do people ask helen plentifully tell me about them
no tell me about your ninnies then they were men who had nothing better to do said his sister feeling that she was entitled to score this point so take warning you must work or else you must pretend to work which is what i do
work work work if you'd save your soul and your body it is honestly a necessity dear boy look at the wilcoxes look at mister pembroke with all their defects of temper and understanding
such men give me more pleasure than many who are better equipped and i think it is because they have worked regularly and honestly spare me the wilcoxes he moaned
out to his duty duty always elicited a groan he doesn't want the money it is work he wants though it is beastly work dull country dishonest natives an eternal fidget over fresh water and food
a nation who can produce men of that sort may well be proud no wonder england has become an empire empire i can't
said margaret a little sadly they are too difficult for me i can only look at the men an empire bores me so far but i can appreciate the heroism that builds it up london bores me but what thousands of splendid people are labouring to make london
what it is he sneered what it is worse luck i want activity without civilization how paradoxical yet i expect that is what we shall find in heaven and i said tibby
want civilization without activity which i expect is what we shall find in the other place
oh yes or ilfracombe and swanage and tunbridge wells and surbiton and bedford there on no account london then
time suffered no inconvenience but all night and all this morning her apprehensions grew breakfast didn't seem the same no no more did lunch and so she strolled up to two wickham place as being the most likely place for the missing
i know what i know she kept repeating not uncivilly but with extreme gloom
some knew what others knew and others didn't and if they didn't then others again had better be careful
she had a face like a silkworm and the dining room reeks of orris root we chatted pleasantly a little about husbands and i wondered where hers was too and advised her to go to the police she thanked me
but i think she suspected me up to the last bags i writing to aunt juley about this now meg remember bags i bag it by all means
murmured margaret putting down her work i'm not sure that this is so funny helen it means some horrible volcano smoking somewhere doesn't it
her husband may be though said margaret moving to the window
was she pretty her figure may have been good once the flats their only outlook hung like an ornate curtain between margaret and the welter of london her thoughts turned sadly to house hunting
wickham place had been so safe she feared fantastically that her own little flock might be moving into turmoil and squalor
retorted helen and that topic was resumed but with acrimony then tea came and after tea helen went on preparing her speech and margaret prepared one too for they were going out to a discussion society on the morrow
i declare i've clean forgotten the old gentleman the old gentleman in the cart said john he was asleep among the straw the last time i saw him i've
very nearly remembered him twice since i came in but he went out of my head again
rouse up that's my hearty john said these latter words outside the door whither he had hurried with the candle in his hand miss slowboy conscious of some mysterious reference to the old gentleman and connecting in her mystified imagination
certain associations of a religious nature with the phrase was so disturbed that hastily rising from the low chair by the fire to seek protection near the skirt of her mistress and coming into contact as she crossed the doorway with an ancient stranger
she instinctively made a charge or butt at him with the only offensive instrument within her reach this instrument happening to be the baby great commotion and alarm ensued which the sagacity of boxer rather tended to increase
for that good dog more thoughtful than his master had it seemed been watching the old gentleman in his sleep lest he should walk off with a few young poplar trees that were tied up behind the cart
and he still attended on him very closely worrying his gaiters in fact and making dead sets at the buttons you're such an undeniably good sleeper sir said john when tranquillity was restored
in the meantime the old gentleman had stood bareheaded and motionless in the centre of the room
only that would be a joke and i know i should spoil it very near though murmured the carrier with a chuckle very near the stranger
and dark bright penetrating eyes looked round with a smile and saluted the carrier's wife by gravely inclining his head his garb was very quaint and odd a long long way behind the time its hue was brown all over
in his hand he held a great brown club or walking stick and striking this upon the floor it fell asunder and became a chair on which he sat down quite composedly there said the carrier turning to his wife
that's the way i found him sitting by the roadside upright as a milestone and almost as deaf sitting in the open air john in the open air replied the carrier just at dusk carriage paid he said and gave me eighteen pence then he got in and
if you please i was to be left till called for said the stranger mildly don't mind me
making no more of boxer than if he had been a house lamb the carrier and his wife exchanged a look of perplexity the stranger raised his head and glancing from the latter to the former said your daughter my good friend
wife returned john niece said the stranger wife roared john indeed observed the stranger surely very young he quietly turned over and resumed his reading but
before he could have read two lines he again interrupted himself to say baby yours
with a latch that any one could lift if he chose and a good many people did choose for all kinds of neighbours liked to have a cheerful word or two with the carrier though he was no great talker himself
for when he turned to shut the door and keep the weather out he disclosed upon the back of that garment the inscription g and t in large black capitals also the word glass in bold characters good evening john said the little man
good evening tilly good evening unbeknown how's baby mum boxer's pretty well i hope all thriving caleb replied dot
and i'm sure i need only look at you for another said caleb he didn't look at her though he had a wandering and thoughtful eye which seemed to be always projecting itself into some other time and place no matter what he said
a description which will equally apply to his voice or at john for another said caleb or at tilly as far as that goes or certainly at boxer busy just now caleb asked the carrier why pretty well john
he returned with the distraught air of a man who was casting about for the philosopher's stone at least pretty much so there's rather a run on noah's arks at present i could have wished to improve on the family but i don't see how it's to be done at the price
it would be a satisfaction to one's mind to make it clearer which was shems and hams and which was wives flies an't on that scale neither as compared with elephants you know ah well have you got anything in the parcel line for me john
the carrier put his hand into a pocket of the coat he had taken off and brought out carefully preserved in moss and paper a tiny flower pot there it is he said adjusting it with great care
not so much as a leaf damaged full of buds caleb's dull eye brightened as he took it and thanked him dear caleb said the carrier very dear at this season
never mind that it would be cheap to me what ever it cost returned the little man anything else john a small box replied the carrier here you are for caleb plummer
said the little man spelling out the direction with cash with cash john i don't think it's for me with care returned the carrier looking over his shoulder where do you make out cash
oh to be sure said caleb it's all right with care yes yes that's mine it might have been with cash indeed if my dear boy in the golden south americas had lived john you loved him like a son didn't you
caleb plummer with care yes
it's a box of dolls eyes for my daughters work
i wish it was or could be cried the carrier thankee said the little man you speak very hearty to think that she should never see the dolls and them a staring at her so bold all day long
that's where it cuts what's the damage john i'll damage you said john if you inquire dot very near well it's like you to say so observed the little man it's your kind way
let me see i think that's all i think not said the carrier try again
said caleb after pondering a little while to be sure that's what i came for but my head's so running on them arks and things he hasn't been here has he not he returned the carrier he's too busy courting
conclusion this correspondence by a meeting between some of the parties and a separation between the others could not to the great detriment of the post office revenue be continued any longer
very little assistance to the state could be derived from the epistolary intercourse of missus vernon and her niece
for the former soon perceived by the style of frederica's letters that they were written under her mother's inspection and therefore deferring all particular enquiry till she could make it personally in london ceased writing minutely
or often having learnt enough in the meanwhile from her open hearted brother of what had passed between him and lady susan to sink the latter lower than ever in her opinion
she was proportionably more anxious to get frederica removed from such a mother and placed under her own care and though with little hope of success was resolved to leave nothing unattempted that might offer
a chance of obtaining her sister in law's consent to it her anxiety on the subject made her press for an early visit to london and mister vernon who as it must already have appeared lived only to do whatever he was desired
soon found some accommodating business to call him thither with a heart full of the matter missus vernon waited on lady susan shortly after her arrival in town and was met with such an easy and cheerful affection as
made her almost turn from her with horror no remembrance of reginald no consciousness of guilt gave one look of embarrassment
and her pleasure in their society frederica was no more altered than lady susan the same restrained manners the same timid look in the presence of her mother as heretofore assured her aunt of her situation being uncomfortable
and confirmed her in the plan of altering it no unkindness however on the part of lady susan appeared persecution on the subject of sir james was entirely at an end his name merely mentioned to say that he was not in london
acknowledging in terms of grateful delight that frederica was now growing every day more and more what a parent could desire missus vernon surprized and incredulous knew not what to suspect
and without any change in her own views only feared greater difficulty in accomplishing them the first hope of anything better was derived from lady susan's asking her whether she thought frederica looked quite
as well as she had done at churchhill as she must confess herself to have sometimes an anxious doubt of london's perfectly agreeing with her missus vernon encouraging the doubt directly proposed her niece's returning with them into the country
lady susan was unable to express her sense of such kindness yet knew not from a variety of reasons how to part with her daughter and as though her own plans were not yet wholly fixed
concluded by declining entirely to profit by such unexampled attention missus vernon persevered however in the offer of it and though lady susan continued to resist her resistance in the course of a few days seemed
somewhat less formidable the lucky alarm of an influenza decided what might not have been decided quite so soon lady susan's maternal fears were then too much awakened for her to think of anything but frederica's removal from the risk of infection
above all disorders in the world she most dreaded the influenza for her daughter's constitution frederica returned to churchhill with her uncle and aunt and three weeks afterwards lady susan announced her being married to sir james martin
that she might have spared herself all the trouble of urging a removal which lady susan had doubtless resolved on from the first frederica's visit was nominally for six weeks but her mother though inviting her to return in one or two affectionate letters
was very ready to oblige the whole party by consenting to a prolongation of her stay and in the course of two months ceased to write of her absence and in the course of two or more to write to her at all
flattered and finessed into an affection for her which allowing leisure for the conquest of his attachment to her mother for his abjuring all future attachments and detesting the sex might be reasonably looked for in the course of a twelvemonth
three months might have done it in general but reginald's feelings were no less lasting than lively whether lady susan was or was not happy in her second choice i do not see how it can ever be ascertained
for who would take her assurance of it on either side of the question the world must judge from probabilities she had nothing against her but her husband and her conscience
sir james may seem to have drawn a harder lot than mere folly merited i leave him therefore to all the pity that anybody can give him for myself i confess that i can pity only miss mainwaring who
was defrauded of her due by a woman ten years older
chapter nine missus wilcox cannot be accused of giving margaret much information about life and margaret on the other hand has made a fair show of modesty and has pretended to an inexperience
that she certainly did not feel she had kept house for over ten years she had entertained almost with distinction she had brought up a charming sister and was bringing up a brother surely if experience is attainable she had attained it
and the atmosphere was one of polite bewilderment her tastes were simple her knowledge of culture slight and she was not interested in the new english art club
nor in the dividing line between journalism and literature which was started as a conversational hare the delightful people darted after it with cries of joy margaret leading them
and not till the meal was half over did they realize that the principal guest had taken no part in the chase there was no common topic missus wilcox whose life had been spent in the service of husband and sons
had little to say to strangers who had never shared it and whose age was half her own clever talk alarmed her and withered her delicate imaginings it was the social counterpart of a motorcar all jerks
and she was a wisp of hay a flower
her hostess was too much occupied in placing rothenstein to answer the question was repeated i hope that your sister is safe in germany by now margaret checked herself and said yes thank you i heard on tuesday
but the demon of vociferation was in her and the next moment she was off again only on tuesday for they live right away at stettin
never said missus wilcox gravely
was there such a thing as stettininity margaret swept on people at stettin drop things into boats out of overhanging warehouses
oh missus wilcox you would love the oder the river or rather rivers there seem to be dozens of them are intense blue and the plain they run through an intensest green
indeed that sounds like a most beautiful view miss schlegel so i say but helen who will muddle things says no it's like music
to be like music it's obliged to remind her of a symphonic poem
the part by the landing stage is in b minor if i remember rightly but lower down things get extremely mixed there is a slodgy theme in several keys at once meaning mud banks and another for the navigable canal and the exit into the baltic is in c
i am not sure that i agree do you said he turning to missus wilcox she replied i think miss schlegel puts everything splendidly
and a chill fell on the conversation oh missus wilcox say something nicer than that it's such a snub to be told you put things splendidly i do not mean it as a snub
your last speech interested me so much generally people do not
i have long wanted to hear what is said on the other side the other side then you do disagree oh good give us your side i have no side but my husband her voice softened the chill increased
has very little faith in the continent and our children have all taken after him on what grounds do they feel that the continent is in bad form missus wilcox had no idea she paid little attention to grounds
she was not intellectual nor even alert and it was odd that all the same she should give the idea of greatness margaret zigzagging with her friends over thought and art was conscious of a personality that transcended their own
and dwarfed their activities there was no bitterness in missus wilcox there was not even criticism she was lovable and no ungracious or uncharitable word had passed her lips
yet she and daily life were out of focus one or the other must show blurred and at lunch she seemed more out of focus than usual and nearer the line that divides life from a life that may be of greater importance
its literature and art have what one might call the kink of the unseen about them and this persists even through decadence and affectation
people will there discuss with humility vital questions that we here think ourselves too good to touch with tongs i do not want to go to prussian said missus wilcox not even to see that interesting view that you were describing
and for discussing with humility i am too old we never discuss anything
it cannot stand without them said missus wilcox unexpectedly catching on to the thought and rousing for the first and last time a faint hope in the breasts of the delightful people it cannot stand without them and i sometimes think but
there was a little silence one admits that the arguments against the suffrage are extraordinarily strong said a girl opposite leaning forward and crumbling her bread are they
i never follow any arguments i am only too thankful not to have a vote myself
i don't know i don't know i must be getting back to my overhanging warehouse said the man they've turned disgracefully strict
won't you even have coffee they left the dining room closing the door behind them and as missus wilcox buttoned up her jacket she said what an interesting life you all lead in london no
and am not pretending
for another you younger people move so quickly that it dazes me charles is the same dolly the same but we are all in the same boat old and young i never forget that they were silent for a moment
then with a newborn emotion they shook hands the conversation ceased suddenly when margaret re entered the dining room her friends had been talking over her new friend and had dismissed her as
malignity brutality malevolence and inhumanity manners morals habits and behavior marvelous wonderful extraordinary and incredible
merciless remorseless relentless and ruthless mild gentle humble and submissive mismanagement indecision obstinacy and hardihood
mixture medley variety and diversification modesty fineness sensitiveness and fastidiousness money position power and consequence mood
temper humor and caprice motive impulse incentive and intimation mysterious dark secret and enigmatical n
narrow limited selfish and bigoted necessary expedient indispensable and unavoidable necessity emergency
nonsense trash twaddle and rubbish novel recent rare and unusual noxious unwholesome mischievous and destructive o
obdurate unfeeling callous and obstinate obedient respectful dutiful and submissive object propose protest and decline obliging kind helpful and courteous
obscure shadowy intricate and mysterious
obstinacy pertinacity
disagreeable distasteful and obnoxious officious impertinent insolent and meddlesome p
uglinesses and deformities patient loyal hard working and true peace quiet tranquillity and harmony peculiar individual specific and appropriate
perplex embarrass confuse and mystify phrases figures metaphors and quotations piteous woebegone dismal and dolorous placid meek gentle and moderate
plain transparent simple and obvious play diversion pastime and amusement pleasant jocular witty and facetious pliable ductile supple and yielding
poetry sentiment morality and religion polished deft superficial and conventional polite polished cultured and refined
positive direct explicit and dogmatic powerful efficient vivid and forcible precise delicate discriminating and fastidious
prejudicial injurious noxious and pernicious preposterous irrational unreasonable and nonsensical pretense subterfuge simulation and disguise
prevent restrain dissuade and dishearten primary foremost leading and principal
progress prosperity peace and happiness prolix prosaic prolonged
comforts habits and conveniences prudence judgment wisdom and discretion pulsing coursing throbbing and beating
purified exalted fortified and illumined
harmless innocent innocuous and inoffensive harmony order sublimity and beauty harsh discordant disagreeable and ungracious
soothed consoled and assuaged healthy hale sound and wholesome heavy sluggish dejected and crushing high minded truthful honest and courageous
holy hallowed sacred and consecrated homely hideous horrid and unsightly honor obedience virtue and loyalty
hopefulness peace sweetness and strength hopes dreams programs and ideals hospitable generous tolerant and kindly hot
hasty fervent and fiery humane gentle kind and generous humble simple submissive and unostentatious i
idea imagination conception and ideal idleness recreation repose and rest ignominious infamous despicable and contemptible
illumine instruct enlighten and inform imaginative sensitive nervous and highly strung impatience indolence wastefulness and inconclusiveness impel
indifference caution coldness and weariness indolent passive sluggish and slothful ineffectual powerless useless and unavailing
infamy shame dishonor and disgrace infantile childish boyish and dutiful informal natural unconventional and careless
insolent impudent impertinent and flippant integrity frankness sincerity and truthfulness intellectual moral emotional and esthetic
intense earnest violent and extreme invent discover design and contrive inveterate confirmed chronic and obstinate
invincible unconquerable insurmountable and insuperable irksome tiresome tedious and annoying
irregular uncertain devious and unsystematic irritable choleric petulant and susceptible j
jangle wrangle squabble and quarrel jealousy suspicion envy and watchfulness joyful lively happy and hilarious
keen intelligent penetrating and severe keep protect support and sustain kind sympathetic ready and appreciative kingly noble imperial and august
l lapses makeshifts delays and irregularities lawful legitimate allowable and just lazy listless drowsy and indifferent
lightly freely unscrupulously and irresponsibly lively vivacious vigorous and forcible loss deprivation forfeiture and waste
loud noisy showy and clamorous loutish prankish selfish and cunning love depth loyalty and faithfulness
i imagine that no one will be disposed i insist upon it i intend to propose i know from experience how i know full well
i know i am treading on thin ice i know it has been questioned i know it is said i know it will be said
i know not how else to express i know not in what direction to look i know not of my own knowledge i know not where else to find i know perfectly well
i know that it is impossible for me to i know that this is the feeling i know that what i may say is true i know there are some who think i know there is a theory among us
i know too well i know very well the difference between i know well it is not for me i know well the sentiments i know you are all impatient to hear
i know you will do all in your power i know you will interpret what i say i labor under a degree of prejudice i lately heard it affirmed
i lay it down as a principle i leave history to judge i leave it to you i leave the arduous task i leave to others to speak
i long to speak a word or two i look hopefully to i look in vain i look with encouragement i look with inexpressible dread i look with mingled hope and terror
i make my appeal to i make no extravagant claim i make this abrupt acknowledgment i marvel that i may add speaking for my own part
i may be allowed to make one remark i may be permitted to add i may confess to you i may safely appeal i may say to you calmly
i may seem to have been diffuse i may take as an instance i may venture upon a review i mean by this i mean moreover
i mean something more than that i mention it to you to justify i mention these facts because i mention this not by way of complaint
i might bring you another such case i might deny that i might enter into such detail i might go further i might go on indefinitely
i might go on to illustrate i might of course point first i might reasonably question the justice i might try to explain i might venture to claim
i might well have desired i might well think i must ask an abrupt question i must be careful about what i say i must be contented with
i must be excused if i say i must bow in reverence i must call your attention for a moment i must conclude abruptly i must confess that i became rather alarmed
i must crave your indulgence i must express to you again i must fairly tell you i must find some fault with i must for want of time omit i must here admit
i must lament i must leave any detailed development i must mention with praise i must not allow myself to indulge i must not for an instant be supposed
i must not overlook i must now beg to ask i must pause a moment to i must proceed i must qualify the statement
i must remind my hearers of i must reply to some observations i must return to the subject i must say that i am one of those i must speak plainly
i must suppose however i must take occasion to say i must thank you once more i must try to describe to you i myself have boundless faith
i need not enter into i need not follow out the application i need not i am certain assure you i need not say how much i thank you
i need not show how inconsistent i need not specially recommend to you i need not wander far in search i need only to observe
i need say nothing in praise i need scarcely observe i need to guard myself right here i neither affirm nor deny i next come to the implicit assumption
i note with particular pleasure i notice it as affording an instance i noticed incidentally the fact i now address you on a question
i now come sir to the second head i now have the pleasure of presenting to you i now pass to the question of i now proceed to inquire i now reiterate
i observe then in the first place i only ask a favorable construction of i only marvel i only wish you to recognize
i open the all important question i ought to give an illustration i own i can not help feeling i particularly allude to i pass on from that
i pass then to our second division i pause for a moment to say i pause to confess once more i pay tribute to i personally know that it is so
i pray god i may never i predict that you will i prefer a practical view i presume i shall have to admit i presume that i shall not be disbelieved
i proceed to another important phase i profess i propose briefly to glance at i propose therefore to consider
i purposely have avoided i question whether i quite endorse what has been said i rather look forward to a time i readily grant
i really do not know i really thought that you would excuse me i recall another historical fact i recognize the high compliment conveyed
i refuse to believe i regard as an erroneous view i regard it as a tribute i regard it as a very great honor i regret that i am not able to remember
i regret that it is not possible for me i regret the time limits me i regret this the less i rejoice in an occasion like this i rejoice that events have occurred
character disposition temperament and reputation charm
circumstance condition environment and surroundings claim grab trick and compel clean fastidious frugal and refined clear
distinct obvious and intelligible clumsy crawling snobbish and comfort loving coarse gross offensive and nauseous
coax flatter wheedle and persuade cogitate contemplate meditate and ponder
submit obey and satisfy confuse distort involve and misinterpret consistent congruous firm and harmonious cool collected calm and self possessed
copious commanding sonorous and emotional cowardly timid shrinking and timorous crazy absurd nonsensical and preposterous
crude rough jagged and pitiless d daring cordial discerning and optimistic darkness dimness dulness and blackness
deadly destructive fatal and implacable deceit delusion treachery and sham deep abstruse learned and profound deficient
inadequate scanty and incomplete define explain determine and circumscribe degrade defame humble and debase delicacy
daintiness tact and refinement delicious sweet palatable and delightful democracy equality justice and freedom deny dismiss exclude and repudiate
deprive dispossess divest and despoil describe delineate depict and characterize designed contrived planned and executed desperate extreme
wreckless and irremediable despicable abject servile and worthless destructive detrimental deleterious and subversive
developed revealed measured and tested difference disagreement discord and estrangement difficult arduous intricate and perplexing
diffuse discursive rambling and wordy
disconsolate desolate pessimistic and impossible discrimination acuteness insight and judgment disgust distaste loathing and abhorrence
dissatisfied rebellious unsettled and satirical distinct definite clear and obvious distinguished glorious illustrious and eminent disturbed
shaken distressed and bewildered
dogmatic bigoted libelous and unsympathizing doubt indecision suspense and perplexity dread disgust repugnance and dreariness
dreary dispirited unhappy and peevish dry lifeless tiresome and uninteresting dubious equivocal fluctuating and uncertain
e earth air stars and sea efficient forcible adequate and potent emaciated scraggy meager and attenuated
energy eagerness earnestness and enthusiasm enhance exalt elevate and intensify enormous base prodigious and colossal
enrage incense infuriate and exasperate enthusiasm devotion intensity and zeal envy discontent deception and ignorance
unchangeable unerring and intelligent evil misfortune corruption and disaster exacting suspicious irritable and wayward exalt
dignify elevate and extol examination inquiry scrutiny and research
abnormal and extraordinary excitement distraction diversion and stimulation exhaustive thorough radical and complete expend dissipate waste and squander
f facile showy cheap and superficial faithful truthful loyal and trustworthy fame distinction dignity and honor
fate fortune contingency and opportunity fatuous dreamy moony and impracticable fear timidity cowardice and pusillanimity
feeble languid timid and irresolute ferocious restive savage and uncultivated fervent enthusiastic anxious and zealous
fiction fancy falsehood and fabrication fine fragile delicate and dainty firmness steadfastness stability and tenacity
flash flame flare and glare flat insipid tame and monotonous fluctuating hesitating vacillating and oscillating
folly foolishness imbecility and fatuity foolhardy hasty adventurous and reckless fop
and energy formal precise stiff and methodical fortunate happy prosperous and successful fragile frail brittle and delicate
freedom familiarity liberty and independence frightful fearful direful and dreadful frivolous trifling petty and childish
fruitful fertile prolific and productive fruitless vain trivial and foolish frustrate defeat disappoint and thwart
fully completely abundantly and perfectly furious impetuous boisterous and vehement g
gallant ardent fearless and self sacrificing garnish embellish beautify and decorate generous candid easy and independent genius intellect aptitude and capacity
genteel refined polished and well bred gentle persuasive affective and simple genuine true unaffected and sincere ghastly grim shocking and hideous
gibe mock taunt and jeer giddy fickle flighty and thoughtless gleam glimmer glance and glitter gloomy dismal dark and dejected
great joyous strong and triumphant greed avarice covetousness and cupidity
the other officer stationed himself at the back door to carry out a similar policy at that point
i am happy to announce said quigg that the counsel of mister whedell one of the most distinguished ornaments of the bar has now arrived and will take charge of his client's affairs
to those who know the name of aside by the way your name escapes me at this moment maltboy said matthew a little flattered with this compliment
i repeat that to those who know the name of maltboy no assurance need be given that mister whedell's affairs will be honorably adjusted quigg again winked at the young lawyer
matthew having recovered from the flutter into which he was thrown was about to disclaim the office thus thrust upon him
he had come to listen to the disturbance and smile at it it is my dear maltboy he exclaimed catching at the straw of a hope thank heaven he is here yes gentlemen he is my lawyer
and i refer you to him for the adjustment of all your claims come up my dear maltboy oh it is dear good mister maltboy added a voice qualified by sobs
how kind of him to to come here at this time oh ho
and for beauty in tears he would cheerfully lay down his life
but rushed up stairs just in time to receive the falling form of missus chiffield in his arms matthew felt that he had no moral right to clasp that burden of loveliness
but he took it tenderly in his arms and followed mister whedell into the room which father and daughter had just left there he deposited it with the gentleness of a professional nurse on the sofa
when it opened its eyes and faintly said heaven bless you our benefactor the creditors were pouring into the apartment in the name of humanity said mister whedell
leave us for a few moments i appeal to you as gentlemen and christians the appeal produced no effect those to whom it was made conceiving perhaps that it did not apply to them
maltboy added the remark if you will withdraw at once i promise you that in fifteen minutes we will proceed to business that's all right said quigg winking again at matthew let us go friends
the proposition was accepted as the best thing that could be done under the circumstances and all the creditors retired
in the chiffield alliance clementina corroborated the paternal statement with numerous particulars delivered in a heart broken voice showing what an abandoned wretch her husband was
matthew listened nodded his head and said the brute
at intervals looking the while into the deep blue eyes of missus chiffield which sparkled with tears if he had but been the lucky man he thought but it suddenly occurred to matthew
that these thoughts were a little irregular and besides he had a fresh recollection of the troubles from which fayette overtop had not yet emerged
he therefore pulled out his watch and informed mister whedell that thirteen of the fifteen minutes were consumed
mister whedell taking the hint came down to business his affairs were of a kind that were easily settled he owned nothing except his personal clothing and a few small articles of furniture
everything else had been obtained on credit and either not paid for or only partly paid for this statement of affairs occupied one minute a minute remained which mister whedell put to good use
he looked appealingly at maltboy so did missus chiffield my dear friend said mister whedell i find myself at an advanced period of life in this cold world
deserted penniless you are the only person living that i can call by the sacred name of friend i have already experienced your noble bounty in a loan of two hundred dollars
tramps of creditors becoming louder outside in a word sir can you lend me one hundred dollars more it will at least save me from the self destruction which i had contemplated
at the word self destruction missus chiffield cried aloud and threw herself on her parent's breast with a fresh flood of tears these tears swept away the last trace of matthew's prudence
he whipped out his pocket book and delivered over five twenty dollar gold pieces to mister whedell the sight of those beautiful coins seemed to reconcile the wretched man to life
mister whedell was about to thank his preserver most profusely and missus chiffield to burst into a new torrent when matthew to avoid these demonstrations rose opened the door
and let in the pack of hungry creditors now matthew had in these fleeting fifteen minutes thought up no plan of settlement
being taken aback by the sudden reappearance of the creditors he did not know what to propose everything fixed i s'pose said rickarts the shoemaker
when matthew was in strong doubt what to do in any case it was his invariable custom to postpone i think he feebly suggested that we had better postpone final action say till three p m
it would give us time can't come it no go now or never were some of the exclamations which went up from the excited crowd
matthew was too good natured to quarrel with these insinuations my friends said he as you appear to have unlimited confidence in each other
suppose you appoint a committee to dispose of this property which my client generously cries of oh oh turns over to you and divide the proceeds among yourselves pro rata
the creditors looked at each other suspiciously a want of that childlike trust which in a perfect state of society should exist between man and man was unhappily too apparent
just then when matthew was at his wits end the police man who guarded the front door entered the room and delivered a note to mister whedell that gentleman perused it languidly and passed it to matthew
good news said he mister abernuckle the owner of these premises who was intending to move in to day writes that he will not be able to take possession until noon to morrow
therefore i say let the creditors employ an auctioneer hang out the red flag sell and divide before that period arrives the large creditors were silent
quigg veiling his dissatisfaction under a look of complete misanthropy but the small ones headed by rickarts the shoemaker highly commended it besides added a butter man
who had originally been in the mock auction line don't ye see we can all stay at the auction and kind o bid on the things hey the butter man nodded at the lesser creditors
the idea took only a few of the larger creditors holding out against it my friends again observed matthew drawing on his stores of legal knowledge you seem to forget that
if my client chose to resist your claims he could retain a large amount of furniture as household articles under the law which exempts certain necessary things
but with rare magnanimity he gives up all the allusion to magnanimity produced some derisive laughs which slightly nettled matthew auction it off said he
or we throw ourselves back on our reserved rights at this hint everybody gave in and a committee consisting of quigg rickarts and the butter man
was appointed to make all the arrangements for an immediate sale it is not pleasant to pursue this painful theme the decline and fall of the whedell household farther
let the historian barely record that the sale attracted a large crowd and that by the ingenious side bids of the creditors the furniture was run up to twice its original value
no uncommon thing at auctions that the creditors large and small were well satisfied with the results that mister whedell and daughter
moved to boston and became stipendiaries upon a younger brother who had made a fortune in the upholstery business and whom mister whedell had always despised that mister chiffield
took to drink tenaciously in consequence of his misfortunes and never saw or sought after his wife from the day when he discovered that she was dowerless
that missus chiffield obtained a divorce from the bonds of matrimony but had not married again at last accounts
carl's adviser had been less efficient than hugh's therefore he knew what his courses were where the classes met and the hours the names of his instructors
and the requirements other than latin for a b s degree carl said that he was taking a b s because he had had a year of greek at kane
and was therefore perfectly competent to make full use of the language he could read the letters on the front doors of the fraternity houses the boys found that their courses were the same
but that they were in different sections hugh was in a dilemma he could make nothing out of his card here said carl give the thing to me
my adviser was a good scout and wised me up this p c isn't paper cutting as you might suppose it's gym you'll get out of that by signing up for track
p c means physical culture think of that you can sign up for track any time to morrow down at the gym
section seven and m is math you re in section three lat means latin of course section six my adviser he tried pretty hard to be funny
said that g s wasn't glorious salvation but general science that meets in the big lecture hall in cranston we all go to that
see that's all there is to it now this thing he held up a printed schedule tells you where the classes meet with a great deal of labor discussion and profanity
they finally got a schedule made out that meant something to hugh he heaved a brobdingnagian sigh of relief when they finished well he exclaimed that's that
at last i know where i'm going you certainly saved my life i know where all the buildings are so it ought to be easy sure said carl encouragingly
it's easy now there's nothing to do till to morrow until eight forty five when we attend chapel to the glory of the lord i think i'll pray to morrow i may need it
christ i hate to study me too hugh lied he really loved books but somehow he couldn't admit the fact which had suddenly become shameful
to carl let's go to the movies he suggested changing the subject for safety right o carl put on his freshman cap and flung hugh's to him
gloria nielsen is there and she's a pash baby ought to be a good fillum the blue and orange it was the only movie theater in town
was almost full when the boys arrived only a few seats near the front were still vacant a freshman started down the aisle his baby bonnet stuck jauntily on the back of his head
freshman kill him murder the frosh shouts came from all parts of the house and an instant later hundreds of peanuts shot swiftly at the startled freshman
cap cap cap off there was a panic of excitement upper classmen were standing on their chairs to get free throwing room the freshman snatched off his cap
drew his head like a scared turtle down into his coat collar and ran for a seat hugh and carl tucked their caps into their coat pockets and attempted to stroll nonchalantly down the aisle
they hadn't taken three steps before the bombardment began like their classmate they ran for safety then some one in the front of the theatre threw a peanut at some one in the rear
the fight was on yelling like madmen the students stood on their chairs and hurled peanuts the front and rear of the house automatically dividing into enemy camps
when the fight was at its hottest three girls entered wimmen wimmen as the girls walked down the aisle infinitely pleased with their reception
five hundred men stamped in time with their steps no sooner were the girls seated than there was a scramble in one corner an excited scuffling of feet i've got it
a boy screamed he stood on his chair and held up a live mouse by its tail there was a shout of applause and then play catch
the boy dropped the writhing mouse into a peanut bag screwed the open end tight closed and then threw the bag far across the room another boy caught it and threw it
this time over the girls heads they screamed and jumped upon their chairs holding their skirts and dancing up and down in assumed terror back over their heads
back and over again and again the bagged mouse was thrown while the girls screamed and the boys roared with delight suddenly one of the girls threw up her arm
caught the bag deftly held it for a second and then tossed it into the rear of the theater cheers of terrifying violence broke loose ray ray atta girl
hot dog ray ray and then the lights went out moosick moosick moo sick the audience stamped and roared whistled and howled
moosick we want moosick the pianist an undergraduate calmly strolled down the aisle get a move on earn your salary give us moosick
the pianist paused to thumb his nose casually at the entire audience and then amid shouts and hisses sat down at the piano and began to play love nest
immediately the boys began to whistle and as the comedy was utterly stupid they relieved their boredom by whistling the various tunes that the pianist played until the miserable film
flickered out then the feature and the fun began during the stretches of pure narrative the boys whistled but when there was any real action they talked
the picture was a melodrama of love and hate as the advertisement said the boys told the actors what to do they revealed to them the secrets of the plot
she's hiding behind the door harold no no not that way hey dumbbell behind the door catch him gloria he's only shy
no that's not him the climactic fight brought shouts of encouragement to the villain kill him shoot one to his kidneys ahhhhh
as the villain hit the hero in the stomach muss his hair attaboy kill the skunk and finally groans of despair when the hero won his inevitable victory
but it was the love scenes that aroused the greatest ardor and joy the hero was given careful instructions some neckin harold kiss her kiss her
ahhh harold harold you're getting rough she's vamping you harold stop it gloria he's a good boy
and so on until the picture ended in the usual close up of the hero and heroine silhouetted in a tender embrace against the setting sun the boys breathed ahhhh and
ecstatically and laughed the meretricious melodrama did not fool them but they delighted in its absurdities the lights flashed on and the crowd filed out
wise cracking about the picture and commenting favorably on the heroine's figure there were shouts to this fellow or that fellow to come on over and play bridge
and suggestions here and there to go to a drug store and get a drink hugh and carl strolled home over the dark campus both of them radiant with excitement
hugh frankly so golly i did enjoy that he exclaimed i never had a better time it was sure hot stuff i don't want to go to the room
let's walk for a while yeah it was pretty good carl admitted nope i can't go walking gotta write a letter who to the harem
carl hunched his shoulders until his ears touched his coat collar gettin cold fall's here nope not the harem my old lady
hugh looked at him bewildered he was finding carl more and more a conundrum he consistently called his mother his old lady insisted that she was a damned nuisance
and wrote to her every night hugh was writing to his mother only twice a week
chapter twenty the samaritan skipper i clung to that heaven sent bit of wreckage exhausted and weary until the light began to break in the east
i was numbed and shivering with cold but i was alive and safe that square yard of good and solid wood was as much to me as if it had been a floating island and as the light grew and grew
and the sun at last came up a ball of fire out of the far horizon i looked across the sea on all sides hoping to catch sight of a sail
of anything that would tell me of the near presence of human beings and one fact i realized at once i was further away from land than when i had begun my battle with death there was no sign of land in the west
the sky was now clear and bright on all sides but there was nothing to break the line where it met the sea before the fading of the light on the previous evening i had easily made out the well known outlines of the cheviots on one hand and of says law on the other
i knew from that fact that i had somehow drifted further and further away from the coast there was accordingly nothing to do but wait the chance of being sighted and picked up
and i set to work as well as i could on my tiny raft to chafe my limbs and get some warmth into my body and never in my life did i bless the sun as i did that morning for when he sprang out of bed in the northeast skies
it was with his full and hearty vigour of high springtide and his heat warmed my chilled blood and sent a new glow of hope to my heart but that heat was not an unmixed blessing
it was perhaps one hour after sunrise when my agony was becoming almost insupportable that i first noticed a wisp of smoke on the southern rim of the circle of sea
i never strained my eyes for anything as i did for that patch of grey against the cloudless blue it grew bigger and bigger i knew of course that it was some steamer gradually approaching
but it seemed ages before i could make out her funnels ages before i saw the first bit of her black bulk show up above the level of the dancing waves yet there she was at last
coming bows on straight in my direction my nerves must have given out at the sight i remember the tears rolling down my cheeks i remember hearing myself make strange sounds which i suppose were those of relief and thankfulness
and then the horror of being unseen of being left to endure more tortures of thirst
fell on me and long before she was anywhere near me i was trying to balance myself on the grating so that i could stand erect and attract her attention she was a very slow going craft that
not able to do more than nine or ten knots at best and another hour passed before she was anywhere near me but thank god she came within a mile of me and i made shift to stand up on my raft and to wave to her
and thereon she altered her course and lumbered over in my direction she was one of the ugliest vessels that ever left a shipyard
and i had certainly never been so thankful for anything as for her solid and dirty deck when willing and kindly hands helped me up on it half an hour after that with dry clothes on me and hot coffee and rum inside me
i was closeted with the skipper in his cabin telling him under a strict pledge of secrecy as much of my tale as i felt inclined to share with him
and he swore warmly and plentifully when he heard how treacherously i had been treated intimating it as the just then dearest wish of his heart to have the handling of the man who had played me the trick
them was grand days when there was more licence and liberty in punishing malefactors
it seemed years since i had laughed and yet it was only a few hours after all before i can set the law to work on him i must get on dry land captain i answered
dundee he replied dundee and we're just between sixty and seventy miles away now and it's near seven o'clock we'll be in dundee early in the afternoon anyway
i don't want that man to know i'm alive yet it'll be a nice surprise for him later but there are those that i must let know as soon as possible so the first thing i'll do i'll wire and in the meantime
let me have a sleep the steamer that had picked me up was nothing but a tramp plodding along with a general cargo from london to dundee and its accommodation was as rough as its skipper was homely
but it was a veritable palace of delight and luxury to me after that terrible night
and was still asleep when he laid a hand on me at three o'clock that afternoon
he had rightly sized up the situation
that was where the rest of my possessions were sunk or floating
but what is it you're going to do how long are you going to stop here in dundee captain i asked four days he answered i'll be discharging tomorrow and loading the next two days and then i'll be away again
lend me the clothes and a sovereign said i i'll wire to my principal the gentleman i told you about to come here at once with clothes and money so i'll repay you and hand your suit back first thing tomorrow morning when i'll bring him to see you
he immediately pulled a sovereign out of his pocket and turning to a locker produced a new suit of blue serge and some necessary linen aye he remarked a bit wonderingly
you'll be for fetching him along here then and for what purpose i want him to take your evidence about picking me up i answered that's one thing and
and don't tell anybody here of what's happened and pass the word for silence to your crew it'll be something in their pockets when my friend comes along he was a cute man
and he understood that my object was to keep the news of my escape from sir gilbert carstairs
and the serge suit fitting me very well i was in the streets of dundee
seeking out a telegraph office
while i worked out a problem that needed some little thought i must let my mother and maisie know of my safety at once i must let mister lindsey know too i knew what must have happened there at berwick
that monstrous villain would sneak home and say that a sad accident had happened me
when i thought of what maisie and my mother must have suffered after hearing his tales and excuses but i did not want him to know i was safe i did not want the town to know
then everything would be noised around and after thinking it all over i sent mister lindsey a telegram in the following words hoping that he would fully understand
give post office people orders not to let this out
it seemed all wrong somehow and all right in another way and however badly put it was it expressed my meaning so i handed it in and my borrowed sovereign with it
i went out of the telegraph office to stare around me it was a queer thing but i was now as light hearted as could be
i was vastly relieved to be able to get in touch with my own people within an hour perhaps sooner they would have the news
and finding myself just then in the neighbourhood of the north british railway station i went in and managed to make out that if mister lindsey was at the office when my wire arrived and acted promptly in accordance with it he and they
could reach dundee by a late train that evening that knowledge of course made me in a still more light hearted mood but there was another source of my satisfaction and complaisance
for my revenge on sir gilbert carstairs and what had been a mystery was one no longer i went back to the dock where i had left the tramp steamer and told its good natured skipper what i had done
for he was as much interested in the affair as if he had been my own brother and that accomplished i left him again and went sight seeing
i wandered up and down and about dundee till i was leg weary and it was nearly six o'clock of the afternoon and at that time being in bank street
i chanced by sheer accident to see a name on a brass plate fixed amongst more of the same sort on the outer door of a suite of offices that name was gavin smeaton
i recalled it at once and moved by a sudden impulse i went climbing up a lot of steps
and ran shrieking down the stairs she maintained that as she entered unseen hands had been digging at the plaster
in support of her story she carried in my wet and muddy boots
and held them out to the detective and myself
they're yours miss rachel and covered with mud and soaked to the tops
as sure as you sit there there's the smell of the graveyard on them
mister jamieson almost choked to death
when he got his breath they certainly look like it
and which was meant to be a coup but things went so fast there was no time to carry it into effect the first thing that occurred was a message from the charity hospital that missus watson was dying and had asked for me
but i shrank from a death bed
and i went i left mister jamieson and the day detective going over every inch of the circular staircase pounding probing and measuring
as it turned out i did surprise them almost into spasms i drove from the train to the charity hospital and was at once taken to a ward
lay missus watson she was very weak and she only opened her eyes and looked at me when i sat down beside her i was conscience stricken
so broken and half coherent however was her story that i shall tell it in my own way in an hour from the time i entered the charity hospital i had heard a sad and pitiful narrative
that is only a step from death briefly then the housekeeper's story was this she was almost forty years old and had been the sister mother of a large family of children
one by one they had died and been buried beside their parents in a little town in the middle west there was only one sister left the baby lucy
when anne the elder was thirty two and lucy was nineteen a young man had come to the town he was going east after spending the summer at a celebrated ranch in wyoming
aubrey took his bride to chicago where they lived at a hotel perhaps the very unsophistication that had charmed him in valley mill jarred on him in the city he had been far from a model husband even for the three months and when he disappeared
it was different with the young wife however she drooped and fretted and on the birth of her baby boy she had died
on one thing she was determined however that was that aubrey wallace should educate his boy
and she put the boy in an episcopalian home and secured the position of housekeeper to the armstrongs there she found lucien's father this time under his own name it was arnold armstrong
indeed for a time he did so then he realized that lucien was the ruling passion in this lonely woman's life he found out where the child was hidden and threatened to take him away anne was frantic the positions became reversed
as the years went on he forced money from anne watson instead until she was always penniless the lower arnold sank in the scale the heavier his demands became with the rupture between him and his family things were worse
anne took the child from the home and hid him in a farmhouse near casanova on the claysburg road there she went sometimes to see the boy
he had grown into a beautiful boy and he was all anne had to live for the armstrongs left for california and arnold's persecutions began anew he was furious over the child's disappearance
she left the big house and went down to the lodge when i had rented sunnyside however she had thought the persecutions would stop she had applied for the position of housekeeper and secured it that had been on saturday that night
louise arrived unexpectedly thomas sent for missus watson and then went for arnold armstrong at the greenwood club
she did not know what the trouble was but louise had been in a state of terrible excitement missus watson tried to hide from arnold but he was ugly he left the lodge and went up to the house about two thirty was admitted at the east entrance
on the way across the lawn she was confronted by arnold who for some reason was determined to get into the house
and it was that poisoning having set in which was killing her
she went up stairs hardly knowing what she was doing gertrude's door was open
ran part way down the circular staircase
she slipped down quietly and opened the door
it was quite dark but she could see his white shirt bosom from the fourth step she fired as he fell somebody in the billiard room screamed and ran when the alarm was raised
and almost a hundred dollars the money was for lucien's board until she recovered
when she found herself growing worse she had written to missus armstrong telling her nothing but that arnold's legitimate child was at richfield and imploring her to recognize him she was dying the boy was an armstrong
and entitled to his father's share of the estate the papers were in her trunk at sunnyside
she was going she would not be judged by earthly laws and somewhere else perhaps lucy would plead for her it was she who had crept down the circular staircase drawn by a magnet that night
mister jamieson had heard some one there pursued she had fled madly anywhere through the first door she came to she had fallen down the clothes chute and been saved by the basket beneath i could have cried with relief
then it had not been gertrude after all that was the story
the very telling of it seemed to relieve the dying woman
i promised to look after little lucien and sat with her until the intervals of consciousness grew shorter and finally ceased altogether
and in its privacy mister lindsey had told mister portlethorpe the whole of the smeaton story mister portlethorpe had listened so it seemed to me with a good deal of irritation and impatience
and it evidently irked him to have any questions raised as to the carstairs affairs which of course he himself had done much to settle when sir gilbert succeeded to the title in his opinion the whole thing was cut dried and done with
and he was still impatient and restive when mister lindsey laid before him the letter which mister gavin smeaton had lent us and invited him to look carefully at the handwriting he made no proper response to that invitation what he did
was to give a peevish glance at the letter and then push it aside with an equally peevish exclamation
it conveys nothing to me
who was unlocking a drawer in his desk it'll perhaps convey something to you when you compare that writing with a certain signature which i shall now show you this he continued as he produced gilverthwaite's will
and laid it before his visitor is the will of the man whose coming to berwick ushered in all these mysteries now then do you see who was one of the witnesses to the will look man
mister portlethorpe looked and was startled out of his peevishness
michael carstairs just that said mister lindsey now then compare michael carstairs handwriting with the handwriting of that letter come here hugh you too have a look
and there's no need for any very close or careful looking either no need for expert calligraphic evidence or for the use of microscopes i'll stake all i'm worth that that signature and that letter are the work of the same hand
i had no hesitation in thinking as mister lindsey did it was an exceptionally curious not to say eccentric handwriting some of the letters were oddly formed other letters were indicated rather than formed at all
it seemed impossible that two different individuals could write in that style it was rather the style developed for himself by a man who scorned all conventional matters and was as self distinct in his penmanship
as he probably was in his life and thoughts anyway there was an undeniable an extraordinary similarity and even mister portlethorpe had to admit that it was undoubtedly there
he threw off his impatience and irritability and became interested and grave that's very strange and uncommonly important lindsey he said i
yes i am certainly inclined to agree with you now what do you make of it if you want to know my precise idea replied mister lindsey it's just this michael carstairs and martin smeaton
are one and the same man or i should say
that's about it portlethorpe then in that case that young fellow at dundee is michael carstairs son exclaimed mister portlethorpe
mister portlethorpe mister lindsey picked up gilverthwaite's will and the smeaton letter and carefully locked them away in his drawer
previous to sir alexander's death said distinctly that michael had never been married interrupted mister portlethorpe and surely he would know and i say just as surely that from all i've heard of michael carstairs
there'd be a lot of things that no solicitor would know even if he sat at michael's dying bed retorted mister lindsey but we'll see and talking of beds it's time i was showing you to yours and that we were all between the sheets
for it's one o'clock in the morning and we'll have to be stirring again at six sharp and i'll tell you what we'll do portlethorpe to save time we'll just take a mere cup of coffee and a mouthful of bread here and we'll breakfast in edinburgh we'll be there by eight thirty
so now come to your beds
and when he had bestowed the senior visitor in his room he came to me in mine carrying an alarm clock which he set down at my bed head hugh my man he said you'll have to stir yourself an hour before mister portlethorpe and me
i've set that implement for five o'clock get yourself up when it rings and make yourself ready
tell him what we heard from that man hollins tonight and bid him communicate with the glasgow police to look out for sir gilbert carstairs tell him too that we're going on to edinburgh and why and that if need be
i'll ring him up from the station hotel during the morning with any news we have and i'll ask for his at the same time insist on his getting in touch with glasgow it's there without doubt that lady carstairs went off and where sir gilbert would meet her
let him start inquiries about the shipping offices and the like and that's all and get your bit of sleep
which as we came to know later was the biggest mistake we made and one that involved us in no end of sore trouble and at a quarter past six mister lindsey and mister portlethorpe and i were drinking our coffee
he wrote out a telegram to mister gavin smeaton asking him to meet us in edinburgh during the day so that mister portlethorpe might make his acquaintance this telegram he left with his housekeeper to be dispatched as soon as the post office was open
of the scottish american bank the manager who presently received us in his private rooms looked at mister lindsey and mister portlethorpe with evident surprise
and he appeared still more surprised when mister lindsey briefly but fully
aided by some remarks from mister portlethorpe had come to the end of his explanation
and mister john paley i can reply to that in a sentence nothing that is to their discredit they are two thoroughly estimable and trustworthy gentlemen so far as we are aware
who was obviously surprised the manager evidently was also surprised by the signs of mister lindsey's surprise
introduced sir gilbert carstairs to him perhaps he continued glancing from one gentleman to the other
they're very simple and quite of an ordinary nature sir gilbert carstairs came in here introducing himself some months ago he told me that he was intending to sell off a good deal of the carstairs property and that he wanted to reinvest his proceeds
in the very best american securities
and in short that he had a decided intention of going back to the states
he asked me if i could recommend him a broker here in edinburgh
except remarked mister lindsey
precisely then you know as much as i can tell you replied the manager but i have no objection to saying that large sums of money coming from sir gilbert carstairs
i know he has and
we went away upon that
a little maliciously turned on him there
everything is in order you see lindsey
but after all sir gilbert has a right to do what he likes with his own
personally i don't see what use there is in seeing this mister paley
as i say sir gilbert can make what disposal he pleases of his own property and what i say portlethorpe retorted mister lindsey is that i'm going to be convinced that it is his own property
i'm going to see paley whether you do or not and you'll be a fool if you don't come mister portlethorpe protested but he accompanied us
a quiet self possessed sort of man
then i'll ask you a question at once said mister lindsey
mister paley immediately turned to a diary which lay on his desk and gave one glance at it
chapter twenty four flinders if halsey had only taken me fully into his confidence through the whole affair it would have been much simpler if he had been altogether frank about jack bailey
there would have been no harrowing period for all of us with the boy in danger but young people refuse to profit by the experience of their elders and sometimes the elders are the ones to suffer
i was much used up the day after the fire and gertrude insisted on my going out the machine was temporarily out of commission and the carriage horses had been sent to a farm for the summer
gertrude finally got a trap from the casanova liveryman and we went out just as we turned from the drive into the road we passed a woman
she had put down a small valise and stood inspecting the house and grounds minutely i should hardly have noticed her had it not been for the fact
i shall dream of it to night get up flinders
it is she flicked the horse's stubby mane with the whip he didn't look like a livery horse and the liveryman said he had bought him from the armstrongs when they purchased a couple of motors and cut down the stable nice flinders good old boy
flinders was certainly not a common name for a horse and yet the youngster at richfield
prancing curly haired little horse flinders
and somewhat guardedly had told him of the previous night's events mister jamieson promised to come out that night and to bring another man with him i did not consider it necessary to notify missus armstrong in the village no doubt she knew of the fire
and in view of my refusal to give up the house
but as we passed doctor walker's white and green house i thought of something stop here gertrude i said
to see louise she asked no i want to ask this young walker something she was curious i knew
i went up the walk to the house where a brass sign at the side announced the office and went in the reception room was empty but from the consulting room beyond came the sound of two voices not very amicable
the voices ceased at once a door closed somewhere and the doctor entered from the hall of the house he looked sufficiently surprised at seeing me good afternoon doctor i said formally
i shall not keep you from your patient i wish merely to ask you a question won't you sit down it will not be necessary doctor
a bullet wound things must be lively at sunnyside
but as it happens it was if any such case comes to you will it be too much trouble for you to let me know
until i am burned out i responded and then on my way down the steps i turned around suddenly doctor i asked at a venture have you ever heard of a child named lucien wallace
his face changed and stiffened he was on his guard again in a moment
there are plenty of wallaces around but i don't know any lucien i was as certain as possible that he did people do not lie readily to me and this man lied beyond a doubt
but there was nothing to be gained now his defenses were up and i left half irritated and wholly baffled
gertrude and i drank some home made elderberry wine and told briefly of the fire of the more serious part of the night's experience of course we said nothing
shot he said bless my soul no
some one tried to enter the house during the fire and was shot and slightly injured i said hastily please don't mention it we wish to make as little of it as possible
and we tried that at casanova station
between one o'clock and daylight there was none until six a m the next question required more diplomacy did you notice on the six o'clock train any person
i was up there myself at the fire he said volubly i'm a member of the volunteer company
rang that bell so hard i hadn't time scarcely to get em on and did you see a man who limped gertrude put in as he stopped for breath
i seen there wasn't much more to do anyhow at the fire we'd got the flames under control gertrude looked at me and smiled so i started down the hill
one was a short fellow
he was swearing something sickening did they go toward the club gertrude asked suddenly leaning forward no miss i think they came into the village
i didn't get a look at their faces but i know every chick and child in the place and everybody knows me when they didn't shout at me in my uniform you know
some one had been shot by the bullet that went through the door he had not left the village and he had not called in a physician also
and i think even gertrude was glad of it driving home that afternoon
gertrude i said
you are going to leave this miserable house to night annie morton is going to scotland next week and you shall go right with her to my surprise she flushed painfully i don't want to go aunt ray she said
don't make me leave now you are losing your health and your good looks i said decidedly you should have a change i shan't stir a foot she was equally decided
then more lightly why you and liddy need me to arbitrate between you every day in the week perhaps i was growing suspicious of every one
i watched her covertly during the rest of the drive
set out for buenos ayres rio sauce sierra ventana third posta driving horses bolas partridges and foxes features of the country
long legged plover teru tero hail storm natural enclosures in the sierra tapalguen flesh of puma meat diet
guardia del monte effects of cattle on the vegetation cardoon buenos ayres corral where cattle are slaughtered
though with some difficulty as the father of one man was afraid to let him go and another who seemed willing was described to me as so fearful that i was afraid to take him
for i was told that even if he saw an ostrich at a distance he would mistake it for an indian and would fly like the wind away the distance to buenos ayres is about four hundred miles
and nearly the whole way through an uninhabited country we started early in the morning ascending a few hundred feet from the basin of green turf
but the atmosphere remarkably hazy i thought the appearance foreboded a gale but the gauchos said it was owing to the plain at some great distance in the interior being on fire
after a long gallop having changed horses twice we reached the rio sauce it is a deep rapid
not above twenty five feet wide the second posta on the road to buenos ayres stands on its banks a little above there is a ford for horses where the water does not reach to the horses belly
but from that point in its course to the sea it is quite impassable and hence makes a most useful barrier against the indians insignificant as this stream is
the jesuit falconer whose information is generally so very correct figures it as a considerable river rising at the foot of the cordillera with respect to its source
i do not doubt that this is the case for the gauchos assured me that in the middle of the dry summer this stream at the same time with the colorado has periodical floods
which can only originate in the snow melting on the andes it is extremely improbable that a stream so small as the sauce then was should traverse the entire width of the continent
and indeed if it were the residue of a large river its waters as in other ascertained cases
during the winter we must look to the springs round the sierra ventana as the source of its pure and limpid stream i suspect the plains of patagonia like those of australia
are traversed by many water courses which only perform their proper parts at certain periods probably this is the case with the water which flows into the head of port desire and likewise with the rio chupat
on the banks of which masses of highly cellular scoriae were found by the officers employed in the survey as it was early in the afternoon when we arrived we took fresh horses
and a soldier for a guide and started for the sierra de la ventana this mountain is visible from the anchorage at bahia blanca and captain fitz roy
an altitude very remarkable on this eastern side of the continent i am not aware that any foreigner previous to my visit had ascended this mountain
and indeed very few of the soldiers at bahia blanca knew anything about it hence we heard of beds of coal of gold and silver of caves and of forests all of which inflamed my curiosity
only to disappoint it the distance from the posta was about six leagues over a level plain of the same character as before the ride was however interesting as the mountain began to show its true form
when we reached the foot of the main ridge we had much difficulty in finding any water and we thought we should have been obliged to have passed the night without any at last
we discovered some by looking close to the mountain for at the distance even of a few hundred yards the streamlets were buried and entirely lost in the friable calcareous stone and loose detritus
i do not think nature ever made a more solitary desolate pile of rock it well deserves its name of hurtado or separated the mountain is steep
extremely rugged and broken and so entirely destitute of trees and even bushes that we actually could not make a skewer to stretch out our meat over the fire of thistle stalks
which not only abuts against its steep sides but likewise separates the parallel ranges the uniformity of the colouring gives an extreme quietness to the view
the whitish grey of the quartz rock and the light brown of the withered grass of the plain being
from custom one expects to see in the neighbourhood of a lofty and bold mountain a broken country strewed over with huge fragments here nature shows
that the last movement before the bed of the sea is changed into dry land may sometimes be one of tranquillity under these circumstances i was curious to observe
how far from the parent rock any pebbles could be found on the shores of bahia blanca and near the settlement there were some of quartz which certainly must have come from this source
the distance is forty five miles the dew which in the early part of the night wetted the saddle cloths under which we slept was in the morning frozen the plain
though appearing horizontal had insensibly sloped up to a height of between eight hundred and nine hundred feet above the sea in the morning ninth of september
the guide told me to ascend the nearest ridge which he thought would lead me to the four peaks that crown the summit the climbing up such rough rocks was very fatiguing
the sides were so indented that what was gained in one five minutes was often lost in the next at last when i reached the ridge
my disappointment was extreme in finding a precipitous valley as deep as the plain which cut the chain transversely in two and separated me from the four points this valley is very narrow
but flat bottomed and it forms a fine horse pass for the indians as it connects the plains on the northern and southern sides of the range having descended
and while crossing it i saw two horses grazing i immediately hid myself in the long grass and began to reconnoitre but as i could see no signs of indians
i proceeded cautiously on my second ascent it was late in the day and this part of the mountain like the other was steep and rugged
but got there with extreme difficulty every twenty yards i had the cramp in the upper part of both thighs so that i was afraid i should not have been able to have got down again
it was also necessary to return by another road as it was out of the question to pass over the saddle back i was therefore obliged to give up the two higher peaks
their altitude was but little greater and every purpose of geology had been answered so that the attempt was not worth the hazard of any further exertion i presume the cause of the cramp
was the great change in the kind of muscular action from that of hard riding to that of still harder climbing it is a lesson worth remembering as in some cases it might cause much difficulty
i have already said the mountain is composed of white quartz rock and with it a little glossy clay slate is associated at the height of a few hundred feet above the plain
patches of conglomerate adhered in several places to the solid rock they resembled in hardness and in the nature of the cement the masses which may be seen daily forming on some coasts
i do not doubt these pebbles were in a similar manner aggregated at a period when the great calcareous formation was depositing beneath the surrounding sea
even the view was insignificant a plain like the sea but without its beautiful colour and defined outline the scene however was novel and a little danger like salt to meat
gave it a relish that the danger was very little was certain for my two companions made a good fire a thing which is never done when it is suspected that indians are near i reached the place of our bivouac by sunset
and drinking much mate and smoking several cigaritos soon made up my bed for the night the wind was very strong and cold but i never slept more comfortably september
having fairly scudded before the gale we arrived by the middle of the day at the sauce posta in the road we saw great numbers of deer and near the mountain a guanaco the plain
which abuts against the sierra is traversed by some curious gullies of which one was about twenty feet wide and at least thirty deep we were obliged in consequence to make a considerable circuit
before we could find a pass we stayed the night at the posta the conversation as was generally the case being about the indians the sierra ventana was formerly a great place of resort and three or four years ago
my guide had been present when many indians were killed the women escaped to the top of the ridge and fought most desperately with great stones many thus saving themselves
the distance is called fifteen leagues but it is only guess work and is generally overstated the road was uninteresting over a dry grassy plain
and on our left hand at a greater or less distance there were some low hills a continuation of which we crossed close to the posta before our arrival
we met a large herd of cattle and horses guarded by fifteen soldiers but we were told many had been lost it is very difficult to drive animals across the plains
for if in the night a puma or even a fox approaches nothing can prevent the horses dispersing in every direction and a storm will have the same effect a short time since
an officer left buenos ayres with five hundred horses and when he arrived at the army he had under twenty soon afterwards we perceived by the cloud of dust that a party of horsemen were coming towards us
when far distant my companions knew them to be indians by their long hair streaming behind their backs the indians generally have a fillet round their heads but never any covering
and their black hair blowing across their swarthy faces heightens to an uncommon degree the wildness of their appearance they turned out to be a party of bernantio's friendly tribe going to a salina for salt
the indians eat much salt their children sucking it like sugar this habit is very different from that of the spanish gauchos who leading the same kind of life eat scarcely any
people who live on vegetable food who have an unconquerable desire for salt the indians gave us good humoured nods as they passed at full gallop driving before them a troop of horses
waiting for a troop of soldiers which general rosas had the kindness to send to inform me would shortly travel to buenos ayres and he advised me to take the opportunity of the escort
in the morning we rode to some neighbouring hills to view the country and to examine the geology after dinner the soldiers divided themselves into two parties for a trial of skill with the bolas
two spears were stuck in the ground twenty five yards apart but they were struck and entangled only once in four or five times the balls can be thrown fifty or sixty yards but with little certainty
this however does not apply to a man on horseback for when the speed of the horse is added to the force of the arm it is said that they can be whirled with effect to the distance of eighty yards
as a proof of their force i may mention that at the falkland islands when the spaniards murdered some of their own countrymen and all the englishmen a young friendly spaniard was running away
when a great tall man by name luciano came at full gallop after him shouting to him to stop and saying that he only wanted to speak to him just as the spaniard was on the point of reaching the boat luciano threw the balls
they struck him on the legs with such a jerk as to throw him down and to render him for some time insensible the man after luciano had had his talk was allowed to escape
as if he had been flogged with a whip in the middle of the day two men arrived who brought a parcel from the next posta to be forwarded to the general so that besides these two our party consisted this evening of my guide and self
the lieutenant and his four soldiers the latter were strange beings the first a fine young negro the second half indian and negro and the two others non descripts namely
an old chilian miner the colour of mahogany and another partly a mulatto but two such mongrels with such detestable expressions i never saw before
at night when they were sitting round the fire and playing at cards i retired to view such a salvator rosa scene they were seated under a low cliff so that i could look down upon them
around the party were lying dogs arms remnants of deer and ostriches and their long spears were stuck in the turf further in the dark background their horses were tied up
ready for any sudden danger if the stillness of the desolate plain was broken by one of the dogs barking a soldier leaving the fire would place his head close to the ground and thus slowly scan the horizon
even if the noisy teru tero uttered its scream there would be a pause in the conversation and every head for a moment a little inclined
what a life of misery these men appear to us to lead they were at least ten leagues from the sauce posta and since the murder committed by the indians twenty from another
the indians are supposed to have made their attack in the middle of the night for very early in the morning after the murder they were luckily seen approaching this posta the whole party here however escaped
each one taking a line for himself and driving with him as many animals as he was able to manage the little hovel built of thistle stalks in which they slept
neither kept out the wind nor rain indeed
was to condense it into larger drops they had nothing to eat excepting what they could catch such as ostriches deer
and their only fuel was the dry stalks of a small plant somewhat resembling an aloe the sole luxury which these men enjoyed was smoking the little paper cigars and sucking mate
i used to think that the carrion vultures man's constant attendants on these dreary plains while seated on the little neighbouring cliffs seemed by their very patience to say ah
when the indians come we shall have a feast in the morning we all sallied forth to hunt and although we had not much success there were some animated chases soon after starting
the party separated and so arranged their plans
in guessing which they show much skill they should all meet from different points of the compass on a plain piece of ground
and thus drive together the wild animals one day i went out hunting at bahia blanca but the men there merely rode in a crescent each being about a quarter of a mile apart from the other
a fine male ostrich being turned by the headmost riders tried to escape on one side the gauchos pursued at a reckless pace twisting their horses about with the most admirable command
and each man whirling the balls round his head at length the foremost threw them revolving through the air in an instant the ostrich rolled over and over its legs fairly lashed together by the thong
their destroyer a small and pretty fox was also singularly numerous in the course of the day we could not have seen less than forty or fifty they were generally near their earths
but the dogs killed one when we returned to the posta we found two of the party returned who had been hunting by themselves they had killed a puma and had found an ostrich's nest with twenty seven eggs in it
each of these is said to equal in weight eleven hen's eggs
patches of it that had collected on the top of the great bell as the slanting draughts blew it in through the belfry window slid down from time to time among the birds which had nestled for shelter in the beams below
from the heavy main outer gates the country spread in a white unbroken sheet to the woods twice perhaps through the morning had wayfarers toiled by along the nearly obliterated high road
good luck to the holy men each had said to himself as he looked at the chill and austere walls of the monastery good luck and i hope that within there they be warmer than i am
now inside the stone walls of oyster le main
not a monk paced the corridors and not a step could be heard above or below in the staircase that wound up through the round towers silence was everywhere save that from a remote quarter of the monastery came a faint sound of music
upon such a time as christmas eve it might well be that carols in plenty would be sung or studied by the saintly men but this sounded like no carol at times the humming murmur of the storm drowned the measure whatever it was
and again it came along the dark cold entries clearer than before away in a long vaulted room whose only approach was a passage in the thickness of the walls safe from the intrusion of the curious
and a rope round the waist of each but what can possibly be in that huge silver rundlet into which they plunge their goblets so often the song grows louder than ever
we are the monks of oyster le main hooded and gowned as fools may see hooded and gowned though we monks be is that a reason we should abstain from cups of the gamesome burgundie
how for disrobing brothers no danger on such a day as this foul luck to the snow which you see was coarse and vulgar language for any one to be heard to use and particularly so for a godly celibate
but the words were scarce said when off fly those monks hoods and the waist ropes rattle as they fall on the floor and the gray gowns drop down and are kicked away every man jack of them is in black armour
with a long sword buckled to his side long cheer to the guild of go as you please they shouted hoarsely and dashed their drinking horns on the board then filled them again give us a song hubert said one
and of a delicacy many degrees above thy bumpkin palate leave profaning it therefore and to thy refrain without more ado most unctuous sir replied hubert in demanding me this favour
i'll not sing to give thee an opportunity to outnumber me in thy cups and he filled and instantly emptied another sound bumper of the malvoisie lurching slightly as he did so health he added preparing to swallow the next
a murrain on such pagan thirst exclaimed he who had been toasted snatching the cup away art thou altogether unslakable is thy belly a lime kiln nay shalt taste not a single drop more hubert till we have a stave come
when the sable veil of night over hill and glen is spread the yeoman bolts his door in fright and he quakes within his bed far away on his ear there strikes a sound of dread
something comes it is here it is passed with awful tread there's a flash of unholy flame there is smoke hangs hot in the air twas the dragon of wantley came
but we beside the fire sit close to the steaming bowl we pile the logs up higher and loud our voices roll when the yeoman wakes at dawn to begin his round of toil his garner's bare
his sheep are gone and the dragon holds the spoil all day long through the earth that yeoman makes his moan all day long there is mirth behind these walls of stone
the guild of go as you please beware of us beware
sit down to the steaming bowl we pile the logs up higher and loud our voices roll the roar of twenty lusty throats and the clatter of cups banging on the table rendered the words of the chorus entirely inaudible
oh i am betrayed hubert sang out then he added but there is a plenty where that came from and with that he reached for his gown and fetching out a bunch of great brass keys proceeded towards a tall door in the wall and turned the lock
the door swung open and hubert plunged into the dark recess thus disclosed an exclamation of chagrin followed and the empty hide of a huge crocodile with a pair of trailing wings to it came bumping out from the closet into the hall
giving out many hollow cracks as it floundered along fresh from a vigourous kick that the intemperate minstrel had administered in his rage at having put his hand into the open jaws of the monster instead of upon the neck of the demijohn that contained the malvoisie
said the voice of a new comer who stood eyeing the proceedings from a distance near where he had entered treat the carcase of our patron saint with a more befitting reverence or i'll have thee caged and put upon bread and water
hubert my lad said the new comer put back that vessel of inebriation and because i like thee well for thy youth and thy sweet voice do not therefore presume too far with me
a somewhat uneasy pause followed upon this and while hubert edged back into the closet with his demijohn father anselm frowned slightly as his eyes turned upon the scene of late hilarity but where is the dragon in his den you ask
are we not coming to him soon ah but we have come to him you shall hear the truth never believe that sham story about more of more hall and how he slew the dragon of wantley
it is a gross fabrication of some unscrupulous and mediocre literary person who i make no doubt was in the pay of more to blow his trumpet so loud that a credulous posterity might hear it
good men and bad men undoubted saints and unmistakable sinners drifted forward and back through every country came by night and by day to every household
and lived their lives in that unbounded and perilous freedom that put them at one moment upon the top limit of their ambition or their delight
with the greatest profit and the least danger was in high standing among his fellows hence it was that francis almoign knight of the voracious stomach cumbered with no domestic ties worthy of mention
a tall slim fellow who knew the appropriate hour to slit a throat or to wheedle a maid came to be grand marshal of the guild of go as you please this secret band under its grand marshal
roved over europe and thrived mightily each member was as stout hearted a villain as you could see sometimes their doings came to light and they were forced to hasten across the borders of an outraged territory into new pastures
sir godfrey disseisin over at wantley had let richard lion heart depart for the holy wars without him like father like son the people muttered in their discontent sure the church will gravely punish this second offence
to all these whisperings of rumour the grand marshal of the guild paid fast attention for he was a man who laid his plans deeply and much in advance of the event he saw the country was fat and the neighbours foolish
he took note of the handsome tithes that came in to oyster le main for the support of the monks he saw all these things and set himself to thinking upon a stormy afternoon when the light was nearly gone out of the sky
a band of venerable pilgrims stood at the great gates of the monastery their garments were tattered their shoes were in sad disrepair they had walked they said all the way from jerusalem
might they find shelter for the night the tale they told and the mere sight of their trembling old beards would have melted hearts far harder than those which beat in the breasts of the monks of oyster le main but above all
these pilgrims brought with them as convincing proofs of their journey a collection of relics and talismans such as are to be met with only in eastern countries of great wonder and virtue with singular generosity
which they explained had been taught them by the arabs they presented many of these treasures to the delighted inmates of the monastery who hastened to their respective cells this one reverently cherishing a tuft of hair from the tail of one of daniel's lions
another handling with deep fervour a strip of the coat of many colours once worn by the excellent joseph but the most extraordinary relic among them all was the skin of a huge lizard beast the like of which none in england had ever seen
this the pilgrims told their hosts was no less a thing than a crocodile from the nile the renowned river of moses it had been pressed upon them as they were departing from the city of damascus by a friend
a blameless chiropodist whose name was omar khayyam he it was who eked out a pious groat by tending the feet of all outward and inward bound pilgrims seated at the entrance of his humble booth with the foot of some holy man in his lap
he would speak words of kindness and wisdom as he reduced the inflammation one of his quaintest sayings was if the pope has bid thee wear hair next thy bare skin my son why clap a wig over thy shaven scalp
so the monks in proper pity and kindness when they had shut the great gates as night came down made their pilgrim guests welcome to bide at oyster le main as long as they pleased
the solemn bell for retiring rolled forth in the darkness with a single deep clang and the sound went far and wide over the neighbouring district those peasants who were still awake in their scattered cottages crossed themselves as they thought
the holy men at oyster le main are just now going to their rest and thus the world outside grew still and the thick walls of the monastery loomed up against the stars deep in the midnight
many a choking cry rang fearfully through the stony halls but came not to the outer air and the waning moon shone faintly down upon the enclosure of the garden where worked a band of silent grave diggers clad in black armour
and with blood red hands the good country folk who came at early morning with their presents of poultry and milk little guessed what sheep's clothing the gray cowls and gowns of oyster le main had become in a single night nor what impious lips those were
which now muttered blessings over their bent heads the following night hideous sounds were heard in the fields and those who dared to open their shutters to see what the matter was beheld a huge lizard beast with fiery breath
and accompanied by rattling thunder raging over the soil which he hardly seemed to touch in this manner did the dreaded dragon of wantley make his appearance and in this manner did sir francis almoign
knight of the voracious stomach stand in the shoes of that father anselm whom he had put so comfortably out of the way under the flower beds in the monastery garden and never a soul in the world except his companions in orgy
would walk in the sight of the world with staid step clothed in gray his hood concealing his fierce unchurchly eyes by night inside the crocodile skin he visited what places he chose unhindered by the terrified dwellers
and after him came his followers of the guild to steal the plunder and bear it back inside the walls of oyster le main never in all their adventures had these superb miscreants been in better plight
but now the trouble had begun as you are going to hear we return to hubert and the company hubert and all of you
as we know him to be they say that whom the gods desire to destroy him do they first make drunk with wine the application the application they shouted in hoarse and mirthful chorus
with three long steps he stood towering in front of the man and dealt him a side blow under the ear with his steel fist he fell instantly
folding together like something boneless and lay along the floor for a moment quite still except that some piece in his armour made a light rattling as though there were muscles that quivered beneath it then he raised himself slowly to a bench where his brothers sat waiting soberly enough
only young hubert grinned aside to his neighbour who perceiving it kept his eyes fixed as far from that youth as possible thy turn next if art not careful hubert said sir francis very quietly as he seated himself
wonder of saints hubert thought secretly not moving at all how could he have seen that tis no small piece of good fortune continued the grand marshal that some one among us can put aside his slavish appetites
and keep a clear eye on the watch against misadventure here is my news that hotch pot of lies we set going among the people has fallen foul of us the daughter of sir godfrey has heard our legend
and meet the dragon of wantley alone in single combat has she never loved any man asked one she fulfils every condition who told her that most consummate of fools
the mistletoe said the grand marshal what did sir godfrey do upon that inquired hubert he locked up his girl and chained the governess to a rock where she has remained in deadly terror ever since but kept fat
for me to devour her me and sir francis permitted himself to smile though not very broadly how if sir dragon had found the maid chained instead of the ancient widow
hubert said venturing to tread a little nearer to familiarity on the strength of the amusement which played across the grand master's face
he replied i see it is not in the spring only but in autumn and summer and winter as well that thy fancy turns to thoughts of love did the calendar year but contain a fifth season in that also wouldst thou be making honey dew faces at somebody
but young hubert only grinned and closed his flashing eyes a little in satisfaction at the character which had been given him time presses sir francis said by noon we shall receive an important visit there has been a great sensation at wantley
the country folk are aroused the farmers have discovered that the secret of our legend has been revealed to miss elaine not one of the clowns would have dared reveal it himself
but all rejoice in the bottom of their hearts that she knows it and chooses to risk battle with the dragon their honest saxon minds perceive the thrift of such an arrangement
therefore there is general anxiety and disturbance to know if sir godfrey will permit the conflict the loss of his malvoisie tried him sorely but he remains a father that's kind in him said hubert
sir francis turned a cold eye on hubert as befits a clean blooded man he proceeded i have risen at the dawn and left you wine pots in your thick sleep
from the wood's edge over by wantley i've watched the baron come eagerly to an upper window in his white night shift and when he looks out on mistletoe and sees she is not devoured
he bursts into a rage that can be plainly seen from a distance these six mornings i laughed so loud at this spectacle that i almost feared discovery next the baron visits his daughter only to find her food untasted
and herself silent i fear she is less of a fool than the rest but now his paternal heart smites him and he has let her out also the governess is free
such a girl as that would not flinch from meeting our dragon said hubert aye or from seeking him she must never meet the dragon sir francis declared
what could i do shut up in the crocodile and she with a sword of course they were gloomily silent i could not devour her properly as a dragon should nor could i carry her away pursued sir francis
here hubert who had gone to the window returned hastily exclaiming they are coming who are coming asked several the baron his daughter the governess and all wantley at their backs to ask our pious advice
said the grand marshal quick into your gowns one and all be monks outside though you stay men underneath for a while the hall was filled with jostling gray figures entangled in the thick folds of the gowns
into which the arms legs and heads had been thrust regardless of direction the armour clashed invisible underneath as the hot and choked members of the guild plunged about like wild animals sewed into sacks in their struggles to reappear in decent monastic attire
the winged crocodile was kicked into the closet after it were hurled the thunder machine and the lightning torch
barely had hubert turned the key when knocking at the far off gate was heard go down quickly hubert said the grand marshal and lead them all here
although he did not understand a single word of it the long deliberate latin words rolled out very grand to his ear and to tell you the truth it is just as well his scholarship was faulty
for this is the english of those same words it is my intention to die in a tavern with wine in the neighbourhood close by my thirsty mouth that angels in chorus may sing when they reach me
but so devoutly did the monks dwell upon the syllables so earnestly were the arms of each one folded against his breast that you would never have suspected any unclerical sentiments were being expressed
the proximity of so many petticoats and kirtles caused considerable restlessness to hubert but he felt the burning eye of the grand marshal fixed upon him and sang away with all his might
sir godfrey began to grow impatient hem he said moving his foot slightly
so that the baron's remark and the noise his foot had made sounded all over the room this disconcerted him
and he rolled his eyes from one side to the other watching for any effect his disturbance might have made but with the breeding of a true man of the world the grand marshal merely observed
good morning father returned sir godfrey and what would you with me pursued the so called father anselm speak my son well the fact is
the baron began marching forward but he encountered the eye of the abbot where shone a cold surprise at this over familiar fashion of speech so he checked himself and in as restrained a voice as he could command
told his story how his daughter had determined to meet the dragon and so save wantley how nothing that a parent could say had influenced her intentions in the least and now he placed the entire matter in the hands of the church
which would have been more becoming if you had done it at the first said father anselm reprovingly then he turned to miss elaine who all this while had been looking out of the window with the utmost indifference
how is this my daughter he said gravely in his deep voice
whispered mistletoe admiringly to herself it is as you hear father said miss elaine keeping her eyes away and why do you think that such a peril upon your part
says not the legend so she replied and what may the legend be my daughter
with some surprise that so well informed a person as father anselm should be ignorant of this prominent topic of the day sir godfrey here broke in and narrated the legend to him with many vigourous comments
ah yes said the father smiling gently when the story was done
but methought the nonsense was dead long since the nonsense father exclaimed elaine of a surety my child
dost suppose that holy church were so unjust as to visit the sins of thy knightly relatives upon the head of any weak woman who is not in the order of creation designed for personal conflict with men
let alone dragons bravo dragon thought hubert as he listened to this wily talk of his chief but the words weak woman had touched the pride of miss elaine
i know nothing of weak women she said very stately but i do know that i am strong enough to meet this dragon and moreover firmly intend to do so this very night
peace my daughter said the monk and listen to the voice of thy mother the church speaking through the humblest of her servants
this legend of thine holds not a single grain of truth tis a conceit of the common herd set afoot by some ingenious fellow who may have thought he was doing a great thing
in devising such fantastic mixture true it is that the monster is a visitation to punish the impiety of certain members of thy family
inquired the baron as the thought of his precious wine cellar came into his head on last christmas eve i had a vision replied father anselm thy grandfather
anselm he said and raised his right arm the dragon is a grievous burden on the people i can see that from where i am now anselm when the fitting hour shall come
and my great grandson's years be mature enough to have made a man of him let him go to the next holy war that is proclaimed and on the very night of his departure
the curse will be removed and our family forgiven more than this anselm if any male descendant from me direct shall at any time attend a crusade when it is declared
there was a short silence and then sir godfrey said am i to understand this thing hangs on the event of another crusade the abbot bowed
the abbot bowed again will there be another crusade along pretty soon sir godfrey pursued these things lie not in human knowledge replied father anselm
he little dreamed what news the morrow's sun would see oh my sheep groaned many a poor farmer oh my burgundy groaned sir godfrey in that case
we dare not discredit the word of thy respected grandsire my respected grandsire be what said the abbot became a credit to his family said the baron quite mildly
and i slight no word of his but he did not contradict this legend in the vision i think no he did not papa miss elaine put in he only mentioned another way of getting rid of this horrible dragon now papa
whatever you may say about about my heart and hand she continued firmly i am going to meet the monster alone myself to night that you shall not said sir godfrey
a hundred times no said a new voice from the crowd i will meet him myself all turned and saw a knight pushing his way through the people who are you inquired the baron the stranger bowed haughtily
and elaine watched him remove his helmet and reveal underneath it the countenance of a young man who turned to her and why what's this elaine
and why does he look at you so and deeply flush to the very rim of his curly hair and as his glance grows steadier and more intent upon your eyes that keep stealing over at him
can you imagine why his hand trembles on the hilt of his sword don't you remember what the legend said who are you the baron repeated impatiently
i am geoffrey son of bertram of poictiers answered the young man
asked father anselm with a certain irony in his voice
in this inclement weather the knight surveyed the monk for a moment and then said as thou art not my particular father confessor stick to those matters which concern thee this reply did not please any man present
for it seemed to savour of disrespect but elaine lost no chance of watching the youth who now stood alone in the middle of the hall sir francis detected this and smiled with a sly smile
will some person inquire of this polite young man he said what he wishes with us show me where this dragon of wantley comes
said geoffrey for i intend to slay him to night indeed sir fluttered elaine stepping towards him a little i hope that is i beg you'll do no such dangerous thing as that for my sake for your sake
father anselm broke in for your sake and why so what should elaine daughter of sir godfrey disseisin care for the carcase of geoffrey son of bertram of poictiers
but elaine finding nothing to answer turned rosy pink instead that rules you out exclaimed the father in triumph your legend demands a maid who never has cared for any man
pooh said geoffrey leave it to me seize him shouted sir godfrey in a rage he had ruled out my daughter consistency had never been one of the baron's strong points
said father anselm he outrages mother church the vassals closed up behind young geoffrey who was pinioned in a second he struggled with them till the veins stood out in his forehead in blue knots but
after all one young man of twenty is not much among a band of stout yeomen and they all fell in a heap on the floor pulling and tugging at geoffrey who had blacked several eyes
and done in a general way as much damage as he possibly could under the circumstances but elaine noticed one singular occurrence not a monk had moved to seize the young man except one who rushed forward
and was stopped as though struck to stone by father anselm's saying to him in a terrible undertone hubert simply that word spoken quickly
but affected to be absorbed wholly in the fortunes of young geoffrey whom she saw collared and summarily put into a cage like prison whose front was thick iron bars and whose depth was in the vast outer wall of the monastery
the mid day meal awaits us below we will deal with this hot head later
nights at covent garden theatre the first of the autumn season in this memorable year of grace seventeen ninety two the house was packed both in the smart orchestra boxes and in the pit
selina storace had been duly applauded after her grand aria by her numerous admirers benjamin incledon the acknowledged favourite of the ladies had received special gracious recognition from the royal box
and now the curtain came down after the glorious finale to the second act
and the audience which had hung spell bound on the magic strains of the great maestro seemed collectively to breathe a long sigh of satisfaction previous to letting loose its hundreds of waggish and frivolous tongues
in the smart orchestra boxes many well known faces were to be seen mister pitt overweighted with cares of state was finding brief relaxation in to night's musical treat the prince of wales
jovial rotund somewhat coarse and commonplace in appearance moved about from box to box spending brief quarters of an hour with those of his more intimate friends in lord grenville's box too a
curious interesting personality attracted everyone's attention a thin small figure with shrewd sarcastic face and deep set eyes attentive to the music
keenly critical of the audience dressed in immaculate black with dark hair free from any powder lord grenville foreign secretary of state
one or two foreign faces stood out in marked contrast the haughty aristocratic cast of countenance of the many french royalist emigres who
persecuted by the relentless revolutionary faction of their country had found a peaceful refuge in england
no doubt their thoughts were far away with husband brother son maybe still in peril or lately succumbed to a cruel fate
dressed in deep heavy black silk with only a white lace kerchief to relieve the aspect of mourning about her person
she sat beside lady portarles who was vainly trying by witty sallies and somewhat broad jokes to bring a smile to the comtesse's sad mouth
behind her sat little suzanne and the vicomte both silent and somewhat shy among so many strangers suzanne's eyes seemed wistful when she first entered the crowded house
she had looked eagerly all around scanning every face scrutinised every box evidently the one face she wished to see was not there for she settled herself quietly behind her mother listened apathetically to the music
and took no further interest in the audience itself ah lord grenville said lady portarles as following a discreet knock
the clever interesting head of the secretary of state appeared in the doorway of the box you could not arrive more a propos here is madame la comtesse de tournay positively dying
the distinguished diplomat had come forward and was shaking hands with the ladies alas he said sadly it is of the very worst the massacres continue paris literally reeks with blood
and the guillotine claims a hundred victims a day pale and tearful the comtesse was leaning back in her chair listening horror struck to this brief and graphic account of what went on in her own misguided country ah monsieur
she said in broken english it is dreadful to hear all that and my poor husband still in that awful country it is terrible for me to be sitting here in a theatre all safe and in peace whilst he is in such peril
the comtesse smiled through her tears at the vehemence of her friend
lady portarles whose voice and manner would not have misfitted a jockey had a heart of gold and hid the most genuine sympathy and most gentle kindliness beneath the somewhat coarse manners affected by some ladies at that time besides which madame added lord grenville
then i am sure you need have no fear what the league have sworn that they surely will accomplish ah added the old diplomat with a sigh
if i were but a few years younger la man interrupted honest lady portarles you are still young enough to turn your back
is the accredited agent of his government odd's fish man she retorted you don't call those bloodthirsty ruffians over there a government do you it has not been thought advisable as yet
said the minister guardedly for england to break off diplomatic relations with france
that he'll concern himself little with such diplomacy beyond trying to do mischief to royalist refugees to our heroic scarlet pimpernel and to the members of that brave little league
i am sure said the comtesse pursing up her thin lips
he will find a faithful ally in lady blakeney bless the woman ejaculated lady portarles did ever anyone see such perversity
in your position here in england madame she added turning a wrathful and resolute face towards the comtesse
lady blakeney may or may not be in sympathy with those ruffians in france she may or may not have had anything to do with the arrest and condemnation of saint cyr or whatever the man's name is
and tied back at the nape of her graceful neck with a gigantic black bow always dressed in the very latest vagary of fashion marguerite alone among the ladies that night had discarded the crossover fichu and broad lapelled over dress
composed as it was of shimmering stuff which seemed a mass of rich gold embroidery as she entered she leant for a moment out of the box taking stock
of all those present whom she knew many bowed to her as she did so and from the royal box there came also a quick and gracious salute chauvelin watched her intently all through the commencement of the third act
as she sat enthralled with the music her exquisite little hand toying with a small jewelled fan her regal head her throat arms and neck
covered with magnificent diamonds and rare gems the gift of the adoring husband who sprawled leisurely by her side marguerite was passionately fond of music
orpheus charmed her to night the very joy of living was writ plainly upon the sweet young face
a discreet knock at the door roused her from her enjoyment come in she said with some impatience without turning to look at the intruder chauvelin waiting for his opportunity noted that she was alone
and now without pausing for that impatient come in he quietly slipped into the box
a word with you citoyenne he said quietly marguerite turned quickly in alarm which was not altogether feigned lud man you
and without being seen in the dark background of the box
lady blakeney is always so surrounded so feted by her court that a mere old friend has but very little chance faith man
she said impatiently you must seek for another opportunity then i am going to lord grenville's ball to night after the opera so are you probably i'll give you five minutes then
three minutes in the privacy of this box are quite sufficient for me he rejoined placidly and i think that you will be wise to listen to me citoyenne saint just
marguerite instinctively shivered chauvelin had not raised his voice above a whisper
he was now quietly taking a pinch of snuff yet there was something in his attitude something in those pale foxy eyes which seemed to freeze the blood in her veins as would the sight of some deadly hitherto unguessed peril is that a threat citoyen she asked at last
nay fair lady he said gallantly only an arrow shot into the air he paused a moment like a cat
which sees a mouse running heedlessly by ready to spring yet waiting with that feline sense of enjoyment of mischief about to be done
then he said quietly your brother saint just is in peril not a muscle moved in the beautiful face before him
the sharp almost paralysed tension of the beautiful graceful figure lud then she said with affected merriment since tis one of your imaginary plots you'd best go back to your own seat and leave me enjoy the music
chauvelin did not move from his seat he quietly watched that tiny nervous hand the only indication that his shaft had indeed struck home well
she said suddenly and irrelevantly and with the same feigned unconcern well citoyenne he rejoined placidly about my brother i have news of him for you which i think will interest you but first let me explain
the question was unnecessary he felt though marguerite still held her head steadily averted from him
he said i asked for your help france needed it and i thought i could rely on you but you gave me your answer
she said lightly the music is entrancing and the audience will get impatient of your talk one moment citoyenne the day on which i had the honour of meeting you at dover
and i want you nay you must help me to gather them together
she now shrugged her shoulders and said gaily bah man
my spies forced their way into the coffee room of the inn gagged and pinioned the two gallants seized their papers and brought them to me in a moment she had guessed the danger papers had armand been imprudent
the very thought struck her with nameless terror still she would not let this man see that she feared she laughed gaily and lightly faith and your impudence pases belief she said merrily
robbery and violence
without a word of protest or indiscretion at any rate it was well worth the risk a crowded inn is safer for these little operations than you think and my men have experience well and those papers
she asked carelessly unfortunately though they have given me cognisance of certain names certain movements
and still leaves me in ignorance of the identity of the scarlet pimpernel la my friend she said with the same assumed flippancy of manner then you are where you were before aren't you
and you can let me enjoy the last strophe of the aria faith she added ostentatiously smothering an imaginary yawn had you not spoken about my brother i am coming to him now citoyenne among the papers
written by your brother saint just well and that letter shows him to be not only in sympathy with the enemies of france but actually a helper
if not a member of the league of the scarlet pimpernel the blow had been struck at last all along marguerite had been expecting it she would not show fear
flippant even she wished when the shock came
those wits which had been nicknamed the keenest in europe even now she did not flinch she knew that chauvelin had spoken the truth the man was too earnest too blindly devoted to the misguided cause he had at heart too proud of his countrymen
of those makers of revolutions to stoop to low purposeless falsehoods that letter of armand's foolish imprudent armand was in chauvelin's hands marguerite knew that as if she had seen the letter with her own eyes
and chauvelin would hold that letter for purposes of his own until it suited him to destroy it or to make use of it against armand all that she knew and yet she continued to laugh more gaily more loudly than she had done before
la man she said speaking over her shoulder and looking him full and squarely in the face
infinite credit to your imagination let me make my point clear citoyenne said chauvelin with the same unruffled calm i must assure you that saint just is compromised beyond
the slightest hope of pardon inside the orchestra box all was silent for a moment or two marguerite sat straight upright rigid and inert trying to think trying to face the situation
and was even now bowing in her classic garb but in approved eighteenth century fashion to the enthusiastic audience who cheered her to the echo chauvelin
damp climate now tell me you are very anxious to discover the identity of the scarlet pimpernel isn't that so france's most bitter enemy citoyenne all the more dangerous
as he works in the dark all the more noble you mean well and you would now force me to do some spying work for you in exchange for my brother armand's safety is that it
in the name of france could never be called by the shocking name of spying at any rate
that is your intention is it not my intention is that you yourself win the free pardon for armand saint just by doing me a small service what is it
there was a tiny note see he added taking a tiny scrap of paper from his pocket book and handing it to her it was the same scrap of paper which
four days ago the two young men had been in the act of reading at the very moment when they were attacked by chauvelin's minions marguerite took it mechanically and stooped to read it there were only two lines written in a distorted
evidently disguised handwriting she read them half aloud remember we must not meet more often than is strictly necessary you have all instructions for the second
what does it mean she asked look again citoyenne and you will understand there is a device here in the corner a small red flower yes the scarlet pimpernel she said eagerly
that is how i interpret the note citoyenne concluded chauvelin blandly
there they remained close prisoners until this morning but having found this tiny scrap of paper my intention was that they should be in london in time to attend my lord grenville's ball
therefore this morning those two young gallants found every bar and bolt open in that lonely house on the dover road their jailers disappeared and two good horses standing ready saddled and tethered in the yard
i have not seen them yet but i think we may safely conclude that they did not draw rein until they reached london now you see how simple it all is citoyenne it does seem simple doesn't it
she said with a final bitter attempt at flippancy when you want to kill a chicken you take hold of it then you wring its neck it's only the chicken who does not find it quite so simple now you hold a knife at my throat
and a hostage for my obedience you find it simple i don't
but what do you want me to do chauvelin she said with a world of despair in her tear choked voice
nay citoyenne he said drily and relentlessly not heeding that despairing childlike appeal which might have melted a heart of stone as lady blakeney no one suspects you
and with your help to night i may who knows succeed in finally establishing the identity of the scarlet pimpernel you are going to the ball anon watch for me there citoyenne watch and listen
you can tell me if you hear a chance word or whisper
the scarlet pimpernel will be at lord grenville's ball to night find out who he is and i will pledge the word of france that your brother shall be safe chauvelin was putting the knife to her throat
marguerite felt herself entangled in one of those webs from which she could hope
for no escape a precious hostage was being held for her obedience for she knew that this man would never make an empty threat no doubt armand was already signalled to the committee of public safety as one of the suspect he would not be allowed to leave france again and would be ruthlessly struck if she refused to obey chauvelin
for a moment woman like she still hoped to temporise she held out her hand to this man
if i promise to help you in this matter chauvelin she said pleasantly
if you render me useful service to night citoyenne he replied with a sarcastic smile i will give you that letter to morrow you do not trust me i trust you absolutely dear lady
but saint just's life is forfeit to his country it rests with you to redeem it i may be powerless to help you she pleaded were i ever so willing
that would be terrible indeed he said quietly for you and for saint just
marguerite shuddered she felt that from this man she could expect no mercy all powerful he held the beloved life in the hollow of his hand she knew him too well
not to know that if he failed in gaining his own ends he would be pitiless she felt cold
in spite of the oppressive air of opera house the heart appealing strains of the music seemed to reach her as from a distant land she drew her costly lace scarf up around her shoulders and sat silently watching the brilliant scene
and advice from someone who would know how to help and console sir percy blakeney had loved her once
and he the manly energy and pluck together they could outwit the astute diplomatist and save the hostage from his vengeful hands without imperilling the life of the noble leader of that gallant little band of heroes
appeared to be absorbed in the sour stirring melodies of orpheus and was beating time to the music with his sharp ferret like head a discreet rap at the door roused marguerite from her thoughts
he said with his most exasperating drawl i suppose you will want to go to that demmed ball
i had not observed you he extended two slender white fingers toward chauvelin who had risen when sir percy entered the box
came in angry remonstrance from different parts of the house demmed impudence
commented sir percy with a good natured smile marguerite sighed impatiently her last hope seemed suddenly to have vanished away she wrapped her cloak round her and without looking at her husband i am ready to go
she said taking his arm at the door of the box she turned and looked straight at chauvelin
we shall meet at my lord grenville's ball anon
chapter twenty the friend less than half an hour later marguerite buried in thoughts sat inside her coach which was bearing her swiftly to london she had taken an affectionate farewell of little suzanne
and another on ahead to bespeak a fresh relay of horses at faversham then she had changed her muslin frock for a dark traveling costume and mantle had provided herself with money which her husband's lavishness always placed fully at her disposal
and had started on her way she did not attempt to delude herself with any vain and futile hopes the safety of her brother armand was to have been conditional on the imminent capture of the scarlet pimpernel
as chauvelin had sent her back armand's compromising letter there was no doubt that he was quite satisfied in his own mind that percy blakeney was the man whose death he had sworn to bring about no there was no room for any fond delusions
percy the husband whom she loved with all the ardour which her admiration for his bravery had kindled was in immediate deadly peril through her hand she had betrayed him to his enemy unwittingly tis true but she had betrayed him
among all percy's friends who were enrolled under his daring banner
and now his love for little suzanne had brought him closer to her still had he been away from home gone on the mad errand with percy perhaps
and his servant introduced her ladyship immediately she went upstairs to the young man's comfortable bachelor's chambers and was shown into a small though luxuriously furnished dining room
which the rigid etiquette of the time demanded marguerite had laid aside every vestige of nervousness
and having returned the young man's elaborate salute she began very calmly sir andrew i have no desire to waste valuable time in much talk you must take certain things i am going to tell you for granted these will be of no importance
for sir andrew completely taken by surprise had grown very pale and was quite incapable of making the slightest attempt at clever parrying
thank god that i do and that perhaps it is not too late to save him unfortunately i cannot do this quite alone and therefore have come to you for help lady blakeney said the young man trying to recover himself
i will you hear me first she interrupted this is how the matter stands
but not only that the much trusted leader will also have been unconsciously the means of revealing the hiding place of the comte de tournay and of all those who even now are placing their hopes in him
she had spoken quietly dispassionately and with firm unbending resolution her purpose was to make that young man trust and help her for she could do nothing without him i do not understand
he repeated trying to gain time to think what was best to be done
aye but i think you do sir andrew you must know that i am speaking the truth look these facts straight in the face percy has sailed for calais i presume for some lonely part of the coast and chauvelin is on his track he has posted for dover
my brother he will seek them out one after another probably not knowing that the sharpest eyes in the world are watching his every movement when he has thus unconsciously betrayed those who blindly trust in him
when nothing can be gained from him and he is ready to come back to england with those whom he has gone so bravely to save the doors of the trap will close upon him and he will be sent to end his noble life upon the guillotine
still sir andrew was silent you do not trust me she said passionately oh god cannot you see that i am in deadly earnest
forcing him to look straight at her
god forbid lady blakeney said the young man at last that i should attribute such evil motives to you but but what tell me quick man the very seconds are precious
mine she said quietly i own it i will not lie to you for i wish you to trust me absolutely but i had no idea how could i have of the identity of the scarlet pimpernel
and my brother's safety was to be my prize if i succeeded in helping chauvelin to track the scarlet pimpernel she nodded it is no use telling you how he forced my hand armand is more than a brother to me and
and how could i guess but we waste time sir andrew every second is precious in the name of god my husband is in peril
your friend your comrade help me to save him sir andrew felt his position to be a very awkward one the oath he had taken before his leader and comrade was one of obedience and secrecy
and yet the beautiful woman who was asking him to trust her was undoubtedly in earnest his friend and leader was equally undoubtedly in imminent danger and lady blakeney he said at last
god knows you have perplexed me so that i do not know which way my duty lies tell me what you wish me to do there are nineteen of us ready to lay down our lives for the scarlet pimpernel if he is in danger
there is no need for lives just now my friend she said drily my wits and four swift horses will serve the necessary purpose but i must know where to find him see she added while her eyes filled with tears
i have humbled myself before you i have owned my fault to you shall i also confess my weakness
been estranged because he did not trust me and because i was too blind to understand you must confess that the bandage which he put over my eyes was a very thick one
but last night after i led him unwittingly into such deadly peril it suddenly fell from my eyes if you will not help me sir andrew i would still strive to save my husband
i have so much to atone for but i fear you are mistaken chauvelin's eyes are fixed upon you all he will scarce notice me quick sir andrew the coach is ready and there is not a moment to be lost i must get to him
to be by his side at the least faith madame you must command me gladly would i or any of my comrades lay down our lives for your husband if you will go yourself
nay friend do you not see that i would go mad if i let you go without me she stretched out her hand to him you will trust me
he said simply listen then my coach is ready to take me to dover do you follow me as swiftly as horses will take you we meet at nightfall at the fisherman's rest
and i think it would be the safest i will gladly accept your escort to calais
disguised if you will agree to it as my lacquey you will i think escape detection i am entirely at your service madame rejoined the young man earnestly i trust to god that you will sight the day dream before we reach calais
but now farewell we meet to night at dover it will be a race between chauvelin and me across the channel to night and the prize the life of the scarlet pimpernel he kissed her hand
and then escorted her to her chair a quarter of an hour later she was back at the crown inn
and then straight on to the dover road at maddening speed she had no time for despair now she was up and doing and had no leisure to think
marguerite's thoughts flew back to him the mysterious hero whom she had always unconsciously loved when his identity was still unknown to her laughingly in the olden days she used to call him the shadowy king of her heart
and now she had suddenly found that this enigmatic personality whom she had worshipped and the man who loved her so passionately were one and the same what wonder that one or two happier visions began to force their way before her mind
she vaguely wondered what she would say to him when first they would stand face to face she had had so many anxieties so much excitement during the past few hours
that she allowed herself the luxury of nursing these few more hopeful brighter thoughts
the policeman blew a shrill whistle and said a sharp word to the page who scampered out of the door for dear life
receded towards the back of the hall as bernard dragging missus gilroy after him flung himself down the stairs he saw now that his position was dangerous but his wits were so bewildered that he hardly knew what he was doing
as he reached the foot of the stair the policeman caught him by the coat i arrest you in the king's name said the officer promptly yes yes for murder murder cried missus gilroy breathlessly murder the other servants shrieked
who is dead asked the policeman with professional stolidity sir simon gore this is his grandson he has strangled him it's a lie a lie cried bernard very pale
i did not enter anything you say now will be used in evidence against you said the policeman come up the stairs we must see this corpse a titled man too and your grandfather you audacious scoundrel and he shook the wretched young man
i tell you i am innocent said bernard his lips dry and his face pale i came here to kill sir simon jane
jane staggered forward supported by the cook
it's bernard whatever did you you know him then asked the officer yes he's been making love and visiting me for the last week
it's the young soldier as courts jane bernard's his name i was never in this house before said gore quite unnerved is your name bernard asked the policeman yes but then you are guilty he is he is cried the housemaid
he was here this evening but went away at six sir simon said he would see him after ten oh bernard how could you sobbed jane to think i should have took up with a man as ull be put in the chamber of horrors policeman
let me go said gore firmly there is some mistake the magistrate will decide that help will be here soon and then you'll be lodged in jail missus gilroy cried the young man overwhelmed with horror you know i am innocent no she said fiercely
i let you in myself i waited below while you spoke with sir simon and you left fifteen minutes ago i went upstairs to see my master he was dead strangled i ran out calling murder and you were almost on the doorstep
i had only just come come back you mean said the officer to see if poor master was dead
how could you kill him lor that i should have kissed a murderer hark said missus gilroy raising her hand footsteps the other police are coming take him away to jail officer this is a trick
a trap cried bernard struggling to get free i never was in the house before you have visited in the kitchen for over a fortnight said jane weeping copiously someone like me has but not me
here are the police we must go upstairs and see sir simon miss randolph is at the theatre with mister beryl ah hark there was a sound of approaching wheels and a moment afterwards a carriage drove up
out of it stepped lucy and julius they entered the hall and looked amazed as they well might
and the alarmed women around him what's this asked julius bernard cried lucy running forward what have you done murdered his grandfather
but missus gilroy still held her ground and caught hold of beryl's arm
i hope so said beryl who looked pale and startled but you know you quarrelled with my uncle ah did he said the policeman and felt for his pocket book
he decided hastily to fly in a moment he laid the policeman flat on his back by a quick wrestling trick and darted out into the street missus gilroy ran to the door shrieking murder and the word was heard
by three or four policemen who were tramping hurriedly along in the wake of the breathless page at once they realized the situation and plunged into the fog after the flying form of the soldier the page followed also but speedily returned
with the news that the fugitive was running towards high street he's bound to be caught said missus gilroy
was standing in the hall much disturbed after all he is my cousin and a murderer added the housekeeper wait here policeman but he's got away said the officer considerably ruffled by the escape i must follow the others are after him said julius drawing him back
you can't follow in the fog it's thicker than ever missus webber oh what's the matter asked a trembling voice and a white face appeared at the window of the carriage which stood at the door mister beryl sir simon has been murdered by his grandson
said julius running down the steps and speaking quietly missus webber threw herself back into the carriage and shrieked oh horrible drive away drive away no no said beryl anxiously
come and take her away she can't remain here yes i know said missus webber recovering from her momentary alarm and getting hastily out of the carriage james where is francis he's gone off after the murderer mum said james touching his hat
how terrible poor sir simon where is the body she asked shuddering in the sitting room on the first floor said missus gilroy where the red light is
said missus gilroy but i tell you there is said missus webber
the red light said julius starting i wonder he hurried outside and looked up to the dark front of the house there's no red light missus webber he called out i knew there wasn't cried missus gilroy sitting down evidently exhausted
you must be mistaken ma'am missus webber ran out also i am not mistaken why she stared up also there is none yet i am sure i'll ask lucy and she ran into the house again
come and show me where the poor man is this was to missus gilroy who rose slowly and walked heavily up the stairs are you in pain missus gilroy asked julius who followed yes she muttered pressing her hand to her side
mister gore gave me a wrench when i struggled with him my poor master and sighing heavily she panted up the stair in the room lucy was kneeling beside the dead
go to the theatre and now she broke down julius supported her to the sofa and strove to calm her it is terrible he said soothingly i think you had better go back with missus webber no she said drying her eyes i will wait here
yes do miss chorussed the cook and the housemaid who were both in a state of wild alarm nothing of the sort said missus webber laying her hand on the girl's shoulder come home with me dear missus webber was a small dark
stern looking little woman with a high color
you can do nothing dear said julius quickly i can help the nurse with the body
to lay out the body unless you she looked at jane and the cook these cowards shrieked simultaneously and with one accord fled to the lower regions where they sat up for the rest of the night drinking strong tea
and discussing the tragic event with the gusto peculiar to their class
answered the inquiries of an inspector who had appeared on the scene he noted all replies made and explained that the fugitive had not yet been caught and i don't know if he will be added inspector groom shrugging his shoulders the fog is thick
and bernard is very quick said lucy sipping a glass of wine which she sorely needed oh i hope he'll get away very natural said groom nodding you don't want the scandal i don't want bernard hanged said miss randolph ah
then you think he is guilty missus gilroy says he is answered the girl sobbing and i know bernard was on bad terms with sir simon julius
but according to jane bernard has been hanging round the house for the last fortnight and ah said groom sharply hanging round the house eh i must speak to jane who is she the housemaid
bernard has been making love to her i don't believe that is true said lucy young gentlemen do take strange fancies sometimes said groom and some housemaids are pretty
decidedly and bernard is far too fastidious a man to lower himself in that way well the long and the short of it is that he has been hanging round the house put in beryl biting his fingers impatiently
probably he came here this evening and saw sir simon in answer to the signal of the red window the red window echoed lucy yes you told me about the signal this evening but i did not place a lamp in any window
and there is no red window here had i done that to attract bernard i should have told you i don't think you would said beryl with a significant expression but the fact remains missus webber saw the red window you did not
no but a piece of red stuff may have been used to make the light and then removed missus gilroy may know about it but missus gilroy when questioned did not she never knew anything about a red light
did you see him asked the inspector no had i done so i should have recognized him but he always got out of the place when he heard me coming once he was concealed in a cupboard
on receiving sir simon's message sent by the page he left the house yes interrupted lucy i remember the message being brought back and then he came after ten
asked groom mister bernard gore yes he was he went to see the old gentleman and i waited below then he left the house did you let him out no he went away quickly wondering at the length of the interview
i ran up the stairs and found sir simon dead i came out at once and found mister gore almost on the doorstep
mister bernard gore the grandson of sir simon and my cousin said julius you say he was at the door he was mister beryl i made him come up the stairs and she made a gesture you know the rest
she told a consistent story then he questioned julius and lucy regarding the quarrel between the deceased and his grandson finally he proceeded to the kitchen and questioned the servants
the result of these inquiries was that inspector groom left the house with a policeman in charge firmly persuaded of bernard's guilt
groom was not ill pleased he thought he had secured a case likely to cause a sensation and to prove remunerative to himself while the rope to hang the unfortunate young man was being woven
the outcast for he was nothing else now was racing through the fog after the first plunge into the gray mist he succeeded in shaking off the officers all save one
and pursuer and gore in spite of all his efforts could not increase the distance but he was determined not to be taken
i hope i see you well sir simon said durham shaking hands he was a smart well dressed handsome young fellow with an up to date air and formed a striking contrast to the baronet in his antique garb
and he mentally wondered why the old man had brought him along sir simon had never spoken very well of julius but then he rarely said a good word of anyone i am as well as can be expected said sir simon grumpily
taking his seat near the table which was covered with books and papers and briefs and red tape and all the paraphernalia of legal affairs about that will of mine
and still more perplexed as to the baronet's motive for bringing the young man
it is ready for signing read it in the presence of durham indicated beryl in a puzzled way i can go uncle if you wish said julius hastily and rose sit down commanded the old man
all the more reason i should not hear it read said julius still on his feet sir simon shrugged his shoulders and turned his back on his too particular nephew
it was not the lawyer's business to argue in this especial instance so he speedily summoned a clerk the will was brought carefully engrossed on parchment and durham rustled the great sheets as he resumed his seat you wish me to read it all
he asked hesitatingly sir simon nodded and leaning his chin on the knob of his cane disposed himself to listen
which did not escape his uncle's notice and he smiled in a grim way durham without further preamble read the contents of the will clearly and deliberately without as much as a glance in the direction of the person interested
this was julius and he grew pale with pleasure as the lawyer proceeded the will provided legacies for old servants but no mention was made of missus gilroy
and secretly wondered at various bequests were made to former friends and arrangements set forth as to the administration of the estate the bulk of the property was left to julius beryl on condition that he married lucy randolph
for whom otherwise no provision was made the name of bernard gore was left out altogether when durham ended he laid down the will with a rather regretful air and discreetly stared at the fire he liked young gore
and did not care for the architect therefore he was annoyed that the latter should benefit to the exclusion of the former good said sir simon who had followed the reading with close attention well he asked his nephew
beryl stammered i hardly know how to thank you i am not worthy there there there said the old man tartly we understand all that can you suggest any alteration no uncle the will is perfect
said gore with a dry chuckle i think said the lawyer his eyes still on the fire that some provision should be made for your grandson he has been taught to consider himself your heir and has been brought up in that expectation
it is hard that at his age he should be thrown on the world for for disobedience put in beryl meekly sir simon chuckled again yes for disobedience
called miss plantagenet i know said the young lawyer nodding she is the aunt of lord conniston who told me about the matter i thought lord conniston was in america said julius sharply i saw him before he went to america retorted the solicitor
who did not intend to tell beryl that conniston had been in his office on the previous day why do you say that do you know him i know that he has a castle near my uncle's place cove castle snapped sir simon
all the county knows that but he never comes near the place did you meet lord conniston at miss plantagenet's julius
to miss plantagenet's only in the company of bernard aha chuckled sir simon you did not fall in love with that girl no uncle of course i am engaged to miss randolph you can call her lucy to a near relative like myself
said the baronet dryly do you know miss malleson durham no i have not that pleasure but no doubt bernard has told you about her durham shook his head i have not seen gore for months are you sure
he inherits a little money from his father and you yes i quite understand i have charge of that money gore came a few months ago and i gave him fifty pounds or so that was after he quarrelled with you sir simon since then
i have not seen him then he does not know that i am in crimea square not that i know of certainly not from me is he in town it was beryl who answered this bernard has enlisted as an imperial yeoman said he
then i think the more of him said durham quickly every man who can should go to the front why don't you go yourself durham if i had not my business to look after i certainly should replied the lawyer
but regarding mister gore will you make any provision for him sir simon
i leave it to julius should the money come into my possession soon said julius virtuously a thing i do not wish since it means your death dear uncle i should certainly allow bernard two hundred a year out of ten thousand
put in durham how good of you he deserves no more for his disobedience to his benefactor sir simon chuckled yet again i am quite of julius's opinion he declared bernard has behaved shamefully
i wanted him to marry a miss perry who is rich
they can live on ten thousand a year and be happy what is the use of getting more money than is needed besides from what i hear this miss malleson is a charming girl with no name and no position said sir simon
a mere paid companion i don't want my grandson to make such a bad match if he does he must take the consequences and he will certainly he will said beryl anxious about the signing of the will
he has been hard hearted for months and shows no signs of giving in since i am to inherit the money i will allow bernard two hundred a year or such sum as sir simon thinks fit two hundred is quite enough said the baronet
mister durham we will see now about signing this will can i not persuade you to no
i am sure julius here will make a better use of the money than bernard will won't you julius i hope so replied beryl rising but i trust it will be many a long day before i inherit the money dear uncle
make your mind easy said sir simon dryly i intend to live for many a year yet i think i had better go now observed julius rising won't you stop and see the will signed no uncle i think it is better
as i inherit that i should be out of the room who knows but what bernard might say did i remain that i exercised undue influence not while i am present said durham touching a bell
all the same i had better go insisted the young man uncle please yourself replied gore you can go if you like i shall see you on friday when you come for lucy to take her to the curtain theatre yes but i trust
and here as a clerk entered the room and was apparently with durham about to witness the will julius departed he chuckled to himself when he was outside thinking of his good luck but at the door his face altered he might change his mind
thought beryl there's no reliance to be placed on him i wish he opened and shut his fist but he won't die for a long time while julius was indulging in these thoughts sir simon had taken up the will to glance over it
he also requested durham to send the clerk away for a few moments rather surprised the lawyer did so thinking the old man changeable when alone with his legal adviser the baronet walked to the fire and thrust the will into it
durham could not forbear an ejaculation of surprise what's that for to punish julius said sir simon placidly returning to his seat
he told me about bernard being in love with that girl so as to create trouble but you don't approve of the match no i certainly do not and i daresay
that when i insisted on bernard marrying miss perry that the truth would have come out all the same it was none of beryl's business to make mischief besides he is a sly creature
and if i made the will in his favor who knows but what he might not contrive to get me out of the way no said durham thoughtfully
besides people don't murder nowadays don't they said sir simon look in the newspapers i mean that what you think julius might do is worthy of a novel i don't fancy novels are true to life anything julius did
i tell you durham he is a villain of the worst i don't trust him
and when he learns the truth he will be punished for his greed but sir simon argued the lawyer by letting him think the will is made in his favor you have placed him in the very position which according to you might lead to his attempt to murder
for certainly he was acting differently to what he said by the way you have the other will yes it leaves everything to bernard save the legacies which remain much the same of course in the first will is mentioned an annuity to missus gilroy
i left her out of the new will the fact is i don't trust missus gilroy she's too friendly with julius for my taste i understood her to be on the side of bernard
oh she's on whatever side suits her said sir simon testily however let the first will stand she's a poor thing and has had a hard life i have every right to leave her something to live on why
asked durham bluntly he found missus gilroy something of a mystery and did not know what was the bond between her and sir simon never you mind i have my reasons so let things remain as they are
bernard can marry miss malleson when i am dead if he chooses he thinks he has been disinherited yes i told him so
won't you take him back into favor and tell him
not at present if we met there would only be more trouble he has a temper inherited from his italian mother and i have a temper also
but i don't want him to go to the war he must be bought out i fear bernard is not the man to be bought out oh i know he is brave enough
the eleventh hour when war is on
all the same i don't want him to be shot
in which you can make him give up his soldiering what's that make friends with him and ask him to wait till you die no no no said sir simon irritably he must keep away from me for a time after all
he is the son of his father and bad as walter was i loved him for his mother's sake as for the italian woman missus gore she is dead
and a scoundrel he is the other day he came to the hall and tried to force his way into the house a gambler a rogue durham
what is his other name tolomeo he comes from siena i understood missus gore your son's wife came from florence so she said she declared she was the member of a decayed florentine family
the tolomeo nobles are sienese and a bad lot they are he is a musician i believe a plausible scamp i hope he has not got hold of bernard bernard is his nephew i know that snapped the old man
all the same the uncle is
i don't think gore is the man to be controlled said durham sagely you don't know he is young after all but you know by the will i have
put it out of bernard's power to assist tolomeo if he gives him as much as a shilling the money is lost to him and goes to lucy
but i must get home now by the way about that lease and the two began to talk of matters connected with the estate
insisted on recurring to the forbidden subject however it was just when the old man was going that he reverted to the bone of contention i wish you would let me tell bernard that you are well disposed toward him ah you
plead for the scamp said sir simon angrily
you know and we are great friends if he is an imperial yeoman there will be no difficulty in seeing him
i have ascertained that he won't go to the war for six weeks julius found that out for me so wait till he is on the eve of sailing
if nothing else will keep him at home i'll make it up but i think a little hardship will do him good he behaved very badly bernard is naturally hot tempered
therefore let us keep apart for a time who knows what would happen did we meet no durham let bernard think that i am still angry if lucy sets a lamp in the red window that's a different thing i shan't interfere
with her romance the red window what's that
who is the direct and unaltered descendant of the ancient hound the glorious king solomon referred to him
as being one of the four things which go well and are comely in going a lion which is strongest among beasts and turneth not away from any a greyhound an he goat also and a king against whom there is no rising up
that the greyhound is comely in going as well as in repose was recognised very early by the greeks whose artists were fond of introducing this graceful animal as an ornament in their decorative workmanship
in their metal work their carvings in ivory and stone and more particularly as parts in the designs on their terra cotta oil bottles wine coolers and other vases the greyhound is frequently to be seen sometimes following the hare
and always in remarkably characteristic attitudes usually these greek greyhounds are represented with prick ears but occasionally the true rose ear is shown all writings in connection with greyhounds point to the high estimation
in which the dog has always been held doctor caius when referring to the name says
which word soundeth gradus in latin in englishe degree
occupying the chiefest place and being simply
it was not until the reign of queen elizabeth that coursing in england was conducted under established rules these were drawn up by the then duke of norfolk the sport quickly grew in favour and continued to increase in popularity
until the first coursing club was established at swaffham in seventeen seventy six then in seventeen eighty the ashdown park meeting came into existence the newmarket meeting in eighteen o five was the next fixture
that was inaugurated and this now remains with the champion stakes as its most important event afterwards came the amesbury meeting in eighteen twenty two but amesbury like ashdown although for many years one of the most celebrated institutions of the description
has fallen from its high estate three years later came the altcar club but it was not until eleven years after this period that the waterloo cup was instituted in eighteen thirty six to win which is the highest ambition of followers of the leash
at the present time the run for the waterloo cup
is composed of sixty four nominations
the winner takes p five hundred and the cup value p one hundred presented by the earl of sefton the runner up p two hundred the third and fourth p fifty each four dogs p thirty six each eight dogs p twenty each
and sixteen dogs p ten each the thirty two dogs beaten in the first round of the cup compete for the waterloo purse
and the sixteen dogs run out in the second round for the waterloo plate
and the runner up p thirty the remainder being divided amongst the most forward runners in the respective stakes the waterloo cup holds the same position in coursing circles as the derby does in horse racing
the national coursing club was established in eighteen fifty eight when a stud book was commenced
this is recognised in australia and other parts of the world where coursing meetings are held
in fact the national coursing club is more particular in connection with the pedigrees of greyhounds being correctly given than the kennel club is about dogs that are exhibited
it holds the same position in coursing matters as the jockey club does in racing it is in fact the supreme authority on all matters connected with coursing various opinions have been advanced as to the best size and weight for a greyhound like horses greyhounds run in all forms
and there is no doubt that a really good big one will always have an advantage over the little ones but it is so difficult to find the former and most of the chief winners of the waterloo cup have been comparatively small coomassie was the smallest greyhound that ever won the blue ribbon of the leash
bab at the bowster who is considered by many good judges to have been the best bitch that ever ran
fullerton who was a much bigger dog and was four times declared the winner of the cup
namely in eighteen fifty eighteen fifty two and eighteen fifty three when it was a thirty two dog stake
bit of fashion miss glendine herschel thoughtless beauty and fabulous fortune are probably some of the best greyhounds that ever ran besides those already alluded to bit of fashion was the
but master mc grath came first during his remarkable career in public he won thirty six courses out of thirty seven
attempt to win the waterloo cup and the flag went up in favour of mister trevor's lady lyons he however retrieved his good fortune the following year
who when he won all his honours was the property of colonel north was bred by mister james dent in northumberland colonel north gave eight hundred fifty guineas for him which was then stated to be the highest price ever paid for a greyhound
he ran five times altogether for the waterloo cup and was declared the winner on four occasions the first time was in eighteen eighty nine when he divided with his kennel companion troughend then he won the cup outright the three following years
in eighteen ninety three however after having been put to the stud at which he proved a failure he was again trained for the cup but age had begun to tell its tale and after winning one course he was beaten by mister keating's full captain in the second
this was one of the two occasions upon which out of thirty three courses he failed to raise the flag
it appears like descending from the sublime to the ridiculous to mention the greyhound as a show dog
but there are many dogs elegant in outline with fine muscular development that are to be seen in the judging ring
is one of the most prominent winners of the day he is a fawn and white as handsome as a peacock and moreover is a good dog in the field
he was taken to a coursing meeting where he won the stake in which he was entered a brace of very beautiful bitches are mister f eyer's dorset girl and miss w easton's okeford queen although as a rule
the most consistent winners in the leash have not been noted for their good looks there have been exceptions in which the opposite has been the case fullerton was a good looking dog if not quite up to the form required in the show ring
mister harding cox has had several specimens that could run well and win prizes as show dogs and the same may be said of miss maud may's fine kennel of greyhounds in the north of england in the south of england missus a dewe keeps a number of longtails
are running at plumpton and other meetings in sussex the following is the standard by which greyhounds should be judged head long and narrow slightly wider in skull allowing for plenty of brain room lips tight without any flew and eyes
teeth very strong and level and not decayed or cankered neck lengthy without any throatiness but muscular
with strong pasterns and toes set well up and close together body chest very deep with fairly well sprung ribs muscular back and loins and well cut up in the flanks hind quarters wide and well let down with hocks
and close to the ground with very muscular haunches showing great propelling power
he is a born sportsman and loves an open air life a warrior always ready to accept battle but seldom provoking it he has a way of his own with tramps and seldom fails to induce them to continue their travels
yet withal he is tender hearted a friend of children an ideal companion and often has a clever gift for parlour tricks in china his fatherland he is esteemed for another quality
his excellence as a substitute for roast mutton though in his own country he is regarded as plebeian just a common cur he is by no means a mongrel that he is of ancient lineage
the claim to be the royal dog of china yet his blood must be of the bluest if you doubt it look at his tongue outwardly the chow worthily embodies the kind faithful heart
which deters strangers from undue familiarity though to friends his expression is kindness itself though the chow has many perfections
red craze owns the head which is perfect with the correct ear carriage and broad muzzle and the scowl and characteristic expression
the judges would be quite wrong but if you want a dog for show
you have a chow as a companion and friend
yoke culottes and tail are white or cream coloured these are natural correct and typical marks though present day fanciers are trying to improve them away
some years ago is added the points are fairly right but the tongue of a live chow is never black it should be blue such a colour as might result from a diet of bilberries points of the chow chow head skull flat and broad with little stop
well filled out under the eyes muzzle moderate in length and broad from the eyes to the point
nose black large and wide in cream or light coloured specimens a pink nose is allowable tongue black eyes dark and small
ears small pointed and carried stiffly erect they should be placed well forward over the eyes which gives the dog the peculiar characteristic expression of the breed viz a sort of scowl teeth
strong and level neck strong full set well on the shoulders and slightly arched shoulders muscular and sloping chest broad and deep back
tightly over the back fore legs perfectly straight of moderate length and with great bone hind legs same as fore legs muscular and with hocks well let down feet small round and catlike
standing well on the toes coat abundant dense straight and rather coarse in texture
red yellow blue white
thirdly true or false first by real ideas i mean such as have a foundation in nature
fantastical or chimerical i call such as have no foundation in nature nor have any conformity with that reality of being to which they are tacitly referred as to their archetypes if we examine the several sorts of ideas before mentioned we shall find that
simple ideas are all real appearances of things first our simple ideas are all real all agree to the reality of things not that they are all of them the images or representations of what does exist the contrary whereof
in all but the primary qualities of bodies hath been already shown but though whiteness and coldness are no more in snow than pain is
being in us the effects of powers in things without us ordained by our maker to produce in us such sensations they are real ideas in us whereby we distinguish the qualities that are really in things themselves
which we have to do with our ideas do as well serve us to that purpose and are as real distinguishing characters whether they be only constant effects or else exact resemblances of something in the things themselves
the reality lying in that steady correspondence they have with the distinct constitutions of real beings but whether they answer to those constitutions as to causes or patterns it matters not it suffices that they are constantly produced by them
and thus our simple ideas are all real and true because they answer and agree to those powers of things which produce them on our minds that being all that is requisite to make them real and not fictions at pleasure for in simple ideas as has been shown
the mind is wholly confined to the operation of things upon it and can make to itself no simple idea more than what it was received
complex ideas are voluntary combinations though the mind be wholly passive in respect of its simple ideas yet i think we may say it is not so in respect of its complex ideas
for those being combinations of simple ideas put together and united under one general name it is plain that the mind of man uses some kind of liberty in forming those complex ideas
but because he has put in or left out of his some simple idea which the other has not the question then is which of these are real and which barely imaginary combinations what collections agree to the reality of things and what not and to this i say that
mixed modes and relations made of consistent ideas are real secondly mixed modes and relations having no other reality but what they have in the minds of men there is nothing more required to this kind of ideas to make them real
but that they be so framed that there be a possibility of existing conformable to them these ideas themselves being archetypes cannot differ from their archetypes and so cannot be chimerical unless any one will jumble together in them inconsistent ideas
indeed as any of them have the names of a known language assigned to them by which he that has them in his mind would signify them to others so bare possibility of existing is not enough they must have a conformity to the ordinary signification
of the name that is given them that they may not be thought fantastical as if a man would give the name of justice to that idea which common use calls liberality but this fantasticalness
for a man to be undisturbed in danger sedately to consider what is fittest to be done and to execute it steadily is a mixed mode or a complex idea of an action which may exist but to be undisturbed in danger without using one's reason or industry
is what is also possible to be and so is as real an idea as the other though the first of these having the name courage given to it may in respect of that name be a right or wrong idea
but the other whilst it has not a common received name of any known language assigned to it is not capable of any deformity being made with no reference to anything but itself
complex ideas of substances are real when they agree with the existence of things thirdly our complex ideas of substances being made all of them in reference to things existing without us
and intended to be representations of substances as they really are are no further real than as they are such combinations of simple ideas as are really united and co exist in things without us on the contrary
those are fantastical which are made up of such collections of simple ideas as were really never united never were found together in any substance
or a body yellow very malleable fusible and fixed but lighter than common water or an uniform unorganized body consisting as to sense all of similar parts with perception and voluntary motion joined to it
whether such substances as these can possibly exist or no it is probable we do not know but be that as it will these ideas of substances being made conformable to no pattern existing that we know
a girl sat at a desk in a small third story room of doctor charles burney's house in london writing as rapidly as her quill pen could travel over the paper it was a december afternoon and the light was not very bright
so that she had to lean far forward until the end of her nose almost touched the tip of her pen now and then a smile would cross her lips or she would stop a moment to reread a sentence or two and nod her head but for the most part she kept steadily on
very much in earnest in what she was doing on one corner of the desk lay a pile of finished manuscript showing that she must have been at this work for many days as a matter of fact she had come up to this small spare room every afternoon for a month
and written until it was too dark for her to see presently another girl came tiptoeing up the stairs paused a moment at the door and then stole quietly into the room
without a word she crossed over to an old sofa on the other side of the room and sat down upon it the writer went on driving her quill pen across the paper
there my pen's stubbed its toe again said the writer sitting up straight i'd better let it rest itself a while oh fanny exclaimed the girl on the sofa
the authoress laid down her pen and tilted back in her chair the funniest things have been happening to her lately susan i laughed until i cried
when suddenly a wind came up and blew off his wig
and that put him out so that he jumped up from his knees and stalked away later the gardener found the wig on the bough of an apple tree but caroline didn't dare send it to its owner
let me read it to you oh do fanny urged the younger sister
then with a preliminary chuckle she began to read at first she went smoothly enough but after a while she began to laugh and finally she had to stop and dry her eyes with a handkerchief he did look so ridiculous she said
can't you see him there saying oh my adorable caroline wilt thou when whist
replied susan who was hugging herself and rocking on the sofa with appreciation however can you do it fanny
they don't start out funny said the writer
of course the hero and caroline herself are quite serious it's getting to be a big book just look she opened a drawer of the desk and produced another pile of papers and laid them on top of those already on the table it's almost a full sized novel now
it's beautiful said susan
do you really think it's good
i just had to write it i couldn't help doing it no matter how hard i tried it's wonderful continued the admiring susan but you mustn't tell you must never tell besought fanny
i'd be so ashamed of myself and just think what father might have to say to me about it she swung about to the desk and rested her head in her hands as though to contemplate the overwhelming things doctor burney might be called upon to say should he discover her offense
then impulsively she stretched out her hands and clasped the manuscript oh i love it i love every line i've written there some one else had been climbing the flight of stairs to the third story and now came into the room
it was missus burney the stepmother of fanny and susan she went over to the desk and looked at the pile of written sheets before fanny could turn them over or hide them in the drawer
writing books has gone out of fashion i know it said fanny but i couldn't help it i'd much rather do this than practice on the harpsichord but music is a polite accomplishment my dear
whereas scribbling is quite the reverse fanny's isn't scribbling protested susan it's wonderful it really is mother it's as good as anything down stairs in father's library
no thank you susan i can understand some parents letting their children run wild and become novel writers but not doctor burney you must remember you have a position in society to think about my dears i know agreed fanny guiltily
more interesting i think
missus burney smiled
she was a bustling sociable person and she considered that fanny was altogether too shy and reserved she wanted to make her more like her other sisters esther and charlotte both of whom were very popular with the many visitors who came to see the celebrated doctor burney
it's for your own good she said finally i shan't tell your father but i know he wouldn't approve of your spending your time in this way i know said fanny slowly i know what people think of a young woman who writes
i oughtn't to do it but the temptation was too strong for me i'll give it up mother and not steal off here by myself i'll try to be more the way you and father want me
you know we're all very proud of you anyway stooping down missus burney kissed her stepdaughter and then left the sisters alone for some time there was silence while fanny stared at the big pile of closely written sheets which lay in front of her
and susan looked at her sister then with a sigh the older girl rose and gathered the papers in her arms mother is right it is wrong of me said she would you mind susan coming down into the yard with me
asked her sister in alarm i've made up my mind what's best to be done and i'm going to do it come down stairs please fanny led the way with the papers and susan came after her
they went down the three flights through a hall and out into a paved court at the rear of the house will you watch them a minute please said fanny as she laid the papers on the bricks she went indoors and soon was back again with some sticks of wood some straw and a lighted taper in her hand
she laid the sticks together stuffed some straw in among them and then placed the pile of papers on top oh fanny cried her sister you're not going to burn up all the story oh poor caroline don't do it fanny
i must said fanny very decidedly oh please please don't
it is it's a terrible shame it hurts me most said fanny but it's the only way to settle caroline once for all with a very grim face she held the taper to the straw until it caught fire
in a moment a page of the manuscript was curling up in flames
she looked beseechingly at her sister but the latter's purpose was inflexible a few minutes more and the papers were all burning brightly the two girls stood there until the fire had burnt itself out and then turned to each other
tears stood in fanny's eyes and also in those of the sympathetic susan poor caroline evelyn sighed fanny
susan slipped her arm about her sister's waist and they went indoors to get ready for supper the young authoress was very quiet when the family met at table a little later and had very little appetite but the family were quite used to fanny's reserve and none of them thought anything about it
except the faithful susan who threw tender reproachful glances across the table at fanny from time to time the father of these girls doctor charles burney was the fashionable music master of the day in london
and often was not through with them until eleven at night many a time he dined in a hackney coach on sandwiches and a glass of sherry and water as he drove from one house to another among his friends were all sorts of people musicians actors scholars
and as he was most hospitable his children grew up familiar with many different types of men and women of the great world of london the other girls and the boys were like their father in taking part in all the entertainments that went on but fanny the second daughter
although she was admitted to be very bright was unusually quiet and retiring her teacher called her the silent observant miss fanny and that described her well because she was always watching the people about her and remembering their peculiar tricks of manner and speech
but she had a mind of her own and could speak up on occasion when she was ten years old her father lived in a house on poland street next door to a wig maker who supplied perukes to the judges and lawyers of london
the children of the wig maker and the burney children played together in a little garden behind the former's house and one day they went into the wig maker's house and each put on one of the fine wigs he had for sale
then they began to play in the garden until one of the perukes which was very fine and worth over ten guineas fell into a tub of water and lost all its curl
the wig is wet to be sure and it was a very good wig but words will do no good because sir what's done can't be undone the wig maker listened in great surprise and then made fanny a little bow miss burney speaks with the wisdom of ages
he said and without another word went into the house
sometimes he would sit still and listen to doctor burney talk on the history of music
he would seem to become an old crafty man before their very eyes or a villain from the slums of london or a spanish grandee for the first time in england
and appear in the dining room as a stranger to the family once he arrived at the door in an old ill fitting wig and shabby clothes and the servant refused to admit him taking him for a beggar egad child he said to the maid you don't guess whom you have the happiness to see
the maid very much startled let him pass and he shambled into the house again pretending to be a beggar the children were always delighted to have him come and fanny in particular because she had a talent for mimicking people herself and she liked to study him
he often sent them tickets to see him act at drury lane theatre
fanny's particular friend was a mister samuel crisp a curious man who had once been very popular in london
he was very fond of the burneys and often had them visit him at his country home fanny called him her dearest daddy
he understood her better than any one else and it was to him that she confided the story of how she had burned the manuscript of her novel it was very hard daddy she said i know i oughtn't to want to keep on scribbling but
somehow i can't help it i think of so many things and i want to make them real and the only way is to put them down on paper people tell me young ladies shouldn't be writing stories that it's not genteel but how can i help myself
you can tell them to me fanny and no one shall ever know you made them up so she unburdened her heart to him told him of her friend caroline evelyn the dear child of her brain of the suitors that young lady had and how she treated them and of her elopement to gretna green
mister crisp listened and smiled surprised at the girl's powers of description and humor
so it is she answered i think more about her than about any one else then said mister crisp in spite of your mother's good advice and your own judgment
mister crisp was right in his prediction that summer the burneys went to the little town of king's lynn where fanny had been born there fanny shut herself up in a summer house which was called the cabin and began to rewrite her book
she seized upon every scrap of white paper that she could find and bore it off with her she worked secretly inventing numberless excuses for the hours she spent by herself gradually the story took shape again changed in many ways from its first telling
and with the heroine rechristened evelina meantime doctor burney had started to prepare his great history of music and asked the help of his daughters to copy it for him fanny wrote the best hand and was the most reliable
and day after day she worked with him having to postpone her own book from week to week but each time she came back to it more ardently and each time her pen flew faster as she sat at her table in the little summer house at last she told susan about it
and susan was delighted and when fanny read some of it to her she declared that it was a thousand times better than the story of caroline had been
and this stirred the youthful fanny with the desire to see what london would think of evelina she was determined however to keep its authorship unknown and so she carefully recopied the manuscript in an assumed handwriting in order that no publisher or printer
should recognize the same hand in this but evelina had grown to be a very long novel
she grew tired and so she wrote a letter without any signature to a publisher offering to send him the completed part of her novel at once and the rest of it during the next year this publisher replied that he would not consider the book unless he were told the author's name
fanny showed the letter to susan and they talked it over but decided that she ought not to send her name
he said he would like to see the manuscript thereupon fanny decided to take her brother charles into the secret and have him carry the work to the publisher charles agreed and fanny and susan muffled him up in a greatcoat so that he looked much older than he was and sent him off
he was not recognized and when he called later for an answer he was told that the publisher was pleased with the book but could not agree to print it until he should receive the whole story that discouraged fanny and she let the book lie by for some time
in the meantime fanny began to wonder if it would be fair for her to publish a novel without telling her father and she decided she ought to go to him she caught him just as he was leaving home on a trip and said with many blushes and much confusion
that she had written a little story and wanted to have it printed without giving her name she added that she would not bother him with the manuscript in any way and begged that he wouldn't ask to see it the doctor was very much amused as well as surprised and he told her to go ahead and see what would come of the story
better satisfied now that she had her father's consent
the first fanny knew of it was when her stepmother opened a paper one morning at the breakfast table and read aloud an advertisement announcing the appearance of a new novel entitled evelina or a young lady's entrance into the world
susan smiled across the table at fanny and charles winked at her but she sat very still her cheeks a fiery red
shortly afterward fanny was ill and went out to chesington to recuperate she took the three volumes of evelina with her and read them aloud to mister crisp who pretended that he had no idea who the author might be
and listened with the most flattering interest to chapter after chapter it reminds me of something he said one day and what may that be dear daddy she asked i can't think but it's prodigiously finer than what i'm trying to recall he answered
by the time she returned home all london was talking about the new novel and wondering as to the author wherever doctor burney went he found people discussing the same subject the great doctor samuel johnson declared that it was uncommonly fine
and the doctor was the accepted judge of all literary matters like all the others he was sure that the writer was a man and made many guesses as to which of the lights of london it might be but although one man after another was credited with the honor of having written it each had to decline the satisfaction
sir joshua reynolds declared he would give fifty pounds to know the author and meant to find him and sheridan vowed he must get the clever man whoever he was to write him a play in the meantime fanny and susan were enjoying the mystery tremendously
it was very delightful to hear all the visitors at their house talking of evelina without the faintest notion that the author was sitting there listening to all they had to say but the time came when doctor burney learned the secret and his pride in fanny's accomplishment could not keep him silent
he told the story to several of his friends and they very much amazed passed it on to others then missus thrale a friend of the burneys gave a dinner and told her guests that they should have the pleasure of meeting the author of evelina there
she was overwhelmed with congratulations and when the party came to an end sir joshua reynolds with a most courtly bow bent over her hand and hoped that he might shortly have the pleasure of entertaining her at his home in
when she went home fanny said to susan the joke of it is that the people spoke as if they were afraid of me instead of my being very much afraid of them evelina made fanny burney famous
she became a well known figure in london life and wrote other novels cecilia camilla and the wanderer she wrote a life of doctor burney and she kept many diaries all of which were filled with witty and humorous descriptions of the people of her age
and took a prominent part at court later she married the french
she afterward described these adventures in her diary and it gives a most interesting account of those thrilling times so it was that the silent observant miss fanny
the tasks of peace now the people of england had been on tiptoe for some days with eagerness waiting to welcome the heroine of the crimea back to her native shores
they would give her such a reception as no one had ever yet had in that land of hospitality and welcomings she should have bells and cannon and bonfires processions and deputations and addresses
she should have everything that anybody could think of when they found that their heroine had slipped quietly through their fingers as it were and was back in her own peaceful home once more people were sadly disappointed
they must give up the cannon and the bonfires but at least they might have a glimpse of her so hundreds of people crowded the roads and lanes about lea hurst waiting and watching an old lady living at the park gate told missus tooley
folks came in carriages and on foot
some of them without arms and legs
if they wanted help about their pensions they were told to put it down in writing and miss florence's maid came with an answer of course she was willing to help everybody but it stood to reason she could not receive them all why the park wouldn't have held all the folks that came and besides
all sensible people realized how weary miss nightingale must be after her tremendous labors and how much she must need rest
so they left her in peace and began sending her things to show their gratitude in a different way the first gift of this kind she had received before she left the crimea from good queen victoria herself this was the nightingale jewel as it is called
a ruby red enamel cross on a white field encircled by a black band with the words
the letters v r surmounted by a crown in diamonds are impressed upon the centre of the cross green enamel branches of palm tipped with gold form the framework of the shield while around their stems is a riband of blue enamel
with the single word crimea on the top are three brilliant stars of diamonds on the back is an inscription written by the queen another gift received on the scene of her labors was a magnificent diamond bracelet
sent her by the sultan of turkey i do not know of any more jewels but two gifts that miss nightingale prized highly
each knife blade inscribed with the words presented to florence nightingale eighteen fifty seven and the silver bound oak case inlaid with a representation of the good samaritan
and a beautiful pearl inlaid writing desk presented by her friends and neighbors near lea hurst all these things were very touching still more touching were the letters that came from all over the country thanking and blessing her for all she had done
truly it was a happy home coming miss nightingale knew that she was very very weary she realized that she must have a long rest but she little thought how long it must be she and all her friends thought that after a few months
and become the active leader in introducing the new methods of nursing into england but the months passed and grew from few to many and still her strength did not return the next year indeed when the dreadful indian mutiny broke out
she wrote to her friend lady canning wife of the governor general of india offering to come at twenty four hours notice if there was anything to do in her line of business
slowly gradually the truth came to florence nightingale she was never going to be strong or well again always delicate the tremendous labors of the crimea had been too much for her while the work went on
the frail body answered the call of the powerful will the undaunted mind the great heart now that the task was finished it sank down broken and exhausted
truly she had given her life as much as any soldier who fought and died in the trenches or on the battlefield and what did she do when she finally came to realize this did she give up and say my work on earth is done not she
there may have been some dark hours but the world has never heard of them she never for an instant thought of giving up her work she simply changed the methods of it
very well but the mind was not tired at all the will was not weakened the heart had not ceased to throb with love and compassion for the sick the sorrowful the suffering
the question was to find the way in which they could work with as little trouble as might be to their poor sick friend the body the way was soon found
her sick room became one of the busiest places in all england
all these must be brought to miss nightingale all the soldiers in the country must write to her whenever they wanted anything from a pension down to a wooden leg to their honor be it said however
not a soldier ever asked her for money the nightingale fund now nearly fifty thousand pounds was administered under her advice and direction and the first training school for nurses organized and opened the old incapable ignorant nurse vanished
and the modern nurse educated methodical clear eyed and clear headed took her place quietly one of the great changes of modern times was effected and the hand that directed it was the same one that we have seen holding the lamp
or writing down the dying soldier's last words in the barrack hospital at scutari that slender hand wrote books with all the rest of its work in the sick room as in the hospital miss nightingale had no time to waste
her notes on nursing became the handbook of the nursing reform and ought to be in the hands of every nurse to day as it was in eighteen sixty when it was written nor in the hands of nurses only
i wish every girl and every boy who reads this story would try to find that slender dingy volume in some library and read mark learn and inwardly digest its contents they would know a good deal more than they do now
well might miss nightingale write in eighteen sixty one
only varied to other four walls once a year and i believe there is no prospect but of my health becoming ever worse and worse till the hour of my release but i have never ceased during one waking hour since my return to england five years ago
as i did abroad and no hour have i given to friendship or amusement during that time but all to work drop a stone in the water and see how the circles spread growing wider and wider
but you know that the motion you have started must go on and on till it whispers against the pebbles on the farther shore so it is with a good deed or an evil one we see its beginning we cannot see what distant shore it may reach
so no one will ever know the full amount of good that this noble woman has done the sanitary commission of our own civil war the red cross which to day counts its workers by thousands in every part of the civilized world
both owed their first impulse to the pebble dropped by florence nightingale even her own life given freely to suffering humanity
where she lies to day in the white beauty of her age nearly ninety years have passed since the little girl baby woke to life among the blossoms of the city of flowers more than half a century has gone by since the lady with the lamp passed like light along the corridors of the barrack hospital
yet still florence nightingale lives and loves still her thoughts go out in tenderness and compassion toward all who are in trouble sorrow need sickness or any other adversity
let us think of that quiet room as one of the holy places of the earth
chapter nine another mystery when jennings arrived that evening according to appointment he found mallow in a state of desperation
that he felt as though on the point of losing his reason he was quite delighted when he saw jennings and thus had someone with a clear head in whom to confide what's the matter asked jennings who at once saw that something was wrong from cuthbert's anxious face
things are getting more mysterious every day
i am with you heart and soul i have the detective fever with a vengeance you can count on my assistance in every way
sit down and let us have a quiet talk before this girl arrives susan grant i saw her to day did you speak to her
and from the fact that she entered rose cottage ah said jennings taking a seat so you have been down there yes i'll tell you all about it
at half past eight she'll be here in half an hour go on what's up read this said cuthbert and passed along the note from juliet i received that immediately after you went the other night
it is strange that she should write in that way said he
what does she mean i can't tell you i met her to day
and the interview with juliet now what does she mean he added in his turn talking as though i had something to do with the matter someone's been poisoning her mind that brother of hers perhaps what do you know of him asked cuthbert quickly
nothing good he's an hysterical idiot gambles a lot and falls into rages when he loses at times i don't think he's responsible for his actions
every word jennings spoke made him more confident that basil had something to do with the crime but why juliet should hint at his own guilt cuthbert could not imagine had he been calmer he might have hesitated to tell jennings about basil
but exasperated by juliet's half confidence and anxious to learn the truth he gave the detective a full account of his meeting with the young man what do you make of that he asked well said jennings doubtfully there's nothing much to go upon in what he said
he's in difficulties with hale certainly and he seemed anxious about my having been in caranby's grounds at night were you there yes
i can't understand her but i am sure her mother and basil are trying to influence her against me
but on what grounds asked jennings quickly we'll come to that presently
by the will of miss loach juliet comes in for six thousand a year which is completely at her own disposal
they know if juliet becomes my wife i won't let them prey on her
but i thought missus octagon was well off no saxon her late husband left her very little and octagon for all his meekness knows how to keep his money both mother and son are extravagant so they hope to make poor juliet their banker
in some way they have implicated me in the crime and juliet thinks that i am in danger of the gallows that is why she wrote that mysterious note jennings
which shows that she thinks me guilty i could not get a further explanation from her as she ran away hang it cuthbert jumped up angrily if she'd only tell me the truth and speak straight out i can't understand this silence on her part i can said jennings promptly
in some way basil is mixed up in the matter and his accusing you means his acknowledging that he was near rose cottage on the night of the crime he funks making so damaging an admission ah i daresay said cuthbert
did he quarrel with her of course didn't i tell you what he said to day he's in a fine rage with the dead woman and you know what an uncontrollable temper he has i've seen him rage at maraquito's when he lost at baccarat silly ass he can't play decently and lose his money like a gentleman
she's the soul of honor and basil bah he quarrelled with his aunt murmured jennings
do you know where he was on that night yes juliet and he went to the marlow theatre to see a melodrama by a new playwright ha said jennings half to himself and the marlow theatre is not far from rexton i'll make a note of that
had they a box i believe so it was sent by the man who wrote the play who is he i can't say
were you down there on that night yes said cuthbert with hesitation and to jennings surprise i did not intend to say anything about it as my uncle asked me to hold my tongue but since things have come to this pass you may as well know that i was there
and about the time of the murder too jennings sat up and stared great heavens mallow why didn't you tell me this the other night
i promised my uncle to hold my tongue but now you will tell me all my dear fellow make a clean breast of it rest easy you shall learn everything you know that the house at the back of rose cottage has been deserted for something like twenty years more or less
yes you told me about it the other night caranby ran a fifteen feet wall round it and the inside is a regular jungle
lights have been seen moving about and strange noises have been heard what kind of noises
i heard indirectly about this through juliet where did she hear the report from miss loach's cook a woman called pill the cook asserted that the house was haunted and described the noises and the lights
i don't believe in spooks myself and thought some tricks were being played so one day i went down and had a look that day i was there asked jennings recalling cuthbert's presence before that a week or two i saw nothing the house is rotting and nothing appeared to be disturbed
i examined the park and found no footmarks in fact there wasn't a sign of anyone about you should have gone at night when the ghost was larking that's what caranby said i told him when he came back to london he was very annoyed
you know his romance about that house an absurd thing it is all the same caranby is tender on the point i advised him to pull the house down and let the land out for building leases he thought he would but asked me to go at night and stir up the ghost
and got into the grounds by climbing the wall there's no gate you know at what time some time between ten and eleven i'm not quite sure good heavens man that is the very hour the woman was killed yes and for that reason i held my tongue
particularly as i got over the wall near the cottage where do you mean
did you enter miss loach's grounds no i had no right to i saw a light in the basement but i did not take much notice
well i ran along the fence on the field of corn side remember and got over the wall then i dodged through the park scratching myself a lot i could find nothing the house seemed quiet enough so after a quarter of an hour i had enough of it
i got out over the wall on the other side and came home i caught a cold which necessitated my wearing a great coat the next day so there you have my ghost hunting and a fine fool i was to go
did you see anything in the cottage not a thing i saw no one i heard no sound not even a scream not even a scream said mallow
strange murmured jennings can't you tell the exact time not to a minute it was shortly after ten i can't say how many minutes perhaps a quarter of an hour
jennings looked thoughtfully at the carpet
which way over the wall and through the park you see he could not have gone up the lane or through the railway path without stumbling against that policeman but he might have slipped out of the front door at half past ten
and climbed as you did over the wall to cross the park and drop over the other in this way he would elude the police perhaps said cuthbert disbelievingly but it was nearly eleven when i left the park if anyone had been at my heels i would have noticed
i am not so sure of that the park as you say is a kind of jungle
moreover added the detective sitting up alertly he might have written to miss saxon saying he saw you on that night and she bosh interrupted mallow roughly he would give himself away not if the letter was anonymous
in that case he must explain his reason for being in the neighborhood at that hour but he won't and you may be sure miss saxon for his sake will hold her tongue no mallow someone accuses you to miss saxon basil or another if we could only make her speak
cuthbert shook his head i fear it's impossible why not let me arrest you suggested jennings and then if at anytime she would speak
that would be too realistic jennings i don't want it known that i was hanging about the place on that night my explanation might not be believed
yes i can see that well jennings rose and stretched himself i must see what susan has to say
she should be here in a few minutes a silence ensued which was broken by jennings oh by the way he said
i looked up the saul case well what about it asked cuthbert indolently
there was a mother a brother and a daughter emilia just so they were all coiners somewhere in hampstead they had a regular factory others were mixed up in the matter also but missus saul was the head of the gang then emilia grew tired of the life i expect it told on her nerves
then she died as you know afterwards the mother and brother were caught they bolted the mother i believe died
the brother went to jail got out years afterwards on ticket of leave and then died also
cuthbert shrugged his shoulders this does not help us much no but it shows you what an escape your uncle had from marrying the woman i can't understand no more can caranby said mallow smiling
he loved miss loach but emilia exercised a kind of hypnotic influence over him however she is dead and i can see no connection between her and this crime well said jennings soberly
it appears that some other person besides the mother gave a clue to the breaking up of the gang and the whereabouts of the factory supposing that person was selina loach who hated emilia for having taken caranby from her one of the gang released lately from prison
may have killed the old lady out of revenge what after all these years revenge is a passion that grows with years said jennings grimly at all events i intend to go on ferreting out evidence about this old coining case
miss loach may have known and this is all supposition cried mallow i can't see the slightest connection between the coiners and this murder besides it does not explain why juliet hints at my being implicated jennings did not reply
that might be explained he looked up briskly
it's quite big enough for me as it is retorted cuthbert although i don't know what you mean
there's a connection between the two said jennings obstinately
but i feel that a discovery in one case entails a discovery in the other if i can prove that miss loach was killed by one of the old coiners what will happen then i may stumble on the factory that is in existence now he would have gone on to explain himself more fully
mallow ordered the servant to admit her and shortly susan grant
placing a chair for her this is mister mallow
at rose cottage said mallow inquiringly no when i was with senora gredos as parlor maid senora gredos said jennings before cuthbert could speak do you mean maraquito
i have heard that her name was maraquito sir said susan calmly a lame lady and fond of cards she lives in i know where she lives said cuthbert flushing in his turn
he could not learn where they were and was leaving the house somewhat disconsolately when he met basil you here mallow said that young gentleman stopping short
not sorry that the meeting had taken place but i hear she is out of town well not exactly the fact is she and my mother have gone down to rose cottage
the will echoed mallow yes aunt selina is likely to leave a great deal of money
yet you were frequently at her house i was confessed basil candidly i tried to make myself as civil as possible so that she might remember me between ourselves mallow i am deuced hard up my mother hasn't much money i have none of my own
and old octagon is as stingy as he well can be this sounded well coming from an idler who never did a stroke of work and who lived on the charity of his step father but basil had peculiar views as to money he considered himself a genius
and that peter should be proud to support him until as he phrased it he had stamped his name on the age but the stamping took a long time
he remarked that genius should not be forced and loafed away the greater portion of his days
peter supplied board and lodging and basil got through life very pleasantly
but the work that was necessary to obtain these desirable things he was unwilling to do
and although something of an idler himself liked basil none the more for his laziness had mallow been poor he would certainly have earned his bread but he had a good income and did not work
but basil was poor and had his career to make therefore he certainly should have labored however for juliet's sake cuthbert was as polite as possible
nonsense i don't play high besides i have seen you at maraquito's also losing a lot i can afford to lose said cuthbert dryly you can't
can i help you with a cheque basil had good breeding enough to color no i didn't explain myself for that he said coldly and besides if juliet comes in for aunt selina's money i'll get some juliet and i always share
this meant that juliet was to give the money
mallow was disgusted with this candid selfishness however he did not wish to quarrel with basil as he knew juliet was fond of him and moreover in the present state of affairs
perhaps miss loach may have left you some money after all he remarked by jove i hope so i'll be in a hole if she has not there's a bill here he stopped as though conscious of having said too much
but that will come into juliet's possession he murmured what's that asked cuthbert sharply nothing nothing only a tailor's bill as to getting money by the will don't you know i quarrelled with aunt selina a week before her death
here basil's face assumed what may be described as an ugly look
she insulted me gently old fellow
we're in the public street basil's brow cleared all right he said don't bother
your mother is mistaken rejoined mallow gravely juliet and i are still engaged i do not intend to give her up
but you can't marry juliet why not asked cuthbert sharply do you know the reason basil appeared about to say something then suddenly closed his mouth and shook his head cuthbert pressed him if you know the reason tell me he said
and i'll help you out of your difficulties you know i love juliet and your mother does not seem to have any excuse to forbid the marriage i would help you if i could but i can't you had better ask juliet herself she may tell you the reason how can i find her
go down to rose cottage and ask to see her suggested basil your mother will not admit me that's true enough well i'll tell you what mallow i'll speak to juliet and get her to make an appointment to see you
oh no you couldn't mother will intercept all letters upon my word began mallow angrily then stopped it was useless to show his wrath before this silly boy who could do no good and might do a deal of harm very well then he said more mildly
ask juliet to meet me on the other side of rexton under the wall which runs round the unfinished house basil started why that place he asked nervously
you can't get inside that's true enough but we can meet outside i have been inside though and i made a mess of myself climbing the wall
i remember you were there on the day after aunt selina was killed i have been there before that said cuthbert wondering why the young man avoided his eye in so nervous a manner not at at night murmured saxon looking away
once i was there at night why do you ask oh nothing nothing i was just thinking it's a wild place in which to find one's self at night by the way added basil as though anxious to change a disagreeable subject
no i don't
he's a bounder moreover a respectable lawyer has no right to gamble to the extent he does i wonder miss loach trusted him perhaps she didn't know of his gambling said basil his eyes wandering everywhere but to the face of his companion
but should you think hale would be hard on a fellow yes i should
a few pounds he won't give me time to pay and i say mallow i suppose all aunt selina's affairs will be left in hale's hands
if everything is left to juliet unconditionally she may take her affairs out of hale's hands i should certainly advise her to do so he's too intimate with maraquito and her gambling salon
you do seem down on gambling said basil yet you gamble yourself a lot but i expect juliet will change her lawyer i hope she will why asked cuthbert sharply oh replied basil confused
because i agree with you a gambler will not make a good lawyer or a good husband either he added in an abrupt tone good day i'll tell juliet and he was off before mallow could find words to answer his last remark
cuthbert walking back to his rooms wondered if it was on account of the gambling that missus octagon objected to the marriage he really did not gamble much but occasionally he dropped into maraquito's house
here he had often met basil and without doubt the young man had told his mother but he could hardly do this without incriminating himself all the same basil was a thorough liar and a confirmed tattler
his friendship appeared feigned and cuthbert doubted if he would really tell juliet of the appointment that young man's in trouble thought mallow he is anxious about hale and i shouldn't wonder if that respectable person had lent him a large sum of money
also he seems annoyed that i should have been in caranby's unfinished house at night i wonder what he would say if he knew my reason for going there humph i must keep that quiet the only person i dare tell is juliet
and after all there is no need to mention my visit it does not concern her in the least i wonder here cuthbert stopped struck with an idea by george can it be that basil was near rose cottage on the night the crime was committed juliet may know that
can basil saxon be guilty no mallow shook his head and resumed his walk he has not pluck enough to kill a fly after this he dismissed the matter from his thoughts and waited expectant of a letter from juliet
none came and he was convinced that basil had not delivered the message this being the case cuthbert determined to act for himself and one afternoon went down to rexton that same evening he had an appointment with jennings who was to bring susan grant to mallow's rooms
but the young man quite expected to be back in time to keep the appointment and meantime he spent an hour wandering round rexton in the vicinity of rose cottage but afraid lest missus octagon should see him and keep juliet within doors
while watching the cottage a young woman came along the path
cuthbert pressed himself against the quickset hedge to allow her to pass as there was very little room the girl started as she murmured her thanks and grew crimson on seeing his face
by george he thought that was susan grant
all the same it is strange about the portrait it was now about four o'clock and cuthbert fancied that after all it would be best to boldly ring at the door and ask admission in spite of missus octagon
but while hesitating to risk all his chances of seeing juliet on one throw of fortune's dice the matter was decided for him by the appearance of juliet herself
it would seem as though she expected to find cuthbert for she walked straight up to him and caught his hand there was no one about to see their meeting but juliet was not disposed to behave tenderly why are you here she asked
susan grant told me you susan grant echoed cuthbert resolved not to know too much in the presence of juliet i saw her name in the papers how does she know me i can't say said juliet quickly come along this way
she hurried along the narrow path talking all the time she came in just now and said you were waiting in the by path
i don't see that i have any reason to avoid missus octagon
we are here only till to morrow now that aunt selina is buried and the will read we return to kensington at once come this way let us get into the open i don't wish my mother to follow and find me speaking to you they emerged into a waste piece of land
distant a stone throw from the railway station but secluded by reason of many trees and shrubs these belonging to the old rexton estate had not yet been rooted up by the builder
leading to the station when quite screened from observation by the friendly leafage juliet turned quickly she was pale and ill in looks and there were dark circles under her eyes which told of sleepless nights
but she was dressed with her usual care and behaved in a composed manner i wish you had not come cuthbert she said again taking his hand at least not at present later on i wanted to see you at once said mallow determinedly
he said he met you the other day
then he is not the friend i took him to be said mallow angrily don't be angry with basil said juliet gently the poor boy has quite enough trouble of his own making finished cuthbert thoroughly annoyed see here juliet this sort of thing can't go on
i have done nothing to warrant my being treated like this your mother is mad to behave as she is doing
juliet did not pay attention to this hasty speech how do you know basil has troubles she asked hurriedly because i know he's a dissipated young ass returned mallow roughly and i daresay you know it also
yes he has no right to tell you these things but i know he is in debt to hale he hinted as much the other day i would say nothing of this to you but that i know he counts on your paying his debts i tell you juliet it is wrong for you to do so
i know nothing said cuthbert doggedly not even if you have inherited the money of miss loach i have inherited it she left everything to me save legacies to thomas her servant and to emily pill the cook it is a large fortune the will was read on the day of the funeral
i have now six thousand a year so much as that how did your aunt make such a lot of money mister hale speculated a great deal on her account and he is very lucky at least so he told me but the money is well invested and there are no restrictions
i can easily pay the few debts basil owes poor boy you are too hard on him perhaps i am but he is so foolish and he doesn't like me i believe he puts you against me juliet the girl threw her arms round his neck
nothing in the world would ever put me against you cuthbert she whispered vehemently i love you i love you with all my heart and soul with every fibre of my being do i love you i don't care what mother says i love you well then said cuthbert between kisses
i dare not i dare not she whispered you don't know what you ask yes i do juliet what is all this mystery about i could not understand the meaning of your letter did you do what i asked she panted
it was too late i had told jennings the detective all i knew you were not afraid afraid echoed cuthbert opening his eyes what do you mean she looked into his eyes
cuthbert lost his temper i don't understand all this he declared if you would only speak out but i can guess why you wish me to stop the proceedings you fear for basil she stepped back a pace for basil yes
where are your proofs she gasped recoiling i have none i am only speaking on chance but basil is in monetary difficulties he is in debt to hale he counted on you inheriting the money of miss loach to pay his debts he stop stop
cried juliet the blood rising to her face this is only supposition you can prove nothing then why do you wish me to hold my tongue
you know nothing cuthbert caught her hands and looked into her troubled eyes
his big soft eyes were shining with excitement you look as though you had had an adventure jumper said old mother nature i have replied jumper it is a wonder i am here at all
that it makes me shiver just to think of it i guess if i hadn't been thinking about him he would have caught me tell us all about it demanded old mother nature seeing black pussy over here yesterday and knowing that to day's lesson was to be about yowler
i couldn't get cats out of my mind all day yesterday began jumper black pussy doesn't worry me but i must confess that if there is any one i fear it is yowler the bob cat just thinking about him make me nervous the more i tried not to think about him
the more i did think about him and the more i thought about him the more nervous i got then just before dark on the bank of the laughing brook i found some tracks in the mud those tracks were almost round and that fact was enough to tell me who had made them
they were yowler's footprints and they hadn't been made very long of course seeing those footprints made me more nervous than ever and every time i saw a leaf move i jumped inside my heart felt as if it were up in my throat most of the time
i had a feeling that yowler wasn't far away i hate that cat i hate the way he hunts he goes sneaking about without making a sound or else he lies in wait ready to spring without warning on the first one who happens along
a fellow never knows where to watch out for yowler i spent nearly all night sitting under a little hemlock tree with branches very close to the ground i sat there because i didn't dare do anything else
as long as i stayed there i felt reasonably safe because yowler would have to find me and to do that he would have to cross an open place where i could see him i knew that if i went roaming about i might walk right into his clutches
you know the moon was very bright last night it made that open place in front of where i was hiding almost as light as day once i closed my eyes for just a minute when i opened them there was yowler sneaking across that open place where he had come from i don't know
he hadn't made a sound not a leaf rustled under his big feet right in the middle of that open place where the moonlight was brightest he stopped to listen and i simply held my breath tell us how he looked prompted old mother nature
he looked just like what he is a big cat with a short tail replied jumper just to look at him any one would know he was own cousin to black pussy he had a round head rather long legs and was about twice as big as black pussy
his feet looked big even for him on the tips of his ears were a few long black hairs his coat was yellowish to reddish brown with dark spots on it his chin and throat were white and underneath he was white spotted with black
there were spots all down his legs he didn't have enough of a tail to call it a tail it was whitish on the under side and had black stripes on the upper side and all the time he kept twitching it just the way black pussy twitches her tail when she is out hunting
all of a sudden he opened his mouth and gave such a yell that it is a wonder i didn't jump out of my skin it frightened me so that i couldn't have moved if i had wanted to which was a lucky thing for me the instant he yelled he cocked his head on one side and listened
that yell must have wakened somebody and caused them to move for yowler turned suddenly and crept swiftly and without a sound out of sight a minute later i heard a jump and then i heard a fluttering i think he caught one of the grouse family
yelling that way is one of yowler's tricks explained old mother nature he does it for the same reason hooty the owl hoots he hopes that it will startle some sleeper so that they will move if they do his keen ears are sure to hear it
was that all of your adventure jumper no replied jumper i remained right where i was for the rest of the night just as daylight was beginning to steal through the green forest i decided that it was safe to leave my hiding place and come over here
half way here i stopped for a few minutes in a thick clump of ferns i was just about to start on again when i caught sight of something moving just back of an old stump
had he kept it still i wouldn't have seen him at all but he was twitching it back and forth he was crouched down close to the ground with all four feet drawn close together under him there he crouched and there i sat for the longest time
i didn't move and he didn't move save that foolish looking tail of his i had begun to think that i would have to stay in that clump of ferns all day when suddenly yowler sprang like a flash there was a little squeak and then i saw yowler trot away with a mouse in his mouth
i guess he must have seen that mouse go in a hole and knew that if he waited long enough it would come out again as soon as yowler disappeared i hurried over here that's all that was a splendid account of yowler and his way of hunting said old mother nature
he does most of his hunting in just that way sneaking about on the chance of surprising a rabbit bird or mouse or else patiently watching and waiting beside a hole in which he knows some one has taken refuge
he hunts in the green forest exactly as black pussy farmer brown's cat hunts mice in the barn or birds in the old orchard in the spring yowler destroys many eggs and young birds not only those found in nests on the ground but also those in nests in trees
for he is a splendid climber yowler is found in nearly all of the swampy brushy and wooded parts of the whole country excepting in the great forests of the far north where his cousin tufty the lynx lives
yowler is himself a lynx the bay lynx in some places he is called simply wild cat in others he is called the catamount he is not so fond of the thick forests as he is of swamps brush grown hillsides
old pastures and places where there are great masses of briars rocky ledges where there are caves in which to hide and plenty of brush also suit him he is a coward but when cornered will fight though he will run from a little dog half his size and take to a tree
in the south he is quite common and there often steals chickens and turkeys even young pigs he prefers to hunt at night but sometimes is seen in broad daylight missus yowler's kittens are born in a cave or in a hollow tree despite the fact that he is an expert climber
in the great forests of the far north lives yowler's cousin tufty the canada lynx also called loup cervier and lucivee he is nearly a third larger than yowler from the tip of each ear long tufts of black hair stand up
on each side of his face is a ruff of long hair his tail is even shorter than yowler's and the tip of it is always wholly black his general color is gray mottled with brown his face ruff is white with black border
yowler's feet are large but tufty's are immense for his size
and these big broad feet enable him to travel about on the snow without breaking through he can travel with ease where reddy fox not half his size and weight would break through at every step
tufty's ways are much like those of his cousin yowler save that he is a dweller in the deep woods anything he can catch is food for tufty but his principal food is the northern hare the color of his coat blends with the shadows so that he seems like a living shadow himself
in summer food is plentiful and tufty lives well but in winder tufty has hard work to get enough rarely does he know what a full stomach means then like howler he can go a surprising length of time without food and still retain his strength
at that time of year he is a great traveler he has to be in order to live there is no fiercer looking animal in all the green forest than tufty the lynx but despite this he is like most cats cowardly
only when cornered will he fight he is possessed of a lively curiosity and often he will stealthily follow a hunter or trapper for miles the fur of his coat is very long and handsome and he is hunted and trapped for this
as he lives for the most part far from the homes of men he does less damage to man than does his cousin yowler the bob cat tufty must depend wholly for his living on the little people of the green forest sometimes he will attack a fox
the pretty little spotted babies of lightfoot the deer are victims whenever he can find them the darker and deeper the green forest the better tufty likes it he makes his den under great tangles of fallen trees or similar places
mister and missus tufty often hunt together and in early winter the whole family often join in the hunt yowler and tufty are the only members of the cat family now found in the eastern part of the country
as their cities are composed of families so their families are made up of those that are nearly related to one another their women when they grow up are married out but all the males both children and grand children
live still in the same house in great obedience to their common parent unless age has weakened his understanding and in that case he that is next to him in age comes in his room but lest any city should become either too great or by any accident be dispeopled
provision is made that none of their cities may contain above six thousand families besides those of the country around it no family may have less than ten and more than sixteen persons in it but there can be no determined number for the children under age
this rule is easily observed by removing some of the children of a more fruitful couple to any other family that does not abound so much in them by the same rule they supply cities that do not increase so fast from others that breed faster and if there is any increase over the whole island
then they draw out a number of their citizens out of the several towns and send them over to the neighbouring continent where if they find that the inhabitants have more soil than they can well cultivate they fix a colony taking the inhabitants into their society if they are willing to live with them
and where they do that of their own accord they quickly enter into their method of life and conform to their rules and this proves a happiness to both nations for according to their constitution such care is taken of the soil that it becomes fruitful enough for both
though it might be otherwise too narrow and barren for any one of them but if the natives refuse to conform themselves to their laws they drive them out of those bounds which they mark out for themselves and use force if they resist
for they account it a very just cause of war for a nation to hinder others from possessing a part of that soil of which they make no use but which is suffered to lie idle and uncultivated
since every man has by the law of nature a right to such a waste portion of the earth as is necessary for his subsistence if an accident has so lessened the number of the inhabitants of any of their towns that it cannot be made up from the other towns of the island
without diminishing them too much which is said to have fallen out but twice since they were first a people when great numbers were carried off by the plague
the loss is then supplied by recalling as many as are wanted from their colonies for they will abandon these rather than suffer the towns in the island to sink too low but to return to their manner of living in society
the oldest man of every family as has been already said is its governor wives serve their husbands and children their parents and always the younger serves the elder
every city is divided into four equal parts and in the middle of each there is a market place what is brought thither and manufactured by the several families is carried from thence to houses appointed for that purpose
in which all things of a sort are laid by themselves and thither every father goes and takes whatsoever he or his family stand in need of without either paying for it or leaving anything in exchange there is no reason for giving a denial to any person
since there is such plenty of everything among them and there is no danger of a man's asking for more than he needs they have no inducements to do this since they are sure they shall always be supplied
it is the fear of want that makes any of the whole race of animals either greedy or ravenous but besides fear there is in man a pride that makes him fancy it a particular glory to excel others in pomp and excess
but by the laws of the utopians there is no room for this near these markets there are others for all sorts of provisions where there are not only herbs fruits and bread but also fish fowl and cattle
there are also without their towns places appointed near some running water for killing their beasts and for washing away their filth which is done by their slaves for they suffer none of their citizens to kill their cattle because they think that pity and good nature
which are among the best of those affections that are born with us are much impaired by the butchering of animals nor do they suffer anything that is foul or unclean to be brought within their towns lest the air should be infected by ill smells which might prejudice their health
in every street there are great halls that lie at an equal distance from each other distinguished by particular names the syphogrants dwell in those that are set over thirty families fifteen lying on one side of it and as many on the other
in these halls they all meet and have their repasts the stewards of every one of them come to the market place at an appointed hour and according to the number of those that belong to the hall they carry home provisions
but they take more care of their sick than of any others these are lodged and provided for in public hospitals they have belonging to every town four hospitals that are built without their walls and are so large that they may pass for little towns
by this means if they had ever such a number of sick persons they could lodge them conveniently and at such a distance that such of them as are sick of infectious diseases may be kept so far from the rest that there can be no danger of contagion
the hospitals are furnished and stored with all things that are convenient for the ease and recovery of the sick and those that are put in them are looked after with such tender and watchful care and are so constantly attended by their skilful physicians
that as none is sent to them against their will so there is scarce one in a whole town that if he should fall ill would not choose rather to go thither than lie sick at home
after the steward of the hospitals has taken for the sick whatsoever the physician prescribes then the best things that are left in the market are distributed equally among the halls in proportion to their numbers
only in the first place they serve the prince the chief priest the tranibors the ambassadors and strangers if there are any which indeed falls out but seldom
and for whom there are houses well furnished particularly appointed for their reception when they come among them at the hours of dinner and supper the whole syphogranty being called together by sound of trumpet
they meet and eat together except only such as are in the hospitals or lie sick at home yet after the halls are served no man is hindered to carry provisions home from the market place for they know that none does that but for some good reason
for though any that will may eat at home yet none does it willingly since it is both ridiculous and foolish for any to give themselves the trouble to make ready an ill dinner at home when there is a much more plentiful one made ready for him so near hand
all the uneasy and sordid services about these halls are performed by their slaves but the dressing and cooking their meat and the ordering their tables belong only to the women all those of every family taking it by turns
they sit at three or more tables according to their number the men sit towards the wall and the women sit on the other side that if any of them should be taken suddenly ill which is no uncommon case amongst women with child
she may without disturbing the rest rise and go to the nurses room who are there with the sucking children where there is always clean water at hand and cradles in which they may lay the young children if there is occasion for it
and a fire that they may shift and dress them before it every child is nursed by its own mother if death or sickness does not intervene and in that case the syphogrants wives find out a nurse quickly
which is no hard matter for any one that can do it offers herself cheerfully for as they are much inclined to that piece of mercy so the child whom they nurse considers the nurse as its mother all the children under five years old sit among the nurses
the rest of the younger sort of both sexes till they are fit for marriage either serve those that sit at table or if they are not strong enough for that stand by them in great silence and eat what is given them nor have they any other formality of dining
in the middle of the first table which stands across the upper end of the hall sit the syphogrant and his wife for that is the chief and most conspicuous place next to him sit two of the most ancient for there go always four to a mess
if there is a temple within the syphogranty the priest and his wife sit with the syphogrant above all the rest next them there is a mixture of old and young who are so placed that as the young are set near others so they are mixed with the more ancient
which they say was appointed on this account that the gravity of the old people and the reverence that is due to them might restrain the younger from all indecent words and gestures dishes are not served up to the whole table at first but the best are first set before the old
whose seats are distinguished from the young and after them all the rest are served alike the old men distribute to the younger any curious meats that happen to be set before them if there is not such an abundance of them that the whole company may be served alike
thus old men are honoured with a particular respect yet all the rest fare as well as they both dinner and supper are begun with some lecture of morality that is read to them
but it is so short that it is not tedious nor uneasy to them to hear it from hence the old men take occasion to entertain those about them with some useful and pleasant enlargements
but they do not engross the whole discourse so to themselves during their meals that the younger may not put in for a share on the contrary they engage them to talk that so they may in that free way of conversation find out the force of every one's spirit and observe his temper
they despatch their dinners quickly but sit long at supper because they go to work after the one and are to sleep after the other during which they think the stomach carries on the concoction more vigorously
they never sup without music and there is always fruit served up after meat while they are at table some burn perfumes and sprinkle about fragrant ointments and sweet waters in short they want nothing that may cheer up their spirits
they give themselves a large allowance that way and indulge themselves in all such pleasures as are attended with no inconvenience thus do those that are in the towns live together
agriculture is that which is so universally understood among them that no person either man or woman is ignorant of it they are instructed in it from their childhood partly by what they learn at school
and partly by practice they being led out often into the fields about the town where they not only see others at work but are likewise exercised in it themselves besides agriculture which is so common to them all every man has some peculiar trade to which he applies himself
such as the manufacture of wool or flax masonry smith's work or carpenter's work for there is no sort of trade that is in great esteem among them throughout the island they wear the same sort of clothes
without any other distinction except what is necessary to distinguish the two sexes and the married and unmarried the fashion never alters and as it is neither disagreeable nor uneasy so it is suited to the climate and calculated both for their summers and winters
every family makes their own clothes but all among them women as well as men learn one or other of the trades formerly mentioned women for the most part deal in wool and flax which suit best with their weakness leaving the ruder trades to the men
the same trade generally passes down from father to son inclinations often following descent
and when that is to be done care is taken not only by his father but by the magistrate that he may be put to a discreet and good man and if after a person has learned one trade he desires to acquire another that is also allowed and is managed in the same manner as the former
when he has learned both he follows that which he likes best unless the public has more occasion for the other the chief and almost the only business of the syphogrants is to take care that no man may live idle but that every one may follow his trade diligently
yet they do not wear themselves out with perpetual toil from morning to night as if they were beasts of burden which as it is indeed a heavy slavery so it is everywhere the common course of life amongst all mechanics except the utopians
but they dividing the day and night into twenty four hours appoint six of these for work three of which are before dinner and three after they then sup and at eight o'clock counting from noon go to bed and sleep eight hours
the rest of their time besides that taken up in work eating and sleeping is left to every man's discretion yet they are not to abuse that interval to luxury and idleness but must employ it in some proper exercise according to their various inclinations
which is for the most part reading it is ordinary to have public lectures every morning before daybreak at which none are obliged to appear but those who are marked out for literature yet a great many both men and women of all ranks go to hear lectures of one sort or other
according to their inclinations but if others that are not made for contemplation choose rather to employ themselves at that time in their trades as many of them do they are not hindered but are rather commended as men that take care to serve their country
after supper they spend an hour in some diversion in summer in their gardens and in winter in the halls where they eat where they entertain each other either with music or discourse they do not so much as know dice or any such foolish and mischievous games
they have however two sorts of games not unlike our chess the one is between several numbers in which one number as it were consumes another the other resembles a battle between the virtues and the vices in which the enmity in the vices among themselves and their agreement against virtue
is not unpleasantly represented together with the special opposition between the particular virtues and vices as also the methods by which vice either openly assaults or secretly undermines virtue and virtue on the other hand resists it
but the time appointed for labour is to be narrowly examined otherwise you may imagine that since there are only six hours appointed for work they may fall under a scarcity of necessary provisions but it is so far from being true that this time is not sufficient for supplying them with plenty of all things
either necessary or convenient that it is rather too much and this you will easily apprehend if you consider how great a part of all other nations is quite idle first women generally do little who are the half of mankind and if some few women are diligent their husbands are idle
and of those that are called religious men add to these all rich men chiefly those that have estates in land who are called noblemen and gentlemen together with their families made up of idle persons that are kept more for show than use
add to these all those strong and lusty beggars that go about pretending some disease in excuse for their begging and upon the whole account you will find that the number of those by whose labours mankind is supplied is much less than you perhaps imagined
then consider how few of those that work are employed in labours that are of real service for we who measure all things by money give rise to many trades that are both vain and superfluous and serve only to support riot and luxury
for if those who work were employed only in such things as the conveniences of life require there would be such an abundance of them that the prices of them would so sink that tradesmen could not be maintained by their gains
if all those who labour about useless things were set to more profitable employments and if all they that languish out their lives in sloth and idleness every one of whom consumes as much as any two of the men that are at work were forced to labour
for doing all that is either necessary profitable or pleasant to mankind especially while pleasure is kept within its due bounds this appears very plainly in utopia for there in a great city and in all the territory that lies round it
you can scarce find five hundred either men or women by their age and strength capable of labour that are not engaged in it even the syphogrants though excused by the law yet do not excuse themselves
but work that by their examples they may excite the industry of the rest of the people the like exemption is allowed to those who being recommended to the people by the priests are by the secret suffrages of the syphogrants privileged from labour
that they may apply themselves wholly to study and if any of these fall short of those hopes that they seemed at first to give they are obliged to return to work
out of these they choose their ambassadors their priests their tranibors and the prince himself anciently called their barzenes but is called of late their ademus
and thus from the great numbers among them that are neither suffered to be idle nor to be employed in any fruitless labour you may easily make the estimate how much may be done in those few hours in which they are obliged to labour
it is to be considered that the needful arts among them are managed with less labour than anywhere else
because often a thriftless heir suffers a house that his father built to fall into decay so that his successor must at a great cost repair that which he might have kept up with a small charge it frequently happens that the same house which one person built at a vast expense
is neglected by another who thinks he has a more delicate sense of the beauties of architecture and he suffering it to fall to ruin builds another at no less charge but among the utopians all things are so regulated that men very seldom build upon a new piece of ground
and are not only very quick in repairing their houses but show their foresight in preventing their decay
and thus the builders to whom that care belongs are often without employment except the hewing of timber and the squaring of stones that the materials may be in readiness for raising a building very suddenly when there is any occasion for it
as to their clothes observe how little work is spent in them while they are at labour they are clothed with leather and skins cut carelessly about them which will last seven years and when they appear in public they put on an upper garment which hides the other
as they need less woollen cloth than is used anywhere else so that which they make use of is much less costly they use linen cloth more but that is prepared with less labour and they value cloth only by the whiteness of the linen or the cleanness of the wool
without much regard to the fineness of the thread
and as many vests of silk will scarce serve one man and while those that are nicer think ten too few every man there is content with one which very often serves him two years nor is there anything that can tempt a man to desire more
for if he had them he would neither be the warmer nor would he make one jot the better appearance for it and thus since they are all employed in some useful labour and since they content themselves with fewer things it falls out that there is a great abundance of all things among them
so that it frequently happens that for want of other work vast numbers are sent out to mend the highways but when no public undertaking is to be performed the hours of working are lessened
by plato translated by benjamin jowett
critias is a fragment which breaks off in the middle of a sentence it was designed to be the second part of a trilogy which like the other great platonic trilogy of the sophist statesman philosopher was never completed
had brought down the origin of the world to the creation of man and the dawn of history was now to succeed the philosophy of nature
plato as he has already told us
intended to represent the ideal state engaged in a patriotic conflict this mythical conflict is prophetic or symbolical of the struggle of athens and persia
perhaps in some degree also of the wars of the greeks and carthaginians in the same way that the persian is prefigured by the trojan war to the mind of herodotus or as the narrative of the first part
of the aeneid is intended by virgil to foreshadow the wars of carthage and rome the small number of the primitive athenian citizens twenty thousand which is about their present number
of the atlantic hosts the passing remark in the timaeus that athens was left alone in the struggle in which she conquered and became the liberator of greece is also an allusion to the later history
hence we may safely conclude that the entire narrative is due to the imagination of plato who has used the name of solon and introduced the egyptian priests to give verisimilitude to his story
to the greek such a tale like that of the earth born men would have seemed perfectly accordant with the character of his mythology and not more marvellous than the wonders of the east narrated by herodotus and others he might have been deceived into believing it
but it appears strange that later ages should have been imposed upon by the fiction as many attempts have been made to find the great island of atlantis as to discover the country of the lost tribes without regard to the description of plato
and without a suspicion that the whole narrative is a fabrication interpreters have looked for the spot in every part of the globe america arabia felix ceylon palestine sardinia sweden
timaeus concludes with a prayer that his words may be acceptable to the god whom he has revealed and critias whose turn follows begs that a larger measure of indulgence may be conceded to him
because he has to speak of men whom we know and not of gods whom we do not know socrates readily grants his request and anticipating that hermocrates will make a similar petition
extends by anticipation a like indulgence to him critias returns to his story professing only to repeat what solon was told by the priests the war of which he was about to speak had occurred nine thousand years ago
one of the combatants was the city of athens the other was the great island of atlantis critias proposes to speak of these rival powers first of all giving to athens the precedence
the various tribes of greeks and barbarians who took part in the war will be dealt with as they successively appear on the scene in the beginning the gods agreed to divide the earth by lot in a friendly manner
and when they had made the allotment they settled their several countries and were the shepherds or rather the pilots of mankind whom they guided by persuasion and not by force hephaestus and athena brother and sister deities
in mind and art united obtained as their lot the land of attica a land suited to the growth of virtue and wisdom and there they settled a brave race of children of the soil and taught them how to order the state
some of their names such as cecrops erechtheus erichthonius and erysichthon were preserved and adopted in later times but the memory of their deeds has passed away
for there have since been many deluges and the remnant who survived in the mountains were ignorant of the art of writing and during many generations were wholly devoted to acquiring the means of life
and the armed image of the goddess which was dedicated by the ancient athenians is an evidence to other ages that men and women had in those days as they ought always to have common virtues and pursuits
there were various classes of citizens including handicraftsmen and husbandmen and a superior class of warriors who dwelt apart and were educated and had all things in common like our guardians
attica in those days extended southwards to the isthmus and inland to the heights of parnes and cithaeron and between them and the sea included the district of oropus
the country was then as what remains of it still is the most fertile in the world and abounded in rich plains and pastures but in the course of ages much of the soil was washed away and disappeared in the deep sea
and the inhabitants of this fair land were endowed with intelligence and the love of beauty the acropolis of the ancient athens extended to the ilissus and eridanus
the side of the hill was inhabited by craftsmen and husbandmen and the warriors dwelt by themselves on the summit around the temples of hephaestus and athene in an enclosure which was like the garden of a single house
in winter they retired into houses on the north of the hill
these were modest dwellings which they bequeathed unaltered to their children's children in summer time the south side was inhabited by them and then they left their gardens and dining halls in the midst of the acropolis was a fountain
which gave an abundant supply of cool water in summer and warm in winter of this there are still some traces they were careful to preserve the number of fighting men and women at twenty thousand which is equal to that of the present military force
and so they passed their lives as guardians of the citizens and leaders of the hellenes they were a just and famous race celebrated for their beauty and virtue all over europe and asia
and now i will speak to you of their adversaries but first i ought to explain that the greek names were given to solon in an egyptian form and he enquired their meaning and translated them
and is now in my possession in the division of the earth poseidon obtained as his portion the island of atlantis and there he begat children whose mother was a mortal towards the sea and in the centre of the island there was a very fair and fertile plain
and near the centre about fifty stadia from the plain
and their daughter cleito of whom poseidon became enamoured he to secure his love enclosed the mountain with rings or zones varying in size two of land and three of sea
which his divine power readily enabled him to excavate and fashion and as there was no shipping in those days no man could get into the place to the interior island he conveyed under the earth springs of water hot and cold
and supplied the land with all things needed for the life of man here he begat a family consisting of five pairs of twin male children the eldest was atlas and him he made king of the centre island while to his twin brother
eumelus or gadeirus he assigned that part of the country which was nearest the straits the other brothers he made chiefs over the rest of the island and their kingdom extended as far as egypt and tyrrhenia
now atlas had a fair posterity and great treasures derived from mines among them that precious metal orichalcum and there was abundance of wood and herds of elephants and pastures for animals of all kinds
and trees bearing fruit these they used and employed themselves in constructing their temples and palaces and harbours and docks in the following manner first they bridged over the zones of sea and made a way to and from the royal palace
which they built in the centre island this ancient palace was ornamented by successive generations and they dug a canal which passed through the zones of land from the island to the sea
black and white and red which they sometimes intermingled for the sake of ornament and as they quarried they hollowed out beneath the edges of the zones double docks having roofs of rock the outermost of the walls was coated with brass
the second with tin and the third which was the wall of the citadel flashed with the red light of orichalcum in the interior of the citadel was a holy temple dedicated to cleito and poseidon
and surrounded by an enclosure of gold and there was poseidon's own temple which was covered with silver and the pinnacles with gold the roof was of ivory adorned with gold and silver and orichalcum
and the rest of the interior was lined with orichalcum within was an image of the god standing in a chariot drawn by six winged horses and touching the roof with his head around him were a hundred nereids riding on dolphins
outside the temple were placed golden statues of all the descendants of the ten kings and of their wives there was an altar too and there were palaces corresponding to the greatness and glory both of the kingdom and of the temple
also there were fountains of hot and cold water and suitable buildings surrounding them and trees and there were baths both of the kings and of private individuals and separate baths for women and also for cattle
the water from the baths was carried to the grove of poseidon and by aqueducts over the bridges to the outer circles and there were temples in the zones and in the larger of the two there was a racecourse for horses
which ran all round the island the guards were distributed in the zones according to the trust reposed in them the most trusted of them were stationed in the citadel the docks were full of triremes and stores
and was crowded with dwellings and the harbour and canal resounded with the din of human voices the plain around the city was highly cultivated and sheltered from the north by mountains it was oblong
and where falling out of the straight line followed the circular ditch which was of an incredible depth this depth received the streams which came down from the mountains as well as the canals of the interior and found a way to the sea
the entire country was divided into sixty thousand lots each of which was a square of ten stadia and the owner of a lot was bound to furnish the sixth part of a war chariot so as to make up ten thousand chariots
two horses and riders upon them a pair of chariot horses without a seat and an attendant and charioteer two hoplites two archers two slingers three stone shooters
three javelin men and four sailors to make up the complement of twelve hundred ships each of the ten kings was absolute in his own city and kingdom the relations of the different governments to one another were determined by the injunctions of poseidon
which had been inscribed by the first kings on a column of orichalcum in the temple of poseidon at which the kings and princes gathered together and held a festival every fifth and every sixth year alternately
around the temple ranged the bulls of poseidon one of which the ten kings caught and sacrificed shedding the blood of the victim over the inscription
and vowing not to transgress the laws of their father poseidon when night came they put on azure robes and gave judgment against offenders the most important of their laws related to their dealings with one another
they were not to take up arms against one another and were to come to the rescue if any of their brethren were attacked they were to deliberate in common about war and the king was not to have the power of life and death over his kinsmen
unless he had the assent of the majority for many generations as tradition tells the people of atlantis were obedient to the laws and to the gods and practised gentleness and wisdom in their intercourse with one another
they knew that they could only have the true use of riches by not caring about them but gradually the divine portion of their souls became diluted with too much of the mortal admixture and they began to degenerate
though to the outward eye they appeared glorious as ever at the very time when they were filled with all iniquity the all seeing zeus
no one knew better than plato how to invent a noble lie observe one the innocent declaration of socrates that the truth of the story is a great advantage two
the manner in which traditional names and indications of geography are intermingled why here be truths
the ingenious reason assigned for the greek names occurring in the egyptian tale five the remark that the armed statue of athena indicated the common warrior life of men and women
six the particularity with which the third deluge before that of deucalion is affirmed to have been the great destruction seven the happy guess that great geological changes have been effected by water
eight the indulgence of the prejudice against sailing beyond the columns and the popular belief of the shallowness of the ocean in that part nine
the confession that the depth of the ditch in the island of atlantis was not to be believed and yet he could only repeat what he had heard compared with the statement made in an earlier passage that poseidon being a god
found no difficulty in contriving the water supply of the centre island ten the mention of the old rivalry of poseidon and athene and the creation of the first inhabitants out of the soil plato here as elsewhere
that he is telling the truth which mythology had corrupted the world like a child has readily and for the most part unhesitatingly accepted the tale of the island of atlantis
in modern times we hardly seek for traces of the submerged continent but even mister grote is inclined to believe in the egyptian poem of solon of which there is no evidence in antiquity
while others like martin discuss the egyptian origin of the legend or like m de humboldt whom he quotes are disposed to find in it a vestige of a widely spread tradition
of a still greater island the continent of america the tale says m martin rests upon the authority of the egyptian priests and the egyptian priests
took a pleasure in deceiving the greeks he never appears to suspect that there is a greater deceiver or magician than the egyptian priests that is to say plato himself from the dominion of whose genius the critic and
natural philosopher of modern times are not wholly emancipated although worthless in respect of any result which can be attained by them discussions like those of m martin
as showing how the chance word of some poet or philosopher has given birth to endless religious or historical enquiries
with the barbaric greatness of the island of atlantis plato probably intended to show that a state such as the ideal athens was invincible though matched against any number of opponents
such as the greeks believed to have existed under the sway of the first persian kings but all such empires were liable to degenerate and soon incurred the anger of the gods their oriental wealth and splendour of gold and silver
and variety of colours seemed also to be at variance with the simplicity of greek notions in the island of atlantis plato is describing a sort of babylonian or egyptian city to which he opposes the frugal life of the true
hellenic citizen it is remarkable that in his brief sketch of them he idealizes the husbandmen who are lovers of honour and true husbandmen as well as the warriors who are his sole concern in the republic
and that though he speaks of the common pursuits of men and women he says nothing of the community of wives and children it is singular that plato should have prefixed the most detested of athenian names to this dialogue
yet we know that his character was accounted infamous by xenophon and that the mere acquaintance with him was made a subject of accusation against socrates we can only infer that in this and perhaps in some other cases
plato's characters have no reference to the actual facts the desire to do honour to his own family and the connection with solon may have suggested the introduction of his name why the critias was never completed whether from accident
or from a sense of the artistic difficulty of the design
once upon a time there lived a man who dwelt with his wife in a little hut far away from any neighbours but they did not mind being alone and would have been quite happy if it had not been for a marten
who came every night to their poultry yard and carried off one of their fowls the man laid all sorts of traps to catch the thief but instead of capturing the foe
struck his head against a stone and was killed not long after the marten came by on the look out for his supper seeing the dead man lying there he said to himself that is a prize this time i have done well
and dragging the body with great difficulty to the sledge which was waiting for him drove off with his booty he had not driven far when he met a squirrel who bowed and said good morning godfather what have you got behind you
the marten laughed and answered did you ever hear anything so strange the old man that you see here set traps about his hen house thinking to catch me but he fell into his own trap and broke his own neck he is very heavy
i wish you would help me to draw the sledge the squirrel did as he was asked and the sledge moved slowly along by and by a hare came running across a field but stopped to see what wonderful thing was coming
and the marten told his story and begged the hare to help them pull the hare pulled her hardest and after a while they were joined by a fox and then by a wolf
and at length a bear was added to the company and he was of more use than all the other five beasts put together besides when the whole six had supped off the man he was not so heavy to draw the worst of it was that they soon began to get hungry again
said to the rest what shall we eat now my friends as there is no more man i suppose we shall have to eat the smallest of us replied the bear
and the marten turned round to seize the squirrel who was much smaller than any of the rest but the squirrel ran up a tree like lightning and the marten remembering just in time
what shall we eat now asked the wolf again when he had recovered from his surprise we must eat the smallest of us repeated the bear stretching out a paw towards the hare but the hare was not a hare for nothing
and before the paw had touched her she had darted deep into the wood now that the squirrel the marten and the hare had all gone the fox was the smallest of the three who were left and the wolf and the bear explained that they were very sorry
but they would have to eat him michael the fox did not run away as the others had done but smiled in a friendly manner and remarked things taste so stale in a valley one's appetite is so much better up on a mountain
the wolf and the bear agreed and they turned out of the hollow where they had been walking and chose a path that led up the mountain side the fox trotted cheerfully by his two big companions but on the way he managed to whisper to the wolf tell me peter
when i am eaten what will you have for your next dinner this simple question seemed to put out the wolf very much what would they have for their next dinner and what was more important still
these thoughts flashed quickly through his head and he said hastily dear brothers would it not be better for us to live together as comrades and everyone to hunt for the common dinner is not my plan a good one
it is the best thing i have ever heard answered the fox
a good dinner at once to any friendship for a few days all went well there was plenty of game in the forest and even the wolf had as much to eat as he could wish one morning the fox as usual
and he set about making a plan by which he could have one for dinner at last he hit upon something which he thought would do and accordingly
asked the magpie who was watching him from a bough i'm looking at this tree it has just struck me what a good tree it would be to cut my new snow shoes out of but at this answer
the magpie screeched loudly and exclaimed oh not this tree dear brother i implore you i have built my nest on it and my young ones are not yet old enough to fly
it will not be easy to find another tree that would make such good snow shoes answered the fox cocking his head on one side and gazing at the tree thoughtfully but i do not like to be ill natured
so if you will give me one of your young ones i will seek my snow shoes elsewhere not knowing what to do the poor magpie had to agree and flying back with a heavy heart
but what do you think happened why a few days later
and a dreadful pang shot through the heart of the magpie as he peeped at him from a hole in the nest what are you looking at he asked in a trembling voice at this tree i was just thinking what good snowshoes it would make
answered the fox in an absent voice as if he was not thinking of what he was saying oh my brother my dear little brother don't do that cried the magpie hopping about in his anguish
you know you promised only a few days ago that you would get your snow shoes elsewhere so i did but though i have searched through the whole forest there is not a single tree that is as good as this i am very sorry to put you out but really it is not my fault
if you will throw me down one of your young ones in exchange and the poor magpie in spite of his wisdom was obliged to throw another of his little ones out of the nest
been much cleverer than other people he sat on the edge of his nest his head drooping and his feathers all ruffled looking the picture of misery
that a crow who was flying past stopped to inquire what was the matter where are the two young ones who are not in the nest asked he i had to give them to the fox replied the magpie in a quivering voice he has been here twice in the last week
and wanted to cut down my tree for the purpose of making snow shoes out of it and the only way i could buy him off was by giving him two of my young ones oh you fool cried the crow the fox was only trying to frighten you
he could not have cut down the tree for he has neither axe nor knife dear me to think that you have sacrificed your young ones for nothing
dear dear how could you be so very foolish and the crow flew away leaving the magpie overcome with shame and sorrow the next morning the fox came to his usual place in front of the tree for he was hungry
and a nice young magpie would have suited him very well for dinner but this time there was no cowering timid magpie to do his bidding but a bird with his head erect and a determined voice
you will go home as fast as you can there is no use your talking
the crow who paid me a visit yesterday answered the magpie the crow was it said the fox well the crow had better not meet me for the future or it may be the worse for him as michael the cunning beast
had no desire to continue the conversation he left the forest but when he came to the high road he laid himself at full length on the ground stretching himself out just as if he was dead very soon he noticed
out of the corner of his eye that the crow was flying towards him and he kept stiller and stiffer than ever with his tongue hanging out of his mouth the crow who wanted her supper very badly hopped quickly towards him
and was stooping forward to peck at his tongue when the fox gave a snap and caught him by the wing the crow knew that it was of no use struggling so he said ah brother if you are really going to eat me do it i beg of you in good style
throw me first over this precipice so that my feathers may be strewn here and there and that all who see them may know that your cunning is greater than mine
this idea pleased the fox for he had not yet forgiven the crow for depriving him of the young magpies so he carried the crow to the edge of the precipice and threw him over intending to go round by a path he knew and pick him up at the bottom
but no sooner had the fox let the crow go than he soared up into the air
he cried with a laugh ah fox
as he guessed that the crow would have flown back before him and put every one on their guard
this poor animal had just lost his wife and was going to get some one to mourn over her for he felt her loss greatly he had hardly left his comfortable cave when he had come across the wolf who inquired where he was going
i am going to find a mourner answered the bear and told his story oh let me mourn for you cried the wolf do you understand how to howl said the bear oh certainly godfather certainly replied the wolf
but the bear said he should like to have a specimen of his howling to make sure that he knew his business so the wolf broke forth in his song of lament hu hu hu hum hoh he shouted
a little further down the road the hare was resting in a ditch but when she saw the bear she came out and spoke to him and inquired why he looked so sad the bear told her of the loss of his wife
in the proper style the hare instantly offered her services
but this time her voice was so small that the bear could hardly hear her that is not what i want he said i will bid you good morning it was after this that the fox came up and he also was struck with the bear's altered looks and stopped
what is the matter with you godfather asked he and where are you going i am going to find a mourner for my wife answered the bear oh do choose me cried the fox and the bear looked at him thoughtfully can you howl well
he said yes beautifully just listen and the fox lifted up his voice and sang weeping lou lou lou the famous spinner the baker of good cakes the prudent housekeeper is torn from her husband
lou lou lou she is gone she is gone now at last i have found some one who knows the art of lamentation exclaimed the bear quite delighted and he led the fox back to his cave
and bade him begin his lament over the dead wife who was lying stretched out on her bed of grey moss but this did not suit the fox at all one cannot wail properly in this cave he said it is much too damp
you had better take the body to the storehouse it will sound much finer there so the bear carried his wife's body to the storehouse while he himself went back to the cave to cook some pap for the mourner
from time to time he paused and listened for the sound of wailing but he heard nothing at last he went to the door of the storehouse and called to the fox why don't you howl godfather what are you about
and the fox who instead of weeping over the dead bear had been quietly eating her answered there only remain now her legs and the soles of her feet give me five minutes more and they will be gone also
when the bear heard that he ran back for the kitchen ladle to give the traitor the beating he deserved but as he opened the door of the storehouse michael was ready for him
once upon a time there lived an old man who had only one son whom he loved dearly but they were very poor and often had scarcely enough to eat then the old man fell ill and things grew worse than ever
so he called his son and said to him my dear boy i have no longer any food to give you and you must go into the world and get it for yourself it does not matter what work you do but remember
if you do it well and are faithful to your master you will always have your reward so peter put a piece of black bread in his knapsack and strapping it on his back took a stout stick in his hand and set out to seek his fortune
for a long while he travelled on and on and nobody seemed to want him but one day he met an old man and being a polite youth he took off his hat and said good morning in a pleasant voice
and where are you going i am wandering through the country trying to get work replied peter then stay with me for i can give you plenty said the old man and peter stayed his work did not seem hard
for he had only two horses and a cow to see after and though he had been hired for a year the year consisted of but three days so that it was not long before he received his wages in payment the old man gave him a nut
and offered to keep him for another year but peter was home sick and besides he would rather have been paid ever so small a piece of money than a nut for thought he nuts grow on every tree and i can gather as many as i like however
he did not say this to the old man who had been kind to him but just bade him farewell the nearer peter drew to his father's house the more ashamed he felt at having brought back such poor wages what could one nut do for him
why it would not buy even a slice of bacon it was no use taking it home he might as well eat it so he sat down on a stone and cracked it with his teeth and then took it out of his mouth to break off the shell
horses and oxen and sheep stepped out in such numbers that they seemed as if they would stretch to the world's end
what was he to do with all these creatures where was he to put them
the old man could not believe his eyes when he saw the multitudes of horses oxen and sheep standing before his door how did you come by all these he gasped as soon as he could speak and the son told him the whole story
and of the promise he had given eisenkopf the next day some of the cattle were driven to market and sold and with the money the old man was able to buy some of the fields and gardens round his house
till one day when he and his son were sitting in the orchard watching their herds of cattle grazing in the meadows he suddenly said peter my boy it is time that you were thinking of marrying but my dear father i told you i can never marry
because of the promise i gave to eisenkopf oh one promises here and promises there but no one ever thinks of keeping such promises if eisenkopf does not like your marrying he will have to put up with it all the same
besides there stands in the stable a grey horse which is saddled night and day and if eisenkopf should show his face you have only got to jump on the horse's back and ride away and nobody on earth can catch you when all is safe you will come back again
and so it all happened the young man found a pretty brown skinned girl who was willing to have him for a husband and the whole village came to the wedding feast the music was at its gayest and the dance at its merriest
when eisenkopf looked in at the window oh ho my brother what is going on here it has the air of being a wedding feast yet i fancied was i mistaken
but peter had not waited for the end of this speech scarcely had he seen eisenkopf than he darted like the wind to the stable and flung himself on the horse's back in another moment he was away over the mountain
with eisenkopf running fast behind him on they went through thick forests where the sun never shone over rivers so wide that it took a whole day to sail across them up hills whose sides were all of glass
on they went through seven times seven countries till peter reined in his horse before the house of an old woman good day mother said he jumping down and opening the door good day my son answered she
and what are you doing here at the world's end i am flying for my life mother flying to the world which is beyond all worlds for eisenkopf is at my heels come in and rest then and have some food
for i have a little dog who will begin to howl when eisenkopf is still seven miles off so peter went in and warmed himself
the dog began to howl quick my son quick you must go cried the old woman and the lightning itself was not quicker than peter stop a moment cried the old woman again just as he was mounting his horse
take this napkin and this cake and put them in your bag where you can get hold of them easily peter took them and put them into his bag and waving his thanks for her kindness he was off like the wind round and round he rode through seven times seven countries
through forests still thicker and rivers still wider and mountains still more slippery than the others he had passed till at length he reached a house where dwelt another old woman good day mother said he good day my son
what are you seeking here at the world's end i am flying for my life mother flying to the world that is beyond all worlds for eisenkopf is at my heels come in my son and have some food
i have a little dog who will begin to howl when eisenkopf is still seven miles off so lie on this bed and rest yourself in peace then she went to the kitchen and baked a number of cakes more than peter could have eaten in a whole month
he had not finished a quarter of them when the dog began to howl now my son you must go cried the old woman but first put these cakes and this napkin in your bag where you can easily get at them so peter thanked her and was off like the wind
on he rode through seven times seven countries till he came to the house of a third old woman who welcomed him as the others had done but when the dog howled and peter sprang up to go she said as she gave him the same gifts for his journey
you have now three cakes and three napkins for i know that my sisters have each given you one listen to me and do what i tell you ride seven days and nights straight before you and on the eighth morning you will see a great fire
strike it three times with the three napkins and it will part in two then ride into the opening and when you are in the middle of the opening throw the three cakes behind your back with your left hand peter thanked her for her counsel
and was careful to do exactly all the old woman had told him on the eighth morning he reached a fire so large that he could see nothing else on either side but when he struck it with the napkins it parted and stood on each hand like a wall
as he rode through the opening he threw the cakes behind him from each cake there sprang a huge dog and he gave them the names of world's weight ironstrong and quick ear they bayed with joy at the sight of him
and as peter turned to pat them he beheld eisenkopf at the edge of the fire but the opening had closed up behind peter and he could not get through stop you promise breaker shrieked he
you have slipped through my hands once but wait till i catch you again then he lay down by the fire and watched to see what would happen
he rode on slowly till he came to a small white house here he entered and found himself in a room where a gray haired woman was spinning and a beautiful girl was sitting in the window combing her golden hair
what brings you here my son asked the old woman i am seeking for a place mother answered peter stay with me then for i need a servant said the old woman with pleasure mother replied he after that
peter's life was a very happy one he sowed and ploughed all day except now and then when he took his dogs and went to hunt and whatever game he brought back the maiden with the golden hair knew how to dress it
one day the old woman had gone to the town to buy some flour and peter and the maiden were left alone in the house they fell into talk and she asked him where his home was and how he had managed to come through the fire
peter then told her the whole story and of his striking the flames with the three napkins as he had been told to do the maiden listened attentively and wondered in herself whether what he said was true so after peter had gone out to the fields
she crept up to his room and stole the napkins and then set off as fast as she could to the fire by a path she knew of over the hill at the third blow she gave the flames divided and eisenkopf
ran down the opening and stood before her
iron strong world's weight quick ear fly to my help cried peter and quick ear heard and said to his brothers listen our master is calling us you are dreaming fool answered world's weight
why he has not finished his breakfast and he gave quick ear a slap with his paw for he was young and needed to be taught sense iron strong world's weight quick ear fly to my help cried peter again this time world's weight heard also
and he said ah now our master is really calling how silly you are answered iron strong you know that at this hour he is always eating and he gave world's weight a cuff because he was old enough to know better
peter sat trembling on the tree dreading lest his dogs had never heard or else that having heard they had refused to come it was his last chance so making a mighty effort he shrieked once more
iron strong world's weight quick ear fly to my help or i am a dead man and iron strong heard and said yes he is certainly calling we must go at once
and in an instant he had burst open the door and all three were bounding away in the direction of the voice when they reached the foot of the tree peter just said at him and in a few minutes there was nothing left of eisenkopf
as soon as his enemy was dead peter got down and returned to the house where he bade farewell to the old woman and her daughter who gave him a beautiful ring all set with diamonds it was really a magic ring but neither peter nor the maiden knew that
peter's heart was heavy as he set out for home he had ceased to love the wife whom he had left at his wedding feast and his heart had gone out to the golden haired girl however it was no use thinking of that so he rode forward steadily
the fire had to be passed through before he had gone very far and when he came to it peter shook the napkins three times in the flames and a passage opened for trim but then a curious thing happened the three dogs who had followed at his heels all the way
now became three cakes again which peter put into his bag with the napkins after that he stopped at the houses of the three old women and gave each one back her napkin and her cake where is my wife asked peter when he reached home
oh my dear son why did you ever leave us after you had vanished no one knew where your poor wife grew more and more wretched and would neither eat nor drink little by little she faded away and a month ago we laid her in her grave
to hide her sorrows under the earth at this news peter began to weep for he had loved his wife before he went away and had seen the golden haired maiden
and would have a party in pursuit the runaways however would have at least twenty four hours the start and a ship leaves no tracks when mary left me she was perhaps two thirds of a league from the rendezvous
but when he came i found the thread and unobserved removed it i quickly took it to jane who has it yet and cherishes it for the mute message of comfort it brought her in case the horse should not return i was to find a token in a hollow tree near the place of meeting
but the thread in the forelock told us our friends had found each other when we left the castle mary wore under her riding habit a suit of man's attire and as we rode along she would shrug her shoulders and laugh as if it were a huge joke
and by the most comical little pantomime call my attention to her unusual bulk so when she found brandon the only change necessary to make a man of her was to throw off the riding habit and pull on the jack boots and slouch hat both of which brandon had with him
they wasted no time you may be sure and were soon under way in a few minutes they picked up the two bristol men who were to accompany them and when night had fairly fallen
in fact there was more danger of losing one's self in its fathomless mud holes and quagmires brandon had recently passed over it twice and had made mental note of the worst places so he hoped to avoid them soon the rain began to fall in a soaking drizzle
it was one of those black nights fit for witch traveling and no doubt every witch in england was out brewing mischief the horses hoofs sucked and splashed in the mud with a sound that mary thought might be heard at land's end and the hoot of an owl now and then disturbed by a witch
the wind which had arisen with just enough force to set up a dismal wail gave the rain a horizontal slant and drove it in at every opening
the flaps of the comfortable great cloak blew back from mary's knees and she felt many a chilling drop through her fine new silk trunks that made her wish for buckram in their place soon the water began to trickle down her legs and find lodgment in the jack boots
and as the rain and wind came in tremulous little whirs she felt wretched enough
she who had always been so well sheltered from every blast now and then mud and water would fly up into her face striking usually in the eyes or mouth and then again her horse would stumble and almost throw her over his head
as he sank knee deep into some unexpected hole all of this with the thousand and one noises that broke the still worse silence of the inky night
soon began to work upon her nerves and make her fearful the road was full of dangers aside from stumbling horses and broken necks for many were the stories of murder and robbery committed along the route they were traveling it is true they had two stout men and all were armed yet they might easily come upon a party too strong for them
and no one could tell what might happen thought the princess there was that pitchy darkness through which she could hardly see her horse's head a thing of itself that seemed to have infinite powers for mischief
and which no amount of argument ever induced any normally constituted woman to believe was the mere negative absence of light and not a terrible entity potent for all sorts of mischief then that wailing howl that rose and fell betimes
no wind ever made such a noise she felt sure there were those shining white gleams which came from the little pools of water on the road looking like dead men's faces upturned and pale
perhaps they were water and perhaps they were not mary had all confidence in brandon but that very fact operated against her having that confidence and trust in him she felt no need to waste her own energy in being brave so she relaxed completely
and had the feminine satisfaction of allowing herself to be thoroughly frightened is it any wonder mary's gallant but womanly spirit sank low in the face of all those terrors
that are tidy enough but this one was a little off the main road selected for that reason and the uncleanness was not the least of mary's trials that hard night she had not tasted food since noon and felt the keen hunger natural to youth and health such as hers
after twelve hours of fasting and eight hours of riding her appetite soon overcame her repugnance and she ate with a zest that was new to her the humblest fare that had ever passed her lips one often misses the zest of life's joys by having too much of them
one must want a thing before it can be appreciated a hard ride of five hours brought our travelers to bath which place they rode around just as the sun began to gild the tile roofs and steeples
and another hour brought them to bristol the ship was to sail at sunrise but as the wind had died out with the night
there was no danger of its sailing without them soon the gates opened and the party rode to the bow and string where brandon had left their chests the men were then paid off quick sale was made of the horses breakfast was served and they started for the wharf
with their chests following in the hands of four porters a boat soon took them aboard the royal hind and now it looked as if their daring scheme so full of improbability as to seem impossible had really come to a successful issue from the beginning i think it had never occurred to mary to doubt the result
there had never been with her even a suggestion of possible failure unless it was that evening in our room when prompted by her startled modesty she had said she could not bear for us to see her in the trunk hose now that fruition seemed about to crown her hopes she was happy to her heart's core
and when once to herself wept for sheer joy it is little wonder she was happy she was leaving behind no one whom she loved excepting jane and perhaps me
she was also fleeing with the one man in all the world for her and from a marriage that was literally worse than death brandon on the other hand had always had more desire than hope the many chances against success had forced upon him a haunting sense of certain failure
and in this case they were overwhelmingly unfavorable such hope as he had been able to distil out of his desire was sadly dampened by an ever present premonition of failure which he could not entirely throw off
too keen an insight for the truth often stands in a man's way and too clear a view of an overwhelming obstacle is apt to paralyze effort hope must always be behind a hearty endeavor
they had both paid for their passage although they had enlisted and were part of the ship's company they were not expected to do sailor's work but would be called upon in case of fighting
to do their part at that mary was probably as good a fighter in her own way as one could find in a long journey
that however was a bridge to be crossed when they should come to it they had gone aboard about seven o'clock and brandon hoped the ship would be well down bristol channel before he should leave his berth
but the wind that had filled mary's jack boots with rain and had howled so dismally all night long would not stir now that it was wanted
noon came yet no wind and the sun shone as placidly as if captain charles brandon were not fuming with impatience on the poop of the royal hind
the captain said it would come with night but sundown was almost at hand and no wind yet brandon knew this meant failure if it held a little longer for he was certain the king with wolsey's help would long since have guessed the truth
brandon had not seen the princess since morning and the delicacy he felt about going to her cabin made the situation somewhat difficult after putting it off from hour to hour in hope that she would appear of her own accord he at last knocked at her door
and of course found the lady in trouble
the port was open and showed her rosy as the morn when she looked up at him the jack boots were in a corner and her little feet seemed to put up a protest all their own against going into them that ought to have softened every peg
do you regret coming lady mary asked brandon who now that she was alone with him felt that he must take no advantage of the fact to be familiar no no not for one moment i am glad only too glad
but why do you call me lady you used to call me mary i don't know perhaps because you are alone ah that is good of you
the matter was settled by mute but satisfactory arbitration and brandon continued you must make yourself ready to go on deck it will be hard but it must be done he helped her with the heavy jack boots and handed her the rain stained slouch hat
which she put on and stood a complete man ready for the deck that is as complete as could be evolved from her utter femininity when brandon looked her over all hope went out of him
what is it that despite everything shows so unmistakably feminine
i have it you shall remain here under the pretense of illness until we are well at sea and then i will tell the captain all it is too bad and yet i would not have you one whit less a woman for all the world
a man loves a woman who is so thoroughly womanly that nothing can hide it mary was pleased at his flattery but disappointed at the failure in herself she had thought that surely these garments would make a man of her in which the keenest eye could not detect a flaw
they were discussing the matter when a knock came at the door with the cry all hands on deck for inspection inspection jesu mary would not safely endure it a minute brandon left her at once and went to the captain
bradhurst a surly old half pirate of the saltiest pattern answered ill
i will refund his money we cannot make a hospital out of the ship if his lordship is too ill to stand inspection see that he goes ashore at once
he then returned to mary and after buckling on her sword and belt they went on deck and climbed up the poop ladder to take their places with those entitled to stand aft
brandon has often told me since that it was as much as he could do to keep back the tears when he saw mary's wonderful effort to appear manly it was both comical and pathetic
she was a princess to whom all the world bowed down yet that did not help her here after all she was only a girl timid and fearful following at brandon's heels
frightened lest she should get out of arm's reach of him among those rough men and longing with all her heart to take his hand for moral as well as physical support it must have been both laughable and pathetic in the extreme
that miserable sword persisted in tripping her and the jack boots so much too large evinced an alarming tendency to slip off with every step how insane we all were not to have foreseen this from the very beginning
it must have been a unique figure she presented climbing up the steps at brandon's heels jack boots and all so unique was it that the sailors working in the ship's waist stopped their tasks to stare in wonderment
and the gentlemen on the poop made no effort to hide their amusement old bradhurst stepped up to her i hope your lordship is feeling better
i declare you look the picture of health
how old are you mary quickly responded fourteen years fourteen returned bradhurst well i don't think you will shed much blood you look more like a deuced handsome girl than any man i ever saw
at this the men all laughed and were very impertinent in the free and easy manner of such gentry most of whom were professional adventurers with every finer sense dulled and debased by years of vice
these fellows half of them tipsy now gathered about mary to inspect her personally each on his own account their looks and conduct were very disconcerting but they did nothing insulting until one fellow gave her a slap on the back
accompanying it by an indecent remark brandon tried to pay no attention to them but this was too much so he lifted his arm and knocked the fellow off the poop into the waist
the man was back in a moment and swords were soon drawn and clicking away at a great rate the contest was brief however as the fellow was no sort of match for brandon who with his old trick quickly twisted his adversary's sword out of his grasp
and with a flash of his own blade flung it into the sea the other men were now talking together at a little distance in whispers and in a moment one drunken brute shouted it is no man it is a woman
the fellow had unbuckled mary's doublet at the throat and with a jerk had torn it half off carrying away the sleeve and exposing mary's shoulder almost throwing her to the deck he waved his trophy on high
but his triumph was short lived for almost instantly it fell to the deck and with it the offending hand severed at the wrist by brandon's sword three or four friends of the wounded man rushed upon brandon whereupon mary screamed and began to weep
which of course told the whole story
and throw it off as the sun throws off its heat however jane is an exception to that rule if it is a rule the officers soon put a stop to this lively little fight and took brandon and mary who was weeping as any right minded woman would
down into the cabin for consultation with a great oath bradhurst exclaimed it is plain enough that you have brought a girl on board under false colors and you may as well make ready to put her ashore
you see what she has already done a hand lost to one man and wounds for twenty others
asked bradhurst with his hat off instantly yes answered that individual i shipped under an assumed name for various reasons and desire not to be known you will do well to keep my secret
do i understand that you are master charles brandon the king's friend asked bradhurst i am was the answer then sir i must ask your pardon for the way you have been treated
we of course could not know it but a man must expect trouble when he attaches himself to a woman it is a wonder the flashes from mary's eyes did not strike the old sea dog dead he however did not see them and went on
we are more than anxious that so valiant a knight as sir charles brandon should go with us and hope your reception will not drive you back but as to the lady you see already the result of her presence and much as we want you we cannot take her
aside from the general trouble which a woman takes with her everywhere mary would not even look at the creature on shipboard there is another and greater objection it is said you know among sailors
that a woman on board draws bad luck to certain sorts of ships and every sailor would desert before we could weigh anchor if it were known this lady was to go with us should they find it out in mid ocean a mutiny would be sure to follow
and god only knows what would happen for her sake if for no other reason take her ashore at once brandon saw only too plainly the truth that he had really seen all the time
but to which he had shut his eyes and throwing mary's cloak over her shoulders prepared to go ashore as they went over the side and pulled off a great shout went up from the ship far more derisive than cheering
and the men at the oars looked at each other askance and smiled what a predicament for a princess brandon cursed himself for having been such a knave and fool as to allow this to happen
he had known the danger all the time and his act could not be chargeable to ignorance or a failure to see the probable consequences temptation and selfish desire had given him temerity in place of judgment
he had attempted what none but an insane man would have tried without even the pitiable excuse of insanity
he had seen it all only too clearly from the very beginning and he had deliberately and with open eyes brought disgrace ruin and death unless he could escape upon himself and utter humiliation
to her whom his love should have prompted him to save at all cost if mary could only have disguised herself to look like a man they might have succeeded
but that little if was larger than paul's church and blocked the road as completely as if it had been a word of twenty syllables when the princess stepped ashore it seemed to her as if the heart in her breast was a different and separate organ from the one she had carried aboard
as the boat put off again for the ship its crew gave a cheer coupled with some vile advice for which brandon would gladly have run them through each and every one
and really blamed no one but himself though it was torture to him that this girl should be subjected to such insults and he powerless to avenge them the news had spread from the wharf like wildfire and on their way back to the bow and string
there came from small boys and hidden voices such exclamations as
isn't he a beautiful man look at him blush and others too coarse to be repeated imagine the humiliating situation from which there was no escape at last they reached the inn
whither their chests soon followed them sent by bradhurst together with their passage money which he very honestly refunded mary soon donned her woman's attire of which she had a supply in her chest
she had made her toilet alone for the first time in her life having no maid to help her and wept as she dressed for this disappointment was like plucking the very heart out of her
her hope had been so high that the fall was all the harder nay even more hope had become fruition to her when they were once a shipboard
made it doubly hard to bear it crushed her and where before had been hope and confidence was nothing now but despair like all people with a great capacity for elation
when she sank she touched the bottom alas mary the unconquerable was down at last this failure meant so much to her it meant that she would never be brandon's wife but would go to france to endure the dreaded old frenchman
at that thought a recoil came her spirit asserted itself and she stamped her foot and swore upon her soul it should never be never never so long as she had strength to fight or voice to cry no
but there came another entirely new to her and infinitely worse hastily arranging her dress she went in search of brandon whom she quickly found and took to her room after closing the door she said
i thought i had reached the pinnacle of disappointment and pain when compelled to leave the ship for it meant that i should lose you and have to marry louis of france but i have found that there is still a possible pain more poignant than either and i cannot bear it
so i come to you you who are the great cure for all my troubles oh that i could lay them here all my life long and she put her head upon his breast forgetting what she had intended to say what is the trouble mary
oh yes i thought of that marriage and of losing you and then oh mary mother i thought of some other woman having you to herself i could see her with you and i was jealous i think they call it
i have heard of the pangs of jealousy and if the fear of a rival is so great what would the reality be it would kill me i could not endure it i cannot endure even this and i want you to swear that
brandon took her in his arms as she began to weep i will gladly swear by everything i hold sacred that no other woman than you shall ever be my wife if i cannot have you be sure you have spoiled every other woman for me
there is but one in all the world but one i can at least save you that pain she then stood on tip toes to lift her lips to him and said i give you the same promise
but it might have been worse that is it would be worse if you should marry some other woman but that is all settled now and i feel easier then i might have married the old french king but that too is settled
it always helps us when we are able to think it might have been worse her unquestioning faith in brandon was beautiful and she never doubted that he spoke the unalterable truth
when he said he would never marry any other woman she had faith in herself too and was confident that her promise to marry no man but brandon ended that important matter likewise and put the french marriage totally out of the question for all time to come
as for brandon he was safe enough in his part of the contract he knew only too well that no woman could approach mary in her inimitable perfections and he had tested his love closely enough in his struggle against it
whether he wanted it or not he knew that he was safe in making her a promise which he was powerless to break all this he fully explained to mary as they sat looking out of the window at the dreary rain
which had come on again with the gathering gloom of night brandon did not tell her that his faith in her ultimate ability to keep her promise was as small as it was great in his own
neither did he dampen her spirits by telling her that there was a reason outside of himself which in all probability would help him in keeping his word and save her from the pangs of that jealousy she so much feared namely
that he would most certainly wed the block and ax should the king get possession of him
trying to be a gentleman the efforts which certain young men make on entering the world to become gentlemen is not a little amusing to sober thoughtful lookers on
to become is not perhaps what is aimed at so much as to make people believe that they are gentlemen for if you should happen to insinuate any thing to the contrary no matter how wide from the mark they go
you may expect to receive summary punishment for your insolence one of these characters made himself quite conspicuous in baltimore a few years ago his name was l and he hailed from richmond we believe
and built some consequence upon the fact that he was a son of the old dominion he dressed in the extreme of fashion spent a good deal of time strutting up and down market street switching his rattan boarded at one of the hotels
and was often quite as literal in his observance of prescribing modes and forms as was the frenchman in showing off his skill in our idioms when he informed a company of ladies as an excuse for leaving them that he had some fish to fry
that he was no gentleman internally or externally was plain to every one yet he verily believed himself to be one of the first water and it was a matter of constant care to preserve the reputation
among those who were thrown into the society of this l was a young man named briarly who had rather more basis to his character and who although he dressed well and moved in good society
by no means founded thereon his claim to be called a gentleman he never liked l because he saw that he had no principle whatever that all about him was mere sham the consequence was that he was hardly civil to him
a circumstance which l was slow either to notice or resent it happened one day that the tailor of briarly asked him if he knew any thing about l not much replied briarly why do you ask
do you think him a gentleman how do you estimate a gentleman asked the young man a gentleman is a man of honour returned the tailor very well
then l must be a gentleman for he has a great deal to say about his honour i know he has
don't as a general thing possess much to brag of then he talks to you of his honour oh yes and gives me his word as a gentleman does he always keep his word as a gentleman
not the word of such broadcloth and buckram gentlemen as he is take care what you say or you may find yourself called to account for using improper language about this gentleman we may have a duel on the carpet
it would degrade him to fight with a tailor replied the man of shears so i may speak my mind with impunity but if he should challenge me i will refuse to fight him on the ground that he is no gentleman
every man must be permitted to have his own standard of gentility certainly i have mine ah well how do you measure gentility by my ledger
a man who doesn't pay his tailor's bill i consider no gentleman if l sends me a challenge i will refuse to fight him on that ground
i'm afraid if your standard were adopted that a great many who now pass themselves off for gentlemen would be held in little estimation it is the true standard nevertheless replied shears
a man may try to be a gentleman as much as he pleases but if he don't try to pay his tailor's bill at the same time he tries in vain you may be right enough remarked briarly a good deal amused at the tailor's mode of estimating a gentleman
shortly after this it happened that l made briarly angry about something when the latter very unceremoniously took hold of the handle on the young man's face and moved his head around
fortunately the body moved with the head or the consequences might have been serious there were plenty to assure l that for this insult he must if he wished to be considered a gentleman challenge briarly and shoot him if he could
to enable him to send the deadly missive by the hand of a friend meantime a wag of a fellow an intimate friend of briarly's appeared in market street in an old rusty coat worn hat
and well mended but clean and whole trowsers and vest friend after friend stopped him and in astonishment inquired the cause of this change he had but one answer in substance but we will give his own account
of the matter as related to three or four young bucks in an oyster house where they happened to meet him l was of the number a patch on your elbow tom as i live said one and here's another on your vest why
old fellow this is premeditated poverty better wear patched garments than owe for new ones replied tom with great sobriety bless us when did you turn economist ever since i tried to be a gentleman
what ever since i tried to be a gentleman i may strut up and down market street in fine clothes switch my rattan about talk nonsense to silly ladies swear and drink wine
but if i don't pay my tailor i'm no gentleman nonsense was replied there was a general laugh but few of tom's auditors felt very much flattered by his words no nonsense at all he said
we may put on airs of gentility boast of independence and spirit and all that but it's a mean kind of gentility that will let a man flourish about in a fine coat for which he owes his tailor
i am trying to pay these off trying to become a gentleman then you don't consider yourself a gentleman now said one oh no i'm only trying to become a gentleman meekly replied tom
though a close observer could see a slight twitching in the corner of his mouth and a slight twinkle in the corner of his eye my honour is in pawn and will remain so until i pay these bills
then i shall feel like holding up my head again and looking gentlemen in the face the oddness of this conceit and the boldness with which it was carried out attracted attention and made a good deal of talk at the time
a great many tailors bills were paid instanter that would not have been paid for months perhaps not at all in a few days however tom appeared abroad again quite as handsomely dressed as before
alleging that his uncle had taken compassion on him and out of admiration for his honest principles paid off his bills and made a gentleman of him once more no one of course believed tom to be sincere in all this
it was looked upon as one of his waggish tricks intended to hit off some one or perhaps the whole class of fine tailor made gentlemen who forget their benefactors while tom was metamorphosed as stated
briarly was waited upon one day by a young man who presented him with a challenge to mortal combat from the insulted l and desired him to name his friend i cannot accept the challenge said briarly promptly
why not asked the second of l in surprise because your principal is no gentleman what is no gentleman coolly returned briarly explain yourself sir if you please
he doesn't pay his tailor he doesn't pay his boot maker he doesn't pay his hatter he is therefore no gentleman and i cannot fight him you will be posted as a coward said the second fiercely
in return for which i will post him as no gentleman and give the evidence replied briarly i will take his place you will hear from me shortly said the second turning away be sure you don't owe your tailor any thing
for if you do i will not stoop to accept your challenge returned briarly i will consider it prima facie evidence that you are no gentleman i know patterson very well and will in the mean time inform myself on the subject
all this was said with the utmost gravity and with a decision of tone and manner that left no doubt of the intention the second withdrew an hour elapsed but no new challenge came
days went by but no posters drew crowds at the corners gradually the matter got wind to the infinite amusement of such as happened to know l who was fairly driven from a city where it was no use trying to be a gentleman
the subject that occupied their attention seemed to be a very exciting one at least to him of the military buttons and black cap for he emphasized strongly knit his brow awfully
and at last went so far as to swear a terrible oath don't permit yourself to get so excited tom interposed a friend it won't help the matter at all but i've got no patience
if you intend pushing your way into the good graces of my lady mary clinton you must do something more than fume about the little matter of rivalry that has sprung up yes but to think of a poor milk sop of an author author pah
scribbler to think i say of a spiritless creature like blake thrusting himself between me and such a girl as mary clinton and worse gaining her notice is too bad
he has sonneteered her eyebrows no doubt flattered her in verse until she don't know who or where she is and in this way become a formidable rival but i won't bear it
do i'll i'll wing him that's what i'll do i'll challenge the puppy and shoot him and the young lieutenant for such he was flourished his right arm and looked pistol balls and death but he won't fight tom
won't he and the lieutenant's face brightened then i'll post him for a coward that'll finish him all women hate cowards i'll post him yes and cowhide him in the bargain if necessary
posting will do half sarcastically replied his friend but upon what pretext will you challenge him i'll make one i'll insult him the first time i meet him and then if he says any thing challenge and shoot him
that would be quite gentlemanly quite according to the code of honour returned the friend quietly the young military gentleman we have introduced was named redmond the reader has already penetrated his character
in person he was quite good looking though not the adonis he deemed himself he had fallen deeply in love with the acres of charms possessed by a certain miss clinton and was making rapid inroad upon her heart at least he thought so
when a young man well known in the literary circles made his appearance and was received with a degree of favour that confounded the officer who had already begun to think himself sure of the prize
blake had a much readier tongue and a great deal more in his head than the other and could therefore in the matter of mind at least appear to much better advantage than his rival
he had also written and published one or two popular works this gave him a standing as an author take him all in all he was a rival to be feared and redmond was not long in making the discovery what was to be done
a military man must not be put down or beaten off by a mere civilian the rival must be gotten rid of in some manner the professional means was as has been seen thought of first
blake must be challenged and killed off and then the course would be clear a few days after this brave and honourable determination the officer met the author in a public place and purposely jostled him rudely
blake said nothing thinking it possible that it was an accident but he remained near redmond to give him a chance to repeat the insult if such had been his intention
it was not long before the author was again jostled in a still ruder manner than before at the same time some offensive word was muttered by the officer this was in the presence of a number of respectable persons
who could not help hearing seeing and understanding all satisfied that an insult was intended blake looked him in the face for a moment and then asked loud enough to be heard all around did you intend to jostle me
and as the officer said this menacingly he turned and walked away with a military air there's trouble for you now blake he'll challenge you said two or three friends who instantly gathered around him do you think so
certainly he is an officer fighting is his trade well let him what'll you do accept the challenge of course and fight certainly he'll shoot you i'm not afraid
blake returned with his friend to his lodgings where he found a billet already from redmond who was all eagerness to wing his rival
on the next morning two friends of the bellige rents were closeted for the purpose of arranging the preliminaries for the fight the weapon asked the friend of the military man your principal by the laws of honour has the choice
he will fight then fight oh certainly blake is no coward well then name the weapons a pair of goose quills sir in profound astonishment
the weapons are to be a pair of good russia quills opaque manufactured into pens of approved quality
to morrow morning bright and early do you mean to insult me by no means you cannot be serious never was more serious in my life by the code of honour the challenged party has the right to choose weapons
place of meeting and time is it not so certainly very well your principal has challenged mine all these rights are of course his and he is justified in choosing those weapons with which he is most familiar
the weapon he can use best is the pen and he chooses that
he would of course have named pistols with which he is familiar and mister blake would have been called a coward poltroon or something as bad if after sending a challenge he had objected to the weapons
will your principal find himself in a different position if he decline this meeting on like grounds i think not pens are as good as pistols at any time and will do as much fighting with pens preposterous
not quite so preposterous as you may think mister b has more than insinuated that mister redmond is no gentleman for this he is challenged to a single combat that is to prove him to be a gentleman or not one
surely the most sensible weapon with which to do this is the pen pistols won't demonstrate the matter only the pen can do it so the pen is chosen in the gazette of to morrow morning my friend stands ready to prove that he is a gentleman and your friend
that he is one and that a gentleman has a right to insult publicly and without provocation whomsoever he pleases depend upon it you will find this quite as serious an affair as if pistols were used i did not come here sir to be trifled with
no trifling in the matter at all i am in sober earnest pens are the weapons the gazette the battle ground time early as you please to morrow morning are you prepared for the meeting no
what consequences your principal will be posted as a coward before night are you mad no cool and earnest we fully understand what we are about
the officer's second was nonplussed he did not know what to say or think he was unprepared for such a position of affairs i'll see you in the course of an hour he at length said rising
very well you will find me here is all settled asked the valiant lieutenant as his second came into his room at the hotel where he was pacing the floor
no nor a duck gun with trumpet muzzle but an infernal pen a what
the place of meeting the gazette time to morrow morning he is to prove you are no gentleman and you are to prove you are one and that a gentleman is at all times privileged to insult whomsoever he pleases without provocation he's a cowardly fool
the precise terms in which the principal swore and the manner in which he fumed for the next five minutes need not be told he was called back to more sober feelings by the question do you accept the terms of the meeting
no of course not the fellow's a fool then you consent to be posted how will that sound i'll cut off the rascal's ears if he dare do such a thing that won't secure mary clinton the cause of this contest hang it no
with pens for weapons he will wing you a little too quick no doubt but the public won't bear him out such an outrage such a violation of all the rules of honour
i know and you are afraid to meet the man you have challenged upon the terms he proposes that is all plain and simple enough the world will understand it all but what is to be done
you must fight apologize or be posted there is no alternative to be posted won't do the laugh would be too strongly against you it will be as bad and even worse to fight as he proposes true
what then it must be made up somehow or other so i think will you write an apology
when the seconds again met it was to arrange a settlement of differences this could only be done by a very humbly written apology which was made on the next day the young officer left the city a little wiser than he came
blake and his second said but little about the matter a few choice friends were let into the secret which afforded many a hearty laugh among these friends was mary clinton who not long after gave her heart and hand to the redoubtable author
as for the lieutenant he declares that he had as lief come in contact with a paixhan gun as an author with his infernal pen
treating a case actively a physician's story
to attend a gentleman of respectability whose wife a lady of intelligence and refinement had discovered him in his room lying senseless upon the floor on arriving at the house i found missus h in great distress of mind
what is the matter with mister h i asked on meeting his lady who was in tears and looking the picture of distress i'm afraid it is apoplexy she replied
i found him lying upon the floor where he had to all appearance fallen suddenly from his chair his face is purple and though he breathes it is with great difficulty i went up to see my patient
he had been lifted from the floor and was now lying upon the bed sure enough his face was purple and his breathing laboured but somehow the symptoms did not indicate apoplexy
hadn't he better be bled doctor asked the anxious wife i don't know that it is necessary i replied i think if we let him alone it will pass off in the course of a few hours a few hours
he may die in half an hour i don't think the case is so dangerous madam apoplexy not dangerous i hardly think it apoplexy i replied pray what do you think it is doctor
missus h looked anxiously into my face i delicately hinted that he might possibly have been drinking too much brandy but to this she positively and almost indignantly objected
depend upon it the disease is more deeply seated i am sure he had better be bled won't you bleed him doctor a few ounces of blood taken from his arm may give life to the now stagnant circulation of the blood in his veins
thus urged i after some reflection ordered a bowl and bandage and opening a vein from which the blood flowed freely relieved him of about eight ounces of his circulating medium
but he still lay as insensible as before much to the distress of his poor wife something else must be done doctor she urged seeing that bleeding had accomplished nothing
if my husband is not quickly relieved he must die by this time several friends and relatives who had been sent for arrived and urged upon me the adoption of some more active means for restoring the sick man to consciousness
one proposed mustard plasters all over his body another a blister on the head another his immersion in hot water i suggested that it might be well to use a stomach pump
perhaps he has taken some drug i replied impossible doctor said the wife he has not been from home to day and there is no drug of any kind in the house no brandy i ventured this suggestion again
in an offended tone i was not the regular family physician and had been called in to meet the alarming emergency because my office happened to be nearest to the dwelling of mister h
feeling my position to be a difficult one i suggested that the family physician had better be called but the delay doctor urged the friends no harm will result from it be assured i replied
but my words did not assure them however as i was firm in my resolution not to do any thing more for the patient until doctor s came they had to submit
i wished to make a call of importance in the neighbourhood and proposed going to be back by the time doctor s arrived but the friends of the sick man would not suffer me to leave the room when doctor s came
we conversed aside for a few minutes and i gave him my views of the case and stated what i had done and why i had done it we then proceeded to the bedside of our patient there were still no signs of approaching consciousness
don't you think his head ought to be shaved and blistered asked the wife anxiously doctor s thought a moment and then said yes by all means send for a barber
and also for a fresh fly blister four inches by nine i looked into the face of doctor s with surprise it was perfectly grave and earnest i hinted to him my doubt of the good that mode of treatment would do
but he spoke confidently of the result and said that it would not only cure the disease but he believed
was affected in a high degree the barber came the head of h was shaved and doctor s applied the blister with his own hands which completely covered the scalp from forehead to occiput
let it remain on for two hours and then make use of the ordinary dressing said doctor s if he should not recover during the action of the blister don't feel uneasy sensibility will be restored soon after
i did not call again but i heard from doctor s the result after we left the friends stood anxiously around the bed upon which the sick man lay
but though the blister began to draw no signs of returning consciousness showed themselves further than an occasional low moan or an uneasy tossing of the arms
and was then removed it had done good service dressings were then applied repeated and repeated again but still the sick man lay in a deep stupor it has done no good
hadn't we better send for the doctor suggested the wife just then the eyes of h opened and he looked with half stupid surprise from face to face of the anxious group that surrounded the bed
he placed his hand rather heavily thereon
heavens and earth what ails my head for mercy's sake keep quiet said the wife the glad tears gushing over her face you have been very ill there there now and she spoke soothingly don't say a word but lie very still
but my head what's the matter with my head it feels as if scalded where's my hair heavens and earth sarah i don't understand this and my arm what's my arm tied up in this way for
be quiet my dear husband and i'll explain it all oh be very quiet your life depends upon it mister h sank back upon the pillow from which he had arisen and closed his eyes to think
he put his hand to his head and felt it tenderly all over from temple to temple and from nape to forehead is it a blister he at length asked
yes dear you have been very ill we feared for your life said missus h affectionately there have been two physicians in attendance h closed his eyes again his lips moved
those nearest were not much edified by the whispered words that issued therefrom they would have sounded very strangely in a church or to ears polite and refined after this he lay for some time quiet
threatened with apoplexy i suppose he then said interrogatively yes dear replied his wife
i found you lying insensible upon the floor on happening to come into your room it was most providential that i discovered you when i did or you would certainly have died h shut his eyes and muttered something with an air of impatience
but its meaning was not understood finding him out of danger friends and relatives retired and the sick man was left alone with his family
this way i'm laid up for a week or two and all for nothing it was to save your life dear save the
do for mercy's sake be quiet every thing depends upon it with a gesture of impatience h shut his eyes teeth and hands and lay perfectly still for some minutes
then he turned his face to the wall muttering in a low petulant voice too bad too
neither had doctor s although he used a very extraordinary mode of treatment the facts of the case were these h had a weakness he could not taste wine nor strong drink
without being tempted into excess both himself and friends were mortified and grieved at this and they by admonition and he by good resolutions tried to bring about a reform
but to see was to taste to taste was to fall at last his friends urged him to shut himself up at home for a certain time and see if total abstinence would not give him strength
he got on pretty well for a few days particularly so as his coachman kept a well filled bottle for him in the carriage house to which he not unfrequently resorted
but a too ardent devotion to this bottle brought on the supposed apoplexy doctor s was right in his mode of treating the disease after all and did not err in supposing that it would reach the predisposition
the cure was effectual h kept quiet on the subject and bore his shaved head upon his shoulders with as much philosophy as he could muster a wig after the sores made by the blister had disappeared
concealed the barber's work until his own hair grew again he never ventured upon wine or brandy again for fear of apoplexy when the truth leaked out as leak out such things always will
the friends of h had many a hearty laugh but they wisely concealed from the object of their merriment the fact that they knew any thing more than appeared of the cause of his supposed illness
the king felt he was growing old but as he found himself as capable of governing as he had ever been he had no inclination to resign his power and therefore that he might pass the rest of his days peaceably
he determined to employ the princes in such a manner as at once to give each of them the hope of succeeding to the crown and fill up the time they might otherwise spend in so undutiful a manner
he sent for them to his cabinet and after conversing with them kindly he added you must be sensible my dear children that my great age prevents me from attending so closely as i have hitherto done
to state affairs i fear this may be injurious to my subjects i therefore desire to place my crown on the head of one of you but it is no more than just that in return for such a present
you should procure me some amusement in my retirement before i leave the capital for ever i cannot help thinking that a little dog that is handsome faithful and engaging would be the
very thing to make me happy so that without bestowing a preference on either of you i declare that he who brings me the most perfect little dog shall be my successor
the princes were much surprised at the fancy of their father to have a little dog yet they accepted the proposition with pleasure and accordingly after taking leave of the king who presented them with abundance of money and jewels
and appointed that day twelvemonth for their return they set off on their travels
and go all together with their presents to court they also agreed to change their names that they might be unknown to every one in their travels each took a different road but it is intended to relate the adventures
of only the youngest who was the handsomest most amiable and accomplished prince that had ever been seen no day passed as he travelled from town to town that he did not buy all the handsome dogs that fell in his way
he made a present of the last for twenty servants would have been scarcely sufficient to take care of all the dogs he was continually buying at length wandering he knew not whither he found himself in a forest
night suddenly came on and with it a violent storm of thunder lightning and rain to add to his perplexity he lost his path and could find no way out of the forest after he had groped about
for a long time he perceived a light which made him suppose that he was not far from some house he accordingly pursued his way towards it
and in a short time found himself at the gates of the most magnificent palace he ever beheld
covered with sapphire stones which cast so resplendent a brightness over everything around that scarcely could the strongest eyesight bear to look at it this was the light the prince had seen from the forest
the walls of the building were of transparent porcelain variously coloured and represented the history of all the fairies that had existed from the beginning of the world the prince coming back to the golden door observed a deer's foot
fastened to a chain of diamonds he could not help wondering at the magnificence he beheld and the security in which the inhabitants seemed to live
and as many of the sapphire stones as would make their fortunes he pulled the chain and heard a bell the sound of which was exquisite in a few moments the door was opened but he perceived nothing but
twelve hands in the air each holding a torch the prince was so astonished that he durst not move a step when he felt himself gently pushed on by some other hands from behind him
he walked on in great perplexity till he entered a vestibule inlaid with porphyry and lapis stone there the most melodious voice he had ever heard chanted the following words
welcome prince no danger fear
attend you here you shall break the magic spell that on a beauteous lady fell welcome prince no danger fear mirth and love attend you here
the prince now advanced with confidence wondering what these words could mean the hands moved him forward towards a large door of coral which opened of itself
to give him admittance into a splendid apartment built of mother of pearl
and so resplendently lighted with thousands of lamps girandoles and lustres that the prince imagined he must be in an enchanted palace when he had passed through sixty apartments all equally splendid
he was stopped by the hands and a large easy chair advanced of itself towards the chimney and the hands which he observed were extremely white and delicate took off his wet clothes and supplied their place with the
finest linen imaginable and then added a commodious wrapping gown embroidered with the brightest gold and all over enriched with pearls
the hands next brought him an elegant dressing table and combed his hair so very gently that he scarcely felt their touch they held before him a beautiful basin filled with perfumes
for him to wash his face and hands and afterwards took off the wrapping gown and dressed him in a suit of clothes of still greater splendour when his dress was complete they conducted him to an apartment he had not yet seen
magnificently furnished there was in it a table spread for a repast and everything upon it was of the purest gold adorned with jewels the prince observed there were two covers set and was wondering
who was to be his companion when his attention was suddenly caught by a small figure not a foot high which just then entered the room and advanced towards him it had on
a long black veil and was supported by two cats dressed in mourning and with swords by their sides they were followed by a numerous retinue of cats some carrying cages full of rats
and others mousetraps full of mice the prince was at a loss
the little figure now approached and throwing aside her veil he beheld a most beautiful white cat she seemed young and melancholy and addressing herself to the prince she said young prince you are welcome
your presence affords me the greatest pleasure madam replied the prince i would fain thank you for your generosity nor can i help observing
that you must be an extraordinary creature to possess with your present form the gift of speech and the magnificent palace i have seen
but prince i am not fond of talking and least of all do i like compliments let us therefore sit down to supper the trunkless hands then placed the dishes on the table
and the prince and white cat seated themselves
the view of the one made the prince almost afraid to taste the other till the white cat who guessed his thoughts assured him that there were certain dishes at table in which there was not a morsel of either rat or mouse
which had been dressed on purpose for him accordingly he ate heartily of such as she recommended when supper was over the prince perceived that the white cat had a portrait set in gold hanging to one of her feet
he begged her permission to look at it when to his astonishment he saw the portrait of a handsome young man that exactly resembled himself
yet as the white cat sighed and looked very sorrowful he did not venture to ask any questions he conversed with her on different subjects and found her extremely well versed in every thing that was passing in the world when night was far advanced
and he was conducted by the hands to his bedchamber which was different still from any thing he had seen in the palace being hung with the wings of butterflies mixed with the most curious feathers his bed was of gauze
festooned with bunches of the gayest ribands and the looking glasses reached from the floor to the ceiling the prince was undressed and put into bed by the hands without speaking a word he however slept little
and in the morning was awaked by a confused noise the hands took him out of bed and put on him a handsome hunting jacket he looked into the court yard and perceived more than five hundred cats
busily employed in preparing for the field for this was a day of festival presently the white cat came to his apartment and having politely inquired after his health she invited him to partake of their amusement
when the hunting was over the whole retinue returned to the palace and the white cat immediately exchanged her dragoon's cap for the veil and sat down to supper with the prince who being very hungry ate heartily and afterwards partook with her
of the most delicious liqueurs which being often repeated made him forget that he was to procure a little dog for the old king he thought no longer of any thing
the prince had almost forgotten his country and relations and sometimes even regretted that he was not a cat so great was his affection for his mewing companions alas said he to the white cat
either make yourself a lady or make me a cat she smiled at the prince's wish but made him scarcely any reply at length the twelvemonth was nearly expired
the white cat who knew the very day when the prince was to reach his father's palace reminded him that he had but three days longer to look for a perfect little dog the prince astonished at his own forgetfulness began to afflict himself
when the cat told him not to be so sorrowful since she would not only provide him with a little dog but also with a wooden horse which should convey him safely in less than twelve hours look here said she
showing him an acorn this contains what you desire the prince put the acorn to his ear and heard the barking of a little dog transported with joy he thanked the cat a thousand times and the next day
he set out on his return the prince arrived first at the place of rendezvous and was soon joined by his brothers they mutually embraced and began to give an account of their success
when the youngest showed them only a little mongrel cur telling them he thought it could not fail to please the king from its extraordinary beauty the brothers trod on each other's toes under the table
the next day they went together to the palace the dogs of the two elder princes were lying on cushions and so curiously wrapped around with embroidered quilts
the youngest produced his cur dirty all over and all wondered how the prince could hope to receive a crown for such a present the king examined the two little dogs of the elder princes
they accordingly began to dispute when the youngest prince taking his acorn from his pocket soon ended their contention for a little dog appeared which could with ease go through the smallest ring
and was besides a miracle of beauty the king could not possibly hesitate in declaring his satisfaction yet as he was not more inclined than the year before to part with his crown
he could think of nothing more to his purpose than telling his sons that he was extremely obliged to them for the pains they had taken and that since they had succeeded so well he could not but wish they would make a second attempt
so fine as to be drawn through the eye of a small needle the three princes thought this very hard yet they set out in obedience to the king's command the two eldest took different roads
and the youngest remounted his wooden horse and in a short time arrived at the palace of his beloved white cat who received him with the greatest joy while the trunkless hands helped him to dismount and provided him with immediate refreshments
after which the prince gave the white cat an account of the admiration which had been bestowed on the beautiful little dog and informed her of his father's farther injunction make yourself perfectly easy dear prince said she
i have in my palace some cats that are perfectly clever in making such cambric as the king requires so
she accordingly ordered the most curious fireworks to be played off in sight of the window of the apartment in which they were sitting and nothing but festivity and rejoicing was heard throughout the palace for the prince's return
as the white cat continually gave proofs of an excellent understanding the prince was by no means tired of her company she talked with him of state affairs of theatres of fashions
in short she was at a loss on no subject whatever so that when the prince was alone he had plenty of amusement in thinking how it could possibly be that a small white cat could be endowed with all the powers of human creatures
but the cat took care to remind the prince of his duty in proper time for once my prince said she i will have the pleasure of equipping you as suits your high rank
when looking into the court yard he saw a superb car ornamented all over with gold silver pearls and diamonds drawn by twelve horses as white as snow and harnessed in the most sumptuous trappings
and behind the car a thousand guards richly apparelled were in waiting to attend on the prince's person she then presented him with a nut you will find in it said she the piece of cambric i promised you
do not break the shell till you are in the presence of the king your father then
she hastily bade him adieu nothing could exceed the speed with which the snow white horses conveyed this fortunate prince to his father's palace where his brothers had just arrived before him they embraced each other
and demanded an immediate audience of the king who received them with the greatest kindness the princes hastened to place at the feet of his majesty the curious present he had required them to procure the eldest
produced a piece of cambric that was so extremely fine that his friends had no doubt of its passing the eye of the needle which was now delivered to the king having been kept locked up in the custody of his majesty's treasurer all the time
every one supposed he would certainly obtain the crown but when the king tried to draw it through the eye of the needle it would not pass though it failed but
but alas with no better success for though his piece of cambric was exquisitely fine yet it could not be drawn through the eye of the needle it was now the youngest prince's turn
who accordingly advanced and opening an elegant little box inlaid with jewels he took out a walnut and cracked the shell
imagining he should immediately perceive his piece of cambric but what was his astonishment to see nothing but a filbert he did not however lose his hopes he cracked the filbert and it presented him with a cherry stone
refrain from laughing to think he should be so silly as to claim with them the crown on no better pretensions the prince however cracked the cherry stone which was filled with a kernel
he divided it and found in the middle a grain of wheat and in that grain a millet seed
at this instant he felt his hand scratched by the claw of a cat upon which he again took courage and opening the grain of millet seed to the astonishment of all present
he drew forth a piece of cambric four hundred yards long and fine enough to be drawn with perfect ease through the eye of the needle when the king found he had no pretext left
for refusing the crown to his youngest son he sighed deeply and it was easy to be seen that he was sorry for the prince's success my sons said he
it is so gratifying to the heart of a father to receive proofs of his children's love and obedience
you must undertake another expedition and whichever by the end of a year brings me the most beautiful lady shall marry her
so they again took leave of the king and of each other and set out without delay and in less than twelve hours our young prince arrived in his splendid car at the palace of his dear white cat
every thing went on as before till the end of another year at length only one day remained of the year when the white cat thus addressed him to morrow my prince
you must present yourself at the palace of your father and give him a proof of your obedience it depends only on yourself to conduct thither the most beautiful princess ever yet beheld
for the time is come when the enchantment by which i am bound may be ended you must cut off my head and tail continued she and throw them into the fire i
said the prince hastily i cut off your head and tail you surely mean to try my affection which believe me beautiful cat is truly yours you mistake me generous prince said she
then you will have done me a service i shall never be able sufficiently to repay the prince's eyes filled with tears as she spoke yet he considered himself obliged to undertake the dreadful task
and the cat continuing to press him with greater eagerness with a trembling hand he drew his sword cut off her head and tail and threw them into the fire no sooner was this done than the most
beautiful lady his eyes had ever seen stood before him and before he had sufficiently recovered from his surprise to speak to her a long train of attendants who at the same moment as their mistress were changed to their natural shapes
came to offer their congratulations to the queen and inquire
she received them with the greatest kindness and ordering them to withdraw she thus addressed the astonished prince do not imagine dear prince that i have always been a cat or that i am of obscure birth
my father was the monarch of six kingdoms he tenderly loved my mother leaving her always at liberty to follow her own inclinations her prevailing passion was to travel
fairies who were in possession of the largest gardens filled with the most delicious fruits she had so strong a desire to eat some of them that she set out for the country in which they lived she arrived at their abode
which she found to be a magnificent palace on all sides glittering with gold and precious stones she knocked a long time at the gates but no one came
the difficulty however did but increase the violence of my mother's longing for she saw the tops of the trees above the garden walls loaded with the most luscious fruits the queen in despair
but having waited six weeks without seeing any one pass the gates she fell sick of vexation and her life was despaired of
one night as she lay half asleep she turned herself about and opening her eyes perceived a little old woman very ugly and deformed seated in the easy chair by her bedside
i and my sister fairies said she take it very ill that your majesty should so obstinately persist in getting some of our fruit but since so precious a life is at stake
provided you will give us in return what we shall ask ah kind fairy cried the queen i will give you anything i possess even my very kingdoms on condition that i eat of your fruit
the old fairy then informed the queen that what they required was that she would give them the child she was going to have as soon as she should be born adding
that every possible care should be taken of her and that she should become the most accomplished princess the queen replied that however cruel the condition she must accept it since nothing but the fruit could save her life
in short dear prince continued the lady my mother instantly got out of bed was dressed by her attendants entered the palace and satisfied her longing
when the queen had eaten her fill she ordered four thousand mules to be procured and loaded with the fruit which had the virtue of continuing all the year round in a state of perfection
received her with rejoicings as it was before imagined she would die of disappointment all this time the queen said nothing to my father of the promise she had made to give her daughter to the fairies so that when the time was come
that she expected my birth she grew very melancholy till at length being pressed by the king she declared to him the truth
nothing could exceed his affliction when he heard that his only child when born was to be given to the fairies he bore it however as well as he could for fear of adding to my mother's grief
and also believing he should find some means of keeping me in a place of safety which the fairies would not be able to approach as soon therefore as i was born he had me conveyed to a tower in the palace
to which there were twenty flights of stairs and a door to each of which my father kept the key so that none came near me without his consent when the fairies heard of what had been done
began to die in great abundance the grief of the king at seeing this could scarcely be equalled
he consented to give me into their hands i was accordingly laid in a cradle of mother of pearl ornamented with gold and jewels and carried to their palace when the dragon immediately disappeared
the fairies placed me in a tower of their palace elegantly furnished but to which there was no door so that whoever approached was obliged to come by the windows which were a great height from the ground
from these i had the liberty of getting out into a delightful garden in which were baths and every sort of cooling fruit in this place
my clothes were splendid and i was instructed in every kind of accomplishment in short prince if i had never seen any one but themselves i should have remained very happy
one of the windows of my tower overlooked a long avenue shaded with trees so that i had never seen in it a human creature one day however as i was talking at this window with my parrot
i perceived a young gentleman who was listening to our conversation as i had never seen a man but in pictures i was not sorry for the opportunity of gratifying my curiosity i thought him a very pleasing object
and he at length bowed in the most respectful manner without daring to speak for he knew that i was in the palace of the fairies when it began to grow dark he went away
the next morning as soon as it was light i again placed myself at the window and had the pleasure of seeing that the gentleman had returned to the same place he now spoke to me through a speaking trumpet and informed me
he thought me a most charming lady and that he should be very unhappy if he did not pass his life in my company
i resolved to find some means of escaping from my tower with the engaging prince i had seen
i begged the fairies to bring me a netting needle a mesh and some cord saying i wished to make some nets to amuse myself with catching birds at my window this they readily complied with and in a short time i completed a ladder long enough to reach the ground
as i wished to speak with him he did not fail
this at first alarmed me but the charms of his conversation had restored me to tranquillity when all at once the window opened and the fairy violent mounted on the dragon's back rushed into the tower
my beloved prince thought of nothing but how to defend me from their fury
but this they took care to prevent saying my life should be preserved for greater punishment
she next conducted me to this palace which belonged to my father and gave me a train of cats for my attendants together with the twelve hands which waited on your highness she then informed me of my birth
and the death of my parents and pronounced upon me what she imagined the greatest of maledictions that i should not be restored to my natural figure till
a young prince the perfect resemblance of him i had lost should cut off my head and tail you are that perfect resemblance and accordingly you have ended the enchantment
i need not add that i already love you more than my life let us therefore hasten to the palace of the king your father and obtain his approbation to our marriage
the prince and princess accordingly set out side by side in a car of still greater splendour than before and reached the palace just as the two brothers had arrived with two beautiful princesses
the king hearing that each of his sons had succeeded in finding what he had required again began to think of some new expedient to delay the time of his resigning his crown but when the whole court
were with the king assembled to pass judgment the princess who accompanied the youngest perceiving his thoughts by his countenance
what pity that your majesty who is so capable of governing should think of resigning the crown i am fortunate enough to have six kingdoms in my possession
permit me to bestow one on each of the eldest princes and to enjoy the remaining four in the society of the youngest and may it please your majesty to keep your own kingdom
and make no decision concerning the beauty of three princesses who without such a proof of your majesty's preference will no doubt live happily together the air resounded
with the applauses of the assembly the young prince and princess embraced the king and next their brothers and sisters
rollo duke of normandy margaret went home so painfully occupied with what she had heard and seen that she hardly knew how to rouse herself up to the duties which awaited her
the necessity for keeping up a constant flow of cheerful conversation for her mother who now that she was unable to go out always looked to margaret's return from the shortest walk as bringing in some news
and can your factory friend come on thursday to see you dressed she was so ill i never thought of asking her said margaret dolefully dear everybody is ill now i think
said missus hale with a little of the jealousy which one invalid is apt to feel of another but it must be very sad to be ill in one of those little back streets her kindly nature prevailing
and the old helstone habits of thought returning it's bad enough here what could you do for her margaret
would a bottle of that do her good think you no mamma i don't believe they are very poor at least they don't speak as if they were and at any rate bessy's illness is consumption she won't want wine
perhaps i might take her a little preserve made of our dear helstone fruit no there's another family to whom i should like to give
after the sorrow i have seen to day exclaimed margaret bursting the bounds she had preordained for herself before she came in and telling her mother of what she had seen and heard at higgins's cottage
it distressed missus hale excessively it made her restlessly irritated till she could do something she directed margaret to pack up a basket in the very drawing room to be sent there and then to the family
and was almost angry with her for saying that it would not signify if it did not go till morning as she knew higgins had provided for their immediate wants and she herself had left money with bessy missus hale called her unfeeling for saying this
and never gave herself breathing time till the basket was sent out of the house then she said after all we may have been doing wrong it was only the last time mister thornton was here that he said
and this boucher man was a turn out was he not the question was referred to mister hale by his wife when he came up stairs fresh from giving a lesson to mister thornton which had ended in conversation as was their wont
margaret did not care if their gifts had prolonged the strike she did not think far enough for that in her present excited state mister hale listened and tried to be as calm as a judge
he recalled all that had seemed so clear not half an hour before as it came out of mister thornton's lips and then he made an unsatisfactory compromise his wife and daughter had not only done quite right in this instance
but he did not see for a moment how they could have done otherwise nevertheless as a general rule it was very true what mister thornton said that as the strike if prolonged must end in the masters bringing hands from a distance
if indeed the final result were not as it had often been before the invention of some machine which would diminish the need of hands at all why it was clear enough that the kindest thing was to refuse all help which might bolster them up in their folly
but as to this boucher he would go and see him the first thing in the morning and try and find out what could be done for him mister hale went the next morning as he proposed he did not find boucher at home but he had a long talk with his wife
and seeing the plenty provided by missus hale and somewhat lavishly used by the children who were masters down stairs in their father's absence he came back with a more consoling and cheerful account than margaret had dared to hope for indeed
what she had said the night before had prepared her father for so much worse a state of things that by a reaction of his imagination he described all as better than it really was but i will go again and see the man himself said mister hale
i hardly know as yet how to compare one of these houses with our helstone cottages i see furniture here which our labourers would never have thought of buying and food commonly used which they would consider luxuries
now that their weekly wages are stopped but the pawn shop
bessy too was rather better this day still she was so weak
if indeed that had not been the feverish desire of a half delirious state margaret could not help comparing this strange dressing of hers to go where she did not care to be her heart heavy with various anxieties
with the old merry girlish toilettes that she and edith had performed scarcely more than a year ago her only pleasure now in decking herself out was in thinking that her mother would take delight in seeing her dressed
she blushed when dixon throwing the drawing room door open made an appeal for admiration miss hale looks well ma'am doesn't she missus shaw's coral couldn't have come in better it just gives the right touch of colour ma'am
otherwise miss margaret you would have been too pale margaret's black hair was too thick to be plaited it needed rather to be twisted round and round and have its fine silkiness compressed into massive coils
that encircled her head like a crown and then were gathered into a large spiral knot behind she kept its weight together by two large coral pins like small arrows for length
her white silk sleeves were looped up with strings of the same material and on her neck just below the base of her curved and milk white throat there lay heavy coral beads oh margaret
how i should like to be going with you to one of the old barrington assemblies taking you as lady beresford used to take me margaret kissed her mother for this little burst of maternal vanity but she could hardly smile at it
she felt so much out of spirits i would rather stay at home with you much rather mamma nonsense darling be sure you notice the dinner well i shall like to hear how they manage these things in milton
look what they have instead of game missus hale would have been more than interested she would have been astonished if she had seen the sumptuousness of the dinner table and its appointments
margaret with her london cultivated taste felt the number of delicacies to be oppressive one half of the quantity would have been enough and the effect lighter and more elegant
but it was one of missus thornton's rigorous laws of hospitality that of each separate dainty enough should be provided for all the guests to partake if they felt inclined
it was part of her pride to set a feast before such of her guests as cared for it her son shared this feeling he had never known
any kind of society but that which depended on an exchange of superb meals and even now though he was denying himself the personal expenditure of an unnecessary sixpence
and had more than once regretted that the invitations for this dinner had been sent out still as it was to be he was glad to see the old magnificence of preparation margaret and her father were the first to arrive
but missus thornton and fanny every cover was taken off and the apartment blazed forth in yellow silk damask and a brilliantly flowered carpet every corner seemed filled up with ornament
until it became a weariness to the eye and presented a strange contrast to the bald ugliness of the look out into the great mill yard where wide folding gates were thrown open for the admission of carriages
the mill loomed high on the left hand side of the windows casting a shadow down from its many stories which darkened the summer evening before its time my son was engaged up to the last moment on business
he will be here directly mister hale may i beg you to take a seat mister hale was standing at one of the windows as missus thornton spoke he turned away saying don't you find such close neighbourhood to the mill rather
unpleasant at times she drew herself up never i am not become so fine as to desire to forget the source of my son's wealth and power besides there is not such another factory in milton
one room alone is two hundred and twenty square yards i meant that the smoke and the noise the constant going out and coming in of the work people might be annoying i agree with you mister hale said fanny
i have heard noise that was called music far more deafening the engine room is at the street end of the factory we hardly hear it except in summer weather when all the windows are open and as for the continual murmur of the work people
it disturbs me no more than the humming of a hive of bees if i think of it at all i connect it with my son and feel how all belongs to him and that his is the head that directs it just now there are no sounds to come from the mill
for she saw in an instant the weight of care and anxiety which he could not shake off although his guests received from him a greeting that appeared both cheerful and cordial he shook hands with margaret
he knew it was the first time their hands had met though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact he inquired after missus hale and heard mister hale's sanguine hopeful account
and glancing at margaret to understand how far she agreed with her father he saw that no dissenting shadow crossed her face and as he looked with this intention
he was struck anew with her great beauty he had never seen her in such dress before and yet now it appeared as if such elegance of attire was so befitting her noble figure and lofty serenity of countenance
that she ought to go always thus apparelled she was talking to fanny about what he could not hear
of continually arranging some part of her gown her wandering eyes now glancing here now there but without any purpose in her observation and he contrasted them uneasily
with the large soft eyes that looked forth steadily at one object as if from out their light beamed some gentle influence of repose the curving lines of the red lips
just parted in the interest of listening to what her companion said the head a little bent forwards so as to make a long sweeping line from the summit where the light caught on the glossy raven hair
to the smooth ivory tip of the shoulder the round white arms and taper hands laid lightly across each other but perfectly motionless in their pretty attitude
mister thornton sighed as he took in all this with one of his sudden comprehensive glances and then he turned his back to the young ladies and threw himself with an effort
but with all his heart and soul into a conversation with mister hale more people came more and more fanny left margaret's side and helped her mother to receive her guests
mister thornton felt that in this influx no one was speaking to margaret and was restless under this apparent neglect but he never went near her himself he did not look at her only he knew what she was doing
or not doing better than he knew the movements of any one else in the room margaret was so unconscious of herself and so much amused by watching other people that she never thought whether she was left unnoticed or not
somebody took her down to dinner she did not catch the name nor did he seem much inclined to talk to her there was a very animated conversation going on among the gentlemen the ladies for the most part were silent
employing themselves in taking notes of the dinner and criticising each other's dresses margaret caught the clue to the general conversation grew interested and listened attentively mister horsfall the stranger
whose visit to the town was the original germ of the party was asking questions relative to the trade and manufactures of the place and the rest of the gentlemen all milton men were giving him answers and explanations some dispute arose which was warmly contested
it was referred to mister thornton who had hardly spoken before but who now gave an opinion the grounds of which were so clearly stated that even the opponents yielded margaret's attention was thus called to her host his whole manner
yet simple and modest as to be thoroughly dignified margaret thought she had never seen him to so much advantage when he had come to their house
either of over eagerness or of that kind of vexed annoyance which seemed ready to pre suppose that he was unjustly judged and yet felt too proud to try and make himself better understood but now among his fellows
there was no uncertainty as to his position he was regarded by them as a man of great force of character of power in many ways there was no need to struggle for their respect he had it and he knew it
and the security of this gave a fine grand quietness to his voice and ways which margaret had missed before he was not in the habit of talking to ladies and what he did say was a little formal
to margaret herself he hardly spoke at all she was surprised to think how much she enjoyed this dinner she knew enough now to understand many local interests nay even some of the technical words employed by the eager mill owners
she silently took a very decided part in the question they were discussing at any rate they talked in desperate earnest not in the used up style that wearied her so in the old london parties
no allusion was made to the strike then pending she did not yet know how coolly such things were taken by the masters as having only one possible end to be sure the men were cutting their own throats as they had done many a time before
but if they would be fools and put themselves into the hands of a rascally set of paid delegates they must take the consequence one or two thought thornton looked out of spirits and of course he must lose by this turn out
but it was an accident that might happen to themselves any day and thornton was as good to manage a strike as any one for he was as iron a chap as any in milton the hands had mistaken their man in trying that dodge on him
and they chuckled inwardly at the idea of the workmen's discomfiture and defeat in their attempt to alter one iota of what thornton had decreed it was rather dull for margaret after dinner
she was glad when the gentlemen came not merely because she caught her father's eye to brighten her sleepiness up but because she could listen to something larger and grander than the petty interests which the ladies had been talking about
she liked the exultation in the sense of power which these milton men had it might be rather rampant in its display and savour of boasting but still
they seemed to defy the old limits of possibility in a kind of fine intoxication caused by the recollection of what had been achieved and what yet should be if in her cooler moments she might not approve of their spirit in all things
still there was much to admire in their forgetfulness of themselves and the present in their anticipated triumphs over all inanimate matter at some future time which none of them should live to see
she was rather startled when mister thornton spoke to her close at her elbow i could see you were on our side in our discussion at dinner were you not miss hale certainly but then i know so little about it
to find from what mister horsfall said
as the mister morison he spoke about he cannot be a gentleman is he
i mean i don't quite understand your application of the word but i should say that this morison is no true man i don't know who he is i merely judge him from mister horsfall's account i suspect my gentleman
includes your true man and a great deal more you would imply i differ from you a man is to me a higher and a completer being than a gentleman
asked margaret we must understand the words differently i take it that gentleman is a term that only describes a person in his relation to others but when we speak of him as a man
we consider him not merely with regard to his fellow men but in relation to himself
a cast away lonely as robinson crusoe
nay even a saint in patmos has his endurance his strength his faith best described by being spoken of as a man i am rather weary of this word gentlemanly
which seems to me to be often inappropriately used and often too with such exaggerated distortion of meaning while the full simplicity of the noun man and the adjective manly are unacknowledged
that i am induced to class it with the cant of the day margaret thought a moment but before she could speak her slow conviction he was called away by some of the eager manufacturers whose speeches she could not hear
though she could guess at their import by the short clear answers mister thornton gave which came steady and firm as the boom of a distant minute gun they were evidently talking of the turn out and suggesting what course had best be pursued
she heard mister thornton say that has been done then came a hurried murmur in which two or three joined all those arrangements have been made some doubts were implied some difficulties named by mister slickson
who took hold of mister thornton's arm the better to impress his words mister thornton moved slightly away lifted his eyebrows a very little and then replied i take the risk
you need not join in it unless you choose still some more fears were urged i'm not afraid of anything so dastardly as incendiarism we are open enemies
they know my determination by this time as well and as fully as you do mister horsfall took him a little on one side as margaret conjectured to ask him some other question about the strike
but in truth it was to inquire who she herself was so quiet so stately and so beautiful a milton lady asked he as the name was given no from the south of england hampshire i believe
was the cold indifferent answer missus slickson was catechising fanny on the same subject who is that fine distinguished looking girl a sister of mister horsfall's oh dear no
that is mister hale her father talking now to mister stephens he gives lessons
my brother john goes to him twice a week and so he begged mamma to ask them here in hopes of getting him known i believe we have some of their prospectuses if you would like to have one mister thornton
does he really find time to read with a tutor in the midst of all his business and this abominable strike in hand as well fanny was not sure from missus slickson's manner
whether she ought to be proud or ashamed of her brother's conduct and like all people who try and take other people's ought for the rule of their feelings she was inclined to blush for any singularity of action
and points to the time when that state may do those things which he has declared it an absurdity for any state to perform i will read a single paragraph from his speech showing
in order that i may not by any possibility
does not justify here are the expressions to which i refer i call the senator's attention to them if there are grievances why can not we all go together
and write them down and point them out to our northern friends
and say here is what we demand here our wrongs are enumerated upon these terms we have agreed and now after we have given you a reasonable time to consider these additional guarantees in order to protect ourselves against these wrongs
if you refuse them then having made an honorable effort having exhausted all other means we may declare the association to be broken up and we may go into an act of revolution we can then say to them
for the protection of our institutions and for the protection of our other interests when they do this i will go as far as he who goes the farthest now it does appear that he will go that far
and he goes a little further than anybody i believe who has spoken in vindication of the right for he says we do not intend that you shall drive us out of this house
that was reared by the hands of our fathers it is our house it is the constitutional house we have a right here and because you come forward and violate the ordinances of this house
i do not intend to go out and if you persist in the violation of the ordinances of the house we intend to eject you from the building and retain the possession ourselves
and the militia of this city to be organized i think it was a mere figure of speech
we who claim the constitutional right of a state to withdraw from the union do not intend to help him he says however and this softens it a little we do not think though
that we have just cause for going out of the union now we have just cause of complaint but we are for remaining in the union and fighting the battle like men
in the name of common sense i ask
in the union we take an oath of office to maintain the constitution of the united states the constitution of the united states was formed for domestic tranquillity and how then are we to fight in the union
i have heard the proposition from others but i have not understood it i understand how men fight when they assume attitudes of hostility but i do not understand how men remaining connected together
in a bond as brethren sworn to mutual aid and protection still propose to fight each other i do not understand what the senator means if he chooses to answer my question i am willing to hear him
for i do not understand how we are to fight in the union mister johnson of tennessee when my speech is taken altogether i think my meaning can be very easily understood
i think very distinctly and clearly set forth in my speech and
i apprehend that he will have no difficulty
but for his gratification upon this particular point i will repeat in substance what i then said as to fighting the battle in the union i meant that we should remain here under the constitution of the united states
and contend for all its guarantees and by preserving the constitution and all its guarantees we would preserve the union our true place to maintain these guarantees and to preserve the constitution
there to fight our battle how by argument
to the good sense and to the judgment of the whole country by showing the people that the constitution had been violated that all its guarantees were not complied with and i have entertained the hope that
when they were possessed of that fact there would be found patriotism and honesty enough
between the contending sections of the country i meant that the true way to fight the battle was for us to remain here and occupy the places assigned to us by the constitution of the country
why did i make that statement it was because on the fourth day of march next we shall have six majority in this body and if as some apprehended the incoming administration shall show any disposition
to make encroachments upon the institution of slavery encroachments upon the rights of the states
we by remaining in the union and standing at our places will have the power to resist all these encroachments how
of the incoming president then should we not be fighting the battles in the union by resisting even the organization of the administration in a constitutional mode and thus
at the very start disable an administration which was likely to encroach on our rights and to violate the constitution of the country
the incoming administration will have no power without our consent if we remain here it comes into office handcuffed powerless to do harm we standing here hold the balance of power in our hands
we can resist it at the very threshold effectually and do it inside of the union and in our house the incoming administration has not even the power to appoint a postmaster
whose salary exceeds one thousand dollars a year without consultation with and the acquiescence of the senate of the united states
his twenty five thousand dollars per annum unless we appropriate it i contend then that the true place to fight the battle is in the union and within the provisions of the constitution
the army and navy cannot be sustained without appropriations by congress and if we were apprehensive that encroachments would be made on the southern states and on their institutions in violation of the constitution
we could prevent him from having a dollar even to feed his army or his navy mister davis i receive the answer from the senator and i think i comprehend now
that he is not going to use any force but it is a sort of fighting that is to be done by votes and words and i think therefore the president need not bring artillery and order out the militia to suppress them
in the mode proposed by the senator from tennessee mister johnson i had not quite done but if the senator is satisfied mister davis quite satisfied i am entirely satisfied
that it was a mere figure of speech and does not justify converting the federal capital into a military camp
a sort of revolution which he proposes it is a revolution under the forms of the government
that as long as i am a senator here i will not use the powers i possess to destroy the very government to which i am accredited i will not attempt in the language of the senator to handcuff the president
i will not attempt to destroy the administration by refusing any officers to administer its functions i should vote as i have done in administrations to which i stood in nearest relation against a bad nomination but i
never would agree under the forms of the constitution and with the powers i bear as a senator of the united states
i was sent to support i leave that to gentlemen who take the oath with a mental reservation it is not my policy if i must have revolution i say let it be a revolution such as our fathers made
when they were denied their natural rights so much for that it has quieted apprehension and i hope that the artillery will not be brought here that the militia will not be called out
and that the female schools will continue their sessions as heretofore laughter the authority
by the senator from tennessee and he read fairly an extract from mister madison's letter to mister webster
what it seems to me destroys his whole argument it is this clause the powers of the government being exercised as in other elective and responsible governments under the control of its constituents the people
and this inconvenience is so much perceived by the eye that a door valve with a pointed head is always a disagreeable object it becomes therefore a matter of true necessity
we supposed the jamb of the door to be of the utmost height required for entrance the extra height of the arch is unnecessary as an opening the arch being required for its strength only not for its elevation
into which the valves may be fitted and the triangular or semicircular arched space above the lintel may then be permanently closed
our object should be to connect the window bars among themselves so framing them together that they may give the utmost possible degree of support
but we know how to do this already our window bars are nothing but small shafts capital them throw small arches across between the smaller bars large arches over them between the larger bars
one comprehensive arch over the whole or else a horizontal lintel if the window have a flat head and we have a complete system of mutual support independent of the aperture head
therefore a small circle like the axle of a wheel is put into the centre of the window large enough to give footing to the necessary number of radiating bars and the bars are arranged as spokes being all of course
properly capitaled and arch headed
which it is the object to fill with glass diminishing the power of the light as little as possible but there are many cases as in triforium and cloister lights in which glazing is not required in which
therefore the bars if there be any must have some more important function than that of merely holding glass and in which their actual use is to give steadiness and tone as it were to the arches and walls above and beside them
the triforium and of seclusion to those who walk in the cloister
will be found resolvable
with the arches in pairs or in triple
and with small rosettes pierced above them for light all this is just as right in its place as the glass tracery is in its own function and often much more grand but the same indulgence is not to be shown
to the affectations which succeeded the developed forms of these there are three principal conditions the flamboyant of france the stump tracery of germany and the perpendicular
require the shafts of these traceries to become the main vertical supports of the floors and walls their thickness is therefore enormous and yet
into balconies which is obtained by doors in their lattice glazing to prevent the inconvenience and ugliness of driving the hinges and fastenings of them into the shafts and having the play of the doors in the intervals
the door and window respecting which there are three main points to be considered one
and the forms of its sides two
and first of doors we will for the present leave out of the question doors and gates in unroofed walls the forms of these being very arbitrary and confine ourselves to the consideration of doors of entrance into roofed buildings
such doors will for the most part be at or near the base of the building except when raised for purposes of defence as in the old scotch border towers
but in most cases whether high or low a door may be assumed to be considerably lower than the apartments or buildings into which it gives admission and therefore to have some height of wall above it whose weight must be carried by the heading of the door
it is clear therefore that the best heading must be an arch because the strongest and that a square headed door must be wrong unless under mont
as in low cottages and a square headed door is just so much more wrong and ugly than a connexion of main shafts by lintels as the weight of wall above the door is likely to be greater than that above the main shafts
the greek general forms of temple to be admirable in their kind i think the greek door
with perpendicular sides for sloping sides are evidently unnecessary
and level threshold and this aperture
entrance is required for multitudes at the same time the size of the aperture either must be increased or other apertures must be introduced it may in some buildings be optional with the architect whether he shall give many small doors
or few large ones and in some
many doors are by far the best arrangement of the two often however the purposes of the building as when it is to be entered by processions or where the crowd
most usually enter in one direction require the large single entrance and
the expression and harmony of the building require
nearly every case an entrance of largeness proportioned to the multitude which is to meet within nothing is more unseemly than that a great multitude should find its way
through holes and nothing more undignified
for the surreptitious drainage of a stagnant congregation
to desire at least the western entrance to be single partly because no man of right feeling would willingly lose the idea of unity and fellowship in going up to worship
partly because it is at the entrance
by its sculptures or inscriptions to the worshipper and
that these words should be spoken to all at once as by one great voice not broken up into weak repetitions over minor doors in practice the matter has been i suppose regulated almost altogether by convenience
the western doors being single in small churches while in the larger the entrances become three or five the central door remaining always principal in consequence of the fine sense of composition
which the mediaeval builders never lost these arrangements have formed the noblest buildings in the world yet it
when it is treated as in the
and saint zeno of verona and other such early lombard churches
it is a constant law that one shall be principal and all shall be of size in some degree proportioned to that of the building and this size is of course chiefly to be expressed in width
that being the only useful dimension in a door except for pageantry chairing of bishops and waving of banners and other such vanities not i hope after this century much to be regarded
in the building of christian temples but though the width is the only necessary dimension it is well to increase the height also in some proportion to it in order that there may be less weight of wall above
resting on the increased span of the arch this is however so much the necessary result of the broad curve of the arch itself that there is no structural necessity of elevating the jamb and i believe
that beautiful entrances might be made of every span of arch retaining the jamb at a little more than a man's height until the sweep of the curves
became a part of them
so that the increasing entrance retains at least the proportion of width it had originally say
but a less proportion of width than this has always a meagre inhospitable and ungainly look except in military architecture where the narrowness of the entrance is necessary and its height adds to its grandeur
not doors as in the noble example of the west front of peterborough which in spite of the destructive absurdity of its central arch being the narrowest would still
will be the thickness of its walls especially at the foundation that is to say beside the doors and also in proportion to the numbers of a crowd will be the unruliness and pressure of it hence
partly in necessity and partly in prudence the splaying or chamfering of the jamb of the larger door will be deepened and if possible made at a larger angle for the large door than for the small one
to its own magnitude the decorative value of this feature
window apertures are mainly of two kinds those for outlook and those for inlet of light many being for both purposes and either purpose or both combined in military architecture
with those of offence and defence but all window apertures as compared with door apertures
they may be of any shape from the slit or cross slit
from the loophole of the castle to the pillars of light of the cathedral apse
but without reference to military architecture which here as before we may dismiss as a subject of separate science only noticing that windows like all other features are always delightful if not beautiful
when their position and shape have indeed been thus necessarily determined and that many of their most picturesque forms have resulted from the requirements of war we should also find in military architecture the typical forms
of the two classes of outlet and inlet windows in their utmost development the greatest sweep of sight and range of shot on the one hand and the fullest entry of light and air on the other being constantly required
at the smallest possible apertures our business however is to reason out the laws for ourselves
for these no general outline is determinable by the necessities or inconveniences of outlooking except only that the bottom or sill of the windows at whatever height should be horizontal for the convenience of
leaning on it or standing on it
when they are approached than that of the eye itself it is the approachability of the window that is to say the annihilation of the thickness of the wall which is the real point to be attended to
that the thickness of the wall cannot be entered
so as to increase the range of sight as far as possible if the aperture can be entered
the bevelling will if possible be in every direction that is to say upwards at the top outwards at the sides and downwards at the bottom but essentially downwards the earth and the doings upon it being the chief object in outlook windows
it will be of advantage to shelter the eye as far as possible from the rays of light coming from above and the head of the window may be left horizontal or even the whole aperture sloped outwards as the slit
in a letter box is inwards
which is far from being always the case with windows for light so that the bevelling which in the outlook window is chiefly to open range of sight is
in greater quantity but of directing it to the spot on which it is to fall but in general the bevelling of the one window will reverse that of the other for first no natural light will strike on the inlet window from beneath unless reflected light
to the health and the sight and thus
and the sill is to be flat if the window be on a level with the spot it is to light and sloped downwards within if above it again as the brightest rays of light are the steepest
a somewhat larger number of rays being thus reflected from the jambs
board schools have reduced us to that of lead at marksleigh the villagers believe in it and recently their faith has received corroboration how so i asked last year in a fit of bravado
a young carpenter ventured to sit in the porch at the witching hour and saw himself enter the church he came home looking as blank as a sheet moped lost flesh and died nine months later of course he died if he had made up his mind to do so
yes that is explicable
he had been drinking at the public house a good many people see double after that it was not so he was perfectly sober at the time then i give it up would you venture on a visit to a church porch
i bar the pipe said miss fulton no apparition can stand tobacco smoke but there is lady eastleigh rising when you come to rejoin the ladies i shall be gone i did not leave the house of the weatherwoods till late
my dogcart was driven by my groom richard the night was cold or rather chilly
the stars shone out of a frosty sky
i cannot blame dick if he ran his wheel over a heap of stones that upset the trap we were both thrown out and i fell on my head i sang out mind the cob dick
the boy at once mastered the horse
when i did i found dick engaged in mending a ruptured trace one of the shafts was broken and a carriage lamp had been shattered dick said i there are a couple of steep hills to descend and that is risky with a single shaft
i will lighten the dogcart by walking home and do you take care at the hills i think we can manage sir i should prefer to walk the rest of the way i
am rather shaken by my fall and a good step out in the cool night will do more to put me to rights than anything else when you get home
it's a good trudge before you sir and i dare say we could get the shaft tied up at fifewell what at this time of night no dick do as i say accordingly the groom drove off and i started on my walk
i was glad to get out of the clinging fog when i reached higher ground i looked back and by the starlight saw the river bottom filled with the mist lying apparently dense as snow after a swinging walk of a quarter of an hour i entered the outskirts of fifewell
a village of some importance with shops the seat of the petty sessions and with a small boot and shoe factory in it the street was deserted
every door was shut no one was stirring as i passed along the churchyard wall the story of the young carpenter told by miss fulton recurred to me
by jove thought i it is now close upon midnight a rare opportunity for me to see the wonders of saint mark's eve i will go into the porch and rest there for a few minutes
and then i shall be able when i meet that girl again to tell her that i had done what she challenged me to do without any idea that i would take her challenge up i turned in at the gate and walked up the pathway the headstones bore a somewhat ghostly look in the starlight
a cross of white stone recently set up i supposed had almost the appearance of phosphorescence the church windows were dark i seated myself in the roomy porch on a stone bench against the wall and felt for my pipe
but also because i felt that it was not quite the right thing to do on consecrated ground
to my vexation i found that i had lost it the tobacco pouch was there and the matches my pipe must have fallen out of my pocket when i was pitched from the trap that pipe was a favourite of mine what a howling nuisance said i
if i send dick back over the road to morrow morning ten chances to one if he finds it for to morrow is market day and people will be passing early as i said this the clock struck twelve i counted each stroke
i wore my fur lined coat and was not cold in fact i had been too warm walking in it at the last stroke of twelve i noticed lines of very brilliant light appear about the door into the church
the door must have fitted well as the light did no more than show about it and did not gush forth at all the crevices but from the keyhole shot a ray of intense brilliancy whether the church windows were illumined i did not see
in fact it did not occur to me to look either then or later but i am pretty certain that they were not or the light streaming from them would have brought the gravestones into prominence
when you come to think of it it was remarkable that the light of so dazzling a nature should shine through the crannies of the door and that none should issue as far as i could see from the windows at the time i did not give this a thought my attention was otherwise taken up
for i saw distinctly miss venville a very nice girl of my acquaintance coming up the path
and some young girls have passed by that i have said to my wife i bet you a bob those are english yes of course she has replied you can see that by their dress i don't know anything about dress i have said i judge by the walk
well there was miss venville coming towards the porch this is a joke said i
if i gave a whiff it would reveal the presence of a mortal without alarming her i think i shall whistle i had screwed up my lips to begin rocked in the cradle of the deep that is my great song i perform whenever there is a village concert
or i am asked out to dinner and am entreated afterwards to sing
when i saw something that scared me so that i made no attempt at the melody the ray of light through the keyhole was shut off and i saw standing in the porch before me the form of missus venville the girl's mother who had died two years before
the ray of white light arrested by her filled her as a lamp
gwendoline i have come to warn you back you cannot enter you have not got the key
everyone who would pass within must have his or her own key
what good have you ever done to deserve it
and i always dressed in good taste nor is that
that will not do gwendoline
the girl considered a minute then laughed and said
and i drew out a pair of braces i had rare fun over those braces i sold them to captain fitzakerly for half a crown
and the ray shot directly at the girl i saw that it had something of the quality of the x ray it was not arrested by her garments or her flesh or muscles it revealed in her breast in her brain penetrating her whole body
a hard dark core black ram i bet said i
the substance lies some two or three feet below the surface and forms a crust of the consistency of cast iron no plough can possibly be driven through it no water can percolate athwart it and consequently where it is
there the superincumbent soil is resolved into a quagmire no tree can grow in it for the moment the taproot touches the black ram the tree dies of what black ram consists is more than i can say the popular opinion is that it is a bastard manganese
fields that ought to be luxuriant meadows but which in consequence of its presence
the book of the life of polly finch or rather of gwendoline's soul in polly finch's body it was but one page that i saw and the figures in it were moving the girl was struggling under the burden of a heavy baby brother
she coaxed him she sang to him she played with him talked to him broke off bits of her bread and butter given to her for breakfast and made him eat them she wiped his nose and eyes with her pocket handkerchief she tried to dance him in her arms he was a fractious urchin
and most exacting but her patience her good nature never failed the drops stood on her brow and her limbs tottered under the weight but her heart was strong and her eyes shone with love i drew my hand from my head it was burning
instantly it was as though another page were revealed i saw polly in her widowed father's cottage she was now a grown girl she was on her knees scrubbing the floor a bell tinkled then she put down the soap and brush turned down her sleeves
rose and went into the outer shop to serve a customer with half a pound of tea that done she was back again and the scrubbing was renewed again a tinkle and again she stood up and went into the shop to a child who desired to buy a pennyworth of lemon drops
on her return in came her little brother crying he had cut his finger polly at once applied cobweb and then stitched a rag about the wounded member there there tommy don't cry any more i have kissed the bad place and it will soon be well
come to me said his sister she drew a low chair to the fireside took tommy on her lap and began to tell him the story of jack the giant killer i removed my hand and the vision was gone i put my other hand to my head
and at once saw a further scene in the life story of polly she was now a middle aged woman and had a cottage of her own she was despatching her children to school they had bright rosy faces their hair was neatly combed their pinafores were white as snow
one after another before leaving put up the cherry lips to kiss mammy and when they were gone for a moment she stood in the door looking after them then sharply turned brought out a basket and emptied its contents on the table
there were little girls stockings with potatoes in them to be darned torn jackets to be mended a little boy's trousers to be reseated pocket handkerchiefs to be hemmed she laboured on with her needle the greater part of the day then put away the garments some finished others to be finished
poll called a voice from without
and there isn't a mother like you in the shire
language is inadequate to voice my appreciation lastly i do not understand lastly it can not be denied less than this could not be said
lest i should be accused of quibbling let all of us labor in this work let anyone imagine to himself let anyone who doubts let everyone consider
let it be clearly understood i repeat it let it be remembered let it not be objected let it not be supposed that i impute
let me add another thing let me add my final word let me add one other hint let me also say a word in regard let me answer these questions
let me ask you to imagine let me ask your leave to propose let me be allowed to devote a few words let me call attention to another fact let me commend to you
let me direct your attention now to let me entreat you to examine let me give one more instance let me give one parting word let me give you an illustration
let me here make one remark let me here say let me hope that i have said enough let me illustrate again let me make myself distinctly understood
let me make use of an illustration let me not be thought offensive let me now conclude with let me once more urge upon you let me protest against the manner
let me quite temperately defend let me rather make the supposition let me say a practical word let me simply declare let me tell you an interesting reminiscence
let me thank you once more let me urge you earnestly let no man congratulate himself let our conception be enlarged let our object be
let that question be answered by let the facts be granted let these instances suffice let this be the record made
let this inspire us with abhorrence of let us approach the subject from another side let us attempt a survey let us be perfectly just let us be quite practical
let us bear perpetually in mind let us begin at the beginning let us begin by examining let us briefly review let us brush aside once for all
let us cherish let us confirm our opinion let us consider for a moment let us devote ourselves let us discard all prejudice let us do all we can
let us draw an illustration let us endeavor to understand let us enumerate let us figure to ourselves let us for the moment put aside
let us get a clear understanding let us heed the voice let us hope and believe let us hope that future generations let us imitate
let us inquire also let us labor and pray let us likewise remember let us look briefly at a few particulars let us look nearer home
let us not be fearful let us not be misled let us not be misunderstood let us not flatter ourselves let us not for a moment forget
let us not limit our view let us now apply the views presented let us now consider the characteristics let us now see the results
let us now turn our consideration let us observe this analogy let us pass on to another fact let us pause a moment let us push the inquiry yet further
let us rather listen to let us reflect how vain let us remember this let us remind ourselves let us resolve
let us scrutinize the facts let us suppose for argument's sake let us suppose the case to be let us take for instance let us then be assured
let us then be worthy of let us therefore say once for all let us try to form a mental picture let us turn to the contemplation of
let your imagination realize like all citizens of high ideals likely enough little wonder therefore long have i been convinced
look at it in another way look at some of these questions look at the situation m mainly i believe making allowances for differences of opinion
many of us have had the good fortune many of you perhaps recollect may i ask you to believe may i not speak here may i try to show that every effort
may i venture to suggest may it not also be advanced may the day come quickly meantime it is encouraging to think meanwhile let us freely recognize
men are in the habit of saying men are telling us nowadays men everywhere testify more and more it is felt more than once have i had to express
more than this need not be said moreover i have insisted moreover i would counsel you moreover when we pass judgment much has been said and written about
my appreciation has been quickened my belief therefore is my duty is to endeavor to show my experience tells me my first duty is to express to you
my friends do you really believe my friends i propose my heart tells me my idea therefore is my last criticism upon
my mind is not moved by my mind most perfectly acquiesces my next objection is my own private opinion is my present business is
which charmed our ear the summer day o'erpast full of the theme o phoebus hear me sing what time thy golden car draws near its goal
hark in yon shallow pool what melody is poured from swelling throats liquid and bubbling as if the plaintive notes thrilled struggling through the stagnant waters and the waving reeds
monotonous the melancholy strain save when the bull frog from some slimy depth profound sends up his deep poo toob poo toob like a staccato note of double bass
marking the cadence the unwearied crickets fill up the harmony and the whippoorwill his mournful solo sings among the willows the tree toad's pleasant trilling croak
proclaims a coming rain a welcome evil sure when streets are one long ash heap and the flowers fainting or crisp in sun baked borders stand mount auburn's gate is closed
the latest bus down brattle street goes rumbling laborers hie home by twos and threes homeliest phizzes voices high pitched and tongues with telltale burr r r r the short stemmed pipe
diffusing odors vile garments of comic and misfitting make and steps which tend to curran's door a man ignoble yet quite worthy of the name of fill pot curran
all proclaim the race adopted by columbia grumblingly when their step mother country casts them off here with a creaking barrow piled with tools keen as the wit that wields them
hurries by a man of different stamp his well trained limbs move with a certain grace and readiness skilful intelligence every muscle swaying rapid his tread
his scheming brain teems with broad plans and hopes of future wealth and time and life move all too slow for him will he industrious gains and home renounce
to grow more quickly rich in lands unblest hear'st thou that gleeful shout who opes the gate the neatly painted gate and runs before with noisy joy now from the trellised door
toddles another bright haired boy and now captive they lead the father strong their grasp he cannot break away dreamily quiet
the dewy twilight of a summer eve tired mortals lounge at casement or at door while deepening shadows gather round no lamp save in yon shop
whose sable minister his evening customers attends anon with squeaking bucket on his arm emerges the errand boy slow marching to the tune of uncle ned or norma whistled shrill hark
heard you not against the window pane the dash of horny skull in mad career and a loud buzz of terror he'll be in this horrid beetle yes and in my hair close all the blinds t is dismal
listen methought i heard delicious music faint and afar pray is the boat club out do the pierian minstrels meet to night or chime the bells of boston or the port
nearer now nearer ah bloodthirsty villain
too late i closed the blind alas list there's another trump there two of em two a quintette at least mosquito chorus a ah my cheek
and oh again my eyelid i gave myself a stunning cuff on the ear and all in vain flap we our handkerchief
i've switched a flower vase from the shelf ah me splash on my head and then upon my feet the water poured i'm drowned my slipper's full my dickey ah t is cruel
flowers are nonsense i'd have them amaranths all or made of paper here wring my neckcloth and rub down my hair now mister brackett punctual man
is ringing the curfew bell t is nine o'clock already t is early bedtime yet methinks t were joy on mattress cool to stretch supine at midnight were it winter
i were less fatigued less sleepy sleep i invoke thee comfortable bird that broodest o'er the troubled waves of life and hushest them to peace all hail the man
who first invented bed o wondrous soft this pillow to my weary head right soon my dizzy thoughts shall o'er the brink of sleep fall into chaos and be lost i dream
now comes mine enemy not silently but with insulting and defiant warning come banquet if thou wilt i offer thee my cheek my arm tease me not
hovering high with that continuous hum i fain would rest come do thy worst at once bite scoundrel bite thou insect vulture seize thy helpless prey no ceremony
fainter now and farther the tiny war whoop now i hear it not a cowardly assassin he he waits full well aware that i am on the alert with murderous intent
perchance he's gone hawk eye and nose of hound not serving him to find me in the dark with a long sigh i beat my pillow close my useless eyes
and soon again my thoughts whirl giddily verging towards dreams starting i shake my bed loud thumps my heart rises on end my hair a murder screech
and yells of frantic fury under my very window a duet of fiendish hatred battle to the death t is enough to enrage a man missile i seize not caring what and with a savage scat
that scrapes my throat let drive i would it were a millstone swiftly through the garden beds and o'er the fence on either side they fly i to my couch return but not to sleep
weary i toss and think t is almost dawn so still the streets but now the latest train whistling melodiously comes in the tramp of feet
echo far in the still night air now with joy i feel my eyelids droop once more to sleep and dream is bliss unspeakable i'm going off what was i thinking last
slowly i rise on downy pinions dreaming i fly i soar through the clouds my way i'm winging angels to their harps are singing strains of unearthly sweetness lull me
and thrilling harmonies yelp bow wow wow get out the dog has got me by the leg stave him off will you see he's rent my pants my newest plaid kick him yow yow
this house i'll never serenade again a dog should know musicians from suspicious chaps and gentlemen from rowdies even at night beat him again no no perhaps t is hers
a lady's pet methinks the curtain moves she's looking out let's sing once more just once not i i'll sing no more to night and steps limping unequally
in guernsey to theodore watts
the heavenly bay ringed round with cliffs and moors storm stained ravines and crags that lawns inlay soothes as with love the rocks whose guard secures the heavenly bay
o friend shall time take ever this away this blessing given of beauty that endures this glory shown us not to pass but stay though sight be changed for memory
love ensures what memory changed by love to sight would say the word that seals for ever mine and yours the heavenly bay two my mother sea
my fostress what new strand
once more i give me body and soul to thee who hast my soul for ever cliff and sand recede and heart to heart once more are we
my heart springs first and plunges ere my hand strike out from shore more close it brings to me more near and dear than seems my fatherland my mother sea
three across and along as the bay's breadth opens and o'er us wild autumn exults in the wind swift rapture and strong impels us
and broader the wide waves brighten before us across and along the whole world's heart is uplifted and knows not wrong the whole world's life is a chant to the sea tide's chorus
are we not as waves of the water as notes of the song like children unworn of the passions and toils that wore us we breast for a season
the breadth of the seas that throng rejoicing as they to be borne as of old they bore us across and along
drawn down through desperate ways that lead not back we seem to move bound forth past flood and fell on dante's track the grey path ends the gaunt rocks gape
the black deep hollow tortuous night a soundless shell glares darkness are the fires of old grown slack nay then
what flames are these that leap and swell as twere to show where earth's foundations crack
we know from heaps of dry waste whin and casual brands yet knowing we scarce believe it kindled so by mere men's hands above around
high vaulted hell expands steep dense a labyrinth walled and roofed with woe whose mysteries even itself not understands
the scorn in farinata's eyes aglow seems visible in this flame
no stage of earth's is here set forth to show by mere men's hands
night in utmost noon forlorn and strong with heart athirst and fasting hungers here barred up for ever whence as one whom dreams affright
day recoils before the low browed lintel threatening doom and casting night all the reefs and islands all the lawns and highlands clothed with light
but here the night speaks blasting day with silent speech and scorn of all things known from depth to height lower than dive the thoughts of spirit stricken fear in souls forecasting hell
the deep void seems to yawn beyond fear's reach and higher than sight rise the walls and roofs that compass it about with everlasting night
with cursing sealed and signed heeds not what storms about it burn and burst no fear more fearful
barren as crime anhungered and athirst blank miles of moor sweep inland sere and blind where summer's best rebukes not winter's worst
the low bleak tower with nought save wastes behind stares down the abyss whereon chance reared and nursed this type and likeness of the accurst man's mind
lit warm with love and fame
hears for his name's sake all men hail its name beloved and blest this eyrie was the homeless eagle's nest when storm laid waste his eyrie hence he came again
when storm smote sore his mother's breast bow down men bade us or be clothed with blame and mocked for madness worst they sware was best but grief shone here
while joy was one with shame
the home beacon by elkton wood where gurgling flood impels the foamy mill where quarries loom in solemn gloom a mansion crowns the hill
a pharos true light ever new streams through its friendly pane to guide and greet benighted feet which thread the winding lane lofty and lone
that light has shone alike o'er green or snow since first a pair their nest built there two hundred years ago now as we walk with pleasant talk
to cheer the dismal way that light shall tell of marriage bell of moon and merry sleigh the ancient home to which we come these scenes revealed one night
as the beacon true so old yet new flung wide its cheery light go back threescore long years or more old time the latch shall lift and
from his urn once more return the home of love and thrift a noble sire with nerves of wire warm heart and open hand a worthy dame
nor shrewd nor tame lead forth the phantom band three girls three boys with fun and noise next gather round the hearth reenter then
dear friends again all full of life and mirth my pretty nuns t is late my sons bring out the sliding car for one fair bride
you all must ride the snows both fast and far first darts away the bridegroom gay nor waits the well aimed jest to shed and stall they follow all
to speed their sire's behest in full array the spacious sleigh glides through the pillared gate each prancing steed straining to lead draws no unwilling mate
full moon and bright loops up the night above the starry sky runner and heel well shod with steel cut sharply as they fly
along they go o'er sparkling snow shrill bells to song oft ringing by oak and birch to gladstone church a bridal party bringing
on time worn walls the moonbeam falls and silvers o'er the spire while diamond pane and giddy vane repeat the heavenly fire
from lofty tower to maiden's bower and wide o'er hill and dell of earthly heaven to mortals given sweet chimes the marriage bell
with open book and solemn look all robed in priestly lawn the rector stands but counts the sands right willing to be gone the evening mail
and nut brown ale his pipe and rocking chair are waiting long while the bridal throng still lingers unaware an ancient gloom fills all the room
and dims the lamps above though wall and aisle in verdure smile through wreath and christmas grove by branching pines and graceful vines slow
glides the youthful pair to the altar green with brow serene and kneel together there soft breathes the vow responsive now in calm but
earnest tone the wedding ring strange mystic thing fast binds the twain in one the solemn word no longer heard with chastened steps and slow
and heart in heart no more to part to home sweet home they go fresh now again o'er snowy main
on roughening rock with shriek and shock the flashing runners burn o'er cradling drift secure though swift now smooth
now rough the track the furious sleigh devours the way as lash and harness crack through furs and wool the air so cool is felt or feared no more
and their flanks are frosted o'er a fitful light scarce yet in sight gleams through the opening wood ah now they come to their hill side home
in merry merry mood
a string of pearls are found in place of three four daughters fair are gathered there around the christmas tree as roars the fire their loving sire
a warmer welcome deals and stooping low on one fair brow his heart's adoption seals a dearer bliss a mother's kiss
awaits the blushing bride one look above then smiles of love express her joy and pride once more good cheer removes the tear
returns the joyous smile soon laughter poured around the board rings through the spacious pile while dance and song employ them long
steals in the cold gray dawn back to your urn ye phantoms turn and vanish o'er the lawn stern though in tears with fatal shears
time scattered all those pearls they fell unstrung old graves among o'er all the snow wreath curls yet shines that light from lattice bright
wide o'er the grass or snow still all the room its rays illume as when so long ago its arrowy star recalled the car then winding round the wood
and lime rock gray threw back the ray across the rapid flood though cold each form their love still warm from hearth and lattice glows
hearts kind and dear yet linger here and bid us to repose the skies are dark no moonbeams mark or wall or traveller's way
o'er rock and wood thick storm clouds brood and doubts our steps delay no beacon light yet cheers the night how gloomy grows the hour ah
there it shines in lance like lines sharp through the misty shower shine on fair star through storms afar still bless the nightly way always the same
the sounds of morning in cambridge i sing the melodies of early morn hark t is the distant roar of iron wheels
first sound of busy life and the shrill neigh of vapor steed the vale of brighton threading
and perfumed breeze echoes the shore of blue meandering charles straightway the chorus of glad chanticleers proclaims the dawn
first comes one clarion note loud clear and long drawn out and hark again rises the jocund song distinct though distant now faint
and far like plaintive cry for help piercing the ear of sleep each knight o the spur watchful as brave and emulous in noise with mighty pinions
all feathered nature wakes man's drowsy sense heeds not the trilling band but slumbrous waits the tardy god of day ah sluggard wake
open thy blind and rub thy heavy eyes for once behold a sunrise is there aught in thy dream world more splendid or more fair
with crimson glory the horizon streams
hides her face ashamed now to the ear of him who lingers long on downy couch falsely luxurious comes the unwelcome din of college bell fast tolling
t is but the earliest the warning peal he sleeps again happy if bustling chum footsteps along the entry or perchance in the home bower maternal knock
and halloo shall break the treacherous slumber for behold the youth collegiate sniff the morning zephyrs breezes of brisk december frosty and keen with nose incarnadine
peering above each graceful shepherd's plaid the chin enfolding see how the purple hue of youth and health glows in each cheek how the sharp wind brings pearls from every eye
brightening those dimmed with study and waste of midnight oil o'er classic page long poring boreas in merry mood plays with each unkempt lock
and vainly strives to make a football of the freshman's beaver or the sage sophomore's indented felt behold the foremost with deliberate stride and slow approach the chapel tree embowered
entering composedly its gaping portal then as the iron tongue goes on to rouse the mocking echoes with its call arrive others with hastier step and heaving chest
anon some bound along divergent paths which scar the grassy plain and with no pause for breath press up the rocky stair
swifter than arrow flight or medford whirlwind sparks flying from iron shod heels at every footfall over stone causeway and tessellated pavement they come
they come they leap they scamper in ere grating on its hinges slams the door inexorable pauses the sluggard at wood and hall's just crossing
the chime melodious dying on his ear embroidered sandals scarce maintain their hold upon his feet shuffling with heel exposed and neath his upper garment just appears
a many colored robe about his throat no comfortable scarf but crumpled gills shrink from the scanning eye of passenger the omnibus o'erhauling
last stroke it dies away like murmuring wave bootless he came and bootless wends he back gnawing his gloveless thumb and pacing slow bright eyes might gaze on him
compassionate but that yon rosy maiden early afoot is o'er her shoulder watching with wild fear a horned host that rushes by amain bellowing bassoon like music
angry shouts of drovers horrid menace and dire curse shrill scream of imitative boy
the tread of clumsy feet are hurrying on but now with instinct sure madly those doomed ones bolt from the dread road that leads to brighton and to death they charge
up brattle street screaming the maiden flies nor heeds the loss of fluttering veil upborne on sportive breeze and sailing far away
and now a flock of sheep bleating bewildered
and huddling strive to elude relentless fate and hark with snuffling grunt and now and then a squeak a squad of long nosed gentry run the gutters to explore
with comic jerk of the investigating snout and wink at passer by and saucy lounging gait and independent lash defying course and now the baker
with his steaming load hums like the humble bee from door to door and thoughts of breakfast rise and harmonies domestic song of kettle and hissing urn glad voices and the sound of hurrying feet
instead of resenting this uncivil language he indirectly reproved me by becoming more respectful than ever my mistress desires me to tell you sir that luncheon is waiting i was in the presence of a thoroughbred english servant
i had also by keeping luncheon waiting treated an english institution with contempt and worse even than this as a misfortune which personally affected me my stepmother evidently knew that i had paid another visit to the mill i hurried along the woodland path followed by the fat domestic in black
missus roylake ordered inquiries to be made sir the head gardener there his small reserves of breath failed him the head gardener saw me yes sir when hours ago sir when you went into toller's cottage
she possessed two smiles a sugary smile with which i was already acquainted
don't let me detain you my stepmother began won't you give me some luncheon i inquired
you lunched already where should i lunch my dear lady i thought this would induce the sugary smile to show itself i was wrong where missus roylake repeated with your friends at the mill of course very inhospitable not to offer you lunch when are we to have flour cheaper
i began to get sulky all i said was
perfectly charming i was angry by this time you have exactly described her i said missus roylake began to get angry on her side surely a little coarse and vulgar she suggested reverting to poor cristel
i shall be happy missus roylake to take you to the mill
she drew back with a skill which performed the retrograde movement without permitting it to betray itself we have carried our little joke my dear gerard far enough she said i fancy your residence in germany has rather blunted your native english sense of humor
you don't suppose i hope and trust that i am so insensible to our relative positions as to think of interfering in your choice of friends or associates
not mine i live here
i stopped her there she had got the better of me with a dexterity which i see now but which i was not clever enough to appreciate at time
if i could only remember all the new friends to whom i made my bow
his grey hair when he took off his hat on addressing me was cut short
my master was the guarded answer that this odd servant returned
do you mean that you are forbidden to tell me no sir then what do you mean
were one and the same are you to wait for an answer i asked as i opened the envelope i am to wait sir if you tell me to do so the letter was a long one
chapter four he explains himself giles toller's miserly nature had offered to his lodger shelter from wind and rain and the furniture absolutely necessary to make a bedroom habitable and nothing more
there was no carpet on the floor no paper on the walls no ceiling to hide the rafters of the roof the chair that i sat on was the one chair in the room the man whose guest i had rashly consented to be found a seat on his bed upon his table i saw pens and pencils paper and ink
and a battered brass candlestick with a common tallow candle in it his changes of clothing were flung on the bed his money was left on the unpainted wooden chimney piece his wretched little morsel of looking glass propped up near the money had been turned with its face to the wall
he perceived that the odd position of this last object had attracted my notice vanity and i have parted company he explained i shrink from myself when i look at myself now
if he has got his hearing is a more agreeable man in society than i am
i wrote my reply the place makes me sorry for you he shook his head your sympathy is thrown away on me a man who has lost his social relations with his fellow creatures doesn't care how he lodges or where he lives when he has found solitude he has found all he wants for the rest of his days
shall we introduce ourselves it won't be easy for me to set the example i used the pencil again why not because you will expect me to give you my name i can't do it i have ceased to bear my family name
and being out of society what need have i for an assumed name as for my christian name it's so detestably ugly that i hate the sight and sound of it here they know me as the lodger will you have that
call me the cur oh you needn't start that's as accurate a description of me as any other what's your name i wrote it for him his face darkened when he found out who i was young personally attractive and a great landowner he said
i saw you just now talking familiarly with cristel toller i didn't like that at the time i like it less than ever now my pencil asked him without ceremony what he meant he was ready with his reply i mean this you owe something to the good luck which has placed you where you are
keep your familiarity for ladies in your own rank of life this to a young man like me was unendurable insolence i had hitherto refrained from taking him at his own bitter word in the matter of nick name in the irritation of the moment i now first resolved to adopt his suggestion seriously
the next slip of paper that i handed to him administered the smartest rebuff that my dull brains could discover on the spur of the moment the cur is requested to keep his advice till he is asked for it for the first time something like a smile showed itself faintly on his lips
and represented the only effect which my severity had produced he still followed his own train of thought as resolutely and as impertinently as ever i haven't seen you talking to cristel before to night have you been meeting her in secret
in justice to the girl i felt that i ought to set him right so far taking up the pencil again i told this strange man that i had just returned to england after an absence of many years in foreign countries that i had known cristel when we were both children
and that i had met her purely by accident when he had detected us talking outside the cottage seeing me pause after advancing to that point in the writing of my reply he held out his hand impatiently for the paper i signed him to wait and added a last sentence understand this
i will answer no more questions i have done with the subject he read what i had written with the closest attention but his inveterate suspicion of me was not set at rest even yet are you likely to come this way again he asked i pointed to the final lines of my writing and got up to go
this assertion of my will against his roused him he stopped me at the door not by a motion of his hand but by the mastery of his look the dim candlelight afforded me no help in determining the color of his eyes dark large and finely set in his head
still as monotonous as ever his voice in some degree expressed the frenzy that was in him by suddenly rising in its pitch when he spoke to me next mister roylake i love her mister roylake i am determined to marry her any man who comes between me and that cruel girl
ah she's as hard as one of her father's millstones it's the misery of my life it's the joy of my life to love her i tell you young sir any man who comes between cristel and me does it at his peril remember that i had no wish to give offence
but his threatening me in this manner was so absurd that i gave way to the impression of the moment and laughed he stepped up to me with such an expression of demoniacal rage and hatred in his face that he became absolutely ugly in an instant i amuse you do i he said you don't know the man you're trifling with
you had better know me you shall know me he turned away and walked up and down the wretched little room deep in thought i don't want this matter between us to end badly he said interrupting his meditations then returning to them again and then once more addressing me
you're young you're thoughtless but you don't look like a bad fellow i wonder whether i can trust you not one man in a thousand would do it never mind i'm the one man in ten thousand who does it mister gerard roylake i'm going to trust you
with this incoherent expression of a resolution unknown to me he unlocked a shabby trunk hidden in a corner
men of your age he resumed seldom look below the surface learn that valuable habit sir and begin by looking below the surface of me he forced the portfolio into my hand once more his beautiful eyes held me with their irresistible influence
they looked at me with an expression of sad and solemn warning discover for yourself he said what devils my deafness has set loose in me and let no eyes but yours see that horrid sight you will find me here tomorrow and you will decide by that time whether you make an enemy of me or not
was he mad i hesitated to adopt that conclusion
i might even have been in some danger of allowing him to make a friend of me
to my mind although i was far from foreseeing the catastrophe that really did happen i felt that i had returned to my own country at a critical time in the life of the miller's daughter my friendly interference might be of serious importance to cristel's peace of mind perhaps even to her personal safety as well
eager to discover what the contents of the portfolio might tell me i hurried back to trimley deen my stepmother had not yet returned from the dinner party as one of the results of my ten years banishment from home
the windows looked out on a view of fordwitch wood
the squat turreted sides held up between them a mass of masonry with bunches of grass growing at the top
the explosive noise of the railway trucks seemed to augment decoud's irritation he muttered something to himself then began to talk aloud in curt angry phrases thrown at the silence of the two women they did not look at him at all
while don jose with his semi translucent waxy complexion overshadowed by the soft grey hat swayed a little to the jolts of the carriage by the side of missus gould this sound puts a new edge on a very old truth
decoud spoke in french perhaps because of ignacio on the box above him the old coachman with his broad back filling a short silver braided jacket had a big pair of ears whose thick rims stood well away from his cropped head yes the noise outside the city wall is new
but the principle is old he ruminated his discontent for a while then began afresh with a sidelong glance at antonia no but just imagine our forefathers in morions and corselets drawn up outside this gate and a band of adventurers just landed from their ships in the harbour there
thieves of course speculators too their expeditions each one were the speculations of grave and reverend persons in england that is history as that absurd sailor mitchell is always saying
that that
but to return to my noises there used to be in the old days the sound of trumpets outside that gate war trumpets i'm sure they were trumpets i have read somewhere that drake who was the greatest of these men used to dine alone in his cabin on board ship to the sound of trumpets
in those days this town was full of wealth those men came to take it now the whole land is like a treasure house and all these people are breaking into it whilst we are cutting each other's throats the only thing that keeps them out is mutual jealousy but they'll come to an agreement some day
and by the time we've settled our quarrels and become decent and honourable
it has always been the same we are a wonderful people but it has always been our fate to be he did not say robbed but added after a pause exploited missus gould said oh this is unjust and antonia interjected don't answer him emilia he is attacking me
and then the carriage stopped before the door of the casa gould the young man offered his hand to the ladies they went in first together don jose walked by the side of decoud and the gouty old porter tottered after them with some light wraps on his arm
don jose slipped his hand under the arm of the journalist of sulaco the porvenir must have a long and confident article upon barrios and the irresistibleness of his army of cayta the moral effect should be kept up in the country
we must cable encouraging extracts to europe and the united states to maintain a favourable impression abroad decoud muttered oh yes we must comfort our friends the speculators
a jingle of spurs died out at the further end
the senor administrador is just back from the mountain in the great sala with its groups of ancient spanish and modern european furniture making as if different centres under the high white spread of the ceiling the silver and porcelain of the tea service gleamed among a cluster of dwarf chairs
like a bit of a lady's boudoir putting in a note of feminine and intimate delicacy
he was thinking of the angry face of antonia he was confident that he would make his peace with her he had not stayed in sulaco to quarrel with antonia martin decoud was angry with himself all he saw and heard going on around him exasperated
the preconceived views of his european civilization
here on the spot it was not possible to dismiss their tragic comedy with the expression
the reality of the political action such as it was seemed closer and acquired poignancy by antonia's belief in the cause its crudeness hurt his feelings he was surprised at his own sensitiveness i suppose i am more of a costaguanero than i would have believed possible he thought to himself
he soothed himself by saying he was not a patriot but a lover the ladies came in bareheaded and missus gould sank low before the little tea table
the corner of a leathern couch with a rigid grace in her pose and a fan in her hand
her fan lay half grasped on her knees she never looked at him his rapid utterance grew more and more insistent and caressing at last he ventured a slight laugh no really you must forgive me one must be serious sometimes he paused she turned her head a little
her blue eyes glided slowly towards him slightly upwards mollified and questioning you can't think i am serious when i call montero a gran bestia every second day in the porvenir that is not a serious occupation no occupation is serious not even when a bullet through the heart is the penalty of failure
her hand closed firmly on her fan some reason you understand i mean some sense may creep into thinking some glimpse of truth i mean some effective truth for which there is no room in politics or journalism i happen to have said what i thought and you are angry
if you do me the kindness to think a little you will see that i spoke like a patriot she opened her red lips for the first time not unkindly yes but you never see the aim men must be used as they are
i suppose nobody is really disinterested unless perhaps you don martin god forbid it's the last thing i should like you to believe of me he spoke lightly and paused she began to fan herself with a slow movement without raising her hand after a time he whispered passionately
she smiled and extended her hand after the english manner towards charles gould who was bowing before her
they exchanged a few words of which only the phrase the greatest enthusiasm pronounced by missus gould could be heard
even he this is sheer calumny said antonia not very severely
don jose had raised his voice he rubbed his hands cheerily
charles gould very tall and thin before his chair listened but nothing could be discovered in his face except a kind and deferential attention
the window was thrown open and he leaned against the thickness of the wall the long folds of the damask curtain falling straight from the broad brass cornice hid him partly from the room he folded his arms on his breast and looked steadily at antonia's profile
the people returning from the harbour filled the pavements the shuffle of sandals and a low murmur of voices ascended to the window now and then a coach rolled slowly along the disjointed roadway of the calle de la constitucion there were not many private carriages in sulaco
at the most crowded hour on the alameda they could be counted with one glance of the eye the great family arks swayed on high leathern springs full of pretty powdered faces in which the eyes looked intensely alive and black and first don juste lopez the president of the provincial assembly
as when directing a debate from a high tribune though they all raised their eyes antonia did not make the usual greeting gesture of a fluttered hand and they affected not to see the two young people costaguaneros with european manners whose eccentricities were discussed behind the barred windows of the first families in sulaco
and then the widowed senora gavilaso de valdes rolled by handsome and dignified in a great machine in which she used to travel to and from her country house surrounded by an armed retinue in leather suits and big sombreros with carbines at the bows of their saddles
she was a woman of most distinguished family proud rich and kind hearted
the eldest a worthless fellow of a moody disposition filled sulaco with the noise of his dissipations and gambled heavily at the club the two youngest boys with yellow ribierist cockades in their caps sat on the front seat
she too affected not to see the senor decoud talking publicly with antonia in defiance of every convention and he not even her novio as far as the world knew though even in that case it would have been scandal enough but the dignified old lady respected and admired by the first families
would have been still more shocked if she could have heard the words they were exchanging
i have only one aim in the world she made an almost imperceptible negative movement of her head still staring across the street at the avellanos's house grey marked with decay and with iron bars like a prison
and it would be so easy of attainment he continued this aim which whether knowingly or not i have always had in my heart ever since the day when you snubbed me so horribly once in paris you remember a slight smile seemed to move the corner of the lip that was on his side
you know you were a very terrible person a sort of charlotte corday in a schoolgirl's dress a ferocious patriot i suppose you would have stuck a knife into guzman bento she interrupted him you do me too much honour
at any rate he said changing suddenly to a tone of bitter levity you would have sent me to stab him without compunction
well he argued mockingly you do keep me here writing deadly nonsense deadly to me it has already killed my self respect and you may imagine he continued his tone passing into light banter
that montero should he be successful would get even with me in the only way such a brute can get even with a man of intelligence who condescends to call him a gran bestia three times a week it's a sort of intellectual death but there is the other one in the background for a journalist of my ability
if he is successful said antonia thoughtfully you seem satisfied to see my life hang on a thread decoud replied with a broad smile and the other montero the my trusted brother of the proclamations the guerrillero
haven't i written that he was taking the guests overcoats and changing plates in paris at our legation in the intervals of spying on our refugees there in the time of rojas he will wash out that sacred truth in blood in my blood why do you look annoyed
this is simply a bit of the biography of one of our great men
there is a certain convent wall round the corner of the plaza opposite the door of the bull ring you know opposite the door with the inscription intrada de la sombra appropriate perhaps that's where the uncle of our host gave up his anglo south american soul and note he might have run away
a man who has fought with weapons may run away you might have let me go with barrios if you had cared for me i would have carried one of those rifles in which don jose believes with the greatest satisfaction in the ranks of poor peons and indios that know nothing either of reason or politics
when you make war you may retreat but not when you spend your time in inciting poor ignorant fools to kill and to die his tone remained light and as if unaware of his presence she stood motionless her hands clasped lightly the fan hanging down from her interlaced fingers
he waited for a while and then i shall go to the wall he said with a sort of jocular desperation even that declaration did not make her look at him
her head remained still her eyes fixed upon the house of the avellanos whose chipped pilasters broken cornices the whole degradation of dignity was hidden now by the gathering dusk of the street
he remained silent for a minute startled as if overwhelmed by a sort of awed happiness with the lines of the mocking smile still stiffened about his mouth and incredulous surprise in his eyes the value of a sentence is in the personality which utters it for nothing new can be said by man or woman
and those were the last words it seemed to him that could ever have been spoken by antonia he had never made it up with her so completely in all their intercourse of small encounters but even before she had time to turn towards him which she did slowly with a rigid grace he had begun to plead
my sister is only waiting to embrace you my father is transported with joy i won't say anything of my mother our mothers were like sisters there is the mail boat for the south next week let us go that moraga is a fool a man like montero is bribed
it's the practice of the country it's tradition it's politics read fifty years of misrule leave poor papa alone don martin he believes i have the greatest tenderness for your father he began hurriedly but i love you antonia
and moraga has miserably mismanaged this business perhaps your father did too i don't know montero was bribeable why i suppose he only wanted his share of this famous loan for national development why didn't the stupid sta marta people give him a mission to europe or something
the man she said thoughtfully and very calm before this outburst was intoxicated with vanity we had all the information not from moraga only from others too there was his brother intriguing too oh yes he said of course you know
you know everything you read all the correspondence you write all the papers all those state papers that are inspired here in this room in blind deference to a theory of political purity hadn't you charles gould before your eyes rey de sulaco
he and his mine are the practical demonstration of what could have been done do you think he succeeded by his fidelity to a theory of virtue and all those railway people with their honest work of course their work is honest but what if you cannot work honestly till the thieves are satisfied
could he not a gentleman have told this sir john what's his name that montero had to be bought off he and all his negro liberals hanging on to his gold laced sleeve he ought to have been bought off with his own stupid weight of gold his weight of gold i tell you boots sabre spurs cocked hat and all
she shook her head slightly it was impossible she murmured he wanted the whole lot what she was facing him now in the deep recess of the window very close and motionless her lips moved rapidly
he drank the tones of her even voice and watched the agitated life of her throat as if waves of emotion had run from her heart to pass out into the air in her reasonable words he also had his aspirations he aspired to carry her away out of these deadly futilities of pronunciamientos and reforms
all this was wrong utterly wrong but she fascinated him and sometimes the sheer sagacity of a phrase would break the charm replace the fascination by a sudden unwilling thrill of interest
passion stood for all that and he was ready to believe that some startlingly profound remark some appreciation of character or a judgment upon an event bordered on the miraculous in the mature antonia he could see with an extraordinary vividness the austere schoolgirl of the earlier days
she seduced his attention sometimes he could not restrain a murmur of assent now and then he advanced an objection quite seriously
but was in the grasp of some polar current that trended it south easterly
after which through stress of weather or by the agency of a particular temperature a great mass of it broke away and started on that northward course which bergs of all magnitude take when they are ruptured from the frozen continent this theory may be disputed but it matters not
my business is to relate what befell me if i do my share honestly the candid reader will not i believe quarrel with me for not being able to explain everything as i go along the frenchman snored and i sat considering him the impression he had made upon me was not agreeable
to be sure he had suffered heavily
but a professional fierceness ran through it too
he had been as good as dead for nearly fifty years
hence i never now hear that expression taken from the latin of the dead speak nothing unless good
would exhibit their original natures and pursue exactly the same courses which made them loved or scorned or feared or neglected before which brought them to the gallows or which qualified them to die in peace with faces brightening to the opening heavens if nero did not again fire rome
now that i had a companion should i be able to escape from this horrid situation he had spoken of chests of silver where was the treasure in the run there might be booty enough in the hold to make a great man
after all it was ridiculous that i should feel mortified because he supposed me crazy in the matter of dates how was it conceivable he should believe he had lain lifeless for eight and forty years i knew a man who after a terrible adventure had slept three days and nights without stirring
the assurances of the people about him failed to persuade him that he had slumbered so long
i wished to see how the schooner lay and what change had befallen the ice in the night and went on deck it was blowing a whole gale of wind from the north west
though all along i had supposed it to be storming pretty fiercely by the thunderous humming noise which resounded in the cabin
and there was no flying darkness or yellow scud to give the least movement of life to it
a vast block of ice had fallen on the starboard side
no other marked changes were observable
i should behold a face of ice somewhat different from what i had before gazed upon
all that concerned me lay in the hollow in which the schooner was frozen but so far as the slopes were concerned i could see nothing to render me uneasy the declivities were gradual and there was little fear of even a violent convulsion throwing the ice upon us
the danger lay below under the keel if the ice split then down would drop the ship and stave herself
or if she escaped that peril she must be so wedged as to render the least further pressure of the ice against her sides destructive i was about to go below again when my eye was taken by the two figures lying upon the deck no dead bodies ever looked more dead but after the wondrous restoration of the frenchman
they might be brought to full of thoughts concerning them i stepped into the cabin and going to the cook room found tassard still heavily sleeping the coal in the corner was low
when this was ended i boiled some water to cleanse myself
the going into the forepeak had put my mind upon the treasure which as i had gathered from the frenchman's narrative was somewhere hidden in the schooner in the run as i doubted not i mean in the hold under the lazarette for you will recollect that being weary and half perished with the cold
and i had too good an understanding of the character of pirates to believe that they would have quitted a rich hunting field before they had handsomely lined their pockets what then was the treasure in the run if indeed it were there i recalled a dozen stories of the doings of the buccaneers
not to speak of the famous acapulco ship taken by anson a little before the year in which the boca del dragon was fishing in those waters
of the costly ecclesiastical furniture of new spain of which methought i found a hint in that silver crucifix in the cabin of rings sword hilts watches buckles snuff boxes and the like lord thought i that this island were of good honest mother earth instead of ice
ready for the mattock should we survive to fetch it i was mechanically stirring the saucepan full of broth i had prepared lost in these golden thoughts when the frenchman suddenly sat up on his mattress ha cried he sniffing vigorously i smell something good something i am ready for
and with that he stretched out his arms with a great yawn
the captain's watch cried he with a short loud laugh you are modest mister paul rodney said i seeing he stopped for my name yes modest mister paul rodney
i felt this that if i left the watch in the captain's pocket it was bound to go to the bottom ultimately and
there are two of your companions on deck said i he started
it is true that barros has been on deck whilst you have been below but after you pass a certain degree of cold fiercer rigours cannot signify
there is the body of the captain said i
or claim a share of the treasure in this vessel of all desperate villains i never met the like of barros he loved blood even better than money he'd quench his thirst before an engagement with gunpowder mixed in brandy i once saw him choke a man tut he is very well leave him to his repose
in the glow of the fire he looked uncommonly sardonic and wild with his long beard bald head flowing hair shaggy brows and little cunning eyes which seemed in their smallness to share in his grin and yet did not and though to be sure he was some one to talk to
it would not be my hands that should chafe him into being
but you have searched the vessel he cried i have searched as you call it
you scared me said he fetching a deep breath
he held up the fingers of his right hand one two three four five
i stifled the amazement his words excited and said coldly you must have met with some rich ships we did well he answered my memory is good he counted afresh on his fingers ten cases in all
fortune is a strange wench mister rodney who would think of finding her lodged on an iceberg now bring those others up there to life and you make us five what would follow think you
it is blowing hard said he
my berth is the third said he
and i understood in the face of this ready recurrence of his memory how impossible it would be ever to make him believe he had been practically lifeless since the year seventeen fifty three when he returned he had on a hairy cap with large covers for the ears
what particular merit have i
then perhaps you do not think you are obliged by my awakening you to life said i yes my friend i am much obliged said he with vivacity any fool can die to live is the true business of life mark what you do you
said i but that's all we have got to get there he flourished his pipe and twas like the flight of death through the gloomy fire tinctured air that must come we are two yesterday you were one
you too are no girl courage between us we shall manage how long is it since you sailed from england
and what is the news said he taking a pannikin of wine from the oven and sipping it last year tis twelve years since i was in paris and three years since we had news from europe news thought i to tell this man the news as he calls it would oblige me to travel over fifty years of history
and two or more of them are nearly always at loggerheads but sailors merchantmen like myself hear little of what goes on
ha he cried i doubt if this time you will come off so easily
as an admiral who had fought us in seventeen forty eight or thereabouts of the others i had never heard
a wife cried he what should a man of my calling do with a wife no no we gather such flowers as we want off the high seas and wear them till the perfume palls they prove stubborn though our graces are not always relished
i said he tapping his breast and grinning was always fortunate
and last of all came the pig killing
for up in the north there is an idea that the ice stored in the first frost will melt and the meat cured then taint the first frost is good for nothing but to be thrown away as they express it there came a breathing time after this last event
from one end to another the turf was led the coal carted up from monkshaven the wood stored the corn ground the pig killed
the butcher had been glad to take the best parts of a pig of dame robson's careful feeding but there was unusual plenty in the haytersbank pantry and as bell surveyed it one morning she said to her husband
i wonder if yon poor sick chap at moss brow would fancy some o my sausages they're something to crack on
still when folk's sick they han their fancies and maybe kinraid ll be glad o thy sausages
this was not complimentary perhaps but daniel went on to say that he did not mind if he stepped over with the sausages himself when it was too late to do anything else
but somehow she did not like to propose it towards dusk she came to her mother to ask for the key of the great bureau that stood in the house place as a state piece of furniture although its use was to contain the family's best wearing apparel and stores of linen
only just to get out one of t damask napkins the best napkins as my mother span yes said sylvia her colour heightening
good clean homespun cloth will serve them better said bell wondering in her own mind what was come over the girl
and gather the two or three michaelmas daisies and the one bud of the china rose that growing against the kitchen chimney had escaped the frost and then when her mother was not looking
and lay her autumn blossoms in one of the folds of the towel after daniel now pretty clear of his rheumatism had had his afternoon meal tea was a sunday treat he prepared to set out on his walk to moss brow but as he was taking his stick
he caught the look on sylvia's face and unconsciously interpreted its dumb wistfulness missus said he
she may as well put on her cloak and step down wi me and see molly a bit
put on thy things in a jiffy then and let's be off said daniel and sylvia did not need another word down she came in a twinkling dressed in her new red cloak and hood her face peeping out of the folds of the latter bright and blushing
shall i go take it off and put on my shawl asked sylvia a little dolefully na na come along
come lassie this last to his dog so sylvia set off with a dancing heart and a dancing step
the sky above was bright and clear with the light of a thousand stars
the night was very still though now and then crisp sounds in the distant air sounded very near in the silence sylvia carried the basket and looked like little red riding hood
but sylvia enjoyed her own thoughts and any conversation would have been a disturbance to her the long monotonous roll of the distant waves as the tide bore them in the multitudinous rush at last and then the retreating rattle and trickle
her father's measured tread and slow even movement lassie's pattering all lulled sylvia into a reverie of which she could not have given herself any definite account
and followed her father into the great house place it had a more comfortable aspect by night than by day the fire was always kept up to a wasteful size and the dancing blaze and the partial light of candles left much in shadow
that was best ignored in such a disorderly family but there was always a warm welcome to friends however roughly given
the next rose up equally naturally in the mind of missus corney and what will ye tak
but here's charley kinraid as we've getten to nurse up a bit
all this was addressed to daniel to whom she knew that none but masculine company would be acceptable amongst uneducated people
there should be no great pleasure in the conversation of the other sex men have plenty to say to men which in their estimation
indeed they were often more communicative to the sheep dog that accompanied them through all the day's work and frequently became a sort of dumb confidant
placed her nose between her paws and watched with attentive eyes the preparations going on for refreshments preparations which to the disappointment of her canine heart consisted entirely of tumblers and sugar where's t wench said robson
she's getten a basket wi sausages in em as my missus has made and she's a rare hand at sausages
for daniel could praise his wife's powers in her absence though he did not often express himself in an appreciative manner when she was by to hear
she might have gone on but that she caught kinraid's eyes looking at her with kindly admiration
else i stand again any one for t making of em
as i were sa fond on and fed mysel and as would ha been fourteen stone by now if he were an ounce and as knew me as well as any christian and a pig as i may say that i just idolized went and took a fit a week after michaelmas day and died as if it had been to spite me
but folk say they're gone off this coast for one while added daniel
but they're a deep set they'll be here before we know where we are some of these days
and he began the story sylvia knew so well for her father never made a new acquaintance but what he told him of his self mutilation to escape the press gang it had been done as he would himself have owned to spite himself as well as them
to which in comparison all life spent on shore was worse than nothing for dulness
a great degradation in his opinion but his blood warmed as he told the specksioneer
sylvia appearing to listen to molly's confidences was hearkening in reality to all this conversation between her father and the specksioneer and at this invitation she became especially attentive kinraid replied i'm much obliged to ye i'm sure
well well said daniel rising to take leave with unusual prudence as to the amount of his drink
i shall be main glad to see thee if thou'lt come but i've na lads to keep thee company only one sprig of a wench sylvia come here an let's show thee to this young fellow sylvia came forwards ruddy as any rose
and in a moment kinraid recognized her as the pretty little girl he had seen crying so bitterly over darley's grave he rose up out of true sailor's gallantry as she shyly approached and stood by her father's side scarcely daring to lift her great soft eyes to have one fair gaze at his face
his complexion had been weatherbeaten and bronzed though now he looked so pale his eyes and hair were dark
the cheerful click of the knitting needles made a pleasant home sound and in the occasional snatches of slumber that overcame her mother sylvia could hear the long rushing boom of the waves down below the rocks for the haytersbank gulley allowed the sullen roar to come up so far inland
it might have been about eight o'clock though from the monotonous course of the evening it seemed much later
more unusual she heard his voice talking to some companion curious to see who it could be with a lively instinctive advance towards any event which might break the monotony she had begun to find somewhat dull she sprang up to open the door
half a glance into the gray darkness outside made her suddenly timid and she drew back behind the door as she opened it wide to admit her father and kinraid daniel robson came in bright and boisterous he was pleased with his purchase and had had some drink to celebrate his bargain
and here they were ready for bread and cheese and aught else the mistress would set before them
just break it up with a judicious blow from the poker and the room late so dark and dusk and lone is full of life and light and warmth she moved about with pretty household briskness attending to all her father's wants
she wore the high crowned linen cap of that day surmounting her lovely masses of golden brown hair rather than concealing them and tied firm to her head by a broad blue ribbon a
carefully pinned across at the waist of her brown stuff gown how well it was thought the young girl that she had doffed her bed gown and linsey woolsey petticoat her working dress and made herself smart in her stuff gown when she sate down to work with her mother
by the time she could sit down again her father and kinraid had their glasses filled and were talking of the relative merits of various kinds of spirits that led on to tales of smuggling and the different contrivances by which they or their friends had eluded the preventive service
the nightly relays of men to carry the goods inland
the clever way in which certain women managed to bring in prohibited goods
there was no question of the morality of the affair one of the greatest signs of the real progress we have made since those times seems to be that our daily concerns of buying and selling eating and drinking whatsoever we do are more tested by the real practical standard of our religion than they were in the days of our grandfathers
as to make it an expensive sometimes an unattainable luxury to the working man government did more to demoralise the popular sense of rectitude and uprightness than heaps of sermons could undo
there's t ice that's bad there's dirty weather that's worse
john of hull and we were in good green water and were keen after whales and ne'er thought harm of a great gray iceberg as were on our lee bow a mile or so off it looked as if it had been there from the days of adam
well the fast boats were out after a fish
wi'out saying great things o mysel so i says
and which was as dead as noah's grandfather
one boat lies still holding t end o t line
well luckily for us we had our second boat
and says i but who's to stay by t dead fish and no man answered
and when we had wiped our eyes clear and getten our hearts down agen fra our mouths there were never a boat nor a glittering belly o e'er a great whale to be seen
else ne'er another man will see her and i left as good a clasp knife in her as ever i clapt eyes on but what a mercy no man stayed in her said bell why mistress i reckon we a must die some way
but it must be so cold said sylvia
cold said her father what do ye stay at homes know about cold a should like to know
no not deep winter and it were june them seas
that were cold a can tell the first i smarted all ower me as if my skin were suddenly stript off me and next
an t boat's crew kept throwin out their oars an a kept clutchin at em but a could na make out where they was
an i thought i were bound for kingdom come
just as a were giving up both words and life they heaved me aboard
a were a precious sight to look on for my clothes was just hard frozen to me an my hair a'most as big a lump o ice as yon iceberg he was a telling us on they rubbed me as missus theere were rubbing t hams yesterday and gav me brandy an a've niver getten t frost out o my bones for a their rubbin
but there's heat too some places said kinraid
and they'll stay there for three year at a time if need be
and close on our larboard beam
and says our captain as were a dare devil if ever a man were
we sailed on and we sailed on for more days nor i could count
our voices did na rightly seem our own and we sailed on and we sailed on
seventy miles long as we could swear to inside that gray cold ice came leaping flames all red and yellow wi heat o some unearthly kind
yet never so much as a shred on t was melted they did say that some beside our captain saw the black devils dart hither and thither quicker than the very flames themselves anyhow he saw them
he just dwined away and we hadn't taken but one whale afore our captain died
it were a prosperous voyage but for all that i'll never sail those seas again
sylvia had dropped her work and sat gazing at kinraid with fascinated wonder
greedy and breathless some on em is past telling he replied an some is not to be had for t asking seeing as how they might bring a man into trouble but as a said
a could make t hair on your heads lift up your caps
thou's heerd me tell it hastn't ta yes said bell but it's a long time ago when we was courting an that's afore this young lass were born as is a'most up to woman's estate but sin those days a ha been o'er busy to tell stories to my wife
an as a'll warrant she's forgotten it an as sylvia here niver heerd it if yo'll fill your glass kinraid yo shall ha t benefit o't a
an we was anchored off t coast o greenland one season an we'd getten a cargo o seven whale
an once seein a whale he throws himself int a boat an goes off to it makin signals to me an another specksioneer as were off for diversion another boat for to come after him sharp
and when she wanted to rise what does t great ugly brute do
i were thrown up in t air like a shuttlecock me an my line an my harpoon up we goes an many a good piece o timber wi us an many a good fellow too
an a thowt a were safe for another dive int saut water
ay yo may stare master but theere a were an main an slippery it were only a sticks my harpoon intil her an steadies mysel
an looks abroad o'er t vast o waves and gets sea sick in a manner an puts up a prayer as she mayn't dive and it were as good a prayer for wishin it might come true
when yo've t hold hard wi t other hand on t back of a whale swimmin fourteen knots an hour
an t watter's cold an noane good for drownin in a can't get free o t line
though t captain should ca it mutiny to disobey orders
so a tugged and a lugged
it's a chance missus as thou had stopped an oud maid eh dear a me said bell
but not for long for bell suddenly starting up did all but turn him out of the house it was late she said
which she had been foolish enough to believe no one saw the real motive of all this almost inhospitable haste to dismiss her guest how the sudden fear had taken possession of her that he and sylvia were fancying each other
but now he said in reply to daniel robson
daniel had just had enough drink to make him very good tempered
and this maudlin amiability took the shape of hospitable urgency
till bell fairly shut the outer door to and locked it before the specksioneer had well got out of the shadow of their roof
only a spectator with daylight came wakening and little homely every day wonders
when she had argued herself into certainty on one side she suddenly wheeled about and was just of the opposite opinion at length she settled that it could not be settled until she saw molly again so by a strong gulping effort she resolutely determined to think no more about him
only about the marvels he had told she might think a little about them when she sat at night spinning in silence by the household fire
when as in the past she took her knitting out for the sake of the freshness of the faint sea breeze and dropping down from ledge to ledge of the rocks that faced the blue ocean established herself in a perilous nook that had been her haunt ever since her parents had come to haytersbank farm
from thence she had often seen the distant ships pass to and fro with a certain sort of lazy pleasure in watching their swift tranquillity of motion
it hath reached me o auspicious king that the lady exclaimed
the night and the day shift not upon anything
and the sultan paid it to me but as i was about to return to baghdad
and said to myself by allah i must needs go to her and see what hath befallen between her and her lover so i went to her house and finding the street before her door swept and sprinkled and eunuchs and servants and pages standing before the entrance
said to myself most like grief hath broken the lady's heart and she is dead and some emir or other hath taken up his abode in her house so i left it
the shaybani where i found the benches of the porch broken down and ne'er a page at the door as of wont and said to myself haply he too is dead then i stood still before the door of his house
and with my eyes running over with tears bemoaned it in these couplets o lords of me who fared but whom my heart e'er followeth return and so my festal days with you shall be renewed
i stand before the home of you bewailing your abode quiver mine eyelids and my eyes with tears are ever dewed i ask the house and its remains that seem to weep and wail
it saith go wend thy way those friends like travellers have fared from springtide camp and buried lie of earth and worms the food allah ne'er desolate us
jubayr bin umayr the shaybani rejoined he and what hath befallen him praised be allah he is yet here with us in the enjoyment of property and rank and prosperity except that allah hath stricken him
and he is so whelmed by his love of her and his longing for her that he is like a great rock cumbering the ground if he hunger he saith not give me meat nor if he thirst doth he say give me drink quoth i
ask leave for me to go in to him said the slave o my lord wilt thou go in to one who understandeth or to one who understandeth not and i said there is no help for it but i see him whatever be the case
accordingly he went in to ask and presently returned with permission for me to enter whereupon i went in to jubayr and found him like a rock that cumbereth the ground understanding neither sign nor speech and when i spoke to him
he answered me not then said one of his servants o my lord if thou remember aught of verse repeat it and raise thy voice and he will be aroused by this and speak with thee
o my lord is there aught thou wouldst have me do for thee answered he yes
if thou bring me back her answer thou shalt have of me a thousand dinars and if not two hundred for thy pains so i said do what seemeth good to thee and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the three hundred and thirty second night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that ibn mansur continued so i said
do what seemeth good to thee whereupon he called to one of his slave girls bring me ink case and paper and wrote these couplets i pray in allah's name o princess mine be light on me
for love hath robbed me of my reason's sight slaved me this longing and enthralled me love of you and clad in sickness garb a poor and abject wight i wont ere this to think small things of love
and hold o princess mine twas silly thing and over slight but when it showed me swelling surges of its sea to allah's hest i bowed and pitied lover's plight
an will you pity show and deign a meeting grant an will you kill me
so i took it and repairing to budur's house raised the door curtain little by little as before and looking in behold i saw ten damsels high bosomed virgins like moons
as she were the full moon among the stars sitting in their midst or the sun when it is clear of clouds and mist nor was there on her any trace of pain or care and as i looked and marvelled at her case
she turned her glance upon me and seeing me standing at the door said to me well come and welcome and all hail to thee o ibn mansur come in so i entered
and saluting her gave her the letter and she read it and when she understood it she said laughingly to me o ibn mansur the poet lied not when he sang indeed i'll bear my love for thee with firmest soul
until from thee to me shall come a messenger look'ye o ibn mansur i will write thee an answer that he may give thee what he promised thee and i answered allah requite thee with good
so she called out to a handmaid bring inkcase and paper and wrote these couplets how comes it i fulfilled my vow the while that vow broke you
twas you initiated wrongous dealing and despite you were the treachetour and treason came from only you i never ceased to cherish mid the sons of men my troth and keep your honour brightest bright
and swear by name of you until i saw with eyes of me what evil you had done until i heard with ears of me what foul report spread you shall i bring low my proper worth
while raising yours so high by allah had you me eke i had honoured you but now uprooting severance i will fain console my heart and wring my fingers clean of you for evermore to part
quoth i by allah o my lady between him and death there is but the reading of this letter so i tore it in pieces and said to her write him other than these lines
i hear and obey answered she and wrote the following couplets
and all that happened slandering tongues have whispered in mine ear my heart obeyed my hest and soon forgot thy memory and learnt mine eyelids twas the best to live in severance sheer
he lied who said that severance is a bitterer thing than gall it never disappointed me like wine i find it cheer i learnt to hate all news of thee e e n mention of thy name
and turn away and look thereon with loathing pure and mere lookye i cast thee out of heart and far from vitals mine then let the slanderer wot this truth and see i am sincere
quoth i by allah o my lady when he shall read these verses his soul will depart his body quoth she o ibn mansur is passion indeed come to such a pass with him
that thou sayest this saying quoth i had i said more than this verily it were but the truth
now when she heard this her eyes brimmed over with tears and she wrote him a note i swear by allah o commander of the faithful
and therein were these couplets how long shall i thy coyness and thy great aversion see thou hast satisfied my censurers and pleased their enmity i did amiss and wot it not
so deign to tell me now whatso they told thee haply twas the merest calumny i wish to welcome thee dear love even as welcome i sleep to these eyes and eyelids in the place of sleep to be
if me thou see with wine bemused heap not thy blame on me
and ceased to say her permitted say when it was the three hundred and thirty third night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king
she sealed it and gave it to me and i said o my lady in good sooth this thy letter will make the sick man whole and ease the thirsting soul then i took it and went from her when she called me back and said to me
o son of mansur say to him she will be thy guest this night at this i joyed with exceeding great joy and carried the letter to jubayr whom i found with his eyes fixed intently on the door
expecting the reply and as soon as i gave him the letter and he opened and read it and understood it he uttered a great cry and fell down in a fainting fit when he came to himself he said to me o ibn mansur
did she indeed write this note with her hand and feel it with her fingers answered i o my lord
o my lady why dost thou not sit said she o ibn mansur
i will not sit i asked and what is that and she answered none may know lovers secrets and putting her mouth to jubayr's ear whispered to him where upon he replied
i hear and i obey then he rose and said somewhat in a whisper to one of his slaves who went out and returned in a little while with a kazi and two witnesses
thereupon jubayr stood up and taking a bag containing an hundred thousand dinars said o kazi marry me to this young lady and write this sum to her marriage settlement quoth the kazi to her say thou
i consent to this i consent to this quoth she whereupon he drew up the contract of marriage and she opened the bag and taking out a handful of gold gave it to the kazi and the witnesses and handed the rest to jubayr
thereupon the kazi and the witnesses withdrew and i sat with them in mirth and merriment till the most part of the night was past when i said in my mind these are lovers and they have been this long while separated
i will now arise and go sleep in some place afar from them and leave them to their privacy one with other so i rose but she caught hold of my skirts saying what thinkest thou to do nothing but so and so answered i
upon which she rejoined sit thee down and when we would be rid of thee we will send thee away so i sat down with them till near daybreak when she said to me o ibn mansur go to yonder chamber
for we have furnished it for thee and it is thy sleeping place thereupon i arose and went thither and slept till morning when a page brought me basin and ewer and i made the ablution and prayed the dawn prayer then i sat down
and indeed thou deservest thy honorarium and he called his treasurer and said bring hither three thousand dinars so he brought a purse containing the gold pieces and jubayr gave it to me saying
favour us by accepting this but i replied i will not accept it till thou tell me the manner of the transfer of love from her to thee
and saw a skiff wherein were ten damsels like moons and amongst them the lady budur lute in hand she preluded in eleven modes then returning to the first sang these two couplets
fire is cooler than fires in my breast rock is softer than heart of my lord marvel i that he's formed to hold in water soft frame heart rock hard said i to her
repeat the couplets and the air but she would not
the bad state of affairs troubled him more than it did any one else but he could think of no way to make them better i cannot bear to see things going on so badly he said to the queen and his chief councillors i wish i knew how other kingdoms were governed
one of his councillors offered to go to some other countries and see how they were governed and come back and tell him all about it but this did not suit his majesty you would simply return he said and give me your ideas about things i want my own ideas
the queen then suggested that he should take a vacation and visit other kingdoms and see for himself how things were managed in them this did not suit the king a vacation would not answer he said
i should not be gone a week before something would happen here which would make it necessary for me to come back the queen then suggested that he be banished for a certain time say a year in that case he could not come back and would be at full liberty to visit foreign kingdoms
if it were made impossible for me to come back he said of course i could not do it the scheme is a good one let me be banished and he gave orders that his council should pass a law banishing him for one year preparations were immediately begun to carry out this plan
and at shouting distance behind him walked another and so on at distances of about a hundred yards from each other in this way there would always be a line of men extending from the king to his palace whenever the king had walked a hundred yards the line moved on after him
and another officer was put in the gap between the last man and the palace door thus as the king walked on his line of followers lengthened and was never broken whenever he had any message to send to the queen or any other person in the palace he shouted it to the officer next him
who shouted it to the one next to him and it was so passed on until it reached the palace if he needed food clothes or any other necessary thing the order for it was shouted along the line and the article was passed to him from man to man
each one carrying it forward to his neighbor and then retiring to his proper place in this way the king walked on day by day until he had passed entirely out of his own kingdom at night he stopped at some convenient house on the road
and if any of his followers did not find himself near a house or cottage when the king shouted back the order to halt he laid himself down to sleep wherever he might be by this time the increasing line of followers had used up all the officers of the court
and it became necessary to draw upon some of the under government officers in order to keep the line perfect the king had not gone very far outside the limits of his dominions when he met a sphinx he had often heard of these creatures although he had never seen one before
but when he saw the winged body of a lion with a woman's head he knew instantly what it was he knew also that the chief business of a sphinx was that of asking people questions and then getting them into trouble if the right answers were not given
he therefore determined that he would not be caught by any such tricks as these and that he would be on his guard if the sphinx spoke to him the creature was lying down when the king first saw it but when he approached nearer it rose to its feet there was nothing savage about its look
said the sphinx to him in a pleasant voice give it up replied the king what do you mean by that said the other with an air of surprise i give that up too said the king the sphinx then looked at him quite astonished
i don't mind telling you said the king of my own free will and not in answer to any questions that i do not know where i am going i am a king as you may have noticed and i have been banished from my kingdom for a year
i am now going to look into the government of other countries in order that i may find out what it is that is wrong in my own kingdom every thing goes badly and there is something very faulty at the bottom of it all what this is i want to discover
i am much interested in puzzles and matters of that kind said the sphinx and if you like i will go with you and help to find out what is wrong in your kingdom all right said the king
i shall be glad of your company what is the meaning of this long line of people following you at regular distances asked the sphinx give it up said the king the sphinx laughed
i don't mind telling you said the king of my own free will and not in answer to any question that these men form a line of communication between me and my kingdom where matters i fear must be going on worse than ever in my absence
the two now travelled on together until they came to a high hill from which they could see not very far away a large city that city said the sphinx is the capital of an extensive country
it is governed by a king of mingled sentiments suppose we go there i think you will find a government that is rather peculiar the king consented and they walked down the hill toward the city
how did the king get his sentiments mingled asked the king i really don't know how it began said the sphinx but the king when a young man had so many sentiments of different kinds
and he mingled them up so much that no one could ever tell exactly what he thought on any particular subject of course his people gradually got into the same frame of mind
exactly what people think or what they are going to do
i myself came into these parts because the people every now and then take a great fancy to puzzles and riddles on entering the city the king was cordially welcomed by his brother sovereign to whom he told his story
and he was lodged in a room in the palace such of his followers as came within the limits of the city were entertained by the persons near to whose houses they found themselves when the line halted every day the sphinx went with him to see the sights of this strange city
they took long walks through the streets and sometimes into the surrounding country always going one way and returning another the sphinx being very careful never to bring the king back by the same road or street by which they went
in this way the king's line of followers which of course lengthened out every time he took a walk came to be arranged in long loops through many parts of the city and suburbs many of the things the king saw showed plainly the mingled sentiments of the people
for instance he would one day visit a great smith's shop where heavy masses of iron were being forged the whole place resounding with tremendous blows from heavy hammers and the clank and din of iron on the anvils
the king of the country in his treatment of his visitor showed his peculiar nature very plainly sometimes he would receive him with enthusiastic delight while at others he would upbraid him with having left his dominions to go wandering around the earth in this senseless way
one day his host invited him to attend a royal dinner but when he went to the grand dining hall pleased with anticipations of a splendid feast he found that the sentiments of his majesty had become mingled and that he had determined instead of having a dinner
to conduct the funeral services of one of his servants who had died the day before
which our king not having been acquainted with the deceased servant
now said the king to the sphinx i am in favor of moving on
i don't believe any one in this country was ever truly glad or sorry they mix one sentiment so quickly with another
it was because he always desired to think and feel exactly right he did not wish his feelings to run too much one way or the other and so he is never either right or wrong said the king
i have wasted a good deal of time at this place remarked the king as they walked on and i have seen and heard nothing which i wish to teach my people but i must find out some way to prevent every thing going wrong in my kingdom
and sometimes two or three together and have kept this up year after year
that i have sent a good many communications to my queen but have never received any from her so i do not know how things are going on in my kingdom they then travelled on the long line of followers coming after
keeping their relative positions a hundred yards apart and passing over all the ground the king had traversed in his circuitous walks about the city thus the line crept along like an enormous snake in straight lines loops and coils
and every time the king walked a hundred yards a fresh man from his capital city
if you want to see a kingdom where there really is something to learn you ought to go to the country of the gaumers which we are now approaching all right said the king let us go there
in the course of the afternoon they reached the edge of a high bluff on the level ground beneath this precipice said the sphinx is the country of the dwarfs called gaumers
the king and the sphinx then sat down and looked out from the edge over the country of the little people the officer of the court who had formed the head of the line wished very much to see what they were looking at but when the line halted he was not near enough
you will notice said the sphinx that the little houses and huts are gathered together in clusters each one of these clusters is under a separate king why don't they all live under one ruler asked the king that is the proper way
they do not think so said the sphinx in each of these clusters live the gaumers who are best suited to each other and if any gaumer finds he cannot get along in one cluster he goes to another
the kings are chosen from among the very best of them and each one is always very anxious to please his subjects he knows that every thing that he and his queen and his children eat or drink or wear
and if it were not for them he could not be their ruler
for he knows if he does not please them and govern them well they will gradually drop off from him and go to other clusters
or any kingdom that is a very queer way of ruling said the king i think the people ought to try to please their sovereign he is only one and they are a great many said the sphinx consequently
they are much more important no subject is ever allowed to look down upon a king simply because he helps to feed and clothe him and send his children to school if any one does a thing of this kind he is banished until he learns better
all that may be very well for gaumers said the king but i can learn nothing from a government like that
from what everybody knows is right and proper a king anxious to deserve the good opinion of his subjects what nonsense it ought to be just the other way the ideas of this people are as dwarfish as their bodies the king now arose and took up the line of march
turning away from the country of the gaumers but he had not gone more than two or three hundred yards before he received a message from the queen it came to him very rapidly every man in the line seeming anxious to shout it to the man ahead of him as quickly as possible
the message was to the effect that he must either stop where he was or come home his constantly lengthening line of communication had used up all the chief officers of the government all the clerks in the departments and all the officials of every grade
and if any more men went into the line it would be necessary to call upon the laborers and other persons who could not be spared i think said the sphinx that you have made your line long enough and i think said the king
that you made it a great deal longer than it need to have been by taking me about in such winding ways it may be so said the sphinx with its mystic smile well i am not going to stop here said the king
and so i might as well go back as soon as i can and he shouted to the head man of the line to pass on the order that his edict of banishment be revoked in a very short time the news came that the edict was revoked
the king then commanded that the procession return home tail end foremost the march was at once begun each man as he reached the city going immediately to his home and family the king and the greater part of the line had a long and weary journey
as they followed each other through the country and over the devious ways in which the sphinx had led them in the city of mingled sentiments the king was obliged to pursue all these complicated turnings or be separated from his officers
and so break up his communication with his palace the sphinx accompanied him when at last he reached his palace his line of former followers having apparently melted entirely away he hurried up stairs to the queen leaving the sphinx in the court yard
the king found when he had time to look into the affairs of his dominions that every thing was in the most admirable condition the queen had retained a few of the best officials to carry on the government and had ordered the rest to fall one by one into the line of communication
the king set himself to work to think about the matter it was not long before he came to the conclusion that the main thing which had been wrong in his kingdom was himself he was so greatly impressed with this idea
that he went down to the court yard to speak to the sphinx about it i dare say you are right said the sphinx and i don't wonder that what you learned when you were away and what you have seen since you came back have made you feel certain
that you were the cause of every thing going wrong in this kingdom and now what do you intend to do about your government give it up promptly replied the king that is exactly what i should advise said the sphinx
the king did give up his kingdom he was convinced that being a king was exactly the thing he was not suited for and that he would get on much better in some other business or profession he determined to be a traveller and explorer and to go abroad into other countries
to find out things that might be useful to his own nation his queen had shown that she could govern the country most excellently and it was not at all necessary for him to stay at home she had ordered all the men who had made up his line to follow the king's example
in order that not being bothered with so many officers she would be able to get along quite easily the king was very successful in his new pursuit and although he did not this time have a line of followers connecting him with the palace he frequently sent home messages
which were of use and value to his nation
asking to see her i found she was of incomparable beauty
since the death of his father this noureddin has run through his entire fortune has sold all his possessions and is now reduced to selling the slave calling him to me i said noureddin i will give you ten thousand gold pieces for your slave whom i will present to the king
i will interest him at the same time in your behalf and this will be worth much more to you than what extra money you might obtain from the merchants bad old man he exclaimed
throwing himself on me like a madman he tore me from my horse beat me to his heart's content and left me in the state your majesty sees so saying saouy turned aside his head and wept bitterly
the king's wrath was kindled against noureddin he ordered the captain of the guard to take with him forty men to pillage noureddin's house to rase it to the ground and to bring noureddin and the slave to him a doorkeeper named sangiar
hearing this order given slipped out of the king's apartment and hastened to warn noureddin to take flight instantly with the beautiful persian then presenting him with forty gold pieces he disappeared before noureddin had time to thank him
as soon then as the fair persian had put on her veil they fled together and had the good fortune to get out of the town without being observed at the mouth of the euphrates they found a ship just about to start for bagdad
they embarked and immediately the anchor was raised and they set sail when the captain of the guard reached noureddin's house he caused his soldiers to burst open the door and to enter by force but no trace was to be found of noureddin and his slave
nor could the neighbours give any information about them when the king heard that they had escaped he issued a proclamation that a reward of one thousand gold pieces would be given to whoever would bring him noureddin and the slave
but that on the contrary whoever hid them would be severely punished meanwhile noureddin and the fair persian had safely reached bagdad
when the vessel had come to an anchor they paid five gold pieces for their passage and went ashore never having been in bagdad before they did not know where to seek a lodging
they skirted a garden enclosed by a high wall the gate was shut but in front of it was an open vestibule with a sofa on either side here said noureddin let us pass the night and reclining on the sofas they soon fell asleep
in the middle of it was a vast pavilion whose superb saloon had eighty windows each window having a lustre
only the door keeper lived there
who had strict orders to be very careful whom he admitted and never to allow any one to sit on the sofas by the door it happened that evening that he had gone out on an errand
when he came back and saw two persons asleep on the sofas he was about to drive them out with blows but drawing nearer he perceived that they were a handsome young man and beautiful young woman and decided to awake them by gentler means
noureddin on being awoke told the old man that they were strangers and merely wished to pass the night there come with me said scheih ibrahim i will lodge you better and will show you a magnificent garden belonging to me
i beg you to get us something to eat that we may make merry together being very avaricious scheih ibrahim determined to spend only the tenth part of the money and to keep the rest to himself
while he was gone noureddin and the persian wandered through the gardens and went up the white marble staircase of the pavilion as far as the locked door of the saloon on the return of scheih ibrahim
the paintings and furniture were of astonishing beauty and between each window was a silver arm holding a candle
and all three ate together when they had finished eating noureddin asked the old man to bring them a bottle of wine
that i should come in contact with wine
and have renounced wine for ever you would however do us a great service in procuring us some said noureddin you need not touch it yourself
at sight of the gold scheih ibrahim set off at once to execute the commission on his return noureddin said we have still need of cups to drink from and of fruit if you can procure us some
noureddin and the beautiful persian finding the wine excellent drank of it freely and while drinking they sang both had fine voices
first from a distance then he drew nearer and finally put his head in at the door noureddin seeing him called to him to come in and keep them company at first the old man declined
but was persuaded to enter the room to sit down on the edge of the sofa nearest the door and at last to draw closer and to seat himself by the beautiful persian who urged him so persistently to drink her health that at length he yielded
and took the cup she offered now the old man only made a pretence of renouncing wine
having once yielded he was easily persuaded to take a second cup and a third and so on till he no longer knew what he was doing till near midnight they continued drinking laughing and singing together
light them yourself answered the old man you are younger than i but let five or six be enough she did not stop however till she had lit all the eighty
and when soon after that noureddin proposed to have some of the lustres lit he answered
was surprised to see the pavilion brilliantly illuminated calling the grand vizir giafar he said to him negligent vizir look at the pavilion and tell me why it is lit up when i am not there
when the vizir saw
he trembled with fear and immediately invented an excuse commander of the faithful he said i must tell you that four or five days ago scheih ibrahim told me that he wished to have an assembly of the ministers of his mosque
and asked permission to hold it in the pavilion i granted his request but forgot since to mention it to your majesty giafar
first in giving the permission second in not mentioning it to me and third in not investigating the matter more closely for punishment i condemn you to spend the rest of the night with me in company of these worthy people
while i dress myself as a citizen go and disguise yourself and then come with me when they reached the garden gate they found it open to the great indignation of the caliph the door of the pavilion being also open
he went softly upstairs and looked in at the half closed door of the saloon great was his surprise to see scheih ibrahim
determined to watch and see who the people were and what they did presently scheih ibrahim asked the beautiful persian if anything were wanting to complete her enjoyment of the evening if only she said
i had an instrument upon which i might play
commander of the faithful said the vizir
and i am going to take steps to prevent it wait here till i return
but fishing was strictly forbidden it happened that night however that a fisherman had taken advantage of the gate being open to go in and cast his nets he was just about to draw them when he saw the caliph approaching
then he desired the fisherman to change clothes with him
even to the shoes and the turban taking the two fish in his hand he returned to the vizir who not recognising him would have sent him about his business leaving the vizir at the foot of the stairs
seeing that you are feasting with your friends i bring you these fish noureddin and the persian said that when the fishes were properly cooked and dressed they would gladly eat of them
of which they made so tempting a dish that noureddin and the fair persian ate of it with great relish when they had finished noureddin took thirty gold pieces all that remained of what sangiar had given him
asked as a further favour if the lady would play him one piece on the lute
astounded that he should wish to part from her took her lute and with tears in her eyes sang her reproaches to its music
and where do you go now asked the caliph wherever the hand of allah leads me said noureddin then if you will listen to me
you will immediately return to balsora i will give you a letter to the king which will ensure you a good reception from him it is an unheard of thing said noureddin that a fisherman should be in correspondence with a king let not that astonish you
we studied together and have always remained the best of friends though fortune while making him a king left me a humble fisherman
and wrote the following letter at the top of which he put in very small characters this formula to show that he must be implicitly obeyed in the name of the most merciful god
sends this letter to mohammed zinebi his cousin
bearer of this letter has given it to thee and thou hast read it take off thy royal mantle put it on his shoulders and seat him in thy place without fail farewell
the beautiful persian inconsolable at his departure
scheih ibrahim whatever is in the purse i will share equally with you but as to the slave i will keep her for myself if you do not agree to these conditions you shall have nothing
the old man furious at this insolence as he considered it
who easily avoided a missile from the hand of a drunken man it hit against the wall and broke into a thousand pieces scheih ibrahim still more enraged then went out to fetch a stick
and the vizir and the four slaves entering took off the fisherman's dress and put on him that which they had brought when scheih ibrahim returned a thick stick in his hand
and nothing remained of the fisherman but his clothes in the middle of the room
commander of the faithful your miserable slave has offended you and craves forgiveness
rise i forgive thee then turning to the persian he said fair lady now you know who i am learn also that i have sent noureddin to balsora to be king and as soon as all necessary preparations are made
i will send you there to be queen meanwhile i will give you an apartment in my palace where you will be treated with all honour at this the beautiful persian took courage
and on his arrival there went straight to the palace of the king of whom he demanded an audience it was immediately granted and holding the letter high above his head he forced his way through the crowd
while the king read the letter he changed colour he would instantly have executed the caliph's order but first he showed the letter to saouy whose interests were equally at stake with his own
pretending that he wished to read it a second time
unperceived by anyone he tore off the formula from the top of the letter put it to his mouth and swallowed it then turning to the king he said
the formula is absent besides he has not sent an express with the patent without which the letter is useless leave all to me and i will take the consequences
such a severe bastinado was first administered to him that he was left more dead than alive
and fed him only on bread and water
but dared not without the king's authority to gain this end he loaded several of his own slaves with rich gifts and presented himself at their head to the king
what said the king is that wretch still alive go and behead him at once i authorise you sire
that the execution might be in front of the palace and that it might be proclaimed throughout the city so that no one may be ignorant of it
the king granted these requests and the announcement caused universal grief for the memory of noureddin's father was still fresh in the hearts of his people
went to the prison to fetch noureddin whom he mounted on a wretched horse without a saddle arrived at the palace saouy went in to the king leaving noureddin in the square
called to the executioner to strike at once the king however ordered him to delay not only was he jealous of saouy's interference but he had another reason a troop of horsemen was seen at that moment riding at full gallop towards the square
but this the king refused to do
without which the letter was useless hearing a beautiful voice one day in the women's part of the palace uttering lamentations he was informed that it was the voice of the fair persian
and alighted at the steps of the palace where the king came to greet him the vizir's first question was whether noureddin were still alive the king replied that he was and he was immediately led forth though bound hand and foot
by the vizir's orders his bonds were immediately undone and saouy was tied with the same cords
what treatment noureddin had received
but he declined to shed the blood of his enemy who was forthwith handed over to the executioner
but this too he declined saying that after what had passed there he preferred never to return but to enter the service of the caliph he
and lived long in great happiness with the fair persian as to the king
it was acknowledged by all men that no finer speech than that delivered by him
this man is declared to be unfit for any position of note because he always shows temper anything can be done with another man he can be made to fit almost any hole because he has his temper under command
it may indeed be assumed that a man who loses his temper while he is speaking is endeavouring to speak the truth such as he believes it to be and again it may be assumed that a man who speaks constantly without losing his temper
in a matter of horseflesh
and refuses to stop when you bid him mister gresham had been very indiscreet
by retreating within his own shell during the whole of that saturday sunday and monday morning lord cantrip was with him three or four times and he saw both mister palliser who had been chancellor of the exchequer under him
and it came to be whispered in certain circles that he had resigned or was resigning or would resign the leadership of his party
and that he was destroyed by feelings of regret and almost of remorse the ministers held a cabinet council on the monday morning and it was supposed afterwards that that also had been stormy
lord drummond at the war office and mister boffin from the board of trade did however actually resign and mister boffin's explanations in the house
mister boffin had certainly not joined the present ministry so he said with the view of destroying the church
he had no other remark to make and he was sure that the house would appreciate the course which had induced him to seat himself below the gangway the house cheered very loudly
and mister boffin was the hero of ten minutes mister daubeny detracted something from this triumph by the overstrained and perhaps ironic pathos with which he deplored the loss of his right honourable friend's services
now this right honourable gentleman had never been specially serviceable but the wonder of the world arose from the fact that only two gentlemen out of the twenty or thirty who composed the government
did give up their places on this occasion and this was a conservative government with what a force of agony did all the ratlers of the day repeat that inappropriate name conservatives and yet
ratler himself almost felt that he loved the church only two resignations whereas it had been expected that the whole house would fall to pieces was it possible that these earls
and the two dukes and those staunch old tory squires should remain in a government pledged to
was all the honesty all the truth of the great party confined to the bosoms of mister boffin and lord drummond doubtless they were all esaus but would they sell their great birthright for so very small a mess of pottage
the parsons in the country and the little squires who but rarely come up to london spoke of it all exactly as did the ratlers there were parishes in the country in which mister boffin was canonised
though up to that date no cabinet minister could well have been less known to fame than was mister boffin what would those liberals do who would naturally rejoice in the disestablishment of the church
not on his own party but on them it must always be so when measures of reform are advocated by a conservative ministry there will always be a number of untrained men ready to take the gift without looking at the giver
they have not expected relief from the hands of greeks but will take it when it comes from greeks or trojans what would mister turnbull say in this debate and what mister monk mister turnbull was the people's tribune
of the day mister monk had also been a tribune then a minister and now was again something less than a tribune
who regarded mister monk as the honestest and most patriotic politician of the day the debate was long and stormy but was peculiarly memorable for the skill with which mister daubeny's higher colleagues defended the steps they were about to take
the thing was to be done in the cause of religion the whole line of defence was indicated by the gentlemen who moved and seconded the address an active well supported church was the chief need of a prosperous and intelligent people
as to the endowments there was some confusion of ideas but nothing was to be done with them inappropriate to religion education
would receive the bulk of what was left after existing interests had been amply guaranteed there would be no doubt so said these gentlemen that ample funds for the support of an episcopal church
would come from those wealthy members of the body to whom such a church was dear there seemed to be a conviction that clergymen under the new order of things would be much better off than under the old as to the connection with the state
the time for it had clearly gone by the church as a church would own increased power when it could appoint its own bishops and be wholly dissevered from state patronage
some of these gentlemen pleaded their cause so well that they almost made it appear that episcopal ascendancy would be restored in england by the disseverance of the church and state mister turnbull
who was himself a dissenter was at last upon his legs and then the ratlers knew that the game was lost it would be lost as far as it could be lost by a majority in that house on that motion
to doubt them all of all possible ministers of the crown at this period mister daubeny was he thought perhaps the worst and the most dangerous but the thing now offered was too good to be rejected
in consequence of the squabbles of ministers when men wanted power either to grasp at it or to retain it then they offered bribes to the people but in the taking of such bribes there was no dishonesty
and he should willingly take this bribe mister monk spoke also he would not he said feel himself justified in refusing the address to the crown proposed by ministers
simply because that address was founded on the proposition of a future reform as to the expediency of which he had not for many years entertained a doubt
that he had voted for the permanence of the church establishment and he must therefore support the government then ratler whispered a few words to his neighbour i knew the way he'd run
when gresham insisted on poor old mildmay's taking him into the cabinet the whole thing has gone to the dogs said bonteen on the fourth night the house was divided
there was certainly no longer that sturdy adherence to their chief which is necessary for the solidarity of a party perhaps no leader of the house was ever more devoutly worshipped by a small number of adherents than was mister gresham now
but such worship will not support power within the three days following the division the ratlers had all put their heads together and had resolved that the duke of saint bungay was now the only man who could keep the party together
but who should lead our house asked bonteen ratler sighed instead of answering things had come to that pass that mister gresham was the only possible leader
saouy was quite a different character and repelled everyone with whom he came in contact he was always gloomy and in spite of his great riches
of whom he never ceased to speak evil to the king one day while the king amused himself talking with his two vizirs and other members of the council the conversation turned on female slaves
while some declared
maintained that beauty alone was not enough but that it must be accompanied by wit wisdom modesty and if possible knowledge the king not only declared himself to be of this opinion
you seem to find that a very great sum for you it may be so but not for me
and charged them directly they had found such a one as he described to inform him they promised to do their utmost and no day passed that they did not bring a slave for his inspection but none was found without some defect
at length early one morning while khacan was on his way to the king's palace a dealer throwing himself in his way announced eagerly that a persian merchant
had a slave to sell whose wit and wisdom were equal to her incomparable beauty
overjoyed at this news gave orders that the slave should be brought for his inspection on his return from the palace the dealer appearing at the appointed hour khacan found the slave beautiful beyond his expectations
and immediately gave her the name of the fair persian being a man of great wisdom and learning
that he would seek in vain another slave to surpass her in any of the qualities required by the king and therefore asked the dealer what price the merchant put upon her sir was the answer
for less than ten thousand gold pieces he will not let her go he declares that what with masters for her instruction and for bodily exercises not to speak of clothing and nourishment he has already spent that sum upon her
khacan who was better able to judge of her merits than the dealer wishing to bring the matter to a conclusion sent for the merchant and said to him it is not for myself that i wish to buy your slave
but for the king her price however is too high sir replied the merchant i should esteem it an honour to present her to his majesty did it become a merchant to do such a thing
it has cost me to make her such as she is
and given to the merchant who before withdrawing said sir as she is destined for the king i would have you observe that she is extremely tired with the long journey
and before presenting her to his majesty you would do well to keep her a fortnight in your own house and to see that a little care is bestowed upon her the sun has tanned her complexion but when she has been two or three times to the bath
and is fittingly dressed you will see how much her beauty will be increased
he gave the beautiful persian an apartment near to that of his wife whom he charged to treat her as befitting a lady destined for the king and to order for her the most
before bidding adieu to the fair persian he said to her no happiness can be greater than what i have procured for you judge for yourself you now belong to the king
i have however to warn you of one thing i have a son who though not wanting in sense is young foolish and headstrong
the persian thanked him for his advice and promised to profit by it noureddin for so the vizir's son was named went freely in and out of his mother's apartments he was young well made and agreeable
and had the gift of charming all with whom he came in contact as soon as he saw the beautiful persian though aware that she was destined for the king he let himself be carried away by her charms
and determined at once to use every means in his power to retain her for himself the persian was equally captivated by noureddin and said to herself the vizir does me too great honour in buying me for the king
to gaze upon her beauty to talk and laugh with her and never would have left her side if his mother had not forced him some time having elapsed on account of the long journey
since the beautiful persian had been to the bath five or six days after her purchase the vizir's wife gave orders that the bath should be heated for her
and that her own female slaves should attend her there and after wards should array her in a magnificent dress that had been prepared for her
kissing her hand the beautiful slave said madam i do not know how you find me in this dress that you have had prepared for me your women assure me that it suits me so well that they hardly knew me
if it is the truth they tell me and not flattery it is to you i owe the transformation my daughter
they do not flatter you i myself hardly recognised you the improvement is not due to the dress alone but largely to the beautifying effects of the bath i am so struck by its results that i would try it on myself
she had no sooner gone than he arrived and not finding his mother in her apartment would have sought her in that of the persian the two little slaves barred the entrance
saying that his mother had given orders that he was not to be admitted taking each by an arm he put them out of the anteroom and shut the door then they rushed to the bath informing their mistress with shrieks and tears
that noureddin had already gone out much astonished to see the vizir's wife enter in tears the persian asked what misfortune had happened what exclaimed the lady you ask me that knowing that my son noureddin has been alone with you
but madam inquired the persian what harm is there in that how
certainly but noureddin has just been to tell me that his father has changed his mind and has bestowed me upon him i believed him and so great is my affection for noureddin that i would willingly pass my life with him
would to heaven exclaimed the wife of the vizir that what you say were true but noureddin has deceived you and his father will sacrifice him in vengeance for the wrong he has done
so saying she wept bitterly and all her slaves wept with her khacan entering shortly after this was much astonished to find his wife and her slaves in tears
his wife tried to console him saying do not torment thyself with the sale of my jewels i will obtain ten thousand gold pieces and with this sum
do not suppose replied her husband that it is the loss of the money that affects me my honour is at stake and that is more precious to me than all my wealth you know that saouy is my mortal enemy
eighteen thirty five b h peck master doctor stevenson r n surgeon
nine free women and their twenty two children and a crew of twenty six several ships had been wrecked on king's island
to keep a bright look out he said king's island is inhabited by anthropophagi the bloodiest man eaters ever known and if you don't want to go to pot you had better keep your eyes skinned
so the look out man did not go to sleep
unshipped her rudder and parted into four pieces only nine men and thirteen women reached the island they were nearly naked and had nothing to eat and they wandered along the beach during the night searching amongst the wreckage
at last they found a puncheon of rum upended it stove in the head and drank the thirteen women then lay down on the sand close together and slept the night was very cold
and robinson an apprentice covered the women as well as he could with some pieces of sail and blankets soaked with salt water the men walked about the beach all night to keep themselves warm
being afraid to go inland for fear of the cannibal blackfellows in the morning they went to rouse the women and found that seven of the thirteen were dead the surviving men were the master b h peck
joseph bennet thomas sharp john watson edward calthorp thomas hines robert ballard john robinson
the women were ellen galvin mary stating ann cullen rosa heland rose dunn and margaret drury
for three weeks these people lived almost entirely on shellfish they threw up a barricade on the shore above high water mark to protect themselves against the cannibals
the only chest that came ashore unbroken was that of robinson the apprentice and in it there was a canister of powder a flint musket was also found among the wreckage
and with the flint and steel they struck a light and made a fire when they went down to the beach in search of shellfish one man kept guard at the barricade and looked out for the blackfellows his musket was loaded with powder and pebbles
three weeks passed away before any of the natives appeared but at last they were seen approaching along the shore from the south at the first alarm all the ship wrecked people ran to the barricade for shelter
and the men armed themselves with anything in the shape of weapons they could find but their main hope of victory was the musket they could not expect to kill many cannibals with one shot
but the flash and report would be sure to strike them with terror and put them to flight by this time their diet of shellfish had left them all weak and emaciated skeletons only just alive
still the little life left in them was precious and they resolved to sell it as dear as they could they watched the savages approaching at length they could count their number
they were only eleven all told and were advancing slowly now they saw that seven of the eleven were small only picaninnies
when they came nearer three out of the other four were seen to be lubras and the eleventh individual then resolved himself into a white savage who roared out
who had taken up is abode on the island with his harem three tasmanian gins and seven children they were the only permanent inhabitants
the cannibal blacks had disappeared and continued to exist only in the fancies of the mariners scott's residence was opposite new year's island not far from the shore
there he had built a hut and planted a garden with potatoes and other vegetables flesh meat he obtained from the kangaroos and seals their skins he took to launceston in his boat
and in it he brought back supplies of flour and groceries he had observed dead bodies of women and men and pieces of a wrecked vessel cast up by the sea
and had travelled along the shore with his family looking for anything useful or valuable which the wreck might yield after hearing the story and seeing the miserable plight of the castaways he invited them to his home
on arriving at the hut scott and his lubras prepared for their guests a beautiful meal of kangaroo and potatoes this was their only food as long as they remained on king's island for scott's only boat had got adrift
and his flour tea and sugar had been all consumed but kangaroo beef and potatoes seemed a most luxurious diet to the men and women who had been kept alive for three weeks on nothing but shellfish
scott and his hounds hunted the kangaroo and supplied the colony with meat the liver of the kangaroo when boiled and left to grow cold is a dry substance which with the help of hunger and a little imagination
is said to be as good as bread in the month of july eighteen thirty five heavy gales were blowing over king's island for fourteen days the schooner elizabeth with whalers for port fairy
was hove to off the coast standing off and on six hours one way and six hours the other akers the captain and his mate got drunk on rum and water daily
the cook of the industry was on board the elizabeth the man whom captain blogg was flogging when his crew seized him and threw him overboard the cook also was now pitched overboard for having given evidence against the four men
who had saved him from further flogging at this time also captain friend of the whaling cutter sarah ann took shelter under the lee of new year's island and he pulled ashore to visit scott the sealer
there he found the shipwrecked men and women whom he took on board his cutter and conveyed to launceston except one woman and two men it was then too late in the season to take the whalers to port fairy
captain friend was appointed chief district constable at launceston all the constables under him were prisoners of the crown receiving half a dollar a day
the share of the crew of a whaling vessel was one fiftieth of the value of the oil and bone the boat steerer received one thirtieth and of the headmen some had one twenty fifth others one fifteenth
in this same year eighteen thirty five batman went to port phillip with a few friends and seven sydney blackfellows
and by the twenty fifth of the same month he had compiled a report of his expedition which he sent to governor arthur together with a copy of the grant of land executed by the black chiefs
he had obtained three copies of the grant signed by three brothers jagga jagga by bungaree yan yan moorwhip and marmarallar
but it was of great extent like infinite space whose centre is everywhere and circumference nowhere
a place of small account even to this day batman was a long limbed sydney native and he bestrode his real estate like a colossus but king william was a bigger colossus than batman
he claimed both the land and the blacks and ignored the crown grant
he afterwards claimed to be the founder of melbourne he could write and talk everlastingly
sea sickness nearly killed him so he stayed behind while the other adventurers went and laid the foundation they first examined the shores of western port then went to port philip bay and entered the river yarra
they disembarked on its banks ploughed some land sowed maize and wheat and planted two thousand fruit trees they were not so grasping as batman and each man pegged out a farm of only one hundred acres
these farms were very valuable in the days of the late boom and are called the city of melbourne batman wanted to oust the newcomers he claimed the farms under his grant from the jagga jaggas
he squatted on batman's hill and looked down with evil eyes on the rival immigrants he saw them clearing away the scrub along flinders street and splitting posts and rails all over the city from spencer street to spring street
regardless of the fact that the ground under their feet would be in the days of their grandchildren worth three thousand pounds per foot their bullock drays were often bogged in elizabeth street
and we took a furnished apartment for one month the decision to leave france had changed everything
no more sorrow
it was now nothing but dreams of happiness and vows of eternal love i wished once for all to make my dear mistress forget all the suffering i had caused her
how had i been able to resist such proofs of tender affection and courageous resignation not only did brigitte pardon me but she was willing to make a still greater sacrifice
and leave everything for me as i felt myself unworthy of the devotion she exhibited i wished to requite her by my love at last my good angel had triumphed
and admiration and love resumed their sway in my heart brigitte and i examined a map to determine where we should go to bury ourselves from the world we had not yet decided
and we found pleasure in that very uncertainty while glancing over the map we said where shall we go what shall we do where shall we begin life anew
how shall i tell how deeply i repented my cruelty when i looked upon her smiling face
although still pale from the sorrows of the past happy projects of future joy you are perhaps the only true happiness known to man
for eight days we spent our time making purchases and preparing for our departure then a young man presented himself at our apartments he brought letters to brigitte
after their interview i found her sad and distraught but i could not guess the cause unless the letters were from n
nevertheless our preparations progressed rapidly and i became impatient to get away at the same time i was so happy that i could hardly rest
when i arose in the morning and the sun was shining through our windows i experienced such transports of joy that i was almost intoxicated with happiness
so anxious was i to prove the sincerity of my love for brigitte that i hardly dared kiss the hem of her dress her lightest words made me tremble as though her voice was strange to me
i alternated between tears and laughter and i never spoke of the past except with horror and disgust our room was full of our goods scattered about in disorder
albums pictures books and the dear map we loved so much
every few moments i would stop and kneel before brigitte who would call me an idler
and that i was good for nothing and all sorts of projects flitted through our minds sicily was far away but the winters are so delightful there
genoa is very pretty with its painted houses its green gardens and the apennines in the background but what noise what crowds out of every three men on the street
one is a monk and another a soldier florence is sad it is the middle ages living in the midst of modern life
how can any one endure those grilled windows and that horrible brown color with which all the houses are soiled what could we do at rome we are not traveling in order to forget ourselves
much less for the sake of instruction to the rhine but the season is over and although we do not care for the world of fashion
but spain
one has to travel like an army on the march and may expect everything except repose let us go to switzerland too many people go there
and most of them are deceived as to the nature of its attractions but it is there are unfolded the three most beautiful colors on god's earth
and the whiteness of the snows on the summits of glaciers let us go let us go cried brigitte let us fly away like two birds let us pretend my dear octave that we just met each other yesterday
you met me at a ball i pleased you and i love you you tell me that some leagues distant in a certain little town you loved a certain madame pierson what passed between you and her i do not know
and i will whisper to you that not long since i loved a terrible fellow who made me very unhappy you will reprove me and close my mouth and we will agree
never to speak of such things when brigitte spoke thus i experienced a feeling that resembled avarice i caught her in my arms and cried o god
i know not whether it is with joy or with fear that i tremble i am about to carry off my treasure die my youth die all memories of the past die all cares and regrets
o my good brave mistress you have made a man out of a child
perhaps before i knew you another woman might have cured me but now you alone of all the world have power to destroy me or to save me
for i bear on my heart the wound of all the evil i have done you i have been an ingrate blind and cruel god be praised you love me still
look carefully about that deserted house you will find a fantom there for the man who left it and went away with you is not the man who entered it is it true
is it true that i am yours yes far from this odious world in which you have grown old before your time yes my child you are going to love i will have you such as you are
my mission will have been accomplished and i shall always be thankful for it finally we decided to go to geneva and then choose some resting place in the alps
brigitte was enthusiastic about the lake
already lausanne vevay oberland and beyond the summits of monte rosa and the immense plain of lombardy already oblivion repose flight
all the delights of happy solitude invited us already when in the evening with joined hands we looked at one another in silence we felt rising within us that sentiment of strange grandeur
which takes possession of the heart on the eve of a long journey
which has in it something of the terrors of exile and the hopes of a pilgrimage are there not in the human mind wings that flutter and sonorous chords that vibrate how shall i describe it
is there not a world of meaning in the simple words all is ready we are about to go suddenly brigitte became languid she bowed her head and was silent
when i spoke of our departure she arose cold and resigned and continued her preparations when i swore to her that she was going to be happy and that i would consecrate my life to her
she shut herself up in her room and wept when i kissed her
when i told her that nothing had yet been done that it was not too late to renounce our plans she frowned severely when i begged her to open her heart to me
then stopped and repulsed me as though involuntarily
suddenly in the midst of greatest despair
i had written my mistress saying that i never wished to see her again i kept my word but i passed the nights under her window seated on a bench before her door
i could see the lights in her room i could hear the sound of her piano at times i saw something that looked like a shadow through the partially drawn curtains
one night as i was seated on the bench plunged in frightful melancholy i saw a belated workman staggering along the street
he muttered a few words in a dazed manner and then began to sing he was so much under the influence of liquor that he walked at times on one side of the gutter and then on the other
finally he fell on a bench facing another house opposite me there he lay still supported on his elbows and slept profoundly the street was deserted
a dry wind swept the dust here and there the moon shone through a rift in the clouds and lighted the spot where the man slept so i found myself tete a tete with this man who
not suspecting my presence was sleeping on that stone bench as peacefully as though in his own bed he served to divert my grief i arose to leave him in full possession
then returned and resumed my seat i could not leave that door at which i would not have knocked for an empire
i stopped before the sleeper what sleep i said surely this man does not dream his clothes are in tatters his cheeks are wrinkled his hands hardened with toil
he is some unfortunate who does not have bread every day a thousand gnawing cares a thousand mortal sorrows await his return to consciousness
nevertheless this evening he had a piece of money in his pocket he entered a tavern where he purchased oblivion he has earned enough in a week to enjoy a night of slumber
now his mistress can betray him his friend can glide like a thief into his hut i could shake him by the shoulder and tell him that he is being murdered that his house is on fire
he would turn over and continue to sleep and i i do not sleep i continued pacing up and down the street i do not sleep i
i am so proud and so foolish that i dare not enter a tavern and i do not understand that if all unfortunates enter there it is in order that they may come out happy oh
god the juice of a grape crushed under the foot suffices to dissipate the deepest sorrow and to break all the invisible threads that the fates weave about our pathway we weep like women we suffer like martyrs
and we sit down in our tears as did adam at eden's gate and in order to cure our wound we have but to make a movement of the hand and moisten our throats
how pitiable our grief since it can be thus assuaged we are surprised that providence does not send angels to grant our prayers it need not take the trouble
for it has seen our woes
the ocean of evil that surrounds us and is content to hang a small black fruit along our paths since that man sleeps so soundly on his bench why do not i sleep on mine
my rival is doubtless passing the night with my mistress he will leave her at daybreak she will accompany him to the door and they will see me asleep on my bench
their kisses will not awaken me and they will shake me by the shoulder i will turn over on the other side and sleep on thus inspired by a fierce joy
i set out in quest of a tavern as it was past midnight some were closed that put me in a fury what i cried even that consolation is refused me
i ran hither and thither knocking at the doors of taverns crying wine wine at last i found one open i called for a bottle
and without caring whether it was good or bad i gulped it down a second followed and then a third i dosed myself as with medicine
and i forced the wine down as though it had been prescribed by a physician to save my life the heavy fumes of the liquor which was doubtless adulterated mounted to my head
as i had gulped it down at a breath drunkenness seized me promptly i felt that i was becoming muddled then i experienced a lucid moment then confusion followed
then consciousness left me i leaned my elbows on the table and said adieu to myself but i had a confused idea that i was not alone in the tavern
but were not bourgeois in short they belonged to that ambiguous class
which has neither fortune nor occupation which never works except at some criminal plot which is neither poor nor rich
they were disputing over a dirty pack of cards among them i saw a girl who appeared to be very young and very pretty decently clad
and resembling her companions in no way except in the harshness of her voice which was rough and broken as though it had performed the office of public crier she looked at me closely
as though astonished to see me in such a place for i was elegantly attired little by little she approached my table and seeing that all the bottles were empty smiled
i saw that she had fine teeth of brilliant whiteness i took her hand and begged her to be seated she consented with good grace and asked what we should have for supper
she observed my emotion and inquired the cause i could not reply she understood that i had some secret sorrow and forebore any attempt to learn the cause
drawing her handkerchief she dried my tears from time to time as we dined there was something about that girl that was at once repulsive and sweet
a singular impudence mingled with pity that i could not understand if she had taken my hand in the street she would have inspired a feeling of horror in me
but it seemed so strange that a creature i had never seen should come to me and without a word proceed to order supper and dry my tears with her handkerchief that i was rendered speechless
revolted and yet charmed what i had done had been done so quickly that i seemed to have obeyed some impulse of despair
i suddenly cried out what do you want of me how do you know who i am who told you to dry my tears is this your vocation and do you think i desire you
i would not touch you with the tip of my finger what are you doing here reply at once is it money you want what price do you put on your pity i arose and tried to go out
but my feet refused to support me at the same time my eyes failed me a mortal weakness took possession of me and i fell over a chair you are not well she said taking me by the arm
you have drunk like the child that you are without knowing what you were doing sit down in this chair and wait until a cab passes you will tell me where you live and i will order the driver to take you home to your mother
since she added you really find me ugly as she spoke i raised my eyes perhaps my drunkenness deceived me or perhaps i had not seen her face clearly before
but suddenly i detected in that unfortunate a fatal resemblance to my mistress i shuddered at the sight there is a certain shudder that affects the hair
some say it is death passing over the head but it was not death that passed over mine it was the malady of the age
and it was she who with her pale half mocking features
prompt action on the part of the physician on the hospital ambulance had started her feeble heart which had been affected by the current of electricity to beating
this among other things colonel ashley learned when he hastened to the jewelry store from the homestead leaving at the latter place his trusty lieutenant jack young to look after both larch and harry king
neither of whom seemed likely to leave the place very soon tell me more about it said the colonel when he was sitting with mister kettridge in the dimly lighted jewelry shop after sallie had been taken to the hospital what shocked her
the same electric wires on the showcase that shocked miss brill the other day the electricians had been told to remove them but had not yet done so but i thought those wires were dead cut after the other accident mister kettridge
so they were but they can be supplied with current from another source it seems and i was the innocent cause of doing it you how by throwing over a switch on the work bench where james darcy used to busy himself
an electric switch on darcy's work bench yes come and see for yourself i've sent for the electrician to come and rip out everything i'll have the place all wired over it was a makeshift job to begin with
and since darcy complicated the wires with some that he hoped to run his electric lathe with there is no telling when one may get a shock how did it happen asked the colonel as the jeweler led the way to that part of the store where darcy had the repair bench
behind the watch showcase it was now close to midnight and the excitement over the accident to sallie which had occurred after the closing hour for the store had subsided not as much of a crowd having gathered at that time of the evening
as would have done earlier well it happened this way explained kettridge we're going to have a special sale of a medium priced line of goods to morrow i was getting ready for it after the clerks had gone setting out the display and the like
when i found i needed help it wasn't much just the little odds and ends that a woman can do better than a man when it comes to making things look fancy i might have telephoned for miss brill
but i didn't like to bring her back as she'd worked hard all day then i thought of sallie page it's true she's deaf but she has been in the family so to speak a long while and she knows the shop and the goods pretty well
she's quick if she is old so i got her down about nine o'clock and we started in then exactly how it happened i don't know i was puttering around the work table where darcy used to do his jewel setting and his repair work
and sallie was over near the showcase i wanted more light on a certain piece of jewelry i had in my hand and i thoughtlessly threw over a switch i saw on darcy's table it was a switch i hadn't noticed before
in fact i accidentally uncovered it by moving a collection of his tools i hadn't previously disturbed no sooner had i closed the circuit than i heard a scream from sallie and saw her fall backwards i had given her a shock without knowing it
that was queer murmured the colonel let me have a look at that switch and while you're about it i'll look too said another voice in the dimly lighted store and as the two turned in startled surprise
they saw detective carroll smiling at them i heard there was another accident up here he went on still smiling so i came to have a look
the electric switch on darcy's table was the answer i couldn't help hearing what you said mister kettridge said carroll and i don't know as i would have tried not to if i could this is important i rather guess it makes it look a bit bad for your friend colonel ashley
and there was a sneer in the words well i don't know was the cool response the wires as i understand it are to run an electric lathe and they might easily have become crossed
but it's a good one i'll have a look at that switch i thought maybe i might find something interesting here when i heard about the shock to the old servant and i didn't miss my guess
there was nothing for the colonel or mister kettridge to say or do and they remained passive while carroll took his time looking about then he telephoned for haliday of the prosecutor's office and also for the chief electrician of the police signal system
and all three spent some time looking at the wires and testing them what do you think about it asked mister kettridge of the colonel when the store was again dim and quiet what do i think i don't know i'm going to have a talk with darcy in the morning
well i'll drop his case that's all if darcy simulated surprise when the next morning at the jail
the prisoner was a consummate actor the detective thought colonel ashley darcy exclaimed i never knew that my lathe wires crossed or connected with any circuit that might shock a person it is true i had the wires run in secretly
as i didn't want my cousin to know about them she didn't favor my experiments on the electrical lathe
and of course you can easily imagine i never could plan to injure sallie page that way or the young lady who was knocked down the other day
but i am bound to point out to you that the prosecution will make the most of this and that it looks bad for you i know it does colonel but i had no more to do with my cousin's death than carroll or you
nor have i the least suspicion who did kill her my god what object would i have and he turned and paced up and down well i'll do the best i can said the colonel but i must say it looks black
then you never knew your wires might by the closing of the switch on your table shock some one standing near the show case i never dreamed of it the wires must have been changed since i used them that will be looked into
and the stopping of the clocks could your apparatus have done that never it is true a strong electrical current might
but it would not stop all the clocks in the store or all that were going at different hours perhaps not well i must see what i can do
please find a way colonel i was so hopeful and now the young man could not go on for a moment because of his emotion amy miss mason how does she take this he faltered
she doesn't know it yet i believe
but it will be in this afternoon's i wish you could see her and explain i i can't stand it to have her lose faith in me i'll see what i can do
you you don't believe me guilty because of this new development do you if i did i wouldn't still be handling your case mister darcy was the answer but i don't say that there isn't something to explain i am now giving you the benefit of the doubt
then maybe amy will do the same it was not many hours before the colonel knew this point the first edition afternoon papers had not long been out when the detective who had gone to his hotel after an early morning visit to the jail
was telephoned to by miss mason
when i saw this terrible thing about mister darcy's wires and poor sallie is she in any danger colonel i believe not that's good may i come to see you i have something important to ask you yes or i will come to see you miss mason
no i had rather come to your hotel if you will meet me in the ladies parlor it will be secluded enough at this time and a little later amy and the colonel were talking the girl's haggard look told plainly of her distress
tell me frankly she begged doesn't this make it look a little worse for mister darcy yes miss mason it does i had best be frank with you the prosecutor is bound to show that the presence of the wires
controlled by a switch from mister darcy's table were so arranged that he might shock his cousin or any one who put his hands on the showcase and they will undoubtedly argue that he planned this to make her insensible for his own purposes
or to cover up a robbery i am only making it thus bald that you may know and face the worst i appreciate that and i thank you then it does look bad for him it does and how does he bear up under it
very well his chief anxiety is regarding you i realize this is a test of friendship miss mason a test of both the loyalty of yourself and your father and
he'll stick by jimmie through thick and thin for he says he knows he's innocent and yourself how does your loyalty meet the test amy mason drew herself up a splendid figure of beautiful womanhood
she flashed a look at the detective that made him stand to his full military height and bearing
the white snake not very long ago there lived a king the fame of whose wisdom was spread far and wide nothing appeared to be unknown to him
and it really seemed as if tidings of the most secret matters must be borne to him by the winds he had one very peculiar habit every day after the dinner table had been cleared
and everyone had retired a confidential servant brought in a dish it was covered and neither the servant nor anyone else had any idea what was on it for the king never removed the cover
or partook of the dish till he was quite alone this went on for some time till one day the servant who removed the dish was so overcome with curiosity
that he could not resist carrying it off to his own room after carefully locking the door he lifted the cover and there he saw a white snake lying on the dish
on seeing it he could not restrain his desire to taste it so he cut off a small piece and put it in his mouth hardly had it touched his tongue
of tiny voices outside his window he stepped to the casement to listen and found that the sound proceeded from the sparrows who were talking together
and telling each other all they had seen in the fields and woods the piece of the white snake which he had eaten had enabled him to understand the language of animals
now on this particular day it so happened that the queen lost her favourite ring and suspicion fell on the confidential servant who had access to all parts of the palace
the king sent for him and threatened him angrily saying that if he had not found the thief by the next day he should himself be taken up and tried it was useless to assert his innocence
he was dismissed without ceremony in his agitation and distress he went down to the yard to think over what he could do in this trouble here were a number of ducks resting near a little stream
and pluming themselves with their bills whilst they kept up an animated conversation amongst themselves the servant stood still listening to them they were talking of where they had been waddling about all the morning
and of the good food they had found but one of them remarked rather sadly there's something lying very heavy on my stomach for in my haste i've swallowed a ring which was lying just under the queen's window
no sooner did the servant hear this than he seized the duck by the neck carried it off to the kitchen and said to the cook suppose you kill this duck you see she's nice and fat
yes indeed said the cook weighing the duck in his hand she certainly has spared no pains to stuff herself well and must have been waiting for the spit for some time so he chopped off her head and when she was opened
there was the queen's ring in her stomach it was easy enough now for the servant to prove his innocence and the king feeling he had done him an injustice and anxious to make some amends
desired him to ask any favour he chose and promised to give him the highest post at court he could wish for the servant however declined everything and only begged for a horse
and some money to enable him to travel as he was anxious to see something of the world when his request was granted he set off on his journey and in the course of it he one day came to a large pond
on the edge of which he noticed three fishes which had got entangled in the reeds and were gasping for water though fish are generally supposed to be quite mute
he heard them grieving aloud at the prospect of dying in this wretched manner having a very kind heart he dismounted and soon set the prisoners free and in the water once more they flapped with joy
and stretching up their heads cried to him we will remember and reward you for saving us he rode further and after a while he thought he heard a voice in the sand under his feet
he paused to listen and heard the king of the ants complaining if only men with their awkward beasts would keep clear of us that stupid horse is crushing my people mercilessly to death with his great hoofs
the servant at once turned into a side path and the ant king called after him we'll remember and reward you the road next led through a wood where he saw a father and a mother raven
standing by their nest and throwing out their young away with you you young rascals they cried we can't feed you any longer you are quite big enough to support yourselves now
the poor little birds lay on the ground flapping and beating their wings and shrieked we poor helpless children feed ourselves indeed why we can't even fly yet what can we do but die of hunger
then the kind youth dismounted drew his sword and killing his horse left it there as food for the young ravens they hopped up satisfied their hunger and piped
we'll remember and reward you he was now obliged to trust to his own legs and after walking a long way he reached a big town here he found a great crowd
and much commotion in the streets and a herald rode about announcing the king's daughter seeks a husband but whoever would woo her must first execute a difficult task and if he does not succeed
he must be content to forfeit his life many had risked their lives but in vain when the youth saw the king's daughter he was so dazzled by her beauty that he forgot all idea of danger
and went to the king to announce himself a suitor on this he was led out to a large lake and a gold ring was thrown into it before his eyes the king desired him to dive after it adding
if you return without it you will be thrown back into the lake time after time till you are drowned in its depths everyone felt sorry for the handsome young fellow and left him alone on the shore
there he stood thinking and wondering what he could do when all of a sudden he saw three fishes swimming along and recognised them as the very same whose lives he had saved
which it laid at the young man's feet and when he picked it up and opened it there was the golden ring inside full of delight he brought it to the king's daughter expecting to receive his promised reward
the haughty princess however on hearing that he was not her equal by birth despised him and exacted the fulfilment of a second task she went into the garden and with her own hands
she strewed ten sacks full of millet all over the grass he must pick all that up to morrow morning before sunrise she said not a grain must be lost
the youth sat down in the garden and wondered how it would be possible for him to accomplish such a task but he could think of no expedient and sat there sadly expecting to meet his death at daybreak
but when the first rays of the rising sun fell on the garden he saw the ten sacks all completely filled standing there in a row and not a single grain missing
the ant king with his thousands and thousands of followers had come during the night and the grateful creatures had industriously gathered all the millet together and put it in the sacks
the king's daughter came down to the garden herself and saw to her amazement that her suitor had accomplished the task she had given him but even now she could not bend her proud heart and she said
though he has executed these two tasks yet he shall not be my husband till he brings me an apple
but he set off determined to walk as far as his legs would carry him though he had no hope of ever finding it after journeying through three different kingdoms he reached a wood one night
and lying down under a tree prepared to go to sleep there suddenly he heard a sound in the boughs and a golden apple fell right into his hand at the same moment three ravens flew down to him
perched on his knee and said we are the three young ravens whom you saved from starvation when we grew up and heard you were searching for the golden apple we flew far away over the seas to the end of the world
where the tree of life grows and fetched the golden apple for you full of joy the young man started on his way back and brought the golden apple to the lovely princess
whose objections were now entirely silenced they divided the apple of life and ate it together and her heart grew full of love for him so they lived together to a great age in undisturbed happiness
the least things become great events in the country
who were on the morning before us walking in the square before the church were very anxiously bestirring themselves to learn when the individual would arrive who had recently become the purchaser of the most eligible premises
for a butcher in that town and which were exactly opposite to the church one of those idlers more inquisitive than his companions went and asked the butcher boy
who with a merry face and active hands was very busy in completing the arrangements of the shop
for he had bought the property through an agent at this moment two persons who had come from paris in a cabriolet alighted at the door of the shop the one was murphy quite cured of his wound
and the other the chourineur at the risk of repeating a vulgar saying we will assert that the impression produced by dress is so powerful
was hardly to be recognised in his present attire his countenance had undergone the same change he had put off with his rags his savage coarse and vulgar air
and to see him walk with both his hands in the pockets of his long and warm coat of dark broadcloth he might have been taken for one of the most inoffensive citizens in the world faith my fine fellow
the way was long and the cold excessive were they not
i am too happy and joy keeps one warm besides when i say happy why what yesterday you came to seek for me at the port saint nicolas where i was unloading as hard as i could
to keep myself warm i had not seen you since the night when the white haired negro had put out the schoolmaster's eyes by jove it quite shook me that affair did
what a countenance he who looked so mild and gentle i was quite frightened at that moment i was indeed well what then you said to me good day chourineur
what you are up again i see so much the better so much the better
he was obliged to leave paris some days after the affair of the allee des veuves and he forgot you my man
why i shall be very sorry for it that's all i meant to say my good fellow that he had forgotten to recompense your services but that he should always remember them
those words cheered me up again directly tonnerre i i shall never forget him he told me i had heart and honour that's enough unfortunately my lad
monseigneur left without giving any orders about you i have nothing but what monseigneur gives me and i am unable to repay as i could wish all that i owe you personally
after that fatal night then monseigneur would not have left without thinking of you
did not tell me to do so and i thought that perhaps he had no further occasion for me but you might have supposed that he would at least desire to express his gratitude to you
well well don't let us say another word about it only i have had a great deal of trouble to find you out you do not now go to the ogress's no why not
oh from some foolish notions i have had very well but to return to what you were telling me
you told me i am glad i have found you and still happy perhaps
why you see when you came to where i was at work at the timber yard you said my lad i am not rich but i can procure you a situation where your work will be easier than on the quai
and where you will gain four francs a day four francs a day
i could not believe it twas the pay of an adjutant sub officer i replied
but you said then that i must not look so like a beggar as that would frighten the employer to whom you would take me i answered i have not the means of dressing otherwise you said to me come to the temple
i followed you i chose the most spicy attire that mother hubart had you advanced me the money to pay her
i was as smart as a landlord or a dentist you appointed me to meet you this morning
i found you there in a cab and here we are well do you find anything to regret in all this
you see to be dressed in this way spoils a fellow and so you see when i put on again my old smock frock and trousers i sha'n't like it and then to gain four francs a day
i who never earned but two and that all at once
and that it cannot last i would rather sleep all my life on the wretched straw bed in my cock loft than sleep five or six nights only in a good bed that's my view of the thing and you are by no means peculiar in your view
but the best thing is to sleep always in a good bed and no mistake it is better to have a bellyful of victuals every day than to starve with hunger ah here is a butchery here said the chourineur
as he listened to the blows of the chopper which the boy was using and observed the quarters of beef through the curtains yes my lad it belongs to a friend of mine would you like to see it whilst the horse just recovers his wind
if it was only when i had montfaucon for a slaughter house and broken down horses for cattle it is droll but if i had the means a butcher's is the trade in which i should set up for i like it to go on a good nag to buy cattle at fairs
to return home to one's own fireside to warm yourself if cold or dry yourself if wet to find your housekeeper or a good jolly plump wife cheerful and pleasant with a parcel of children to feel in your pockets
and then in the morning in the slaughter house to seize an ox by the horns particularly when he's fierce nom de nom he must be fierce then to put on the ring to cleave him down cut him up
dress him tonnerre that would have been my ambition as it was the goualeuse's to suck barley sugar when she was a little un
not seeing her any more at the ogress's
had taken her away from there
poor child she never liked to do wrong she was so young and then the habit
but will you come into the shop until our horse has rested awhile the chourineur and murphy entered the shop and then went to see the yard where three splendid oxen
the chaise house the slaughter house the lofts and the out buildings of the house which were all in excellent order and kept with a cleanliness and care which bespoke regularity and easy circumstances
when they had seen all but the up stairs murphy said you must own that my friend is a lucky fellow this house and property are his without counting a thousand crowns in hand to carry on his business with
and he is besides only thirty eight strong as a bull with an iron constitution and very fond of his business the industrious and civil journeyman that you saw in the shop supplies his place
with much capability when he goes to the fairs to purchase cattle i say again is he not a lucky fellow
but you see there are lucky and unlucky people and when i think that i am going to gain four francs a day and know how many there are who only earn the half or even less will you come up and see the rest of the house
one moment said the chourineur with a downcast and embarrassed air taking murphy by the arm listen whilst i say a word to you
but which i ought not to conceal from the master who employs me because if he is offended by it why then you see why afterwards what do you mean to say
i mean to say well what that i am a convict who has served his time
indeed replied murphy but i never did wrong to any one exclaimed the chourineur and i would sooner die of hunger than rob but i have done worse than rob he added bending his head down
i have killed my fellow creature in a passion but that is not all he continued after a moment's pause i will tell everything to my employer i would rather be refused at first than detected afterwards you know him
my good murphy said he
called jarvis cheerfully look what a fine world it is here's the river all washed clean an the land all washed clean too stir yourselves
we're goin to have hot food an coffee here on the boat
for the thought of her is one that never dies she's sleeping in the valley and the mocking bird is singing where she lies listen to the mocking bird singing o'er her grave
listen to the mocking bird singing where the weeping willows wave you sing melancholy songs for one who is as cheerful as you are sam said harry
that's so i like the weepy ones best but they don't really make me feel sad harry they jest fill me with a kind o longin to reach out an grab somethin
that always floats jest before my hands a sort o pleasant sadness i'd call it ah well i yet remember when we gathered in the cotton side by side
oh listen to the mocking bird still singing
oh listen to the mocking bird still singing where the weeping willows wave now that ain't what you'd call a right merry song
here you are breakfast all ready
i'm anxious to see our mountains ag'in the boat soon reached a point where lower banks ran for some time and from the center of the stream they saw the noble country outspread before them
a vast mass of shimmering green the rain had ceased entirely but the whole earth was sweet and clean from its great bath leaves and grass had taken on a deeper tint
and the crisp air was keen with blooming odors
they made good headway against it harry's practice with the oar was giving his muscles the same quality like steel wire which those of jarvis and ike had so they went on for that day and others
and drew near to the hills the eyes of jarvis kindled
he said an i ain't got nothin ag'in em i admit their claims before they make em but my true love it's the mountains an my mountain home
harry's eyes kindled too i say that i want the first shot jarvis laughed true sperrit he said nobody will set up a claim ag'inst you
less it's that lunkhead ike my nephew are you willin to let him have it ike ike grinned and nodded the kentucky narrowed and the current grew yet stronger
but changing oftener at the oars they still made good headway the ranges dark green on the lower slopes but blue on the higher ridges beyond them slowly came nearer
and when night came they had left the lowlands several miles behind they tied up to a great beech growing almost at the water's edge and made their camp on the ground harry's deer
did not come that night but it did on the following one then jarvis and he after supper went about a mile up the stream stalking the best drinking places
come gingerly to the river harry was lucky enough to bring him down with the first shot an achievement that filled him with pride and jarvis soon skinned and dressed the animal adding him to their larder
i don't shoot deer cept when i need em to eat said jarvis an we do need this one we'll broil strips of him over the coals in the mornin don't your mouth water harry
it does the strips proved the next day to be all that jarvis had promised and they continued their journey with renewed elasticity fair weather keeping them company
deeper and deeper they went into the mountains the region had all the aspects of a complete wilderness now and then they saw smoke which jarvis said
was rising from the chimneys of log cabins and once or twice they saw cabins themselves in sheltered nooks but nobody hailed them the news of the war had spread here of course
but harry surmised that it had made the mountaineers cautious suppressing their natural curiosity he did not object at all to their reticence as it made traveling easier for him
they were now rowing along a southerly fork of the kentucky another deer had been killed falling this time to the rifle of jarvis and one night they shot
two wild turkeys jarvis and his nephew would arrive home full handed in every respect and his great tenor boomed out joyously over the stream
speeding away in echoes among the lofty peaks and ridges that had now turned from hills into real mountains they towered far above the stream and everywhere
there were masses of the deepest and densest green the primeval forest clothed the whole earth and the war to which harry was going seemed a faint and far thing
traveling now became slow because they always had a strong current to fight harry at times when the country was not too rough left the boat and walked along the bank
he could go thus for miles without feeling any weariness naturally very strong he did not realize how much his work at the oar was increasing his power the thin
vital air of the mountains flowed through his lungs and when jarvis sang as he did so often he felt that he could lift up his feet and march as if to the beat of a drum
they left the fork of the kentucky at last and rowed up one of the deep and narrow mountain creeks peaks towered all about them a half mile over their heads
sometimes the creek flowed between cliffs and again it opened out into narrow valleys in a two days journey up its course they passed only two cabins
in ordinary water
said jarvis at the second cabin i know the man who lives in it an he's to be trusted we'd have left the boat an the things with him
but the creek is so high now that we kin make at least twenty miles more an tie up at bill rudd's place
an this boat is too heavy to be carried around it they reached rudd's place about dark he was a hospitable mountaineer with a double roomed log cabin a wife
and two small children he volunteered gladly to take care of the boat and its belongings while jarvis and the boys went on the next day to jarvis's home about ten miles away rudd
and his wife were full of questions they were eager to hear of the great world which was represented to them by frankfort and of the war in the lowlands concerning which they had heard vaguely
rudd had been to frankfort once and felt himself a traveler
he and his wife knew jarvis and ike well and they glanced rather curiously at harry
an down into virginia on some business of his own
said jarvis harry slept in a house that night for the first time in days and he did not like it he awoke once with a feeling as if walls were pressing down upon him
and he could not breathe he arose opened the door and stood by it for a few minutes while the fresh air poured in jarvis awoke and chuckled
i know what's the matter with you harry he said
you feel penned up in houses if it wasn't for rain an snow i'd do without roofs cept in winter leave the door wide open an we'll both sleep better
nothin of course would wake that lunkhead
and finding an abundance of fallen wood along the beach they pulled it into a heap and kindled a fire the night as usual was cool but the pleasant flames dispelled the chill
and the cove was very snug and comfortable after a day of hard and continuous work jarvis and ike did the cooking at which they were adepts after pullin a boat ten or twelve hours
there's nothin like somethin warm inside you to make you feel good said jarvis ike you lunkhead hurry up with that coffee pot me an harry can't wait more'n a minute longer
ike grinned and hurried a fine bed of coals had now formed and in a few minutes a great pot of coffee was boiling and throwing out savory odors
jarvis took a small flat skillet from the boat and fried the corn cakes harry fried bacon and strips of dried beef in another the homely task in good company
was most grateful to him his face reflected his pleasure providin it don't rain on you
said jarvis you don't know what a genuine appetite is until you live under the blue sky by day
harry you'll find three tin plates in the locker in the boat fetch em harry abandoned his skillet for a moment and brought the plates ike the coffee now being about ready
produced three tin cups and with these simple preparations they began their supper the flames went down and the fire became a great bed of coals glowing in the darkness
and making a circle of light the edges of which touched the boat harry found that jarvis was telling the truth the long work and the cool night air without a roof above him
gave him a hunger the like of which he had not known for a long time he ate cake after cake of the corn bread and piece after piece of the meat jarvis and ike
kept him full company didn't i tell you it was fine said jarvis stretching his long length and sighing with content i feel so good that i'm near bustin into song
then bust said harry soft o'er the fountain lingering falls the southern moon far o'er the mountain breaks the day too soon in thy dark eyes splendor
where the warm light loves to dwell weary looks yet tender speak their fond farewell nita juanita ask thy soul if we should part nita juanita lean thou on my heart
the notes of the old melody swelled and as before the deep channel of the river gave them back again in faint and dying echoes time and place
and the voice of jarvis with its haunting quality threw a spell over harry the present rolled away he was back in the romantic old past of which he had read so much
and kenton and harrod and the other great forest rangers the darkness sank down deeper and heavier the stars came out presently and twinkled in the blue
yet it was still dim in the gorge save where the glowing bed of coals cast a circle of light the kentucky showing a faint tinge of blue flowed with a soft murmur
harry and ike were lying on the grass propped each on one elbow while jarvis sitting with his back against a small tree was still singing when in thy dreaming
moons like these shall shine again and daylight beaming prove thy dreams are vain wilt thou not relenting for thy absent lover sigh in thy heart consenting to a prayer gone by
nita juanita let me linger by thy side nita juanita be thou my own fair bride the song ceased and the murmur of the river came more clearly
harry was drawn deeper and deeper into the old dim past lying there in the gorge with only the river to be seen the wilderness came back and the whole land
was clothed with the mighty forests he brought himself back with an effort when he saw jarvis looking at him and smiling tain't so bad down here on a spring night is it harry he said
as i said that it don't rain where did you get that song sam asked harry they had already fallen into the easy habit of calling one another by their first names
from a travelin feller that wandered up into our mount'ins he could play it an sing it most beautiful
it grips you about the heart some way or other an it sounds best when you are out at night on a river like this harry i know that you're goin through our mountins to git to richmond an the war
me an that lunkhead ike my nephew
s'pose you stop up in the hills with us
an so's the fishin harry shook his head but he was very grateful it's good of you to ask me he said but i'm bound to go on wa'al
ef you change your mind on the trip
an we'll take you in ain't that so ike ike grinned and nodded his uncle looked at him admiringly ike's a lunkhead he said but he's great to travel with
you kin jest talk an talk an he never puts in
now fellers we'll put out the fire an roll in our blankets i guess we don't need to keep any watch here harry was soon in a dreamless sleep
he sat up in his blankets and looked around a mere mass of black coals showed where the fire had been and two long dark objects looking like logs in the dim light were his comrades
he cast the blankets aside entirely and walked a little distance up the stream the instinct that had awakened him was right he heard voices and saw a light
then he remembered the rope ferry
that some one was crossing although it was midnight and past he went back and touched jarvis lightly on the shoulder the mountaineer awoke instantly and sat up all his faculties alert
what is it he asked in a whisper people crossing the river at the ferry above harry whispered back
like as not they're soldiers in this war
when they could have a lot more fun at home jest let ike sleep on he's my sister's son but i don't b'lieve anybody would ever think of kidnappin him
which crossed the river at a point where the hills on either side dipped low as they drew near they heard many voices and the lights increased to a dozen jarvis's belief
that it was no party of ordinary travelers seemed correct let's go a little nearer the bushes will still hide us whispered the mountaineer to the boy
but i guess we'd better keep out o their business though my inquirin turn o mind makes me anxious to see just who they are they walked to the end of the stretch of bushes and
while yet in shelter could see clearly all that was going on especially as there was no effort at concealment on the part of those who were crossing the stream they numbered at least two hundred men
and all had arms and horses although they were dismounted now and the horses accompanied by small guards were being carried over the river first evidently the men understood their work
as it was being done rapidly and without much noise harry's attention was soon concentrated on three men who stood near the edge of the bushes not more than thirty feet away
they wore slouch hats and were wrapped in heavy dark cloaks
with their backs to him and although they seemed to be taking no part in the management of the crossing they watched everything intently two of them were very tall but the third was shorter and slender
the moon brightened presently and some movement at the ferry caused the three men to turn
i guess you know em harry he said yes replied the boy see the one in the center with the drooping mustaches and the splendid figure people have called him the handsomest man
in the united states he was a guest at my father's house last year when he was running for the presidency it is the man who received more popular votes than lincoln but fewer in the electoral college
breckinridge yes john c breckinridge why he's younger than i expected he don't look more'n forty just about forty i should say
the other tall man is named morgan john h morgan i saw him in lexington once he's a great horseman the third the slender man who looks as if he were all fire is named duke
i think that he and morgan are related i fancy they are going south or maybe to virginia harry these are your people yes sam they are my people
the mountaineer
and hesitated but only for a moment then he spoke in a decided whisper since they are your people an are goin on the same business that you are
now is your time to join em stead o workin your way cross the hills with two ignorant mountaineers
my nephew no sam i'll confess to you that it's a temptation but it's likely that they're not going where i mean to go and where i should go i'm going to keep on with you
unless you and ike throw me out of the boat well spoke boy said jarvis he did not tell harry that colonel kenton
until he should leave him in the mountains and that he had given him his sacred promise he understood what a powerful pull the sight of breckinridge morgan and duke had given to harry and he knew
that if the boy were resolved to go with them he could not stop him all the horses were now across the three leaders took their places in the boat reached the farther shore
and the whole company rode away in the darkness despite his resolution harry felt a pang when the last figure disappeared our curiosity bein gratified i think we'd better go back to sleep
farewell farewell we're seein em goin south harry i dream ahead sometimes an i dream with my eyes open
treadin on dead men those are good men brave and generous oh i don't mean them in partickler
them that say nothin
an don't never make fools o theirselves it's time we was back in our blankets sleepin sound cause we've got another long day o hard rowin before us ike had not awakened
and jarvis and harry were soon asleep again but they were up at dawn and after a brief breakfast resumed their journey on the river going at a good pace toward the southeast
they were hailed two or three times from the bank by armed men whether of the north or south harry could not tell but when they revealed themselves as mere mountaineers on their way back having sold a raft
they were permitted to continue after the last such stop jarvis remarked rather grimly they don't know that there are three good rifles in this boat
backed by five or six pistols an that at least two of us meanin me and ike are bout the best shots that ever come out o the mountains but his good nature soon returned he was not a man who could retain anger long
and before night he was singing again as i strayed from my cot at the close of the day to muse on the beauties of june neath a jessamine shade
and she sadly complained to the moon but it's not june sam
that is if them clouds straight ahead don't conclude to j'in an make a fuss the clouds did join and they made quite a fuss pouring out a great quantity of rain
which a rising wind whipped about sharply but jarvis first steered the boat under the edge of a high bank where it was protected partly and they stretched the strong canvas before the first drops of rain fell
it was sufficient to keep the three and all their supplies dry and harry watched the storm beat sullen thunder rolled up from the southwest
and the skies were cut down the center by burning strokes of lightning the wind whipped the surface of the river into white foamy waves but harry heard and beheld it all with a certain pleasure
it was good to see the storm seek them and yet not find them behind their canvas cover he remained close in his place and stared out at the foaming surface of the water back
went his thoughts again to the far off troubled time when the hunter in the vast wilderness depended for his life on the quickness of eye and ear he had read so much of boone and kenton
and harrod and his own great ancestor and the impression was so vivid that the vision was translated into fact
said jarvis who glancing at him had read his mind with almost uncanny intuition times like these the injuns an the wild animals all come back
way up in the mountains where nothin of the old days is gone cept the injuns ike i guess it's cold grub for us tonight
in all this rain reach into that locker an bring out the meat an bread this ain't so bad after all we're snug an dry
so let the storm howl they bore him away when the day had fled and the storm was rolling high and they laid him down in his lonely bed
the lightning flashed and the wild sea lashed the shore with its foaming wave and the thunder passed on the rushing blast as it howled o'er the rover's grave
the full tenor rose and swelled above the sweep of wind and rain and the man's soul was in the words he sang a great voice with the accompaniment of storm the water before them
the lightning blazing at intervals and the thunder rolling in a sublime refrain moved harry to his inmost soul the song ceased but its echo
was long in dying on the river did you pick up that too from a wandering fiddler asked harry no i don't know where i got it
i ain't ever seen the sea harry but it must be a mighty sight particklarly
very likely you'd be seasick if you were on it then i like it best when the waves are not running the thunder and lightning ceased after a while
but the rain came with a steady driving rush the night had now settled down thick and dark and as the banks on either side of the river were very high harry felt as if they were in a black canyon
he could see but dimly the surface of the river all else was lost in the heavy gloom but the boat had been built so well and the canvas cover was so taut and tight that not a drop entered
his sense of comfort increased and the regular even musical thresh of the rain promoted sleep we won't be waked up tonight by people crossin the river that's shore said jarvis
people wouldn't use that crossin nohow on a night like this so boys
an if you don't hurry i'll beat you to that happy land the three were off to the realms of slumber within ten minutes running a race about equal the rain poured all through the night
but they did not awake until the young sun sent the first beams of day into the gorge then jarvis sat up he had the faculty of awakening all at once
then we grounded our firelocks and every man set down by their arms and one abial petty axedentely discharged his peace
he died of dysentery which prevailed in the camp at dorchester on the fifth of october seventeen seventy five in the forty eighth year of his age
may one d nothing very remarkable this day two d
nothing of consequence hapened twelve fourteen no great for news fifteen sixteen no news worth mentioning seventeen
at night their was a fire broke out in boston
when one of the soldiers letting a candle fall amongst some powder and set it on fire
eighteen nineteen nothing very remarkable twenty nothing strange to day
these finally got two vessels afloat went to the island drove the british off burnt eighty tons of hay and brought off many cattle there was some severe fighting during the affair missus john adams writing to her husband said
he was one of the first to venture on board a schooner to land upon the island mister adams was then in the continental congress at philadelphia twenty two nothing to day for news twenty three twenty six
and quite severe skirmishing continued through the night the americans sent for reinforcements
commanded by general putnam in person and accompanied by doctor warren as a volunteer they compelled the british to abandon their sloop and the americans took possession of it the british lost twenty killed and fifty wounded the americans had none killed and only four wounded
they captured twelve swivels and four four pound cannon
the battle of the kegs the thirty one being election day we drank the ladies health and success
speaking of that duty gordon remarks the colonel was obliged therefore for the time mentioned to patrol the guards every night which gave him a round of nine miles to traverse
the ten their was a man whiped for stealing the eleven their was a soldier died at the hospittle
where colonel putnam intrenchet and after an engagement which lasted the afternoon the troops took the hill and it is said that the nearest computation of the loss of the enemy was about fifteen hundred is killed and wounded
were alarmed about one o clock that day and went down to our alarm post and we lay their all the afternoon and about six o clock the troops fired from their brest work on boston neck at our people in roxbury
and we staid until the firing was over and then our regiment was ordered to cambridge to asist our forces and we reached their about twelve o clock at night
dito the twenty three nothing remarkable to day the twenty four
such was the courage of our men that they would go and take up a burning carcass or bomb and take out the fuse the twenty five sunday nothing remarkable
but we soon moved from there to slaks house again the twenty nine nothing remarkable this day the thirty
appendix instructions issued by lord nelson to the admirals and captains of his fleet several days previous to the battle victory off cadiz tenth of october
eighteen o five general memorandum sent to the commanders of ships thinking it almost impossible to bring a fleet of forty sail of the line into a line of battle in variable winds thick weather
and other circumstances which must occur
i have therefore made up my mind to keep the fleet in that position of sailing with the exception of the first and second in command
placing the fleet in two lines of sixteen ships each with an advanced squadron of eight of the fastest sailing two decked ships which will always make if wanted a line of twenty four sail on whichever line the commander in chief may direct
the second in command will after my intentions are made known to him have the entire direction of his line to make the attack upon the enemy and to follow up the blow until they are captured or destroyed
if the enemy's fleet should be seen to windward in line of battle and that the two lines and advanced squadron could fetch them they will probably be so extended that their van could not succour their rear
to lead through about their twelfth ship from their rear or wherever he could fetch if not able to get so far advanced my line would lead through about their centre and the advanced squadron to cut three or four ships ahead of their centre
so as to ensure getting at their commander in chief on whom every effort must be made to capture the whole impression of the british fleet must be to overpower from two or three ships ahead of their commander in chief supposed to be in the centre
to the rear of their fleet i will suppose twenty sail of the enemy's line to be untouched it must be some time before they could perform a manoeuvre to bring their force compact to attack any part of the british fleet engaged
or to succour their own ships which indeed would be impossible without mixing with the ships engaged the enemy's fleet is supposed to consist of forty six sail of the line
british to be one fourth superior to the enemy cut off something must be left to chance nothing is sure in a sea fight beyond all others shot will carry away masts and yards of friends as well as foes
but i look with confidence to a victory before the van of the enemy could succour their rear and then that the british fleet would most of them be ready to receive their twenty sail of the line or to pursue them should they endeavour to make off if the van of the enemy tack
the captured ships must run to leeward of the british fleet if the enemy wear the british must place themselves between the enemy and captured and disabled british ships and should the enemy close i have no fear for the result
the second in command will in all possible things direct the movements of his line by keeping them so compact as the nature of the circumstances will admit
in order to get as quickly as possible to the enemy's line and to cut through beginning from the twelfth ship from the enemy's rear some ships may not get through their exact place but they will always be at hand to assist their friends if any are thrown in the rear of the enemy
should the enemy wear together or bear up and sail large
unless otherwise directed by the commander in chief which is scarcely to be expected as the entire management of the lee line after the intentions of the commander in chief are signified is intended to be left to the admiral commanding that line the remainder of the enemy's fleet
thirty four sail are to be left to the management of the commander in chief who will endeavour to take care that the movements of the second in command are as little interrupted as possible nelson and bronte by command of the vice admiral
memorandum book the following interesting extracts are faithfully copied from his lordship's memorandum book written entirely with his own hand saturday
september fourteenth eighteen o five at six o'clock arrived at portsmouth and having arranged all my business embarked at the bathing machines with mister rose and mister canning who dined with me at two
got on board the victory at saint helen's wednesday september twenty fifth eighteen o five light airs southerly saw the rock of lisbon
at sunset the captain of the constance came on board and sent my letters for england to lisbon
saturday september twenty eighth eighteen o five fresh breezes
at noon saw eighteen sail nearly calm in the evening joined the fleet under vice admiral collingwood saw the enemy's fleet in cadiz amounting to thirty five or thirty six sail of the line
sunday september twenty ninth fine weather gave out the necessary orders for the fleet sent euryalus to watch the enemy with the hydra off cadiz
wednesday october ninth fresh breezes easterly received an account from blackwood that the french ships had all bent their top gallant sails sent the pickle to him with orders to keep a good look out
monday october fourteenth fine weather westerly wind sent amphion to gibraltar and algiers enemy at the harbour's mouth placed defence and agamemnon
from seven to ten leagues west of cadiz and mars and colossus five leagues east of the fleet whose station is from fifteen to twenty west of cadiz and by this chain i hope to have a constant communication with the frigates off cadiz
wednesday october sixteenth moderate breezes westerly
at noon fresh breezes
in the evening fresh gales the enemy as before by signal from weazle thursday october seventeenth moderate breezes north westerly sent the donegal to gibraltar
to get a ground tier of casks received accounts by the diligent storeship that sir richard strachan
october nineteenth fine weather wind easterly at half past nine the mars being one of the look out ships made the signal that the enemy were coming out of port
at three the colossus made the signal that the enemy's fleet was at sea in the evening made the signal to observe my motions during the night for the britannia prince and dreadnought to take stations as most convenient
communicated with phoebe defence and colossus
outside of cadiz yesterday evening but the wind being southerly
we were between trafalgar and cape spartel the frigates made the signal that they saw nine sail outside the harbour sent the frigates instructions for their guidance and placed the defence colossus and mars between me and the frigates
at noon fresh gales and heavy rain
in the afternoon captain blackwood telegraphed that the enemy seemed determined to go to the westward and that they shall not do if in the power of nelson and bronte to prevent them at five telegraphed captain blackwood
that i relied upon his keeping sight of the enemy at five o'clock
all night and told me by signal which tack they were upon at eight we wore
october twenty first at day light saw enemy's combined fleets from east
and to prepare for battle the enemy with their heads to the southward at seven the enemy wearing in succession
dusk was falling when we made our way in the direction of maple cottage nayland smith appeared to be keenly interested in the character of the district
later it gave place to a rickety fence my friend peered through a gap in the latter there is quite an extensive estate here he said not yet cut up by the builder it is well wooded on one side and there appears to be a pool lower down
the road was a quiet one and we plainly heard the tread quite unmistakable of an approaching policeman
does this piece of ground extend down to the village constable he inquired quite willing for a chat the man stopped and stood with his thumbs thrust in his belt yes sir they tell me three new roads will be made through it between here and the hill
it must be a happy hunting ground for tramps i've seen some suspicious looking coves about at times but after dusk an army might be inside there and nobody would ever be the wiser burglaries frequent in the houses backing on to it oh no
a favorite game in these parts is snatching loaves and bottles of milk from the doors first thing as they're delivered there's been an extra lot of it lately my mate who relieves me has got special instructions to keep his eye open in the mornings the man grinned
it wouldn't be a very big case even if he caught anybody no said smith absently perhaps not
good night good night sir replied the constable richer by half a crown and thank you smith stared after him for a moment tugging reflectively at the lobe of his ear i don't know that it wouldn't be a big case after all he murmured
come on petrie not another word did he speak until we stood at the gate of maple cottage there a plain clothes man was standing evidently awaiting smith he touched his hat have you found a suitable hiding place asked my companion rapidly
through that ivy there's a clear view of the cottage door good keep your eyes open if a messenger comes for me he is to be intercepted you understand no one must be allowed to disturb us you will recognize the messenger he will be one of your fellows
you had better run up and see the patient accordingly i followed weymouth upstairs and was admitted by his wife to a neat little bedroom where the grief stricken woman lay a wanly pathetic sight did you administer the draught as directed i asked
missus james weymouth nodded she was a kindly looking woman with the same dread haunting her hazel eyes as that which lurked in her husband's blue ones the patient was sleeping soundly some whispered instructions i gave to the faithful nurse
and descended to the sitting room it was a warm night and weymouth sat by the open window smoking the dim light from the lamp on the table lent him an almost startling likeness to his brother and for a moment i stood at the foot of the stairs scarce able to trust my reason
then he turned his face fully towards me and the illusion was lost do you think she is likely to wake doctor he asked i think not i replied nayland smith stood upon the rug before the hearth
swinging from one foot to the other in his nervously restless way the room was foggy with the fumes of tobacco for he too was smoking at intervals of some five to ten minutes his blackened briar which i never knew him to clean or scrape would go out
the tobacco habit is infectious and seating myself in an arm chair i lighted a cigarette
i settled down to work upon my record of the fu manchu case silence fell upon maple cottage save for the shuddering sigh which whispered through the over hanging cedars and smith's eternal match striking
yet i could make little progress
this was the sentence imagine a person tall lean and feline high shouldered with a brow like shakespeare and a face like satan a close shaven skull and long magnetic eyes of the true cat green
invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire eastern race accumulated in one giant intellect doctor fu manchu fu manchu as smith had described him to me on that night which now seemed so remotely distant
the night upon which i had learned of the existence of the wonderful and evil being born of that secret quickening
as smith for the ninth or tenth time knocked out his pipe on a bar of the grate the cuckoo clock in the kitchen proclaimed the hour two said james weymouth i abandoned my task
replacing notes and writing block in the bag that i had with me weymouth adjusted the lamp which had begun to smoke i tiptoed to the stairs and stepping softly ascended to the sick room all was quiet and missus weymouth whispered to me that the patient still slept soundly
i returned to find nayland smith pacing about the room in that state of suppressed excitement habitual with him in the approach of any crisis at a quarter past two the breeze dropped entirely
and such a stillness reigned all about us as i could not have supposed possible so near to the ever throbbing heart of the great metropolis plainly i could hear weymouth's heavy breathing he sat at the window and looked out into the black shadows under the cedars
he was listening i doubt not we were all listening some faint sound broke the impressive stillness
brief and upon it ensued a silence more marked than ever some minutes before smith had extinguished the lamp in the darkness i heard his teeth snap sharply together the call of an owl sounded very clearly three times
knowing him to be in that high strung and somewhat irritable mood which claimed him at times of uncertainty when he doubted the wisdom of his actions
he gave no sign very faintly i heard a clock strike the half hour a soft breeze stole again through the branches above the wind i thought must be in a new quarter
in so lonely a spot
yet such was the fact and hard upon the ringing followed another sound
but at whose coming no one of us i think retained complete mastery of himself breaking up the silence in a manner that set my heart wildly leaping it came an imperative knocking on the door my god groaned weymouth
but he did not move from his position at the window stand by petrie said smith he strode to the door and threw it widely open
i think i cried out as i fell back retreated with clenched hands from before that which stood on the threshold it was a wild unkempt figure with straggling beard hideously staring eyes with its hands it clutched at its hair at its chin
plucked at its mouth no moonlight touched the features of this unearthly visitant but scanty as was the illumination we could see the gleaming teeth and the wildly glaring eyes it began to laugh peal after peal
hideous and shrill nothing so terrifying had ever smote upon my ears i was palsied by the horror of the sound then nayland smith pressed the button of an electric torch which he carried
he directed the disk of white light fully upon the face in the doorway oh god cried weymouth it's john and again and again oh god oh god perhaps for the first time in my life i really believed
nay i could not doubt that a thing of another world stood before me i am ashamed to confess the extent of the horror that came upon me james weymouth raised his hands as if to thrust away from him that awful thing in the door he was babbling prayers i think
he leaped forward and in the instant that he grappled with the one who had knocked i knew the visitant for a man of flesh and blood a man who shrieked and fought like a savage animal foamed at the mouth and gnashed his teeth in horrid frenzy knew him for a madman
knew him for the victim of fu manchu not dead but living for inspector weymouth a maniac in a flash i realized all this
and the men who had been watching outside came running into the porch a third was with them and the five of us for weymouth's brother had not yet grasped the fact that a man and not a spirit shrieked and howled in our midst clung to the infuriated madman yet barely held our own with him
the syringe petrie gasped smith quick you must manage to make an injection i extricated myself and raced into the cottage for my bag
even in that thrilling moment i could find time to admire the wonderful foresight of my friend
lay passive upon the couch in his own sitting room a great wonder possessed my mind for the genius of the uncanny being who with the scratch of a needle had made a brave and kindly man into this unclean brutish thing
nayland smith gaunt and wild eyed and trembling yet with his tremendous exertions turned to the man whom i knew to be the messenger from scotland yard well he rapped he is arrested sir the detective reported
has she slept through it said smith to me
smith laughed useless in the first place wherever we went he would find us and of what use to arrest his creatures we could prove nothing against them further it is evident that an attempt is to be made upon my life to night
and by the same means that proved so successful in the case of poor sir crichton
and he leapt stormily to his feet shaking his clenched fists towards the window the villain he cried the fiendishly clever villain i suspected that sir crichton was next and i was right but i came too late petrie that hits me hard old man
to think that i knew and yet failed to save him he resumed his seat smoking hard fu manchu has made the blunder common to all men of unusual genius he said he has underrated his adversary
he has not given me credit for perceiving the meaning of the scented messages he has thrown away one powerful weapon to get such a message into my hands and he thinks that once safe within doors i shall sleep unsuspecting and die as sir crichton died
but without the indiscretion of your charming friend
which by the way consists of a blank sheet of paper smith i broke in who is she she is either fu manchu's daughter his wife
for she has no will but his will except with a quizzical glance in a certain instance how can you jest with some awful thing heaven knows what hanging over your head what is the meaning of these perfumed envelopes
how did sir crichton die he died of the zayat kiss ask me what that is and i reply i do not know
along a certain route upon which i set eyes for the first and only time upon doctor fu manchu travelers who use them sometimes die as sir crichton died
with nothing to show the cause of death but a little mark upon the neck face or limb which has earned in those parts the title of the zayat kiss the rest houses along that route are shunned now i have my theory
and i hope to prove it to night if i live it will be one more broken weapon in his fiendish armory and it is thus
this was my principal reason for not enlightening doctor cleeve even walls have ears where fu manchu is concerned so i feigned ignorance of the meaning of the mark knowing that he would be almost certain to employ the same methods upon some other victim
i wanted an opportunity to study the zayat kiss in operation and i shall have one but the scented envelopes in the swampy forests of the district i have referred to a rare species of orchid almost green and with a peculiar scent
you recall that he thought there was something concealed in his study on a previous occasion fu manchu hit upon the perfumed envelopes he may have a supply of these green orchids in his possession possibly to feed the creature what creature
you no doubt observed that i examined the grate of the study i found a fair quantity of fallen soot
and i took it for granted that the thing whatever it was must still be concealed either in the study or in the library but when i had obtained the evidence of the groom wills i perceived that the cry from the lane or from the park was a signal
i noted that the movements of anyone seated at the study table were visible in shadow on the blind and that the study occupied the corner of a two storied wing and therefore had a short chimney what did the signal mean
that sir crichton had leaped up from his chair and either had received the zayat kiss
had lowered down the straight chimney it was the signal to withdraw that deadly thing by means of the iron stairway at the rear of major general platt houston's i quite easily gained access to the roof above sir crichton's study and i found this
out from his pocket nayland smith drew a tangled piece of silk mixed up with which were a brass ring and a number of unusually large sized split shot
my theory proven he resumed not anticipating a search on the roof
this was to weight the line and to prevent the creature clinging to the walls of the chimney
and the thing was only held by one slender thread which sufficed though
it might have got tangled of course
from there to the hand of sir crichton which from having touched the envelope would also be scented with the perfume was a certain move my god how horrible i exclaimed and glanced apprehensively into the dusky shadows of the room
what is your theory respecting this creature what shape what color it is something that moves rapidly and silently
but i think it works in the dark the study was dark remember save for the bright patch beneath the reading lamp i have observed that the rear of this house is ivy covered right up to and above your bedroom let us make ostentatious preparations to retire
and i think we may rely upon fu manchu's servants to attempt my removal at any rate if not yours but my dear fellow it is a climb of thirty five feet at the very least you remember the cry in the back lane it suggested something to me
and i tested my idea successfully it was the cry of a dacoit oh dacoity though quiescent is by no means extinct fu manchu has dacoits in his train and probably it is one who operates the zayat kiss
since it was a dacoit who watched the window of the study this evening to such a man an ivy covered wall is a grand staircase the horrible events that followed are punctuated in my mind by the striking of a distant clock
it is singular how trivialities thus assert themselves in moments of high tension i will proceed then by these punctuations to the coming of the horror that it was written we should encounter the clock across the common struck two
having removed all traces of the scent of the orchid from our hands with a solution of ammonia smith and i had followed the programme laid down it was an easy matter to reach the rear of the house by simply climbing a fence and we did not doubt
that seeing the light go out in the front our unseen watcher would proceed to the back the room was a large one and we had made up my camp bed at one end stuffing odds and ends under the clothes to lend the appearance of a sleeper
the perfumed envelope lay upon a little coffee table in the center of the floor and smith with an electric pocket lamp a revolver and a brassey beside him sat on cushions in the shadow of the wardrobe i occupied a post between the windows
no unusual sound so far had disturbed the stillness of the night save for the muffled throb of the rare all night cars passing the front of the house our vigil had been a silent one the full moon had painted about the floor
weird shadows of the clustering ivy spreading the design gradually from the door across the room past the little table where the envelope lay and finally to the foot of the bed the distant clock struck a quarter past two a slight breeze stirred the ivy
and a new shadow added itself to the extreme edge of the moon's design something rose inch by inch above the sill of the westerly window
but a sharp sibilant breath from smith told me that he from his post could see the cause of the shadow every nerve in my body seemed to be strung tensely i was icy cold expectant
the shadow became stationary the dacoit was studying the interior of the room then it suddenly lengthened and craning my head to the left
sketchy in the moonlight pressed against the window panes one thin brown hand appeared over the edge of the lowered sash which it grasped and then another the man made absolutely no sound whatever the second hand disappeared and reappeared
click the dacoit swung himself below the window with the agility of an ape as with a dull muffled thud
stand still for your life came smith's voice high pitched
prepared as i was for something horrible
it was an insect full six inches long and of a vivid venomous red color it had something of the appearance of a great ant
and its febrile horrible vitality
and had numberless rapidly moving legs in short it was a giant centipede apparently of the scolopendra group but of a form quite new to me these things i realized in one breathless instant
i leaped to the window and threw it widely open feeling a silk thread brush my hand as i did so a black shape was dropping with incredible agility from branch to branch of the ivy and without once offering a mark for a revolver shot
it merged into the shadows beneath the trees of the garden as i turned and switched on the light nayland smith dropped limply into a chair leaning his head upon his hands even that grim courage had been tried sorely
never mind the dacoit petrie he said nemesis will know where to find him we know now what causes the mark of the zayat kiss therefore science is richer for our first brush with the enemy and the enemy is poorer
since i heard of it sir crichton's stifled cry when we remember that he was almost past speech it is reasonable to suppose that his cry was not the red hand but the red ant petrie
chapter sixteen in the tennis court athletic sports were in high favour at plumfield and the river where the old punt used to wabble about with a cargo of small boys or echo to the shrill screams of little girls trying to get lilies
now was alive with boats of all kinds from the slender wherry to the trim pleasure craft gay with cushions awnings and fluttering pennons everyone rowed and the girls as well as the youths had their races and developed their muscles in the most scientific manner
the large level meadow near the old willow was now the college playground and here baseball battles raged with fury varied by football leaping and kindred sports fitted to split the fingers break the ribs and strain the backs of the too ambitious participants
the gentler pastimes of the damsels were at a safe distance from this champ de mars croquet mallets clicked under the elms that fringed the field rackets rose and fell energetically in several tennis courts
and gates of different heights were handy to practise the graceful bound by which every girl expected to save her life some day when the mad bull which was always coming but never seemed to arrive should be bellowing at her heels one of these tennis grounds was called jo's court
and here the little lady ruled like a queen for she was fond of the game and being bent on developing her small self to the highest degree of perfection she was to be found at every leisure moment with some victim hard at it on a certain pleasant saturday afternoon
she had been playing with bess and beating her for though more graceful the princess was less active than her cousin and cultivated her roses by quieter methods oh dear you are tired and every blessed boy is at that stupid baseball match
what shall i do sighed josie pushing back the great red hat she wore and gazing sadly round her for more worlds to conquer i'll play presently when i'm a little cooler but it is dull work for me as i never win answered bess
fanning herself with a large leaf josie was about to sit down beside her on the rustic seat and wait when her quick eye saw afar off two manly forms arrayed in white flannel their blue legs seemed bearing them towards the battle going on in the distance
but they never reached the fray for with a cry of joy jo raced away to meet them bent on securing this heaven sent reinforcement both paused as she came flying up and both raised their hats but oh the difference there was in the salutes
and put it on again at once as if glad to get the duty over the slender being with the crimson tie lifted his with a graceful bend and held it aloft while he accosted the rosy breathless maid thus permitting her to see his raven locks smoothly parted
with one little curl upon the brow dolly prided himself upon that bow and practised it before his glass but did not bestow it upon all alike regarding it as a work of art fit only for the fairest and most favoured of his female admirers
for he was a pretty youth and fancied himself an adonis eager josie evidently did not appreciate the honour he did her for with a nod she begged them both to come along and play tennis not go and get all hot and dirty with the boys
these two adjectives won the day for stuffy was already warmer than he liked to be and dolly had on a new suit which he desired to keep immaculate as long as possible conscious that it was very becoming
charmed to oblige answered the polite one with another bend you play i'll rest added the fat boy
well you can comfort bess for i've beaten her all to bits and she needs amusing i know you've got something nice in your pocket george give her some and dolphus can have her racket now then fly round and driving her prey before her
josie returned in triumph to the court casting himself ponderously upon the bench which creaked under his weight stuffy
promptly produced the box of confectionery without which he never travelled far and regaled bess with candied violets and other dainties while dolly worked hard to hold his own against a most accomplished antagonist he would have beaten her if an unlucky stumble
which produced an unsightly stain upon the knee of those new shorts had not distracted his mind and made him careless much elated at her victory josie permitted him to rest and offered ironical consolation for the mishap which evidently weighed upon his mind
don't be an old betty it can be cleaned
or a tailor and lived for clothes come now don't hit a fellow when he is down responded dolly from the grass where he and stuffy now lay to make room for both girls on the seat one handkerchief was spread under him and his elbow leaned upon another
while his eyes were sadly fixed upon the green and brown spot which afflicted him i like to be neat don't think it civil to cut about in old shoes and grey flannel shirts before ladies our fellows are gentlemen and dress as such he added rather nettled at the word tailor
for he owed one of those too attractive persons an uncomfortably big bill so are ours but good clothes alone don't make a gentleman here we require a good deal more flashed josie in arms at once to defend her college
when you and your fine gentlemen are twiddling your ties and scenting your hair in obscurity i like old boots and wear them and i hate dandies don't you bess not when they are kind to me and belong to our old set answered bess
with a nod of thanks to dolly who was carefully removing an inquisitive caterpillar from one of her little russet shoes i like a lady who is always polite and doesn't snap a man's head off if he has a mind of his own don't you george asked dolly with his best smile for bess
a tranquil snore was stuffy's sole reply and a general laugh restored peace for the moment but josie loved to harass the lords of creation who asserted themselves too much and bided her time for another attack till she had secured more tennis
she got another game for dolly was a sworn knight of dames so he obeyed her call leaving bess to sketch george as he lay upon his back his stout legs crossed and his round red face partially eclipsed by his hat
so she woke the peaceful sleeper by tickling his nose with a straw till he sneezed himself into a sitting posture and looked wrathfully about for that confounded fly come sit up and let us have a little elegant conversation
you howling swells ought to improve our minds and manners for we are only poor country girls in dowdy gowns and hats began the gad fly
opening the battle with a sly quotation from one of dolly's unfortunate speeches about certain studious damsels who cared more for books than finery
your gowns are all right and those hats the latest thing out began poor dolphus convicting himself by the incautious exclamation caught you that time i thought you fellows were all gentlemen civil as well as nice
and that is a very unmanly thing to do my mother said so and josie felt that she had dealt a shrewd blow at the elegant youth who bowed at many shrines if they were well decorated ones
got you there old boy and she's right you never hear me talk about clothes and such twaddle said stuffy suppressing a yawn and feeling for another bon bon wherewith to refresh himself you talk about eating and that is even worse for a man
you will marry a cook and keep a restaurant some day laughed josie down on him at once this fearful prediction kept him silent for several moments but dolly rallied and wisely changing the subject carried war into the enemy's camp
as you wanted us to improve your manners allow me to say that young ladies in good society don't make personal remarks or deliver lectures little girls who are not out do it and think it witty but i assure you it's not good form
josie paused a moment to recover from the shock of being called a little girl when all the honours of her fourteenth birthday were fresh upon her and bess said in the lofty tone which was infinitely more crushing than jo's impertinence that is true
but we have lived all our lives with superior people
we are so accustomed to sensible conversation and helping one another by telling our faults that we have no gossip to offer you when the princess reproved the boys seldom resented it so dolly held his peace and josie burst out
following her cousin's lead which she thought a happy one our boys like to have us talk with them and take kindly any hints we give they don't think they know everything and are quite perfect at eighteen as i've observed the harvard men do
especially the very young ones josie took immense satisfaction in that return shot and dolly showed that he was hit by the nettled tone in which he answered
the class of fellows you have here need all the polish and culture you can give them and i'm glad they get it our men are largely from the best families all over the country
they value and use well what college gives them and aren't satisfied to slip through
oh i've heard you men talk and heard your fathers say they wish they hadn't wasted time and money just that you might say you'd been through college as for the girls you'll be much better off in all ways when they do get in and keep you lazy things up to the mark as we do here
why do you wear our colour asked dolly painfully conscious that he was not improving the advantages his alma mater offered him but bound to defend her i don't my hat is scarlet not crimson much you know about a colour scoffed josie
i know that a cross cow would soon set you scampering if you flaunted that red tile under her nose retorted dolly
i guess we'd better be going dolf said peaceable stuffy feeling that it would be wise to retreat before another skirmish took place as his side seemed to be getting the worst of it
don't hurry i beg stay and rest you must need it after the tremendous amount of brain work you've done this week it is time for our greek come bess good afternoon gentlemen
and with a sweeping courtesy josie led the way with her hat belligerently cocked up and her racket borne like a triumphal banner over one shoulder for having had the last word she felt that she could retire with the honours of war dolly gave bess his best bow
with the chill on and stuffy subsided luxuriously with his legs in the air murmuring in a dreamy tone little jo is as cross as two sticks today i'm going in for another nap too hot to play anything
so it is wonder if spitfire was right about these beastly spots and dolly sat down to try dry cleansing with one of his handkerchiefs asleep he asked after a few moments of this cheerful occupation
fearing that his chum might be too comfortable when he was in a fume himself no i was thinking that jo wasn't far wrong about shirking tis a shame to get so little done when we ought to be grinding like morton and torry and that lot
i never wanted to go to college but my governor made me much good it will do either of us answered stuffy with a groan for he hated work and saw two more long years of it before him gives a man prestige you know no need to dig i mean to
have a gay old time and be a howling swell if i choose between you and me though
it would be mighty nice to have some of the little dears to lend a hand wouldn't it now i'd like three this minute one to fan me one to kiss me and one to give me some iced lemonade sighed stuffy
with a yearning glance towards the house whence no succour appeared how would root beer do asked a voice behind them which made dolly spring to his feet and stuffy roll over like a startled porpoise sitting on the stile that crossed the wall near by was missus jo
with two jugs slung over her shoulder by a strap several tin mugs in her hand and an old fashioned sun bonnet on her head i knew the boys would be killing themselves with ice water so i strolled down with some of my good wholesome beer
have some yes thanks very much let us pour it and dolly held the cup while stuffy joyfully filled it both very grateful but rather afraid she had heard what went before the wish she fulfilled
she proved that she had by saying as they stood drinking her health while she sat between them looking like a middle aged vivandiere
you say you would like to have girls at your college but i hope you will learn to speak more respectfully of them before they come for that will be the first lesson they will teach you really ma'am i was only joking began stuffy gulping down his beer in a hurry
so was i i'm sure i i'm devoted to em stuttered dolly panic stricken for he saw that he was in for a lecture of some sort not in the right way frivolous girls may like to be called little dears and things of that sort
but the girls who love study wish to be treated like reasonable beings not dolls to flirt with yes i'm going to preach that's my business so stand up and take it like men missus jo laughed but she was in earnest
for by various hints and signs during the past winter she knew that the boys were beginning to see life in the way she especially disapproved both were far from home had money enough to waste and were as inexperienced curious and credulous as most lads of their age
not fond of books therefore without the safeguard which keeps many studious fellows out of harm one self indulgent indolent and so used to luxury that pampering of the senses was an easy thing the other vain as all comely boys are
these traits and foibles made both peculiarly liable to the temptations which assail pleasure loving and weak willed boys missus jo knew them well and had dropped many a warning word since they went to college
but till lately they seemed not to understand some of her friendly hints now she was sure they would and meant to speak out for long experience with boys made her both bold and skilful in handling some of the dangers usually left to silence
till it is too late for anything but pity and reproach i'm going to talk to you like a mother because yours are far away and there are things that mothers can manage best if they do their duty she solemnly began from the depths of the sunbonnet
great scott we're in for it now thought dolly in secret dismay while stuffy got the first blow by trying to sustain himself with another mug of beer that won't hurt you but i must warn you about drinking other things george
overeating is an old story and a few more fits of illness will teach you to be wise
i hear you talk about wines as if you knew them and cared more for them than a boy should
stop at once and learn that temperance in all things is the only safe rule upon my honour i only take wine and iron i need a tonic mother says to repair the waste of brain tissue while i'm studying protested stuffy putting down the mug as if it burnt his fingers
work and plain fare are what you want and i wish i had you here for a few months out of harm's way i'd banting you and fit you to run without puffing and get on without four or five meals a day
i can't help it we all grow fat it's in the family said stuffy in self defence all the more reason you should live carefully do you want to die early or be an invalid all your life no ma'am
stuffy looked so scared that missus jo could not be hard upon his budding sins for they lay at his overindulgent mother's door line in a great measure so she softened the tone of her voice and added with a little slap on the fat hand
as she used to do when it was small enough to pilfer lumps of sugar from her bowl then be careful for a man writes his character in his face and you don't want gluttony and intemperance in yours i know i'm sure i don't
please make out a wholesome bill of fare and i'll stick to it if i can i am getting stout and i don't like it and my liver's torpid and i have palpitations and headache
but it may be overeating and stuffy gave a sigh of mingled regret for the good things he renounced and relief as he finished loosening his belt as soon as his hand was free i will follow it and in a year you'll be a man and not a meal bag now dolly
and missus jo turned to the other culprit who shook in his shoes and wished he hadn't come are you studying french as industriously as you were last winter no ma'am i don't care for it
answered dolly beginning bravely quite in the dark as to what that odd question meant till a sudden memory made him stutter and look at his shoes with deep interest oh he doesn't study it only reads french novels and goes to the theatre when the opera
innocently confirming missus jo's suspicions so i understood and that is what i want to speak about
your men were out in full force and i was glad to see that some of the younger ones looked as ashamed as i felt
did you ever go with them once did you like it no m i i came away early stammered dolly with a face as red as his splendid tie i'm glad you have not lost the grace of blushing yet
but you will soon if you keep up this sort of study and forget to be ashamed the society of such women will unfit you for that of good ones and lead you into trouble and sin and shame oh why don't the city fathers stop that evil thing
when they know the harm it does it made my heart ache to see those boys who ought to be at home and in their beds going off for a night of riot which would help to ruin some of them for ever
the youths looked scared at missus jo's energetic protest against one of the fashionable pleasures of the day and waited in conscience stricken silence stuffy glad that he never went to those gay suppers and dolly deeply grateful that he came away early with a hand on either shoulder
my dear boys if i didn't love you i would not say these things
my peace when a word may keep you from two of the great sins that curse the world and send so many young men to destruction you are just beginning to feel the allurement of them and soon it will be hard to turn away stop now i beg of you
and not only save yourselves but help others by a brave example come to me if things worry you
i have heard many sadder confessions than any you are ever likely to bring me and been able to comfort many poor fellows gone wrong for want of a word in time do this and you will be able to kiss your mothers with clean lips
and by and by have the right to ask innocent girls to love you yes'm thank you i suppose you're right but it's pretty hard work to toe the mark when ladies give you wine and gentlemen take their daughters to see aimee said dolly
foreseeing tribulations ahead though he knew it was time to pull up so it is
i'd rather my boys should be laughed at and cold shouldered by a hundred foolish fellows than lose what once gone no power can give them back innocence and self respect i don't wonder you find it hard to toe the mark
when books pictures ball rooms theatres and streets offer temptations yet you can resist if you try last winter missus brooke used to worry about john's being out so late reporting
he said in his sober way i know what you mean mother but no fellow need to go wrong unless he wants to that's like the deacon exclaimed stuffy with an approving smile on his fat face i'm glad you told me that he's right
and it's because he doesn't want to go wrong we all respect him so added dolly looking up now with an expression which assured his mentor that the right string had been touched and a spirit of emulation roused more helpful perhaps than any words of hers
seeing this she was satisfied and said as she prepared to leave the bar before which her culprits had been tried and found guilty but recommended to mercy then be to others what john is to you a good example
forgive me for troubling you my dear lads and remember my little preachment i think it will do you good though i may never know it chance words spoken in kindness often help amazingly and that's what old people are here for else their experience is of little use
as i have on some of your gentlemen i mean to keep my boys and girls safe if i can
much impressed by that dire threat dolly helped her from her perch with deep respect and stuffy relieved her of her empty jugs solemnly vowing to abstain from all fermented beverages except root beer as long as feeble flesh could hold out
yes the door was locked and there was no vestige of a key joyce was suddenly inspired with an idea let's try the keys of the other doors i noticed that they most all had keys in the locks perhaps one will fit this
now isn't this provoking exclaimed joyce the only room in the house that we can't get in and the most interesting of all i'm certain what shall we do cynthia made no reply but looked at her little silver watch
do you know that it's quarter past six she asked quietly mercy no we've got to go at once then how the time has gone reluctantly enough they hunted up goliath who in thorough boredom
had returned to his place on the hearth rug in the big bedroom gathered together their candles and found their way to the cellar
cynthia had thoughtfully requested a tin biscuit box from the grocer and in this they packed their candles thus protecting them against the ravages of mice and left them in the cellar near the window then they clambered out
to morrow's saturday said joyce in the morning we'll go to the library and look up that book of costumes after lunch we'll go back to the b u h and finish exploring there's the attic yet and maybe we can find that key too
with a gay good by they separated each to her home on opposite sides of the boarded up house the result of their researches in the library next morning was not wholly satisfactory they found that the most recent fashion of hoop skirts or crinolines had prevailed all the way from eighteen forty to eighteen seventy or thereabouts
and while these dates limited to a certain extent the time of the mysterious happening it did not help them very much they felt that they must look for some more definite clue that afternoon they entered the boarded up house for the third time
they found goliath already in the cellar owing no doubt to the fact that bates's pup was patrolling the front yard so they invited him to accompany them an invitation which he accepted with arched back and resounding purr
deciding to explore the attic first
at any other time or in any other house they would have found this attic of absorbing interest in its dusky corners stood spinning wheels and winding reels decrepit furniture of an ancient date had found a refuge there
antique hair trunks lined the sides under the eaves and quaint garments hung about on pegs the attic was the only apartment in this strange house that received the light of day for the two little windows like staring eyes were not boarded up
but the attic had no great holding interest at present since it was evident that it contained no clue to help them in the solution of the mystery and they soon left it to search anew every room below
in the hope of coming upon the missing key these old fashioned keys are so immense that it hardly seems possible that any one would carry one off far conjectured joyce but why in the world
should just that room be locked anyway what can be hidden there i'm wild simply wild with impatience to see it all the search for the key was not exactly systematic
neither of the girls felt at liberty to open bureau drawers or pry into closets and trunks besides as cynthia wisely suggested it was not likely that any one would lock a door so carefully
and then put the key in a drawer or trunk or on a shelf they would either carry it away with them or lay it down forgotten or hide it in some unusual place
if it had been carried away of course their search was useless but if it had been thoughtlessly laid aside somewhere or even hidden away in some obscure corner there was a possibility that they might come upon it
with this hope in mind they went from room to room searching on desks chairs and tables poking into dark corners peeping into vases and other such receptacles and feeling about under the furniture but all to no purpose
they came at last to the great bedroom where were so many signs of agitation and hurried departure deciding that here would be the most likely field for discovery goliath had evidently preceded them
for they found him once more curled up on the soft rug before the fireplace he seemed to prefer this comfortable spot to all others but he rose and stretched when the girls came in
joyce went straight for the chimney place i'm going to poke among these ashes she announced a lot of things seem to have been burned here mostly old letters who knows but what the key may have been thrown in too
she began to rake the dead ashes and suddenly a half burned log fell apart
did you hear that she whispered something clinked ashes or wood won't make that sound oh suppose it is the key she raked away again frantically and hauled out a quantity of charred debris
but nothing even faintly resembling a key when nothing more remained she poked the fragments disgustedly while cynthia looked on see there cynthia suddenly exclaimed
whatever it was the fire has pretty well finished it you can see that it must have been rather valuable once there's gold on it here's another question to add to our catechism what is it and why was it thrown in the fire
whatever it was it doesn't help much now if it had only been the key good gracious is that a rat both girls jumped to their feet
and stood listening to the strange sounds that came from under the valance hanging about the bottom of the great four poster bed it was a curious intermittent irregular sound as of something being pushed about the floor
after they had listened a moment it suddenly struck them both that the noise was somehow very familiar why it's goliath of course laughed cynthia
knocking it about you know let's see what it is they tiptoed over and raised the valance cynthia was right
despite the rolls of dust that lay about joyce crawled under and rescued it she emerged with a flushed face and a triumphant chuckle goliath beats us all he's made the best find yet is it the key cried cynthia
joyce dangled a large gold locket suspended on a narrow black velvet ribbon in the candle light the locket glistened with tiny jewels do you recognize it demanded joyce recognize it how should i why cynthia
it's the very one that hangs about the neck of our lovely lady in the picture down stairs it was indeed no other even the narrow black velvet ribbon was identical
she must have dropped it accidentally perhaps when she took it off and it rolled under the bed in her hurry she probably forgot it said joyce laying it beside the curious disk they had raked from the fireplace isn't it a beauty
it must be very valuable cynthia bent down and examined both articles closely
why so they are exclaimed joyce oh i have an idea cynthia can we open the locket let's try
the locket fell open and revealed itself empty joyce took up the disk and fitted it into one side with the gold back pressed inward
it slid into place leaving no shadow of doubt that it had originally formed part of this trinket now
how came it in the fire the two girls stood looking at each other and at the locket more bewildered than ever by this curious discovery goliath cheated of his plaything
was making futile dabs at the dangling velvet ribbon suddenly
came home to the circle t in disgrace in a corner of the truck the late solomon's harem cackled and voiced loud cries of misery as they huddled in the rude slatted shipping coop
the truck turned off the county road and onto the dirt road leading to the main buildings it rattled across the cattle guard and through the new unprotected and open gate in the barbed wire fence
life had returned almost to normal at the circle t but not for long five days after sally's ignominious dismissal from the armed forces a staff car came racing up to the ranch
it skidded to a halt at the back porch steps doctor peterson jumped out and dashed up to the kitchen door
ain't seen you for the longest spell peterson entered and looked around where's johnny missus thompson he asked excitedly i've got some wonderful news now ain't that nice hetty exclaimed
your wife have a new baby or something johnny's down at the barn i'll call him for you she moved towards the door never mind peterson said darting out the door i'll go down to the barn he jumped from the porch and ran across the yard
he found johnny in the barn rigging a new block and tackle for the hayloft barney was helping thread the new manila line from a coil on the straw littered floor johnny we've found it peterson shouted jubilantly
as he burst into the barn why doc good to see you again johnny said found what the secret of sally's milk peterson cried he looked wildly around the barn where is she who
sally of course the scientist yelped oh she's down in the lower pasture with queenie johnny replied she's all right isn't she peterson asked anxiously
listen peterson said hurriedly our people think they've stumbled on something now we still don't know what's in those eggs or in sally's milk that make them react as they do
all we've been able to find is some strange isotope but we don't know how to reproduce it or synthesize it but we do think we know what made sally give that milk and made those hens start laying the gold eggs
johnny and barney laid down their work and motioned the excited scientist to join them on a bench against the horse stalls do you remember the day sally came fresh peterson continued
not exactly johnny replied but i could look it up in my journal i keep a good record of things like new registered stock births never mind peterson said
i've already checked it was may ninth he paused and smiled triumphantly i guess that's right if you say so johnny said but what about it
and that was the same day that the hens laid the first golden egg too wasn't it
that even we didn't know too much about that's why we fired it from a cave in the side of a hill down there since then our people have been working on the pretty good assumption
that something happened to that cow and those chickens
someone remembered the experimental test shot checked the date and then went out and had a look at the cave we already had some earlier suspicions that this device produced a new type of beam ray
we took sightings from the cave found them to be in a direct unbroken line with the circle t we set up the device again and using a very small model tried it out on some chick embryos
sure enough we got a mutation but not the right kind
and we already knew that you had a young rooster sired by solomon but doc johnny protested sally had a calf early that morning isn't that going to make a difference
of course it is peterson exclaimed and she's going to have another one the same way and so are all the other cows you're the one that told me she had her calf by artificial insemination didn't you johnny nodded
well then she's going to have another calf from the same bull and so will the other cows
barney said sorrowfully they're sure takin the romance outta motherhood for you the next day the guards were back on the gate
together with a corps of veterinarians biologists and security police by nightfall sally and her companions were all once again in a delicate condition a mile from the ranch house a dormitory was built for the veterinarians and biologists
and a barracks thrown up for the security guards a thirty five thousand dollar twelve foot high chain link fence topped by barbed wire was constructed around the pasture and armored cars patrolled the fence by day
and kept guard over the pregnant bovines by night in the barn
the host of experts and guards watched and cared for the new calf bloated herd the fact that sally had gone dry had been kept a carefully guarded national secret
to keep up the pretense and show to the world that america still controlled the only proven method of manned space travel the joint chiefs of staff voted to expend two hundred gallons of the precious small store of milk on hand
for another interplanetary junket this time to inspect the rings around saturn piloting a smaller and more sophisticated but equally well protected version of icarus major quartermain abandoned the fleshpots of earth
to again hurtle into the unknown it was strictly a milk run major quartermain was quoted as saying as he emerged from his ship after an uneventful but propaganda loaded trip by the middle of may
it was the consensus of the veterinarians that delivery day would be july fourth plans were drafted for the repeat atomic cave shot
july third the pregnant herd was to be given labor inducing shots at midnight and if all went well deliveries would start within a few hours just to be sure that nothing would shield the cows from the rays of the explosion
they were put in a corral on the south side of the barn until nine thirty p m on the night of the firing solomon's successor and a new bevy of hens were already roosting in the same old chicken house and egg production was normal
and the ground shook and rumbled for a few miles it wasn't a powerful blast nor had been the original shot sixty miles away thirteen guernsey cows munched at a rick of fresh hay and chewed contentedly in the moonlight
at three eleven a m the following morning the first calf arrived followed in rapid order by a dozen more sally's cloverdale marathon the third dropped her calf at four o eight a m on independence day
eleven other guernseys gave forth gushing foaming creamy rich gallon after gallon of grade a milk the thirteenth cow filled two buckets with something that looked like weak cocoa and smelled like stale tea
but when a white smocked university of california poultry specialist entered the chicken house later in the morning he found nothing but normal white fresh eggs in the nests he finally arrived at the conclusion that solomon's old harem had known for some time
this new rooster just didn't have it a rush call went out for a dozen of the precious store of golden eggs to be sent to the testing labs down range
the scene on the screens was the interior of a massive steel and concrete test building several miles up range resting on the floor of the building was an open gallon sized glass beaker filled with the new version of sally's milk
doctor peterson reached for a small lever by remote control the lever would gradually open the bottom of the funnel he squeezed gently slowly applying pressure
an involuntary gasp arose from the spectators as a tiny trickle of egg fluid fell from the funnel towards the open beaker instinctively everyone in the room clamped their eyes shut in anticipation of a blast
a second later peterson peered cautiously at the screen the beaker of milk had turned a cloudy pale blue it neither fizzed nor exploded it just sat he levered another drop from the funnel
the stringy glutenous mass plopped into the beaker and the liquid swirled briefly and turned more opaque taking on more of a bluish tinge a babble of voices broke through the room when it was apparent that no explosion was forthcoming
now what he moaned
on the outside chance it might develop a latent tendency towards demolition satisfied that whatever it was in the beaker wasn't explosive the liquid was quickly poured off into sixteen small half pint beakers
under johnny's direction a crew of technicians ran a power line into the slightly wrecked chicken house there were loud squawks of indignation from the sleeping hens as the men threaded their way through the nests the line was installed and the power applied
solomon the big rooster was perched on a crossbeam head tucked under his wing
johnny chuckled as the technicians jumped at the sound he left the hen house
there were eleven of the golden eggs resting on the straw nests
while peterson and johnny were eating a writing team of a e c public information men who had arrived during the night were polishing a formal press release to be given to the waiting reporters at eight
the phones had been manned throughout the night peterson's bleary eyed aide came into the kitchen and slumped into a chair at the table get yourself a cup of coffee boy hetty ordered while i fix you something to eat
how you like your eggs over easy missus thompson and thanks he said wearily i think i've got everything lined up doctor
and the car will be ready in about ten minutes they're still setting up down range but they should be all in order by the time you get there the bio men and the others should be assembled in the main briefing room at range headquarters
i've ordered a double guard around the barn to be maintained until the animal boys have finished their on the ground tests and they're padding a device van to take sally to the labs when they're ready
the commissioner called about ten minutes ago and said to tell you that the russians are going to make a formal protest to the u n this morning they say we're trying to wipe out the people's republic by contaminating their milk
the sound of scuffling in the yard and loud yells of protest came through the back porch window the door swung open
get your hands offn me
doc tell these pistol packing bellhops to turn me loose we caught him trying to get into the barn sir
peterson smiled it's all right fred it's my fault i should have told you mister hatfield has free access the security men released barney he shook himself and glared at them i'm terribly sorry barney doctor peterson said
i forgot that you would be going down to milk the cows and i'm glad you reminded me do me a favor and milk sally first will you i want to take that milk or whatever it is with us when we leave in a few minutes
the sun was crawling up the side of the mountains when johnny and doctor peterson swung out of the ranch yard between two armored scout cars
of the heat sure to come by midmorning there was a rush of photographers towards the gate as the little convoy left the ranch a battery of cameras grabbed shots of the vehicles heading south
it was also the day that started a host of the nation's finest nuclear physicists tottering towards psychiatrists couches in rapid order in the next few days peterson's crew reinforced by hundreds of fellow scientists
technicians and military men learned what johnny culpepper already knew they learned that one sally's milk diluted by as much as four hundred parts of pure water made a better fuel than gasoline when ignited
three brought in contact with the compound inside one of the golden eggs it produced an explosive starting at the kiloton level of one egg to two cups of milk and went up the scale
but leveled off at a peak as the recipe was increased four could be controlled by mixing jets to produce any desired stream of explosive power and five
they didn't have the wildest idea what was causing the reaction in that same order it brought one standard oil stock down to the value of wallpaper two ditto for du pont
three a new purge in the top level of the supreme soviet four delight to rocketeers at holloman air force research center
coming from a jet in the opposite wall
the atlas leaped like a wasp stung heifer from the launching pads and thundered into space
the fuel orifices continued to expand to maximum pre set opening in ten seconds the nose cone turned from cherry red to white heat and began sloughing its outer ceramic coating at slightly more than forty three thousand miles an hour
leaving a shock wave that cracked houses and shattered glass for fifty miles from launching point a week later america's newest rocket vessel weighing more than thirty tons and christened the egg nog was launched from the opposite coast at vandenburg hastily modified to take the new fuel
was filled with automatic camera and television equipment in its stern stood a six egg one hundred gallon engine while in the nose was a small one egg fourteen quart braking engine to slow it down for the return trip through the atmosphere
its destination mars a week later the eggnog braked down through the troposphere skidded to a piddling two thousand miles an hour through the stratosphere automatically sprouted gliding wing stubs in the atmosphere
and planed down to a spraying halt in the pacific ocean fifty miles west of ensenada in baja california aboard were man's first views of the red planet the world went mad with jubilation
from the capitals of the free nations congratulations poured into washington from moscow came word of a one hundred ton spaceship to be launched in a few days powered by a mixture of vodka and orange juice discovered by a bartender in novorosk
who was studying chemistry in night school this announcement was followed twenty four hours later by a story in pravda proving conclusively that sally's cloverdale marathon the third was a direct descendant of nikita's mujik
a prize guernsey bull produced in the barns of the sopolov people's collective twenty six years ago late in august air force major clifton wadsworth quartermain climbed out of the port of the two hundred ton
two dozen egg two hundred thirty gallon space rocket icarus the first man into space and back he had circled venus and returned no longer limited by fuel weight factors
scientists had been able to load enough shielding into the huge icarus to protect a man from the deadly bombardment of the van allen radiation belts on september fifteenth
sally's cloverdale marathon the third having been milked harder and faster than any guernsey in history went dry less than half of the approximately twelve hundred gallons of fuel she had produced during her hay days
three days later solomon sprinting after one of his harem who was playing hard to get bee lined into the path of a security police jeep there was an agonized squawk a shower of feathers and mourning
a short time later the number of golden eggs dropped daily until one morning there were none they never reappeared the united states had stockpiled twenty six dozen in an underground cave deep in the rockies
for a long time the buffalo had not been seen every one was hungry for the hunters could find no food for the people a certain man who had two wives a daughter and two sons as he saw what a hard time they were having said
i shall not stop here to die to morrow we will move toward the mountains where we may kill elk and deer and sheep and antelope or if not these at least we shall find beaver and birds and can get them
in this way we shall have food to eat and shall live
and took their loads on their backs and set out it was still winter and they travelled slowly besides they were weak from hunger and could go only a short distance in a day the fourth night came and they sat in their lodge
tired and hungry no one spoke for people who are hungry do not care to talk suddenly outside the dogs began to bark and soon the door was pushed aside and a young man entered
welcome said the man and he motioned to a place where the stranger should sit now during this day there had been blowing a warm wind which had melted the snow so that the prairie was covered with water yet this young man's moccasins and leggings were dry
they saw this and were frightened they sat there for a long time saying nothing then the young man spoke and asked why is this why do you not give me food
we have no food for many days the buffalo did not come in sight and we looked for deer and other animals which people eat and when these had all been killed we began to starve then i said
we will not stay here to die from hunger and we set out for the mountains this is the fourth night of our travels
then your travels are ended you need go no farther close by here is our piskun many buffalo have been run in and our parfleches are filled with dried meat wait a little i will go and bring you some and he went out
as soon as he had gone they began to talk about this strange person they were afraid of him and did not know what to do the children began to cry and the women tried to quiet them presently the young man came back bringing some meat
there is food said he as he put it down by the woman now to morrow move your camp over to our lodges do not fear anything no matter what strange things you may see do not fear all will be your friends yet about one thing i must warn you
if you should find an arrow lying about anywhere in the piskun or outside do not touch it neither you nor your wives nor your children when he had said this he went out
the father took his pipe and filled it and smoked and prayed to all the powers saying hear now sun listen above people listen underwater people now you have taken pity
now you have given us food we are going to those mysterious ones who walk through water with dry moccasins protect us among these to be feared people let us live man woman and child give us long life
now from the fire again arose the smell of roasting meat the children ate and played those who so long had been silent now talked and laughed early in the morning as soon as the sun had risen
they took down their lodge and packed their dogs and started for the camp of the stranger when they had come to where they could see it they found it a wonderful place there around the piskun and stretching far up and down the valley
were pitched the lodges of the meat eaters they could not see them all but near by they saw the lodges of the bear band the fox band and the raven band
and by that band they pitched their lodge truly that was a happy place food was plenty all day long people were shouting out for feasts and everywhere was heard the sound of drumming and singing and dancing
the newly come people went to the piskun for meat and there one of the children saw an arrow lying on the ground it was a beautiful arrow the stone point long slender and sharp the shaft round and straight
the boy remembered what had been said and he looked around fearfully but everywhere the people were busy no one was looking
then there rose a terrible sound all the animals howled and growled and rushed toward him but the chief wolf got to him first and holding up his hand said wait he is young
and not yet of good sense we will let him go this time they did nothing to him when night came some one shouted out calling people to a feast and saying listen listen wolf you are to eat enter with your friend
and together they went to the lodge from which the call came within the lodge the fire burned brightly and seated around it were many men the old and wise of the raven band on the lodge lining hanging behind the seats
were the paintings of many great deeds food was placed before the guests pemican and berries and dried back fat and after they had eaten the pipe was lighted and passed around the circle then the raven chief spoke and said now wolf
i am going to give our new friend a present what do you think of that it shall be as you say replied the wolf our new friend will be glad from a long parfleche sack the raven chief took a slender stick
far off on the prairie he sees his food
this is our song and our dance when he had finished singing and dancing he placed the stick in the sack and gave it to the man and said take it with you
and they shall choose the persons who are to belong to the society teach them the song and the dance and give them the medicine it shall be theirs forever soon they heard another person shouting out the feast call
and going they entered the lodge of the chief of the kit foxes
here too old men had gathered after they had eaten of the food set before them the chief said those among whom you have just come are generous
they do not look carefully at the things they have but give to the stranger and pity the poor the kit fox is a little animal but what one is smarter none his hair is like the dead grass of the prairie his eyes are keen
his feet make no noise when he walks his brain is cunning his ears receive the far off sound here is our medicine take it he gave the man the stick it was long
crooked at one end wound with fur and tied here and there with eagle feathers at the end was a kit fox skin again the chief spoke and said listen to our song do not forget it and the dance too you must remember
when you reach home teach them to the people he sang and danced then presently his guests departed again they heard the feast shout and he who called was the chief of the bear society
after they had eaten and smoked the chief said what is your opinion friend wolf
it shall be as you say replied the wolf
then spoke the bear saying there are many animals and some of them are powerful but the bear is the strongest and greatest of all he fears nothing and is always ready to fight then he put on a necklace of
bear claws a band of bear fur about his head and a belt of bear fur and sang and danced when he had finished he gave the things he had worn to the man and said teach the people our song and our dance and give them this medicine
it is powerful it was very late the seven stars had come to the middle of the night yet again they heard the feast shout from the far end of the camp in this lodge the men were painted with streaks of red
and their hair was all pushed to one side after the feast the chief said we are different from all others here
we are death even if our enemies are as many as the grass we do not turn away but fight and conquer bows are good weapons lances are better but our weapon is the knife
then the chief sang and danced and afterward he gave the wolf chief's friend the medicine it was a long knife and many scalps were tied on the handle this said he is for the all friends
to one more lodge they were called that night and the lodge owner taught the man his song and dance and gave him his medicine then the wolf chief and his friend went home and slept
early next day the blackfeet women began to take down the lodge and to get ready to move their camp many women came and made them presents of food dried meat pemican and berries they were given so much that they could not take it all with them
it was long before they joined the main camp for it had moved south looking for buffalo when they reached the camp as soon as the lodge was pitched the man called all the chiefs to come and feast with him and told them what he had seen and showed them the different medicines
there was once a princess so lovely that no one could see her without loving her her hair fell about her shoulders in waving masses and because it was the color of gold she was called pretty goldilocks
she always wore a crown of flowers and her dresses were embroidered with pearls and diamonds the fame of her beauty reached a young king who determined to marry her although he had never seen her
he sent an ambassador to ask her hand in marriage
that he made every preparation to receive her the ambassador arrived at the palace of the princess with a hundred horses and as many servants with great ceremony he presented the king's gifts of pearls and diamonds together with his message
the princess however did not favor the king's suit and sent back his gifts with a polite refusal when the ambassador returned without the princess every one blamed him for his failure and the king's disappointment was so great
that no one could console him now at the king's court was a young man so handsome and clever that he was called charming every one loved him except some who were envious because he was the king's favorite
one day charming rashly remarked that if the king had sent him for the princess she would have come back with him his enemies at once went to the king and used the remark to influence him against charming
he thinks himself so handsome that the princess could not have resisted him although she refused his king they told his majesty the boastful words so offended the king that he ordered charming to be shut up in the tower
where he had only straw to lie on and bread and water to eat in this miserable state he languished for some time
one day the king happened to be passing the tower and heard him exclaim i am the king's most faithful subject how have i incurred his displeasure then in spite of the protests of charming's enemies
the king ordered the tower door opened and charming brought forth his old favorite sadly knelt and kissed his hand saying sire how have i offended the king told him of the boast his enemies had repeated
true sire i did say that had i been sent to plead your cause it would not have failed for lack of eloquence could the princess see you as my tongue would picture you i would not return without her
the king at once saw that he had been deceived and restored charming to favor while at supper that night he confided to him that he was as much in love with goldilocks as ever and could not be reconciled to her answer
do you think asked the king that she could be induced to change her mind charming replied that he was at the king's service and willing to undertake the task of winning the princess for him
the king was delighted and offered him a splendid escort but he asked only for a good horse early the next day he set forth with a resolute heart and the king's letter to the princess one day
when he had ridden a great distance he dismounted and sat down under a tree that grew beside a river he took from his pocket a little book
not far from where he sat a golden carp was springing from the water to catch flies and a bound too high landed it on the grass at charming's feet it panted helplessly and would have died
had he not taken pity on it and thrown it back into the river it sank out of sight but presently returned to the surface long enough to say thank you charming for saving my life some day i may repay you
naturally he was greatly surprised at so much politeness from a fish a few days later while riding along his way he saw a raven pursued by an eagle in a moment more the eagle would have overtaken the raven
had not charming aimed his arrow in time and killed the pursuer the raven perched on a tree near by and croaked its gratitude you have rescued me from a dreadful fate it said
a day or two afterward in the dusk of early morning he heard the distressful cries of an owl hunting about he found the unfortunate bird caught in a net which some birdcatchers had spread
why will men persecute and torment harmless creatures exclaimed charming as he set the bird free the owl fluttered above his head saying you have saved me from the fowlers who would have killed me
and some day i will repay you after that it flew swiftly away charming at last reached the palace of the princess and asked an audience his name so pleased her that she at once received him
he was ushered into the presence of the princess who sat on a throne of gold and ivory her satin dress was embroidered with jewels and her golden hair was confined by a crown of flowers soft music and perfume filled the air
and charming was so awed by all this splendor that at first he could not speak recovering himself in a moment he told of his mission and set forth the good qualities of the king in such glowing terms that the princess listened
you have argued so eloquently replied she that i regret to deny you but i have made a vow not to marry until the ambassador can return to me a ring which i lost in the river a month ago
i valued it more than all my other jewels and nothing but its recovery can persuade me to your suit charming could urge no more but offered an embroidered scarf and his little dog frisk as tokens of devotion
these were declined so bowing low he reluctantly took leave of the princess he believed that she had but used this means to put him off and his disappointment was so great that he could not sleep
in the morning he and frisk were walking by the riverside when the dog ran to the water's edge barking furiously joining the little animal he saw that his excitement was caused by a golden carp
which came swimming swiftly toward them in its mouth was a beautiful ring which it laid in charming's hand you saved my life by the willow tree said the carp and i now repay you by giving to you the princess's ring
charming lost no time in presenting it to the princess and claiming his reward what fairy aids you asked the princess only my wish to serve you charming replied alas said the princess
i cannot marry until galifron the giant is dead because i would not take him for my husband he persecutes my subjects and lays waste my land princess
the princess and all the people tried to dissuade him
he traveled straight to the giant's castle all about it were strewn the bones of galifron's victims inside the castle the giant was singing in a terrible voice
little children i love to eat their bones are tender their flesh is sweet i do not care i eat so many if their hair be straight or if they haven't any charming called out loudly in reply
be not so boastful galifron
the giant appeared at the door club in hand when he saw charming fearlessly awaiting him
but before he could wield his club a raven lit on his head and pecked at his eyes so that he dropped his weapon and was at charming's mercy when the valiant knight had killed the giant the raven croaked from a tree near by
you saved me from the eagle
charming cut off the head of the giant and carried it back with him to the princess then the people shouted until they were hoarse and welcomed him as a great hero your enemy is dead
charming told the princess will you now make my master the happiest of kings there is replied the reluctant princess some water which gives eternal health and beauty to those who drink it
i would regret to leave my kingdom without possessing some of it but no one has dared to brave the two dragons that guard the cavern where the fountain is to be found you do not need the water princess but my life is yours to command
gallantly replied charming and he set out at once on the perilous mission when he came to the mouth of the cavern black smoke issued forth and presently he perceived the terrible form of a dragon
from whose mouth and eyes fire was darting bidding good by to faithful frisk he grasped his sword in one hand and the crystal flask which the princess had given him in the other just then he heard his name called twice
and looking back he saw an owl flying toward him i can enter the gloomy cavern without danger the owl said give the flask to me and i will repay the debt i owe you for having saved me from the net
charming gladly surrendered the flask to the owl who in a short time returned it to him filled with the precious water the princess this time consented to marry the king
and after many preparations she and charming started for his kingdom the journey was made so entertaining for the princess that she one day said to charming why did i not make you king and remain in my own country
charming replied that he must have considered his duty to his king even before a happiness so great the king with presents of rich jewels and a splendid escort met them on the way to the palace
the marriage was celebrated with great pomp and charming stood first in the king's favor his good fortune however did not continue long for envious enemies pointed out to the king that the princess was never happy unless charming was near
the unhappy knight was again put into prison where he was cruelly chained and fed on bread and water when goldilocks learned this she wept and implored the king to set him free
but for him i never would have been here she said did he not perform every task i required even that of getting for me the water whereby i shall never grow old the princess's grief
only made the king more jealous but he determined to make use of this wonderful water of which she had told it so happened that one of the princess's ladies had broken the crystal flask and spilled all of the water
not daring to confess she put another in its place that exactly resembled it in appearance this however contained a deadly poison when the king bathed his face with it he fell into a sleep from which he never awoke
there was great confusion in the palace when the king was found dead frisk ran immediately to charming and told him the news in a short time goldilocks also appeared unlocked his chains and set him free
you shall be my husband said she and i will make you king charming fell at her feet and expressed his gratitude and joy
the goblins in the king's house when curdie fell asleep he began at once to dream he thought he was ascending the mountainside from the mouth of the mine
when he came upon a woman and child who had lost their way and from that point he went on dreaming everything that had happened to him since he thus met the princess and lootie how he had watched the goblins how he had been taken by them
how he had been rescued by the princess everything indeed until he was wounded captured and imprisoned by the men at arms and now he thought he was lying wide awake where they had laid him when suddenly he heard a great thundering sound the cobs are coming
the cobs'll be carrying off the princess from under their stupid noses but they shan't that they shan't he jumped up as he thought and began to dress but to his dismay found that he was still lying in bed now then i will
but yet again he found himself snug in bed twenty times he tried and twenty times he failed for in fact he was not awake only dreaming that he was at length in an agony of despair
fancying he heard the goblins all over the house he gave a great cry then there came as he thought a hand upon the lock of his door it opened and looking up he saw a lady with white hair carrying a silver box in her hand enter the room
took the dressing from his leg rubbed it with something that smelt like roses and then waved her hands over him three times at the last wave of her hands everything vanished he felt himself sinking into the profoundest slumber
the setting moon was throwing a feeble light through the casement and the house was full of uproar there was soft heavy multitudinous stamping a clashing and clanging of weapons the voices of men and the cries of women mixed with a hideous bellowing
which sounded victorious the cobs were in the house he sprang from his bed hurried on some of his clothes not forgetting his shoes which were armed with nails then spying an old hunting knife or short sword hanging on the wall he caught it
and rushed down the stairs guided by the sounds of strife which grew louder and louder when he reached the ground floor he found the whole place swarming
he rushed amongst them shouting one two hit and hew three four blast and bore and with every rhyme he came down a great stamp upon a foot cutting at the same time their faces executing indeed a sword dance of the wildest description
away scattered the goblins in every direction into closets up stairs into chimneys up on rafters and down to the cellars curdie went on stamping and slashing and singing but saw nothing of the people of the house
until he came to the great hall in which the moment he entered it arose a great goblin shout the last of the men at arms the captain himself was on the floor buried beneath a wallowing crowd of goblins
for he had soon found their heads all but invulnerable the queen had attacked his legs and feet with her horrible granite shoe and he was soon down but the captain had got his back to the wall and stood out longer
the goblins would have torn them all to pieces but the king had given orders to carry them away alive and over each of them in twelve groups was standing a knot of goblins while as many as could find room were sitting upon their prostrate bodies
curdie burst in dancing and gyrating and stamping and singing like a small incarnate whirlwind
the queen gave a howl of rage and dismay and before she recovered her presence of mind curdie having begun with the group nearest him had eleven of the knights on their legs again stamp on their feet he cried as each man rose
and in a few minutes the hall was nearly empty the goblins running from it as fast as they could howling and shrieking and limping and cowering every now and then as they ran to cuddle their wounded feet in their hard hands or to protect them from the frightful stamp stamp of the armed men
and now curdie approached the group which in trusting in the queen and her shoe kept their guard over the prostrate captain
but the queen stood in front like an infuriated cat with her perpendicular eyes gleaming green and her hair standing half up from her horrid head her heart was quaking however and she kept moving about her skin shod foot with nervous apprehension
when curdie was within a few paces she rushed at him made one tremendous stamp at his opposing foot which happily he withdrew in time and caught him round the waist to dash him on the marble floor but just as she caught him
he came down with all the weight of his iron shod shoe upon her skin shod foot and with a hideous howl she dropped him squatted on the floor and took her foot in both her hands meanwhile the rest rushed on the king and the bodyguard sent them flying
and lifted the prostrate captain who was all but pressed to death it was some moments before he recovered breath and consciousness where's the princess cried curdie again and again no one knew and off they all rushed in search of her
through every room in the house they went but nowhere was she to be found neither was one of the servants to be seen but curdie who had kept to the lower part of the house which was now quiet enough began to hear a confused sound as of a distant hubbub
the noise grew as his sharp ears guided him to a stair and so to the wine cellar it was full of goblins whom the butler was supplying with wine as fast as he could draw it while the queen and her party had encountered the men at arms
harelip with another company had gone off to search the house they captured every one they met and when they could find no more they hurried away to carry them safe to the caverns below but when the butler who was amongst them found that their path lay through the wine cellar
he bethought himself of persuading them to taste the wine and as he had hoped they no sooner tasted than they wanted more the routed goblins on their way below joined them and when curdie entered they were all with outstretched hands
in which were vessels of every description from sauce pan to silver cup pressing around the butler who sat at the tap of a huge cask filling and filling curdie cast one glance around the place before commencing his attack
and saw in the farthest corner a terrified group of the domestics unwatched but cowering without courage to attempt their escape amongst them was the terror stricken face of lootie but nowhere could he see the princess
seized with the horrible conviction that harelip had already carried her off he rushed amongst them unable for wrath to sing any more but stamping and cutting with greater fury than ever
stamp on their feet stamp on their feet he shouted and in a moment the goblins were disappearing through the hole in the floor like rats and mice they could not vanish so fast however
but that many more goblin feet had to go limping back over the underground ways of the mountain that morning presently however they were reinforced from above by the king and his party with the redoubtable queen at their head
finding curdie again busy amongst her unfortunate subjects she rushed at him once more with the rage of despair and this time gave him a bad bruise on the foot then a regular stamping fight got up between them
curdie with the point of his hunting knife keeping her from clasping her mighty arms about him as he watched his opportunity of getting once more a good stamp at her skin shod foot but the queen was more wary as well as more agile than hitherto
the rest meantime finding their adversary thus matched for the moment paused in their headlong hurry and turned to the shivering group of women in the corner as if determined to emulate his father and have a sun woman of some sort to share his future throne
harelip rushed at them caught up lootie and sped with her to the hole she gave a great shriek and curdie heard her and saw the plight she was in gathering all his strength he gave the queen a sudden cut across the face with his weapon
came down as she started back with all his weight on the proper foot and sprung to lootie's rescue the prince had two defenceless feet and on both of them curdie stamped just as he reached the hole he dropped his burden and rolled shrieking into the earth
curdie made one stab at him as he disappeared caught hold of the senseless lootie and having dragged her back to the corner there mounted guard over her preparing once more to encounter the queen
her face streaming with blood and her eyes flashing green lightning through it she came on with her mouth open and her teeth grinning like a tiger's followed by the king and her bodyguard of the thickest goblins
but the same moment in rushed the captain and his men and ran at them stamping furiously they dared not encounter such an onset away they scurried the queen foremost of course
the right thing would have been to take the king and queen prisoners and hold them hostages for the princess but they were so anxious to find her that no one thought of detaining them until it was too late having thus rescued the servants they set about searching the house once more
none of them could give the least information concerning the princess lootie was almost silly with terror and although scarcely able to walk would not leave curdie's side for a single moment again he allowed the others to search the rest of the house
where except a dismayed goblin lurking here and there they found no one while he requested lootie to take him to the princess's room
he found the bedclothes tossed about and most of them on the floor while the princess's garments were scattered all over the room which was in the greatest confusion it was only too evident that the goblins had been there
and curdie had no longer any doubt that she had been carried off at the very first of the inroad with a pang of despair he saw how wrong they had been in not securing the king and queen and prince
as soon as the news that the queen of england was on the french coast had been brought to versailles a palace was prepared for her reception carriages and troops of guards were despatched to await her orders
but was honoured with a friendly letter in the handwriting of lewis mary was on the road towards the french court when news came that her husband had after a rough voyage landed safe at the little village of ambleteuse
persons of high rank were instantly despatched from versailles to greet and escort him meanwhile lewis attended by his family and his nobility went forth in state to receive the exiled queen
before his gorgeous coach went the swiss halberdiers on each side of it and behind it rode the body guards with cymbals clashing and trumpets pealing
came the most splendid aristocracy of europe all feathers ribands jewels and embroidery before the procession had gone far it was announced that mary was approaching lewis alighted and advanced on foot to meet her
she broke forth into passionate expressions of gratitude madam said her host it is but a melancholy service that i am rendering you to day i hope that i may be able hereafter to render you services greater and more pleasing
he embraced the little prince of wales and made the queen seat herself in the royal state coach on the right hand the cavalcade then turned towards saint germains
at saint germains on the verge of a forest swarming with beasts of chase and on the brow of a hill which looks down on the windings of the seine francis the first had built a castle and henry the fourth had constructed a noble terrace
of the residences of the french kings none stood in a more salubrious air or commanded a fairer prospect the huge size and venerable age of the trees the beauty of the gardens the abundance of the springs were widely famed
lewis the fourteenth had been born there had when a young man held his court there had added several stately pavilions to the mansion of francis and had completed the terrace of henry
soon however the magnificent king conceived an inexplicable disgust for his birthplace he quitted saint germains for versailles and expended sums almost fabulous in the vain attempt to create a paradise
on a spot singularly sterile and unwholesome all sand or mud without wood without water and without game saint germains had now been selected to be the abode of the royal family of england
sumptuous furniture had been hastily sent in the nursery of the prince of wales had been carefully furnished with everything that an infant could require one of the attendants presented to the queen the key of a superb casket which stood in her apartment
she opened the casket and found in it six thousand pistoles on the following day james arrived at saint germains lewis was already there to welcome him
the unfortunate exile bowed so low that it seemed as if he was about to embrace the knees of his protector lewis raised him and embraced him with brotherly tenderness the two kings then entered the queen's room
here is a gentleman said lewis to mary whom you will be glad to see then after entreating his guests to visit him next day at versailles and to let him have the pleasure of showing them his buildings pictures and plantations
he took the unceremonious leave of an old friend in a few hours the royal pair were informed that as long as they would do the king of france the favour to accept of his hospitality
ten thousand pounds sterling were sent for outfit the liberality of lewis however
was much less rare and admirable than the exquisite delicacy with which he laboured to soothe the feelings of his guests and to lighten the almost intolerable weight of the obligations which he laid upon them
he who had hitherto on all questions of precedence been sensitive litigious insolent who had been more than once ready to plunge europe into war rather than concede the most frivolous point of etiquette
was now punctilious indeed but punctilious for his unfortunate friends against himself he gave orders that mary should receive all the marks of respect that had ever been paid to his own deceased wife
such trifles were serious matters at the old court of france there were precedents on both sides but lewis decided the point against his own blood some ladies of illustrious rank omitted the ceremony of kissing the hem of mary's robe
lewis remarked the omission and noticed it in such a voice and with such a look that the whole peerage was ever after ready to kiss her shoe when esther just written by racine was acted at saint cyr mary had the seat of honour
james was at her right hand lewis modestly placed himself on the left nay he was well pleased that in his own palace an outcast living on his bounty should assume the title of king of france
should as king of france quarter the lilies with the english lions and should as king of france dress in violet on days of court mourning the demeanour of the french nobility on public occasions
was absolutely regulated by their sovereign but it was beyond even his power to prevent them from thinking freely and from expressing what they thought in private circles with the keen and delicate wit characteristic of their nation and of their order
their opinion of mary was favourable they found her person agreeable and her deportment dignified they respected her courage and her maternal affection and they pitied her ill fortune
but james they regarded with extreme contempt they were disgusted by his insensibility by the cool way in which he talked to every body of his ruin and by the childish pleasure which he took in the pomp and luxury of versailles
this strange apathy they attributed not to philosophy or religion but to stupidity and meanness of spirit
from the day on which the expedition sailed the anxiety of the whole dutch nation had been intense never had there been such crowds in the churches never had the enthusiasm of the preachers been so ardent
the inhabitants of the hague could not be restrained from insulting albeville his house was so closely beset by the populace day and night
taken on himself the executive administration a general cry of pride and joy rose from all the dutch factions an extraordinary mission was with great speed despatched to congratulate him
who seems to have been selected for the purpose of proving to all europe
william talked to them with a frankness and an effusion of heart which seldom appeared in his conversations with englishmen his first words were well and what do our friends at home say now in truth
the only applause by which his stoical nature seems to have been strongly moved was the applause of his dear native country of his immense popularity in england he spoke with cold disdain
and elected without any contest four great merchants who were zealous whigs the king and his adherents had hoped that many returning officers would treat the prince's letter as a nullity but the hope was disappointed
the elections went on rapidly and smoothly there were scarcely any contests for the nation had during more than a year been kept in constant expectation of a parliament writs indeed had been twice issued and twice recalled
some constituent bodies had under those writs actually proceeded to the choice of representatives there was scarcely a county in which the gentry and yeomanry had not many months before fixed upon candidates
good protestants whom no exertions must be spared to carry in defiance of the king and of the lord lieutenant and these candidates were now generally returned without opposition the prince gave strict orders
the party which was attached to him was triumphant enthusiastic full of life and energy the party from which alone he could expect serious opposition was disunited and disheartened out of humour with itself
and still more out of humour with its natural chief
chapter six the silvery touch of fortune is too often gilt with betrayal the meddling mouth of extravagance swallows every desire and eats the heart of honesty with pickled pride
the impostury of position is petty and ends as it should commence with stirring strife
and too seldom terminates victoriously great mercy only another week and i shall almost cease to be a free thinker just seven days more and what i shall openly have to confess to the world an untruth
would there be any means of flight from the dangerous dragon that haunts me night and day could anything possible be done to save myself from false alliance too late too late
only seven days and this beautiful boudoir shall own me no more with its walls of purest white and gilded borders just seven days and i shall be fettered with chains of dragging dislike and disappointment
only seven days and thus shall end my cherished hopes my girlish pride my most ardent wish but alas not my love seven days more shall see my own darling os suddenly
irene was aroused by the ringing of the breakfast bell before she got time to finish the sentence that troubled her weary brain for months before dressing herself with frantic expertness she dashed down the winding staircase
with an alacrity better imagined than described and rushing into the breakfast room where lord and lady dilworth eagerly awaited her presented the outward mocking appearance of being the happiest of mortals
her beloved benefactors who had been the prime movers in the matter of matrimony saw plainly a saddened look about the lovely face
and asking why it appeared at this gay time was answered evasively indeed lord and lady dilworth were wholly ignorant of the present state of affairs
or her maddened desire to become the wife of a poor tutor had she only taken into her confidence her whose wise counsel and motherly example were at all times a prompt step to decision
or had she only hinted to lady dilworth her manifest inability to return sir john's great affection matters would probably have reached another climax but owing to the present precarious position in which lord and lady dilworth stood
either in time of rejoicing or sorrowing preparations were at last almost completed for such an auspicious event invitations were issued numerously for the reception to be held at dilworth castle after irene's marriage
but sparingly during the ceremony all of which were mostly accepted costly multiplying and varied were the gifts received by irene enough to make a princess stare with startling bewilderment
none came from irene's tutor oscar otwell and although he was the first to whom lady dilworth addressed an invitation still there was no reply much to the annoyance and astonishment of hostess on the one hand
and never better exemplified than in the present existing state of affairs
was deadly so to oscar but future facts had to be solved which undoubtedly would be treated with more comparative reverence than heretofore by him who suffered severely
yea acutely from the blow struck him on the eve of aspiration and achievement love alas when smitten with the sword of indifference dieth soon but once struck on the tunnelled cheek of secrecy with the hand of pity
there leaves a scar of indelible intolerance until wiped out for ever with the curative balsam of battled freedom sir john and irene met in dilworth castle for the last time on the morning of the third day of august
being the day set apart for the celebration of their marriage it commenced with the ringing of the village bells the sun shone forth in all his universal glory
emblems of the approaching festivity did not fail to appear on the housetops of the humblest village peasant gladness reigned throughout the household and all hearts save two rejoiced with unabated activity
it was a morning never to be forgotten by lord and lady dilworth who on that day would be robbed of the treasure held firm and fast by them for the lengthened period of nine years and which they yielded up with hearts of sorrow
the intense excitement that for weeks before had found such refuge within their cherished and much loved home
it would die on the doorstep of apparent bereavement never more to appear within dilworth castle under similar circumstances they knew well that the gnawing jaws of poverty which for years had failed to expose their grinding power
had reached the last and only bite of sudden termination and thereby stamped their marks of melancholy so impressively upon the noble brows of the worthy owners of dilworth castle that time could never blot them from observation
as before stated few were those invited to be present at the wedding ceremony which was to take place about twelve o'clock noon sir john arrived at the castle shortly before that time looking charming indeed
though departing from the rules laid down by lady dilworth demanded from all present remarks bordering on similarity she looked nervously pale but queenly
and mastered thoroughly the exposure of the painful agony through which she was passing knowing as she did and fully believed that all is not gold that glitters
she was reconciled that neither the marriage robe of purity
the bishop of barelegs and canon foot with highly impressed and open falsehood as that practised by her in the absence of labouring under such a solemn vow what must have been the breathless surprise
of lady dilworth chiefly and those present also who only the evening previous had been pouring such praises over the magnificent duchesse satin gown
arrayed in an irish poplin of the darkest visible shade of green without either train or flower of distinction not even a speck of ribbon or border of lace and no ornament only the valued necklet which graced her pearly throat
to bestow upon her his choice collection of love's purest fragrance which should cast the sweetest scent of mutual relationship throughout the dazzling apartments of the mansion she was about to grace
that she dare not trust herself to offer her the first motherly embrace irene perceiving the great embarrassment of her beloved lady dilworth glided across the room
and sitting down to the right of her upon whom she had that day flung in the face of devotion the last dregs of defiance begged to offer an apology for such unruly conduct and added
that all would be revealed at a future date when least expected in the very room where sir john was first puzzled concerning the beautiful portrait was he now made the recipient of the original
after the important ceremony was performed and the register signed sir john and lady dunfern when the usual congratulations were ended
thus were joined two hearts of widely different beat one of intense love which hearsay never could shake the other of dire dislike which reason could never alter born under a lucky star
was the whispered echo throughout the distinguished guests who sat down to breakfast after the junction of opposites yea this was a remark of truth visibly
had not the tuitional click of bygone attachment kept moving with measured pace until stopped after months or it may be small years of constant swinging
did lady dunfern ever dream that her apology for disobedience to lady dilworth's orders in not arraying herself in the garb of glistening glory could ever be accepted even by the kind and loving lady dilworth
did she imagine for a moment that she to whom she owed anything but disobedience even in its simplest form should be wrested from her arms of companionship ere her return to dunfern mansion
did the thought ever flash through her mind that never again would she be able to pour into the ear of her trusted helper the secrets of the heart of deception which for the past seven months had raged so furiously within her
better leave her to the freedom of a will that ere long would sink the ship of opulence in the sea of penury and wring from her the words leave me now deceptive demon of deluded mockery
lurk no more around the vale of vanity like a vindictive viper strike the lyre of living deception to the strains of dull deadness despair and doubt
mister parker and leslie went in the direction of the river they walked slowly down the towing path several of the college girls were out in their different boats leslie began to remark about them the merchant held up his hand to stop her
we will discuss the beauties of nature and the beauty of those fair companions of yours later on he remarked but first of all i want to talk over the very important matter which has brought me here to day miss leslie i want you to confide in me
what is up my dear what is up what is up cried leslie i do not understand you oh i know she added her face turning pale that you are hiding something dreadful from me mother is ill or llewellyn or one of the girls
but i have heard nothing i assure you oh please tell me the truth at once
let me assure you once for all that your family are in the best of health but miss leslie i did think that you well i will say it i felt hurt at what occurred yesterday but what can you mean you felt hurt at what occurred yesterday
what did occur i assure you i am absolutely in the dark oh no you are not young lady you are putting it on and that does not suit a man of my caliber at all instead of coming to me yourself or even writing to me
you had not the courage to do that you sent a stranger to me i cannot understand said poor leslie her heart beat fast she felt quite certain now that some trouble was going to be revealed to her
she knew that the moment had come when she must exercise self control happen what might she must not give herself away another a stranger had approached mister parker on her behalf a queer sense of heartsickness came over her
she seemed partly to guess already what was coming making a violent effort not to show the alarm which was paling her cheeks and almost causing her heart to stop beating she said quickly please speak mister parker had observed her agitation
she has done it i am mistaken in her i thought she was like my jenny she had the same voice and something the same ways and very much the same expression but i am mistaken there never could have been two jennies in this wicked old world i was mistaken
the child was like her in the external features only please speak repeated leslie i am going to speak said the merchant i am disappointed no i am not going to be angry
are alike all the world over if they suddenly want a little money and remember that their father's old friend can be befooled being an old man himself and tender hearted they yielded to temptation
you are like the rest miss leslie just like the rest your mother shall never know nor that brave brother of yours i won't say another word when i have had my say out today but my dear let me ask you just once why did you do it
oh you are driving me mad said poor leslie you are talking about something i did but i don't know yet what i did do speak you don't know about that sixty pounds come now that's putting it on too fine
you went into debt for sixty pounds and were afraid and sent that other girl annie colchester whose shoes you are not fit to black for the money i gave it to her of course for your letter was so pitiable
but i did not tell her that i was coming down the next day to inquire into this matter myself there was a seat close by it faced the river leslie sat down on it just as if somebody had shot her she did not speak for some time
had she done so she must have burst out with the truth in her immense effort for self control for repression of her feelings she even thought that she was going to faint you ran in debt child the temptations here were too much for you
and all the other sort of things which please pretty girls you thought of course the old man would pay up well the old man has paid up i am sorry you might have asked me for the money in the first place and not gone into debt for it
but that is the way with modern girls we will say no more about it i see you did not want to pain me mister parker patted her on the arm leslie shrank away from him don't she said i cannot bear you to touch me just now
and thinking such a lot of you and remembering the straight honorable sort of man your father was but do you knowing my father as you did feeling for him as you still do do you really believe this of me said leslie
believe it of you how can i help it child but if there is any way out of any way to lessen the kind of shock i got yesterday i will bless you leslie gilroy to the longest day i live
leslie again felt as if she had got a dash of cold water she could clear herself but at what a cost tell me exactly what occurred before i say anything more she said in a low tremulous voice
oh that's all easy enough said mister parker it was annie colchester who came to me
rupert is about as bad a lot as i have ever met the girl is different clever with a lot of enthusiasm and blind worship for that good for nothing brother of hers i helped rupert took him into my own office
but afterwards i had to give him the sack i could not keep that sort about me you understand please go on said leslie
i expect that chap will go to the dogs as fast as he can i am the last man leslie to uphold young rascals of that sort he is a scoundrel and the least said about him the better the girl is different
i had letters from her now and then and she always spoke of you with great affection she never mentioned you by name and i never guessed until yesterday when she called to see me that you were the girl her roomfellow she said whom she liked better than anybody else at saint wode's
that you were the same girl whom i cared for more than aught else in the world oh you don't said leslie there was a break in her voice i do child you always seemed to me to be jenny come back again
but there once for all i will not drag jenny into this annie colchester called at my office yesterday she brought me a note from you by the way here it is don't show it to me said leslie suddenly
don't show you your own letter why not because oh don't ask me she felt cold and sick if mister parker really showed her that letter written by annie but signed in her name
she knew that she could not trust herself she knew that she must say something which would betray her miserable friend the one rope she had to cling to was a blind sense of honor she would give annie a chance she would not betray her
she would get annie herself to make her own confession what train must you go back by she said suddenly you look quite ill child i see you cannot put the thing straight as i had hoped just for a moment but
after i have asked you one or two questions we will never allude to the matter again was it an ordinary debt you wanted the money for leslie bent her head in apparent acquiescence then that is a relief
i did think that you were above all the petty wants and caprices of your sex but if you do want to look pretty and charming why my dear i have more money than i know what to do with here he fumbled in his pocket
would you like another twenty pounds for i have got some bank notes i could let you have three or four you are pretty enough to look charming in the simplest dress but if you think otherwise why oh don't mister parker cried leslie
i cannot touch your money put it away please she pushed it from her the strain was becoming intolerable did you say she continued that annie took you that note herself yes my dear
you told me in it that you particularly wished to get the money in notes and gold so i sent notes and gold now leslie don't be tempted in that way again if you want money come to me straight say to me
mister parker for the sake of my father let me have five pounds or ten or fifteen or whatever supply you want don't ask me in jenny's name for jenny would not have done that sort of thing but for gilroy's sake i
i'll never refuse you child don't go into debt for it that's all i never will said poor leslie oh i cannot explain things now and i know you must think dreadfully of me
knitting his brows and giving her another fixed look tell me the whole truth little girl i can't not at present mister parker's voice changed again he looked hard at leslie then he looked away
and uttered a long whistle if you cannot tell me well there's no more to be said he remarked i am cut up a bit that's all but understand this leslie i'll have no more fooling there is a limit even to my endurance
and when roused i can be hard and very just i will never tell your mother i wouldn't vex her nor give her another care for all the money i possess you did wrong in spending that money before you got it you did very wrong to go into debt
but if you ask me for money and say you want it and give me a good reason even if it is to buy a smart frock or pretty hat you shall have it child and there's my last word good by my dear
don't fret too much whatever you may have done wrong you stand in jenny's place to me now cheer up cheer up but leslie could not utter a word
none of her companions came by she was glad of this if she could be said to be glad of anything at that moment she felt stunned all her life up to the present had been bright
she found herself all of a sudden through no fault of her own in the position of one who is degraded dishonored she who had always been upright respectable and respected with her and open sin there was nothing whatever in common
to sin gravely to commit a really great sin was impossible to a nature like leslie's direct temptation would shrink away from one so pure so innocent so generous so loving and now she was stained
just as if she had really committed the sin which she loathed how could she live under this terrible imputation how could she take the sin of another and bear it bravely on her young shoulders the man to whom she was indebted for so much believed her guilty
how could she stand it was it right for her to stand it leslie considered this with bent head and knitted brows suppose she wrote to mister parker and told him the truth what would happen then she could guess
and the thought of what would happen caused her to tremble he liked her he was kind to her for her dead father's sake and because he imagined that she bore a likeness to the child he had lost but he had spoken with a certain harshness of the colchesters
he would certainly not stand the knowledge that he had been befooled by a girl twice as clever as himself he would come down to wingfield
her career in life would be practically ruined no leslie felt she could not betray her not yet anyhow she said to herself if she will confess i think mister parker will forgive her but i cannot be the one to ruin her whole life
leslie struggled hard to regain her ordinary calmness but try as she would she could not get it back annie had hurt her too deeply to take a letter purporting to be written in her hand to mister parker to borrow money in her name
to get mister parker to think so badly of her oh the sin was too dark it cut too sore it lay too deep leslie shivered as she returned slowly to the house eileen chetwynd met her in the quadrangle and ran up eagerly
we were looking for you leslie she cried we wanted you to come on the water with us this lovely afternoon have you a headache you don't look well perhaps i have a headache but i don't quite know replied leslie
i will go upstairs and lie down leslie ran past eileen who stared after her in some wonder when leslie entered her room annie still buried in her novel was crouched up on the window sill her books papers and problems were pushed aside
her hair was rumpled her cheeks slightly flushed nevertheless there was an expression of rest about her face that leslie had never before seen there she turned away from her feeling that she could scarcely bear to inhabit the same room
for the first time in her gentle life hatred of another was visiting her her religious principles did not come to her aid in this crisis she felt a sense of being crushed she felt sure that because of this thing she must go halt
and maimed for the remainder of her days annie looked up as she came in had a good time she asked in a light careless sort of voice i was down by the river
asked annie not noticing the tone yes
but the possibility of mister parker's appearing at wingfield had evidently never entered her brain she turned another page of her novel and read on contentedly
by the way have you read it caxtons by bulwer lytton yes i have read it
i don't care about tea to night replied leslie
annie stifled a sigh and once more resumed her book leslie went and sat with her back to her she took up a book but she could not read as a rule it was leslie's task and privilege to get tea for them both
annie missed her companion's gentle attentions
leslie also rose shook out her dress put on a fresh tie and collar and smoothed her hair
do i should think you will said annie
if i had as pretty a face as yours i should not much mind how i dressed or yes perhaps i should perhaps i should give up my whole life to my beautiful face and spend all my time devising means to make it still more attractive
don't said leslie in a sharp voice the thought that mister parker also supposed that she was vain enough and despicable enough to go into debt for fine clothes returned to her memory with annie's words you look sweet said annie
come along take my arm i am in a mighty good humor i can tell you and as hungry as a hawk
go on don't wait for me said leslie
she ran back just when they reached the door annie in some wonder went downstairs alone leslie waited until she had gone oh god help me to bear it she said raising a piteous cry to the one who alone could help her
then feeling a little better she went downstairs and took her place at table when dinner was over
leslie looked at annie with a sort of suppressed eagerness she will be going out presently thought the girl she will be going to meet that bad fellow
the money which has ruined my life i shall watch her i hate being with her and yet i cannot keep away from her she waited for annie to speak again
but it will be all right for you leslie you will go will you not
the girls who had invited them looked somewhat surprised and disappointed they said nothing more however and leslie and annie went upstairs once more to their own room
you do look very queer you have not been a bit like yourself for the last hour or two leslie made no reply annie glanced at her again it is so hot to night she said
you are quite glaring at me your eyes have got the queerest expression never mind about my eyes replied leslie i have something to say her quiet was over she knew that the time for action had come
annie colchester she said i know where you are going you have got a chance one chance will you take it
i will tell you in a few words exactly what i mean i know everything there is time yet annie
i have always been kind to you that is i have tried to be kind
no i don't mean to ruin you it was now annie's turn to look pale her eyes startled and alarmed glanced from leslie to the ground at any rate don't keep me now she said
a shiver passing through her frame when i come back i will talk with you as long as you like but i am in a great hurry we can talk over over what you mean i am sure i cannot imagine what it can be when i come back
we must talk now cried leslie it will be too late when you come back
god knows you have something terrible to confess to me but my confession comes first i followed you the night before last after the meeting at east hall i came back to our room and found you absent
i was restless and miserable about you and i went out to look for you i was standing near the boat house when you landed with with
yes i saw you i stood in the shadow and i heard what you said
yes i will he is a rascal a scoundrel oh he is my brother cried annie the only one i love in all the world and you dare not abuse him what right have you i have every right annie i know the truth
he wanted money i heard him say so he spoke cruelly to you and you you promised to help him
can you know said annie her voice had sunk to the lowest whisper leslie had to strain her ears to catch the words
mister parker came to see me to day and he told me everything and you betrayed me annie flung herself suddenly on her knees she covered her face with her shaking hands oh and i thought myself safe she continued
i have lived through such awful agony misery beyond words was mine and just when i thought myself safe oh i was resting to day i was so tired but all my security was false and i am done for ruined
why was i ever born she uttered a piercing cry and fell forward on her face and hands get up annie don't kneel like that i did not betray you
do you mean what you are saying annie started up now came close to leslie and tried to take her hand mister parker came here today
all my life as long as i live i will live for you and devote myself to you oh you darling you brave darling don't said leslie you would not speak those words to me if you knew what i felt in my heart do you think i love you now
no i am scarcely sorry for you i simply feel that i cannot betray you then all is well said annie i don't mind in the least at the present moment whether you hate me or not
i declare now and i shall always maintain it that you are the noblest girl in the world but annie do you quite understand you cannot mean to go on with this now that you know what it is to me you must you must make restitution
you cannot allow mister parker to go on thinking day after day month after month and year after year that i was really guilty of the terrible sin and meanness
and so would you if you had a brother like rupert and you felt that all his future depended on your helping him
he is the only one in the world i passionately love oh there the clock has struck ten and he will be waiting for me
the police are after him i know he will be locked up oh what is your grief compared to his misery leslie i am going out you did not betray me to day and you won't betray me now let me go let me go
not without me said leslie with sudden firmness if you go i shall go but if you refuse i will speak to oh don't don't
sent to penal servitude and i shall go mad raving mad come be quick be quick
joe cried edith bounding forward but i waved her back and turned with a severe gesture toward hartley benson what are your reasons i demanded
for thinking the poisoning that has taken place here was the work of the yellow domino do you ask me he retorted
during which my voice echoed through the room waking strange gleams of doubt on the faces of more than one person present you wish to dare me then he hissed coming a step nearer
i steadily replied are you not my brother then he cried in mingled rage and anxiety was it not you i met under the evergreens and supplied with a yellow domino
in order to give you the opportunity of seeing our father to night and effecting the reconciliation which you had so long desired
and hid himself in the closet from which you have just come all for the purpose as you said of throwing yourself at your father's feet and begging pardon for a past of which you had long ago repented
or are you some reckless buffoon who has presumed to step into the domino my brother left behind him and careless of the terrible trouble that has overwhelmed this family come here with your criminal jests to puzzle and alarm us
if that is what you wish to know hartley benson and i am the man whom you led into the ambush of this closet for such reasons as your own conscience must inform you
if the yellow domino put poison into mister benson's wine then upon me must lie the burden of the consequences for i alone have worn the disguise of this mask
from the moment we met under the evergreens till now as i think may be proved by this gentleman you call uncle joe
this mode of attack had the desired effect who are you burst from hartley's lips now blanched to the color of clay unmask him doctor
let us see the man who dares to play us tricks on such a night as this wait cried i motioning back not only the doctor but uncle joe and the ladies the whole group having started forward at hartley's words
let us first make sure i am the yellow domino who has been paraded through the parlors this evening miss benson will you pardon me if i presume to ask you what were the words of salutation with which you greeted me to night
oh she cried in a tremble of doubt and dismay i do not know as i can remember something about being glad to see you i believe
to which said i i made no audible reply but pressed your hand in mine with the certainty you were a friend
yes yes she returned blushing and wildly disturbed as she had reason to be and you uncle joe
how did you greet the man you had been told was your erring nephew i said to counterfeit wrong when one is right necessarily opens one to a misunderstanding to which ambiguous phrase i answered as you will remember
with a simple that is true a reply by the way that seemed to arouse your curiosity and lead to strange revelations god defend us cried uncle joe the exclamation was enough
i turned to the trembling edith i shall not attempt said i to repeat or ask you to repeat any conversation which may have passed between us for you will remember it was too quickly interrupted by mister benson
for us to succeed in uttering more than a dozen or so words however you will do me the kindness to acknowledge your belief that i am the man who stood with you behind the parlor curtains an hour ago i will
she replied with a haughty lift of her head that spoke more loudly than her blushes it only remains then for mister benson to assure himself i am the person who followed him to the closet
than to ask him if he remembers the injunctions which he was pleased to give me when he bestowed upon me this domino no that is whatever they were they were given to the man i supposed to be my brother ha then
brother i rejoined you gave that hint about the glass i would find on the library table saying that if it did not smell of wine i would know your father had not had his nightly potion and would yet come to the library to drink it
an intimation as all will acknowledge which could have but the one result of leading me to go to the table and take up the glass and look into it in the suspicious manner which has been reported to you
he was caught in his own toils and saw it muttering a deep curse he drew back while a startled humph broke from the doctor followed by a quick is that true
did you tell him that mister benson for reply the now thoroughly alarmed villain leaped at my throat off with that toggery let us see your face i shall and will know who you are
but i resisted for another moment while i added it is then established to your satisfaction that i am really the man who has worn the yellow domino this evening very well
now look at me one and all and say if you think i am likely to be a person to destroy mister benson and with a quick gesture i threw aside my mask
the result was a cry of astonishment from those to whom the face thus revealed was a strange one and a curse deep and loud from him to whom the shock of that moment's surprise must have been nearly overwhelming villain
he shrieked losing his self possession in a sudden burst of fury spy informer i understand it all now you have been set over me by my brother instructed by him you have dared to enter this house worm yourself into its secrets
and by a deviltry only equalled by your presumption taken advantage of your position to poison my father and fling the dreadful consequences of your crime in the faces of his mourning family it was a plot well laid
but it is foiled sir foiled as you will see when i have you committed to prison to morrow mister benson i returned shaking him loose as i would a feather this is all very well
but a spy backed by the united states government is not a man to be put lightly into prison i am a detective sir connected at present with the secret service at washington
my business is to ferret out crime and recognize a rogue under any disguise and in the exercise of any vile or deceptive practices and i looked him steadily in the face
then indeed his cheek turned livid and the eye which had hitherto preserved its steadiness sought the floor a detective murmured miss carrie shrinking back from the cringing form of the brother whom
but a few hours before she had deemed every thing that was noble and kind a detective echoed edith brightening like a rose in the sunshine in government employ repeated uncle joe
honoring me with a stare that was almost comic in its mingled awe and surprise yes i rejoined if any one doubts me i have papers with me to establish my identity
by what means i find myself in this place a witness of mister benson's death and the repository of certain family secrets it is not necessary for me to inform you it is enough that i am here
have been here for a good hour posted behind that curtain that i heard jonas exclamation as he withdrew from the balcony saw mister benson come in from his bedroom drink his glass of wine
and afterward fall at the feet of his son and daughter and that having been here and the witness of all this
or the yellow domino entered this room who put it there it is for you to determine my duty is done for to night and with a bow i withdrew from the group about me and crossed to the door
but miss carrie's voice rising in mingled shame and appeal stopped me don't go said she not at least until you tell me where my brother joseph is is he in this town
or has he planned this deception from a distance i i am an orphan sir who at one blow has lost not only a dearly beloved father but as i fear a brother too in whom
up to this hour i have had every confidence tell me then if any support is left for a most unhappy girl
just to have the fun of throwing pebbles at her window in the morning and see her wonder and pleasure at finding me there do you know what cousin i am going to give a ball when she comes home
i like the fellow's voice it rings the sterling metal and now my lords this action on the part of the government oh the devil fly away with politics i must go to a lonely bed
the man of silk and steel whom twas simon mac taggart's one steadfast ambition in life to resemble even in a remote degree and then we have the chamberlain in his turret room
envious of that blissful married man and warmed to a sympathetic glow with olivia floating through the images that rose before him he drew the curtains of his window and looked in that direction
where doom of course was not for material eyes finding a vague pleasure in building up the picture of the recluse tower dark upon its promontory it was ten o'clock
it had been arranged at their last meeting that without the usual signal he should go to her to night before twelve already his heart beat quickly his face was warm and tingling with pleasant excitation he felt a good man
by god he cried if it was not for the old glaur what for does heaven or hell send the worst of its temptations to the young and ignorant if i had met her twenty years ago twenty years ago
twenty years ago it was her mother and sim mac taggart without a hair on his face trying to kiss the good lady of doom and her perhaps na half unwilling
he put on a pair of spurs his fingers trembling as those of a lad dressing for his first ball and the girl a fairy in white with her neck pink and soft and her eyes shy like little fawns in the wood
and how near i was to missing it he thought but for the scheming of a fool i would never have seen her it's not too late thank the lord for that
i've cut with the last of it and now my face is to the stars his hands were spotless white but he poured some water in a basin and washed them carefully
shrugging his shoulders with a momentary comprehension of how laughable must that sacrament be in the eyes of the worldly sim mac taggart he splashed the water on his lips
for which he had a pass key the night was still except for the melancholy sound of the river running over its cascades and echoing under the two bridges odours of decaying leaves surrounded him
and the air of the night touched him on his hot face like a benediction a heavy dew clogged the grass of cairnbaan as he made for the stables where a man stood out in the yard waiting with a black horse saddled
without a word he mounted and rode the hoofs thudding dull on the grass he left behind him the castle quite dark and looming in its nest below the sentinel hill
he turned the bay the town revealed a light or two a bird screamed on the ebb shore
touched a fine man in his cloak touched a decent love in him his heart was full with wholesome joyous ichor and he sang softly to the creaking saddle
that haunted his lips until he came opposite the very walls of doom he fastened his horse to a young hazel and crossed the sandy interval between the mainland and the rock sea wrack bladders bursting under his feet
and the smells of seaweed dominant over the odours of the winter wood the tower was pitch dark he went into the bower sat on the rotten seat among the damp bedraggled strands of climbing flowers
and took his flageolet from his pocket he played softly breathing in the instrument the very pang of love
a great cathedral so rapt so devoted his spirit as he sought to utter the very deepest ecstasy into the reed he poured remembrance and regret
the gathered nights of riot and folly lived and sorrowed for the ideals cherished and surrendered the remorseful sinner the awakened soul no one paid any heed in castle doom
that struck him suddenly with wonder as he ceased his playing for a moment and looked through the broken trellis to see the building black below the starry sky
there ought at least to be a light in the window of olivia's room she had made the tryst herself and never before had she failed to keep it perhaps she had not heard him and so to his flageolet again
ah said he to himself pausing to admire ah there's no doubt i finger it decently well better than most better than any i've heard and what's the wonder at that
for it's all in what you feel and the most of people are made of green wood there's no green timber here i'm cursed if i'm not the very ancient stuff of fiddles he had never felt happier in all his life the past
he wiped that off his recollection as with a sponge now he was a new man with his feet out of the mire and a clean road all the rest of the way with a clean sweet soul for his companion he loved her to his very heart of hearts
he had honestly for her but the rendered passion of passion why what kept her he rammed the flageolet impatiently into his waistcoat threw back his cloak and stepped out into the garden
doom castle rose over him black high and low without a glimmer a terrific apprehension took possession of him he raised his head and gave the signal call so natural that it drew an answer almost like an echo from an actual bird
far off in some thicket at achnatra and oh felicity here she was at last the bolts of the door slid back softly the door opened a little figure came out forward swept the lover
all impatient fires to find himself before mungo boyd he caught him by the collar of his coat as if he would shake him what game is this what game is this he furiously demanded
where is she canny man canny said the little servitor releasing himself with difficulty from the grasp of this impetuous lover faith it's anither warnin this no to parley at nicht
oh weel she hisna come oot the nicht said mungo waving his arms to bring the whole neighbourhood as witness of the obvious fact the chamberlain thrust at his chest and nearly threw him over
ye dull witted lowland brock said he have i no the use of my own eyes give me another word but what i want and i'll slash ye smaller than ye are already with my ferrara oh i'm no that wee
said mungo if ye wad jist bide cool cool quo he man i'm up to the neck in fire where is she whaur ony decent lass should be at this oor o the nicht in her naked bed
say that again you foul mouthed dog o fife and i'll gralloch you like a deer cried the chamberlain his face tingling losh the body's cracked
i was to meet her to night does she know i'm here i rapped at her door mysel to mak sure she did and what said she
i said it was you and she said it didna maitter didna maitter repeated the chamberlain viciously mimicking the eastland accent what ails her ye ought to ken that best yoursel
it was the last thing i daur ask her said mungo boyd preparing to retreat but his precaution was not called for he had stunned his man the chamberlain drew his cloak about him cold with a contemptuous rebuff
his mouth parched violent emotions wrought in him but he recovered in a moment
oh well said he it's a woman's way mungo you'll likely ken said mungo
lucky man and now that i mind right i think it was not to night i was to come after all i must have made a mistake if you have a chance in the morn's morning
you can tell her i wasted a tune or two o the flageolet on a wheen stars it is a pleasant thing in stars mungo that ye aye ken where to find them when ye want them he left the rock and took to horse again and home
valedictory much as bruce would have wished to inter his dead friend's secret with his mortal remains in the tomb it was impossible sir charles dyke's sacrifice must not be made in vain
and the strange chain of events encircled other actors in the drama too strongly to enable the barrister to adopt the course which would otherwise have commended itself to him an early visit to scotland yard
where in company with mister white he interviewed the deputy commissioner and a conference with the district coroner settled two important questions the police were satisfied as to the cause of lady dyke's death
and the coroner agreed to keep the evidence as to the baronet's sudden collapse strictly within the limits of the medical evidence a wholly unnecessary public scandal was thus avoided
with lady dyke's relatives his task required considerable tact without taking them fully into his confidence he explained that sir charles had all along known the exact facts bearing upon her death and burial place
but for family reasons he thought it best not to disclose his knowledge bruce needed their co operation in getting the home office to give the requisite permission for lady dyke's reburial
the circumstance that the deceased baronet had left his estates to his wife's nephew joined to the important position bruce occupied as one of the trustees and joint guardian with the boy's mother of the young heir
smoothed over many difficulties after a harassing and anxious week bruce had the melancholy satisfaction of seeing the remains of the unfortunate couple laid to rest in the stately gloom of the family vault
the newspapers of course scented a mystery in the proceedings
even the exhumation order gave no clue to the reasons of the authorities for granting it and in less than the proverbial nine days the incident was forgotten sir charles had made it a condition precedent to the succession
and should live with his widowed mother on the yorkshire estate or in the town house for a certain number of months in each year
so he arranged that she should receive an annual income sufficient to secure her from want thompson too was provided for when the time came that he was too feeble for further employment at portman square
and mister white received a handsome douceur for his services missus hillmer did not even know of sir charles dyke's death until weeks had passed acting on bruce's advice
her brother simply told her that everything had been settled and that the authorities concurred with the barrister in the opinion that lady dyke was accidently killed when she had completely recovered from the shock of the belief that her loyal friend had murdered his wife
mensmore one day told her the whole sad story but he would allow no more weeping it is time he said that the misery of this episode should cease when the chief actor in the tragedy gave his life to end the suffering
we would but ill meet his wishes by allowing it to occupy our thoughts unduly in the future mensmore's marriage with phyllis browne was now definitely fixed for the following autumn so he carried his sister off with him on a hasty trip to wyoming
in company with corbett a journey required for the protection and development of their joint interests in that state not only did their property turn out to be of great and lasting value but during their absence the springbok mine began to boom
even the cautious barrister one day found himself hesitating whether or not to sell at half over par
the two young people were married a scion of the house had become a lusty two year old mister white had become chief inspector and miss marie le marchant had by strenuous effort risen to the dignity of double crown posters
as a dashing comedienne when bruce's memories of his lost friends were suddenly revived in an unexpected manner mister sydney h corbett came to him with measured questionings and brooding thought stamped on his brows
it's like this he said when they were settled down to details i want to get married to whom inquired claude wondering at the savage tone in which the announcement was made to missus hillmer oh
she screams oh and runs off with tears in her eyes her brother says oh and looks uncomfortable but refuses to discuss the proposition now you say oh and gaze at me like an owl at the bare statement
what the dickens does it all mean i want to know i'm not worrying about what happened years ago missus hillmer is just the sort of woman i require as a wife and i'll marry her yet if the whole british nation says oh loud enough to be heard and answered by the u nited states
that's the proper sort of spirit in which to set about the business yes sir but i can't get any forrarder there's a kind of rock below water which holds me up every time i shoot the rapids she likes me well enough i know
she calls me syd as slick as butter and i call her gwen but there you are if i want to go ahead a bit she pulls up and weeps
steady mister corbett women weep for many reasons do you know her history no and i don't want to
remember that she has been married before with somewhat bitter experience she probably believes that a husband and wife should have no secrets from each other above all else there should be no cloud between them as to bygone events
missus hillmer is highly sensitive if she imagined you were under any misapprehension as to the circumstances under which sir charles and lady dyke met their deaths
she would neither entertain your proposal nor explain her motives she would just do as you say run away and cry well now that beats everything said corbett admiringly that never struck me before
it is the probable explanation of her attitude nevertheless then what am i to do write to her ask her permission to learn the facts from me tell her you believe you understand the reasons for her reticence
and that your only excuse for the request is that you want to go to her on an equal plane of absolute confidence it seems to me that i'd better get quick and do it shouted corbett vanishing with the utmost celerity
bruce still occupied his old chambers in victoria street he did not expect to see corbett again for a couple of days to the barrister's utter amazement he returned within ten minutes fire away he cried excitedly
you struck it first time i just rang her up rang her up yes she's staying at the savoy for a few days
i could never fix up a letter in your words you know
what on earth did you say as soon as i got her in the box at the other end i said is that you gwen yes said she well said i i guess you know who's talking quite well said she then said i
i've just been telling mister bruce i wanted to marry you and that you wouldn't even discuss the proposition he said you probably wished me to know the whole story of sir charles dyke but felt kinder shy of telling me yourself he will get it off his chest if you give him permission
and then i can come along in a hansom and fix things what do you say there was no answer so i shouted are you there and she said yes faint like don't let me hurry you said i but if you agree straight away i can catch bruce at home
for i've just left him with that she said very well you can see mister bruce and here i am having accomplished the whole thing satisfactorily as how don't you see you have proposed to the lady and practically been accepted
say i'm off this story of yours will keep until to morrow he would have gone but bruce jumped after him not so fast mister corbett you must not sail into the savoy flying a false flag kindly oblige me with your attention for the next half hour
with that he unlocked a safe and took from its recesses sir charles dyke's confession he read the whole of its opening passages explaining the relations between missus hillmer and her unfortunate but abiding friend
the straightforward honest sentences sounded strangely familiar at this distance of time bruce was glad of the opportunity of reading them aloud it seemed a fitting thing that this testimony should come as it were from the tomb
corbett listened intently to the recital and to the barrister's summary of the events that followed poor chap he said when the sad tale had ended i hope you shook hands with him as he asked you to do i did
would that my grasp had the power to reassure him of my heartfelt sympathy for a little while they were silent so said corbett at last gwen thought i would make the same mistake as the poor lady
and suspect her wrongfully no not that but naturally she wished the man whom she could trust as a husband to be wholly cognizant of events in which already he had participated slightly she was right
i like her all the better for it but tell me is there any necessity for that wonderful document to be preserved not the slightest it has served its last use then put it in the fire
bruce did not hesitate a moment to comply with the wish the flames devoured the record with avidity and the two men watched the manuscript crumbling into nothingness
chapter sixteen a florentine joke early the next morning tito was returning from bratti's shop in the narrow thoroughfare of the ferravecchi the genoese stranger had carried away the onyx ring and tito was carrying away fifty florins
it did just cross his mind that if after all fortune by one of her able devices saved him from the necessity of quitting florence
since he had been understood to wear it for the sake of peculiar memories and predilections still it was a slight matter not worth dwelling on with any emphasis and in those moments he had lost his confidence in fortune
had given place to a dull regretful lassitude he cared so much for the pleasures that could only come to him through the good opinion of his fellow men that he wished now he had never risked ignominy by shrinking from what his fellow men called obligations
but our deeds are like children that are born to us they live and act apart from our own will nay children may be strangled but deeds never they have an indestructible life both in and out of our consciousness
and that dreadful vitality of deeds was pressing hard on tito for the first time he was going back to his lodgings in the piazza di san giovanni but he avoided passing through the mercato vecchio which was his nearest way lest he should see tessa
he was not in the humour to seek anything he could only await the first sign of his altering lot the piazza with its sights of beauty was lit up by that warm morning sunlight under which the autumn dew still lingers
and which invites to an idlesse undulled by fatigue it was a festival morning too when the soft warmth seems to steal over one with a special invitation to lounge and gaze here too the signs of the fair were present
in the spaces round the octagonal baptistery stalls were being spread with fruit and flowers and here and there laden mules were standing quietly absorbed in their nose bags while their drivers were perhaps gone through the hospitable sacred doors
to kneel before the blessed virgin on this morning of her nativity on the broad marble steps of the duomo there were scattered groups of beggars and gossiping talkers here an old crone with white hair and hard sunburnt face
encouraging a round capped baby to try its tiny bare feet on the warmed marble while a dog sitting near snuffed at the performance suspiciously there a couple of shaggy headed boys leaning to watch a small pale cripple
who was cutting a face on a cherry stone and above them on the wide platform men were making changing knots in laughing desultory chat or else were standing in close couples gesticulating eagerly
but the largest and most important company of loungers was that towards which tito had to direct his steps it was the busiest time of the day with nello and in this warm season and at an hour when clients were numerous
most men preferred being shaved under the pretty red and white awning in front of the shop rather than within narrow walls it is not a sublime attitude for a man to sit with lathered chin thrown backward and have his nose made a handle of
but to be shaved was a fashion of florentine respectability
when yesterday's crop of gossip was freshest and the barber's tongue was always in its glory when his razor was busy the deft activity of those two instruments seemed to be set going by a common spring
tito foresaw that it would be impossible for him to escape being drawn into the circle he must smile and retort and look perfectly at his ease well it was but the ordeal of swallowing bread and cheese pills after all
the man who let the mere anticipation of discovery choke him was simply a man of weak nerves but just at that time tito felt a hand laid on his shoulder and no amount of previous resolution could prevent the very unpleasant sensation
with which that sudden touch jarred him his face as he turned it round betrayed the inward shock but the owner of the hand that seemed to have such evil magic in it broke into a light laugh he was a young man about tito's own age
with keen features small close clipped head and close shaven lip and chin giving the idea of a mind as little encumbered as possible with material that was not nervous the keen eyes were bright with hope and friendliness
as so many other young eyes have been that have afterwards closed on the world in bitterness and disappointment for at that time there were none but pleasant predictions about niccolo macchiavelli as a young man of promise who was expected to mend the broken fortunes of his ancient family
why melema
ah messer niccolo said tito recovering himself immediately
that shuddered at the approach of your wit but the fact is i have had a bad night that is unlucky because you will be expected to shine without any obstructing fog to day in the rucellai gardens i take it for granted you are to be there
messer bernardo did me the honour to invite me said tito but i shall be engaged elsewhere ah i remember you are in love said macchiavelli with a shrug
else you would never have such inconvenient engagements why we are to eat a peacock and ortolans under the loggia among bernardo rucellai's rare trees there are to be the choicest spirits in florence and the choicest wines
only as piero de medici is to be there the choice spirits may happen to be swamped in the capping of impromptu verses i hate that game it is a device for the triumph of small wits who are always inspired the most by the smallest occasions
what is that you are saying about piero de medici and small wits messer niccolo said nello whose light figure was at that moment predominating over the herculean frame of niccolo caparra that famous worker in iron whom we saw last with bared muscular arms and leathern apron
in the mercato vecchio was this morning dressed in holiday suit and as he sat submissively while nello skipped round him lathered him seized him by the nose and scraped him with magical quickness
and was preparing to go into society a private secretary will never rise in the world if he couples great and small in that way continued nello when great men are not allowed to marry their sons and daughters as they like small men must not expect to marry their words as they like
that pagolantonio soderini has given ser piero da bibbiena a box on the ear for setting on piero de medici
i don't know which i envy him most said macchiavelli the offence or the punishment the offence will make him the most popular man in all florence and the punishment will take him among the only people in italy who have known how to manage their own affairs
yes if soderini stays long enough at venice said cennini he may chance to learn the venetian fashion and bring it home with him the soderini have been fast friends of the medici
but what has happened is likely to open pagolantonio's eyes to the good of our old florentine trick of choosing a new harness when the old one galls us if we have not quite lost the trick in these last fifty years not we
said niccolo caparra who was rejoicing in the free use of his lips again
that's what i say to our people when they get noisy over their cups at san gallo
when there's water enough arno will be full and that will not be till the torrent is ready
said nello you could never have made it with that dark rust on your chin ecco messer domenico i am ready for you now by the way my bel erudito continued nello as he saw tito moving towards the door
he will come again presently the old man looked mournful and seemed in haste i hope there is nothing wrong in the via de bardi doubtless messer tito knows that bardo's son is dead said cronaca who had just come up tito's heart gave a leap
had the death happened before romola saw him no i had not heard it he said with no more discomposure than the occasion seemed to warrant turning and leaning against the doorpost
i knew that his sister had gone to see him did he die before she arrived no said cronaca i was in san marco at the time and saw her come out from the chapter house with fra girolamo
who told us that the dying man's breath had been preserved as by a miracle that he might make a disclosure to his sister tito felt that his fate was decided
again his mind rushed over all the circumstances of his departure from florence and he conceived a plan of getting back his money from cennini before the disclosure had become public if he once had his money
he would wait now and go away with cennini and get the money from him at once with that project in his mind he stood motionless his hands in his belt his eyes fixed absently on the ground
nello glancing at him felt sure that he was absorbed in anxiety about romola and thought him such a pretty image of self forgetful sadness that he just perceptibly pointed his razor at him and gave a challenging look at piero di cosimo
whom he had never forgiven for his refusal to see any prognostics of character in his favourite's handsome face piero who was leaning against the other doorpost close to tito shrugged his shoulders
the frequent recurrence of such challenges from nello had changed the painter's first declaration of neutrality into a positive inclination to believe ill of the much praised greek so you have got your fra girolamo back again cronaca
i suppose we shall have him preaching again this next advent said nello and not before there is need said cronaca gravely
he has no lack of poets about him said cronaca with quiet contempt but they are great poets and not little ones so they are contented to be taught by him and no more think the truth stale which god has given him to utter
than they think the light of the moon is stale but perhaps certain high prelates and princes
might be pleased to hear that though giovanni pico and poliziano and marsilio ficino and most other men of mark in florence reverence fra girolamo
poliziano
yes doubtless he believes in your new jonah witness the fine orations he wrote for the envoys of sienna to tell alexander the sixth that the world and the church were never so well off as since he became pope
said macchiavelli smiling a various scholar must have various opinions
the secret of oratory lies not in saying new things but in saying things with a certain power that moves the hearers
your speaker deserves to be called
and according to that test fra girolamo is a great orator that is true niccolo said cennini speaking from the shaving chair but part of the secret lies in the prophetic visions
our people no offence to you cronaca will run after anything in the shape of a prophet especially if he prophesies terrors and tribulations rather say cennini answered cronaca
which stamp him as a messenger of god i admit it i admit it said cennini opening his palms as he rose from the chair his life is spotless no man has impeached it he is satisfied with the pleasant lust of arrogance
i can see it in that proud lip and satisfied eye of his he hears the air filled with his own name fra girolamo savonarola of ferrara the prophet the saint the mighty preacher
said the conciliatory nello let me stop your mouth with a little lather i must not have my friend cronaca made angry i have a regard for his chin and his chin is in no respect altered since he became a piagnone
i got into such a trick of slipping in to listen to him that i might have turned piagnone too if i had not been hindered by the liberal nature of my art and also by the length of the sermons which are sometimes a good while before they get to the moving point but as messer niccolo here says
for what says luigi pulci dombruno's sharp cutting scimitar had the fame of being enchanted but says luigi i am rather of opinion that it cut sharp because it was of strongly tempered steel yes yes paternosters may shave clean
but they must be said over a good razor see nello said macchiavelli what doctor is this advancing on his bucephalus i thought your piazza was free from those furred and scarlet robed lackeys of death
and had his bonnet and mantle pickled a little in the gutter though he himself
as he looked up towards the advancing figure a round headed round bodied personage seated on a raw young horse which held its nose out with an air of threatening obstinacy and by a constant effort to back and go off in an oblique line
showed free views about authority very much in advance of the age and i have a few more adventures in pickle for him continued nello in an undertone which i hope will drive his inquiring nostrils to another quarter of the city
he's a doctor from padua they say he has been at prato for three months and now he's come to florence to see what he can net but his great trick is making rounds among the contadini and do you note those great saddle bags he carries
they are to hold the fat capons and eggs and meal he levies on silly clowns with whom coin is scarce he vends his own secret medicines so he keeps away from the doors of the druggists
and making it a resort for asthmas and squalling bambini it stirs my gall to see the toad faced quack fingering the greasy quattrini
but i'll put a few thorns in his saddle else i'm no florentine laudamus he is coming to be shaved that's what i've waited for
which i devised two days ago here sandro nello whispered in the ear of sandro who rolled his solemn eyes nodded and following up these signs of understanding with a slow smile took to his heels with surprising rapidity
how is it with you maestro tacco said nello as the doctor with difficulty brought his horse's head round towards the barber's shop
is an accursed beast the vermocane seize him
descending from his saddle and fastening the old bridle mended with string to an iron staple in the wall
i had him cheap rather too hard riding for a man who carries your weight of learning eh maestro said nello you seem hot truly i am likely to be hot said the doctor taking off his bonnet
and giving to full view a bald low head and flat broad face with high ears wide lipless mouth round eyes and deep arched lines above the projecting eyebrows which altogether made nello's epithet toad faced
dubiously complimentary to the blameless batrachian
like your florence doctors moreover i have had not a little pulling to get through the carts and mules into the mercato to find out the husband of a certain monna ghita who had had a fatal seizure before i was called in
and if it had not been that i had to demand my fees monna ghita
peace be with her angry soul the mercato will want a whip the more if her tongue is laid to rest tito who had roused himself from his abstraction and was listening to the dialogue felt a new rush of the vague half formed ideas about tessa
which had passed through his mind the evening before if monna ghita were really taken out of the way it would be easier for him to see tessa again whenever he wanted to see her
you are the slave of rude mortals who but for you would die like brutes without help of pill or powder it is pitiful to see your learned lymph oozing from your pores as if it were mere vulgar moisture you think my shaving will cool and disencumber you
one moment and i have done with messer francesco here it seems to me a thousand years till i wait upon a man who carries all the science of arabia in his head and saddle bags ecco nello held up the shaving cloth with an air of invitation
and maestro tacco advanced and seated himself under a preoccupation with his heat and his self importance which made him quite deaf to the irony conveyed in nello's officiously polite speech
it is but fitting that a great medicus like you said nello adjusting the cloth should be shaved by the same razor
the chirurgic art interrupted the doctor with an air of contemptuous disgust is it your florentine fashion to put the masters of the science of medicine on a level with men who do carpentry on broken limbs and sew up wounds like tailors
and carve away excrescences as a butcher trims meat via a manual art such as any artificer might learn and which has been practised by simple barbers like yourself on a level with the noble science of hippocrates galen and avicenna
which penetrates into the occult influences of the stars and plants and gems a science locked up from the vulgar no in truth maestro said nello using his lather very deliberately
as if he wanted to prolong the operation to the utmost i never thought of placing them on a level i know your science comes next to the miracles of holy church for mystery but there you see is the pity of it here nello fell into a tone of regretful sympathy
your high science is sealed from the profane and the vulgar and so you become an object of envy and slander i grieve to say it but there are low fellows in this city mere sgherri
who go about in nightcaps and long beards and make it their business to sprinkle gall in every man's broth who is prospering let me tell you for you are a stranger this is a city where every man had need carry a large nail
ready to fasten on the wheel of fortune when his side happens to be uppermost already there are stories mere fables doubtless beginning to be buzzed about concerning you
i would not have a man of your metal stoned for though san stefano was stoned he was not great in medicine like san cosmo and san damiano what stories what fables stammered maestro tacco
what do you mean lasso
the fact is there is a company of evil youths who go prowling about the houses of our citizens carrying sharp tools in their pockets no sort of door or window or shutter but they will pierce it
they are possessed with a diabolical patience to watch the doings of people who fancy themselves private it must be they who have done it it must be they who have spread the stories about you and your medicines
no well i advise you to look for it is now commonly talked of that you have been seen in your dwelling at the canto di paglia making your secret specifics by night pounding dried toads in a mortar
compounding a salve out of mashed worms and making your pills from the dried livers of rats which you mix with saliva emitted
which indeed these witnesses profess to repeat it is a pack of lies exclaimed the doctor struggling to get utterance and then desisting in alarm at the approaching razor it is not to me or any of this respectable company that you need to say that doctor
what are a handful of reasonable men against a crowd with stones in their hands there are those among us who think cecco d'ascoli was an innocent sage and we all know how he was burnt alive for being wiser than his fellows
ah doctor it is not by living at padua that you can learn to know florentines my belief is they would stone the holy father himself if they could find a good excuse for it and they are persuaded that you are a necromancer
who is trying to raise the pestilence by selling secret medicines and i am told your specifics have in truth an evil smell it is false burst out the doctor as nello moved away his razor it is false
and the salve it has an excellent odour an odour of of salve he started up with the lather on his chin and the cloth round his neck to search in his saddle bag for the belied medicines and nello in an instant
while sandro who had now returned at a sign from his master placed himself near the bridle behold messeri said the doctor bringing a small box of medicines and opening it before them
let any signor apply this box to his nostrils and he will find an honest odour of medicaments not indeed of pounded gems or rare vegetables from the east or stones found in the bodies of birds
according to their degree and there are even remedies known to our science which are entirely free of cost as the new tussis may be counteracted in the poor who can pay for no specifics
and here is a paste which is even of savoury odour and is infallible against melancholia being concocted under the conjunction of jupiter and venus and i have seen it allay spasms stay maestro said nello
while the doctor had his lathered face turned towards the group near the door eagerly holding out his box and lifting out one specific after another here comes a crying contadina with her baby doubtless she is in search of you
here buona donna here is the famous doctor why what is the matter with the sweet bimbo this question was addressed to a sturdy looking broad shouldered contadina with her head drapery folded about her face so that little was to be seen
but a bronzed nose and a pair of dark eyes and eyebrows she carried her child packed up in the stiff mummy shaped case in which italian babies have been from time immemorial introduced into society turning its face a little towards her bosom
and making those sorrowful grimaces which women are in the habit of using as a sort of pulleys to draw down reluctant tears
said the woman in a wailing voice
i know i can't pay you for it but i took it into the nunziata last night and it's turned a worse colour than before it's the convulsions but when i was holding it before the santissima nunziata
sit down maestro sit down said nello here is an opportunity for you here are honourable witnesses who will declare before the magnificent eight that they have seen you practising honestly and relieving a poor woman's child and then if your life is in danger
the magnificent eight will put you in prison a little while just to insure your safety and after that their sbirri will conduct you out of florence by night
who preached against the jews what our people are given to stone throwing but we have magistrates the doctor unable to refuse seated himself in the shaving chair trembling half with fear and half with rage
and by this time quite unconscious of the lather which nello had laid on with such profuseness he deposited his medicine case on his knees took out his precious spectacles wondrous florentine device from his wallet
lodged them carefully above his flat nose and high ears and lifting up his brows turned towards the applicant o santiddio look at him said the woman with a more piteous wail than ever as she held out the small mummy
which had its head completely concealed by dingy drapery wound round the head of the portable cradle
the doctor anxiously holding his knees together to support his box bent his spectacles towards the baby and said cautiously it may be a new disease unwind these rags monna the contadina with sudden energy snatched off the encircling linen
when out struggled scratching grinning and screaming what the doctor in his fright fully believed to be a demon but what tito recognised as vaiano's monkey made more formidable by an artificial blackness such as might have come from a hasty rubbing up the chimney
up started the unfortunate doctor letting his medicine box fall and away jumped the no less terrified and indignant monkey finding the first resting place for his claws on the horse's mane
till he had fairly found his equilibrium when he continued to clutch it as a bridle the horse wanted no spur under such a rider and the already loosened bridle offering no resistance
darted off across the piazza with the monkey clutching grinning and blinking on his neck il cavallo il diavolo was now shouted on all sides by the idle rascals who gathered from all quarters of the piazza
and was echoed in tones of alarm by the stall keepers whose vested interests seemed in some danger while the doctor out of his wits with confused terror at the devil the possible stoning and the escape of his horse
took to his heels with spectacles on nose lathered face and the shaving cloth about his neck crying stop him
while the lads outstripping him clapped their hands and shouted encouragement to the runaway the cerretano who had not bargained for the flight of his monkey along with the horse had caught up his petticoats with much celerity
and showed a pair of parti coloured hose above his contadina's shoes far in advance of the doctor and away went the grotesque race up the corso degli adimari the horse with the singular jockey the contadina with the remarkable hose
and the doctor in lather and spectacles
from the potent and reverend signor going to council in his lucco down to the grinning youngster who felt himself master of all situations when his bag was filled with smooth stones from the convenient dry bed of the torrent
the grey headed domenico cennini laughed no less heartily than the younger men and nello was triumphantly secure of the general admiration aha he exclaimed snapping his fingers when the first burst of laughter was subsiding
maestro tacco will no more come here again to sit for patients than he will take to licking marble for his dinner you are going towards the piazza della signoria messer domenico said macchiavelli i will go with you
and we shall perhaps see who has deserved the palio among these racers come melema will you go too
but before he had gone many steps he was called back by nello
maso's message was from romola she wished tito to go to the via de bardi as soon as possible she would see him under the loggia at the top of the house
chapter six farewell unwatch'd the garden bough shall sway the tender blossom flutter down unloved that beech will gather brown
the maple burn itself away unloved the sun flower shining fair ray round with flames her disk of seed and many a rose carnation feed with summer spice the humming air
till from the garden and the wild a fresh association blow and year by year the landscape grow familiar to the stranger's child as year by year the labourer tills his wonted glebe or lops the glades
and year by year our memory fades from all the circle of the hills tennyson the last day came the house was full of packing cases
even the pretty lawn at the side of the house was made unsightly and untidy by the straw that had been wafted upon it through the open door and windows the rooms had a strange echoing sound in them and the light came harshly and strongly in through the uncurtained windows
seeming already unfamiliar and strange missus hale's dressing room was left untouched to the last and there she and dixon were packing up clothes and interrupting each other every now and then to exclaim at and turn over with fond regard
they did not make much progress with their work down stairs margaret stood calm and collected
these two last crying between whiles wondered how the young lady could keep up so this last day and settled it between them that she was not likely to care much for helstone having been so long in london there she stood
very pale and quiet with her large grave eyes observing everything up to every present circumstance however small they could not understand how her heart was aching all the time
with a heavy pressure that no sighs could lift off or relieve and how constant exertion for her perceptive faculties was the only way to keep herself from crying out with pain moreover if she gave way who was to act
her father was examining papers books registers what not in the vestry with the clerk and when he came in there were his own books to pack up which no one but himself could do to his satisfaction
besides was margaret one to give way before strange men or even household friends like the cook and charlotte not she but at last the four packers went into the kitchen to their tea
out through the bare echoing drawing room into the twilight of an early november evening there was a filmy veil of soft dull mist obscuring but not hiding all objects
giving them a lilac hue for the sun had not yet fully set a robin was singing perhaps margaret thought the very robin that her father had so often talked of as his winter pet and for which he had made with his own hands
a kind of robin house by his study window the leaves were more gorgeous than ever the first touch of frost would lay them all low on the ground
margaret went along the walk under the pear tree wall she had never been along it since she paced it at henry lennox's side here at this bed of thyme he began to speak of what she must not think of now
her eyes were on that late blowing rose as she was trying to answer
of the carrots in the very middle of his last sentence only a fortnight ago and all so changed
and freshening himself up as he had told her he often did by a run in the temple gardens taking in the while the grand inarticulate mighty roar of tens of thousands of busy men nigh at hand but not seen
he had often spoken to margaret of these hasty walks snatched in the intervals between study and dinner
and the thought of them had struck upon her fancy here there was no sound the robin had gone away into the vast stillness of night now and then a cottage door in the distance was opened and shut
as if to admit the tired labourer to his home but that sounded very far away a stealthy creeping cranching sound among the crisp fallen leaves of the forest beyond the garden seemed almost close at hand
margaret knew it was some poacher sitting up in her bed room this past autumn with the light of her candle extinguished and purely revelling in the solemn beauty of the heavens and the earth she had many a time seen the light noiseless leap of the poachers
over the garden fence their quick tramp across the dewy moonlit lawn their disappearance in the black still shadow beyond the wild adventurous freedom of their life had taken her fancy she felt inclined to wish them success
she had no fear of them but to night she was afraid she knew not why she heard charlotte shutting the windows and fastening up for the night unconscious that any one had gone out into the garden a small branch it might be of rotten wood
or it might be broken by force came heavily down in the nearest part of the forest margaret ran swift as camilla down to the window and rapped at it with a hurried tremulousness which startled charlotte within let me in let me in it is only me charlotte
with the windows fastened and bolted and the familiar walls hemming her round and shutting her in she had sate down upon a packing case cheerless chill was the dreary and dismantled room no fire
nor other light but charlotte's long unsnuffed candle charlotte looked at margaret with surprise and margaret feeling it rather than seeing it rose up i was afraid you were shutting me out altogether charlotte
said she half smiling and then you would never have heard me in the kitchen and the doors into the lane and churchyard are locked long ago oh miss i should have been sure to have missed you soon
thank you charlotte you are a kind girl i shall be sorry to leave you you must try and write to me if i can ever give you any little help or good advice i shall always be glad to get a letter from helstone you know
i shall be sure and send you my address when i know it the study was all ready for tea there was a good blazing fire and unlighted candles on the table margaret sat down on the rug
partly to warm herself for the dampness of the evening hung about her dress and over fatigue had made her chilly she kept herself balanced by clasping her hands together round her knees her head dropped a little towards her chest
the attitude was one of despondency whatever her frame of mind might be but when she heard her father's step on the gravel outside she started up and hastily shaking her heavy black hair back
and wiping a few tears away that had come on her cheeks she knew not how she went out to open the door for him he showed far more depression than she did she could hardly get him to talk
although she tried to speak on subjects that would interest him at the cost of an effort every time which she thought would be her last have you been a very long walk to day asked she on seeing his refusal to touch food of any kind
as far as fordham beeches i went to see widow maltby she is sadly grieved at not having wished you good bye she says little susan has kept watch down the lane for days past
nay margaret what is the matter dear the thought of the little child watching for her and continually disappointed from no forgetfulness on her part but from sheer inability to leave home was the last drop in poor margaret's cup
mister hale was distressingly perplexed he rose and walked nervously up and down the room margaret tried to check herself but would not speak until she could do so with firmness she heard him talking as if to himself
i cannot bear it i cannot bear to see the sufferings of others i think i could go through my own with patience oh is there no going back no father said margaret looking straight at him and speaking low and steadily
it is bad to believe you in error it would be infinitely worse to have known you a hypocrite
savoured of irreverence besides she went on it is only that i am tired to night don't think that i am suffering from what you have done dear papa we can't either of us talk about it to night i believe said she
finding that tears and sobs would come in spite of herself i had better go and take mamma up this cup of tea she had hers very early
railroad time inexorably wrenched them away from lovely beloved helstone the next morning they were gone
more homelike than ever in the morning sun that glittered on its windows each belonging to some well loved room almost before they had settled themselves into the car sent from southampton to fetch them to the station they were gone away to return no more
a sting at margaret's heart made her strive to look out to catch the last glimpse of the old church tower at the turn where she knew it might be seen above a wave of the forest trees
but her father remembered this too and she silently acknowledged his greater right to the one window from which it could be seen
on the shadowing eye lashes before rolling slowly down her cheeks and dropping unheeded on her dress they were to stop in london all night at some quiet hotel poor missus hale had cried in her way nearly all day long
and dixon showed her sorrow by extreme crossness and a continual irritable attempt to keep her petticoats from even touching the unconscious mister hale whom she regarded as the origin of all this suffering
they went through the well known streets past houses which they had often visited
impatient by her aunt's side while that lady was making some important and interminable decision nay absolutely past acquaintances in the streets for though the morning had been of an incalculable length to them
and they felt as if it ought long ago to have closed in for the repose of darkness it was the very busiest time of a london afternoon in november when they arrived there it was long since missus hale had been in london
and she roused up almost like a child to look about her at the different streets and to gaze after and exclaim at the shops and carriages oh there's harrison's where i bought so many of my wedding things dear how altered
they've got immense plate glass windows larger than crawford's in southampton oh and there i declare no
margaret started forwards and as quickly fell back half smiling at herself for the sudden motion they were a hundred yards away by this time but he seemed like a relic of helstone he was associated with a bright morning an eventful day
the evening without employment passed in a room high up in an hotel was long and heavy
every one they saw either in the house or out in the streets appeared hurrying to some appointment expected by or expecting somebody they alone seemed strange and friendless and desolate
yet within a mile margaret knew of house after house where she for her own sake and her mother for her aunt shaw's would be welcomed if they came in gladness or even in peace of mind
then they would be felt as a shadow in all these houses of intimate acquaintances not friends
which the friends of job showed when they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him
that death itself shall not remain that weary deserts we may tread a dreary labyrinth may thread thro dark ways underground be led yet if we will one guide obey
the dreariest path the darkest way shall issue out in heavenly day and we on divers shores now cast shall meet our perilous voyage past all in our father's house at last r c trench
margaret flew upstairs as soon as their visitors were gone and put on her bonnet and shawl to run and inquire how bessy higgins was and sit with her as long as she could before dinner
as she went along the crowded narrow streets she felt how much of interest they had gained by the simple fact of her having learnt to care for a dweller in them
there had been rough stoning done in the middle of the floor while the flags under the chairs and table and round the walls retained their dark unwashed appearance although the day was hot there burnt a large fire in the grate
making the whole place feel like an oven margaret did not understand that the lavishness of coals was a sign of hospitable welcome to her on mary's part and thought that perhaps the oppressive heat was necessary for bessy
bessy herself lay on a squab or short sofa placed under the window she was very much more feeble than on the previous day and tired with raising herself at every step to look out and see if it was margaret coming
and now that margaret was there and had taken a chair by her bessy lay back silent and content to look at margaret's face and touch her articles of dress with a childish admiration of their fineness of texture
i never knew why folk in the bible cared for soft raiment afore but it must be nice to go dressed as yo do it's different fro common most fine folk tire my eyes out wi their colours but some how yours rest me
where did ye get this frock in london said margaret much amused london have yo been in london yes i lived there for some years but my home was in a forest in the country tell me about it said bessy
and trees and such like things
lying at perfect rest as if to receive all the ideas margaret could suggest margaret had never spoken of helstone since she left it except just naming the place incidentally
she saw it in dreams more vivid than life and as she fell away to slumber at nights her memory wandered in all its pleasant places but her heart was opened to this girl oh bessy
i wish you could see it i cannot tell you half its beauty there are great trees standing all about it with their branches stretching long and level and making a deep shade of rest even at noonday
and yet though every leaf may seem still there is a continual rushing sound of movement all around not close at hand
hidden tinkling brook near at hand and then in other parts there are billowy ferns whole stretches of fern some in the green shadow some with long streaks of golden sunlight lying on them just like the sea
i have never seen the sea murmured bessy but go on then here and there there are wide commons high up as if above the very tops of the trees i'm glad of that i felt smothered like down below
when i have gone for an out i've always wanted to get high up and see far away
and i think the sound yo speak of among the trees going on for ever and ever would send me dazed
now on these commons i reckon there is but little noise no said margaret nothing but here and there a lark high in the air
i used to think once that if i could have a day of doing nothing
as i was o my work sometimes i'm so tired out i think i cannot enjoy heaven without a piece of rest first
don't be afraid bessy said margaret laying her hand on the girl's god can give you more perfect rest than even idleness on earth or the dead sleep of the grave can do bessy moved uneasily then she said
i wish father would not speak as he does
i don't believe him a bit by day yet by night when i'm in a fever half asleep and half awake it comes back upon me oh so bad
and if all i've been born for is just to work my heart and my life away and to sicken this dree place wi them mill noises in my ears for ever until i could scream out for them to stop
and my mother gone and i never able to tell her again how i loved her
sitting up and clutching violently almost fiercely at margaret's hand i could go mad and kill yo i could she fell back completely worn out with her passion margaret knelt down by her
bessy we have a father in heaven i know it i know it moaned she turning her head uneasily from side to side i'm very wicked i've spoken very wickedly oh don't be frightened by me and never come again i would not harm a hair of your head
and opening her eyes and looking earnestly at margaret
i read the book o revelations until i know it off by heart and i never doubt when i'm waking and in my senses of all the glory i'm to come to
don't let us talk of what fancies come into your head when you are feverish i would rather hear something about what you used to do when you were well i think i was well when mother died but i have never been rightly strong sin somewhere about that time
i began to work in a carding room soon after and the fluff got into my lungs and poisoned me fluff said margaret inquiringly fluff repeated bessy little bits as fly off fro the cotton when they're carding it
and fill the air till it looks all fine white dust they say it winds round the lungs and tightens them up
just poisoned by the fluff but can't it be helped asked margaret i dunno some folk have a great wheel at one end o their carding rooms to make a draught
but that wheel costs a deal o money five or six hundred pound maybe and brings in no profit
their wage ought to be raised if they were to work in such places
i know i wish there'd been a wheel in our place though did not your father know about it asked margaret yes and he were sorry but our factory were a good one on the whole
for though yo would na think it now many a one then used to call me a gradely lass enough and i did na like to be reckoned nesh and soft and mary's schooling were to be kept up mother said and father he were always liking to buy books and go to lectures o one kind or another
how old are you asked margaret nineteen come july and i too am nineteen she thought more sorrowfully than bessy did of the contrast between them
about mary said bessy i wanted to ask yo to be a friend to her
she could not d o margaret glanced unconsciously at the uncleaned corners of the room
we have an old faithful servant almost a friend who wants help but who is very particular and it would not be right to plague her with giving her any assistance that would really be an annoyance and an irritation
no i see i reckon yo're right our mary's a good wench
no mother and me at the mill till i were good for nothing but scolding her for doing badly what i didn't know how to do a bit
and now i must go i will come again as soon as i can but if it should not be to morrow or the next day or even a week or a fortnight hence don't think i've forgotten you i may be busy i'll know yo won't forget me again i'll not mistrust yo no more
but remember in a week or a fortnight i may be dead and buried i'll come as soon as i can bessy said margaret squeezing her hand tight but you'll let me know if you are worse
from that day forwards missus hale became more and more of a suffering invalid it was now drawing near to the anniversary of edith's marriage and looking back upon the year's accumulated heap of troubles
if she could have anticipated them how she would have shrunk away and hid herself from the coming time and yet day by day had of itself and by itself been very endurable
small keen bright little spots of positive enjoyment having come sparkling into the very middle of sorrows a year ago or when she first went to helstone and first became silently conscious of the querulousness in her mother's temper
but with the increase of serious and just ground of complaint a new kind of patience had sprung up in her mother's mind
mister hale was in exactly that stage of apprehension which in men of his stamp takes the shape of wilful blindness he was more irritated than margaret had ever known him at his daughter's expressed anxiety
indeed margaret you are growing fanciful god knows i should be the first to take the alarm if your mother were really ill we always saw when she had her headaches at helstone even without her telling us she looks quite pale and white when she is ill
and now she has a bright healthy colour in her cheeks just as she used to have when i first knew her but papa said margaret with hesitation do you know i think that is the flush of pain nonsense margaret i tell you you are too fanciful
you are the person not well i think send for the doctor to morrow for yourself and then if it will make your mind easier he can see your mother thank you dear papa it will make me happier indeed and she went up to him to kiss him
but he pushed her away gently enough but still as if she had suggested unpleasant ideas which he should be glad to get rid of as readily as he could of her presence he walked uneasily up and down the room poor maria said he half soliloquising
no papa said margaret sadly then you see she can't be fretting after them eh it has always been a comfort to me to think that your mother was so simple and open that i knew every little grievance she had
she never would conceal anything seriously affecting her health from me would she eh margaret i am quite sure she would not so don't let me hear of these foolish morbid ideas
of propriety in regard to one's business or profession besides general politeness that ready money which is current with all there is a polite deportment suited to every profession
interest custom and the desire of particular esteem the necessity of moderating the enthusiasm which almost constantly animates us are the motives which determine the different kinds of politeness that we are going to consider
as regards shopkeepers people in office lawyers physicians artists military men and ecclesiastics as all this politeness is mutual
we shall necessarily speak of the obligations imposed upon people who have intercourse with these different persons
politeness of shopkeepers and customers politeness in shopkeepers is a road to fortune which the greater part of them are careful not to neglect especially at paris where we find particularly the model of a well bred shopkeeper
it is this model that we wish to hold up even to some parisians and to the retail dealers of the provincial towns as well as to those who are unacquainted with trade but are destined to that profession when a customer calls
the shopkeeper should salute him politely without inquiring after his health unless he be intimately acquainted with him he then waits until the customer has made known his wishes advances toward him or brings forward a seat
the articles for which he has inquired if the purchaser be difficult to suit capricious ridiculous or even disdainful the shopkeeper ought not to appear to perceive it he may however in such cases
show a little coldness of manner the part which shopkeepers have to act is frequently painful we must allow there are some people who treat them like servants there are some capricious fashionables who go into a shop only to pass the time
to see the new fashions and who with this object make the shopkeeper open a hundred bundles show heaps of goods and finish by going out saying in a disdainful tone that nothing suits them there are some merciless purchasers
who contend for a few cents with all the tenacity of avarice obstinacy and pride however under all these vexations the shopkeeper must show constant urbanity
he waits upon such imperious purchasers with readiness but nevertheless in silence for he must be convinced that the more complying we are to people of this sort the more haughty and difficult they show themselves
with capricious fashionables his patience should never forsake him and although he well knows what will be the result of their fatiguing call he nevertheless should show them his goods as if he thought they really intended to buy
for sometimes this tempts them to purchase even though his politeness should be all lost he should still express his regret at not having been able to suit the lady and hope to be more fortunate another time
he should then conduct her politely to the door which he should hold open until her carriage leaves it a shopkeeper who wishes to save time words and vexation who even feels the dignity of his profession ought to sell at a fixed price
or if he does not announce that he sells in that mode he ought at least to adopt it and not to have what is called an asking price if however he has to do with those gossips who think themselves cheated unless something is abated
or who design to impose sacrifices on the shopkeepers it is necessary to carry on this ridiculous skirmishing politely and to yield by degrees without exhibiting any marks of displeasure at these endless debates
but the dealer of bon ton abstains from those lofty assurances those laughable adjurations declarations of loss and of preference as i lose all profit it is because it is you and other foolish things
which make a lackey's office of a truly respectable profession the clerks should carry the articles purchased to the desk
and the purchaser is ready to depart if the latter is not on foot the bundle should not be delivered until he is seated in the carriage and the door is ready to be shut if on the contrary the purchaser is not in a carriage
he must be asked whether he wishes to have the bundle carried home this politeness is indispensable if the bundle is large and especially if the purchaser is a lady it is further necessary that the person at the desk should offer small change for the balance of the purchase
he ought to present a bill of the articles and not show any ill humor if the purchaser thinks proper to look over it there is one circumstance which tries the politeness of the most civil shopkeepers it is when an assortment is wanted
it is indeed irksome enough to show a great quantity of goods and give patterns of them
that like all other qualities politeness has its trials
will be induced by this amenity of behavior to continue always a customer
in the recommendations which we are now about to give them will not see any silly attempt to address them with smart sayings by enjoining upon them to avoid volubility a disrespectful familiarity toward ladies extravagant praises of their goods
an affected zeal in serving rich persons an impolite tardiness and disdainful inattention to people of a diffident manner the ridiculous habit of wishing to make conversation to urge people to buy whether they wish to or not
to stun them with the names of all the goods in the shop by enjoining upon them to avoid these things we intend less to join in than to preserve them from the reproaches of fault finders every civility ought to be reciprocal or nearly so
if the officious politeness of the shopkeeper does not require an equal return he has at least a claim to civil treatment and finally if this politeness proceed from interest is this a reason why purchasers should add to the unpleasantness of his profession
and trouble themselves little at violating the laws of politeness many very respectable people allow themselves so many infractions on this point that i think it my duty to dwell upon it you should never say
i want such a thing but have the goodness to show me or show me if you please that article or use some other polite form of address
apologize to the shopkeeper for the trouble you give him if after all you cannot suit yourself renew your apologies when you go away if you make small purchases say i ask your pardon or i am sorry for having troubled you for so trifling a thing
if you spend a considerable time in the selection of articles apologize to the shopkeeper who waits for you to decide if the price seems to you too high and that the shop has not fixed prices
ask an abatement in brief and civil terms and without ever appearing to suspect the good faith of the shopkeeper if he does not yield do not enter into a contest with him but go away after telling him politely that you think you can obtain the article cheaper elsewhere
but if not that you will give him the preference if the clerk ends by asking whether you wish for any other article answer always in a manner to encourage him that you will call again we should never neglect to be agreeable thank him always when you go out
section two politeness between persons in office and the public this is not very conspicuous nor can it be since in this case the desire of pleasing and the expectation of gain have no influence besides
as we remain but a moment with these gentlemen and as they have business with a great many people the observances and forms of politeness would be misplaced the following are points to be observed by them and are by no means rigid
the greater therefore the reason for conforming to them a man in office is not obliged to rise and salute people nor to offer them a seat it is enough for him to receive them by an inclination of the head and make a sign with the hand
to intimate to them to be seated the business being finished he salutes them on leaving as before and never conducts them back to the door it would be ridiculous to be offended with these bureaucratic forms and still more so to wish to enter into conversation
section three politeness of lawyers and their clients politeness is a very difficult thing for this respectable class who see constantly before their eyes people always animated with a feeling which renders them little amiable namely
interest besides being in the habit of refuting their adversaries and being obliged to do it promptly they acquire in general a kind of bluntness a decisive tone a spirit of contradiction of which they ought to be distrustful in society
and also in their places of business the familiar usage of common inquiries after the health is not customary between attorneys or advocates and their clients unless they have before been acquainted with them
they are however bound to observe attentions which are not practised by persons in office they rise to salute their clients offer them a seat and conduct them to the door when they take leave they observe what is due to sex rank and age
as to clients they ought to conform to the ordinary rules of civility they ought moreover not to exhibit any signs of impatience while they are waiting until they can be received they should take care to be clear and precise in the narration of their business
and not to importune by vain repetitions or passionate declamations the counsellor who is listening to them they should also consider that his moments are precious and should retire so soon as they shall have sufficiently instructed him in their business
the observances adopted in the offices of lawyers are likewise practised with consulting physicians
i ask your pardon this observation is perhaps idle but being myself ignorant and wishing to omit nothing i submit it to your good judgment you ought to give frequent and heartfelt thanks to the physician who affords you his advice or attentions
the circumstance of his being unsuccessful does not exonerate you from these testimonies of gratitude it renders them perhaps more obligatory for delicacy requires that you should not appear tacitly to reproach him
on account of his having been unfortunate in his efforts being obliged to speak of different wants and of different parts of the body for which politeness has no appropriate language the physician ought to avoid being obscure or gross
particularly when addressing ladies a forgetfulness of these forms often renders insupportable even a meritorious and learned man
before the patient and his family of the nature of the illness and of the probable consequences when there exists any danger in what guarded terms he should at last disclose to them a fatal termination if unfortunately it has become inevitable
every body knows also that however poignant may be the grief of parents they ought never to let it appear in their conversations with the physician that they regard him as the cause of their affliction
politeness of artists and authors and the deference due to them do artists come under the common rule it will perhaps be said and i shall ask in my turn do they live like others
these men always absorbed in one strong and single conception with which they like the creator wish to animate matter who seek everywhere the secret of the beautiful which goads infatuates and evades them
passionate absorbed in thought ingenuous almost always strangers to calculation to pleasure and to the occupations of the world no they have a separate existence one which the world does not comprehend
and which they ought to conceal from the world if as we shall see hereafter one should avoid speaking of his profession and of his personal affairs for a still stronger reason an artist ought to be silent about his own labors his success and his hopes
people will accuse him of arrogance of vanity and perhaps even of madness for enthusiasm is not included in nor admitted into society because there the ridiculous is feared above everything and from the sublime to the ridiculous there is but one step
let him then reserve only for his friends for true friends of the arts his noble and striking bursts of inspiration people are also generally prone to suspect artists of jealousy in order to escape this accusation
they ought to commend warmly what appears to them good and criticise with much moderation and without any raillery what is defective these observations are addressed equally to authors with this important addition besides the charge of arrogance
people are much disposed to accuse them of pedantry
with which they are continually occupied let them always be in fear of obtaining the name of a bel esprit a name which calls up so many recollections of pedantry and affectation a graceful simplicity
a happy mixture of elevation and naivete should characterise authors and artists but particularly female authors and artists ladies who handle the pen the lyre or the pencil
ought to be well persuaded that any vestige of prejudice raises against them especially in provincial places a multitude of unfavorable observations and besides so many half instructed women have had so much the air and manners of upstarts
that this opinion is almost excusable now this prejudice lays it down as a rule that every female author or artist may be known at first sight by her oddities her want of modesty or her pedantic folly
do away this unjust prejudice my female friends it will be both easy and pleasant you will have only to follow the influence of an elevated soul a pure taste you will have but to remind yourselves that simplicity is the coquetry of genius
but if people who cultivate literature and the arts ought to apply themselves without reluctance or ill humor to all the requirements of society if they ought to strip themselves of all pretension and forget themselves others should not forget them
politeness requires that we converse with an author concerning his works
that we bestow upon him suitable and delicate praises if any of his works are unknown to us we should ask of him the loan of it with earnestness we should read it with promptitude
if he makes us a present of any of his productions we shall owe him a call or at least a billet of thanks handsome compliments and lively testimonials of acknowledgment ought to fill up this visit or billet remember also
that to please an artist it is necessary to flatter at once his taste his self esteem and his cultivation of the fine arts speak to him therefore like a connoisseur or at least an admirer of music or of painting
ask the favor of seeing his pictures or of hearing his symphonies contemplate the former a long time listen to the latter with great attention address to him lively congratulations mingled with thanks then by an adroit transition
put to him questions which prove your desire to be initiated into a knowledge of the arts
dramatic success or an academical title his friends and acquaintances should lose no time in offering him their compliments those at a distance may perform this duty of politeness by writing
not only authors by profession but literary persons who publish a discourse a little work or a pamphlet should send in an envelope a copy to their family friends professional brethren authors who have addressed to them similar presents
to their intimate acquaintances their superiors and to those persons to whom they owe respect according to the nature of the work and to the people with whom they have relations of pleasure or of business
it is an affectionate and very polite custom for the author to write with his own hand at the top of the first leaf or of the cover
these words which are designed to make of the gift a remembrance or homage are always written under the name of the person and signed by the author we will here speak of a dedication only to observe
that we cannot dedicate a work to any one without having previously obtained his consent either verbally or by writing when it is to the king queen or princes it is necessary to write to their secretary to know their wish in this respect
as to any other person of dignity we may write to him without any intermediate agency if the members of the royal family have accepted the dedication the author is generally allowed the honor of presenting his work to them
politeness of military men military politeness has as we know some particular characteristics officers and soldiers do not uncover themselves on entering a church if they are under arms only during the elevation of the host
when soldiers converse with their superiors they constantly hold the edge of the hand to their forehead on entering a drawing room an officer lays down his sabre or his sword it is not in good ton for a man to present himself before ladies
in the uniform of the national guard unless some circumstance excuses or authorises this liberty in a citizen's dress officers may wear a black cravat if we are acquainted with military men
he is an object of special respect
are regulated by the liturgy but although the ecclesiastic be not now in society an object of religious veneration he has as the representative of god or as a minister of the altar a right to much respect and deference
too light conversation dancing and love songs would be out of place in his presence ecclesiastics have two shoals to avoid their custom of preaching a severe and sacred morality and of catechising or censuring with authority the penitent
gives them sometime a dogmatical and rigid tone a pedantry of morality altogether contrary to social affability sometimes also to guard against this result which they feel to be almost inevitable
ecclesiastics especially the more aged indulge themselves in unsuitable pleasantries which they would not dare to allow in men of the world a mild gravity a moderate gaiety a noble and affectionate urbanity
a cloud of black and deadly portent was thickening over france surely and swiftly she glided towards the abyss of the religious wars none could pierce the future perhaps none dared to contemplate it the wild rage of fanaticism and hate
friend grappling with friend brother with brother father with son altars profaned hearth stones made desolate the robes of justice herself bedrenched with murder in the gloom without lay spain imminent and terrible
as on the hill by the field of dreux her veteran bands of pikemen dark masses of organized ferocity stood biding their time while the battle surged below and then swept downward to the slaughter
so did spain watch and wait to trample and crush the hope of humanity in these days of fear a second huguenot colony sailed for the new world the calm stern man who represented and led the protestantism of france
felt to his inmost heart the peril of the time he would fain build up a city of refuge for the persecuted sect yet
too high in power and rank to be openly assailed was forced to act with caution he must act too in the name of the crown and in virtue of his office of admiral of france a nobleman and a soldier for the admiral of france was no seaman
he shared the ideas and habits of his class nor is there reason to believe him to have been in advance of his time in a knowledge of the principles of successful colonization his scheme promised a military colony not a free commonwealth
the huguenot party was already a political as well as a religious party at its foundation lay the religious element represented by geneva the martyrs
began to link their fortunes to a party whose triumph would involve confiscation of the wealth of the only rich class in france an element of the great revolution was already mingling in the strife of religions america was still a land of wonder
the ancient spell still hung unbroken over the wild vast world of mystery beyond the sea a land of romance adventure and gold fifty eight years later the puritans landed on the sands of massachusetts bay
the illusion was gone the ignis fatuus of adventure the dream of wealth the rugged wilderness offered only a stern and hard won independence in their own hearts and not in the promptings of a great leader
or the patronage of an equivocal government their enterprise found its birth and its achievement they were of the boldest and most earnest of their sect there were such among the french disciples of calvin but no mayflower ever sailed from a port of france
and widely different was their fate an excellent seaman and stanch protestant
under him besides sailors were a band of veteran soldiers and a few young nobles embarked in two of those antiquated craft whose high poops and tub like porportions
on the eighteenth of february fifteen sixty two they crossed the atlantic and on the thirtieth of april in the latitude of twenty nine and a half degrees saw the long low line
where the wilderness of waves met the wilderness of woods it was the coast of florida they soon descried a jutting point which they called french cape perhaps one of the headlands
they turned their prows northward coasting the fringes of that waste of verdure which rolled in shadowy undulation far to the unknown west on the next morning the first of may
they found themselves off the mouth of a great river riding at anchor on a sunny sea they lowered their boats crossed the bar that obstructed the entrance
boyling and roaring says ribaut through the multitude of all kind of fish
they pushed their boats ashore and disembarked sailors soldiers and eager young nobles corselet and morion arquebuse and halberd flashed in the sun that flickered through innumerable leaves
as kneeling on the ground they gave thanks to god who had guided their voyage to an issue full of promise the indians seated gravely under the neighboring trees looked on in silent respect thinking that they worshipped the sun
they be all naked and of a goodly stature mightie and as well shapen and proportioned of body as any people in ye world
so well and so properly as the best painter of europe could not amende it
with their squaws and children they presently drew near
whom he calls the king a robe of blue cloth
just escaped from the dull prison of their ships were intent on admiring the wild scenes around them never had they known a fairer may day the quaint old narrative is exuberant with delight the tranquil air the warm sun
woods fresh with young verdure meadows bright with flowers the palm the cypress the pine the magnolia the grazing deer herons curlews bitterns woodcock and unknown water fowl
cedars bearded from crown to root with long gray moss huge oaks smothering in the folds of enormous grapevines such were the objects that greeted them in their roamings
the fairest fruitfullest
they found a tree covered with caterpillars
to bee short it is a thing vnspeakable to consider
above all it was plain to their excited fancy that the country was rich in gold and silver turquoises and pearls
as great as an acorne at ye least
who stood near their boats as they re embarked they gathered too from the signs of their savage visitors that the wonderful land of cibola with its seven cities and its untold riches was distant but twenty days journey by water
in truth it was two thousand miles westward and its wealth a fable they named the river the river of may it is now the saint john's and on the next morning says ribault
we returned to land againe accompanied with the captaines gentlemen and souldiers and others of our small troope carrying with us a pillour or columne of harde stone our king's armes graved therein
to plant and set the same in the enterie of the porte
a place very fitte for that purpose upon a little hill compassed with cypres bayes paulmes and other trees with sweete smelling and pleasant shrubbes
here they set the column and then again embarking held their course northward happy in that benign decree which locks from mortal eyes the secrets of the future next they anchored near fernandina
and to a neighboring river probably the saint mary's gave the name of the seine here as morning broke on the fresh moist meadows hung with mists and on broad reaches of inland waters which seemed like lakes they were tempted to land again
the steppes being all fresh and new and it seemeth that the people doe nourish them like tame cattell
by two or three weeks of exploration they seem to have gained a clear idea of this rich semi aquatic region ribaut describes it as
of such fruitfulnes as cannot with tongue be expressed
slowly moving northward they named each river or inlet supposed to be a river after some stream of france
the gironde at length opening betwixt flat and sandy shores they saw a commodious haven and named it port royal on the twenty seventh of may
they crossed the bar where the war ships of dupont crossed three hundred years later passed hilton head
the frightened indians had fled
he mustered his company on deck and made them a harangue he appealed to their courage and their patriotism told them how
as we had much to do to stay their importunitie thirty were chosen and albert de pierria was named to command them a fort was begun on a small stream called the chenonceau probably archer's creek
ammunition and stores were sent on shore and on the eleventh of june with his diminished company ribaut again embarked and spread his sails for france from the beach at hilton head
albert and his companions might watch the receding ships growing less and less on the vast expanse of blue dwindling to faint specks
they were alone in those fearful solitudes from the north pole to mexico there was no christian denizen but they the pressing question was how they were to subsist their thought was not of subsistence but of gold
of the thirty the greater number were soldiers and sailors with a few gentlemen
men of the sword born within the pale of nobility
for a time they busied themselves with finishing their fort and this done set forth in quest of adventures the indians had lost fear of them ribaut had enjoined upon them to use all kindness and gentleness in their dealing with the men of the woods
and they more than obeyed him they were soon hand and glove with chiefs warriors and squaws and as with indians the adage that familiarity breeds contempt holds with peculiar force
they quickly divested themselves of the prestige which had attached at the outset to their supposed character of children of the sun good will however remained and this the colonists abused to the utmost roaming by river swamp and forest
they visited in turn the villages of five petty chiefs whom they called kings feasting everywhere on hominy beans and game and loaded with gifts one of these chiefs named audusta
invited them to the grand religious festival of his tribe when they arrived they found the village alive with preparation and troops of women busied in sweeping the great circular area where the ceremonies were to take place
but as the noisy and impertinent guests showed a disposition to undue merriment the chief shut them all in his wigwam lest their gentile eyes should profane the mysteries here immured in darkness
they listened to the howls yelpings and lugubrious songs that resounded from without one of them however by some artifice contrived to escape hid behind a bush and saw the whole solemnity the procession of the medicinemen
and the bedaubed and befeathered warriors the drumming dancing and stamping the wild lamentation of the women as they gashed the arms of the young girls with sharp mussel shells and flung the blood into the air with dismal outcries
a scene of ravenous feasting followed in which the french released from durance were summoned to share after the carousal they returned to charlesfort where they were soon pinched with hunger
the indians never niggardly of food brought them supplies as long as their own lasted but the harvest was not yet ripe and their means did not match their good will they told the french of two other kings
who dwelt towards the south and were rich beyond belief in maize beans and squashes
they were feasted to repletion and their boat was laden with vegetables and corn they returned rejoicing but their joy was short their store house at charlesfort taking fire in the night burned to the ground and with it their newly acquired stock
and once more returned laden with supplies nay
his friends should not want how long this friendship would have lasted may well be doubted with the perception that the dependants on their bounty were no demigods
respect would soon have changed to contempt and contempt to ill will
albert a rude soldier with a thousand leagues of ocean betwixt him and responsibility grew harsh domineering and violent beyond endurance
to a solitary island three leagues from the fort where he left him to starve for a time his comrades chafed in smothered fury the crisis came at length a few of the fiercer spirits leagued together assailed their tyrant murdered him
delivered the famished soldier and called to the command one nicolas barre a man of merit barre took the command and thenceforth
the rough ramparts and rude buildings of charlesfort hatefully familiar to their weary eyes the sweltering forest
the eternal silence of the lifeless wilds around them
of the evening cup on the bench before the cabaret and dances with kind wenches of dieppe but how to escape a continent was their solitary prison and the pitiless atlantic shut them in
had they put forth to maintain themselves at port royal the energy and resource which they exerted to escape from it they might have laid the cornerstone of a solid colony all
gentle and simple labored with equal zeal they calked the seams with the long moss which hung in profusion from the neighboring trees
and for sails they sewed together their shirts and bedding at length a brigantine worthy of robinson crusoe floated on the waters of the chenonceau they laid in what provision they could gave all that remained of their goods to the indians embarked
a fair wind filled their patchwork sails and bore them from the hated coast day after day they held their course till at length the breeze died away
france farther yet before floating idly on the glassy waste the craft lay motionless their supplies gave out twelve kernels of maize a day were each man's portion
then the maize failed and they ate their shoes and leather jerkins the water barrels were drained and they tried to slake their thirst with brine
and the wretched brigantine with sails close reefed tossed among the savage billows at the mercy of the storm a heavy sea rolled down upon her and burst the bulwarks on the windward side the surges broke over her and clinging with desperate grip
the drenched voyagers gave up all for lost at length she righted the gale subsided the wind changed and the crazy water logged vessel again bore slowly towards france gnawed with famine
they counted the leagues of barren ocean that still stretched before and gazed on each other with haggard wolfish eyes till a whisper passed from man to man that one by his death might ransom all the rest
the lot was cast and it fell on la chore the same wretched man whom albert had doomed to starvation on a lonely island
at last the tablecloth was spread and henry unwrapped his parcels before the whole excited family i bought some more brown bread he said producing the loaves
in the same little store where i went yesterday it's kept by a little old man and it's called a delicatessen shop he has everything in his store to eat i bought some dried beef because we can eat it in our fingers
and i bought a big bone for the dog his name is watch jess interrupted all right said henry accepting the name i bought a bone for watch watch fell on the bone as if he were famished
which indeed he nearly was it was a rapturous moment when jess poured the yellow milk into four cups or bowls and each child proceeded to crumble the brown bread into it with a liberal scattering of blueberries
and then when they ate it with spoons nobody was able to speak a word for several minutes then henry began slowly to tell his tale
i walked along the first shady street i came to
and there was a fellow out mowing his own lawn he's a nice fellow too i can tell you a young doctor henry paused to chew blissfully he was pretty hot henry went on
and just as i came to the gate his telephone rang i heard it and called after him and asked if he didn't want me to finish up and he said he did cried jess yes he said for goodness sake yes
henry answered smiling you see he wasn't used to it so i mowed the lawn and trimmed the edges and he said he never had a boy trim it as well as i did and then he asked me if i wanted a steady job
o henry cried violet and jess together i told him i did so he said to come back this afternoon any time i wanted or tomorrow he said he didn't care just when any time
henry gave his cup a last polish with his spoon and set it down dreamily it's a pretty house he went on and there's a big garden behind it vegetable garden and an orchard behind that cherry orchard
you ought to see the cherry trees well when i was trimming the edges near the kitchen door the cook came and watched me she's a fat irishwoman henry laughed at the recollection she asked me if i liked cookies
oh if you had smelled them baking you'd have died laughing benny dee licious
oh no said henry confidently for i carefully chewed away for a long time on nothing at all benny began to look fixedly at henry's pocket it certainly was still rather bulgy
when i went the doctor paid me a dollar and the cook gave me this bag henry grinned as he tossed the paper bag to jess
i'm going to keep track of everything i earn and spend said henry watching jess as she handed around the cookies with reverence how are you going to write without a pencil asked jess
as she returned with her workbag and fished for the chalk while the girls rinsed the empty dishes in the brook and stored away the food for supper henry was beginning his cash account on the wall of his bedroom it was never erased
her clever fingers were already evening the two ends she was never so happy as when with a needle henry set off again with a light heart here was one sister curled up happily against a big tree
setting tiny stitches into a very straight hem here was another sister busily gathering pliant twigs into a bundle for a broom with which to sweep the stray pine needles from the house
with the dog for a pillow it was quite late when henry returned in fact it was nearly seven o'clock although he didn't know that several treasures had been added in his absence
the broom stood proudly in the corner with a slim stick for a handle the new tablecloth had been washed
and jess who had decided to wash one garment a day had begun with benny's stockings
violet had darned a big hole in each this time henry himself could not wait to tell his sisters what he had he passed them the package at once with shining eyes
it was butter cool and sweet nobody remembered that they had been a week without tasting either butter or meat
these are trick spoons explained henry
and they become knives they were knives anyway they were used to spread the delicious morsels of butter on the brown loaf with dried beef and a cookie for dessert who could ask for better fare
certainly not the four children who enjoyed it more than the rarest dainties i washed the doctor's automobile this afternoon henry related then i washed both piazzas with the hose
oh wouldn't i love to have a nice cold swim in that brook henry was hot and sticky certainly he looked with longing eyes at the waterfall as he finished the last crumbs of his supper
i wonder if we couldn't fix up a regular swimming pool he said half to himself
just a little below this there is a sort of pool already only not big enough
anyway it seemed as if they had always lived in the comfortable home in the freight car with henry plying back and forth from the city each day bringing them new surprises
with a head full of plans for damming up the brook he almost shouted when he thought suddenly of benny's wheels he began to plan to make a cart to carry the heavy stones to the brook and that was when he first noticed that watch was not asleep
he could see his eyes shining red in the darkness it must have been around eleven o'clock henry reached over and patted his rough little back watch licked the hand but didn't close his eyes
suddenly he began to growl softly sh said henry to the dog now thoroughly startled he sat up jess sat up
still they did not hear anything but still watch continued his uneasy growling violet and benny slumbered on jess and henry sat motionless with their hearts in their mouths
somebody else that wanted to sleep here watch would bite em whispered henry briefly jess never knew what confidence henry had in the faithful dog
then a branch cracked sharply outside and watch barked out loud jess smothered the dog instantly in her arms but it had been a bark and it was loud clear and unmistakable
that settles it thought henry whoever it is knows there's someone in here and the boy waited with the new broom in his hand expecting every moment to see the door opened from the outside but nothing happened nothing at all
and nothing more was heard watch sniffed a little when henry finally rolled the door open again but he then turned around three times and lay down beside jess apparently satisfied at last
taking the dog's conduct
to gaze upon her our legendary and wonderful basilica of france to bid her a last farewell before she should crumble away to her inevitable downfall i had ordered a detour of two hours in my service motor car
at the end of some special duty from which i was returning the october morning was misty and cold the hillsides of champagne were deserted that day and their vineyards with dark brown leaves
wet with rain seemed to be wrapped completely in a kind of shining fleece we had also passed through a forest keeping our eyes open and our weapons ready in case of a meeting
explanations have to be made and the countersign given in the great city where i am a stranger i have to ask my way to the cathedral for it is no longer in sight its lofty grey silhouette which
viewed from afar dominated everything so imposingly as a castle of giants would dominate the houses of dwarfs now seems to have crouched down to hide itself to get to the cathedral
people reply you must first turn to the right over there and then to the left and then to the right et cetera and my motor car plunges into the crowded streets
there are many soldiers regiments on the march motor ambulances in single file but there are many ordinary footfarers too unconcerned as if nothing were happening and there are even many well dressed women
with prayer books in their hands in honour of sunday at a street crossing there is a gathering of people in front of a house whose walls bear signs of recent damage the reason being that a shell has just fallen there
because there are more people in the streets on sunday mornings but it seems indeed as if this town had reconciled itself to its lot to live its life watched by the remorseless binoculars under the fire of savages
it is women and little girls who lie weltering in their blood victims of that amiable peasantry we hear about it and then think no more of the matter as if it were of the smallest importance in times such as these
this quarter of the town is now deserted houses are closed a silence as of mourning prevails and at the far end of a street appear the tall grey gates the lofty pointed arches
with their marvellous carvings and the soaring towers there is no sound there is not a living soul in the square where the phantom basilica still stands in majesty where the wind blows cold and the sky is dark
the basilica of rheims still keeps its place as if by miracle but so riddled and rent it is that it seems ready to collapse at the slightest shock it gives the impression of a huge mummy
still erect and majestic but which the least touch would turn into ashes the ground is strewn with its precious fragments it has been hastily enclosed with a hoarding of white wood and within its bounds lies in little heaps
were wont to repose on the day of their coronation it is nothing more than a ruin without windows or roof blackened all over by tongues of flame what a peerless jewel was this church more beautiful even
de paris more open to the light more ethereal more soaringly uplifted with its columns like long reeds astonishingly fragile considering the weight they bear a miracle of the religious art
of france a masterpiece which the faith of our ancestors had wakened into being in all its mystic purity before the sensual ponderousness of that which we have agreed to call the renaissance had come to us from italy
materialising and spoiling all oh how gross how cowardly how imbecile was the brutality of those who fired those volleys of scrap iron with full force against tracery of such delicacy
that had stayed aloft in the air for centuries in confidence no battles no invasions no tempests ever daring to assail its beauty
that great closed house yonder in the square must be the archbishop's palace i venture to ring at the door and request the privilege of entering the church his eminence i am told
is at mass but would soon return if i would wait and while i am waiting the priest who acts as my host tells me the history of the burning of the episcopal palace first of all they sprinkled the roofs
with i know not what diabolical preparation then when they threw their incendiary bombs the woodwork burnt like straw and everywhere you saw jets of green flame which burned with a noise like that of fireworks
was the very heart of ancient france impelled as much by some superstitious fancy as by their own brutal instincts and upon this task they bent their whole energy while in the rest of the town nothing else or almost nothing suffered damage
could no attempt be made i ask to replace
which will not otherwise withstand the ravages of next winter undoubtedly he replies there is a risk that at the first falls of snow the first showers of rain all this will crumble to ruins more especially
no there is nothing to be done it must be left to the grace of god on his return his eminence graciously provides me with a guide who has the keys of the hoarding and at last i penetrate into the ruins of the basilica
into the nave which being stripped bare appears the loftier and vaster for it it is cold there and sad enough for tears it is perhaps this unexpected chill
a chill far more piercing than that of the world without which at first grips you and disconcerts you
smoke of so much incense burned there emanations of so many biers blessed by the priests of so many generations who have hastened there to wrestle
and pray instead of this there is a damp icy wind which whistles through crevices in the walls through broken windows and gaps in the vaults towards those vaults up yonder pierced here and there by shrapnel
the eyes are raised immediately instinctively to gaze at them the sight is led up towards them as it were by all those columns that jut out shooting aloft in sheaves for their support
one never grows tired of bending the head backwards to gaze at them those sacred vaults hastening to destruction and then high up too quite high up throughout the whole length of the nave is
the long succession of those almost ethereal pointed arches which support the vaults and arches alike yet not rigidly uniform and so harmonious despite their elaborate carving
indeed they seem freed from all heaviness almost insubstantial moreover it is wiser to move on under that roof with head turned upward and not to watch too closely where the feet may fall
for that pavement reverberating rather sadly has been sullied and blackened by charred human flesh it is known that on the day of the conflagration the church was full of wounded germans
lying on straw mattresses which caught fire and a scene of horror ensued
all these beings their green wounds scorched by the flames dragged themselves along screaming on red stumps trying to win through doors too narrow renowned too is the heroism of those stretcher bearers
priests and nuns who risked their lives in the midst of falling bombs in their attempt to save these unhappy wretches whom their own german brothers had not even thought to spare yet they did not succeed in saving all
some remained and were burnt to death in the nave leaving unseemly clots of blood on the sacred flagstones where formerly processions of kings and queens
had slowly trailed their ermine mantles to the sound of great organs and plain song look said my guide showing me a wide hole in one of the aisles this is the work of a shell which they hurled at us yesterday evening
is the ruin of those great glass windows which the mysterious artists of the thirteenth century had piously wrought in meditation and dreams assembling together in hundreds saints male and female
with translucent draperies and luminous aureoles there again german scrap iron has crashed through in great senseless volleys shattering everything
irreplaceable masterpieces are scattered on the flagstones in fragments that can never be reassembled golds reds and blues of which the secret has been lost vanished are the transparent rainbow colours
a deathlike silence within these walls which for so long had vibrated to the voice of organs and the old ritual chants of france the cold wind alone makes a kind of music this sunday morning and at times
when it blows harder there is a tinkling like the fall of very light pearls it is the falling of the little that still remained in place of the beautiful glass windows of the thirteenth century crumbling away entirely beyond recovery
a whole splendid cycle of our history which seemed to live in the sanctuary with a life almost tangible though essentially spiritual has suddenly been plunged into the abyss of things gone by
outrageously self satisfied and consequently fundamental incurable and final destined if it be not crushed to overwhelm the world in a sinister night of eclipse
those dear sailors of ours so that the duty of policing the city of maintaining order enforcing silence and good behaviour might be entrusted to them and i could not help smiling it seemed so incongruous this entirely new part which someone had thought fit to make them play
of our excellent young friends nevertheless by dint of making up their minds to it
when they were freed from that insufferable constraint and were sent outside the city to guard the posts in the entrenched camp that was already a little better a little more after their own hearts
i will not assert that they would have marched away with more enthusiasm and gaiety for that would have been impossible but assuredly they would have marched more proudly mustered around that sublime bauble whose place nothing can ever take whatever may be said or done
sailors more perhaps than other men cherish this devotion to the flag fostered in them by the touching ceremonial observed on our ships where to the sound of the bugle the flag is unfurled each morning and furled each evening
you will certainly be given one in the end as soon as you have won it yonder and they went away singing all with the same ardour of heroes all i say not only those who still uphold the admirable traditions
of our navy of old but even the new recruits who were already a little corrupted no more than superficially however by disgusting anti military claptrap but who had suddenly recovered their senses and were exalted at the sound of the german guns
all were united resolute disciplined sobered and dreaming of having a flag on their return they were sent in haste to ghent to cover the retreat of the belgian army but on the way they were stopped at dixmude
where the barbarians with pink skins like boiled pig were established in ten times their number and where at all costs a stand was to be made to prevent the abominable onrush from spreading farther they had been told
the part assigned to you is one of danger and gravity we have need of your courage in order to save the whole of our left wing you must sacrifice yourselves until reinforcements arrive try to hold out at least four days
and they held out twenty six mortal days they held out almost alone for reinforcements owing to unforeseen difficulties were insufficient and long in coming and of the six thousand that marched away there are to day
and light trousers with nothing underneath on their legs and over all that it is true infantry great coats to which they were unaccustomed and which hampered their movements for provisions they had nothing but some tins of
in the same circumstances ordinary troops even though their peers in courage could never have been equal to the occasion but they had that faculty of fighting through common to seafaring men which
is acquired in the course of arduous voyages in the colonies among the islands and thanks to which a true sailor can face any emergency a special way with them after all so natural
was that they could not reconcile themselves to the practice of crawling crawling is a mode of progression introduced into modern warfare by german cunning and it is well known that our soldiers have to be prepared for it
by a long course of training now there had not been time to accustom these men to the practice and when it came to an attack they set out indeed as ordered dragging themselves along on all fours but promptly carried away by their zeal
they stood up to get into their stride and too many of them were mown down by shrapnel one of them told me yesterday in the words i now quote how his company having been ordered to transfer themselves to another part of the battle front
there were rain snow floods churning up black mud in the bottom of the trenches blood splashing up everywhere roofs falling in crushing wounded in confused heaps or dead bodies in all stages of decomposition
when already men could no longer tell where to strike home there were bewildering acts of treachery committed by germans who would suddenly begin to shout in french cease fire you fools
and you are firing on your own comrades and men lost their heads entirely as in a nightmare from which they could neither rouse themselves nor escape at last came the day when the town was taken
the germans suddenly brought up terrific reinforcements of heavy artillery and heavy shells fell all round like hail those enormous shells the devil's own which make holes six to eight yards wide by four yards deep
to continue there became truly a task beyond
to the very last man moreover without serving any useful purpose for the abandonment of that mass of ruins of that charnel house which was all that remained of the poor little flemish town was no longer a matter of importance
the essential point
at a time when nevertheless all the chances had seemed in their favour the essential point was this especially that they would never at any time cross over now that reinforcements had arrived to hold them up in the south
unwavering in the face of overwhelming numbers had there supported our left wing though losing half of their effective and eighty per cent of their officers then they said to themselves
those who were left of them our flag we shall get it this time besides officers in high command touched and amazed at so much bravery had promised it to them
and so had the head of the french government himself one day when he came to congratulate them but alas they have not yet received it and perhaps it will never be theirs unless those officers in high command to whom i have referred
before all these deeds of heroism have fallen into oblivion
whereabouts you may ask did this come to pass well it is one of the peculiarities of this war that in spite of my familiarity with maps and notwithstanding the excellence in detail of the plans which i carry about with me
i never know where i am at any rate this certainly happened somewhere i have moreover a sad conviction that it happened in france i should so much have preferred it to have happened in germany
under fire of their guns i had travelled by motor car since morning and had passed through more towns large and small than i can count i remember one scene in a village where i halted
a village which had certainly never before seen motor omnibuses or throngs of soldiers and horses some fifty german prisoners were brought in they were unshaven unshorn and highly unprepossessing
i will not flatter them by saying that they looked like savages for true savages in the bush are seldom lacking either in distinction or grace of bearing such air as these germans had was a blackguard air of doltish ugliness
dull gross incurable a pretty girl of somewhat doubtful character with feathers in her hat who had taken up a position there to watch them go past stared at them
with ill concealed resentment oh indeed is it with freaks like those that their dirty kaiser invites us to breed for beauty god's truth
it was cold with that bitter penetrating chill which we hardly know in my home in south west france and which seemed characteristic of northern lands from time to time a village through which the barbarians had passed displayed to us its ruins
soldiers their names now for ever forgotten had fallen there exhausted and had breathed their last with none to help them we scarcely noticed them for we raced along with ever increasing speed
because the night of late october was already closing rapidly in upon us as the day advanced a mist almost wintry in character thickened around us like a shroud silence pervaded with still deeper melancholy all that countryside
of which nothing remained save fragments of calcined walls there were two graves lying side by side near these i halted to look at a little girl of twelve years quite alone there arranging bunches of flowers
sprinkled with water some poor chrysanthemums from her ruined plot of garden some wild flowers too the last scabious of the season gathered in that place of mourning
is it a mother in skilfully fashioned draperies of crape is it a mother in the homely weeds of a peasant woman whichever it be those who loved them will live and die without ever knowing that they lie mouldering there
by the side of a lonely road on the northern boundary of france without ever knowing that this kind little girl whose own home lay desolate brought them an offering of flowers one autumn evening while
with the advent of night a bitter cold was descending upon the forest which wrapped them round farther on i came to a village the headquarters of a general officer in command of an army corps
of what were once motor omnibuses in paris but have been converted since the war into slaughter houses on wheels townspeople men and women sat there once where now sides of beef all red and raw
swing suspended from hooks if we did not know that in those fields yonder there were hundreds of thousands of men to be fed we might well ask why such things were being carted in the midst of this deserted country through which we are hastening at top speed
the day is waning rapidly and a continuous rumbling of a storm begins to make itself heard unchained seemingly on a level with the earth for weeks now this same storm has thundered away without pause
along a sinuous line stretching across france from east to west a line on which daily alas new heaps of dead are piled up here we are said my guide
if i were not already familiar with the new characteristics wherewith the germans have endued a battle front i should believe in spite of the incessant cannonade that he had made a mistake for at first sight
there is no sign either of army or of soldiers we are in a place of sinister aspect a vast plain the greyish ground is stripped of its turf and torn up trees here and there are shattered more or less completely
as if by some cataclysm of thunderbolts or hailstones there is no trace of human existence not even the ruins of a village nothing characteristic of any period either of historical or even
through wonderful binoculars by whose aid they are as keen of sight as great birds of prey to reach the firing line then it is incumbent on us to proceed on foot how strange the ground looks
but in spite of its deserted appearance this region is nevertheless thickly populated only the inhabitants are no doubt troglodytes for their dwellings scattered about and invisible at first sight
are a kind of cave or molehill half covered with branches and leaves i had seen the same kind of architecture once upon a time on easter island and the sight of these dwellings of men in this scenery of primeval forest
completes our earlier impression of having leapt backwards into the abyss of time of a truth to force upon us such a reversion was a right prussian artifice war
with an air of health and good humour and of amusement at having to live there like rabbits a sergeant comes up to us he is as earthy as a mole that has not had time to clean itself but he has a merry look of youth and gaiety
another mile or two have still to be covered on foot before we reach the firing line an icy wind blows from the forests opposite that are yet more deeply drowned in black mists forests in the enemy's hands
where the counterfeit thunderstorm is grumbling this plain with its miserable molehills is a dismal place in the twilight and i marvel that they can be so gay
the first place i reach is a line of defence in course of construction which will be the second line of defence to meet the improbable event of the first line which lies farther ahead having to be abandoned
it was the germans i admit whose scheming evil brains devised this whole system of galleries and snares but we more subtle and alert than they have in a few days equalled them if we have not beaten them
at their own game a mile farther on is the first line it is full of soldiers for this is the trench that must withstand the shock of the barbarians onset day and night it is always ready to bristle with rifles
and they who hold the trench gone to earth scarcely for a moment know that they may expect at any minute the daily shower of shells then heads rash enough to show themselves above the parapet will be shot away breasts shattered
they know how they will come on at a run with shouts intended to terrify them linked arm in arm into one infuriated mass and how they will find means as ever to do much harm
all this they know for they have already seen it but nevertheless they smile a serious dignified smile they have been nearly a week in this trench waiting to be relieved and they make no complaints
but not all of us yet have woollen underclothing for the winter and we shall need it soon when you go back to paris colonel perhaps you will be so kind as to bring this to the notice of government and of all the ladies too
the trench belong to the most diverse social grades
some artisans some day labourers and there are even some who wear their caps at too rakish an angle and whose language smacks of the ring into whose past it is better not to pry too curiously
yet they have become not only good soldiers but good men for this war while it has drawn us closer together has at the same time purified us and ennobled us this benefit at least the germans will
involuntarily have bestowed upon us and indeed it is worth the trouble moreover our soldiers all know to day why they are fighting and therein lies their supreme strength
their indignation will inspire them till their latest breath when you have seen said two young breton peasants to me when you have seen with your own eyes what these brutes do in the villages they pass through
a talk with any of these soldiers is equally reassuring and calls forth the same admiration but it is strange to reflect that in this twentieth century of ours in order to protect ourselves from barbarism and horror
we have had to establish trenches such as these in double and treble lines crossing our dear country from east to west along an unbroken front of hundreds of miles like a kind of great wall of china
but a hundred times more formidable than the original wall the defence of the mongolians is this wall of ours a wall practically subterranean which winds along stealthily
manned by all the heroic youth of france ever on the alert ever in the midst of bloodshed the twilight this evening under the sullen sky lingers sadly and will not come to an end
it appeared to me to begin two hours ago and yet it is still light enough to see before us distinguishable as yet to sight or imagination lie two sections of a forest unfolding itself
beyond range of vision the contours of its more distant section almost lost in darkness colder still grows the wind and my heart contracts with the still more painful impression of a backward plunge
without shelter and without refuge into primeval barbarism every evening at this hour colonel for the last week we have had our little shower of shells
if you have time to stay a short while you will see how quickly they fire and almost without aiming as for time well i have really hardly any to spare and besides
nevertheless i shall be delighted to stay a few minutes longer and to witness the performance again in their company ah to be sure a kind of whirring in the air like the flight of partridges
they cannot be quite so stupid nevertheless we stop talking and listen with our ears pricked a dozen shells and then no more they have finished the men tell me then their hour is over now
and it was for our comrades down there you have no luck colonel this is the very first time that it was not we who caught it and besides you would think they were tired this evening the boches it is dark
and i ought to be far away moreover they are all going to sleep for obviously they cannot risk showing a light cigarettes are the limit of indulgence i shake hands with a whole line of soldiers and leave them asleep
in a small hut right in the middle of the forest lived a man his wife three sons and a daughter for some reason all the animals seemed to have left that part of the country
and food grew very scarce so one morning after a night of snow when the tracks of beasts might be easily seen the three boys started off to hunt
they kept together for some time till they reached a place where the path they had been following split into two and one of the brothers called his dog and went to the left while the others took the trail to the right
father here is a bear which we killed now we can have some dinner but the father who was in a bad temper only said when i was a young man we used to get two bears in one day
the sons were rather disappointed at hearing this and though there was plenty of meat to last for two or three days they started off early in the morning down the same trail that they had followed before
as they drew near the fork a bear suddenly ran out from behind a tree and took the path on the right the two elder boys and their dogs pursued him and soon the second son who was also a good shot
killed him instantly with an arrow at the fork of the trail on their way home they met the youngest who had taken the left hand road and had shot a bear for himself
but when they threw the two bears triumphantly on the floor of the hut their father hardly looked at them and only said
the next day they were luckier than before and brought back three bears on which their father told them that he had always killed four
however that did not prevent him from skinning the bears and cooking them in a way of his own which he thought very good and they all ate an excellent supper now these bears were the servants of the great bear chief
and every time a bear was killed his shadow returned to the house of the bear chief with the marks of his wounds plainly to bee seen by the rest
the chief was furious at the number of bears the hunters had killed and determined that he would find some way of destroying them so he called another of his servants and said to him
the mountain will open to let you in and the hunters will follow you then i shall have them in my power and be able to revenge myself the servant bowed low
and started at once for the fork where he hid himself in the bushes by and by the boys came in sight but this time there were only two of them as the youngest had stayed at home
the air was warm and damp and the snow soft and slushy and the elder brother's bowstring hung loose while the bow of the younger caught in a tree and snapped in half at that moment the dogs
began to bark loudly and the bear rushed out of the thicket and set off in the direction of the mountain without thinking that they had nothing to defend themselves with should the bear turn and attack them the boys gave chase
the bear who knew quite well that he could not be shot sometimes slackened his pace and let the dogs get quite close and in this way the elder son reached the mountain without observing it
while his brother who had hurt his foot was still far behind as he ran up the mountain opened to admit the bear and the boy who was close on his heels rushed in after him
and did not know where he was till he saw bears sitting on every side of him holding a council the animal he had been chasing sank
panting in their midst and the boy very much frightened stood still letting his bow fall to the ground why are you trying to kill all my servants asked the chief
because you will become a bear yourself at this moment the second brother came up for the mountain had been left open on purpose to tempt him also and cried out breathlessly
don't you see that the bear is lying close to you why don't you shoot him and without waiting for a reply pressed forward to drive his arrow into the heart of the bear but the elder one caught his raised arm and whispered
so that they would go on all fours for the rest of their lives and stooping over a spring of water he dipped a handful of moss in it and rubbed it over the arms and legs of the boys in an instant the transformation took place
and two creatures neither beast nor human stood before the chief now the bear chief of course knew that the boys father would seek for his sons when they did not return home
so he sent another of his servants to the hiding place at the fork of the trail to see what would happen he had not waited long when the father came in sight stooping as he went to look for his sons tracks in the snow
and he hastened forward so fast that he fell headlong into a pit where the bear was sitting before he could pick himself up
the bear had quietly broken his neck and hiding the body under the snow sat down to see if anyone else would pass that way meanwhile the mother at home was wondering what had become of her two sons
he must stay at home and take care of his sister so slipping on her snow shoes she started on her way as no fresh snow had fallen the trail was quite easy to find and
in the forest hut and at last the brother and sister felt quite sure that in some way or other all the rest of the family had perished day after day the boy climbed to the top of a tall tree near the house
and sat there till he was almost frozen looking on all sides through the forest openings hoping that he might see someone coming along very soon all the food in the house was eaten
and he knew he would have to go out and hunt for more besides he wished to seek for his parents the little girl did not like being left alone in the hut and cried bitterly
each from a different tree and winged with the feathers of four different birds he then made himself a bow very light and strong and got down his snow shoes all this took some time
and he could not start that day but early next morning he called his little dog redmouth whom he kept in a box and set out after he had followed the trail for a great distance he grew very tired
and sat upon the branch of a tree to rest but redmouth barked so furiously that the boy thought that perhaps his parents might have been killed under its branches and stepping back
shot one of his arrows at the root of the tree whereupon a noise like thunder shook it from top to bottom fire broke out and in a few minutes a little heap of ashes
lay in the place where it had stood not knowing quite what to make of it all the boy continued on the trail and went down the right hand fork till he came to the clump of bushes where the bears used to hide
the bear chief knew a good deal of magic and he was quite aware that the little boy was following the trail and he sent a very small but clever bear servant to wait for him in the bushes and to try to tempt him
into the mountain but somehow his spells could not have worked properly that day as the bear chief did not know that redmouth had gone with his master or he would have been more careful
for the moment the dog ran round the bushes barking loudly the little bear servant rushed out in a fright and set out for the mountains as fast as he could
the dog followed the bear and the boy followed the dog until the mountain the house of the great bear chief came in sight but along the road the snow was so wet and heavy that the boy could hardly get along
and then the thong of his snow shoes broke and he had to stop and mend it so that the bear and the dog got so far ahead that he could scarcely hear the barking when the strap was firm again
the boy spoke to his snow shoes and said now you must go as fast as you can or if not i shall lose the dog as well as the bear and the snow shoes sang in answer that they would run like the wind
as he came along the bear chief's sister was looking out of the window and took pity on this little brother as she had on the two elder ones and waited to see what the boy would do when he found that the bear servant and the dog
had already entered the mountain the little brother was certainly very much puzzled at not seeing anything of either of the animals which had vanished suddenly out of his sight he paused for an instant
to think what he should do next and while he did so he fancied he heard redmouth's voice on the opposite side of the mountain
with great difficulty he scrambled over steep rocks and forced a path through tangled thickets but when he reached the other side the sound appeared to start from the place from which he had come then
and he knew in an instant where he was and what had happened let my dog out at once bear chief
were burnt up in the flames but his sister and all that belonged to her
as soon as the fire had burnt itself out the little hunter entered what was left of the mountain and the first thing he saw was his two brothers half bear half boy
oh help us help us cried they standing on their hind legs as they spoke
their fore paws to him but how am i to help you asked the little brother almost weeping i can kill people and destroy trees and mountains but i have no power over men and the two elder brothers came up
and put their paws on his shoulders and they all three wept together
and she came gently up behind and whispered little boy gather some moss from the spring over there and let your brothers smell it with a bound all three were at the spring
and as the youngest plucked a handful of wet moss the two others sniffed at it with all their might then the bearskin fell away from them and they stood upright once more how
and fell at her feet in gratitude but the bear's sister only smiled and bade them go home and look after the little girl who had no one else to protect her and this the boys did
and took such good care of their sister that as she was very small she soon forgot that she had ever had a father
the wicked wolverine one day a wolverine was out walking on the hill side when on turning a corner he suddenly saw a large rock
was that you i heard walking about just now he asked for wolverines are cautious animals and always like to know the reasons of things no
certainly not answered the rock
continued the wolverine i am afraid that you were not taught to speak the truth
then the wolverine went up close and struck the rock a blow
well will you catch me now i can't walk but i can roll answered the rock and the wolverine laughed and said oh that will do just as well
but the faster the wolverine ran the faster the rock rolled
and was sorry he had not left the rock to itself thinking that if he could manage to put on a spurt he would reach the forest of great trees at the bottom of the mountain where the rock could not come
he gathered up all his strength and instead of running he leaped over sticks and stones but whatever he did the rock was always close behind him at length he grew so weary
that he could not even see where he was going and catching his foot in a branch he tripped and fell the rock stopped at once but there came a shriek from the wolverine get off get off
and i certainly sha'n't move now till i am forced to i will call my brothers answered the wolverine
and you will soon see that they are stronger than you and he called and called and called till wolves and foxes and all sorts of other creatures all came running to see what was the matter
how did you get under that rock asked they making a ring round him but they had to repeat their question several times before the wolverine would answer for he
like many other persons found it hard to confess that he had brought his troubles on himself well i was dull and wanted someone to play with me he said at last in sulky voice
and i challenged the rock to catch me of course i thought i could run the fastest but i tripped and it rolled on me it was just an accident it serves you right for being so silly said they
giving out such terrific claps of thunder that the wolves and the foxes and all the other creatures ran helter skelter in all directions
frightened though they were they did not forget to beg the lightning to take off the wolverine's coat and to free his legs but to be careful not to hurt him
so the lightning disappeared into the cloud for a moment to gather up fresh strength and then came rushing down right upon the rock which it sent flying in all directions and took
the wolverine's coat so neatly that though it was torn into tiny shreds the wolverine himself was quite unharmed that
and he stooped down to pick up the pieces it took him a long time for there were a great many of them but at last he had them all in his hand i'll go to my sister the frog he thought to himself
and she will sew them together for me and he set off at once for the swamp in which his sister lived
when he found her with pleasure she answered for she had always been taught to be polite and getting her needle and thread she began to fit the pieces but
though she was very good natured she was not very clever and she got some of the bits wrong when the wolverine who was very particular about his clothes came to put it on he grew very angry
what a useless creature you are cried he do you expect me to go about in such a coat as that why it bulges all down the back as if i had a hump and it is so tight across the chest
that i expect it to burst every time i breathe i knew you were stupid but i did not think you were as stupid as that and giving the poor frog a blow on her head which knocked her straight into the water
he walked off in a rage to his younger sister the mouse i tore my coat this morning he began when he had found her sitting at the door of her house eating an apple it was all in little bits
and i took it to our sister the frog to ask her to sew it for me but just look at the way she has done it you will have to take it to pieces and fit them together properly and i hope i shall not have to complain again for
he finished it without even asking the mouse's leave at last the coat was ready and the wolverine put it on
so much bigger than himself it was no use to try force he must invent some cunning plan which would get her into his power at last after thinking hard
he decided upon something and going up to the bear he exclaimed
i never heard before that i had a brother got up and ran quickly to a tree up which she climbed now the wolverine was very angry when he saw his dinner vanishing in front of him especially
as he could not climb trees like the bear so he followed and stood at the foot of the tree shrieking as loud as he could come down sister our father has sent me to look for you
you were lost when you were a little girl and went out picking berries and it was only the other day that we heard from a beaver
at these words the bear came a little way down the tree and the wolverine seeing this
are you not fond of berries i am and i know a place where they grow so thick the ground is quite hidden why look for yourself that hillside is quite red with them i can't see so far
answered the bear now climbing down altogether you must have wonderfully good eyes i wish i had but my sight is very short
so was mine till my father smashed a pailful of cranberries and rubbed my eyes with them replied the wolverine but if you like to go and gather some of the berries
and you will soon be able to see as far as me it took the bear a long while to gather the berries for she was slow about everything
and besides it made her back ache to stoop but at last she returned with a sackful and put them down beside the wolverine that is splendid sister cried the wolverine
now lie flat on the ground with your head on this stone while i smash them the bear who was very tired was only too glad to do as she was bid and stretched herself comfortably on the grass
i am ready now said the wolverine after a bit just at first you will find that the berries make your eyes smart but you must be careful not to move or the juice
will run out and then it will have to be done all over again so the bear promised to lie very still but the moment the cranberries touched her eyes she sprang up with a roar
oh you mustn't mind a little pain said the wolverine it will soon be over and then you will see all sorts of things you have never dreamt of the bear sank down with a groan
he took off the skin and stealing some fire from a tent which his sharp eyes had perceived hidden behind a rock he set about roasting the bear bit by bit
habogi once upon a time there lived two peasants who had three daughters and as generally happens the youngest was the most beautiful and the best tempered
and when her sisters wanted to go out she was always ready to stay at home and do their work years passed quickly with the whole family and one day the parents suddenly perceived that all three girls were grown up
and that very soon they would be thinking of marriage have you decided what your husband's name is to be said the father laughingly to his eldest daughter one evening when they were all sitting at the door of their cottage
it is lucky for you that there are a great many sigmunds in this part of the world replied her father so that you can take your choice and what do you say he added turning to the second oh
i think that there is no name so beautiful as sigurd cried she then you won't be an old maid either answered he there are seven sigurds in the next village alone and you helga helga
who was still the prettiest of the three looked up she also had her favourite name but just as she was going to say it she seemed to hear a voice whisper marry no one who is not called habogi
the girl had never heard of such a name and did not like it so she determined to pay no attention but
she found herself answering instead if i do marry it will be to no one except habogi
we never heard of such a person all i can tell you is that he will be my husband if ever i have one returned helga and that was all she would say before very long
the young men who lived in the neighbouring villages or on the sides of the mountains had heard of this talk of the three girls and sigmunds and sigurds in scores came to visit the little cottage
there were other young men too who bore different names though not one of them was called habogi and these thought that they might perhaps gain the heart of the youngest but
helga's eyes seemed always turned another way at length the two elder sisters made their choice from out of the sigurds and the sigmunds and it was decided that both weddings should take place at the same time
my name is habogi and helga must be my wife was all he said and though helga stood pale and trembling with surprise she did not try to run away
hoped by putting it off that something might happen but the sisters who had always been rather jealous of helga were secretly pleased that their bridegrooms should outshine hers
when the feast was over habogi led up a beautiful horse from a field where he had left it to graze and bade helga jump up on its splendid saddle all embroidered in scarlet and gold
felt quite dazzled and feeding on the grass were a quantity of large fat sheep with the curliest and whitest wool in the world what lovely sheep whose are they cried helga
pleased helga very much for she had never had anything of her own and she smiled quite happily as she thanked habogi for his present they soon left the sheep behind them
oh what lovely cows cried helga again i am sure their milk must be sweeter
how i should like to have some i wonder to whom they belong to your habogi replied he and some day you shall have as much milk as you like but we cannot stop now
and though she did not say anything she thought that she would learn to milk the cow herself a mile further on they came to a wide common with short springy turf
oh whose are they she asked how happy any man must be who is the master of such lovely creatures they are your habogi's replied he and the one which you think the most beautiful of all
the chestnut no i think after all i like the coal black one best with the little white star on his forehead oh do stop just for a minute but habogi would not stop or listen
when you are married you will have plenty of time to choose one was all he answered
at length habogi drew rein before a small house very ugly and mean looking and that seemed on the point of tumbling to pieces this is my house
and is to be yours said habogi as he jumped down and held out his arms to lift helga from the horse the girl's heart sank a little
as she thought that the man who possessed such wonderful sheep and cows and horses might have built himself a prettier place to live in but she did not say so and taking her arm
he led her up the steps but when she got inside she stood quite bewildered at the beauty of all around her none of her friends owned such things
not even the miller who was the richest man she knew there were carpets everywhere thick and soft and of deep rich colours and the cushions were of silk and made you sleepy
even to look at them and curious little figures in china were scattered about helga felt as if it would take her all her life to see everything properly
by that time the feast will be ready helga had so much to think about that the ride home appeared very short her father and mother were delighted to see her as they did not feel sure that so ugly and cross looking a man as habogi
only told them that they should see for themselves on the third day when they would come to her wedding it was very early in the morning when the party set out and helga's two sisters grew green with envy as they passed the flocks of sheep
but when they caught sight of the poor little house which was to be her home their hearts grew light again
but the moment they went inside they were struck dumb with rage at the splendour of everything and their faces grew white and cold with fury when they saw the dress which habogi had prepared for his bride
a dress that glittered like sunbeams dancing upon ice she shall not look so much finer than us they cried passionately to each other as soon as they were alone
and when night came they stole out of their rooms and taking out the wedding dress they laid it in the ash pit and heaped ashes upon it
but habogi who knew a little magic and had guessed what they would do changed the ashes into roses and cast a spell over the sisters so that they could not leave the spot for a whole day
and every one who passed by mocked at them the next morning when they all awoke the ugly tumble down house had disappeared and in its place stood a splendid palace
in one of the comfortable sitting rooms of east lynne sat mister carlyle and his sister one inclement january night the contrast within and without was great the warm blazing fire the handsome carpet on which it flickered
the exceedingly comfortable arrangement of the furniture of the room altogether and the light of the chandelier which fell on all presented a picture of home peace though it may not have deserved the name of luxury without
heavy flakes of snow were falling thickly flakes as large and nearly as heavy as a crown piece rendering the atmosphere so dense and obscure that a man could not see a yard before him mister carlyle had driven home in the pony carriage
and the snow had so settled upon him that lucy who happened to see him as he entered the hall screamed out laughingly
it was now later in the evening the children were in bed
it was not often that miss carlyle invited her to theirs of an evening and the house was quite mister carlyle was deep in the pages of one of the monthly periodicals and miss carlyle sat on the other side of the fire grumbling
and grunting and sniffling and choking miss carlyle was one of your strong minded ladies who never condescended to be ill of course had she been attacked with scarlet fever or paralysis or saint vitus dance
she must have given in to the enemy but trifling ailments such as headache influenza sore throat which other people get passed her by imagine therefore her exasperation at finding her head stuffed up
her chest sore and her voice going in short at having for once in her life caught a cold like ordinary mortals what's the time i wonder she exclaimed
mister carlyle looked at his watch it is just nine cornelia then i think i shall go to bed i'll have a basin of arrowroot or gruel or some slop of that sort after i'm in it
i'm sure i have been free enough all my life from requiring such sick dishes do so said mister carlyle it may do you good
or any other large piece of flannel you may conveniently have at hand and put it on over your night cap i'll try it i would said mister carlyle smothering an irreverent laugh
she sat on five minutes longer and then left wishing mister carlyle good night he resumed his reading but another page or two concluded the article upon which mister carlyle threw the book on the table
rose and stretched himself as if tired of sitting he stirred the fire into a brighter blaze and stood on the hearthrug i wonder if it snows still he exclaimed to himself
proceeding to the window one of those opening to the ground he threw aside the half of the warm crimson curtain it all looked dull and dark outside mister carlyle could see little what the weather was
and he opened the window and stepped half out the snow was falling faster and thicker than ever not at that did mister carlyle start with surprise if not with a more unpleasant sensation
but a feeling a man's hand touch his and at finding a man's face nearly in contact with his own let me come in mister carlyle for the love of life i see you are alone
the tones struck familiarly on mister carlyle's ear he drew back mechanically a thousand perplexing sensations overwhelming him and the man followed him into the room a white man as lucy called her father
aye for he had been hours and hours on foot in the snow his hat his clothes his eyebrows
lock the door sir were his first words need you be told that it was richard hare mister carlyle fastened the window drew the heavy curtains across and turned rapidly to lock the two doors
richard uttered mister carlyle i am thunderstruck
i cut off from london at a moment's notice replied richard who was literally shivering with the cold i'm dodged mister carlyle i am indeed
set on by that wretch thorn mister carlyle turned to the sideboard and poured out a wineglass of brandy drink it richard it will warm you i'd rather have it in some hot water sir
but how am i to get the hot water brought in drink this for now why how you tremble
and it lies so deep in places that you have to come along at a snail's pace but i'll tell you about this business
talking to a cab driver when some drops of rain came down a gentleman and lady were passing at the time but i had not paid any attention to them by jove i heard him exclaim to her i think we're going to have pepper
we had better take a cab my dear with that the man i was talking to swung open the door of his cab and she got in such a fair young lady she was i turned to look at him
and you might just have knocked me down with astonishment mister carlyle it was the man thorn indeed you thought i might be mistaken in him that moonlight night
but there was no mistaking him in broad daylight i looked him full in the face and he looked at me he turned as white as cloth perhaps i did i don't know was he well dressed very
oh there's no mistaking his position that he moves in the higher classes there's no doubt the cab drove away and i got up behind it the driver thought boys were there and turned his head and his whip but i made him a sign
we didn't go much more than the length of a street i was on the pavement before thorn was and looked at him again and again he went white i marked the house thinking it was where he lived and
richard hare shook his head and my proofs of his guilt mister carlyle i could bring none against him no positive ones
he would turn round upon me now and swear my life away to murder well i thought i'd ascertain for certain what his name was and that night i went to the house and got into conversation with one of the servants who was standing at the door
does captain thorn live here i asked him mister westleby lives here said he i don't know any captain thorn
a youngish man isn't he said i very smart with a pretty wife i don't know what you call youngish he laughed my master's turned sixty and his wife's as old that checked me
perhaps he has sons i asked not any the man answered there's nobody but their two selves
and i wished to know his name well mister carlyle i could get at nothing satisfactory the fellow said that a great many had called there that day for his master was just up from a long illness and people came to see him is that all richard
all i wish it had been all i kept looking about for him in all the best streets i was half mad do you not wonder if he is in this position of life and resides in london
that you have never dropped upon him previously interrupted mister carlyle no sir and i'll tell you why i have been afraid to show myself in those latter parts of the town fearing i might meet with some one i used to know at home
who would recognize me so i have kept mostly in obscure places stables and such like i had gone up to the west end this day on a matter of business well go on with your story
in a week's time i came upon him again it was at night he was coming out of one of the theatres and i went up and stood before him what do you want fellow he asked i have seen you watching me before this
i want to know your name i said that's enough for me at present he flew into a passion and swore that if ever he caught sight of me near him again he would hand me over into custody
and remember men are not given into custody for watching others he significantly added i know you and if you have any regard for yourself you'll keep out of my way
he had got into a private carriage as he spoke and it drove away i could see that it had a great coat of arms upon it when do you say this was a week ago
well i could not rest i was half mad i say and went about still trying if i could not discover his name and who he was i did come upon him but he was walking quickly arm in arm with with another gentleman
again i saw him standing at the entrance to the betting rooms talking to the same gentleman and his face turned savage i believe with fear as much as anger when he discerned me he seemed to hesitate and then as if he acted in a passion
suddenly beckoned to a policeman pointed me out and said something to him in a fast tone that frightened me and i slipped away two hours after when i was in quite a different part of the town in turning my head i saw the same policeman following me
i bolted under the horses of a passing vehicle down some turnings and passages out into another street and up beside a cabman who was on his box driving a fare past i reached my lodgings in safety as i thought
but happening to glance into the street there i saw the man again standing opposite and reconnoitering the house i had gone home hungry but this took all my hunger away from me i opened the box where i kept my disguise
i have been pretty nearly ever since on my feet reaching here i only got a lift now and then but richard do you know that west lynne is the very worst place you could have flown to
it has come to light that you were here before disguised as a farm laborer
i shall fix myself in some other big town far away from london liverpool or manchester perhaps and see what employment i can get into
i don't possess a penny piece he added drawing out his trousers pockets for the inspection of mister carlyle the last coppers i had three pence i spent in bread and cheese and half a pint of beer at midday
i have been outside that window for more than an hour sir indeed and as i neared west lynne i began to think what i should do it was no use in me trying to catch barbara's attention
such a night as this i had no money to pay for a lodging
drop upon you there was a little partition in the window curtain it had not been drawn close and through it i could see you and miss carlyle i saw her leave the room i saw you come to the window and open it and then i spoke
mister carlyle he added after a pause is this life to go on with me forever i am deeply sorry for you richard was the sympathizing answer i wish i could remedy it
before another word was spoken the room door was tried and then gently knocked at mister carlyle placed his hand on richard who was looking scared out of his wits
no one shall come in it is only peter not peter's voice however but joyce's was heard in response to mister carlyle's demand of who was there
miss carlyle has left her handkerchief downstairs sir and has sent me for it you cannot come in i am busy was the answer delivered in a clear and most decisive tone
who was it quivered richard as joyce was heard going away it was joyce what is she here still
afy was here herself two or three months ago was she though uttered richard beguiled for an instant from the thought of his own danger what is she doing she is in service as a lady's maid
richard i questioned afy about thorn she protested solemnly to me that it was not thorn who committed the deed that it could not have been he for thorn was with her at the moment of its being done it's not true
fired richard it was thorn richard you cannot tell
i know that no man could have rushed out in that frantic manner with those signs of guilt and fear about him unless he had been engaged in a bad deed was richard hare's answer it could have been no one else
afy declared he was with her repeated mister carlyle look here sir you are a sharp man and folks say i am not but i can see things and draw my reasoning as well as they can perhaps
if thorn were not hallijohn's murderer why should he be persecuting me what would he care about me and why should his face turn livid as it has done each time he has seen my eyes upon him
whether he did commit the murder or whether he didn't he must know that i did not because he came upon me waiting as he was tearing from the cottage dick's reasoning was not bad another thing he resumed
that she was alone at the back of the cottage and knew nothing about it till afterwards how could she have sworn she was alone if thorn was with her the fact had entirely escaped mister carlyle's memory in his conversation with afy
or he would not have failed to point out the discrepancy and to inquire how she could reconcile it yet her assertion to him had been most positive and solemn there were difficulties in the matter which he could not reconcile
now that i have got over my passion for afy i can see her faults mister carlyle she'd no more tell an untruth than i should stick a most awful thundering at the room door
loud enough to bring the very house down no officers of justice searching for a fugitive ever made a louder richard hare his face turned to chalk his eyes starting
and his own light hair bristling up with horror struggled into his wet smock frock after a fashion the tails up about his ears and the sleeves hanging forced on his hat and his false whiskers looked round in a bewildered manner
for some cupboard or mouse hole into which he might creep and seeing none rushed to the fireplace and placed his foot on the fender that he purposed an attempt at chimney climbing was evident though how the fire would have agreed with his pantaloons
not to speak of what they contained poor dick appeared completely to ignore mister carlyle drew him back keeping his calm powerful hand upon his shoulder while certain sounds in an angry voice were jerked through the keyhole
richard be a man put aside this weakness this fear have i not told you that harm shall not come near you in my house it may be that officer from london
he may have brought half a dozen more with him gasped the unhappy richard i said they might have dodged me all the way here nonsense sit you down and be at rest it is only cornelia
and she will be as anxious to shield you from danger as i can be is it cried the relieved richard can't you make her keep out he continued his teeth still chattering
no that i can't if she has a mind to come in was the candid answer you remember what she was richard she is not altered knowing that to speak on this side the door to his sister
when she was in one of her resolute moods would be of no use mister carlyle opened the door dexterously swung himself through it and shut it after him
in spite of udolpho and the dressmaker however the party from pulteney street reached the upper rooms in very good time the thorpes and james morland were there only two minutes before them
and isabella having gone through the usual ceremonial of meeting her friend with the most smiling and affectionate haste of admiring the set of her gown and envying the curl of her hair they followed their chaperones arm in arm into the ballroom
and supplying the place of many ideas by a squeeze of the hand or a smile of affection the dancing began within a few minutes after they were seated and james who had been engaged quite as long as his sister
was very importunate with isabella to stand up but john was gone into the card room to speak to a friend and nothing she declared
i assure you said she i would not stand up without your dear sister for all the world for if i did we should certainly be separated the whole evening catherine accepted this kindness with gratitude
and they continued as they were for three minutes longer when isabella who had been talking to james on the other side of her turned again to his sister and whispered my dear creature i am afraid i must leave you your brother is so amazingly impatient to begin
i know you will not mind my going away and i dare say john will be back in a moment and then you may easily find me out catherine though a little disappointed
had too much good nature to make any opposition and the others rising up isabella had only time to press her friend's hand and say good bye my dear love before they hurried off
the younger miss thorpes being also dancing catherine was left to the mercy of missus thorpe and missus allen between whom she now remained
she could not help being vexed at the non appearance of mister thorpe for she not only longed to be dancing but was likewise aware that as the real dignity of her situation could not be known
she was sharing with the scores of other young ladies still sitting down all the discredit of wanting a partner to be disgraced in the eye of the world to wear the appearance of infamy while her heart is all purity
catherine had fortitude too she suffered but no murmur passed her lips from this state of humiliation she was roused at the end of ten minutes
to a pleasanter feeling by seeing not mister thorpe but mister tilney within three yards of the place where they sat he seemed to be moving that way but he did not see her and therefore the smile and the blush
and whom catherine immediately guessed to be his sister thus unthinkingly throwing away a fair opportunity of considering him lost to her forever by being married already but guided only by what was simple and probable
he had not behaved he had not talked like the married men to whom she had been used he had never mentioned a wife and he had acknowledged a sister from these circumstances sprang the instant conclusion of his sister's now being by his side
on missus allen's bosom catherine sat erect in the perfect use of her senses and with cheeks only a little redder than usual mister tilney and his companion who continued though slowly to approach
were immediately preceded by a lady an acquaintance of missus thorpe
and catherine catching mister tilney's eye instantly received from him the smiling tribute of recognition she returned it with pleasure and then advancing still nearer he spoke both to her and missus allen
by whom he was very civilly acknowledged i am very happy to see you again sir indeed i was afraid you had left bath he thanked her for her fears
on the very morning after his having had the pleasure of seeing her well sir and i dare say you are not sorry to be back again for it is just the place for young people and indeed for everybody else too
i tell mister allen when he talks of being sick of it that i am sure he should not complain for it is so very agreeable a place that it is much better to be here than at home at this dull time of year
i tell him he is quite in luck to be sent here for his health and i hope madam that mister allen will be obliged to like the place from finding it of service to him thank you sir i have no doubt that he will
a neighbour of ours doctor skinner was here for his health last winter and came away quite stout
yes sir and doctor skinner and his family were here three months so i tell mister allen he must not be in a hurry to get away
as they had agreed to join their party this was accordingly done mister tilney still continuing standing before them and after a few minutes consideration he asked catherine to dance with him this compliment delightful as it was
produced severe mortification to the lady and in giving her denial she expressed her sorrow on the occasion so very much as if she really felt it that had thorpe who joined her just afterwards been half a minute earlier
he might have thought her sufferings rather too acute the very easy manner in which he then told her that he had kept her waiting did not by any means reconcile her more to her lot nor did the particulars which he entered into while they were standing up
of the horses and dogs of the friend whom he had just left and of a proposed exchange of terriers between them interest her so much as to prevent her looking very often towards that part of the room where she had left mister tilney
of her dear isabella to whom she particularly longed to point out that gentleman she could see nothing they were in different sets she was separated from all her party and away from all her acquaintance one mortification succeeded another
and from the whole she deduced this useful lesson that to go previously engaged to a ball does not necessarily increase either the dignity or enjoyment of a young lady
and turning round perceived missus hughes directly behind her attended by miss tilney and a gentleman i beg your pardon miss morland said she for this liberty but i cannot anyhow get to miss thorpe
missus hughes could not have applied to any creature in the room more happy to oblige her than catherine
miss tilney expressing a proper sense of such goodness miss morland with the real delicacy of a generous mind making light of the obligation
miss tilney had a good figure a pretty face and a very agreeable countenance and her air though it had not all the decided pretension the resolute stylishness of miss thorpe's had more real elegance
and without exaggerated feelings of ecstatic delight or inconceivable vexation on every little trifling occurrence catherine interested at once by her appearance and her relationship to mister tilney
prevented their doing more than going through the first rudiments of an acquaintance by informing themselves how well the other liked bath how much she admired its buildings and surrounding country whether she drew or played or sang
and whether she was fond of riding on horseback the two dances were scarcely concluded before catherine found her arm gently seized by her faithful isabella who in great spirits exclaimed at last i have got you
my dearest creature i have been looking for you this hour what could induce you to come into this set
i have been quite wretched without you my dear isabella how was it possible for me to get at you i could not even see where you were so i told your brother all the time but he would not believe me
but all in vain he would not stir an inch was not it so mister morland but you men are all so immoderately lazy
whispered catherine detaching her friend from james it is mister tilney's sister
let me look at her this moment what a delightful girl i never saw anything half so beautiful but where is her all conquering brother is he in the room
i die to see him mister morland you are not to listen we are not talking about you but what is all this whispering about what is going on there now i knew how it would be
you men have such restless curiosity talk of the curiosity of women indeed tis nothing but be satisfied for you are not to know anything at all of the matter and is that likely to satisfy me do you think
well i declare i never knew anything like you what can it signify to you what we are talking of perhaps we are talking about you therefore i would advise you not to listen or you may happen to hear something not very agreeable
in this commonplace chatter which lasted some time the original subject seemed entirely forgotten
but she resisted i tell you mister morland she cried i would not do such a thing for all the world
upon my honour said james in these public assemblies it is as often done as not nonsense how can you say so but when you men have a point to carry you never stick at anything
my sweet catherine do support me persuade your brother how impossible it is tell him that it would quite shock you to see me do such a thing now would not it no not at all
but if you think it wrong you had much better change there cried isabella you hear what your sister says and yet you will not mind her
come along my dearest catherine for heaven's sake and stand by me and off they went to regain their former place john thorpe in the meanwhile had walked away and catherine ever willing to give mister tilney an opportunity
made her way to missus allen and missus thorpe as fast as she could
very agreeable madam i am glad of it john has charming spirits has not he did you meet mister tilney my dear said missus allen no where is he
he was with us just now and said he was so tired of lounging about that he was resolved to go and dance so i thought perhaps he would ask you if he met with you
but she had not looked round long before she saw him leading a young lady to the dance ah he has got a partner i wish he had asked you said missus allen and after a short silence she added
he is a very agreeable young man indeed he is missus allen said missus thorpe smiling complacently i must say it though i am his mother that there is not a more agreeable young man in the world
this inapplicable answer might have been too much for the comprehension of many but it did not puzzle missus allen for after only a moment's consideration she said in a whisper to catherine
i dare say she thought i was speaking of her son catherine was disappointed and vexed she seemed to have missed by so little the very object she had had in view
and this persuasion did not incline her to a very gracious reply when john thorpe came up to her soon afterwards and said well miss morland i suppose you and i are to stand up and jig it together again oh no i am much obliged to you
our two dances are over and besides i am tired and do not mean to dance any more do not you then let us walk about and quiz people come along with me and i will show you the four greatest quizzers in the room
my two younger sisters and their partners i have been laughing at them this half hour again catherine excused herself and at last he walked off to quiz his sisters by himself the rest of the evening she found very dull
mister tilney was drawn away from their party at tea to attend that of his partner miss tilney though belonging to it did not sit near her and james and isabella were so much engaged in conversing together
we are making the demand for a strong navy a special feature in our campaign and it will be particularly appropriate to have hyacinth dressed in his sailor suit he'll look heavenly the question is not how he'll look but how he'll behave
he's a delightful child of course but there is a strain of unbridled pugnacity in him that breaks out at times in a really alarming fashion you may have forgotten the affair of the little gaffin children i haven't
and met the gaffins in their perambulator and he drove the goat full tilt at them and sent the perambulator spinning little jacky gaffin was pinned down under the wreckage and while the nurse had her hands full with the goat
nothing intentionally but some one had unfortunately told him that they were half french their mother was a duboc you know and he had been having a history lesson that morning and had just heard of the final loss of calais by the english and was furious about it
he said he'd teach the little toads to go snatching towns from us but we didn't know at the time that he was referring to the gaffins i told him afterwards that all bad feeling between the two nations had died out long ago and that anyhow
the rest had been buried under the perambulator if the loss of calais unloosed such fury in him i tremble to think what the possible loss of the election might entail all that happened when he was eight he's older now and knows better
children with hyacinth's temperament don't know better as they grow older they merely know more nonsense
and the new sailor suit that i've had made for him is just in the right shade of blue for our election colours and it will exactly match the blue of his eyes he will be a perfectly charming note of colour there is such a thing as letting one's aesthetic sense
override one's moral sense said missus panstreppon i believe you would have condoned the south sea bubble and the persecution of the albigenses if they had been carried out in effective colour schemes however
the election was keenly but decorously contested the newly appointed colonial secretary was personally popular while the government to which he adhered was distinctly unpopular and there was some expectancy that the majority of four hundred obtained at the last election
would be altogether wiped out both sides were hopeful but neither could feel confident the children were a great success the little jutterlys drove their chubby donkeys solemnly up and down the main streets displaying posters
which advocated the claims of their father on the broad general grounds that he was their father while as for hyacinth his conduct might have served as a model for any seraph child that had strayed unwittingly on to the scene of an electoral contest
of his own accord and under the delighted eyes of half a dozen camera operators he had gone up to the jutterly children and presented them with a packet of butterscotch we needn't be enemies because we're wearing the opposite colours he said with engaging friendliness
and the occupants of the donkey cart accepted his offering with polite solemnity the grown up members of both political camps were delighted at the incident with the exception of missus panstreppon who shuddered never was clytemnestra's kiss
and every effort was made to bring up obstinately wavering electors it was with a feeling of relaxation and relief that every one heard the clocks strike the hour for the close of the poll
that they had seen nothing of the children for the last hour what had become of the three little jutterlys and their donkey cart and for the matter of that what had become of hyacinth hurried anxious embassies went backwards and forwards between the respective party headquarters
and the various committee rooms but there was blank ignorance everywhere as to the whereabouts of the children every one had been too busy in the closing moments of the poll to bestow a thought on them then there came a telephone call at the unionist women's committee rooms and the voice of hyacinth was heard
i met them driving about a back road and told them they were to have tea with me and put their donkeys in a yard that i knew of then i took them to see an old sow that had got ten little pigs i got the sow into the outer stye by giving her bits of bread while the jutterlys went in to look at the litter
then i bolted the door and left them there you wicked
they're jolly well crowded they were pretty mad at being shut in but not half as mad as the old sow is at being shut out from her young ones if she gets in while they're there she'll bite them into mincemeat
if their blighted father gets in i'm just going to open the door for the sow and let her do what she dashed well likes to them that's why i want to know when the poll will be declared here the narrator rang off
a wild stampede and a frantic sending off of messengers took place at the other end of the telephone nearly all the workers on either side had disappeared to their various club rooms and public house bars to await the declaration of the poll
thither went in headlong haste both the candidates hyacinth's mother his aunt missus panstreppon and two or three hurriedly summoned friends the two nubian donkeys contentedly munching at bundles of hay met their gaze as they entered the yard
the hoarse savage grunting of an enraged animal and the shriller note of thirteen young voices three of them human guided them to the stye in the outer yard of which a huge yorkshire sow kept up a ceaseless raging patrol before a closed door
reclining on the broad ledge of an open window from which point of vantage he could reach down and shoot the bolt of the door was hyacinth his blue sailor suit somewhat the worse of wear and his angel smile exchanged for a look of demoniacal determination
a storm of threatening arguing entreating expostulation broke from the baffled rescue party but it made no more impression on hyacinth than the squealing tempest that raged within the stye if jutterly heads the poll i'm going to let the sow in
i'll teach the blighters to win elections from us he means it said missus panstreppon i feared the worst when i saw that butterscotch incident it's all right my little man said jutterly with the duplicity to which even a colonial secretary can sometimes stoop
your father has been elected by a large majority liar retorted hyacinth with the directness of speech that is not merely excusable but almost obligatory in the political profession the votes aren't counted yet you won't gammon me as to the result either
a boy that i've palled with is going to fire a gun when the poll is declared two shots if we've won one shot if we haven't the situation began to look critical drug the sow whispered hyacinth's father some one went off in the motor to the nearest chemist's shop
and returned presently with two large pieces of bread liberally dosed with narcotic the bread was thrown deftly and unostentatiously into the stye but hyacinth saw through the manoeuvre he set up a piercing imitation of a small pig in purgatory
you're eleven ahead at present and only about eighty more to be counted
i mustn't squeak through exclaimed jutterly hoarsely you must object to every doubtful vote on our side that can possibly be disallowed i must not have the majority then was seen the unprecedented sight of a party agent challenging the votes on his own side
were disallowed but even so jutterly was six ahead with only thirty more to be counted to the watchers by the stye the moments seemed intolerable as a last resort some one had been sent for a gun with which to shoot the sow
a sudden roar of shouting and cheering was heard from the direction of the town hall hyacinth's father clutched a pitchfork and prepared to dash into the stye in the forlorn hope of being in time a shot rang out in the evening air
hyacinth stooped down from his perch and put his finger on the bolt the sow pressed furiously against the door bang came another shot hyacinth wriggled back and sent a short ladder down through the window of the inner stye
hurry up i can't keep the sow waiting much longer and don't you jolly well come butting into any election again where i'm on the job in the reaction that set in after the deliverance furious recrimination were indulged in by the lately opposed candidates their women folk agents and party helpers
a recount was demanded but failed to establish the fact that the colonial secretary had obtained a majority altogether the election left a legacy of soreness behind it apart from any that was experienced by hyacinth in person
it is the last time i shall let him go to an election exclaimed his mother there i think you are going to extremes said missus panstreppon
oh dear oh dear fretted nan wallace twisting herself about uneasily on the sofa in her pretty room i never thought before that the days could be so long as they are now
poor you said her sister maude sympathetically maude was moving briskly about the room putting it into the beautiful order that mother insisted on it was nan's week to care for their room but nan had sprained her ankle three days ago
and could do nothing but lie on the sofa ever since and very tired of it too was wide awake active nan and the picnic this afternoon too she sighed i've looked forward to it all summer and it's a perfect day
and i've got to stay here and nurse this foot nan looked vindictively at the bandaged member while maude leaned out of the window to pull a pink climbing rose as she did so she nodded to someone in the village street below
who is passing asked nan florrie hamilton is she going to the picnic asked nan indifferently no she wasn't asked of course i don't suppose she expected to be
she must feel horribly out of place at school
a factory overseer's daughter she ought to have been asked to the picnic all the same said nan shortly she is in our class if she isn't in our set of course i don't suppose she would have enjoyed herself or even gone at all for that matter
she certainly doesn't push herself in among us one would think she hadn't a tongue in her head she is the best student in the class admitted maude arranging her roses in a vase and putting them on the table at nan's elbow
but patty morrison and wilhelmina patterson had the most to say about the invitations and they wouldn't have her there nannie dear aren't those lovely i'll leave them here to be company for you
she'll come i know and she is such good company get dickie to run right out and mail it i do wonder if florrie hamilton will feel hurt over not being asked to the picnic speculated maude absently
as she slipped her note into an envelope and addressed it florrie hamilton herself could best have answered that question as she walked along the street in the fresh morning sunshine she did feel hurt much more keenly than she would acknowledge even to herself
as nan wallace had said she would not have been likely to enjoy herself if she had gone among a crowd of girls many of whom looked down on her and ignored her but to be left out when every other girl in the school was invited florrie's lip quivered as she thought of it
i hate going to miss braxton's florrie was a newcomer in winboro her father had recently come to take a position in the largest factory of the small town for this reason florrie was slighted at school by some of the ruder girls
and severely left alone by most of the others some it is true tried at the start to be friends but florrie too keenly sensitive to the atmosphere around her to respond was believed to be decidedly dull and mopy she retreated further and further into herself
they don't like me because i am plainly dressed and because my father is not a wealthy man thought florrie bitterly
got it at the office on my way home who is your swell correspondent florrie opened the dainty perfumed note and read it with a face that puzzled at first
she said excitedly dear florrie nan is confined to house room and sofa with a sprained foot
she very much wants you to come she is so lonesome and thinks you will be just the one to cheer her up yours cordially maude wallace are you going asked jack yes i don't know i'll think about it said florrie absently then she hurried upstairs to her room
yes i will i dare say nan has asked me just out of pity because i was not invited to the picnic but even so it was sweet of her i've always thought i would like those wallace girls if i could get really acquainted with them
i ask her to come up yes of course said nan lamely when her mother had gone out she fell back on her pillows and thought rapidly florrie hamilton maude must have addressed that note to her by mistake but she mustn't know it was a mistake mustn't suspect it
oh dear what shall i ever find to talk to her about she is so quiet and shy further reflections were cut short by florrie's entrance
somehow nan's frank greeting did away with florrie's embarrassment and made her feel at home
her eyes kindled with pleasure seeing this nan said aren't they lovely we wallaces are very fond of our climbing roses our great grandmother brought the roots out from england with her sixty years ago and they grow nowhere else in this country
i know said florrie with a smile i recognized them as soon as i came into the room they are the same kind of roses as those which grow about grandmother hamilton's house in england i used to love them so in
every one that a ship could get to at least why florrie hamilton are you in earnest indeed yes perhaps you don't know that our now mother as jack says sometimes is father's second wife my own mother died when i was a baby and my aunt
who had no children of her own took me to bring up her husband was a sea captain and she always went on his sea voyages with him so i went too i almost grew up on shipboard we had delightful times i never went to school
auntie had been a teacher before her marriage and she taught me two years ago when i was fourteen father married again and then he wanted me to go home to him and jack and our new mother
why florrie hamilton to think you've never said a word about your wonderful experiences
please just talk and i'll listen and ask questions florrie did talk i'm not sure whether she or nan was the more surprised to find that she could talk so well and describe her travels so brightly and humorously the afternoon passed quickly
and when florrie went away at dusk after a dainty tea served up in nan's room it was with a cordial invitation to come again soon i've enjoyed your visit so much said nan sincerely
i'm going down to see you as soon as i can walk but don't wait for that let us be good chummy friends without any ceremony when florrie with a light heart and a happy smile had gone
nan surely not i'm sure yes you did and she came here was i not taken aback at first maude i was thinking about her when i addressed it and i must have put her name down by mistake i'm so sorry you needn't be
i haven't been entertained so charmingly for a long while why maude she has travelled almost everywhere and is so bright and witty when she thaws out she didn't seem like the same girl at all she is just perfectly lovely
well i'm glad you had such a nice time together do you know some of the girls were very much vexed because she wasn't asked to the picnic they said that it was sheer rudeness not to ask her and that it reflected on us all even if patty and wilhelmina were responsible for it
i'm afraid we girls at miss braxton's have been getting snobbish and some of us are beginning to find it out and be ashamed of it just wait until school opens said nan vaguely enough it would seem but maude understood
that florrie was full of fun and an all round good companion when drawn out of her diffidence when miss braxton's school reopened florrie was the class favourite between her and nan wallace a beautiful and helpful friendship had been formed
which was to grow and deepen through their whole lives
they were tired out and wanted to stay at home all the evening and julia cloud felt that it would be unwise to urge them so they sat around the fire and talked leslie sat down at the new piano and played softly old hymns that julia cloud hummed
and they all went to bed early having had a happy sabbath in their new home but monday evening quite early just after they had come back from supper and were talking about reading a story aloud there came a knock at the door their first caller
and behold there stood the inefficient looking young man who had led the christian endeavor meeting the boy with the goggles who had prayed and the two girls who had sat by the piano we're a committee announced the young man quite embarrassed
my name's herricote joe herricote i'm president of our christian endeavor society and this is roy bryan he's the secretary this is mame beecher i guess you remember her singing she's chairman of our social committee
we've come to see if you won't help us come in said allison cordially but with a growing disappointment now here were these dull people coming to interrupt their pleasant evening and there wouldn't be many of them for college would soon begin
and they would be too busy then to read stories and just enjoy themselves leslie too frowned but came forward politely to be introduced she knew at a glance that these were not people of the kind she cared to have for friends
we're a committee repeated young herricote sitting down on the edge of a chair and looking around most uncomfortably at the luxurious apartment he had not realized it would be like this he was beginning to feel like a fish out of water
but we've gotta have your help said the young secretary earnestly this thing's gotta go it's needed in our church and it's the only thing in the town to help some of the young people it's just gotta go
well if you feel that way you'll make it go i'm sure encouraged allison you're just the kind of a fellow to make it go you know all about it not i i never heard of the thing till last week except just in a casual way don't know much about it yet
well s'pose it was one of your frats and it wasn't succeeding what would you do you saw what kind of a dead and alive meeting we had only a few there and nobody taking much interest how would you pull up a frat that was that way well said allison speaking at random i'd
look around and find some of the right kind of fellows and rush em get in some new blood that's all right said bryan doggedly i'm rushin you how do you do it i never went to college yet so i don't know allison laughed now he rather liked this queer boy he's a nut
he said to himself and entered into the talk in earnest why you have parties and rides and good times generally and invite a fellow and make him feel at home and make him want to belong see i see said bryan with a twinkling glance at the rest of his committee
we have a party down at my house friday night will you come allison saw that the joke was on him and his reserve broke down entirely well i guess it's up to me to come he said yes i'm game i'll come bryan turned his big goggles on leslie
will you come why yes if allison does i will agreed leslie dimpling that's all right said bryan turning back to allison now what do you do when you rush you'll have to teach us how well said allison thoughtfully
oh if he has brains he always knows of course but you don't say you're rushing him in so many words at college we meet a fellow at the train and show him around the place and put him onto all the little things that will make it easy for him and we invite him to eat with us and help him out in every way we can
we appoint some one to look after him specially and a certain group have him in their charge so the other frats won't have a chance to rush him i see the other frats being represented by the devil i suppose said the round eyed boy keenly without a smile
allison stared at him and then broke into a laugh again exactly he cried you've got onto the idea
that's where our alumni come in they often run down to college for a few days and help us out with money and influence and experience if you've got good working alumni you're right in it you see we generally appoint a committee to talk things over with the alumni
you mean said bryan drawing his brows together in a comical way behind his goggles you mean pray i suppose
i hadn't thought of it just in that way you called christ our alumnus the other night reminded the literal youth solemnly so i did acknowledged allison embarrassedly well i guess you're right but i don't know much about that kind of line
i'm afraid there don't many of us put in the bashful president i wouldn't hardly know who to appoint on such a committee
well i do sometimes when there's no one else but it comes hard and there's old miss ferby but she always prays so long and gets in the president and all the missionary stations i should think you'd ask that jane bristol spoke up leslie earnestly i know she must be able to she talked that way
i suppose she would responded the president hesitatingly looking toward the two ladies of the committee with a half apology what do you girls think about it oh i suppose she could pray said the girl called mame with a shrug she does you know often in meeting
then with a giggle toward leslie she added as if in explanation she works out you know it must be very hard for her said leslie purposely ignoring the inference well you know she isn't in our set nobody has much to do with her why not
i suppose she'd be real good on a prayer committee and would help to fill up there as you haven't many
if you really want to succeed you've got to pull together every member of you or you won't get anywhere and i should think that you'd have to be careful now at first whom you get in of course after you're pretty strong you can take in a few just to help them but
if you get in too many of that lame kind your society'll go bad the weak kind will rule and the mischief will be to pay i shouldn't think it would help you any just now to get in any folks that would feel that way about a good girl just because she earns her living
and hastened to affirm that they never felt that way about jane bristol they thought she was a real good sort and had always meant to get acquainted with her only she always slipped out as soon as meeting was over
back in the dining room behind the rose lined blue velvet hangings julia cloud lingered and smiled over the way her two children were developing opinions and character how splendid of them to take this stand and who was jane bristol
assuredly she must be looked up and helped if that was the way the town felt about her poor child well said bryan in a business like tone i'm secretary joe you call that prayer committee together thursday night at your house at half past seven and i'll send a notice to each one
you make jane bristol chairman and i'll be on the committee and i'll go after her and take her home now who else are you going to have on it the president assented readily he was one not used to taking the initiative but he eagerly did as he was told when a good idea presented itself
we want you on it he said nodding to allison and then looking shyly at leslie added and you oh said leslie flushing in fright what would we have to do i never prayed before anybody in my life
but i couldn't go and be a a sort of slacker said leslie her cheeks quite beautifully red that's all right you come said bryan looking solemnly at her when the visitors finally took themselves away
allison polite to the last closed the door with a courteous good night and then stood frowning at the fire julia cloud came softly into the room and went and stood beside him with loving question in her eyes he met her gaze with a new kind of hardness
now you see what you let me in for cloudy when you made me go to that little old dull christian endeavor but i won't do it that's all there is to it you needn't think i'm going to the idea why what did we come here to college for
what good do they think they can do a couple of sissies and two or three kid vamps setting up to lisp religion it's ridiculous he was working himself up into a fine frenzy julia cloud stood and watched him an amused smile growing on her sweet lips
he caught the amusement and fired up at it
and you know i couldn't help them anyhow come now don't you what are you looking like that for cloudy i believe you're laughing at me you think i'll go and get into this thing but i'll show you i won't and that's an end of it
cloudy i insist on knowing what you find to laugh at in this situation why i was just thinking how much you reminded me of moses said julia cloud sweetly of moses screamed allison half angrily
oh no he wasn't always meek said his aunt thoughtfully and he talked just as you are doing when god called on him first to lead the children of israel out of egypt he said he couldn't and he wouldn't and he shouldn't
settling into a big chair by the fire but i don't like those girls one bit and i don't care if they stay in seven egypts now look here cloudy jewel pleaded allison you're not going to get me into any such corner as that
the idea that god would call me to do any of his work when i never had anything at all to do with the church in my life and i don't want to how should i know what to do why should he ever call me i'd like to know when i don't know the first thing about churches you're all off cloudy
think again why i'm not even what you'd call a christian he surely wouldn't call people that haven't well what you'd call enlisted with him would he he might answered julia cloud reflectively she was sitting on the end of the big blue couch
and told them to go and do something for him there was paul he was actually against him and there was abraham he lived among regular idol worshippers and god called him to go into a strange land and founded a new family for him the beginning of the peculiar people
through whose line was to come jesus the saviour of the world and abraham went oh nonsense cloudy that was in those times of course there wasn't anybody else i suppose and he had to take some one but now there are plenty of people who go to church all the time and like that sort of thing
how do you know allison perhaps you are the only one in this town and god has sent you here just to do this special work well i won't and that's flat cloudy so you can put the idea right out of your head i won't not even for you
anything that has to do with your personal comfort i wouldn't say that about of course but this belongs entirely to that little old ratty church and i haven't anything at all to do with it and i want you to forget it cloudy for i'm not going to do it
why allison you're mistaken about me it isn't my affair and i don't intend to make it so i didn't get this up it's between you and god if god really called you you'll have to say no to him not to me i don't intend to make excuses to god for you child
you needn't think it and besides there's another thing you're very much mistaken about and that is that you haven't anything to do with the church when you were a little baby six months old your father and mother brought you home to our house and the first sunday they were there
they took you to the old church where all the children and grandchildren had been christened for years and they stood up and assented to the vows that gave you to god and they promised for themselves that they would do their best to bring you up in the nurture and admonition of the lord
until you came to years and could finish the bond by giving yourself to the lord i shall never forget the sweet serious look on the face of your lovely girl mother when she bowed her head in answer to the minister's question do you thus promise
allison had stopped in his angry walk up and down the room and was looking at her interestedly is that right cloudy was i baptized in the old sterling church i never knew that tell me about it and he seated himself on the other end of the couch
while leslie switched off the light and nestled down between them scenting a story wasn't i too cloudy she asked hungrily no dear i think you were baptized in california in your mother's church and i'm sorry to say i wasn't there to see
so i can't tell you about it but i remember very distinctly all about allison's christening for we were all so happy to have it happen in the east and he was the first grandchild and we hadn't seen your father for over two years nor ever seen his young wife before
you looked over your father's shoulder and saw me sitting in the front seat and smiled the sweetest smile then you jumped up and down in your father's arms and spatted your little pink hands together and called out ah jah
you know allison that ceremony wasn't just all on your father's and mother's part it entailed some responsibility upon you it was part of your heritage and you've no right to waste it any more than if it were gold or bank stock or houses and lands
because it is you who must answer god and you must answer him from the heart either way so nobody else has anything to do with it oh good night cloudy you certainly can put things in an awkward way oh hang it
now this whole evening's spoiled i wish i hadn't gone to the front door at all i wish i'd turned out the lights and let em knock and there was that story you were going to read and now it's too late why no it's not too late at all said julia cloud consulting her little watch in the firelight
it's only quarter to nine and i'm sure we can indulge ourselves a little to night and finish the story before we go to bed turn the light on and get the magazine with an air of finality julia cloud put aside the debated question
and settled herself in the big willow chair by the lamp with her book leslie went back to her chair by the fire and allison flung himself down on the couch with a pillow half over his eyes but anybody watching closely would have seen that his eyes were wide open
and he was studying the calm quiet profile of his aunt's sweet face as she read in a gentle even tone paragraph after paragraph without a flicker of disturbance on her brow allison was not more than half listening to the story
miss marrable heard the story of the captain's loss in perfect silence mary told it craftily with a smile on her face as though she were but slightly affected by it and did not think very much on the change it might effect in her plans and those of her lover
he has been ill treated has he not she said very badly treated i can't understand it but it seems to me that he has been most shamefully treated he tried to explain it all to me but i don't know that he succeeded
and the money was all gone he could recover it from his father by law only that his father has got nothing and that is to be the end of it that is the end of our five thousand pounds said mary forcing a little laugh
miss marrable for a few moments made no reply she sat fidgety in her seat feeling that it was her duty to explain to mary what must in her opinion be the inevitable result of this misfortune and yet not knowing how to begin her task
mary was partly aware of what was coming and had fortified herself to reject all advice to assert her right to do as she pleased with herself and to protest that she cared nothing for the prudent views of worldly minded people but she was afraid of what was coming
she knew that arguments would be used which she would find it very difficult to answer and although she had settled upon certain strong words which she would speak she felt that she would be driven at last to quarrel with her aunt on one thing she was quite resolved
nothing should induce her to give up her engagement short of the expression of a wish to that effect from walter marrable himself how will this affect you dear said miss marrable at last i should have been a poor man's wife any how
now i shall be the wife of a very poor man i suppose that will be the effect what will he do he has aunt made up his mind to go to india has he made up his mind to anything else of course i know what you mean aunt
why should you not know i mean that a man going out to india and intending to live there as an officer on his pay cannot be in want of a wife you speak of a wife as if she were the same as a coach and four or a box at the opera
a sort of luxury for rich men marriage aunt is like death common to all in our position in life mary marriage cannot be made so common as to be undertaken without foresight for the morrow
a poor gentleman is further removed from marriage than any other man one knows of course that there will be difficulties what i mean mary is that you will have to give it up never aunt sarah i shall never give it up
do you mean that you will marry him now at once and go out to india with him as a dead weight round his neck i mean that he shall choose about that it is for you to choose mary don't be angry i am bound to tell you what i think
you can of course act as you please but i think that you ought to listen to me he cannot go back from his engagement without laying himself open to imputation of bad conduct nor can i pardon me dear that depends i think upon what passes between you
it is at any rate for you to propose the release to him not to fix him with the burthen of proposing it mary's heart quailed as she heard this but she did not show her feeling by any expression on her face for a man placed as he is
about to return to such a climate as that of india with such work before him as i suppose men have there the burden of a wife without the means of maintaining her according to his views of life and hers
it is the old story of love and a cottage only under the most unfavourable circumstances a woman's view of it is of course different from that of a man he has seen more of the world and knows better than she does what poverty and a wife and family mean
there is no reason why we should be married at once a long engagement for you would be absolutely disastrous
the loss of walter's money is disastrous one has to put up with disaster but the worst of all disasters would be to be separated i can stand anything but that it seems to me mary that within the last few weeks your character has become altogether altered
of course it has you used to think so much more of other people than yourself don't i think of him aunt sarah as of a thing of your own two months ago you did not know him and now you are a millstone round his neck
had attacked her in her misery without mercy and yet she knew that every word that had been uttered had been spoken in pure affection she did not believe that her aunt's chief purpose had been to save walter from the fruits of an imprudent marriage
had she so believed the words would have had more effect on her she saw or thought that she saw that her aunt was trying to save herself against her own will and at this she was indignant
she was determined to persevere and this endeavour to make her feel that her perseverance would be disastrous to the man she loved was she thought very cruel she stalked upstairs with unruffled demeanour but when there she threw herself on her bed and sobbed bitterly
could it be that it was her duty for his sake to tell him that the whole thing should be at an end it was impossible for her to do so now because she had sworn to him that she would be guided altogether by him in his present troubles she must keep her word to him whatever happened
but of this she was quite sure that if he should show the slightest sign of a wish to be free from his engagement she would make him free at once she would make him free and would never allow herself to think for a moment that he had been wrong she had told him what her own feelings were very plainly
perhaps in her enthusiasm too plainly and now he must judge for himself and for her in respect to her aunt she would endeavour to avoid any further conversation on the subject till her lover should have decided finally what would be best for both of them
if he should choose to say that everything between them should be over she would acquiesce and all the world should be over for her at the same time while this was going on in uphill lane something of the same kind was taking place at the lowtown parsonage
parson john became aware that his nephew had been with the ladies at uphill and when the young man came in for lunch he asked some question which introduced the subject you've told them of this fresh trouble no doubt i didn't see miss marrable said the captain
i don't know that miss marrable much signifies you haven't asked miss marrable to be your wife i saw mary and i told her i hope you made no bones about it i don't know what you mean sir i hope you told her
that you two had had your little game of play like two children and that there must be an end of it no i didn't tell her that
i can understand that for a strong fellow like you when he's used to it india may be a jolly place enough it's a great deal more than i can understand but for a poor man with a wife and family oh dear it must be very bad indeed
and neither of you have ever been used to that kind of thing i have not said the captain nor has she that old lady up there is not rich but she is as proud as lucifer and always lives as though the whole place belonged to her
she's a good manager and she don't run in debt but mary lowther knows no more of roughing it than a duchess i hope i may never have to teach her i trust you never may it's a very bad lesson for a young man to have to teach a young woman some women die in the learning
some won't learn it at all others do and become dirty and rough themselves now you are very particular about women i like to see them well turned out what would you think of your own wife nursing perhaps a couple of babies
dressed nohow when she gets up in the morning and going on in the same way till night that's the kind of life with officers who marry on their pay i don't say anything against it
that you'd feel half like cutting her throat or your own it would be the latter for choice sir i dare say it would but even that isn't a pleasant thing to look forward to i'll tell you the truth about it my boy
when you first came to me and told me that you were going to marry mary lowther i knew it could not be it was no business of mine but i knew it could not be such engagements always get themselves broken off somehow now and again there are a pair of fools who go through with it
but for the most part it's a matter of kissing and lovers vows for a week or two you seem to know all about it uncle john
i dare say if the truth were known you've a few debts here and there i may owe three or four hundred pounds or so as much as a year's income and you talk of marrying a girl without a farthing she has twelve hundred pounds
just enough to pay your own debts and take you out to india so that you may start without a penny
can you trust yourself to that kind of thing with a wife under your arm if you were a man of fortune no doubt mary would make a very nice wife but as it is you must give it up
most thankful was he for the relief which followed the departure of the last of those who came to do honour to these splendid obsequies and most soothing was it to his wounded and weary spirits to find himself once more surrounded only by those who could read in a look all he wished to express
and who required no welcome to share in the sorrow of that bitter day but like all other periods of human life whether marked by sorrow or by joy it passed away with as even and justly measured a pace as if no event distinguished it from its fellow days
and then by slow but sure degrees the little trifling ordinary routine of daily circumstance came with its invisible and unnoticed magic to efface or at least to weaken feelings which seemed to have been impressed by the stamp of burning iron on their souls
charles mowbray had not yet taken his degree and wishing to do so as soon as possible he was anxious to return to christ church without delay but his father's will had not yet been opened and at the request of his mother he postponed his departure till this could be done
this important document was in the hands of sir gilbert harrington an intimate friend and neighbour
who being in london at the time of mister mowbray's death had been unable to obey the summons sent to him in time to attend the funeral but within a week after he arrived and the following morning was fixed upon for this necessary business the persons present were sir gilbert harrington mister cartwright
a respectable solicitor from the country town who had himself drawn the instrument and charles mowbray it was dated rather more than ten years back and after the usual preamble ran thus
in order that my children or any other persons whom it may concern may know the reason and motive of the disposition of my property which i am about to make it is necessary that i should therewith state the manner of my marriage with clara helena frances
my dearly beloved wife notwithstanding her vast possessions i wooed and married her solely because i loved her and this she had the generosity to believe
though i was nearly penniless having nothing but my true affection and good blood to offer in return for all the wealth she brought for several months she withstood my earnest solicitations for an immediate union because
nor would she subsequently sign any document whatever previous to her marriage thereby rendering me the sole possessor of her fortune wherefore to show my sense of this unparalleled confidence and generosity i hereby make her the sole inheritrix of all i possess
and then followed with every necessary and unnecessary technicality of the law such a disposition of his property as left his children entirely dependent on their mother both for their present and future subsistence that this will was very different from anything that charles mowbray expected
is most certain and there might perhaps have been some slight feeling of disappointment at finding himself dependent even upon his mother but if such there were it was not sufficiently strong to prevent his doing justice to the noble feeling which had led to it and in truth
he felt so certain of the fond affection of his mother that not a shadow of fear either for his own interest or that of his sisters crossed his mind the lawyer who read aloud the deed he had penned had of course no observation to make upon it
and mister cartwright only remarked that it was a proof of very devoted love and confidence of the small party present at this lecture sir gilbert harrington was the only one who testified any strong emotion respecting it
and his displeasure and vexation were expressed in no very measured terms his warmth was at length checked not because he had uttered all he had to say but because he met the eye of mister cartwright fixed upon him with a sort of scrutiny that was unpleasing to his feelings
he therefore stopped short in the philippic he was pouring forth upon the infernal folly of a man's acting in matters of importance without consulting his friends and taking the arm of charles walked through the hall into the grounds without appearing to remember that as he was left joint executor with missus mowbray to the will
it might be expected that he should make some notification of its contents to her before he left the house shall we not speak to my mother sir gilbert said mowbray endeavouring to restrain the eager step of the baronet as he was passing through the hall door no sir was the laconic reply
and on he stalked with a more rapid step than before the conversation which passed between them during the hour which intervened before sir gilbert clambered up to his saddle and galloped off
was made up of something between lamentation and anathema on his side and the most earnest assurances that no mischief could ensue from his father's will on the part of charles the testy old gentleman could not however be wrought upon to see the widow who as he said
must have used most cursed cunning in obtaining such a will of which however poor lady she was as innocent as the babe unborn and he at length left the park positive that he should have a fit of the gout and that the widow mowbray would marry within a year
as soon as he had got rid of his warm hearted but passionate old friend mowbray hastened to repair the neglect he had been forced into committing and sought his mother in the drawing room but she was no longer there the room indeed appeared to be wholly untenanted
and he was on the point of leaving it to seek his mother elsewhere when he perceived that miss torrington was seated at the most distant corner of it almost concealed by the folds of the farthest window curtain
i am left alone mister mowbray because i wished it helen and fanny are with your mother i believe in her room charles wished to see them all and to see them together and had almost turned to go but there was something in the look and manner of rosalind that puzzled him and going up to her he said kindly
is anything the matter rosalind you look as if something had vexed you to his great astonishment she burst into tears and turning from him as if to hide an emotion she could not conquer she said
who then has told her of it rosalind was it the lawyer was it mister humphries no sir it was mister cartwright but why should you be displeased with me for this dear rosalind sir gilbert led me out of the library by force and would not let me go to my mother as i wished to do
and i have but this instant got rid of him but i did not commission either mister cartwright or any one else to make a communication to her which i was particularly desirous of making myself you did not send mister cartwright to her said rosalind colouring and looking earnestly in his face
no indeed i did not did he say i had sent him how very strange it is she replied after a moment's consideration that i should be perfectly unable to say whether he did or did not
but this i do remember that somehow or other i understood that you had done so and how did he announce to my mother that she i mean how did he communicate to her the purport of my father's will
charles mowbray exclaimed rosalind passionately clenching her small hands and stamping her little foot upon the ground i may be a very very wicked girl i know i am wilful headstrong obstinate and vain and call me also dark minded suspicious what you will
but i do hate that man hate whom rosalind said charles inexpressibly astonished at her vehemence what is it you mean is it mister cartwright our good friendly clergyman that you hate so bitterly go to your mother mister mowbray
i am little more than seventeen years old and have always been considered less instructed and therefore sillier of course than was to be expected even from my age and sex then will it not be worse than waste of time to inquire what i mean
especially when i confess as i am bound to do that i do not well know myself
you at least have no cause to hide your faults i will go but i wish i knew what has so strangely moved you ask your sisters they saw and heard all that i did at least they were present here as i was
ask them examine them but ask me nothing for i do believe charles that i am less to be depended on than any other person in the world and why so my dear rosalind replied mowbray almost laughing do you mean that you tell fibs against your will yes i believe so
at least i feel strangely tempted to say a great deal more than i positively know to be true and that is very much like telling fibs i believe well rosalind i will go for you grow more mysterious every moment
only remember that i should greatly like to know all the thoughts that come into that strange little head of yours will you promise that i shall no was the ungracious reply and turning away she left the room by a door that led into a conservatory
mowbray thought the genial hour of dinner might probably be the most favourable for mentioning the invitation of sir gilbert and lady harrington to his sister and miss torrington
an idea which probably occurred to him in consequence of the remarkably well pleased and complaisant air visible on his stepfather's countenance as he took his place at the bottom of the table poor charles
but his young spirit soon o'er mastered the sensation which seemed threatening to choke him when mister cartwright said in the most obliging voice in the world charles let me give you some soup this over he said with the easiest accent he could assume and addressing his mother
i am the bearer ma'am of a message from lady harrington she hopes that you will spare her the society of miss torrington and helen for a short time
it is very considerate of the old lady said the vicar with a soft smile of which his daughter only knew the full value i dare say she thought we should be a good deal engaged just at first chivers
don't you see mister jacob cartwright is waiting for sauce i think my love we shall make no objection to the arrangement however we will talk together on the subject before we decide as this amiable speech will not be found to accord exactly with his subsequent conduct
it may be well to remark that the servants were waiting at table who doubtless would report his answer and speculate on the temper of it the family party seemed expected to sit at table rather longer than usual the master of the banquet was evidently enjoying himself
he continued to perform his new and delightful task at the bottom of the table till long past the usual hour of withdrawing at length however the watchful bride received the little nod which her husband had that morning informed her must always precede her moving from table the ladies retired
and charles followed them as far as the hall where impatiently seizing upon his hat and wrapping himself in his cloak he set off despite the heavy darkness of the night to relieve his heart from the load that oppressed it by passing an hour at oakley mister cartwright and jacob remained in the dining room for another very delightful half hour
and then followed coffee and tea and fanny's own hymns sung to irish melodies and a few conjugal kindnesses exchanged on the sofa and henrietta pleaded illness and went to bed and then another very appropriate extempore prayer was uttered and the family separated
will you not take a little wine and water and a biscuit my dear mister cartwright said his attentive wife you always used to do it i had rather the tray were taken to your dressing room my love
that the lady added a tender smile to her nodded assent and in a few minutes the newly married pair found themselves in robes de chambre luxuriously seated in two soft arm chairs before a blazing fire in the very room that a few short weeks before had witnessed the first full disclosure of the vicar's love
madeira sugar nutmeg hot water and dainty biscuits tempted to negus and to chat and thus the conversation ran only second to my service to the lord my clara is my adoration of you began the fond husband
and in nothing perhaps shall i be more likely to show this than in the pains i shall almost involuntarily take to guard you from every spiteful and envious observation which our union sweetest is likely to excite
it was in this spirit my beauteous clara that i replied in the manner i did to the message from those very infamous people the harringtons had i my love at once proclaimed my feelings on the subject i well knew what the result would be
you would have been abused throughout the country for having married a tyrant whose first act of power was to vex and thwart your children therefore when your sweet eyes looked towards mine for the purpose of consulting me i at once decided upon the line of conduct
most certain of securing you from any invidious remark
my dearest husband i must pray for power to prove my gratitude for such kindness as i ought sweet love
it must be such a letter dearest as shall bring her home without an hour's delay but my dearest mister cartwright charles is gone there to night you may depend upon it and probably for the express purpose of telling the girls how graciously you received the invitation you think so my clara
i own i hoped it was the case this you see is exactly what we could most wish to happen my answer was spoken precisely in the spirit which i thought could be repeated most favourably for you
now therefore your asserting a mother's rights and a mother's feelings must do you honour even in the eyes of those you disoblige and no sort of reflection fall upon the blessed choice which has made me the happiest of men
that was so thoughtful of you replied missus cartwright kissing the hand that clasped hers but what shall i say to helen dearest give me your desk my clara and i will write a line or two that you shall copy
it must be expressed with strength and firmness my best love and it may prevent a repetition of this very improper request for the future the desk was brought and while missus cartwright prepared a second glass of negus for the vicar who declared that the night was unusually chilly
he composed the following epistle helen
to wish for permission to become the guest of a family who from the hour of your late father's death has ever treated me with the most cruel and unmerited unkindness is a mystery that i cannot understand it was this unkindness which drove me
sooner than i could have wished to do it to find a friend and adviser in mister cartwright and my only fear now is that his indulgent gentleness towards my children may prevent his being so firm a support to me in the guiding them as i may sometimes require but in the present instance
and moreover i beg you to inform the unprincipled pair who would seduce you from your mother's roof that if on the present or any future occasion they should persuade you to commit so great a sin i shall take legal measures to recover the possession of your person till such time as you shall be of age
when if unhappily evil counsellors should still have influence over you i shall give you up to them to penniless obscurity to your own heart's remorse and to that sentence of everlasting condemnation which will in such case infallibly doom you to the region where there is howling and gnashing of teeth
as for my ward miss torrington i must of course take the same summary mode of getting her again under my protection for such time as i shall continue to be her legal guardian clara helena frances cartwright cartwright park wednesday
when this composition was completed mister cartwright turned the desk to his lady laid a fair sheet of blank paper before her put a pen into her hand drew the wax lights near her and then set about sipping the negus she had so kindly prepared for him
without appearing to think it at all necessary to ask her opinion of the document she was about to copy being however rather new to the yoke into which it had pleased her to thrust her head she took the liberty of reading it a slight augmentation of colour was perceived on her delicate cheek as she proceeded
by the watchful eye of her husband as he turned it towards her over the top of the beautifully cut goblet he held in his hand but he nibbled a biscuit and said nothing when the perusal of it was completed missus cartwright dipped the pen she still held between her fingers in the ink but before she began to use it
she paused the colour mounted a little higher still and she ventured to say in the very gentlest accent in the world my dear friend do you not think this might be a little softened as how my sweetest
at length she said if you dear cartwright agree with me about it you would make the alteration so much better yourself perhaps i might my lovely clara but as the fact is that i do not agree with you at all on the subject
i suspect your epistle would be rather the worse than the better for any thing further that i could do to it he rose as he spoke and going behind her appeared to read the paper over her shoulder and having satisfied himself with the examination kissed her fair throat as he bent over it
adding as he took a light from the table i am going to the library to look for a book my love write it exactly as you like and i will seal it for you when i return
no one who knew missus cartwright could have the slightest doubt that the letter would be very fairly copied by the time her obliging husband returned and so it was every word of it excepting the date she appeared to be in the very act of writing this when he came back and stopping short as he entered
she said in a voice that certainly faltered a little my dear cartwright don't you think it would be better to let those odious harringtons hear from some other quarter of this change in the name of our place not but that i approve it i assure you perfectly
then perhaps dearest said he again coming behind her and caressing her neck perhaps you may think it would please her ladyship better if your own name as you have accepted it from me were to be suppressed
the road runs up the creek good grass
the spring is on the left of the road good grass
on the summit of a mountain good grass
road crosses over a spur of the mountain long and gradual ascent descent rather abrupt
road runs down bear river good camp
here take the left hand road to california called hudspeth's cut off
from lawson's meadows on the humboldt river to fort reading via rogue river valley
road leaves the humboldt and takes a northwesterly course twelve miles to a spring of good water good bunch grass to the left of the road and a small spring at the camp the road is plain on leaving the river but after a few days it becomes faint
road from this point passes over a desert country for about sixty miles without good water or much grass
road level and hard with little vegetation in fourteen miles pass springs but the water is not good in sixteen miles the road passes a slough which is difficult to cross water not good but can be given to cattle in small quantities
in five miles from this the road passes black rock mentioned by colonel fremont in his trip from columbia river
three miles farther pass boiling springs very hot but good cooled grass pretty good
water good bunch grass in the vicinity in eight miles travel the road passes a beautiful creek of pure water with good grass
this canon is twenty five miles long with wild and curious scenery road crosses the creek frequently and the mud is bad in the autumn the road is good
small creek beautiful country with the greatest abundance of water and grass also fuel
road passes over an interesting country well supplied with wood water and grass and passes around the south end of a salt lake
road passes over the mountain which is steep but not rocky then descends to a small creek of good water which runs into goose lake good grass and fuel look out for the indians as they are warlike and treacherous here
this is a beautiful sheet of fresh water great quantities of water fowl resort to this lake
the road passes over a very rocky divide covered with loose volcanic debris very hard for animals and wearing to their feet they should be well shod before attempting the passage
beautiful lake of pure water with good grass around its shore
on a solid smooth ledge of rock
road leaves rhett's lake and enters the forest and mountains tolerably good good camp
good water and grass also fuel
near table rock on rogue river eight miles from jacksonville dragoon post
road crosses the siskiyou mountains and is difficult for wagons
infantry post in scott's valley
good grass wood and water
from soda springs to fort wallah wallah and oregon city oregon
good camp take the right hand road
camp is three miles below the crossing of port neuf river which is fordable good wood water and grass
road rough and rocky sage for fuel grass scarce
road crosses swamp and goose creeks wood on the hills grass short
road crosses one small creek and is very rough and rocky for several miles when it enters a sandy region where the grass is scarce sage plenty and willows on the creek
road crosses several small branches there is but little grass except in narrow patches along the river bottom
road very crooked and rough crossing two small streams
road crosses several small creeks but leaves the main river to the north and runs upon an elevated plateau good grass at camp
road tortuous ford good in low water
road crosses snake river and follows up a small branch leaving the river to the left good grass road ascends to a high plateau which it keeps during the whole distance
road crosses two small branches and is very rocky but at camp grass wood and water are abundant
road follows the south bank of boise river to the fort
road crosses boise river good ford at ordinary stages grass good in the river bottom
good road grass abundant but coarse wood and water plenty
road passes over a rough country grass scarce and of a poor quality
road leaves snake river and takes across burnt river
road continues up the river and is still rough and mountainous grass and wood plenty
road passes over a divide to powder river it is still rough but getting better the grass is good
road passes a divide crossing several small streams and is smooth with plenty of grass and fuel
road crosses a divide and strikes another branch
good road with plenty of wood and grass
wood water and grass columbia river at fort wallah wallah wood water and grass
this itinerary takes the left
good grass a mile and a half to the left of the road
why the sea moans once upon a time there was a little princess who lived in a magnificent royal palace all around the palace there was a beautiful garden full of lovely flowers and rare shrubs and trees
the part of the garden which the princess liked most of all was a corner of it which ran down to the sea she was a very lonely little princess and she loved to sit and watch the changing beauty of the sea
the name of the little princess was dionysia and it often seemed to her that the sea said as it rushed against the shore
one day when the little princess was sitting all alone by the sea she said to herself o i am so lonely i do so wish that i had somebody to play with
when i ride out in the royal chariot i see little girls who have other little boys and girls to play with them because i am the royal princess i never have anybody to play with me if i have to be the royal princess and not play with other children
i do think i might have some sort of live thing to play with me then a most remarkable thing happened the sea said very slowly and distinctly and over and over again so there couldn't be any mistake about it
the little princess walked up close to the sea just as close as she dared to go without danger of getting her royal shoes and stockings wet straight out of the biggest wave of all there came a sea serpent to meet her
she knew that it was a sea serpent from the pictures in her royal story books even though she had never seen a sea serpent before but somehow this sea serpent looked different than the pictures instead of being a fierce monster
it looked kind and gentle and good she held out her arms to it right away come play with me said dionysia i am labismena and i have come to play with you replied the sea serpent
after that the little princess was very much happier the sea serpent came out of the sea to play with her every day when she was alone if any one else came near labismena would disappear into the sea so no one but dionysia ever saw her
the years passed rapidly and each year the little princess grew to be a larger and larger princess at last she was sixteen years old and a very grown up princess indeed she still enjoyed her old playmate labismena
and they were often together on the seashore one day when they were walking up and down together beside the sea the sea serpent looked at dionysia with sad eyes and said
i too have been growing older all these years dear dionysia now the time has come that we can no longer play together i shall never come out of the sea to play with you any more
but i shall never forget you and i shall always be your friend i hope that you will never have any trouble but if you ever should call my name and i will come to help you
then the sea serpent disappeared into the sea about this time the wife of a neighbouring king died and as she lay upon her death bed she gave the king a jewelled ring
when the time comes when you wish to wed again she said i ask you to marry a princess upon whose finger this ring shall be neither too tight nor too loose after a while
the king began to look about for a princess to be his bride he visited many royal palaces and tried the ring upon the finger of many royal princesses upon some the ring was too tight and upon others it was too loose
there was no princess whose finger it fitted perfectly at last in his search the king came to the royal palace where the princess dionysia lived the princess had dreams of her own
of a young and charming prince who would some day come to wed her so she was not pleased at all the king was old and no longer handsome and when he tried the ring upon dionysia's finger she hoped with all her heart that it would not fit
it fitted perfectly the princess dionysia was frightened nearly to death will i really have to marry him she asked her royal father her father told her what a very wealthy king he was
with a great kingdom and a wonderful royal palace ever so much more wonderful and grand than the palace the princess dionysia had always had for her home her father had no patience at all with her for not being happy about it
you ought to consider yourself the most fortunate princess in all the world he said dionysia spent her days and nights weeping her father was afraid that she would grow so thin that the ring would no longer fit her finger
so he hastened the plans for the wedding one day dionysia walked up and down beside the sea crying as if her heart would break all at once she stopped crying
she said my old playmate labismena told me that if ever i was in trouble she would come back and help me with all my silly crying i had forgotten about it dionysia walked up close to the sea and called softly labismena
labismena out of the sea came the sea serpent just as she used to come the princess told the sea serpent all about the dreadful trouble which was threatening to spoil her life have no fear said labismena
tell your father that you will marry the king when the king presents you with a dress the colour of the fields and all their flowers and that you will not marry him until he gives it to you then the sea serpent disappeared again into the sea
dionysia sent word through her father to her royal suitor that she would wed him only when he procured her a dress the colour of the fields and all their flowers the king was very much in love with dionysia
so he was secretly filled with joy at this request he searched everywhere for a dress the colour of the fields and all their flowers it was a very difficult thing to find but at last he procured one he sent it to dionysia at once
when dionysia saw that the king had really found the dress for her she was filled with grief she thought that there was no escape and that she would have to marry the king after all as soon as she could get away from the palace without being noticed
she ran down to the sea and again called labismena labismena the sea serpent at once came out of the sea do not fear she said to dionysia go back and say that you will not wed the king
until he gives you a dress the colour of the sea and all its fishes when the king heard this new request of dionysia's he was rather discouraged however he searched for the dress and at last after expending a great sum of money
he procured such a gown when dionysia saw that a dress the colour of the sea and all its fishes had been found for her she again went to seek counsel from her old playmate do not be afraid labismena again said to her
this time you must ask the king to get you a dress the colour of the sky and all its stars you may also tell him that this is the last present you will ask him to make you when the king heard about the demand for a dress the colour of the sky and all its stars
he was completely disheartened but when he heard that dionysia had promised that this would be the last present she would ask he decided that it might be a good investment after all he set out to procure the dress with all possible speed at last he found one
when dionysia saw the dress the colour of the sky and all its stars she thought that this time there was no escape from marrying the king she called the sea serpent with an anxious heart for she was afraid that now even labismena could do nothing to help her
labismena came out of the sea in answer to her call go home to the palace and get your dress the colour of the field and all its flowers said the sea serpent and your dress the colour of the sea and all its fishes
and your dress the colour of the sky and all its stars then hurry back here to the sea for i have been preparing a surprise for you all the time the king had been procuring the wonderful gowns for dionysia
the sea serpent had been building a ship for her when dionysia returned from the royal palace with her lovely dresses all carefully packed in a box there was a queer little boat awaiting her it was not at all like any other boat she had ever seen
and she was almost afraid to get into it when labismena asked her to try it this little ship which i have built for you said labismena will carry you far away over the sea to the kingdom of a prince who is the most charming prince in all the world
when you see him you will want to marry him above all others o labismena how can i ever thank you for all you have done for me cried dionysia you can do the greatest thing in the world for me said labismena
though i have never told you and i do not believe that you have ever suspected it i am really an enchanted princess i shall have to remain in the form of a sea serpent until the happiest maiden in all the world at the hour of her greatest happiness
calls my name three times you will be the very happiest girl in all the world on the day of your marriage and if you will remember to call my name three times then you will break my enchantment and i shall once more be a lovely princess
instead of a sea serpent dionysia promised her friend that she would remember to do this the sea serpent asked her to promise three times to make sure when dionysia had promised three times and again embraced her old playmate
and thanked her for all that she had done she sailed away in the little ship the sea serpent disappeared into the sea dionysia sailed and sailed in the little ship and at last it bore her to a lovely island
she thought that she had reached her destination so she stepped out of the boat not forgetting to take her box of dresses with her as soon as she was out of the boat it sailed away now what shall i ever do said dionysia
the ship has gone away and left me and how shall i ever earn my living i have never done anything useful in all my life dionysia surely had to do something to earn her living immediately so she at once set out to see what she could find to do
she went from house to house asking for food and work at last she came to the royal palace here at the royal palace they told her that they had great need of a maid to take care of the hens dionysia thought that this was something which she could do
so she accepted the position at once it was of course very different work from being a princess in a royal palace but it provided her with food and shelter and when dionysia thought of having to marry the old king she was never sorry that she had left home
time passed and at last there was a great feast day celebrated in the city everybody in the palace went except the little maid who minded the hens after everybody had gone away dionysia decided that she would go to the festa too
in this wonderful gown she was sure nobody would ever guess that she was the little maid who had been left at home to mind the hens she did want to go to the festa she hurried there as fast as she could and arrived just in time for the dances
everybody at the festa noticed the beautiful maiden in her gown the colour of the fields and all their flowers the prince fell madly in love with her nobody had ever seen her before and nobody could find out who the beautiful stranger was or where she came from
before the festa was over dionysia slipped away and when the rest of the royal household returned home there was the little maid minding the hens just as they had left her the second day of the festa
everybody went early except the little maid who looked after the hens when the others had gone she put on her dress the colour of the sea and all its fishes and went to the festa she attracted even more attention than she had the day before
when the festa was over and the royal household had returned to the royal palace the prince remarked to his mother don't you think that the beautiful stranger at the festa looks like the little maid who minds our hens what nonsense replied his mother
how could the little maid who minds our hens ever get such wonderful gowns to wear just to make sure however the prince told the royal councillor to find out if the little maid who minds the royal hens had been to the festa all the servants told about leaving her at home with the hens
whoever the beautiful stranger at the festa may be said the prince she is the one above all others whom i want for my wife i shall find her some way the third day of the festa
dionysia went attired in her gown the colour of the sky and all its stars the prince fell more madly in love with her than ever he could not get her to tell him who she was or where she lived but he gave her a beautiful jewel
when the prince returned home he would not eat any food he grew thin and pale every one around the palace tried his best to invent some dish which would tempt the prince's appetite
finally the little maid who took care of the hens said that she thought she could prepare a dish which the prince would eat accordingly she made a dish of broth for the prince and in the bottom of the dish she dropped the jewel which the prince had given her
when the broth was set before the prince he was about to send it away untouched just as he did everything else but the sparkling jewel attracted his attention who made this dish of broth he asked as soon as he could speak
it was made by the little maid who minds the hens replied his mother send for the little maid to come to me at once cried the prince i knew that the beautiful stranger at the festa looked like our little maid who minds the hens
the prince married dionysia the very next day and dionysia was the very happiest girl in all the world for from the first moment that she had seen the prince she had known that he was the one above all others whom she wished to marry
alas in dionysia's excitement she forgot all about calling the name of her old playmate labismena at the hour of her marriage as she had promised to do she thought of nothing but the prince there was no escape for labismena
she had to remain in the form of a sea serpent because of dionysia's neglect she had lost her chance to come out of the sea and become a lovely princess herself and find a charming prince of her own for this reason
why the lamb is meek once upon a time there was a little lamb frisking gaily about the pasture the bright sunshine and the soft breezes made him very happy he had just finished a hearty meal and that made him happy too
he was the very happiest little lamb in all the world and he thought that he was the most wonderful little lamb a big toad sat on the ground and watched him after a while the toad said o little lamb
how are you feeling today the lamb replied that he had never felt better in all his life even though you are feeling very strong i can pull you into the sea said the toad
the little lamb laughed and laughed until he rolled over on the ground just take hold of this rope and i'll show you how easy it is to pull you into the sea said the toad the lamb took hold of the rope then the toad said
i can pull better when i'm not too near you the lamb waited and the toad hopped down to the sea he hopped up into a tree which hung over the water's edge and from there he hopped on to the whale's back he fastened the end of the rope around the whale
and then he called out to the lamb all ready now we'll see how hard you can pull when the whale felt the lamb pulling at the rope he swam away from the shore no matter how hard the lamb pulled or how much force he exerted
it did not do one bit of good he was dragged down to the water's edge as easily as could be i give up said the lamb as he reached the water's edge after that although the sunshine was just as bright as ever
any one who watched that little lamb could see that he was a little more meek one day not long afterwards the sunshine was again very bright and the little lamb was again feeling frisky
he was so happy and gay that he had forgotten all about how the toad had pulled him down to the water until the toad spoke to him then he remembered o little lamb how are you feeling today asked the toad
the little lamb replied that he was very well let us run a race said the toad i think i can beat you you may be strong enough to pull me into the sea said the lamb but surely i can run faster than you
i've watched you hopping about my pasture you can't run fast at all however i'll gladly run a race with you to prove what i say the toad set a goal and told the lamb to call out every little while during the race
so he could see how much farther ahead the lamb was then the toad and the lamb started the toad had assembled all his brothers and his sisters and his cousins and his uncles and his aunts before the race and had stationed them at various points along the path of the race
he had told them that whenever any of them should hear the lamb calling out laculay laculay laculay the toad which was nearest should answer gulugubango bango lay the lamb ran and ran as fast as he could
then he remembered his promise and called out laculay laculay laculay he expected to hear the toad answer from a long long distance behind him he was much surprised to hear some one near him answer
after that he ran faster than ever after running on for some distance farther the lamb again called out laculay laculay laculay again he heard the answer at only a short distance away gulugubango bango lay
he ran and ran until his little heart was beating so fast that it seemed as if it would burst at last he arrived at the goal of the race which the toad had set and there sat the toad's brother who looked so much like him that the lamb couldn't tell them apart
the lamb went back to his pasture very meekly and quietly he acknowledged that he had been beaten in the race the next morning the toad said to him even though you did not run fast enough to win the race
still you are a very fast runner i have told the daughter of the king about you and i have said to her that some day she shall see me riding on your back with a bridle in your mouth as if you were my horse the lamb was very angry
perhaps you are strong enough to pull me into the sea and perhaps you can beat me when we run a race said the lamb but never never in the world will i be your horse time passed and the sunshine was very bright
and the soft gentle breezes were very sweet the lamb was so happy again that he forgot all about how the toad had pulled him into the sea and how the toad had beaten him at running the race
he was very sorry for the toad when he saw him all humped up in a disconsolate little heap one day o poor toad are you sick he asked isn't there something i can do to help you the toad told him how very sick he was
there is something you could do to help me he said but i don't believe that you are quite strong enough or can travel quite fast enough the lamb took a deep breath and blew out his chest i'll show you he said just tell me what it is
the toad replied that he had promised to be at a party that afternoon at the house of the king's daughter and he did not see how he could possibly get there unless some one would carry him jump on my back said the lamb i'll carry you
the toad shook about on the lamb's back after they had started so that it seemed as if he would surely fall off after a little he said i can not possibly stand riding like this it jars all my sore spots
he tried it a little while longer and shook about worse than ever then he said do you know i think i could endure this painful ride a little better if only i had something to hold myself by
do you mind if i take a piece of grass and put it in your mouth i can hold on to that when i shake about and my sore spots will not hurt so much the lamb let the toad put a piece of grass in his mouth
after a while the toad asked for a little stick the flies and mosquitoes annoy me terribly he said if only i had a little stick i could wave it about over my head and frighten them away
it is very bad for any one in my weak nervous condition to be bothered by flies and mosquitoes the lamb let the toad have a little stick to wave over his head at last the lamb and the toad drew near to the palace of the king
the king's daughter was leaning out of the window watching for them the toad dug his feet into the lamb's sides
and waved the little stick about over the lamb's head go on horse he said and the king's daughter heard him she laughed and laughed and when all the rest of the people in the palace saw the toad arriving mounted on the lamb's back
and driving him like a horse they laughed too the lamb went meekly home to his pasture and from that day to this when one wishes to speak of meekness one says
were dependent on their son for their subsistence every day the young fellow used to go out and get what he could by begging this continued for some time
till at last he became quite tired of such a wretched life and determined to go and try his luck in another country he informed his wife of his intention
and ordered her to manage somehow or other for the old people during the few months that he would be absent he begged her to be industrious lest his parents should be angry and curse him one morning he started with some food in a bundle
and walked on day after day till he reached the chief city of the neighbouring country here he went and sat down by a merchant's shop and asked alms the merchant inquired
whence he had come why he had come and what was his caste to which he replied that he was a brahman and was wandering hither and thither begging a livelihood for himself and wife and parents
the merchant advised him to visit the kind and generous king of that country and offered to accompany him to the court now at that time it happened that the king was seeking for a brahman
his majesty was very glad therefore when he saw the brahman and heard that he was good and honest he at once deputed him to the charge of this temple and ordered fifty kharwars of rice
as wages two months after this the brahman's wife not having heard any news of her husband left the house and went in quest of him by a happy fate
where she heard that every morning at the golden temple
to any beggar who chose to go for it accordingly on the following morning she went to the place and met her husband why have you come here he asked why have you left my parents
care you not whether they curse me and i die go back immediately and await my return
i cannot go back to starve and see your old father and mother die there is not a grain of rice left in the house o bhagawant exclaimed the brahman here take this
and then handing it to her and give it to the king you will see that he will give you a lac of rupees for it
and the woman left on this scrap of paper were written three pieces of advice first if a person is travelling and reaches any strange place at night let him be careful where he puts up
and not close his eyes in sleep lest he close them in death secondly if a man has a married sister
she will receive him for the sake of what she can obtain from him but if he comes to her in poverty she will frown on him and disown him thirdly if a man has to do any work
and do it with might and without fear
told her parents of her meeting with her husband and what a valuable piece of paper he had given her but not liking to go before the king herself she sent one of her relations
dismissed him the next morning the brahmani took the paper and while she was going along the road to the darbar reading it the king's son met her and asked what she was reading whereupon she replied
that she held in her hands a paper containing certain bits of advice for which she wanted a lac of rupees the prince asked her to show it to him and when he had read it
and rode on the poor brahmani was very thankful that day she laid in a great store of provisions sufficient to last them all for a long time in the evening the prince related to his father the meeting with the woman
and the purchase of the piece of paper
the king was more angry than before and banished his son from the country so the prince bade adieu to his mother and relations and friends
at nightfall he arrived at some place where a man met him and invited him to lodge at his house the prince accepted the invitation and was treated like a prince matting was spread for him to squat on
and the best provisions set before him ah thought he as he lay down to rest
and taking a sword in his hand rushed to the prince with the intention of killing him but he rose up and spoke do not slay me he said what profit would you get from my death if you killed me you would be sorry afterwards
like that man who killed his dog what man what dog he asked i will tell you said the prince if you will give me that sword so he gave him the sword and the prince began his story
once upon a time there lived a wealthy merchant who had a pet dog he was suddenly reduced to poverty and had to part with his dog he got a loan of five thousand rupees from a brother merchant
leaving the dog as a pledge and with the money began business again
there was hardly ten rupees worth left in the place the faithful dog however knew what was going on and went and followed the thieves and saw where they deposited the things and then returned
in the morning there was great weeping and lamentation in the merchant's house
the merchant himself nearly went mad meanwhile the dog kept on running to the door and pulling at his master's shirt and paijamas as though wishing him to go outside at last a friend suggested that
perhaps the dog knew something of the whereabouts of the things and advised the merchant to follow its leadings the merchant consented and went after the dog right up to the very place where the thieves had hidden the goods
so the merchant and his friends dug about the place and soon came upon all the stolen property nothing was missing there was everything just as the thieves had taken them the merchant was very glad
on returning to his house he at once sent the dog back to its old master with a letter rolled under the collar wherein he had written about the sagacity of the beast and begged his friend to forget the loan
and to accept another five thousand rupees as a present when this merchant saw his dog coming back again he thought alas my friend is wanting the money how can i pay him
i have not had sufficient time to recover myself from my recent losses i will slay the dog ere he reaches the threshold and say that another must have slain it thus there will be an end of my debt no dog no loan
accordingly he ran out and killed the poor dog when the letter fell out of its collar the merchant picked it up and read it how great was his grief and disappointment when he knew the facts of the case beware continued the prince
lest you do that which afterwards you would give your life not to have done by the time the prince had concluded this story it was nearly morning and he went away after rewarding the man the prince then visited the country belonging to his brother in law
he disguised himself as a jogi
pretended to be absorbed in worship news of the man and of his wonderful piety reached the ears of the king he felt interested in him as his wife was very ill and he had sought for hakims
to cure her but in vain he thought that perhaps this holy man could do something for her so he sent to him but the jogi refused to tread the halls of a king
saying that his dwelling was the open air and that if his majesty wished to see him he must come himself and bring his wife to the place then the king took his wife and brought her to the jogi
the holy man bade her prostrate herself before him and when she had remained in this position for about three hours he told her to rise and go for she was cured in the evening there was great consternation in the palace because
when the king heard this he was very angry and ordered the jogi to be executed this stern order however was not carried out as the prince bribed the men and escaped from the country but he knew that the second bit of advice was true
clad in his own clothes the prince was walking along one day when he saw a potter crying and laughing alternately with his wife and children
if you laugh why do you weep if you weep
do not bother me said the potter what does it matter to you pardon me said the prince but i should like to know the reason the reason is this then said the potter the king of this country has a daughter
because all her husbands die the first night of their stay with her nearly all the young men of the place have thus perished and our son will be called on soon we laugh at the absurdity of the thing
a potter's son marrying a princess and we cry at the terrible consequence of the marriage what can we do truly a matter for laughing and weeping but weep no more said the prince
i will exchange places with your son and will be married to the princess instead of him only give me suitable garments and prepare me for the occasion
at night he was conducted to the apartment of the princess dread hour thought he am i to die like the scores of young men before me he clenched his sword with firm grip and lay down on his bed intending to keep awake
all the night and see what would happen in the middle of the night he saw two shahmars come out from the nostrils of the princess they stole over towards him intending to kill him like the others who had been before him
but he was ready for them he laid hold of his sword and when the snakes reached his bed he struck at them and killed them in the morning the king came as usual to inquire and was surprised to hear his daughter and the prince
talking gaily together surely said he this man must be her husband as he only can live with her where do you come from who are you asked the king entering the room o king replied the prince
i am the son of a king who rules over such and such a country when he heard this the king was very glad and bade the prince to abide in his palace and appointed him his successor to the throne
and then asked permission to visit his own country which was granted the king gave him elephants horses jewels and abundance of money for the expenses of the way and as presents for his father and the prince started
on the way he had to pass through the country belonging to his brother in law whom we have already mentioned report of his arrival reached the ears of the king who came with rope tied hands and haltered neck
he most humbly begged him to stay at his palace and to accept what little hospitality could be provided while the prince was staying at the palace he saw his sister who greeted him with smiles and kisses on leaving
he told her how she and her husband had treated him at his first visit and how he had escaped and then gave them two elephants two beautiful horses fifteen soldiers and ten lacs rupees worth of jewels
afterwards he went to his own home and informed his mother and father of his arrival alas his parents had both become blind from weeping about the loss of their son let him come in said the king and put his hands
upon our eyes and we shall see again
in calcutta we are kailas baba's neighbours curiously enough our own family history is just the opposite to his my father got his money by his own exertions
than was needed his clothes were those of a working man and his hands also he never had any inclination to earn the title of baba by extravagant display and i myself his only son owe him gratitude for that
crisp bank notes in my safe are dearer to me than a long pedigree in an empty family chest
drawing his heavy cheques on the public credit from the bankrupt bank of his ancient babu reputation i used to fancy that he looked down on me because my father had earned money with his own hands
i ought to have noticed that no one showed any vexation towards kailas babu except myself indeed it would have been difficult to find an old man who did less harm than he
in times of sorrow and joy he would join in all the ceremonies and religious observances of his neighbours his familiar smile would greet young and old alike his politeness in asking details about domestic affairs was untiring
the friends who met him in the street were perforce ready to be button holed while a long string of questions of this kind followed one another from his lips my dear friend i am delighted to see you
how is shashi and dada is he all right do you know i've only just heard that madhu's son has got fever how is he have you heard and hari charan babu i've not seen him for a long time
how are the ladies of your family kailas balm was spotlessly neat in his dress on all occasions though his supply of clothes was sorely limited
and put them out in the sun along with his bed quilt his pillowcase and the small carpet on which he always sat
very often for want of a servant he would shut up his house for a while
with his own hands and do other little menial tasks after this he would open his door and receive his friends again
he had still same family heirlooms left there was a silver cruet for sprinkling scented water
a small gold salver a costly ancient shawl and the old fashioned ceremonial dress and ancestral turban these he had rescued with the greatest difficulty from the money lenders clutches on every suitable occasion he would bring them out in state
at heart the most modest of men in his daily speech he regarded it as a sacred duty owed to his rank to give free play to his family pride his friends would encourage this trait in his character with kindly good humour
and it gave them great amusement
to prevent his incurring any expense one or other of his friends would bring him tobacco and say thakur dada this morning some tobacco was sent to me from gaya do take it and see how you like it
thakur dada would take it and say it was excellent he would then go on to tell of a certain exquisite tobacco which they once smoked in the old days at nayanjore at the cost of a guinea an ounce
i have some left and can get it at once every one knew that if they asked for it then somehow or other the key of the cupboard would be missing or else ganesh his old family servant had put it away somewhere
he would add where things go to when servants are about now this ganesh of mine i can't tell you what a fool he is but i haven't the heart to dismiss him
was quite ready to bear all the blame without a word one of the company usually said at this point never mind thakur dada please don't trouble to look for it this tobacco
the other would be too strong
and the talk would go on when his guests got up to go away thakur dada would accompany them to the door and say to them on the door step oh by the way when are you all coming to dine with me one or other of us would answer
not just yet thakur dada not just yet we'll fix a day later quite right he would answer quite right we had much better wait till the rains come it's too hot now
would upset us in weather like this
if the subject was brought up some friend would suggest gently that it was very inconvenient
poor lodging was much too small for his position and we used to condole with him about it his friends would assure him they quite understood his difficulties it was next to impossible to get a decent house in calcutta indeed
they had all been looking out for years for a house to suit him but i need hardly add no friend had been foolish enough to find one
then he would add with a genial smile but you know
i must be near you that really compensates for everything somehow i felt all this very deeply indeed i suppose the real reason was that when a man is young stupidity appears to him the worst of crimes
kailas babu was not really stupid in ordinary business matters every one was ready to consult him but with regard to nayanjore his utterances were certainly void of common sense because out of amused affection for him
no one contradicted his impossible statements he refused to keep them in bounds
and never doubted even in his dreams that any one could disbelieve it
towards kailas babu i see that there was a still deeper reason for my dislike
when quite young my moral character was flawless in addition my outward appearance was so handsome that if i were to call myself beautiful it might be thought a mark of self estimation but could not be considered an untruth
i was regarded by parents generally as a very eligible match i was myself quite clear on the point
a wealthy father's only daughter extremely beautiful and highly educated proposals came pouring in to me from far and near large sums in cash were offered
but there was no one fit to be my partner i became convinced with the poet bhabavuti that in this worlds endless time and boundless space one may be born at last to match my sovereign grace but in this puny modern age
and this contracted space of modern bengal it was doubtful if the peerless creature existed as yet
and in different metres by designing parents
it was this arrogance of his that made me angry my indignation smouldered for some time but i remained perfectly silent and bore it with the utmost patience because i was so good as lightning accompanies thunder
so in my character a flash of humour was mingled with the mutterings of my wrath
merely to give vent to my rage
but suddenly one day such an amusing plan came into my head that i could not resist the temptation of carrying it into effect
used to flatter the old man's vanity
had told him that whenever he saw the chota lord sahib he always asked for the latest news about the babus of nayanjore and the chota lard had been heard to say that in all bengal the only really respectable families
were those of the maharaja of burdwan
when this monstrous falsehood was told to kailas balm he was extremely gratified and often repeated the story and wherever after that he met this government servant in company he would ask along with other questions
how is the chota lord sahib quite well did you say ah yes i am so delighted to hear it i and the dear mem sahib is she quite well too ah yes and the little children are they quite well also
be sure and give them my compliments when you see them
and paying a visit to the sahib but it may be taken for granted
also would come and go and much water would pass down the hoogly before the family coach of nayanjore would be furnished up to pay a visit to government house
and told him in a whisper thakur dada i was at the levee yesterday and the chota lord happened to mention
had come to town do you know he was terribly hurt because you hadn't called he told me he was going to put etiquette on one side and pay you a private visit himself this very afternoon
anybody else could have seen through this plot of mine in a moment and if it had been directed against another person
but after all he had heard from his friend the government servant and after all his own exaggerations a visit from the lieutenant governor seemed the most natural thing in the world he became highly nervous and excited at my news
each detail of the coming visit exercised him greatly most of all his own ignorance of english how on earth was that difficulty to be met i told him there was no difficulty at all it was aristocratic
not to know english and besides
about mid day when most of our neighbours are at work and the rest are asleep a carriage and pair stopped before the lodging of kailas babu two flunkeys in livery came up the stairs and announced in a loud voice
kailas babu was ready waiting for him in his old fashioned ceremonial robes and ancestral turban
dressed in his master's best suit of clothes for the occasion
kailas balm ran panting and puffing and trembling to the door and led in a friend of mine in disguise with repeated salaams bowing low at each step and walking backward as best he could
he had his old family shawl spread over a hard wooden chair and he asked the lord sahib to be seated he then made a high flown speech in urdu the ancient court language of the sahibs and presented on the golden salver
a string of gold mohurs the last relics of his broken fortune
bordering on terror stood behind with the scent sprinkler drenching the lord sahib touching him gingerly from time to time with the otto of roses from the filigree box kailas babu repeatedly expressed his regret
at not being able to receive his honour bahadur with all the ancestral magnificence of his own family estate at nayanjore there he could have welcomed him properly with due ceremonial but in calcutta he was a mere stranger
and sojourner in fact a fish out of water my friend
i need hardly say that according to english custom
were sublimely unconscious of the breach of etiquette after a ten minutes interview which consisted chiefly of nodding the head my friend rose to his feet to depart the two flunkeys in livery as had been planned beforehand
carried off in state the string of gold mohurs the gold salver the old ancestral shawl the silver scent sprinkler and the otto of roses filigree box they placed them ceremoniously in the carriage
kailas babu regarded this as the usual habit of chota lard sahibs i was watching all the while from the next room my sides were aching with suppressed laughter when i could hold myself in no longer i rushed into a further room
suddenly to discover in a corner a young girl sobbing as if her heart would break when she saw my uproarious laughter she stood upright in passion flashing the lightning of her big dark eyes in mine and said with a tear choked voice
tell me what harm has my grandfather done to you why have you come to deceive him why have you come here why she could say no more she covered her face with her hands and broke into sobs
my laughter vanished in a moment it had never occurred to me that there was anything but a supremely funny joke in this act of mine and here i discovered that i had given the cruelest pain to this tenderest little heart
all the ugliness of my cruelty rose up to condemn me i slunk out of the room in silence like a kicked dog hitherto i had only looked upon kusum the grand daughter of kailas babu
waiting in vain to attract a husband but now i found with a shock of surprise that in the corner of that room a human heart was beating the whole night through i had very little sleep my mind was in a tumult
on the next day very early in the morning i took all those stolen goods back to kailas babe's lodgings wishing to hand them over in secret
and not finding any one went upstairs to kailas babu's room i heard from the passage kusum asking her grandfather
i am dying to hear it all over again and dada needed no encouragement his face beamed over with pride as he related all manner of praises
which the lard sahib had been good enough to utter concerning the ancient families of nayanjore the girl was seated before him looking up into his face and listening with rapt attention she was determined out of love for the old man
to play her part to the full my heart was deeply touched and tears came to my eyes i stood there in silence in the passage
of the chota lord sahib's wonderful visit when he left the room at last i took the stolen goods and laid them at the feet of the girl and came away without a word
i had been in the habit of making no greeting at all to this old man when i came into the room but on this day i made a low bow and touched his feet i am convinced the old man thought that the coming of the chota lord sahib
to his house was the cause of my new politeness he was highly gratified by it and an air of benign severity shone from his eyes his friends had flocked in and he had already begun to tell again at full length the story of the lieutenant governor's visit
with still further adornments of a most fantastic kind the interview was already becoming an epic both in quality and in length when the other visitors had taken their leave i made my proposal to the old man in a humble manner
on the outward passage they encountered a heavy gale off the cape of good hope which sprung the mainmast and otherwise injured the ship
a quarrel having taken place on the passage out between lafitte and the captain he abandoned the ship and refused to continue the voyage several privateers were at this time fitting out at this island and lafitte was appointed captain of one of these vessels
after a cruise during which he robbed the vessels of other nations besides those of england and thus committing piracy
but being chased by an english frigate as far north as the equator he found himself in a very awkward condition not having provisions enough on board his ship to carry him back to the french colony he therefore conceived the bold project of proceeding to the bay of bengal
in order to get provisions from on board some english ships in his ship of two hundred tons with only two guns and twenty six men he attacked and took an english armed schooner with a numerous crew after putting nineteen of his own crew on board the schooner
he took the command of her and proceeded to cruise upon the coast of bengal he there fell in with the pagoda a vessel belonging to the english east india company armed with twenty six twelve pounders and manned with one hundred and fifty men
expecting that the enemy would take him for a pilot of the ganges he manoeuvred accordingly the pagoda manifested no suspicions whereupon he suddenly darted with his brave followers upon her decks overturned all who opposed them and speedily took the ship
after a very successful cruise
lafitte fell in with the queen east indiaman
he conceived the bold project of getting possession of her
but the difficulty and danger far from discouraging this intrepid sailor acted as an additional spur to his brilliant valor after electrifying his crew with a few words of hope and ardor
in this position he received a broadside when close too but he expected this and made his men lay flat upon the deck after the first fire they all rose and from the yards and tops
this sudden and unforeseen attack caused a great havoc in an instant death and terror made them abandon a part of the vessel near the mizen mast lafitte who observed every thing
seized the decisive moment beat to arms and forty of his crew prepared to board with pistols in their hands and daggers held between their teeth as soon as they got on deck they rushed upon the affrighted crowd who retreated to the steerage and endeavored to defend themselves there
lafitte thereupon ordered a second division to board which he headed himself the captain of the indiaman was killed and all were swept away in a moment lafitte caused a gun to be loaded with grape which he pointed towards the place where the crowd was assembled
mounting twenty guns and one hundred and fifty men and sailed for gaudaloupe amongst the west india islands he made several valuable prizes but during his absence on a cruise the island having been taken by the british
they in a manner blockaded for a long time all the ports belonging to the royalists and made numerous captives which they carried into barrataria under this denomination is comprised part of the coast of louisiana to the west of the mouths of the mississippi
comprehended between bastien bay on the east and the mouths of the river or bayou la fourche on the west not far from the sea are lakes called the great and little lakes of barrataria communicating with one another by several large bayous with a great number of branches
there is also the island of barrataria at the extremity of which is a place called the temple which denomination it owes to several mounds of shells thrown up there by the indians the name of barrataria is also given to a large basin
which extends the whole length of the cypress swamps from the gulf of mexico to three miles above new orleans these waters disembogue into the gulf by two entrances of the bayou barrataria between which lies an island called grand terre
six miles in length and from two to three miles in breadth
which has from nine to ten feet of water within this pass about two leagues from the open sea lies the only secure harbor on the coast and accordingly this was the harbor frequented by the pirates so well known by the name of barratarians
at grand jerre the privateers publicly made sale by auction of the cargoes of their prizes from all parts of lower louisiana people resorted to barrataria without being at all solicitous to conceal the object of their journey
the government of the united states sent an expedition under commodore patterson to disperse the settlement of marauders at barrataria the following is an extract of his letter to the secretary of war sir
i have the honor to inform you that i departed from this city on the eleventh june accompanied by colonel ross with a detachment of seventy of the forty fourth regiment of infantry on the twelfth reached the schooner carolina of plaquemine
sailed from the southwest pass on the evening of the fifteenth and at half past eight o'clock a m on the sixteenth made the island of barrataria and discovered a number of vessels in the harbor some of which shewed carthagenian colors at two o'clock
perceived the pirates forming their vessels ten in number including prizes into a line of battle near the entrance of the harbor and making every preparation to offer me battle at ten o'clock wind light and variable
formed the order of battle with six gun boats and the sea horse tender mounting one six pounder and fifteen men and a launch mounting one twelve pound carronade the schooner carolina drawing too much water to cross the bar at half past ten o'clock
perceived several smokes along the coasts as signals and at the same time a white flag hoisted on board a schooner at the fort an american flag at the mainmast head and a carthagenian flag under which the pirates cruise at her topping lift
replied with a white flag at my main at eleven o'clock discovered that the pirates had fired two of their best schooners hauled down my white flag and made the signal for battle hoisting with a large white flag bearing the words pardon for deserters
and proceeded in to my great disappointment i perceived that the pirates abandoned their vessels and were flying in all directions i immediately sent the launch and two barges with small boats in pursuit of them
immediately after she weighed anchor and gave chase the strange sail standing for grand terre with all sail at half past eight o'clock the chase hauled her wind off shore to escape
at nine o'clock a m the chase fired upon the carolina which was returned each vessel continued firing during the chase when their long guns could reach
at ten o'clock the chase grounded outside of the bar at which time the carolina was from the shoalness of the water obliged to haul her wind off shore and give up the chase opened a fire upon the chase across the island from the gun vessels
at half past ten o'clock she hauled down her colors and was taken possession of
took from her her armament consisting of one long brass eighteen pounder one long brass six pounder
but during the night one escaped and the next day arrived at new orleans with my whole squadron at different times the english had sought to attack the pirates at barrataria in hopes of taking their prizes and even their armed vessels
when two privateers being at anchor off cat island a british sloop of war anchored at the entrance of the pass and sent her boats to endeavor to take the privateers but they were repulsed with considerable loss
venturing so far that he could not escape from the pinnace sent from the brig and making towards the shore bearing british colors and a flag of truce in this pinnace were two naval officers one was captain lockyer commander of the brig
requesting him to take particular care of it and to deliver it into mister lafitte's hands
and as soon as they got near enough to be in his power he made himself known recommending to them at the same time to conceal the business on which they had come upwards of two hundred persons lined the shore and it was a general cry amongst the crews of the privateers at grand terre
that those british officers should be made prisoners and sent to new orleans as spies it was with much difficulty that lafitte dissuaded the multitude from this intent and led the officers in safety to his dwelling he thought very prudently
that the papers contained in the packet might be of importance towards the safety of the country and that the officers if well watched could obtain no intelligence that might turn to the detriment of louisiana he now examined the contents of the packet
a letter from the same to mister lafitte the commander of barrataria an official letter from the honorable w h percy captain of the sloop of war hermes directed to lafitte
and proposed to him to enter into the service of his brittanic majesty with the rank of post captain and to receive the command of a forty four gun frigate also all those under his command or over whom he had sufficient influence
he was also offered thirty thousand dollars payable at pensacola and urged him not to let slip this opportunity of acquiring fortune and consideration on lafitte's requiring a few days to reflect upon these proposals
captain lockyer observed to him that no reflection could be necessary respecting proposals that obviously precluded hesitation as he was a frenchman and proscribed by the american government but to all his splendid promises and daring insinuations
lafitte replied that in a few days he would give a final answer his object in this procrastination being to gain time to inform the officers of the state government of this nefarious project
the persons who had proposed to send the british officers prisoners to new orleans went and seized them in his absence and confined both them and the crew of the pinnace in a secure place leaving a guard at the door
with this view he represented to the latter that besides the infamy that would attach to them if they treated as prisoners people who had come with a flag of truce they would lose the opportunity of discovering the projects of the british against louisiana
early the next morning lafitte caused them to be released from their confinement and saw them safe on board their pinnace apologizing the detention he now wrote to captain lockyer the following letter to captain lockyer
barrataria fourth september eighteen fourteen sir the confusion which prevailed in our camp yesterday and this morning and of which you have a complete knowledge has prevented me from answering in a precise manner to the object of your mission
nor even at this moment can i give you all the satisfaction that you desire however if you could grant me a fortnight i would be entirely at your disposal at the end of that time this delay is indispensable to enable me to put my affairs in order
you may communicate with me by sending a boat to the eastern point of the pass where i will be found you have inspired me with more confidence than the admiral your superior officer could have done himself with you alone i wish to deal
his object in writing that letter was by appearing disposed to accede to their proposals to give time to communicate the affair to the officers of the state government
and to receive from them instructions how to act under circumstances so critical and important to the country he accordingly wrote on the fourth september to mister blanque one of the representatives of the state sending him all the papers delivered to him by the british officers
with a letter addressed to his excellency governor claiborne of the state of louisiana
sir in the firm persuasion that the choice made of you to fill the office of first magistrate of this state was dictated by the esteem of your fellow citizens and was conferred on merit i confidently address you on an affair
on which may depend the safety of this country i offer to you to restore to this state several citizens who perhaps in your eyes have lost that sacred title i offer you them however such as you could wish to find them
ready to exert their utmost efforts in defence of the country this point of louisiana which i occupy is of great importance in the present crisis i tender my services to defend it
if you are thoroughly acquainted with the nature of my offences i should appear to you much less guilty and still worthy to discharge the duties of a good citizen i have never sailed under any flag but that of the republic of carthagena
and my vessels are perfectly regular in that respect if i could have brought my lawful prizes into the ports of this state i should not have employed the illicit means that have caused me to be proscribed
i decline saying more on the subject until i have the honor of your excellency's answer which i am persuaded can be dictated only by wisdom should your answer not be favorable to my ardent desires
i declare to you that i will instantly leave the country to avoid the imputation of having cooperated towards an invasion on this point which cannot fail to take place and to rest secure in the acquittal of my conscience
the contents of these letters do honor to lafitte's judgment and evince his sincere attachment to the american cause
mister blanque immediately laid its contents before the governor who convened the committee of defence lately formed of which he was president and mister rancher the bearer of lafitte's packet was sent back with a verbal answer to desire lafitte to take no steps until it should be determined
what was expedient to be done the message also contained an assurance that in the meantime no steps should be taken against him for his past offences against the laws of the united states at the expiration of the time agreed on with captain lockyer
his ship appeared again on the coast with two others and continued standing off and on before the pass for several days but he pretended not to perceive the return of the sloop of war who tired of waiting to no purpose put out to sea and disappeared
after the usual formalities and courtesies had taken place between these gentlemen lafitte addressed the governor of louisiana nearly as follows i have offered to defend for you that part of louisiana i now hold but not as an outlaw
i tender not only my own services to defend it but those of all i command and the only reward i ask is that a stop be put to the proscription against me and my adherents by an act of oblivion for all that has been done hitherto
my dear sir said the governor who together with general jackson was impressed with admiration of his sentiments your praiseworthy wishes shall be laid before the council of the state and i will confer with my august friend here present
upon this important affair and send you an answer to morrow at lafitte withdrew the general said farewell when we meet again i trust it will be in the ranks of the american army
these general orders were placed in the hands of lafitte
most of whom readily embraced the conditions of pardon they held out in a few days many brave men and skillful artillerists whose services contributed greatly to the safety of the invaded state flocked to the standard of the united states and by their conduct
received the highest approbation of general jackson by the president of the united states of america a proclamation among the many evils produced by the wars
which with little intermission have afflicted europe and extended their ravages into other quarters of the globe for a period exceeding twenty years the dispersion of a considerable portion of the inhabitants of different countries in sorrow and in want
has not been the least injurious to human happiness nor the least severe in the trial of human virtue it had been long ascertained that many foreigners flying from the dangers of their own home
the government of the united states caused the establishment to be broken up and destroyed and having obtained the means of designating the offenders of every description it only remained to answer the demands of justice by inflicting an exemplary punishment
but it has since been represented that the offenders have manifested a sincere penitence that they have abandoned the prosecution of the worst cause for the support of the best and particularly that they have exhibited in the defence of new orleans
unequivocal traits of courage and fidelity offenders who have refused to become the associates of the enemy in the war upon the most seducing terms of invitation and who have aided to repel his hostile invasion of the territory of the united states
can no longer be considered as objects of punishment but as objects of a generous forgiveness it has therefore been seen with great satisfaction that the general assembly of the state of louisiana earnestly recommend those offenders
to the benefit of a full pardon and in compliance with that recommendation as well as in consideration of all the other extraordinary circumstances in the case i james madison president of the united states of america do issue this proclamation
hereby granting publishing and declaring a free and full pardon of all offences committed in violation of any act or acts of the congress of the said united states touching the revenue trade and navigation thereof
or touching the intercourse and commerce of the united states with foreign nations at any time before the eighth day of january in the present year one thousand eight hundred and fifteen by any person or persons whatsoever being inhabitants of new orleans and the adjacent country
or being inhabitants of the said island of barrataria and the places adjacent
shall produce a certificate in writing from the governor of the state of louisiana stating that such person has aided in the defence of new orleans and the adjacent country during the invasion thereof as aforesaid
and i do hereby further authorize and direct all suits indictments and prosecutions for fines penalties and forfeitures against any person or persons who shall be entitled to the benefit of this full pardon forthwith to be stayed discontinued and released
all civil officers are hereby required according to the duties of their respective stations to carry this proclamation into immediate and faithful execution done at the city of washington the sixth day of february in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifteen
and of the independence of the united states the thirty ninth by the president james madison james monroe acting secretary of state the morning of the eighth of january was ushered in with the discharge of rockets the sound of cannon
and the cheers of the british soldiers advancing to the attack the americans behind the breastwork awaited in calm intrepidity their approach the enemy advanced in close column of sixty men in front shouldering their muskets
a storm of rockets preceded them and an incessant fire opened from the battery which commanded the advanced column
the musketry and rifles from the kentuckians and tennesseans joined the fire of the artillery and in a few moments was heard along the line a ceaseless rolling fire whose tremendous noise resembled the continued reverberation of thunder
one of these guns a twenty four pounder placed upon the breastwork in the third embrasure from the river drew from the fatal skill and activity with which it was managed even in the heat of battle the admiration of both americans and british
and became one of the points most dreaded by the advancing foe here was stationed lafitte and his lieutenant dominique and a large band of his men who during the continuance of the battle fought with unparalleled bravery
the british already had been twice driven back in the utmost confusion with the loss of their commander in chief and two general officers two other batteries were manned by the barratarians who served their pieces with the steadiness and precision of veteran gunners
in the first attack of the enemy a column pushed forward between the levee and river and so precipitate was their charge that the outposts were forced to retire closely pressed by the enemy before the batteries could meet the charge clearing the ditch
they gained the redoubt through the embrasures leaping over the parapet and overwhelming by their superior force the small party stationed there lafitte who was commanding in conjunction with his officers at one of the guns no sooner saw the bold movement of the enemy
than calling a few of his best men by his side he sprung forward to the point of danger and clearing the breastwork of the entrenchments leaped cutlass in hand into the midst of the enemy followed by a score of his men who in many a hard fought battle upon his own deck
had been well tried astonished at the intrepidity which could lead men to leave their entrenchments and meet them hand to hand and pressed by the suddenness of the charge which was made with the recklessness skill and rapidity of practised boarders bounding upon the deck of an enemy's vessel
they began to give way while one after another two british officers fell before the cutlass of the pirate as they were bravely encouraging their men all the energies of the british were now concentrated to scale the breastwork which one daring officer had already mounted
while lafitte and his followers seconding a gallant band of volunteer riflemen formed a phalanx which they in vain assayed to penetrate the british finding it impossible to take the city and the havoc in their ranks being dreadful made a precipitate retreat
general jackson in his correspondence with the secretary of war did not fail to notice the conduct of the corsairs of barrataria who were as we have already seen employed in the artillery service
in the course of the campaign they proved in an unequivocal manner that they had been misjudged by the enemy who a short time previous to the invasion of louisiana had hoped to enlist them in his cause many of them were killed or wounded in the defence of the country
their zeal their courage and their skill were remarked by the whole army who could no longer consider such brave men as criminals in a few days peace was declared between great britain and the united states
the piratical establishment of barrataria having been broken up and lafitte not being content with leading an honest peaceful life procured some fast sailing vessels and with a great number of his followers proceeded to galvezton bay in texas
during the year eighteen nineteen where he received a commission from general long and had five vessels generally cruising and about three hundred men two open boats bearing commissions from general humbert of galvezton
one of the men was hung by lafitte who dreaded the vengeance of the american government the lynx also captured one of his schooners and her prize that had been for a length of time smuggling in the carmento one of his cruisers named the jupiter
principally specie she was the first vessel that sailed under the authority of texas the american government well knowing that where lafitte was piracy and smuggling would be the order of the day
sent a vessel of war to cruise in the gulf of mexico and scour the coasts of texas lafitte having been appointed governor of galvezton and one of the cruisers being stationed off the port to watch his motions it so annoyed him that he wrote the following letter to her commander
lieutenant madison to the commandant of the american cruiser off the port of galvezton sir i am convinced that you are a cruiser of the navy ordered by your government
i have therefore deemed it proper to inquire into the cause of your living before this port without communicating your intention i shall by this message inform you that the port of galvezton belongs to and is in the possession of the republic of texas
and was made a port of entry the ninth october last and whereas the supreme congress of said republic have thought proper to appoint me as governor of this place in consequence of which if you have any demands on said government or persons belonging to or residing in the same
you will please to send an officer with such demands whom you may be assured will be treated with the greatest politeness and receive every satisfaction required but if you are ordered or should attempt to enter this port in a hostile manner
my oath and duty to the government compels me to rebut your intentions at the expense of my life to prove to you my intentions towards the welfare and harmony of your government i send enclosed the declaration of several prisoners who were taken in custody yesterday
and by a court of inquiry appointed for that purpose were found guilty of robbing the inhabitants of the united states of a number of slaves and specie the gentlemen bearing this message will give you any reasonable information relating to this place that may be required
about this time one mitchell who had formerly belonged to lafitte's gang collected upwards of one hundred and fifty desperadoes and fortified himself on an island near barrataria with several pieces of cannon
and swore that he and all his comrades would perish within their trenches before they would surrender to any man four of this gang having gone to new orleans on a frolic information was given to the city watch and the house surrounded
when the whole four with cocked pistols in both hands sallied out and marched through the crowd which made way for them and no person dared to make an attempt to arrest them the united states cutter alabama
on her way to the station off the mouth of the mississippi captured a piratical schooner belonging to lafitte she carried two guns and twenty five men and was fitted out at new orleans
the schooner had a prize in company and being hailed by the cutter poured into her a volley of musketry the cutter then opened upon the privateer and a smart action ensued which terminated in favor of the cutter which had four men wounded and two of them dangerously
but the pirate had six men killed both vessels were captured and brought into the bayou saint john an expedition was now sent to dislodge mitchell and his comrades from the island he had taken possession of
after coming to anchor a summons was sent for him to surrender which was answered by a brisk cannonade from his breastwork the vessels were warped close in shore and the boats manned and sent on shore whilst the vessels opened upon the pirates
the boat's crews landed under a galling fire of grape shot and formed in the most undaunted manner and although a severe loss was sustained they entered the breastwork at the point of the bayonet after a desperate fight
the pirates gave way many were taken prisoners but mitchell and the greatest part escaped to the cypress swamps where it was impossible to arrest them a large quantity of dry goods and specie together with other booty was taken
twenty of the pirates were taken and brought to new orleans and tried before judge hall of the circuit court of the united states sixteen were brought in guilty and after the judge had finished pronouncing sentence of death upon the hardened wretches
several of them cried out in open court murder by god accounts of these transactions having reached lafitte he plainly perceived there was a determination to sweep all his cruisers from the sea and a war of extermination appeared to be waged against him
in a fit of desperation he procured a large and fast sailing brigantine mounting sixteen guns and having selected a crew of one hundred and sixty men he started without any commission as a regular pirate determined to rob all nations
and neither to give or receive quarter a british sloop of war which was cruising in the gulf of mexico having heard that lafitte himself was at sea kept a sharp look out from the mast head when one morning as an officer was sweeping the horizon with his glass
he discovered a long dark looking vessel low in the water but having very tall masts with sails white as the driven snow as the sloop of war had the weather gage of the pirate and could outsail her before the wind
she set her studding sails and crowded every inch of canvass in chase
the guns were cast loose and the shot handed up and a fire opened upon the ship which killed a number of men and carried away her foretopmast but she reserved her fire until within cable's distance of the pirate when she fired a general discharge from her broadside and a volley of small arms
the broadside was too much elevated to hit the low hull of the brigantine but was not without effect the foretopmast fell the jaws of the main gaff were severed
ten of the pirates were killed but lafitte remained unhurt the sloop of war entered her men over the starboard bow and a terrific contest with pistols and cutlasses ensued lafitte received two wounds at this time which disabled him
a grape shot broke the bone of his right leg and he received a cut in the abdomen but his crew fought like tigers and the deck was ankle deep with blood and gore the captain of the boarders received such a tremendous blow on the head from the butt end of a musket
as stretched him senseless on the deck near lafitte who raised his dagger to stab him to the heart but the tide of his existence was ebbing like a torrent his brain was giddy
again the reeking steel was upheld and lafitte placed his left hand near the captain's heart to make his aim more sure
down came the dagger into the captain's left thigh
the upper deck was cleared and the boarders rushed below on the main deck to complete their conquest here the slaughter was dreadful till the pirates called out for quarter and the carnage ceased
all the pirates that surrendered were taken to jamaica and tried before the admiralty court
chapter thirty three how damon
when she left count pateroff at the little fort on the cliff and entered by herself the gardens belonging to the hotel had long since made up her mind
and her devoted sophie for half an hour she had been walking in silence by the count's side and though of course she had heard all that he had spoken she had been able in that time to consider much it must have been through sophie
that the count had heard of her journey to the isle of wight and worse than that sophie must as she thought have instigated this pursuit
sophie had been simply paid by her brother for giving such information as enabled him to arrange this meeting she had not even counselled him to follow lady ongar but now lady ongar in blind wrath
determined that sophie should be expelled from her bosom
in that she had come to loathe her devoted friend and to feel it to be incumbent on her to rid herself of such devotion now had arrived the moment in which it might be done and yet there were difficulties two ladies living together in an inn
cannot without much that is disagreeable send down to the landlord saying that they want separate rooms because they have taken it into their minds to hate each other and there would moreover be something awkward in saying to sophie
that though she was discarded her bill should be paid for this last and only time no lady ongar had already perceived that would not do she would not quarrel with sophie after that fashion
she would leave the isle of wight on the following morning early informing sophie why she did so and would offer money to the little franco pole presuming that it might not be agreeable to the franco pole to be hurried away from her marine or rural happiness so quickly
but in doing this she would be careful to make sophie understand that bolton street was to be closed against her for ever afterward with neither count pateroff nor his sister would she ever again willingly place herself in contact
it was dark as she entered the house the walk out her delay there and her return having together occupied her three hours she had hardly felt the dusk growing on her as she progressed steadily on her way
with that odious man beside her she had been thinking of other things and her eyes had accustomed themselves gradually to the fading twilight but now when she saw the glimmer of the lamps from the inn windows she knew that the night had
come upon her and she began to fear that she had been imprudent in allowing herself to be out so late imprudent even had she succeeded in being alone she went direct to her own room
and then having as it were steadied herself and prepared herself for the scene that was to follow she descended to the sitting room and encountered her friend
and the reader will kindly remember that the friend had ample reason for knowing what companion lady ongar had been likely to meet upon the downs julie dear how late you are said sophie
as though she were rather irritated in having been kept so long waiting for her tea i am late said lady ongar and don't you think you are imprudent all alone you know dear just a leetle imprudent
very imprudent indeed i have been thinking of that now as i crossed the lawn and found how dark it was i have been very imprudent but i have escaped without much injury escaped
both as i think then she sat down and having rung the bell she ordered tea there seems to be something very odd with you said sophie i do not quite understand you
my brother yes count pateroff when did you see him last why do you want to know well it does not signify as of course you will not tell me but will you say when you will see him next
only this that i wish you would make him understand that if he has anything to do concerning me he might as well do it out of hand for the last hour then you have seen him
yes is not that wonderful i have seen him and why could you not tell him yourself what you had to say he and i do not agree about certain things and i do not like to carry messages to him
know the very inn we were at and know too whither i was going to night he would learn that from the servants my dear no doubt he has been good enough to amuse me with mysterious threats as to what he would do to punish me
if i would not become his wife suggested sophie exactly it was very flattering on his part i certainly do not intend to become his wife ah you like better that young clavering who has the other sweetheart
he is younger that is true upon my word yes
but as i take it that has not much to do with it i was speaking of your brother's threats i do not understand them but i wish he could be made to understand that if he has anything to do he had better go and do it
as for marriage i would sooner marry the first ploughboy i could find in the fields
and i will have no more of you as she said this she rose from her chair and she walked about the room you have betrayed me and there shall be an end of it betrayed you what nonsense you talk
in what have i betrayed you you set him upon my track here though you knew i desired to avoid him and is that all i was coming here to this detestable island and i told my brother that is my offence
and then you talk of betraying julie you sometimes are a goose very often no doubt but madam gordeloup if you please we will be geese apart for the future oh certainly if you wish it i do wish it
it cannot hurt me i can choose my friends anywhere the world is open to me to go where i please into society i am not at a loss all this lady ongar well understood but she could bear it without injury to her temper
such revenge was to be expected from such a woman i do not want you to be at a loss she said i only want you to understand that after what has this evening occurred between your brother and me our acquaintance had better cease
you said just now that it would be no punishment and i was glad to hear it society is as you say open to you and you will lose nothing of course society is open to me have i committed myself
why should i be at a loss no i shall return to london to morrow by the earliest opportunity i have already told them so
and you leave me here alone your brother is here madam gordeloup my brother is nothing to me you know well that he has come and can go when he please i come here to follow you to be companion to you
to oblige you and now you say you go and leave me in this detestable barrack if i am here alone i will be revenged you shall go back with me if you wish it at eight o'clock in the morning and see it is now eleven
to morrow is saturday you was to remain till tuesday you may do as you please i will go at eight to morrow
you go at eight very well and who will pay for the beels when you are gone lady ongar i
if you will allow me to offer you twenty pounds that will bring you to london when you please to follow twenty pounds what is twenty pounds no i will not have your twenty pounds
and she pushed away from her the two notes which lady ongar had already put upon the table who is to pay me for the loss of all my time tell me that
not i certainly madam gordeloup not you you will not pay me for my time for a whole year i have been devoted to you
by gar you will be made to pay through the nose as the interview was becoming unpleasant
leaving the twenty pounds on the table as she left the room she knew that the money was there but she could not bring herself to pick it up
and such was the result sophie when she was left alone got up from her seat and stood for some moments on the rug making her calculations that lady ongar should be very angry about count pateroff's presence
sophie had expected but she had not expected that her friend's anger would be carried to such extremity that she would pronounce a sentence of banishment for life
this fool of a woman with her income her park and her rank was going to give herself so said sophie to herself to a young handsome proud pig of a fellow so sophie called him who had already shown himself to be sophie's enemy
and who would certainly find no place for sophie gordeloup within his house might it not be well that the quarrel should be consummated now such compensation being obtained as might possibly be extracted sophie certainly knew a good deal
which it might be for the convenience of the future husband to keep dark or convenient for the future wife that the future husband should not know terms might be yet had
terms might be had or indeed it might be that lady ongar herself when her anger was over might sue for a reconciliation or sophie and this idea occurred as sophie herself became a little despondent after long calculation
sophie herself might acknowledge herself to be wrong begging pardon and weeping on her friend's neck perhaps it might be worth while to make some further calculation in bed then sophie softly drawing the notes toward her
as a cat might have done and hiding them somewhere about her person
would men say to you harry tell me the truth tell me all the truth harry clavering was thus greeted when
he went to her almost immediately on his return to london it will be remembered
lacking the courage to face his misfortunes boldly but though his delay had been cowardly
he despised himself for not having written with warm
and with honest clear truth to julia half his misery rose from this feeling of self abasement and from the consciousness that he was weak piteously weak
exactly in that in which he had often boasted to himself that he was strong but such inward boastings are not altogether bad they preserve men from succumbing and make at any rate some attempt to realize themselves
but as he went he could not keep himself from arguing the matter within his own breast he knew what was his duty it was his duty to stick to florence not only with his word and his hand
but with his heart it was his duty
not only his word was at stratton but his heart also and to ask her pardon for the wrong that he had done her by that caress for some ten minutes as he walked through the streets his resolve was strong to do this manifest duty
but gradually as he thought of that caress as he thought of the difficulties of the coming interview as he thought of julia's high toned beauty perhaps something also of her wealth and birth
without his heart could it really be good for florence poor injured florence that she should be taken by a man who had ceased to regard her more than all other women
deceit be worse than the other deceit or rather would not that be deceitful whereas the other course would simply be unfortunate unfortunate through circumstances for which he was blameless
damnable arguments false cowardly logic by which all male jilts seek to excuse their own treachery to themselves and to others thus during the second ten minutes of his walk his line of conduct became less plain to him
and as he entered piccadilly he was racked with doubts but instead of settling them in his mind he unconsciously allowed himself to dwell upon the words with which he would seek to excuse his treachery to florence he thought how he would tell her
not to her face with spoken words for that he could not do but with written skill that he was unworthy of her goodness that his love for her had fallen off through his own unworthiness
and had returned to one who was in all respects less perfect than she but who in old days as she well knew had been his first love yes he would say all this and julia
let her anger be what it might should know that he had said it as he planned this there came to him a little comfort for he thought there was something grand in such a resolution yes he would do that
even though he should lose julia also miserable clap trap he knew in his heart that all his logic was false and his arguments baseless cease to love florence burton he had not ceased to love her
nor is the heart of any man made so like a weathercock that it needs must turn itself hither and thither as the wind directs
for harry with all his faults and in spite of his present falseness was a man no man ceases to love without a cause no man need cease to love without a cause a man may maintain his love
and nourish it and keep it warm by honest manly effort as he may his probity his courage or his honor it was not that he had ceased to love florence but that the glare of the candle had been too bright for him and he had scorched his wings
after all as to that embrace of which he had thought so much and the memory of which was so sweet to him and so bitter it had simply been an accident
thus writing in his mind that letter to florence which he knew if he were an honest man he would never allow himself to write he reached lady ongar's door without having arranged for himself any special line of conduct
we must return for a moment to the fact that hugh and archie had returned to town before harry clavering how archie had been engaged on great doings the reader i hope will remember and he may as well be informed here
that the fifty pounds was duly taken to mount street and were extracted from him by the spy without much difficulty
or valuable information from sophie gordeloup but sophie did obtain some information from him which she found herself able to use for her own purposes as his position with reference to love and marriage was being discussed
and the position also of the divine julia sophie hinted her fear of another clavering lover what did archie think of his cousin harry why he's engaged to another girl said archie
opening wide his eyes and his mouth and becoming very free with his information this was a matter to which sophie found it worth her while to attend and she soon learned from archie all that archie knew about florence burton
and this was all that could be known no secret had been made in the family of harry's engagement archie told his fair assistant that miss burton had been received at clavering park openly as harry's future wife and
by jove you know he can't be coming it with julia after that you know
she remembering that she had caught lady ongar in harry's arms thought that by jove he might be coming it with julia even after miss burton's reception at clavering park then too she remembered some few words that had passed between her
and her dear julia after harry's departure on the evening of the embrace and perceived that julia was in ignorance of the very existence of florence burton even though florence had been received at the park this was information worth having
information to be used her respect for harry rose immeasurably she had not given him credit for so much audacity so much gallantry and so much skill she had thought him to be a pigheaded clavering
therefore the information should be used and it was used the reader will now understand what was the truth which lady ongar demanded from harry clavering harry tell me the truth tell me all the truth
she had come forward to meet him in the middle of the room when she spoke these words and stood looking him in the face not having given him her hand what truth said harry have i ever told you a lie
but he knew well what was the truth required of him lies can be acted as well as told harry tell me all at once who is florence burton who and what she knew it all then
and things had settled themselves for him without the necessity of any action on his part it was odd enough that she should not have learned it before but at any rate she knew it now
only how was he to excuse himself for that embrace at any rate speak to me she said standing quite erect and looking as a juno might have looked you will acknowledge at least that i have a right to ask the question who is this florence burton
she is the daughter of mister burton of stratton and
come harry be braver than that i was not such a coward once with you are you engaged to marry her
i am then you have had your revenge on me and now we are quits so saying she stepped back from the middle of the room and sat herself down on her accustomed seat he was left there standing
there had been no revenge that he had loved and suffered and forgiven without one thought of anger and that then he had unfortunately loved again must he not find some words in which to tell her that
she had been the light and he simply the poor moth that had burned his wings no lady ongar said he there has been no revenge we will call is justice if you please at any rate i do not mean to complain
he began i did injure you said she sharply if you ever injured me i forgave you freely i did injure you
but that which you have done me cannot be undone julia he said coming up to her
when you were here before i asked you to call me so hoping longing believing doing more
oh no no it is odd that i should not have known it as i now hear
we are quits now i have intended to be true to you to you and to her were you true when you acted as you did the other night he could not explain to her how greatly he had been tempted
were you true when you held me in your arms as that woman came in
when she thought to promise me her secresy her secresy as though i were ashamed of what she had seen i was not ashamed not then had all the world known it i should not have been ashamed i have loved him long i should have said
and him only he is to be my husband and now at last i need not be ashamed so much she spoke standing up looking at him with firm face and uttering her syllables with a quick clear voice
and there was a tear which made dim her eye and she knew that she could no longer stand before him she endeavored to seat herself with composure but the attempt failed and as she fell back upon the sofa
he just heard the sob which had cost her so great and vain an effort to restrain in an instant he was kneeling at her feet and grasping at the hand with which she was hiding her face julia he said look at me
let us at any rate understand each other at last no harry there must be no more such knowledge no more such understanding you must go from me and come here no more had it
not been for that other night i would still have endeavored to regard you as a friend but i have no right to such friendship
i sold myself as a beast is sold and men have treated me as i treated myself have i treated you so yes harry you you how did you treat me when you took me in your arms and kissed me
knowing knowing that i was not to be your wife o god i have sinned i have sinned and i am punished no no said he rising from his knees it was not as you say then how was it sir
is it thus that you treat other women your friends those to whom you declare friendship what did you mean me to think that i loved you
but i had not heard of this florence burton and harry that night i was happy in my bed and in that next week when you were down there for that sad ceremony i was happy here happy and proud yes harry i was so proud
when i thought you still loved me loved me in spite of my past sin that i almost forgot that i was polluted
it would have been better for him had he gone away at once now he was sitting in a chair sobbing violently and pressing away the tears from his cheeks with his hands how could he make her understand that he had intended no insult when he embraced her
was done to florence burton and not to her but his agony was too much for him at present and he could find no words in which to speak to her i said to myself that you would come when the funeral was over and i wept for poor hermy
as i thought that my lot was so much happier than hers but people have what they deserve and hermy who has done no such wrong as i have done is not crushed as i am crushed it was just harry that the punishment should come from you but it has come very heavily
julia it was not meant to be so well we will let that pass i cannot unsay harry all that i have said all that i did not say but which you must have thought and known when you were here last i cannot bid you believe that i do not love you
not more tenderly or truly than i love you nay harry your love to me can be neither true nor tender nor will i permit it to be offered to me you do not think that i would rob that girl of what is hers mine for you
may be both tender and true but alas truth has come to me when it can avail me no longer julia if you will say that you love me it shall avail you in saying that you are continuing to ill treat me listen to me now i hardly know when it began
for at first i did not expect that you would forgive me and let me be dear to you as i used to be but as you sat here
and i thought that i might forgive myself at last for possessing this money
till i should see whether you really loved me but then came that burst of passion and though i knew that you were wrong i was proud to feel that i was still so dear to you it is all over we understand each other at last
and you may go there is nothing to be forgiven between us he had now resolved that florence must go by the board if julia would still take him she should be his wife and he would face florence and all the burtons
and his own family and all the world in the matter of his treachery what would he care what the world might say his treachery to florence was a thing completed now at this moment
as one which must at all hazards be renounced he thought of his mother's sorrow of his father's scorn of the dismay with which fanny would hear concerning him a tale
he thought of theodore burton and the deep unquenchable anger of which that brother was capable and of cecilia and her outraged kindness he thought of the infamy which would be attached to him and resolved that he must bear it all
how could he hinder himself from giving comfort and happiness to this woman who was before him injury wrong and broken hearted wretchedness he could not prevent but therefore this part was as open to him as the other
men would say
and the indignation with which he was able to regard this false accusation for his mind declared such accusation to be damnably false gave him some comfort people might say of him what they pleased
bad alas was the best but it was of no avail now to think of that julia he said between us at least there shall be nothing to be forgiven
and what then of your truth to miss florence burton it will not be for you to rebuke me with that we have both of us played our game badly but not for that reason need we both be ruined and broken hearted
in your folly you thought that wealth was better than love and i in my folly i thought that one love blighted might be mended by another when i asked miss burton to be my wife you were the wife of another man
now that you are free again i cannot marry miss burton you must marry her harry there shall be no must
and what would men say of you
when things have once gone wrong they cannot be mended without showing the patches but yet men stay the hand of ruin for a while tinkering here and putting in a nail there stitching and cobbling and so things are kept together
it must be so for you and me give me your hand julia for i have never deceived you and you need not fear that i shall do so now give me your hand and say that you will be my wife no harry not your wife i do not as you say
know that perfect girl but i will not rob one that is so good you are bound to me julia you must do as i bid you you have told me that you love me and i have told you and i tell you now that i love none other as i love you
give me your hand then coming to her he took her hand
but she would not say the words she was less selfish than he and was thinking was trying to think what might be best for them all but above all what might be best for him speak to me he said and acknowledge that you wronged me
say that you will be my wife no i will not say it she rose again from her chair and took her hand away from him i will not say it go now and think over all that you have done and i also will think of it god help me
what evil comes when evil has been done but harry i understand you now and i at least will blame you no more go and see florence burton
you shall never hear another reproach from me go now go there is nothing more to be said he paused a moment as though he were going to speak but he left the room without another word
looking at him and it seemed that her eyes were imploring him to be true to her in spite of the words that she had spoken and i will be true to her he said to himself she was the first that i ever loved and i will be true to her
he went out and for an hour or two wandered about the town hardly knowing whither his steps were taking him there had been a tragic seriousness in what had occurred to him this evening which seemed to cover him with care
and make him feel that his youth was gone from him at any former period of his life his ears would have tingled with pride
in such terms as she had used but there was no room now for pride in his bosom now at least he thought nothing of her wealth or rank he thought of her as a woman between whom and himself there existed so strong a passion
as to make it impossible that he should marry another even though his duty plainly required it the grace and graciousness of his life were over but love still remained to him and of that he must make the most
all others whom he regarded would revile him and now he must live for this woman alone she had said that she had injured him yes indeed she had injured him
she had robbed him of his high character of his unclouded brow of that self pride
she had brought him to a state in which misery must be his bedfellow and disgrace his companion but still she loved him
how was he to settle matters with her that letter for which he had been preparing the words as he went to bolton street before the necessity for it had become irrevocable did not now appear to him to be very easy
chapter eleven the eagle screams despite the glories of the amalfi road
our tourists decided it was more pleasant to loiter around sorrento for a time than to undertake further excursions the mornings and evenings were chill
into the beautiful gardens
that shut in the villas and orange groves sometimes they found a gate open and were welcomed to the orchards and permitted to pluck freely the fragrant and rich flavored fruit
which is excelled in no other section of the south country also uncle john with beth and patsy frequented the shops of the wood workers
and watched their delicate and busy fingers inlaying the various colored woods but louise mostly kept to the garden where count ferralti being a semi invalid was content
to sit by her side and amuse her
of the false position assumed by this young man louise seemed to like his attentions and to approve his evident admiration for her his ways might be affected and effeminate
yet in his mature eyes there was not much about ferralti to arouse admiration and the little man considered his girls too sensible to be greatly impressed
by this youthful italian's personality so he allowed him to sit with his nieces in the gardens as much as he pleased believing it would be ungrateful to deprive the count
one day they devoted to capri and the blue grotto and afterward they lunched at the quisisana and passed the afternoon in the town but the charms of sorrento
and then came a letter from colonel angeli telling them to return to naples and witness the results of the eruption
this they decided to do and bidding good bye to signor floriano and his excellent hotel they steamed across the bay and found
from the dismal place they had left in their flight from naples it was now teeming with life for all danger being past the tourists had flocked to the city in droves
the town was still covered with ashes but under the brilliant sunshine it did not look as gloomy as one might imagine and already thousands of carts were busily gathering the dust from the streets
and dumping it in the waters of the bay it would require months of hard work though before naples could regain a semblance of its former beauty their friend the colonel
personally accompanied them to the towns that had suffered the most from the eruption at boscatrecasa they walked over the great beds of lava that had demolished the town
banks of cinders looking like lumps of pumice stone and massed from twenty to thirty feet in thickness throughout the valley the lava was still so hot that it was liable to blister the soles of their feet
it would be many more days before the interior of the mass became cold through the forlorn dust covered vineyards they drove to san guiseppe where a church roof had fallen in
and killed one hundred and forty people maiming many more the red cross tents were pitched in the streets and the whole town was one vast hospital ottajano
a little nearer to the volcano had been buried in scoria and nine tenths of the roofs had fallen in rendering the dwellings untenable
from here a clear view of mt vesuvius could be obtained
and the cone had lost sixty five feet of its altitude
that littered the country for miles around it seemed to equal a dozen mountains the size of vesuvius the marvel was that so much ashes and cinders could come from a single crater
in so short a period naples was cleaning house but slowly and listlessly the people seemed as cheerful and light hearted as ever
and uncle john and his nieces were much interested in the bronze and marble statuary that here form the greatest single collection in all the world
it was at the museum that mister merrick was arrested for the first time in his life an experience he never afterward forgot
bad money is so common in naples that uncle john never accepted any change from anyone but obtained all his silver coins and notes directly
a government institution one morning he drove with the girls to the museum and paid the cabman a lira but before he could ascend the steps the man was after him and holding out a leaden coin
claiming that his fare had given him bad money and must exchange it for good this is so common a method of swindling that uncle john paid no heed to the demands of the cabman
in his uniform of dark blue with yellow buttons and cap
upon the american's shoulder uncle john angrily shook him off but the man persisted and an interpreter employed by the museum stepped forward and explained
that unless the cabman was given a good coin in exchange for the bad one
or magistrate but i gave him a good coin a lira direct from the bank declared uncle john he exhibits a bad one returned the interpreter calmly
he's a swindler
and entitled to a just payment said the other shrugging his shoulders you are all leagued together said uncle john indignantly but you will get no more money out of me i promise you
the result was that the stubborn american was placed under arrest leaving the girls at the museum in charge of ferralti who had made no attempt to interfere in the dispute
but implored uncle john to pay and avoid trouble the angry prisoner was placed in the same cab he had arrived in and with the officer seated beside him
with bared bowed heads and in low tones preferred the charge against the prisoner
into kingdom come the magistrate was startled and ordered the prisoner searched for concealed weapons
the cabman was dispatched for someone who could speak english and when an interpreter arrived the american told him to send for the united states consul
and also to inform the magistrate that nothing but war between america and italy could wipe out the affront that had been thrust upon him the magistrate was disturbed
and preferred not to send for the consul he offered to release uncle john if he would give the cabman a good lira in exchange for the bad one the official fee would be five lira
or even two uncle john flatly refused to pay anything to anybody only war could settle this international complication bloody and bitter war
the consul must cable at once for war ships and troops he would insist upon it all compromise was now impossible
who was evidently a personage of great importance and able to declare war at a moment's notice the cabman the magistrate the guarde and the interpreter put their heads together
and chattered voluble italian all speaking at once in excited tones while uncle john continued to warn them at the top of his lungs that their country was doomed to sudden annihilation
and they were the culprits responsible for the coming calamity as a result they bundled the irate american into the carriage again and drove him poste haste back to the museum
where they deposited him upon the steps then in a flash
and were seen no more the victor smiled proudly as his nieces rushed toward him did you have to pay another lira uncle asked patsy anxiously
mopping his brow vigorously they're a lot of cutthroats and assassins policemen magistrates and all but when the eagle screams they're wise enough to duck
the girls laughed and did the eagle scream then patsy enquired just a little my dear but if it
whispered it would sound mighty loud in this mummified old world
come let's go see narcissus
chapter six under a cloud after all said uncle john next morning we may consider ourselves very lucky
your parents might have come to naples a hundred times my dears and your children may come a hundred times more and yet never see the sights that have greeted us on our arrival if the confounded old hill was bound to spout
i quite agree with you said the girl
if it really had to behave so
growled signor valdi who had overheard these remarks you will pay for it with a thousand discomforts and i'm glad that is so vesuvio is hell let loose
and it amuses you hundreds are lying dead and crushed and you are lucky to be here listen he dropped his voice to a whisper
if these neapolitans could see the rejoicing in my heart they would kill me and you pah you are no better you also rejoice and they will welcome you to naples
i have advice do not go on shore it is useless they were all startled by this strange speech
but uncle john whispered that the man was mad and to pay no attention to him although ashes still fell softly upon the ship the day had somewhat lightened the gloom
and they could see from deck the dim outlines of the shore a crowd of boats presently swarmed around them their occupants eagerly clamoring for passengers to go ashore
who might be induced to purchase their indifference to their own and their city's danger was astonishing it was their custom to greet arriving steamers in this way
a steam tender also came alongside and after a cordial farewell to the ship's officers and their travelling acquaintances uncle john placed his nieces and their baggage aboard the tender
which shortly deposited them safely upon the dock perhaps a lot of passengers more dismal looking never before landed on the beautiful shores of naples beautiful no longer
and seemed to penetrate everywhere the foliage of the trees and shrubbery drooped under its load and had turned from green to the all pervading gray the grass was covered
the cornices and balconies of the houses were banked with ashes bless me said uncle john it's as bad as pompey or whatever that city was called
that was buried in the bible days oh not quite uncle answered patsy in her cheery voice but it may be before vesuvius is satisfied it is certainly bad enough
observed louise pouting as she marked the destruction of her pretty cloak by the grimy deposit that was fast changing its color and texture
well let us get under shelter as soon as possible said uncle john the outlines of a carriage were visible a short distance away he walked up to the driver and said we want to go to a hotel
the man paid no attention ask him how much he charges uncle you know you mustn't take a cab in naples without bargaining
how much to the hotel vesuvius he demanded loudly the man woke up and flourished his whip at the same time bursting into a flood of italian the girls listened carefully
entitled italian in three weeks without a master but not a word the driver of the carriage said seemed to have occurred in the vocabulary of the book he repeated vesuvio many times however
with scornful angry or imploring intonations and louise finally said he thinks you want to go to the volcano uncle the hotel is the vesuve not the vesuvius
what's the difference i don't know
ho telephone ve suve ve
the carriage started it plowed its way jerkily through the dust laden streets and finally stopped at an imposing looking structure the day was growing darker and an electric lamp
burned before the entrance but no one came out to receive them uncle john climbed out and read the sign
and knew that he had made no mistake entering the spacious lobby he found it deserted in the office a man was hastily making a package of some books and papers
and did not respond or even look up when spoken to at the concierge's desk a big whiskered man sat
good morning said uncle john fine day isn't it did you hear it whispered the concierge as a dull boom like that of a distant cannon made the windows rattle in their casements
of course replied mister merrick carelessly
but never mind that now we've just come from america where the mountains are more polite and we're going to stop at your hotel
then they fell upon the driver of the carriage who burst into a torrent of vociferous but wholly unintelligible exclamations which uncle john declared must be an excuse and a mighty poor one for talking
the whiskered man whose cap was elaborately embroidered in gold with the words hotel du
seemed to understand the driver he sighed drearily and said to mister merrick you must pay him thirty lira how much is that six dollars
he can't talk he claims it is you who cannot talk what and prices are advanced during these awful days what does it matter
the big man shuddered at this gloomy picture and added listlessly you'll have to pay uncle john paid but the driver wouldn't accept american money
the disconsolate concierge would though he unlocked a drawer put the six dollars into one section and drew from another two ten lira notes the driver took them
bowed respectfully to the whiskered man shot a broadside of invective italian at the unconscious americans and left the hotel how about rooms asked uncle john
take any you please answered the concierge all our guests are gone but two two mad americans like yourselves the servants are also gone the chef has gone
the elevator conductors are gone if you stay you'll have to walk up where have they all gone asked uncle john wonderingly
fled to escape destruction they remember pompeii only signor floriano the proprietor and myself are left we stick to the last
come out of that box and show us some rooms and i'll help to build up your fortune the concierge obeyed even the horrors of the situation could not eliminate from his
carefully trained nature that desire to accumulate which is the prime qualification of his profession the americans walked up one flight and found spacious rooms on the first floor
of which they immediately took possession send for our trunks said mister merrick and the man consented to do so provided he could secure a proper vehicle you will be obliged to pay high for it he warned
but that will not matter to witness the destruction of our beautiful naples is an unusual sight it will be worth your money we'll settle that in the dim hereafter
replied uncle john you get the trunks and i'll take care of the finances when the concierge had retired the girls began to stuff newspapers into the cracks of the windows of their sitting room
where the fine ash was sifting in and forming little drifts several inches in thickness
with impalpable particles of dust which rendered breathing oppressive and unpleasant uncle john watched them for a time and his brow clouded see here girls
he exclaimed let's hold a council of war do you suppose we are in any real danger they grouped around him with eager interest
and rather exciting don't you think said beth but perhaps we're as safe as we would be at home once said louise slowly
there was a great eruption of vesuvius which destroyed the cities of herculaneum and pompeii many of the inhabitants were buried alive perhaps they thought
there was no real danger uncle john scratched his head reflectively i take it he observed that the moral of your story is to light out while we have the chance
not necessarily observed the girl smiling at his perplexity it is likewise true that many other eruptions have occurred when little damage was done
naples isn't buried more than six inches in ashes as yet and it will take
provided they're falling at the same rate they do now i don't see any use of getting scared before to morrow anyhow
said uncle john gravely and i've no right to take foolish chances with three girls on my hands i'm not frightened uncle john nor i
everyone has left the hotel but ourselves said he how sorry they will be afterward remarked beth he looked at them admiringly and kissed each one
you stay in this room and don't move a peg till i get back he enjoined them
taking a prescription summer before last the time when cholera had poisoned the air a gentleman of wealth standing and intelligence
from one of the southern or middle states while temporarily sojourning in boston felt certain premonitory symptoms that were rather alarming all things considered
so he inquired of the hotel keeper where he could find a good physician one of your best said he with an emphasis in his tones that showed how important was the matter in his eyes
stands at the head of his profession in our city returned the hotel keeper
thank you i will call upon him immediately said the gentleman and away he went the doctor fortunately as the gentleman mentally acknowledged was in his office
your system is slightly disturbed remarked the doctor after fully ascertaining the condition of his patient
but i'll give you a prescription that will bring all right again in less than twenty four hours and so he took out his pencil and wrote a brief prescription how much am i indebted doctor
inquired the gentleman as he slipped the little piece of paper into his vest pocket five dollars for the consultation and prescription replied the doctor bowing
cheap enough if i am saved from an attack of cholera said the patient as he drew forth his pocket book and abstracted from its folds the required fee he then returned to the hotel
and going to one of the clerks or bar keeper in the office said to him i wish you would send out and get me this prescription prescription why
returned the bar keeper i'm not very well was answered what's the matter symptoms of the prevailing epidemic oh ah and you've been to see a doctor yes who
the bar keeper shrugged his shoulders as he replied good physician none better that all acknowledge but if you'll let me prescribe for you
i'll put you all straight in double quick time well what will you prescribe andy said the gentleman i'll prescribe this and as he spoke he drew from under the counter a bottle labelled
cordial take a glass of that and you can throw your doctor's prescription into the fire you speak confidently andy i do for i know its virtue
the gentleman who had in his hand a prescription for which he had paid five dollars to one of the most skilful and judicious physicians in new england strange as it may seem listened to this bar keeper
and in the end actually destroyed the prescription and poured down his throat a glass of
it is no matter of surprise that ere ten o'clock in the evening the gentleman's premonitory symptoms which had experienced a temporary abatement assumed a more alarming character
and now instead of going to he was obliged to send for a physician doctor
was called in and immediately recognised his patient of the morning i'm sorry to find you worse said he i did not in the least doubt the efficacy of the remedy i gave you but
have you taken the prescription wh wh why no doctor stammered the half ashamed patient i confess that i did not i took something else something else what was it
you did and pray who prescribed this for you said the doctor moving his chair instinctively from his patient and speaking in a rather excited tone of voice
no one prescribed it i took it on the recommendation of the bar keeper down stairs who said that he knew it would cure me and you had my prescription in your pocket at the same time
the prescription of a regular physician of twenty five years practice set aside for a quack nostrum recommended by a bar keeper a fine compliment to common sense and the profession truly
when the frightened patient called to him in such appealing tones that he was constrained to pause a humble confession of error and repeated apologies softened the physician's suddenly awakened anger
and he came back and resumed his seat my friend said he on recovering his self possession which had been considerably disturbed
which you took with so much confidence i do not replied the gentleman humph well i can tell you about nine tenths of it is cheap brandy or new england rum
which completely destroys or neutralizes
i don't wonder that this stuff has aggravated all your symptoms
about as leave take poison pray don't talk to me in that way doctor said the patient imploringly i am sick and what you say can only have the effect to make me worse
i am already sufficiently punished for my folly prescribe for me once more and be assured that i will not again play the fool
so he took up the case again and once more gave a prescription in a couple of days the gentleman was quite well again but that missus
cordial cost him twenty dollars he is now a little wiser than he was before and is very careful as to whose prescriptions he takes it would be better for the health of the entire community if every individual would be as careful
in the same matter as he is now those who are sick should ere taking medicine consult a physician of experience and skill but above all things
they should shun advertised nostrums in the sale of which the manufacturers and vendors are interested often testimonials as to their efficacy are mere forgeries
miss howe to miss clarissa harlowe thursday morning march second indeed you would not be in love with him for the world your servant my dear nor would i have you
for i think with all the advantages of person fortune and family he is not by any means worthy of you and this opinion i give as well from the reasons you mention which i cannot but confirm
as from what i have heard of him but a few hours ago
a favourite of lady betty lawrance who knows him well but let me congratulate you however
into a lap dog well but if you have not the throbs and the glows you have not and are not in love good reason why because you would not be in love
and there's no more to be said only my dear i shall keep a good look out upon you
you therefore are not but before i part entirely with this subject a word in your ear my charming friend
as have not allowed you to attend to the throbs or if you had them a little now and then whether having had two accounts to place them to
nor will i keep you longer in suspense an hundred wild stories she tells of him from childhood to manhood for as she observed having never been subject to contradiction he was always as mischievous as a monkey
although indicative ones as i may say to take notice as well of some things you are not quite ignorant of as of others you know not and to make a few observations upon him and his ways
that he is notoriously nay avowedly a man of pleasure yet says that in any thing he sets his heart upon or undertakes he is the most industrious and persevering mortal under the sun
he rests it seems not above six hours in the twenty four any more than you he delights in writing
one of his companions confirming his love of writing has told her that his thoughts flow rapidly to his pen and you and i my dear have observed on more occasions than one
he is one of the readiest and quickest of writers he must indeed have had early a very docile genius since a person of his pleasurable turn and active spirit
could never have submitted to take long or great pains in attaining the qualifications he is master of qualifications so seldom attained by youth of quality and fortune by such especially
who like him have never known what it was to be controuled he had once it seems the vanity upon being complimented on these talents and on his surprising diligence for a man of pleasure to compare himself to julius caesar
who performed great actions by day and wrote them down at night and valued himself that he only wanted caesar's out setting to make a figure among his contemporaries
he spoke of this indeed she says with an air of pleasantry for she observed and so have we that he has the art of acknowledging his vanity
which is due to vanity and self opinion and at the same time half persuades those who hear him that he really deserves the exultation he gives himself but supposing it to be true that all his vacant nightly hours are employed in writing
what can be his subjects if like caesar his own actions he must undoubtedly be a very enterprising and very wicked man since nobody suspects him to have a serious turn and decent
as he is in his conversation with us his writings are not probably such as would redound either to his own honour or to the benefit of others were they to be read he must be conscious of this
that in the great correspondence by letters which he holds he is as secret and as careful as if it were of a treasonable nature yet troubles not his head with politics though nobody knows the interests of princes and courts better than he is said to do
that you and i my dear should love to write is no wonder we have always from the time each could hold a pen delighted in epistolary correspondencies our employments are domestic and sedentary
and we can scribble upon twenty innocent subjects and take delight in them because they are innocent though were they to be seen
others but that such a gay lively young fellow as this who rides hunts travels
as you and i have heard him say he frequently does that is the strange thing
that he is a complete master of short hand writing by the way what inducements could a swift writer as he have to learn short hand she says and we know it as well as she
and a very lively imagination whatever his other vices are
he is a sober man and among all his bad qualities gaming that great waster of time as well as fortune is not his vice so that he must have his head as cool and his reason as clear
as the prime of youth and his natural gaiety will permit and by his early morning hours
that all his relations are afraid of him
she believes he is clear of the world and that he will continue so
that a brave a learned and a diligent man cannot be naturally a bad man
in being so careless as he is of his reputation i think a man can be so but from one of these two reasons either that he is conscious he deserves the ill spoken of him or that he takes a pride
in being thought worse than he is both very bad and threatening indications since the first must shew him to be utterly abandoned and it is but natural to conclude from the other
he will not scruple to be guilty of whenever he has an opportunity upon the whole
mister lovelace is a very faulty man you and i have thought him too gay too inconsiderate too rash
to be deep you see
haughty as it certainly is
he pays it to the uttermost nor has he complaisance enough to spare your uncles but were he deep and ever so deep you would soon penetrate him if they would leave you to yourself
his vanity would be your clue never man had more yet as missus fortescue observed never did man carry it off so happily there is a strange mixture in it of humourous vivacity
and is but just gone away he is all impatience and resentment at the treatment you meet with and full of apprehensions too that they will carry their point with you
that you will never be brought to think of such a man as solmes
ever had so little favour from a woman for whose sake he had borne so much i told him my mind as freely as i used to do but whoever was in fault
he complained of spies set upon his conduct and to pry into his life and morals and this by your brother and uncles i told him that this was very hard upon him
and the more so as neither his life nor morals perhaps would stand a fair inquiry he smiled and called himself my servant the occasion was too fair he said for miss howe who never spared him to let it pass
i asked him if he valued himself upon having a head better turned than theirs for such works as he called them he drew off and then ran into the highest professions of reverence and affection for you
the object so meritorious who can doubt the reality of his professions adieu my dearest my noble friend
though i began this letter with impertinent raillery knowing that you always loved to indulge my mad vein yet never was there a heart that more glowed with friendly love than that of your own
miss howe to miss clarissa harlowe sunday
i beg your pardon my dearest friend for having given you occasion to remind me of the date of my last i was willing to have before me as much of the workings of your wise relations as possible
being verily persuaded that one side or the other would have yielded by this time and then i should have had some degree of certainty to found my observations upon and indeed what can i write
but rave at your stupid persecutors and that you don't like
that you won't do you cannot bear the thoughts of having their solmes and lovelace is resolved you shall be his
let us see what their next step will be as to lovelace while he tells his own story
wicked people to combine against so innocent a man but as i said let us see what their next step will be and what course you will take upon it and then we may be the more enlightened
as to your change of style to your uncles and brother and sister since they were so fond of attributing to you a regard for lovelace and would not be persuaded to the contrary and since you only strengthened their arguments against yourself by denying it
to apologize to me for that change of style to them and till you will speak out like a friend to her unquestionable friend i must tease you a little let it run therefore for it will run if then
be so good as to watch
how the cause for it will come on why should it be permitted to steal upon you and you know nothing of the matter when we get a great cold we are apt to puzzle ourselves to find out when it began or how we got it
down we sit contented and let it have its course or if it be very troublesome take a sweat
so my dear before the malady you wot of yet
let me advise you to mind how it comes on for i am persuaded
that the indiscreet violence of your friends on the one hand and the insinuating address of lovelace on the other if the man be not a greater fool than any body thinks him will effectually bring it to this and do all his work for him
but let it if it must be lovelace or solmes the choice cannot admit of debate
that is reported i should prefer almost any of your other lovers to either unworthy as they also are but who can be worthy of a clarissa
i must own that i should think myself inexcusable so to do the rather as i am bold enough to imagine it a point out of all doubt
if you would ingenuously own own what you'll say why my anna howe i hope you don't think that i am already in love no to be sure how can your anna howe have such a thought what then shall we call it
you might have helped me to a phrase
that's it o my friend did i not know how much you despise prudery
but avoiding such hard names let me tell you one thing my dear which nevertheless i have told you before and that is this that i shall think i have reason to be highly displeased with you
if when you write to me you endeavour to keep from me any secret of your heart let me add that if you would clearly and explicitly tell me how far lovelace has or has not a hold in your affections
i could better advise you what to do than at present i can you
can satisfy my love and my friendship surely you are not afraid to trust yourself with a secret of this nature if you are then you may the more allowably doubt me but i dare say
it has not been upon those passages which are written though perhaps not intended with such explicitness don't be alarmed my dear as leaves little cause of doubt but only when you affect reserve when you give new words
for common things when you come with your curiosities with your conditional likings and with your prude encies mind how i spell the word in a case that with
over acts of treason all these against the sovereign friendship we have avowed to each other
as to his power over me nay more but still more to yours
o pray now as you say now i have mentioned that my fellow was not such a charming fellow as yours
have your opinion how far figure ought to engage us with a view to your own case however mind that as mister tony says and whether at all if the man be vain of it since as you observe in a former
that vanity is a stop short pride in such a one that would make one justly doubt the worthiness of his interior you our pattern so lovely in feature so graceful in person have none of it
and have therefore with the best grace always held that it is not excusable even in a woman you must know that this subject was warmly debated among us in our last conversation
and miss lloyd wished me to write to you upon it for your opinion to which in every debated case we always paid the greatest deference i hope you will not be so much engrossed by your weighty cares
as not to have freedom of spirits enough to enter upon the task you know how much we all admire your opinion on such topics which ever produces something new and instructive as you handle the subjects and pray tell us
to what you think it owing that your man seems so careful to adorn that self adorned person of his yet so manages that one cannot for one's heart think him a coxcomb
you must recollect the many instances of my impertinence which you have forgiven and then say this is a mad girl but yet i love her and she is my own
the following history is given in a series of letters written principally in a double yet separate correspondence between two young ladies of virtue and honor bearing an inviolable friendship for each other
and between two gentlemen of free lives one of them glorying in his talents for stratagem and invention and communicating to the other in confidence all the secret purposes of an intriguing head and resolute heart
but here it will be proper to observe
and making it one of their wicked maxims to keep no faith with any of the individuals of it who are thrown into their power are not however either infidels or scoffers nor yet such as think themselves
freed from the observance of those other moral duties which bind man to man on the contrary
that they very often make such reflections upon each other and each upon himself and his own actions as reasonable beings must make who disbelieve not a future state of rewards and punishments and who one day propose to reform
preserves a decency as well in his images as in his language
writers whose subjects and characters have less warranted the liberties they have taken in the letters of the two young ladies it is presumed
will be found not only the highest exercise of a reasonable and practicable friendship between minds endowed with the noblest principles of virtue and religion but occasionally interspersed such delicacy of sentiments particularly with regard to the other sex
such instances of impartiality each freely as a fundamental principle of their friendship blaming praising
that she is not in all respects a perfect character it was not only natural but it was necessary that she should have some faults were it only to show the reader how laudably she could mistrust and blame herself
and carry to her own heart divested of self partiality the censure which arose from her own convictions and that even to the acquittal of those because revered characters whom no one else would acquit
her errors were owing and not to a weak or reproachable heart as far as it is consistent with human frailty and as far as she could be perfect
and those with whom she was inseparably connected she is perfect to have been impeccable must have left nothing for the divine grace and a purified state to do
from woman to angel as such is she often esteemed by the man whose heart was so corrupt that he could hardly believe human nature capable of the purity which on every trial or temptation
such strokes of gayety fancy and humour as will entertain and divert and at the same time both warn and instruct all the letters are written while the hearts of the writers must be supposed to be wholly engaged in their subjects
the events at the time generally dubious so that they abound not only in critical situations but with what may be called instantaneous descriptions and reflections
proper to be brought home to the breast of the youthful reader as also with affecting conversations many of them written in the dialogue or dramatic way much more lively and affecting
must be the style of those who write in the height of a present distress the mind tortured by the pangs of uncertainty the events then hidden in the womb of fate than the dry narrative
relating difficulties and danger surmounted can be the relater perfectly at ease and if himself unmoved by his own story not likely greatly to affect the reader
what will be found to be more particularly aimed at in the following work is to warn the inconsiderate and thoughtless of the one sex
against preferring a man of pleasure to a man of probity upon that dangerous but too commonly received notion
but above all to investigate the highest and most important doctrines not only of morality but of christianity by showing them thrown into action in the conduct of the worthy characters while the unworthy
are condignly and as may be said consequentially punished from what has been said considerate readers will not enter upon the perusal of the piece before them
expecting a light novel or transitory romance and look upon story in it interesting as that is generally allowed to be as its sole end rather than as a vehicle to the instruction
different persons as might be expected have been of different opinions
and several worthy persons
whatever is thought material of these shall be taken notice of by way of postscript at the conclusion of the history
those parts of it which are proposed to carry with them the force of an example ought to be as unobjectionable as is consistent with the design of the whole and with human nature
names of the principal persons miss clarissa harlowe a young lady of great beauty and merit
father of clarissa missus harlowe his lady james harlowe their only son arabella their elder daughter
antony harlowe third brother
an admirer of clarissa favoured by her friends
her daughter missus judith norton a woman of great piety and discretion who had a principal share in the education of clarissa col wm morden a near relation of the harlowes
an admirer of miss howe lord m uncle to mister lovelace
a pedantic young clergyman
richard mowbray thomas doleman james tourville
a lively young widow of the same place missus sinclair the pretended name of a private brothel keeper in london captain tomlinson
sally martin polly horton
i have both your letters at once it is very unhappy my dear since your friends will have you marry that a person of your merit should be addressed by a succession of worthless creatures who have nothing but their presumption for their excuse
that these presumers appear not in this very unworthy light to some of your friends is because their defects are not so striking to them as to others and why shall i venture to tell you
modesty after all perhaps has a concern in it for how should they think that a niece or sister of theirs i will not go higher for fear of incurring your displeasure should be an angel
but where indeed is the man to be found who has the least share of due diffidence
to miss clarissa harlowe with hope or with any thing but wishes thus the bold and forward not being sensible of their defects aspire while the modesty of the really worthy
wretches that looking upon the rest of your family
but to you what an inexcusable presumption yet i am afraid all opposition will be in vain you must you will i doubt be sacrificed to this odious man i know your family
who happened to be born thirty years before one of your uncles i speak
ought to be sacred but should not parents have reason for what they do wonder not however at your bell's unsisterly behaviour in this affair
your insolent brother is governed by which will account for all her driving you have already owned that her outward eye was from the first struck with the figure and address of the man whom she pretends to despise and who
thoroughly despises her but you have not told me that still she loves him of all men bell has a meanness in her very pride that meanness rises with her pride and goes hand in hand with it
and no one is so proud as bell she has owned her love her uneasy days and sleepless nights and her revenge grafted upon her love to her favourite betty barnes
to lay herself in the power of a servant's tongue poor creature but like little souls will find one another out and mingle as well as like great ones this however
she told the wench in strict confidence and thus by way of the female round about as lovelace
to call it betty pleased to be thought worthy of a secret
as she would have it to be told it to one of her confidants
with like injunctions of secrecy to miss lloyd's harriot harriot to miss lloyd miss lloyd to me i to you
and now you will not wonder to find miss bell an implacable rival
and for her driving on for a fixed day for sacrificing you to solmes in short for her rudeness and violence of every kind what a sweet revenge will she take as well upon lovelace as upon you
if she can procure her rival sister to be married to the man that sister hates and so prevent her having the man whom she herself loves whether she have hope of him or not and whom she suspects her sister loves
will you wonder then that the ties of relationship in such a case have no force and that a sister forgets to be a sister now i know this to be her secret motive the more grating to her
as her pride is concerned to make her disavow it
and as strengthened by a brother who has such an ascendant over the whole family and whose interest slave to it as he always was engaged him to ruin you with every one both possessed of the ears of all your family
and having it as much in their power as in their will to misrepresent all you say all you do such subject
by means of the captivating proposals he has made them when i consider all these things i am full of apprehensions for you o my dear how will you be able to maintain your ground i am sure alas i am too sure
that they will subdue such a fine spirit as yours unused to opposition and tell it not in gath you must be missus solmes mean time it is now easy as you will observe
how cruel my dear in you to rob the poor bella of the only lover she only had
but to give an example to the flirts of her sex
to keep in your own hands the estate bequeathed to you by your grandfather had you done so it would have procured you at least an outward respect from your brother and sister which would have made them conceal the envy and ill will
that now are bursting upon you from hearts so narrow i must harp a little more upon this string
how much your brother's influence has overtopped yours since he has got into fortunes so considerable and since you have given some of them an appetite to continue in themselves the possession of your estate unless you comply with their terms
i know your dutiful your laudable motives and one would have thought that you might have trusted to a father who so dearly loved you but had you been actually in possession of that estate
and living up to it and upon it your youth protected from blighting tongues by the company of your prudent norton as you had proposed
grudging it to you at the time as he did and looking upon it as his right as an only son
i told you some time ago that i thought your trials but proportioned to your prudence but you will be more than woman if you can extricate yourself with honour having such violent spirits and sordid minds in some
and such tyrannical and despotic wills in others to deal with indeed all may be done and the world be taught further to admire you for your blind duty and will less resignation
i might have told you that had i thought it necessary to put you into some little conceit of him he has qualities in short that may make him a tolerable creature on the other side of fifty but god help the poor woman
to whose lot he shall fall till then women i should say perhaps since he may break half a dozen hearts before that time but to the point i was upon
shall we not have reason to commend the tenant's grateful honesty if we are told that with joy the poor man called out your uncle and on the spot paid him in part of his debt those two guineas
but what shall we say of that landlord who though he knew the poor man to be quite destitute could take it and saying nothing while mister lovelace staid as soon as he was gone tell
of it in praise of the poor fellow's honesty were this so and were not that landlord related to my dearest friend how should i despise such a wretch but perhaps the story is aggravated
have every one's ill word and so indeed they ought because they are only solicitous to keep that which they prefer to every one's good one covetous indeed would they be who deserved neither yet expected both
i long for your next letter continue to be as particular as possible
livingstone's own story of his journeys his troubles and disappointments if there is love between us inconceivably delicious and profitable will our intercourse be
if not your time is lost and you will only annoy me i shall seem to you stupid and the reputation i have false all my good is magnetic and i educate not by lessons
but by going about my business
emerson's representative men i woke up early next morning with a sudden start the room was strange it was a house and not my tent ah yes i recollected
i had discovered livingstone and i was in his house i listened that the knowledge dawning on me might be confirmed by the sound of his voice i heard nothing but the sullen roar of the surf
i lay quietly in bed bed yes it was a primitive four poster with the leaves of the palm tree spread upon it instead of down
serving me in place of linen i began to put myself under rigid mental cross examination and to an analyzation of my position what was i sent for to find livingstone
have you found him yes of course am i not in his house whose compass is that hanging on a peg there whose clothes whose boots are those who reads those newspapers those saturday reviews
and numbers of punch lying on the floor well
i shall tell him this morning who sent me and what brought me here i will then ask him to write a letter to mister bennett and to give what news he can spare i did not come here to rob him of his news
sufficient for me is it that i have found him it is a complete success so far but it will be a greater one if he gives me letters for mister bennett and an acknowledgment that he has seen me do you think he will do so
why not i have come here to do him a service he has no goods i have he has no men with him i have if i do a friendly part by him
will he not do a friendly part by me what says the poet nor hope to find a friend but who has found a friend in thee all like the purchase few the price will pay
and this makes friends such wonders here below i have paid the purchase by coming so far to do him a service but i think from what i have seen of him last night that he is not such a niggard and misanthrope
as i was led to believe he exhibited considerable emotion despite the monosyllabic greeting when he shook my hand if he were a man to feel annoyance at any person coming after him he would not have received me as he did
nor would he ask me to live with him but he would have surlily refused to see me and told me to mind my own business neither does he mind my nationality for here said he
americans and englishmen are the same people we speak the same language and have the same ideas just so doctor i agree with you here at least americans and englishmen shall be brothers and whatever i can do for you
you may command me freely i dressed myself quietly intending to take a stroll along the tanganika before the doctor should rise opened the door which creaked horribly on its hinges
and walked out to the veranda halloa doctor you up already i hope you have slept well good morning mister stanley
i hope you rested well i sat up late reading my letters you have brought me good and bad news but sit down he made a place for me by his side yes many of my friends are dead
my eldest son has met with a sad accident that is my boy tom my second son oswell is at college studying medicine and is doing well i am told agnes my eldest daughter
has been enjoying herself in a yacht with sir paraffine young and his family sir roderick also is well and expresses a hope that he will soon see me you have brought me quite a budget
the man was not an apparition then and yesterday's scenes were not the result of a dream and i gazed on him intently for thus i was assured he had not run away
which was the great fear that constantly haunted me as i was journeying to ujiji now doctor said i you are probably wondering why i came here
i thought you at first an emissary of the french government
who died a few miles above gondokoro i heard you had boats plenty of men and stores and i really believed you were some french officer until i saw the american flag and to tell you the truth
i was rather glad it was so because i could not have talked to him in french and if he did not know english we had been a pretty pair of white men in ujiji
because i thought it was none of my business well said i laughing for your sake i am glad that i am an american and not a frenchman and that we can understand each other perfectly without an interpreter
i see that the arabs are wondering that you an englishman and i an american understand each other we must take care not to tell them that the english and americans have fought
and that there are alabama claims left unsettled and that we have such people as fenians in america who hate you but seriously doctor now don't be frightened when i tell you that i have come after you
after me yes how well you have heard of the new york herald oh who has not heard of that newspaper
without his father's knowledge or consent mister james gordon bennett son of mister james gordon bennett the proprietor of the herald has commissioned me to find you to get whatever news of your discoveries you like to give and to assist you
if i can with means young mister bennett told you to come after me to find me out and help me it is no wonder then you praised mister bennett so much last night i know him i am proud to say
to be just what i say he is he is an ardent generous and true man well indeed i am very much obliged to him and it makes me feel proud to think that you americans think so much of me
you have just come in the proper time for i was beginning to think that i should have to beg from the arabs even they are in want of cloth and there are but few beads in ujiji
i wish i could embody my thanks to mister bennett in suitable words but if i fail to do so do not i beg of you believe me the less grateful and now doctor having disposed of this little affair ferajji
shall bring breakfast if you have no objection you have given me an appetite he said halimah is my cook
tea and coffee ferajji the cook was ready as usual with excellent tea and a dish of smoking cakes dampers as the doctor called them
but they were necessary to the doctor who had nearly lost all his teeth from the hard fare of lunda he had been compelled to subsist on green ears of indian corn there was no meat in that district
and the effort to gnaw at the corn ears had loosened all his teeth i preferred the corn scones of virginia which to my mind were the nearest approach to palatable bread obtainable in central africa
the doctor said he had thought me a most luxurious and rich man when he saw my great bath tub carried on the shoulders of one of my men but he thought me still more luxurious this morning when my knives and forks
and plates and cups saucers silver spoons and silver teapot were brought forth shining and bright spread on a rich persian carpet and observed that i was well attended to by my yellow and ebon mercuries
this was the beginning of our life at ujiji i knew him not as a friend before my arrival he was only an object to me a great item for a daily newspaper
as much as other subjects in which the voracious news loving public delight in
stood close to the condemned murderer to record his last struggles and last sighs but never had i been called to record anything that moved me so much as this man's woes and sufferings
his privations and disappointments which now were poured into my ear verily did i begin to perceive that the gods above do with just eyes survey the affairs of men
i began to recognize the hand of an overruling and kindly providence the following are singular facts worthy for reflection
i was commissioned for the duty of discovering livingstone sometime in october eighteen sixty nine mister bennett was ready with the money and i was ready for the journey but observe reader
that i did not proceed directly upon the search mission i had many tasks to fulfil before proceeding with it and many thousand miles to travel over supposing that i had gone direct to zanzibar from paris
seven or eight months afterwards perhaps i should have found myself at ujiji but livingstone would not have been found there then he was on the lualaba
the time taken by me in travelling up the nile back to jerusalem then to constantinople southern russia the caucasus and persia was employed by livingstone in fruitful discoveries west of the tanganika again
in the latter part of june
leading a fretful peevish and impatient life but while i was thus fretting myself and being delayed by a series of accidents livingstone was being forced back to ujiji in the same month
it took him from june to october to march to ujiji now in september i broke loose from the thraldom which accident had imposed on me and hurried southward to ukonongo
then westward to kawendi then northward to uvinza then westward to ujiji only about three weeks after the doctor's arrival to find him resting under the veranda of his house
with his face turned eastward the direction from which i was coming had i gone direct from paris on the search i might have lost him
my companion was improving in health and spirits life had been brought back to him his fading vitality was restored his enthusiasm for his work was growing up again into a height that was compelling him to desire to be up and doing
but what could he do with five men and fifteen or twenty cloths
no i did try to go there
as they did both burton and speke and i had not a great deal of cloth if i had gone to the head of the tanganika i could not have gone to manyuema the central line of drainage was the most important
and that is the lualaba before this line the question whether there is a connection between the tanganika and the albert n'yanza sinks into insignificance the great line of drainage
is the river flowing from latitude eleven degrees south which i followed for over seven degrees northward
the name given to its most southern extremity drains a large tract of country south of the southernmost source of the tanganika it must therefore be the most important i have not the least doubt myself
but that this lake is the upper tanganika and the albert n'yanza of baker is the lower tanganika
this is my belief based upon reports of the arabs and a test i made of the flow with water plants but
much thought well if i were you doctor before leaving ujiji i should explore it and resolve the doubts upon the subject lest after you leave here you should not return by this way
the royal geographical society attach much importance to this supposed connection and declare you are the only man who can settle it if i can be of any service to you you may command me though i did not come to africa as an explorer
i have a good deal of curiosity upon the subject and should be willing to accompany you i have with me about twenty men who understand rowing we have plenty of guns cloth and beads and if we can get a canoe from the arabs we can manage the thing easily
oh we can get a canoe from sayd bin majid this man has been very kind to me and if ever there was an arab gentleman he is one then it is settled is it that we go i am ready
whenever you are i am at your command don't you hear my men call you the great master and me the little master it would never do for the little master to command by this time
livingstone was becoming known to me i defy any one to be in his society long without thoroughly fathoming him for in him there is no guile and what is apparent on the surface is the thing that is in him
i simply write down my own opinion of the man as i have seen him not as he represents himself as i know him to be not as i have heard of him i lived with him from the tenth november eighteen seventy one
witnessed his conduct in the camp and on the march and my feelings for him are those of unqualified admiration
if he is flighty or wrong headed he is sure to develop his hobbies and weak side i think it possible however that livingstone with an unsuitable companion might feel annoyance i know i should do so very readily
if a man's character was of that oblique nature that it was an impossibility to travel in his company i have seen men in whose company i felt nothing but a thraldom
which it was a duty to my own self respect to cast off as soon as possible a feeling of utter incompatibility with whose nature mine could never assimilate but livingstone was a character that i venerated
that called forth all my enthusiasm that evoked nothing but sincerest admiration doctor livingstone is about sixty years old though after he was restored to health
he appeared more like a man who had not passed his fiftieth year his hair has a brownish colour yet but is here and there streaked with grey lines over the temples
he shaves his chin daily his eyes which are hazel are remarkably bright he has a sight keen as a hawk's his teeth alone indicate the weakness of age the hard fare of lunda has made havoc in their lines
his form which soon assumed a stoutish appearance is a little over the ordinary height with the slightest possible bow in the shoulders when walking he has a firm but heavy tread like that of an overworked or fatigued man
he is accustomed to wear a naval cap with a semicircular peak by which he has been identified throughout africa his dress when first i saw him exhibited traces of patching and repairing but was scrupulously clean
i was led to believe that livingstone possessed a splenetic misanthropic temper some have said that he is garrulous that he is demented that he has utterly changed from the david livingstone whom people knew as the reverend missionary
that he takes no notes or observations but such as those which no other person could read but himself and it was reported before i proceeded to central africa that he was married to an african princess i respectfully
beg to differ with all and each of the above statements i grant he is not an angel but he approaches to that being as near as the nature of a living man will allow i never saw any spleen or misanthropy in him
as for being garrulous doctor livingstone is quite the reverse he is reserved if anything and to the man who says doctor livingstone is changed all i can say is that he never could have known him
for it is notorious that the doctor has a fund of quiet humour which he exhibits at all times whenever he is among friends i must also beg leave to correct the gentleman who informed me that livingstone takes no notes or observations
the huge letts's diary which i carried home to his daughter is full of notes and there are no less than a score of sheets within it filled with observations which he took during the last trip he made to manyuema alone
and in the middle of the book there is sheet after sheet column after column carefully written of figures alone a large letter which i received from him has been sent to sir thomas mac lear and this contains nothing but observations
during the four months i was with him i noticed him every evening making most careful notes and a large tin box that he has with him contains numbers of field note books the contents of which i dare say will see the light some time
his maps also evince great care and industry as to the report of his african marriage it is unnecessary to say more than that it is untrue and it is utterly beneath a gentleman
to hint at such a thing in connection with the name of david livingstone there is a good natured abandon about livingstone which was not lost on me whenever he began to laugh there was a contagion about it that compelled me to imitate him
it was such a laugh as herr teufelsdrockh's a laugh of the whole man from head to heel if he told a story he related it in such a way as to convince one of its truthfulness his face was so
lit up by the sly fun it contained that i was sure the story was worth relating and worth listening to
the heavy step which told of age and hard travel the grey beard and bowed shoulders belied the man underneath that well worn exterior lay an endless fund of high spirits and inexhaustible humour
that rugged frame of his enclosed a young and most exuberant soul every day i heard innumerable jokes and pleasant anecdotes interesting hunting stories in which his friends oswell webb vardon and gorden cumming
were almost always the chief actors i was not sure at first but this joviality humour and abundant animal spirits were the result of a joyous hysteria but as i found they continued while i was with him
i am obliged to think them natural another thing which specially attracted my attention was his wonderfully retentive memory if we remember the many years he has spent in africa deprived of books
we may well think it an uncommon memory that can recite whole poems from byron burns tennyson longfellow whittier and lowell the reason of this may be found perhaps
within himself zimmerman a great student of human nature says on this subject the unencumbered mind recalls all that it has read all that pleased the eye and delighted the ear
and reflecting on every idea which either observation or experience or discourse has produced gains new information by every reflection the intellect contemplates all the former scenes of life
views by anticipation those that are yet to come and blends all ideas of past and future in the actual enjoyment of the present moment he has lived in a world which revolved inwardly
out of which he seldom awoke except to attend to the immediate practical necessities of himself and people then relapsed again into the same happy inner world which he must have peopled with his own friends relations acquaintances
familiar readings ideas and associations so that wherever he might be or by whatsoever he was surrounded his own world always possessed more attractions to his cultured mind
than were yielded by external circumstances the study of doctor livingstone would not be complete if we did not take the religious side of his character into consideration his religion is not of the theoretical kind
but it is a constant earnest sincere practice it is neither demonstrative nor loud but manifests itself in a quiet practical way and is always at work it is not aggressive
which sometimes is troublesome if not impertinent in him religion exhibits its loveliest features it governs his conduct not only towards his servants but towards the natives
the bigoted mohammedans and all who come in contact with him without it livingstone with his ardent temperament his enthusiasm his high spirit and courage must have become uncompanionable and a hard master
religion has tamed him and made him a christian gentleman the crude and wilful have been refined and subdued religion has made him the most companionable of men
and indulgent of masters a man whose society is pleasurable in livingstone i have seen many amiable traits his gentleness never forsakes him his hopefulness never deserts him
no harassing anxieties distraction of mind long separation from home and kindred can make him complain he thinks all will come out right at last he has such faith in the goodness of providence
the sport of adverse circumstances the plaything of the miserable beings sent to him from zanzibar he has been baffled and worried even almost to the grave yet he will not desert the charge imposed upon him by his friend
sir roderick murchison to the stern dictates of duty alone has he sacrificed his home and ease the pleasures refinements and luxuries of civilized life his is the spartan heroism
the inflexibility of the roman the enduring resolution of the anglo saxon never to relinquish his work though his heart yearns for home never to surrender his obligations until he can write
to his work but you may take any point in doctor livingstone's character
and i would challenge any man to find a fault in it he is sensitive i know but so is any man of a high mind and generous nature he is sensitive on the point of being doubted or being criticised an extreme love of truth is one of his strongest characteristics
which proves him to be a man of strictest principles and conscientious scruples being such he is naturally sensitive and shrinks from any attacks on the integrity of his observations and the accuracy of his reports
to have been painstaking and as exact as circumstances would allow ordinary critics seldom take into consideration circumstances but
utterly regardless of the labor expended in obtaining the least amount of geographical information in a new land environed by inconceivable dangers and difficulties such as central africa presents they seem to take delight in rending to tatters
and reducing to nil the fruits of long years of labor by sharply pointed shafts of ridicule and sneers
livingstone no doubt may be mistaken in some of his conclusions about certain points in the geography of central africa but he is not so dogmatic and positive a man as to refuse conviction
he certainly demands when arguments in contra are used in opposition to him higher authority than abstract theory his whole life is a testimony against its unreliability
and his entire labor of years were in vain if theory can be taken in evidence against personal observation and patient investigation the reluctance he manifests to entertain suppositions
possibilities regarding the nature form configuration of concrete immutable matter like the earth arises from the fact that a man who commits himself to theories about such an untheoretical subject as central africa
is deterred from bestirring himself to prove them by the test of exploration his opinion of such a man is that he unfits himself for his duty
that he is very likely to become a slave to theory a voluptuous fancy which would master him it is his firm belief that a man who rests his sole knowledge of the geography of africa on theory
deserves to be discredited it has been the fear of being discredited and criticised and so made to appear before the world as a man who spent so many valuable years in africa for the sake of burdening the geographical mind with theory
that has detained him so long in africa doing his utmost to test the value of the main theory which clung to him and would cling to him until he proved or disproved it this main theory
is his belief that in the broad and mighty lualaba he has discovered the head waters of the nile
his grounds for believing this are of such nature and weight as to compel him to despise the warning that years are advancing on him and his former iron constitution is failing
he believes his speculations on this point will be verified he believes he is strong enough to pursue his explorations until he can return to his country with the announcement that the lualaba is none other
chapter thirty eight promises fulfilled then proudly proudly up she rose
whate'er ye say think what ye may ye's get na word frae me scotch ballad it was not merely that margaret was known to mister thornton to have spoken falsely though she imagined that for this reason only was she so turned in his opinion
but that this falsehood of hers bore a distinct reference in his mind to some other lover he could not forget the fond and earnest look that had passed between her and some other man the attitude of familiar confidence if not of positive endearment
the thought of this perpetually stung him it was a picture before his eyes wherever he went and whatever he was doing in addition to this and he ground his teeth as he remembered it was the hour dusky twilight
the place so far away from home and comparatively unfrequented his nobler self had said at first that all this last might be accidental innocent justifiable but once allow her right to love and be beloved
and had he any reason to deny her right had not her words been severely explicit when she cast his love away from her she might easily have been beguiled into a longer walk on to a later hour than she had anticipated but that falsehood
which showed a fatal consciousness of something wrong and to be concealed which was unlike her he did her that justice though all the time it would have been a relief to believe her utterly unworthy of his esteem it was this that made the misery
that he passionately loved her and thought her even with all her faults more lovely and more excellent than any other woman yet he deemed her so attached to some other man so led away by her affection for him as to violate her truthful nature
the very falsehood that stained her was a proof how blindly she loved another this dark slight elegant handsome man while he himself was rough and stern and strongly made
he lashed himself into an agony of fierce jealousy he thought of that look that attitude how he would have laid his life at her feet for such tender glances such fond detention he mocked at himself
for having valued the mechanical way in which she had protected him from the fury of the mob now he had seen how soft and bewitching she looked when with a man she really loved he remembered point by point the sharpness of her words
was not a man in all that crowd for whom she would not have done as much far more readily than for him he shared with the mob in her desire of averting bloodshed from them but this man this hidden lover shared with nobody
he had looks words hand cleavings lies concealment all to himself mister thornton was conscious that he had never been so irritable as he was now in all his life long
he felt inclined to give a short abrupt answer more like a bark than a speech to every one that asked him a question and this consciousness hurt his pride
so the manner was subdued to a quiet deliberation but the matter was even harder and sterner than common he was more than usually silent at home employing his evenings in a continual pace backwards and forwards
which would have annoyed his mother exceedingly if it had been practised by any one else and did not tend to promote any forbearance on her part even to this beloved son can you stop can you sit down for a moment i have something to say to you
if you would give up that everlasting walk walk walk he sat down instantly on a chair against the wall
she says she must leave us that her lover's death has so affected her spirits she can't give her heart to her work very well i suppose other cooks are to be met with that's so like a man it's not merely the cooking
it is that she knows all the ways of the house besides she tells me something about your friend miss hale miss hale is no friend of mine mister hale is my friend
for if she had been your friend what betsy says would have annoyed you let me hear it said he with the extreme quietness of manner he had been assuming for the last few days
betsy says that the night on which her lover i forget his name for she always calls him he leonards the night on which leonards was last seen at the station when he was last seen on duty in fact miss hale was there
walking about with a young man who betsy believes killed leonards by some blow or push leonards was not killed by any blow or push how do you know because i distinctly put the question to the surgeon of the infirmary
he told me there was an internal disease of long standing caused by leonards habit of drinking to excess that the fact of his becoming rapidly worse while in a state of intoxication settled the question as to whether the last fatal attack was caused by excess of drinking or the fall
caused by the blow or push of which betsy speaks then there was a blow or push i believe so and who did it as there was no inquest in consequence of the doctor's opinion i cannot tell you
but miss hale was there no answer and with a young man still no answer at last he said i tell you mother
no judicial inquiry i mean betsy says that woolmer
can swear that miss hale was at the station at that hour walking backwards and forwards with a young man i don't see what we have to do with that miss hale is at liberty to please herself
said missus thornton eagerly it certainly signifies very little to us not at all to you after what has passed but i i made a promise to missus hale that i would not allow her daughter to go wrong without advising and remonstrating with her
i shall certainly let her know my opinion of such conduct i do not see any harm in what she did that evening said mister thornton getting up and coming near to his mother he stood by the chimney piece with his face turned away from the room
in the first place as it is not many years since i myself was a draper's assistant the mere circumstance of a grocer's assistant noticing any act does not alter the character of the act to me
and in the next place i see a great deal of difference between miss hale and fanny i can imagine that the one may have weighty reasons which may and ought to make her overlook any seeming impropriety in her conduct i never knew fanny have weighty reasons for anything
other people must guard her i believe miss hale is a guardian to herself a pretty character of your sister indeed really john one would have thought miss hale had done enough to make you clear sighted
she drew you on to an offer by a bold display of pretended regard for you to play you off against this very young man i've no doubt her whole conduct is clear to me now you believe he is her lover i suppose you agree to that he turned round to his mother
his face was very gray and grim yes mother i do believe he is her lover when he had spoken he turned round again
he leant his face against his hand then before she could speak he turned sharp again mother he is her lover whoever he is but she may need help and womanly counsel there may be difficulties or temptations which i don't know
i fear there are i don't want to know what they are but as you have ever been a good ay and a tender mother to me go to her and gain her confidence
i know that something is wrong some dread must be a terrible torture to her for god's sake john said his mother now really shocked what do you mean what do you mean what do you know
he did not reply to her john i don't know what i shan't think unless you speak you have no right to say what you have done against her not against her mother i could not speak against her well
you have no right to say what you have done unless you say more these half expressions are what ruin a woman's character her character mother you do not dare he faced about and looked into her face with his flaming eyes then
drawing himself up into determined composure and dignity he said i will not say any more than this which is neither more nor less than the simple truth and i am sure you believe me
i have good reason to believe that miss hale is in some strait and difficulty connected with an attachment which of itself from my knowledge of miss hale's character is perfectly innocent and right what my reason is i refuse to tell
implying any more serious imputation than that she now needs the counsel of some kind and gentle woman you promised missus hale to be that woman no said missus thornton i am happy to say i did not promise kindness and gentleness
i promised counsel and advice such as i would give to my own daughter i shall speak to her as i would do to fanny
i shall speak with relation to the circumstances i know without being influenced either one way or another by the strong reasons which you will not confide to me
she will never bear it said he passionately she will have to bear it if i speak in her dead mother's name well said he breaking away don't tell me any more about it i cannot endure to think of it
it will be better that you should speak to her any way than that she should not be spoken to at all
continued he between his teeth as he bolted himself into his own private room and that cursed lie which showed some terrible shame in the background to be kept from the light in which i thought she lived perpetually
margaret mother how you have tortured me
i am but uncouth and hard but i would never have led you into any falsehood for me the more missus thornton thought over what her son had said in pleading for a merciful judgment for margaret's indiscretion the more bitterly she felt inclined towards her
she took a savage pleasure in the idea of speaking her mind to her in the guise of fulfilment of a duty
she snorted scornfully over the picture of the beauty of her victim her jet black hair her clear smooth skin her lucid eyes would not help to save her one word of the just and stern reproach
which missus thornton spent half the night in preparing to her mind is miss hale within
margaret was sitting alone writing to edith and giving her many particulars of her mother's last days it was a softening employment and she had to brush away the unbidden tears as missus thornton was announced
she was so gentle and ladylike in her mode of reception that her visitor was somewhat daunted and it became impossible to utter the speech so easy of arrangement with no one to address it to margaret's low rich voice was softer than usual her manner more gracious
because in her heart she was feeling very grateful to missus thornton for the courteous attention of her call she exerted herself to find subjects of interest for conversation praised martha the servant whom missus thornton had found for them
had asked edith for a little greek air about which she had spoken to miss thornton missus thornton was fairly discomfited her sharp damascus blade seemed out of place and useless among rose leaves she was silent because she was trying to task herself up to her duty
at last she stung herself into its performance by a suspicion which in spite of all probability she allowed to cross her mind that all this sweetness was put on with a view of propitiating mister thornton that somehow the other attachment had fallen through
and that it suited miss hale's purpose to recall her rejected lover poor margaret there was perhaps so much truth in the suspicion as this that missus thornton was the mother of one whose regard she valued and feared to have lost
and this thought unconsciously added to her natural desire of pleasing one who was showing her kindness by her visit missus thornton stood up to go but yet she seemed to have something more to say
she cleared her throat and began miss hale i have a duty to perform i promised your poor mother that as far as my poor judgment went i would not allow you to act in any way wrongly or she softened her speech down a little here
inadvertently without remonstrating at least without offering advice whether you took it or not margaret stood before her blushing like any culprit with her eyes dilating as she gazed at missus thornton
she thought she had come to speak to her about the falsehood she had told that mister thornton had employed her to explain the danger she had exposed herself to of being confuted in full court
and although her heart sank to think he had not rather chosen to come himself and upbraid her and receive her penitence and restore her again to his good opinion yet she was too much humbled not to bear any blame on this subject patiently and meekly
missus thornton went on at first when i heard from one of my servants that you had been seen walking about with a gentleman so far from home as the outwood station at such a time of the evening i could hardly believe it
but my son i am sorry to say confirmed her story it was indiscreet to say the least many a young woman has lost her character before now margaret's eyes flashed fire this was a new idea this was too insulting
if missus thornton had spoken to her about the lie she had told well and good she would have owned it and humiliated herself but to interfere with her conduct to speak of her character
she would not answer her not one word missus thornton saw the battle spirit in margaret's eyes and it called up her combativeness also for your mother's sake i have thought it right to warn you against such improprieties
they must degrade you in the long run in the estimation of the world even if in fact they do not lead you to positive harm for my mother's sake said margaret in a tearful voice i will bear much but i cannot bear everything
she never meant me to be exposed to insult i am sure insult miss hale yes madam said margaret more steadily it is insult what do you know of me that should lead you to suspect oh
said she breaking down and covering her face with her hands
mister thornton has told you no miss hale said missus thornton her truthfulness causing her to arrest the confession margaret was on the point of making though her curiosity was itching to hear it stop mister thornton has told me nothing
you do not know my son you are not worthy to know him he said this
what sort of a man you rejected this milton manufacturer his great tender heart scorned as it was scorned said to me only last night go to her i have good reason to know that she is in some strait
arising out of some attachment and she needs womanly counsel i believe those were his very words farther than that
not one word against you if he has knowledge of anything which should make you sob so he keeps it to himself margaret's face was still hidden in her hands the fingers of which were wet with tears missus thornton was a little mollified come miss hale
there may be circumstances i'll allow that if explained may take off from the seeming impropriety still no answer margaret was considering what to say she wished to stand well with missus thornton
and yet she could not might not give any explanation missus thornton grew impatient i shall be sorry to break off an acquaintance but for fanny's sake as i told my son if fanny had done so we should consider it a great disgrace
and fanny might be led away i can give you no explanation said margaret in a low voice i have done wrong but not in the way you think or know about i think mister thornton judges me more mercifully than you
you mean to do rightly thank you said missus thornton drawing herself up i was not aware that my meaning was doubted it is the last time i shall interfere i was unwilling to consent to do it when your mother asked me
you did not appear to me worthy of him but when you compromised yourself as you did at the time of the riot and exposed yourself to the comments of servants and workpeople i felt it was no longer right to set myself against my son's wish of proposing to you a wish by the way
which he had always denied entertaining until the day of the riot margaret winced and drew in her breath with a long hissing sound of which however missus thornton took no notice he came you had apparently changed your mind
i told my son yesterday that i thought it possible short as was the interval you might have heard or learnt something of this other lover what must you think of me madam asked margaret throwing her head back with proud disdain till her throat curved outwards like a swan's
you can say nothing more missus thornton i decline every attempt to justify myself for anything you must allow me to leave the room and she swept out of it with the noiseless grace of an offended princess
she was not particularly annoyed at margaret's way of behaving she did not care enough for her for that she had taken missus thornton's remonstrance to the full as keenly to heart as that lady expected and margaret's passion at once mollified her visitor far more than any silence or reserve could have done
it showed the effect of her words my young lady thought missus thornton to herself you've a pretty good temper of your own if john and you had come together he would have had to keep a tight hand over you to make you know your place
but i don't think you will go a walking again with your beau at such an hour of the day in a hurry you've too much pride and spirit in you for that i like to see a girl fly out at the notion of being talked about it shows they're neither giddy nor bold by nature as for that girl
she might be bold but she'd never be giddy i'll do her that justice now as to fanny she'd be giddy and not bold she's no courage in her poor thing mister thornton was not spending the morning so satisfactorily as his mother
she at any rate was fulfilling her determined purpose he was trying to understand where he stood what damage the strike had done him a good deal of his capital was locked up in new and expensive machinery
the strike had thrown him terribly behindhand as to the completion of these orders even with his own accustomed and skilled workpeople he would have had some difficulty in fulfilling his engagements as it was
the incompetence of the irish hands who had to be trained to their work at a time requiring unusual activity was a daily annoyance it was not a favourable hour for higgins to make his request but he had promised margaret to do it at any cost
so though every moment added to his repugnance his pride and his sullenness of temper he stood leaning against the dead wall hour after hour first on one leg then on the other
can't stay now my man i'm too late as it is
mister thornton was half way down the street higgins sighed but it was no use
if he had rung the lodge bell or even gone up to the house to ask for him
so he stood still again vouchsafing no answer but a short nod of recognition to the few men who knew and spoke to him as the crowd drove out of the millyard at dinner time
at last mister thornton returned what you there still
these good people i see are at dinner said he closing the door of the porter's lodge
that that man is higgins one of the leaders of the union he that made that speech in hurstfield no i didn't said mister thornton looking round sharply at his follower higgins was known to him by name as a turbulent spirit come along
said he and his tone was rougher than before it is men such as this thought he who interrupt commerce and injure the very town they live in
said mister thornton facing round at him as soon as they were in the counting house of the mill my name is higgins' i know that broke in mister thornton
i want work work you're a pretty chap to come asking me for work you don't want impudence that's very clear i've getten enemies and backbiters like my betters
said higgins his blood was a little roused by mister thornton's manner more than by his words mister thornton saw a letter addressed to himself on the table he took it up and read it through at the end he looked up and said
an answer to the question i axed i gave it you before don't waste any more of your time yo made a remark sir on my impudence but i were taught that it was manners to say either yes or no when i were axed a civil question
i should be thankfu to yo if yo'd give me work hamper will speak to my being a good hand i've a notion you'd better not send me to hamper to ask for a character my man i might hear more than you'd like
worst they could say of me is that i did what i thought best even to my own wrong you'd better go and try them then and see whether they'll give you work i've turned off upwards of a hundred of my best hands for no other fault than following you and such as you
i might as well put a firebrand into the midst of the cotton waste higgins turned away then the recollection of boucher came over him and he faced round with the greatest concession he could persuade himself to make
and i'd promise more i'd promise that when i seed yo going wrong and acting unfair
upon my word you don't think small beer of yourself
how came he to let you and your wisdom go well we parted wi mutual dissatisfaction
and they wouldn't have me at no rate so i'm free to make another engagement and as i said before
specially when i can keep fro drink and that i shall do now if i ne'er did afore that you may have more money laid up for another strike i suppose no i'd be thankful if i was free to do that
well you'd better turn to something else if you've any such good intention in your head
a pretty navvy you'd make why you couldn't do half a day's work at digging against an irishman
i'd take any wage they thought i was worth for the sake of those childer don't you see what you would be you'd be a knobstick you'd be taking less wages than the other labourers all for the sake of another man's children
think how you'd abuse any poor fellow who was willing to take what he could get to keep his own children you and your union would soon be down upon him no no if it's only for the recollection of the way in which you've used the poor knobsticks before now i say no to your question i'll not give you work
let me pass i'll not give you work there's your answer i hear sir
but that i were bid to come by one as seemed to think yo'd getten some soft place in yo'r heart hoo were mistook and i were misled
tell her to mind her own business the next time instead of taking up your time and mine too i believe women are at the bottom of every plague in this world be off with you
mister thornton did not deign a reply but looking out of the window a minute after he was struck with the lean bent figure going out of the yard the heavy walk was in strange contrast with the resolute clear determination of the man to speak to him
he crossed to the porter's lodge how long has that man higgins been waiting to speak to me
he was explaining with a happy fluke of his imagination to account for his ignorance then suddenly heralded by clattering sounds and a gride of wheels
dangle had flared and thundered across the tranquillity of the summer evening dangle swaying and gesticulating behind a corybantic black horse had hailed jessie by her name
for no ostensible reason and vanished to the accomplishment of the fate that had been written down for him from the very beginning of things
jessie and hoopdriver had scarcely time to stand up and seize their machines before this tumultuous this swift and wonderful passing of dangle was achieved
he went from side to side of the road worse even than the riding forth of mister hoopdriver it was and vanished round the corner
yes it was mister dangle that was our bicycles did that said mister hoopdriver simultaneously and speaking with a certain complacent concern i hope he won't get hurt
he was looking for me said jessie i could see he began to call to me before the horse shied my stepmother has sent him
for his ideas were still a little hazy about bechamel and missus milton
he turned his head this way and that he became active
he's gone down that hill and he won't be able to pull up for a bit i'm certain
and was mounting still staring at the corner that had swallowed up dangle hoopdriver followed suit and so just as the sun was setting they began another flight together riding now
towards bishops waltham with mister hoopdriver in the post of danger the rear ever and again looking over his shoulder and swerving dangerously as he did so
occasionally jessie had to slacken her pace
to the odd man of the place with infinite easy dignity and had bowingly opened the door for jessie who's that then he imagined people saying and then
that it was often the fancy of such great folk to shun the big hotels the adulation of urban crowds and seek incognito the cosy quaintnesses of village life
who had stepped across the doorway and about the handsome flaxen moustached blue eyed cavalier who had followed her in and they would look one to another
tell you what it is one of the village elders would say just as they do in novels
there's such a thin as entertaining barranets unawares not to mention no higher things such i say had been the filmy delightful stuff
in mister hoopdriver's head the moment before he heard that remark but the remark toppled him headlong what the precise remark was need not concern us it was
where healthy homely people gather together
more possibly than you will desire the remark i must add implicated mister hoopdriver it indicated an entire disbelief in his social standing
at a blow it shattered all the gorgeous imaginative fabric his mind had been rejoicing in all that foolish happiness vanished like a dream and there was nothing to show for it as
perhaps the man who said the thing had a gleam of satisfaction at the idea of taking a complacent looking fool down a peg
that his stray shot had hit he had thrown it as a boy throws a stone at a bird and it not only demolished a foolish happy conceit but it wounded it touched jessie grossly
she did not hear it he concluded from her subsequent bearing but during the supper they had in the little private dining room though she talked cheerfully
he was preoccupied whiffs of indistinct conversation and now and then laughter
mister hoopdriver
he stood listening and fearing some new offence as she went upstairs and round the bend
came floating in all through supper he had been composing
he crossed the hall by the bar
proceeded he opened the door abruptly and stood scowling on them in the doorway you'll only make a mess of it remarked the internal sceptic there were five men in the room altogether
a fat person with a long pipe and a great number of chins in an armchair by the fireplace who wished mister hoopdriver a good evening very affably
a young fellow smoking a cutty and displaying crossed legs with gaiters
said mister hoopdriver looking very stern and harsh
to no liberties good evening
said the fair young man with the white tie very said mister hoopdriver slowly and taking a brown armchair he planted it with great deliberation where he faced the fireplace and sat down
very pleasant roads about here said the fair young man with the white tie very said mister hoopdriver eyeing him darkly have to begin somehow
the roads about here are all right
damned unpleasant people damned unpleasant people oh said the young man with the gaiters apparently making a mental inventory of his pearl buttons as he spoke how's that
mister hoopdriver put his hands on his knees
idiotic folly at thus bearding these lions indisputably they were lions but he had to go through with it now
said mister hoopdriver and paused to inflate his cheeks with a lady very nice lady said the man with the gaiters putting his head on one side to admire a pearl button
the curvature of his calf very nice lady indeed i came here said mister hoopdriver with a lady we saw you did bless you said the fat man with the chins
mister hoopdriver coughed i came here sir
sharply and went off into an amiable chuckle we know it by art said the little man elaborating the point mister hoopdriver temporarily lost his thread
you were saying said the fair young man with the white tie speaking very politely that you came here with a lady a lady meditated the gaiter gazer
the man in velveteen who was looking from one speaker to another with keen bright eyes now laughed as though a point had been scored and stimulated mister hoopdriver to speak by fixing him
with an expectant regard some dirty cad said mister hoopdriver proceeding with his discourse and suddenly growing extremely fierce made a remark as we went by this door
one minute said mister hoopdriver it wasn't i began calling names who did said the man with the chins i'm not calling any of you dirty cads don't run away with that impression
that showed he wasn't fit to wipe boots on and with all due deference to such gentlemen as are gentlemen mister hoopdriver looked round for moral support i want to know which it was
with a slight catch in his throat than which threat of personal violence nothing had been further from his thoughts on entering the room he said this because he could think of nothing else to say
and stuck out his elbows truculently to hide the sinking of his heart it is curious how situations run away with us ullo charlie
said the fair young man in a tone of mild surprise i am said mister hoopdriver with emphatic resolution and glared in the young man's face
that's fair and reasonable said the man in the velveteen jacket if you can
own up charlie said the young man with the gaiters
it's fair and square you can't get out of it was it this gent began mister hoopdriver of course said the young man in the white tie
i'm not talking i'm going to do it said mister hoopdriver he looked round at the meeting they were no longer antagonists they were spectators he would have to go through with it now
but this tone of personal aggression on the maker of the remark
and arms more angular than ever eat im said the little man with the beard eat im straight orf steady on said the young man in the white tie
what you can do to day said the man in the velveteen coat you got to do it charlie said the man in gaiters it's no good it's like this said charlie
appealing to everyone except hoopdriver here's me got to take in her ladyship's dinner to morrow night how should i look with a black eye and going round with the carriage
exactly said mister hoopdriver driving it home with great fierceness why don't you shut your ugly mouth it's as much as my situation's worth
protested charlie you should have thought of that before
not of a spindle legged cuss like him shouted charlie because i ain't change of front
he's offered to hit you and if i was him
all right then said charlie with a sudden change of front and springing to his feet if i must i must now then
at that hoopdriver the child of fate rose too with a horrible sense that his internal monitor was right things had taken a turn he had made a mess of it
and with what was only too palpably a footman good heavens
go round the table at him i suppose but before the brawl could achieve itself the man in gaiters intervened not here he said
buller's yard said the man with the gaiters taking the control of the entire affair with the easy readiness of an accomplished practitioner if the gentleman don't mind
buller's yard it seemed was the very place we'll do the thing regular and decent if you please and before he completely realized what was happening hoopdriver was being marched out
through the back premises of the inn to the first and only fight with fists that was ever to glorify his life
outwardly so far as the intermittent moonlight showed
the greatest difficulty in following the development of the business he distinctly remembered himself walking across from one room to the other a dignified even an aristocratic figure primed with considered eloquence
then incident had flickered into incident until here he was out in a moonlit lane a slight dark figure in a group of larger indistinct figures
marching in a quiet business like way towards some unknown horror at buller's yard fists it was astonishing it was terrible in front of him was the pallid
figure of charles and he saw that the man in gaiters
charles kindly but firmly by the arm it's blasted rot charles was saying
a smell of cows and a pump stood out clear and black throwing a clear black shadow on the whitewashed wall and here it was his face was to be battered to a pulp
he knew this was the uttermost folly to stand up here and be pounded but the way out of it was beyond his imagining
ground with his back to the gate how did one square so suppose one were to turn and run even now run straight back to the inn and lock himself into his bedroom
him come out anyhow he could prosecute them for assault if they did how did one set about prosecuting for assault he saw charles with his face
ghastly white under the moon squaring in front of him he caught a blow on the arm and gave ground charles pressed him then he hit with his right
and with the violence of despair it was a hit of his own devising an impromptu
but it chanced to coincide with the regulation hook hit at the head he perceived with a leap of exultation that the thing his fist had met was the jawbone of charles
it was the sole gleam of pleasure he experienced during the fight and it was quite momentary he had hardly got home upon charles before he was struck in the chest and whirled backward
he had the greatest difficulty in keeping his feet he felt that his heart was smashed flat gord darm said somebody dancing toe in hand somewhere behind him
as mister hoopdriver staggered charles gave a loud and fear compelling cry he seemed to tower over hoopdriver in the moonlight
it was annihilation coming no less mister hoopdriver ducked perhaps and certainly gave ground to the right hit and missed charles swept round to the left missing generously
and the flanking movement was completed another blow behind the ear heaven and earth spun furiously round mister hoopdriver and then he became aware of a figure in a light suit
shooting violently through an open gate into the night the man in gaiters sprang forward past mister hoopdriver but too late to intercept the fugitive
there were shouts laughter and mister hoopdriver still solemnly squaring realized the great and wonderful truth charles had fled he hoopdriver had fought
that was a pretty cut under the jaw you gave him the toothless little man with the beard was remarking in an unexpectedly friendly manner
the fact of it is said mister hoopdriver sitting beside the road to salisbury and with the sound of distant church bells in his
simply had to it seems so dreadful that you should have to knock people about said jessie these louts get unbearable
said mister hoopdriver if now and then we didn't give them a lesson well
i
with her ramble in search of matilda sat silent in a corner of the room
to every conceivable surmise on the cause of miss johnson's disappearance that the human mind could frame to which anne returned monosyllabic answers the result not of indifference
but of intense preoccupation presently loveday the father came to the door her mother vanished with him and they remained closeted together a long time
and seated herself beneath the branching tree whose boughs had sheltered her during so many hours of her residence here her attention
of the irregular building before her than upon that occupied by her mother for she could not help expecting every moment to see some one run out with a wild face
gazing at her over the hedge was festus derriman mounted on such an incredibly tall animal that
but as his eyes were fixed steadily upon her this was a futile manoeuvre i saw you look round he exclaimed crossly
as she did not turn he went on
you know my temper what i say i mean he seated himself firmly in the saddle plucked some leaves from the hedge and began humming a song
to show how absolutely indifferent he was to the flight of time what have you come for that you are so anxious to see me
when at last he had wearied her patience rising and facing him with the added independence which came from a sense of the hedge between them there i
knew you would turn round he said his hot angry face invaded by a smile in which his teeth showed like white hemmed in by red at chess what do you want mister derriman
said she what do you want mister derriman now listen to that is that my encouragement
o now he saw trumpet major loveday courting somebody like you in that garden walk and when he came you ran indoors
upon my life he said so how can you do it miss garland when i who have enough money to buy up all the lovedays would gladly come to terms with ye what
misguided rosebud that's it run off he continued in a raised voice
but it won't last long i shall marry you madam if i choose as you'll see
from the earnestness of his tone did not seem like a pure invention it suddenly flashed upon her mind that she herself had heard voices in the garden
and that the persons seen by farmer derriman of whose visit and reclamation of his box the miller had told her might have been matilda and john loveday
she further recalled the strange agitation of miss johnson on the preceding evening and that it occurred just at the entry of the dragoon
suspicion amounted to conviction that he knew more than any one else supposed of that lady's disappearance
he turned aside to the garden and walked down that pleasant enclosure to learn if he were likely to find in the other half of it the woman he loved so well yes there she was
under the apple tree but she was not facing in his direction he walked with a noisier tread
he did everything in short but the one thing that festus did in the same circumstances call out to her he would not have ventured on that for the world any of his signs
would have been sufficient to attract her
now she would not turn at last in his fond anxiety he did what he had never done before without an invitation and
good afternoon trumpet major in a glacial manner unusual with her walked away to another part of the garden loveday
had not the strength of mind to persevere further he had a vague apprehension that some imperfect knowledge of the previous night's unhappy business had reached her and unable to remedy the evil
through sticking so closely to business that day well john bob has told you all of course a queer
or it couldn't have happened i haven't been so upset for years nor have i
talking to her festus derriman rode by half an hour ago and talked to her over the hedge john guessed the rest and
of the excitement that had prompted him to set out but he did not pause in his walk till he had reached the head of the river which fed the mill stream here for some indefinite reason
he allowed his eyes to be attracted by the bubbling spring whose waters never failed or lessened and he stopped as if to look longer at the scene it was really because
by degrees as he reflected first on john's view and then on his own
at length he was so balanced between the impulse to go on and the impulse to go back that a puff of wind either way would have been well nigh sufficient to decide for him
when he allowed john's story to repeat itself in his ears the reasonableness and good sense of his advice seemed beyond question when on the other hand
he thought of his poor matilda's eyes and her to him pleasant ways their charming arrangements to marry and her probable willingness still
he could hardly bring himself to do otherwise than follow on the road at the top of his speed this strife of thought was so well maintained that sitting and standing
he remained on the borders of the spring till the shadows had stretched out eastwards and the chance of overtaking matilda had grown considerably less still
he did not positively go towards home at last he took a guinea from his pocket and resolved to put the question to the hazard heads i go tails i don't
the piece of gold spun in the air and came down heads no i won't go after all he said
when he got within sight of the house he beheld david in the road all right all right again captain shouted that retainer a wedding after all hurrah
ah she's back again cried bob seizing david ecstatically and dancing round with him no but it's all the same
and no harm will be done
have made up a match and mean to marry at once that the wedding victuals may not be wasted they felt twould be a thousand pities to let
such good things get blue vinnied for want of a ceremony to use em upon and at last they have thought of this
bitterly cried bob in a tone of far higher thought how you disappoint me and he went slowly towards the house his father appeared in the opening of the mill door
looking more cheerful than when they had parted what robert
he said faith then i wouldn't have followed her if i had been as sure as you were that she went away in scorn of us since you told me that
bob replied gravely throwing down his bundle and stick matilda i find has not gone away in scorn of us she has gone away for other reasons
but i have come back again she may go
said the astonished miller bob had intended for matilda's sake to give no reason to a living soul for her departure but he could not treat his father thus reservedly
and he told she has made great fools of us said the miller deliberately and she might have made us greater ones bob i
well don't say anything against her father implored bob twas a sorry haul and there's an end on't let her down quietly and keep the secret you promise that
i do loveday the elder remained thinking awhile and then went on
what i was going to say is this i've hit upon a plan to get out of the awkward corner she has put us in what you'll think of it i can't say david has just given me the heads
and do it hurt your feelings my son at such a time no i'll bring myself to bear it anyhow why should i object to other people's happiness because i have lost my own
said bob with saintly self sacrifice in his air well said answered the miller heartily
to disturb ye in your present frame of mind
at the thought of how the neighbours
what had happened so i resolved to take this step to stave it off if so be twas possible and when i saw missus garland
she pitied me so much for having had the house cleaned in vain and laid in provisions to waste that it put her into the humour to agree we mean to do it right off at once
afore the pies and cakes get mouldy and the blackpot stale
poor matilda murmured bob there i was afraid twould hurt thy feelings said the miller with self reproach making preparations for thy wedding and using them for my own
no said bob heroically it shall not it will be a great comfort in my sorrow to feel that the splendid grub and the ale and your stunning new suit of clothes and
will be just as useful now as if i had married myself poor matilda but you won't expect me to join in you hardly can i can sheer off that day very easily you know
nonsense bob said the miller reproachfully i couldn't stand it i should break down deuce take me if i would have asked her then if i had known
now come bob
i mentioned that a point had occurred to me sir remarked pedgift senior
would you like to hear what it is mister armadale if you please said allan with all my heart sir this is the point i attach considerable importance if nothing else can be done
it struck me just now at the door mister armadale that what you are not willing to do for your own security you might be willing to do for the security of another person what other person inquired allan
a young lady who is a near neighbor of yours sir shall i mention the name in confidence miss milroy allan started and changed color miss milroy he repeated can she be concerned in this miserable business
i hope not mister pedgift i sincerely hope not i paid a visit in your interests sir at the cottage this morning proceeded pedgift senior you shall hear what happened there and judge for yourself major milroy has been expressing his opinion of you
pretty freely and i thought it highly desirable to give him a caution it's always the way with those quiet addle headed men when they do once wake up there's no reasoning with their obstinacy and no quieting their violence
well sir this morning i went to the cottage the major and miss neelie were both in the parlor miss not looking so pretty as usual pale i thought pale and worn and anxious
i wouldn't give that mister armadale for the brains of a man who can occupy himself for half his lifetime in making a clock up jumps the addle headed major
fine morning major says i have you any business with me says he just a word says i miss neelie like the sensible girl she is gets up to leave the room and what does her ridiculous father do he stops her
and turns my way and tries to look me down again
says he if you come on any business relating to mister armadale i refer you to my solicitor his solicitor is darch and darch has had enough of me in business i can tell you my errand here major does certainly relate to mister armadale
says i but it doesn't concern your lawyer at any rate just yet i wish to caution you to suspend your opinion of my client or if you won't do that to be careful how you express it in public
i warn you that our turn is to come and that you are not at the end yet of this scandal about miss gwilt it struck me as likely that he would lose his temper when he found himself tackled in that way
and he amply fulfilled my expectations he was quite violent in his language the poor weak creature actually violent with me i behaved like a christian again i nodded kindly and wished him good morning
when i looked round to wish miss neelie good morning too she was gone you seem restless mister armadale remarked pedgift senior as allan feeling the sting of old recollections suddenly started out of his chair and began pacing up and down the room
i won't try your patience much longer sir i am coming to the point i beg your pardon mister pedgift
through the intervening image of neelie which the lawyer had called up well sir i left the cottage resumed pedgift senior
but miss neelie herself evidently on the lookout for me
does mister armadale think me mixed up in this matter she was violently agitated tears in her eyes sir of the sort which my legal experience has not accustomed me to see i quite forgot myself i actually gave her my arm
and led her away gently among the trees a nice position to find me in if any of the scandal mongers of the town had happened to be walking in that direction my dear miss milroy says i
why should mister armadale think you mixed up in it
exclaimed allan indignantly why did you leave her a moment in doubt about it because i am a lawyer mister armadale rejoined pedgift senior dryly even in moments of sentiment under convenient trees with a pretty girl on my arm
i set things right in due course of time
no such idea had ever entered your head did she seem relieved asked allan
and to pledge me to inviolable secrecy on the subject of our interview she was particularly desirous that you should hear nothing about it if you are at all anxious on your side to know why i am now betraying her confidence
i beg to inform you that her confidence related to no less a person than the lady who favored you with a call just now miss gwilt allan who had been once more restlessly pacing the room stopped and returned to his chair
is this serious he asked most serious sir returned pedgift senior i am betraying miss neelie's secret in miss neelie's own interest let us go back to that cautious question i put to her
she found some little difficulty in answering it for the reply involved her in a narrative of the parting interview between her governess and herself this is the substance of it
and the words she used as reported to me by miss neelie were these she said your mother has declined to allow me to take leave of her do you decline too miss neelie's answer was a remarkably sensible one for a girl of her age
and i believe we are equally glad to part with each other but i have no wish to decline taking leave of you saying that she held out her hand miss gwilt stood looking at her steadily without taking it
and addressed her in these words you
conscious of having her own mercenary designs on you should attribute similar designs to a young lady who happens to be your near neighbor
miss neelie by her own confession and quite naturally i think was excessively indignant
you shameless creature how dare you say that to me miss gwilt's rejoinder was rather a remarkable one
without sooner or later bitterly repenting it you will bitterly repent it
far more sensitively than she felt the threat she had previously known as everybody had known in the house that some unacknowledged proceedings of yours in london had led to miss gwilt's voluntary withdrawal from her situation
and she now inferred from the language addressed to her that she was actually believed by miss gwilt to have set those proceedings on foot to advance herself
i haven't quite done yet as soon as miss neelie had recovered herself she went upstairs to speak to missus milroy miss gwilt's abominable imputation had taken her by surprise
she got neither the one nor the other missus milroy declared she was too ill to enter on the subject
the major stopped her the moment your name passed her lips he declared he would never hear you mentioned again by any member of his family she has been left in the dark from that time to this not knowing how she might have been misrepresented by miss gwilt
or what falsehoods you might have been led to believe of her at my age and in my profession i don't profess to have any extraordinary softness of heart
deserves our sympathy i'll do anything to help her cried allan impulsively
confusedly repeated his first words
anything in the world to help her
asked allan only tell me how by giving me your authority sir to protect her from miss gwilt having fired that shot pointblank at his client the wise lawyer waited a little to let it take its effect before he said any more
allan's face clouded and he shifted uneasily from side to side of his chair your son is hard enough to deal with mister pedgift he said and you are harder than your son thank you sir rejoined the ready pedgift
in my son's name and my own for a handsome compliment to the firm
he went on more seriously i have shown you the way you can do nothing to quiet her anxiety which i have not done already
i can tell you mister armadale it dwells on mine you know my opinion of miss gwilt and you know what miss gwilt herself has done this very evening to justify that opinion even in your eyes
may i ask after all that has passed
to confine herself to empty threats the question was a formidable one to answer
by the irresistible pressure of plain facts allan began for the first time to show symptoms of yielding on the subject of miss gwilt is there no other way of protecting miss milroy but the way you have mentioned he asked uneasily
asked pedgift senior sarcastically i'm rather afraid he wouldn't honor me with his attention or perhaps you would prefer alarming miss neelie by telling her in plain words that we both think her in danger
or suppose you send me to miss gwilt with instructions to inform her that she has done her pupil a cruel injustice
women are so proverbially ready to listen to reason and they are so universally disposed to alter their opinions of each other on application especially when one woman thinks that another woman has destroyed her prospect of making a good marriage
only a lawyer and i can sit waterproof under another shower of miss gwilt's tears damn it mister pedgift tell me in plain words what you want to do cried allan losing his temper at last
in plain words mister armadale i want to keep miss gwilt's proceedings privately under view as long as she stops in this neighborhood i answer for finding a person who will look after her delicately and discreetly
and i agree to discontinue even this harmless superintendence of her actions if there isn't good reasons shown for continuing it to your entire satisfaction in a week's time i make that moderate proposal sir in what i sincerely believe to be miss milroy's interest
i wait your answer yes or no can't i have time to consider asked allan driven to the last helpless expedient of taking refuge in delay certainly mister armadale but don't forget
while you are considering that miss milroy is in the habit of walking out alone in your park innocent of all apprehension of danger and that miss gwilt is perfectly free to take any advantage of that circumstance that miss gwilt pleases
do as you like exclaimed allan in despair and for god's sake don't torment me any longer popular prejudice may deny it but the profession of the law is a practically christian profession in one respect at least
of all the large collection of ready answers lying in wait for mankind on a lawyer's lips none is kept in better working order than the soft answer which turneth away wrath pedgift senior rose with the alacrity of youth in his legs
and the wise moderation of age on his tongue many thanks sir he said for the attention you have bestowed on me i congratulate you on your decision and i wish you good evening this time his indicative snuff box was not in his hand when he opened the door
and he actually disappeared without coming back for a second postscript
if it was only the end of the week he thought longingly if i only had midwinter back again
had been the first to quit the ship the cowards are off said john mangles well my lord so much the better they have spared us some trying scenes no doubt said glenarvan besides we have a captain of our own and courageous
if unskillful sailors your companions john say the word and we are ready to obey the major paganel robert wilson mulrady olbinett himself applauded glenarvan's speech and ranged themselves on the deck ready to execute their captain's orders
what is to be done asked glenarvan it was evident that raising the macquarie was out of the question and no less evident that she must be abandoned waiting on board for succor that might never come would have been imprudence and folly
before the arrival of a chance vessel on the scene the macquarie would have broken up the next storm or even a high tide raised by the winds from seaward would roll it on the sands
john was anxious to reach the land before this inevitable consummation he proposed to construct a raft strong enough to carry the passengers and a sufficient quantity of provisions to the coast of new zealand there was no time for discussion the work was to be set about at once
and they had made considerable progress when night came and interrupted them toward eight o'clock in the evening after supper while lady helena and mary grant slept in their berths paganel and his friends conversed on serious matters as they walked up and down the deck
robert had chosen to stay with them the brave boy listened with all his ears ready to be of use and willing to enlist in any perilous adventure
instead of landing its freight on the coast
what do you think another twenty miles after crossing the pampas and australia can have any terrors for us hardened as we are to fatigue my friend replied paganel i do not call in question our courage nor the bravery of our friends
twenty miles would be nothing in any other country than new zealand you cannot suspect me of faint heartedness i was the first to persuade you to cross america and australia but here the case is different i repeat anything is better than to venture into this treacherous country
than braving certain destruction on a stranded vessel what is there so formidable in new zealand asked glenarvan the savages said paganel the savages repeated glenarvan
but in any case what have we to fear surely two resolute and well armed europeans need not give a thought to an attack by a handful of miserable beings paganel shook his head in this case there are no miserable beings to contend with
the new zealanders are a powerful race who are rebelling against english rule who fight the invaders and often beat them and who always eat them cannibals exclaimed robert cannibals then they heard him whisper my sister lady helena
don't frighten yourself my boy said glenarvan our friend paganel exaggerates far from it rejoined paganel robert has shown himself a man and i treat him as such in not concealing the truth from him paganel was right
cannibalism has become a fixed fact in new zealand as it is in the fijis and in torres strait superstition is no doubt partly to blame but cannibalism is certainly owing to the fact that there are moments when game is scarce and hunger great
the savages began by eating human flesh to appease the demands of an appetite rarely satiated subsequently the priests regulated and satisfied the monstrous custom what was a meal was raised to the dignity of a ceremony that is all
besides in the eyes of the maories nothing is more natural than to eat one another the missionaries often questioned them about cannibalism they asked them why they devoured their brothers to which the chiefs made answer that fish eat fish
dogs eat men men eat dogs and dogs eat one another even the maori mythology has a legend of a god who ate another god and with such a precedent who could resist eating his neighbor
and so inherit his soul his strength and his bravery which they hold are specially lodged in the brain this accounts for the fact that the brain figures in their feasts as the choicest delicacy and is offered to the most honored guest
but while he acknowledged all this paganel maintained not without a show of reason that sensuality and especially hunger was the first cause of cannibalism among the new zealanders and not only among the polynesian races but also among the savages of europe
for said he cannibalism was long prevalent among the ancestors of the most civilized people and especially if the major will not think me personal among the scotch really said mc nabbs yes major replied paganel
if you read certain passages of saint jerome on the atticoli of scotland you will see what he thought of your forefathers and without going so far back as historic times
under the reign of elizabeth when shakespeare was dreaming out his shy lock a scotch bandit sawney bean was executed for the crime of cannibalism was it religion that prompted him to cannibalism no it was hunger
hunger repeated paganel
the lungs are satisfied with a provision of vegetable and farinaceous food but to be strong and active the body must be supplied with those plastic elements that renew the muscles until the maories become members of the vegetarian association they will eat meat and human flesh as meat
why not animal flesh asked glenarvan because they have no animals replied paganel and that ought to be taken into account not to extenuate but to explain their cannibal habits quadrupeds and even birds are rare on these inhospitable shores
there are even man eating seasons
then begin the great wars and whole tribes are served up on the tables of the conquerors well then said glenarvan according to your mode of reasoning paganel cannibalism will not cease in new zealand until her pastures teem with sheep and oxen evidently my dear lord
which they prefer to all others for the children will still have a relish for what their fathers so highly appreciated
it tastes like pork with even more flavor as to white men's flesh they do not like it so well because the whites eat salt with their food which gives a peculiar flavor not to the taste of connoisseurs they are dainty said the major but
black or white do they eat it raw or cook it why what is that to you mister mc nabbs cried robert what is that to me exclaimed the major earnestly if i am to make a meal for a cannibal i should prefer being cooked why
very good major said paganel but suppose they cooked you alive the fact is answered the major i would not give half a crown for the choice well mc nabbs
you may as well be told the new zealanders do not eat flesh without cooking or smoking it
bah the conclusion of all said john mangles is that we must not fall into their hands let us hope that one day christianity will abolish all these monstrous customs yes we must hope so replied paganel but believe me
a savage who has tasted human flesh is not easily persuaded to forego it i will relate two facts which prove it by all means let us have the facts paganel said glenarvan the first is narrated in the chronicles of the jesuit society in brazil
a portuguese missionary was one day visiting an old brazilian woman who was very ill she had only a few days to live the jesuit inculcated the truths of religion which the dying woman accepted without objection
then having attended to her spiritual wants he bethought himself of her bodily needs and offered her some european delicacies
there is only one thing i could fancy and nobody here could get it for me what is it asked the jesuit
i feel as if i should enjoy munching the little bones horrid but i wonder is it so very nice said robert my second tale will answer you my boy said paganel
one day a missionary was reproving a cannibal for the horrible custom so abhorrent to god's laws of eating human flesh and beside said he it must be so nasty oh father said the savage
looking greedily at the missionary say that god forbids it that is a reason for what you tell us but don't say it is nasty
high street december twentieth my dear augustus your letter reached me yesterday you seem to be making the most of your youth as you call it with a vengeance well enjoy your holiday i made the most of my youth when i was your age and wonderful to relate
i haven't forgotten it yet you ask me for a good budget of news and especially for more information about that mysterious business at the sanitarium
sometimes leads to great results i doubt however if you will find it leading to much on this occasion all i know of the mystery of the sanitarium i know from mister armadale and he is entirely in the dark on more than one point of importance
i have already told you how they were entrapped into the house and how they passed the night there to this i can now add that something did certainly happen to mister midwinter which deprived him of consciousness and that the doctor
carried things with a high hand and insisted on taking his own course in his own sanitarium there is not the least doubt that the miserable woman however she might have come by her death was found dead that a coroner's inquest inquired into the circumstances
that the evidence showed her to have entered the house as a patient
apoplexy my idea is that mister midwinter had a motive of his own for not coming forward with the evidence that he might have given i have also reason to suspect that mister armadale out of regard for him followed his lead and that the verdict at the inquest
attaching no blame to anybody proceeded like many other verdicts of the same kind from an entirely superficial investigation of the circumstances the key to the whole mystery is to be found i firmly believe in that wretched woman's attempt to personate
the character of mister armadale's widow when the news of his death appeared in the papers but what first set her on this and by what inconceivable process of deception she can have induced mister midwinter to marry her as the certificate proves
under mister armadale's name is more than mister armadale himself knows the point was not touched at the inquest for the simple reason that the inquest only concerned itself with the circumstances attending her death mister armadale at his friend's request
saw miss blanchard and induced her to silence old darch on the subject of the claim that had been made relating to the widow's income as the claim had never been admitted even our stiff necked brother practitioner consented for once to do as he was asked
the doctor's statement that his patient was the widow of a gentleman named armadale was accordingly left unchallenged and so the matter has been hushed up she is buried in the great cemetery near the place where she died nobody but mister midwinter and mister armadale
who insisted on going with him followed her to the grave and nothing has been inscribed on the tombstone
and the date of her death so after all the harm she has done she rests at last and so the two men whom she has injured have forgiven her is there more to say on this subject before we leave it
which may be worth a moment's notice you ask if there is reason to suppose that the doctor comes out of the matter with hands which are really as clean as they look my dear augustus
at the bottom of more of this mischief than we shall ever find out and to have profited by the self imposed silence of mister midwinter and mister armadale as rogues perpetually profit by the misfortunes and necessities of honest men
and that one circumstance after my old bailey experience is enough for me as to evidence against him there is not a jot and as to retribution overtaking him i can only say i heartily hope retribution may prove in the long run
to be the more cunning customer of the two there is not much prospect of it at present the doctor's friends and admirers are i understand about to present him with a testimonial expressive of their sympathy under the sad occurrence
which has thrown a cloud over the opening of his sanitarium and of their undiminished confidence in his integrity and ability as a medical man we live augustus in an age eminently favorable to the growth of all roguery which is careful enough to keep up appearances
in this enlightened nineteenth century
to turn now to pleasanter subjects than sanitariums i may tell you that miss neelie is as good as well again and is in my humble opinion prettier than ever she is staying in london under the care of a female relative
and mister armadale satisfies her of the fact of his existence in case she should forget it regularly every day they are to be married in the spring unless missus milroy's death causes the ceremony to be postponed
the medical men are of opinion that the poor lady is sinking at last it may be a question of weeks or a question of months they can say no more
quiet and gentle and anxiously affectionate with her husband and her child but in her case this happy change is it seems
there is a difficulty in making the poor old major understand this he only sees that she has gone back to the likeness of her better self when he first married her and he sits for hours by her bedside now and tells her about his wonderful clock mister midwinter
of whom you will next expect me to say something is improving rapidly after causing some anxiety at first to the medical men who declared that he was suffering from a serious nervous shock produced by circumstances about which their patient's obstinate silence kept them quite in the dark he has rallied
he and mister armadale are together in a quiet lodging
his face showed signs of wear and tear very sad to see in so young a man but he spoke of himself and his future with a courage and hopefulness which men of twice his years if he has suffered as i suspect him to have suffered might have envied
this is no common man and we shall hear of him yet in no common way you will wonder how i came to be in london i went up with a return ticket from saturday to monday about that matter in dispute at our agent's
we had a tough fight but curiously enough a point occurred to me just as i got up to go and i went back to my chair and settled the question in no time of course i stayed at our hotel in covent garden william the waiter
i had the agent's second son the young chap you nicknamed mustapha when he made that dreadful mess about the turkish securities to dine with me on sunday
a little incident happened in the evening which may be worth recording as it connected itself with a certain old lady who was not at home when you and mister armadale blundered on that house in pimlico in the bygone time
of the present day he got restless after dinner let's go to a public amusement mister pedgift says he public amusement why it's sunday evening says i all right sir says mustapha
on sunday evening but they don't stop acting in the pulpit
as he wouldn't have any more wine
we went to a street at the west end and found it blocked up with carriages if it hadn't been sunday night i should have thought we were going to the opera
and a bill of the performance i had just time to notice that i was going to one of a series of sunday evening discourses on the pomps and vanities of the world by a sinner who has served them when mustapha jogged my elbow and whispered half a crown is the fashionable tip
i found myself between two demure and silent gentlemen with plates in their hands uncommonly well filled already with the fashionable tip mustapha patronized one plate and i the other we passed through two doors into a long room crammed with people
and there on a platform at the further end holding forth to the audience was not a man as i had expected but a woman and that woman mother oldershaw you never listened to anything more eloquent in your life
as long as i heard her she was never once at a loss for a word anywhere i shall think less of oratory as a human accomplishment for the rest of my days after that sunday evening
as for the matter of the sermon i may describe it as a narrative of missus oldershaw's experience among dilapidated women profusely illustrated in the pious and penitential style you will ask what sort of audience it was principally women augustus and
as i hope to be saved all the old harridans of the world of fashion whom
in her time sitting boldly in the front places with their cheeks ruddled with paint in a state of devout enjoyment wonderful to see i left mustapha to hear the end of it and i thought to myself as i went out of what shakespeare says somewhere lord what fools we mortals be
that wretched old bashwood has confirmed the fears i told you i had about him when he was brought back here from london there is no kind of doubt that he has really lost all the little reason he ever had he is perfectly harmless and perfectly happy
with the handsomest woman in england it ends of course in the boys pelting him
the moment his clothes are cleaned again he falls back into his favorite delusion and struts about before the church gates in the character of a bridegroom waiting for miss gwilt
who would ever have thought of a man at his age falling in love and who would ever have believed that the mischief that woman's beauty has done could have reached as far in the downward direction as our superannuated old clerk good by for the present my dear boy
if you see a particularly handsome snuff box in paris remember though your father scorns testimonials he doesn't object to receive a present from his son yours affectionately a pedgift sen postscript
lipari islands and of the death of their captain among others may really have been a quarrel among the scoundrels who robbed mister armadale and scuttled his yacht
look here burger said kennedy i do wish that you would confide in me the two famous students of roman remains sat together in kennedy's comfortable room overlooking the corso the night was cold
and they had both pulled up their chairs to the unsatisfactory italian stove which threw out a zone of stuffiness rather than of warmth outside under the bright winter stars lay the modern rome the long double chain of the electric lamps
the brilliantly lighted cafes the rushing carriages and the dense throng upon the footpaths but inside in the sumptuous chamber of the rich young english archaeologist there was only old rome to be seen
cracked and timeworn friezes hung upon the walls grey old busts of senators and soldiers with their fighting heads and their hard cruel faces peered out from the corners on the centre table amidst a litter of inscriptions fragments and ornaments
there stood the famous reconstruction by kennedy of the baths of caracalla
and a litter of curiosities strewed the rich red turkey carpet and of them all there was not one which was not of the most unimpeachable authenticity and of the utmost rarity and value for kennedy though little more than thirty
had a european reputation in this particular branch of research and was moreover provided with that long purse which either proves to be a fatal handicap to the student's energies or if his mind is still true to its purpose
kennedy had often been seduced by whim and pleasure from his studies but his mind was an incisive one capable of long and concentrated efforts which ended in sharp reactions of sensuous languor
was a fair index of the compromise between strength and weakness in his nature of a very different type was his companion julius burger he came of a curious blend
with the robust qualities of the north mingling strangely with the softer graces of the south blue teutonic eyes lightened his sun browned face and above them rose a square massive forehead with a fringe of close yellow curls lying round it
his strong firm jaw was clean shaven and his companion had frequently remarked how much it suggested
under its bluff german strength there lay always a suggestion of italian subtlety but the smile was so honest and the eyes so frank that one understood that this was only an indication of his ancestry with no actual bearing upon his character
in age and in reputation he was on the same level as his english companion but his life and his work had both been far more arduous twelve years before he had come as a poor student to rome
and had lived ever since upon some small endowment for research which had been awarded to him by the university of bonn painfully slowly and doggedly
tenacity and single mindedness he had climbed from rung to rung of the ladder of fame until now he was a member of the berlin academy
but the singleness of purpose which had brought him to the same high level as the rich and brilliant englishman had caused him in everything outside their work to stand infinitely below him he had never found a pause in his studies
too conscious of his own limitations in larger subjects and impatient of that small talk which is the conventional refuge of those who have no thoughts to express
which appeared to be slowly ripening into a friendship between these two very different rivals the base and origin of this lay in the fact
to properly appreciate the other their common interests and pursuits had brought them together and each had been attracted by the other's knowledge and then gradually something had been added to this kennedy had been amused by the frankness and simplicity of his rival
while burger in turn had been fascinated by the brilliancy and vivacity which had made kennedy such a favourite in roman society i say had because just at the moment the young englishman was somewhat under a cloud a love affair
the details of which had never quite come out had indicated a heartlessness and callousness upon his part which shocked many of his friends but in the bachelor circles of students and artists in which he preferred to move there is no very rigid code of honour in such matters
and though a head might be shaken or a pair of shoulders shrugged over the flight of two and the return of one the general sentiment was probably one of curiosity and perhaps of envy rather than of reprobation
look here burger said kennedy looking hard at the placid face of his companion
as he spoke he waved his hand in the direction of a rug which lay upon the floor
and this was heaped with a litter of objects inscribed tiles broken inscriptions cracked mosaics
rusty metal ornaments which to the uninitiated might have seemed to have come straight from a dustman's bin but which a specialist would have speedily recognized as unique of their kind the pile of odds and ends in the flat wicker work basket
supplied exactly one of those missing links of social development which are of such interest to the student it was the german who had brought them in and the englishman's eyes were hungry as he looked at them i won't interfere with your treasure trove
but i should very much like to hear about it he continued while burger very deliberately lit a cigar it is evidently a discovery of the first importance these inscriptions will make a sensation throughout europe for every one
there are so many that a dozen savants might spend a lifetime over them and build up a reputation as solid as the castle of saint angelo kennedy sat thinking with his fine forehead wrinkled and his fingers playing with his long fair moustache
you have given yourself away burger said he at last your words can only apply to one thing you have discovered a new catacomb i had no doubt that you had already come to that conclusion from an examination of these objects well
they certainly appeared to indicate it but your last remarks make it certain there is no place except a catacomb which could contain so vast a store of relics as you describe quite so there is no mystery about that i have discovered a new catacomb
where ah that is my secret my dear kennedy suffice it
that there is not one chance in a million of anyone else coming upon it its date is different from that of any known catacomb and it has been reserved for the burial of the highest christians so that the remains and the relics are quite different from anything which has ever been seen before
if i was not aware of your knowledge and of your energy my friend i would not hesitate under the pledge of secrecy to tell you everything about it
of the matter before i expose myself to such formidable competition
a love which held him true to it amidst all the distractions which come to a wealthy and dissipated young man he had ambition
in everything which concerned the old life and history of the city
look here burger said he earnestly
nothing would induce me to put pen to paper about anything which i see until i have your express permission i quite understand your feeling and i think it is most natural but you have really nothing whatever to fear from me
on the other hand if you don't tell me i shall make a systematic search
in that case of course i should make what use i liked of it
burger smiled thoughtfully over his cigar
that when i want information over any point you are not always so ready to supply it
you remember for example my giving you the material for your paper about the temple of the vestals ah well
would you give me an answer i wonder this new catacomb is a very intimate thing to me and i should certainly expect some sign of confidence in return
i can assure you that i will certainly do so well then said burger leaning luxuriously back in his settee and puffing a blue tree of cigar smoke into the air tell me all about your relations with miss mary saunderson
what the devil do you mean he cried what sort of a question is this you may mean it as a joke but you never made a worse one no i don't mean it as a joke said burger simply
i don't know much about the world and women and social life and that sort of thing and such an incident has the fascination of the unknown for me i know you and i knew her by sight
i should very much like to hear from your own lips exactly what it was which occurred between you i won't tell you a word that's all right it was only my whim to see if you would give up a secret as easily as you expected me to give up my secret of the new catacomb
but why should you expect otherwise of me there's saint john's clock striking ten it is quite time that i was going home no wait a bit burger said kennedy
which has burned out months ago you know we look upon a man who kisses and tells as the greatest coward and villain possible certainly said the german gathering up his basket of curiosities when he tells anything about a girl which is previously unknown
he must be so but in this case as you must be aware it was a public matter
no no you have refused and there is an end of it said burger with his basket on his arm no doubt you are quite right not to answer and no doubt i am quite right also and so again my dear kennedy good night the englishman watched burger cross the room
hold on old fellow said he i think you are behaving in a most ridiculous fashion but still if this is your condition i suppose that i must submit to it i hate saying anything about a girl
what was it you wanted to know the german came back to the stove and laying down his basket he sank into his chair once more may i have another cigar said he thank you very much
now as regards this young lady with whom you had this little adventure
she is at home with her own people oh really in england yes what part of england london no twickenham you must excuse my curiosity my dear kennedy
and you must put it down to my ignorance of the world no doubt it is quite a simple thing to persuade a young lady to go off with you for three weeks or so and then to hand her over to her own family at what did you call the place twickenham
that i cannot even imagine how you set about it for example
so i presume that you could not have loved her at all but if you did not love her why should you make this great scandal which has damaged you and ruined her
love is a big word
i liked her and well you say you've seen her you know how charming she could look but still i am willing to admit looking back that i could never have really loved her then my dear kennedy why did you do it the adventure of the thing had a great deal to do with it
what you are so fond of adventures where would the variety of life be without them
i've chased a good deal of game in my time but there's no chase like that of a pretty woman there was the piquant difficulty of it also for as she was the companion of lady emily rood it was almost impossible to see her alone
on the top of all the other obstacles which attracted me i learned from her own lips very early in the proceedings that she was engaged
she mentioned no names
so that made the adventure more alluring did it well it did certainly give a spice to it don't you think so i tell you that i am very ignorant about these things my dear fellow
you can remember that the apple you stole from your neighbour's tree was always sweeter than that which fell from your own and then i found that she cared for me
but at last i won her over she understood that my judicial separation from my wife made it impossible for me to do the right thing by her but she came all the same and we had a delightful time as long as it lasted but how about the other man
kennedy shrugged his shoulders i suppose it is the survival of the fittest said he if he had been the better man she would not have deserted him
only one other thing how did you get rid of her in three weeks
now of course rome is necessary to me
then again her old father turned up at the hotel in london and there was a scene and the whole thing became so unpleasant that really though i missed her dreadfully at first i was very glad to slip out of it
my dear kennedy i should not dream of repeating it but all that you say interests me very much
for i have seen so little of life and now you want to know about my new catacomb there's no use my trying to describe it
and that is for me to take you there that would be splendid when would you like to come the sooner the better i am all impatience to see it
suppose we start in an hour we must be very careful to keep the matter to ourselves
is it far some miles not too far to walk oh no we could walk there easily we had better do so then
quite so i think it would be best for us to meet at the gate of the appian way at midnight i must go back to my lodgings for the matches and candles and things all right burger
the cold clear air was filled with the musical chimes from that city of clocks as burger wrapped in an italian overcoat with a lantern hanging from his hand walked up to the rendezvous kennedy stepped out of the shadow to meet him
you are ardent in work as well as in love said the german laughing
i hope you left no clue as to where we were going not such a fool by jove
their footsteps sounded loud and crisp upon the rough stone paving of the disappointing road which is all that is left of the most famous highway of the world a peasant or two going home from the wine shop and a few carts of country produce coming up to rome
were the only things which they met
and saw against a rising moon the great circular bastion of cecilia metella in front of them then burger stopped with his hand to his side your legs are longer than mine and you are more accustomed to walking said he laughing
i think that the place where we turn off is somewhere here yes this is it round the corner of the trattoria
he had lit his lantern
which wound across the marshes of the campagna the great aqueduct of old rome lay like a monstrous caterpillar across the moonlit landscape and their road led them under one of its huge arches and past the circle of crumbling bricks which marks the old arena
at last burger stopped at a solitary wooden cow house and he drew a key from his pocket surely your catacomb is not inside a house cried kennedy the entrance to it is
does the proprietor know of it not he he had found one or two objects which made me almost certain that his house was built on the entrance to such a place so i rented it from him and did my excavations for myself come in and shut the door behind you
it was a long empty building
burger put his lantern down on the ground and shaded its light in all directions save one by draping his overcoat round it it might excite remark if anyone saw a light in this lonely place said he just help me to move this boarding the flooring was loose in the corner
and plank by plank the two savants raised it and leaned it against the wall below there was a square aperture and a stair of old stone steps which led away down into the bowels of the earth be careful cried burger
and if you were once to lose your way there the chances would be a hundred to one against your ever coming out again wait until i bring the light how do you find your own way if it is so complicated i had some very narrow escapes at first
but i have gradually learned to go about there is a certain system to it but it is one which a lost man if he were in the dark could not possibly find out
you can see for yourself that it is difficult
divides and subdivides a dozen times before you go a hundred yards they had descended some twenty feet from the level of the byre
the lantern cast a flickering light
over the cracked brown walls in every direction were the black openings of passages which radiated from this common centre i want you to follow me closely my friend said burger do not loiter
to look at anything upon the way for the place to which i will take you contains all that you can see and more it will save time for us to go there direct
every now and then the passage bifurcated but burger was evidently following some secret marks of his own for he neither stopped nor hesitated everywhere along the walls packed like the berths upon an emigrant ship lay the christians of old rome
the yellow light flickered over the shrivelled features of the mummies and gleamed upon rounded skulls and long white armbones crossed over fleshless chests and everywhere as he passed kennedy looked with wistful eyes
upon inscriptions funeral vessels pictures vestments utensils all lying as pious hands had placed them so many centuries ago it was apparent to him
containing such a storehouse of roman remains as had never before come at one time under the observation of the student what would happen if the light went out he asked as they hurried onwards
by the way kennedy have you any matches
more than that i think there is really no limit to the tombs at least
this is a very difficult place so i think that i will use our ball of string
paying it out as he advanced
with a perfect network of intersecting corridors but these all ended in one large circular hall with a square pedestal of tufa topped with a slab of marble at one end of it by jove cried kennedy in an ecstasy as burger swung his lantern over the marble
it is a christian altar probably the first one in existence here is the little consecration cross cut upon the corner of it no doubt this circular space was used as a church
for they are the early popes and bishops of the church with their mitres their croziers and full canonicals
kennedy went across and stared at the ghastly head which lay loosely on the shredded and mouldering mitre this is most interesting said he and his voice seemed to boom against the concave vault as far as my experience goes it is unique
but the german had strolled away and was standing in the middle of a yellow circle of light at the other side of the hall do you know how many wrong turnings there are between this and the stairs he asked there are over two thousand
no doubt it was one of the means of protection which the christians adopted the odds are two thousand to one against a man getting out even if he had a light but if he were in the dark it would of course be far more difficult so i should think
and the darkness is something dreadful i tried it once for an experiment let us try it again
it was as if an invisible hand was squeezed tightly over each of kennedy's eyes never had he known what such darkness was it seemed to press upon him and to smother him it was a solid obstacle against which the body shrank from advancing
he put his hands out to push it back from him that will do burger said he let's have the light again but his companion began to laugh and in that circular room the sound seemed to come from every side at once
you seem uneasy friend kennedy said he go on man light the candle said kennedy impatiently it's very strange kennedy but i could not in the least tell by the sound in which direction you stand could you tell where i am no you seem to be on every side of me
well kennedy there are two things which i understand that you are very fond of the one is an adventure and the other is an obstacle to surmount the adventure must be the finding of your way out of this catacomb
the obstacle will be the darkness and the two thousand wrong turns
but you need not hurry for you have plenty of time and when you halt for a rest now and then i should like you just to think of miss mary saunderson and whether you treated her quite fairly
he was running about in little circles and clasping at the solid blackness with both hands good bye
i really do not think kennedy even by your own showing that you did the right thing by that girl
and i can supply it miss saunderson was engaged to a poor ungainly devil of a student and his name was julius burger there was a rustle somewhere the vague sound of a foot striking a stone
and then there fell silence upon that old christian church a stagnant heavy silence which closed round kennedy and shut him in like water round a drowning man some two months afterwards
the following paragraph made the round of the european press one of the most interesting discoveries of recent years is that of the new catacomb in rome which lies some distance to the east of the well known vaults of saint calixtus
is due to the energy and sagacity of doctor julius burger the young german specialist who is rapidly taking the first place as an authority upon ancient rome although the first to publish his discovery
it appears that a less fortunate adventurer had anticipated doctor burger some months ago mister kennedy the well known english student disappeared suddenly from his rooms in the corso and it was conjectured that his association with a recent scandal
had driven him to leave rome it appears now that he had in reality fallen a victim to that fervid love of archaeology which had raised him to a distinguished place among living scholars his body was discovered in the heart of the new catacomb
which make these subterranean tombs so dangerous to explorers the deceased gentleman had with inexplicable rashness made his way into this labyrinth without as far as can be discovered taking with him either candles or matches
so that his sad fate was the natural result of his own temerity
you haven't any idea what a crank she is mister bright laughed grace
because she said we were taking up the whole sidewalk poor little mabel no wonder she has a scared look in her eyes all the time well here we are responded mister bright as he rang the bell now for the tug of war
as he spoke the door was opened by mabel who positively shook in her shoes when she saw her visitors don't be frightened whispered grace taking her hand we have come for you
may i speak with miss brant asked mister bright courteously as they stepped into the narrow hall before mabel had time to answer
shoved her aside and confronted them it was miss brant herself well what do you want
good afternoon said mister bright courteously am i speaking to miss brant
and you better state your business now for i've no time to fool away on strangers you have a young girl with you by the name of mabel allison
asked mister bright yes i have what's the matter with her has she been gettin into mischief if she has i'll tan her hide said miss brant with a threatening gesture
on the contrary replied mister bright i hear very good reports of her has she lived with you long
if you've come here to quiz me and pry around about her you can get right out for i'm not answering any fool questions i will not trouble you with further questions replied mister bright
but will proceed at once to business i have come to take miss mabel away with me she has found friends who are willing to help her until she finishes her education and she wishes to go to them
well you just take her if you dare have you legally adopted her asked mister bright quietly that's none of your business either
and these two snips of girls with you almost screamed miss brant that will do said mister bright sternly we will go but we shall take miss mabel with us
i am a lawyer miss brant and i have positive proof that this child is not bound to you in any way you took her from the orphanage on trial exactly as you might hire a servant
you did not even take the trouble to have yourself appointed her guardian you agreed to pay her for her work but blows and harsh words are the only payment
and she can call you to account for it if she chooses however you have imposed upon her for the last time
you touch her if you dare she shan't leave this house said the woman in a furious tone
as for you turning to miss brant if you try to stop her you will soon find yourself in a most unpleasant position
that the rescue party stared in amazement never had they seen such an exhibition of temper when mabel appeared her shabby hat in her hand
don't you dare leave my house with any of my property you baggage she hissed
that i shall never have to go back there again i'm afraid that it's all a dream and that i'll wake up and find her standing over me can she get me again she said turning piteously to mister bright
my dear little girl he said taking her hand she can't touch you i'll adopt you myself before i'll let you go back to her
good bye grace you see your rescue party proved a success good bye daughter take good care of mabel
slowly toward jessica's home
as she walked between grace and jessica clinging to their hands as though expecting every minute to be snatched from them well girls said grace here is my street i must leave you now be good children and
she was interrupted by an exultant shriek and a second later five girls appeared as by magic and gleefully surrounded the rescue party
hurrah shrieked nora waving her school bag we have met the enemy and they are ours tell us about it quickly
then everyone talked at once surrounding mabel and asking her questions until grace said laughing stop it girls let her get used to you gradually don't come down on her like an avalanche
mabel however was equal to the occasion she answered their questions without embarrassment and seemed quietly pleased at their demonstrations
said miriam nesbit and we are your adopted mothers you will have your hands full trying to please all of us
said jessica calmly i need mabel more than
but perhaps if you're good i'll loan her to you occasionally come on mabel let's go home before they spoil you completely
i suppose we shall have to respect your claim
protection of aperture
pierced in the thickness of the walls
and the fillings of the aperture are unimportant it may well remain so but when the fillings are delicate and of value as in the case of colored glass finely wrought tracery or sculpture
and back by the bevel of the aperture to the joints or surface of the fillings
and this is the chief practical service of aperture mouldings which are otherwise entirely decorative but as this very decorative character renders them unfit to be made channels for rain water
it is well to add some external roofing to the aperture
this protection in its most usual form
but this is in reality only a contracted form of a true roof projecting from the wall over the aperture and all protections of apertures whatsoever are to be conceived as portions of small roofs
attached to the wall behind and supported by it so long as their scale admits of their being so with safety and afterwards in such manner
but for general service the gable is the proper and natural form and may be taken as representative of the rest then this gable may either project unsupported from the wall
and this in its turn supported by brackets or spurs
in the cumberland and border cottages the door is generally protected by two pieces of slate arranged in a gable giving the purest possible type of the first form in elaborate architecture such a projection hardly ever occurs
and in large architecture cannot with safety occur without brackets but by cutting away the greater part of the projection we shall arrive at the idea of a plain gabled cornice of which a perfect example will be found in plate
with this first complete form we may associate the rude single projecting penthouse roof imperfect because either it must be level
or throw off the drip upon the persons entering
this is a most beautiful and natural type and is found in all good architecture from the highest to the most humble it is a frequent form of cottage door more especially when carried on spurs being of
peculiarly easy construction in wood as applied to large architecture it can evidently be built in its boldest and simplest form either of wood only
or on a scale which will admit of its sides being each a single slab of stone
owing to the increased boldness of the required supporting arch
of which the latter is clearly the best
lateral thrust it may become necessary to provide for its farther safety
this last is the perfect type of aperture protection none other can ever be invented so good it is that once employed by giotto
and torn down by the proveditore benedetto uguccione to erect a renaissance front instead
in venice the porch of the church of saint apollinare also to put up some renaissance upholstery
appears invariably as a beast of prey and
and be driven into the intervals and embayed there
so that they may correspond in slope or nearly so with the bevel of the doorway and either meet each other in the intervals or have the said intervals closed up with an intermediate wall
so that nobody may get embayed in them the porches will thus be united and form one range of great open gulphs or caverns
ready to receive all comers and direct the current of the crowd into the narrower entrances as the lateral thrust of the arches is now met by each other the pinnacles if there were any must be removed and
giotto with inconceivable exquisiteness
those of the cathedral itself being all of the same type various singular and delightful conditions of it are applied in italian domestic architecture in the broletto of monza very quaintly
being associated with balconies for speaking to the people and passing into pulpits
the shape of roofing being then nearly immaterial and very fantastic often a conical cap all these conditions of window protection being for real service
are endlessly delightful and i believe the beauty of the balcony protected by an open canopy supported by light shafts never yet to have been properly worked out but the renaissance architects destroyed all of them
and introduced the magnificent and witty roman invention of a model of a greek pediment with its cornices of monstrous thickness bracketed up above the window the horizontal cornice of the pediment is thus useless
and of course therefore retained the protection to the head of the window being constructed on the principle of a hat with its crown sewn up but the deep and dark triangular cavity thus obtained
affords farther opportunity for putting ornament out of sight of which the renaissance architects are not slow to avail themselves a more rational condition
couple of shafts or pilasters carried on a bracketed sill
stephen weary too with his unaccustomed amount of rowing and with the intense inward life of the last twelve hours but too restless to sleep walked and lounged about the deck with his cigar far on into midnight not seeing the dark water
hardly conscious there were stars living only in the near and distant future at last fatigue conquered restlessness and he rolled himself up in a piece of tarpaulin on the deck near maggie's feet
she had fallen asleep before nine and had been sleeping for six hours before the faintest hint of a midsummer daybreak was discernible she awoke from that vivid dreaming which makes the margin of our deeper rest she was in a boat on the wide water with stephen
and in the gathering darkness something like a star appeared that grew and grew till they saw it was the virgin seated in saint ogg's boat and it came nearer and nearer
no not philip but her brother who rowed past without looking at her and she rose to stretch out her arms and call to him and their own boat turned over with the movement and they began to sink till with one spasm of dread she seemed to awake
and find she was a child again in the parlor at evening twilight and tom was not really angry from the soothed sense of that false waking she passed to the real waking to the plash of water against the vessel and the sound of a footstep on the deck
and the awful starlit sky there was a moment of utter bewilderment before her mind could get disentangled from the confused web of dreams but soon the whole terrible truth urged itself upon her stephen was not by her now
she was alone with her own memory and her own dread the irrevocable wrong that must blot her life had been committed she had brought sorrow into the lives of others into the lives that were knit up with hers by trust and love
the feeling of a few short weeks had hurried her into the sins her nature had most recoiled from breach of faith and cruel selfishness she had rent the ties that had given meaning to duty and had made herself an outlawed soul
with no guide but the wayward choice of her own passion and where would that lead her where had it led her now she had said she would rather die than fall into that temptation she felt it now
now that the consequences of such a fall had come before the outward act was completed there was at least this fruit from all her years of striving after the highest and best that her soul though betrayed beguiled ensnared could never deliberately consent to a choice of the lower
and a choice of what o god not a choice of joy but of conscious cruelty and hardness for could she ever cease to see before her lucy and philip with their murdered trust and hopes her life with stephen could have no sacredness
she must forever sink and wander vaguely driven by uncertain impulse for she had let go the clue of life that clue which once in the far off years her young need had clutched so strongly
before she knew them before they had come within her reach philip had been right when he told her that she knew nothing of renunciation she had thought it was quiet ecstasy she saw it face to face now that sad patient loving strength which holds the clue of life
and saw that the thorns were forever pressing on its brow the yesterday which could never be revoked
she would have bowed beneath that cross with a sense of rest day break came and the reddening eastern light while her past life was grasping her in this way
she could see stephen now lying on the deck still fast asleep and with the sight of him there came a wave of anguish that found its way in a long suppressed sob the worst bitterness of parting the thought that urged the sharpest inward cry for help
was the pain it must give to him but surmounting everything was the horror at her own possible failure the dread lest her conscience should be benumbed again and not rise to energy till it was too late too late it was too late already not to have caused misery
too late for everything perhaps but to rush away from the last act of baseness the tasting of joys that were wrung from crushed hearts the sun was rising now and maggie started up with the sense that a day of resistance was beginning for her
her eyelashes were still wet with tears as with her shawl over her head she sat looking at the slowly rounding sun something roused stephen too and getting up from his hard bed he came to sit beside her
the sharp instinct of anxious love saw something to give him alarm in the very first glance he had a hovering dread of some resistance in maggie's nature that he would be unable to overcome he had the uneasy consciousness that he had robbed her of perfect freedom yesterday
there was too much native honor in him for him not to feel that if her will should recoil his conduct would have been odious and she would have a right to reproach him but maggie did not feel that right she was too conscious of fatal weakness in herself
too full of the tenderness that comes with the foreseen need for inflicting a wound she let him take her hand when he came to sit down beside her and smiled at him only with rather a sad glance she could say nothing to pain him till the moment of possible parting was nearer
and so they drank their cup of coffee together and walked about the deck and heard the captain's assurance that they should be in at mudport by five o'clock each with an inward burthen but in him it was an undefined fear which he trusted to the coming hours to dissipate
in her it was a definite resolve on which she was trying silently to tighten her hold stephen was continually through the morning expressing his anxiety at the fatigue and discomfort she was suffering
and alluded to landing and to the change of motion and repose she would have in a carriage wanting to assure himself more completely by presupposing that everything would be as he had arranged it for a long while maggie contented herself with assuring him that she had had a good night's rest
and that she didn't mind about being on the vessel it was not like being on the open sea it was only a little less pleasant than being in a boat on the floss but a suppressed resolve will betray itself in the eyes
and stephen became more and more uneasy as the day advanced under the sense that maggie had entirely lost her passiveness he longed but did not dare to speak of their marriage of where they would go after it and the steps he would take to inform his father and the rest of what had happened
he longed to assure himself of a tacit assent from her but each time he looked at her he gathered a stronger dread of the new quiet sadness with which she met his eyes and they were more and more silent here we are in sight of mudport he said at last
now dearest he added turning toward her with a look that was half beseeching the worst part of your fatigue is over on the land we can command swiftness in another hour and a half we shall be in a chaise together and that will seem rest to you after this
she spoke in the lowest tone as he had done but with distinct decision we shall not be together we shall have parted the blood rushed to stephen's face we shall not he said i'll die first
it was as he had dreaded there was a struggle coming but neither of them dared to say another word till the boat was let down and they were taken to the landing place here there was a cluster of gazers and passengers awaiting the departure of the steamboat to saint ogg's
and stephen was hurrying her along on his arm that some one had advanced toward her from that cluster as if he were coming to speak to her but she was hurried along and was indifferent to everything but the coming trial a porter guided them to the nearest inn and posting house
and stephen gave the order for the chaise as they passed through the yard maggie took no notice of this and only said
when they entered maggie did not sit down and stephen whose face had a desperate determination in it was about to ring the bell when she said in a firm voice i'm not going we must part here maggie
no it is not done said maggie too much is done more than we can ever remove the trace of but i will go no farther don't try to prevail with me again i couldn't choose yesterday what was he to do he dared not go near her
her anger might leap out and make a new barrier he walked backward and forward in maddening perplexity maggie he said at last pausing before her and speaking in a tone of imploring wretchedness
forgive me for what i did yesterday i will obey you now i will do nothing without your full consent but don't blight our lives forever by a rash perversity that can answer no good purpose to any one that can only create new evils sit down dearest wait
think what you are going to do don't treat me as if you couldn't trust me he had chosen the most effective appeal but maggie's will was fixed unswervingly on the coming wrench she had made up her mind to suffer we must not wait
she said in a low but distinct voice we must part at once we can't part maggie said stephen more impetuously i can't bear it what is the use of inflicting that misery on me
the blow whatever it may have been has been struck now will it help any one else that you should drive me mad i will not begin any future even for you said maggie tremulously
i would rather have died than fall into this temptation
but we must part now we will not part stephen burst out instinctively placing his back against the door forgetting everything he had said a few moments before i will not endure it you'll make me desperate i sha'n't know what i do
maggie trembled she felt that the parting could not be effected suddenly she must rely on a slower appeal to stephen's better self she must be prepared for a harder task than that of rushing away while resolution was fresh she sat down
stephen watching her with that look of desperation which had come over him like a lurid light approached slowly from the door seated himself close beside her and grasped her hand her heart beat like the heart of a frightened bird but this direct opposition helped her
she felt her determination growing stronger remember what you felt weeks ago she began with beseeching earnestness
that natural law surmounts every other we can't help what it clashes with it is not so stephen i'm quite sure that is wrong i have tried to think it again and again but i see if we judged in that way there would be a warrant for all treachery and cruelty
if the past is not to bind us where can duty lie we should have no law but the inclination of the moment but there are ties that can't be kept by mere resolution said stephen starting up and walking about again what is outward faithfulness
would they have thanked us for anything so hollow as constancy without love maggie did not answer immediately she was undergoing an inward as well as an outward contest at last she said with a passionate assertion of her conviction
as much against herself as against him that seems right at first but when i look further i'm sure it is not right faithfulness and constancy mean something else besides doing what is easiest and pleasantest to ourselves
whatever would cause misery to those whom the course of our lives has made dependent on us if we if i had been better nobler those claims would have been so strongly present with me i should have felt them pressing on my heart so continually
that the opposite feeling would never have grown in me as it has done
i should have prayed for help so earnestly i should have rushed away as we rush from hideous danger i feel no excuse for myself none i should never have failed toward lucy and philip as i have done if i had not been weak selfish and hard
able to think of their pain without a pain to myself that would have destroyed all temptation oh what is lucy feeling now she believed in me she loved me she was so good to me think of her
maggie's voice was getting choked as she uttered these last words i can't think of her said stephen stamping as if with pain i can think of nothing but you maggie you demand of a man what is impossible i felt that once but i can't go back to it now
and where is the use of your thinking of it except to torture me you can't save them from pain now you can only tear yourself from me and make my life worthless to me and even if we could go back and both fulfil our engagements if that were possible now
it would be hateful horrible to think of your ever being philip's wife of your ever being the wife of a man you didn't love we have both been rescued from a mistake a deep flush came over maggie's face and she couldn't speak stephen saw this
he sat down again taking her hand in his and looking at her with passionate entreaty maggie dearest if you love me you are mine who can have so great a claim on you as i have my life is bound up in your love
there is nothing in the past that can annul our right to each other it is the first time we have either of us loved with our whole heart and soul maggie was still silent for a little while looking down stephen was in a flutter of new hope
he was going to triumph but she raised her eyes and met his with a glance that was filled with the anguish of regret not with yielding no not with my whole heart and soul stephen she said with timid resolution
i have never consented to it with my whole mind there are memories and affections and longings after perfect goodness that have such a strong hold on me they would never quit me for long they would come back and be pain to me repentance
i couldn't live in peace if i put the shadow of a wilful sin between myself and god i have caused sorrow already i know i feel it but i have never deliberately consented to it i have never said they shall suffer that i may have joy
it has never been my will to marry you if you were to win consent from the momentary triumph of my feeling for you you would not have my whole soul if i could wake back again into the time before yesterday i would choose to be true to my calmer affections and live without the joy of love
stephen loosed her hand and rising impatiently walked up and down the room in suppressed rage good god he burst out at last what a miserable thing a woman's love is to a man's i could commit crimes for you
and you can balance and choose in that way but you don't love me if you had a tithe of the feeling for me that i have for you it would be impossible to you to think for a moment of sacrificing me but it weighs nothing with you that you are robbing me of my life's happiness
as if she were ever and anon seeing where she stood by great flashes of lightning and then again stretched forth her hands in the darkness no i don't sacrifice you i couldn't sacrifice you
but i can't believe in a good for you that i feel that we both feel is a wrong toward others we can't choose happiness either for ourselves or for another we can't tell where that will lie we can only choose whether we will indulge ourselves in the present moment
or whether we will renounce that for the sake of obeying the divine voice within us for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify our lives i know this belief is hard
but i have felt that if i let it go forever
but maggie said stephen seating himself by her again is it possible you don't see that what happened yesterday has altered the whole position of things what infatuation is it what obstinate prepossession that blinds you to that
it is too late to say what we might have done or what we ought to have done admitting the very worst view of what has been done it is a fact we must act on now our position is altered the right course is no longer what it was before
we must accept our own actions and start afresh from them suppose we had been married yesterday it is nearly the same thing the effect on others would not have been different it would only have made this difference to ourselves stephen added bitterly
that you might have acknowledged then that your tie to me was stronger than to others
stephen thought again that he was beginning to prevail he had never yet believed that he should not prevail there are possibilities which our minds shrink from too completely for us to fear them dearest
he said in his deepest tenderest tone leaning toward her and putting his arm round her you are mine now the world believes it duty must spring out of that now in a few hours you will be legally mine and those who had claims on us will submit
they will see that there was a force which declared against their claims maggie's eyes opened wide in one terrified look at the face that was close to hers
she said in a voice almost of agony stephen don't ask me don't urge me i can't argue any longer i don't know what is wise but my heart will not let me do it i see i feel their trouble now it is as if it were branded on my mind
i have suffered and had no one to pity me and now i have made others suffer it would never leave me it would embitter your love to me i do care for philip in a different way i remember all we said to each other
i know how he thought of me as the one promise of his life he was given to me that i might make his lot less hard and i have forsaken him and lucy she has been deceived she who trusted me more than any one
i cannot marry you i cannot take a good for myself that has been wrung out of their misery it is not the force that ought to rule us this that we feel for each other it would rend me away from all that my past life has made dear and holy to me
i can't set out on a fresh life and forget that i must go back to it and cling to it else i shall feel as if there were nothing firm beneath my feet good god maggie said stephen rising too and grasping her arm you rave
you see nothing as it really is yes i do but they will believe me i will confess everything lucy will believe me she will forgive you and and
dear dear stephen let me go don't drag me into deeper remorse my whole soul has never consented it does not consent now stephen let go her arm and sank back on his chair half stunned by despairing rage he was silent a few moments not looking at her
while her eyes were turned toward him yearningly in alarm at this sudden change at last he said still without looking at her go then leave me
but he shrank from it as if it had been burning iron and said again leave me maggie was not conscious of a decision as she turned away from that gloomy averted face and walked out of the room
it was like an automatic action that fulfils a forgotten intention what came after a sense of stairs descended as if in a dream of flagstones of a chaise and horses standing then a street and a turning into another street where a stage coach was standing
taking in passengers and the darting thought that that coach would take her away perhaps toward home but she could ask nothing yet she only got into the coach home where her mother and brother were philip lucy the scene of her very cares and trials
was the haven toward which her mind tended the sanctuary where sacred relics lay where she would be rescued from more falling the thought of stephen was like a horrible throbbing pain which yet as such pains do seemed to urge all other thoughts into activity
but among her thoughts what others would say and think of her conduct was hardly present love and deep pity and remorseful anguish left no room for that the coach was taking her to york farther away from home
but she did not learn that until she was set down in the old city at midnight it was no matter she could sleep there and start home the next day she had her purse in her pocket with all her money in it a bank note and a sovereign
she had kept it in her pocket from forgetfulness after going out to make purchases the day before yesterday
with her will bent unwaveringly on the path of penitent sacrifice the great struggles of life are not so easy as that the great problems of life are not so clear in the darkness of that night she saw stephen's face turned toward her in passionate reproachful misery
she lived through again all the tremulous delights of his presence with her that made existence an easy floating in a stream of joy instead of a quiet resolved endurance and effort the love she had renounced came back upon her with a cruel charm
she felt herself opening her arms to receive it once more and then it seemed to slip away and fade and vanish leaving only the dying sound of a deep thrilling voice that said
new scenes and faces mist clogs the sunshine smoky dwarf houses have we round on every side matthew arnold the next afternoon about twenty miles from milton northern they entered on the little branch railway that led to heston
heston itself was one long straggling street running parallel to the seashore
to use a scotch word every thing looked more purposelike the country carts had more iron and less wood and leather about the horse gear the people in the streets although on pleasure bent had yet a busy mind the colours looked grayer more enduring not so gay and pretty
there were no smock frocks even among the country folk
here if they had any leisure from customers they made themselves business in the shop even margaret fancied to the unnecessary unrolling and rerolling of ribbons
their two nights at hotels had cost more than mister hale had anticipated
there for the first time for many days did margaret feel at rest there was a dreaminess in the rest too which made it still more perfect and luxurious to repose in the distant sea lapping the sandy shore with measured sound the nearer cries of the donkey boys
the unusual scenes moving before her like pictures which she cared not in her laziness to have fully explained before they passed away the stroll down to the beach to breathe the sea air soft and warm on that sandy shore even to the end of november the great long misty sea line touching the tender coloured sky
the white sail of a distant boat turning silver in some pale sunbeam it seemed as if she could dream her life away in such luxury of pensiveness in which she made her present all in all from not daring to think of the past or wishing to contemplate the future
one evening it was arranged that margaret and her father should go the next day to milton northern and look out for a house
which he could only do by an interview with the latter gentleman margaret knew that they ought to be removing but she had a repugnance to the idea of a manufacturing town and believed that her mother was receiving benefit from heston air so she would willingly have deferred the expedition to milton
for several miles before they reached milton they saw a deep lead coloured cloud hanging over the horizon in the direction in which it lay
nearer to the town the air had a faint taste and smell of smoke perhaps after all more a loss of the fragrance of grass and herbage than any positive taste or smell
here and there a great oblong many windowed factory stood up like a hen among her chickens puffing out black unparliamentary smoke and sufficiently accounting for the cloud which margaret had taken to foretell rain as they drove through the larger and wider streets from the station to the hotel
they had to stop constantly great loaded lurries blocked up the not over wide thoroughfares
here every van every waggon and truck bore cotton either in the raw shape in bags or the woven shape in bales of calico
people thronged the footpaths most of them well dressed as regarded the material but with a slovenly looseness which struck margaret as different from the shabby threadbare smartness of a similar class in london new street said mister hale
this i believe is the principal street in milton bell has often spoken to me about it
mister thornton's mill must be somewhere not very far off for he is mister bell's tenant but i fancy he dates from his warehouse where is our hotel papa
shall we have lunch before or after we have looked at the houses we marked in the milton times oh let us get our work done first very well
then we will set off we will keep the cab it will be safer than losing ourselves and being too late for the train this afternoon there were no letters awaiting him
they set out on their house hunting thirty pounds a year was all they could afford to give but in hampshire they could have met with a roomy house and pleasant garden for the money here even the necessary accommodation of two sitting rooms and four bed rooms seemed unattainable they went through their list rejecting each as they visited it
we must go back to the second i think that one in crampton don't they call the suburb there were three sitting rooms don't you remember how we laughed at the number compared with the three bed rooms but i have planned it all
really a pretty view over the plain with a great bend of river or canal or whatever it is down below then i could have the little bed room behind in that projection at the head of the first flight of stairs over the kitchen you know and you and mamma the room behind the drawing room
but dixon and the girl we are to have to help oh wait a minute i am overpowered by the discovery of my own genius for management
won't that do i dare say it will but
the drawing room and your bed room for mamma will come most in contact with them and your book shelves will hide a great deal of that gaudy pattern in the dining room then you think it the best if so i had better go at once and call on this mister donkin to whom the advertisement refers me
by the time it is ready i shall be with you i hope i shall be able to get new papers margaret hoped so too though she said nothing she had never come fairly in contact with the taste that loves ornament however bad more than the plainness and simplicity which are of themselves the framework of elegance
she was followed by a quick stepping waiter i beg your pardon ma'am
as i understood from what the gentleman said you would be back in an hour i told him so and he came again about five minutes ago and said he would wait for mister hale he is in your room now ma'am thank you my father will return soon and then you can tell him
margaret opened the door and went in with the straight fearless dignified presence habitual to her
a young lady of a different type to most of those he was in the habit of seeing
a dark silk gown without any trimming or flounce
he did not understand who she was
he had heard that mister hale had a daughter but
my father brought me to the door not a minute ago but unfortunately he was not told that you were here and he has gone away on some business but he will come back almost directly
mister thornton was in habits of authority himself but she seemed to assume some kind of rule over him at once he had been getting impatient at the loss of his time on a market day the moment before she appeared yet now he calmly took a seat at her bidding
mister thornton had thought that the house in crampton was really just the thing but now that he saw margaret with her superb ways of moving and looking he began to feel ashamed of having imagined that it would do very well for the hales in spite of a certain vulgarity in it which had struck him at the time of his looking it over
margaret could not help her looks but the short curled upper lip the round massive up turned chin the manner of carrying her head her movements full of a soft feminine defiance
she was tired now and would rather have remained silent and taken the rest her father had planned for her
she wished that he would go as he had once spoken of doing instead of sitting there answering with curt sentences all the remarks she made
she sat facing him and facing the light her full beauty met his eye her round white flexile throat rising out of the full yet lithe figure her lips moving so slightly as she spoke not breaking the cold serene look of her face with any variation from the one lovely haughty curve
her eyes with their soft gloom meeting his with quiet maiden freedom
he tried so to compensate himself for the mortified feeling that while he looked upon her with an admiration he could not repress she looked at him with proud indifference taking him he thought for what in his irritation he told himself he was
her quiet coldness of demeanour he interpreted into contemptuousness
her father came in and with his pleasant gentlemanly courteousness of apology reinstated his name and family in mister thornton's good opinion
and margaret glad that her part of entertaining the visitor was over
and he had to repeat what he said margaret the landlord will persist in admiring that hideous paper and i am afraid we must let it remain oh dear i am sorry
by some of her sketches but gave up the idea at last as likely only to make bad worse
he was glad she did not and yet
it seemed exceedingly long to me i was just at the last gasp when you came in
very much to the point though i should think he is a clearheaded fellow he said did you hear that crampton is on gravelly soil and by far the most healthy suburb in the neighbour hood of milton when they returned to heston
there was the day's account to be given to missus hale who was full of questions which they answered in the intervals of tea drinking and what is your correspondent mister thornton like ask margaret
oh i hardly know what he is like said margaret lazily too tired to tax her powers of description much and then rousing herself she said
how old papa i should guess about thirty about thirty with a face that is neither exactly plain nor yet handsome nothing remarkable not quite a gentleman but that was hardly to be expected not vulgar or common though
put in her father rather jealous of any disparagement of the sole friend he had in milton oh no said margaret
i should not like to have to bargain with him he looks very inflexible altogether a man who seems made for his niche mamma sagacious and strong as becomes a great tradesman don't call the milton manufacturers tradesmen margaret said her father they are very different
pink and blue roses with yellow leaves and such a heavy cornice round the room
the landlord received their thanks very composedly and let them think if they liked that he had relented from his expressed determination not to repaper there was no particular need to tell them that what he did not care to do for a reverend mister hale unknown in milton
chapter thirty miss crawford's uneasiness was much lightened by this conversation and she walked home again in spirits which might have defied almost another week
of the same small party in the same bad weather had they been put to the proof but as that very evening brought her brother down from london again in quite or more than quite his usual cheerfulness
she had nothing farther to try her own his still refusing to tell her what he had gone for was but the promotion of gaiety a day before it might have irritated
but now it was a pleasant joke suspected only of concealing something planned as a pleasant surprise to herself and the next day did bring a surprise to her henry had said he should just go and ask the bertrams how they did and be back in ten minutes
but he was gone above an hour and when his sister who had been waiting for him to walk with her in the garden met him at last most impatiently in the sweep and cried out my dear henry where can you have been all this time
he had only to say that he had been sitting with lady bertram and fanny sitting with them an hour and a half exclaimed mary but this was only the beginning of her surprise yes mary said he drawing her arm within his and walking along the sweep
as if not knowing where he was i could not get away sooner fanny looked so lovely i am quite determined mary my mind is entirely made up will it astonish you no you must be aware
that i am quite determined to marry fanny price the surprise was now complete for in spite of whatever his consciousness might suggest
a suspicion of his having any such views had never entered his sister's imagination and she looked so truly the astonishment she felt that he was obliged to repeat what he had said
and more fully and more solemnly the conviction of his determination once admitted it was not unwelcome there was even pleasure with the surprise
mary was in a state of mind to rejoice in a connexion with the bertram family and to be not displeased with her brother's marrying a little beneath him yes mary was henry's concluding assurance
i am fairly caught you know with what idle designs i began but this is the end of them i have i flatter myself made no inconsiderable progress in her affections
but my own are entirely fixed lucky lucky girl cried mary as soon as she could speak what a match for her my dearest henry
this must be my first feeling but my second which you shall have as sincerely is that i approve your choice from my soul and foresee your happiness as heartily
as i wish and desire it you will have a sweet little wife all gratitude and devotion exactly what you deserve what an amazing match for her
missus norris often talks of her luck what will she say now the delight of all the family indeed and she has some true friends in it how they will rejoice
nothing could be more impossible than to answer such a question though nothing could be more agreeable than to have it asked how the pleasing plague had stolen on him he could not say
and before he had expressed the same sentiment with a little variation of words three times over his sister eagerly interrupted him with ah my dear henry
and this is what took you to london this was your business you chose to consult the admiral before you made up your mind but this he stoutly denied
he knew his uncle too well to consult him on any matrimonial scheme the admiral hated marriage and thought it never pardonable in a young man of independent fortune
when fanny is known to him continued henry he will doat on her she is exactly the woman to do away every prejudice of such a man as the admiral for she he would describe
his own ideas but till it is absolutely settled settled beyond all interference he shall know nothing of the matter no mary you are quite mistaken you have not discovered my business yet
well well i am satisfied i know now to whom it must relate and am in no hurry for the rest fanny price wonderful quite wonderful
that you should have found your fate in mansfield but you are quite right you could not have chosen better there is not a better girl in the world and you do not want for fortune
and as to her connexions they are more than good the bertrams are undoubtedly some of the first people in this country she is niece to sir thomas bertram that will be enough for the world
but go on go on tell me more what are your plans does she know her own happiness no what are you waiting for
for for very little more than opportunity mary she is not like her cousins but i think i shall not ask in vain
you cannot were you even less pleasing supposing her not to love you already of which however i can have little doubt you would be safe the gentleness and gratitude of her disposition
would secure her all your own immediately from my soul i do not think she would marry you without love
of being uninfluenced by ambition i can suppose it her but ask her to love you and she will never have the heart to refuse
as soon as her eagerness could rest in silence he was as happy to tell as she could be to listen and a conversation followed almost as deeply interesting to her
as to himself though he had in fact nothing to relate but his own sensations nothing to dwell on but fanny's charms fanny's beauty of face and figure
fanny's graces of manner and goodness of heart were the exhaustless theme the gentleness modesty and sweetness of her character were warmly expatiated on
that sweetness which makes so essential a part of every woman's worth in the judgment of man that though he sometimes loves where it is not he can never believe it absent
her temper he had good reason to depend on and to praise he had often seen it tried was there one of the family excepting edmund who had not in some way or other
continually exercised her patience and forbearance her affections were evidently strong to see her with her brother what could more delightfully prove that the warmth of her heart
what could be more encouraging to a man who had her love in view then
quick and clear and her manners were the mirror of her own modest and elegant mind nor was this all henry crawford had too much sense
not to feel the worth of good principles in a wife though he was too little accustomed to serious reflection to know them by their proper name but when he talked of her having such a steadiness
and regularity of conduct such a high notion of honour and such an observance of decorum as might warrant any man in the fullest dependence on her faith and integrity he expressed
what was inspired by the knowledge of her being well principled and religious i could so wholly and absolutely confide in her said he
and that is what i want well might his sister believing as she really did that his opinion of fanny price was scarcely beyond her merits rejoice in her prospects
the more i think of it she cried the more am i convinced that you are doing quite right and though i should never have selected fanny price as the girl most likely to attach you
i am now persuaded she is the very one to make you happy your wicked project upon her peace turns out a clever thought indeed you will both find your good in it
it was bad very bad in me against such a creature but i did not know her then and she shall have no reason to lament the hour that first put it into my head
i will make her very happy mary happier than she has ever yet been herself or ever seen anybody else i will not take her from northamptonshire i shall let everingham
and rent a place in this neighbourhood perhaps stanwix lodge i shall let a seven years lease of everingham i am sure of an excellent tenant at half a word
i could name three people now who would give me my own terms and thank me ha cried mary settle in northamptonshire that is pleasant
then we shall be all together when she had spoken it she recollected herself and wished it unsaid but there was no need of confusion for her brother saw her only as the supposed inmate
of mansfield parsonage and replied but to invite her in the kindest manner to his own house and to claim the best right in her you must give us more than half your time said he
i cannot admit missus grant to have an equal claim with fanny and myself for we shall both have a right in you fanny will be so truly your sister
mary had only to be grateful and give general assurances but she was now very fully purposed to be the guest of neither brother nor sister many months longer
you will divide your year between london and northamptonshire yes that's right and in london of course a house of your own no longer with the admiral my dearest henry
the advantage to you of getting away from the admiral before your manners are hurt by the contagion of his before you have contracted any of his foolish opinions or learned to sit over your dinner
as if it were the best blessing of life you are not sensible of the gain for your regard for him has blinded you but in my estimation your marrying early may be the saving of you
to have seen you grow like the admiral in word or deed look or gesture would have broken my heart well well
the admiral has his faults but he is a very good man and has been more than a father to me few fathers would have let me have my own way half so much you must not prejudice fanny against him
i must have them love one another mary refrained from saying what she felt that there could not be two persons in existence whose characters and manners were less accordant
time would discover it to him but she could not help this reflection on the admiral henry i think so highly of fanny price that if i could suppose the next missus crawford
would have half the reason which my poor ill used aunt had to abhor the very name i would prevent the marriage if possible but i know you i know that a wife you loved would be the happiest of women
and that even when you ceased to love she would yet find in you the liberality and good breeding of a gentleman
the impossibility of not doing everything in the world to make fanny price happy or of ceasing to love fanny price was of course the groundwork of his eloquent answer
had you seen her this morning mary he continued attending with such ineffable sweetness and patience to all the demands of her aunt's stupidity working with her and for her
then returning to her seat to finish a note which she was previously engaged in writing for that stupid woman's service and all this with such unpretending gentleness
so much as if it were a matter of course that she was not to have a moment at her own command her hair arranged as neatly as it always is and one little curl falling forward as she wrote which she now and then shook back
and in the midst of all this still speaking at intervals to me or listening and as if she liked to listen to what i said had you seen her so mary
over my heart ever ceasing my dearest henry cried mary stopping short and smiling in his face
it quite delights me but what will missus rushworth and julia say i care neither what they say nor what they feel they will now see what sort of woman it is that can attach me
that can attach a man of sense i wish the discovery may do them any good and they will now see their cousin treated as she ought to be and i wish they may be heartily ashamed
of their own abominable neglect and unkindness they will be angry he added after a moment's silence and in a cooler tone missus rushworth will be very angry it will be a bitter pill to her
that is like other bitter pills it will have two moments ill flavour and then be swallowed and forgotten for i am not such a coxcomb as to suppose her feelings more lasting than other women's
though i was the object of them yes mary my fanny will feel a difference indeed a daily hourly difference in the behaviour of every being who approaches her
and it will be the completion of my happiness to know that i am the doer of it that i am the person to give the consequence so justly her due now she is dependent helpless
friendless neglected forgotten nay henry not by all not forgotten by all not friendless or forgotten her cousin edmund never forgets her
edmund true i believe he is generally speaking kind to her and so is sir thomas in his way but it is the way of a rich superior long worded arbitrary uncle
and at an earlier hour than common visiting warrants the two ladies were together in the breakfast room and fortunately for him lady bertram was on the very point of quitting it as he entered she was almost at the door
and not chusing by any means to take so much trouble in vain she still went on after a civil reception a short sentence about being waited for and a let sir thomas know to the servant
henry overjoyed to have her go bowed and watched her off and without losing another moment turned instantly to fanny and taking out some letters said
with a most animated look i must acknowledge myself infinitely obliged to any creature who gives me such an opportunity of seeing you alone i have been wishing it more than you can have any idea
knowing as i do what your feelings as a sister are i could hardly have borne that any one in the house should share with you in the first knowledge of the news i now bring he is made your brother
i have the infinite satisfaction of congratulating you on your brother's promotion here are the letters which announce it this moment come to hand you will perhaps like to see them
fanny could not speak but he did not want her to speak to see the expression of her eyes the change of her complexion the progress of her feelings their doubt confusion
and felicity was enough she took the letters as he gave them the first was from the admiral to inform his nephew in a few words of his having succeeded in the object he had undertaken
the promotion of young price and enclosing two more one from the secretary of the first lord to a friend whom the admiral had set to work in the business the other from that friend to himself
by which it appeared that his lordship had the very great happiness of attending to the recommendation of sir charles that sir charles was much delighted in having such an opportunity of proving his regard for admiral crawford
and that the circumstance of mister william price's commission as second lieutenant of h m sloop thrush being made out was spreading general joy through a wide circle of great people
while her hand was trembling under these letters her eye running from one to the other and her heart swelling with emotion crawford thus continued with unfeigned eagerness to express his interest in the event
i will not talk of my own happiness said he great as it is for i think only of yours compared with you who has a right to be happy i have almost grudged myself my own prior knowledge
of what you ought to have known before all the world i have not lost a moment however the post was late this morning but there has not been since a moment's delay
how impatient how anxious how wild i have been on the subject i will not attempt to describe how severely mortified how cruelly disappointed in not having it finished while i was in london
i was kept there from day to day in the hope of it for nothing less dear to me than such an object would have detained me half the time from mansfield
but though my uncle entered into my wishes with all the warmth i could desire and exerted himself immediately there were difficulties from the absence of one friend
which at last i could no longer bear to stay the end of and knowing in what good hands i left the cause i came away on monday trusting that many posts would not pass before i should be followed
by such very letters as these my uncle who is the very best man in the world has exerted himself as i knew he would after seeing your brother
he was delighted with him i would not allow myself yesterday to say how delighted or to repeat half that the admiral said in his praise
should be proved the praise of a friend as this day does prove it now i may say that even i could not require william price to excite a greater interest or be followed by warmer wishes and higher commendation
than were most voluntarily bestowed by my uncle after the evening they had passed together
cried fanny good heaven
i beg your pardon but i am bewildered did admiral crawford apply how was it
by beginning at an earlier stage and explaining very particularly what he had done his last journey to london had been undertaken with no other view than that of introducing her brother in hill street
and prevailing on the admiral to exert whatever interest he might have for getting him on this had been his business he had communicated it to no creature he had not breathed a syllable of it even to mary
he could not have borne any participation of his feelings but this had been his business and he spoke with such a glow of what his solicitude had been and used such strong expressions
was so abounding in the deepest interest in twofold motives in views and wishes more than could be told that fanny could not have remained insensible of his drift had she been able to attend
but her heart was so full and her senses still so astonished that she could listen but imperfectly even to what he told her of william and saying only when he paused how kind
how very kind oh mister crawford we are infinitely obliged to you dearest dearest william she jumped up and moved in haste towards the door crying out i will go to my uncle
my uncle ought to know it as soon as possible but this could not be suffered the opportunity was too fair and his feelings too impatient he was after her immediately she must not go she must allow him five minutes longer
and he took her hand and led her back to her seat and was in the middle of his farther explanation before she had suspected for what she was detained when she did understand it however
and found herself expected to believe that she had created sensations which his heart had never known before and that everything he had done for william was to be placed to the account of his excessive
she was exceedingly distressed and for some moments unable to speak she considered it all as nonsense as mere trifling and gallantry which meant only to deceive for the hour
she could not but feel that it was treating her improperly and unworthily and in such a way as she had not deserved but it was like himself and entirely of a piece with what she had seen before
and she would not allow herself to shew half the displeasure she felt because he had been conferring an obligation which no want of delicacy on his part could make a trifle to her
while her heart was still bounding with joy and gratitude on william's behalf she could not be severely resentful of anything that injured only herself and after having twice drawn back her hand and twice attempted in vain
to turn away from him she got up and said only with much agitation don't mister crawford pray don't i beg you would not this is a sort of talking which is very unpleasant to me
but he was still talking on describing his affection soliciting a return and finally in words so plain as to bear but one meaning even to her offering himself hand fortune
everything to her acceptance it was so he had said it her astonishment and confusion increased and though still not knowing how to suppose him serious she could hardly stand he pressed for an answer
no no no she cried hiding her face this is all nonsense
your kindness to william makes me more obliged to you than words can express but i do not want i cannot bear
she had burst away from him and at that moment sir thomas was heard speaking to a servant in his way towards the room they were in it was no time for farther assurances or entreaty
though to part with her at a moment when her modesty alone seemed to his sanguine and preassured mind to stand in the way of the happiness he sought was a cruel necessity
she rushed out at an opposite door from the one her uncle was approaching and was walking up and down the east room
before sir thomas's politeness or apologies were over or he had reached the beginning of the joyful intelligence which his visitor came to communicate she was feeling thinking trembling about everything
infinitely obliged absolutely angry it was all beyond belief he was inexcusable incomprehensible but such were his habits that he could do nothing without a mixture of evil
he had previously made her the happiest of human beings and now he had insulted she knew not what to say how to class or how to regard it she would not have him be serious and yet
the private had only threepence a day one half only of this pittance was ever given him in money and that half was often in arrear but a far more seductive bait than his miserable stipend was the prospect of boundless license
if the government allowed him less than sufficed for his wants it was not extreme to mark the means by which he supplied the deficiency though four fifths of the population of ireland were celtic and roman catholic
more than four fifths of the property of ireland belonged to the protestant englishry the garners the cellars above all the flocks and herds of the minority were abandoned to the majority
whatever the regular troops spared was devoured by bands of marauders who overran almost every barony in the island for the arming was now universal no man dared to present himself at mass without some weapon
a pike a long knife called a skean or at the very least a strong ashen stake pointed and hardened in the fire the very women were exhorted by their spiritual directors to carry skeans every smith
every carpenter every cutler was at constant work on guns and blades it was scarcely possible to get a horse shod
which were to be used against his nation and his religion he was flung into prison it seems probable that at the end of february at least a hundred thousand irishmen were in arms near fifty thousand of them were soldiers
the rest were banditti whose violence and licentiousness the government affected to disapprove but did not really exert itself to suppress the protestants not only were not protected but were not suffered to protect themselves
it was determined that they should be left unarmed in the midst of an armed and hostile population a day was fixed on which they were to bring all their swords and firelocks to the parish churches and it was notified
that every protestant house in which after that day a weapon should be found should be given up to be sacked by the soldiers
or an old gun barrel in a corner of a mansion
and almost the only protestant who still held a great place in ireland struggled courageously in the cause of justice and order against the united strength of the government and the populace at the wicklow assizes of that spring
set forth with great strength of language the miserable state of the country whole counties he said were devastated by a rabble resembling the vultures and ravens which follow the march of an army most of these wretches were not soldiers
they acted under no authority known to the law yet it was he owned but too evident that they were encouraged and screened by some who were in high command how else could it be that a market overt for plunder
should be held within a short distance of the capital the stories which travellers told of the savage hottentots near the cape of good hope were realised in leinster
nothing was more common than for an honest man to lie down rich in flocks and herds acquired by the industry of a long life and to wake a beggar it was however to small purpose that keating attempted
in the midst of that fearful anarchy to uphold the supremacy of the law priests and military chiefs appeared on the bench for the purpose of overawing the judge and countenancing the robbers
because no prosecutor dared to appear another declared that he had armed himself in conformity to the orders of his spiritual guide
belonged to a class which was accustomed to live on potatoes and sour whey and which had always regarded meat as a luxury reserved for the rich these men at first revelled in beef and mutton
as the savage invaders who of old poured down from the forests of the north on italy revelled in massic and falernian wines the protestants described with contemptuous disgust the strange gluttony of their newly liberated slaves
the carcasses half raw and half burned to cinders sometimes still bleeding
those marauders who preferred boiled meat being often in want of kettles contrived to boil the steer in his own skin an absurd tragicomedy is still extant
which was acted in this and the following year at some low theatre for the amusement of the english populace a crowd of half naked savages appeared on the stage howling a celtic song and dancing round an ox
they then proceeded to cut steaks out of the animal while still alive and to fling the bleeding flesh on the coals
the barbarity and filthiness of the banquets of the rapparees was such as the dramatists of grub street could scarcely caricature when lent began the plunderers generally ceased to devour
absolutely without materials for such an estimate the quakers were neither a very numerous nor a very opulent class we can hardly suppose that they were more than a fiftieth part of the protestant population of ireland
or that they possessed more than a fiftieth part of the protestant wealth of ireland they were undoubtedly better treated than any other protestant sect
bandon where the protestants had mustered in considerable force was reduced by lieutenant general macarthy an irish officer who was descended from one of the most illustrious celtic houses
and till it was known that several pieces of ordnance were coming to batter down the turf wall which surrounded the agent's house then at length a capitulation was concluded
delivered up their arms and thought themselves happy in escaping with life but many resolute and highspirited gentlemen and yeomen were determined to perish rather than yield they packed up such valuable property as could easily be carried away
burned whatever they could not remove and well armed and mounted set out for those spots in ulster which were the strongholds of their race and of their faith
had forfeited his military parole and was now not ashamed to take the field as a general against the government to which he was bound to render himself up as a prisoner his march left on the face of the country traces
which the most careless eye could not during many years fail to discern his army was accompanied by a rabble such as keating had well compared to the unclean birds of prey which swarm wherever the scent of carrion is strong
the general professed himself anxious to save from ruin and outrage all protestants who remained quietly at their homes and he most readily gave them protections tinder his hand but these protections proved of no avail
and he was forced to own that whatever power he might be able to exercise over his soldiers he could not keep order among the mob of campfollowers
and soon the country before him became equally desolate for at the fame of his approach the colonists burned their furniture pulled down their houses and retreated northward some of them attempted to make a stand at dromore
but were broken and scattered then the flight became wild and tumultuous the fugitives broke down the bridges and burned the ferryboats whole towns the seats of the protestant population
were left in ruins without one inhabitant the people of omagh destroyed their own dwellings so utterly that no roof was left to shelter the enemy from the rain and wind the people of cavan migrated in one body to enniskillen
the day was wet and stormy the road was deep in mire
all lisburn fled to antrim and as the foes drew nearer all lisburn and antrim together came pouring into londonderry thirty thousand protestants of both sexes and of every age
were crowded behind the bulwarks of the city of refuge there at length on the verge of the ocean hunted to the last asylum and baited into a mood in which men may be destroyed
though he showed as to all things which concerned the personal dignity and comfort of his royal guests a delicacy even romantic and a liberality approaching to profusion was unwilling to send a large body of troops to ireland
he saw that france would have to maintain a long war on the continent against a formidable coalition her expenditure must be immense and great as were her resources he felt it to be important that nothing should be wasted
he doubtless regarded with sincere commiseration and good will the unfortunate exiles to whom he had given so princely a welcome yet neither commiseration nor good will
could prevent him from speedily discovering that his brother of england was the dullest and most perverse of human beings the folly of james his incapacity to read the characters of men and the signs of the times
his obstinacy always most offensively displayed when wisdom enjoined concession his vacillation always exhibited most pitiably in emergencies which required firmness had made him an outcast from england and might
if his counsels were blindly followed bring great calamities on france
as a confessor of the true faith persecuted by heretics as a near kinsman of the house of bourbon
he was entitled to hospitality to tenderness to respect it was fit that he should have a stately palace and a spacious forest
that he should have at his command all the hounds of the grand huntsman and all the hawks of the grand falconer but when a prince who at the head of a great fleet and army had lost an empire without striking a blow
undertook to furnish plans for naval and military expeditions when a prince who had been undone by his profound ignorance of the temper of his own countrymen of his own soldiers of his own domestics of his own children
undertook to answer for the zeal and fidelity of the irish people whose language he could not speak and on whose land he had never set his foot it was necessary to receive his suggestions with caution such were the sentiments of lewis
and in these sentiments he was confirmed by his minister of war louvois who on private as well as on public grounds was unwilling that james should be accompanied by a large military force louvois hated lauzun
it was believed indeed at the french court that in order to distinguish him
were selected for the important service of organizing and disciplining the irish levies the chief command was held by a veteran warrior the count of rosen
who held the rank of lieutenant general
five hundred thousand crowns in gold equivalent to about a hundred and twelve thousand pounds sterling were sent to brest for james's personal comforts provision was made with anxiety resembling that of a tender mother
equipping her son for a first campaign the cabin furniture the camp furniture the tents the bedding the plate were luxurious and superb nothing which could be agreeable or useful to the exile
was too costly for the munificence or too trifling for the attention of his gracious and splendid host on the fifteenth of february james paid a farewell visit to versailles
he was conducted round the buildings and plantations with every mark of respect and kindness the fountains played in his honour it was the season of the carnival
and never had the vast palace and the sumptuous gardens presented a gayer aspect in the evening the two kings after a long and earnest conference in private made their appearance before a splendid circle of lords and ladies
i hope said lewis in his noblest and most winning manner that we are about to part never to meet again in this world that is the best wish that i can form for you but
if any evil chance should force you to return be assured that you will find me to the last such as you have found me hitherto on the seventeenth lewis paid in return a farewell visit to saint germains
at the moment of the parting embrace he said with his most amiable smile we have forgotten one thing a cuirass for yourself you shall have mine the cuirass was brought and suggested to the wits of the court ingenious allusions
he was believed by many to be an insincere apostate
he was therefore a favourite with his master for to james unpopularity obstinacy and implacability were the greatest recommendations that a statesman could have
what frenchman should attend the king of england in the character of ambassador had been the subject of grave deliberation at versailles barillon could not be passed over without a marked slight but his selfindulgent habits
his want of energy and above all the credulity with which he had listened to the professions of sunderland had made an unfavourable impression on the mind of lewis what was to be done in ireland was not work for a trifler or a dupe
the agent of france in that kingdom must be equal to much more than the ordinary functions of an envoy it would be his right and his duty to offer advice touching every part of the political and military administration of the country
in which he would represent the most powerful and the most beneficent of allies barillon was therefore passed over he affected to bear his disgrace with composure
though it had brought great calamities both on the house of stuart and on the house of bourbon had been by no means unprofitable to himself he was old he said he was fat
he did not envy younger men the honour of living on potatoes and whiskey among the irish bogs he would try to console himself with partridges with champagne and with the society of the wittiest men and prettiest women of paris it was rumoured however
his health and spirits failed and he tried to find consolation in religious duties some people were much edified by the piety of the old voluptuary
indeed can anyone tell me indeed i am not convinced indeed i can not do better indeed i have heard it whispered indeed i may fairly say
indeed we know instances abound is it logically consistent is it not legitimate to recognize is it not marvelous
is it not obvious is it not quite possible is it not then preposterous is it not universally recognized
is it not wise to argue is it possible can it be believed is it then any wonder
is there any evidence here is there any language of reproach is there any possibility of mistaking is there any reason in the world it affords me gratification
it also pleases me very much it amounts to this it appears from what has been said it appears to me on the contrary
it can rightly be said it certainly follows then it comes to this it could not be otherwise it does not necessarily follow
it exhibits a state of mind it follows as a matter of course it follows inevitably it gives us an exalted conception
it grieves me to relate it hardly fits the character it has at all times been a just reproach it has been a very great pleasure for me
it has been generally assumed it has been justly objected it has been my privilege it has been suggested fancifully
it is a matter of absorbing interest it is a matter of amusement it is a matter of fact it is a matter of just pride
it is a melancholy story it is a memory i cherish it is a mischievous notion it is a mistake to suppose it is a most extraordinary thing
it is a most pertinent question it is a noble thing it is a peculiar pleasure to me it is a perversion of terms it is a pleasing peculiarity
it is a popular idea it is a rare privilege it is a recognized principle it is a remarkable and striking fact it is a strange fact
it is a sure sign it is a theme too familiar it is a thing commonly said it is a touching reflection it is a true saying
it is a very significant fact it is a vision which still inspires us it is a wholesome symptom it is all things considered a fact
it is all very fine to think it is all very well to say it is almost proverbial it is also possible it is also probably true
it is amazing how little
it is appropriate that we should celebrate it is asserted it is assumed as an axiom it is at once inconsistent
it is but fair to say it is but too true it is by no means my design it is certainly especially pleasant it is certainly remarkable
it is commonly assumed it is comparatively easy it is curious sophistry it is curious to observe it is desirable for us
it is difficult for me to respond fitly it is difficult to avoid saying it is difficult to describe it is difficult to overstate
it is difficult to put a limit it is difficult to surmise it is doubtful whether it is easy enough to add
it is easy to instance cases it is easy to understand it is eminently proper it is every man's duty to think
it is evident that the answer to this it is evidently supposed by many people it is exceedingly gratifying to hear it is exceedingly unfortunate
it is fair that you should hear it is fair to suppose it is far from me to desire it is fatal to suppose it is fitting
it is for me to relate it is for others to illustrate it is for this reason it is for us to ask it is greatly assumed
it is gratifying to have the honor it is hardly for me it is hardly necessary to pass judgment it is idle to think of it is immaterial whether
it is impossible to avoid saying it is in every way appropriate
it is in this characteristic it is in vain it is in your power to give it is indeed a strange doctrine it is indeed not a little remarkable
it is indeed true it is indeed very clear it is indispensable to have it is interesting and suggestive it is interesting to know
it is just so far true it is likewise necessary it is made evident it is manifest it is manifestly absurd to say
it is merely common sense to say it is more than probable it is my agreeable duty it is my belief it is my earnest wish
it is my grateful duty to address you it is my hope
he danced like a man in a swarm of hornets he fell as falls some forest lion fighting well he fell down on my threshold like a wounded stag
he had acted exactly like an automaton he lay as straight as a mummy he lay like a warrior taking his rest he lived as modestly as a hermit
he played with grave questions as a cat plays with a mouse he radiated vigor and abundance like a happy child he sat down quaking like a jelly
he saw disaster like a ghostly figure following her he snatched furiously at breath like a tiger snatching at meat
he spoke with a uniformity of emphasis that made his words stand out like the raised type for the blind he swayed in the sudden grip of anger he sweeps the field of battle like a monsoon
he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed he turned on me like a thunder cloud he turned white as chalk
he was as splendidly serious as a reformer he was as steady as a clock
he was bold as the hawk he was so weak now like a shrunk cedar white with the hoar frost hearts unfold like flowers before thee heavy was my heart as stone
heeled like an avalanche to leeward her arms like slumber o'er my shoulders crept her banners like a thousand sunsets glow her beauty broke on him like some rare flower
her breath is like a cloud her cheeks are like the blushing cloud
her dusky cheek would burn like a poppy
her eyes as stars of twilight fair her eyes glimmering star like in her pale face her eyes were as a dove that sickeneth
her face changed with each turn of their talk like a wheat field under a summer breeze her face collapsed as if it were a pricked balloon her face was as solemn as a mask
her face was dull as lead her face was like a light her face was passionless like those by sculptor graved for niches in a temple her hair dropped on her pallid cheeks like sea weed on a clam
her hair shone like a nimbus her hair was like a coronet her hands are white as the virgin rose that she wore on her wedding day her hands like moonlight brush the keys
her head dropped into her hands like a storm broken flower her heart has grown icy as a fountain in the fall her holy love that like a vestal flame had burned
her impulse came and went like fireflies in the dusk
her laugh is like a rainbow tinted spray her lips are like two budded roses her lips like a lovely song that ripples as it flows her lips like twilight water
her mouth as sweet as a ripe fig her neck is like a stately tower her pale robe clinging to the grass seemed like a snake her pulses flutter'd like a dove
her skin was as the bark of birches her sweetness halting like a tardy may her two white hands like swans on a frozen lake her voice cut like a knife
her voice like mournful bells crying on the wind her voice was like the voice the stars had when they sang together her voice was rich and vibrant
her words sounding like wavelets on a summer shore herding his thoughts as a collie dog herds sheep here and there a solitary volume greeted him like a friend in a crowd of strange faces
here in statue like repose an old wrinkled mountain rose
his bashfulness melted like a spring frost his brow bent like a cliff o'er his thoughts
his eyes glowed like blue coals his eyes were hollows of madness his hair like moldy hay his face burnt like a brand his face was glad as dawn to me
his face was often lit up by a smile like pale wintry sunshine his fingers were knotted like a cord his formal kiss fell chill as a flake of snow on the cheek
his glorious moments were strung like pearls upon a string
his nerves thrilled like throbbing violins his retort was like a knife cut across the sinews his revenge descends perfect sudden like a curse from heaven
his spirits sank like a stone his talk is like an incessant play of fireworks
his voice rose like a stream of rich distilled perfumes his voice was like the clap of thunder which interrupts the warbling birds among the leaves his whole soul wavered and shook like a wind swept leaf
chapter seventy two madame de saint meran
whither all the entreaties of madame de villefort had failed in persuading him to accompany them the procureur had shut himself up in his study according to his custom with a heap of papers calculated to alarm any one else
but which generally scarcely satisfied his inordinate desires but this time the papers were a mere matter of form villefort had secluded himself not to study
and with the door locked and orders given that he should not be disturbed excepting for important business he sat down in his arm chair and began to ponder over the events the remembrance of which had during the last eight days
filled his mind with so many gloomy thoughts and bitter recollections then instead of plunging into the mass of documents piled before him he opened the drawer of his desk touched a spring and drew out a parcel of cherished memoranda
amongst which he had carefully arranged in characters only known to himself the names of all those who either in his political career in money matters at the bar or in his mysterious love affairs had become his enemies
their number was formidable now that he had begun to fear and yet these names powerful though they were had often caused him to smile with the same kind of satisfaction experienced by a traveller who
from the summit of a mountain beholds at his feet the craggy eminences the almost impassable paths and the fearful chasms through which he has so perilously climbed
when he had run over all these names in his memory again read and studied them commenting meanwhile upon his lists he shook his head no he murmured
none of my enemies would have waited so patiently and laboriously for so long a space of time that they might now come and crush me with this secret sometimes as hamlet says foul deeds will rise
but like a phosphoric light they rise but to mislead the story has been told by the corsican to some priest who in his turn has repeated it
may have heard it and to enlighten himself but why should he wish to enlighten himself upon the subject asked villefort after a moment's reflection
son of a shipowner of malta discoverer of a mine in thessaly now visiting paris for the first time what interest i say can he take in discovering a gloomy mysterious and useless fact like this however
among all the incoherent details given to me by the abbe busoni and by lord wilmore by that friend and that enemy one thing appears certain and clear in my opinion that in no period in no case in no circumstance
could there have been any contact between him and me but villefort uttered words which even he himself did not believe he dreaded not so much the revelation for he could reply to or deny its truth
which appeared suddenly in letters of blood upon the wall but what he was really anxious for was to discover whose hand had traced them while he was endeavoring to calm his fears
and instead of dwelling upon the political future that had so often been the subject of his ambitious dreams was imagining a future limited to the enjoyments of home in fear of awakening the enemy that had so long slept
the noise of a carriage sounded in the yard then he heard the steps of an aged person ascending the stairs followed by tears and lamentations such as servants always give vent to
when they wish to appear interested in their master's grief he drew back the bolt of his door and almost directly an old lady entered unannounced carrying her shawl on her arm and her bonnet in her hand
the white hair was thrown back from her yellow forehead and her eyes already sunken by the furrows of age now almost disappeared beneath the eyelids swollen with grief oh sir she said oh sir
what a misfortune i shall die of it oh yes i shall certainly die of it and then falling upon the chair nearest the door she burst into a paroxysm of sobs the servants
standing in the doorway not daring to approach nearer were looking at noirtier's old servant who had heard the noise from his master's room and run there also remaining behind the others villefort rose
and ran towards his mother in law for it was she why what can have happened he exclaimed what has thus disturbed you
is dead answered the old marchioness
she appeared to be stupefied villefort drew back and clasping his hands together exclaimed dead so suddenly a week ago continued madame de saint meran
we went out together in the carriage after dinner
had been unwell for some days still the idea of seeing our dear valentine again inspired him with courage and notwithstanding his illness he would leave at six leagues from marseilles
after having eaten some of the lozenges he is accustomed to take he fell into such a deep sleep that it appeared to me unnatural still i hesitated to wake him although i fancied that his face was flushed
and that the veins of his temples throbbed more violently than usual however as it became dark and i could no longer see i fell asleep i was soon aroused by a piercing shriek
as from a person suffering in his dreams and he suddenly threw his head back violently i called the valet i stopped the postilion
i applied my smelling salts but all was over and i arrived at aix by the side of a corpse villefort stood with his mouth half open quite stupefied of course you sent for a doctor
immediately but as i have told you it was too late yes but then he could tell
oh yes sir he told me
and what did you do then
had always expressed a desire in case his death happened during his absence from paris that his body might be brought to the family vault i had him put into a leaden coffin
oh my poor mother said villefort to have such duties to perform at your age after such a blow god has supported me through all and then
he would certainly have done everything for me that i performed for him it is true that since i left him i seem to have lost my senses i cannot cry at my age they say that we have no more tears still
i think that when one is in trouble one should have the power of weeping where is valentine sir it is on her account i am here i wish to see valentine
villefort thought it would be terrible to reply that valentine was at a ball so he only said that she had gone out with her step mother and that she should be fetched this instant sir this instant i beseech you
said the old lady villefort placed the arm of madame de saint meran within his own and conducted her to his apartment rest yourself mother he said the marchioness raised her head at this word
and beholding the man who so forcibly reminded her of her deeply regretted child who still lived for her in valentine she felt touched at the name of mother and bursting into tears she fell on her knees before an arm chair
where she buried her venerable head villefort left her to the care of the women while old barrois ran half scared to his master for nothing frightens old people so much
as when death relaxes its vigilance over them for a moment in order to strike some other old person then while madame de saint meran remained on her knees praying fervently
and went himself to fetch his wife and daughter from madame de morcerf's he was so pale when he appeared at the door of the ball room that valentine ran to him saying oh father some misfortune has happened
your grandmamma has just arrived valentine
and grandpapa
it was just in time for valentine's head swam and she staggered madame de villefort instantly hastened to her assistance and aided her husband in dragging her to the carriage saying what a singular event
who could have thought it ah yes it is indeed strange and the wretched family departed leaving a cloud of sadness hanging over the rest of the evening at the foot of the stairs valentine found barrois awaiting her
in an undertone tell him i will come when i leave my dear grandmamma she replied feeling with true delicacy that the person to whom she could be of the most service just then was madame de saint meran
valentine found her grandmother in bed silent caresses heartwrung sobs broken sighs
while madame de villefort leaning on her husband's arm maintained all outward forms of respect at least towards the poor widow she soon whispered to her husband i think it would be better for me to retire
yes yes she said softly to valentine let her leave but do you stay madame de villefort left and valentine remained alone beside the bed for the procureur overcome with astonishment at the unexpected death
had followed his wife meanwhile barrois had returned for the first time to old noirtier who having heard the noise in the house had as we have said sent his old servant to inquire the cause on his return
his quick intelligent eye interrogated the messenger alas sir exclaimed barrois a great misfortune has happened madame de saint meran has arrived and her husband is dead
and noirtier had never been on strict terms of friendship still the death of one old man always considerably affects another noirtier let his head fall upon his chest apparently overwhelmed and thoughtful
then he closed one eye in token of inquiry mademoiselle valentine noirtier nodded his head she is at the ball as you know
noirtier again closed his left eye do you wish to see her noirtier again made an affirmative sign well they have gone to fetch her no doubt from madame de morcerf's i will await her return
and beg her to come up here is that what you wish for yes replied the invalid barrois therefore as we have seen watched for valentine and informed her of her grandfather's wish consequently
valentine came up to noirtier on leaving madame de saint meran who in the midst of her grief had at last yielded to fatigue and fallen into a feverish sleep within reach of her hand they placed a small table
upon which stood a bottle of orangeade her usual beverage and a glass then as we have said the young girl
valentine kissed the old man who looked at her with such tenderness that her eyes again filled with tears whose sources he thought must be exhausted the old gentleman continued to dwell upon her with the same expression
yes yes said valentine you mean that i have yet a kind grandfather left do you not the old man intimated that such was his meaning ah yes happily i have replied valentine
without that what would become of me it was one o'clock in the morning barrois who wished to go to bed himself observed that after such sad events every one stood in need of rest noirtier would not say
that the only rest he needed was to see his child but wished her good night for grief and fatigue had made her appear quite ill the next morning she found her grandmother in bed the fever had not abated
on the contrary her eyes glistened and she appeared to be suffering from violent nervous irritability oh dear grandmamma are you worse exclaimed valentine perceiving all these signs of agitation
no my child no said madame de saint meran but i was impatiently waiting for your arrival that i might send for your father my father inquired valentine uneasily yes i wish to speak to him
valentine durst not oppose her grandmother's wish the cause of which she did not know and an instant afterwards villefort entered
and as if fearing she had no time to lose you wrote to me concerning the marriage of this child yes madame replied villefort it is not only projected but arranged your intended son in law
yes madame is he not the son of general d'epinay who was on our side and who was assassinated some days before the usurper returned from the island of elba the same
does he not dislike the idea of marrying the granddaughter of a jacobin our civil dissensions are now happily extinguished mother said villefort
and will meet him if not with pleasure at least with indifference is it a suitable match in every respect and the young man is regarded with universal esteem
during the whole of this conversation valentine had remained silent well sir said madame de saint meran after a few minutes reflection i must hasten the marriage for i have but a short time to live
you madame you dear mamma
i know what i am saying continued the marchioness i must hurry you so that as she has no mother she may at least have a grandmother to bless her marriage i am all that is left to her belonging to my poor renee
whom you have so soon forgotten sir ah madame said villefort you forget that i was obliged to give a mother to my child a stepmother is never a mother sir but this is not to the purpose
our business concerns valentine let us leave the dead in peace all this was said with such exceeding rapidity that there was something in the conversation that seemed like the beginning of delirium
it shall be as you wish madame said villefort more especially since your wishes coincide with mine
my dear grandmother interrupted valentine consider decorum the recent death you would not have me marry under such sad auspices my child exclaimed the old lady sharply let us hear none of the conventional objections
that deter weak minds from preparing for the future i also was married at the death bed of my mother and certainly i have not been less happy on that account still that idea of death madame said villefort still
always i tell you i am going to die do you understand well before dying i wish to see my son in law i wish to tell him to make my child happy i wish to read in his eyes whether he intends to obey me
in fact i will know him i will continued the old lady with a fearful expression that i may rise from the depths of my grave to find him if he should not fulfil his duty madame said villefort
you must lay aside these exalted ideas which almost assume the appearance of madness the dead once buried in their graves rise no more and i tell you sir that you are mistaken this night
i have had a fearful sleep it seemed as though my soul were already hovering over my body my eyes which i tried to open closed against my will and what will appear impossible above all to you sir i saw
with my eyes shut in the spot where you are now standing issuing from that corner where there is a door leading into madame villefort's dressing room i saw i tell you silently enter a white figure
valentine screamed it was the fever that disturbed you madame said villefort doubt if you please but i am sure of what i say i saw a white figure and as if to prevent my discrediting the testimony
of only one of my senses i heard my glass removed the same which is there now on the table oh dear mother it was a dream so little was it a dream that i stretched my hand towards the bell
but when i did so the shade disappeared my maid then entered with a light but she saw no one phantoms are visible to those only who ought to see them it was the soul of my husband well
if my husband's soul can come to me why should not my soul reappear to guard my granddaughter the tie is even more direct it seems to me oh madame said villefort deeply affected in spite of himself
do not yield to those gloomy thoughts you will long live with us happy loved and honored and we will make you forget never never never said the marchioness
we expect him every moment it is well as soon as he arrives inform me we must be expeditious and then i also wish to see a notary that i may be assured
that all our property returns to valentine ah grandmamma murmured valentine pressing her lips on the burning brow do you wish to kill me oh how feverish you are we must not send for a notary but for a doctor
a doctor said she shrugging her shoulders i am not ill i am thirsty that is all what are you drinking dear grandmamma the same as usual my dear my glass is there on the table
give it to me valentine valentine poured the orangeade into a glass and gave it to her grandmother with a certain degree of dread for it was the same glass she fancied that had been touched by the spectre
the marchioness drained the glass at a single draught and then turned on her pillow repeating the notary the notary
and valentine seated herself at the bedside of her grandmother the poor child appeared herself to require the doctor she had recommended to her aged relative a bright spot burned in either cheek her respiration was short
and difficult and her pulse beat with feverish excitement she was thinking of the despair of maximilian when he should be informed that madame de saint meran instead of being an ally was unconsciously acting as his enemy
more than once she thought of revealing all to her grandmother and she would not have hesitated a moment if maximilian morrel had been named albert de morcerf or raoul de chateau renaud but morrel
and valentine knew how the haughty marquise de saint meran despised all who were not noble her secret had each time been repressed
by the sad conviction that it would be useless to do so for were it once discovered by her father and mother all would be lost two hours passed thus
and the notary had arrived though his coming was announced in a very low tone madame de saint meran arose from her pillow the notary she exclaimed let him come in
the notary who was at the door immediately entered go valentine
but grandmamma leave me go the young girl kissed her grandmother and left with her handkerchief to her eyes at the door she found the valet de chambre who told her that the doctor was waiting in the dining room
valentine instantly ran down the doctor was a friend of the family and at the same time one of the cleverest men of the day and very fond of valentine whose birth he had witnessed he had himself a daughter about her age
and fear to him from her mother having been consumptive oh said valentine we have been waiting for you with such impatience
but first of all
antoinette is very well he said and madeleine tolerably so but you sent for me my dear child it is not your father or madame de villefort who is ill as for you
although we doctors cannot divest our patients of nerves i fancy you have no further need of me than to recommend you not to allow your imagination to take too wide a field valentine colored
almost to a miraculous extent for he was one of the physicians who always work upon the body through the mind no she replied it is for my poor grandmother you know the calamity that has happened to us do you not
alas said valentine restraining her tears my grandfather is dead
yes suddenly from an apoplectic stroke an apoplectic stroke repeated the doctor yes and my poor grandmother fancies that her husband whom she never left has called her and that she must go and join him
i beseech you do something for her where is she in her room with the notary
just as he was his mind perfectly clear but the same incapability of moving or speaking
yes said valentine he was very fond of me who does not love you valentine smiled sadly what are your grandmother's symptoms an extreme nervous excitement and a strangely agitated sleep
she fancied this morning in her sleep that her soul was hovering above her body which she at the same time watched it must have been delirium she fancies too that she saw a phantom enter her chamber
and even heard the noise it made on touching her glass it is singular said the doctor i was not aware that madame de saint meran was subject to such hallucinations it is the first time i ever saw her in this condition said valentine
and this morning she frightened me so that i thought her mad and my father who you know is a strong minded man himself appeared deeply impressed we will go and see said the doctor what you tell me seems very strange
the notary here descended and valentine was informed that her grandmother was alone go upstairs she said to the doctor and you oh i dare not she forbade my sending for you and
as you say i am myself agitated feverish and out of sorts i will go and take a turn in the garden to recover myself the doctor pressed valentine's hand and while he visited her grandmother she descended the steps
we need not say which portion of the garden was her favorite walk after remaining for a short time in the parterre surrounding the house and gathering a rose to place in her waist or hair she turned into the dark avenue which led to the bench
then from the bench she went to the gate as usual valentine strolled for a short time among her flowers but without gathering them the mourning in her heart forbade her assuming this simple ornament
though she had not yet had time to put on the outward semblance of woe she then turned towards the avenue as she advanced she fancied she heard a voice speaking her name she stopped astonished
ginger and the boys in less time than one would think possible a big fire was roaring in the cabin fireplace water was steaming in the rusty kettle on the crane and a pile of hay and old carpet lay in one corner ready to be made into a bed
keith had made several trips to the kitchen and came back each time with his hands full old daphne the cook never could find it in her heart to refuse marse sydney's boys anything
they were too much like what their father had been at their age to resist their playful coaxing she had nursed him when he was a baby and had been his loyal champion all through his boyhood now her black face wrinkled into smiles whenever she heard his name spoken
in her eyes nobody was quite so near perfection as he except perhaps the fair woman whom he had married kain't nobody in ten states hole a can'le to my marse sidney an his miss elise old daphne used to say proudly
they sut'n'ly is the handsomest couple evah jined togethah an the free handedest in all they travels by sea or by land they nevah fo'gits ole daphne i've got things from every country undah the shinin sun what they done brung me
now all the services she had once been proud to render them were willingly given to their little sons when keith came in with a pitiful tale of a tramp who was starving at their very gates she gave him even more than he asked for and almost more than he could carry
she looked around in vain for the boys who had promised to meet her her arms were so full of bundles as suburban passengers usually are that she could not hold up her long broadcloth skirt
or even turn her handsome fur collar higher over her ears with a shade of annoyance on her pretty face she swept across the platform and into the waiting room out of the cold behind her came a little girl about ten years old as unlike her as possible
although it was virginia dudley's ambition to be exactly like her aunt allison she wanted to be tall and slender and grown up
and a love of fun that made her charming to everybody young and old virginia longed for wavy brown hair and white hands and especially for a graceful easy manner her hair was short and black and her complexion like a gypsy's
she had hard brown little fists sharp gray eyes that seemed to see everything at once and a tongue that was always getting her into trouble as for the ease of manner that might come in time
but her stately old grandmother often sighed in secret over virginia's awkwardness she stumbled now as she followed the young lady into the waiting room her big plume covered hat tipped over one ear but she too
had so many bundles that she could not spare a hand to straighten it well virginia what do you suppose has become of the boys asked her aunt they promised to meet us and carry our packages i heard them in here about half an hour ago miss allison
said the station master who had come in with a lantern i s'pose they got tired of waiting better leave your things here hadn't you i'll watch them it is mighty slippery walking this evening oh thank you mister mason
she answered beginning to pile boxes and packages upon a bench i'll send pete down for them immediately now virginia turn up your coat collar and hold your muff over your nose or jack frost will make an icicle out of you before you are half way home
they had been in the house some time before the boys remembered their promise to meet them at the station when they saw how late it was they started home on the run i am fairly aching to tell ginger about that bear panted keith as they reached the side door
i wish we hadn't though said keith again but it's done now persisted malcolm we're bound not to tell and you can't get out of it for he made us give him our word on the honour of a gentleman and that settles it you know
they were two very dirty boys who clattered up the back stairs and raced to their room to dress for dinner their clothes were covered with hayseed and straw and their hands and faces were black with soot from the old cabin chimney they had both helped to build the fire
the lamps had just been lighted in the upper hall and virginia came running out from her room when she heard the boys voices why didn't you meet us at the train she began but stopped as she saw their dirty faces where on earth have you chimney sweeps been she cried
don't you wish you knew virginia shrugged her shoulders as if she had not the slightest interest in the matter and held out two packages
you just ought to see the pile that aunt allison bought we've the best secret about to morrow that ever was
but malcolm clapped a sooty hand over his mouth and pulled him toward the door of their room come on he said we've barely time to dress for dinner don't you know enough to keep still you little magpie he exclaimed as the door banged behind them
virginia walked slowly back to her room and paused in the doorway wondering what she could do to amuse herself until dinner time it was a queer room for a girl
decorated with flags and indian trophies and everything that could remind her of the military life she loved at the far away army post there were photographs framed in brass buttons on her dressing table
and pictures of uniformed officers all over the walls a canteen and an army cap with a bullet hole through the crown hung over her desk and a battered bugle that had sounded many a triumphant charge swung from the corner of her mirror
each souvenir had a history and had been given her at parting by some special friend every one at the fort had made a pet of captain dudley's daughter
the harum scarum little ginger who would rather dash across the prairies on her pony like a wild comanche indian than play with the finest doll ever imported from paris there was a suit in her wardrobe short skirt jacket leggins and moccasins
all made and beaded by the squaws it was the gift of the colonel's wife missus dudley had hesitated some time before putting it in one of the trunks that was to go back to kentucky you look so much like an indian now she said to virginia
your face is so sunburned that i am afraid your grandmother will be scandalised i don't know what she would say if she knew that i ever allowed you to run so wild if i had known that you were going back to civilisation i certainly should not have kept your hair cut short
and you should have worn sunbonnets all summer to missus dudley's great surprise her little daughter threw herself into her arms sobbing
take me to cuba with you please do or else let me stay here at the post everybody will take care of me here i'll just die if you leave me in kentucky why darling
she said soothingly as she wiped her tears away and rocked her back and forth in her arms i thought you have always wanted to see mamma's old home and the places you have heard so much about there are all the old toys in the nursery that we had when we were children
and the grape vine swing in the orchard and the mill stream where we fished and the beech woods where we had such delightful picnics
and know all the dear old neighbours that i knew wouldn't my little girl like that oh yes some i s'pose sobbed virginia but i didn't know i'd have to be so so everlastingly civilised she wailed
i don't want to always have to dress just so and have to walk in a path and be called virginia all the time that sounds so stiff and proper i'd rather stay where people don't mind if i am sunburned and tanned and won't be scandalised at everything i do
it's so much nicer to be just plain ginger it had been five months now since virginia left fort dennis at first she had locked hen self in her room nearly every day and with her face buried in her indian suit cried to go back
she missed the gay military life of the army post as a sailor would miss the sea or an alpine shepherd the free air of his snow capped mountain heights it was not that she did not enjoy being at her grandmother's
she liked the great gray house whose square corner tower and over hanging vines made it look like an old castle she liked the comfort and elegance of the big stately rooms
the negro servants seemed so queer and funny to her that she found them a great source of amusement and her aunt allison planned so many pleasant occupations outside of school hours that she scarcely had time to get lonesome but she had a shut in feeling
like a wild bird in a cage and sometimes the longing for liberty which her mother had allowed her made her fret against the thousand little proprieties she had to observe sometimes when she went tipping over the polished floors of the long drawing room and caught sight of herself in one of the big mirrors
she felt that she was not herself at all but somebody in a story the virginia in the looking glass seemed so very very civilised more than once after one of these meetings with herself in the mirror she dashed up stairs locked her door
then in her noiseless moccasins she danced the wildest of war dances whispering shrilly between her teeth now i'm ginger now i'm ginger and i won't be dressed up and i won't learn my lessons and i won't be a little lady
and i'll run away and go back to fort dennis the very first chance i get usually she was ashamed of these outbursts afterwards for it always happened that after each one she found her aunt allison had planned something especially pleasant for her entertainment
miss allison felt sorry for the lonely child who had never been separated from her father and mother before so she devoted her time to her as much as possible telling her stories and entering into her plays and pleasures as if they had both been the same age
since the boys had come virginia had not had a single homesick moment while she was at school in the primary department of the girls college
they were all free about the same hour and even on the coldest days played out of doors from lunch time until dark to night virginia had so many experiences to tell them of her day in town that the boys seemed unusually long in dressing
she was so impatient for them to hear her news that she could not settle down to anything but walked restlessly around the room wishing they would hurry oh i haven't sorted my valentines
she exclaimed presently picking up a fancy box which she had tossed on the bed when she first came in
there was no one in the room when she peeped in it looked so bright and cosy with the great wood fire blazing on the hearth and the rose coloured light falling from its softly shaded lamps that she forgot the coldness of the night outside sitting down on a pile of cushions at one end of the hearth rug
she began sorting her purchases trying to decide to whom each one should be sent the prettiest valentine of all must go to poor papa she said to herself cause he's been so sick away down there in cuba
and this one that's got the little girl on it in a blue dress shall be for my dear sweet mamma cause it will make her think of me for a moment a mist seemed to blur the gay blue dress of the little valentine girl as virginia looked at her thinking of her far away mother
she drew her hand hastily across her eyes and went on this one is for sergeant jackson out at fort dennis and the biggest one with the doves for colonel philips and his wife dear me i wish i could send one to every officer and soldier out there
they were all so good to me the pile of lace paper cupids and hearts and arrows and roses slipped from her lap down to the rug as she clasped her hands around her knees and looked into the fire she wished that she could be back again at the fort
how she loved the bugle calls and the wild thrill the band gave her when it struck up a burst of martial music and the troops went dashing by how she missed the drills and the dress parades her rides across the open prairie on her pony beside her father
how she missed the games she used to play with the other children at the fort on the long summer evenings something more than a mist was gathering in her eyes now two big tears were almost ready to fall when the door opened and missus mac intyre came in
in virginia's eyes she was the most beautiful grandmother any one ever had she was not so tall as her daughter allison and in that respect fell short of the little girl's ideal but her hair white as snow
curled around her face in the same soft pretty fashion and by every refined feature she showed her kinship to the aristocratic old faces which looked down from the family portraits in the hall
as she did so her heel caught in the rug and she fell back in an awkward little heap the more haste the less grace my dear said her grandmother kindly thanking her for the proffered chair virginia blushed
wondering why she always appeared so awkward in her grandmother's presence she envied the boys because they never seemed embarrassed or ill at ease before her while she was picking up her valentines the boys came in if two of the cavalier ancestors had stepped down from their portrait frames just then
they could not have come into the room in a more charming manner than malcolm and keith their faces were shining their linen spotless and they came up to kiss their grandmother's cheek with an old time courtliness that delighted her
i am sure that there are no more perfect gentlemen in all kentucky than my two little lads she said fondly with an approving pat of keith's hand as she held him a moment virginia who had seen them half an hour before
tousled and dirty and had been arrayed against them in more than one hot quarrel where they had been anything but chivalrous let slip a faintly whistled cuckoo the boys darted a quick glance in her direction but she was bending over the valentines with a very serious face
which never changed its expression till her aunt allison came in and the boys began their apologies for not meeting her at the train their only excuse was that they had forgotten all about it virginia spelled on her fingers
i dare you to tell what made your faces so black keith's only answer was to thrust his tongue out at her behind his grandmother's back then he ran to hold the door open for the ladies to pass out to dinner with all the grace of a young chesterfield
miss allison opened a box of tiny heart shaped envelopes and began addressing them as she took up her pen she said merrily now you may tell our secret virginia i was going to make you guess for about an hour said virginia
but it is so nice i can't wait that long to tell you we are going to have a valentine party to morrow night aunt allison planned it all a week ago and bought the things for it while we were in town to day everything on the table is to be cut in heart shape
the bread and butter and sandwiches and cheese and the ice cream will be moulded in hearts and the two big frosted cakes are hearts one pink and one white with candy arrows sticking in them then there will be peppermint candy hearts with mottoes printed on them
and lace paper napkins with verses on them so that the table itself will look like a lovely big valentine the games are lovely too one is parlour archery with a red heart in the middle of the target and two prizes
one for the boys and one for the girls who are invited asked malcolm as virginia stopped for breath
i can't remember them all there will be twenty four counting us there is the list on the table keith reached for it and began slowly spelling out the names who is this he asked reading the name that headed the list the little colonel
i never heard of him oh he's a girl laughed virginia little lloyd sherman don't you know she lives up at the locusts that lovely place with the long avenue of trees leading up to the house
when lloyd was younger she had a temper so much like his and wore such a dear little napoleon hat that everybody took to calling her the little colonel how old is she now asked malcolm about keith's age isn't she aunt allison
asked virginia yes was the answer she is nearly eight i believe she has outgrown most of her naughtiness now i love to hear her talk said virginia
some things you say like darkeys and some things like english people and it doesn't sound a bit like the little colonel oh well that's because we've travelled abroad so much don't you know drawled malcolm and we've been in so many different countries
we couldn't help picking up a bit of an accent don't you know his superior tone made virginia long to slap him yes i know mister brag she said in such a low voice that her grandmother could not hear i know perfectly well
if i didn't it wouldn't be because you haven't told me every chance you got who did you say is your tailor in london and how many times was it the queen invited you out to windsor
and you wouldn't be so common as to wear a pair of gloves that hadn't been made to order specially for you yes i've heard all about it miss allison heard but said nothing
boys did you ever hear about the time that the little colonel threw mud on her grandfather's coat there's no end to her pranks get grandmother to tell you oh yes please grandmother begged keith with an arm around her neck
bachelor's quarters horace was feeling particularly happy as he walked back the next evening to vincent square he had the consciousness of having done a good day's work
for the sketch plans for mister wackerbath's mansion were actually completed and despatched to his business address while ventimore now felt a comfortable assurance that his designs would more than satisfy his client
but it was not that which made him so light of heart that night his rooms were to be honoured for the first time by sylvia's presence she would tread upon his carpet sit in his chairs comment upon and perhaps even handle
his books and ornaments and all of them would retain something of her charm for ever after
for even now he could not quite believe that she really would that some untoward event would not make a point of happening to prevent her as he sometimes doubted whether his engagement was not too sweet and wonderful to be true or at all events to last
as to the dinner his mind was tolerably easy for he had settled the remaining details of the menu with his landlady that morning and he could hope that without being so sumptuous as to excite the professor's wrath it would still be not altogether unworthy
and what goods could be rare and dainty enough to be set before sylvia he would have liked to provide champagne but he knew that wine would savour of ostentation in the professor's judgment so he had contented himself instead with claret
a sound vintage which he knew he could depend upon flowers he thought were clearly permissible and he had called at a florist's on his way and got some chrysanthemums of palest yellow and deepest terra cotta the finest he could see
some of them would look well on the centre of the table in an old nankin blue and white bowl he had the rest he could arrange about the room
occupied with these thoughts he turned into vincent square which looked vaster than ever with the murky haze enclosed by its high railings and under a wide expanse of steel blue sky across which the clouds were driving fast like ships in full sail
against the mist below the young and nearly leafless trees showed flat black profiles as of pressed seaweed
from the river came the long drawn tooting of tugs mingled with the more distant wail and hysterical shrieks of railway engines on the lambeth lines and now he reached the old semi detached house in which he lodged
and noticed for the first time how the trellis work of the veranda made with the bared creepers and hanging baskets a kind of decorative pattern against the windows which were suffused with a roseate glow that looked warm and comfortable and hospitable
he wondered whether sylvia would notice it when she arrived
then he let himself in and stood spellbound with perplexed amazement for he was in a strange house in place of the modest passage with the yellow marble wall paper the mahogany hat stand
and the elderly barometer in a state of chronic depression which he knew so well he found an arched octagonal entrance hall with arabesques of blue crimson and gold and richly embroidered hangings the floor was marble
and from a shallow basin of alabaster in the centre a perfumed fountain rose and fell with a lulling patter i must have mistaken the number he thought quite forgetting that his latch key had fitted
and he was just about to retreat before his intrusion was discovered when the hangings parted
whatever will you go and do next i wonder to think of your going and having the whole place done up and altered out of knowledge like this without a word of warning if any halterations were required i do think as me and rapkin had the right to be consulted
horace let all his chrysanthemums drop unheeded into the fountain he understood now indeed he seemed in some way to have understood almost from the first only he would not admit it even to himself
the irrepressible jinnee was at the bottom of this of course he remembered now having made that unfortunate remark the day before about the limited accommodation his rooms afforded
and with that insatiable munificence which was one of his worst failings had determined by way of a pleasant surprise to entirely refurnish and redecorate the apartments according to his own ideas it was extremely kind of him
it showed a truly grateful disposition but oh as horace thought in the bitterness of his soul if he would only learn to let well alone and mind his own business
however the thing was done now and he must accept the responsibility for it since he could hardly disclose the truth didn't i mention i was having some alterations made he said carelessly they've got the work done rather sooner than i expected were
were they long over it i'm sure i can't tell you sir having stepped out to get some things i wanted in for to night and rapkin he was round the corner at his reading room and when i come back it was all done and the workmen gone ome
and how they could have finished such a job in the time beats me altogether for when we ad the men in to do the back kitchen they took ten days over it well said horace evading this point however they've done this they've done it remarkably well
you'll admit that missus rapkin that's as may be sir
nor yet i don't think it will be rapkin's taste when he comes to see it it was not ventimore's taste either though he was not going to confess it sorry for that missus rapkin he said
begging your pardon sir but that's a total unpossibility for they've been and took away the staircase taken away the staircase nonsense cried horace so i think mister ventimore
from which hung several lamps diffusing a subdued radiance high up in the wall on his left were the two windows which he judged to have formerly belonged to his sitting room for either from delicacy or inability or simply because it had not occurred to him
the jinnee had not interfered with the external structure but the windows were now masked by a perforated and gilded lattice which accounted for the pattern horace had noticed from without the walls were covered with blue and white oriental tiles
the centre of the marble floor was spread with costly rugs and piles of cushions their rich hues glowing through the gold with which they were intricately embroidered well said the unhappy horace scarcely knowing what he was saying
it it all looks very cosy missus rapkin it's not for me to say sir but i should like to know where you thought of dining where said horace why here of course there's plenty of room there isn't a table left in the house
said missus rapkin so unless you'd wish the cloth laid on the floor oh there must be a table somewhere said horace impatiently or you can borrow one don't make difficulties missus rapkin rig up anything you like
now i must be off and dress he got rid of her and on entering one of the archways discovered a smaller room
which was evidently his bedroom a gorgeous robe
but ventimore naturally preferred his own evening clothes mister rapkin he shouted going to another arch that seemed to communicate with the basement sir replied his landlord who had just returned from his reading room
and now appeared without a tie and in his shirt sleeves looking pale and wild as was perhaps intelligible in the circumstances as he entered his unfamiliar marble halls he staggered
and his red eyes rolled and his mouth gaped in a cod like fashion they've been at it ere too seemin'ly he remarked huskily
as you can see you don't happen to know where they've put my dress clothes do you i don't appen to know where they've put nothink your dress clothes
my good man don't talk rubbish said horace i'm talking to you about what i know and i assert that an englishman's ome is his cashle
a ummums that's english ain't it a bloomin turkish baths who do you suppose is goin to take apartments furnished in this ere ridic'loush style
and regarded by me and maria in the light of one of the family it's ard it's damned ard now look here said ventimore sharply
pull yourself together man and listen to me
you can stand on anything you like or can said horace but hear what i've got to say the the people who made all these alterations went beyond my instructions
still if your landlord doesn't see that its value is immensely improved he's a fool that's all anyway i'll take care you shan't suffer if i have to put everything back in its former state i will at my own expense
so don't bother any more about that you're a gen'l'man mister ventimore said rapkin cautiously regaining his feet there's no mishtaking a gen'l'man i'm a gen'l'man of course you are said horace genially and i'll tell you how you're going to show it
you're going straight downstairs to get your good wife to pour some cold water over your head and then you will finish dressing see what you can do to get a table of some sort and lay it for dinner and be ready to announce my friends when they arrive and wait afterwards do you see
that will be all ri mister ventimore said rapkin who was not far gone enough to be beyond understanding or obeying you leave it entirely to me i'll unnertake that your friends shall be made comforrable perfelly comforrable
most arishto you know the sort o fam'lies i'm tryin to r'member and and everything was always all ri and i shall be all ri in a few minutes with this assurance he stumbled downstairs leaving horace relieved to some extent
he returned to his room and made another frantic search but they were nowhere to be found and as he could not bring himself to receive his guests in his ordinary morning costume
he decided to put on the eastern robes with the exception of a turban which he could not manage to wind round his head thus arrayed he re entered the domed hall
this is too bad cried horace
and the comforter round his throat i do not propose to wait in any garments whatsoever said rapkin i'm a goin out i am very well said horace then send the waiter up i suppose he's come he come but he went away again i told him as he wouldn't be required
come rapkin be reasonable you can't really mean to leave your wife to cook the dinner and serve it too she ain't intending to do neither she've left the house already you must fetch her back cried horace good heavens man
can't you see what a fix you're leaving me in my friends have started long ago
there was a knock as he spoke at the front door and odd enough was the familiar sound of the cast iron knocker in that arabian hall there they are
he said and the idea of meeting them at the door and proposing an instant adjournment to a restaurant occurred to him till he suddenly recollected that he would have to change and try to find some money even for that
for the last time rapkin he cried in despair do you mean to tell me there's no dinner ready oh said rapkin there's dinner right enough and a lot o barbarious furriners downstairs a cookin of it that's what broke maria's art
to see it all took out of her ands after the trouble she'd gone to but i must have somebody to wait exclaimed horace
you've got waiters enough as far as that goes but if you expect a hordinary christian man to wait along of a lot o narsty niggers and be at their beck and call you're mistook sir for i'm going to sleep the night at my brother in law's and take his advice he bein a doorkeeper at a solicitor's orfice and knowing the law
about this ere business and so i wish you a good hevening and oping your dinner will be to your liking and satisfaction
chapter two i spoke of my lady a line or two back now the diamond could never have been in our house where it was lost if it had not been made a present of to my lady's daughter and my lady's daughter
if it had not been for my lady who with pain and travail produced her into the world consequently if we begin with my lady we are pretty sure of beginning far enough back and that let me tell you
is a real comfort at starting if you know anything of the fashionable world you have heard tell of the three beautiful miss herncastles miss adelaide miss caroline
and i had opportunities of judging as you shall presently see
in this business of the diamond he had the longest tongue and the shortest temper of any man high or low i ever met with i say i went into the service of the old lord as page boy in waiting on the three honourable young ladies at the age of fifteen years
there i lived till miss julia married the late sir john verinder an excellent man who only wanted somebody to manage him and between ourselves he found somebody to do it and what is more he throve on it and grew fat on it and lived happy and died easy on it
to the day when she relieved him of his last breath and closed his eyes for ever i have omitted to state that i went with the bride to the bride's husband's house and lands down here sir john she says
i can't do without gabriel betteredge my lady says sir john i can't do without him either that was his way with her and that was how i went into his service it was all one to me where i went
so long as my mistress and i were together seeing that my lady took an interest in the out of door work and the farms and such like i took an interest in them too with all the more reason that i was a small farmer's seventh son myself
my lady got me put under the bailiff and i did my best and gave satisfaction and got promotion accordingly some years later on the monday as it might be my lady says sir john your bailiff is a stupid old man
pension him liberally and let gabriel betteredge have his place on the tuesday as it might be sir john says my lady the bailiff is pensioned liberally and gabriel betteredge has got his place
you hear more than enough of married people living together miserably here is an example to the contrary let it be a warning to some of you and an encouragement to others in the meantime i will go on with my story well
there i was in clover you will say
with a little cottage of my own to live in with my rounds on the estate to occupy me in the morning and my accounts in the afternoon and my pipe and my robinson crusoe in the evening what more could i possibly want to make me happy
remember what adam wanted when he was alone in the garden of eden and if you don't blame it in adam don't blame it in me the woman i fixed my eye on was the woman who kept house for me at my cottage her name was selina goby
i agree with the late william cobbett about picking a wife see that she chews her food well and sets her foot down firmly on the ground when she walks and you're all right selina goby was all right in both these respects
which was one reason for marrying her i had another reason likewise entirely of my own discovering selina being a single woman made me pay so much a week for her board and services selina being my wife
couldn't charge for her board and would have to give me her services for nothing that was the point of view i looked at it from economy with a dash of love i put it to my mistress as in duty bound
i said and i think my lady it will be cheaper to marry her than to keep her my lady burst out laughing and said she didn't know which to be most shocked at my language or my principles some joke tickled her i suppose
understanding nothing myself but that i was free to put it next to selina i went and put it accordingly and what did selina say
of course she said yes as my time drew nearer
my mind began to misgive me i have compared notes with other men
while they were in my interesting situation and they have all acknowledged that about a week before it happened they privately wished themselves out of it i went a trifle further than that myself i actually rose up as it were and tried to get out of it
not for nothing i was too just a man to expect she would let me off for nothing compensation to the woman when the man gets out of it is one of the laws of england
i offered selina goby a feather bed and fifty shillings to be off the bargain you will hardly believe it but it is nevertheless true
after that it was all over with me of course i got the new coat as cheap as i could and i went through all the rest of it as cheap as i could we were not a happy couple and not a miserable couple we were six of one and half a dozen of the other
how it was i don't understand but we always seemed to be
when i wanted to go up stairs there was my wife coming down
that is married life according to my experience of it after five years of misunderstandings on the stairs it pleased an all wise providence to relieve us of each other by taking my wife
i was left with my little girl penelope and with no other child shortly afterwards sir john died and my lady was left with her little girl miss rachel and no other child i have written to very poor purpose of my lady
if you require to be told that my little penelope was taken care of under my good mistress's own eye and was sent to school and taught and made a sharp girl and promoted when old enough to be miss rachel's own maid as for me
i went on with my business as bailiff year after year up to christmas eighteen forty seven when there came a change in my life on that day my lady invited herself to a cup of tea alone with me in my cottage she remarked that
in the time of the old lord i had been more than fifty years in her service and she put into my hands a beautiful waistcoat of wool that she had worked herself to keep me warm in the bitter winter weather
i received this magnificent present quite at a loss to find words to thank my mistress with for the honour she had done me
that the waistcoat was not an honour but a bribe my lady had discovered that i was getting old
and she had come to my cottage to wheedle me if i may use such an expression into giving up my hard out of door work as bailiff and taking my ease for the rest of my days as steward in the house i made as good a fight of it
against the indignity of taking my ease as i could but my mistress knew the weak side of me she put it as a favour to herself the dispute between us ended after that in my wiping my eyes like an old fool with my new woollen waistcoat
and saying i would think about it the perturbation in my mind in regard to thinking about it being truly dreadful after my lady had gone away i applied the remedy which i have never yet found to fail me
in cases of doubt and emergency i smoked a pipe and took a turn at robinson crusoe
i came on a comforting bit page one hundred and fifty eight as follows
what to morrow we hate i saw my way clear directly to day i was all for continuing to be farm bailiff to morrow on the authority of robinson crusoe i should be all the other way take myself to morrow
while in to morrow's humour and the thing was done my mind being relieved in this manner i went to sleep that night in the character of lady verinder's farm bailiff
in the character of lady verinder's house steward all quite comfortable and all through robinson crusoe my daughter penelope has just looked over my shoulder to see what i have done so far
every word of it true but she points out one objection she says what i have done so far isn't in the least what i was wanted to do
instead of that i have been telling the story of my own self curious and quite beyond me to account for
ever find their own selves getting in the way of their subjects like me if they do i can feel for them in the meantime here is another false start and more waste of good writing paper what's to be done now
chapter eighteen the warden is very obstinate doctor grantly is here sir greeted his ears before the door was well open and missus grantly
they have a sitting room above and are waiting up for you there was something in the tone of the man's voice which seemed to indicate that even he looked upon the warden as a runaway schoolboy just recaptured by his guardian
and that he pitied the culprit though he could not but be horrified at the crime the warden endeavoured to appear unconcerned as he said oh indeed i'll go upstairs at once but he failed signally
there was perhaps a ray of comfort in the presence of his married daughter that is to say of comparative comfort seeing that his son in law was there
however upstairs he went the waiter slowly preceding him and on the door being opened the archdeacon was discovered standing in the middle of the room erect indeed as usual but oh how sorrowful
and on the dingy sofa behind him reclined his patient wife
it's twelve o'clock yes my dear said the warden the attorney general named ten for my meeting to be sure ten is late but what could i do you know great men will have their own way
and he gave his daughter a kiss and shook hands with the doctor and again tried to look unconcerned
asked the archdeacon mister harding signified that he had good heavens how unfortunate
express disapprobation and astonishment what will sir abraham think of it
isn't it asked the warden innocently well at any rate i've done it now sir abraham didn't seem to think it so very strange the archdeacon gave a sigh that would have moved a man of war
but papa what did you say to sir abraham asked the lady
and so i resigned the wardenship resigned it said the archdeacon in a solemn voice sad and low
a sort of whisper
and the galleries have applauded with a couple of rounds resigned it good heavens and the dignitary of the church sank back horrified into a horsehair arm chair at least
and of course i must now do so not at all said the archdeacon catching a ray of hope
can be in any way binding on you of course you were there to ask his advice i'm sure sir abraham did not advise any such step mister harding could not say that he had i am sure he disadvised you from it
continued the reverend cross examiner mister harding could not deny this i'm sure sir abraham must have advised you to consult your friends to this proposition also mister harding was obliged to assent
then your threat of resignation amounts to nothing and we are just where we were before mister harding was now standing on the rug moving uneasily from one foot to the other
he made no distinct answer to the archdeacon's last proposition for his mind was chiefly engaged on thinking how he could escape to bed that his resignation was a thing finally fixed on a fact all but completed
was not in his mind a matter of any doubt he knew his own weakness he knew how prone he was to be led but he was not weak enough to give way now to go back from the position to which his conscience had driven him
he did not in the least doubt his resolution but he greatly doubted his power of defending it against his son in law you must be very tired susan said he wouldn't you like to go to bed
but susan didn't want to go till her husband went she had an idea that her papa might be bullied if she were away she wasn't tired at all
the archdeacon was pacing the room expressing by certain nods of his head his opinion of the utter fatuity of his father in law why at last he said
and angels might have blushed at the rebuke expressed in his tone and emphasis why did you go off from barchester so suddenly why did you take such a step without giving us notice after what had passed at the palace
the warden hung his head and made no reply he could not condescend to say that he had not intended to give his son in law the slip and as he had not the courage to avow it he said nothing papa has been too much for you
said the lady the archdeacon took another turn and again ejaculated good heavens this time in a very low whisper but still audible i think i'll go to bed said the warden
taking up a side candle at any rate you'll promise me to take no further step without consultation said the archdeacon mister harding made no answer but slowly proceeded to light his candle
of course continued the other such a declaration as that you made to sir abraham means nothing come warden promise me this the whole affair you see is already settled and that with very little trouble or expense
bold has been compelled to abandon his action and all you have to do is to remain quiet at the hospital mister harding still made no reply but looked meekly into his son in law's face
the archdeacon thought he knew his father in law but he was mistaken he thought that he had already talked over a vacillating man to resign his promise come said he promise susan to give up this idea of resigning the wardenship
the warden looked at his daughter thinking probably at the moment that if eleanor were contented with him
and said i am sure susan will not ask me to break my word or to do what i know to be wrong papa said she it would be madness in you to throw up your preferment what are you to live on
will take care of me also said mister harding with a smile as though afraid of giving offence by making his reference to scripture too solemn pish said the archdeacon turning away rapidly
if the ravens persisted in refusing the food prepared for them they wouldn't be fed a clergyman generally dislikes to be met in argument by any scriptural quotation he feels as affronted as
a doctor does when recommended by an old woman to take some favourite dose or as a lawyer when an unprofessional man attempts to put him down by a quibble i shall have the living of crabtree modestly suggested the warden
eighty pounds a year sneered the archdeacon and the precentorship said the father in law it goes with the wardenship said the son in law mister harding was prepared to argue this point
and began to do so but doctor grantly stopped him my dear warden said he this is all nonsense eighty pounds or a hundred and sixty makes very little difference you can't live on it you can't ruin eleanor's prospects for ever
in point of fact you can't resign the bishop wouldn't accept it the whole thing is settled what i now want to do is to prevent any inconvenient tittle tattle any more newspaper articles that's what i want too
said the warden and to prevent that continued the other we mustn't let any talk of resignation get abroad but i shall resign said the warden very very meekly good heavens
but papa said missus grantly getting up
what is eleanor to do if you throw away your income a hot tear stood in each of the warden's eyes as he looked round upon his married daughter why should one sister who was so rich predict poverty for another
some such idea as this was on his mind but he gave no utterance to it then he thought of the pelican feeding its young with blood from its own breast but he gave no utterance to that either and then of eleanor
waiting for him at home waiting to congratulate him on the end of all his trouble think of eleanor papa said missus grantly i do think of her said her father
and you will not do this rash thing the lady was really moved beyond her usual calm composure it can never be rash to do right said he i shall certainly
resign this wardenship then mister harding there is nothing before you but ruin said the archdeacon now moved beyond all endurance
how do you mean to pay the monstrous expenses of this action missus grantly suggested that as the action was abandoned the costs would not be heavy indeed they will my dear continued he
one cannot have the attorney general up at twelve o'clock at night for nothing but of course your father has not thought of this i will sell my furniture said the warden furniture ejaculated the other
with a most powerful sneer come archdeacon said the lady
you know you never expected papa to pay the costs such absurdity is enough to provoke job said the archdeacon marching quickly up and down the room your father is like a child eight hundred pounds a year
eight hundred and eighty with the house with nothing to do the very place for him
well i have done my duty if he chooses to ruin his child i cannot help it and he stood still at the fire place and looked at himself in a dingy mirror which stood on the chimney piece
there was a pause for about a minute and then the warden finding that nothing else was coming lighted his candle and quietly said good night good night papa said the lady
and so the warden retired but as he closed the door behind him he heard the well known ejaculation
my daughter penelope got in my way just as her late mother used to get in my way on the stairs and instantly summoned me to tell her all that had passed at the conference between mister franklin and me under present circumstances the one thing to be done
i accordingly replied that mister franklin and i had both talked of foreign politics till we could talk no longer and had then mutually fallen asleep in the heat of the sun try that sort of answer when your wife or your daughter
and depend on the natural sweetness of women for kissing and making it up again at the next opportunity the afternoon wore on and my lady and miss rachel came back needless to say how astonished they were when they heard that mister franklin blake had arrived
and had gone off again on horseback needless also to say that they asked awkward questions directly and that the foreign politics and the falling asleep in the sun wouldn't serve a second time over with them being at the end of my invention
was entirely attributable to one of mister franklin's freaks being asked upon that whether his galloping off again on horseback was another of mister franklin's freaks i said yes it was and slipped out of it i think very cleverly in that way
having got over my difficulties with the ladies i found more difficulties waiting for me when i went back to my own room in came penelope with the natural sweetness of women to kiss and make it up again and
with the natural curiosity of women to ask another question this time she only wanted me to tell her
after leaving mister franklin and me at the shivering sand rosanna it appeared had returned to the house in a very unaccountable state of mind she had turned if penelope was to be believed all the colours of the rainbow
she had been merry without reason and sad without reason in one breath she asked hundreds of questions about mister franklin blake and in another breath
that a strange gentleman could possess any interest for her
and scribbling mister franklin's name inside her workbox she had been surprised again crying and looking at her deformed shoulder in the glass had she and mister franklin known anything of each other before to day quite impossible
had they heard anything of each other impossible again i could speak to mister franklin's astonishment as genuine when he saw how the girl stared at him penelope could speak to the girl's inquisitiveness as genuine
when she asked questions about mister franklin the conference between us conducted in this way was tiresome enough until my daughter suddenly ended it by bursting out with what i thought the most monstrous supposition i had ever heard in my life
father says penelope quite seriously there's only one explanation of it rosanna has fallen in love with mister franklin blake at first sight
you have heard of beautiful young ladies falling in love at first sight and have thought it natural enough but a housemaid out of a reformatory with a plain face and a deformed shoulder falling in love at first sight
with a gentleman who comes on a visit to her mistress's house match me that in the way of an absurdity out of any story book in christendom if you can i laughed till the tears rolled down my cheeks penelope resented my merriment
i never knew you cruel before father she said very gently and went out my girl's words fell upon me like a splash of cold water i was savage with myself for feeling
uneasy in myself the moment she had spoken them but so it was we will change the subject if you please i am sorry i drifted into writing about it and not without reason
the evening came and the dressing bell for dinner rang before mister franklin returned from frizinghall i took his hot water up to his room myself expecting to hear after this extraordinary delay
that something had happened to my great disappointment and no doubt to yours also nothing had happened he had not met with the indians either going or returning he had deposited the moonstone in the bank
describing it merely as a valuable of great price and he had got the receipt for it safe in his pocket i went down stairs
after all our excitement about the diamond earlier in the day how the meeting between mister franklin and his aunt and cousin went off is more than i can tell you i would have given something to have waited at table that day
but in my position in the household waiting at dinner except on high family festivals was letting down my dignity in the eyes of the other servants a thing which my lady considered me quite prone enough to do already without seeking occasions for it
the news brought to me from the upper regions that evening came from penelope and the footman penelope mentioned that she had never known miss rachel so particular about the dressing of her hair and had never seen her look so bright and pretty
as she did when she went down to meet mister franklin in the drawing room the footman's report was that the preservation of a respectful composure in the presence of his betters and the waiting on mister franklin blake at dinner were two of the hardest things to reconcile with each other
that had ever tried his training in service later in the evening we heard them singing and playing duets mister franklin piping high miss rachel piping higher and my lady on the piano following them as it were over hedge and ditch
and seeing them safe through it in a manner most wonderful and pleasant to hear through the open windows on the terrace at night later still i went to mister franklin in the smoking room with the soda water and brandy and found that miss rachel had put the diamond clean out of his head
when i endeavoured to lead the conversation to more serious things towards midnight i went round the house to lock up accompanied by my second in command samuel the footman as usual
when all the doors were made fast except the side door that opened on the terrace i sent samuel to bed and stepped out for a breath of fresh air before i too
it was so silent out of doors that i heard from time to time very faint and low the fall of the sea as the ground swell heaved it in on the sand bank near the mouth of our little bay as the house stood the terrace side was the dark side
but the broad moonlight showed fair on the gravel walk that ran along the next side to the terrace looking this way after looking up at the sky i saw the shadow of a person in the moonlight thrown forward from behind the corner of the house
being old and sly
my feet betrayed me on the gravel before i could steal suddenly round the corner as i had proposed i heard lighter feet than mine and more than one pair of them as i thought retreating in a hurry
by the time i had got to the corner the trespassers whoever they were
and were hidden from sight among the thick trees and bushes in that part of the grounds from the shrubbery they could easily make their way over our fence into the road if i had been forty years younger
i might have had a chance of catching them before they got clear of our premises as it was i went back to set a going a younger pair of legs than mine without disturbing anybody samuel and i got a couple of guns
and went all round the house and through the shrubbery having made sure that no persons were lurking about anywhere in our grounds we turned back passing over the walk where i had seen the shadow i now noticed for the first time
a little bright object lying on the clean gravel under the light of the moon picking the object up i discovered it was a small bottle containing a thick sweet smelling liquor as black as ink
i said nothing to samuel but remembering what penelope had told me about the jugglers and the pouring of the little pool of ink into the palm of the boy's hand
when he was armed he descends the steps and finds his horse saddled and the king who had mounted every one in the castle and in the houses of the town hastened to mount in all the town there remained neither man nor woman
erect or deformed great or small weak or strong who is able to go and does not do so when they start there is a great noise and clamour in all the streets for those of high and low degree alike cry out
alas alas oh knight the joy that thou wishest to win has betrayed thee and thou goest to win but grief and death and there is not one but says god curse this joy which has been the death of so many gentlemen
that up and down they said of him alas alas ill starred wert thou fair gentle skilful knight surely it would not be just that thy life should end so soon or that harm should come to wound and injure thee
he hears clearly the words and what they said but notwithstanding he passes on without lowering his head and without the bearing of a craven whoever may speak he longs to see and know and understand
why they are all in such distress anxiety and woe the king leads him without the town into a garden that stood near by and all the people follow after praying that from this trial
for whoever should wish to carry out a little would never be able to find the gate and never could issue from the garden until he had restored the fruit to its place
and there is no flying bird under heaven pleasing to man but it sings there to delight and to gladden him and can be heard there in numbers of every kind and the earth however far it stretch
bears no spice or root of use in making medicine but it had been planted there and was to be found in abundance through a narrow entrance the people entered king evrain and all the rest
erec went riding lance in rest into the middle of the garden greatly delighting in the song of the birds which were singing there they put him in mind of his joy the thing he most was longing for
but he saw a wondrous thing which might arouse fear in the bravest warrior of all whom we know
the esclavon
take care lest thy head be set up there for such is the purpose of the stake
unless it also touch the heart and he who well knew her heart said to her fair sister dear gentle loyal and prudent lady i am acquainted with your thoughts you are in fear i see that well
and me defeated and weary so that i can no longer defend myself but must beg and sue for mercy against my will then you may lament but now you have begun too soon gentle lady
truly i should not fear to face any man alive but i am foolish to vaunt myself yet i say it not from any pride but because i wish to comfort you so comfort yourself and let it be
nor can you go along with me for as the king has ordered i must not take you beyond this point then he kisses her and commends her to god and she him
and grieving and he went off alone down a path without companion of any sort until he came to a silver couch with a cover of gold embroidered cloth beneath the shade of a sycamore
and on the bed a maiden of comely body and lovely face completely endowed with all beauty was seated all alone i intended to say no more of her but whoever could consider well all her attire and her beauty
might well say that never did lavinia of laurentum who was so fair and comely possess the quarter of her beauty erec draws near to her wishing to see her more closely and the onlookers go
and sit down under the trees in the orchard then behold there comes a knight armed with vermilion arms and he was wondrous tall and if he were not so immeasurably tall under the heavens there would be none fairer than he
before erec caught sight of him he cried out vassal vassal you are mad upon my life thus to approach my damsel i should say you are not worthy to draw near her you will pay dearly for your presumption
by my head stand back and erec stops and looks at him and the other too stood still neither made advance until erec had replied all that he wished to say to him
one can speak folly as well as good sense threaten as much as you please and i will keep silence
do you know why a man sometimes thinks he has won the game who afterward loses it so he is manifestly a fool who is too presumptuous and who threatens too much
if there are some who flee there are plenty who chase but i do not fear you so much that i am going to run away yet i am ready to make such defence if there is any who wishes to offer me battle
that he will have to do his uttermost or otherwise he cannot escape nay quoth he so help me god know that you shall have the battle for i defy and challenge you
and you may know upon my word that then the reins were not held in the lances they had were not light but were big and square
upon the shields with mighty strength they smote each other with their sharp weapons so that a fathom of each lance passes through the gleaming shields
so they quickly rise for they were strong and lithe they stand on foot in the middle of the garden and straightway attack each other with their green swords of german steel and deal great wicked blows upon their bright
no greater efforts can be made than those they make in striving and toiling to injure and wound each other both fiercely smite with the gilded pommel and the cutting edge
and very often they missed their blows like men who did not see to wield their swords upon each other they can scarcely harm each other now
because their eyes are so blinded that they completely lose their sight they let their shields fall to the ground and seize each other angrily each pulls and drags the other so that they fall upon their knees
thus long they fight until the hour of noon is past and the big knight is so exhausted that his breath quite fails him erec has him at his mercy and pulls and drags so that he breaks all the lacing of his helmet
and forces him over at his feet he falls over upon his face against erec's breast and has not strength to rise again though it distresses him he has to say and own i cannot deny it
you have beaten me but much it goes against my will and yet you may be of such degree and fame that only credit will redound to me and insistently i would request if it may be in any way
that i might know your name and he thereby somewhat comforted if a better man has defeated me i shall be glad i promise you
then i must feel great grief indeed friend dost thou wish to know my name says erec well i shall tell thee ere i leave here
but it will be upon condition that thou tell me now why thou art in this garden concerning that i will know all what is thy name and what the joy for i am very anxious to hear the truth from beginning
to end of it sire says he fearlessly i will tell you all you wish to know erec no more withholds his name but says didst thou ever hear of king lac and of his son erec
i should never have left him for anything
but did not tell me what it was who would deny his mistress aught there is no lover but would surely do all his sweet heart's pleasure without default or guile whenever he can in any way
i agreed to her desire but when i had agreed she would have it too that i should swear i would have done more than that for her but she took me at my word i made her a promise without knowing what
time passed until i was made a knight king evrain whose nephew i am dubbed me a knight in the presence of many honourable men in this very garden where we are my lady who is sitting there
for rather than break my word i should never have pledged it since i knew the good there was in her i could nor reveal or show to the one whom i hold most dear that in
all this i was displeased for if she had noticed it she would have withdrawn her heart and i would not have had it so for anything that might happen
this garden any vassal who could conquer me in this way she intended to keep me absolutely shut up with her all the days of my life and i should have committed an offence if i had had
such escape would have been a shame and i dare to assure you that i have no friend so dear that i would have feigned at all in fighting with him
you have surely seen the helmets of those whom i have defeated and put to death but the guilt of it is not mine when one considers it aright i could not help myself unless i were willing to be false and recreant and disloyal
now i have told you the truth and be assured that it is no small honour which you have gained you have given great joy to the court of my uncle and my friends for now i shall be released from here
joy of the court they have awaited it so long that now it will be granted them by you who have won it by your fight you have defeated and bewitched my prowess and my chivalry
now it is right that i tell you my name if you would know it i am called mabonagrain but i am not remembered by that name in any land where i have been save only in this region
for never when i was a squire did i tell or make known my name sire you knew the truth concerning all that you asked me but i must still tell you that there is in this garden a horn which i doubt not you have seen
i cannot issue forth from here until you have blown the horn but then you will have released me and then the joy will begin whoever shall hear and give it heed no hindrance will detain him when he shall hear the sound of the horn
from coming straight way to the court rise up sire go quickly now go take the horn right joyfully for you have no further cause to wait so do that which you must do now erec rose and the other rises with him
and guivret was greatly delighted too the king is glad and so are his people there is not one who is not well suited and pleased at this no one ceases or leaves off from making merry and from song erec could boast that day
for never was such rejoicing made it could not be described or related by mouth of man but i will tell you the sum of it briefly and with few words the news spreads through the country that thus the affair has turned out
to whom the joy brings great chagrin
as he had been inasmuch as he desired to leave the garden however disappointing it may be no one can prevent his going away for the hour and the time have come therefore the tears ran down her face from her eyes
much more than i can say was she grieving and distressed nevertheless she sat up straight but she does not care so much for any of those who try to comfort her that she ceases her moan
but for a while the other could not reply a word being prevented by the sighs and sobs which torment and distress her some time it was before the damsel returned her salutation and when she had looked at her and examined her for a while
it seemed that she had seen and known her before but not being very certain of it she was not slow to inquire from whence she was of what country and where her lord was born she inquires who they both are
i am the niece of the count who holds sway over lalut the daughter of his own sister at lalut i was born and brought up the other cannot help smiling without hearing more
for she is so delighted that she forgets her sorrow her heart leaps with joy which she cannot conceal
chapter seventeen how sir tristram fought with sir bleoberis for a lady and how the lady was put to choice to whom she would go
then sir tristram rode more than a pace until that he had overtaken him then spake sir tristram abide he said knight of arthur's court bring again that lady or deliver her to me
i will do neither said bleoberis for i dread no cornish knight so sore that me list to deliver her why said sir tristram may not a cornish knight do as well as another knight
this same day two knights of your court within this three mile met with me and or ever we departed they found a cornish knight good enough for them both what were their names said bleoberis they told me said sir tristram
but ye shall beat me or ever ye have this lady then defend you said sir tristram
and either bare other down horse and all to the earth then they avoided their horses and lashed together eagerly with swords
a might that they lay both grovelling on the ground then sir bleoberis de ganis stert aback
a while hold your hands and let us speak together say what ye will said tristram and i will answer you sir said bleoberis
and of whom ye be come and what is your name so god me help said sir tristram i fear not to tell you my name
and my mother is king mark's sister and my name is sir tristram de liones and king mark is mine uncle truly said bleoberis i am right glad of you for ye are he that
slew marhaus the knight hand for hand in an island
wit ye well that i am the same knight now i have told you my name tell me yours with good will wit ye well that my name is sir bleoberis de ganis and my brother hight sir blamore de ganis
that is called a good knight
that we call one of the best knights of the world that is truth said sir tristram sir launcelot is called peerless of courtesy and of knighthood and for his sake said sir tristram i will not with my good will fight no more with you
chapter eighteen how the lady forsook sir tristram and abode with sir bleoberis and how she desired to go to her husband so when she was set
betwixt them both she said these words unto sir tristram wit ye well sir tristram de liones that but late thou wast the man in the world that i most loved and trusted
and i weened thou hadst loved me again above all ladies but when thou sawest this knight lead me away thou madest no cheer to rescue me
when sir tristram saw her do so he was wonderly wroth with that lady and ashamed to come to the court sir tristram said sir bleoberis ye are in the default
for i hear by this lady's words she before this day trusted you above all earthly knights and as she saith
that will away and rather than ye should be heartily displeased with me i would ye had her an she would abide with you nay said the lady
so god me help i will never go with him for he that i loved most i weened he had loved me and therefore sir tristram she said ride as thou came for though thou haddest overcome this knight as ye was likely
with thee never would i have gone and i shall pray this knight so fair of his knighthood that or ever he pass this country that he will lead me to the abbey where my lord
and so this lady liked me best notwithstanding she is wedded and hath a lord and i have fulfilled my quest she shall be
and in especial most for your sake sir tristram and if she would go with you i would ye had her i thank you said sir tristram but for her love i shall beware
what manner a lady i shall love or trust for had her lord sir segwarides been away from the court i should have been the first that should have followed you but sithen that ye have refused me
as i am true knight i shall her know passingly well that i shall love or trust and so they took their leave one from the other and departed and so sir tristram
rode unto tintagil and sir bleoberis rode unto the abbey
lay sore wounded and there he delivered his lady and departed as a noble knight and when sir segwarides saw his lady he was greatly comforted
then when this was done king mark cast always in his heart how he might destroy sir tristram and then he imagined in himself to send sir tristram into ireland for la beale isoud
and her goodness that king mark said that he would wed her whereupon he prayed sir tristram to take his way into ireland for him on message
and all this was done to the intent to slay sir tristram notwithstanding sir tristram would not refuse the message for no danger nor peril that might fall for the pleasure of his uncle
but to go he made him ready in the most goodliest wise that might be devised for sir tristram took with him the most goodliest knights that he might find in the court
and they were arrayed after the guise that was then used in the goodliest manner so sir tristram departed and took the sea with all his fellowship and anon as he was in the broad sea
and when they were landed sir tristram set up his pavilion upon the land of camelot and there he let hang his shield upon the pavilion and that same day came two knights of king arthur's
that one was sir ector de maris and sir morganor and they touched the shield and bade him come out of the pavilion for to joust an he would joust
alas said sir ector
and then for despite sir ector put off his armour from him and went on foot and would not ride chapter twenty how king anguish of ireland
was summoned to come to king arthur's court for treason then it fell that sir bleoberis and sir blamore de ganis that were brethren
they had summoned the king anguish of ireland for to come to arthur's court upon pain of forfeiture of king arthur's good grace and if the king of ireland came not in at the day assigned and set
for to give the judgment for king arthur was with sir launcelot at the castle joyous garde and so king arthur assigned king carados and the king of scots to be there that day as judges
so when the kings were at camelot king anguish of ireland was come to know his accusers then was there sir blamore de ganis and appealed the king of ireland of treason
that he had slain a cousin of his in his court in ireland by treason the king was sore abashed of his accusation for
that an any man were appealed of any treason or murder he should fight body for body or else to find another knight for him and all manner of murders in those days were called treason
so when king anguish understood his accusing he was passing heavy for he knew sir blamore de ganis that he was a noble knight and of noble knights come then the king of ireland was simply purveyed of his answer
therefore the judges gave him respite by the third day to give his answer so the king departed unto his lodging the meanwhile there came a lady by sir tristram's pavilion making great dole
what aileth you said sir tristram that ye make such dole ah fair knight said the lady i am ashamed unless that some good knight help me for a great lady of worship sent by me a fair child
and threw me down from my palfrey and took away the child from me well my lady said sir tristram and for my lord sir launcelot's sake i shall get you that child again or else i shall be beaten for it
and so sir tristram took his horse and asked the lady which way the knight rode and then she told him and he rode after him and within a while he overtook that knight and then sir tristram bade him turn
and give again the child chapter twenty one how sir tristram rescued a child from a knight and how gouvernail told him of king anguish
the knight turned his horse and made him ready to fight and then sir tristram smote him with a sword such a buffet that he tumbled to the earth and then he yielded him unto sir tristram
then come thy way said sir tristram and bring the child to the lady again so he took his horse meekly and rode with sir tristram and then by the way sir tristram asked him his name then he said my name is breuse
sir as in this the child is well remedied then sir tristram let him go again that sore repented him after for he was a great foe unto many good knights of king arthur's court
then when sir tristram was in his pavilion gouvernail his man came and told him how that king anguish of ireland was come thither and he was put in great distress
and there gouvernail told sir tristram how king anguish was summoned and appealed of murder so god me help said sir tristram these be the best tidings that ever came to me this seven years
for now shall the king of ireland have need of my help for i daresay there is no knight in this country that is not of arthur's court dare do battle with sir blamore de ganis
and for to win the love of the king of ireland i will take the battle upon me and therefore gouvernail bring me i charge thee to the king
then gouvernail went unto king anguish of ireland and saluted him fair the king welcomed him and asked him what he would
he bade me say he would do you service what knight is he said the king sir said he it is sir tristram de liones that for your good grace that ye showed him in your lands will reward you in this country
my gracious lord said sir tristram gramercy of your great goodnesses showed unto me in your marches and lands
an ever it lay in my power and gentle knight said the king unto sir tristram now have i great need of you never had i so great need of no knight's help how so my good lord said sir tristram
i shall tell you said the king i am summoned and appealed from my country for the death of a knight that was kin unto the good knight sir launcelot wherefore
to find a knight in my stead and well i wot said the king these that are come of king ban's blood as sir launcelot and these other are passing good knights and hard men
for to win in battle as any that i know now living sir said sir tristram for the good lordship ye showed me in ireland and for my lady your daughter's sake
that ye shall grant me two things that one is that ye shall swear to me that ye are in the right that ye were never consenting to the knight's death sir then said sir tristram
when that i have done this battle if god give me grace that i speed that ye shall give me a reward
how sir tristram fought for sir anguish and overcame his adversary and how his adversary would never yield him
now make your answer that your champion is ready for i shall die in your quarrel rather than to be recreant i have no doubt of you said the king
i have done battle with him therefore upon my head it is no shame to call him a good knight it is noised said the king that blamore is the hardier knight
sir as for that let him be he shall never be refused an as he were the best knight that now beareth shield or spear
and told them that he had found his champion ready then by the commandment of the kings sir blamore de ganis and sir tristram were sent for to hear the charge and when they were come before the judges
there were many kings and knights beheld sir tristram and much speech they had of him because that he slew
neither farther nor nearer but brother's children and there was never none of our kin that ever was shamed in battle and rather suffer death brother than to be shamed
brother said blamore have ye no doubt of me for i shall never shame none of my blood howbeit i am sure that yonder knight is called a passing good knight
as of his time one of the world yet shall i never yield me nor say the loath word well may he happen to smite me down with his great might of chivalry
for i know him for i have had ado with him
and sir tristram at the other end of the lists and so they feutred their spears and came together as it had been thunder
and there sir tristram through great might smote down sir blamore and his horse to the earth then anon sir blamore avoided his horse and pulled out his sword and threw his shield afore him and bade sir tristram alight
for sir blamore was so hasty that he would have no rest that all men wondered that they had breath to stand on their feet and
and last of all because the hardest of all let us leave if possible myself but tis impossible i must go along with you to the end of the work
which lay at the bottom of my uncle toby's kitchen garden and which was the scene of so many of his delicious hours
but in his imagination for i am sure i gave him so minute a description i was almost ashamed of it when fate was looking forwards one afternoon into the great transactions of future times and recollected for what purposes this little plot
by a decree fast bound down in iron had been destined she gave a nod to nature
nature threw half a spade full of her kindliest compost upon it with just so much clay in it as to retain the forms of angles and indentings and so little of it too as not to cling to the spade and render works of so much glory nasty in foul weather
my uncle toby came down as the reader has been informed with plans along with him of almost every fortified town in italy and flanders so let the duke of marlborough or the allies have set down before what town they pleased my uncle toby was prepared for them
his way which was the simplest one in the world was this as soon as ever a town was invested but sooner when the design was known to take the plan of it let it be what town it would
he set the corporal to work and sweetly went it on the nature of the soil the nature of the work itself and above all the good nature of my uncle toby sitting by from morning to night and chatting kindly with the corporal upon past done deeds
left labour little else but the ceremony of the name when the place was finished in this manner and put into a proper posture of defence it was invested and my uncle toby and the corporal began to run their first parallel i beg i may not be interrupted in my story by being told
and that i have not left a single inch for it for my uncle toby took the liberty of incroaching upon his kitchen garden for the sake of enlarging his works on the bowling green and for that reason generally ran his first and second parallels betwixt two rows of his cabbages and his cauliflowers
the conveniences and inconveniences of which will be considered at large in the history of my uncle toby's and the corporal's campaigns of which this i'm now writing is but a sketch and will be finished if i conjecture right in three pages but there is no guessing
the campaigns themselves will take up as many books and therefore i apprehend it would be hanging too great a weight of one kind of matter in so flimsy a performance as this to rhapsodize them as i once intended into the body of the work surely they had better be printed apart
we'll consider the affair so take the following sketch of them in the mean time
when the town with its works was finished my uncle toby and the corporal began to run their first parallel not at random or any how but from the same points and distances the allies had begun to run theirs
and regulating their approaches and attacks by the accounts my uncle toby received from the daily papers they went on during the whole siege step by step with the allies
and so on gaining ground and making themselves masters of the works one after another till the town fell into their hands to one who took pleasure in the happy state of others there could not have been a greater sight in world than on a post morning
in which a practicable breach had been made by the duke of marlborough
and observed the spirit with which my uncle toby with trim behind him sallied forth the one with the gazette in his hand the other with a spade on his shoulder to execute the contents what an honest triumph in my uncle toby's looks as he marched up to the ramparts
what intense pleasure swimming in his eye as he stood over the corporal reading the paragraph ten times over to him as he was at work lest peradventure he should make the breach an inch too wide or leave it an inch too narrow
earth sea but what avails apostrophes with all your elements wet or dry ye never compounded so intoxicating a draught in this track of happiness for many years without one interruption to it
except now and then when the wind continued to blow due west for a week or ten days together which detained the flanders mail and kept them so long in torture but still twas the torture of the happy in this track i say
did my uncle toby and trim move for many years every year of which and sometimes every month
adding some new conceit or quirk of improvement to their operations which always opened fresh springs of delight in carrying them on the first year's campaign was carried on from beginning to end in the plain and simple method i've related
in the second year in which my uncle toby took liege and ruremond he thought he might afford the expence of four handsome draw bridges of two of which i have given an exact description in the former part of my work
at the latter end of the same year he added a couple of gates with port cullises these last were converted afterwards into orgues as the better thing and during the winter of the same year my uncle toby instead of a new suit of clothes which he always had at christmas
treated himself with a handsome sentry box to stand at the corner of the bowling green betwixt which point and the foot of the glacis there was left a little kind of an esplanade for him and the corporal to confer and hold councils of war upon the sentry box was in case of rain
all these were painted white three times over the ensuing spring which enabled my uncle toby to take the field with great splendour my father would often say to yorick that if any mortal in the whole universe had done such a thing except his brother toby
the beginning of the war but particularly that very year had taken the field but tis not my brother toby's nature kind soul my father would add to insult any one but let us go on
that although in the first year's campaign the word town is often mentioned yet there was no town at that time within the polygon that addition was not made till the summer following the spring in which the bridges and sentry box were painted which was the third year of my uncle toby's campaigns
when upon his taking amberg bonn and rhinberg and huy and limbourg one after another a thought came into the corporal's head that to talk of taking so many towns without one town to shew for it was a very nonsensical way of going to work
that they should have a little model of a town built for them to be run up together of slit deals
and clapped within the interior polygon to serve for all my uncle toby felt the good of the project instantly and instantly agreed to it but with the addition of two singular improvements
and the rest of the towns in brabant and flanders the other was not to have the houses run up together as the corporal proposed but to have every house independent to hook on or off so as to form into the plan of whatever town they pleased
this was put directly into hand and many and many a look of mutual congratulation was exchanged between my uncle toby and the corporal as the carpenter did the work it answered prodigiously the next summer the town was a perfect proteus it was landen and trerebach
and drusen and hagenau and then it was ostend and menin and aeth and dendermond surely never did any town act so many parts since sodom and gomorrah as my uncle toby's town did in the fourth year
my uncle toby thinking a town looked foolishly without a church added a very fine one with a steeple trim was for having bells in it my uncle toby said the metal had better be cast into cannon this
and in a short time these led the way for a train of somewhat larger
from pieces of half an inch bore till it came at last to my father's jack boots the next year which was that in which lisle was besieged and at the close of which both ghent and bruges fell into our hands
my uncle toby was sadly put to it for proper ammunition i say proper ammunition because his great artillery would not bear powder and twas well for the shandy family they would not for so full were the papers
of the incessant firings kept up by the besiegers and so heated was my uncle toby's imagination with the accounts of them that he had infallibly shot away all his estate something therefore was wanting as a succedaneum
especially in one or two of the more violent paroxysms of the siege to keep up something like a continual firing in the imagination and this something the corporal whose principal strength lay in invention supplied by an entire new system of battering of his own without which
as one of the great desiderata of my uncle toby's apparatus
it shall be done in two minutes amongst many other book debts all of which i shall discharge in due time i own myself a debtor to the world for two items a chapter upon chamber maids and button holes
which in the former part of my work i promised and fully intended to pay off this year but some of your worships and reverences telling me that the two subjects especially so connected together might endanger the morals of the world
i pray the chapter upon chamber maids and button holes may be forgiven me and that they will accept of the last chapter in lieu of it which is nothing an't please your reverences but a chapter of chamber maids green gowns and old hats
trim took his hat off the ground put it upon his head and then went on with his oration upon death in manner and form following
who know not what want or care is
bating in my own case his majesty king william the third
i own it that from whitsontide to within three weeks of christmas
but to those jonathan who know what death is and what havock and destruction he can make
o jonathan twould make a good natured man's heart bleed to consider continued the corporal standing perpendicularly how low many a brave and upright fellow has been laid since that time and trust me susy added the corporal turning to susannah
whose eyes were swimming in water before that time comes round again
she wept but she court'sied too are we not continued trim looking still at susannah are we not like a flower of the field a tear of pride stole in betwixt every two tears of humiliation
else no tongue could have described susannah's affliction is not all flesh grass tis clay
they all looked directly at the scullion the scullion had just been scouring a fish kettle it was not fair what is the finest face that ever man looked at i could hear trim talk so for ever cried susannah what is it
susannah laid her hand upon trim's shoulder but corruption susannah took it off now i love you for this and tis this delicious mixture within you which makes you dear creatures what you are and he who hates you for it all i can say of the matter is
and whenever he is dissected twill be found so
whether susannah by taking her hand too suddenly from off the corporal's shoulder by the whisking about of her passions broke a little the chain of his reflexions
or whether or whether
which of all these was the cause let the curious physiologist or the curious any body determine
for my own part i declare it that out of doors i value not death at all not this added the corporal snapping his fingers but with an air which no one but the corporal could have given to the sentiment in battle i value death not this
like poor joe gibbins in scouring his gun what is he a pull of a trigger
makes the difference look along the line to the right see jack's down well
then jack's no worse never mind which we pass on in hot pursuit the wound itself which brings him is not felt the best way is to stand up to him the man who flies is in ten times more danger than the man who marches up into his jaws
i've look'd him added the corporal an hundred times in the face and know what he is he's nothing obadiah at all in the field but he's very frightful in a house quoth obadiah i never mind it myself said jonathan upon a coach box
it must in my opinion be most natural in bed replied susannah
i would do it there said trim but that is nature nature is nature said jonathan and that is the reason cried susannah i so much pity my mistress she will never get the better of it now i pity the captain the most of any one in the family answered trim
madam will get ease of heart in weeping
i shall hear him sigh in his bed for a whole month together as he did for lieutenant le fever an please your honour do not sigh so piteously i would say to him as i laid besides him i cannot help it trim my master would say
i cannot get it off my heart your honour fears not death yourself i hope trim i fear nothing he would say but the doing a wrong thing well he would add
said susannah he is a kindly hearted gentleman said obadiah as ever lived aye and as brave a one too said the corporal as ever stept before a platoon there never was a better officer in the king's army or a better man in god's world for he would march up to the mouth of a cannon
and yet for all that he has a heart as soft as a child for other people he would not hurt a chicken i would sooner quoth jonathan drive such a gentleman for seven pounds a year than some for eight thank thee jonathan for thy twenty shillings
as much jonathan said the corporal shaking him by the hand
out of love he is a friend and a brother to me
was i worth ten thousand pounds i would leave every shilling of it to the captain trim could not refrain from tears at this testamentary proof he gave of his affection to his master the whole kitchen was affected do tell us the story of the poor lieutenant said susannah
with all my heart answered the corporal susannah the cook jonathan obadiah and corporal trim formed a circle about the fire and as soon as the scullion had shut the kitchen door the corporal begun
i am a turk if i had not as much forgot my mother
without one your most obedient servant madam i've cost you a great deal of trouble i wish it may answer
and what must i do with this foot i shall never reach england with it for my own part i never wonder at any thing
if a man will but take me by the hand
with two or three other trinkets small in themselves but of great regard which poor tom the corporal's unfortunate brother had sent him over with the account of his marriage with the jew's widow there was a montero cap and two turkish tobacco pipes
the montero cap i shall describe by and bye the turkish tobacco pipes had nothing particular in them they were fitted up and ornamented as usual with flexible tubes of morocco leather and gold wire
the other with black ebony tipp'd with silver my father who saw all things in lights different from the rest of the world would say to the corporal that he ought to look upon these two presents more as tokens of his brother's nicety than his affection tom did not care trim
he would say to put on the cap or to smoke in the tobacco pipe of a jew god bless your honour the corporal would say
was scarlet of a superfine spanish cloth dyed in grain and mounted all round with fur except about four inches in the front which was faced with a light blue slightly embroidered
not of foot but of horse as the word denotes the corporal was not a little proud of it as well for its own sake as the sake of the giver so seldom or never put it on but upon gala days
and yet never was a montero cap put to so many uses for in all controverted points whether military or culinary provided the corporal was sure he was in the right it was either his oath his wager or his gift
i'll be bound said the corporal speaking to himself to give away my montero cap to the first beggar who comes to the door if i do not manage this matter to his honour's satisfaction the completion was no further off than the very next morning
which was that of the storm of the counterscarp betwixt the lower deule to the right and the gate saint andrew and on the left between saint magdalen's and the river
and i must add the most bloody too for it cost the allies themselves that morning above eleven hundred men my uncle toby prepared himself for it with a more than ordinary solemnity the eve which preceded as my uncle toby went to bed
which had laid inside out for many years in the corner of an old campaigning trunk which stood by his bedside
my uncle toby after he had turned the rough side outwards put it on this done he proceeded next to his breeches and having buttoned the waist band he forthwith buckled on his sword belt and had got his sword half way in when he considered he should want shaving
so took it off in essaying to put on his regimental coat and waistcoat my uncle toby found the same objection in his wig so that went off too
as always falls out when a man is in the most haste
which was half an hour later than his usual time before my uncle toby sallied out
my uncle toby had scarce turned the corner of his yew hedge
let me stop and give you a picture of the corporal's apparatus and of the corporal himself in the height of his attack just as it struck my uncle toby as he turned towards the sentry box where the corporal was at work for in nature there is not such another
nor can any combination of all that is grotesque and whimsical in her works produce its equal the corporal tread lightly on his ashes ye men of genius for he was your kinsman weed his grave clean ye men of goodness for he was your brother
oh corporal had i thee but now now that i am able to give thee a dinner and protection how would i cherish thee thou should'st wear thy montero cap every hour of the day and every day of the week
but alas alas alas now that i can do this in spite of their reverences the occasion is lost for thou art gone thy genius fled up to the stars from whence it came and that warm heart of thine with all its generous and open vessels
compressed into a clod of the valley but what
decorated with the military ensigns of thy master the first the foremost of created beings where i shall see thee faithful servant laying his sword and scabbard with a trembling hand across his coffin
and then returning pale as ashes to the door to take his mourning horse by the bridle to follow his hearse as he directed thee where
i shall behold him as he inspects the lackered plate
to wipe away the dew which nature has shed upon them when i see him cast in the rosemary with an air of disconsolation which cries through my ears o toby in what corner of the world shall i seek thy fellow
when i shall arrive at this dreaded page deal not with me then with a stinted hand
the corporal who the night before had resolved in his mind to supply the grand desideratum of keeping up something like an incessant firing upon the enemy during the heat of the attack had no further idea in his fancy at that time
than a contrivance of smoking tobacco against the town out of one of my uncle toby's six field pieces which were planted on each side of his sentry box the means of effecting which occurring to his fancy at the same time though he had pledged his cap
he thought it in no danger from the miscarriage of his projects upon turning it this way and that a little in his mind he soon began to find out that by means of his two turkish tobacco pipes
with the supplement of three smaller tubes of wash leather at each of their lower ends to be tagg'd by the same number of tin pipes fitted to the touch holes and sealed with clay next the cannon
and then tied hermetically with waxed silk at their several insertions into the morocco tube he should be able to fire the six field pieces all together and with the same ease as to fire one
let no man who has read my father's first and second beds of justice ever rise up and say again from collision of what kinds of bodies light may or may not be struck out to carry the arts and sciences up to perfection heaven thou knowest how i love them
thou knowest the secrets of my heart and that i would this moment give my shirt thou art a fool shandy says eugenius
and twill break thy set no matter for that eugenius
were it only to satisfy one feverish enquirer how many sparks at one good stroke a good flint and steel could strike into the tail of it think ye not that in striking these in he might per adventure strike something out as sure as a gun
but this project by the bye the corporal sat up the best part of the night in bringing his to perfection and having made a sufficient proof of his cannon with charging them to the top with tobacco he went with contentment to bed
in order to fix his apparatus and just give the enemy a shot or two before my uncle toby came he had drawn the six field pieces for this end all close up together in front of my uncle toby's sentry box
which he might think double the honour of one in the rear and facing this opening with his back to the door of the sentry box for fear of being flanked had the corporal wisely taken his post he held the ivory pipe appertaining to the battery on the right
betwixt the finger and thumb of his right hand and the ebony pipe tipp'd with silver which appertained to the battery on the left betwixt the finger and thumb of the other and with his right knee fixed firm upon the ground as if in the front rank of his platoon was the corporal
with his montero cap upon his head furiously playing off his two cross batteries at the same time against the counter guard which faced the counterscarp
his first intention as i said was no more than giving the enemy a single puff or two but the pleasure of the puffs as well as the puffing had insensibly got hold of the corporal and drawn him on from puff to puff into the very height of the attack by the time my uncle toby joined him
carrying the bag with its indisputable proof of some person's guilt we made our way through the familiar corridor by the dressing rooms out under the roof of the so called large studio there
a scene of gayety confronted us in sharp contrast with the gloomy atmosphere of the rest of the establishment kauf however had thoroughly demonstrated his genius as a director
to counteract the depression caused by all the recent melodramatic and tragic happenings he had brought in an eight piece orchestra establishing the men in the set itself so as to get full photographic value from their jazz antics
where werner and manton had dispensed with music in a desperate effort at economy kauf had realized that money saved in that way was lost through time wasted with dispirited people
it was a lesson learned long before by other companies in other studios i had seen music employed in the making of soberly dramatic scenes solely as an aid to the actors enabling them to get into the atmosphere of their work more quickly
and naturally under the lights the entire set sparkled with a tawdry garishness apt to fool those uninitiated into the secrets of photography on the screen
would take on a soft richness and a delicacy characteristic of the society in which kauf's characters were supposed to move obviously fragile scenery
would seem as heavy and substantial as the walls and beams of the finest old mansion even the inferior materials in the gowns of most of the girls would photograph as well as the most expensive silk in fact
by long experience many of the extra girls had learned to counterfeit the latest fashions at a cost ridiculous by comparison kennedy approached kauf then returned to us
he asks us to wait until he gets this one big scene it's the climax of the picture really the unmasking of the black terror
he may lose more than that muttered mackay and i wondered just whom the district attorney suspected is everyone here i asked all seven gordon and shirley of the men
and marilyn and enid of course were out on the floor of the supposed ballroom gordon i recognized because i remembered that he was to wear the garb of a monk marilyn was easily picked out although
the vivacity she assumed seemed unnatural
of a faint yellow which would photograph dazzling white revealing trim stockinged ankles and slender bare arms framing face and eyes dancing with merriment and maliciousness
unquestionably she was the prettiest girl beneath the arcs never to be suspected as the woman who had braved the terrors of a film fire to rescue the man she loved enid was stately and serene in the gown of marie antoinette
in the bright glare her features took on a round innocence and she was as successful in portraying sweetness as marilyn was in the simulation of the mocking evil of the vampire
shirley interested me the most however i wondered if kennedy still eliminated him in guessing at the identity of the criminal i called to mind the heavy man's presence in the basement at the time of the explosion
and mc groarty's information that he had been hanging about that part of the studio for some time previously some one had planted a cigarette case and stub to implicate gordon according to kennedy's theory
as well as to point suspicion toward the leading man in the midst of my reverie shirley approached and passed us he was in the garb of mephisto like the others he had not yet masked his face
a peculiar brightness in his eyes struck me and i nudged kennedy belladonna kennedy explained when he was beyond earshot oh i remembered enid told him to use it what
i repeated the conversation as near as i could reconstruct it
no cure at all i was unable to get any more out of kennedy however manton i detected in the background with phelps the two men were arguing as always and it was evident that the banker was accomplishing nothing
by this constant hanging about the studio where previously my sympathy had been with phelps entirely now i realized that the promoter had won me indeed manton's interest in all the affairs of picture making at this plant
had been far too sincere and earnest to permit the belief that he was seeking to wreck the company or to double cross his backer millard entered the studio as i glanced about for him he handed some sheets to kauf then turned to leave
i attracted kennedy's attention you don't want millard to get away i whispered kennedy sent mackay to stop him the author accompanied the district attorney willingly yes mister kennedy
as soon as this scene is over we're going down to the projection room everyone concerned in the death of miss lamar and of mister werner the scenario writer looked up quickly do you
he asked soberly not exactly but i will identify the guilty person
shirley had left the studio floor apparently to go to his dressing room now i noticed that he returned and passed close just in time to hear millard's question and kennedy's answer his eyes dilated
he went on into the set but his legs seemed to wabble beneath him i was sure it was more than the weakness resulting from his experience in the fire kauf's voice through the megaphone echoed suddenly from wall to wall reverberating beneath the roof
all ready everyone in the set masks on take your places at a signal the orchestra struck up and the couples started to dance it was a wonderfully colorful scene and i saw that kauf proposed to rehearse it thoroughly
doing it over and over without the cameras until every detail reached a practiced perfection in this i was certain he achieved results superior to werner's slap dash and bang then came the call for action
camera kauf began to bob up and down into it everybody for fascination and charm this far exceeded the banquet scene which we had witnessed in the taking previously the music was surprisingly good
so that it was impossible for the people not to get into the swing and the result was a riotous swirling of gracefully dancing pairs the girls selected for their beauty flashing half revealed faces toward the camera
displaying eyes which twinkled through their masks in mockery at a wholly ineffectual attempt at concealment enid maintained her stately carriage but made full use of the dazzling whiteness of her teeth
whom she knew to be her lover marilyn was everywhere making mischief the best she could shirley stalked about in his satanic red which would photograph black and appear even more somber on the screen
of course the whole was not photographed in a continuous strip from one camera position i saw that kauf made several long shots to catch the general atmosphere then he made close up scenes of all the principals
and of some of the best appearing extras at one time he ordered a panorama effect in which the cameras pammed swept from one side to the other giving a succession of faces at close range finally
everything was ready for the climax shirley had been playing a sort of jekyll and hyde role in which he was at once the young lawyer friend of enid and the black terror
unmasked and cornered at this function of a society terrified by the dread unknown menace he was to make the transformation directly before the eyes of everyone using the mythical drug which changed him from a young man of good appearance and family
to the being who was a very incarnation of evil for once kauf did not rehearse the scene shirley was obviously weakened from his experience and the director wished to spare him
all the details were shouted out through the megaphone however and i grasped that the action of this part of the dance was familiar to everyone it was the big scene of the story toward which all other events had built
at the start of this episode the orchestra was playing and the dancers were in motion suddenly gordon as the hero strode up to shirley and unmasked him with a few bitter words which later would be flashed upon the screen in a spoken title
instantly a crowd gathered about but in such a way as not to obstruct the camera view cornered seeing that flight was impossible
and drank the contents evidently he knew his mansfield well slowly he began to act out the change in his appearance which corresponded with the assumption of control by the evil within
went through contortions which were horrible yet fascinating it was almost as though a new fearful being was created within sight of the onlookers not only was the face altered but the man's stature seemed to shrink
to lose actual inches i thought it a wonderful exhibition the very next instant there came a groan from shirley something which at once indicated pain and realization and fear he lost all control of himself
and in a moment pitched forward upon the floor sputtering and clutching at the empty air another cry broke from between his lips a ghastly contracted shriek as treble as though from the throat of a woman this was no part of the story no skillful bit of acting
it was real even before i had grasped the full significance of the happening kennedy had dashed forward the cameras still were grinding and they caught him as he kneeled at the side of the stricken man hardly a second afterward mackay and i followed
and were at kennedy's side kauf and the others their faces weirdly ashen clustered about in fright a third time the invisible hand had struck at a member of the company the black terror
with all the horror written into that story contained nothing as fearful as the menace to the people engaged in its production shirley's skin was cold and clammy his face almost rigid while conscious he was helpless
kennedy found the little vial and examined it atropin he ejaculated walter he turned to me get some physostigmin quick have mackay drive you it's it's life or death here i'll write it down physostigmin
i heard a woman's scream marilyn did she think him dead once in the car headed for the nearest drug store grasping wildly at the side or at the back of the seat every few moments
as the district attorney skidded around curves and literally hurdled obstacles i remembered a forgotten fact atropin that was belladonna simply another name for the drug
shirley had procured the stuff for use in his eyes nevertheless he had been aware undoubtedly of its deadly nature passing by kennedy and the rest of us he had overheard kennedy state that the murderer would be identified
as soon as all could be assembled in the projection room the heavy man had not cared to face justice in so prosaic a manner with the same sense of the melodramatic which had led him to slay stella lamar in the taking of a scene
werner in the photographing of another he had preferred suicide and had selected the most spectacular moment possible for his last upon earth yes shirley was guilty rather than wait
the slow processes of legal justice he had attempted suicide now we raced to save his life to preserve it for a more fitting end
copper kettles beads and trinkets not even the straggling algonquins who linger about the scene of huron prosperity can tell their origin yet on ancient worm eaten pages
between covers of begrimed parchment the daily life of this ruined community its firesides its festivals its funeral rites are painted with a minute and vivid fidelity
the ancient country of the hurons is now the northern and eastern portion of simcoe county canada west and is embraced within the peninsula formed by the nottawassaga and matchedash bays of lake huron
the river severn and lake simcoe its area was small
nothing similar exists at the present day the permanent bark villages of the dahcotah of the saint peter's are the nearest modern approach to the huron towns the whole huron country
abounds with evidences of having been occupied by a numerous population on a close inspection of the forest doctor tache writes to me the greatest part of it seems to have been cleared at former periods
and almost the only places bearing the character of the primitive forest are the low grounds they covered a space of from one to ten acres the dwellings clustering together with little or no pretension to order
in general these singular structures were about thirty or thirty five feet in length breadth and height but many were much larger and a few were of prodigious length
in some of the villages there were dwellings two hundred and forty feet long though in breadth and height they did not much exceed the others brebeuf
thirty one champlain says that he saw them in sixteen fifteen more than thirty fathoms long while vanderdonck reports the length from actual measurement of an iroquois house at a hundred and eighty yards
or five hundred and forty feet in shape they were much like an arbor overarching a garden walk their frame was of tall and strong saplings planted in a double row to form the two sides of the house
to these other poles were bound transversely
overlapping like the shingles of a roof upon which for their better security split poles were made fast with cords of linden bark at the crown of the arch along the entire length of the house
an opening a foot wide was left for the admission of light and the escape of smoke at each end was a close porch of similar construction
filled with smoked fish indian corn and other stores not liable to injury from frost within on both sides were wide scaffolds four feet from the floor and extending the entire length of the house
like the seats of a colossal omnibus often especially among the iroquois the internal arrangement was different the scaffolds or platforms were raised only a foot from the earthen floor and were only twelve or thirteen feet long
where the occupants stored their family provisions and other articles five or six feet above was another platform often occupied by children one pair of platforms sufficed for a family
and here during summer they slept pellmell in the clothes they wore by day and without pillows these were formed of thick sheets of bark supported by posts and transverse poles and covered with mats and skins
the fires were on the ground in a line down the middle of the house each sufficed for two families who in winter slept closely packed around them
were a great number of poles like the perches of a hen roost and here were suspended weapons clothing skins and ornaments here too in harvest time the squaws hung the ears of unshelled corn
till the rude abode through all its length seemed decked with a golden tapestry in general however its only lining was a thick coating of soot from the smoke of fires with neither draught chimney nor window
restless children pellmell with restless dogs now a tongue of resinous flame painted each wild feature in vivid light now the fitful gleam expired and the group vanished from sight
as their nation has vanished from history the fortified towns of the hurons were all on the side exposed to iroquois incursions the fortifications of all this family of tribes
a ditch several feet deep was dug around the village and the earth thrown up on the inside trees were then felled by an alternate process of burning and hacking the burnt part with stone hatchets
and by similar means were cut into lengths to form palisades these were planted on the embankment in one two three or four concentric rows those of each row inclining towards those of the other rows until they intersected
the whole was lined within to the height of a man with heavy sheets of bark and at the top where the palisades crossed was a gallery of timber for the defenders together with wooden gutters
consisted in hacking off branches piling them together with brushwood around the foot of the standing trunks and setting fire to the whole the squaws working with their hoes of wood and bone among the charred stumps
there was little game in the huron country and here as among the iroquois the staple of food was indian corn cooked without salt in a variety of forms each more odious than the last
venison was a luxury found only at feasts dog flesh was in high esteem and in some of the towns captive bears were fattened for festive occasions these tribes were far less improvident than the roving algonquins
their main stock of corn was buried in caches or deep holes in the earth either within or without the houses in respect to the arts of life all these stationary tribes were in advance of the wandering hunters of the north
the women made a species of earthen pot for cooking but these were supplanted by the copper kettles of the french traders they wove rush mats with no little skill they spun twine from hemp
by the primitive process of rolling it on their thighs and of this twine they made nets they extracted oil from fish and from the seeds of the sunflower the latter apparently only for the purposes of the toilet
they pounded their maize in huge mortars of wood hollowed by alternate burnings and scrapings
the iroquois in the absence of the birch were forced to use the bark of the elm which was greatly inferior both in lightness and strength of pipes than which nothing was more important in their eyes
the hurons made a great variety some of baked clay others of various kinds of stone carved by the men during their long periods of monotonous leisure often with great skill and ingenuity
but their most mysterious fabric was wampum this was at once their currency their ornament their pen ink and parchment and its use was by no means confined to tribes of the iroquois stock
it consisted of elongated beads white and purple made from the inner part of certain shells it is not easy to conceive how with their rude implements the indians contrived to shape and perforate this intractable material
the art soon fell into disuse however for wampum better than their own was brought them by the traders besides abundant imitations in glass and porcelain strung into necklaces or wrought into collars belts and bracelets
it was the favorite decoration of the indian girls at festivals and dances it served also a graver purpose no compact no speech
to the representative of another nation had any force unless confirmed by the delivery of a string or belt of wampum beaver skins and other valuable furs were sometimes on such occasions used as a substitute
the belts on occasions of importance were wrought into significant devices suggestive of the substance of the compact or speech and designed as aids to memory
to one or more old men of the nation was assigned the honorable but very onerous charge of keepers of the wampum in other words of the national records and it was for them to remember and interpret the meaning of the belts
the figures on wampum belts were for the most part simply mnemonic so also were those carved on wooden tablets or painted on bark and skin to preserve in memory the songs of war hunting or magic
engravings of many specimens of these figured songs are given in the voluminous reports on the condition of the indians published by government under the editorship of mister schoolcraft the specimens are chiefly algonquin
the hurons had however in common with other tribes a system of rude pictures and arbitrary signs by which they could convey to each other with tolerable precision information touching the ordinary subjects of indian interest
their dress was chiefly of skins cured with smoke after the well known indian mode that of the women according to the jesuits was more modest than that of our most pious ladies of france
the young girls on festal occasions must be excepted from this commendation as they wore merely a kilt from the waist to the knee besides the wampum decorations of the breast and arms their long black hair
gathered behind the neck was decorated with disks of native copper
and now occasionally unearthed in numbers from their graves the men in summer were nearly naked those of a kindred tribe wholly so with the sole exception of their moccasins
in winter they were clad in tunics and leggins of skin and at all seasons on occasions of ceremony were wrapped from head to foot in robes of beaver or otter furs sometimes of the greatest value
on the inner side these robes were decorated with painted figures and devices or embroidered with the dyed quills of the canada hedgehog
the hurons were equalled or surpassed by some of the algonquin tribes they wore their hair after a variety of grotesque and startling fashions with some it was loose on one side and tight braided on the other with others
close shaved leaving one or more long and cherished locks while with others again it bristled in a ridge across the crown
it was a youth of license an age of drudgery despite an organization which while it perhaps made them less sensible of pain certainly made them less susceptible of passion than the higher races of men
and polygamy was exceptional
then came sowing tilling and harvesting smoking fish dressing skins making cordage and clothing preparing food on the march it was she who bore the burden for in the words of champlain
their women were their mules the natural effect followed in every huron town were shrivelled hags hideous and despised who in vindictiveness ferocity and cruelty far exceeded the men
to the men fell the task of building the houses and making weapons pipes and canoes for the rest their home life was a life of leisure and amusement
the summer and autumn were their seasons of serious employment of war hunting fishing and trade there was an established system of traffic
by striking it sharply upon the ground and the players betted on the black or white sometimes a village challenged a neighboring village
social medical and mystical or religious some of their feasts were on a scale of extravagant profusion a vain or ambitious host threw all his substance into one entertainment
come and eat and to refuse was a grave offence
each as he entered greeted his host with the guttural ejaculation ho and ranged himself with the rest squatted on the earthen floor or on the platform along the sides of the house
the kettles were slung over the fires in the midst first there was a long prelude of lugubrious singing then the host who took no share in the feast proclaimed in a loud voice the contents of each kettle in turn
and at each announcement the company responded in unison ho the attendant squaws filled with their ladles the bowls of all the guests there was talking laughing jesting singing and smoking
and the spirits roused to vengeance disaster would befall the nation
or clung to the poles which supported the sides and roof fires were raked out and the earthen floor cleared two chiefs sang at the top of their voices
were always preceded by feasting
and their own past and prospective exploits a hideous scene of feasting followed the torture of a prisoner like the torture itself it was among the hurons partly an act of vengeance and partly a religious rite
disease in his belief is the result of sorcery the agency of spirits or supernatural influences
there had grown up between queen isabel of bavaria and louis duke of orleans brother of the king an intimacy which throughout the city and amongst all honorable people shocked even the least strait laced
it was undoubtedly through the queen's influence
suddenly decided upon putting into the hands of the duke of orleans
the duke of burgundy wrote at once about it to the parliament of paris saying take counsel and pains that the interests of the king and his dominion be not governed as they now are
for in good truth it is a pity and a grief to hear what is told me about it the accusation was not grounded solely upon the personal ill temper of the duke of burgundy his nephew the duke of orleans was elegant affable
volatile good natured he had for his partisans at court all those who shared his worse than frivolous tastes and habits and his political judgment was no better than his habits no sooner was he invested with power
than he abused it strangely he levied upon the clergy as well as the people an enormous talliage
and went and sat down right opposite the preacher yes sir continued the monk the king your father during his reign did likewise lay taxes upon the people but with the produce of them
he built fortresses for the defence of the kingdom he hurled back the enemy and took possession of their towns and he effected a saving of treasure
but now there is nothing of this kind done the height of nobility in the present day is to frequent bagnios to live in debauchery to wear rich dresses with pretty fringes and big cuffs this o queen he added
is what is said to the shame of the court and if you will not believe me
and you will hear it talked of by plenty of people
either from pure feebleness or because he was struck by those truths so boldly proclaimed yielded to the counsels of certain wise men who represented to him that it was neither a reasonable
to intrust the government of the realm to a prince whose youth needed rather to be governed than to govern he withdrew the direction of affairs from the duke of orleans and restored it to the duke of burgundy
who took it again and held it with a strong grasp and did not suffer his nephew louis to meddle in anything but from that time forward open distrust and hatred were established between the two princes and their families
in the very midst of this court crisis duke philip the bold fell ill and died within a few days on the twenty seventh of april fourteen o four he was a prince valiant and able ambitious imperious
eager in the pursuit of his own personal interests careful in humoring those whom he aspired to rule and disposed to do them good service in whatever was not opposed to his own ends he deserved and possessed the confidence and affection
not only of his father king john
he founded that great house of burgundy which was for more than a century to eclipse and often to deplorably compromise france but philip the bold loved france sincerely and always gave her the chief place in his policy
his private life was regular and staid amidst the scandalous licentiousness of his court he was of those who leave behind them unfeigned regret and an honored memory
without having inspired their contemporaries with any lively sympathy john the fearless count of nevers his son and successor in the dukedom of burgundy was not slow to prove that there was reason to regret his father
his expedition to hungary for all its bad leadership and bad fortune had created esteem for his courage and for his firmness under reverses but little confidence in his direction of public affairs he was a man of violence
unscrupulous and indiscreet full of jealousy and hatred and capable of any deed and any risk for the gratification of his passions or his fancies at his accession he made some popular moves
he appeared disposed to prosecute vigorously the war against england which was going on sluggishly he testified a certain spirit of conciliation by going to pay a visit to his cousin the duke of orleans
near vincennes when the duke of orleans was well again the two princes took the communion together and dined together at their uncle's the duke of berry's and the duke of orleans invited the new duke of burgundy to dine with him the next sunday
the parisians took pleasure in observing these little matters and in hoping for the re establishment of harmony in the royal family they were soon to be cruelly undeceived
singing and playing with his glove and attended by only two squires riding one horse
it was a gloomy night not a soul in the streets when the duke was about a hundred paces from the queen's hostel eighteen or twenty armed men who had lain in ambush behind a house
took fright and ran away with them and the assassins rushed upon the duke shouting death death what is all this said he i am the duke of orleans just what we want was the answer and they hurled him down from his mule
he struggled to his knees but the fellows struck at him heavily with axe and sword a young man in his train made an effort to defend him and was immediately cut down and another grievously wounded
found his body stretched on the road and mutilated all over
whither all the royal family came to render the last sad offices the duke of burgundy appeared no less afflicted than the rest never said he was a more wicked and traitorous murder committed in this realm
set on foot an active search after the perpetrators he was summoned before the council of princes and the duke of berry asked him if he had discovered anything i believe said the provost
that if i had leave to enter all the hostels of the king's servants and even of the princes i could get on the track of the authors or accomplices of the crime he was authorized to enter wherever it seemed good to him he went away to set himself to work
the duke of burgundy looking troubled and growing pale cousin said the king of naples louis d'anjou who was present at the council can you know aught about it you must tell us
the duke of burgundy took him together with his uncle the duke of berry aside and told them that it was he himself who tempted of the devil had given orders for this murder o god cried the duke of berry
late receiver general of finance having been deprived of his post by the duke of orleans for malversation had been the instrument the council of princes met the next day at the hotel de nesle
the duke of burgundy who had recovered all his audacity came to take his seat there word was sent to him not to enter the room duke john persisted
i declare that it was i and none other who caused the doing of what has been done thereupon he turned his horse's head
and taking only six men with him he galloped without a halt except to change horses to the frontier of flanders the duke of bourbon complained bitterly at the council that an immediate arrest had not been ordered
the admiral de brabant and a hundred of the duke of orleans knights set out in pursuit but were unable to come up in time
nor any other of the assassins was caught the magistrates as well as the public were seized with stupor in view of so great a crime and so great a criminal but the duke of orleans left a widow
who in spite of his infidelities and his irregularities was passionately attached to him valentine visconti the duke of milan's daughter whose dowry had gone to pay the ransom of king john was at chateau thierry when she heard of her husband's murder
hers was one of those natures full of softness and at the same time of fire which grief does not overwhelm and in which a passion for vengeance is excited and fed by their despair
she started for paris in the early part of december fourteen o seven during the roughest winter it was said
taking with her all her children the duke of berry the duke of bourbon the count of clermont and the constable went to meet her herself and all her train in deep mourning she dismounted at the hostel of saint paul
threw herself on her knees before the king with the princes and council around him and demanded of him justice for her husband's cruel death the chancellor promised justice in the name of the king who added with his own lips
we regard the deed relating to our own brother as done to ourself the compassion of all present was boundless and so was their indignation but it was reported that the duke of burgundy was getting ready to return to paris
and with what following and for what purpose would he come nothing was known on that point there was no force with which to make a defence nothing was done for the duchess of orleans no prosecution began as much vexed and irritated as disconsolate
she set out for blois with her children being resolved to fortify herself there charles had another relapse of his malady the people of paris who were rather favorable than adverse to the duke of burgundy laid the blame of the king's new attack
and of the general alarm upon the duchess of orleans who was off in flight john the fearless actually re entered paris on the twentieth of february fourteen o eight with a thousand men at arms amidst popular acclamation
and cries of long live the duke of burgundy
a child of twelve years surrounded by the princes councillors a great number of lords doctors of the university burgesses of note and people of various conditions took his father's place at this assembly
the duke of burgundy had intrusted a norman cordelier master john petit with his justification the monk spoke for more than five hours reviewing sacred history and the histories of greece rome and persia
to prove that it is lawful and not only lawful but honorable and meritorious in any subject to slay or cause to be slain a traitor and disloyal tyrant
especially when he is a man of such mighty power that justice cannot well be done by the sovereign this principle once laid down john petit proceeded to apply it to the duke of burgundy causing to be slain that criminal tyrant the duke of orleans
but ought to hold the said lord of burgundy as well as his deed agreeable to him and authorized by necessity the defence thus concluded letters were actually put before the king running thus it is our will and pleasure that our cousin of burgundy
his heirs and successors be and abide at peace with us and our successors in respect of the aforesaid deed and all that hath followed thereon and that by us our said successors our people and officers
no hinderance on account of that may be offered them either now or in time to come
and that it was for him to defend himself against perils which were probably imminent the duke answered proudly that so long as he stood in the king's good graces he did not fear any man living
three days after this strange audience and this declaration queen isabel but lately on terms of the closest intimacy with the duke of orleans
for more than four months duke john the fearless remained absolute master of paris disposing of all posts giving them to his own creatures and putting himself on good terms with the university and the principal burgesses
a serious revolt amongst the liigese called for his presence in flanders the first troops he had sent against them had been repulsed and he felt the necessity of going thither in person but two months after his departure from paris
on the twenty sixth of august fourteen o eight queen isabel returned thither from melun with the dauphin louis who for the first time rode on horseback and with three thousand men at arms she set up her establishment at the louvre
the parisians shouted noel as she passed along and the duke of berry the duke of bourbon the duke of brittany the constable and all the great officers of the crown rallied round her
two days afterwards on the twenty eighth of august the duchess of orleans arrived there from blois in a black litter drawn by four horses caparisoned in black and followed by a large number of mourning carriages
on the fifth of september a state assembly was held at the louvre all the royal family the princes and great officers of the crown the presidents of the parliament fifteen archbishops or bishops the provost of paris
the provost of tradesmen and a hundred burgesses of note attended it
to confer the government upon the queen set forth the reasons for it called to mind the able regency of queen blanche mother of saint louis and produced royal letters sealed with the great seal immediately the duchess of orleans came forward
demanding justice for the death of her husband and begged that she might have a day appointed her for refuting the calumnies with which it had been sought to blacken his memory the dauphin promised a speedy reply on the eleventh of september accordingly
it had been prepared beforehand the duchess placed the manuscript before the council as pledging herself unreservedly to all it contained
a monk of the order of saint benedict read the document out publicly it was a long and learned defence in which the imputations made by the cordelier john petit against the late duke of orleans
were effectually and in some parts eloquently refuted after the justification master cousinot advocate of the duchess of orleans presented in person his demands against the duke of burgundy they claimed that he should be bound to come
without belt or chaperon and disavow solemnly and publicly on his knees before the royal family and also on the very spot where the crime was committed
after several other acts of reparation which were imposed upon him he was to be sent into exile for twenty years beyond the seas and on his return to remain at twenty leagues distance at least from the king and the royal family
after reacting these demands which were more legitimate than practicable the young dauphin well instructed as to what he had to say addressed the duchess of orleans and her children in these terms
we and all the princes of the blood royal here present after having heard the justification of our uncle the duke of orleans have no doubt left touching the honor of his memory
and do hold him to be completely cleared of all that hath been said contrary to his reputation as to the further demands you make they shall be suitably provided for in course of justice
shocks of joy they tell me seldom kill of my own knowledge i cannot say for i have had precious little experience of such shocks in my lifetime heaven knows but in the present instance
i can safely aver they had no such dismal effect on ormiston nothing earthly could have given that young gentleman a greater shock of joy than the knowledge he was to behold the long hidden face of his idol
that that face was ugly he did not for an instant believe or at least it never would be ugly to him with a form so perfect a form a sylph might have envied
a voice sweeter than the singing fountain of arabia hands and feet the most perfectly beautiful the sun ever shone on it was simply a moral and physical impossibility that they could be joined to a repulsive face
there was a remote possibility that it was a little less exquisite than those ravishing items and that her morbid fancy made her imagine it homely compared with them but he knew he never would share in that opinion
it was the reasoning of love rather than logic
reason stalks gravely not to say sulkily out of the window and standing afar off
there was very little reason therefore
joy joy that thrilled and vibrated through every nerve within him leaning against the portal in an absurd delirium of delight
from the slimiest depths of the slough of despond to the topmost peak of the mountain of ecstasy he uncovered his head that the night air might cool its feverish throbbings but the night air was as hot as his heart and
almost suffocated by the sultry closeness
for on every hand all was silent
footsteps and voices came closer two figures took shape in the gloom and emerged from the darkness into the glimmering lamp light he recognised them both
with a strong foreign accent i know it struck ten as we passed saint paul's this grand bonfire of our most worshipful lord mayor will be a sight worth seeing remarked the earl when all these piles are lighted
the city will be one sea of fire a slight foretaste of what most of its inhabitants will behold in another world said the page with a french shrug i have heard lilly's prediction that london is to be purified by fire
like a second sodom perhaps it is to be verified to night not unlikely the dome of saint paul's would be an excellent place to view the conflagration
and the boatman waiting as they passed from sight ormiston came forth and watched thoughtfully after them the face and figure were that of the lady but the voice was different both were clear and musical enough
but she spoke english with the purest accent while his was the voice of a foreigner it most have been one of those strange unaccountable likenesses we sometimes see among perfect strangers but the resemblance in this ease
was something wonderful it brought his thoughts back from himself and his own fortunate love to his violently smitten friend sir norman and his plague stricken beloved and he began speculating what he could possibly be about just then
suddenly he was aroused a moment before the silence had been almost oppressive but now on the wings of the night there came a shout a tumult of voices and footsteps were approaching
stop her stop her was cried by many voices and the next instant a fleet figure went flying past him with a rush
a slight female figure with floating robes of white waving hair of deepest blackness with a sparkle of jewels on neck and arms only for an instant did he see it but he knew it well
and his very heart stood still stop her stop her she is ill of the plague shouted the crowd preying panting on but they came too late
and disappeared who is it what is it where is it cried two or three watchmen brandishing their halberds and rushing up and the crowd a small mob of a dozen or so
she is delirious with the plague she was running through the streets we gave chase but she out stepped us and is now at the bottom of the thames ormiston waited to hear no more but rushed precipitately down to the waters edge
the alarm has now reached the boats on the river and many eyes within them were turned in the direction whence she had gone down soon she reappeared on the dark surface something whiter than snow whiter than death
shining like silver shone the glittering dress and marble face of the bride a small batteau lay close to where ormiston stood in two seconds he had sprang in shoved it off and was rowing vigorously toward that snow wreath in the inky river
but he was forestalled two hands white and jeweled as her own reached over the edge of a gilded barge and with the help of the boatmen lifted her in before she could be properly established on the cushioned seats
the batteau was alongside and ormiston turned a very white and excited face toward the earl of rochester
why what brings you here alone on the river at this hour
pressing over to lift the lady may i beg you to assist me my lord
again at the lady and lastly at ormiston his handsome countenance full of the most unmitigated wonder to whom asked ormiston who had very little need to inquire
why don't you see it yourself she might be his twin sister she might be but as she is not
and i must bring her back to them he half lifted her as he spoke and the boatman glad enough to get rid of one sick of the plague helped her into the batteau the lady was not insensible
but extremely wide awake and gazing around her with her great black shining eyes but she made no resistance either she was too faint or frightened for that and suffered herself to be hoisted about passive to all changes
ormiston spread his cloak in the stern of the boat and laid her tenderly upon it and though the beautiful wistful eyes were solemnly and unwinkingly fixed on his face the pale sweet lips parted not uttered never a word
the wet bridal robes were drenched and dripping about her the long dark hair hung in saturated masses over her neck and arms and contrasted vividly with a face ormiston thought at once
the whitest most beautiful and most stonelike he had ever seen thank you my man thank you my lord said ormiston preparing to push off rochester who had been leaning from the barge gazing in mingled curiosity
turned now to her champion who is she ormiston he said persuasively but ormiston only laughed and rowed energetically for the shore the crowd was still lingering
and half a dozen hands were extended to draw the boat up to the landing he lifted the light form in his arms and bore it from the boat
and assisted her there as tenderly as he could have done la masque herself he paused on the threshold for the room was dark there is a lamp and a tinder box on the mantel said the faint sweet voice
if you will only please to find them ormiston crowed the room fortunately he knew the latitude of the place and moving his hand with gingerly precaution along the mantel shelf lest he should upset any of the gimcracks thereon
soon obtained the articles named and struck a light the lady was leaning wearily against the door post but now she came forward and dropped exhausted into the downy pillows of a lounge is there anything i can do for you madame
began ormiston with as solicitous an air as though he had been her father a glass of wine would be of use to you i think and then if you wish i will go for a doctor you are very kind
you will find wine and glasses in the room opposite this and i feel so faint that i think you had better bring me some ormiston moved across the passage like the good obedient young man that he was filled a glass of burgundy
was startled by a cry from the lady that nearly made him drop and shiver it on the floor what under heaven has come to her now he thought hastening in wondering how she could possibly have come to grief since he left her she was sitting upright on the sofa
her dress palled down off her shoulder where the plague spot had been and which to his amazement he saw now pure and stainless and free from every loathsome trace you are cured of the plague was all he could say
thank god she exclaimed fervently clasping her hands
no it was your plunge into the river i have heard of one or two such cases before and if ever i take it said ormiston half laughing half shuddering my first rush shall be for old father thames here drink this
the girl she was nothing but a girl drank it off and sat upright like one inspired with new life as she set down the glass
what is your name she simply asked ormiston madame he said
i mean with a slight shudder
oh that dreadful dreadful plague pit she cried covering her face with her hands yes i am one of those and who was the other my friend sir norman kingsley
sir norman kingsley she softly repeated with a sort of recognition in her voice and eyes
and seeing your face and his bending over me all the horror came back with that awakening and between it and anguish of the plague sore i think i fainted again ormiston nodded sagaciously
i noticed that though i think i must have been delirious and then half mad with agony i got out to the street somehow and ran and ran and ran until the people saw and followed me here
i suppose i had some idea of reaching home when i came here but the crowd pressed so close behind
and drowning seemed to me preferable to that so i was in the river before i knew it and you know the rest as well as i do but i owe you my life mister ormiston owe it to you and another and i thank you both with all my heart
madame you are too grateful and i don't know as we have done anything much to deserve it you have saved my life and though you may think that a valueless trifle not worth speaking of
i assure you i view it in a very different light she said with a half smile lady your life is invaluable but as to our saving it why you would not have us throw you alive into the plague pit would you
but there are few who would risk infection for the sake of a mere stranger instead of doing as you did you might have sent me to the pest house you know oh as to that all your gratitude is due to sir norman he managed the whole affair
and what is more fell but i will leave that for himself to disclose meantime may i ask the name of the lady i have been so fortunate as to serve undoubtedly sir my name is leoline leoline
you must have had a father some time in your life most people have said the young gentleman reflectively she shook her head a little sadly i never had that i know of either father or mother or any one but prudence
and by the way she said half starting up the first thing to be done is to see about this same prudence she must be somewhere in the house prudence is nowhere in the house said ormiston quietly and will not be she says
that singular being i don't know her but i have seen her often why was prudence talking of me to her i wonder that i do not know
i mean i should like to thank sir norman kingsley ormiston saw the blush and the eyes that dropped and it puzzled him again beyond measure
he suspiciously asked by sight i know many of the nobles of the court she answered evasively and without looking up they pass here often and prudence knows them all and so i have learned to distinguish them by name and sight
and it strikes me the desire is somewhat natural without doubt it is and it will save sir norman much fruitless labor for even now he is in search of you and will neither rest nor sleep until he finds you
in search of me she said softly
he is indeed kind and i am most anxious to thank him i will bring him here in two hours then said ormiston with energy and though the hour may be a little unseasonable i hope you will not object to it for if you do
he will certainly not survive until morning she gayly laughed but her cheek was scarlet rather than that mister ormiston i will even see him tonight you will find me here when you come you will not run away again will you
there he paused with his hand upon it how long have you known sir norman kingsley was his careless artful question
no other battalion however followed this forlorn hope and seeing it the gentlemen took heart of grace and closed around the unceremonious intruder the queen had sprung from her royal seat
and stood with her bright lips parted and her brighter eyes dilating in speechless wonder the bench with the judge at their head had followed her example and stood staring with all their might looking truth to tell
as much startled by the sudden apparition as the fair sex the said fair sex were still firing off little volleys of screams in chorus and clinging desperately to their cavaliers and everything in a word
sir norman kingsley sir norman kingsley rang from lip to lip of those who recognized him and all drew closer and looked at him as if they really could not make up their mind to believe their eyes as for sir norman himself
and never say die his first act was to take off his plumed hat and make a profound obeisance to her majesty the queen who was altogether too much surprised to make the return politeness demanded and merely stared at him with her great
i beg to assure you that my coming here was altogether involuntary on my part
and i entreat you will not mind me in the least
should you feel my presence here any restraint i am quite ready and willing to take my departure at any moment and as i before insinuated
this reference to the ceiling seemed to explain the whole mystery and everybody looked up at the corner whence he came from and saw the flag that had been removed as to his speech everybody had listened to it with the greatest of attention
keeping him still transfixed with her darkly splendid eyes and whether she admired or otherwise no one could tell from her still calm face the prince consort's feelings
yes sir i have come said sir norman with a polite bow perhaps you don't know me my dear young sir your little friend you know of the golden crown oh i perfectly recognize you my little friend
upon this his highness net up such another screech of mirth that it quite woke an echo through the room
for when his highness laughed it was a very bad sign my little friend will hurt himself remarked sir norman with an air of solicitude if he indulges in his exuberant and gleeful spirits to such an extent let me recommend you
as a well wisher to sit down and compose yourself instead of complying however the prince who seemed blessed with a lively sense of the ludicrous was so struck with the extreme funniness of the young man's speech that he relaxed into another paroxysm of levity
and i fear i must own that rumor drew me hither responded sir norman inventing a polite little work of fiction for the occasion and let me add that i came to find that rumor had under rated instead of exaggerated her majesty's said charms here sir norman
miranda tried to look grave and wear that expression of severe solemnity i am told queens and rich people always do but in spite of herself a little pleased smile rippled over her face and noticing it and the bow and speech
the prince suddenly and sharply set up such another screech of laughter as no steamboat or locomotive in the present age of steam could begin to equal in ghastliness will your highness have the goodness to hold your tongue inquired the queen
found myself here a lie a lie exclaimed the dwarf furiously it is over two hours since i met you at the bar of the golden crown
my dear little friend said sir norman drawing his sword and flourishing it within an inch of the royal nose just make that remark again and my sword will cleave your pretty head as the cimetar of saladin clove the cushion of down
i earnestly assure you madame that i had but just knelt down to look when i discovered to my dismay that i was no longer there but in your charming presence in that case my lords and gentlemen said the queen
turning with awful impressiveness to that young person do you know me quite as well as i wish to
with a cool and rather contemptuous glance in his direction you look extremely like a certain highwayman with a most villainous countenance i encountered a few hours back
probably you may be the name you look fit for that or anything else cut him down dash his brains out run him through shoot him were a few of the mild and pleasant insinuations that went off on every side of him
like a fierce volley of pop guns and a score of bright blades flashed blue and threatening on every side while the prince broke out into another shriek of laughter that rang high over all sir norman drew his own sword and stood on the defence
gave himself up for lost but before quite doing so to use a phrase not altogether as original as it might be determined to sell his life as dearly as possible angry eyes and fierce faces were on every hand
and her voice rang out like a trumpet tone sheathe your swords my lords and back every man of you not one hair of his head shall fall without my permission and the first who lays hands on him until that consent is given shall die
if i have to shoot him myself sir norman kingsley stand near and fear not at his peril
long and shrill what are your majesty's commands
rather sulkily is this insulting interloper to go free
your majesty said the dwarf laughing to that extent that he ran the risk of rupturing an artery after that
replied the ringing voice while the black eyes flashed anything but loving glances upon him while i am queen here i shall be obeyed when i am queen no longer you may do as you please my lords
turning her passionate beautiful face to the hushed audience am i or am i not sovereign here madame you alone are our sovereign lady and queen then when i condescend to command you shall obey
do you your highness and you lord duke go on with the earl of gloucester's trial and i will be the stranger's jailer she is right said the dwarf his fierce little eyes gleaming with a malignant light
let us do one thing before another and after we have settled gloucester here we will attend to this man's case guards keep a sharp eye on your new prisoner ladies and gentlemen be good enough to resume your seats
looking rather at a loss and scowling vengeance dire at the handsome queen and her handsome protege as he sank back in his chair of state the earl was confessing his guilt or about to do so pray my lord said the dwarf glaring upon the pallid prisoner
a breathless silence followed the question everybody seemed to hold his very breath to listen even the queen leaned forward and awaited the answer eagerly and the many eyes that had been riveted on sir norman since his entrance
twice he opened his eyes to reply and twice all sounds died away in a choking gasp do you hear his highness sharply inquired the lord high chancellor
do not believe the tales they tell you of me for heaven's sake spare my life confess thundered the dwarf striking the table with his clinched fist until all the papers thereon jumped spasmodically into the air confess at once or i shall run you through where you stand
the earl with a perfect screech of terror flung himself flat upon his face and hands before the queen with such force that sir norman expected to see his countenance make a hole in the floor o madame spare me
she recoiled and drew back her very garments from his touch as if that touch was pollution eyeing him the while with a glance frigid and pitiless as death there is no mercy for traitors she coldly said
shouted the dwarf clawing the air with his hands as if he could have clawed the heart out of his victim's body back with him to his place guards and see that he does not leave it again squirming and writhing and twisting himself in their grasp
in very uncomfortable and eel like fashion the earl was dragged back to his place and forcibly held there by two of the guards while his face grew so ghastly and convulsed that sir norman turned away his head and could not bear to look at it
confess once more yelled the dwarf in a terrible voice while his still more terrible eyes flashed sparks of fire confess or by all that's sacred it shall be tortured out of you guards
and let us see if they will not exercise the dumb devil by which our ghastly friend is possessed no no no shrieked the earl while the foam flew from his lips i confess i confess i confess
good and what do you confess said the duke blandly leaning forward while the dwarf fell back with a yell of laughter at the success of his ruse i confess all everything anything only spare my life do
the secrets of our kingdom and this place said the duke sternly rapping down the petition with a roll of parchment the earl grew if possible a more ghastly white i do i must
mind love cut in the inexorable duke
i did but my lord my lord spare which sum of money you have concealed continued the duke with another frown and a sharp rap now the question is where have you concealed it i will tell you with all my heart only spare my life
tell us first and we will think about your life afterward let me advise you as a friend my lord to tell at once and truthfully said the duke toying negligently with the thumb screws
it is buried at the north corner of the old wall at the head of bradshaw's grave you shall have that and a thousandfold more if you'll only pardon enough broke in the dwarf with the look and tone of an exultant demon that is all we want my lord duke
give me the death warrant and while her majesty signs it i will pronounce his doom the duke handed him a roll of parchment
that royal lady spread the vellum on her knee took the pen and affixed her signature as coolly as if she were inditing a sonnet in an album then his highness with a face that fairly scintillated with demoniac delight stood up and fixed his eyes on the ghastly prisoner
and spoke in a voice that reverberated like the tolling of a death bell through the room my lord of gloucester you have been tried by a council of your fellow peers presided over by her royal self and found guilty of high treason
your sentence is that you be taken hence immediately to the block and there be beheaded in punishment of your crime his highness wound up this somewhat solemn speech rather inconsistently bursting out into one of his shrillest peals of laughter
and the miserable earl of gloucester with a gasping unearthly cry fell back in the arms of the attendants dead and oppressive silence reigned and sir norman who half believed all along the whole thing was a farce
began to feel an uncomfortable sense of chill creeping over him and to think that though practical jokes were excellent things in their way there was yet a possibility of carrying them a little too far
and all began forming themselves in a sort of line of march
inquired the duke making a poke with his forefinger at sir norman is he to stay here or is he to accompany us his highness turned round and putting his face close up to sir norman's favored him with a malignant grin
but at the same time i'm much obliged to you for consulting my inclinations this reply nearly overset his highness's gravity once more but he checked his mirth after the first irresistible squeal
and finding the company were all arranged in the order of going and awaiting his sovereign pleasure he turned let him come he said with his countenance still distorted by inward merriment it will do him good to see how we punish offenders here
and teach him what he is to expect himself is your majesty ready my majesty has been ready and waiting for the last five minutes replied the lady over looking his proffered hand with grand disdain
her rising was the signal for the unseen band to strike up a grand triumphant
he so ugly so stunted so deformed so fiendish after them went the band of sylphs in white then the chancellor archbishop and embassadors next the whole court of ladies and gentlemen
and after them sir norman in the custody of two of the soldiers the condemned earl came last or rather allowed himself to be dragged by his four guards for he seemed to have become perfectly palsied and dumb with fear
keeping time to the triumphant march and preserving dismal silence
carpeted with crimson and gold and brilliantly illuminated like the grand saloon they had left was thus revealed and three similar archways appeared at the extremity one to the right and left and one directly before them
and sir norman started in dismay to find himself in the most gloomy apartment he had ever beheld in his life it was all covered with black walls ceiling and floor were draped in black and reminded him forcibly of la masque's chamber of horrors only this was more repellant
with the queen and the dwarf at their head and near this elevation stood a tall black statue wearing a mask and leaning on a bright dreadful glittering axe the music changed to an unearthly dirge
so weird and blood curdling that sir norman could have put his hands over his ear drums to shut out the ghastly sound the dismal room the voiceless spectators the black spectre with the glittering axe the fearful music struck a chill to his inmost heart
and could all those beautiful ladies could that surpassingly beautiful queen stand there serenely unmoved to witness such a crime while he yet looked round in horror the doomed man
already apparently almost dead with fear was dragged forward by his guards paralyzed as he was at sight of the stage which he knew to be the scaffold
he uttered shriek after shriek of frenzied despair and struggled like a madman to get free but as well might laocoon have struggled in the folds of the serpent they pulled him on bound him hand and foot and held his head forcibly down on the block
the black spectre moved the dwarf made a signal the glittering axe was raised fell a scream was cut in two a bright jet of blood spouted up in the soldiers faces blinding them
the axe fell again and the earl of gloucester was minus that useful and ornamental appendage a head it was all over so quickly that sir norman could scarcely believe his horrified senses until the deed was done
the executioner threw a black cloth over the bleeding trunk and held up the grizzly head by the hair and sir norman could have sworn the features moved and the dead eyes rolled round the room
striking the convulsed face with the palm of his open hand the fate of all traitors and of all spies exclaimed the dwarf glaring with his fiendish eyes upon the appalled sir norman
sister nightingale they say may not rest but still sounds the notes of her beautiful song in grove and thicket why does she sing thus all night long as well as through the day
who is waiting to catch her with her eyes closed once upon a time when the world was very new the blindworm was not quite blind but had one good eye moreover
in those days the nightingale also had but one eye as for the blindworm it mattered very little for he was a homely creature content to crawl about in the dark underground
where nobody saw him and nobody cared but the nightingale's case was really quite too pitiful fancy the sweetest singer among all the birds the favorite chorister going about with but one eye
while every one else even the tiniest little humming bird of all had two the nightingale felt very sore about this matter and tried to conceal her misfortune from the other birds
she managed to cock her head the other way whenever she met a friend and she always flew past any stranger so fast that he never saw the empty socket where her other pretty eye should be but one day there was great excitement among the birds
miss jenny wren was going to be married to young cock robin there was to be a grand wedding every one was invited
but the poor nightingale was set in a flutter of anxiety by the news
but how can i go if i do the other birds will discover that i have but one eye and then how the disagreeable creatures will laugh at me oh dear oh dear what shall i do i cannot go no
i really cannot but what excuse can i give oh it is not right that the sweetest singer in all birdland should be laughed at merely because she has the misfortune to lack one poor little eye
the nightingale sat on the branch singing so mournfully that all the creatures on the ground below went sorrowfully about their daily business just then the nightingale spied a silvery gleam among the dead leaves
it was the blindworm a spotted gray streak writhing noiselessly along towards the decayed wood of a fallen tree in which he loved to burrow and the blindworm was not sad like the others
worms think little of sweet sounds he cocked his one eye up towards the nightingale and winked maliciously he alone of all creatures knew the nightingale's secret
good day sister nightingale he said how is your eye this morning we have a goodly pair between us
then he disappeared into a tiny opening for though the blindworm is nearly a foot long he is so smooth and slippery that he can enter a hole which is almost smaller than himself
the nightingale was very indignant at being addressed in this familiar way by a miserable crawling creature who not only could not fly but who could not sing a note
besides it made her angry to think that he knew her secret and talked aloud about it
but to be jeered at by this creature it is more than i can bear ha i have an idea i will punish him and help myself at the same time i will steal his one eye
and wear it to jenny wren's wedding then no one will ever discover my misfortune now this was an excellent scheme
for the blindworm was very timid and kept himself carefully hidden in his burrow of soft soil as if he half suspected the nightingale's plans day after day the nightingale kept eager watch upon his movements
and at last on the very eve of the wedding when she had almost given up hope she spied the blindworm sound asleep on the moss under a tall tree ha said the nightingale to herself very softly
she fluttered into the top of the oak tree and from there hopped down from branch to branch from twig to twig until she was directly over the sleeper's ugly head over the one closed eye then whirr
down she pounced upon the blindworm and before the creature had a chance to know what was happening the nightingale had stolen his eye and had popped it into place in the empty socket on the other side of her beak ha ha
she sang merrily now i have two bright eyes as good as any one's now i can go to jenny wren's wedding as gayly as i please
and no one shall see more of the ceremony than i i shall be able to tell just exactly how the bride is dressed how every little feather is arranged and how she looks after parson crow has pronounced the blessing
oh how happy i am but the poor blindworm blind indeed from that day forth began to cry and lament begging the nightingale to give him back his eye nay said the nightingale
did you not laugh at me when you saw me sadly sitting on the tree mourning because i could not go to the wedding now i have stolen your eye and i can see famously but you will never again see me sitting sadly on the tree
then the blindworm grew very angry i will get the eye back he cried i will steal it from you as you stole it from me some time when you are asleep
then you will be blind wholly blind as i am now at these threatening words the nightingale ceased to sing
for she knew that the blindworm would do as he said but again a brilliant thought came to her nay she trilled gladly that you shall never do i will never sleep again i will keep awake always night and day
yes no one shall ever catch me napping you cannot help yourself said the blindworm you cannot keep awake you will drowse in spite of everything i shall yet find you asleep some night and then beware
nay nay warbled the nightingale as she flew away to make herself fine for the wedding i shall sing sing sing night and day henceforth to keep myself awake and thus i need not fear farewell well well
and so the nightingale went to the wedding
than she had ever sung before and after that although she was weary oh so weary she sang all night long
chapter four on the way to the run it was a bright morning when they left sydney to go to the station taking the train early in the day for there was a railway ride of several hours before them
as well as a long drive now you are going to see something of australian life said mister mc donald life in sydney or melbourne is very little different from that in liverpool or glasgow
on the big stations it is much the same as on the country places at home but my station is typical of australia is it in the bush uncle asked fergus hear the laddie talking like an old squatter
laughed mister mc donald yes and no you see the australians who live in the cities consider all the rest of the continent the bush but to those who live in the grazing and farming districts
the country inland is the bush or the back country our run is beautifully situated just on the edge of the dividing range and we are lucky enough to have a river running through one side
so that the run is seldom dry what is the dividing range asked fergus who was determined to understand everything he heard if he did not it was not because he did not ask questions enough about it
the dividing range is the high land which separates the east and west of the continent and runs from north to south along the coast it is sometimes called the australian alps
and some of the peaks are seven thousand feet high the eastern part of australia runs in a long strip of fertile ground along the coast west of this are the mountains and beyond them is a high plateau
which slopes down to the plains of central australia this central portion is an almost unknown country there are no great rivers and little rain the land is terribly dry and very hot
many who have gone to explore it have never returned and no one knows their fate perhaps they have died of thirst perhaps they have been killed by the blacks this part of the country
asked fergus as his uncle paused
were you a squatter his uncle's hearty laugh rang out no my boy but i bought my run from a squatter he answered the days of squatters were about over when i came out
what do you know about squatters i don't know anything answered fergus only i have heard the name and thought maybe you would tell us about them in the old times
before australia had started in the trade the wool from the sheep on the runs was very important to her said mister mc donald men would come out to the country and not having very much money
they could perhaps buy a small homestead and stock it but little more they would have to have large tracts of land to pasture their sheep but had not money enough to buy the land they therefore settled down
and took what they needed without permission and so were called squatters the government did not interfere with them because the wool from their sheep was needed and because the country was so big there seemed land enough for everyone
in time the matter was arranged by the government's dividing the back country into grazing districts which all the squatters might use by paying a yearly rent how did the squatters keep their sheep from other people
fergus inquired every flock had its shepherd who led it wherever food and water were to be found was the answer the life of a shepherd was a lonely one he had to watch the sheep and lambs
the shepherd never saw any other people except the man who brought his supplies from the station his dogs were his only friends and often these shepherd dogs are marvels of intelligence and loyalty for a time
the squatters prospered and some of them grew immensely wealthy these were called wool kings and lived on their stations extravagantly
but sheep raising is not all plain sailing in australia rabbits were brought into the country and these proved to be a regular plague destroying the grass so that the government passed a law that squatters must help to exterminate them
which put them to a great expense when i came here twenty years ago i got my station from a squatter who had worked it for years and had made enough to sell out and go to sydney where it had always been his ambition to live
i have worked hard and been successful when you see our station i think you will want to stay in this country instead of trying to find gold in never never land he said to his brother in law perhaps i shall
but i have no money to buy a station and i can't be a squatter now said mister hume their way lay through a beautiful semi tropical country the train moved through fertile valleys fine woodland and green vales
and bridged cool mountain streams when their stopping place was reached and they alighted from the train to find a comfortable cart and good horses awaiting them fergus exclaimed
wait till you get to the bush said his uncle
make your own supper over a twig fire
and roll up in a blanket to sleep
that's real australia for you i like your kind better said jean with a shudder but fergus said boastingly well i'm not afraid of the bush wait and see said his father
as they drove through the gate which led into mister mc donald's run it was a beautiful station and well suited for the sheep farming from which the owner had made his money the land lay in a triangle on two sides of which was a considerable stream
while the main road formed the third boundary the land was fenced with stout rail fences while the paddocks were fenced with wire the house was built of stone of one story with a broad veranda running around all four sides
shaded in vines and looking on a garden in which gorgeous hued flowers bloomed in brilliant beauty there was an air of great comfort about the place hammocks were slung in the porches and easy chairs were placed invitingly about
long windows clear to the floor opened into the living rooms and a wide hallway ran through the middle of the house on one side was a drawing room at the other dining room and living room
the guests caught glimpses of books and music as they were ushered into their cool bedrooms these opened on to the veranda and were cool and pleasant with gay chintz and white hangings
what a delightful visit the children had at the run it was perhaps pleasanter for them than for the grown folk for sandy mister and missus mc donald's only child a boy of ten was a perfect imp of mischief
and he led his two cousins into everything that he could think of fergus was not far behind and jean trudged after the boys growing strong and rosy in the australian sunshine
australia is making the greatest change in jean said her mother to missus mc donald one day as they sat upon the veranda at home she was so shy she would scarcely look at any one she seemed delicate
said her sister she is a dear little girl and i think there is plenty of strength of character under her shy little ways
said jean's mother it has been some time since we heard a shriek of any kind oh what is that for as she spoke there came a scream so loud and piercing from the shrubbery
that both women sprang to their feet and rushed across the lawn
both boys holding jean's hands and helping her to run to the house while the little girl her face covered with blood and tears was trying not to cry jean's hurt cried sandy so i should judge
said his mother trying to keep calm while both boys began to talk at once so that no one could understand a word they said missus hume gathered jean in her arms and carried her quickly to the house
where she washed the little tear stained face the child's lip was terribly cut and she was badly frightened but not seriously hurt and as she cuddled down in her mother's arms she sighed nice mother
tell me what happened dear said her mother as she stroked the fair hair we were playing jean said the boys had sticks and we heard a queer rustle in the bushes
sandy said it was a snake and beat the bushes to drive him out it ran out just in front of fergus and i thought it would bite him and i didn't want anything to happen to my brother
so i ran up behind him just as he swung his stick over his shoulder to hit the snake he hit me in the mouth but of course he didn't mean to mother i screamed because it hurt me so and then i tried not to cry because i knew it would worry you
it doesn't hurt so badly now mother i'm sorry it hurts at all darling her mother held her close you were a good child and brave not to cry crawl up in the hammock now and take a nap
and you will feel better when you wake up i hope fergus and sandy won't do anything very interesting while i am asleep the little girl murmured drowsily as she dropped off to sleep
fergus and sandy undoubtedly would they were very kind to jean but there was no doubt that they found the little girl a clog upon their movements fergus was used to taking care of her but sandy had no sisters
and he sometimes wished the little cousin would not tag quite so much you can't really do anything much when a girl is tagging around he said to his mother but that long suffering woman proved strangely unsympathetic
i think i shall keep jean always if her being here keeps you out of mischief she said with a smile and sandy answered well keep fergus too then no sooner was jean asleep
than the boys decided the time had come for them to carry out a plan long since formed but laid aside for a convenient season at one side of the run was a little lake formed where one of the boundary streams was dammed
a windmill carried water from this to a platform and upon this were iron tanks from which pipes carried water through the house the boys had decided to climb to the top of the reservoir and slide down the pipes
which seemed to them would be an exciting performance the climbing up was not difficult and sandy took the first slide it's great fun he shouted
as he clambered up again it's my turn cried fergus astride of the pipe let me you wait said sandy who was used to playing alone and not to having
any one dispute with him i tell you it's my turn
there was a scramble and a cry both boys lost their balance and fell and the sound of breaking glass crashed through the air both mothers rushed to the scene to find two pairs of arms and legs
waving wildly from the hot bed while broken glass was scattered hither and yon
are you badly hurt cried missus mc donald as each mother dragged out a son
who appeared at that moment from the stables go and get washed up and we'll see if you have any broken glass in your cuts when the damages were repaired neither boy was found to be much hurt but jean begged so hard that they should not be punished
that the two were let off for that time the next piece of mischief you get into you'll be sent to bed for a day to rest up and think it over said sandy's father
the curious book of birds
disobedient woodpecker long long ago at the beginning of things they say that the lord made the world smooth and round like an apple there were no hills nor mountains
nor were there any hollows or valleys to hold the seas and rivers fountains and pools which the world of men would need it must indeed have been a stupid and ugly earth in those days with no chance for swimming or sailing
rowing or fishing but as yet there was no one to think anything about it no one who would long to swim sail row and fish for this was long before men were created
the lord looked about him at the flocks of newly made birds who were preening their wings and wondering at their own bright feathers and said to himself i will make these pretty creatures useful
from the very beginning so that in after time men shall love them dearly come my birds he cried come hither to me and with the beaks which i have given you hollow me out here and here and here
basins for the lakes and pools which i intend to fill with water for men and for you their friends come little brothers busy yourselves as you would wish to be happy hereafter
then there was a twittering and fluttering as the good birds set to work with a will singing happily over the work which their dear lord had given them to do
they pecked and they pecked with their sharp little bills they scratched and they scratched with their sharp little claws till in the proper places they had hollowed out great basins and valleys and long river beds and little holes in the ground
then the lord sent great rains upon the earth until the hollows which the birds had made were filled with water and so became rivers and lakes little brooks and fountains just as we see them to day
now it was a beautiful beautiful world and the good birds sang happily and rejoiced in the work which they had helped and in the sparkling water which was sweet to their taste all were happy
except one the woodpecker had taken no part with the other busy birds she was a lazy disobedient creature and when she heard the lord's commands she had only said tut tut
preening her pretty feathers and admiring her silver stockings you can toil if you want to she said to the other birds who wondered at her but i shall do no such dirty work my clothes are too fine
now when the world was quite finished and the beautiful water sparkled and glinted here and there cool and refreshing the lord called the birds to him and thanked them for their help praising them for their industry and zeal
but to the woodpecker he said as for you o woodpecker i observe that your feathers are unruffled by work and that there is no spot of soil upon your beak and claws how did you manage to keep so neat
the woodpecker looked sulky and stood upon one leg it is a good thing to be neat said the lord but not if it comes from shirking a duty it is good to be dainty
but not from laziness have you not worked with your brothers as i commanded you it was such very dirty work piped the woodpecker crossly
i was afraid of spoiling my pretty bright coat and my silver shining hose oh vain and lazy bird said the lord sadly have you nothing to do but show off your fine clothes and give yourself airs
you are no more beautiful than many of your brothers yet they all obeyed me willingly look at the snow white dove and the gorgeous bird of paradise and the pretty grosbeak they have worked nobly yet their plumage is not injured
little woodpecker henceforth you shall wear stockings of sooty black instead of the shining silver ones of which you are so proud you who were too fine to dig in the earth shall ever be pecking at dusty wood
and as you declined to help in building the water basins of the world so you shall never sip from them when you are thirsty
little rippling brook or cool sweet fountain raindrops falling scantily from the leaves shall be your drink
from the approaching storm it was a sad punishment for the woodpecker but she certainly deserved it ever since that time whenever we hear a little tap tapping in the tree city
we know that it is the poor woodpecker digging at the dusty wood as the lord said she should do and when we spy her a dusty little body with black stockings clinging upright to the tree trunk
we see that she is creeping climbing looking up eagerly toward the sky longing for the rain to fall into her thirsty beak she is always hoping for the storm to come
airs from the orient cowperwood gained his first real impression of stephanie at the garrick players where he went with aileen once to witness a performance of elektra he liked stephanie particularly in this part
and thought her beautiful one evening not long afterward he noticed her in his own home looking at his jades particularly a row of bracelets and ear rings he liked the rhythmic outline of her body
which reminded him of a letter s in motion quite suddenly it came over him that she was a remarkable girl very destined perhaps to some significant future at the same time stephanie was thinking of him
stopping beside her i think they're wonderful those dark greens and that pale fatty white i can see how beautiful they would be in a chinese setting i have always wished we could find a chinese or japanese play
to produce sometime yes with your black hair those ear rings would look well said cowperwood he had never deigned to comment on a feature of hers before she turned her dark brown black eyes on him
velvety eyes with a kind of black glow in them and now he noticed how truly fine they were and how nice were her hands brown almost as a malay's he said nothing more but the next day
an unlabeled box was delivered to stephanie at her home containing a pair of jade ear rings a bracelet and a brooch with chinese characters intagliated stephanie was beside herself with delight
she gathered them up in her hands and kissed them fastening the ear rings in her ears and adjusting the bracelet and ring despite her experience with her friends and relatives her stage associates and her paramours
she was still a little unschooled in the world her heart was essentially poetic and innocent no one had ever given her much of anything not even her parents her allowance thus far in life
had been a pitiful six dollars a week outside of her clothing as she surveyed these pretty things in the privacy of her room she wondered oddly whether cowperwood was growing to like her
would such a strong hard business man be interested in her
was she a great actress as some said she was and would strong able types of men like cowperwood take to her eventually she had heard of rachel
she took the precious gifts and locked them in a black iron box which was sacred to her trinkets and her secrets the mere acceptance of these things in silence was sufficient indication to cowperwood
that she was of a friendly turn of mind he waited patiently until one day
frank algernon cowperwood personal it was written in a small neat careful hand almost printed i don't know how to thank you for your wonderful present
i didn't mean you should give them to me and i know you sent them i shall keep them with pleasure and wear them with delight it was so nice of you to do this stephanie platow
cowperwood studied the handwriting the paper the phraseology for a girl of only a little over twenty this was wise and reserved and tactful she might have written to him at his residence
he gave her the benefit of a week's time and then found her in his own home one sunday afternoon aileen had gone calling and stephanie was pretending to await her return it's nice to see you there in that window he said
you fit your background perfectly do i the black brown eyes burned soulfully the panneling back of her was of dark oak burnished by the rays of an afternoon winter sun
her full rich short black hair was caught by a childish band of blood red ribbon holding it low over her temples and ears her lithe body so harmonious in its graven roundness
was clad in an apple green bodice and a black skirt with gussets of red about the hem her smooth arms from the elbows down were bare on one wrist was the jade bracelet he had given her her stockings were apple green silk
and despite the chill of the day her feet were shod in enticingly low slippers with brass buckles cowperwood retired to the hall to hang up his overcoat and came back smiling isn't missus cowperwood about
the butler says she's out calling but i thought i'd wait a little while anyhow she may come back she turned up a dark smiling face to him with languishing inscrutable eyes
and he recognized the artist at last full and clear i see you like my bracelet don't you it's beautiful she replied looking down and surveying it dreamily i don't always wear it i carry it in my muff
i carry them all with me always i love them so i like to feel them
which she always carried and took out the ear rings and brooch cowperwood glowed with a strange feeling of approval and enthusiasm at this manifestation of real interest he liked jade himself very much but more than that
the feeling that prompted this expression in another roughly speaking it might have been said of him that youth and hope in women particularly youth when combined with beauty and ambition in a girl touched him
he responded keenly to her impulse to do or be something in this world whatever it might be and he looked on the smart egoistic vanity of so many with a kindly tolerant almost parental eye
poor little organisms growing on the tree of life they would burn out and fade soon enough he did not know the ballad of the roses of yesteryear but if he had it would have appealed to him
he did not care to rifle them willy nilly but should their temperaments or tastes incline them in his direction they would not suffer vastly in their lives because of him the fact was the man
was essentially generous where women were concerned how nice of you he commented smiling i like that and then seeing a note book and pencil beside her he asked what are you doing just sketching
let me see it's nothing much she replied deprecatingly i don't draw very well gifted girl he replied picking it up paints draws carves on wood plays sings acts
all rather badly she sighed turning her head languidly and looking away in her sketch book she had put all of her best drawings there were sketches of nude women dancers torsos bits of running figures sad heavy
sensuous heads and necks of sleeping girls chins up eyelids down studies of her brothers and sister and of her father and mother delightful exclaimed cowperwood keenly alive to a new treasure good heavens
where had been his eyes all this while here was a jewel lying at his doorstep innocent untarnished a real jewel these drawings suggested a fire of perception smoldering and somber which thrilled him
these are beautiful to me stephanie he said simply a strange uncertain feeling of real affection creeping over him the man's greatest love was for art it was hypnotic to him did you ever study art he asked
no and you never studied acting no she shook her head in a slow sad enticing way the black hair concealing her ears moved him strangely
i know the art of your stage work is real and you have a natural art which i just seem to see what has been the matter with me anyhow oh no she sighed it seems to me that i merely play at everything
i could cry sometimes when i think how i go on at twenty that is old enough she smiled archly stephanie he asked cautiously how old are you exactly
have your parents been very strict with you she shook her head dreamily no what makes you ask they haven't paid very much attention to me they've always liked lucille and gilbert and ormond best her voice had a plaintive neglected ring
it was the voice she used in her best scenes on the stage don't they realize that you are very talented i think perhaps my mother feels that i may have some ability my father doesn't i'm sure why
she lifted those languorous plaintive eyes why stephanie if you want to know i think you're wonderful i thought so the other night when you were looking at those jades it all came over me you are an artist truly
and i have been so busy i have scarcely seen it tell me one thing yes she drew in a soft breath filling her chest and expanding her bosom while she looked at him from under her black hair
her hands were crossed idly in her lap then she looked demurely down look stephanie look up i want to ask you something you have known something of me for over a year do you like me
i think you're very wonderful she murmured is that all isn't that much she smiled shooting a dull black opal look in his direction you wore my bracelet to day were you very glad to get it
oh yes she sighed with aspirated breath pretending a kind of suffocation how beautiful you really are he said rising and looking down at her she shook her head no yes no
come stephanie stand by me and look at me you are so tall and slender and graceful you are like something out of asia she sighed
i don't think we should should we she asked naively after a moment pulling away from him stephanie
chapter seven oolanga mister salton had an appointment for six o'clock at liverpool when he had driven off sir nathaniel took adam by the arm may i come with you for a while to your study
i want to speak to you privately without your uncle knowing about it or even what the subject is
is it necessary to keep my uncle in the dark about it he might be offended it is not necessary but it is advisable it is for his sake that i asked my friend is an old man
and it might concern him unduly even alarm him i promise you there shall be nothing that could cause him anxiety in our silence or at which he could take umbrage go on sir said adam simply
you see your uncle is now an old man i know it for we were boys together he has led an uneventful and somewhat self contained life so that any such condition of things as has now arisen
is apt to perplex him from its very strangeness in fact any new matter is trying to old people it has its own disturbances and its own anxieties and neither of these things are good for lives that should be restful
your uncle is a strong man with a very happy and placid nature given health and ordinary conditions of life there is no reason why he should not live to be a hundred
you and i therefore who both love him though in different ways should make it our business to protect him from all disturbing influences i am sure you will agree with me that any labour to this end would be well spent
all right my boy i see your answer in your eyes so we need say no more of that and now here his voice changed
there are strange things in front of us
doubtless some of the difficult things to understand which lie behind the veil
in the meantime all we can do is to work patiently fearlessly and unselfishly to an end that we think is right
you also observed that mimi was disturbed in her mind at the way mister caswall looked at her cousin certainly though disturbed is a poor way of expressing her objection can you remember well enough to describe caswall's eyes
and how lilla looked and what mimi said and did also oolanga caswall's west african servant i'll do what i can sir all the time mister caswall was staring he kept his eyes fixed and motionless
but not as if he was in a trance his forehead was wrinkled up as it is when one is trying to see through or into something at the best of times his face has not a gentle expression
but when it was screwed up like that it was almost diabolical it frightened poor lilla so that she trembled and after a bit got so pale that i thought she had fainted however she held up and tried to stare back
but in a feeble kind of way then mimi came close and held her hand that braced her up and still never ceasing her return stare she got colour again and seemed more like herself did he stare too
more than ever the weaker lilla seemed the stronger he became just as if he were feeding on her strength all at once she turned round threw up her hands and fell down in a faint i could not see what else happened just then
for mimi had thrown herself on her knees beside her and hid her from me then there was something like a black shadow between us and there was the nigger looking more like a malignant devil than ever i am not usually a patient man
and the sight of that ugly devil is enough to make one's blood boil when he saw my face he seemed to realise danger immediate danger and slunk out of the room as noiselessly as if he had been blown out i learned one thing however
he is an enemy if ever a man had one that still leaves us three to two put in sir nathaniel then caswall slunk out much as the nigger had done when he had gone lilla recovered at once
have you found out anything yet regarding the negro i am anxious to be posted regarding him i fear there will be or may be grave trouble with him yes sir i've heard a good deal about him of course it is not official
but hearsay must guide us at first you know my man davenport private secretary confidential man of business and general factotum he is devoted to me and has my full confidence
i asked him to stay on board the west african and have a good look round and find out what he could about mister caswall naturally he was struck with the aboriginal savage he found one of the ship's stewards who had been on the regular voyages to south africa
he knew oolanga and had made a study of him he is a man who gets on well with niggers and they open their hearts to him it seems that this oolanga is quite a great person in the nigger world of the african west coast
he can make them afraid and he is lavish with money i don't know whose money but that does not matter they are always ready to trumpet his greatness evil greatness it is but neither does that matter briefly this is his history
he was originally a witch finder about as low an occupation as exists amongst aboriginal savages then he got up in the world and became an obi man which gives an opportunity to wealth via blackmail
finally he reached the highest honour in hellish service he became a user of voodoo which seems to be a service of the utmost baseness and cruelty i was told some of his deeds of cruelty which are simply sickening
of helping to drive him back to hell you might think to look at him that you could measure in some way the extent of his vileness but it would be a vain hope monsters such as he is belong to an earlier and more rudimentary stage of barbarism
he is in his way a clever fellow for a nigger but is none the less dangerous or the less hateful for that the men in the ship told me that he was a collector some of them had seen his collections such collections
all that was potent for evil in bird or beast or even in fish beaks that could break and rend and tear all the birds represented were of a predatory kind even the fishes are those which are born to destroy
to wound to torture the collection i assure you was an object lesson in human malignity this being has enough evil in his face to frighten even a strong man it is little wonder that the sight of it put that poor girl
into a dead faint nothing more could be done at the moment so they separated
and took a smart walk round the brow as he was passing diana's grove he looked in on the short avenue of trees
they all lay in a row straight and rigid as if they had been placed by hands their skins seemed damp and sticky and they were covered all over with ants and other insects they looked loathsome so after a glance
he passed on a little later when his steps took him naturally enough
he was passed by the negro moving quickly under the trees wherever there was shadow laid across one extended arm
he had the horrid looking snakes he did not seem to see adam no one was to be seen at mercy except a few workmen in the farmyard so after waiting on the chance of seeing mimi adam began to go slowly home
once more he was passed on the way this time it was by lady arabella walking hurriedly and so furiously angry that she did not recognise him even to the extent of acknowledging his bow
when adam got back to lesser hill he went to the coach house where the box with the mongoose was kept and took it with him intending to finish at the mound of stone what he had begun the previous morning
with regard to the extermination he found that the snakes were even more easily attacked than on the previous day no less than six were killed in the first half hour as no more appeared
he took it for granted that the morning's work was over and went towards home the mongoose had by this time become accustomed to him and was willing to let himself be handled freely adam lifted him up and put him on his shoulder
and walked on presently he saw a lady advancing towards him and recognised lady arabella hitherto the mongoose had been quiet like a playful affectionate kitten but when the two got close
adam was horrified to see the mongoose in a state of the wildest fury with every hair standing on end jump from his shoulder and run towards lady arabella it looked so furious and so intent on attack
that he called a warning look out look out the animal is furious and means to attack lady arabella looked more than ever disdainful and was passing on the mongoose jumped at her in a furious attack
adam rushed forward with his stick the only weapon he had but just as he got within striking distance the lady drew out a revolver and shot the animal breaking his backbone not satisfied with this she poured shot after shot into him
till the magazine was exhausted there was no coolness or hauteur about her now she seemed more furious even than the animal her face transformed with hate and as determined to kill as he had appeared to be
adam not knowing exactly what to do lifted his hat in apology
sir wilfrid walking southward from the marble arch to his luncheon with lady henry was gladly conscious of the warmth of his fur collared coat though none the less ready to envy careless youth as it crossed his path now and then great coatless and ruddy
courting the keen air just as he was about to make his exit towards mount street he became aware of two persons walking southward like himself but on the other side of the roadway he soon identified captain warkworth
and the lady there also with the help of his glasses he was soon informed her trim black hat and her black cloth costume seemed to him to have a becoming and fashionable simplicity and she moved in morning dress with the same ease and freedom
that had distinguished her in lady henry's drawing room the night before he asked himself whether he should interrupt mademoiselle le breton with a view to escorting her to bruton street he understood indeed
that he and lady henry were to be alone at luncheon mademoiselle julie had no doubt her own quarters and attendants but she seemed to be on her way home an opportunity for some
perhaps exploratory conversation with her before he found himself face to face with lady henry seemed to him not undesirable but he quickly decided to walk on mademoiselle le breton and captain warkworth paused in their walk
about no doubt to say good bye but very clearly loath to say it they were indeed in earnest conversation the captain spoke with eagerness mademoiselle julie with downcast eyes smiled and listened
is the fellow making love to her thought the old man in some astonishment as he turned away
he vaguely thought that he would both sound and warn lady henry warn her of what
just closed but how was he to hand that sort of thing on to lady henry
no doubt mademoiselle julie was on her employer's business yet
of mademoiselle le breton's parentage at any rate on the supposition that he had his thoughts began to occupy themselves with the story to which his guess pointed some thirty years before he had known both in london and in italy
a certain colonel delaney and his wife once lady rose chantrey the favorite daughter of lord lackington they were not a happy couple she was a woman of great intelligence but endowed with one of those natures sensitive plastic
eager to search out and to challenge life which bring their possessors some great joys hardly to be balanced against a final sum of pain her husband absorbed in his military life
that seemed to carry with it innumerable shalts and shalt nots disagreeable to the natural man or woman soon found her a tiring and trying companion she asked him for what he could not give
the persons she made friends with were distasteful to him and without complaining he soon grew to think it intolerable
and ambitions though when she pretended to care for them she annoyed him if possible still more as for lady rose she went through all the familiar emotions of the femme incomprise and with the familiar result
there presently appeared in the house a man of good family thirty five or so traveller painter and dreamer with fine long drawn features bronzed by the sun of the east and bringing with him the reputation of having plotted
and fought for most of the lost causes of our generation including several which had led him into conflict with british authorities and british officials to colonel delaney he was an agitator if not a rebel
and the careless pungency of his talk soon classed him as an atheist besides in the case of lady rose this man's free and generous nature his independence of money and convention his passion for the things of the mind his contempt for the mode
whether in dress or politics his light evasions of the red tape of life as of something that no one could reasonably expect of a vagabond like himself these things presently transformed a woman in despair
she fell in love with an intensity befitting her true temperament and with a stubbornness that bore witness to the dreary failure of her marriage marriott dalrymple returned her love and nothing in his view of life predisposed him
to put what probably appeared to him
there were no children of the delaney marriage and in his belief the husband had enjoyed too long a companionship he had never truly deserved so lady rose faced her husband told him the truth and left him
she and dalrymple went to live in belgium in a small country house some twenty or thirty miles from brussels they severed themselves from england they asked nothing more of english life lady rose suffered from the breach with her father for lord lackington never saw her again
whose image could often rouse in her a sense of loss that showed itself in occasional spells of silence and tears but substantially she never repented what she had done although colonel delaney made the penalties of it as heavy as he could
like karennine in tolstoy's great novel he refused to sue for a divorce and for something of the same reasons divorce was in itself impious and sin should not be made easy
he was at any time ready to take back his wife so far as the protection of his name and roof were concerned should she penitently return to him so the child that was presently born to lady rose could not be legitimized
sir wilfrid stopped short at the park end of bruton street with a start of memory i saw it once i remember now perfectly and he went on to recall a bygone moment in the brussels gallery
when as he was standing before the great quintin matsys he was accosted with sudden careless familiarity by a thin shabbily dressed man in whose dark distinction made still more fantastic and conspicuous
by the fever and the emaciation of consumption he recognized at once marriott dalrymple he remembered certain fragments of their talk about the pictures the easy mastery now brusque now poetic
with which dalrymple had shown him the treasures of the gallery in the manner of one whose learning was merely the food of fancy the stuff on which imagination and reverie grew rich then suddenly his own question and lady rose
and dalrymple's quiet very well she'd see you i think if you want to come
and as when a gleam searches out some blurred corner of a landscape there returned upon him his visit to the pair in their country home he recalled the small eighteenth century house the chateau of the village built on the french model with its high mansarde roof
the shabby stateliness of its architecture
around it the flat rich fields with their thin lines of poplars the slow canalized streams the unlovely farms and cottages the mire of the lanes and shrouding all
a hot autumn mist sweeping slowly through the damp meadows and blotting all cheerfulness from the sun
so full of ragged edges to an english eye the english couple with their books their child and a pair of flemish servants
were those of poverty lady rose's small fortune indeed had been already mostly spent on causes of many kinds in many countries she and dalrymple were almost vegetarians and wine never entered the house save for the servants
who seemed to regard their employers with a real but half contemptuous affection he remembered the scanty ill cooked luncheon the difficulty in providing a few extra knives and forks the wrangling with the old bonne housekeeper
which was necessary before serviettes could be produced and afterwards the library with its deal shelves from floor to ceiling put up by dalrymple himself its bare polished floor dalrymple's table and chair on one side of the open hearth
which represented his favorite hobby on hers the socialist and economical books they both studied and the english or french poets they both loved the walls hung with the faded damask of a past generation were decorated with a strange crop of pictures
pinned carelessly into the silk
portraits of modern men and women representing all possible revolt against authority political religious even scientific the everlasting no of an untiring and ubiquitous dissent finally in the centre of the polished floor
the strange child whom lady rose had gone to fetch after lunch with its high crest of black hair its large jealous eyes its elfin hands
poor lady rose he remembered her as he and she parted at the gate of the neglected garden the anguish in her eyes as they turned to look after the bent and shrunken figure of dalrymple carrying the child back to the house
that'll set him right and then barely a year later the line in a london newspaper which had reached him at madrid chronicling the death of marriott dalrymple as of a man once on the threshold of fame
but long since exiled from the thoughts of practical men lady rose too was dead many years since so much he knew but how and where
the centre and apparently the chief attraction of lady henry's once famous salon and by jove several of her kinsfolk there relations of the mother or the father if what i suppose is true thought sir wilfrid remembering one or two of the guests
were they was she aware of it
and was soon on lady henry's doorstep her ladyship is in the dining room said the butler and sir wilfrid was ushered there straight good morning wilfrid said the old lady raising herself on her silver headed sticks as he entered
the more infirm i am the less i like it and to be helped enrages me sit down lunch is ready and i give you leave to eat some and you
said sir wilfrid as they seated themselves almost side by side at the large round table in the large dingy room the old lady shook her head all the world eats too much
lord russell lord palmerston suggested sir wilfrid attacking his own lunch meanwhile with unabashed vigor
i wish we had their like now their successors don't please you lady henry shook her head the tories have gone to the deuce and there are no longer enough whigs even to do that
i wouldn't read the newspapers at all if i could help it but i do so i understand said sir wilfrid you let montresor know it last night montresor said lady henry with a contemptuous movement
he lets the army go to ruin i understand while he joins dante societies sir wilfrid raised his eyebrows i think if i were you i should have some lunch he said gently pushing the admirable salmi which the butler had left in front of him towards his old friend
lady henry laughed oh my temper will be better presently when those men are gone she nodded towards the butler and footman in the distance and i can have my say sir wilfrid hurried his meal as much as lady henry
she meanwhile talked politics and gossip to him with her old caustic force nibbling a dry biscuit at intervals and sipping a cup of coffee she was a wilful characteristic figure as she sat there beneath her own portrait as a bride
which hung on the wall behind her the portrait represented a very young woman with plentiful brown hair gathered into a knot on the top of her head a high waist a blue waist ribbon and inflated sleeves handsome imperious
the corners of the mouth well down the look straight and daring the lady henry of the picture a bride of nineteen was already formidable and the old woman sitting beneath it with the strong white hair which
the ample cap found some difficulty even now in taming and confining the droop of the mouth accentuated the nose more masterful the double chin grown evident the light of the eyes gone out breathed pride
and will from every feature of her still handsome face pride of race and pride of intellect combined with a hundred other subtler and smaller prides that only an intimate knowledge of her could detect
the brow and eyes so beautiful in the picture were however still agreeable in the living woman if generosity lingered anywhere it was in them the door was hardly closed upon the servants
then the strange feeling i had that i had seen the face or some face just like it before and lastly at the foreign office i caught sight for a moment of lord lackington that finished it ah said lady henry with a nod
he knows nothing oh nothing
however that'll do presently but lord lackington comes here mumbles about his music and his water colors and his flirtations seventy four if you please last birthday
whoever comes handy and never has an inkling an idea
and lady henry pushed away her coffee cup with the ill suppressed vehemence which any mention of her companion seemed to produce in her well now i suppose you'd like to hear the story wait a minute
it'll surprise you to hear that i not only knew this lady's mother and father but that i've seen her herself before
lady henry looked incredulous
four and twenty years ago never that i remember
i myself only saw lady rose once so far as i remember before she misconducted herself and afterwards well one doesn't trouble one's self about the women that have gone under something lightened behind sir wilfrid's straw colored lashes he bent over his coffee cup
finger the women who have not been able to pull up lady henry paused
she said at last sir wilfrid did not raise his eyes lady henry took up her strongest glasses from the table and put them on but it was pitifully evident that even so equipped she saw but little
nevertheless some unspoken communication passed between them and sir wilfrid knew that he had effectually held up a protecting hand for lady rose
and gave the little reminiscence in full when he described the child lady henry listened eagerly
she was jealous you say of her mother's attentions to you she watched you and in the end she took possession of you much the same creature apparently then as now no moral please till the tale is done
that time she passed in great poverty in some chambres garnies at bruges with her little girl and an old madame le breton the maid housekeeper and general factotum who had served them in the country this woman
though of a peevish grumbling temper was faithful affectionate and not without education she was certainly attached to little julie whose nurse she had been during a short period of her infancy it was natural that lady rose should leave the child to her care
indeed she had no choice an old ursuline nun and a kind priest
bidding him good bye and asking him to do something for the child she is wonderfully like you so ran part of the letter you won't ever acknowledge her i know that is your strange code
but at least give her what will keep her from want till she can earn her living her old nurse will take care of her i have taught her so far she is already very clever when i am gone she will attend one of the convent schools here
to this letter lord lackington replied promising to come over and see his daughter but an attack of gout delayed him and before he was out of his room lady rose was dead then he no longer talked of coming over
and his solicitors arranged matters
through the honest lawyer whom lady rose had found for the benefit of julie dalrymple the capital value to be handed over to that young lady herself on the attainment of her eighteenth birthday always provided that neither she nor anybody on her behalf
made any further claim on the lackington family that her relationship to them was dropped and her mother's history buried in oblivion accordingly the girl grew to maturity in bruges by the lawyer's advice after her mother's death
she took the name of her old gouvernante and was known thenceforward as julie le breton the ursuline nuns to whose school she was sent took the precaution after her mother's death
of having her baptized straightway into the catholic faith and she made her premiere communion in their church in the course of a few years she became a remarkable girl the source of many anxieties to the nuns
for she was not only too clever for their teaching and an inborn sceptic but wherever she appeared she produced parties and the passions of parties and though as she grew older she showed much adroitness in managing those who were hostile to her she was never without enemies
a sharp and feverish color had sprung up as her story approached the moment of her own personal acquaintance with mademoiselle le breton for one or two of the nuns when i saw them in bruges before the bargain was finally struck were candid enough however
eyes on her you know my little place in surrey about a mile from me is a manor house belonging to an old catholic family terribly devout and as poor as church mice they sent their daughters to school in bruges
one summer holiday these girls brought home with them julie dalrymple as their quasi holiday governess it was three years ago
sir wilfrid made a murmur of sympathy oh don't pity me i don't pity other people
still just then i was low there are two things i care about one is talk with the people that amuse me and the other is the reading of french books i didn't see how i was going to keep my circle here together and my own mind in decent repair
unless i could find somebody to be eyes for me and to read to me and as i'm a bundle of nerves and i never was agreeable to illiterate people nor they to me i was rather put to it well one day these girls and their mother came over to tea
and as you guess of course they brought mademoiselle le breton with them i had asked them to come but when they arrived i was bored and cross and like a sick dog in a hole and then as you have seen her i suppose you can guess what happened
you discovered an exceptional person lady henry laughed i was limed there and then old bird as i am i was first struck with the girl's appearance
with every movement just as it ought to be infinitely more attractive to me than any pink and white beauty it turned out that she had just been for a month in paris with another school fellow something she said about a new play suddenly made me look at her
pres de moi i said to her i can hear my own voice now poor fool
lady henry's interjection dropped to a note of rage that almost upset sir wilfrid's gravity but he restrained himself and she resumed we talked for two hours
it seemed to me ten minutes i sent the others out to the gardens she stayed with me the new french books the theatre poems plays novels memoirs even politics she could talk of them all or rather
for mark you that's her gift she made me talk it seemed to me i had not been so brilliant for months i was as good in fact as i had ever been the difficulty in england is to find any one to keep up the ball she does it to perfection
she never throws to win never but so as to leave you all the chances you make a brilliant stroke she applauds and in a moment she has arranged you another
there was a silence lady henry's old fingers drummed restlessly on the table her memory seemed to be wandering angrily among her first experiences of the lady they were discussing well said sir wilfrid at last
so you engaged her as lectrice and thought yourself very lucky oh don't suppose that i was quite an idiot i made some inquiries i bored myself to death with civilities to the stupid family she was staying with and presently
i made her stay with me and of course i soon saw there was a history
so i laid traps for her i let her also perceive whither my own plans were drifting she did not wait to let me force her hand she made up her mind one day i found left carelessly on the drawing room table a volume of saint simon
beautifully bound in old french morocco with something thrust between the leaves i opened it on the fly leaf was written the name marriott dalrymple
a little farther on a miniature of lady rose delaney so apparently it was her traps that worked said sir wilfrid smiling lady henry returned the smile unwillingly as one loath to acknowledge her own folly
i don't know that i was trapped we both desired to come to close quarters anyway she soon showed me books letters from lady rose from dalrymple lord lackington the evidence was complete very well i said
it isn't your fault all the better if you are well born i am not a person of prejudices but understand
there are scores of them in london i know them all
but unless you can hold your tongue don't come to me
if julie le breton becomes an inmate of my house there shall be no raking up of scandals much better left in their graves if you haven't got a proper parentage consistently thought out we must invent one i hope
i may some day be favored with it said sir wilfrid lady henry laughed uncomfortably oh i've had to tell lies she said plenty of them what
lady henry's look flashed the open and honest ones she said defiantly well said sir wilfrid regretfully
so she came how long ago three years for the first half of that time i did nothing but plume myself on my good fortune
my household my friends my daily ways she fitted into them all to perfection
every one was amazed at her manners her intelligence she was perfectly modest perfectly well behaved the old duke he died six months after she came to me was charmed with her
all my habitues congratulated me
what are her antecedents et cetera et cetera so then of course i hope no more than were absolutely necessary said sir wilfrid hastily i had to do it well said lady henry with decision i can't say i didn't
you gave me a few hints last night said sir wilfrid hesitating lady henry pushed her chair back from the table her hands trembled on her stick hints she said scornfully
i'm long past hints i told you last night and i repeat that woman has stripped me of
she has intrigued with them all in turn against me she has done the same even with my servants i can trust none of them where she is concerned i am alone in my own house my blindness makes me her tool her plaything as for my salon
as you call it it has become hers i am a mere courtesy figurehead
and she has done this by constant intrigue and deception by flattery by lying the old face had become purple lady henry breathed hard my dear friend said sir wilfrid quickly laying a calming hand on her arm
don't let this trouble you so dismiss her and accept solitary confinement for the rest of my days i haven't the courage yet said lady henry bitterly you don't know how i have been isolated and betrayed
she paused drawing herself rigidly erect sir wilfrid looking up sharply remembered the little scene in the park and waited did you have any opportunity last night said lady henry slowly
of observing her and jacob delafield she spoke with passionate intensity her frowning brows meeting above a pair of eyes that struggled to see and could not but the effect she listened for was not produced
sir wilfrid drew back uncertainly
he said jacob delafield are you sure sure cried lady henry angrily then disdaining to support her statement she went on
kindly recollect that chudleigh has one boy
and chudleigh himself is a poor life jacob has more than a good chance ninety chances out of a hundred she ground the words out with emphasis of inheriting
said sir wilfrid throwing away his cigarette there said lady henry in sombre triumph now you can understand what i have brought on poor henry's family a low knock was heard at the door come in
said lady henry impatiently the door opened and mademoiselle le breton appeared on the threshold carrying a small gray terrier under each arm i thought i had better tell you she said humbly
chapter twenty four the fire country again the sun rose brightly the next morning and when ab armed and watchful rolled the big stone away and passed the smoldering fire and issued from the cave into the open the scene he looked upon was fair in every way
of what had been left of the great bear not a trace remained even the bones had been dragged into the forest by the ravening creatures who had fed there during the night there were birds singing and there were no enemies in sight
ab called to lightfoot and the two went forth together loving and brave but no longer careless in that too interesting region and so began the home life of these two people
it was in its way and relatively as sweet and delicious as the first home life of any loving and appreciating man and woman of to day the two were very close as the conditions under which they lived demanded
they were the only human beings within a radius of miles the family of the cave man of the time was serenely independent each having its own territory and depending upon itself for its existence
ab taught lightfoot the art of cracking away the flakes of the flint nodules and of the finer chipping and rasping which made perfect the spear and arrowheads
he taught her too the use of his new weapon and in all his life he did no wiser thing it was not long before she became easily his superior with the bow
her arrows flew with greater accuracy than his though the buzzing shaft had not as yet and did not have for many centuries later the gray goose feather which made the doing of its mission far more certain lightfoot brought to the cave the capercailzie
and willow grouse and other birds which were good things for the larder and ab looked on admiringly even in their joint hunting when there was a half rivalry he was happy in her somehow the arrow sang more merrily when it flew from lightfoot's bow
better than ab too could the young wife do rare climbing when in a nest far out upon some branch were eggs good for roasting and which could be reached only by a light weight and she learned the woods about them well and though ever dreading when alone
found where were the trees from which fell the greatest store of nuts
but never did the hunter leave the cave without a fear ever even in the daytime was there too much rustling among the leaves of the near forest
ever at night looking out through the narrow space between the heaped rocks could the two inside the cave see fierce and blazing eyes and there would come to them the sound of snarls and growls as the beasts of different quality met one another
yet the two cared little for these fearful surroundings of the darkness they were safe enough in the morning there were no signs of the lurking beasts of prey they were somewhere near though and waiting and so ab and lightfoot had the strain of constant watchfulness upon them
it may be that because of this ever present peril the two grew closer together it could not well be otherwise with human beings thus bound and isolated and facing and living upon the rest of nature part of it seeking always their own lives
they became a wonderfully loving couple as love went in that rude time despite the too wearing outlook imposed upon them because they were in so dangerous a locality they were very happy yet one day came a difference and a hurt
oak apparently forgotten by others was remembered by ab though never spoken of sometimes the man had tossed upon his bed of leaves and had muttered in his sleep
there was no answer but the look of the man of whom she had asked the question was such that she was glad to creep from his sight unharmed
yet once again months later she forgot herself and mocked ab when he had been boastful over some exploit of strength and courage and when he had seemed to say that he knew no fear
oak oak as she had seen ab do at night
with a shudder and then with a glare in his eyes the man leaped toward her snatching his great ax from his belt and swinging it above her head the woman shrieked and shrank to the ground the man whirled the weapon aloft and then his face twitching convulsively checked its descent
he may in that moment have thought of what followed the slaying of the other who had been close to him there was no death done but thenceforth lightfoot never uttered aloud the name of oak she became more sedate and grave of bearing the episode was but a passing
the months went by and there were tranquil hours in the cave as at night the weapons were shaped and lightfoot boasted of the arrowheads she had learned to make so well sometimes old mok would be rowed up the river to them by the sturdy and venturesome bark
who had grown into a particularly fine youth and who now cared for nothing more than his big brother's admiration between old mok and lightfoot to ab's great delight grew up the warmest friendship
the old man taught the woman more of the details of good arrow making and all he knew of woodcraft in all ways and the lord of the place soon found his wife giving opinions with an air of the utmost knowledge and authority
whatever came to him from her and old mok pleased him and when she told him of some of the finer points of arrow making he stretched out his brawny arms and laughed but there came in time a shade upon the face of the man
why should not he and lightfoot seize upon this home and live there it was a wonderful place and warm and there were forests at hand
that the woman who was his could not understand his mood but one day he told her of what he had been thinking and of what he had resolved upon i am going to the fire country he said armed this time with spear and ax and bow and arrow
and with food abundant in the pouch of his skin garb ab left the cave in which lightfoot was now to stay most of the time well barricaded for that she was to hunt afar alone in such a region was not even to be thought of
what thoughts came to the man as he traversed again the forest paths where he had so pondered as he once ran before can be but guessed at
lightfoot left alone in the cave became at once a most discreet and careful personage for one of her buoyant and daring temperament she had often taken risks since her marriage
but there was always the chance of finding within the sound of her voice her big mate ab should danger overtake her she remained close to the cave and when early dusk came she lugged the stone barriers into place and built a night fire within the entrance
lurking and sniffing harshly about the entrance and when she ventured there and peered outside she saw the wicked and leering eyes alone and a little alarmed she became more vengeful than she would have been with the big careless ab beside her
she would have sport with her bow
an arrow may be sent through a mere loophole with no probable demerit as to what it will accomplish so the woman brought her strongest bow and far beyond the rough bow of ab's first make was the bow they now possessed
and gathered together many of the arrows she could make so well and use so well and thus equipped went again to the cave's entrance
or cave hyena shafts to which they were unaccustomed but which somehow pierced and could find mid body quite as well as the cave man's spear there was a certain comfort in the work though it could not affect her condition in one way or another
it was only something of a gain to drive the eyes away
and studied all the qualities of the naturally defended valley i will make my home here he said lightfoot shall come with me the man returned to his cave and his lonely mate again and told her of the fire country he said that in the fire valley they would be safer and happier
not that a cave was really needed in a fire valley but they might have one if they cared and lightfoot was glad of the departure the pair gathered their belongings together and there was the long journey over again which ab had just accomplished
but it was far different from either journey that he had made there with him was his wife and he was all equipped and was to begin a new sort of life which would he felt be good lightfoot bearing her load gallantly was not less jubilant
as a matter of plain fact though lightfoot had been happy in the cave in the forest she had always recognized certain of its disadvantages as had in the end her fearless husband
and then lodgment in the maw of some imposing creature of the carnivora lightfoot was quite ready to seek with ab the fire valley of which he had so often told her she was a plucky young matron but there were extremes there were no adventures on the journey worth relating
the fire valley was reached at nightfall and the two struggled weariedly up the rugged path beside the creek which issued from the valley's western end as they reached the level ab threw down his burden as did lightfoot
and as the woman's eyes roved over the bright scene she gave a great gasp of delight it is our home she cried they ate and slept in the light and warmth of surrounding flames and when the day came they began the work of enlarging what was to be their cave
but though they worked earnestly they did not care so much for the prospective shelter as they might have done what a cave had given was warmth and safety here they had both out of doors and under the clear sky
please send the money peddling in western new york
the readiness with which people will send off their money to a swindler is perfectly astounding it does really seem as if an independent fortune could be made simply by putting forth circulars and advertisements
requesting the receiver to send five dollars to the advertiser and saying that it will be all right i have already given an account of the way in which lottery dealers operate from among the same pile of documents which i used then
i have selected a few others as instances in part of a class of humbugs sometimes of a kind even far more noxious
but often also very cold blooded villains or very nasty ones some of them are managed by printed circulars and written letters such as those before me some of them by newspaper advertisements some are only to cheat you out of money
and others offer in return for money some base gratification but whatever means are used and whatever purpose is sought they are all alike in one thing they depend entirely on the monstrous number of simpletons who will send money to people they know nothing about
of the nasty ones i can give no details vile books pictures et cetera are from time to time advertised sold and forwarded by circular and through the mails and for large prices
there have been some cases where a funny sort of swindle has been effected by these peddlers of pruriency by selling some dirty minded dupe a cheap good book at the extravagant price of a dear bad one
more than one foolish youth has received instead of the vile thing that he sent five dollars for a nice little new testament it is obvious that no very loud complaints are likely to be made about such cheating as that
one of the safest swindles ever contrived the first document which i take from my pile is the announcement of a fellow who operates lottery wise his scheme appeals at once to benevolence and to greediness he says
buy for the sake of our soldiers but somebody says how can you afford this arrangement which is a direct loss of the whole cost of working your lottery and moreover of the whole value of all prizes costing more than a ticket
a number of manufacturers in new england have asked me to do this and the prizes are given by them as friends of the soldier
namely if the manufacturers of new england wanted to give money to the sanitary commission they would give money if goods they would give goods they certainly would not put their gifts through the additional roundabout useless nonsense of a lottery
which is to turn over only the same amount of funds to the commission the next document is a circular sent from a western town by a fellow who claims also to be a master of arts doctor of medicines and doctor of laws
but whose handwriting and language are those of a stable boy this chap sends round a list of two hundred and fifty recipes at various prices from twenty five cents to a dollar each
send him the money for any you wish and he promises to return you the directions for making the stuff you are then to go about and peddle it and swiftly become independently rich you can begin with a dollar he says in two days make fifty dollars
if you are industrious what is petroleum to this it is a mercy that we don't all turn to and peddle to each other we should all get too rich to speak the fellow out of pure kindness and desire for your good
recommends you to buy all his recipes as then you will be sure to sell something to everybody most of these recipes are for sufficiently harmless purposes shaving soap cement inks
five gallons of good ink for fifteen cents tooth powders et cetera
such as tea better than the chinese
to make thieves vinegar prismatic diamond crystals for windows to make yellow butter is the butter blue where the man lives others are of a sort calculated to attract foolish rustic rascals
who would like to gain an easy living by cheating if they were only smart enough thus there is rothschild's great secret or how to make common gold my readers shall have a better recipe than this swindler's
work hard think hard be honest and spend little this will make common gold and this is all the secret rothschild ever had
such as cures for consumption cancer rheumatism and sundry other diseases to make whiskers and mustaches grow ah boys you can't hurry up those things
greasing your cheeks is just as good as trying to whistle the hair out but not a bit better don't hurry you will be old quite soon enough but this fellow is ready for old fools as well young ones
for he has recipes for curing baldness and removing wrinkles and last but not least quietly inserted among all these fooleries and harmless humbugs are two or three recipes which promise the safe gratification of the basest vices
those are what he really hoped to get money for i have carefully refrained from giving any names or information which would enable anybody to address any of these folks i do not propose to cooperate with them if i know it
it promises to furnish on receipt of the price and by mail or express with perfect safety so as to defy detection any of twenty two wholly infamous books and various other cards and commodities
well suited to the public of sodom and gomorrah et cetera the most honest and decent things advertised in this unclean list are advantage cards which enable the player to swindle his adversary by reading off his hand by the backs of the cards
the next paper i can copy verbatim except some names et cetera is a letter as follows dear sir there is a package in my care for a missus preston new griswold
wich thare is forty eight cents fratage pleas forward the same
it is some little comfort to know that this gentleman who is so much opposed to the present prevailing methods of spelling lost the three cents which he invested in seeking fratage
but a good many sensible people have carelessly sent away the small amounts demanded by letters like the above and have wondered why their prepaid parcels never came
next is an account by a half amused and half indignant eye witness of what happened in a well known town in western new york on friday january sixth eighteen sixty five
a personage described as dressed in yankee style drove into the principal street of the place with a horse and buggy and began to sell what is called in some parts of new england attleboro
but promising to return the customers their money if required and doing so after a number of transactions of this kind he bawls out like the sorcerer in aladdin who went around crying new lamps for old
who will give me four dollars for this five dollar greenback he found a customer sold a one dollar greenback for ninety cents
then flung out among the crowd what a fisherman would call ground bait in the shape of a handful of currency everybody scrambled for the money this liberal trader now drove slowly a little way along and the crowd pressed after him he now began without any further promises
and in a few minutes had disposed of about forty having therefore about two hundred dollars in his pocket and trade slackening he coolly observes with a terseness and clearness of oratory that would not discredit general sherman
gentlemen i have sold you those goods at my price i am a licensed peddler if i give you your money back you will think me a lunatic i wish you all success in your ordinary vocations good morning and sure enough he drove off
he really is licensed as a peddler and though arrested more than once has consequently not been found legally punishable i will specify only one more of my collection of yet another kind
this is a printed circular appealing to a class of fools if possible even shallower sillier and more credulous than any i have named yet it is headed the gypsies seven secret charms these charms consist of a kind of hellbroth or decoction
upon taking any one by the hand you will be able to entirely control the mind and will of such person it is unnecessary to specify the purpose intended to be believed possible these charms are also to enable you to buy lucky lottery tickets
dream correctly of the future increase the intellectual faculties secure the affections of the other sex et cetera these precious conceits are set forth in a ridiculous hodge podge of statements
the charms it says were used by the anted e luvians were the secret of the egyptian enchanters and of moses too of the pythoness and the heathen conjurors and humbugs generally and which will be news to the geographers of to day
are used by the psyli the swindler mis spells again of south america to charm beasts birds and serpents the way to control the mind he says was discovered by a french traveler named tunear
this frenchman is perhaps a relative of the equally celebrated russian traveller toofaroff but here is the point after all you send the money we will say for one of these charms for they are for sale separately
you receive in return a second circular saying that they work a great deal better all together and so the man will send you all of them when you send the rest of the money send it if you choose now how is it possible for people to be living among us here
who are fooled by such wretched balderdash as this there are such however and a great many of them i do not imagine that there are many of these addlepates among my readers but there is no harm in giving once more a very plain and easy direction
which may possibly save somebody some money and some mortification be content with what you can honestly earn know whom you deal with do not try to get money without giving fair value for it
chapter twenty seven little mok among all the children of ab and remarkable it was for the age the best loved was little mok the eldest son when the child strong and joyous was scarcely two years old
he fell from a ledge off the cliff where he had climbed to play and both his legs were broken
the mother love of lightfoot warded off the last pitiless blow of nature although the child a hopeless cripple never after walked
the name little mok was naturally given him and before long the child had won the heart as well as the name of the limping old maker of axes spearheads and arrows the closer ties of family life as we know them now existed but in their outlines to the cave man
the man and woman were faithful to each other with the fidelity of the higher animals and their children were cared for with rough tenderness in their infancy the time of absolute dependence was made very short though and children very early were required to find some of their own food
and taught by necessity to protect themselves but little mok unable to take up for himself the burden of an independent existence was not slain nor left to die of neglect as might have been another child thus crippled in the time in which he lived
he once spared grew into the wild hearts of those closest to him and became the guarded and cherished one of the rude home of ab and lightfoot and to him was thus given the continuous love and care which the strong limbed boys and girls of the family lost and never missed
it was a strange thing for the time the child had qualities other than the negative ones of helplessness and weakness with which to bind to him the hearts of those around him but the primary fact of his entire dependence upon them
was what made him the center of the little circle of untaught untamed cave people who lived in the fire valley he may have been the first child ever so cherished from such impulse
from his mother the child inherited a joyous disposition which nothing could subdue often on the return home from some little expedition on which it had been practicable to take him
his silent somewhat brooding grandfather the little brown boy made the woods ring with shrill bird calls or the mimicry of animals and ever his laughter filled the spaces in between these sounds
other children flocked around the merry youngster seeking to emulate his play of voice and the oldsters smiled as they saw and heard the joyous confusion about the tiny reveler the excursions to the river were little mok's chief delight from his early childhood
and when the fishing party left the fire camp it was incomplete if little mok was not carried lightly at the van the life and joy of the occasion no one ever forgot the day when little mok then about six years old caught his first fish
his joy and pride infected all as he exhibited his prize and boasted of what he would catch in the river next and when on the return old mok saluted him as the great fisherman the elf's elation became too great for any expression
his little chest heaved his eyes flashed and then he wriggled from lightfoot's arms into the lap of old mok snuggled down into the old man's furs and hid his face there and the two understood each other
it was soon after this great event of the first fish catching that red spot ab's mother died she had never quite adapted herself to the new life in the fire valley and after a time she began to grow old very fast
at last a fever attacked her and the end of her patient busy life came after her death one ear was much in old mok's cave the two had so long been friends there with them the crippled boy was often to be found he was not always gay and joyous
sometimes he lay for days on his bed of leaves at home in weakness and pain silent and unlike himself then when lightfoot's care had given him back a little strength he would beg to be taken to old mok's cave
and finally he claimed and was allowed a nest of his own in the warmest and darkest nook of old mok's den where he slept every night and sometimes a good part of the day when one of his times of pain and weakness was upon him
while ab mok and one ear bent over their work at arrowhead or spear point and talked of what might be done to improve the weapons upon which so much depended here when no one else remained in the weary darkness of night and the half light of stormy days
old mok beguiled the time with stories and sometimes in a hoarse voice even attempted to chant to his little hearer snatches of the wild singing tales of the shell people for the shell people had a sort of story song
once when lightfoot sat by old mok's fire she told them of the time when she and ab found themselves outside their cave unarmed with a bear to be eaten through before they could get into their door
and little mok surprised his mother and old mok by an outburst of laughter at the tale he had a glimmering of humor and saw the droll side of the adventure a view which had not occurred to lightfoot nor to ab the little lad of the world yet not in it
saw vaguely the surprises lights and shades and contrasts of existence and sometimes they made him laugh the laugh of the cave man was not a common event and when it came was likely to be sober and sardonic
at least it was so when not simply an evidence of rude health and high animal spirits humor is one of the latest as it is one of the most precious grains shaken out of time's hour glass
but little mok somehow caught a tiny bit of the rainbow gift long before its time in the world and soon with him it was to disappear for centuries to come one day when little mok was brought back from an expedition to the river
he told old mok how he had sat long on the bank too tired to fish and had just rested and feasted his eyes on the wood the stream the small darting creatures in it the birds and the animals which came to drink
describing a herd of reindeer which had passed near him little mok took up a piece of old mok's red chalkstone and on the wall of the cave drew a picture of the animal the veteran stared in surprise the picture was wonderfully life like in grasp and detail
the child owned that great gift the memory of sight and his hand was cunning encouraged by his success the boy drew on delighting old mok with his singular fidelity and skill then came hours and days of sketching and etching in the old man's cave
the master was delighted he brought out from their hiding places his choicest pieces of mammoth tusk or teeth of the river horse for little mok's etchings and carvings and as time passed the young artist excelled the old one and became the pride and boast of his friend and teacher
sometimes the little lad would work far into the night for he could not pause when he had begun a thing until it was complete but then he would sleep in his warm nest until noon the next day crawling out to cook a bit of meat for himself at the nearest fire or
sharing old mok's meal as was more convenient while everything else in the fire valley was growing developing and flourishing little mok's frail body had ever grown but slowly and about the beginning of his twelfth year
his cherished excursions to the river even his little journeys on old one ear's strong arm to the cliff top from whence he could see the whole world at once had all to be abandoned
when the winter snows began to whirl in the air little mok was lying quietly on his bed his great eyes looking wistfully up at lightfoot who in vain taxed her limited skill and resources to tempt him to eat and become more sturdy
she hovered over him like a distressed mother bird over its youngling fallen from the nest but with all her efforts she could not bring back even his usual slight measure of health and strength to the poor little mok
ab came sometimes and looked sadly at the two and then walked moodily away a great weight on his breast old mok was always at work and yet always ready to give little mok water or turn his weary little frame on its rude bed
or spread the furs over the wasted body and always lightfoot waited and hoped and feared and at last little mok died and was buried under the stones and the snow fell over the lonely cairn under the fir trees outside the fire valley where his grave was made
lightfoot was silent and sad and could not smile nor laugh any more she longed for little mok and did not eat or sleep one night ab trying to comfort her said you will see him again what do you mean cried lightfoot
and ab only answered you will see him he will come at night go to sleep and you will see him but lightfoot could not sleep yet and for many a night her eyes closed only when extreme fatigue compelled sleep toward the morning
and at last after many days and nights lightfoot when asleep saw little mok just as in life she saw him with all his familiar looks and motions but he did not stay long
and again and again she saw him and it comforted her somewhat because he smiled there had come to her such a heartache about him lying out there under the snow and stones with no one to care for him that the smile warmed her heavy heart and she told ab that she had seen little mok
only whispering it to him for it was not well she knew to talk about such things and she whispered to ab too her anguish that little mok only came at night and never when it was day but she did not complain she only said i want to see him in the daytime
and ab could think of nothing to say but that made him think more and more he felt drawn closer to lightfoot his wife no longer a young girl but the mother of little mok who was dead and of all his children
in his mind arose vaguely obscure yet persistent the idea that brute strength and vigor keen senses and reckless bravery were not after all the sole qualities that make and influence men old mok crippled and disabled for the hunt and defense
was nevertheless a power not to be despised and little mok the helpless child had been still strong enough to win and keep the love of all the stalwart and rough cave people ab was sorry for lightfoot
which was in the customary form and began with a series of bequests
in respect of whose services
of five hundred pounds free of duty and ten pounds to each to buy mourning to my old and faithful servant companion and friend read on the solicitor
two hundred and fifty pounds per annum for the rest of his natural life the same to be secured in three per cent consols reverting at his death as hereinafter stated
ramo did not move or utter a word to my old friend and adviser joshua girtle of the inner temple the plain gold signet ring on the fourth finger of my left hand
and proceeded deliberately to wipe them the servants took advantage of the gloom where they sat to give each other a congratulatory shake of the hand i now come to the important bequests said mister girtle
to katrine leveillee d'enghien
and one hundred pounds free of duty to buy mourning there what did i tell you said katrine in a low sweet voice as she smiled at her companions to gerard artis
son of my cousin william artis read on mister girtle
and then he stopped to draw one of the candles forward in front of the parchment the young man shifted his position uneasily and drew in his breath quickly as he thought
of the testator's immense wealth and glanced at katrine i shall not get all he thought
then after what seemed an age of suspense the old solicitor went on the sum of one hundred pounds free of duty to buy mourning there was a death like stillness as the lawyer paused
i did sir one hundred pounds to buy mourning what treat me worse than his servants i believe mister artis if you will excuse me
that a testator has a perfect right to do what he likes with his own then you influenced him cried artis furiously i shall dispute the will the old gentleman smiled
that there may be no mistake one hundred pounds each to miss d'enghien and myself it is absurd paltry pitiful you never saw the testator mister artis no sir
lydia murmured an assent
who felt a curious oppression at the chest i never saw my great uncle i never even heard from or wrote to him may i ask why i knew he was reported to be immensely rich
and well i felt that he might think i was trying to curry favour let me see mister artis i think the deceased did pay your debts is this meant for an insult sir no sir
it was a business like defence of my old friend's memory to proceed
lawrence my grand niece twenty five thousand pounds free of duty the same to be invested in consols and if she marries to be secured by marriage settlements to herself and children
there was a buzz of congratulation here as the old solicitor once more wiped his glasses and arranged them and the candles while in spite of his endeavours to preserve his calmness
the only one present yet unmentioned felt the oppression increasing
in a dream as the lawyer went on
i leave my freehold house and furniture library plate pictures statues bronzes and curios
during his lifetime in the same state
i had specially constructed without religious rite or ceremony of any kind
to him i leave the rest this done
the doorway shall then be built up with blocks of stone similar to those of which i had the room built a sufficiency of which are stored up in cellar number four sealed with my seal
and i here solemnly bind my heir and successor to observe exactly these my commands that my body may rest undisturbed in my old home under penalty of forfeiture
of the said freehold as above named
said artis in an audible voice and as i being now in full possession of my senses continued mister girtle slightly raising his voice
know that this is a strange and arduous burden to lay upon my heir in chief
may entirely be forgotten i give and bequeath to him for his sole use and enjoyment and in the hope that with the help and advice of my old friend joshua girtle he will sensibly invest
and sell and invest the russian leather case containing bank of england notes amounting to five hundred thousand pounds artis drew a long breath through his teeth
lydia sank back in her seat with a feeling of misery she could not have explained seeming to crush her
and continued the old lawyer the flat silver case containing the diamonds pearls rubies and emeralds bequeathed to me by my mistresses
when the cases are taken out the keys of which and the secret of the lock
joshua girtle whom i constitute my sole executor
and then the old solicitor rose the servants slowly left the room making a detour so as to bow and courtesy to the colonel's heir
bow reverently take his hand and kiss it saying softly the one word sahib don't go ramo said mister girtle and the old indian slowly backed into the corner by the door
chapter twenty two a blank adventure the light played on the blade of the keen edged sword as if it were phosphorescent but the lambent quivering was not seen by the holder of the lantern
who hid capel with his own hand as the light was flashed upon the bed and into the corners of the room and then turned off all right boys was whispered
and a man swung himself into the room be quick and shut the window a second man crept softly in and the third was half in when he slipped threw out his hand to save himself
the blade fell heavily upon the lantern and dashed it to the floor
raising the sword he struck again but as he did so one of the men sprang at him and the blow that fell was upon the fellow's shoulder and with the hilt of the sword
his feet became entangled in the curtain and he fell heavily with his adversary upon him quick morris whispered a voice no no curse you shut the window there's only one
where's your matches quick light the glim ah would you lie still and bite that you just move again and i'll pull the trigger the barrel of a revolver had been thrust between capel's teeth
and as he lay back with the man on his chest half stunned helpless and despairing he saw indistinctly the figure against the window heard the sash slide down and the darkness was complete
then there was the faint streak of light as a match was struck the bull's eye lantern was picked up and re lit and the bright rays once more played all about the room
the man who held it then went to the door and listened it's all right he whispered you said nobody can't hear what goes on in this room these curtains would suffocate a trumpet here you he cried to the third man
but as the third fellow caught him by the wrist the young man wrenched his head on one side and heaved himself up so that he partially dislodged the ruffian who held him down
driving the third back
leaped to his feet at that moment the light was turned off and there was a rush made to get beyond his reach
but he held the weapon ready for a cut should an attack be made as he stood there panting a low whisper rose from the direction of the door and he just caught its import give me the light
there was a click directly after and then from about the middle of the room the dazzling light of the bull's eye shone out
you can't escape can't we said the man between his teeth more can't you now then will you throw down that sword no said capel furiously you've walked into a trap so give up
go on said the voice of the lesser man at that moment there was a bright flash of light a sharp report
glistening disc of light seemed to have darted back to the side of the bed half stunned but full of fight
when there was another flash a quick shot and this time the blow seemed to have fallen on the top of his head and stunned and helpless the sword dropped from his hand and he fell on a chair
said the little man if you want to preach just wait till this job's done throw the light on the door dick
that's it is it quiet will you he stood listening attentively it's all right there isn't a sound let's go then at once what empty
they made a hurried search of the room but with the exception of the silver tops of the bottles of the colonel's dressing case there was nothing to excite their cupidity then capel's pockets were searched
but watch and purse were in his chamber while though the colonel's room was full of costly objects they were not of the portable nature that would have made them valuable to the men
now then said the tall man quickly it's of no use we must go down
the little man took a bunch from the bag but
whispered the shivering ex servant faint from his wound
somehow till we've done here
the trembling man took the lantern while his leader went down on one knee
keep that light still will you he cried menacingly why
then the light shone full on the lock for a minute or two not more for he who held it kept turning his head
this brought forth a torrent of whispered oaths from both men here let me have a try whispered the little man i can open it if you'll hold this blessed glim still i never see such a cur then
in the coolest manner possible he took the other's place
after picklock and ended by throwing all into the bag with a growl of disgust it's one of them stoopid patents he cried here give us a james a strong steel crowbar in two pieces was screwed together
and its sharp edge inserted between the door and the post but the great solid mahogany door stood firm only emitting now and then a loud crack sharp as that given by a cart whip
as the men strained at it in turn here let's try a saw centre bit a centre bit was fitted into a stock and a hole cut right through into this after much greasing
and not without emitting a loud noise the work of cutting began the sawdust falling lightly on the lion's skin but at the end of a few seconds a dull harsh sound
told that the saw was meeting metal and a fresh start had to be made for fully two hours did the men work to get through boring and sawing in place after place
but always to find that the door was strengthened in all directions with metal plates and at last the task was given up look here growled the leader of the party that bed isn't used
can't you get the door open then said the third man after the other had shaken his head why don't you see we can't but we shall get nothing for our trouble
nothing at all said the tall man quietly but there that'll do first of all you were so precious anxious to go now you know we can't get down you're all for the job i say
is this the room where the murder was yes don't talk about it why not we haven't done another he'll come round what next dick cut was the laconic reply
chapter twenty two the graham girls call they're early risers we must say that much for them observed katherine in a low voice we must give them credit for not lying in bed until ten o'clock
and and and for dressing for an afternoon party before breakfast helen nash concluded isn't it funny hazel edwards said with a suppressed titter
at this suggestion of the guardian the girls turned their attention again to the conditions about their bathing beach a moment later katherine made a discovery
that centered all interest in unaffected earnest upon the latest depredation of their enemy or enemies with a stick she fished out one end of a small rope
the clothes line they had used to indicate the safety limits of their bathing place
we had roped in a bathing place after examining it and finding it safe for those who are not good swimmers and you see what has been done with our work the stakes were pulled up and the rope hidden in the water
whom the campers surmised correctly to be olga graham
the other graham girl declared vengefully haven't you any idea who did it none that is very tangible miss ladd replied
he threw a heavy stone into our bonfire and knocked the sparks and embers in every direction but he kept himself hidden a little later we heard a hideous call in the timbers
that's strange commented the older of the visitors maybe it's the ghost suggested olga with a faint smile ghost repeated several of the camp fire girls in unison
i was just joking the younger graham girl explained hurriedly why did you suggest a ghost even as a joke inquired katherine the utterance of the word ghost together with the probability
that there was a neighborhood story behind it forced upon her imagination an
olga reassured but her words seemed to come with a slightly forced unnaturalness
you know did anybody ever see it asked hazel edwards not that i know
is there a crazy man running loose around here ernestine johanson inquired with a shudder there must be olga declared with a suggestion of awe in her voice
it must be somebody escaped from a lunatic asylum i saw something mysterious moving through the woods near our cottage one night addie graham interposed at this point
nobody else in the family would believe me when i told them about it it looked like a man in a long white robe and long hair and a long white beard it was moonlight and i was looking out of my bedroom window
suddenly this strange being appeared near the edge of the timber
and i suppose he saw me for he picked up a stone and threw it at the window where i stood it fell a few feet short of its mark and then the ghost or the insane man call him what you please
turned and ran away my sister told us about that next morning and we all laughed at her said olga continuing the account i told her to go out and find the stone
just about where she said the stone that was thrown at her fell
marion stanlock inquired we looked around specially to find out if there were any others near but didn't find any
addie that's my sister had the laugh on us all after that do you live in the cottage over there ethel zimmerman inquired pointing toward graham summer residence yes addie replied
we were very much interested when we learned that a company of camp fire girls were camping near us
don't you girls camp out any katherine asked with the view of possibly bringing out an explanation of the graham girls attire which seemed suited more for promenading along
a metropolitan boulevard than for any other purpose
we'd like to well enough you know but we're in society so much that we just don't have time katherine wanted to ask the graham girls if they were going to a stylish reception before breakfast
the grandnephew of missus hutchins late husband in whose interests they made the present trip of inspection whether or not she recognized among the campers the two girls to whom she had behaved so rudely on that occasion
which was all sweetness now she continued her social discourse thus
and live close to nature you know
truly it must be delightful but when you become an integral figure in society she really said integral you are regarded as indispensable and society won't let go of you
their plan was to bring about an appearance of friendship
in order that they might associate with the family that had custody of the little boy in whose interests they were working any attempt on their part they felt to discuss society
from the point of view of the graham girls must result in a betrayal of their utter lack of sympathy with this social indispensability of such helpless society victims
we'd like however to do something for you in your unfortunate situation addie graham continued with a gush of seeming friendliness i'm sure my brother james he's sixteen years old
would be glad to assist you in any way he can i'm going to send him down here if you say the word to help you extend that rope around your swimming place he's a very handy boy
and it would be much better for you to let him do the work than to perform such a laborious task yourselves thank you ever so much
returned miss ladd with a warmth that seemed to indicate acceptance of the offer the truth was that anything which tended to increase
from my mouth only shall he hear the stern and seemingly unnatural part i played in this family tragedy the face of oswald hardened
set themselves in lines
he abruptly exclaimed speak i am bound to listen you are my brother orlando turned towards doris she was slipping away
but she was gone slowly he turned back oswald raised his hand and checked the words with which he would have begun his story
you saw miss challoner in lenox admired her offered yourself to her and afterwards wrote her a threatening letter because she rejected you it is true
but she mistook my purpose and and what orlando hesitated even his iron nature trembled before the misery he saw a misery he was destined to augment rather than soothe
with pains altogether out of keeping with his character he sought in the recesses of his darkened mind for words
less bitter and less abrupt than those which sprang involuntarily to his lips but he did not find them though he pitied his brother and wished to show that he did
nothing but the stern language suitable to the stern fact he wished to impart would leave his lips and ended the pitiful struggle of the moment with one quick unpremeditated blow was what he said
there is no other explanation possible for this act oswald bitter as it is for me to acknowledge it i am thus far guilty of this beloved woman's death but
as god hears me from the moment i first saw her to the moment i saw her last i did not know nor did i for a moment dream that she was anything to you or to any other man of my stamp and station
i thought she despised my country birth my mechanical attempts my lack of aristocratic pretensions and traditions
now that i know she had other reasons for her contempt that the words she wrote were in rebuke to the brother rather than to the man i feel my guilt and deplore my anger i cannot say more
i should but insult your grief by any lengthy expressions of regret and sorrow a groan of intolerable anguish from the sick man's lips and then the quick thrust
rising superior to the overthrow of all his hopes for a woman of edith's principle to seek death in a moment of desperation the provocation must have been very great
tell me if i'm to hate you through life yea through all eternity or if i must seek in some unimaginable failure of my own character or conduct the cause of her intolerable despair
oswald the tone was controlling and yet that of one strong man to another is it for us to read the heart of any woman least of all of a woman of her susceptibilities and keen inner life
the wish to end all comes to some natures like a lightning flash from a clear sky it comes it goes often without leaving a sign but if a weapon chances to be near here it was in hand
then death follows the impulse which given an instant of thought would have vanished in a back sweep of other emotions chance was the real accessory to this death by suicide oswald
and turn to what remains to us of life and labour work is grief's only consolation then let us work but of all this oswald had caught but the one word chance he repeated
orlando i believe in god then seek your comfort there i find it in harnessing the winds in forcing the powers of nature to do my bidding
and the silence grew heavy it was broken when it was broken by a cry from oswald
but another look at oswald and he was ready to do his bidding the bitter ordeal was over let him have his solace
orlando upon leaving his brother's room did not stop to deliver that brother's message directly to doris he left this for truda to do and retired immediately to his hangar in the woods
locking himself in he slightly raised the roof and then sat down before the car which was rapidly taking on shape and assuming
the air car could wait he would first have his hour in this solitude of his own making the gaze he dreaded the words from which he shrank could not penetrate here he might even shout her name aloud
he was alone with his past his present and his future alone he needed to be the strongest must pause when the precipice yawns before him the gulf can be spanned
only a fool would ignore these steeps of jagged rock and he was no fool only a man to whom the unexpected had happened a man who had seen his way clear to the horizon
and then had come up against this love when he thought such folly dead remorse when glory called for the quiet mind and heart he recognised its mordant fang and knew that its ravages
though only just begun would last his lifetime nothing could stop them now nothing nothing and he laughed as the thought went home laughed at the irony of fate
laughed at his own defeat and his nearness to a barred paradise oswald loved edith loved her yet with a flame time would take long to quench doris loved oswald and he doris
and not one of them would ever attain the delights each was so fitted to enjoy why shouldn't he laugh what is left to man but mockery when all props fall disappointment was the universal lot
and it should go merrily with him
it should be but a turn a man's joys are not bounded by his loves or even by the satisfaction of a perfectly untrammelled mind
performance makes a world of its own for the capable and the strong and this was still left to him
orlando brotherson despair while his great work lay unfinished that would be to lay stress on the inevitable pains and fears of commonplace humanity he was not of that ilk
intellect was his god ambition his motive power what would this casual blight upon his supreme contentment be to him when with the wings of his air car spread he should spurn the earth
and soar into the heaven of fame simultaneously with his flight into the open he could wait for that hour he had measured the gulf before him and found it passable henceforth
formerly called isles of the saints he was looking across the atlantic for a glimpse of hy brasail
and the older they were the oftener it had been seen by them and the larger it looked but kirwan had never seen it and whenever he came to the top of the highest cliff
he climbed the great mass of granite called the gregory and peered out into the west especially at sunset in hopes that he would at least catch a glimpse some happy evening
of the cliffs and meadows of hy brasail but as yet he had never
all this was more than two hundred years ago he naturally went up to the gregory at this hour because it was then that he met the other boys
and paid them a sixpence for every dozen birds that he might sell the feathers the boys had a rope three hundred feet long which could reach the bottom of the cliff one of them tied this rope around his waist
and then held it fast with both hands the rope being held above by four or five strong boys who lowered the cragman or clifter as he was called over the precipice
kirwan was thus lowered to the rocks near the sea where the puffins bred and loosening the rope he prepared to spend the night in catching them he had a pole with a snare on the end
besides quantities of their large eggs which were found in deep clefts in the rock and these he carried with him when his friends came in the morning to haul him up it was a good school of courage for sometimes boys missed their footing
and were dashed to pieces at other times he fished in his father's boat or drove calves for sale on the mainland or cured salt after high tide in the caverns or collected kelp for the farmers
long he toiled with his oars toward the west where he fancied the rest of the fleet to be and sometimes he spread his little sprit sail steering with an oar a thing which was
in a heavy sea almost as hard as rowing at last the fog lifted and he found himself alone upon the ocean he had lost his bearings and could not tell the points of the compass presently
out of a heavy bank of fog which rose against the horizon he saw what seemed land it gave him new strength and he worked hard to reach it but it was long since he had eaten his head was dizzy
and he lay down on the thwart of the boat rather heedless of what might come growing weaker and weaker he did not clearly know what he was doing suddenly he started up for a voice hailed him from above his head
he saw above him the high stern of a small vessel and with the aid of a sailor he was helped on board he found himself on the deck of a sloop of about seventy tons john nisbet master
with a crew of seven men they had sailed from killebegs county donegal in ireland for the coast of france laden with butter tallow and hides and were now returning from france
with french wines and were befogged as kirwan had been the boy was at once taken on board and rated as a seaman and the later adventures of the trip are here given as he reported them on his return
these being james ross the carpenter and two sailors with the boy kirwan they took swords and pistols landing at the edge of a little wood they walked for a mile within a pleasant valley where cattle
but when they had reached the top and looked around they could see no inhabitants nor any house on which they returned to the sloop and told their tale after this the whole ship's company went ashore except one left in charge
when suddenly they heard loud noises from the direction of the castle and then all over the island which frightened them so that they went on board the sloop and stayed all night the next morning they saw a dignified elderly gentleman
with ten unarmed followers coming down towards the shore hailing the sloop the older gentleman speaking gaelic asked who and whence they were and being told invited them ashore as his guests
they went on shore well armed and he embraced them one by one telling them that they were the happiest sight that island had seen for hundreds of years that it was called hy brasail
and that for the same reason he and his friends were rendered unable to answer the sailors even when they knocked at the door and that the enchantment must remain until a fire was kindled on the island by good christians
this had been done the night before and the terrible noises which they had heard were from the powers of darkness which had now left the island forever and indeed when the sailors were led to the castle
they saw that the chief tower had just been demolished by the powers of darkness as they retreated but there were sitting within the halls men and women of dignified appearance
who thanked them for the good service they had done then they were taken over the island which proved to be some sixty miles long and thirty wide abounding with horses cattle sheep deer rabbits and birds
somewhat rusty yet of pure gold and there was at once an eager desire on the part of certain of the townsmen to go with them within a week an expedition was fitted out containing several godly ministers
who wished to visit and discover the inhabitants of the island but through some mishap of the seas this expedition was never heard of again
there were not wanting those who held that the ancient gold pieces might have been gained by piracy such as was beginning to be known upon the spanish main and as for the boy kirwan
some of his playmates did not hesitate to express the opinion that he had always been as they phrased it the greatest liar that ever spoke what is certain is that the island of brazil or hy brasail
as often seen from the shore and that it appeared as brazil rock on the london admiralty charts until after eighteen fifty if many people tried to find it and failed
with power to make certain capitulations and conventions who came into this kingdom with three hundred men and there found a benign mild and peaceable people as they were throughout the indies
till injured by the spaniards these more cruel then the rest beyond comparison behav'd themselves more inhumanely
wolves and lyons for they had the jurisdiction of this kingdom and therefore possessing it with the greater freedom from controul lay in wait
and were the more vigilant with greater care and avarice to understand the practical part of heaping up wealth and robbing the inhabitants of their gold and sliver surpassing all their predecessors in those
indirect ways rejecting wholly both the fear of their god and king nay forgetting that they were born men with reasonable faculties
these incarnate devils laid waste and desolate four hundred miles of most fertile land containing vast and wonderful provinces most spatious and large valleys
surrounded with hills forty miles in length and many towns richly abounding in gold and silver they destroy'd so many
and such considerable regions that there is not one supernumerary witness left to relate the story unless perchance some that lurkt in the caverns and womb of the earth
ruinated four or five millions of souls and sent them all to hell i will give a taste of two or three of their transactions that hereby you may guess at the rest
they made the supream lord of the province a slave to squeeze his gold from him racking him to extort his confession who escaping fled into the mountains their common sanctuary
and his subjects lying absconded in the thickets of the woods were stir'd up to sedition and tumult or mutiny the spaniards follow and destroy many of them but those that were taken alive
and in their power were all publickly sold for slaves by the common crier they were in all provinces they came into entertained and welcomed by the indians with songs dances and rich presents
but rewarded very ungratefully with bloodshed and slaughter the german captain and tyrant caused several of them to be clapt into a thatcht house and there cut in pieces
but some of them to avoid falling by their bloody and merciless swords climb'd up to the beams and rafters of the house and the governour hearing it o cruel brute commanded fire to be put to it
bestowing on them innumerable quantities of gold besides many other gifts but when they were upon departure in retribution of their civil treating and deportment
the german tyrant commanded that all the indians with their wives and children if possible should be taken into custody inclosed in some large capacious place
or at a certain rate imposed upon himself his wife and every childs head and to expedite the business prohibited the administration or allowance of any food to them
till the gold required for redemption was paid down to the utmost grain several of them sent home to discharge the demanded price of their redemption and procur'd their freedom
as well as they could by one means or other that so they might return to their livelihood and profession but not long after he sent other rogues and robbers among them to enslave those that were redeemed
to the same gaol they are brought a second time being instigated or rather constrained to a speedy redemption by hunger and thirst thus many of them were twice or thrice taken
captiv'd and redeedmed but some who were not capable of depositing such a sum perished there farthermore this tyrant was big with an itching desire
after the discovery of the perusian mines which he did accomplish nay should i enumerate the particular cruelties slaughters
committed by him though my discourse would not in the least be contrariant to the truth yet it would not be beleived
this course the other tyrants took who set sail from venecuela and saint martha with the same resolution of detecting the perusian golden consecrated houses as them they esteemed
who found the fruitful region so desolate deserted and wasted by fire and sword that those cruel tyrants themselves were smitten with wonder and astonishment at the traces and ruins of such
prodigious devastations all these things and many more were prov'd by witness in the indian exchequer
though these execrable tyrants burnt many of them that there might be little or nothing prov'd as a cause of those great devastations and evils perpetrated by them for the minister of justice
who have hitherto lived in india through their obscure and damnable blindness were not much sollicitous about the punishment of the crimes and butcheries which have been and
diminished already or retrenched from his majesties annual revenue and this general and confused proof is sufficient as they worthily conceive to purge or repress such great and
hainous crimes and though they are but few are not verified as they ought to be nor do they attribute and lay upon them that stress and weight as they ought to do
for if they did perform their duty to god and the king it could not be made apparent as it may be that these german tyrants have cheated and rob'd the king of three millions of gold and upward
and thus these enemies to god and the king began to depopulate these regions and destroy them cheating his majesty of two millions of gold per annum nor can it be expected
that the detriment done to his majesty can possibly be retriev'd as long as the sun and moon endures unless god by a miracle should raise as many thousands from death to life
as have bin destroy'd and these are the temporal dammages the king suffers it would be also a work worthy the inquiry into to consider how many cursed
sacriledges and indignities god himself hath been affronted with to the dishonour of his name and what recompence can be made for the loss of so many souls
as are now tormented in hell by the cruelty and covetousness of these brutish german tyrants but i will conclude all their impiety and barbarisme with one example viz that
country to this very day that is seventeen years they have remitted many ships fraighted with indians to be sold as slaves to the isles of saint martha hispaniola jamaica
in this island seeing and knowing it yet what they find to be manifest and apparent they connive at permit and countenance and wink at the horrid impieties and devastations innumerable
which are committed on the coasts of this continent extending four hundred miles in length and continues still together with venecuela and saint martha under their jurisdiction
and the year insuing inhabited by the spaniards and afterward a multitude of them travelled thither from spain for the space of nine and forty years their first attempt was on the spanish island
which indeed is a most fertile soil and at present in great reputation for its spaciousness and length containing in circumference six hundred miles
nay it is on all sides surrounded with an almost innumerable number of islands which we found so well peopled with natives and forreigners that there is scarce any region in the universe fortified with so many inhabitants
but the main land or continent distant from this island two hundred and fifty miles and upwards extends it self above ten thousand miles in length near the sea shore which lands are some of them already discover'd
and more may be found out in process of time and such a multitude of people inhabits these countries that it seems as if the omnipotent god has assembled and convocated the major part
of mankind in this part of the world now this infinite multitude of men are by the creation of god innocently simple altogether void of and averse to all manner of craft subtlety and malice
and most obedient and loyal subjects to their native sovereigns and behave themselves very patiently sumissively and quietly towards the spaniards to whom they are subservient and subject so that finally
and in few years by one distemper or other soon expire so that the very issue of lords and princes who among us live with great affluence and fard deliciously
having no other covering but what conceals their pudends from publick sight an hairy plad or loose coat about an ell or a coarse woven cloth at most two ells long serves them
for the warmest winter garment they lye on a coarse rug or matt and those that have the most plentiful estate or fortunes the better sort use net work knotted at the four corners
in lieu of beds which the inhabitants of the island of hispaniola in their own proper idiom term hammacks the men are pregnant and docible the natives tractable
and capable of morality or goodness very apt to receive the instill'd principles of catholick religion nor are they averse to civility and good manners being not so much
discompos'd by variety of obstructions as the rest of mankind insomuch that having suckt in
patience to undergo such extream transports and to conclude i my self have heard the spaniards themselves who dare not assume the confidence to deny the good nature praedominant in them declare that
there was nothing wanting in them for the acquisition of eternal beatitude but the sole knowledge and understanding of the deity the spaniards first assaulted the innocent sheep so qualified by the almighty as is premention'd
like most cruel tygers wolves and lions hunger starv'd studying nothing for the space of forty years after their first landing but the massacre of these wretches whom they have so inhumanely
that of three millions of persons which lived in hispaniola itself there is at present but the inconsiderable remnant of scarce three hundred nay the isle of cuba
which extends as far as valledolid in spain is distant from rome lies now uncultivated like a desert and intomb'd in its own ruins you may also find the isles of saint john and jamaica
both large and fruitful places unpeopled and desolate the lucayan islands on the north side adjacent to hispaniola and cuba which are sixty in number or thereabout
and others the most infertile whereof exceeds the royal garden of sevil in fruitfulness a most healthful and pleasant climat is now laid waste and uninhabited
and whereas when the spaniards first arriv'd here about five hundred thousand men dwelt in it they are now cut off some by slaughter and others ravished away by force and violence
undertook this dangerous voyage to convert souls to christianity the remaining gleanings might be gathered up there were only found eleven persons which i saw with my own eyes there are other islands thirty in number
and upward bordering upon the isle of saint john totally unpeopled all which are above two thousand miles in lenght and yet remain without inhabitants native or people
as to the firm land we are certainly satisfied and assur'd that the spaniards by their barbarous and execrable actions have absolutely depopulated ten kingdoms of greater extent than all spain
together with the kingdoms of arragon and portugal that is to say above one thousand miles
and desolate and are absolutely ruined when as formerly no other country whatsoever was more populous nay we dare boldly affirm that during the forty years space wherein they exercised their
sanguinary and detestable tyranny in these regions above twelve millions computing men women and children have undeservedly perished nor do i conceive that i should deviate from the truth by saying that above
fifty millions in all paid their last debt to nature those that arriv'd at these islands from the remotest parts of spain and who pride themselves in the name of christians steer'd two courses principally
in order to the extirpation and exterminating of this people from the face of the earth the first whereof was raising an unjust sanguinolent cruel war the other by putting them to death
and shake off the shackles of so injurious a captivity for they being taken off in war none but women and children were permitted to enjoy the benefit of that country air in whom they did in succeeding times
lay such a heavy yoak that the very brutes were more happy than they to which two species of tyranny as subalternate things to the genus the other innumerable courses they took
of this people was gold only that thereby growing opulent in a short time they might arrive at once at such degrees and dignities as were no wayes consistent with their persons
finally in one word their ambition and avarice than which the heart of man never entertained greater and the vast wealth of those regions the humility and patience of the inhabitants
which made their approach to these lands more facil and easie did much promote the business whom they so despicably contemned that they treated them
i speak of things which i was an eye witness of without the least fallacy not as beasts which i cordially wished they would but as the most abject dung and filth of the earth and so sollicitous
they were of their life and soul that the above mentioned number of people died without understanding the true faith or sacraments and this also is as really true as the praecendent narration
the rest of the nobles belonging to other provinces when they found their chief lords who had the supreme power
or the places of their concealment and behold a great many of the indians addrest themselves to them earnestly requesting they would admit them as subjects being very willing and ready to serve them
would put every individual person to death if they would not discover the receptacles of the fugitive governours the indians made answer that they were wholly ignorant of the matter yet that they themselves their wives and children
should serve them that they were at home they might come to them and put them to death
but the spaniards o wonderful went to the towns and villages and destroy'd with their lances these poor men their wives and children intent upon their labour
and as they thought themselves secure and free from danger another large village they made desolate in the space of two hours sparing neither age nor sex putting all to the sword without mercy the indians perceiving that this barbarous and
hard hearted people would not be pacified with humility large gifts or unexampled patience but that they were butcher'd without any cause upon serious consultation took up a resolution of getting together in a body
and fighting for their lives and liberty for they conceiv'd it was far better since death to them was a necessary evil with sword in hand to be kill'd by taking revenge of the enemy then be destroy'd by them without satisfaction
but when they grew sensible of their wants of arms nakedness and debility and that they were altogether incapable of the management of horses so as to prevail against such a furious adversary
recollecting themselves they contriv'd this strategm to dig ditches and holes in the high way into which the horses might fall in their passage and fixing therein purposely sharp and burnt posts
and covering them with loose earth so that they could not be discern'd by their riders they might be transfixed or gored by them the horses fell twice or thrice into those holes but afterward the spaniards took this course to prevent them for the future
and the remainder expos'd to hungry dogs kept short of food for that purpose to be devour'd by them and torn in pieces they burnt a potent nobleman in a very great fire saying
among the innumerable flagitious acts done by this tyrant and his co partners for they were as barbarous as their principal in this kingdom this also occurs worthy of an afterism in the margin
as also in the very city of cuzcatan the metropolis of the whole province he was entertain'd with great applause for about twenty or thirty thousand indians brought with them hens and other necessary provisions
and forced to undergo the most servile offices they should impose on them every one cull'd out a hundred or fifty according as he thought convenient for his peculiar service
and these wretched indians did serve the spaniards with their utmost strength and endeavour so that there could be nothing wanting in them but adoration in the mean time this captain requir'd a great sum of gold from their lords
i my self saw the impression made on the son of the chiefest person in the city those that escap'd with other indians engaged the spaniards by force of arms but with such ill success
as big as half a score oxen all concurring at one and the same time
committed upon the inhabitants they destroy'd and made a desert of this kingdom which in breadth as well as length contains one hundred miles and with his associates and brethren in iniquity four millions at least
in fifteen or sixteen years that is from fifteen twenty four to fifteen forty were murdered and dayly continues destroying the small residue of that people with his cruelties and brutishness it was the usual custom of this tyrant
that they might fight with their country men and when he had in his army twenty or sometimes thirty thousand of them and could not afford them sustenance he permitted them to feed on the flesh of other indians taken prisoners in war
and so kept a shambles of man's flesh in his army suffered children to be kill'd and roasted before his face they butcher'd the men for their feet and hands only
of a vast weight from the septentrional to the mediterranean sea which are one hundred and thirty miles distant as also abundance of great guns of the largest fort which they carried on their bare naked shoulders
so that opprest with many great and ponderous burthens i say no more than what i saw they dyed by the way he separated and divided families
by a welcome death he had two companies of soldiers who hackt and tore them in pieces like thunder from heaven speedily o how many parents has he robb'd of their children how many wives of their husbands
to this end tess resolved to run no further risks from her appearance as soon as she got out of the village she entered a thicket and took from her basket one of the oldest field gowns which she had never put on even at the dairy
never since she had worked among the stubble at marlott she also by a felicitous thought took a handkerchief from her bundle and tied it round her face under her bonnet covering her chin and half her cheeks and temples
then with her little scissors by the aid of a pocket looking glass she mercilessly nipped her eyebrows off and thus insured against aggressive admiration she went on her uneven way
what a mommet of a maid said the next man who met her to a companion tears came into her eyes for very pity of herself as she heard him but i don't care she said o no i don't care
i'll always be ugly now because angel is not here and i have nobody to take care of me my husband that was is gone away and never will love me any more but i love him just the same and hate all other men and like to make em think scornfully of me
thus tess walks on a figure which is part of the landscape a fieldwoman pure and simple in winter guise a gray serge cape a red woollen cravat a stuff skirt covered by a whitey brown rough wrapper
and buff leather gloves every thread of that old attire has become faded and thin under the stroke of raindrops the burn of sunbeams and the stress of winds there is no sign of young passion in her now the maiden's mouth is cold
fold over simple fold binding her head inside this exterior over which the eye might have roved as over a thing scarcely percipient almost inorganic there was the record of a pulsing life which had learnt too well
for its years of the dust and ashes of things of the cruelty of lust and the fragility of love next day the weather was bad but she trudged on the honesty directness and impartiality of elemental
her experience of short hirings had been such that she was determined to accept no more thus she went forward from farm to farm in the direction of the place whence marian had written to her which she determined to make use of as a last shift only
its rumoured stringencies being the reverse of tempting
and as acceptance in any variety of these grew hopeless applied next for the less light till
she ended with the heavy and course pursuits which she liked least work on arable land work of such roughness indeed as she would never have deliberately voluteered for
towards the second evening she reached the irregular chalk table land or plateau bosomed with semi globular tumuli
the many breasted were supinely extended there which stretched between the valley of her birth and the valley of her love here the air was dry and cold and the long cart roads were blown white and dusty within a few hours after rain
there were few trees or none those that would have grown in the hedges being mercilessly plashed down with the quickset by the tenant farmers the natural enemies of tree bush and brake in the middle distance ahead of her
and they seemed friendly they had a low and unassuming aspect from this upland though as approached on the other side from blackmoor in her childhood
southerly at many miles distance and over the hills and ridges coastward
before her in a slight depression were the remains of a village
there seemed to be no help for it hither she was doomed to come the stubborn soil around her showed plainly enough that the kind of labour in demand here was of the roughest kind but it was time to rest from searching
and before applying for a lodging she stood under its shelter and watched the evening close in who would think i was missus angel clare she said the wall felt warm to her back and shoulders
and she found that immediately within the gable
red and moist with the drizzle against their comforting surface the wall seemed to be the only friend she had she had so little wish to leave it that she could have stayed there all night tess could hear the occupants of the cottage
gathered together after their day's labour talking to each other within and the rattle of their supper plates was also audible but in the village street she had seen no soul as yet the solitude was at last broken by the approach of one feminine figure who
though the evening was cold wore the print gown and the tilt bonnet of summer time tess instinctively thought it might be marian and when she came near enough to be distinguishable in the gloom surely enough it was she marian was even stouter and redder in the face than formerly
and decidedly shabbier in attire at any previous period of her existence tess would hardly have cared to renew the acquaintance in such conditions but her loneliness was excessive and she responded readily to marian's greeting
marian was quite respectful in her inquiries
tess missus clare the dear wife of dear he and is it really so bad as this my child why is your cwomely face tied up in such a way anybody been beating ee not he no no no
i merely did it not to be clipsed or colled marian she pulled off in disgust a bandage which could suggest such wild thoughts and you've got no collar on tess had been accustomed to wear a little white collar at the dairy
i know it marian you've lost it travelling i've not lost it the truth is i don't care anything about my looks and so i didn't put it on and you don't wear your wedding ring yes i do but not in public
marian paused but you be a gentleman's wife and it seems hardly fair that you should live like this
though i am very unhappy well well he married you and you can be unhappy wives are unhappy sometimes from no fault of their husbands from their own
you've no faults deary that i'm sure of and he's none
marian dear marian will you do me a good turn without asking questions
o yes they'll take one always because few care to come tis a starve acre place corn and swedes are all they grow though i be here myself i feel tis a pity for such as you to come
but you used to be as good a dairywoman as i yes but i've got out o that since i took to drink
if you engage you'll be set swede hacking that's what i be doing but you won't like it o anything will you speak for me you will do better by speaking for yourself very well now marian remember
nothing about him if i get the place
marian who was really a trustworthy girl though of coarser grain than tess promised anything she asked this is pay night she said and if you were to come with me you would know at once
i be real sorry that you are not happy but tis because he's away i know you couldn't be unhappy if he were here even if he gie'd ye no money even if he used you like a drudge that's true i could not
they walked on together and soon reached the farmhouse which was almost sublime in its dreariness
nothing but fallow and turnips everywhere in large fields divided by hedges plashed to unrelieved levels
questions i could not keep out of my work which it distressed me to touch upon in a stupid haphazard way and which no one so far as i knew had handled in a manner to satisfy my needs but anticipations did not achieve its end
i have a slow constructive hesitating sort of mind and when i emerged from that undertaking i found i had still most of my questions to state and solve in mankind in the making therefore
i tried to review the social organisation in a different way to consider it as an educational process instead of dealing with it as a thing with a future history and if i made this second book even less satisfactory from a literary standpoint than the former
and this is my opinion i blundered i think more edifyingly at least from the point of view of my own instruction i ventured upon several themes with a greater frankness than i had used in anticipations
and came out of that second effort guilty of much rash writing but with a considerable development of formed opinion in many matters i had shaped out at last a certain personal certitude upon which i feel i shall go for the rest of my days
in this present book i have tried to settle accounts with a number of issues left over or opened up by its two predecessors to correct them in some particulars and to give the general picture of a utopia
at once possible and more desirable than the world in which i live but this book has brought me back to imaginative writing again in its two predecessors the treatment of social organisation had been purely objective
here my intention has been a little wider and deeper in that i have tried to present not simply an ideal but an ideal in reaction with two personalities moreover since this may be the last book of the kind i shall ever publish
i have written into it as well as i can the heretical metaphysical scepticism upon which all my thinking rests and i have inserted certain sections reflecting upon the established methods of sociological and economic science
the last four words will not attract the butterfly reader i know i have done my best to make the whole of this book as lucid and entertaining as its matter permits because i want it read by as many people as possible
but i do not promise anything but rage and confusion to him who proposes to glance through my pages just to see if i agree with him or to begin in the middle or to read without a constantly alert attention
if you are not already a little interested and open minded with regard to social and political questions
if your mind is made up upon such issues your time will be wasted on these pages and even if you are a willing reader you may require a little patience for the peculiar method i have this time adopted
that method assumes an air of haphazard but it is not so careless as it seems i believe it to be even now that i am through with the book
the best way to a sort of lucid vagueness which has always been my intention in this matter i tried over several beginnings of a utopian book before i adopted this i rejected from the outset the form of the argumentative essay
the form which appeals most readily to what is called the serious reader the reader who is often no more than the solemnly impatient parasite of great questions he likes everything in hard heavy lines black and white yes and no
because he does not understand how much there is that cannot be presented at all in that way wherever there is any effect of obliquity of incommensurables wherever there is any levity or humour or difficulty of multiplex presentation he refuses attention
that the spirit of creation cannot count beyond two he deals only in alternatives such readers i have resolved not to attempt to please here even if i presented all my tri clinic crystals as systems of cubes
indeed i felt it would not be worth doing but having rejected the serious essay as a form i was still greatly exercised i spent some vacillating months over the scheme of this book
i tried first a recognised method of viewing questions from divergent points that has always attracted me and which i have never succeeded in using the discussion novel after the fashion of peacock's and mister mallock's
development of the ancient dialogue but this encumbered me with unnecessary characters and the inevitable complication of intrigue among them and i abandoned it after that i tried to cast the thing into a shape resembling a little
the double personality of boswell's johnson a sort of interplay between monologue and commentator but that too although it got nearer to the quality i sought finally failed then i hesitated over what one might call hard narrative
it will be evident to the experienced reader that by omitting certain speculative and metaphysical elements and by elaborating incident this book might have been reduced to a straightforward story
there are works and this is one of them that are best begun with a portrait of the author and here indeed because of a very natural misunderstanding this is the only course to take throughout these papers sounds a note a distinctive and personal note
a note that tends at times towards stridency and all that is not as these words are in italics is in one voice now this voice and this is the peculiarity of the matter
you must figure to yourself as a whitish plump man a little under the middle size and age
agile in his movements and with a slight tonsorial baldness a penny might cover it of the crown his front is convex he droops at times like most of us
but for the greater part he bears himself as valiantly as a sparrow occasionally his hand flies out with a fluttering gesture of illustration and his voice which is our medium henceforth is an unattractive tenor that becomes at times aggressive
him you must imagine as sitting at a table reading a manuscript about utopias a manuscript he holds in two hands that are just a little fat at the wrist the curtain rises upon him so
you will go with him through curious and interesting experiences yet ever and again you will find him back at that little table the manuscript in his hand and the expansion of his ratiocinations about utopia conscientiously resumed
the entertainment before you is neither the set drama of the work of fiction you are accustomed to read nor the set lecturing of the essay you are accustomed to evade but a hybrid of these two
if you figure this owner of the voice as sitting a little nervously a little modestly on a stage with table glass of water and all complete
and myself as the intrusive chairman insisting with a bland ruthlessness upon his few words of introduction before he recedes into the wings and if furthermore you figure
on which moving pictures intermittently appear
but over against this writer here presented there is also another earthly person in the book who gathers himself together
this person is spoken of as the botanist and he is a leaner rather taller graver and much less garrulous man his face is weakly handsome and done in tones of grey he is fairish and grey eyed
and you would suspect him of dyspepsia it is a justifiable suspicion men of this type the chairman remarks with a sudden intrusion of exposition are romantic with a shadow of meanness
they get into mighty tangles and troubles with women and he has had his troubles
for that is the quality of his type he gets no personal expression in this book the voice is always that other's
so much by way of portraiture is necessary to present the explorers of the modern utopia which will unfold itself as a background to these two enquiring figures the image of a cinematograph entertainment
is the one to grasp there will be an effect of these two people going to and fro in front of the circle of a rather defective lantern which sometimes jams and sometimes gets out of focus
but which does occasionally succeed in displaying on a screen a momentary moving picture of utopian conditions
the lay of the dolorous knight my harper called his song but of those who hearkened some named it rather the lay of the four sorrows in nantes of brittany
there dwelt a dame who was dearly held of all for reason of the much good that was found in her this lady was passing fair of body apt in book as any clerk and meetly schooled in every grace that it becometh dame to have
so gracious of person was this damsel that throughout the realm there was no knight could refrain from setting his heart upon her though he saw her but one only time although the demoiselle might not return the love of so many certainly she had no wish to slay them all
better by far that a man pray and require in love all the dames of his country than run mad in woods for the bright eyes of one therefore this dame gave courtesy
even when she might not hear a lover's words so sweetly she denied his wish that the more he held her dear and was the more her servant for that fond denial so because of her great riches of body and of heart this lady of whom i tell
was prayed and required in love by the lords of her country both by night and by day now in brittany lived four young barons but their names i cannot tell it is enough that they were desirable in the eyes of maidens for reason of their beauty
and that men esteemed them because they were courteous of manner and open of hand moreover they were stout and hardy knights amongst the spears and rich and worthy gentlemen of those very parts each of these four knights had set his heart upon the lady
and for love of her pained himself mightily and did all that he was able so that by any means he might gain her favour each prayed her privily for her love and strove all that he could to make him worthy of the gift above his fellows
for her part the lady was sore perplexed and considered in her mind very earnestly which of these four knights she should take as friend
for she would not slay three lovers with her hand so that one might have content
gifts she gave to all alike tender messages she sent to each every knight deemed himself esteemed and favoured above his fellows and by soft words and fair service
when the knights gathered together for the games each of these lords contended earnestly for the prize so that he might be first and draw on him the favour of his dame each held her for his friend each bore upon him her gift pennon or sleeve or ring
each cried her name within the lists now when eastertide was come a great tournament was proclaimed to be held beyond the walls of nantes that rich city the four lovers were the appellants in this tourney
and from every realm knights rode to break a lance in honour of their dame frenchman and norman and fleming the hardiest knights of brabant boulogne and anjou each came to do his devoir in the field
nor was the chivalry of nantes backward in this quarrel but till the vespers of the tournament was come they stayed themselves within the lists and struck stoutly for their lord after the four lovers had laced their harness upon them
they issued forth from the city followed by the knights who were of their company in this adventure but upon the four fell the burden of the day for they were known of all by the embroidered arms upon their surcoat and the device fashioned on the shield
now against the four lovers arrayed themselves four other knights armed altogether in coats of mail and helmets and gauntlets of steel of these stranger knights two were of hainault and the two others were flemings
when the four lovers saw their adversaries prepare themselves for the combat they had little desire to flee but hastened to join them in battle each lowered his spear and choosing his enemy met him so eagerly that all men wondered
but freeing their feet from the stirrups bent over the fallen foe and called on him to yield when the friends of the vanquished knights saw their case they hastened to their succour so for their rescue there was a great press and many a mighty stroke with the sword
the damsel stood upon a tower to watch these feats of arms by their blazoned coats and shields she knew her knights she saw their marvellous deeds yet might not say who did best nor give to one the praise but the tournament was no longer a seemly and ordered battle
the ranks of the two companies were confused together so that every man fought against his fellow
so that all men deemed them worthy of the prize but when evening was come and the sport drew to its close their courage led them to folly having ventured too far from their companions
they were set upon by their adversaries and assailed so fiercely that three were slain outright as to the fourth he yet lived but altogether mauled and shaken for his thigh was broken and a spear head remained in his side
the four bodies were fallen on the field and lay with those who had perished in that day but because of the great mischief these four lovers had done their adversaries their shields were cast despitefully without the lists but in this their foemen did wrongfully
and all men held them in sore displeasure great were the lamentation and the cry when the news of this mischance was noised about the city such a tumult of mourning was never before heard for the whole city was moved
meetly to mourn the dead there rode nigh upon two thousand knights with hauberks unlaced and uncovered heads plucking upon their beards so the four lovers were placed each upon his shield and being brought back in honour to nantes
were carried to the house of that dame whom so greatly they had loved when the lady knew this distressful adventure straightway she fell to the ground being returned from her swoon she made her complaint calling upon her lovers each by his name alas said she
what shall i do for never shall i know happiness again these four knights had set their hearts upon me and despite their great treasure esteemed my love as richer than all their wealth alas for the fair and valiant knight alas for the loyal and generous man
but how might lady bereave three of life so as to cherish one even now i cannot tell for whom i have most pity or who was closest to my mind but three are dead and one is sore stricken neither is there anything in the world which can bring me comfort
only this is there to do to give the slain men seemly burial and if it may be to heal their comrade of his wounds so because of her great love and nobleness
the lady caused these three distressful knights to be buried well and worshipfully in a rich abbey in that place she offered their mass penny and gave rich offerings of silver and of lights besides may god have mercy on them in that day
as for the wounded knight she commanded him to be carried to her own chamber she sent for surgeons and gave him into their hands these searched his wounds so skilfully and tended him with so great care that presently his hurt commenced to heal
yet ever she felt pity for the three knights of the sorrows and ever she went heavily by reason of their deaths now on a summer's day the lady and the knight sat together after meat she called to mind the sorrow that was hers so that in a space
the knight looked earnestly upon his dame well he might see that she was far away and clearly he perceived the cause lady said he you are in sorrow open now your grief to me if you tell me what is in your heart
perchance i may find you comfort fair friend replied she
never was lady of my peerage however fair and good and gracious ever loved by four such valiant gentlemen nor ever lost them in one single day save you who were so maimed and in such peril all are gone
therefore i call to mind those who loved me so dearly and am the saddest lady beneath the sun to remember these things of you four i shall make a lay and will call it the lay of the four sorrows
when the knight heard these words he made answer very swiftly lady name it not the lay of the four sorrows but rather the lay of the dolorous knight would you hear the reason why it should bear this name
my three comrades have finished their course they have nothing more to hope of their life they are gone and with them the pang of their great sorrow and the knowledge of their enduring love for you i alone have come all amazed and fearful
from the net wherein they were taken but i find my life more bitter than my comrades found the grave i see you on your goings and comings about the house i may speak with you both matins and vespers
but no other joy do i get neither clasp nor kiss nothing but a few empty courteous words since all these evils are come upon me because of you i choose death rather than life for this reason your lay should bear my name
and be called the lay of the dolorous knight he who would name it the lay of the four sorrows would name it wrongly and not according to the truth by my faith replied the lady this is a fair saying
so shall the song be known as the lay of the dolorous knight thus was the lay conceived made perfect and brought to a fair birth for this reason it came by its name though to this day some call it the lay of the four sorrows
the champagne served as a resource and his excellency too was pleased that he had filled his glass not for the sake of the champagne for it was warm and perfectly abominable but just morally pleased
but he doesn't venture till i do i mustn't prevent him and indeed it would be absurd for the bottle to stand between as untouched he took a sip anyway it seemed better than sitting doing nothing
i am here he said with pauses and emphasis i am here you know so to speak accidentally and of course it may be that some people would consider it unseemly for me to be at such a gathering
akim petrovitch said nothing but listened with timid curiosity but i hope you will understand with what object i have come
akim petrovitch tried to chuckle following the example of his excellency but again he could not get it out and again he made absolutely no consolatory answer i am here
to show so to speak a moral aim
feeling vexed at akim petrovitch's stupidity but he suddenly subsided into silence himself he saw that poor akim petrovitch had dropped his eyes as though he were in fault
the general in some confusion made haste to take another sip from his glass and akim petrovitch clutched at the bottle as though it were his only hope of salvation and filled the glass again
the latter feeling that stern general like eye upon him made up his mind to remain silent for good and not to raise his eyes so they sat beside each other for a couple of minutes
two sickly minutes for akim petrovitch a couple of words about akim petrovitch he was a man of the old school as meek as a hen reared from infancy to obsequious servility
and at the same time a good natured and even honourable man he was a petersburg russian that is his father and his father's father were born grew up and served in petersburg and had never once left petersburg
that is quite a special type of russian they have hardly any idea of russia though that does not trouble them at all their whole interest is confined to petersburg and chiefly the place in which they serve
and their month's salary they don't know a single russian custom a single russian song except lutchinushka and that only because it is played on the barrel organs
however there are two fundamental and invariable signs by which you can at once distinguish a petersburg russian from a real russian the first sign is the fact that petersburg russians
all without exception speak of the newspaper as the academic news and never call it the petersburg news the second and equally trustworthy sign
is that petersburg russians never make use of the word breakfast but always call it fruhstuck with especial emphasis on the first syllable by these radical and distinguishing signs you can tell them apart in short this is a humble type
which has been formed during the last thirty five years akim petrovitch however was by no means a fool if the general had asked him a question about anything in his own province he would have answered and kept up a conversation
as it was it was unseemly for a subordinate even to answer such questions as these though akim petrovitch was dying from curiosity to know something more detailed about his excellency's real intentions
in his absorption he sipped his glass every half minute akim petrovitch at once zealously filled it up both were silent
one circumstance even surprised him the dances were certainly lively here people danced in the simplicity of their hearts to amuse themselves and even to romp wildly
among the dancers few were really skilful but the unskilled stamped so vigorously that they might have been taken for agile ones the officer was among the foremost
he particularly liked the figures in which he was left alone to perform a solo then he performed the most marvellous capers for instance standing upright as a post he would suddenly bend over to one side
so that one expected him to fall over but with the next step he would suddenly bend over in the opposite direction at the same acute angle to the floor he kept the most serious face and danced in the full conviction
that every one was watching him another gentleman who had had rather more than he could carry before the quadrille dropped asleep beside his partner so that his partner had to dance alone
the young registration clerk who had danced with the lady in the blue scarf through all the figures and through all the five quadrilles which they had danced that evening played the same prank the whole time
his partner sailed along in front of him as though she noticed nothing the medical student really did dance on his head and excited frantic enthusiasm stamping and shrieks of delight in short the absence of constraint was very marked
began by smiling but by degrees a bitter doubt began to steal into his heart of course he liked free and easy manners and unconventionality
he desired he had even inwardly prayed for free and easy manners when they had all held back
but now that unconventionality had gone beyond all limits one lady for instance the one in the shabby dark blue velvet dress bought fourth hand in the sixth figure pinned her dress so as to turn it into something like trousers
with whom one could venture to do anything as her partner the medical student had expressed it the medical student defied description he was simply a fokin how was it
they had held back and now they were so quickly emancipated one might think it nothing but this transformation was somehow strange it indicated something
akim petrovitch chuckled respectfully in unison though indeed with evident pleasure and no suspicion that his excellency was beginning to nourish in his heart a new gnawing anxiety
made a grimace and bringing his face close into unseemly proximity to the face of his excellency crowed like a cock at the top of his voice this was too much
in spite of that a roar of inexpressible laughter followed for the crow was an extraordinarily good imitation and the whole performance was utterly unexpected
and with a bow began begging him to come to supper his mother followed him your excellency she said bowing do us the honour do not disdain our humble fare
i did not come with that idea i meant to be going he was in fact holding his hat in his hands what is more he had at that very moment taken an inward vow
a minute later he led the procession to the table pseldonimov and his mother walked in front clearing the way for him they made him sit down in the seat of honour
and again a bottle of champagne opened but not begun was set beside his plate by way of hors d'oeuvres there were salt herrings and vodka he put out his hand poured out a large glass of vodka and drank it off
he had never drunk vodka before he felt as though he were rolling down a hill were flying flying flying that he must stop himself catch at something but there was no possibility of it his position was certainly becoming more and more eccentric
god knows what had happened to him in the course of an hour or so when he went in he had so to say opened his arms to embrace all humanity all his subordinates
and here not more than an hour had passed and in all his aching heart he felt and knew that he hated pseldonimov and was cursing him his wife and his wedding
of course as he sat down to table
would sooner have had his hand cut off than have owned not only aloud but even to himself that this was really so the moment had not fully arrived yet there was still a moral vacillation
not merely to have gone away but to have made his escape that all this was not the same but had turned out utterly different from what he had dreamed of on the pavement
why did i come did i come here to eat and drink he asked himself as he tasted the salt herring he even had attacks of scepticism
at the bottom of his heart he actually wondered at times why he had come in but how could he go away to go away like this without having finished the business properly was impossible what would people say
they would say that he was frequenting low company indeed it really would amount to that if he did not end it properly
in such a way that all should understand why he had come he must make clear his moral aim and meantime the dramatic moment would not present itself they don't even respect me he went on thinking
what are they laughing at they are as free and easy as though they had no feeling but i have long suspected that all the younger generation are without feeling i must remain at all costs
they have just been dancing but now at table they will all be gathered together i will talk about questions about reforms about the greatness of russia i can still win their enthusiasm yes
perhaps nothing is yet lost perhaps it is always like this in reality what should i begin upon with them to attract them
and what is it they want what is it they require i see they are laughing together there can it be at me merciful heavens but what is it i want why is it i am here
why don't i go away why do i go on persisting
but everything went on in the same way one thing after another just two minutes after he had sat down to the table one terrible thought overwhelmed him completely he suddenly felt
that is not as he was before but hopelessly drunk the cause of this was the glass of vodka which he had drunk after the champagne and which had immediately produced an effect he was conscious he felt in every fibre of his being
of course his assurance was greatly increased but consciousness had not deserted him and it kept crying out it is bad very bad and in fact utterly unseemly of course his unstable drunken reflections
could not rest long on one subject there began to be apparent and unmistakably so even to himself two opposite sides on one side there was swaggering assurance a desire to conquer
a disdain of obstacles and a desperate confidence that he would attain his object the other side showed itself in the aching of his heart and a sort of gnawing in his soul what would they say how would it all end
what would happen to morrow to morrow to morrow he had felt vaguely before that he had enemies in the company no doubt that was because i was drunk he thought with agonising doubt
what was his horror when he actually by unmistakable signs convinced himself now that he really had enemies at the table and that it was impossible to doubt of it and why why he wondered
at the table there were all the thirty guests of whom several were quite tipsy others were behaving with a careless and sinister independence shouting and talking at the top of their voices bawling out the toasts before the time
and pelting the ladies with pellets of bread one unprepossessing personage in a greasy coat had fallen off his chair as soon as he sat down and remained so till the end of supper
another one made desperate efforts to stand on the table to propose a toast and only the officer who seized him by the tails of his coat moderated his premature ardour
the supper was a pell mell affair although they had hired a cook who had been in the service of a general there was the galantine there was tongue and potatoes there were rissoles with green peas
vodka and sherry the only bottle of champagne was standing beside the general which obliged him to pour it out for himself and also for akim petrovitch who did not venture at supper to officiate on his own initiative
the other guests had to drink the toasts in caucasian wine or anything else they could get the table was made up of several tables put together among them even a card table
it was covered with many tablecloths amongst them one coloured yaroslav cloth the gentlemen sat alternately with the ladies pseldonimov's mother would not sit down to the table
she bustled about and supervised but another sinister female figure
appeared on the scene wearing a reddish silk dress with a very high cap on her head and a bandage round her face for toothache it appeared that this was the bride's mother who had at last consented to emerge from a back room for supper
this lady looked spitefully even sarcastically at the general and evidently did not wish to be presented to him
several other persons were suspicious and inspired involuntary apprehension and uneasiness
a gentleman with a beard some sort of free artist was particularly sinister
another person present was unmistakably drunk but yet from certain signs was to be regarded with suspicion the medical student too gave rise to unpleasant expectations
even the officer himself was not quite to be depended on but the young man on the comic paper was blazing with hatred he lolled in his chair he looked so haughty and conceited he snorted so aggressively
all this of course had a pitiable effect on him another observation was particularly unpleasant ivan ilyitch became aware that he was beginning to articulate indistinctly and with difficulty
but that his tongue refused to obey him and then he suddenly seemed to forget himself and worst of all he would suddenly burst into a loud guffaw of laughter a propos of nothing
after that glass he felt at once almost inclined to cry he felt that he was sinking into a most peculiar state of sentimentality he began to be again filled with love he loved every one
even pseldonimov even the young man on the comic paper
what is more to tell them everything openly all
that is to tell them what a good nice man he was with what wonderful talents what services he would do for his country how good he was at entertaining the fair sex and above all how progressive he was
how humanely ready he was to be indulgent to all to the very lowest and finally in conclusion
to tell them frankly all the motives that had impelled him to turn up at pseldonimov's uninvited to drink two bottles of champagne and to make him happy with his presence the truth the holy truth and candour before all things
i will capture them by candour they will believe me i see it clearly they actually look at me with hostility but when i tell them all i shall conquer them completely
they will fill their glasses and drink my health with shouts the officer will break his glass on his spur perhaps they will even shout hurrah even if they want to toss me after the hussar fashion i will not oppose them
and indeed it would be very jolly i will kiss the bride on her forehead she is charming akim petrovitch is a very nice man too
he will acquire so to speak a society polish
chapter twenty one under the ocean
the first sensation i experienced was surprise at not being thirsty and i actually asked myself the reason the running stream which flowed in rippling wavelets at my feet was the satisfactory reply
we breakfasted with a good appetite and then drank our fill of the excellent water i felt myself quite a new man ready to go anywhere my uncle chose to lead
i began to think why should not a man as seriously convinced as my uncle succeed with so excellent a guide as worthy hans and so devoted a nephew as myself
these were the brilliant ideas which now invaded my brain had the proposition now been made to go back to the summit of mount sneffels i should have declined the offer in a most indignant manner
we resumed our march on thursday at eight o'clock in the morning the great granite tunnel as it went round by sinuous and winding ways presented every now and then sharp turns
the gallery now began to trend downwards in a horizontal direction with about two inches of fall in every furlong the murmuring stream flowed quietly at our feet
i could not but compare it to some familiar spirit guiding us through the earth and i dabbled my fingers in its tepid water which sang like a naiad as we progressed
my good humor began to assume a mythological character as for my uncle he began to complain of the horizontal character of the road his route he found began to be indefinitely prolonged
instead of sliding down the celestial ray according to his expression but we had no choice and as long as our road led towards the centre however little progress we made there was no reason to complain
moreover from time to time the slopes were much greater the naiad sang more loudly and we began to dip downwards in earnest as yet however i felt no painful sensation
i had not got over the excitement of the discovery of water that day and the next we did a considerable amount of horizontal
traveling on friday evening the tenth of july according to our estimation we ought to have been thirty leagues to the southeast of reykjavik and about two leagues and a half deep
we now received a rather startling surprise under our feet there opened a horrible well my uncle was so delighted that he actually clapped his hands as he saw how steep and sharp was the descent
as to prevent any accidents our descent then began i dare not call it a perilous descent for i was already too familiar with that sort of work to look upon it as anything but a very ordinary affair
this well was a kind of narrow opening in the massive granite of the kind known as a fissure the contraction of the terrestrial scaffolding when it suddenly cooled had been evidently the cause
if it had ever served in former times as a kind of funnel through which passed the eruptive masses vomited by sneffels i was at a loss to explain how it had left no mark we were in fact
descending a spiral something like those winding staircases in use in modern houses we were compelled every quarter of an hour or thereabouts to sit down in order to rest our legs
our calves ached we then seated ourselves on some projecting rock with our legs hanging over and gossiped while we ate a mouthful drinking still from the pleasantly warm running stream which had not deserted us
it is scarcely necessary to say that in this curiously shaped fissure the hansbach had become a cascade to the detriment of its size it was still however sufficient and more for our wants
besides we knew that as soon as the declivity ceased to be so abrupt the stream must resume its peaceful course at this moment it reminded me of my uncle his impatience and rage
while when it flowed more peacefully i pictured to myself the placidity of the icelandic guide during the whole of two days the sixth and seventh of july we followed the extraordinary spiral staircase of the fissure
penetrating two leagues farther into the crust of the earth which put us five leagues below the level of the sea on the eighth however
at twelve o'clock in the day the fissure suddenly assumed a much more gentle slope still trending in a southeast direction the road now became comparatively easy and at the same time dreadfully monotonous
it would have been difficult for matters to have turned out otherwise our peculiar journey had no chance of being diversified by landscape and scenery at all events such was my idea at length
on wednesday the fifteenth we were actually seven leagues twenty one miles below the surface of the earth and fifty leagues distant from the mountain of sneffels though if the truth be told we were very tired
our health had resisted all suffering and was in a most satisfactory state our traveler's box of medicaments had not even been opened
my uncle was careful to note every hour the indications of the compass of the manometer and of the thermometer
in his elaborate philosophical and scientific account of our remarkable voyage he was therefore able to give an exact relation of the situation when therefore he informed me
that we were fifty leagues in a horizontal direction distant from our starting point i could not suppress a loud exclamation what is the matter now cried my uncle nothing very important
we can very easily find out i replied pulling out a map and compasses you see i said after careful measurement that i am not mistaken we are far beyond cape portland
no doubt old ocean flows over our heads well my dear boy what can be more natural do you not know that in the neighborhood of newcastle there are coal mines which have been worked far out under the sea
now my worthy uncle the professor no doubt regarded this discovery as a very simple fact but to me the idea was by no means a pleasant one
what mattered it whether the plains and mountains of iceland were suspended over our devoted heads or the mighty billows of the atlantic ocean the whole question rested on the solidity of the granite roof above us
we reached a kind of vast grotto
all sorts of reasons as to what could have aroused our quiet and faithful guide the most absurd and ridiculous ideas passed through my head each more impossible than the other i believe i was either half or wholly mad
suddenly however there arose as it were from the depths of the earth a voice of comfort it was the sound of footsteps hans was returning presently
the uncertain light began to shine upon the walls of the passage and then it came in view far down the sloping tunnel at length hans himself appeared
he approached my uncle placed his hand upon his shoulder and gently awakened him my uncle as soon as he saw who it was instantly arose well exclaimed the professor
vatten said the hunter i did not know a single word of the danish language and yet by a sort of mysterious instinct i understood what the guide had said
water water i cried in a wild and frantic tone clapping my hands and gesticulating like a madman
nedat below where below i understood every word i had caught the hunter by the hands and i shook them heartily while he looked on with perfect calmness
at this moment i heard an accustomed and well known sound running along the floors of the granite rock a kind of dull and sullen roar like that of a distant waterfall
during the first half hour of our advance not finding the discovered spring
once more i began to lose all hope my uncle however observing how downhearted i was again becoming took up the conversation hans was right he exclaimed enthusiastically
that is the dull roaring of a torrent a torrent i cried delighted at even hearing the welcome words there's not the slightest doubt about it he replied a subterranean river is flowing beside us
i made no reply but hastened on once more animated by hope
we could hear it increasing in volume every moment the torrent which for a long time could be heard flowing over our heads now ran distinctly along the left wall roaring
rushing spluttering and still falling several times i passed my hand across the rock hoping to find some trace of humidity of the slightest percolation alas in vain
again a half hour passed in the same weary toil again we advanced it now became evident that the hunter during his absence had not been able to carry his researches any farther
guided by an instinct peculiar to the dwellers in mountain regions and water finders he smelt the living spring through the rock still he had not seen the precious liquid
he had neither quenched his own thirst nor brought us one drop in his gourd moreover we soon made the disastrous discovery that if our progress continued
the sound of which gradually diminished we turned back hans halted at the precise spot where the sound of the torrent appeared nearest
behind which i could hear the water seething and effervescing not two feet away but a solid wall of granite still separated us from it hans looked keenly at me and strange enough
for once i thought i saw a smile on his imperturbable face he rose from a stone on which he had been seated and took up the lamp i could not help rising and following
he moved slowly along the firm and solid granite wall i watched him with mingled curiosity and eagerness presently he halted and placed his ear against the dry stone
that he was searching for the exact spot where the torrent's roar was most plainly heard this point he soon found in the lateral wall on the left side about three feet above the level of the tunnel floor
i was in a state of intense excitement i scarcely dared believe what the eider duck hunter was about to do it was however impossible in a moment more not to both understand
and commence an attack upon the rock itself saved i cried yes cried my uncle even more excited and delighted than myself hans is quite right
we should never have thought of such an idea and nobody else i think would have done so such a process simple as it seemed would most certainly not have entered our heads
nothing could be more dangerous than to begin to work with pickaxes in that particular part of the globe supposing while he was at work a break up were to take place
and supposing the torrent once having gained an inch were to take an ell and come pouring bodily through the broken rock not one of these dangers was chimerical they were only too real
but at that moment no fear of falling in of the roof or even of inundation was capable of stopping us our thirst was so intense that to quench it
hans went quietly to work a work which neither my uncle nor i would have undertaken at any price our impatience was so great that if we had once begun with pickax and crowbar
by little steady blows of his instrument making no attempt at a larger hole than about six inches as i stood i heard or i thought i heard
the roar of the torrent momentarily increasing in loudness and at times i almost felt the pleasant sensation of water upon my parched lips at the end of what appeared an age
my uncle began to think of using more violent measures i had the greatest difficulty in checking him he had indeed just got hold of his crowbar when a loud and welcome hiss was heard
then a stream or rather jet of water burst through the wall
as to hit the opposite side hans the guide who was half upset by the shock was scarcely able to keep down a cry of pain and grief
i understood his meaning when plunging my hands into the sparkling jet i myself gave a wild and frantic cry the water was scalding hot
boiling i cried in bitter disappointment well never mind said my uncle it will soon get cool the tunnel began to be filled by clouds of vapor
while a small stream ran away into the interior of the earth in a short time we had some sufficiently cool to drink we swallowed it in huge mouthfuls
what was this water whence did it come to us what was that the simple fact was it was water and though still with a tingle of warmth about it it brought back to the heart
that life which but for it must surely have faded away i drank greedily almost without tasting it when however i had almost quenched my ravenous thirst
i made a discovery why it is chalybeate water a most excellent stomachic replied my uncle and highly mineralized here is a journey worth twenty to spa
it's very good i replied i should think so water found six miles under ground there is a peculiarly inky flavor about it which is by no means disagreeable
and the name of hansbach
was at once agreed upon hans was not a bit more proud after hearing our determination than he was before after having taken a very small modicum of the welcome refreshment
he had seated himself in a corner with his usual imperturbable gravity now said i it is not worth while letting this water run to waste
and then try to stop the opening up my advice after some hesitation was followed or attempted to be followed hans picked up all the broken pieces of granite he had knocked out
and using some tow he happened to have about him tried to shut up the fissure he had made in the wall all he did was to scald his hands the pressure was too great and all our attempts were utter failures
it is evident i remarked that the upper surface of these springs is situated at a very great height above as we may fairly infer from the great pressure of the jet
that is by no means doubtful replied my uncle if this column of water is about thirty two thousand feet high the atmospheric pressure must be something enormous
i think that is very probable well then let this water run it will of course naturally follow in our track and will serve to guide and refresh us
i think the idea a good one i cried in reply and with this rivulet as a companion there is no further reason why we should not succeed in our marvelous project ah my boy
said the professor laughing after all you are coming round more than that i am now confident of ultimate success one moment nephew mine
let us begin by taking some hours of repose i had utterly forgotten that it was night the chronometer however informed me of the fact
and a certain surveillance is wise josiana had lord david watched by a little creature of hers in whom she reposed confidence and whose name was barkilphedro
lord david had josiana discreetly observed by a creature of his of whom he was sure and whose name was barkilphedro queen anne
on her part kept herself secretly informed of the actions and conduct of the duchess josiana her bastard sister and of lord david her future brother in law by the left hand by a creature of hers on whom she counted fully
and whose name was barkilphedro this barkilphedro had his fingers on that keyboard josiana lord david a queen a man between two women
what modulations possible what amalgamation of souls
he was an old servant of the duke of york he had tried to be a churchman but had failed the duke of york an english and a roman prince compounded of royal popery and legal anglicanism
had his catholic house and his protestant house and might have pushed barkilphedro in one or the other hierarchy but he did not judge him to be catholic enough to make him almoner
so that between two religions barkilphedro found himself with his soul on the ground not a bad posture either for certain reptile souls certain ways are impracticable
except by crawling flat on the belly an obscure but fattening servitude had long made up barkilphedro's whole existence service is something but he wanted power besides
he had to begin all over again nothing to do under william the third a sullen prince and exercising in his mode of reigning a prudery which he believed to be probity barkilphedro
did not lapse all at once into rags there is a something which survives deposed princes and which feeds and sustains their parasites
then all at once the leaf yellows and dries up and thus it is with the courtier thanks to that embalming which is called legitimacy the prince himself
although fallen and cast away lasts and keeps preserved it is not so with the courtier much more dead than the king the king beyond there is a mummy the courtier here
is a phantom to be the shadow of a shadow is leanness indeed hence barkilphedro became famished then he took up the character of a man of letters
but he was thrust back even from the kitchens sometimes he knew not where to sleep who will give me shelter he would ask he struggled on all that is interesting in patience in distress
of old memories of fables of fidelity of touching stories he pierced as far as the duchess josiana's heart josiana took a liking to this man of poverty and wit
an interesting combination she presented him to lord dirry moir gave him a shelter in the servants hall among her domestics retained him in her household was kind to him and sometimes even spoke to him
barkilphedro felt neither hunger nor cold again josiana addressed him in the second person it was the fashion for great ladies to do so to men of letters
n'est tu pas la chabot for barkilphedro
was a success he was overjoyed by it he had aspired to this contemptuous familiarity lady josiana thees and thous me he would say to himself and he would rub his hands
to make further way he became a sort of constant attendant in josiana's private rooms in no way troublesome unperceived the duchess would almost have changed her shift before him all this however was precarious
barkilphedro was aiming at a position a duchess was half way an underground passage which did not lead to the queen was having bored for nothing one day barkilphedro said to josiana
would your grace like to make my fortune what dost thou want an appointment an appointment for thee yes madam what an idea
josiana burst out laughing among the offices to which thou art unsuited which dost thou desire
josiana's laugh redoubled what meanest thou thou art fooling no madam to amuse myself i shall answer you seriously said the duchess
what dost thou wish to be repeat it
everything is possible at court is there an appointment of that kind yes madam this is news to me go on there is such an appointment
i swear it i do not believe thee thank you madam then thou wishest begin again to uncork the bottles of the ocean
that is a situation which can give little trouble it is like grooming a bronze horse very nearly nothing to do well
tis a situation to suit thee thou art good for that much you see i am good for something come thou art talking nonsense is there such an appointment
barkilphedro assumed an attitude of deferential gravity madam
duke of cumberland your father was and your brother is lord high admiral of england is what thou tellest me fresh news i know all that as well as thou but here is what your grace does not know
in the sea there are three kinds of things
those which float flotsam
and then these three things lagan flotsam and jetsam belong to the lord high admiral and then
your grace understands no all that is in the sea all that sinks all that floats all that is cast ashore all belongs to the admiral of england
everything really and then except the sturgeon which belongs to the king i should have thought said josiana all that would have belonged to neptune
there is always something floating something being cast up it is the contribution of the sea
with all my heart but pray conclude your grace understands that in this way the ocean creates a department where at the admiralty
what department the sea prize department well the department is subdivided into three offices lagan flotsam and jetsam
that it is sailing in such a latitude that it has met a sea monster that it is in sight of shore that it is in distress that it is about to founder that it is lost et cetera the captain takes a bottle
if it floats it is in the department of the flotsam officer if it be thrown upon shore it concerns the jetsam officer
and wouldst thou like to be the jetsam officer precisely so and that is what thou callest uncorking the bottles of the ocean
since there is such an appointment why dost thou wish for the last named place in preference to both the others because it is vacant just now
in what does the appointment consist madam in fifteen ninety eight a tarred bottle picked up by a man conger fishing on the strand of epidium promontorium was brought to queen elizabeth
and a parchment drawn out of it gave information to england that holland had taken without saying anything about it an unknown country nova zembla
that the capture had taken place in june fifteen ninety six that in that country people were eaten by bears and that the manner of passing the winter was described on a paper enclosed in a musket case
and left by the dutchmen who were all dead and that the chimney was built of a barrel with the end knocked out sunk into the roof i don't understand much of thy rigmarole
be it so elizabeth understood a country the more for holland was a country the less for england the bottle which had given the information was held to be of importance and thenceforward
an order was issued that anybody who should find a sealed bottle on the sea shore should take it to the lord high admiral of england under pain of the gallows
are many such bottles brought to the admiralty but few but it's all the same the appointment exists there is for the office a room
and lodgings at the admiralty and for that way of doing nothing how is one paid
and thou wouldst trouble me for that much it is enough to live upon like a beggar
thou shalt have the place a week afterwards thanks to josiana's exertions
chapter sixteen a great actor last time i was at castellinaria there came to the town for a week a company of sicilian actors i was afraid the dialect would be beyond me but peppino assured me that it would matter very little if it were
because i should understand the gestures
so we went to the theatre the first evening he was right about the gestures which were wonderfully expressive and as for the dialect it may have been because he interpreted the long speeches
he admitted that it was so but things would improve as soon as giovanni appeared in the third act a haggard hunted creature in a peasant's dress which he had borrowed or stolen wandered in among the actors
peppino whispered that he had escaped from prison i could not take my eyes off him every movement every attitude every gesture was full of beauty nobility and significance and his voice was a halo of romance
i thought no more about leaving the theatre the part has been played by many famous actors but the long account of how and why he killed his man can never have been more finely delivered i saw him do the deed
i saw him turn and gaze upon the body while he wiped the blood off the knife and wrung it from his hands he sat on a chair during the whole speech and i was surprised into believing i understood every word whereas i understood none
for it was all in the dialect of catania and peppino who was as much carried away as i was forgot to interpret and when still sitting on his chair he came to his escape from prison he seemed to lift the roof off the theatre
and to fill the place with freedom and fresh air peppino before his uncle died thought of going on the stage and passed a year with giovanni and his company in catania and on tour he therefore knew him quite well and at the end of the play took me round to his dressing room
it was carlo magno in his palace receiving a couple of friendly sovereigns though we were none of us dressed for our parts i told him that he was the greatest dramatic artist i had ever seen
i said that when he first appeared i thought he really was an escaped convict who had lost his way in the streets and come on the stage for shelter and that he was going to interrupt the play as the theatre cat sometimes does
suddenly in a flash i saw what was before me in two senses at once and knew that it must be giovanni acting and the sorrow for the poor hunted wretch was turned to joy at seeing a man do something supremely well he was as pleased as a boy with a new half sovereign
particularly when i compared him to the theatre cat and said with charming simplicity thank you yes that is because of the realism that is my art peppino and i sat up late that night talking about him
he was then about thirty five with a large repertoire and a reputation extending through europe and america when he was about fourteen his father who owned and worked the most famous marionette theatre in catania died suddenly leaving the family unprovided for
he took over the business and kept his mother his sister and his young brother he spoke for the men figures himself and his sister for the women he says that in this way he learned his art but other men have had similar training without arriving at such mastery
he has a passion for doing things thoroughly and so thoroughly well did he manage his theatre that catania was delighted with him three or four years after his father's death one of the celebrated italian actors came to the town
and they gave him a private performance of the cavalleria rusticana the celebrated actor advised him not to waste his time with marionettes but to act himself the theatre was barely large enough only six or seven paces across but it could be made to do
and he followed the advice giving at first in the catanian dialect plays of which nothing was written except perhaps a sketch of the plot formerly when reading was a rarer accomplishment than it is now it would have been of little use to write the words
these plays are full of violence and vendetta jealousy murder and the elementary passions the audience are uneducated simple people who look for the same thing over and over again
as children love the same story and resent any radical change this makes it easier to carry one through than it would be if subtleties or much novelty were to be attempted i had seen some of these plays in catania
and it may make matters clearer to give a short account of one it was not until peppino told me about them that i understood that the words were improvised in the first act pietro longo discovers that his sister has been betrayed
shoots her seducer and is taken by the police the second act passes in prison two convicts are talking and a third a stupid fellow old dirty only half clothed is sitting apart stitching together a few more rags
singing is heard without every one in the theatre who had passed under prison walls by night had heard such music and had seen the singers crouching in the shadows we all knew it was a signal the two convicts go to the window and reply
a stone is thrown in wrapped up in a letter which tells them that pietro longo has killed one of their gang and will be taken to their prison it is for them to avenge the murder they confer and agree that the stupid fellow shall be their instrument
they call him from his occupation and instruct him they tell him that a prisoner will be brought in he is to ask his name if he replies pietro longo he is to stab him with the knife which they give him he is so stupid that they have to act it for him
and to make him imitate them till they think he can be trusted they hide a prisoner is brought in and talks to the stupid fellow
in the course of conversation without any particular intention for he has forgotten all about his lesson he asks the prisoner his name pietro longo the stupid fellow remembers that this is his cue for doing something but cannot remember what
his arm accidentally hits the knife which is stuck in his belt of course this is the prisoner he is to kill he takes out his knife opens it with his teeth and attacks pietro who though unarmed is able to defend himself
this puts the stupid fellow out he was told nothing about the prisoner defending himself the two convicts who have been watching get impatient come from their hiding and encourage him this makes matters worse he was told nothing about this either
he is irritated he grows wilder and in a fury suddenly turns from pietro and murders the two convicts instead the two acts were of about equal length the first existed merely to introduce the second
and the second merely to introduce the stupid fellow whose part was nearly all gesture and as i afterwards ascertained was taken by giovanni's brother domenico he may have spoken twenty words he was too stupid to speak more
the others spoke a good deal but except that they had been told beforehand as to each act about as much as the reader has been told about the second all they said was impromptu so that each repetition like a japanese netsuke would be a unique work of art
remembering how continually sicilians use gesture in ordinary life it will be understood that in such a play the actual words are of secondary importance
giovanni in working the marionettes had become familiar with all the types that in different grades of society reappear in all plays the good king the proud tyrant the traitor the faithful friend
which are exceptional with the sicilian marionettes his memory had become stored with conventional phrases suitable for all the usual stage emergencies and always ready for impromptu delivery his fellow actors were also familiar with them
having heard the phrases over and over again and seen the types with their appropriate gestures from their early youth as members of the marionette audience it is claimed for this kind of impromptu acting
that the actors are freer than when speaking words they have learnt and can therefore behave with more naturalness
and reciting one that has been learnt the difference between recitare a soggetto
so great is the freedom that an actor may introduce anything appropriate that occurs to him at the moment and the others must be ready to fall in with it
outside the theatre when an old beggar stopped to beg he had come a long way he knew no one in the town he had nothing to eat nowhere to sleep no money the mother gave him a penny giovanni gave him another his brother domenico another
every one gave something the beggar seeing all that wealth lying in the hollow of his hand and knowing that he was now safe for a few days burst into tears and turned away speechless at the sight of this domenico called to him
went after him met him emptied his pockets gave him all he had took his head in his hands kissed him on both cheeks dismissed him returned to his family and was received with an approval that was too deep for words
such an improvised incident the sudden outcome of uncontrollable emotion may be seen any day in sicily and might be introduced any evening into one of these unwritten plays by any actor who should take it into his head to do it
the audience who would probably have seen the play before would recognize that here was an impromptu interpolation and would applaud the actor both for the idea and for the way it was carried out
gradually giovanni added written plays and a prompter and was the first to take on tour a company of actors performing in a sicilian dialect he also included plays written in italian these written plays though constructed with more care
did not depart far from the style with which he began giovanni still frequently returns from prison but as he never forfeits the sympathy of the audience if he really committed the crime it was in self defence
whatever the play may be it always contains besides the inevitable scenes of violence many other passages such as hearing a letter read he is then a simple fellow who cannot read
he is then deeply religious dancing at a festa he is a perfect dancer confiding with his last breath the name of his murderer to his young brother
in these passages his humour his delicacy his grace his tenderness his voice and most wonderful of all his apparently intense belief in the reality of everything he says and does
make one forget how crude and transpontine the bare theme is on my saying i should like to see more of him peppino asked why i had come away so soon
never is he alone said peppino surely now shall he be suppering by his friends
by an american in the service of the viceroy london john murray albemarle street eighteen twenty two london printed by c roworth bell yard temple bar
to his britannic majesty's consul general in egypt
my fatherly friend in a foreign land this work is dedicated
under his administration has long enjoyed peace and prosperity is permeable in all directions and in perfect safety to the merchant and the traveler and is yearly progressing in wealth and improvement
which once rendered it the richest and most flourishing territory in the ancient world a well chosen library of the best european books on the art military geography astronomy medicine
history belles lettres and the fine arts has been purchased from europe by the viceroy and placed in the palace of ismael pasha where is also a school at the viceroy's expense for the instruction of the mussulman youth in the italian language
and the sciences of the franks to which establishments has been lately added a printing press for printing books in the turkish arabic and persian languages and a weekly newspaper in arabic and italian
the library and the press are under the superintendence of osman noureddin effendi a young turk of great good sense and who is well versed in the literature of europe where he has resided for several years by order of the viceroy for his education
he is at present engaged in translating into turkish some works on tactics for the use of his countrymen for several years past the inland commerce of this favored land had suffered great interruptions
from the confusion and discord to which the countries on the upper nile have been a prey the chiefs of shageia had formed themselves into a singular aristocracy of brigands and pillaged all the provinces and caravans within their reach
without mercy and without restraint while the civil wars which have distracted the once powerful kingdom of sennaar for these last eighteen years had occasioned an almost entire cessation of a commerce
from which egypt had derived great advantages his highness the viceroy in consequence determined as the most effectual means of putting an end to these disorders to subject those countries to his dominion
four thousand troops were accordingly put under the command of ismael pasha the youngest son of the viceroy with orders to conquer all the provinces on the nile from the second cataract to sennaar inclusive
his britannic majesty's consul general in egypt i was ordered by the viceroy to accompany this expedition with the rank of topgi bashi
and with directions to propose such plans of operation to the pasha ismael as i should deem expedient but which the pasha might adopt or reject as he should think proper this expedition has been perfectly successful
and the conquest of the extensive and fertile countries which in the reign of candace repulsed the formidable legions of rome has been effected at an expense not greater than the blood of about two hundred soldiers
the principal cause of a success so extraordinary at such a price has been the humanity and good faith of the pasha ismael towards those provinces that submitted without fighting perfect security of person and property was assured to the peaceable
and severe examples were made of those few of the soldiery who in a very few instances presumed to violate it the good consequences of this deportment toward the people of these countries have been evident all have seen
that those who have preferred peace before war have had peace without war and that those who preferred war before peace have not had peace but at the price of ruin the destruction or disarmament of the brigands
who have heretofore pillaged those countries with impunity the establishment of order and tranquility the security now assured to the peasants and the caravans
this expedition has laid open to the researches of the geographer and the antiquarian a river and a country highly interesting and hitherto imperfectly known to the civilized world
the nile on whose banks we have marched for so many hundred miles is the most famous river in the world for the uncertainty of its source and the obscurity of its course at present this obscurity ceases to exist
and before the return of the pasha ismael this uncertainty will probably be no more the countries we have traversed are renowned in history and poetry as the land of ancient and famous nations
which have established and overthrown mighty empires and have originated the religions the learning the arts and the civilization of nations long since extinct and who have been preceded by their instructors
in the common road which every thing human must travel this famous land of cush and saba at present overawed by the camps of the osmanii
has presented to our observation many memorials of the power and splendor of its ancient masters the remains of cities once populous ruined temples once magnificent
colossal statues of idols once adored but now prostrated by the strong arms of time and truth and more than a hundred pyramids which entomb the bodies of kings and conquerors once mighty but whose memory has perished
have suspended for awhile the march of our troops
by engaging the attention and researches of men of learning will unite the names of mehemmed ali and ismael his son with the history and monuments of this once famous and long secluded land in a manner that will make the memory of both
renowned and inseparable
there is every reason to believe and i derive great pleasure from the reflection that his success will still further augment the glory of the man whom the sultan delights to honor and who has done so much for the honor of the mussulmans
the reader will find that i have sometimes in the course of this journal included the events of several days in the form of narrative particularly in my account of the second cataract
the day before the festa there came a professor of pedagogy and peppino was not best pleased to see him because he knew him as a jettatore i had supposed this word to mean a person with the evil eye who causes misfortunes to others
but he used it in the sense of one who causes misfortunes to himself or at least who is always in trouble a man who is constitutionally unfortunate the sort of man with whom napoleon would have nothing to do
he will miss his train more often than not if he has to attend a funeral it will be when he has a cold in his head and all his white pocket handkerchiefs will be at the wash so that he must use a coloured one he will attempt to take his medicine in the dark
thereby swallowing the liniment by mistake of course this kind of man is incidentally disastrous to others as well as to himself and is therefore also a jettatore in the other sense so that napoleon was quite right
the arrival of the professor led peppino into giving me a great deal of information about the evil eye in which he swore he did not believe it was all rather indefinite and contradictory
partly no doubt because those who believe in it most firmly are the analfabeti and unaccustomed to express themselves clearly the prevailing idea seems to be that an evil influence proceeds from the eye of the jettatore
who is not necessarily a bad person at least he need not be desirous of hurting any one the misfortunes that follow wherever he goes may be averted by the interposition of some attractive object whereby the glance from his eye is arrested
and either the misfortune does not happen at all or the force of the evil influence is expended elsewhere therefore it is as well always to carry some charm against the evil eye all over italy but especially in the south
it is rare to meet a man who does not carry a charm either on his watch chain or in his pocket or on a string or a chain round his neck under his clothes and he usually carries more than one
women of course always wear them which may be because a woman likes to surround herself with pretty things and if she can say that they protect her she has a reason unconnected with vanity which she may be apt to profess is her true reason for wearing ornaments
the same applies to men who though less in the habit of wearing ornaments are as has been often remarked no less vain than women this may be called the ornamental view
and may account for some of the fashions that arise in the wearing of charms but there is also the utilitarian view and a new form of charm will sometimes become popular just as a new sanctuary becomes popular
because it is reported to have been effective in some particular case probably no change of fashion will ever banish horns made of coral or mother of pearl being pointed they are supposed to attract and break up the evil glance
as a lightning conductor is supposed to attract and break up a flash of lightning peppino was very contemptuous about all charms and coral horns especially even assuming that horns in a general way are prophylactic
it is no use having them made of coral or mother of pearl and wearing them on one's watch chain because the padre eterno when he designed the human form was careful to provide man with natural means of making horns
that would have to elapse before the wearing of ornaments became customary we can still benefit by this happy forethought if we are threatened with the evil eye when divested of all our charms when bathing for instance the pope pio nono
was believed to have the evil eye and pious pilgrims asking his blessing
of protecting themselves from his malign influence by pointing two fingers at him under their clothes inanimate things of course cannot be said literally to have the evil eye but many of them cause misfortunes
a hearse is a most unlucky thing to meet when it is empty peppino says if you shall meet the carriage of the dead man and it is empty perhaps it shall be coming to take you
this is not a good thing and then must you be holding the horn in the hand but if the dead man shall be riding in his carriage then certainly this time it shall not be for you and the horn it is necessary not at all this is what they believe
he did not mean that you are bound to die if you see an empty hearse but that unless you take precautions you will certainly meet with some kind of misfortune i should say that the professor meets an empty hearse every day of his life
he came up to castellinaria not knowing there was to be a festa found every place full and spent the night wandering about the streets it was impossible not to be sorry for the poor man when i found him the following afternoon
dozing on a chair in the kitchen and in a fit of expansiveness i offered him the other bed in my room he accepted it with gratitude and said he should retire early as he was too much fatigued to care about religious festivities
peppino took the earliest opportunity of blowing me up for this saying that it was most dangerous to sleep with a jettatore in the room i told him i did not believe in all that nonsense any more than he did and we had a long discussion
which he ended by producing a coral horn from his pocket saying the professor might have the other bed if i would wear the coral all night of course i chaffed him about having the horn in his pocket after his protestations of disbelief
but it was like talking to a kitten that has been caught stealing fish and i had to take his charm and promise to conform on the ground that one cannot be too careful
on returning to the albergo i found the professor still dozing on his chair undisturbed by the constant chatter of all the servants and their friends
with the key of my room in his pocket had gone out early in the evening and got lost in the crowd so there were both my beds wasted and nothing to be done but to make the best of it i settled myself on a chair in a corner and wished for day
whereupon almost immediately peppino who though i did not know it till afterwards had been keeping near me and watching me all night in case i might meet the evil eye among the people came in
and the discussion rose into a tumult of dialect as the situation was made clear to him and then sank into complete silence which was broken by his suddenly saying to me you wish to sleep all right i show you the bed come on
he preceded me up some back stairs into a room occupied by a lady in one bed her female attendant in another and in various shakedowns on the floor another woman two men and more children than i could count by the light of one candle
we picked our way among them to the farther end of the room where there was a door peppino produced a key and opened it to my surprise it led into my room buon riposo said peppino
and was about to disappear the way we had come when i reminded him that the professor was to have the other bed i had some difficulty with him but when i had hung his coral round my neck he gave way after this i saw a great deal of the professor
he said he was forty five and he was perhaps the most simple minded gentle creature i have ever known being with him was like listening to a child strumming on a worn out piano as we sat down to dinner next day he asked if he could have a little carbonate of soda
peppino with a glance at the bill of fare regretted that there was none in the house the professor then explained to me the advantages of taking carbonate of soda before meals and said that some chemists gave one an enormous quantity for two soldi
evidently the professor had not a good digestion he helped me with his own fork to a piece of meat off his own plate this is a mark of very great friendliness and makes me think of joseph entertaining his brethren when they went down to buy corn in egypt
and he took and sent messes unto them from before him but benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs and i think of menelaus in the odyssey
sending a piece of meat to demodocus to thank him for his singing in spite of the pain his lays had caused him i always accept the gift after deprecating the honour with words and gestures
and a little later in accordance with what i believe to be the modern practice return the compliment the professor was pleased to have an opportunity of improving his knowledge of england and asked me many questions i am afraid he only pretended to believe some of the things i told him
i said that in england a man who is the proprietor of the house he lives in is not on that account necessarily a rich man he may or may not be it all depends he was surprised to hear
that i had travelled from london to castellinaria in less than three weeks that the channel passage takes under twelve hours and has been known to be smooth that london is not actually on the coast but a few miles inland and on a river
that we have other towns even more inland and that after the death of queen victoria england did not become a republic i had the professor at a disadvantage because being a sicilian
his natural politeness would not permit him to show that in his opinion i was drawing upon my imagination after the manner of travellers moreover peppino declared that all i said was quite true and added that what in sicily is like this
holding his hand out with the palm upwards in england is like that holding it with the palm downwards nevertheless i was beginning to feel that i had gone far enough and had better be careful
so when he asserted that england refuses home rule to new zealand and grinds her colonies down under the iron heel of the oppressor because she cannot afford to lose the amount they pay us in our iniquitous income tax i did not contradict him
or he may have guessed i did not agree or there may have been even more confusion in his mind than i suspected for he afterwards said that the income tax paid by the colonies went into the private pocket of mister chamberlain
and that explained why the secretary for the colonies was so rich my dear professor i said permit me to tell you something my poor mother had a cousin whose name was james
he was perhaps the most simple minded gentle creature i have ever known being with him was like listening to well it was like listening to certain kinds of music he lived by himself in the country with an old woman to do for him
and was over sixty before we came to know him then we were all very fond of him and often wondered what the dear good old gentleman could have been like in his early days it has just occurred to me that you sir are like what cousin james must have been at your age
he was overwhelmed his eyes filled with tears he said he should remember for all his life the flattering words he had just heard they constituted the most pleasing and genteel compliment he had ever received
after a long passage we are arrived and it is as i suspected the ministers at naples know nothing of the situation of the island not a house or bastion of the town is in possession of the islanders and the marquis de niza tells me they want arms victuals and support
he does not know that any neapolitan officers are in the island perhaps although i have their names none are arrived and it is very certain by the marquis's account that no supplies have been sent by the governors of syracuse or messina
however i shall and will know every thing as soon as the marquis is gone which will be to morrow morning he says he is very anxious to serve under my command and
however i understand the trim of our english ships better ball will have the management of the blockade after my departure as it seems the court of naples think my presence may be necessary and useful in the beginning of november i hope it will prove so
but i feel my duty lays at present in the east for until i know the shipping in egypt are destroyed i shall never consider the french army as completely sure of never returning to europe however all my views are to serve and save the two sicilies
and to do that which their majesties may wish me even against my own opinion when i come to naples and that country is at war
you will i am sure do me justice with the queen for i declare to god my whole study is how to best meet her approbation may god bless you and sir william and ever believe me
your obliged and faithful friend horatio nelson i may possibly but that is not certain send in the inclosed letter shew it to sir william this must depend on what i hear and see for i believe scarcely any thing i hear
once more god bless you letter two may twelfth seventeen ninety nine my dear lady hamilton
nobody writes so well therefore pray say not you write ill for if you do i will say what your goodness sometimes told me
i can read and perfectly understand every word you write we drank your and sir william's health troubridge louis hallowell and the new portuguese captain dined here i shall soon be at palermo for this business must very soon be settled
no one believe me is more sensible of your regard than your obliged and grateful nelson i am pleased with little mary kiss her for me i thank all the house for their regard god bless you all
i shall send on shore if fine to morrow for the feluccas are going to leave us and i am sea sick i have got the piece of wood for the tea chest it shall soon be sent pray present my humble duty and gratitude to the queen for all her marks of regard
and assure her it is not thrown away on an ungrateful soil letter three vanguard may nineteenth seventeen ninety nine eight o'clock calm my dear lady hamilton
and also one for the courier boat to tell you how dreary and uncomfortable the vanguard appears is only telling you what it is to go from the pleasantest society to a solitary cell or from the dearest friends to no friends i am now perfectly the great man not a creature near me
from my heart i wish myself the little man again you and good sir william have spoiled me for any place but with you i love missus cadogan you cannot conceive what i feel when i call you all to my remembrance
my dear lady hamilton many thanks to you and sir william for your kind notes
he says we saw the brest squadron pass us yesterday under an easy sail
who i have ordered here to complete their water and provisions i conjecture the french squadron is bound for malta and alexandria and the spanish fleet for the attack of minorca i must leave you to judge whether the earl will come to us i think he will but entre nous
mister duckworth means to leave me to my fate i send you under all circumstances his letter never mind if i can get my eleven sail together they shall not hurt me god bless you sir william and all our joint friends in your house
your affectionate friend nelson
my dear lady hamilton having a commander in chief i cannot come on shore till i have made my manners to him times are changed but if he does not come on shore directly i will not wait in the mean time i send allen to inquire how you are
i cannot command and now only obey mister tyson and the consul
although they were three days in their inquiries and desired the neapolitan consul to send to pisa i also desired the russian admiral as he was going to pisa to inquire if the countess pouschkin had any letters to send to palermo but as i received none i take for granted she had none to send
may god bless you my dear lady and be assured i ever am and shall be your obliged and affectionate bronte nelson
eighteen hundred my dear lady hamilton had you seen the peer receive me i know not what you would have done but i can guess but never mind i told him that i had made a vow
to which he made no answer if i am well enough i intend to write a letter to prince leopold and to send him the french admiral's flag which i hope you will approve of
and by as faithful a subject as any in his dominions i have had no communication with the shore therefore have seen neither ball troubridge or graham nor with the lion when i have i shall not forget all your messages and little jack
i only want to know your wishes that i may at least appear grateful by attending to them my head aches dreadfully and i have none here to give me a moment's comfort
i send the packet to general acton as i think it may go quicker and he will be flattered by presenting the flag and letter to the prince malta i think will fall very soon if these other corvettes do not get in
seven o'clock my dear lady hamilton what a difference but it was to be from your house to a boat fresh breeze of wind the ship four or five leagues from the mole getting on board into truly a hog stye of a cabin leaking like a sieve
consequently floating with water what a change not a felucca near us i saw them come out this morning but they think there is too much wind and swell pray do not keep the cutter as i have not a thing if any thing important should arrive to send you
only think of tyson's being left may god bless you my dear lady and believe me ever your truly affectionate and sincere friend nelson lady hamilton put the candlestick on my writing table
what a fool i was my dear lady hamilton to direct that your cheering letters should be directed for brixham i feel this day truly miserable in not having them and i fear they will not come till to morrow's post what a blockhead to believe any person is so active as myself
i have this day got my orders to put myself under lord saint vincent's command but as no order is arrived to man the ship it must be friday night or saturday morning before she can sail for torbay direct my letters now to brixham my eye is very bad
he has directed me not to write and yet i am forced this day to write lord spencer saint vincent davison about my law suit troubridge
not to eat any thing but the most simple food not to touch wine or porter to sit in a dark room
will you my dear friend make me one or two nobody else shall and to bathe them in cold water every hour i fear it is the writing has brought on this complaint my eye is like blood and the film so extended that i only see from the corner farthest from my nose
what a fuss about my complaints but being so far from my sincere friends i have leisure to brood over them i have this moment seen missus thomson's friend poor fellow he seems very uneasy and melancholy he begs you to be kind to her
and i have assured him of your readiness to relieve the dear good woman and believe me for ever my dear lady your faithful attached and affectionate nelson and bronte
i am sure he will be very punctual in the delivery i am not in very good spirits and except that our country demands all our services and abilities
but my dear friend i know you are so true and loyal an englishwoman that you would hate those who would not stand forth in defence of our king laws religion and all that is dear to us
and if we fall we still live in the hearts of those females you are dear to us it is your sex that rewards us it is your sex who cherish our memories and you my dear honoured friend are believe me the first the best of your sex
i have been the world around and in every corner of it and never yet saw your equal or even one which could be put in comparison with you you know how to reward virtue honour and courage and never to ask if it is placed in a prince duke lord or peasant
and i hope one day to see you in peace before i set out for bronte which i am resolved to do darby's is one of the ships sent out after the french squadron i shall therefore give the print to hardy
any print shop will give you one and direct it as my letters the coach stops for parcels at the white bear i believe piccadilly pray have you got any picture from missus head's
but his manner of speaking of mister davison for his friendship to me
as offensive to him why should it only that mister davison wishes that i should have justice done me and not to be overpowered by weight of interest and money once more god bless you and sir william n and b
and he has the king's orders for mine as much as the others
my dearest friend your letters have made me happy to day and never again will i scold unless you begin therefore pray never do my confidence in you is firm as a rock i cannot imagine who can have stopped my sunday's letter
that it has been is clear and the seal of the other has been clearly opened
your's all came safe but the numbering of them will point out directly if one is missing i do not think that any thing very particular was in that letter which is lost
and missus w is a bawd missus u a foolish pimp
only do as i do and all will be well and you will be every thing i wish i thank you for your kindness to poor dear missus thomson i send her a note as desired by her dear good friend who doats on her
i send you a few lines wrote in the late gale which i think you will not disapprove how interesting your letters are you cannot write too much or be too particular
deign to receive though unadorn'd by the poetic art the rude expressions which bespeak a sailor's untaught heart a heart susceptible sincere and true a heart by fate and nature torn in two one half to duty and his country due
the other better half to love and you sooner shall britain's sons resign the empire of the sea than henry shall renounce his faith and plighted vows to thee and waves on wares shall cease to roll and tides forget to flow
ere thy true henry's constant love or ebb or change shall know the weather thank god is moderating
the letters on service are so numerous from three days interruption of the post that i must conclude with assuring you that i am for ever your attached and unalterably your's nelson and bronte i shall begin a letter at night
you say my dearest friend why don't i put my chief forward he has put me in the front of the battle and nelson will be first i could say more but will not make you uneasy knowing the firm friendship you have for me
the saint george will stamp an additional ray of glory to england's fame if nelson survives and that almighty providence who has hitherto protected me in all dangers and covered my head in the day of battle will still if it be his pleasure support and assist me
keep me alive in your and sir william's remembrance my last thoughts will be with you both for you love and esteem me i judge your hearts by my own may the great god of heaven protect and bless you and him
is the fervent prayer of your and sir william's unalterable friend till death
march eighteen o one having my truly dearest friend got through a great deal of business i am enabled to do justice to my private feelings which are fixed ever on you and about you whenever the public service does not arrest my attention
and committed them to the flames much against my inclination
it was where you consented to dine and sing with thank god it was not so i could not have borne it and now less than ever but i now know he never can dine with you
and as to letting him hear you sing i only hope he will be struck deaf and you dumb sooner than such a thing should happen but i know it never now can you cannot think how my feelings are alive towards you probably more than ever and they never can be diminished
my hearty endeavours shall not be wanting to improve and to give us new ties of regard and affection
the fellow seems to eat all my words when i talk of her and his child
and his dear dear child i have had you know the felicity of seeing it and a finer child never was produced by any two persons it was in truth a love begotten child i am determined to keep him on board for i know if they got together
they would soon have another but after our two months trip i hope they will never be separated and then let them do as they please
i shall sail on monday after your letter arrives troubridge will send it as an admiralty letter on tuesday i shall be in the downs if we have any wind and troubridge will send under cover to admiral lutwidge
never if i can help it till i dine with you eleven o'clock your dear letters just come on board
monday i shall be here for letters tuesday at deal recollect i am for ever your's aye for ever while life remains your's your's faithfully nelson and bronte i charge my only friend to keep well and think of her nelson's glory
i have written to lord eldon the chancellor as my brother desired pray as you are going to buy a ticket for the pigot diamond buy the right number or it will be money thrown away for ever ever your's only your's kindest regards to my dear missus thomson and my god child
deal shall be on board the medusa before this letter go from the downs july thirty first eighteen o one my dearest emma
telling you i was just setting off for deal as i have no letter from you of yesterday
by missing one of your dear letters they are my comfort joy and delight my time is truly fully taken up and my hand aches before night comes i got to bed last night at half past nine but the hour was so unusual that i heard the clock strike one
to say that i thought of you would be nonsense for you are never out of my thoughts at this moment i see no prospect of my getting to london but very soon the business of my command will become so simple that a child may direct it
what rascals your post chaise people must be they have been paid every thing
therefore do not pay a farthing the cart chaise i paid at dartford you need not fear all the women in this world for all others except yourself are pests to me i know but one for who can be like my emma
i am confident you will do nothing which can hurt my feelings and i will die by torture sooner than do any thing which could offend you
yesterday the subject turned on the cow pox a gentleman declared that his child was inoculated with the cow pox and afterwards remained in a house where a child had the small pox the natural way and did not catch it therefore here was a full trial with the cow pox
the child is only feverish for two days and only a slight inflammation of the arm takes place instead of being all over scabs
i did not get your newspapers therefore do not know what promise you allude to but this i know i have none made me the extension of the patent of peerage is going on but the wording of my brother's note they have wrote for a meaning to
the patent must be a new creation first to my father if he outlives me then to william and his sons then to missus bolton and her sons and missus matcham and her's farther than that i care not it is far enough
but it may never get to any of them for the old patent may extend by issue male of my own carcase
a wife more suitable to my genius i like the morning chronicle ever for ever your's only your
gargantua finding himself somewhat dry asked whether they could get any lettuce to make him a salad and hearing that there were the greatest and fairest in the country for they were as great as plum trees or as walnut trees he would go thither himself
and brought thence in his hand what he thought good and withal carried away the six pilgrims who were in so great fear that they did not dare to speak nor cough washing them therefore first at the fountain the pilgrims said one to another softly what shall we do
but if we speak he will kill us for spies and as they were thus deliberating what to do gargantua put them with the lettuce into a platter of the house as large as the huge tun of the white friars of the cistercian order which done with oil vinegar and salt
he ate them up to refresh himself a little before supper
the sixth being in the platter totally hid under a lettuce except his bourdon or staff that appeared and nothing else which grangousier seeing said to gargantua i think that is the horn of a shell snail do not eat it why not said gargantua
they are good all this month which he no sooner said but drawing up the staff and therewith taking up the pilgrim he ate him very well then drank a terrible draught of excellent white wine the pilgrims thus devoured made shift to save themselves as well as they could
by withdrawing their bodies out of the reach of the grinders of his teeth but could not escape from thinking they had been put in the lowest dungeon of a prison and when gargantua whiffed the great draught
they sheltered themselves from the danger of that inundation under the banks of his teeth but one of them by chance groping or sounding the country with his staff to try whether they were in safety or no struck hard against the cleft of a hollow tooth and hit the mandibulary sinew
or nerve of the jaw which put gargantua to very great pain so that he began to cry for the rage that he felt to ease himself therefore of his smarting ache he called for his toothpicker and rubbing towards a young walnut tree where they lay skulking
for he caught one by the legs another by the scrip another by the pocket another by the scarf
and the poor fellow that had hurt him with the bourdon him he hooked to him by the codpiece which snatch nevertheless did him a great deal of good for it pierced unto him a pocky botch he had in the groin which grievously tormented him ever since they were past ancenis
the pilgrims thus dislodged ran away athwart the plain a pretty fast pace and the pain ceased even just at the time when by eudemon he was called to supper for all was ready i will go then said he and piss away my misfortune
which he did do in such a copious measure that the urine taking away the feet from the pilgrims they were carried along with the stream unto the bank of a tuft of trees
into a trap that had been made to take wolves by a train out of which nevertheless
who broke all the snares and ropes being gone from thence they lay all the rest of that night in a lodge near unto coudray where they were comforted in their miseries by the gracious words of one of their company called sweer to go who showed them that this adventure had been foretold by the prophet david psalm
when we were eaten in the salad with salt oil and vinegar quum irasceretur furor eorum in nos forsitan aqua
when he drank the great draught torrentem pertransivit anima nostra when the stream of his water carried us to the thicket forsitan pertransisset anima nostra aquam intolerabilem
that is the water of his urine the flood whereof cutting our way took our feet from us benedictus dominus qui non dedit nos in captionem dentibus eorum anima nostra sicut passer
venantium when we fell in the trap
et nos liberati sumus
i made a statement a rather lame one i fear i concealed the fact that the lady of the previous night's conference was my wife and explained my visit to stamford and my inquiries at the george by the fact that i had met the man lewis abroad
and had had some financial dealings with him which i now suspected were not altogether square so hearing that he had motored to the north
happily however she had not accompanied me hence i was able to concoct a somewhat plausible excuse to the local superintendent then you actually know nothing concerning these people he asked
regarding me shrewdly nothing beyond the fact of meeting lewis abroad and very foolishly trusting in his honesty the superintendent smiled i think he regarded me as a bit of a fool probably i had been
the archduchess's necklace must have been stolen by some one travelling in the train i've been on to scotland yard by telephone and there seems a suspicion because at grantham the last stopping place before london a ticket collector boarded the train
as is sometimes done and at finsbury park descended and was lost sight of here again the busy collectors came and demanded tickets much to the surprise of the passengers and the curious incident was much commented upon
then the bogus collector was the thief i suppose no doubt he somehow secured the dressing bag and dropped it out at a point between grantham and essendine
a spot where he knew his accomplices would be waiting a very neatly planned robbery and by persons who are evidently experts i said of course replied the grey haired superintendent
the manner in which the diamonds have been quickly transferred from hand to hand and carried out of the country is sufficient evidence of that the gang have now scattered and for aught we know have all crossed the channel by this time well i assured him
i know nothing more of the affair than what i have told you if i were an accomplice i should hardly be here making inquiries concerning them i don't know so much about that he replied rather incredulously
such an action has been known before in order to place the police upon a wrong scent i fear i must ask you to remain here in stamford until this evening while i make some inquiry into your bona fides sir
providing you do not attempt to leave it
i can only express apologies sir but you will see it is my duty you have admitted knowledge of at least one of the mysterious gang very well i replied reluctantly make what inquiries you will
and i gave him the address of my solicitors and my bankers
then walking out of the office i strolled down the quiet old high street into the market place full of evil forebodings who was this man lewis or louis with whom my wife had escaped he was a blackguardly adventurer anyhow
he had addressed her as dear and had been solicitous of her welfare throughout to him she had signalled from her box in the theatre
indeed she had written that note and placed it upon my blotting pad before we had gone forth together she well knowing that she would never again re cross my threshold ah the poignant bitterness of it all had gripped my heart
my cup of unhappiness was now assuredly full how brief had been my joy how quickly my worst fears had been realized about the quiet old world decaying town i wandered hardly knowing whither i went
when every now and then in the fading light i found myself going into the country i turned back mindful of my promise not to leave the place without permission
i was eager to renew the chase yet until i received word from the police i was compelled to remain helpless old cross the boots became inquisitive
but i evaded his questions and ate my dinner alone in the small cosy coffee room awaiting the reappearance of inspector deane i had given my chauffeur liberty till eight o'clock but i was all anxiety to drive back to london
still if i returned what could i do sylvia and her companions had driven away whither was a mystery the criminal investigation department had already issued an official description of the persons wanted
for while i had been at the police office the inspector had been closely questioning the man cross and miss hammond already the police drag net was out and the combined police forces of europe would in an hour or two
be on the watch for sylvia and her mysterious companions so far as the united kingdom was concerned sixty thousand officers detectives and constables would be furnished with a complete description
of those who had held that secret consultation the tightest of tight cordons would be drawn every passenger who embarked at english ports for abroad would be carefully scrutinized by plain clothes men
every hotel keeper not only in london but in the remote villages and hamlets would be closely questioned as to the identity and recent movements of his guests
full descriptions of sylvia and her friends would be cabled to america and the american police would be asked to keep a sharp look out on passengers arriving on all boats from europe
in face of that what more could i do the situation had become unbearable sylvia's unaccountable action had plunged me into a veritable sea of despair the future seemed blank and hopeless
and with apologies gave me leave to depart inquiry is being made along the roads in every direction from here he said we hear that the three men and the woman called at the bell at barnby moor and had some breakfast
afterwards they continued northward barnby moor i echoed why that's near doncaster yes sir motorists patronize the place a good deal and is that all that is known i inquired eagerly all at present he said
therefore i left and returning to the garage mounted the car and with head lamps alight drove out into the pitch darkness in the direction of grantham
we sped along the broad old coach road for nearly three hours until at last we pulled up before an ancient wayside inn which had been modernized and adapted to twentieth century requirements the manager in reply to my eager questions said it was true that the doncaster police had been there making inquiries regarding four motorists
three gentlemen and a lady who had called there that morning and had had breakfast in the coffee room the head waiter who had attended them was called and i questioned him i think the manager believed me to be a detective for he was most courteous
and ready to give me all information yes sir replied the tall slim head waiter they came here in a great hurry and seemed to have come a long distance judging from the way the car was plastered with mud
the lady was very cold for they had an open car and she wore a gentleman's overcoat and a shawl tied around her head the tallest of the gentlemen drove the car they called him lewis did you hear them address the lady i asked eagerly
they called her sonia sir and you say she seemed very fatigued very she went upstairs and changed her evening gown for a stuff dress which was brought out of the car
then she came down and joined the others at breakfast they gave you no indication as to their destination i suppose well sir i think they were returning to london for i heard one of the gentlemen say something about catching the boat train
they may have meant the harwich boat train from the north i remarked very likely sir one portion of that train comes through doncaster in the afternoon to peterborough and march
while the other comes down to rugby on the north western and then goes across to peterborough by way of market harborough then they may have joined that
if so the police are certain to spot them laughed the waiter they're wanted for the theft of a princess's jewels they say what should i do it was now long past ten o'clock and i could not possibly arrive at parkeston before early morning
besides if they had really gone there they would no doubt be arrested the man with the pimply face whose description so closely tallied with that of reckitt
therefore i concluded that whatever had been said at table had been said with the distinct object of misleading the waiter the very manner in which the diamonds had been stolen showed a cunning and a daring unsurpassed
the identity of the victim has not yet been established sir these words were spoken to the coroner by inspector edwards at the adjourned inquest held on january the twenty second few people were in court for until the present
the public had had no inkling as to what had occurred on that fatal night in harrington gardens the first inquest had not been covered by any reporter as the police had exercised considerable ingenuity in keeping the affair a secret
but now at the adjourned inquiry secrecy was no longer possible and the three reporters present were full of inquisitiveness regarding the evidence given on the previous occasion and listened with attention while it was being read over
inspector edwards however had dealt with them in his usually genial manner
and by the exercise of considerable diplomacy had succeeded in allaying their suspicions that there was any really good newspaper story in connection with it the medical witnesses were recalled but neither had anything to add to the depositions they had already made
the deceased had been fatally stabbed by a very keen knife with a blade of peculiar shape that was all the unknown had been buried and all that remained in evidence was a bundle of blood stained clothing some articles of jewellery
a pair of boots hat coat gloves and a green leather vanity bag endeavours had been made sir to trace some of the articles worn by the deceased and also to establish the laundry marks on the underclothing the inspector went on
but unfortunately the marks have been pronounced by experts to be foreign ones and the whole of the young lady's clothes appear to have been made abroad in france or belgium it is thought the laundry marks are foreign eh remarked the coroner
peering at the witness through his pince nez and poising his pen in his hand are you endeavouring to make inquiry abroad concerning them every inquiry is being made sir in a dozen cities on the continent in fact in all the capitals
and the description of the deceased has been circulated yes sir photographs have been sent through all the channels in europe but up to the present we have met with no success edwards replied
there is a suspicion because of a name upon a tab in the young girl's coat that she may be italian hence the most ardent search is being made by the italian authorities into the manner and descriptions of females lately reported as missing
the affair seems remarkably curious said the coroner it would certainly appear that the lady who lost her life was a stranger to london that is what we believe sir edwards replied
seated near him i saw how keen and shrewd was the expression upon his face we have evidence that certain persons visited the flat on the night in question but these have not yet been identified
the owner of the flat has not yet been found he having absconded gone abroad i suppose it would appear so sir and his description has been circulated also
asked the coroner yes a detailed description together with a recent photograph was edwards reply then he added we have received this at scotland yard sir
and he handed a letter on blue paper to the coroner which the latter perused curiously afterwards passing it over to the foreman of the jury rather remarkable he exclaimed then when the jury had completed reading the anonymous letter addressing them he said
the writer as you will note is prepared to reveal the truth of the whole affair
in return for a monetary reward it is of course a matter to be left entirely at the discretion of the police i started at this statement and gazed across the court dull and cheerless on that cold winter's afternoon who had written that anonymous letter who could it be who was ready to reveal the truth if paid for doing so was phrida's terrible secret known
i held my breath and listened to the slow hard words of the coroner
as he again addressed some questions to the great detective yes sir edwards was saying there is distinct evidence of the presence at the flat on the night in question of some person a woman whose identity we have not yet been successful in establishing
we however have formed a theory which certainly appears to be borne out by the writer of the letter i have just handed you that the unknown was struck down by the hand of a woman eh asked the coroner
but i know not what he said my heart was too full to think of anything else besides the peril of the one whom i loved i know that the verdict returned by the jury was one of wilful murder
then i went out into the fading light of that brief london day and seeking edwards walked at his side towards the busy kensington high street we had not met for several days and he of course had no knowledge of my visit to brussels
our greeting was a cordial one whereupon i asked him what was contained in the anonymous letter addressed to the yard ah mister royle it's very curious he said the coroner has it at this moment or i'd show it to you
the handwriting is a woman's and it has been posted at colchester at colchester i echoed in dismay
oh nothing only well
why not colchester as well as clapham eh yes of course i laughed but tell me what does the woman say she simply declares that she can elucidate the mystery
and give us the correct clue even bring evidence if required as to the actual person who committed the crime if we on our part will pay for the information and what shall you do i asked eagerly i don't exactly know
the letter only arrived this morning to morrow the council of seven will decide what action we take does the woman give her name i asked with affected carelessness no she only gives the name of g payne
and the address as the g p o london she's evidently a rather cute person g payne the woman petre without a doubt i recollected her telegram asking me to meet her she had said that
and she i knew lived at melbourne house in that town i suppose you will get into communication with her
why she requires blood money remarked the detective as we strolled together in the arcaded entrance to the underground station at high street kensington i always look askance at such letters we receive many of them at the yard
not a single murder mystery comes before us but we receive letters from cranks and others offering to point out the guilty person
i suggested ah that's just it mister royle exclaimed my companion gravely yet it is so terribly difficult to discriminate and i fear we often in our hesitation place aside letters the writers of which could really give valuable information
what is may i term it your private opinion he halted against the long shop windows of derry and toms and paused for several minutes well he said at last in a deeply earnest tone i tell you frankly mister royle what i believe
first i don't think that the man kemsley although an impostor was the actual assassin
and apparently without the slightest compunction yet in contradiction we have the remarkable fact that the real sir digby died in south america in very mysterious and tragic circumstances
i saw that a problem was presented to inspector edwards which sorely puzzled him as it certainly did myself well i asked after a pause and then with some trepidation put the question what do you intend doing
doing he echoed there is but one course to pursue we must get in touch with this woman who says she knows the truth and obtain what information we can from her perhaps she can reveal the identity of the woman whose fingers touched that glass topped table in the room where the crime was committed if so that will tell us a great deal mister royle
then taking a cigarette from his pocket and tapping it he added do you know i've been wondering of late
and i tried to corroborate it but you have corroborated it he declared why mister royle those prints you brought to the yard
are a most important clue where did you get them i was silent for a moment jostled by the crowd of passers by well i said with a faint smile realising what a grave mistake i had made in inculpating my well beloved
chapter twenty five these things happened last winter sir said missus dean hardly more than a year ago last winter i did not think at another twelve months end
i should be amusing a stranger to the family with relating them yet who knows how long you'll be a stranger you're too young to rest always contented living by yourself and i some way fancy no one could see catherine linton and not love her
you smile but why do you look so lively and interested when i talk about her
and why stop my good friend i cried it may be very possible that i should love her but would she love me i doubt it too much to venture my tranquillity by running into temptation
and then my home is not here i'm of the busy world and to its arms i must return go on was catherine obedient to her father's commands she was continued the housekeeper
her affection for him was still the chief sentiment in her heart and he spoke without anger he spoke in the deep tenderness of one about to leave his treasure amid perils and foes where his remembered words would be the only aid
that he could bequeath to guide her he said to me a few days afterwards i wish my nephew would write ellen or call tell me sincerely what you think of him is he changed for the better
he's very delicate sir i replied and scarcely likely to reach manhood but this i can say he does not resemble his father and if miss catherine had the misfortune to marry him he would not be beyond her control
unless she were extremely and foolishly indulgent however master you'll have plenty of time to get acquainted with him and see whether he would suit her it wants four years and more to his being of age edgar sighed
and walking to the window looked out towards gimmerton kirk it was a misty afternoon but the february sun shone dimly and we could just distinguish the two fir trees in the yard and the sparely scattered gravestones
i've prayed often he half soliloquised for the approach of what is coming and now i begin to shrink and fear it i thought the memory of the hour i came down that glen a bridegroom
would be less sweet than the anticipation that i was soon in a few months or possibly weeks to be carried up and laid in its lonely hollow ellen i've been very happy with my little cathy
through winter nights and summer days she was a living hope at my side but i've been as happy musing by myself among those stones under that old church lying through the long june evenings on the green mound of her mother's grave and wishing
yearning for the time when i might lie beneath it what can i do for cathy how must i quit her i'd not care one moment for linton being heathcliff's son nor for his taking her from me
i'd not care that heathcliff gained his ends and triumphed in robbing me of my last blessing but should linton be unworthy only a feeble tool to his father i cannot abandon her to him and
darling i'd rather resign her to god and lay her in the earth before me resign her to god as it is sir i answered and if we should lose you
which may he forbid under his providence i'll stand her friend and counsellor to the last miss catherine is a good girl i don't fear that she will go wilfully wrong and people who do their duty are always finally rewarded
spring advanced yet my master gathered no real strength though he resumed his walks in the grounds with his daughter to her inexperienced notions this itself was a sign of convalescence
and then his cheek was often flushed and his eyes were bright she felt sure of his recovering on her seventeenth birthday he did not visit the churchyard it was raining and i observed
he answered
he wrote again to linton expressing his great desire to see him and had the invalid been presentable i've no doubt his father would have permitted him to come as it was being instructed he returned an answer
but his uncle's kind remembrance delighted him and he hoped to meet him sometimes in his rambles and personally to petition that his cousin and he might not remain long so utterly divided that part of his letter was simple
and probably his own heathcliff knew he could plead eloquently for catherine's company then i do not ask he said that she may visit here
but am i never to see her because my father forbids me to go to her home and you forbid her to come to mine do now and then ride with her towards the heights
we have done nothing to deserve this separation and you are not angry with me you have no reason to dislike me you allow yourself dear uncle send me a kind note to morrow
and leave to join you anywhere you please except at thrushcross grange i believe an interview would convince you that my father's character is not mine he affirms i am more your nephew than his son
and though i have faults which render me unworthy of catherine she has excused them and for her sake you should also you inquire after my health it is better but while i remain cut off from all hope
and doomed to solitude or the society of those who never did and never will like me how can i be cheerful and well edgar though he felt for the boy could not consent to grant his request
because he could not accompany catherine he said in summer perhaps they might meet meantime he wished him to continue writing at intervals and engaged to give him what advice and comfort he was able by letter
being well aware of his hard position in his family linton complied and had he been unrestrained would probably have spoiled all by filling his epistles with complaints and lamentations
but his father kept a sharp watch over him and of course insisted on every line that my master sent being shown so instead of penning his peculiar personal sufferings and distresses the themes constantly uppermost in his thoughts
he harped on the cruel obligation of being held asunder from his friend and love and gently intimated that mister linton must allow an interview soon or he should fear he was purposely deceiving him with empty promises
cathy was a powerful ally at home and between them they at length persuaded my master to acquiesce in their having a ride or a walk together
for june found him still declining though he had set aside yearly a portion of his income for my young lady's fortune he had a natural desire that she might retain
the house of her ancestors and he considered her only prospect of doing that was by a union with his heir he had no idea that the latter was failing almost as fast as himself nor had any one i believe
no doctor visited the heights and no one saw master heathcliff to make report of his condition among us i for my part began to fancy my forebodings were false and that he must be actually rallying
and seemed so earnest in pursuing his object i could not picture a father treating a dying child as tyrannically and wickedly as i afterwards learned heathcliff had treated him to compel this apparent eagerness
summer was already past its prime when edgar reluctantly yielded his assent to their entreaties
it was a close sultry day devoid of sunshine but with a sky too dappled and hazy to threaten rain and our place of meeting had been fixed at the guide stone by the cross roads
on arriving there however a little herd boy despatched as a messenger told us that
then master linton has forgot the first injunction of his uncle i observed he bid us keep on the grange land and here we are off at once well we'll turn our horses heads round when we reach him
our excursion shall lie towards home but when we reached him
we found he had no horse and we were forced to dismount and leave ours to graze he lay on the heath awaiting our approach and did not rise till we came within a few yards
then he walked so feebly and looked so pale
master heathcliff you are not fit for enjoying a ramble this morning how ill you do look catherine surveyed him with grief and astonishment she changed the ejaculation of joy on her lips to one of alarm
and the congratulation on their long postponed meeting to an anxious inquiry whether he were worse than usual no better better he panted trembling
and retaining her hand as if he needed its support while his large blue eyes wandered timidly over her the hollowness round them transforming to haggard wildness the languid expression they once possessed
but you have been worse persisted his cousin worse than when i saw you last you are thinner and i'm tired he interrupted hurriedly it is too hot for walking let us rest here
and in the morning i often feel sick papa says i grow so fast badly satisfied cathy sat down and he reclined beside her this is something like your paradise said she
making an effort at cheerfulness you recollect the two days we agreed to spend in the place and way each thought pleasantest this is nearly yours only there are clouds but then they are so soft and mellow
it is nicer than sunshine next week if you can we'll ride down to the grange park and try mine linton did not appear to remember what she talked of
his lack of interest in the subjects she started and his equal incapacity to contribute to her entertainment were so obvious that she could not conceal her disappointment an indefinite alteration had come over his whole person and manner
the pettishness that might be caressed into fondness had yielded to a listless apathy there was less of the peevish temper of a child which frets and teases on purpose to be soothed and more of the self absorbed moroseness of a confirmed invalid
repelling consolation and ready to regard the good humoured mirth of others as an insult catherine perceived as well as i did that he held it rather a punishment than a gratification to endure our company
and she made no scruple of proposing presently to depart that proposal unexpectedly roused linton from his lethargy and threw him into a strange state of agitation
he glanced fearfully towards the heights begging she would remain another half hour at least but i think said cathy you'd be more comfortable at home than sitting here and i cannot amuse you to day i see
you have grown wiser than i in these six months you have little taste for my diversions now or else if i could amuse you i'd willingly stay stay to rest yourself he replied and catherine
don't think or say that i'm very unwell it is the heavy weather and heat that make me dull and i walked about before you came a great deal for me tell uncle i'm in tolerable health will you
i'll tell him that you say so linton i couldn't affirm that you are observed my young lady wondering at his pertinacious assertion of what was evidently an untruth and be here again next thursday
continued he shunning her puzzled gaze and give him my thanks for permitting you to come my best thanks catherine and and if you did meet my father and he asked you about me
don't lead him to suppose that i've been extremely silent and stupid don't look sad and downcast as you are doing he'll be angry i care nothing for his anger exclaimed cathy imagining she would be its object
but i do said her cousin shuddering don't provoke him against me catherine for he is very hard is he severe to you master heathcliff i inquired
has he grown weary of indulgence and passed from passive to active hatred linton looked at me but did not answer and after keeping her seat by his side another ten minutes during which his head fell drowsily on his breast
cathy began to seek solace in looking for bilberries and sharing the produce of her researches with me she did not offer them to him for she saw further notice would only weary and annoy
is it half an hour now ellen she whispered in my ear at last i can't tell why we should stay he's asleep and papa will be wanting us back well
we must not leave him asleep i answered wait till he wakes and be patient you were mighty eager to set off but your longing to see poor linton has soon evaporated why did he wish to see me returned catherine
in his crossest humours formerly i liked him better than i do in his present curious mood it's just as if it were a task he was compelled to perform this interview
for fear his father should scold him but i'm hardly going to come to give mister heathcliff pleasure whatever reason he may have for ordering linton to undergo this penance
and though i'm glad he's better in health i'm sorry he's so much less pleasant and so much less affectionate to me you think he is better in health then i said yes she answered
because he always made such a great deal of his sufferings you know he is not tolerably well as he told me to tell papa but he's better very likely
i should conjecture him to be far worse linton here started from his slumber in bewildered terror and asked if any one had called his name no said catherine unless in dreams
i cannot conceive how you manage to doze out of doors in the morning i thought i heard my father he gasped glancing up to the frowning nab above us you are sure nobody spoke
quite sure replied his cousin only ellen and i were disputing concerning your health
than when we separated in winter if you be i'm certain one thing is not stronger your regard for me speak are you the tears gushed from linton's eyes as he answered yes yes i am
and still under the spell of the imaginary voice his gaze wandered up and down to detect its owner cathy rose for to day we must part she said and i won't conceal that i have been sadly disappointed with our meeting
though i'll mention it to nobody but you not that i stand in awe of mister heathcliff hush murmured linton for god's sake hush he's coming and he clung to catherine's arm
striving to detain her but at that announcement she hastily disengaged herself and whistled to minny who obeyed her like a dog i'll be here next thursday she cried springing to the saddle good bye
quick ellen and so we left him scarcely conscious of our departure so absorbed was he in anticipating his father's approach before we reached home
catherine's displeasure softened into a perplexed sensation of pity and regret largely blended with vague uneasy doubts about linton's actual circumstances physical and social in which i partook though i counselled her not to say much
for a second journey would make us better judges my master requested an account of our ongoings his nephew's offering of thanks was duly delivered miss cathy gently touching on the rest
the wond'rous wise man
he jumped into a bramble bush and scratched out both his eyes and when he saw his eyes were out with all his might and main he jumped into another bush and scratched them in again
our town is a quiet little town and lies nestling in a little valley surrounded by pretty green hills i do not think you would ever have heard our town mentioned
had not the man lived there who was so wise that everyone marvelled at his great knowledge he was not always a wise man he was a wise boy before he grew to manhood
and even when a child he was so remarkable for his wisdom that people shook their heads gravely and said when he grows up there will be no need of books for he will know everything
his father thought he had a wond'rous wise look when he was born and so he named him solomon thinking that if indeed he turned out to be wise the name would fit him nicely whereas should he be mistaken and the boy grow up stupid
but the father was not mistaken and the boy's name remained solomon when he was still a child solomon confounded the schoolmaster by asking one day can you tell me sir
why a cow drinks water from a brook well really replied the abashed schoolmaster i have never given the subject serious thought but
i will sleep upon the question and try to give you an answer to morrow but the schoolmaster could not sleep he remained awake all the night trying to think why a cow drinks water from a brook
and in the morning he was no nearer the answer than before so he was obliged to appear before the wise child and acknowledge that he could not solve the problem i have looked at the subject from every side said he
and given it careful thought and yet i cannot tell why a cow drinks water from a brook sir replied the wise child it is because the cow is thirsty
the shock of this answer was so great that the schoolmaster fainted away and when they had brought him to he made a prophecy that solomon would grow up to be a wond'rous wise man
it was the same way with the village doctor solomon came to him one day and asked tell me sir why has a man two eyes
for i have never yet had my attention called to this subject so he thought for a long time and then he said i must really give it up i cannot tell for the life of me why a man has two eyes
do you know yes sir answered the boy then said the doctor after taking a dose of quinine to brace up his nerves for he remembered the fate of the schoolmaster
then please tell me why a man as two eyes a man has two eyes sir returned solomon solemnly because he was born that way
and the doctor marvelled greatly at so much wisdom in a little child and made a note of it in his note book solomon was so full of wisdom that it flowed from his mouth in a
perfect stream and every day he gave new evidence to his friends that he could scarcely hold all the wise thoughts that came to him for instance one day he said to his father
oh no replied his father
you are surely mistaken sir said solomon with the gravity that comes from great wisdom these are our dog's fore legs are they not pointing to the front legs of the dog yes
answered his father well continued solomon the dog has two other legs besides and two and four are six therefore the dog has six legs
but that is very old exclaimed his father true replied solomon but this is a young dog then his father bowed his head in shame that his own child should teach him wisdom
of course solomon wore glasses upon his eyes all wise people wear them and his face was ever grave and solemn while he walked slowly and stiffly so that people might know he was the celebrated wise man
and do him reverence and when he had grown to manhood the fame of his wisdom spread all over the world so that all the other wise men were jealous and tried in many ways to confound him
but solomon always came out ahead and maintained his reputation for wisdom finally a very wise man came from cumberland to meet solomon and see which of them was the wisest
he was a very big man and solomon was a very little man and so the people all shook their heads sadly and feared solomon had met his match for if the cumberland man was as full of wisdom as solomon
he had much the advantage in size they formed a circle around the two wise men and then began the trial to see which was the wisest tell me
said solomon looking straight up into the big man's face with an air of confidence that reassured his friends how many sisters has a boy who has one father one mother and seven brothers
the big wise man got very red in the face and scowled and coughed and stammered but he could not tell i do not know he acknowledged nor do you know either
for there is no rule to go by oh yes i know replied solomon he has two sisters i know this is the true answer because i know the boy and his father and his mother
and his brothers and his sisters so that i cannot be mistaken now all the people applauded at this for they were sure solomon had got the best of the man from cumberland
but it was now the big man's turn to try solomon so he said fingers five are on my hand all of them upright do stand
one a dog is chasing kittens one a cat is wearing mittens one a rat is eating cheese one a wolf is full of fleas
one a fly is in a cup how many fingers do i hold up four replied solomon promptly for one of them is a thumb
the wise man from cumberland was so angry at being outwitted that he sprang at solomon and would no doubt have injured him had not our wise man turned and run away as fast as he could go
the man from cumberland at once ran after him and chased him through the streets and down the lanes and up the side of the hill where the bramble bushes grow solomon ran very fast but the man from cumberland was bigger
and he was just about to grab our wise man by his coat tails when solomon gave a great jump and jumped right into the middle of a big bramble bush the people were all coming up behind
and as the big man did not dare to follow solomon into the bramble bush he turned away and ran home to cumberland all the men and women of our town were horrified when they came up and found their wise man in the middle of the bramble bush
and held fast by the brambles which scratched and pricked him on every side solomon are you hurt they cried i should say i am hurt replied solomon with a groan
my eyes are scratched out how do you know they are asked the village doctor i can see they are scratched out replied solomon
and the people all wept with grief at this and solomon howled louder than any of them now the fact was that when solomon jumped into the bramble bush he was wearing his spectacles
and the brambles pushed the glasses so close against his eyes that he could not open them and so as every other part of him was scratched and bleeding and he could not open his eyes he made sure they were scratched out
how am i to get out of here he asked at last you must jump out replied the doctor since you have jumped in so solomon made a great jump
and although the brambles tore him cruelly he sprang entirely out of the bush and fell plump into another one this last bush however by good luck was not a bramble bush but one of elderberry
and when he jumped into it his spectacles fell off and to his surprise he opened his eyes and found that he could see again
called out the doctor i m in the elderberry bush and i ve scratched my eyes in again answered solomon when the people heard this they marvelled greatly
at the wisdom of a man who knew how to scratch his eyes in after they were scratched out and they lifted solomon from the bush and carried him home where they bound up the scratches and nursed him carefully until he was well again
and after that no one ever questioned the wond'rous wisdom of our wise man and when he finally died at a good old age they built a great monument over his grave
and on one side of it were the words solomon the man who was wond'rous wise and on the other side
it is common to blow on the deal without looking at it for good luck
it will be a very short or a very long job
friday is a very unlucky day housekeepers will prefer paying a quarter's rent extra to going into a house on that day it is of course most unlucky to be married on it
wednesday is the day considered most favorable for the purpose
you'll do something you're ashamed of before the week is out
you will lose by it on the coming week
if you do not eat pancakes on that day you will have no luck throughout the year the hens won't lay et cetera
as twenty two thirty three et cetera
if you complete dressing one foot before beginning to dress the other it is a sign you will be disappointed
that is across your path it means a ride if you pick it up
in the streets of new york city in order not to miss the good fortune that might come of picking up a pin the pin must be thrust into a tree or post
only six ventured under it
fishermen wear white mittens for luck
break a bottle of wine over her for luck the bottle is to be broken by a lady
as it will bring ill luck
the second house is likely to go in the same manner
you will have ill luck if you pick it up yourself but the ill luck may be averted by having some one else pick it up
foretells a disaster in the family
there will be bad luck in the house all that year
that is one whose eyebrows meet is unlucky and can cast spells
when going deer hunting to meet a red haired man
chapter twelve writing for newspapers qualification appropriate subjects directions the newspaper nowadays goes into every home in the land
what was formerly regarded as a luxury is now looked upon as a necessity
but also what is happening in every quarter of the globe the laborer on the street can be as well posted on the news of the day as the banker in his office through the newspaper he can feel the pulse of the country
if a fire occurred in london last night he can read about it at his breakfast table in new york this morning and probably get a better account than the londoners themselves if a duel takes place in paris he can read all about it
more than two thousand of which are published in towns containing less than one hundred thousand inhabitants in fact many places of less than ten thousand population can boast the publishing of a daily newspaper
wield quite an influence in their localities and even outside
both by way of circulation and advertisements it is surprising the number of people in this country who make a living in the newspaper field
having just enough education to express themselves intelligently in writing it is a mistake to imagine as so many do that an extended education is necessary for newspaper work not at all
on the contrary in some cases a high class education is a hindrance not a help in this direction the general newspaper does not want learned disquisitions
in this respect very often a boy can write a better article than a college professor
while the boy not knowing such words would probably simply tell what he saw how great the damage was who were killed or injured et cetera and use language which all would understand of course there are some brilliant scholars
deeply read men and women in the newspaper realm
those who have made the greatest names commenced ignorant enough and most of them graduated by way of the country paper some of the leading writers of england and america at the present time
if you want to contribute to newspapers or enter the newspaper field as a means of livelihood don't let lack of a college or university education stand in your way as has been said elsewhere in this book
some of the greatest masters of english literature were men who had but little advantage in the way of book learning shakespeare bunyan burns and scores of others who have left their names indelibly inscribed on the tablets of fame
in other words they understood human nature and were natural themselves shakespeare understood mankind because he was himself a man hence he has portrayed the feelings the emotions the passions with a master's touch
and it was the perfection of this naturality that wreathed their brows with the never fading laurels of undying fame
if you would essay to write for the newspaper you must be natural and express yourself in your accustomed way without putting on airs or frills
which stamp a writer as not only superficial but silly
it wants facts stated in plain unvarnished unadorned language true you should read the best authors and as far as possible imitate their style
not like dante if i might not like shakespeare at his best
like myself however small like myself or not at all put yourself in place of the reader and write what will interest yourself
remember you are writing for the man on the street and in the street car you want to interest him to compel him to read what you have to say he does not want a display of learning
just as you would do if you were face to face with him what can you write about why about anything that will constitute current news some leading event of the day
you can always find something of genuine human interest to others if there is no news happening
we are all constituted alike and the chances are that what will interest you will interest others descriptions of adventure are generally acceptable tell of a fox hunt or a badger hunt or a bear chase
if there is any important manufacturing plant in your neighborhood describe it
if a great man lives near you one whose name is on the tip of every tongue
and the record he or she has made there for instance it was opportune to write of sulu and the little pacific archipelago
if an attempt is made to blow up an american battleship say in the harbor of appia in samoa it affords a chance to write about samoa
any great occurrence is taking place in a foreign country
be constantly on the lookout for something that will suit the passing hour
to which to submit your copy know the tone and general import of the paper its social leanings and political affiliations
would be injudicious for you to send an article on a prize fight to a religious paper or vice versa an account of a church meeting to
if you get your copy back don't be disappointed
perseverance counts more in the
you must become resilient if you are pressed down spring up again
but call fresh energy to your assistance and make another stand
editors will soon be begging you instead of your begging them those men are constantly on the lookout for persons who can make good once you get into print the battle is won
go over everything you write cut and slash and prune until you get it into as perfect form as possible eliminate every superfluous word and be careful to strike out all ambiguous expressions and references
if you are writing for a weekly paper remember it differs from a daily one weeklies want what will not alone interest the man on the street but the woman at the fireside
they want out of the way facts curious scraps of lore personal notes of famous or eccentric people
anything that will entertain amuse instruct the home circle there is always something occurring in your immediate surroundings some curious event or thrilling episode that will furnish you with data for an article
on its secular side it deals with human events in such an impartial way that every one no matter to what class they may belong or to what creed they may subscribe can take a living personal interest
the monthlies offer another attractive field for the literary aspirant here again don't think you must be an university professor to write for a monthly magazine many
indeed most of the foremost magazine contributors are men and women who have never passed through a college except by going in at the front door and emerging from the back one
as distinguished from the theoretical the ordinary monthly magazine treats of the leading questions and issues which are engaging the attention of the world for the moment great inventions great discoveries
however before trying your skill for a monthly magazine it would be well for you to have a good apprenticeship in writing for the daily press
many of the most successful writers of our time
some of them have hawked their wares from one literary door to another until they found a purchaser
unless you bring out what is in you give yourself a chance to grow and seize upon everything that will enlarge the scope of your horizon keep your eyes wide open
learn too how to read nature's book there's a lesson in everything in the stones the grass the trees the babbling brooks and the singing birds interpret the lesson for yourself then teach it to others
always be in earnest in your writing go about it in a determined kind of way
with an army of millions before you like a hero of old gird your soul for the strife and let not the foeman tramp o'er you
act act like a soldier and proudly rush on the most valiant in bravery's van with keen flashing sword cut your way to the front and show to the world you're a man
if you are of the masculine gender
emperor or king in the same way womanhood is the grandest crown the feminine head can wear when the world frowns on you and everything seems to go wrong possess your soul in patience and hope for the dawn of a brighter day
when you get your manuscripts back again and again don't despair nor think the editor cruel and unkind he too has troubles of his own
be sure that newspaper writing or literary work is not your forte and turn to something else if nothing better presents itself
remember honest labor
if you are a woman throw aside the pen sit down and darn your brother's your father's or your husband's socks or put on a calico apron take soap and water
no matter who you are do something useful that old sophistry about the world owing you a living has been exploded long ago the world does not owe you a living but you owe it servitude and if you do not pay the debt
you are not serving the purpose of an all wise providence and filling the place for which you were created
nobler richer for your having lived in it this you can do in no matter what position fortune has cast you whether it be that of street laborer or president fight the good fight
she made no movement of either surprise or of joy she was joy itself that simple question and cosette
with such a complete absence of disquiet and of doubt that he found not a word of reply she continued
but i saw you i have seen you for a long long time i have been following you with my eyes all night long you were in a glory and you had around you all sorts of celestial forms
why did not you place her on my bed against the moment of my waking he made some mechanical reply which he was never afterwards able to recall fortunately the doctor had been warned
calm yourself my child said the doctor your child is here fantine's eyes beamed and filled her whole face with light she clasped her hands with an expression which contained all that is possible
to prayer in the way of violence and tenderness oh she exclaimed bring her to me touching illusion of a mother
not yet said the doctor not just now you still have some fever
you must be cured first she interrupted him impetuously but i am cured oh i tell you that i am cured what an ass that doctor is the idea
i want to see my child you see said the doctor how excited you become
when you are reasonable i will bring her to you myself the poor mother bowed her head i beg your pardon doctor i really beg your pardon
so many misfortunes have happened to me that i sometimes do not know what i am saying i understand you you fear the emotion i will wait as long as you like but i swear to you that it would not have harmed me to see my daughter
i have been seeing her i have not taken my eyes from her since yesterday evening do you know if she were brought to me now i should talk to her very gently
that is all is it not quite natural that i should desire to see my daughter who has been brought to me expressly from montfermeil i am not angry i know well that i am about to be happy
all night long i have seen white things and persons who smiled at me when monsieur le docteur pleases he shall bring me cosette i have no longer any fever i am well i am perfectly conscious
that there is nothing the matter with me any more but i am going to behave as though i were ill and not stir to please these ladies here when it is seen that i am very calm they will say she must have her child
they might make no difficulty about bringing cosette to her but while she controlled herself
good you were to go and get her for me only tell me how she is did she stand the journey well alas she will not recognize me she must have forgotten me by this time poor darling
children have no memories they are like birds a child sees one thing to day and another thing to morrow and thinks of nothing any longer
did those thenardiers keep her clean how have they fed her oh if you only knew how i have suffered putting such questions as that to myself during all the time of my wretchedness now it is all past
i am happy oh how i should like to see her do you think her pretty monsieur le maire is not my daughter beautiful you must have been very cold in that diligence could she not be brought for just one little instant
she might be taken away directly afterwards tell me you are the master it could be so if you chose he took her hand cosette is beautiful he said cosette is well
you shall see her soon but calm yourself you are talking with too much vivacity and you are throwing your arms out from under the clothes and that makes you cough
in fact fits of coughing interrupted fantine at nearly every word fantine did not murmur
the confidence which she was desirous of inspiring and she began to talk of indifferent things
people go there on pleasure parties in summer
there are not many travellers in their parts
it was evident that he had come to tell her things before which his mind now hesitated the doctor having finished his visit retired
remained alone with them but in the midst of this pause fantine exclaimed i hear her mon dieu i hear her she stretched out her arm to enjoin silence about her held her breath
the child of the portress or of some work woman it was one of those accidents which are always occurring and which seem to form a part of the mysterious stage setting of mournful scenes the child
a little girl was going and coming running to warm herself laughing singing at the top of her voice alas in what are the plays of children not intermingled it was this little girl whom fantine heard singing
oh she resumed it is my cosette i recognize her voice the child retreated as it had come the voice died away fantine listened for a while longer
then her face clouded over
how wicked that doctor is not to allow me to see my daughter that man has an evil countenance that he has but the smiling background of her thoughts came to the front again
she continued to talk to herself with her head resting on the pillow how happy we are going to be we shall have a little garden the very first thing
my daughter will play in the garden
i will make her spell she will run over the grass after butterflies i will watch her then she will take her first communion ah when will she take her first communion
she began to reckon on her fingers one two three four
with his eyes on the ground his mind absorbed in reflection which had no bottom all at once she ceased speaking and this caused him to raise his head mechanically fantine had become terrible
she no longer spoke she no longer breathed she had raised herself to a sitting posture her thin shoulder emerged from her chemise her face which had been radiant but a moment before
was ghastly and she seemed to have fixed her eyes rendered large with terror on something alarming at the other extremity of the room good god he exclaimed what ails you fantine
she made no reply she did not remove her eyes from the object which she seemed to see she removed one hand from his arm
well said porthos seated in the courtyard of the hotel de la chevrette to d'artagnan who with a long and melancholy face had returned from the palais royal did he receive you ungraciously my dear friend
i'faith yes a brute that cardinal what are you eating there porthos
you are right
well how has all gone off zounds you know there's only one way of saying things so i went in and said my lord we were not the strongest party
yes i know that he said but give me the particulars you know porthos i could not give him the particulars without naming our friends to name them would be to commit them to ruin so i merely said they were fifty
and we were two there was firing nevertheless i heard he said and your swords they saw the light of day i presume that is the night my lord i answered ah cried the cardinal
i thought you were a gascon my friend i am a gascon said i only when i succeed the answer pleased him and he laughed that will teach me he said to have my guards provided with better horses
it is incredible how these biscuit soak up wine they are veritable sponges
the bottle was brought with a promptness which showed the degree of consideration d'artagnan enjoyed in the establishment he continued so i was going away but he called me back
then he understood and putting his hand into a drawer
for a thousand pistoles for a thousand pistoles just that amount the beggar not one too many and you have them they are here upon my word i think he acted very generously
generously to men who had risked their lives for him and besides had done him a great service a great service what was that why it seems that i crushed for him a parliament councillor what
that's the man my dear fellow he was an annoyance to the cardinal unfortunately i didn't crush him flat it seems that he came to himself and that he will continue to be an annoyance
see that now said porthos and i turned my horse aside from going plump on to him that will be for another time he owed me for the councillor the pettifogger
but said porthos if he was not crushed completely ah monsieur de richelieu would have said five hundred crowns for the councillor
how much were your animals worth porthos
why vulcan and bayard cost me each about two hundred pistoles and putting phoebus at a hundred and fifty we should be pretty near the amount
there will remain then four hundred and fifty pistoles said d'artagnan contentedly yes said porthos but there are the equipments
if we say one hundred pistoles for the three good for the hundred pistoles there remains then three hundred and fifty porthos made a sign of assent
it is always that but tell me what didn't he speak of me in any way ah yes indeed cried d'artagnan who was afraid of disheartening his friend by telling him that the cardinal had not breathed a word about him
stop i want to remember his exact words he said as to your friend tell him he may sleep in peace good very good said porthos that signified as clear as daylight that he still intends to make me a baron
at this moment nine o'clock struck d'artagnan started ah yes said porthos there is nine o'clock we have a rendezvous you remember at the place royale ah stop hold your peace porthos don't remind me of it
tis that which has made me so cross since yesterday i shall not go why asked porthos because it is a grievous thing for me to meet again those two men who caused the failure of our enterprise and yet said porthos
neither of them had any advantage over us i still had a loaded pistol and you were in full fight sword in hand yes said d'artagnan but what if this rendezvous had some hidden purpose
oh said porthos you can't think that d'artagnan d'artagnan did not believe athos to be capable of a deception but he sought an excuse for not going to the rendezvous we must go said the superb lord of bracieux
lest they should say we were afraid we who have faced fifty foes on the high road can well meet two in the place royale yes yes but they took part with the princes without apprising us of it
we discovered yesterday the truth what is the use of going to day to learn something else you really have some distrust then said porthos of aramis yes since he has become an abbe
you can't imagine my dear fellow the sort of man he is he sees us on the road which leads him to a bishopric and perhaps will not be sorry to get us out of his way
and it wouldn't surprise me at all perhaps monsieur de beaufort will try in his turn to lay hands on us nonsense
one can no more now reckon on one's friends than on one's footmen said porthos ah if mousqueton were here there's a fellow who will never desert me so long as you are rich
ah my friend tis not civil war that disunites us it is that we are each of us twenty years older it is that the honest emotions of youth have given place to suggestions of interest
whispers of ambition counsels of selfishness yes you are right let us go porthos but let us go well armed were we not to keep the rendezvous they would declare we were afraid
here saddle our horses take your carbine whom are we going to attack sir no one a mere matter of precaution answered the gascon
you know sir that they wished to murder that good councillor broussel the father of the people really did they said d'artagnan yes but he has been avenged
his house has been full ever since he has received visits from the coadjutor from madame de longueville and the prince de conti madame de chevreuse and madame de vendome have left their names at his door
and now whenever he wishes well whenever he wishes
it doesn't surprise me said d'artagnan in a low tone to porthos that mazarin would have been much better satisfied had i crushed the life out of his councillor
that if it were for some enterprise like that undertaken against monsieur broussel that you should ask me to take my carbine
i promise you in a revolt will not give away his share to the dogs is he not a singing boy
ah yes i know of what importance is this little reptile to you asked porthos gad replied d'artagnan he has already given me good information and he may do the same again whilst all this was going on
they had taken some refreshment on the road and hastened on that they might not fail at the appointed place bazin was their only attendant for grimaud had stayed behind to take care of mousqueton
and assume a dress more suited to the city oh no dear count cried aramis is it not a warlike encounter that we are going to what do you mean aramis
what can you expect athos men are so made and we are not always twenty years old we have cruelly wounded as you know that personal pride by which d'artagnan is blindly governed he has been beaten
did you not observe his despair on the journey as to porthos his barony was perhaps dependent on that affair well he found us on his road and will not be baron this time perhaps that famous barony will have something to do with our interview this evening
oh never fear besides if they do we can easily make an excuse we came straight off a journey and are insurgents too an excuse for us to meet d'artagnan with a false excuse
go in whatever guise you choose for my part i shall go unarmed no for i will not allow you to do so
whom you will ruin by this amiable weakness but a whole party to whom you belong and who depend upon you
and they pursued their road in mournful silence scarcely had they reached by the rue de la mule the iron gate of the place royale when they perceived three cavaliers d'artagnan
porthos and planchet the two former wrapped up in their military cloaks under which their swords were hidden and planchet his musket by his side
and that of aramis in the same manner
and especially the inhabitants of the place royale the gate is shut said aramis but if these gentlemen like a cool retreat under the trees and perfect seclusion i will get the key from the hotel de rohan and we shall be well suited
d'artagnan darted a look into the obscurity of the place porthos ventured to put his head between the railings to try if his glance could penetrate the gloom
choose for yourselves this place if monsieur d'herblay can procure the key is the best that we can have was the answer
a piece of advice which was received with a contemptuous smile
stop and aramis gave him a louis d'or
d'artagnan had heard the conversation and had understood it you see he said to porthos what do i see that he wouldn't swear swear what
that man wanted aramis to swear that we are not going to the place royale to fight and aramis wouldn't swear no attention then
aramis opened the gate and faced around in order that d'artagnan and porthos might enter in passing through the gate the hilt of the lieutenant's sword was caught in the grating
in doing so he showed the butt end of his pistols and a ray of the moon was reflected on the shining metal
to the arms which the gascon wore under his belt
he entered third and aramis who shut the gate after him last the two serving men waited without
d'artagnan left the hotel instead of going up at once to kitty's chamber as she endeavored to persuade him to do and that for two reasons
the first because by this means he should escape reproaches recriminations and prayers the second because he was not sorry to have an opportunity of reading his own thoughts and endeavoring if possible to fathom those of this woman
and that she did not love him at all in an instant d'artagnan perceived that the best way in which he could act
in which he would confess to her that he and de wardes were up to the present moment absolutely the same and that consequently he could not undertake without committing suicide to kill the comte de wardes
but he also was spurred on by a ferocious desire of vengeance he wished to subdue this woman in his own name and as this vengeance appeared to him to have a certain sweetness in it he could not make up his mind to renounce it
he walked six or seven times round the place royale turning at every ten steps to look at the light in milady's apartment which was to be seen through the blinds it was evident that this time the young woman was not in such haste to retire to her apartment
as she had been the first at length the light disappeared with this light was extinguished the last irresolution in the heart of d'artagnan he recalled to his mind the details of the first night and with a beating heart
and a brain on fire he re entered the hotel and flew toward kitty's chamber the poor girl pale as death and trembling in all her limbs wished to delay her lover
had heard the noise d'artagnan had made and opening the door said come in all this was of such incredible immodesty of such monstrous effrontery
that d'artagnan could scarcely believe what he saw or what he heard he imagined himself to be drawn into one of those fantastic intrigues one meets in dreams
yielding to that magnetic attraction which the loadstone exercises over iron as the door closed after them kitty rushed toward it jealousy fury offended pride all the passions in short
urged her to make a revelation but she reflected that she would be totally lost if she confessed having assisted
it was no longer a rival who was beloved it was himself who was apparently beloved a secret voice whispered to him at the bottom of his heart that he was but an instrument of vengeance that he was only caressed till he had given death
but pride but self love but madness silenced this voice and stifled its murmurs and then our gascon with that large quantity of conceit which we know he possessed compared himself with de wardes
and asked himself why after all he should not be beloved for himself he was absorbed entirely by the sensations of the moment milady was no longer for him that woman of fatal intentions who had for a moment terrified him
was the first to return to reality and asked the young man if the means which were on the morrow to bring on the encounter between him and de wardes were already arranged in his mind
but d'artagnan whose ideas had taken quite another course forgot himself like a fool and answered gallantly that it was too late to think about duels and sword thrusts this coldness toward the only interests that occupied her mind
whose questions became more pressing then d'artagnan who had never seriously thought of this impossible duel endeavored to turn the conversation but he could not succeed milady kept him within the limits she had traced beforehand
with her irresistible spirit and her iron will
by pardoning de wardes the furious projects she had formed but at the first word the young woman started and exclaimed in a sharp bantering tone which sounded strangely in the darkness
are you afraid dear monsieur d'artagnan you cannot think so dear love replied d'artagnan but now suppose this poor comte de wardes were less guilty than you think him
and from the moment he deceived me he merited death he shall die then since you condemn him said d'artagnan
but d'artagnan believed it to be hardly two hours before the daylight peeped through the window blinds and invaded the chamber with its paleness seeing d'artagnan about to leave her
i am quite ready said d'artagnan but in the first place i should like to be certain of one thing
that is whether you really love me i have given you proof of that it seems to me and i am yours body and soul thanks my brave lover
but as you are satisfied of my love you must in your turn satisfy me of yours is it not so certainly but if you love me as much as you say replied d'artagnan do you not entertain a little fear on my account
what have i to fear why that i may be dangerously wounded killed even
you are such a valiant man and such an expert swordsman you would not then prefer a method resumed d'artagnan which would equally avenge you while rendering the combat useless
the pale light of the first rays of day gave to her clear eyes a strangely frightful expression really said she i believe you now begin to hesitate
no i do not hesitate but i really pity this poor comte de wardes since you have ceased to love him i think that a man must be so severely punished by the loss of your love that he stands in need of no other chastisement
who told you that i loved him asked milady sharply at least i am now at liberty to believe without too much fatuity that you love another said the young man in a caressing tone and i repeat that i am really interested for the count
yes i and why you because i alone know what that he is far from being or rather having been so guilty toward you as he appears
yes i am a man of honor said d'artagnan determined to come to an end and since your love is mine and i am satisfied i possess it for i do possess it do i not entirely go on
well i feel as if transformed a confession weighs on my mind a confession if i had the least doubt of your love i would not make it but you love me my beautiful mistress do you not
without doubt then if through excess of love i have rendered myself culpable toward you you will pardon me perhaps
but she evaded him this confession said she growing paler what is this confession you gave de wardes a meeting on thursday last in this very room did you not no
that if d'artagnan had not been in such perfect possession of the fact he would have doubted do not lie my angel said d'artagnan smiling that would be useless what do you mean speak you kill me
be satisfied you are not guilty toward me and i have already pardoned you what next what next de wardes cannot boast of anything how is that you told me yourself that that ring
and the d'artagnan of today are the same person the imprudent young man expected a surprise mixed with shame a slight storm which would resolve itself into tears but he was strangely deceived
and his error was not of long duration
as she sprang out of bed it was almost broad daylight d'artagnan detained her by her night dress of fine india linen to implore her pardon but she with a strong movement tried to escape
and on one of those lovely shoulders round and white d'artagnan recognized with inexpressible astonishment
that indelible mark which the hand of the infamous executioner had imprinted great god cried d'artagnan loosing his hold of her dress and remaining mute motionless and frozen
he had doubtless seen all the young man now knew her secret her terrible secret the secret she concealed even from her maid with such care the secret of which all the world was ignorant except himself she turned upon him
opened it with a feverish and trembling hand drew from it a small poniard with a golden haft and a sharp thin blade and then threw herself with a bound upon d'artagnan
she then tried to seize the sword with her hands but d'artagnan kept it free from her grasp and presenting the point sometimes at her eyes sometimes at her breast compelled her to glide behind the bedstead
while he aimed at making his retreat by the door which led to kitty's apartment
screaming in a formidable way as all this however bore some resemblance to a duel d'artagnan began to recover himself little by little well beautiful lady very well said he
but d'artagnan still keeping on the defensive drew near to kitty's door at the noise they made she in overturning the furniture in her efforts to get at him he in screening himself behind the furniture to keep out of her reach kitty opened the door
d'artagnan who had unceasingly maneuvered to gain this point was not at more than three paces from it
quick kitty quick said d'artagnan in a low voice as soon as the bolts were fast
for if we leave her time to turn round she will have me killed by the servants but you can't go out so said kitty you are naked that's true said d'artagnan then first thinking of the costume he found himself in
that's true but dress me as well as you are able only make haste
kitty was but too well aware of that in a turn of the hand she muffled him up in a flowered robe a large hood and a cloak she gave him some slippers in which he placed his naked feet and then conducted him down the stairs
it was time milady had already rung her bell and roused the whole hotel
when there were no longer any of the leaders left alive except enjolras and marius at the two extremities of the barricade the centre
the cannon though it had not effected a practicable breach had made a rather large hollow in the middle of the redoubt there the summit of the wall had disappeared before the balls and had crumbled away and the rubbish which had fallen now inside
now outside had as it accumulated formed two piles in the nature of slopes on the two sides of the barrier one on the inside the other on the outside the exterior slope presented an inclined plane to the attack
a final assault was there attempted and this assault succeeded the mass bristling with bayonets and hurled forward at a run came up with irresistible force
and the serried front of battle of the attacking column made its appearance through the smoke on the crest of the battlements this time it was decisive the group of insurgents who were defending the centre retreated in confusion
they were hemmed in by the lofty six story house which formed the background of their redoubt
the building was barricaded and walled as it were from top to bottom before the troops of the line had reached the interior of the redoubt there was time for a door to open and shut the space of a flash of lightning was sufficient for that
and the door of that house suddenly opened a crack and closed again instantly was life for these despairing men behind this house there were streets possible flight space they set to knocking at that door with the butts of their guns
and with kicks shouting calling entreating wringing their hands no one opened from the little window on the third floor the head of the dead man gazed down upon them but enjolras and marius
and the seven or eight rallied about them sprang forward and protected them enjolras had shouted to the soldiers don't advance and as an officer had not obeyed enjolras had killed the officer he was now in the little inner court of the redoubt
with his back planted against the corinthe building a sword in one hand a rifle in the other holding open the door of the wine shop which he barred against assailants he shouted to the desperate men
and shielding them with his body and facing an entire battalion alone he made them pass in behind him all precipitated themselves thither enjolras executing with his rifle which he now used like a cane
it showed the five fingers of a soldier who had been clinging to it cut off and glued to the post marius remained outside a shot had just broken his collar bone he felt that he was fainting and falling at that moment with eyes already shut
he felt the shock of a vigorous hand seizing him and the swoon in which his senses vanished hardly allowed him time for the thought mingled with a last memory of cosette i am taken prisoner i shall be shot
and double locked it with key and chain while those outside were battering furiously at it the soldiers with the butts of their muskets the sappers with their axes the assailants were grouped about that door the siege of the wine shop was now beginning
the soldiers we will observe were full of wrath the death of the artillery sergeant had enraged them and then a still more melancholy circumstance during the few hours which had preceded the attack
and it was a false report of this kind which later on
when the door was barricaded enjolras said to the others let us sell our lives dearly
beneath the black cloth two straight and rigid forms were visible
just as he had kissed his brow on the preceding evening these were the only two kisses which he had bestowed in the course of his life let us abridge the tale the barricade had fought like a gate of thebes the wine shop fought like a house of saragossa
these resistances are dogged no quarter no flag of truce possible men are willing to die provided their opponent will kill them when suchet says capitulate palafox replies after the war with cannon the war with knives
nothing was lacking in the capture by assault of the hucheloup wine shop neither paving stones raining from the windows and the roof on the besiegers and exasperating the soldiers by crushing them horribly nor shots fired from the attic windows and the cellar
nor finally when the door yielded the frenzied madness of extermination the assailants rushing into the wine shop their feet entangled in the panels of the door which had been beaten in and flung on the ground found not a single combatant there
the spiral staircase hewn asunder with the axe lay in the middle of the tap room a few wounded men were just breathing their last
through the hole in the ceiling which had formed the entrance of the stairs a terrific fire burst forth
when they were exhausted when these formidable men on the point of death had no longer either powder or ball
and of which we have spoken and held the scaling party in check with these frightfully fragile clubs
we relate these gloomy incidents of carnage as they occurred the besieged man alas converts everything into a weapon greek fire did not disgrace archimedes boiling pitch did not disgrace bayard
all war is a thing of terror and there is no choice in it the musketry of the besiegers though confined and embarrassed by being directed from below upwards was deadly the rim of the hole in the ceiling was speedily surrounded by heads of the slain
red and smoking streams the uproar was indescribable a close and burning smoke almost produced night over this combat
the attack was a hurricane on the evening before in the darkness the barricade had been approached silently as by a boa now in broad daylight in that widening street surprise was decidedly impossible
rude force had moreover been unmasked the cannon had begun the roar the army hurled itself on the barricade fury now became skill a powerful detachment of infantry of the line
broken at regular intervals by the national guard and the municipal guard on foot and supported by serried masses which could be heard though not seen
with drums beating trumpets braying bayonets levelled the sappers at their head and imperturbable under the projectiles charged straight for the barricade with the weight of a brazen beam against a wall the wall held firm
the insurgents fired impetuously the barricade once scaled had a mane of lightning flashes the assault was so furious that for one moment it was inundated with assailants
but it shook off the soldiers as the lion shakes off the dogs and it was only covered with besiegers as the cliff is covered with foam to re appear a moment later beetling black and formidable
the column forced to retreat remained massed in the street unprotected but terrible and replied to the redoubt with a terrible discharge of musketry any one who has seen fireworks
will recall the sheaf formed of interlacing lightnings which is called a bouquet let the reader picture to himself this bouquet no longer vertical but horizontal bearing a bullet buck shot
from its clusters of lightning the barricade was underneath it on both sides the resolution was equal the bravery exhibited there was almost barbarous and was complicated with a sort of heroic ferocity
which began by the sacrifice of self this was the epoch when a national guardsman fought like a zouave the troop wished to make an end of it insurrection was desirous of fighting
the acceptance of the death agony in the flower of youth and in the flush of health turns intrepidity into frenzy in this fray each one underwent the broadening growth of the death hour the street was strewn with corpses
the barricade had enjolras at one of its extremities and marius at the other enjolras who carried the whole barricade in his head reserved and sheltered himself three soldiers fell one after the other
under his embrasure without having even seen him marius fought unprotected he made himself a target he stood with more than half his body above the breastworks
there is no more violent prodigal than the avaricious man who takes the bit in his teeth there is no man more terrible in action than a dreamer marius was formidable and pensive in battle he was as in a dream
one would have pronounced him a phantom engaged in firing a gun the insurgents cartridges were giving out but not their sarcasms in this whirlwind of the sepulchre in which they stood they laughed
or they uttered haughty comments
bitterly those men and he cited names well known names even celebrated names some belonging to the old army
and who are our generals and who abandon us and combeferre restricted himself to replying with a grave smile there are people who observe the rules of honor as one observes the stars from a great distance
the interior of the barricade was so strewn with torn cartridges
the assailants had numbers in their favor the insurgents had position
the horror of the situation kept increasing then there burst forth on that heap of paving stones in that rue de la chanvrerie a battle worthy of a wall of troy these haggard ragged exhausted men
who had but a few more rounds to fire who were fumbling in their pockets which had been emptied of cartridges nearly all of whom were wounded with head or arm bandaged with black and blood stained linen with holes in their clothes from which the blood trickled
and who were hardly armed with poor guns and notched swords became titans the barricade was ten times attacked approached assailed scaled and never captured in order to form an idea of this struggle
it is necessary to imagine fire set to a throng of terrible courages and then to gaze at the conflagration it was not a combat it was the interior of a furnace there mouths breathed the flame
there countenances were extraordinary the human form seemed impossible there the combatants flamed forth there
the successive and simultaneous scenes of this grand slaughter we renounce all attempts at depicting the epic alone has the right to fill twelve thousand verses with a battle
the most redoubtable of the seventeen abysses
they fought hand to hand foot to foot with pistol shots with blows of the sword with their fists at a distance close at hand from above from below from everywhere from the roofs of the houses
from the cellar windows whither some had crawled they were one against sixty the facade of corinthe half demolished was hideous the window tattooed with grape shot had lost glass and frame and was nothing now but a shapeless hole
tumultuously blocked with paving stones bossuet was killed feuilly was killed courfeyrac was killed combeferre transfixed by three blows from a bayonet in the breast at the moment when he was lifting up a wounded soldier
when he expired marius still fighting was so riddled with wounds particularly in the head that his countenance disappeared beneath the blood
enjolras alone was not struck
he reached out his hands to right and left and an insurgent thrust some arm or other into his fist all he had left was the stumps of four swords
son of teuthranis who dwelt in happy arisba euryalus son of mecistaeus exterminates dresos and opheltios esepius and that pedasus whom the naiad
antilochus
astyalus polydamas
agamemnon king of the heroes flings to earth elatos born in the rocky city which is laved by the sounding river
with a cobbler's shoulder stick of fire
our ancient mural frescoes
in ermine the other draped in azure
the ducal morion to have in the fist like esplandian a living flame
in which the tree with the zinc plaster appears again some time after the events which we have just recorded sieur boulatruelle experienced a lively emotion sieur boulatruelle
boulatruelle as the reader may perchance recall was a man who was occupied with divers and troublesome matters he broke stones and damaged travellers on the highway road mender and thief as he was he cherished one dream
he believed in the treasures buried in the forest of montfermeil he hoped some day to find the money in the earth at the foot of a tree
nevertheless for an instant he was prudent he had just escaped neatly he had been as the reader is aware picked up in jondrette's garret
or a man who had been robbed an order of nolle prosequi
broken stone for the good of the state
but he was addicted none the less tenderly to the wine which had recently saved him as for the lively emotion which he had experienced a short time after his return to his road mender's turf thatched cot here it is
to his work and possibly also to his ambush a little before daybreak caught sight through the branches of the trees of a man whose back alone he saw but the shape of whose shoulders as it seemed to him at that distance and in the early dusk
was not entirely unfamiliar to him boulatruelle although intoxicated had a correct and lucid memory a defensive arm that is indispensable to any one who is at all in conflict with legal order
he said to himself but he could make himself no answer except that the man resembled some one of whom his memory preserved a confused trace however apart from the identity which he could not manage to catch boulatruelle
put things together and made calculations this man did not belong in the country side
why was he in these woods
what had he come there for boulatruelle thought of the treasure by dint of ransacking his memory
had a similar alarm in connection with a man who produced on him the effect that he might well be this very individual by the deuce said boulatruelle i'll find him again i'll discover the parish of that parishioner
and as one knots one thread to another thread
at his best pace in the direction which the man must follow and set out across the thickets when he had compassed a hundred strides the day which was already beginning to break came to his assistance footprints stamped in the sand
who stretches herself when she wakes
he followed it then lost it time was flying he plunged deeper into the woods and came to a sort of eminence an early huntsman who was passing in the distance along a path
old as he was he was agile there stood close at hand a beech tree of great size worthy of tityrus and of boulatruelle boulatruelle ascended the beech as high as he was able the idea was a good one
on scrutinizing the solitary waste on the side where the forest is thoroughly entangled and wild boulatruelle suddenly caught sight of his man hardly had he got his eye upon him when he lost sight of him
the man entered or rather glided into an open glade at a considerable distance masked by large trees but with which boulatruelle was perfectly familiar on account of having noticed near a large pile of porous stones
an ailing chestnut tree bandaged with a sheet of zinc nailed directly upon the bark
the heap of stones destined for no one knows what employment
the lair was unearthed the question now was to seize the beast that famous treasure of his dreams was probably there it was no small matter to reach that glade
it required a good quarter of an hour in a bee line through the underbrush which is peculiarly dense very thorny and very aggressive in that locality a full half hour was necessary boulatruelle committed the error
of not comprehending this he believed in the straight line a respectable optical illusion which ruins many a man the thicket bristling as it was struck him as the best road
was on this occasion guilty of the fault of going straight he flung himself resolutely into the tangle of undergrowth he had to deal with holly bushes nettles hawthorns eglantines thistles
and very irascible brambles he was much lacerated
as there would be agents coming to pack up the antiquities then leaning to kiss her on the brow
where the little painted tabernacle was and where she was then sitting so that she might be away from the noise of strange footsteps romola assented quietly
the night had been one long waking to her and in spite of her healthy frame sensation had become a dull continuous pain as if she had been stunned and bruised tito divined that she felt ill but he dared say no more
he only dared perceiving that her hand and brow were stone cold to fetch a furred mantle and throw it lightly round her and in every brief interval that he returned to her the scene was nearly the same
or of looking at him patience he said to himself she will recover it and forgive at last
when the stricken person is slow to recover and look as if nothing had happened the striker easily glides into the position of the aggrieved party he feels no bruise himself and is strongly conscious of his own amiable behaviour
since he inflicted the blow but tito was not naturally disposed to feel himself aggrieved the constant bent of his mind was towards propitiation
of feeling romola's hand resting on his head again as it did that morning when he first shrank from looking at her
because his life out of doors was more and more interesting to him a course of action which is in strictness a slowly prepared outgrowth of the entire character
as its point of apparent origin and since that moment in the piazza del duomo when tito mounted on the bales had tasted a keen pleasure in the consciousness of his ability to tickle the ears of men with any phrases that pleased them
his imagination had glanced continually towards a sort of political activity which the troubled public life of florence was likely enough to find occasion for but the fresh dread of baldassarre
waked in the same moment had lain like an immovable rocky obstruction across that path and had urged him into the sale of the library as a preparation for the possible necessity of leaving florence
at the very time when he was beginning to feel that it had a new attraction for him that dread was nearly removed now he must wear his armour still
but he did not feel obliged to take the inconvenient step of leaving florence and seeking new fortunes his father had refused the offered atonement had forced him into defiance and an old man
in a strange place with his memory gone was weak enough to be defied tito's implicit desires were working themselves out now in very explicit thoughts as the freshness of young passion faded
life was taking more and more decidedly for him the aspect of a game in which there was an agreeable mingling of skill and chance and the game that might be played in florence promised to be rapid and exciting it was a game of revolutionary and party struggle
sure to include plenty of that unavowed action in which brilliant ingenuity able to get rid of all inconvenient beliefs except that ginger is hot in the mouth is apt to see the path of superior wisdom
no sooner were the french guests gone than florence was as agitated as a colony of ants when an alarming shadow has been removed and the camp has to be repaired
till those questions were well answered trade was in danger of standing still and that large body of the working men who were not counted as citizens and had not so much as a vote to serve as an anodyne to their stomachs were likely to get impatient
something must be done and first the great bell was sounded
came out and stood by the stone lion on the platform in front of the old palace and proposed that twenty chief men of the city
but not so the debating inside the palace
where all the officers of government might be elected
without question of rank or party
in which the hereditary influence of good families would be less adulterated with the votes of shopkeepers doctors of law disputed day after day and far on into the night
it was a question of boiled or roast which had been prejudged by the palates of the disputants
the majority of the men inside the palace having power already in their hands agreed with vespucci
were less afraid of change and there was a force outside the palace
that force was the preaching of savonarola impelled partly by the spiritual necessity that was laid upon him to guide the people and partly by the prompting of public men who could get no measures carried without his aid
he was rapidly passing in his daily sermons from the general to the special from telling his hearers that they must postpone their private passions and interests to the public good
to telling them precisely what sort of government they must have in order to promote that good from
to choose the great council and the great council is the will of god to savonarola these were as good as identical propositions the great council was the only practicable plan
and the purer the government of florence would become the more secure from the designs of men who saw their own advantage in the moral debasement of their fellows the nearer would the florentine people approach the character of a pure community
worthy to lead the way in the renovation of the church and the world
he had no private malice he sought no petty gratification
they brought no sign from baldassarre and in spite of special watch on the part of the government no revelation of the suspected conspiracy
and bridged the phantom crowded space of anxiety with active sympathy in immediate trial they brought the spreading plague and the excommunication of savonarola
and to rivet again her attachment to the man who had opened to her the new life of duty and who seemed now to be worsted in the fight for principle against profligacy
without remembering that she owed this transcendent moral life to fra girolamo she could not witness the silencing
of a man whose distinction from the great mass of the clergy lay not in any heretical belief not in his superstitions but in the energy with which he sought to make the christian life a reality
without feeling herself drawn strongly to his side far on in the hot days of june the excommunication for some weeks arrived from rome was solemnly published in the duomo romola went to witness the scene
which was one source of her strength it was in memorable contrast with the scene she had been accustomed to witness there instead of upturned citizen faces filling the vast area under the morning light
and making a garland of hope around the memories of age instead of the mighty voice thrilling all hearts with the sense of great things visible and invisible to be struggled for there were the bare walls at evening made more sombre by the glimmer of tapers
in the pauses of a monotonous voice reading a sentence which had already been long hanging up in the churches
the question where the duty of obedience ends and the duty of resistance begins could in no case be an easy one
not a compromise of parties to secure a more or less approximate justice in the appropriation of funds but a living organism
to most of the pious florentines
that belief in the divine potency of the church was not an embraced opinion it was an inalienable impression like the concavity of the blue firmament and the boldness of savonarola's written arguments
that the excommunication was unjust and that being unjust it was not valid only made them tremble the more as a defiance cast at a mystic image
there was neither weapon nor defence but romola whose mind had not been allowed to draw its early nourishment from the traditional associations of the christian community in which her father had lived a life apart
felt her relation to the church only through savonarola his moral force had been the only authority to which she had bowed and in his excommunication she only saw the menace of hostile vice on one side she saw a man
whose life was devoted to the ends of public virtue and spiritual purity and on the other the assault of alarmed selfishness headed by a lustful greedy lying and murderous old man
as pope alexander the sixth the finer shades of fact which soften the edge of such antitheses are not apt to be seen except by neutrals who are not distressed to discern some folly in martyrs and some judiciousness
in the men who burnt them but romola required a strength that neutrality could not give and this excommunication
by bringing into prominence its wider relations seemed to come to her like a rescue from the threatening isolation of criticism and doubt
from that smaller antagonism against florentine enemies into which he continually fell in the unchecked excitement of the pulpit and presented himself simply as appealing to the christian world against a vicious exercise
of ecclesiastical power he was a standard bearer leaping into the breach life never seems so clear and easy as when the heart is beating faster at the sight of some generous self risking deed
we feel no doubt then what is the highest prize the soul can win we almost believe in our own power to attain it by a new current of such enthusiasm romola was helped through these difficult summer days
that would apprise him of her late interview with baldassarre and the revelation he had made to her what would such agitating difficult words win from him no admission of the truth nothing probably but a cool sarcasm about her sympathy with his assassin
baldassarre was evidently helpless the thing to be feared was not that he should injure tito but that tito coming upon his traces should carry out some new scheme for ridding himself of the injured man who was a haunting dread to him
romola felt that she could do nothing decisive until she had seen baldassarre again and learned the full truth about that other wife learned whether she were the wife to whom tito was first bound the possibilities about that other wife
which involved the worst wound to her hereditary pride mingled themselves as a newly embittering suspicion with the earliest memories of her illusory love eating away the lingering associations of tenderness with the past image of her husband
made her shrink from tito with a horror which would perhaps have urged some passionate speech in spite of herself if he had not been more than usually absent from home like many of the wealthier citizens in that time of pestilence
he spent the intervals of business chiefly in the country
and since romola had refused to leave the city he had no need to provide a country residence of his own but at last in the later days of july the alleviation of those public troubles which had absorbed her activity and much of her thought
left romola to a less counteracted sense of her personal lot the plague had almost disappeared
who were writing urgent vindicatory letters to rome on his behalf entreating the withdrawal of the excommunication romola's healthy and vigorous frame was undergoing the reaction of languor inevitable
varying her direction as much as possible with the vague hope that if baldassarre were still alive she might encounter him perhaps some illness had brought a new paralysis of memory and he had forgotten where she lived forgotten even her existence
and took my canoe and went over the river a fishing with a lunch and had a good time and took a look at the raft and found her all right
and got home late to supper and found them in such a sweat and worry
because we knowed as much about it as anybody did and as soon as we was half up stairs and her back was turned we slid for the cellar cupboard and loaded up a good lunch
and took it up to our room and went to bed and got up about half past eleven and tom put on aunt sally's dress that he stole and was going to start with the lunch but says
where's the butter i laid out a hunk of it i says
we can get along without it i says we can get along with it too he says just you slide down cellar and fetch it
and then mosey right down the lightning rod and come along i'll go and stuff the straw into jim's clothes to represent his mother in disguise and be ready to baa like a sheep and shove
so out he went and down cellar went i the hunk of butter
was where i had left it
and started up stairs very stealthy and got up to the main floor all right but here comes aunt sally with a candle and i clapped the truck in my hat
and clapped my hat on my head and the next second she see me and she says you been down cellar yes'm what you been doing down there noth'n noth'n
well then what possessed you to go down there this time of night i don't know m you don't know don't answer me that way tom
and as a generl thing she would but i s'pose there was so many strange things going on she was just in a sweat about every little thing that warn't yard stick straight so she says
very decided you just march into that setting room and stay there till i come you been up to something you no business to and i lay i'll find out what it is before i'm done with you
and all of them fidgety and uneasy but trying to look like they warn't but i knowed they was because they was always taking off their hats and putting them on
and scratching their heads and changing their seats and fumbling with their buttons i warn't easy myself but i didn't take my hat off all the same
i did wish aunt sally would come and get done with me and lick me if she wanted to
and what a thundering hornet's nest we'd got ourselves into so we could stop fooling around straight off and clear out with jim before these rips got out of patience and come for us
at last she come and begun to ask me questions but i couldn't answer them straight i didn't know which end of me was up
and lay for them desperadoes and saying it warn't but a few minutes to midnight and others was trying to get them to hold on and wait for the sheep signal and here was aunty
pegging away at the questions and me a shaking all over and ready to sink down in my tracks i was that scared and the place getting hotter and hotter
and the butter beginning to melt and run down my neck and behind my ears and pretty soon when one of them says
i'm for going and getting in the cabin first and right now and catching them when they come i most dropped
and aunt sally she see it and turns white as a sheet and says for the land's sake what is the matter with the child he's got the brain fever as shore as you're born
and she grabbed me and hugged me and says
i was up stairs in a second and down the lightning rod in another one and shinning through the dark for the lean to
but i told tom as quick as i could we must jump for it now and not a minute to losethe
his eyes just blazed and he says no is that so ain't it bully why huck if it was to do over again
he's dressed and everything's ready now we'll slide out and give the sheep signal but then we heard the tramp of men coming to the door and heard them begin to fumble with the pad lock
i told you we'd be too soon they haven't comethe
here i'll lock some of you into the cabin and you lay for em in the dark and kill em when they come and the rest scatter around a piece
but couldn't see us in the dark and most trod on us whilst we was hustling to get under the bed but we got under all right and out through the hole swift but soft
jim first me next and tom last which was according to tom's orders now we was in the lean to
so we crept to the door
and the steps a scraping around out there all the time and at last he nudged us and we slid out and stooped down not breathing and not making the least noise and slipped
stealthy towards the fence in injun file and got to it all right and me and jim over it but tom's britches catched fast on a splinter on the top rail
and then he hear the steps coming so he had to pull loose which snapped the splinter and made a noise and as he dropped in our tracks and started somebody sings out
who's that answer or i'll shoot but we didn't answer we just unfurled our heels and shoved then there was a rush and a
but we didn't wear no boots and didn't yell we was in the path to the mill and when they got pretty close on to us we dodged into the bush
and let them go by and then dropped in behind them they'd had all the dogs shut up so they wouldn't scare off the robbers but by this time somebody had let them loose
and here they come making powwow enough for a million but they was our dogs so we stopped in our tracks till they catched up and when they see it warn't nobody but us
and whizzed along after them till we was nearly to the mill and then struck up through the bush to where my canoe was tied and hopped in and pulled for dear life towards the middle of the river
then we struck out easy and comfortable for the island where my raft was and we could hear them yelling and barking at each other all up and down the bank
the sounds got dim and died out and when we stepped on to the raft i says now old jim you're a free man again
and i bet you won't ever be a slave no more en a mighty good job it wuz too huck
we was all glad as we could be but tom was the gladdest of all because he had a bullet in the calf of his leg when me and jim heard that
we didn't feel so brash as what we did before it was hurting him considerable and bleeding so we laid him in the wigwam
but he says gimme the rags i can do it myself don't stop now don't fool around here and the evasion booming along so handsome
man the sweeps and set her loose boys we done it elegant deed we did
no son of saint louis ascend to heaven wrote down in his biography no sir we'd a whooped him over the border
and done it just as slick as nothing at all too
and after we'd thought a minute i says say it jim so he says well den dis is de way it look to me huck
would he say go on en save me
is dat like mars tom sawyer would he say dat you bet he wouldn't well den
no sah i doan budge a step out'n dis place
not if it's forty year i knowed he was white inside
and i told tom i was a going for a doctor he raised considerable row about it but me and jim stuck to it and wouldn't budge
so he was for crawling out and setting the raft loose himself but we wouldn't let him then he give us a piece of his mind
but it didn't do no good so when he sees me getting the canoe ready he says
if you're bound to go i'll tell you the way to do when you get to the village
and everywheres in the dark and then fetch him here in the canoe
and search him and take his chalk away from him
a very nice kind looking old man when i got him up i told him me and my brother was over on spanish island hunting yesterday afternoon
and camped on a piece of a raft we found and about midnight he must a kicked his gun in his dreams for it went off and shot him in the leg
and we wanted him to go over there and fix it and not say nothing about it nor let anybody know because we wanted to come home this evening and surprise the folks who is your folks he says
down yonder oh he says and after a minute he says how'd you say he got shot he had a dream i says and it shot him
singular dream he says so he lit up his lantern and got his saddle bags and we started but when he sees the canoe he didn't like the look of
hersaid she was big enough for one but didn't look pretty safe for two i says
she carried the three of us easy enough what three why me and sid
oh he says but he put his foot on the gunnel and rocked her and shook his head and said he reckoned he'd look around for a bigger one but they was all locked and chained
so he took my canoe and said for me to wait till he come back or i could hunt around further or maybe i better go down home and get them ready for the surprise if i wanted to
what are we going to do
no sir i know what i'll do i'll wait and when he comes back if he says he's got to go any more i'll get down there too if i swim
and we'll take and tie him and keep him and shove out down the river
or all we got and then let him get ashore so then
and next time i waked up the sun was away up over my head i shot out and went for the doctor's house but they told me he'd gone away in the night some time or other
and warn't back yet well thinks i that looks powerful bad for tom and i'll dig out for the island right off
and nearly rammed my head into uncle silas's stomach he says why tom where you been all this time you rascal i hain't been nowheres i says
why where ever did you go he says your aunt's been mighty uneasy she needn't i says because we was all right we followed the men and the dogs
but they outrun us and we lost them but we thought we heard them on the water so we got a canoe and took out after them and crossed over but couldn't find nothing of them
so we cruised along up shore till we got kind of tired and beat out and tied up the canoe and went to sleep and never waked up till about an hour ago
to see what he can hear and i'm a branching out to get something to eat for us and then we're going home so then we went to the post office to get sid but just as i suspicioned
he warn't there so the old man he got a letter out of the office and we waited awhile longer but sid didn't come so the old man said come along
let sid foot it home or canoe it when he got done fooling aroundbut
i couldn't get him to let me stay and wait for sid and he said there warn't no use in it and i must come along and let aunt sally see we was all right when we got home
aunt sally was that glad to see me she laughed and cried both and hugged me and give me one of them lickings of hern that don't amount to shucks and said she'd serve sid the same when he come
and the place was plum full of farmers and farmers wives to dinner and such another clack a body never heard old missus hotchkiss was the worst
s i he's crazy
you all hearn me
n here so n so pegged along for thirty seven year
it's what i says in the middle
anyway n who dug that air hole n who my very words
i was a sayin to sister dunlap
look at them case knife saws and things how tedious they've been made look at that bed leg sawed off with m
look at that nigger made out'n straw on the bed and look at
i lay it never sawed itself off
take it or leave it
sister phelps look at that shirtevery
kivered over with secret african writ'n done with blood
why i'd give two dollars to have it read to me
why they've stole everything they could lay their hands onand we a watching all the time mind you
and as for that sheet they made the rag ladder out of ther ain't no telling how many times they didn't steal that and flour and candles and candlesticks and spoons
and the old warming pan and most a thousand things that i disremember now and my new calico dress and me and silas and my sid and tom on the constant watch day and night
as i was a telling you
nor sight nor sound of them
and not only fools us but the injun territory robbers too and actuly gets away with that nigger safe and sound
and that with sixteen men and twenty two dogs right on their very heels at that very time i tell you it just bangs anything i ever heard of
you explain that to me if you can any of you well it does beat
why i was that scared i dasn't hardly go to bed or get up or lay down or set down sister ridgeway why
guess what kind of a fluster i was in by the time midnight come last night i hope to gracious if i warn't afraid they'd steal some o the family
i was just to that pass i didn't have no reasoning faculties no more it looks foolish enough now in the daytime but i says to myself
way up stairs in that lonesome room
and it keeps running on and getting worse and worse all the time and your wits gets to addling and you get to doing all sorts o wild things and by and by you think to yourself spos'n i was a boy
and the door ain't locked and you she stopped looking kind of wondering and then she turned her head around slow and when her eye lit on me i got up and took a walk
and study over it a little so i done it but i dasn't go fur or she'd a sent for me and when it was late in the day the people all went and then i come in
and told her the noise and shooting waked up me and sid and the door was locked
and we didn't never want to try that no more and then i went on and told her all what i told uncle silas before and then she said she'd forgive us and maybe it was all right enough anyway
and about what a body might expect of boys for all boys was a pretty harum scarum lot as fur as she could see and so as long as no harm hadn't come of it
she judged she better put in her time being grateful we was alive and well and she had us still stead of fretting over what was past and done so then she kissed me and patted me on the head
and pretty soon jumps up and says why lawsamercy it's most night and sid not come yet what has become of that boy i see my chance so i skips up and says
no you won't she says you'll stay right wher you are one's enough to be lost at a time if he ain't here to supper your uncle ll go well
he warn't there to supper so right after supper uncle went he come back about ten a little bit uneasy
aunt sally was a good deal uneasy
and keep a light burning so he could see it and then when i went up to bed she come up with me and fetched her candle and tucked me in
and mothered me so good i felt mean and like i couldn't look her in the face and she set down on the bed and talked with me a long time and said what a splendid boy sid was
and didn't seem to want to ever stop talking about him and kept asking me every now and then if i reckoned he could a got lost or hurt or maybe drownded
and might be laying at this minute somewheres suffering or dead and she not by him to help him and so the tears would drip down silent
and would be home in the morning sure and she would squeeze my hand or maybe kiss me and tell me to say it again and keep on saying it because it done her good and she was in so much trouble
and when she was going away she looked down in my eyes so steady and gentle and says the door ain't going to be locked tom and there's the window and the rod
but you'll be good won't you and you won't go for my sake laws knows i wanted to go bad enough to see about tom and was all intending to go
but after that i wouldn't a went not for kingdoms but she was on my mind and tom was on my mind so i slept very restless
and twice i went down the rod away in the night and slipped around front and see her setting there by her candle in the window
and the tears in them and i wished i could do something for her but i couldn't only to swear that i wouldn't never do nothing to grieve her any more
lay over the great prison here and there in the grim corridors a guard dozed in the glare of an electric light and in the office too a desk light
poring over a report once he glanced up at the clock it was five minutes of eleven and then he went on with his reading after a little the silence was broken by the whir of the clock
and the first sharp stroke of the hour and at just that moment the door from the street opened and a man entered he was rather tall and slender
for a bare fraction of a second the two men stared at each other then instinctively the warden's right hand moved toward the open drawer of his desk where a revolver lay
and his left toward several electrically connected levers the intruder noted both gestures and unarmed himself stood silent the warden was first to speak well what is it
you have a prisoner here pietro petrozinni was the reply in a pleasant voice i have come to demand his release the warden's right hand was raised above the desk top and the revolver in it clicked warningly
he still sat motionless with his eyes fixed on the black mask how did you pass the outside guard he was bribed was the ready response now warden the masked intruder continued pacifically
it would be much more pleasant all around
he tapped on the desk with the revolver oh that isn't loaded said the masked man quietly one quick glance at the weapon showed the warden that the cartridges had been drawn
that which should arouse the jailers turnkeys and guards instead of the insistent clangor which he expected there was silence that wire has been cut the stranger volunteered
with clenched teeth the warden pulled the police alarm and that wire was cut too the stranger explained the warden came to his feet with white face and nails biting into the palms of his hands
he still held the revolver as he advanced upon the masked man threateningly not too close now
with a sudden hardening of his voice believe me
would be best for you to release this man because it must be done pleasantly or otherwise i have no desire to injure you still less do i intend that you shall injure me
i want your prisoner signor petrozinni you will release him at once that's all the warden paused dazed incredulous before the audacity of it
it has been made impossible for you to give an alarm the stranger went on the very men on whom you most depended have been bought and even if they were within sound of your voice now they wouldn't respond
one of your assistants who has been here for years unloaded the revolver in the desk there and less than an hour ago cut the prison alarm wire i personally cut the police alarm outside the building so you see
save the unloaded revolver in the warden's hand at no time had the stranger's voice been raised his tone was a perfectly normal one besides yourself there are only five other men employed here
who are now awake the masked man continued these are
they have all been bought the turnkeys at five thousand dollars each and the outer guard at seven thousand the receipt of all of this money is conditional upon the release of signor petrozinni therefore
it is to their interest to aid me as against you i am telling you all this frankly and fully
any resistance would be but who
that such powerful influences should be brought to bear in his behalf demanded the bewildered warden
and senor alvarez is at the point of death that i think makes it clear now if you'll sit down please sit down bellowed the warden suddenly he was seized by a violent maddening rage
he took one step forward and raised the empty revolver to strike the masked man moved slightly to one side and his clenched fist caught the warden on the point of the chin
the official went down without a sound and lay still inert a moment later the door leading into the corridor of the prison opened
the masked man glanced around at them and with a motion of his head indicated the door leading to the street they passed through closing the door behind them for a little time the intruder stood staring down at the still body
there has been a jail delivery at the prison he said in answer to the hello of the desk sergeant at the other end of the wire better send some of your men up to investigate
the stranger replaced the receiver on the hook stripped off his black mask dropped it on the floor beside the motionless warden and went out
of young and old of male and female forth they streamed from factories and workrooms
live for themselves great numbers were still bent over their labour and would be for hours to come but the majority had leave to wend stablewards along the main thoroughfares the wheel track was clangorous
every omnibus that clattered by was heavily laden with passengers tarpaulins gleamed over the knees of those who sat outside this way and that the lights were blurred into a misty radiance overhead was mere blackness whence descended the lashing rain
there was a ceaseless scattering of mud there were blocks in the traffic attended with rough jest or angry curse there was jostling on the crowded pavement public houses began to brighten up to bestir themselves for the evening's business
being abandoned to silence and darkness and the sweeping wind at noon to day there was sunlight on the surrey hills the fields and lanes were fragrant with the first breath of spring and from the shelter of budding copses
many a primrose looked tremblingly up to the vision of blue sky but of these things clerkenwell takes no count here it had been a day like any other consisting of so many hours each representing a fraction of the weekly wage
it is not as in those parts of london where the main thoroughfares consist of shops and warehouses and workrooms
hidden away on either hand are devoted in the main to dwellings
all but every door and window exhibits the advertisement of a craft that is carried on within here you may see how men have multiplied toil for toil's sake have wrought to devise work superfluous have worn their lives away in imagining new forms of weariness
who strain their eyesight who overtax their muscles who nurse disease in their frames who put resolutely from them the thought of what existence might be
other creatures to strive with them for bread
workers in metal workers in glass and in enamel workers in weed workers in every substance on earth or from the waters under the earth that can be made commercially valuable in clerkenwell the demand is not so much for rude strength as for the cunning fingers and the contriving brain
the inscriptions on the house fronts would make you believe that you were in a region of gold and silver and precious stones
craftsmen are for ever handling jewellery shaping bright ornaments for the necks and arms of such as are born to the joy of life wealth inestimable is ever flowing through these workshops and the hands that have been stained with gold dust may
as likely as not some day extend themselves in petition for a crust in this house as the announcement tells you
yet somehow the heart grows heavy somehow the blood is troubled in its course and the pulses begin to throb hotly amid the crowds of workpeople jane snowdon made what speed she might it was her custom whenever dispatched on an errand to run till she could run no longer
then to hasten along panting until breath and strength were recovered when it was either of the peckovers who sent her she knew that reprimand was inevitable on her return be she ever so speedy but her nature was incapable alike of rebellion
she did not serve her tyrants with willingness for their brutality filled her with a sense of injustice yet the fact that she was utterly dependent upon them for her livelihood that but for their grace as they were perpetually reminding her she would have been a workhouse child
had a mitigating effect upon the bitterness she could not wholly subdue there was however another reason why she sped eagerly on her present mission the man to whom she was conveying missus hewett's message was one of the very few persons who had ever treated her with human kindness
she had known him by name and by sight for some years and since her mother's death she was eleven when that happened he had by degrees grown to represent all that she understood by the word friend it was seldom that words were exchanged between them
the opportunity came scarcely oftener than once a month but whenever it did come it made a bright moment in her existence once before she had fetched him of an evening to see missus hewett and as they walked together he had spoken with what seemed to her wonderful gentleness
well dressed and well to do in the world perhaps he would speak in the same way to night the thought of it made her regardless of the cold rain that was drenching her miserable garment of the wind that now and then as she turned a corner took away her breath and made her cease from running
h lewis working jeweller it was just possible that the men had already left she waited for several minutes with anxious mind
jane's eagerness impelled her to address one of them please sir mister kirkwood hasn't gone yet has he no he ain't the man answered pleasantly and turning back he called to some one within the doorway hello sidney here's your sweetheart waiting for you
he seemed to be absent minded and for some hundred yards distance was silent then he stopped of a sudden and looked down at his companion why jane he said
he touched her dress i thought so you're wet through there followed an inarticulate growl and immediately he stripped off his short overcoat
jane felt her heart sinking
and that sidney kirkwood might reasonably be anxious to get over the ground as quickly as possible
still poorly eh and the baby then he was again mute jane had something she wished to say to him wished very much indeed yet she felt it would have been difficult even if he had encouraged her as he kept silence
and walked so quickly speech on her part was utterly forbidden
she was an odd figure thus disguised in his over jacket
feel a bit warmer so he asked
it's all to pieces sir they're goin to have it mended i think
going to eh i think they'd better be quick about it ha
she allowed herself one quick glance at him do i walk too quick for you oh no sir mister kirkwood please there's something i the sentence had as it were begun itself but timidity cut it short sidney stopped and looked at her
it was of what had happened in the public house the young man listened with much attention walking very slowly he got her to repeat her second hand description of the old man who had been inquiring for people named
he exclaimed with annoyance have you any idea who he was
jane replied sadly sidney took a hopeful tone
being so near the house where jane's parents had lived i'll keep my eyes open he said
jane's reply left small doubt on that score her companion looked down at her again and said with compassionate gentleness
things'll be better some day no doubt
sidney muttered to himself as he had done before like one who is angry
under the ghastly head now happily concealed by darkness jane stopped a little short of the house and removed the coat that had so effectually sheltered her thank you sir she said returning it to sidney he took it without speaking and threw it over his arm
at the door now closed jane gave a single knock they were admitted by clem
and such neglect was by no means what she was used to
clem accordingly behaved as if he had given her mortal offence on some recent occasion she took care moreover to fling a few fierce words at jane before the latter disappeared into the house thereupon sidney looked at her sternly
he said nothing knowing that interference would only result in harsher treatment for the poor little slave you know your way upstairs i b'lieve said clem as if he were all but a stranger
for many months now every visit had been with heavier heart his tap at the hewetts door had a melancholy sound to him a woman's voice bade him enter he stepped into a room which was not disorderly or unclean but presented the chill discomfort of poverty
the principal almost the only articles of furniture were a large bed a wash hand stand a kitchen table and two or three chairs of which the cane seats were bulged and torn a few meaningless pictures hung here and there and on the mantel piece which sloped forward somewhat
the living occupants were four children and their mother two little girls six and seven years old respectively were on the floor near the fire a boy of four was playing with pieces of fire wood at the table the remaining child was an infant
born but a fortnight ago lying at its mother's breast
her husband john hewett having two children by a previous union
disposed women who are only too ready to meet affliction half way and who if circumstances be calamitous are more harmful than an enemy to those they hold dear she was rather wrapped up
than dressed and her hair thin and pale coloured was tied in a ragged knot she wore slippers the upper parts of which still adhered to the soles only by miracle it looked very much as if the same
in the act of sucking one knew not how the poor woman could supply sustenance to another being
sidney stepped up to the bed and gave his hand i'm so glad you've come before clara said missus hewett i hoped you would but she can't be long
i want to get to the orspital if i can in a day or two but
you look as if you'd no business to be out of bed returned the young man in a grumbling voice oh i
but see i want to speak about clara that woman missus tubbs
she says she'll give clara five shillin a week as well as board an lodge her
i don't know what to do about it that i don't clara she's that set on goin an her father's that set against it
kirkwood looked about the room with face set in anxious discontent is it no use missus hewett he exclaimed suddenly turning to her does she mean it won't she ever listen to me
she's that eadstrong it seems as if she wouldn't listen to nobody at least nobody as we knows anything about
how can i tell i've got no reason for thinkin it but how can i tell no i believe it's nothin but her self will an the fancies she's got into her ead both her an bob there's no doin nothin with them bob he's that wasteful with his money an now he talks about
that ain't his idea nor yet his sister's i suppose it's their mother as they take after though their father he won't own to it
he's got his fancies but they've never made him selfish to others as well you know sidney
an i'll say it with my last breath she cried pitifully for a few moments sidney mastering his own wretchedness which he could not altogether conceal made attempts to strengthen her
it can't be much longer before he gets work and look here missus hewett i won't hear a word against it you must and shall let me lend you something to go on with
john won't have it he's always a saying
an it's all up you never earn no more of your own it's one of his fancies an you know it is you'll only make trouble sidney
no no john ain't selfish never say that it's only his fancies sidney
why shouldn't she go after all she's seventeen if she can't respect herself now she never will and there's no help for it tell john to let her go
with which he gave this advice he threw out his hands impatiently and then flung himself back
returned missus hewett plaintively we know well enough why missus tubbs wants her it's only because she's good lookin an she'll bring more people to the bar john knows that an it makes him wild
her father'll go out of his ead i know he will i know he will he worships the ground as she walks on an if it hadn't been for that she'd never have given him the trouble as she is doin
an my own father too but he was a hard father to us
as he didn't like he'd a killed me if i'd gone on like clara it was a good thing as he was gone before
interposed kirkwood with kindly firmness
no no not forgotten clara knows an that's partly why she makes so little of me i know it is i don't believe it she's a good hearted girl a heavy footstep on the stairs checked him
though not quite so stout as perfect health would have made him and had a face of singular attractiveness clear complexioned delicate featured
there was selfish force about the lips moreover which would have been better away
and the nod with which he greeted kirkwood was self sufficient where's that medal i cast last night mother
now do mind what you're up to bob remonstrated missus hewett
in his hand which was very black and shone as if from the manipulation of metals
on this occasion they appeared as friends however and welcome ones to boot for it had been a near matter that robin's history had been ended by master carfax on this day now were the tables turned and very completely
the foresters had been overcome by will and his outlaws thanks to the diversion brought about by the lincoln men much was sitting up with a more rueful countenance than he had when robin had first spied him on this morning and little sharp nosed midge was busy bathing and binding his cracked poll
some half score of the foresters with master ford had escaped along the road towards locksley the rest were bound and their horses confiscated by the outlaws master simeon with rage and terror depicted plainly upon his countenance
lay writhing at robin's feet bound with the very cord with which he had sought to end young fitzooth's life his enemies had trussed him across a quarter staff and had tied the knots large and tight about him well locksley how now
are the vapors passed can you twiddle your bow again not skilfully enough now to take place against you will smiled robin recovering himself more and more i am atrembling yet i had thought to see the blue sky no more
ay my man's arrow was not too soon locksley said will gravely this fellow's hand was upon the rope and another moment might have seen you gallows fruit upon this tree he paused to bend over a forester lying prone near them with his face buried in the grass
robin saw that the man's body was transfixed by an arrow he is no more will told them looking up presently your aim was a shrewd one hal he went on addressing himself to one of his band is he indeed dead asked robin in an awestruck voice
he turned to his men now comrades cried he have you searched our prisoners and prepared them tis well are they bound together then by the arms twos and threes as is appointed in our rules and is the right leg and left leg of each villain shackled together
stand them up then with their faces toward nottingham and bid them march there is yet this one captain said one of the men indicating carfax what shall we do with him has he been searched closely enquired will without waiting a reply
he roughly ran his fingers through master carfax's pockets and unfastened his tunic at the bosom a parchment dropped out and will snapped it up i come from the prince whined carfax speaking at last
why i have a very gracious message for you the outlaw gave a signal to his men set him upon his feet he ordered and loosen these cords now excellence speak at your ease believe him not master will
interposed stuteley afraid that carfax was going to turn the tables on them in some treacherous way he is a very proper rogue
every one is judged here in fairness these men pointing to the shamefaced miserable foresters were caught in the doing of an evil deed and so were dealt with summarily but this one did not seem to have a hand in it it was he who commanded them sir
suddenly shrilled the little lincoln named midge he is in sooth a diabolical villain and did very foully strike our companion here whilst men were holding him all testify against you excellence said the outlaw speaking again to carfax
what is your story of it speak without fear this rascal did imprudently waylay us on the road with a demand for money began carfax and i riding back at his noise
a notorious fellow who has defied my lord the sheriff's authority and has also been suspect of being of your company which is a thing saving your presence master cloudesley that has been poor recommendation in the past further
a most valued beast with sixteen pointed antlers as you can see we were but exercising the law upon him as is appointed that is to say master ford was directing his men to carry out the law said carfax with his thin cheeks pale with fear
i did but counsel prudence and plead for the youth enough cried will with contempt in his tones now tell me the message which the prince has sent by so worthy a messenger that is for your private ear said simeon cunningly
you may speak plainly before my comrades said will doubtless they are as interested in the royal words as i myself i was to bid you come at once to the city gate so many of you as would carfax said
there to receive the king's pardon from the hands of our beloved prince indeed his gracious highness did well expect to see you before him three days agone at the tourney dressed about with red ribbons i trow enquired the outlaw as if helping him
indeed yes master cloudesley you have said it indeed knowledge of your loyalty to us was brought to the prince by me by me good friend he repeated insinuatingly and now give back to me my parchment which being writ in the latin tongue
is truly no more than a cartel to my lord the abbot of york and let us set forth joyfully for henceforth ye will be as free men and what is past will be forgotten i can read you the scroll will said robin quietly i have some knowledge of the priestly tongue
the outlaw handed him the scroll and all waited in silence whilst robin deciphered it carfax snapped his teeth together in vexation at this unexpected turn he cannot read the parchment is it likely he cried
he will but pretend to read it and make lies with which to confound me tis writ in most scholarly latin that only few may learn there is treachery here for you will spoke robin without heeding these outcries
this is a notification from the prince to the abbot of york saying that his emissaries have sounded you and that you are ready with your men to strike for him i have said so much commented will naming three conditions they are written herein first
that a general amnesty is to be granted second that the ban of excommunication is to be removed from off you by the holy church and third that the prince shall find your men afterward honorable employment that is so locksley the letter is exact
so the prince writes to the abbot asking him to promise the second of your conditions saying that it need be only a promise for he has not the least intention of holding to a bargain with one so evil as yourself and that after he has won the throne from henry his father
matters such as these will be disposed of by his soldiery if need be
any clerk can read these lines to you will answered robin the prince continues praying for the welfare of them all at york and saying that he has already promised in the abbot's name that the loan shall be taken off that the abbot is to receive and watch narrowly one geoffrey of montfichet
who has been exiled for treason but who now imprudently has returned to work on their behalf in england now do i know that you are reading truly cried will and his brow grew black for how could you know that your cousin was concerned in this
you false hearted knave he added turning to carfax false as your false master your doom is sealed tie him up by his heels
be speedy men at this simeon carfax became as one quite demented and robin interposed let us not punish the man for his master's fault will cried he deal with him only on the score of my quarrel with him when i shall say let him go
for i should always feel shame were we to be as harsh with an enemy as he would be with us it would show us no better then he take him then since locksley will have it so and tie his legs under the belly of his horse
go and cut me the antlers from off yon poor beast when this was done he caused his men to attach the horns by means of a cord to master carfax's head then with his own hand will gave the horse a lead towards nottingham then with a view halloo
the steed bearing the unfortunate man was started in real earnest and the foresters sent staggering by after it along the road to nottingham when they were out of sight robin thanked the outlaw again for all that he had done for them will merely shrugged his shoulders as one who would say tis a matter not worth breath
robin begged them to take the body of the deer and with small reluctance the outlaws accepted the offer the lincoln men bade robin farewell also saying that they would now go on towards their own homes with a light heart for having met the outlaws and found them most agreeable company
they had no more fear of sherwood so robin and little stuteley waving farewell to all these strange friends moved on towards gamewell although robin really had little hope now of coming by the prince's grace into what seemed to be but his rights
the sheriff and simeon carfax would attend to that no doubt a curious dejection settled upon robin he had nothing but gloomy thoughts upon him as he trudged towards the squire's domain nor did his spirits rise at his reception by old gamewell
the squire appeared almost uneasy with him and was short in his speech although once or twice a kindlier light flashed in his bright eyes already he regrets that he should have pressed me to take up the montfichet name
thought robin to himself imagining that herein was the cause of the squire's distemper he began to tell montfichet of their doings and adventures but had no sooner come to that part of the narrative referring to the prince's purse than the squire broke out talk not to me of that man cried he vehemently
forsooth this has become an age of disobedience and unfilial behavior one has but to look round to find most sons alike the fifth commandment is now without meaning to the younger generation i have no father sir said poor robin
half in defense for gamewell looked so fiercely at him nor do i seek to keep you to your offer added he in his thoughts i was not thinking so much of you boy replied the squire and again a better expression shone briefly in his face give you good night robin locksley
you know your chamber sleep well and we will talk together in the morning the morning saw no easement of the squire's attitude towards robin and as soon as breakfast was ended he determined to go without wasting breath upon the errand which had brought him for sure
he is repenting of his offer reasoned robin perchance already his heart is moved again towards geoffrey and who shall be more glad than i to find this so i'll let the squire think it comes from me as in truth it does this whimsey to prefer the name of fitzooth to montfichet
so bravely as he was about to leave him robin spoke to the old man sir he said i have it in me to speak plain words with you and i may have no fear boy i am one who loves an open mind montfichet spoke with meaning well sir
i would say with reference to that which you once did press upon my mother and myself that i should take your name and half fortune with my cousin geoffrey that i have thought well upon your kind offer there was to be a year go by master fitzooth ere you should give answer
in a year or now sir said robin firmly i cannot see that i should accept i have no quarrel with my cousin and i will not come between him and your heart which pleads against yourself on his behalf
montfichet broke forth then and robin learned suddenly what had come between him and this strange capricious man no quarrel with geoffrey say you he shouted bringing his fist down with violence upon the oak table no i trow you have not robin fitzooth
but i have a quarrel both with him and you know that i have heard the story of your escapade with that mean son of mine who must come prowling like a thief in the night about the walls of gamewell i know the scarlet knight's secret and yours who did think it brave to deceive and outwit an old man
sir sir began robin aghast at this storm nay i will hear no more of it treachery and deceit always they hang about my house you deceived me robin fitzooth and cozened my servant warrenton
so i cast you out of my heart for ever for the rest of my days i will be sufficient unto myself after i am gone the dogs may quarrel above my grave for the bones of gamewell he almost pushed robin from him and turned brusquely away
dazed and confounded robin faltered rather than walked to reach stuteley who stood awaiting him in the courtyard without a word robin took his hand come will let us go he muttered thickly
chapter twelve so ingloriously they returned through the night to locksley none offered to stay them in the forest of sherwood indeed
had he not had such good reason to know otherwise it was as if will had silently yielded him that freedom of the forest which he boasted was his to give tired and footsore yet filled with a strange elation robin came back to locksley before dawn
with faithful stuteley forlornly following him there were questions to be asked and answered when they arrived and warrenton was very indignant when he heard of the prince's gross favoritism of his archer hubert robin seemed to show too little vexation in the matter warrenton thought
the man at arms was both perplexed and amazed by the semi indifference displayed by the youth here had he by marvellous skill won a fine prize and had seen the same snatched most unfairly from him and yet was not furiously enraged
but rather amused as it were surely surely you will go back with me to morrow and demand the purse from the sheriff said warrenton in argumentative attitude
nay it matters not so much as that warrenton the money i would like to have had i'll not deny it
said warrenton scratching his head now tell us whom you saw and how you contrived to split the norman's arrow he had already heard the story but was very fain to listen to it again it is a trick that i taught him dame he added off handedly to mistress fitzooth
one that did surprise the norman too i'll warrant me you see they are so concerned with their crossbows and other fal lals in france that when good english yew i saw master will said robin to check him
he told me that the scarlet knight had gone to france warrenton looked wise that is not worthy of belief excellence said he cunningly prince john is near and one cannot imagine that geoffrey of montfichet geoffrey of montfichet
asked the dame wonderingly and then warrenton saw how he had blundered why i did not know that you had met your cousin robin when was it
geoffrey is outlawed mother mine and may not appear in sherwood answered robin temporizing with her and the story of our meeting is too long a one for the moment we are rarely fatigued and i would gladly get me to bed come will rouse yourself
mother see that we do not sleep too long i must go to gamewell by the day after to morrow at least and there is much work between my going and now he had determined to ask the squire to move again in the matter of the rangership for him whilst john was here
even if the prince had unduly favored hubert in the archery contest it did not necessarily follow that he would be unjust in such a plain business as this robin kissed the dame struggled with a yawn and got him to rest
he slept uneasily his dreams being strangely compounded of happiness and grief within three days robin started away for gamewell taking only stuteley as before he intended to make his return to locksley ere dusk of the next night
when they were far advanced on their journey they heard sounds of a large company upon the road and prudently robin bade stuteley hide with him in the undergrowth until they should see who these might be maybe tis the sheriff with master ford coming to seize our home
by watching them unseen we may find a way to bring their schemes to naught
and scarcely breathe it was indeed a body of men from nottingham and although the sheriff was not with them master carfax and a few of the lincoln bowmen were amongst the company so also was ford the forester
in all there were about two score of men and most of them were sherwood foresters
looking very dejected and ill and decided to risk exposing himself standing up in the bracken he called out boldly hold there master much here am i ready to take your money what sprite are you answered much reining in his steed sharply
with his face nicely washed he had recognized robin by his clothes money forsooth do you know that i have not so much as a groat in my pouch then must one of the others lend it to you replied robin pay me friends forthwith
a short reckoning is an easy reckoning my arrow flew nearer the target than did any of yours how do you know that said much after you had gone we all did aim again and very marvellous was my shooting
for sure i should have had the prize even as i told you had not hubert already made off with it is this so asked robin doubtfully looking from one to the other of the lincoln men those in front had now stopped also
and master carfax came ambling back to see what had occasioned the delay
here master ford he called clapping his hands hither come hither here is your quarry found for you now you can fight it out fair and square whilst we watch to see fair play ford turned about and glanced at robin but he did not like the notion of such a battle
so he affected not to recognize him
let us push on master simeon tis near the hour when we are to meet with him whom you know he added these words in a low voice and made a gesture indicating the copmanhurst road carfax's face took a diabolical expression
he had begun to answer ford when the whole party were suddenly disturbed by the rush of a great herd of royal deer these beasts driven by someone from out of their pastures came scattering blindly adown the track
and men and horses moved quickly to one side to avoid a devastating collision after they had passed carfax began again form a ring friends cried he coaxingly let neither of these fellows escape
they shall yield us some sport in any event whether ford be right or i a solitary stag at this instant appeared before them he stood as if carved from stone in the center of the road at three hundred paces distance
he was clearly uncertain whether to dash through these his usual enemies in an attempt to rejoin the herd or fly backward to that unknown danger which had first startled them all tis a fine beast hiccoughed much
now had i a steady hand simeon carfax interrupted him by the lord harry here is the very thing he said in whispered excitement now fellow you shall prove me right and this forester wrong
i say you are robin of locksley who did split the norman's arrow at the tourney fly a shaft now at yon mark surely none but such a bowman as yourself might dare hope to reach it robin fell into the very palpable trap set for him
without answering carfax he fitted an arrow to his bow and sent speeding death to the trembling stag it fell pierced cleanly to the heart robin eyed ford triumphantly but master carfax now held up his hands in horror
see what you have done wicked youth ejaculated he as if quite overcome with dismay i bade you shoot at yon birch tree shimmering there to the left of the deer did i not say fly at yon mark and now you have killed one of the king's deer
he is in sooth robin of locksley your eyes are wiser than mine seize him my men at once the foresters sprang upon robin and stuteley and a fierce battle was commenced
despite a valiant resistance robin and will stuteley were soon overcome and bound hard and fast you villains panted stuteley and you most treacherous he called to carfax i wish you joy of so contemptible a trick
all's fair in war friend answered carfax now master ford fulfil your duty you know the law that if one be found killing the king's deer in the royal forest of sherwood he or she may be summarily hanged when caught upon the nearest tree
it must be in flagrante delicto master simeon said ford uneasy again could there be a plainer case cried carfax rubbing his hands we all did see this fellow shoot the deer tis the clearest case
and i do counsel you to deal lawfully in it master ford remember that he also is suspected of being an outlaw in that you saw him once use a peacocked arrow although i am but a layman as it were friend he added meaningly yet i do know the law
and shall be forced to quit my conscience with the prince when i return to nottingham wherefore seeing that your appointment to locksley still lacks his confirmation
who could not quite brace himself to this besides we have no leisure at this moment to carry out the law he went on you know that your master the prince did start us on this journey with two errands upon our shoulders
one was to deal with robin of locksley said carfax snarlingly and without yielding his point to take him to nottingham master i say put in much i do not think that the prince meant you to harm him
be silent knave snapped the lean faced man sharply who gave you the right to question me shut your mouth or i will have you accounted as accomplice with these fellows and put a noose about your bull neck also why harkee master said much very wrathful
i do forthwith range myself with the gipsy and you midge he added turning to one of his company surely you will follow right instantly answered the one called midge a little ferret of a man and i also
and i master much so spoke the remaining lincoln men
he tumbled off his horse and the other three of them did the like and then strode over to where robin stood release him said the miller determinedly and he promptly knocked two of the foresters sprawling this was the signal for a general encounter
and all threw themselves very heartily into the melee the miller and his men struggled to release robin and stuteley so that these might help in the fray but the foresters were too many for them twice did much get his hands upon robin's bonds only to be plucked violently backward
the men tumbled one upon the other in the fight pummelling clutching and tearing at each other in a wild confusion they made little noise all being too desperately in earnest ford encouraged his foresters by word and gesture
and carfax kept himself as far out of it as possible presently three of the foresters overpowered the good natured still half tipsy miller and held him down then master carfax sprang from his horse and rushed in upon the prostrate miller
seizing one of the foresters pikes the lean faced man foully swung it down upon much's pate with a sounding thwack the miller gave a groan and became limp in the hands of his assailants
he tore at his bonds fiercely and vainly biting at the cord about his wrists with his teeth carfax ran to his horse in an instant he had returned with a cord taken from under his saddle
i had a notion that this might be useful to me when i set out this morn he said put it about his neck soon as a noose is fashioned now fling the end of it over this branch now draw it tight steadily i pray you be not over quick
the prisoner has the right to speak a prayer ere he be hanged say it then robin of locksley robin caught sight at this instant of poor stuteley's face
and being bound had lain where he had fallen his eyes met robin's in an anguished glance and his lips trembled in attempt at speech robin strove to smile at him but his own soul was sick within his body he felt the cord tighten again about his throat
but even as the world reeled black robin heard dully the sound of a horn in familiar tones it came in upon his fainting brain next instant came a jerk at the rope futile if infuriated then suddenly contact with a body falling heavily against his own
chapter two straightway his worthiness herhor directed his adjutant who carried the mace to take charge of the vanguard in place of eunana then he commanded that the military engines for hurling great stones leave the road
and that the greek soldiers facilitate passage for those engines in difficult places all vehicles and litters of staff officers were to move in the rear when herhor issued commands the adjutant bearing the fan approached pentuer and asked
will it be possible to go by this highway again why not answered the young priest but since two sacred beetles have barred the way now we must not go farther some misfortune might happen as it is a misfortune has happened
or hast thou not noticed that prince rameses is angry at the minister and our lord is not forgetful it is not the prince who is offended with our lord but our lord with the prince and he has reproached him he has done well for it seems to the young prince at present
that he is to be a second menes or a rameses the great put in the adjutant rameses the great obeyed the gods for this cause there are inscriptions praising him in all the temples but menes the first pharaoh of egypt
was a destroyer of order and thanks only to the fatherly kindness of the priests that his name is still remembered though i would not give one brass uten on this that the mummy of menes exists my pentuer added the adjutant thou art a sage
but it is not all one to the people whether they have to find every year a mountain of gold for the priests or two mountains of gold for the priests and the pharaoh answered pentuer while his eyes flashed thou art thinking of dangerous things
said the adjutant in a whisper but how often hast thou thyself grieved over the luxuries of the pharaoh's court and of the nomarchs inquired the priest in astonishment
in spite of the sand the military engines drawn each by two bullocks moved in the desert more speedily than along the highway with the first of them marched eunana anxiously
why has the minister deprived me of leadership over the vanguard does he wish to give me a higher position asked he in his own mind thinking out then a new career and perhaps to dull the fears which made his heart quiver
he seized a pole and where the sands were deeper propped the balista or urged on the greeks with an outcry they however paid slight attention to this officer
at this point another ravine crossed the first in the middle of it extended a rather broad canal the courier sent to the minister of war with notice of the obstacle brought back a command to fill the canal immediately
about a hundred soldiers with pickaxes and shovels rushed to the work some knocked out stones from the cliff others threw them into the ditch and covered them with sand meanwhile from the depth of the ravine came a man with a pickaxe shaped like a stork's neck
with the bill on it he was an egyptian slave old and entirely naked he looked for a while with the utmost amazement at the work of the soldiers then springing between them on a sudden he shouted
what are ye doing vile people this is a canal but how darest thou use evil words against the warriors of his holiness asked eunana who stood there thou must be an egyptian and a great person i see that
said the slave so i answer thee that this canal belongs to a mighty lord he is the manager and secretary of one who bears the fan for his worthiness the nomarch of memphis be on thy guard or misfortune will strike thee do your work
said eunana with a patronizing tone to the greek soldiers who began to look at the slave they did not understand his speech but the tone of it arrested them they are filling in all the time said the slave with rising fear woe to thee
cried he rushing at one of the greeks with his pickaxe the greek pulled it from the man struck him on the mouth and brought blood to his lips then he threw sand into the canal again the slave stunned by the blow lost courage and fell to imploring
lord said he i dug this canal alone for ten years in the night time and during festivals my master promised that if i should bring water to this little valley
give me one fifth of the harvests and grant me freedom do you hear freedom to me and my three children o gods he raised his hands and turned again to eunana
they do not understand me these vagrants from beyond the sea descendants of dogs brothers to jews and phoenicians but listen lord to me for ten years while other men went to fairs and dances or sacred processions
i stole out into this dreary ravine i did not go to the grave of my mother i only dug i forgot the dead
and to myself even one free day before death ye o gods be my witnesses how many times has night found me here
and seen the green eyes of wolves but i did not flee for whither was i the unfortunate to flee when at every path terror was lurking and in this canal freedom held me back by the feet once beyond that turn there
a lion came out against me the pharaoh of beasts the pickaxe dropped from my hands i knelt down before him and i as ye see me said these words o lord is it thy pleasure to eat me i am only a slave but the lion took pity
the wolf also passed by even the treacherous bats spared my poor head but thou o egyptian the man stopped he saw the retinue of herhor approaching by the fan he knew him to be a great personage and by the panther skin a priest
he ran to the litter therefore knelt down and struck the sand with his forehead what dost thou wish man asked the dignitary o light of the sun listen to me cried the slave may there be no groans in thy chamber
repeated herhor kind lord said the man leader without caprice who conquerest the false and createst the true who art the father of the poor the husband of the widow clothing for the motherless permit me to spread thy name as the equal of justice
most noble of the nobles one one
he wishes that this canal be not filled in said eunana herhor shrugged his shoulders and pushed toward the place where they were filling the canal then the despairing man seized his feet away with this creature
cried his worthiness pushing back as before the bite of a reptile the secretary pentuer turned his head his lean face had a grayish color eunana seized the man by the shoulders and pulled
but unable to drag him away from the minister's feet he summoned warriors after a while herhor now liberated passed to the other bank of the canal and the warriors tore away the earth worker almost carrying him to the end of the detachment
there they gave the man some tens of blows of fists and subalterns who always carried canes gave him some tens of blows of sticks
beaten bloody and above all terrified
rubbed his eyes then sprang up suddenly and ran groaning toward the highway swallow me o earth cursed be the day in which i saw the light and the night in which it was said a man is born
by mac a'rony he was mounted upon a mule which he rode gineta fashion and behind him by the duke's order was led his dapple adorned with shining trappings of silk
that every now and then he turned his head to look upon him and thought himself so happy that he would not have exchanged conditions with the emperor of germany don quixote the city of council bluffs is four miles from the missouri river
and takes its name as many people do from both sides of the house council comes from the old mormon councils formerly held there and bluffs is borrowed from the bluffs on which the city is built
often such things are handed down for many generations the mayor seemed to be constructed on the bluff order he had the consummate cheek to tell my master he wasn't allowed to sell photographs without procuring a license and thought he had squelched him
but he almost fell out of his chair when pod nonchalantly pulled out a fifty dollar bill and said just make out a license at once then he went to work and did a land office business taking more money out of the town than the mayor could put into it in a year's time
next morning miss damfino went shopping coming back with a brand new pair of shoes she said she saw lots of donkeys shopping and began to distribute to a stableful of equine and asinine gossips such a lot of scandal that i was ashamed of her
she had also discovered the startling fact that there was one more river to cross furthermore said she our highfaluting aristocratic literary genius mac a'rony
is to enjoy the distinction of crossing the great missouri river bridge in a wheelbarrow this caused me to collapse i fell on my knees and preyed on the bed of yellow straw and brayed aloud for spirituous support but all i got was a bucket of water
an hour afterward i was saddled for the show i had experienced riding in a wheelbarrow before and did not like the idea but said nothing sure enough when we arrived at the bridge there stood a wheelbarrow
just brought by a wagon from the bluffs i eyed the vehicle disdainfully that was the same kind of carriage that a man once went to london with to fetch a wife home in and now as a fitting jubilee memorial of that historic event i
a respectable scion of an ancient race was to be toted across a bridge into a great city in this outlandish vehicle to the cheers and jeers of a multitude the event was heralded in the morning papers of both council bluffs and omaha
i saw pod reading about it on the way at the bridge i was at once unsaddled and my luggage distributed equally between cheese and damfino the quilts and blankets were folded in the wheelbarrow and with the help of two men
when half way i thought i would be easier if i turned over for it was an awful long bridge in a minute i was on the bridge proper the wheelbarrow on the top of me improper
a street car line crossed the bridge and cars full of curious passengers were passing continually having paid extra i reckoned to see the circus i had to be untied and again deposited in the wheelbarrow and do you believe
those human jackasses didn't have sense enough to lay me on my other side then another distressing circumstance happened soon after i could see the street at the omaha terminus jammed with people as on a fourth of july but that didn't matter
a horse fly buzzed around me a minute prospecting and suddenly made his camp fire on my left hip
made one super asinine effort ripped and tore and upset myself and pod who was wheeling me then the crowd cheered louder than ever some boy with a large voice yelled hurrah for mac a'rony and three cheers were given
thinks i i'll just get even with the professor at once and i lay down as if i were in a barnyard for the night it didn't take those men long to put me in the wheelbarrow again i tell you
this time pod didn't seem to care whether i was all in or not my tail caught in the spokes of the wheel and wound up so quickly that i was nearly pulled out on the bridge the wheelbarrow came to such a sudden stop that pod fell all over me
at first i thought i had lost my tail by the roots it was sore long after couldn't switch off flies with it and had to kick at them and ten times out of nine i'd miss the fly and kick my long legged rider in the leg or foot
whereupon i would catch it with whip and spur at length we crossed the bridge and there i was dumped then i had a good roll in the dust just to show there was no hard feeling after which a host of inquisitive spectators followed us to the paxton hotel in omaha
where we were to have a two days rest good fortune began to fall before us now like manna from the sky the first morsel came in the manner of a proposition for pod and me to pose in front of a leading apothecary's shop in the business center
the frappe clause of the contract was most agreeably cool and delectable for that summer season and the sample doses of the various ices to which cheese and i not to mention pod were treated furnished rare sport for an appreciative audience
the cheerful proprietor recognizing my blue blood attempted to feed me with a long silver spoon i so admired the spoon that with my teeth i stamped it with our family crest as the demand for frappe increased
the brass buttoned society began to gather from the four points of the compass and finally attempted to arrest pod for blocking the thoroughfare and but for the timely arrival of the druggist there would have been a riot coonskin had two guns in his belt
and pod declared he would not be taken alive on this occasion besides the money received from the druggist coonskin sold many chromos for the wily professor was far seeing enough to work in considerable nonsense about his travels
and got even the police so interested that several cops wedged through the gang and purchased souvenirs we made a pretty fair street show all were there but miss damfino who felt indisposed and remained indoors
prefatory remarks the position of ancient egypt was unique not in one but in every sense to begin at the very foundation of life in that country we find that the soil was unlike any other on earth in its origin
every acre of fruitful land between the first cataract and the sea had been brought from inner africa and each year additions were made to it out of this mud borne down thousands of miles from the great fertile uplands of abyssinia by rivers
grew everything needed to feed and clothe man and nourish animals out of it also was made the brick from which walls houses and buildings of various uses and kinds were constructed though this soil of the country was rich
it could be utilized only by the unceasing co ordinate efforts of a whole population constrained and directed to direct and constrain was the task of the priests and the pharaohs
never have men worked in company so long and successfully at tilling the earth as the egyptians and never has the return been so continuous and abundant from land as in their case
the nile valley furnished grain to all markets accessible by water hence rome greece and judaea ate the bread of egypt on this national tillage was founded the greatness of the country
for from it came the means to execute other works and in it began that toil training and skill indispensable in rearing the monuments and doing those things which have made egypt famous forever
and preserved to us a knowledge of the language religion modes of living and history of that wonderful people who held the nile valley no civilized person who has looked on the pyramid of ghizeh the temple of karnak
and the tombs of the pharaohs in the theban region can ever forget them but in those monuments are preserved things of far greater import than they themselves are in the tombs and temples of egypt we see on stone and papyrus
how that immense work of making speech visible was accomplished that task of presenting language to the eye instead of the ear and preserving the spoken word so as to give it to eye or ear afterwards in other terms
we have the history of writing from its earliest beginnings to the point at which we connect it with the system used now by all civilized nations excepting the chinese in those monuments are preserved the history of religion in egypt
not from the beginning of human endeavor to explain first what the world is and then what we ourselves are and what we and the world mean together but from a time far beyond any recorded by man in other places
egyptians had the genius which turned a narrow strip of abyssinian mud
into the most fruitful land of antiquity they had also that genius which impels man to look out over the horizon around him see more than the material problems of life and gaze into the beyond gaze intently and never cease gazing
till he finds what his mind seeks it was the possession of these two kinds of genius and the union of the two which made the position of egypt in history unique and unapproachable the greatness of egypt lay primarily in her ideas
and was achieved through a perfect control over labor by intellect while this control was exerted even approximately in accordance with the nation's historical calling it was effectual and also unchallenged
but when the exercise of power with the blandishments and physical pleasures which always attend it had become dearer to the priesthood and to pharaohs than aught else on earth or in their ideals then began the epoch of egypt's final doom
foreign bondage and national ruin the action presented in the volume before us relates to those days when the guiding intellect of egypt became irrevocably dual and when between the two parts of it the priests and the pharaohs
opposition appeared so clearly defined and incurable that the ruin of both sides was evident in the future the ruin of a pharaoh and the fall of his dynasty with the rise of a self chosen sovereign and a new line of rulers
are the double consummation in this novel the book ends with that climax but the fall of the new priestly rulers is a matter of history
alexander glovatski was born in eighteen forty seven in mashov a village of the government of lublin he finished his preliminary studies in the lublin gymnasium
he took part in the uprising of eighteen sixty three but was captured and liberated after some months detention as a student he showed notable power and was exceptionally attracted by mathematics and science
to which he gives much attention yet though occupied mainly in literature glovatski's published works are in seventeen volumes these books with the exception of the pharaoh and the priest are devoted to modern characters situations and questions
his types are mainly from polish life very few of his characters are german or russian of polish types some are jewish alexander glovatski is a true man of letters a real philosopher retiring industrious and modest
he spends all his winters in warsaw and lives every summer in the country he permits neither society nor coteries nor interests of any sort to snatch away time from him or influence his convictions
he goes about as he chooses whenever he likes and wherever it suits him when ready to work he sits down in his own house
though not without irony what he sees in it what he sees is exhibited in the seventeen volumes which contain great and vivid pictures of life at the end of the recent century men and women of various beliefs occupations and values are shown there
glovatski is entirely unknown to americans this book will present him excepting the view in the temple of luxor the illustrations given in this volume are from photographs taken by me in eighteen ninety nine
while i was travelling in egypt the title of this volume has been changed from the pharaoh to the pharaoh and the priest
and even five thousand years ago when the savages of central europe wore untanned skins for clothing and were cave dwellers egypt had a high social organization agriculture crafts and literature
above all it carried out engineering works and reared immense buildings the remnants of which rouse admiration in specialists of our day egypt is that rich ravine between the libyan sands and the arabian desert
its depth is several hundred metres its length six hundred and fifty miles its average width barely five on the west the gently sloping but naked libyan hills
on the east the steep and broken cliffs of arabia form the sides of a corridor on the bottom of which flows the river nile with the course of the river northward the walls of the corridor decrease in height
while a hundred and twenty five miles from the sea they expand on a sudden and the river instead of flowing through a narrow passage spreads in various arms over a broad level plain which is shaped like a triangle this triangle
called the delta of the nile has for its base the shore of the mediterranean at its apex where the river issues from the corridor stands the city of cairo and near by are the ruins of memphis the ancient capital
could a man rise one hundred miles in the air and gaze thence upon egypt he would see the strange outlines of that country and the peculiar changes in its color from that elevation on the background of white and orange colored sands
egypt would look like a serpent pushing with energetic twists through a desert to the sea in which it has dipped already its triangular head which has two eyes the left alexandria
in october when the nile inundates egypt that long serpent would be blue like water in february when spring vegetation takes the place of the decreasing river the serpent would be green with a blue line along its body
and a multitude of blue veins on its head these are canals which cut through the delta in march the blue line would be narrower and the body of the serpent because of ripening grain
instead of being the cradle of civilization would have been a desert ravine like one of those which compose the sahara if the waters of the sacred nile had not brought life to it annually from the last days of june till the end of september the nile swells and inundates almost all egypt
from the end of october to the last days in may the year following it falls and exposes gradually lower and lower platforms of land the waters of the river are so permeated with mineral and organic matter that their color becomes brownish
hence as the waters decrease on inundated lands is deposited fruitful mud which takes the place of the best fertilizer owing to this mud and to heat egyptian earth tillers fenced in between deserts
have three harvests yearly and from one grain of seed receive back about three hundred egypt however is not a flat plain but a rolling country some portions of its land
others do not see it every year as the overflow does not reach certain points annually besides seasons of scant water occur
finally because of heat the earth dries up quickly and then man has to irrigate out of vessels in view of all these conditions people inhabiting the nile valley had to perish if they were weak or regulate the water
if they had genius the ancient egyptians had genius hence they created civilization six thousand years ago they observed that the nile rose when the sun appeared under sirius and began to fall when it neared the constellation libra
this impelled them to make astronomical observations and to measure time to preserve water for the whole year they dug throughout their country a network of canals many thousand miles in length
and was fifty four metres deep finally along the nile and the canals they set up a multitude of simple but practical hydraulic works through the aid of these they raised water and poured it out upon the fields
these machines were placed one or two stories higher than the water to complete all there was need to clear the choked canals yearly repair the dams and build lofty roads for the army which had to march at all seasons
these gigantic works demanded knowledge of astronomy geometry mechanics and architecture besides a perfect organization whether the task was the strengthening of dams or the clearing of canals it had to be done and finished within a certain period over a great area
hence arose the need of forming an army of laborers tens of thousands in number acting with a definite purpose and under uniform direction an army which demanded many provisions much means and great auxiliary forces
egypt established such an army of laborers and to them were due works renowned during ages it seems that egyptian priests or sages created this army and then drew out plans for it while the kings or pharaohs commanded
the egyptians in the days of their greatness formed as it were one person in which the priestly order performed the role of mind the pharaoh was the will the people formed the body and obedience gave cohesion
in this way nature striving in egypt for a work great continuous and ordered created the skeleton of a social organism for that country as follows the people labored the pharaoh commanded the priests made the plans
while these three elements worked unitedly toward the objects indicated by nature society had strength to flourish and complete immortal labors the mild gladsome and by no means warlike egyptians were divided into two classes
earth tillers and artisans among earth tillers there must have been owners of small bits of land but generally earth tillers were tenants on lands belonging to the pharaohs the priests and the aristocracy
the artisans the people who made clothing furniture vessels and tools were independent those who worked at great edifices formed as it were an army each of those specialties and particularly architecture
demanded power of hauling and moving some men had to draw water all day from canals
were carried on by criminals condemned by the courts or by prisoners seized in battle the genuine egyptians had a bronze colored skin of which they were very proud
and the white european this color of skin which enabled them to distinguish their own people from strangers helped to keep up the nation's unity more strictly than religion which a man may accept or language which he may appropriate
but in time when the edifice of the state began to weaken foreign elements appeared in growing numbers they lessened cohesion they split apart society they flooded egypt and absorbed the original inhabitants
by his office the pharaoh was lawgiver supreme king highest judge chief priest
a god himself even he accepted divine honors not only from officials and the people but sometimes he raised altars to his own person and burnt incense before images of himself at the side of the pharaoh
and very often above him were priests an order of sages who directed the destinies of the country in our day it is almost impossible to imagine the extraordinary role which the priests played in egypt
they were instructors of rising generations also soothsayers hence the advisers of mature people judges of the dead to whom their will and their knowledge guaranteed immortality
they not only performed the minute ceremonies of religion for the gods and the pharaohs but they healed the sick as physicians they influenced the course of public works as engineers and also politics as astrologers
but above all they knew their own country and its neighbors in egyptian history the first place is occupied by the relations which existed between the priests and the pharaohs
most frequently the pharaoh laid rich offerings before the gods and built temples then he lived long and his name with his images cut out on monuments passed from generation to generation full of glory
but many pharaohs reigned for a short period only and of some not merely the deeds but the names disappeared from record a couple of times it happened that a dynasty fell and straightway the cap of the pharaohs encircled with a serpent
egypt continued to develop while a people of one composition energetic kings
but a time came when the people in consequence of wars decreased in number and lost their strength through oppression and extortion the intrusion of foreign elements at this period undermined egyptian race unity
and when the energy of pharaohs and the wisdom of priests sank in the flood of asiatic luxury and these two powers began to struggle with each other for undivided authority to plunder the toiling people then egypt fell under foreign control
and the light of civilized life which had burnt on the nile for millenniums was extinguished
it was a disadvantage to the lad
so we humoured his partiality
hindley's manifestation of scorn while his father was near roused the old man to a fury he seized his stick to strike him
at last our
and farming his bit of land himself
though with a heavy spirit for he said
i hoped heartily we should have peace now
i fancied the discontent of age and disease
from his family disagreements as he would have it that it did really you know sir it was in his sinking frame we might have got on tolerably notwithstanding but
for two people miss cathy and joseph the servant you saw him i daresay up yonder he was and is yet most likely the wearisomest self righteous pharisee
by his knack of sermonising and pious discoursing
and the more feeble the master became the more influence he gained he was relentless in worrying him about his soul's concerns and about ruling his children rigidly
and night after night he regularly grumbled
certainly
such as i never saw a child take up before and she put all of us past our patience fifty times and oftener in a day from the hour she came down stairs till the hour she went to bed we had not a minute's security
her tongue always going singing laughing and plaguing everybody who would not do the same
the sweetest smile and lightest foot in the parish and after all i believe she meant no harm
to be quiet that you might comfort her she was much too fond of heathcliff
was to keep her separate from him yet she got chided more than any of us on his account in play she liked exceedingly to act the little mistress using her hands freely and commanding her companions
he had always been strict and grave with them
had no idea why her father should be crosser and less patient in his ailing condition than he was in his prime his peevish reproofs
she was never so happy as when we were all scolding her at once
turning joseph's religious curses into ridicule baiting me and doing just what her father hated most showing how her pretended insolence which he thought real had more power over heathcliff than his kindness
how the boy would do
only when it suited his own inclination after behaving as badly as possible all day she sometimes came fondling to make it up at night
go say thy prayers child and ask god's pardon
thee that made her cry at first and then being repulsed continually hardened her
he died quietly in his chair one october evening seated by the fire side
blustered round the house and roared in the chimney it sounded wild and stormy yet it was not cold and we were all together i a little removed from the hearth
for the servants generally sat in the house then after their work was done
and heathcliff was lying on the floor with his head in her lap i remember the master before he fell into a doze
and saying why canst thou not always be a good lass cathy
and laughed and answered why cannot you always be a good man father but as soon as she saw him vexed again she kissed his hand and said she would sing him to sleep she began singing very low
and his head sank on his breast
we all kept as mute as mice a full half hour
got up and said that he must rouse the master for prayers and bed
but he would not move so he took the candle and looked at him i thought there was something wrong as he set down the light and seizing the children each by an arm
he had summut to do i shall bid father good night first said catherine putting her arms round his neck before we could hinder her the poor thing discovered her loss directly she screamed out
heathcliff he's dead and they both set up a heart breaking cry
loud and bitter but joseph asked what we could be thinking of to roar in that way over a saint in heaven he told me to put on my cloak and run to gimmerton for the doctor and the parson
then however i went through wind and rain and brought one the doctor back with me the other said he would come in the morning leaving joseph to explain matters
i ran to the children's room their door was ajar
she was short and solid and her claim to figure was questioned but she was conceded presence though not majesty
and her sister isabel's originality i've never kept up with isabel
she had often remarked in spite of which however she held her rather wistfully in sight
might watch a free greyhound i want to see her safely married that's what i want to see she frequently noted to her husband well i must say i should have no particular desire to marry her
edmund ludlow was accustomed to answer in an extremely audible tone
except that she's so original well i don't like originals i like translations mister ludlow had more than once replied
she ought to marry an armenian or a portuguese
of missus touchett's appearance and in the evening prepared to comply with their aunt's commands of what isabel then said no report has remained
as the two were making ready for their visit i do hope immensely she'll do something handsome for isabel she has evidently taken a great fancy to her what is it you wish her to do edmund ludlow asked
no indeed nothing of the sort but take an interest in her sympathise with her she's evidently just the sort of person to appreciate her she has lived so much in foreign society
don't you think she gets enough at home well she ought to go abroad said missus ludlow she's just the person to go abroad and you want the old lady to take her is that it she has offered to take her she's dying to have isabel go
a chance for what a chance to develop oh moses edmund ludlow exclaimed i hope she isn't going to develop any more if i were not sure you only said that for argument
i should feel very badly his wife replied but you know you love her
while he brushed his hat i'm sure i don't care whether you do or not exclaimed the girl
but isabel challenged this assertion with a good deal of seriousness you must not say that lily i don't feel grand at all i'm sure there's no harm said the conciliatory lily
ah but there's nothing in missus touchett's visit to make one feel grand oh exclaimed ludlow she's grander than ever whenever i feel grand said the girl it will be for a better reason
whether she felt grand or no she at any rate felt different as if something had happened to her left to herself for the evening she sat a while under the lamp her hands empty her usual avocations unheeded
then she rose and moved about the room and from one room to another preferring the places where the vague lamplight expired she was restless and even agitated at moments she trembled a
there had really been a change in her life
but isabel was in a situation that gave a value to any change she had a desire to leave the past behind her and as she said to herself to begin afresh this desire indeed was not a birth of the present occasion
and it had led to her beginning afresh a great many times
but it was not with a desire for dozing forgetfulness
the sense of seeing too many things at once her imagination was by habit ridiculously active when the door was not open it jumped out of the window she was not accustomed indeed to keep it behind bolts
and at important moments when she would have been thankful to make use of her judgement alone she paid the penalty of having given undue encouragement
of the things she was leaving behind her the years and hours of her life came back to her and for a long time in a stillness broken only by the ticking of the big bronze clock she passed them in review
it had been a very happy life and she had been a very fortunate person
she had had the best of everything and in a world in which the circumstances of so many people made them unenviable it was an advantage never to have known anything particularly unpleasant
it appeared to isabel that the unpleasant had been even too absent from her knowledge for she had gathered from her acquaintance with literature that it was often a source of interest and even of instruction
her father had kept it away from her her handsome much loved father who always had such an aversion to it it was a great felicity to have been his daughter isabel rose even to pride in her parentage
since his death she had seemed to see him as turning his braver side to his children and as not having managed to ignore the ugly quite so much in practice as in aspiration but this only made her tenderness for him greater
too indifferent to sordid considerations
especially the large number of those
of their opinions isabel was never very definitely informed
a remarkably handsome head and a very taking manner indeed as one of them had said he was always taking something they had declared that he was making a very poor use of his life he had squandered a substantial fortune
he was known to have gambled freely a few very harsh critics went so far as to say that he had not even brought up his daughters they had had no regular education and no permanent home they had been at once spoiled and neglected
they had lived with nursemaids and governesses usually very bad ones or had been sent to superficial schools kept by the french from which at the end of a month they had been removed in tears this view of the matter would have excited
who had eloped with a russian nobleman staying at the same hotel even in this irregular situation an incident of the girl's eleventh year
her father had a large way of looking at life of which his restlessness and even his occasional incoherency of conduct had been only a proof
to see as much of the world as possible and it was for this purpose that before isabel was fourteen he had transported them three times across the atlantic giving them on each occasion however but a few months view of the subject proposed
she ought to have been a partisan of her father for she was the member of his trio who most made up to him for the disagreeables he didn't mention in his last days his general willingness to take leave of a world
in which the difficulty of doing as one liked appeared to increase as one grew older had been sensibly modified by the pain of separation from his clever his superior his remarkable girl later when the journeys to europe ceased
and if he had been troubled about money matters nothing ever disturbed their irreflective consciousness of many possessions
of the choreographic circle her sister
so very much more fetching
above all with rightness of effect nineteen persons out of twenty including the younger sister herself
had the entertainment of thinking all the others aesthetic vulgarians
but the depths of this young lady's nature were a very out of the way place between which and the surface communication was interrupted by a dozen capricious forces
they had a belief that some special preparation was required for talking with her her reputation of reading a great deal hung about her like the cloudy envelope of a goddess in an epic it was supposed to engender difficult questions
and to keep the conversation at a low temperature the poor girl liked to be thought clever but she hated to be thought bookish
she had a great desire for knowledge but she really preferred almost any source of information to the printed page
about life and was constantly staring and wondering she carried within herself a great fund of life and her deepest enjoyment was to feel the continuity
and the agitations of the world for this reason she was fond of seeing great crowds and large stretches of country of reading about revolutions and wars of looking at historical pictures a class of efforts
as to which she had often committed the conscious solecism of forgiving them much bad painting for the sake of the subject while the civil war went on she was still a very young girl but she passed months of this long period in a state of
almost passionate excitement in which she felt herself at times to her extreme confusion
for the number of those whose hearts as they approached her beat only just fast enough to remind them they had heads as well had kept her unacquainted with the supreme disciplines of her sex and age
kindness admiration bonbons bouquets
she lived in abundant opportunity for dancing plenty of new dresses the london spectator the latest publications the music of gounod the poetry of browning the prose of george eliot these things now as memory played over them
the result was kaleidoscopic
the name of the gentleman was caspar goodwood
thinking her the most beautiful young woman of her time had pronounced the time according to the rule i have hinted at a foolish period of history
she had thought it very possible he would come in
was indeed quite a splendid young man he inspired her with a sentiment of high of rare respect she had never felt equally moved to it by any other person he was supposed by the world in general to wish to marry her
but this of course was between themselves
expressly to see her having learned in the former city where he was spending a few days and where he had hoped to find her that she was still at the state capital
isabel delayed for some minutes to go to him she moved about the room with a new sense of complications but at last she presented herself and found him standing near the lamp he was tall strong and somewhat stiff
he was also lean and brown he was not romantically he was much rather obscurely handsome but his physiognomy had an air
of requesting your attention which it rewarded according to the charm you found in blue eyes of remarkable fixedness the eyes of a complexion other than his own and a jaw of the somewhat angular mould which is supposed to bespeak resolution
isabel said to herself that it bespoke resolution to night in spite of which in half an hour caspar goodwood who had arrived hopeful as well as resolute took his way back to his lodging with the feeling of a man defeated
who exactly resembled them deprived of this advantage however isabel's visitors retained that of an extreme sweetness and shyness of demeanour and of having as she thought
eyes like the balanced basins the circles of ornamental water
they're not morbid at any rate
and she deemed this a great charm for two or three of the friends of her girlhood had been regrettably open to the charge
fresh complexions and something of the smile of childhood yes their eyes which isabel admired were round quiet and contented
were encased in sealskin jackets their friendliness was great so great that they were almost embarrassed to show it they seemed somewhat afraid of the young lady from the other side of the world and rather looked
than spoke their good wishes
where they lived with their brother and then they might see her very very often they wondered if she wouldn't come over some day and sleep they were expecting some people on the twenty ninth so perhaps she would come while the people were there
said the elder sister but i dare say you'll take us as you find us
i think you're enchanting just as you are
her visitors flushed and her cousin told her after they were gone that if she said such things to those poor girls they would think she was in some wild free manner practising on them
they had been called enchanting i can't help it isabel answered i think it's lovely to be so quiet and reasonable and satisfied i should like to be like that heaven forbid cried ralph with ardour
said isabel i want very much to see them at home she had this pleasure a few days later when with ralph and his mother she drove over to lockleigh
she perceived afterwards it was one of several in a wilderness of faded
isabel liked them even better at home than she had done at gardencourt and was more than ever struck with the fact that they were not morbid it had seemed to her before that
if they had a fault it was a want of play of mind but she presently saw they were capable of deep emotion before luncheon she was alone with them for some time
radical isabel asked she knew it was true but we have seen that her interest in human nature was keen
said mildred the younger sister at the same time warburton's very reasonable miss molyneux observed
he was clearly trying hard to make himself agreeable to missus touchett ralph had met the frank advances of one of the dogs before the fire that the temperature
had not made an impertinence do you suppose your brother's sincere isabel enquired with a smile oh he must be you know mildred exclaimed quickly
do you think he would stand the test the test i
said miss molyneux finding her voice yes and the other places what are they called
do you mean do you mean on account of the expense the younger one asked i dare say he might let one or two of his houses said the other let them for nothing isabel demanded
i can't fancy his giving up his property said miss molyneux ah
isabel returned don't you think it's a false position her companions evidently had lost themselves my brother's position miss molyneux enquired
it's thought a very good position said the younger sister it's the first position in this part of the county i dare say you think me very irreverent isabel took occasion to remark
of course one looks up to one's brother said miss molyneux simply if you do that he must be very good because you evidently are beautifully good he's most kind it will never be known the good he does
his ability is known mildred added every one thinks it's immense oh i can see that said isabel but if i were he i should wish to fight to the death i mean for the heritage of the past
i think one ought to be liberal mildred argued gently we've always been so even from the earliest times
when lord warburton showed her the house after luncheon it seemed to her a matter of course that it should be a noble picture within it had been a good deal modernised some of its best points had lost their purity
rising from a broad still moat it affected the young visitor as a castle in a legend the day was cool and rather lustreless the first note of autumn had been struck
washing them as it were in places tenderly chosen where the ache of antiquity was keenest her host's brother the vicar had come to luncheon
time enough to institute a search for a rich ecclesiasticism and give it up as vain
a candid natural countenance a capacious appetite and a tendency to indiscriminate laughter
as it were quite capable of flooring his man
she was in the mood for liking everything
but lord warburton exercised some ingenuity in engaging his least familiar guest in a stroll apart from the others i wish you to see the place properly seriously he said
you can't do so if your attention is distracted by irrelevant gossip his own conversation
he reverted at intervals to matters more personal
but at last after a pause of some duration returning for a moment to their ostensible theme ah well he said i'm very glad indeed you like the old barrack i wish you could see more of it that you could stay here a while
my sisters have taken an immense fancy to you if that would be any inducement there's no want of inducements isabel answered but i'm afraid i can't make engagements i'm quite in my aunt's hands
i'm pretty sure you can do whatever you want i'm sorry if i make that impression on you i don't think it's a nice impression to make
to hope what that in future i may see you often
i needn't be so terribly emancipated doubtless not and yet at the same time i don't think your uncle likes me you're very much mistaken
i'm glad you have talked about me said lord warburton but i nevertheless don't think he'd like me to keep coming to gardencourt
but for myself i shall be very glad to see you
you're easily charmed my lord
no i'm not easily charmed and then he stopped a moment
miss archer these words were uttered with an indefinable sound which startled the girl
she had heard the sound before and she recognised it
and she said as gaily as possible and as quickly as an appreciable degree of agitation would allow her i'm afraid there's no prospect of my being able to come here again never said lord warburton
i won't say never i should feel very melodramatic may i come and see you then some day next week most assuredly what is there to prevent it nothing tangible
you don't of necessity lose by that it's very kind of you to say so but even if i gain stern justice is not what i most love is missus touchett going to take you abroad i hope so
is england not good enough for you
it doesn't deserve an answer i want to see as many countries as i can then you'll go on judging i suppose
yes that's what you enjoy most i can't make out what you're up to said lord warburton
you're so good as to have a theory about me
is there anything mysterious in a purpose entertained and executed every year in the most public manner by fifty thousand of my fellow countrymen the purpose of improving one's mind by foreign travel
you can't improve your mind miss archer her companion declared it's already a most formidable instrument it looks down on us all it despises us despises you you're making fun of me
said isabel seriously well you think us quaint' that's the same thing
i'm not so in the least i protest
lord warburton was briefly silent you judge only from the outside you don't care he said presently you only care to amuse yourself
was lord warburton suddenly turning romantic
she was reassured quickly enough by her sense of his great good manners
of a young lady who had confided in his hospitality she was right in trusting to his good manners for he presently went on laughing a little and without a trace of the accent that had discomposed her
i don't mean of course that you amuse yourself with trifles you select great materials the foibles the afflictions of human nature the peculiarities of nations
as regards that said isabel i should find in my own nation entertainment for a lifetime but we've a long drive and my aunt will soon wish to start she turned back
walked beside her in silence but before they reached the others i shall come and see you next week he said
that it was altogether a painful one nevertheless she made answer to his declaration coldly enough just as you please
one day when the sons of god came before jehovah satan came with them jehovah said to satan from where do you come satan answered
from going back and forth on the earth and walking up and down on it and jehovah said to satan have you seen my servant job for there is no man like him on the earth blameless and upright
who reveres god and avoids evil satan answered but is it for nothing that job reveres god have you not yourself made a hedge all about him
about his household and about all that he has
and take away all he has he certainly will curse you to your face then jehovah said to satan
a messenger came to job and said the oxen were ploughing and the asses were grazing near them when sabeans suddenly attacked and seized them the servants were put to the sword and i alone have escaped to tell you
while he was still speaking another messenger came and said lightning has fallen from heaven and has completely burned up the sheep
while this man was still speaking another messenger came and said the chaldeans attacking in three bands raided the camels and drove them away the servants were put to the sword
while this one was still speaking another messenger came and said your sons and daughters were eating and drinking in their oldest brother's house when a great wind came from across the wilderness struck the four corners of the house
i alone have escaped to tell you then job rose tore his robe shaved his head threw himself on the ground and worshipped saying jehovah gave jehovah has taken away
satan came with them and jehovah said to satan from where do you come satan answered
satan answered jehovah skin for skin yes
he certainly will curse you to your face jehovah said to satan see he is in your power only spare his life
presence of jehovah and afflicted job from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head with leprosy so terrible that job took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself
as he sat among the ashes his wife said to him are you still holding to your piety curse god and die but he said to her you speak like a senseless woman we accept prosperity from god
shall we not also accept misfortune in all this job said nothing that was wrong when job's three friends
they came each from his own home eliphaz the temanite bildad the shuhite
for they had arranged to go together and show their sympathy for him
they did not at first know him then they all wept aloud and tore their robes and threw dust upon their heads and they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights without any one saying a word to him
should have slept and been at rest with kings and counsellors of earth who built themselves great pyramids with princes rich in gold who filled their houses with silver
there the wicked cease from troubling there the weary are at rest captives too at ease together hearing not the voice of masters
there the slave is free at last then eliphaz the temanite answered if one dares to speak will it vex you but who can keep from speaking see you have instructed many
and strengthened the drooping hands your words have upheld the fallen giving strength to tottering knees but now that trouble comes you are impatient now that it touches you you lose courage
is not your religion your confidence your blameless life your hope remember what innocent man ever perished or where were the upright ever destroyed happy the man whom god corrects
and what is my future that i should be patient is my strength the strength of stones or is my body made of brass a friend should be kind to one fainting though he lose his faith in the almighty
teach me and i will keep silent show me how i have sinned then bildad the shuhite answered is god a god of injustice or can the almighty do wrong if your children sinned against him
and will prosper your righteous abode then job answered to be sure i know that it is so but how can a man be just before god he is wise in mind and mighty in strength
and let no wrong dwell in your tent you would then lift your face without spot you would then be steadfast and fearless then job answered verily you are the people and with you wisdom shall die
and who does not know all this oh that my words were now written that they were inscribed in a book that with an iron pen and with lead in rock they were carved forever
for i know that my defender lives that at last he shall stand upon earth and after this skin is destroyed freed from my flesh i shall see him whom i shall behold for myself
my own eyes shall see and no stranger's job again spoke and said oh to be as in months of old as in days when god guarded my steps when his lamp shone above my head
after my words they spoke not and my speech fell as rain drops upon them but they sing of me now in derision and my name is a by word among them oh for some one to hear me
behold my defense all signed let now the almighty answer let jehovah write the charge on my shoulder i would bear it as a crown i would bind it round me i would tell
him my every act like a prince i would enter his presence then out of the whirlwind jehovah answered job where were you when i founded the earth you have knowledge and insight so tell me
and the sons of god shouted for joy can you lift up your voice to the clouds that abundance of water may answer you can you send on their missions the lightnings to you do they say here we are
does the hawk soar because of your wisdom and stretch her wings to the south wind
at your bidding and build her nest on high will the fault finder strive with almighty he who argues with god let him answer will you set aside my judgment and condemn me that you may be justified
then job answered the lord how small i am what can i answer i lay my hand on my mouth i spoke once but will do so no more yes twice but will go no further
i know thou canst do all things and that nothing with thee is impossible i spoke therefore without sense of wonders beyond my knowledge i had heard of thee but by hearsay
therefore i despise my words and repent in dust and ashes then jehovah gave back to job twice as much as he had before and jehovah blessed the last part of job's life
more than the first part and he had fourteen thousand sheep six thousand camels a thousand yoke of oxen
he would call to him every man who had a suit that was to come before the ruler for judgment and say of what city are you when the man replied
in this way absalom treated all the israelites who came to david for justice thus absalom stole from david the hearts of the israelites at the end of four years absalom said to his father
i should like to go and keep my promise which i have made to jehovah in hebron david said to him go in peace so he went to hebron but absalom sent messengers to all the tribes of israel to say
as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet cry absalom has become ruler in hebron with absalom there went two hundred men from jerusalem who were invited and went innocently knowing nothing at all of what he was going to do
david's adviser from the city of giloh while he was offering the sacrifices and the plot was strong for more and more people kept going over to absalom when a messenger came to david saying
up let us flee for if we do not none of us will escape from absalom go at once or he may quickly overtake us and bring evil upon us and kill the people of the city then david's servants said to him
so david and all the people who followed him
and to day shall i make you go up and down the land with us while i go where i may go back and take your men with you and may jehovah show you kindness and faithfulness but ittai answered
there your servant will be david said to ittai march on so ittai marched on with all his men and with all the children who were with him all the people were weeping aloud while david stood in the kidron valley
and they went by before him on the way to the wilderness and zadok and abiathar came carrying the ark of jehovah and set it down until all the people had passed then david said to zadok
if i win jehovah's favor he will bring me back and show me both it and the place where he dwells but if he declares i have no trust in you then here am i let him do to me as he thinks best
so zadok and abiathar carried the ark of god back to jerusalem and stayed there but david went up weeping as he climbed the mount of olives with his head covered and his feet bare
and went up weeping as they went and when david came to the summit where one worships god hushai the archite with his garment torn and earth upon his head came to meet him david said to him
you will be a burden to me but if you go back to the city and say to absalom your brothers have gone away and your father has gone after them i will be your servant o king
as i have been your father's servant in the past so now i will be your servant you can defeat for me
and abiathar the priests see they have there with them their two sons
but he refreshed himself there and absalom with all the men of israel came to jerusalem and ahithophel was with him when hushai david's friend came to absalom hushai said to him
may the king live may the king live but absalom said to hushai is this your love for your friend why did you not go with your friend hushai answered no
to him whom jehovah and his people and all the men of israel have chosen to him will i belong and with him will i stay also whom should i serve should it not be his son
as i have served your father so will i serve you
gave in those days was thought by david and absalom to be the same as if it had come from god himself
said to absalom let me now pick out twelve thousand men and set out and follow david to night thus i will come upon him when he is tired and weak and will frighten him and all the people who are with him will flee
then i will kill only the king and i will bring back all the people to you as the bride turns to her husband
and all the people will be at peace this advice pleased absalom and all the leaders of israel then absalom said call now hushai and let us hear also what he has to say
and are now angry like a bear robbed of her cubs your father is also a soldier and will not stay at night with the people
or in some other place if some of the people fall at first whoever hears it will say there is a slaughter among the people who follow absalom then even he who is brave
for all israel knows that your father is a great warrior and they who are with him are brave men but i advise let all the israelites be gathered to you
and we will fall upon him as the dew falls on the ground and of him and of all the men who are with him not even one shall be left if he goes into a city then all israel will bring ropes to that city
and we will pull it down into the valley until not even a small stone is found there
said to zadok and to abiathar the priests this is what ahithophel advised absalom and the leaders of israel and this is what i advised so now send quickly and say to david
do not spend this night at the fords of the wilderness but by all means cross over for fear
now jonathan
and a maid servant was to go and bring them news and they were to go and tell david for they must not be seen coming into the city
and scattered dried fruit upon it so that nothing was known
and jonathan the woman answered they have gone over the brook when they had searched and could find nothing they returned to jerusalem but as soon as the men had gone away
that it may be proved whether you are telling the truth or not or else as sure as pharaoh lives you are indeed spies so he put them all into prison for three days then joseph said to them on the third day do this and live
for i fear god if you are honest men let one of your brothers stay in prison but you go
and bring your youngest brother to me so you will prove that you have told the truth and you shall not die they did as joseph commanded but they said to one another we are indeed guilty because of the way we treated our brother
for when we saw his trouble and when he pleaded with us we would not listen that is why this trouble has come upon us reuben added did i not say to you do not sin against the boy but you would not listen
for he had spoken to them through an interpreter but he turned away from them and wept then he came back and spoke to them and taking simeon from among them
bound him before their eyes then joseph gave orders to fill their vessels with grain and to put every man's money back in his sack and to give them food for the journey and thus it was done to them so they loaded their asses with their grain
and went away when they came to jacob their father in the land of canaan they told him all that had happened saying the man who is master in that land spoke harshly to us and put us in prison as spies
leave one of your brothers with me and take the grain to supply the needs of your households and go bring your youngest brother to me then i shall know that you are not spies
but that you are honest men and i will give your brother back to you and you shall be free to go about in the land as they were emptying their sacks they found that each man's purse with his money was in his sack
joseph is no longer living and simeon is no longer here and now you would take benjamin also all this trouble has come to me but reuben said to his father you may put my two sons to death if i do not bring him to you
and i will bring him back to you then jacob said my son shall not go down with you for his brother is dead and he only is left if harm should come to him on the way by which you go
which they had brought from egypt their father said to them go again buy us a little food but judah said to him the man plainly said to us you shall not see me again unless your brother is with you if you will send our brother with us
you shall not see me unless your brother is with you jacob said why did you bring trouble upon me by telling the man you had another brother they replied the man asked all about us and our family saying
is your father still alive have you another brother so we answered his questions as he asked them how were we to know that he would say bring your brother down then judah said to jacob his father
send the lad with me and we will go at once that both we and you and our little ones may live and not die i will be responsible for him from me you may demand him
and set him before you let me bear the blame forever for if we had not waited so long
if it must be so then do this take some of the fruits of the land in your jars and carry a present to the man
a little syrup spices ladanum pistachio nuts and almonds take twice as much money with you carrying back the money that was put in your sacks perhaps it was a mistake
take also your brother and go again to the man may god almighty grant
and free benjamin and your other brother but if i am robbed of my sons i am bereaved indeed so the men took the present and twice as much money and benjamin and went down to egypt and stood before joseph
the steward did as joseph ordered and brought the men into joseph's house but the men were afraid because they were brought into joseph's house and they said
at our first visit that he may accuse us and fall upon us and take us as slaves together with our asses so when they came near to joseph's steward they spoke to him at the door of the house and said oh my lord
with which to buy food we do not know who put our money into our sacks he replied peace be to you fear not your god
then they made ready the present for joseph when he should come at noon for they had heard that they were to eat there when joseph came into the house they gave him the present which they had brought and bowed down low before him
when joseph looked up and saw benjamin his brother his own mother's son he said is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me and he added god be gracious to you my son
in which to weep so he went into his room and wept there then he bathed his face and came out and said bring on the food
and for them by themselves and for the egyptians who ate with him by themselves because the egyptians would not eat with the hebrews for to do so was hateful to them joseph's brothers were seated before him
then joseph had portions served to them from the food before him
as any of theirs so they drank and were merry with him then he gave this command to the steward of his household fill the men's grain sacks with food as much as they can carry and put my cup the silver cup in the mouth of the sack of the youngest
and the money too that he paid for his grain and the steward did as joseph commanded as soon as the morning light appeared the men were sent away with their asses when they had gone out of the city but were not yet far away
joseph commanded his steward follow after the men and when you overtake them say to them why have you returned evil for good why have you stolen my silver cup that from which my master drinks you have done wrong in so doing
the money which we found in our sacks why then should we steal silver or gold from your master's house let that one of your servants with whom it is found die
let it now be as you have said he with whom it is found shall be my slave but you shall be innocent then each one quickly took down his sack and opened it the steward searched beginning with the oldest
go in to pharaoh and say to him jehovah commands let my people go that they may worship me if you refuse to let them go then i will afflict all your land with frogs and the nile shall swarm with frogs
which shall go up and come into your house into your sleeping chamber upon your bed into the houses of your servants upon your people and into your ovens and kneading troughs
and all your servants then jehovah said to moses say to aaron stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers over the canals and over the pools and cause frogs to come up over the land of egypt
will you do yourself the honor of telling me at what time i shall pray to jehovah in your behalf and in behalf of your servants and people that the frogs be destroyed from your palaces and be left only in the nile pharaoh answered to morrow
then moses said let it be as you say that you may know that there is none like jehovah our god the frogs shall depart from you from your palaces and from your servants and people they shall be left only in the nile
when moses and aaron had gone out from pharaoh moses prayed to jehovah to remove the frogs which he had brought upon pharaoh and jehovah did as moses asked the frogs died in the houses in the courts and in the fields
then jehovah said to moses get up early in the morning and stand before pharaoh just as he goes out to the water and say to him jehovah commands let my people go that they may worship me if you will not let my people go
i will send swarms of flies upon you upon your servants and upon your people and into your palaces so that the houses of the egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies as well as the ground upon which they stand
but at that time i will set apart the land of goshen in which my people live and no swarms of flies shall be there so that you may know that i jehovah am in the midst of the earth and jehovah did so
a vast swarm of flies came upon pharaoh's palace and into the homes of his servants and all the land of egypt was ruined by the swarms of flies
i will let you go that you may offer a sacrifice to jehovah your god in the wilderness only you must not go far away pray for me moses replied i will go out and will pray to jehovah that the swarms of flies may depart from pharaoh from his servants
and from his people to morrow only let not pharaoh again act deceitfully by refusing to let the people go to offer a sacrifice to jehovah so moses went out from pharaoh and prayed to jehovah and jehovah did as moses asked
but this time also pharaoh was stubborn and would not let the people go then jehovah said to moses go to pharaoh and tell him jehovah the god of the hebrews commands let my people go that they may worship me
and the cattle of egypt and not one that belongs to the israelites shall die so jehovah set a fixed time saying to morrow jehovah will do this in the land jehovah did this on the next day
and all the cattle of the egyptians died but none of the cattle of the israelites then pharaoh sent and found that not even one of the cattle of the israelites was dead but pharaoh was stubborn and would not let the people go
do you still set yourself against my people so that you will not let them go to morrow about this time i will send down a very heavy fall of hail such as has not been in egypt from the day that it became a nation until now
so jehovah sent down hail upon the land of egypt and the lightning flashing in the midst of the hail was very severe such as had not been before in all egypt since it became a nation through the whole land of egypt
the hail struck down everything that was in the field both man and beast the hail also struck down all the growing plants and broke all the trees in the fields only in the land of goshen where the israelites were there was no hail
again pharaoh sent and called for moses and aaron and said to them i have sinned this time jehovah is right and i and my people are wrong pray to jehovah for there has been enough of these mighty thunderings and hail
as soon as i have gone out of the city i will spread out my hands in prayer to jehovah the thunders shall stop and there shall be no more hail that you may know that the earth is jehovah's
i know that even then you will not fear jehovah so moses went out of the city from pharaoh and spread out his hands to jehovah and the thunders and hail stopped
how long will you refuse to obey me let my people go that they may worship me for if you refuse to let my people go
and they will cover the surface of the earth so that no one will be able to see the ground and they shall eat the rest of that which is left to you from the hail and they shall eat all your trees which grow in the field
then moses and aaron were driven out from pharaoh's presence but moses stretched out his staff over the land of egypt and jehovah caused an east wind to blow over the land all that day and night
for they covered the surface of the whole land so that the land was darkened and nothing green was left neither tree nor growing plants anywhere in all the land of egypt then pharaoh called for moses in haste and said
and jehovah made a very strong west wind to blow which took up the locusts and drove them into the red sea not a single locust was left in all the land of egypt
but jehovah let pharaoh's heart remain stubborn so that he would not let the israelites go then jehovah said to moses stretch out your hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of egypt so dark
that it may be felt so moses stretched out his hand toward heaven and there was complete darkness in all the land of egypt for three days no one could see another nor did any one move about for three days
then pharaoh called moses and said go worship jehovah only let your flocks and your herds stay behind let your little ones go with you but moses said
you must also give us animals for sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may offer a sacrifice to jehovah our god our cattle too must go with us not a hoof shall be left behind for we must take these to offer to jehovah our god
and we do not know what we must offer to jehovah until we arrive there but jehovah let pharaoh's heart remain stubborn and he would not let them go and pharaoh said to him go away from me take care that you never come to me again
all the eldest sons in the land of egypt shall die
even to the eldest son of the slave girl who is behind the mill and all the first born of the cattle
but not a single dog shall bark at any of the israelites nor their animals that you may know that jehovah does make a difference between the egyptians and israelites all these your servants shall come to me
and bow down before me saying go away together with all the people that follow you after that i will go away
raggedy ann learns a lesson one day the dolls were left all to themselves their little mistress had placed them all around the room and told them to be nice children while she was away
and there they sat and never even so much as wiggled a finger until their mistress had left the room then the soldier dolly turned his head and solemnly winked at raggedy ann
and when the front gate clicked and the dollies knew they were alone in the house they all scrambled to their feet
cried the tin soldier let's all go in search of something to eat yes let's all go in search of something to eat cried all the other dollies when mistress had me out playing with her this morning said raggedy ann
she carried me by a door near the back of the house and i smelled something which smelled as if it would taste delicious then you lead the way raggedy ann cried the french dolly
i think it would be a good plan to elect raggedy ann as our leader on this expedition said the indian doll at this all the other dolls clapped their hands together and shouted
so raggedy ann very proud indeed to have the confidence and love of all the other dollies said that she would be very glad to be their leader follow me she cried
as her wobbly legs carried her across the floor at a lively pace the other dollies followed racing about the house until they came to the pantry door this is the place cried raggedy ann
and sure enough all the dollies smelled something which they knew must be very good to eat but none of the dollies was tall enough to open the door and although they pushed and pulled with all their might
the door remained tightly closed the dollies were talking and pulling and pushing and every once in a while one would fall over and the others would step on her in their efforts to open the door
finally raggedy ann drew away from the others and sat down on the floor when the other dollies discovered raggedy ann sitting there running her rag hands through her yarn hair they knew she was thinking sh
sh they said to each other and quietly went over near raggedy ann and sat down in front of her there must be a way to get inside said raggedy ann raggedy says there must be a way to get inside
cried all the dolls i can't seem to think clearly to day said raggedy ann it feels as if my head were ripped at this the french doll ran to raggedy ann and took off her bonnet
yes there is a rip in your head raggedy she said and pulled a pin from her skirt and pinned up raggedy's head it's not a very neat job for i got some puckers in it she said
oh that is ever so much better cried raggedy ann now i can think quite clearly now raggedy can think quite clearly cried all the dolls
cried all the other dolls now that i can think so clearly said raggedy ann i think the door must be locked and to get in we must unlock it
that will be easy said the dutch doll who says mamma when he is tipped backward and forward for we will have the brave tin soldier shoot the key out of the lock
i can easily do that cried the tin soldier as he raised his gun oh raggedy ann cried the french dolly please do not let him shoot no said raggedy ann
we must think of a quieter way after thinking quite hard for a moment raggedy ann jumped up and said i have it and she caught up the jumping jack and held him up to the door
then jack slid up his stick and unlocked the door then the dollies all pushed and the door swung open my such a scramble the dolls piled over one another in their desire to be the first at the goodies
they swarmed upon the pantry shelves and in their eagerness spilled a pitcher of cream which ran all over the french dolly's dress
the indian doll found some corn bread and dipping it in the molasses he sat down for a good feast a jar of raspberry jam was overturned and the dollies ate of this until their faces were all purple
the tin soldier fell from the shelf three times and bent one of his tin legs but he scrambled right back up again never had the dolls had so much fun and excitement and they had all eaten their fill when they heard the click of the front
and scrambled back to their room as fast as they could run leaving a trail of bread crumbs and jam along the way
they were all left sitting in their places around the room i wonder if fido has been shaking them up then she saw raggedy ann's face and picked her up why raggedy ann you are all sticky
i do believe you are covered with jam
shame on you raggedy ann you've been in the pantry and all the others too and with this the dolls mistress dropped raggedy ann on the floor and left the room when she came back she had on an apron and her sleeves were rolled up
she picked up all the sticky dolls and putting them in a basket she carried them out under the apple tree in the garden there she had placed her little tub and wringer and she took the dolls one at a time and scrubbed them with a scrubbing brush
there the dolls hung all day swinging and twisting about as the breeze swayed the clothes line i do believe she scrubbed my face so hard she wore off my smile
said the tin solder as the wind twisted him around so he could see raggedy but i do believe my arms will never work without squeaking they feel so rusted he added
just then the wind twisted the little dutch doll and loosened his clothes pin so that he fell to the grass below with a sawdusty bump
late in the afternoon the back door opened and the little mistress came out with a table and chairs after setting the table she took all the dolls from the line and placed them about the table they had lemonade with grape jelly in it
which made it a beautiful lavender color and little baby teeny weeny cookies with powdered sugar on them after this lovely dinner the dollies were taken in the house where they had their hair brushed and nice clean nighties put on
then they were placed in their beds and mistress kissed each one good night and tiptoed from the room all the dolls lay as still as mice for a few minutes then raggedy ann raised up on her cotton stuffed elbows and said
i have been thinking sh said all the other dollies raggedy has been thinking yes said raggedy ann i have been thinking
our mistress gave us the nice dinner out under the trees to teach us a lesson she wished us to know that we could have had all the goodies we wished whenever we wished
and our lesson was that we must never take without asking
so let us all remember and try never again to do anything which might cause those who love us any unhappiness let us all remember
some of the dolls had been put in the little red chairs around the little doll table there was nothing to eat upon the table except a turkey
the little teapot and other doll dishes were empty but marcella had told them to enjoy their dinner while she was away the french dolly had been given a seat upon the doll sofa and uncle clem
had been placed at the piano marcella picked up raggedy ann and carried her out of the nursery when she left telling the dolls to be real good children while mamma is away
when the door closed the tin soldier winked at the dutch boy doll and handed the imitation turkey to the penny dolls
play something lively said the french doll as she giggled behind her hand so uncle clem began hammering the eight keys on the toy piano with all his might until a noise was heard upon the stairs
quick as a wink all the dolls took the same positions in which they had been placed by marcella for they did not wish really truly people to know that they could move about but it was only fido
all the dolls at the table looked steadily at the painted food and uncle clem leaned upon the piano keys looking just as unconcerned as when he had been placed there then fido pushed the door open and came into the nursery wagging his tail
he walked over to the table and sniffed in hopes marcella had given the dolls real food and that some would still be left where's raggedy ann fido asked
when he had satisfied himself that there was no food mistress took raggedy ann and went somewhere all the dolls answered in chorus i've found something i must tell raggedy ann about
said fido as he scratched his ear is it a secret asked the penny dolls secret nothing replied fido it's kittens
live kittens really live kittens replied fido three little tiny ones out in the barn oh i wish raggedy ann was here cried the french doll
said fido as he thumped his tail on the floor
and the first thing i knew mamma cat came bouncing right at me with her eyes looking green
asked uncle clem i waited around the barn until mamma cat went up to the house and then i slipped into the barn again for i knew there must be something inside or she would not have jumped at me that way
we are always very friendly you know fido continued and what was my surprise to find
go get them fido and bring them up so we can see them said the tin soldier not me said fido if i had a suit of tin clothes on like you have i might do it
but you know cats can scratch very hard if they want to we will tell raggedy when she comes in said the french doll and then fido went out to play with a neighbor dog
so when raggedy ann had been returned to the nursery the dolls could hardly wait until marcella had put on their nighties and left them for the night then they told raggedy ann all about the kittens
raggedy ann jumped from her bed and ran over to fido's basket he wasn't there
this they did easily for the window was open and it was but a short jump to the ground they found fido out near the barn watching a hole i was afraid something might disturb them he said for mamma cat went away about an hour ago
and fido came bounding through the hole with mamma cat behind him when mamma cat caught up with fido he would yelp when fido and mamma cat had circled the barn two or three times fido managed to find the hole and escape to the yard
then mamma cat came over to the basket and saw all the dolls i'm s'prised at you mamma cat said raggedy ann fido has been watching your kittens for an hour while you were away he wouldn't hurt them for anything
i'm sorry then said mamma cat you must trust fido mamma cat said raggedy ann because he loves you and anyone who loves you can be trusted that's so replied mamma cat
cats love mice too and i wish the mice trusted us more the dolls all laughed at this joke have you told the folks up at the house about your dear little kittens raggedy ann asked oh my no
exclaimed mamma cat at the last place i lived the people found out about my kittens and do you know
i intend keeping this a secret but all the folks at this house are very kindly people and would dearly love your kittens cried all the dolls let's take them right up to the nursery
said raggedy ann and mistress can find them there in the morning how lovely said all the dolls in chorus do mamma cat
and is very wise so after a great deal of persuasion mamma cat finally consented raggedy ann took two of the kittens and carried them to the house while mamma cat carried the other
raggedy ann wanted to give the kittens her bed but fido who was anxious to prove his affection
raggedy ann did not sleep a wink for she shared her bed with fido and he kept her awake whispering to her in the morning when marcella came to the nursery the first thing she saw was the three little kittens
mamma and daddy said the kittens could stay in the nursery and belong to marcella
prince charming for the white kitty cinderella for the maltese and princess golden for the kitty with the yellow stripes so that is how the three little kittens came to live in the nursery
and it all turned out just as raggedy ann had said for her head was stuffed with clean white cotton and she could think exceedingly wise thoughts and mamma cat found out that fido was a very good friend too
when anyone tipped her backward or forward she had lovely golden brown curls of real hair it could be combed and braided or curled or fluffed without tangling and raggedy ann was very proud when jeanette came to live with the dolls
but now raggedy ann was very angry in fact raggedy ann had just ripped two stitches out of the top of her head when she took her rag hands and pulled her rag face down into a frown
but when she let go of the frown her face stretched right back into her usual cheery smile and you would have been angry too for something had happened to jeanette something or someone
had stolen into the nursery that night when the dolls were asleep and nibbled all the wax from jeanette's beautiful face and now all her beauty was gone it really is a shame
something must be done about it said the french doll as she stamped her little foot if i catch the culprit i will well i don't know what i will do with him said the tin soldier
who could be very fierce at times although he was seldom cross here is the hole he came from cried uncle clem from the other end of the nursery come see
all the dolls ran to where uncle clem was down on his hands and knees this must be the place said raggedy ann
raggedy ann asked herself when she saw marcella's sorrowful face for raggedy ann was never selfish daddy will take jeanette down town with him and have her fixed up as good as new said mamma
so jeanette was wrapped in soft tissue paper and taken away later in the day marcella came bouncing into the nursery with a surprise for the dolls it was a dear fuzzy little kitten marcella introduced the kitten to all the dolls
her name is boots because she has four little white feet said marcella so boots the happy little creature played with the penny dolls scraping them over the floor and peeping out from behind chairs and pouncing upon them
as if they were mice and the penny dolls enjoyed it hugely when marcella was not in the nursery raggedy ann wrestled with boots and they would roll over and over upon the floor boots with her front feet around raggedy ann's neck
then she would jump at her and over and over they would roll their heads hitting the floor bumpity bump boots slept in the nursery that night and was lonely for her mamma for it was the first time she had been away from home
even though her bed was right on top of raggedy ann she could not sleep but raggedy ann was very glad to have boots sleep with her even if she was heavy and when boots began crying for her mamma raggedy ann comforted her
and soon boots went to sleep one day jeanette came home
and she was as beautiful as ever now by this time boots was one of the family and did not cry at night besides
so she promised to sleep with one eye open late that night when boots was the only one awake out popped a tiny mouse from the hole
boots jumped after the mouse and hit against the toy piano and made the keys tinkle so loudly it awakened the dolls they ran over to where boots sat growling with the tiny mouse in her mouth my how the mouse was squeaking
raggedy ann did not like to hear it squeak but she did not wish jeanette to have her wax face chewed again either so raggedy ann said to the tiny little mouse you should have known better than to come here when boots is with us
why don't you go out in the barn and live where you will not destroy anything of value i did not know squeaked the little mouse
raggedy ann asked no the little mouse answered i was visiting the mice inside the walls and wandered out here to pick up cake crumbs i have three little baby mice at home down in the barn
i have never nibbled at anyone's wax face
i shall not play with you again said raggedy ann raggedy will not play with boots again said all of the dolls in an awed tone not to have raggedy play with them would have been sad indeed
but boots only growled the dolls drew to one side where raggedy ann and uncle clem whispered together and while they whispered boots would let the little mamma mouse run a piece then she would catch it again
and box it about between her paws this she did until the poor little mamma mouse grew so tired it could scarcely run away from boots
as she watched the little mouse crawling towards the hole scarcely able to move raggedy ann could not keep the tears from her shoe button eyes finally as boots started to spring after the little mouse again
raggedy ann threw her rag arms around the kitten's neck run mamma mouse raggedy ann cried as boots whirled her over and over uncle clem ran and pushed the mamma mouse into the hole and then she was gone
when raggedy ann took her arms from around boots the kitten was very angry she laid her ears back and scratched raggedy ann with her claws but raggedy ann only smiled it did not hurt her a bit for raggedy was sewed together with a needle and thread
and if that did not hurt how could the scratch of a kitten finally boots felt ashamed of herself and went over and lay down by the hole in the wall in hopes the mouse would return but the mouse never returned
even then mamma mouse was out in the barn with her children warning them to beware of kittens and cats raggedy ann and all the dolls then went to bed and raggedy had just dozed off to sleep when she felt something jump upon her bed
it was boots she felt a warm little pink tongue caress her rag cheek raggedy ann smiled happily to herself
raggedy ann's new sisters marcella was having a tea party up in the nursery when daddy called to her
so she left the dollies sitting around the tiny table and ran down stairs carrying raggedy ann with her mama daddy and a strange man were talking in the living room and daddy introduced marcella to the stranger
the stranger was a large man with kindly eyes and a cheery smile as pleasant as raggedy ann's he took marcella upon his knee and ran his fingers through her curls as he talked to daddy and mamma
so of course raggedy ann liked him from the beginning i have two little girls he told marcella their names are virginia and doris and one time when we were at the sea shore they were playing in the sand and they covered up freddy
just as the other bathers did and when they had covered freddy they took their little pails and shovels and went farther down the beach to play and forgot all about freddy
virginia and doris remembered freddy and ran down to get him
it was too bad they forgot freddy said marcella yes indeed it was the new friend replied as he took raggedy ann up and made her dance on marcella's knee
but it turned out all right after all for do you know what happened to freddy no what did happen to him marcella asked well first of all when freddy was covered with the sand he enjoyed it immensely
but presently freddy felt the sand above him move as if someone was digging him out
and what do you think was happening the tide fairies were uncovering freddy when he was completely uncovered the tide fairies swam with freddy way out to the undertow fairies
the undertow fairies took freddy and swam with him way out to the roller fairies
who carried him to the wind fairies and the wind fairies marcella asked breathlessly
none the worse for his wonderful adventure freddy must have enjoyed it and your little girls must have been very glad to get freddy back again said marcella raggedy ann went up in the air on the tail of a kite one day
and fell and was lost so now i am very careful with her would you let me take raggedy ann for a few days asked the new friend
she liked the stranger friend
will you let her go with me marcella marcella finally agreed and when the stranger friend left he placed raggedy ann in his grip
said the dollies each night we miss her happy painted smile and her cheery ways they said and so the week dragged by
but my what a chatter there was in the nursery the first night after raggedy ann returned all the dolls were so anxious to hug raggedy ann they could scarcely wait until marcella had left them alone when they had squeezed raggedy ann almost out of shape
and she had smoothed out her yarn hair patted her apron out and felt her shoe button eyes to see if they were still there she said well what have you been doing tell me all the news
oh we have just had the usual tea parties and games said the tin soldier tell us about yourself raggedy dear we have missed you so much
yes tell us where you have been and what you have done raggedy all the dolls cried but raggedy ann just then noticed that one of the penny dolls had a hand missing
tin soldier last night
raggedy ann said so the indian ran and brought a bottle of glue where's the hand raggedy asked
and wrapped a rag around it to hold it until the glue dried she said when i tell you of this wonderful adventure i know you will all feel very happy it has made me almost burst my stitches with joy
the dolls all sat upon the floor around raggedy ann the tin soldier with his arm over her shoulder well first when i left said raggedy ann i was placed in the stranger friend's grip
it was rather stuffy in there but i did not mind it in fact i believe i must have fallen asleep for when i awakened i saw the stranger friend's hand reaching into the grip then he lifted me from the grip and danced me upon his knee
what do you think of her he asked to three other men sitting nearby i was so interested in looking out of the window i did not pay any attention to what they said for we were on a train and the scenery was just flying by
then i was put back in the grip when next i was taken from the grip i was in a large clean light room and there were many many girls all dressed in white aprons
the stranger friend showed me to another man and to the girls who took off my clothes cut my seams and took out my cotton and what do you think they found my lovely candy heart had not melted at all as i thought
then they laid me on a table and marked all around my outside edges with a pencil on clean white cloth and then the girls re stuffed me and dressed me i stayed in the clean big light room for two or three days and nights
and watched my sisters grow from pieces of cloth into rag dolls just like myself your sisters the dolls all exclaimed in astonishment
i mean said raggedy ann that the stranger friend had borrowed me from marcella so that he could have patterns made from me and before i left the big clean white room
there where hundreds of rag dolls so like me you would not have been able to tell us apart
cried the french dolly but all of my sister dolls have smiles just like mine replied raggedy ann and shoe button eyes the dolls all asked yes
raggedy ann replied i would tell you from the others by your dress raggedy ann said the french doll your dress is fifty years old i could tell you by that
but my new sister rag dolls have dresses just like mine
exactly like mine i know how we could tell you from the other rag dolls even if you all look exactly alike said the indian doll who had been thinking for a long time
asked raggedy ann with a laugh by feeling your candy heart if the doll has a candy heart then it is you raggedy ann
except that i am more worn for each new rag doll has a candy heart and on it is written i love you just as is written on my own candy heart
to the end that he might bring this to pass with the more ease and greater authority he sought aid from the english
moreover he and all his people he said would always follow the custom of the holy roman apostolic church in so far as men so distant from the speech and nation of the romans could learn it
according to what we have learned of the apostolic see even as you most devout king in your godly zeal have requested of us for we know that whensoever the lords of this world labour to learn and to teach and to guard the truth
the third is added in the gospel by reason of the passion and resurrection of our lord for the law enjoined that the passover should be kept in the first month of the year and the third week of that month
it shall be the first month of the year to you speak ye unto all the congregation of israel saying in the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers
now who is there that does not perceive that there are not only seven days but rather eight from the fourteenth to the one and twentieth if the fourteenth be also reckoned in the number
we reckon from the evening of the fourteenth day to the evening of the one and twentieth we shall certainly find that while the paschal feast begins on the evening of the fourteenth day yet the whole sacred solemnity contains no more than only seven nights and as many days
wherefore the rule which we laid down is proved to be true when we said that the paschal season is to be celebrated in the first month of the year and the third week of the same
for it is in truth the third week because it begins on the evening of the fourteenth day and ends on the evening of the one and twentieth
which among the ancients was called the first day of the week
this is the same in which all the people of god were by christ's resurrection set free from eternal death then in the morning when the lord's day dawns they should celebrate the first day of the paschal festival
for that is the day on which our lord made known the glory of his resurrection to his disciples
for when they begin to celebrate the vigil of the holy night from the evening of the thirteenth day it is plain that they make that day the beginning of their easter whereof they find no mention in the commandment of the law and when they avoid celebrating our lord's easter on the one and twentieth day of the month
it is surely manifest that they wholly exclude that day from their solemnity which the law many times commends to be observed as a greater festival than the rest and thus perverting the proper order they sometimes keep easter day entirely in the second week
that is from the evening of the fifteenth day it is certain that they altogether exclude from their solemnity the fourteenth day of the same month which the law first and chiefly commends so that they scarce touch the evening of the fifteenth day
on which the people of god were redeemed from egyptian bondage and on which our lord by his blood rescued the world from the darkness of sin
and these men receiving in themselves the recompense of their error when they place easter sunday on the twenty second day of the month openly transgress and do violence to the term of easter appointed by the law
seeing that they begin easter on the evening of that day in which the law commanded it to be completed and brought to an end and appoint that to be the first day of easter whereof no mention is any where found in the law to wit the first of the fourth week
and both sorts are mistaken
the same belongs to the last month of the foregoing year and consequently is not meet for the celebration of easter but that moon which is full after the equinox or at the very time of the equinox belongs to the first month
and on that day without a doubt we must understand that the ancients were wont to celebrate the passover
we are commanded to keep easter in the first month of the year which is also called the month of new things because we ought to celebrate the mysteries of our lord's resurrection and our deliverance with the spirit of our minds renewed to the love of heavenly things
we are commanded to keep it in the third week of the same month because christ himself who had been promised before the law and under the law came with grace in the third age of the world to be sacrificed as our passover
and because rising from the dead the third day after the offering of his passion he wished this to be called the lord's day and the paschal feast of his resurrection to be yearly celebrated on the same
because also we do then only truly celebrate his solemn festival if we endeavour with him to keep the passover
might from that time forward be most easily known by all men
but there is at the present day so great a number of calculators that even in our churches throughout britain there are many who having learned the ancient rules of the egyptians
after the expiration of which all that appertains to the succession of sun and moon month and week returns in the same order as before we therefore forbear to send you these same cycles of the times to come
because desiring only to be instructed respecting the reason for the paschal time you show that you have enough of those catholic cycles concerning easter but having said thus much briefly and succinctly as you required concerning easter
concerning which likewise you desired me to write to you be in accordance with the use of the church and the christian faith and we know indeed that the apostles were not all shorn after the same manner
nor does the catholic church now as it agrees in one faith hope and charity towards god
but because peter was so shorn in memory of the passion of our lord therefore we also who desire to be saved by the same passion do with him bear the sign of the same passion on the top of our head
such as were indeed in this life by erring men thought worthy of the glory of an everlasting crown but in that which is to follow this life are not only deprived of all hope of a crown but are moreover condemned to eternal punishment
if they uphold the catholic unity by their faith and works
yet i detest and abhor with all my soul the heresy of simon
but i now also admonish your wisdom o king that together with the nation over which the king of kings and lord of lords has placed you you strive to observe in all points those things which are in accord with the unity of the catholic and apostolic church
for so it will come to pass that after you have held sway in a temporal kingdom the blessed chief of the apostles will also willingly open to you and yours with all the elect the entrance into the heavenly kingdom
the grace of the eternal king preserve you in safety long reigning for the peace of us all my dearly beloved son in christ
and carefully interpreted into his own language by those who could understand it he is said to have much rejoiced at the exhortation thereof insomuch that rising from among his nobles that sat about him he knelt on the ground
giving thanks to god that he had been found worthy to receive such a gift from the land of the english
the sayings of slid whose soul is by the sea slid said let no man pray to mana yood sushai for who shall trouble mana with mortal woes or irk him with the sorrows of all the houses of earth
nor let any sacrifice to mana yood sushai for what glory shall he find in sacrifices or altars who hath made the gods themselves pray to the small gods who are the gods of doing but mana is the god of having done
the god of having done and of the resting pray to the small gods and hope that they may hear thee yet what mercy should the small gods have who themselves made death and pain or shall they restrain their old hound time for thee
slid is but a small god yet slid is slid it is written and hath been said pray thou therefore to slid and forget not slid and it may be that slid will not forget to send thee death when most thou needest it
and the people of earth said there is a melody upon the earth as though ten thousand streams all sang together for their homes that they had forsaken in the hills and slid said
i am the lord of gliding waters and of foaming waters and of still i am the lord of all the waters in the world and all that long streams garner in the hills but the soul of slid is in the sea
thither goes all that glides upon earth and the end of all the rivers is the sea and slid said the hand of slid hath toyed with cataracts and down the valleys have trod the feet of slid
and out of the lakes of the plains regard the eyes of slid but the soul of slid is in the sea much homage hath slid among the cities of men and pleasant are the woodland paths and the paths of the plains and pleasant the high valleys where he danceth in the hills
the miser lord of wealth in gems and pearls beyond the telling of all fables or there may he when slid would fain exult throw up his great arms or toss with many a fathom of wandering hair the mighty head of slid
and feel through all his being the crashing might of slid and sway the sea then doth the sea like venturous legions on the eve of war that exult to acclaim their chief gather its force together
from under all the winds and roar and follow and sing and crash together to vanquish all things and all at the bidding of slid whose soul is in the sea there is ease in the soul of slid and there be calms upon the sea
also there be storms upon the sea and troubles in the soul of slid for the gods have many moods and slid is in many places for he sitteth in high pegana also along the valleys walketh slid
with the cry of slid before them and the hills of their home behind have gone a hundred thousand to the sea over whose bones doth slid lament with the voice of a god lamenting for his people even the streams from the inner lands have heard slid's far off cry
the deeds of mung lord of all deaths between pegana and the rim once as mung went his way athwart the earth and up and down its cities and across its plains
mung came upon a man who was afraid when mung said i am mung and mung said were the forty million years before thy coming intolerable to thee and mung said not less tolerable to thee shall be the forty million years to come
then mung made against him the sign of mung and the life of the man was fettered no longer with hands and feet at the end of the flight of the arrow there is mung and in the houses and the cities of men mung walketh in all places at all times
but mostly he loves to walk in the dark and still along the river mists when the wind hath sank a little before night meeteth with the morning upon the highway between pegana and the worlds sometimes mung entereth the poor man's cottage
mung also boweth very low before the king then do the lives of the poor man and of the king go forth among the worlds and mung said many turnings hath the road that kib hath given every man to tread upon the earth
alas that i took this road for had i gone by any other way then had i not met with mung and mung said had it been possible for thee to go by any other way then had the scheme of things been otherwise and the gods had been other gods
when mana yood sushai forgets to rest and makes again new gods it may be that they will send thee again into the worlds and then thou mayest choose some other way and not meet with mung then mung made the sign of mung
and mung came upon a man who became stricken with sorrow when he saw the shadow of mung but mung said when at the sign of mung thy life shall float away there will also disappear thy sorrow at forsaking it but the man cried out o mung
tarry for a little and make not the sign of mung against me now for i have a family upon the earth with whom sorrow will remain though mine should disappear because of the sign of mung and mung said with the gods it is always now
and before sish hath banished many of the years the sorrows of thy family for thee shall go the way of thine and the man beheld mung making the sign of mung before his eyes which beheld things no more
the chaunt of the priests this is the chaunt of the priests the chaunt of the priests of mung this is the chaunt of the priests all day long to mung cry out the priests of mung
and yet mung harkeneth not what then shall avail the prayers of all the people rather bring gifts to the priests gifts to the priests of mung so shall they cry louder unto mung than ever was their wont and it may be that mung shall hear
not any longer then shall the tread of mung darken the dreams of the people not any longer shall the lives of the people be loosened because of mung bring ye gifts to the priests gifts to the priests of mung this is the chaunt of the priests
the chaunt of the priests of mung this is the chaunt of the priests the sayings of limpang tung the god of mirth and of melodious minstrels and limpang tung said
the ways of the gods are strange the flower groweth up and the flower fadeth away this may be very clever of the gods man groweth from his infancy and in a while he dieth this may be very clever too but the gods play with a strange scheme
i will send jests into the world and a little mirth and while death seems to thee as far away as the purple rim of hills or sorrow as far off as rain in the blue days of summer then pray to limpang tung but when thou growest old
pray not of limpang tung for thou becomest part of a scheme that he doth not understand go out into the starry night and limpang tung will dance with thee who danced since the gods were young the god of mirth and of melodious minstrels
pray therefore to the small gods and not to limpang tung natheless between pegana and the earth flutter ten thousand thousand prayers that beat their wings against the face of death and never for one of them hath the hand of the striker been stayed
nor yet have tarried the feet of the relentless one utter thy prayer it may accomplish where failed ten thousand thousand limpang tung is lesser than the gods and doth not understand and limpang tung said
once as the day ariseth out of the homes of dawn will i paint the blue that men may see and rejoice and ere day falleth under into the night will i paint upon the blue again lest men be sad it is a little said limpang tung
it is a little even for a god to give some pleasure to men upon the worlds and limpang tung hath sworn that the pictures that he paints shall never be the same for so long as the days shall be and this he hath sworn by the oath of the gods of pegana that the gods may never break
laying his hand upon the shoulder of each of the gods and swearing by the light behind their eyes limpang tung hath lured a melody out of the stream and stolen its anthem from the forest for him the wind hath cried in lonely places
and the ocean sung its dirges there is music for limpang tung in the sounds of the moving of grass and in the voices of the people that lament or in the cry of them that rejoice in an inner mountain land where none hath come
he hath carved his organ pipes out of the mountains and there when the winds his servants come in from all the world he maketh the melody of limpang tung but the song arising at night goeth forth like a river winding through all the world
and here and there amid the peoples of earth one heareth and straightaway all that hath voice to sing crieth aloud in music to his soul or sometimes walking through the dusk with steps unheard by men in a form unseen by the people
and no one seeth limpang tung as he standeth behind the minstrels but through the mists towards morning in the dark when the minstrels sleep and mirth and melody have sunk to rest
he becometh the arrow from the bow of dorozhand hurled forward at a mark he may not see to the goal of dorozhand beyond the thinking of men beyond the sight of all the other gods regard the eyes of dorozhand
he hath chosen his slaves and them doth the destiny god drive onward where he will who knowing not whither nor even knowing why feel only his scourge behind them or hear his cry before
there is something that dorozhand would fain achieve and therefore hath he set the people striving with none to cease or rest in all the worlds but the gods of pegana speaking to the gods say
what is it that dorozhand would fain achieve it hath been written and said that not only the destinies of men are the care of dorozhand but that even the gods of pegana be not unconcerned by his will
all the gods of pegana have felt a fear for they have seen a look in the eyes of dorozhand that regardeth beyond the gods the reason and purpose of the worlds is that there should be life upon the worlds
and life is the instrument of dorozhand wherewith he would achieve his end therefore the worlds go on and the rivers run to the sea
and the gods of pegana do the work of the gods and all for dorozhand but when the end of dorozhand hath been achieved there will be need no longer of life upon the worlds nor any more a game for the small gods to play then will kib
tiptoe gently across pegana to the resting place in highest pegana of mana yood sushai and touching reverently his hand the hand that wrought the gods say mana yood sushai thou hast rested long
and mana yood sushai shall say not so
and then shall the gods be afraid when they find that mana knoweth that they have made worlds while he rested and they shall answer nay but the worlds came all of themselves then mana yood sushai
as one who would have done with an irksome matter will lightly wave his hand the hand that wrought the gods and there shall be gods no more when there shall be three moons towards the north above the star of the abiding
three moons that neither wax nor wane but regard towards the north or when the comet ceaseth from his seeking and stands still not any longer moving among the worlds but tarrying as one who rests after the end of search
then shall arise from resting because it is the end the greater one who rested of old time even mana yood sushai then shall the times that were be times no more
and it may be that the old dead days shall return from beyond the rim and we who have wept for them shall see those days again as one who returning from long travel to his home comes suddenly on dear remembered things
for none shall know of mana who hath rested for so long whether he be a harsh or merciful god it may be that he shall have mercy and that these things shall be the eye in the waste
there lie seven deserts beyond bodrahan which is the city of the caravans end none goeth beyond in the first desert lie the tracks of mighty travellers outward from bodrahan and some returning
and in the second lie only outward tracks and none return the third is a desert untrodden by the feet of men the fourth is the desert of sand and the fifth is the desert of dust and the sixth
is the desert of stones and the seventh is the desert of deserts in the midst of the last of the deserts that lie beyond bodrahan in the centre of the desert of deserts standeth the image that hath been hewn of old out of the living hill
whose name is ranorada the eye in the waste about the base of ranorada is carved in mystic letters that are vaster than the beds of streams these words to the god who knows
now beyond the second desert are no tracks and there is no water in all the seven deserts that lie beyond bodrahan therefore came no man thither to hew that statue from the living hills and ranorada was wrought by the hands of gods
men tell in bodrahan where the caravans end and all the drivers of the camels rest how once the gods hewed ranorada from the living hill hammering all night long beyond the deserts moreover they say that ranorada is carved in the likeness of the god
hoodrazai who hath found the secret of mana yood sushai and knoweth the wherefore of the making of the gods they say that hoodrazai stands all alone in pegana and speaks to none because he knows what is hidden from the gods
therefore the gods have made his image in a lonely land as one who thinks and is silent the eye in the waste they say that hoodrazai had heard the murmers of mana yood sushai as he muttered to himself
and gleaned the meaning and knew and that he was the god of mirth and of abundant joy but became from the moment of his knowing a mirthless god even as his image which regards the deserts beyond the track of man but the camel drivers
as they sit and listen to the tales of the old men in the market place of bodrahan at evening while the camels rest say if hoodrazai is so very wise and yet is sad let us drink wine and banish wisdom to the wastes that lie beyond bodrahan
therefore is there feasting and laughter all night long in the city where the caravans end all this the camel drivers tell when the caravans come in from bodrahan but who shall credit tales that camel drivers have heard from aged men
in so remote a city of the thing that is neither god nor beast seeing that wisdom is not in cities nor happiness in wisdom
and because yadin the prophet was doomed by the gods ere he was born to go in search of wisdom he followed the caravans to bodrahan there in the evening where the camels rest
when the wind of the day ebbs out into the desert sighing amid the palms its last farewells and leaving the caravans still he sent his prayer with the wind to drift into the desert calling to hoodrazai and down the wind his prayer went calling
why do the gods endure and play their game with men why doth not skarl forsake his drumming and mana cease to rest and the echo of seven deserts answered who knows who knows
but out in the waste beyond the seven deserts where ranorada looms enormous in the dusk at evening his prayer was heard and from the rim of the waste whither had gone his prayer came three flamingoes flying and their voices said
going south going south at every stroke of their wings but as they passed by the prophet they seemed so cool and free and the desert so blinding and hot that he stretched up his arms towards them
then it seemed happy to fly and pleasant to follow behind great white wings and he was with the three flamingoes up in the cool above the desert and their voices cried before him going south going south and the desert below him mumbled
who knows who knows sometimes the earth stretched up towards them with peaks of mountains sometimes it fell away in steep ravines blue rivers sang to them as they passed above them or very faintly came the song of breezes in lone orchards
and far away the sea sang mighty dirges of old forsaken isles but it seemed that in all the world there was nothing only to be going south it seemed that somewhere the south was calling to her own and that they were going south
but when the prophet saw that they had passed above the edge of earth and that far away to the north of them lay the moon he perceived that he was following no mortal birds but some strange messengers of hoodrazai whose nest had lain in one of pegana's vales
below the mountains whereon sit the gods still they went south passing by all the worlds and leaving them to the north till only araxes zadres and hyraglion lay still to the south of them
and yo and mindo could be seen no more still they went south till they passed below the south and came to the rim of the worlds there there is neither south nor east nor west but only north and beyond
that is neither god nor beast who neither howls nor breathes only it turns over the leaves of a great book black and white black and white for ever until the end
and all that is to be is written in the book
when it turneth a black page it is night and when it turneth a white page it is day because it is written that there are gods there are the gods also there is writing about thee and me
until the page where our names no more are written then as the prophet watched it trogool turned a page a black one and night was over and day shone on the worlds
trogool is the thing that men in many countries have called by many names it is the thing that sits behind the gods whose book is the scheme of things but when yadin saw that old remembered days were hidden away with the part that it had turned
and knew that upon one whose name is writ no more the last page had turned for ever a thousand pages back then did he utter his prayer
who only turns the pages and never answers prayer he prayed in the face of trogool only turn back thy pages to the name of one which is writ no more and far away upon a place named earth shall rise the prayers of a little people that acclaim the name of trogool
yadin found himself lying in the desert where one gave him water and afterwards carried him on a camel into bodrahan there some said that he had but dreamed when thirst seized him while he wandered among the rocks in the desert
but certain aged men of bodrahan say that indeed there sitteth somewhere a thing that is called trogool that is neither god nor beast that turneth the leaves of a book black and white black and white
until he come to the words
which means the end for ever
all night he sendeth little dreams out of pegana to please the people of earth he sendeth little dreams to the poor man and to the king he is so busy to send his dreams to all before the night be ended that oft he forgetteth which be the poor man
and which be the king to whom yoharneth lahai cometh not with little dreams and sleep he must endure all night the laughter of the gods with highest mockery in pegana all night long yoharneth lahai giveth peace to cities
until the dawn hour and the departing of yoharneth lahai when it is time for the gods to play with men again whether the dreams and the fancies of yoharneth lahai be false and the things that are done in the day be real or the things that are done in the day be false
none knoweth saving only mana yood sushai who hath not spoken of roon the god of going and the thousand home gods roon said
there be gods of moving and gods of standing still but i am the god of going it is because of roon that the worlds are never still for the moons and the worlds and the comet are stirred by the spirit of roon which saith go
go go roon met the worlds all in the morning of things before there was light upon pegana
since when they are never still roon sendeth all streams to the sea
roon maketh the sign of roon before the waters and lo they have left the hills and roon hath spoken in the ear of the north wind that he may be still no more the footfall of roon hath been heard at evening outside the houses of men
and thenceforth comfort and abiding know them no more before them stretcheth travel over all the lands long miles and never resting between their homes and their graves and all at the bidding of roon the mountains have set no limit against roon
nor all the seas a boundary whither roon hath desired there must roon's people go and the worlds and their streams and the winds i heard the whisper of roon at evening saying there are islands of spices to the south
and the voice of roon saying go and roon said there are a thousand home gods the little gods that sit before the hearth and mind the fire there is one roon roon saith in a whisper
in a whisper when none heareth when the sun is low what doeth mana yood sushai roon is no god that thou mayest worship by thy hearth nor will he be benignant to thy home
offer to roon thy toiling and thy speed whose incense is the smoke of the camp fire to the south whose song is the sound of going whose temples stand beyond the farthest hills in his lands behind the east yarinareth
yarinareth yarinareth which signifieth beyond these words be carved in letters of gold upon the arch of the great portal of the temple of roon that men have builded looking towards the east upon the sea where roon is carved as a giant trumpeter
with his trumpet pointing towards the east beyond the seas whoso heareth his voice the voice of roon at evening he at once forsaketh the home gods that sit beside the hearth these be the gods of the hearth
pitsu who stroketh the cat hobith who calms the dog and habaniah the lord of glowing embers and little zumbiboo the lord of dust and old gribaun who sits in the heart of the fire to turn the wood to ash
all these are gods so small that they be lesser than men but pleasant gods to have beside the hearth and often men have prayed to kilooloogung saying thou whose smoke ascendeth to pegana send up with it our prayers that the gods may hear
and kilooloogung who is pleased that men should pray stretches himself up all grey and lean with his arms above his head
that the gods of pegana may know that the people pray and jabim is the lord of broken things who sitteth behind the house to lament the things that are cast away and there he sitteth lamenting the broken things until the worlds be ended
or until someone cometh to mend the broken things or sometimes he sitteth by the river's edge to lament the forgotten things that drift upon it a kindly god is jabim whose heart is sore if anything be lost
there is also triboogie the lord of dusk whose children are the shadows who sitteth in a corner far off from habaniah and speaketh to none but after habaniah hath gone to sleep
and dawn comes dancing down the highway from pegana then does triboogie retire into his corner with his children all around him as though they had never danced about the room and the slaves of habaniah and old gribaun come and awake them from their sleep upon the hearth
and pitsu strokes the cat and hobith calms the dog and kilooloogung stretches aloft his arms towards pegana and triboogie is very still and his children asleep and when it is dark
all in the hour of triboogie hish creepeth from the forest the lord of silence whose children are the bats that have broken the command of their father but in a voice that is ever so low hish husheth the mouse
and all the whispers in the night he maketh all noises still only the cricket rebelleth but hish hath set against him such a spell that after he hath cried a thousand times his voice may be heard no more but becometh part of the silence
and when he hath slain all sounds hish boweth low to the ground then cometh into the house
but away in the forest whence hish hath come wohoon the lord of noises in the night awaketh in his lair and creepeth round the forest to see whether it be true that hish hath gone
then in some glade wohoon lifts up his voice and cries aloud that all the night may hear that it is he wohoon who is abroad in all the forest and the wolf and the fox and the owl and the great beasts and the small
lift up their voices to acclaim wohoon and there arise the sounds of voices and the stirring of leaves the revolt of the home gods
zaenes and segastrion
and carries the timber from the forest far up below the mountain and segastrion sings old songs to shepherd boys singing of his childhood in a lone ravine and of how he once sprang down the mountain sides and far away into the plain to see the world
and of how one day at last he will find the sea these be the rivers of the plain wherein the plain rejoices but old men tell whose fathers heard it from the ancients
how once the lords of the three rivers of the plain rebelled against the law of the worlds and passed beyond their boundaries and joined together and whelmed cities and slew men saying we now play the game of the gods and slay men for our pleasure
and we be greater than the gods of pegana and all the plain was flooded to the hills
and spread their hands over their rivers that rebelled by their command but the prayer of men going upward found pegana and cried in the ear of the gods there be three home gods who slay us for their pleasure and say that they be mightier than pegana's gods
and play their game with men then were all the gods of pegana very wroth but they could not whelm the lords of the three rivers because being home gods though small they were immortal and still the home gods spread their hands across their rivers
with their fingers wide apart and the waters rose and rose and the voice of their torrent grew louder crying
and came upon the drought umbool as he sat in the desert upon iron rocks clawing with miserly grasp at the bones of men and breathing hot and mung stood before him as his dry sides heaved
and ever as they sank his hot breath blasted dry sticks and bones then mung said friend of mung
till they see whether it be wise to rebel against the gods of pegana and umbool answered i am the beast of mung and umbool came and crouched upon a hill upon the other side of the waters and grinned across them at the rebellious home gods
but when umbool had grinned for thirty days the waters fell back into the river beds and the lords of the rivers slunk away back again to their homes still umbool sat and grinned
and segastrion lay and panted on the sand
and as segastrion lay and panted a man stepped over his stream and segastrion said it is the foot of a man that has passed across my neck and i have sought to be greater than the gods of pegana
then said the gods of pegana it is enough we are the gods of pegana and none are equal then mung sent umbool back to his waste in afrik to breathe again upon the rocks and parch the desert
and to sear the memory of afrik into the brains of all who ever bring their bones away
and walked once more in their accustomed haunts and played the game of life and death
with his hair pomaded and brushed forward over his temples as the emperor alexander wore his hair i have just been to see the countess your wife
unfortunately she could not grant my request but i hope count i shall be more fortunate with you he said with a smile what is it you wish colonel i am at your service
i have now quite settled in my new rooms count berg said this with perfect conviction that this information could not but be agreeable
and so i wish to arrange just a small party for my own and my wife's friends he smiled still more pleasantly
i wished to ask the countess and you to do me the honor of coming to tea and to supper only countess helene considering the society of such people as the bergs beneath her
could be cruel enough to refuse such an invitation berg explained so clearly why he wanted to collect at his house a small but select company and why this would give him pleasure
he was prepared to run into some expense for the sake of good society that pierre could not refuse and promised to come but don't be late count if i may venture to ask
about ten minutes to eight please we shall make up a rubber our general is coming he is very good to me we shall have supper count so you will do me the favor
not at ten but at fifteen minutes to eight having prepared everything necessary for the party the bergs were ready for their guests arrival in their new clean and light study
sat berg and his wife berg closely buttoned up in his new uniform sat beside his wife explaining to her that one always could
because only then does one get satisfaction from acquaintances you can get to know something you can ask for something
see how i managed from my first promotion berg measured his life not by years but by promotions my comrades are still nobodies
while i am only waiting for a vacancy to command a regiment and have the happiness to be your husband he rose and kissed vera's hand
and how have i obtained all this chiefly by knowing how to choose my aquaintances it goes without saying that one must be conscientious and methodical
berg smiled with a sense of his superiority over a weak woman and paused reflecting that this dear wife of his was after all but a weak woman
who could not understand all that constitutes a man's dignity what it was ein mann zu sein
vera at the same time smiling with a sense of superiority over her good conscientious husband who all the same understood life wrongly as according to vera
all men did berg judging by his wife thought all women weak and foolish vera judging only by her husband
and generalizing from that observation supposed that all men though they understand nothing and are conceited and selfish ascribe common sense to themselves alone
and embraced his wife carefully so as not to crush her lace fichu for which he had paid a good price kissing her straight on the lips the only thing is
we mustn't have children too soon he continued following an unconscious sequence of ideas yes answered vera i don't at all want that we must live for society
princess yusupova wore one exactly like this said berg pointing to the fichu with a happy and kindly smile just then count bezukhov was announced
husband and wife glanced at one another both smiling with self satisfaction and each mentally claiming the honor of this visit
this is what comes of knowing how to make acquaintances thought berg this is what comes of knowing how to conduct oneself
because i know what interests each of them and what to say to different people berg smiled again it can't be helped men must sometimes have masculine conversation
said he they received pierre in their small new drawing room where it was impossible to sit down anywhere without disturbing its symmetry neatness and order
so it was quite comprehensible and not strange that berg having generously offered to disturb the symmetry of an armchair
but being apparently painfully undecided on the matter himself eventually left the visitor to settle the question of selection pierre disturbed the symmetry by moving a chair for himself
and berg and vera immediately began their evening party interrupting each other in their efforts to entertain their guest vera having decided in her own mind
that pierre ought to be entertained with conversation about the french embassy at once began accordingly berg having decided that masculine conversation was required interrupted his wife's remarks
and touched on the question of the war with austria and unconsciously jumped from the general subject to personal considerations as to the proposals made him to take part in the austrian campaign
and the reasons why he had declined them though the conversation was very incoherent and vera was angry at the intrusion of the masculine element
that even if only one guest was present their evening had begun very well and was as like as two peas to every other evening party
there was a shade of condescension and patronage in his treatment of berg and vera after boris came a lady with the colonel then the general himself then the rostovs
and the party became unquestionably exactly like all other evening parties berg and vera could not repress their smiles of satisfaction at the sight of all this movement in their drawing room
at the sound of the disconnected talk
and the bowing and scraping everything was just as everybody always has it especially so the general who admired the apartment patted berg on the shoulder
the general sat down by count ilya rostov who was next to himself the most important guest the old people sat with the old the young with the young
in a silver cake basket as the panins had at their party
behind him walked his host and hostess he walked in rapidly bowing to right and left as if anxious to get the first moments of the reception over
the band played the polonaise in vogue at that time on account of the words that had been set to it beginning alexander elisaveta
the emperor passed on to the drawing room the crowd made a rush for the doors
at which the emperor reappeared talking to the hostess a young man looking distraught pounced down on the ladies asking them to move aside some ladies
pushed forward to the detriment of their toilets the men began to choose partners and take their places for the polonaise everyone moved back and the emperor came smiling out of the drawing room
leading his hostess by the hand but not keeping time to the music
then came ambassadors ministers and various generals whom peronskaya diligently named more than half the ladies already had partners and were taking up
or preparing to take up their positions for the polonaise natasha felt that she would be left with her mother and sonya
who crowded near the wall not having been invited to dance she stood with her slender arms hanging down her scarcely defined bosom
and with bated breath and glittering frightened eyes gazed straight before her evidently prepared for the height of joy or misery
is it possible no one will ask me that i shall not be among the first to dance is it possible
ah she's not the one i'm after so it's not worth looking at her no
they must know how i long to dance how splendidly i dance
the strains of the polonaise which had continued for a considerable time had begun to sound like a sad reminiscence to natasha's ears she wanted to cry
peronskaya had left them the count was at the other end of the room she and the countess and sonya were standing by themselves as in the depths of a forest
amid that crowd of strangers with no one interested in them and not wanted by anyone prince andrew with a lady passed by evidently not recognizing them
the handsome anatole was smilingly talking to a partner on his arm and looked at natasha as one looks at a wall boris passed them twice and each time turned away
berg and his wife who were not dancing came up to them this family gathering seemed humiliating to natasha as if there were nowhere else for the family to talk but here at the ball
she did not listen to or look at vera who was telling her something about her own green dress at last the emperor stopped beside his last partner
and the music ceased
to stand farther back though as it was they were already close to the wall and from the gallery resounded the distinct precise enticingly rhythmical strains of a waltz
the emperor looked smilingly down the room a minute passed but no one had yet begun dancing an aide de camp the master of ceremonies went up to countess bezukhova
and asked her to dance she smilingly raised her hand and laid it on his shoulder without looking at him the aide de camp
with confident deliberation started smoothly gliding first round the edge of the circle then at the corner of the room he caught helene's left hand and turned her the only sound audible
while at every third beat his partner's velvet dress spread out and seemed to flash
natasha gazed at them and was ready to cry because it was not she who was dancing that first turn of the waltz
prince andrew in the white uniform of a cavalry colonel wearing stockings and dancing shoes stood looking animated and bright in the front row of the circle
not far from the rostovs baron firhoff was talking to him about the first sitting of the council of state
prince andrew as one closely connected with speranski and participating in the work of the legislative commission could give reliable information about that sitting
concerning which various rumors were current but not listening to what firhoff was saying he was gazing now at the sovereign and now at the men intending to dance
who had not yet gathered courage to enter the circle prince andrew was watching these men abashed by the emperor's presence and the women who were breathlessly longing to be asked to dance
pierre came up to him and caught him by the arm you always dance i have a protegee the young rostova here ask her he said
asked bolkonski excuse me he added turning to the baron we will finish this conversation elsewhere at a ball one must dance he stepped forward in the direction pierre indicated
the despairing dejected expression of natasha's face caught his eye he recognized her guessed her feelings saw that it was her debut remembered her conversation at the window
and with an expression of pleasure on his face approached countess rostova allow me to introduce you to my daughter said the countess with heightened color
i have the pleasure of being already acquainted if the countess remembers me said prince andrew with a low and courteous bow quite belying
peronskaya's remarks about his rudeness and approaching natasha he held out his arm to grasp her waist before he had completed his invitation he asked her to waltz
that tremulous expression on natasha's face prepared either for despair or rapture
i have long been waiting for you that frightened happy little girl seemed to say
as she raised her hand to prince andrew's shoulder they were the second couple to enter the circle prince andrew was one of the best dancers of his day and natasha danced exquisitely
her little feet in their white satin dancing shoes did their work swiftly lightly and independently of herself while her face beamed with ecstatic happiness
her slender bare arms and neck were not beautiful compared to helene's her shoulders looked thin and her bosom undeveloped but helene seemed as it were
hardened by a varnish left by the thousands of looks that had scanned her person while natasha was like a girl exposed for the first time who would have felt very much ashamed
had she not been assured that this was absolutely necessary prince andrew liked dancing and wishing to escape as quickly as possible from the political and clever talk
which everyone addressed to him wishing also to break up the circle of restraint he disliked caused by the emperor's presence he danced and had chosen natasha because pierre pointed her out to him
but rather as belonging to it in the aspect of the crowning grace of all the rest that principle i mean to which polity owes its stability life its happiness faith its acceptance creation its continuance
the stars have it not the earth has it not the sea has it not and we men have the mockery and semblance of it only for our heaviest punishment
he had seen among men in its true dyes of darkness but with what strange fallacy of interpretation since in one noble line of his invocation he has contradicted the assumptions of the rest
and acknowledged the presence of a subjection surely not less severe because eternal how could he otherwise since if there be any one principle more widely than another confessed by every utterance
or more sternly than another imprinted on every atom of the visible creation that principle is not liberty but law two
subjection of the will if you mean the fear of inflicting the shame of committing a wrong if you mean respect for all who are in authority and consideration for all who are in dependence veneration for the good
and the fool equality
and the malignant mean violence call it by any name rather than this but its best and truest is obedience obedience is indeed founded on a kind of freedom else its would become mere subjugation
but that freedom is only granted that obedience may be more perfect and thus while a measure of license is necessary to exhibit the individual energies of things the fairness and pleasantness and perfection of them all
consist in their restraint compare a river that has burst its banks with one that is bound by them and the clouds that are scattered over the face of the whole heaven
with those that are marshalled into ranks and orders by its winds so that though restraint utter and unrelaxing can never be comely this is not because it is in itself an evil
is between the laws of life and being in the things governed and the laws of general sway to which they are subjected and the suspension or infringement of either kind of law or literally disorder is equivalent to
and synonymous with disease while the increase of both honor and beauty is habitually on the side of restraint or the action of superior law rather than of character or the action of inherent law
but we may observe that exactly in proportion to the majesty of things in the scale of being is the completeness of their obedience to the laws that are set over them gravitation is less quietly less instantly obeyed by a grain of dust
than it is by the sun and moon and the ocean falls and flows under influences which the lake and river do not recognize so also in estimating the dignity of any action or occupation of men
this severity must be singular therefore in the case of that art above all others whose productions are the most vast and the most common which requires for its practice the co operation of bodies of men
that the license which they extend to the workings of individual mind would be withdrawn by her and that in assertion of the relations which she holds with all that is universally important to man
she would set forth by her own majestic subjection some likeness of that on which man's social happiness and power depend we might therefore without the light of experience conclude that architecture never could flourish
if there be any one condition which in watching the progress of architecture we see distinct and general if amidst the counter evidence of success attending opposite accidents of character and circumstance
any one conclusion may be constantly and indisputably drawn it is this that the architecture of a nation is great only when it is as universal and as established as its language and when provincial differences of style
are nothing more than so many dialects other necessities are matters of doubt nations have been alike successful in their architecture in times of poverty and of wealth in times of war and of peace in times of barbarism
and of refinement under governments the most liberal or the most arbitrary but this one condition has been constant this one requirement clear in all places and at all times
that the work shall be that of a school that no individual caprice shall dispense with or materially vary accepted types and customary decorations and that from the cottage to the palace
and from the chapel to the basilica and from the garden fence to the fortress wall every member and feature of the architecture of the nation shall be as commonly current as frankly accepted as its language or its coin
as to ask of a man who has never had rags enough on his back to keep out cold to invent a new mode of cutting a coat give him a whole coat first and let him concern himself about the fashion of it afterwards
we want no new style of architecture who wants a new style of painting or sculpture but we want some style it is of marvellously little importance if we have a code of laws and they be good laws
whether they be new or old foreign or native roman or saxon or norman or english laws but it is of considerable importance that we should have a code of laws of one kind or another
and that code accepted and enforced from one side of the island to another and not one law made ground of judgment at york
and in like manner it does not matter one marble splinter whether we have an old or new architecture but it matters everything whether we have an architecture truly so called or not that is
whether an architecture whose laws might be taught at our schools from cornwall to northumberland as we teach english spelling and english grammar or an architecture which is to be invented fresh every time we build a workhouse
originality in expression does not depend on invention of new words nor originality in poetry on invention of new measures nor in painting on invention of new colors or new modes of using them
granting that they may be such additions or alterations are much more the work of time and of multitudes than of individual inventors we may have one van eyck who will be known as the introducer of a new style once in ten centuries
to some accidental bye play or pursuit and the use of that invention will depend altogether on the popular necessities or instincts of the period originality depends on nothing of the kind a man who has the gift
i do not say that he will not take liberties with his materials or with his rules i do not say that strange changes will not sometimes be wrought by his efforts or his fancies in both but those changes will be instructive
natural facile though sometimes marvellous they will never be sought after as things necessary to his dignity or to his independence and those liberties will be like the liberties that a great speaker takes with the language
and the insect at those periods when by their natural progress and constitutional power such changes are about to be wrought but as that would be both an uncomfortable and foolish caterpillar which instead of being contented with a caterpillar's life
is struggling and fretting under the natural limitations of its existence and striving to become something other than it is and though it is the nobility of the highest creatures to look forward to and partly to understand the changes which are appointed for them
preparing for them beforehand and if as is usual with appointed changes they be into a higher state even desiring them and rejoicing in the hope of them
are developed in filling this single doorway footnote the tympanum of the south transcept door it is to be found generally among all collections of architectural photographs
sitting sulkily in the corner he hugs his book with both hands and won't get up to take his crosier
and here's one of the monks in the opposite corner who is quite cool about it and thinks they'll get on well enough without saint honore you see that in his face perfectly
and has his book now grandly on his desk instead of his knees and he directs one of his village curates how to find relics in a wood here is the wood and here is the village curate
which occurrence afterwards was painted for the arms of the abbey
and here is his tomb with his statue on the top and miracles are being performed at it a deaf man having his ear touched and a blind man groping his way up to the tomb with his dog
bowed its head in token of acceptance as the relics of saint honore passed beneath now just consider the amount of sympathy with human nature and observance of it
the sympathy with disputing monks with puzzled aldermen with melancholy recluse with triumphant prelate with palsy stricken poverty with ecclesiastical magnificence or miracle working faith
design these rich and quaint fragments of tombs and altars weave with perfect animation the entangled branches of the forest but you will answer me all this is not architecture at all it is sculpture
will you then tell me precisely where the separation exists between one and the other we will begin at the very beginning i will show you a piece of what you will certainly admit to be a piece of pure architecture
which you call i suppose impure well look on this picture and on this don't laugh you must not laugh that's very improper of you this is classical architecture i have taken it out of the essay on that subject in the encyclopaedia britannica
yet i suppose none of you would think yourselves particularly ingenious architects if you had designed nothing more than this nay i will even let you improve it into any grand proportion you choose
we want a few mouldings you will say just a few those who want mouldings hold up their hands we are unanimous i think will you then design the profiles of these mouldings yourselves or will you copy them if you wish to copy them
but if you wish to design them yourselves how do you do it
and you order your mason to cut it now will you tell me the logical difference between drawing the profile of a moulding and giving that to be cut and drawing the folds of the drapery of a statue and giving those to be cut
and sculpture anything that is difficult it is true also that the carved moulding represents nothing and the carved drapery represents something but you will not i should think accept as an explanation of the difference between architecture and sculpture
this any more than the other that sculpture is art which has meaning and architecture art which has none where then is your difference in this perhaps you will say
that whatever ornaments we can direct ourselves and get accurately cut to order we consider architectural the ornaments that we are obliged to leave to the pleasure of the workman or the superintendence of some other designer we consider sculptural
for instance you all know the pulpit of niccolo pisano in the baptistry at pisa it is composed of seven rich relievi surrounded by panel mouldings and sustained on marble shafts
do you suppose niccolo pisano's reputation such part of it at least as rests on this pulpit and much does depends on the panel mouldings or on the relievi the panel mouldings are by his hand
he would have disdained to leave even them to a common workman but do you think he found any difficulty in them or thought there was any credit in them having once done the sculpture those enclosing lines were mere child's play to him
that also consists of rich and multitudinous bas reliefs enclosed in panel mouldings with shafts of mosaic and foliated arches sustaining the canopy
here on this sculptured shield rests the master's hand this is the centre of the master's thought from this and in subordination to this waved the arch and sprang the pinnacle
having done this and being able to give human expression and action to the stone all the rest the rib the niche the foil the shaft were mere toys to his hand and accessories to his conception and if once you also gain the gift of doing this
if once you can carve one fronton such as you have here i tell you you would be able so far as it depended on your invention to scatter cathedrals over england as fast as clouds rise from its streams after summer rain
nay but perhaps you answer again our sculptors at present do not design cathedrals and could not no they could not but that is merely because we have made architecture so dull that they cannot take any interest in it
and therefore do not care to add to their higher knowledge the poor and common knowledge of principles of building you have thus separated building from sculpture and you have taken away the power of both
for the sculptor loses nearly as much by never having room for the development of a continuous work as you do from having reduced your work to a continuity of mechanism you are essentially and should always be the same body of men
admitting only such difference in operation as there is between the work of a painter at different times who sometimes labours on a small picture and sometimes on the frescoes of a palace gallery this conclusion then we arrive at
must arrive at the fact being irrevocably so that in order to give your imagination and the other powers of your souls full play you must do as all the great architects of old time did
nothing that is great is easy and nothing that is great so long as you study building without sculpture can be in your way i want to put it in your way and you to find your way to it
but on the other hand do not shrink from the task as if the refined art of perfect sculpture were always required from you for though architecture and sculpture are not separate arts there is an architectural manner of sculpture
john leech does not sketch so well as leonardo da vinci but do you think that the public could easily spare him or that he is wrong in bringing out his talent in the way in which it is most effective would you advise him if he asked your advice
and yet do not you see that you are doing precisely the same thing with your powers of sculptural design that he would be doing with his powers of pictorial design if he gave you nothing but such lines you feel that you cannot carve like phidias
that popular power of expression which is within the attainment of thousands and would address itself to tens of thousands is utterly lost to us in stone though in ink and paper it has become one of the most desired luxuries of modern civilization
and from mere geometrical decoration on the other and first observe what an indulgence we have in the distance at which most work is to be seen supposing we were able to carve eyes and lips with the most exquisite precision
it would all be of no use as soon as the work was put far above the eye but on the other hand as beauties disappear by being far withdrawn so will faults and the mystery and confusion which are the natural consequence of distance
often a deep cut or a rude angle will produce in certain positions an effect of expression both startling and true which you never hoped for not that mere distance will give animation to the work if it has none in itself
but if it has life at all the distance will make that life more perceptible and powerful by softening the defects of execution so that you are placed as workmen in this position of singular advantage that you may give your fancies free play
and strike hard for the expression that you want knowing that if you miss it no one will detect you if you at all touch it nature herself will help you
and with every changing shadow and basking sunbeam bring forth new phases of your fancy but it is not merely this privilege of being imperfect which belongs to architectural sculpture it has a true privilege of imagination
for observe to that sculpture the spectator is usually brought in a tranquil or prosaic state of mind he sees it associated rather with what is sumptuous than sublime and under circumstances
which address themselves more to his comfort than his curiosity the statue which is to be pathetic seen between the flashes of footmen's livery round the dining table must have strong elements of pathos in itself and the statue which is to be awful
in the midst of the gossip of the drawing room must have the elements of awe wholly in itself but the spectator is brought to your work already in an excited and imaginative mood
he has been impressed by the cathedral wall as it loomed over the low streets before he looks up to the carving of its porch and his love of mystery has been touched by the silence and the shadows of the cloister
before he can set himself to decipher the bosses on its vaulting so that when once he begins to observe your doings he will ask nothing better from you nothing kinder from you than that you would meet this imaginative temper of his half way
or carrying out your fancies however extravagant in grotesqueness of shadow or shape will be for the most part in accordance with the temper of the observer and he is likely therefore much more willingly to use his fancy to help your meanings
than his judgment to detect your faults again remember that when the imagination and feelings are strongly excited they will not only bear with strange things but they will look into minute things with a delight quite unknown in hours of tranquillity
you surely must remember moments of your lives in which under some strong excitement of feeling all the details of visible objects presented themselves with a strange intensity and insistance whether you would or no
things trivial at other times assume a dignity or significance which we cannot explain but which is only the more attractive because inexplicable and the powers of attention quickened by the feverish excitement
and which would assuredly be offensive to the perfect taste in its moments of languor or of critical judgment will be grateful and even sublime when it meets this frightened inquisitiveness this fascinated watchfulness
of the roused imagination and this is all for your advantage for in the beginnings of your sculpture you will assuredly find it easier to imitate minute circumstances of costume or character
than to perfect the anatomy of simple forms or the flow of noble masses and it will be encouraging to remember that the grace you cannot perfect and the simplicity you cannot achieve
i bring the apparent inconsistency forward at the beginning of this appendix because the illustration of it will be farther useful in showing the real nature of the self contradiction which is often alleged against me by careless readers it is not only possible
but a frequent condition of human action to do right and be right yet so as to mislead other people if they rashly imitate the thing done for there are many rights which are not absolutely but relatively right
right only for that person to do under those circumstances not for this person to do under other circumstances thus it stands between titian and tintoret titian is always absolutely right
you may imitate him with entire security that you are doing the best thing that can possibly be done for the purpose in hand tintoret is always relatively right relatively to his own aims and peculiar powers
he becomes entirely instructive and exemplary just as titian is
and you can only study him rightly with that reverence for him then the artists who are named as admitting question of right and wrong
even with relation to their own aims and powers take for example the quality of imperfection in drawing form there are many pictures of tintoret in which the trees are drawn with a few curved flourishes of the brush instead of leaves
that is absolutely wrong if you copied the tree as a model you would be going very wrong indeed but it is relatively and for tintoret's purposes right in the nature of the superficial work
let him wait another five minutes and this is the best foliage we can do in the time entirely admirably unsurpassably right under the conditions titian would not have worked under them but tintoret was kinder and humbler
yet he may lead you wrong if you don't understand him or perhaps another day somebody came in while tintoret was at work who tormented tintoret an ignoble person
tintoret cannot stand the ignobleness it is unendurably repulsive and discomfiting to him the black plague take him and the trees too shall such a fellow see me paint and the trees go all to pieces
this in you would be mere ill breeding and ill temper in tintoret it was one of the necessary conditions of his intense sensibility had he been capable then of keeping his temper he could never have done his greatest works
let the trees go to pieces by all means it is quite right they should he is always right but in a background of gainsborough you would find the trees unjustifiably gone to pieces
footnote at least after his style was formed early pictures like the adoration of the magi in our gallery are of little value
only one does not like to say things that shock people some words of warning against painters likely to mislead the student for indeed though here and there something may be gained by looking at inferior men there is always more to be gained by looking at the best
and there is not time with all the looking of human life to exhaust even one great painter's instruction how then shall we dare to waste our sight and thoughts on inferior ones even if we could do so
which we rarely can without danger of being led astray nay strictly speaking what people call inferior painters are in general no painters artists are divided by an impassable gulf into the men who can paint
and who cannot the men who can paint often fall short of what they should have done are repressed or defeated or otherwise rendered inferior one to another still there is an everlasting barrier between them
and the men who cannot paint who can only in various popular ways pretend to paint and if once you know the difference there is always some good to be got by looking at a real painter
seldom anything but mischief to be got out of a false one but do not suppose real painters are common i do not speak of living men but among those who labour no more in this england of ours since it first had a school
we have had only five real painters reynolds gainsborough hogarth richard wilson and turner the reader may perhaps think i have forgotten wilkie no i once much overrated him as an expressional draughtsman
not having then studied the figure long enough to be able to detect superficial sentiment
it is entirely false and valueless
though unparalleled for narrowness were as far as they went true but as it is he is nothing more than an industrious and innocent amateur blundering his way to a superficial expression of one or two popular aspects of common nature
and my readers may depend upon it that all blame which i express in this sweeping way is trustworthy i have often had to repent of over praise of inferior men and continually to repent of insufficient praise of great men
he may be assured every word is true footnote he must however be careful to distinguish blame however strongly expressed of some special fault or error in a true painter
from these general statements of inferiority or worthlessness thus he will find me continually laughing at wilson's tree painting
it is just because it so much offends him that it was necessary and knowing that it must offend him i should not have ventured to say it without certainty of its truth i say certainty for it is just as possible to be certain
as whether the drawing of a triangle is and what i mean primarily by saying that a picture is in all respects worthless is that it is in all respects false which is not a matter of opinion at all
but a matter of ascertainable fact such as i never assert till i have ascertained and the thing so commonly said about my writings that they are rather persuasive than just
and that though my language may be good i am an unsafe guide in art criticism is like many other popular estimates in such matters not merely untrue but precisely the reverse of the truth
it is truth like reflections in water distorted much by the shaking receptive surface and in every particular upside down for my language
and still though i have tried hard to mend it the best i can do is inferior to much contemporary work no description that i have ever given of anything is worth four lines of tennyson and in serious thought
but i am an entirely safe guide in art judgment and that
it is quite easy for instance to take an accidental irregularity in a piece of architecture which less careful examination would never have detected at all for an intentional irregularity quite possible to misinterpret an obscure passage in a picture
falls forward on the road not into the ditch beside it and they are sure to be corrected by the next comer but the blunt and dead mistakes made by too many other writers on art the mistakes of sheer inattention and want of sympathy
nay quite bottomless and unredeemable mistake is the fool's thought that he had no meaning i do not refer in saying this to any of my statements respecting subjects which it has been my main work to study
as far as i am aware i have never yet misinterpreted any picture of turner's though often remaining blind to the half of what he had intended neither have i as yet found anything to correct in my statements respecting venetian architecture
they will be found by every one who will take the pains to examine them most assuredly and indisputably intentional and not only so but one of the principal subjects of the designer's care
appendix two reynolds disappointment
record is preserved of sir joshua's feelings respecting the paintings in the window of new college which might otherwise have been supposed to give his full sanction to this mode of painting on glass
but so it is and with the simplicity and humbleness of an entirely great man he hopes that mister jervas on glass is to excel sir joshua on canvas happily mason tells us the result
how greatly that effect would be heightened by the transparency which the painting on glass would be sure to produce it turned out quite the reverse appendix three classical architecture
silver's embassy sure enough there were two men just outside the stockade one of them waving a white cloth the other no less a person than silver himself standing placidly by
it was still quite early
a chill that pierced into the marrow the sky was bright and cloudless overhead and the tops of the trees shone rosily in the sun but where silver stood with his lieutenant
the chill and the vapour taken together told a poor tale of the island it was plainly a damp feverish unhealthy spot keep indoors men said the captain ten to one this is a trick
then he hailed the buccaneer who goes stand or we fire flag of truce cried silver the captain was in the porch keeping himself carefully out of the way of a treacherous shot
should any be intended he turned and spoke to us doctor's watch on the lookout
jim the east gray west the watch below all hands to load muskets lively men and careful and then he turned again to the mutineers and what do you want with your flag of truce
he cried this time it was the other man who replied cap'n silver sir to come on board and make terms he shouted
don't know him who's he cried the captain and we could hear him adding to himself cap'n is it my heart and here's promotion long john answered for himself me sir
these poor lads have chosen me cap'n after your desertion sir laying a particular emphasis upon the word desertion we're willing to submit
if we can come to terms and no bones about it all i ask is your word cap'n smollett to let me safe and sound out of this here stockade and one minute to get out o shot before a gun is fired my man
said captain smollett i have not the slightest desire to talk to you if you wish to talk to me you can come that's all if there's any treachery it'll be on your side and the lord help you
shouted long john cheerily
i know a gentleman and you may lay to that we could see the man who carried the flag of truce attempting to hold silver back nor was that wonderful seeing how cavalier had been the captain's answer
but silver laughed at him aloud and slapped him on the back as if the idea of alarm had been absurd then he advanced to the stockade threw over his crutch got a leg up
and with great vigour and skill succeeded in surmounting the fence and dropping safely to the other side i will confess that i was far too much taken up with what was going on to be of the slightest use as sentry
indeed i had already deserted my eastern loophole and crept up behind the captain who had now seated himself on the threshold
his head in his hands and his eyes fixed on the water as it bubbled out of the old iron kettle in the sand he was whistling come lasses and lads silver had terrible hard work getting up the knoll
what with the steepness of the incline the thick tree stumps and the soft sand he and his crutch were as helpless as a ship in stays but he stuck to it like a man in silence and at last arrived before the captain
whom he saluted in the handsomest style he was tricked out in his best an immense blue coat thick with brass buttons hung as low as to his knees
you had better sit down
why silver said the captain if you had pleased to be an honest man you might have been sitting in your galley it's your own doing you're either my ship's cook and then you were treated handsome or cap'n silver
a common mutineer and pirate and then you can go hang well well cap'n returned the sea cook sitting down as he was bidden on the sand you'll have to give me a hand up again that's all a sweet pretty place you have of it here
doctor here's my service why
if you have anything to say my man better say it said the captain right you were cap'n smollett replied silver dooty is dooty to be sure well now you look here
that was a good lay of yours last night i don't deny it was a good lay
maybe all was shook maybe i was shook myself maybe that's why i'm here for terms but you mark me cap'n it won't do twice by thunder
but i'll tell you i was sober i was on'y dog tired and if i'd awoke a second sooner i'd a caught you at the act i would he wasn't dead when i got round to him not he well
says captain smollett as cool as can be all that silver said was a riddle to him but you would never have guessed it from his tone as for me i began to have an inkling
ben gunn's last words came back to my mind i began to suppose that he had paid the buccaneers a visit while they all lay drunk together round their fire and i reckoned up with glee that we had only fourteen enemies to deal with
well here it is said silver we want that treasure and we'll have it that's our point you would just as soon save your lives i reckon and that's yours you have a chart haven't you
that's as may be replied the captain
you have i know that returned long john
there ain't a particle of service in that and you may lay to it what i mean is we want your chart now i never meant you no harm myself that won't do with me my man interrupted the captain
we know exactly what you meant to do and we don't care for now you see you can't do it and the captain looked at him calmly and proceeded to fill a pipe
so there's my mind for you my man on that this little whiff of temper seemed to cool silver down he had been growing nettled before but now he pulled himself together like enough said he
i would set no limits to what gentlemen might consider shipshape or might not as the case were
and he filled a pipe and lighted it and the two men sat silently smoking for quite a while now looking each other in the face now stopping their tobacco now leaning forward to spit it was as good as the play to see them
now resumed silver here it is you give us the chart to get the treasure by
and stoving of their heads in while asleep you do that and we'll offer you a choice
and then i'll give you my affy davy upon my word of honour to clap you somewhere safe ashore
some of my hands being rough and having old scores on account of hazing
we'll divide stores with you man for man and i'll give my affy davy as before to speak the first ship i sight and send em here to pick you up now you'll own that's talking handsomer you couldn't look to get now you
and i hope raising his voice that all hands in this here block house will overhaul my words for what is spoke to one is spoke to all captain smollett rose from his seat
and knocked out the ashes of his pipe in the palm of his left hand is that all he asked every last word by thunder
refuse that and you've seen the last of me but musket balls very good said the captain now you'll hear me if you'll come up one by one unarmed
i'll engage to clap you all in irons and take you home to a fair trial in england if you won't my name is alexander smollett
and i'll see you all to davy jones you can't find the treasure you can't sail the ship there's not a man among you fit to sail the ship
your ship's in irons master silver you're on a lee shore and so you'll find
tramp my lad bundle out of this please hand over hand and double quick silver's face was a picture his eyes started in his head with wrath he shook the fire out of his pipe
not i returned the captain
growling the foulest imprecations he crawled along the sand till he got hold of the porch and could hoist himself again upon his crutch then he spat into the spring there he cried
before an hour's out i'll stove in your old block house like a rum puncheon
narrative resumed by jim hawkins the garrison in the stockade
stopped me by the arm and sat down now said he there's your friends sure enough far more likely it's the mutineers i answered that he cried
why in a place like this where nobody puts in but gen'lemen of fortune silver would fly the jolly roger you don't make no doubt of that no that's your friends there's been blows too and i reckon your friends has had the best of it
and here they are ashore in the old stockade as was made years and years ago by flint ah he was the man to have a headpiece was flint barring rum his match were never seen he were afraid of none not he
on'y silver silver was that genteel well said i that may be so and so be it
nay mate returned ben not you you're a good boy or i'm mistook but you're on'y a boy all told now ben gunn is fly rum wouldn't bring me there where you're going not rum wouldn't till i see your born gen'leman
and you won't forget my words a precious sight that's what you'll say a precious sight more confidence' and then nips him and he pinched me the third time with the same air of cleverness
and when ben gunn is wanted you know where to find him jim
and him that comes is to have a white thing in his hand and he's to come alone oh and you'll say this ben gunn says you has reasons of his own well said i i believe i understand
you have something to propose and you wish to see the squire or the doctor and you're to be found where i found you is that all and when says you he added why from about noon observation to about six bells
good said i and now may i go you won't forget he inquired anxiously precious sight and reasons of his own says you
as between man and man well then still holding me i reckon you can go jim and jim if you was to see silver you wouldn't go for to sell ben gunn
what would you say but there'd be widders in the morning here he was interrupted by a loud report and a cannonball came tearing through the trees
not a hundred yards from where we two were talking
for a good hour to come frequent reports shook the island
i moved from hiding place to hiding place always pursued or so it seemed to me by these terrifying missiles but towards the end of the bombardment
i had begun in a manner to pluck up my heart again and after a long detour to the east
the sun had just set the sea breeze was rustling and tumbling in the woods and ruffling the grey surface of the anchorage the tide too was far out and great tracts of sand lay uncovered the air after the heat of the day
chilled me through my jacket the hispaniola still lay where she had anchored but sure enough there was the jolly roger the black flag of piracy flying from her peak even as i looked there came another red flash
and one more round shot whistled through the air it was the last of the cannonade i lay for some time watching the bustle which succeeded the attack men were demolishing something with axes on the beach near the stockade
the poor jolly boat i afterwards discovered away near the mouth of the river a great fire was glowing among the trees and between that point and the ship one of the gigs kept coming and going the men
whom i had seen so gloomy shouting at the oars like children but there was a sound in their voices which suggested rum at length i thought i might return towards the stockade
i was pretty far down on the low sandy spit that encloses the anchorage to the east and is joined at half water to skeleton island and now as i rose to my feet
and rising from among low bushes an isolated rock pretty high and peculiarly white in colour it occurred to me that this might be the white rock of which ben gunn had spoken and that some day or other a boat might be wanted
and i should know where to look for one
or shoreward side of the stockade and was soon warmly welcomed by the faithful party i had soon told my story and began to look about me the log house was made of unsquared trunks of pine
the latter stood in several places as much as a foot or a foot and a half above the surface of the sand there was a porch at the door and under this porch the little spring welled up into an artificial basin of a rather odd kind
no other than a great ship's kettle of iron with the bottom knocked out and sunk to her bearings as the captain said among the sand little had been left besides the framework of the house
the slopes of the knoll and all the inside of the stockade had been cleared of timber to build the house and we could see by the stumps what a fine and lofty grove had been destroyed
only where the streamlet ran down from the kettle
too close for defence they said the wood still flourished high and dense all of fir on the land side but towards the sea with a large admixture of live oaks the cold evening breeze of which i have spoken
whistled through every chink of the rude building and sprinkled the floor with a continual rain of fine sand there was sand in our eyes sand in our teeth sand in our suppers sand dancing in the spring at the bottom of the kettle
for all the world like porridge beginning to boil our chimney was a square hole in the roof
add to this that gray the new man
and that poor old tom redruth still unburied lay along the wall stiff and stark under the union jack if we had been allowed to sit idle
but captain smollett was never the man for that all hands were called up before him and he divided us into watches the doctor and gray and i for one the squire hunter and joyce upon the other
tired though we all were two were sent out for firewood two more were set to dig a grave for redruth the doctor was named cook i was put sentry at the door
from time to time the doctor came to the door for a little air and to rest his eyes which were almost smoked out of his head and whenever he did so he had a word for me that man smollett he said once
is a better man than i am and when i say that it means a deal jim another time he came and was silent for a while then he put his head on one side and looked at me
is this ben gunn a man he asked i do not know sir said i i am not very sure whether he's sane
a man who has been three years biting his nails on a desert island jim can't expect to appear as sane as you or me it doesn't lie in human nature was it cheese you said he had a fancy for yes sir cheese
i answered well jim says he
you've seen my snuff box haven't you and you never saw me take snuff the reason being that in my snuff box i carry a piece of parmesan cheese a cheese made in italy very nutritious well
that's for ben gunn before supper was eaten we buried old tom in the sand and stood round him for a while bare headed in the breeze a good deal of firewood had been got in but not enough for the captain's fancy
and he shook his head over it and told us we must get back to this tomorrow rather livelier then when we had eaten our pork and each had a good stiff glass of brandy grog the three chiefs got together in a corner to discuss our prospects
it appears they were at their wits end what to do the stores being so low that we must have been starved into surrender long before help came but our best hope it was decided was to kill off the buccaneers
until they either hauled down their flag or ran away with the hispaniola from nineteen they were already reduced to fifteen two others were wounded
severely wounded if he were not dead every time we had a crack at them we were to take it
and besides that we had two able allies rum and the climate as for the first though we were about half a mile away we could hear them roaring and singing late into the night and as for the second
the doctor staked his wig that camped where they were in the marsh and unprovided with remedies
so he added
it's always a ship and they can get to buccaneering again i suppose
said captain smollett i was dead tired as you may fancy and when i got to sleep
i slept like a log of wood the rest had long been up and had already breakfasted and increased the pile of firewood by about half as much again when i was wakened by a bustle and the sound of voices flag of truce
i heard someone say and then immediately after with a cry of surprise silver himself
chapter fourteen the sudden termination of colonel brandon's visit at the park with his steadiness in concealing its cause filled the mind and raised the wonder of missus jennings for two or three days she was a great wonderer
as every one must be who takes a very lively interest in all the comings and goings of all their acquaintance she wondered with little intermission what could be the reason of it was sure there must be some bad news
with a fixed determination that he should not escape them all something very melancholy must be the matter i am sure said she i could see it in his face
for what else can it be i wonder whether it is so i would give anything to know the truth of it perhaps it is about miss williams and by the bye i dare say it is because he looked so conscious when i mentioned her
may be she is ill in town nothing in the world more likely for i have a notion she is always rather sickly i would lay any wager it is about miss williams it is not so very likely he should be distressed in his circumstances now
for he is a very prudent man and to be sure must have cleared the estate by this time i wonder what it can be may be his sister is worse at avignon and has sent for him over his setting off in such a hurry seems very like it
well i wish him out of all his trouble with all my heart and a good wife into the bargain so wondered so talked missus jennings her opinion varying with every fresh conjecture and all seeming equally probable as they arose elinor
though she felt really interested in the welfare of colonel brandon could not bestow all the wonder on his going so suddenly away which missus jennings was desirous of her feeling for besides that the circumstance did not in her opinion justify such lasting amazement
or variety of speculation her wonder was otherwise disposed of it was engrossed by the extraordinary silence of her sister and willoughby on the subject which they must know to be peculiarly interesting to them all as this silence continued
every day made it appear more strange and more incompatible with the disposition of both why they should not openly acknowledge to her mother and herself what their constant behaviour to each other declared to have taken place
she could easily conceive that marriage might not be immediately in their power for though willoughby was independent there was no reason to believe him rich his estate had been rated by sir john at about six or seven hundred a year
but he lived at an expense to which that income could hardly be equal and he had himself often complained of his poverty but for this strange kind of secrecy maintained by them relative to their engagement which in fact concealed nothing at all
she could not account and it was so wholly contradictory to their general opinions and practice that a doubt sometimes entered her mind of their being really engaged and this doubt was enough to prevent her making any inquiry of marianne
nothing could be more expressive of attachment to them all than willoughby's behaviour to marianne it had all the distinguishing tenderness which a lover's heart could give and to the rest of the family it was the affectionate attention of a son and a brother
the cottage seemed to be considered and loved by him as his home
at the side of marianne and by his favourite pointer at her feet one evening in particular about a week after colonel brandon left the country his heart seemed more than usually open
her design of improving the cottage in the spring he warmly opposed every alteration of a place which affection had established as perfect with him what he exclaimed improve this dear cottage no that i will never consent to
not a stone must be added to its walls not an inch to its size if my feelings are regarded do not be alarmed said miss dashwood nothing of the kind will be done
i am heartily glad of it he cried may she always be poor if she can employ her riches no better thank you willoughby but you may be assured that i would not sacrifice one sentiment of local attachment of yours or of any one whom i loved
for all the improvements in the world depend upon it that whatever unemployed sum may remain when i make up my accounts in the spring i would even rather lay it uselessly by than dispose of it in a manner so painful to you
but are you really so attached to this place as to see no defect in it i am said he to me it is faultless nay more i consider it as the only form of building in which happiness is attainable
and build it up again in the exact plan of this cottage with dark narrow stairs and a kitchen that smokes i suppose said elinor yes cried he in the same eager tone with all and every thing belonging to it
should the least variation be perceptible then and then only under such a roof i might perhaps be as happy at combe as i have been at barton i flatter myself replied elinor that even under the disadvantage of better rooms and a broader staircase
you will hereafter find your own house as faultless as you now do this there certainly are circumstances said willoughby
but this place will always have one claim of my affection which no other can possibly share missus dashwood looked with pleasure at marianne whose fine eyes were fixed so expressively on willoughby as plainly denoted how well she understood him
how often did i wish added he when i was at allenham this time twelvemonth that barton cottage were inhabited i never passed within view of it without admiring its situation and grieving that no one should live in it
how little did i then think that the very first news i should hear from missus smith when i next came into the country would be that barton cottage was taken and i felt an immediate satisfaction and interest in the event
can account for must it not have been so marianne speaking to her in a lowered voice then continuing his former tone he said and yet this house you would spoil missus dashwood
you would rob it of its simplicity by imaginary improvement and this dear parlour in which our acquaintance first began and in which so many happy hours have been since spent by us together you would degrade to the condition of a common entrance
and every body would be eager to pass through the room which has hitherto contained within itself more real accommodation and comfort than any other apartment of the handsomest dimensions in the world could possibly afford
missus dashwood again assured him that no alteration of the kind should be attempted you are a good woman he warmly replied your promise makes me easy extend it a little farther and it will make me happy
tell me that not only your house will remain the same but that i shall ever find you and yours as unchanged as your dwelling and that you will always consider me with the kindness which has made everything belonging to you so dear to me the promise was readily given
declared at once his affection and happiness shall we see you tomorrow to dinner said missus dashwood when he was leaving them i do not ask you to come in the morning for we must walk to the park to call on lady middleton
by the next morning november eighteenth i was fully recovered from my exhaustion of the day before and i climbed onto the platform just as the nautilus's
or that they meant there's nothing in sight and in truth the ocean was deserted not a sail on the horizon the tips of crespo island had disappeared during the night the sea absorbing every color of the prism except its blue rays
i was marveling at this magnificent ocean view
then his operations finished he went and leaned his elbows on the beacon housing his eyes straying over the surface of the ocean meanwhile some twenty of the nautilus's sailors all energetic well built fellows climbed onto the platform
these seamen obviously belonged to different nationalities
if i'm not mistaken i recognized some irishmen some frenchmen a few slavs and a native of either greece or crete even so these men were frugal of speech and used among themselves only that bizarre dialect
whose origin i couldn't even guess so i had to give up any notions of questioning them the nets were hauled on board they were a breed of trawl resembling those used off the normandy coast
and a chain laced through the lower meshes trailing in this way from these iron glove makers the resulting receptacles scoured the ocean floor and collected every marine exhibit in their path that day they gathered up some unusual specimens
from these fish filled waterways anglerfish whose comical movements qualify them for the epithet clowns black commerson anglers equipped with their antennas undulating triggerfish encircled by little red bands
bloated puffers whose venom is extremely insidious some olive hued lampreys snipefish covered with silver scales
scaly featherbacks with brown crosswise bands greenish codfish several varieties of goby et cetera finally some fish of larger proportions a one meter jack with a prominent head
decked out in the colors blue and silver and three magnificent tuna whose high speeds couldn't save them from our trawl
it was a fine catch but not surprising in essence these nets stayed in our wake for several hours incarcerating an entire aquatic world in prisons made of thread so we were never lacking in provisions of the highest quality
which the nautilus's speed and the allure of its electric light could continually replenish these various exhibits from the sea were immediately lowered down the hatch in the direction of the storage lockers some to be eaten fresh others to be preserved
after its fishing was finished and its air supply renewed i thought the nautilus would resume its underwater excursion and i was getting ready to return to my stateroom
look at this ocean professor
doesn't it experience both anger and affection last evening it went to sleep just as we did and there it is waking up after a peaceful night no hellos or good mornings for this gent you would have thought this eccentric individual was simply continuing a conversation we'd already started
see he went on it's waking up under the sun's caresses it's going to relive its daily existence what a fascinating field of study lies in watching the play of its organism it owns a pulse and arteries it has spasms and i side with the scholarly
commander maury who discovered that it has a circulation as real as the circulation of blood in animals i'm sure that captain nemo expected no replies from me and it seemed pointless to pitch in with ah yes exactly or how right you are
rather he was simply talking to himself with long pauses between sentences he was meditating out loud yes he said the ocean owns a genuine circulation and to start it going the creator of all things
has only to increase its heat salt and microscopic animal life in essence heat creates the different densities that lead to currents and countercurrents evaporation
brings about a constant interchange of tropical and polar waters what's more i've detected those falling and rising currents that make up the ocean's true breathing i've seen a molecule of salt water heat up at the surface
then cool off grow lighter and rise again at the poles you'll see the consequences of this phenomenon and through this law of farseeing nature you'll understand why water can freeze only at the surface as the captain was finishing his sentence i said to myself the pole
is this brazen individual claiming he'll take us even to that location meanwhile the captain fell silent and stared at the element he had studied so thoroughly and unceasingly then going on salts he said fill the sea in considerable quantities professor
you'd create a mass measuring four million five hundred thousand cubic leagues which if it were spread all over the globe would form a layer more than ten meters high and don't think that the presence of these salts is due merely to some whim of nature no
they make ocean water less open to evaporation and prevent winds from carrying off excessive amounts of steam which when condensing would submerge the temperate zones salts play a leading role the role of stabilizer for the general ecology of the globe
captain nemo stopped straightened up took a few steps along the platform and returned to me as for those billions of tiny animals he went on those infusoria that live by the millions in one droplet of water
their role is no less important they absorb the marine salts they assimilate the solid elements in the water
madrepores they're the true builders of limestone continents and so after they've finished depriving our water drop of its mineral nutrients the droplet gets lighter rises to the surface there absorbs more salts left behind through evaporation gets heavier
sinks again and brings those tiny animals new elements to absorb the outcome a double current rising and falling constant movement constant life more intense than on land more abundant more infinite such life blooms in every part of this ocean
an element fatal to man they say but vital to myriads of animals and to me
there he added out there lies true existence and i can imagine the founding of nautical towns clusters of underwater households that like the nautilus
free towns if ever there were independent cities then again who knows whether some tyrant captain nemo finished his sentence with a vehement gesture then addressing me directly as if to drive away an ugly thought professor aronnax he asked me
do you know the depth of the ocean floor at least captain i know what the major soundings tell us could you quote them to me so i can double check them as the need arises here i replied are a few of them that stick in my memory if i'm not mistaken
an average depth of eight thousand two hundred meters was found in the north atlantic and two thousand five hundred meters in the mediterranean the most remarkable soundings were taken in the south atlantic near the thirty fifth parallel and they gave twelve thousand meters
and fifteen thousand one hundred forty nine meters
its average depth would be about seven kilometers well professor captain nemo replied we'll show you better than that i hope as for the average depth of this part of the pacific i'll inform you that it's a mere four thousand meters
this said captain nemo headed to the hatch and disappeared down the ladder
the propeller was instantly set in motion and the log gave our speed as twenty miles per hour over the ensuing days and weeks captain nemo was very frugal with his visits i saw him only at rare intervals
his chief officer regularly fixed the positions i found reported on the chart
conseil and land spent the long hours with me conseil had told his friend about the wonders of our undersea stroll and the canadian was sorry he hadn't gone along but i hoped an opportunity would arise for a visit to the forests of oceania
almost every day the panels in the lounge were open for some hours and our eyes never tired of probing the mysteries of the underwater world the nautilus's general heading was southeast
however from lord knows what whim
reaching strata located two thousand meters underwater the thermometer indicated a temperature of four point two five degrees centigrade which at this depth seemed to be a temperature common to all latitudes
on november twenty sixth at three o'clock in the morning the nautilus cleared the tropic of cancer at longitude one hundred seventy two degrees on the twenty seventh it passed in sight of the hawaiian islands where the famous captain cook met his death
on february fourteenth seventeen seventy nine by then we had fared four thousand eight hundred sixty leagues from our starting point when i arrived on the platform that morning i saw the island of hawaii two miles to leeward the largest of the seven islands making up this group
i could clearly distinguish the tilled soil on its outskirts the various mountain chains running parallel with its coastline and its volcanoes
whose elevation is five thousand meters above sea level among other specimens from these waterways our nets brought up some peacock tailed flabellarian coral polyps flattened into stylish shapes and unique to this part of the ocean
the nautilus kept to its southeasterly heading
and on the fourth of the same month after a quick crossing marked by no incident we raised the marquesas islands
i could make out only its wooded mountains on the horizon because captain nemo hated to hug shore there our nets brought up some fine fish samples dolphinfish with azure fins gold tails and flesh that's unrivaled in the entire world
wrasse from the genus hologymnosus that were nearly denuded of scales but exquisite in flavor knifejaws with bony beaks yellowish albacore that were as tasty as bonito
after leaving these delightful islands to the protection of the french flag the nautilus covered about two thousand miles from december fourth to the eleventh its navigating was marked by an encounter with an immense school of squid
unusual mollusks that are near neighbors of the cuttlefish french fishermen give them the name cuckoldfish and they belong to the class cephalopoda family dibranchiata consisting of themselves together with cuttlefish and argonauts
made a special study of them and these animals furnished many ribald
as well as excellent dishes for the tables of rich citizens if we're to believe athenaeus a greek physician predating galen
that the nautilus encountered this army of distinctly nocturnal mollusks they numbered in the millions they were migrating from the temperate zones toward zones still warmer following the itineraries of herring and sardines we stared at them through our thick glass windows
they swam backward with tremendous speed moving by means of their locomotive tubes
that nature has rooted in their heads like a hairpiece of pneumatic snakes despite its speed the nautilus navigated for several hours in the midst of this school of animals and its nets brought up an incalculable number
among which i recognized all nine species that professor orbigny has classified as native to the pacific ocean during this crossing the sea continually lavished us with the most marvelous sights its variety was infinite
in the midst of the liquid element but also to probe the ocean's most daunting mysteries during the day of december eleventh i was busy reading in the main lounge ned land and conseil were observing the luminous waters through the gaping panels
the nautilus was motionless its ballast tanks full it was sitting at a depth of one thousand meters in a comparatively unpopulated region of the ocean where only larger fish put in occasional appearances just then i was studying a delightful book
the servants of the stomach and savoring its ingenious teachings when conseil interrupted my reading would master kindly come here for an instant he said to me in an odd voice what is it conseil
i stood up went leaned on my elbows before the window and i saw it
hung suspended in the midst of the waters i observed it carefully trying to find out the nature of this gigantic cetacean then a sudden thought crossed my mind a ship i exclaimed yes the canadian replied a disabled craft that's sinking straight down
ned land was not mistaken we were in the presence of a ship whose severed shrouds still hung from their clasps its hull looked in good condition
the stumps of three masts chopped off two feet above the deck indicated a flooding ship that had been forced to sacrifice its masting
a sorry sight this carcass lost under the waves
where lashed with ropes to prevent their being washed overboard some human corpses still lay i counted four of them four men one still standing at the helm then a woman halfway out of a skylight on the afterdeck
this woman was young under the brilliant lighting of the nautilus's rays
which the water hadn't yet decomposed with a supreme effort she had lifted her child above her head and the poor little creature's arms were still twined around its mother's neck the postures of the four seamen seemed ghastly to me twisted from convulsive movements
as if making a last effort to break loose from the ropes that bound them to their ship and the helmsman standing alone calmer his face smooth and serious his grizzled hair plastered to his brow his hands clutching the wheel
seemed even yet to be guiding his wrecked three master through the ocean depths what a scene
an onion grushenka lived in the busiest part of the town near the cathedral square in a small wooden lodge in the courtyard belonging to the house of the widow morozov the house was a large stone building of two stories old and very ugly
the widow led a secluded life with her two unmarried nieces who were also elderly women she had no need to let her lodge but every one knew that she had taken in grushenka as a lodger four years before solely to please her kinsman the merchant samsonov
it was said that the jealous old man's object in placing his favorite with the widow morozov was that the old woman should keep a sharp eye on her new lodger's conduct but this sharp eye soon proved to be unnecessary
and in the end the widow morozov seldom met grushenka and did not worry her by looking after her in any way
it is true that four years had passed since the old man had brought the slim delicate shy timid dreamy and sad girl of eighteen from the chief town of the province and much had happened since then
little was known of the girl's history in the town and that little was vague nothing more had been learnt during the last four years even after many persons had become interested in the beautiful young woman into whom agrafena alexandrovna had meanwhile developed
there were rumors that she had been at seventeen betrayed by some one some sort of officer and immediately afterwards abandoned by him
it was said however that though grushenka had been raised from destitution by the old man samsonov she came of a respectable family belonging to the clerical class that she was the daughter of a deacon or something of the sort
and now after four years the sensitive injured and pathetic little orphan had become a plump rosy beauty of the russian type a woman of bold and determined character proud and insolent
she had a good head for business was acquisitive saving and careful and by fair means or foul had succeeded it was said in amassing a little fortune there was only one point on which all were agreed
grushenka was not easily to be approached and except her aged protector there had not been one man who could boast of her favors during those four years it was a positive fact for there had been a good many especially during the last two years
who had attempted to obtain those favors but all their efforts had been in vain and some of these suitors had been forced to beat an undignified and even comic retreat
it was known too that the young person had especially of late been given to what is called speculation
and afterwards had made out of them ten times their value the old widower samsonov a man of large fortune was stingy and merciless he tyrannized over his grown up sons but for the last year during which he had been ill
and lost the use of his swollen legs he had fallen greatly under the influence of his protegee whom he had at first kept strictly and in humble surroundings on lenten fare as the wits said at the time
but grushenka had succeeded in emancipating herself while she established in him a boundless belief in her fidelity the old man now long since dead had had a large business in his day and was also a noteworthy character miserly and hard as flint
though grushenka's hold upon him was so strong that he could not live without her it had been so especially for the last two years he did not settle any considerable fortune on her and would not have been moved to do so if she had threatened to leave him but he had presented her with a small sum
you are a wench with brains he said to her when he gave her eight thousand roubles and you must look after yourself but let me tell you that except your yearly allowance as before you'll get nothing more from me to the day of my death
and i'll leave you nothing in my will either and he kept his word he died and left everything to his sons whom with their wives and children he had treated all his life as servants grushenka was not even mentioned in his will
ended to his own surprise by falling madly in love with her old samsonov gravely ill as he was was immensely amused it is remarkable that throughout their whole acquaintance grushenka was absolutely and spontaneously open with the old man
of late when dmitri too had come on the scene with his love the old man left off laughing on the contrary he once gave grushenka a stern and earnest piece of advice if you have to choose between the two father or son
you'd better choose the old man if only you make sure the old scoundrel will marry you and settle some fortune on you beforehand
these were the very words of the old profligate who felt already that his death was not far off and who actually died five months later i will note too in passing
that although many in our town knew of the grotesque and monstrous rivalry of the karamazovs father and son the object of which was grushenka scarcely any one understood what really underlay her attitude to both of them even grushenka's two servants
who came from grushenka's old home and her granddaughter a smart young girl of twenty who performed the duties of a maid grushenka lived very economically and her surroundings were anything but luxurious
grushenka was lying down in her drawing room on the big hard clumsy sofa with a mahogany back the sofa was covered with shabby and ragged leather under her head she had two white down pillows taken from her bed
from the hall they could hear grushenka leap up from the sofa and cry out in a frightened voice who's there but the maid met the visitors and at once called back to her mistress it's not he it's nothing only other visitors what can be the matter
muttered rakitin leading alyosha into the drawing room grushenka was standing by the sofa as though still alarmed a thick coil of her dark brown hair escaped from its lace covering and fell on her right shoulder
she exclaimed recognizing alyosha do send for candles said rakitin with the free and easy air of a most intimate friend who is privileged to give orders in the house candles of course candles
fenya fetch him a candle well you have chosen a moment to bring him she exclaimed again nodding towards alyosha and turning to the looking glass she began quickly fastening up her hair with both hands she seemed displeased
haven't i managed to please you asked rakitin instantly almost offended you frightened me rakitin that's what it is grushenka turned with a smile to alyosha don't be afraid of me my dear alyosha
you cannot think how glad i am to see you my unexpected visitor but you frightened me rakitin i thought it was mitya breaking in you see i deceived him just now i made him promise to believe me and i told him a lie
i told him that i was going to spend the evening with my old man kuzma kuzmitch and should be there till late counting up his money i always spend one whole evening a week with him making up his accounts
we lock ourselves in and he counts on the reckoning beads while i sit and put things down in the book i am the only person he trusts mitya believes that i am there but i came back and have been sitting locked in here expecting some news
perhaps he is hiding and spying i am dreadfully frightened there's no one there agrafena alexandrovna i've just looked out i keep running to peep through the crack i am in fear and trembling myself are the shutters fastened fenya
and we must draw the curtains that's better she drew the heavy curtains herself he'd rush in at once if he saw a light i am afraid of your brother mitya to day alyosha
i tell you i am expecting news priceless news so i don't want mitya at all and he didn't believe i feel he didn't that i should stay at kuzma kuzmitch's
and came back here again ugh i was afraid i ran for fear of meeting him and why are you so dressed up what a curious cap you've got on how curious you are yourself rakitin
such a visitor alyosha my dear boy i gaze at you and can't believe my eyes good heavens can you have come here to see me to tell you the truth i never had a thought of seeing you and i didn't think that you would ever come and see me
i really can't take it in even now eh rakitin if only you had brought him yesterday or the day before
and had been horribly distressed the day before by the spiteful and treacherous trick she had played on katerina ivanovna he was greatly surprised to find her now altogether different from what he had expected
crushed as he was by his own sorrow his eyes involuntarily rested on her with attention her whole manner seemed changed for the better since yesterday there was scarcely any trace of that mawkish sweetness in her speech of that voluptuous softness in her movements
everything was simple and good natured her gestures were rapid direct confiding but she was greatly excited dear me how everything comes together to day she chattered on again
and why i am so glad to see you alyosha i couldn't say myself if you ask me i couldn't tell you
i had a different object once but now that's over this is not the moment i say i want you to have something nice i am so good natured now you sit down too rakitin why are you standing you've sat down already
look alyosha he's sitting there opposite us so offended that i didn't ask him to sit down before you ugh rakitin is such a one to take offense laughed grushenka don't be angry rakitin i'm kind to day
why are you so depressed alyosha are you afraid of me she peeped into his eyes with merry mockery he's sad the promotion has not been given
what
be quiet you stupid let me sit on your knee alyosha like this she suddenly skipped forward and jumped laughing on his knee like a nestling kitten with her right arm about his neck i'll cheer you up my pious boy
yes really will you let me sit on your knee you won't be angry if you tell me i'll get off alyosha did not speak he sat afraid to move he heard her words if you tell me i'll get off but he did not answer
but there was nothing in his heart such as rakitin for instance watching him malignantly from his corner
the great grief in his heart swallowed up every sensation that might have been aroused
if only he could have thought clearly at that moment he would have realized that he had now the strongest armor to protect him from every lust and temptation yet in spite of the vague irresponsiveness of his spiritual condition and the sorrow that overwhelmed him
he could not help wondering at a new and strange sensation in his heart this woman this dreadful woman had no terror for him now none of that terror that had stirred in his soul at any passing thought of woman on the contrary
this woman dreaded above all women sitting now on his knee holding him in her arms aroused in him now a quite different unexpected peculiar feeling a feeling of the intensest and purest interest without a trace of fear
of his former terror that was what instinctively surprised him you've talked nonsense enough cried rakitin you'd much better give us some champagne you owe it me you know you do yes i really do
i'll have some too fenya fenya bring us the bottle mitya left look sharp though i am so stingy i'll stand a bottle not for you rakitin you're a toadstool but he is a falcon and though my heart is full of something very different so be it
and what is this message may i ask or is it a secret rakitin put in inquisitively doing his best to pretend not to notice the snubs that were being continually aimed at him
grushenka said in a voice suddenly anxious turning her head towards rakitin and drawing a little away from alyosha though she still sat on his knee with her arm round his neck my officer is coming rakitin my officer is coming i heard he was coming
long story i've told you enough mitya'll be up to something now i say does he know or doesn't he
if he knew there would be murder but i am not afraid of that now i am not afraid of his knife be quiet rakitin don't remind me of dmitri fyodorovitch he has bruised my heart and i don't want to think of that at this moment
i can think of alyosha here
ah he's smiling he's smiling how kindly he looks at me and you know alyosha i've been thinking all this time you were angry with me because of the day before yesterday because of that young lady i was a cur that's the truth
but it's a good thing it happened so it was a horrid thing but a good thing too grushenka smiled dreamily and a little cruel line showed in her smile mitya told me that she screamed out that
i am still afraid of your being angry yes that's really true rakitin put in suddenly with genuine surprise
he is a chicken to you rakitin because you've no conscience that's what it is you see i love him with all my soul that's how it is
she is making you a declaration alexey well what of it i love him
that is quite different that's a woman's way of looking at it don't you make me angry rakitin grushenka caught him up hotly this is quite different i love alyosha in a different way
it's true alyosha i had sly designs on you before for i am a horrid violent creature but at other times i've looked upon you alyosha as my conscience i've kept thinking
would you believe it i sometimes look at you and feel ashamed utterly ashamed of myself and how and since when i began to think about you like that i can't say i don't remember
fenya came in and put a tray with an uncorked bottle and three glasses of champagne on the table here's the champagne cried rakitin
when you've had a glass of champagne you'll be ready to dance eh they can't even do that properly he added looking at the bottle
one doesn't often stumble upon champagne he said licking his lips now alyosha take a glass show what you can do what shall we drink to the gates of paradise take a glass grushenka you drink to the gates of paradise too
what gates of paradise she took a glass alyosha took his tasted it and put it back no i'd better not he smiled gently and you bragged cried rakitin
well if so i won't either chimed in grushenka i really don't want any you can drink the whole bottle alone rakitin if alyosha has some i will what touching sentimentality said rakitin tauntingly
and she's sitting on his knee too he's got something to grieve over but what's the matter with you he is rebelling against his god and ready to eat sausage how so his elder died to day
father zossima the saint so father zossima is dead cried grushenka good god i did not know she crossed herself devoutly goodness
she started up as though in dismay instantly slipped off his knee and sat down on the sofa alyosha bent a long wondering look upon her and a light seemed to dawn in his face rakitin
i've lost a treasure such as you have never had and you cannot judge me now you had much better look at her do you see how she has pity on me i came here to find a wicked soul i felt drawn to evil because i was base and evil myself
and i've found a true sister i have found a treasure a loving heart she had pity on me just now
i had the low idea of trying to get him in my clutches but now you are lying now it's all different and don't let me hear anything more from you rakitin all this grushenka said with extreme emotion they are both crazy
said rakitin looking at them with amazement
they're both getting so feeble they'll begin crying in a minute i shall begin to cry i shall repeated grushenka he called me his sister and i shall never forget that only let me tell you rakitin though i am bad i did give away an onion
an onion hang it all you really are crazy rakitin wondered at their enthusiasm he was aggrieved and annoyed though he might have reflected that each of them was just passing through a spiritual crisis such as does not come often in a lifetime
but though rakitin was very sensitive about everything that concerned himself he was very obtuse as regards the feelings and sensations of others partly from his youth and inexperience partly from his intense egoism
you see alyosha grushenka turned to him with a nervous laugh i was boasting when i told rakitin i had given away an onion but it's not to boast i tell you about it it's only a story but it's a nice story
it's like this once upon a time there was a peasant woman and a very wicked woman she was and she died and did not leave a single good deed behind the devils caught her and plunged her into the lake of fire
so her guardian angel stood and wondered what good deed of hers he could remember to tell to god she once pulled up an onion in her garden said he and gave it to a beggar woman and god answered
you take that onion then hold it out to her in the lake and let her take hold and be pulled out and if you can pull her out of the lake let her come to paradise but if the onion breaks
he had just pulled her right out when the other sinners in the lake seeing how she was being drawn out
as soon as she said that the onion broke and the woman fell into the lake and she is burning there to this day so the angel wept and went away so that's the story alyosha
i know it by heart for i am that wicked woman myself i boasted to rakitin that i had given away an onion but to you i'll say
and you make me ashamed if you praise me eh i must confess everything listen alyosha i was so anxious to get hold of you that i promised rakitin twenty five roubles if he would bring you to me stay rakitin wait
there's no fear of your refusing it you asked for it yourself and she threw the note to him likely i should refuse it boomed rakitin obviously abashed but carrying off his confusion with a swagger
that will come in very handy fools are made for wise men's profit and now hold your tongue rakitin what i am going to say now is not for your ears sit down in that corner and keep quiet you don't like us so hold your tongue
what should i like you for rakitin snarled not concealing his ill humor he put the twenty five rouble note in his pocket and he felt ashamed at alyosha's seeing it he had reckoned on receiving his payment later without alyosha's knowing of it
one loves people for some reason but what have either of you done for me you should love people without a reason as alyosha does how does he love you
how dare you be so familiar
and now alyosha i'll tell you the whole truth that you may see what a wretch i am
i wanted to ruin you alyosha that's the holy truth i quite meant to i wanted to so much that i bribed rakitin to bring you and why did i want to do such a thing you knew nothing about it alyosha you turned away from me
if you passed me you dropped your eyes and i've looked at you a hundred times before to day i began asking every one about you your face haunted my heart he despises me i thought he won't even look at me
and i felt it so much at last that i wondered at myself for being so frightened of a boy i'll get him in my clutches and laugh at him i was full of spite and anger
would you believe it nobody here dares talk or think of coming to agrafena alexandrovna with any evil purpose old kuzma is the only man i have anything to do with here i was bound and sold to him satan brought us together but there has been no one else
at night i used to lie sobbing into my pillow in the dark and i used to brood over it i used to tear my heart on purpose and gloat over my anger
perhaps had utterly forgotten me i would fling myself on the floor melt into helpless tears and lie there shaking till dawn
i became hard hearted grew stout grew wiser would you say no no one in the whole world sees it no one knows it
i'll pay him out i'll pay him out do you hear well then now you understand me a month ago a letter came to me he was coming he was a widower he wanted to see me it took my breath away then i suddenly thought if he comes and whistles to call me i shall creep back to him
like a beaten dog i couldn't believe myself am i so abject shall i run to him or not and i've been in such a rage with myself all this month that i am worse than i was five years ago do you see now alyosha what a violent vindictive creature i am
i played with mitya to keep me from running to that other hush rakitin it's not for you to judge me i am not speaking to you before you came in i was lying here waiting brooding
deciding my whole future life and you can never know what was in my heart yes alyosha tell your young lady not to be angry with me for what happened the day before yesterday nobody in the whole world knows what i am going through now
and no one ever can know for perhaps i shall take a knife with me to day i can't make up my mind and at this tragic phrase grushenka broke down hid her face in her hands flung herself on the sofa pillows and
sobbed like a little child alyosha got up and went to rakitin misha he said don't be angry she wounded you but don't be angry you heard what she said just now
you mustn't ask too much of human endurance one must be merciful alyosha said this at the instinctive prompting of his heart he felt obliged to speak and he turned to rakitin if rakitin had not been there
but rakitin looked at him ironically and alyosha stopped short
said rakitin with a smile of hatred don't laugh rakitin don't smile don't talk of the dead he was better than any one in the world cried alyosha with tears in his voice
i came here seeking my ruin
in my cowardliness but she after five years in torment as soon as any one says a word from the heart to her it makes her forget everything forgive everything in her tears the man who has wronged her has come back he sends for her and she forgives him everything and
hastens joyfully to meet him and she won't take a knife with her she won't no i am not like that i don't know whether you are misha but i am not like that it's a lesson to me she is more loving than we
have you heard her speak before of what she has just told us no you haven't if you had you'd have understood her long ago and the person insulted the day before yesterday must forgive her too she will when she knows
and she shall know this soul is not yet at peace with itself
alyosha stopped because he caught his breath in spite of his ill humor rakitin looked at him with astonishment he had never expected such a tirade from the gentle alyosha
mihail osipovitch she turned to rakitin
decide for me alyosha the time has come it shall be as you say am i to forgive him or not but you have forgiven him already said alyosha smiling yes
i really have forgiven him grushenka murmured thoughtfully what an abject heart to my abject heart she snatched up a glass from the table emptied it at a gulp
the glass broke with a crash a little cruel line came into her smile perhaps i haven't forgiven him though she said with a sort of menace in her voice and she dropped her eyes to the ground as though she were talking to herself
perhaps my heart is only getting ready to forgive i shall struggle with my heart you see alyosha i've grown to love my tears in these five years perhaps i only love my resentment
not him well i shouldn't care to be in his shoes hissed rakitin well you won't be rakitin you'll never be in his shoes you shall black my shoes rakitin that's the place you are fit for
and he won't either perhaps won't he
perhaps i shall see him and say have you ever seen me look like this before he left me a thin consumptive cry baby of seventeen i'll sit by him fascinate him and work him up do you see what i am like now i'll say to him
grushenka finished with a malicious laugh i'm violent and resentful alyosha i'll tear off my finery i'll destroy my beauty i'll scorch my face slash it with a knife and turn beggar if i choose i won't go anywhere now to see any one
if i choose i'll send kuzma back all he has ever given me to morrow and all his money and i'll go out charing for the rest of my life
she uttered the last words in an hysterical scream but broke down again hid her face in her hands buried it in the pillow and shook with sobs rakitin got up
it's late we shall be shut out of the monastery grushenka leapt up from her place
rakitin scoffed jeeringly hush evil tongue grushenka cried angrily at him you never said such words to me as he has come to say what has he said to you so special
she fell on her knees before him as though in a sudden frenzy i've been waiting all my life for some one like you i knew that some one like you would come and forgive me i believed that nasty as i am some one would really love me not only with a shameful love
what have i done to you answered alyosha bending over her with a tender smile and gently taking her by the hands i only gave you an onion nothing but a tiny little onion that was all
he was moved to tears himself as he said it at that moment there was a sudden noise in the passage some one came into the hall grushenka jumped up seeming greatly alarmed fenya ran noisily into the room crying out mistress mistress darling a messenger has galloped up
she cried breathless and joyful a carriage from mokroe for you timofey the driver with three horses they are just putting in fresh horses a letter here's the letter mistress a letter was in her hand and she waved it in the air all the while she talked
crawl back little dog but only for one instant she stood as though hesitating suddenly the blood rushed to her head and sent a glow to her cheeks i will go she cried five years of my life good by
good by alyosha my fate is sealed go go leave me all of you don't let me see you again grushenka is flying to a new life don't you remember evil against me either rakitin i may be going to my death ugh
i feel as though i were drunk she suddenly left them and ran into her bedroom well she has no thoughts for us now grumbled rakitin
i am sick of all these tears and cries alyosha mechanically let himself be led out in the yard stood a covered cart horses were being taken out of the shafts men were running to and fro with a lantern
and tell him too in my words grushenka has fallen to a scoundrel and not to you noble heart and add too that grushenka loved him only one hour only one short hour she loved him so let him remember that hour all his life say
grushenka tells you to she ended in a voice full of sobs
what ferocity alyosha made no reply he seemed not to have heard he walked fast beside rakitin as though in a terrible hurry he was lost in thought and moved mechanically
he is a pole that officer of hers he began again restraining himself and indeed he is not an officer at all now he served in the customs in siberia somewhere on the chinese frontier some
that's the explanation of the mystery again alyosha seemed not to hear rakitin could not control himself
have you turned the magdalene into the true path driven out the seven devils eh so you see the miracles you were looking out for just now have come to pass hush rakitin alyosha answered with an aching heart
he cried suddenly why the devil did i take you up
and he turned abruptly into another street leaving alyosha alone in the dark
to make the suitors try their skill with the bow and with the iron axes in contest among themselves as a means of bringing about their destruction she went upstairs and got the store room key which was made of bronze and had a handle of ivory
she then went with her maidens into the store room at the end of the house where her husband's treasures of gold bronze and wrought iron were kept and where was also his bow and the quiver full of deadly arrows that had been given him by a friend
the two fell in with one another in messene at the house of ortilochus
that was owing from the whole people for the messenians had carried off three hundred sheep from ithaca and had sailed away with them and with their shepherds in quest of these ulysses took a long journey while still quite young
for his father and the other chieftains sent him on a mission to recover them
but killed him in spite of everything and kept the mares himself it was when claiming these
killed iphitus ere they could do so this bow then
had not been taken with him by ulysses when he sailed for troy he had used it so long as he had been at home but had left it behind as having been a keepsake from a valued friend
along with fragrant herbs reaching thence she took down the bow with its bow case from the peg on which it hung she sat down with it on her knees weeping bitterly as she took the bow out of its case
and when her tears had relieved her she went to the cloister where the suitors were carrying the bow and the quiver with the many deadly arrows that were inside it along with her came her maidens
bearing a chest that contained much iron and bronze which her husband had won as prizes when she reached the suitors she stood by one of the bearing posts supporting the roof of the cloister
than that you want to marry me this then being the prize that you are contending for i will bring out the mighty bow of ulysses and whomsoever of you shall string it most easily
and send his arrow through each one of twelve axes him will i follow and quit this house of my lawful husband so goodly and so abounding in wealth but even so i doubt not that i shall remember it in my dreams
as she spoke she told eumaeus to set the bow and the pieces of iron before the suitors and eumaeus wept as he took them to do as she had bidden him hard by the stockman wept also
you country louts said he silly simpletons why should you add to the sorrows of your mistress by crying in this way she has enough to grieve her in the loss of her husband sit still therefore
there is not a man of us all who is such another as ulysses for i have seen him and remember him though i was then only a child
but all the time he was expecting to be able to string the bow and shoot through the iron
he was to be the first that should taste of the arrows from the hands of ulysses whom he was dishonouring in his own house
then telemachus spoke great heavens he exclaimed jove must have robbed me of my senses here is my dear and excellent mother saying she will quit this house and marry again
yet i am laughing and enjoying myself as though there were nothing happening but suitors as the contest has been agreed upon let it go forward it is for a woman whose peer is not to be found in pylos
but let us see whether you can string the bow or no i too will make trial of it for if i can string it and shoot through the iron i shall not suffer my mother to quit this house with a stranger
not if i can win the prizes which my father won before me as he spoke he sprang from his seat threw his crimson cloak from him
this done he went on to the pavement to make trial of the bow thrice did he tug at it trying with all his might to draw the string and thrice he had to leave off
though he had hoped to string the bow and shoot through the iron he was trying for the fourth time and would have strung it had not ulysses made a sign to check him in spite of all his eagerness so he said alas
i shall either be always feeble and of no prowess or i am too young and have not yet reached my full strength so as to be able to hold my own if any one attacks me you others therefore who are stronger than i
make trial of the bow and get this contest settled on this he put the bow down letting it lean against the door that led into the house with the arrow standing against the top of the bow
come on each of you in his turn
let another have it this bow shall take the life and soul out of many a chief among us for it is better to die than to live after having missed the prize that we have so long striven for and which has brought us so long together
some one of us is even now hoping and praying that he may marry penelope but when he has seen this bow and tried it let him woo and make bridal offerings to some other woman and let penelope
from what they had in the house and the suitors warmed the bow and again made trial of it but they were none of them nearly strong enough to string it nevertheless
i think i will say it what manner of men would you be to stand by ulysses if some god should bring him back here all of a sudden say which you are disposed to do to side with the suitors
or with ulysses father jove answered the stockman would indeed
if some god were but to bring ulysses back you should see with what might and main i would fight for him in like words eumaeus prayed to all the gods that ulysses might return when therefore
he saw for certain what mind they were of ulysses said it is i ulysses who am here i have suffered much but at last in the twentieth year i am come back to my own country
if heaven shall deliver the suitors into my hands i will find wives for both of you will give you house and holding close to my own and you shall be to me as though you were brothers and friends of telemachus
i will now give you convincing proofs that you may know me and be assured see here is the scar from the boar's tooth that ripped me when i was out hunting on mt parnassus
as he spoke he drew his rags aside from the great scar and when they had examined it thoroughly they both of them wept about ulysses threw their arms round him and kissed his head and shoulders
while ulysses kissed their hands and faces in return the sun would have gone down upon their mourning if ulysses had not checked them and said cease your weeping lest some one should come outside and see us
and tell those who are within when you go in do so separately not both together i will go first and do you follow afterwards let this moreover be the token between us the suitors
if they hear any groaning or uproar as of men fighting about the house they must not come out they must keep quiet and stay where they are at their work and i charge you
at this moment the bow
who was warming it by the fire but even so he could not string it and he was greatly grieved he heaved a deep sigh and said
i grieve that i shall have to forgo the marriage but i do not care nearly so much about this for there are plenty of other women in ithaca and elsewhere what i feel most is the fact of our being so inferior to ulysses in strength
that we cannot string his bow this will disgrace us in the eyes of those who are yet unborn it shall not be so eurymachus said antinous and you know it yourself
the rest approved his words and thereon men servants poured water over the hands of the guests while pages filled the mixing bowls with wine and water and handed it round after giving every man his drink offering
then when they had made their offerings and had drunk each as much as he desired ulysses craftily said suitors of the illustrious queen listen that i may speak even as i am minded
i appeal more especially to eurymachus and to antinous who has just spoken with so much reason cease shooting for the present and leave the matter to the gods but in the morning
for they feared he might string the bow antinous therefore rebuked him fiercely saying wretched creature you have not so much as a grain of sense in your whole body you ought to think yourself lucky
in being allowed to dine unharmed among your betters without having any smaller portion served you than we others have had and in being allowed to hear our conversation
the wine must have been doing you a mischief
then they dragged him through the doorway out of the house so he went away crazed and bore the burden of his crime bereft of understanding henceforth therefore there was war between mankind and the centaurs
but he brought it upon himself through his own drunkenness in like manner i can tell you that it will go hardly with you if you string the bow you will find no mercy from any one here
who kills every one that comes near him you will never get away alive so drink and keep quiet without getting into a quarrel with men younger than yourself penelope then spoke to him
antinous said she it is not right that you should ill treat any guest of telemachus who comes to this house if the stranger should prove strong enough to string the mighty bow of ulysses
can you suppose that he would take me home with him
these suitors are a feeble folk they are paying court to the wife of a brave man whose bow not one of them was able to string and yet a beggarly tramp who came to the house strung it at once and sent an arrow through the iron
this is what will be said and it will be a scandal against us eurymachus penelope answered people who persist in eating up the estate of a great chieftain
and dishonouring his house must not expect others to think well of them why then should you mind if men talk as you think they will this stranger is strong and well built he says moreover
that he is of noble birth give him the bow and let us see whether he can string it or no i say and it shall surely be that if apollo
him the glory of stringing it i will give him a cloak and shirt of good wear with a javelin to keep off dogs and robbers and a sharp sword i will also give him sandals and will see him sent safely wherever he wants to go
that are over against elis who has the right to let any one have the bow or to refuse it no one shall force me one way or the other not even though i choose to make the stranger a present of the bow outright and let him take it away with him
go then within the house and busy yourself with your daily duties your loom your distaff and the ordering of your servants this bow is a man's matter and mine above all others for it is i who am master here
she went wondering back into the house and laid her son's saying in her heart then going upstairs with her handmaids into her room she mourned her dear husband till minerva sent sweet sleep over her eyelids
if apollo and the other gods will grant our prayer your own boarhounds shall get you into some quiet little place and worry you to death eumaeus was frightened at the outcry they all raised
so he put the bow down then and there but telemachus shouted out at him from the other side of the cloisters and threatened him saying father eumaeus bring the bow on in spite of them
or young as i am i will pelt you with stones back to the country for i am the better man of the two i wish i was as much stronger than all the other suitors in the house as i am than you
so eumaeus brought the bow on and placed it in the hands of ulysses when he had done this he called euryclea apart and said to her
telemachus says you are to close the doors of the women's apartments if they hear any groaning or uproar as of men fighting about the house they are not to come out but are to keep quiet and stay where they are at their work
there was a ship's cable of byblus fibre lying in the gatehouse so he made the gates fast with it and then came in again resuming the seat that he had left and keeping an eye on ulysses who had now got the bow in his hands
and was turning it every way about and proving it all over to see whether the worms had been eating into its two horns during his absence then would one turn towards his neighbour saying
strung it as easily as a skilled bard strings a new peg of his lyre and makes the twisted gut fast at both ends then he took it in his right hand to prove the string and it sang sweetly under his touch
like the twittering of a swallow the suitors were dismayed and turned colour as they heard it at that moment moreover jove thundered loudly as a sign and the heart of ulysses rejoiced as he heard the omen
that the son of scheming saturn had sent him
were so shortly about to taste were all inside the quiver he laid it on the centre piece of the bow and drew the notch of the arrow
when he had taken aim he let fly and his arrow pierced every one of the handle holes of the axes from the first onwards till it had gone right through them and into the outer courtyard then he said to telemachus
your guest has not disgraced you telemachus i did not miss what i aimed at and i was not long in stringing my bow i am still strong and not as the suitors twit me with being now however
it is time for the achaeans to prepare supper while there is still daylight and then otherwise to disport themselves with song and dance which are the crowning ornaments of a banquet
he shed the arrows on to the ground at his feet and said the mighty contest is at an end i will now see whether apollo will vouchsafe it to me to hit another mark which no man has yet hit
who was about to take up a two handled gold cup to drink his wine and already had it in his hands he had no thought of death who amongst all the revellers would think that one man however brave
you shall see no other contest you are a doomed man he whom you have slain was the foremost youth in ithaca and the vultures shall devour you for having killed him
if you are ulysses said he then what you have said is just we have done much wrong on your lands and in your house
who was the head and front of the offending lies low already it was all his doing it was not that he wanted to marry penelope he did not so much care about that what he wanted was something quite different and jove
has not vouchsafed it to him he wanted to kill your son and to be chief man in ithaca now therefore that he has met the death which was his due spare the lives of your people
though you should give me all that you have in the world both now and all that you ever shall have i will not stay my hand till i have paid all of you in full you must fight or fly for your lives and fly
not a man of you shall their hearts sank as they heard him
my friends this man will give us no quarter
let us then show fight
from his arrows let us have at him with a rush to drive him from the pavement and doorway we can then get through into the town and raise such an alarm as shall soon stay his shooting
as he spoke he drew his keen blade of bronze sharpened on both sides and with a loud cry sprang towards ulysses but ulysses instantly shot an arrow into his breast that caught him by the nipple and fixed itself in his liver
his table the cup and all the meats went over on to the ground as he smote the earth with his forehead in the agonies of death and he kicked the stool with his feet until his eyes were closed in darkness
so that he fell heavily to the ground and struck the earth with his forehead then telemachus sprang away from him leaving his spear still in the body for he feared that if he stayed to draw it out
or knock him down so he set off at a run and immediately was at his father's side then he said father let me bring you a shield two spears and a brass helmet for your temples
for the swineherd and the stockman for we had better be armed run and fetch them answered ulysses while my arrows hold out or when i am alone they may get me away from the door
telemachus did as his father said and went off to the store room where the armour was kept he chose four shields eight spears and four brass helmets with horse hair plumes he brought them with all speed to his father
and armed himself first while the stockman and the swineherd also put on their armour and took their places near ulysses meanwhile ulysses as long as his arrows lasted had been shooting the suitors one by one
help would come at once and we should soon make an end of this man and his shooting this may not be agelaus answered melanthius the mouth of the narrow passage is dangerously near the entrance to the outer court
but the swineherd saw him and said to ulysses who was beside him ulysses
that he has done in your house ulysses answered telemachus and i will hold these suitors in check no matter what they do
and they did even as he had said they went to the store room which they entered before melanthius saw them for he was busy searching for arms in the innermost part of the room so the two took their stand on either side of the door and waited
by and by melanthius came out with a helmet in one hand and an old dry rotted shield in the other
they bent his hands and feet well behind his back
o swineherd eumaeus saying melanthius you will pass the night on a soft bed as you deserve
fierce and full of fury nevertheless those who were in the body of the court were still both brave and many then
we will kill you too you shall pay for it with your head and when we have killed you we will take all you have in doors or out and bring it into hotch pot with ulysses property
we will not let your sons live in your house nor your daughters nor shall your widow
that you are so lamentably less valiant now that you are on your own ground face to face with the suitors in your own house come on my good fellow stand by my side and see how mentor
and requite your kindnesses conferred upon him but she would not give him full victory as yet for she wished still further to prove his own prowess and that of his brave son
so she flew up to one of the rafters in the roof of the cloister and sat upon it in the form of a swallow meanwhile
son of damastor eurynomus amphimedon demoptolemus pisander and polybus son of polyctor bore the brunt of the fight upon the suitors side
of all those who were still fighting for their lives they were by far the most valiant for the others had already fallen under the arrows of ulysses
my friends he will soon have to leave off for mentor has gone away after having done nothing for him but brag they are standing at the doors unsupported do not aim at him all at once
but minerva made them all of no effect one hit the door post another went against the door the pointed shaft of another struck the wall and as soon as they had avoided all the spears of the suitors
by killing us outright they therefore aimed straight in front of them and threw their spears ulysses killed demoptolemus telemachus euryades eumaeus elatus
while the pointed shaft of another struck the wall still amphimedon just took a piece of the top skin from off telemachus's wrist
above his shield but the spear went on and fell to the ground then ulysses and his men let drive into the crowd of suitors
for the foot which you gave ulysses when he was begging about in his own house thus spoke the stockman and ulysses struck the son of damastor with a spear in close fight
and the dart went clean through him so that he fell forward full on his face upon the ground then minerva from her seat on the rafter
even so did ulysses and his men fall upon the suitors and smite them on every side they made a horrible groaning as their brains were being battered in and the ground seethed with their blood
then caught the knees of ulysses and said ulysses i beseech you have mercy upon me and spare me
either in word or deed and i tried to stop the others i saw them but they would not listen and now they are paying for their folly i was their sacrificing priest if you kill me
i shall die without having done anything to deserve it and shall have got no thanks for all the good that i did ulysses looked sternly at him and answered if you were their sacrificing priest you must have prayed many a time
on the back of his neck so that his head fell rolling in the dust while he was yet speaking
do not therefore be in such a hurry to cut my head off your own son telemachus will tell you that i did not want to frequent your house and sing to the suitors after their meals but they were too many and too strong for me
so they made me telemachus heard him
hold he cried the man is guiltless do him no hurt and we will spare medon too who was always good to me when i was a boy unless
or eumaeus has already killed him or he has fallen in your way when you were raging about the court medon caught these words of telemachus for he was crouching under a seat
beneath which he had hidden by covering himself up with a freshly flayed heifer's hide so he threw off the hide went up to telemachus and laid hold of his knees here i am my dear sir said he
stay your hand therefore and tell your father or he will kill me in his rage against the suitors for having wasted his substance and been so foolishly disrespectful to yourself ulysses smiled at him and answered
looking fearfully round and still expecting that they would be killed then ulysses searched the whole court carefully over to see if anyone had managed to hide himself and was still living
but he found them all lying in the dust and weltering in their blood they were like fishes which fishermen have netted out of the sea and thrown upon the beach to lie gasping for water
till the heat of the sun makes an end of them even so were the suitors lying all huddled up one against the other then ulysses said to telemachus
following telemachus she found ulysses among the corpses bespattered with blood and filth like a lion that has just been devouring an ox and his breast and both his cheeks are all bloody
for she saw that a great deed had been done but ulysses checked her old woman said he rejoice in silence restrain yourself and do not make any noise about it it is an unholy thing
they showed no disrespect to telemachus for he has only lately grown and his mother never permitted him to give orders to the female servants but let me go upstairs and tell your wife all that has happened
for some god has been sending her to sleep do not wake her yet answered ulysses but tell the women who have misconducted themselves to come to me
to tell the women and make them come to ulysses in the meantime he called telemachus the stockman and the swineherd begin said he to remove the dead and make the women help you then
get sponges and clean water to swill down the tables and seats when you have thoroughly cleansed the whole cloisters take the women into the space between the domed room and the wall of the outer court and run them through with your swords
till they are quite dead and have forgotten all about love and the way in which they used to lie in secret with the suitors on this the women came down in a body weeping and wailing bitterly first
they carried the dead bodies out and propped them up against one another in the gatehouse ulysses ordered them about and made them do their work quickly so they had to carry the bodies out
when they had done this they cleaned all the tables and seats with sponges and water while telemachus and the two others shovelled up the blood and dirt from the ground and the women carried it all away
and put it out of doors then when they had made the whole place quite clean and orderly
in the narrow space between the wall of the domed room and that of the yard so that they could not get away and telemachus said to the other two i shall not let these women die a clean death
they washed their hands and feet and went back into the house for all was now over
bring me sulphur which cleanses all pollution and fetch fire also that i may burn it and purify the cloisters go moreover and tell penelope to come here with her attendants
and also all the maidservants that are in the house all that you have said is true
as he had bidden her and ulysses thoroughly purified the cloisters and both the inner and outer courts then she went inside to call the women and tell them what had happened whereon they came from their apartment
the green knight there lived once a king and queen who had an only daughter a charming and beautiful girl dearer to them than anything else in the world when the princess was twelve years old the queen fell sick
and nothing that could be done for her was of any use all the doctors in the kingdom did their best to cure her but in spite of their efforts she grew worse and worse as she was about to die she sent for the king and said to him
promise me that whatever our daughter asks you will do no matter whether you wish to or not the king at first hesitated but as she added unless you promise this i cannot die in peace
he at length did as she desired and gave the promise after which she became quite happy and died it happened that near the king's palace lived a noble lady whose little girl was of about the same age as the princess
and the two children were always together after the queen's death the princess begged that this lady should come to live with her in the palace
but the princess wished so much for it that he did not like to refuse i am lonely father she said and all the beautiful presents you give me cannot make up to me for the loss of my mother if this lady comes to live here
i shall almost feel as if the queen had come back to me
and the little princess was wild with joy at the thought of having her friends so near her the lady and her daughter arrived and for a long time all went well they were very kind to the motherless princess
and she almost began to forget how dull she had been before they came then one day as she and the other girl were playing together in the gardens of the palace the lady came to them dressed for a journey and kissed the princess tenderly saying
farewell my child my daughter and i must leave you and go far away the poor princess began to cry bitterly
the lady shook her head it almost breaks my heart to go dear child she said but alas it must be is there nothing that can keep you here asked the princess only one thing answered the lady
and as that is impossible we will not speak of it nothing is impossible persisted the princess tell me what it is and it shall be done so at last her friend told her if the king your father would make me his queen i would stay she said
but that he would never do oh yes that is easy enough cried the princess delighted to think that after all they need not be parted and she ran off to find her father and beg him to marry the lady at once
he had done everything she asked and she was quite certain he would do it what is it my daughter he asked when he saw her you have been crying are you not happy father she said i have come to ask you to marry the countess' for that was the lady's real title
and then i shall be as lonely as before
the king turned quite pale when he heard this he did not like the countess and so of course he did not wish to marry her besides he still loved his dead wife no that i cannot do my child he said at last
at these words the princess began to cry once more and the tears ran down her cheeks so fast and she sobbed so bitterly that her father felt quite miserable too he remembered the promise he had given always to do what his daughter asked him
and in the end he gave way and promised to marry the countess
soon after the wedding was celebrated with great festivities and the countess became queen
for he was certain that ill would come of the marriage sure enough in a very short time the queen's manner towards the princess began to change she was jealous of her because she instead of her own daughter was heir to the throne and very soon she could no longer hide her thoughts
instead of speaking kindly and lovingly as before her words became rough and cruel and once or twice she even slapped the princess's face the king was very unhappy at seeing his dearly loved daughter suffer
and at last she became so wretched that he could no longer bear it calling her to him one day he said my daughter you are no longer merry as you should be and i fear that it is the fault of your step mother it will be better for you to live with her no longer
and that is to be your home in future there you can do just as you like and your step mother will never enter it the princess was delighted to hear this and still more pleased when she saw the castle which was full of beautiful things
the princess is the loveliest lady in the land and this was told to the queen who hated her step daughter still more because her own daughter was ugly and stupid
one day it was announced that a great meeting of knights and nobles was to be held in a neighbouring kingdom distant about two days journey there were to be all kinds of festivities and a tournament was to be fought and a banquet held
the princess's father was amongst those invited but before he set out he went to take leave of his daughter although she had such a beautiful home and was no longer scolded by the queen the poor princess was dreadfully lonely
and she told her father that it would be better if she were dead he did his best to comfort her and promised that he would soon return was there anything he could do to help her yes she said you may greet the green knight from me
but there was no time to ask questions therefore he gave the promise and rode off on his journey
can anyone tell me where i may find the green knight no they were very sorry but none had ever heard of such a person either certainly he was not to be found there at this the king grew troubled and not even the banquet or the tournament could make him feel happier
he inquired of everyone he saw do you know the green knight but the only answer he got was no your majesty we have never heard of him at length he began to believe that the princess was mistaken and that there was no such person
for this was the first time for many months that the princess had asked him to do anything for her and he could not do it
he rode on and on looking for the path but as the sun began to set he realised that he was lost
and riding up to him he said i have lost my way can you tell me where i am you are in the green knight's forest answered the man and these are his pigs at that the king's heart grew light where does the green knight live he asked
it is a very long way from here said the swineherd but i will show you the path
presently he came to a second forest and there he met another swineherd driving pigs whose beasts are those my man he asked they are the green knight's said the man and where does he live inquired the king oh not far from here was the reply
then the king rode on and about midday he reached a beautiful castle standing in the midst of the loveliest garden you can possibly imagine
on the edge of a marble basin sat a young and handsome man who was dressed from head to foot in a suit of green armour and was feeding the goldfish which swam in the clear water this must be the green knight thought the king and going up to the young man he said courteously
i have come sir to give you my daughter's greeting but i have wandered far and lost my way in your forest
i have never met either you or your daughter he said at last but you are very welcome all the same and he waved his hand towards the castle
you must pass the night with me here said the knight and as the sun was already set the king was thankful to accept the invitation they sat down in the castle hall to a magnificent banquet and although he had travelled much and visited many monarchs in their palaces
the king had never fared better than at the table of the green knight whilst his host himself was so clever and agreeable that he was delighted and thought what a charming son in law this knight would make next morning when he was about to set forth on his journey home
will your highness graciously condescend to carry this gift to the princess your daughter it contains my portrait that when i come she may know me for i feel certain that she is the lady i have seen night after night in a dream and i must win her for my bride
the king gave the knight his blessing and promised to take the gift to his daughter with that he set off and ere long reached his own country the princess was awaiting him anxiously when he arrived and ran to his arms in her joy at seeing her dear father again
and did you see the green knight she asked yes answered the king drawing out the casket the knight had sent and he begged me to give you this that you may know him when he arrives and not mistake him for somebody else when the princess saw the portrait she was delighted and exclaimed
it is indeed the man whom i have seen in my dreams now i shall be happy for he and no other shall be my husband very soon after the green knight arrived and he looked so handsome in his green armour with a long green plume in his helmet
that the princess fell still more in love with him than before and when he saw her and recognised her as the lady whom he had so often dreamt of he immediately asked her to be his bride the princess looked down and smiled as she answered him
for otherwise she will find a way to do us some evil as you please replied the prince
i will come early in the morning and not leave until it is dark thus the queen will not see me row across the lake
and spent many hours wandering with her through the beautiful gardens where they knew the queen could not see them but secrets as you know are dangerous things and at last one morning a girl who was in service at the palace happened to be walking by the lake early in the morning
in a beautiful suit of green satin
not guessing that he was watched he got into a little boat that lay moored to the bank rowed himself over to the island where the princess's castle stood the girl went home wondering who the knight could be and as she was brushing the queen's hair she said to her
but she was dreadfully vexed at the mere idea as her own daughter was still unmarried and was likely to remain so because she was so ill tempered and stupid that no one wanted her
he is dressed all in green and is very handsome i saw him myself though he did not see me and he got into a boat and rowed over to the island
i must find out what this means thought the queen but she bade her maid of honour cease chattering and mind her own business early next morning the queen got up and went down to the shore of the lake
sure enough there came a handsome knight dressed in green just as the maid of honour had said and he got into a boat and rowed over to the island where the princess awaited him the angry queen remained by the lake all day
he tied the boat to its moorings and went away through the forest i have caught my step daughter nicely thought the queen but she shall not be married before my own sweet girl i must find a way to put a stop to this
accordingly she took a poisoned nail and stuck it in the handle of the oar in such a way that the knight would be sure to scratch his hand when he picked up the oar
the next day the green knight went to visit the princess as usual but directly he took up the oars to row over to the island
what can have scratched so but look as he might only a tiny mark was to be seen
and indeed it seemed such a little thing that he did not mention it to the princess however when he reached home in the evening he felt so ill he was obliged to go to bed with no one to attend on him except his old nurse but of this of course the princess knew nothing
and the poor girl fearing lest some evil should have befallen him or some other maiden more beautiful than she should have stolen his heart from her grew almost sick with waiting lonely indeed she was for her father who would have helped her
in this manner time passed away and one day as she sat by the open window crying and feeling very sad a little bird came and perched on the branch of a tree that stood just underneath
it began to sing and so beautifully that the princess was obliged to stop crying and listen to it and very soon she found out that the bird was trying to attract her attention tu whit tu whit your lover is sick it sang alas cried the princess what can i do
and what shall i do there she asked
for she did not like snakes but the little bird paid no heed put them in a basket and go to the green knight's palace said she and what am i to do with them when i get there she cried blushing all over though there was no one to see her but the bird
give it three times to the knight
the bird however had flown away and there was nothing for it but to go to her father's palace and look for the snakes
the princess did not like having to touch them but when the old snake had wriggled out of the nest to bask a little in the sun she picked up the young ones and put them in a basket as the bird had told her and ran off to find the green knight's castle
yes that it is answered the goose girl for i am driving his geese but the green knight is very ill and they say that unless he can be cured within three days he will surely die
yes we do answered the cook who was too busy to ask the new comer many questions the following day after a good night's rest the princess set about her new duties the other servants were speaking of their master and saying to each other how ill he was
and that unless he could be cured within three days he would surely die the princess thought of the snakes and the bird's advice and lifting her head from the pots and pans she was scouring she said i know how to make a soup that has such a wonderful power
that whoever tastes it is sure to be cured whatever his illness may be as the doctors cannot cure your master shall i try
a scullion cure the knight when the best physicians in the kingdom have failed but at last just because all the physicians had failed they decided that it would do no harm to try and she ran off joyfully to fetch her basket of snakes and make them into broth
when this was ready she carried some to the knight's room and entered it boldly pushing aside all the learned doctors who stood beside his bed the poor knight was too ill to know her besides she was so ragged and dirty that he would not have been likely to do so had he been well
but when he had taken the soup he was so much better that he was able to sit up the next day he had some more and then he was able to dress himself that is certainly wonderful soup said the cook
who are you he asked the girl was it you who made this soup that has cured me
choose then whatever you wish as a reward said the knight and you shall have it i would be your bride said the princess the knight frowned in surprise at such boldness and shook his head
choose again then the princess ran away and washed herself and mended her rags
you can think what a joyful meeting that was soon after they were married with great splendour all the knights and princes in the kingdom were summoned to the wedding and the princess wore a dress that shone like the sun so that no one had ever beheld a more gorgeous sight
once upon a time all the streams and rivers ran so dry that the animals did not know how to get water after a very long search which had been quite in vain they found a tiny spring
which only wanted to be dug deeper so as to yield plenty of water so the beasts said to each other let us dig a well and then we shall not fear to die of thirst and they all consented except the jackal who hated work of any kind
and generally got somebody to do it for him when they had finished their well they held a council as to who should be made the guardian of the well so that the jackal might not come near it for they said he would not work therefore he shall not drink
after some talk it was decided that the rabbit should be left in charge then all the other beasts went back to their homes
and the rabbit politely said good morning then the jackal unfastened the little bag that hung at his side and pulled out of it a piece of honeycomb which he began to eat and turning to the rabbit he remarked as you see rabbit
and this is nicer than any water give me a bit asked the rabbit so the jackal handed him a very little morsel oh how good it is cried the rabbit give me a little more dear friend
but the jackal answered if you really want me to give you some more you must have your paws tied behind you and lie on your back
the rabbit did as he was bid and when he was tied tight and popped on his back the jackal ran to the spring and drank as much as he wanted
in the evening the animals all came back and when they saw the rabbit lying with his paws tied they said to him rabbit how did you let yourself be taken in like this
rabbit you are no better than an idiot to have let the jackal drink our water when he would not help to find it who shall be our next watchman we must have somebody a little sharper than you and the little hare called out
the following morning the animals all went their various ways leaving the little hare to guard the spring when they were out of sight the jackal came back good morning good morning little hare
i am so sorry but i have none answered the little hare
pulling out of it a piece of honeycomb he licked his lips and exclaimed oh little hare
what is it asked the little hare it is something that moistens my throat so deliciously answered the jackal that after i have eaten it i don't feel thirsty any more while i am sure that all you other beasts are for ever wanting water
give me a bit dear friend
not so fast replied the jackal if you really wish to enjoy what you are eating you must have your paws tied behind you
you can tie them only be quick said the little hare
when he had quite finished he returned to his den in the evening the animals all came back
little hare how did you let yourself be taken in like this didn't you boast you were very sharp you undertook to guard our water now show us how much is left for us to drink
who can we trust to mount guard now and the panther answered let it be the tortoise the following morning the animals all went their various ways leaving the tortoise to guard the spring when they were out of sight the jackal came back
good morning tortoise good morning but the tortoise took no notice good morning tortoise good morning but still the tortoise pretended not to hear then the jackal said to himself
well to day i have only got to manage a bigger idiot than before
tortoise tortoise
and tried to make the tortoise smell the honeycomb he had inside
at last the jackal said to the tortoise i should like to give you my bag and everything in it
so matters stood when the other animals came back the moment he saw them the jackal gave a violent tug and managed to free his leg and then took to his heels as fast as he could
the deacon's masterpiece or the wonderful one hoss shay a logical story by oliver wendell holmes have you heard of the wonderful one hoss shay
ah but stay i'll tell you what happened without delay
frightening people out of their wits have you ever heard of that i
georgius secundus was then alive snuffy old drone from the german hive that was the year when lisbon town saw the earth open and gulp her down and braddock's army was done so brown left without a scalp to its crown
there is always somewhere a weakest spot in hub tire felloe in spring or thill in panel or crossbar or floor or sill in screw bolt thoroughbrace lurking still find it somewhere you must and will
above or below or within or without and that's the reason beyond a doubt
kentry raoun it should be so built that it break daown fur said the deacon t's mighty plain
is only jest t make that place uz strong uz the rest so the deacon inquired of the village folk where he could find the strongest oak
that was for spokes and floor and sills he sent for lancewood to make the thills the crossbars were ash from the straightest trees the panels of whitewood that cuts like cheese but lasts like iron for things like these
the hubs of logs from the settler's ellum last of its timber they couldn't sell em never an axe had seen their chips and the wedges flew from between their lips their blunt ends frizzled like celery tips
from tough old hide found in the pit when the tanner died that was the way he put her through
deacon and deaconess dropped away
but there stood the stout old one hoss shay as fresh as on lisbon earthquake day eighteen hundred it came and found the deacon's masterpiece strong and sound
eighteen hundred and twenty came running as usual much the same thirty and forty at last arrive and then come fifty
without both feeling and looking queer
at half past nine by the meet'n' house clock
you see of course if you're not a dunce
end of the wonderful one hoss shay
it hath reached me o auspicious king that ali shar sat down and ate a little with him after which he would have held his hand but the nazarene privily took a banana and peeled it then splitting it in twain
a drachm whereof would over throw an elephant and he dipped it in the honey and gave it to ali shar saying o my lord by the truth of thy religion i adjure thee to take this so ali shar being ashamed to make him forsworn took it and swallowed it
but hardly had it settled well in his stomach when his head forwent both his feet
taking with him a purse of a thousand dinars wherewith to bribe the chief of police should he meet him he opened the saloon door
threatening her with death if she spoke but they left the place as it was and took nothing therefrom lastly they left ali shar lying in the vestibule after they had shut the door on him and laid the saloon key by his side
setting her amongst his handmaids and concubines said to her o strumpet i am the old man whom thou didst reject and lampoon
replied she and her eyes streamed with tears allah requite thee o wicked old man for sundering me and my lord he rejoined wanton minx and whore that thou art thou shalt see how i will punish thee
by the truth of the messiah and the virgin except thou obey me and embrace my faith i will torture thee with all manner of torture she replied by allah though thou cut my flesh to bits i will not forswear the faith of al islam
it may be almighty allah will bring me speedy relief for he cloth even as he is fief and the wise say better body to scathe than a flaw in faith thereupon the old man called his eunuchs and women saying throw her down
so they threw her down and he ceased not to beat her with grievous beating whilst she cried for help and no help came then she no longer implored aid but fell to saying allah is my sufficiency and he is indeed all sufficient
till her groans ceased and her breath failed her and she fell into a fainting fit now when his heart was soothed by bashing her he said to the eunuchs drag her forth by the feet and cast her down in the kitchen and give her nothing to eat
and beat her again after which he bade the castrato return her to her place when the burning of the blows had cooled she said there is no god but the god and mohammed is the apostle of god allah is my sufficiency and excellent is my guardian
and she called for succour upon our lord mohammed
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say
his bowstring snap ere arrow lies
how much and much i warded parting but when destiny descends she blinds our eyes and when he had ended his verse he sobbed with loud sobs and repeated also these couplets
enrobes with honour sands of camp her foot step wandering lone pines the poor mourner as she wins the stead where wont to wane
she turns to resting place of tribe and yearns thereon to view the spring camp lying desolate with ruins overstrown she stands and questions of the site but with the tongue of case the mount replies there is no path that leads to union none
tis as the lightning flash erewhile bright glittered o'er the camp and died in darkling air no more to be for ever shown and he repented when repentance availed him naught
then he hent in hand two stones
o zumurrud whilst the small boys flocked round him calling out a madman a madman and all who knew him wept for him saying
when night darkened on him he lay down in one of the city lanes and sleet till morning on the morrow he went round about town with the stones till eventide when he returned to his saloon to pass therein the night presently one of his neighbours saw him
and this worthy old woman said to him o my son heaven give thee healing how long hast thou been mad
thou revest upon the person thou lovest and i replied the sweets of life are only for the mad drop the subject of my madness and bring her upon whom i rave if she cure my madness do not blame me
so his old neighbour knew him for a lover who had lost his beloved and said there is no majesty
o my son i wish thou wouldest acquaint me with the tale of thine affliction peradventure allah may enable me to help thee against it if it so please him
who had named himself rashid al din and when she understood the whole case she said o my son indeed thou hast excuse and her eyes railed tears and she repeated these two couplets enough for lovers in this world their ban and bane
by allah lover ne'er in fire of sakar fries for sure they died of love desire they never told chastely
o my son rise at once and buy me a crate such as the jewel pedlars carry
and grudge not the cash put all the stock into the crate
and make search for her in all the houses till i happen on news of her inshallah so ali shar rejoiced in her words and kissed her hands then going out speedily brought her all she required
whereupon she rose and donned a patched gown and threw over her head a honey yellow veil and took staff in hand and with the basket on her head began wandering about the passages and the houses she ceased not to go from house to house
and street to street and quarter to quarter till allah almighty led her to the house of the accursed rashid al din the nazarene where hearing groans within she knocked at the door and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
when it was the three hundred and sixteenth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that when the old woman heard groans within the house she knocked at the door
whereupon a slave girl came down and opening to her saluted her quoth the old woman i have these trifles for sale is there any one with you who will buy aught of them yes answered the damsel
and carrying her indoors made her sit down whereupon all the slave girls came round her and each bought something of her and as the old woman spoke them fair and was easy with them as to price all rejoiced in her because of her kind ways and pleasant speech
meanwhile she looked narrowly at the ins and outs of the place to see who it was she had heard groaning till her glance fell on zumurrud when she knew her and she began to show her customers yet more kindness at last she made sure that zumurrud was laid prostrate
so she wept and said to the girls o my children how cometh yonder young lady in this plight then the slave girls told her all what had passed adding indeed this matter is not of our choice but our master commanded us to do thus
and he is now on a journey she said o my children i have a favour to ask of you and it is that you loose this unhappy damsel of her bonds till you know of your lord's return
and you shall earn a reward from the lord of all creatures we hear and obey answered they and at once loosing zumurrud gave her to eat and drink
would my leg had been broken ere i entered your house and she went up to zumurrud and said to her o my daughter heaven keep thee safe soon shall allah bring thee relief
and cast in shapeliest mould hath stormed my heart with honied lure and honied words of grace no rest my heart hath known since thou art gone nor ever close these eyes nor patience aloe scape the hopes i dare to trace
ye have abandoned me to be the pawn of vain desire in squalid state twixt enviers and they who blame to face
nor in my thought shall ever pass a living thing but you and when he ended his verses he sighed and shed tears and repeated also these couplets divinely were inspired his words who brought me news of you
for brought he unto me a gift was music in mine ear take he for gift if him content this worn out threadbare robe my heart which was in pieces torn when parting from my fete he waited till night darkened and
when came the appointed time he went to the quarter she had described to him and saw and recognised the christian's house so he sat down on the bench under the gallery presently drowsiness overcame him and he slept glory be to him who sleepeth not
and he became as one drunken with slumber and while he was on this wise
how the monkey and the goat earned their reputations once upon a time the tiger sent an invitation to the goat asking the goat to accompany him on a visit the goat promptly accepted the invitation and at the appointed day
on the way there they came to a dangerous marsh the tiger was afraid to cross it but he pretended to be very brave he said to the goat friend goat how very pale you look when you think about crossing the marsh don't be afraid
the goat assured the tiger that he was no coward he thrust out his chest and marched along toward the marsh like a brave soldier as soon however as he stepped into the marsh he fell into the mud and barely got through it alive
the tiger went around the marsh and walked on dry ground after the tiger and the goat had come together again they came to some banana trees the tiger said to the goat friend goat aren't you hungry
let us stop here and eat some bananas you climb up and pluck the bananas give me the ripe ones and keep the green ones yourself the goat climbed up and picked the bananas he gave the ripe ones to the tiger and the tiger had a good meal
the goat went hungry the tiger and the goat walked along and after going for some distance they saw a cobra lying in the path
the goat started forward to pick up the snake
when the tiger and the goat arrived at the house of the tiger's friend it was very late they soon went to bed in hammocks hung close together at midnight the tiger rose quietly walked on tip toe to the door
opened it and went out he hurried to the place where the sheep were kept killed the fattest lamb of the flock and had a feast then he went back to the hammock wiped the blood on the goat and went to sleep
early the next morning the host discovered that one of his lambs was missing he hastened to the room where the tiger and the goat were sleeping and accused the tiger of having killed the lamb the tiger looked up at him with an innocent expression and asked
do you see any blood on me there was no blood on the tiger but the host looked into the next hammock and saw the goat all covered with blood
from that day to this when one speaks of a person who has been easily imposed upon he calls him the goat things happened very differently with the monkey one day not long afterward
when they came to the marsh the tiger said to the monkey friend monkey how very pale you look when you think about crossing the marsh don't be afraid just go ahead you go ahead yourself replied the monkey
the tiger went through the marsh and fell into the mud so that he was barely able to get out again the monkey went around the marsh and walked on dry ground after a while the tiger and the monkey came to the banana trees
friend monkey said the tiger aren't you hungry let us stop here and eat some bananas you climb up and pluck the bananas give the ripe ones to me and you may keep the green ones for yourself the monkey climbed up and picked the bananas
but he ate all the ripe ones himself and threw the green ones down to the tiger the tiger was forced to go hungry but the monkey had a good meal finally the tiger and the monkey came to a cobra lying in the path friend monkey said the tiger
here you have the opportunity to procure a beautiful necklace for your daughter free of cost pick it up and it is yours pick it up yourself replied the monkey when the tiger and the monkey arrived at the house of the tiger's friend it was very late
they went to bed in hammocks hung up close together the monkey had seen enough of the tiger that day to make him decide that he had better sleep with one eye open accordingly he pretended he was asleep but he was really awake
at midnight he saw the tiger crawl quietly out of his hammock walk on tip toe to the door open it gently and go out the monkey decided to watch and see what happened when the tiger came back
the tiger went to the place where the sheep were kept killed the fattest lamb of the flock and had a feast when he came back he tried to wipe the lamb's blood on the monkey the monkey saw him
and gave him a push so that he spilled the blood all over himself and his own hammock not a single drop went on the monkey early the next morning when the host missed one of his lambs he came to the room where his guests were sleeping
master tobacco once upon a time there was a poor woman who went about begging with her son for at home she had neither a morsel to eat nor a stick to burn
first she tried the country and went from parish to parish but it was poor work and so she came into the town there she went about from house to house for a while
he was both open hearted and open handed and he was married to the daughter of the richest merchant in the town and they had one little daughter as they had no more children
you may fancy she was sugar and spice and all that's nice and in a word there was nothing too good for her this little girl soon came to know the beggar boy
there had been a shower of rain and the street was flooded and she saw how the boy first carried the basket with their dinner over the stream and then he went back and lifted the little girl over
and when he set her down he gave her a kiss when the lady mayoress saw this she got very angry to think of such a ragamuffin kissing our daughter we who are the best people in the place
that was what she said her husband did his best to stop her tongue no one knew he said how children would turn out in life or what might befall his own the boy was a clever handy lad
and often and often a great tree sprang from a slender plant but no it was all the same whatever he said and whichever way he put it the lady mayoress held her own
and that no one had ever heard of a silk purse being made out of a sow's ear adding that a penny would never turn into a shilling even though it glittered like a guinea the end of it all
was that the poor lad was turned out of the house and had to pack up his rags and be off when the lord mayor saw there was no help for it he sent him away with a trader who had come thither with a ship
he told his wife he had sold the boy for a roll of tobacco but before he went the lord mayor's daughter broke her ring into two bits and gave the boy one bit that it might be a token to know him by if they ever met again
and so the ship sailed away and the lad came to a town far far off in the world and to that town
that everyone went to church to hear him and the crew of the ship went with the rest the sunday after to hear the sermon as for the lad he was left behind to mind the ship and to cook the dinner
so while he was hard at work he heard some one calling out across the water on an island so he took the boat and rowed across and there he saw an old hag who called and roared
you have come at last here have i stood a hundred years calling and bawling and thinking how i should ever get over this water but no one has ever heard or heeded but you
and you shall be well paid if you will put me over to the other side so the lad had to row her to her sister's house who lived on a hill on the other side close by and when they got
there she told him to beg for the old tablecloth which lay on the dresser yes he would beg for it and when the old witch
she said he might have whatever he chose to ask oh said the boy then i won't have anything else than that old tablecloth on the dresser yonder oh said the old witch that you never asked out of your own wits
now i must be off said the lad to cook the sunday dinner for the church goers never mind that said the first old hag it will cook itself while you are away stop with me and i will pay you better still
here have i stood and called and bawled for a hundred years but no one has ever heeded me but you the end was he had to go with her to another sister and when he got there
the old hag said he was to be sure and ask for the old sword which was such that he could put it into his pocket and it became a knife and when he drew it out it was a long sword again one edge was black
and if he smote with the black edge everything fell dead and if with the white everything came to life again so when they came over and the second old witch heard how he had helped her sister across
she said he might have anything he chose to ask for her fare oh said the lad
that you never asked out of your own wits said the old witch but for all that he got the sword then the old hag said again come on with me to my third sister
here have i stood and called and bawled for a hundred years and no one has heeded me but you come on to my third sister and you shall have better pay still so he went with her
and on the way she told him he was to ask for the old hymn book and that was such a book that when anyone was sick and the nurse sang one of the hymns the sickness passed away and they were well again well when they got across
and the third old witch heard he had helped her sister across she said he was to have whatever he chose to ask for his fare oh said the lad then i won't have anything else but granny's old hymn book that said the old hag
you never asked out of your own wits when he got back to the ship the crew were still at church so he tried his tablecloth and spread just a little bit of it out for he wanted to see what good it was before he laid it on the table yes
in a trice it was covered with good food and strong drink enough and to spare so he just took a little snack and then he gave the ship's dog as much as it could eat when the church goers came on board the captain said wherever did you get all that food for the dog
why he's as round as a sausage and as lazy as a snail oh if you must know said the lad i gave him the bones good boy said the captain to think of the dog so he spread out the cloth
now when the boy was again alone with the dog he wanted to try the sword so he smote at the dog with the black edge and it fell dead on the deck
but the book that he could not get tried just then then they sailed well and far till a storm overtook them which lasted many days so they lay to and drove till
and could not tell where they were at last the wind fell and then they came to a country far
as well there might be for the king's daughter was a leper the king came down to the shore and asked was there anyone on board who could cure her and make her well again no there was not that was what they all said who were on deck
is there no one else on board the ship than those i see asked the king yes there's a little beggar boy well said the king let him come on deck
he said he thought he might cure her and then the captain got so wroth and mad with rage that he ran round and round like a squirrel in a cage for he thought the boy was only putting himself forward to do something in which he was sure to fail
and he told the king not to listen to such childish chatter but the king only said that wit came as children grew
and he might as well try after all there were many who had tried and failed before him so he took him home to his daughter and the lad sang a hymn once then the princess could lift her arm once again he sang it
and she could sit up in bed
the king was so glad he wanted to give him half his kingdom and the princess to wife yes said the lad land and power are fine things to have half of and was very grateful but as for the princess he was betrothed to another he said
and he could not take her to wife so he stayed there awhile and got half the kingdom and when he had not been very long there war broke out and the lad went out to battle with the rest and you may fancy he did not spare the black edge of his sword
the enemy's soldiers fell before him like flies and the king won the day but when they had conquered he turned the white edge and they all rose up alive and became the king's soldiers who had granted them their lives
but then there were so many of them that they were badly off for food though the king wished to send them away full both of meat and drink so the lad had to bring out his tablecloth and then there was not a man that lacked anything
now when he had lived a little longer with the king he began to long to see the lord mayor's daughter so he fitted out four ships of war and set sail and when he came off the town where the lord mayor lived he fired off his cannon like thunder
on board those ships everything was as grand as in a king's palace and as for himself he had gold on every seam of his coat so fine he was
it was not long before the lord mayor came down to the shore and asked if the foreign lord would not be so good as to come up and dine with him yes he would go he said and so he went up to the mansion house where the lord mayor lived
and there he took his seat between the lady mayoress and her daughter so as they sat there in the greatest state and ate and drank and were merry he threw the half of the ring into the daughter's glass and no one saw it but she was
not slow to find out what he meant and excused herself from the feast and went out and fitted his half to her half her mother saw there was something in the wind and hurried after her as fast as she could
do you know who that is in there mother said the daughter no said the lady mayoress he whom papa sold for a roll of tobacco said the daughter at these words the lady mayoress fainted and fell down
flat on the floor in a little while the lord mayor came out to see what was the matter and when he heard how things stood he was almost as uneasy as his wife there is nothing to make a fuss about
said master tobacco i have only come to claim the little girl i kissed as we were going to school but to the lady mayoress he said you should never despise the children of the poor and needy
in the days of the great prince arthur there lived a mighty magician called merlin the most learned and skillful enchanter the world has ever seen
this famous magician who could take any form he pleased was traveling about as a poor beggar and being very tired he stopped at the cottage of a plowman to rest himself and asked for some food
the countryman bade him welcome and his wife who was a very good hearted woman soon brought him some milk in a wooden bowl and some coarse brown bread on a platter
but he could not help noticing that though everything was neat and comfortable in the cottage they both seemed to be very unhappy he therefore asked them why they were so melancholy and learned that they were miserable because they had no children the poor woman said
i should be the happiest creature in the world if i had a son although he was no bigger than my husband's thumb i would be satisfied merlin was so much amused with the idea of a boy no bigger than a man's thumb that he determined to grant the poor woman's wish
accordingly in a short time after the plowman's wife had a son who wonderful to relate was not a bit bigger than his father's thumb the queen of the fairies wishing to see the little fellow
came in at the window while the mother was sitting up in the bed admiring him the queen kissed the child and giving it the name of tom thumb
according to her orders an oak leaf hat he had for his crown his shirt of web by spiders spun with jacket wove of thistle's down his trousers were of feathers done his stockings
of apple rind they tie with eyelash from his mother's eye his shoes were made of mouse's skin tann'd with the downy hair within tom never grew any larger than his father's thumb
which was only of ordinary size but as he got older he became very cunning and full of tricks when he was old enough to play with the boys and had lost all his own cherry stones he used to creep into the bags of his playfellows
fill his pockets and getting out without their noticing him would again join in the game one day however as he was coming out of a bag of cherry stones where he had been stealing as usual
ah ah my little tommy said the boy so i have caught you stealing my cherry stones at last and you shall be rewarded for your thievish tricks on saying this he drew the string tight round his neck and gave the bag such a hearty shake that
poor little tom's legs thighs and body were sadly bruised he roared loud with pain and begged to be let out promising never to steal again a short time afterwards his mother was making a batter pudding and tom
being very anxious to see how it was made climbed up to the edge of the bowl but his foot slipped and he plumped over head and ears into the batter without his mother noticing him who stirred him into the pudding bag and put him in the pot to boil
the batter filled tom's mouth and prevented him from crying but on feeling the hot water he kicked and struggled so much in the pot that his mother thought that the pudding was bewitched and pulling it out of the pot she threw it outside the door a
poor tinker who was passing by lifted up the pudding and then putting it into his budget walked off as tom had now got his mouth cleared of the batter he then began to cry aloud
which so frightened the tinker that he flung down the pudding and ran away the pudding being broken to pieces by the fall tom crept out covered all over with the batter and walked home
put him into a teacup and soon washed off the batter
soon after the adventure of the pudding tom's mother went to milk her cow in the meadow and she took him along with her as the wind was very high for fear of being blown away she tied him to a thistle with a piece of fine thread
the cow soon observed tom's oak leaf hat and liking the appearance of it took poor tom and the thistle at one mouthful while the cow was chewing the thistle tom was afraid of her great teeth which threatened to crush him in pieces
mother mother where are you tommy my dear tommy said his mother here mother replied he in the red cow's mouth his mother began to cry and wring her hands but the cow surprised at the odd noise in her throat
opened her mouth and let tom drop out fortunately his mother caught him in her apron as he was falling to the ground or he would have been dreadfully hurt she then put tom in her bosom and ran home with him tom's father
made him a whip of a barley straw to drive the cattle with and having one day gone into the fields tom slipped a foot and rolled into the furrow a raven which was flying over picked him up and flew with him over the sea and there dropped him
a large fish swallowed tom the moment he fell into the sea which was soon after caught and bought for the table of king arthur when they opened the fish in order to cook it everyone was astonished at finding such a little boy
and tom was quite delighted at being free again they carried him to the king who made tom his dwarf and he soon grew a great favorite at court for by his tricks and gambols he not only amused the king and queen
but also all the knights of the round table it is said that when the king rode out on horseback he often took tom along with him
he used to creep into his majesty's waistcoat pocket where he slept till the rain was over king arthur one day asked tom about his parents wishing to know if they were as small as he was and whether they were well off
were as tall as anybody about the court but in rather poor circumstances on hearing this the king carried tom to his treasury the place where he kept all his money and told him to take as much money as he could carry home to his parents
which made the poor little fellow caper with joy tom went immediately to procure a purse which was made of a water bubble and then returned to the treasury where he received a silver threepenny piece to put into it
our little hero had some difficulty in lifting the burden upon his back but he at last succeeded in getting it placed to his mind and set forward on his journey however
tom had traveled forty eight hours with a huge silver piece on his back and was almost tired to death when his mother ran out to meet him and carried him into the house but he soon returned to court as tom's clothes had suffered much in the batter pudding
and the inside of the fish his majesty ordered him a new suit of clothes and to be mounted as a knight on a mouse of butterfly's wings his shirt was made his boots of chicken's hide and by a nimble fairy blade
well learned in the tailoring trade his clothing was supplied a needle dangled by his side a dapper mouse he used to ride thus strutted tom in stately pride it was certainly very diverting to see tom in this dress
and mounted on the mouse as he rode out a hunting
the king was so charmed with his address that he ordered a little chair to be made in order that tom might sit upon his table and also a palace of gold a span high with a door an inch wide to live in
he also gave him a coach drawn by six small mice the queen was so enraged at the honors conferred on sir thomas that she resolved to ruin him and told the king that the little knight had been saucy to her
the king sent for tom in great haste but being fully aware of the danger of royal anger he crept into an empty snail shell where he lay for a long time until he was almost starved with hunger
but at last he ventured to peep out and seeing a fine large butterfly on the ground near the place of his concealment he got close to it and jumping astride on it was carried up into the air the butterfly flew with him
from tree to tree and from field to field and at last returned to the court where the king and nobility all strove to catch him but at last poor tom fell from his seat into a watering pot in which he was almost drowned
when the queen saw him she was in a rage and said he should be beheaded and he was again put into a mouse trap until the time of his execution however a cat observing something alive in the trap
patted it about till the wires broke and set thomas at liberty the king received tom again into favor which he did not live to enjoy for a large spider one day attacked him and although he drew his sword and fought well
yet the spider's poisonous breath at last overcame him he fell dead on the ground where he stood and the spider suck'd every drop of his blood king arthur and his whole court were so sorry at the loss of their little favorite
that they went into mourning and raised a fine white marble monument over his grave with the following epitaph here lies tom thumb king arthur's knight who died by a spider's cruel bite
he was well known in arthur's court where he afforded gallant sport
the states of bohemia alarmed at these mighty preparations began also to solicit foreign assistance and together with that support which they obtained from the evangelical union in germany
they endeavored to establish connections with greater princes they cast their eyes on frederic elector palatine they considered that besides commanding no despicable force of his own
he was son in law to the king of england and nephew to prince maurice whose authority was become almost absolute in the united provinces they hoped that these princes moved by the connections of blood
as well as by the tie of their common religion would interest themselves in all the fortunes of frederic and would promote his greatness they therefore made him a tender of their crown which they considered as elective
and the young palatine stimulated by ambition without consulting either james or maurice whose opposition he foresaw immediately accepted the offer and marched all his forces into bohemia in support of his new subjects
the news of these events no sooner reached england than the whole kingdom was on fire to engage in the quarrel scarcely was the ardor greater with which all the states of europe
in former ages flew to rescue the holy land from the dominion of infidels the nation was as yet sincerely attached to the blood of their monarchs and they considered their connection with the palatine who had married a daughter of england
as very close and intimate and when they heard of catholics carrying on wars and persecutions against protestants they thought their own interest deeply concerned and regarded their neutrality as a base desertion of the cause of god
and of his holy religion in such a quarrel they would gladly have marched to the opposite extremity of europe have plunged themselves into a chaos of german politics and have expended all the blood and treasure of the nation
so exalted was his idea of the rights of kings that he concluded subjects must ever be in the wrong when they stood in opposition to those who had acquired
or assumed that majestic title thus even in measures founded on true politics james intermixed so many narrow prejudices as diminished his authority
hastened to a crisis ferdinand levied a great force under the command of the duke of bavaria and the count of bucquoy and advanced upon his enemy in bohemia
in the low countries spinola collected a veteran army of thirty thousand men when edmonds the king's resident at brussels made remonstrances to the archduke albert
he was answered that the orders for this armament had been transmitted to spinola from madrid and that he alone knew the secret destination of it spinola again told the minister that his orders were still sealed
of politics that however exorbitant the austrian greatness
the danger was still too distant to give any just alarm to england that mighty resistance would yet be made by so many potent and warlike princes and states in germany ere they would yield their neck to the yoke that france
now engaged to contract a double alliance with the austrian family must necessarily be soon roused from her lethargy and oppose the progress of so hated a rival that in the further advance of conquests
would waste the blood and treasure of the english nation without any hopes of success that a sea war indeed might be both safe and successful against spain but would not affect the enemy in such vital parts
whether peace and commerce with spain or the uncertain hopes of plunder and of conquest in the indies were preferable a question which at the beginning of the king's reign had already been decided and perhaps with reason
in favor of the former advantages james might have defended his pacific measures by such plausible arguments but these though the chief seem not to have been the sole motives which swayed him
he had entertained the notion that as his own justice and moderation had shone out so conspicuously throughout all these transactions the whole house of austria though not awed by the power of england would willingly
from mere respect to his virtue submit themselves to so equitable an arbitration he flattered himself that after he had formed an intimate connection with the spanish monarch by means of his son's marriage
the restitution of the palatinate might be procured from the motive alone of friendship and personal attachment he perceived not that his unactive virtue the more it was extolled the greater disregard was it exposed to
as the means of procuring such extraordinary advantages his unwarlike disposition increased by age rivetted him still faster in his errors
and determined him to seek the restoration of his son in law by remonstrances and entreaties by arguments and embassies
i assure you said he had i before heard these things complained of i would have done the office of a just king and out of parliament
to take presents and it is pretended that bacon who followed the same dangerous practice had still in the seat of justice preserved the integrity of a judge and had given just decrees against those very persons
complaints rose the louder on that account and at last reached the house of commons who sent up an impeachment against him to the peers
the chancellor conscious of guilt deprecated the vengeance of his judges and endeavored by a general avowal to escape the confusion of a stricter inquiry
to be forever incapable of any office place or employment and never again to sit in parliament or come within the verge of the court this dreadful sentence dreadful to a man of nice sensibility to honor
he survived five years and being released in a little time from the tower
and a depressed spirit
which have made his guilt or weaknesses be forgotten or overlooked by posterity in consideration of his great merit the king remitted his fine as well as all the other parts of his sentence
conferred on him a large pension of one thousand eight hundred pounds a year and employed every expedient to alleviate the weight of his age and misfortunes and that great philosopher at last acknowledged with regret
must proceed from them and to this principle they were chiefly beholden for the regard and consideration of the public in the execution of this office they now kept their ears open to complaints of every kind
and they carried their researches into many grievances which though of no great importance could not be touched on without sensibly affecting the king and his ministers
the prerogative seemed every moment to be invaded the king's authority in every article was disputed and james who was willing to correct the abuses of his power would not submit to have his power itself questioned and denied
which was refused by the upper house the king regarded this project of a joint petition
after studying the fundamental principles we have sketched the whole field of disturbances in which psychotherapeutic influence might be possible and all the methods available it seems natural that our next step
as this is not a handbook for the physician
we emphasized before that we avoid even any attempt in such a direction because it would have to introduce not only the questions of diagnosis but above all the highly important questions of treatment
by physical agencies we saw that for us nothing else can be desirable but to show the way in which the various symptoms which suggest mental treatment occur
that for a first survey we might separate the mental from the bodily symptoms and group the mental ones with reference to the predominance of ideational emotional and volitional factors
and the simplest country physician surely every week thus i turn from systematic objectivity to my unsystematic reminiscences of many years
of course they abound with eccentric abnormities and startling phenomena as i have devoted myself to psychotherapeutics
always and only from scientific interest as a part of my laboratory studies and therefore have refused to spend any time on cases which offered no special psychological interest to me the striking and sensational cases have prevailed in my practice even to an unusual degree
yet they are unessential for our purposes here the more as their interest lies mostly in the complex structure of the mental state
our purpose of demonstrating practical cases as they occur in every village and as they ought to be understood and treated by every doctor thus rules out just those experiences
which would be prominent in a theoretical study of abnormal psychology we want to select only simple commonplace cases only those who have not learned to see are unaware
that such cases are everywhere about them as a matter of course i also leave out everything which refers to insanity
which lies essentially outside of the domain of psychotherapy the helpful influence which psychical factors can exert
the psychotherapeutic methods in the narrower sense of the word are in the present state of our knowledge ineffective in the insane asylum
i should also be unable to speak of laboratory experience with insanity as i insist on sanitarium treatment in every such case
the question of how to differentiate the diagnosis of insanity from that of the other mental abnormities is not our question at this moment
i select the few illustrations which seem to me desirable for the purpose of making more concrete our abstract discussion of methods essentially from the class of neurasthenics
psychasthenics hysterics and so on in all these reports i shall confine the account to the few points which are to illustrate the psychical factors thus abstaining entirely from the further details
which any medical history of the cases would demand and from all results of further examination and other particulars as a matter of course i exclude the possibility of identifying the patient
i may start with a typical case of obsessing ideas of simplest character and with simple routine treatment
a man of mature age well educated well built and in every respect in good health without nervous history and without other nervous symptoms
played hardly any role in the case but he had met her at a gay dinner a short time before her death the news of the suicide came to him when he was overtired from work
the idea of the contrast between seeing his friend partaking of the dinner and imagining her drinking the poison gave him a strong shock there was hardly any grief mixed in
and in that moment the visual image of the woman raising a glass of poison to her mouth flashed into his mind and thus became almost a part of the shock from that time on
more and more any element of a meal and of social life
the word gown or dance brought up at once the picture of the woman which had in the meantime lost every element of personal relation any sad thought of her ending had faded away
and especially the meals themselves forced the visual image into the centre and captured the attention to such a degree that a confusing distraction from the real surroundings resulted
the struggle against the idea became more and more exasperating made life a torture almost suggested despair even faint thoughts of suicide and especially a growing fear that it was a symptom of the beginning of insanity
when he came to me a number of physical cures especially bromides and electricity had been tried in vain by the physician some weeks in the country had not changed the distress
he came to me with the direct request as a last resort to try hypnotic treatment i found in spite of the fact that he and his physician had constantly spoken of visual hallucinations
that the visual image had no hallucinatory character at all that is he never believed that he saw the image of that woman as if it were actually present he never took the product of his imagination for reality nor had
i found that he was a strong visualizer and easily suggestible
that he would remember everything which i told him then i asked him to lie down and had him gaze on a crystal only for half a minute then close the eyes i asked him to relax and to think of sleep
with the two blunt points of a compass i touched his two cheeks at corresponding places then his forehead and now i told him that i would begin with the hypnotic influence
i put my hand on his forehead and spoke to him in a monotonous way saying that he felt a fatigue in his shoulders and in his arms creeping over his whole body and assured him
that he was now fully hypnotized to what degree he really was hypnotized cannot be said as no effort was made to test it by any experiments
thus avoiding any possible reaction against the feeling of submission expression and breathing indicated a slight hypnoid state then i removed my hand and spoke to him in a warm and assuring way
i told him that in future he would give his full attention to his meal and not give the slightest attention to any image of his friend if he should think of the friend the memory would appear indifferent
the success was complete he came the next day in a much happier frame of mind reporting that he still had seen the image of the woman every few minutes especially strongly at the breakfast table but it had no longer troubled him
it was more in the background of consciousness sometimes it appeared transparent it no longer held his attention and he felt free to give his full attention to the actual surroundings
on that basis i hypnotized him the second day and he had hardly heard me saying that he ought to try to sleep when he was evidently in a much deeper hypnotic state than the first time
again i suggested only the opposite attitude the positive turning to the surroundings and the complete neglect and indifference for the possible memory image this time the effect was still stronger
and would not trouble him any more in the next twenty four hours it still returned two or three times but colorless and faint the following day i was able to eliminate it altogether
even when the last trace of the inner struggle between the memory and the perceived surroundings had disappeared i went on with two hypnotic sittings
that the cure would not have been reached so quickly possibly not at all if the second suggestion the disappearance of the image had been given at the first step the improvement was secured
because the antagonistic process itself was used for the suggestion on the other hand there was no doubt that in this case the strong will of the patient or suggestion in a normal state
by an idea without emotional value or at least by an idea which had lost its emotional character the idea came somewhat nearer to hallucination but had its chief elements on tactual ground
the patient is a highly educated physician of middle age he reports that he had been neurasthenic all his life with slight ever changing symptoms
he has always been troubled by the perseveration of tactual images which had a strong feeling tone and which were associated with seen or heard reports
for instance when he read in a newspaper that someone had hurt his hand with a pin or that someone had cut his foot on a nail he immediately felt a not directly painful
but uncomfortable sensation at the particular place in the hand or in the foot together with a shrinking of the whole body and such tactual sensation usually returned during the following days
in fainter and fainter form until it faded away most troublesome had always been the reading of any torture processes in historical books or in fiction yet there had never been a case in which
the sensations really had the vividness of hallucinations and never a case in which the after effects had not disappeared at least in a few weeks this time the effect had already lasted four months
and it became more and more troublesome the patient had not the slightest fear of mental disease and no anxiety but he felt a very serious disturbance by the instinctive effort to get rid of the intrusion
the place of the disturbance was the wrists the starting point was a definite experience on an unusually hot summer day the physician had listened for a long time to the complaints of a female patient
where the story of his patient affected him very strongly and made him think of it all the time yet there was no sensation element involved a few hours later he sat in a hotel at his dinner
just in front of him a butler started to carve a duck with a long sharp knife in that moment he felt as if the knife passed through the wrists of both arms he felt for a moment almost faint
arms and legs were contracted and an almost painful sensation lingered in the skin and did not disappear for hours from that day at the sight of knives or razors
only with the difference that it seldom was found in both arms usually in the one or the other the sensation became a strictly tactual one with optical overtone but there was no emotion in it
the pain element had disappeared also the shock which still recurred in the first days slowly disappeared the longer the symptom lasted the more the optical factor faded away
and the tactual factor came into the foreground after three or four weeks perhaps seeing a razor in a store window or a pocket knife open no longer stirred up the image of cutting the wrist
but simply a strong tactual sensation as if the skin of the wrist was scratched and pinched finally after about two months the association character
and the scratching and cutting sensation in the skin became independent and automatic the patient awoke in the morning with a vivid tactual hallucination of being cut without associating with it any picture of a knife
in the midst of work and in the midst of conversation sometimes one and sometimes the other wrist became the center of the exasperating sensation easily bringing with it involuntary reactions
as if to withdraw the arm this became more and more frequent and more and more vivid
the doctor fully aware of the borderland character of this experience felt sure that his inner fight against the disturbance would get control of it the usual tonics did not show any influence on the other hand
there were no other nervous symptoms and with his most acute analysis he did not find the slightest trace of emotion any longer when the symptoms reached a point at which
they seriously interfered with his comfort he asked me for psychotherapeutic treatment under the condition
that i was not to apply hypnotism he was absolutely averse to the use of hypnotism in his own case because he was afraid that to be hypnotized would mean for him a certain disposition to fall into hypnotic sleep
in any case he had an aversion to it and asked for other means under these circumstances it seemed to me the most logical conclusion that the counter idea with its antagonistic reactions
might be reenforced by direct perception the abnormal tactual sensation forced on consciousness the idea
the necessary counter action would be to force to consciousness the idea of the uninjured wrist and the corresponding reactions as the wrist can be easily made accessible to sight
and as i anticipated that the visual sensations would be more forceful than the tactual ones i told him to look straight at his own wrists for ten minutes three times a day after waking
after luncheon and before going to bed he had to hold his two forearms close in front of his eyes and stare at them giving his full attention
until the perception had crowded out the rival touch sensation when this performance had been carried out six times he did not notice the coming up of the tactual sensation
with vividness any longer from the third day it had disappeared entirely i told him to go on with the process still every morning for some weeks
the physician himself considered the cure as complete our first case dealt with hypnosis our second case removed the intruding idea by a perception in a waking state
to point at once to the variety of methods which we sketched we may turn again to a case of emotionless idea removed by the method of switching off and side tracking the originating and
she has had this idea as long as she can remember according to her first expression she never had any intimate acquaintance with any man she was never engaged
she hated bitterly every thought of immorality she knows and has assured herself by much reading that it is entirely impossible that she might get a child without sexual contact
yet this thought recurs to her all the time even when she is talking with other people it embarrasses her in school in spite of her teaching only girls in a private institution
this thought keeps her away from company and the effect of its embarrassing occurrence depresses her but she is sure that the thought itself does not include any emotion it is a mere thinking of it
with a full consciousness that it is absurd and yet she cannot suppress it i began at once to try to find the origin of her queer obsession after some efforts to pierce into her memories
we came to an experience of her youth when she was about thirteen years of age a young girl whom she had admired much for her beauty living in the neighborhood of her parents suddenly got a child
which died after a few days at that time no thought of immorality seems to have entered into that news it was evidently mere sadness about the quick death of the child
which gave to the experience its emotional tone she was at that time completely naive she received an intense shock in the thought that an unmarried girl may suddenly get a child
which would then quickly die she cannot tell whether the thought that she herself would get a child had ever entered her mind before this occurrence in her neighborhood nor can she say
i considered it a justifiable hypothesis that this strong emotional experience early in life had become the starting point for that secondary absurd thought
for a deep physiological brain excitement which had irradiated towards the ideas of her personality it had stirred up there associations which kept their psychological character
while the primary disturbance had long lost its psychical accompaniment it worked its mischief in a physiological sphere but was probably still the starting point for the persistent obsession
my aim was to remove this cause it would have brought little improvement simply to suppress the freak idea as long as that physiological source was active on the other hand
i should not have the means to stop the physiological after effects of that real experience i had to sidetrack it and to secure thus a reduction i decided therefore
to work on the basis of that hypothesis to accept that physiological complex as existing but to switch it off by linking it with appropriate associations
for that purpose i brought her into a hypnoid state bending her head backwards and speaking to her with slow voice until i saw that a slight drowsy state was reached
she is to imagine that she speaks with her now i make her talk with me
i ask her to tell the girl how indignant she feels over her behavior she is to tell her that she understands now all which she did not understand in her childhood that she knows now
that she must have lived an immoral life that she must have had a friend and that a pure girl like herself could never under any circumstances come into such a situation
that no pure girl could suddenly have a child she is to express to the other girl her deepest disapproval of such conduct and her own feeling of happiness
she internally spoke with great vividness to her neighbor when i awoke her from her drowsy state she was quite exhausted from the excitement i repeated that scene with her four times
she assured me that she felt it every time more dramatically the power of the obsession weakened from the first day after the fourth time it had disappeared
the room to which she had fled was lit only by a single candle she lay back on a great sofa her dress undone holding one hand on her heart and letting the other hang by her side
on the table was a basin half full of water and the water was stained with streaks of blood very pale her mouth half open marguerite tried to recover breath
now and again her bosom was raised by a long sigh which seemed to relieve her a little and for a few seconds she would seem to be quite comfortable i went up to her she made no movement
and i sat down and took the hand which was lying on the sofa ah it is you she said with a smile i must have looked greatly agitated for she added are you unwell too
no but you do you still suffer very little and she wiped off with her handkerchief the tears which the coughing had brought to her eyes i am used to it now you are killing yourself madame
see how much notice the others take of me they know too well that there is nothing to be done thereupon she got up and taking the candle put it on the mantel piece and looked at herself in the glass
how pale i am she said as she fastened her dress and passed her fingers over her loosened hair come let us go back to supper are you coming i sat still and did not move
she saw how deeply i had been affected by the whole scene and coming up to me held out her hand saying come now let us go i took her hand raised it to my lips
and in spite of myself two tears fell upon it why what a child you are she said sitting down by my side again you are crying what is the matter
i must seem very silly to you but i am frightfully troubled by what i have just seen you are very good what would you have of me i can not sleep i must amuse myself a little
i said unable to contain myself any longer i do not know what influence you are going to have over my life but at this present moment there is no one not even my sister in whom i feel the interest which i feel in you
it has been just the same ever since i saw you well for heaven's sake take care of yourself and do not live as you are living now if i took care of myself i should die
all that supports me is the feverish life i lead then as for taking care of oneself that is all very well for women with families and friends as for us
from the moment we can no longer serve the vanity or the pleasure of our lovers they leave us and long nights follow long days i know it i was in bed for two months and after three weeks no one came to see me
it is true i am nothing to you i went on but if you will let me i will look after you like a brother i will never leave your side and i will cure you then
when you are strong again you can go back to the life you are leading if you choose but i am sure you will come to prefer a quiet life which will make you happier and keep your beauty unspoiled you think like that to night because the wine has made you sad
but you would never have the patience that you pretend to permit me to say marguerite that you were ill for two months and that for two months i came to ask after you every day it is true but why did you not come up
because i did not know you then need you have been so particular with a girl like me one must always be particular with a woman it is what i feel at least so you would look after me
yes you would stay by me all day yes and even all night as long as i did not weary you and what do you call that devotion
and what does this devotion come from the irresistible sympathy which i have for you so you are in love with me say it straight out it is much more simple it is possible
but if i am to say it to you one day it is not to day you will do better never to say it why because only one of two things can come of it what
either i shall not accept then you will have a grudge against me or i shall accept then you will have a sorry mistress a woman who is nervous ill sad or gay with a gaiety sadder than grief
have very soon left me i did not answer i listened this frankness which was almost a kind of confession the sad life of which i caught some glimpse through the golden veil which covered it
and whose reality the poor girl sought to escape in dissipation drink and wakefulness impressed me so deeply that i could not utter a single word come continued marguerite we are talking mere childishness
give me your arm and let us go back to the dining room they won't know what we mean by our absence go in if you like but allow me to stay here why because your mirth hurts me
and which i will never repeat and that is she said with the smile of a young mother listening to some foolish notion of her child it is this that ever since i have seen you i know not why
that if i drive the thought of you out of my mind it always comes back that when i met you to day after not having seen you for two years you made a deeper impression on my heart and mind than ever
that now that you have let me come to see you now that i know you now that i know all that is strange in you you have become a necessity of my life and you will drive me mad
not only if you will not love me but if you will not let me love you but foolish creature that you are
you must be very rich then why you don't know that i spend six or seven thousand francs a month and that i could not live without it you don't know my poor friend that i should ruin you in no time
and that your family would cast you off if you were to live with a woman like me let us be friends good friends but no more come and see me we will laugh and talk but don't exaggerate what i am worth
for i am worth very little you have a good heart you want some one to love you you are too young and too sensitive to live in a world like mine take a married woman you see
and who now stood just inside the door with her hair half coming down and her dress undone i recognised the hand of gaston we are talking sense said marguerite leave us alone we will be back soon good good talk my children
i will go away so much as that i had gone too far to draw back and i was really carried away this mingling of gaiety sadness candour prostitution
her very malady which no doubt developed in her a sensitiveness to impressions as well as an irritability of nerves all this made it clear to me that if from the very beginning i did not completely dominate her light
and forgetful nature she was lost to me come now do you seriously mean what you say she said seriously but why didn't you say it to me sooner when could i have said it
i thought you would have received me very badly if i had come to see you why because i had behaved so stupidly that's true and yet you were already in love with me yes
and that didn't hinder you from going to bed and sleeping quite comfortably one knows what that sort of love means there you are mistaken do you know what i did that evening after the opera comique no
i waited for you at the door of the cafe anglais i followed the carriage in which you and your three friends were and when i saw you were the only one to get down and that you went in alone i was very happy
what some one was waiting for me here if she had thrust a knife into me she would not have hurt me more i rose and holding out my hand goodbye
i assure you that i am not cross it was quite natural that some one should be waiting for you just as it is quite natural that i should go from here at three in the morning have you too some one waiting for you no but i must go
good bye then you send me away not the least in the world why are you so unkind to me how have i been unkind to you in telling me that some one was waiting for you
i could not help laughing at the idea that you had been so happy to see me come in alone when there was such a good reason for it one finds pleasure in childish enough things and it is too bad to destroy such a pleasure when by simply leaving it alone one can make somebody so happy
you really love me as much as it is possible to love i think and that has lasted since since the day i saw you go into susse's three years ago do you know that is tremendously fine
love me a little i said my heart beating so that i could hardly speak
it seemed to me that marguerite began to share my agitation and that the hour so long awaited was drawing near well but the duke what duke my jealous old duke he will know nothing
it is not for you to reproach me since it was in order to receive you you and your friend little by little i had drawn nearer to marguerite i had put my arms about her waist
and i felt her supple body weigh lightly on my clasped hands if you knew how much i love you i said in a low voice really true i swear it well
if you will promise to do everything i tell you without a word without an opinion without a question perhaps i will say yes i will do everything that you wish
who should be young and not self willed loving without distrust loved without claiming the right to it i have never found one men
exact from their mistresses a full account of the present the past and even the future as they get accustomed to her they want to rule her and the more one gives them the more exacting they become
if i decide now on taking a new lover he must have three very rare qualities he must be confiding submissive and discreet well i will be all that you wish
we shall see when shall we see later on why because said marguerite releasing herself from my arms and taking from a great bunch of red camellias
i promise now kiss me and we will go back to the dining room she held up her lips to me smoothed her hair again and we went out of the room she singing and i almost beside myself
i shall live longer than you will love me and she went singing into the dining room where is nanine she said seeing gaston and prudence alone she is asleep in your room
poor thing i am killing her and now gentlemen it is time to go ten minutes after gaston and i left the house marguerite shook hands with me and said good bye
prudence remained behind well said gaston when we were in the street what do you think of marguerite she is an angel and i am madly in love with her so i guessed did you tell her so
yes and did she promise to believe you no she is not like prudence did she promise to better still my dear fellow you wouldn't think it
he sent for all his stewards to the head office and explained to them his intentions and wishes he told them that steps would be taken immediately to free his serfs and that till then they were not to be overburdened with labor
and hospitals asylums and schools were to be established on all the estates some of the stewards there were semiliterate foremen among them listened with alarm
supposing these words to mean that the young count was displeased with their management and embezzlement of money some after their first fright were amused by pierre's lisp and the new words they had not heard before
others simply enjoyed hearing how the master talked while the cleverest among them including the chief steward understood from this speech how they could best handle the master for their own ends
the chief steward expressed great sympathy with pierre's intentions but remarked that besides these changes it would be necessary to go into the general state of affairs which was far from satisfactory
despite count bezukhov's enormous wealth since he had come into an income which was said to amount to five hundred thousand rubles a year pierre felt himself far poorer than when his father had made him an allowance of ten thousand rubles
he had a dim perception of the following budget about eighty thousand went in payments on all the estates to the land bank about thirty thousand went for the upkeep of the estate near moscow the town house
and the allowance to the three princesses about fifteen thousand was given in pensions and the same amount for asylums
about seventy thousand went for interest on debts the building of a new church previously begun had cost about ten thousand in each of the last two years
besides this the chief steward wrote every year telling him of fires and bad harvests or of the necessity of rebuilding factories and workshops
the chief steward put the state of things to him in the very worst light pointing out the necessity of paying off the debts and undertaking new activities with serf labor to which pierre did not agree
pierre had none of the practical persistence that would have enabled him to attend to the business himself and so he disliked it and only tried to pretend to the steward that he was attending to it the steward for his part
tried to pretend to the count that he considered these consultations very valuable for the proprietor and troublesome to himself in kiev pierre found some people he knew and strangers hastened to make his acquaintance and joyfully welcomed the rich newcomer
the largest landowner of the province temptations to pierre's greatest weakness
were so strong that he could not resist them again whole days weeks and months of his life passed in as great a rush and were as much occupied with evening parties dinners lunches and balls
giving him no time for reflection as in petersburg instead of the new life he had hoped to lead he still lived the old life only in new surroundings
of the three precepts of freemasonry pierre realized that he did not fulfill the one which enjoined every mason to set an example of moral life and that of the seven virtues he lacked two morality and the love of death
he consoled himself with the thought that he fulfilled another of the precepts that of reforming the human race and had other virtues love of his neighbor and especially generosity
and whom he intended to benefit the chief steward who considered the young count's attempts almost insane unprofitable to himself
made some concessions continuing to represent the liberation of the serfs as impracticable he arranged for the erection of large buildings schools hospitals and asylums
on all the estates before the master arrived everywhere preparations were made not for ceremonious welcomes which he knew pierre would not like but for just such gratefully religious ones
with offerings of icons and the bread and salt of hospitality as according to his understanding of his master would touch and delude him the southern spring the comfortable rapid traveling in a vienna carriage
everywhere were receptions which though they embarrassed pierre awakened a joyful feeling in the depth of his heart in one place the peasants presented him with bread and salt and an icon of saint peter and saint paul
asking permission as a mark of their gratitude for the benefits he had conferred on them to build a new chantry to the church at their own expense in honor of peter and paul his patron saints in another place
the women with infants in arms met him to thank him for releasing them from hard work on a third estate the priest bearing a cross came to meet him surrounded by children whom by the count's generosity
which were soon to be opened everywhere he saw the stewards accounts according to which the serfs manorial labor had been diminished
they did still harder work on their own land he did not know that the priest who met him with the cross oppressed the peasants by his exactions
and that the pupils parents wept at having to let him take their children and secured their release by heavy payments he did not know that the brick buildings built to plan were being built by serfs whose manorial labor was thus increased
though lessened on paper he did not know that where the steward had shown him in the accounts that the serfs payments had been diminished by a third their obligatory manorial work had been increased by a half
how easy it is how little effort it needs to do so much good thought pierre and how little attention we pay to it he was pleased at the gratitude he received but felt abashed at receiving it
this gratitude reminded him of how much more he might do for these simple kindly people the chief steward a very stupid but cunning man who saw perfectly through the naive and intelligent count and played with him as with a toy
seeing the effect these prearranged receptions had on pierre pressed him still harder with proofs of the impossibility and above all the uselessness of freeing the serfs who were quite happy as it was
pierre in his secret soul agreed with the steward that it would be difficult to imagine happier people and that god only knew what would happen to them when they were free but he insisted though reluctantly on what he thought right
the steward promised to do all in his power to carry out the count's wishes seeing clearly that not only would the count never be able to find out whether all measures had been taken for the sale of the land and forests and to release them from the land bank
but would probably never even inquire and would never know that the newly erected buildings were standing empty
when marcella had a tea party out in the orchard of course all of the dolls were invited raggedy ann the tin soldier the indian doll and all the others
so she took all except raggedy ann into the house and put them to bed for the afternoon nap then marcella told raggedy ann to stay there and watch the things as there was nothing else to do
raggedy ann waited for marcella to return and as she watched the little ants eating cookie crumbs marcella had thrown to them she heard all of a sudden the patter of puppy feet behind her it was fido
the puppy dog ran up to raggedy ann and twisted his head about as he looked at her then he put his front feet out and barked in raggedy ann's face
raggedy ann tried to look very stern but she could not hide the broad smile painted on her face oh you want to play do you the puppy dog barked as he jumped at raggedy ann and then jumped back again
the more raggedy ann smiled the livelier fido's antics became until finally he caught the end of her dress and dragged her about this was great fun for the puppy dog
every once in a while stopping and pretending he was very angry when he pretended this fido would give raggedy ann a great shaking making her yarn head hit the ground ratty tat tat
and now some of her yarn hair was coming loose as fido neared the brook another puppy dog came running across the foot bridge to meet him what have you there fido said the new puppy dog as he bounced up to raggedy ann
this is raggedy ann answered fido she and i are having a lovely time playing you see fido really thought raggedy enjoyed being tossed around and whirled high up in the air
but of course she didn't however the game didn't last much longer as raggedy ann hit the ground the new puppy dog caught her dress and ran with her across the bridge fido barking close behind him
in the center of the bridge fido caught up with the new puppy dog and they had a lively tug of war with raggedy ann stretched between then as they pulled and tugged and flopped raggedy ann about
but no she floated nicely for she was stuffed with clean white cotton and the water didn't soak through very quickly after a while the strange puppy and fido grew tired of running along the bank and the strange puppy scampered home over the meadow
with his tail carried gaily over his back as if he had nothing to be ashamed of but fido walked home very sorry indeed his little heart was broken to think that he had caused raggedy ann to be drowned
but raggedy ann didn't drown not a bit of it in fact she even went to sleep on the brook for the motion of the current was very soothing as it carried her along just like being rocked by marcella
so sleeping peacefully raggedy ann drifted along with the current until she came to a pool where she lodged against a large stone raggedy ann tried to climb upon the stone
but by this time the water had thoroughly soaked through raggedy ann's nice clean white cotton stuffing and she was so heavy she could not climb so there she had to stay until marcella and daddy came along and found her
you see they had been looking for her they had found pieces of her apron all along the path and across the meadow where fido and the strange puppy dog had shaken them from raggedy ann so they followed the brook until they found her
when daddy fished raggedy ann from the water marcella hugged her so tightly to her breast the water ran from raggedy ann and dripped all over marcella's apron but marcella was so glad to find raggedy ann again she didn't mind it a bit
red chair in front of the oven door
mamma said she thought the cake must be finished and she took from the oven a lovely chocolate cake and gave marcella a large piece to have another tea party with that night when all the house was asleep
i am so happy i do not feel a bit sleepy do you know i believe the water soaked me so thoroughly my candy heart must have melted and filled my whole body
raggedy ann and the washing why dinah how could you mamma looked out of the window and saw marcella run up to dinah and take something out of her hand and then put her head in her arm and commence crying
what is the trouble dear mamma asked as she came out the door and knelt beside the little figure shaking with sobs marcella held out raggedy ann but such a comical looking raggedy ann
mamma had to smile in spite of her sympathy for raggedy ann looked ridiculous dinah's big eyes rolled out in a troubled manner for marcella had snatched raggedy ann from dinah's hand as she cried why dinah how could you
dinah could not quite understand and as she dearly loved marcella she was troubled raggedy ann was not in the least downhearted and while she felt she must look very funny
she continued to smile but with a more expansive smile than ever before raggedy ann knew just how it all happened and her remaining shoe button eye twinkled
she remembered that morning when marcella came to the nursery to take the nighties from the dolls and dress them she had been cross
perhaps she had climbed out of bed backwards for marcella complained to each doll as she dressed them and when it came raggedy's time to be dressed
now it happened raggedy lit in the clothes hamper and there she lay all doubled up in a knot a few minutes afterwards dinah came through the hall with an armful of clothes and piled them in the hamper on top of raggedy ann
then dinah carried the hamper out in back of the house where she did the washing dinah dumped all the clothes into the boiler and poured water on them the boiler was then placed upon the stove
when the water began to get warm raggedy ann wiggled around and climbed up amongst the clothes to the top of the boiler to peek out there was too much steam and she could see nothing for that matter
dinah could not see raggedy ann either on account of the steam so dinah using an old broom handle stirred the clothes in the boiler and the clothes and raggedy ann were stirred and whirled around until all were thoroughly boiled
when dinah took the clothes a piece at a time from the boiler and scrubbed them she finally came upon raggedy ann now dinah did not know but that marcella had placed raggedy in the clothes hamper to be washed
it was hard work getting raggedy through the wringer but dinah was very strong and of course it happened
it was just then that marcella returned and saw raggedy why dinah how could you marcella had sobbed as she snatched the flattened raggedy ann from the bewildered dinah's hand
mamma patted marcella's hand and soon coaxed her to quit sobbing when dinah explained that the first she knew of raggedy being in the wash was when she took her from the boiler marcella began crying again
it was all my fault mamma she cried i remember now that i threw dear old raggedy ann from me as i ran out the door and she must have fallen in the clothes hamper oh dear oh dear and she hugged raggedy ann tight
for raggedy ann's smile was almost twice as broad as it had been before just let me hang miss raggedy on the line in the bright sunshine for half an hour said dinah and you won't know her when she comes off so raggedy ann was pinned to the clothes line
then she took raggedy ann into the house and showed marcella and mamma how clean and sweet she was
marcella took raggedy ann right up to the nursery and told all the dolls just what had happened and how sorry she was that she had been so cross and peevish when she dressed them and while the dolls said never a word
they looked at their little mistress with love in their eyes as she sat in the little red rocking chair and held raggedy ann tightly in her arms
but upon her face was the same old smile of happiness good humor
the two boys shrieked with excitement as they beheld the coincidence of this strange return they burst into the stable making almost as much noise as duke who had become frantic at the invasion sam laid hands upon a rake you get out o there you ole horse you he bellowed
sam was manfully preparing to enter the stall you hold the doors open he commanded so's they won't blow shut and keep him in here i'm goin to hit him
grasping the handle of the rake so that sam could not use it
was so impressed that he prostrated himself in silence and then unobtrusively withdrew from the stable penrod ran to the alley doors and closed them my gracious sam protested what you goin to do
i'm goin to keep this horse said penrod whose face showed the strain of a great idea what for for the reward
my gracious he said i never thought o that how how much do you think we'll get penrod sam's thus admitting himself to a full partnership in the enterprise met no objection from penrod
who was absorbed in the contemplation of whitey well he said judicially we might get more and we might get less sam rose and joined his friend in the doorway opening upon the two stalls whitey had preempted the nearer
and was hungrily nuzzling the old frayed hollows in the manger maybe a hunderd dollars or sumpthing sam asked in a low voice penrod maintained his composure and repeated the newfound expression that had sounded well to him a moment before
he recognized it as a symbol of the non committal attitude that makes people looked up to
we might get more and we might get less
well said penrod we might get more and we might get less this time however he felt the need of adding something he put a question in an indulgent tone as though he were inquiring
not to add to his own information but to discover the extent of sam's how much do you think horses are worth anyway i don't know sam said frankly and unconsciously he added they might be more and they might be less well
when our ole horse died penrod said papa said he wouldn't taken five hunderd dollars for him that's how much horses are worth my gracious sam exclaimed then he had a practical afterthought but maybe he was a better horse than this'n
what colour was he he was bay looky here sam and now penrod's manner changed from the superior to the eager you look what kind of horses they have in a circus and you bet a circus has the best horses don't it
well what kind of horses do they have in a circus they have some black and white ones but the best they have are white all over well what kind of a horse is this we got here he's perty near white right now and i bet if we washed him off and got him fixed up nice he would be white
well a bay horse is worth five hunderd dollars because that's what papa said
penrod laughed contemptuously bony all he needs is a little food and he'll fill right up and look good as ever you don't know much about horses sam i expect why our ole horse do you expect he's hungry now asked sam staring at whitey
let's try him said penrod horses like hay and oats the best but they'll eat most anything i guess they will
and i bet it ain't good for him come on said penrod closing the door that gave entrance to the stalls we got to get this horse some drinkin' water and some good food they tried whitey's appetite first with an autumnal branch that they wrenched from a hardy maple in the yard
they had seen horses nibble leaves and they expected whitey to nibble the leaves of this branch but his ravenous condition did not allow him time for cool discriminations sam poked the branch at him from the passageway and whitey after one backward movement of alarm seized it venomously
here you stop that sam shouted you stop that you ole horse you what's the matter called penrod from the hydrant where he was filling a bucket what's he doin now doin he's eatin the wood part too
penrod rushed to see this sight and stood aghast take it away from him sam he commanded sharply go on take it away from him yourself was the prompt retort of his comrade you had no biz'nuss to give it to him said penrod
anybody with any sense ought to know it'd make him sick what'd you want to go and give it to him for well you didn't say not to well what if i didn't i never said i did did i you go on in that stall and take it away from him
yes i will sam returned bitterly then as whitey had dragged the remains of the branch from the manger to the floor of the stall sam scrambled to the top of the manger and looked over there ain't much left to take away he's swallered it all except some splinters
better give him the water to try and wash it down with and as penrod complied my gracious look at that horse drink they gave whitey four buckets of water
obviously this horse could not be trusted with branches and after getting their knees black and their backs sodden they gave up trying to pull enough grass to sustain him then penrod remembered that horses like apples both cooking apples and eating apples
and sam mentioned the fact that every autumn his father received a barrel of cooking apples from a cousin who owned a farm that barrel was in the williams cellar now and the cellar was providentially supplied with outside doors so that it could be visited without going through the house
sam and penrod set forth for the cellar they returned to the stable bulging
sam claiming that eating the core and seeds as whitey did would grow trees in his inside they went back to the cellar for supplies again and again they made six trips carrying each time a capacity cargo of apples and still whitey ate in a famished manner
they were afraid to take more apples from the barrel which began to show conspicuously the result of their raids wherefore penrod made an unostentatious visit to the cellar of his own house from the inside he opened a window and passed vegetables out to sam
who placed them in a bucket and carried them hurriedly to the stable while penrod returned in a casual manner through the house of his sang froid under a great strain it is sufficient to relate that in the kitchen he said suddenly to della the cook oh look behind you
and by the time della discovered that there was nothing unusual behind her penrod was gone and a loaf of bread from the kitchen table was gone with him whitey now ate nine turnips two heads of lettuce one cabbage eleven raw potatoes and the loaf of bread
he ate the loaf of bread last and he was a long time about it so the boys came to a not unreasonable conclusion well sir i guess we got him filled up at last said penrod i bet he wouldn't eat a saucer of ice cream now if we'd give it to him he looks better to me
said sam staring critically at whitey i think he's kind of begun to fill out some i expect he must like us penrod we been doin a good deal for this horse well we got to keep it up penrod insisted rather pompously
long as i got charge o this horse he's goin to get good treatment what we better do now penrod penrod took on the outward signs of deep thought well there's plenty to do all right i got to think
sam made several suggestions which penrod maintaining his air of preoccupation dismissed with mere gestures
we can turn the hose on him across the manger no not yet penrod said it's too soon after his meal you ought to know that yourself
sam echoed dumfounded what you talkin about how can sawdust penrod said that's the way the horse we used to have used to have it we'll make this horse's bed in the other stall and then he can go in there and lay down whenever he wants to how we goin to do it
look sam there's the hole into the sawdust box all you got to do is walk in there with the shovel stick the shovel in the hole till it gets full of sawdust and then sprinkle it around on the empty stall all i got to do sam cried
what are you goin to do i'm goin to be right here penrod answered reassuringly he won't kick or anything
what makes you think he won't kick well i know he won't and besides you could hit him with the shovel if he tried to
i don't care where you are sam said earnestly
when he first came in you were goin to take the rake and i don't care if i was sam declared i was excited then well you can get excited now can't you his friend urged you can just as easy get he was interrupted by a shout from sam
sam pointed at the long gaunt head beyond the manger it was disappearing from view look sam shouted he's layin down well then said penrod i guess he's goin to take a nap if he wants to lay down without waitin for us to get the sawdust fixed for him
that's his lookout not ours on the contrary sam perceived a favourable opportunity for action i just as soon go and make his bed up while he's layin down he volunteered you climb up on the manger and watch him penrod
and i'll sneak in the other stall and fix it all up nice for him so's he can go in there any time when he wakes up and lay down again or anything and if he starts to get up you holler and i'll jump out over the other manger
accordingly penrod established himself in a position to observe the recumbent figure whitey's breathing was rather laboured but regular and as sam remarked he looked better even in his slumber
it is not to be doubted that although whitey was suffering from a light attack of colic his feelings were in the main those of contentment after trouble he was solaced after exposure he was sheltered after hunger and thirst he was fed and watered
he slept the noon whistles blew before sam's task was finished but by the time he departed for lunch there was made a bed of such quality
the friends parted each urging the other to be prompt in returning
even in his sleep this gave him an air of wistfulness thus being asleep in a nook behind the metal refuse can when the strange cat ventured to ascend the steps of the porch
and the backbone of a three pound whitefish lay at the foot of the refuse can
independent and masculine once long ago he had been a roly poly pepper and salt kitten he had a home in those days and a name gipsy which he abundantly justified he was precocious in dissipation
long before his adolescence his lack of domesticity was ominous and he had formed bad companionships meanwhile he grew so rangy and developed such length and power of leg and such traits of character
that the father of the little girl who owned him was almost convincing when he declared that the young cat was half broncho and half malay pirate though in the light of gipsy's later career this seems bitterly unfair to even the lowest orders of bronchos and malay pirates no
gipsy was not the pet for a little girl the rosy hearthstone and sheltered rug were too circumspect for him surrounded by the comforts of middle class respectability and profoundly oppressed even in his youth by the puritan ideals of the household
he sometimes experienced a sense of suffocation he wanted free air and he wanted free life he wanted the lights the lights and the music he abandoned the bourgeoise irrevocably he went forth in a may twilight carrying the evening beefsteak with him and joined the underworld
his extraordinary size his daring and his utter lack of sympathy soon made him the leader and at the same time the terror of all the loose lived cats in a wide neighbourhood he contracted no friendships and had no confidants
he seldom slept in the same place twice in succession and though he was wanted by the police he was not found in appearance he did not lack distinction of an ominous sort the slow rhythmic perfectly controlled mechanism of his tail
as he impressively walked abroad was incomparably sinister this stately and dangerous walk of his his long vibrant whiskers his scars his yellow eye so ice cold so fire hot haughty as the eye of satan
his soul was in that walk and in that eye it could be read
living on his wits and his velour asking no favours and granting no quarter intolerant proud sullen yet watchful and constantly planning purely a militarist believing in slaughter as in a religion
and confident that art science poetry and the good of the world were happily advanced thereby gipsy had become though technically not a wildcat undoubtedly the most untamed cat at large in the civilized world
such in brief was the terrifying creature that now elongated its neck and over the top step of the porch bent a calculating scrutiny upon the wistful and slumberous duke the scrutiny was searching but not prolonged gipsy muttered contemptuously to himself
oh sheol i'm not afraid o that and he approached the fishbone his padded feet making no noise upon the boards it was a desirable fishbone large with a considerable portion of the fish's tail still attached to it
it was about a foot from duke's nose and the little dog's dreams began to be troubled by his olfactory nerve this faithful sentinel on guard even while duke slept signalled that alarums and excursions by parties unknown were taking place
and suggested that attention might well be paid duke opened one drowsy eye what that eye beheld was monstrous here was a strange experience the horrific vision in the midst of things so accustomed
sunshine fell sweetly upon porch and backyard yonder was the familiar stable and from its interior came the busy hum of a carpenter shop established that morning by duke's young master in association with samuel williams and herman
here close by were the quiet refuse can and the wonted brooms and mops leaning against the latticed wall at the end of the porch and there by the foot of the steps was the stone slab of the cistern with the iron cover displaced and lying beside the round opening
where the carpenters had left it not half an hour ago after lowering a stick of wood into the water to season it all about duke were these usual and reassuring environs of his daily life and yet it was his fate to behold
right in the midst of them and in ghastly juxtaposition to his face a thing of nightmare and lunacy gipsy had seized the fishbone by the middle out from one side of his head and mingling with his whiskers projected the long spiked spine of the big fish
down from the other side of that ferocious head dangled the fish's tail and from above the remarkable effect thus produced shot the intolerable glare of two yellow eyes to the gaze of duke still blurred by slumber this monstrosity was all of one piece
the bone seemed a living part of it what he saw was like those interesting insect faces that the magnifying glass reveals to great m fabre it was impossible for duke to maintain the philosophic calm of m fabre however
there was no magnifying glass between him and this spined and spiky face indeed duke was not in a position to think the matter over quietly if he had been able to do that he would have said to himself
we have here an animal of most peculiar and unattractive appearance though upon examination it seems to be only a cat stealing a fishbone
i will leave this spot at once on the contrary duke was so electrified by his horrid awakening that he completely lost his presence of mind in the very instant of his first eye's opening the other eye and his mouth behaved similarly
the latter loosing upon the quiet air one shriek of mental agony before the little dog scrambled to his feet and gave further employment to his voice in a frenzy of profanity at the same time the subterranean diapason of a demoniac bass viol was heard
it rose to a wail and rose and rose again till it screamed like a small siren it was gipsy's war cry and at the sound of it duke became a frothing maniac he made a convulsive frontal attack upon the hobgoblin and the massacre began
never releasing the fishbone for an instant gipsy laid back his ears in a chilling way beginning to shrink into himself like a concertina but rising amidships so high that he appeared to be giving an imitation of that peaceful beast the dromedary
such was not his purpose however for having attained his greatest possible altitude
this semaphore arm remained rigid for a second threatening then it vibrated with inconceivable rapidity feinting but it was the treacherous left that did the work seemingly this left gave duke three lightning little pats upon the right ear
but the change in his voice indicated that these were no love taps he yelled help
gipsy possessed a vocabulary for cat swearing certainly second to none out of italy and probably equal to the best there while duke remembered and uttered things he had not thought of for years the hum of the carpenter shop ceased
and sam williams appeared in the stable doorway he stared insanely my gorry he shouted
with penrod and herman hurrying in his wake onward they sped and duke was encouraged by the sight and sound of these reenforcements to increase his own outrageous clamours and to press home his attack but he was ill advised
and duke's honest nose was but too conscious of what happened in consequence a lump of dirt struck the refuse can with violence and gipsy beheld the advance of overwhelming forces they rushed upon him from two directions cutting off the steps of the porch
undaunted the formidable cat raked duke's nose again somewhat more lingeringly and prepared to depart with his fishbone he had little fear for himself because he was inclined to think that unhampered he could whip anything on earth still
things seemed to be growing rather warm and he saw nothing to prevent his leaving and though he could laugh in the face of so unequal an antagonist as duke gipsy felt that he was never at his best or able to do himself full justice
unless he could perform that feline operation inaccurately known as spitting to his notion this was an absolute essential to combat but as all cats of the slightest pretensions to technique perfectly understand it can neither be well done nor produce the best effects
unless the mouth be opened to its utmost capacity so as to expose the beginnings of the alimentary canal down which at least that is the intention of the threat the opposing party will soon be passing and gipsy could not open his mouth without relinquishing his fishbone
therefore on small accounts he decided to leave the field to his enemies and to carry the fishbone elsewhere he took two giant leaps the first landed him upon the edge of the porch there without an instant's pause
he gathered his fur sheathed muscles concentrated himself into one big steel spring and launched himself superbly into space he made a stirring picture however brief
as he left the solid porch behind him and sailed upward on an ascending curve into the sunlit air his head was proudly up he was the incarnation of menacing power and of self confidence
it is possible that the whitefish's spinal column and flopping tail had interfered with his vision and in launching himself he may have mistaken the dark round opening of the cistern for its dark round cover in that case it was a leap calculated and executed with precision
rupe collins for several days after this penrod thought of growing up to be a monk
and a pair of margaret's outworn dancing slippers to a poor ungrateful old man sojourning in a shed up the alley and although mister robert williams after a very short interval began to leave his guitar on the front porch again exactly as if he thought nothing had happened
penrod with his younger vision of a father's mood remained coldly distant from the jones neighbourhood with his own family his manner was gentle proud and sad but not for long enough to frighten them the change came with mystifying abruptness at the end of the week
it was duke who brought it about duke could chase a much bigger dog out of the schofields yard and far down the street this might be thought to indicate unusual valour on the part of duke and cowardice on that of the bigger dogs whom he undoubtedly put to rout on the contrary
all such flights were founded in mere superstition for dogs are even more superstitious than boys and coloured people and the most firmly established of all dog superstitions is that any dog be he the smallest and feeblest in the world can whip any trespasser whatsoever
a rat terrier believes that on his home grounds he can whip an elephant it follows of course that a big dog away from his own home will run from a little dog in the little dog's neighbourhood otherwise the big dog must face a charge of inconsistency
and dogs are as consistent as they are superstitious a dog believes in war but he is convinced that there are times when it is moral to run and the thoughtful physiognomist seeing a big dog fleeing out of a little dog's yard
must observe that the expression of the big dog's face is more conscientious than alarmed it is the expression of a person performing a duty to himself penrod understood these matters perfectly
he knew that the gaunt brown hound duke chased up the alley had fled only out of deference to a custom yet penrod could not refrain from bragging of duke to the hound's owner a fat faced stranger of twelve or thirteen who had wandered into the neighbourhood
you better catch him and hold him till i get mine inside the yard again duke's chewed up some pretty bad bulldogs around here the fat faced boy gave penrod a fishy stare
it'll make him sick what will the stranger laughed raspingly and gazed up the alley where the hound having come to a halt now coolly sat down and with an expression of roguish benevolence patronizingly watched the tempered fury of duke
whose assaults and barkings were becoming perfunctory what'll make duke sick penrod demanded eatin dead bulldogs people leave around here this was not improvisation but formula
adapted from other occasions to the present encounter nevertheless it was new to penrod and he was so taken with it that resentment lost itself in admiration hastily committing the gem to memory for use upon a dog owning friend
he inquired in a sociable tone what's your dog's name dan you better call your ole pup cause dan eats live dogs dan's actions poorly supported his master's assertion for upon duke's ceasing to bark
dan rose and showed the most courteous interest in making the little old dog's acquaintance dan had a great deal of manner and it became plain that duke was impressed favourably in spite of former prejudice so that presently the two trotted amicably back to their masters
and sat down with the harmonious but indifferent air of having known each other intimately for years they were received without comment
it was penrod who spoke first what number you go to
may i ask which of our public schools you attend
me what number do i go to said the stranger contemptuously i don't go to no number in vacation
third returned the fat faced boy i got em all scared in that school what of innocently asked penrod to whom the third in a distant part of town was undiscovered country what of
you'd be lucky if you got out alive are the teachers mean the other boy frowned with bitter scorn teachers teachers don't order me around i can tell you they're mighty careful how they try to run over rupe collins
who's rupe collins who is he echoed the fat faced boy incredulously say ain't you got any sense what say wouldn't you be just as happy if you had some sense
ye es penrod's answer like the look he lifted to the impressive stranger was meek and placative
the other yelled with jeering laughter and mocked penrod's manner and voice rupe collins is the principal at your school i guess he laughed harshly again then suddenly showed truculence say bo
whyn't you learn enough to go in the house when it rains what's the matter of you anyhow well urged penrod timidly nobody ever told me who rupe collins is i got a right to think he's the principal haven't i the fat faced boy
shook his head disgustedly honest you make me sick penrod's expression became one of despair well who is he he cried who is he mocked the other
yes he said feebly drawing back my name's penrod schofield then i reckon your father and mother ain't got good sense said mister collins promptly this also being formula why cause if they had they'd of give you a good name
and the agreeable youth instantly rewarded himself for the wit with another yell of rasping laughter after which he pointed suddenly at penrod's right hand where'd you get that wart on your finger he demanded severely
which finger asked the mystified penrod extending his hand the middle one where there exclaimed rupe collins
the victim released looked grievously upon the still painful finger at this rupe's scornful expression altered to one of contrition well i declare he exclaimed remorsefully i didn't s'pose it would hurt
turn about's fair play so now you do that to me he extended the middle finger of his left hand
rupe's right hand operated upon the back of penrod's slender neck rupe's knee tortured the small of penrod's back ow penrod bent far forward involuntarily and went to his knees again lick dirt commanded rupe
forcing the captive's face to the sidewalk and the suffering penrod completed this ceremony
i mean i don't think i would i you better look out rupe moved closer and unexpectedly grasped the back of penrod's neck again say i would run home yellin mom muh
there said rupe giving the helpless nape a final squeeze that's the way we do up at the third penrod rubbed his neck and asked meekly can you do that to any boy up at the third
see here now said rupe in the tone of one goaded beyond all endurance you say if i can you better say it quick or i knew you could penrod interposed hastily with the pathetic semblance of a laugh i only said that in fun
in fun repeated rupe stormily
i knew you could all the time i expect i could do it to some of the boys up at the third myself couldn't i no you couldn't well there must be some boy up there that i could
i expect not then said penrod quickly you better expect not didn't i tell you once you'd never get back alive if you ever tried to come up around the third you want me to show you how we do up there bo
he began a slow and deadly advance whereupon penrod timidly offered a diversion say rupe i got a box of rats in our stable under a glass cover
all right said the fat faced boy slightly mollified we'll let dan kill em no sir i'm goin to keep em they're kind of pets i've had em all summer i got names for em and
did you hear me say we'll let dan kill em yes but i won't what won't you rupe became sinister immediately it seems to me you're gettin pretty fresh around here well i don't want
mister collins once more brought into play the dreadful eye to eye scowl as practised up at the third and sometimes also by young leading men upon the stage frowning appallingly and thrusting forward his underlip he placed his nose almost in contact with the nose of penrod
whose eyes naturally became crossed dan kills the rats see hissed the fat faced boy maintaining the horrible juxtaposition well all right said penrod swallowing i don't want em much
dedication to sir charles gavan duffy my dear sir charles i take leave to dedicate this work to you not merely because your nineteen years of political and literary life in australia render it very fitting
and having to do with the history of past colonial days should bear your name upon its dedicatory page but because the publication of my book is due to your advice and encouragement the convict of fiction has been hitherto shown only at the beginning or at the end of his career
charles reade has drawn the interior of a house of correction in england and victor hugo has shown how a french convict fares after the fulfilment of his sentence but no writer so far as i am aware
has attempted to depict the dismal condition of a felon during his term of transportation i have endeavoured in his natural life to set forth the working and the results of an english system of transportation carefully considered and carried out under official supervision
and to illustrate in the manner best calculated as i think to attract general attention the inexpediency of again allowing offenders against the law to be herded together in places remote from the wholesome influence of public opinion
and to be submitted to a discipline which must necessarily depend for its just administration upon the personal character and temper of their gaolers your critical faculty will doubtless find in the construction and artistic working of this book many faults
i do not think however that you will discover any exaggerations some of the events narrated are doubtless tragic and terrible but i hold it needful to my purpose to record them for they are events which have actually occurred
and which if the blunders which produced them be repeated must infallibly occur again it is true that the british government have ceased to deport the criminals of england but the method of punishment of which that deportation was a part is still in existence
and within the last year france has established at new caledonia a penal settlement which will in the natural course of things repeat in its annals the history of macquarie harbour and of norfolk island with this brief preface i beg you to accept this work
i would that its merits were equal either to your kindness or to my regard
one was an old man whose white hair and wrinkled face gave token that he was at least sixty years of age he stood erect with his back to the wall which separates the garden from the heath in the attitude of one surprised into sudden passion
a lady of middle age the face of the young man wore an expression of horror stricken astonishment and the slight frame of the grey haired woman was convulsed with sobs
so madam said sir richard in the high strung accents which in crises of great mental agony are common to the most self restrained of us you have been for twenty years a living lie
for twenty years in company with a scoundrel whose name is a byword for all that is profligate and base you have laughed at me for a credulous and hood winked fool and now because i dared to raise my hand to that reckless boy
you confess your shame and glory in the confession mother dear mother cried the young man in a paroxysm of grief say that you did not mean those words you said them but in anger see i am calm now and he may strike me if he will
lady devine shuddered creeping close as though to hide herself in the broad bosom of her son the old man continued i married you ellinor wade for your beauty you married me for my fortune i was a plebeian a ship's carpenter you were well born
your father was a man of fashion a gambler the friend of rakes and prodigals i was rich i had been knighted i was in favour at court he wanted money and he sold you i paid the price he asked but there was nothing of your cousin my lord bellasis and wotton in the bond
look ye he cried in sudden fury i am not to be fooled so easily your family are proud colonel wade has other daughters your lover my lord bellasis even now thinks to retrieve his broken fortunes by marriage you have confessed your shame
to morrow your father your sisters all the world shall know the story you have told me by heaven sir you will not do this burst out the young man silence bastard cried sir richard
ay bite your lips the word is of your precious mother's making lady devine slipped through her son's arms and fell on her knees at her husband's feet do not do this richard i have been faithful to you for two and twenty years
i have borne all the slights and insults you have heaped upon me the shameful secret of my early love broke from me when in your rage you threatened him let me go away kill me but do not shame me
he laughed and in that laugh his fury seemed to congeal into a cold and cruel hate you would preserve your good name then you would conceal this disgrace from the world you shall have your wish upon one condition
what is it sir she asked rising but trembling with terror as she stood with drooping arms and widely opened eyes the old man looked at her for an instant and then said slowly that this impostor who so long has falsely borne my name
has wrongfully squandered my money and unlawfully eaten my bread shall pack that he abandon for ever the name he has usurped keep himself from my sight and never set foot again in house of mine
you would not part me from my only son cried the wretched woman take him with you to his father then richard devine gently loosed the arms that again clung around his neck
kissed the pale face and turned his own scarcely less pale towards the old man i owe you no duty he said you have always hated and reviled me when by your violence you drove me from your house you set spies to watch me in the life i had chosen
i have nothing in common with you i have long felt it now when i learn for the first time whose son i really am i rejoice to think that i have less to thank you for than i once believed i accept the terms you offer i will go nay mother think of your good name
sir richard devine laughed again i am glad to see you are so well disposed listen now to night i send for quaid to alter my will my sister's son maurice frere shall be my heir in your stead i give you nothing
you leave this house in an hour you change your name you never by word or deed make claim on me or mine no matter what strait or poverty you plead if even your life should hang upon the issue the instant i hear that there exists on earth one who calls himself richard devine
strode down the garden with the vigour that anger lends and took the road to london richard cried the poor mother forgive me my son i have ruined you
mother dear mother do not weep he said
who most need forgiveness let me share your burden that i may lighten it he is just it is fitting that i go i can earn a name a name that i need not blush to bear nor you to hear i am strong i can work the world is wide
farewell my own mother not yet not yet ah see he has taken the belsize road oh richard pray heaven they may not meet tush they will not meet you are pale you faint
a terror of i know not what coming evil overpowers me i tremble for the future
richard forgive me pray for me hush dearest come let me lead you in i will write i will send you news of me once at least ere i depart so you are calmer mother
sir richard devine knight shipbuilder naval contractor and millionaire was the son of a harwich boat carpenter early left an orphan with a sister to support he soon reduced his sole aim in life to the accumulation of money
in the harwich boat shed nearly fifty years before he had contracted in defiance of prophesied failure to build the hastings sloop of war for his majesty king george the third's lords of the admiralty
this contract was the thin end of that wedge which eventually split the mighty oak block of government patronage into three deckers and ships of the line
which exfoliated and ramified into huge dockyards at plymouth portsmouth and sheerness and bore as its buds and flowers countless barrels of measly pork and maggoty biscuit
he had cringed and crawled and fluttered and blustered had licked the dust off great men's shoes and danced attendance in great men's ante chambers nothing was too low nothing too high for him
he married his sister to a wealthy bristol merchant one anthony frere
under careful supervision and a just rule he might have been guided to good but left to his own devices outside and galled by the iron yoke of parental discipline at home he became reckless and prodigal
tried to restrain him but the head strong boy though owning for his mother that strong love which is often a part of such violent natures proved intractable and after three years of parental feud he went off to the continent
to pursue there the same reckless life which in london had offended sir richard sir richard upon this sent for maurice frere his sister's son the abolition of the slave trade had ruined the bristol house of frere
and bought for him a commission in a marching regiment hinting darkly of special favours to come his open preference for his nephew had galled to the quick his sensitive wife who contrasted with some heart pangs the gallant prodigality of her father
with the niggardly economy of her husband
and long descended wotton wade there had long been little love
and had heard that over claret and cards lord bellasis and his friends had often lamented the hard fortune which gave the beauty ellinor to so sordid a bridegroom
was a product of his time of good family his ancestor armigell was reputed to have landed in america before gilbert or raleigh he had inherited his manor of bellasis or belsize
in the delicate matter of mendoza
it was he who negotiated with mary stuart for elizabeth it was he who wormed out of cobham the evidence against the great raleigh he became rich and his sister the widow of henry de kirkhaven lord of hemfleet marrying into the family of the wottons
the wealth of the house was further increased by the union of her daughter sybil with marmaduke wade marmaduke wade was a lord of the admiralty and a patron of pepys who in his diary july seventeenth sixteen sixty eight speaks of visiting him at belsize
he was raised to the peerage in sixteen sixty seven by the title of baron bellasis and wotton and married for his second wife anne daughter of philip stanhope second earl of chesterfield
allied to this powerful house the family tree of wotton wade grew and flourished in seventeen eighty four philip third baron married the celebrated beauty miss povey
the fourth lord bellasis combined the daring of armigell the adventurer
no sooner had he become master of his fortune than he took to dice drink and debauchery with all the extravagance of the last century he was foremost in every riot most notorious of all the notorious bloods of the day
horace walpole in one of his letters to selwyn in seventeen eighty five mentions a fact which may stand for a page of narrative young wade he says
the duc de chartres and they say the fool is not yet nineteen from a pigeon armigell wade became a hawk and at thirty years of age having lost together with his estates all chance of winning the one woman who might have saved him
when he was told by thin lipped cool colonel wade that the rich shipbuilder sir richard devine
he swore with fierce knitting of his black brows that no law of man nor heaven should further restrain him in his selfish prodigality you have sold your daughter and ruined me he said look to the consequences
but upon the birth of the son who is the hero of this history he affected a quarrel with the city knight
who neither diced nor drank like a gentleman departed more desperately at war with fortune than ever for his old haunts
battered in health and ruined in pocket but who by dint of stays hair dye and courage yet faced the world with undaunted front and dined as gaily in bailiff haunted belsize as he had dined at carlton house
of the possessions of the house of wotton wade this old manor timberless and bare was all that remained and its master rarely visited it
he had avowed his intention of striking across hampstead to belsize i have an appointment at the fir trees on the heath he said with a woman asked mister crofton not at all with a parson a parson you stare
then we must push on for it grows late thanks my dear sir for the we but i must go alone said lord bellasis dryly to morrow you can settle with me for the sitting of last week hark the clock is striking nine good night
at half past nine richard devine quitted his mother's house to begin the new life he had chosen and so
the father and son approached each other as the young man gained the middle of the path which led to the heath he met sir richard returning from the village
and he would have slunk past in the gloom
to his astonishment however sir richard passed swiftly on with body bent forward as one in the act of falling and with eyes unconscious of surroundings staring straight into the distance half terrified at this strange appearance richard hurried onward
and at a turn of the path stumbled upon something which horribly accounted for the curious action of the old man a dead body lay upon its face in the heather beside it was a heavy riding whip stained at the handle with blood and an open pocket book
richard took up the book and read in gold letters on the cover lord bellasis the unhappy young man knelt down beside the body and raised it the skull had been fractured by a blow but it seemed that life yet lingered
overcome with horror for he could not doubt but that his mother's worst fears had been realized richard knelt there holding his murdered father in his arms waiting until the murderer whose name he bore should have placed himself beyond pursuit
it seemed an hour to his excited fancy before he saw a light pass along the front of the house he had quitted and knew that sir richard had safely reached his chamber with some bewildered intention of summoning aid he left the body and made towards the town
as he stepped out on the path he heard voices and presently some dozen men one of whom held a horse burst out upon him and with sudden fury seized and flung him to the ground
at first the young man so rudely assailed did not comprehend his own danger his mind bent upon one hideous explanation of the crime did not see another obvious one which had already occurred to the mind of the landlord of the three spaniards
god defend me cried mister mogford scanning by the pale light of the rising moon the features of the murdered man but it is lord bellasis oh you bloody villain jem bring him along here p'r'aps his lordship can recognize him
it was not i cried richard devine for god's sake my lord say then he stopped abruptly and being forced on his knees by his captors remained staring at the dying man in sudden and ghastly fear
those men in whom emotion has the effect of quickening circulation of the blood reason rapidly in moments of danger and in the terrible instant when his eyes met those of lord bellasis richard devine had summed up the chances of his future fortune
and realized to the full his personal peril the runaway horse had given the alarm the drinkers at the spaniards inn had started to search the heath and had discovered a fellow in rough costume whose person was unknown to them hastily quitting a spot where
i am the son of sir richard devine come with me to yonder house and i will prove to you that i have but just quitted it to place his innocence beyond immediate question that course of action was impossible now
either to sacrifice himself or to purchase a chance of safety at the price of his mother's dishonour and the death of the man whom his mother had deceived if the outcast son were brought a prisoner to north end house sir richard now doubly oppressed of fate
the man to whose kindness he owed education and former fortune he knelt stupefied unable to speak or move come cried mogford again say my lord is this the villain
if you didn't murder him you robbed him growled mogford and you shall sleep at bow street to night tom run on to meet the patrol
what's your name eh he repeated the rough question twice before his prisoner answered
two other men waited as eagerly one mister lionel crofton
chapter one the prison ship in the breathless stillness of a tropical afternoon when the air was hot and heavy and the sky brazen and cloudless the shadow of the malabar lay solitary on the surface of the glittering sea
the sun who rose on the left hand every morning a blazing ball to move slowly through the unbearable blue until he sank fiery red in mingling glories of sky and ocean on the right hand
and then holding by a stay he turned about and looked down into the waist of the ship save for the man at the wheel and the guard at the quarter railing he was alone on the deck a few birds flew round about the vessel and seemed to pass under her stern windows
only to appear again at her bows a lazy albatross with the white water flashing from his wings rose with a dabbling sound to leeward and in the place where he had been glided the hideous fin of a silently swimming shark
and the brass plate of the compass case sparkled in the sun like a jewel
her idle sails flapped against her masts with a regularly recurring noise and her bowsprit would seem to rise higher with the water's swell to dip again with a jerk that made each rope tremble and tauten
but in the waist a curious sight presented itself it was as though one had built a cattle pen there at the foot of the foremast and at the quarter deck a strong barricade loop holed and furnished with doors for ingress and egress
outside this cattle pen an armed sentry stood on guard inside standing sitting or walking monotonously within range of the shining barrels in the arm chest on the poop were some sixty men and boys dressed in uniform grey
the men and boys were prisoners of the crown and the cattle pen was their exercise ground their prison was down the main hatchway on the tween decks and the barricade continued down made its side walls
it was the fag end of the two hours exercise graciously permitted each afternoon by his majesty king george the fourth to prisoners of the crown and the prisoners of the crown were enjoying themselves it was not perhaps so pleasant as under the awning on the poop deck
his companions sitting on the combings of the main hatch or crouched in careless fashion on the shady side of the barricade were laughing and talking with blasphemous and obscene merriment hideous to contemplate
but he with cap pulled over his brows and hands thrust into the pockets of his coarse grey garments held aloof from their dismal joviality the sun poured his hottest rays on his head unheeded
and though every cranny and seam in the deck sweltered hot pitch under the fierce heat the man stood there motionless and morose staring at the sleepy sea
he had stood thus in one place or another ever since the groaning vessel had escaped from the rollers of the bay of biscay and the miserable hundred and eighty creatures among whom he was classed had been freed from their irons and allowed to sniff fresh air twice a day
the low browed coarse featured ruffians grouped about the deck cast many a leer of contempt at the solitary figure but their remarks were confined to gestures only there are degrees in crime and rufus dawes the convicted felon
he had been tried for the robbery and murder of lord bellasis the friendless vagabond's lame story of finding on the heath a dying man would not have availed him but for the curious fact sworn to by the landlord of the spaniards inn
that the murdered nobleman had shaken his head when asked if the prisoner was his assassin the vagabond was acquitted of the murder but condemned to death for the robbery and london who took some interest in the trial
considered him fortunate when his sentence was commuted to transportation for life it was customary on board these floating prisons to keep each man's crime a secret from his fellows
so that if he chose and the caprice of his gaolers allowed him he could lead a new life in his adopted home without being taunted with his former misdeeds but like other excellent devices the expedient was only a nominal one
and few out of the doomed hundred and eighty were ignorant of the offence which their companions had committed the more guilty boasted of their superiority in vice the petty criminals swore that their guilt was blacker than it appeared moreover
a deed so bloodthirsty and a respite so unexpected had invested the name of rufus dawes with a grim distinction which his superior mental abilities no less than his haughty temper and powerful frame combined to support
a young man of two and twenty owning to no friends and existing among them but by the fact of his criminality he was respected and admired
cringed and submitted when they met him face to face for in a convict ship the greatest villain is the greatest hero and the only nobility acknowledged by that hideous commonwealth is that order of the halter which is conferred by the hand of the hangman
the young man on the poop caught sight of the tall figure leaning against the bulwarks and it gave him an excuse to break the monotony of his employment
rufus dawes was not in the gangway was in fact a good two feet from it but at the sound of lieutenant frere's voice he started and went obediently towards the hatchway touch your hat you dog cries frere coming to the quarter railing
insolent blackguards and then the noise of the sentry on the quarter deck below him grounding arms turned the current of his thoughts a thin tall soldier like man with a cold blue eye and prim features came out of the cuddy below
handing out a fair haired affected mincing lady of middle age captain vickers of mister frere's regiment ordered for service in van diemen's land was bringing his lady on deck to get an appetite for dinner
missus vickers was forty two she owned to thirty three and had been a garrison belle for eleven weary years before she married prim john vickers the marriage was not a happy one vickers found his wife extravagant vain and snappish
and she found him harsh disenchanted and commonplace a daughter born two years after their marriage was the only link that bound the ill assorted pair vickers idolized little sylvia
despite missus vickers's reiterated objections on the score of educational difficulties he could educate her himself if need be he said and she should not stay at home so missus vickers after a hard struggle gave up the point and her dreams of bath together
and followed her husband with the best grace she could muster when fairly out to sea she seemed reconciled to her fate and employed the intervals between scolding her daughter and her maid in fascinating the boorish young lieutenant maurice frere
fascination was an integral portion of julia vickers's nature admiration was all she lived for and even in a convict ship with her husband at her elbow she must flirt or perish of mental inanition there was no harm in the creature
thank you mister frere these horrid ladders
hot yes dear me most oppressive john the camp stool pray mister frere oh thank you sylvia sylvia john have you my smelling salts still a calm i suppose
these dreadful calms this semi fashionable slip slop within twenty yards of the wild beasts den on the other side of the barricade sounded strange but mister frere thought nothing of it
familiarity destroys terror and the incurable flirt fluttered her muslins and played off her second rate graces under the noses of the grinning convicts with as much complacency as if she had been in a chatham ball room
indeed if there had been nobody else near it is not unlikely that she would have disdainfully fascinated the tween decks and made eyes at the most presentable of the convicts there vickers with a bow to frere saw his wife up the ladder and then turned for his daughter
she was a delicate looking child of six years old with blue eyes and bright hair though indulged by her father and spoiled by her mother the natural sweetness of her disposition saved her from being disagreeable
and the effects of her education as yet only showed themselves in a thousand imperious prettinesses which made her the darling of the ship little miss sylvia was privileged to go anywhere and do anything and even convictism shut its foul mouth in her presence
she ran hither and thither asked questions invented answers laughed sang gambolled peered into the compass case felt in the pockets of the man at the helm put her tiny hand into the big palm of the officer of the watch
even ran down to the quarter deck and pulled the coat tails of the sentry on duty at last tired of running about she took a little striped leather ball from the bosom of her frock and calling to her father threw it up to him as he stood on the poop
he returned it and shouting with laughter clapping her hands between each throw the child kept up the game the convicts whose slice of fresh air was nearly eaten turned with eagerness to watch this new source of amusement
innocent laughter and childish prattle were strange to them some smiled and nodded with interest in the varying fortunes of the game one young lad could hardly restrain himself from applauding it was as though out of the sultry heat which brooded over the ship
a cool breeze had suddenly arisen in the midst of this mirth the officer of the watch glancing round the fast crimsoning horizon paused abruptly and shading his eyes with his hand looked out intently to the westward
frere who found missus vickers's conversation a little tiresome and had been glancing from time to time at the companion as though in expectation of someone appearing noticed the action what is it mister best
then missus vickers must of course look also and was prettily affected about the focus of the glass applying herself to that instrument with much girlish giggling and finally declaring after shutting one eye with her fair hand
that positively she could see nothing but sky and believed that wicked mister frere was doing it on purpose by and by captain blunt appeared and taking the glass from his officer looked through it long and carefully
then the mizentop was appealed to and declared that he could see nothing and at last the sun went down with a jerk as though it had slipped through a slit in the sea and the black spot swallowed up in the gathering haze was seen no more
as the sun sank the relief guard came up the after hatchway and the relieved guard prepared to superintend the descent of the convicts at this moment sylvia missed her ball which taking advantage of a sudden lurch of the vessel
hopped over the barricade and rolled to the feet of rufus dawes who was still leaning apparently lost in thought against the side the bright spot of colour rolling across the white deck caught his eye stooping mechanically he picked up the ball and stepped forward to return it
the door of the barricade was open and the sentry a young soldier occupied in staring at the relief guard did not notice the prisoner pass through it
in another instant he was on the sacred quarter deck heated with the game her cheeks aglow her eyes sparkling her golden hair afloat sylvia had turned to leap after her plaything but even as she turned from under the shadow of the cuddy glided a rounded white arm
and a shapely hand caught the child by the sash and drew her back the next moment the young man in grey had placed the toy in her hand maurice frere descending the poop ladder had not witnessed this little incident
on reaching the deck he saw only the unexplained presence of the convict uniform thank you said a voice as rufus dawes stooped before the pouting sylvia the convict raised his eyes and saw a young girl of eighteen or nineteen years of age tall and well developed
her scarlet lips showed her white even teeth he knew her at once she was sarah purfoy missus vickers's maid but he never had been so close to her before and it seemed to him that he was in the presence of some strange tropical flower
which exhaled a heavy and intoxicating perfume for an instant the two looked at each other and then rufus dawes was seized from behind by his collar and flung with a shock upon the deck leaping to his feet his first impulse was to rush upon his assailant
but he saw the ready bayonet of the sentry gleam and he checked himself with an effort for his assailant was mister maurice frere what the devil do you do here asked the gentleman with an oath you lazy skulking hound what brings you here
if i catch you putting your foot on the quarter deck again i'll give you a week in irons rufus dawes pale with rage and mortification opened his mouth to justify himself but he allowed the words to die on his lips what was the use
go down below and remember what i've told you cried frere and comprehending at once what had occurred he made a mental minute of the name of the defaulting sentry the convict wiping the blood from his face turned on his heel without a word
frere bit his thick lips with mortification as he followed the girl into the cuddy sarah purfoy however taking the astonished sylvia by the hand
bartolommeo scala secretary of the florentine republic on whom tito melema had been thus led to anchor his hopes lived in a handsome palace close to the porta pinti now known as the casa gherardesca
his arms an azure ladder transverse on a golden field with the motto gradatim placed over the entrance told all comers that the miller's son held his ascent to honours by his own efforts
the secretary was a vain and pompous man but he was also an honest one he was sincerely convinced of his own merit and could see no reason for feigning the topmost round of his azure ladder had been reached by this time he had held his secretaryship these twenty years
had long since made his orations on the ringhiera
while marzocco the republican lion wore his gold crown on the occasion and all the people cried viva messer bartolommeo had been on an embassy to rome and had there been made titular senator apostolical secretary knight of the golden spur
and had eight years ago been gonfaloniere last goal of the florentine citizen's ambition meantime he had got richer and richer and more and more gouty after the manner of successful mortality and the knight of the golden spur had often to sit with helpless cushioned heel
overlooking the spacious gardens and lawn at the back of his palace he was in this position on the day when he had granted the desired interview to tito melema
the may afternoon sun was on the flowers and the grass beyond the pleasant shade of the loggia the too stately silk lucco was cast aside and the light loose mantle was thrown over his tunic his beautiful daughter alessandra and her husband the greek soldier poet marullo
were seated on one side of him on the other two friends not oppressively illustrious and therefore the better listeners yet to say nothing of the gout messer bartolommeo's felicity was far from perfect it was embittered by the contents of certain papers that lay before him
consisting chiefly of a correspondence between himself and politian it was a human foible at that period incredible as it may seem to recite quarrels and favour scholarly visitors with the communication of an entire and lengthy correspondence
and this was neither the first nor the second time that scala had asked the candid opinion of his friends as to the balance of right and wrong in some half score latin letters between himself and politian all springing out of certain epigrams written in the most playful tone in the world
it was the story of a very typical and pretty quarrel in which we are interested because it supplied precisely that thistle of hatred necessary according to nello as a stimulus to the sluggish paces of the cautious steed friendship politian
kept a very sharp and learned tooth in readiness against the too prosperous and presumptuous secretary who had declined the greatest scholar of the age for a son in law scala was a meritorious public servant and moreover a lucky man naturally exasperating to an offended scholar
but then o beautiful balance of things he had an itch for authorship and was a bad writer one of those excellent people who sitting in gouty slippers penned poetical trifles entirely for their own amusement without any view to an audience
and consequently sent them to their friends in letters which were the literary periodicals of the fifteenth century
friends like ficino and landino
who found his latin prose style elegant and masculine and the terrible joseph scaliger who was to pronounce him totally ignorant of latinity was at a comfortable distance in the next century
but when was the fatal coquetry inherent in superfluous authorship ever quite contented with the ready praise of friends that critical supercilious politian a fellow browser who was far from amiable
must be made aware that the solid secretary showed in his leisure hours a pleasant fertility in verses which indicated pretty clearly how much he might do in that way if he were not a man of affairs ineffable moment when the man you secretly hate sends you a latin epigram with a false gender
attempts at poetic figures which are manifest solecisms that moment had come to politian the secretary had put forth his soft head from the official shell and the terrible lurking crab was down upon him politian had used the freedom of a friend
corrected the mistake of scala in making the culex an insect too well known on the banks of the arno of the inferior or feminine gender scala replied by a bad joke in suitable latin verses referring to politian's unsuccessful suit better and better
politian found the verses very pretty and highly facetious the more was the pity that they were seriously incorrect and inasmuch as scala had alleged that he had written them in imitation of a greek epigram politian being on such friendly terms
would enclose a greek epigram of his own on the same interesting insect not we may presume out of any wish to humble scala but rather to instruct him said epigram containing a lively conceit about venus cupid and the culex of a kind much tasted at that period
founded partly on the zoological fact that the gnat like venus was born from the waters scala in reply begged to say that his verses were never intended for a scholar with such delicate olfactories as politian
nearest of all living men to the perfection of the ancients and of a taste so fastidious that sturgeon itself must seem insipid to him defended his own verses nevertheless though indeed they were written hastily without correction
and intended as an agreeable distraction during the summer heat to himself and such friends as were satisfied with mediocrity he scala not being like some other people who courted publicity through the booksellers for the rest
he had barely enough greek to make out the sense of the epigram so graciously sent him to say nothing of tasting its elegances but the epigram was politian's what more need be said still
on account of its origin from the waters was in many ways ticklish on the one hand venus might be offended
that cold and damp origin seemed doubtful to scala in the case of a creature so fond of warmth a fish were perhaps the better comparison or when the power of flying was in question an eagle
or indeed when the darkness was taken into consideration a bat or an owl were a less obscure and more apposite parallel etcetera etcetera here was a great opportunity for politian he was not aware he wrote
that when he had scala's verses placed before him there was any question of sturgeon but rather of frogs and gudgeons made short work with scala's defence of his own latin and mangled him terribly on the score of the stupid criticisms he had ventured on the greek epigram kindly forwarded to him as a model
wretched cavils indeed for as to the damp origin of the gnat there was the authority of virgil himself who had called it the alumnus of the waters and as to what his dear dull friend had to say about the fish the eagle and the rest
he was ashamed however to dwell on such trivialities and thus to swell a gnat into an elephant but for his own part would only add that he had nothing deceitful or double about him neither was he to be caught when present by the false blandishments of those who slandered him in his absence
agreeing rather with a homeric sentiment on that head which furnished a greek quotation to serve as powder to his bullet the quarrel could not end there the logic could hardly get worse but the secretary got more pompously self asserting and the scholarly poet's temper more and more venomous
politian had been generously willing to hold up a mirror by which the too inflated secretary beholding his own likeness might be induced to cease setting up his ignorant defences of bad latin against ancient authorities whom the consent of centuries had placed beyond question
unless indeed he had designed to sink in literature in proportion as he rose in honours that by a sort of compensation men of letters might feel themselves his equals in return politian was begged to examine scala's writings
nowhere would he find a more devout admiration of antiquity the secretary was ashamed of the age in which he lived and blushed for it some indeed there were who wanted to have their own works praised and exalted to a level with the divine monuments of antiquity but he scala
could not oblige them and as to the honours which were offensive to the envious they had been well earned witness his whole life since he came in penury to florence the elegant scholar in reply
was not surprised that scala found the age distasteful to him since he himself was so distasteful to the age nay it was with perfect accuracy that he the elegant scholar had called scala a branny monster
it was not without reference to tito's appointed visit that the papers containing this correspondence were brought out to day here was a new greek scholar whose accomplishments were to be tested and on nothing did scala more desire a dispassionate opinion from persons of superior knowledge
than on that greek epigram of politian's after sufficient introductory talk concerning tito's travels after a survey and discussion of the gems and an easy passage from the mention of the lamented lorenzo's eagerness in collecting such specimens of ancient art
to the subject of classical tastes and studies in general and their present condition in florence it was inevitable to mention politian a man of eminent ability indeed but a little too arrogant assuming to be a hercules whose office it was to destroy all the literary monstrosities of the age
and writing letters to his elders without signing them as if they were miraculous revelations that could only have one source and after all were not his own criticisms often questionable and his tastes perverse
but while he was boasting of his freedom from servile imitation did he not fall into the other extreme running after strange words and affected phrases even in his much belauded miscellanea was every point tenable
and tito who had just been looking into the miscellanea found so much to say that was agreeable to the secretary
that he showed himself quite worthy to be made a judge in the notable correspondence concerning the culex here was the greek epigram which politian had doubtless thought the finest in the world though he had pretended to believe that the transmarini the greeks themselves would make light of it
had he not been unintentionally speaking the truth in his false modesty tito was ready and scarified the epigram to scala's content o wise young judge he could doubtless appreciate satire even in the vulgar tongue and scala
who excellent man not seeking publicity through the booksellers was never unprovided with hasty uncorrected trifles as a sort of sherbet for a visitor on a hot day or if the weather were cold why then as a cordial
had a few little matters in the shape of sonnets turning on well known foibles of politian's which he would not like to go any farther but which would perhaps amuse the company enough
on the fourteenth of april romola was once more within the walls of florence unable to rest at pistoja where contradictory reports reached her about the trial by fire she had gone on to prato and was beginning to think that she should be drawn on to florence in spite of dread
when she encountered that monk of san spirito who had been her godfather's confessor from him she learned the full story of savonarola's arrest and of her husband's death
and he could tell her what was generally known in florence that tito had escaped from an assaulting mob by leaping into the arno but had been murdered on the bank by an old man who had long had an enmity against him but romola understood the catastrophe as no one else did
of savonarola the monk told her in that tone of unfavourable prejudice which was usual in the black brethren frati neri towards the brother who showed white under his black that he had confessed himself a deceiver of the people romola paused no longer
that evening she was in florence sitting in agitated silence under the exclamations of joy and wailing mingled with exuberant narrative which were poured into her ears by monna brigida who had backslided into false hair in romola's absence
but now drew it off again and declared she would not mind being grey if her dear child would stay with her romola was too deeply moved by the main events which she had known before coming to florence to be wrought upon by the doubtful gossiping details added in brigida's narrative
the tragedy of her husband's death of fra girolamo's confession of duplicity under the coercion of torture left her hardly any power of apprehending minor circumstances
to try and see savonarola and to learn what had become of tessa and the children tell me cousin she said abruptly when monna brigida's tongue had run quite away from troubles into projects of romola's living with her
has anything been seen or said since tito's death of a young woman with two little children brigida started rounded her eyes and lifted up her hands cristo no what was he so bad as that my poor child
ah then that was why you went away and left me word only that you went of your own free will well well if i'd known that i shouldn't have thought you so strange and flighty for i did say to myself though i didn't tell anybody else
bardo was fierce you can't deny it but if you had only told me the truth that there was a young hussey and children i should have understood it all anything seen or said of her no and the less the better they say enough of ill about him without that
but since that was the reason you went no dear cousin said romola interrupting her earnestly pray do not talk so i wish above all things to find that young woman and her children and to take care of them they are quite helpless say nothing against it
that is the thing i shall do first of all well said monna brigida shrugging her shoulders and lowering her voice with an air of puzzled discomfiture if that's being a piagnone i've been taking peas for paternosters
why fra girolamo said as good as that widows ought not to marry again step in at the door and it's a sin and a shame it seems but come down the chimney and you're welcome two children santiddio cousin
the poor thing has done no conscious wrong she is ignorant of everything i will tell you but not now early the next morning romola's steps were directed to the house beyond san ambrogio where she had once found tessa
but it was as she had feared tessa was gone romola conjectured that tito had sent her away beforehand to some spot where he had intended to join her for she did not believe that he would willingly part with those children it was a painful conjecture because
if tessa were out of florence there was hardly a chance of finding her and romola pictured the childish creature waiting and waiting at some wayside spot in wondering helpless misery those who lived near could tell her nothing except that old deaf lisa
had gone away a week ago with her goods but no one knew where tessa had gone romola saw no further active search open to her for she had no knowledge that could serve as a starting point for inquiry
and not only her innate reserve but a more noble sensitiveness made her shrink from assuming an attitude of generosity in the eyes of others by publishing tessa's relation to tito along with her own desire to find her many days passed in anxious inaction
even under strong solicitation from other thoughts romola found her heart palpitating if she caught sight of a pair of round brown legs or of a short woman in the contadina dress she never for a moment told herself that it was heroism or exalted charity in her to seek these beings
she needed something that she was bound specially to care for she yearned to clasp the children and to make them love her this at least would be some sweet result for others as well as herself from all her past sorrow
it appeared there was much property of tito's to which she had a claim but she distrusted the cleanness of that money and she had determined to make it all over to the state except so much as was equal to the price of her father's library this would be enough for the modest support of tessa and the children
but monna brigida threw such planning into the background by clamorously insisting that romola must live with her and never forsake her till she had seen her safe in paradise else why had she persuaded her to turn piagnone and if romola wanted to rear other people's children
she monna brigida must rear them too only they must be found first romola felt the full force of that innuendo but strong feeling unsatisfied is never without its superstition either of hope or despair romola's was the superstition of hope
somehow she was to find that mother and the children and at last another direction for active inquiry suggested itself she learned that tito had provided horses and mules to await him in san gallo he was therefore going to leave florence by the gate of san gallo
and she determined though without much confidence in the issue to try and ascertain from the gatekeepers if they had observed any one corresponding to the description of tessa with her children to have passed the gates before the morning of the ninth of april
walking along the via san gallo and looking watchfully about her through her long widow's veil lest she should miss any object that might aid her she descried bratti chaffering with a customer that roaming man she thought might aid her she would not mind talking of tessa to him
but as she put aside her veil and crossed the street towards him she saw something hanging from the corner of his basket which made her heart leap with a much stronger hope bratti my friend she said abruptly where did you get that necklace your servant madonna
said bratti looking round at her very deliberately his mind not being subject to surprise it's a necklace worth money but i shall get little by it for my heart's too tender for a trader's i have promised to keep it in pledge pray tell me where you got it
from a little woman named tessa is it not true ah if you know her said bratti and would redeem it of me at a small profit and give it her again you'd be doing a charity for she cried at parting with it you'd have thought she was running into a brook
it's a small profit i'll charge you you shall have it for a florin for i don't like to be hard hearted where is she said romola giving him the money and unclasping the necklace from the basket in joyful agitation outside the gate there at the other end of the borgo
at old sibilla manetti's anybody will tell you which is the house romola went along with winged feet blessing that incident of the carnival which had made her learn by heart the appearance of this necklace soon she was at the house she sought
had no money only their clothes to pay a poor widow with for their food and lodging but since madonna knew them romola waited to hear no more but opened the door tessa was seated on the low bed
her crying had passed into tearless sobs and she was looking with sad blank eyes at the two children who were playing in an opposite corner lillo covering his head with his skirt and roaring at ninna to frighten her then peeping out again to see how she bore it
the door was a little behind tessa
expectation was no longer alive romola had thrown aside her veil and paused a moment holding the necklace in sight then she said in that pure voice that used to cheer her father tessa tessa started to her feet and looked round
see said romola clasping the beads on tessa's neck god has sent me to you again the poor thing screamed and sobbed and clung to the arms that fastened the necklace she could not speak
the two children came from their corner laid hold of their mother's skirts and looked up with wide eyes at romola that day they all went home to monna brigida's in the borgo degli albizzi romola had made known to tessa by gentle degrees
that naldo could never come to her again not because he was cruel but because he was dead but be comforted my tessa said romola i am come to take care of you always and we have got lillo and ninna
monna brigida's mouth twitched in the struggle between her awe of romola and the desire to speak unseasonably let be for the present she thought but it seems to me a thousand years till i tell this little contadina
who seems not to know how many fingers she's got on her hand who romola is and i will tell her some day else she'll never know her place it's all very well for romola nobody will call their souls their own when she's by
but if i'm to have this puss faced minx living in my house she must be humble to me
when tito left the via de bardi that day in exultant satisfaction at finding himself thoroughly free from the threatened peril his thoughts no longer claimed by the immediate presence of romola and her father
if he had had a truer foresight he would not have parted with his ring for romola and others to whom it was a familiar object would be a little struck with the apparent sordidness of parting with a gem he had professedly cherished unless he feigned as a reason the desire to make some special gift with the purchase money
and tito had at that moment a nauseating weariness of simulation he was well out of the possible consequences that might have fallen on him from that initial deception and it was no longer a load on his mind kind fortune had brought him immunity and he thought it was only fair that she should
who was hurt by it the results to baldassarre were too problematical to be taken into account but he wanted now to be free from any hidden shackles that would gall him though ever so little under his ties to romola he was not aware
that that very delight in immunity which prompted resolutions not to entangle himself again was deadening the sensibilities which alone could save him from entanglement
but after all the sale of the ring was a slight matter was it also a slight matter that little tessa was under a delusion which would doubtless fill her small head with expectations doomed to disappointment should he try to see the little thing alone again and undeceive her at once
or should he leave the disclosure to time and chance happy dreams are pleasant and they easily come to an end with daylight and the stir of life the sweet pouting innocent round thing
it was impossible not to think of her tito thought he should like some time to take her a present that would please her and just learn if her step father treated her more cruelly now her mother was dead
or should he at once undeceive tessa and then tell romola about her so that they might find some happier lot for the poor thing no that unfortunate little incident of the cerretano and the marriage and his allowing tessa to part from him in delusion must never be known to romola
and since no enlightenment could expel it from tessa's mind there would always be a risk of betrayal besides even little tessa might have some gall in her when she found herself disappointed in her love yes she must be a little in love with him
and that might make it well that he should not see her again yet it was a trifling adventure such as a country girl would perhaps ponder on till some ruddy contadino made acceptable love to her when she would break her resolution of secrecy and get at the truth that she was free
good bye tessa kindest wishes tito had made up his mind that the silly little affair of the cerretano should have no further consequences for himself and people are apt to think that resolutions taken on their own behalf will be firm as for the fifty five florins the purchase money of the ring
tito had made up his mind what to do with some of them he would carry out a pretty ingenious thought which would set him more at ease in accounting for the absence of his ring to romola and would also serve him as a means of guarding her mind from the recurrence of those monkish fancies which were especially repugnant to him
and with this thought in his mind he went to the via gualfonda to find piero di cosimo the artist who at that time was pre eminent in the fantastic mythological design which tito's purpose required
tito found the heavy iron knocker on the door thickly bound round with wool and ingeniously fastened with cords remembering the painter's practice of stuffing his ears against obtrusive noises tito was not much surprised at this mode of defence against visitors thunder
and betook himself first to tapping modestly with his knuckles and then to a more importunate attempt to shake the door in rain
when a little girl entered the court with a basket of eggs on her arm went up to the door and standing on tiptoe pushed up a small iron plate that ran in grooves and putting her mouth to the aperture thus disclosed called out in a piping voice messer piero
in a few moments tito heard the sound of bolts the door opened and piero presented himself in a red night cap and a loose brown serge tunic with sleeves rolled up to the shoulder he darted a look of surprise at tito
but without further notice of him stretched out his hand to take the basket from the child re entered the house and presently returning with the empty basket said how much to pay two grossoni messer piero they are all ready boiled my mother says
piero took the coin out of the leathern scarsella at his belt and the little maiden trotted away not without a few upward glances of awed admiration at the surprising young signor piero's glance was much less complimentary as he said what do you want at my door messer greco
i saw you this morning at nello's if you had asked me then i could have told you that i see no man in this house without knowing his business and agreeing with him beforehand pardon messer piero said tito with his imperturbable good humour i acted without sufficient reflection
i remembered nothing but your admirable skill in inventing pretty caprices when a sudden desire for something of that sort prompted me to come to you
but even if tito had suspected any offensive intention
piero made a grimace which was habitual with him when he was spoken to with flattering suavity he grinned stretched out the corners of his mouth and pressed down his brows so as to defy any divination of his feelings under that kind of stroking
and what may that need be he said after a moment's pause in his heart he was tempted by the hinted opportunity of applying his invention i want a very delicate miniature device taken from certain fables of the poets which you will know how to combine for me
it must be painted on a wooden case i will show you the size in the form of a triptych the inside may be simple gilding it is on the outside i want the device it is a favourite subject with you florentines the triumph of bacchus and ariadne but i want it treated in a new way
a story in ovid will give you the necessary hints the young bacchus must be seated in a ship his head bound with clusters of grapes and a spear entwined with vine leaves in his hand
leopards and tigers must be crouching before him and dolphins must be sporting round but i want to have the fair haired ariadne with him made immortal with her golden crown that is not in ovid's story but no matter you will conceive it all
and above there must be young loves such as you know how to paint shooting with roses at the points of their arrows say no more
near a heap of broken egg shells and a bank of ashes in strange keeping with that sordid litter there was a low bedstead of carved ebony covered carelessly with a piece of rich oriental carpet that looked as if it had served to cover the steps to a madonna's throne and a carved cassone or large chest
for the double door underneath the window which admitted the painter's light from above was thrown open and showed a garden or rather thicket in which fig trees and vines grew in tangled trailing wildness among nettles and hemlocks
and a tall cypress lifted its dark head from a stifling mass of yellowish mulberry leaves it seemed as if that dank luxuriance had begun to penetrate even within the walls of the wide and lofty room for in one corner amidst a confused heap of carved marble fragments and rusty armour
tufts of long grass and dark feathery fennel had made their way and a large stone vase tilted on one side seemed to be pouring out the ivy that streamed around all about the walls hung pen and oil sketches of fantastic sea monsters dances of satyrs and maenads
saint margaret's resurrection out of the devouring dragon madonnas with the supernal light upon them studies of plants and grotesque heads and on irregular rough shelves a few books were scattered among great drooping bunches of corn bullocks horns pieces of dried honeycomb
stones with patches of rare coloured lichen skulls and bones peacocks feathers and large birds wings rising from amongst the dirty litter of the floor were lay figures one in the frock of a vallombrosan monk strangely surmounted by a helmet with barred visor
another smothered with brocade and skins hastily tossed over it amongst this heterogeneous still life several speckled and white pigeons were perched or strutting too tame to fly at the entrance of men
three corpulent toads were crawling in an intimate friendly way near the door stone and a white rabbit apparently the model for that which was frightening cupid in the picture of mars and venus placed on the central easel was twitching its nose with much content on a box full of bran
and now messer greco said piero making a sign to tito that he might sit down on a low stool near the door and then standing over him with folded arms don't be trying to see everything at once like messer domeneddio but let me know how large you would have this same triptych
there's nothing about the ariadne there said tito giving him the passage but you will remember i want the crowned ariadne by the side of the young bacchus she must have golden hair
he added looking down into tito's face tito laughed and blushed
there it is i want her to sit to me giovanni vespucci wants me to paint him a picture of oedipus and antigone at colonos as he has expounded it to me i have a fancy for the subject and i want bardo and his daughter to sit for it now you ask them
and when shall i sit for you said tito for if we have one likeness we must have two
only i've made you look frightened i must take the fright out of it for bacchus
propped with their faces against the wall he returned with an oil sketch in his hand i call this as good a bit of portrait as i ever did he said looking at it as he advanced yours is a face that expresses fear well because it's naturally a bright one i noticed it the first time i saw you
the rest of the picture is hardly sketched but i've painted you in thoroughly
he saw himself with his right hand uplifted holding a wine cup in the attitude of triumphant joy
that he felt a cold stream through his veins as if he were being thrown into sympathy with his imaged self
tito rather ashamed of himself for a sudden sensitiveness strangely opposed to his usual easy self command said carelessly
a revel interrupted by a ghost you seem to love the blending of the terrible with the gay i suppose that is the reason your shelves are so well furnished with death's heads while you are painting those roguish loves who are running away with the armour of mars
i begin to think you are a cynic philosopher in the pleasant disguise of a cunning painter not i messer greco a philosopher is the last sort of animal i should choose to resemble i find it enough to live without spinning lies to account for life
fowls cackle asses bray women chatter and philosophers spin false reasons that's the effect the sight of the world brings out of them well i am an animal that paints instead of cackling or braying or spinning lies
chapter fifteen lincoln and herndon young herndon's strange fascination for lincoln lincoln remained in the office with judge logan about four years dissolving partnership in eighteen forty five
meanwhile he was interesting himself in behalf of young william h herndon who after speed's removal to kentucky
young man seemed to be made of the right kind of metal was industrious and agreeable and mister lincoln looked forward to the time when he could have billy with him in a business of his own missus lincoln with that marvelous instinct which women often possess
opposed her husband's taking bill herndon into partnership
he was neither brilliant nor steady he contracted the habit of drinking the bane of lincoln's business career as mister lincoln had not yet paid off the national debt largely due to his first business partner's drunkenness
it seems rather strange that he did not listen to his wife's admonitions but young herndon seems always to have exercised a strange fascination over his older friend and partner while yet in partnership with judge logan
mister lincoln went into the national campaign of eighteen forty four making speeches in illinois and indiana for henry clay to whom he was thoroughly devoted before this campaign lincoln had written to mister speed
we had a meeting of the whigs of the county here last monday to appoint delegates to a district convention and baker beat me and got the delegation instructed to go for him the meeting in spite of my attempts to decline it appointed me one of the delegates
so that in getting baker the nomination i shall be fixed like a fellow who is made a groomsman to a fellow that has cut him out and is marrying his own dear gal mister lincoln about this time was offered the nomination for governor of illinois
and declined the honor missus lincoln who had supreme confidence in her husband's ability tried to make him more self seeking in his political efforts he visited his old home in indiana making several speeches in that part of the state
one of his speeches was delivered from the door of a harness shop near gentryville and one he made in the old carter schoolhouse after this address he drove home with mister josiah crawford old blue nose
for whom he had pulled fodder to pay an exorbitant price for weems's life of washington and in whose house his sister and he had lived as hired girl and hired man he delighted the old friends by asking about everybody and being interested in the old swimming hole
jones's grocery where he had often argued and held forth the saw pit the old mill the blacksmith shop whose owner mister baldwin had told him some of his best stories and where he once started in to learn the blacksmith's trade
he went around and called on all his former acquaintances who were still living in the neighborhood his memories were so vivid and his emotions so keen that he wrote a long poem about this
my childhood's home i see again and sadden with the view and still as memory crowds the brain there's pleasure in it too ah memory thou midway world twixt earth and paradise
where things decayed and loved ones lost in dreamy shadows rise and freed from all that's earthy vile seems hallowed pure and bright like scenes in some enchanted isle all bathed in liquid light
trying to save billy from a bad habit as mister lincoln spent so much of his time away from springfield he felt that he needed a younger assistant to keep office and look after his cases in the different courts
but he did so though the young man had neither the ability nor experience to earn anything like half the income of the office if herndon had kept sober and done his best he might have made some return for all that mister lincoln who treated him like a foster father
was trying to do for him but billy did nothing of the sort he took advantage of his senior partner's absences by going on sprees with several dissipated young men about town what lawyer lincoln did with a fat fee
a springfield gentleman relates the following story which shows lawyer lincoln's business methods his unwillingness to charge much for his legal services and his great longing to save his young partner from the clutches of drink my father said the neighbor
was in business facing the square not far from the court house he had an account with a man who seemed to be doing a good straight business for years but the fellow disappeared one night owing father about one thousand dollars time went on and father got no trace of the vanished debtor
he considered the account as good as lost but one day in connection with other business he told mister lincoln he would give him half of what he could recover of that bad debt the tall attorney's deep gray eyes twinkled as he said
one half of nought is nothing i'm neither a shark nor a shyster mister man if i should collect it i would accept only my regular percentage but i mean it father said earnestly i should consider it as good as finding money in the street
yes my father replied that's about the size of it and i'm glad if you understand it the members of the bar here grumble because you charge too little for your professional services and i'm willing to do my share toward educating you in the right direction well
seein as it's you said mister lincoln with a whimsical smile considering that you're such an intimate friend i'd do it for twice as much as i'd charge a total stranger is that satisfactory i should not be satisfied with giving you less than half the gross amount collected in this case
my father insisted i don't see why you are so loath to take what is your due mister lincoln you have a family to support and will have to provide for the future of several boys they need money and are as worthy of it as any other man's wife and sons
mister lincoln put out his big bony hand as if to ward off a blow exclaiming in a pained tone that isn't it mister man that isn't it i yield to no man in love to my wife and babies and i provide enough for them
most of those who bring their cases to me need the money more than i do other lawyers rob them they act like a pack of wolves they have no mercy so when a needy fellow comes to me in his trouble sometimes it's a poor widow i can't take much from them
i'm not much of a shylock i always try to get them to settle it without going into court i tell them if they will make it up among themselves i won't charge them anything well mister lincoln said father with a laugh
if they were all like you there would be no need of lawyers well exclaimed lawyer lincoln with a quizzical inflection which meant much look out for the millennium mister man still
as a great favor i'll charge you a fat fee if i ever find that fellow and can get anything out of him but that's like promising to give you half of the first dollar i find floating up the sangamon on a grindstone isn't it i'll take a big slice though out of the grindstone itself if you say so
and the tall attorney went out with the peculiar laugh that afterward became world famous not long afterward while in bloomington out on the circuit mister lincoln ran across the man who had disappeared from springfield between two days
following the man to his office and managing to talk with him alone the lawyer by means of threats made the man go right to the bank and draw out the whole thousand then it meant payment in full or the penitentiary the man understood it and went white as a sheet
mister lincoln had no pity on the flourishing criminal money could not purchase the favor of lincoln well i hardly know which half of that thousand dollars father was gladder to get but i honestly believe he was more pleased on mister lincoln's account than on his own
let me give you your five hundred dollars before i change my mind he said to the attorney one hundred dollars is all i'll take out of that mister lincoln replied emphatically it was no trouble and and i haven't earned even that much
but mister lincoln my father demurred you promised to take half yes but you got my word under false pretenses as it were
as he would not accept more than one hundred dollars that day father wouldn't give him any of the money due for fear the too scrupulous attorney would give him a receipt in full for collecting finally
mister lincoln went away after yielding enough to say he might accept two hundred and fifty dollars sometime in a pinch of some sort the occasion was not long delayed but it was not because of illness or any special necessity in his own family his young partner billy herndon
had been carousing with several of his cronies in a saloon around on fourth street and the gang had broken mirrors decanters and other things in their drunken spree the proprietor tired of such work had had them all arrested
mister lincoln always alarmed when billy failed to appear at the usual hour in the morning went in search of him and found him and his partners in distress locked up in the calaboose the others were helpless unable to pay or to promise to pay for any of the damages
so it devolved on mister lincoln to raise the whole two hundred and fifty dollars the angry saloon keeper demanded he came into our office out of breath and said sheepishly i reckon i can use that two fifty now check or currency asked father
currency if you've got it handy give mister lincoln two hundred and fifty dollars father called to a clerk in the office there was a moment's pause during which my father refrained from asking any questions
and mister lincoln was in no mood to give information as soon as the money was brought the tall attorney seized the bills and stalked out without counting it or saying anything but thankee mister man and hurried diagonally across the square toward the court house
clutching the precious banknotes in his bony talons father saw him cross the street so fast that the tails of his long coat stood out straight behind then go up the court house steps two at a time and disappear we learned afterward what he did with the money
of course bill herndon was penitent and promised to mend his ways and of course mister lincoln believed him he took the money very much against his will even against his principles thinking it might save his junior partner from the drunkard's grave
and filled her with indescribable alarm all her visions of power and splendour seemed to melt away at once she sent for her father lord rochford who hurried to her in a state of the utmost anxiety
and closely questioned her whether the extraordinary change had not been occasioned by some imprudence of her own but she positively denied the charge alleging that she had parted with the king scarcely an hour before on terms of the most perfect amity
and with the full conviction that she had accomplished the cardinal's ruin
there is no telling what secret influence he has over the king and there may yet be a hard battle to fight but not a moment must be lost in counteracting his operations luckily suffolk is here
pray heaven you have not given the king fresh occasion for jealousy that is all i fear and quitting his daughter he sought out suffolk who alarmed at what appeared like a restoration of wolsey to favour promised heartily to co operate with him in the struggle
and that no time might be lost the duke proceeded at once to the royal closet where he found the king pacing moodily to and fro your majesty seems disturbed said the duke disturbed ay exclaimed the king
i have enough to disturb me i will never love again i will forswear the whole sex harkee suffolk you are my brother my second self and know all the secrets of my heart after the passionate devotion i have displayed for anne boleyn
impossible my liege exclaimed suffolk why so i thought cried henry and i turned a deaf ear to all insinuations thrown out against her till proof was afforded which i could no longer doubt
and what was the amount of the proof my liege asked suffolk these letters said henry handing them to him found on the person of sir thomas wyat but these only prove my liege the existence of a former passion nothing more
remarked suffolk after he had scanned them but she vows eternal constancy to him cried henry says she shall ever love him says so at the time she professes devoted love for me
suffolk i feel she does not love me exclusively and my passion is so deep and devouring that it demands entire return i must have her heart as well as her person and i feel i have only won her in my quality of king
i am persuaded your majesty is mistaken said the duke would i could think so sighed henry but no no i cannot be deceived i will conquer this fatal passion oh suffolk
it is frightful to be the bondslave of a woman a fickle inconstant woman but between the depths of love and hate is but a step and i can pass from one to the other do nothing rashly my dear liege said suffolk
nothing that may bring with it after repentance do not be swayed by those who have inflamed your jealousy and who could practise upon it think the matter calmly over and then act
and above all do not admit wolsey to your secret counsels you are his enemy suffolk said the king sternly i am your majesty's friend replied the duke i beseech you yield to me on this occasion
and i am sure of your thanks hereafter well
said henry and i will curb my impulses of rage and jealousy to morrow before i see either the queen or anne we will ride forth into the forest and talk the matter further over your highness has come to a wise determination said the duke
oh suffolk sighed henry would i had never seen this siren she exercises a fearful control over me and enslaves my very soul i cannot say whether it is for good or ill that you have met my dear liege replied suffolk
but i fancy i can discern the way in which your ultimate decision will be taken but it is now near midnight i wish your majesty sound and untroubled repose stay cried henry i am about to visit the curfew tower and must take you with me
i will explain my errand as we go i had some thought of sending you there in my stead ha he exclaimed glancing at his finger by saint paul it is gone what is gone my liege asked suffolk my signet replied henry
i missed it not till now it has been wrested from me by the fiend during my walk from the curfew tower let us not lose a moment or the prisoners will be set free by him if they have not been liberated already so saying he took a couple of dags
a species of short gun from a rest on the wall and giving one to suffolk thrust the other into his girdle thus armed
just as they reached the horseshoe cloisters the alarm bell began to ring did i not tell you so cried henry furiously they have escaped ha it ceases what has happened about a quarter of an hour after the king had quitted the curfew tower
a tall man enveloped in a cloak and wearing a high conical cap presented himself to the arquebusier stationed at the entrance to the dungeon and desired to be admitted to the prisoners i have the king's signet he said holding forth the ring
unlocked the door and admitted him mabel was kneeling on the ground beside her grandsire with her hands raised as in prayer but as the tall man entered the vault she started to her feet and uttered a slight scream what is the matter child cried tristram
he is here he is come cried mabel in a tone of the deepest terror who
herne is come to deliver me do not go with him grandsire cried mabel
silence her said herne in a harsh imperious voice or i leave you the old man looked imploringly at his granddaughter you know the conditions of your liberation said herne i do i do replied tristram hastily and with a shudder
oh grandfather cried mabel falling at his feet do not i conjure you
better i should perish at the stake better you should suffer the most ignominious death than this should be do you accept them cried herne disregarding her supplications tristram answered in the affirmative recall your words grandfather recall your words cried mabel
i will implore pardon for you on my knees from the king and he will not refuse me the pledge cannot be recalled damsel said herne and it is to save you from the king as much as to accomplish his own preservation that your grandsire consents he would not have you a victim to henry's lust
and as he spoke he divided the forester's bonds with his knife you must go with him mabel he added i will not she cried something warns me that a great danger awaits me you must go girl cried tristram angrily
i will not leave you to henry's lawless passion meanwhile herne had passed into one of the large embrasures and opened by means of a spring an entrance to a secret staircase in the wall he then beckoned tristram towards him and whispered some instructions in his ear
i understand replied the old man proceed to the cave cried herne and remain there till i join you tristram nodded assent come mabel he cried advancing towards her and seizing her hand away cried herne in a menacing tone
the poor girl offered no resistance and her grandfather drew her into the opening which was immediately closed after her about an hour after this and when it was near upon the stroke of midnight the arquebusier who had admitted the tall stranger to the dungeon
and who had momentarily expected his coming forth opened the door to see what was going forward great was his astonishment to find the cell empty after looking around in bewilderment he rushed to the chamber above
this is clearly the work of the fiend said shoreditch it is useless to strive against him that tall black man was doubtless herne himself said paddington i am glad he did us no injury i hope the king will not provoke his malice further well
i would not be in thy skin mat bee for a trifle the king will be here presently and then it is impossible to penetrate through the devices of the evil one interrupted mat i could have sworn it was the royal signet for i saw it on the king's finger as he delivered the order
i wish such another chance of capturing the fiend would occur to me as the words were uttered the door of a recess was thrown suddenly open and herne in his wild garb with his antlered helm upon his brow and the rusty chain depending from his left arm stood before them
his appearance was so terrific and unearthly that they all shrank aghast and mat bee fell with his face on the floor i am here cried the demon now braggart wilt dare to seize me but not a hand was moved against him the whole party seemed transfixed with terror
you dare not brave my power and you are right cried herne a wave of my hand would bring this old tower about your ears a word would summon a legion of fiends to torment you but do not utter it i pray you good herne excellent herne cried mat bee
and above all things do not wave your hand for we have no desire to be buried alive have we comrades
your royal master will as vainly seek to contend with me as he did to bury me beneath the oak tree cried herne if you want me further seek me in the upper chamber and with these words he darted up the ladder like flight of steps and disappeared
as soon as they recovered from the fright that had enchained them shoreditch and paddington rushed forth into the area in front of the turret
a piece of information which was altogether superfluous as the hammering had recommenced and continued till the clock struck twelve when it stopped just then it occurred to mat bee to ring the alarm bell and he seized the rope and began to pull it
but the bell had scarcely sounded when the cord severed from above fell upon his head at this juncture the king and the duke of suffolk arrived when told what had happened though prepared for it henry burst into a terrible passion and bestowed a buffet on mat bee
that well nigh broke his jaw and sent him reeling to the farther side of the chamber he had not at first understood that herne was supposed to be in the upper room but as soon as he was made aware of the circumstance he cried out ah dastards have you let him brave you thus but i am glad of it
do not expose yourself to this risk my gracious liege said suffolk what are you too a sharer in their womanish fears suffolk cried henry i thought you had been made of stouter stuff if there is danger i shall be the first to encounter it
come he added snatching a torch from an arquebusier and drawing his dag he hurried up the steep steps while suffolk followed his example
meanwhile shoreditch and paddington ran out and informed bouchier that the king had arrived and was mounting in search of herne upon which the captain shaking off his fears ordered his men to follow him
began cautiously to descend feeling his way with his sword
the light of the torch fell upon the ghostly figure of herne with his arms folded upon his breast standing near the pile of wood lying between the two staircases so appalling was the appearance of the demon that henry stood still to gaze at him
in another moment the duke of suffolk had gained the platform
thou art hemmed in on all sides and canst not escape ho ho ho laughed herne this shall prove whether thou art human or not cried henry taking deliberate aim at him with the dag ho ho ho laughed herne and as the report rang through the room
he sank through the floor and disappeared from view gone exclaimed henry as the smoke cleared off gone holy mary then it must indeed be the fiend i made the middle of his skull my aim
and if he had not been invulnerable the bullet must have pierced his brain i heard it rebound from his horned helmet and drop to the floor said bouchier what is that chest cried henry pointing to a strange coffin shaped box lying as it seemed on the exact spot where the demon had disappeared
no one had seen it before though all called to mind the mysterious hammering and they had no doubt that the coffin was the work of the demon break it open cried henry for aught we know herne may be concealed within it the order was reluctantly obeyed by the arquebusiers
but no force was required for the lid was not nailed down and when it was removed a human body in the last stage of decay was discovered pah close it up cried henry turning away in disgust how came it there
no such coffin was here when i searched the chamber two hours ago but see he suddenly added stooping down and picking up a piece of paper which had fallen from the coffin here is a scroll give it me cried henry
and holding it to the light he read the words the body of mark fytton the butcher the victim of a tyrant's cruelty
of constancy the law of resolution and constancy does not imply that we ought not as much as in us lies
to decline and secure ourselves from the mischiefs and inconveniences that threaten us nor consequently that we shall not fear lest they should surprise us
on the contrary all
and means of securing ourselves from harms are not only permitted but moreover commendable and the business of constancy chiefly is bravely to stand to and stoutly to suffer
those inconveniences which are not possibly to be avoided so that there is no supple motion of body nor any movement in the handling of arms how irregular or ungraceful
soever that we need condemn if they serve to protect us from the blow that is made against us several
a thing of singular advantage
then be a reputed cowardice to overcome them by giving ground urging at the same time the authority of homer who commends in a eneas the science of
flight and whereas laches considering better of it admits the practice as to the scythians and in general all cavalry whatever
he again attacks him with the example of the
the most obstinate in maintaining their ground
plataea not being able to break into the persian phalanx bethought themselves to disperse and retire that by the enemy supposing they fled
they might break and disunite that vast body of men in the pursuit
as for the scythians tis said of them that when darius went his expedition to subdue them he sent by a herald highly to reproach their king
and there he should have his fill nevertheless as to cannon shot when a body of men are drawn up in the face
of a train of artillery as the occasion of war often requires it is unhandsome to quit their post to avoid the danger
and many a one by ducking stepping aside and such other motions of fear has been at all events sufficiently laughed at by his companions and yet
in the expedition that the emperor charles
against us into provence
going to reconnoitre the city of arles and advancing out of the cover of a windmill under favour of which he had made his approach was perceived by the
bonneval and the seneschal of
who having shown him to the sieur de villiers
that had not the marquis seeing fire given to it
laying siege to mondolfo a place in the territories of the vicariat in italy seeing the cannoneer give fire to a piece that pointed directly against him
it was well for him that he ducked for otherwise the shot that only razed the top of his head had doubtless hit him full in the breast to say truth i do not think
that these evasions are performed upon the account of judgment for how can any man living judge of high or low aim on so sudden an occasion
and it is much more easy to believe that fortune favoured their apprehension and that it might be as well at another time to make them face the danger
as to seek to avoid it for my own part i confess i cannot forbear starting when the
and that the seat of his reason suffer no concussion nor alteration and that he yield no consent to his fright and discomposure to him who is not a philosopher a fright
is the same thing in the first part of it but quite another thing in the second for the impression of passions does not remain superficially in him but penetrates farther
even to the very seat of reason infecting and corrupting it
the wise stoic learnedly and plainly expressed mens immota manet
volvuntur inanes though tears flow the mind remains unmoved virgil a eneid
and amongst others there was have you been lucky tom yes replied i lucky to get home safely that is not what i mean said my wife have you got any gold very little i am sorry to say was my reply
the news of my return however soon spread and the neighbors flocked in to see a returned digger but alas with very little gold
and it proved anything but satisfactory but
as it proved to the tune of two hundred pounds and with only about one to pay it such however was the case the first thing to be done was to call on all my creditors
report myself and say have patience and i will pay thee all and i did so and was kindly received mister johns had taken a shop in rundle street and mister sweetwilliam was engaged as his shopman what luck
said mister johns when i saw him very little i replied did you get any gold asked he yes said i and i have brought you a nugget for your kindness to my wife while i have been away i won't take it as a gift said he
said i i am as honest as most men and time will prove that i gave mister johns the nugget it weighed an ounce and was a very pretty specimen of pure native gold mister johns was much pleased with it and said
i will send this home to my dear sister in london which decision pleased me very much whilst mister johns was showing the nugget to his wife mister sweetwilliam called me aside and said keep in with johns he is a good sort of fellow
we then all adjourned to the york hotel and had a nobbler each on my way home shortly afterwards i met a postman named chapman what are you back again said he have you no engagement no answered i
i know of one said he where a man like you is wanted a fellow that can please everybody what is the salary i asked you had better call and make your own terms he replied you can mention my name if you like thanks said i but where is it
at the black horse assembly rooms not far from the black bull hindley street said he i accordingly called there
at three pounds per week
so i went home to tell my wife of my good luck
it is situated at glen osmond about four miles from adelaide what is the salary asked i
and when the church is finished i will increase the salary
i afterwards called on my friend mister hawkesgood at the treasury who inquired into all the particulars of my family and what they were doing i'll take your eldest boy said he and see what i can do with him i'll consult my wife said i
and let you know in a day or two very good said he i will not forget my promise if you want a friend let me know i will said i and wishing him good morning with many thanks i departed i thought a great deal about my new friend and told my wife all about his offer
who would burn our houses and send our wives and children adrift meetings were called and it was decided to form a volunteer force and every man was called upon to join and for myself i thought the matter over seriously
now at this time i had a companion from london whom i will call george rollinson we met together and conversed on the subject and rollinson said that
i said i would on condition that they made me an officer which rollinson said was not very likely a meeting was called at the dover castle north adelaide to enlist those who took an interest in bloodshed the most agreeable part of the programme put forth
was that each man was to receive six shillings per day when called out for practice and each company was to have the election of its own officers who were to be chosen by ballot each company was also to appoint its own shoemaker and tailor
in fact there was to be everything to make the men comfortable a neighbour of mine a good fellow whom we will call mister sain afterwards captain sain and who had an eye to business called on me and said i think we can manage it manage what said i
the appointment of officers for the volunteer force and i don't see why i shouldn't be made captain with you as my color sergeant it would be good thing for me and you too how is it to be done
and if we are elected you shall be color sergeant
viz captain lieutenant ensign color sergeant second sergeant and two corporals there were three cheers given for the queen and then more or less all present got the worse for liquor and i went home full of the soldiering business
my wife laughed at me for being such a donkey never mind said i wait till the russians show up
rollinson did not come up to the swearing business possibly because he objected to swearing on principle he acted however afterwards as he said he would as substitute for a man who had to go into the country
a poll was demanded and my proposition carried mister sain got in by a majority of one vote and lieutenant franklin being a friend of mine
my uniform however was far more brilliant than my military career was destined to be
receiving orders from my colonel to take a file of men and proceed to private hornabrook's residence in
and when i arrived on parade the men were standing at ease and a great deal of giggling was going on
you are a disgrace to the company and ought to be drummed out of the regiment as a drunkard now you can go said the colonel thank you my bunny said private hornabrook on the first of every month one of my duties was to go with the captain to
after drill on pay days i was to march the men four abreast from the parade ground to his house to be paid the natural result of such a course was that the men spent the better part of their pay in drink as a frightful example of this
may be mentioned the fact that ex private hornabrook mortgaged his cottage and land to sergeant phelps the landlord of the scotch thistle for money to spend in liquor and was never able to redeem the property
i merely mention this as an illustration which came under my notice of one of the evils resulting from the curse of drink such conduct didn't speak much for military discipline in those days happily things are much better in this respect now
and doubtless they will go on improving as the temperance flag waves through our streets in those old times however i went on progressing with shoemaking singing and soldiering and upon the whole was making a fair living about this time a change took place
the governor was there and the poor widow had a good benefit the next night when i went to my engagement i was told that
with a mister osmond gillies who had given him the living and a lawsuit was the result the clergyman lost his living
the wind was now diminishing a sign however of a violent recurrence impending the child was on the table land at the extreme south point of portland portland
is a peninsula but the child did not know what a peninsula is and was ignorant even of the name of portland he knew but one thing which is that one can walk until one drops down
an idea is a guide he had no idea they had brought him there and left him there they and there these two enigmas represented his doom
they were humankind there was the universe for him in all creation there was absolutely no other basis to rest on but the little piece of ground
around him was the vastness of human desertion he crossed the first plateau diagonally then a second then a third at the extremity of each plateau
resemble great flagstones overlapping each other the south side seems to enter under the protruding slab the north side rises over the next one these made ascents which
the child stepped over nimbly from time to time he stopped and seemed to hold counsel with himself the night was becoming very dark his radius of sight was contracting
which he dimly perceived on his right at the point of the plain nearest the cliff there was on the eminence a shape which in the mist looked like a tree
the child had just heard a noise in this direction which was the noise neither of the wind nor of the sea nor was it the cry of animals
he thought that some one was there and in a few strides he was at the foot of the hillock in truth some one was there that which had been
supported from beneath by the thumb pointed out horizontally the arm the thumb and the forefinger drew a square against the sky at the point of juncture
of this peculiar finger and this peculiar thumb there was a line from which hung something black and shapeless the line moving in the wind sounded like a chain
this was the noise the child had heard seen closely the line was that which the noise indicated a chain a single chain cable by that mysterious law of amalgamation
which throughout nature causes appearances to exaggerate realities the place the hour the mist the mournful sea the cloudy turmoils on the distant horizon added to the effect of this figure
it was swaddled like a child and long like a man there was a round thing at its summit about which the end of the chain was rolled
to it swayed gently the passive mass obeyed the vague motions of space it was an object to inspire indescribable dread horror
which disproportions everything blurred its dimensions while retaining its shape it was a condensation of darkness which had a defined form night was above and within the spectre
it was a prey of ghastly exaggeration twilight and moonrise stars setting behind the cliff floating things in space the clouds winds from all quarters
had ended by penetrating into the composition of this visible nothing the species of log hanging in the wind partook of the impersonality diffused far over sea and sky
such a thing is beyond the power of language to express to exist no more yet to persist to be in the abyss yet out of it to reappear above death as if indissoluble
there is a certain amount of impossibility mixed with such reality thence comes the inexpressible this being was it a being this black witness was a remainder and an awful remainder
a remainder of what of nature first and then of society naught and yet total the lawless inclemency of the weather held it at its will
the deep oblivion of solitude environed it it was given up to unknown chances it was without defence against the darkness which did with it what it willed it was for ever the patient it submitted
the hurricane that ghastly conflict of winds was upon it the spectre was given over to pillage it underwent the horrible outrage of rotting in the open air it was an outlaw of the tomb
it offends all the calmness of shadow when it does its task outside its laboratory the grave
to strip one already stripped relentless act his marrow was no longer in his bones his entrails were no longer in his body his voice no longer in his throat a corpse is a pocket which death
something wandering about something in chains can one imagine a more mournful lineament in the darkness realities exist here below which serve as issues to the unknown
one cannot help stopping a prey to dreams into the realms of which the mind enters in the invisible there are dark portals ajar no one could have met this dead man without meditating
in the vastness of dispersion he was wearing silently away he had had blood which had been drunk skin which had been eaten flesh which had been stolen nothing had passed him
by without taking somewhat from him december had borrowed cold of him midnight horror the iron rust the plague miasma the flowers perfume
a toll paid to all a toll of the corpse to the storm to the rain to the dew to the reptiles to the birds all the dark hands of night had rifled the dead
he was indeed an inexpressibly strange tenant a tenant of the darkness he was on a plain and on a hill and he was not he was palpable yet vanished
by his mere presence he increased the gloom of the tempest and the calm of stars
waif of an unknown fate he commingled with all the wild secrets of the night there was in his mystery a vague reverberation of all enigmas
about him life seemed sinking to its lowest depths certainty and confidence appeared to diminish in his environs the shiver of the brushwood and the grass a desolate melancholy
an anxiety in which a conscience seemed to lurk appropriated with tragic force the whole landscape to that black figure suspended by the chain the presence of a spectre in the horizon is an aggravation of solitude
with something immense leaning on him who can tell perhaps that equity half seen and set at defiance which transcends human justice there was in his unburied continuance
the vengeance of men and his own vengeance he was a testimony in the twilight and the waste he was in himself a disquieting substance since we tremble before the substance which is the ruined habitation of the soul
for dead matter to trouble us it must once have been tenanted by spirit he denounced the law of earth to the law of heaven placed there by man he there awaited god above him floated
blended with all the vague distortions of the cloud and the wave boundless dreams of shadow who could tell what sinister mysteries lurked behind this phantom
whenever i attempted to persuade her to speak frankly she assured me that the letter was the only cause of her melancholy and begged me to say nothing more about it then i tried in vain to guess
what was passing in her heart we went to the theater every night in order to avoid embarrassing
there we sometimes pressed each other's hands at some fine bit of acting or beautiful strain of music or exchanged perhaps a friendly glance
smith came almost every day although his presence in the house had been the cause of all my sorrow
still his apparent good faith and his simplicity reassured me i had spoken to him of the letters he had brought and he did not appear offended but saddened he was ignorant of the contents and his friendship
for brigitte led him to censure them severely he would have refused to carry them he said if he knew what they contained
he was asked to act as intermediary between brigitte and her relatives after our departure
he noticed a certain coldness and restraint which he endeavored to banish by cheerful good humor
i know not what melancholy sympathy i thought i discovered between them troubled and disquieted me not over a month ago i would have become violently jealous but now of what could i suspect brigitte
that he should be the instrument of adding to her sorrow
that the sight of this young man should awaken memories and regrets could he on the other hand see her start off on a long journey
i felt that this must be the explanation and that it was my duty to assure them that i was capable of protecting the one from all dangers
when smith left us in the evening we either kept silence or talked of him i do not know what fatal attraction led me to ask about him continually
she however told me just what i have told the reader his life had never been other than it was at this time poor obscure and honest
if that young man had arrived at the time of our greatest happiness had he brought an insignificant letter to brigitte had he pressed her hand while assisting her into the carriage would i have paid the least attention to it
had he recognized me at the opera or had he not had he shed tears for some unknown reason what would it matter so long as i was happy but while unable to divine the cause of brigitte's sorrow
i saw that my past conduct whatever she might say of it had something to do with her present state if i had been what i ought to have been for the last six months that we had lived together
nothing in the world i was persuaded could have troubled our love smith was only an ordinary man but he was good and devoted his simple and modest qualities resembled the large pure lines
and he inspired confidence if not admiration
why do we wait she asked here i am recovered and everything is ready why did we wait indeed i do not know seated near the fire my eyes wandered from smith to my mistress
but an instinct persistent and fatal what strange creatures we it pleased me to leave them alone before the fire and to go out
leaning on the parapet and looking at the water when they spoke of their life at n and when brigitte almost cheerful assumed a motherly air
it seemed to me that i suffered and yet took pleasure in it i asked questions i spoke to smith of his mother of his plans and his prospects i gave him
and forced his modesty to reveal his merit you love your sister very much do you not i asked
that his expenses were rather heavy but that it would probably be within two years perhaps sooner if his health would permit him to do some extra work which would bring in enough to provide her dowry
that there was a family in the country whose eldest son was her friend that they were almost agreed on it and that fortune would one day come like rest without thinking of it that he had set aside for his sister
a part of the money left by their father
of a young girl is fixed on the day of her marriage thus little by little he expressed what was in his heart and i watched brigitte listening to him then when he arose to leave us i accompanied him to the door and stood there
were so dear to us i stopped in the hall every note reached
never had she sung so sadly so divinely smith was listening with pleasure he was on his knees holding the buckle of the strap in his hands he fastened it then looked about the room at the other goods he had packed
and covered with a linen cloth satisfied with his work
brigitte her hands on the keys
sing my dear i beg of you
on another occasion i had bought an album containing views of switzerland we were looking at them all three of us and when brigitte found a site that pleased her she would stop to examine it
there was one view that seemed to please her more than all the others it was a certain spot
in the distance a village consisting of some dozen houses scattered here and there in the foreground a young girl with a large straw hat
standing before her apparently pointing out with his iron tipped stick the route over which he had come he was directing her attention to a winding path that led to the mountain above them were the alps
nothing could be more simple
i am trying to see if i can not change that face slightly and make it resemble yours the pretty hat would become you and can i not if i am skilful give that fine mountaineer some resemblance to me
the whim seemed to please her and she set about rubbing out the two faces when i had painted her portrait she wished to try mine the faces were very small hence not very difficult
it was agreed that the likenesses were striking while we were laughing at it the door opened and i was called away by the servant when i returned smith
was leaning on the table and looking at the picture with interest he was absorbed in a profound reverie and was not aware of my presence i sat down near the fire and it was not until
i spoke to brigitte that he raised his head he looked at us a moment then hastily took his leave and as he approached the door i saw him strike his forehead with his hand when i discovered these signs of grief
i said to myself what does it mean then i clasped my hands to plead with whom
i see my way as birds their trackless way i shall arrive what time what circuit first i ask not but unless god send his hail or blinding fire balls sleet or stifling snow
in some time his good time i shall arrive he guides me and the bird in his good time browning's paracelsus so the winter was getting on
and the days were beginning to lengthen without bringing with them any of the brightness of hope which usually accompanies the rays of a february sun missus thornton had of course entirely ceased to come to the house mister thornton came occasionally
but his visits were addressed to her father and were confined to the study mister hale spoke of him as always the same indeed the very rarity of their intercourse seemed to make mister hale set only the higher value on it
and from what margaret could gather of what mister thornton had said there was nothing in the cessation of his visits which could arise from any umbrage or vexation his business affairs had become complicated during the strike
nay margaret could even discover that he spoke from time to time of her
in the same calm friendly way never avoiding and never seeking any mention of her name she was not in spirits to raise her father's tone of mind the dreary peacefulness of the present time
had been preceded by so long a period of anxiety and care even intermixed with storms that her mind had lost its elasticity she tried to find herself occupation in teaching the two younger boucher children
and worked hard at goodness hard i say most truly for her heart seemed dead to the end of all her efforts and though she made them punctually and painfully yet she stood as far off as ever from any cheerfulness
her life seemed still bleak and dreary the only thing she did well was what she did out of unconscious piety the silent comforting and consoling of her father not a mood of his but what found a ready sympathiser in margaret
not a wish of his that she did not strive to forecast and to fulfil they were quiet wishes to be sure and hardly named without hesitation and apology all the more complete and beautiful was her meek spirit of obedience
march brought the news of frederick's marriage he and dolores wrote she in spanish english as was but natural and he with little turns and inversions of words which proved how far the idioms of his bride's country were infecting him
on the receipt of henry lennox's letter announcing how little hope there was of his ever clearing himself at a court martial in the absence of the missing witnesses frederick had written to margaret a pretty vehement letter
containing his renunciation of england as his country he wished he could unnative himself and declared that he would not take his pardon if it were offered him nor live in the country if he had permission to do so all of which made margaret cry sorely
so unnatural did it seem to her at the first opening but on consideration she saw rather in such expression the poignancy of the disappointment which had thus crushed his hopes and she felt that there was nothing for it but patience
in the next letter frederick spoke so joyfully of the future that he had no thought for the past and margaret found a use in herself for the patience she had been craving for him she would have to be patient
but the pretty timid girlish letters of dolores were beginning to have a charm for both margaret and her father the young spaniard was so evidently anxious to make a favourable impression upon her lover's english relations that her feminine care
and the letters announcing the marriage were accompanied by a splendid black lace mantilla chosen by dolores herself for her unseen sister in law whom frederick had represented as a paragon of beauty wisdom and virtue
frederick's worldly position was raised by this marriage on to as high a level as they could desire
and into it he was received as a junior partner margaret smiled a little and then sighed as she remembered afresh her old tirades against trade here was her preux chevalier of a brother turned merchant trader
but then she rebelled against herself and protested silently against the confusion implied between a spanish merchant and a milton mill owner well trade or no trade frederick was very very happy dolores must be charming and the mantilla was exquisite
and then she returned to the present life her father had occasionally experienced a difficulty in breathing this spring which had for the time distressed him exceedingly margaret was less alarmed as this difficulty went off completely in the intervals
as to make her very urgent that he should accept mister bell's invitation to visit him at oxford this april mister bell's invitation included margaret nay more he wrote a special letter commanding her to come
but she felt as if it would be a greater relief to her to remain quietly at home entirely free from any responsibility whatever and so to rest her mind and heart in a manner which she had not been able to do for more than two years past
when her father had driven off on his way to the railroad margaret felt how great and long had been the pressure on her time and her spirits it was astonishing almost stunning to feel herself so much at liberty
no one depending on her for cheering care if not for positive happiness no invalid to plan and think for she might be idle and silent and forgetful and what seemed worth more than all the other privileges
she might be unhappy if she liked for months past all her own personal cares and troubles had had to be stuffed away into a dark cupboard but now she had leisure to take them out and mourn over them and study their nature
and seek the true method of subduing them into the elements of peace all these weeks she had been conscious of their existence in a dull kind of way though they were hidden out of sight now once for all she would consider them
and appoint to each of them its right work in her life so she sat almost motionless for hours in the drawing room going over the bitterness of every remembrance with an unwincing resolution only once she cried aloud
at the stinging thought of the faithlessness which gave birth to that abasing falsehood she now would not even acknowledge the force of the temptation her plans for frederick had all failed
a mockery which had never had life in it the lie had been so despicably foolish seen by the light of the ensuing events and faith in the power of truth
ah thought margaret that is what i have missed but courage little heart we will turn back and by god's help we may find the lost path so she rose up
and determined at once to set to on some work which should take her out of herself to begin with she called in martha as she passed the drawing room door in going up stairs and tried to find out what was below the grave respectful servant like manner
which crusted over her individual character with an obedience that was almost mechanical she found it difficult to induce martha to speak of any of her personal interests but at last she touched the right chord in naming missus thornton
martha's whole face brightened and on a little encouragement out came a long story of how her father had been in early life connected with missus thornton's husband nay had even been in a position to show him some kindness
what martha hardly knew
and circumstances had intervened to separate the two families until martha was nearly grown up when her father having sunk lower and lower from his original occupation as clerk in a warehouse and her mother being dead she and her sister
to use martha's own expression would have been lost but for missus thornton who sought them out and thought for them and cared for them i had had the fever and was but delicate and missus thornton and mister thornton too
they never rested till they had nursed me up in their own house and sent me to the sea and all the doctors said the fever was catching but they cared none for that only miss fanny and she went a visiting these folk that she is going to marry into
miss fanny going to be married exclaimed margaret yes and to a rich gentleman too only he's a deal older than she is his name is watson and his mills are somewhere out beyond hayleigh it's a very good marriage for all he's got such gray hair
margaret had to pull herself up from indulging a bad trick
of trying to imagine how every event that she heard of in relation to mister thornton would affect him whether he would like it or dislike it the next day she had the little boucher children for their lessons and took a long walk
somewhat to margaret's surprise she found nicholas already come home from his work the lengthening light had deceived her as to the lateness of the evening he too seemed by his manners to have entered a little more on the way of humility
he was quieter and less self asserting
little uns telled me so eh but they're sharp uns they are i a'most think they beat my own wenches for sharpness though mappen it's wrong to say so and one on em in her grave
is that the reason you're so soon at home to night asked margaret innocently thou know'st nought about it that's all said he contemptuously i'm not one wi two faces
no yon thornton's good enough for to fight wi but too good for to be cheated it were you as getten me the place and i thank yo for it thornton's is not a bad mill as times go
one to stop two to stay three mak ready and four away the little fellow repeated a methodist hymn far above his comprehension in point of language but of which the swinging rhythm had caught his ear
and which he repeated with all the developed cadence of a member of parliament when margaret had duly applauded nicholas called for another and yet another much to her surprise
as she found him thus oddly and unconsciously led to take an interest in the sacred things which he had formerly scouted it was past the usual tea time when she reached home but she had the comfort of feeling that no one had been kept waiting for her
and of thinking her own thoughts while she rested instead of anxiously watching another person to learn whether to be grave or gay after tea she resolved to examine a large packet of letters and pick out those that were to be destroyed
among them she came to four or five of mister henry lennox's relating to frederick's affairs and she carefully read them over again with the sole intention when she began to ascertain exactly on how fine a chance the justification of her brother hung
and weighed the pros and cons the little personal revelation of character contained in them forced itself on her notice it was evident enough from the stiffness of the wording that mister lennox had never forgotten his relation to her
in any interest he might feel in the subject of the correspondence they were clever letters margaret saw that in a twinkling but she missed out of them all hearty and genial atmosphere they were to be preserved however as valuable
so she laid them carefully on one side when this little piece of business was ended she fell into a reverie and the thought of her absent father ran strangely in margaret's head this night
she almost blamed herself for having felt her solitude and consequently his absence as a relief but these two days had set her up afresh with new strength and brighter hope
plans which had lately appeared to her in the guise of tasks now appeared like pleasures the morbid scales had fallen from her eyes and she saw her position and her work more truly if only mister thornton would restore her the lost friendship
nay if he would only come from time to time to cheer her father as in former days though she should never see him she felt as if the course of her future life though not brilliant in prospect might lie clear and even before her
she sighed as she rose up to go to bed in spite of the one step's enough for me in spite of the one plain duty of devotion to her father there lay at her heart an anxiety and a pang of sorrow
and mister hale thought of margaret that april evening just as strangely and as persistently as she was thinking of him he had been fatigued by going about among his old friends and old familiar places
but although some of them might have felt shocked or grieved or indignant at his falling off in the abstract as soon as they saw the face of the man whom they had once loved they forgot his opinions in himself
or only remembered them enough to give an additional tender gravity to their manner for mister hale had not been known to many he had belonged to one of the smaller colleges and had always been shy and reserved
but those who in youth had cared to penetrate to the delicacy of thought and feeling that lay below his silence and indecision took him to their hearts with something of the protecting kindness which they would have shown to a woman
and an interval of so much change overpowered him more than any roughness or expression of disapproval could have done i'm afraid we've done too much said mister bell you're suffering now from having lived so long in that milton air
i am tired said mister hale but it is not milton air i'm fifty five years of age and that little fact of itself accounts for any loss of strength nonsense i'm upwards of sixty and feel no loss of strength either bodily or mental
don't let me hear you talking so fifty five why you're quite a young man mister hale shook his head these last few years said he but after a minute's pause he raised himself from his half recumbent position
in one of mister bell's luxurious easy chairs and said with a kind of trembling earnestness bell you're not to think
and my resignation of my living no not even if i could have known how she would have suffered that i would undo it the act of open acknowledgment that i no longer held the same faith as the church in which i was a priest as i think now
even if i could have foreseen that cruellest martyrdom of suffering through the sufferings of one whom i loved i would have done just the same as far as that step of openly leaving the church went
in all that i subsequently did for my family but i don't think god endued me with over much wisdom or strength he added falling back into his old position mister bell blew his nose ostentatiously before answering
then he said he gave you strength to do what your conscience told you was right and i don't see that we need any higher or holier strength than that or wisdom either i know i have not that much
and yet men set me down in their fool's books as a wise man an independent character strong minded and all that cant the veriest idiot who obeys his own simple law of right if it be but in wiping his shoes on a door mat is wiser and stronger than i
but what gulls men are there was a pause mister hale spoke first in continuation of his thought about margaret well about margaret what then if i die nonsense
what will become of her i often think i suppose the lennoxes will ask her to live with them i try to think they will her aunt shaw loved her well in her own quiet way but she forgets to love the absent
a very common fault what sort of people are the lennoxes he handsome fluent and agreeable edith a sweet little spoiled beauty margaret loves her with all her heart and edith with as much of her heart as she can spare
now hale you know that girl of yours has got pretty nearly all my heart i told you that before of course as your daughter as my god daughter i took great interest in her before i saw her the last time
made me her slave i went a willing old victim following the car of the conqueror for indeed she looks as grand and serene as one who has struggled and may be struggling and yet has the victory secure in sight
yes in spite of all her present anxieties that was the look on her face and so all i have is at her service if she needs it and will be hers whether she will or no when i die moreover i myself
will be her preux chevalier sixty and gouty though i be seriously old friend your daughter shall be my principal charge in life and all the help that either my wit or my wisdom or my willing heart can give shall be hers
i don't choose her out as a subject for fretting something i know of old you must have to worry yourself about or you wouldn't be happy but you're going to outlive me by many a long year
you spare thin men are always tempting and always cheating death it's the stout florid fellows like me that always go off first if mister bell had had a prophetic eye he might have seen the torch all but inverted
and the angel with the grave and composed face standing very nigh beckoning to his friend that night mister hale laid his head down on the pillow on which it never more should stir with life
received no answer to his speech drew near the bed and saw the calm beautiful face lying white and cold under the ineffaceable seal of death the attitude was exquisitely easy there had been no pain no struggle
the action of the heart must have ceased as he lay down mister bell was stunned by the shock and only recovered when the time came for being angry at every suggestion of his man's a coroner's inquest pooh you don't think i poisoned him
poor old hale you wore out that tender heart of yours before its time poor old friend how he talked of his wallis pack up a carpet bag for me in five minutes
i must go to milton by the next train the bag was packed the cab ordered the railway reached in twenty minutes from the moment of this decision the london train whizzed by drew back some yards and in mister bell was hurried by the impatient guard
he threw himself back in his seat to try with closed eyes to understand how one in life yesterday could be dead to day and shortly tears stole out between his grizzled eye lashes at the feeling of which he opened his keen eyes
and looked as severely cheerful as his set determination could make him he was not going to blubber before a set of strangers not he there was no set of strangers only one sitting far from him on the same side
by and bye mister bell peered at him to discover what manner of man it was that might have been observing his emotion and behind the great sheet of the outspread times he recognised mister thornton
why thornton is that you said he removing hastily to a closer proximity he shook mister thornton vehemently by the hand until the gripe ended in a sudden relaxation for the hand was wanted to wipe away tears
he had last seen mister thornton in his friend hale's company i'm going to milton bound on a melancholy errand going to break to hale's daughter the news of his sudden death death mister hale dead
ay i keep saying it to myself hale is dead but it doesn't make it any the more real hale is dead for all that he went to bed well to all appearance last night and was quite cold this morning
when my servant went to call him where i don't understand at oxford he came to stay with me hadn't been in oxford this seventeen years and this is the end of it
not one word was spoken for above a quarter of an hour then mister thornton said and she and stopped full short margaret you mean
poor fellow how full his thoughts were of her all last night good god last night only and how immeasurably distant he is now but i take margaret as my child for his sake
well i take her for both mister thornton made one or two fruitless attempts to speak before he could get out the words what will become of her i rather fancy there will be two people waiting for her myself for one
i would take a live dragon into my house to live if by hiring such a chaperon and setting up an establishment of my own i could make my old age happy with having margaret for a daughter but there are those lennoxes who are they asked mister thornton with trembling interest
oh smart london people who very likely will think they've the best right to her captain lennox married her cousin the girl she was brought up with good enough people i dare say and there's her aunt missus shaw
what brother a brother of her aunt's no no a clever lennox the captain's a fool you must understand a young barrister who will be setting his cap at margaret
one of his chums told me as much and he was only kept back by her want of fortune now that will be done away with how asked mister thornton too earnestly curious to be aware of the impertinence of his question
why she'll have my money at my death and if this henry lennox is half good enough for her and she likes him well i might find another way of getting a home through a marriage i'm dreadfully afraid of being tempted at an unguarded moment by the aunt
neither mister bell nor mister thornton was in a laughing humour so the oddity of any of the speeches which the former made was unnoticed by them mister bell whistled without emitting any sound beyond a long hissing breath
changed his seat without finding comfort or rest while mister thornton sat immoveably still his eyes fixed on one spot in the newspaper which he had taken up in order to give himself leisure to think
where have you been asked mister bell at length to
well cleansed and well cared for machinery and unwashed and neglected hands poor old hale poor old hale if you could have known the change which it was to him from helstone
do you know the new forest at all yes very shortly then you can fancy the difference between it and milton what part were you in were you ever at helstone
you know helstone i have seen it it was a great change to leave it and come to milton he took up his newspaper with a determined air as if resolved to avoid further conversation
and mister bell was fain to resort to his former occupation of trying to find out how he could best break the news to margaret she was at an up stairs window she saw him alight she guessed the truth with an instinctive flash
she stood in the middle of the drawing room as if arrested in her first impulse to rush downstairs and as if by the same restraining thought she had been turned to stone so white and immoveable was she
but she did love god with all her heart and her neighbor as herself this simple country girl young and strong yet so tender hearted and forgetful of self appears to me sometimes like one of the clear brooks of my beloved land pure and fresh
slipping noiselessly between flowered banks of forget me nots it was by love that she conquered as we shall see if some day you should come to my country do not forget that i would have great joy in seeing any of those who have read this book
where on every side there are hills and mountains as far as the eye can reach to me it is the loveliest country in the world and i am sure that paula thought so too
i must not keep you any longer for i am sure you have a great desire to know about paula and anyway i suppose you will have done what i would have done at your age namely read the story first
for which i have already pardoned you and now may god bless you paula dear as you walk among these my young friends who read about you my prayer is that you may shed over them the same sweet ray of celestial light
that you have already shed over others eva lecomte
translator's note paula was originally written in french and translated from thence into spanish and the present translator having discovered this literary and spiritual jewel
felt that it should be given also to the young people of the english speaking world not only that they might know paula herself but that through her they might become more intimately acquainted with paula's saviour
clearly engraved on the walls of my memory there still remains a picture of the great gray house where i spent my childhood it was originally used for more than a hundred years as the convent of the white ladies with its four long galleries
one above the other looking proudly down upon the humbler dwellings of the village
where ran the broad road from rouen to darnetal a high rugged wall surrounded a wide yard guarded at the entrance by two massive doors studded with enormous spikes the naked barrenness of this yard was to say the least
forbidding in the extreme but the fertile fields on the other side of the house spread themselves like a vast and beautiful green carpet dotted here and there with little villages crowned with church spires and their corresponding belfries
from which on a sunday morning pealed out the cheerful call to prayer and worship the ancient convent long before our story begins had been transformed into a lovely dwelling with an immense garden on one side
edged by a dozen little brick houses that seemed
that we used to see in the paris magazines they were known locally as the red cottages a long avenue of ancient elms separated us from these houses of our neighbors
where in the shade of the great trees the old men of the village used to sit and recount to us tales of the days when the convent flourished some of these stories made us shiver indeed they had a habit of straying into our dreams at night
the rest of the land around the convent had
fallen into the hands of the villagers themselves each one had a small space for flowers in front and a vegetable garden behind of course
was a much more pretentious affair with its deep well
and its noisy bee hives in fact it was in our eyes the most enchanting corner of the earth i don't remember all the details about the special thing that happened one day but i know that i shall never forget it to the end of my life
we were at tea in the garden teresa our old servant was walking up and down in her kitchen she never seemed to have time to sit down to eat dear old teresa she always seemed like a mother to me
for we had lost our own dear mother when i was still in the cradle my brother and i had quarrelled over a mere nothing when we were called in to tea by our father of course we did not dare continue our dispute openly in front of him
but we continued our war like activities by kicking each other under the table louis was ten years old and i was nine as he was older and a boy
he of course considered that he had the right to the last word now kicks had replaced words but as we were seated at quite a distance from one another
notwithstanding this
knowing that louis was not very courageous i leaned my chair as far inside as i could and let him have one terrific kick at this his face changed color and my father now disturbed by the extra noise of my kick
finally began to realize what was happening
if teresa had not at this moment come into the garden with a black bordered letter in her hand which she delivered to our father he took it silently and opened it as teresa carried away the tea pot
and i am sure louis noticed it also for he completely forgot to return my kick
called my father all right i'm coming said that good lady read this and tell me what you think of it and my father handed the letter to the old servant teresa seated herself at the end of the table between louis and me
and with her head in her hand commenced to read teresa was not very well educated
who wrote this was her first question the pastor of the village replied my father a minister exclaimed teresa he's a mighty poor writer for a minister and no doubt his mother paid mighty well for his
education my father smiled a bit sadly you don't understand it teresa yes yes i understand half of it and i think i can guess at the other half do you want me to help you offered louis
teresa looked scornfully at louis you i should say not you don't care to help me in the kitchen or run errands for me and the only thing the matter with you now is curiosity that settled louis and teresa went on with her reading
bending her great fat form more and more closely over the letter she became more serious as she neared the bottom of the fourth page where the writing became so close and so fine that it was hardly possible to decipher it
when at last she lifted her head her eyes were full of tears poor poor little thing she repeated softly well what do you think said my father what do i think
who my father interrupted her without ceremony
tell us father please added my sister rosa a tall serious girl of fifteen
patience patience cried my father your turn will come teresa you are getting old and another girl in the house simply means more work for you and a lot more problems for me if she
my father had never been able to reconcile himself to pronounce the name of my mother since her untimely death if
i would not hesitate but to bring another orphan into a family already half orphaned doesn't seem right to me don't worry sir a little more work doesn't worry teresa rouland
she will have to get up a little earlier and go to bed a little later and that will be all well teresa i'll think about it and it needs to be thought about a good deal and why do you say that sir
one doesn't have to reflect long about doing good well i'll tell you why i hesitate i'm sure that someone else could much better replace the parents of this orphaned girl i must confess that for my part i don't feel equal to the task
sir would you like to know what i think you have said to yourself from the time that my wife died life has become a burden and if it wasn't for the children i would have died of grief but for love of them i must work and live
therefore with my heart torn and desolated as it is i don't feel called upon to take any responsibility upon myself other than that of my own children there is a good deal of truth in what you say teresa yes sir
but it is very bad very bad if you will let me say so i know i ought not to talk so as i'm only a poor old servant but remember i was the one that brought up the lovely woman that we all mourn for
and i knew her before you did sir and i loved her as if she were my own child when i put her in the coffin it was as if they had taken out a piece of my own heart she was so young to die so sweet so good
and besides so marvelously beautiful but i dried my tears as best i could
and i said to myself that i would honor the memory of my mistress by doing always that which i knew she would have approved of and now sir take this little orphan as you know your good wife would have done
as the daughter of her beloved sister she stopped suddenly slightly abashed as she realized that perhaps she had said a little too much for one in her station in life but more than her mere words her voice
vibrant with emotion had moved us all to the depths of our souls you are a valiant woman with a great heart my father said as he took her hand i will write this very night and ask them to send the girl to us as soon as possible
then turning to us he added you no doubt know by this time of whom we have been speaking your cousin paula has just lost her father
and we are her nearest relatives your uncle's friends have written me
more or less she will be among us we opened our mouths to ask a thousand questions but father stopped us no no that is enough for now
when louis returned at the end of the week he was surprised to find paula so happy and contented he found her in the kitchen helping teresa to dry the dishes one would think said he
that you had been with us for many months instead of a few days
much more embarrassed in his presence than she had been with us it may have been the school uniform that did it but louis like the good hearted lad that he was did what he could to make her feel at home presently
out we went into the garden to play not without an anxious look from teresa for she knew that when louis came into any situation he generally caused trouble when however
we returned with our aprons decorated with mud but still happy the good old lady heaved a sigh of relief the fact is that when louis played with us he always acted as he did with the boys at school but no matter what happened
paula seemed afraid of nothing when it came to running races
that she could even beat him at this
if she happened to fall and hurt herself she'd rub an injured knee with a laugh or sucked a stubbed finger without further comment and go on playing as if nothing had happened but in spite of entering wholeheartedly into all our fun
it was easy to see that our servant had well named her the daughter of the good god she was always ready to step aside and let others take the first place
to recover a ball at whatever distance when a dispute arose as to who should get it or to look for a lost kite no matter how thick the brambles might be no wonder louis was quite content to have such an accommodating companion
then the moment arrived when we must go back to the house that fatal time always seemed to arrive on the wings of the wind teresa seldom had any time to come and call us but she relied on louis as he had a watch
beside all that we could clearly hear the hour strike in the great clock on darnetal church listen cried paula woefully it's nine o'clock and teresa said we must go back to the house at nine oh shut up
said louis he had just started a thrilling new game of jumping from a high wall i'll tell you when it's time to go home now are you ready hurry up paula get the ladder there it is under the cherry tree
paula obediently ran and returned with the required ladder and helped louis put it in position saying at the same time but louis you know well that teresa told us that we must be in at nine o'clock
oh yes i heard it said louis ill humoredly well then we must go oh not yet
no five minutes won't make any great difference of course said paula slowly and it certainly is lovely here but teresa ordered us in at nine o'clock i'll run and ask her if we cannot stay another fifteen minutes
certainly not sneered louis teresa would never give permission now hurry up you're first on the wall paula no i'm not going to stay teresa will be angry no no never fear
besides she'll never know i think she's out well she'll know when she returns she'll ask us what time we came in
and louis took out his watch i can fix that matter easily we both looked over his shoulder at the watch which by this time clearly pointed to five minutes after the hour suddenly we saw the hands of the watch begin to turn backwards
now said louis what time it is half past eight answered paula lifting astonished eyes to her cousin's face well if it's half past eight why do you look at me like that because i don't understand
then i'll show her my watch but cried paula quite upset
nonsense you foolish youngster that's not a lie we'll go from here at the dot of nine according to my watch and that's what i'll tell teresa in case she asks us of course if she doesn't ask us
we don't have to say anything besides i do it for you and lisita for if you were boys instead of girls there would be no reason to return so early now up with you yes or no
not i said paula with a heightened color louis was furious no you say oh he laughed the wall's too high paula looked at the wall it was certainly high
no she said i'm not afraid to jump
to keep them from straying into our neighbor's pastures but i tell you now we promised teresa to return at nine o'clock and i'm not going to disobey her then it was that i joined in on the side of louis
if you're always going to obey teresa you'll never have a quiet moment then are you too going to stay with louis paula asked sadly of course cried louis without giving me time to reply
paula who was seated on the lowest rung of the ladder immediately stepped aside and soon louis was on the wall now it's your turn he called to me i followed my brother as paula slowly moved away up the garden walk
i'm going back with paula i said to louis then from the top of the wall i saw her turn her head for one last look oh let her go said louis she can find her own way
i'm afraid the little fool is going to become impossible now do as i do but be sure and don't break your nose for teresa will blame me you jump first i said getting afraid are you
in the middle of a pansy bed
oh oh i cried viewing the ruin that louis had made now won't teresa be angry indeed well why should i care said louis
now hurry up and jump we'll fix it up and water it and she'll know nothing about what happened oh louis i'm afraid
i'll catch you if you fall don't be a fraidcat just at that moment i would have done anything rather than jump i'm coming down by the ladder no you'll do no such thing now come on don't be a coward
just at this moment we heard a voice calling
lisita louis turned to see paula calling us from the bottom of the garden and now what do you want cried louis
i profited by this diversion to come rapidly down the ladder i was almost at the house answered paula coming nearer but i didn't go in because i didn't want to meet teresa why not
because i didn't know what to say to her if she should ask me where you two were well
that's why i've come back to look for you
come now won't you my brother seemed to hesitate you know i hated to disobey added paula with tears in her eyes and at the same time i don't like to be a tattle tale won't you please come home now with me
louis was a good hearted lad in spite of his shortcomings therefore seeing his young cousin beginning to cry he said all right let's go anyway i can't play the way i want especially with a pair of youngsters like you two but
look here paula you forgot the ladder take it away now if you want us to play up to all your nonsense
paula arrives for nearly a week i couldn't think of another thing but the coming of paula my father had gone to paris he would be there some days to arrange certain important matters of business in connection with his factory
and also to wait for the little orphan to be placed in his care
in school i talked of nothing else in fact i talked about her all day and every day i learned nothing nor could i seem to do anything around the house
one night while dreaming i jumped from the bed crying paula paula this awakened teresa and she made me take some nasty medicine thinking i had fever i made promises of reform i wanted to be good
studious and patient in order to be an example to paula who would see my good qualities and would thus endeavor to imitate me nevertheless i became absolutely insufferable my older sisters without being quite so enthusiastic as i was
nevertheless spoke often of paula catalina began to worry that paula might suffer in our house but she soon consoled herself by remembering that my father had promised to put her out to board if it turned out that she could not get along
amicably with us as to louis he soon showed us that he was not at all interested in the arrival of his young cousin
it would have been different but a girl teresa spoke very little as to paula but i am persuaded that long before the arrival of our little orphan cousin she had been given a large place in our old servant's heart she found a little white bed up in the attic
at last the great day arrived it was a wednesday
we did not know at what hour my father would come from paris with paula and so every moment i said to myself perhaps they have arrived result
to worse but at last at five in the afternoon i reached the house breathless only to find that paula had not yet come they are not coming i cried impatiently i knew they wouldn't be here
then why did you run so fast teresa asked i said nothing but soon rosa also arrived and after tea i put all my books in order redressed my dolls got rid of the ink on my hands with pumice stone
and in between each task took a turn in the garden on the passing of any coach but always with the same result would they ever arrive then came supper time
catalina had been up and dressed all day and would not hear of going to bed until paula came
but night had arrived the lamps had been lighted and we had resigned ourselves to wait without the consolation of seeing the road from the window then suddenly oh joy we heard a faint sound of wheels in the distance then clearer
and clearer as they rattled over the pavement of the deserted street
i had a wild desire to run out in the dark to receive my young cousin for whom i had waited all these weeks but something seemed to detain me then while i waited questioning myself as to what i would say to paula
trying to remember all the many counsels of teresa our old servant staggered in from the yard with a great bag in each hand then our father entered with a young girl at his side dressed in black paula had come
in anticipation i had fancied paula as a pale sad little girl with blue eyes full of tears she would have golden hair very smooth cut off at the base of her ears
and would be dressed in black muslin and wear a straw hat with a black ribbon tied under her chin but here was a different paula she was large for her age and appeared quite strong her frank open face
bronzed with the sun and air showed health and intelligence
wide ribbon of the same color failed to entirely hide a magnificent head of brown hair gathered beneath her cap after the manner of the waldensians her simple dress of black and gray stripes reached almost to her ankles
a black shawl whose points passed under her arms and were knotted behind protected her shoulders while a pair of great thick shoes completed her attire in spite of what to our mind was a certain quaint oddness in her dress
it could not hide paula's beauty her forehead was broad and intelligent her large brown eyes were full of a certain sweetness and a lovely smile played on her half opened lips come
embrace your young cousin and give her a hearty welcome rosa came forward and i timidly did the same but paula dropping father's hand rushed toward rosa and then to me
she seemed to forget her long voyage and her weariness as she repeated to each one of us in her melodious voice i know i shall love you all and my uncle charles here i already love him and he has told me all your names let me see
this is rosa and then turning to me you are lisita oh if you only knew how much i love you all now go and greet your cousin catalina said my father she is the sick one he added softly
paula drew near the big chair where the sick girl re clined catalina was smiling sadly at the young stranger do you also love me a little asked my eldest sister with tenderness and infinite care
paula enveloped her in her strong arms i already love you with all my heart she said laying her head against catalina's shoulder have you ever been sick paula she questioned her no but papa was
she said in a trembling tone at this moment teresa arrived carrying in the final bag at last she said embracing paula do you know who i am then seeing that paula viewed her a bit strangely she added
i am only old teresa it was i who brought up your dear mother and i thought i would have to do the same with you but it looks to me as if you wouldn't need very much of my care you are so large and healthy much bigger than lisita here
how old are you pray i am ten years old madame oh don't call me madame call me teresa just as your mother did many years ago and teresa took the lamp and brought it close to paula no
you hardly have any similiarity in your face but your voice is like hers now let me hug you once more my treasure and teresa pressed to her heart the motherless child in my country they say i am like papa
and i will show it to you show it to us now i shouted but teresa interrupted me what a child you are when poor paula is so tired tomorrow will be time enough
the meal for the young traveler had been prepared on the end of the great table where teresa had placed buttered toast and jam
there you are paula teresa said drawing her to the table sit down and eat and the others said paula looking at us oh we ate long ago said rosa
i think we might eat a little bread and jam to accompany her i said then everybody laughed i think lisita is right for once said teresa always happy when she was able to give us a bit of pleasure and i think paula will be a little more comfortable that way
now then paula are you not hungry asked teresa with her hand on the lock of the kitchen door yes madame that is yes teresa begin then lisita doesn't need any urging
paula looked at us one after the other and then looked at teresa as if she would say something as teresa remained looking on in an astonished manner
paula got down from her chair and stood in front of her now cooling cup of hot milk she placed her hands together closing her eyes and bending her head a little she said slowly and deliberately in a low voice
the food which we receive o lord
in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost
chapter twenty three nay if the gentle spirit of moving words can no way change you to a milder form i'll woo you like a soldier at arms end
and love you gainst the nature of love force you
the apartment to which the lady rowena had been introduced was fitted up with some rude attempts at ornament and magnificence and her being placed there
might be considered as a peculiar mark of respect not offered to the other prisoners but the wife of front de boeuf for whom it had been originally furnished was long dead
and decay and neglect had impaired the few ornaments with which her taste had adorned it the tapestry hung down from the walls in many places and in others was tarnished and faded under the effects of the sun
or tattered and decayed by age desolate however as it was this was the apartment of the castle which had been judged most fitting for the accommodation of the saxon heiress and here she was left to meditate upon her fate
had arranged the several parts which each of them was to perform this had been settled in a council held by front de boeuf de bracy and the templar
in which after a long and warm debate concerning the several advantages which each insisted upon deriving from his peculiar share in this audacious enterprise they had at length determined the fate of their unhappy prisoners
it was about the hour of noon therefore when de bracy for whose advantage the expedition had been first planned appeared to prosecute his views upon the hand and possessions of the lady rowena
the interval had not entirely been bestowed in holding council with his confederates for de bracy had found leisure to decorate his person with all the foppery of the times
his green cassock and vizard were now flung aside his long luxuriant hair was trained to flow in quaint tresses down his richly furred cloak his beard was closely shaved his doublet reached to the middle of his leg
and the girdle which secured it and at the same time supported his ponderous sword was embroidered and embossed with gold work we have already noticed the extravagant fashion of the shoes at this period and the points of maurice de bracy's
might have challenged the prize of extravagance with the gayest being turned up and twisted like the horns of a ram such was the dress of a gallant of the period and in the present instance that effect was aided by the handsome person
and good demeanour of the wearer whose manners partook alike of the grace of a courtier and the frankness of a soldier he saluted rowena by doffing his velvet bonnet garnished with a golden broach
representing saint michael trampling down the prince of evil with this he gently motioned the lady to a seat and as she still retained her standing posture the knight ungloved his right hand and motioned to conduct her thither
but rowena declined by her gesture the proffered compliment and replied if i be in the presence of my jailor sir knight nor will circumstances allow me to think otherwise
it best becomes his prisoner to remain standing till she learns her doom alas fair rowena returned de bracy you are in presence of your captive not your jailor
and it is from your fair eyes that de bracy must receive that doom which you fondly expect from him i know you not sir said the lady drawing herself up with all the pride of offended rank and beauty i know you not
and the insolent familiarity with which you apply to me the jargon of a troubadour forms no apology for the violence of a robber to thyself fair maid answered de bracy in his former tone
to thine own charms be ascribed whate'er i have done which passed the respect due to her whom i have chosen queen of my heart and lodestar of my eyes i repeat to you sir knight that i know you not
that i am unknown to you said de bracy is indeed my misfortune yet let me hope that de bracy's name has not been always unspoken when minstrels or heralds have praised deeds of chivalry
whether in the lists or in the battle field to heralds and to minstrels then leave thy praise sir knight replied rowena
a conquest obtained over an old man followed by a few timid hinds and its booty an unfortunate maiden transported against her will to the castle of a robber you are unjust lady rowena said the knight
biting his lips in some confusion and speaking in a tone more natural to him than that of affected gallantry which he had at first adopted yourself free from passion you can allow no excuse for the frenzy of another
although caused by your own beauty i pray you sir knight said rowena to cease a language so commonly used by strolling minstrels that it becomes not the mouth of knights or nobles
you constrain me to sit down since you enter upon such commonplace terms of which each vile crowder hath a stock that might last from hence to christmas proud damsel said de bracy
incensed at finding his gallant style procured him nothing but contempt proud damsel thou shalt be as proudly encountered know then that i have supported my pretensions to your hand in the way that best suited thy character
than in set terms and in courtly language courtesy of tongue said rowena when it is used to veil churlishness of deed is but a knight's girdle around the breast of a base clown
i wonder not that the restraint appears to gall you more it were for your honour to have retained the dress and language of an outlaw than to veil the deeds of one under an affectation of gentle language and demeanour
you counsel well lady said the norman and in the bold language which best justifies bold action i tell thee thou shalt never leave this castle or thou shalt leave it as maurice de bracy's wife
i am not wont to be baffled in my enterprises nor needs a norman noble scrupulously to vindicate his conduct to the saxon maiden whom he distinguishes by the offer of his hand thou art proud rowena
and thou art the fitter to be my wife by what other means couldst thou be raised to high honour and to princely place saving by my alliance how else wouldst thou escape from the mean precincts of a country grange
where saxons herd with the swine which form their wealth to take thy seat honoured as thou shouldst be and shalt be amid all in england that is distinguished by beauty or dignified by power sir knight
replied rowena the grange which you contemn hath been my shelter from infancy and trust me when i leave it should that day ever arrive it shall be with one who has not learnt to despise the dwelling and manners in which i have been brought up
i guess your meaning lady said de bracy though you may think it lies too obscure for my apprehension
far less that wilfred of ivanhoe his minion will ever lead thee to his footstool to be there welcomed as the bride of a favourite another suitor might feel jealousy while he touched this string
but my firm purpose cannot be changed by a passion so childish and so hopeless know lady that this rival is in my power and that it rests but with me to betray the secret of his being within the castle to front de boeuf
whose jealousy will be more fatal than mine wilfred here said rowena in disdain that is as true as that front de boeuf is his rival de bracy looked at her steadily for an instant
wert thou really ignorant of this said he didst thou not know that wilfred of ivanhoe travelled in the litter of the jew a meet conveyance for the crusader whose doughty arm was to reconquer the holy sepulchre
and he laughed scornfully and if he is here said rowena compelling herself to a tone of indifference though trembling with an agony of apprehension which she could not suppress in what is he the rival of front de boeuf
or what has he to fear beyond a short imprisonment and an honourable ransom according to the use of chivalry rowena said de bracy art thou too deceived by the common error of thy sex
who think there can be no rivalry but that respecting their own charms knowest thou not there is a jealousy of ambition and of wealth as well as of love and that this our host front de boeuf
as readily eagerly and unscrupulously as if he were preferred to him by some blue eyed damsel but smile on my suit lady and the wounded champion shall have nothing to fear from front de boeuf whom else thou mayst mourn for
as in the hands of one who has never shown compassion save him for the love of heaven said rowena her firmness giving way under terror for her lover's impending fate i can i will
it is my purpose said de bracy for when rowena consents to be the bride of de bracy who is it shall dare to put forth a violent hand upon her kinsman the son of her guardian the companion of her youth
but it is thy love must buy his protection i am not romantic fool enough to further the fortune or avert the fate of one who is likely to be a successful obstacle between me and my wishes
use thine influence with me in his behalf and he is safe refuse to employ it wilfred dies and thou thyself art not the nearer to freedom thy language answered rowena
hath in its indifferent bluntness something which cannot be reconciled with the horrors it seems to express i believe not that thy purpose is so wicked or thy power so great
flatter thyself then with that belief said de bracy until time shall prove it false thy lover lies wounded in this castle thy preferred lover he is a bar betwixt front de boeuf
and that which front de boeuf loves better than either ambition or beauty what will it cost beyond the blow of a poniard or the thrust of a javelin to silence his opposition for ever nay were front de boeuf afraid to justify a deed so open
let the leech but give his patient a wrong draught let the chamberlain or the nurse who tends him but pluck the pillow from his head and wilfred in his present condition is sped without the effusion of blood cedric also
and cedric also said rowena repeating his words my noble my generous guardian i deserved the evil i have encountered for forgetting his fate even in that of his son
said de bracy and i leave thee to form it hitherto rowena had sustained her part in this trying scene with undismayed courage but it was because she had not considered the danger as serious and imminent
her disposition was naturally that which physiognomists consider as proper to fair complexions mild timid and gentle but it had been tempered and as it were hardened by the circumstances of her education
accustomed to see the will of all even of cedric himself sufficiently arbitrary with others give way before her wishes she had acquired that sort of courage and self confidence
which arises from the habitual and constant deference of the circle in which we move she could scarce conceive the possibility of her will being opposed far less that of its being treated with total disregard
her haughtiness and habit of domination was therefore a fictitious character induced over that which was natural to her and it deserted her when her eyes were opened to the extent of her own danger
as well as that of her lover and her guardian and when she found her will the slightest expression of which was wont to command respect and attention now placed in opposition to that of a man of a strong fierce and determined mind
who possessed the advantage over her and was resolved to use it she quailed before him after casting her eyes around as if to look for the aid which was nowhere to be found and after a few broken interjections
she raised her hands to heaven and burst into a passion of uncontrolled vexation and sorrow it was impossible to see so beautiful a creature in such extremity without feeling for her and de bracy was not unmoved
though he was yet more embarrassed than touched he had in truth gone too far to recede and yet in rowena's present condition she could not be acted on either by argument or threats he paced the apartment to and fro
now vainly exhorting the terrified maiden to compose herself now hesitating concerning his own line of conduct if thought he i should be moved by the tears and sorrow of this disconsolate damsel
and the ridicule of prince john and his jovial comrades and yet he said to himself i feel myself ill framed for the part which i am playing
he could only bid the unfortunate rowena be comforted and assure her that as yet she had no reason for the excess of despair to which she was now giving way but in this task of consolation de bracy was interrupted by the horn
hoarse winded blowing far and keen which had at the same time alarmed the other inmates of the castle and interrupted their several plans of avarice and of license
of them all perhaps de bracy least regretted the interruption for his conference with the lady rowena had arrived at a point where he found it equally difficult to prosecute or to resign his enterprise
and here we cannot but think it necessary to offer some better proof than the incidents of an idle tale to vindicate the melancholy representation of manners which has been just laid before the reader
it is grievous to think that those valiant barons to whose stand against the crown the liberties of england were indebted for their existence should themselves have been such dreadful oppressors
and capable of excesses contrary not only to the laws of england but to those of nature and humanity but alas we have only to extract from the industrious henry
to prove that fiction itself can hardly reach the dark reality of the horrors of the period
the description given by the author of the saxon chronicle of the cruelties exercised in the reign of king stephen by the great barons and lords of castles who were all normans
affords a strong proof of the excesses of which they were capable when their passions were inflamed they grievously oppressed the poor people by building castles and when they were built they filled them with wicked men or rather devils
who seized both men and women who they imagined had any money threw them into prison and put them to more cruel tortures than the martyrs ever endured they suffocated some in mud and suspended others by the feet or the head
or the thumbs kindling fires below them they squeezed the heads of some with knotted cords till they pierced their brains while they threw others into dungeons swarming with serpents snakes and toads
though a daughter of the king of scotland
the daughter the wife and the mother of monarchs was obliged during her early residence for education in england to assume the veil of a nun as the only means of escaping the licentious pursuit of the norman nobles
as the sole reason for her having taken the religious habit the assembled clergy admitted the validity of the plea and the notoriety of the circumstances upon which it was founded giving thus an indubitable and most remarkable testimony
to the existence of that disgraceful license by which that age was stained it was a matter of public knowledge they said that after the conquest of king william his norman followers elated by so great a victory
but invaded the honour of their wives and of their daughters with the most unbridled license and hence it was then common for matrons and maidens of noble families to assume the veil and take shelter in convents
not as called thither by the vocation of god but solely to preserve their honour from the unbridled wickedness of man such and so licentious were the times as announced by the public declaration of the assembled clergy recorded by eadmer
should permit them to attend to the calls of their half satiated appetite we have to look in upon the yet more severe imprisonment of isaac of york the poor jew had been hastily thrust into a dungeon vault of the castle
the floor of which was deep beneath the level of the ground and very damp being lower than even the moat itself the only light was received through one or two loop holes far above the reach of the captive's hand
these apertures admitted even at mid day only a dim and uncertain light which was changed for utter darkness long before the rest of the castle had lost the blessing of day chains and shackles
which had been the portion of former captives from whom active exertions to escape had been apprehended hung rusted and empty on the walls of the prison and in the rings of one of those sets of fetters
there remained two mouldering bones which seemed to have been once those of the human leg as if some prisoner had been left not only to perish there but to be consumed to a skeleton
at one end of this ghastly apartment was a large fire grate over the top of which were stretched some transverse iron bars half devoured with rust
the whole appearance of the dungeon might have appalled a stouter heart than that of isaac who nevertheless was more composed under the imminent pressure of danger than he had seemed to be while affected by terrors
of which the cause was as yet remote and contingent the lovers of the chase say that the hare feels more agony during the pursuit of the greyhounds
by the very frequency of their fear on all occasions had their minds in some degree prepared for every effort of tyranny which could be practised upon them so that no aggression when it had taken place could bring with it that surprise
which is the most disabling quality of terror neither was it the first time that isaac had been placed in circumstances so dangerous he had therefore experience to guide him as well as hope that he might again
as formerly be delivered as a prey from the fowler above all he had upon his side the unyielding obstinacy of his nation and that unbending resolution with which israelites have been frequently known to submit to the uttermost evils
which power and violence can inflict upon them rather than gratify their oppressors by granting their demands in this humour of passive resistance
and with his garment collected beneath him to keep his limbs from the wet pavement isaac sat in a corner of his dungeon where his folded hands his dishevelled hair and beard his furred cloak and high cap
would have afforded a study for rembrandt had that celebrated painter existed at the period the jew remained without altering his position for nearly three hours at the expiry of which
steps were heard on the dungeon stair the bolts screamed as they were withdrawn the hinges creaked as the wicket opened and reginald front de boeuf
entered the prison front de boeuf a tall and strong man whose life had been spent in public war or in private feuds and broils and who had hesitated at no means of extending his feudal power
had features corresponding to his character and which strongly expressed the fiercer and more malignant passions of the mind the scars with which his visage was seamed would on features of a different cast
have excited the sympathy and veneration due to the marks of honourable valour but in the peculiar case of front de boeuf they only added to the ferocity of his countenance and to the dread which his presence inspired
this formidable baron was clad in a leathern doublet fitted close to his body which was frayed and soiled with the stains of his armour he had no weapon excepting a poniard at his belt
which served to counterbalance the weight of the bunch of rusty keys that hung at his right side the black slaves who attended front de boeuf were stripped of their gorgeous apparel
and attired in jerkins and trowsers of coarse linen their sleeves being tucked up above the elbow like those of butchers when about to exercise their function in the slaughter house each had in his hand a small pannier
and when they entered the dungeon they stopt at the door until front de boeuf himself carefully locked and double locked it having taken this precaution he advanced slowly up the apartment towards the jew
upon whom he kept his eye fixed as if he wished to paralyze him with his glance as some animals are said to fascinate their prey it seemed indeed as if the sullen and malignant eye of front de boeuf
possessed some portion of that supposed power over his unfortunate prisoner the jew sat with his mouth agape and his eyes fixed on the savage baron with such earnestness of terror
that his frame seemed literally to shrink together and to diminish in size while encountering the fierce norman's fixed and baleful gaze
the unhappy isaac was deprived not only of the power of rising to make the obeisance which his terror dictated but he could not even doff his cap or utter any word of supplication
so strongly was he agitated by the conviction that tortures and death were impending over him on the other hand the stately form of the norman appeared to dilate in magnitude like that of the eagle
which ruffles up its plumage when about to pounce on its defenceless prey he paused within three steps of the corner in which the unfortunate jew had now as it were coiled himself up into the smallest possible space
and made a sign for one of the slaves to approach the black satellite came forward accordingly and producing from his basket a large pair of scales and several weights he laid them at the feet of front de boeuf
and again retired to the respectful distance at which his companion had already taken his station the motions of these men were slow and solemn as if there impended over their souls
some preconception of horror and of cruelty front de boeuf himself opened the scene by thus addressing his ill fated captive most accursed dog of an accursed race
he said awaking with his deep and sullen voice the sullen echoes of his dungeon vault seest thou these scales the unhappy jew returned a feeble affirmative
said the relentless baron a thousand silver pounds after the just measure and weight of the tower of london holy abraham returned the jew finding voice through the very extremity of his danger
heard man ever such a demand who ever heard even in a minstrel's tale of such a sum as a thousand pounds of silver what human sight was ever blessed with the vision of such a mass of treasure not within the walls of york
ransack my house and that of all my tribe wilt thou find the tithe of that huge sum of silver that thou speakest of i am reasonable
at the rate of a mark of gold for each six pounds of silver thou shalt free thy unbelieving carcass from such punishment as thy heart has never even conceived have mercy on me noble knight
exclaimed isaac i am old and poor and helpless it were unworthy to triumph over me it is a poor deed to crush a worm old thou mayst be replied the knight
feeble thou mayst be for when had a jew either heart or hand
i swear to you noble knight said the jew by all which i believe and by all which we believe in common perjure not thyself said the norman interrupting him and let not thine obstinacy seal thy doom
think not i speak to thee only to excite thy terror and practise on the base cowardice thou hast derived from thy tribe i swear to thee by that which thou dost not believe by the gospel which our church teaches
and by the keys which are given her to bind and to loose that my purpose is deep and peremptory this dungeon is no place for trifling prisoners ten thousand times more distinguished than thou have died within these walls
and their fate hath never been known but for thee is reserved a long and lingering death to which theirs were luxury he again made a signal for the slaves to approach and spoke to them apart in their own language
where perhaps he had learnt his lesson of cruelty
the black silk gowns the heath twins miss priscilla and miss amelia rose early that morning and the world looked very beautiful to them one does not buy a black silk gown every day at least miss priscilla and miss amelia did not
they had waited indeed quite forty years to buy this one the women of the heath family had always possessed a black silk gown it was a sort of outward symbol of inward respectability an unfailing indicator
of their proud position as members of one of the old families
and calls after one had turned thirty such had been the code of the heath family for generations as miss priscilla and miss amelia well knew and it was this that had made all the harder their own fate
that their twenty first birthday was now forty years behind them and not yet had either of them attained this cachet of respectability to day however there was to come a change
no longer need the carefully sponged and darned black alpaca gowns flaunt their wearers poverty to the world and no longer would they force these same wearers to seek dark corners and sunless rooms lest the full extent of that poverty become known
it had taken forty years of the most rigid economy to save the necessary money but it was saved now and the dresses were to be bought long ago there had been enough for one
but neither of the women had so much as thought of the possibility of buying one silk gown it was sometimes said in the town that if one of the heath twins strained her eyes
and it is not to be supposed that two sisters whose sympathies were so delicately attuned would consent to appear clad one in new silk and the other in old alpaca in spite of their early rising that morning
it was quite ten o'clock before miss priscilla and miss amelia had brought the house into the state of speckless nicety that would not shame the lustrous things that were so soon to be sheltered beneath its roof
not that either of the ladies expressed this sentiment in words or even in their thoughts they merely went about their work that morning with the reverent joy that a devoted priestess might feel in making ready a shrine for its idol
they had to hurry a little to get themselves ready for the eleven o'clock stage that passed their door and they were still a little breathless when they boarded the train at the home station for the city twenty miles away
the city where were countless yards of shimmering silk waiting to be bought in the city that night at least six clerks went home with an unusual weariness in their arms
which came from lifting down and displaying almost their entire stock of black silk but with all the weariness there was no irritation there was only in their nostrils a curious perfume as of lavender and old lace and in their hearts
a strange exaltation as if they had that day been allowed a glad part in a sacred rite as for miss priscilla and miss amelia they went home awed yet triumphant when one has waited forty years to make a purchase
one does not make that purchase lightly to morrow we will go over to mis snow's and see about having them made up said miss priscilla with a sigh of content as the stage lumbered through the dusty home streets yes we want them rich but plain
supplemented miss amelia rapturously dear me priscilla but i am tired in spite of their weariness the sisters did not get to bed very early that night they could not decide whether the top drawer of the spare room bureau
only to slip out of bed later after a much longer discussion and put it back even then they did not sleep well for the first time in their lives they knew the responsibility that comes with possessions they feared burglars
with the morning sun however came peace and joy no moth nor rust nor thief had appeared and the lustrous lengths of shimmering silk defied the sun itself to find spot or blemish
it looks even nicer than it did in the store don't it murmured miss priscilla ecstatically as she hovered over the glistening folds that she had draped in riotous luxury across the chair back yes oh yes breathed miss amelia now
black silk black silk ticked the clock to miss priscilla washing dishes at the kitchen sink you've got a black silk you've got a black silk chirped the robins to miss amelia looking for weeds in the garden
at ten o'clock the sisters left the house each with a long brown parcel
the sisters were back again still carrying the parcels their faces wore a look of mingled triumph and defeat as if we could have that beautiful silk put into a plaited skirt quavered miss priscilla
of course they do almost sobbed miss amelia only think of it priscilla our silk cracked we will just wait until the styles change said miss priscilla with an air of finality they won't always wear plaits
and we know all the time that we've really got the dresses only they aren't made up finished miss amelia in tearful triumph so the silk was laid away in two big rolls and for another year
and down the aisle of the church on sunday their owners no longer sought shadowed corners and sunless rooms however it was not as if one were obliged to wear sponged and darned alpacas plaits were out next year
and the heath sisters were among the first to read it in the fashion notes once more on a bright spring morning miss priscilla and miss amelia left the house tenderly bearing in their arms the brown paper parcels and once more they returned
the brown parcels still in their arms there was an air of indecision about them this time you see amelia it seemed foolish almost wicked miss priscilla was saying to put such a lot of that expensive silk into just sleeves
i know it sighed her sister of course i want the dresses just as much as you do went on miss priscilla more confidently but when i thought of allowing mis snow to slash into that beautiful silk and just waste it on those great balloon sleeves
i i simply couldn't give my consent and tisn't as though we hadn't got the dresses no indeed agreed miss amelia lifting her chin and so once more the rolls of black silk were laid away in the great box
with the oblong brown parcels there was no indecision about them there was only righteous scorn and do you really think that mis snow expected us to allow that silk to be cut up into those skimpy little skin tight bags she called skirts
demanded miss priscilla in a shaking voice why amelia we couldn't ever make them over of course we couldn't and when skirts got bigger what could we do cried miss amelia
why i'd rather never have a black silk dress than to have one like that that just couldn't be changed we'll go on wearing the gowns we have it isn't as if everybody didn't know we had these black silk dresses when the fourth spring came
the rolls of silk were not even taken from their box except to be examined with tender care and replaced in the enveloping paper miss priscilla was not well for weeks she had spent most of her waking hours on the sitting room couch
weaker and more hollow eyed you see dear i i am not well enough now to wear it she said faintly to her sister one day when they had been talking about the black silk gowns but you
with black silk scraps it's for miss priscilla and miss amelia said missus snow with tears in her eyes in answer to the questions that were asked it's their black silk gowns you know but i thought they were ill almost dying
gasped the questioner the little dressmaker nodded her head then she smiled even while she brushed her eyes with her fingers they are but they're happy they're even happy in this touching the dress in her lap
they've been forty years buying it and four making it up never until now could they decide to use it never until now could they be sure they wouldn't want to to make it over the little dressmaker's voice broke then went on tremulously
a summons home missus thaddeus clayton came softly into the room and looked with apprehensive eyes upon the little old man in the rocking chair
he returned cheerily i'm feelin real pert too was there lots there an did parson drew say a heap o fine things missus clayton dropped into a chair
i i most wished it was mine harriet she gave a shamed faced laugh well i did then jehiel and hannah jane would a come an i could a seen em the horrified look on the old man's face
gave way to a broad smile oh harriet harriet he chuckled how could ye seen em if you was dead huh well i thaddeus her voice rose sharply in the silent room
and annabel too only think what poor mis perkins would a given ter seen em fore she went but they waited waited thaddeus
come i'd a had em come before while ella perkins could a feasted her eyes on em thaddeus missus clayton rose to her feet and stretched out two gaunt hands longingly thaddeus i get so hungry sometimes for jehiel and hannah jane
i know i know dearie quavered the old man vigorously polishing his glasses fifty years ago my first baby came resumed the woman in tremulous tones
then another came and another till i'd had six i loved em an tended em an cared fer em an didn't have a thought but was fer them babies four died her voice broke then went on with renewed strength
but i've got jehiel and hannah jane left at least i've got two bits of paper that comes mebbe once a month an one of em's signed your dutiful son jehiel an
ventured mister clayton letters wailed his wife i can't hug an kiss letters though i try to sometimes i want warm flesh an blood in my arms thaddeus i want ter look down into jehiel's blue eyes an hear him call me dear old mumsey
as he used to i wouldn't ask em ter stay i ain't unreasonable thaddeus i know they can't do that
who knows she shook her head dismally
he's never been home since why thaddeus we've got a grandson most eighteen that we hain't even seen
yes yes well we'll ask em harriet again
comforted the old man we'll ask em ter be here the fourth that's eight weeks off yet
two letters that were certainly urgent like left the new england farmhouse the next morning one was addressed to a thriving western city the other to chattanooga tennessee in course of time the answers came
but i guess we can't go just yet of course if anything serious should come up
was glad to hear father was gaining so fast your loving daughter hannah jane the letter dropped from missus clayton's fingers and lay unheeded on the floor the woman covered her face with her hands and rocked her body back and forth
there there dearie soothed the old man huskily
i shouldn't wonder now if jehiel would come there there don't take on so harriet don't i jest know jehiel'll come a week later missus clayton found another letter in the rural delivery box
her eager thumb was almost under the flap of the envelope when she hesitated eyed the letter uncertainly and thrust it into the pocket of her calico gown all day it lay there save at times which indeed were of frequent occurrence
when she took it from its hiding place pressed it to her cheek or gloried in every curve of the boldly written address at night after the lamp was lighted she said to her husband in tones so low he could scarcely hear
thaddeus i i had a letter from jehiel to day you did and never told me why harriet what he paused helplessly i i haven't read it thaddeus she stammered
i couldn't bear to someway i don't know why but i couldn't you read it she held out the letter with shaking hands he took it giving her a sharp glance from anxious eyes as he began to read aloud she checked him
then tell me as he read she watched his face the light died from her eyes and her chin quivered as she saw the stern lines deepen around his mouth
and laid it down without a word thaddeus ye don't mean he didn't say read it i i can't choked the old man she reached slowly for the sheet of paper
i don't mean to let so many weeks go by without a letter from me but somehow the time just gets away from me before i know it minnie is well and deep in spring sewing and house cleaning i know because dressmaker's bills are beginning to come in
and every time i go home i find a carpet up in a new place
i know if you could see him business is rushing
she stared at the letter long minutes with wide open tearless eyes then she slowly folded it and put it back in its envelope harriet
began the old man timidly don't thaddeus please don't she interrupted i
and she rose unsteadily to her feet and moved toward the kitchen door for a time missus clayton went about her work in a silence quite unusual while her husband watched her with troubled eyes
his heart grieved over the bowed head and drooping shoulders and over the blurred eyes that were so often surreptitiously wiped on a corner of the gingham apron but at the end of a week the little old woman accosted him
with a face full of aggressive yet anxious determination
i've been thinkin it all out an i've decided
harriet are ye gone crazy have ye gone clean mad she looked at him appealingly
he shuddered oh not ter make believe as i shall she protested eagerly it's make believe why yes of course you'll have ter be the one ter do it
hannah jane herself said that if anythin serious came up it would be diff'rent well i'm goin ter have somethin serious come up but harriet now thaddeus begged the woman almost crying
i've thought it all out an it's easy as can be i shan't tell any lies of course i cut my finger to day didn't i why yes i believe so he acknowledged dazedly but what has that to do that's the accident thaddeus
one ter jehiel an one ter hannah jane the telegrams will say accident to your mother funeral saturday afternoon come at once that's jest ten words the old man gasped he could not speak
now that's all true ain't it she asked anxiously the accident is this cut the fun'ral is old mis wentworth's
so that'll give us plenty of time ter get the folks here i needn't say whose fun'ral it is that's goin ter be on saturday thaddeus i want yer ter hitch up an drive over ter hopkinsville ter send the telegrams the man's new over there an won't know yer
he fairly shivered as he handed those two fateful telegrams to the man behind the counter then there was the homeward trip during which like the guilty thing he was he cast furtive glances from side to side
seems ter me harriet you're a pretty lively corpse his wife smiled and flushed a little there there dear don't fret jest think how glad we'll be ter see em she exclaimed
both the children had promptly responded to the telegrams and were now on their way hannah jane with her husband and two children were expected on friday evening
so it was with a four seated carryall that thaddeus clayton started for the station on saturday morning to meet both of his children and their families the ride home was a silent one but once inside the house
jehiel and hannah jane amid a storm of sobs and cries besieged their father with questions the family were all in the darkened sitting room all indeed save harriet who sat in solitary state in the chamber above
beating almost to suffocation it had been arranged that she was not to be seen until some sort of explanation had been given father what was it sobbed hannah jane how did it happen
it must have been so sudden faltered jehiel it cut me up completely i can't ever forgive myself moaned hannah jane hysterically she wanted us to come east and i wouldn't
twas my selfishness easier to stay where i was and now now we've been brutes father cut in jehiel with a shake in his voice all of us i never thought i never dreamed father can
can we see her in the chamber above a woman sprang to her feet harriet had quite forgotten the stove pipe hole to the room below and every sob and moan and wailing cry had been woefully distinct to her ears
with streaming eyes and quivering lips she hurried down the stairs and threw open the sitting room door
i'm here right here alive she cried an i've been a wicked wicked woman i never thought how bad twas goin ter make you feel
twas only myself i wanted yer so oh children children i've been so wicked so awful wicked jehiel and hannah jane were steady of head and strong of heartland joy it is said
never kills otherwise the results of that sudden apparition in the sitting room doorway might have been disastrous as it was a wonderfully happy family party gathered around the table an hour later
the second best the letter was brief and abrupt i am in london i have just come back from jamaica will you come and see me i can be in at any time you appoint there was no signature but he knew the handwriting well enough
the letter came to him by the morning post sandwiched between his tailor's bill and a catalogue of rare and choice editions he read it twice then he got up from the breakfast table unlocked a drawer and took out a packet of letters and a photograph
i ought to have burned them long ago he said i'll burn them now he did burn them but first he read them through and as he read them he sighed more than once
they were passionate pretty letters the phrases simply turned the endearments delicately chosen they breathed of love and constancy and faith a faith that should move mountains a love that should shine like gold in the furnace of adversity
a constancy that death itself should be powerless to shake and he sighed no later love had come to draw with soft lips the poison from this old wound she had married benoliel
the west indian jew it is a far cry from jamaica to london but some whispers had reached her jilted lover the kindest of them said that benoliel neglected his wife the harshest that he beat her he looked at the photograph
it was two years since he had seen the living woman yet still when he shut his eyes he could see the delicate tints the coral and rose and pearl and gold that went to the making up of her he could always see these
and now he should see the reality would the two years have dulled that bright hair withered at all that flower face for he never doubted that he must go to her he was a lawyer perhaps she wanted that sort of help from him
whatever he could do he would of course but he went out at once and sent a telegram to her four to day and at four o'clock he found himself on the doorstep of a house in eaton square
he hated the wealthy look of the house the footman who opened the door and the thick carpets of the stairs up which he was led he hated the soft luxury of the room
she came in quietly long simple folds of grey trailed after her she wore no ornament of any kind her fingers were ringless every one he saw all this but before he saw anything else
he saw that the two years had taken nothing from her charm had indeed but added a wistful patient look
no emotion to justify to transfigure it he spoke how do you do he said she drew a deep breath
won't you sit down she said you are looking just like you used to she had the tiniest lisp once it had used to charm him you too are quite your old self he said then there was a pause
aren't you going to say anything she said it was you who sent for me said he yes why did you i wanted to see you she opened her pretty child eyes at him
you didn't grieve for me long you used to say you would never leave off loving me as long as you lived my dear missus benoliel he said if i ever said anything so thoughtless as that i certainly have forgotten it
very well she said then go this straight hitting embarrassed him mortally but he said i've not forgotten that you and i were once friends for a little while
and i do beg you to consider me as a friend let me help you you must have some need of a friend's services or you would not have sent for me i assure you i am entirely at your commands come tell me how i can help you
you can't help me at all she said hopelessly nobody can now i've heard i hope you'll forgive me for saying so i've heard that your married life has been hasn't been my married life
has been hell she said but i don't want to talk about that i deserved it all but my dear lady why not get a divorce or at least a separation my services anything i can do to advise or
she sprang from her chair and knelt beside him oh how could you think that of me how could you he's dead benoliel's dead i thought you'd understand
as long as he was alive i'm not a wicked woman dear i'm only a fool she had caught the hand that lay on the arm of his chair her face was pressed on it and on it he could feel her tears and her kisses
don't he said harshly don't but he could not bring himself to draw his hand away otherwise than very gently and after a decent pause he stood up and held out his hand she put hers in it
he raised her to her feet and put her back in her chair and artfully entrenching himself behind a little table sat down in a very stiff chair with a high seat and gilt legs she laughed oh don't trouble
you needn't barricade yourself like a besieged castle don't be afraid of me you're really quite safe i'm not so mad as you think only you know all this time i've never been able to get the idea out of my head
he was afraid to ask what idea i always believed you meant it that you always would love me just as you said i was wrong that's all now go do go
he was afraid to go no he said let's talk quietly and like the old friends we were before we before we weren't well he was now afraid to say anything
since you won't let it go without saying
i didn't want to say i forgive you and i thought if i sent for you you'd understand
enlightening move than i found it yes because you don't care now if you had you'd have understood i really think i should like to understand what exactly
what it is you're kind enough to forgive why your never coming to see me benoliel told me before we'd been married a month that he had got my aunt to stop your letters and mine
so i don't blame you now as i did then but you might have come when you found i didn't write i did come the house was shut up and the caretaker could give no address
i never thought of that i don't suppose you did he said savagely you never did think oh i was a fool i was yes
i never thought of it she said again and again he said no of course you didn't you wouldn't you know ah don't please don't oh you don't know how sorry i've been
you're not the same the past can't be undone so easily i assure you oh she cried clenching her hands i know there must be something i could say that you would listen to oh
but i don't care i won't be reserved and dignified and leave everything to you like girls in books i lost too much by that before i will say every single thing i can think of i will
dearest you said you would always love me
i know you would love me again if you would only let yourself won't you forgive me i can't he said briefly have you never done anything that needed to be forgiven i would forgive you anything in the world
didn't you care for other people before you knew me and i'm not angry about it and i never cared for him that only makes it worse he said she sprang to her feet
that i did give to that man sold not gave
only i'm more patient i hope and not so selfish but your pride is hurt and you think it's not quite the right thing to marry a rich man's widow and you want to go home and feel how strong and heroic you've been
for having been been a fool i can't forgive myself for that either my dear my dear you don't love anyone else you don't hate me do you know that your eyes are quite changed from what they were when you came in
i'm fighting for my life look at me
only i love you more and i can understand better now how not to make you unhappy ah don't throw everything away without thinking i am more like the woman you loved than anyone else can ever be oh my god
my god what shall i say to him oh god help me she had said enough the one phrase if i am not the same woman you loved still i am more like her than anyone else in the world
he must decide now at this moment he must decide for two lives but before he had time to decide anything he found that he had taken her in his arms my own my dear
he was saying again and again i didn't mean it it wasn't true i love you better than anything let's forget it all i don't care for anything now i have you again then why oh don't let's ask each other questions
let's begin all over again at two years ago we'll forget all the rest my dear my own of course neither has ever forgotten it but they always pretend to each other that they have
her defiance of the literary sense in him and in her was justified his literary sense or some deeper instinct prompted him to refuse to use benoliel's money
the penguin critics vie with one another in affirming that penguin art has from its origin been distinguished by a powerful and pleasing originality and that we may look elsewhere in vain for the qualities of grace and reason that characterise its earliest works
but the porpoises claim that their artists were undoubtedly the instructors and masters of the penguins it is difficult to form an opinion on the matter because the penguins before they began to admire their primitive painters destroyed all their works
we cannot be too sorry for this loss for my own part i feel it cruelly for i venerate the penguin antiquities and i adore the primitives they are delightful i do not say the are all alike for that would be untrue
but they have common characters that are found in all schools i mean formulas from which they never depart and there is besides something finished in their work for what they know they know well luckily
we can form a notion of the penguin primitives from the italian flemish and dutch primitives and from the french primitives who are superior to all the rest
logic being a peculiarly french quality even if this is denied it must at least be admitted that to france belongs the credit of having kept primitives when the other nations knew them no longer
the exhibition of french primitives at the pavilion marsan in nineteen o four contained several little panels contemporary with the later valois kings
of memling of roger van der weyden of the painter of the death of mary of ambrogio lorenzetti and of the old umbrian masters
nor perugia that completed my initiation
that was ten years ago or even longer at that period of indigence and simplicity the municipal museums though usually kept shut were always opened to foreigners one evening an old woman with a candle showed me for half a lira
and in it i discovered a painting by margaritone a saint francis the pious sadness of which moved me to tears i was deeply touched
i picture to myself the penguin primitives in conformity with the works of that master it will not therefore be thought superfluous if in this place i consider his works with some attention if not in detail at least under their more general and
if i dare say so most representative aspect we possess five or six pictures signed with his hand his masterpiece preserved in the national gallery of london represents the virgin seated on a throne
and holding the infant jesus in her arms what strikes one first when one looks at this figure is the proportion the body from the neck to the feet is only twice as long as the head so that it appears extremely short and podgy
and he used them in all their purity without ever modifying the tones from this it follows that his colouring has more vivacity than harmony the cheeks of the virgin and those of the child are of a bright vermilion
which the old master from a naive preference for clear definitions has placed on each face in two circumferences as exact as if they had been traced out by a pair of compasses a learned critic of the eighteenth century the abbe lanzi
has treated margaritone's works with profound disdain they are he says merely crude daubs in those unfortunate times people could neither draw nor paint such was the common opinion of the connoisseurs of the days of powdered wigs
and his contemporaries were soon to be avenged for this cruel contempt there was born in the nineteenth century in the biblical villages and reformed cottages of pious england a multitude of little samuels and little saint johns with hair curling like lambs
who about eighteen forty and eighteen fifty became spectacled professors and founded the cult of the primitives
does not shrink from placing the madonna of the national gallery on a level with the masterpieces of christian art by giving to the virgin's head says sir james tuckett a third of the total height of the figure
the old master attracts the spectator's attention and keeps it directed towards the more sublime parts of the human figure and in particular the eyes which we ordinarily describe as the spiritual organs in this picture
colouring and design conspire to produce an ideal and mystical impression the vermilion of the cheeks does not recall the natural appearance of the skin it rather seems as if the old master has applied the roses of paradise to the faces of the mother
and the child we see in such a criticism as this a shining reflection so to speak of the work which it exalts yet mac silly the seraphic aesthete of edinburgh has expressed in a still more moving and penetrating fashion
the impression produced upon his mind by the sight of this primitive painting
says the revered mac silly attains the transcendent end of art it inspires its beholders with feelings of innocence and purity it makes them like little children and so true is this that at the age of sixty six
after having had the joy of contemplating it closely for three hours i felt myself suddenly transformed into a little child while my cab was taking me through trafalgar square i kept laughing and prattling and shaking my spectacle case as if it were a rattle
and when the maid in my boarding house had served my meal i kept pouring spoonfuls of soup into my ear with all the artlessness of childhood it is by such results adds mac silly that the excellence of a work of art is proved
regretting that he had lived to see a new form of art arising and the new artists crowned with fame these lines which i translate literally have inspired sir james tuckett with what are perhaps the finest pages in his work
they form part of his breviary for aesthetes all the pre raphaelites know them by heart i place them here as the most precious ornament of this book you will agree that nothing more sublime has been written since the days of the hebrew prophets
margaritone's vision
he noticed in the studio a freshly painted madonna which although severe and rigid nevertheless by a certain exactness in the proportions and a devilish mingling of light and shade assumed an appearance of relief and life
with his brow clasped in his hands he exclaimed
saint martha a belly saint barbara hips
and saint george will display beneath his armour the muscular wealth of a robust virility
the angels will affect an equivocal ambiguous mysterious beauty which will trouble hearts what desire for heaven will these representations impart none
but from them you will learn to take pleasure in the forms of terrestrial life where will painters stop in their indiscreet inquiries they will stop nowhere they will go so far as to show men and women naked
like the idols of the romans there will be a sacred art and a profane art and the sacred art will not be less profane than the other
exclaimed the old master for in prophetic vision he saw the righteous and the saints assuming the appearance of melancholy athletes
in the midst of the muses wearing light tunics he saw venuses lying under shady myrtles and the danae exposing their charming sides to the golden rain he saw pictures of jesus under the pillar's of the temple
amidst patricians fair ladies musicians pages negroes dogs and parrots he saw in an inextricable confusion of human limbs outspread wings and flying draperies
crowds of tumultuous nativities opulent holy families emphatic crucifixions
and many charming things were said about it love is a sacrifice
but professor haddock soon displayed his fastidious insolence it seems to me said he that the penguin ladies have made a great fuss since through saint mael's agency they became viviparous
but there is nothing to be particularly proud of in that for it is a state they share in common with cows and pigs
for the seeds of these plants germinate in the pericarp the self importance which the penguin ladies give themselves does not go so far back as that
but this self importance was long kept in restraint and displayed itself fully only with increased luxury of dress and in a small section of society for go only two leagues from alca into the country at harvest time and you will see whether women are over precise or self important
he was a deputy of alca and one of the youngest members of the house his father was said to have kept a dram shop but he himself was a lawyer of robust physique a good though prolix speaker with a self important air and a reputation for ability
your constituency is one of the finest in alca and there are fresh improvements made in it every day madame unfortunately it is impossible to take a stroll through it any longer
do not give them a bad name answered the deputy they are our great national industry i know the penguins of to day make me think of the ancient egyptians
the penguins to day worship the motors that crush them without a doubt the future belongs to the metal beast we are no more likely to go back to cabs than we are to go back to the diligence and the long martyrdom of the horse will come to an end the motor
which the frenzied cupidity of manufacturers hurls like a juggernaut's car upon the bewildered people and of which the idle and fashionable make a foolish though fatal elegance will soon begin to perform its true function
and putting its strength at the service of the entire people will behave like a docile toiling monster but in order that the motor may cease to be injurious and become beneficent we must build roads suited to its speed
roads which it cannot tear up with its ferocious tyres and from which it will send no clouds of poisonous dust into human lungs we ought not to allow slower vehicles or mere animals to go upon those roads
and we should establish garages upon them and foot bridges over them and so create order and harmony among the means of communication of the future that is the wish of every good citizen
reconstructions and all other fruitful operations we build to day in an admirable style said he everywhere majestic avenues are being reared
was ever anything as fine as our arcaded bridges and our domed hotels you are forgetting that big palace surmounted an immense melon shaped dome
we have one bad habit
madame clarence as an accomplished hostess thought it was time to return to the subject of love
in which the author complained that an irrational custom went on professor haddock prevents respectable young ladies from making love a thing they would enjoy doing
whilst mercenary girls do it too much and without getting any enjoyment out of it it is indeed deplorable
if the evil exists as he says it does in our middle class society i can assure him that everywhere else he would see a consoling spectacle among the people
girls do not deny themselves that pleasure it is depravity
and she praised the innocence of young girls in terms full of modesty and grace it was charming to hear her professor haddock's views on the same subject were on the contrary painful to listen to
respectable young girls said he are guarded and watched over besides men do not as a rule pursue them much
even then we do not know what really takes place for the reason that what is hidden is not seen this is a condition necessary to the existence of all society
the scruples of respectable young girls could be more easily overcome than those of married women if the same pressure were brought to bear on them and for this there are two reasons they have more illusions and their curiosity has not been satisfied
women for the most part have been so disappointed by their husbands that they have not courage enough to begin again with somebody else i myself have been met by this obstacle several times in my attempts at seduction
i declare myself the young ladies champion he must be a fool
who had never set foot outside of his political world of electors and elected thought madame clarence's drawing room most select its mistress exquisite and her daughter amazingly beautiful his visits became frequent and he paid court to both of them
madame clarence who now liked attention thought him agreeable
this busy man taxed his ingenuity to please them and he sometimes succeeded he got them cards for fashionable functions and boxes at the opera he furnished mademoiselle clarence with several opportunities of appearing to great advantage
and in particular at a garden party which although given by a minister was regarded as really fashionable and gained its first success in society circles for the republic
at that party eveline had been much noticed and had attracted the special attention of a young diplomat called roger lambilly who imagining that she belonged to a rather fast set invited her to his bachelor's flat she thought him handsome and believed him rich
and she accepted a little moved almost disquieted she very nearly became the victim of her daring and only avoided defeat by an offensive measure audaciously carried out this was the most foolish escapade in her unmarried life
being now on friendly terms with ministers and with the president eveline continued to wear her aristocratic and pious affectations and these won for her the sympathy of the chief personages in the anti clerical and democratic republic
seeing that she was succeeding and doing him credit liked her still more he even went so far as to fall madly in love with her henceforth in spite of everything she began to observe him with interest being curious to see if his passion would increase
he appeared to her without elegance or grace and not well bred but active clear sighted full of resource and not too great a bore she still made fun of him but he had now won her interest one day she wished to test him
it was during the elections when members of parliament were as the phrase runs requesting a renewal of their mandates he had an opponent who though not dangerous at first and not much of an orator was rich and was reported to be gaining votes every day
banishing both dull security and foolish alarm from his mind redoubled his care his chief method of action was by public meetings at which he spoke vehemently against the rival candidate his committee held huge meetings on saturday evenings
and at three o'clock on sunday afternoons one sunday as he called on the clarences he found eveline alone in the drawing room he had been chatting for about twenty or twenty five minutes when taking out his watch he saw that it was a quarter to three
the young girl showed herself amiable engaging attractive and full of promises
stay a little longer said she in a pressing and agreeable voice which made him promptly sit down again she was full of interest of abandon curiosity and weakness he blushed turned pale and again got up
even unborn puppies had jealous prospective owners waiting to claim them there is always plenty of room at the top of the tree and good hunting dogs were as rare as good men good horses and good front oxen
a lot of qualities are needed in the make up of a good hunting dog size strength quickness scent sense and speed and plenty of courage they are very very difficult to get
but even small dogs are useful and many a fine feat stands to the credit of little terriers in guarding camps at night and in standing off wounded animals that meant mischief dennison was saved from a wounded lioness by his two fox terriers
he had gone out to shoot bush pheasants and came unexpectedly on a lioness playing with her cubs the cubs hid in the grass but she stood up at bay to protect them and he forgetting that he had taken the big looper cartridges from his gun and reloaded with number six fired
the shot only maddened her and she charged but the two dogs dashed at her one at each side barking snapping and yelling rushing in and jumping back so fast and furiously that they flustered her leaving the man for the moment she turned on them
dabbing viciously with her huge paws first at one then at the other quick as lightning she struck right and left as a kitten will at a twirled string but they kept out of reach
she was a bull terrier with a dull brindled coat black and grey in shadowy stripes she had small cross looking eyes and uncertain always moving ears she was bad tempered and most unsociable but she was as faithful and as brave a dog as ever lived
she never barked never howled when beaten for biting strangers or kaffirs or going for the cattle she was very silent very savage and very quick she belonged to my friend ted and never left his side day or night her name was jess
partly because you knew she would not stand any nonsense no pushing patting or punishment and very little talking to and partly because she was so faithful and plucky she was not a hunting dog but on several occasions had helped to pull down wounded game
she had no knowledge or skill and was only fierce and brave and there was always the risk that she would be killed she would listen to ted but to no one else one of us might have shouted his lungs out
but it would not have stopped her from giving chase the moment she saw anything and keeping on till she was too dead beat to move any further the first time i saw jess we were having dinner and i gave her a bone putting it down close to her and saying here good dog
she gave a low growl and her little eyes turned on me for just one look as she got up and walked away there was a snigger of laughter from some of the others but nobody said anything and it seemed wiser to ask no questions just then
you must not feed another man's dog a dog has only one master we respected jess greatly but no one knew quite how much we respected her until the memorable day near ship mountain we had rested through the heat of the day
under a big tree on the bank of a little stream it was the tree under which soltke prayed and died about sundown just before we were ready to start some other waggons passed and ted knowing the owner
went on with him intending to rejoin us at the next outspan as he jumped on to the passing waggon he called to jess and she ran out of a patch of soft grass under one of the big trees behind our waggons she answered his call instantly
but when she saw him moving off on the other waggon she sat down in the road and watched him anxiously for some seconds then ran on a few steps in her curious quick silent way and again stopped giving swift glances alternately towards ted and towards us
and that she would follow presently after he had disappeared she ran back to her patch of grass and lay down but in a few minutes she was back again squatting in the road looking with that same anxious worried expression after her master
the oxen were inspanned and the last odd things were being put up when one of the boys came to say that he could not get the guns and water barrel because jess would not let him near them there was something the matter with the dog he said he thought she was mad
knowing how jess hated kaffirs we laughed at the notion and went for the things ourselves as we came within five yards of the tree where we had left the guns there was a rustle in the grass and jess came out with her swift silent run
appearing as unexpectedly as a snake does and with some odd suggestion of a snake in her look and attitude her head body and tail were in a dead line and she was crouching slightly as for a spring
her ears were laid flat back her lips twitching constantly showing the strong white teeth and her cross wicked eyes had such a look of remorseless cruelty in them that we stopped as if we had been turned to stone
she never moved a muscle or made a sound but kept those eyes steadily fixed on us we moved back a pace or two and began to coax and wheedle her but it was no good she never moved or made a sound and the unblinking look remained
for a minute we stood our ground and then the hair on her back and shoulders began very slowly to stand up that was enough we cleared off it was a mighty uncanny appearance then another tried his hand but it was just the same
no one could do anything with her no one could get near the guns or the water barrel as soon as we returned for a fresh attempt she reappeared in the same place and in the same way the position was too ridiculous and we were at our wits end
for jess held the camp the kaffirs declared the dog was mad and we began to have very uncomfortable suspicions that they were right but we decided to make a last attempt and surrounding the place approached from all sides but the suddenness with
which she appeared before we got into position so demoralised the kaffirs that they bolted and we gave it up owning ourselves beaten
jess met him out on the road in the dark where she had been watching half the time ever since he left
when i could afford a horse and could keep pace with him
and that he would be able to pull it down or bay it
a broken leg shows at once but a body shot is very difficult to place and animals shot through the lungs and even through the lower part of the heart often go away at a cracking pace and are out of sight in no time perhaps to keep it up for miles
perhaps to drop dead within a few minutes after that day with the impala we had many good days together and many hard ones we had our disappointments but we had our triumphs and we were both getting to know our way about by degrees
buck of many kinds had fallen to us but so far as i was concerned there was one disappointment that was not to be forgotten the picture of that koodoo bull as he appeared for the last time looking over the ant heap the day we were lost was always before me
i could not hear the name or see the spoor of koodoo without a pang of regret and the thought that never again would such a chance occur koodoo like other kinds of game were not to be found everywhere they favoured some localities more than others
and when we passed through their known haunts chances of smaller game were often neglected in the hope of coming across the koodoo i could not give up whole days to hunting for we had to keep moving along with the waggons all the time
or it would have been easy enough in many parts to locate the koodoo and make sure of getting a good bag as it was on three or four occasions we did come across them and once i got a running shot but missed this was not needed to keep my interest in them alive
but it made me keener than ever day by day i went out always hoping to get my chance and when at last the chance did come it was quite in accordance with the experience of many others that it was not in the least expected
the great charm of bushveld hunting is its variety you never know what will turn up next the only certainty being that it will not be what you are expecting
he had been quite close to it he said and it was very tame
will often take no notice of natives allowing them to approach to very close quarters
and thus distract attention from the man in this case the bonny little red brown fellow was not a bit scared he maintained his presence of mind admirably from time to time he turned his head our way
and with his large but shapely and most sensitive ears thrown forward examined us frankly while he moved slightly one way or another so as to keep under cover of the oxen and busily continue his browsing
and then without giving me a chance he was off into the bush in a few frisky skips i followed quietly knowing that as he was on the feed and not scared he would not go far
moving along silently under good cover i reached a thick scrubby bush and peered over the top of it to search the grass under the surrounding thorn trees for the little red brown form i was looking about low down in the russety grass
for he was only about twice the size of jock
when a movement on a higher level caught my eye it was just the flip of a fly tickled ear but it was a movement where all else was still and instantly the form of a koodoo cow appeared before me as a picture is thrown on a screen by a magic lantern
the stem of a mimosa hid the shoulders but all the rest was plainly visible as it stood there utterly unconscious of danger the tree made a dead shot almost impossible but the risk of trying for another position was too great and i fired
the thud of the bullet and the tremendous bound of the koodoo straight up in the air told that the shot had gone home but these things were for a time forgotten in the surprise that followed at the sound of the shot twenty other koodoo jumped into life and sight before me
the one i had seen and shot was but one of a herd all dozing peacefully in the shade and strangest of all it was the one that was farthest from me to the right and left of this one at distances from fifteen to thirty yards from me
the magnificent creatures had been standing and i had not seen them it was the flicker of this one's ear alone that had caught my eye
all except the wounded one which had turned off from the others
and noting her tucked up appearance and shortened strides set jock on her trail believing that she would be down in a few minutes it is not necessary to go over it all again it was much the same as the impala chase
things looked very black indeed i heard his panting breath before it was possible to see anything it was past one o'clock when he returned as we had missed the night trek to wait for jock
i decided to stay on where we were until the next evening and to have another try for the wounded koodoo with the chance of coming across the troop again by daybreak
as though he had been roughly gravelled there he seemed a little stiff and flinched when i pressed his sides and muscles but he was as game as ever when he saw the rifle taken down the koodoo had been shot through the body
and even without being run to death by jock must have died in the night or have lain down and become too cold and stiff to move if not discovered by wild animals there was a good chance of finding it untouched in the early morning
but after sunrise every minute's delay meant fresh risk from the aasvogels there is very little which if left uncovered will escape their eyes
and return in half an hour to find nothing but a few bones the horns and hoofs a rag of skin and a group of disgusting gorged vultures squatting on a patch of ground all smeared torn and feather strewn from their voracious struggles
in the early morning from their white splashed eeries on some distant mountain they slide off like a launching ship into their sea of blue and striking the currents of the upper air sweep round and upwards in immense circles
their huge motionless wings carrying them higher and higher until they are lost to human sight lie on your back in some dense shade where no side lights strike in but where an opening above forms a sort of natural telescope to the sky
and you may see tiny specks where nothing could be seen before take your field glasses the specks are vultures circling up on high look again and far far above you
and for aught you know there may be others still beyond how high are they and what can they see from there who knows but this is sure that within a few minutes scores will come swooping down in great spiral rushes where not one was visible before
watching jealously as hungry dogs do for the least suspicious sign to swoop down and share the spoil
and from that on he led the way it was much slower work then as far as i was concerned there was nothing to guide me and it was impossible to know what he was after
and if so was he following the scent of the old chase or merely what he might remember of the way he had gone it seemed impossible that scent could lie in that dry country for twelve hours yet it was clearly nose more than eyes that guided him
he went ahead soberly and steadily and once when he stopped completely to sniff at a particular tuft of grass i found out what was helping him the grass was well streaked with blood quite dry it is true still it was blood
a mile or so on we checked again where the grass was trampled and the ground scored with spoor
outside this the grass was also flattened and there i found a dog's footprints
while i was examining it he picked up the trail and trotted on we came upon four or five other rings where they had fought the last of these was curiously divided by a fallen tree
evidently the koodoo had backed against it whilst facing jock and had fallen over it renewing the fight on the other side there were also some golden hairs sticking on the stumpy end of a broken branch which may have had something to do with jock's scraped sides
then for a matter of a hundred yards or more it looked as if they had fought and tumbled all the way jock was some distance ahead of me trotting along quietly when i saw him look up give that rare growling bark of his one of suppressed but real fury
lower his head and charge then came heavy flapping and scrambling and the wind of huge wings as twenty or thirty great lumbering aasvogels flopped along the ground with jock dashing furiously about among them
and his jaws snapping like rat traps as he missed them on a little open flat of hard baked sand lay the stripped frame of the koodoo the head and leg bones were missing meat stripped fragments were scattered all about
fifty yards away among some bushes jock found the head and still further afield were remains of skin and thigh bones crushed almost beyond recognition no aasvogel had done this it was hyenas work
the high shouldered slinking brute with jaws like a stone crusher alone cracks bones like those and bigger ones which even the lion cannot tackle i walked back a little way and found the scene of the last stand all harrowed bare
but there was no spoor of koodoo or of jock to be seen there only prints innumerable of wild dogs hyenas and jackals and some traces of where the carcase no doubt already half eaten had been dragged by them in the effort to tear it asunder
jock had several times shown that he strongly objected to any interference with his quarry other dogs kaffirs and even white men had suffered or been badly scared for rashly laying hands on what he had pulled down
otherwise he would not have tackled them without word from me it was also sure that until past midnight he had been there with the koodoo watching or fighting then when had the hyenas and wild dogs come
i looked at him the mane on his neck and shoulders which had risen at the sight of the vultures was not flat yet he was sniffing about slowly and carefully on the spoor of the hyenas and wild dogs and he looked fight all over
jock had learned one very clever trick in pulling down wounded animals
and the only chance you have of getting anything is with a running shot if they go straight from you the shot is not a very difficult one although you see nothing but the lifting and falling hind quarters as they canter away and a common result of such a shot is the breaking of one of the hind legs between the hip and the hock
jock made his discovery while following a rietbuck which i had wounded in this way he had made several tries at its nose and throat but the buck was going too strongly and was out of reach moreover it would not stop or turn when he headed it but charged straight on
bounding over him in trying once more for the throat he cannoned against the buck's shoulder and was sent rolling yards away this seemed to madden him racing up behind he flew at the dangling leg caught it at the shin
and thrusting his feet well out simply dragged until the buck slowed down and then began furiously tugging sideways the crossing of the legs brought the wounded animal down immediately
every one who is good at anything has some favourite method or device of his own that was jock's it may have come to him as it comes to many by accident but having once got it he perfected it and used it whenever it was possible
only once he made a mistake and he paid for it very nearly with his life he had already used this device successfully several times but so far only with the smaller buck
i left the scene of torn carcase and crunched bones consumed by regrets and disappointment each fresh detail only added to my feeling of disgust but jock did not seem to mind
he jumped out briskly as soon as i started walking in earnest as though he recognised that we were making a fresh start and he began to look forward immediately the little bare flat where the koodoo had fallen for the last time
dry in winter but full charged with muddy flood in summer which drain the bushveld to its rivers here and there where an impermeable rock formation crosses these channels there are deep pools which except in years of drought last all through the winter
and these are the drinking places of the game
and beyond them the ordinary scattered thorns as i reached this point and stopped to look out between the bushes on to the more open ground a koodoo cow walked quietly up the slope from the water
but before there was time to raise the rifle her easy stride had carried her behind a small mimosa tree i took one quick step out to follow her up and found myself face to face at less than a dozen yards with a grand koodoo bull
it is impossible to convey in words any real idea of the scene and how things happened of course it was only for a fraction of a second that we looked straight into each other's eyes
before the wildness of panic had stricken them the picture seems photographed on eye and brain never to be forgotten a whirlwind of dust and leaves marked his course and through it i fired unsteadied by excitement and hardly able to see
then the right hind leg swung out and the great creature sank for a moment almost to the ground and the sense of triumph the longed for and unexpected success went to my head like a rush of blood there had been no time to aim and the shot a real snap shot
was not at all a bad one it was after that that the natural effect of such a meeting and such a chance began to tell thinking it all out beforehand does not help much for things never happen as they are expected to
and there running hard and dropping quickly to my knee for steadier aim i fired again and again but each time a longer shot and more obscured by the intervening bush and no tell tale thud came back to cheer me on
forgetting the last night's experience forgetting everything except how we had twice chased and twice lost them seeing only another and the grandest prize slipping away
once more the koodoo came in sight just a chance at four hundred yards as he reached an open space on rising ground
once more i knelt gripping hard and holding my breath to snatch a moment's steadiness and fired but i missed again
dashing out from the scrub reached his heels the old martini carbine had one bad fault even i could not deny that years of rough and careless treatment in all sorts of weather for it was only a discarded old mounted police weapon had told on it
and both in barrel and breech it was well pitted with rust scars one result of this was that it was always jamming and unless the cartridges were kept well greased the empty shells would stick and the ejector fail to work
and this was almost sure to happen when the carbine became hot from quick firing it jammed now and fearing to lose sight of the chase i dared not stop a second but ran on struggling from time to time to wrench the breach open reaching the place where they had disappeared
i saw with intense relief and excitement jock and the koodoo having it out less than a hundred yards away the koodoo's leg was broken right up in the ham and it was a terrible handicap for an animal so big and heavy but his nimbleness and quickness were astonishing
using the sound hind leg as a pivot he swung round always facing his enemy
buzzing fly torments one on a hot day and indeed to the koodoo just then he was the fly and nothing more he could only annoy his big enemy and was playing with his life to do it sometimes he tried to get round sometimes pretended to charge straight in
stopping himself with all four feet spread just out of reach then like a red streak he would fly through the air with a snap for the koodoo's nose it was a fight for life and a grand sight for the koodoo in spite of his wound easily held his own
no doubt he had fought out many a life and death struggle to win and hold his place as lord of the herd and knew every trick of attack and defence
maybe too he was blazing with anger and contempt for this persistent little gad fly that worried him so and kept out of reach sometimes he snorted and feinted to charge at other times backed slowly giving way to draw the enemy on
looking about with big angry but unfrightened eyes for the herd his herd that had deserted him or with a slight toss of his head he would walk limpingly forward forcing the ignored jock before him
he would spring forward and strike with the sharp cloven fore foot zip zip zip at jock as he landed any one of the vicious flashing stabs would have pinned him to the earth and finished him but jock was never there
keeping what cover there was i came up slowly behind them struggling and using all the force i dared short of smashing the lever to get the empty cartridge out at last one of the turns in the fight brought me in view and the koodoo dashed off again
for a little way the pace seemed as great as ever but it soon died away the driving power was gone the strain and weight on the one sound leg and the tripping of the broken one were telling and from that on i was close enough to see it all
in the first rush the koodoo seemed to dash right over jock the swirl of dust and leaves and the bulk of the koodoo hiding him then i saw him close abreast looking up at it and making furious jumps for its nose alternately from one side and the other
as they raced along together the koodoo holding its nose high and well forward as they do when on the move with the horns thrown back almost horizontally was out of his reach and galloped heavily on completely ignoring his attacks
there is a suggestion of grace and poise in the movement of the koodoo bull's head as he gallops through the bush which is one of his distinctions above the other antelopes
the same supple balancing movement that one notes in the native girls bearing their calabashes of water upon their heads is seen in the neck of the koodoo and for the same reason the movements of the body are softened into mere undulations
indeed almost as though it were bearing the body below at the fourth or fifth attempt by jock a spurt from the koodoo brought him cannoning against its shoulder and he was sent rolling unnoticed yards away he scrambled instantly to his feet
but found himself again behind it may have been this fact that inspired the next attempt or perhaps he realised that attack in front was useless for this time he went determinedly for the broken leg it swung about in wild eccentric curves
but at the third or fourth attempt he got it and hung on and with all fours spread he dragged along the ground the first startled spring of the koodoo jerked him into the air but there was no let go now
sometimes swinging in the air and sometimes sliding on his back he pulled from side to side in futile attempts to throw the big animal ineffectual and even hopeless as it looked at first jock's attacks soon began to tell
the koodoo made wild efforts to get at him but with every turn he turned too and did it so vigorously that the staggering animal swayed over and had to plunge violently to recover its balance
so they turned this way and that until a wilder plunge swung jock off his feet throwing the broken leg across the other one then with feet firmly planted jock tugged again
and the koodoo trying to regain its footing was tripped by the crossed legs and came down with a crash as it fell jock was round and fastened on the nose but it was no duiker impala or rietbuck that he had to deal with this time
the koodoo gave a snort of indignation and shook its head as a terrier shakes a rat so it shook jock whipping the ground with his swinging body and with another indignant snort and toss of the head flung him off sending him skidding along the ground on his back
the koodoo had fallen on the wounded leg and failed to rise with the first effort jock while still slithering along the ground on his back was tearing at the air with his feet in his mad haste to get back to the attack and as he scrambled up
he was too mad to be wary
one black point seemed to pierce him through and through showing a foot out the other side and a jerky twist of the great head sent him twirling like a tip cat eight or ten feet up in the air
but until he dropped with a thud and tearing and scrambling to his feet he raced in again i felt certain he had been gored through the koodoo was up again then i had rushed in with rifle clubbed with the wild idea of stunning it before it could rise
it was a running fight from that on the instant the koodoo turned to go jock was on to the leg again and nothing could shake his hold i had to keep at a respectful distance for the bull was still good for a furious charge even with jock hanging on
and eyed me in the most unpromising fashion whenever i attempted to head it off or even to come close up the big eyes were blood shot then but there was no look of fear in them they blazed with baffled rage
impossible as it seemed to shake jock off or to get away from us and in spite of the broken leg and loss of blood the furious attempts to beat us off did not slacken it was a desperate running fight and right bravely he fought it to the end
and running ahead of the koodoo i made for these hoping to find a stick straight enough for a ramrod to force the empty cartridge out
but the broken leg swayed over one of the branches and jock with feet planted against the tree hung on and the koodoo turning furiously on him stumbled floundered tripped and came down with a crash amongst the crackling wood
once more like a flash jock was over the fallen body and had fastened on the nose but only to be shaken worse than before the koodoo literally flogged the ground with him and for an instant i shut my eyes it seemed as if the plucky dog would be beaten into pulp
the bull tried to chop him with its fore feet but could not raise itself enough and at each pause jock with his watchful little eyes ever on the alert dodged his body round to avoid the chopping feet without letting go his hold
then with a snort of fury the koodoo half rising gave its head a wild upward sweep and shook as a springing rod flings a fish the koodoo flung jock over its head and on to a low flat topped thorn tree behind
the dog somersaulted slowly as he circled in the air dropped on his back in the thorns some twelve feet from the ground and came tumbling down through the branches surely the tree saved him for it seemed as if such a throw must break his back
as it was he dropped with a sickening thump yet even as he fell i saw again the scrambling tearing movement as if he was trying to race back to the fight even before he reached ground
i tried stick after stick for a ramrod but without success at last in desperation at seeing jock once more hanging to the koodoo's nose
i hooked the lever on to a branch and setting my foot against the tree wrenched until the empty cartridge flew out and i went staggering backwards in the last struggle while i was busy with the rifle the koodoo had moved and it was then lying against one of the fallen trunks
the first swing to get rid of jock had literally slogged him against the tree the second swing swept him under it where a bend in the trunk raised it about a foot from the ground
and gaining his foothold there jock stood fast there there with his feet planted firmly and his shoulder humped against the dead tree he stood this tug of war the koodoo with its head twisted back as caught at the end of the swing could put no weight to the pull
yet the wrenches it gave to free itself drew the nose and upper lip out like tough rubber and seemed to stretch jock's neck visibly i had to come round within a few feet of them to avoid risk of hitting jock
and it seemed impossible for bone and muscle to stand the two or three terrible wrenches that i saw the shot was the end and as the splendid head dropped slowly over jock let go his hold
the name of robin makes us think at once of the jolliest and most sociable of all our little brother birds in every land the name is a favorite and wherever he goes he brings happiness and kind feeling
the american robin is not the same bird as his english cousin though both have red breasts it was in a different manner that our little american friend came to have the ruddy waistcoat which we know so well
there was a time so the indians say a very early time long long before columbus discovered america even before histories began to be written
when there were no robins in those days in the land of the ojibways which is far in the north of the cold country there lived an old indian chief who had one son
now among the ojibways when a boy was almost big enough to become a warrior before he could go out with the other braves to the hunt or to war there was a great trial which he must undergo
other lands and peoples have known similar customs you remember how in early christian times
galahad and other boys had to fast and watch by their armor during the long night hours before they could become knights to wear spurs and shield and sword
in just the same way a brown ojibway lad had to make a long fast in order to win the love of his guardian spirit who would after that watch over him to make him brave and strong
it was a very important event in a boy's life like graduation from school or college nowadays for this meant the graduation from boyhood into manhood the winning of a warrior's diploma
a famous chief but he wished his son to become even better wiser greater than he had been he resolved that the boy should fast longer and harder than ever a lad had fasted before
for he believed that this was the way to make him the noblest of his race
but he was the youngest one who had ever made the trial and there were many bigger boys than he who were not yet warriors the other chiefs said that he was not yet old and strong enough
and bade his son gather courage and pride for the ordeal for he said it will be no easy matter my son to become the greatest chief of the ojibways my father
humbly i will do as you wish i will do what i can but my strength is not the strength of the bigger boys and i think it is yet early to talk of my becoming greatest of the ojibways
yet make trial of me if you wish
where he was to lie without food or drink for twelve long days waiting for a message from the guardian spirit whose love was to be the reward of such a trial when the time came
for he was a brave and obedient lad the days crept by the long long days of waiting
such as no ojibway lad had ever before known all day and all night he lay still and spoke never a word but a dreadful fear was in his heart
lest he should not be able to endure the fast for the twelve days which his father had set every morning his father came to the lodge to praise and to encourage him and to rejoice in one more day checked from the long time of fasting
so eight days passed and the old man was proud and happy already his dear son had done more than any ojibway lad and the whole tribe was praising iadilla
saying what a great chief he would be in the days to come but on the ninth morning when the father peeped into the lodge to see how bravely his son was faring the boy turned his head toward the door
and spoke for the first time in all those long days he was very thin and pale and his voice sounded weak my father he said i have slept
and my dreams were sad i have slept and my dreams were of failure and weakness the time does not please my guardian spirit it is not now that i can become a warrior
i am not yet strong and old enough o my father i cannot bear the fast longer i am so hungry so thirsty so faint let me break my fast
and try again in another year but the father sternly refused for he was ambitious nay lad he cried frowningly would you fail me now think of the glory
think of being the greatest of ojibways it is but a few short days now courage iadilla be a man in strength and patience
he wrapped himself closer in his blanket and drew his belt tighter about his slender waist
so he lay silently until the eleventh day that morning his father came to the lodge beaming proudly bravo my iadilla he cried
only one day more and you will be released from your fast
my father gasped the poor boy i cannot bear it another day i am not fit to be a great chief i have failed
give me food or i die but again the father refused it is but a day now he said but a few short hours
courage boy for the few hours that remain
he lay motionless with only a gentle heaving of his breast to show that he still lived his father left him for the last time and went to prepare the morrow's goodly breakfast
while the tribe planned a fine festival in honor of the young hero early on the morrow
proudly bearing the breakfast for his brave boy and smiling to think how gladly he would be received but he stopped outside the tent door surprised to hear some one talking within
stooping to a little hole in the skin of the tent he peeped in to find who the speaker might be
in the middle of the tent painting his breast a brilliant red as indians do in war time and as he daubed on the colors he talked to himself he spoke softly yet not with the weak voice of a starving lad
and his face was very beautiful to see despite its pale thinness my father has ended my indian life he said my father too ambitious
has put upon me more than my strength could bear he would not listen to my prayer of weakness but i knew i knew and my kind guardian spirit knew also that it was more than i could bear
he has shown pity seeing that i was obedient to my father and did my best to please him now i am to be no longer an indian boy i must take the shape which the spirit has given me
and go away at these strange words the father broke into the tent exclaiming in terror my son my dear son do not leave me but even as he spoke
with soft feathers and strong firm wings and fluttering up to the ridgepole of the tent he looked down with pity and tenderness upon the heart broken chief do not grieve father he sang
i shall be so much happier as a bird free from human pain and sorrow i will cheer you with my merry songs oh i have been hungry
but now i shall get my food so easily so pleasantly on mountains and in the fields oh once i was thirsty but now the dew is mine and the little springs
once i traced my way painfully by forest paths through bog and brake and tangled brier but now my pathways are in the bright clear air where never thorn can tear nor beast can follow
farewell dear father i am so happy he stretched his brown wings as easily as if he had worn them all his life and singing a sweet song
fluttered away to the neighboring woods where he built his nest and lived happily ever after and since that day the glad little robins have lived as that first one promised
close by the homes of men and have done all they could to cheer us and make us happy for they remember how once upon a time
appendix two of self love there is a principle supposed to prevail among many which is utterly incompatible with all virtue or moral sentiment
and as it can proceed from nothing but the most depraved disposition so in its turn it tends still further to encourage that depravity this principle is that all
benevolence is mere hypocrisy friendship a cheat public spirit a farce fidelity a snare to procure trust and confidence and that while all of us
at bottom pursue only our private interest we wear these fair disguises in order to put others off their guard and expose them the more to our wiles and machinations
what heart one must be possessed of who possesses such principles and who feels no internal sentiment that belies so pernicious a theory it is easy to imagine
and also what degree of affection and benevolence he can bear to a species whom he represents under such odious colours and supposes so little susceptible of gratitude or any return of affection
or if we should not ascribe these principles wholly to a corrupted heart we must at least account for them from the most careless and precipitate examination
superficial reasoners indeed observing many false pretences among mankind and feeling perhaps no very strong restraint in their own disposition
might draw a general and a hasty conclusion that all is equally corrupted and that men different from all other animals and indeed from all other species of existence
but are in every instance the same creatures under different disguises and appearances there is another principle somewhat resembling the former
which has been much insisted on by philosophers and has been the foundation of many a system that whatever affection one may feel or imagine he feels for others no passion is
or can be disinterested that the most generous friendship however sincere is a modification of self love and that even unknown to ourselves
we seek only our own gratification while we appear the most deeply engaged in schemes for the liberty and happiness of mankind by a turn of imagination
by a refinement of reflection by an enthusiasm of passion we seem to take part in the interests of others and imagine ourselves divested of all selfish considerations but
at bottom the most generous patriot and most niggardly miser the bravest hero and most abject coward have in every action an equal regard to their own happiness and welfare
whoever concludes from the seeming tendency of this opinion that those who make profession of it cannot possibly feel the true sentiments of benevolence
or have any regard for genuine virtue will often find himself in practice very much mistaken probity and honour were no strangers to epicurus and his sect
atticus and horace seem to have enjoyed from nature and cultivated by reflection as generous and friendly dispositions as any disciple of the austerer schools and among the modern
who maintained the selfish system of morals lived irreproachable lives though the former lay not under any restraint of religion which might supply the defects of his philosophy
an epicurean or a hobbist readily allows that there is such a thing as a friendship in the world without hypocrisy or disguise though he may attempt
to resolve the elements of this passion if i may so speak into those of another and explain every affection to be self love twisted and moulded by a particular turn of imagination
into a variety of appearances but as the same turn of imagination prevails not in every man nor gives the same direction to the original passion
this is sufficient even according to the selfish system to make the widest difference in human characters and denominate one man virtuous and humane another vicious and meanly interested
i esteem the man whose self love by whatever means is so directed as to give him a concern for others and render him serviceable to society as i hate or despise him
who has no regard to any thing beyond his own gratifications and enjoyments
though seemingly opposite are at bottom the same and that a very inconsiderable turn of thought forms the whole difference between them each character
notwithstanding these inconsiderable differences appears to me in practice pretty durable and untransmutable
that the natural sentiments arising from the general appearances of things are easily destroyed by subtile reflections concerning the minute origin of these appearances
does not the lively cheerful colour of a countenance inspire me with complacency and pleasure even though i learn from philosophy that all difference of complexion
arises from the most minute differences of thickness in the most minute parts of the skin
to reflect one of the original colours of light and absorb the others but though the question concerning the universal or partial selfishness of man be not so material
as is usually imagined to morality and practice it is certainly of consequence in the speculative science of human nature and is a proper object of curiosity and enquiry
it may not therefore be unsuitable in this place to bestow a few reflections upon it footnote
benevolence naturally divides into two kinds the general and the particular the first is where we have no friendship or connexion or esteem for the person
but feel only a general sympathy with him or a compassion for his pains and a congratulation with his pleasures the other species of benevolence is founded on an opinion of virtue on services done us
or on some particular connexions both these sentiments must be allowed real in human nature but whether they will resolve into some nice considerations of self love
is a question more curious than important the former sentiment to wit that of general benevolence or humanity or sympathy
in the course of this inquiry
general experience without any other proof the most obvious objection to the selfish hypothesis is that as it is contrary to common feeling
and our most unprejudiced notions there is required the highest stretch of philosophy to establish so extraordinary a paradox
to the most careless observer there appear to be such dispositions as benevolence and generosity such affections as love friendship compassion gratitude
these sentiments have their causes effects objects and operations marked by common language and observation
and plainly distinguished from those of the selfish passions and as this is the obvious appearance of things it must be admitted till some hypothesis be discovered
which by penetrating deeper into human nature may prove the former affections to be nothing but modifications of the latter
and seem to have proceeded entirely from that love of simplicity
i shall not here enter into any detail on the present subject many able philosophers have shown the insufficiency of these systems and i shall take for granted what
i believe the smallest reflection will make evident to every impartial enquirer but the nature of the subject furnishes the strongest presumption that no better system will ever
for the future be invented in order to account for the origin of the benevolent from the selfish affections
to a perfect simplicity the case is not the same in this species of philosophy as in physics many an hypothesis in nature contrary to first appearances
has been found on more accurate scrutiny solid and satisfactory instances of this kind are so frequent that a judicious
if there be more than one way in which any phenomenon may be produced that there is general presumption for its arising from the causes which are the least obvious and familiar
but the presumption always lies on the other side in all enquiries concerning the origin of our passions and of the internal operations of the human mind
the simplest and most obvious cause which can there be assigned for any phenomenon is probably the true one when a philosopher in the explication of his system
is obliged to have recourse to some very intricate and refined reflections and to suppose them essential to the production of any passion or emotion
we have reason to be extremely on our guard against so fallacious an hypothesis the affections are not susceptible of any impression from the refinements of reason or imagination
and it is always found that a vigorous exertion of the latter faculties necessarily from the narrow capacity of the human mind destroys all activity in the former
our predominant motive or intention is indeed frequently concealed from ourselves when it is mingled and confounded with other motives which the mind
from vanity or self conceit is desirous of supposing more prevalent but there is no instance that a concealment of this nature has ever arisen from the abstruseness
and intricacy of the motive a man that has lost a friend and patron may flatter himself that all his grief arises from generous sentiments without any mixture of narrow
or interested considerations but a man that grieves for a valuable friend who needed his patronage and protection
how can we suppose that his passionate tenderness arises from some metaphysical regards to a self interest
we may as well imagine that minute wheels and springs like those of a watch give motion to a loaded waggon as account for the origin of passion from such abstruse reflections
animals are found susceptible of kindness both to their own species and to ours nor is there in this case the least suspicion of disguise or artifice
shall we account for all their sentiments too from refined deductions of self interest or if we admit a disinterested benevolence in the inferior species
by what rule of analogy can we refuse it in the superior love between the sexes begets a complacency and good will
tenderness to their offspring in all sensible beings
and has no manner of dependance on that affection what interest can a fond mother have in view who loses her health by assiduous attendance on her sick child
and afterwards languishes and dies of grief when freed by its death from the slavery of that attendance is gratitude no affection of the human breast
or is that a word merely without any meaning or reality have we no satisfaction in one man's company above another's and no desire of the welfare of our friend
even though absence or death should prevent us from all participation in it or what is it commonly that gives us any participation in it even while alive and present
but our affection and regard to him these and a thousand other instances are marks of a general benevolence in human nature where no real interest
binds us to the object and how an imaginary interest known and avowed for such can be the origin of any passion or emotion seems difficult to explain
no satisfactory hypothesis of this kind has yet been discovered nor is there the smallest probability that the future industry of men will ever be attended with more favourable success
but farther if we consider rightly of the matter we shall find that the hypothesis which allows of a disinterested benevolence distinct from self love
has really more simplicity in it and is more conformable to the analogy of nature than that which pretends to resolve all friendship and humanity into this latter principle
which necessarily precede all sensual enjoyment and carry us directly to seek possession of the object thus hunger and thirst have eating and drinking for their end
and from the gratification of these primary appetites arises a pleasure which may become the object of another species of desire or inclination that is secondary and interested
in the same manner there are mental passions by which we are impelled immediately to seek particular objects such as fame or power or vengeance without any regard to interest
and when these objects are attained a pleasing enjoyment ensues as the consequence of our indulged affections nature must by the internal frame and constitution of the mind
give an original propensity to fame
or pursue it from motives of self love and desire of happiness if i have no vanity i take no delight in praise if i be void of ambition
power gives me no enjoyment if i be not angry the punishment of an adversary is totally indifferent to me in all these cases
and constitutes it our good or happiness as there are other secondary passions which afterwards arise and pursue it as a part of our happiness
when once it is constituted such by our original affections were there no appetite of any kind antecedent to self love
that propensity could scarcely ever exert itself because we should in that case have felt few and slender pains or pleasures
and have little misery or happiness to avoid or to pursue now where is the difficulty in conceiving that this may likewise be the case with benevolence and friendship
and that from the original frame of our temper we may feel a desire of another's happiness or good which by means of that affection becomes our own good and is afterwards pursued
from the combined motives of benevolence and self enjoyments who sees not that vengeance from the force alone of passion may be so eagerly pursued
as to make us knowingly neglect every consideration of ease interest or safety
and may be a good foundation for paradoxical wit and raillery
and like us they prefer one food to another sand they do not like and salt is a poison to them both of these are enemies to plant life also flowers choose sheltered spots they do not like rough winds and the glare of the sun shrivels them up
yet there are plants with pretty flowers to be found by the sea and many others with small dull flowers these seaside plants have to fight for their lives
the dry shifting sand and the salt spray are enough to kill them you would think they have no shelter from the strong sea wind nor from the fierce glare of the summer sun the puzzle is how do they live among so many enemies
even the strongest seaside plants shun that part of the beach washed by the waves they leave that to the seaweeds let us look first at some plants which have their home on the sand hills here is a fine one
like a thistle with stiff prickly leaves and a stiff blue stem in august it has blue grey flowers this plant is called sea holly its leaves being like those of the holly
now try to pull up a plant of sea holly you find it no easy task then dig away the sand and you see that its large roots have gone deep and far all these plants of sandy places grow like that
sand has no food or drink to give to plants so they send their roots out like plants in a desert until they find what they want besides food and drink they need a firm anchor in the loose sand
the sea holly with its roots deep down and far spreading can hold its own though the gale tears at it and throws its sandy bed here and there we pass many small creeping plants as we walk in the dry sand
then we see many plants of thyme and a few ragged bushes of gorse
the wind does its best to bury them in sand but they send up hard sharp buds and go on living and spreading bit by bit the sand is held together by the matted stems of these grasses
it becomes firm instead of loose the wind can no longer blow it about then other plants can grow in that place you know how men go out to the wild parts of the earth and by hard work make those places ready for others to settle there well
the sand grass works like that it prepares the way for useful plants to grow in places where they could not grow before quite near to the sea we shall find a very strange little plant it has no leaves only fleshy jointed stems
it is known as the glass wort being full of a substance useful in making glass it belongs to a family which seems to delight in deserts and salty soil
they have all sorts of dodges to help them live in such places for instance their leaves are fleshy squeeze them and they are like wet juicy fruit the sea beet is also a member of this family
the red beet as well as the mangel wurzel we owe to this humble seaside plant most of our sugar comes from the sugar beet
it is rather a ragged tough kind of cabbage and perhaps you would not choose it for your dinner table we have more tempting sorts in our gardens brussels sprouts broccoli cauliflower but
long long ago the wild seaside cabbage was the only one growing men found it to be eatable and began to plant it near their huts or caves from that small beginning all our garden cabbages have come
walking a little farther from the sea we leave the sand and come to stones rocks and cliffs we pass a pretty plant the sea lavender and another the sea stock they love best the sandy muddy parts of the shore
their lilac flowers look bright and pretty coming to the rocky places we find tufts of the flower known as sea pink or thrift its leaves are like grass and its flowers form a round pink bundle at the top of a bare stalk
there are many tufts of thrift growing among the rocks and each tuft has a number of pink flowers in some places you could step from one tuft to another for several miles bare and ugly stretches of coast are made into a gay garden by this lovely flower
here and there on the rocks is a plant with large yellow blossoms the yellow horned poppy it is a handsome plant and you are surprised to see such fine flowers among dry shingle sand or rock
but the horned poppy is well able to stand the salt spray and storms of its favourite home when the petals have dropped a green seed pod is left it is very long nearly twice as long as this page and looks much more like a stem than a seed pod
sometimes this seaside poppy is seen growing high up the face of the cliff where only the jackdaw and sea birds can find a footing and many another plant may be seen there too the cliffs are full of cracks
they grow where you would least expect to find a living plant neither heat nor thirst seems to kill them mother nature has found many a wonderful way of helping her children to live exercises
in what way are the grasses growing on the sand so useful
give the names of four flowering plants of the shore
you often find it on the shore especially after a severe storm there it lies a mass of helpless jelly which slips and breaks through your fingers if you try to lift it it cannot move back to its watery home and in a short time the sun's warmth will have dried it up
leaving but a mark on the sand and a few scraps of animal matter for these strange creatures are little else but water a jelly fish which weighed two pounds when alive would leave less than the tenth part of one ounce when dried
there is a story of a farmer who on seeing thousands and thousands of jelly fish along the shore
hundreds of them like so many ghosts each one is moving along with its edges partly opening and shutting it is plain that this waving motion causes the creatures to move through the water
also they can rise to the surface or fall to the depths and do not collide with one another
at night jelly fishes sometimes look very beautiful each one shines in the water with a soft yet strong light like fairy lamps afloat in the sea they are of all sizes
some you could put in a small wineglass others measure nearly two feet across evidently the jelly fish grows and in order to live and grow it must eat but what does it eat
let us look at its body in any large jelly fish you can see marks which run from the centre of the body and another mark round the edge of the umbrella these are really tubes
they all join with a hollow space inside the body which is the creature's stomach the mouth tube opens under the body as can be seen by turning the jelly fish on its back and moving the lobes of jelly aside
all the food goes up this tube mouth and so into the stomach of the animal the whole creature is little more than so many cells of sea water the walls of the cells being a very thin transparent kind of skin
perhaps the strangest thing about it is the way in which it catches prey jelly fish feed on all kinds of tiny sea animals such as baby fish and the young of crabs shrimps and prawns
they trail through the water stretching far from the main part of the jelly fish and any small creature unlucky enough to touch them is doomed down each one of these threads there are minute cells hundreds and hundreds to every thread
and in each cell there is a dart coiled up like the spring of a watch the tip of the dart is barbed like a fishhook now the cells are so made that they fly open when touched
the dart then leaps out and buries itself in the skin of the animal which touched the thread not only that but the darts are poisoned and soon kill the small creatures which they pierce you see now how this innocent looking jelly fish gets its food
as it swims along the threads touch the tiny living things in the sea the darts pierce them and poison them
of course these stinging darts are very very small much too small for our eyes to see sometimes there are numbers of large brownish jelly fish in the sea or washed up on the shore
if you are paddling or swimming keep well away from them their poison darts are able to pierce through thin skin and may cause you illness and great pain remember that the threads are very long
after you have passed the main body of the animal you may still be in danger from the trailing threads we noticed these same poison darts when we were dealing with the flower like animals the anemones
only in that case they were so fine so small that they had no power to harm us even though they entered our skin you may remember that we called the anemone a cousin of the jelly fish
for they both belong to the same lowly division of the animal kingdom animals have queer ways of getting a living who would expect to find millions of poisoned darts in a jelly fish
men have made many weapons for killing from the bow and arrow to the torpedo but none of them is more wonderful than the weapon of the jelly fish exercises
in a broad sense a crisis is a decisive moment or turning point hence in industry a collapse of prosperity in the course of a fever the crisis is the point where there is a turn for the better or for the worse
the figure of speech as applied to industrial conditions would seem to fail in that what precedes is apparently exuberant health not disease business conditions do not move along uniformly there are waves of prosperity
profits are apparently great then may be suddenly swept away the profits of the prosperous time are partly illusory or exist only on paper
the situation has all the unhealthiness of the fever patient men trade in promises and when the crisis comes they have only promises for profits
the discussion of business management and profits is not complete without a consideration of this rhythmic movement of confidence and prices a crisis in the business affairs of an individual in the sense of a collapse of prosperity may occur from many mischances
a local crisis may be felt in some one neighborhood as a result of flood of fire or of other accidents such a case was that which occurred in eighteen sixty four in manchester england
when the cotton factories were compelled to close because the supply of cotton was cut off by the blockade of the ports of the south in the civil war such a local crisis sometimes results from a change of transportation throwing a town out of the line of trade
these have been mentioned in discussing chance and risk but the phenomenon known generally as an industrial crisis is of wider extent
two in a more special sense a financial crisis is the confusion and loss that mark the end of a period of rising prices an industrial depression is the period of hard times that follows the word crisis suggests a brief period
a moment something that is severe sudden and soon over the term financial panic is frequently used as a synonym for financial crisis a crisis in the narrower sense has to do with prices
is always connected with money in some way while therefore crises may be divided into industrial speculative and financial according to their immediate occasion all of them are financial in the sense that they have to do with a change in the general price level
a crisis is a jolt to prices which shatters the credit of some banks brokers merchants and manufacturers
industry in successive decades does not pass through an unvarying series of changes but history repeats itself with sufficient regularity to justify the view that a certain series of changes is typical in modern industry
when prices are at the lowest point many factories are closed and much labor is unemployed conditions are worse in some industries than in others
general economy and great caution prevail few new enterprises are undertaken to those having available money this is a good time to buy and property begins to change hands then hoarded money begins to come out of its hiding places
money flows in from other countries particularly if business conditions are better abroad than here for low prices make a country a good place in which to buy at the same time that the money in circulation thus increases
there is a general return of confidence that increases credit not only are there more dollars but each does more work then old enterprises are resumed and new ones are undertaken the purchase of materials in larger quantities causes a rise in prices and an increase in costs
the surplus labor on the margin of efficiency gets employment and wages begin to increase the only classes not sharing in this improvement are the receivers of fixed incomes
four the crisis is a moment of widespread loss which is followed by a long period of small profits to most enterprises and of enforced economy as prices cease to go up rapidly the question arises in many minds whether the movement can continue and if not
when it will cease men wish to hold on for the last profits and are willing to risk something to gain them when foreign prices do not rise in as great proportion as domestic prices foreign imports are stimulated and the quantity of exports falls
this disturbs the equilibrium of money and requires at length large and continued exportation of specie this checks prices and reducing the specie reserves of the banks compels them to be more cautious
the fall in the value of many stocks and securities held by the banks forces many brokers and speculators to convert their resources into ready money this is the moment of danger weak enterprises find their foundations crumbling and there are many failures
the falling prices the shattered credit and the financial losses force many factories to close many workmen are thrown out of employment and business must again enter upon a period of retrenchment for it has completed the cycle of changing prices
one the periods of industrial hardship in the middle ages were connected with adverse conditions of production not with the collapse of prices periods of exceptional hardship in medieval times were mostly due to political oppression famine
wars pestilence and scourges of nature there being very little of the money economy there was no development of credit and of credit prices the money economy began as has been noted in the cities
as the use of money spread as larger commercial enterprises were undertaken as borrowing and the payment of interest became common
usually being severer in england the english crises may be roughly dated eighteen o three eighteen twenty five eighteen thirty eight eighteen forty seven eighteen fifty seven eighteen sixty four
eighteen seventy five eighteen ninety these were attributed to various causes that of eighteen twenty five to over trading abroad that of eighteen forty seven to railroad building
that of eighteen sixty four to the interruption of the cotton trade and of commerce as a result of the civil war in america while in many parts of england the crisis of eighteen sixty four was unusually severe in other countries it was of little moment
germany after several years of great speculative prosperity had a most severe crisis in eighteen seventy five while france a somewhat significant fact although prostrated by the war of eighteen seventy seventy one
losing a large amount of wealth and paying a thousand millions of dollars to germany as a war indemnity
three in the united states there have been five marked crises the first in eighteen seventeen
these crises were of date eighteen seventeen twenty eighteen thirty seven thirty nine eighteen fifty seven eighteen seventy three eighteen ninety three
major crises thus occurred about twenty years apart and minor crises in several instances alternated with them notably in eighteen sixty six eighteen eighty four and we might add nineteen o three
these crises were the culmination of different kinds of speculation usually spoken of as their causes the crisis of eighteen seventeen was due to over trading and to the immense importation following the war of eighteen twelve
and the resumption of commerce with europe in eighteen sixteen in eighteen thirty seven thirty nine came in quick succession two crises not quite distinct from each other the second similar to the relapse of a fever patient
the immediate occasions were over speculation in lands a great issue of bank money national expansion and over confidence possibly in some degree the heedless financial measures of andrew jackson
the crisis of eighteen fifty seven followed a period of great prosperity marked by the discovery of gold in california in eighteen forty eight by great expansion of commerce by the building of railroads and by a great increase in foreign trade
the crisis of eighteen seventy three probably the severest in our history is attributable to great speculation especially to railroad building on an unexampled scale following the war the blow when it fell
was intensified by the contraction of currency leading to the return to a specie basis and lower prices the crisis of eighteen eighty four a comparatively slight one occasioned rather than caused by the discussion of the money question
was followed by some years of noticeable depression the years eighteen eighty nine to eighteen ninety two witnessed a prosperity that culminated in a crisis in september eighteen ninety three likewise generally explained as due to the unsettled state of our monetary system
followed by a period of depression lasting until eighteen ninety seven the period from eighteen ninety seven to nineteen o three has been marked by great prosperity and by rising prices
high prices have greatly checked building
what fun it is down by the sea at low tide scrambling among the slippery rocks we quickly fill a bucket with curious things some are dead others very much alive but all have a story to tell us
the story of the life they lead on the bed of the sea or among the sands and rocks of the shore look here is a starfish it is lying on the sand left high and dry by the waves for now the tide is low
the starfish looks limp and lifeless its five reddish coloured arms are quite still we know it is an animal that lives in the sea and dies when washed ashore but what does it do in the sea how does it move without legs or fins how can it live without a head
has it a mouth what does it eat and how does it find its food like so many other sea animals the starfish is a puzzle some of its little tricks puzzled clever people until quite lately but we know most of its secrets now
pass your finger down one of its arms or rays it feels rough being covered with knobs and prickles now turn the starfish over and look carefully at its underside in the centre where the five arms meet is the animal's mouth
really it is a terrible mouth the mouth of an ogre we notice a groove down the centre of each ray but what are those little moving things which bend this way and that as if feeling for something now that is exactly what they are doing they are the feet of the starfish
each tiny foot is really a hollow tube which can be pushed out or drawn in at the tip of each is a powerful sucker which acts rather like those leather suckers boys sometimes play with suppose the starfish wishes to take a walk along the bed of the sea
first it pushes out its tube feet each sucker fixes itself to a stone or other object and then the animal can draw its body along you will see presently that the suckers can do other work too our starfish will die however unless we carry it to a pool
before doing so we must look at the tip of each ray for a small reddish spot that is the starfish's eye are those little eyes of much use in helping the creature to find its dinner
most likely the starfish smells its way if we put the animal on its back in a rock pool we shall see the tube feet at work once in the water our starfish revives and makes efforts to right itself can it turn over and crawl away
the little tube feet come out of their holes and begin to bend about now
ask any fisherman what he thinks of the harmless starfish and he will call it a pest and a nuisance
and eats all the bait and when we are line fishing it sucks the bait off our hooks and sometimes swallows hook and all
has no friend among fisher folk
by doing this he harms himself more than the starfish each half grows into a perfect starfish with five rays complete we can say that each part of this animal has a separate life for each part can grow when torn away
if you were asked to open an oyster you would need tools would you not even with an oyster knife it is not always an easy job the oyster tight in his shelly fortress seems safe from the attack of a weak starfish
yet the starfish opens and eats oysters as part of its everyday life finding a nice fat oyster it sets to work the starfish folds its rays over its victim with its mouth against the edge where the shells meet the tug of war begins
the starfish's tube feet try to pull the shells apart the oyster with all its strength tries to keep them shut it is stronger than its enemy and yet the steady pull of hundreds of suckers is more than it can stand and the shells after a time
begin to gape a little now a strange thing happens the mouth of the starfish opens into a kind of bag which slips between the oyster shells the starfish as it were turns itself inside out it then eats the oyster
and leaves the clean shell mussels are smaller so they are eaten in a different way the starfish merely presses the mussel into its mouth cleans out the shells and throws them away were we not right to call this wonderful mouth the mouth of an ogre
oysters as you know are so valuable that we rear them in special beds along comes the hungry starfish with thousands of its relations finding the fat oysters very good eating
they do great damage in our oyster fisheries and it is one long battle between them and the keepers of the beds supporting the tough skin of five fingered jack is a wonderful skeleton it is like a network of fine plates and rods made of lime
five fingers has a great number of cousins some of them common enough along our shores one of the strangest is the brittle star on first seeing one of these animals i tried to capture it by holding its long wriggling arms at once the arms broke off
to my surprise the broken rays broke again while wriggling on the ground this is a strange habit is it not perhaps the brittle star has found this dodge useful in escaping from enemies
another cousin of the starfish is the sea urchin a round prickly creature rather like the burr of the sweet chestnut tree this mass of prickles is not a vegetable he is very much alive
nature has given many plants and animals these prickles like fixed bayonets for a defence against their enemies you will at once think of the gorse and the hedgehog or urchin as some people call it
our little sea urchin has prickles like the hedgehog but he is really unlike any other living creature except perhaps the starfish if you were to roll up a starfish into a ball and then stick about three thousand spines on the ball thus made
you would have a creature looking rather like a sea urchin beneath the mass of spines there is a hard test or shell made of plates joined closely together this is the skeleton of the sea urchin
sometimes you find this strange shell on the seashore rather dirty and not always sweet smelling you might also find sea urchins half dead washed into the rock pools the shells are wonderful objects so you should clean them in fresh water they are well worth the trouble of taking home
all over the shell you will see little rounded knobs these show where the spines were fixed on each spine fits into a hole in the shell but so loosely that it is able to move about
it can do much more than that like its cousin the starfish it has numerous tube feet so you would not be surprised to see this prickly ball walk up the face of a rock the tube feet or sucker feet
of what use are these strange little pincers or rods it is thought that the urchin uses them in several ways they may help in capturing small prey or they may be used when the creature has to fight a larger enemy
they are also certainly of use as cleansing tools that is to say they can pick off tiny scraps of weed or dirt which settle on the animal's body some starfishes also own pincers of this sort but they are not so perfect as those of the funny little urchin
we must not forget that all these spines tube feet and pincers are worked by a set of muscles in the centre of the urchin's shell is its mouth
not only is it of great size but it is fitted with strong jaws and five long sharp teeth you may see them poking out from the mouth of the animal and feel for yourself how hard they are
there is a great deal more to know about five fingers and the sea urchin still has his secrets which no one can explain we have but glanced at their story in this lesson but you can see that the starfish lying limp on the sands is not so dull as it looks exercises
where is the mouth of the starfish placed
describe how the starfish moves
well now why don't you write a sensible book i should like to see you make people think do you believe it can be done then i asked well try he replied accordingly i have tried
this is a sensible book i want you to understand that this is a book to improve your mind in this book i tell you all about germany at all events all i know about germany and the ober ammergau passion play
i also tell you about other things i do not tell you all i know about all these other things because i do not want to swamp you with knowledge i wish to lead you gradually when you have learnt this book you can come again and i will tell you some more
i should only be defeating my own object did i by making you think too much at first give you a perhaps lasting dislike to the exercise i have purposely put the matter in a light and attractive form
so that i may secure the attention of the young and the frivolous i do not want them to notice as they go on that they are being instructed and i have therefore endeavoured to disguise from them so far as is practicable that this is either an exceptionally clever
or an exceptionally useful work i want to do them good without their knowing it i want to do you all good to improve your minds and to make you think if i can what you will think after you have read the book i do not want to know
indeed i would rather not know it will be sufficient reward for me to feel that i have done my duty and to receive a percentage on the gross sales london march eighteen ninety one
invitation to the theatre a most unpleasant regulation yearnings of the embryo traveller how to make the most of one's own country friday a lucky day the pilgrimage decided on
my friend b called on me this morning and asked me if i would go to a theatre with him on monday next oh yes certainly old man i replied have you got an order then he said
no they don't give orders we shall have to pay pay pay to go into a theatre i answered in astonishment oh nonsense you are joking my dear fellow he rejoined
do you think i should suggest paying if it were possible to get in by any other means but the people who run this theatre would not even understand what was meant by a free list the uncivilised barbarians
it is of no use pretending to them that you are on the press because they don't want the press they don't think anything of the press it is no good writing to the acting manager because there is no acting manager it would be a waste of time offering to exhibit bills
because they don't have any bills not of that sort if you want to go in to see the show you've got to pay if you don't pay you stop outside that's their brutal rule dear me i said what a very unpleasant arrangement
and whereabouts is this extraordinary theatre i don't think i can ever have been inside it i don't think you have he replied it is at ober ammergau first turning on the left after you leave ober railway station fifty miles from munich
i should not have thought an outlying house like that could have afforded to give itself airs
and money is turned away at each performance the first production is on monday next will you come i pondered for a moment looked at my diary and saw that aunt emma was coming to spend saturday to wednesday next with us
calculated that if i went i should miss her and might not see her again for years and decided that i would go to tell the truth it was the journey more than the play that tempted me to be a great traveller has always been one of my cherished ambitions
i yearn to be able to write in this sort of strain i have smoked my fragrant havana in the sunny streets of old madrid and i have puffed the rude and not sweet smelling calumet of peace in the draughty wigwam of the wild west i have sipped my evening coffee in the silent tent
while the tethered camel browsed without upon the desert grass and i have quaffed the fiery brandy of the north while the reindeer munched his fodder beside me in the hut and the pale light of the midnight sun threw the shadows of the pines across the snow i have felt the stab of lustrous eyes
that ghostlike looked at me from out veil covered faces in byzantium's narrow ways and i have laughed back though it was wrong of me to do so at the saucy wanton glances of the black eyed girls of jedo i have wandered where good' but not too good
i have stood upon the bridge where dante watched the sainted beatrice pass by i have floated on the waters that once bore the barge of cleopatra i have stood where caesar fell i have heard the soft rustle of rich rare robes in the drawing rooms of mayfair
and i have heard the teeth necklaces rattle around the ebony throats of the belles of tongataboo i have panted beneath the sun's fierce rays in india and frozen under the icy blasts of greenland i have mingled with the teeming hordes of old cathay
and deep in the great pine forests of the western world i have lain wrapped in my blanket a thousand miles beyond the shores of human life b to whom i explained my leaning towards this style of diction
said that exactly the same effect could be produced by writing about places quite handy he said i could go on like that without having been outside england at all i should say i have smoked my fourpenny shag
in the sanded bars of fleet street and i have puffed my twopenny manilla in the gilded balls of the criterion i have quaffed my foaming beer of burton where islington's famed angel gathers the little thirsty ones beneath her shadowing wings
and i have sipped my tenpenny ordinaire in many a garlic scented salon of soho on the back of the strangely moving ass i have urged or to speak more correctly the proprietor of the ass or his agent from behind has urged
my wild career across the sandy heaths of hampstead and my canoe has startled the screaming wild fowl from their lonely haunts amid the sub tropical regions of battersea adown the long steep slope of one tree hill
have i rolled from top to foot while laughing maidens of the east stood round and clapped their hands and yelled and in the old world garden of that pleasant court where played the fair haired children of the ill starred stuarts have i wandered long through many paths
my arm entwined about the waist of one of eve's sweet daughters while her mother raged around indignantly on the other side of the hedge and never seemed to get any nearer to us i have chased the lodging house norfolk howard to his watery death by the pale lamp's light
i have shivering followed the leaping flea o'er many a mile of pillow and sheet by the great atlantic's margin round and round till the heart and not only the heart grows sick and the mad brain whirls and reels
have i ridden the small but extremely hard horse that may for a penny be mounted amid the plains of peckham rye and high above the heads of the giddy throngs of barnet though it is doubtful if anyone among them was half so giddy as was i have i swung
in highly coloured car worked by a man with a rope i have trod in stately measure the floor of kensington's town hall the tickets were a guinea each and included refreshments when you could get to them through the crowd
and on the green sward of the forest that borders eastern anglia by the oft sung town of epping i have performed quaint ceremonies in a ring i have mingled with the teeming hordes of drury lane on boxing night
during the run of a high class piece i have sat in lonely grandeur in the front row of the gallery and wished that i had spent my shilling instead in the oriental halls of the alhambra there you are said b that is just as good as yours and you can write like that
without going more than a few hours journey from london we will discuss the matter no further i replied you cannot i see enter into my feelings the wild heart of the traveller does not throb within your breast you cannot understand his longings
no matter suffice it that i will come this journey with you i will buy a german conversation book and a check suit and a blue veil and a white umbrella and suchlike necessities of the english tourist in germany this very afternoon
when do you start well he said it is a good two days journey i propose to start on friday is not friday rather an unlucky day to start on i suggested
oh good gracious he retorted quite sharply what rubbish next as if the affairs of europe were going to be arranged by providence according to whether you and i start for an excursion on a thursday or a friday he said he was surprised
that a man who could be so sensible occasionally as myself could have patience to even think of such old womanish nonsense he said that years ago when he was a silly boy he used to pay attention to this foolish superstition himself
and would never upon any consideration start for a trip upon a friday but one year he was compelled to do so it was a case of either starting on a friday or not going at all and he determined to chance it
the whole event was a tremendous success and after that he had made up his mind to always start on a friday and he always did and always had a good time
the question of luggage first friend's suggestion second friend's suggestion third friend's suggestion missus briggs advice our vicar's advice his wife's advice
medical advice literary advice george's recommendation my sister in law's help young smith's counsel my own ideas
i have been a good deal worried to day about the question of what luggage to take with me i met a man this morning and he said oh
if you are going to ober ammergau mind you take plenty of warm clothing with you you'll need all your winter things up there he said that a friend of his had gone up there some years ago and had not taken enough warm things with him
and had caught a chill there and had come home and died he said you be guided by me and take plenty of warm things with you i met another man later on and he said i hear you are going abroad
now tell me what part of europe are you going to i replied that i thought it was somewhere about the middle he said well now you take my advice and get a calico suit and a sunshade never mind the look of the thing
you be comfortable you've no idea of the heat on the continent at this time of the year english people will persist in travelling about the continent in the same stuffy clothes that they wear at home that's how so many of them get sunstrokes and are ruined for life
i went into the club and there i met a friend of mine a newspaper correspondent who has travelled a good deal and knows europe pretty well i told him what my two other friends had said and asked him which i was to believe he said
well as a matter of fact they are both right you see up in those hilly districts the weather changes very quickly in the morning it may be blazing hot and you will be melting and in the evening you may be very glad of a flannel shirt and a fur coat
if that's all these foreigners can manage in their own country what right have they to come over here as they do and grumble about our weather well as a matter of fact he replied they haven't any right but you can't stop them they will do it
no you take my advice and be prepared for everything take a cool suit and some thin things for if it's hot and plenty of warm things in case it is cold when i got home i found missus briggs there
she having looked in to see how the baby was she said oh if you're going anywhere near germany you take a bit of soap with you she said that mister briggs had been called over to germany once in a hurry on business
and had forgotten to take a piece of soap with him and didn't know enough german to ask for any when he got over there and didn't see any to ask for even if he had known and was away for three weeks and wasn't able to wash himself all the time and came home so dirty that they didn't know him
and mistook him for the man that was to come to see what was the matter with the kitchen boiler missus briggs also advised me to take some towels with me as they give you such small towels to wipe on i went out after lunch and met our vicar
he said take a blanket with you he said that not only did the german hotel keepers never give you sufficient bedclothes to keep you warm of a night but they never properly aired their sheets he said that a young friend of his
had gone for a tour through germany once and had slept in a damp bed and had caught rheumatic fever and had come home and died his wife joined us at this point he was waiting for her outside a draper's shop when i met him
he explained to her that i was going to germany and she said oh take a pillow with you they don't give you any pillows not like our pillows and it's so wretched you'll never get a decent night's rest if you don't take a pillow she said
you can have a little bag made for it and it doesn't look anything i met our doctor a few yards further on he said don't forget to take a bottle of brandy with you it doesn't take up much room and if you're not used to german cooking you'll find it handy in the night
he added that the brandy you get at foreign hotels was mere poison and that it was really unsafe to travel abroad without a bottle of brandy he said that a simple thing like a bottle of brandy in your bag might often save your life coming home
i ran against a literary friend of mine he said you'll have a goodish time in the train old fellow are you used to long railway journeys i said well i've travelled down from london into the very heart of surrey by a south eastern express
oh that's a mere nothing compared with what you've got before you now he answered look here i'll tell you a very good idea of how to pass the time you take a chessboard with you and a set of men you'll thank me for telling you that
george dropped in during the evening he said i'll tell you one thing you'll have to take with you old man and that's a box of cigars and some tobacco he said that the german cigar the better class of german cigar
was of the brand that is technically known over here as the penny pickwick spring crop and he thought that i should not have time during the short stay i contemplated making in the country to acquire a taste for its flavour my sister in law came in later on in the evening
she is a thoughtful girl and brought a box with her about the size of a tea chest she said now you slip that in your bag you'll be glad of that there's everything there for making yourself a cup of tea she said that they did not understand tea in germany
but that with that i should be independent of them she opened the case and explained its contents to me it certainly was a wonderfully complete arrangement it contained a little caddy full of tea a little bottle of milk a box of sugar
a bottle of methylated spirit a box of butter and a tin of biscuits also a stove a kettle a teapot two cups two saucers two plates two knives and two spoons if there had only been a bed in it
one need not have bothered about hotels at all young smith the secretary of our photographic club called at nine to ask me to take him a negative of the statue of the dying gladiator in the munich sculpture gallery i told him that i should be delighted to oblige him
but that i did not intend to take my camera with me not take your camera he said
you are going to pass through some of the most picturesque scenery and stay at some of the most ancient and famous towns of europe and are going to leave your photographic apparatus behind you and you call yourself an artist
he said i should never regret a thing more in my life than going without that camera
in matters where they know more than you do it is the experience of those who have gone before that makes the way smooth for those who follow so after supper i got together the things i had been advised to take with me and arranged them on the bed
adding a few articles i had thought of all by myself i put up plenty of writing paper and a bottle of ink along with a dictionary and a few other books of reference in case i should feel inclined to do any work while i was away
i always like to be prepared for work one never knows when one may feel inclined for it sometimes
i have felt so inclined for writing and it has quite upset me that in consequence of not having brought any paper and pens and ink with me i have been unable to sit down and do a lot of work but have been compelled instead to lounge about all day with my hands in my pockets
accordingly i always take plenty of paper and pens and ink with me now wherever i go so that when the desire for work comes to me i need not check it that this craving for work should have troubled me so often
when i had no paper pens and ink by me and that it never by any chance visits me now when i am careful to be in a position to gratify it is a matter over which i have often puzzled but when it does come i shall be ready for it
because i thought it would be so pleasant to read him in his own country and i decided to take a sponge together with a small portable bath because a cold bath is so refreshing the first thing in the morning b came in just as i had got everything into a pile
he said oh take as much advice as you like that always comes in useful to give away but for goodness sake don't get carrying all that stuff about with you people will take us for gipsies i said now it's no use your talking nonsense
half the things on this bed are life preserving things if people go into germany without these things they come home and die and i related to him what the doctor and the vicar and the other people had told me and explained to him
how my life depended upon my taking brandy and blankets and sunshades and plenty of warm clothing with me he is a man utterly indifferent to danger and risk incurred by other people is b he said oh rubbish
you're not the sort that catches a cold and dies young you leave that co operative stores of yours at home and pack up a tooth brush a comb a pair of socks and a shirt
i have packed more than that but not much at all events i have got everything into one small bag i should like to have taken that tea arrangement it would have done so nicely to play at shop with in the train
virtue ordered outside a homely english row when i say i was awakened at ostend i do not speak the strict truth i was not awakened not properly
i was only half awakened i never did get fairly awake until the afternoon during the journey from ostend to cologne i was three parts asleep and one part partially awake at ostend however
i was sufficiently aroused to grasp the idea that we had got somewhere and that i must find my luggage and b and do something or other in addition to which a strange vague instinct but one which i have never yet known deceive me hovering about my mind
and telling me that i was in the neighbourhood of something to eat and drink spurred me to vigour and action i hurried down into the saloon and there found b he excused himself for having left me alone all night he need not have troubled himself
i had not pined for him in the least if the only woman i had ever loved had been on board i should have sat silent and let any other fellow talk to her that wanted to and that felt equal to it by explaining that he had met a friend and that they had been talking
it appeared to have been a trying conversation i also ran against the talkative man and his companion such a complete wreck of a once strong man as the latter looked i have never before seen mere sea sickness however severe
could never have accounted for the change in his appearance since happy and hopeful he entered the railway carriage at victoria six short hours ago his friend on the other hand appeared fresh and cheerful and was relating an anecdote about a cow
we took our bags into the custom house and opened them and i sat down on mine and immediately went to sleep when i awoke somebody whom i mistook at first for a field marshal and from force of habit
i was once a volunteer saluted was standing over me pointing melodramatically at my bag i assured him in picturesque german that i had nothing to declare he did not appear to comprehend me
which struck me as curious and took the bag away from me which left me nothing to sit upon but the floor but i felt too sleepy to be indignant after our luggage had been examined we went into the buffet
my instinct had not misled me there i found hot coffee and rolls and butter i ordered two coffees with milk some bread and some butter i ordered them in the best german i knew as nobody understood me
i went and got the things for myself it saves a deal of argument that method people seem to know what you mean in a moment then b suggested that while we were in belgium where everybody spoke french while very few indeed knew german
i should stand a better chance of being understood if i talked less german and more french he said it will be easier for you and less of a strain upon the natives you stick to french he continued as long as ever you can
you will get along much better with french you will come across people now and then smart intelligent people who will partially understand your french but no human being except a thought reader will ever obtain any glimmering of what you mean from your german
i thought we were in germany i didn't know and then in a burst of confidence i added feeling that further deceit was useless i don't know where i am you know no i thought you didn't he replied
that is exactly the idea you give anybody i wish you'd wake up a bit we waited about an hour at ostend while our train was made up there was only one carriage labelled for cologne and four more passengers wanted to go there
than the compartment would hold not being aware of this b and i made no haste to secure places and in consequence when having finished our coffee we leisurely strolled up and opened the carriage door we saw that every seat was already booked
a bag was in one space and a rug in another an umbrella booked a third and so on nobody was there but the seats were gone it is the unwritten law among travellers that a man's luggage deposited upon a seat
shall secure that seat to him until he comes to sit upon it himself this is a good law and a just law and one that in my normal state i myself would die to uphold and maintain but at three o'clock on a chilly morning
one's moral sensibilities are not properly developed the average man's conscience does not begin work till eight or nine o'clock not till after breakfast in fact at three a m he will do things that at three in the afternoon his soul would revolt at
under ordinary circumstances i should as soon have thought of shifting a man's bag and appropriating his seat as an ancient hebrew squatter would have thought of removing his neighbour's landmark but at this time in the morning my better nature was asleep
i have often read of a man's better nature being suddenly awakened the business is generally accomplished by an organ grinder or a little child i would back the latter at all events give it a fair chance to awaken anything in this world that was not stone deaf
or that had not been dead for more than twenty four hours and if an organ grinder or a little child had been around ostend station that morning things might have been different b and i might have been saved from crime just as we were in the middle of our villainy
and have fallen upon each other's necks outside on the platform and have wept and waited for the next train as it was after looking carefully round to see that nobody was watching us we slipped quickly into the carriage
and making room for ourselves among the luggage there sat down and tried to look innocent and easy b said that the best thing we could do when the other people came would be to pretend to be dead asleep and too stupid to understand anything
i replied that as far as i was concerned i thought i could convey the desired impression without stooping to deceit at all and prepared to make myself comfortable a few seconds later another man got into the carriage
he also made room for himself among the luggage and sat down i am afraid that seat's taken sir said b when he had recovered his surprise at the man's coolness in fact all the seats in this carriage are taken i can't help that replied the ruffian cynically
i've got to get to cologne some time to day and there seems no other way of doing it that i can see
you are thinking only of yourself my sense of right and justice was beginning to assert itself and i felt quite indignant with the fellow two minutes ago as i have explained i could contemplate the taking of another man's seat with equanimity
now such an act seemed to me shameful the truth is that my better nature never sleeps for long leave it alone and it wakens of its own accord heaven help me i am a sinful worldly man i know but there is good at the bottom of me
it wants hauling up but it's there this man had aroused it i now saw the sinfulness of taking another passenger's place in a railway carriage but i could not make the other man see it i felt that some service was due from me to justice
in compensation of the wrong i had done her a few moments ago and i argued most eloquently my rhetoric was however quite thrown away oh it's only a vice consul he said here's his name on the bag there's plenty of room for him in with the guard
it was no use my defending the sacred cause of right before a man who held sentiments like that so having lodged a protest against his behaviour and thus eased my conscience i leant back and dozed the doze of the just
five minutes before the train started the rightful owners of the carriage came up and crowded in they seemed surprised at finding only five vacant seats available between seven of them and commenced to quarrel vigorously among themselves b and i
and the unjust man in the corner tried to calm them but passion ran too high at first for the voice of reason to be heard each combination of five possible among them accused each remaining two of endeavouring to obtain seats by fraud
and each one more than hinted that the other six were liars what annoyed me was that they quarrelled in english they all had languages of their own there were four belgians two frenchmen and a german
finding that there seemed to be no chance of their ever agreeing among themselves they appealed to us we unhesitatingly decided in favour of the five thinnest who thereupon evidently regarding the matter as finally settled
sat down and told the other two to get out these two stout ones however the german and one of the belgians seemed inclined to dispute the award and called up the station master the station master did not wait to listen to what they had to say
he told them they ought to be ashamed of themselves for forcing their way into a compartment that was already more than full and inconveniencing the people already there he also used english to explain this to them and they got out on the platform and answered him back in english
english seems to be the popular language for quarrelling in among foreigners i suppose they find it more expressive we all watched the group from the window we were amused and interested in the middle of the argument
an early gendarme arrived on the scene the gendarme naturally supported the station master one man in uniform always supports another man in uniform no matter what the row is about or who may be in the right that does not trouble him
it is a fixed tenet of belief among uniform circles that a uniform can do no wrong if burglars wore uniform the police would be instructed to render them every assistance in their power and to take into custody
any householder attempting to interfere with them in the execution of their business the gendarme assisted the station master to abuse the two stout passengers and he also abused them in english it was not good english in any sense of the word
the man would probably have been able to give his feelings much greater variety and play in french or flemish but that was not his object his ambition like every other foreigner's was to become an accomplished english quarreller and this was practice for him
a customs house clerk came out and joined in the babel he took the part of the passengers and abused the station master and the gendarme and he abused them in english
he was quite certain that any evil thing spoken of her had been sheer slander and yet he had managed to tell her everything of himself without subjecting himself to her undying anger when she left the drawing room
the conversation turned again upon the great popenjoy question and from certain words which fell from the dean jack was enabled to surmise that lord george had reason to hope that an heir might be born to him
he does not look as though he would live long himself
i trust he may with all my heart said lord george that's another question replied the dean i only say that he doesn't look like it
lord george went away early and jack de baron thought it prudent to retire at the same time so you're going to morrow dear said the dean yes papa is it not best oh yes
nothing could be worse than a prolonged separation he means to be honest and good he is honest and good papa you have had your triumph
otherwise he would have triumphed he would have taken you away and you and i would have been separated of course you are bound to obey him but there must be limits
he would have taken you away as though in disgrace and that i could not stand there will be an end of that now god knows when i shall see you again mary
i don't think he ever gets over any feeling having no home of his own why does he not bring you here i don't think he likes the idea of being a burden to you exactly he has not cordiality enough to feel
that when two men are in a boat together as he and i are because of you
than you are if it were all well between us and he had the property should i scruple to go and stay at manor cross you would still have your own house to go back to so will he
but it can't be altered dear and god forbid that i should set you against him he is not a rake nor a spendthrift nor will he run after other women mary thought of missus houghton but she held her tongue he is not a bad man
and i think he loves you i am sure he does but i can't help feeling sad at parting with you i suppose
mary when she was alone in her room
a thousand pities that it should be so it was to be regretted much regretted
she was angry with herself because she had been indiscreet and she was still angry a little angry with him because he had yielded to the temptation but there had been something sweet in it
she was sorry grieved in her heart of hearts that he should love her she had never striven to gain his love
she should have thought of it she should not have shown herself to be so pleased with his society but yet yet it was sweet then there came upon her some memory of her old dreams
before she had been engaged to lord george she knew how vain had been those dreams
but yet she remembered them and felt as though they had come true with a dreamy half truth and she brought to mind all those flattering words with which he had spoken her praises
how he had told her that she was an angel too good and pure to be supposed capable of evil how he had said that in his castles in the air he would still think of her as his wife
surely a man may build what castles in the air he pleases if he will only hold his tongue she was quite sure that she did not love him but she was sure also that his was the proper way of making love
and then she thought of guss mildmay could she not in pure charity do a good turn to that poor girl might she not tell captain de baron that it was his duty to marry her and if he felt it to be his duty
would he not do so it may be doubted whether in these moments she did not think much better of captain de baron than that gentleman deserved on the next day the manor cross carriage came over for her
the family carriage should bring her home but it came empty god bless you dearest said the dean as he put her into the vehicle good bye papa i suppose you can come over and see me
i don't know that i can i saw none of the ladies when i was there yesterday i don't care a bit for the ladies where i go papa
the dean smiled and kissed her again and then she was gone she hardly knew what grand things were in store for her she was still rebelling in her heart against skirts and petticoats and resolving that she would not go to church twice on sundays unless she liked it
when the carriage drove up to the door
because we didn't like to fill the carriage and george wanted us to send it early said lady sarah before we had done our work they all kissed her affectionately and then she was again in her husband's arms
missus toff curtseyed to her most respectfully
even the tall footman in knee breeches stood back with a demeanour which had hitherto been vouchsafed only to the real ladies of the family who could tell how soon that
and then then how great would not be the glory of the dean's daughter
mary's hat was immediately off and she declared herself ready to go to the marchioness mamma has had a great deal to trouble her since you were here said lady susanna as she led the way upstairs she has aged very much
she thinks so much of things now and then she cries so often we do all we can to prevent her from crying because it does make her so weak beef tea is best we think
brought the footstool now sit down and let me look at you i don't think she's much changed this was very distressing to poor mary who with all her desire to oblige the marchioness
so that poor little boy has gone my dear i was so sorry to hear it yes of course that was quite proper when anybody dies we ought to be sorry for them i'm sure i did all i could to make things comfortable for him didn't i susanna
so i was quite anxious
and in order to get over the difficulty susanna suggested that mary should be allowed to go down to lunch certainly my dear in her condition she ought not to be kept waiting a minute and mind susanna she has bottled porter i spoke about it before
that was before popenjoy was born i mean brotherton
as mary was escaping from the room she was not expected to make cloaks and skirts but she was obliged to fight against a worse servitude even than that
there was a cruelty in refusing
misery the marchioness evidently thought that the future stability of the family depended on mary's quiescence and capability for drinking beer very many lies were necessarily told her by all the family
she was made to believe that mary never got up before eleven and the doctor who came to see herself and to whose special care mary was of course recommended
of course he was popenjoy when he was born i don't think they've any physicians like sir henry now i do hope it'll be a popenjoy but that can't be mother you are forgetting
the old woman thought for a while and then remembered the difficulty no not quite at once then her mind wandered again
and it's all in the hands of god then the next may be my three first were all girls
but sir henry said the next would be a popenjoy and
i hope this will be a popenjoy because i might die before the next when a week of all this had been endured mary in her heart was glad that the sentence of expulsion from manor cross still stood against her husband
feeling that six months of reiterated longings for a popenjoy would kill her and the possible popenjoy also then came the terrible question of an immediate residence the month was nearly over
mary begged to be taken with him but to this he would not accede alleging that his sojourn there would only be temporary till something should be settled
your brother would dislike my being here worse than you that might be true but the edict as it had been pronounced had not been against her
why shouldn't you take it where on earth should i get the money couldn't we all do it among us he wouldn't let it to us he will allow my mother and sisters to live here for nothing
but i am to be banished he must be mad mad or not i must go do do let me go with you do go to the deanery papa will make it all square by coming up to us in london
your father has a right to be in the house in london
when the month was over he did go up to town and saw mister knox mister knox advised him to go back to manor cross declaring that he himself would take no further steps without further orders
supposing however that he was in his house on the lake but he did know that the marchioness was not with him as separate application had been made to him by her ladyship for money
he remained up in town doing nothing doubtful as to where he should go and whither he should take his wife while she was still at manor cross absolutely in the purple but still not satisfied with her position
by a highspirited letter from her friend missus jones
and of course it would not be fit that you should be amusing yourself with wicked idle people like us while all the future of all the germains is so to say in your keeping how very opportune that that poor boy should have gone
just as the other is coming mind that you are a good girl and take care of yourselves i daresay all the germain ladies are looking after you day and night
no more kappa kappas for many a long day for you
i thought cart ropes wouldn't have brought him
i really think he is very much in love with her and she behaves quite prettily
the lover didn't make the least fight when papa appeared but submitted himself like a sheep to the shearers
there are some men who never really get on their legs till they're married and never would get married without a little help i'm sure he'll bless me
i got him to tell me that he'd seen you at brotherton and then he talked a deal of nonsense about the good you'd do when you were marchioness
why you should do more good than other people
and keep a good house and give nice parties try and make other people happy that's the goodness i believe in
and then he talked a deal more nonsense which i need not repeat
and walked into dinner like a christian they say that he is all alone in italy and that he won't see her i fancy he was more hurt in that little affair than some people will allow whatever it was it served him right
i always tell the truth my dear about these things
and then your popenjoy will be
you remember the baroness your baroness oh the baroness
she gave me to understand that that made no difference then i was obliged to tell her that i hadn't a
and then i left her good bye mind you are good and take care of yourself and whatever you do let popenjoy have a royal godfather then her father came over to see her
at this time lord george was up in town and when her father was announced she felt that there was no one to help her if none of the ladies of the family would see her father
this was the turning point she could forgive them for the old quarrel
then they had quarrelled with her too now they had received her back into their favour but she would have none of their favours unless they would take her father with her she was sitting at the time in that
odious arm chair in the old lady's room and when missus toff brought in word that the dean was in the little drawing room lady susanna was also present mary jumped up immediately and knew that she was blushing oh i must go down to papa she said
and would leave brotherton within a month i
he's been acting not quite on the square with a young lady and the bishop made him take it it was that or nothing the dean was quite delighted and when mary told him something of her troubles how impossible she found it to drink bottled porter
he laughed and bade her be of good cheer and told her that there were good days coming they had been there for nearly an hour together and mary was becoming unhappy if her father were allowed to go without some recognition from the family
she would never again be friends with those women she was beginning to think that she never would be friends again with any of them when the door opened and lady sarah entered the room the greeting
was very civil on both sides lady sarah could if she pleased be gracious though she was always a little grand and the dean was quite willing to be pleased if only any effort was made to please him
lady sarah hoped that he would stay and dine he would perhaps excuse the marchioness as she rarely now left her room the dean could not dine at manor cross on that day
i think it's almost too hot to play she said
jack was of course quite willing to sit under the cedar tree instead of playing croquet he was prepared to do whatever she wished if he could only know what subjects she would prefer he would talk about them and nothing else
she asked he always looks well ah he was made dreadfully unhappy by that affair up in london he never would talk about it to me
they said he was and papa for some time could not get over it now he is elated i wish he would not be so glad because that poor little boy has died it makes a great difference to him lady george and to you
i am as anxious for my husband as any other woman if it should come fairly as it were by god's doing
papa did not make the little boy die of course but i don't think that people should long for things like this if they can't keep from wishing them they should keep their wishes to themselves
don't you think we ought to keep the commandments captain de baron certainly if we can then we oughtn't to long for other people's titles if i understand it the dean wanted to prevent somebody else from getting a title which wasn't his own
but it's so sad about the little boy
his only child and the poor mother think how she must feel in spite of it all i do think it's a very good thing that he's dead said jack laughing
wouldn't you like to smoke a cigar
because he says mister groschut can't see him
at rudham what promotion
quite a last class sort of fellow if there is a last class i'll tell you a secret captain de baron mister groschut is my pet abomination
i almost wish that they would make him bishop of some unhealthy place so that he might go away and die
who else was there at rudham missus montacute jones dear missus jones i do like missus jones and adelaide houghton with her husband
but we are friends no longer tell me what she did to offend you lady george i know there was something
she's not half so much my cousin as you are my friend if i may say so
she painted her face if you're going to quarrel lady george with every woman in london who does that you'll have a great many enemies
papa always quotes something about doctor fell when he's asked why he does not like anybody she's doctor fell to me
who else was there at rudham all the old set aunt ju and guss then you were happy quite so i believe that no one knows all about that better than you do
lady george i thought you always told the truth i try to and i think you ought to have been happy you don't mean to tell me that miss mildmay is nothing to you she is a very old friend
though of course i have no right to ask you have a right if any one has i haven't a friend in the world i would trust as i would you no she ought not to be more have you never given her a right to think that
much as he wished to trust her anxious as he was that she should be his real friend he could hardly bring himself to tell her all that had taken place at rudham park during the last day or two
so at least he still assured himself but now it certainly was different now he desired of all things to be perfectly honest with lady george to be even innocent in all that he said to her
but just for this once he was obliged to deviate into a lie never he said of course it is not for me to enquire further
guss mildmay and i have been very much thrown together but even had she wished it
that comes to the same thing captain de baron how am i to answer that how am i to tell it all without seeming to boast when it first came to pass that we knew ourselves well enough to admit of such a thing being said between us
i told her that marriage was impossible is not that enough i suppose so said lady george who remembered well every word that gus mildmay had said to herself i don't know why i should enquire about it
only i thought i know what you thought what did i think that i was a heartless scoundrel no never if i had i should not have have cared about it
perhaps it has been unfortunate most unfortunate
i wish i could tell you everything about it only i can't did she ever speak to you yes once and what did she say i cannot tell you that either
i have endeavoured to be honest but sometimes it is so difficult one wants sometimes to tell the whole truth but it won't come out i am engaged to her now
and two days since i was as free as ever
i do not love her there is one other person that i care for and i never can care for any one else there is one woman that i love and i never really loved any one else
that is very sad captain de baron is it not i can never marry miss mildmay and yet you have promised i have promised under certain circumstances
which can never never come about why did you promise if you do not love her cannot you understand without my telling you i cannot tell you that
i suppose i do poor miss mildmay and poor jack de baron yes
no man should talk to a girl of marrying her unless he loves her it is different with a girl she may come to love a man she may love a man better than all the world though she hardly knew him when she married him if he is good to her she will certainly do so
but if a man marries a woman without loving her he will soon hate her i shall never marry miss mildmay and yet you have said you would
it is so pleasant to have some one to trust even though i should be blamed as you are blaming me it simply means that i can marry no one else but you love some one she felt when she was asking the question that it was indiscreet
when the assertion was made she had not told herself that she was the woman she had not thought it for an instant
she knew that they were indiscreet was she not indiscreet in holding any such conversation with a man who was not her brother or even her cousin she wished that he were her cousin so that she might become the legitimate depository of his secrets
though she was scolding him for his misdoings yet she hardly liked him the less for them she thought that she did understand how it was and she thought that the girl was more in fault than the man it was not till the words had passed her mouth and the question had been asked
that she felt the indiscretion but you love some one else certainly i do but i had not meant to speak about that i will enquire into no secrets is that a secret can it be a secret
the purple of the balkan kings luitpold wolkenstein financier and diplomat on a small obtrusive self important scale
sat in his favoured cafe in the world wise habsburg capital
and the cup of cream topped coffee and attendant glass of water
a cup of cream topped coffee on his table for years he had sat at the same spot under the dust coated stuffed eagle that had once been a living soaring bird on the styrian mountains
and was now made monstrous and symbolical with a second head grafted on to its neck and a gilt crown planted on either dusty skull to day
luitpold wolkenstein read no more than the first article in his paper but read it again and again the turkish fortress of kirk kilisseh has fallen the serbs it is officially announced
have taken kumanovo the fortress of kirk kilisseh lost kumanovo taken by the serbs these are tiding for constantinople resembling something out of shakspeare's tragedies of the kings
but also what position and what influence the balkan states are to have in the world for years longer than a dog's lifetime luitpold wolkenstein had disposed of the pretensions and strivings of the balkan states
over the cup of cream topped coffee that sleek headed piccolos had brought him never travelling further eastward than the horse fair at temesvar never inviting personal risk in an encounter with anything more potentially desperate
than a hare or partridge he had constituted himself the critical appraiser and arbiter
and his judgment had been one of unsparing contempt for small scale efforts of unquestioning respect for the big battalions and full purses
over the whole scene of the balkan territories and their troubled histories had loomed the commanding magic of the words the great powers even more imposing in their teutonic rendering
worshipping power and force and money mastery as an elderly nerve ridden woman might worship youthful physical energy the comfortable plump bodied cafe oracle
had jested and gibed at the ambitions of the balkan kinglets and their peoples had unloosed against them that battery of strange lip sounds that a viennese employs almost as an auxiliary language to express the thoughts
when his thoughts are not complimentary british travellers had visited the balkan lands and reported high things of the bulgarians and their future russian officers had taken peeps at their army and confessed
they have done it by themselves but over his cups of coffee and his hour long games of dominoes the oracle had laughed and wagged his head and distilled the worldly wisdom of his castle
had not succeeded in stifling the roll of the war drum that was true the big battalions of the ottoman empire would have to do some talking and then the big purses and big threatenings of the powers would speak
and the last word would be with them in imagination luitpold heard the onward tramp of the red fezzed bayonet bearers echoing through the balkan passes
saw the little sheepskin clad mannikins driven back to their villages saw the augustly chiding spokesman of the powers dictating adjusting restoring settling things once again in their allotted places
sweeping up the dust of conflict and now his ears had to listen to the war drum rolling in quite another direction had to listen to the tramp of battalions that were bigger and bolder
and better skilled in war craft than he had deemed possible in that quarter his eyes had to read in the columns of his accustomed newspaper a warning to the grossmachte that they had something new to learn something
new to reckon with much that was time honoured to relinquish the great powers will have not little difficulty in persuading the balkan states of the inviolability of the principle
that europe cannot permit any fresh partition of territory in the east without her approval even now while the campaign is still undecided there are rumours of a project of fiscal unity
extending over the entire balkan lands and further of a constitutional union in imitation of the german empire that is perhaps only a political straw blown by the storm
but it is not possible to dismiss the reflection that the balkan states leagued together command a military strength with which the great powers will have to reckon the people who have poured out their blood on the battlefields
and sacrificed the available armed men of an entire generation in order to encompass a union with their kinsfolk will not remain any longer in an attitude of dependence on the great powers or on russia but will go their own ways
the blood that has been poured forth to day gives for the first time a genuine tone to the purple of the balkan kings the great powers cannot overlook the fact that a people that has tasted victory
will not let itself be driven back again within its former limits turkey has lost to day not only kirk kilisseh and kumanovo but macedonia also luitpold wolkenstein drank his coffee but
the flavour had somehow gone out of it his world his pompous imposing dictating world had suddenly rolled up into narrower dimensions
a force that he could not fathom could not comprehend had made itself rudely felt
and those about to die had not saluted had no intention of saluting a lesson was being imposed on unwilling learners a lesson of respect for certain fundamental principles
and it was not the small struggling states who were being taught the lesson
the postmark and the handwriting on the address admirably imitated from the original warned missus lecount of the contents of the letter before she opened it after waiting a moment to compose herself
she read the announcement of her brother's relapse there was nothing in the handwriting there was no expression in any part of the letter which could suggest to her mind the faintest suspicion of foul play
she became pale and old and haggard in a moment thoughts far removed from her present aims and interests remembrances that carried her back to other lands than england to other times than the time of her life in service
prolonged their inner shadows to the surface and showed the traces of their mysterious passage darkly on her face the minutes followed each other and still the servant below stairs waited vainly for the parlor bell
the minutes followed each other and still she sat tearless and quiet dead to the present and the future living in the past the entrance of the servant uncalled roused her with a heavy sigh
the cold and secret woman folded the letter up again and addressed herself to the interests and the duties of the passing time she decided the question of going or not going to zurich after a very brief consideration of it
before she had drawn her chair to the breakfast table she had resolved to go admirably as captain wragge's stratagem had worked it might have failed unassisted by the occurrence of the morning to achieve this result
the very accident against which it had been the captain's chief anxiety to guard the accident which had just taken place in spite of him
the one event which falsified every previous calculation by directly forwarding the main purpose of the conspiracy if missus lecount had not obtained the information of which she was in search before the receipt of the letter from zurich
the letter might have addressed her in vain she would have hesitated before deciding to leave england and that hesitation might have proved fatal to the captain's scheme as it was with the plain proofs in her possession
with the gown discovered in magdalen's wardrobe
and with the knowledge obtained from missus wragge of the very house in which the disguise had been put on
had now at her command the means of warning noel vanstone as she had never been able to warn him yet or in other words the means of guarding against any dangerous tendencies toward reconciliation with the bygraves
which might otherwise have entered his mind during her absence at zurich the only difficulty which now perplexed her was the difficulty of deciding whether she should communicate with her master personally or by writing
she looked again at the doctor's letter the word instantly in the sentence which summoned her to her dying brother was twice underlined admiral bartram's house was at some distance from the railway
there was no choice on a matter of life and death but to save the precious hours by writing to him after sending to secure a place at once in the early coach she sat down to write to her master
of the alpaca dress was known to no living creature but herself and until her return to england she determined to keep it to herself the necessary impression
might be produced on noel vanstone's mind without venturing into details she knew by experience the form of letter which might be trusted to produce an effect on him and she now wrote it in these words
sad news has reached me from switzerland my beloved brother is dying and his medical attendant summons me instantly to zurich
to the continent leaves me but one alternative i must profit by the permission to leave england if necessary
instead of turning aside as i should have liked to see you first at saint crux painfully as i am affected by the family calamity which has fallen on me i cannot let this opportunity pass without adverting to another subject
was not the only object which mister bygrave had in forcing himself on your acquaintance the infamous conspiracy with which you were threatened in london has been in full progress against you under mister bygrave's direction
has put me in possession of information precious to your future security i have discovered to an absolute certainty that the person calling herself miss bygrave is no other than the woman who visited us in disguise at vauxhall walk
i suspected this from the first but i had no evidence to support my suspicions i had no means of combating the false impression produced on you my hands i thank heaven are tied no longer
i possess absolute proof of the assertion that i have just made proof that your own eyes can see proof that would satisfy you if you were judge in a court of justice perhaps even yet mister noel you will refuse to believe me
and you will certainly not sacrifice your own convenience and pleasure by staying through that interval with your friends at saint crux if before my return some unexpected circumstance throws you once more into the company of the bygraves
and if your natural kindness of heart inclines you to receive the excuses which they will in that case certainly address to you place one trifling restraint on yourself for your own sake if not for mine suspend your flirtation with the young lady
i will engage to leave your service at a day's notice and i will atone for the sin of bearing false witness against my neighbor by resigning
on your father's account as well as on your own i make this engagement without reserves of any kind and i promise to abide by
on the faith of a good catholic and the word of an honest woman your faithful servant virginie lecount the closing sentences of this letter as the housekeeper well knew
and have failed to leave a permanent impression on his mind but when she staked not only her position in his service but her pecuniary claims on him as well she at once absorbed the ruling passion of his life
recovered his astonishment at the housekeeper's appearance on his own premises he hurried into the house
than magdalen's incorrigible impatience she had passed a sleepless night she had risen feverish and wretched and she had gone out reckless of all consequences to cool her burning head in the fresh air in the second place
missus wragge had on her own confession seen missus lecount had talked with
commanded an uninterrupted prospect of noel vanstone's house and there established himself on the watch
on the watch for events at north shingles
the coach appeared at last and drew up at sea view in a minute more captain wragge's own observation informed him that one among the passengers who left aldborough that morning was missus lecount
that she would certainly inform her master of missus wragge's ghost story and of every other disclosure in relation to names and places which might have escaped missus wragge's lips was beyond all doubt
but of the two ways at her disposal of doing the mischief either personally or by letter it was vitally important to the captain to know which she had chosen if she had gone to the admiral's no choice would be left him
but to follow the coach to catch the train by which she traveled and to outstrip her afterward on the drive from the station in essex to saint crux if on the contrary
it would only be necessary to devise measures for intercepting the letter the captain decided on going to the post office in the first place assuming that the housekeeper had written she would not have left the letter at the mercy of the servant
she would have seen it safely in the letter box before leaving aldborough
i am mister bygrave of north shingles
he solemnly checked captain wragge in full career when a letter is once posted sir he said nobody out of the office has any business with it until it reaches its address the captain was not a man to be daunted
even by a postmaster a bright idea struck him he took out his pocketbook in which admiral bartram's address was written and returned to the charge suppose a letter has been wrongly directed by mistake he began
when a letter is once posted sir reiterated the impenetrable local authority nobody out of the office touches it on any pretense whatever granted with all my heart persisted the captain
i only want to explain myself a lady has posted a letter here
what is to hinder your facilitating the post office work and obliging a lady
with your own hand i put it to you as a zealous officer what possible objection can there be to granting my request the postmaster was compelled to acknowledge that there could be no objection
provided nothing but a necessary line was added to the address provided nobody touched the letter
captain wragge watched the postmaster's hands as they sorted the letters in the box with breathless eagerness was the letter there would the hands of the zealous public servant suddenly stop yes they stopped
and picked out a letter from the rest noel vanstone esquire did you say asked the postmaster keeping the letter in his own hand noel vanstone esquire replied the captain admiral bartram's saint crux in the marsh ossory essex
all further doubt was now at an end
the captain strutted to the inn and called for the railway time table after making certain calculations in black and white as a matter of course he ordered his chaise to be ready in an hour
for the second train running to london with which there happened to be
by coach his next proceeding was of a far more serious kind his next proceeding implied a terrible certainty of success the day of the week was thursday from the inn he went to the church saw the clerk
and gave the necessary notice for a marriage by license on the following monday bold as he was
his hand trembled as it lifted the latch of the garden gate
another outbreak might reasonably be expected
irrevocable step had been taken and that notice had been given of the wedding day
to lose no time in emptying his glass in a few minutes he sent the necessary message upstairs while waiting for magdalen's appearance he provided himself with certain materials which were now necessary to carry the enterprise to its crowning point
in the first place he wrote his assumed name by no means
not a moment is to be lost i am waiting for you at the door come down to me directly his next proceeding was to take some half dozen envelopes out of the case and to direct them all alike to the following address
mussared's hotel salisbury street strand london after carefully placing the envelopes and the card in his breast pocket he shut up the desk as he rose from the writing table magdalen came into the room
that monday was to be her wedding day he was prepared to quiet her if she burst into a frenzy of passion to reason with her if she begged for time to sympathize with her if she melted into tears to his inexpressible surprise
in one mysterious instant all her beauty left her her face stiffened awfully
for the first time in the captain's experience of her fear all mastering fear had taken possession of her body and soul you are not flinching he said trying to rouse her surely
no light of intelligence came into her eyes no change passed over her face but she heard him for she moved a little in the chair and slowly shook her head you planned this marriage of your own freewill
pursued the captain with the furtive look and the faltering voice of a man ill at ease it was your own idea not mine i won't have the responsibility laid on my shoulders no not for twice two hundred pounds if your resolution fails you
her lips were moving at last she slowly raised her left hand with the fingers outspread she looked at it as if it was a hand that was strange to her she counted the days on it the days before the marriage friday one
saturday two sunday three monday her hands dropped into her lap her face stiffened again
and the next words died away on her lips captain wragge took out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead damn the two hundred pounds he said two thousand wouldn't pay me for this he put the handkerchief back
out of his pocket and approaching her closely for the first time laid his hand on her arm rouse yourself he said i have a last word to say to you can you listen she struggled and roused herself
a faint tinge of color stole over her white cheeks she bowed her head look at these pursued captain wragge holding up the envelopes if i turn these to the use for which they have been written missus lecount's master
if i tear them up he will know by to morrow's post that you are the woman who visited him in vauxhall walk say the word shall i tear the envelopes up or shall i put them back in my pocket there was a pause of dead silence
the murmur of the summer waves on the shingle of the beach and the voices of the summer idlers on the parade floated through the open window and filled the empty stillness of the room she raised her head
yes go without another word he left her the servant was waiting at the door with his traveling bag
in spite of want of society and hasty breakfasts and bad dinners at chop houses his attendance at the office was regular and his diligence at the desk unremitting the head of the department in which he was working
might be referred to if any corroboration
such was the general tenor of the letters and frank's correspondent and frank's father differed over them as widely as usual mister vanstone accepted them as proofs
he can't wriggle himself free and he makes a merit
as the year advanced even mister vanstone when july drew nearer lost something of his elasticity of spirit he kept up appearances in his wife's presence
a perceptible shade of sadness in his look and manner magdalen was so changed since frank's departure that she helped the general depression instead of relieving it
all her usual occupations were pursued with the same weary indifference she spent hours alone in her own room she lost her interest in being brightly and prettily dressed her eyes were heavy her nerves were irritable
her complexion was altered visibly for the worse in one word
stoutly as miss garth contended with these growing domestic difficulties her own spirits suffered in the effort her memory reverted oftener and oftener to the march morning when the master and mistress of the house had departed for london
had stolen over the family atmosphere when was that atmosphere to be clear again
the spring and the early summer wore away the dreaded month of july came with its airless nights its cloudless mornings and its sultry days
on the fifteenth of the month an event happened which took every one but norah by surprise for the second time without the slightest apparent reason for the second time without a word of warning beforehand
which showed that he had other news to communicate than the news of his dismissal
that a very important proposal for his future benefit had been made to him that morning at the office his first idea had been to communicate the details in writing but the partners had on reflection thought that
to the railway on the spot after this preliminary statement frank proceeded to describe the proposal which his employers had addressed to him
the great firm in the city had obviously made a discovery in relation to
which had formerly forced itself on the engineer in relation to his pupil the young man as they politely phrased it stood in need of some special stimulant to stir him up
his employers acting under a sense of their obligation to the gentleman by whom frank had been recommended had considered the question carefully and had decided
mister francis clare was to send him forthwith into another quarter of the globe
fit for a position of trust and emolument and justified in looking forward at no distant date to a time when the house would assist him to start in business for himself such were the new prospects which to adopt mister clare's theory
now forced themselves on the ever reluctant ever helpless and ever ungrateful frank there was no time to be lost the final answer was to be at the office on monday the twentieth
the glorious prospect of his son's banishment to china appeared to turn his brain
he seized frank by the arm and actually
to the anomaly of his existence frank ruefully narrated the chinese proposal for the second time
his father stopped him at the first word pointed peremptorily southeastward
go mister vanstone basking in golden visions of his young friend's future echoed that monosyllabic decision with all his heart missus vanstone miss garth even norah herself spoke to the same purpose
frank was petrified by an absolute unanimity of opinion which he had not anticipated and magdalen was caught for once in her life at the end of all her resources
that he petitioned for an adjournment before the necessary arrangements connected with his young friend's departure were considered in detail suppose we all sleep upon it he said
tomorrow our heads will feel a little steadier and to morrow will be time enough to decide all uncertainties this suggestion was readily adopted
miss garth took her parasol and strolled into the garden she had slept ill and ten minutes in the open air before the family assembled at breakfast
for the loss of her night's rest
and then returned by another path which led back past the side of an ornamental summer house commanding a view over the fields from a corner of the lawn a slight noise like and yet not like the chirruping of a bird
caught her ear as she approached the summer house she stepped round to the entrance looked in and discovered magdalen and frank seated close together to miss garth's horror
and worse still the position of her face at the moment of discovery showed beyond all doubt that she had just been offering to the victim of chinese commerce the first and foremost
which a woman can bestow on a man in plainer words she had just given frank a kiss in the presence of such an emergency as now confronted her
i presume whatever excuses your effrontery may suggest you will not deny that my duty compels me to mention what i have just seen to your father i will save you the trouble replied magdalen composedly i will mention it to him myself
about business papa she said mister vanstone took his garden hat from the hall table opened his eyes in mute perplexity
he sat down looking more puzzled than ever magdalen immediately placed herself on his knee and rested her head comfortably on his shoulder am i heavy papa she asked yes my dear you are said mister vanstone but not too heavy for me
stop on your perch if you like it
it begins with a question ah indeed that doesn't surprise me
mister vanstone's eyes opened wider and wider
harum scarum head of yours now i don't exactly know papa will you answer my question i will if i can my dear
you rather stagger me well i don't know yes i suppose i must let you be married one of these days if we can find a good husband for you how hot your face is
talking of business means tickling your cheek against my whisker i've nothing to say against it go on my dear what's the next question come to the point she was far too genuine a woman to do anything of the sort
much surprised yesterday were we not papa frank is wonderfully lucky isn't he he's the luckiest dog i ever came across
you see your way magdalen hang me if i can see mine she skirted a little nearer
that frank looked sadly out of spirits yesterday i was so surprised by the news said mister vanstone
don't you papa don't you
you're right my love nothing in this world without a drawback frank will miss his friends in england there's no denying that you always liked frank
my dear he has no prospects in england i wish he had for his own sake i wish the lad well with all my heart
anything to please you my dear yes i promise
how might frank do better he might marry me if the summer scene which then spread before mister vanstone's eyes had suddenly changed to a dreary winter view
his face could hardly have expressed greater amazement
he tried to look at her
steadily refused him the opportunity she kept her face hidden over his shoulder was she in earnest his cheek still wet with her tears answered for her there was a long pause of silence she waited with unaccustomed patience
altered to a quiet fatherly seriousness magdalen's arms clung round him closer than before have i disappointed you papa she asked faintly don't say i have disappointed you
don't let him go don't don't you will break his heart he is afraid to tell his father he is even afraid you might be angry with him there is nobody to speak for us except except me oh don't let him go don't for his sake she whispered the next words
don't for mine her father's kind face saddened he sighed and patted her fair head tenderly hush my love he said almost in a whisper hush
what a revelation every word every action that escaped her now opened before him she had made him her grown up playfellow from her childhood to that day she had romped with him in her frocks
his artless fatherly experience of her had taught him that
of her arms clasped around his neck the magdalen of his innocent experience a woman with the master passion of her sex in possession of her heart already have you thought long of this my dear he asked
as soon as he could speak composedly are you sure she answered the question before he could finish it sure i love him she said oh what words can say yes for me as i want to say it i love him her voice faltered softly
are we much younger than you and mamma were she asked smiling through her tears she tried to lay her head back in its old position
her father caught her round the waist forced her before she was aware of it to look him in the face and kissed her with a sudden outburst of tenderness which brought the tears thronging back thickly into her eyes not much younger my child he
she waited
at last her growing anxiety urged her to follow him into the house a new timidity throbbed in her heart as she doubtingly approached the door never had she seen the depths of her father's simple nature stirred as they had been stirred by her confession
a second look at him as he came nearer re assured her he was composed again though not so cheerful as usual she noticed that he advanced and spoke to her with a forbearing gentleness which was more like his manner
go in my love he said opening the door for her which he had just closed tell your mother all you have told me and more if you have more to say she is better prepared for you than i was
and frank shall know what we decide her eyes brightened as they looked into his face and saw the decision there already with the double penetration of her womanhood and her love happy and beautiful in her happiness
she put his hand to her lips and went without hesitation into the morning room there her father's words had smoothed the way for her
and only the pleasure of it remained her mother had been her age once her mother would know how fond she was of frank so the coming interview was anticipated in her thoughts and except
that there was an unaccountable appearance of restraint in missus vanstone's first reception of her was anticipated aright after a little the mother's questions came more and more unreservedly from the sweet
she lived again through her own young days of hope and love in magdalen's replies the next morning the all important decision was announced in words mister vanstone took his daughter upstairs into her mother's room
and there placed before her the result of the yesterday's consultation
he spoke with perfect kindness and self possession of manner but
he informed magdalen
it had been in part perhaps the natural consequence of her childish familiarity with him in part also the result of the closer intimacy between them which the theatrical entertainment had necessarily produced
for her sake because her happy future was their dearest care for frank's sake because they were bound to give him the opportunity of showing himself worthy of the trust confided in him
he and his younger brothers had almost filled the places to them of those other children of their own whom they had lost although they firmly believed their good opinion of frank to be well founded
during that year frank was to remain at the office in london his employers being informed beforehand
he was to consider this concession as a recognition of the attachment between magdalen and himself on certain terms only if during the year of probation he failed to justify the confidence placed in him
a confidence which had led mister vanstone to take unreservedly upon himself the whole responsibility of frank's future prospects the marriage scheme was to be considered from that moment
if on the other hand the result to which mister vanstone confidently looked forward really occurred
year proved his claim to the most
then magdalen herself should reward him with all that a woman can bestow and the future which his present employers
should be realized in one year's time by the dowry of his young wife as her father drew that picture of the future the outburst of magdalen's gratitude could no longer be restrained she was deeply touched
she spoke from her inmost heart mister vanstone waited until his daughter and his wife were composed again and then added the last words of explanation which were now left for him to speak
you understand my love he said that i am not anticipating frank's living in idleness on his wife's means my plan for him is that he should still profit by the interest which his present employers take in him
i shall limit the sum my dear
we shall all be alive and hearty i hope
my will made long before i ever thought of having a son in law divides my fortune into two equal parts
and the other part is fairly divided between my children you will have your share on your wedding day and norah will have hers when she marries
while i walk over to the cottage he stopped
what must you do at the cottage papa asked magdalen after having vainly waited for him to finish the sentence of his own accord
we must not forget that mister clare's consent is still wanting to settle this matter
missus vanstone had been alarmed by the change in him also
turned it suddenly as if she was in pain are you not well mamma asked magdalen quite well my love
slightly refreshed and decided to take a firm line with the countess at once he had no difficulty about finding his way down to her the palace seemed to be full of servants
all apparently busy about something which brought them for a moment in sight of the newly arrived prince and then whisked them off hand to mouth and shoulders shaking by one of these
with more control over her countenance than the others
was led into belvane's garden she was walking up and down the flagged walk between her lavender hedges and as he came in she stopped
on the suggestion of belvane one wet afternoon but for the moment the countess was in the way
but difficult to be effective particularly when
handicap again i don't see anything to laugh at he said stiffly to intelligent people the outside appearance is not everything
but it can be very funny can't it said belvane coaxingly i wished for something humorous to happen to you
now we've got it
who has skilfully extracted an admission from a reluctant witness this sort of tone goes best with one of those keen legal faces perhaps
that is why belvane laughed again
did what turned me into a a a rabbit said belvane innocently
he asked i don't mind what you are but you'll never dare show yourself in the country like this be careful woman don't drive me too far
beware lest you rouse the lion in me where asked belvane with a child like air
but he soon recovered himself even supposing just for the sake of argument that i am a rabbit i still have something up my sleeve i'll come and
eat your young carnations belvane adored her garden but she was sustained by the thought that it was only july just now she pointed this out to him
it needn't necessarily be carnations he warned her i don't want to put my opinion against one who has forgive me inside knowledge on the subject
but i think i have nothing in my garden at this moment
heroically this was more serious her dear garden in which she composed ruined by the mastications machinations what was the word
she said hastily you aren't really a rabbit because because you don't woffle your nose properly i could
i'm just keeping it back that's all
the countess looked at him critically with her head on one side no she said that's quite wrong naturally i'm a little out of practice
i'm sorry said belvane i'm afraid i can't pass you
who put this enchantment on me it was i i wasn't going to have you here interfering with my plans your plans to rob the princess
and roger scurvilegs who take these narrow matter of fact views one merely wastes time in arguing with them my plans she repeated
very well i shall go straight to the princess and she will unmask you before the people belvane smiled happily one does not often get such a chance
underneath what do you mean
though he was beginning to guess that noble handsome countenance which is so justly the pride of araby
you will leave me like this one's actions are very much misunderstood sighed belvane i've no doubt that that is how it will appear
he forgot his manners and made a jump towards her she glided gracefully behind the sundial in a pretty affectation of alarm and the next moment
that the contest between them
by such rough and tumble methods as these the fact that his tail had caught in something helped him to decide belvane was up to him in an instant there there she said soothingly
she talked pleasantly as she worked at it every little accident teaches us something now if you'd been a rabbit this wouldn't have happened no
i'm not even a rabbit
i should not record it of her were not roger so insistent now
and lolloped sadly off it was his one really dignified moment in euralia on his way to his apartment
wiggs he said solemnly if ever you can do
into the mysteries of his toilet we had perhaps better not inquire as the chronicler of these simple happenings many years ago
and i would not have you misunderstand any of them but with regard to one of them there is no need for me to say anything in her defence about her at any rate
we agree i mean wiggs
she was the best little girl in euralia it will come then as a shock to you as it did to me on the morning after i had staggered home with roger's seventeen volumes
to learn that on her day wiggs could be as bad as anybody i mean really bad to tear your frock to read books which you ought to be dusting
three nights later with malice aforethought and to the comfort of the king's enemies and the prejudice of the safety of the realm she made
an apple pie bed for the countess it was the most perfect apple pie bed ever made cox himself could not have improved upon it
newton has seen nothing like it it took wiggs a whole morning and the results though private that is the worst of an apple pie bed
were beyond expectation after wrestling for half an hour the countess spent the night in a garden hammock composing a bitter ode
to melancholy of course wiggs caught it in the morning the countess suspected what she could not prove wiggs now
realised that it was her turn again what should she do an inspiration came to her she had been really bad the day before it was a pity to waste such perfect badness as that
to which the ring entitled her she drew the ring out from its hiding place round her neck i wish she said holding it up i wish that the countess belvane she stopped
to think of something that would really annoy her i wish that the countess
she held her breath expecting a thunderclap or some other outward token
girl she ran up to her room and gave herself up to tears may you dear sir or madam repent as quickly however
this is not a moral work an hour later wiggs came into belvane's garden eager to discover in what way her inability to rhyme would manifest itself
it seemed that she had chosen the exact moment in the throes of composition belvane had quite forgotten the apple pie bed so absorbing is our profession
my walks about i like to see the roses out i like them yellow white and pink but crimson are the best i think
but we shall never know about the butterfly it may be that wiggs has lost us here a thought on lepidoptera which the world can ill spare for she interrupted breathlessly
butterfly but wiggs had let go her hand and was running back to the palace she wanted to be alone to think this out what had happened
that it was truly a magic ring as the fairy had told her she had no doubt that her wish was a bad one that she had been bad enough to earn it she was
equally certain what then had happened there was only one answer to her question the bad wish had been granted to someone else to whom
she had lent the ring to nobody true
but suddenly she remembered
day to see if any mention was made of the visit of ozma and dorothy to the enchanted mountain of the flatheads and the magic isle of the skeezers the records told her that ozma had arrived at the mountain
that she had escaped with her companion and gone to the island of the skeezers and that queen coo ee oh had submerged the island so that it was entirely under water
into a swan no other details were given in the great book and so glinda did not know that since coo ee oh had forgotten her magic none of the skeezers knew how to raise the island to the surface again
so glinda was not worried about ozma and dorothy until one morning while she sat with her maids there came a sudden clang of the great alarm bell this was so unusual
that every maid gave a start and even the sorceress for a moment could not think what the alarm meant then she remembered the ring she had given dorothy when she left the palace to start on her venture
in giving the ring glinda had warned the little girl not to use its magic powers unless she and ozma were in real danger but then she was to turn it on her finger
ozma and dorothy are prisoners in the great dome of the isle of the skeezers
hasn't ozma the power to raise the island to the surface inquired glinda no was the reply and the record refused to say more
after diligent search she discovered that coo ee oh was a powerful sorceress who had gained most of her power by treacherously transforming the adepts of magic
who were visiting her into three fishes gold silver and bronze after which she had them cast into the lake glinda reflected
earnestly on this information and decided that someone must go to ozma's assistance while there was no great need of haste because ozma and dorothy could live in a submerged dome a long time
it was evident they could not get out until someone was able to raise the island the sorceress looked through all her recipes and books of sorcery
but could find no magic that would raise a sunken island such a thing had never before been required in sorcery then glinda made a little island covered by a glass dome
and sunk it in a pond near her castle and experimented in magical ways to bring it to the surface she made several such experiments but all were failures
it seemed a simple thing to do yet she could not do it nevertheless the wise sorceress did not despair of finding a way to liberate her friends finally she concluded that the
best thing to do was to go to the skeezer country and examine the lake while there she was more likely to discover a solution to the problem that bothered her and to work out a plan
to the emerald city in princess ozma's palace the scarecrow was now acting as ruler of the land of oz there wasn't much for him to do
under ozma's protection and were great friends of dorothy and much loved by all the oz people something's happened cried trot
as the chariot of the sorceress descended near them glinda never comes here cept something's gone wrong i hope no harm has come to ozma or dorothy
said betsy anxiously as the lovely sorceress stepped down from her chariot glinda approached the scarecrow and told him of the dilemma of ozma and dorothy and she added
we must save them somehow scarecrow of course replied the scarecrow stumbling over a wicket and falling flat on his painted face
the girls picked him up and patted his straw stuffing into shape and he continued as if nothing had occurred but you'll have to tell me what to do
in all my life we must have a council of state as soon as possible proposed the sorceress please send messengers to summon all of ozma's counsellors to this palace
then we can decide what is best to be done the scarecrow lost no time in doing this
chapter ten anne's apology
i'm astonished at you you know that anne's behavior was dreadful and yet you take her part
for anne still remained obdurate after each meal marilla carried a well filled tray to the east gable and brought it down later on not noticeably depleted
matthew eyed its last descent with a troubled eye
he ventured uncomfortably into the parlor or sitting room when the minister came to tea but he had never been upstairs in his own house since the spring he helped marilla paper the spare bedroom
and that was four years ago he tiptoed along the hall and stood for several minutes outside the door of the east gable before he summoned courage to tap on it with his fingers
and then open the door to peep in anne was sitting on the yellow chair by the window gazing mournfully out into the garden very small and unhappy she looked
and matthew's heart smote him he softly closed the door
as if afraid of being overheard
pretty well i imagine a good deal and that helps to pass the time of course it's rather lonesome but then i may as well get used to that anne smiled again
it'll have to be done sooner or later you know for marilla's a dreadful deter mined woman dreadful determined anne do it right off i say and have it over
i suppose i could do it to oblige you said anne thoughtfully it would be true enough to say i am sorry because i am sorry now i wasn't a bit sorry last night
i was mad clear through and i stayed mad all night i know i did because i woke up three times and i was just furious every time but this morning it was over
it would be so humiliating i made up my mind i'd stay shut up here forever rather than do that but still i'd do anything for you if you really want me to
well now of course i do it's terrible lonesome downstairs without you just go and smooth things over that's a good girl very well said anne resignedly
wild horses won't drag the secret from me promised anne solemnly how would wild horses drag a secret from a person anyhow but matthew was gone scared at his own success he fled hastily
to the remotest corner of the horse pasture lest marilla should suspect what he had been up to marilla herself upon her return to the house was agreeably surprised to hear a plaintive voice calling
over the banisters well she said going into the hall i'm sorry i lost my temper and said rude things and i'm willing to go and tell missus lynde so very well
marilla's crispness gave no sign of her relief she had been wondering what under the canopy she should do if anne did not give in i'll take you down after milking
accordingly after milking behold marilla and anne walking down the lane the former erect and triumphant the latter drooping and dejected but halfway down anne's dejection vanished
as if by enchantment she lifted her head and stepped lightly along her eyes fixed on the sunset sky and an air of subdued exhilaration about her
marilla beheld the change disapprovingly this was no meek penitent such as it behooved her to take into the presence of the offended missus lynde
she asked sharply i'm imagining out what i must say to missus lynde
this was satisfactory or should have been so but marilla could not rid herself of the notion that something in her scheme of punishment was going askew anne had no business
to look so rapt and radiant rapt and radiant anne continued until they were in the very presence of missus lynde who was sitting knitting by her kitchen window then
the radiance vanished mournful penitence appeared on every feature before a word was spoken anne suddenly went down on her knees before the astonished missus rachel
missus lynde i am so extremely sorry she said with a quiver in her voice i could never express all my sorrow no not if i used up a whole dictionary you must just imagine it
matthew and marilla who have let me stay at green gables although i'm not a boy i'm a dreadfully wicked and ungrateful girl and i deserve to be punished
and cast out by respectable people forever it was very wicked of me to fly into a temper because you told me the truth it was the truth every word you said was true
my hair is red and i'm freckled and skinny and ugly what i said to you was true too but i shouldn't have said it oh missus lynde please please forgive me if you refuse
on a poor little orphan girl would you even if she had a dreadful temper oh i am sure you wouldn't please say you forgive me missus lynde anne clasped her hands together
bowed her head and waited for the word of judgment there was no mistaking her sincerity it breathed in every tone of her voice both marilla and missus lynde
of her abasement where was the wholesome punishment upon which she marilla had plumed herself
of positive pleasure good missus lynde not being overburdened with perception did not see this she only perceived that anne had made a very thorough apology
and all resentment vanished from her kindly if somewhat officious heart there there get up child she said heartily of course i forgive you
i guess i was a little too hard on you anyway but i'm such an outspoken person
but i knew a girl once went to school with her in fact whose hair was every mite as red as yours when she was young but when she grew up it darkened to a real handsome auburn
i wouldn't be a mite surprised if yours did too not a mite oh missus lynde anne drew a long breath as she rose to her feet you have given me a hope
i shall always feel that you are a benefactor oh i could endure anything if i only thought my hair would be a handsome auburn when i grew up
it would be so much easier to be good if one's hair was a handsome auburn don't you think and now may i go out into your garden and sit on that bench under the apple trees
and you can pick a bouquet of them white june lilies over in the corner if you like as the door closed behind anne missus lynde got briskly up to light a lamp she's a real odd little thing
take this chair marilla it's easier than the one you've got i just keep that for the hired boy to sit on
but there is something kind of taking about her after all i don't feel so surprised at you and matthew keeping her as i did nor so sorry for you either she may turn out all right
of course she has a queer way of expressing herself a little too well too kind of forcible you know but she'll likely get over that now that she's come to live among civilized folks and then
her temper's pretty quick
when marilla went home anne came out of the fragrant twilight of the orchard with a sheaf of white narcissi in her hands i apologized pretty well didn't i she said proudly as they went down the lane
i thought since i had to do it i might as well do it thoroughly you did it thoroughly all right enough was marilla's comment marilla was dismayed at finding herself inclined to laugh over the recollection
she had also an uneasy feeling that she ought to scold anne for apologizing so well but then that was ridiculous she compromised with her conscience by saying severely
i hope you won't have occasion to make many more such apologies i hope you'll try to control your temper now anne that wouldn't be so hard if people wouldn't twit me about my looks said anne with a sigh
i don't get cross about other things
tired of being twitted about my hair and it just makes me boil right over do you suppose my hair will really be a handsome auburn when i grow up you shouldn't think so much about your looks anne
i'm afraid you are a very vain little girl how can i be vain when i know i'm homely protested anne i love pretty things and i hate to look in the glass and see something that isn't pretty
just as i feel when i look at any ugly thing i pity it because it isn't beautiful handsome is as handsome does quoted marilla i've had that said to me before
aren't the stars bright tonight if you could live in a star which one would you pick i'd like that lovely clear big one away over there above that dark hill anne do hold your tongue
laden with the spicy perfume of young dew wet ferns far up in the shadows a cheerful light gleamed out through the trees from the kitchen at green gables anne suddenly came close to marilla
and slipped her hand into the older woman's hard palm it's lovely to be going home and know it's home she said i love green gables already and i never loved any place before
its very unaccustomedness and sweetness disturbed her she hastened to restore her sensations to their normal calm by inculcating a moral if you'll be a good girl
you'll always be happy anne and you should never find it hard to say your prayers saying one's prayers isn't exactly the same thing as praying said anne meditatively but i'm going to imagine
and set the flowers dancing and then i'll go with one great swoop over the clover field and then i'll blow over the lake of shining waters and ripple it all up into little sparkling waves
in the darkness spirit hands were felt to flutter and when prayer by tantras had been directed to the proper quarter a faint but increasing luminosity of ruby light became gradually visible the apparition
of the etheric double being particularly lifelike owing to the discharge of jivic rays from the crown of the head and face communication was effected through the pituitary body and also by means of the orangefiery and scarlet rays emanating from the sacral region and solar plexus
on the lower astral levels in reply to a question as to his first sensations in the great divide beyond he stated that previously he had seen as in a glass darkly but that those who had passed over had summit possibilities
of atmic development opened up to them interrogated as to whether life there resembled our experience in the flesh he stated that he had heard from more favoured beings now in the spirit that their abodes were equipped with every modern home comfort such as talafana
alavatar hatakalda wataklasat and that the highest adepts were steeped in waves of volupcy of the very purest nature having requested a quart of buttermilk this was brought and evidently afforded relief
asked if he had any message for the living he exhorted all who were still at the wrong side of maya to acknowledge the true path for it was reported in devanic circles that mars and jupiter were out for mischief on the eastern angle where the ram has power it was then queried
whether there were any special desires on the part of the defunct and the reply was we greet you friends of earth who are still in the body mind c k doesn't pile it on
it was ascertained that the reference was to mister cornelius kelleher manager of messrs h j o'neill's popular funeral establishment a personal friend of the defunct
before departing he requested that it should be told to his dear son patsy that the other boot which he had been looking for was at present under the commode in the return room and that the pair should be sent to cullen's to be soled only as the heels were still good he stated
that this had greatly perturbed his peace of mind in the other region and earnestly requested that his desire should be made known assurances were given that the matter would be attended to and it was intimated that this had given satisfaction
he is gone from mortal haunts o'dignam sun of our morning fleet was his foot on the bracken patrick of the beamy brow wail banba with your wind and wail o ocean with your whirlwind
says the citizen staring out
says i bloom says he he's on point duty up and down there for the last ten minutes
little alf was knocked bawways faith he was good christ says he
and says bob doran with the hat on the back of his poll lowest blackguard in dublin when he's under the influence
i beg your parsnips says alf is that a good christ says bob doran to take away poor little willy dignam ah well says alf trying to pass it off
he's over all his troubles but bob doran shouts out of him he's a bloody ruffian i say to take away poor little willy dignam
purest character the tear is bloody near your eye talking through his bloody hat fitter for him go home to the little sleepwalking bitch he married mooney the bumbailiff's daughter
the noblest the truest says he and he's gone poor little willy poor little paddy dignam
come in come on he won't eat you says the citizen so bloom slopes in with his cod's eye on the dog and he asks terry was martin cunningham there o christ m'keown says joe reading one of the letters listen to this will you
to the high sheriff of dublin dublin
jesus says i billington executed the awful murderer toad smith
hold hard says joe have a special nack of putting the noose once in he can't get out
my terms is five ginnees h rumbold master barber
and the dirty scrawl of the wretch says joe here says he take them to hell out of my sight alf hello bloom says he what will you have
well he'd just take a cigar gob he's a prudent member and no mistake
says joe and alf was telling us there was one chap sent in a mourning card with a black border round it they're all barbers says he from the black country that would hang their own fathers for five quid down and travelling expenses
and he was telling us there's two fellows waiting below to pull his heels down when he gets the drop and choke him properly and then they chop up the rope after and sell the bits for a few bob a skull in the dark land they bide the vengeful knights of the razor
their deadly coil they grasp yea and therein they lead to erebus whatsoever wight hath done a deed of blood
saith the lord so they started talking about capital punishment and of course bloom comes out with the why and the wherefore and all the codology of the business
about i don't know what all deterrent effect and so forth and so on there's one thing it hasn't a deterrent effect on says alf what's that says joe the poor bugger's tool that's being hanged says alf that so says joe god's truth says alf
i heard that from the head warder that was in kilmainham when they hanged joe brady the invincible
ruling passion strong in death says joe as someone said
says bloom it's only a natural phenomenon don't you see because on account of the
the distinguished scientist herr professor luitpold blumenduft tendered medical evidence to the effect that the instantaneous fracture of the cervical vertebrae and consequent scission of the spinal cord would according to the best approved tradition of medical science
be calculated to inevitably produce in the human subject a violent ganglionic stimulus of the nerve centres of the genital apparatus thereby causing the elastic pores of the corpora cavernosa
resulting in the phenomenon which has been denominated by the faculty a morbid upwards and outwards
in articulo mortis per diminutionem capitis
and who fears to speak of ninetyeight and joe with him about all the fellows that were hanged drawn and transported for the cause by drumhead courtmartial and a new ireland and new this that and the other
give us the paw give the paw doggy good old doggy give the paw here give us the paw
training by kindness and thoroughbred dog and intelligent dog give you the bloody pip
near ate the tin and all hungry bloody mongrel and the citizen and bloom having an argument about the point the brothers sheares and wolfe tone beyond on arbour hill and robert emmet and die for your country the tommy moore touch about sara curran and she's far from the land
and bloom of course with his knockmedown cigar putting on swank with his lardy face phenomenon the fat heap he married is a nice old phenomenon
time they were stopping up in the city arms pisser burke told me there was an old one there with a cracked loodheramaun of a nephew and bloom trying to get the soft side of her doing the mollycoddle playing bezique to come in for a bit of the wampum in her will
and not eating meat of a friday because the old one was always thumping her craw and taking the lout out for a walk and one time he led him the rounds of dublin and by the holy farmer he never cried crack till he brought him home as drunk as a boiled owl
it's a queer story the old one bloom's wife
jesus i had to laugh at pisser burke taking them off chewing the fat and bloom with his but don't you see and but on the other hand and sure more be token the lout i'm told was in power's after the blender's
phenomenon the memory of the dead says the citizen taking up his pintglass and glaring at bloom ay ay says joe you don't grasp my point says bloom
the last farewell was affecting in the extreme from the belfries far and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums punctuated
nationalgymnasiummuseumsanatoriumandsuspensoriumsordinaryprivatdocent
an animated altercation in which all took part ensued among the f o t e i as to whether the eighth or the ninth of march was the correct date of the birth of ireland's patron saint in the course of the argument cannonballs
scimitars boomerangs blunderbusses stinkpots meatchoppers umbrellas catapults knuckledusters sandbags lumps of pig iron were resorted to and blows were freely exchanged
the baby policeman constable mac fadden summoned by special courier from booterstown quickly restored order and with lightning promptitude proposed the seventeenth of the month as a solution equally honourable for both contending parties
constable mac fadden was heartily congratulated
commendatore beninobenone having been extricated from underneath the presidential armchair
avvocato pagamimi that the various articles secreted in his thirtytwo pockets had been abstracted by him during the affray from the pockets of his junior colleagues in the hope of bringing them to their senses the objects which included several hundred ladies and gentlemen's gold and silver watches
were promptly restored to their rightful owners and general harmony reigned supreme quietly unassumingly rumbold stepped on to the scaffold in faultless morning dress and wearing his favourite flower the gladiolus cruentus he announced his presence
short painstaking yet withal so characteristic of the man the arrival of the worldrenowned headsman was greeted by a roar of acclamation from the huge concourse
while the even more excitable foreign delegates cheered vociferously in a medley of cries hoch banzai eljen zivio chinchin polla kronia hiphip
allah amid which the ringing evviva of the delegate of the land of song a high double f recalling those piercingly lovely notes with which the eunuch catalani beglamoured our greatgreatgrandmothers was easily distinguishable it was exactly seventeen o'clock
the signal for prayer was then promptly given by megaphone and in an instant all heads were bared the commendatore's patriarchal sombrero which has been in the possession of his family since the revolution of rienzi being removed by his medical adviser in attendance doctor pippi
the learned prelate who administered the last comforts of holy religion to the hero martyr when about to pay the death penalty knelt in a most christian spirit in a pool of rainwater his cassock above his hoary head and offered up to the throne of grace fervent prayers of supplication
hand by the block stood the grim figure of the executioner his visage being concealed in a tengallon pot with two circular perforated apertures through which his eyes glowered furiously as he awaited the fatal signal he tested the edge of his horrible weapon
by honing it upon his brawny forearm or decapitated in rapid succession a flock of sheep which had been provided by the admirers of his fell but necessary office on a handsome mahogany table near him were neatly arranged the quartering knife
the various finely tempered disembowelling appliances specially supplied by the worldfamous firm of cutlers messrs john round and sons sheffield a terra cotta saucepan for the reception of the duodenum colon blind intestine
and two commodious milkjugs destined to receive the most precious blood of the most precious victim the housesteward of the amalgamated cats and dogs home was in attendance to convey these vessels when replenished to that beneficent institution
quite an excellent repast consisting of rashers and eggs fried steak and onions done to a nicety delicious hot breakfast rolls and invigorating tea had been considerately provided by the authorities for the consumption of the central figure of the tragedy
who was in capital spirits when prepared for death and evinced the keenest interest in the proceedings from beginning to end but he with an abnegation rare in these our times rose nobly to the occasion and expressed the dying wish immediately acceded to
that the meal should be divided in aliquot parts among the members of the sick and indigent roomkeepers association as a token of his regard and esteem the nec and non plus ultra of emotion were reached
when the blushing bride elect burst her way through the serried ranks of the bystanders and flung herself upon the muscular bosom of him who was about to be launched into eternity for her sake the hero folded her willowy form in a loving embrace murmuring fondly sheila my own
she kissed passionately all the various suitable areas of his person which the decencies of prison garb permitted her ardour to reach she swore to him as they mingled the salt streams of their tears that she would ever cherish his memory
that she would never forget her hero boy who went to his death with a song on his lips as if he were but going to a hurling match in clonturk park she brought back to his recollection the happy days of blissful childhood together on the banks of anna liffey
when they had indulged in the innocent pastimes of the young and oblivious of the dreadful present they both laughed heartily all the spectators including the venerable pastor joining in the general merriment that monster audience simply rocked with delight
but anon they were overcome with grief and clasped their hands for the last time a fresh torrent of tears burst from their lachrymal ducts and the vast concourse of people touched to the inmost core broke into heartrending sobs
not the least affected being the aged prebendary himself big strong men officers of the peace and genial giants of the royal irish constabulary were making frank use of their handkerchiefs and it is safe to say that there was not a dry eye in that record assemblage
a most romantic incident occurred when a handsome young oxford graduate noted for his chivalry towards the fair sex stepped forward and presenting his visiting card bankbook and genealogical tree solicited the hand of the hapless young lady requesting her to name the day
and was accepted on the spot every lady in the audience was presented with a tasteful souvenir of the occasion in the shape of a skull and crossbones brooch a timely and generous act which evoked a fresh outburst of emotion and when the gallant young oxonian the bearer by the way
placed on the finger of his blushing fiancee an expensive engagement ring with emeralds set in the form of a fourleaved shamrock the excitement knew no bounds
who presided on the sad occasion he who had blown a considerable number of sepoys from the cannonmouth without flinching could not now restrain his natural emotion with his mailed gauntlet he brushed away a furtive tear and was overheard
cause i thinks of my old mashtub what's waiting for me down limehouse way so then the citizen begins talking about the irish language and the corporation meeting and all to that and the shoneens that can't speak their own language
and talking about the gaelic league and the antitreating league and drink the curse of ireland antitreating is about the size of it gob he'd let you pour all manner of drink down his throat till the lord would call him
and one night i went in with a fellow into one of their musical evenings song and dance about she could get up on a truss of hay she could my maureen lay and there was a fellow with a ballyhooly blue ribbon badge spiffing out of him in irish
and a lot of colleen bawns going about with temperance beverages and selling medals and oranges and lemonade and a few old dry buns gob
don't be talking ireland sober is ireland free and then an old fellow starts blowing into his bagpipes and all the gougers shuffling their feet to the tune the old cow died of
lo joe says i how are you blowing did you see that bloody chimneysweep near shove my eye out with his brush soot's luck says joe who's the old ballocks you were talking to old troy says i was in the force
i'm on two minds not to give that fellow in charge for obstructing the thoroughfare with his brooms and ladders
devil a much says i
lifted any god's quantity of tea and sugar to pay three bob a week said he had a farm in the county down
circumcised says joe ay says i a bit off the top an old plumber named geraghty
that the lay you're on now says joe ay says i how are the mighty fallen collector of bad and doubtful debts
tell him says he i dare him says he and i doubledare him to send you round here again or if he does
for trading without a licence and he after stuffing himself till he's fit to burst jesus
he drink me my teas he eat me my sugars because he no pay me my moneys for nonperishable goods bought of moses herzog of thirteen saint kevin's parade in the city of dublin wood quay ward merchant hereinafter called the vendor
and sold and delivered to michael e geraghty esquire of twenty nine arbour hill in the city of dublin arran quay ward gentleman hereinafter called the purchaser videlicet
the said purchaser debtor to the said vendor of one pound five shillings and sixpence sterling for value received which amount shall be paid by said purchaser to said vendor in weekly instalments every seven calendar days of three shillings and no pence sterling
and the said nonperishable goods shall not be pawned or pledged or sold or otherwise alienated by the said purchaser but shall be and remain and be held to be the sole and exclusive property of the said vendor to be disposed of
at his good will and pleasure until the said amount shall have been duly paid by the said purchaser to the said vendor in the manner herein set forth as this day hereby agreed between the said vendor his heirs successors trustees and assigns of the one part
and the said purchaser his heirs successors trustees and assigns of the other part are you a strict t t says joe not taking anything between drinks says i what about paying our respects to our friend says joe who says i
sure he's out in john of god's off his head poor man drinking his own stuff says joe ay says i whisky and water on the brain come around to barney kiernan's says joe i want to see the citizen barney mavourneen's be it says i
anything strange or wonderful joe not a word says joe i was up at that meeting in the city arms what was that joe says i cattle traders says joe
i want to give the citizen the hard word about it so we went around by the linenhall barracks and the back of the courthouse talking of one thing or another decent fellow joe when he has it but sure like that he never has it jesus i couldn't get over that bloody foxy geraghty the daylight robber
for trading without a licence says he in inisfail the fair there lies a land the land of holy michan there rises a watchtower beheld of men afar
there sleep the mighty dead as in life they slept warriors and princes of high renown a pleasant land it is in sooth of murmuring waters fishful streams where sport the gurnard
the halibut the gibbed haddock the grilse the dab the brill the flounder
in the mild breezes of the west and of the east the lofty trees wave in different directions their firstclass foliage the wafty sycamore the lebanonian cedar the exalted planetree
the eugenic eucalyptus and other ornaments of the arboreal world with which that region is thoroughly well supplied lovely maidens sit in close proximity to the roots of the lovely trees singing the most lovely songs while they play with all kinds of lovely objects
as for example golden ingots silvery fishes crans of herrings drafts of eels codlings creels of fingerlings purple seagems and playful insects and heroes voyage from afar to woo them from eblana to slievemargy
the peerless princes of unfettered munster and of connacht the just and of smooth sleek leinster and of cruahan's land and of armagh the splendid
princes the sons of kings and there rises a shining palace whose crystal glittering roof is seen by mariners who traverse the extensive sea in barks built expressly for that purpose
and thither come all herds and fatlings and firstfruits of that land for o'connell fitzsimon takes toll of them a chieftain descended from chieftains thither the extremely large wains bring foison of the fields flaskets of cauliflowers
floats of spinach pineapple chunks rangoon beans strikes of tomatoes drums of figs drills of swedes spherical potatoes and tallies of iridescent kale york and savoy
and trays of onions pearls of the earth and punnets of mushrooms and custard marrows
and red green yellow brown russet sweet big bitter ripe pomellated apples
and raspberries from their canes i dare him says he and i doubledare him come out here geraghty you notorious bloody hill and dale robber
and flushed ewes and shearling rams and lambs and stubble geese and medium steers and roaring mares
and storesheep and cuffe's prime springers and culls and sowpigs and baconhogs and the various different varieties of highly distinguished swine and angus heifers and polly bulllocks of immaculate pedigree
together with prime premiated milchcows and beeves and there is ever heard a trampling cackling roaring
rumbling grunting champing chewing of sheep and pigs and heavyhooved kine from pasturelands of lusk and rush and carrickmines and from the streamy vales of thomond
and lordly shannon the unfathomable
their udders distended with superabundance of milk and butts of butter and rennets of cheese and farmer's firkins and targets of lamb and crannocks of corn and oblong eggs in great hundreds various in size
the agate with this dun so we turned into barney kiernan's and there sure enough was the citizen up in the corner having a great confab with himself and that bloody mangy mongrel garryowen and he waiting for what the sky would drop in the way of drink
in his gloryhole with his cruiskeen lawn and his load of papers working for the cause the bloody mongrel let a grouse out of him would give you the creeps be a corporal work of mercy if someone would take the life of that bloody dog
i'm told for a fact he ate a good part of the breeches off a constabulary man in santry that came round one time with a blue paper about a licence stand and deliver says he that's all right citizen says joe friends here pass friends says he
then he rubs his hand in his eye and says he what's your opinion of the times doing the rapparee and rory of the hill but begob joe was equal to the occasion i think the markets are on a rise says he sliding his hand down his fork
so begob the citizen claps his paw on his knee and he says foreign wars is the cause of it and says joe sticking his thumb in his pocket it's the russians wish to tyrannise arrah give over your bloody codding joe says i
i've a thirst on me i wouldn't sell for half a crown give it a name citizen says joe wine of the country says he what's yours says joe ditto mac anaspey says i three pints terry says joe and how's the old heart citizen says he
the figure seated on a large boulder at the foot of a round tower was that of a broadshouldered deepchested stronglimbed frankeyed redhaired freelyfreckled shaggybearded widemouthed largenosed
hairylegged ruddyfaced sinewyarmed hero from shoulder to shoulder he measured several ells and his rocklike mountainous knees were covered as was likewise the rest of his body wherever visible
with a strong growth of tawny prickly hair in hue and toughness similar to the mountain gorse ulex europeus the widewinged nostrils from which bristles of the same tawny hue projected
were of such capaciousness that within their cavernous obscurity the fieldlark might easily have lodged her nest the eyes in which a tear and a smile strove ever for the mastery were of the dimensions of a goodsized cauliflower
and the still loftier walls of the cave to vibrate and tremble he wore a long unsleeved garment of recently flayed oxhide reaching to the knees in a loose kilt and this was bound about his middle by a girdle of plaited straw and rushes
beneath this he wore trews of deerskin roughly stitched with gut his nether extremities were encased in high balbriggan buskins dyed in lichen purple the feet being shod with brogues of salted cowhide laced with the windpipe of the same beast
a couched spear of acuminated granite rested by him while at his feet reposed a savage animal of the canine tribe whose stertorous gasps announced that he was sunk in uneasy slumber a supposition confirmed
by hoarse growls and spasmodic movements which his master repressed from time to time
rudely fashioned out of paleolithic stone
o as true as i'm telling you a goodlooking sovereign and there's more where that came from says he were you robbing the poorbox joe says i
twas the prudent member gave me the wheeze i saw him before i met you says i sloping around by pill lane and greek street with his cod's eye counting up all the guts of the fish
o'bloom the son of rory it is he impervious to fear is rory's son he of the prudent soul for the old woman of prince's street says the citizen the subsidised organ
and look at this blasted rag says he look at this says he the irish independent if you please founded by parnell to be the workingman's friend listen to the births and deaths in the irish all for ireland independent and i'll thank you and the marriages and he starts reading them out
gordon barnfield crescent exeter
the wife of william t redmayne of a son how's that eh wright and flint vincent and gillett to rotha marion daughter of rosa and the late george alfred gillett
stockwell playwood and ridsdale at saint jude's kensington by the very reverend doctor forrest dean of worcester eh deaths bristow at whitehall lane
carr stoke newington of gastritis and heart disease cockburn at the moat house chepstow i know that fellow says joe from bitter experience cockburn dimsey wife of david dimsey late of the admiralty miller
tottenham aged eightyfive welsh june twelfth at thirty five canning street liverpool isabella helen
ah well says joe handing round the boose thanks be to god they had the start of us drink that citizen
honourable person health joe says i and all down the form
i was blue mouldy for the want of that pint declare to god i could hear it hit the pit of my stomach with a click and lo as they quaffed their cup of joy a godlike messenger came swiftly in
there passed an elder of noble gait and countenance bearing the sacred scrolls of law and with him his lady wife a dame of peerless lineage fairest of her race little alf bergan popped in round the door and hid behind barney's snug squeezed up with the laughing
what was it only that bloody old pantaloon denis breen in his bathslippers with two bloody big books tucked under his oxter and the wife hotfoot after him unfortunate wretched woman trotting like a poodle i thought alf would split
look at him says he breen
to take a li and he doubled up take a what says i libel action says he for ten thousand pounds
the bloody mongrel began to growl that'd put the fear of god in you seeing something was up but the citizen gave him a kick in the ribs
says joe breen says alf he was in john henry menton's
tom rochford met him and sent him round to the subsheriff's for a lark
when is long john going to hang that fellow in mountjoy says joe bergan says bob doran waking up is that alf bergan yes says alf
wait till i show you here terry give us a pony
is that bergan hurry up terry boy says alf terence o'ryan heard him
cunning as the sons of deathless leda for they garner the succulent berries of the hop and mass and sift and bruise and brew them and they mix therewith sour juices and bring the must to the sacred fire
and cease not night or day from their toil those cunning brothers lords of the vat
in beauty akin to the immortals but he the young chief of the o'bergan's could ill brook to be outdone in generous deeds but gave therefor with gracious gesture a testoon of costliest bronze thereon
embossed in excellent smithwork was seen the image of a queen of regal port scion of the house of brunswick victoria her name her most excellent majesty
by grace of god of the united kingdom of great britain and ireland and of the british dominions beyond the sea queen defender of the faith empress of india even she who bore rule
a victress over many peoples the wellbeloved for they knew and loved her from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof the pale the dark the ruddy and the ethiop what's that bloody freemason doing says the citizen
prowling up and down outside what's that says joe here you are says alf
talking about hanging i'll show you something you never saw hangmen's letters look at here
read them so joe took up the letters
so i saw there was going to be a bit of a dust bob's a queer chap when the porter's up in him so says i just to make talk how's willy murray those times alf i don't know says alf i saw him just now in capel street with paddy dignam
chapter fifteen in the spring time of the year when the rain was past fritz and jack set off on a trip in their boat to shark isle the day was fine the sky clear and there was no wind yet the waves rose and fell as in a storm see cried jack
whales will do us no harm if we do not touch them this proved to be the case though any one of them might have broken up the boat with a stroke of its tail they did not touch it but swam by in a line two by two like a file of troops on shark isle near the shore
on which were set two of the ship's guns
this time they found their charge quite dry and the guns went off with a loud bang they had just put a plug in the hole of one of the guns to keep out the wet when they heard a sound roll through the air
let us fire once more
the day was fine and as the rain had kept us in doors for two months we were glad to go down on the beach for a change all at once i saw the boys come up the stream in their boat at a great speed and the way they used their sculls led me to think that all was not right
i had heard the sound of the two guns which they had fired off but no more
this view of the case did not at all please them as by this time they well knew what sounds their guns made it will be a strange thing said i if the hope to which i have so long clung should at last come to be a fact
but we must have a care that we do not hail a ship the crew of which may rob and kill us for the sake of our wealth i feel that we have as much cause to dread a foe as we have grounds of hope that we may meet with friends our first course was to make the cave quite safe
and then to mount guard where we could see a ship if one should come near the coast that night the rain came down in a flood
and we were thus kept in doors for two days and two nights on the third day i set out with jack to shark isle with a view to seek for the strange ship which he said he knew must be in some place not far from the coast
but though my eye swept the sea for miles round i could see no signs of a sail i then made jack fire three more shots to try if they would give the same sound as the two boys had heard you may judge how i felt when i heard one two three boom through the air
there was now no room for doubt that though i could not see it there must be a ship near shark's isle jack heard me say this with great glee and cried out what can we now do to find it we had brought a flag with us and i told jack to haul this up twice to the top of the staff
by means of which sign those who saw it would know that we had good news to tell them i then left jack on the fort with the guns and told him to fire as soon as a ship hove in sight i bent my way at once back to rock house to talk with my wife jane
and the boys as to what steps we should now take they all met me on the beach and made me tell them the news while i was still in the boat we know no more said i than the fact that there is still a ship on the coast you must all now keep in doors while fritz and i go in search of it
we knew a cape there from which we could get a good view of the sea and by the side of which lay a small bay when we got round the cape great was our joy to find a fine ship in the bay it was not far off from us for we could see the eng lish flag float in the breeze from one of its masts
i seek in vain to find words by means of which i can set forth in print what i then felt both fritz and i fell on our knees and gave thanks to god that he had thus led the ship to our coast if i had not held him back fritz would have gone into the sea with a leap and swum off to the ship
stay said i till we are quite sure what they are there are bad men on the seas who put up false flags to lure ships out of their course and then rob and kill the crew we could now see all that took place on board two tents had been set up on the shore
in front of which was a fire and we could see that men went to and fro with planks there were two men left on guard on the deck of the ship and to these we made signs when they saw us they spoke to some one who stood near and whom we thought had charge of the ship
we did not at first like to go too near but kept our boat some way off fritz said he could see that the faces of the men were not so dark as our own if that be the case said i we are safe and we may trust their flag we both sang a swiss song
but they made no sign that they heard us our song our boat and more than all our dress made them no doubt guess that we were wild men of the wood for at last one of the crew on board held up knives and glass beads which i knew the wild tribes of the new world were fond of this made us laugh
but we would not as yet draw nigh to the ship as we thought we ought to meet our new friends in our best trim we then gave a shout and a wave of the hand and shot off round the cape as fast as our boat would take us we soon got back to rock house where our dear ones were on the look out for us
but jane thought we should have found out who they were that night none of us slept well our guest thought there might now be a chance for her to reach her home and she dreamed she heard the well known voice of her sire call her to come to him the boys were half crazed with vague hopes
my wife and i sat up late to think and talk of the use that might be made of this chance we felt that we were now full of years and should not like in our old age to leave the place where we had spent the best part of our lives still we might do some trade with the land from which the ship came
if it were but known that we were here and we might hear news of our dear swiss home at break of day we put on board our boat a stock of fruit and fresh food of all kinds such as we thought the crew of the ship would like to have and fritz and i set sail for the bay
we took with us all the arms we could find so as not to be at a loss should the crew prove false to their flag and turn out to be a set of thieves as we drew near the ship i fired a gun and told fritz to hoist a flag like theirs to the top of our mast and as we did so the crew gave a loud cheer
i then told him who we were and how we came to dwell on the isle i learned from him in turn that he was bound for new south wales that he knew captain rose who had lost his child
he told me that a storm had thrown him off his course and that the wind drove him on this coast where he took care to fill his casks from a fresh stream that ran by the side of a hill and to take in a stock of wood it was then he said that we first heard your guns
we knew that there must be some one on the coast and this led us to put up our tents and wait till the crew should search the land round the bay i then made the crew a gift
and said to captain stone for that was his name i hope sir that you will now go with me to rock house the place where we live
to be sure i will and thank you much said he and i have no doubt that mister west would like to go with us this mister west was on his way with his wife and two girls to new south wales where he meant to build a house and clear a piece of land
we all three then left the ship in our boat and as we came in sight of shark isle jack who was on the fort fired his guns when we came to the beach my wife and the rest were there to meet us jane was half wild with joy when she heard that captain stone had brought her good news from home
i need not say how glad i was to hear this
of which we had long been in want the boys were of course in high glee at all this
and no one could tell when the next might come my wife and i did not wish to leave
but then our sons were young not yet in the prime of life and i did not think it right that we should keep them from the world jane i could tell would not stay with us nor did she hide from us the fact that her heart drew her to the dear one at home
so i told my wife that i would ask my boys to choose what they would do to stay with us on the isle or leave with captain stone in the ship fritz and jack said they would not leave us ernest spoke not a word but i saw that he had made up his mind to go
i did not grieve at this as i felt that our isle was too small for the scope of his mind and did not give him the means to learn all he could wish i told him to speak out
and that she knew ernest and frank would make their way in the world captain stone gave jane ernest and frank leave to go with him as there was room in the ship now that the wests were to stay with us
for the storm had made them dread the sea i may here say by the way that my wife soon found that her two sons grew fond of their fair friends and gave me a hint that some day we should see them wed which would be a fresh source of joy to us
i have not much more to tell the stores i had laid up furs pearls spice and fruits were put on board the ship and left to the care of my sons who were to sell them and then the time came for us to part
i need not say that it was a hard trial for my wife but she bore up well for she had made up her mind that it was all for the best and that her sons would some day come back to see her i felt too that with the help of our new friends
i told them to act well their part in the new sphere in which they were to move and to take as their guide the word of god they then knelt down for me to bless them and went to their beds in rock house for the last time i got no sleep all that night nor did the two boys
as ernest takes this tale with him which i gave him leave to print that all may know how good god has been to us i have no time to add more than a few words the ship that is to take from us our two sons and our fair guest will sail from this coast in a few hours
and by the close of the day three who are dear to us will have gone from our midst i can not put down what i feel or tell the grief of my poor wife i add these lines while the boat waits for my sons may god grant them health and strength for the trials they may have to pass through
may they gain the love of those with whom they are now to dwell and may they keep free from taint the good name of the swiss family robinson
we took the ass and one of the dogs with us but left all else at home our way first lay through a dense wood where we saw no end of small birds but such game could not now tempt fritz to waste his shot
we then had to cross a vast plain and to wade through the high grass which we did with care lest we should tread on some strange thing that might turn and bite us we came at last to a grove of small trees
and in their midst i saw a bush which i knew to be the wax tree for the wax grew on it like white beads i need not say how glad i was to find so great a prize we had up to this time gone to bed as soon as the sun went down for we had no lamp to use
but as we could now make wax lights i told fritz that we had found what would add two or three hours per day to our lives we took as much of the wax as would serve us for some time and then made our way out of the grove how came you said fritz
to know so much of the queer beasts trees and plants that we have found here when young said i i used to read all the books that fell in my way and those that told of strange lands and what was to be seen in them
had for me as great a charm as they have for ernest who has read a great deal and knows more of plants than you do well said he i will do the same if i but get the chance can you tell what is the name of that huge tree on the right
see there are balls on the bark we went close to it and found that these balls were of thick gum which the sun had made quite hard fritz tried to pull one of them off
but felt that it clung tight to the bark though he could change its shape with his warm hands look said he i feel sure that this is the in di a rub ber which we used to clean our school books i took a piece of it in my hand and said
to be sure it is what shall we not find in this rich land i then told him how the men in the new world made flasks of this gum in which form it is sent to all parts of the world
and i do not see why we should not make boots of it in the same way we have but to fill a sock with sand then put gum all round it while in a soft state till it is as thick as we need
not far from this we came to a bush the leaves of which were strewn with a white dust and close by were two or three more in the same state i cut a slit in the trunk of one of these and found it full of the white dust
we took all of this that we could get out of the tree for it would add to our stock of food and when our bags were full we laid them on the back of the ass and set off to find our way back to the nest each day brings us fresh wealth said my wife
but i think we might now try to add to our goods i knew that she had some fear lest we should one day get lost in the woods or meet with wild beasts
at least for some days my first work was to make some wax lights for my wife could then mend our clothes at night while we sat down to talk this done the next task they gave me was to make a churn i took a large gourd
made a small hole in the side and cut out as much as i could so as to leave but the rind in this i put the cream laid a piece on the hole and bound it up so that none could come out the boys then held a cloth
and on it i put the gourd which they rolled from side to side they kept up this game with great mirth for near an hour when my wife took off the string and found that the churn had done its work well as our sledge was not fit to use on rough roads
my next work was to make a cart i had brought a pair of wheels from the wreck so that my task did not prove a hard one while i was thus at work my wife and the boys took some of the fruit trees we had brought with us and put them in the ground where they thought they would grow best
on each side of the path that led from the nest to the boy's bridge they put a row of young nut trees to make the path hard we laid down sand from the sea shore and then beat it down with our spades
we were for six weeks at this and such like work we were loth to spare any pains to make the nest and all that could be seen near it look neat and trim though there were no eyes but our own to view the scene
one day i told my sons that i would try to make a flight of stairs in place of the cane steps with rope sides which were to tell the truth the worst part of our house as yet we had not used them much but the rain would some day force us to keep in the nest
and then we should like to go up and down stairs with more ease than we could now climb the rude steps i knew that a swarm of bees had built their nest in the trunk of our tree and this led me to think that there might be a void space in it some way up should this prove to be the case i said
our work will be half done for we shall then have but to fix the stairs in the tree round the trunk the boys got up and went to the top of the root to tap the trunk and to judge by the sound how far up the hole went but they had to pay for their want of thought
the whole swarm of bees came out as soon as they heard the noise stung their cheeks stuck to their hair and clothes and soon put them to flight we found that jack who was at all times rash had struck the bees nest with his axe and was much more hurt by them than the rest
ernest who went to his work in his slow way got up to it last and thus did not get more than a sting or two but the rest were some hours ere they could see out of their eyes i took a large gourd which had long been meant to serve for a hive and put it on a stand
we then made a straw roof to keep it from the sun and wind and as by this time it grew dark we left the hive there for the night next day the boys whose wounds were now quite well went with me to help to move the bees to the new home we had made for them
to this i put the bowl of a pipe and blew in the smoke of the weed as fast as i could at first we heard a loud buzz like the noise of a storm afar off
till at last the bees were quite still we now cut out a piece of the trunk three feet square and this gave us a full view of the nest our joy was great to find such a stock of wax for i could see the comb reached far up the tree
i took some of the comb in which the bees lay in swarms and put it by on the plank we then put the gourd on the comb that held the swarm and took care that the queen bee was not left out by these means we soon got a hive of fine bees
and the trunk of the tree was left free for our use we had now to try the length of the hole this we did with a long pole and found it reached as far up as the branch on which our house stood
we now cut a square hole in that side of the trunk next the sea shore and made one of the doors that we had brought from the ship to fit in the space we then made the sides smooth all the way up and with planks and the staves of some old casks
built up the stairs round a pole which we made fast in the ground to do this we had to make a notch in the pole and one in the side of the trunk for each stair and thus go up step by step till we came to the top
each day we spent a part of our time at what we could now call the farm where the beasts and fowls were kept and did odd jobs as well so that we should not make too great a toil of the flight of stairs which took us some six weeks to put up
which he tied by the leg to a branch of the tree and fed with small birds it took him a long while to tame but in time he taught it to perch on his wrist and to feed from his hand he once let it go and thought he would have lost it but the bird knew it had a good friend
for it came back to the tree at night from that time it was left free
and i may say to tease for they all thought they had a fair right to get some fun out of the pets they could call their own but they were kind to them fed them well and kept them clean in what i may term my spare time
which was when i left off work out of doors i made a pair of gum shoes for each of my sons in the way i had told fritz it could be done i do not know what we should have done had we not found the gum tree for the stones soon wore out the boots we had
and we could not have gone through the woods or trod the hard rocks with bare feet by this time our sow had brought forth ten young pigs and the hens had each a brood of fine chicks some we kept near us but most of them went to the wood
where my wife said she could find them when she had need to use them i knew the time must now be near when in this clime the rain comes down day by day for weeks and that it would wash us out of the nest if we did not make a good roof to our house
then our live stock would need some place where they could rest out of the rain the thatch for the nest was of course our first care then we made a long roof of canes for our live stock and on this we spread clay and moss and then a thick coat of tar
this was held up by thick canes stuck deep in the ground with planks made fast to them to form the walls and round the whole we put a row of cask staves to serve for rails
frank one day found some long leaves to which from their shape he gave the name of sword leaves these he brought home to play with and then when he grew tired of them threw them down as they lay on the floor fritz took some of them in his hand
and found them so limp that he said he could plait them and make a whip for frank to drive the sheep and goats with as he split them up to do this i could not but note their strength this led me to try them and i found that we had now a kind of flax plant
which was a source of great joy to my wife you have not yet found a thing she said that will be of more use to us than this go at once and search for some more of these leaves and bring me the most you can of them
with these i can make you hose shirts clothes thread rope in short give me flax and make me a loom and some frames and i shall be at no loss for work when the rain comes i could not help a smile at my wife's joy when she heard the name of flax
but two of the boys set off at once to try to find some more of the flax while they were gone my wife full of new life and with some show of pride told me how i should make the loom by means of which she was to clothe us from head to foot
in a short time they came back and brought with them a good load of the plant which they laid at her feet she now said she would lay by all else till she had tried what she could make of it the first thing to be done was to steep the flax
to do this we took the plant down to the marsh tied up in small bales as they pack hemp for sale the leaves were then spread out in the pond and kept down with stones and left there in that state till it was time to take them out and set them in the sun to dry
when they would be so soft that we could peel them with ease it was two weeks ere the flax was fit for us to take out of the marsh
it was then put by till we could find time to make the wheels reels and combs
we now made haste to lay up a store of canes nuts wood and such things as we thought we might want
to sow wheat and all the grain we had left in our bags was soon put in the ground the fear that the rain might come and put a stop to our work led us to take our meals in haste
large clouds could be seen in the sky and the wind blew as we had not felt it since the night our ship had struck on the rock the great change came at last one night we were woke up out of our sleep with the noise made by the rush of the wind through the woods
and we could hear the loud roar of the sea far off then the dense storm clouds which we had seen in the sky burst on us and the rain came down in floods the streams pools and ponds on all sides were soon full
and the whole plain round us met our view as one vast lake by good luck the site of our house stood up out of the flood and our group of trees had the look of a small isle in the midst of the lake we soon found that the nest was not built so well as we thought
for the rain came in at the sides and we had good cause to fear that the wind would blow the roof off once the storm made such a rush at it that we heard the beams creak and the planks gave signs that there was more strain on them than they could bear this drove us from our room to the stairs in the trunk
on which we sat in a state of fear till the worst of the storm was past then we went down to the shed we had built on the ground at the root of the tree and made the best shift we could all our stores were kept here so that the space was too small to hold us
and the smell from the beasts made it far from a fit place for six of us to dwell in but it was at least safe for a time and this was of course the first thing to be thought of
it was now for the first time that my wife gave a sigh for her old swiss home
and each set to work to do all he could to make the place look neat and clean some of our stores we took up the stairs out of our way and this gave us more room
my wife could sit on the stairs with frank at her feet and mend our clothes each day i drove from the barn such beasts as could bear to be out in the rain that we might not lose them i tied bells round their necks
fritz and i went out to bring them in we oft got wet through to the skin which gave us a chill and might have laid us up if my wife had not made cloth capes and hoods for us to wear to make these rain proof i spread some of the gum on them while hot and this when dry
had the look of oil cloth and kept the head arms chest and back free from damp
we made but few fires for the air was not cold save for an hour or two late at night and we did not cook more than we could help but ate the dried meat fowls and fish we had by us the care of our beasts took us a great part of the day
then we made our cakes and set them to bake in a tin plate on a slow fire i had cut a hole in the wall to give us light and put a pane of glass in it to keep out the wind but the thick clouds hid the sun from the earth and the shade of the tree threw a gloom round our barn
so that our day light was but short
we then made use of our wax lights and all sat round a bench my wife had as much as she could well do to mend the rents we made in our clothes i kept a log in which i put down day by day what we did and what we had seen
and then ernest wrote this out in a neat clear hand and made a book of it fritz and jack drew the plants trees and beasts which they had found and these were stuck in our book each night we took it in turns to read the word of god
ours was not a life of ease it is true but it was one of peace and hope and we felt that god had been so kind to us that it would be a great sin to wish for what it did not please him to grant us
my wife did all she could to cheer us and it was no strange thing for us to find that while we were out in the rain with the live stock she had made some new dish which we would scent as soon as we put our heads in at the door one night it was a thrush pie
the next a roast fowl or some wild duck soup and once in a while she would give us a grand feast and bring out some of all the good things we had in store
in the same place the nest would serve us well in that time of year when it was fine and dry but we should have to look out for some spot where we could build a house that would keep us from the rain the next time the storms came fritz thought that we might find a cave or cut one out of the rocks by the sea shore
i told him that this would be a good plan but would take a long while to do by this time the boys were all well used to hard work and they thought they would much like to try their skill at some new kind of work
certainly the air of that dungeon was very provocative of appetite the prisoner expected that he would be at no expense that day for like an economical man he had concealed half of his fowl and a piece of the bread in the corner of his cell
but he had no sooner eaten than he felt thirsty he had forgotten that he struggled against his thirst till his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth then no longer able to resist he called out the sentinel opened the door
it was a new face he thought it would be better to transact business with his old acquaintance so he sent for peppino
said peppino with an eagerness which danglars thought favorable to him what do you want something to drink your excellency knows that wine is beyond all price near rome then give me water
cried danglars endeavoring to parry the blow oh water is even more scarce than wine your excellency there has been such a drought come thought danglars it is the same old story
and while he smiled as he attempted to regard the affair as a joke he felt his temples get moist with perspiration come my friend said danglars seeing that he made no impression on peppino you will not refuse me a glass of wine
i have already told you that we do not sell at retail well then let me have a bottle of the least expensive they are all the same price and what is that
twenty five thousand francs a bottle tell me
certainly and the next moment
you sent for me he said to the prisoner are you sir
yes your excellency what then how much do you require for my ransom merely the five million you have about you danglars felt a dreadful spasm dart through his heart
but this is all i have left in the world he said out of an immense fortune if you deprive me of that take away my life also we are forbidden to shed your blood
and by whom are you forbidden by him we obey you do then obey some one yes a chief i thought you said you were the chief so i am of these men
and did your superior order you to treat me in this way yes but my purse will be exhausted probably come said danglars will you take a million
no two millions three four come four i will give them to you on condition that you let me go why do you offer me four million for what is worth five million
this is a kind of usury banker that i do not understand take all then take all i tell you and kill me come come calm yourself
you will excite your blood and that would produce an appetite it would require a million a day to satisfy be more economical but when i have no more money left to pay you
then you must suffer hunger suffer hunger said danglars becoming pale most likely replied vampa coolly but you say you do not wish to kill me
no and yet you will let me perish with hunger
well then wretches cried danglars i will defy your infamous calculations i would rather die at once you may torture torment kill me but you shall not have my signature again
as your excellency pleases said vampa as he left the cell
threw himself on the goat skin who could these men be who was the invisible chief what could be his intentions towards him and why when every one else was allowed to be ransomed might he not also be
oh yes certainly a speedy violent death would be a fine means of deceiving these remorseless enemies who appeared to pursue him with such incomprehensible vengeance but to die for the first time in his life
the time had come when the implacable spectre which exists in the mind of every human creature arrested his attention and called out with every pulsation of his heart thou shalt die
excited in the chase first it flies then despairs and at last by the very force of desperation sometimes succeeds in eluding its pursuers danglars meditated an escape
they sent him a magnificent supper and took his million from this time the prisoner resolved to suffer no longer but to have everything he wanted at the end of twelve days after having made a splendid dinner
he reckoned his accounts and found that he had only fifty thousand francs left then a strange reaction took place he who had just abandoned five million endeavored to save the fifty thousand francs he had left
and sooner than give them up he resolved to enter again upon a life of privation he was deluded by the hopefulness that is a premonition of madness he who for so long a time had forgotten god began to think that miracles were possible
that the accursed cavern might be discovered by the officers of the papal states who would release him that then he would have fifty thousand remaining which would be sufficient to save him from starvation and finally he prayed that this sum
might be preserved to him and as he prayed he wept three days passed thus during which his prayers were frequent if not heartfelt sometimes he was delirious and fancied he saw an old man stretched on a pallet
then he entreated peppino as he would a guardian angel to give him food he offered him one thousand francs for a mouthful of bread but peppino did not answer on the fifth day he dragged himself to the door of the cell
are you not a christian he said falling on his knees do you wish to assassinate a man who in the eyes of heaven is a brother oh my former friends my former friends he murmured
and fell with his face to the ground then rising in despair he exclaimed the chief the chief here i am said vampa instantly appearing what do you want
take my last gold muttered danglars holding out his pocket book and let me live here i ask no more for liberty i only ask to live then you suffer a great deal oh yes
yes cruelly still there have been men who suffered more than you i do not think so yes those who have died of hunger
he had seen groaning on his bed he struck his forehead on the ground and groaned yes he said there have been some who have suffered more than i have but then they must have been martyrs at least
his feeble eyes endeavored to distinguish objects and behind the bandit he saw a man enveloped in a cloak half lost in the shadow of a stone column of what must i repent stammered danglars
of the evil you have done said the voice oh yes oh yes i do indeed repent and he struck his breast with his emaciated fist then i forgive you
said the man dropping his cloak and advancing to the light the count of monte cristo said danglars more pale from terror than he had been just before from hunger and misery you are mistaken
then who are you i am he whom you sold and dishonored i am he whose betrothed you prostituted i am he upon whom you trampled that you might raise yourself to fortune
i am he whose father you condemned to die of hunger i am he whom you also condemned to starvation and who yet forgives you because he hopes to be forgiven
rise said the count your life is safe the same good fortune has not happened to your accomplices one is mad the other dead keep the fifty thousand francs you have left
the five million you stole from the hospitals has been restored to them by an unknown hand and now eat and drink i will entertain you to night vampa
when this man is satisfied let him be free
when he raised his head he saw disappearing down the passage nothing but a shadow before which the bandits bowed according to the count's directions
when daylight dawned he saw that he was near a stream he was thirsty and dragged himself towards it as he stooped down to drink he saw that his hair
the cemetery of the chateau d'if on the bed at full length and faintly illuminated by the pale light that came from the window lay a sack of canvas and under its rude folds was stretched a long and stiffened form
it was faria's last winding sheet a winding sheet which as the turnkey said cost so little everything was in readiness
no longer could edmond look into those wide open eyes which had seemed to be penetrating the mysteries of death no longer could he clasp the hand which had done so much to make his existence blessed faria the beneficent and cheerful companion
with whom he was accustomed to live so intimately no longer breathed he seated himself on the edge of that terrible bed and fell into melancholy and gloomy revery alone he was alone again again condemned to silence
again face to face with nothingness alone never again to see the face never again to hear the voice of the only human being who united him to earth
to solve the problem of life at its source even at the risk of horrible suffering the idea of suicide which his friend had driven away and kept away by his cheerful presence now hovered like a phantom over the abbe's dead body
if i could die he said i should go where he goes and should assuredly find him again but how to die it is very easy he went on with a smile i will remain here
rush on the first person that opens the door strangle him and then they will guillotine me but excessive grief is like a storm at sea where the frail bark is tossed from the depths to the top of the wave dantes recoiled from the idea of so infamous a death
and passed suddenly from despair to an ardent desire for life and liberty die oh no he exclaimed not die now after having lived and suffered so long and so much die
yes had i died years ago but now to die would be indeed to give way to the sarcasm of destiny no i want to live i shall struggle to the very last
as he said this he became silent and gazed straight before him like one overwhelmed with a strange and amazing thought suddenly he arose lifted his hand to his brow as if his brain were giddy
paced twice or thrice round the dungeon and then paused abruptly by the bed just god he muttered whence comes this thought is it from thee since none but the dead pass freely from this dungeon
let me take the place of the dead without giving himself time to reconsider his decision and indeed that he might not allow his thoughts to be distracted from his desperate resolution he bent over the appalling shroud
opened it with the knife which faria had made drew the corpse from the sack and bore it along the tunnel to his own chamber laid it on his couch tied around its head the rag he wore at night around his own covered it with his counterpane
once again kissed the ice cold brow and tried vainly to close the resisting eyes which glared horribly turned the head towards the wall so that the jailer might when he brought the evening meal believe that he was asleep as was his frequent custom
entered the tunnel again drew the bed against the wall returned to the other cell took from the hiding place the needle and thread flung off his rags that they might feel only naked flesh beneath the coarse canvas
and getting inside the sack placed himself in the posture in which the dead body had been laid and sewed up the mouth of the sack from the inside
dantes might have waited until the evening visit was over but he was afraid that the governor would change his mind and order the dead body to be removed earlier in that case his last hope would have been destroyed now
his plans were fully made and this is what he intended to do if while he was being carried out the grave diggers should discover that they were bearing a live instead of a dead body dantes did not intend to give them time to recognize him but with a sudden cut of the knife
he meant to open the sack from top to bottom and profiting by their alarm escape if they tried to catch him he would use his knife to better purpose
if they took him to the cemetery and laid him in a grave he would allow himself to be covered with earth and then as it was night
and escaped he hoped that the weight of earth would not be so great that he could not overcome it if he was detected in this and the earth proved too heavy he would be stifled and then so much the better all would be over
nor did he think of it now his situation was too precarious to allow him even time to reflect on any thought but one the first risk that dantes ran was that the jailer when he brought him his supper at seven o'clock
might perceive the change that had been made fortunately twenty times at least from misanthropy or fatigue
this time the jailer might not be as silent as usual but speak to dantes and seeing that he received no reply go to the bed and thus discover all when seven o'clock came dantes agony really began
his hand placed upon his heart was unable to redress its throbbings while with the other he wiped the perspiration from his temples from time to time chills ran through his whole body and clutched his heart in a grasp of ice
then he thought he was going to die yet the hours passed on without any unusual disturbance
it was a good augury at length about the hour the governor had appointed footsteps were heard on the stairs edmond felt that the moment had arrived summoned up all his courage held his breath
the footsteps they were double paused at the door and dantes guessed that the two grave diggers had come to seek him this idea was soon converted into certainty when he heard the noise they made in putting down the hand bier
the door opened and a dim light reached dantes eyes through the coarse sack that covered him he saw two shadows approach his bed a third remaining at the door with a torch in its hand the two men approaching the ends of the bed took the sack by its extremities
said another lifting the feet have you tied the knot inquired the first speaker what would be the use of carrying so much more weight was the reply i can do that when we get there yes you're right
replied the companion what's the knot for thought dantes they deposited the supposed corpse on the bier edmond stiffened himself in order to play the part of a dead man and then the party
lighted by the man with the torch who went first ascended the stairs suddenly he felt the fresh and sharp night air
it was a sensation in which pleasure and pain were strangely mingled the bearers went on for twenty paces then stopped putting the bier down on the ground one of them went away and dantes heard his shoes striking on the pavement
where am i he asked himself really he is by no means a light load said the other bearer sitting on the edge of the hand barrow dantes first impulse was to escape but fortunately he did not attempt it
give us a light said the other bearer
the man with the torch complied although not asked in the most polite terms what can he be looking for thought edmond the spade perhaps
here it is at last he said not without some trouble though yes was the answer but it has lost nothing by waiting
as he said this the man came towards edmond who heard a heavy metallic substance laid down beside him and at the same moment a cord was fastened round his feet with sudden and painful violence well have you tied the knot
inquired the grave digger who was looking on yes and pretty tight too i can tell you was the answer move on then and the bier was lifted once more and they proceeded
they advanced fifty paces farther and then stopped to open a door then went forward again the noise of the waves dashing against the rocks on which the chateau is built reached dantes ear distinctly as they went forward bad weather
observed one of the bearers not a pleasant night for a dip in the sea why yes the abbe runs a chance of being wet said the other and then there was a burst of brutal laughter
dantes did not comprehend the jest but his hair stood erect on his head well here we are at last said one of them a little farther a little farther said the other you know very well
that the last was stopped on his way dashed on the rocks and the governor told us next day that we were careless fellows they ascended five or six more steps and then dantes felt that they took him
one by the head and the other by the heels and swung him to and fro one said the grave diggers two three and at the same instant dantes felt himself flung into the air like a wounded bird
falling with a rapidity that made his blood curdle although drawn downwards by the heavy weight which hastened his rapid descent
at last with a horrible splash he darted like an arrow into the ice cold water
stifled in a moment by his immersion beneath the waves dantes had been flung into the sea and was dragged into its depths by a thirty six pound shot tied to his feet the sea
chapter nine the evening of the betrothal
as we have said hastened back to madame de saint meran's in the place du grand cours and on entering the house found that the guests whom he had left at table were taking coffee in the salon
and his entrance was followed by a general exclamation
said one speak out
marquise
approaching his future mother in law i request your pardon for thus leaving you
so serious that i must take leave of you for a few days so added he turning to renee judge for yourself if it be not important
cried renee unable to hide her emotion at this unexpected announcement alas
i must where then are you going asked the marquise that madame is an official secret but if you have any commissions for paris a
and will with pleasure undertake them the guests looked at each other you wish to speak to me alone said the marquis yes let us go to the library please the marquis took his arm and they left the salon
well asked he as soon as they were by themselves
an affair of the greatest importance that demands my immediate presence in paris now excuse the indiscretion marquis but have you any landed property all my fortune is in the funds
then sell out sell out marquis
you have a broker have you not yes then give me a letter to him and tell him to sell out without an instant's delay perhaps even now i shall arrive too late the deuce you say
replied the marquis let us lose no time then and sitting down he wrote a letter to his broker ordering him to sell out at the market price
i must have another to whom to the king to the king yes i dare not write to his majesty i do not ask you to write to his majesty
i want a letter that will enable me to reach the king's presence without all the formalities of demanding an audience that would occasion a loss of precious time but address yourself to the keeper of the seals
and can procure you audience at any hour of the day or night doubtless but there is no occasion to divide the honors of my discovery with him the keeper would leave me in the background and take all the glory to himself
i tell you marquis
in that case go and get ready i will call salvieux and make him write the letter be as quick as possible i must be on the road in a quarter of an hour tell your coachman to stop at the door
you will present my excuses to the marquise and mademoiselle renee whom i leave on such a day with great regret
a thousand thanks and now for the letter the marquis rang a servant entered say to the comte de salvieux that i would like to see him now then go said the marquis
i shall be gone only a few moments
hastily quitted the apartment but reflecting that the sight of the deputy procureur running through the streets would be enough to throw the whole city into confusion he resumed his ordinary pace at his door he perceived a figure in the shadow that seemed to wait for him
it was mercedes who hearing no news of her lover had come unobserved to inquire after him
she advanced and stood before him
and villefort instantly recognized her her beauty and high bearing surprised him and when she inquired what had become of her lover it seemed to him that she was the judge and he the accused the young man you speak of
is a great criminal and i can do nothing for him mademoiselle mercedes burst into tears
again addressed him but at least tell me where he is that i may know whether he is alive or dead said she i do not know he is no longer in my hands
and desirous of putting an end to the interview he pushed by her and closed the door as if to exclude the pain he felt but remorse is not thus banished like virgil's wounded hero he carried the arrow in his wound and arrived at the salon
uttered a sigh that was almost a sob and sank into a chair then the first pangs of an unending torture seized upon his heart the man he sacrificed to his ambition that innocent victim
immolated on the altar of his father's faults appeared to him pale and threatening
and bringing with him remorse not such as the ancients figured furious and terrible but that slow and consuming agony whose pangs are intensified from hour to hour up to the very moment of death
then he had a moment's hesitation he had frequently called for capital punishment on criminals and owing to his irresistible eloquence they had been condemned and yet the slightest shadow of remorse
because they were guilty at least he believed so but here was an innocent man whose happiness he had destroyed in this case he was not the judge but the executioner as he thus reflected
he felt the sensation we have described and which had hitherto been unknown to him arise in his bosom and fill him with vague apprehensions it is thus that a wounded man trembles instinctively at the approach of the finger to his wound until it be healed
was one of those that never close or if they do only close to reopen more agonizing than ever if at this moment the sweet voice of renee had sounded in his ears pleading for mercy
his cold and trembling hands would have signed his release but no voice broke the stillness of the chamber
who came to tell him that the travelling carriage was in readiness
emptied all the gold it contained into his pocket stood motionless an instant his hand pressed to his head muttered a few inarticulate sounds and then perceiving that his servant had placed his cloak on his shoulders he sprang into the carriage
the hapless dantes was doomed as the marquis had promised
found the marquise and renee in waiting he started when he saw renee for he fancied she was again about to plead for dantes alas her emotions were wholly personal
and he left her at the moment he was about to become her husband
renee far from pleading for dantes hated the man whose crime separated her from her lover meanwhile what of mercedes she had met fernand at the corner of the rue de la loge
she had returned to the catalans and had despairingly cast herself on her couch fernand kneeling by her side took her hand and covered it with kisses that mercedes did not even feel she passed the night thus
the lamp went out for want of oil but she paid no heed to the darkness and dawn came but she knew not that it was day grief had made her blind to all but one object that was
edmond ah you are there
i have not quitted you since yesterday returned fernand sorrowfully
he had learned that dantes had been taken to prison and he had gone to all his friends and the influential persons of the city but the report was already in circulation that dantes was arrested as a bonapartist agent
and as the most sanguine looked upon any attempt of napoleon to remount the throne as impossible
and had returned home in despair declaring that the matter was serious and that nothing more could be done caderousse was equally restless and uneasy
he had shut himself up with two bottles of black currant brandy in the hope of drowning reflection but he did not succeed and became too intoxicated to fetch any more drink and yet not so intoxicated as to forget what had happened
with his elbows on the table he sat between the two empty bottles while spectres danced in the light of the unsnuffed candle spectres such as hoffmann strews over his punch drenched pages like black fantastic dust
was content and joyous he had got rid of an enemy and made his own situation on the pharaon secure
was one of those men born with a pen behind the ear and an inkstand in place of a heart everything with him was multiplication or subtraction the life of a man was to him of far less value than a numeral especially when by taking it away
he could increase the sum total of his own desires he went to bed at his usual hour and slept in peace
embraced renee kissed the marquise's hand and shaken that of the marquis started for paris along the aix road old dantes was dying with anxiety to know what had become of edmond
matelote is homely he cried
this is the secret of her birth a gothic pygmalion who was making gargoyles for cathedrals fell in love with one of them the most horrible one fine morning he besought love to give it life and this produced matelote
every good girl contains a hero
comrades we shall overthrow the government as true as there are fifteen intermediary acids between margaric acid and formic acid however that is a matter of perfect indifference to me
i am grantaire the good fellow having never had any money i never acquired the habit of it and the result is that i have never lacked it but if i had been rich there would have been no more poor people you would have seen
i picture myself jesus christ with rothschild's fortune how much good he would do
hold your tongue you cask said courfeyrac grantaire retorted
raised his beautiful austere face
had something of the spartan and of the puritan in his composition he would have perished at thermopylae
grantaire he shouted
don't disgrace the barricade this angry speech produced a singular effect on grantaire
sober he sat down put his elbows on a table near the window
but grantaire still keeping his tender and troubled eyes fixed on him replied let me sleep here until i die enjolras regarded him with disdainful eyes
grantaire you are incapable of believing of thinking of willing of living and of dying grantaire replied in a grave tone
he stammered a few more unintelligible words then his head fell heavily on the table
an attempt to console the widow hucheloup
here's the street in its low necked dress
courfeyrac as he demolished the wine shop to some extent sought to console the widowed proprietress mother hucheloup weren't you complaining the other day because you had had a notice served on you for infringing the law because
gibelotte shook a counterpane out of your window yes my good monsieur courfeyrac ah good heavens are you going to put that table of mine in your horror too
and it was for the counterpane and also for a pot of flowers which fell from the attic window into the street that the government collected a fine of a hundred francs if that isn't an abomination what is
she was satisfied after the manner of that arab woman who having received a box on the ear from her husband went to complain to her father and cried for vengeance saying father you owe my husband affront for affront
the father asked on which cheek did you receive the blow on the left cheek the father slapped her right cheek and said now you are satisfied go tell your husband that he boxed my daughter's ears
recruits had arrived workmen had brought under their blouses a barrel of powder a basket containing bottles of vitriol two or three carnival torches and a basket filled with fire pots left over from the king's festival
this festival was very recent having taken place on the first of may it was said that these munitions came from a grocer in the faubourg saint antoine named pepin they smashed the only street lantern
and all the lanterns in the surrounding streets
the larger shut off the rue de
thirty were armed with guns for on their way they had effected a wholesale loan from an armorer's shop nothing could be more bizarre
and two holster pistols another
a third wore a plastron of nine sheets of gray paper and was armed
there was one who was shouting let us exterminate them to the last man and die at the point of our bayonet this man had no bayonet
with this inscription in red worsted public order there were a great many guns bearing the numbers of the legions
some pikes add to this all ages all sorts of faces small pale young men and bronzed longshoremen all were in haste and as they helped each other they discussed the possible chances
that they would receive succor
that paris would rise terrible sayings with which was mingled a sort of cordial joviality one would have pronounced them brothers but they did not know each other's names great perils have this fine characteristic
that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers a fire had been lighted in the kitchen and there they were engaged in moulding into bullets pewter mugs
forks and all the brass table ware of the establishment in the midst of it all they drank caps and buckshot
in the billiard hall mame hucheloup matelote and gibelotte variously modified by terror which had stupefied one
were tearing up old dish cloths and making lint three insurgents were assisting them three bushy haired jolly blades with beards and moustaches
of seamstresses and who made them tremble the man of lofty stature whom courfeyrac
gavroche was working on the larger one
gavroche completely carried away and radiant had undertaken to get everything in readiness he went came mounted descended re mounted whistled and sparkled he seemed to be there for the encouragement of all had he any incentive
yes certainly his poverty had he wings yes certainly his joy gavroche was a whirlwind he was constantly visible he was incessantly audible he filled the air as he was everywhere at once
he was a sort of almost irritating ubiquity no halt was possible with him the enormous barricade felt him on its haunches he troubled the loungers he excited the idle
and breath in others wrath in others movement in all now pricking a student now biting an artisan he alighted paused flew off again hovered over the tumult and the effort sprang from one party to another murmuring and humming
where are you now a hod of plaster for me to stop this hole with
put everything on it fling everything there stick it all in break down the house a barricade is mother gibou's tea hullo here's a glass door this elicited an exclamation from the workers
hercules yourselves retorted gavroche a glass door is an excellent thing in a barricade
pardi glass is a treacherous thing well you haven't a very wildly lively imagination comrades however he was furious over his triggerless pistol he went from one to another demanding a gun i want a gun
give you a gun said combeferre come now said gavroche why not
before crossing the bridge and walked to the house he did not go up the steps to the street door but went into the court has your master come he asked a gardener no sir the mistress is at home
but will you please go to the front door
they'll open the door no i'll go in from the garden and feeling satisfied that she was alone
and she would certainly not expect him to come before the races he walked holding his sword and stepping cautiously over the sandy path
vronsky forgot now all that he had thought on the way of the hardships and difficulties of their position he thought of nothing but that he would see her directly not in imagination but living all of her
as she was in reality he was just going in stepping on his whole foot so as not to creak up the worn steps of the terrace when he suddenly remembered what he always forgot
and what caused the most torturing side of his relations with her her son with his questioning hostile as he fancied eyes
both vronsky and anna did not merely avoid speaking of anything that they could not have repeated before everyone they did not even allow themselves to refer by hints to anything the boy did not understand
they had made no agreement about this it had settled itself they would have felt
vronsky often saw the child's intent bewildered glance fixed upon him
friendliness at another coldness and reserve in the boy's manner to him as though the child felt that between this man and his mother there existed some important bond the significance of which he could not understand
clasped the pot the beauty of her whole figure her head her neck her hands struck vronsky every time as something new and unexpected he stood still gazing at her in ecstasy
but directly he would have made a step to come nearer to her
he would have run to her but remembering that there might be spectators he looked round towards the balcony door and reddened a little as he always reddened feeling that he had to be afraid
no i'm quite well she said getting up and pressing his outstretched hand tightly i did not expect thee mercy what cold hands he said you startled me she said
he's out for a walk they'll come in from this side but in spite of her efforts to be calm her lips were quivering
so impossibly frigid between them and the dangerously intimate singular forgive you i'm so glad but you're ill or worried he went on not letting go her hands and bending over her
she spoke the truth if ever at any moment she had been asked what she was thinking of she could have answered truly of the same thing
why was it she wondered that to others to betsy she knew of her secret connection
it was all easy while to her it was such torture today this thought gained special poignancy
from certain other considerations she asked him about the races he answered her questions and seeing that she was agitated trying to calm her he began telling her
tell him or not tell him she thought looking into his quiet affectionate eyes
he won't understand all the gravity of this fact to us
she did not answer
her eyes shining under their long lashes
that slavish devotion which had done so much to win her
yes i shan't be able to forgive him if he does not realize all the gravity of it better not tell
that held the leaf was trembling more and more
shall i tell you
softly and deliberately the leaf in her hand shook more violently but she did not take her eyes off him watching how he would take it he turned white
he dropped her hand and his head sank on his breast yes
him with tenfold intensity that strange feeling of loathing of someone but at the same time he felt that the turning point he had been longing for had come now that it was impossible to go on concealing things from her husband
put an end to their unnatural position
he looked at her with a look of submissive tenderness kissed her hand got up and in silence paced up and down the terrace yes he said
neither you nor i have looked on our relations as a passing amusement
he looked round as he spoke to the deception in which we are living
she was calmer now and her face lighted up with a tender smile leave your husband and make our life one it is one as it is she answered scarcely audibly yes but altogether altogether
but how alexey tell me how she said
there is a way out of every position we must take our line he said anything's better than the position in which you're living of course i see how you torture yourself over everything the world and your son and your husband
oh not over my husband she said with a quiet smile i don't know him i don't think of him he doesn't exist you're not speaking sincerely i know you you worry about him too
oh he doesn't even know
and it was rendered all the more difficult by the girl's entire innocence for nancy was always trying to go off alone with edward
you see the position was extremely complicated it was as complicated as it well could be along delicate lines there was the complication caused by the fact that edward and leonora never spoke to each other except when other people were present then as i have said
their demeanours were quite perfect there was the complication caused by the girl's entire innocence there was the further complication that both edward and leonora really regarded the girl as their daughter
she was tall and strikingly thin she had a tortured mouth agonized eyes and a quite extraordinary sense of fun
why she had the heaviest head of black hair that i have ever come across i used to wonder how she could bear the weight of it she was just over twenty one and at times she seemed as old as the hills at times not much more than sixteen
and she could sit for hours perfectly still steeping handkerchief after handkerchief in vinegar when leonora had one of her headaches she was in short a miracle of patience who could be almost miraculously impatient
it was no doubt the convent training that effected that i remember that one of her letters to me when she was about sixteen ran something like on corpus christi or it may have been some other saint's day
i cannot keep these things in my head our school played roehampton at hockey and seeing that our side was losing being three goals to one against us at halftime
and i remember that she seemed to describe afterwards a sort of saturnalia apparently when the victorious fifteen or eleven came into the refectory for supper the whole school jumped upon the tables and cheered
that is of course the catholic tradition saturnalia
or at any rate nancy had a sense of rectitude
once or twice when she had been quite small
it was nearly always impossible to get a servant to stay in the family and for days at a time apparently missus rufford would be incapable i fancy she drank at any rate she had so cutting a tongue that even nancy was afraid of her
nancy must have been a very emotional child then one day quite suddenly on her return from a ride at fort william nancy had been sent with her governess
right down south to that convent school she had been expecting to go there in two months time her mother disappeared from her life at that time a fortnight later leonora came to the convent and told her that her mother was dead perhaps she was
at any rate i never heard until the very end what became of missus rufford leonora never spoke of her and then major rufford went to india from which he returned very seldom and only for very short visits
and nancy lived herself gradually into the life at branshaw teleragh i think that from that time onwards she led a very happy life till the end
i had known her all the time i mean that she always came to the ashburnhams at nauheim for the last fortnight of their stay and i watched her gradually growing
she always even kissed me night and morning until she was about eighteen and she would skip about and fetch me things and laugh at my tales of life in philadelphia
during one of her father's rare visits to europe we were sitting in the gardens near the iron stained fountain leonora had one of her headaches and we were waiting for florence and edward to come from their baths
of the moral side of it i mean she was all in white and so tall and fragile and she had only just put her hair up
and of unfamiliarity over her throat there played the reflection from a little pool of water
of pierced chip straw her throat was very long and leaned forward and her eyebrows arching a little as she laughed at some old fashionedness in my phraseology had abandoned their tense line
and to think that that vivid white thing that saintly and swanlike being to think that why she was like the sail of a ship so white and so definite in her movements
and to think that she will never why she will never do anything again i can't believe it anyhow we were chattering away about the morality of lotteries and then suddenly
it was as if a modified foghorn had boomed with a reed inside it i looked round to catch sight of him a tall fair stiffly upright man of fifty he was walking away with an italian baron who had had much to do with the belgian congo
they must have been talking about the proper treatment of natives for i heard him say oh hang humanity when i looked again at nancy
it was dreadful to see her with her eyes closed like that oh she exclaimed and her hand that had appeared to be groping settled for a moment on my arm never speak of it
the blessed saints she said you would think they would spare you such things i don't believe all the sinning in the world could make one deserve them
and yet no young girl could more archly and lovingly have played with an adored father she was always holding him by both coat lapels cross questioning him as to how he spent his time kissing the top of his head
ah she was well bred if ever anyone was the poor wretched man cringed before her
it was only that peculiar note of his voice used when he was overbearing or dogmatic that could unman her and that was only visible when it came unexpectedly
by the booming sound of her father's voice it was that sound that had always preceded his entrance
during that remainder of their stay at nauheim after i had left it had seemed to her that she was fighting a long duel with unseen weapons against silent adversaries nancy as i have also said
and leonora found it to be her duty to stop that it was very difficult nancy was used to having her own way and for years she had been used to going off with edward ratting rabbiting catching salmon down at fordingbridge
leonora had cultivated the habit of going to bed at ten o'clock
but for all the time they were at nauheim she contrived never to let those two be alone together except in broad daylight in very crowded places if a protestant had done that it would no doubt have awakened a self consciousness in the girl but
can manage these things better and i dare say that two things made this easier
he appeared indeed to be very ill his shoulders began to be bowed
he had extraordinary moments of inattention and leonora describes herself as watching him as a fierce cat
in that silent watching again i think she was a catholic
at first she thought that it might be remorse or grief for the death of florence that was oppressing him
he had not any idea that florence could have committed suicide without writing at least a tirade to him
she thought it made her seem more romantic no edward had no remorse he was able to say to himself that he had treated florence with gallant attentiveness of the kind that she desired until two hours before her death
leonora gathered that from the look in his eyes and from the way he straightened his shoulders over her as she lay in her coffin
he drank a good deal at that time a steady
for leonora made the girl go to bed at ten unreasonable though that seemed to nancy she would understand that whilst they were in a sort of half mourning for florence she ought not to be seen at public places like the casino
that she made the girl and herself perform for the soul of florence and then one evening about a fortnight later when the girl growing restive at even devotional exercises clamoured once more to be allowed to go for a walk with edward and when leonora was really at her wits end
edward gave himself into her hands he was just standing up from dinner and had his face averted but he turned his heavy head and his bloodshot eyes upon his wife and looked full at her doctor von hauptmann he said has ordered me to go to bed immediately after dinner
until the girl was well in bed reading in the anglican prayer book
two and a half hours later they came back stumbling heavily she remained reflecting upon this position until the last night of their stay at nauheim then she suddenly acted for
he looked at her in turn for a long balancing minute why yes he said at last nancy jumped out of her chair and kissed him those two words leonora said gave her the greatest relief of any two syllables she had ever heard in her life
for she realized that edward was breaking up
she could relax some of her vigilance nevertheless she sat in the darkness behind her half closed jalousies looking over the street and the night and the trees until very late she could hear nancy's clear voice coming closer and saying
and edward replied with his sort of sulky good nature as for you
the girl came swinging along
chapter twenty three vronsky had several times already though not so resolutely as now tried to bring her to consider their position and every time
he had been confronted by the same superficiality and triviality with which she met his appeal now it was as though there were something in this which she could not or would not face
as though directly she began to speak of this she the real anna retreated somehow into herself and another strange and unaccountable woman came out whom he did not love
and whom he feared and who was in opposition to him but today he was resolved to have it out whether he knows or not said vronsky in his usual quiet and resolute tone
that's nothing to do with us we cannot you cannot stay like this especially now what's to be done according to you she asked with the same frivolous irony
was now vexed with him for deducing from it the necessity of taking some step tell him everything and leave him very well let us suppose i do that she said
do you know what the result of that would be i can tell you it all beforehand and a wicked light gleamed in her eyes that had been so soft a minute before
you love another man and have entered into criminal intrigues with him mimicking her husband she threw an emphasis on the word criminal as alexey alexandrovitch did
i warned you of the results in the religious the civil and the domestic relation
now i cannot let you disgrace my name and my son she had meant to say but about her son she could not jest
and more in the same style she added in general terms he'll say in his official manner and with all distinctness and precision that he cannot let me go
but will take all measures in his power to prevent scandal and he will calmly and punctually act in accordance with his words that's what will happen he's not a man but a machine
recalling alexey alexandrovitch as she spoke with all the peculiarities of his figure and manner of speaking and reckoning against him every defect she could find in him
softening nothing for the great wrong she herself was doing him but anna said vronsky in a soft and persuasive voice trying to soothe her
we absolutely must anyway tell him and then be guided by the line he takes what run away and why not run away i don't see how we can keep on like this
and not for my sake i see that you suffer yes run away and become your mistress she said angrily
with reproachful tenderness yes she went on become your mistress and complete the ruin of again she would have said my son but she could not utter that word
vronsky could not understand how she with her strong and truthful nature could endure this state of deceit and not long to get out of it but he did not suspect that the chief cause of it
was the word son which she could not bring herself to pronounce when she thought of her son and his future attitude to his mother who had abandoned his father she felt such terror
at what she had done that she could not face it but like a woman could only try to comfort herself with lying assurances that everything would remain as it always had been and that it was possible to forget the fearful question
of how it would be with her son i beg you i entreat you she said suddenly
sincere and tender never speak to me of that but anna never leave it to me
all the horror of my position but it's not so easy to arrange as you think and leave it to me and do what i say never speak to me of it do you promise me no no promise
i promise everything
i can't be at peace when you can't be at peace i she repeated yes i am worried sometimes but that will pass if you will never talk about this when you talk about it it's only then it worries me
don't understand he said i know she interrupted him how hard it is for your truthful nature to lie and i grieve for you
i was just thinking the very same thing he said how could you sacrifice everything for my sake i can't forgive myself that you're unhappy i unhappy she said
coming closer to him and looking at him with an ecstatic smile of love i am like a hungry man who has been given food he may be cold and dressed in rags and ashamed but he is not unhappy i
unhappy no this is my unhappiness she could hear the sound of her son's voice coming towards them and glancing swiftly round the terrace she got up impulsively
her eyes glowed with the fire he knew so well with a rapid movement she raised her lovely hands covered with rings took his head
with smiling parted lips swiftly kissed his mouth and both eyes and pushed him away she would have gone but he held her back when
tonight at one o'clock she whispered and with a heavy sigh she walked with her light swift step to meet her son seryozha had been caught by the rain in the big garden and he
and his nurse had taken shelter in an arbor well au revoir she said to vronsky i must soon be getting ready for the races betsy promised to fetch me vronsky
the last laggard among peter's feathered friends who spend the winter in the far away south had hurried away still peter was not lonely tommy tit's cheery voice greeted peter the very first thing that morning after the storm
tommy seemed to be in just as good spirits as ever he had been in summer now peter rather likes the snow he likes to run about in it and so he followed tommy tit up to the old orchard
he felt sure that he would find company there besides tommy tit and he was not disappointed downy and hairy the woodpeckers were getting their breakfast from a piece of suet farmer brown's boy had thoughtfully fastened
and his blue coat never had looked better than it did against the pure white of the snow these were the only ones peter really had expected to find in the old orchard and so you can guess how pleased he was as he hopped over the old stone wall
to hear the voice of one whom he had almost forgotten it was the voice of yank yank the nuthatch and while it was far from being sweet there was in it something of good cheer and contentment at once peter hurried in the direction from which it came
the rest of his back was bluish gray the sides of his head and his breast were white the outer feathers of his tail were black with white patches near their tips but peter didn't need to see how yank
if he had been so far away that the colors of his coat did not show at all you see yank yank was doing a most surprising thing something no other bird can do he was walking head first down the trunk of that tree picking tiny eggs of insects from the bark and seemingly
quite as much at home and quite as unconcerned in that queer position as if he were right side up as peter approached yank yank lifted his head and called a greeting which sounded very much like the repetition of his own name
yank yank turned around so that
you're mistaken peter said he this isn't home i've simply come down here for the winter you know home is where you raise your children and my home is in the great woods farther north
well anyway it's a kind of home
and i certainly am glad to see you back the old orchard wouldn't be quite the same without you did you have a pleasant summer
yes mister curiosity i had a very pleasant summer replied yank yank missus yank yank and i raised a family of six and that is doing a lot better than some folks i know if i do say it as to our nest it was made of leaves and feathers
now is there anything else you want to know yes retorted peter promptly i want to know how it is that you can walk head first down the trunk of a tree without losing your balance and tumbling off yank yank chuckled happily
i discovered a long time ago peter said he that the people who get
now old mother nature didn't give me stiff tail feathers but she gave me a very good pair of feet
each toe has a sharp claw when i go up a tree the three front claws on each foot hook into the bark
it is just as easy for me to go down a tree as it is to go up and i can go right around the trunk just as easily and comfortably suiting action to the word yank yank ran around the trunk of the apple tree just above peter's head
when he reappeared peter had another question ready
i should say not exclaimed yank yank i like acorns and beechnuts and certain kinds of seeds i don't see how such a little fellow as you can eat such hard things as acorns and beechnuts protested peter a little doubtfully yank yank laughed right out
sometime when i see you over in the green forest i'll show you said he when i find a fat beechnut i take it to a little crack in a tree
i crack the shell it really is quite easy when you know how cracking a nut open that way is sometimes called hatching and that is how i come by the name of nuthatch hello there's seep seep i haven't seen him since we were together up north
his home was not far from mine as yank yank spoke a little brown bird alighted at the very foot of the next tree he was just a trifle bigger than jenny wren but not at all like jenny for while jenny's tail usually is cocked up in the sauciest way
seep seep's tail is never cocked up at all in fact it bends down for seep seep uses his tail just as the members of the woodpecker family use theirs he was dressed in grayish brown above and grayish white beneath across each wing
was a little band of buffy white and his bill was curved just a little
his way of climbing that tree was very like creeping and peter thought to himself that seep seep was well named the brown creeper he knew it was quite useless to try to get seep seep to talk he knew that seep seep wouldn't waste any time that way
round and round up the trunk of the tree he went and when he reached the top at once flew down to the bottom of the next tree and without a pause started up that he wasted no time exploring the branches but stuck to the trunk
if he had felt that on him alone depended the job of getting all the insect eggs and grubs on those trees he could not have been more industrious does he build his nest in a hole in a tree asked peter of yank yank yank yank shook his head
no he replied he hunts for a tree or stub with a piece of loose bark hanging to it in behind this he tucks his nest made of twigs strips of bark and moss he's a funny little fellow
by the way peter have you seen anything of dotty the tree sparrow
butcher the shrike was not the only newcomer in the old orchard there was another stranger who peter rabbit soon discovered was looked on with some suspicion by all the other birds of the old orchard the first time peter saw him
he was walking about on the ground some distance off he didn't hop but walked and at that distance he looked all black
in fact peter mistook him for creaker that was because he didn't really look at him
presently the stranger flew up in a tree and peter saw that his tail was little more than half as long as that of creaker at once it came over peter that this was a stranger to him and of course his curiosity was aroused
he didn't have any doubt whatever that this was a member of the blackbird family but which one it could be he hadn't the least idea jenny wren will know thought peter and scampered off to hunt her up
peter asked as soon as he found jenny wren there isn't any new member of the blackbird family living in the old orchard retorted jenny wren tartly there is too contradicted peter i saw him with my own eyes i can see him now he's sitting in that tree over yonder this very minute
he's all black so of course he must be a member of the blackbird family
fellow isn't a member of the blackbird family at all and what's more he isn't black go over there and take a good look at him then come back and tell me if you still think he is black jenny turned her back on peter and went to hunting worms
there being nothing else to do peter hopped over where he could get a good look at the stranger
at least that is what peter thought at first glance then as the stranger moved he seemed to be a rich purple in places in short he changed color as he turned his feathers were like those of creaker the grackle iridescent
all over he was speckled with tiny light spots underneath he was dark brownish gray his wings and tail were of the same color with little touches of buff his rather large bill was yellow
peter hurried back to jenny wren and it must be confessed he looked sheepish you were right jenny wren he isn't black at all confessed peter of course i was right i usually am retorted jenny he isn't black
he isn't even related to the blackbird family and he hasn't any business in the old orchard in fact if you ask me he hasn't any business in this country anyway he's a foreigner that's what he is a foreigner but you haven't told me who he is protested peter
he is speckles the starling and he isn't really an american at all replied jenny he comes from across the ocean the same as bully the english sparrow thank goodness he hasn't such a quarrelsome disposition as bully
just the same the rest of us would be better satisfied if he were not here he has taken possession of one of the old homes of yellow wing the flicker and that means one less house for birds who really belong here
if his family increases at the rate bully's family does i'm afraid some of us will soon be crowded out of the old orchard did you notice that yellow bill of his peter nodded i certainly did said he i couldn't very well help noticing it
well there's a funny thing about that bill replied jenny in winter it turns almost black most of us wear a different colored suit in winter but our bills remain the same well he seems to be pretty well fixed here and i don't see but what the thing for the rest of you birds to do is to make the best of the matter
said peter what i want to know is whether or not he is of any use i guess he must do some good admitted jenny wren rather grudgingly i've seen him picking up worms and grubs but he likes grain and i have a suspicion that if his family becomes very numerous and i suspect it will
they will eat more of farmer brown's grain than they will pay for by the worms and bugs they destroy hello there's dandy the waxwing and his friends a flock of modestly dressed yet rather distinguished looking feathered folks
had alighted in a cherry tree and promptly began to help themselves to farmer brown's cherries they were about the size of winsome bluebird but did not look in the least like him for they were dressed almost wholly in beautiful rich soft grayish brown
across the end of each tail was a yellow band on each the forehead chin and a line through each eye was velvety black each wore a very stylish pointed cap and on the wings of most of them were little spots of red which looked like sealing wax
and from which they get the name of waxwings they were slim and trim and quite dandified and in a quiet way were really beautiful as peter watched them he began to wonder if farmer brown would have any cherries left
but even he marvelled at the way those birds put the cherries out of sight it was quite clear to him why they are often called cherrybirds if they stay long farmer brown won't have any cherries left remarked peter don't worry replied jenny wren
they won't stay long i don't know anybody equal to them for roaming about here are most of us with families on our hands and mister and missus bluebird with a second family
while those gadabouts up there haven't even begun to think about housekeeping yet they certainly do like those cherries
he may have fewer cherries but he'll have more apples because of them bow's that demanded peter oh replied jenny wren they were over here a while ago when those little green cankerworms threatened to eat up the whole orchard
and they stuffed themselves on those worms just the same as they are stuffing themselves on cherries now they are very fond of small fruits but most of those they eat are the wild kind which are of no use at all to farmer brown or anybody else now just look at that performance will you
there were five of the waxwings and they were now seated side by side on a branch of the cherry tree one of them had a plump cherry which he passed to the next one
peter laughed right out never in my life have i seen such politeness said he huh exclaimed jenny wren i don't believe it was politeness at all
i guess if you got at the truth of the matter you would find that each one was stuffed so full that he thought he didn't have room for that cherry and so passed it along well i think that was politeness just the same retorted peter the first one might have dropped the cherry if he couldn't eat it instead of passing it along
just then the waxwings flew away it was the very middle of the summer before peter rabbit again saw dandy the waxwing quite by chance he discovered dandy sitting on the tiptop of an evergreen tree as if on guard he was on guard for in that tree was his nest
in fact it was so late in the summer that most of peter's friends were through nesting and he had quite lost interest in nests presently dandy flew down to a lower branch and there he was joined by missus waxwing
a new friend and an old one
sometimes called redbird he had come up to the old orchard for his usual morning visit and just as he hopped over the old stone wall he heard a beautiful clear loud whistle
peter stopped short with a little gasp of sheer astonishment and delight then he rubbed his eyes and looked again he couldn't quite believe that he saw what he thought he saw he hadn't supposed that any one even among the feathered folks
could be quite so beautiful the stranger was dressed all in red excepting a little black around the base of his bill even his bill was red he wore a beautiful red crest which made him still more distinguished looking and how he could sing
have the poorest songs but this stranger's song was as beautiful as his coat
of course he lost no time in hunting up jenny wren who is it jenny who is that beautiful stranger with such a lovely song cried peter as soon as he caught sight of jenny it's glory the cardinal replied jenny wren promptly isn't he the loveliest thing you've ever seen
i do hope he is going to stay here as i said before i don't often envy any one's fine clothes but when i see glory i'm sometimes tempted to be envious if i were missus cardinal i'm afraid i should be jealous
did you ever see such a difference peter looked eagerly instead of the glorious red of glory missus cardinal wore a very dull dress
her throat was a grayish black her breast was a dull buff with a faint tinge of red
altogether she was very soberly dressed but a trim neat looking little person but if she wasn't handsomely dressed she could sing in fact she was almost as good a singer as her handsome husband
i've noticed said peter that people with fine clothes spend most of their time thinking about them and are of very little use when it comes to real work in life well you needn't think that of glory declared jenny in her vigorous way he's just as fine
as he is handsome he's a model husband if they make their home around here you'll find him
sometimes they raise two families when they do that glory takes charge of the first lot of youngsters as soon as they are able to leave the nest so that missus cardinal has nothing to worry about while she is sitting on the second lot of eggs he fusses over them
as if they were the only children in the world everybody loves glory excuse me peter i'm going over to find out if they are really going to stay when jenny returned she was so excited she couldn't keep still a minute
they like here peter she cried they like here so much that if they can find a place to suit them for a nest they're going to stay
neighborhood mister and missus cardinal whistled and sang as if their hearts were bursting with joy and peter sat around listening as if he had nothing else in the world to do
very fond kitty the catbird in contrast with glory kitty seemed a regular little quaker for he was dressed almost wholly in gray a rather dark slaty gray the top of his head and tail were black
he was a little smaller than welcome robin there was no danger of mistaking him for anybody else for there is no one dressed at all like him peter forgot all about glory in his pleasure at discovering the returned kitty
and hurried over to welcome him kitty had disappeared among the bushes along the old stone wall but peter had no trouble in finding him by the queer cries he was uttering which were very like the meow of black pussy the cat they were very harsh and unpleasant and peter understood perfectly
he did not hurry in among the bushes at once but waited expectantly in a few minutes the harsh cries ceased and then there came from the very same place a song which seemed to be made up of parts of the songs of all the other birds of the old orchard
it was not loud but it was charming it contained the clear whistle of glory and there was even the tinkle of little friend the song sparrow the notes of other friends were in that song
and with them were notes of southern birds whose songs kitty had learned while spending the winter in the south then there were notes all his own peter listened until the song ended then scampered in among the bushes at once those harsh cries broke out again
but that was just kitty's way he is simply brimming over with fun and mischief and delights to pretend when peter found him he was sitting with all his feathers puffed out until he looked almost like a ball with a head and tail he looked positively sleepy
then as he caught sight of peter he drew those feathers down tight cocked his tail up after the manner of jenny wren and was as slim and trim looking as any bird of peter's acquaintance he didn't look at all like the same bird of the moment before
it hung straight down he dropped his wings and all in a second made himself look fairly disreputable but all the time his eyes were twinkling and snapping and peter knew that these changes in appearance were made out of pure fun and mischief
i've been wondering if you were coming hack cried peter i don't know of any one of my feathered friends i would miss so much as you thank you responded kitty it's very nice of you to say that peter
if you are glad to see me i am still more glad to get back did you pass a pleasant winter down south asked peter fairly so fairly so replied kitty by the way peter i picked up some new songs down there
but i don't think you need any new songs i've never seen such a fellow for picking up other people's songs excepting mocker the mockingbird
said he i'm pretty good at imitating others but mocker is better i'm hoping that if i practice enough some day i can be as good i saw a lot of him in the south and he certainly is clever huh you don't need to envy him retorted peter
you are some imitator yourself how about those new notes you got when you were in the south
it didn't seem as if so many notes could come from one throat
chapter thirty seven farewells and welcomes
all through the long summer peter rabbit watched his feathered friends
as he saw them keeping the trees of the old orchard free of insect pests working in farmer brown's garden and picking up the countless seeds of weeds everywhere he began to understand something of the wonderful part
these feathered folks have in keeping the great world beautiful and worth while living in
all summer long they were going to school all about him learning how to watch out for danger to use their eyes and ears and all the things a bird must know who would live to grow up
as autumn drew near peter discovered that his friends were gathering in flocks roaming here and there it was one of the first signs that summer was nearly over and it gave him just a little feeling of sadness
for the singing season was over also he discovered that many of the most beautifully dressed of his feathered friends had changed their finery for sober traveling suits in preparation for the long journey to the far south where they would spend the winter
in fact he actually failed to recognize some of them at first september came and as the days grew shorter some of peter's friends bade him good by they were starting on the long journey planning to take it in easy stages for the most part
each day saw some slip away as peter thought of the dangers of the long trip before them he wondered if he would ever see them again but some there were who lingered even after jack frost's first visit
welcome and missus robin winsome and missus bluebird little friend the song sparrow and his wife were among these
sad indeed and lonely would these days have been for peter had it not been that with the departure of the friends he had spent so many happy hours with came the arrival of certain other friends from the far north where they had made their summer homes
some of these stopped for a few days in passing others came to stay and peter was kept busy looking for and welcoming them a few old friends there were who would stay the year through sammy jay was one
downy and hairy the woodpeckers were others and one there was whom peter loves dearly it was tommy tit the chickadee now tommy tit had not gone north in the spring
it just happened that peter hadn't found that home and had caught only one or two glimpses of tommy tit now with household cares ended and his good sized family properly started in life tommy tit was no longer interested in the snug little home he had built in a hollow
birch stub and he and missus chickadee spent their time flitting about hither thither and yon spreading good cheer every time peter visited the old orchard he found him there and as tommy was always ready for a bit of merry gossip
peter soon ceased to miss jenny wren don't you dread the winter tommy tit asked peter one day as he watched tommy clinging head down to a twig as he picked some tiny insect eggs from the under side not a bit replied tommy i like winter
i like cold weather it makes a fellow feel good from the tips of his claws to the tip of his bill i'm thankful i don't have to take that long journey most of the birds have to i discovered a secret a long time ago peter shall i tell it to you please tommy cried peter
well replied tommy tit this is it
peter looked a little puzzled i
he will keep the cold out and i've found that if a fellow uses his eyes and isn't afraid of a little work he can find plenty to eat at least i can the only time i ever get really worried is when the trees are covered with ice
if it were not that farmer brown's boy is thoughtful enough to hang a piece of suet in a tree for me i should dread those ice storms more than i do as i said before plenty of food keeps a fellow warm i thought it was your coat of feathers that kept you warm said peter
oh the feathers help replied tommy tit food makes heat and a warm coat keeps the heat in the body but the heat has got to be there first or the feathers will do no good it's just the same way with your own self peter
you know you are never really warm in winter unless you have plenty to eat that's so replied peter thoughtfully i never happened to think of it before just the same i don't see how you find food enough on the trees when they are all bare in winter
chuckled tommy tit you ought to know by this time peter rabbit that a lot of different kinds of bugs lay eggs on the twigs and trunks of trees those eggs would stay there all winter and in the spring hatch out into lice and worms if it were not for me
why sometimes in a single day i find and eat almost five hundred eggs of those little green plant lice that do so much damage in the spring and summer then there are little worms that bore in just under the bark and there are other creatures who sleep
the winter away in little cracks in the bark oh there is plenty for me to do in the winter i am one of the policemen of the trees downy and hairy the woodpeckers seep seep the brown creeper and yank yank the nuthatch are others
if we didn't stay right here on the job all winter i don't know what would become of the old orchard tommy tit hung head downward from a twig while he picked some tiny insect eggs from the under side of it
it didn't seem to make the least difference to tommy whether he was right side up or upside down he was a little animated bunch of black and white feathers not much bigger than jenny wren the top of his head back of his neck and coat were shining black
his back was ashy his sides were a soft cream buff and his wing and tail feathers were edged with white his tiny bill was black and his little black eyes snapped and twinkled in a way good to see
not one among all peter's friends is such a merry hearted little fellow as tommy tit the chickadee merriment and happiness bubble out of him all the time no matter what the weather is he is the friend of everyone and seems to feel that everyone is his friend
i've noticed said peter that birds who do not sing at any other time of year sing in the spring do you have a spring song tommy tit well i don't know as you would call it a song peter chuckled tommy
no i hardly think you would call it a song but i have a little love call then which goes like this phoe be phoe be it was the softest sweetest little whistle and tommy had rightly called it a love call
why i've often heard that in the spring
i guess that is because you whistle it i guess you guess right replied tommy tit now i can't stop to talk any longer
i want farmer brown's boy to feel that i have earned that suet i am sure he will put out for me as soon as the snow and ice come i'm not the least bit afraid of farmer brown's boy
i had just as soon take food from his hand as from anywhere else he knows i like chopped up nut meats and last winter i used to feed from his hand every day peter's eyes opened very wide with surprise
that you dare sit on his hand tommy tit nodded his little black capped head vigorously certainly said he why not what's the good of having friends if you can't trust them the more you trust them the better friends they'll be just the same
i know farmer brown's boy is the friend of all the little people and i'm not much afraid of him myself but just the same i wouldn't dare go near enough for him to touch me pooh retorted tommy tit
that's no way of showing true friendship you've no idea peter what a comfortable feeling it is to know that you can trust a friend and i feel that farmer brown's boy is one of the best friends i've got
the pastor and his parishioner slowly as the minister walked he had almost gone by before hester prynne could gather voice enough to attract his observation at length she succeeded
faintly at first then louder but hoarsely arthur dimmesdale who speaks answered the minister gathering himself quickly up
like a man taken by surprise in a mood to which he was reluctant to have witnesses throwing his eyes anxiously in the direction of the voice he indistinctly beheld a form under the trees
clad in garments so sombre and so little relieved from the gray twilight
that he knew not whether it were a woman or a shadow it may be that his pathway through life was haunted thus by a spectre that had stolen out from among his thoughts he made a step nigher
and thou arthur dimmesdale dost thou yet live it was no wonder that they thus questioned one another's actual and bodily existence and even doubted of their own so strangely did they meet in the dim wood
of two spirits who had been intimately connected in their former life but now stood coldly shuddering in mutual dread as not yet familiar with their state
nor wonted to the companionship of disembodied beings each a ghost and awe stricken at the other ghost they were awe stricken likewise at themselves because the crisis flung back to them their consciousness
and revealed to each heart its history and experience as life never does except at such breathless epochs the soul beheld its features in the mirror of the passing moment
it was with fear and tremulously and as it were by a slow reluctant necessity that arthur dimmesdale put forth his hand chill as death
of the same sphere without a word more spoken neither he nor she assuming the guidance but with an unexpressed consent they glided back into the shadow of the woods whence hester had emerged
when they found voice to speak it was at first only to utter remarks and inquiries such as any two acquaintances might have made about the gloomy sky the threatening storm and next
thus they went onward not boldly but step by step into the themes that were brooding deepest in their hearts so long estranged by fate and circumstances they needed
something slight and casual to run before and throw open the doors of intercourse so that their real thoughts might be led across the threshold
hester said he hast thou found peace she smiled drearily looking down upon her bosom hast thou she asked none nothing but despair he answered
what else could i look for being what i am and leading such a life as mine
but as matters stand with my soul whatever of good capacity there originally was in me all of god's gifts that were the choicest have become the ministers of spiritual torment
hester i am most miserable the people reverence thee said hester and surely thou workest good among them doth this bring thee no comfort
more misery hester only the more misery answered the clergyman with a bitter smile as concerns the good which i may appear to do i have no faith in it it must needs be a delusion
would that it were turned to scorn and hatred canst thou deem it hester a consolation that i must stand up in my pulpit and meet so many eyes turned upward to my face
as if the light of heaven were beaming from it must see my flock hungry for the truth and listening to my words as if a tongue of pentecost were speaking and then look inward
and discern the black reality of what they idolise i have laughed in bitterness and agony of heart at the contrast between what i seem
your present life is not less holy in very truth than it seems in people's eyes is there no reality in the penitence thus sealed and witnessed by good works and wherefore should it not bring you peace
no hester no replied the clergyman there is no substance in it it is cold and dead and can do nothing for me of penance i have had enough
of penitence there has been none else i should long ago have thrown off these garments of mock holiness and have shown myself to mankind as they will see me at the judgment seat happy are you hester
that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom mine burns in secret thou little knowest what a relief it is after the torment of a seven years cheat
to look into an eye that recognises me for what i am had i one friend or were it my worst enemy to whom when sickened with the praises of all other men i could daily betake myself
methinks my soul might keep itself alive thereby
it is all falsehood
hester prynne looked into his face but hesitated to speak yet uttering his long restrained emotions so vehemently as he did his words here
offered her the very point of circumstances in which to interpose what she came to say she conquered her fears and spoke such a friend as thou hast even now wished for said she
with whom to weep over thy sin thou hast in me
but brought out the words with an effort thou hast long had such an enemy and dwellest with him under the same roof
the minister started to his feet gasping for breath and clutching at his heart as if he would have torn it out of his bosom ha
an enemy and under mine own roof what mean you hester prynne was now fully sensible of the deep injury for which she was responsible to this unhappy man
in permitting him to lie for so many years or indeed for a single moment at the mercy of one whose purposes could not be other than malevolent the very contiguity of his enemy
beneath whatever mask the latter might conceal himself was enough to disturb the magnetic sphere of a being so sensitive as arthur dimmesdale there had been a period when hester was less alive to this consideration
or perhaps in the misanthropy of her own trouble she left the minister to bear what she might picture to herself as a more tolerable doom but of late since the night of his vigil
and invigorated she now read his heart more accurately she doubted not that the continual presence of roger chillingworth the secret poison of his malignity
infecting all the air about him and his authorised interference as a physician with the minister's physical and spiritual infirmities that these bad opportunities had been turned to a cruel purpose
by means of them the sufferer's conscience had been kept in an irritated state the tendency of which was not to cure by wholesome pain
but to disorganize and corrupt his spiritual being its result on earth could hardly fail to be insanity and hereafter that eternal alienation from the good and true of which
madness is perhaps the earthly type such was the ruin to which she had brought the man once nay why should we not speak it still so passionately loved
as she had already told roger chillingworth would have been infinitely preferable to the alternative which she had taken upon herself to choose and now rather than have had this grievous wrong to confess
she would gladly have laid down on the forest leaves and died there at arthur dimmesdale's feet oh arthur cried she forgive me in all things else i have striven to be true
truth was the one virtue which i might have held fast and did hold fast through all extremity save when thy good thy life thy fame were put in question then i consented
to a deception but a lie is never good
dost thou not see what i would say that old man the physician he whom they call roger chillingworth he was my husband
the minister looked at her for an instant with all that violence of passion which intermixed in more shapes than one with his higher purer softer qualities was in fact
the portion of him which the devil claimed and through which he sought to win the rest never was there a blacker or a fiercer frown than hester now encountered for the brief space that it lasted
it was a dark transfiguration but his character had been so much enfeebled by suffering that even its lower energies were incapable
the indelicacy the horrible ugliness of this exposure of a sick and guilty heart
woman thou art accountable for this i cannot forgive thee
with sudden and desperate tenderness she threw her arms around him and pressed his head against her bosom little caring though his cheek rested on the scarlet letter
he would have released himself but strove in vain to do so hester would not set him free lest he should look her sternly in the face
all the world had frowned on her for seven long years had it frowned upon this lonely woman and still she bore it all nor ever once turned away her firm sad eyes
heaven likewise had frowned upon her and she had not died but the frown of this pale weak sinful and sorrow stricken man
was what hester could not bear and live wilt thou yet forgive me she repeated over and over again wilt thou not frown wilt thou forgive
i do forgive you hester replied the minister at length with a deep utterance out of an abyss of sadness but no anger i freely forgive you now
may god forgive us both we are not hester the worst sinners in the world there is one worse than even the polluted priest
that old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin he has violated in cold blood the sanctity of a human heart thou and i hester never did so
never never whispered she what we did had a consecration of its own we felt it so we said so to each other hast thou forgotten it
hush hester said arthur dimmesdale rising from the ground no i have not forgotten they sat down again side by side
and hand clasped in hand on the mossy trunk of the fallen tree life had never brought them a gloomier hour it was the point whither their pathway had so long been tending and darkening ever
as it stole along and yet it unclosed a charm that made them linger upon it and claim another and another and after all another moment
the forest was obscure around them and creaked with a blast that was passing through it the boughs were tossing heavily above their heads while one solemn old tree groaned dolefully to another
as if telling the sad story of the pair that sat beneath or constrained to forbode evil to come and yet they lingered how dreary looked the forest track
that led backward to the settlement where hester prynne must take up again the burden of her ignominy and the minister the hollow mockery of his good name so they lingered an instant longer
no golden light had ever been so precious as the gloom of this dark forest here seen only by his eyes the scarlet letter need not burn into the bosom of the fallen woman
here seen only by her eyes arthur dimmesdale false to god and man might be for one moment true he started at a thought that suddenly occurred to him
hester cried he here is a new horror roger chillingworth knows your purpose to reveal his true character will he continue then to keep our secret what will now be the course of his revenge
there is a strange secrecy in his nature replied hester thoughtfully and it has grown upon him by the hidden practices of his revenge i deem it not likely that he will betray the secret
shrinking within himself and pressing his hand nervously against his heart a gesture that had grown involuntary with him think for me hester thou art strong resolve for me
thou must dwell no longer with this man said hester slowly and firmly thy heart
it were far worse than death replied the minister but how to avoid it what choice remains to me shall i lie down again on these withered leaves
where i cast myself when thou didst tell me what he was
with the tears gushing into her eyes wilt thou die for very weakness there is no other cause the judgment of god is on me answered the conscience stricken priest
it is too mighty for me to struggle with heaven would show mercy rejoined hester
to take advantage of it be thou strong for me answered he advise me what to do is the world then so narrow exclaimed hester prynne
fixing her deep eyes on the minister's and instinctively exercising a magnetic power over a spirit so shattered and subdued that it could hardly hold itself erect
doth the universe lie within the compass of yonder town which only a little time ago was but a leaf strewn desert as lonely as this around us
whither leads yonder forest track backward to the settlement thou sayest yes but onward too deeper it goes and deeper into the wilderness
so brief a journey would bring thee from a world where thou hast been most wretched to one where thou mayest still be happy is there not shade enough in all this boundless forest
to hide thy heart from the gaze of roger chillingworth yes hester but only under the fallen leaves replied the minister with a sad smile
then there is the broad pathway of the sea continued hester it brought thee hither if thou so choose it will bear thee back again in our native land
whether in some remote rural village
in france in pleasant italy
they have kept thy better part in bondage too long already it cannot be answered the minister listening as if he were called upon to realise a dream i am powerless to go wretched and sinful as i am
where providence hath placed me lost as my own soul is i would still do what i may for other human souls i dare not quit my post though an unfaithful sentinel
whose sure reward is death and dishonour when his dreary watch shall come to an end
but thou shalt leave it all behind thee
if thou prefer to cross the sea leave this wreck and ruin here where it hath happened
begin all anew hast thou exhausted possibility in the failure of this one trial not so the future is yet full of trial and success there is happiness to be enjoyed
there is good to be done exchange this false life of thine for a true one
the teacher and apostle of the red men
be a scholar and a sage among the wisest and the most renowned of the cultivated world
write act do anything save to lie down and die give up this name of arthur dimmesdale
that will leave thee powerless even to repent up and away oh hester cried arthur dimmesdale in whose eyes a fitful light kindled by her enthusiasm
flashed up and died away thou tellest of running a race to a man whose knees are tottering beneath him i must die here
there is not the strength or courage left me to venture into the wide strange difficult world alone it was the last expression of the despondency of a broken spirit he lacked energy
to grasp the better fortune that seemed within his reach he repeated the word alone hester
it denoted the advance of the procession of magistrates and citizens on its way towards the meeting house where in compliance with a custom thus early established and ever since observed
the reverend mister dimmesdale was to deliver an election sermon
turning a corner and making its way across the market place first came the music it comprised a variety of instruments perhaps imperfectly adapted to one another and played with no great skill
but yet attaining the great object for which the harmony of drum and clarion addresses itself to the multitude
that of imparting a higher and more heroic air to the scene of life that passes before the eye little pearl at first clapped her hands but then lost for an instant the restless agitation that had kept her in a continual effervescence throughout the morning she gazed silently
and seemed to be borne upward like a floating sea bird on the long heaves and swells of sound but she was brought back to her former mood by the shimmer of the sunshine on the weapons and bright armour of the military company which followed after the music and formed the honorary escort of the procession
this body of soldiery which still sustains a corporate existence and marches down from past ages with an ancient and honourable fame was composed of no mercenary materials
its ranks were filled with gentlemen who felt the stirrings of martial impulse and sought to establish a kind of college of arms where as in an association of knights templars
they might learn the science and so far as peaceful exercise would teach them the practices of war the high estimation then placed upon the military character might be seen in the lofty port of each individual member of the company
some of them indeed by their services in the low countries and on other fields of european warfare had fairly won their title to assume the name and pomp of soldiership the entire array moreover
clad in burnished steel and with plumage nodding over their bright morions had a brilliancy of effect which no modern display can aspire to equal and yet the men of civil eminence
who came immediately behind the military escort were better worth a thoughtful observer's eye even in outward demeanour they showed a stamp of majesty that made the warrior's haughty stride look vulgar if not absurd
had far less consideration than now but the massive materials which produce stability and dignity of character a great deal more the people possessed by hereditary right the quality of reverence
which in their descendants if it survive at all exists in smaller proportion and with a vastly diminished force in the selection and estimate of public men the change may be for good or ill
and is partly perhaps for both in that old day the english settler on these rude shores having left king nobles and all degrees of awful rank behind
while still the faculty and necessity of reverence was strong in him bestowed it on the white hair and venerable brow of age on long tried integrity
on solid wisdom and sad coloured experience on endowments of that grave and weighty order which gave the idea of permanence
and comes under the general definition of respectability these primitive statesmen therefore bradstreet endicott dudley bellingham and their compeers
seem to have been not often brilliant but distinguished by a ponderous sobriety rather than activity of intellect they had fortitude and self reliance
and in time of difficulty or peril stood up for the welfare of the state like a line of cliffs against a tempestuous tide the traits of character here indicated
were well represented in the square cast of countenance and large physical development of the new colonial magistrates so far as a demeanour of natural authority was concerned the mother country need not have been ashamed to see
these foremost men of an actual democracy adopted into the house of peers or make the privy council of the sovereign
next in order to the magistrates came the young and eminently distinguished divine from whose lips the religious discourse of the anniversary was expected
his was the profession at that era in which intellectual ability displayed itself far more than in political life for leaving a higher motive out of the question it offered
inducements powerful enough in the almost worshipping respect of the community to win the most aspiring ambition into its service even political power as in the case of increase mather was within the grasp of a successful priest
it was the observation of those who beheld him now that never since mister dimmesdale first set his foot on the new england shore had he exhibited such energy
there was no feebleness of step as at other times his frame was not bent nor did his hand rest ominously upon his heart yet if the clergyman were rightly viewed his strength seemed
not of the body it might be spiritual and imparted to him by angelical ministrations it might be the exhilaration of that potent cordial which is distilled only in the furnace glow of earnest and
long continued thought or perchance his sensitive temperament was invigorated by the loud and piercing music that swelled heaven ward and uplifted him on its ascending wave nevertheless
so abstracted was his look it might be questioned whether mister dimmesdale even heard the music there was his body moving onward and with an unaccustomed force but where was his mind
far and deep in its own region busying itself with preternatural activity to marshal a procession of stately thoughts that were soon to issue thence and so he saw nothing
heard nothing knew nothing of what was around him but the spiritual element took up the feeble frame and carried it along unconscious of the burden and converting it to spirit like itself
possess this occasional power of mighty effort into which they throw the life of many days and then are lifeless for as many more hester prynne gazing steadfastly at the clergyman felt
a dreary influence come over her but wherefore or whence she knew not unless that he seemed so remote from her own sphere
one glance of recognition she had imagined must needs pass between them she
and the mossy tree trunk where sitting hand in hand they had mingled their sad and passionate talk with the melancholy murmur of the brook how deeply had they known each other then and was this the man
she hardly knew him now he moving proudly past enveloped as it were in the rich music with the procession of majestic and venerable fathers he so unattainable in his worldly position and still more so in that far vista
of his unsympathizing thoughts through which she now beheld him her spirit sank with the idea that all must have been a delusion and that vividly as she had dreamed it
there could be no real bond betwixt the clergyman and herself and thus much of woman was there in hester that she could scarcely forgive him least of all now
for being able so completely to withdraw himself from their mutual world
while she groped darkly and stretched forth her cold hands and found him not pearl either saw and responded to her mother's feelings or herself felt the remoteness and intangibility that had fallen around the minister
while the procession passed
the service on the threshold from this point on the flitting went easily and smoothly enough and the transportation of the carey family itself to greentown on a mild budding day in april was nothing compared to the heavy labor that had preceded it
he had accepted an invitation to visit a school friend at easter saying to his mother magisterially i didn't suppose you'd want me round the house when you were getting things to rights men are always in the way so i told fred bascom i'd go home with him
home with fred our only man sole prop of the house of carey exclaimed his mother with consummate tact why gilly dear i shall want your advice every hour
and who will know about the planting for we are only women folks and who will do all the hammering and carpenter work
oh well if you need me so much as that i'll go along of course said gilbert but fred said his mother and sisters always did this kind of thing by themselves by themselves in fred's family remarked missus carey
means a butler footman and plenty of money for help of every sort and though no wonder you're fond of fred who is so jolly and such good company you must have noticed how selfish he is now mother
no and i don't remember at all what i saw in him the last five of them for i found out everything needful the first time he came to visit us returned missus carey quietly still he's a likable agreeable sort of boy
and no doubt he'll succeed in destroying the pig in him before he grows up said nancy passing through the room i thought it gobbled and snuffled a good deal when we last met colonel wheeler was at greentown station when the family arrived
and drove missus carey and peter to the yellow house himself while the rest followed in the depot carryall
it was a very early season the roads were free from mud
when the careys had first seen their future home they had entered the village from the west the yellow house being the last one on the elm shaded street and quite on the outskirts of beulah itself now they crossed the river below the station and drove through east beulah
over a road unknown to any of them but gilbert who was the hero and instructor of the party soon the well remembered house came into view and as the two vehicles had kept one behind the other there was a general cheer
it was more beautiful even than they had remembered it and more commodious and more delightfully situated the barn door was open showing crates of furniture
bill harmon stood in the front doorway smiling
we've got it with us said nancy joyously making acquaintance in an instant you are forehanded ain't you that's right jump
bill said holding out his arms to peter peter carrying many small things too valuable to trust to others jumped as suggested
land o goshen you're loaded hain't you he inquired jocosely as he set peter down on the ground the dazzling smile with which peter greeted this supposed tribute converted bill harmon at once into a victim and slave
little did he know as he carelessly stood there at the wagon wheel that he was destined to bestow upon that small boy offerings from his stock for years to come he and colonel wheeler were speedily lifting things from the carryall
while the careys walked up the pathway together thrilling with the excitement of the moment nancy breathed hard flushed and caught her mother's hand
i'll lock the door again and give the key to her
she took the last step upward and standing in the doorway trembling said softly as she turned the key come home children nancy gilbert kathleen peter bird
there was a moment of silence the kind of golden silence that is full to the brim of thoughts and prayers and memories and hopes and desires so full of all these and other beautiful quiet things that it makes speech seem poor and shabby
said bill harmon thinkin the sandman would come early to night i never heard of anything so kind and neighborly cried missus carey gratefully i thought we should have to go somewhere else to sleep is it you who keeps the village store
said bill well if you'll be good enough to come back once more to night with a little of everything we'll be very much obliged we have an oil stove tea and coffee tinned meats bread and fruit
what we need most is butter eggs milk and flour gilbert open the box of eatables please and nancy unlock the trunk that has the bed linen in it we little thought we should find such friends here did we
i got your extension table into the dining room said bill and tried my best to find your dishes but i didn't make out up to the time you got here mebbe you marked em someway so't you know which to unpack first
i was only findin things that wan't no present use as i guess you'll say when you see em on the dining table they all followed him as he threw open the door
as i fear was generally the case there on the centre of the table stood you dirty boy rearing his crested head in triumph and round him like the gate posts of a mausoleum stood the four black and white marble funeral urns
perfect and entire without a flaw they stood there confronting nancy it is like them to be the first to greet us exclaimed missus carey with an attempt at a smile but there was not a sound from kathleen or nancy
they stood rooted to the floor gazing at the curse of the house of carey as if their eyes must deceive them
said their mother but when did they ever fail us
so a shout of agreement went up from the young careys nancy approached you dirty boy with a bloodthirsty glare in her eye come along you evil uncanny thing she said take hold of his other end gilly and start for the barn
that's farthest away but it's no use he's just like that bloodstain on lady macbeth's hand he will not out kathleen open the linen trunk while we're gone we can't set the table till these curses are removed
when you've got the linen out take a marble urn in each hand and trail them along to where we are you can track us by a line of my tears
kathleen ran out and put two vases on the lowest step and ran back to the house for the other pair gilbert and nancy stood at the top of the stairs with you dirty boy between them settling where he could be easiest reached if he had to be brought down for any occasion
an unwelcome occasion that was certain to occur sometime in the coming years suddenly they heard their names called in a tragic whisper gilbert nancy
no human being however self contained could have withstood the shock of that surprise coming as it did so swiftly so unexpectedly and with such awful inappropriateness gilbert and nancy let go of you dirty boy simultaneously
and he fell to the floor in two large fragments the break occurring so happily that the mother and the washcloth were on one half and the boy on the other a situation long desired by the boy to whom the parting was most welcome she got off at the wrong station
panted kathleen at the foot of the stairs and had to be driven five miles
an hour before we did she's come to help us settle
and oh i forgot she's brought julia two more to feed and not enough beds nancy and gilbert confronted each other hide the body in the corner gilly said nancy and say gilly yes what
you see he's in two pieces yes
when the child is born the white part of the girdle is dyed sky blue with a peculiar mark on it and is made into clothes for the child these however are not the first clothes which it wears the dyer is presented with wine and condiments when the girdle is entrusted to him
it is also customary to beg some matron who has herself had an easy confinement for the girdle which she wore during her pregnancy and this lady is called the girdle mother the borrowed girdle is tied on with that given by the husband
and the girdle mother at this time gives and receives a present the furniture of the lying in chamber is as follows two tubs for placing under petticoats in two tubs to hold the placenta a piece of furniture like an arm chair without legs
twelve of silk and twelve of cotton must be prepared the hems must be dyed saffron colour there must be an apron for the midwife if the infant is of high rank in order that when she washes it she may not place it immediately on her own knees
this is very wrong as the two principles of life being thereby injured the child contracts disease and on this account the ancients strictly forbade the practice in modern times the child is dressed up in beautiful clothes
but to put a cap on its head thinking to make much of it when on the contrary it is hurtful to the child should be avoided
if the child be a boy it is fed by a gentleman of the family if a girl by a lady the ceremony is as follows the child is brought out and given to the weaning father or sponsor he takes it on his left knee a small table is prepared
and with these he again pretends to feed the child three times when this ceremony is over the child is handed back to its guardian and three wine cups are produced on a tray the sponsor drinks three cups and presents the cup to the child
when the child has been made to pretend to drink two cups it receives a present from its sponsor after which the child is supposed to drink a third time dried fish is then brought in and the baby having drunk thrice
a feast should be prepared according to the means of the family if the child be a girl a weaning mother performs this ceremony
now three patches are allowed to grow one on each side and one at the back of the head on this occasion also a sponsor is selected a large tray on which are a comb scissors paper string
and he places the bit of dried fish or seaweed and the seven straws at the bottom of the piece of cotton wool
and ties them in two loops like a man's hair with a piece of paper string he then makes a woman's knot with two pieces of string
if the child is a girl a lady acts as sponsor the hair cutting is begun from the right temple instead of from the left there is no difference in the rest of the ceremony
or loose trousers worn by the samurai on this occasion again a sponsor is called in the child receives from the sponsor a dress of ceremony on which are embroidered storks and tortoises emblems of longevity
the stork is said to live a thousand years the tortoise ten thousand fir trees
are emblematic of an unchangingly virtuous heart and bamboos emblematic of an upright and straight mind the child is placed upright on a chequer board facing the auspicious point of the compass
it also receives a sham sword and dirk the usual ceremony of drinking wine is observed note in order to understand the following ceremony it is necessary to recollect that the child at three years of age
is allowed to grow its hair in three patches by degrees the hair is allowed to grow the crown alone being shaved and a forelock left at ten or eleven years of age the boy's head is dressed like a man's with the exception of this forelock
the ceremony of cutting off the forelock used in old days to include the ceremony of putting on the noble's cap but as this has gone out of fashion there is no need to treat of it any time after the youth has reached the age of fifteen
according to the cleverness and ability which he shows a lucky day is chosen for this most important ceremony after which the boy takes his place amongst full grown men a person of virtuous character is chosen as sponsor or cap father
not the one by which he usually goes in society
he receives his real name from his sponsor on this day in old days there used to be a previous ceremony of cutting the hair off the forehead in a straight line so as to make two angles up to this time the youth wore long sleeves like a woman
on which is placed an earthenware wine cup the sponsor drinks thrice and hands the cup to the young man who having also drunk thrice
who again drinks thrice and then proceeds to tie up the young man's hair there are three ways of tying the hair and there is also a particular fashion of letting the forelock grow long and when this is the case the forelock is only clipped
still these latter persons if they wish to go through the ceremony in its entirety may do so without impropriety gentlemen of the samurai or military class cut off the whole of the forelock the sponsor
and then returns to the same room the sponsor then without letting the young man see what he is doing places the lock which has been cut into the pocket of his left sleeve and leaving the room gives it to the young man's guardians
who wrap it in paper and offer it up at the shrine of the family gods but this is wrong the locks should be well wrapped up in paper and kept in the house until the man's death
the book from which the above is translated there is no notice of the ceremony of naming the child the following is a translation
on the seventh day after its birth the child receives its name the ceremony is called the congratulations of the seventh night on this day some one of the relations of the family who holds an exalted position either from his rank or virtues
selects a name for the child which name he keeps
storekeeper at beulah corner to hon lemuel hamilton american consul at breslau germany beulah
if you haint got any better use for the propety i advise you to hold on to this bunch of tennants as they are o k wash goods all wool and a yard wide i woodent like missus harmon to know how i feel about the lady
who is hansome as a picture and the children are a first class crop and no mistake they will not lay out much at first as they are short of cash but if ever good luck comes along they will fit up the house like a pallis
and your granchildren will reep the proffit i'll look out for your interest and see they don't do nothing outlandish they'd have hard work to beat that fool job your boys did on the old barn
fixin it up so't nobody could keep critters in it so no more from your old school frend bill harmon p s we've been having a spell of turrible hot wether in beulah how is it with you
but i guess he aint never het up with overwork there was a piece in a portland paper about a counsul somewhere being fired because he set in his shirt sleeves durin office hours i says to colonel wheeler
if uncle sam could keep em all in their shirtsleeves hustlin for dear life it wood be all the better for him and us bill letter from miss nancy carey to the hon lemuel hamilton beulah
i am nancy the oldest of the carey children who live in your house when father was alive he took us on a driving trip
father he was a captain in the navy and there was never anybody like him in the world father leaned over the gate and said if he was only rich he would drive the horse into the barn and buy the place that very day
and mother said it would be a beautiful spot to bring up a family we children had wriggled under the fence and were climbing the apple trees by that time and we wanted to be brought up there that very minute
we all of us look back to that day as the happiest one that we can remember mother laughs when i talk of looking back
and i remembered a box of plants in the carryall that we had bought at a wayside nursery for the flower beds in charlestown plant something i said and father thought it was a good idea and took a little crimson rambler rose bush from the box each of us helped make the place for it
by taking a turn with the luncheon knives and spoons then i planted the rose and father took off his hat and said three cheers for the yellow house and mother added god bless it and the children who come to live in it
there is surely something strange in that don't you think so then when father died last year we had to find a cheap and quiet place to live and i remembered the yellow house in beulah and told mother my idea
as i suppose bill harmon told you when he sent you mother's check for fifteen dollars for the first quarter we think it is very reasonable and do not wonder you don't like to spend anything on repairs or improvements for us as you have to pay taxes and insurance
we hope you will have a good deal over for your own use out of our rent as we shouldn't like to feel under obligation if we had a million we'd spend it all on the yellow house
it's not only that we want to paint it and paper it but we would like to pat it and squeeze it if you can't live in it yourself even in the summer
and want to take good care of it always what troubles us is the fear that you will take it away
travelling all over the world must have seen somebody like her mister harmon is writing to you but i thought he wouldn't know so much about us as i do we have father's pension that is three hundred and sixty dollars a year
but that only lasts for four years
from the interest on father's insurance that makes six hundred and sixty dollars which is a great deal if you haven't been used to three thousand
she is uncle allan's only child uncle allan has nervous prostration and all of mother's money we are not poor at all just now
for an old fashioned square and eating up the extra money it is great fun and whenever we have anything very good for supper kathleen says here goes a piano leg and gilbert says let's have an octave of white notes for sunday supper mother
i send you a little photograph of the family taken together on your side piazza we call it our piazza and i hope you don't mind i am the tallest girl with the curly hair
she said we should look so idle if somebody didn't do something but she never really hems and kathleen is leaning over mother's shoulder we all wanted to lean over mother's shoulder but kitty got there first the big boy is gilbert
he can't go to college now as father intended and he is very sad and depressed but mother says he has a splendid chance to show what father's son can do without any help but his own industry and pluck please look carefully at the lady sitting in the chair
for it is our mother it is only a snap shot
her hair is very long and the wave in it is natural the little boy is peter
is of me tying up the crimson rambler i thought you would like to see what a wonderful rose it is
when a gentleman drove by with a camera in his wagon he stopped and took the picture and sent us one explaining that every one admired it i happened to be wearing my yellow muslin and i am sending you the one the gentleman colored
if you come to america please don't forget beulah because if you once saw mother you could never bear to disturb her seeing how brave she is living without father admiral southwick who is in china calls us mother carey's chickens
they are stormy petrels and are supposed to go out over the seas and show good birds the way home we haven't done anything splendid yet but we mean to when the chance comes i haven't told anybody that i am writing this
i enclose you a little picture cut from the wall paper we want to put on the front hall hoping you will like it the old paper is hanging in shreds and some of the plaster is loose but mister popham will make it all right
mother says she feels as if he had pasted laughter and good nature on all the walls as he papered them when you open the front door and we hope you will sometime and walk right in how lovely it will be to look into yellow hayfields
with the bright shirts of the men and the women's scarlet aprons don't you love the white horse in the haycart and the jolly party picnicking under the tree mother says just think of buying so much joy and color for twenty cents a double roll
and very proud of your being an american consul yours affectionately nancy carey p s it is june and beulah is so beautiful you feel like eating it with sugar and cream
we do hope that you and your children are living in as sweet a place so that you will not miss this one so much we know you have five older than we are but if there are any the right size for me to send my love to please do it
mother would wish to be remembered to missus hamilton but she will never know i am writing to you
that was the only trouble with allan carey's little daughter julia aged thirteen she was and always had been the pink of perfection as a baby she had always been exemplary
eating heartily and sleeping soundly when she felt a pin in her flannel petticoat she deemed it discourteous to cry because she knew that her nurse had at least tried to dress her properly
nor go wrong it was well meant of course but probably the angels who had the matter in charge were new young inexperienced angels with vague ideas of human nature and inexact knowledge of god's intentions
because a child that has no capability of doing the wrong thing will hardly be able to manage a right one not one of the big sort anyway at four or five years old julia was always spoken of as such a good little girl
missus allan carey was as flighty and capricious and irresponsible and gay and naughty as julia was steady limited narrow conventional and dull
but the flighty mother passed out of the carey family life and julia from the age of five onward fell into the charge of a pious unimaginative governess instead of being turned out to pasture with a lot of frolicsome young human creatures
so at thirteen she had apparently settled hard solid and firm into a mould she had smooth fair hair pale blue eyes thin lips and a somewhat too plump shape for her years
she was always tidy and wore her clothes well laying enormous stress upon their material and style this trait in her character having been added under the fostering influence of the wealthy and fashionable
gladys ferguson at thirteen when julia joined the flock of carey chickens she had the air of belonging to quite another order of beings they had been through a discipline seldom suffered by only children
they had had to divide apples and toys
if nancy had a new dress at christmas kathleen had a new hat in the spring
and kathleen's ears too grew well accustomed to the same phrase after peter was born julia never did a naughty thing in her life nor spoke a wrong word said her father once proudly
she seemed to have no instinct of adapting herself to the family life
no generous enthusiasms that carried her too far for safety or propriety she brought with her to beulah sheaves of school certificates and when she showed them to gilbert with their
deportment and ninety eight and seven eighths per cent scholarship every month for years he went out behind the barn and kicked its foundations savagely for several minutes she was a sort of continual sunday child
with an air of church and cold dinner and sermon reading and hymn singing and early bed nobody could fear as for some impulsive reckless little creature that she would come to a bad end
nancy said no one could imagine her as coming to anything not even an end
kathleen remarked once but really and truly
and endeavor to please the angels not julia's cast iron angels but the other angels who understand and are patient because they remember our frames and know that being dust we are likely to be dusty once in a while
julia wasn't made of dust she was made of let me see
the watery kind and rice flour and gelatine with a very little piece of overripe banana not enough to flavor just enough to sicken stir this up with weak barley water
without putting in a trace of salt sugar spice or pepper set it in a cool oven
and you will get julia nancy was triumphant over this recipe for making julias only regretting that she could never show it to her mother who if critical was always most appreciative
she did send it in a letter to the admiral off in china and he being none too good for human nature's daily food enjoyed it hugely and never scolded her at all julia's only conversation at this time
her breakfast on a tray in bed her diamond ring her photograph in the sunday times her travels abroad her proficiency in french and german don't trot gladys into the kitchen for goodness sake julia
grumbled nancy on a warm day i don't want her diamond ring in my dishwater wait till sunday when we go to the hotel for dinner in our best clothes if you must talk about her
all right said julia gently only i hope i shall always be able to wipe dishes and keep my mind on better things at the same time that's what miss tewksbury told me
don't let poverty drag you down julia she said keep your high thoughts and don't let them get soiled with the grime of daily living it is only just to say
that nancy was not absolutely destitute of self control and politeness because at this moment she had a really vicious desire to wash julia's supercilious face and neat nose with the dishcloth fresh from the frying pan
but julia's face was within her reach and nancy's fingers tingled with desire no trace of this savage impulse appeared in her behavior however she rinsed the dishpan turned it upside down in the sink and gave the wiping towels to julia
are so disgusting they do smell nancy they do said nancy sternly
our principal concern must be to keep mother's high thoughts from grime
oh how julia disliked nancy at this epoch in their common history and how cordially and vigorously the dislike was returned many an unhappy moment did mother carey have over the feud mostly deep and silent
that went on between these two and gilbert's attitude was not much more hopeful he had found a timetable or syllabus for the day's doings over julia's washstand it had been framed under miss tewksbury's guidance
who knew julia's unpunctuality and lack of system and read as follows syllabus
bathe and dress devotional exercises
nine to ten study ten to twelve preparations for dinner twelve to one recreation two to four study four to five
preparation for supper five to six wholesome reading walking or conversation seven to eight devotional exercises nine bed
indeed it was excellently conceived still it appeared to gilbert as excessively funny and with nancy's help he wrote another syllabus and tacked it over julia's bureau time card
on waking i can pray for gilly and nan eat breakfast at seven or ten or eleven nor think when it's noon that luncheon's too soon from twelve until one i can munch on a bun at one or at two
my dinner'll be due at three say or four i'll eat a bit more when the clock's striking five some mild exercise very brief would be wise lest i lack appetite for my supper at night
don't go to bed late eat a light lunch at eight nor forget to say prayers for my cousins downstairs then with conscience like mine i'll be sleeping at nine missus carey had a sense of humor
and when the weeping julia brought the two documents to her for consideration she had great difficulty in adjusting the matter gravely and with due sympathy for her niece
julia wailed they were always trying
said missus carey they forget that you are not used to it but i will try to make them more considerate
him do i think so i'm a poor wretch and when i go back to my garret in the evening and tuck myself in on my pallet i'm shriveled up under my coverlet my chest is tight and my breathing short like a weak moan that's hardly audible
and amazes his entire street but what bothers me today is not that i sleep and snore meanly like someone destitute me but that's sad him
what's happened to me is much worse me so what is it him you've always taken some interest in me because i'm a good little devil whom deep down you despise
me that's true him and i'm going to tell you before beginning he sighs deeply and puts both hands on his forehead
then he recovers his calm appearance and says to me you know that i'm ignorant a silly man a fool impertinent lazy what we burgundians call an incorrigible crook a swindler
a thief me what a panegyric him it's true
i don't take back a word of it let's please not argue about it no one knows me better than i do and i'm not saying everything me
so i'll accept everything you say him
i used to live with people who liked me precisely because i was endowed with all those qualities to an unusual extent me that's odd up to the present i believed that people hid them from themselves
or forgave them in themselves and condemned them in other people him hide them from oneself is that possible rest assured that when palissot is alone and reflects on himself he tells himself something different
despise such defects in others my people were fairer than that their character made me a marvelous success in their company i was in clover
they were sorry every moment i was away from them i was their little rameau there beautiful rameau their rameau the foolish the impertinent the ignorant the lazy the greedy the clown the great beast
there wasn't one of these familiar labels which didn't earn me a smile a caress a pat on the shoulder a slap a kick at table a fine morsel tossed onto my plate for me
away from the table a liberty which i tolerated as of no consequence for i myself was of no consequence people make of me with me and in front of me anything they want without my taking exception
and all the small presents which showered down on me i'm such a stupid dog i lost them all i lost everything because once the only time in my life i had common sense may that never happen to me again
me what was it about him it was an incomparable stupidity incredible unpardonable me what stupidity
him rameau rameau people didn't accept you for your common sense the idiocy of having had a little taste a little intelligence a little reason rameau my friend
this will teach you to remain the man god made you the man your patrons wanted you to be so they grabbed you by the scruff of the neck marched you to the door and said imposter get out and don't come back i believe it wants to have some sense
some reason beat it we have these qualities to spare you went off biting your nails you should've bitten off your damned tongue long before that because you didn't think about it here you are on the pavement the ground
with no idea where to go next you'd been eating high on the hog and now you'll return to slops you'd been well lodged and now you'll be very lucky if they let you have your garret back you had a nice place to sleep
instead of a soft and peaceful sleep as you used to have you'll be listening with one ear to the neighing and stomping of horses and with the other to a sound a thousand times more unbearable dry hard and barbarous verse
possessed by a million devils me but isn't there some way to go back
in your place i'd go to find my people again you're more necessary to them than you think him oh i'm certain that right now when they don't have me around to make them laugh they're bored to death
me then i'd go get them back i wouldn't leave them the time to learn to do without me to turn to some decent amusement who knows what could happen him that's not what i'm afraid of
that won't happen me no matter how wonderful you are another could replace you him
me i agree however i'd go back with this dejected face these wild eyes this disheveled collar tousled hair in the truly tragic state you're in right now
i'd throw myself at the feet of that goddess stick my face against the earth and without getting up i'd say to her in a low and sobbing voice pardon madame forgive me i'm unworthy despicable that was an unfortunate moment
for you know i'm not subject to having common sense and i promise you i'll never have it again in my life what was amusing was that while i was having this conversation with him he carried out the pantomime he threw himself down
stuck his face against the ground and seemed to hold between his two hands the toe of a slipper he was crying and sobbing the words yes my little queen yes i do promise i'll never have it in my life never
then he got up quickly and added in a serious and deliberate tone him yes you're right i think that would be best she's a good woman mister viellard says that she is so kind
and i know a little bit that she is nonetheless to go humiliate oneself in front of an ugly bitch to cry for pity at the feet of a miserable little actress who's always followed by the hissing from the theatre stalls me
rameau son of mister rameau apothecary of dijon a man of means who's never bent his knee to anyone at all me rameau nephew of the man who calls himself the great rameau
the man people see walking upright on the palais royal with his arms waving in the air ever since mister carmontelle made that drawing of him bent over with his hand under the tails of his coat i
who have composed pieces for the keyboard which no one plays but which may well be the only ones which our posterity finds agreeable enough to play i well i i
but look here sir it's impossible then putting his right hand to his chest he added i feel something there rising up it says to me rameau you'll do none of that
there must be a certain dignity attached to human nature which nothing can extinguish the most trivial thing will awaken it something trifling there are other days when it would cost me nothing to be as vile as anyone could wish
on those days for a penny i'd kiss the ass of the little hus girl me but my friend she's white pretty young soft chubby it's an act of humility
that even a man more refined than you could sometimes stoop to him let's understand each other there's literal ass kissing and metaphorical ass kissing
ask fat bergier who kisses the ass of madame de la mark both literally and figuratively my god with them the literal and figurative disgust me equally me
if the course of action i'm suggesting doesn't suit you then have the courage to be a beggar him it's hard to be poor as long as there are so many wealthy idiots one can rely upon for one's living
and then contempt for oneself that's unbearable me do you know that feeling him do i know it how many times have i said to myself
how come there are ten thousand fine tables in paris each with fifteen or twenty places and there's no place for you there are purses full of gold spilling over left and right and no piece falls on you
a thousand fine half wits without talent or merit a thousand tiny creatures without charm a thousand insipid schemers are well dressed and you'd walk around naked
couldn't you lie swear forswear promise and then perform or fail to perform like everyone else couldn't you crawl on hands and knees like the others
so i'll have beautiful diamond earrings
just like the ones belonging to that marquise who comes sometimes to buy gloves in our shop that's right in a fine carriage with dappled gray horses two large footmen a small negro and a man running in front you'll have rouge
beauty spots a train carried behind you to a ball to a ball to the opera to the theatre her heart is already quivering with joy you play with a sheet of paper between your fingers
it's a letter for whom for you if you are at all curious curious i'm really curious let's see it she reads a meeting that's impossible
perhaps when you are going to mass mamma always comes with me but if he came here early in the morning i get up first and i'm at the counter before they get up he comes he is pleasing
how come you possess such talent and are short of bread you wretched man aren't you ashamed i remember a group of scoundrels who couldn't hold a candle to me and who were loaded with money i was in a buckram overcoat
and they were dressed in velvet leaning on gold headed canes shaped like ravens beaks with pictures of aristotle or plato on cameo rings on their fingers but who were they for the most part they were incompetent musicians nowadays a sort of nobility
raised my spirits made my mind more subtle capable of everything but these happy states of mind apparently didn't last because up to now i haven't been able to make any headway whatever the case those are the words of my frequent soliloquies
which you can paraphrase however you like provided you conclude from them that i understand disgust for oneself or the torment of conscience which arises from the uselessness of the gifts given to us by heaven it's the cruelest thing of all
i listened to him while he was acting out the scene of the procurer and the young girl being seduced i was pulled in two opposite directions
i was perplexed
twenty times the anger arising at the bottom of my heart ended in a burst of laughter i was taken aback by so much cleverness and base behaviour by such valid ideas alternating with false ones
by such a general perversity of feeling and such complete depravity and such rare frankness he noticed the conflict going on inside me what's the matter with you he said me nothing
him you seem upset me well i am him what do you think i should do me change the subject
you poor man to be born or fall into such a debased condition him
however don't let my condition affect you too much
from those people i've saved up something remember that i didn't need anything absolutely nothing and they gave me a considerable allowance for my trifling pleasures then he began hitting his forehead again with one of his fists
biting his lip rolling his wild eyes up to the ceiling commenting but that business is over and done with i've set something aside time has gone by it's always that much more of a gain me
you mean more of a loss him no no more of a gain we become richer every moment
it's all one the important point is to keep emptying one's bowels easily freely pleasurably copiously every night o stercus pretiosum that's the grand result of life in all conditions
samuel bernard who by dint of robbery pillaging and bankruptcies leaves twenty seven million in gold
who won't leave anything rameau for whom charity will provide a floor cloth as a shroud to wrap him in a dead man doesn't hear the bells tolling
it's a waste of time for one hundred priests to shout themselves hoarse on his behalf or for him to be preceded and followed by a long line of burning torches his soul does not walk alongside the master of ceremonies to rot under marble or to rot under the earth
it's still rotting to have around your coffin choirboys in red and choirboys in blue or none at all what does that matter take a good look at this wrist it used to be stiff as the devil
these ten fingers were like so many sticks stuck into a wooden metacarpal and these tendons were old cords of catgut
but i've tormented broken and abused them so much you don't want to move but by god i say that you will and that's that as he said this
with his right hand he grabbed the fingers and wrist of his left hand and bent them back and forth the tips of his fingers were touching his arm his joints were cracking i was afraid he'd end up dislocating the bones me
be careful i say to him you're going to hurt yourself him don't worry they can stand it
whatever they felt like the little buggers had to get used to it and learn to strike the keys and fly over the strings so right now they're working yes they're working fine at that moment he takes on the pose of a violin player
he hums an allegro from locatelli and his right arm imitates the movement of the bow while his left hand and his fingers seem to move along the length of the neck if he hits a wrong note he stops
tightens or loosens the string and plucks the string with his nail to make sure that it's just right he resumes playing the piece where he has stopped he keeps time with his feet and thrashes about with his head feet hands arms and body
perhaps at some concert of spiritual music you've had occasion to see ferrari or chiabran or some other virtuoso in the same sort of convulsions presenting a picture of the same torture that gives me almost as much pain
for surely it's agonizing to watch the torment of someone who is busy giving me a representation of pleasure if he simply has to show me a patient under torture then draw a curtain between the man and me something to conceal me
in the midst of his agitation and cries if there was a moment when the note had to be held one of those harmonious spots when the bow is drawn slowly across several strings at once his face took on an ecstatic expression his voice softened
and he listened in rapture he was sure the harmony was resonating in his ears and mine then placing his instrument under his left arm using the same hand he was holding it with and letting his right hand holding the bow fall he said
well what do you think of that me wonderful him that was all right i thought that sounded almost like the others
all at once he crouches down like a musician sitting down at a keyboard i say to him have mercy on yourself and me him no no since i've got your attention you'll listen
you'll praise me with a more confident tone and that might be worth another pupil to me me i don't go out very much and you're going to exhaust yourself to no purpose him
i'm never tired since i saw that my wish to pity the man was useless for the violin sonata had left him bathed in sweat i decided to let him do what he wanted so there he was seated at the keyboard
his legs bent his head raised towards the ceiling where one would have said he was looking at a written musical score singing playing a prelude working through a piece by alberti or galuppi i don't know which of the two his voice went like the wind
and his fingers flew across the keys sometimes abandoning the upper part to play the bass sometimes abandoning the accompaniment to return to the upper register a series of emotions went in succession across his face you could see there tenderness
anger pleasure sadness you could feel the soft notes and the loud ones i'm sure that someone more astute than myself would have recognized the piece from the movement and style
from his expressions and from some snatches of melody coming out of him now and then but what was really strange was that from time to time he groped around and started again as if he had made a mistake and was upset at himself for not having the piece at his finger tips
finally he straightened up wiped the beads of sweat running down his cheeks and said you see that we also know how to play a tritone or an augmented fifth and that we're familiar with transitions of dominants
and you are creatures who well deserve to be pitied if you can't see how we've raised ourselves above our fate and that it's impossible to be unhappy under the shelter of two fine actions like the ones i've just mentioned him well
that's a type of happiness which i'll find it difficult to get familiar with because we meet it rarely but according to you should we then be decent people me to be happy yes certainly
him but i see countless decent people who are not happy and countless people who are happy without being decent me so it seems to you him
but isn't it because i had some common sense and candour for a moment that i have no idea where to get a meal this evening me not at all the reason is you've not had those qualities all along
it's because you didn't realize early on that it's first necessary to create options for yourself which will make you independent free from serving others him
what i've made for myself is at least the most comfortable me and the least secure and the least honest him
but it's the one best suited to my character as a lazy man fool and scoundrel me i agree with that him and since i can find happiness through vices natural to me
which i've acquired without working which i maintain without effort which are compatible with the customs of my country which suit the taste of those who protect me and are closer to their small particular needs than virtues which would embarrass them
it would be really odd if i were to go on tormenting myself like some soul in hell in order to cut myself up and make myself something other than i am to give myself a character foreign to my own very worthy qualities
but which would cost me a great deal to acquire and to practise and which would lead to nothing perhaps worse than nothing because all the time i'd have to satirize the rich people among whom beggars like me have to find a living people praise virtue but they hate it
they run away from it because it makes them freezing cold and in this world one has to have warm feet besides it would inevitably make me moody
they suffer and when one suffers one makes others suffer that's not what i want nor my patrons i have to be happy flexible pleasant funny amusing virtue makes itself respected and respect is uncomfortable
virtue makes itself admired and admiration is not amusing my business is with people who are bored and i have to make them laugh so i have to be ridiculous and funny and if nature had not made me that way the simplest thing would be to appear like that
there are already so many of them of every stripe without counting those who are hypocritical even with themselves
who turns up his hat above his ears who holds his head in the air who looks at you over his shoulder as you go by who has a long sword banging against his thigh who has an insult ready for anyone who doesn't carry one
what's he doing everything he can to persuade himself that he's a stout hearted man
show him your cane or give him a kick in the ass he'll be astonished to find out he's a coward and will ask you how you found out who told you the moment before he was ignorant of the fact for his long and habitual aping of bravery had impressed on him that he was
he'd gone through the pretence so many times he believed that's what he was and that woman who mortifies herself who visits prisons who helps at all the charitable meetings who walks along with her eyes lowered who would never dare to look a man in the face
always on guard against being seduced by her senses does all that keep her heart from burning sighs escaping from her her temperament catching fire her desires obsessing her
so then what happens to her what does her maid think of her when she gets up in her nightdress and rushes to help her mistress as she's dying justine go back to bed it's not you your mistress is calling for in her delirium and what about friend rameau
what if one day he began to show signs of contempt for wealth women good food and laziness and started to act like cato what would he be a hypocrite rameau has to be what he is a happy thief among wealthy thieves
and not a virtuous swaggerer or even a virtuous man gnawing his crust of bread by himself or among beggars to sum up i won't put up with your idea of happiness or the well being of a few visionaries like you me
i see my dear fellow that you have no idea what that is and that you're not even capable of learning what it is him so much the better by god so much the better
it would probably make me die of hunger boredom and remorse me given that the only advice i have for you is to go back quickly to the house where you so imprudently got yourself thrown out
him and do what you don't object to literally but find offensive metaphorically me that's my advice him
regardless of that metaphor which i object to for the moment but which won't bother me at some other time me how odd you are him there's nothing odd about it
but i want that to happen without any compulsion it's all right with me to abandon my dignity what's so funny me your dignity makes me laugh him
i'm happy to forget mine but at my own discretion and not on someone else's orders does it have to be the case that when someone can say to me crawl i have to crawl that's how a worm operates and it's my way too
we both follow it when people leave us alone but we raise ourselves up when someone steps on our tails people have stepped on my tail and i straightened up but then you have no idea of the madhouse we're talking about
imagine a melancholy and sullen personality consumed with vapours wrapped up in two or three layers of dressing gown who loves himself but who's unhappy about everything
even if you distort your body and mind in a hundred different ways he examines coldly the pleasant grimaces of my face and of my judgment which are even more pleasant for between us that father christmas that nasty benedictine so famous for his grimaces
for all his success at court is nothing but a wooden punch in comparison to me and i say that without praising myself or him i went to great lengths tormenting myself to reach the highest arts of the idiot house but it's no use
will he laugh won't he that's what i'm forced to say to myself in the middle of my contortions and you can judge how much this uncertainty damages one's talent my hypochondriac with a nightcap pulled down over his head covering his eyes
has the expression of an immobile idol with a string attached around his chin which goes from there right down under his armchair one waits for the string to be pulled but it's not pulled
it's to utter a distressing word a word which informs you that you've not even been noticed and that all your monkey tricks have been wasted
once the word has been uttered the mastoid spring is released and the jaws snap shut then he began to imitate the man he was talking about he was seated in a chair with his head fixed his cap right down to his eyelids his eyes half shut
his arms hanging down moving his jaws like a robot he said yes you are right mademoiselle one has to be perceptive in these matters that's the person who decides who always decides and there's no appeal in the evening
in the morning at his morning toilet at dinner in the caf at
in the theatre at supper in bed and god forgive me in the arms of his mistress too i think i'm not in a position to hear these last decisions but i'm damn weary of the others sad obscure cut and dried like fate
that's the kind of patron we have right across from him there's a prudish woman who's pretending to be important one could persuade oneself that she's attractive because she still is
although her face has some scabs here and there and she's getting as large as madame bouvillion i do like flesh when it's beautiful but for all that too much is too much movement is so essential to matter item
she is more malicious more proud more stupid than a goose item she'd like to have wit item one has to persuade her that people think she's more witty than anyone else item she knows nothing
but she makes decisions too item one has to applaud these decisions with one's feet and hands to jump for joy to become paralyzed with admiration your decision is so beautiful delicate well said perceptive uniquely felt
where do you women get all this without any studying purely by the power of instinct by your own natural light it's miraculous and then people come to tell us that experience study reflection and education all play a part in it
all sorts of other similar stupidities with tears of joy to bow down ten times a day with one knee bent in front and the other leg stuck out behind one's arms stretched towards the goddess
hanging onto her lip waiting for her order and dashing off like a bolt of lightning who could subject himself to such a role except the poor wretch who two or three times a week finds something there to calm the tribulation of his intestines
the poinsinets baculard who do have some property and whose baseness thus cannot be excused by the rumbling of a suffering stomach me
chapter thirteen delicate hints lady lufton had been greatly rejoiced at that good deed which her son did in giving up his leicestershire hunting and coming to reside for the winter at framley it was proper and becoming
and comfortable in the extreme an english nobleman ought to hunt in the county where he himself owns the fields over which he rides he ought to receive the respect and honour due to him from his own tenants he ought to sleep under a roof of his own
and he ought also so lady lufton thought to fall in love with a young embryo bride of his own mother's choosing and then it was so pleasant to have him there in the house
lady lufton was not a woman who allowed her life to be what people in common parlance call dull she had too many duties and thought too much of them
but nevertheless the house was more joyous to her when he was there there was a reason for some little gaiety which would never have been attracted thither by herself but which nevertheless she did enjoy when it was brought about by his presence
she was younger and brighter when he was there thinking more of the future and less of the past she could look at him and that alone was happiness to her and then he was pleasant mannered with her joking with her
on her little old world prejudices in a tone that was musical to her ear as coming from him smiling on her reminding her of those smiles which she had loved so dearly when as yet he was all her own
lying there in his little bed beside her chair he was kind and gracious to her behaving like a good son at any rate while he was there in her presence when we add to this
her fears that he might not be so perfect in his conduct when absent we may well imagine that lady lufton was pleased to have him there at framley court she had hardly said a word to him as to that five thousand pounds
many a night as she lay thinking on her pillow she said to herself that no money had ever been better expended since it had brought him back to his own house he had thanked her for it in his own open way
declaring that he would pay it back to her during the coming year and comforting her heart by his rejoicing that the property had not been sold i don't like the idea of parting with an acre of it he had said of course not ludovic
never let the estate decrease in your hands it is only by such resolutions as that that english noblemen and english gentlemen can preserve their country i cannot bear to see property changing hands
well i suppose it's a good thing to have land in the market sometimes so that the millionnaires may know what to do with their money god forbid that yours should be there and the widow made a little mental prayer
that her son's acres might be protected from the millionnaires and other philistines why yes i don't exactly want to see a jew tailor investing his earnings at lufton said the lord heaven forbid said the widow
all this as i have said was very nice it was manifest to her ladyship from his lordship's way of talking that no vital injury had as yet been done he had no cares on his mind
and spoke freely about the property but nevertheless there were clouds even now at this period of bliss which somewhat obscured the brilliancy of lady lufton's sky
why was ludovic so slow in that affair of griselda grantly why so often in these latter winter days did he saunter over to the parsonage and then that terrible visit to gatherum castle
what actually did happen at gatherum castle she never knew we however are more intrusive less delicate in our inquiries and we can say he had a very bad day's sport with the west barsetshire
the county is altogether short of foxes and some one who understands the matter must take that point up before they can do any good and after that he had had rather a dull dinner with the duke sowerby had been there
and in the evening he and sowerby had played billiards sowerby had won a pound or two and that had been the extent of the damage done but those saunterings over to the parsonage might be more dangerous
not that it ever occurred to lady lufton as possible that her son should fall in love with lucy robarts lucy's personal attractions were not of a nature to give ground for such a fear as that but he might turn the girl's head with his chatter
she might be fool enough to fancy any folly and moreover people would talk why should he go to the parsonage now more frequently than he had ever done before lucy came there
and then her ladyship in reference to the same trouble hardly knew how to manage her invitations to the parsonage these hitherto had been very frequent and she had been in the habit of thinking that they could hardly be too much so
but now she was almost afraid to continue the custom she could not ask the parson and his wife without lucy and when lucy was there her son would pass the greater part of the evening in talking to her or playing chess with her
now this did disturb lady lufton not a little and then lucy took it all so quietly on her first arrival at framley she had been so shy so silent
that lady lufton had sympathized with her and encouraged her she had endeavoured to moderate the blaze of her own splendour in order that lucy's unaccustomed eyes might not be dazzled but all this was changed now
lucy could listen to the young lord's voice by the hour together without being dazzled in the least under these circumstances two things occurred to her she would speak either to her son or to fanny robarts and by a little diplomacy
have this evil remedied and then she had to determine on which step she would take nothing could be more reasonable than ludovic so at least she said to herself over and over again but then ludovic understood nothing about such matters
a habit inherited from his father of taking the bit between his teeth whenever he suspected interference drive him gently without pulling his mouth about and you might take him anywhere almost at any pace but a smart touch
let it be ever so slight would bring him on his haunches and then it might be a question whether you could get him another mile that day so that on the whole lady lufton thought that the other plan would be the best i have no doubt that lady lufton was right
she got fanny up into her own den one afternoon and seated her discreetly in an easy arm chair making her guest take off her bonnet and showing by various signs that the visit was regarded as one of great moment fanny she said
and necessary to mention and yet it is a very delicate affair to speak of fanny opened her eyes and said that she hoped that nothing was wrong no my dear i think nothing is wrong
i hope so and i think i may say i'm sure of it but then it's always well to be on one's guard yes it is said fanny who knew that something unpleasant was coming something as to which she might probably be called upon to differ from her ladyship
and indeed lady lufton had a word or two to say on that subject also only not exactly now a hunting parson was not at all to her taste but that matter might be allowed to remain in abeyance for a few days
now fanny you know that we have all liked your sister in law lucy very much
and she knew the rest as well as though it had all been spoken i need hardly tell you that for i am sure we have shown it you have indeed as you always do and you must not think that i am going to complain continued lady lufton
i hope there is nothing to complain of said fanny speaking by no means in a defiant tone but humbly as it were and deprecating her ladyship's wrath fanny had gained one signal victory over lady lufton
and on that account with a prudence equal to her generosity felt that she could afford to be submissive it might perhaps not be long before she would be equally anxious to conquer again
well no i don't think there is said lady lufton nothing to complain of but a little chat between you and me may perhaps set matters right which otherwise might become troublesome is it about lucy
yes my dear about lucy she is a very nice good girl and a credit to her father and a great comfort to us said fanny i am sure she is she must be a very pleasant companion to you and so useful about the children but
and then lady lufton paused for a moment for she eloquent and discreet as she always was felt herself rather at a loss for words to express her exact meaning i don't know what i should do without her said fanny
speaking with the object of assisting her ladyship in her embarrassment but the truth is this she and lord lufton are getting into the way of being too much together of talking to each other too exclusively
it is not that i suspect any evil i don't think that i am suspicious by nature
said fanny but they will each of them get wrong ideas about the other and about themselves lucy will perhaps think that ludovic means more than he does and ludovic will
but it was not quite so easy to say what ludovic might do or think but lady lufton went on i am sure that you understand me fanny with your excellent sense and tact lucy is clever and amusing and all that
and ludovic like all young men is perhaps ignorant that his attentions may be taken to mean more than he intends
if i thought it had come to that i should recommend that she should be sent away altogether i am sure she is not so foolish as that i don't think there is anything in it at all lady lufton i don't think there is my dear
but still it may be well that you should just say a word to her a little management now and then in such matters is so useful but what shall i say to her
just explain to her that any young lady who talks so much to the same young gentleman will certainly be observed that people will accuse her of setting her cap at lord lufton not that i suspect her i give her credit for too much proper feeling
and her principles are upright but people will talk of her you must understand that fanny as well as i do fanny could not help meditating whether proper feeling education and upright principles
did forbid lucy robarts to fall in love with lord lufton but her doubts on this subject if she held any were not communicated to her ladyship it had never entered into her mind
that a match was possible between lord lufton and lucy robarts nor had she the slightest wish to encourage it now that the idea was suggested to her on such a matter she could sympathize with lady lufton though she did not completely agree with her
as to the expediency of any interference nevertheless she at once offered to speak to lucy i don't think that lucy has any idea in her head upon the subject said missus robarts i dare say not i don't suppose she has
but young ladies sometimes allow themselves to fall in love and then to think themselves very ill used just because they have had no idea in their head i will put her on her guard if you wish it lady lufton exactly my dear
that is just it put her on her guard that is all that is necessary she is a dear good clever girl and it would be very sad if anything were to interrupt our comfortable way of getting on with her
if lucy would persist in securing to herself so much of lord lufton's time and attention her visits to framley court must become less frequent lady lufton would do much very much indeed for her friends at the parsonage
but not even for them could she permit her son's prospects in life to be endangered there was nothing more said between them and missus robarts got up to take her leave having promised to speak to lucy
you manage everything so perfectly said lady lufton as she pressed missus robarts hand that i am quite at ease now that i find you will agree with me missus robarts did not exactly agree with her ladyship
but she hardly thought it worth her while to say so missus robarts immediately started off on her walk to her own home and when she had got out of the grounds into the road where it makes a turn towards the parsonage
nearly opposite to podgens shop she saw lord lufton on horseback and lucy standing beside him it was already nearly five o'clock and it was getting dusk but as she approached or rather
as she came suddenly within sight of them she could see that they were in close conversation lord lufton's face was towards her and his horse was standing still he was leaning over towards his companion and the whip which he held in his right hand
hung almost over her arm and down her back as though his hand had touched and perhaps rested on her shoulder she was standing by his side looking up into his face with one gloved hand resting on the horse's neck
missus robarts as she saw them could not but own that there might be cause for lady lufton's fears but then lucy's manner as missus robarts approached was calculated to dissipate any such fears
and to prove that there was no ground for them she did not move from her position or allow her hand to drop or show that she was in any way either confused or conscious she stood her ground
lord lufton wants me to learn to ride said she
said fanny not knowing what answer to make to such a proposition yes said he this horse would carry her beautifully he is as quiet as a lamb and i made gregory go out with him yesterday with a sheet hanging over him like a lady's habit
and the man got up into a lady's saddle i think gregory would make a better hand of it than lucy the horse cantered with him as though he had carried a lady all his life and his mouth is like velvet indeed that is his fault he is too soft mouthed
i suppose that's the same sort of thing as a man being soft hearted said lucy exactly you ought to ride them both with a very light hand they are difficult cattle to manage but very pleasant when you know how to do it
but you see i don't know how to do it said lucy as regards the horse you will learn in two days and i do hope you will try don't you think it will be an excellent thing for her missus robarts lucy has got no habit said missus robarts
making use of the excuse common on all such occasions there is one of justinia's in the house i know she always leaves one here in order that she may be able to ride when she comes she would not think of taking such a liberty with lady meredith's things
said fanny almost frightened at the proposal of course it is out of the question fanny said lucy now speaking rather seriously in the first place i would not take lord lufton's horse in the second place i would not take lady meredith's habit
too much frightened and lastly it is quite out of the question for a great many other very good reasons nonsense said lord lufton a great deal of nonsense said lucy laughing but all of it of lord lufton's talking
but we are getting cold are we not fanny so we will wish you good night and then the two ladies shook hands with him and walked on towards the parsonage that which astonished missus robarts the most in all this
was the perfectly collected manner in which lucy spoke and conducted herself this connected as she could not but connect it with the air of chagrin with which lord lufton received lucy's decision made it manifest to missus robarts
that lord lufton was annoyed because lucy would not consent to learn to ride whereas she lucy herself had given her refusal in a firm and decided tone as though resolved that nothing more should be said about it
they walked on in silence for a minute or two till they reached the parsonage gate and then lucy said laughing can't you fancy me sitting on that great big horse
and his lordship giving me my first lesson i don't think she would like it said fanny i'm sure she would not but i will not try her temper in that respect sometimes i fancy that she does not even like seeing lord lufton talking to me
she does not like it lucy when she sees him flirting with you this missus robarts said rather gravely whereas lucy had been speaking in a half bantering tone as soon as even the word flirting was out of fanny's mouth
she had wished to say something which would convey to her sister in law an idea of what lady lufton would dislike but in doing so she had unintentionally brought against her an accusation flirting fanny said lucy
standing still in the path and looking up into her companion's face with all her eyes
i did not say that or that i have allowed him to flirt with me i did not mean to shock you lucy what did you mean fanny why just this
that lady lufton would not be pleased if he paid you marked attentions and if you received them just like that affair of the riding it was better to decline it of course i declined it of course i never dreamt of accepting such an offer
go riding about the country on his horses what have i done fanny that you should suppose such a thing you have done nothing dearest
because i wished to put you on your guard you know lucy that i do not intend to find fault with you but you may be sure as a rule
they then walked up to the hall door in silence when they had reached it lucy stood in the doorway instead of entering it and said fanny let us take another turn together if you are not tired no i'm not tired
it will be better that i should understand you at once and then they again moved away from the house tell me truly now do you think that lord lufton and i have been flirting i do think that he is a little inclined to flirt with you
and lady lufton has been asking you to lecture me about it poor missus robarts hardly knew what to say she thought well of all the persons concerned and was very anxious to behave well by all of them
was particularly anxious to create no ill feeling and wished that everybody should be comfortable and on good terms with everybody else but yet the truth was forced out of her when this question was asked so suddenly not to lecture you lucy
she said at last well to preach to me or to talk to me or to give me a lesson to say something that shall drive me to put my back up against lord lufton to caution you dearest
had you heard what she said you would hardly have felt angry with lady lufton well to caution me
especially when the gentleman is very rich and a lord and all that sort of thing nobody for a moment attributes anything wrong to you lucy anything wrong no i don't know whether it would be anything wrong even if i were to fall in love with him
i wonder whether they cautioned griselda grantly when she was here i suppose when young lords go about all the girls are cautioned as a matter of course
and then again they were silent for a moment as missus robarts did not feel that she had anything further to say on the matter poison should be the word with any one so fatal as lord lufton and he ought to be made up of some particular colour
for fear he should be swallowed in mistake you will be safe you see said fanny laughing as you have been specially cautioned as to this individual bottle ah
after i have had so many doses it is no good telling me about it now when the mischief is done
and i regarded it as a mere commonplace powder good for the complexion i wonder whether it's too late or whether there's any antidote missus robarts did not always quite understand her sister in law and now she was a little at a loss
i don't think there's much harm done yet on either side she said cheerily ah you don't know fanny but i do think that if i die as i shall i feel i shall and if so i do think it ought to go very hard with lady lufton
why didn't she label him dangerous in time and then they went into the house and up to their own rooms it was difficult for any one to understand lucy's state of mind at present and it can hardly be said that she understood it herself
she felt that she had received a severe blow in having been thus made the subject of remark with reference to lord lufton she knew that her pleasant evenings at framley court were now over and that she could not again talk to him in an unrestrained tone
and without embarrassment she had felt the air of the whole place to be very cold before her intimacy with him and now it must be cold again two homes had been open to her framley court and the parsonage
and now as far as comfort was concerned she must confine herself to the latter she could not again be comfortable in lady lufton's drawing room but then she could not help asking herself whether lady lufton was not right
she had had courage enough and presence of mind to joke about the matter when her sister in law spoke to her and yet she was quite aware that it was no joking matter lord lufton had not absolutely made love to her but he had latterly spoken to her in a manner
which she knew was not compatible with that ordinary comfortable masculine friendship with the idea of which she had once satisfied herself was not fanny right when she said that intimate friendships of that nature were dangerous things
yes lucy very dangerous lucy before she went to bed that night had owned to herself that they were so and lying there with sleepless eyes and a moist pillow
she was driven to confess that the label would in truth be now too late that the caution had come to her after the poison had been swallowed was there any antidote that was all that was left for her to consider
was not introduced amongst us till a late period and with still more difficulty
the practice of it was even prohibited in order to leave no doubt of this i will subjoin an ancient decree of the senate as well as an edict of the censors in the consulship of caius fannius strabo
that an act be passed respecting philosophers and rhetoricians in this matter they have decreed as follows
as the good of the republic and the duty of his office require that no philosophers or rhetoricians be suffered at rome after some interval
issued the following edict upon the same subject it is reported to us that certain persons have instituted a new kind of discipline that our youth resort to their schools that they have assumed the title of latin rhetoricians
and that young men waste their time there for whole days together our ancestors have ordained what instruction it is fitting their children should receive and what schools they should attend these novelties
contrary to the customs and instructions of our ancestors we neither approve nor do they appear to us good wherefore it appears to be our duty that we should notify our judgment both to those who keep such schools
but afterwards as he grew older in latin also
resumed the practice of declaiming even during the civil war in order to be better prepared to argue against caius curio a young man of great talents to whom the defence of caesar was entrusted they say likewise that it was not forgotten by mark antony
many speeches of orators were also published in consequence public favour
that a vast number of professors and learned men devoted themselves to it and it flourished to such a degree that some of them raised themselves by it to the rank of senators and the highest offices but the same mode of teaching was not adopted by all
nor indeed did individuals always confine themselves to the same system but each varied his plan of teaching according to circumstances for they were accustomed in stating their argument with the utmost clearness to use figures and apologies
to put cases as circumstances required and to relate facts sometimes briefly and succinctly and at other times more at large and with greater feeling nor did they omit on occasion to resort to translations from the greek
and to expatiate in the praise or to launch their censures on the faults of illustrious men they also dealt with matters connected with every day life pointing out such as are useful and necessary and such as are hurtful and needless
they had occasion often to support the authority of fabulous accounts and to detract from that of historical narratives which sort the greeks call propositions refutations and corroboration
and arrive at the gist of the argument among the ancients subjects of controversy were drawn either from history as indeed some are even now
it was therefore the custom to state them precisely
we certainly so find them collected and published
a company of young men from the city having made an excursion to ostia in the summer season and going down to the beach
having bargained with them for the haul whatever it might turn out to be for a certain sum they paid down the money they waited a long time while the nets were being drawn
but some gold sewn up in a basket the buyers claim the haul as theirs the fishermen assert that it belongs to them again some dealers having to land from a ship at brundusium a cargo of slaves
among which there was a handsome boy of great value they in order to deceive the collectors of the customs smuggled him ashore in the dress of a freeborn youth
the fraud easily escaped detection they proceed to rome
because his master had voluntarily treated him as free formerly they called these by a greek term syntaxeis but of late controversies but they may be either fictitious cases or those which come under trial in the courts
of the eminent professors of this science of whom any memorials are extant
and composed an account of his actions
which before his time had not been done by any one
opened a school of instruction in which he taught among others mark antony and augustus
upon which he replied that he would rather be the disciple of isauricus
he stood up and made his peroration in that posture his declamations were of different kinds sometimes brilliant and polished at others that they might not be thought to savour too much of the schools he curtailed them of all ornament
and used only familiar phrases he also pleaded causes but rarely
suffering at an advanced period of life from an ulcerated tumour he returned to novara and calling the people together in a public assembly addressed them in a set speech of considerable length explaining the reasons which induced him to put an end to existence
one morning when he went out to his usual work he said to his wife
i shall not be ready to come home and that she may not lose her way i will take with me a bag of seeds and strew them on my path so when the sun was risen to the center of the heavens the maiden set out on her way carrying a jug of soup
but the field and wood sparrows the larks blackbirds goldfinches and greenfinches had many hours ago picked up the seeds so that the maiden could find no trace of the way so she walked on
people must dwell there she thought who will keep me during the night and she walked toward the light in a short time she came to a cottage where the windows were all lighted up and when she knocked at the door a hoarse voice called from within
come in the girl opened the door and perceived a hoary old man sitting at a table with his face buried in his hands and his white beard flowing down over the table on to the ground
a cock and a brindled cow the girl told the old man her adventures and begged for a night's lodging the man said pretty hen
the old man said to the maiden here is abundance and to spare go now into the kitchen and cook some supper for us the girl found plenty of everything in the kitchen and cooked a good meal
but thought nothing about the animals when she had finished she carried a full dish into the room and sitting down opposite the old man ate till she had satisfied her hunger when she had done she said
i am very tired where is my bed where i shall lie down and sleep the animals replied
still you may pass the night here thereupon the old man said step down yon stair and you will come to a room containing two beds shake them up and cover them with white sheets
and then i will come and lie down to sleep myself the maiden stepped down the stair and as soon as she had shaken up the beds and covered them afresh she laid herself down in one bed without waiting for the old man
but after some time the old man came and after looking at the girl with the light shook his head when he saw she was fast asleep and then opening a trapdoor
i will take a bag of peas he said they are larger than corn seed and the girl will therefore see them better and not lose my track at noonday accordingly the girl set out with her father's dinner
but the peas had all disappeared for the wood birds had picked them all up as they had on the day before and not one was left so the poor girl wandered about in the forest till it was quite dark
and then she also arrived at the old man's hut was invited in and begged food and a night's lodging the man of the white beard asked his animals again pretty hen and pretty cock and pretty brindled cow
what have you to say to that they answered again cluck and everything thereupon occurred the same as on the previous day the girl cooked a good meal ate and drank with the old man
and when she asked for her bed they made answer
still you may pass the night here as soon as she was gone to sleep the old man came and after looking at her and shaking his head as before dropped her into the cellar below
meanwhile the third morning arrived and the woodcutter told his wife to send their youngest child with his dinner for said he she is always obedient and good
she will keep in the right path and not run about like those idle hussies her sisters but the mother refused and said shall i lose my youngest child too be not afraid of that said her husband
the girl will not miss her way she is too steady and prudent but for more precaution i will take beans to strew
but by and by when the girl went out with her basket on her arm the wood pigeons had eaten up all the beans and she knew not which way to turn
at length when it became quite dark she also perceived the lighted cottage and entering it begged very politely to be allowed to pass the night there
the old man asked the animals a third time in the same words pretty hen pretty cock and pretty brindled cow
thereupon the maiden stepped up to the fire near which they lay and fondled the pretty hen and cock smoothing their plumage down with her hands while she stroked the cow between her horns
afterwards when she had got ready a good supper at the old man's request and had placed the dishes on the table she thought to herself i must not appease my hunger till i have fed these good creatures
there is an abundance in the kitchen i will serve them first thus thinking she went and fetched some corn and strewed it before the fowls and then she brought an armful of hay and gave it to the cow
so saying she brought in a pailful of water and the hen and cock perched themselves on its edge put their beaks in and then drew their heads up as birds do when drinking the cow also took a hearty draught
when the animals were thus fed the maiden sat down at table with the old man and ate what was left for her in a short while the hen and cock began to fold their wings over their heads and the brindled cow blinked with both eyes
then the maiden asked shall we not also take our rest the old man replied as before pretty hen pretty cock and pretty brindled cow what have you to say to that
replied the animals meaning you have eaten with us you have drunk too with us you have thought of us kindly too and we wish you a good night's rest
so the maiden went down the stairs and shook up the feather beds and laid on clean sheets and when they were ready the old man came and lay down in one with his white beard stretching down to his feet
the girl then lay down in the other bed first saying her prayers before she went to sleep she slept quietly till midnight and at that hour there began such a tumult in the house that it awakened her
presently it began to crack and rumble in every corner of the room and the doors were slammed back against the wall
soon after that all was quiet but the maiden took no harm and went quietly off again to sleep when however the bright light of the morning sun awoke her what a sight met her eyes
she found herself lying in a large chamber with everything around belonging to regal pomp on the walls were represented gold flowers growing on a green silk ground
the bed was of ivory and the curtains of red velvet
the maiden thought it was all a dream but presently in came three servants dressed in rich liveries who asked her what were her commands leave me replied the maiden i will get up at once and cook some breakfast for the old man
and also feed the pretty hen the pretty cock and the brindled cow she spoke thus because she thought the old man was already up but when she looked round at his bed
while she was looking at him and saw that he was both young and handsome he awoke and starting up said to the maiden
a cock and a brindled cow and the enchantment was not to end until a maiden should come so kind hearted that she should behave as well to my animals as she did to me and such a one you have been
and therefore this last midnight we were saved through you and the old wooden hut has again become my royal palace
that they might witness her marriage but where are my two sisters she asked
schumann the intimate having finished with his chopin group the pianist is apt to follow it with his schumann selections and we meet with another original musical genius robert schumann was born at zwickau in june eighteen ten
his father was a book publisher and was in hopes that the son would show literary aptitude in fact the elder schumann discouraged robert's musical aspirations and as a result instead of receiving early in life a systematic musical training his education was along other lines
he studied law at leipzig in eighteen twenty eight and in heidelberg in eighteen twenty nine and was thus what is rare among musicians a composer with an academic education
the leschetitzki of his day determined schumann to enter upon a musical career wieck took him into his home in leipzig and he studied the pianoforte with a view of becoming a virtuoso in order to gain greater freedom in fingering
he devised a mechanical apparatus by which one finger was suspended in a sling while the others played upon the keyboard unfortunately through the use of this contrivance he strained the tendons of one hand and his dream of a virtuoso's career vanished
and finally after determined opposition on the part of her father married her in eighteen forty
and in february eighteen fifty four he became possessed of the idea that schubert's spirit had appeared to him and given him a theme to work out
and threw himself into the rhine some boatmen rescued him from drowning but he had to be taken to an asylum near bonn where he died in july eighteen fifty six these circumstances in his life are mentioned here not only because of their interest
but because they explain some aspects of his music schumann was of a brooding disposition intensely introspective
his music lacks iridescence and shows a want of brilliancy this will be immediately apparent if at a recital a pianist places the schumann pieces after a chopin group
but if schumann's compositions are wanting in superficially attractive brightness they more than make up for it in their profounder characteristics all through them one seems to hear a deep sounding tone
the harmonies are wonderfully compact one feels after striking a schumann chord like stiffening the fingers in order to hold it down more firmly keep a grip on it and let it sound to its last echo poet bourgeois and philosopher
in schumann's music the sensitive listener will find a curious blending of poet bourgeois and philosopher he had the higher fancy the warmth of the poet a bourgeois love of what was intimate and homely and the introspection of the philosopher
sometimes he is so introspective that he appears to me actually to be burrowing in harmony like a mole the melodies are interwoven sometimes the upper voice flutters lightly down upon contrapuntal collisions in the bass frequently his rhythms are syncopated
melodies are superimposed upon each other he uses imitations canonic figuration and often by introducing a single note foreign to the scale suddenly lowers or lifts an entire passage there are interior voices in his music half suppressed
above the principal melody he loves anticipations
and then filling in the sustained tone or tones with what was at first lacking these characteristics are so marked that it is as easy to recognize schumann as it is to distinguish chopin in the first few bars of a work by either
each is sui generis each has his own hallmark
schumann made valuable contributions to so called program music his pieces besides intrinsic musical worth have a distinct meaning usually indicated by the titles he gives them
like harlequins and columbines his second work for the pianoforte the papillons
but whoever expects to find butterflies fluttering through these schumann pieces will be mistaken they are rather symbols of thoughts still in the chrysalis state and waiting like butterflies to cast off the shell and gain air and freedom
this symbolism must be borne in mind in listening to the papillons schumann himself said in a general way regarding his programmatic intentions in this and other works that the titles given to his music should be taken very much like the titles of poems
and that as in the case of poems the music in itself should be beautiful irrespective of title or printed explanation this is true of all program music that has survived it will be found beautiful in itself
but it also is easy to discover that the titles and explanations which are calculated to place the hearer in certain receptive moods vastly add to his enjoyment carnaval and kreisleriana
i am always glad when a pianist elects to place the schumann carnaval on his program
asch was the birthplace of ernestine von fricken one of schumann's early loves
while his associates were denominated the davidsbuendler it being their mission to combat and put to flight the old fogies of music as david had the philistines schumann himself is the looker on at this carnival a
we meet chopin and paganini each neatly characterized chiarina the italian diminutive of clara and estrella none other than ernestine herself also harlequin pantalon and columbine
grandfather wedded my grandmother dear so grandfather then was a bridegroom i fear and the whole ends in a merry uproar he wrote another carnival suite opus twenty six the faschingschwank aus wien
which was at that time forbidden to be played in vienna the title of another work which ranks among his finest productions the kreisleriana also requires explanation this he derived from a book by e t a hoffmann who sometimes is spoken of as the german poe
in fact is a poe bound up in much heavy german philosophy and turgid introspection the kreisler of hoffmann's book is an exuberant sentimentalist and is said to have had his prototype in kapellmeister ludwig boehner who after a brilliant early career
had become addicted to drink and was reduced to maudlin memories of his former triumphs in hoffmann's book there is a contrast drawn between this pathetic character whose ideals have become shadows which he vainly chases and the prosaic views of life as set forth by another character kater murr
literally tomcat purr but these kreisleriana of which bie says the joys and sorrows expressed in these pieces were never put into form with more sovereign power should be entitled schumanniana for although the title is derived from hoffmann
the content is schumann thoughts of his clara concerning the work as a whole he wrote to clara while in the throes of composition this music now in me and always such beautiful melodies
think of it since my last letter to you i have another entire book of new things ready i intend to call them kreisleriana and in them you and a thought of you play the chief role and i shall dedicate them to you yes they belong to you as to no one else
and how sweetly you will smile when you find yourself in them my music seems to me so wonderfully interwoven in spite of all its simplicity and speaking right from the heart it has that effect upon all for whom i play these things as i now do gladly and often
if clara and a thought of clara play the chief role what becomes of kreisler and kater murr surely kreisleriana are schumanniana full of varied characteristics are the fantasie pieces
that it is no ordinary why but a question upon the answer to which depends the happiness of a lifetime
with its sense of perfect peace the buoyant soaring aufschwung whims grillen night scene
the fable dream whirls traumeswirren and the end of the song
these fantasie pieces and the aptly named novelettes seem destined always to retain their popularity and then there are the scenes from childhood
the forest scenes the sonatas the heroic technical studies based on the paganini capriccios and the etudes symphoniques and the fantasie above the first movement of which he placed these lines from schlegel
through every tone there passes to him who deigns to list in varied earthly dreaming a tone of gentleness clara was the tone as he told her it was largely through madame schumann's public playing of her husband's works
that they won their way even so owing to their lack of brilliancy and their introspection they were long in coming to their own but the best of them including of course the admirable a minor concerto long will retain their hold on the modern pianist's repertoire
william mason went to leipzig in eighteen forty nine only a few years before i arrived at leipzig he says in his memories schumann's genius was so little appreciated
with a new manuscript under his arm the clerks would nudge one another and laugh one of them told me that they regarded him as a crank and a failure because his pieces remained on the shelf and were in the way shortly after my return from germany to new york i went to breusing's
then one of the principal music stores in the city
the story of the parachute in giving an account of the umbrella it would not be right to omit mentioning another and far from legitimate use in which it has been employed by notoriety hunting artistes we allude to the parachute
and a short narration of its origin and progress may not be uninteresting to our readers the parachute commonly in use is nothing more or less than a huge umbrella presenting a surface of sufficient dimension to experience from the air
a resistance equal to the weight of descent in moving through the fluid at a velocity not exceeding that of the shock which a person can sustain without danger or injury it is made of silk or cotton
to the outer edge cords are fastened of about the same length as the diameter of the machine twenty four to twenty eight feet
and meets the cords from the margin acting in fact as the stick of the umbrella the machine is thus kept expanded during descent the car is fastened to the centre cord
that it may be readily and quickly detached either by cutting a string or pulling a trigger consequently in the east where the umbrella has been from the earliest ages in familiar use
to enable them to jump safely from great heights father loubere in his curious account of siam relates that a person famous in that country for his dexterity used to divert the king and court by the extraordinary leaps he took
having two umbrellas with long slender handles fastened to his girdle in seventeen eighty three
his idea was that it might be made a sort of fire escape
to act as a safety guard to the aeronaut in case of any accident during an excursion he made from lille in seventeen eighty five when he traversed without stopping a distance of three hundred miles he let down a parachute with a basket fastened to it
containing a dog this he suffered to fall from a great height and it reached the ground in safety the first parachute descent from a balloon however was made by jacques garnerin
in the park of monceau de la lande the celebrated astronomer has furnished a detailed and highly interesting account of this foolish experiment garnerin resided in london
during the short peace of eighteen o two and made two ascents with his balloon in the second of which he let himself fall at an amazing height with a parachute of twenty three feet diameter he started from an enclosure
and descended after having been seven or eight minutes in the air after cutting himself away he floated over marylebone and somers town and fell in a field near saint pancras old church the oscillation was so great
and narrowly escaped death he seemed a good deal frightened and said that the peril was too great for endurance one of the stays of the machine having given way his danger was increased
the next person who tried this dangerous experiment was his niece eliza garnerin who descended several times in safety her parachute had a large orifice in the top in order to check the oscillation
the next experimentalist was a person of the name of cocking who ended his days in a manner unworthy his talents through a series of lamentable mistakes his parachute was constructed on the opposite principle of a wedge like form
and was intended to cleave through the air instead of offering a resistance to it it has not yet been proved that the principle was wrong but the defect lay in the weakness of the materials employed in the formation of the parachute
on the twenty ninth july eighteen thirty seven mister cocking ascended in his new parachute attached to the great nassau balloon mister cocking liberated himself from the balloon the parachute collapsed and fell at a frightful rate
into a field near lea where poor cocking was found with an awful wound on his right temple he never spoke but died almost immediately afterwards it is much to be regretted that the descent was ever allowed to take place
the aeronauts themselves were for some time in a state of imminent peril immediately the parachute was cut away the balloon ascended with frightful velocity owing to the ascending power it necessarily gained by being freed from a weight of nearly five hundred pounds
and had it not been that its occupants applied their mouths to the air bags previously provided they must have been suffocated by the escaping gas when the re action took place the balloon had lost its buoyancy and fell rather than descended to the ground
and made three descents in a parachute in succession without injury undeterred by the awful fate of his predecessor this gentleman determined on making a parachute descent which should prove the correctness of the theory
and the montpellier gardens at cheltenham were selected as the scene of the exploit
for permitting docking's ascent the owners of the gardens at cheltenham would not suffer the experiment to be made
as he was permitted to display his parachute in the manner he intended to use it the idea suddenly flashed across his mind that he could carry out his long nursed wishes he suddenly cut the rope which kept him down and went off
to the astonishment of the spectators the last cheering sound that reached him being he will be killed to a dead certainty after attaining an altitude of nearly two miles mister hampton proceeded to cut the rope that held him attached to the balloon
as he remembered that it would soon be life or death with him but at length drew his knife across the rope the first feelings he experienced were both unpleasant and alarming his eyes and the top of his head appeared to be forced upwards
but this passed off in a few seconds and his feelings subsequently became pleasant rather than disagreeable
mister hampton remembered that a bag of ballast was fastened beneath the car he stooped over and upset the sand he also noted by his watch the time he occupied in descending the earth seemed coming up to him rapidly
the parachute indicated its approach to terra firma by a slight oscillation and he presently struck the ground in the centre of a field where he was first welcomed by a sheep which stared at this visitor from the clouds in utter amazement
mister hampton repeated the experiment twice in london though on both occasions with considerable danger to himself the first time falling on a tree in kensington gardens the second on a house which threw him out of the basket
after this experiment there was a lull in the parachute folly until some twenty years ago
by her perilous escapes both in life and limb
chapter thirty three a solitary chapter during all that winter i attended the evening school and assisted the master i confess however it was not by any means
so much for the master as to be near elsie duff of whom i now thought many times an hour her sweet face grew more and more dear to me when i pointed out an error in her work or suggested a better mode of working
her whole manner a dumb apology for what could be a fault in no eyes but her own it was this sweetness that gained upon me at length her face was almost a part of my consciousness
i suppose my condition was what people would call being in love with her but i never thought of that i only thought of her nor did i ever dream of saying a word to her on the subject i wished nothing other than as it was
to think about her all day so gently that it never disturbed euclid or livy to see her
that a change must come that as life cannot linger in the bud but is compelled by the sunshine and air into the flower so life would go on and on and things would change and the time blossom into something else
and my love find itself set out of doors in the midst of strange plants and a new order of things when school was over i walked home with her not alone for turkey was always on the other side
we joined in praising her but my admiration ever found more words than turkey's and i thought my love to her was greater than his we seldom went into her grandmother's cottage for she did not make us welcome
with whom we were sure of a kind reception she was a patient diligent woman
what was her deepest thought whether she was content to be unhappy or whether she lived in hope of some blessedness beyond it is marvellous with how little happiness some people can get through the world surely
they are inwardly sustained with something even better than joy
asked turkey as we sat together over her little fire on one of these occasions no i should like very much i answered the room was lighted only by a little oil lamp for there was no flame to the fire of peats
and dried oak bark she sings such queer ballads as you never heard said turkey give us one mother do she yielded and in a low chanting voice sang something like this
up cam the waves o the tide wi a whush and back gaed the pebbles wi a whurr whan the king's ae son cam walking the hush to hear the sea murmur and murr
an a glimmer o cauld weet licht cam ower the water straucht frae the mune
it's the bonny sea maidens at their play
ae rock stud up wi a shadow at its foot the king's son stepped behind the merry sea maidens cam gambolling oot combin their hair the wind o merry their laugh when they felt the land
under their light cool feet each laid her comb on the yellow sand and the gladsome dance grew fleet but the fairest she laid her comb by itsel on the rock where the king's son lay he stole about
and the carven shell he hid in his bosom away and he watched the dance till the clouds did gloom
one after one she caught up her comb to the sea went dancin doon but the fairest wi hair like the mune in a clud she sought till she was the last he creepin went and watchin stud
and he thought to hold her fast she dropped at his feet without motion or heed he took her and home he sped all day she lay like a withered seaweed on a purple and gowden bed
but at night whan the wind frae the watery bars blew into the dusky room she opened her een like twa settin stars and back came her twilight bloom the king's son knelt beside her bed
she was his ere a month had passed and the cold sea maiden he had wed grew a tender wife at last and all went well till her baby was born and then she couldna sleep
she would rise and wander till breakin morn hark harkin the sound o the deep one night when the wind was wailing about and the sea was speckled wi foam from room to room she went in and out
and she came on her carven comb she twisted her hair with eager hands she put in the comb with glee she's out and she's over the glittering sands and away to the moaning sea one cry came back from far away
he woke and was all alone her night robe lay on the marble grey and the cold sea maiden was gone ever and aye frae first peep o the moon
the desert shore still up and doon heavy at heart paced he but never more came the maidens to play from the merry cold hearted sea he heard their laughter far out and away
but heavy at heart paced he i have modernized the ballad indeed spoiled it altogether for i have made up this version from the memory of it with only i fear just a touch here and there of the original expression
that's what comes of taking what you have no right to said turkey in whom the practical had ever the upper hand
as we walked home together i resumed the subject i think you're too hard on the king's son i said he couldn't help falling in love with the mermaid he had no business to steal her comb and then run away with herself said turkey
she was none the worse for it said i who told you that he retorted
it's not every girl that would care to marry a king's son
at all events the prince was none the better for it but the song says she made a tender wife i objected she couldn't help herself
turkey i exclaimed he was a prince i know that then he must have been a gentleman i don't know that i've read of a good many princes who did things i should be ashamed to do
in the low endeavour to bolster up the wrong with my silly logic no therefore if i were to do what was rude and dishonest people would say what could you expect of a ploughboy a prince ought to be just so much better bred than a ploughboy
i would scorn to do what that prince did what's wrong in a ploughboy can't be right in a prince ranald or else right is only right sometimes so that right may be wrong and wrong may be right
well turkey you know best i can't help thinking the prince was not so much to blame though you see what came of it misery perhaps he would rather have had the misery and all together than none of it
that's for him to settle but he must have seen he was wrong before he had done wandering by the sea like that well now turkey
i'm supposing you fell in love with her at first sight you know i added well i'm sure i should not have kept the comb even if i had taken it just to get a chance of speaking to her
she might have come again and if he had married her at last of her own free will she would not have run away from him
but did not see her how blank and dull the schoolroom seemed still she might arrive any moment but she did not come i went through my duties wearily hoping ever for the hour of release
i could see well enough that turkey was anxious too the moment school was over we hurried away almost without a word to the cottage there we found her weeping her grandmother had died suddenly
she clung to turkey and seemed almost to forget my presence but i thought nothing of that had the case been mine i too should have clung to turkey from faith in his help and superior wisdom
there were two or three old women in the place turkey went and spoke to them and then took elsie home to his mother jamie was asleep and they would not wake him how it was arranged i forget
the cottage was let and the cow taken home by their father before summer jamie had got a place in a shop in the village
chapter thirty four an evening visit i now saw much less of elsie but i went with turkey as often as i could to visit her at her father's cottage the evenings we spent there
are amongst the happiest hours in my memory one evening in particular appears to stand out as a type of the whole i remember every point in the visit i think it must have been almost the last we set out as the sun was going down on an evening
in the end of april when the nightly frosts had not yet vanished the hail was dancing about us as we started the sun was disappearing in a bank of tawny orange cloud the night would be cold and dark and stormy
but we cared nothing for that a conflict with the elements always added to the pleasure of any undertaking then it was in the midst of another shower of hail driven on the blasts of a keen wind that we arrived at the little cottage
it had been built by duff himself to receive his bride and although since enlarged was still a very little house
but the walls were of turf he had lined it with boards however and so made it warmer and more comfortable than most of the labourers dwellings when we entered a glowing fire of peat was on the hearth
missus duff was spinning and elsie by the light of a little oil lamp suspended against the wall was teaching her youngest brother to read whatever she did she always seemed in my eyes to do it better than anyone else and to see her under the lamp
with one arm round the little fellow who stood leaning against her while the other hand pointed with a knitting needle to the letters of the spelling book which lay on her knee was to see a lovely picture the mother did not rise from her spinning but spoke a kindly welcome
while elsie got up and without approaching us or saying more than a word or two set chairs for us by the fire and took the little fellow away to put him to bed it's a cold night said missus duff
the wind seems to blow through me as i sit at my wheel i wish my husband would come home he'll be suppering his horses said turkey i'll just run across and give him a hand and that'll bring him in the sooner thank you turkey said missus duff as he vanished
he's a fine lad she remarked much in the same phrase my father used when speaking of him there's nobody like turkey i said indeed i think you're right there ranald a better behaved lad doesn't step
he'll do something to distinguish himself some day i shouldn't wonder if he went to college and wagged his head in a pulpit yet the idea of turkey wagging his head in a pulpit made me laugh wait till you see resumed missus duff
somewhat offended at my reception of her prophecy folk will hear of him yet i didn't mean he couldn't be a minister missus duff
here elsie came back and lifting the lid of the pot examined the state of its contents i got hold of her hand but for the first time she withdrew it i did not feel hurt for she did it very gently
the water in the pot was boiling and she began to make the porridge at which she was judged to be first rate in my mind equal to our kirsty by the time it was ready her father and turkey came in
the wind was blowing hard outside and every now and then the hail came in deafening rattles against the little windows and descending the wide chimney danced on the floor about the hearth but not a thought of the long stormy way between us and home
after supper which was enlivened by simple chat about the crops and the doings on the farm james turned to me and said
i know you're always getting hold of such things i had expected this
as i could not sing this was the nearest way in which i might contribute to the evening's entertainment
but in default of that
my reader must remember
and therefore any mode of literature was precious the schoolmaster was the chief source from which i derived my provision of this sort
i remember every word of it now
reminding them once more how easy it is to skip it if they do not care for that kind of thing bonny lassie rosy lassie ken ye what is care had ye ever a thought lassie made yer hertie sair
johnnie said it johnnie luikin into jeannie's face seekin in the garden hedge for an open place na said jeannie saftly smilin nought o care ken i for they say the carlin
is better passit by licht o hert ye are jeannie as o foot and ban lang be yours sic answer to ony spierin man
though yer words are few ye wad hae me aye as careless till i care for you dinna mock me jeannie lassie
no more i hae a notion o what's in yonder cairn i'm no sae pryin johnnie it's none o my concern well there's ae thing jeannie ye canna help my doo
johnnie turned and left her listed for the war in a year cam limpin hame wi mony a scar
could it be his jeannie aged and alter'd sair her goon was black her eelids reid wi sorrow's dew could she in a twalmonth be wife and widow too jeannie's hert gaed wallop
ken t him whan he spak i thocht that ye was deid johnnie
o jeannie are ye tell me wife or widow or baith
i wad be verra laith i canna be a widow that wife was never nane but gin ye will hae me noo i will be ane his crutch he flang it frae him forgetful o war's harms
but couldna stan withoot it and fell in jeannie's arms that's not a bad ballad said james duff have you a tune it would go to elsie elsie thought a little and asked me to repeat the first verse
then she sung it out clear and fair to a tune i had never heard before that will do splendidly elsie i said i will write it out for you and then you will be able to sing it all the next time i come she made me no answer
she and turkey were looking at each other and did not hear me james duff began to talk to me elsie was putting away the supper things in a few minutes i missed her and turkey and they were absent for some time they did not return together
but first turkey and elsie some minutes after as the night was now getting quite stormy james duff counselled our return and we obeyed but little either turkey or i cared for wind or hail
i saw elsie at church most sundays but she was far too attentive and modest ever to give me even a look sometimes i had a word with her when we came out but my father expected us to walk home with him
i was at first inclined to think that i ought as speedily as possible to return to london and by my open appearance repel the calumny which had been spread against me but i hesitated to take this course
on recollection of my father's disposition singularly absolute in his decisions as to all that concerned his family he was most able certainly from experience to direct what i ought to do
and from his acquaintance with the most distinguished whigs then in power had influence enough to obtain a hearing for my cause so upon the whole i judged it most safe to state my whole story in the shape of a narrative
addressed to my father and as the ordinary opportunities of intercourse between the hall and the post town recurred rarely i determined to ride to the town
indeed i began to think it strange that though several weeks had elapsed since my departure from home
either from my father or owen although rashleigh had written to sir hildebrand of his safe arrival in london and of the kind reception he had met with from his uncle admitting that i might have been to blame
i did not deserve in my own opinion at least to be so totally forgotten by my father and i thought my present excursion might have the effect of bringing a letter from him to hand more early than it would otherwise have reached me
but before concluding my letter concerning the affair of morris i failed not to express my earnest hope and wish that my father would honour me with a few lines
were it but to express his advice and commands in an affair of some difficulty and where my knowledge of life could not be supposed adequate to my own guidance
i found it impossible to prevail on myself to urge my actual return to london as a place of residence and i disguised my unwillingness to do so under apparent submission to my father's will
which as i imposed it on myself as a sufficient reason for not urging my final departure from osbaldistone hall would i doubted not be received as such by my parent but i begged permission to come to london
for a short time at least to meet and refute the infamous calumnies which had been circulated concerning me in so public a manner having made up my packet
i rode over to the post town
by doing so i obtained possession somewhat earlier than i should otherwise have done of the following letter from my friend mister owen dear mister francis yours received per favour of mister r osbaldistone
and note the contents shall do mister r o such civilities as are in my power and have taken him to see the bank and custom house he seems a sober steady young gentleman and takes to business
could have wished another person had turned his mind that way but god's will be done as cash may be scarce in those parts have to trust you will excuse my enclosing a goldsmith's bill at six days sight on messrs
hooper and girder of newcastle
which i doubt not will be duly honoured i remain as in duty bound dear mister frank your very respectful and obedient servant joseph owen postscriptum
hope you will advise the above coming safe to hand am sorry we have so few of yours your father says he is as usual but looks poorly from this epistle written in old owen's formal style
with a view to possess him of rashleigh's real character although from the course of post it seemed certain that he ought to have received it yet i had sent it by the usual conveyance from the hall
and had no reason to suspect that it could miscarry upon the road as it comprised matters of great importance both to my father and to myself i sat down in the post office and again wrote to owen
if it had reached him in safety i also acknowledged the receipt of the bill and promised to make use of the contents if i should have any occasion for money i thought indeed it was odd
that my father should leave the care of supplying my necessities to his clerk but i concluded it was a matter arranged between them at any rate owen was a bachelor rich in his way and passionately attached to me
and i expressed myself to this purpose to mister owen a shopkeeper in a little town to whom the post master directed me readily gave me in gold the amount of my bill on messrs hooper and girder
so that i returned to osbaldistone hall a good deal richer than i had set forth this recruit to my finances was not a matter of indifference to me as i was necessarily involved in some expenses at osbaldistone hall
and i had seen with some uneasy impatience that the sum which my travelling expenses had left unexhausted at my arrival there was imperceptibly diminishing this source of anxiety was for the present removed
on my arrival at the hall i found that sir hildebrand and all his offspring had gone down to the little hamlet called trinlay knowes to see
i suppose you have none such in scotland na na answered andrew boldly then shaded away his negative with unless it be on fastern's e'en or the like o that
but indeed it's no muckle matter what the folk do to the midden pootry for they had siccan a skarting and scraping in the yard that there's nae getting a bean or pea keepit for them
the turret door to which he alluded opened to the garden at the bottom of a winding stair leading down from mister rashleigh's apartment this as i have already mentioned was situated in a sequestered part of the house
communicating with the library by a private entrance and by another intricate and dark vaulted passage with the rest of the house
from the turret door to a little postern in the wall of the garden
could leave the hall or return to it at pleasure
without his absence or presence attracting any observation but during his absence the stair and the turret door were entirely disused and this made andrew's observation somewhat remarkable have you often observed that door open
was my question no just that often neither but i hae noticed it ance or twice
for fear of bogles and brownies
wad lay a ghaist twice as fast as him wi his holy water and his idolatrous trinkets
least he disna take me up when i tell him the learned names o the plants of father vaughan who divided his time and his ghostly care between osbaldistone hall and about half a dozen mansions of catholic gentlemen in the neighbourhood
i have as yet said nothing for i had seen but little he was aged about sixty of a good family as i was given to understand in the north of a striking and imposing presence grave in his exterior
and much respected among the catholics of northumberland as a worthy and upright man yet father vaughan did not altogether lack those peculiarities which distinguish his order there hung about him an air of mystery which in protestant eyes
savoured of priestcraft the natives such they might be well termed of osbaldistone hall looked up to him with much more fear or at least more awe than affection his condemnation of their revels was evident from their being discontinued in some measure
he had the well bred insinuating and almost flattering address peculiar to the clergy of his persuasion
while the priest privileged by his order to mingle with persons of all creeds is open alert and liberal in his intercourse with them desirous of popularity
and usually skilful in the mode of obtaining it father vaughan was a particular acquaintance of rashleigh's otherwise in all probability he would scarce have been able to maintain his footing at osbaldistone hall
this gave me no desire to cultivate his intimacy nor did he seem to make any advances towards mine so our occasional intercourse was confined to the exchange of mere civility i considered it as extremely probable
that mister vaughan might occupy rashleigh's apartment during his occasional residence at the hall and his profession rendered it likely that he should occasionally be a tenant of the library
and the priest was marked with something like the same mystery which characterised her communications with rashleigh i had never heard her mention vaughan's name or even allude to him excepting on the occasion of our first meeting
besides herself in osbaldistone hall yet although silent with respect to father vaughan his arrival at the hall never failed to impress miss vernon with an anxious and fluttering tremor
which lasted until they had exchanged one or two significant glances whatever the mystery might be which overclouded the destinies of this beautiful and interesting female it was clear that father vaughan was implicated in it
unless indeed i could suppose that he was the agent employed to procure her settlement in the cloister in the event of her rejecting a union with either of my cousins
an office which would sufficiently account for her obvious emotion at his appearance as to the rest they did not seem to converse much together or even to seek each other's society their league if any subsisted between them
was of a tacit and understood nature operating on their actions without any necessity of speech i recollected however on reflection that i had once or twice discovered signs pass betwixt them
which i had at the time supposed to bear reference to some hint concerning miss vernon's religious observances knowing how artfully the catholic clergy maintain at all times and seasons their influence over the minds of their followers
but now i was disposed to assign to these communications a deeper and more mysterious import did he hold private meetings with miss vernon in the library was a question which occupied my thoughts and if so for what purpose
to such close confidence these questions and difficulties pressed on my mind with an interest which was greatly increased by the impossibility of resolving them
i had already begun to suspect that my friendship for diana vernon was not altogether so disinterested as in wisdom it ought to have been
i had already felt myself becoming jealous of the contemptible lout thorncliff and taking more notice than in prudence or dignity of feeling i ought to have done of his silly attempts to provoke me
and now i was scrutinising the conduct of miss vernon with the most close and eager observation which i in vain endeavoured to palm on myself as the offspring of idle curiosity
all these like benedick's brushing his hat of a morning were signs that the sweet youth was in love and while my judgment still denied that i had been guilty of forming an attachment so imprudent
he had observed with great satisfaction the growing attachment of waverley to his sister nor did he see any bar to their union excepting the situation which waverley's father held in the ministry
these obstacles were now removed and in a manner which apparently paved the way for the son's becoming reconciled to another allegiance in every other respect the match would be most eligible
the safety happiness and honourable provision of his sister whom he dearly loved
to whom he had dedicated his service by an alliance with one of those ancient powerful and wealthy english families of the steady cavalier faith
was now a matter of such vital importance to the stuart cause nor could fergus perceive any obstacle to such a scheme
waverley's attachment was evident and as his person was handsome and his taste apparently coincided with her own he anticipated no opposition on the part of flora indeed between his ideas of patriarchal power
and those which he had acquired in france respecting the disposal of females in marriage any opposition from his sister dear as she was to him would have been the last obstacle on which he would have calculated
influenced by these feelings
not without the hope that the present agitation of his guest's spirits might give him courage to cut short what fergus termed the romance of the courtship
waverley asked for what joyful occasion miss mac ivor made such ample preparation it is for fergus's bridal she said smiling indeed said edward he has kept his secret well
i hope he will allow me to be his bride's man that is a man's office but not yours as beatrice says retorted flora and who is the fair lady may i be permitted to ask miss mac ivor
did not i tell you long since that fergus wooed no bride but honour answered flora and am i then incapable of being his assistant and counsellor in the pursuit of honour said our hero colouring deeply
far from it captain waverley i would to god you were of our determination and made use of the expression which displeased you solely because you are not of our quality
but stand against us as an enemy that time is past sister said fergus and you may wish edward waverley no longer captain joy of being freed
implied in that sable and ill omened emblem yes said waverley undoing the cockade from his hat it has pleased the king who bestowed this badge upon me
to resume it in a manner which leaves me little reason to regret his service thank god for that cried the enthusiast
and o that they may be blind enough to treat every man of honour who serves them with the same indignity that i may have less to sigh for when the struggle approaches and now sister said the chieftain
not replied the lady till the knight adventurer had well weighed the justice and the danger of the cause fergus
mister waverley is just now too much agitated by feelings of recent emotion for me to press upon him a resolution of consequence
miss mac ivor i perceive thinks the knight unworthy of her encouragement and favour said he somewhat bitterly
why should i refuse my brother's valued friend a boon which i am distributing to his whole clan most willingly would i enlist every man of honour in the cause to which my brother has devoted himself
but fergus has taken his measures with his eyes open his life has been devoted to this cause from his cradle with him its call is sacred were it even a summons to the tomb
but how can i wish you mister waverley so new to the world so far from every friend who might advise and ought to influence you in a moment too of sudden pique and indignation
how can i wish you to plunge yourself at once into so desperate an enterprise fergus who did not understand these delicacies strode through the apartment biting his lip and then with a constrained smile said
and the subjects of your lawful sovereign and benefactor and left the room there was a painful pause which was at length broken by miss mac ivor my brother is unjust she said
because he can bear no interruption that seems to thwart his loyal zeal and do you not share his ardour asked waverley do i not answered flora
god knows mine exceeds his if that be possible but i am not like him rapt by the bustle of military preparation and the infinite detail necessary to the present undertaking
beyond consideration of the grand principles of justice and truth on which our enterprise is grounded
can only be furthered by measures in themselves true and just to operate upon your present feelings my dear mister waverley to induce you to an irretrievable step
is in my poor judgment neither the one nor the other incomparable flora
a better one by far said flora gently withdrawing her hand mister waverley will always find in his own bosom when he will give its small still voice
no miss mac ivor i dare not hope it a thousand circumstances of fatal self indulgence have made me the creature rather of imagination than reason durst i but hope could i but think
that condescending friend who would strengthen me to redeem my errors my future life hush my dear sir
now you carry your joy at escaping the hands of a jacobite recruiting officer to an unparalleled excess of gratitude nay dear flora trifle with me no longer
you cannot mistake the meaning of those feelings which i have almost involuntarily expressed and since i have broken the barrier of silence
or may i with your permission mention to your brother not for the world mister waverley what am i to understand said edward is there any fatal bar has any prepossession
none sir answered flora i owe it to myself to say that i never yet saw the person on whom i thought with reference to the present subject the shortness of our acquaintance perhaps
if miss mac ivor will deign to give me time i have not even that excuse captain waverley's character is so open is in short
of that nature that it cannot be misconstrued either in its strength or its weakness and for that weakness you despise me said edward
forgive me mister waverley and remember it is but within this half hour that there existed between us a barrier of a nature to me insurmountable since i never could think of an officer in the service of the elector of hanover
permit me then to arrange my ideas upon so unexpected a topic and in less than an hour i will be ready to give you such reasons for the resolution i shall express
as may be satisfactory at least if not pleasing to you so saying flora withdrew leaving waverley to meditate upon the manner in which she had received his addresses
fergus re entered the apartment what a la mort waverley he cried come down with me to the court and you shall see a sight worth all the tirades of your romances
an hundred firelocks my friend and as many broadswords just arrived from good friends
me look at you closer why a true highlander would say you had been blighted by an evil eye or can it be this silly girl that has thus blanked your spirit
the wisest of her sex are fools in what regards the business of life indeed my good friend answered waverley all that i can charge against your sister is that she is too sensible too reasonable
for a louis d'or against the mood lasting four and twenty hours no woman was ever steadily sensible for that period
there is the slow deliberate manner in using which
and to prove that the desire to borrow shows no imprudence on his own part
it may be said that this mode fails oftener than any other there is the piteous manner the plea for commiseration my dear fellow unless you will see me through now upon my word i shall be very badly off
and this manner may be divided again into two there is the plea piteous with a lie and the plea piteous with a truth you shall have it again in two months as sure as the sun rises that is generally the plea piteous with a lie
or it may be as follows it is only fair to say that i don't quite know when i can pay it back this is the plea piteous with a truth and upon the whole i think that this is generally the most successful mode of borrowing
and there is the assured demand which betokens a close intimacy old fellow can you let me have thirty pounds no just put your name then on the back of this and i'll get it done in the city the worst of that manner is
that the bill so often does not get itself done in the city then there is the sudden attack that being the manner to which crosbie had recourse in the present instance that there are other modes of borrowing
by means of which youth becomes indebted to age and love to respect and ignorance to experience is a matter of course
i have come to you in great distress said crosbie i wonder whether you can help me
mister butterwell when he heard the words dropped the paper which he was reading from his hand and stared at crosbie over his spectacles five hundred pounds he said
dear me crosbie that's a large sum of money yes it is a very large sum half that is what i want at once but i shall want the other half in a month i thought that you were always so much above the world in money matters
i don't know why but i always thought that you had your things so very snug crosbie was aware that he had made one very great step towards success the idea had been presented to mister butterwell's mind
as an idea to which no reception could be given for a moment crosbie had not been treated as was the needy knife grinder
i have been so pressed since my marriage he said
but lady alexandrina yes of course i know i
but the truth is that i am only now free from the
you would hardly believe me if i told you what i've had to pay what do you think of two hundred and forty five pounds for bringing her body over here
and so would i you don't suppose i ordered it to be done poor dear thing if it could do her any good god knows i would not begrudge it
i had to pay his travelling bill too he didn't come to be buried did he it's too disgusting to talk of butterwell it is indeed and when i asked for her money that was settled upon me it was only two thousand pounds
they made me go to law and it seems there was no two thousand pounds to settle if i like i can have another lawsuit with the sisters when the mother is dead
i have made such a fool of myself i have come to such shipwreck oh butterwell if you could but know it all
i owe gazebee the man who married the other woman over a thousand pounds but i pay that off at two hundred a year and he has a policy on my life what do you owe that for don't ask me
not that i mind telling you furniture and the lease of a house and his bill for the marriage settlement
a man doesn't marry an earl's daughter for nothing butterwell and then to think what i lost it can't be helped now you know
i hate to hear a man talk like that i don't mean that i shall i'm too much of a coward i fancy a man who desires to soften another man's heart should always abuse himself in softening a woman's heart
i haven't had an hour of comfort not an hour i don't know why i should trouble you with all this butterwell
that's just how i stand i owed gazebee something over a thousand pounds which is arranged as i have told you
at least some of them were i suppose and that horrid ghastly funeral and debts i don't doubt due by the cursed old countess
i raised something over four hundred pounds and now i owe five which must be paid part to morrow and the remainder this day month and you've no security
not a rag not a shred not a line not an acre there's my salary and after paying gazebee what comes due to him
and without any security i know butterwell that i've no right to ask for it i feel that of course i should pay you what interest you please money's about seven now said butterwell
i've not the slightest objection to seven per cent said crosbie but that's on security said butterwell you can name your own terms said crosbie
mister butterwell got out of his chair and walked about the room with his hands in his pockets he was thinking at that moment what missus butterwell would say to him will an answer do to morrow morning he said
i would much rather have it to day said crosbie
said butterwell five per cent is the proper thing you'd
they were genuine tears which filled crosbie's eyes as he seized hold of the senior's hands butterwell he said what am i to say to you nothing at all nothing at all
your kindness makes me feel that i ought not to have come to you
i promised optimist i would read them before three and it's past two now
and crosbie felt that he was bound to leave the room
did not read the papers which thompson brought him but sat instead thinking of his five hundred pounds
five hundred pounds
he said to himself but where should i be if anything happened to him and then he remembered that missus butterwell especially disliked mister crosbie disliked him because she knew that he snubbed her husband
but it's hard to refuse when one man has known another for more than ten years then he comforted himself somewhat with the reflection that crosbie would no doubt make himself more pleasant for the future than he had done lately and with a second reflection
that crosbie's life was a good life and with a third as to his own great goodness in assisting a brother officer nevertheless as he sat looking out of the omnibus window on his journey home to putney
he was not altogether comfortable in his mind missus butterwell was a very prudent woman but crosbie was very comfortable in his mind on that afternoon he had hardly dared to hope for success but he had been successful
he had not even thought of butterwell as a possible fountain of supply till his mind had been brought back to the affairs of his office by the voice of sir raffle buffle at the corner of the street the idea that his bill would be dishonoured and that
tidings of his insolvency would be conveyed to the commissioners at his board had been dreadful to him the way in which he had been treated by musselboro and dobbs broughton had made him hate city men and what he supposed to be city ways
he could almost think of mister mortimer gazebee without disgust perhaps after all there might be some happiness yet in store for him
if ever he had an opportunity of pleading his own cause with her he certainly would tell her everything respecting his own money difficulties in that last resolve i think we may say that he was right
if lily would ever listen to him again at all
sir pathrick o'grandison barronitt thirty nine southampton row russell square parrish o bloomsbury
pink of purliteness quite and the laider of the hot
and fait that same is no wonder at all at all
every inch o the six wakes that i've been a gintleman
barronitt when he is all riddy drissed for the hopperer or stipping into the brisky for the drive into the hyde park
missure the six fut and the three inches more nor that in me stockins
and it is ralelly more than three fut and a bit that there is inny how
that lives jist over the way and that's a oggling and a goggling the houl day and bad luck to him at the purty widdy misthress tracle that's my own nixt door neighbor god bliss her
and a most particuller frind and acquaintance
and wears his lift hand in a sling and it's for that same thing by yur lave that i'm going to give you
the truth of the houl matter is jist simple enough for the very first day that i com'd from connaught
it was a gone case althegither with the heart o the purty misthress tracle
ye see all at once and no mistake and that's god's truth first of all it was up wid the windy in a jiffy
and thin she threw open her two peepers to the itmost and thin it was a little gould spy glass that she clapped tight to one o them
mesilf ye wud have to be bate in the purliteness so i made her a
and thin i winked at her hard wid both eyes as much as to say
and i wish i may be drownthed dead in a bog if it's not mesilf sir pathrick o'grandison barronitt
in the twinkling o the eye of a londonderry purraty and it was the nixt mornin sure jist
was all about mounseer the count a goose look aisy
as lived over the way and jist wid that
and then he made me a broth of a bow and thin he said he had ounly taken the liberty of doing me the honor of the giving me a call and thin
he went on to palaver at a great rate and divil the bit did i comprehind what he wud be afther the tilling me at all at all excipting and saving that he said
that he was mad for the love o my widdy misthress tracle and that my widdy missus tracle had a puncheon for him at the hearin of this ye may swear though
i was as mad as a grasshopper
that i was sir pathrick o'grandison barronitt and that it wasn't althegither gentaal
i made light o the matter
and afther a while what did he do but ask me to go wid him to the widdy's saying
is it there ye are said i thin to mesilf
wid that we wint aff to the widdy's next door and ye may well say it was an illigant place
and in one corner there was a forty pinny and a jew's harp and the divil knows what ilse and in another corner was a sofy the beautifullest thing in all natur and sitting on the sofy sure enough
there was the swate little angel misthress tracle the tip o the mornin to ye says i missus tracle
wully woo pully woo plump in the mud says the little furrenner frinchman and sure missus tracle says he that he did
and isn't he althegither and entirely the most particular frind and acquaintance that i have in the houl world and wid that the widdy
and thin down she sits like an angel and thin by the powers it was that little spalpeen mounseer maiter di dauns that plumped his silf right down by the right side of her
i was so dispirate mad howiver bait who says i after awhile is it there ye are mounseer maiter di dauns and so down i plumped on the lift side of her leddyship
with both eyes
and disperate hard it was he made the love to her leddyship woully wou says he pully wou says he
that i kipt up wid her all about the dear bogs of connaught
for no sooner did she obsarve
put it away behind her back jist as much as to say
there's a bitther chance for ye mavourneen for it's not altogether the gentaal thing to be afther the squazing of my flipper right full in the sight of that little furrenner frinchman
and then he let down the two corners of his purraty trap and thin not a haporth more of the satisfaction could i git out o the spalpeen
and the more by token that the frinchman kipt an wid his winking at the widdy and the widdy she kept an wid the squazing of my flipper as much as to say at him again sir pathrick o'grandison mavourneen
and jist thin what d'ye think it was that her leddyship did troth she jumped up from the sofy as if she was bit and made off through the door while i turned my head round afther her
in a complate bewilderment and botheration and followed her wid me two peepers
for i knew very well that i had hould of her hand for the divil the bit had i iver lit it go and says i isn't it the laste little bit of a mistake in the world that ye've been afther the making yer leddyship come back now
that's a darlint and i'll give ye yur flipper but aff she wint down the stairs like a shot and thin
that's all and maybe it wasn't mesilf that jist died then outright wid the laffin
but only sir pathrick o'grandison
as for sir pathrick o'grandison barronitt it wasn't for the likes of his riverence to be afther the minding of a thrifle of a mistake ye may jist say though
for it's god's thruth that afore i left hould of the flipper of the spalpeen
woully wou says he pully wou says he
in an equal degree skilled in the philosophy of that period is i presume still more especially undeniable
but what pen can do justice to his essays sur la nature his thoughts sur l'ame
if his omelettes
of that day would not have given twice as much for an
bon bon had ransacked libraries which no other man had ransacked had more than any other would have entertained a notion of reading had understood more than any other would have conceived the possibility of understanding
and although while he flourished
that his dicta evinced neither the purity of the academy nor the depth of the lyceum although mark me his doctrines were by no means very generally comprehended still
it did not follow that they were difficult of comprehension
it is to bon bon but let this go no farther it is to bon bon that kant himself is mainly indebted for his metaphysics the former was indeed not a platonist
nor strictly speaking an aristotelian nor did he
of a fricasee or
the analysis of a sensation in frivolous attempts at reconciling the obstinate oils and waters of ethical discussion not at all bon bon was ionic
he reasoned also a posteriori
he believed in george of trebizonde he believed in bossarion
bessarion bon bon was emphatically a bon bonist i have spoken of the philosopher in his capacity of restaurateur i would not
and importance far from it it was impossible to say in which branch of his profession he took the greater pride in his opinion
the powers of the intellect held intimate connection with the capabilities of the stomach i am not sure indeed that he greatly disagreed with the chinese who held
by this i do not mean to insinuate a charge of gluttony or indeed any other serious charge to the prejudice of the metaphysician if pierre bon bon had his failings and what great man has not a thousand if pierre
bon bon i say had his failings they were failings of very little importance faults indeed which in other tempers have often been looked upon rather in the light of virtues
that the bargain should be to his own proper advantage provided a trade could be effected a trade of any kind upon any terms or under any circumstances
a triumphant smile was seen for many days thereafter to enlighten his countenance and a knowing wink of the eye to give evidence of his sagacity
should elicit attention and remark
had this peculiarity not attracted observation
it was soon reported that upon all occasions of the kind the smile of bon bon was wont to differ widely from the downright grin with which he would laugh at his own jokes or welcome an acquaintance
hints were thrown out of an exciting nature stories were told of perilous bargains made in a hurry and repented of at leisure
for wise purposes of his own the philosopher had other weaknesses but they are scarcely worthy our serious examination for example there are few men of extraordinary profundity
who are found wanting in an inclination for the bottle whether this inclination be an exciting cause or rather a valid proof of such profundity it is a nice thing to say
nor do i yet in the indulgence of a propensity so truly classical it is not to be supposed that the restaurateur would lose sight of that intuitive discrimination
which was wont to characterize at one and the same time his essais and his omelettes
there were appropriate moments for the cotes du rhone
he would sport with a syllogism in sipping saint peray
well had it been if the same quick sense of propriety had attended him in the peddling propensity to which i have formerly alluded but this was by no means the case
indeed to say the truth that trait of mind in the philosophic bon bon
of strange intensity and mysticism
to enter the sanctum of a man of genius bon bon was a man of genius there was not a sous cusinier in rouen who could not have told you that bon bon was a man
of genius his very cat knew it and forebore to whisk her tail in the presence of the man of genius his large water dog was acquainted with the fact and upon the approach of his master
betrayed his sense of inferiority by a sanctity of deportment
not altogether unworthy of a dog it is however true that much of this habitual respect might have been attributed to the personal appearance of the metaphysician a distinguished exterior will
i am constrained to say have its way even with a beast and i am willing to allow much in the outward man of the restaurateur calculated to impress the imagination of the quadruped
if i may be permitted so equivocal an expression which mere physical bulk alone will be found at all times inefficient in creating if however bon bon was barely three feet in height
and if his head was diminutively small still it was impossible to behold the rotundity of his stomach without a sense of magnificence nearly bordering upon the sublime
in its size both dogs and men must have seen a type of his acquirements in its immensity a fitting habitation for his immortal soul i might here if it so pleased me
dilate upon the matter of habiliment and other mere circumstances of the external metaphysician i might hint that the hair of our hero was worn short combed smoothly over his forehead
and surmounted by a conical shaped white flannel cap and tassels that his pea green jerkin was not after the fashion of those worn by the common class of restaurateurs at that day that the sleeves were something fuller
than the reigning costume permitted that the cuffs were turned up not as usual in that barbarous period with cloth of the same quality and color as the garment but faced in a more fanciful manner with the particolored velvet of genoa
and might have been manufactured in japan but for the exquisite pointing of the toes and the brilliant tints of the binding and embroidery
called aimable that his sky blue cloak resembling in form a dressing wrapper and richly bestudded all over with crimson devices floated cavalierly upon his shoulders like a mist of the morning
and that his tout ensemble gave rise to the remarkable words of benevenuta the improvisatrice of florence
or rather a very paradise of perfection i might i say expatiate upon all these points if i pleased but i forbear merely personal details may be left to historical novelists
i have said
but then it was only the man of genius who could duly estimate the merits of the sanctum a sign consisting of a vast folio swung before the entrance
on one side of the volume was painted a bottle on the reverse a pate on the back were visible in large letters
thus was delicately shadowed forth the two fold occupation of the proprietor upon stepping over the threshold the whole interior of the building presented itself to view
a long low pitched room of antique construction was indeed all the accommodation afforded by the cafe in a corner of the apartment stood the bed of the metaphysician
and comfortable in the corner diagonary opposite appeared in direct family communion the properties of the kitchen and the bibliotheque a dish of polemics stood peacefully upon the dresser
here lay an ovenful of the latest ethics
and contemporary manuscripts were filed away upon the spit in other respects the cafe de bon bon might be said to differ little from the usual restaurants of the period a fireplace yawned opposite the door
it was here about twelve o'clock one night during the severe winter the comments of his neighbours upon his singular propensity that pierre bon bon i say having turned them all out of his house locked the door
upon them with an oath and betook himself in no very pacific mood to the comforts of a leather bottomed arm chair and a fire of blazing fagots
chapter twenty eight
most probably he would find himself in the presence of missus dale and her daughter and of grace also at his first entrance and if so his position would be awkward enough
he almost regretted now that he had not written to missus dale and asked for an interview his task would be very difficult if he should find all the ladies together
as he had already learned that missus dale's residence was called by all the neighbourhood nobody was at home the servant said and then when the visitor began to make further inquiry the girl explained that the two young ladies had walked as far
and that missus dale was at this moment at the great house with the squire
the maid however was interrupted before she had finished telling all this to the major by finding her mistress behind her in the passage
then the major announced himself my name is major grantly said he and he was blundering on with some words about his own intrusion when missus dale begged him to follow her into the drawing room he had muttered something to the effect that missus dale would not know who he was
but missus dale knew all about him and had heard the whole of grace's story from lily she and lily had often discussed the question whether under existing circumstances
and the mother and daughter had differed somewhat on the matter
was so calamitous to all connected with him as to justify any man not absolutely engaged in abandoning the thoughts of such a marriage
and had declared her opinion that they were entitled to consideration but lily had opposed this idea very stoutly asserting that in an affair of love a man should think neither of father or brother or mother or sister
if he is worth anything lily had said he will come to her now now in her trouble
in answer to this missus dale had replied that women had no right to expect from men such self denying nobility as that i don't expect it mamma said lily and i am sure that grace does not indeed i am quite sure that grace does not expect even to see him ever again
she never says so but i know that she has made up her mind about it still i think he ought to come it can hardly be that a man is bound to do a thing the doing of which as you confess would be almost more than noble said missus dale
and so the matter had been discussed between them but now as it seemed to missus dale the man had come to do this noble thing at any rate he was there in her drawing room
you may not probably have heard my name he said but i am acquainted with your friend miss crawley i know your name very well major grantly my brother in law who lives over yonder mister dale knows your father very well
is he at home now mister dale is almost always at home
they had managed to seat themselves and missus dale had said enough to put her visitor fairly at his ease if he had anything special to say to her he must say it
but they will certainly be home between three and four if that is not too long for you to remain at allington
it certainly will not hurt me major grantly perhaps you will lunch with me i'll tell you what missus dale if you'll permit me
indeed i have intended to do so all through and i can only ask you to keep my secret if after all it should require to be kept i will certainly keep any secret that you may ask me to keep said missus dale taking off her bonnet
i hope there may be no need of one said major grantly the truth is missus dale that i have known miss crawley for some time nearly for two years now and i may as well speak it out at once
they are not aware of it i know that at the present moment they are in great trouble missus dale was going on but she was interrupted by major grantly
and i should not know how to speak to him or how not to speak to him about this unfortunate affair but missus dale you will i think perceive that the same circumstances make it imperative upon me to be explicit to miss crawley
i think i am the last man to boast of a woman's regard but i had learned to think that i was not indifferent to grace if that be so what must she think of me if i stay away from her now
i may perhaps be able to bring comfort to her in her trouble as regards my worldly position though indeed it will not be very good as hers is not good either you will not think yourself bound to forbid me to see her on that head
certainly not i need hardly say that i fully understand that as regards money you are offering everything where you can get nothing and you understand my feeling indeed i do and appreciate the great nobility of your love for grace
you shall see her here if you wish it and to day if you choose to wait major grantly said that he would wait and would see grace on that afternoon missus dale again suggested that he should lunch with her but this he declined
on her own child here was a man who was at all points a gentleman
and be loved by him and the result of that chance would be that grace would have everything given to her that the world has to give worth acceptance she would have a companion for her life whom she could trust admire love and of whom she could be infinitely proud
or five thousand or what sum intermediate between the two nor did she give much of her thoughts at the moment to that side of the subject she knew without thinking of it or fancied that she knew that there were means sufficient for comfortable living
it was solely the nature and character of the man that was in her mind and the sufficiency that was to be found in them for a wife's happiness but her daughter her lily had come across a man who was a scoundrel
and as the consequence of that meeting all her life was marred could any credit be given to grace for her success or any blame attached to lily for her failure surely not the latter
then many bitter thoughts passed through missus dale's mind and she almost envied grace crawley her lover
an idea probably never absolutely uttered even to herself but not the less practically conceived that it is the business of a woman to be married
as he had no wish to encounter grace and her friend on their return into the village so he crossed a little brook which runs at the bottom of the hill on which the chief street of allington is built
not knowing the geography of the place he did not understand that by taking that path he was making his way back to the squire's house but it was so
he found himself leaning across a gate and looking into a paddock on the other side of which was the high wall of a gentleman's garden to avoid this he went on a little further and found himself on a farm road
but major grantly had not perceived that the house must of necessity be allington house having been aware that he had passed the entrance to the place as he entered the village on the other side i'm afraid i'm intruding he said lifting his hat
i came up the path yonder not knowing that it would lead me so close to a gentleman's house there is a right of way through the fields on to the guestwick road said the squire and therefore you are not trespassing in any sense but we are not particular about such things down here
and you would be very welcome if there were no right of way if you are a stranger perhaps you would like to see the outside of the old house people think it picturesque then major grantly became aware that this must be the squire
and he was annoyed with himself for his own awkwardness in having thus come upon the house he would have wished to keep himself altogether unseen if it had been possible
to whom now that he had met him
indeed the house altogether is as graceful as it can be those trees are old too said the squire pointing to two cedars which stood at the side of the house they say they are older than the house but i don't feel sure of it
there was a mansion here before very nearly though not quite on the same spot your own ancestors were living here before that i suppose said grantly meaning to be civil well yes two or three hundred years before it i suppose
by far the best that there is by the by would you like to step in and take a glass of wine i'm very much obliged said the major but indeed i'd rather not then he followed the squire down to the churchyard and was shown the church as well as the view of the house
and the vicarage and a view over to allington woods from the vicarage gate of which the squire was very fond and in this way he was taken back on to the guestwick side of the village and even down on to the road by which he had entered it without in the least knowing where he was
this is allington said the squire and as he spoke lily dale and grace crawley turned a corner from the guestwick road and came close upon them well girls i did not expect to see you said the squire your mamma told me you wouldn't be back till it was nearly dark lily
but the reader will be aware that no introduction was possible it never occurred to lily that this man could be the major grantly of whom she and grace had been talking during the whole length of the walk home but grace and her lover had of course known each other at once
and grantly though he was abashed and almost dismayed by the meeting of course came forward and gave his hand to his friend grace in taking it did not utter a word
the squire invited him very warmly to send his portmanteau up to the house we'll have the ladies up from the house below and make it as little dull for you as possible but this would not have suited grantly
at any rate would not suit him till he should know what answer he was to have he excused himself therefore pleading a positive necessity to be at guestwick that evening and then explaining that he had already seen missus dale
he expressed his intention of going back to the small house in company with the ladies if they would allow him the squire who did not as yet quite understand it all bade him a formal adieu
chapter twenty nine miss lily dale's logic lady julia de guest always lunched at one exactly and it was not much past twelve when john eames made his appearance at the cottage
lily herself would have been quite at her ease protected by lady julia and somewhat protected also by her own powers of fence had it not been that grace was there also but grace crawley
had by no means been at her ease lily saw at once that she could not be brought to join in any conversation and both john and lady julia in their ignorance of the matter in hand made matters worse so that was major grantly said john
i wonder what he's doing at allington said johnny i think he knows my uncle said lily but he's going to call on your mother he said then johnny remembered that the major had said something as to knowing miss crawley and for the moment he was silent
and i remember hearing that he was terribly disappointed he is getting to be an old man now i suppose and yet dear me how well i remember his father he didn't look like a bishop's son said johnny how does a bishop's son look lily asked
i suppose he ought to have some sort of clerical tinge about him but this fellow had nothing of that kind but then this fellow as you call him said lily is only the son of an archdeacon that accounts for it i suppose said johnny
but during all this time grace did not say a word and lily perceived it then she bethought herself as to what she had better do grace she knew could not be comfortable where she was nor indeed was it probable that grace would be very comfortable in returning home
there could not be much ease for grace till the coming meeting between her and major grantly should be over but it would be better that grace should go back to allington at once and better also perhaps for major grantly that it should be so
lady julia she said i don't think we'll mind stopping for lunch to day nonsense my dear you promised i think we must break our promise i do indeed you mustn't be angry with us and lily looked at lady julia as though there were something
which lady julia ought to understand which she lily could not quite explain i fear that lily was false and intended her old friend to believe that she was running away because john eames had come there but you will be famished said lady julia
we shall live through it said lily it is out of the question that i should let you walk all the way here from allington and all the way back without taking something we shall just be home in time for lunch if we go now said lily will not that be best grace
grace hardly knew what would be best she only knew that major grantly was at allington and that he had come thither to see her the idea of hurrying back after him was unpleasant to her
john eames who in truth believed that lily dale was running away from him was by no means well pleased and when the girls were gone did not make himself so agreeable to his old friend as he should have done
that's very civil to me john you know what i mean lady julia
and not on her own it seems to me that lily was very glad to see you and when i told her that you were coming to stay here and would be near them for some days she seemed to be quite pleased she did indeed then why did she run away the moment i came in said johnny
i think it was something you said about that man who has gone to allington what difference can the man make to her the truth is i despise myself i do indeed lady julia
if i thought she did i would never speak another word to her i mean about myself
then lady julia tried to comfort him and succeeded so far that he was induced to eat the mince veal that had been intended for the comfort and support of the two young ladies who had run away
and the worship which is due to a true man then she was silent for a moment but grace said nothing and lily continued i tell you fairly grace that i shall expect very much from you now much in what way lily in the way of worship
i shall not be content that you should merely love him if he has come here as he must have done to say that the moment of the world's reproach is the moment he has chosen to ask you to be his wife
i think that you will owe him more than love i shall owe him more than love and i will pay him more than love said grace there was something in the tone of her voice as she spoke which made lily stop her and look up into her face
there was a smile there which lily had never seen before and which gave a beauty to her which was wonderful to lily's eyes
and therefore had loved her and was giving such wonderful proof of his love yes continued grace standing and looking at her friend you may stare at me lily but you may be sure that i will do for major grantly all the good that i can do for him what do you mean grace
never mind what i mean you are very imperious in managing your own affairs and you must let me be so equally in mine but i tell you everything do you suppose that if
certainly why not there will be no sacrifice he will be asking for that which he wishes to get and you will be bound to give it to him if he wants it where is his nobility
that he has been willing to take that which he does not want in order that he may succour one whom he loves i also will succour one whom i love as best i know how then she walked on quickly before her friend and lily stood for a moment thinking before she followed her
they were now on a field path by which they were enabled to escape the road back to allington for the greater part of the distance and grace had reached a stile and had clambered over it before lily had caught her you must not go away by yourself said lily
if that be the case and if you also love him i do i make no mystery about that to you i do love him with all my heart i love him to day now that i believe him to be here and that i suppose i shall see him perhaps this very afternoon
and i loved him yesterday when i thought that i should never see him again i do love him i do i love him so well that i will never do him an injury that being so if he makes you an offer you are bound to accept it
i have an alternative and i shall use it why don't you take my cousin john because i like somebody else better
because i cannot trust his love that is why it is not very kind of you opening my sores afresh when i am trying to heal yours oh lily am i unkind unkind to you who have been so generous to me
i'll forgive you all that and a deal more if you will only listen to me and try to take my advice because this major of yours does a generous thing which is for the good of you both the infinite good of both of you
you are to emulate his generosity by doing a thing which will be for the good of neither of you that is about it yes it is grace you cannot doubt that he has been meaning this for some time past and of course if he looks upon you as his own
but i am not his own yes you are in one sense you have just said so with a great deal of energy and if it is so let me see where was i
but i do mind and i hate to be interrupted in my arguments yes just that if he saw his cow sick he'd try to doctor the cow in her sickness
i am not major grantly's cow yes you are nor his dog nor his ox nor his ass nor anything that is his except except lily the dearest friend that he has on the face of the earth
he cannot have a friend that will go further for him than i will he will never know how far i will go to serve him you don't know his people nor do i know them but i know what they are
what has that to do with it said lily sharply if she were married to an archduke what difference would that make and they are proud people all of them and rich and they live with high persons in the world
i didn't care though they lived with the royal family and had the prince of wales for their bosom friend it only shows how much better he is than they are but think what my family is how we are situated
but now he is disgraced yes lily he is i am bound to say so at any rate to myself when i am thinking of major grantly and i will not carry that disgrace into a family which would feel it so keenly as they would do
the new private secretary income tax office april eighth eighteen
my dear lord de guest i hardly know how to answer your letter it is so very kind more than kind and about not writing before
indeed it didn't come from not thinking about you and first of all about the money
i really feel that i do not know what i ought to say to you about it without appearing to be a simpleton the truth is i don't know what i ought to do and can only trust to you not to put me wrong i have an idea that a man ought not to accept a present of money unless from his father or somebody like that
if you choose to be so generous would it not be better that you should leave it me in your will
i'm sure he wouldn't want that said lady julia but you may live for twenty five years you know
very much indeed and i think that he is behaving very handsomely to his niece but whether it will do me any good that is quite another thing however i shall certainly accept your kind invitation for easter and find out whether i have a chance or not
i must tell you that sir raffle buffle has made me his private secretary by which i get a hundred a year
and seems to like talking about you very much you will understand what all that means he has sent you ever so many messages but i don't suppose you will care to get them i am to go to him to morrow and from all i hear i shall have a hard time of it
by george he will said the earl poor fellow but i thought a private secretary never had anything to do said lady julia i shouldn't like to be private secretary to sir raffle myself but he's young and a hundred a year is a great thing
we always used to be asking for some one to muffle the buffle
give my kind regards to lady julia and tell her how very much obliged to her i am i cannot express the gratitude which i owe to you but pray believe me my dear lord de guest always very faithfully yours john eames
it was late before eames had finished his letter he had been making himself ready for his exodus from the big room
i say johnny i congratulate you most heartily i do indeed thank you old fellow
and then such a snug room to yourself
but johnny i always knew you'd come to something more than common i always said so there's nothing uncommon about this except that fitz says that old huffle scuffle makes himself uncommon nasty never mind what fitz says it's all jealousy
i think you always do have it all your own way are you nearly ready well not quite don't wait for me caudle oh i'll wait i don't mind waiting they'll keep dinner for us if we both stay besides what matters i'd do more than that for you
i have some idea of working on till eight and having a chop sent in said johnny besides i've got somewhere to call by myself then cradell almost cried he remained silent for two or three minutes striving to master his emotion
what a goose you are do you say i'm changed because i want to dine in the city it's all because you don't want to walk home with me as we used to do i'm not such a goose but what i can see but johnny i suppose i mustn't call you johnny now
don't be such a con founded then eames got up and walked about the room
but how would you feel whimpered cradell who had never succeeded in putting himself quite on a par with his friend even in his own estimation since that glorious victory at the railway station if he could only have thrashed lupex as johnny had thrashed crosbie
then indeed they might have been equal a pair of heroes but he had not done so he had never told himself that he was a coward but he considered that circumstances had been specially unkind to him
i hate all that kind of thing you never ought to suppose that a man will give himself airs but wait till he does i don't believe i shall remain with old scuffles above a month or two from all that i can hear that's as much as any one can bear
then cradell by degrees became happy and cordial and during the whole walk flattered eames with all the flattery of which he was master and johnny though he did profess himself to be averse to all that kind of thing was nevertheless open to flattery
i don't suppose he'd ever think of asking you to do such a thing unless he was in a very great hurry or something of that kind look here johnny said cradell as they got into one of the streets bordering on burton crescent you know the last thing in the world i should like to do would be to offend you
and stopping cradell as well the exclamation was made in a deep angry voice which attracted the notice of one or two who were passing johnny was very wrong wrong to utter any curse very wrong to ejaculate that curse against a human being
and especially wrong to fulminate it against a woman a woman whom he had professed to love
i only meant to say said cradell i'll do anything you like in the matter then never mention her name to me again and as to talking to her you may talk to her till you're both blue in the face if you please oh i didn't know
you didn't seem to like it the other day i was a fool the other day a confounded fool and so i have been all my life amelia roper look here caudle
just let her have her fling never mind me i'll amuse myself with missus lupex or miss spruce but there'll be the deuce to pay with missus lupex she's as cross as possible already whenever amelia speaks to me
and on that he felt himself equal to any man it was no doubt true that eames had thrashed a man and that he had not it was true also that eames had risen to very high place in the social world having become a private secretary
but for a dangerous mysterious overwhelming life enveloping intrigue was not he the acknowledged hero of such an affair he had paid very dearly both in pocket and in comfort for the blessing of missus lupex's society
and more life enveloping whereas it would not become more dangerous seeing that mister lupex could hardly find himself to be aggrieved by such a proceeding the whole number of missus roper's boarders were assembled at dinner that day
and johnny had thereby become the mark of a certain amount of hero worship oh indeed said missus roper an appy woman your mother will be when she hears it but i always said you'd come down right side uppermost handsome is as handsome does said miss spruce
oh mister eames exclaimed missus lupex with graceful enthusiasm i wish you joy from the very depth of my heart it is such an elegant appointment accept the hand of a true and disinterested friend said lupex
and johnny did accept the hand though it was very dirty and stained all over with paint amelia stood apart and conveyed her congratulations by a glance or i might better say by a series of glances and now
now that you are rolling in wealth and prosperity and then before they went downstairs she did whisper one word to him oh i am so happy john so very happy bother said johnny in a tone quite loud enough to reach the lady's ear
she had been employed in wringing it for some days past
it had been clear enough to her that eames had been piqued by her overtures to cradell and she had therefore to play out that game
i hate your sudden rises they do so often make a man upsetting i should like to try myself all the same said cradell
he that was worried by the bull
and amelia gave her head a little toss and then smiled archly in a manner which to cradell's eyes was really very becoming but he saw that missus lupex was looking at him from the other side of the table and he could not quite enjoy the goods which the gods had provided for him
when the ladies left the dining room lupex and the two young men drew their chairs near the fire and each prepared for himself a moderate potation eames made a little attempt at leaving the room but he was implored by lupex
with such earnest protestations of friendship to remain and was so weakly fearful of being charged with giving himself airs that he did as he was desired and here mister eames is to your very good health said lupex
and wishing you many years to enjoy your official prosperity thank ye said eames i don't know much about the prosperity but i'm just as much obliged yes sir when i see a young man of your age beginning to rise in the world i know he'll go on
now look at me mister eames mister cradell here's your very good health and may all unkindness be drowned in the flowing bowl look at me mister eames i've never risen in the world i've never done any good in the world and never shall
oh mister lupex don't say that ah but i do say it
and i'll tell you why i never got a chance when i was young
a star you know to let me paint his portrait when i was your age such a one let us say as your friend sir raffle
well i suppose he's pretty much known in the world isn't he or lord derby or mister spurgeon you know what i mean if i'd got such a chance as that when i was young
you've got the chance now but i never had it whereupon mister lupex finished his first measure of gin and water it's a very queer thing life is continued lupex
and though he did not at once go to work boldly at the mixing of another glass of toddy he began gradually and as if by instinct to finger the things which would be necessary for that operation a very queer thing
now remember young gentlemen i'm not denying that success in life will depend upon good conduct of course it does but then how often good conduct comes from success
i could have drunk claret and champagne just as well as gin and water and worn ruffles to my shirt as gracefully as many a fellow who used to be very fond of me and now won't speak to me if he meets me in the streets i never got a chance never
but it's not too late yet mister lupex said eames yes it is eames yes it is and now mister lupex had grasped the gin bottle it's too late now the game's over and the match is lost the talent is here
i'm as sure of that now as ever i was i've never doubted my own ability never for a moment there are men this very day making a thousand a year off their easels
or so good a feeling in colours i could name them only i won't and why shouldn't you try again said eames if i were to paint the finest piece that ever delighted the eye of man who would come and look at it
who would have enough belief in me to come as far as this place and see if it were true no eames i know my own position and my own ways and i know my own weakness i couldn't do a day's work now unless i were certain of getting a certain number of shillings at the end of it
that's what a man comes to when things have gone against him but i thought men got lots of money by scene painting
you'll beware of marrying too soon in life i think a man should marry early if he marries well said eames don't misunderstand me continued lupex it isn't about missus l i'm speaking i've always regarded my wife as a very fascinating woman
if a man don't stand by his wife whom will he stand by i blame no one but myself but i do say this i never had a chance
and as he repeated the words for the third time his lips were already fixed to the rim of his tumbler at this moment the door of the dining room was opened and missus lupex put in her head lupex she said what are you doing
yes my dear i can't say i'm doing anything at the present moment i was giving a little advice to these young gentlemen mister cradell i wonder at you and mister eames i wonder at you too in your position lupex come upstairs at once
i've been waiting for you this half hour i've got such a puzzle for you and she made way for him to a chair which was between herself and the wall cradell looked half afraid of his fortunes as he took the proffered seat
at the top of the hilly street known to the neighborhood as the squire's all the slip covers had been taken from the furniture in the best parlor all the company china had been lifted off its top shelf and washed
all the spare lamps had been filled all the rooms swept and dusted all the drawers in the bureaus freshly arranged for as milly said to herself who knew but some one might take a fancy to peep in
milly grace the squire's daughter had sat for hours in a cold woodshed tying up wreaths of ground pine and hemlock with fingers which grew more chilly every hour
these wreaths now ornamented the parlor festooning curtains chimney piece and door frames and making green edges to the family portraits which were two in number
neither of them by copley or stuart as was plain to the most casual observation one of these portraits represented the squire's father in a short waisted square tailed blue coat
and a canary colored waistcoat his forefinger was inserted in a calf bound volume of blackstone and his eyes were fixed with a fine judicial directness upon the cupola of the court house
seen through a window in the background the other was his wife in a sad colored gown and muslin tucker with a countenance
the squire did not care much for this picture it made him feel badly he said just the feeling he used to have when he was a boy and was sent every sunday by this orthodox parent
to study the longer answers of the shorter catechism on the third step of the garret stairs with orders not to stir from that position till he had them perfectly committed to memory
which made him so indulgent to milly a great deal too indulgent her step mother thought in the buttery stood a goodly row of cakes little and big
loaves whose icings shone like snow crust on a sunny day little cakes with plums and little cakes without plums all sorts of cakes on the swinging shelf of the cellar
were moulds of jelly clear and firm in the woodhouse stood three freezers of ice cream packed and ready to turn out elsewhere were dishes of scalloped oysters ready for the oven
each with its little edging of crimped crackers platters of chicken salad forms of blanc mange bowls of yellow custard topped with raspberry and egg like sunset tinted avalanches
all that goes to the delectation of a country party for a party there was to be as after this enumeration i need hardly state it was milly's party
and all these elaborate preparations were her own work the work of a girl of nineteen with no larger allowance of hands feet and spinal vertebrae than all girls have
and no larger allowance of hours to her day but with a much greater share of zeal energy and what the squire called go than most young women of her age can boast of
she it was who had pounded away at the tough sacks full of ice and salt till they were ready for the freezers she it was who had beaten the innumerable eggs for the sponge cakes
pound cakes fruit cakes one two three four jelly nut and other cakes who had swept the rooms washed the china rearranged changed brightened everything
like most other families on croydon hill the graces kept but one help a stout woman who could wash iron and scrub with the best and grapple successfully enough
with the simple daily menu but who for finer purposes was as unhandy as a gorilla all the embellishments
fell to the share of the ladies of the household which meant milly as a general thing and in this case particularly for the party was hers and she felt bound to take the burden of it on her own shoulders
as far as possible especially as her step mother did not quite approve and considered that the squire had done a foolish thing in giving consent milly should have her way for once
the squire had announced so milly had her way and had borne herself bravely and brightly through the fatigues of preparation but somehow when things were almost ready when the table was set
lacking only the last touches and the fire lighted a heavy sense of discouragement fell upon her it was the natural reaction after long overwork but she was too inexperienced to understand it
she only knew that suddenly the thing she had wished for seemed undesirable and worth nothing and that she felt perfectly miserable and didn't care what became of her
she laid her tired head on the little table by which she was sitting and without in the least intending it began to cry missus grace was lying down
the squire was out there was no one to note her distress or sympathize with it excepting teakettle the black cat he was sorry for milly after his cat fashion
rubbed his velvet head against her dress for a little while as if wishing to console her but when she took no notice he walked away and sat down in front of the door waiting till some one should open it and let him through
cats soon weary of the role of comforter and escape to pleasanter things sunshine bird shadows on the grass light hearted people who will play with them and make no appeal to their sympathies
milly's tears did her no good she was too physically worn out to find relief in them they only deepened her sense of discouragement the clock struck six
and went upstairs to dress there were still the lamps to light and last things to do and no one to do them but me thought poor milly oh dear
how dreadfully my feet ache how glad i shall be when they all go away and i can go to bed this was indeed a sad state of mind to be in on the eve of a long anticipated pleasure
everything looked bright and orderly and attractive when the guests arrived a little after half past seven the fire snapped and the candles shone
a feeling of hospitable warmth was in the air milly's arrangements except so far as they regarded her own well being had been judicious and happy
the pretty girls in their short sleeved blue and crimson merinos with roses and geranium leaves in their hair i need not say that this was at a far back and old fashioned date
looked every whit as charming as the girls of to day in their more elaborate costumes cousin mary kendal
liked fun as much as any girl among them had volunteered to play for the dancing
and corn rigs are bonny was enough to set a church steeple to capering everybody seemed in a fair way to have a delightful evening except one person that one was poor milly
usually the merriest in every party but now dull spiritless and inert she did not even look pretty color and sparkle the chief elements of beauty in her face were
for the moment completely quenched she was wan and jaded there were dark rings under her eyes and an utter absence of spring to her movements usually so quick and buoyant
she sat down whenever she had the chance she was silent unless she must speak half unconsciously she kept a watch of the clock and was saying to herself only two hours more and i can go to bed
her fatigued looks and lack of pleasure were a constant damper to the animation of the rest every one noticed and wondered what could be the matter but only janet norcross dared to ask
have you got a headache she whispered but the no
why won't you dance with me urged will benham you said you would when we were talking about the party after the lecture don't you remember i'd rather the others had the chance it's my party you know
replied milly but they are having a chance everybody is dancing but you come milly oh will don't tease cried milly irritably i never saw such an evening
do please to leave me alone and go and ask some of the others weariness sharpened her voice till the words were out of her lips she had no idea that she was going to speak so petulantly to will
it sounded dreadfully even to herself oh certainly said will with freezing dignity
he did not look at milly again or come near her and the sense of his displeasure was just the one drop too much milly felt herself choke a hot rush of tears blinded her eyes she turned
and being fortunately near the door got out of it and upstairs without suffering her face to be seen janet found her half an hour later
lying prone across the bed and sobbing as if her heart would break what is the matter she cried in alarm are you ill dear milly has anything dreadful happened i came up to look for you
will benham got worried because you were away so long and came to me to ask what had become of you i told him i guessed you were taking out the ice creams but katy said you hadn't been in the kitchen at all
so i came up here what is the matter do tell me oh nothing is the matter at all except that i am a perfect idiot and so tired that i wish i were dead said milly
it was awfully good of will to care for i spoke so crossly to him you can't think it was horrid of me but somehow i felt so dreadfully tired that the words seemed to jump out of my mouth against my will
dear janet and i was cross to you too added milly penitently everything has gone wrong with me to night oh and there is that horrible ice cream i must go and get it out of the freezers
but my back aches so janet and the soles of my feet burn like fire you poor thing you are just tired out said her friend no wonder
you must have worked like a horse to make everything so nice and pretty as it is don't worry about the ice cream just tell me what dishes to put it in and i'll see to it it won't take five minutes
but do rouse yourself now and keep up a little while longer the others will wonder so if you don't go down you must go down you know here is a wet towel for your eyes and i'll smooth your hair
even so small a lift as having the ice cream taken out for her was a relief and janet's kindness and the sense that will was not hopelessly alienated by her misconduct
soothed and comforted she went downstairs and got through the rest of the evening tolerably well but when the last good night had been said and the last sleigh bell had jingled away from the door
she found herself too tired to rest all night long she tossed restlessly on her hot pillows while visions of pounding ice and stirring cake
of will's anger and janet's surprise when she found her in tears whirled through her thoughts when morning came she was so poorly
too much party no doubt was his inward commentary when he received the summons and his first words to milly were well missy so you are down with fruit cake and mottoes are you
i never ate a mouthful of the cake i only made it was poor milly's disclaimer that sounds serious said the doctor but when he had felt her pulse he looked graver
you've done a good deal too much of something that is evident he said i shall have to keep you in bed awhile to pay you for it milly was forced to submit she stayed in bed for a whole week
and the greater part of another missing thereby two candy pulls on which her heart was set and the best sleighing frolic of the season everybody was kind about coming to see her
and sending her flowers and nice things and janet in particular spent whole hours with her every day the whole thing seems such a dreadful pity milly said one day
she was really better now able to sit up and equal to a calm discussion of her woes i had looked forward so much to my party and i wanted to have it as nice as could be and i worked so hard
and then when the time came i didn't enjoy it a bit if i could only have it over again now when i am all rested and fresh i should have as good a time as anybody
doesn't it seem a pity janet yes it does replied janet after which she fell into a little musing fit one can't have company without taking some trouble she said at last
but i wonder if one need take so much i don't see what else i could have done said milly you must give people nice things when they come to see you and somebody has got to make them
and besides that there is so much to see to about the house dusting and washing china and making the rooms nice i know went on janet reflectively
missus beers half killed herself i remember when she had that quilting two years ago in giving the whole house a thorough house cleaning beforehand
she said as like as not somebody would want to run up into the garret chamber after something and she should have a fit if it wasn't in order and after all not a soul went anywhere except to the parlor and dining room
and into missus beers's bedroom to take off their things so the fuss was all thrown away and missus beers had inflammation of the lungs afterward and almost died i recollect
but then they might have gone to the attic she couldn't tell it was natural that missus beers should think of it well and suppose they had and that there had been a trifle of dust on the top of some old trunk
what difference would it have made people who are busy enjoying themselves don't stop to notice every little thing i am going to think the thing over milly it's all wrong somehow
janet herself was meditating a party her father had given permission and aunt esther who managed the housekeeping was only too glad to fall in with any plan which pleased janet
judge norcross was the richest man on the hill there was no reason why janet's entertainment should not out shine milly's in fact she had felt a little ambitious to have it do so
and had made certain plans in her private mind all of which involved labor and trouble but now she hesitated if i'm going to be as tired out as milly was and not enjoy it
what's the use of having a party at all she said to herself i'd like to have it as nice as hers but whatever i have i have got to do it all myself i'm not as strong as milly i know
and it has half killed her perhaps it would quite kill me a party isn't worth that she discussed the matter within herself reasonably she could wind herself up and make
there were the recipes and the materials and she knew how moreover aunt esther would help her she could have as much jelly and syllabub and blanc mange as milly
she could turn the house upside down if she desired and trim and beautify and adorn it was a temptation no girl likes to be outdone least of all by her intimate friend
but is it worth while janet queried and i think she proved herself possessed of a very level head when at last she decided that it was not i'll be sensible for once
she told herself a party is not a duty it is a pleasure if i get so tired that i spoil my own pleasure i spoil my company's too for they will be sure to find it out
just as they did at milly's i couldn't half enjoy anything that night because she looked so miserable and i won't run the risk of having the same thing happen at our house i'll just do what is necessary
and leave off the extras the necessary when janet came to analyze it proved to be quite as much as she was able to undertake for as she had admitted to herself
she was not nearly so strong as milly grace it meant an ample supply of two sorts of cake freshly made and delicate with plenty of ice cream salad scalloped oysters and rolls
there was extra china to wash the table to set and the rooms to dust and arrange and janet was quite tired enough before it was done she sent to boston for some preserved ginger
to take the place of the jelly which she didn't make she made no attempt at evergreen wreaths and she wisely concluded that rooms in their usual state of cleanliness
and amusement that no one would find time to peep into holes and corners and that the house could wait to have its thorough cleaning administered gradually after the occasion was over
there was really a great deal of steady good sense in holding to this view of the matter and janet found her reward in the end the preparations even thus simplified taxed her strength
the extra touches which she had omitted would have been just the straw too much she gave herself a good margin for rest on the afternoon preceding the party and when she came downstairs in her pretty dress
of pale blue cashmere and swan's down ready to meet her guests her cheeks and eyes were as bright as usual and her spirits were ready for the exhilaration of excitement
if she is depressed or under the weather her visitors are pretty sure to catch her mood and be affected by it
nobody missed the wine jelly or the six absent sorts of cake no one wasted a thought on the evergreen wreaths all was fun and merriment and nothing seemed wanting to the occasion
what a good time we have had said helen jones to alice ware as they stood at the door of the dressing room waiting for their escorts it's been ever so much jollier than it was at milly's and i can't think why
that was a beautiful party but somehow people seemed to feel dull
but as it happened milly was nearer to her than she thought
she said coming forward frankly don't look so shocked i know you didn't mean me to hear but indeed i don't mind a bit and it's quite true besides
and it's because i was such a goose about mine i did a great deal too much and got dreadfully tired so tired that i couldn't enjoy it and you all found it out of course so you couldn't enjoy it either
i'm sure i don't wonder but it was all my own fault janet took warning by my experience and made her party easier and you see how nice it has been we have all had a beautiful time
and so has she well i've learned a lesson by it next time i give a party i shall just do what i can to make it pleasant for you all and not what i can't
out of which it emerged into a most charming region where grand trees not closely planted but in scattered groups were growing with absolutely tropical luxuriance as the party drove on they stumbled upon a little native boy
lying fast asleep beneath the shade of a magnificent banksia he was dressed in european garb and seemed about eight years of age there was no mistaking the characteristic features of his race the crisped hair the nearly black skin
the flattened nose the thick lips the unusual length of the arms immediately classed him among the aborigines of the interior but a degree of intelligence appeared in his face that showed some educational influences
must have been at work on his savage untamed nature lady helena whose interest was greatly excited by this spectacle got out of the wagon followed by mary and presently the whole company surrounded the peaceful little sleeper
poor child said mary grant is he lost i wonder in this desert i suppose said lady helena he has come a long way to visit this part no doubt some he loves are here
we must his compassionate sentence remained unfinished for just at that moment the child turned over in his sleep and to the extreme surprise of everybody there was a large label on his shoulders on which the following was written toline
care of jeffries smith railway porter prepaid that's the english all over exclaimed paganel they send off a child just as they would luggage and book him like a parcel i heard it was done certainly
but i could not believe it before poor child said lady helena could he have been in the train that got off the line at camden bridge
and he is left alone in the world i don't think so madam replied john mangles that card rather goes to prove he was traveling alone
his eyes slowly opened and then closed again pained by the glare of light but lady helena took his hand and he jumped up at once and looked about him in bewilderment at the sight of so many strangers
he seemed half frightened at first but the presence of lady helena reassured him do you understand english my little man asked the young lady
i understand it and speak it replied the child in fluent enough english but with a marked accent his pronunciation was like a frenchman's what is your name asked lady helena toline replied the little native
toline exclaimed paganel ah i think that means bark of a tree in australian
where do you come from inquired lady helena from melbourne
yes sir was toline's reply but the god of the bible protected me are you traveling alone yes alone the reverend paxton put me in charge of jeffries smith
and you did not know any one else on the train no one madam but god watches over children and never forsakes them
when he mentioned the name of god his voice was grave and his eyes beamed with all the fervor that animated his young soul this religious enthusiasm at so tender an age was easily explained the child
was one of the aborigines baptized by the english missionaries and trained by them in all the rigid principles of the methodist church his calm replies proper behavior and even his somber garb
made him look like a little reverend already but where was he going all alone in these solitudes and why had he left camden bridge lady helena asked him about this
he replied i wished to see my family again are they australians inquired john mangles yes australians of the lachlan replied toline have you a father and mother said robert grant yes my brother replied toline
holding out his hand to little grant robert was so touched by the word brother that he kissed the black child and they were friends forthwith the whole party were so interested in these replies of the little australian savage
but the sun had meantime sunk behind the tall trees and as a few miles would not greatly retard their progress and the spot they were in would be suitable for a halt
the tent was pitched and olbinett got the supper ready toline consented after some difficulty to share it though he was hungry enough he took his seat beside robert who chose out all the titbits for his new friend
toline accepted them with a shy grace that was very charming the conversation with him however was still kept up for everyone felt an interest in the child and wanted to talk to him and hear his history it was simple enough
he was one of the poor native children confided to the care of charitable societies by the neighboring tribes the australian aborigines are gentle and inoffensive
never exhibiting the fierce hatred toward their conquerors which characterizes the new zealanders and possibly a few of the races of northern australia they often go to the large towns such as adelaide sydney and melbourne
they go to barter their few articles of industry hunting and fishing implements weapons et cetera
no doubt willingly leave their children to profit by the advantages of a gratuitous education in english this was how toline's parents had acted they were true australian savages living in the lachlan
a vast region lying beyond the murray the child had been in melbourne five years and during that time
and yet the imperishable feeling of kindred was still so strong in his heart that he had dared to brave this journey over the wilds to visit his tribe once more
and after you have kissed your parents are you coming back to melbourne asked lady glenarvan yes madam replied toline looking at the lady with a loving expression and what are you going to be some day she continued
i am going to snatch my brothers from misery and ignorance i am going to teach them
i am going to be a missionary words like those spoken with such animation from a child of only eight years might have provoked a smile in light scoffing auditors
and felt his warmer sympathy awakened for the poor child to speak the truth up to that moment he did not care much for a savage in european attire he had not come to australia to see australians in coats and trousers
he preferred them simply tattooed and this conventional dress jarred on his preconceived notions
won him over completely indeed the wind up of the conversation converted the worthy geographer into his best friend it was in reply to a question lady helena had asked
that toline said he was studying at the normal school in melbourne
and what do they teach you she went on to say they teach me the bible and mathematics and geography paganel pricked up his ears at this and said indeed geography yes sir said toline
and i had the first prize for geography before the christmas holidays you had the first prize for geography my boy yes sir here it is returned toline pulling a book out of his pocket it was a bible thirty two mo size and well bound
on the first page was written the words normal school melbourne first prize for geography toline of the lachlan paganel was beside himself an australian well versed in geography this was marvelous
and he could not help kissing toline on both cheeks just as if he had been the reverend mister paxton himself on the day of the distribution of prizes paganel need not have been so amazed at this circumstance however for it is frequent enough in australian schools
the little savages are very quick in learning geography they learn it eagerly and on the other hand are perfectly averse to the science of arithmetic toline could not understand this outburst of affection on the part of the frenchman
that lady helena thought she had better inform him that paganel was a celebrated geographer and a distinguished professor on occasion a professor of geography cried toline oh sir do question me
question you well i'd like nothing better indeed i was going to do it without your leave i should very much like to see how they teach geography in the normal school of melbourne
and suppose toline trips you up paganel said mc nabbs what a likely idea exclaimed the geographer trip up the secretary of the geographical society of france their examination then commenced
after paganel had settled his spectacles firmly on his nose drawn himself up to his full height and put on a solemn voice
pupil toline stand up as toline was already standing he could not get any higher but he waited modestly for the geographer's questions pupil toline what are the five divisions of the globe oceanica
asia africa america and europe perfectly so now we'll take oceanica first where are we at this moment what are the principal divisions australia belonging to the english
new zealand belonging to the english tasmania belonging to the english the islands of chatham auckland macquarie kermadec makin
are also belonging to the english very good and new caledonia the sandwich islands the mendana
under the protectorate of great britain
france said the child with an astonished look well well said paganel is that what they teach you in the melbourne normal school yes sir isn't it right oh yes yes perfectly right
all oceanica belongs to the english that's an understood thing go on paganel's face betrayed both surprise and annoyance to the great delight of the major let us go on to asia said the geographer
asia replied toline is an immense country capital
africa comprises two chief colonies the cape on the south capital capetown and on the west the english settlements chief city sierra leone capital
but anglo colored fanciful geography as to algeria morocco egypt they are all struck out of the britannic cities let us pass on pray to america it is divided said toline promptly
into north and south america the former belongs to the english in canada new brunswick new scotland
under the government of president johnson president johnson cried paganel the successor of the great and good lincoln assassinated by a mad fanatic of the slave party capital nothing could be better and as
to south america with its guiana its archipelago of south shetland its georgia
that belongs to the english too well i'll not be the one to dispute that point but toline i should like to know your opinion of europe or rather your professor's europe said toline
yes europe who does europe belong to why to the english replied toline as if the fact was quite settled i much doubt it returned paganel but how's that toline for i want to know that
england ireland scotland malta jersey and guern sey the ionian islands the hebrides the shetlands
yes yes my lad but there are other states you forgot to mention what are they replied the child
spain russia austria prussia france answered paganel they are provinces not states said toline well that beats all exclaimed paganel tearing off his spectacles
spain capital gibraltar admirable perfect sublime and france for i am french
france said toline quietly is an english province chief city
calais cried paganel
certainly and that it is the capital of france yes sir and it is there that the governor lord napo leon lives this was too much for paganel's risible faculties he burst out laughing
toline did not know what to make of him he had done his best to answer every question put to him
of the answers were not his blame indeed he never imagined anything singular about them however he took it all quietly and waited for the professor to recover himself
these peals of laughter were quite incomprehensible to him you see said major mc nabbs laughing i was right the pupil could enlighten you after all most assuredly friend major replied the geographer
so that's the way they teach geography in melbourne they do it well these professors in the normal school europe asia africa america oceanica
my conscience with such an ingenious education it is no wonder the natives submit ah well toline my boy does the moon belong to england too she will some day replied the young savage gravely
this was the climax paganel could not stand any more
for he was actually exploding with mirth and he went fully a quarter of a mile from the encampment before his equilibrium was restored meanwhile glenarvan looked up a geography they had brought among their books it was richardson's compendium
a work in great repute in england and more in agreement with modern science than the manual in use in the normal school in melbourne here my child he said to toline take this book and keep it you have a few wrong ideas about geography
which it would be well for you to rectify i will give you this as a keepsake from me toline took the book silently but after examining it attentively he shook his head with an air of incredulity
to put it in his pocket by this time night had closed in it was ten p m and time to think of rest if they were to start betimes next day robert offered his friend toline half his bed and the little fellow accepted it
lady helena and mary grant withdrew to the wagon and the others lay down in the tent paganel's merry peals still mingling with the low sweet song of the wild magpie
but in the morning at six o'clock when the sunshine wakened the sleepers they looked in vain for the little australian toline had disappeared
striking similes a a blind rage like a fire swept over him a book that rends and tears like a broken saw a breath of melancholy made itself felt
a cluster of stars hangs like fruit in the tree a confused mass of impressions like an old rubbish heap a cry as of a sea bird in the wind
a dead leaf might as reasonably demand to return to the tree a drowsy murmur floats into the air like thistledown
lusterless air as of a caged creature a few pens parched by long disuse a figure like a carving on a spire a fluttering
as of blind bewildered moths a giant galleon overhead looked like some misty monster of the deep a glacial pang of pain like the stab of a dagger of ice
like a carved mask a hand icily cold and clammy as death a heart from which noble sentiments sprang like sparks from an anvil
a jeweler that glittered like his shop a lady that lean'd on his arm like a queen in a fable of old fairy days a life a presence
like the air a life as common and brown and bare as the box of earth in the window there a light wind outside the lattice swayed a branch of roses to and fro
a little breeze ran through the corn like a swift serpent a little weed clogged ship gray as a ghost
a long slit of daylight like a pointing finger a memory like a well ordered cupboard a mighty wind like a leviathan plowed the brine
a name which sounds even now like the call of a trumpet a note of despairing appeal which fell like a cold hand upon one's living soul a purpose
as the steady flame a question deep almost as the mystery of life a quibbling mouth that snapped at verbal errors like a lizard catching flies
a radiant look came over her face like a sudden burst of sunshine on a cloudy day a reputation that swelled like a sponge a ruby like a drop of blood
a shadow of melancholy touched her lithe fancies as a cloud dims the waving of golden grain a silver moon like a new stamped coin rode triumphant in the sky
a slow thought that crept like a cold worm through all his brain a smile flashed over her face like sunshine over a flower
a sweet voice caroling like a gold caged nightingale a thin shrill voice like the cry of an expiring mouse
a vague thought as elusive as the smell of a primrose a vanishing loveliness as tender as the flush of the rose leaf and as ethereal as the light of a solitary star
a voice as low as the sea a voice soft and sweet as a tune that one knows a white bird floats there like a drifting leaf
air like wine all around them like a forest swept the deep and empurpled masses of her tangled hair all like an icicle it seemed so tapering and cold
all my life broke up like some great river's ice at touch of spring all silent as the sheeted dead
all sounds were lost in the whistle of air humming by like the flight of a million arrows all that's beautiful drifts away like the waters
all the world lay stretched before him like the open palm of his hand all unconscious as a flower alone like a storm tossed wreck
on this night of the glad new year an anxiety hung like a dark impenetrable cloud an ardent face out looking like a star an ecstasy
which suddenly overwhelms your mind like an unexpected and exquisite thought an envious wind crept by like an unwelcome thought an ideal as sublime and comprehensive as the horizon
an immortal spirit dwelt in that frail body like a bird in an outworn cage an impudent trick as hackneyed as conjuring rabbits out of a hat
an undefined sadness seemed to have fallen about her like a cloud an unknown world wild as primeval chaos an unpleasing strain
and a tear like silver glistened in the corner of her eye and all our thoughts ran into tears like sunshine into rain
and at first the road comes moving toward me like a bride waving palms and dusk with breast as of a dove brooded
and eyes as bright as the day and fell as cold as a lump of clay and her cheek was like a rose and here were forests
ancient as the hills and many a fountain rivulet and pond as clear as elemental diamond or serene morning air and melting like the stars in june
and night as welcome as a friend and silence like a poultice comes to heal the blows of sound
a pint of ashes to a small pail of whitewash is sufficient but a little more or less will do no harm to remove stains from broadcloth take an ounce of pipe clay
which has been ground fine mix it with twelve drops of alcohol and the same quantity of spirits of turpentine
let it remain till dry then rub it off with a woolen cloth and the spots will disappear to remove red stains of fruit from linen moisten the cloth and hold it over a piece of burning sulphur
and apply it as you would any other scouring drops it will take out all the grease iron stains may be removed by the salt of lemons many stains may be removed by dipping the linen in some buttermilk
let it dry and then scour it off with some strong soft soap and sand or use lees to scour it with it should be put on hot which may easily be done by heating the lees
rub on the spots and spread the cloth on the grass where the sun will shine on it let it lie two or three days then wash if the spots are wet occasionally while lying on the grass it will hasten the bleaching
to remove stains from muslin if you have stained your muslin or gingham dress or similar articles with berries before wetting with anything else pour boiling water through the stains and they will disappear
before fruit juice dries it can often be removed by cold water using a sponge and towel if necessary to remove acid stains
stains caused by acids may be removed by tying some pearlash up in the stained part scrape some soap in cold soft water and boil the linen until the stain is gone to disinfect
sinks and drains copperas dissolved in water one fourth of a pound to a gallon and poured into a sink and water drain occasionally will keep such places sweet and wholesome
which should be made wet enough to form a thin paste or wash to disinfect a cellar a damp musty cellar may be sweetened by sprinkling upon the floor pulverized copperas chloride of lime or even common lime
the most effective means i have ever used to disinfect decaying vegetable matter
if used one part with three parts of charcoal it will be found still better how to thaw out a water pipe water pipes usually freeze up when exposed
for inside the walls where they cannot be reached they are or should be packed to prevent freezing to thaw out a frozen pipe bundle a newspaper into a torch light it and pass it along the pipe slowly
the ice will yield to this much quicker than to hot water or wrappings or hot cloths as is the common practice to prevent mold a small quantity of carbolic acid added to paste mucilage and ink will prevent mold
an ounce of the acid to a gallon of whitewash will keep cellars and dairies from the disagreeable odor which often taints milk and meat kept in such places thawing frozen gas pipe
mister f h shelton says i took off from over the pipe some four or five inches just a crust of earth and then put a couple of bushels of lime in the space poured water over it and slaked it
and then put canvas over that and rocks on the canvas so as to keep the wind from getting underneath next morning on returning there i found that the frost had been drawn out from the ground for nearly three feet
in the daytime you cannot afford to waste the time but if you have a spare night in which to work it is worth while to try it how to test a thermometer
warm the thermometer gradually in the steam and then plunge it into the water if it indicates a fixed temperature of two hundred and twelve degrees the instrument is a good one indelible ink an indelible ink
this will form a writing fluid which cannot be erased without destruction of the paper the ink will write greenish blue but afterward will turn black to get a broken cork out of a bottle if in drawing a cork it breaks
and put it in holding the bottle so as to bring the piece of cork near to the lower part of the neck catch it in the loop so as to hold it stationary you can then easily extract it with a corkscrew
a wash for cleaning silver mix together half an ounce of fine salt half an ounce of powdered alum and half an ounce of cream of tartar put them
into a large white ware pitcher and pour on two ounces of water and stir them frequently till entirely dissolved then transfer the mixture to clean bottles and cork them closely before using it shake the bottles well
using an old soft fine linen cloth let it stand about ten minutes and then rub it dry with a buckskin it will make the silver look like new to remove the odor from a vial
the odor of its last contents may be removed from a vial by filling it with cold water and letting it stand in any airy place uncorked for three days changing the water every day to loosen a glass stopper
the manner in which apothecaries loosen glass stoppers when there is difficulty
to soften boots and shoes kerosene will soften boots and shoes which have been hardened by water and render them as pliable as new to remove stains spots and mildew from furniture take
half a pint of ninety eight per cent alcohol
add half a pint of linseed oil shake well and apply with a brush or sponge sweet oil will remove finger marks from varnished furniture and kerosene from oiled furniture
other methods should not be employed without some skill to fill cracks in plaster use vinegar instead of water to mix your plaster of paris
the resultant mass will be like putty and will not set for twenty or thirty minutes whereas if you use water the plaster will become hard almost immediately
push it into the cracks and smooth it off nicely with a table knife to toughen lamp chimneys and glassware immerse the article in a pot filled with cold water to which some common salt has been added
boil the water well then cool slowly
rub it well with hot sharp vinegar to clean stovepipe a piece of zinc put on the live coals in the stove will clean out the stovepipe to brighten carpets
carpets after the dust has been beaten out
then place in a cool spot to preserve bouquets put a little saltpetre in the water you use for your bouquets and the flowers will live for a fortnight to preserve brooms
dip them for a minute or two in a kettle of boiling suds once a week and they will last much longer making them tough and pliable a carpet wears much longer swept with a broom cared for in this manner
to clean brassware mix one ounce of oxalic acid six ounces of rotten stone all in powder one ounce of sweet oil and sufficient water to make a paste apply a small proportion
and rub dry with a flannel or leather the liquid dip most generally used consists of nitric and sulphuric acids but this is more corrosive to keep out mosquitoes
if a bottle of the oil of pennyroyal is left uncorked in a room at night not a mosquito nor any other blood sucker will be found there in the morning to kill cockroaches a teacupful of well bruised plaster of paris mixed with
although this last named ingredient is not essential strew it on the floor or into the chinks where they frequent to destroy ants drop some quicklime on the mouth of their nest
and wash it with boiling water or dissolve some camphor in spirits of wine then mix with water and pour into their haunts or tobacco water which has been found effectual
they are averse to strong scents camphor or a sponge saturated with creosote will prevent their infesting a cupboard to prevent their climbing up trees place a ring of tar about the trunk or a circle of rag moistened occasionally with creosote
then put your furs in this state in boxes well closed when the furs are wanted for use beat them well as before and expose them for twenty four hours to the air which will take away the smell of the camphor
if the fur has long hair as bear or fox add to the camphor an equal quantity of black pepper in powder to get rid of moths one
procure shavings of cedar wood and inclose in muslin bags which can be distributed freely among the clothes two procure shavings of camphor wood and inclose in bags three sprinkle pimento allspice berries among the clothes
fifteen grains to the pint bed bugs spirits of naphtha rubbed with a small painter's brush into every part of the bedstead
the mattress and binding of the bed should be examined and the same process attended to as they generally harbor more in these parts than in the bedstead ten cents worth of naphtha is sufficient for one bed
i have been for a long time troubled with bugs and never could get rid of them by any clean and expeditious method until a friend told me to suspend a small bag of camphor to the bed just in the center overhead
i did so and the enemy was most effectually repulsed and has not made his appearance since not even for a reconnoissance this is a simple method of getting rid of these pests and is worth a trial to see if it be effectual in other cases
mixture for destroying flies infusion of quassia one pint brown sugar four ounces ground pepper two ounces to be well mixed together
a good way to rid the house of flies is to saturate small cloths with oil of sassafras and lay them in windows and doors the flies will soon leave aging oak
place the piece to be fumed with an evaporating dish containing concentrated ammonia in a box and close it airtight leave for twelve hours and finish with a wax polish
applying first a thin coat of paraffine oil and then rubbing with a pomade of prepared wax made as follows
agate ware is good until melted
and stir till entirely cool keep the turpentine away from the fire
three grains ether two drams apply on cotton wool to the tooth previously dried charcoal tooth paste
mint water one ounce dissolve and add powdered charcoal two ounces honey one ounce excellent mouth wash powdered white castile soap two drams alcohol three ounces
honey one ounce essence or extract jasmine two drams dissolve the soap in alcohol and add honey and extract removing tartar from the teeth this preparation is used by dentists
pure muriatic acid one ounce water one ounce honey two ounces mix thoroughly take a toothbrush and wet it freely with this preparation and briskly rub the black teeth
and in a moment's time they will be perfectly white then immediately wash out the mouth well with water that the acid may not act on the enamel of the teeth this should be done only occasionally test for glue
the following simple and easy test for glue is given a weighed piece of glue say one third of an ounce is suspended in water for twenty four hours the temperature of which is not above fifty degrees fahrenheit
the coloring material sinks and the glue swells from the absorption of the water the glue is then taken out and weighed the greater the increase in weight the better the glue if it then be dried perfectly and weighed again
the weight of the coloring matter can be learned from the difference between this and the original weight bad breath
foul stomach or bad teeth may be temporarily relieved by diluting a little bromo chloralum with eight or ten parts of water and using it as a gargle and swallowing a few drops before going out
a pint of bromo chloralum costs fifty cents but a small vial will last a long time good tooth powder procure at a druggist's half an ounce of powdered orris root
half an ounce of prepared chalk finely pulverized and two or three small lumps of dutch pink let them all be mixed in a mortar and pounded together the dutch pink is to impart a pale reddish color
and a quarter of an ounce of prepared chalk a safe depilatory take a strong solution of sulphuret of barium and add enough finely powdered starch to make a paste
and rub with sweet oil quick depilatory for removing hair best slaked lime six ounces orpiment fine powder one ounce mix with a covered sieve
remove as in shaving with an ivory or bone paper knife wash with cold water freely and apply cold cream tricopherus for the hair castor oil alcohol each one pint
alkanet coloring to color as wished mix and let it stand forty eight hours with occasional shaking and then filter liquid shampoo
the salts to be dissolved in water and the other ingredients to be added gradually cleaning hair brushes put a teaspoonful or dessertspoonful of aqua ammonia into a basin half full of water
comb the loose hairs out of the brush then agitate the water briskly with the brush and rinse it well with clear water hair invigorator bay rum two pints alcohol one pint castor oil one ounce
one ounce mix them well
bay rum four ounces water two ounces mix and apply once a day and rub well into the scalp mustache grower simple cerate one ounce oil bergamot ten minims
care must be used not to inflame the skin by too frequent application razor strop paste wet the strop with a little sweet oil and apply a little flour of emery evenly over the surface
shaving compound half a pound of plain white soap dissolved in a small quantity of alcohol as little as can be used add a tablespoonful of pulverized borax
shave the soap and put it in a small tin basin or cup place it on the fire in a dish of boiling water when melted add the alcohol and remove from the fire stir in oil of bergamot sufficient to perfume it
cure for prickly heat mix a large portion of wheat bran with either cold or lukewarm water and use it as a bath twice or thrice a day
children who are covered with prickly heat in warm weather will be thus effectually relieved from that tormenting eruption as soon as it begins to appear on the neck face or arms commence using the bran water on these parts repeatedly through the day
and it may probably spread no farther if it does the bran water bath will certainly cure it if persisted in to remove corns from between the toes these corns are generally more painful than any others
oil of rosemary one dram and a half orange lemon and bergamot one dram each of the oil also two drams of the essence of musk attar of rose ten drops and a pint of proof spirit
oil lavender flowers five minims
put into the pungent a small piece of sponge filling about one fourth the space
then put in the mixed salts until the bottle is three fourths full and pour on the spirits of ammonia in proper proportion and close the bottle volatile salts for pungents
one pint oil lavender flowers one dram
with air tight stopper perfume the liquor ammonia to suit and pour over the carbonate close tightly the lid and place in a cool place
paste for papering boxes boil water and stir in batter of wheat or rye flour let it boil one minute take off and strain through a colander add while boiling a little glue or powdered alum
do plenty of stirring while the paste is cooking and make of consistency that will spread nicely aromatic spirit of vinegar
thoroughly mix and keep in well stoppered bottle rose water preferable to the distilled for a perfume or for ordinary purposes
rub it up with half an ounce of white sugar and two drams carbonate magnesia then add gradually one quart of water and two ounces of proof spirit and filter through paper bay rum
french proof spirit one gallon
mix and color with caramel needs no filtering fine lavender water mix together in a clean bottle a pint of inodorous spirit of wine an ounce of oil of lavender
a teaspoonful of oil of bergamot and a tablespoonful of oil of ambergris the virtues of turpentine after a housekeeper fully realizes the worth of turpentine in the household she is never willing to be without a supply of it
it gives quick relief to burns it is an excellent application for corns it is good for rheumatism and sore throat and it is the quickest remedy for convulsions or fits then it is a sure preventive against moths
in the spring cleaning time and injures neither furniture nor clothing a spoonful of it added to a pail of warm water is excellent for cleaning paint a little in suds washing days lightens laundry labor
and two or three cloves boil it to a consistency of mush stirring all the time it will keep for twelve months and when dry may be softened with warm water paste for scrap books
sticks well and will not mold or discolor paper starch alone will make a very good paste a strong paste a paste that will neither decay nor become moldy mix good clean flour with cold water
in a saturated solution of borax a sugar paste in order to prevent the gum from cracking to ten parts by weight of gum arabic and three parts of sugar add water until the desired consistency is obtained
if a very strong paste is required add a quantity of flour equal in weight to the gum without boiling the mixture the paste improves in strength when it begins to ferment tin box cement
to fix labels to tin boxes either of the following will answer one soften good glue in water then boil it in strong vinegar and thicken the liquid while boiling with fine wheat flour so that a paste results
two starch paste with which a little venice turpentine has been incorporated while warm paper and leather paste cover four parts by weight of glue
with fifteen parts of cold water and allow it to soak for several hours then warm moderately till the solution is perfectly clear
so as to form a thin homogeneous liquid free from lumps and pour the boiling glue solution into it with thorough stirring and at the same time keep the mass boiling commercial mucilage
the best quality of mucilage in the market is made by dissolving clear glue in equal volumes of water and strong vinegar and adding one fourth of an equal volume of alcohol
acid proof paste a paste formed by mixing powdered glass with a concentrated solution of silicate of soda makes an excellent acid proof cement
paste to fasten cloth to wood take a plump pound of wheat flour one tablespoonful of powdered resin one tablespoonful of finely powdered alum
and rub the mixture in a suitable vessel with water to a uniform smooth paste transfer this to a small kettle over a fire and stir until the paste is perfectly homogeneous without lumps
as soon as the mass has become so stiff that the stirrer remains upright in it transfer it to another vessel and cover it up so that no skin may form on its surface this paste is applied in a very thin layer to the surface of the table
the cloth or leather is then laid and pressed upon it and smoothed with a roller the ends are cut off after drying
then add one fourth pound of finely pulverized alum and boil the mixture for ten minutes or until a thick consistency is reached now add one quart of hot water and boil again until the paste becomes a pale brown color and thick
the sea does not close upon the water logged hull with a sunny ripple or maybe with the angry rush of a curling wave erasing her name from the roll of living ships no it is as if an invisible hand
had been stealthily uplifted from the bottom to catch hold of her keel as it glides through the water more than any other event does stranding bring to the sailor a sense of utter and dismal failure
there are strandings and strandings but i am safe to say that ninety per cent of them are occasions in which a sailor without dishonour may well wish himself dead
ninety per cent did actually for five seconds or so wish themselves dead taking the ground is the professional expression for a ship that is stranded in gentle circumstances
but the feeling is more as if the ground had taken hold of her it is for those on her deck a surprising sensation it is as if your feet had been caught in an imponderable snare
you feel the balance of your body threatened and the steady poise of your mind is destroyed at once this sensation lasts only a second for even while you stagger something seems to turn over in your head
bringing uppermost the mental exclamation full of astonishment and dismay by jove she's on the ground and that is very terrible
after all the only mission of a seaman's calling is to keep ships keels off the ground thus the moment of her stranding takes away from him every excuse for his continued existence
to keep ships afloat is his business it is his trust it is the effective formula of the bottom of all these vague impulses dreams and illusions that go to the making up of a boy's vocation
the grip of the land upon the keel of your ship even if nothing worse comes of it than the wear and tear of tackle and the loss of time remains in a seaman's memory
stranded within the meaning of this paper stands for a more or less excusable mistake a ship may be driven ashore by stress of weather
to be run ashore has the littleness poignancy and bitterness of human error
are for the most part so unexpected in fact they are all unexpected except those heralded by some short glimpse of the danger full of agitation and excitement
like an awakening from a dream of incredible folly the land suddenly at night looms up right over your bows or perhaps the cry of broken water ahead is raised and some long mistake
some complicated edifice of self delusion over confidence and wrong reasoning is brought down in a fatal shock and the heart searing experience
of your ship's keel scraping and scrunching over say a coral reef it is a sound for its size
than that of a world coming violently to an end but out of that chaos your belief in your own prudence and sagacity reasserts itself you ask yourself where on earth did i get to
how on earth did i get there with a conviction that it could not be your own act that there has been at work some mysterious conspiracy of accident that the charts are all wrong
and if the charts are not wrong that land and sea have changed their places that your misfortune shall for ever remain inexplicable since you have lived always with the sense of your trust
the last thing on closing your eyes the first on opening them as if your mind had kept firm hold of your responsibility during the hours of sleep you contemplate mentally your mischance
till little by little your mood changes cold doubt steals into the very marrow of your bones you see the inexplicable fact in another light that is the time when you ask yourself
how on earth could i have been fool enough to get there and you are ready to renounce all belief in your good sense in your knowledge in your fidelity in what you thought till then was the best in you
giving you the daily bread of life and the moral support of other men's confidence the ship is lost or not lost once stranded you have to do your best by her
she may be saved by your efforts by your resource and fortitude bearing up against the heavy weight of guilt and failure and there are justifiable strandings in fogs on uncharted seas
on dangerous shores through treacherous tides but saved or not saved there remains with her commander a distinct sense of loss a flavour in the mouth of the real abiding danger
that lurks in all the forms of human existence it is an acquisition too that feeling a man may be the better for it but he will not be the same damocles has seen the sword suspended
by a hair over his head and though a good man need not be made less valuable by such a knowledge the feast shall not henceforth have the same flavour years ago i was concerned as chief mate
in a case of stranding which was not fatal to the ship we went to work for ten hours on end laying out anchors in readiness to heave off at high water while i was still busy about the decks forward
i heard the steward at my elbow saying the captain asks whether you mean to come in sir and have something to eat to day i went into the cuddy my captain sat at the head of the table like a statue
there was a strange motionlessness of everything in that pretty little cabin the swing table which for seventy odd days had been always on the move if ever so little hung quite still above the soup tureen
of my commander's complexion laid on generously by wind and sea but between the two tufts of fair hair above his ears his skull generally suffused with the hue of blood
shone dead white like a dome of ivory and he looked strangely untidy i perceived he had not shaved himself that day and yet the wildest motion of the ship
in the most stormy latitudes we had passed through never made him miss one single morning ever since we left the channel the fact must be that a commander cannot possibly shave himself
when his ship is aground i have commanded ships myself but i don't know i have never tried to shave in my life he did not offer to help me
or himself till i had coughed markedly several times i talked to him professionally in a cheery tone and ended with the confident assertion we shall get her off before midnight sir
he smiled faintly without looking up and muttered as if to himself yes yes the captain put the ship ashore and we got her off then raising his head
he attacked grumpily the steward a lanky anxious youth with a long pale face and two big front teeth what makes this soup so bitter
i am surprised the mate can swallow the beastly stuff i'm sure the cook's ladled some salt water into it by mistake the charge was so outrageous that the steward for all
answer only dropped his eyelids bashfully there was nothing the matter with the soup i had a second helping
the mediterranean apart from all the associations of adventure and glory the common heritage of all mankind makes a tender appeal to a seaman it has sheltered the infancy of his craft
he looks upon it as a man may look at a vast nursery in an old old mansion where innumerable generations of his own people have learned to walk i say his own people because in a sense
all sailors belong to one family all are descended from that adventurous and shaggy ancestor who bestriding a shapeless log and paddling with a crooked branch accomplished the first coasting trip
in a sheltered bay ringing with the admiring howls of his tribe it is a matter of regret that all those brothers in craft and feeling whose generations have learned to walk a ship's deck in that nursery
have been also more than once fiercely engaged in cutting each other's throats there but life apparently has such exigencies without human propensity to murder and other sorts of unrighteousness
there would have been no historical heroism it is a consoling reflection and then if one examines impartially the deeds of violence they appear of but small consequence
from salamis to actium through lepanto and the nile to the naval massacre of navarino not to mention other armed encounters of lesser interest all the blood heroically spilt into the mediterranean
has not stained with a single trail of purple the deep azure of its classic waters of course it may be argued that battles have shaped the destiny of mankind
the question whether they have shaped it well would remain open however but it would be hardly worth discussing it is very probable that had the battle of salamis never been fought the face of the world
would have been much as we behold it now fashioned by the mediocre inspiration and the short sighted labours of men from a long and miserable experience of suffering injustice disgrace and aggression
the nations of the earth are mostly swayed by fear fear of the sort that a little cheap oratory turns easily to rage hate and violence innocent guileless fear
has been the cause of many wars not of course the fear of war itself which in the evolution of sentiments and ideas
with certain fashionable rites and preliminary incantations wherein the conception of its true nature has been lost to apprehend the true aspect
force and morality of war as a natural function of mankind one requires a feather in the hair and a ring in the nose or better still teeth filed to a point
and a tattooed breast unfortunately a return to such simple ornamentation is impossible we are bound to the chariot of progress there is no going back and as bad luck would have it
our civilization which has done so much for the comfort and adornment of our bodies and the elevation of our minds has made lawful killing frightfully and needlessly expensive
the whole question of improved armaments has been approached by the governments of the earth in a spirit of nervous and unreflecting haste whereas the right way was lying plainly before them
and had only to be pursued with calm determination the learned vigils and labours of a certain class of inventors should have been rewarded with honourable liberality as justice demanded
and the bodies of the inventors should have been blown to pieces by means of their own perfected explosives and improved weapons with extreme publicity as the commonest prudence dictated by this method
the ardour of research in that direction would have been restrained without infringing the sacred privileges of science for the lack of a little cool thinking in our guides and masters this course has not been followed
and a beautiful simplicity has been sacrificed for no real advantage a frugal mind cannot defend itself from considerable bitterness when reflecting that at the battle of actium
which was fought for no less a stake than the dominion of the world the fleet of octavianus caesar and the fleet of antonius including the egyptian division
and cleopatra's galley with purple sails probably cost less than two modern battleships or as the modern naval book jargon has it two capital units
but no amount of lubberly book jargon can disguise a fact well calculated to afflict the soul of every sound economist it is not likely that the mediterranean
will ever behold a battle with a greater issue but when the time comes for another historical fight its bottom will be enriched as never before
as so vast and so full of wonders and indeed it was terrible and wonderful for it is we alone who swayed by the audacity of our minds and the tremors of our hearts
are the sole artisans of all the wonder and romance of the world it was for the mediterranean sailors that fair haired sirens sang among the black rocks seething in white foam
and mysterious voices spoke in the darkness above the moving wave voices menacing seductive or prophetic like that voice heard at the beginning of the christian era
by the master of an african vessel in the gulf of syrta whose calm nights are full of strange murmurs and flitting shadows it called him by name
bidding him go and tell all men that the great god pan was dead but the great legend of the mediterranean the legend of traditional song and grave history lives fascinating and immortal
in our minds the dark and fearful sea of the subtle ulysses wanderings agitated by the wrath of olympian gods harbouring on its isles the fury of strange monsters
and the wiles of strange women the highway of heroes and sages of warriors pirates and saints the workaday sea of carthaginian merchants and the pleasure lake of the roman caesars
claims the veneration of every seaman as the historical home of that spirit of open defiance
issuing thence to the west and south as a youth leaves the shelter of his parental house this spirit found the way to the indies discovered the coasts of a new continent
and traversed at last the immensity of the great pacific rich in groups of islands remote and mysterious like the constellations of the sky the first impulse of navigation
took its visible form in that tideless basin freed from hidden shoals and treacherous currents
upon which the romans alone ruled without dispute has kept for me the fascination of youthful romance the very first christmas night i ever spent away from land
was employed in running before a gulf of lions gale which made the old ship groan in every timber as she skipped before it over the short seas until we brought her to
battered and out of breath under the lee of majorca where the smooth water was torn by fierce cat's paws under a very stormy sky we or rather they
for i had hardly had two glimpses of salt water in my life till then kept her standing off and on all that day while i listened for the first time with the curiosity of my tender years
to the song of the wind in a ship's rigging the monotonous and vibrating note was destined to grow into the intimacy of the heart pass into blood and bone
accompany the thoughts and acts of two full decades remain to haunt like a reproach the peace of the quiet fireside and enter into the very texture
of respectable dreams dreamed safely under a roof of rafters and tiles the wind was fair but that day we ran no more the thing
leaked she leaked fully generously overflowingly all over like a basket i took an enthusiastic part in the excitement caused by that last infirmity of noble ships
without concerning myself much with the why or the wherefore the surmise of my maturer years is that bored by her interminable life the venerable antiquity
i knew generally very little and least of all what i was doing in that galere i remember that exactly as in the comedy of moliere
not of my confidential valet however but across great distances of land in a letter whose mocking but indulgent turn ill concealed his almost paternal anxiety
i fancy i tried to convey to him my utterly unfounded impression that the west indies awaited my coming i had to go there it was a sort of mystic conviction
something in the nature of a call but it was difficult to state intelligibly the grounds of this belief to that man of rigorous logic if of infinite charity the truth must have been that
all unversed in the arts of the wily greek the deceiver of gods the lover of strange women
i yet longed for the beginning of my own obscure odyssey which as was proper for a modern should unroll its wonders and terrors beyond the pillars of hercules
the disdainful ocean did not open wide to swallow up my audacity though the ship the ridiculous and ancient galere of my folly the old weary disenchanted sugar waggon
would have been as final a catastrophe but no catastrophe occurred i lived to watch on a strange shore a black and youthful nausicaa
with a joyous train of attendant maidens carrying baskets of linen to a clear stream overhung by the heads of slender palm trees
and the gold of their earrings invested with a barbaric and regal magnificence their figures stepping out freely in a shower of broken sunshine the whiteness of their teeth was still more dazzling
than the splendour of jewels at their ears the shaded side of the ravine gleamed with their smiles they were as unabashed as so many princesses but alas
not one of them was the daughter of a jet black sovereign such was my abominable luck in being born by the mere hair's breadth of twenty five centuries too late
into a world where kings have been growing scarce with scandalous rapidity while the few who remain have adopted the uninteresting manners and customs of simple millionaires
with baskets of linen on their heads to the banks of a clear stream overhung by the starry fronds of palm trees it was a vain hope if i did not ask myself whether
limited by such discouraging impossibilities life were still worth living it was only because i had then before me several other pressing questions
the resonant laughing voices of these gorgeous maidens scared away the multitude of humming birds
the tops of flowering bushes no they were not princesses their unrestrained laughter filling the hot fern clad ravine had a soulless limpidity as of wild inhuman dwellers in tropical woodlands
there are very many instances however where the cause can be traced without difficulty many of these have already been mentioned and there are many more that might be of course as has been often stated there is only one remote cause for all winds and that is the sun
coupled with the movements of the earth but there are certain local conditions that are continually modifying the phenomena of air movement the velocity of winds as they occur from day to day
varies very greatly with the height above the surface of the earth ordinarily the velocity at one thousand feet above the earth will be more than three times greater than it is at fifty or sixty feet above
and even at sixty feet the velocity is much greater than at the surface of the earth
this is due partly to the retarding effect of friction caused by contact of the air with the earth's surface but more particularly by trees inequality of surface
and other obstructions on the earth there is a variety of wind called mountain winds that arise from different causes as has been stated in a former chapter
and the density is constantly changing from denser to rarer the higher we ascend suppose at a certain point say halfway up a mountain side the air has a certain density and if it is at rest
suppose we start at a given point on the side of a mountain and run out on a level till we are one hundred feet in a perpendicular line above the side of the mountain the air contained within those lines will be in the shape of a triangle
if now the sun shines upon the side of the mountain the air is warmed and expands according to a well known law and the amount of expansion will depend upon the depth of the volume of air hence the point of greatest expansion in our
figure will be where the air is one hundred feet deep and will gradually decrease as we go toward the mountain till we come to the point where our horizontal line makes contact with the mountain side
at that point of course there is no expansion because there is no depth of air and the effect will be that the expanded air will overflow toward the mountain and be deflected up its sloping side
as night comes on this upward movement will cease and there will be a season of quiet until the earth has become colder than the air and we have a phenomenon of exactly the opposite kind when the air contracts instead of expands
which produces a downward current from the mountain top
such as during the prevalence of a storm in some of the regions of california hottest during the day time the nights are made endurable and even delightful
it often happens that on the shady side of a high and steep mountain where the sun's rays strike it so obliquely if at all that the earth will be but little heated there will be a vast mass of cold air stored up
after the valley has become intensely heated by the sun there is an ascending current of air which in turn causes a down rush of the cold body of air
from the mountain side these local winds are frequently very severe only lasting however for a short time until an equilibrium of temperature and density has been established
a wonderful exhibition of this sort of wind is said to occur at certain times of the year on the coast at tierra del fuego where a blast which they call the williwaus comes down from the mountain side without warning
with such tremendous force that no ship could stand the strain
if it should continue for any length of time fortunately the shock does not last more than eight or ten seconds when it is followed by a perfect calm it is as though a great volume of air had been fired from some enormous cannon from the top of the mountain to the sea
the water is pulverized into a spray that is driven in every direction sometimes these violent blasts occur in the alps but from a very different cause
avalanches of great extent often take place on the sides of the mountains when a vast amount of material equal to three or four hundred million cubic feet of earth will fall several thousand feet
often an avalanche of this kind will produce a wind which is confined of course to a restricted area that is said to be so violent as to tear one's clothes into shreds this is not caused by any difference of temperature
but by a violent compression there is a peculiar wind that occurs in switzerland often between the months of november and march these winds last from two to three days and are of great violence especially near the mountains
they are warm and dry and are caused by an area of low barometer and an ascending current of air occurring at some point north of the alps
which causes the air from italy to flow over the alpine range causing a tremendous precipitation of snow and rain which not only takes the moisture from the air
but sets free in the form of heat the energy that was stored in the process of evaporation and this together with the compression of the air as it flows down the slope of the mountains makes it hot and dry this wind is called the fohn
wyoming montana also extending up into british america this wind which is here called chinook
which is exceedingly cold and lasts sometimes for a period of one hundred hours the temperature falls at times thirty or forty degrees below zero and the wind maintains a velocity of from forty to fifty miles an hour
these winds spread eastward as far as illinois but not with the same severity and they move southward to the gulf of mexico spreading over the states of texas and louisiana and are there called northers
and the cold its lowest temperature especially when the wind is accompanied as it frequently is by severe snowing by the time it reaches the gulf states it is very much modified as to temperature but it is a very disagreeable wind in that
portion of the country because of the exceeding dampness of the air one would be much more comfortable in dry still air even if it were many degrees below zero than in an air freighted with moisture although the temperature has not fallen
to the freezing point there are hot winds called by different names according to the localities in which they occur in southern california at certain seasons of the year the inhabitants are afflicted with what they call a desert wind
that blows from the heated regions of arizona toward the pacific ocean the temperature sometimes reaches one hundred twenty degrees fahrenheit
and persons have been known to perish from the effects of these hot winds in open boats out on the water before they could reach land hot winds prevail on the plains of kansas during the months of july and august that are phenomenal in their intensity
so much so that if they were widespread and of long continuance like the northern blizzard they would be attended with great loss of life and destruction to vegetation
fortunately they come in narrow streaks and in most cases do not blow more than from ten to thirty minutes at a time these hot belts are sometimes not over one hundred feet wide and again they are as much as five hundred
they are so hot and dry that green leaves and grass are rendered as dry as powder in a few minutes these winds are probably caused by the fact that at this season of the year when the prevailing wind is southwesterly
the air becomes heated to a great height and are the resulting effect of certain combinations of air currents in the higher regions of the atmosphere that force the already heated air toward the earth
as the air descends it is more and more compressed which causes it to become more and more heated
as shown by the experiment with the fire syringe it was shown that air at normal temperature could be suddenly compressed into so small a space that the condensed heat which was before diffused through the whole bulk of air at normal pressure
was sufficient to cause ignition a cubic yard of air on the surface of the earth would occupy a much larger space if carried a mile above it from this it is easy to see that if a volume of air at that height had a temperature of seventy or eighty degrees
because it is natural for heated air to rise and this is what happens when the power that forced it down to the earth
reference has been made in a former chapter to tornado winds they are rather exceptional phenomena and not thoroughly understood
the onward movement of the whole system is about thirty miles per hour tornadoes occur with greater frequency in the united states than in any other section of the globe tornadoes seldom occur in winter
although they occur sometimes in april june and july
involving great loss of life and property when a tornado moves off the land on to the ocean it may become what is termed a waterspout these probably never originate on the water
but after they have once formed may be carried over the water to a considerable distance a tornado was never known to originate on the shores of lake michigan but there are a few instances the most notable one being the racine tornado
and the applause had died away in a pleasant hum of conversation that arose from the throng of students and visitors that more than comfortably filled the gymnasium i don't see how those girls managed to accomplish so much in so short a time
yes replied miss duncan miss harlowe seems to have plenty of initiative she is one of the most active members of this new club
i understand their treasury is already in a flourishing condition thanks to their own efforts and a timely contribution they received after their concert last spring i consider miss harlowe the finest type of young woman i have encountered during all my years of teaching
replied miss duncan warmly which was a remarkable statement from this rather austere teacher the junior class is particularly rich in good material replied the dean i could name at least a dozen young women whom i consider splendid types of the ideal overton girl
grace had paused for a moment outside the gypsy encampment to cast a speculative eye over the crowd which seemed to be steadily increasing
who had come up and now stood beside her
i do hope everyone will like the bazaar and have a good time this afternoon and to night everything has gone so beautifully there hasn't been a sign of a hitch oh yes there was one her face clouded for a second then she looked at arline brightly i'm not going to think of it
i think it counts declared arline stubbornly i shall never forget it as long as i live
and just what we intended to have when we wanted the whole thing to be a surprise really i think the person who told the tales did us a good turn after all laughed grace the girls were ever so much more anxious to attend the bazaar after they heard of the circus
every girl loves alice in wonderland i think and then the sphinx is a first class surprise isn't it funny chuckled arline who in her short white embroidered dress pale blue sash blue silk stockings and heelless blue kid slippers
tied up on one side with a blue ribbon looked exactly as lewis carroll's immortal alice might have looked if she had been inspired with life alice was allowed to show herself to the public before the performance and on catching sight of grace
of the zingari jingled their tambourines in their familiar but ever popular spanish dance and read curious pink palms itching to know the future adjoining the gypsy encampment was a doll shop over which the cunning freshman myra stone
dressed as a sailor doll presided then came the japanese tea shop with the emerson twins as proprietors looking so realistically japanese that arline declared she didn't believe they were the emerson twins
were dispensing cakes and ices to a steadily increasing patronage there was a postcard and souvenir booth around which a crowd seemed perpetually stationed the souvenirs consisted mainly of small black and white or water color sketches
four thirty eight thirty and nine thirty respectively in which would appear the celebrated alice in wonderland animals
until the patrons of the bazaar should enter the gymnasium but in some mysterious manner the secret had leaked out even the identity of certain animals was known and when this unpleasant news had reached the ears of the animals themselves a meeting was called
which almost put an end to the circus then and there after due consideration the performers agreed to go on with the spectacle but many and indignant were the theories advanced as to the manner in which the news had traveled abroad that the information had gone forth through a member of the club
or any one taking part in the circus no one of them believed complete ostracism threatened the offender or offenders provided she or they as the case might be were discovered later the members of the club were forced to admit that
although the principle of the act was reprehensible the act itself had served only as a means of advertising and had aroused the curiosity and interest of the public after several earnest discussions on the part of the club
the admission fee had been fixed at twenty five cents and the public had been invited as a college town overton's public was largely made up of the classes rather than the masses and many of the visitors claimed overton as their alma mater the students however
were the hope on which the club based its dreams of profit no girl could walk around the gymnasium without spending money she couldn't resist those darling shops they are all too fascinating for words arline had declared rapturously
as she and grace were taking a last walk around the great gayly decorated room before going to luncheon that day now as they stood side by side anxiously watching the steadily increasing tide of visitors
and isn't she great how did emma happen to think of her let alone getting her up
this one is smiled grace then her face sobered instantly i hope no one else besides ourselves finds out
i think the idea is simply great don't you
come on over and see her she coaxed a moment later they stood before the entrance to a small tent hung with a heavy curtain
then they paused before a platform about four feet in height on which reposed what appeared to be a gigantic sphinx her paws stiffly folded in front of her ask me a question
this sudden mysterious croak that issued from inside the great head caused arline to start and step back ask me a question i am as old as the world
asked arline curiously mystery all is mystery croaked the sphinx but you said you would answer my question persisted arline which one plaintively inquired the voice
both declared arline boldly
emma dean's familiar drawl startled both grace and arline my brother had it made for a college play called sphinx when we began to plan for the bazaar i sent home for it
i made the paws rather realistic aren't they all this drapery came with the head i am inside the head sitting on a stool it's rather dark and stuffy
there is an arrangement inside the head that makes promenading possible
another feature when shall we have it won't that be splendid not this afternoon late in the evening counseled emma
then alberta wicks mary hampton and kathleen west were ushered into the tent i am the sphinx began the far away voice again in the mammoth head ask me a question
bowing to the newcomers rather coldly grace and arline turned to leave the tent but grace reflected grimly as she lifted the tent flap that if any one of the trio had been the all wise sphinx instead of her friend emma dean
that would have been disconcerting to say the least
of hearing the sphinx's ridiculous answers to their questions and incidentally to try if possible to discover her identity emma had succeeded in changing her voice so completely that the far away almost wailing tones of the egyptian wonder
had little in common with her usual drawl she and her faithful arab had thoroughly enjoyed the attempts of the various girls to discover who was inside the great head and voluminous drapery
i don't believe any one outside the club knows either
he was called the ard ri
or over king because he claimed authority over all the others there was also a king over each of the five provinces leinster munster connaught ulster and meath
who were subject to the ard ri the provinces were divided into a number of territories over which were kings of a still lower grade each under the king of his own province
if the district was not large enough to have a king it was ruled by a chief who was subject to the king of the larger territory in which the district was included the king was always chosen from one particular ruling family
and when a king died those chiefs who had votes held a meeting lasting for three days and three nights at which they elected whatever member of that family they considered the wisest best and bravest
with an inauguration stone on top and often a great branching old tree under the shade of which the main proceedings were carried on the new king standing on the inauguration stone swore a solemn oath
in the hearing of all that he would govern his people with strict justice and that he would observe the laws of the land and maintain the old customs of the tribe or kingdom then he put by his sword
and one of the chiefs whose special office it was put into his hand a long straight white wand this was to signify that he was to govern not by violence or harshness but by justice
and that his decisions were to be straight and stainless like the wand several other forms had to be gone through till the ceremony was completed and he was then the lawful king
the old irish kings lived in great style especially those of the higher ranks and like the kings of our own day kept in their palaces numbers of persons to attend on them holding various offices
all with good salaries the higher the grade of the king the greater the number of his household and the grander the persons holding offices forming part of his retinue there were nobles who did nothing at all but wait on him
i e learned and distinguished men of the several professions historians poets physicians builders brehons or judges musicians and so forth
and exercised their several professions for the benefit of the king and his household for which each had a house and a tract of land free or some other equivalent stipend then there was a house steward
who issued orders each day for the provisions to be laid in for next day the number of oxen sheep and hogs to be slaughtered the quantity of bread to be baked and of ale mead and wine to be measured out
and he regulated the reception of guests
and their sleeping accommodation with numerous other matters of a like kind all pertaining to the household his word was law and no one ever thought of questioning his arrangements
the house steward's office was one of great responsibility and he had plenty of anxiety and worry and accordingly he held a high rank and was well paid for his services there was a champion
a fierce and mighty man who answered challenges and when necessary fought single combats for the honour of the king guards were always at hand who remained standing up with drawn swords or battleaxes during dinner
there was a master of horse with numerous grooms keepers of the king's jewels and chessboards couriers or runners to convey the king's messages and orders and to bring him tidings
keepers of hounds and coursing dogs a chief swineherd with his underlings fools jugglers and jesters for the amusement of the company with a whole army of under servants and workmen of various kinds
each day the whole company sat in the great hall at dinner arranged at tables in the order of rank the great grandees
others of less importance lower down while the attendants when they were not otherwise occupied sat at tables of their own at the lower end of the hall to pay the expenses of his great household
he had a large tract of land free besides which every tenant and householder throughout his dominion had to make a yearly payment according to his means these payments were made not in money
for there was little or no coined money then but in kind that is to say cattle and provisions of various sorts plough oxen hogs sheep with mantles and other articles of dress
also dyestuffs sewing thread firewood horses rich bridles chessboards jewellery and sometimes gold and silver reckoned out in ounces as abraham paid ephron for the cave
of machpelah much income also accrued to the king from other sources not mentioned here and he wanted it all for he was expected to be lavish in giving presents and hospitable without stint
in receiving and entertaining guests besides all this
moving quite leisurely in his chariot from place to place with a numerous retinue all in their own chariots while the several sub kings through whose territories he passed had to lodge feed and entertain the whole company free
the irish took care that their kings had not too much power in their hands so that they could not always do as they pleased a proper and wise arrangement they were what we now call limited monarchs
that is they could not enter on any important undertaking affecting the kingdom or the public without consulting their people on such occasions the king had to call a meeting of his chief men and ask their advice
and if necessary take their votes when there was a difference of opinions and besides this kings as we shall see farther on had to obey the law the same as their subjects
each king of whatever grade should according to law have at least three chief residences
as suited his fancy or convenience
and in most of them the ramparts and mounds are still to be seen more or less dilapidated after the long lapse of time the ruins of the most important ones such as we see them now are described in some detail
in my two social histories of ancient ireland but here our space will not permit us to mention more than a few the most important of all is tara the chief residence of the over kings which is situated on the summit
six miles from navan in meath and two miles from the midland railway station of kilmessan the various mounds circular ramparts and other features are plainly marked on the plan given at the beginning of this book
and anyone who walks over the hill with the plan in his hand can easily recognise them next to tara in celebrity was the palace of emain or emania the residence of the kings of ulster
and the chief home of concobar mac nessa and the red branch knights the imposing remains of this palace consisting of a great mound surrounded by an immense circular rampart
and fosse half obliterated the whole structure covering about eleven english acres lie two miles west of armagh another ulster palace quite as important as emain
the ruins of which are situated in county donegal on the summit of a hill eight hundred feet high five miles north west from derry it is a circular stone fortress of dry masonry
still retaining its old name in the form of greenan ely the chief palace of the kings of connaught was croghan the old fort of which lies three miles from tulsk
in roscommon the most important residence of the leinster kings
now called knockaulin an immense fort surrounding the summit of a hill near kilcullen in kildare
and caher in tipperary also we have naas in kildare dunlavin in wicklow
i can't stay she answered dickon's waiting for me and she ran away the afternoon was even lovelier and busier than the morning had been already nearly all the weeds were cleared out of the garden and most of the roses and trees had been pruned or dug about
dickon had brought a spade of his own and he had taught mary to use all her tools
it would be a wilderness of growing things before the springtime was over there'll be apple blossoms an cherry blossoms overhead dickon said working away with all his might
the little fox and the rook were as happy and busy as they were and the robin and his mate flew backward and forward like tiny streaks of lightning sometimes the rook flapped his black wings and soared away over the tree tops in the park
each time he came back and perched near dickon
and dickon talked to him just as he had talked to the robin
and gently tweaked his ear with his large beak when mary wanted to rest a little dickon sat down with her under a tree
and played the soft strange little notes
tha's a good bit stronger than tha was dickon said looking at her as she was digging tha's beginning to look different for sure mary was glowing with exercise and good spirits i'm getting fatter and fatter every day she said quite exultantly
martha says my hair is growing thicker
she wanted to tell colin about dickon's fox cub and the rook and about what the springtime had been doing she felt sure he would like to hear
to see martha standing waiting for her with a doleful face what is the matter she asked what did colin say when you told him i couldn't come
i wish tha'd gone he was nigh goin into one o his tantrums there's been a nice to do all afternoon to keep him quiet
mary's lips pinched themselves together
and she saw no reason why an ill tempered boy should interfere with the thing she liked best she knew nothing about the pitifulness of people who had been ill and nervous and who did not know that they could control their tempers
when she had had a headache in india
but of course now she felt that colin was quite wrong
this was a bad beginning and mary marched up to him with her stiff manner why didn't you get up she said
he answered without looking at her i made them put me back in bed this afternoon my back ached and my head ached and i was tired why didn't you come i was working in the garden with dickon said mary colin frowned and condescended to look at her
he said mary flew into a fine passion she could fly into a passion without making a noise
if you send dickon away i'll never come into this room again she retorted
and had a rough and tumble fight as it was they did the next thing to it you are a selfish thing
what are you said mary selfish people always say that any one is selfish who doesn't do what they want you're more selfish than i am you're the most selfish boy i ever saw i'm not snapped colin
he's selfish if you like mary's eyes flashed fire he's nicer than any other boy that ever lived she said he's he's like an angel it might sound rather silly to say that but she did not care a nice angel colin sneered ferociously
he's better than a common rajah retorted mary he's a thousand times better because she was the stronger of the two she was beginning to get the better of him the truth was that he had never had a fight with any one like himself in his life
not for any one else i'm not as selfish as you because i'm always ill and i'm sure there is a lump coming on my back he said
you're not contradicted mary unsympathetically he opened his eyes quite wide with indignation
he was at once furious and slightly pleased if a person could be both at one time i'm not he cried i am you know i am everybody says so i don't believe it said mary sourly
you just say that to make people sorry i believe you're proud of it i don't believe it if you were a nice boy it might be true but you're too nasty
get out of the room he shouted
but mary's face looked as pinched as a nutcracker i'm going she said and i won't come back she walked to the door
now i won't tell you a single thing
she found the trained nurse standing as if she had been listening and more amazing still she was laughing she was a big handsome young woman who ought not to have been a trained nurse at all as she could not bear invalids and she was always making excuses to leave colin to martha
what are you laughing at she asked her at you two young ones said the nurse
that's as spoiled as himself and she laughed into her handkerchief again if he'd had a young vixen of a sister to fight with it would have been the saving of him is he going to die
said the nurse hysterics and temper are half what ails him what are hysterics asked mary
mary went back to her room not feeling at all
she was cross and disappointed
she felt so sour and unrelenting that for a few minutes she almost forgot about dickon and the green veil creeping over the world and the soft wind blowing
dolls toys books she opened the package wondering if he had sent a doll
and two of them were about gardens and were full of pictures there were two or three games and there was a beautiful little writing case with a gold monogram on it and a gold pen and inkstand everything was so nice that her pleasure began to crowd her anger out of her mind
and they would have looked at the pictures and read some of the gardening books and perhaps tried playing the games and he would have enjoyed himself so much
he had a way of doing that which she could not bear
because he always looked so frightened himself
he should know his hunch had begun to grow something he had heard missus medlock whispering to the nurse had given him the idea
that most of his tantrums as they called them grew out of his hysterical hidden fear mary had been sorry for him when he had told her he always began to think about it when he was cross or tired
chapter sixteen the unexpected happens grace lost no time in putting her resolution into practice and left no stone unturned regarding the object of her distrust
why are you so bitter against that young man daughter asked her father rather curiously when she interviewed him as to the best means of finding out something of henry hammond's past he seems to be a good straight forward young fellow
he's a villain i know he is asserted grace but he's too sharp for me nonsense laughed her father
are you making hammond your victim you may tease me if you like replied grace with dignity but some day you'll acknowledge that i was right all right girlie smiled her father shall i say so now
you're a dear laughed grace rubbing her soft cheek against his only you will tease
and had divided her time after school equally between eleanor savelli and henry hammond eleanor had kept her word in reference to edna wright and the two girls exchanged only the barest civilities whenever they chanced to meet eleanor had however
gained considerable popularity with a number of the senior class and wielded a tremendous influence over them she had dropped her annoying tactics toward the teachers and her conduct during the year had been irreproachable
was receiving great benefit from her high school associations she stood next to anne pierson in her classes and her aptitude for study and brilliant recitations evoked the admiration of the entire class but despite these changes for the better
and held to her unrelenting resolve to be revenged upon them individually or collectively whenever the opportunity should arise in cautioning her friends the previous year against placing themselves in a position liable to put them at a disadvantage with eleanor
so far nothing startling has happened replied anne really eleanor happened along at a good time for marian why did she asked grace quickly
i hadn't heard that said grace
it's a pleasure to hear her recite i do admire her ability agreed anne perhaps she will see through henry hammond and persuade marian to drop him i don't know about that said grace dubiously i saw him with eleanor in the run about the other day
he was at the wheel and they seemed to be having a very interesting session without marian he never did give me the impression of being a very constant swain laughed anne i'm so glad that mid year exams are over sighed grace
i'm a sure enough graduate now unless something serious happens so am i replied anne if i could get clerical work to do this term i'd recite in the morning only and give my afternoons to earning a little money it seems as though everything is against me
did you know that missus gray has postponed coming home until march yes answered grace she understood anne's growing despair as time went on and the prospect of earning enough money to defray her college expenses grew less
i'm afraid i'll have to give it all up for next year at least grace anne's voice trembled a little
don't give up yet dear grace pressed anne's hand
the girls separated at the corner and went their separate ways
and grace deploring the fact that anne was too proud to accept any help from her friends as grace was about to curl herself up in a big chair before the fire that night with richard carvel in one hand and a box of peanut brittle in the other
she was startled by a loud ringing of the bell going to the door she beheld anne who was fairly wriggling with excitement her cheeks were flushed and her dark eyes were like stars oh grace she cried the unexpected has happened
that is if you can stand still long enough to do it i have had the surprise of my life to night grace said anne as she entered the hall
and pulled the pins from her hat i just couldn't wait until to morrow to tell you about it
i know just as much now as i did at first and perhaps a trifle less said grace then taking anne by the shoulders she marched her into the sitting room shoved her into the easy chair opposite her own and said now begin at the beginning and don't leave out any details
well said anne drawing a long breath when i reached home after leaving you i found a letter for me postmarked new york city for an instant i thought it was from my father but the hand writing was not his
i don't know and i'm a poor guesser so tell me responded grace it was from mister everett southard no really cried grace how nice of him to write to you
unfolding the letter that she had been holding in one hand
my dear miss pierson remembering your exceptionally fine work as rosalind in the production of as you like it given at your high school last year
with best wishes i remain yours sincerely everett southard well i should say the unexpected had happened said grace as anne finished reading
why anne think of it you will have six hundred dollars for six weeks work
they pay more than that in companies like mister southard's replied anne if i had acquired fame i could command twice that sum i can't imagine why he ever chose me suppose i should fail entirely nonsense retorted grace you couldn't fail if you tried
don't say that grace said anne quickly i never shall
you know my views on that subject i was only jesting dear grace assured her seeing the look of anxiety that crept into anne's eyes i know you'll come back we couldn't graduate without you
i have already written replied anne gravely i knew that nothing could induce me to refuse so i settled the matter at once confess you bad child
said grace rising and putting one finger under anne's chin look me straight in the face and tell the truth you thought i'd be shocked
yes i was afraid you wouldn't look at the matter in the same light
wait i'll go to the corner with you said grace slipping into her coat and throwing a silk scarf over her head
just then anne exclaimed very softly look grace isn't that marian and her cavalier where asked grace turning quickly across the street coming in this direction i do believe marian is crying too they are crossing now and will pass us
i don't think they've seen us yet completely absorbed in their own affairs the approaching couple had not noticed either grace or anne how could i have been so foolish the two girls heard marian say tearfully
her companion answered in rough tones
i had inside information that it was safe to put the money on it you act like a baby then he muttered something that was inaudible to the listeners you are very unkind henry wailed marian but in the next instant henry hammond had seen the two girls
with a savage cut it out can't you don't let every one know your business
but grace who in spite of her former disagreement with him had for marian's sake favored him with a cool bow when he happened to cross her path even after marian had stopped speaking was up in arms at his display of rudeness to the girl who had cut herself off from her dearest friends to please him
became suddenly disconcerted by the steady scornful gaze of two pairs of eyes that looked their full measure of contempt and hastily turning his attention to marian passed by without speaking contemptible coward raged grace did you hear what he said anne
this is the second conversation of the sort that has taken place between those two that i have overheard i wonder if he has persuaded marian to put money into his real estate schemes for i believe they are nothing but schemes
when lord arden and elfrida and edred reached the castle and found that dickie had not come back the children concluded that beale had persuaded him to stay the night at the cottage and lord arden thought that the children must be right he was extremely annoyed
it is impertinent of beale and thoughtless of the boy
but when edred and elfrida were gone to bed lord arden found that he could not feel quite sure or quite satisfied suppose dickie was not at beale's he strolled up to the cottage to see everything was dark at the cottage he hesitated then knocked at the door
at the third knock beale very sleepy put his head out of the window who's
said lord arden richard is asleep i suppose i suppose so my lord said beale sleepy and puzzled you have given me some anxiety i had to come up to make sure he was here but e ain't ere said beale
didn't you pick im up with the dog cart same as you said you would no shouted lord arden come down beale and get a lantern
ere's your coat missus beale's voice sounded
beale growled blundered down the stairs and out through the wash house and came round the corner of the house with a stable lantern in his hand he came close to where lord arden stood a tall dark figure in the starlight and spoke in a voice that trembled the little nipper
he said and again the little nipper if anything's happened to im swelp me gov'ner my lord i mean
one of the best the two men went quickly towards the gate as they passed down the quiet dusty road beale spoke again
i don't deceive you guv'ner a no account man i was swelp me and the little un
an the dogs an all an the little one an
an worse e don't know what i was like when i met im why i set out to make a blighted burglar of im you wouldn't believe and out the whole story came as lord arden and he went along the gray road
looking to right and left where no bushes
and the white moon came up very late to help them
but they did not find him though they roused a dozen men in the village to join in the search and old beale himself who knew every yard of the ground for five miles round came out with the spaniel who knew every inch of it for ten but true rushed about the house and garden whining and yelping so piteously that melia tied him up and he stayed tied up
and so when edred and elfrida came down to breakfast missus honeysett met them with the news that dickie was lost and their father still out looking for him it's that beastly magic said edred as soon as the children were alone
he's done it once too often and he's got stuck some time in history and can't get back and we can't do anything we can't get to him
perhaps he has fallen down a disused mine edred suggested
melted to a speechless extent we can't do anything said edred again don't snivel like that for goodness sake elfrida this is a man's job
dry up i can't think with you blubbing like that i'm not said elfrida untruly and sniffed with some intensity if you could make up some poetry now edred went on would that be any good not without the dresses she sniffed
you know we always had dresses for our magic or nearly always and they have to be dead and gone people's dresses and you'll only go to the dead and gone people's time when the dresses were worn
i'm going to try anyway said edred at least you must too because i can't make poetry
we could dress up anyway said edred hopefully
it's in the right hand corner drawer i saw it on the wedding day when i went to get her prayer book i don't want to dress up said elfrida i want to find dickie i don't want to dress up either said edred
but we must do something and perhaps i know it's just only perhaps it might help if we dressed up let's try it anyway elfrida was too miserable to argue
that looked like cricket pads ending in jointed foot coverings that looked like chrysalises
they were two forlorn faces that looked at each other as edred said now the poetry i can't said elfrida bursting into tears again i can't so there i've been trying all the time we've been dressing and i can only think of oh call dear dickie back to me
i cannot play alone the summer comes with flower and bee
and i know that's no use i should think not
why it isn't your own poetry at all it's felicia m hemans i'll try
and the thing edred couldn't do was to make poetry however bad he simply couldn't do it any more than you can fly it wasn't in him any more than wings are on you oh mouldiwarp you said we must
not have any more magic but we trust you won't be hard on us because dickie is lost and we don't know how to find him
so much so that he would not show it to elfrida until she had begged very hard indeed at about the thirtieth do please edred do he gave her the paper
no little girl was ever more polite than elfrida or less anxious to hurt the feelings of others but she was also quite truthful
and when edred said in an ashamed muffled voice is it all right do you think the best she could find by way of answer was i don't know much about poetry we'll try it and they did try it and nothing happened i knew it was no good edred said crossly
well i've often made one of myself said elfrida comfortingly and i will again if you like but i don't suppose it'll be any more good than yours
elfrida frowned fiercely and the feathers on her indian head dress quivered with the intensity of her effort is it coming edred asked in anxious tones and she nodded distractedly great mouldiestwarp on you we call to do the greatest magic of all
to show us how we are to find dear dickie who is lame and kind do this for us and on our hearts we swore we'll never ask you for anything more i don't see that it's so much better than mine said edred and it ought to be swear not swore
but i'm sure if the mouldiestwarp hears it he won't care tuppence whether it's swear or swore he is much too great he's far above grammar i'm sure
i wish every one was sighed edred and i dare say you have often felt the same well fire away not that it's any good don't you remember you can only get at the mouldiestwarp by a noble deed
and if you go to his rescue you will be taking from your father the title and the castle and you will be giving up your place as heir of arden to your cousin richard who is the rightful heir but how is he the rightful heir edred asked bewildered
three generations ago said the mouldiestwarp a little baby was stolen from arden death came among the ardens and that child became the heir to the name and the lands of arden the man who stole the child took it to a woman in deptford
and gave it in charge to her to nurse she knew nothing but that the child's clothes were marked arden and that it had tied to its waist a coral and bells engraved with a coat of arms the man who had stolen the child said he would return in a month
but the night before the duel he wrote a letter saying what he had done and put it in a secret cupboard behind a picture of a lady who was born an arden at talbot court and there that letter is to this day i hope i shan't forget it all
said edred none ever forgets what i tell them said the mouldiestwarp
he grew up was taught a trade and married a working girl the name of arden changed itself as names do to harding their child was the father of richard whom you know and he is lord arden yes
said edred submissively you will never tell your father this the low beautiful voice went on you must not even tell your sister till you have rescued dickie and made the sacrifice
every soul has one such chance a chance to be perfectly unselfish absolutely noble and true you can take this chance but you must take it alone no one can help you no one can advise you
and you must keep the nobler thought in your own heart till it is a noble deed then humbly and thankfully in that you have been permitted to do so
and have done them you may tell the truth to the one who loves you best your sister elfrida but isn't elfrida to have a chance to be noble too edred asked she will have a thousand chances to be good and noble
now are you ready to do what is to be done
to do right often seems unkind to one or another said the mouldiestwarp but think how long would your father wish to keep his house and his castle if he knew that they belonged to some one else i see said edred still doubtfully
no of course he wouldn't well what am i to do when dickie's father died a deptford woman related to dickie's mother kept the child she was not kind to him and he left her later she met a man who had been a burglar
he had entered talbot court opened a panel and found that old letter that told of dickie's birth
but already they have found out that a letter signed by a child is useless and unlawful and they dare not let richard go for fear of punishment so if you choose to do nothing your father is safe and you will inherit arden
be one of us edred be one of us
there they were again within the narrow walls of edred's bedroom well said elfrida in tones of brisk commonplace what did it say to you i say you do look funny don't said edred crossly he began to tear off the armor here
help me to get these things off but what did it say elfrida asked helpfully i can't tell you i'm not going to tell any one till it's over oh just as you like said elfrida keep your old secrets and left him
that was hard wasn't it i can't help it i tell you oh elfrida if you're going to bother it's just a little bit too much that's all you really mustn't tell me i've told you so fifty times he said which was untrue
very well then she said heroically i won't ask you a single thing but you'll tell me the minute you can won't you and you'll let me help nobody can help no one can advise me edred said
i've got to do it off my own bat if i do it at all
i want to think this unusual desire quite awed elfrida but it irritated her too perhaps you'd like me to go away she said ironically and edred's wholly unexpected reply was yes please
edred sat down on the box at the foot of his bed and tried to think but it was not easy
said something else which was himself too
missus honeysett came in exclaimed at his white face felt his hands said he was in a high fever and put him to bed with wet rags on his forehead and hot water bottles to his feet perhaps he was feverish
at any rate he could never be sure afterwards whether there really had been a very polite and plausible black mole sitting on his pillow most of the day saying all those things which the part of himself that he liked least agreed with such things as
no one will ever know dickie will be all right somehow perhaps you only dreamed that about dickie being shut up somewhere and it's not true anyway it's not your business is it and so on you know the sort of thing
with something catching so he lay tossing all day hearing the black mole or something else say all these things and himself saying i must go oh poor dickie i promised to go
yes i will go and late that night when lord arden had come home and had gone to bed
got up and dressed he put his bedroom candle and matches in his pocket crept down stairs and out of the house and up to beale's it was a slow and nervous business more than once on the staircase he thought he heard a stair creak behind him
and again and again
he fancied he heard a soft footstep pad padding behind him but of course when he looked round he could see no one was there
so presently he decided that it was cowardly to keep looking round and besides it only made him more frightened so he kept steadily on and took no notice at all of a black patch by the sweetbrier bush by beale's cottage door
just exactly as if some one was crouching in the shadow he pressed his thumb on the latch and opened the door very softly something moved inside and a chain rattled
edred's heart gave a soft uncomfortable jump but it was only true standing up to receive company he saw the whiteness of the dog and made for it felt for the chain unhooked it from the staple in the wall
and went out again closing the door after him and followed very willingly by true again he looked suspiciously at the shadow of the great sweetbrier but the dog showed no uneasiness so edred knew that there was nothing to be afraid of
true in fact was the greatest comfort to him he told elfrida afterwards that it was all true's doing he could never he was sure have gone on without that good companion true followed at the slack chain's end
till they got to the milestone and then suddenly he darted ahead and took the lead the chain stretched taut and the boy had all his work cut out to keep up with the dog up the hill they went on to the downs and in and out among the furze bushes
suddenly true paused sniffed sneezed blew through his nose and began to dig come on come on good dog said edred come on true for his fancy pictured dickie a prisoner in some lonely cottage
edred remembered the knife he had brought it was the big pruning knife out of the drawer in the hall he pulled it out
perhaps dickie was lying bound hidden in the middle of the furze bush dickie he said softly dickie but no one answered only true sneezed and snuffed and blew and went on digging
true was pulling like mad at the chain edred scrambled up the furze he had pulled away disclosed a hole and true was disappearing down it edred saw as the dog dragged him close to the hole
that it was a large one though only part of it had been uncovered he stooped to peer in
stop true lie down sir he said and the dog paused though the chain was still strained tight then edred was glad of his bedroom candle
he pulled it out and lighted it and blinked perceiving almost at once that he was in the beginning of an underground passage he looked up he could see above him the stars plain through a net of furze bushes he stood up and true went on next moment he knew
that he was in the old smugglers cave
an enormous cavern as big as a church out of an opening at the upper end a stream of water fell and ran along the cave clear between shores of smooth sand
for many a long month lost in snow profound when sol from cancer sends the seasons bland and in their northern cave the storms hath bound from silent mountains straight with startling sound
torrents are hurl'd green hills emerge and lo the trees with foliage cliffs with flow'rs are crown'd pure rills through vales of verdure warbling go and wonder love and joy
the peasant's heart o'erflow beattie several of her succeeding days passed in suspense for ludovico could only learn from the soldiers
that there was a prisoner in the apartment described to him by emily and that he was a frenchman whom they had taken in one of their skirmishes with a party of his countrymen during this interval
for to his protection only could she attribute her present repose and in this she was now so secure that she did not wish to leave the castle till she could obtain some certainty concerning valancourt for which she waited
indeed without any sacrifice of her own comfort since no circumstance had occurred to make her escape probable on the fourth day ludovico informed her
that he had hopes of being admitted to the presence of the prisoner it being the turn of a soldier with whom he had been for some time familiar to attend him on the following night he was not deceived in his hope
for under pretence of carrying in a pitcher of water he entered the prison
he was obliged to make his conference with the prisoner a very short one emily awaited the result in her own apartment
ludovico having promised to accompany annette to the corridor in the evening where after several hours impatiently counted he arrived emily having then uttered the name of valancourt could articulate no more
but hesitated in trembling expectation the chevalier would not entrust me with his name signora replied ludovico but when i just mentioned yours he seemed overwhelmed with joy
said annette and looked impatiently at ludovico who understood her look and replied to emily yes lady the chevalier does indeed remember you and i am sure has a very great regard for you
and i made bold to say you had for him he then enquired how you came to know he was in the castle and whether you ordered me to speak to him the first question i could not answer
but the second i did and then he went off into his ecstasies again i was afraid his joy would have betrayed him to the sentinel at the door but how does he look ludovico interrupted emily
i saw no symptom of that lady while i was with him for he seemed in the finest spirits i ever saw any body in in all my life his countenance was all joy and
if one may judge from that he was very well but i did not ask him did he send me no message said emily o yes signora and something besides replied ludovico who searched his pockets
surely i have not lost it added he the chevalier said he would have written madam if he had had pen and ink and was going to have sent a very long message when the sentinel entered the room
but not before he had give me this ludovico then drew forth a miniature from his bosom which emily received with a trembling hand and perceived to be a portrait of herself
as he gave me the picture that this has been my companion and only solace in all my misfortunes tell her that i have worn it next my heart and that i sent it her as the pledge of an affection which can never die
but to her for the wealth of worlds and that i now part with it only in the hope of soon receiving it from her hands tell her just then signora the sentinel came in and the chevalier said no more
to bring back your answer and he would inform me
so this i think lady is the whole of what passed how ludovico shall i reward you for your zeal said emily but indeed i do not now possess the means
when can you see the chevalier again that is uncertain signora replied he
there are not more than one or two among them
i need not bid you remember ludovico resumed emily how very much interested i am in your seeing the chevalier soon and when you do so tell him that i have received the picture and with the sentiments he wished
said ludovico most certainly i will replied emily but when signora and where that must depend upon circumstances returned emily the place and the hour must be regulated by his opportunities
as to the place mademoiselle said annette there is no other place in the castle besides this corridor where we can see him in safety you know and as for the hour it must be when all the signors are asleep if that ever happens
you may mention these circumstances to the chevalier ludovico said she checking the flippancy of annette and leave them to his judgment and opportunity tell him my heart is unchanged
but above all let him see you again as soon as possible and ludovico i think it is needless to tell you i shall very anxiously look for you having then wished her good night ludovico descended the staircase
and emily retired to rest but not to sleep for joy now rendered her as wakeful as she had ever been from grief montoni and his castle had all vanished from her mind like the frightful vision of a necromancer
and she wandered once more in fairy scenes of unfading happiness as when beneath the beam of summer moons the distant woods among or by some flood all silver'd with the gleam
the soft embodied fays thro airy portals stream a week elapsed before ludovico again visited the prison for the sentinels during that period were men in whom he could not confide
and he feared to awaken curiosity by asking to see their prisoner in this interval he communicated to emily terrific reports of what was passing in the castle of riots quarrels and of carousals more alarming than either
while from some circumstances which he mentioned she not only doubted whether montoni meant ever to release her but greatly feared that he had designs concerning her such as she had formerly dreaded
her name was frequently mentioned in the conversations which bertolini and verezzi held together and at those times they were frequently in contention
the cause of them however appeared to be of little consequence for she thought she saw destruction approaching in many forms and her entreaties to ludovico to contrive an escape and to see the prisoner again
were more urgent than ever at length he informed her that he had again visited the chevalier who had directed him to confide in the guard of the prison
from whom he had already received some instances of kindness and who had promised to permit his going into the castle for half an hour on the ensuing night when montoni and his companions should be engaged
at their carousals this was kind to be sure added ludovico but sebastian knows he runs no risque in letting the chevalier out for
if he can get beyond the bars and iron doors of the castle he must be cunning indeed but the chevalier desired me signora
and to beg you would allow him to visit you this night if it was only for a moment for that he could no longer live under the same roof without seeing you the hour he said he could not mention for it must depend on circumstances
just as you said signora and the place he desired you would appoint as knowing which was best for your own safety emily was now so much agitated by the near prospect of meeting valancourt
by the apprehension of meeting any of montoni's guests on their way to their rooms and she dismissed the scruples which delicacy opposed now that a serious danger was to be avoided by encountering them
it was settled therefore that the chevalier should meet her in the corridor at that hour of the night which ludovico who was to be upon the watch should judge safest and emily
as may be imagined passed this interval in a tumult of hope and joy anxiety and impatience never since her residence in the castle had she watched with so much pleasure the sun set behind the mountains
and twilight shade and darkness veil the scene as on this evening she counted the notes of the great clock and listened to the steps of the sentinels
that another hour was gone o valancourt said she after all i have suffered
when i thought i should never never see you more we are still to meet again o i have endured grief and anxiety and terror and let me then not sink beneath this joy
these were moments when it was impossible for her to feel emotions of regret or melancholy for any ordinary interests even the reflection that she had resigned the estates
which would have been a provision for herself and valancourt for life threw only a light and transient shade upon her spirits the idea of valancourt and that she should see him so soon alone occupied her heart
at length the clock struck twelve she opened the door to listen if any noise was in the castle and heard only distant shouts of riot and laughter echoed feebly along the gallery
she guessed that the signor and his guests were at the banquet they are now engaged for the night said she and valancourt will soon be here having softly closed the door
she paced the room with impatient steps and often went to the casement to listen for the lute but all was silent and her agitation every moment increasing she was at length unable to support herself
and sat down by the window annette whom she detained was in the meantime as loquacious as usual but emily heard scarcely any thing she said and having at length risen to the casement
she distinguished the chords of the lute struck with an expressive hand and then the voice she had formerly listened to accompanied it now rising love they fann'd now pleasing dole
in doubtful joy and tenderness and when the strain ceased she considered it as a signal that valancourt was about to leave the prison soon after she heard steps in the corridor they were the light
quick steps of hope she could scarcely support herself as they approached but opening the door of the apartment she advanced to meet valancourt and in the next moment sunk in the arms of a stranger
we now return for a moment to venice where count morano was suffering under an accumulation of misfortunes soon after his arrival in that city
he had been arrested by order of the senate and without knowing of what he was suspected was conveyed to a place of confinement whither the most strenuous enquiries of his friends had been unable to trace him
who the enemy was that had occasioned him this calamity he had not been able to guess unless indeed it was montoni on whom his suspicions rested and not only with much apparent probability
but with justice in the affair of the poisoned cup montoni had suspected morano but being unable to obtain the degree of proof which was necessary to convict him of a guilty intention
he had recourse to means of other revenge than he could hope to obtain by prosecution he employed a person in whom he believed he might confide to drop a letter of accusation into
or lions mouths which are fixed in a gallery of the doge's palace as receptacles for anonymous information concerning persons who may be disaffected towards the state
as on these occasions the accuser is not confronted with the accused a man may falsely impeach his enemy and accomplish an unjust revenge without fear of punishment or detection
that montoni should have recourse to these diabolical means of ruining a person whom he suspected of having attempted his life is not in the least surprising in the letter
which he had employed as the instrument of his revenge he accused morano of designs against the state which he attempted to prove with all the plausible simplicity of which he was master and the senate
almost equal to a proof arrested the count in consequence of this accusation and without even hinting to him his crime threw him into one of those secret prisons which were the terror of the venetians
and in which persons often languished and sometimes died without being discovered by their friends morano had incurred the personal resentment of many members of the state
and his ambition and the bold rivalship which he discovered on several public occasions to others and it was not to be expected that mercy would soften the rigour of a law
his castle was besieged by troops who seemed willing to dare every thing and to suffer patiently any hardships in pursuit of victory the strength of the fortress however withstood their attack
when udolpho was once more left to the quiet possession of montoni he dispatched ugo into tuscany for emily whom he had sent from considerations of her personal safety
to a place of greater security than a castle which was at that time liable to be overrun by his enemies tranquillity being once more restored to udolpho
he was impatient to secure her again under his roof and had commissioned ugo to assist bertrand in guarding her back to the castle thus compelled to return emily bade the kind maddelina farewell with regret
and after about a fortnight's stay in tuscany where she had experienced an interval of quiet which was absolutely necessary to sustain her long harassed spirits began once more to ascend the apennines
that extended at their feet and to the distant mediterranean whose waves she had so often wished would bear her back to france the distress she felt on her return towards the place of her former sufferings was
however softened by a conjecture that valancourt was there and she found some degree of comfort in the thought of being near him notwithstanding the consideration that he was probably a prisoner
it was noon when she had left the cottage and the evening was closed long before she came within the neighbourhood of udolpho there was a moon
but it shone only at intervals for the night was cloudy and lighted by the torch which ugo carried the travellers paced silently along emily musing on her situation and bertrand and ugo anticipating
the comforts of a flask of wine and a good fire for they had perceived for some time the difference between the warm climate of the lowlands of tuscany and the nipping air of these upper regions emily was at length
some degree of awe as it rolled away on the breeze another and another note succeeded and died in sullen murmur among the mountains to her mournful imagination
it seemed a knell measuring out some fateful period for her aye there is the old clock said bertrand there he is still the cannon have not silenced him
he crowed as loud as the best of them in the midst of it all there he was roaring out in the hottest fire i have seen this many a day
and the tower too the road winding round the base of a mountain they now came within view of the castle which was shewn in the perspective of the valley by a gleam of moon shine and then vanished in shade
while even a transient view of it had awakened the poignancy of emily's feelings its massy and gloomy walls gave her terrible ideas of imprisonment and suffering yet as she advanced
some degree of hope mingled with her terror for though this was certainly the residence of montoni it was possibly also that of valancourt and she could not approach a place where he might be
without experiencing somewhat of the joy of hope they continued to wind along the valley and soon after she saw again the old walls and moon lit towers rising over the woods
the strong rays enabled her also to perceive the ravages which the siege had made with the broken walls and shattered battlements for they were now at the foot of the steep on which udolpho stood
massy fragments had rolled down among the woods through which the travellers now began to ascend and there mingled with the loose earth and pieces of rock they had brought with them
the woods too had suffered much from the batteries above for here the enemy had endeavoured to screen themselves from the fire of the ramparts many noble trees were levelled with the ground
and others to a wide extent were entirely stripped of their upper branches we had better dismount said ugo and lead the mules up the hill
here are plenty of them give me the torch continued ugo after they had dismounted and take care you don't stumble over any thing
for the ground is not yet cleared of the enemy how exclaimed emily are any of the enemy here then nay i don't know for that now he replied
but when i came away i saw one or two of them lying under the trees as they proceeded the torch threw a gloomy light upon the ground and far among the recesses of the woods
and emily feared to look forward lest some object of horror should meet her eye the path was often strewn with broken heads of arrows and with shattered remains of armour
bring the light hither said bertrand i have stumbled over something that rattles loud enough
they perceived a steel breastplate on the ground which bertrand raised and they saw that it was pierced through and that the lining was entirely covered with blood
but upon emily's earnest entreaties that they would proceed bertrand uttering some joke upon the unfortunate person to whom it had belonged threw it hard upon the ground and they passed on
at every step she took emily feared to see some vestige of death coming soon after to an opening in the woods bertrand stopped to survey the ground which was encumbered with massy trunks
and branches of the trees that had so lately adorned it and seemed to have been a spot particularly fatal to the besiegers for it was evident from the destruction of the trees
whose mangled forms emily almost expected to see and she again entreated her companions to proceed who were however
and she turned her eyes from this desolated scene to the castle above where she observed lights gliding along the ramparts presently the castle clock struck twelve
and then a trumpet sounded of which emily enquired the occasion o they are only changing watch replied ugo i do not remember this trumpet
after which all was again still she complained of cold and begged to go on presently lady said bertrand turning over some broken arms with the pike he usually carried
what have we here hark cried emily what noise was that what noise was it said ugo starting up and listening hush repeated emily
it surely came from the ramparts above and on looking up they perceived a light moving along the walls while in the next instant the breeze swelling the voice sounded louder than before
and he blew a shrill whistle which signal was answered by another from the soldier on watch and the party then passing forward soon after emerged from the woods upon the broken road
that led immediately to the castle gates and emily saw with renewed terror the whole of that stupendous structure alas said she to herself i am going again into my prison
here has been warm work by saint marco cried bertrand waving a torch over the ground the balls have torn up the earth here with a vengeance
for besides the cannon from the walls our archers on the two round towers showered down upon them at such a rate that by holy peter there was no standing it i never saw a better sight in my life
bertrand my good fellow thou shouldst have been among them i warrant thou wouldst have won the race hah you are at your old tricks again
thou knowest i have killed my man before now
and then gave some further account of the siege to which as emily listened she was struck by the strong contrast of the present scene with that which had so lately been acted here
the groans of the conquered and the shouts of the conquerors were now sunk into a silence so profound that it seemed as if death had triumphed alike over the vanquished and the victor
the shattered condition of one of the towers of the great gates by no means confirmed the valiant account just given by ugo of the scampering party who it was evident had not only made a stand
but had done much mischief before they took to flight for this tower appeared as far as emily could judge by the dim moon light that fell upon
and the battlements were nearly demolished while she gazed a light glimmered through one of the lower loop holes and disappeared
she perceived through the broken wall a soldier with a lamp ascending the narrow staircase that wound within the tower and remembering that it was the same she had passed up on the night when barnardine
the lamp he carried gave her a dusky view of that terrible apartment and she almost sunk under the recollected horrors of the moment when she had drawn aside the curtain and discovered the object it was meant to conceal
perhaps that soldier goes at this dead hour to watch over the corpse of his friend the little remains of her fortitude now gave way to the united force of remembered and anticipated horrors
for the melancholy fate of madame montoni appeared to foretell her own she considered that
they might not appease his vengeance which was seldom pacified but by a terrible sacrifice
that were she to resign them the fear of justice might urge him either to detain her a prisoner or to take away her life they were now arrived at the gates where bertrand
called aloud and the soldier looking out demanded who was there here i have brought you a prisoner said ugo open the gate and let us in tell me first who it is that demands entrance
replied the soldier what my old comrade cried ugo don't you know me not know ugo i have brought home a prisoner here bound hand and foot a fellow who has been drinking tuscany wine
while we here have been fighting you will not rest till you meet with your match said bertrand sullenly hah my comrade is it you said the soldier
and then the heavy chain fall and the bolts undraw of a small postern door which he opened to admit the party he held the lamp low to shew the step of the gate
and she found herself once more beneath the gloomy arch and heard the door close that seemed to shut her from the world for ever in the next moment she was in the first court of the castle
as ugo and the soldier conversed together assisted to increase the melancholy forebodings of her heart passing on to the second court a distant sound broke feebly on the silence
and gradually swelling louder as they advanced emily distinguished voices of revelry and laughter but they were to her far other than sounds of joy
if one may judge by the uproar that is going forward
who is carousing at this late hour his excellenza and the signors replied the soldier it is a sign you are a stranger at the castle or you would not need to ask the question they are brave spirits that do without sleep
they generally pass the night in good cheer would that we who keep the watch had a little of it it is cold work pacing the ramparts so many hours of the night if one has no good liquor to warm one's heart
courage my lad courage ought to warm your heart said ugo courage replied the soldier sharply with a menacing air which ugo perceiving prevented his saying more by returning to the subject of the carousal
this is a new custom said he when i left the castle the signors used to sit up counselling aye and for that matter carousing too replied the soldier but since the siege they have done nothing but make merry
and if i was they i would settle accounts with myself
he had quitted the low narrow white walled farmhouse for the castle of the great earl of mackworth he had never appreciated before how low and narrow and poor the farm house was now with his eyes trained to the bigness of devlen castle
he looked around him with wonder and pity at his father's humble surroundings he realized as he never else could have realized
he also recognized how generous was the friendship of prior edward who perilled his own safety so greatly in affording the family
myles paid many visits to the gentle old priest during those two weeks visit and had many long and serious talks with him one warm bright afternoon
after a game or two of draughts the young knight talked more freely and openly of his plans his hopes his ambitions than perhaps he had ever done
concerning the fallen fortunes of his father's house and of how all who knew those circumstances looked to him to set the family in its old place once more prior edward added many things to those which myles already knew things of which the earl either did not know or did not choose to speak
among other matters the reason of the bitter and lasting enmity that the king felt for the blind nobleman that lord falworth had been one of king richard's council in times past that it was not a little owing to him that king henry when earl of derby had been banished from england
and that though he was then living in the retirement of private life he bitterly and steadfastly opposed king richard's abdication
vengeance was ready to fall upon his father at any moment and it needed only such a pretext as that of sheltering so prominent a conspirator as sir john to complete his ruin
but sir said he after a little space of silence
to hold enmity and to breed treason are very different matters haply my father was bolingbroke's enemy but sure thou dost not believe he is justly and rightfully tainted with treason nay answered the priest how canst thou ask me such a thing
did i believe thy father a traitor thinkest thou i would thus tell his son thereof nay myles
that few men are so honorable in heart and soul as he but i have told thee all these things to show that the king is not without some reason to be thy father's unfriend neither haply is the earl of alban without cause of enmity against him
so thou upon thy part shouldst not feel bitter rancor against the king
nor even against william brookhurst i mean the earl of alban for i tell thee the worst of our enemies and the worst of men believe themselves always to have right and justice upon their side even when they most wish evil to others
so spoke the gentle old priest who looked from his peaceful haven with dreamy eyes upon the sweat and tussle of the world's battle had he instead been in the thick of the fight it might have been harder for him to believe that his enemies ever had right upon their side
but tell me this said myles presently dost thou then think
who hath so ruined my father in body and fortune nay said prior edward thoughtfully
war and bloodshed seem hard and cruel matters to me but god hath given that they be in the world and may he forbid that such a poor worm as i should say that they be all wrong and evil
meseems even an evil thing is sometimes passing good when rightfully used myles did not fully understand what the old man meant but this much he gathered that his spiritual father did not think ill of his fighting the earl of alban for his temporal father's sake
so myles went to france in lord george's company a soldier of fortune as his captain was he was there for only six months but those six months wrought a great change in his life in the fierce factional battles that raged around the walls of paris
in the evil life which he saw at the burgundian court in paris itself after the truce a court brilliant and wicked witty and cruel
had crystallized as rapidly into the hardness of manhood the warfare
and i love my hero that he should have come forth from it so well he was no longer the innocent sir galahad who had walked in pure white up the long hall to be knighted by the king but his soul was of that grim sterling rugged sort
that looked out calmly from his gray eyes upon the wickedness and debauchery around him and loved it not then one day a courier came bringing a packet it was a letter from the earl bidding myles return straightway to england and to mackworth house upon the strand nigh to london without delay
leaving behind them quaint old london town its blank stone wall its crooked dirty streets its high gabled wooden houses over which rose the sharp spire of saint paul's towering high into the golden air before them stretched the straight broad highway of the strand
on one side the great houses and palaces of princely priests and powerful nobles on the other the covent garden or the convent garden as it was then called and the rolling country where great stone windmills swung their slow moving arms in the damp soft april breeze
in that dim and distant time of his boyhood six months before
now he jogged along with gascoyne
gabled houses at the busy throng of merchants and craftsmen jostling and elbowing one another at townsfolk men and dames picking their way along the muddy kennel of a sidewalk
so he did not care to tarry but rode with a mind heavy with graver matters
when they met for the first time after that half year which the young soldier had spent in france to myles it seemed somehow very strange that his lordship's familiar face and figure should look so exactly the same to lord mackworth perhaps
the rugged exposure in camp and field during the hard winter
his beard and mustache had grown again now heavier and more mannish from having been shaved and the white seam of a scar over the right temple gave
myles was the first to break the silence my lord said he thou didst send for me to come back to england behold here am i when didst thou land sir myles said the earl i and my squire landed at dover upon tuesday last answered the young man
the earl of mackworth stroked his beard softly thou art marvellous changed said he
myles smiled somewhat grimly
as mayhap may make a lad a man before his time from which i gather said the earl that many adventures have befallen thee methought thou wouldst find troublesome times in the dauphin's camp else i would not have sent thee to france a little space of silence followed
during which the earl sat musingly half absently regarding the tall erect powerful young figure standing before him awaiting his pleasure in motionless patient almost dogged silence the strong sinewy hands were clasped and rested upon the long heavy sword
broken pieces the bright sunlight from the window behind sir myles said the earl suddenly breaking the silence at last dost thou know why i sent for thee hither aye said myles calmly how can i else
thou wouldst not have called me from paris but for one thing methinks thou hast sent for me to fight the earl of alban and lo i am here thou speakest very boldly said the earl i do hope that thy deeds be as bold as thy words that
said myles thou must ask other men methinks no one may justly call me coward by my troth said the earl smiling looking upon thee limbs and girth bone and sinew
i would not like to be the he that would dare accuse thee of such a thing as for thy surmise
the time is now nearly ripe and i will straightway send for thy father to come to london meantime it would not be safe either for thee or for me to keep thee in my service
he hath promised to take thee into his service until the fitting time comes to bring thee and thine enemy together and to morrow i shall take thee to scotland yard where his highness is now lodging as the earl ended his speech myles bowed but did not speak the earl waited for a little while
as though to give him the opportunity to answer well sirrah said he at last with a shade of impatience hast thou naught to say meseems thou takest all this with marvellous coolness have i then my lord's permission to speak my mind
aye said the earl say thy say sir said myles i have thought and pondered this matter much while abroad and would now ask thee a plain question in all honest an i ha thy leave the earl nodded his head
sir am i not right in believing that thou hast certain weighty purposes and aims of thine own to gain an i win this battle against the earl of alban has my brother george been telling thee aught to such a purpose said the earl after a moment or two of silence
no matter added lord mackworth i will not ask thee who told thee such a thing as for thy question well sin thou ask it frankly i will be frank with thee yea i have certain ends to gain in having the earl of alban overthrown myles bowed
sir said he haply thine ends are as much beyond aught that i can comprehend as though i were a little child only this i know that they must be very great thou knowest well that in any case i would fight me this battle for my father's sake and for the honor of my house
nevertheless in return for all that it will so greatly advantage thee wilt thou not grant me a boon in return should i overcome mine enemy what is thy boon sir myles that thou wilt grant me thy favor to seek the lady alice de mowbray
for my wife the earl of mackworth started up from his seat
he began violently and then stopped short drawing his bushy eyebrows together into a frown stern if not sinister
and presently the earl turned on his heel and strode to the open window a long time passed in silence while he stood there gazing out of the window into the garden beyond with his back to the young man suddenly he swung around again sir myles said he
the family of falworth is as good as any in derbyshire just now it is poor and fallen in estate but if it is again placed in credit and honor thou who art the son of the house shalt have thy suit weighed with as much respect and consideration as though thou wert my peer in all things
as myles took his place at the south end of the lists he found the sieur de la montaigne already at his station through the peep hole in the face of the huge helmet a transverse slit known as the occularium he could see like a strange narrow picture
the farther end of the lists the spectators upon either side moving and shifting with ceaseless restlessness and in the centre of all his opponent sitting with spear point directed upward erect motionless as a statue of iron
the sunlight gleaming and flashing upon his polished plates of steel and the trappings of his horse swaying and fluttering in the rushing of the fresh breeze upon that motionless figure his sight gradually centred with every faculty of mind and soul
he ground his teeth together with stern resolve to do his best in the coming encounter and murmured a brief prayer in the hallow darkness of his huge helm
slowly raised his spear point until the shaft reached the exact angle and there suffered it to rest motionless there was a moment of dead tense breathless pause then he rather felt than saw the marshal raise his baton he gathered himself together
and the next moment a bugle sounded loud and clear in one blinding rush he drove his spurs into the sides of his horse and in instant answer felt the noble steed spring forward with a bound through all the clashing of his armor reverberating in the hollow depths of his helmet
he saw the mail clad figure from the other end of the lists rushing towards him looming larger and larger as they came together
and bent his body still more forward in the instant of meeting with almost the blindness of instinct he dropped the point of his spear against the single red flower de luce in the middle of the on coming shield there was a thunderous crash
that seemed to rack every joint he heard the crackle of splintered wood
at the far end of the course he heard faintly in the dim hollow recess of the helm
and found himself gripping with nervous intensity the butt of a broken spear
as he turned his horse's head towards his own end of the lists he saw the other trotting slowly back towards his station also holding a broken spear shaft in his hand as he passed the iron figure a voice issued from the helmet
when he had reached his own end of the lists he flung away his broken spear and gascoyne came forward with another oh myles he said with sob in his voice it was nobly done
oh myles prithee knock him out of his saddle an thou lovest me
did the same during the little time of rest before the next encounter when in answer to the command of the marshal he took his place a second time he found himself calmer and more collected than before
once more the marshal raised his baton once more the horn sounded and once more the two rushed together with the same thunderous crash the same splinter of broken spears the same momentary trembling recoil of the horse and the same onward rush past one another
once more the spectators applauded and shouted as the two knights turned their horses and rode back towards their station this time as they met midway the sieur de la montaigne reined in his horse sir myles said his muffled voice i swear to thee by my faith
i had thought to find in thee a raw boy but find instead a paladin hitherto i have given thee grace as i would give grace to any mere lad and thought of nothing but to give thee opportunity to break thy lance
now i shall do my endeavor to unhorse thee as i would an acknowledged peer in arms nevertheless on account of thy youth i give thee this warning so that thou mayst hold thyself in readiness i give thee gramercy for thy courtesy my lord answered myles speaking in french
and i will strive to encounter thee as best i may and pardon me if i seem forward in so saying but were i in thy place my lord i would change me yon breast piece and over girth of my saddle they are sprung in the stitches nay
breast piece and over girth have carried me through more tilts than one and shall through this an thou give me a blow so true as to burst breast piece and over girth i will own myself fairly conquered by thee so saying
and passed by to his end of the lists
after gascoyne had taken off his helmet and as he sat wiping the perspiration from his face sir james came up and took him by the hand my dear boy said he gripping the hand he held never could i hope to be so overjoyed in mine old age as i am this day
thou dost bring honor to me for i tell thee truly thou dost ride like a knight seasoned in twenty tourneys
answered myles and truly he added i shall need all my courage this bout for the sieur de la montaigne telleth me that he will ride to unhorse me this time did he indeed so say said sir james
then belike he meaneth to strike at thy helm thy best chance is to strike also at his doth thy hand tremble not now answered myles then keep thy head cool and thine eye true set thy trust in god and haply
thou wilt come out of this bout honorably in spite of the rawness of thy youth just then edmund wilkes presented the cup of wine to myles who drank it off at a draught and thereupon gascoyne replaced the helm and tied the thongs
but then a blow upon the helm was not one time in fifty perfectly given the huge cylindrical tilting helm was so constructed in front as to slope at an angle in all directions to one point that point was the centre of a cross formed by two iron bands
welded to the steel face plates of the helm
and that stroke myles determined to attempt as he took his station edmund wilkes came running across from the pavilion with a lance that sir james had chosen and myles returning the one that gascoyne had just given him took it in his hand
it was of seasoned oak somewhat thicker than the other a tough weapon
and found that it fitted perfectly to his grasp as he raised the point to rest his opponent took his station at the farther extremity of the lists and again there was a little space of breathless pause
every nervous tremor was gone before he had been conscious of the critical multitude looking down upon him now it was a conflict of man to man and such a conflict had no terrors for his young heart of iron
the spectators had somehow come to the knowledge that this was to be a more serious encounter than the two which had preceded it and a breathless silence fell for the moment or two that the knights stood in place once more he breathed a short prayer holy mary guard me
then again for the third time the marshal raised his baton and the horn sounded and for the third time myles drove his spurs into his horse's flanks again he saw the iron figure of his opponent rushing nearer nearer nearer he centred with a straining intensity
every faculty of soul mind and body upon one point the cross of the occularium the mark he was to strike he braced himself for the tremendous shock which he knew must meet him
the next instant there was a deafening stunning crash
and a myriad sparks danced and flickered and sparkled before his eyes he felt his horse stagger under him with the recoil and hardly knowing what he did he drove his spurs deep into its sides with a shout
he knew not of what and then as his horse recovered and sprang forward
he heard a great shout arise from all
at the farther end of the course he turned his horse and then his heart gave a leap and a bound as though it would burst the blood leaped to his cheeks tingling and his bosom thrilled with an almost agonizing pang of triumph of wonder of amazement
and his riderless horse was trotting aimlessly about at the farther end of the lists myles saw the two squires of the fallen knight run across to where their master lay he saw the ladies waving their kerchiefs and veils
were now aiding the fallen knight to arise the senior squire drew his dagger cut the leather points and drew off the helm disclosing the knight's face a face white as death
said the marshal calmly and speaking in french surely thou knowest that the loss of helmet does not decide an encounter i need not remind thee my lord
when in the jousting match between reynand de roye and john de holland the sieur reynand left every point of his helm loosened so that the helm was beaten off at each stroke if he then was justified in doing so of his own choice and wilfully suffering to be unhelmed
how then can this knight be accused of evil who suffered it by chance nevertheless
i do affirm and will make my affirmation good with my body that i fell only by the breaking of my girth who says otherwise lies it is the truth he speaketh said myles i myself saw the stitches
were some little what burst and warned him thereof before we ran this course
which your own enemy advised you of and warned you against was it not right knightly for him so to do the sieur de la montaigne stood quite still for a little while leaning on the shoulder of his chief squire looking moodily upon the ground
then without making answer he turned and walked slowly away to his pavilion still leaning on his squire's shoulder
bearing his shield and helmet gascoyne had picked up myles's fallen helmet as the sieur de la montaigne moved away and lord george and sir james lee
and the other walking beside the saddle
joined in the praise and congratulation that poured upon the young conqueror myles his heart swelling with a passion of triumphant delight looked up and met the gaze of lady alice fixed intently upon him a red spot of excitement still burned in either cheek
and it flamed to a rosier red as he bowed his head to her before turning away gascoyne had just removed myles's breastplate and gorget when sir james lee burst into the pavilion all his grim coldness was gone
and kissing him upon either cheek ere he let him go mine own dear boy he said holding him off at arm's length and winking his one keen eye rapidly
mine own dear boy i do tell thee truly this is as sweet to me as though thou wert mine own son sweeter to me than when i first broke mine own lance in triumph and felt myself to be a right knight sir answered myles
what thou sayest doth rejoice my very heart
before he ran his course for so i saw with mine own eyes burst in the stitches snorted sir james thinkest thou he did not know in what condition was his horse's gearing
chapter fifteen miss vale departs suddenly for a moment there was a silence between the two men then ashton kirk said dryly
miss vale has apparently not been altogether frank with us in this matter you think then began pendleton in a voice of terror but ashton kirk stopped him
i think many things said he but they are neither here nor there facts are what count put the circumstances together for yourself and see where they lead you
quietly engaged with a man whom i have convinced myself is one of hume's murderers there was another pause this time it was pendleton who broke the silence as you say
spoke he in a strange throaty sort of tone she has not been quite frank take all the circumstances together and they seem to point he paused as though quite unable to finish
ashton kirk laid a hand upon his shoulder imagination is a thing that is vitally necessary in this sort of work said he but it must be held in check by reason
then he allows his imagination to take a long leap toward a result the upshot is that his results have seldom anything to support them the correct method i think is to allow the imagination to scurry ahead
in the way that is natural to it but reason must follow close behind proving each step of the way to be sure you may have theories hypotheses ideas without end but you must never take them for granted
select each in its turn place it in a tube as the chemist does add a few drops of reason and you may produce a fact it is the only way to go about it
once a man becomes fixed in a belief be there ever so little foundation for it his mind stops revolving the subject further procedure is hopeless i understand all that well enough
said pendleton but and he waved his hand toward the house what does this mean i don't know said ashton kirk and neither do you so that being the case
there is but one thing to do find out they gazed toward the window once more miss vale had apparently mastered the contents of the paper and was now engaged in writing rapidly
as the young men watched she stopped read carefully what she had written and then handed it to locke the mute carried the paper to the light and holding it very near to his eyes read it with much attention
placed it upon the red coals of a stove which stood near him and watched it burn facing miss vale his fingers began to fly rapidly in intricate signs this only lasted a moment however for he stopped
gestured passionately seized a pad of paper and began to write while he was thus engaged ashton kirk said to pendleton in a low tone remain here for a moment then
slowly carefully the investigator made his way toward the window through which miss vale and locke were to be seen heavy beams of light shot across the ground from the windows
but here and there were trails of shadow he clung to these until he had reached the shelter of the walls then to pendleton's amazement he stepped directly in front of the window through which the two were to be seen
and also he heard the cry that she uttered muffled by the confines of the room but full of fear then the room was plunged into darkness
the sound of quick moving feet came to him there followed the pulsations of a motor and the racing of a car away into the night she's off breathed the young man
and there was undoubted relief in the knowledge she's off and i really believe that's what kirk was after he walked toward the house and found his friend standing in the shadows well chuckled the investigator
it did not take her long to make up her mind eh you had some motive in doing that accused pendleton what was it ashton kirk was about to reply
but just then the small figure of locke made its appearance he carried a lantern and was approaching with stumbling steps his eyes peering and blinking in their efforts to pierce the gloom not until he was well upon the two did he make them out
then he halted lifted the light above his head and surveyed them intently in the rays of the lantern ashton kirk smiled urbanely and bowed
each of them forms itself into a wild note of interrogation said pendleton they are fairly screaming questions at you ashton kirk smiled even more agreeably at locke and shook his head
then he went through the pantomime of one writing and finished by pointing to the house carefully eagerly fearfully the mute examined them
his near sighted eyes and the wavering light must have made it all but impossible for him to make them out however he at length motioned for them to follow him and started back by the way which he had come
but after a few steps he halted he indicated that they were to remain where they were then he went to the shed like building closed the door and locked it placing the key in his pocket
it would seem observed ashton kirk that we are not to be trusted implicitly also replied pendleton that there is something of value in the shed
returning locke led the way to a door upon the other side of the house showing them into a small room furnished with books and scientific apparatus and evidently a study
he set down the lantern and with a sign bade them be seated upon their doing so he produced a small pad of paper and a pencil handing these to ashton kirk he stood peering at them expectantly
with the swift accurate touch of an expert the investigator wrote in the pitman shorthand we ask pardon if we have startled you then he tore off the sheet and handed it to professor locke
the man seemed surprised at the medium selected by his visitor nevertheless he quickly traced the following in the same characters who are you what is your errand we were sent to you by doctor mercer
replied ashton kirk with flying pencil our business is to secure the admission of a new pupil locke read this and regarded them for a moment doubtfully why did you not press the button at the door
he demanded in writing i hardly expected you to have such a thing as a bell answered ashton kirk on the pad and so seeing you i attracted your attention as best i could
professor locke read this and stood with his pencil poised when the buzzer sounded harshly he went at once into the hall they heard him open the door and in a few moments he returned
followed by haines the fingers of the two flashed their signals back and forth then a look of relief came into locke's face he even smiled and nodded understandingly at the two young men
i beg pardon gentlemen said haines but when i got back to the hall doctor mercer made me return and make sure that you had got to see the professor thanks replied the investigator we had not the slightest difficulty
said the man good night to you he flashed the same wish to the mute who answered readily then he went out and through the window they saw his light again go bobbing away in the darkness
then the professor began to write once more i beg your pardon was his message in long hand the man tells me that it was quite as you say but i must confess i was a trifle startled
the lady wrote ashton kirk seemed startled too for the fraction of a moment the mute halted in his reply then the pencil with much assurance formed the following
it was my niece she was about to go just as you came so do not reproach yourself for having driven her away for some time the penciled conversation continued between the two
but as it was all based upon the fanciful pupil whom the investigator stated he desired to place in doctor mercer's care pendleton paid little heed to it at last however they bid the professor good by and left him upon the threshold
his frail little body sharply outlined by the glow from the hall the two had reached their own car around on the other road before pendleton spoke then he inquired well
if it succeeds i'll tell you what it is if it does not i'll say nothing and it will go upon the scrap heap devoted to broken fancies and now dixon to the chauffeur
chapter twelve antonio spatola appears ashton kirk and pendleton were admitted to the cell room at the city hall without question but a distinct surprise awaited them there
through a private door leading from the detectives quarters they saw the bulky form of osborne emerge and at his heels were bernstine and his sandy haired clerk
when osborne caught sight of ashton kirk he expanded into a wide smile of satisfaction
greeted he glad to see you you're just in time to see me turn a new trick here's the people that spatola bought the bayonet from how does that strike you but bernstine leaned over and said something in a low tone
and the smile instantly departed oh said osborne ruefully this is the party who called to see you is it then turning to ashton kirk he asked
how did you get onto this bayonet business just through thinking it over a little that's all answered the investigator mister bernstine now approached the speaker a hurt look upon his face
mister ashton kirk said he why did you not tell us about this piece of business why did you not enlighten us how could you go away and leave us in the dark we are very much occupied and have little time to look at the newspapers
it was only by accident that sime happened to see one lowering his voice he added there's a smart fellow for you he saw the whole thing in an instant and so we came right here to do what we can to help justice
he squared his shoulders importantly he's seen the bayonet and is prepared to swear to it stated osborne elated what of the picture of spatola in the paper asked the investigator
does he recognize that osborne's face fell once more these half tones done through coarse screens are never any good said he
and that'll settle it with that a turnkey was dispatched and in a few moments he returned accompanied by a half dozen prisoners one was a slim dark young man
with a nervous expressive look and a great tangle of curling black hair the face was haggard and drawn the eyes were frightened the whole manner of the man had a piteous appeal
osborne turned to sime look them over carefully directed he take your time i don't need to answered the freckled shipping clerk he pointed to the dark young man
then he motioned another attendant to take the remaining prisoners away i see said he he was too foxy to buy the thing himself he sent someone else
then he fixed his eye on the prisoner and continued we've got the bayonet on you so you might as well tell us all about it i don't understand said spatola anxiously
the easier you make it for us the easier it will be for you osborne told him if you make us sweat fitting this thing to you we'll give you the limit don't forget that i have done nothing said spatola earnestly
is there not a law there is said osborne grimly that's what i'm trying to tell you about now who bought the bayonet the bayonet spatola stared
with a truly latin gesture of despair the italian put his hands to his forehead
always hume i can not be free of him
even when he is dead i am mocked by him he was all evil i believe he was a devil that was no reason why you should kill him said osborne in the positive manner of the third degree
i've heard you say all that before stated osborne wearily then to the turnkey take him away curtis just a moment interposed ashton kirk i came here to have a few words with this prisoner
and by your leave i'll speak to him now all right replied osborne help yourself he led bernstine and sime out of the cell room the turnkey with professional courtesy
and ashton kirk turned to the italian you were once first violin with karlson said he i remember you well i always admired your art
an eager look came into the prisoner's face i thank you he said
i am young with despair yet how i have sunken it is something of a drop admitted ashton kirk
from a position of first violin with karlson to that of a street musician how did it happen sadly the young italian tapped his forehead with one long finger the fault
he declared is here i have not the what do you call it sense what happened with karlson happened a dozen times before in italy in france in spain i have not the good sense
but justification came into his eyes and his hands began to gesticulate eloquently karlson is a swede with contempt the swedes know the science of music but they are hard they are seldom artists
they cannot express and when one of this nation a man with the ice of his country in his soul tried to instruct me how to play the warm music of my own italy i called him a fool i see
said the investigator i am to blame said spatola contritely
and fools seldom like to hear the truth the germans now said ashton kirk insinuatingly are somewhat different from the swedes were you ever employed under a german conductor
twice replied the violinist with a shrug nobody can deny the art of the germans but they have their faults they say they know the violin
but the italian has taught them the violin belongs to italy it was the glory of cremona was it not the tender hands of the amatis of josef guarnerius of old antonio stradivari
placed a soul within the wooden box and that soul is the soul of italy haupt a german wrote a treatise on the violin said ashton kirk if you would read that
and he snapped his fingers impatiently but you've probably read a translation in the english or italian insisted the investigator smoothly and all translations lose something of their vitality you know
i have read it in the german declared the italian in his own language just as he wrote it
pendleton looked at ashton kirk admiringly the manner in which his friend had established the fact that spatola knew the german language seemed to him very clever but ashton kirk made no sign
other than that of interest in the subject upon which they talked a race that has given the world such musicians as wagner beethoven and mozart said he must possess in a tremendous degree the musical sense
the german knowledge of tone and its combinations is extraordinary and their music in turn is as complex as their psychology and as simple as the improvisation of a child
only the other day i came upon a booklet published in leipzig that dealt with the difficulty a composer sometimes encounters in getting the notes on paper when a melody sweeps through his brain the writer claimed that the world had lost thousands of inspirations because of this
and to prevent further loss he proffered an invention a system of so to speak musical shorthand a sullen look of suspicion came into spatola's face
he regarded the speaker from under lowered brows perhaps you don't quite understand the value of such an invention proceeded ashton kirk but if you had a knowledge of stenography and the short cuts it but the italian interrupted him brusquely
i know nothing of such things said he and what is more i don't want to know anything of them then in a sharp angry tone he added
is it always to be so first one and then another at this sudden display of resentment the turnkey approached i will go back to my cell spatola told him and please do not bring me out again my nerves are bad
i have been worried much of late and i can't stand it the turnkey looked at ashton kirk who nodded his head and as spatola was led gesticulating away pendleton said in a low tone of conviction
as soon as you mentioned shorthand he became suspicious and showed uneasiness and anger i tell you again
the stagnant world smith entered the mind of his capellan agent at a moment when he was clearly off duty in fact the engineer of the cobulus was at the time enjoying an uncommonly good photoplay
smith had arrived too late to see the beginning of the picture but he found it to be a more or less conventional society drama and for a while he was mainly interested in the remarkably clear photography
the natural coloring and stereoscopic effect that the doctor had already noted through young ernol smith nearly overlooked the really fine music all coming from a talking machine of some kind and then the picture came to an end and a farce comedy began
it was an extraordinarily ingenious thing with little or no plot afterward smith could not describe it with any accuracy however missus kinney down stairs plainly heard him laughing as though his sides would give way
the picture over smith's man got up and left the place and once outside he glanced at his watch and took up a position on the curb much as smith had often done when a younger man the capellan seemed to know a good many of the people who came out of the playhouse
and meanwhile smith took note of something of extreme importance the playhouse did not have any advertising whatever in sight except for a single bulletin board like the bill of fare of a cafeteria moreover
and this is the significant thing there was no box office neither was any one at the door to take tickets the place was wide open to the world it was located on a very busy street in what appeared to be a good sized city
but to all appearances any one might enter who chose to free amusements thought smith to keep the boobs happy shortly his agent stepped down the street which seemed to be greatly like one in any city on the earth
except that there was remarkably little noise
certainly the space between the sidewalks was used for little else than the parking of flying machines the buildings housed a variety of stores all built on a large scale
smith's agent quickly reached his own flier a small two seater ornithopter finished in dull gray smith's favorite color incidentally and in a minute or two he was well under way
smith had a chance to watch at close range the distorted s motion of the machine's wings but the flight lasted only a few minutes and presently the craft was again at rest this time it was parked under a tremendously long shed
which smith afterward saw was really a balcony one of a tier of ten opposite the spot was a large building like a depot and over its roof smith saw the huge bulk of an airship
it was of course the cobulus and it was when smith's agent passed through a checking in room that his name was heard for the first time
and reblong with smith making eager use of his eyes went directly through a hatch in the side of the great ship and thence down a corridor to his engine room smith got little opportunity to study the machinery reblong gave the place a single sweeping glance
then strode to a short black bearded chap who stood near the instrument board everything as usual my friend he had a pleasant voice as smith learned for the first time yes as usual the man's voice was bitter that's just what's wrong
there's never any improvement it's always as usual say reblong no offense but i think we are fools to put up with what we are given
personally i think we are mighty lucky instead of foolish lucky the other man snorted
i haven't seen him around for weeks don't know exactly with some uneasiness he went back to calastia and that's the last i heard of him calastia
all news cut off the man instantly smelled a mouse quarantine why should that cause the news to be cut off there's something more than quarantine the matter reblong
he began to pace the room excitedly i say it again we're fools to believe everything the commission tells us i think they've been hoodwinking us about long enough reblong suppressed a yawn
and that's exactly what's the matter cried the other
yes politely maybe so only you can't blame us for thinking pretty highly of a government that has done this reblong checked the items off on his fingers
it has done away with the liquor traffic it has fully protected women in industry it has put an end to child labor it has abolished poverty it has abolished war and with considerable emphasis for so quiet a man
it has provided you and me and everybody else with a mighty fine education free of charge reblong's manner by its very emphasis had the effect of making the other man suddenly quite cool correct
i admit them all and at the same time i want to show you that the commission has accomplished all this not primarily for our benefit but in the interests of the owners they gave us prohibition because drinking was bad for business
no other reason reblong and that's why the women are protected too a protected contented woman brings in better dividends to the owners than one who is worked to death neither did it pay to allow child labor it resulted in misery
and reduced production in the long run and that meant reduced dividends poverty didn't pay either poor people do not make efficient workmen war was abolished reblong not for any humanitarian motives
but because peace brought in fatter profits and less waste and as for our compulsory education he snapped his fingers contemptuously just what does it amount to simply this it didn't pay the owners to allow illiteracy
an educated workman is a better dividend producer than an ignorant one that's all there is to it reblong don't fool yourself into thinking that the commission has done all this for your benefit not much maybe you're right conceded reblong
i'm satisfied the other man looked disgusted satisfied just because you're guaranteed your dollar an hour and your pension at sixty satisfied when half the company's profits go to the owners
not one of whom ever did a bit of work in his life a bunch of people who do nothing but blow in the money we earn and spend more in a day than we do in a month they're welcome commented reblong with much indifference
you don't mean to say that you've swallowed that old piffle said the black bearded chap incredulously i don't see any piffle about it
not only do they take the burden of our surplus earnings off our shoulders but they run our government for us without charge well i'll be utterly damned the other fellow looked as though the words were not half strong enough
i never thought a full grown man could continue to believe the stuff we were taught when we were kids don't you ever think for yourself reblong why look here he came closer and spoke with painstaking clearness
as though he were addressing a child the commission instead of assuring us that increased wages would be our ruin could just as well be educating us to spend wisely
every last one of us ought to be given a college education instead of merely the children of the rich and all this could be done too there's no earthly reason why we should permit that bunch of parasites in hafen to graft off us any longer
put em to work like you and me and make life easier for us all but objected reblong a little upset there's only a few of the owners they couldn't help much but their servants could
do you know that there's ten servants on an average to every family of the rich servants who do nothing but make life still easier for people who already hog it all well suppose they did all go to work
who would run our government for us my friend who why if we can do the work i guess we can certainly do the governing reblong reblong turned away
somewhere a warning instrument was thrumming loudly the man with the democratic ideas automatically turned to his locker and proceeded to change his outer clothing reblong meanwhile took off his suit and slipped into some full length overalls
as he buttoned them up around the neck he stepped in front of a glass smith was nearly floored the man was almost his exact double an ordinary everyday sort of a chap with a very commonplace face
perhaps like smith's his face concealed a remarkable technical knowledge but nobody would have given him a second glance was he thought smith a typical capellan workman
the other man was ready to go he hesitated studying the floor then said regretfully the worst part of it is reblong everybody i talk to is as bad as you are
they all admit that things are not what they should be but nobody cares he went to the door and reblong heard him say under his breath as he turned the knob great heavens
i calculated as how it would be a good time to come down here
wall i fooled em a little bit i wuz here three days afore they buncoed me
hold fast but i'm transgressin from what i started to tell ye i wuz ridin along in one of them sleepin keers comin here and along in the night some time i felt a feller rummagin around under my bed
and i looked out jest in time to see him goin away with my boots wall i knowed the way that train wuz a runnin he couldn't git off with them without breakin his durned neck but in about half an hour he brot them back
wall when i got up in the mornin my trubbles commenced i wuz so crouded up like durned if i could git my clothes on and when i did git em on durned if my pants wa'nt on hind side afore
and i got my right boot on my left foot and the left one on the right foot and i wuz so durned badly mixed up i didn't know which way the train wuz a runnin and i bumped my head on the roof of the bed over me
and then sot down right suddin like to think it over when some feller cum along and stepped right squar on my bunion and i let out a war whoop you could a heerd over in the next county
wall along cum that durned porter and told me i wuz a wakin up everybody in the keer then i started in to hunt fer my collar button cause i sot a right smart store by that button thar warns another one like it in punkin centre
and i thought it would be kind of doubtful if they'd have any like it in new york
when along came that durned black jumpin jack dressed in soldier clothes and ast me what i wanted and i told him i didn't want anything perticler
and fast as i could pump water in the durned thing it run out of a little hole in the bottom of the trough so i jest had to grab a handful and then pump some more
then i et a snack out of my carpet bag and felt purty good wall that train got to runnin slower and slower till it stopped at every house and when it cum to a double house
when the wind blew my hat off and i lost the durned old ticket
i hed to buy two tickets to ride once but i fooled him he don't know a durned thing about it and when he finds it out he's goin to be the maddest conductor on that railroad i got a round trip ticket and i ain't a goin back on his durned old road
when i got off the ferry boat down here i commenced to think i wuz about the best lookin old feller what ever cum to new york
and jest the minnit they seen me they all commenced to holler handsome handsome
colonel halifax's ghost story
than sir francis lynton we had been at eton together and for the short time i had been at oxford before entering the army we had been at the same college then we had been parted
he came into the title and estates of the family in yorkshire on the death of his grandfather his father had predeceased and i had been over a good part of the world one visit indeed i had made him in his yorkshire home before leaving for india of but a few days
it will easily be imagined how pleasant it was two or three days after my arrival in london to receive a letter from lynton saying he had just seen in the papers that i had arrived and begging me to come down at once to byfield his place in yorkshire
you are not to tell me he said that you cannot come i allow you a week in which to order and try on your clothes to report yourself at the war office to pay your respects to the duke and to see your sister at hampton court but after that i shall expect you
in fact you are to come on monday i have a couple of horses which will just suit you
accordingly on the day appointed i started in due time reached packham losing much time on a detestable branch line and there found the dogcart of sir francis awaiting me i drove at once to byfield the house i remembered
it was a low gabled structure of no great size with old fashioned lattice windows separated from the park where were deer by a charming terraced garden
no sooner did the wheels crunch the gravel by the principal entrance than almost before the bell was rung the porch door opened and there stood lynton himself whom i had not seen for so many years
hardly altered and with all the joy of welcome beaming in his face taking me by both hands he drew me into the house got rid of my hat and wraps looked me all over and then in a breath began to say how glad he was to see me
what a real delight it was to have got me at last under his roof and what a good time we would have together like the old days over again he had sent my luggage up to my room which was ready for me and he bade me make haste and dress for dinner
which hurried as i was i observed was hung with tapestry and had a large fourpost bed with velvet curtains opposite the window they had gone into dinner when i came down despite all the haste i made in dressing
but a place had been kept for me next lady lynton besides my hosts there were their two daughters colonel lynton a brother of sir francis the chaplain and some others whom i do not remember distinctly
after dinner there was some music in the hall and a game of whist in the drawing room and after the ladies had gone upstairs lynton and i retired to the smoking room where we sat up talking the best part of the night i think it must have been near three when i retired
once in bed i slept so soundly that my servant's entrance the next morning failed to arouse me and it was past nine when i awoke after breakfast and the disposal of the newspapers lynton retired to his letters
and i asked lady lynton if one of her daughters might show me the house elizabeth the eldest was summoned and seemed in no way to dislike the task the house was as already intimated by no means large
it occupied three sides of a square the entrance and one end of the stables making the fourth side the interior was full of interest passages rooms galleries as well as hall were panelled in dark wood and hung with pictures
i was shown everything on the ground floor and then on the first floor then my guide proposed that we should ascend a narrow twisting staircase that led to a gallery we did as proposed and entered a handsome long room or passage
leading to a small chamber at one end in which my guide told me her father kept books and papers i asked if anyone slept in this gallery as i noticed a bed and fireplace and rods by means of which curtains might be drawn
she had heard that it had been occupied
it was nearly one o'clock we were to have an early luncheon and to drive afterwards to see the ruins of one of the grand old yorkshire abbeys this was a pleasant expedition and we got back just in time for tea after which there was some reading aloud
the evening passed much in the same way as the preceding one except that lynton who had some business did not go down to the smoking room and i took the opportunity of retiring early in order to write a letter for the indian mail
something having been said as to the prospect of hunting the next day i had finished my letter which was a long one together with two or three others
and had just got into bed when i heard a step overhead as of someone walking along the gallery which i now knew ran immediately above my room it was a slow heavy measured tread which i could hear getting gradually louder and nearer
and then as gradually fading away as it retreated into the distance i was startled for a moment having been informed that the gallery was unused but the next instant it occurred to me that i had been told it communicated with a chamber
where sir francis kept books and papers i knew he had some writing to do and i thought no more on the matter i was down the next morning at breakfast in good time how late you were last night i said to lynton in the middle of breakfast i heard you overhead after one o'clock
lynton replied rather shortly indeed you did not for i was in bed last night before twelve there was someone certainly moving overhead last night i answered for i heard his steps as distinctly as i ever heard anything in my life going down the gallery
upon which colonel lynton remarked that he had often fancied he had heard steps on his staircase when he knew that no one was about he was apparently disposed to say more when his brother interrupted him somewhat curtly as i fancied
and asked me if i should feel inclined after breakfast to have a horse and go out and look for the hounds they met a considerable way off
they would come our way and we might fall in with them about one o'clock and have a run i said there was nothing i should like better lynton mounted me on a very nice chestnut and the rest of the party having gone out shooting and the young ladies being otherwise engaged
he and i started about eleven o'clock for our ride the day was beautiful soft with a bright sun one of those delightful days which so frequently occur in the early part of november
on reaching the hilltop where lynton had expected to meet the hounds no trace of them was to be discovered they must have found at once and run in a different direction at three o'clock after we had eaten our sandwiches
lynton reluctantly abandoned all hopes of falling in with the hounds and said we would return home by a slightly different route we had not descended the hill before we came on an old chalk quarry and the remains of a disused kiln
i recollected the spot at once i had been here with sir francis on my former visit many years ago why bless me said i do you remember lynton what happened here when i was with you before
we went together to see it removed and you said you would have it preserved till it could be examined by some ethnologist or anthropologist one or other of those dry as dusts
whether british danish or modern what was the result sir francis hesitated for a moment and then answered it is true i had the remains removed was there an inquest no
i had sent a crouched skeleton and some skulls to the scarborough museum this i was doubtful about whether it was a prehistoric interment in fact to what date it belonged no one thought of an inquest
on reaching the house one of the grooms who took the horses in answer to a question from lynton said that colonel and missus hampshire had arrived about an hour ago and that one of the horses being lame
the carriage in which they had driven over from castle frampton was to put up for the night in the drawing room we found lady lynton pouring out tea for her husband's youngest sister and her husband who as we came in exclaimed we have come to beg a night's lodging
it appeared that they had been on a visit in the neighbourhood and had been obliged to leave at a moment's notice in consequence of a sudden death in the house where they were staying and that in the impossibility of getting a fly their hosts had sent them over to byfield
we thought missus hampshire went on to say that as we were coming here the end of next week you would not mind having us a little sooner or that if the house were quite full you would be willing to put us up anywhere till monday and let us come back later
lady lynton interposed with the remark that it was all settled and then turning to her husband added but i want to speak to you for a moment they both left the room together
lynton came back almost immediately and making an excuse to show me on a map in the hall the point to which we had ridden said as soon as we were alone with a look of considerable annoyance
i am afraid we must ask you to change your room shall you mind very much i think we can make you quite comfortable upstairs in the gallery which is the only room available lady lynton has had a good fire lit
the place is really not cold and it will be for only a night or two your servant has been told to put your things together but lady lynton did not like to give orders to have them actually moved before my speaking to you
i assured him that i did not mind in the very least that i should be quite as comfortable upstairs but that i did mind very much their making such a fuss about a matter of that sort with an old friend like myself
certainly nothing could look more comfortable than my new lodging when i went upstairs to dress there was a bright fire in the large grate an armchair had been drawn up beside it and all my books and writing things had been put in
with a reading lamp in the central position and the heavy tapestry curtains were drawn converting this part of the gallery into a room to itself
indeed i felt somewhat inclined to congratulate myself on the change the spiral staircase had been one reason against this place having been given to the hampshires no lady's long dress trunk could have mounted it
sir francis was necessarily a good deal occupied in the evening with his sister and her husband whom he had not seen for some time
i did not however sit up long and very soon went to bed before doing so i drew back the curtains on the rod partly because i like plenty of air where i sleep
and partly also because i thought i might like to see the play of the moonlight on the floor in the portion of the gallery beyond where i lay and where the blinds had not been drawn
i must have been asleep for some time for the fire which i had left in full blaze was gone to a few sparks wandering among the ashes when i suddenly awoke with the impression of having heard a latch click at the further extremity of the gallery
where was the chamber containing books and papers i had always been a light sleeper but on the present occasion i woke at once to complete and acute consciousness and with a sense of stretched attention which seemed to intensify all my faculties
the wind had risen and was blowing in fitful gusts round the house a minute or two passed and i began almost to fancy i must have been mistaken when i distinctly heard the creak of the door and then the click of the latch falling back into its place
then i heard a sound on the boards as of one moving in the gallery i sat up to listen and as i did so i distinctly heard steps coming down the gallery i heard them approach and pass my bed i could see nothing all was dark
but i heard the tread proceeding towards the further portion of the gallery where were the uncurtained and unshuttered windows two in number but the moon shone through only one of these the nearer the other was dark
shadowed by the chapel or some other building at right angles the tread seemed to me to pause now and again and then continue as before
i now fixed my eyes intently on the one illumined window and it appeared to me as if some dark body passed across it but what i listened intently and heard the step proceed to the end of the gallery and then return
i again watched the lighted window and immediately that the sound reached that portion of the long passage it ceased momentarily and i saw as distinctly as i ever saw anything in my life by moonlight
a figure of a man with marked features in what appeared to be a fur cap drawn over the brows
then it moved on and as it moved i again heard the tread i was as certain as i could be that the thing whatever it was or the person whoever he was was approaching my bed
i threw myself back in the bed and as i did so a mass of charred wood on the hearth fell down and sent up a flash of i fancy sparks that gave out a glare in the darkness and by that red as blood i saw a face near me
with a cry over which i had as little control as the scream uttered by a sleeper in the agony of a nightmare i called who are you there was an instant during which my hair bristled on my head
as in the horror of the darkness i prepared to grapple with the being at my side when a board creaked as if someone had moved and i heard the footsteps retreat and again the click of the latch
the next instant there was a rush on the stairs and lynton burst into the room just as he had sprung out of bed crying for god's sake what is the matter are you ill
look for yourself said he and he led me into the little room it was bare with cupboards and boxes a sort of lumber place there is nothing beyond this said he no door no staircase it is a cul de sac
then he added now pull on your dressing gown and come downstairs to my sanctum i followed him and after he had spoken to lady lynton who was standing with the door of her room ajar in a state of great agitation he turned to me and said
no one can have been in your room you see my and my wife's apartments are close below and no one could come up the spiral staircase without passing my door you must have had a nightmare
directly you screamed i rushed up the steps and met no one descending and there is no place of concealment in the lumber room at the end of the gallery then he took me into his private snuggery blew up the fire lighted a lamp and said
i shall be really grateful if you will say nothing about this there are some in the house and neighbourhood who are silly enough as it is you stay here and if you do not feel inclined to go to bed read here are books
i must go to lady lynton who is a good deal frightened and does not like to be left alone he then went to his bedroom sleep as far as i was concerned was out of the question nor do i think that sir francis or his wife slept much either
i made up the fire and after a time took up a book and tried to read but it was useless i sat absorbed in thoughts and questionings till i heard the servants stirring in the morning i then went to my own room left the candle burning and got into bed
i had just fallen asleep when my servant brought me a cup of tea at eight o'clock at breakfast colonel hampshire and his wife asked if anything had happened in the night as they had been much disturbed by noises overhead to which lynton replied that i had not been very well
and had an attack of cramp and that he had been upstairs to look after me from his manner i could see that he wished me to be silent and i said nothing accordingly in the afternoon when everyone had gone out sir francis took me into his snuggery and said
halifax i am very sorry about that matter last night it is quite true as my brother said that steps have been heard about this house but i never gave heed to such things putting all noises down to rats
but after your experiences i feel that it is due to you to tell you something and also to make to you an explanation there is there was
no one in the room at the end of the corridor except the skeleton that was discovered in the chalk pit when you were here many years ago i confess i had not paid much heed to it
my archaeological fancies passed i had no visits from anthropologists the bones and skull were never shown to experts but remained packed in a chest in that lumber room i confess i ought to have buried them having no more scientific use for them
but i did not on my word i forgot all about them or at least gave no heed to them however what you have gone through and have described to me has made me uneasy
after a pause he added what i am going to tell you is known to no one else and must not be mentioned by you anyhow in my lifetime
you know now that owing to the death of my father when quite young i and my brother and sister were brought up here with our grandfather sir richard he was an old imperious short tempered man
i will tell you what i have made out of a matter that was a mystery for long and i will tell you afterwards how i came to unravel it my grandfather was in the habit of going out at night with a young under keeper of whom he was very fond
to look after the game and see if any poachers whom he regarded as his natural enemies were about one night as i suppose my grandfather had been out with the young man in question and returning by the plantations where the hill is steepest
and not far from that chalk pit you remarked on yesterday they came upon a man who though not actually belonging to the country was well known in it as a sort of travelling tinker of indifferent character and a notorious poacher
mind this i am not sure it was at the place i mention i only now surmise it on the particular night in question my grandfather and the keeper must have caught this man setting snares there must have been a tussle
in the course of which as subsequent circumstances have led me to imagine the man showed fight and was knocked down by one or other of the two my grandfather or the keeper i believe that after having made various attempts to restore him
they found that the man was actually dead they were both in great alarm and concern my grandfather especially he had been prominent in putting down some factory riots and had acted as magistrate with promptitude
and had given orders to the military to fire whereby a couple of lives had been lost there was a vast outcry against him and a certain political party had denounced him as an assassin no man was more vituperated yet in my conscience
i believe that he acted with both discretion and pluck and arrested a mischievous movement that might have led to much bloodshed be that as it may my impression is that he lost his head over this fatal affair with the tinker
and that he and the keeper together buried the body secretly not far from the place where he was killed i now think it was in the chalk pit and that the skeleton found years after there belonged to this man
good heavens i exclaimed as at once my mind rushed back to the figure with the fur cap that i had seen against the window sir francis went on
the sudden disappearance of the tramp in view of his well known habits and wandering mode of life did not for some time excite surprise but later on one or two circumstances having led to suspicion
an inquiry was set on foot and among others my grandfather's keepers were examined before the magistrates it was remembered afterwards that the under keeper in question was absent at the time of the inquiry
my grandfather having sent him with some dogs to a brother in law of his who lived upon the moors but whether no one noticed the fact or if they did preferred to be silent i know not no observations were made
nothing came of the investigation and the whole subject would have dropped if it had not been that two years later for some reasons i do not understand but at the instigation of a magistrate recently imported into the division whom my grandfather greatly disliked
and who was opposed to him in politics a fresh inquiry was instituted in the course of that inquiry it transpired that owing to some unguarded words dropped by the under keeper a warrant was about to be issued for his arrest
my grandfather who had had a fit of the gout was away from home at the time but on hearing the news he came home at once the evening he returned he had a long interview with the young man who left the house after he had supped in the servants hall
it was observed that he looked much depressed the warrant was issued the next day but in the meantime the keeper had disappeared
my grandfather gave orders to all his own people to do everything in their power to assist the authorities in the search that was at once set on foot but was unable himself to take any share in it
no trace of the keeper was found although at a subsequent period rumours circulated that he had been heard of in america but the man having been unmarried he gradually dropped out of remembrance and as my grandfather never allowed the subject to be mentioned in his presence
i should probably never have known anything about it but for the vague tradition which always attaches to such events and for this fact that after my grandfather's death a letter came addressed to him from somewhere in the united states from someone
the name different from that of the keeper but alluding to the past and implying the presence of a common secret and of course with it came a request for money i replied mentioning the death of sir richard and asking for an explanation
i did get an answer and it is from that that i am able to fill in so much of the story but i never learned where the man had been killed and buried and my next letter to the fellow was returned with deceased written across it
somehow it never occurred to me till i heard your story that possibly the skeleton in the chalk pit might be that of the poaching tinker i will now most assuredly have it buried in the churchyard that certainly ought to be done said i
and said sir francis after a pause i give you my word after the burial of the bones and you are gone i will sleep for a week in the bed in the gallery and report to you if i see or hear anything if all be quiet
then well you form your own conclusions i left a day after before long i got a letter from my friend brief but to the point
and by chowder he got madder n a wet hen
and don't sell anything but dry goods do you understand me now dry goods
neer as i can figure it out you jist buy dry goods and sell em
prudence brown beloved wife of james brown
jimmy you had a right lively time while you wuz in boston didn't you
beloved wife of james brown
uncle josh at a circus
and i think the whole population turned out to see it they cum paradin into town the bands a playin and banners flying and animals pokin their heads out of the cages and all sorts of jim cracks
and no one aughter go and see them but seein as how they wuz thar he alowed he'd take the children and let them see the lions and tigers and things
guess the deacon won't put blinders on himself when he gits thar we noticed afterwards that the deacon had a front seat whar he could see and hear purty well
so we got on our store clothes our new boots and put some money in our pockits and went down to the cirkus wall i never seen any one in my life cut up more fool capers than ezra did
i jist about purty near raised steve
and ezra wanted to shake hands with him jist cause he looked like steve
jist about busted our buttins a laffin at that silly old clown
and nancy she'd like to had histeericks
and that clown he jist up and yelled to beat thunder
and ruben hoskins alowed he could ride anything with four legs what had hair on so he got into the ring and that mule he took after ruben and chased him round that ring so fast ruben could see himself goin round t'other side of the ring
then he sang an old fashioned song i hadn't heered in a long time went something like this
there is a steep little path running up the grass grown mound beside a railing ascend it and you will find yourself on the top of the great wall
on the outside towards the bois there is a well kept market garden the only noises on this sunny afternoon are the twittering of birds and the rustling of leaves
different sounds and a different outlook indeed to that which is indelibly impressed upon my memory all are gone gone and i alone remain aged
infirm forsaken and forgotten what matters though i still wear my faded scrap of yellow and green ribbon upon the lapel of my shabby coat
an outlaw that here in paris after all these years
to both friends and enemies i am dead
towards the shady wood a film gathers in my eyes and i am carried back into the terrible past to those black fateful days when france lay helpless under the iron heel of the invader
paris fettered existing upon black bread and horse flesh shivered under an icy mantle the black branches of the leafless trees over in the bois
stood out distinctly against the grey stormy sky and upon the ground snow was lying thickly hour after hour day after day week after week
we had held those walls
and replying with monotonous unceasing regularity hundreds of our gallant comrades were alas lying dead hundreds were in the temporary hospitals
established in the neighbouring churches but we the survivors
and so weak that our greatcoats felt as heavy as millstones resolved
and do our duty we knew well that to hold out much longer would be impossible in those dark december days the city was starving our country had been overrun by the prussian legions
and sooner or later we must succumb to the inevitable the night was dark and moonless as to and fro i paced on sentry duty my post was a lonely one
under the strongest portion of the wall at the point i have already indicated away in the direction of courbevoie there was a lurid glare in the sky showing that the enemy had committed
another act of incendiarism and now and then the booming of artillery echoed like distant thunder in our quarter
i waited patiently for relief which would come at dawn as i tramped on i thought of my home away in the centre of the inert trembling city of my young wife
blue eyed fair haired from whom i had been torn away ere our honeymoon was scarcely over how i wondered was she faring
as an advocate i had been distinctly successful having been entrusted
but on the outbreak of war my chances of fortune had been suddenly wrecked and i had been called upon to serve with the one hundred sixth regiment of infantry first under general chanzy on the loire
though now so near the woman i loved i saw very little of her indeed
yet while i trudged on
for on turning sharply my eyes suddenly detected some indistinct object
something prompted me to refrain from challenging and with rifle ready i quickly hurried to the spot with a cry of surprise a man in a workman's blouse sprang forward right up to the muzzle of my gun
hold he gasped in french in a low hoarse tone
don't you know me have you so soon forgotten your fellow student paul olbrich the voice and the name caused me to start you i cried peering into his face
and in the semi darkness discovering the scar upon his cheek that he had received in the fencing school at konigswinter you paul my best friend alas that you are a prussian
and we meet here as enemies as enemies he repeated in a strange harsh tone yes louis you are right he added bitterly as enemies
why are you here i inquired breathlessly
will not betray me when last i heard of you two years ago i said you were a lieutenant of dragoons to night you are here inside paris disguised
to tell the truth he replied quickly it is a love escapade let me get away quickly beyond the walls and no one will know that you have detected me see over there
and he pointed to a portion of the wall deep in the shadow there is my fiancee i have dared
i peered in the direction indicated and could just distinguish a figure hidden by a cloak and closely veiled quick he continued there is no time for reflection
if you raise an alarm my fate is sealed if you allow us to proceed two lives will be made happy do you consent grasping my hand he pressed it hard adding
do louis for her sake muffled footsteps and the clank of arms broke the quiet three officers were approaching go
and turning sharply tramped onward in the opposite direction while my old friend and the woman he had rescued from starvation were a second later lost in the darkness in the direction of the prussian camp
spies i heard one of our men exclaim
at that moment the officers who had approached ordered me to halt and proceeded to question me as to whom i had been speaking with i admitted that the man was a stranger
and that i had allowed him to pass out of the city thus all was discovered and i was at once arrested as a traitor as one who had rendered assistance to a prussian spy
the penalty was death the stern grey haired general before whom i was taken half an hour later pronounced sentence and without ceremony i was hurried off to execution
bah fate has always been unkind to me it would have been better had i fallen with four of my comrades bullets in my breast
than that i should have continued to drag out an existence till to day but the bombardment had recommenced vigorously and as i was being led along a shell fell close to my escort
and bursting killed two of the poor fellows and demoralised the rest i saw my chance and darted away
breathlessly i mounted the long flights of stairs that led to my home and opened the door with my key entering our little salon i looked around in the cold grey light of dawn
the place looked unutterably cheerless and the thunder of the guns was causing the windows to rattle passing quickly into the bedroom i found the ceiling open to the sky and a huge gap in the wall
a shell had fallen and completely wrecked it rose i cried rose i have returned
there was no response another roar
and the whole place vibrated
where was rose i dashed back into the salon and there upon a table i found a letter addressed to me in her familiar hand tearing it open
i read eagerly the three brief lines it contained then staggered back as if i had received a blow a second later i felt conscious of the presence of some one at my elbow
and turning found mariette our maid of all work my wife where is my wife i gasped
the girl replied in her gascon accent last night a man called for her and she went out leaving a note for you a man i cried describe him what was he like
a scar i shrieked in dismay
whom i had first met in cologne
had told me that i was not her first love and now i remembered that she had long ago been acquainted with my fellow student paul olbrich it was my own wife whom i had assisted to elope with my enemy
with the horrors of war around me my life has become soured and my hair grey since that eventful night
for still under sentence of death as a spy
and an outlaw until to day what you ask has become of her far away in a secluded valley in the harz under the shadow of the mystic brocken
bearing the words rose henault eighteen seventy two my enemy paul olbrich a year after the war had ended
he saw that something unusual was afoot and feeling quite sure that it was some kind of fun he was glad that he was going to have a part in it i hope johnnie has some oats for me in that basket he thought
just then johnnie caught up the pole oats and corn twinkleheels exclaimed what's he going to do with that enormous whip he was so startled that he jumped sideways
and johnnie green all but lost his seat on twinkleheels back
against twinkleheels head i won't stand this twinkleheels decided i don't see what johnnie is thinking of to beat me over the head i've certainly done nothing to deserve such treatment
and made for the orchard whoa cried johnnie green whoa cried his father stop him hang to him don't let him run
if he expects me to mind twinkleheels said with a snort
drop that junk that you're carrying farmer green shouted why doesn't he tell johnnie to drop that long whip twinkleheels muttered to himself what farmer green said
was of no account anyhow for johnnie was so busy that he didn't hear a word of his father's advice twinkleheels had reached the orchard and already was tearing in and out among the trees
the tin pail containing johnnie's bait slipped from his grasp and clattered upon the ground causing twinkleheels to run all the faster the fish pole struck the tree trunks right and left
jolted as he was he couldn't get a whole word out of his mouth at a time he could only jerk a word out piecemeal
if the fish pole hadn't at last snapped off short leaving only the butt of it in johnnie's hand there's no telling when twinkleheels would have stopped
left in his hand johnnie gave it a fling slipped an arm through the handle of his lunch basket and set to pulling mightily on the bridle reins there said twinkleheels there goes that whip
i'm glad i broke it now i'll let johnnie pull me down to a walk but not too quickly with johnnie green tugging steadily twinkleheels changed from a run to a canter
from a canter to a trot from a trot to a walk and finally stood still then johnnie turned him around and rode slowly back to the barn
what's the matter his father asked him you haven't given up going fishing have you no johnnie answered i'm going to harness twinkleheels to the buggy and i'll cut a pole at the creek
his father said nothing more but he smiled a little to himself when johnnie wasn't looking his way boys will be boys farmer green remarked after johnnie had gone
yes the hired man agreed and ponies will be ponies they may have been talking in riddles
cayuga county was then a wilderness with few settlers consequently young fillmore's education was limited to instruction in reading writing spelling and the simplest branches of arithmetic
at fourteen he was bound out to learn the fuller's trade think of it boys what splendid opportunities most of you have yes all of you have compared to that of fillmore
yet at the age of nineteen he presumed to aspire to become a lawyer he had two more years to serve in his apprenticeship but where there's a will there's a way
to think a thing impossible is to make it so and he accordingly set to work contriving to gain for himself an education contracting with his employer to pay him thirty dollars for his release
that obstacle was overcome he next made an arrangement with a retired lawyer by which he received his board for services and studied nights this continued for two years
when he set out on foot for buffalo where he arrived with just four dollars in his pocket ah methinks people who saw that boy must have felt that he was destined to be somebody in the world
neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house how often
that it really does in a great measure rest with ourselves whether we amount to something or worse than nothing in the world we have followed this man from childhood and have seen him overcome
all obstacles thus far will we then be surprised when we read that no sooner did he arrive in buffalo than he succeeded
severe drudgery teaching and assisting the post master by the spring of eighteen twenty three he had so far gained the confidence of the bar
that by the intercession of several of its leading members he was admitted as an attorney by the court of common pleas of erie county
and commenced practice at aurora where his father resided
and he rose to a place among the first lawyers of his state in eighteen twenty seven he was admitted as counselor of the supreme court of the state
in eighteen thirty he moved to buffalo where he continued in the practice of law until eighteen forty seven
he had previously been in the state legislature and in the national congress in congress he rose gradually to the first rank for integrity industry and practical ability
as a state legislator he particularly distinguished himself by his advocacy of the act to abolish imprisonment for debt which was drafted by him
and which passed in eighteen thirty one in congress he supported john quincy adams in his assertion of the right of petition on the subject of slavery
at the death of president taylor mister fillmore according to the provisions of the constitution in such cases became
on foot now entered the national capitol as the ruler of a mighty nation during his administration a treaty with japan securing for the united states valuable commercial privileges was consummated
his administration as a whole was a successful one and had he not signed the fugitive slave law he would undoubtedly have been the nominee of his party at the convention in eighteen fifty two
in eighteen fifty four he made an extensive tour in the southern and western states and in the spring of eighteen fifty five after an excursion through new england he sailed for europe
the next day buster bumblebee set out for the orchard to find missus ladybug he wanted to warn her to stop talking about betsy butterfly but buster hadn't realized
that it was not an easy matter to say anything to missus ladybug missus ladybug always liked to do most of the talking herself she preferred to let others listen
he found her hard at work destroying insects on an old apple tree and when she caught sight of him missus ladybug paused in her labors
well young man she exclaimed looking at buster severely are you idling this lovely day away you don't seem to be making any honey
the workers in our hive provide honey enough
i'm the queen's son i don't have to work he declared somewhat hotly rubbish cried missus ladybug regarding him with a frown
go get yourself some working clothes take off your black velvet and gold and save that suit for best you don't understand buster tried to explain being a queen's son
i'm expected to wear my court costume every day nonsense missus ladybug retorted the sooner you get such silly notions out of your head the better off you'll be
everybody ought to work too much play is bad for folks buster bumblebee could feel himself flushing the neighbors were not expected to address a queen's son in that fashion
that's exactly the way you talk about betsy butterfly he exploded huh missus ladybug sniffed you are a worthless pair betsy butterfly's wings
at this point buster managed to interrupt her don't talk about wings please he cried who are you to talk about wings when you haven't any yourself
missus ladybug started and she gave him a queer look what's that she inquired what's that say that again
then you've left them at home he insisted missus ladybug smiled a very knowing sort of smile when he saw it buster bumblebee couldn't help feeling uncomfortable somehow he knew that he had blundered
he was unable to decide watch sharp young sir missus ladybug bade him
then buster bumblebee received the surprise of his life
her shell like black dotted red back and spread a pair of delicate brown wings see these she said to buster bumblebee who gasped at her blankly i've really two pairs
of wings because my polka dot wing covers are actually wings too only folks don't usually call them by that name having spread her wings missus ladybug decided
the milk sir come in ma'am mulligan said kinch get the jug an old woman came forward and stood by stephen's elbow that's a lovely morning sir she said glory be to god to whom mulligan said glancing at her
ah to be sure stephen reached back and took the milkjug from the locker the islanders mulligan said to haines casually speak frequently of the collector of prepuces how much sir asked the old woman a quart stephen said
he watched her pour into the measure and thence into the jug rich white milk not hers old shrunken paps she poured again a measureful and a tilly old and secret she had entered from a morning world maybe a messenger
a witch on her toadstool her wrinkled fingers quick at the squirting dugs they lowed about her whom they knew dewsilky cattle
a wandering crone lowly form of an immortal serving her conqueror and her gay betrayer
to serve or to upbraid whether he could not tell but scorned to beg her favour it is indeed ma'am buck mulligan said pouring milk into their cups taste it sir she said
if we could live on good food like that he said to her somewhat loudly we wouldn't have the country full of rotten teeth and rotten guts living in a bogswamp eating cheap food and the streets paved with dust horsedung and consumptives spits
are you a medical student sir the old woman asked i am ma'am buck mulligan answered look at that now she said stephen listened in scornful silence she bows her old head to a voice that speaks to her loudly
her bonesetter her medicineman me she slights to the voice that will shrive and oil for the grave all there is of her but her woman's unclean loins of man's flesh made not in god's likeness the serpent's prey
irish buck mulligan said is there gaelic on you i thought it was irish she said by the sound of it are you from the west sir i am an englishman haines answered he's english buck mulligan said and he thinks we ought to speak irish in ireland
sure we ought to the old woman said and i'm ashamed i don't speak the language myself i'm told it's a grand language by them that knows grand is no name for it said buck mulligan wonderful entirely fill us out some more tea kinch
would you like a cup ma'am no thank you sir the old woman said slipping the ring of the milkcan on her forearm and about to go haines said to her
stephen filled again the three cups bill sir she said halting well it's seven mornings a pint at twopence is seven twos is a shilling and twopence over and these three mornings a quart at fourpence is three quarts is a shilling
that's a shilling and one and two is two and two sir buck mulligan sighed and having filled his mouth with a crust thickly buttered on both sides stretched forth his legs and began to search his trouser pockets pay up and look pleasant haines said to him smiling
stephen filled a third cup a spoonful of tea colouring faintly the thick rich milk
ask nothing more of me sweet all i can give you i give stephen laid the coin in her uneager hand
time enough sir she said taking the coin time enough good morning sir she curtseyed and went out followed by buck mulligan's tender chant heart of my heart were it more more would be laid at your feet
seriously dedalus i'm stony
today the bards must drink and junket ireland expects that every man this day will do his duty that reminds me haines said rising that i have to visit your national library today our swim first buck mulligan said he turned to stephen and asked blandly
haines from the corner where he was knotting easily a scarf about the loose collar of his tennis shirt spoke i intend to make a collection of your sayings if you will let me speaking to me they wash and tub and scrub
yet here's a spot that one about the cracked lookingglass of a servant being the symbol of irish art is deuced good buck mulligan kicked stephen's foot under the table and said with warmth of tone wait till you hear him on hamlet haines
well i mean it haines said still speaking to stephen
haines laughed and as he took his soft grey hat from the holdfast of the hammock said i don't know i'm sure he strolled out to the doorway buck mulligan bent across to stephen and said with coarse vigour you put your hoof in it now
what did you say that for well stephen said the problem is to get money from whom from the milkwoman or from him it's a toss up i think i blow him out about you
buck mulligan said and then you come along with your lousy leer and your gloomy jesuit jibes i see little hope stephen said from her or from him buck mulligan sighed tragically and laid his hand on stephen's arm from me kinch he said
in a suddenly changed tone he added to tell you the god's truth i think you're right damn all else they are good for why don't you play them as i do to hell with them all let us get out of the kip
he stood up gravely ungirdled and disrobed himself of his gown saying resignedly mulligan is stripped of his garments he emptied his pockets on to the table there's your snotrag he said
and putting on his stiff collar and rebellious tie he spoke to them chiding them and to his dangling watchchain his hands plunged and rummaged in his trunk while he called for a clean handkerchief god we'll simply have to dress the character
i want puce gloves and green boots contradiction do i contradict myself very well then i contradict myself mercurial malachi a limp black missile flew out of his talking hands and there's your latin quarter hat he said
stephen picked it up and put it on haines called to them from the doorway are you coming you fellows i'm ready buck mulligan answered going towards the door come out kinch you have eaten all we left i suppose
resigned he passed out with grave words and gait saying wellnigh with sorrow and going forth he met butterly stephen taking his ashplant from its leaningplace followed them out and as they went down the ladder pulled to the slow iron door and locked it
did you bring the key i have it stephen said preceding them he walked on behind him he heard buck mulligan club with his heavy bathtowel the
down sir how dare you sir haines asked do you pay rent for this tower twelve quid buck mulligan said
they halted while haines surveyed the tower and said at last rather bleak in wintertime i should say martello you call it billy pitt had them built buck mulligan said when the french were on the sea but ours is
the omphalos what is your idea of hamlet haines asked stephen no no buck mulligan shouted in pain
he turned to stephen saying as he pulled down neatly the peaks of his primrose waistcoat you couldn't manage it under three pints kinch could you it has waited so long stephen said listlessly it can wait longer you pique my curiosity haines said amiably
is it some paradox pooh buck mulligan said we have grown out of wilde and paradoxes it's quite simple he proves by algebra that hamlet's grandson is shakespeare's grandfather and that he himself is the ghost of his own father what
haines said beginning to point at stephen he himself
o shade of kinch the elder japhet in search of a father we're always tired in the morning stephen said to haines and it is rather long to tell buck mulligan walking forward again raised his hands
the sacred pint alone can unbind the tongue of dedalus he said i mean to say haines explained to stephen as they followed this tower and these cliffs here remind me somehow of elsinore
buck mulligan turned suddenly for an instant towards stephen but did not speak
it's a wonderful tale haines said bringing them to halt again
firm and prudent the seas ruler he gazed southward over the bay
on the bright skyline and a sail tacking by the muglins i read a theological interpretation of it somewhere he said bemused the father and the son idea the son striving to be atoned with the father
buck mulligan at once put on a blithe broadly smiling face he looked at them his wellshaped mouth open happily his eyes from which he had suddenly withdrawn all shrewd sense
blinking with mad gaiety he moved a doll's head to and fro the brims of his panama hat quivering and began to chant in a quiet happy
my mother's a jew my father's a bird with joseph the joiner i cannot agree so here's to disciples and calvary he held up a forefinger of warning if anyone thinks that i amn't divine
he'll get no free drinks when i'm making the wine but have to drink water and wish it were plain
he tugged swiftly at stephen's ashplant in farewell and running forward to a brow of the cliff fluttered his hands at his sides like fins or wings of one about to rise in the air and chanted goodbye now goodbye
write down all i said and tell tom dick and harry i rose from the dead what's bred in the bone cannot fail me to fly and olivet's breezy goodbye now goodbye he capered before them down towards the fortyfoot hole
fluttering his winglike hands leaping nimbly mercury's hat quivering in the fresh wind that bore back to them his brief birdsweet cries haines who had been laughing guardedly walked on beside stephen and said
we oughtn't to laugh i suppose he's rather blasphemous i'm not a believer myself that is to say still
what did he call it joseph the joiner the ballad of joking jesus stephen answered o haines said you have heard it before three times a day after meals stephen said drily you're not a believer are you
creation from nothing and miracles and a personal god
haines stopped to take out a smooth silver case in which twinkled a green stone he sprang it open with his thumb and offered it thank you stephen said taking a cigarette haines helped himself and snapped the case to
he put it back in his sidepocket and took from his waistcoatpocket a nickel tinderbox sprang it open too and having lit his cigarette held the flaming spunk towards stephen in the shell of his hands yes of course he said as they went on again
either you believe or you don't isn't it personally i couldn't stomach that idea of a personal god you don't stand for that i suppose you behold in me stephen said with grim displeasure a
he walked on waiting to be spoken to trailing his ashplant by his side its ferrule followed lightly on the path squealing at his heels my familiar after me calling steeeeeeeeeeeephen
a wavering line along the path they will walk on it tonight coming here in the dark
i paid the rent now i eat his salt bread give him the key too all
after all haines began
after all i should think you are able to free yourself you are your own master it seems to me i am a servant of two masters stephen said an english and an italian italian haines said
a crazy queen old and jealous kneel down before me and a third stephen said there is who wants me for odd jobs italian haines said again
the imperial british state stephen answered
haines detached from his underlip some fibres of tobacco before he spoke i can quite understand that he said calmly an irishman must think like that i daresay
it seems history is to blame the proud potent titles clanged over stephen's memory the triumph of their brazen bells
et unam sanctam catholicam et apostolicam ecclesiam the slow growth and change of rite and dogma like his own rare thoughts a chemistry of stars
the voices blended singing alone loud in affirmation and behind their chant the vigilant angel of the church militant disarmed and menaced her heresiarchs a horde of heresies fleeing with mitres awry
photius and the brood of mockers of whom mulligan was one and arius
and valentine spurning christ's terrene body and the subtle african heresiarch sabellius who held that the father was himself his own son
idle mockery the void awaits surely all them that weave the wind a menace a disarming and a worsting from those embattled angels of the church michael's host
who defend her ever in the hour of conflict with their lances and their shields hear hear prolonged applause zut nom de dieu
i don't want to see my country fall into the hands of german jews either that's our national problem i'm afraid just now
businessman boatman she's making for bullock harbour
there's five fathoms out there he said
it's nine days today the man that was drowned a sail veering about the blank bay waiting for a swollen bundle to bob up roll over to the sun a puffy face saltwhite here i am
buck mulligan stood on a stone in shirtsleeves
moved slowly frogwise his green legs in the deep jelly of the water
down in westmeath with the bannons still there i got a card from bannon says he found a sweet young thing down there photo girl he calls her
brief exposure buck mulligan sat down to unlace his boots an elderly man shot up near the spur of rock a blowing red face he scrambled up by the stones
water rilling over his chest and paunch and spilling jets out of his black sagging loincloth buck mulligan made way for him to scramble past and glancing at haines and stephen crossed himself piously with his thumbnail at brow and lips and breastbone
his spur of rock chucked medicine and going in for the army ah go to god buck mulligan said going over next week to stew you know that red carlisle girl lily yes
spooning with him last night on the pier the father is rotto with money is she up the pole better ask seymour that seymour a bleeding officer buck mulligan said
he nodded to himself as he drew off his trousers and stood up saying tritely redheaded women buck like goats he broke off in alarm feeling
my twelfth rib is gone he cried i'm the uebermensch toothless kinch and i the supermen he struggled out of his shirt and flung it behind him to where his clothes lay
the young man shoved himself backward through the water and reached the middle of the creek in two long clean strokes haines sat down on a stone smoking are you not coming in buck mulligan asked
haines said not on my breakfast stephen turned away i'm going mulligan he said give us that key kinch buck mulligan said to keep my chemise flat stephen handed him the key buck mulligan laid it across his heaped clothes
stephen threw two pennies on the soft heap dressing undressing buck mulligan erect with joined hands before him said solemnly he who stealeth from the poor lendeth to the lord thus spake zarathustra
his plump body plunged we'll see you again haines said turning as stephen walked up the path and smiling at wild irish horn of a bull hoof of a horse smile of a saxon the ship buck mulligan cried half twelve
good stephen said he walked along the upwardcurving path liliata rutilantium turma circumdet iubilantium te virginum the priest's grey nimbus in a niche where he dressed discreetly
i will not sleep here tonight home also i cannot go a voice sweettoned and sustained
stately plump buck mulligan came from the stairhead bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed
he held the bowl aloft and intoned
halted he peered down the dark winding stairs and called out coarsely come up kinch come up you fearful jesuit
he faced about and blessed gravely thrice the tower the surrounding land and the awaking mountains then catching sight of stephen dedalus he bent towards him and made rapid crosses in the air gurgling in his throat and shaking his head
stephen dedalus displeased and sleepy
equine in its length and at the light untonsured hair grained and hued like pale oak buck mulligan peeped an instant under the mirror and then covered the bowl smartly back to barracks he said sternly
for this o dearly beloved is the genuine christine body and soul and blood and ouns slow music please shut your eyes gents one moment a little trouble about those white corpuscles silence all
his even white teeth glistening here and there with gold points chrysostomos two strong shrill whistles answered through the calm thanks old chap he cried briskly that will do nicely switch off the current will you
gathering about his legs the loose folds of his gown the plump shadowed face and sullen oval jowl recalled a prelate
a pleasant smile broke quietly over his lips the mockery of it he said gaily your absurd name an ancient greek
watching him still as he propped his mirror on the parapet dipped the brush in the bowl and lathered cheeks and neck buck mulligan's gay voice went on my name is absurd too
two dactyls but it has a hellenic ring hasn't it tripping and sunny like the buck himself we must go to athens will you come if i can get the aunt to fork out twenty quid he laid the brush aside and laughing with delight cried
will he come the jejune jesuit ceasing he began to shave with care tell me mulligan stephen said quietly yes my love how long is haines going to stay in this tower
buck mulligan showed a shaven cheek over his right shoulder god isn't he dreadful he said frankly a ponderous saxon he thinks you're not a gentleman god these bloody english bursting with money and indigestion
because he comes from oxford you know dedalus you have the real oxford manner he can't make you out o my name for you is the best kinch the knife blade
he was raving all night about a black panther stephen said where is his guncase
were you in a funk i was stephen said with energy and growing fear out here in the dark with a man i don't know
buck mulligan frowned at the lather on his razorblade he hopped down from his perch and began to search his trouser pockets hastily scutter he cried thickly he came over to the gunrest and thrusting a hand into stephen's upper pocket said
lend us a loan of your noserag to wipe my razor stephen suffered him to pull out and hold up on show by its corner a dirty crumpled handkerchief buck mulligan wiped the razorblade neatly
the bard's noserag a new art colour for our irish poets snotgreen you can almost taste it can't you he mounted to the parapet again and gazed out over dublin bay his fair oakpale hair stirring slightly
god he said quietly isn't the sea what algy calls it a grey sweet mother the snotgreen sea the scrotumtightening sea epi oinopa ponton ah dedalus the greeks
i must teach you you must read them in the original thalatta thalatta she is our great sweet mother come and look stephen stood up and went over to the parapet leaning on it he looked down on the water
and on the mailboat clearing the harbourmouth of kingstown our mighty mother buck mulligan said he turned abruptly his grey searching eyes from the sea to stephen's face the aunt thinks you killed your mother he said
that's why she won't let me have anything to do with you someone killed her stephen said gloomily you could have knelt down damn it kinch when your dying mother asked you buck mulligan said i'm hyperborean as much as you
there is something sinister in you he broke off and lathered again lightly his farther cheek a tolerant smile curled his lips but a lovely mummer he murmured to himself kinch the loveliest mummer of them all
he shaved evenly and with care in silence seriously stephen an elbow rested on the jagged granite
silently in a dream
her breath that had bent upon him mute reproachful a faint odour of wetted ashes
the ring of bay and skyline held a dull green mass of liquid a bowl of white china had stood beside her deathbed holding the green sluggish bile which she had torn up from her rotting liver by fits of loud groaning vomiting
buck mulligan wiped again his razorblade ah poor dogsbody he said in a kind voice i must give you a shirt and a few noserags how are the secondhand breeks they fit well enough stephen answered
buck mulligan attacked the hollow beneath his underlip the mockery of it he said contentedly secondleg they should be god knows what poxy bowsy left them off i have a lovely pair with a hair stripe grey
you'll look spiffing in them i'm not joking kinch you look damn well when you're dressed thanks stephen said i can't wear them if they are grey he can't wear them buck mulligan told his face in the mirror
etiquette is etiquette he kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers he folded his razor neatly and with stroking palps of fingers felt the smooth skin
that fellow i was with in the ship last night said buck mulligan
he's up in dottyville with connolly norman general paralysis of the insane he swept the mirror a half circle in the air to flash the tidings abroad in sunlight now radiant on the sea
his curling shaven lips laughed and the edges of his white glittering teeth laughter seized all his strong wellknit trunk look at yourself he said you dreadful bard stephen bent forward and peered at the
cleft by a crooked crack hair on end
who chose this face for me this dogsbody to rid of vermin it asks me too
the aunt always keeps plainlooking servants for malachi lead him not into temptation and her name is ursula laughing again he brought the mirror away from stephen's peering eyes the rage of caliban
at not seeing his face in a mirror he said if wilde were only alive to see you
the cracked looking glass of a servant buck mulligan suddenly linked his arm in stephen's and walked with him round the tower his razor and
it's not fair to tease you like that kinch is it he said kindly god knows you have more spirit than any of them parried again he fears the lancet of my art as i fear that of his the cold steelpen
cracked lookingglass of a servant tell that to the oxy chap downstairs and touch him for a guinea he's stinking with money and thinks you're not a gentleman his old fellow made his tin by selling jalap to zulus or some bloody swindle or other
god kinch if you and i could only work together we might do something for the island hellenise it cranly's arm his arm
i'm the only one that knows what you are why don't you trust me more what have you up your nose against me is it haines if he makes any noise here i'll bring down seymour and we'll give him a ragging worse than they gave clive kempthorpe
young shouts of moneyed voices in clive kempthorpe's rooms palefaces they hold their ribs with laughter one clasping another o i shall expire break the news to her gently aubrey
chased by ades of magdalen with the tailor's shears a scared calf's face gilded with marmalade i don't want to be debagged don't you play the giddy ox with me shouts from the open window startling evening in the quadrangle
a deaf gardener aproned masked with matthew arnold's face pushes his mower on the sombre lawn watching narrowly the dancing motes of grasshalms to ourselves new paganism omphalos let him stay stephen said
there's nothing wrong with him except at night then what is it buck mulligan asked impatiently cough it up i'm quite frank with you what have you against me now they halted looking towards the blunt cape of bray head that lay on the water like the snout of a sleeping whale
you have missed the soup said her ladyship looking up at him with a sweet smile all you artists are alike you have no idea whatever of time and how have you succeeded with that charming mysterious person the princess ziska
he was extremely pale and had the air of one who has gone through some great mental exhaustion i have not succeeded as well as i expected he answered slowly i think my hand must have lost its cunning
at any rate whatever the reason may be art has been defeated by nature he crumbled up the piece of bread near his plate in small portions with a kind of involuntary violence in the action
and doctor dean deliberately drawing out a pair of spectacles from their case adjusted them and surveyed him curiously you mean to say that you cannot paint the princess's picture
i don't say that he replied i can paint something something which you can call a picture if you like but there is no resemblance to the princess ziska in it she is beautiful and i can get nothing of her beauty
i can only get the reflection of a face which is not hers how very curious exclaimed lady fulkeward quite psychological is it not doctor it is almost creepy and she managed to produce a delicate shudder of her white shoulders
without cracking the blanc de perle enamel it will be something fresh for you to study possibly it will possibly said the doctor
but it isn't the first time i have heard of painters who unconsciously produce other faces than those of their sitters i distinctly remember a case in point a gentleman famous for his charities and general benevolence
had his portrait painted by a great artist for presentation to the town hall of his native place and the artist was quite unable to avoid making him unto the likeness of a villain it was quite a distressing affair
the painter was probably more distressed than anybody about it and he tried by every possible means in his power to impart a truthful and noble aspect to the countenance of the man who was known and admitted to be a benefactor to his race
but it was all in vain the portrait when finished was the portrait of a stranger and a scoundrel the people for whom it was intended declared they would not have such a libel on their generous friend hung up in their town hall
the painter was in despair and there was going to be a general hubbub when lo and behold the noble personage himself was suddenly arrested for a brutal murder
but of course you will try again the princess will surely give you another sitting
with a kind of angry obstinacy in his tone the more so as she has told me i will never succeed in painting her she told you that did she put in doctor dean with an air of lively interest yes
just then the handing round of fresh dishes and the clatter of knives and forks effectually put a stop to the conversation for the time
saw that denzil murray and his sister were dining apart at a smaller table with young lord fulkeward and ross courtney helen was looking her fairest and best that evening her sweet face framed in its angel aureole of bright hair
had a singular look of pureness and truth expressed upon it rare to find in any woman beyond her early teens unconsciously to himself
as he caught a view of her delicate profile and lady fulkeward's sharp ears heard the sound of that sigh isn't that a charming little party over there she asked young people you know they always like to be together
that very sweet girl miss murray was so much distressed about her brother to day something was the matter with him a touch of fever i believe
fulke is a dear boy you know very consoling in his ways though he says so little then mister courtney volunteered to join them and there they are the chetwynd lyles are gone to a big dinner at the continental this evening the chetwynd lyles
do i know them no that is you have not been formally introduced said doctor dean sir chetwynd lyle is the editor and proprietor of the london daily dial
are his daughters cruel man exclaimed lady fulkeward with a girlish giggle the idea of calling those sweet girls muriel and dolly elderly youthful what are they my dear madam what are they demanded the imperturbable little savant
elderly youthful is a very convenient expression and applies perfectly to people who refuse to be old and cannot possibly be young nonsense i will not listen to you and her ladyship opened her jewelled fan and spread it before her eyes
to completely screen the objectionable doctor from view don't you know your theories are quite out of date nobody is old we all utterly refuse to be old why and she shut her fan with a sudden jerk
never madam said doctor dean gallantly
you have passed through the furnace of marriage and come out unscathed time has done its worst with you and now retreats baffled and powerless it can touch you no more whether this was meant as a compliment or the reverse
it would have been difficult to say but lady fulkeward graciously accepted it as the choicest flattery and bowed smiling and gratified dinner was now drawing to its end and people were giving their orders for coffee to be served to them on the terrace and in the gardens
i should like to see your picture of the princess he said that is if you have no objection
only it isn't the princess it is somebody else a faint shudder passed over him the doctor noticed it talking of curious things went on that irrepressible savant i started hunting for a particular scarabeus to day
i couldn't find it of course it generally takes years to find even a trifle that one especially wants but i came across a queer old man in one of the curiosity shops who told me that over at karnak
describing the exploits of the very man whose track i'm on araxes
what has araxes to do with you he demanded oh nothing but the princess ziska spoke of him as a great warrior in the days of amenhotep
and to know many things of which we are ignorant then you know last night she adopted the costume of a dancer of that period named ziska charmazel well now it appears that in one part of this fresco the scene depicted
his heart beat thickly as though the doctor were telling him of some horrible circumstance in which he had an active part whereas he had truly no interest at all in the matter except in so far as events of history are more or less interesting to everyone
well he said after a pause well echoed doctor dean there is really nothing more to say beyond that i want to find out everything i can concerning this araxes
if only for the reason that the charming princess chose to impersonate his lady love last night one must amuse one's self in one's own fashion even in egypt and this amuses me
come he said briefly i will show you my picture he straightened his tall fine figure and walked slowly across the room to the table where denzil murray sat with his sister and friends
and i'm going to show it to doctor dean i should like you to see it too will you come denzil looked at him with a dark reproach in his eyes if you like he answered shortly i do like
with a kind pressure you will find it a piece of curious disenchantment as well as a proof of my want of skill you are all welcome to come and look at it except here he hesitated except miss murray i think yes
i think it might possibly frighten miss murray helen raised her eyes to his but said nothing oh by jove murmured lord fulkeward feeling his moustache as usual then don't you come miss murray we'll tell you all about it afterwards
i have no curiosity on the subject she said a trifle coldly denzil you will find me in the drawing room i have a letter to write home with a slight salute she left them
with a tinge of melancholy regret in his eyes it is evident mademoiselle helen does not like the princess ziska he observed oh well as to that said fulkeward hastily
you know you can't expect women to lose their heads about her as men do beside there's something rather strange in the princess's manner and appearance and perhaps miss murray doesn't take to her any more than i do
oh then you are not one of her lovers queried doctor dean smiling no are you i good heavens my dear young sir i was never in love with a woman in my life that is not what you would call in love
at the age of sixteen i wrote verses to a mature young damsel of forty a woman with a remarkably fine figure and plenty of it she rejected my advances with scorn and i have never loved since
they all laughed even denzil murray's sullen features cleared for the moment into the brightness of a smile where did you paint the princess's picture inquired ross courtney suddenly
but we were not alone for the fascinating fair one had some twenty or more armed servants within call there was a movement of surprise among his listeners and he went on yes madame is very well protected i assure you
as much so as if she were the first favorite in a harem come now and see my sketch he led the way to a private sitting room which he had secured for himself in the hotel at almost fabulous terms it was a small apartment
but it had the advantage of a long french window which opened out into the garden here on an easel was a canvas with its back turned towards the spectator
and be prepared for a curiosity unlike anything you have ever seen before he paused a moment looking steadily at doctor dean
you may be able to explain how i got such a face on my canvas for i cannot explain it to myself
no i don't know her yet stay yes i think i have seen her somewhere in paris possibly will you introduce me i leave that duty to mister denzil murray said the doctor
folding his arms neatly behind his back he knows her better than i do
he settled his academic cap more firmly on his head and strolled off towards the ballroom
irresolute his eyes fixed on that wondrous golden figure that floated before his eyes like an aerial vision denzil murray had gone forward to meet the princess and was now talking to her
his handsome face radiating with the admiration he made no attempt to conceal after a little pause
and caught part of the conversation you look the very beau ideal of an egyptian princess murray was saying your costume is perfect she laughed again that sweet rare laughter
it beat in his ears and smote his brain with a strange echo of familiarity is it not she responded i am historically correct as your friend doctor dean would say my ornaments are genuine
they all came out of the same tomb i find one fault with your attire princess said one of the male admirers who had entered with her part of your face is veiled that is a cruelty to us all
she waived the compliment aside with a light gesture it was the fashion in ancient egypt she said love in those old days was not what it is now one glance one smile
was sufficient to set the soul on fire and draw another soul towards it to consume together in the suddenly kindled flame and women veiled their faces in youth lest they should be deemed too prodigal of their charms
and in age they covered themselves still more closely in order not to affront the sun god's fairness by their wrinkles she smiled
yet a few steps closer unconsciously as though he were being magnetized
showing an exquisite face fair as a lily and of such perfect loveliness that the men who were gathered round her seemed to lose breath and speech at sight of it that pleases you better mister murray
denzil grew very pale bending down he murmured something to her in a low tone she raised her lovely brows with a little touch of surprise that was half disdain and looked at him straightly
you say very pretty things but they do not always please me she observed however that is my fault no doubt and she began to move onwards her nubian page preceding her as before
introduce me he said in a commanding tone to denzil denzil looked at him somewhat startled by the suppressed passion in his voice certainly princess permit me
she paused a figure of silent grace and attention allow me to present to you my friend
the most famous artist in france
the princess ziska she raised her deep dark eyes and fixed them on his face and as he looked boldly at her in a kind of audacious admiration he felt again
that strange dizzying shock which had before thrilled him through and through there was something strangely familiar about her the faint odors that seemed exhaled from her garments the gleam of the jewel winged scarabei on her breast
the weird light of the emerald studded serpent in her hair and more much more familiar than these trifles was the sound of her voice dulcet penetrating grave and haunting in its tone
and with a graceful inclination of her head but i cannot look upon you as a stranger for i have known you so long in spirit she smiled a strange smile dazzling yet enigmatical
and something wild and voluptuous seemed to stir in gervase's pulses as he touched the small hand loaded with quaint egyptian gems which she graciously extended towards him
i think i have known you too he said possibly in a dream a dream of beauty never realized till now his voice sank to an amorous whisper but she said nothing in reply
nor could her looks be construed into any expression of either pleasure or offence yet through the heart of young denzil murray went a sudden pang of jealousy and for the first time in his life
he became conscious that even among men as well as women there may exist what is called the petty envy of a possible rival
and he noted the symmetry and supple grace of the man with an irritation of which he was ashamed he knew despite his own undeniably handsome personality
which was set off to such advantage that night by the richness of the florentine costume he had adopted
which was inborn a trick of manner which made him seem picturesque at all times and that even when the great french artist had stayed with him in scotland and got himself up for the occasion in more or less baggy tweeds
people were fond of remarking that the only man who ever succeeded in making tweeds look artistic
and in the white bedouin garb he now wore he was seen at his best
made him look the savage part he had dressed for and as he bent his head over the princess ziska's hand and kissed it with an odd mingling of flippancy and reverence denzil suddenly began to think
how curiously alike they were these two strong man and fair woman both had many physical points in common the same dark level brows the same half wild half tender eyes
the same sinuous grace of form the same peculiar lightness of movement and yet both were different while resembling each other
which existed between them it was the cast of countenance or type that exists between races or tribes
and equally understood the princess ziska to be of russian origin he would have declared them both natives of egypt of the purest caste and highest breeding he was so struck by this idea that he might have spoken his thought aloud
and apparently preparing to write no name but hers down the entire length of his ball programme a piece of audacity which had the effect of rousing denzil to assert his own rights you promised me the first waltz princess he said
his face flushing as he spoke quite true and you shall have it she replied smiling
the music sounds very inviting shall we not go in we spoil the effect of your entree crowding about you like this said denzil
no i lay no claim to sovereignty she answered i am for to night the living picture of a once famous and very improper person who bore half my name a dancer of old time
known as ziska charmazel the favorite of the harem of a great egyptian warrior described in forgotten histories as the mighty araxes she paused
her admirers fascinated by the sound of her voice were all silent
and addressing him only continued yes i am charmazel she said she was as i tell you an improper person or would be so considered by the good english people
because you know she was never married to araxes this explanation given with the demurest naivete
was he a very distinguished personage he was old legends say he was the greatest warrior of his time
are the greatest artist
you flatter me fair charmazel he said then suddenly as the strange name passed his lips he recoiled as if he had been stung and seemed for a moment dazed the princess turned her dark eyes on him inquiringly
his brows knitted in a perplexed frown nothing the heat the air a trifle i assure you will you not join the dancers denzil the music calls you when your waltz with the princess is ended
i shall claim my turn for the moment au revoir he stood aside and let the little group pass him by the princess ziska moving with her floating noiseless grace denzil murray beside her
the little nubian boy waving the peacock plumes in front of them both and all the other enslaved admirers of this singularly attractive woman crowding together behind he watched the little cortege with strained
dim sight till just at the dividing portal between the lounge and the ballroom the princess turned and looked back at him with a smile over all the intervening heads their eyes met
in one flash of mutual comprehension then as the fair face vanished like a light absorbed into the lights beyond it
dropped heavily into a chair and stared vaguely at the elaborate pattern of the thick carpet at his feet passing his hand across his forehead he withdrew it wet with drops of perspiration what is wrong with me he muttered
am i sickening for a fever before i have been forty eight hours in cairo what fool's notion is this in my brain where have i seen her before in paris saint petersburg london charmazel charmazel
what has the name to do with me ziska charmazel it is like the name of a romance or a gypsy tune bah i must be dreaming her face her eyes are perfectly familiar where where have i seen her
and played the mad fool with her before was she a model at one of the studios have i seen her by chance thus in her days of poverty and does her image recall itself vividly now despite her changed surroundings
i know the very perfume of her hair it seems to creep into my blood it intoxicates me it chokes me he sprang up with a fierce gesture then after a minute's pause sat down again and again stared at the floor
he was decently civil if not enthusiastic during the few remaining hours of his stay
he did not find her particularly troublesome when she was away from her ladyship's side when she came out to him in her simple cotton gown and straw hat it occurred to him that she was much prettier than he had thought her at first
for economical reasons she had made the little morning dress herself without the slightest regard for the designs of miss chickie and as it was not trimmed at all and had only a black velvet ribbon at the waist
there was nothing to place her charming figure at a disadvantage it could not be said that her shyness and simplicity delighted captain barold but at least they did not displease him and this was really as much as could be expected
she does not expect a fellow to exert himself at all events was his inward comment and he did not exert himself but when on the point of taking his departure he went so far as to make a very gracious remark to her
i hope we shall have the pleasure of seeing you in london for a season before very long he said my mother will have great pleasure in taking charge of you if lady theobald cannot be induced to leave slowbridge lucia never goes from home alone
said lady theobald but i should certainly be obliged to call upon your mother for her good offices in the case of our spending a season in london i am too old a woman to alter my mode of life altogether in obedience to her ladyship's orders
the venerable landau was brought to the door and the two ladies drove to the station with him it was during this drive that a very curious incident occurred an incident to which perhaps this story owes its existence
since if it had not taken place there might very possibly have been no events of a stirring nature to chronicle just as dobson drove rather slowly up the part of high street distinguished by the presence of miss belinda bassett's house
captain barold suddenly appeared to be attracted by some figure he discovered in the garden appertaining to that modest structure by jove he exclaimed in an undertone there is miss octavia
for the moment he was almost roused to a display of interest a faint smile lighted his face and his cold handsome eyes slightly brightened lady theobald sat bolt upright
that is miss bassett's niece from america she said do i understand you know her captain barold turned to confront her evidently annoyed at having allowed a surprise to get the better of him all expression died out of his face
i travelled with her from framwich to stamford he said i suppose we should have reached slowbridge together but that i dropped off at stamford to get a newspaper and the train left me behind
how very pretty she is miss octavia certainly was amazingly so this morning
and was dressed in a cashmere morning robe of the finest texture and the faintest pink
jabot of lace down the front and the close high frills of lace around the throat which seemed to be a weakness with her her hair was dressed high upon her head and showed to advantage her little ears
and as much of her slim white neck as the frills did not conceal
she looks like an actress she said if the trees were painted canvas and the roses artificial one might have some patience with her that kind of thing is scarcely what we expect in slowbridge then she turned to barold i had the pleasure of meeting her yesterday
not long after she arrived she said she had diamonds in her ears as big as peas and rings to match her manner is just what one might expect from a young woman brought up among gold diggers and silver miners
it struck me as being a very unique and interesting manner said captain barold it is chiefly noticeable for a sang froid which might be regarded as rather enviable she was good enough to tell me all about her papa and the silver mines
and i really found the conversation entertaining it is scarcely customary for english young women to confide in their masculine travelling companions to such an extent remarked my lady grimly
she did not confide in me at all said barold therein lay her attraction one cannot submit to being confided in by a strange young woman however charming this young lady's remarks were flavored solely
and as he leaned back in his seat he still looked at the picturesque figure which they had passed as if he would not have been sorry to see it turn its head toward him in fact it seemed that notwithstanding his usual good fortune
captain barold was doomed this morning to make remarks of a nature objectionable to his revered relation
which was at work in all its vigor with a whir and buzz of machinery and a slight odor of oil in its surrounding atmosphere ah said mister barold putting his single eyeglass into his eye and scanning it after the manner of experts
i did not think you had any thing of that sort here who put it up the man's name replied lady theobald severely is burmistone pretty good idea isn't it remarked barold good for the place and all that sort of thing to my mind
mister francis barold dropped his eyeglass dexterously and at once lapsed into his normal condition which was a condition by no means favorable to argument think so he said slowly
pity isn't it under the circumstances and really there was nothing at all for her ladyship to do but preserve a lofty silence
and it was necessary to say farewell as complacently as possible we will hope to see you again before many days she said with dignity if not with warmth mister francis barold was silent for a second
and a slightly reflective expression flitted across his face thanks yes he said at last certainly it is easy to come down and i should like to see more of slowbridge when the train had puffed in and out of the station
and dobson was driving down high street again her ladyship's feelings rather got the better of her if belinda bassett is a wise woman she remarked she will take my advice and get rid of this young lady as soon as possible
it appears to me she continued with exalted piety that every well trained english girl has reason to thank her maker that she was born in a civilized land
miss octavia bassett has had no one to train her at all and it may be that that she even feels it deeply the feathers in her ladyship's bonnet trembled
mister sidney herbert afterwards lord herbert of lea was at this time at the head of the war department in england he was a man of noble nature and tender heart whose whole life was spent in doing good and in helping those
who needed help he heard with deep distress the dreadful tidings of suffering that came from the crimea and his heart responded instantly to the call for help yes the women of england must rise up and go to that far desolate land
to tend and nurse the sick and wounded and dying but who should lead them what one woman had the strength the power the wisdom the tenderness to meet and overcome the terrible conditions
asking himself this question mister herbert answered without a moment's hesitation florence nightingale he knew miss nightingale well she was a dear friend of himself and his beautiful wife and had again and again given them help and counsel
in planning and managing their many charities hospitals homes for sick children and so forth he knew that she possessed all the qualities needed for this work and he wrote to her asking if she would undertake it would she he asked
go out to scutari taking with her a band of nurses who would be under her orders and take charge of the hospital nursing he did not make light of the task the selection of the rank and file of nurses would be difficult
no one knows that better than yourself the difficulty of finding women equal to a task after all full of horror and requiring besides intelligence and goodwill great knowledge and great courage will be great
the task of ruling them and introducing system among them great and not the least will be the difficulty of making the whole work smoothly with the medical and military authorities out there this it is which makes it so important
that the experiment should be carried out by one with administrative capacity and experience he went on to assure miss nightingale that she should have full power and authority and told her frankly that in his opinion
she was the one woman in england who was capable of performing this great task i must not conceal from you that upon your decision will depend the ultimate success or failure of the plan if this succeeds
and to persons deserving everything at our hands and which will multiply the good to all time it was a noble letter this of mister herbert's but he might have spared himself the trouble of writing it
florence nightingale in her quiet country home had heard the call to the women of england and even while mister herbert was composing his letter to her she was writing to him a brief note simply offering her services in the hospitals
at scutari her letter crossed his on the way and the next day it was proclaimed from the war office that miss nightingale a lady with greater practical experience of hospital administration and treatment than any other lady in the country
had been appointed by government to the office of superintendent of nurses at scutari and had undertaken the work of organizing and taking out nurses thither great was the amazement in england
nothing of this kind had ever been heard of before who is miss nightingale people cried all over the country they were answered by the newspapers first the examiner and then the times told them that miss nightingale was a young lady
of singular endowments both natural and acquired in a knowledge of the ancient languages and of the higher branches of mathematics in general art science and literature her attainments are extraordinary there is scarcely a modern language
which she does not understand and she speaks french german and italian as fluently as her native english she has visited and studied all the various nations of europe and has ascended the nile to its remotest cataract
young about the age of our queen graceful feminine rich popular she holds a singularly gentle and persuasive influence over all with whom she comes in contact
her friends and acquaintances are of all classes and persuasions but her happiest place is at home in the centre of a very large band of accomplished relatives
one who knew our heroine well wrote in a more personal vein miss nightingale is one of those whom god forms for great ends you cannot hear her say a few sentences no not even look at her
without feeling that she is an extraordinary being simple intellectual sweet full of love and benevolence she is a fascinating and perfect woman she is tall and pale her face is exceedingly lovely
but better than all is the soul's glory that shines through every feature so exultingly nothing can be sweeter than her smile it is like a sunny day in summer though well known among a large circle of earnest and high minded persons
and everything else apart they were delighted with its beauty had she been plain mary smith she would have done just as good work but it would have been far harder for her to start it florence nightingale was a name to conjure with as the saying is
and it echoed far and wide everybody who could write verses and many who could not began instantly to write about nightingales punch printed a cartoon showing a hospital ward
with the ladybirds hovering about the cots of the sick men each bird having a nurse's head another picture represented one of the bird nurses flying through the air carrying in her claws a jug labeled fomentation
embrocation gruel this was called the jug of the nightingale for many people think that some of the bird's beautiful liquid notes sound like jug jug jug not content with pictures
punch printed the nightingale's song to the sick soldier which became very popular and was constantly quoted in those days listen soldier to the tale of the tender nightingale
tis a charm that soon will ease your wounds so cruel singing medicine for your pain in a sympathetic strain with a jug jug jug of lemonade or gruel singing bandages and lint salve and cerate without stint
singing plenty both of liniment and lotion and your mixtures pushed about and the pills for you served out with alacrity and promptitude of motion singing light and gentle hands and a nurse who understands
how to manage every sort of application from a poultice to a leech whom you haven't got to teach the way to make a poppy fomentation singing pillow for you smoothed smart and ache and anguish soothed
by the readiness of feminine invention singing fever's thirst allayed and the bed you've tumbled made with a cheerful and considerate attention singing succour to the brave and a rescue from the grave
hear the nightingale that's come to the crimea tis a nightingale as strong in her heart as in her song to carry out so gallant an idea of course there were some people who shook their heads there always are when any new work is undertaken
some thought it was improper for women to nurse in a military hospital others thought they would be useless or worse others again thought that the nurses would ruin their own health and be sent home in a month to the hospitals of england
there were still other objections which were strongly felt in those days however strange they may sound in our ears to day oh dreadful said some people miss nightingale is a unitarian
miss nightingale is a roman catholic and so it went on but while they were talking and exclaiming drawing pictures and singing songs miss nightingale was getting ready in six days from the time she undertook the work
she was ready to start with thirty nurses chosen with infinite care and pains from the hundreds who had volunteered to go there was no flourish of trumpets while england was still wondering how they could go
and whether they ought to be allowed to go behold they were gone slipping away by night as if they were bound on some secret errand
and all her life she has looked for a bushel large enough to hide her light under though happily she has never succeeded only a few relatives and near friends stood on the railway platform on that evening of october twenty first eighteen fifty four
miss nightingale simply dressed in black was very quiet very serene with a cheerful word for everyone no one who saw her parting look and smile ever forgot them so in night and silence the angel band
whose glory was soon to shine over all the world left the shores of england but though england slept that night france was wide awake the next morning the fishwives of boulogne had heard what was doing across the channel and were on the lookout
when miss nightingale and her nurses stepped ashore they were met by a band of women in snowy caps and rainbow striped petticoats all with outstretched hands all crying welcome welcome our english sisters they knew
their own husbands sons and brothers were fighting and dying in the crimea their own nurses the blessed sisters of mercy had from the first been toiling in hospital and trench in that dreadful land how should they not welcome
the english sisters who were going to join in the holy work loudly they proclaimed that none but themselves the fishwives of boulogne should help the soeurs anglaises they shouldered bag and baggage
they swung the heavy trunks up on their broad backs and with laughter and tears mingled in true french fashion trudged away to the railway station pay not a sou
is all we desire and if they should chance to see pierre or jacques la bas ah the heavens are over all a handshake then and adieu adieu vivent les soeurs the good god go with you
the princess of the brazen mountain there was a young prince who was not only most handsome and well grown but also most kind hearted and good now sooner or later kindness always meets its reward
though it may not seem so at first one summer's evening the prince was walking on the banks of a lake when he looked up and saw to his great surprise in the air against the rosy clouds of the sunset three beautiful beings with wings
not angels nor birds but three beautiful damsels and having alighted on the ground they dropped their wings and their garments and left them lying on the shore and leaped into the cool water and began splashing and playing about in it
like so many waterfowl as soon as the prince saw this he came out from his hiding place in the bushes picked up one pair of wings and hid himself again when they had been long enough in the water the beautiful damsels came again to land
and dressed themselves quickly two of them soon had on both their white dresses and their wings but the youngest could not find hers they held a short consultation and the result was that the two elder flew away in the shape of birds
as fast as they could to fetch another pair of wings for their younger sister they soon vanished in the blue sky but she remained alone wringing her hands and crying
oh i am so unhappy she replied i am a princess of the brazen mountain my sisters and i came here to bathe in the lake and somebody has stolen my wings so i must wait here until they bring me another pair
i am a prince he replied this is my father's kingdom be my wife
and vanished all the wedding guests were in consternation the king looked very serious the queen wept bitterly but the prince so grieved after his bride that having obtained his parents consent he went out into the wide world
to search for that brazen mountain where he hoped to find her he travelled for a long time inquiring about it of every one he met but nobody had ever heard of such a mountain and he began to give up all hope of ever finding it
late one evening he saw a twinkling light before him which he followed in the hope of coming to some habitation it led him on a long way across level plains through deep defiles and at length some way into a dark forest
but at last he came to whence the light proceeded from a solitary hermitage he went in but found the hermit lying dead with six wax candles burning around him he had evidently been dead for some time yet there seemed to be nobody near him
in this desolate region the prince's first thought was how to get him buried and with proper rites when there was no priest nor indeed any people at all to be found in the neighbourhood
while he was thinking over this something fell from a peg in the wall close beside him it was a leather whip the prince took it up and read on the handle these words the magic whip
as he knew its virtue he called out ho magical whip to right and left skip and do what i will the whip jumped from his hand became invisible and flew away in a short time there was the hum of a multitude
through the forest and the head forester entered breathless followed by a crowd of under keepers and many more people with them some set about making a coffin
rode off to fetch a priest and as soon as it was dawn mass was said the
and at sunrise the corpse was decently buried when the funeral was over all the people dispersed to their homes and the magical whip returned of itself to the prince's hand he stuck it into his girdle and went on
till after an hour or two he came to a clearing in the forest where twelve men were fighting desperately among themselves stop you fellows exclaimed the prince who are you
we are robbers they replied and we are fighting for these boots which were the property of our deceased leader whoever has them can go seven leagues at one step and he who gets them will be our leader as you are a stranger
we will abide by your decision as to whom this pair of boots shall belong and give you a heap of gold into the bargain for your trouble the prince drew on the boots took the magical whip from his girdle and said
to right and left skip and do what i will the whip jumped from his hand became invisible and well thrashed the robbers in the midst of the confusion the prince made his escape
and having the boots on he went seven miles at every step and was soon far enough away from the robbers den but as he was no nearer to finding out where the brazen mountain was he had no need to go quite so fast
so he took off the seven league boots put them under his arm and the magic whip in his girdle and went at his ordinary pace till he came to a narrow path between some rocks where again he came upon twelve men fighting they explained that
they were fighting for an invisible cap which had belonged to their late leader and asked him as a stranger to decide who should have it so he set the magical whip as before to work and there was a nice confusion among these robbers for not seeing where the blows came from
they fell upon one another and at last frightened out of their senses they took flight and scattered in all directions the prince having put on the invisible cap was able to walk among them and talk to them and they all heard though they could not see him
he now began to consider whether he could not use all these treasures to help him to find the brazen mountain so he drew on the seven league boots settled the invisible cap on his forehead and taking the magical whip from his girdle said
lead me on i'll follow thee onward to the brazen mountain lead me where i fain would be the whip sprang from his hand it did not become invisible this time but glided rapidly a little above the ground like a boat
over a calm sea though it flew like a bird the prince was quite able to keep pace with it because he had on the seven league boots he was scarcely aware of the fact when in less than a quarter of an hour they came to a standstill at the brazen mountain
at first the prince was overjoyed at having reached the goal of his wishes but when he looked more closely at its smooth perpendicular sides hard as adamant its summit lost in the clouds he was in despair for how was he ever
to get to the top of it however he thought there must be some way up after all so taking off his boots and cap he set off to walk round the base of the mountain in half an hour he came to a mill with twelve millstones
the miller was an old wizard with a long beard down to the ground
whereupon a kettle was boiling stirring the contents with a long iron spoon and piling wood on the fire the prince looked into the kettle good morning to you gaffer
that's my own business replied the miller gruffly what mill is this the prince next asked that's no business of yours replied the miller the prince was not going to be satisfied with this so he gave his usual orders to the magical whip
which forthwith became invisible and began to lash the miller soundly he tried to run away but it was no use till the prince took pity on him and called the whip back again he put it up and then said
whose mill is this it belongs to the three princesses of the brazen mountain replied the miller they let down a rope here every day and draw up all the flour they want by the rope
as he said this a thick silken rope came down with a loop at the end which struck the threshold of the mill the prince made ready and when the usual sack of wheat flour was bound fast in the loop he climbed upon it having first put on his invisible cap
and was thus drawn up to the top of the brazen mountain the three princesses having drawn up their supply of flour put it into their storehouse and went back to their dwelling their palace was most beautiful all silver without
and all gold within all the windows were of crystal the chairs and tables were made of diamonds and the floors of looking glass the ceilings were like the sky with mimic stars and moon shining therein
and in the principal saloon there was a sun with rays all round beautiful birds were singing monkeys were telling fairy tales and in their midst amongst all this sat three most beautiful princesses
the two eldest were weaving golden threads in their looms but the youngest the prince's wife sat silently apart from her sisters listening to the murmur of a fountain her head leaning on her hand in deep thought
i left him for no fault at all and when we loved one another so dearly oh sisters i shall have to leave you and go back to him only i fear he will never forgive me however i entreat him for having behaved so unkindly to him
i forgive you i forgive you everything darling exclaimed the prince throwing off the invisible cap and embracing her rapturously then she gave him wings like her own and they flew away together
in an hour or two they arrived in his father's kingdom
the task of getting the mules together was simple enough the irritable beasts making their usual objections but following their old leader skeeter quietly enough in spite of the bell not being in use and in a short time they were trudging along with their loads down the steep slope
till the gulch was reached and chris came after them with the ponies to bring his charge to a halt like to change places ned he said archly no i'm going to do my part without that good bye chris my lad said bourne sadly
i don't like going off and leaving you and i don't like you to go mister bourne said chris holding out his hand which was warmly grasped take care of yourself ned yes and you said the boy sadly the next minute chris was standing by his mustang's head
watching the mules file away look at that said chris as he noted that his charge displayed no desire to follow the mules why if that old skeeter isn't actually sneering at my ponies he deserves to be kicked for his conceit
hid the mule train from sight and then chris mounted and rode towards the pointed rock close to which the spring gurgled out of the rock here he took the precaution of drinking deeply himself before letting the ponies have their fill of the refreshing water
after which they began grazing in their quiet inoffensive way leaving their guardian to his thoughts which were many and troubled in the full expectation of hearing shots chris spent plenty of time in listening but no reports reached his ears
from the wild excitement and risk of his position by the barrier
to the silence and grandeur of the deeply cut rift in which he now stood for gloomy and forbidding as the place looked by night even awful in its black solemnity it was striking enough now in its effects of brilliant sunshine and shade
to make the boy think it was one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen in his life what a pity he muttered as he listened to the crop crop of the ponies he did not say what was a pity
for the sharp crack of a rifle brought him out of his musings to gaze sharply in the direction of the barrier far away from where he was waiting and wondering now whether there was any more fighting on the way another sharp crack and chris's excitement increased
as he first looked anxiously at his charges to see if they were startled by the firing but the ponies did not even lift their heads but went on browsing upon the green shoots near the spring while the boy involuntarily dragged his rifle round
ready to throw the sling over his head if the need sprang up for its use but there was evidently no immediate danger for quite an hour passed before there was another shot fired to raise the echoes and this proved to be single
a longer period elapsed before anything more occurred and twice as long a time passed before there was another it's just as they said thought chris a shot or two just to show the redskins that we're on the alert
it was about this time that chris fancied that the faintness from which he suffered was due to the want of food and opening his wallet he took out a piece of damper to find that it ate very sweet with nothing but a few handfuls of water to wash it down
by the time this was finished the sun had sunk far below the rocks on his left and the dreamy restful state into which the boy had been falling passed away for the thoughts that came fast now were beginning to grow troublous
it would not be long before it was night and with the darkness an exciting time would arrive chris thought that the indians would not wait long before they attacked and a great anxiety now oppressed him would his father think of this and be prepared
or would he wait too long and then it was too horrible to think of chris all through that afternoon had been suffering from the effect of his exertions and had sunk into a restful state a long way on to the border which divides wakefulness from sleep
but with the coming of darkness his brain had become active to a painful degree and but for the stringent orders he had received to be prepared and wait with the ponies he would have gone forward sought his father and told him of his fears
he's sure to know better than i do cried the boy at last to comfort himself but with very poor effect as he kept his watch till the darkness had seemed to settle down like a flood in the gulch the ponies had become invisible and the sky had turned to a dark purple
half an hour now passed and then the boy's agonised tension was broken by three shots ringing out almost together a volley he said aloud and the words had hardly passed his lips before there was a repetition of the reports
the other three barrels he cried excitedly
load load load he panted oh quick quick they're coming on
invented a host of horrors chief among which was that in which he pictured to himself the indians stealing up to the defenders of the barrier
to spring upon them and massacre all before they could fire another shot in their defence so horrible became the silence at last that chris felt that if it lasted much longer he must mount his mustang and ride forward to learn the worst even if they kill me he muttered
but there was the sound of hoofs passing over the stony bottom of the gulch and the next minute chris and his father each leading his pony were walking together side by side the animals stepping instinctively in the footprints of those in front and
saving for the faint sound of tramping the silence seemed to the boy perfectly awful at last chris could keep back a question no longer the firing father i heard two volleys were the savages coming on
no but we treated them as if they were just to show them that we were waiting for an attack
that will be the signal for us to mount and ride for our lives indians are swift of foot boy it seemed an hour during which every ear was on the strain but probably it was not a fourth of that time
before the fierce yell of the savages was heard but it only reached the fugitives as a faint whisper followed by another fortunately the retiring party had reached where the gulch had opened out and quite a broad band of brilliant stars
giving sufficient light for the ponies to follow one another in indian file at a good round trot which was kept up hour after hour with intervals of walking and the indulgence now in a little conversation regarding the distance ahead of the mule train
or the possibility of its being missed but griggs was positive no he said we can't have over run them but have they turned off somewhere i don't remember any side valley but we may have passed one no we mayn't sir
said griggs coolly we don't know it at least i don't suppose you did for i fancy i do but if the mules had turned off anywhere our clever mustangs would have done the same they've been following the mules trail ever since we started what
impossible in this darkness think so sir well suppose you wait and see there was silence for awhile
no sir i've listened till it has given me a feeling like toothache do you think they are on our trail ah
because they'll be as indians mostly are when they can't see their quarry horribly suspicious of being led into an ambush they did not seem so when they followed you no they could see me and they forgot to be in doubt in the heat of the pursuit but on a night like this
they are bound to feel their way step by step if they follow at all most likely they'll wait till morning when they'll pick up our trail and then come on as fast as they can run sir they won't ride griggs finished off with a loud chuckle
say chris he added won't they be mad at not being able to get out their ponies i suppose so said chris but there's a good side to everything it'll be grand for the poor beasts they're ridden nearly to death now they'll have a good rest with plenty of fine pasture
but about to morrow griggs said chris what about to morrow the indians may follow us and overtake us on foot well if they do they do my lad and at the very worst they may capture some of our stores but perhaps not
i don't like being a brute to a dumb beast but if i'm driven to it i may have to be a bit hard to some of those mules they can go so fast that no indian can catch them if they like yes well as a rule they don't like
that's the worst of it said chris yes but this time they've got to like and i know how to make them daybreak at last and with that dawn all doubts about the mule convoy were at an end for the first streaks of dawn showed them about a mile ahead
not even the rising of the sun revealed that for which a most anxious lookout was kept namely so many dark dots to indicate that the indians were on their trail
prothalamion calm was the day and through the trembling air sweet breathing zephyrus did softly play a gentle spirit that lightly did delay hot titan's beams which then did glister fair
when i whom sullen care through discontent of my long fruitless stay in princes court and expectation vain of idle hopes which still do fly away like empty shadows did afflict my brain
walk'd forth to ease my pain along the shore of silver streaming thames whose rutty bank the which his river hems was painted all with variable flowers and all the meads adorn'd with dainty gems fit to deck maidens bowers
and crown their paramours against the bridal day which is not long sweet thames run softly till i end my song
all lovely daughters of the flood thereby with goodly greenish locks all loose untied as each had been a bride and each one had a little wicker basket made of fine twigs entrailed curiously in which they gather'd flowers to fill their flasket
and with fine fingers cropt full feateously the tender stalks on high of every sort which in that meadow grew they gather'd some the violet pallid blue the little daisy that at evening closes
the virgin lily and the primrose true with store of vermeil roses to deck their bridegrooms posies against the bridal day which was not long sweet thames run softly till i end my song
with that i saw two swans of goodly hue come softly swimming down along the lee two fairer birds i yet did never see the snow which doth the top of pindus strow did never whiter show
nor jove himself when he a swan would be for love of leda whiter did appear yet leda was they say as white as he yet not so white as these nor nothing near so purely white they were that even the gentle stream the which them bare seem'd foul to them
lest they might soil their fair plumes with water not so fair and mar their beauties bright that shone as heaven's light against their bridal day which was not long sweet thames run softly till i end my song
eftsoons the nymphs which now had flowers their fill ran all in haste to see that silver brood as they came floating on the crystal flood whom when they saw they stood amazed still their wondering eyes to fill
them seem'd they never saw a sight so fair of fowls so lovely that they sure did deem them heavenly born
for sure they did not seem to be begot of any earthly seed but rather angels or of angels breed yet were they bred of summer's heat they say in sweetest season when each flower and weed the earth did fresh array so fresh they seem'd as day
even as their bridal day which was not long sweet thames run softly till i end my song then forth they all out of their baskets drew great store of flowers the honour of the field
that to the sense did fragrant odours yield
through thessaly they stream that they appear through lilies plenteous store like a bride's chamber floor two of those nymphs meanwhile two garlands bound of freshest flowers which in that mead they found
the which presenting all in trim array their snowy foreheads therewithal they crown'd whilst one did sing this lay prepar'd against that day against their bridal day which was not long sweet thames run softly till i end my song
ye gentle birds the world's fair ornament and heaven's glory whom this happy hour doth lead unto your lovers blissful bower joy may you have and gentle hearts content of your loves complement
and let fair venus that is queen of love with her heart quelling son upon you smile whose smile they say hath virtue to remove all love's dislike
and let your bed with pleasures chaste abound that fruitful issue may to you afford which may your foes confound and make your joys redound upon your bridal day which is not long sweet thames run softly
till i end my song so ended she and all the rest around to her redoubled that her undersong which said their bridal day should not be long and gentle echo from the neighbour ground their accents did resound
so forth those joyous birds did pass along adown the lee that to them murmur'd low as he would speak but that he lack'd a tongue yet did by signs his glad affection show making his stream run slow
and all the fowl which in his flood did dwell gan flock about these twain that did excel the rest so far as cynthia doth shend the lesser stars so they enranged well did on those two attend
and their best service lend against their wedding day which was not long sweet thames run softly till i end my song
at length they all to merry london came to merry london my most kindly nurse that to me gave this life's first native source though from another place i take my name an house of ancient fame
there when they came whereas those bricky towers the which on thames broad aged back do ride where now the studious lawyers have their bowers
till they decay'd through pride next whereunto there stands a stately place where oft i gained gifts and goodly grace of that great lord which therein wont to dwell whose want too well now feels my friendless case
but ah here fits not well old woes but joys to tell against the bridal day which is not long sweet thames run softly till i end my song
yet therein now doth lodge a noble peer great england's glory and the world's wide wonder whose dreadful name late thro all spain did thunder and hercules two pillars standing near did make to quake and fear
fair branch of honour flower of chivalry that fillest england with thy triumphs fame joy have thou of thy noble victory and endless happiness of thine own name that promiseth the same
that through thy prowess and victorious arms thy country may be freed from foreign harms and great eliza's glorious name may ring through all the world fill'd with thy wide alarms which some brave muse may sing to ages following
upon the bridal day which is not long sweet thames run softly till i end my song from those high towers this noble lord issuing like radiant hesper
descended to the river's open viewing with a great train ensuing above the rest were goodly to be seen two gentle knights of lovely face and feature beseeming well the bower of any queen with gifts of wit and ornaments of nature fit for so goodly stature
that like the twins of jove they seem'd in sight which deck the baldric of the heavens bright they two forth pacing to the river's side received those two fair brides their love's delight
twenty fifth lecture general theory of the neuroses fear and anxiety probably you will term what i told you about ordinary nervousness in my last lecture
most fragmentary and unsatisfactory information i know this and i think you were probably most surprised that i did not mention fear which most nervous people complain of and describe as their greatest source of suffering
it can attain a terrible intensity which may result in the wildest enterprises but i do not wish to fall short of your expectations in this matter i intend on the contrary to treat the problem of the fear of nervous people with great accuracy
and to discuss it with you at some length fear itself needs no introduction everyone has at some time or other known this sensation or more precisely this effect
it seems to me that we never seriously inquired why the nervous suffered so much more and so much more intensely under this condition perhaps it was thought a matter of course it is usual to confuse the words nervous
and anxious as though they meant the same thing that is unjustifiable there are anxious people who are not nervous and nervous people who suffer from many symptoms but not from the tendency to anxiety
however that may be it is certain that the problem of fear is the meeting point of many important questions an enigma whose complete solution would cast a flood of light upon psychic life
i do not claim that i can furnish you with this complete solution but you will certainly expect psychoanalysis to deal with this theme in a manner different from that of the schools of medicine
these schools seem to be interested primarily in the anatomical cause of the condition of fear they say the medulla oblongata is irritated and the patient learns that he is suffering from neurosis of the nervus vague
the medulla oblongata is a very serious and beautiful object i remember exactly how much time and trouble i devoted to the study of it years ago but today
i must say that i know of nothing more indifferent to me for the psychological comprehension of fear than knowledge of the nerve passage through which these sensations must pass one can talk about fear for a long time without even touching upon nervousness
you will understand me without more ado when i term this fear real fear in contrast to neurotic fear real fear seems quite rational and comprehensible to us
harm that is expected and foreseen it is related to the flight reflex and may be regarded as an expression of the instinct of self preservation
we deem it quite a matter of course that the savage fears a cannon or an eclipse of the sun while the white man
does not fear these things at other times superior knowledge promulgates fear because it recognizes the danger earlier the savage for instance will recoil before a footprint in the woods meaningless to the uninstructed
which reveals to him the proximity of an animal of prey the experienced sailor will notice a little cloud which tells him of a coming hurricane with terror while to the passenger it seems insignificant
after further consideration we must say to ourselves that the verdict on real fear whether it be rational or purposeful must be thoroughly revised
for the only purposeful behavior in the face of imminent danger would be the cool appraisal of one's own strength in comparison with the extent of the threatening danger and then decide which would presage a happier ending flight defense
or possibly even attack under such a proceeding fear has absolutely no place everything that happens would be consummated just as well and better without the development of fear you know that if fear is too strong
it proves absolutely useless and paralyzes every action even flight generally the reaction against danger consists in a mixture of fear and resistance the frightened animal is afraid and flees
but the purposeful factor in such a case is not fear but flight we are therefore tempted to claim that the development of fear is never purposeful perhaps closer examination will give us greater insight into the fear situation
the first factor is the expectancy of danger which expresses itself in heightened sensory attention and in motor tension this expectancy is undoubtedly advantageous
its absence may be responsible for serious consequences on the one hand it gives rise to motor activity primarily to flight and on a higher plane to active defense on the other hand
it gives rise to something which we consider the condition of fear in so far as the development is still incipient and is restricted to a mere signal the more undisturbed the conversion of the readiness to be afraid into action
the more purposeful the entire proceeding the readiness to be afraid seems to be the purposeful aspect evolution of fear itself the element that defeats its own object
i avoid entering upon a discussion as to whether our language means the same or distinct things by the words anxiety fear or fright i think that anxiety is used in connection with a condition regardless of any objective
while fear is essentially directed toward an object fright on the other hand seems really to possess a special meaning which emphasizes the effects of a danger which is precipitated without any expectance or readiness of fear
thus we might say that anxiety protects man from fright you have probably noticed the ambiguity and vagueness in the use of the word anxiety
generally one means a subjective condition caused by the perception that an evolution of fear has been consummated such a condition may be called an emotion what is an emotion in the dynamic sense
certainly something very complex an emotion in the first place includes indefinite motor innervations or discharges secondly definite sensations which moreover are of two kinds
the perception of motor activities that have already taken place and the direct sensations of pleasure and pain which give the effect of what we call its feeling tone
but i do not think that the true nature of the emotion has been fathomed by these enumerations we have gained deeper insight into some emotions and realize that the thread which binds together such a complex as we have described
is the repetition of a certain significant experience this experience might be an early impression of a very general sort which belongs to the antecedent history of the species rather than to that of the individual to be more clear
the emotional condition has a structure similar to that of an hysterical attack it is the upshot of a reminiscence the hysteric attack then is comparable to a newly formed individual emotion
the normal emotion to an hysteria which has become a universal heritage do not assume that what i have said here about emotions is derived from normal psychology on the contrary
these are conceptions that have grown up with and are at home only in psychoanalysis what psychology has to say about emotions the james lange theory for instance
and cannot be discussed of course we do not consider our knowledge about emotions very certain it is a preliminary attempt to become oriented in this obscure region to continue
we believe we know the early impression which the emotion of fear repeats we think it is birth itself which combines that complex of painful feelings of a discharge of impulses of physical sensations which has become the prototype
for the effect of danger to life and is ever after repeated within us as a condition of fear the tremendous heightening of irritability through the interruption of the circulation internal respiration
was at the time the cause of the experience of fear the first fear was therefore toxic the name anxiety angustial narrowness emphasizes the characteristic tightening of the breath
which was at the time a consequence of an actual situation and is henceforth repeated almost regularly in the emotion we shall also recognize how significant it is that this first condition of fear appeared during the separation from the mother
of course we are convinced that the tendency to repetition of the first condition of fear has been so deeply ingrained in the organism through countless generations that not a single individual can escape the emotion of fear
not even the mythical macduff who was cut out of his mother's womb and therefore did not experience birth itself we do not know the prototype of the condition of fear in the case of other mammals and so we do not know the complex of emotions
that in them is the equivalent of our fear perhaps it will interest you to hear how the idea that birth is the source and prototype of the emotion of fear happened to occur to me speculation plays the smallest part in it
i borrowed it from the native train of thought of the people many years ago we were sitting around the dinner table a number of young physicians
a candidate was asked what it implied if during delivery the foeces of the newborn was present in the discharge of waters and she answered promptly the child is afraid she was laughed at and flunked
but i silently took her part and began to suspect that the poor woman of the people had with sound perception revealed an important connection proceeding now to neurotic fear what are its manifestations and conditions
interpret every coincidence as an evil omen and ascribe a dreadful meaning to all uncertainty many persons who cannot be termed ill show this tendency to anticipate disaster
we blame them for being over anxious or pessimistic a striking amount of expectant fear is characteristic of a nervous condition which i have named anxiety neurosis and which i group with the true neuroses
a second form of fear in contrast to the one we have just described is psychologically more circumscribed and bound up with certain objects or situations
it is the fear of the manifold and frequently very peculiar phobias stanley hall the distinguished american psychologist has recently taken the trouble to present a whole series of these phobias in gorgeous greek terminology
they sound like the enumeration of the ten egyptian plagues except that their number exceeds ten by far just listen to all the things which may become the objects of contents of a phobia darkness open air
open squares cats spiders caterpillars snakes mice thunder storms sharp points blood enclosed spaces crowds solitude passing over a bridge
travel on land and sea et cetera a first attempt at orientation in this chaos leads readily to a division into three groups some of the fearful objects and situations have something gruesome for normal people too
a relation to danger and so though they are exaggerated in intensity they do not seem incomprehensible to us most of us for instance experience a feeling of repulsion in the presence of a snake
one may say that snakephobia is common to all human beings and charles darwin has described most impressively how he was unable to control his fear of a snake pointing for him though he knew he was separated from it by a thick pane of glass
but this is of a kind which we are disposed to belittle rather than to overestimate most of the situation phobia belong here we know that by taking a railroad journey we entail greater chance of disaster than by staying at home
a collision for instance may occur or a ship sink when as a rule we must drown yet we do not think of these dangers and free from fear we travel on train and boat we cannot deny that if a bridge should collapse at the moment we are crossing it
we would fall into the river but that is such a rare occurrence that we do not take the danger into account solitude too has its dangers and we avoid it under certain conditions but it is by no means a matter of being unable to suffer it for a single moment
the same is true for the crowd the enclosed space the thunder storm et cetera it is not at all the content but the intensity of these neurotic phobias that appears strange to us
the fear of the phobia cannot even be described sometimes we almost receive the impression that the neurotic is not really afraid of the same things and situations that can arouse fear in us and which he calls by the same name
there remains a third group of phobias which is entirely unintelligible to us when a strong adult man is afraid to cross a street or a square of his own home town
when a healthy well developed woman becomes almost senseless with fear because a cat has brushed the hem of her dress or a mouse has scurried through the room how are we to establish the relation to danger that obviously exists under the phobia
in these animal phobias it cannot possibly be a question of the heightening of common human antipathies for as an illustration of the antithesis there are numerous persons who cannot pass a cat
without calling and petting it the mouse of which women are so much afraid is at the same time a first class pet name many a girl who has been gratified to have her lover call her so screams when she sees the cunning little creature itself
the behavior of the man who is afraid to cross the street or the square can only be explained by saying that he acts like a little child a child is really taught to avoid a situation of this sort as dangerous
and our agoraphobist is actually relieved of his fear if some one goes with him across the square or street the two forms of fear that have been described free floating fear and the fear which is bound up with phobias
are independent of one another the one is by no means a higher development of the other only in exceptional cases almost by accident do they occur simultaneously
the strongest condition of general anxiety need not manifest itself in phobias and persons whose entire life is hemmed in by agoraphobia can be entirely free of pessimistic expectant fear
some phobias such as the fear of squares or of trains are acquired only in later life while others the fear of darkness storms and animals exist from the very beginning
the former signify serious illness the latter appear rather as peculiarities moods yet whoever is burdened with fear of this second kind may be expected to harbor other and similar phobias
i must add that we group all these phobias under anxiety hysteria and therefore regard it as a condition closely related to the well known conversion hysteria
the third form of neurotic fear confronts us with an enigma we loose sight entirely of the connection between fear and threatening danger this anxiety occurs in hysteria for instance
as the accompaniment of hysteric symptoms or under certain conditions of excitement where we would expect an emotional manifestation but least of all of fear or without reference to any known circumstance unintelligible to us and to the patient
neither far nor near can we discover a danger or a cause which might have been exaggerated to such significance through these spontaneous attacks we learn that the complex which we call the condition of anxiety
can be resolved into its components the whole attack may be represented by a single intensively developed symptom such as a trembling dizziness palpitation of the heart or tightening of breath
the general undertone by which we usually recognize fear may be utterly lacking or vague and yet these conditions which we describe as anxiety equivalents are comparable to anxiety
in all its clinical and etiological relations two questions arise can we relate neurotic fear in which danger plays so small a part or none at all to real fear
which is always a reaction to danger and what can we understand as the basis of neurotic fear for the present we want to hold to our expectations wherever there is fear there must be a cause for it
clinical observation yields several suggestions for the comprehension of neurotic fear the significance of which i shall discuss with you one it is not difficult to determine that expectant fear or general anxiety
is closely connected with certain processes in sexual life let us say with certain types of libido utilization the simplest and most instructive case of this kind results when persons expose themselves to frustrated excitation
if their sexual excitation does not meet with sufficient relief and is not brought to a satisfactory conclusion in men during the time of their engagement to marry for instance or in women whose husbands are not sufficiently potent or who from caution
execute the sexual act in a shortened or mutilated form under these circumstances libidinous excitement disappears and anxiety takes its place both in the form of expectant fear and
in attacks and anxiety equivalents the cautious interruption of the sexual act when practiced as the customary sexual regime so frequently causes the anxiety neurosis in men and especially in women
that physicians are wise in such cases to examine primarily this etiology on innumerable occasions we have learned that anxiety neurosis vanishes when the sexual misuse is abandoned
so far as i know the connection between sexual restraint and conditions of anxiety is no longer questioned even by physicians who have nothing to do with psychoanalysis but i can well imagine that they do not desist from reversing the connection
and saying that these persons have exhibited a tendency to anxiety from the outset and therefore practice reserve in sexual matters the behavior of women whose sexual conduct is passive
contradicts this supposition the more temperamental that is the more disposed toward sexual intercourse and capable of gratification is the woman
or to the coitus interruptus by anxiety manifestations in anaesthetic or only slightly libidinous women such misuse will not carry such consequences
sexual abstinence recommended so warmly by the physicians of to day has the same significance in the development of conditions of anxiety only when the libido to which satisfactory relief is denied
is sufficiently strong and not for the most part accounted for by sublimation the decision whether illness is to result always depends upon the quantitative factors
even where character formation and not disease is concerned we easily recognize that sexual constraint goes hand in hand with a certain anxiety a certain caution
while fearlessness and bold daring arise from free gratification of sexual desires however much these relations are altered by various influences of civilization for the average human being it is true
that anxiety and sexual constraint belong together i have by no means mentioned all the observations that speak for the genetic relation of the libido to fear
the influence on the development of neurotic fear of certain phases of life such as puberty and the period of menopause when the production of libido is materially heightened belongs here too in some conditions of excitement we may observe the mixture of anxiety and libido
chapter six richard hare the younger
at seven o'clock they arrived at miss carlyle's
the reader may dissent from the expression miss carlyle's but it is the correct one for the house was hers not her brother's though it remained his home as it had been in his father's time
and she was soon as deep in the discussion as the justices were it was said in the town that she was as good a lawyer as her father had been she undoubtedly possessed sound judgment in legal matters
mister dill is asking to see you sir
some important business has arisen but i will be back as soon as i can who has sent for you immediately demanded miss corny
mister dill is here and will join you to talk the affair over he said to his guests he knows the law better than i do but i will not be long he quitted his house and walked with a rapid step toward the grove
after he had left the town behind him and was passing the scattered villas already mentioned
which rose behind them on his left hand
an abbey had stood in its vicinity all traces of which save tradition had passed away there was one small house or cottage just within the wood and in that cottage had occurred the murder for which richard hare's life was in jeopardy it was no longer occupied for nobody would rent it or live in it
but he neither saw nor heard any signs of richard's being concealed there barbara was at the window looking out and she came herself and opened the door to mister carlyle
i knew how it would be has he come yet
missus hare feverish and agitated with a burning spot on her delicate cheeks stood by the chair not occupying it mister carlyle placed a pocket book in her hands i have brought it chiefly in notes he said they will be easier for him to carry than gold
missus hare answered only by a look of gratitude and clasped mister carlyle's hand in both hers archibald i must see my boy how can it be managed must i go into the garden to him or may he come in here i think he might come in
you know how bad the night air is for you are the servants astir this evening
it happens to be anne's birthday so mamma sent me just now into the kitchen with a cake and a bottle of wine desiring them to drink her health
then they are safe observed mister carlyle and richard may come in i will go and ascertain whether he is come said barbara stay where you are barbara i will go myself interposed mister carlyle have the door open when you see us coming up the path
barbara gave a faint cry and
there he is see standing out from the trees just opposite this window mister carlyle turned to missus hare i shall not bring him in immediately for if i am to have an interview with him it must be got over first
he proceeded on his way gained the trees and plunged into them and leaning against one stood richard hare
he was a blue eyed fair pleasant looking young man slight and of middle height and quite as yielding and gentle as his mother in her this mild yieldingness of disposition was rather a graceful quality in richard it was regarded as a contemptible misfortune
as a leaf was swayed by the wind so he was swayed by everybody about him never possessing a will of his own in short richard hare though of an amiable and loving nature was not over burdened with what the world calls brains
brains he certainly had but they were not sharp ones is my mother coming out to me asked richard after a few interchanged sentences with mister carlyle no you are to go indoors
though if they did they could never recognize you in that trim a fine pair of whiskers richard let us go in then i am all in a twitter till i get away
yes yes but richard
it was barbara herself wanted you to hear it i think it of little moment if the whole place heard the truth from me it would do no good for i should get no belief not even from you try me richard in as few words as possible
well there was a row at home about my going so much to hallijohn's
perhaps i did and perhaps i didn't hallijohn had asked me to lend him my gun and that evening when i went to see af when i went to see some one never mind
if i am to judge whether anything can be attempted for you you must tell it to me otherwise i would rather hear nothing it shall be sacred trust then if i must i must returned the yielding richard i did love the girl i would have waited till i was my own master to make her my wife
though it had been for years and years i could not do it you know in the face of my father's opposition your wife rejoined mister carlyle with some emphasis richard looked surprised why you don't suppose i meant anything else
well go on richard did she return your love i can't be certain sometimes i thought she did sometimes not she used to play and shuffle and she liked too much to be with him i would think her capricious
but i found out they were the evenings when she was expecting him we were never there together you forget that you have not indicted him by any name richard i am at fault richard hare bent forward till his black whiskers brushed mister carlyle's shoulder it was that cursed thorn
mister carlyle remembered the name barbara had mentioned who was thorn i never heard of him
he took precious good care of that he lives some miles away and used to come over in secret courting afy yes he did come courting her returned richard in a savage tone distance was no barrier he would come galloping over at dusk tie his horse to a tree in the wood and pass an hour or two with afy
in the house when her father was not at home roaming about the woods with her when he was come to the point richard to the evening hallijohn's gun was out of order and he requested the loan of mine
my father called after me to know where i was going
afy came out all reserve as she could be at times and said she was unable to receive me then that i must go back home we had a few words about it and as we were speaking locksley passed
but it ended in my giving way she could do just what she liked with me for i loved the very ground she trod on
and she took it indoors shutting me out i did not go away
and i hid myself in some trees near the house again locksley came in view and saw me there and called out to know why i was hiding i shied further off and did not answer him what were my private movements to him and that also told against me at the inquest
not long afterwards twenty minutes perhaps i heard a shot which seemed to be in the direction of the cottage somebody having a late pop at the partridges thought i for the sun was then setting
that was the shot that killed hallijohn there was a pause mister carlyle looked keenly at richard there in the moonlight
some one came panting and tearing along the path leading from the cottage it was thorn his appearance startled me i had never seen a man show more utter terror his face was livid his eyes seemed starting and his lips were drawn back from his teeth
i was mad with jealousy for i then saw that afy had sent me away that she might entertain him i thought you said this thorn never came but at dusk observed mister carlyle i never knew him to do so until that evening all i can say is he was there then
he flew along swiftly and i afterwards heard the sound of his horse's hoofs galloping away i wondered what was up that he should look so scared and scutter away as though the deuce was after him i wondered whether he had quarreled with afy
i ran to the house leaped up the two steps and carlyle i fell over the prostrate body of hallijohn he was lying just within on the kitchen floor dead blood was round about him and my gun just discharged was thrown near
richard stopped for breath mister carlyle did not speak i called to afy no one answered no one was in the lower room and it seemed that no one was in the upper a sort of panic came over me a fear you know they always said at home i was a coward
i could not have remained another minute with that dead man
why did you catch up the gun interrupted mister carlyle ideas pass through our minds quicker than we can speak them especially in these sorts of moments was the reply of richard hare some vague notion flashed on my brain that my gun
ought not to be found near the murdered body of hallijohn i was flying from the door i say when locksley emerged from the wood full in view and what possessed me i can't tell but i did the worst thing i could do
flung the gun indoors again and got away although locksley called after me to stop nothing told against you so much as that observed mister carlyle locksley deposed that he had seen you leave the cottage gun in hand apparently in great commotion
that the moment you saw him you hesitated as from fear flung back the gun and escaped richard stamped his foot aye and all owing to my cursed cowardice
now i knew that bethel
must have met thorn quitting it did you encounter that hound i asked him what hound returned bethel that fine fellow that thorn who comes after afy i answered for i did not mind mentioning her name in my passion
did you hear a shot i went on yes i did he replied
i quitted him and came off concluded richard hare he evidently had not seen thorn and knew nothing
it was a fatal step yes i was a fool i thought i'd wait quiet and see how things turned out but you don't know all
accusing me of being the murderer of her father and she fell into hysterics out there on the grass the noise brought people from the house plenty were in it then and i retreated if she can think me guilty the world will think me guilty was my argument
and that night i went right off to stop in hiding for a day or two till i saw my way clear it never came clear the coroner's inquest sat and the verdict floored me over and afy but i won't curse her fanned the flame against me by denying that any one had been there that night
to the path that led from west lynne and was lingering there when she heard a shot
mister carlyle remained silent rapidly running over in his mind the chief points of richard hare's communication four of you as i understand it were in the vicinity of the cottage that night and from one or the other the shot no doubt proceeded you were at a distance you say richard
bethel also could not have been it was not bethel who did it interrupted richard
but now where was locksley
he was within my view at the same time at right angles from me deep in the wood away from the paths altogether it was thorn did the deed beyond all doubt
carlyle i see you don't believe my story
the most singular thing is if you witnessed this thorn's running from the cottage in the manner you describe that you did not come forward and denounce him
i can't help it it was born with me and will go with me to my grave what would my word have availed that it was thorn when there was nobody to corroborate it and the discharged gun mine was a damnatory proof against me
another thing strikes me as curious cried mister carlyle if this man thorn was in the habit of coming to west lynne evening after evening how was it that he never was observed this is the first time i have heard any stranger's name mentioned in connection with the affair or with afy
thorn chose by roads and he never came save that once but at dusk and dark it was evident to me at the time that he was striving to do it on the secret i told afy so
nevertheless i swear that i have related the facts as surely as that we i thorn afy and hallijohn must one day meet together before our maker i have told you the truth
to what end else should i say this went on richard it can do me no service all the assertion i could put forth would not go a jot toward clearing me no it would not assented mister carlyle if ever you are cleared it must be by proofs but
i will keep my thought on the matter and should anything arise what sort of a man was this thorn
tall and slender an out and out aristocrat and his connections where did he live i never knew afy in her boasting way would say he had come from swainson a ten mile ride from swainson quickly interrupted mister carlyle
could it be one of the thorns of swainson none of the thorns that i know he was a totally different sort of man with his perfumed hands and his rings and his dainty gloves that he was an aristocrat i believe but of bad taste and style
displaying a profusion of jewellery a half smile flitted over carlyle's face was it real richard it was he would wear diamond shirt studs diamond rings diamond pins brilliants
my impression was that he put them on to dazzle afy she told me once that she could be a grander lady if she chose than i could ever make her a lady on the cross i answered but never on the square
but girls are simple as geese by your description it could not have been one of the thorns of swainson wealthy tradesmen fathers of young families short stout and heavy as dutchmen staid and most respectable
very unlikely men are they to run into an expedition of that sort what expedition questioned richard the murder the riding after afy richard where is afy richard hare lifted his eyes in surprise
how should i know i was just going to ask you mister carlyle paused he thought richard's answer an evasive one she disappeared immediately after the funeral and it was thought in short richard the neighborhood gave her credit for having gone after and joined you
no did they what a pack of idiots i have never seen or heard of her carlyle since that unfortunate night if she went after anybody it was after thorn was the man good looking i suppose the world would call him so
afy thought such an adonis had never been coined out of fable he had shiny black hair and whiskers dark eyes and handsome features but his vain dandyism spoilt him would you believe that his handkerchiefs were soaked in scent
silky as a hair as fine as the one barbara bought at lynneborough and gave a guinea for
mister carlyle could ascertain no more particulars and it was time richard went indoors they proceeded up the path what a blessing it is the servants windows don't look this way shivered richard treading on mister carlyle's heels
if they should be looking out upstairs his apprehensions were groundless and he entered unseen mister carlyle's part was over he left the poor banned exile to his short interview with his hysterical and tearful mother richard nearly as hysterical as she
and made the best of his way home again pondering over what he had heard the magistrates made a good evening of it mister carlyle entertained them to supper mutton chops and bread and cheese they took up their pipes for another whiff when the meal was over
but miss carlyle retired to bed the smoke to which she had not been accustomed since her father's death had made her head ache and her eyes smart about eleven they wished mister carlyle good night and departed but mister dill in obedience to a nod from his superior remained
sit down a moment dill i want to ask you a question you are intimate with the thorns of swainson do they happen to have any relative a nephew or cousin perhaps a dandy young fellow i went over last sunday fortnight to spend the day with young jacob was the answer of mister dill
one wider from the point than he generally gave mister carlyle smiled young jacob he must be forty i suppose
they have no nephew the old man never had but those two children jacob and edward neither have they any cousin rich men they are growing now jacob has set up his carriage
tanners curriers and leather dressers possessing a relative of the name dill said he something has arisen which in my mind casts a doubt upon richard hare's guilt i question whether he had anything to do with the murder
suspicious circumstances i grant still i have good cause to doubt at the time it happened some dandy fellow used to come courting afy hallijohn in secret a tall slender man as he is described to me bearing the name of thorn and living at swainson
mister archibald remonstrated the old clerk as if those two respected gentlemen with their wives and babies would come sneaking after that flyaway afy no reflection on them returned mister carlyle this was a young man three or four and twenty a head taller than either
i have repeatedly heard them say that they are alone in the world that they are the two last of the name depend upon it it was nobody connected with them and wishing mister carlyle good night he departed
mister carlyle sat in a brown study
is joyce gone to bed no sir she is just going
joyce came in the upper servant at miss carlyle's she was of middle height and would never see five and thirty again her forehead was broad her gray eyes were deeply set and her face was pale altogether she was plain but sensible looking
she was the half sister of afy hallijohn shut the door joyce joyce did as she was bid came forward and stood by the table have you ever heard from your sister joyce began mister carlyle somewhat abruptly no sir was the reply
i think it would be a wonder if i did hear why so if she would go off after richard hare who had sent her father into his grave
who was that other that fine gentleman who came after her the color mantled in joyce's cheeks and she dropped her voice sir did you hear of him not at that time since he came from swainson did he not
i believe so sir afy never would say much about him we did not agree upon the point i said a person of his rank would do her no good
mister carlyle caught her up his rank what was his rank
and he looked like it i only saw him once
his white hands were all glittering with rings
have you seen him since never since never but once and i don't think i should know him if i did see him
shook hands with afy and left a fine upright man he was nearly as tall as you sir but very slim those soldiers always carry themselves well how do you know he was a soldier quickly rejoined mister carlyle afy told me so
the captain she used to call him but she said he was not a captain yet awhile the next grade to it a a lieutenant suggested mister carlyle yes sir that was it lieutenant thorn joyce said mister carlyle
no sir answered joyce
and nothing can turn me from the belief all west lynne is convinced of it mister carlyle did not attempt to turn her from her belief he dismissed her and sat on still revolving the case in all its bearings
richard hare's short interview with his mother had soon terminated it lasted but a quarter of an hour both dreading interruptions from the servants and with a hundred pounds in his pocket and desolation in his heart the ill fated young man once more quitted his childhood's home
the princess who could not believe the joyful tidings hastened herself to the window and seeing aladdin immediately opened it
and perceiving the princess he saluted her with an air that expressed his joy
i have sent to have the private door opened for you enter and come up the private door which was just under the princess's apartment was soon opened and aladdin conducted up into the chamber
it is impossible to express the joy of both at seeing each other after so cruel a separation after embracing and shedding tears of joy they sat down and aladdin said
i beg of you princess to tell me what is become of an old lamp which stood upon a shelf in my robing chamber alas answered the princess i was afraid our misfortune might be owing to that lamp and what grieves me most is that i have been the cause of it
i was foolish enough to change the old lamp for a new one and the next morning i found myself in this unknown country which i am told is africa princess said aladdin interrupting her you have explained all by telling me we are in africa
i desire you only to tell me if you know where the old lamp now is the african magician carries it carefully wrapt up in his bosom said the princess and this i can assure you because he pulled it out before me and showed it to me in triumph
princess said aladdin i think i have found the means to deliver you and to regain possession of the lamp on which all my prosperity depends to execute this design it is necessary for me to go to the town i shall return by noon
and will then tell you what must be done by you to insure success in the mean time i shall disguise myself and beg that the private door may be opened at the first knock when aladdin was out of the palace he looked round him on all sides and perceiving a peasant going into the country
hastened after him and when he had overtaken him made a proposal to him to change clothes which the man agreed to when they had made the exchange the countryman went about his business and aladdin entered the neighbouring city
he went into that of the druggists and entering one of the largest and best furnished shops asked the druggist if he had a certain powder which he named the druggist judging aladdin by his habit to be very poor told him he had it
but that it was very dear upon which aladdin penetrating his thoughts pulled out his purse and showing him some gold asked for half a dram of the powder which the druggist weighed and gave him
telling him the price was a piece of gold aladdin put the money into his hand and hastened to the palace which he entered at once by the private door when he came into the princess's apartments he said to her princess you must take your part in the scheme which i propose for our deliverance
you must overcome your aversion to the magician and assume a most friendly manner toward him and ask him to oblige you by partaking of an entertainment in your apartments before he leaves ask him to exchange cups with you which he
when you must give him the cup containing this powder on drinking it he will instantly fall asleep and we will obtain the lamp whose slaves will do all our bidding and restore us and the palace to the capital of china
the princess obeyed to the utmost her husband's instructions she assumed a look of pleasure on the next visit of the magician and asked him to an entertainment which he most willingly accepted
and giving the signal had the drugged cup brought to her which she gave to the magician he drank it out of compliment to the princess to the very last drop when he fell backward lifeless on the sofa the princess in anticipation of the success of her scheme
had so placed her women from the great hall to the foot of the staircase that the word was no sooner given that the african magician was fallen backward than the door was opened and aladdin admitted to the hall
the princess rose from her seat and ran overjoyed to embrace him but he stopped her and said princess retire to your apartment and let me be left alone while i endeavour to transport you back to china as speedily as you were brought from thence
when the princess her women and slaves were gone out of the hall aladdin shut the door and going directly to the dead body of the magician opened his vest took out the lamp which was carefully wrapped up and rubbing it the genie immediately appeared genie said aladdin
i command thee to transport this palace instantly to the place from whence it was brought hither the genie bowed his head in token of obedience and disappeared immediately the palace was transported into china and its removal was only felt by two little shocks
the one when it was lifted up the other when it was set down and both in a very short interval of time on the morning after the restoration of aladdin's palace the sultan was looking out of his window and mourning over the fate of his daughter
when he thought that he saw the vacancy created by the disappearance of the palace to be again filled up on looking more attentively he was convinced beyond the power of doubt that it was his son in law's palace joy and gladness succeeded to sorrow and grief
he at once ordered a horse to be saddled which he mounted that instant thinking he could not make haste enough to the place aladdin rose that morning by daybreak put on one of the most magnificent habits his wardrobe afforded
and went up into the hall of twenty four windows from whence he perceived the sultan approaching and received him at the foot of the great staircase helping him to dismount he led the sultan into the princess's apartment
the happy father embraced her with tears of joy and the princess on her side afforded similar testimonies of her extreme pleasure after a short interval devoted to mutual explanations of all that had happened the sultan restored aladdin to his favour
and expressed his regret for the apparent harshness with which he had treated him my son said he be not displeased at my proceedings against you they arose from my paternal love and therefore you ought to forgive the excesses to which it hurried me
sire replied aladdin i have not the least reason to complain of your conduct since you did nothing but what your duty required this infamous magician the basest of men was the sole cause of my misfortune
the african magician who was thus twice foiled in his endeavour to ruin aladdin had a younger brother who was as skilful a magician as himself and exceeded him in wickedness and hatred of mankind
by mutual agreement they communicated with each other once a year however widely separate might be their place of residence from each other the younger brother not having received as usual his annual communication
prepared to take a horoscope and ascertain his brother's proceedings he as well as his brother always carried a geomantic square instrument about him he prepared the sand cast the points and drew the figures
on examining the planetary crystal he found that his brother was no longer living but had been poisoned and by another observation that he was in the capital of the kingdom of china also that the person who had poisoned him was of mean birth
though married to a princess a sultan's daughter when the magician had informed himself of his brother's fate he resolved immediately to revenge his death and at once departed for china where after crossing plains rivers mountains deserts
and a long tract of country without delay he arrived after incredible fatigues when he came to the capital of china he took a lodging at a khan his magic art soon revealed to him that aladdin was the person who had been the cause of the death of his brother
he had heard too all the persons of repute in the city talking of a woman called fatima who was retired from the world and of the miracles she wrought as he fancied that this woman might be serviceable to him in the project he had conceived
he made more minute inquiries and requested to be informed more particularly who that holy woman was and what sort of miracles she performed what said the person whom he addressed
have you never seen or heard of her she is the admiration of the whole town for her fasting her austerities and her exemplary life except mondays and fridays she never stirs out of her little cell
and on those days on which she comes into the town she does an infinite deal of good for there is not a person who is diseased but she puts her hand on them and cures them having ascertained the place where the hermitage of this holy woman was
the magician went at night and plunging a poniard into her heart killed this good woman in the morning he dyed his face of the same hue as hers and arraying himself in her garb taking her veil
went straight to the palace of aladdin as soon as the people saw the holy woman as they imagined him to be they presently gathered about him in a great crowd some begged his blessing others kissed his hand and others more reserved only the hem of his garment
while others suffering from disease stooped for him to lay his hands upon them which he did muttering some words in form of prayer and in short counterfeiting so well that everybody took him for the holy woman
he came at last to the square before aladdin's palace the crowd and the noise were so great that the princess who was in the hall of four and twenty windows heard it and asked what was the matter
one of her women told her it was a great crowd of people collected about the holy woman to be cured of diseases by the imposition of her hands the princess who had long heard of this holy woman but had never seen her was very desirous to have some conversation with her
which the chief officer perceiving told her it was an easy matter to bring her to her if she desired and commanded it and the princess expressing her wishes he immediately sent four slaves for the pretended holy woman
as soon as the crowd saw the attendants from the palace they made way and the magician perceiving also that they were coming for him advanced to meet them overjoyed to find his plot succeed so well holy woman said one of the slaves
when the pretended fatima had made her obeisance the princess said my good mother i have one thing to request which you must not refuse me it is to stay with me that you may edify me with your way of living and that i may learn from your good example
said the counterfeit fatima i beg of you not to ask what i cannot consent to without neglecting my prayers and devotion that shall be no hindrance to you answered the princess i have a great many apartments unoccupied you shall choose which you like best
and have as much liberty to perform your devotions as if you were in your own cell the magician who really desired nothing more than to introduce himself into the palace where it would be a much easier matter for him to execute his designs
did not long excuse himself from accepting the obliging offer which the princess made him princess said he whatever resolution a poor wretched woman as i am may have made to renounce the pomp and grandeur of this world
i dare not presume to oppose the will and commands of so pious and charitable a princess upon this the princess rising up said come with me i will show you what vacant apartments i have that you may make choice of that you like best
the magician followed the princess and of all the apartments she showed him made choice of that which was the worst saying that it was too good for him and that he only accepted it to please her
but he considering that he should then be obliged to show his face which he had always taken care to conceal with fatima's veil and fearing that the princess should find out that he was not fatima begged of her earnestly to excuse him
telling her that he never ate anything but bread and dried fruits and desiring to eat that slight repast in his own apartment the princess granted his request saying you may be as free here good mother as if you were in your own cell i will order you a dinner
but remember i expect you as soon as you have finished your repast after the princess had dined and the false fatima had been sent for by one of the attendants he again waited upon her
my good mother said the princess i am overjoyed to see so holy a woman as yourself who will confer a blessing upon this palace but now i am speaking of the palace pray how do you like it and before i show it all to you tell me first what you think of this hall
upon this question the counterfeit fatima surveyed the hall from one end to the other when he had examined it well he said to the princess as far as such a solitary being as i am who am unacquainted with what the world calls beautiful
can judge this hall is truly admirable there wants but one thing what is that good mother demanded the princess tell me i conjure you for my part i always believed and have heard say it wanted nothing
but if it does it shall be supplied princess said the false fatima with great dissimulation forgive me the liberty i have taken but my opinion is if it can be of any importance that if a roc's egg
were hung up in the middle of the dome this hall would have no parallel in the four quarters of the world and your palace would be the wonder of the universe my good mother said the princess what is a roc and where may one get an egg
it is a bird of prodigious size which inhabits the summit of mount caucasus the architect who built your palace can get you one after the princess had thanked the false fatima for what she believed her good advice
she conversed with her upon other matters but could not forget the roc's egg
he did so in the course of that evening and shortly after he entered the princess thus addressed him i always believed that our palace was the most superb magnificent and complete in the world
princess replied aladdin it is enough that you think it wants such an ornament you shall see by the diligence which i use in obtaining it that there is nothing which i would not do for your sake aladdin left the princess buddir al buddoor that moment
and went up into the hall of four and twenty windows where pulling out of his bosom the lamp which after the danger he had been exposed to be always carried about him he rubbed it upon which the genie immediately appeared genie said aladdin
i command thee in the name of this lamp bring a roc's egg to be hung up in the middle of the dome of the hall of the palace aladdin had no sooner pronounced these words than the hall shook as if ready to fall
and the genie said in a loud and terrible voice is it not enough that i and the other slaves of the lamp have done everything for you but you by an unheard of ingratitude
must command me to bring my master and hang him up in the midst of this dome this attempt deserves that you the princess and the palace should be immediately reduced to ashes but you are spared
because this request does not come from yourself its true author is the brother of the african magician your enemy whom you have destroyed he is now in your palace
disguised in the habit of the holy woman fatima whom he has murdered
your wife makes this pernicious demand his design is to kill you therefore take care of yourself after these words the genie disappeared aladdin resolved at once what to do
he returned to the princess's apartment and without mentioning a word of what had happened sat down and complained of a great pain which had suddenly seized his head on hearing this the princess told him how she had invited the holy fatima to stay with her
and that she was now in the palace and at the request of the prince ordered her to be summoned to her at once when the pretended fatima came aladdin said come hither good mother i am glad to see you here at so fortunate a time
i am tormented with a violent pain in my head and request your assistance and hope you will not refuse me that cure which you impart to afflicted persons so saying he arose but held down his head
the counterfeit fatima advanced toward him with his hand all the time on a dagger concealed in his girdle under his gown which aladdin observing he snatched the weapon from his hand pierced him to the heart with his own dagger
no my princess answered aladdin with emotion i have not killed fatima but a villain who would have assassinated me if i had not prevented him this wicked man added he uncovering his face
is the brother of the magician who attempted our ruin he has strangled the true fatima and disguised himself in her clothes with intent to murder me aladdin then informed her how the genie had told him these facts
and how narrowly she and the palace had escaped destruction through his treacherous suggestion which had led to her request thus was aladdin delivered from the persecution of the two brothers who were magicians
to all appearance it had been temporarily and very lately abandoned we established ourselves in one of the smallest and least sumptuously furnished apartments it lay in a remote turret of the building its decorations were rich
yet tattered and antique its walls were hung with tapestry and bedecked with manifold and multiform armorial trophies together with an unusually great number of very spirited modern paintings in frames of rich golden arabesque
in these paintings which depended from the walls not only in their main surfaces but in very many nooks which the bizarre architecture of the chateau rendered necessary in these paintings my incipient delirium perhaps had caused me to take deep interest
so that i bade pedro to close the heavy shutters of the room since it was already night to light the tongues of a tall candelabrum which stood by the head of my bed and to throw open far and wide the fringed curtains of black velvet
which enveloped the bed itself i wished all this done that i might resign myself if not to sleep at least alternately to the contemplation of these pictures and the perusal of a small volume which had been found upon the pillow
and which purported to criticise and describe them long long i read and devoutly devotedly i gazed rapidly and gloriously the hours flew by and the deep midnight came
the position of the candelabrum displeased me and outreaching my hand with difficulty rather than disturb my slumbering valet i placed it so as to throw its rays more fully upon the book but the action produced an effect altogether unanticipated
the rays of the numerous candles for there were many now fell within a niche of the room which had hitherto been thrown into deep shade by one of the bed posts i thus saw in vivid light a picture all unnoticed before
it was the portrait of a young girl just ripening into womanhood i glanced at the painting hurriedly and then closed my eyes why i did this was not at first apparent even to my own perception but while my lids remained thus shut
i ran over in my mind my reason for so shutting them it was an impulsive movement to gain time for thought to make sure that my vision had not deceived me to calm and subdue my fancy for a more sober and more certain gaze
in a very few moments i again looked fixedly at the painting that i now saw aright i could not and would not doubt for the first flashing of the candles upon that canvas had seemed to dissipate the dreamy stupor which was stealing over my senses
and to startle me at once into waking life the portrait i have already said was that of a young girl it was a mere head and shoulders done in what is technically termed a vignette manner much in the style of the favorite heads of sully
the arms the bosom and even the ends of the radiant hair melted imperceptibly into the vague yet deep shadow which formed the back ground of the whole the frame was oval richly gilded and filigreed in moresque
as a thing of art nothing could be more admirable than the painting itself but it could have been neither the execution of the work nor the immortal beauty of the countenance which had so suddenly and so vehemently moved me
least of all could it have been that my fancy shaken from its half slumber had mistaken the head for that of a living person i saw at once that the peculiarities of the design of the vignetting and of the frame must have instantly dispelled such idea
must have prevented even its momentary entertainment thinking earnestly upon these points i remained for an hour perhaps half sitting half reclining with my vision riveted upon the portrait at length
satisfied with the true secret of its effect i fell back within the bed i had found the spell of the picture in an absolute life likeliness of expression which at first startling finally confounded subdued
and appalled me with deep and reverent awe i replaced the candelabrum in its former position the cause of my deep agitation being thus shut from view i sought eagerly the volume which discussed the paintings and their histories
turning to the number which designated the oval portrait i there read the vague and quaint words which follow she was a maiden of rarest beauty and not more lovely than full of glee
and evil was the hour when she saw and loved and wedded the painter he passionate studious austere and having already a bride in his art she a maiden of rarest beauty
and not more lovely than full of glee all light and smiles and frolicsome as the young fawn loving and cherishing all things hating only the art which was her rival
dreading only the pallet and brushes and other untoward instruments which deprived her of the countenance of her lover
but she was humble and obedient and sat meekly for many weeks in the dark high turret chamber where the light dripped upon the pale canvas only from overhead but he the painter took glory in his work
which went on from hour to hour and from day to day and he was a passionate and wild and moody man who became lost in reveries so that he would not see that the light which fell so ghastly in that lone turret
withered the health and the spirits of his bride who pined visibly to all but him yet she smiled on and still on uncomplainingly because she saw that the painter who had high renown took a fervid
and burning pleasure in his task and wrought day and night to depict her who so loved him yet who grew daily more dispirited and weak and in sooth some who beheld the portrait spoke of its resemblance in low words as of a mighty marvel
and a proof not less of the power of the painter than of his deep love for her whom he depicted so surpassingly well
for the painter had grown wild with the ardor of his work and turned his eyes from canvas merely even to regard the countenance of his wife and he would not see that the tints which he spread upon the canvas were drawn from the cheeks of her who sate beside him
and when many weeks had passed and but little remained to do save one brush upon the mouth and one tint upon the eye the spirit of the lady again flickered up as the flame within the socket of the lamp and then the brush was given
and then the tint was placed and for one moment the painter stood entranced before the work which he had wrought but in the next while he yet gazed
this is indeed life itself turned suddenly to regard his beloved
and does not care for many he is too abstract to add to the gaiety of social gatherings for these are based on the enjoyment of the concrete enjoys the intellectuals readers thinkers writers
intellectuals like himself are the kinds of people the cerebral enjoys most another reason why he has few friends is because these people being in the great minority are not easy to find ignores the ignorant
people who let others do their thinking for them and those who are not aware of the great things going on in world movements are not popular with this type he sometimes has a secret contempt for them
and ignores them as completely as they ignore him avoids the limelight modesty and reserve almost as marked in the men as in the women characterize this extreme type
they do things of great moment sometimes invent something or write something extraordinary but even then they try to avoid being lionized they prefer the shadows rather than the spotlight thus
they miss many of the good things less brainy and more aggressive people gain but it does no good to explain this to a cerebral he enjoys retirement and is constantly missing opportunities because he refuses to mix
he will go away from his room leaving every cent he owns lying on the dresser and then forget to lock the door this type of person almost never asks for a raise he is too busy dreaming dreams to plan what he will do in his old age
he prefers staying at the same job with congenial associates to finding another even if it paid more very often poor since we get only what we go after in this world it follows that the cerebral is often poor
history shows that few people of the pure cerebral type ever became rich even the most brilliant gave so much more thought to their mission than the practical ways and means that they were usually seriously handicapped for the funds necessary to its materialization
madame curie co discoverer of radium said to be the greatest living woman of this type is world famous and has done humanity a noble service but her experiments were always carried on against great disadvantages
because she had not the financial means to purchase more than the most limited quantities of the precious substance about clothes clothes are almost the last thing the cerebral thinks about
all the other types have decided preferences as to their clothes the alimentive demands comfort the thoracic style the muscular durability and the osseous sameness but the extreme cerebral type says anything will do
so we often see him with a coat of one color trousers of another and a hat of another with no gloves at all and his tie missing often absent minded we have always said people were absent minded when their minds were absent from what they were doing
this often applies to the cerebral for he is capable of greater concentration than other types also he is so frequently compelled to do things in which he has no interest that his mind naturally wanders to the things he cares about
a cerebral professor whom we know sometimes appeared before his harvard classes in bedroom slippers a thoracic would not be likely to let his own brother catch him in his writes better than he talks
the poor talker sometimes surprises us by being a good writer such a one is usually of the cerebral type he likes to think out every phase of a thing and put it into just the right words before giving it to the world
so many a cerebral who does little talking outside his intimate circle does a good deal of surreptitious writing it may be only the keeping of a diary jotting down memoranda or writing long letters to his friends but he will write something
some of the world's greatest ideas have come to light first in the forgotten manuscripts of people of this type who died without showing their writings to any one evidently they did not consider them of sufficient importance or did not care as much about publishing them
an inveterate reader step into the reference rooms of your city library on a summer's day and you will stand more chance of finding examples of this extreme type there than in any other spot
you may have thought these extreme types are difficult to locate since the average american is a combination but it is easy to find any of them
in every case you will find them in the very places where a study of human analysis would tell you to look for them where to look for pure types when you wish to find some pure alimentives
go to a restaurant that is famous for its rich foods when you want to see several extreme thoracics drop into any vaudeville show and take your choice from the actors or from the audience when you are looking for pure musculars
go to a boxing match or a prize fight and you will be surrounded by them when looking for the osseous attend a convention of expert accountants bankers lumbermen hardware merchants or pioneers all these types appear in other places
and in other vocations but they are certain to be present in large numbers any day in any of the above named places but when you are looking for this interesting little extreme thinker type you must go to a library
we specify the reference room of the library because those who search for fiction newspapers and magazines are not necessarily of the pure type
rather than in winter so that you will be able to select your subjects from amongst people who are there in spite of the weather rather than because of it interested in everything i never saw a book without wanting to read it
said a cerebral friend to us the other day this expresses the interest every person of this type has in the printed page
he is soon devouring books for older heads why won't he run and play like other children wails mother and that boy ought to be made to join the ball team scolds father but that boy continues to keep his nose in a book
he can talk on almost any subject when he will
but the cerebral is born old from infancy he shows more maturity than other children the teacher's pet his studiousness and tractableness lead to one reward in childhood though it often costs him dear as a man
he usually becomes the teacher's favorite and no wonder he always has his lessons he gives her little trouble and is about all that keeps many a teacher at her poorly paid post little sense of time
the extreme cerebral often has a deficient sense of time he is less conscious of the passage of the hours than any other type the muscular and the osseous often have an almost uncanny time sense but the extreme cerebral man often lacks it
forgetting to wind his watch or to consult it for hours when he does is a familiar habit of this type we know a bride in detroit whose flat looked out on a bakery and a bookstore
she told us that she used to send her cerebral hubby across the street for the loaf of bread that was found lacking just as they were ready to sit down to dinner only to wait hours and then have him come back with a book under his arm no bread and no realization of how long he had been gone
inclined to be unorthodox other types tend to follow various religions according to the individual's upbringing but the cerebral composes a large percentage of the unorthodox the political reformer
because all forms of personal combat are distasteful to him the pure cerebral does not go out and fight for reform as often as the muscular nor die for causes as often as the osseous types but almost every cerebral believes in extreme reforms of one kind or another
this type is usually sufficiently intelligent to know the world needs reforming and sufficiently conscientious to want to help to do it he is not bound by traditions or customs as much as other types but does more of his own thinking
the social nonconformist
this little man with the big head may not openly challenge you or argue with you when you stand up for things as they are for he is a peaceable chap but he inwardly smiles or sneers at what he considers your troglodyte ideas
he sees a day coming when babies will be named for their fathers whether the minister officiated or not
will himself be a hazy myth and when society idlers will not be considered better than people who earn their livings the world's pathfinder the cerebral therefore leads the world in ideas
the world is managed by fat men entertained by florid men built by muscular men opposed by bony men
these thinkers have a difficult time of it they preach to deaf ears and often they die in poverty but at last posterity comes around to their way of thinking abandons the old ruts and follows the trails they have blazed
therefore many great thinkers who were unknown while alive became famous after death more often than not fame is the food of the tomb indifference to surroundings
a wise man it was who said let me see a man's surroundings and i will tell you what he is the cerebral does not really live in his house but in his head
and for that reason does not feel as great an urge to decorate amplify or even furnish the place in which he dwells step into the room of any little bodied large headed man and you will be struck by two facts
that he has fewer jimcracks and more journals lying around than the rest of your friends in the room of the alimentive you will find cushions sofas and eats in that of the thoracic you will find colorful unusual things
the muscular will have durable solid plain things the osseous will have fewer of everything but what he does have will be in order but the pure cerebral's furnishings if he is responsible for them will be an indifferent array
but there is no doubt that the extreme cerebral type of individual often dies at an early age the reason is clear an efficient but controlled assimilative system is the first requisite for long life and the pure cerebral
that more deaths are caused annually in america by over eating than by any other two causes under eating is a very necessary precaution but the cerebral carries it too far the cerebral lacking a large alimentary system
he is not addicted to late hours wine women or excitement diseases he is most susceptible to nervous diseases of all kinds most frequently afflict this type his nervous system is supersensitive
it breaks down more easily and more completely
just as a high powered car is more easily wrecked than a truck music he likes highbrow music is kept alive mostly by highbrows
while the other types cultivate a taste for grand opera or simulate it because it is supposedly proper the cerebral really enjoys it in the top gallery at any good concert you will find many cerebrals
the kind of program that keeps the fat man's smile spread from ear to ear takes the cerebral to the box office for his money a steady patron at the movies the cerebral goes to the movies more than any other type save the fat man
but not for the same reasons the large brained small bodied man cares nothing for most of the recreations with which the other types amuse themselves so the theater is almost his only diversion
it is oftentimes the only kind of entertainment within the reach of his purse and it deals with many different subjects in almost all of which the pure cerebral has some interest don't laugh at same things
but if you will notice next time you go to a movie it will be clear to you that the fat people and the large headed people do not laugh at the same things the pie throwing and cutey coquette that convulse the two hundred pounder
fail to so much as turn up the corners of the other man's mouth and the subtle things that amuse the cerebral go over the heads of the pure alimentives cares for no sports
neither of them cares for strenuous sports the fat man dislikes them because he is too heavy on his feet the cerebral dislikes them because he is too heavy at the opposite extremity
the cerebral is the most impersonal of all types while the alimentive tends to measure everything from the standpoint of what it can do for him personally the cerebral tends to think more impersonally and to be interested in many things outside of his own affairs
lacks pugnacity primitive things of every kind are distasteful to the cerebral the instincts of digestion sex hunting and pugnacity are but little developed in him
he is therefore a man who likes harmony avoids coming to blows and goes out of his way to keep the peace such a man does not go hunting and seldom owns a gun he dislikes to kill or harm any creature
the cleverest crook the cerebral is usually a naturally moral person but when lacking in conscience either through bad training or other causes he occasionally turns to crime for his income
this is because his physical frailty makes it difficult for him to do heavy work while his mentality enables him to think out ways and means of getting a living without it though the clumsy criminal may belong to any type
the cleverest crooks those who defy detection for years always have a large element of the cerebral in their makeup big brains in little jobs
and leads a precarious existence working in the lighter indoor positions requiring the least mentality if you will keep your eyes open you will many times note that the little waiter in the high class restaurant or hotel has a head very large for his body
such men are much better read have a far greater appreciation of art and literature and more natural refinement than the porky patrons they serve social assets
too great reserve and too much abstractness in conversation are the things that handicap the cerebral his small stature and timid air also add to his appearance of insignificance and cause him to be overlooked at social affairs emotional assets
sympathy gentleness and self sacrifice are other assets of this type emotional liabilities a tendency to nervous excitement and to a lack of balance are the chief emotional handicaps of this type
business liabilities his inability to keep his feet on the ground and his tendency to live in the clouds and to be generally impractical unfit this type for business life domestic strength
tenderness consideration and idealism are the chief domestic assets of the cerebral type domestic weakness
should aim at this man should aim at building up his body and practicalizing his mental processes should avoid the cerebral should avoid shallow ignorant people speculation
and those situations that carry him farther away from the real world his strong points his thinking capacity progressiveness unselfishness and highly civilized instincts are the strongest points of this type his weakest points
impracticality dreaminess physical frailty and his tendency to plan without doing are the traits which stand in the way of his success how to deal with this type socially don't expect him to be a social lion don't expect him to mingle with many
leave him alone how to deal with this type in business don't employ this man for heavy manual labor or where there is more arm work than head work give him mental positions or none if you are dealing with him as a tradesman
resist the temptation to take advantage of his impracticality and don't treat him as if you thought money was everything remember the chief distinguishing marks of the cerebral in the order of their importance are the high forehead
and a proportionately large head for the body any person who has these is largely of the cerebral type no matter what other types may be included in his makeup to understand combinations
in doing this it will aid you if you will note whether fat bone or muscle predominates in his bodily structure second decide which of the five typical faces his face most resembles third
having decided which type predominates and which is second in him the significance of this combination is made clear to you by the following law law of combination the type
predominating in a person determines what he does throughout his life the nature of his main activities the type which comes second in development will determine the way he does things the methods he will follow in doing what his predominant type signifies
the third element if noticeable merely flavors his personality thus a cerebral muscular alimentive does mental things predominantly throughout his life but in a more muscular way than if he were an extreme cerebral
who was one of the chief men of the town a wealthy and a healthy and heaven had vouchsafed him a son whom he named ni'amah
being in the slave brokers mart he saw a woman exposed for sale with a little maid of wonderful beauty and grace on her arm so he beckoned to the broker and asked him how much for this woman and her daughter he answered fifty dinars
quoth al rabi'a write the contract of sale and take the money and give it to her owner then he gave the broker the price and his brokerage and taking the woman and her child carried them to his house
now when the daughter of his uncle who was his wife saw the slave she said to her husband o my cousin what is this damsel he replied of a truth i bought her for the sake of the little one on her arm
for know that when she groweth up there will not be her like for beauty either in the land of the arabs or the ajams his wife remarked right was thy rede
what is thy name she replied o my lady
sa'ad the happy rejoined her mistress thou sayst sooth thou art indeed happy and happy is he who hath bought thee then quoth she to her husband o my cousin what wilt thou call her
and quoth he whatso thou chooses so she said then let us call her naomi and he rejoined good is thy device the little naomi was reared with al rabi'a's son ni'amah
if that be so i will take her to wife then he went to his mother and told her of this and she said to him o my son she is thy handmaid so he wedded and went in unto naomi and loved her
whose bounty's my estate a sword whereby my woes to annihilate
by his life who holds my guiding rein i swear i'll meet on love ground parlous foe nor care
and quit my slumbers and all joy forswear and for thy love i'll dig in vitals mine a grave nor shall my vitals weet tis there and ni'amah exclaimed
heaven favoured art thou o naomi but whilst they led thus the most joyous life behold
needs must i contrive to take this girl named naomi and send her to the commander of the faithful abd al malik bin marwan for he hath not in his palace her like for beauty and sweet singing so
he summoned an old woman of the duennas of his wives and said to her go to the house of al rabi'a and foregather with the girl naomi and combine means to carry her off for her like is not to be found on the face of the earth
and henting in hand a staff and a leather water bottle of yamani manufacture and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say
the doorkeeper opened and said to her what dost thou want quoth she i am a poor pious woman whom the time of noon prayer hath overtaken
o old woman this is no mosque nor oratory but the house of ni'amah son of al rabi'a
i am a chamberwoman of the palace of the prince of true believers and am come out for worship and the visitation of holy places but the porter rejoined thou canst not enter
and many words passed between them till at last she caught hold and hung to him saying
and said to her o my lady
replied the old woman o my lady whoso seeketh the world to come let him weary him in this world and whoso wearieth not himself in this world shall not attain the dwellings of the just in the world to come
then naomi brought her food and said to her eat of my bread and pray heaven to accept my penitence and to have mercy on me but she cried
as for thee thou art but a girl and it befitteth thee to eat and drink and make merry allah be indulgent to thee for the almighty saith all shall be punished except him
for piety and devotion are imprinted on her countenance quoth he set apart for her a chamber where she may say her prayers and suffer no one to go in to her peradventure allah extolled and exalted be he shall prosper us
she went in to ni'amah and naomi and giving them good morning said to them i
quoth naomi whither away o my mother my lord hath bidden me set apart for thee a chamber where thou mayst seclude thee for thy devotions replied the old woman
then she went out whilst naomi wept for parting with her knowing not the cause of her coming
as thou do my bidding soon thou shalt have of me abundant good quoth she i ask of thee a full month and quoth he take the month
and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the two hundred and thirty ninth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that the old hag fell to visiting daily ni'amah's house and frequenting his slave wife
naomi and both ceased not to honour her and she used to go in to them morning and evening and all in the house respected her till one day being alone with naomi she said to her o my lady
naomi cried i conjure thee by allah take me with thee and she replied ask leave of thy mother in law and i will take thee so naomi said to her husband's mother
o my lady ask my master to let us go forth me and thee one day with this my old mother to prayer and worship with the fakirs in the holy places
the old woman went up to him and would have kissed his hand but he forbade her
i beseech thee for allah's sake give me leave to go with this pious woman that i may sight the saints of allah in the holy places and return speedily ere my lord come back quoth ni'amah's mother i fear lest thy lord know
no she shall look
never had he beheld her like now when naomi caught sight of him she veiled her face from him but he left her not till he had called his chamberlain whom he commanded to take fifty horsemen
and he bade him mount the damsel on a swift dromedary and bear her to damascus and there deliver her to the commander of the faithful abd al malik bin marwan moreover he gave him a letter for the caliph saying bear him this letter
and bring me his answer and hasten thy return to me so the chamberlain without losing time took the damsel and she tearful for separation from her lord and setting out with her on a dromedary gave not over journeying till he reached damascus
there he sought audience of the commander of the faithful and when it was granted the chamberlain delivered the damsel and reported the circumstance the caliph appointed her a separate apartment and going into his harim said to his wife
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say when it was the two hundred and fortieth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king
that when the caliph acquainted his wife with the story of the slave girl she said to him
then the caliph's sister went in to the supposed slave girl and when she saw her she said
were thy cost an hundred thousand dinars and naomi replied o fair of face what king's palace is this and what is the city she answered this is the city of damascus and this is the palace of my brother the commander of the faithful
did he not tell thee that the caliph had bought thee now when naomi heard these words she shed tears and said to herself verily i have been tricked and the trick hath succeeded adding to herself if i speak none will credit me
so i will hold my peace and take patience for i know that the relief of allah is near then she bent her head for shame and indeed her cheeks were tanned by the journey and the sun
so the caliph's sister left her that day and returned to her on the morrow with clothes and necklaces of jewels and dressed her after which the caliph came in to her and sat down by her side and his sister said to him
look on this handmaid in whom allah hath conjoined every perfection of beauty and loveliness so he said to naomi draw back the veil from thy face but she would not unveil and he beheld not her face
however he saw her wrists and love of her entered his heart and he said to his sister i will not go in unto her for three days till she be cheered by thy converse then he arose and left her
but naomi ceased not to brood over her case and sigh for her separation from her master ni'amah till she fell sick of a fever during the night and ate not nor drank and her favour faded and her charms were changed
they told the caliph of this and her condition grieved him so he visited her with physicians and men of skill but none could come at a cure for her this is how it fared with her but as regards ni'amah
when he returned home he sat down on his bed and cried ho naomi but she answered not so he rose in haste and called out yet none came to him as all the women in the house had hidden themselves for fear of him
then he went out to his mother whom he found sitting with her cheek on her hand and said to her o my mother where is naomi she answered o my son she is with one who is worthier than i to be trusted with her namely the devout old woman
she went forth with her to visit devotionally the fakirs and return quoth ni'amah since when hath this been her habit and at what hour went she forth quoth his mother she went out early in the morning
and she answered o my son twas she persuaded me
and going forth from his home in a state of distraction he repaired to the captain of the watch to whom said he doss thou play tricks upon me and steal my slave girl away from my house i will assuredly complain of thee to the commander of the faithful
said the chief of police who hath taken her and ni'amah replied an old woman of such and such a mien
hither with him and when he stood before him enquired what be thy business said ni'amah such and such things have befallen me and the governor said bring me the chief of police and we will commend him to seek for the old woman
now he knew that the chief of police was acquainted with her so when he came he said to him
son of al rabi'a and he answered none knoweth the hidden things save almighty allah
there is no help for it but thou send out horsemen and look for the damsel in all the roads and seek for her in the towns
hacon grizzlebeard once on a time there was a princess who was so proud and pert that no suitor was good enough for her she made game of them all and sent them about their business one after the other but though she was so proud
for she was a beauty the wicked hussey so one day there came a prince to woo her and his name was hacon grizzlebeard but the first night he was there
and slit the jaws of the other up to the ears when the prince went out to drive next day the princess stood in the porch and looked at him well she cried i never saw the like of this in all my life
the keen north wind that blows here has taken the ears off one of your horses and the other has stood by and gaped at what was going on till his jaws have split right up to his ears and with that she burst out into a roar of laughter ran in slammed to the door
and let him drive off so he drove home but as he went he thought to himself that he would pay her off one day after a bit he put on a great beard of moss threw a great fur cloak over his clothes and dressed himself up just like any beggar
he went to a goldsmith and bought a golden spinning wheel and sat down with it under the princess window and began to file away at his spinning wheel
for it wasn't quite in order and besides it wanted a stand so when the princess rose up in the morning she came to the window and threw it up and called out to the beggar if he would sell his golden spinning wheel
no it isn't for sale said hacon grizzlebeard but if i may have leave to sleep outside your bedroom door to night i'll give it you well the princess thought it a good bargain there could be no danger in letting him sleep outside her door
so she got the wheel and at night hacon grizzlebeard lay down outside her bedroom but as the night wore on he began to freeze hutetutetutetu it is so cold do let me in he cried
you've lost your wits outright i think said the princess oh hutetutetutetu it is so bitter cold pray do let me in said hacon grizzlebeard again hush hush hold your tongue said the princess
if my father were to know that there was a man in the house i should be in a fine scrape
only let me come inside and lie on the floor said hacon grizzlebeard yes there was no help for it she had to let him in and when he was he lay on the ground and slept like a top
some time after hacon came again with the stand to the spinning wheel and sat down under the princess window and began to file at it for it was not quite fit for use when she heard him filing she threw up the window and began to talk to him
oh only the stand to that spinning wheel which your royal highness bought for i thought as you had the wheel you might like to have the stand too what do you want for it asked the princess but it was not for sale any more than the wheel
well she gave him leave only he was to be sure to lie still and not to shiver and call out hutetu or any such stuff hacon grizzlebeard promised fair enough but as the night wore on he began to shiver and shake
there was no help for it she had to give him leave lest the king should hear the noise he made so hacon grizzlebeard lay alongside the princess bed and slept like a top it was a long while before hacon grizzlebeard came again
but when he came he had with him a golden wool winder and he sat down and began to file away at it under the princess window then came the old story over again when the princess heard what was going on she came to the window and asked him how he did
and whether he would sell the golden wool winder it is not to be had for money but if you'll give me leave to sleep to night in your bedroom with my head on your bedstead you shall have it for nothing said hacon grizzlebeard well she would give him leave
and make no noise so he said he would do his best to be still but as the night wore on he began to shiver and shake so that his teeth chattered again hutetutetutetu it is so bitter cold
oh do let me get into bed and warm myself a little said hacon grizzlebeard get into bed said the princess why you must have lost your wits hutetutetutetu said hacon do let me get into bed hutetutetutetu
hush hush be still for god's sake said the princess if father knows there is a man in here i shall be in a sad plight i'm sure he'll kill me on the spot hutetutetutetu let me get into bed said hacon grizzlebeard
who kept on shivering so that the whole room shook well there was no help for it she had to let him get into bed where he slept both sound and soft but a little while after the princess had a child at which
the king grew so wild with rage that he was near making an end of both mother and babe just after this happened came hacon grizzlebeard tramping that way once more as if by chance and took his seat down in the kitchen like any other beggar
so when the princess came out and saw him she cried ah
father is ready to burst with rage do let me follow you to your home oh i'll be bound
and how i shall ever get food for you i can't tell for it's just as much as i can do to get food for myself oh yes it's all the same to me how you get it or whether you get it at all she said
only let me be with you for if i stay here any longer my father will be sure to take my life so she got leave to be with the beggar as she called him and they walked a long long way
when she passed out of her father's land into another she asked whose it was oh this is hacon grizzlebeard's if you must know said he indeed said the princess i might have married him if i chose
and then i should not have had to walk about like a beggar's wife so whenever they came to grand castles and woods and parks and she asked whose they were the beggar's answer was still the same oh
and the princess was in a sad way that she had not chosen the man who had such broad lands last of all they came to a palace where he said he was known and where he thought he could get her work so that they might have something to live on
so he built up a cabin by the woodside for them to dwell in and every day he went to the king's palace as he said to hew wood and draw water for the cook and when he came back he brought a few scraps of meat but they did not go very far
one day when he came home from the palace he said to morrow i will stay at home and look after the baby
the prince said you were to come and try your hand at baking i bake said the princess i can't bake for i never did such a thing in my life well you must go said hacon since the prince has said it
if you can't bake you can learn you have only got to look how the rest bake and mind when you leave you must steal me some bread i can't steal said the princess
you know we live on short commons but take care that the prince doesn't see you for he has eyes at the back of his head so when she was well on her way hacon ran by a short cut and reached the palace long before her
and threw off his rags and beard and put on his princely robes the princess took her turn in the bakehouse and did as hacon bade her for she stole bread till her pockets were crammed full so when she was about to go home at even the prince said
we don't know much of this old wife of hacon grizzlebeard's i think we'd best see if she has taken anything away with her
all over and when he found the bread he was in a great rage and led them all a sad life she began to weep and bewail and said the beggar made me do it and i couldn't help it
well said the prince at last it ought to have gone hard with you but all the same for the sake of the beggar you shall be forgiven this once when she was well on her way he threw off his robes
put on his skin cloak and his false beard and reached the cabin before her when she came home he was busy nursing the baby well you have made me do what it went against my heart to do this is the first time i ever stole and this shall be the last
and with that she told him how it had gone with her and what the prince had said a few days after hacon grizzlebeard came home at even and said to morrow i must stay at home and mind the babe for they are going to kill a pig at the palace
i make sausages said the princess i can't do any such thing i have eaten sausages often enough but as to making them i never made one in my life well
there was no help for it the prince had said it and go she must as for not knowing how she was only to do what the others did and at the same time hacon bade her steal some sausages for him nay but i can't steal them she said
you know how it went last time well you can learn to steal who knows but you may have better luck next time said hacon grizzlebeard when she was well on her way hacon ran by a short cut
and stood in the kitchen with his royal robes before she came in so the princess stood by when the pig was killed and made sausages with the rest and did as hacon bade her and stuffed her pockets full of sausages but when she was about to go home at even the prince said
this beggar's wife was long fingered last time we may as well just see if she hasn't carried anything off so he began to thrust his hands into her pockets and when he found the sausages he was in a great rage again and made a great to do
oh god bless your royal highness do let me off the beggar made me do it she said and wept bitterly well said hacon you ought to smart for it but for the beggar's sake
you shall be forgiven when she was gone he changed his clothes again ran by the short cut and when she reached the cabin there he was before her then she told him the whole story and swore through thick and thin
it should be the last time he got her to do such a thing now it fell out a little time after when the man came back from the palace he said our prince is going to be married but the bride is sick
so the tailor can't measure her for her wedding gown and the prince's will is that you should go up to the palace and be measured instead of the bride for he says you are just the same height and shape but after you have been measured mind you don't go away
you can stand about you know and when the tailor cuts out the gown you can snap up the largest pieces
nay but i can't steal she said besides you know how it went last time you can learn then said hacon and you may have better luck perhaps she thought it bad
but still she went and did as she was told she stood by while the tailor was cutting out the gown and she swept down all the biggest scraps and stuffed them into her pockets and when she was going away the prince said
so it went now just as it had gone before and when she got back to the cabin the beggar was there before her oh heaven help me she said you will be the death of me at last by making me nothing but what is wicked
sometime after hacon came home to the cabin at even and said
for the bride is still sick and keeps her bed but he won't put off the wedding and he says you are so like her that no one could tell one from the other so to morrow you must get ready to go to the palace
i think you've lost your wits both the prince and you said she do you think i look fit to stand in the bride's place look at me can any beggar's trull look worse than i
well the prince said you were to go and so go you must said hacon grizzlebeard there was no help for it
the bridal train went to church where she stood for the bride and when they came back there was dancing and merriment in the palace but just as she was in the midst of dancing with the prince she saw a gleam of light through the window and lo
the cabin by the wood side was all one bright flame oh the beggar and the babe and the cabin she screamed out and was just going to swoon away here is the beggar and there is the babe
and so let the cabin burn away said hacon grizzlebeard then she knew him again and after that the mirth and merriment began in right earnest
gudbrand on the hill side once on a time there was a man whose name was gudbrand he had a farm which lay far far away upon a hill side and so they called him gudbrand on the hill side now
you must know this man and his goodwife lived so happily together and understood one another so well that all the husband did the wife thought so well done there was nothing like it in the world and she was always glad whatever he turned his hand to
the farm was their own land and they had a hundred dollars lying at the bottom of their chest and two cows tethered up in a stall in their farm yard so one day his wife said to gudbrand do you know dear
i think we ought to take one of our cows into town and sell it that's what i think for then we shall have some money in hand and such well to do people as we ought to have ready money like the rest of the world
we can't make a hole in them and i'm sure i don't know what we want with more than one cow besides we shall gain a little in another way for then i shall get off with only looking after one cow instead of having as now
to feed and litter and water two well gudbrand thought his wife talked right good sense
but when he got to the town there was no one who would buy his cow well well never mind said gudbrand
and the road is no farther out than in and with that he began to toddle home with his cow but when he had gone a bit of the way a man met him who had a horse to sell so gudbrand thought twas better to have a horse than a cow so he swopped with the man
a little farther on he met a man walking along and driving a fat pig before him and he thought it better to have a fat pig than a horse so he swopped with the man after that he went a little farther and a man met him with a goat
for he thought it always better to have a sheep than a goat after a while he met a man with a goose and he swopped away the sheep for the goose and when he had walked a long long time
for he thought in this wise tis surely better to have a cock than a goose then
so he sold the cock for a shilling and bought food with the money for thought gudbrand on the hill side tis always better to save one's life than to have a cock after that he went on home till he reached his nearest neighbour's house where he turned in
well said the owner of the house how did things go with you in town rather so so said gudbrand i can't praise my luck nor do i blame it either and with that he told the whole story from first to last
you'll get nicely called over the coals that one can see when you get home to your wife heaven help you
i think things might have gone much worse with me but now whether i have done wrong or not
she never has a word to say against anything that i do oh answered his neighbour i hear what you say but i don't believe it for all that shall we lay a bet upon it asked gudbrand on the hill side
i have a hundred dollars at the bottom of my chest at home will you lay as many against them yes the friend was ready to bet so gudbrand stayed there till evening when it began to get dark and then they went together to his house and the neighbour was to stand outside the door and listen
while the man went in to see his wife good evening said gudbrand on the hill side good evening said the goodwife oh is that you now god be praised yes it was he
so the wife asked how things had gone with him in town oh only so so answered gudbrand not much to brag of when i got to the town there was no one who would buy the cow so you must know i swopped it away for a horse
for a horse said his wife
that is good of you thanks with all my heart we are so well to do that we may drive to church just as well as other people and if we choose to keep a horse
and put up the horse ah said gudbrand but you see i've not got the horse after all for when i got a bit farther on the road i swopped it away for a pig think of that now said the wife
you did just as i should have done myself a thousand thanks now i can have a bit of bacon in the house to set before people when they come to see me that i can what do we want with a horse
but i've not got the pig either said gudbrand for when i got a little farther on i swopped it away for a milch goat bless us cried his wife how well you manage everything
now i think it over what should i do with a pig
now i have got a goat and i shall have milk and cheese and keep the goat too run out child and put up the goat nay but i haven't got the goat either said gudbrand for a little farther on i swopped it away and got a fine sheep instead
you don't say so cried his wife why you do everything to please me just as if i had been with you what do we want with a goat
no if i have a sheep
run out child and put up the sheep but i haven't got the sheep any more than the rest said gudbrand for when i had gone a bit farther i swopped it away for a goose thank you thank you with all my heart cried his wife
what should i do with a sheep i have no spinning wheel nor carding comb nor should i care to worry myself with cutting and shaping and sewing clothes
and now i shall have roast goose which i have longed for so often and besides
run out child and put up the goose
but i haven't the goose either for when i had gone a bit farther i swopped it away for a cock dear me cried his wife how you think of everything just as i should have done myself a cock
for every morning the cock crows at four o'clock and we shall be able to stir our stumps in good time what should we do with a goose i don't know how to cook it and as for my pillow
and put up the cock but after all i haven't got the cock said gudbrand for when i had gone a bit farther
so i was forced to sell the cock for a shilling for fear i should starve now god be praised that you did so cried his wife whatever you do you do it always just after my own heart what should we do with the cock
we are our own masters i should think and can lie a bed in the morning as long as we like
you who do everything so well that i want neither cock nor goose neither pigs nor kine then gudbrand opened the door and said well what do you say now have i won the hundred dollars
where i was wont to be right fresh and gay of clothing and of other good array
now is it wan and of a leaden hue whoso it useth sore shall he it rue and of my swink yet
that i have borrow'd truely that while i live
as on five or six ounces may well be of silver or some other quantity and busy me to telle you the names as orpiment
and in an earthen pot how put is all
before these powders that i speak of here and well y cover'd with a lamp of glass and of much other thing which that
and of the care and woe
and calcining of quicksilver called mercury crude
and sublim'd mercury our ground litharge eke on the
our labour is in vain nor neither our spirits ascensioun nor our matters that lie all fix'd adown may in our working nothing us avail for lost is all our labour and travail and all the cost a twenty devil way is lost also which
we upon it lay there is also full many another thing that is unto our craft appertaining
armoniac verdigris borace
and brimstone and herbes could i tell eke many a one
our lampes burning bothe night and day to bring about our craft if that we may our furnace eke of calcination and of waters albification
and divers fires made of wood and coal
sal armoniac and the fourth brimstone the bodies sev'n eke lo them here anon
and venus copper by my father's kin
whoso will exercise he shall no good have
for all the good he spendeth thereabout he lose shall thereof have i no doubt
and every man that hath aught in his coffer let him appear and wax a philosopher
all be he monk or frere priest or canon or any other wight though he sit at his book both day and night
is to learn a lew'd man this subtlety
this is to say they faile bothe two yet forgot i to make rehearsale of waters corrosive and of
and also of their induration oiles ablutions metal fusible to tellen all would passen any bible that owhere is wherefore
for as i trow i have you told enough to raise a fiend all look he ne'er so rough ah nay let be the philosopher's stone elixir call'd
then were we sicker enow
and all our sleight he will not come us to
supposing ever though we sore smart to be relieved by him afterward such supposing and hope is sharp and hard i warn you well it is to seeken ever
so seemeth it for had they but a sheet which that they mighte wrap them in at night and a bratt
and spend it on this craft they cannot stint
men may them knowe by smell of brimstone for all the world they stinken as a goat their savour is so rammish and so hot that though a man a mile from them be the savour will infect him truste me
lo thus by smelling and threadbare array if that men list this folk they knowe may and if a man will ask them privily
men would them slay because of their science lo thus these folk betrayen innocence pass over this i go my tale unto
with a certain quantity my lord them tempers
for as men say he can do craftily algate
and know ye how full oft it happ'neth so the pot to breaks and farewell
our walles may not make them resistence
that through the wall they gon and some of them sink down into the ground thus have we lost by times many a pound and some are scatter'd all the floor about some leap into the roof withoute doubt though that the fiend not in our sight him show
where that he is lord and sire is there no more woe rancour nor ire when that our pot is broke as i have said
somewhat of our metal yet is there here
truste me well in his prosperity
peace quoth my lord
another said the fire was over hot but be it hot or cold i dare say this that we concluden evermore amiss we fail alway of that which we would have and in our madness evermore we rave and when we be together every one
every man seemeth a solomon but all thing
it is not gold as i have heard it told nor every apple that is fair at eye it is not good
he that the wisest seemeth by jesus is most fool
that shall ye know ere that i from you wend by that i of my tale have made an end there was a canon of religioun amonges us
were as was nineveh rome alisandre troy
as i guess though that he mighte live a thousand year
he will him so wind and speak his wordes in so sly a kind when he commune shall with any wight
and will if that he may live any while and yet men go and ride many a mile him for to seek and have his acquaintance
i will it telle here in your presence but worshipful canons religious ne deeme not that i slander your house although that my tale of a canon be of every order some shrew is pardie
but to correct that is amiss i meant this tale was not only told for you but eke for other more ye wot well how that amonges christe's apostles twelve there was no traitor but judas himselve then why should all the remenant have blame
that guiltless were by you i say the same save only this if ye will hearken me if any judas in your convent be remove him betimes
but in this case hearken what i say in london was a priest
which was so pleasant and so serviceable unto the wife where as he was at table that she would suffer him no thing to pay for board nor clothing went he ne'er so gay and spending silver had he right enow
that brought this prieste to confusion this false canon came upon a day unto the prieste's chamber where he lay beseeching him to lend him a certain of gold and he would quit it him again
lend me a mark quoth he but dayes three and at my day i will it quite thee and if it so be that thou find me false
and sir quoth he now of my privity since ye so goodly have been unto me
how i can worken in philosophy take good heed ye shall well see at eye
yea quoth the priest yea sir and will ye so mary thereof i pray you heartily at your commandement sir truely quoth the canon and elles god forbid lo
for nothing art thou ware of the deceit
as farforth
and by the heaven's queen it was another canon and not he
for shame of him my cheekes waxe red algates
right well i know in my visage for fumes diverse of metals which ye have me heard rehearse consumed have and wasted my redness
quoth he to the priest let your man gon for quicksilver that we it had anon
sir quoth the priest
and he all ready was at his bidding and went him forth and came anon again with this quicksilver shortly for to sayn and took these ounces three to the canoun
and bade the servant coales for to bring that he anon might go to his working
and shew'd to the priest this instrument quoth he which that thou seest take in thine hand and put thyself therein
in the name of christ to wax a philosopher there be full few which that i woulde proffer
for here shall ye see by experience
and make it as good silver and as fine as there is any in your purse or mine or elleswhere and make it malleable and elles holde me false and unable
shall make all good for it is cause of all my conning which that i you
while that we work in this phiosophy all as he bade fulfilled was in deed
and to their labour speedily they gon this priest at this cursed canon's bidd ing upon the fire anon he set this thing and blew the fire and busied him full fast and this canon into the croslet cast a powder
or somewhat elles was not worth a fly
for in token i thee love quoth this canon thine owen handes two
out of his bosom took a beechen coal in which full subtifly was made a hole
and other thinges i shall tell you more hereafterward
ere he came there him to beguile he thought and so he did
he took his coal of which i spake above and in his hand he bare it privily and while the prieste couched busily the coales as i tolde you ere this this canon saide friend ye do amiss this is not couched as it ought to be
but soon i shall amenden it quoth he now let me meddle therewith but a while
ye be right hot i see well how ye sweat have here a cloth and wipe away the wet
and when this alchemister saw his time rise up sir priest quoth he and stand by me
and bring me a chalk stone for i will make it of the same shape that is an ingot if i may have hap bring eke with you a bowl
i wille not be out of your presence but go with you and come with you again the chamber doore shortly for to sayn they opened and shut and went their way and forth with them they carried the key
he took the chalk and shap'd it in the wise of an ingot
look what there is put in thine hand and grope there shalt thou finde silver as i hope what devil of helle should it elles be shaving of silver silver is pardie
he put his hand in and took up a teine of silver fine and glad in every vein was this priest when he saw that it was so godde's blessing and his mother's also
i will be yours in all that ever i may quoth the canon
and be expert of this and in your need another day assay in mine absence this discipline and this crafty science
withoute wordes mo and do therewith as ye have done ere this with that other which that now silver is the priest him busied
to do as this canon this cursed man commanded him
this canon with his
as he did erst the devil out of his skin him turn i pray to god for his falsehead for he was ever false in thought and deed and with his stick above the crosselet
till relente gan the wax against the fire as every man but he a fool be knows well it must need
he was so glad that i can not express in no mannere his mirth and his gladness and to the canon he proffer'd
yea quoth the canon soon
yet is there more behind is any copper here within said he yea sir the prieste said
as minister of my wit the doubleness of this canon root of all cursedness he friendly seem'd to them that knew him not but he was fiendly both in work and thought it wearieth me to tell of his falseness
and for none other cause truely
and made the priest to blow and in his working for to stoope low as he did erst
in the water rumbleth to and fro and wondrous privily took up also the copper teine not knowing thilke priest and hid it
and thus said in his game stoop now adown by god ye be to blame
nor lady lustier in carolling or for to speak of love and womanhead nor knight in arms to do a hardy deed to standen in grace of his lady dear than had this priest this crafte for to lear
and to the canon thus he spake and said for love of god
and as i may deserve it unto you what shall this receipt coste tell me now by our lady quoth this canon it is dear
by god they woulde have so great envy to me because of my philosophy i should be dead there were no other way god it forbid quoth the priest what ye say
consider sirs how that in each estate betwixte men and gold there is debate
these philosophers speak so mistily in this craft that men cannot come thereby for any wit that men have how a days they may well chatter as do these jays
a man may lightly learn if he
oh fy for shame
can they not flee the fire's heat
lest ye lose all for better than never is late never to thrive were too long a date
as for to go beside it in the way
how that he which firste said this thing
how that the dragon doubteless he dieth not but if that he be slain with his brother and this is for to sayn by the dragon mercury and none other he understood and brimstone by his brother
also there was a disciple of plato that on a time
and this was his demand in soothfastness
take the stone that titanos men name which is that quoth he magnesia is the same saide plato yea sir and is it thus
it is a water that is made i say
nor in no book it write in no mannere
but where it liketh to his deity
whom that he liketh lo this is the end then thus conclude i since that god of heaven will not
though i to this man speak a word or two tell on thy tale withoute wordes mo gladly sir host quoth he i will obey unto your will now hearken what i say
i pray to god that it may please you
these olde gentle bretons in their days of divers aventures made lays
and one of them have i in remembrance which i shall say with good will as i can
i learned never rhetoric certain
i slept never on the mount of parnasso nor learned marcus tullius cicero
or elles such as men dye with or paint
to take him for her husband and her lord of such lordship as men have o'er their wives and for to lead the more in bliss their lives
should take upon himself no mastery
but her obey and follow her will in all as any lover to his lady shall save that the name of sovereignety that would he have for shame of his degree she thanked him and with full great humbless she saide sir
i will be your humble true wife
if they will longe hold in company love will not be constrain'd by mastery
and farewell he is gone love is a thing as any spirit free
look who that is most patient in love
thinges that rigour never should attain for every word men may not chide or plain
here may men see a humble wife accord
servant in love and lord in marriage
servage nay but in lordship all above since he had both his lady and his love
the which that law of love accordeth to and when he was in this prosperrity
a year and more lasted this blissful life till that this knight of whom i spake thus
to seek in armes worship and honour for all his lust
them liketh she mourneth waketh waileth fasteth plaineth desire of his presence her so distraineth that all this wide world she set at nought her friendes which that knew her heavy thought
they preache her they tell her night and day that causeless she slays herself alas and every comfort possible in this case they do to her
by process as ye knowen every one men may so longe graven in a stone till some figure therein imprinted be so long have they comforted her
she may not always duren in such rage and eke arviragus in all this care hath sent his letters home of his welfare and that he will come hastily again or elles had this sorrow her hearty slain
away to drive her darke fantasy and finally she granted that request for well she saw that it was for the best now stood her castle faste by the sea and often with her friendes walked she her to disport upon the bank on high
is there no ship of so many as i see will bringe home my lord
why have ye wrought this work unreasonable
a hundred thousand bodies of mankind have rockes slain
but how then may it be that ye such meanes make it to destroy which meanes do no good but ever annoy
this is my conclusion to clerks leave i all disputation but would to god that all these rockes blake were sunken into helle for his sake
thus would she say with many a piteous tear
they go and play them all the longe day and this was on the sixth morrow of may which may had painted with his softe showers this garden full of leaves and of flowers and craft of manne's hand so curiously arrayed had this garden truely
come with rain o loud southwester bring the singer bring the nester give the buried flower a dream make the settled snow bank steam find the brown beneath the white
but whate'er you do to night bathe my window make it flow melt it as the ices go melt the glass and leave the sticks like a hermit's crucifix
burst into my narrow stall swing the picture on the wall run the rattling pages o'er scatter poems on the floor turn the poet out of door
prayer in spring oh give us pleasure in the flowers to day and give us not to think so far away as the uncertain harvest keep us here
all simply in the springing of the year oh give us pleasure in the orchard white like nothing else by day like ghosts by night and make us happy in the happy bees the swarm dilating
round the perfect trees and make us happy in the darting bird that suddenly above the bees is heard the meteor that thrusts in with needle bill and off a blossom in mid air stands still
for this is love and nothing else is love the which it is reserved for god above to sanctify to what far ends he will but which it only needs that we fulfil
and in the morning glow you walked a way beside me to make me sad to go do you know me in the gloaming gaunt and dusty grey with roaming are you dumb because you know me not
or dumb because you know all for me and not a question for the faded flowers gay that could take me from beside you for the ages of a day
they are yours and be the measure of their worth for you to treasure the measure of the little while that i've been long away
rose pogonias a saturated meadow sun shaped and jewel small a circle scarcely wider than the trees around were tall where winds were quite excluded
and the air was stifling sweet with the breath of many flowers a temple of the heat there we bowed us in the burning as the sun's right worship is
to pick where none could miss them a thousand orchises for though the grass was scattered yet every second spear seemed tipped with wings of color
we raised a simple prayer before we left the spot that in the general mowing that place might be forgot or if not all so favoured
obtain such grace of hours that none should mow the grass there while so confused with flowers
asking for roses a house that lacks seemingly mistress and master with doors that none but the wind ever closes its floor all littered with glass and with plaster
it stands in a garden of old fashioned roses i pass by that way in the gloaming with mary i wonder i say who the owner of those is
oh no one you know she answers me airy but one we must ask if we want any roses so we must join hands in the dew coming coldly
there in the hush of the wood that reposes and turn and go up to the open door boldly and knock to the echoes as beggars for roses pray are you within there mistress who were you
tis mary that speaks and our errand discloses pray are you within there bestir you bestir you tis summer again there's two come for roses a word with you
old herrick a saying that every maid knows is a flower unplucked is but left to the falling and nothing is gained by not gathering roses we do not loosen our hands intertwining
not caring so very much what she supposes there when she comes on us mistily shining and grants us by silence the boon of her roses
waiting afield at dusk what things for dream there are when spectre like moving among tall haycocks lightly piled i enter alone upon the stubble field
from which the laborers voices late have died and in the antiphony of afterglow and rising full moon sit me down upon the full moon's side of the first haycock
and lose myself amid so many alike i dream upon the opposing lights of the hour preventing shadow until the moon prevail i dream upon the night hawks peopling heaven
each circling each with vague unearthly cry or plunging headlong with fierce twang afar and on the bat's mute antics who would seem dimly to have made out my secret place
only to lose it when he pirouettes and seek it endlessly with purblind haste on the last swallow's sweep and on the rasp in the abyss of odor and rustle at my back that
silenced by my advent finds once more after an interval his instrument and tries once twice and thrice if i be there and on the worn book of old golden song
i brought not here to read it seems but hold and freshen in this air of withering sweetness but on the memory of one absent most for whom these lines when they shall greet her eye
in a vale when i was young we dwelt in a vale by a misty fen that rang all night and thus it was the maidens pale i knew so well whose garments trail
across the reeds to a window light the fen had every kind of bloom and for every kind there was a face and a voice that has sounded in my room
across the sill from the outer gloom each came singly unto her place but all came every night with the mist and often they brought so much to say
of things of moment to which they wist one so lonely was fain to list that the stars were almost faded away before the last went heavy with dew
back to the place from which she came where the bird was before it flew where the flower was before it grew where bird and flower were one and the same
and thus it is i know so well why the flower has odor the bird has song you have only to ask me and i can tell no not vainly there did i dwell
nor vainly listen all the night long
and to the forest edge you came one day this was my dream and looked and pondered long but did not enter though the wish was strong
you shook your pensive head as who should say i dare not too far in his footsteps stray he must seek me would he undo the wrong not far but near i stood and saw it all
and the sweet pang it cost me not to call and tell you that i saw does still abide but tis not true that thus i dwelt aloof
the elements which constitute the consideration of the gamins for each other are very various we have known and associated with one who was greatly respected and vastly admired
another because he had succeeded in making his way into the rear courtyard
had been temporarily deposited
still another because he knew a soldier who came near putting out the eye of a citizen this explains that famous exclamation of a parisian gamin a profound epiphonema which the vulgar herd laughs at without comprehending
dieu de dieu what ill luck i do have to think that i have never yet seen anybody tumble from a fifth story window
assuredly contained in this other saying a man condemned to death is listening to his confessor in the tumbrel
a certain audacity on matters of religion sets off the gamin to be strong minded is an important item to be present at executions constitutes a duty
he shows himself at the guillotine and he laughs he calls it by all sorts of pet names the end of the soup the growler the mother in the blue the sky the last mouthful et cetera et cetera
in order not to lose anything of the affair he scales the walls he hoists himself to balconies he ascends trees he suspends himself to gratings he clings fast to chimneys
the gamin is born a tiler as he is born a mariner a roof inspires him with no more fear than a mast
samson and the abbe montes are the truly popular names they hoot at the victim in order to encourage him they sometimes admire him lacenaire when a gamin on seeing the hideous dautin die bravely
uttered these words which contain a future i was jealous of him in the brotherhood of gamins voltaire is not known but papavoine is politicians are confused with assassins in the same legend
they have a tradition as to everybody's last garment it is known that tolleron had a fireman's cap avril an otter cap
a round hat that old delaporte was bald and bare headed that castaing was all ruddy and very handsome that bories had a romantic small beard that jean martin kept on his suspenders that lecouffe and his mother quarrelled
as he passed and being too small in the crowd
and to soften the heart of the authorities he added
i don't care if you do retorted the gendarme in the brotherhood of gamins a memorable accident counts for a great deal one reaches the height of consideration if one chances to cut one's self very deeply to the very bone
the fist is no mediocre element of respect one of the things that the gamin is fondest of saying is
a squint is highly esteemed chapter eight in which the reader will find a charming saying of the last king in summer he metamorphoses himself into a frog
and in the evening when night is falling in front of the bridges of austerlitz and jena from the tops of coal wagons and the washerwomen's boats he hurls himself headlong into the seine and into all possible infractions of the laws of modesty and of the police
nevertheless the police keep an eye on him and the result is a highly dramatic situation which once gave rise to a fraternal and memorable cry that cry which was celebrated about eighteen thirty is a strategic warning from gamin to gamin
it scans like a verse from homer with a notation as inexpressible as the eleusiac chant of the panathenaea
pick up your duds and be off through the sewer with you sometimes this gnat that is what he calls himself knows how to read sometimes he knows how to write he always knows how to daub
he does not hesitate to acquire by no one knows what mysterious mutual instruction all the talents which can be of use to the public
from eighteen thirty to eighteen forty eight he scrawled pears on the walls one summer evening when louis philippe was returning home on foot he saw a little fellow no higher than his knee
perspiring and climbing up to draw a gigantic pear in charcoal on one of the pillars of the gate of neuilly
a certain state of violence pleases him he execrates the cures
the boy replied there is a cure there it was there in fact that the papal nuncio lived nevertheless whatever may be the voltairianism of the small gamin if the occasion to become a chorister presents itself
it is quite possible that he will accept and in that case he serves the mass civilly there are two things to which he plays tantalus and which he always desires without ever attaining them to overthrow the government and to get his trousers sewed up again
the gamin in his perfect state possesses all the policemen of paris and can always put the name to the face of any one which he chances to meet he can tell them off on the tips of his fingers he studies their habits
such another is ridiculous all these words traitor malicious great ridiculous have a particular meaning in his mouth that one imagines that he owns the pont neuf and he prevents people from walking on the cornice outside the parapet
that other has a mania for pulling person's ears et cetera et cetera chapter nine the old soul of gaul there was something of that boy in poquelin the son of the fish market beaumarchais had something of it
gaminerie is a shade of the gallic spirit mingled with good sense it sometimes adds force to the latter as alcohol does to wine sometimes it is a defect homer repeats himself eternally granted
one may say that voltaire plays the gamin
championnet who treated miracles brutally rose from the pavements of paris he had when a small lad inundated the porticos of saint jean de beauvais and of saint etienne du mont
the gamin of paris is respectful ironical and insolent he has villainous teeth because he is badly fed and his stomach suffers and handsome eyes because he has wit if jehovah himself were present
he would go hopping up the steps of paradise on one foot he is strong on boxing all beliefs are possible to him he plays in the gutter and straightens himself up with a revolt his effrontery persists even in the presence of grape shot
he was a scapegrace he is a hero like the little theban he shakes the skin from the lion barra the drummer boy was a gamin of paris he shouts forward as the horse of scripture says vah
when thenardier had recovered his breath
and said to him in a low curt voice what have you to say before we put the handcuffs on you
in the midst of this silence a cracked voice launched this lugubrious sarcasm from the corridor if there's any wood to be split i'm there it was the man with the axe who was growing merry
at the same moment an enormous bristling and clayey face made its appearance at the door with a hideous laugh which exhibited not teeth but fangs it was the face of the man with the butcher's axe
why have you taken off your mask cried thenardier in a rage for fun retorted the man
who blinded and dazzled by his own rage was stalking to and fro in the den with full confidence that the door was guarded and of holding an unarmed man fast he being armed himself
of being nine against one supposing that the female thenardier counted for but one man
overturned the chair with his foot and the table with his fist and with one bound with prodigious agility before thenardier had time to turn round he had reached the window to open it to scale the frame to bestride it was the work of a second only
he was half out when six robust fists seized him and dragged him back energetically into the hovel these were the three chimney builders who had flung themselves upon him at the same time the thenardier woman had wound her hands in his hair
at the trampling which ensued the other ruffians rushed up from the corridor the old man on the bed who seemed under the influence of wine descended from the pallet and came reeling up with a stone breaker's hammer in his hand
one of the chimney builders whose smirched face was lighted up by the candle and in whom marius recognized in spite of his daubing panchaud alias printanier alias bigrenaille
marius could not resist this sight my father he thought
the shot was on the point of being discharged when thenardier's voice shouted don't harm him this desperate attempt of the victim far from exasperating thenardier had calmed him there existed in him two men
the ferocious man and the adroit man up to that moment in the excess of his triumph in the presence of the prey which had been brought down and which did not stir the ferocious man had prevailed when the victim struggled and tried to resist
the adroit man reappeared and took the upper hand don't hurt him he repeated and without suspecting it his first success was to arrest the pistol in the act of being discharged and to paralyze marius in whose opinion the urgency of the case disappeared
and who in the face of this new phase saw no inconvenience in waiting a while longer who knows whether some chance would not arise which would deliver him from the horrible alternative of allowing ursule's father to perish or of destroying the colonel's saviour
rolling in the middle of the room then with two backward sweeps of his hand he had overthrown two more assailants and he held one under each of his knees the wretches were rattling in the throat beneath this pressure as under a granite millstone
but the other four had seized the formidable old man by both arms and the back of his neck and were holding him doubled up over the two chimney builders on the floor thus the master of some and mastered by the rest
crushing those beneath him and stifling under those on top of him endeavoring in vain to shake off all the efforts which were heaped upon him
don't you mix yourself up in this affair said thenardier you'll tear your shawl the thenardier obeyed as the female wolf obeys the male wolf with a growl now said thenardier search him you other fellows
they searched him he had nothing on his person except a leather purse containing six francs and his handkerchief thenardier put the handkerchief into his own pocket what no pocket book he demanded no nor watch
replied one of the chimney builders never mind murmured the masked man who carried the big key in the voice of a ventriloquist he's a tough old fellow thenardier went to the corner near the door picked up a bundle of ropes and threw them at the men
tie him to the leg of the bed said he
and who made no movement he added is boulatruelle dead
why did you bring so many they were not needed what can you do replied the man with the cudgel they all wanted to be in it this is a bad season
elevated on four coarse wooden legs roughly hewn
the ruffians bound him securely in an upright attitude with his feet on the ground at the head of the bed the end which was most remote from the window and nearest to the fireplace when the last knot had been tied
in the course of a few moments his face had passed from unbridled violence to tranquil and cunning sweetness
the almost bestial mouth which had been foaming but a moment before he gazed with amazement on that fantastic and alarming metamorphosis and he felt as a man might feel who should behold a tiger converted into a lawyer monsieur said thenardier
stand off a little and let me have a talk with the gentleman all retired towards the door he went on monsieur you did wrong to try to jump out of the window you might have broken your leg now if you will permit me we will converse quietly
in the first place i must communicate to you an observation which i have made which is that you have not uttered the faintest cry thenardier was right this detail was correct although it had escaped marius in his agitation
and even during his struggle with the six ruffians near the window he had preserved the most profound and singular silence thenardier continued mon dieu you might have shouted stop thief a bit and i should not have thought it improper murder
that too is said occasionally and so far as i am concerned
you might have done that and no one would have troubled you on that account you would not even have been gagged and i will tell you why this room is very private that's its only recommendation but it has that in its favor
you might fire off a mortar and it would produce about as much noise at the nearest police station as the snores of a drunken man here a cannon would make a boum and the thunder would make a pouf it's a handy lodging
justice well you have not made an outcry that is because you don't care to have the police and the courts come in any more than we do it is because i have long suspected it
you have some interest in hiding something on our side we have the same interest so we can come to an understanding as he spoke thus it seemed as though thenardier
into the very conscience of his prisoner moreover his language which was stamped with a sort of moderated subdued insolence and crafty insolence was reserved and almost choice and in that rascal who had been nothing but a robber a short time previously
and singular person on whom courfeyrac had bestowed the sobriquet of monsieur leblanc but whoever he was bound with ropes surrounded with executioners
here evidently was a soul which was inaccessible to terror and which did not know the meaning of despair here was one of those men who command amazement in desperate circumstances extreme as was the crisis
inevitable as was the catastrophe there was nothing here of the agony of the drowning man who opens his horror filled eyes under the water thenardier rose in an unpretending manner went to the fireplace
shoved aside the screen which he leaned against the neighboring pallet and thus unmasked the brazier full of glowing coals
with tiny scarlet stars
i continue said he we can come to an understanding let us arrange this matter in an amicable way i was wrong to lose my temper just now i don't know what i was thinking of i went a great deal too far
i said extravagant things for example because you are a millionnaire i told you that i exacted money a lot of money a deal of money that would not be reasonable mon dieu in spite of your riches you have expenses of your own
because they have the advantage of the position profit by the fact to make themselves ridiculous
i only want two hundred thousand francs
i'm very moderate i don't know the state of your fortune but i do know that you don't stick at money and a benevolent man like yourself can certainly give two hundred thousand francs to the father of a family who is out of luck certainly you are reasonable too
you haven't imagined that i should take all the trouble i have to day and organized this affair this evening which has been labor well bestowed in the opinion of these gentlemen merely to wind up by asking you for enough to go and drink red wine at fifteen sous
it's surely worth all that this trifle once out of your pocket i guarantee you that that's the end of the matter and that you have no further demands to fear you will say to me but i haven't two hundred thousand francs about me
then he added emphasizing his words and casting a smile in the direction of the brazier i warn you that i shall not admit that you don't know how to write a grand inquisitor might have envied that smile
said he the prisoner spoke at last how do you expect me to write i am bound that's true excuse me ejaculated thenardier
untie the gentleman's right arm
executed thenardier's order when the prisoner's right arm was free thenardier dipped the pen in the ink and presented it to him understand thoroughly sir that you are in our power at our discretion
that no human power can get you out of this and that we shall be really grieved if we are forced to proceed to disagreeable extremities i know neither your name nor your address but i warn you that you will remain bound until the person charged with carrying the letter
now be so good as to write what demanded the prisoner i will dictate
thenardier continued come instantly he paused you address her as thou do you not who
cried thenardier the little one the lark
i do not know what you mean go on nevertheless ejaculated thenardier and he continued to dictate come immediately i am in absolute need of thee
the person who will deliver this note to thee is instructed to conduct thee to me i am waiting for thee come with confidence
ah erase come with confidence that might lead her to suppose that everything was not as it should be and that distrust is possible
now pursued thenardier sign it what's your name the prisoner laid down the pen and demanded for whom is this letter you know well retorted thenardier for the little one i just told you so
it was evident that thenardier avoided naming the young girl in question he said the lark he said the little one but he did not pronounce her name the precaution of a clever man guarding his secret from his accomplices
to mention the name was to deliver the whole affair into their hands and to tell them more about it than there was any need of their knowing he went on sign what is your name
thenardier with the movement of a cat dashed his hand into his pocket
u f that's it urbain fabre well sign it u f the prisoner signed as two hands are required to fold the letter give it to me i will fold it that done thenardier resumed address it
at your house i know that you live a long distance from here
because you go to mass there every day but i don't know in what street i see that you understand your situation
you will not lie about your address write it yourself the prisoner paused thoughtfully for a moment then he took the pen and wrote
the thenardier woman hastened to him here's the letter you know what you have to do there is a carriage at the door
yes said the man and depositing his axe in a corner he followed madame thenardier
remember that you carry two hundred thousand francs with you
be easy i have it in my bosom a minute had not elapsed when the sound of the cracking of a whip was heard which rapidly retreated and died away good growled thenardier they're going at a fine pace
at such a gallop the bourgeoise will be back inside three quarters of an hour he drew a chair close to the fireplace folding his arms and presenting his muddy boots to the brazier my feet are cold said he
only five ruffians now remained in the den with thenardier and the prisoner these men through the black masks or paste which covered their faces and made of them at fear's pleasure charcoal burners negroes or demons
had a stupid and gloomy air and it could be felt that they perpetrated a crime like a bit of work tranquilly without either wrath or mercy
they were crowded together in one corner like brutes and remained silent thenardier warmed his feet the prisoner had relapsed into his taciturnity
a sombre calm had succeeded to the wild uproar which had filled the garret but a few moments before
how the pope sent down his bulls to make peace and how sir launcelot brought the queen to king arthur so when this bishop was come to carlisle he shewed the king these bulls and when the king understood these bulls he nist what to do
but as for the queen he consented and then the bishop had of the king his great seal and his assurance as he was a true anointed king that sir launcelot should come safe and go safe and that the queen should not be spoken unto of the king
nor of none other for no thing done afore time past and of all these appointments the bishop brought with him sure assurance and writing to shew sir launcelot so when the bishop was come to joyous gard
there he shewed sir launcelot how the pope had written to arthur and unto him and there he told him the perils if he withheld the queen from the king it was never in my thought said launcelot to withhold the queen from my lord arthur
but insomuch she should have been dead for my sake meseemeth it was my part to save her life and put her from that danger till better recover might come and now i thank god said sir launcelot that the pope hath made her peace
for god knoweth said sir launcelot i will be a thousandfold more gladder to bring her again than ever i was of her taking away with this
and go safe and that the queen shall have her liberty as she had before and never for no thing that hath been surmised afore this time she never from this day stand in no peril for else said sir launcelot
i dare adventure me to keep her from an harder shour than ever i kept her it shall not need you said the bishop to dread so much for wit you well the pope must be obeyed
said sir launcelot for full well i dare trust my lord's own writing and his seal for he was never shamed of his promise therefore said sir launcelot unto the bishop ye shall ride unto the king afore and recommend me unto his good grace
and then say ye unto my most redoubted king that i will say largely for the queen that i shall none except for dread nor fear but the king himself and my lord sir gawaine and that is more for the king's love than for himself
so the bishop departed and came to the king at carlisle and told him all how sir launcelot answered him and then the tears brast out of the king's eyen then sir launcelot purveyed him an hundred knights
and all were clothed in green velvet
and every knight held a branch of olive in his hand in tokening of peace and the queen had four and twenty gentlewomen following her in the same wise and sir launcelot had twelve coursers following him
and on every courser sat a young gentleman and all they were arrayed in green velvet with sarps of gold about their quarters and the horse trapped in the same wise down to the heels with many ouches
to the number of a thousand and she and sir launcelot were clothed in white cloth of gold tissue and right so as ye have heard as the french book maketh mention he rode with the queen from joyous gard to carlisle
and so sir launcelot rode throughout carlisle and so in the castle that all men might behold and wit you well there was many a weeping eye and then sir launcelot himself alighted and avoided his horse
and took the queen and so led her where king arthur was in his seat and sir gawaine sat afore him and many other great lords so when sir launcelot saw the king and sir gawaine then he led the queen by the arm and then he kneeled down and the queen both
wit you well then was there many bold knight there with king arthur
of whatsomever degree that he be except your person that will say or dare say but that she is true and clean to you i here myself sir launcelot du lake will make it good upon his body that she is a true lady unto you
but liars ye have listened and that hath caused debate betwixt you and me for time hath been my lord arthur that ye have been greatly pleased with me when i did battle for my lady your queen and full well ye know my most noble king
that she hath been put to great wrong or this time and sithen it pleased you at many times that i should fight for her meseemeth my good lord i had more cause to rescue her from the fire insomuch she should have been brent for my sake
for they that told you those tales were liars and so it fell upon them for by likelihood had not the might of god been with me i might never have endured fourteen knights and they armed and afore purposed and i unarmed and not purposed
for i was sent for unto my lady your queen i wot not for what cause but i was not so soon within the chamber door but anon sir agravaine and sir mordred called me traitor and recreant knight they called thee right said sir gawaine
my lord sir gawaine said sir launcelot in their quarrel they proved themselves not in the right well well sir launcelot said the king i have given thee no cause to do to me as thou hast done
for i have worshipped thee and thine more than any of all my knights my good lord said sir launcelot so ye be not displeased ye shall understand i and mine have done you oft better service than any other knights have done in many divers places
i have myself rescued you from many dangers
and my lord sir gawaine both in jousts and tournaments and in battles set both on horseback and on foot i have often rescued you and my lord sir gawaine and many mo of your knights in many divers places for now i will make avaunt
said sir launcelot i will that ye all wit that yet i found never no manner of knight but that i was overhard for him an i had done my utterance thanked be god howbeit i have been matched with good knights
as sir tristram and sir lamorak but ever i had a favour unto them and a deeming what they were and i take god to record said sir launcelot i never was wroth nor greatly heavy with no good knight an i saw him busy about to win worship
and glad i was ever when i found any knight that might endure me on horseback and on foot howbeit sir carados of the dolorous tower was a full noble knight and a passing strong man and that wot ye my lord sir gawaine
pulled you out of your saddle and bound you overthwart afore him to his saddle bow and there my lord sir gawaine i rescued you and slew him afore your sight also i found his brother sir turquin
in likewise leading sir gaheris your brother bounden afore him and there i rescued your brother and slew that turquin and delivered three score and four of my lord arthur's knights out of his prison and now i dare say
of right to remember this for an i might have your good will i would trust to god to have my lord arthur's good grace chapter sixteen of the communication between sir gawaine and sir launcelot with much other language
the king may do as he will said sir gawaine but wit thou well sir launcelot thou and i shall never be accorded while we live for thou hast slain three of my brethren and two of them ye slew traitorly and piteously
for they bare none harness against thee nor none would bear god would they had been armed said sir launcelot for then had they been alive and wit ye well sir gawaine as for sir gareth i love none of my kinsmen so much as i did him
i wot well he loved me above all other knights and the third is he was passing noble true courteous and gentle and well conditioned the fourth is i wist well anon as i heard that sir gareth was dead
i should never after have your love but everlasting war betwixt us and also i wist well that ye would cause my noble lord arthur for ever to be my mortal foe and as jesu be my help said sir launcelot
i shall first begin at sandwich and there i shall go in my shirt barefoot and at every ten miles end i will found and gar make an house of religion of what order that ye will assign me with an whole convent to sing and read
day and night in especial for sir gareth's sake and sir gaheris and this shall i perform from sandwich unto carlisle and every house shall have sufficient livelihood and this shall i perform while i have any livelihood in christendom
and the tears fell on king arthur's cheeks
chapter forty eight we rode along the old track very quiet talking about old times or mostly saying nothing thinking our own thoughts something seemed to put it into my head to watch every turn in the track
every tree and bush by the roadside every sound in the air every star in the sky
how hard it must have seemed to her to think she didn't dare even to ride with her own brother in the light of day without starting at every bush that stirred at every footstep horse or man that fell on her ear
there wasn't a breath of air that night not a leaf stirred not a bough moved of all the trees in the forest that we rode through
a possum might chatter or a night owl cry out but there wasn't any other sound except the ripple of the creek over the stones that got louder and clearer as we got nearer rocky flat there was nothing like a cloud in the sky even
it wasn't an over light night but the stars shone out like so many fireballs and it was that silent any one could almost have fancied they heard the people talking in the house we left though it was miles away
i sometimes wonder aileen says at last raising up her head if i had been a man whether i should have done the same things you and jim have or whether i should have lived honestly and worked steadily like george over there
to do other things i don't think it is in my nature somehow i don't say as you would ailie i put in but there's many things to be thought of when you come to reckon what a boy sees and how he's brought up in the bush
it's different with girls though i've known some of them that were no great shakes either and middling handy among the clearskins too it's hard to say she went on more as if she was talking to herself than to me
i feel that bad example love of pleasure strong temptation evil company all these are heavy weights to drag down men's souls to hell who knows whether i should have been better than the thousands
there's no turning back no hope no mercy only long bitter years of prison life worse than death or if anything can be worse a felon's death a doom dark and terrible
dishonouring to those that die and to those that live
not my prayers only but my life's service my life's service next morning i was about at daybreak
ready all but slipping the bit into his mouth in case of a quick start i went and helped aileen to milk her cows nine or ten of them there were a fairish morning's work for one girl
we could milk well all three of us and mother too when she was younger women are used to cattle in ireland and england too the men don't milk there i hear tell that wouldn't work here
women are scarce in the regular bush and though they'll milk for their own good and on their own farms you'll not get a girl to milk when she's at service for anybody else
one of the young cows was a bit strange with me so i had to shake a stick at her and sing out bail up pretty rough before she'd put her head in aileen smiled something like her old self for a minute and said
that comes natural to you now dick doesn't it i stared for a bit and then burst out laughing it was a rum go wasn't it the same talk for cows and christians that's how things get stuck into the talk in a new country
some old hand like father as had been assigned to a dairy settler and spent all his mornings in the cowyard had taken to the bush and tried his hand at sticking up people
with his old musket or a pair of pistols
would come a deal quicker and more natural like to his tongue than stand so bail up it was from that day to this
and them as come from em before anything else takes its place between the man that's got the arms and the man that's got the money after we'd turned out the cows we put the milk into the little dairy
how proud jim and i used to be because we dug out the cellar part and built the sod wall round the slabs father put on the thatch
many a good drink of cold milk we had there in the summers that had passed away well well it's no use thinking of those sort of things they're dead and gone like a lot of other things and people like i shall be before long if it comes to that
we had breakfast pretty comfortable and cheerful mother looked pleased and glad to see me once more and aileen had got on her old face again and was partly come round to her old ways
after breakfast aileen and i went into the garden and had a long talk over the plan we had chalked out for getting away to queensland i got out a map starlight had made
and showed her the way we were going to head and why he thought it more likely to work than he had done before
jim was to get on to one of the murray river boats at swan hill and stick to her till he got a chance to go up the darling with an adelaide boat to bourke
and from there we were safe to find plenty of vessels bound for the islands or san francisco we had hardly cared where as far as that goes as long as we got clear away from our own country
she'd write up to aileen who was to go down to melbourne and take mother with her
after that they could start by the first steamer they'd have money enough to take their passages and something handsome in cash when they got to land aileen agreed to it all but in a curious sort of way
it looked well she said and might be carried out particularly as we were all going to work cautiously and with such a lot of preparation
we might be sure but though she had prayed and sought aid from the blessed virgin and the saints fasting and on her bare knees night after night she had not been able to get one gleam of consolation everything looked very dark
and she had a terrible feeling of anxiety and dread about the carrying it out but she didn't want to shake my courage i could see so she listened and smiled and cheered me up a bit at the end and i rode away thinking there was a good show for us after all
i got back to the hollow right enough and for once in a way it seemed as if the luck was on our side maybe it was going to turn who was to know there had been men who had been as deep in it
as any of us that had got clean away to other countries and lived safe and comfortable to the day of their death didn't die so soon either lived to a good round age and had wives and children round them that never knew but what they'd been as good as the best
that wouldn't be our case but still if we once were able to put the sea between us and our old life
starlight was glad enough to see me back and like everything he tackled had been squaring it all for our getting away with head and hand
do us any good naturally father and he had made it right with some one they knew at turon to take the gold and give them a price for it not all it was worth but something over three fourths value
the rest he was to keep for his share for trouble and risk there was some risk no doubt in dealing with us but all the gold that was bought in them days wasn't square not by a lot but there was no way of swearing to it
gold was gold and once it was in the banks it was lumped up with the rest there was a lot of things to be thought of before we regularly made a move for good and all but when you make up your mind for a dart it's wonderful how things shape
there was the live stock that was running in the hollow of course we couldn't well take them with us except a few of the horses we made a deal at last with father for them he took my share and starlight's
and paid us in cash out of his share of the notes
was a couple of horses each one to carry a pack
as for dad he told us out plump and plain that he wasn't going to shift the hollow was good enough for him and there he was going to stop if jim and i and starlight chose to try and make blank emigrants of ourselves well and good
we might get took in and wish we was back again before all was said and done
every one was going to cut away and leave him he'd be all by himself with no one but the dog for company and be as miserable as a bandicoot but no one cared a blank brass farden about that come with us governor says starlight
and got a receipt for it that's just like yer says father
losin yer share of the five hundred quid and then dropping a couple of hundred notes at one gamble besides buying a horse yer could have took for nothing he'll never bring twenty pound again neither always pay my play debts says starlight
always did and always will as for the horse a bargain a bargain and a dashed bad bargain too why didn't ye turn parson instead of taking to the bush says father with a grin
dashed if i ain't seen some parsons that could give you odds and walk round ye at horse dealin you take your own way ben and i'll take mine says starlight rather fierce and then father left off and went to do something or other
while us two took our horses and rode out we hadn't a long time to be in the old hollow now it had been a good friend to us in time of need and we was sorry in a kind of way to leave it
we were going to play for a big stake and if we lost we shouldn't have another throw in our horses were in great buckle now they hadn't been doing much lately
starlight was to ride rainbow of course and he had great picking before he made up his mind what to choose for second horse at last he pitched upon a thoroughbred bay mare named locket
she was the fastest mare they'd ever bred sound and a weight carrier too i think i'll take locket after all says he after thinking about it best part of an hour she's very fast and a stayer
good tempered too and the old horse has taken up with her it will be company for him
i wouldn't chance her she's known to a lot of jockey boys and hangers on
and i can't leave him behind can i i'll ship him if i can that's more but it won't matter much for we'll have to take back tracks all the way you didn't suppose we were to ride along the mail road did you
i didn't suppose anything says i but that we were going to clear out the safest way we could
or else put an advertisement into the turon star that starlight marston and co are giving up business and going to leave the district all accounts owing to be sent in by a certain date a first rate idea says he
i'm dashed if i don't do it there's nothing like making one's exit in good form how savage morringer will be thank you for the hint dick there was no use talking to him when he got into this sort of humour
he was the most mad reckless character i ever came across and any kind of checking only seemed to make him worse so i left him alone
and went on with my packing and getting ready for the road we fixed up to start on the monday and get as far away the first couple of days as we could manage we expected to get a good start
by making a great push the first day or two and as the police would be thrown off the scent in a way we settled and a good dodge it was we should have all the more time to be clear of new south wales before they regularly dropped that we were giving them leg bail for it
the sunday before starlight started away by himself taking a couple of good horses with him one he led and a spare saddle too he took nothing but his revolver and didn't say where he was going but i pretty well guessed to say
good bye to aileen just as he started he looked back and says
but i shall be here late if i'm back at all if anything happens to me my share of what there is i give to her if she will take it if not do the best you can with it for her benefit he didn't take warrigal with him
which i was sorry for as the half caste and i didn't hit it well together and when we were by ourselves he generally managed to do or say something he knew i didn't like i kept my hands off him on account of starlight
but there was many a time my fingers itched to be at him and i could hardly keep from knocking some of the sulkiness out of him this day somehow i was not in the best of tempers myself i had a good lot on my mind
and if a man's at all inclined to be cranky it'll come out then
this is how it happened one of the horses was bad to catch and took a little trouble in the yard
anyhow he began to hammer the colt with a roping pole and as the yard was that high that no beast could jump it he had him at his mercy
he went on and on nearly knocking the poor brute down every time till i could stand it no longer and told him to drop it he gave me some saucy answer until at last i told him i'd make him he dared me
and i rushed at him i believe he'd have killed me that minute if he'd had the chance and he made a deuced good offer at it
a good heavy ended gum sapling six or seven feet long and as i came at him he struck at my head with such vengeance that if it had caught me fair i should never have kicked i made a spring to one side
and it hit me a crack on the shoulder that wasn't a good thing in itself
down he went and the stick atop of him he was up again like a wild cat and at me hammer and tongs but he hadn't the weight though he was quick and smart with his hands i drew off and knocked him clean off his pins
then he saw it wasn't good enough and gave it best never mind dick marston says he as he walked off and he fixed his eyes on me that savage and deadly looking with the blood running down his face that i couldn't help shivering a bit
you'll pay for this i owe it you and jim one a piece confound you i said it's all your own fault why couldn't you stop ill using the horse you don't like being hit yourself
how do you think he likes it what business that of yours he said you mind your work and i'll mind mine this is the worst day's work you've done this year and so i tell you
he went away to his gunyah then and except doing one or two things for starlight would not lift his hand for any one that day i was sorry for it when i came to think
i daresay i might have got him round with a little patience and humbugging it's always a mistake to lose your temper and make enemies there's no knowing what harm they may do ye
even with a chap like warrigal besides i knew it would vex starlight and for his sake
however i didn't see how warrigal could do me or jim any harm without hurting him and i knew he'd have cut off his hand rather than any harm should come to starlight that he could help
so i got ready dad and i had our tea together pretty comfortable and had a longish talk the old man was rather down in the mouth for him he said he somehow didn't expect the fakement to turn out well
you never know how you may be given away the captain's all right here when he's me to look after him though he does swear at me sometimes but he was took last time
he was out on his own hook and it's my belief he'll be took this time if he isn't very careful
but he ain't careful enough to keep dark and close when the play isn't good you draw along steady by yourself till you meet jim that's my advice to ye i mean to do that
i shall work my way down to old george's place and get on with stock or something till we all meet at cunnamulla after that there ain't much chance of these police here grabbing us unless you're followed up says the old man
i've known chaps to go a deuce of a way once they got on the track and there's getting some smart fellows among em now
well we must take our chance i'm sorry for one thing that i had that barney with warrigal it was all his fault but i had to give him a hardish crack or two
if he saw his way without hurting starlight he can't do it says dad it's sink or swim with the lot of you and he dursn't either not he says father beginning to growl out his words
i'd have his life if i had to poleaxe him in george street he knows me too we sat yarning away pretty late the old man didn't say it but i made out that he was sorry enough for that part of his life
which had turned out so bad for us boys and for mother and aileen bad enough he was in a kind of way old dad but he wasn't all bad and
if he could have begun again and thought of what misery he was going to bring on the lot of us he would never have gone on the cross it was too late too late now though to think of that towards morning i heard the old dog growl
and then the tramp of a horse's feet starlight rode up to the fire and let his horse go then walked straight into his corner and threw himself down without speaking he had had a precious long ride and a fast one by the look of his horse
the horses of course were spare ones and not wanted again for a bit next morning it was sharp's the word and no mistake i felt a deal smarter on it than yesterday
when you've fairly started for the road half the journey's done
when you're once away no matter what's left behind
so over and above early though starlight was up as fresh as paint at sunrise you'd thought he hadn't ridden a yard the day before even at the very last there's a lot of things to do and to get
but we all looked slippy and didn't talk much so that we got through what we had to do and had all the horses saddled and packed by about eight o'clock even warrigal had partly got over his temper of course i told starlight about it
he gave him a good rowing and told him he deserved another hammering which he had a good mind to give him if we hadn't been starting for a journey warrigal didn't say a word to him he never did starlight told me on the quiet though he was sorry it happened
though it's the rascal's own fault and served him right but he's a revengeful beggar he says
now says he we must make our little arrangements i shall be somewhere about cunnamulla by the end of this month it was only the first week
i think the greatest part of the danger will be over i shall get right across by dandaloo to the back blocks of the west bogan country between it and the lachlan there are tracks through the endless mallee scrub
only known to the tribes in the neighbourhood and a few half castes like warrigal that have been stock riding about them sir ferdinand and his troopers might just as well hunt for a stray arab in the deserts of the euphrates if i'm alive mind you alive
he only brings into his house the cause of their ruin there never yet was a stepmother who looked kindly on the children of another or if by chance such a one were ever found she would be regarded as a miracle and be called a white crow
but beside all those of whom you may have heard i will now tell you of another to be added to the list of heartless stepmothers whom you will consider well deserving the punishment she purchased for herself with ready money
there was once a good man named jannuccio who had two children nennillo and nennella whom he loved as much as his own life but death having with the smooth file of time
severed the prison bars of his wife's soul he took to himself a cruel woman who had no sooner set foot in his house than she began to ride the high horse saying am i come here indeed to look after other folk's children a pretty job i have undertaken
to have all this trouble and be for ever teased by a couple of squalling brats would that i had broken my neck ere i ever came to this place to have bad food worse drink and get no sleep at night
but i must find some means of getting rid of these creatures or it will cost me my life better to blush once than to grow pale a hundred times so i've done with them for i am resolved to send them away or to leave the house myself for ever
the poor husband who had some affection for this woman said to her softly wife don't be angry for sugar is dear and to morrow morning before the cock crows i will remove this annoyance in order to please you
so the next morning ere the dawn had hung out the red counterpane at the window of the east to air it jannuccio took the children one by each hand and with a good basketful of things to eat upon his arm he led them to a wood
then jannuccio said my little children stay here in this wood and eat and drink merrily but if you want anything follow this line of ashes which i have been strewing as we came along this will be a clue to lead you out of the labyrinth and bring you straight home
then giving them both a kiss he returned weeping to his house but at the hour when all creatures summoned by the constables of night pay to nature the tax of needful repose
the two children began to feel afraid at remaining in that lonesome place where the waters of a river
would have frightened even a hero so they went slowly along the path of ashes and it was already midnight ere they reached their home when pascozza their stepmother saw the children she acted not like a woman but a perfect fury
to keep them here to plague my very life out go take them out of my sight i'll not wait for the crowing of cocks and the cackling of hens or else be assured that to morrow morning i'll go off to my parents house for you do not deserve me
i have not brought you so many fine things only to be made the slave of children who are not my own poor jannuccio who saw that matters were growing rather too warm immediately took the little ones and returned to the wood
where giving the children another basketful of food he said to them you see my dears how this wife of mine who is come to my house to be your ruin and a nail in my heart hates you therefore remain in this wood where the trees more compassionate
will give you shelter from the sun where the river more charitable will give you drink without poison and the earth more kind will give you a pillow of grass without danger and when you want food follow this little path of bran which i have made for you in a straight line
and you can come and seek what you require so saying he turned away his face not to let himself be seen to weep and dishearten the poor little creatures when nennillo and nennella had eaten all that was in the basket
feeding on acorns and chestnuts which they found fallen on the ground but as heaven always extends its arm over the innocent there came by chance a prince to hunt in that wood then nennillo hearing the baying of the hounds was so frightened
that he crept into a hollow tree and nennella set off running at full speed and ran until she came out of the wood and found herself on the seashore now it happened that some pirates who had landed there to get fuel saw nennella and carried her off
and their captain took her home with him where he and his wife having just lost a little girl took her as their daughter meantime nennillo who had hidden himself in the tree was surrounded by the dogs
which made such a furious barking that the prince sent to find out the cause and when he discovered the pretty little boy who was so young that he could not tell who were his father and mother he ordered one of the huntsmen to set him upon his saddle and take him to the royal palace
that he could carve a joint to a hair now about this time it was discovered that the captain of the ship who had taken nennella to his house was a sea robber and the people wished to take him prisoner
but getting timely notice from the clerks in the law courts who were his friends and whom he kept in his pay he fled with all his family it was decreed however perhaps by the judgment of heaven that he who had committed his crimes upon the sea
upon the sea should suffer the punishment of them for having embarked in a small boat no sooner was he upon the open sea than there came such a storm of wind and tumult of the waves that the boat was upset and all were drowned all except nennella
who having had no share in the corsair's robberies like his wife and children escaped the danger for just then a large enchanted fish which was swimming about the boat opened its huge throat and swallowed her down
when suddenly she found a thing to amaze her inside the fish beautiful fields and fine gardens and a splendid mansion with all that heart could desire in which she lived like a princess then she was carried quickly by the fish to a rock
and to enjoy the cool sea breezes and whilst a great banquet was preparing nennillo had stepped out upon a balcony of the palace on the rock to sharpen some knives priding himself greatly on acquiring honour from his office
when nennella saw him through the fish's throat she cried aloud brother brother your task is done the tables are laid out every one but here in the fish i must sit and sigh o brother without you i soon shall die
nennillo at first paid no attention to the voice but the prince who was standing on another balcony and had also heard it turned in the direction whence the sound came and saw the fish and when he again heard the same words
he was beside himself with amazement and ordered a number of servants to try whether by any means they could ensnare the fish and draw it to land at last hearing the words brother brother continually repeated he asked all his servants one by one
whether any of them had lost a sister and nennillo replied that he recollected as a dream having had a sister when the prince found him in the wood but that he had never since heard any tidings of her
then the prince told him to go nearer to the fish and see what was the matter for perhaps this adventure might concern him as soon as nennillo approached the fish it raised up its head upon the rock and opening its throat six palms wide
nennella stepped out so beautiful that she looked just like a nymph in some interlude come forth from that animal at the incantation of a magician and when the prince asked her how it had all happened she told him a part of her sad story
and the hatred of their stepmother but not being able to recollect the name of their father nor of their home the prince caused a proclamation to be issued commanding that whoever had lost two children named nennillo and nennella in a wood
should come to the royal palace and he would there receive joyful news of them jannuccio who had all this time passed a sad and disconsolate life believing that his children had been devoured by wolves
and told him that he had lost the children and when he had related the story how he had been compelled to take them to the wood the prince gave him a good scolding calling him a blockhead for allowing a woman to put her heel upon his neck
whom the father embraced and kissed for half an hour without being satisfied then the prince made him pull off his jacket and had him dressed like a lord and sending for jannuccio's wife he showed her those two golden pippins
asked her what that person would deserve who should do them any harm and even endanger their lives and she replied for my part i would put her into a closed cask and send her rolling down a mountain
so it shall be done said the prince the goat has butted at herself quick now you have passed the sentence and you must suffer it for having borne these beautiful stepchildren such malice so he gave orders that the sentence should be instantly executed
then choosing a very rich lord among his vassals he gave him nennella to wife and the daughter of another great lord to nennillo allowing them enough to live upon with their father so that they wanted for nothing in the world
but if any one were to ask me where fraud and hypocrisy might truly be found i should know of no other place to name than the court where detraction always wears the mask of amusement where at the same time people cut and sew up wound and heal
break and glue together of which i will give you one instance in the story that i am going to tell you there was once upon a time in the service of the king of wide river an excellent youth named corvetto who for his good conduct
was beloved by his master and for this very cause was disliked and hated by all the courtiers these courtiers were filled with spite and malice and bursting with envy at the kindness which the king showed to corvetto
so that all day long in every corner of the palace they did nothing but tattle and whisper murmur and grumble at the poor lad saying what sorcery has this fellow practised on the king that he takes such a fancy to him
how comes he by this luck that not a day passes that he receives some new favours whilst we are for ever going backward like a rope maker and getting from bad to worse though we slave like dogs toil like field labourers
and run about like deer to hit the king's pleasure to a hair truly one must be born to good fortune in this world and he who has not luck might as well be thrown into the sea what is to be done we can only look on and envy
these and other words fell from their mouths like poisoned arrows aimed at the ruin of corvetto as at a target alas for him who is condemned to that den the court where flattery is sold by the kilderkin
malignity and ill offices are measured out in bushels deceit and treachery are weighed by the ton but who can count all the attempts these courtiers made to bring him to grief
but corvetto who was enchanted and perceived the traps and discovered the tricks was aware of all the intrigues and the ambuscades the plots and conspiracies of his enemies he kept his ears always on the alert and his eyes open
in order not to take a false step well knowing that the fortune of courtiers is as glass but the higher the lad continued to rise the lower the others fell till at last being puzzled to know how to take him off his feet
as their slander was not believed they thought of leading him to disaster by the path of flattery which they attempted in the following manner ten miles distant from scotland where the seat of this king was
there dwelt an ogre the most inhuman and savage that had ever been in ogreland who being persecuted by the king had fortified himself in a lonesome wood on the top of a mountain where no bird ever flew and was so thick and tangled
that one could never see the sun there this ogre had a most beautiful horse which looked as if it were formed with a pencil and amongst other wonderful things it could speak like any man
now the courtiers who knew how wicked the ogre was how thick the wood how high the mountain and how difficult it was to get at the horse went to the king
which was a thing worthy of a king added that he ought to endeavour by all means to get it out of the ogre's claws and that corvetto was just the lad to do this as he was expert and clever at escaping out of the fire
the king who knew not that under the flowers of these words a serpent was concealed instantly called corvetto and said to him if you love me see that in some way or another you obtain for me the horse of my enemy the ogre
and you shall have no cause to regret having done me this service corvetto knew well that this drum was sounded by those who wished him ill nevertheless to obey the king he set out and took the road to the mountain
then going very quietly to the ogre's stable he saddled and mounted the horse and fixing his feet firmly in the stirrup took his way back but as soon as the horse saw himself spurred out of the palace he cried aloud hollo
be on your guard corvetto is riding off with me at this alarm the ogre instantly set out with all the animals that served him to cut corvetto in pieces from this side jumped an ape
from that was seen a large bear here sprang forth a lion there came running a wolf but the youth by the aid of bridle and spur distanced the mountain and galloping without stop to the city
arrived at the court where he presented the horse to the king then the king embraced him more than a son and pulling out his purse filled his hands with crown pieces at this the rage of the courtiers knew no bounds
and whereas at first they were puffed up with a little pipe they were now bursting with the blasts of a smith's bellows seeing that the crowbars with which they thought to lay corvetto's good fortune in ruins only served to smooth the road to his prosperity
knowing however that walls are not levelled by the first attack of the battering ram they resolved to try their luck a second time and said to the king we wish you joy of the beautiful horse it will indeed be an ornament to the royal stable
but what a pity you have not the ogre's tapestry which is a thing more beautiful than words can tell and would spread your fame far and wide there is no one however able to procure this treasure but corvetto who is just the lad to do such a kind of service
and in four seconds was on the top of the mountain where the ogre lived then passing unseen into the chamber in which he slept he hid himself under the bed and waited as still as a mouse until night to make the stars laugh
puts a carnival mask on the face of the sky and as soon as the ogre and his wife were gone to bed corvetto stripped the walls of the chamber very quietly and wishing to steal the counterpane of the bed likewise he began to pull it gently
thereupon the ogre suddenly starting up told his wife not to pull so for she was dragging all the clothes off him and would give him his death of cold
where is the counterpane replied the ogre and stretching out his hand to the floor he touched corvetto's face whereupon he set up a loud cry the imp the imp hollo here lights run quickly
till the whole house was turned topsy turvy with the noise but corvetto after throwing the clothes out of the window let himself drop down upon them then making up a good bundle he set out on the road to the city
where the reception he met with from the king and the vexation of the courtiers who were bursting with spite are not to be told nevertheless they laid a plan to fall upon corvetto with the rear guard of their roguery and went again to the king
who was almost beside himself with delight at the tapestry which was not only of silk embroidered with gold but had besides more than a thousand devices and thoughts worked on it and amongst the rest if i remember right
there was a cock in the act of crowing at daybreak and out of its mouth was seen coming a motto in tuscan if i only see you and in another part a drooping heliotrope with a tuscan motto at sunset
with so many other pretty things that it would require a better memory and more time than i have to relate them when the courtiers came to the king who was thus transported with joy they said to him
as corvetto has done so much to serve you it would be no great matter for him in order to give you a signal pleasure to get the ogre's palace which is fit for an emperor to live in for it has so many rooms and chambers inside and out
that it can hold an army and you would never believe all the courtyards porticoes colonnades balconies and spiral chimneys which there are built with such marvellous architecture that art prides herself upon them nature is abashed
and stupor is in delight the king who had a fruitful brain which conceived quickly called corvetto again and telling him the great longing that had seized him for the ogre's palace begged him to add this service to all the others he had done him
promising to score it up with the chalk of gratitude at the tavern of memory so corvetto instantly set out heels over head and arriving at the ogre's palace he found that the ogress whilst her husband was gone to invite the kinsfolk
was busying herself with preparing the feast then corvetto entering with a look of compassion said good day my good woman
only yesterday you were ill in bed and now you are slaving thus and have no pity on your own flesh what would you have me do replied the ogress i have no one to help me i am here
ready to help you tooth and nail welcome then said the ogress and as you proffer me so much kindness just help me to split four logs of wood
but if four logs are not enow let me split five and taking up a newly ground axe instead of striking the wood he struck the ogress on the neck and made her fall to the ground like a pear then running quickly to the gate
he dug a deep hole before the entrance and covering it over with bushes and earth he hid himself behind the gate as soon as corvetto saw the ogre coming with his kinsfolk he set up a loud cry in the courtyard stop stop
i've caught him and
when the ogre heard this challenge he ran like mad at corvetto to make a hash of him but rushing furiously towards the gate down he tumbled with all his companions head over heels to the bottom of the pit
where corvetto speedily stoned them to death then he shut the door and took the keys to the king who seeing the valour and cleverness of the lad in spite of ill fortune and the envy and annoyance of the courtiers gave him his daughter to wife
many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away hunger as is seen in the person of a young man of whom i will tell you it is said that there was once a very rich merchant named antoniello
who had a son called cienzo it happened that cienzo was one day throwing stones on the sea shore with the son of the king of naples and by chance broke his companion's head when he told his father
antoniello flew into a rage with fear of the consequences and abused his son but cienzo answered sir i have always heard say that better is the law court than the doctor in one's house would it not have been worse if he had broken my head
it was he who began and provoked me we are but boys and there are two sides to the quarrel after all tis a first fault and the king is a man of reason but let the worst come to the worst what great harm can he do me the wide world is one's home
and let him who is afraid turn constable but antoniello would not listen to reason he made sure the king would kill cienzo for his fault and said don't stand here at risk of your life but march off this very instant
so that nobody may hear a word new or old of what you have done a bird in the bush is better than a bird in the cage here is money take one of the two enchanted horses i have in the stable and the dog which is also enchanted and tarry no longer here
it is better to scamper off and use your own heels than to be touched by another's better to throw your legs over your back than to carry your head between two legs if you don't take your knapsack and be off none of the saints can help you
then begging his father's blessing cienzo mounted his horse and tucking the enchanted dog under his arm he went his way out of the city making a winter of tears with a summer of sighs
he went his way until the evening when he came to a wood that kept the mule of the sun outside its limits while it was amusing itself with silence and the shades an old house stood there at the foot of a tower
but the master being in fear of robbers would not open to him so the poor youth was obliged to remain in the ruined old house he turned his horse out to graze in a meadow and threw himself on some straw he found with the dog by his side
but scarcely had he closed his eyes when he was awakened by the barking of the dog and heard footsteps stirring in the house cienzo who was bold and venturesome seized his sword and began to lay about him in the dark
but perceiving that he was only striking the wind and hit no one he turned round again to sleep after a few minutes he felt himself pulled gently by the foot he turned to lay hold again of his cutlass
and jumping up exclaimed hollo there you are getting too troublesome but leave off this sport and let's have a bout of it if you have any pluck for you have found the last to your shoe at these words he heard a shout of laughter and then a hollow voice saying
come down here and i will tell you who i am then cienzo without losing courage answered wait awhile i'll come so he groped about until at last he found a ladder which led to a cellar
and going down he saw a lighted lamp and three ghost looking figures who were making a piteous clamour crying alas my beauteous treasure i must lose thee when cienzo saw this
he began himself to cry and lament for company's sake and after he had wept for some time the moon having now with the axe of her rays broken the bar of the sky the three figures who were making the outcry said to cienzo
take this treasure which is destined for thee alone but mind and take care of it then they vanished and cienzo
wished to climb up again but could not find the ladder whereat he set up such a cry
when they discovered a great treasure he wished to give part of it to cienzo but the latter refused and taking his dog and mounting once more on his horse set out again on his travels
after a while he arrived at a wild and dreary forest so dark that it made you shudder there upon the bank of a river he found a fairy surrounded by a band of robbers cienzo seeing the wicked intention of the robbers
seized his sword and soon made a slaughter of them the fairy showered thanks upon him for this brave deed done for her sake and invited him to her palace that she might reward him but cienzo replied it is nothing at all thank you kindly
another time i will accept the favour but now i am in haste on business of importance so saying he took his leave
he came at last to the palace of a king which was all hung with mourning so that it made one's heart black to look at it when cienzo inquired the cause of the mourning the folks answered a dragon with seven heads has made his appearance in this country
the most terrible monster that ever was seen with the crest of a cock the head of a cat eyes of fire the mouth of a bulldog the wings of a bat the claws of a bear and the tail of a serpent now this dragon swallows a maiden every day
and now the lot has fallen on menechella the daughter of the king so there is great weeping and wailing in the royal palace since the fairest creature in all the land is doomed to be devoured by this horrid beast
and bewailing the sad fate of the poor girl then the dragon came out of the cave but cienzo laid hold of his sword and struck off a head in a trice but the dragon went and rubbed his neck on a certain plant which grew not far off
and suddenly the head joined itself on again like a lizard joining itself to its tail cienzo seeing this exclaimed he who dares not wins not and setting his teeth he struck such a furious blow
that he cut off all seven heads which flew from the necks like peas from the pan whereupon he took out the tongues and putting them in his pocket he flung the heads a mile apart from the body so that they might never come together again
that whosoever had killed the dragon should come and marry the princess now a rascal of a country fellow hearing this proclamation took the heads of the dragon and said menechella has been saved by me these hands have freed the land from destruction
behold the dragon's heads which are the proofs of my valour therefore recollect every promise is a debt as soon as the king heard this he lifted the crown from his own head and set it upon the countryman's poll who looked like a thief on the gallows
the news of this proclamation flew through the whole country till at last it came to the ears of cienzo who said to himself verily i am a great blockhead i had hold of fortune by the forelock and i let her escape out of my hand
here's a man offers to give me the half of a treasure he finds and i care no more for it than a german for cold water the fairy wishes to entertain me in her palace and i care as little for it as an ass for music and now that i am called to the crown
here i stand and let a rascally thief cheat me out of my trump card so saying he took an inkstand seized a pen and spreading out a sheet of paper began to write to the most beautiful jewel of women menechella
having by the favour of sol in leo saved thy life i hear that another plumes himself with my labours that another claims the reward of the service which i rendered thou therefore who wast present at the dragon's death
canst assure the king of the truth and prevent his allowing another to gain this reward while i have had all the toil for it will be the right effect of thy fair royal grace and the merited recompense of this strong hero's fist in conclusion
i kiss thy delicate little hands from the inn of the flower pot sunday having written this letter and sealed it with a wafer he placed it in the mouth of the enchanted dog saying
and take this to the king's daughter give it to no one else but place it in the hand of that silver faced maiden herself away ran the dog to the palace as if he were flying and going up the stairs he found the king
who was still paying compliments to the country clown when the man saw the dog with the letter in his mouth he ordered it to be taken from him but the dog would not give it to any one and bounding up to menechella he placed it in her hand
then menechella rose from her seat and making a curtsey to the king she gave him the letter to read and when the king had read it he ordered that the dog should be followed to see where he went and that his master should be brought before him
so two of the courtiers immediately followed the dog until they came to the tavern where they found cienzo and delivering the message from the king they conducted him to the palace into the presence of the king
then the king demanded how it was that he boasted of having killed the dragon since the heads were brought by the man who was sitting crowned at his side and cienzo answered that fellow deserves a pasteboard mitre rather than a crown
since he has had the impudence to tell you a bouncing lie but to prove to you that i have done the deed and not this rascal order the heads to be produced none of them can speak to the proof without a tongue and these i have brought with me as witnesses to convince you of the truth
so saying he pulled the tongues out of his pocket while the countryman was struck all of a heap not knowing what would be the end of it and the more so when menechella added this is the man ah you dog of a countryman a pretty trick you have played me
when the king heard this he took the crown from the head of that false loon
what then shall be the special imputation against which i shall throw myself in these pages out of the thousand and one which my accuser directs upon me i mean to confine myself to one
for there is only one about which i much care the charge of untruthfulness he may cast upon me as many other imputations as he pleases and they may stick on me as long as they can
in the course of nature they will fall to the ground in their season and indeed i think the same of the charge of untruthfulness and select it from the rest not because it is more formidable
but because it is more serious like the rest it may disfigure me for a time but it will not stain archbishop whately used to say throw dirt enough and some will stick well
will stick but not will stain i think he used to mean stain and i do not agree with him some dirt sticks longer than other dirt but no dirt is immortal according to the old saying
praevalebit veritas there are virtues indeed which the world is not fitted to judge of or to uphold such as faith hope and charity but it can judge about truthfulness
it can judge about the natural virtues and truthfulness is one of them natural virtues may also become supernatural truthfulness is such
but that is a question of capacity not of right mankind has the right to judge of truthfulness in a catholic as in the case of a protestant of an italian or of a chinese i have never doubted
that in my hour in god's hour my avenger will appear and the world will acquit me of untruthfulness even though it be not while i live still more confident am i of such eventual acquittal
seeing that my judges are my own countrymen i consider indeed englishmen the most suspicious and touchy of mankind i think them unreasonable and unjust in their seasons of excitement but i had rather be an englishman as in fact i am
than belong to any other race under heaven they are as generous as they are hasty and burly and their repentance for their injustice is greater than their sin for twenty years and more i have borne an imputation
the disposition to hear i have wished to appeal from philip drunk to philip sober when shall i pronounce him to be himself again if i may judge from the tone of the public press
which represents the public voice i have great reason to take heart at this time i have been treated by contemporary critics in this controversy with great fairness and gentleness and i am grateful to them for it
has been taken out of my hands and i am thankful that it has been so i am bound now as a duty to myself to the catholic cause
to give account of myself without any delay when i am so rudely and circumstantially charged with untruthfulness i accept the challenge i shall do my best to meet it and i shall be content when i have done so
the impression twenty years ago and the impression now there has been a general feeling that i was for years where i had no right to be that i was a romanist in protestant livery and service
that i was doing the work of a hostile church in the bosom of the english establishment and knew it or ought to have known
first it was certain and i could not myself deny it that i scouted the name protestant it was certain again that many of the doctrines which i professed were popularly and generally known as badges of the roman church
as distinguished from the faith of the reformation next how could i have come by them evidently i had certain friends and advisers who did not appear there was some underground communication between
stonyhurst or oscott and my rooms at oriel beyond a doubt i was advocating certain doctrines not by accident but on an understanding with ecclesiastics of the old religion
others went even further and gave it out to the world as a matter of fact of which they themselves had the proof in their hands that i was actually a jesuit and when the opinions which i advocated spread
and younger men went further than i the feeling against me waxed stronger and took a wider range and now indignation arose at the knavery of a conspiracy such as this
and it became of course all the greater in consequence of its being the received belief of the public at large that craft and intrigue such as they fancied they beheld with their eyes were the very instruments
to which the catholic church has in these last centuries been indebted for her maintenance and extension there was another circumstance still
of whom i have been speaking against the preachers of doctrines so new to them and so unpalatable and that was that they developed them in so measured a way if they were inspired by roman theologians
and this was taken for granted why did they not speak out at once why did they keep the world in such suspense and anxiety as to what was coming next
why this reticence and half speaking and apparent indecision it was plain that the plan of operations had been carefully mapped out from the first and that these men were cautiously advancing towards its accomplishment
as far as was safe at the moment that their aim and their hope was to carry off a large body with them of the young and the ignorant that they meant gradually to leaven the minds of the rising generation and to open the gates of that city
and when in spite of the many protestations of the party to the contrary there was at length an actual movement among their disciples and one went over to rome and then another the worst anticipations and the worst judgments
and when after all after my arguments and denunciations of former years at length i did leave the anglican church for the roman then they said to each other it is just as we said we knew it would be so
this was the state of mind of masses of men twenty years ago who took no more than an external and common sense view of what was going on and partly the tradition partly the effect of that feeling
not only am i now a member of a most un english communion whose great aim is considered to be the extinction of protestantism and the protestant church and whose means of attack are popularly supposed to be
did i or my opinions drop from the sky
to present myself to the eyes of men in that full blown investiture of popery how could i dare how could i have the conscience with warnings with prophecies with accusations against me
which ended in the religion of rome
when long ago i was trusted and was found wanting it is this which is the strength of the case of my accuser against me not the articles of impeachment which he has framed from my writings
and which i shall easily crumble into dust but the bias of the court it is the state of the atmosphere
which takes it for granted that when my reasoning is convincing it is only ingenious and that when my statements are unanswerable there is always something put out of sight or hidden in my sleeve it is that plausible but cruel conclusion
that when much is imputed much must be true
and i think i shall be able to do so when first i read the pamphlet of accusation i almost despaired of meeting effectively such a heap of misrepresentations and such a vehemence of animosity
of the separate counts in the indictment when rejoinders of this sort would but confuse and torment the reader by their number and their diversity
matter which ought freely to expand itself into half a dozen volumes
to set right even one of that series of single passing hints to use my assailant's own language which as with his finger tip he had delivered against me
with an interpretation he called me a liar a simple a broad an intelligible to the english public a plausible arraignment
but for me to answer in detail charge one by reason one and charge two by reason two and charge three by reason three and so on through the whole string both of accusations and replies
each of which was to be independent of the rest this would be certainly labour lost as regards any effective result what i needed was a corresponding antagonist unity in my defence
and where was that to be found we see in the case of commentators on the prophecies of scripture an exemplification of the principle on which i am insisting
the reader says what else can the prophecy mean just as my accuser asks what then does doctor newman mean i reflected and i saw a way out of my perplexity
yes i said to myself his very question is about my meaning
it pointed in the very same direction as that into which my musings had turned me already he asks what i mean not about my words
not about my arguments not about my actions as his ultimate point but about that living intelligence by which i write and argue and act he asks about my mind and its beliefs
and its sentiments and he shall be answered not for his own sake but for mine for the sake of the religion which i profess and of the priesthood in which i am unworthily included
and of my friends and of my foes and of that general public which consists of neither one nor the other but of well wishers lovers of fair play sceptical cross questioners interested
inquirers curious lookers on and simple strangers unconcerned yet not careless about the issue for the sake of all these he shall be answered my perplexity had not lasted half an hour
that it may be seen what i am not and that the phantom may be extinguished which gibbers instead of me i wish to be known as a living man and not as a scarecrow which is dressed up in my clothes
false ideas may be refuted indeed by argument but by true ideas alone are they expelled i will vanquish not my accuser but my judges
i will indeed answer his charges and criticisms on me one by one
but such a work shall not be the scope nor the substance of my reply
i will state the point at which i began in what external suggestion or accident each opinion had its rise how far and how they developed from within how they grew were modified
were combined were in collision with each other and were changed again how i conducted myself towards them and how and how far and for how long a time
with the ecclesiastical engagements which i had made and with the position which i held i must show what is the very truth that the doctrines which i held and have held for so many years
have been taught me speaking humanly partly by the suggestions of protestant friends
and thus i shall account for that phenomenon which to so many seems so wonderful that i should have left my kindred and my father's house for a church from which once i turned away with dread so wonderful to them
as if forsooth a religion which has flourished through so many ages among so many nations amid such varieties of social life in such contrary classes and conditions of men
and after so many revolutions political and civil could not subdue the reason
and then as to the materials of my narrative i have no autobiographical notes to consult no written explanations of particular treatises or of tracts which at the time gave offence
hardly any minutes of definite transactions or conversations and few contemporary memoranda i fear of the feelings or motives under which from time to time i acted
to be available at a moment for my purpose then as to the volumes which i have published they would in many ways serve me were i well up in them but though i took great pains in their composition
i have thought little about them when they were once out of my hands and for the most part the last time i read them has been when i revised their last proof sheets
under these circumstances my sketch will of course be incomplete i now for the first time contemplate my course as a whole it is a first essay
and so far will answer the purpose for which i write it i purpose to set nothing down in it as certain of which i have not a clear memory or some written memorial or the corroboration of some friend there are witnesses enough
up and down the country to verify or correct or complete it
i wish as far as i am able simply to state facts whether they are ultimately determined to be for me or against me of course there will be room enough for contrariety of judgment
among my readers as to the necessity or appositeness or value or good taste or religious prudence of the details which i shall introduce i may be accused of laying stress on little things
of being beside the mark of going into impertinent or ridiculous details of sounding my own praise of giving scandal but this is a case above all others in which i am bound to follow my own lights
and to speak out my own heart it is not at all pleasant for me to be egotistical nor to be criticized for being so it is not pleasant to reveal to high and low young and old
what has gone on within me from my early years it is not pleasant to be giving to every shallow or flippant disputant the advantage over me of knowing my most private thoughts
i might even say the intercourse between myself and my maker but i do not like to be called to my face a liar and a knave nor should i be doing my duty to my faith
i was indeed in prudence taking steps towards eventually withdrawing from saint mary's and i was not confident about my permanent adhesion to the anglican creed but i was in no actual perplexity or trouble of mind
nor did the immense commotion consequent upon the publication of the tract unsettle me again for i fancied i had weathered the storm as far as the bishops were concerned the tract had not been condemned that was the great point
and i made much of it to illustrate my feelings during this trial i will make extracts from my letters addressed severally to mister bowden and another friend which have come into my possession one
you see no doctrine is censured
if you knew all or were here you would see that i have asserted a great principle and i ought to suffer for it that the articles are to be interpreted not according to the meaning of the writers but as far as the wording will admit
according to the sense of the catholic church two
and hope my friends will pray for me to this effect if as you say a destiny hangs over us a single false step may ruin all i am very well and comfortable but we are not yet out of the wood
the bishop sent me word on sunday to write a letter to him instanter so i wrote it on monday on tuesday it passed through the press on wednesday it was out and to day thursday it is in london
i trust that things are smoothing now and that we have made a great step is certain it is not right to boast till i am clear out of the wood
you know i suppose that i am to stop the tracts but you will see in the letter though i speak quite what i feel yet i have managed to take out on my side my snubbing's worth and this makes me anxious how it will be received in london
i have not had a misgiving for five minutes from the first but i do not like to boast
your letter of this morning was an exceedingly great gratification to me and it is confirmed i am thankful to say
and since that he has sent me a note to the same effect only going more into detail it is most pleasant too to my feelings to have such a testimony to the substantial truth and importance
from those who from their cautious turn of mind i was least sanguine about i have not had one misgiving myself about it throughout
the bishops are very desirous of hushing the matter up and i certainly have done my utmost to co operate with them on the understanding that the tract is not to be withdrawn or condemned upon this occasion several catholics wrote to me
the tracts are not suppressed no doctrine or principle has been conceded by us or condemned by authority the bishop has but said that a certain tract is objectionable no reason being stated
i have no intention whatever of yielding any one point which i hold on conviction and that the authorities of the church know full well in the summer of eighteen forty one i found myself at littlemore
without any harass or anxiety on my mind i had determined to put aside all controversy and i set myself down to my translation of saint athanasius but between july and november i received three blows which broke me
one i had got but a little way in my work when my trouble returned on me the ghost had come a second time in
i was reading and writing in my own line of study far from the controversies of the day on what is called a metaphysical subject but i saw clearly that in the history of arianism the pure arians were the protestants
the semi arians were the anglicans and that rome now was what it was then the truth lay not with the via media but with what was called the extreme party
as i am not writing a work of controversy i need not enlarge upon the argument i have said something on the subject in a volume from which i have already quoted two i was in the misery of this new unsettlement
the bishops one after another began to charge against me it was a formal determinate movement this was the real understanding that on which i had acted on the first appearance of tract ninety had come to nought
were that perhaps two or three of them might think it necessary to say something in their charges
and there was no one to enforce the understanding
for three whole years i recognized it as a condemnation it was the only one that was in their power at first i intended to protest but i gave up the thought in despair on october seventeenth i wrote thus to a friend
i suppose it will be necessary in some shape or other to re assert tract ninety else it will seem after these bishops charges as if it were silenced which it has not been nor do i intend it should be
i wish to keep quiet but if bishops speak i will speak too if the view were silenced i could not remain in the church nor could many others and therefore since it is not silenced i shall take care to show that it isn't
as they contain set themselves to oppose them whatever be the influence of the tracts great or small they may become just as powerful for rome if our church refuses them as they would be for our church if she accepted them
if our rulers speak either against the tracts or not at all if any number of them not only do not favour but even do not suffer the principles contained in them it is plain that our members may easily be persuaded either to give up those principles
or to give up the church if this state of things goes on
not one or two but many secessions to the church of rome
i said there were no converts to rome
three as if all this were not enough there came the affair of the jerusalem bishopric and with a brief mention of it i shall conclude
to introduce episcopacy
which was intended in that country to embrace both the lutheran and calvinistic bodies i almost think i heard of the project when i was at rome in eighteen thirty three at the hotel of the prussian minister m bunsen
who was most hospitable and kind as to other english visitors so also to my friends and myself the idea of episcopacy as the prussian king understood it was i suppose very different from that taught
in the tractarian school but still i suppose also that the chief authors of that school would have gladly seen such a measure carried out in prussia had it been done without compromising those principles which were necessary to the being of a church
about the time of the publication of tract ninety m bunsen and the then archbishop of canterbury were taking steps for its execution by appointing and consecrating a bishop for jerusalem
jerusalem it would seem was considered a safe place for the experiment it was too far from prussia to awaken the susceptibilities of any party at home if the project failed
to any one and if it succeeded it gave protestantism a status in the east which in association with the monophysite or jacobite and the nestorian bodies formed a political instrument for england
parallel to that which russia had in the greek church and france in the latin
i thus spoke of the jerusalem scheme in an article in the british critic when our thoughts turn to the east instead of recollecting that there are christian churches there we leave it to the russians to take care of the greeks and the french to take care of the romans
and we content ourselves with erecting a protestant church at jerusalem or with helping the jews to rebuild their temple there
to be bishops in any foreign country whether such foreign subjects or citizens be or be not subjects or citizens of the country in which they are to act and without requiring such of them as may be subjects or citizens of any foreign kingdom or state
and over such other protestant congregations as may be desirous of placing themselves under his or their authority now here at the very time that the anglican bishops were directing their censure upon me for avowing an approach
and the schismatical oriental bodies by means of the influence of england this was the third blow which finally shattered my faith in the anglican church that church was not only forbidding any sympathy or concurrence with the church of rome
but it actually was courting an intercommunion with protestant prussia and the heresy of the orientals the anglican church might have the apostolical succession as had the monophysites but such acts as were in progress
next the excuse is that there are converted anglican jews there who require a bishop
but for them the bishop is sent out and for them he is a bishop of the circumcision
against the epistle to the galatians pretty nearly thirdly for the sake of prussia he is to take under him all the foreign protestants who will come and the political advantages will be so great from the influence of england
that there is no doubt they will come they are to sign the confession of augsburg
of baptismal regeneration as to myself i shall do nothing whatever publicly unless indeed it were to give my signature to a protest but i think it would be out of place in me to agitate
having been in a way silenced but the archbishop is really doing most grave work of which we cannot see the end i did make a solemn protest and sent it to the archbishop of canterbury and also sent it to my own bishop
with the following letter it seems as if i were never to write to your lordship without giving you pain and i know that my present subject does not specially concern your lordship yet after a great deal of anxious thought
i lay before you the enclosed protest your lordship will observe that i am not asking for any notice of it unless you think that i ought to receive one i do this very serious act in obedience to my sense of duty
if the english church is to enter on a new course and assume a new aspect it will be more pleasant to me hereafter to think
may i be allowed to say that i augur nothing but evil if we in any respect prejudice our title to be a branch of the apostolic church that article of the creed i need hardly observe to your lordship is of such constraining power
that our communion is not a branch of the one church i foresee with much grief will be tempted to look out for that church elsewhere it is to me a subject of great dismay that as far as the church has lately spoken out on the subject of the opinions
which i and others hold those opinions are not merely not sanctioned for that i do not ask but not even suffered i earnestly hope that your lordship will excuse my freedom in thus speaking to you of some members
with every feeling of reverent attachment to your lordship i am
goes far towards recognizing the same and whereas lutheranism and calvinism are heresies repugnant to scripture springing up three centuries since and anathematized by east as well as west
and whereas it is reported that the most reverend primate and other right reverend rulers of our church have consecrated a bishop
for the time being to consecrate to the office of bishop persons being subjects or citizens of countries out of his majesty's dominions
dispensing at the same time not in particular cases and accidentally but as if on principle and universally
are connected together by so close an intercommunion that what is done by authority in one immediately affects the rest on these grounds i in my place being a priest of the english church
john henry newman november eleventh eighteen forty one looking back two years afterwards on the above mentioned and other acts on the part of anglican ecclesiastical authorities i observed
many a man might have held an abstract theory about the catholic church to which it was difficult to adjust the anglican might have admitted a suspicion
or even painful doubts about the latter yet never have been impelled onwards had our rulers preserved the quiescence of former years but it is the corroboration of a present living and energetic heterodoxy
that realizes and makes such doubts practical it has been the recent speeches and acts of authorities who had so long been tolerant of protestant error which has given to inquiry and to theory its force and its edge
as to the project of a jerusalem bishopric i never heard of any good or harm it has ever done
the boy who found fear at last once upon a time there lived a woman who had one son whom she loved dearly the little cottage in which they dwelt
was built on the outskirts of a forest and as they had no neighbours the place was very lonely and the boy was kept at home by his mother to bear her company they were sitting together on a winter's evening when a storm suddenly sprang up
and the wind blew the door open the woman started and shivered and glanced over her shoulder as if she half expected to see some horrible thing behind her go and shut the door she said hastily to her son
i feel frightened frightened repeated the boy what does it feel like to be frightened well just frightened answered the mother
a fear of something you hardly know what takes hold of you it must be very odd to feel like that replied the boy i will go through the world and seek fear till i find it and the next morning before his mother was out of bed
he had left the forest behind him after walking for some hours he reached a mountain which he began to climb near the top in a wild and rocky spot he came upon a band of fierce robbers
sitting round a fire the boy who was cold and tired was delighted to see the bright flames so he went up to them and said good greeting to you sirs and wriggled himself in between the men
till his feet almost touched the burning logs the robbers stopped drinking and eyed him curiously and at last the captain spoke no caravan of armed men would dare to come here
and who are you to venture in so boldly oh i have left my mother's house in search of fear perhaps you can show it to me fear is wherever we are answered the captain
but where asked the boy looking round i see nothing
and bake us a cake for supper replied the robber and the boy who was by this time quite warm jumped up cheerfully and slinging the pot over his arm
when he got to the churchyard he collected some sticks and made a fire then he filled the pot with water from a little stream close by and mixing the flour and butter and sugar together he set the cake on to cook
and then the boy lifted it from the pot and placed it on a stone while he put out the fire at that moment a hand was stretched from a grave and a voice said
do you think i am going to give to the dead the food of the living replied the boy with a laugh and giving the hand a tap with his spoon and picking up the cake
and then the hand vanished oh how nice the fire is and he flung himself on his knees before it and so did not notice the glances of surprise cast by the robbers at each other
there is another chance for you said one at length on the other side of the mountain lies a deep pool go to that and perhaps you may meet fear on the way
i hope so indeed answered the boy and he set out at once he soon beheld the waters of the pool gleaming in the moonlight and as he drew near he saw a tall swing standing just over it
and in the swing a child was seated weeping bitterly that is a strange place for a swing thought the boy but i wonder what he is crying about and he was hurrying on towards the child
when a maiden ran up and spoke to him i want to lift my little brother from the swing cried she but it is so high above me that i cannot reach if you will get closer to the edge of the pool
and let me mount on your shoulder i think i can reach him willingly replied the boy and in an instant the girl had climbed to his shoulders but instead of lifting the child from the swing
as she could easily have done she pressed her feet so firmly on either side of the youth's neck that he felt that in another minute he would be choked or else fall into the water beneath him
so gathering up all his strength he gave a mighty heave and threw the girl backwards as she touched the ground a bracelet fell from her arm and this the youth picked up
and turning to look for the child he saw that both it and the swing had vanished
with the bracelet on his arm the youth started for a little town which was situated in the plain on the further side of the mountain and as hungry and thirsty he entered its principal street a jew stopped him
where did you get that bracelet asked the jew it belongs to me no it is mine replied the boy it is not give it to me at once or it will be the worse for you cried the jew
let us go before a judge and tell him our stories said the boy if he decides in your favour you shall have it if in mine i will keep it to this the jew agreed and the two went together to the great hall
in which the kadi was administering justice he listened very carefully to what each had to say and then pronounced his verdict neither of the two claimants had proved his right to the bracelet therefore it must remain in the possession of the judge
till its fellow was brought before him when they heard this the jew and the boy looked at each other and their eyes said where are we to go to find the other one but as they knew there was no use in disputing the decision
they bowed low and left the hall of audience wandering he knew not whither the youth found himself on the sea shore at a little distance was a ship which had struck on a hidden rock and was rapidly sinking
while on deck the crew were gathered with faces white as death shrieking and wringing their hands have you met with fear shouted the boy and the answer came above the noise of the waves
then the boy flung off his clothes and swam to the ship where many hands were held out to draw him on board the ship is tossed hither and thither and will soon be sucked down cried the crew again
down down down till at last his feet touched the bottom and he stood up and looked about him there sure enough a sea maiden with a wicked face was tugging hard at a chain
which she had fastened to the ship with a grappling iron and was dragging it bit by bit beneath the waves seizing her arms in both his hands he forced her to drop the chain and the ship above remaining steady
the sailors were able gently to float her off the rock then taking a rusty knife from a heap of seaweed at his feet he cut the rope round his waist and fastened the sea maiden firmly to a stone
so that she could do no more mischief and bidding her farewell he swam back to the beach where his clothes were still lying the youth dressed himself quickly and walked on till he came to a beautiful shady garden filled with flowers
and with a clear little stream running through the day was hot and he was tired so he entered the gate and seated himself under a clump of bushes covered with sweet smelling red blossoms and it was not long
before he fell asleep suddenly a rush of wings and a cool breeze awakened him and raising his head cautiously he saw three doves plunging into the stream
they splashed joyfully about and shook themselves and then dived to the bottom of a deep pool when they appeared again they were no longer three doves but three beautiful damsels
bearing between them a table made of mother of pearl on this they placed drinking cups fashioned from pink and green shells and one of the maidens filled a cup from a crystal goblet
and was raising it to her mouth when her sister stopped her to whose health do you drink asked she to the youth who prepared the cake and rapped my hand with the spoon when i stretched it out of the earth answered the maiden
and was never afraid as other men were but to whose health do you drink to the youth on whose shoulders i climbed at the edge of the pool and who threw me off with such a jerk
that i lay unconscious on the ground for hours replied the second but you my sister added she turning to the third girl to whom do you drink down in the sea i took hold of a ship
and shook it and pulled it till it would soon have been lost said she and as she spoke she looked quite different from what she had done with the chain in her hands seeking to work mischief but a youth came
and freed the ship and bound me to a rock to his health i drink and they all three lifted their cups and drank silently as they put their cups down the youth appeared before them
and now give me the bracelet that matches a jewelled band which of a surety fell from the arm of one of you a jew tried to take it from me but i would not let him have it
and he dragged me before the kadi who kept my bracelet till i could show him its fellow and i have been wandering hither and thither in search of it and that is how i have found myself in such strange places
come with us then said the maidens and they led him down a passage into a hall out of which opened many chambers each one of greater splendour than the last from a shelf heaped up with gold and jewels
the eldest sister took a bracelet which in every way was exactly like the one which was in the judge's keeping and fastened it to the youth's arm go at once and show this to the kadi said she and he will give you the fellow to it
i shall never forget you answered the youth but it may be long before we meet again for i shall never rest till i have found fear then he went his way and won the bracelet from the kadi
after this he again set forth in his quest of fear on and on walked the youth but fear never crossed his path and one day he entered a large town
where all the streets and squares were so full of people he could hardly pass between them why are all these crowds gathered together he asked of a man who stood next him the ruler of this country is dead
was the reply and as he had no children it is needful to choose a successor therefore each morning one of the sacred pigeons is let loose from the tower yonder and on whomsoever the bird shall perch
that man is our king in a few minutes the pigeon will fly wait and see what happens every eye was fixed on the tall tower which stood in the centre of the chief square
and the moment that the sun was seen to stand straight over it a door was opened and a beautiful pigeon gleaming with pink and grey blue and green came rushing through the air onward it flew onward onward
till at length it rested on the head of the boy then a great shout arose
a vision swifter than lightning flashed across his brain he saw himself seated on a throne spending his life trying and never succeeding to make poor people rich miserable people happy
bad people good never doing anything he wished to do not able even to marry the girl that he loved
but the crowds who heard him thought he was overcome by the grandeur that awaited him and paid no heed
a cold shiver that he knew not the meaning of ran through him this is fear whom you have so long sought whispered a voice
which seemed to reach his ears alone and the youth bowed his head as the vision once more flashed before his eyes and he accepted his doom
jack and his comrades once there was a poor widow as often there has been and she had one son a very scarce summer came
and they didn't know how they'd live till the new potatoes would be fit for eating so jack said to his mother one evening mother bake my cake and kill my hen till i go seek my fortune and if i meet it
never fear but i'll soon be back to share it with you so she did as he asked her and he set out at break of day on his journey his mother came along with him to the yard gate and says she jack
which would you rather have half the cake and half the hen with my blessing or the whole of em with my curse o musha mother says jack
sure you know i wouldn't have your curse and damer's estate along with it well then jack says she here's the whole lot of em with my thousand blessings along with them
so she stood on the yard fence and blessed him as far as her eyes could see him well he went along and along till he was tired and ne'er a farmer's house he went into wanted a boy
at last his road led by the side of a bog and there was a poor ass up to his shoulders near a big bunch of grass he was striving to come at ah
help me out or i'll be drowned never say't twice says jack and he pitched in big stones and sods into the slob till the ass got good ground under him
thank you jack says he when he was out on the hard road i'll do as much for you another time where are you going faith i'm going to seek my fortune till harvest comes in god bless it
and if you like says the ass i'll go along with you who knows what luck we may have with all my heart it's getting late let us be jogging
with a kettle tied to his tail he ran up to jack for protection and the ass let such a roar out of him
more power to you jack says the dog
we're going to seek our fortune till harvest comes in and wouldn't i be proud to go with you says the dog and get rid of them ill conducted boys purshuin to em
well well throw your tail over your arm and come along they got outside the town and sat down under an old wall and jack pulled out his bread and meat and shared with the dog
and the ass made his dinner on a bunch of thistles while they were eating and chatting what should come by but a poor half starved cat and the moll row he gave out of him would make your heart ache
you look as if you saw the tops of nine houses since breakfast says jack here's a bone and something on it may your child never know a hungry belly says tom it's myself that's in need of your kindness
may i be so bold as to ask where yez are all going we're going to seek our fortune till the harvest comes in and you may join us if you like and that i'll do with a heart and a half says the cat
and thank ee for asking me off they set again and just as the shadows of the trees were three times as long as themselves they heard a great cackling in a field inside the road and out over the ditch
jumped a fox with a fine black cock in his mouth oh you anointed villain says the ass roaring like thunder at him good dog says jack
and the word wasn't out of his mouth when coley was in full sweep after the red dog reynard dropped his prize like a hot potato and was off like a shot
and the poor cock came back fluttering and trembling to jack and his comrades o musha naybours says he wasn't it the height o luck that threw you in my way
maybe i won't remember your kindness if ever i find you in hardship and where in the world are you all going we're going to seek our fortune till the harvest comes in
you may join our party if you like and sit on neddy's crupper when your legs and wings are tired well the march began again and just as the sun was gone down they looked around
and there was neither cabin nor farm house in sight well well says jack the worse luck now the better another time and it's only a summer night after all
we'll go into the wood and make our bed on the long grass no sooner said than done jack stretched himself on a bunch of dry grass the ass lay near him the dog and cat lay in the ass's warm lap
and the cock went to roost in the next tree well the soundness of deep sleep was over them all when the cock took a notion of crowing
cock says the ass you disturbed me from as nice a whisp of hay as ever i tasted what's the matter it's daybreak that's the matter don't you see light yonder
i see a light indeed says jack but it's from a candle it's coming and not from the sun as you've roused us we may as well go over and ask for lodging
so they all shook themselves and went on through grass and rocks and briars till they got down into a hollow and there was the light coming through the shadow and along with it came singing
and laughing and cursing
walk on your tippy toes till we see what sort of people we have to deal with so they crept near the window and there they saw six robbers inside
with pistols and blunderbushes and cutlashes sitting at a table eating roast beef and pork and drinking mulled beer and wine and whisky punch
wasn't that a fine haul we made at the lord of dunlavin's says one ugly looking thief with his mouth full and it's little we'd get only for the honest porter here's his purty health
the porter's purty health cried out every one of them and jack bent his finger
and let every one mind the word of command so the ass put his fore hoofs on the sill of the window
don't leave a mother's son of em alive present fire with that they gave another halloo and smashed every pane in the window the robbers were frightened out of their lives they blew out the candles threw down the table
and never drew rein till they were in the very heart of the wood jack and his party got into the room closed the shutters lighted the candles
and ate and drank till hunger and thirst were gone then they lay down to rest jack in the bed the ass in the stable the dog on the door mat the cat by the fire
and the cock on the perch at first the robbers were very glad to find themselves safe in the thick wood but they soon began to get vexed
this damp grass is very different from our warm room says one i was obliged to drop a fine pig's foot says another i didn't get a tayspoonful of my last tumbler says another
and all the lord of dunlavin's gold and silver that we left behind says the last i think i'll venture back says the captain and see if we can recover anything
and away he went the lights were all out and so he groped his way to the fire and there the cat flew in his face
and tore him with teeth and claws he let a roar out of him and made for the room door to look for a candle inside he trod on the dog's tail and if he did
he got the marks of his teeth in his arms and legs and thighs thousand murders cried he i wish i was out of this unlucky house
when he got to the street door the cock dropped down upon him with his claws and bill and what the cat and dog done to him was only a flay bite to what he got from the cock
tattheration to you all you unfeeling vagabones says he when he recovered his breath and he staggered and spun round and round till he reeled into the stable back foremost
but the ass received him with a kick on the broadest part of his small clothes and laid him comfortably on the dunghill when he came to himself he scratched his head and began to think what happened him
and as soon as he found that his legs were able to carry him he crawled away dragging one foot after another till he reached the wood well well cried them all when he came within hearing
any chance of our property you may say chance says he and it's itself is the poor chance all out ah will any of you pull a bed of dry grass for me
all the sticking plaster in enniscorthy will be too little for the cuts and bruises i have on me ah if you only knew what i have gone through for you
when i got to the kitchen fire looking for a sod of lighted turf what should be there but an old woman carding flax and you may see the marks she left on my face with the cards i made to the room door as fast as i could
and who should i stumble over but a cobler and his seat
well i got away from him somehow but when i was passing through the door it must be the divil himself that pounced down on me with his claws and his teeth that were equal to sixpenny nails
and his wings ill luck be in his road well at last i reached the stable and there by way of salute i got a pelt from a sledge hammer that sent me half a mile off
if you don't believe me i'll give you leave to go and judge for yourselves oh my poor captain says they we believe you to the nines
catch us indeed going within a hen's race of that unlucky cabin well before the sun shook his doublet next morning jack and his comrades were up and about
they made a hearty breakfast on what was left the night before and then they all agreed to set off to the castle of the lord of dunlavin and give him back all his gold and silver jack put it all in the two ends of a sack
and laid it across neddy's back and all took the road in their hands away they went through bogs up hills down dales and sometimes along the yellow high road
till they came to the hall door of the lord of dunlavin and who should be there airing his powdered head his white stockings and his red breeches but the thief of a porter
he gave a cross look to the visitors and says he to jack what do you want here my fine fellow there isn't room for you all we want says jack what i'm sure you haven't to give us
and that is common civility come be off you lazy strollers says he
would you tell a body says the cock that was perched on the ass's head who was it that opened the door for the robbers the other night ah maybe the porter's red face didn't turn the colour of his frill
and the lord of dunlavin and his pretty daughter that were standing at the parlour window unknownst to the porter put out their heads i'd be glad barney says the master
to hear your answer to the gentleman with the red comb on him ah my lord don't believe the rascal sure i didn't open the door to the six robbers and how did you know there were six
you poor innocent said the lord never mind sir says jack all your gold and silver is there in that sack and i don't think you will begrudge us our supper and bed after our long march from the wood of athsalach
begrudge indeed not one of you will ever see a poor day if i can help it so all were welcomed to their hearts content and the ass and the dog and the cock got the best posts in the farmyard
and the cat took possession of the kitchen the lord took jack in hands dressed him from top to toe in broadcloth and frills as white as snow and turnpumps and put a watch in his fob
when they sat down to dinner the lady of the house said jack had the air of a born gentleman about him and the lord said he'd make him his steward jack brought his mother and settled her comfortably near the castle
always well disposed to assist the constituted authorities miss abbey bade bob gliddery attend the gentlemen to that retreat and promptly enliven it with fire and gaslight
of this commission the bare armed bob leading the way with a flaming wisp of paper so speedily acquitted himself that cosy seemed to leap out of a dark sleep and embrace them warmly the moment they passed the lintels of its hospitable door
they burn sherry very well here said mister inspector as a piece of local intelligence perhaps you gentlemen might like a bottle the answer being by all means
bob gliddery received his instructions from mister inspector and departed in a becoming state of alacrity engendered by reverence for the majesty of the law it's a certain fact said mister inspector that this man we have received our information from
has for some time past given the other man a bad name arising out of your lime barges and that the other man has been avoided in consequence i don't say what it means or proves but it's a certain fact
i had it first from one of the opposite sex of my acquaintance vaguely indicating miss abbey with his thumb over his shoulder down away at a distance over yonder then probably mister inspector was not quite unprepared for their visit that evening
lightwood hinted well you see said mister inspector it was a question of making a move it's of no use moving if you don't know what your move is you had better by far keep still
in the matter of this lime i certainly had an idea that it might lie betwixt the two men i always had that idea still i was forced to wait for a start and i wasn't so lucky as to get a start
there may turn out to be something considerable for him that comes in second and i don't mention who may or who may not try for that place
began eugene which no man has a better right to do than yourself you know said mister inspector i hope not said eugene my father having been a shipper of lime before me and my grandfather before him
in fact we having been a family immersed to the crowns of our heads in lime during several generations
which i cherish next to my life being present i think it might be a more agreeable proceeding to the assisting bystanders that is to say lime burners i also said lightwood pushing his friend aside with a laugh should much prefer that
it shall be done gentlemen if it can be done conveniently said mister inspector with coolness there is no wish on my part to cause any distress in that quarter indeed i am sorry for that quarter there was a boy in that quarter
remarked eugene he is still there no said mister inspector he has quitted those works he is otherwise disposed of will she be left alone then asked eugene she will be left said mister inspector
alone bob's reappearance with a steaming jug broke off the conversation but although the jug steamed forth a delicious perfume its contents had not received that last happy touch which the surpassing finish of the six jolly fellowship porters imparted on such momentous occasions
bob carried in his left hand one of those iron models of sugar loaf hats before mentioned into which he emptied the jug and the pointed end of which he thrust deep down into the fire so leaving it for a few moments while he disappeared and reappeared with three bright drinking glasses
placing these on the table and bending over the fire meritoriously sensible of the trying nature of his duty he watched the wreaths of steam
causing it to send forth one gentle hiss then he restored the contents to the jug held over the steam of the jug each of the three bright glasses in succession finally filled them all and with a clear conscience awaited the applause of his fellow creatures it was bestowed
mister inspector having proposed as an appropriate sentiment the lime trade and bob withdrew to report the commendations of the guests to miss abbey in the bar
only it had been regarded by mister inspector as so uncommonly satisfactory and so fraught with mysterious virtues that neither of his clients had presumed to question it two taps were now heard on the outside of the window
mister inspector hastily fortifying himself with another glass strolled out with a noiseless foot and an unoccupied countenance as one might go to survey the weather and the general aspect of the heavenly bodies this is becoming grim mortimer said eugene in a low voice
i don't like this nor i said lightwood shall we go being here let us stay you ought to see it out and i won't leave you besides that lonely girl with the dark hair runs in my head
do you feel like a dark combination of traitor and pickpocket when you think of that girl rather returned lightwood do you very much so their escort strolled back again and reported
divested of its various lime lights and shadows his report went to the effect that gaffer was away in his boat supposed to be on his old look out that he had been expected last high water
that having missed it for some reason or other he was not according to his usual habits at night to be counted on before next high water or it might be an hour or so later that his daughter surveyed through the window would seem to be so expecting him for the supper was not cooking but set out ready to be cooked
that it would be high water at about one and that it was now barely ten that there was nothing to be done but watch and wait that the informer was keeping watch at the instant of that present reporting but that two heads were better than one especially when the second was mister inspector's
and forasmuch as crouching under the lee of a hauled up boat on a night when it blew cold and strong and when the weather was varied with blasts of hail at times
they were not inclined to dispute this recommendation but they wanted to know where they could join the watchers when so disposed rather than trust to a verbal description of the place which might mislead
eugene with a less weighty sense of personal trouble on him than he usually had would go out with mister inspector note the spot and come back on the shelving bank of the river among the slimy stones of a causeway
not the special causeway of the six jolly fellowships which had a landing place of its own but another a little removed and very near to the old windmill which was the denounced man's dwelling place were a few boats some moored and already beginning to float others hauled up above the reach of the tide
under one of these latter eugene's companion disappeared
he could see the light of the fire shining through the window perhaps it drew him on to look in perhaps he had come out with the express intention
that part of the bank having rank grass growing on it there was no difficulty in getting close without any noise of footsteps it was but to scramble up a ragged face of pretty hard mud some three or four feet high and come upon the grass and to the window he came to the window by that means
she had no other light than the light of the fire the unkindled lamp stood on the table she sat on the ground looking at the brazier with her face leaning on her hand
there was a kind of film or flicker on her face which at first he took to be the fitful firelight but on a second look he saw that she was weeping a sad and solitary spectacle as shown him by the rising and the falling of the fire
it was a little window of but four pieces of glass and was not curtained he chose it because the larger window near it was it showed him the room and the bills upon the wall respecting the drowned people starting out and receding by turns
but he glanced slightly at them though he looked long and steadily at her
she started up he had been so very still that he felt sure it was not he who had disturbed her so merely withdrew from the window and stood near it in the shadow of the wall she opened the door and said in an alarmed tone father was that you calling me
and again father and once again after listening father i thought i heard you call me twice before
no response as she re entered at the door he dropped over the bank and made his way back among the ooze and near the hiding place to mortimer lightwood to whom he told what he had seen of the girl and how this was becoming very grim indeed
if the real man feels as guilty as i do said eugene he is remarkably uncomfortable influence of secrecy suggested lightwood
give me some more of that stuff
tastes like the wash of the river are you so familiar with the flavour of the wash of the river i seem to be to night i feel as if i had been half drowned and swallowing a gallon of it influence of locality suggested lightwood
you are mighty learned to night you and your influences returned eugene how long shall we stay here how long do you think if i could choose i should say a minute replied eugene
for the jolly fellowship porters are not the jolliest dogs i have known but i suppose we are best here until they turn us out with the other suspicious characters at midnight
i am quite as bad said lightwood sitting up facing him with a tumbled head after going through some wonderful evolutions in which his head had been the lowest part of him this restlessness began with me long ago
it won't do mortimer we must get into the air we must join our dear friend and brother riderhood
next time with a view to our peace of mind we'll commit the crime instead of taking the criminal you swear it certainly sworn let tippins look to it her life's in danger
mortimer rang the bell to pay the score and bob appeared to transact that business with him whom eugene in his careless extravagance asked if he would like a situation in the lime trade thankee sir no sir said bob i've a good sitiwation here sir
if you change your mind at any time returned eugene come to me at my works and you'll always find an opening in the lime kiln thankee sir said bob this is my partner
said eugene who keeps the books and attends to the wages a fair day's wages for a fair day's work is ever my partner's motto and a very good un it is gentlemen
mortimer apostrophized him laughing quite heartily when they were alone again how can you be so ridiculous i am in a ridiculous humour quoth eugene i am a ridiculous fellow everything is ridiculous come along
it passed into mortimer lightwood's mind that a change of some sort best expressed perhaps as an intensification of all that was wildest and most negligent and reckless in his friend had come upon him in the last half hour or so
thoroughly used to him as he was he found something new and strained in him that was for the moment perplexing this passed into his mind and passed out again but he remembered it afterwards
said eugene when they were standing under the bank roared and riven at by the wind there's the light of her fire i'll take a peep through the window
come to our honest friend he led him to the post of watch and they both dropped down and crept under the lee of the boat
here i am sir and our friend of the perspiring brow is at the far corner there good anything happened his daughter has been out thinking she heard him calling unless it was a sign to him to keep out of the way it might have been
it might have been rule britannia muttered eugene but it wasn't mortimer here on the other side of mister inspector two burglaries now and a forgery
with this indication of his depressed state of mind eugene fell silent they were all silent for a long while as it got to be flood tide and the water came nearer to them noises on the river became more frequent and they listened more
to the turning of steam paddles to the clinking of iron chain to the creaking of blocks to the measured working of oars to the occasional violent barking of some passing dog on shipboard who seemed to scent them lying in their hiding place
the night was not so dark but that besides the lights at bows and mastheads gliding to and fro they could discern some shadowy bulk attached and now and then a ghostly lighter with a large dark sail like a warning arm would start up very near them pass on and vanish
at this time of their watch the water close to them would be often agitated by some impulsion given it from a distance
but for the immobility with which the informer well used to the river kept quiet in his place
but there were bells to windward that told them of its being one two three without that aid they would have known how the night wore by the falling of the tide recorded in the appearance of an ever widening black wet strip of shore
as the time so passed this slinking business became a more and more precarious one
his movements might have been planned to gain for him in getting beyond their reach twelve hours advantage the honest man who had expended the sweat of his brow became uneasy and began to complain with bitterness of the proneness of mankind to cheat him him invested with the dignity of labour
their retreat was so chosen that while they could watch the river they could watch the house no one had passed in or out since the daughter thought she heard the father calling no one could pass in or out without being seen but it will be light at five said mister inspector
and then we shall be seen look here said riderhood what do you say to this he may have been lurking in and out and just holding his own betwixt two or three bridges for hours back what do you make of that said mister inspector
stoical but contradictory he may be doing so at this present time what do you make of that said mister inspector my boat's among them boats here at the cause'ay
and what do you make of your boat said mister inspector what if i put off in her and take a look round
you might have given a worse opinion said mister inspector after brief consideration try it stop a bit let's work it out if i want you i'll drop round under the fellowships and tip you a whistle
if i might so far presume as to offer a suggestion to my honourable and gallant friend whose knowledge of naval matters far be it from me to impeach eugene struck in with great deliberation
my honourable and gallant friend will i trust excuse me as an independent member for throwing out a remark which i feel to be due to this house and the country was that the t'other governor or lawyer lightwood asked riderhood
for they spoke as they crouched or lay without seeing one another's faces in reply to the question put by my honourable and gallant friend said eugene who was lying on his back with his hat on his face
i can have no hesitation in replying it not being inconsistent with the public service that those accents were the accents of the t'other governor you've tolerable good eyes ain't you governor you've all tolerable good eyes ain't you
demanded the informer all
you'll make out that there's a speck of something or another there and you'll know it's me and you'll come down that cause'ay to me understood all understood all off she goes then in a moment with the wind cutting keenly at him sideways he was staggering down to his boat
in a few moments he was clear and creeping up the river under their own shore eugene had raised himself on his elbow to look into the darkness after him i wish the boat of my honourable and gallant friend he murmured lying down again and speaking into his hat
may be endowed with philanthropy enough to turn bottom upward and extinguish him mortimer my honourable friend three burglaries two forgeries and a midnight assassination
yet in spite of having those weights on his conscience eugene was somewhat enlivened by the late slight change in the circumstances of affairs so were his two companions its being a change was everything the suspense seemed to have taken a new lease and to have begun afresh from a recent date
there was something additional to look for they were all three more sharply on the alert and less deadened by the miserable influences of the place and time more than an hour had passed and they were even dozing when one of the three each said it was he and he had not dozed
made out riderhood in his boat at the spot agreed on they sprang up came out from their shelter and went down to him when he saw them coming he dropped alongside the causeway so that they standing on the causeway could speak with him in whispers under the shadowy mass of the six jolly fellowship porters fast asleep
blest if i can make it out said he staring at them make what out have you seen him no what have you seen asked lightwood
another man as the disappearing skirts of the ladies ascended the veneering staircase mortimer following them forth from the dining room turned into a library of bran new books in bran new bindings liberally gilded
and requested to see the messenger who had brought the paper he was a boy of about fifteen mortimer looked at the boy and the boy looked at the bran new pilgrims on the wall going to canterbury in more gold frame than procession and more carving than country whose writing is this
mine sir who told you to write it my father jesse hexam is it he who found the body yes sir what is your father the boy hesitated
then said folding a plait in the right leg of his trousers he gets his living along shore is it far
it's a goodish stretch sir i come up in a cab and the cab's waiting to be paid we could go back in it before you paid it if you liked
there was a curious mixture in the boy of uncompleted savagery and uncompleted civilization his voice was hoarse and coarse and his face was coarse and his stunted figure was coarse but he was cleaner than other boys of his type and his writing though large and round was good
and he glanced at the backs of the books with an awakened curiosity that went below the binding no one who can read ever looks at a book even unopened on a shelf like one who cannot were any means taken do you know boy to ascertain if it was possible to restore life
mortimer inquired as he sought for his hat you wouldn't ask sir if you knew his state
if lazarus was only half as far gone that was the greatest of all the miracles halloa cried mortimer turning round with his hat upon his head you seem to be at home in the red sea my young friend read of it with teacher at the school said the boy
and lazarus yes and him too but don't you tell my father we should have no peace in our place if that got touched upon it's my sister's contriving
said the boy but if she knows her letters it's the most she does and them i learned her
when the boy spoke these words slightingly of his sister he took him roughly enough by the chin and turned up his face to look at it well i'm sure sir said the boy resisting i hope you'll know me again
eugene vouchsafed no answer but made the proposal to mortimer i'll go with you if you like so they all three went away together in the vehicle that had brought the boy the two friends once boys together at a public school inside smoking cigars
the messenger on the box beside the driver let me see said mortimer as they went along
i have been eugene upon the honourable roll of solicitors of the high court of chancery and attorneys at common law five years and except gratuitously taking instructions on an average once a fortnight for the will of lady tippins who has nothing to leave
i have had no scrap of business but this romantic business and i said eugene
i am far from being clear as to the last particular returned mortimer with great composure that i have much advantage over you i hate said eugene putting his legs up on the opposite seat i hate my profession
shall i incommode you if i put mine up too returned mortimer thank you i hate mine it was forced upon me said the gloomy eugene because it was understood that we wanted a barrister in the family
it was forced upon me said mortimer because it was understood that we wanted a solicitor in the family and we have got a precious one there are four of us with our names painted on a door post in right of one black hole called a set of chambers said eugene
and each of us has the fourth of a clerk cassim baba in the robber's cave and cassim is the only respectable member of the party i am one by myself one said mortimer
high up an awful staircase commanding a burial ground and i have a whole clerk to myself and he has nothing to do but look at the burial ground and what he will turn out when arrived at maturity i cannot conceive
whether in that shabby rook's nest he is always plotting wisdom or plotting murder whether he will grow up after so much solitary brooding to enlighten his fellow creatures or to poison them is the only speck of interest that presents itself to my professional view
thank you then idiots talk said eugene leaning back folding his arms smoking with his eyes shut and speaking slightly through his nose of energy if there is a word in the dictionary under any letter from a to z that i abominate it is energy
it is such a conventional superstition such parrot gabble what the deuce am i to rush out into the street collar the first man of a wealthy appearance that i meet shake him and say go to law upon the spot you dog and retain me or i'll be the death of you yet that would be energy
precisely my view of the case eugene but show me a good opportunity show me something really worth being energetic about and i'll show you energy and so will i said eugene
the wheels rolled on and rolled down by the monument and by the tower and by the docks down by ratcliffe and by rotherhithe
down by where accumulated scum of humanity seemed to be washed from higher grounds like so much moral sewage and to be pausing until its own weight forced it over the bank and sunk it in the river
among bow splits staring into windows and windows staring into ships the wheels rolled on until they stopped at a dark corner river washed and otherwise not washed at all where the boy alighted and opened the door you must walk the rest sir it's not many yards
he spoke in the singular number to the express exclusion of eugene this is a confoundedly out of the way place said mortimer slipping over the stones and refuse on the shore as the boy turned the corner sharp here's my father's sir where the light is
the low building had the look of having once been a mill
but the whole was very indistinctly seen in the obscurity of the night the boy lifted the latch of the door and they passed at once into a low circular room where a man stood before a red fire looking down into it and a girl sat engaged in needlework
the fire was in a rusty brazier not fitted to the hearth and a common lamp shaped like a hyacinth root smoked and flared in the neck of a stone bottle on the table there was a wooden bunk or berth in a corner
two or three old sculls and oars stood against the wall and against another part of the wall was a small dresser making a spare show of the commonest articles of crockery and cooking vessels the roof of the room was not plastered but was formed of the flooring of the room above
this being very old knotted seamed and beamed gave a lowering aspect to the chamber and roof and walls and floor alike abounding in old smears of flour red lead or some such stain which it had probably acquired in warehousing and damp alike had a look of decomposition
the gentleman father the figure at the red fire turned raised its ruffled head and looked like a bird of prey you're mortimer lightwood esquire are you sir mortimer lightwood is my name what you found
said mortimer glancing rather shrinkingly towards the bunk is it here tain't not to say here but it's close by i do everything reg'lar
no time ain't been lost on any hand the police have put into print already and here's what the print says of it taking up the bottle with the lamp in it he held it near a paper on the wall with the police heading body found
the two friends read the handbill as it stuck against the wall and gaffer read them as he held the light only papers on the unfortunate man i see said lightwood glancing from the description of what was found to the finder only papers
here the girl arose with her work in her hand and went out at the door no money pursued mortimer but threepence in one of the skirt pockets three penny pieces said gaffer hexam in as many sentences
the trousers pockets empty and turned inside out gaffer hexam nodded but that's common
now here moving the light to another similar placard his pockets was found empty and turned inside out and here moving the light to another her pocket was found empty and turned inside out and so was this one's and so was that one's
this one was a sailor with two anchors and a flag and g f t on his arm look and see if he warn't quite right this one was the young woman in grey boots and her linen marked with a cross look and see if she warn't quite right
this is him as had a nasty cut over the eye this is them two young sisters what tied themselves together with a handkecher this the drunken old chap in a pair of list slippers and a nightcap wot had offered it afterwards come out
they pretty well papers the room you see but i know em all i'm scholar enough he waved the light over the whole as if to typify the light of his scholarly intelligence and then put it down on the table and stood behind it looking intently at his visitors
he had the special peculiarity of some birds of prey that when he knitted his brow his ruffled crest stood highest you did not find all these yourself did you asked eugene to which the bird of prey slowly rejoined and what might your name be now
this is my friend mortimer lightwood interposed mister eugene wrayburn mister eugene wrayburn is it and what might mister eugene wrayburn have asked of me i asked you simply if you found all these yourself
i answer you simply most on em do you suppose there has been much violence and robbery beforehand among these cases i don't suppose at all about it returned gaffer i ain't one of the supposing sort
you mightn't be much given to supposing am i to show the way as he opened the door in pursuance of a nod from lightwood an extremely pale and disturbed face appeared in the doorway the face of a man much agitated a body missing
asked gaffer hexam stopping short or a body found which
the warm wind lifted up her shining hair and softly kissed her cheek while the sunbeams looking most kindly in her face made little rainbows in her tears and lingered lovingly about her but annie paid no heed to sun or wind or flower
and am come to help and comfort you now tell me why you weep and let me be your friend replied the spirit as she smiled more kindly still on annie's wondering face
do you ride on butterflies sleep in flower cups and live among the clouds yes all these things i do and many stranger still that all your fairy books can never tell but now dear annie said the fairy bending nearer
why are these great drops shining on the flowers
while the tears began to fall again i am not happy for i am not
good little fairy will you teach me how gladly will i aid you annie and if you truly wish to be a happy child you first must learn to conquer many passions that you cherish now and make your heart a home for gentle feelings and happy thoughts
bend hither that i may place it in your breast no hand can take it hence till i unsay the spell that holds it there
this is a fairy flower said the elf invisible to every eye save yours
when your heart is filled with loving thoughts when some kindly deed has been done some duty well performed then from the flower there will arise the sweetest softest fragrance to reward and gladden you
but when an unkind word is on your lips when a selfish angry feeling rises in your heart or an unkind cruel deed is to be done
listen to its warning let the word remain unspoken the deed undone
o kind and generous fairy how can i ever thank you for this lovely gift cried annie i will be true and listen to my little bell whenever it may ring but shall i never see you more ah
i cannot stay now little annie said the elf but when another spring comes round i shall be here again to see how well the fairy gift has done its work and now farewell dear child be faithful to yourself and the magic flower will never fade
then the gentle fairy folded her little arms around annie's neck laid a soft kiss on her cheek
floating in the sky and little annie sat among her flowers and watched with wondering joy the fairy blossom shining on her breast the pleasant days of spring and summer passed away and in little annie's garden autumn flowers were blooming everywhere
with each day's sun and dew growing still more beautiful and bright but the fairy flower that should have been the loveliest of all hung pale and drooping on little annie's bosom its fragrance seemed quite gone and the clear low music of its warning chime rang often in her ear
then as the fairy said she found a sweet reward in the strange soft perfume of the magic blossom as it shone upon her breast but selfish thoughts would come to tempt her she would yield and unkind words fell from her lips
and then the flower drooped pale and scentless the fairy bell rang mournfully annie would forget her better resolutions and be again a selfish wilful little child at last she tried no longer but grew angry with the faithful flower
breast but the fairy spell still held it fast and all her angry words but made it ring a louder sadder peal then she paid no heed to the silvery music sounding in her ear and each day grew still more unhappy discontented and unkind
so when the autumn days came round she was no better for the gentle fairy's gift and longed for spring that it might be returned
one sunny morning when the fresh cool winds were blowing and not a cloud was in the sky little annie walked among her flowers looking carefully into each hoping thus to find the fairy who alone could take the magic blossom from her breast but she lifted up their drooping leaves peeped into their dewy cups in vain
i will go out into the fields and woods and seek her there
nor wear this withered flower longer so out into the fields she went where the long grass rustled as she passed and timid birds looked at her from their nests
little annie looked searched and asked them all if any one could tell her of the fairy whom she sought
the flowers nodded wisely on their stems but did not speak while butterfly and bee buzzed and fluttered away one far too busy the other too idle to stay and tell her what she asked then she went through broad fields of yellow grain
that waved around her like a golden forest here crickets chirped grasshoppers leaped and busy ants worked but they could not tell her what she longed to know now will i go among the hills said annie she may be there so up and down the green hill sides
went her little feet long she searched and vainly she called but still no fairy came then by the river side she went and asked the gay dragon flies and the cool white lilies if the fairy had been there but the blue waves rippled on the white sand at her feet
and no voice answered her then into the forest little annie went and as she passed along the dim cool paths
so weary with her long and useless search she sat amid the ferns and feasted on the rosy strawberries that grew beside her watching meanwhile the crimson evening clouds that glowed around the setting sun the night wind rustled through the boughs
the wild birds sang their evening hymns and all within the wood grew calm and still paler and paler grew the purple light lower and lower drooped little annie's head the tall ferns bent to shield her from the dew the whispering pines sang a soft lullaby
and when the autumn moon rose up her silver light shone on the child where pillowed on green moss she lay asleep amid the wood flowers in the dim old forest and all night long beside her stood the fairy she had sought
sent to the sleeping child this dream
and unkind words upon her lips the magic flower was ringing its soft warning
little annie look and see the evil things that you are cherishing i will clothe in fitting shapes the thoughts and feelings that now dwell within your heart and you shall see how great their power becomes unless you banish them for ever then annie saw with fear and wonder
that the angry words she uttered changed to dark unlovely forms each showing plainly from what fault or passion it had sprung some of the shapes had scowling faces and bright fiery eyes
others with sullen anxious looks seemed gathering up all they could reach and annie saw that the more they gained the less they seemed to have and these she knew were shapes of selfishness spirits of pride were there
who folded their shadowy garments round them and turned scornfully away from all the rest these and many others little annie saw which had come from her own heart and taken form before her eyes when first she saw them they were small and weak
but as she looked they seemed to grow and gather strength and each gained a strange power over her she could not drive them from her sight and they grew ever stronger darker and more unlovely to her eyes
they seemed to cast black shadows over all around to dim the sunshine blight the flowers and drive away all bright and lovely things while rising slowly round her annie saw a high dark wall that seemed to shut out everything she loved
she dared not move or speak but with a strange fear at her heart sat watching the dim shapes that hovered round her higher and higher rose the shadowy wall slowly the flowers near her died lingeringly the sunlight faded
but at last they both were gone and left her all alone behind the gloomy wall then the spirits gathered round her whispering strange things in her ear bidding her obey for by her own will she had yielded up her heart to be their home and she was now their slave
then she could hear no more but sinking down among the withered flowers wept sad and bitter tears for her lost liberty and joy then through the gloom there shone a faint soft light
clearer and brighter grew the
and left the child alone the light and perfume of the flower seemed to bring new strength to annie and she rose up saying as she bent to kiss the blossom on her breast dear flower help and guide me now and i will listen to your voice
then in her dream she felt how hard the spirits tried to tempt and trouble her and how but for her flower they would have led her back and made all dark and dreary as before long and hard she struggled and tears often fell
but after each new trial brighter shone her magic flower and sweeter grew its breath while the spirits lost still more their power to tempt her meanwhile green flowering vines crept up the high dark wall and hid its roughness from her sight
and over these she watched most tenderly for soon wherever green leaves and flowers bloomed the wall beneath grew weak and fell apart thus little annie worked and hoped till one by one the evil spirits fled away
and in their place came shining forms with gentle eyes and smiling lips who gathered round her with such loving words and brought such strength and joy to annie's heart that nothing evil dared to enter in while slowly sank the gloomy wall
she passed out into the pleasant world again the fairy gift no longer pale and drooping but now shining like a star upon her breast then the low voice spoke again in annie's sleeping ear saying the dark unlovely passions you have looked upon are in your heart
lest they should darken your whole life and shut out love and happiness for ever
and let the shining spirits make your heart their home and with that voice sounding in her ear little annie woke to find it was a dream but like other dreams it did not pass away and as she sat alone bathed in the rosy morning light and watched the forest waken into life
she thought of the strange forms she had seen and looking down upon the flower on her breast she silently resolved to strive as she had striven in her dream to bring back light and beauty to its faded leaves
and as the thought came to her mind the flower raised its drooping head and looking up into the earnest little face bent over it seemed by its fragrant breath to answer annie's silent thought and strengthen her for what might come meanwhile the forest was astir
birds sang their gay good morrows from tree to tree while leaf and flower turned to greet the sun who rose up smiling on the world and so beneath the forest boughs
autumn flowers were dead and gone yellow leaves lay rustling on the ground bleak winds went whistling through the naked trees and cold white winter snow fell softly down yet now when all without looked dark and dreary
on little annie's breast the fairy flower bloomed more beautiful than ever the memory of her forest dream had never passed away and through trial and temptation she had been true and kept her resolution still unbroken seldom now did the warning bell sound in her ear
and seldom did the flower's fragrance cease to float about her or the fairy light to brighten all whereon it fell so through the long cold winter little annie dwelt like a sunbeam in her home each day growing richer in the love of others and happier in herself
she listened only to the music of the fairy bell and the unkind thought or feeling fled away the smiling spirits of gentleness and love nestled in her heart and all was bright again so better and happier grew the child
fairer and sweeter grew the flower till spring came smiling over the earth and woke the flowers set free the streams and welcomed back the birds then daily did the happy child sit among her flowers longing for the gentle elf to come again
that she might tell her gratitude for all the magic gift had done at length one day
weary with gazing at the far off sky for the little form she hoped would come she bent to look with joyful love upon her bosom flower and as she looked its folded leaves spread wide apart and rising slowly from the deep white cup
appeared the smiling face of the lovely elf whose coming she had waited for so long dear annie look for me no longer i am here on your own breast
for you have learned to love my gift and it has done its work most faithfully and well the fairy said as she looked into the happy child's bright face and laid her little arms most tenderly about her neck
then touching the child with her shining wand the fairy bid her look and listen silently
for the air was filled with strange sweet sounds and all around her floated lovely forms in every flower sat little smiling elves singing gayly as they rocked amid the leaves on every breeze bright airy spirits came floating by
some fanned her cheek with their cool breath and waved her long hair to and fro while others rang the flower bells and made a pleasant rustling among the leaves in the fountain where the water danced and sparkled in the sun astride of every drop she saw merry little spirits
the tall trees as their branches rustled in the wind sang a low dreamy song while the waving grass was filled with little voices she had never heard before butterflies whispered lovely tales in her ear and birds sang cheerful songs in a sweet language she had never understood before
earth and air seemed filled with beauty and with music she had never dreamed of until now
she cried looking with wondering joy upon the elf who lay upon the flower in her breast yes it is true dear child replied the fairy and few are the mortals to whom we give this lovely gift
what to you is now so full of music and of light to others is but a pleasant summer world they never know the language of butterfly or bird or flower and they are blind to all that i have given you the power to see these fair things are your friends and playmates now
and they will teach you many pleasant lessons and give you many happy hours while the garden where you once sat weeping sad and bitter tears is now brightened by your own happiness filled with loving friends by your own kindly thoughts and feelings
and thus rendered a pleasant summer home for the gentle happy child whose bosom flower will never fade and now dear annie i must go but every springtime with the earliest flowers will i come again to visit you and bring some fairy gift
then with a kind farewell the gentle fairy floated upward through the sunny air smiling down upon the child until she vanished in the soft white clouds and little annie stood alone in her enchanted garden
where all was brightened with the radiant light and fragrant with the perfume of her fairy flower
as a session of a convention or even months as a session of congress it terminates by an adjournment without day the intermediate adjournments from day to day or the recesses taken during the day do not destroy the continuity of the meeting
they in reality constitute one session in the case of a permanent society having regular meetings every week month or year for example each meeting constitutes a separate session of the society which session however can be prolonged by adjourning to another day
if a principal motion
is indefinitely postponed or rejected at one session while it cannot be introduced again at the same session see renewal of a motion
without it is prohibited by a rule of the assembly no one session of the assembly can interfere with the rights of the assembly at any future session
any one session can adopt a rule or resolution of a permanent nature and it continues in force until at some future session it is rescinded but these standing rules as they are termed do not interfere with future sessions
because at any moment a majority can suspend or rescind them or adopt new ones
without it is expressly so provided in their constitution bylaws or rules of order all of which are so guarded by requiring notice of amendments and at least a two thirds vote for their adoption that they are not subject to sudden changes
but may be considered as expressing the deliberate views of the whole society rather than the opinions or wishes of any particular meeting thus if the presiding officer were ill it would not be competent for one session of the assembly to elect a chairman to hold office longer than that session
as it cannot control or dictate to the next session of the assembly by going through the prescribed routine of an election to fill the vacancy giving whatever notice is required it could then legally elect a chairman to hold office while the vacancy lasted
and thus attempt to prevent the next session from considering the question on the other hand it is not permitted to move a reconsideration
of a vote taken at a previous session though the motion to reconsider can be called up provided it was made at the last meeting of the previous session committees can be appointed to report at a future session note on session
in congress and in fact all legislative bodies the limits of the sessions are clearly defined but in ordinary societies having a permanent existence with regular meetings more or less frequent there appears to be a great deal of confusion upon the subject
any society is competent to decide what shall constitute one of its sessions but where there is no rule on the subject the common parliamentary law would make each of its regular or special meetings a separate session as they are regarded in this manual
the disadvantages of a rule making a session include all the meetings of an ordinary society held during a long time as one year are very great examine indefinitely postpone
and renewal of a motion
and repeatedly renew obnoxious or unprofitable motions the society can adopt a rule prohibiting the second introduction of any principal question
within say three or six months after its rejection or indefinite postponement or after the society has refused to consider it but generally it is better to suppress the motion by refusing to consider it
a quorum of an assembly is such a number as is competent to transact its business without there is a special rule on the subject the quorum of every assembly is a majority of all the members of the assembly but whenever a society has any permanent existence
it is usual to adopt a much smaller number the quorum being often less than one twentieth of its members this becomes a necessity in most large societies where only a small fraction of the members are ever present at a meeting
it is usually not expedient to transact important business without there is a fair attendance at the meeting or else previous notice of such action has been given
the chairman should not take the chair till a quorum is present except where there is no hope of there being a quorum
so whenever during the meeting there is found not to be a quorum present the only thing to be done is to adjourn though if no question is raised about it the debate can be continued but no vote taken except to adjourn in committee of the whole
the quorum is the same as in the assembly in any other committee the majority is a quorum without the assembly order otherwise and it must wait for a quorum before proceeding to business if the number afterwards should be reduced below a quorum business is not interrupted
unless a member calls attention to the fact but no question can be decided except when a quorum is present boards of trustees managers directors et cetera are on the same footing as committees in regard to a quorum
their power is delegated to them as a body and what number shall be present in order that they may act as a board is to be decided by the society that appoints the board
when no rule has been adopted the following is the order one reading the minutes of the previous meeting and their approval two reports of standing committees three reports of select committees four unfinished business
five new business boards of managers trustees et cetera come under the head of standing committees questions that have been postponed from a previous meeting come under the head of unfinished business
it shall take precedence of all business except reading the minutes if it is desired to transact business out of its order it is necessary to suspend the rules
which can only be done by a two thirds vote but as each subject comes up a majority can at once lay it on the table
and thus reach any question which they desire to first dispose of the order of business in considering any report or proposition containing several paragraphs no
one vote being taken finally on the adoption of the whole paper by not adopting separately the different paragraphs it is in order after they have all been amended to go back and amend any of them still further in committee a similar paper would be treated the same way
an illustration is given of the practical application of this section
then the chairman should read it by paragraphs pausing at the end of each and asking are there any amendments proposed to this paragraph if none are offered he says no amendments being offered to this paragraph the next will be read
he then reads the next and proceeds thus to the last paragraph when he states that the whole report or resolutions have been read and are open to amendment he finally puts the question on agreeing to or adopting the whole paper as amended
if there is a preamble it should be read after the last paragraph if the paper has been reported back by a committee with amendments the clerk reads only the amendments
and puts it to the question and so on till all the amendments are adopted or rejected admitting amendments to the committee's amendments but no others
and when these are voted on he puts the question on agreeing to or adopting the paper as amended where the resolutions have been just read by the member presenting them the reading by the clerk is usually dispensed with without the formality of a vote
by suspending the rules
amendments of rules of order these rules can be amended at any regular meeting of the assembly by a two thirds vote of the members present provided the amendment was submitted in writing at the previous regular meeting
and no amendment to constitutions or by laws shall be permitted without at least equal notice and a two thirds vote
constitutions by laws and rules of order should always prohibit their being amended by less than a two thirds vote and without previous notice of the amendment being given
if the by laws should contain rules that it may be desirable to occasionally suspend then they should state how they can be suspended just as is done in these rules of order sec eighteen
powder post by c a stephens there is a tiny borer which eats seasoned oak wood boring thousands of minute holes through it till it becomes a mere shell and turning out a fine white powder known among country folk as powder post
when a shovel or a pitchfork handle snaps suddenly or an axe helve or a rake's tail breaks off under no great strain the farmer says twas powder post if this small pest obtains lodgment in a barn
or in the oak finish or furniture of a house it is likely to do a vexatious amount of damage and no practicable method of checking its ravages has been found varnishes do not exclude it boiling will kill the borer but furniture and wainscotings are not easily boiled
from the frames of old buildings when of oak powder post will sometimes run in streams when a beam or brace is struck but everything has its virtues if only they can be found out and long ago in new england
some rustic a esculapius discovered that powder post was a sovereign balm for all flesh wounds causing them to heal rapidly without proud flesh and if proud flesh appeared
what modern medical science would predicate concerning this panacea i know not but thousands of cuts in rural districts treated with powder post did very well and faith in it waxed strong so when sam eastman cut his foot over in the east woods
all the wiseacres in the neighborhood declared that that foot must be done up in powder post if it isn't they said proud flesh will get into it and that boy will be lame all winter it was a bad cut
sam and willis murch had been splitting four foot logs when sam's axe glancing from a log had buried the blade in his instep the very bones were cut there were four of us boys at work together we ran to him tied a handkerchief round his ankle
and twisted it tight with a stick but blood flowed profusely we did not know how to apply a tourniquet
and although we went to all the neighbors we could not collect enough powder post to dress the cut several people said however
the braces of that barn had been made of cleft red oak
and had lived there for over twenty years ill fortune beset him however
abandoning the property the clearing was known to all the boys of the locality as a favorite haunt of foxes the next morning sam's younger brother john willis murch and i
john had a small axe with which to split the timbers four old newspapers in which to gather up the precious dust and a bottle in which to put it it was thanksgiving morning the sun rose in a clear straw colored sky
it was cold the ground was frozen and there was skating on the small ponds
this is a weather breeder grandmother remarked at breakfast
was a line of slate gray cloud
for willis owned a gun an old army rifle bored out smooth for shot our only anxiety was to get back in good season for dinner thanksgiving dinner was always at three o'clock we set off immediately after breakfast
there was no need for haste on sam's account for john told us that the cut foot was no longer very painful and sam had slept well the distance was about four miles
and no longer rustled underfoot red and gray squirrels scampered across our path but willis disdained to fire at them he was loaded for deer besides he had but three extra charges powder and shot were usually scarce with us
at length we heard a deer run and followed it for an hour or more then john espied a hedgehog in a poplar tree and willis shot it the long black pointed quills were a curiosity to us but we did not deem such game worth carrying home
several of them were fine fish that looked as if they might weigh a pound or more i had heard older boys say that if a gun is fired with the muzzle held just through the ice of a frozen pool the concussion will so stun the fish beneath that they will float up
to the under side of the ice willis was afraid that this would burst his gun but the trout looked so alluring that at last he ventured the experiment john cut a small hole with the axe and then willis lying down thrust the muzzle of the gun about six inches beneath the ice
then he edged away and stretching out his arm at full length pulled the trigger the gun recoiled but no apparent damage was done for a few moments the water was turbid with the smoke but when it cleared there sure enough were five or six of the very largest trout floating belly upward against the ice
we soon came to one much deeper and better stocked with trout and willis fired under the ice again eight fish were secured here
this time willis thrust the gun deeper into the water with the result that about a foot of the muzzle was split open we had angry words about this accident for willis much chapfallen over the mishap blamed me and declared that i ought to buy him a new gun
he then seized all the trout
and he and i turned our backs on willis and hit upon a stratagem for capturing trout on our own account knowing that it was the concussion of the shot that stunned the trout we went up to the old barn and procured a long sweeping board using this like a flail we could strike the ice a blow
that made a noise well nigh as loud as a gun when we gave just the right sort of blow the trout below would turn on their backs and float up to the ice john and i soon secured two good strings of trout and by this time willis
thought it best to make peace come on boys he exclaimed
willis and i had forgotten that hurry then said willis or we shall be late to thanksgiving dinner i'm hungry now we ran to the barn the lean to door was off its hinges but wooden pins held the oak braces of the frame in position we knocked out the pins
and another brace had to be taken out and split by this time our newspapers were torn in pieces and altogether we had much trouble in collecting half a bottleful when at last we corked up the bottle and hurried out of the barn a heavy snowstorm had set in
we could not even see the forest across the clearing
so i think replied willis stopping to look about i think we're heading off too far toward stoss pond said i oh no we're not cried willis come on
gripping our strings of fish we ran on again but presently we were perplexed to discern the side of a mountain looking up directly ahead there now
we didn't cross any such brook as this on our way up john exclaimed we're away down on stoss pond brook said willis we've come wrong if you both think you know more than i keep on i'm going in this other direction and willis set off to run again
john and i followed him in the course of five minutes we came suddenly out into cleared land
john and i were too much gratified to question willis's superior wisdom and followed after him intent only on getting home to dinner the storm was now driving thick and fast we could not see a hundred yards ahead but we seemed to be on level ground
such as i had never seen in neighbor wilbur's pasture soon we came to another large brook
stopping short i don't care cried willis this must be wilbur's pasture
of course it is he shouted back to us for there's wilbur's barn right ahead of us we hastened after willis plodding through dry snowy grass and came to a barn about which the storm eddied in snowy gusts but where's wilbur's house asked john we looked round in perplexity
there was no house in sight but here was a barn and the door was ajar we went in it was empty of hay or cattle
we had run five miles through the woods only to reach the place from which we had started john looked at me and i looked at willis a sense of utter bewilderment fell on us john and i did not even think to revile willis in fact we were terrified
all hope of dinner or of reaching home at all that night deserted us the storm was increasing the late november day was at an end for a while we scarcely spoke john eastman who was the youngest began to cry
the old barn creaked dismally as each gust of wind racked it and loose boards rattled and banged no created place can be more dreary than an old and empty barn
we should not have dared build a fire in the barn even if we had had matches willis groped about in the old hay bay and gathered a few handfuls of musty hay
but nothing that we could do sufficed to warm us and we lay shivering for what seemed hours john and i finally fell asleep and perhaps willis did also although he always denied it at last he waked us shaking us violently you mustn't sleep he exclaimed
our toes and fingers ached a fine dust of snow sifted down on our faces and how that old barn did creak a gale was raging
there's almost always old dry stuff under a barn floor
yes let's do it quavered john if we get under the floor the barn won't kill us maybe if it blows down willis crept to the ends of the floor planks next the lean to and tried first one and then another soon he found one that could be raised and tipped it over
making an aperture large enough to descend through it was pokerish moving about in the dark but we thrust down our legs and found that there was dry chaff and hay there willis let himself down and felt around and then bade us get down beside him
it seemed safer down there and we felt the wind less but lay listening to the gusts
john who was in the middle felt warm as a kitten i was but half awake and so cold that i selfishly crept over between him and willis that waked john
who waked in a bad temper what you doing he snarled getting the warm chaff all away from my back
your mouth isn't with it is it willis did not reply he was falling asleep again say willis has your mouth got strayed away from your head said john is that your head he exclaimed a moment after speaking to me keep still can't you i growled
well by gummy it isn't his head either cried john whose head is that over there you lie down john said willis
he scrambled back over us both the space was all too narrow for such a maneuvre and his knees felt hard now look here said willis you quit that but john was climbing through the hole to the barn floor above you must get out of there he cried there is something down there
by this time willis was fully waked up he reached over with his hand on the side where john had been and then he too gave a spring and climbed out on the floor
he's got an awful thick head of hair said john but he felt warm seemed to be all hair i'll bet it's a bear cried willis denned up under the floor with that john and i made for the door but willis said he did not believe it would come out if it was asleep for the winter
for some time we stood near the door prepared for flight it was growing light and with the daylight our courage revived first willis then john and i
growing bolder willis ventured slowly to lift another floor plank over where our hairy bed fellow lay and even now i seem to see john's dilated eyes as we looked down on a great round mat of shaggy black hair we had now no doubt that it was indeed a bear
the discovery excited us so that we forgot our miseries the bear's skin and the state bounty would be worth sixteen dollars
if we could find the way and get assistance
we saw two men come out of the woods one of them had a gun
with the guile so apt to develop in a boy who has older brothers who tease him but we did said john if you tell them i'll lick you exclaimed willis make them believe we've been guarding this bear john and i did not know what to think of so glaring a deception
neither ben nor mister eastman asked us another question but hastened to see the bear
they made a rude sled of saplings of the kind known to hunters as a scoot and drew the bear home
the murches claimed the lion's share of the spoils but gave john and me a dollar apiece and i recollect that i had a very bad cold for a week sam's cut foot healed promptly
now boys said captain daniel draw your skiff up beside the greyhound and i'll tell you a story of how i was once run away with by a whale we boys did as we were bid drawing the skiff well up clear of the tideway we clambered on board the greyhound
waited for captain daniel to begin taking a match from his waistcoat pocket and lighting a long clay pipe he spoke
alarson coffin master we were cruising on the coast of brazil when one day the lookout stationed at the masthead reported a large school of sperm whales off our lee beam captain coffin who had taken his spy glass and gone aloft at the first cry from the masthead
ordered the boats lowered as the men tumbled over one another to be first to reach the monsters my young heart danced within me and our old black steward had to hold me back i was so anxious to go there was a gentle wind blowing
and the boats crews having hoisted the sails were fast leaving the ship captain coffin now ordered the men to get a spare boat from its cranes over the quarter deck and fit it with whaling implements there were only a few of us left on board for ship keepers
we quickly had the boat down from its cranes and everything ready for launching
and calling to the ship's cooper he said bangs you will have to take charge of the ship during my absence for every one of our boats is fastened to a whale
at least taking another look at the ships which had now crossed our wake he added blast those nantucketers they can smell a sperm whale five miles to their leeward any time he had come down from the rigging and ordered the head sails thrown back
the order was obeyed and stepping to the ship's waist he placed his powerful shoulders against the whale boat and said now boys all shove together as the ship rolled to the leeward out through the gangway shot our boat and landed safely in the water
i was so anxious to see the boat launched properly that as she struck the water i ran to the open gangway and not noticing the boat's warp which the steward had taken the precaution to fasten taut to the ship's rail was struck by it and thrown overboard
you may lay to it that i flew down those cabin stairs for if there was anything in the world i longed for it was to get a chance to see a sperm whale killed as captain coffin stepped to the bow of the boat he ordered the black steward to his place at the steering oar
nothing but wood and black skin will suit me to day we soon caught up with the other boat the first and second officers had each killed a whale
with the nimrod's name stamped upon it to their carcasses the rest of the school had gone down and the third and fourth officers crews were resting on their oars waiting for the attacked whales to break water again the other ships now had their boats in the water
and as captain coffin saw them approach he called to his officers don't let the nantucketers beat us they are regular sharks after sperm oil but we have four whales the best of them now every man here must strike his fish to day
right beside our boat an old bull whale showed his nose out of the water and sent a blast of hot air out of his spout holes which was blown back to us by the wind as we felt the warm breath on our faces each man checked his oar and right here children
i want to correct a mistaken idea whales don't spout water it is their hot breath which like the breath from a horse's nostrils in winter shows white against the sky and looks like water
now boys give way to your oars and you steward
spoke captain coffin and as each man gave a steady pull steward with a skilful turn of the steering oar brought the head of the boat round and the next instant her bow brought up against the body of the whale
captain coffin's wish was fulfilled for in whalemen's lore we were wood and black skin instantly he plunged his harpoon into the monster's quivering blubber and with a dexterity that was
wonderful in a man of his size he seized another and thrust it to the hilt beside the first stern all stern all he cried
and drenched us to the skin it dived then and the whale line ran out of its tub so rapidly that the loggerhead in the stern around which was a turn of the line smoked like a chimney pour some water on that line cried the steward to the tub oarsman
and as the man obeyed the steward tightened the turn on the rope and the boat shot ahead like a race horse
and in a few moments broke water off our starboard bow
what a moment of awe it was to me as i looked at the monster angrily lashing the water with its fins and flukes the next instant we were beside the whale and as it rolled on its side captain coffin transfixed him with a thrust of his lance that seemed to pierce his very vitals
the next moment the blood poured in gallons from his spout holes having slackened the line from the boat we rested on our oars at a safe distance and watched the monster circling around in its dying fury during this time
the rest of the boats had each secured another whale the crew in the third officer's boat appeared to be making signals of distress and captain coffin ordered us to cut loose from our whale and go quickly to their assistance
we saw as we drew near them that the gunwale and the two upper streaks of their boat had been stove by their last whale and the officer was about to throw all the whaling implements overboard in order to lighten her for the crew were desperately bailing out the water
captain coffin at once ordered the men to get into our boat with their implements
which appeared to be fast dying the captain after securing the end of the severed whale line attached it to the line in the third officer's boat and then told me to get into the stoven boat
as he left me he sang out don't let those nantucketers steal the whale from you boy
turning to the third officer he added
as the boats separated i turned and watched the dying whale it was slowly swimming around in a large circle and the blood was just oozing from its spout holes as it came to the surface to breathe the sun was about a handspike high from the horizon
there was considerable water left in the boat which empty of men now floated high
and took another look at the whale the creature was not dead yet and there did not seem to be any blood coming from its spout holes in fact it seemed to be spouting all right and was not circling around any more but was swimming slowly ahead what did it mean
could captain coffin have fastened me to the wrong whale i asked myself i began to feel frightened for all of a sudden the monster began to beat the water again with its flukes and the boat was going at a faster rate of speed
the sun had now reached the water's edge and i could not see any boat coming what should i do if the whale turned on me i looked round for a knife to cut the whale line but could not find one the crew had taken all the knives with them
fast running out of its tub faster and faster it ran until with a jerk the end flew from the tub and i thought i was free but alas no for when the crew were being changed one of them had fastened the small tub which is used for a drag in the end of the line
and it was yanked under the bow thwart and jammed there the boat now shot ahead with furious speed it was growing darker and i could scarcely make out the ship in vain i looked for the boat would it never come to add to my trouble
in fact there were whales everywhere on both sides of the boat and down beneath it i could dimly see their greenish white reflections as they swam just beneath the surface one old cow whale and her calf were close beside me and as they came up to spout i could feel the water
from the splash of the little one's flukes
the boat stopped with a jerk and uncovering my face i saw a sight that made me scream with fright
with a snap its mouth closed and it sank out of sight while i falling on my knees asked god to save me after that i felt better and managed to crawl under the stem sheets for shelter for i was chilled through it was quite dark although the stars shone brightly
the whale seemed to have got free for the boat was idly rocking on the water in changing my cramped form to an upright position my hand came against a hard round piece of iron a feeling of security of advantage of longing for battle ran through me as my hand rested on the cold steel
it was one of the captain's bomb guns which was so despised by him but which might be the means of saving me from an awful death i pulled it from its socket and fondled it in my excitement and relief at finding some means of defence
and almost wished the whale would come back i did not feel so long for the next instant the boat began to move again i heard the whales spouting and right abreast was a monster swimming straight toward the boat
the recoil threw me against the side of the boat where i lay partially stunned and unable to move i was conscious enough however to remember and in silent stupefied terror i awaited a second onslaught from the enraged animal
i seemed to feel the crunching of the boat's timbers in those awful jaws and i must have swooned in looking forward to my own terrible fate when i regained my senses all was quiet around me off the side of the boat at some distance a whale floated on the water
after waiting a few moments i ventured to crawl forward on the thwarts and found the whale line was still attached to the bow i went back to the stern and sat on the after thwart thinking of the gun
it must have fallen overboard when i fell down as i was groping i felt an object in the bottom of the boat that i knew at once was the boat's lantern keg
in it are flint tinder a lantern candles and packed all around them are ship's biscuits instantly the memory of our officers instructions in reference to their use came to me quickly taking the keg to the stern of the boat i struck its end against the loggerhead
how sweet the hard pilot bread tasted it brought to my remembrance the water keg which is also kept in a whale boat i went to the midship thwart and found the keg there lashed firmly beneath it i loosened it and drank heartily
i soon had one of the candles lighted i sat down on the after thwart and held the light aloft till my arm ached everything about me was made more weird by the gleam of the lantern
the swish of the water as it rippled beneath the boat and the screeching of sea fowls that had now gathered around the floating carcass set me to thinking of the ship
i tried to call but my own voice frightened me it sounded so strange so once more i relapsed into silence suddenly something seemed to be the matter with the whale i thought i heard a sound like some one falling overboard what could it be at that moment
i tied the lantern to the loggerhead and crawled under the stern sheets so as not to see them
sleep soon overcame me and testing my head against the boat's side i lost consciousness
while the boat's crew were pulling us to the nimrod they had seen the lantern from the ship and captain coffin had come himself in the boat to rescue me my shot from the bomb gun had killed the bull whale
first not to leave a whale merely because it is spouting blood for it is liable as in the present case to clear its spouting as its ruptured blood vessel is drained and like a wounded animal to fight with renewed vigor second not to despise the bomb gun
always use your bomb gun on a whale children we solemnly told captain daniel that we would do so
whether it be lone fancy him beguiles or that aerial beings sometimes deign to stand embodied to our senses plain sees on the naked hill or valley low the whilst in ocean phoebus dips his wain
a vast assembly moving to and fro then all at once in air dissolves the wondrous show castle of indolence
some very splendid entertainments which madame clairval had given and the general adulation which was paid her made the former more anxious than before to secure an alliance that would so much exalt her in her own opinion and in that of the world
she proposed terms for the immediate marriage of her niece and offered to give emily a dower provided madame clairval observed equal terms on the part of her nephew madame clairval listened to the proposal
and considering that emily was the apparent heiress of her aunt's wealth accepted it meanwhile emily knew nothing of the transaction till madame cheron informed her that she must make preparation for the nuptials which would be celebrated without further delay
then astonished and wholly unable to account for this sudden conclusion which valancourt had not solicited for he was ignorant of what had passed between the elder ladies and had not dared to hope such good fortune she decisively objected to it
madame cheron however quite as jealous of contradiction now as she had been formerly contended for a speedy marriage with as much vehemence as she had formerly opposed whatever had the most remote possibility of leading to it
and emily's scruples disappeared when she again saw valancourt who was now informed of the happiness designed for him and came to claim a promise of it from herself while preparations were making for these nuptials
and though madame clairval was much displeased when she heard of the approaching connection and was willing to prevent that of valancourt with emily her conscience told her that she had no right thus to trifle with their peace
and madame clairval though a woman of fashion was far less advanced than her friend in the art of deriving satisfaction from distinction and admiration rather than from conscience
emily observed with concern the ascendancy which montoni had acquired over madame cheron as well as the increasing frequency of his visits and her own opinion of this italian was confirmed by that of valancourt
who had always expressed a dislike of him as she was one morning sitting at work in the pavilion enjoying the pleasant freshness of spring whose colours were now spread upon the landscape and listening to valancourt who was reading
but who often laid aside the book to converse
so niece said madame and she stopped under some degree of embarrassment
i i wished to see you i have news to tell you from this hour you must consider the signor montoni as your uncle we were married this morning astonished
not so much at the marriage as at the secrecy with which it had been concluded and the agitation with which it was announced emily at length attributed the privacy to the wish of montoni rather than of her aunt
his wife however intended that the contrary should be believed and therefore added you see i wished to avoid a bustle but now the ceremony is over i shall do so no longer
and i wish to announce to my servants that they must receive the signor montoni for their master emily made a feeble attempt to congratulate her on these apparently imprudent nuptials i shall now celebrate my marriage with some splendour continued madame montoni
which will of course be delayed a little while such of your wedding clothes as are ready i shall expect you will appear in to do honour to this festival i also wish you to inform monsieur valancourt that i have changed my name and he will acquaint madame clairval
in a few days i shall give a grand entertainment at which i shall request their presence emily was so lost in surprise and various thought that she made madame montoni scarcely any reply
but at her desire she returned to inform valancourt of what had passed surprise was not his predominant emotion on hearing of these hasty nuptials and when he learned that they were to be the means of delaying his own
and that the very ornaments of the chateau which had been prepared to grace the nuptial day of his emily were to be degraded to the celebration of madame montoni's grief and indignation agitated him alternately
he could conceal neither from the observation of emily whose efforts to abstract him from these serious emotions and to laugh at the apprehensive considerations that assailed him were ineffectual and when at length he took leave
there was an earnest tenderness in his manner that extremely affected her she even shed tears when he disappeared at the end of the terrace yet knew not exactly why she should do so montoni now took possession of the chateau
and the command of its inhabitants with the ease of a man who had long considered it to be his own
which she required but from which montoni too often revolted had apartments assigned to him and received from the domestics an equal degree of obedience with the master of the mansion
among whom was valancourt but at which madame clairval excused herself from attending there was a concert ball and supper valancourt was of course emily's partner and though when he gave a look to the decorations of the apartments
he could not but remember that they were designed for other festivities than those they now contributed to celebrate he endeavoured to check his concern by considering that a little while only would elapse before they would be given to their original destination
during this evening madame montoni danced laughed and talked incessantly while montoni silent reserved and somewhat haughty seemed weary of the parade and of the frivolous company it had drawn together
this was the first and the last entertainment given in celebration of their nuptials montoni though the severity of his temper and the gloominess of his pride prevented him from enjoying such festivities was extremely willing to promote them
it was seldom that he could meet in any company a man of more address
the balance of advantage in such parties or in the connections which might arise from them must therefore be on his side and knowing as he did the selfish purposes for which they are generally frequented
he had no objection to measure his talents of dissimulation with those of any other competitor for distinction and plunder
had sometimes more discernment than vanity acquired a consciousness of her inferiority to other women in personal attractions which uniting with the jealousy natural to the discovery
till she had as she supposed the affections of an husband to lose she had no motive for discovering the unwelcome truth and it had never obtruded itself upon her but now that it influenced her policy
she opposed her husband's inclination for company with the more eagerness because she believed him to be really as well received in the female society of the place as during his addresses to her he had affected to be
a few weeks only had elapsed since the marriage when madame montoni informed emily that the signor intended to return to italy as soon as the necessary preparation could be made for so long a journey we shall go to venice said she
where the signor has a fine mansion and from thence to his estate in tuscany
most certainly replied her aunt how could you imagine we should leave you behind
he is not yet i believe informed of the journey but he very soon will be so signor montoni is gone to acquaint madame clairval of our journey and to say that the proposed connection between the families must from this time be thought of no more
the unfeeling manner in which madame montoni thus informed her niece that she must be separated perhaps for ever from the man with whom she was on the point of being united for life
added to the dismay which she must otherwise have suffered at such intelligence when she could speak she asked the cause of the sudden change in madame's sentiments towards valancourt but the only reply she could obtain was that the signor had forbade the connection
considering it to be greatly inferior to what emily might reasonably expect i now leave the affair entirely to the signor added madame montoni
and i was overpersuaded or i should not have given my consent to the connection i was weak enough i am so foolish sometimes to suffer other people's uneasiness to affect me and so my better judgment yielded to your affliction
but the signor has very properly pointed out the folly of this and he shall not have to reprove me a second time
i am determined that you shall be conformable emily would have been astonished at the assertions of this eloquent speech had not her mind been so overwhelmed by the sudden shock it had received that she scarcely heard a word of what was latterly addressed to her
whatever were the weaknesses of madame montoni she might have avoided to accuse herself with those of compassion and tenderness to the feelings of others and especially to those of emily
it was the same ambition that lately prevailed upon her to solicit an alliance with madame clairval's family which induced her to withdraw from it now that her marriage with montoni had exalted her self consequence and with it her views for her niece
emily was at this time too much affected to employ either remonstrance or entreaty on this topic and when at length she attempted the latter her emotion overcame her speech and she retired to her apartment
to think if in the present state of her mind to think was possible upon this sudden and overwhelming subject
which when it came was dark and even terrible she saw that montoni sought to aggrandise himself in his disposal of her
the prospect of going to italy was still rendered darker when she considered the tumultuous situation of that country then torn by civil commotion where every petty state was at war with its neighbour and even every castle liable to the attack of an invader
she considered the person to whose immediate guidance she would be committed and the vast distance that was to separate her from valancourt and at the recollection of him every other image vanished from her mind and every thought was again obscured by grief
in this perturbed state she passed some hours and when she was summoned to dinner she entreated permission to remain in her own apartment but madame montoni was alone and the request was refused
emily and her aunt said little during the repast the one occupied by her griefs the other engrossed by the disappointment which the unexpected absence of montoni occasioned
when the cloth was drawn and they were alone emily renewed the mention of valancourt but her aunt neither softened to pity or awakened to remorse became enraged that her will should be opposed and the authority of montoni questioned
though this was done by emily with her usual gentleness who after a long and torturing conversation retired in tears as she crossed the hall a person entered it by the great door whom as her eyes hastily glanced that way
she imagined to be montoni and she was passing on with quicker steps when she heard the well known voice of valancourt emily o my emily cried he in a tone faltering with impatience while she turned and as he advanced
in tears emily i would speak with you said he
conduct me to where we may converse but you tremble you are ill let me lead you to a seat he observed the open door of an apartment and hastily took her hand to lead her thither
but she attempted to withdraw it and said with a languid smile i am better already if you wish to see my aunt she is in the dining parlour i must speak with you my emily replied valancourt
but this is an improper place i am overheard let me entreat your attention if only for a few minutes you have seen my aunt said emily i was wretched enough when i came hither exclaimed valancourt
do not increase my misery by this coldness this cruel refusal the despondency with which he spoke this affected her almost to tears
it is he to whom i must speak emily terrified for the consequence of the indignation that flashed in his eyes tremblingly assured him that montoni was not at home and entreated he would endeavour to moderate his resentment
at the tremulous accents of her voice his eyes softened instantly from wildness into tenderness you are ill emily said he they will destroy us both forgive me that i dared to doubt your affection
emily no longer opposed him as he led her into an adjoining parlour the manner in which he had named montoni had so much alarmed her for his own safety
he listened to her entreaties with attention but replied to them only with looks of despondency and tenderness concealing as much as possible the sentiments he felt towards montoni that he might soothe the apprehensions which distressed her
and his assumed tranquillity only alarming her more she urged at length the impolicy of forcing an interview with montoni and of taking any measure which might render their separation irremediable
and her affecting entreaties drew from him a promise that however montoni might persist in his design of disuniting them he would not seek to redress his wrongs by violence for my sake said emily
let the consideration of what i should suffer deter you from such a mode of revenge for your sake emily replied valancourt his eyes filling with tears of tenderness and grief while he gazed upon her yes
yes i shall subdue myself but though i have given you my solemn promise to do this do not expect that i can tamely submit to the authority of montoni if i could i should be unworthy of you yet o emily
how long may he condemn me to live without you how long may it be before you return to france emily endeavoured to sooth him with assurances of her unalterable affection and by representing that in little more than a year she should be her own mistress
as far as related to her aunt from whose guardianship her age would then release her assurances which gave little consolation to valancourt who considered that she would then be in italy and in the power of those whose dominion over her would not cease with their rights
but he affected to be consoled by them emily
was about to leave him when her aunt entered the room she threw a glance of sharp reproof upon her niece who immediately withdrew and of haughty displeasure upon valancourt this is not the conduct i should have expected from you sir said she
i did not expect to see you in my house after you had been informed that your visits were no longer agreeable much less that you would seek a clandestine interview with my niece and that she would grant one valancourt perceiving it necessary to vindicate emily from such a design
explained that the purpose of his own visit had been to request an interview with montoni and he then entered upon the subject of it with the tempered spirit which the sex rather than the respectability of madame montoni demanded
his expostulations were answered with severe rebuke she lamented again that her prudence had ever yielded to what she termed compassion and added that she was so sensible of the folly of her former consent that to prevent the possibility of a repetition
the feeling eloquence of valancourt however at length made her sensible in some measure of her unworthy conduct and she became susceptible to shame but not remorse she hated valancourt
who awakened her to this painful sensation and in proportion as she grew dissatisfied with herself her abhorrence of him increased this was also the more inveterate because his tempered words and manner were such as without accusing her
compelled her to accuse herself and neither left her a hope that the odious portrait was the caricature of his prejudice or afforded her an excuse for expressing the violent resentment with which she contemplated it
at length her anger rose to such an height that valancourt was compelled to leave the house abruptly lest he should forfeit his own esteem by an intemperate reply he was then convinced that from madame montoni he had nothing to hope
for what of either pity or justice could be expected from a person who could feel the pain of guilt without the humility of repentance to montoni he looked with equal despondency
since it was nearly evident that this plan of separation originated with him and it was not probable that he would relinquish his own views to entreaties or remonstrances which he must have foreseen and have been prepared to resist
yet remembering his promise to emily and more solicitous concerning his love than jealous of his consequence valancourt was careful to do nothing that might unnecessarily irritate montoni he wrote to him therefore
not to demand an interview but to solicit one and having done this he endeavoured to wait with calmness his reply madame clairval was passive in the affair when she gave her approbation to valancourt's marriage
it was in the belief that emily would be the heiress of madame montoni's fortune and though upon the nuptials of the latter when she perceived the fallacy of this expectation her conscience had withheld her from adopting any measure to prevent the union
her benevolence was not sufficiently active to impel her towards any step that might now promote it she was on the contrary secretly pleased that valancourt was released from an engagement which she considered to be as inferior in point of fortune to his merit
and though her pride was wounded by this rejection of a member of her family she disdained to shew resentment otherwise than by silence montoni in his reply to valancourt
said that as an interview could neither remove the objections of the one or overcome the wishes of the other it would serve only to produce useless altercation between them he therefore thought proper to refuse it
in consideration of the policy suggested by emily and of his promise to her
seconding them with all the arguments his situation could suggest thus several days passed in remonstrance on one side and inflexible denial on the other for whether it was fear or shame or the hatred which results from both
that made montoni shun the man he had injured he was peremptory in his refusal and was neither softened to pity by the agony which valancourt's letters pourtrayed or awakened to a repentance of his own injustice by the strong remonstrances he employed
at length valancourt's letters were returned unopened and then in the first moments of passionate despair he forgot every promise to emily except the solemn one which bound him to avoid violence and hastened to montoni's chateau
determined to see him by whatever other means might be necessary montoni was denied
not choosing to submit himself to a contest with these he at length departed and returning home in a state of mind approaching to frenzy wrote to emily of what had passed expressed without restraint all the agony of his heart
and entreated that since he must not otherwise hope to see her immediately she would allow him an interview unknown to montoni
chapter fourteen mister flexen awoke next morning hopeful of news of the mysterious woman
after breakfast still hopeful he telephoned to scotland yard
he was sure that it would come sooner or later possibly from the neighbourhood more probably from london it was always possible that mister carrington might discover that some other lawyer had handled an entanglement for lord loudwater
in the meantime his work at the castle was done he had exhausted its possibilities
after having conferred with inspector perkins he decided to leave one of the two detectives to continue making inquiries in the neighbourhood he told james hutchings that he would like his clothes packed
and went to the rose garden to taken his leave of olivia and thank her for her hospitality
she expressed regret at his going and thanked him for his efforts to clear up the matter of lord loudwater's death
mister flexen thought it significant that though she had thanked him for his efforts she had made no inquiry about the result of them it might be that she dreaded to hear that they were on the way to be successful he observed that james hutchings
who watched over his actual departure seemed less pale and haggard than he had been the night before he could well believe that he was glad to see him going without having had him arrested as he drove through the park
he told himself that lady loudwater and mister manley between them would probably break down any case the police might bring against any one but the mysterious woman and they might break down that for his part
he was not going to give much time or attention to it till the mysterious woman had been discovered
after he had sent in his report for mindful of what he had told them of the unsatisfactory nature of doctor thornhill's evidence mister gregg in the daily wire and mister douglas on the daily planet were dealing with the case in a half hearted manner
though they were still clamouring with some vivacity for the mysterious woman as mister flexen came out of the park gates he met william roper on the edge of the west wood stopped the car and walked a few yards down the road to talk to him out of
hearing of the chauffeur i gather that you haven't told any one of what you saw on the night of lord loudwater's death
not a word i haven't said william roper that's good said mister flexen in a tone of warm approval it might spoil everything to put people on their guard he was more strongly than ever resolved to prevent if he could
the gamekeeper from setting afoot a scandal about lady loudwater which could be of no service to the police or any one else everybody says as james hutchings did it sir
they know jim hutchings said william roper contemptuously i see said mister flexen er ladyship and colonel grey they still spends a lot of their time in the east wood pavilion but now er ladyship's a widder
of course not of course not said mister flexen quickly pleased to find that the ferret faced gamekeeper attached so little importance to it i suppose people about here see that they don't know about it
there's something to be got by it a still tongue makes a wise ead i say said william roper with a somewhat vainglorious air quite right quite right said mister flexen heartily many a man's tongue has lost him a good job
you're right there sir but not me it won't said william roper with emphasis i can see that you've too much sense well i shall keep in touch with you and when the time comes you'll be called on drink my health good day
said mister flexen giving him half a crown he walked back to the car pleased to have done olivia the service of closing william roper's mouth at any rate for a time he would talk of course sooner or later probably sooner
but he might have closed his mouth for a fortnight william roper walked on to the village and went into the bull and gate
the return of james hutchings to his situation at the castle was a fact with which it could not grapple easily it was bewildered and annoyed
told what he had seen on the night of the murder of lord loudwater but he had been dropping hints he dropped more he was a supporter of the theory that james hutchings was the murderer
because he desired to oust the father of james hutchings from his post as head gamekeeper that was the reason also of his belief in james hutchings guilt
he was beginning to enjoy the interest he awakened as the storehouse of undivulged knowledge when mister flexen had supposed that he would remain silent for a fortnight he had overestimated both his modesty and his reticence
later in the day the village was further upset by the behaviour of james hutchings himself he came into the bull and gate with an easy air showed himself but little more civil than usual
that the parson should publish the banns of his marriage with elizabeth twitcher on the following sunday the village was staggered this was not the way in which it expected a man who would presently be tried and hanged for murder to behave
in all fairness to james hutchings it must be said that he would not have acted with this decision of his own accord elizabeth had bidden him to it urging that a bold front was half the battle
however grave her own doubts of his innocence might be she was resolved that such doubts should if possible be banished from the minds of other people under her influence
he was already becoming his old self as far as looks went a shade of his usual ruddiness had come back he was losing his haggardness with the going of mister flexen there came a lull
to colonel grey and to james hutchings doubtless he was still working on the case but working at a distance he seemed less of a menace all three of them seemed less under a strain olivia and grey spent their hours together
even helena truslove when mister manley told her that mister flexen had left the castle said that she was very pleased to hear it she looked very pleased
mister manley's sense of what was fitting restrained him from asking her the reason of this pleasure he had indeed no great desire to hear the reason of it from her own lips
it was enough for him to guess that she was the mysterious woman he felt no need of her full confidence the castle seemed to be settling down to its old round the quieter for the loss of lord loudwater
his heir in mesopotamia had been informed of his death by cable but no cable in reply had come from him mister manley remained at the castle as secretary to olivia
who was making preparations leisurely to leave it and settle down in a flat in london colonel grey was recovering from his wound with a passable quickness james hutchings had come to look very much his old self
thanks to the shock he had had and thanks to elizabeth he wore a more subdued air and was much more amiable with his fellow servants the daily wire the daily planet and the rest of the newspapers
had let the loudwater mystery slip quietly out of their columns mister flexen was waiting with quiet expectation for information about the unknown woman since the advertisement the papers had given her had failed to produce that information
he had a london detective working on the life in london before his marriage of the murdered man mister carrington had found nothing among lord loudwater's papers in the office of his firm to throw any light on the matter
the chief actors in the affair regarded the quiet turn it had taken with a timorous satisfaction not so william roper william roper was thoroughly dissatisfied
would be the more dramatic and impressive but he was impatient to make that appearance and chafed at the delay also his prestige was waning the village was losing interest in the mystery
and it no longer looked to him to drop hints as the holder of the secret that did not prevent him from dropping them he would bring up the subject of the murder in order to drop them his acquaintances who wished now to talk about other things
found this practice tiresome they did not hide this feeling matters came to a climax one evening in the bar of the bull and gate william roper dragged the subject of the murder into a conversation on the high price of groceries
john pittaway who had been leading the conversation about the high price of groceries turned on him and said with asperity
that's what i've been thinking this long time said old bob carter who had for over forty years made a point of agreeing with the most disagreeable person at the moment in the bar of the bull and gate isn't there you wait an see
you wait till the trial said william roper trial there won't be no trial oo's a goin to be tried
said john pittaway in yet more disagreeable accents
this was not to be borne indeed if john pittaway were right and there was to be no trial
and that mysterierse woman the papers talked about an ow do you know said john pittaway in a tone of most disagreeable incredulity i know because i seed em said william roper saw oo said john pittaway
then the whole story he had told mister flexen burst forth from william roper's overcharged bosom the story with the embellishments natural to the lapse of time since its first telling no less naturally in the course of the discussion which followed
he told also the story of the luckless kiss in the east wood and the landlord pounced on that as the cause of the quarrel between lord loudwater and colonel grey at bellingham william roper supported his contention
with an embellished account of the interview with lord loudwater in which he had informed him of that kiss it was indeed his great hour not as great as the hour he had promised himself at the trial not so public but a great hour
he left the bull and gate at closing time that night a man in the estimation of all there whose evidence could hang four of his fellow creatures the great man of the village next morning the village was indeed simmering
and the scandal rose and spread from it like a stench that very afternoon mister manley heard it from helena truslove and the next morning mister flexen received two anonymous letters conveying the information to him
and suggesting that colonel grey and the lady loudwater had between them made away with her husband
but there was nothing to be done the scandal must run its course
local or london none the less he was alive to the danger that a sudden heavy pressure might be put on the police and he might be forced to take ill advised action start a prosecution which would do lady loudwater infinite harm
and yet end in a fiasco which would leave the mystery just where it was the one bright spot in the affair
who would make it their business to see that he was avenged as long as that avenging was everybody's business it was nobody's business elizabeth twitcher was no less disturbed than mister flexen she felt that olivia ought to be informed of what was being said
that she might be able to take steps to meet the danger she took counsel with james hutchings who could not help feeling relieved by this diversion of suspicion and he agreed with her that olivia should be informed of the scandal at once
and it's the kind of thing he'll do very well he's a tactful young fellow it would be a blessing if he did said elizabeth with a sigh she paused and added you do speak differently about him to what you used to
yes i made a mistake about him like as i did about some other people said james hutchings with a rather shame faced air he behaved very well about seeing me here the night the master was murdered
very handsomelike on coming back as butler before mister flexen he would do it better than i should said elizabeth then i'll speak to him about it said james hutchings he paused a while to kiss elizabeth then went in search of mister manley
he learned from holloway that he had come in about twenty minutes earlier and was in his sitting room
with an unlighted pipe in his mouth if you please sir i thought i'd better come and tell you that they're saying in the village that colonel grey kissed her ladyship in the east wood on the afternoon of his lordship's death
and his lordship was informed of it and quarrelled with colonel grey and then her ladyship and she and colonel grey made away with his lordship said james hutchings i've heard something about it said mister manley frowning
and he struck a match who set this absurd story going william roper one of the under gamekeepers sir william roper ah i know a ferret faced young fellow yes sir
and we was thinking that her ladyship ought to know about it so as she can put a stop to it at once and you were the proper person to tell her sir said james hutchings on the instant mister manley saw himself discharging this unpleasant but important duty
i was thinking of doing so and now that i know the lying rascal's name i can do it at once the sooner this kind of thing is stopped the better thank you sir said hutchings and with a sigh of relief he left the room
he had reached the top of the stairs when the door of mister manley's room opened he appeared on the threshold and said will you send some one to tell william roper to be here at nine o'clock tonight and it wouldn't be a bad idea to drop a hint to any one you send
that william roper has got himself into serious trouble mister manley thought quickly very good sir said james hutchings and he hurried down the stairs mister manley did not see olivia at once
for she was still in the pavilion in the east wood but as soon as she returned he sent a message by holloway to her that he wished to see her on important business holloway brought word that she would see him at once
he found her in her sitting room gazing out of the window and she turned quickly at his entrance with inquiring eyes it's a rather unpleasant business and the sooner it's dealt with the better said mister manley in a brisk businesslike voice
one of the under gamekeepers has been spreading a scandalous and lying story about you and colonel grey something about his kissing you in the east wood on the afternoon of lord loudwater's death and he has gone on to suggest
or assert i don't know which that you and colonel grey had a hand in lord loudwater's death the blow she had been expecting had fallen and olivia paled and her mouth went dry
which of the under gamekeepers is it she said calmly but with difficulty for her tongue kept sticking to the roof of her mouth a ferret faced rascally looking fellow called william roper said mister manley with some heat
then to save her the effort of speaking he went on of course you'd like him discharged at once the sooner these people understand that their excitement about lord loudwater's death is not going to be held an excuse for telling lying stories the better
you will not be troubled by any more of them olivia looked at him with steady eyes she had recovered herself and was thinking hard mister manley's certainty about the right method of dealing with the matter was catching
it was better to show a bold front and at once there was no time to consult antony grey yes you're quite right mister manley gentle measures are of no use with this kind of scandal monger
william roper must be discharged at once she said quietly perhaps you would like me to deal with him it's rather a business for a man mister manley suggested yes if you would she said in a grateful tone i will as soon as i can get hold of him
said mister manley cheerfully he'll make no more mischief about here he went out of the room briskly his confidence was heartening when the door closed behind him olivia sobbed twice in the reaction from the shock of his announcement
then she recovered herself and went quietly to her bath she observed elizabeth's sympathetic manner as she dressed her hair evidently all the servants as well as the villagers were talking about her
but for its possible dangerous consequences she was indifferent to their talk she was now wholly absorbed in grey he was the only thing of any importance in her life mister manley ate his dinner with an excellent appetite
he was pleased with the brisk almost brusque manner in which he had dealt with the matter of william roper in his interview with olivia if he had shilly shallied and hummed and hawed about the scandal
he thought too that his practical common sense attitude to the business would probably help her to take it more easily and he was sure that he had advised the best measure to be taken with william roper
he was smoking a cigar in a great content when at nine o'clock holloway brought him word that william roper had come mister manley bade him bring him
he felt that suspense would make william roper malleable and he intended to hammer him at thirteen minutes past nine he composed his face into a dour truculence an expression to which the heavy conformation of the lower part
lent itself admirably william roper looking uncommonly ill at ease was ushered in by james hutchings himself and the butler had improved the thirteen shining minutes he had had with him by increasing
to a considerable degree his uneasiness and anxiety mister manley did not greet william roper he stood on the hearth rug and glowered at him with heavy truculence william roper shuffled his feet and fumbled with his cap
then mister manley said her ladyship has been informed that you have been spreading scandalous reports in the village and she has instructed me to discharge you at once he walked across to the table
dipped a pen in the ink and added here are your wages up to date and a week's wages in lieu of notice sign this receipt he dipped a pen in the ink and held it out to william roper
with very much the air of lady macbeth presenting her husband with the dagger william roper was stupefied mister manley truculent and dramatic cowed him i never done nothing sir he said feebly
sign at once said mister manley gazing at him with the glare of the basilisk i ain't agoing to sign i ain't done nothing to be discharged i ain't said nothing but what i seed with my own eyes william roper protested
sign said mister manley tapping the receipt like an official in a spy play sign he was too much for william roper the conflict such as it was of wills ceased abruptly william roper signed
mister manley pushed the money towards him as towards a loathed pariah william roper counted it and put it in his pocket he walked towards the door with an air of stupefied dejection
also you are to be off the estate by twelve o'clock tomorrow loudwater is not the place for ungrateful and slanderous rogues said mister manley william roper stopped and turned his face was working malignantly
we'll see what mister flexen's got to say about this he snarled went through the door and slammed it behind
his thoughtful air and the anxious glances he cast every now and then toward one of the little grated windows of the building sufficed to indicate that some very rare bird indeed had been entrusted to his keeping
and he paused in his promenade ah well he inquired what news do you bring i have an order to conduct the prisoners to the prefecture
capital capital he exclaimed
we will throw them in and hurry the driver off lecoq was obliged to interrupt the keeper's transports of satisfaction are the prisoners alone he inquired quite alone
this has been a remarkably quiet night for shrove sunday quite surprising indeed it is true your hunt was interrupted you had a drunken man here however no yes that's true
you may laugh as much as you like retorted the keeper but such is really the case if it hadn't been for gevrol the man would certainly have been run over and what has become of him the keeper shrugged his shoulders you ask me too much he responded
and on coming out into the open air the wine flew into his head he told us all about it when he got sober half an hour afterward i never saw a man so vexed as he was he wept and stammered the father of a family and at my age too
oh it is shameful what shall i say to my wife what will the children think did he talk much about his wife he talked about nothing else he mentioned her name eudosia leocadie or some name of that sort
he begged us to send for the commissary to go to his house and when we set him free i thought he would go mad with joy he kissed our hands and thanked us again and again and did you place him in the same cage as the murderer inquired lecoq
of course then they talked with each other talked
when he was placed in a cell bang he fell down like a log of wood
the young police agent had grown very thoughtful i was evidently right he murmured what did you say
was not inclined to communicate his reflections to the custodian of the guard house these reflections of his were by no means pleasant ones i was right he thought this pretended drunkard was none other than the accomplice he is evidently an adroit
audacious cool headed fellow while we were tracking his footprints he was watching us when we had got to some distance he was bold enough to enter the hovel
he succeeded in finding an opportunity to speak with the murderer he played his part perfectly still i know that he did play a part and that is something
he talked of his family his wife and children hence he has neither children wife nor family
what kind of fellow was this drunkard he inquired he was tall and stout with full ruddy cheeks a pair of white whiskers small eyes a broad flat nose and a good natured jovial manner
how old would you suppose him to be between forty and fifty did you form any idea of his profession it's my opinion that what with his soft cap and his heavy brown overcoat he must be either a clerk
or the keeper of some little shop having obtained this description
lecoq was about to enter the station house when a sudden thought brought him to a standstill
he exclaimed the keeper laughed heartily how could he have had any he responded isn't the old woman alone in her cell ah the old wretch she has been cursing and threatening ever since she arrived
lecoq's glance and gesture were so expressive of impatience and wrath that the keeper paused in his recital much perturbed what is the matter he stammered why are you angry because replied lecoq furiously
not wishing to disclose the real cause of his anger he entered the station house saying that he wanted to see the prisoner left alone the keeper began to swear in his turn these police agents are all alike he grumbled they question you
you tell them all they desire to know and afterward if you venture to ask them anything they reply nothing or because they have too much authority it makes them proud looking through the little latticed window in the door
by which the men on guard watch the prisoners lecoq eagerly examined the appearance of the assumed murderer he was obliged to ask himself if this was really the same man he had seen some hours previously at the poivriere
standing on the threshold of the inner door and holding the whole squad of police agents in check by the intense fury of his attitude now on the contrary he seemed as it were the personification of weakness and despondency
he was seated on a bench opposite the grating in the door his elbows resting on his knees his chin upon his hand
no murmured lecoq no this man is not what he seems to be so saying he entered the cell the culprit raised his head gave the detective an indifferent glance but did not utter a word well how goes it
asked lecoq i am innocent responded the prisoner in a hoarse discordant voice i hope so i am sure but that is for the magistrate to decide i came to see if you wanted anything no replied the murderer
but a second later he changed his mind all the same he said i shouldn't mind a crust and a drink of wine
in his opinion if the murderer had asked for a drink after at first refusing to partake of anything
at all events whoever he might be the prisoner ate with an excellent appetite
drained it slowly and remarked that's capital there can be nothing to beat that
hoping nay almost expecting that the murderer would not drink it without some sign of repugnance and yet the contrary proved the case however the young detective had no time to ponder over the circumstance
for a rumble of wheels now announced the approach of that lugubrious vehicle the black maria when the widow chupin was removed from her cell
that she was at length got into the van then it was that the officials turned to the assassin
the culprit entered the vehicle in the most unconcerned manner and took possession of his compartment like one accustomed to it knowing the most comfortable position to assume in such close quarters
lecoq had taken his seat in front between the driver and the guard but his mind was so engrossed with his own thoughts that he heard nothing of their conversation which was very jovial
who sang and yelled her imprecations alternately it is needless however to recapitulate her oaths let us rather follow the train of lecoq's meditation by what means could he secure some clue to the murderer's identity
he was still convinced that the prisoner must belong
such conduct was quite possible indeed almost probable on the part of a man endowed with considerable strength of will and realizing the imminence of his peril but granting this would he be equally able to hide his feelings
when he was obliged to submit to the humiliating formalities that awaited him formalities which in certain cases can and must
he felt sure that the disgraceful position in which the prisoner would find himself would cause him to revolt to lose his self control to utter some word that might give the desired clue it was not until the gloomy vehicle
had turned off the pont neuf on to the quai de l'horloge that the young detective became conscious of what was transpiring around him soon the van passed through an open gateway and drew up in a small damp courtyard
lecoq immediately alighted and opened the door of the compartment in which the supposed murderer was confined exclaiming as he did so here we are get out there was no fear of the prisoner escaping the iron gate had been closed
and at least a dozen agents were standing near at hand waiting to have a look at the new arrivals the prisoner slowly stepped to the ground his expression of face remained unchanged and each gesture evinced the perfect indifference
of a man accustomed to such ordeals lecoq scrutinized his demeanor as attentively as an anatomist might have watched the action of a muscle he noted that the prisoner seemed to experience a sensation of satisfaction
and then stretched and shook himself as if to regain the elasticity of his limbs cramped by confinement in the narrow compartment from which he had just emerged then he glanced around him and a scarcely perceptible smile played upon his lips
that he was well acquainted with these high grim walls these grated windows these heavy doors in short
does he indeed recognize the place and his sense of disappointment and disquietude increased
the prisoner turned toward one of the five or six doors that opened into the courtyard without an instant's hesitation he walked straight toward the very doorway he was expected to enter
after entering the gloomy corridor he saw the culprit proceed some little distance resolutely turn to the left pass by the keeper's room and finally enter the registrar's office an old offender could not have done better
big drops of perspiration stood on lecoq's forehead this man thought he has certainly been here before he knows the ropes the registrar's office was a large room
heated almost to suffocation by an immense stove and badly lighted by three small windows the panes of which were covered with a thick coating of dust there sat the clerk reading a newspaper spread out over the open register
that fatal book in which are inscribed the names of all those whom misconduct crime misfortune madness or error have brought to these grim portals three or four attendants
who were awaiting the hour for entering upon their duties reclined half asleep upon the wooden benches that lined three sides of the room these benches with a couple of tables and some dilapidated chairs constituted the entire furniture of the office
in one corner of which stood a measuring machine under which
the exact height of the prisoners being recorded in order that the description of their persons might be complete in every respect at the entrance of the culprit accompanied by lecoq the clerk raised his head ah said he has the van arrived
and showing the orders signed by m d'escorval he added here are this man's papers the registrar took the documents and read them oh he exclaimed a triple assassination oh oh
the glance he gave the prisoner was positively deferential this was no common culprit no ordinary vagabond no vulgar thief the investigating magistrate orders a private examination continued the clerk
and i must get the prisoner other clothing as the things he is wearing now will be used as evidence let some one go at once and tell the superintendent that the other occupants of the van must wait at this moment the governor of the depot entered the office
the clerk at once dipped his pen in the ink and turning to the prisoner he asked what is your name may your christian name i have none
and then answered sulkily i may as well tell you that you need not tire yourself by questioning me i shan't answer any one else but the magistrate you would like to make me cut my own throat wouldn't you a very clever trick of course
you must see
observed the governor not in the least i am innocent you wish to ruin me i only defend myself get anything more out of me now if you can but you had better give me back what they took from me at the station house
my hundred and thirty six francs and eight sous i shall need them when i get out of this place i want you to make a note of them on the register where are they the money had been given to lecoq by the keeper of the station house
here are your hundred and thirty six francs and eight sous said he and also your knife your handkerchief and four cigars an expression of lively contentment was discernible on the prisoner's features
now resumed the clerk will you answer but the governor perceived the futility of further questioning and silencing the clerk by a gesture he told the prisoner to take off his boots lecoq thought the assassin's glance wavered as he heard this order
was it only a fancy why must i do that asked the culprit to pass under the beam replied the clerk we must make a note of your exact height the prisoner made no reply
but sat down and drew off his heavy boots the heel of the right one was worn down on the inside it was moreover noticed that the prisoner wore no socks and that his feet were coated with mud
you only wear boots on sundays then remarked lecoq why do you think that by the mud with which your feet are covered
what of that exclaimed the prisoner in an insolent tone is it a crime not to have a marchioness's feet it is a crime you are not guilty of at all events said the young detective slowly do you think i can't see
that if the mud were picked off your feet would be white and neat the nails have been carefully cut and polished he paused a new idea inspired by his genius for investigation had just crossed lecoq's mind
and spreading a newspaper over it he said will you place your foot there the man did not comply with the request it is useless to resist exclaimed the governor we are in force the prisoner delayed no longer
anywhere else so strange and grotesque a proceeding would have excited laughter but here in this gloomy chamber
an otherwise trivial act is fraught with serious import nothing astonishes and should a smile threaten to curve one's lips it is instantly repressed all the spectators from the governor of the prison to the keepers
had witnessed many other incidents equally absurd and no one thought of inquiring the detective's motive this much was known already that the prisoner was trying to conceal his identity now it was necessary to establish it at any cost
and lecoq had probably discovered some means of attaining this end the operation was soon concluded and lecoq swept the dust off the paper into the palm of his hand he divided it into two parts enclosing one portion in a scrap of paper
and slipping it into his own pocket with the remainder he formed a package which he handed to the governor saying i beg you sir to take charge of this and to seal it up here in presence of the prisoner this formality is necessary
so that by and by he may not pretend that the dust has been changed the governor complied with the request and as he placed this bit of proof as he styled it in a small satchel for safe keeping the prisoner shrugged his shoulders with a sneering laugh
still beneath this cynical gaiety lecoq thought he could detect poignant anxiety chance owed him the compensation of this slight triumph for previous events had deceived all his calculations
the prisoner did not offer the slightest objection when he was ordered to undress and to exchange his soiled and bloodstained garments for the clothing furnished by the government not a muscle of his face moved while he submitted his person
which make the blood rush to the forehead of the lowest criminal it was with perfect indifference that he allowed an inspector to comb his hair and beard and to examine the inside of his mouth so as to make sure that he had not concealed
either some fragment of glass by the aid of which captives can sever the strongest bars or one of those microscopical bits of lead with which prisoners write the notes they exchange rolled up in a morsel of bread and called
postilions these formalities having been concluded the superintendent rang for one of the keepers conduct this man to no three of the secret cells he ordered there was no need to drag the prisoner away he walked out as he had entered
preceding the guard like some old habitue who knows where he is going what a rascal exclaimed the clerk
ah there can be no doubt of it declared the governor this man is certainly a dangerous criminal an old offender i think i have seen him before i could almost swear to it thus it was evident these people with their long varied experience
shared gevrol's opinion lecoq stood alone he did not discuss the matter what good would it have done besides the widow chupin was just being brought in the journey must have calmed her nerves for she had become as gentle as a lamb
it was in a wheedling voice and with tearful eyes that she called upon these good gentlemen to witness the shameful injustice with which she was treated she an honest woman was she not the mainstay of her family
since her son polyte was in custody charged with pocket picking hence what would become of her daughter in law and of her grandson toto who had no one to look after them but her still when her name had been taken and a keeper was ordered to remove her
nature reasserted itself and scarcely had she entered the corridor than she was heard quarreling with the guard you are wrong not to be polite she said you are losing a good fee without counting many a good drink i would stand you when i get out of here
he wandered through the gloomy corridors from office to office but finding himself assailed with questions by every one he came across he eventually left the depot
here he tried to collect his thoughts his convictions were unchanged he was more than ever convinced that the prisoner was concealing his real social standing but on the other hand
he had also proved himself to be endowed with far more cleverness than lecoq had supposed what self control what powers of dissimulation he had displayed he had not so much as frowned while undergoing the severest ordeals
and he had managed to deceive the most experienced eyes in paris the young detective had waited during nearly three hours as motionless as the bench on which he was seated and so absorbed in studying his case that he had thought neither of the cold
nor of the flight of time when a carriage drew up before the entrance of the prison
followed by his clerk lecoq rose and hastened well nigh breathless with anxiety toward the magistrate my researches on the spot said this functionary confirm me in the belief that you are right is there anything fresh yes sir
interrupted the magistrate you will explain it to me by and by first of all i must summarily examine the prisoners a mere matter of form for to day wait for me here although the magistrate promised to make haste
in this he was mistaken twenty minutes later
he was walking very fast and instead of approaching the young detective he called to him at some little distance i must return home at once he said instantly i can not listen to you but sir enough
the bodies of the victims have been taken to the morgue keep a sharp lookout there then this evening make well do whatever you think best but sir i must to morrow to morrow at nine o'clock in my office in the palais de justice
lecoq wished to insist upon a hearing
thrown himself into his carriage and the coachman was already whipping up the horse and to think that he's an investigating magistrate panted lecoq
can it be he murmured
holds the key to the mystery perhaps he wishes to get rid of me this suspicion was so terrible
hoping that the prisoner's bearing might help to solve his doubts on peering through the grated aperture in the door of the cell he perceived the prisoner lying on the pallet that stood opposite the door his face was turned toward the wall
for lecoq could detect a strange movement of the body which puzzled and annoyed him on applying his ear instead of his eye to the aperture he distinguished a stifled moan there could no longer be any doubt
the death rattle was sounding in the prisoner's throat
the prisoner is killing himself a dozen keepers hastened to the spot the door was quickly opened and it was then ascertained that the prisoner having torn a strip of binding from his clothes had fastened it round his neck and tried to strangle himself
he was already unconscious and the prison doctor who immediately bled him declared that had another ten minutes elapsed help would have arrived too late when the prisoner regained his senses he gazed around him with a wild puzzled stare
one might have supposed that he was amazed to find himself still alive suddenly a couple of big tears welled from his swollen eyelids and rolled down his cheeks he was pressed with questions
but did not vouchsafe so much as a single word in response as he was in such a desperate frame of mind and as the orders to keep him in solitary confinement prevented the governor giving him a companion
and then walked away puzzled thoughtful and agitated intuition told him that these mysterious occurrences concealed some terrible drama still what can have occurred since the prisoner's arrival here he murmured
has he confessed his guilt to the magistrate or
chapter seven the lion and the unicorn the next moment soldiers came running through the wood at first in twos and threes then ten or twenty together and at last in such crowds
that they seemed to fill the whole forest alice got behind a tree for fear of being run over and watched them go by she thought that in all her life she had never seen soldiers so uncertain on their feet
they were always tripping over something or other and whenever one went down several more always fell over him so that the ground was soon covered with little heaps of men then came the horses having four feet
these managed rather better than the foot soldiers but even they stumbled now and then and it seemed to be a regular rule that
said alice several thousand i should think four thousand two hundred and seven that's the exact number the king said referring to his book
and i haven't sent the two messengers either
i see nobody on the road
the king remarked in a fretful tone
and at that distance too why it's as much as i can do to see real people by this light all this was lost on alice who was still looking intently along the road shading her eyes with one hand
i see somebody now she exclaimed at last
for the messenger kept skipping up and down and wriggling like an eel as he came along
said the king he's an anglo saxon messenger and those are anglo saxon attitudes
he pronounced it so as to rhyme with mayor i love my love with an h alice couldn't help beginning because he is happy i hate him with an h because he is hideous
his name is haigha and he lives he lives on the hill the king remarked simply without the least idea that he was joining in the game while alice was still hesitating for the name of a town beginning with h
to come and go one to come and one to go
said alice it isn't respectable to beg said the king i only meant that i didn't understand said alice
one to fetch and one to carry at this moment the messenger arrived he was far too much out of breath to say a word
this young lady loves you with an h the king said introducing alice in the hope of turning off the messenger's attention from himself but it was no use
the anglo saxon attitudes only got more extraordinary every moment while the great eyes rolled wildly from side to side
peeping into the bag hay then the king murmured in a faint whisper alice was glad to see that it revived him a good deal there's nothing like eating hay when you're faint
he remarked to her as he munched away i should think throwing cold water over you would be better alice suggested or some sal volatile i didn't say there was nothing better the king replied
i said there was nothing like it which alice did not venture to deny who did you pass on the road the king went on holding out his hand to the messenger for some more hay
said the messenger quite right said the king this young lady saw him too so of course nobody walks slower than you
he can't do that
however now you've got your breath you may tell us what's happened in the town i'll whisper it said the messenger putting his hands to his mouth in the shape of a trumpet and stooping
the lion beat the unicorn all round the town some gave them white bread some gave them brown some gave them plum cake and drummed them out of town does the one that wins get the crown
she asked as well as she could
be good enough alice panted out after running a little further to stop a minute just to get one's breath again i'm good enough the king said
so they trotted on in silence till they came in sight of a great crowd in the middle of which the lion and unicorn were fighting they were in such a cloud of dust that at first alice could not make out which was which
but she soon managed to distinguish the unicorn by his horn they placed themselves close to where hatta the other messenger was standing watching the fight with a cup of tea in one hand and a piece of bread and butter in the other
he went on putting his arm affectionately round hatta's neck hatta looked round and nodded and went on with his bread and butter were you happy in prison dear child said haigha hatta looked round once more
and this time a tear or two trickled down his cheek but not a word would he say speak can't you haigha cried impatiently
alice took a piece to taste but it was very dry i don't think they'll fight any more to day the king said to hatta go and order the drums to begin and hatta went bounding away like a grasshopper
for a minute or two alice stood silent watching him suddenly she brightened up
she came flying out of the wood over yonder how fast those queens can run
the king said without even looking round that wood's full of them
alice asked very much surprised at his taking it so quietly
she's a dear good creature he repeated softly to himself
double e at this moment the unicorn sauntered by them with his hands in his pockets i had the best of it this time he said to the king just glancing at him as he passed
you shouldn't have run him through with your horn you know it didn't hurt him the unicorn said carelessly and he was going on when his eye happened to fall upon alice he turned round rather instantly
and stood for some time looking at her with an air of the deepest disgust
this he said at last
and spreading out both his hands towards her in an anglo saxon attitude
and twice as natural i always thought they were fabulous monsters said the unicorn is it alive it can talk said haigha solemnly
the unicorn looked dreamily at alice and said talk child
i never saw one alive before
is that a bargain yes if you like said alice
the unicorn went on turning from her to the king none of your brown bread for me certainly certainly the king muttered and beckoned to haigha open the bag he whispered quick not that one
that's full of hay haigha took a large cake out of the bag and gave it to alice to hold while he got out a dish and carving knife
the lion had joined them while this was going on he looked very tired and sleepy and his eyes were half shut
the lion looked at alice wearily are you animal
the lion said lying down and putting his chin on this paws and sit down both of you to the king and the unicorn
the king was evidently very uncomfortable at having to sit down between the two great creatures
what a fight we might have for the crown now the unicorn said
which the poor king was nearly shaking off his head he trembled so much
why i beat you all round the town you chicken the lion replied angrily half getting up as he spoke here the king interrupted to prevent the quarrel going on
i'm sure i don't know the lion growled out as he lay down again there was too much dust to see anything what a time the monster is cutting up that cake
alice had seated herself on the bank of a little brook with the great dish on her knees
this sounded nonsense but alice very obediently got up and carried the dish round and the cake divided itself into three pieces as she did so now cut it up said the lion
she's kept none for herself anyhow said the lion
but before alice could answer him the drums began where the noise came from she couldn't make out the air seemed full of it and it rang through and through her head till she felt quite deafened
she started to her feet and sprang across the little brook in her terror
with angry looks at being interrupted in their feast before she dropped to her knees and put her hands over her ears vainly trying to shut out the dreadful uproar if that doesn't drum them out of town she thought to herself
the snow queen first story which treats of a mirror and of the splinters now then let us begin
we shall know more than we know now but to begin once upon a time there was a wicked sprite indeed he was the most mischievous of all sprites one day he was in a very good humor for he had made a mirror
with the power of causing all that was good and beautiful when it was reflected therein to look poor and mean but that which was good for nothing and looked ugly was shown magnified and increased in ugliness in this mirror
the most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach and the best persons were turned into frights or appeared to stand on their heads their faces were so distorted that they were not to be recognised and if anyone had a mole
you might be sure that it would be magnified and spread over both nose and mouth
then a grin was seen in the mirror and the sprite laughed heartily at his clever discovery all the little sprites who went to his school for he kept a sprite school told each other that a miracle had happened
and that now only as they thought it would be possible to see how the world really looked they ran about with the mirror
and have a joke there the higher they flew with the mirror the more terribly it grinned they could hardly hold it fast higher and higher still they flew nearer and nearer to the stars when suddenly
the mirror shook so terribly with grinning that it flew out of their hands
and now it worked much more evil than before for some of these pieces were hardly so large as a grain of sand and they flew about in the wide world and when they got into people's eyes there they stayed
and then people saw everything perverted or only had an eye for that which was evil this happened because the very smallest bit had the same power which the whole mirror had possessed some persons even got a splinter in their heart
and then it made one shudder for their heart became like a lump of ice some of the broken pieces were so large that they were used for windowpanes through which one could not see one's friends other pieces were put in spectacles
and that was a sad affair when people put on their glasses to see well and rightly then the wicked sprite laughed till he almost choked for all this tickled his fancy the fine splinters still flew about in the air
and now we shall hear what happened next second story a little boy and a little girl in a large town where there are so many houses and so many people
that there is no roof left for everybody to have a little garden and where on this account most persons are obliged to content themselves with flowers in pots there lived two little children who had a garden somewhat larger than a flower pot
they were not brother and sister but they cared for each other as much as if they were their parents lived exactly opposite they inhabited two garrets and where the roof of the one house joined that of the other
and the gutter ran along the extreme end of it there was to each house a small window one needed only to step over the gutter to get from one window to the other the children's parents had large wooden boxes there
and little rosetrees besides there was a rose in each box and they grew splendidly they now thought of placing the boxes across the gutter so that they nearly reached from one window to the other and looked just like two walls of flowers
the tendrils of the peas hung down over the boxes and the rose trees shot up long branches twined round the windows and then bent towards each other it was almost like a triumphant arch of foliage and flowers
the boxes were very high and the children knew that they must not creep over them so they often obtained permission to get out of the windows to each other and to sit on their little stools among the roses where they could play delightfully
there was an end of this pleasure the windows were often frozen over but then they heated copper farthings on the stove and laid the hot farthing on the windowpane and then they had a capital peep hole quite nicely rounded
and out of each peeped a gentle friendly eye it was the little boy
his name was kay hers was gerda in summer with one jump they could get to each other but in winter they were obliged first to go down the long stairs and then up the long stairs again
and out of doors there was quite a snow storm it is the white bees that are swarming said kay's old grandmother
asked the little boy for he knew that the honey bees always have one
said the grandmother she flies where the swarm hangs in the thickest clusters she is the largest of all and she can never remain quietly on the earth but goes up again into the black clouds
many a winter's night she flies through the streets of the town and peeps in at the windows
said both the children and so they knew that it was true can the snow queen come in
and then his grandmother patted his head and told him other stories in the evening when little kay was at home and half undressed he climbed up on the chair by the window and peeped out of the little hole a few snow flakes were falling
and one the largest of all remained lying on the edge of a flower pot the flake of snow grew larger and larger
dressed in the finest white gauze made of a million little flakes like stars she was so beautiful
yet she lived her eyes gazed fixedly like two stars but there was neither quiet nor repose in them she nodded towards the window and beckoned with her hand the little boy was frightened
the next day it was a sharp frost and then the spring came the sun shone the green leaves appeared the swallows built their nests the windows were opened and the little children again sat in their pretty garden
that summer the roses flowered in unwonted beauty the little girl had learned a hymn
and then she thought of her own flowers and she sang the verse to the little boy who then sang it with her the rose in the valley is blooming so sweet
and the children held each other by the hand kissed the roses looked up at the clear sunshine and spoke as though they really saw angels there what lovely summer days those were how delightful to be out in the air near the fresh rose bushes
kay and gerda looked at the picture book full of beasts and of birds and it was then the clock in the church tower was just striking five that kay said oh
the little girl put her arms around his neck he winked his eyes now there was nothing to be seen
said he but it was not it was just one of those pieces of glass from the magic mirror
and poor kay had got another piece right in his heart
they are just like the box they are planted in and then he gave the box a good kick with his foot
and as he perceived her fright he pulled up another rose got in at the window and hastened off from dear little gerda afterwards when she brought her picture book he asked what horrid beasts have you there
and if his grandmother told them stories he always interrupted her besides if he could manage it he would get behind her
he copied all her ways and then everybody laughed at him he was soon able to imitate the gait and manner of everyone in the street everything that was peculiar and displeasing in them that kay knew how to imitate and at such times
the boy is certainly very clever
the glass that was sticking in his heart which made him tease even little gerda whose whole soul was devoted to him his games now were quite different to what they had formerly been they were so very knowing one winter's day when the flakes of snow were flying about
and caught the snow as it fell look through this glass gerda said he and every flake seemed larger and appeared like a magnificent flower or beautiful star it was splendid to look at look how clever
said kay that's much more interesting than real flowers
if they did not melt it was not long after this that kay came one day with large gloves on and his little sledge at his back and bawled right into gerda's ears i have permission to go out into the square
where the others are playing and off he was in a moment there in the market place some of the boldest of the boys used to tie their sledges to the carts as they passed by and so they were pulled along and got a good ride
it was so capital just as they were in the very height of their amusement a large sledge passed by
with a rough white fur cap on his head
and kay tied on his sledge as quickly as he could and off he drove with it on they went quicker and quicker into the next street and the person who drove turned round to kay and nodded to him in a friendly manner just as if they knew each other
every time he was going to untie his sledge the person nodded to him and then kay sat quiet and so on they went till they came outside the gates of the town then the snow began to fall so thickly
that the little boy could not see an arm's length before him but still on he went when suddenly he let go the string he held in his hand in order to get loose from the sledge
still the little vehicle rushed on with the quickness of the wind
but no one heard him the snow drifted and the sledge flew on and sometimes it gave a jerk as though they were driving over hedges and ditches he was quite frightened and he tried to repeat the lord's prayer but all he could do he was only able to remember the multiplication table
the snow flakes grew larger and larger till at last they looked just like great white fowls suddenly they flew on one side the large sledge stopped and the person who drove rose up it was a lady
she was tall and of slender figure
it was the snow queen we have travelled fast said she but it is freezingly cold come under my bearskin and she put him in the sledge beside her wrapped the fur round him and he felt as though he were sinking in a snow wreath
are you still cold asked she and then she kissed his forehead ah it was colder than ice it penetrated to his very heart which was already almost a frozen lump
it seemed to him as if he were about to die but a moment more
my sledge do not forget my sledge it was the first thing he thought of it was there tied to one of the white chickens who flew along with it on his back behind the large sledge
now you will have no more kisses said she or else i should kiss you to death kay looked at her she was very beautiful a more clever or a more lovely countenance he could not fancy to himself
and she no longer appeared of ice as before when she sat outside the window and beckoned to him in his eyes she was perfect he did not fear her at all and told her that he could calculate in his head and with fractions even
that he knew the number of square miles there were in the different countries and how many inhabitants they contained and she smiled while he spoke it then seemed to him as if what he knew was not enough and he looked upwards
in the large huge empty space above him and on she flew with him flew high over the black clouds while the storm moaned and whistled as though it were singing some old tune
over seas and many lands and beneath them
the wolves howled the snow crackled above them flew large screaming crows but higher up appeared the moon quite large and bright
while by day he slept at the feet of the snow queen third story of the flower garden at the old woman's who understood witchcraft
where could he be nobody knew nobody could give any intelligence all the boys knew was that they had seen him tie his sledge to another large and splendid one which drove down the street and out of the town
nobody knew where he was many sad tears were shed and little gerda wept long and bitterly at last she said he must be dead
oh those were very long and dismal winter evenings at last spring came with its warm sunshine kay is dead and gone said little gerda that i don't believe said the sunshine
kay is dead and gone
said she one morning kay has never seen them and then i'll go down to the river and ask there it was quite early she kissed her old grandmother who was still asleep put on her red shoes and went alone to the river
is it true that you have taken my little playfellow
if you will give him back to me and as it seemed to her
then she took off her red shoes the most precious things she possessed
but they fell close to the bank and the little waves bore them immediately to land it was as if the stream would not take what was dearest to her for in reality it had not got little kay
so she clambered into a boat which lay among the rushes went to the farthest end and threw out the shoes but the boat was not fastened and the motion which she occasioned made it drift from the shore she observed this and hastened to get back
but before she could do so the boat was more than a yard from the land and was gliding quickly onward little gerda was very frightened and began to cry but no one heard her except the sparrows and they could not carry her to land but they flew along the bank
the boat drifted with the stream little gerda sat quite still without shoes for they were swimming behind the boat but she could not reach them because the boat went much faster than they did the banks on both sides were beautiful lovely flowers venerable trees
and slopes with sheep and cows but not a human being was to be seen perhaps the river will carry me to little kay
she rose and looked for many hours at the beautiful green banks presently she sailed by a large cherry orchard
it was thatched and before it two wooden soldiers stood sentry and presented arms when anyone went past gerda called to them for she thought they were alive but they of course did not answer she came close to them
for the stream drifted the boat quite near the land gerda called still louder and an old woman then came out of the cottage leaning upon a crooked stick she had a large broad brimmed hat on
painted with the most splendid flowers poor little child said the old woman how did you get upon the large rapid river to be driven about so in the wide world and then the old woman went into the water
caught hold of the boat with her crooked stick drew it to the bank and lifted little gerda out and gerda was so glad to be on dry land again
but he no doubt would come and she told her not to be cast down but taste her cherries and look at her flowers which were finer than any in a picture book each of which could tell a whole story she then took gerda by the hand
led her into the little cottage and locked the door the windows were very high up the glass was red blue and green and the sunlight shone through quite wondrously in all sorts of colors
on the table stood the most exquisite cherries and gerda ate as many as she chose for she had permission to do so while she was eating the old woman combed her hair with a golden comb
and her hair curled and shone with a lovely golden color around that sweet little face which was so round and so like a rose i have often longed for such a dear little girl said the old woman
now you shall see how well we agree together and while she combed little gerda's hair the child forgot her foster brother kay more and more for the old woman understood magic but she was no evil being
she only practised witchcraft a little for her own private amusement and now she wanted very much to keep little gerda she therefore went out
stretched out her crooked stick towards the rose bushes which beautifully as they were blowing all sank into the earth and no one could tell where they had stood the old woman feared that if gerda should see the roses she would then think of her own
and run away from her she now led gerda into the flower garden oh what odour and what loveliness was there every flower that one could think of and of every season stood there in fullest bloom
no picture book could be gayer or more beautiful gerda jumped for joy and played till the sun set behind the tall cherry tree she then had a pretty bed with a red silken coverlet filled with blue violets she fell asleep
and had as pleasant dreams as ever a queen on her wedding day the next morning she went to play with the flowers in the warm sunshine and thus passed away a day gerda knew every flower and numerous as they were it
still seemed to gerda that one was wanting though she did not know which one day while she was looking at the hat of the old woman painted with flowers the most beautiful of them all seemed to her to be a rose
the old woman had forgotten to take it from her hat when she made the others vanish in the earth but so it is when one's thoughts are not collected what
and she ran about amongst the flowerbeds and looked and looked
she then sat down and wept but her hot tears fell just where a rose bush had sunk and when her warm tears watered the ground the tree shot up suddenly as fresh and blooming as when it had been swallowed up gerda kissed the roses
thought of her own dear roses at home and with them of little kay oh how long i have stayed said the little girl i intended to look for kay don't you know where he is she asked of the roses do you think he is dead and gone
said the roses we have been in the earth where all the dead are but kay was not there many thanks said little gerda and she went to the other flowers looked into their cups and asked
the fortune telling began immediately after dinner miss allison sat one side of a screen
missus sherman sat beside her so neither of them saw the amused glances the children exchanged behind the screen whenever her prophecies contradicted what the old gypsy had told them i can judge of your chief characteristics by your hands she said
for your future fortunes this she did in such a bright amusing way that screams of laughter went up from behind the screen and the hands she held often shook with merriment not having had the experience of the gypsy tent
betty awaited her turn with more interest than the others and thrust her little brown hand through the opening half afraid she wondered what secrets it would tell miss allison who in addition to all the pleasant complimentary things she had told
eugenia's hand she said showed its owner to be extravagant and wilful malcolm's vain and overbearing keith's disorderly and rob's lacking in judgment miss allison held betty's hand a moment
not certain to whom it belonged although she might have guessed considering how brown and hardened by work it was too sensitive and too imaginative by far she said but i like this little hand
and will keep its promises to the utmost it is a hand that can be trusted betty's face shone what miss allison had said pleased her more than the fortune which followed although it foretold a long life full of as many interesting happenings
as if she had aladdin's wonderful lamp to use as she chose
and keith found her studying it again after the fortune telling was done and the others had gone into the drawing room eugenia sat at the piano
missus sherman and miss allison were down at the far end of the wide porch where the moonlight was stealing through the vines and shimmering on the floor it was on the porch steps that keith found betty looking at her hands again as they lay spread out on her lap and studying their lines by moonlight
it seems like some sort of witches work to me the way she guessed things about the rest of you and i suppose it's just as true what she said about me at least the part about being too sensitive and imaginative is true i know cousin hetty says i go about with my head in the clouds half the time
that was not to be broken it will keep its promises to the utmost she said and i feel that it will have to do it now just because she said so that is aunt allison's way answered keith
nobody knows how much she has helped malcolm and me by giving us these and expecting us to live up to them he touched a little badge on the lapel of his coat as he spoke it was a tiny flower of white enamel
like a drop of dew what is that for asked betty curiously i have been wondering why you and your brother both wear them aunt allison gave them to us
wearing the white flower of a blameless life it began one time when we were out at grandmother's all winter we gave a benefit for a little tramp who came very near being burned to death in a cabin on the place we had tableaux you know
and malcolm and i were knights in one of them oh i know interrupted betty eagerly i've seen your picture taken in that costume and it is lovely and then aunt allison explained all about king arthur and his round table and gave us the motto
live pure speak truth right the wrong honour the king else wherefore born betty repeated it softly how lovely she exclaimed in a low tone
floated out sweetly on the night air
and betty's sympathetic little face made it easy for keith to grow confidential just then and speak of things that usually make boys shy
and of some of his boyish efforts to right the wrong in the big world about him
and was free to use the money his grandfather had left him i wish i could be a knight sighed betty to herself moved to large ambitions by the boy's words and discontented with her own small sphere
how manly he looked in the moonlight his handsome face aglow with the thought of his noble purposes it's funny said keith looking down at her
you seem to understand in the same way that she does
to keep a promise to the utmost betty smiled happily but made no answer rob joined them just then and they fell to talking of childish things again
next morning in her good times book betty carefully wrote every word she could remember that keith had said the evening before about knights and knightly deeds it was a half hour that she loved to think about
miss allison had invited them all to a picnic at the old mill on the following day they were to go in the afternoon and come back by moonlight it was not quite four o'clock when missus sherman stepped into the carriage at the door followed by eliot
with an armful of wraps which might be needed later in the evening
and he could scarcely find room for his feet for the big freezer of ice cream that took up so much space rugs cushions and camp stools were tucked in at every corner and missus sherman
can i trust one of you to post the letter that i have left on the hall table two bright faces appeared at the same instant at different windows and two voices called in the same breath one answering yes godmother and the other yes cousin elizabeth
it is very important that the letter should go on to night's mail train and if one of you will drop it in the box as you go by i'll be so much obliged yes'm i'll do it answered each girl again almost in the same breath with a nod and a smile to them
missus sherman told alec to drive on the ponies already saddled and bridled
and had promised to be there at four but the hall clock struck the hour before the last dress was buttoned and the last ribbon tied
it will nevah do to keep miss allison waitin
i'm not it shrieked joyce racing past her i'm not it echoed betty darting ahead of them both and reaching the ponies first eugenia's last she is the pop eyed monkey cried joyce cheerfully looking back with a laugh as she began to untie calico
eugenia switched her skirts disdainfully through the hall and mounted in dignified disgust you're elegant i must say she exclaimed scornfully i wouldn't play such a kid game nevertheless she dashed down the avenue at the top of her speed
betty urged lad along until she nearly bounced out of her saddle and the letter lay on the hall table
it was a devious way to the ruins of the old stone mill down unfrequented roads through meadow gates and over a narrow pasture lot then up a little hill and into a cool beech woods where the peace of the summer reigned unbroken
piloted by lloyd they reached the place just as missus sherman drove in from the opposite side of the woods the vacant windows of the old mill seemed staring in surprise at the gay party gathering on the hill above it although
it should have been accustomed to all kinds of picnics by this time considering the number of generations it had watched them come and go nobody could tell how long it had been since the mill wheel turned its last round and the miller ground his last grist but
if the stones could babble secrets like the little spring trickling down the rocky bank they would have had many an interesting tale to tell of all that had happened in their hearing there were many names and initials carved in the bark of the old beech trees
and set to work to cut his own underneath eugenia seated herself on a rock near by to watch him
busied themselves by dragging up sticks and logs for a big bonfire the girls began a game of i spy behind the great rock where the columbines clambered in the spring and spread their blossoms like butterflies poised on an airy stem
come on eugenia they called but she shrugged her shoulders with what the girls called
i know whose initials you are going to cut with yours she said whose asked malcolm digging away at a capital m oh i'll not tell but i know well enough
i know plenty of names that i wouldn't mind cutting here in this tree with mine with a heart around them like the ones on this tree she asked pointing to a rude carving on the trunk against which she leaned yes with a heart around them he repeated
but there's only one name you would carve that way and put an arrow through it she said meaningly at any rate a silver arrow oh maybe you think i haven't seen her wear it and blush when i teased her about it malcolm went on cutting without an answer
he had admired eugenia more than any girl he had ever seen but somehow this speech jarred on him it did not seem exactly ladylike for her to insist on twitting him in such a personal way about his friendship for the little colonel
she would never have done such a thing he felt quite sure for a moment he half wished that it was lloyd sitting on the rock beside him
when the feast had been cleared away miss allison arranged them the actors were all little negroes the funniest blackest little pickaninnies that ever sung a song or danced a double shuffle it's sylvia gibbs's family explained miss allison to the girls
our circle of king's daughters had them under its wing all winter or they would have starved when i discovered what heathen they were i turned missionary and taught them an hour every sunday afternoon they will do anything for me now and are such clever little mimics that i know they can act the charades charmingly
besides they will give us a cake walk afterward and sing for us like nightingales while miss allison marshalled her flock of little darkies behind the great rock missus sherman called the children to seat themselves in a semicircle on the camp stools and rugs in front
and no comparing notes as each syllable is acted write down the word you think is meant the one who guesses the most charades wins the prize stir the bonfire alec now all ready
this word is the name of a favourite book she announced it consists of two words the first word is in three syllables the second in two they will be given in five separate acts every eye watched intently
as three little coloured boys came out from behind the rock and went through the scene of a highway robbery little jim gibbs his white teeth and gleaming eyeballs making his face seem as black as night by contrast strode out with a high silk hat
a baggy umbrella and an old carpet bag he was evidently intended to represent a lonely traveller for as he sauntered along in front of the audience two other boys of the gibbs family sprang out of the bushes in the background with white cloth masks over their faces
one carried a dark lantern and the other a toy pistol which he held at jim's head they proceeded to go through the traveller's pockets stealing watch purse carpet bag and umbrella after that they took to their heels
leaving the poor despoiled traveller looking mournfully at his empty pockets which were turned wrong side out steal wrote eugenia on her card although she could think of no book beginning with that name thieves wrote rob and any one looking over the shoulders of the group
but more which their puzzled owners had left blank betty tapped her teeth a moment with a pencil and then triumphantly wrote
doors and windows had been roughly outlined in charcoal in front a swinging sign board announced it as the traveller's rest and offered refreshment within for man and beast
inn wrote betty quickly guessing the second syllable she was sure of the whole word now but the majority of the children sat with their pencils in their mouths unable to think of any word that would fit in place beside the one already written
oh this is easy said betty to herself writing the name robinson crusoe after the last act as the crew of little pickaninnies seated in an old skiff which had been dragged up from the mill stream for that purpose
took up a piece of patch work and began to sew betty was the only one who had guessed it the next charade was easier
and she waited eagerly for the next word
and all of a sudden betty's heart gave a guilty thump as she thought of the letter she and eugenia had left lying on the hall table they had forgotten their promise
but it is eugenia's fault every bit as much as it is mine she thought looking across the semicircle where eugenia sat serenely unconscious of forgotten promises
oh well i'll mail it first thing in the morning
and she said it was important you know you promised there's time yet to slip away and post that letter before the mail train goes by
until all at once she seemed to hear miss allison's voice saying i like this little hand it will keep a promise to the utmost
but more than all the thought of being worthy of her godmother's trust in her impelled her to keep her promise
that she was the only one who had guessed all the charades correctly
and she wanted it oh how she wanted it for missus sherman had said that it was a book
it wouldn't be right to ask any one else to go with her and miss the chance of winning the prize too
all these thoughts went on swaying her first to one decision and then another she half rose from the rug where she was sitting then dropped down again it seemed hardly fair that eugenia should not share the responsibility
yet she knew her too well to ask her to go back to the house with her several times she started up and then sank back before she could make up her mind finally she walked over to a fence corner on the other side of the bonfire where the water bucket stood the ponies were hitched below in the ravine
that no one saw her when she scrambled down the steep path leading into the ravine
and resolutely turned his head toward home it was lighter out in the open when they had left the shelter of the woods and she guided the pony down the hill across the pasture and through the gate glad that she did not have to go all the way in darkness lad
knowing that he was going home dashed down the road choosing his own direction when the lonely highway branched he knew the way better than his little rider she looked around her thinking how long the way seemed when she had to travel it all by herself
and yet it seemed hours since she had left the mill when she
with the avenue of locusts stretching beyond it springing off the pony when it stopped at the steps she rushed into the hall snatched the letter from the table and ran out again only pausing for a hasty glance at the clock mom beck who had heard the clatter of hoofs
feared that something was amiss and came running to the door what undah the sun is the mattah honey she called but betty was far down the avenue and never paused to look back lad turned away from home was not so willing to run now and betty could hear the train whistling up the road
it was the seven o'clock mail train oh lad hurry she urged dear good old lad please hurry i'm so afraid we won't get there in time
the train whistled nearer guiding the pony to the fence betty stood up and broke a switch from an overhanging tree
but i must you must get to the post office in time urged along by the switch and her tearful pleadings lad broke into a run and brought up at the post office just as the postmistress was locking the mail bag
oh miss mattie sounded an anxious little voice at the delivery window is it too late to send this letter missus sherman said it must go if possible on this train it's a close shave my dear said miss mattie
i'm a few minutes late anyhow and there's barely time to stamp it and slip it in so she acted while she spoke so that with the last word she had turned the key
betty watched until she saw the mail bag tossed aboard and then gave a deep sigh of thankfulness well she exclaimed to lad in a relieved tone that's done we're too late for the charades but maybe we'll get back to the mill in time for the cake walk
it would have been quite dark by the time she reached the cross roads again if it had not been that the moon was beginning to rise and cast a faint whiteness over the dusky fields she could not remember which way to turn
the pony had shot by so fast
and slowly turned in that direction but
when the road suddenly turned into a narrow wagon track with dark corn fields on each side there was not a house
the moon was not high enough yet to dispel much of the gloom of the twilight and bullbats were circling overhead dipping so low at times that once they almost brushed her face oh i'm lost she whispered with trembling lips
all of a sudden there was a rustling of the high corn and out of it limped a big burly negro he had a gun on his shoulder and a savage eyed dog skulked at his heels betty nearly screamed in her terror at this sudden appearance
one of the worst characters in the county he had just served a third term in the penitentiary and she had heard mom beck say
a cold fear seized the child and such a weakness numbed her trembling hands that she could scarcely hold the bridle wheeling the pony so suddenly that she almost lost her balance she gave him a cut with the switch that sent him flying back over the road he had come
at the top of his speed now every bush and every tree and every brier tangled fence corner seemed to hold some nameless terror for her and even her lips were cold and blue with fear at the cross roads she had another fright
as something big and black loomed up in the moonlight ahead of her oh what is it she moaned so frightened that her heart almost stopped beating
and then a cheery whistling reassured her nobody could be very dangerous she knew who could go along the road whistling my old kentucky home in such a happy fashion
and finding her pony gone too
suddenly ill and had slipped away quietly in order not to disturb the pleasure of the others keith had offered to ride up to locust and see what was the matter and his surprise showed itself in his rapid questioning when he met her riding wildly away
it did not take long for him to learn the whole story of her lonely ride and the fright she had had for his questions were fired with such directness of aim that truthful betty could not dodge them and you missed it all the charades and the chance of taking the prize
and came all the way back by yourself just to post a letter when you didn't know the way
well i call that pretty plucky for a girl i didn't want to confessed betty but there wasn't anything else to do it was a sacred promise you know and i had to keep it to the utmost they jogged along in silence side by side a moment longer
then as the bonfire at the old mill flared into sight keith looked down at the tired little figure on the pony beside him
the day was warm the theatre crowded and airless and the performance it seemed to him intolerably bad
her rapt profile betrayed no unrest
he leaned back impatiently stifling another yawn and trying to fix his attention on the stage great things were going forward there
the players were the same whom he had often applauded in those very parts and perhaps that fact added to the impression of staleness and conventionality produced by their performance surely it was time to infuse new blood into the veins of the moribund art
certainly it was not the most profitable way for a young man with a pretty companion to pass the golden hours of a spring afternoon
reflecting the freshness of the season suggested dapplings of sunlight through new leaves the sound of a brook in the grass the ripple of tree shadows over breezy meadows when at length the fateful march of the cothurns was stayed by the single pause in the play
and darrow had led miss viner out on the balcony overhanging the square before the theatre he turned to see if she shared his feelings but the rapturous look she gave him checked the depreciation on his lips oh why did you bring me out here one ought to creep away and sit in the dark till it begins again
is that the way they made you feel didn't they you as if the gods were there all the while just behind them pulling the strings her hands were pressed against the railing her face shining and darkening under the wing beats of successive impressions
after all he had felt all that long ago
but no he had been right in judging the performance to be dull and stale it was simply his companion's inexperience her lack of occasions to compare and estimate that made her think it brilliant
bored she made a little aggrieved grimace you mean you thought me too ignorant and stupid to appreciate it no not that
tell me just what you think he said bending his head a little and only half aware of his words she did not turn her face to his but began to talk rapidly trying to convey something of what she felt
as though it had been a storm or some other natural cataclysm she had no literary or historic associations to which to attach her impressions her education had evidently not comprised a course in greek literature
but she felt what would probably have been unperceived by many a young lady who had taken a first in classics the ineluctable fatality of the tale the dread sway in it of the same mysterious luck which pulled the threads of her own small destiny
it was not literature to her it was fact as actual as near by
seen in this light the play regained for darrow its supreme and poignant reality he pierced to the heart of its significance through all the artificial accretions with which his theories of art and the conventions of the stage had clothed it and saw it as he had never seen it
as life after this there could be no question of flight and he took her back to the theatre content to receive his own sensations through the medium of hers but with the continuation of the play and the oppression of the heavy air his attention again began to wander
straying back over the incidents of the morning he had been with sophy viner all day and he was surprised to find how quickly the time had gone she had hardly attempted as the hours passed
the intervening hours had been disposed of in a stroll through the lively streets and a repast luxuriously lingered over
everything entertained and interested her and darrow remarked with an amused detachment
yet there was no hard edge of vanity in her sense of her prettiness she seemed simply to be aware of it as a note in the general harmony and to enjoy sounding the note as a singer enjoys singing after luncheon as they sat over their coffee
her questions testified to a wholesome and comprehensive human curiosity and her comments showed like her face and her whole attitude an odd mingling of precocious wisdom and disarming ignorance when she talked to him about life
and so would the tiger meanwhile such expertness qualified by such candour made it impossible to guess the extent of her personal experience or to estimate its effect on her character she might be any one of a dozen definable types or she might
more disconcertingly to her companion and more perilously to herself be a shifting and uncrystallized mixture of them all her talk as usual had promptly reverted to the stage
she was eager to learn about every form of dramatic expression which the metropolis of things theatrical had to offer and her curiosity ranged from the official temples of the art to its less hallowed haunts her searching enquiries about a play whose production
led darrow to throw out laughingly to see that you'll have to wait till you're married
yes from girls who've only got to choose her eyes had grown suddenly almost old i'd like you to see the only men who've ever wanted to marry me
he'd been cashiered from the navy for drunkenness the other was a deaf widower with three grown up daughters who kept a clock shop in bayswater besides she rambled on i'm not so sure that i believe in marriage
i'm awfully modern you know it was just when she proclaimed herself most awfully modern that she struck him as most helplessly backward yet the moment after
all these things came back to him as he sat beside her in the theatre and watched her ingenuous absorption it was on the story that her mind was fixed and in life also he suspected
rather than its remoter imaginative issues that would hold her he did not believe there were ever any echoes in her soul there was no question however that what she felt was felt with intensity to the actual the immediate she spread vibrating strings
when the play was over and they came out once more into the sunlight darrow looked down at her with a smile well he asked she made no answer her dark gaze seemed to rest on him without seeing him her cheeks and lips were pale
and the loose hair under her hat brim clung to her forehead in damp rings she looked like a young priestess still dazed by the fumes of the cavern you poor child it's been almost too much for you she shook her head with a vague smile
come he went on putting his hand on her arm
look there are hours of daylight left
he pointed over their heads
she made no answer and he signed to a motor cab calling out to the driver to the bois as the carriage turned toward the tuileries she roused herself i must go first to the hotel there may be a message at any rate i must decide on something
i must decide on something she repeated
to persuade her to drive directly to the bois for dinner
and that therefore it was of no moment whether she received the farlows answer then or a few hours later but for some reason he hesitated to use this argument which had come so naturally to him the day before
so what did it matter if they went there the porter interrogated was not sure he himself had received nothing for the lady
darrow and sophy mounted together in the lift and the young man
unlocked his own door and glanced at the empty table
no there's nothing he feigned an unregretful surprise so much the better and now shall we drive out somewhere or would you rather take a boat to bellevue have you ever dined there on the terrace by moonlight it's not at all bad
and there's no earthly use in sitting here waiting she stood before him in perplexity but when i wrote yesterday i asked them to telegraph i suppose they're horribly hard up the poor dears
but that motive after all had simply been trumped up to justify his own disloyalty
i suppose you can hardly understand what it means to have to stop and think whether one can afford a telegram but i've always had to consider such things and i mustn't stay here any longer now
she paused again and then exclaimed
increased by its faded hangings its slightly frayed and threadbare rugs everything in it was harmoniously shabby
but fraser leath had grown so unimportant a factor in the scheme of things that these marks of his presence caused the young man no emotion beyond that of a faint retrospective amusement the afternoon and evening had been perfect
early in the afternoon they had gone out in the motor traversing miles of sober tinted landscape in which here and there
or winding through the pale gold of narrow wood roads with the blue of clear cut hills at their end over everything lay a faint sunshine that seemed dissolved in the still air
once at the turn of a wall they stopped the motor before a ruined gateway and stumbling along a road full of ruts stood before a little old deserted house fantastically carved and chimneyed which lay in a moat under the shade of ancient trees
and sitting on a bench in the stable yard watched the pigeons circling against the sunset over their cot of patterned brick
when they came in they sat beside the fire in the oak drawing room and darrow noticed how delicately her head stood out against the sombre panelling and mused on the enjoyment there would always be in the mere fact of watching her hands as they moved about among the tea things
they dined late and facing her across the table with its low lights and flowers
and the girlish thinness of her neck above the slight swell of the breast his imagination was struck by the quality of reticence in her beauty
farther off the meadows unrolled a silver shot tissue to the mantling of mist above the river and the autumn stars trembled overhead like their own reflections seen in dim water he lit his cigar and they walked slowly up and down the flags in the languid air
till he put an arm about her saying you mustn't stay till you're chilled
and stood up and looked down on him smiling faintly he sat still absorbing the look and thinking there'll be evenings and evenings till she came nearer bent over him
and they gave each other a long kiss of promise and communion the memory of it glowed in him still as he sat over his crumbling fire but beneath his physical exultation he felt a certain gravity of mood
all the difference he was a little tired of experimenting on life he wanted to take a line to follow things up to centralize and concentrate and produce results two or three more years of diplomacy with her beside him
and then their real life would begin study travel and book making for him and for her well the joy at any rate of getting out of an atmosphere of bric a brac and card leaving into the open air of competing activities
and his meeting with missus leath the previous spring had given it a definite direction with such a comrade to focus and stimulate his energies he felt modestly but agreeably sure of
his life on the whole had been a creditable affair out of modest chances and middling talents he had built himself a fairly marked personality known some exceptional people
as for the private and personal side of his life it had come up to the current standards and if it had dropped now and then below a more ideal measure even these declines had been brief parenthetic incidental
in the recognized essentials he had always remained strictly within the limit of his scruples from this reassuring survey of his case
his mind turned again to his first meeting with anna summers and took up one by one the threads of their faintly sketched romance he dwelt with pardonable pride on the fact that fate had so early marked him for the high privilege of possessing her it seemed to mean that they had really
deeper still than all these satisfactions was the mere elemental sense of well being in her presence that after all
her steady gaze when he spoke the grave freedom of her gait and gestures he recalled every detail of her face
an angle known to no one but its possessor the thought flattered his sense of possessorship
less of her words than of her look and of the effort the question cost her the reddening of her cheek the deepening of the strained line between her brows
mingled with these sensations were considerations of another order he reflected with satisfaction that she was the kind of woman with whom one would like to be seen in public
to walk after her down the aisle of a theatre
my wife of her to all sorts of people he draped these details in the handsome phrase
and felt that this fact somehow justified and ennobled his instinctive boyish satisfaction in loving her he stood up
then he dropped again into his armchair with a sigh of deep content oh hang it he suddenly exclaimed
the next day was even better he felt and knew she felt that they had reached a clearer understanding of each other
they had gained an inlet in the shades of a cliff where they could float on the still surface and gaze far down into the depths now and then as they walked and talked
the old delusion i suppose
will nature never tire of the trick but he knew it was more than that there were moments in their talk when he felt
how i should like her if i didn't love her he summed it up
in the course of the morning a telegram had come from owen leath
in order that the reunited family might have the end of the afternoon to themselves he roamed the country side till long after dark
in the hall coming down the stairs he encountered anna her face was serene
madame de chantelle was resting but would be down for dinner and as for owen anna supposed he was off somewhere in the park
and she's heard what she calls delightful things about you she told me to tell you so
he knew that most wrongdoing works on the whole less mischief than its useless confession
i'm so sorry so sorry but you must let me help you you will let me help you he said he took her hands and pressed them together between his
he felt her yield slightly to his clasp and hurried on without giving her time to answer isn't it a pity to spoil our good time together by regretting anything you might have done to prevent our having it she drew back freeing her hands her face
losing its look of appealing confidence was suddenly sharpened by distrust you didn't forget to post my letter
he cried throwing out his hands with a laugh her face instantly melted to laughter well then i won't be sorry i won't regret anything except that our good time is over the words were so unexpected that they routed all his resolves
if she had gone on doubting him he could probably have gone on deceiving her
at the same moment a doubt shot up its serpent head in his own bosom
such trustfulness seemed open to suspicion but the moment his eyes fell on her he was ashamed of the thought and knew it for what it really was another pretext to lessen his own delinquency why should our good time be over he asked
she looked up her lips parted in surprise but before she could speak he went on i want you to stay with me
to have all the things you've never had it's not always may and paris why not make the most of them now you know me we're not strangers why shouldn't you treat me like a friend while he spoke she had drawn away a little but her hand still lay in his
but only an ingenuous wonder he was extraordinarily touched by her expression oh do you must listen to prove that i'm sincere i'll tell you i'll tell you i didn't post your letter i didn't post it because i wanted so much to give you a few good hours
and because i couldn't bear to have you go he had the feeling that the words were being uttered in spite of him by some malicious witness of the scene and yet that he was not sorry to have them spoken the girl had listened to him in silence
then she snatched away her hand you didn't post my letter you kept it back on purpose and you tell me so now to prove to me that i'd better put myself under your protection
and her face at the same moment underwent the same change
thank you thank you most awfully for telling me and for all your other kind intentions the plan's delightful really quite delightful and i'm extremely flattered and obliged
her outburst did not offend the young man
he drew up a chair and sat down beside her after all he said in a tone of good humoured protest
and my telling you seems rather strong proof that i hadn't any very nefarious designs on you she met this with a shrug but he did not give her time to answer my designs
he paused again and then went on in the same tone of friendly reasonableness
intentions he stood up walked the length of the room and turned back to where she still sat motionless
her chin on her hands what rubbish we talk about intentions the truth is i hadn't any i just liked being with you perhaps you don't know how extraordinarily one can like being with you i was depressed and adrift myself and you made me forget my bothers
i didn't see why we shouldn't have a few hours together first so i left your letter in my pocket he saw her face melt as she listened and suddenly she unclasped her hands and leaned to him but are you unhappy too
but her look of sympathy had disarmed him his heart was bitter and distracted she was near him her eyes were shining with compassion he bent over her and kissed her hand forgive me do forgive me he said
she stood up with a smiling head shake
much less two whole days of it i sha'n't forget how kind you've been
but this is good bye you know i must telegraph at once to say i'm coming to say you're coming then i'm not forgiven oh you're forgiven if that's any comfort
she hung her head in meditation but i can't stay how can i stay she broke out as if arguing with some unseen monitor why can't you
she looked up and their eyes exchanged meanings for a rapid minute
oh it's not that she exclaimed almost impatiently it's not people i'm afraid of they've never put themselves out for me why on earth should i care about them he liked her directness as he had never liked it before well then what is it
not me i hope no not you i like you it's the money with me that's always the root of the matter
is that all he laughed relieved by her naturalness look here
can't you trust me about that too trust you how do you mean
his gesture brushed aside the allusion money may be the root of the matter it can't be the whole of it between friends don't you think one friend may accept a small service from another without looking too far ahead or weighing too many chances
and the pleasure you'll be giving me let's shake hands on it
only i shall be sorry he ended oh but i shall be sorry too
instantly effaced by the excitement of pursuit well then he stood looking down on her his eyes persuading her he was now intensely aware that his nearness was having an effect which made it less and less necessary for him to choose his words and he went on
more mindful of the inflections of his voice than of what he was actually saying why on earth should we say good bye if we're both sorry to
it's not a bit like you to let anything stand in the way of your saying just what you feel
she hung before him like a leaf on the meeting of cross currents that the next ripple may sweep forward or whirl back
she turned about on her heel and dropping into the nearest chair sank forward her face hidden against the dressing table
recalled the faint curves of a terra cotta statuette some young image of grace hardly more than sketched in the clay darrow as he stood looking at her reflected that her character for all its seeming firmness its flashing edges of opinion was probably no less immature
or to confess her yielding in that way at first he was slightly disconcerted then he saw how her attitude simplified his own her behaviour had all the indecision and awkwardness of inexperience it showed that she was a child after all and all he could do
all he had ever meant to do was to give her a child's holiday to look back to for a moment he fancied she was crying
is it true is it really true
he felt like answering
on the bright haze of effie's hair and on the whiteness of anna's forehead as she leaned back in her chair behind the tea urn she did not move at darrow's approach but lifted to him a deep gaze of peace and confidence the look seemed to throw about him the spell of a divine security
he felt the joy of a convalescent suddenly waking to find the sunlight on his face madame de chantelle across her knitting discoursed of their afternoon's excursion with occasional pauses induced by the hypnotic effect of the fresh air
darrow took a chair behind the little girl so that he might look across at her mother it was almost a necessity for him at the moment to let his eyes rest on anna's face and to meet now and then the proud shyness of her gaze madame de chantelle presently enquired what had become of owen
as he stood there in the lamp light with dead leaves and bits of bramble clinging to his mud spattered clothes the scent of the night about him and its chill on his pale bright face he really had the look of a young faun strayed in from the forest effie abandoned the terrier to fly to him
i walked miles and miles with nurse and couldn't find you and we met jean and he said he didn't know where you'd gone nobody knows where i go or what i see when i get there that's the beauty of it he laughed back at her but if you're good he added
oh now owen now i don't really believe i'll ever be much better than i am now let owen have his tea first her mother suggested but the young man declining the offer propped his gun against the wall and lighting a cigarette
began to pace up and down the room in a way that reminded darrow of his own caged wanderings effie pursued him with her blandishments
where's miss viner he asked as effie climbed up on him
poor miss viner has a headache
ah said owen abruptly setting down his cup he stood up lit another cigarette and wandered away to the piano in the room beyond
borne on fantastic chords floated to the group about the tea table under its influence madame de chantelle's meditative pauses increased in length and frequency
presently her nurse appeared and anna rose at the same time
she had given him on the day of his arrival
the retreat in which as one might fancy
as if spell bound by the play of madame de chantelle's needles and the pulsations of owen's fitful music
finally drew him to his feet from her writing table where she sat over a pile of letters anna lifted her happy smile the impulse to press his lips to it made him come close and draw her upward she threw her head back
then her face leaned to his with the slow droop of a flower he felt again the sweep of the secret tides and all his fears went down in them
his gaze roamed peacefully about the quiet room
let's be quiet then it's the best way of talking yes but we must save it up till later
i want you to tell me about miss viner about miss viner he summoned up a look of faint interrogation he thought she seemed surprised at his surprise it's important naturally she explained
important on effie's account on effie's account of course of course but you've every reason to be satisfied haven't you
every apparent reason we all like her effie's very fond of her and she seems to have a delightful influence on the child but we know so little after all about her antecedents i mean and her past history
oh on that score i'm afraid i sha'n't be of much use
when she was with a missus murrett yes an appalling woman who runs a roaring dinner factory that used now and then to catch me in its wheels i escaped from them long ago but in my time there used to be half a dozen fagged hands to tend the machine
then you never really saw anything of her there
especially such pretty ones i suppose darrow made no comment and she continued and missus murrett's own opinion if she'd offered you one probably wouldn't have been of much value only in so far as her disapproval would on general principles have been a good mark for miss viner
anna smiled oh we heard of her through adelaide painter
who having come to paris some thirty years earlier to nurse a brother through an illness had ever since protestingly and provisionally camped there in a state of contemptuous protestation oddly manifested by her never taking the slip covers off her drawing room chairs
her long residence on gallic soil had not mitigated her hostility toward the creed and customs of the race but though she always referred to the catholic church as the scarlet woman and took the darkest views of french private life
it's all the odder because my mother in law since her second marriage has lived so much in the country that she's practically lost sight of all her other american friends besides which
well then if south braintree vouches for miss viner oh but only indirectly
unluckily she couldn't at the moment put her hand on a sweet american
and so far i've had no cause to regret my choice but i know after all very little about miss viner and there are all kinds of reasons why i want as soon as possible to find out more to find out all i can
but is there in such a case any recommendation worth half as much as your own direct experience
you don't at any rate know anything specific to the contrary to the contrary how should i
he drew her to him with a smile on that condition i'm prepared to love even adelaide painter i almost hope you wont have the chance to poor adelaide her appearance here always coincides with a catastrophe oh then i must manage to meet her elsewhere
what does anything matter but just this must i go now he added aloud she answered absently it must be time to dress
a knock on the door made them draw apart
the door opened and sophy viner entered seeing darrow she drew back do come in miss viner anna repeated looking at her kindly the girl a quick red in her cheeks still hesitated on the threshold i'm so sorry
is this it darrow asked picking up a book from the table oh thank you
wait a minute please miss viner anna said
sophy's blush deepened
she threw the words off with a half ironic smile
chapter nineteen labor and leisure one the origin of the opposition
leads to opposition between them probably the most deep seated antithesis which has shown itself in educational history is that between education in preparation for useful labor
and education for a life of leisure the bare terms useful labor and leisure confirm the statement already made that the segregation and conflict of values are not self inclosed
but reflect a division within social life were the two functions of gaining a livelihood by work and enjoying in a cultivated way the opportunities of leisure distributed equally among the different members of a community
it would not occur to any one that there was any conflict of educational agencies and aims involved it would be self evident that the question was how education could contribute most effectively to both
and while it might be found that some materials of instruction chiefly accomplished one result and other subject matter the other it would be evident that care must be taken to secure as much overlapping
as conditions permit that is the education which had leisure more directly in view should indirectly reinforce as much as possible the efficiency and the enjoyment of work while that aiming at the latter
should produce habits of emotion and intellect which would procure a worthy cultivation of leisure these general considerations are amply borne out by the historical development of educational philosophy
the separation of liberal education from professional and industrial education goes back to the time of the greeks and was formulated expressly on the basis of a division of classes into those who had to labor for a living
the conception that liberal education adapted to men in the latter class is intrinsically higher than the servile training given to the latter class reflected the fact that one class was free
and the other servile in its social status the latter class labored not only for its own subsistence but also for the means which enabled the superior class to live without personally engaging
and it requires work to supply the resources of life even if we insist that the interests connected with getting a living are only material and hence intrinsically lower than those connected with enjoyment of time released from labor
and even if it were admitted that there is something engrossing and insubordinate in material interests which leads them to strive to usurp the place belonging to the higher ideal interests this would not
barring the fact of socially divided classes lead to neglect of the kind of education which trains men for the useful pursuits it would rather lead to scrupulous care for them so that men were trained to be efficient in them
and yet to keep them in their place education would see to it that we avoided the evil results which flow from their being allowed to flourish in obscure
of neglect only when a division of these interests coincides with a division of an inferior and a superior social class will preparation for useful work be looked down upon with contempt as an unworthy thing
a fact which prepares one for the conclusion that the rigid identification of work with material interests and leisure with ideal interests is itself a social product
the educational formulations of the social situation made over two thousand years ago have been so influential and give such a clear and logical recognition of the implications of the division into laboring and leisure classes
that they deserve especial note according to them man occupies the highest place in the scheme of animate existence in part he shares the constitution and functions of plants and animals
nutritive reproductive motor or practical the distinctively human function is reason existing for the sake of beholding the spectacle of the universe hence the truly human end
is the fullest possible of this distinctive human prerogative the life of observation meditation cogitation and speculation pursued as an end in itself is the proper life of man
from reason moreover proceeds the proper control of the lower elements of human nature the appetites and the active motor impulses in themselves greedy insubordinate
lovers of excess aiming only at their own satiety they observe moderation
and serve desirable ends as they are subjected to the rule of reason such is the situation as an affair of theoretical psychology and as most adequately stated by aristotle
and hence in the organization of society only in a comparatively small number is the function of reason capable of operating as a law of life in the mass of people vegetative
and animal functions dominate their energy of intelligence is so feeble and inconstant that it is constantly overpowered by bodily appetite and passion
such persons are not truly ends in themselves for only reason constitutes a final end like plants animals and physical tools
they are means appliances for the attaining of ends beyond themselves although unlike them they have enough intelligence to exercise a certain discretion in the execution of the tasks committed to them
thus by nature and not merely by social convention there are those who are slaves that is
worse off than even slaves like the latter they are given up to the service of ends external to themselves but since they do not enjoy the intimate association with the free superior class
experienced by domestic slaves they remain on a lower plane of excellence moreover women are classed with slaves and craftsmen as factors among the animate instrumentalities of production and reproduction
of the means for a free or rational life individually and collectively there is a gulf between merely living and living worthily in order that one may live worthily he must first live
and so with collective society the time and energy spent upon mere life upon the gaining of subsistence detracts from that available for activities that have an inherent rational meaning
they also unfit for the latter means are menial the serviceable is servile the true life is possible only in the degree in which the physical necessities
are had without effort and without attention hence slaves artisans and women are employed in furnishing the means of subsistence in order that others those adequately equipped with intelligence
may live the life of leisurely concern with things intrinsically worth while
the base or mechanical and the liberal or intellectual some persons are trained by suitable practical exercises for capacity in doing things
for ability to use the mechanical tools involved in turning out physical commodities and rendering personal service this training is a mere matter of habituation and technical skill it operates through repetition
and assiduity in application not through awakening and nurturing thought
liberal education aims to train intelligence for its proper office to know the less this knowledge has to do with practical affairs with making or producing
the more adequately it engages intelligence so consistently does aristotle draw the line between menial and liberal education that he puts what are now called the fine
arts music painting sculpture in the same class with menial arts so far as their practice is concerned they involve physical agencies assiduity of practice
and external results in discussing for example education in music he raises the question how far the young should be practiced in the playing of instruments
his answer is that such practice and proficiency may be tolerated as conduce to appreciation that is to understanding and enjoyment of music when played by slaves or professionals
when professional power is aimed at music sinks from the liberal to the professional level one might then as well teach cooking says aristotle even a liberal concern with the works of fine art
depends upon the existence of a hireling class of practitioners who have subordinated the development of their own personality to attaining skill in mechanical execution the higher the activity
for there is a distinction in ends and in free action according as one's life is merely accompanied by reason or as it makes reason its own medium that is to say the free citizen who devotes himself to the public life of his community
sharing in the management of its affairs and winning personal honor and distinction lives a life accompanied by reason but the thinker the man who devotes himself to scientific inquiry
works so to speak in reason not simply by even the activity of the citizen in his civic relations in other words retains some of the taint of practice
of external or merely instrumental doing this infection is shown by the fact that civic activity and civic excellence need the help of others one cannot engage in public life all by himself
but all needs all desires imply in the philosophy of aristotle a material factor they involve lack privation they are dependent upon something beyond themselves for completion
a purely intellectual life however one carries on by himself in himself such assistance as he may derive from others is accidental rather than intrinsic
in knowing in the life of theory reason finds its own full manifestation knowing for the sake of knowing irrespective of any application is alone independent or self sufficing
hence only the education that makes for power to know as an end in itself without reference to the practice of even civic duties is truly liberal or free two
the present situation if the aristotelian conception represented just aristotle's personal view it would be a more or less interesting historical curiosity
it could be dismissed as an illustration of the lack of sympathy or the amount of academic pedantry which may coexist with extraordinary intellectual gifts
but aristotle simply described without confusion and without that insincerity always attendant upon mental confusion the life that was before him that the actual social situation
has greatly changed since his day there is no need to say but in spite of these changes in spite of the abolition of legal serfdom and the spread of democracy with the extension of science and of general education
in books newspapers travel and general intercourse as well as in schools there remains enough of a cleavage of society into a learned and an unlearned class a leisure and a laboring class
to make his point of view a most enlightening one from which to criticize the separation between culture and utility in present education behind the intellectual and abstract distinction
as it figures in pedagogical discussion there looms a social distinction between those whose pursuits involve a minimum of self directive thought and aesthetic appreciation
and those who are concerned more directly with things of the intelligence and with the control of the activities of others aristotle was certainly permanently right when he said that
any occupation or art or study deserves to be called mechanical
the force of the statement is almost infinitely increased when we hold as we nominally do at present that all persons instead of a comparatively few are free
for when the mass of men and all women were regarded as unfree by the very nature of their bodies and minds there was neither intellectual confusion nor moral hypocrisy in giving them only the training which fitted them for mechanical skill
irrespective of its ulterior effect upon their capacity to share in a worthy life
all mercenary employments as well as those which degrade the condition of the body are mechanical
permanently right that is if gainful pursuits as matter of fact deprive the intellect of the conditions of its exercise and so of its dignity if his statements are false
it is because they identify a phase of social custom with a natural necessity but a different view of the relations of mind and matter mind and body intelligence and social service is better than aristotle's conception
only if it helps render the old idea obsolete in fact in the actual conduct of life and education aristotle was permanently right in assuming the inferiority and subordination of mere skill
in performance and mere accumulation of external products to understanding sympathy of appreciation and the free play of ideas if there was an error it lay in assuming the necessary separation of the two
in supposing that there is a natural divorce between efficiency in producing commodities and rendering service and self directive thought between significant knowledge and practical achievement
we hardly better matters if we just correct his theoretical misapprehension and tolerate the social state of affairs which generated and sanctioned his conception we lose rather than gain in change from serfdom to free citizenship
if the most prized result of the change is simply an increase in the mechanical efficiency of the human tools of production so we lose rather than gain in coming to think of intelligence
as an organ of control of nature through action if we are content that an unintelligent unfree state persists in those who engage directly in turning nature to use and leave the intelligence which controls to be the exclusive
possession of remote scientists and captains of industry we are in a position honestly to criticize the division of life into separate functions and of society into separate classes
only so far as we are free from responsibility for perpetuating the educational practices which train the many for pursuits involving mere skill in production and the few for a knowledge that is an ornament
and a cultural embellishment in short ability to transcend the greek philosophy of life and education is not secured by a mere shifting about of the theoretical symbols meaning free rational and worthy
it is not secured by a change of sentiment regarding the dignity of labor and the superiority of a life of service to that of an aloof self sufficing independence
important as these theoretical and emotional changes are their importance consists in their being turned to account in the development of a truly democratic society a society in which all share in useful service
and all enjoy a worthy leisure it is not a mere change in the concepts of culture or a liberal mind and social service which requires an educational reorganization
but the educational transformation is needed to give full and explicit effect to the changes implied in social life the increased political and economic emancipation of the masses has shown itself in education
it has effected the development of a common school system of education public and free it has destroyed the idea that learning is properly a monopoly of the few who are predestined by nature to govern social affairs
but the revolution is still incomplete the idea still prevails that a truly cultural or liberal education cannot have anything in common directly at least with industrial affairs
and that the education which is fit for the masses must be a useful or practical education in a sense which opposes useful and practical to nurture of appreciation and liberation of thought
as a consequence our actual system is an inconsistent mixture certain studies and methods are retained on the supposition that they have the sanction of peculiar liberality
the chief content of the term liberal being uselessness for practical ends this aspect is chiefly visible in what is termed the higher education that of the college and of preparation for it
and to the increased role of economic activities in modern life these concessions are exhibited in special schools and courses for the professions for engineering for manual training and commerce
the result is a system in which both cultural and utilitarian subjects exist in an inorganic composite where the former are not by dominant purpose socially serviceable and the latter
not liberative of imagination or thinking power in the inherited situation there is a curious intermingling in even the same study of concession to usefulness
and a survival of traits once exclusively attributed to preparation for leisure the utility element is found in the motives assigned for the study the liberal element in methods of teaching
the outcome of the mixture is perhaps less satisfactory than if either principle were adhered to in its purity
the motive popularly assigned for making the studies of the first four or five years consist almost entirely of reading spelling writing and arithmetic is for example that ability to read write
and figure accurately is indispensable to getting ahead these studies are treated as mere instruments for entering upon a gainful employment
if we turn to greek schooling we find that from the earliest years
to acquisition of literary content possessed of aesthetic and moral significance not getting a tool for subsequent use but present subject matter was the emphasized thing nevertheless
the isolation of these studies from practical application their reduction to purely symbolic devices represents a survival of the idea of a liberal training divorced from utility a thorough adoption
of the idea of utility would have led to instruction which tied up the studies to situations in which they were directly needed and where they were rendered immediately and not remotely helpful
it would be hard to find a subject in the curriculum within which there are not found evil results of a compromise between the two opposed ideals natural science
is recommended on the ground of its practical utility but is taught as a special accomplishment in removal from application on the other hand music and literature are theoretically justified on the ground of their culture value
and are then taught with chief emphasis upon forming technical modes of skill if we had less compromise and resulting confusion if we analyzed more carefully the respective meanings of culture and utility
we might find it easier to construct a course of study which should be useful and liberal at the same time only superstition makes us believe
so that a subject is illiberal because it is useful and cultural because it is useless it will generally be found that instruction which in aiming at utilitarian results
sacrifices the development of imagination the refining of taste and the deepening of intellectual insight surely cultural values also in the same degree renders what is learned limited in its use
not that it makes it wholly unavailable but that its applicability is restricted to routine activities carried on under the supervision of others narrow modes of skill cannot be made useful beyond themselves
any mode of skill which is achieved with deepening of knowledge and perfecting of judgment is readily put to use in new situations and is under personal control it was not the bare fact of social and economic utility
which made certain activities seem servile to the greeks but the fact that the activities directly connected with getting a livelihood were not in their days the expression of a trained intelligence
nor carried on because of a personal appreciation of their meaning so far as farming and the trades were rule of thumb occupations and so far as they were engaged in
for results external to the minds of agricultural laborers and mechanics they were illiberal but only so far the intellectual and social context has now changed the elements in industry
due to mere custom and routine have become subordinate in most economic callings to elements derived from scientific inquiry the most important occupations of today
represent and depend upon applied mathematics physics and chemistry the area of the human world influenced by economic production and influencing consumption has been so indefinitely widened that geographical
the practical uses to which they were put were few lacking in content and mostly mercenary in quality but as their social uses have increased and enlarged their liberalizing or intellectual value
and their practical value approach the same limit doubtless the factor which chiefly prevents our full recognition and employment of this identification is the conditions under which so much work is still carried on
the invention of machines has extended the amount of leisure which is possible even while one is at work it is a commonplace that the mastery of skill in the form of established habits frees the mind
for a higher order of thinking something of the same kind is true of the introduction of mechanically automatic operations in industry they may release the mind for thought upon other topics
but when we confine the education of those who work with their hands to a few years of schooling devoted for the most part to acquiring the use of rudimentary symbols at the expense of training in science literature and history
we fail to prepare the minds of workers to take advantage of this opportunity more fundamental is the fact that the great majority of workers have no insight into the social aims of their pursuits and no direct personal interest in them
the results actually achieved are not the ends of their actions but only of their employers they do what they do not freely and intelligently but for the sake of the wage earned
it is this fact which makes the action illiberal and which will make any education designed simply to give skill in such undertakings illiberal and immoral the activity is not free
because not freely participated in nevertheless there is already an opportunity for an education which keeping in mind the larger features of work
will reconcile liberal nurture with training in social serviceableness with ability to share efficiently and happily in occupations which are productive
and such an education will of itself tend to do away with the evils of the existing economic situation in the degree in which men have an active concern in the ends that control their activity
their activity becomes free or voluntary and loses its externally enforced and servile quality even though the physical aspect of behavior remain the same in what is termed politics
democratic social organization makes provision for this direct participation in control in the economic region control remains external and autocratic hence the split between inner mental action
and outer physical action of which the traditional distinction between the liberal and the utilitarian is the reflex an education which should unify the disposition of the members of society
would do much to unify society itself summary of the segregations of educational values discussed in the last chapter that between culture and utility is probably the most fundamental
while the distinction is often thought to be intrinsic and absolute it is really historical and social it originated so far as conscious formulation is concerned in greece
and was based upon the fact that the truly human life was lived only by a few who subsisted upon the results of the labor of others
this fact affected the psychological doctrine of the relation of intelligence and desire theory and practice it was embodied in a political theory of a permanent division of human beings
translated into educational terms effected a division between a liberal education having to do with the self sufficing life of leisure devoted to knowing for its own sake
and a useful practical training for mechanical occupations devoid of intellectual and aesthetic content while the present situation is radically diverse in theory and much changed in fact
the factors of the older historic situation still persist sufficiently to maintain the educational distinction along with compromises which often reduce the efficacy of the educational measures
the problem of education in a democratic society is to do away with the dualism and to construct a course of studies which makes thought a guide of free practice for all
that is till the eve of the enemy's entry into the city after petya had joined obolenski's regiment of cossacks and left for belaya tserkov where that regiment was forming
the countess was seized with terror the thought that both her sons were at the war had both gone from under her wing that today or tomorrow either or both of them might be killed like the three sons of one of her acquaintances
struck her that summer for the first time with cruel clearness she tried to get nicholas back and wished to go herself to join petya or to get him an appointment somewhere in petersburg
but neither of these proved possible petya could not return unless his regiment did so or unless he was transferred to another regiment on active service nicholas was somewhere with the army
and had not sent a word since his last letter in which he had given a detailed account of his meeting with princess mary the countess did not sleep at night or when she did fall asleep dreamed that she saw her sons lying dead
after many consultations and conversations the count at last devised means to tranquillize her he got petya transferred from obolenski's regiment to bezukhov's which was in training near moscow
though petya would remain in the service this transfer would give the countess the consolation of seeing at least one of her sons under her wing and she hoped to arrange matters for her petya
so as not to let him go again but always get him appointed to places where he could not possibly take part in a battle as long as nicholas alone was in danger the countess imagined that she loved her first born
more than all her other children and even reproached herself for it but when her youngest the scapegrace who had been bad at lessons was always breaking things in the house and making himself a nuisance to everybody
that snub nosed petya with his merry black eyes and fresh rosy cheeks where soft down was just beginning to show when he was thrown amid those big dreadful cruel men who were fighting somewhere
about something and apparently finding pleasure in it then his mother thought she loved him more much more than all her other children the nearer the time came for petya to return the more uneasy grew the countess
she began to think she would never live to see such happiness the presence of sonya of her beloved natasha or even of her husband irritated her
what do i want with them i want no one but petya she thought at the end of august the rostovs received another letter from nicholas he wrote from the province
of voronezh where he had been sent to procure remounts but that letter did not set the countess at ease knowing that one son was out of danger she became the more anxious about petya
though by the twentieth of august nearly all the rostovs acquaintances had left moscow and though everybody tried to persuade the countess to get away as quickly as possible
her adored petya returned on the twenty eighth of august he arrived the passionate tenderness with which his mother received him did not please the sixteen year old officer
though she concealed from him her intention of keeping him under her wing petya guessed her designs and instinctively fearing that he might give way to emotion when with her might become womanish as he termed it to himself
he treated her coldly avoided her and during his stay in moscow attached himself exclusively to natasha for whom he had always had a particularly brotherly tenderness almost lover like
owing to the count's customary carelessness nothing was ready for their departure by the twenty eighth of august
to remove their household belongings did not arrive till the thirtieth from the twenty eighth till the thirty first all moscow was in a bustle and commotion
every day thousands of men wounded at borodino were brought in by the dorogomilov gate and taken to various parts of moscow and thousands of carts conveyed the inhabitants
and their possessions out by the other gates in spite of rostopchin's broadsheets or because of them or independently of them the strangest and most contradictory rumors were current in the town
some said that no one was to be allowed to leave the city others on the contrary said that all the icons had been taken out of the churches and everybody was to be ordered to leave
some said there had been another battle after borodino at which the french had been routed while others on the contrary reported that the russian army had been destroyed
some talked about the moscow militia which preceded by the clergy would go to the three hills others whispered that augustin had been forbidden to leave
that traitors had been seized that the peasants were rioting and robbing people on their way from moscow and so on but all this was only talk in reality
at which it was decided to abandon moscow had not yet been held both those who went away and those who remained behind felt though they did not show it that moscow would certainly be abandoned
and that they ought to get away as quickly as possible and save their belongings it was felt that everything would suddenly break up and change but up to the first of september nothing had done so
as a criminal who is being led to execution knows that he must die immediately but yet looks about him and straightens the cap that is awry on his head
so moscow involuntarily continued its wonted life though it knew that the time of its destruction was near when the conditions of life to which its people were accustomed to submit
would be completely upset during the three days preceding the occupation of moscow the whole rostov family was absorbed in various activities the head of the family count ilya rostov
continually drove about the city collecting the current rumors from all sides and gave superficial and hasty orders at home about the preparations for their departure
the countess watched the things being packed was dissatisfied with everything was constantly in pursuit of petya who was always running away from her and was jealous of natasha
with whom he spent all his time sonya alone directed the practical side of matters by getting things packed but of late sonya had been particularly sad and silent
in which he mentioned princess mary had elicited in her presence joyous comments from the countess who saw an intervention of providence in this meeting of the princess and nicholas
i was never pleased at bolkonski's engagement to natasha said the countess but i always wanted nicholas to marry the princess and had a presentiment that it would happen what a good thing it would be
sonya felt that this was true that the only possibility of retrieving the rostovs affairs was by nicholas marrying a rich woman and that the princess was a good match
it was very bitter for her but despite her grief or perhaps just because of it she took on herself all the difficult work of directing the storing and packing of their things and was busy for whole days
the count and countess turned to her when they had any orders to give petya and natasha on the contrary far from helping their parents
almost all day long the house resounded with their running feet their cries and their spontaneous laughter they laughed and were gay not because there was any reason to laugh
but because gaiety and mirth were in their hearts and so everything that happened was a cause for gaiety and laughter to them petya was in high spirits because having left home a boy he had returned
as everybody told him a fine young man because he was at home because he had left belaya tserkov where there was no hope of soon taking part in a battle and had come to moscow where there was to be fighting
in a few days and chiefly because natasha whose lead he always followed was in high spirits natasha was gay because she had been sad too long and now nothing reminded her
of the cause of her sadness and because she was feeling well she was also happy because she had someone to adore her the adoration of others was a lubricant the wheels of her machine needed
to make them run freely and petya adored her above all they were gay because there was a war near moscow there would be fighting at the town gates arms were being given out
everybody was escaping going away somewhere and in general something extraordinary was happening and that is always exciting
chapter three somewhat less spiteful in her intercourse with other scholars mliss still retained an offensive attitude in regard to clytemnestra perhaps the jealous element was not entirely lulled in her passionate little breast
perhaps it was only that the round curves and plump outline offered more extended pinching surface but while such ebullitions were under the master's control her enmity occasionally took a new and irrepressible form the master in his first estimate of the child's character
could not conceive that she had ever possessed a doll but the master like many other professed readers of character was safer in a posteriori than a priori reasoning mliss had a doll but then it was emphatically mliss's doll a smaller copy of herself
its unhappy existence had been a secret discovered accidentally by missus morpher it had been the old time companion of mliss's wanderings and bore evident marks of suffering its original complexion was long since washed away by the weather
and anointed by the slime of ditches it looked very much as mliss had in days past its one gown of faded stuff was dirty and ragged as hers had been mliss had never been known to apply to it any childish term of endearment
she never exhibited it in the presence of other children it was put severely to bed in a hollow tree near the schoolhouse and only allowed exercise during mliss's rambles fulfilling a stern duty to her doll as she would to herself it knew no luxuries
now missus morpher obeying a commendable impulse bought another doll and gave it to mliss the child received it gravely and curiously the master on looking at it one day fancied he saw a slight resemblance in its round
red cheeks and mild blue eyes to clytemnestra it became evident before long that mliss had also noticed the same resemblance accordingly she hammered its waxen head on the rocks when she was alone and sometimes dragged it with a string round its neck to and from school
at other times setting it up on her desk she made a pincushion of its patient and inoffensive body whether this was done in revenge of what she considered a second figurative obtrusion of clytie's excellences upon her
or whether she had an intuitive appreciation of the rites of certain other heathens and indulging in that fetish ceremony imagined that the original of her wax model would pine away and finally die is a metaphysical question i shall not now consider
in spite of these moral vagaries the master could not help noticing in her different tasks the working of a quick restless and vigorous perception she knew neither the hesitancy nor the doubts of childhood her answers in class were always slightly dashed with audacity
of course she was not infallible but her courage and daring in passing beyond her own depth and that of the floundering little swimmers around her in their minds outweighed all errors of judgment children are not better than grown people in this respect i fancy
and whenever the little red hand flashed above her desk there was a wondering silence and even the master was sometimes oppressed with a doubt of his own experience and judgment nevertheless certain attributes which at first amused and entertained his fancy began to afflict him with grave doubts
he could not but see that mliss was revengeful irreverent and willful that there was but one better quality which pertained to her semisavage disposition the faculty of physical fortitude and self sacrifice and another though not always an attribute of the noble savage
truth mliss was both fearless and sincere perhaps in such a character the adjectives were synonymous the master had been doing some hard thinking on this subject
when he determined to call on the rev mc snagley for advice this decision was somewhat humiliating to his pride
but he thought of mliss and the evening of their first meeting and perhaps with a pardonable superstition that it was not chance alone that had guided her willful feet to the schoolhouse and perhaps with a complacent consciousness of the rare magnanimity of the act he choked back his dislike
and went to mc snagley the reverend gentleman was glad to see him moreover he observed that the master was looking peartish and hoped he had got over the neuralgy and rheumatiz he himself had been troubled with a dumb ager since last conference
pausing a moment to enable the master to write his certain method of curing the dumb ager upon the book and volume of his brain mister mc snagley proceeded to inquire after sister morpher she is an adornment to chris te wanity
so well behaved miss clytie in fact clytie's perfections seemed to affect him to such an extent that he dwelt for several minutes upon them the master was doubly embarrassed in the first place there was an enforced contrast with poor mliss in all this praise of clytie secondly
there was something unpleasantly confidential in his tone of speaking of missus morpher's earliest born so that the master after a few futile efforts to say something natural found it convenient to recall another engagement and left without asking the information required but in his after reflections
the full benefit of having refused it perhaps this rebuff placed the master and pupil once more in the close communion of old the child seemed to notice the change in the master's manner which had of late been constrained and in one of their long postprandial walks she stopped suddenly
and mounting a stump looked full in his face with big searching eyes you ain't mad said she with an interrogative shake of the black braids no nor bothered no nor hungry
hunger was to mliss a sickness that might attack a person at any moment no nor thinking of her of whom lissy that white girl
to express clytemnestra no upon your word a substitute for hope you'll die proposed by the master yes and sacred honor yes then mliss gave him a fierce little kiss and hopping down fluttered off
for two or three days after that she condescended to appear more like other children and be as she expressed it good two years had passed since the master's advent at smith's pocket and as his salary was not large
and the prospects of smith's pocket eventually becoming the capital of the state not entirely definite he contemplated a change he had informed the school trustees privately of his intentions but educated young men of unblemished moral character being scarce at that time
he consented to continue his school term through the winter to early spring none else knew of his intention except his one friend
a young creole physician known to the people of wingdam as duchesny he never mentioned it to missus morpher clytie or any of his scholars his reticence was partly the result of a constitutional indisposition to fuss partly a desire to be spared the questions and surmises of vulgar curiosity
and partly that he never really believed he was going to do anything before it was done he did not like to think of mliss it was a selfish instinct perhaps which made him try to fancy his feeling for the child was foolish romantic and unpractical he even tried to imagine
that she would do better under the control of an older and sterner teacher then she was nearly eleven and in a few years by the rules of red mountain would be a woman
after smith's death he addressed letters to smith's relatives and received one answer from a sister of melissa's mother thanking the master she stated her intention of leaving the atlantic states for california with her husband in a few months
this was a slight superstructure for the airy castle which the master pictured for mliss's home but it was easy to fancy that some loving sympathetic woman with the claims of kindred might better guide her wayward nature yet
mliss listened to it carelessly received it submissively and afterward cut figures out of it with her scissors supposed to represent clytemnestra labeled the white girl to prevent mistakes and impaled them upon the outer walls of the schoolhouse when the summer was about spent
and the last harvest had been gathered in the valleys the master bethought him of gathering in a few ripened shoots of the young idea and of having his harvest home or examination so the savants and professionals of smith's pocket were gathered to witness that time honored custom
of placing timid children in a constrained positions and bullying them as in a witness box as usual in such cases the most audacious and self possessed were the lucky recipients of the honors the reader will imagine
that in the present instance mliss and clytie were preeminent and divided public attention mliss with her clearness of material perception and self reliance
the other little ones were timid and blundering mliss's readiness and brilliancy of course captivated the greatest number and provoked the greatest applause mliss's antecedents had unconsciously awakened the strongest sympathies of a class whose athletic forms were ranged against the walls
or whose handsome bearded faces looked in at the windows
was overthrown by an unexpected circumstance
and defining the tethered orbits of the planets when mc snagley impressively arose meelissy ye were speaking of the revolutions of this yere yearth and the move ments of the sun and i think ye said
well war that the truth said mc snagley folding his arms yes said mliss shutting up her little red lips tightly the handsome outlines at the windows peered further in the schoolroom
and a saintly raphael face with blond beard and soft blue eyes belonging to the biggest scamp in the diggings turned toward the child and whispered stick to it mliss the reverend gentleman heaved a deep sigh and cast a compassionate glance at the master
then at the children and then rested his look on clytie that young woman softly elevated her round white arm its seductive curves were enhanced by a gorgeous and massive specimen bracelet the gift of one of her humblest worshipers worn in honor of the occasion
there was a momentary silence clytie's round cheeks were very pink and soft clytie's big eyes were very bright and blue clytie's low necked white book muslin rested softly on clytie's white plump shoulders
clytie looked at the master and the master nodded then clytie spoke softly joshua commanded the sun to stand still and it obeyed him there was a low hum of applause in the schoolroom
a triumphant expression on mc snagley's face a grave shadow on the master's and a comical look of disappointment reflected from the windows
and then shut the book with a loud snap
the pine forests exhaled the fresher spicery the azaleas were already budding the ceanothus getting ready its lilac livery for spring on the green upland which climbed red mountain at its southern aspect
the long spike of the monkshood shot up from its broad leaved stool and once more shook its dark blue bells again the billow above smith's grave was soft and green its crest just tossed with the foam of daisies and buttercups
and the mounds were placed two by two by the little paling until they reached smith's grave and there there was but one general superstition had shunned it and the plot beside smith was vacant
intimating that at a certain period a celebrated dramatic company would perform for a few days a series of side splitting and screaming farces that alternating pleasantly with this there would be some melodrama and a grand divertisement which would include singing dancing et cetera
and were the theme of much excitement and great speculation among the master's scholars
to whom this sort of thing was sacred and rare that she should go
the performance was the prevalent style of heavy mediocrity the melodrama was not bad enough to laugh at nor good enough to excite but the master turning wearily to the child was astonished and felt something like self accusation
in noticing the peculiar effect upon her excitable nature
her small passionate lips were slightly parted to give vent to her hurried breath her widely opened lids threw up and arched her black eyebrows she did not laugh at the dismal comicalities of the funny man for mliss seldom laughed
nor was she discreetly affected to the delicate extremes of the corner of a white handkerchief as was the tender hearted clytie who was talking with her feller and ogling the master at the same moment but when the performance was over and the green curtain fell on the little stage
mliss drew a long deep breath and turned to the master's grave face with a half apologetic smile and wearied gesture then she said now take me home and dropped the lids of her black eyes as if to dwell once more in fancy on the mimic stage
on their way to missus morpher's the master thought proper to ridicule the whole performance now he shouldn't wonder if mliss thought that the young lady who acted so beautifully
well if she were in love with him it was a very unfortunate thing why said mliss with an upward sweep of the drooping lid oh well he couldn't support his wife at his present salary
and then they wouldn't receive as much wages if they were married as if they were merely lovers that is added the master if they are not already married to somebody else but i think the husband of the pretty young countess takes the tickets at the door or pulls up the curtain or snuffs the candles or does something equally refined and elegant
as to the young man with nice clothes which are really nice now and must cost at least two and a half or three dollars not to speak of that mantle of red drugget which i happen to know the price of for i bought some of it for my room once as to this young man lissy he is a pretty good fellow
and if he does drink occasionally i don't think people ought to take advantage of it and give him black eyes and throw him in the mud do you i am sure he might owe me two dollars and a half a long time before i would throw it up in his face as the fellow did the other night at wingdam
which the young man kept as resolutely averted mliss had a faint idea of irony indulging herself sometimes in a species of sardonic humor
but the young man continued in this strain until they had reached missus morpher's and he had deposited mliss in her maternal charge waiving the invitation of missus morpher to refreshment and rest and shading his eyes with his hand to keep out the blue eyed clytemnestra's siren glances
he excused himself and went home for two or three days after the advent of the dramatic company mliss was late at school and the master's usual friday afternoon ramble was for once omitted owing to the absence of his trustworthy guide
a small voice piped at his side please sir the master turned and there stood aristides morpher well my little man said the master impatiently what is it quick please sir
what's that sir said the master with that unjust testiness with which we always receive disagreeable news why sir she don't stay home any more and kerg and me see her talking with one of those actor fellers and she's with him now
and please sir yesterday she told kerg and me
and the little fellow paused in a collapsed condition what actor asked the master
and hair and gold pin and gold chain said the just aristides putting periods for commas to eke out his breath the master put on his gloves and hat
and walked out in the road aristides trotted along by his side
when the master stopped suddenly and aristides bumped up against him where were they talking asked the master as if continuing the conversation at the arcade said aristides when they reached the main street the master paused
run down home said he to the boy if mliss is there come to the arcade and tell me if she isn't there stay home run and off trotted the short legged aristides the arcade was just across the way
a long rambling building containing a barroom billiard room and restaurant as the young man crossed the plaza he noticed that two or three of the passers by turned and looked after him he looked at his clothes took out his handkerchief and wiped his face before he entered the barroom
it contained the usual number of loungers who stared at him as he entered one of them looked at him so fixedly and with such a strange expression that the master stopped and looked again and then saw it was only his own reflection in a large mirror
and so he took up a copy of the red mountain banner from one of the tables and tried to recover his composure by reading the column of advertisements he then walked through the barroom through the restaurant and into the billiard room the child was not there in the latter apartment
a person was standing by one of the tables with a broad brimmed glazed hat on his head the master recognized him as the agent of the dramatic company he had taken a dislike to him at their first meeting from the peculiar fashion of wearing his beard and hair
satisfied that the object of his search was not there he turned to the man with a glazed hat he had noticed the master but tried that common trick of unconsciousness in which vulgar natures always fail balancing a billiard cue in his hand
the master stood opposite to him until he raised his eyes when their glances met the master walked up to him he had intended to avoid a scene or quarrel but when he began to speak something kept rising in his throat
it sounded so distant low and resonant i understand he began that melissa smith an orphan and one of my scholars has talked with you about adopting your profession is that so the man with the glazed hat
and made an imaginary shot that sent the ball spinning round the cushions then walking round the table he recovered the ball and placed it upon the spot this duty discharged getting ready for another shot he said s'pose she has
the master choked up again but squeezing the cushion of the table in his gloved hand he went on if you are a gentleman i have only to tell you that i am her guardian and responsible for her career you know as well as i do the kind of life you offer her
as you may learn of anyone here i have already brought her out of an existence worse than death
i am trying to do so again let us talk like men she has neither father mother sister or brother are you seeking to give her an equivalent for these the man with the glazed hat examined the point of his cue
and then looked around for somebody to enjoy the joke with him i know that she is a strange willful girl continued the master but she is better than she was i believe that i have some influence over her still i beg and hope therefore that you will take no further steps in this matter
but as a man as a gentleman leave her to me i am willing but here something rose again in the master's throat and the sentence remained unfinished the man with the glazed hat mistaking the master's silence
raised his head with a coarse brutal laugh and said in a loud voice want her yourself do you that cock won't fight here young man the insult was more in the tone than in the words
and more in the man's instinctive nature than all these the best appreciable rhetoric to this kind of animal is a blow the master felt this and with his pent up nervous energy finding expression in the one act he struck the brute full in his grinning face
the blow sent the glazed hat one way and the cue another and tore the glove and skin from the master's hand from knuckle to joint it opened up the corners of the fellow's mouth and spoilt the peculiar shape of his beard for some time to come
there was a shout an imprecation a scuffle and the trampling of many feet then the crowd parted right and left and two sharp quick reports followed each other in rapid succession then they closed again about his opponent and the master was standing alone
he remembered picking bits of burning wadding from his coat sleeve with his left hand someone was holding his other hand looking at it he saw it was still bleeding from the blow but his fingers were clenched around the handle of a glittering knife
he could not remember when or how he got it the man who was holding his hand was mister morpher he hurried the master to the door but the master held back
it's all right my boy said mister morpher she's home and they passed out into the street together
saying that somebody was trying to kill the master at the arcade wishing to be alone the master promised mister morpher that he would not seek the agent again that night and parted from him taking the road toward the schoolhouse he was surprised in nearing it to find the door open
still more surprised to find mliss sitting there the master's nature as i have hinted before had like most sensitive organizations a selfish basis the brutal taunt thrown out by his late adversary still rankled in his heart
it was possible he thought that such a construction might be put upon his affection for the child which at best was foolish and quixotic besides had she not voluntarily abnegated his authority and affection
why should he alone combat the opinion of all and be at last obliged tacitly to confess the truth of all they predicted and he had been a participant in a low barroom fight with a common boor and risked his life to prove what what had he proved nothing
what would the people say what would his friends say what would mc snagley say in his self accusation the last person he should have wished to meet was mliss
told the child in a few cold words that he was busy and wished to be alone as she rose he took her vacant seat and sitting down buried his head in his hands when he looked up again she was still standing there she was looking at his face with an anxious expression
no said the master that's what i gave you the knife for said the child quickly gave me the knife repeated the master in bewilderment yes gave you the knife i was there under the bar saw you hit him saw you both fall he dropped his old knife
i gave it to you why didn't you stick him said mliss rapidly with an expressive twinkle of the black eyes and a gesture of the little red hand
yes said mliss if you'd asked me i'd told you i was off with the play actors
because you wouldn't tell me you was going away i knew it i heard you tell the doctor so
i'd rather die first with a dramatic gesture which was perfectly consistent with her character she drew from her bosom a few limp green leaves and holding them out at arm's length said in her quick vivid way and in the queer pronunciation of her old life
which she fell into when unduly excited that's the poison plant you said would kill me i'll go with the play actors or i'll eat this and die here i don't care which i won't stay here where they hate and despise me neither would you let me if you didn't hate and despise me too
the passionate little breast heaved and two big tears peeped over the edge of mliss's eyelids but she whisked them away with the corner of her apron as if they had been wasps if you lock me up in jail said mliss fiercely to keep me from the play actors
i'll poison myself father killed himself why shouldn't i you said a mouthful of that root would kill me and i always carry it here
seizing her hands in his and looking full into her truthful eyes he said lissy will you go with me the child put her arms around his neck and said joyfully yes but now tonight tonight
and hand in hand they passed into the road the narrow road that had once brought her weary feet to the master's door and which it seemed she should not tread again alone the stars glittered brightly above them for good or ill the lesson had been learned
of repentance others form man i only report him and represent a particular one ill fashioned enough and whom if i had to model him anew
i should certainly make something else than what he is but that's past recalling now though the features of my picture alter and change tis not however unlike
the world eternally turns round all things therein are incessantly moving the earth the rocks of caucasus and the pyramids of egypt both by the public motion and their own
even constancy itself is no other but a slower and more languishing motion i cannot fix my object tis always tottering and reeling by a natural giddiness
i take it as it is at the instant i consider it i do not paint its being i paint its passage not a passing from one age to another or as the people say
from seven to seven years but from day to day from minute to minute i must accommodate my history to the hour i may presently change not only by fortune but also by intention
tis a counterpart of various and changeable accidents and of irresolute imaginations and as it falls out sometimes contrary
so it is that i may peradventure contradict myself
i never contradict the truth could my soul once take footing i would not essay but resolve
i propose a life ordinary and without lustre tis all one all moral philosophy may as well be applied to a common and private life as to one of richer composition
every man carries the entire form of human condition authors communicate themselves to the people by some especial and extrinsic mark i the first of any
by my universal being as michel de montaigne not as a grammarian a poet or a lawyer if the world find fault that i speak too much of myself
i find fault that they do not so much as think of themselves but is it reason that being so particular in my way of living i should pretend to recommend myself to the public knowledge
where art and handling have so much credit and authority crude and simple effects of nature and of a weak nature to boot is it not to build a wall without stone or brick or some such thing
to write books without learning and without art the fancies of music are carried on by art mine by chance
than i what i have undertaken and that in this i am the most understanding man alive secondly that never any man penetrated farther into his matter
nor better and more distinctly sifted the parts and sequences of it
and that is there and the most pure and sincere that is anywhere to be found i speak truth not so much as i would but as much as i dare
and i dare a little the more as i grow older for methinks custom allows to age more liberty of prating and more indiscretion of talking of a man's self
that cannot fall out here which i often see elsewhere that the work and the artificer contradict one another can a man of such sober conversation have written so foolish a book or
do so learned writings proceed from a man of so weak conversation he who talks at a very ordinary rate and writes rare matter
tis to say that his capacity is borrowed and not his own a learned man is not learned in all things but a sufficient man is sufficient throughout even to ignorance itself
here my book and i go hand in hand together elsewhere men may commend or censure the work without reference to the workman here they cannot who touches the one touches the other
he who shall judge of it without knowing him will more wrong himself than me he who does know him gives me all the satisfaction i desire
as to make men of understanding perceive that i was capable of profiting by knowledge
by a better memory be pleased here to excuse what i often repeat that i very rarely repent and that my conscience is satisfied with itself not as the conscience of an angel
always adding this clause not one of ceremony but a true and real submission that i speak inquiring and doubting purely and simply referring myself to the common and accepted beliefs for the resolution
i do not teach i only relate there is no vice that is absolutely a vice which does not offend and that a sound judgment does not accuse
for there is in it so manifest a deformity and inconvenience that peradventure they are in the right who say that it is chiefly begotten by stupidity and ignorance
so hard is it to imagine that a man can know without abhorring it malice sucks up the greatest part of its own venom and poisons itself
vice leaves repentance in the soul like an ulcer in the flesh which is always scratching and lacerating itself for reason effaces all other grief and sorrows but it begets that of repentance
which is so much the more grievous by reason it springs within as the cold and heat of fevers are more sharp than those that only strike upon the outward skin i hold for vices
not only those which reason and nature condemn but those also which the opinion of men though false and erroneous have made such if authorised by law and custom
there is likewise no virtue which does not rejoice a well descended nature there is a kind of i know not what congratulation in well doing that gives us an inward satisfaction
and a generous boldness that accompanies a good conscience a soul daringly vicious may peradventure arm itself with security but it cannot supply itself with this complacency and satisfaction
tis no little satisfaction to feel a man's self preserved from the contagion of so depraved an age and to say to himself whoever could penetrate into my soul would not there find me guilty
either of the affliction or ruin of any one or of revenge or envy or any offence against the public laws or of innovation or disturbance or failure of my word
yet have i not plundered any frenchman's goods or taken his money and have lived upon what is my own in war as well as in peace
neither have i set any man to work without paying him his hire these testimonies of a good conscience please and this natural rejoicing is very beneficial to us
to ground the recompense of virtuous actions upon the approbation of others is too uncertain and unsafe a foundation especially in so corrupt and ignorant an age as this
wherein the good opinion of the vulgar is injurious
which to a well composed soul surpasses not only in utility but in kindness all other offices of friendship i have always received them with the most open arms
both of courtesy and acknowledgment but to say the truth i have often found so much false measure both in their reproaches and praises that i had not done much amiss rather to have done ill
we who live private lives not exposed to any other view than our own
i have my laws and my judicature to judge of myself and apply myself more to these than to any other rules i do indeed restrain my actions according to others
but extend them not by any other rule than my own you yourself only know if you are cowardly and cruel loyal and devout others see you not
and only guess at you by uncertain conjectures and do not so much see your nature as your art
tuo tibi judicio est utendum
thou must employ thy own judgment upon thyself great is the weight of thy own conscience in the discovery of virtues and vices which taken away all things are lost
but the saying that repentance immediately follows the sin seems not to have respect to sin in its high estate which is lodged in us as in its own proper habitation
one may disown and retract the vices that surprise us and to which we are hurried by passions but those which by a long habit are rooted in a strong and vigorous will are not subject to contradiction
repentance is no other but a recanting of the will and an opposition to our fancies
tis an exact life that maintains itself in due order in private every one may juggle his part and represent an honest man upon the stage but within
and in his own bosom where all may do as they list where all is concealed to be regular there's the point the next degree is to be so in his house and in his ordinary actions
for which we are accountable to none and where there is no study nor artifice and therefore bias
for fear of the laws and report of men and it was a worthy saying of julius drusus to the masons who offered him for three thousand crowns to put his house in such a posture
i will give you said he six thousand to make it so that everybody may see into every room tis honourably recorded of agesilaus that he used in his journeys always to take up his lodgings in temples
to the end that the people and the gods themselves might pry into his most private actions such a one has been a miracle to the world in whom neither his wife nor servant
the further off i am read from my own home the better i am esteemed i purchase printers in guienne elsewhere they purchase me
who conceal themselves present and living
than my present share when i leave it i quit the rest see this functionary whom the people escort in state with wonder and applause to his very door
he puts off the pageant with his robe and falls so much the lower by how much he was higher exalted in himself within all is tumult and degraded
and though all should be regular there it will require a vivid and well chosen judgment to perceive it in these low and private actions to which may be added that order is a dull sombre virtue
conduct an embassy govern a people are actions of renown to reprehend laugh sell pay love hate and gently and justly converse with a man's own family and with himself
not to relax not to give a man's self the lie is more rare and hard and less remarkable by which means retired lives whatever is said to the contrary
undergo duties of as great or greater difficulty than the others do and private men says aristotle serve virtue more painfully and highly than those in authority do
we prepare ourselves for eminent occasions more out of glory than conscience the shortest way to arrive at glory would be to do that for conscience which we do for glory
appears to me of much less vigour in his great theatre than that of socrates in his mean and obscure employment i can easily conceive socrates in the place of alexander
but alexander in that of socrates i cannot who shall ask the one what he can do he will answer subdue the world
as they who judge and try us within make no great account of the lustre of our public actions and see they are only streaks and rays of clear water springing from a slimy and muddy bottom
so likewise they who judge of us by this gallant outward appearance in like manner conclude of our internal constitution and cannot couple common faculties and like their own
with the other faculties that astonish them and are so far out of their sight
and who does not give tamerlane great eyebrows wide nostrils a dreadful visage and a prodigious stature according to the imagination he has conceived by the report of his name
had any one formerly brought me to erasmus i should hardly have believed but that all was adage and apothegm he spoke to his man or his hostess
we much more aptly imagine an artisan upon his close stool or upon his wife than a great president venerable by his port and sufficiency
we fancy that they from their high tribunals will not abase themselves so much as to live as vicious souls are often incited by some foreign impulse to do well
so are virtuous souls to do ill they are therefore to be judged by their settled state when they are at home whenever that may be
natural inclinations are much assisted and fortified by education
so savage beasts when shut up in cages and grown
have become tame and have laid aside their fierce looks and submit to the rule of man if again a slight taste of blood comes into their mouths their rage and fury return
their jaws are erected by thirst of blood and their anger scarcely abstains from their trembling masters
these original qualities are not to be rooted out they may be covered and concealed the latin tongue is as it were natural to me i understand it better than french
but i have not been used to speak it nor hardly to write it these forty years unless upon extreme and sudden emotions which i have fallen into twice or thrice in my life
and once seeing my father in perfect health fall upon me in a swoon i have always uttered from the bottom of my heart my first words in latin nature deafened and forcibly expressing itself
in spite of so long a discontinuation and this example is said of many others they who in my time have attempted to correct the manners of the world by new opinions
reform seeming vices but the essential vices they leave as they were if indeed they do not augment them and augmentation is therein to be feared
we defer all other well doing upon the account of these external reformations of less cost and greater show and thereby expiate good cheap
look a little into our experience there is no man if he listen to himself who does not in himself discover a particular and governing form of his own that jostles his education
and wrestles with the tempest of passions that are contrary to it for my part i seldom find myself agitated with surprises i always find myself in my place
if i am not at home i am always near at hand
it is a dreadful thing to be poor a fortnight before christmas said clorinda with the mournful sigh of seventeen years aunt emmy smiled aunt emmy was sixty
on a sofa or in a wheel chair but aunt emmy was never heard to sigh i suppose it is worse then than at any other time she admitted that was one of the nice things about aunt emmy she always sympathized and understood
i'm worse than poor this christmas i'm stony broke said clorinda dolefully my spell of fever in the summer and the consequent doctor's bills have cleaned out my coffers completely not a single christmas present can i give
and i did so want to give some little thing to each of my dearest people but i simply can't afford it that's the hateful ugly truth clorinda sighed again the gifts which money can purchase are not the only ones we can give said aunt emmy gently
nor the best either oh i know it's nicer to give something of your own work agreed clorinda
that kind of gift is just as much out of the question for me as any other that was not what i meant said aunt emmy what did you mean then asked clorinda looking puzzled aunt emmy smiled suppose you think out my meaning for yourself she said
that would be better than if i explained it besides i don't think i could explain it take the beautiful line of a beautiful poem to help you in your thinking out the gift without the giver is bare
said clorinda with a grimace that is my predicament exactly
i'm going into mister callender's store down at murraybridge in february
won't your aunt miss you terribly said aunt emmy gravely clorinda flushed there was a note in aunt emmy's voice that disturbed her oh yes i suppose she will
i'm dreadfully tired of being poor aunt emmy and now that i have a chance to earn something for myself i mean to take it i can help aunt mary too i'm to get four dollars a week i think she would rather have your companionship than a part of your salary clorinda said aunt emmy
but of course you must decide for yourself dear it is hard to be poor i know it i am poor
said clorinda kissing her why you are the richest woman i know aunt emmy rich in love and goodness and contentment
aren't they all worth while of course they are laughed clorinda only unfortunately christmas gifts can't be coined out of them did you ever try asked aunt emmy
i feel cheered up you always cheer people up aunt emmy how grey it is outdoors
we always have such faded brown decembers clorinda lived just across the road from aunt emmy in a tiny white house behind some huge willows but aunt mary lived there too the only relative clorinda had for aunt emmy wasn't really her aunt at all clorinda had always lived with aunt mary ever since she could remember
she was thinking over what aunt emmy had said about christmas gifts and giving
i do wish i could find out if it would help me any i'd love to remember a few of my friends at least there's miss mitchell she's been so good to me all this year
and there's missus martin out in manitoba
she must be so lonely out there and aunt emmy herself of course and poor old aunt kitty down the lane and aunt mary and
clorinda stopped short suddenly she had just remembered that she would not have liked to say that last sentence to aunt emmy therefore there was something wrong about it clorinda had long ago learned that there was sure to be something wrong in anything that could not be said to aunt emmy so she stopped to think it over
clorinda puzzled over aunt emmy's meaning for four days and part of three nights then all at once it came to her or if it wasn't aunt emmy's meaning it was a very good meaning in itself and it grew clearer and expanded in meaning during the days that followed
although at first clorinda shrank a little from some of the conclusions to which it led her
some of them quite costly too that is they will cost me something but i know i'll be better off and richer after i've paid the price that is what mister grierson would call a paradox isn't it
i'll explain all about it to you on christmas day on christmas day clorinda went over to aunt emmy's it was a faded brown christmas after all for the snow had not come but clorinda did not mind there was such joy in her heart that she thought it the most delightful christmas day that ever dawned
aunt emmy patted the hand that was in her own from your face dear girl it will be pleasant hearing and telling she said clorinda nodded aunt emmy i thought for days over your meaning
and i knew that i could give some gifts after all i thought of something new every day for a week at first i didn't think i could give some of them and then i thought how selfish i was
but i wasn't willing to pay what i had i got over that though aunt emmy now i'm going to tell you what i did give first there was my teacher miss mitchell i gave her one of father's books
but still it was one i loved very much
that is i felt that on second thought at first aunt emmy i thought i would be ashamed to offer miss mitchell a shabby old book worn with much reading and all marked over with father's notes and pencillings
that old book which father had loved and which i loved
then you know missus martin last year she was miss hope my dear sunday school teacher she married a home missionary and they are in a lonely part of the west well i wrote her a letter not just an
ordinary letter dear me no i took a whole day to write it and you should have seen the postmistress's eyes stick out when i mailed it i just told her everything that had happened in greenvale since she went away i made it as newsy and cheerful and loving as i possibly could
everything bright and funny i could think of went into it the next was old aunt kitty
but well you know aunt emmy i'm ashamed to confess it
she is very deaf and rather dull and stupid you know well i gave her a whole day i took my knitting yesterday and sat with her the whole time and just talked and talked i told her all the greenvale news and gossip and everything else i thought she'd like to hear
she was so pleased and proud she told me when i came away that she hadn't had such a nice time for years then there was
then florence once told rose watson something i had told her in confidence
i couldn't forgive florence and i told her plainly i could never be a real friend to her again florence felt badly because she really did love me and she asked me to forgive her but it seemed as if i couldn't well aunt emmy that was my christmas gift to her my forgiveness
and wanted to be real close friends again i gave aunt mary her gift this morning
our prisoner's furious resistance did not apparently indicate any ferocity in his disposition towards ourselves for on finding himself powerless
and expressed his hopes that he had not hurt any of us in the scuffle
he remarked to sherlock holmes my cab's at the door if you'll loose my legs i'll walk down to it i'm not so light to lift as i used to be
as if they thought this proposition rather a bold one but holmes at once took the prisoner at his word
as though to assure himself that they were free once more i remember that i thought to myself as i eyed him that i had seldom seen a more powerfully built man and his dark sunburned face bore an expression of determination and energy which was as formidable as his personal strength
if there's a vacant place for a chief of the police i reckon you are the man for it
i can drive you said lestrade good and gregson can come inside with me you too doctor you have taken an interest in the case and may as well stick to us i assented gladly and we all descended together our prisoner made no attempt at escape but stepped calmly into the cab which had been his
and we followed him lestrade mounted the box whipped up the horse and brought us in a very short time to our destination we were ushered into a small chamber where a police inspector noted down our prisoner's name and the names of the men with whose murder he had been charged
the official was a white faced unemotional man who went through his duties in a dull mechanical way the prisoner will be put before the magistrates in the course of the week he said
i've got a good deal to say our prisoner said slowly i want to tell you gentlemen all about it hadn't you better reserve that for your trial
yes i am i answered then put your hand here he said with a smile motioning with his manacled wrists towards his chest i did so and became at once conscious of an extraordinary throbbing and commotion which was going on inside
in the silence of the room i could hear a dull humming and buzzing noise which proceeded from the same source why i cried you have an aortic aneurism that's what they call it he said placidly i went to a doctor last week about it
you are at liberty sir to give your account which i again warn you will be taken down i'll sit down with your leave the prisoner said suiting the action to the word this aneurism of mine makes me easily tired and the tussle we had half an hour ago has not mended matters i'm on the brink of the grave and i am not likely to lie to you
every word i say is the absolute truth and how you use it is a matter of no consequence to me with these words jefferson hope leaned back in his chair and began the following remarkable statement he spoke in a calm and methodical manner as though the events which he narrated were commonplace enough
that girl that i spoke of was to have married me twenty years ago she was forced into marrying that same drebber and broke her heart over it i took the marriage ring from her dead finger and i vowed that his dying eyes should rest upon that very ring and that his last thoughts should be of the crime for which he was punished
if i die to morrow as is likely enough i die knowing that my work in this world is done and well done
or to desire they were rich and i was poor so that it was no easy matter for me to follow them when i got to london my pocket was about empty and i found that i must turn my hand to something for my living driving and riding are as natural to me as walking
the hardest job was to learn my way about for i reckon that of all the mazes that ever were contrived this city is the most confusing i had a map beside me though and when once i had spotted the principal hotels and stations i got on pretty well it was some time before i found out where my two gentlemen were living
but i inquired and inquired until at last i dropped across them they were at a boarding house at camberwell over on the other side of the river when once i found them out i knew that i had them at my mercy i had grown my beard and there was no chance of their recognizing me i would dog them and follow them until i saw my opportunity
i was determined that they should not escape me again they were very near doing it for all that go where they would about london i was always at their heels sometimes i followed them on my cab and sometimes on foot
they were very cunning though they must have thought that there was some chance of their being followed for they would never go out alone and never after nightfall during two weeks i drove behind them every day and never once saw them separate drebber himself was drunk half the time but stangerson was not to be caught napping
and leave my work undone at last one evening i was driving up and down torquay terrace as the street was called in which they boarded when i saw a cab drive up to their door presently some luggage was brought out
i whipped up my horse and kept within sight of them feeling very ill at ease for i feared that they were going to shift their quarters at euston station they got out and i left a boy to hold my horse and followed them on to the platform
but drebber was rather pleased than otherwise i got so close to them in the bustle that i could hear every word that passed between them
and that if the other would wait for him he would soon rejoin him his companion remonstrated with him and reminded him that they had resolved to stick together drebber answered that the matter was a delicate one and that he must go alone i could not catch what stangerson said to that
on that the secretary gave it up as a bad job and simply bargained with him that if he missed the last train he should rejoin him at halliday's private hotel
i had my enemies within my power together they could protect each other but singly they were at my mercy i did not act however with undue precipitation my plans were already formed
and why retribution has come upon him i had my plans arranged by which i should have the opportunity of making the man who had wronged me understand that his old sin had found him out it chanced that some days before a gentleman who had been engaged in looking over some houses in the brixton road had dropped the key of one of them in my carriage
by means of this i had access to at least one spot in this great city
to solve he walked down the road and went into one or two liquor shops staying for nearly half an hour in the last of them when he came out he staggered in his walk and was evidently pretty well on
we rattled across waterloo bridge and through miles of streets until to my astonishment we found ourselves back in the terrace in which he had boarded i could not imagine what his intention was in returning there
give me a glass of water if you please my mouth gets dry with the talking
that's better he said well i waited for a quarter of an hour or more when suddenly there came a noise like people struggling inside the house next moment the door was flung open and two men appeared one of whom was drebber and the other was a young chap whom i had never seen before
i'll teach you to insult an honest girl
drive me to halliday's private hotel said he when i had him fairly inside my cab my heart jumped so with joy that i feared lest at this last moment my aneurism might go wrong i drove along slowly weighing in my own mind what it was best to do i might take him right out into the country
and there in some deserted lane have my last interview with him i had almost decided upon this when he solved the problem for me the craze for drink had seized him again and he ordered me to pull up outside a gin palace he went in leaving word that i should wait for him
there he remained until closing time and when he came out he was so far gone that i knew the game was in my own hands
which he had extracted from some south american arrow poison and which was so powerful that the least grain meant instant death
i was a fairly good dispenser so i worked this alkaloid into small soluble pills and each pill i put in a box with a similar pill made without the poison i determined at the time that when i had my chance my gentlemen should each have a draw out of one of these boxes while i ate the pill that remained it would be quite as deadly
from that day i had always my pill boxes about with me and the time had now come when i was to use them it was nearer one than twelve and a wild bleak night blowing hard and raining in torrents
if any of you gentlemen have ever pined for a thing and longed for it during twenty long years and then suddenly found it within your reach you would understand my feelings i lit a cigar and puffed at it to steady my nerves but my hands were trembling and my temples throbbing with excitement
as i drove i could see old john ferrier and sweet lucy looking at me out of the darkness and smiling at me just as plain as i see you all in this room all the way they were ahead of me
there was not a soul to be seen nor a sound to be heard except the dripping of the rain when i looked in at the window i found drebber all huddled together in a drunken sleep i shook him by the arm it's time to get out i said all right cabby
i had to walk beside him to keep him steady for he was still a little top heavy when we came to the door i opened it and led him into the front room i give you my word that all the way the father and the daughter were walking in front of us it's infernally dark
said he stamping about we'll soon have a light i said striking a match and putting it to a wax candle which i had brought with me now enoch drebber i continued turning to him and holding the light to my own face who am i
he staggered back with a livid face and i saw the perspiration break out upon his brow while his teeth chattered in his head at the sight i leaned my back against the door and laughed loud and long i had always known that vengeance would be sweet but i had never hoped for the contentment of soul which now possessed me
you dog i said i have hunted you from salt lake city to saint petersburg and you have always escaped me now at last your wanderings have come to an end for either you or i shall never see to morrow's sun rise
he shrunk still further away as i spoke and i could see on his face that he thought i was mad so i was for the time
what do you think of lucy ferrier now i cried locking the door and shaking the key in his face punishment has been slow in coming but it has overtaken you at last
would you murder me he stammered there is no murder i answered who talks of murdering a mad dog what mercy had you upon my poor darling when you dragged her from her slaughtered father and bore her away to your accursed and shameless harem
he cried but it was you who broke her innocent heart i shrieked thrusting the box before him let the high god judge between us choose and eat there is death in one and life in the other i shall take what you leave let us see if there is justice upon the earth or if we are ruled by chance
he cowered away with wild cries and prayers for mercy but i drew my knife and held it to his throat until he had obeyed me
waiting to see which was to live and which was to die shall i ever forget the look which came over his face when the first warning pangs told him that the poison was in his system
it was but for a moment for the action of the alkaloid is rapid a spasm of pain contorted his features he threw his hands out in front of him staggered and then with a hoarse cry fell heavily upon the floor i turned him over with my foot and placed my hand upon his heart there was no movement he was dead
the blood had been streaming from my nose but i had taken no notice of it i don't know what it was that put it into my head to write upon the wall with it perhaps it was some mischievous idea of setting the police upon a wrong track for i felt light hearted and cheerful
and printed it on a convenient place on the wall then i walked down to my cab and found that there was nobody about and that the night was still very wild
thinking that i might have dropped it when i stooped over drebber's body i drove back and leaving my cab in a side street i went boldly up to the house
that was how enoch drebber came to his end all i had to do then was to do as much for stangerson and so pay off john ferrier's debt i knew that he was staying at halliday's private hotel and i hung about all day
he was cunning was stangerson and always on his guard if he thought he could keep me off by staying indoors he was very much mistaken
and early next morning i took advantage of some ladders which were lying in the lane behind the hotel and so made my way into his room in the grey of the dawn i woke him up and told him that the hour had come when he was to answer for the life he had taken so long before
you may consider me to be a murderer but i hold that i am just as much an officer of justice as you are
sir francis drake probably the greatest hero in all great britain's naval history is sir francis drake who carried england's flag to the uttermost corners of the earth and made it glorious when queen elizabeth was on the english throne
drake was the oldest of a family of twelve sons and was born in devonshire in fifteen thirty nine he was an active and adventurous boy fond of all athletic games and early showing a taste for the sea
that seemed to run in his family for his father had served in the navy in the time of henry the eighth and his cousin sir john hawkins was sailing to the coast of guinea to bring back slaves the talent that drake had for the sea
was soon observed by the keen eyed hawkins and before long drake became his apprentice and quickly learned the ins and outs of seamanship he rapidly made a name for himself as a brave and skilful sailor
and before long accompanied hawkins on his trips to guinea after negro slaves trips in which drake was always in the fore when any adventure of a particularly dangerous nature was undertaken
the slave trade was a perfectly honorable calling in those days and drake succeeded in it beyond his hopes amassing much money with which he helped his younger brothers and did many kindnesses for his family
but the slave trade itself soon grew too small to satisfy hawkins who sought a field for broader adventures all the western ocean lay open to him
and mustering a squadron he offered drake the command of one of the vessels which were to go to the west indies and engage in trading or fighting with the spaniards who had at that time almost a monopoly of the waters where columbus had sailed
some seventy years before spain and england were not openly at war when hawkins was planning this voyage but in unknown waters all law stopped and it was not infrequent for spanish and english vessels to fall afoul of each other
with little or nothing said about it afterward in the courts or embassies queen elizabeth hated the spaniards and was glad to do them all the mischief she could but she did not dare to go to war with them at that time
or to give too open encouragement to her sea captains they knew none the less that the sight of spanish gold under english hatches was pleasant to good queen bess and likely to result in honor wealth and preferment for themselves
it was on drake's first expedition to the west indies that he conceived a hatred for the spaniards that was to last all his life as the result of the black treachery they played on hawkins
after cruising along the western coast of what is now florida and being unable to find a proper harbor there hawkins set sail for mexico and dropped anchor at a spanish port in that country
a large fleet of spanish vessels arrived and finding the english in possession and holding a strong position agreed to let them sail away unmolested later however
when the english had consented to these terms and after the spanish admiral had entertained the english officers in his own cabin the spaniards treacherously attacked the english killing a number that had gone ashore before they could regain their boats
and engaging in a sea fight with hawkins squadron in which the english lost all but two of their ships the judith drake's vessel and the minion on which hawkins happened to be when the fight commenced
these two ships escaped and made their way back to england separately drake vowing vengeance against the spaniards and indeed they had made a dangerous enemy in this bold sailor who very shortly
paid them in full for the base treatment they had given him as soon as he was in england drake commenced fitting out two vessels as raiders for the purpose of harrying spanish ships in the waters of the west indies
and if possible to capture the spanish holdings on land and place them beneath the english flag particularly did he desire to get his fingers into the rich heaps of gold
that were conveyed by great spanish ships or galleons back from the new world to the treasury of king philip with these ends in view drake landed his men secretly on the coast of central america near the present location of the panama canal
and by a bold surprise attack captured the spanish town named nombre de dios he was finally compelled to abandon the town because he was greatly outnumbered by the spaniards who through a mishap in his plans
were enabled to collect their forces
of central america along the route that the treasure trains traveled when the tinkling of the bells on the harnesses of the pack animals warned him of the approach of the spaniards who guarded the treasure drake concealed his men at the side of the road
and rushing forward with a shout attacked and captured the train almost before the astonished spaniards knew that there was an enemy in the vicinity rich stores of gold and jewels were found in the mule packs more in fact
than the english men could carry back with them and with cheers and rejoicing the little band of adventurers made their way back to the harbor where they had left their ships when they reached it however no ships were to be seen
they feared that the spaniards had captured or destroyed their vessels and that they were marooned in a hostile and dangerous country but drake with his characteristic boldness formed a plan that delivered them from their difficulty
from the logs on the shore he ordered his men to build a raft and with their hatchets they hewed out oars a sail was contrived from a large biscuit sack and with a few of his best men
drake put to sea on this strange craft searching for his ships the raft had been built so hurriedly that at times he was up to his waist in water but he was rewarded at last by finding his two vessels
safe and sound in a little cove where they had been taken to avoid some spanish warships that were in the neighborhood returning to his men at the helm of his own vessel the treasure was soon aboard
and with a large cargo of gold silver and sparkling jewels drake headed for england where a rousing welcome was given him elizabeth however
did not dare openly to approve of an act that secretly brought her the utmost satisfaction for the time at any rate drake got little thanks for his exploits and there was even talk of returning the captured treasure to the spaniards
drake then engaged in a war in ireland where he proved himself almost as good a soldier as he was a sailor but even while enjoying his congenial occupation of fighting he longed to set forth
on another great adventure the idea of which had come to him while in the central american jungle from which he had first set eyes on the far off waters of the pacific ocean
to waters where they had never been seen before up to that time only the spanish had rounded south america and brought their civilization to its northwestern shores and the new venture if successful would mean much to england
but drake feared that the queen would not approve of the idea and for a time cherished it only in his own mind waiting a more favorable opportunity to lay it before the queen in the meantime
he fell in with an english army officer named thomas doughty who became his close friend doughty was greatly interested in drake's idea of sailing the pacific and promised to get sir christopher hatton
one of elizabeth's most influential advisors to intercede for drake with the queen hatton talked with drake and cordially approved the plan and
drake sailed westward while the trumpets blared and the cannon boomed in his honor drake himself was in command of a little ship which he called the golden hind and doughty was his second in command
over the entire squadron the ships were admirably fitted out for those times with every necessity and every comfort and luxury drake and his officers dined from silver dishes on the choicest food and wines his stores
included materials for trading with the natives as well as all the scientific instruments then applied to the art of navigation after sinking some unimportant spanish ships the english squadron captured a large portuguese galleon
the portuguese had been unfriendly to the english on more than one occasion and this was drake's way of informing them that such had been the case and after a long voyage he came to the mouth of the river de la plata in south america
dropping anchor at the entrance to that great stream fires blazed on the shore and weird figures were seen dancing around the flames they were the savage natives praying to their heathen gods for the shipwreck of drake's party
for they believed that by their prayers and fires a host of devils would alight upon the english vessels and destroy them drake himself was too eager to continue his voyage to think of landing and pointed his prows southward
bound for the strait of magellan after a battle with the gigantic and savage patagonians in which drake saved his men from massacre by his usual quick decision and energy
he continued his voyage until trouble that had developed in his crew compelled him to take action against his friend and lieutenant doughty it seems that even before they sailed from england doughty had become jealous of drake
and had commenced to work for his undoing and now proofs were only too evident that he had tried to provoke a mutiny in the crew
dante in the year twelve sixty five there was born in the city of florence in italy a man who was destined to become one of the four greatest poets that the world has ever produced this man was dante
the son of alighiero a florentine who was popular and well known as a man of affairs when dante was born italy was very different from what it is to day for instead of being formed of a single nation
the cities themselves were nations and made their own laws these cities moreover were constantly at war with one another and fighting was the order of the day even within the cities there were often bloody frays and brawls
between the supporters of one or another noble family these brawls sometimes became so extensive that they grew into civil war and penetrated beyond the limits of the cities in which they were hatched
such was the state of affairs in dante's time and it is important to remember this
had a great effect upon his life particularly long and bloody in florence and other cities had been the strife between two families and factions who called themselves respectively the guelfs and the ghibellines
and support them in all their quarrels the guelfs moreover were high in the affairs of florence and had overcome their opponents there and for this reason those who belonged to the guelf cause had the chance to rise in the affairs of the city so
dante's boyhood was not spent like that of some other poets in the midst of books alone or in the quiet seclusion of school and college he was thrown neck and heels into the midst of the fiery italian politics
and go unpunished providing
and it is probable that he saw many wild doings he was however of studious habits and loved reading more than the air he breathed and while little is known of his boyhood years it is certain that he mastered then and in his early manhood
many of the best books that had been written since the beginning of the world moreover as dante later said he had taught himself the art of bringing words into verse an art that he mastered so thoroughly that his name was to live forever
when dante was still a young boy there befell something that proved to be the most wonderful happening in his entire life this was nothing else than meeting a little girl named beatrice portinari although beatrice was only a child and
dante himself hardly ten years old he felt a love for her that lasted from that minute until the day of his death and that inspired him to write the great poem that made his name famous throughout the world a festival was given by the family of the portinari
which was a noble one and possessed such wealth that its members afterward became bankers for king edward the third of england among the guests was the boy dante and he beheld beatrice there as a beautiful little girl
how strangely he was affected by the sight of her he told in later years and his words have been translated and quoted as follows her dress on that day said dante
a subdued and goodly crimson girdled and adorned in such sort as best suited her very tender age
began to tremble so violently that the least pulses of my body shook therewith from that time love ruled my soul dante did not speak to beatrice on that occasion in fact he saw her
or addressed her only two or three times in his entire life but from the day when she first appeared to him in her crimson dress he sought to perform some deed that would make him worthy of her love and the result was the great poem in which he placed her name
beside his own in spite of his love dante did not become an idle dreamer but developed into an active and studious young man ready to take up the sword to defend his city whenever it might call on him to do so
and when he was twenty four years old he put on his armor and went forth to battle against the citizens of arezzo a town where the ghibellines were powerful and had been acting in a hostile manner toward the guelfs who controlled florence
war was not so serious an affair then as it is now and everyone engaged in it moreover the towns that warred against each other were so near that it was sometimes an easy matter to go forth and fight on one day
everyone was expected to bear arms for his city and going to war was held to be a matter of course but in spite of these things dante gained great praise for the way in which he conducted himself in the war with arezzo perhaps because he was braver than the rest
or perhaps because a poet is not generally considered to be as warlike as other men after the fighting had ended dante returned to florence and prepared to take his part in city politics
before he could accomplish anything it was necessary for him to go on record that he belonged to one of the great guilds into which all the citizens at that time were divided and which controlled all the different branches of business and manufacturing
and all the sciences so dante entered the guild of the doctors and apothecaries not because he knew anything about their professions that was not necessary but to give himself an apparent vocation
by this time dante's great intellect and scholarly attainments had made him well known in florence although he was only a young man he was high in the esteem of many learned men and had a great many poets and artists for his friends
so well did he appear in their eyes and to the men of the city of florence who ran its affairs that in the year thirteen hundred dante was made one of the priors of florence that is one of the chief rulers of the city
without making many enemies and as dante belonged to the controlling faction others who were not in power planned his overthrow and that of his fellow rulers
dante himself however disliked this civil strife and did all in his power to bring the opposing factions together but his enemies got the upper hand
beatrice whom he still continued to love ardently although he had married a good woman named gemma donati and had three children had died some years before leaving him nothing but her memory
but dante's love for beatrice had not interfered in his relations with his wife it was not an earthly love he had not wanted beatrice as his wife but rather as an ideal that he could worship and after her death
he became both gloomy and unhappy his exile moreover was a bitter blow to dante for he had loved florence dearly and could not imagine making his home elsewhere with bitterness in his heart
he wandered from city to city and then he set out in earnest to write the great poem which is called the divine comedy dante had already written a number of beautiful poems but they were more in the style of other italian and latin poetry
what he now planned was entirely new and so daring that it had never been thought of since the beginning of the world he planned in this poem to describe a journey into the nethermost regions of hell then into purgatory
and finally into heaven where beatrice should be his guide and conduct him to the throne of god himself such a poem as we have said had never been written or even wildly imagined
and he told the story of the poem as though the adventures in it were real and had happened directly to himself hell according to dante's belief
was a gigantic funnel shaped gulf directly beneath the city of jerusalem shaped into nine vast circles or pits with a common center that reached down to the center of the earth like a circular flight of stairs
in the lowest pit of all satan himself was to be found ruling his kingdom on the other side of the earth was a wide sea from which arose a mighty mountain called the mount of purgatory
the place where the souls of human beings did penance for their sins until they were fit to enter heaven heaven itself was composed of nine transparent and revolving spheres that enclosed the earth
and in which were fastened the sun the moon and the stars the motion of these heavenly bodies as they rose and set above the earth's horizon was believed by dante to be due to the turning of the spheres which were moved by the hand of god
it was in accordance with this idea of heaven and hell that dante began his poem one day he said when he was lonely and sad in spirit he found himself standing in the midst of a deep forest that was so gloomy
wild and savage that no mortal eyes had ever seen its equal and even to think of it afterward caused him a bitterness not far from that of death itself as he stood there he was aware of a presence close by
the stately figure of a man who proved to be the great roman poet vergil and vergil told him that divine will had ordered him to guide dante through hell and as far as the gates of paradise
and had been decreed by heaven itself and dante in great fear at what he was about to see was led by vergil through the forest until he came to the mouth of a black cavern
was a verse that told dante that here was the entrance to the lower world the gateway to hell and the verse concluded with the grim words all hope
sighs groans lamentations and terrible voices were heard from the depths below as they passed through this evil doorway and now they were in a region of murky gloom where no ray of sunlight ever had entered
all around them were the spirits of the dead they came flocking to the acheron or river of death
with eyes like flaming wheels bore them across
he sternly ordered dante to return whence he had come vergil interceded for him and they passed on after they had crossed the river of death they entered the first circle of hell
where those who had the misfortune to die without being baptized or who had believed in some other religion than christianity must spend the rest of time here were a number of noble spirits from the days of rome and greece
including many of the poets mathematicians and astronomers of olden days dante would gladly have remained with them for they were not unhappy and spent their time in learned discourse and scholarly friendship but vergil urged him onward
deeper and deeper they descended they passed through great spaces where mighty winds swept before them the souls of the dead
through regions of chill rain and sleet where the spirits of those who had been gluttonous in their lifetime were perpetually torn into pieces by a three headed dog
and after many awful scenes that dante could hardly bear to witness he saw in front of him
or satan in which the spirits of the damned underwent punishments
guarding the walls were the three furies of the greek legends when they beheld dante they howled for the gorgon medusa with the snaky locks to come quickly and turn him into stone
a fate that must befall all men that gazed upon her face but vergil bade dante hide his eyes and to be sure that he might be saved he covered them with his own hand they entered the city
that we shall not describe them here
that strove to arrest their progress and in passing by a lake of burning pitch in which tortured souls were burning the demons that guarded them rushed at dante and pursued him eager to hurl him into the lake
to lose his life and the hope of heaven at one and the same time lower and lower they descended passing from one horror to another still more terrible until they came to the nethermost pit of all
where vergil told dante that now he would need all his courage to sustain him for he had come at last to the abode of satan this was a region of eternal ice and a bitter wind blew on them
so cold and dreadful that dante was half dead from it and it seemed that his numbed senses could not support life any longer the wind he saw was caused by the bat like wings of satan himself
a gigantic and hairy monster with only the upper half of his body protruding from the icy pit in which he stood he had three heads one red
and in his three mouths he munched the three greatest traitors of all time judas iscariot brutus and cassius when dante was about to swoon from the terrible sight vergil watched his opportunity
and as the great wings of satan rose he sprang beneath them with dante following him grasping the hairy side of the monster they commenced to descend still lower and soon to dante's amazement their downward path became an upward one
for satan's waist was at the center of the earth and after they had passed it they must climb instead of descend up and up they went toiling with the greatest difficulty
passing through a chimney like passageway that led for an incredible distance to the open air above and when they arrived beneath the blue sky they were at the base of the mountain of purgatory where men's spirits that were not doomed to hell
must purify themselves before they could hope to enter the heaven that lay above them after the soot of hell was washed from dante's countenance he began with vergil to ascend the mountain they passed countless spirits
all engaged in severe tasks to cleanse themselves of sin before they could hope to attain the wonderful regions above but these spirits were almost happy although many of them were undergoing pain and suffering
for their trouble was not endless as was the case with the spirits of hell and they would certainly find happiness at last when they came to the summit of the mountain a wall of fire lay between them and paradise through this they passed and once on the other side
dante lost sight of vergil who could accompany him no further dante was then greeted by his long lost beatrice now a radiant spirit who had been chosen by divine will to show him the glories of heaven and with beatrice guiding him
dante passed upward through the crystal spheres once getting a glimpse of the earth in his heavenly progress as it lay beneath him shining in the light of the sun at last dante had ascended to so great a height in heaven
that he beheld god himself but what he saw was so wonderful that it was impossible for him to write about it and in this way his wonderful poem came to an end after completing the inferno dante went to paris
where he met a great many scholars and wise men who treated him with the utmost respect but all the time he desired to be in his native city of florence when henry of luxembourg planned to lay siege to it dante encouraged him
hoping that he might enter with the conquerors and that his enemies might be overthrown the siege took place but it was unsuccessful and the poet was compelled to wander far and wide among strangers for the rest of his life
as he lacked money he had to take many humble offices to earn his bread and more than once had to undergo the indignity of sitting among the jesters and buffoons at some great house that had honored him with its favor
at last weary of life and sick at heart dante went to ravenna where his genius was honored more worthily his name had now penetrated throughout the greater part of the civilized world
and he was known as one of the greatest geniuses that had ever lived many people believed that dante had actually beheld the scenes that he described when they met him on the streets they would draw aside to let him pass
thinking him a man whose destiny was different from their own and they would whisper to each other that he was the man who had descended into hell and come forth again alive and had looked with his own eyes at the horrors of the infernal regions
no doubt the fame and the almost frightened homage that he received were pleasing to the sad soul of dante but he always remembered that he was still an outcast from his native city florence stubbornly refused to remove her ban
and when dante died he was buried at ravenna there his body still lies with a latin inscription on his tombstone that tells the world of the ingratitude of the city of florence
to the ancients the world was a truth we must say here to the moderns the spirit was a truth but here as there we must not omit the supplement
a truth whose untruth they tried to get back of and at last they really do a course similar to that which antiquity took may be demonstrated in christianity also
in that the understanding was held a prisoner under the dominion of the christian dogmas up to the time preparatory to the reformation but in the pre reformation century asserted itself sophistically
and played heretical pranks with all tenets of the faith and the talk then was especially in italy and at the roman court if only the heart remains christian minded
the understanding may go right on taking its pleasure long before the reformation people were so thoroughly accustomed to fine spun wranglings that the pope and most others
looked on luther's appearance too as a mere wrangling of monks at first humanism corresponds to sophisticism and as in the time of the sophists greek life stood in its fullest bloom the periclean age
so the most brilliant things happened in the time of humanism or as one might perhaps also say of machiavellianism printing the new world et cetera
but finally the reformation like socrates took hold seriously of the heart itself and since then hearts have kept growing visibly more unchristian
as with luther people began to take the matter to heart the outcome of this step of the reformation must be that the heart also gets lightened of the heavy burden of christian faith the heart
from day to day more unchristian loses the contents with which it had busied itself till at last nothing but empty warm heartedness is left it the quite general love of men the love of man
self consciousness only so is christianity complete because it has become bald withered and void of contents
unless indeed the heart unconsciously or without self consciousness lets them slip in the heart criticises to death with hard hearted mercilessness everything that wants to make its way in
and is capable except as before unconsciously or taken by surprise of no friendship no love what could there be in men to love
since they are all alike egoists
the christian loves only the spirit
to have a liking for the corporeal man with hide and hair why that would no longer be a spiritual warm heartedness it would be treason against pure warm heartedness the theoretical regard
on the contrary pure warm heartedness is warm hearted toward nobody it is only a theoretical interest concern for man as man not as a person
the person is repulsive to it because of being egoistic because of not being that abstraction man but it is only for the abstraction that one can have a theoretical regard
to pure warm heartedness or pure theory men exist only to be criticised scoffed at and thoroughly despised to it no less than to the fanatical parson
they are only filth and other such nice things pushed to this extremity of disinterested warm heartedness we must finally become conscious that the spirit which alone the christian loves
is nothing in other words that the spirit is a lie what has here been set down roughly summarily and doubtless as yet incomprehensibly
will it is to be hoped become clear as we go on let us take up the inheritance left by the ancients and as active workmen do with it as much as can be done with it
the world lies despised at our feet far beneath us and our heaven into which its mighty arms are no longer thrust and its stupefying breath does not come seductively as it may pose
it can delude nothing but our sense it cannot lead astray the spirit and spirit alone after all we really are having once got back of things
the spirit has also got above them and become free from their bonds emancipated supernal free so speaks spiritual freedom
to the spirit which after long toil has got rid of the world the worldless spirit nothing is left after the loss of the world and the worldly but the spirit
and the spiritual yet as it has only moved away from the world and made of itself a being free from the world
this remains to it a stumbling block that cannot be cleared away a discredited existence and as on the other hand it knows and recognizes nothing but the spirit and the spiritual
therefore like a youth it goes about with plans for the redemption or improvement of the world
among their last sighs was born to them the god the conqueror of the world all their doing had been nothing but wisdom of the world
an effort to get back of the world and above it and what is the wisdom of the many following centuries what did the moderns try to get back of no longer to get back of the world
for the ancients had accomplished that but back of the god whom the ancients bequeathed to them back of the god who is spirit back of everything that is the spirit's the spiritual
but the activity of the spirit which searches even the depths of the godhead is theology if the ancients have nothing to show but wisdom of the world
the moderns never did nor do make their way further
the ego and his own
the cause of mankind of truth of freedom of humanity of justice further the cause of my people
my prince my fatherland finally even the cause of mind and a thousand other causes only my cause is never to be my concern
shame on the egoist who thinks only of himself let us look and see then how they manage their concerns
devote ourselves and grow enthusiastic you have much profound information to give about god and have for thousands of years searched the depths of the godhead
and looked into its heart so that you can doubtless tell us how god himself attends to god's cause which we are called to serve
and you do not conceal the lord's doings either now what is his cause has he as is demanded of us made an alien cause the cause of truth
or love his own you are shocked by this misunderstanding and you instruct us that god's cause is indeed the cause of truth and love but that this cause cannot be called alien to him
because god is himself truth and love you are shocked by the assumption that god could be like us poor worms in furthering an alien cause as his own
should god take up the cause of truth if he were not himself truth he cares only for his cause but because he is all in all therefore all is his
cause but we we are not all in all and our cause is altogether little and contemptible
higher cause now it is clear god cares only for what is his busies himself only with himself thinks only of himself
and has only himself before his eyes woe to all that is not well pleasing to him he serves no higher person and satisfies only himself his cause is a purely
egoistic cause how is it with mankind whose cause we are to make our own is its cause that of another and does mankind serve a higher cause no
mankind looks only at itself mankind will promote the interests of mankind only mankind is its own cause that it may develop
it causes nations and individuals to wear themselves out in its service and when they have accomplished what mankind needs it throws them on the dung heap of history in gratitude
is not mankind's cause a purely egoistic cause
not with us only with its good not with ours look at the rest for yourselves do truth freedom humanity justice
desire anything else than that you grow enthusiastic and serve them they all have an admirable time of it when they receive zealous homage just observe the nation that is defended by devoted patriots
the patriots fall in bloody battle or in the fight with hunger and want what does the nation care for that
the individuals have died for the great cause of the nation and the nation sends some words of thanks after them and has the profit of it i call that a paying kind of egoism
but only look at that sultan who cares so lovingly for his people is he not pure unselfishness itself and does he not hourly sacrifice himself for his people oh yes
for his people just try it show yourself not as his but as your own for breaking away from his egoism you will take a trip to jail
the sultan has set his cause on nothing but himself he is to himself all in all he is to himself the only one and tolerates nobody who would dare not to be one of his people
i for my part take a lesson from them and propose instead of further unselfishly serving those great egoists rather to be the egoist myself
god and mankind have concerned themselves for nothing for nothing but themselves let me then likewise concern myself for myself
who am equally with god the nothing of all others who am my all
if mankind as you affirm have substance enough in themselves to be all in all to themselves then i feel that i shall still less lack that
and that i shall have no complaint to make of my emptiness i am nothing in the sense of emptiness but i am the creative nothing
the nothing out of which i myself as creator create everything away then with every concern that is not altogether my concern
you think at least the good cause must be my concern what's good what's bad why i myself am my concern and i am neither good nor bad
the divine is god's concern the human man's
not the true good just free et cetera but solely what is mine and it is not a general one but is
nothing is more to me
man man is to man the supreme being says feuerbach man has just been discovered
a human life from the moment when he catches sight of the light of the world a man seeks to find out himself and get hold of himself out of its confusion in which he with everything else
is tossed about in motley mixture
and asserts its own persistence accordingly because each thing cares for itself and at the same time comes into constant collision with other things
the combat of self assertion is unavoidable victory or defeat between the two alternatives the fate of the combat wavers the victor becomes the lord
the vanquished one the subject the former exercises supremacy and rights of supremacy the latter fulfils in awe and deference the duties of a subject
but both remain enemies and always lie in wait they watch for each other's weaknesses children for those of their parents and parents
either the stick conquers the man
in childhood liberation takes the direction of trying to get to the bottom of things to get at what is back of things therefore we spy out the weak points of everybody for which it is well known
children have a sure instinct therefore we like to smash things like to rummage through hidden corners pry after what is covered up or out of the way and try what we can do with everything
when we once get at what is back of the things we know we are safe
have outgrown it back of the rod mightier than it stands our obduracy our obdurate courage
by degrees we get at what is back of everything that was mysterious and uncanny to us the mysteriously dreaded might of the rod the father's stern look et cetera and back of all we find our ataraxy e
intrepidity our counter force our odds of strength our invincibility before that which formerly inspired in us fear and deference we no longer retreat shyly but take courage
back of everything we find our courage our superiority back of the sharp command of parents and authorities stands after all our courageous choice or our outwitting shrewdness
and the more we feel ourselves the smaller appears that which before seemed invincible and what is our trickery shrewdness courage obduracy what else but
the fight against reason the fairest part of childhood passes without the necessity of coming to blows with reason we care nothing at all about it do not meddle with it admit no reason
we are not to be persuaded to anything by conviction
coaxing punishment and the like are hard for us to resist this stern life and death combat with
and begins a new phase in childhood we scamper about without racking our brains much mind is the name of the first self discovery the first undeification of the divine
the spooks the powers above our fresh feeling of youth this feeling of self now defers to nothing the world is discredited for we are above it we are
mind now for the first time we see that hitherto we have not looked at the world intelligently at all but only stared at it we exercise the beginnings of our strength on natural powers
we defer to parents as a natural power later we say father and mother are to be forsaken all natural power to be counted as riven they are vanquished for the rational
e intellectual man there is no family as a natural power a renunciation of parents brothers et cetera makes its appearance if these are born again
as intellectual rational powers they are no longer at all what they were before and not only parents but men in general are conquered by the young man they are no hindrance to him
and are no longer regarded for now he says one must obey god rather than men from this high standpoint everything earthly recedes into contemptible remoteness
the heavenly the attitude is now altogether reversed the youth takes up an intellectual position while the boy who did not yet feel himself as mind
the former does not try to get hold of things
but of the thoughts that lie hidden in things
on the other hand the boy understands connections no doubt but not ideas the spirit therefore he strings together whatever can be learned
without proceeding a priori and theoretically e without looking for ideas as in childhood one had to overcome the resistance of the laws of the world
so now in everything that he proposes he is met by an objection of the mind of reason of his own conscience that is unreasonable unchristian unpatriotic
and the like cries conscience to us and frightens us away from it not the might of the avenging eumenides not poseidon's wrath not god far as he sees the hidden
not the father's rod of punishment do we fear but conscience we run after our thoughts now and follow their commands just as before we followed parental human ones
our course of action is determined by our thoughts ideas conceptions faith as it is in childhood by the commands of our parents for all that
only our thoughts were not fleshless abstract absolute
nothing but thoughts a heaven in themselves a pure world of thought logical thoughts on the contrary
they had been only thoughts that we had about a thing we thought of the thing so or so thus we may have thought god made the world that we see there but we did not think of search
the depths of the godhead itself we may have thought that is the truth about the matter but we did not think of truth itself nor unite into one sentence god is truth
though he does not therefore hesitate to ascertain in an individual case
is true any thought bound to a thing is not yet nothing but a thought absolute thought to bring to light the pure thought or to be of its party
is the delight of youth and all the shapes of light in the world of thought like truth
but when the spirit is recognized as the essential thing it still makes a difference whether the spirit is poor or rich and therefore one seeks to become rich in spirit
the spirit wants to spread out so as to found its empire an empire that is not of this world the world just conquered thus then it longs to become all in all to itself
although i am spirit i am not yet perfected spirit and must first seek the complete spirit but with that i who had just now found myself as spirit
lose myself again at once bowing before the complete spirit as one not my own but supernal and feeling my emptiness spirit is the essential point for everything to be sure
but then is every spirit the right spirit the right and true spirit is the ideal of spirit the holy spirit it is not my or your spirit but just
an ideal supernal one it is god god is spirit
in him the view that one must deal with the world according to his interest not according to his ideals becomes confirmed so long as one knows himself only as spirit
and feels that all the value of his existence consists in being spirit it becomes easy for the youth to give his life the bodily life for a nothing
so long it is only thoughts that one has ideas that he hopes to be able to realize some day when he has found a sphere of action thus one has meanwhile only ideals
unexecuted ideas or thoughts
and takes a pleasure in himself as a living flesh and blood person but it is in mature years in the man that we find it so
for instance but of total satisfaction satisfaction of the whole chap a selfish interest just compare a man with a youth and see if he will not appear to you harder
less magnanimous more selfish is he therefore worse no you say he has only become more definite or as you also call it more practical
but the main point is this that he makes himself more the centre than does the youth
fatherland and so on therefore the man shows a second self discovery the youth found himself as spirit and lost himself again in the general spirit the complete
holy spirit man mankind in short all ideals the man finds himself as embodied spirit
boys had only unintellectual interests
youths only intellectual ones the man has bodily personal egoistic interests if the child has not an object that it can occupy itself with
it feels ennui for it does not yet know how to occupy itself with itself the youth on the contrary throws the object aside because for him thoughts arose out of the object
he occupies himself with his thoughts his dreams occupies himself intellectually or his mind is occupied
the young man includes everything not intellectual under the contemptuous name of externalities if he nevertheless sticks to the most trivial externalities
e g the customs of students clubs and other formalities it is because and when
as i find myself back of things and that as mind so i must later find myself also back of thoughts to wit as their creator and owner
in the time of spirits thoughts grew till they overtopped my head whose offspring they yet were they hovered about me and convulsed me like fever phantasies an awful power
the thoughts had become corporeal on their own account were ghosts such as god emperor pope fatherland et cetera if i destroy their corporeity
then i take them back into mine and say i alone am corporeal and now i take the world as what it is to me as mine as my property
i refer all to myself if as spirit i had thrust away the world in the deepest contempt so as owner i thrust spirits or ideas away into their vanity
they have no longer any power over me as no earthly might has power over the spirit the child was realistic taken up with the things of this world
the youth was idealistic inspired by thoughts till he worked his way up to where he became the man the egoistic man who deals with things and thoughts according to his heart's pleasure
and sets his personal interest above everything
with people who know how to revenge themselves and to stand up for themselves in general how is it done why when they are possessed let us suppose by the feeling of revenge then for the time there is nothing else
that is the direct persons and men of action are genuinely nonplussed for them a wall is not an evasion as for us people who think and consequently do nothing
though we scarcely believe in it ourselves as a rule no they are nonplussed in all sincerity the wall has for them something tranquillising morally soothing final maybe even something mysterious but of the wall later
well such a direct person i regard as the real normal man as his tender mother nature wished to see him when she graciously brought him into being on the earth i envy such a man till i am green in the face he is stupid
i am not disputing that but perhaps the normal man should be stupid how do you know perhaps it is very beautiful in fact and i am the more persuaded of that suspicion if one can call it so by the fact that if you take for instance
the antithesis of the normal man that is the man of acute consciousness who has come of course not out of the lap of nature but out of a retort this is almost mysticism gentlemen but i suspect this too
this retort made man is sometimes so nonplussed in the presence of his antithesis that with all his exaggerated consciousness he genuinely thinks of himself as a mouse and not a man
it may be an acutely conscious mouse yet it is a mouse
and the worst of it is he himself his very own self looks on himself as a mouse no one asks him to do so and that is an important point now let us look at this mouse in action let us suppose for instance
the mouse does not believe in the justice of it to come at last to the deed itself to the very act of revenge apart from the one fundamental nastiness the luckless mouse succeeds in creating around it
so many other nastinesses in the form of doubts and questions adds to the one question so many unsettled questions that there inevitably works up around it a sort of fatal brew a stinking mess made up of its doubts emotions
and of the contempt spat upon it by the direct men of action who stand solemnly about it as judges and arbitrators laughing at it till their healthy sides ache of course the only thing left for it is to dismiss all that with a wave of its paw and
with a smile of assumed contempt in which it does not even itself believe creep ignominiously into its mouse hole there in its nasty stinking underground home our insulted crushed and ridiculed mouse
promptly becomes absorbed in cold malignant and above all everlasting spite for forty years together it will remember its injury down to the smallest most ignominious details and every time will add of itself
details still more ignominious spitefully teasing and tormenting itself with its own imagination it will itself be ashamed of its imaginings but yet it will recall it all it will go over and over every detail
it will invent unheard of things against itself pretending that those things might happen and will forgive nothing maybe it will begin to revenge itself too but as it were piecemeal in trivial ways from behind the stove
while he i daresay will not even scratch himself on its deathbed it will recall it all over again with interest accumulated over all the years and but
it is just in that cold abominable half despair half belief in that conscious burying oneself alive for grief in the underworld for forty years in that acutely recognised and yet partly doubtful hopelessness of one's position
in that hell of unsatisfied desires turned inward in that fever of oscillations of resolutions determined for ever and repented of again a minute later that the savour of that strange enjoyment of which i have spoken lies
it is so subtle so difficult of analysis that persons who are a little limited or even simply persons of strong nerves will not understand a single atom of it possibly you will add on your own account with a grin
people will not understand it either who have never received a slap in the face and in that way you will politely hint to me that i too perhaps have had the experience of a slap in the face in my life and so i speak as one who knows i bet that you are thinking that
but set your minds at rest gentlemen i have not received a slap in the face though it is absolutely a matter of indifference to me what you may think about it possibly i even regret myself that i have given so few slaps in the face during my life
but enough not another word on that subject of such extreme interest to you i will continue calmly concerning persons with strong nerves who do not understand a certain refinement of enjoyment though in certain circumstances
these gentlemen bellow their loudest like bulls though this let us suppose does them the greatest credit yet as i have said already confronted with the impossible they subside at once the impossible means the stone wall
accept it for a fact when they prove to you that in reality one drop of your own fat must be dearer to you than a hundred thousand of your fellow creatures and that this conclusion is the final solution of all so called virtues and duties
and all such prejudices and fancies then you have just to accept it there is no help for it for twice two is a law of mathematics just try refuting it upon my word they will shout at you it is no use protesting
it is a case of twice two makes four nature does not ask your permission she has nothing to do with your wishes and whether you like her laws or dislike them you are bound to accept her as she is and consequently all her conclusions a wall you see is a wall
and so on and so on merciful heavens but what do i care for the laws of nature and arithmetic when for some reason i dislike those laws and the fact that twice two makes four of course i cannot break through the wall by battering my head against it
but i am not going to be reconciled to it simply because it is a stone wall and i have not the strength as though such a stone wall really were a consolation and really did contain some word of conciliation simply because it is as true as twice two makes four
oh absurdity of absurdities
all the impossibilities and the stone wall not to be reconciled to one of those impossibilities and stone walls if it disgusts you to be reconciled to it by the way of the most inevitable logical combinations
grinding your teeth in silent impotence to sink into luxurious inertia brooding on the fact that there is no one even for you to feel vindictive against that you have not and perhaps never will have an object for your spite
that it is a sleight of hand a bit of juggling a card sharper's trick that it is simply a mess
the lady patroness of michaelis the ticket of leave apostle of humanitarian hopes was one of the most influential and distinguished connections of the assistant commissioner's wife whom she called annie
epoch of the past she had had for a time a close view of great affairs and even of some great men she herself was a great lady old now in the number of her years she had that sort of exceptional temperament
which defies time with scornful disregard as if it were a rather vulgar convention submitted to by the mass of inferior mankind many other conventions easier to set aside alas failed to obtain her recognition
also on temperamental grounds either because they bored her or else because they stood in the way of her scorns and sympathies admiration was a sentiment unknown to her it was one of the secret griefs of her most noble husband against her
first as always more or less tainted with mediocrity and next as being in a way an admission of inferiority and both were frankly inconceivable to her nature
to be fearlessly outspoken in her opinions came easily to her since she judged solely from the standpoint of her social position she was equally untrammelled in her actions
and her superiority was serene and cordial three generations had admired her infinitely and the last she was likely to see had pronounced her a wonderful woman meantime intelligent with a sort of lofty simplicity
and curious at heart but not like many women merely of social gossip she amused her age by attracting within her ken through the power of her great almost historical social prestige
everything that rose above the dead level of mankind lawfully or unlawfully by position wit audacity fortune or misfortune royal highnesses artists men of science young statesmen
and charlatans of all ages and conditions who unsubstantial and light bobbing up like corks show best the direction of the surface currents
listened to penetrated understood appraised for her own edification in her own words she liked to watch what the world was coming to and as she had a practical mind
her judgment of men and things though based on special prejudices was seldom totally wrong and almost never wrong headed her drawing room was probably the only place in the wide world where an assistant commissioner of police
could meet a convict liberated on a ticket of leave on other than professional and official ground who had brought michaelis there one afternoon the assistant commissioner did not remember very well he had a notion it must have been a certain member of parliament
of illustrious parentage and unconventional sympathies which were the standing joke of the comic papers the notabilities and even the simple notorieties of the day brought each other freely to that temple of an old woman's not ignoble curiosity
you never could guess whom you were likely to come upon being received in semi privacy within the faded blue silk and gilt frame screen making a cosy nook for a couch and a few arm chairs in the great drawing room with its hum of voices
and the groups of people seated or standing in the light of six tall windows michaelis had been the object of a revulsion of popular sentiment the same sentiment which years ago had applauded the ferocity of the life sentence passed upon him
for complicity in a rather mad attempt to rescue some prisoners from a police van the plan of the conspirators had been to shoot down the horses and overpower the escort unfortunately one of the police constables got shot too
he left a wife and three small children and the death of that man aroused through the length and breadth of a realm for whose defence welfare and glory men die every day as matter of duty
of a raging implacable pity for the victim three ring leaders got hanged michaelis young and slim locksmith by trade and great frequenter of evening schools did not even know that anybody had been killed
his part with a few others being to force open the door at the back of the special conveyance when arrested he had a bunch of skeleton keys in one pocket a heavy chisel in another and a short crowbar in his hand
neither more nor less than a burglar but no burglar would have received such a heavy sentence the death of the constable had made him miserable at heart but the failure of the plot also he did not conceal either of these sentiments
from his empanelled countrymen and that sort of compunction appeared shockingly imperfect to the crammed court the judge on passing sentence commented feelingly upon the depravity and callousness of the young prisoner
that made the groundless fame of his condemnation the fame of his release was made for him on no better grounds by people who wished to exploit the sentimental aspect of his imprisonment either for purposes of their own
or for no intelligible purpose he let them do so in the innocence of his heart and the simplicity of his mind nothing that happened to him individually had any importance
he was like those saintly men whose personality is lost in the contemplation of their faith his ideas were not in the nature of convictions they were inaccessible to reasoning they formed in all their contradictions and obscurities
an invincible and humanitarian creed which he confessed rather than preached with an obstinate gentleness a smile of pacific assurance on his lips and his candid blue eyes cast down
because the sight of faces troubled his inspiration developed in solitude in that characteristic attitude pathetic in his grotesque and incurable obesity which he had to drag like a galley slave's bullet to the end of his days
the assistant commissioner of police beheld the ticket of leave apostle filling a privileged arm chair within the screen he sat there by the head of the old lady's couch mild voiced and quiet with no more self consciousness than a very small child
and with something of a child's charm the appealing charm of trustfulness confident of the future whose secret ways had been revealed to him within the four walls of a well known penitentiary he had no reason to look with suspicion upon anybody
if he could not give the great and curious lady a very definite idea as to what the world was coming to he had managed without effort to impress her by his unembittered faith by the sterling quality of his optimism
a certain simplicity of thought is common to serene souls at both ends of the social scale the great lady was simple in her own way his views and beliefs had nothing in them to shock or startle her
since she judged them from the standpoint of her lofty position indeed her sympathies were easily accessible to a man of that sort she was not an exploiting capitalist herself she was as it were above the play of economic conditions
and she had a great capacity of pity for the more obvious forms of common human miseries precisely because she was such a complete stranger to them that she had to translate her conception into terms of mental suffering
before she could grasp the notion of their cruelty the assistant commissioner remembered very well the conversation between these two he had listened in silence it was something as exciting in a way and even touching in its foredoomed futility
as the efforts at moral intercourse between the inhabitants of remote planets but this grotesque incarnation of humanitarian passion appealed somehow to one's imagination at last michaelis rose
and as if distended under the short tweed jacket glancing about in serene benevolence he waddled along to the distant door between the knots of other visitors the murmur of conversations paused on his passage
he smiled innocently at a tall brilliant girl whose eyes met his accidentally and went out unconscious of the glances following him across the room
the interrupted conversations were resumed in their proper tone grave or light only a well set up long limbed active looking man of forty talking with two ladies near a window remarked aloud
with an unexpected depth of feeling eighteen stone i should say and not five foot six poor fellow it's terrible terrible the lady of the house gazing absently at the assistant commissioner
left alone with her on the private side of the screen seemed to be rearranging her mental impressions behind her thoughtful immobility of a handsome old face men with grey moustaches and full healthy vaguely smiling countenances approached
circling round the screen two mature women with a matronly air of gracious resolution a clean shaved individual with sunken cheeks
and they kept him shut up for twenty years one shudders at the stupidity of it and now they have let him out everybody belonging to him is gone away somewhere or dead his parents are dead the girl he was to marry has died while he was in prison
he has lost the skill necessary for his manual occupation he told me all this himself with the sweetest patience but then he said
i want now to tell you gentlemen whether you care to hear it or not why i could not even become an insect i tell you solemnly that i have many times tried to become an insect but i was not equal even to that i swear gentlemen
of our unhappy nineteenth century especially one who has the fatal ill luck to inhabit petersburg the most theoretical and intentional town on the whole terrestrial globe there are intentional and unintentional towns
it would have been quite enough for instance to have the consciousness by which all so called direct persons and men of action live i bet you think i am writing all this from affectation to be witty at the expense of men of action
and what is more that from ill bred affectation i am clanking a sword like my officer but gentlemen whoever can pride himself on his diseases and even swagger over them though after all everyone does do that
people do pride themselves on their diseases and i do may be more than anyone we will not dispute it my contention was absurd but yet i am firmly persuaded that a great deal of consciousness
every sort of consciousness in fact is a disease i stick to that let us leave that too for a minute tell me this why does it happen that at the very yes at the very moments
when i am most capable of feeling every refinement of all that is sublime and beautiful as they used to say at one time it would as though of design happen to me not only to feel but to do such ugly things such that
well in short actions that all perhaps commit but which as though purposely occurred to me at the very time when i was most conscious that they ought not to be committed the more conscious i was of goodness
and of all that was sublime and beautiful the more deeply i sank into my mire and the more ready i was to sink in it altogether but the chief point was that all this was as it were not accidental in me but as though it were bound to be so
it was as though it were my most normal condition and not in the least disease or depravity so that at last all desire in me to struggle against this depravity passed it ended by my almost believing perhaps actually believing
that this was perhaps my normal condition but at first in the beginning what agonies i endured in that struggle i did not believe it was the same with other people and all my life i hid this fact about myself as a secret
i was ashamed even now perhaps i am ashamed i got to the point of feeling a sort of secret abnormal despicable enjoyment in returning home to my corner on some disgusting petersburg night
acutely conscious that that day i had committed a loathsome action again that what was done could never be undone and secretly inwardly gnawing gnawing at myself for it
and at last into positive real enjoyment yes into enjoyment into enjoyment i insist upon that i have spoken of this because i keep wanting to know for a fact whether other people feel such enjoyment i will explain
the enjoyment was just from the too intense consciousness of one's own degradation it was from feeling oneself that one had reached the last barrier that it was horrible but that it could not be otherwise that there was no escape for you
that you never could become a different man that even if time and faith were still left you to change into something different you would most likely not wish to change or if you did wish to even then you would do nothing
because perhaps in reality there was nothing for you to change into and the worst of it was and the root of it all that it was all in accord with the normal fundamental laws of over acute consciousness
and with the inertia that was the direct result of those laws and that consequently one was not only unable to change but could do absolutely nothing thus it would follow
that one is not to blame in being a scoundrel as though that were any consolation to the scoundrel once he has come to realise that he actually is a scoundrel but enough ech i have talked a lot of nonsense but what have i explained
how is enjoyment in this to be explained but i will explain it i will get to the bottom of it that is why i have taken up my pen i for instance have a great deal of amour propre
i am as suspicious and prone to take offence as a humpback or a dwarf but upon my word i sometimes have had moments when if i had happened to be slapped in the face i should perhaps have been positively glad of it i say
in earnest that i should probably have been able to discover even in that a peculiar sort of enjoyment the enjoyment of course of despair but in despair there are the most intense enjoyments
look at it which way one will it still turns out that i was always the most to blame in everything and what is most humiliating of all to blame for no fault of my own but so to say through the laws of nature
in the first place to blame because i am cleverer than any of the people surrounding me i have always considered myself cleverer than any of the people surrounding me and sometimes would you believe it have been positively ashamed of it at any rate
i have all my life as it were turned my eyes away and never could look people straight in the face to blame finally because even if i had had magnanimity i should only have had more suffering from the sense of its uselessness
i should certainly have never been able to do anything from being magnanimous neither to forgive for my assailant would perhaps have slapped me from the laws of nature and one cannot forgive the laws of nature nor to forget
for even if it were owing to the laws of nature it is insulting all the same finally even if i had wanted to be anything but magnanimous had desired on the contrary to revenge myself on my assailant
i could not have revenged myself on any one for anything because i should certainly never have made up my mind to do anything even if i had been able to why should i not have made up my mind
it is clear that such persons as the writer of these notes not only may but positively must exist in our society when we consider the circumstances in the midst of which our society is formed
i have tried to expose to the view of the public more distinctly than is commonly done one of the characters of the recent past he is one of the representatives of a generation still living in this fragment entitled underground
this person introduces himself and his views and as it were tries to explain the causes owing to which he has made his appearance and was bound to make his appearance in our midst in the second fragment
i i am a sick man i am a spiteful man i am an unattractive man i believe my liver is diseased however i know nothing at all about my disease
and do not know for certain what ails me i don't consult a doctor for it and never have though i have a respect for medicine and doctors besides i am extremely superstitious sufficiently so to respect medicine anyway
i am well educated enough not to be superstitious but i am superstitious no i refuse to consult a doctor from spite that you probably will not understand well i understand it though of course
i can't explain who it is precisely that i am mortifying in this case by my spite i am perfectly well aware that i cannot pay out the doctors by not consulting them i know better than anyone that by all this i am only injuring myself and no one else
but still if i don't consult a doctor it is from spite my liver is bad well let it get worse i have been going on like that for a long time twenty years now i am forty i used to be in the government service
but am no longer i was a spiteful official i was rude and took pleasure in being so i did not take bribes you see so i was bound to find a recompense in that at least a poor jest but i will not scratch it out
i wrote it thinking it would sound very witty but now that i have seen myself that i only wanted to show off in a despicable way i will not scratch it out on purpose when petitioners used to come for information to the table at which i sat
i used to grind my teeth at them and felt intense enjoyment when i succeeded in making anybody unhappy i almost did succeed for the most part they were all timid people of course they were petitioners
but of the uppish ones there was one officer in particular i could not endure he simply would not be humble and clanked his sword in a disgusting way i carried on a feud with him for eighteen months over that sword at last i got the better of him
he left off clanking it that happened in my youth though but do you know gentlemen what was the chief point about my spite why the whole point the real sting of it lay in the fact that continually
even in the moment of the acutest spleen i was inwardly conscious with shame that i was not only not a spiteful but not even an embittered man that i was simply scaring sparrows at random and amusing myself by it i might foam at the mouth
that was my way i was lying when i said just now that i was a spiteful official i was lying from spite i was simply amusing myself with the petitioners and with the officer and in reality i never could become spiteful
i was conscious every moment in myself of many very many elements absolutely opposite to that i felt them positively swarming in me these opposite elements i knew that they had been swarming in me all my life and craving some outlet from me
that i am expressing remorse for something now that i am asking your forgiveness for something i am sure you are fancying that however i assure you i do not care if you are it was not only that i could not become spiteful
i did not know how to become anything neither spiteful nor kind neither a rascal nor an honest man neither a hero nor an insect now i am living out my life in my corner
taunting myself with the spiteful and useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot become anything seriously and it is only the fool who becomes anything yes
i am forty years old now and you know forty years is a whole lifetime you know it is extreme old age to live longer than forty years is bad manners is vulgar immoral who does live beyond forty answer that
i have a right to say so for i shall go on living to sixty myself
irritated by all this babble and i feel that you are irritated you think fit to ask me who i am then my answer is i am a collegiate assessor i was in the service that i might have something to eat and solely for that reason
and when last year a distant relation left me six thousand roubles in his will i immediately retired from the service and settled down in my corner i used to live in this corner before but now i have settled down in it
i know all that better than all these sage and experienced counsellors and monitors but i am remaining in petersburg i am not going away from petersburg i am not going away because ech
but what can a decent man speak of with most pleasure answer of himself
chapter five the professor had turned into a street to the left and walked along with his head carried rigidly erect in a crowd whose every individual almost overtopped his stunted stature
it was vain to pretend to himself that he was not disappointed but that was mere feeling the stoicism of his thought could not be disturbed by this or any other failure next time
or the time after next a telling stroke would be delivered something really startling
sheltering the atrocious injustice of society of humble origin and with an appearance really so mean as to stand in the way of his considerable natural abilities
his imagination had been fired early by the tales of men rising from the depths of poverty to positions of authority and affluence the extreme almost ascetic purity of his thought combined with an astounding ignorance of worldly conditions
had set before him a goal of power and prestige to be attained without the medium of arts graces tact wealth by sheer weight of merit alone on that view he considered himself entitled to undisputed success his father
a delicate dark enthusiast with a sloping forehead
a man supremely confident in the privileges of his righteousness in the son individualist by temperament once the science of colleges had replaced thoroughly the faith of conventicles
this moral attitude translated itself into a frenzied puritanism of ambition he nursed it as something secularly holy to see it thwarted opened his eyes to the true nature of the world
whose morality was artificial corrupt and blasphemous
disguised into creeds the professor's indignation found in itself a final cause that absolved him from the sin of turning to destruction as the agent of his ambition
to destroy public faith in legality was the imperfect formula of his pedantic fanaticism but the subconscious conviction that the framework of an established social order cannot be effectually shattered
except by some form of collective or individual violence was precise and correct he was a moral agent that was settled in his mind by exercising his agency with ruthless defiance
he procured for himself the appearances of power and personal prestige that was undeniable to his vengeful bitterness it pacified its unrest
and in their own way the most ardent of revolutionaries are perhaps doing no more but seeking for peace in common with the rest of mankind the peace of soothed vanity of satisfied appetites
or perhaps of appeased conscience lost in the crowd miserable and undersized he meditated confidently on his power keeping his hand in the left pocket of his trousers
grasping lightly the india rubber ball the supreme guarantee of his sinister freedom but after a while he became disagreeably affected by the sight of the roadway thronged with vehicles
he was in a long straight street peopled by a mere fraction of an immense multitude
even to the limits of the horizon hidden by the enormous piles of bricks he felt the mass of mankind mighty in its numbers they swarmed numerous like locusts industrious like ants thoughtless like a natural force
pushing on blind and orderly and absorbed impervious to sentiment to logic to terror too perhaps that was the form of doubt he feared most impervious to fear often while walking abroad
what if nothing could move them such moments come to all men
to artists politicians thinkers reformers or saints a despicable emotional state this against which solitude fortifies a superior character and with
severe exultation the professor thought of the refuge of his room with its padlocked cupboard lost in a wilderness of poor houses the hermitage of the perfect anarchist
in order to reach sooner the point where he could take his omnibus he turned brusquely out of the populous street into a narrow and dusky alley paved with flagstones
on one side the low brick houses had in their dusty windows the sightless moribund look of incurable decay empty shells awaiting demolition from the other side life had not departed wholly as yet
facing the only gas lamp yawned the cavern of a second hand furniture dealer where deep in the gloom of a sort of narrow avenue winding through a bizarre forest of wardrobes with an undergrowth tangle of table legs
an unhappy homeless couch accompanied by two unrelated chairs stood in the open the only human being making use of the alley besides the professor coming stalwart and erect from the opposite direction
checked his swinging pace suddenly hallo he said and stood a little on one side watchfully the professor had already stopped with a ready half turn which brought his shoulders very near the other wall
his right hand fell lightly on the back of the outcast couch the left remained purposefully plunged deep in the trousers pocket and the roundness of the heavy rimmed spectacles imparted an owlish character to his moody unperturbed face
and carried an umbrella his hat tilted back uncovered a good deal of forehead which appeared very white in the dusk in the dark patches of the orbits the eyeballs glimmered piercingly long drooping moustaches
the colour of ripe corn framed with their points the square block of his shaved chin
the professor did not stir an inch the blended noises of the enormous town sank down to an inarticulate low murmur chief inspector heat of the special crimes department changed his tone
not in a hurry to get home he asked with mocking simplicity the unwholesome looking little moral agent of destruction exulted silently in the possession of personal prestige
keeping in check this man armed with the defensive mandate of a menaced society more fortunate than caligula who wished that the roman senate had only one head for the better satisfaction of his cruel lust
he beheld in that one man all the forces he had set at defiance the force of law property oppression and injustice he beheld all his enemies and fearlessly confronted them all in a supreme satisfaction of his vanity
it was in reality a chance meeting chief inspector heat had had a disagreeably busy day since his department received the first telegram from greenwich a little before eleven in the morning first of all
the fact of the outrage being attempted less than a week after he had assured a high official that no outbreak of anarchist activity was to be apprehended was sufficiently annoying if he ever thought himself safe in making a statement it was then
he had made that statement with infinite satisfaction to himself because it was clear that the high official desired greatly to hear that very thing
he had gone even so far as to utter words which true wisdom would have kept back but chief inspector heat was not very wise at least not truly so true wisdom
it would have alarmed his superiors and done away with his chances of promotion his promotion had been very rapid there isn't one of them sir that we couldn't lay our hands on at any time of night and day
we know what each of them is doing hour by hour he had declared and the high official had deigned to smile this was so obviously the right thing to say for an officer of chief inspector heat's reputation
that it was perfectly delightful the high official believed the declaration which chimed in with his idea of the fitness of things his wisdom was of an official kind or else he might have reflected upon a matter not of theory
more or less deplorable does happen but the high official carried away by his sense of the fitness of things
principal expert in anarchist procedure this was not the only circumstance whose recollection depressed the usual serenity of the eminent specialist there was another dating back only to that very morning
the thought that when called urgently to his assistant commissioner's private room he had been unable to conceal his astonishment was distinctly vexing his instinct of a successful man had taught him long ago that as a general rule
exposing himself thereby to the unanswerable retort of a finger tip laid forcibly on the telegram which the assistant commissioner after reading it aloud had flung on the desk to be crushed as it were under the tip of a forefinger
was an unpleasant experience very damaging too furthermore chief inspector heat was conscious of not having mended matters by allowing himself to express a conviction
one thing i can tell you at once none of our lot had anything to do with this he was strong in his integrity of a good detective but he saw now that an impenetrably attentive reserve towards this incident
would have served his reputation better on the other hand he admitted to himself that it was difficult to preserve one's reputation if rank outsiders were going to take a hand in the business outsiders are the bane of the police as of other professions
the tone of the assistant commissioner's remarks had been sour enough to set one's teeth on edge and since breakfast chief inspector heat had not managed to get anything to eat starting immediately to begin his investigation on the spot
he had swallowed a good deal of raw unwholesome fog in the park then he had walked over to the hospital and when the investigation in greenwich was concluded at last he had lost his inclination for food not accustomed
as the doctors are to examine closely the mangled remains of human beings
in a certain apartment of the hospital another waterproof sheet was spread over that table in the manner of a table cloth with the corners turned up over a sort of mound a heap of rags scorched and bloodstained
half concealing what might have been an accumulation of raw material for a cannibal feast it required considerable firmness of mind not to recoil before that sight chief inspector heat an efficient officer of his department
stood his ground but for a whole minute he did not advance a local constable in uniform cast a sidelong glance and said
he's all there every bit of him it was a job he had been the first man on the spot after the explosion he mentioned the fact again he had seen something like a heavy flash of lightning in the fog
at that time he was standing at the door of the king william street lodge talking to the keeper the concussion made him tingle all over he ran between the trees towards the observatory as fast as my legs would carry me he repeated twice
chief inspector heat
let him run on the hospital porter and another man turned down the corners of the cloth and stepped aside the chief inspector's eyes searched the gruesome detail of that heap of mixed things
which seemed to have been collected in shambles and rag shops you used a shovel he remarked observing a sprinkling of small gravel tiny brown bits of bark
and particles of splintered wood as fine as needles had to in one place said the stolid constable i sent a keeper to fetch a spade
the chief inspector stooping guardedly over the table fought down the unpleasant sensation in his throat the shattering violence of destruction which had made of that body a heap of nameless fragments
affected his feelings with a sense of ruthless cruelty though his reason told him the effect must have been as swift as a flash of lightning the man whoever he was had died instantaneously
without passing through the pangs of inconceivable agony no physiologist and still less of a metaphysician chief inspector heat rose by the force of sympathy which is a form of fear above the vulgar conception of time
instantaneous he remembered all he had ever read in popular publications of long and terrifying dreams dreamed in the instant of waking
of the whole past life lived with frightful intensity by a drowning man as his doomed head bobs up streaming for the last time the inexplicable mysteries of conscious existence beset chief inspector heat
till he evolved a horrible notion that ages of atrocious pain and mental torture could be contained between two successive winks of an eye and meantime the chief inspector went on peering at the table with a calm face
and the slightly anxious attention of an indigent customer bending over what may be called the by products of a butcher's shop with a view to an inexpensive sunday dinner
all the time his trained faculties of an excellent investigator who scorns no chance of information followed the self satisfied disjointed loquacity of the constable
a fair haired fellow the last observed in a placid tone and paused the old woman who spoke to the sergeant noticed a fair haired fellow coming out of maze hill station he paused
and he was a fair haired fellow she noticed two men coming out of the station after the uptrain had gone on he continued slowly she couldn't tell if they were together
she took no particular notice of the big one but the other was a fair slight chap carrying a tin varnish can in one hand the constable ceased know the woman muttered the chief inspector
likely to remain for ever unknown
the constable uttered weightily and paused with another oblique glance at the table then suddenly
fair slight slight enough look at that foot there i picked up the legs first
the constable paused the least flicker of an innocent self laudatory smile invested his round face with an infantile expression stumbled he announced positively i stumbled once myself
and pitched on my head too while running up them roots do stick out all about the place stumbled against the root of a tree and fell and that thing he was carrying must have gone off right under his chest i expect
he was professionally curious before the public he would have liked to vindicate the efficiency of his department
that however appeared impossible the first term of the problem was unreadable lacked all suggestion but that of atrocious cruelty overcoming his physical repugnance
and took up the least soiled of the rags it was a narrow strip of velvet with a larger triangular piece of dark blue cloth hanging from it he held it up to his eyes and the police constable spoke velvet collar
funny the old woman should have noticed the velvet collar dark blue overcoat with a velvet collar she has told us he was the chap she saw and no mistake and here he is all complete velvet collar and all
i don't think i missed a single piece as big as a postage stamp at this point the trained faculties of the chief inspector ceased to hear the voice of the constable he moved to one of the windows for better light
his face averted from the room expressed a startled intense interest while he examined closely the triangular piece of broad cloth by a sudden jerk he detached it
and only after stuffing it into his pocket turned round to the room and flung the velvet collar back on the table cover up he directed the attendants curtly without another look
a convenient train whirled him up to town alone and pondering deeply in a third class compartment
it was as if fate had thrust that clue into his hands and after the manner of the average man whose ambition is to command events he began to mistrust such a gratuitous and accidental success
just because it seemed forced upon him the practical value of success depends not a little on the way you look at it but fate looks at nothing it has no discretion
a department is to those it employs a complex personality with ideas and even fads of its own it depends on the loyal devotion of its servants
and the devoted loyalty of trusted servants is associated with a certain amount of affectionate contempt which keeps it sweet as it were by a benevolent provision of nature no man is a hero to his valet
or else the heroes would have to brush their own clothes likewise no department appears perfectly wise to the intimacy of its workers a department does not know so much as some of its servants being a dispassionate organism
it can never be perfectly informed it would not be good for its efficiency to know too much chief inspector heat got out of the train in a state of thoughtfulness entirely untainted with disloyalty
but not quite free of that jealous mistrust which so often springs on the ground of perfect devotion whether to women or to institutions it was in this mental disposition physically very empty
but still nauseated by what he had seen that he had come upon the professor under these conditions which make for irascibility in a sound normal man
he had not been thinking of the professor he had not been thinking of any individual anarchist at all the complexion of that case had somehow forced upon him the general idea of the absurdity of things human
which in the abstract is sufficiently annoying to an unphilosophical temperament and in concrete instances becomes exasperating beyond endurance at the beginning of his career
chief inspector heat had been concerned with the more energetic forms of thieving he had gained his spurs in that sphere and naturally enough had kept for it after his promotion to another department a feeling not very far removed from affection
thieving was not a sheer absurdity
perverse indeed but still an industry exercised in an industrious world
it was labour whose practical difference from the other forms of labour consisted in the nature of its risk which did not lie in ankylosis or lead poisoning or fire damp or gritty dust
but in what may be briefly defined in its own special phraseology as seven years hard chief inspector heat was of course not insensible to the gravity of moral differences
but neither were the thieves he had been looking after they submitted to the severe sanctions of a morality familiar to chief inspector heat with a certain resignation
they were his fellow citizens gone wrong because of imperfect education chief inspector heat believed but allowing for that difference he could understand the mind of a burglar because as a matter of fact
the mind and the instincts of a burglar are of the same kind as the mind and the instincts of a police officer both recognise the same conventions and have a working knowledge of each other's methods and of the routine of their respective trades
they understand each other which is advantageous to both and establishes a sort of amenity in their relations products of the same machine one classed as useful and the other as noxious they take the machine for granted in different ways
but with a seriousness essentially the same the mind of chief inspector heat was inaccessible to ideas of revolt but his thieves were not rebels his bodily vigour his cool inflexible manner
his courage and his fairness had secured for him much respect and some adulation in the sphere of his early successes he had felt himself revered and admired and chief inspector heat
arrested within six paces of the anarchist nick named the professor gave a thought of regret to the world of thieves sane without morbid ideals working by routine respectful of constituted
authorities free from all taint of hate and despair after paying this tribute to what is normal in the constitution of society
chief inspector heat felt very angry with himself for having stopped for having spoken for having taken that way at all
not wanted i tell you he repeated the anarchist did not stir an inward laugh of derision uncovered not only his teeth but his gums as well
shook him all over without the slightest sound chief inspector heat was led to add against his better judgment not yet when i want you i will know where to find you
those were perfectly proper words within the tradition and suitable to his character of a police officer addressing one of his special flock but the reception they got departed from tradition and propriety it was outrageous
the stunted weakly figure before him spoke at last i've no doubt the papers would give you an obituary notice then you know best what that would be worth to you
i should think you can imagine easily the sort of stuff that would be printed but you may be exposed to the unpleasantness of being buried together with me
though i suppose your friends would make an effort to sort us out as much as possible with all his healthy contempt for the spirit dictating such speeches
the atrocious allusiveness of the words had its effect on chief inspector heat
and too much exact information as well to dismiss them as rot the dusk of this narrow lane took on a sinister tint from the dark frail little figure its back to the wall
and speaking with a weak self confident voice to the vigorous tenacious vitality of the chief inspector the physical wretchedness of that being
was ominous for it seemed to him that if he had the misfortune to be such a miserable object
the murmur of town life the subdued rumble of wheels in the two invisible streets to the right and left came through the curve of the sordid lane to his ears with a precious familiarity and an appealing sweetness
he was human but chief inspector heat was also a man and he could not let such words pass all this is good to frighten children with he said i'll have you yet
it was very well said without scorn with an almost austere quietness doubtless was the answer but there's no time like the present believe me
for a man of real convictions this is a fine opportunity of self sacrifice you may not find another so favourable so humane there isn't even a cat near us
and these condemned old houses would make a good heap of bricks where you stand you'll never get me at so little cost to life and property which you are paid to protect
said chief inspector heat firmly if i were to lay my hands on you now i would be no better than yourself ah the game
it may yet be necessary to make people believe that some of you ought to be shot at sight like mad dogs then that will be the game
i don't believe you know yourselves you'll never get anything by it meantime it's you who get something from it so far and you get it easily too i won't speak of your salary
but haven't you made your name simply by not understanding what we are after
asked chief inspector heat with scornful haste like a man in a hurry who perceives he is wasting his time the perfect anarchist answered by a smile which did not part his thin colourless lips
and the celebrated chief inspector felt a sense of superiority which induced him to raise a warning finger give it up whatever it is he said in an admonishing tone
but not so kindly as if he were condescending to give good advice to a cracksman of repute give it up you'll find we are too many for you the fixed smile on the professor's lips wavered
as if the mocking spirit within had lost its assurance chief inspector heat went on don't you believe me eh well you've only got to look about you we are and anyway you're not doing it well
you're always making a mess of it
the hint of an invincible multitude behind that man's back roused a sombre indignation in the breast of the professor he smiled no longer his enigmatic and mocking smile
the resisting power of numbers the unattackable stolidity of a great multitude was the haunting fear of his sinister loneliness his lips trembled for some time before he managed to say in a strangled voice
i am doing my work better than you're doing yours that'll do now interrupted chief inspector heat hurriedly
while still laughing he moved on but he did not laugh long it was a sad faced miserable little man who emerged from the narrow passage into the bustle of the broad thoroughfare
he walked with the nerveless gait of a tramp going on still going on indifferent to rain or sun in a sinister detachment from the aspects of sky and earth chief inspector heat on the other hand after watching him for a while
stepped out with the purposeful briskness of a man disregarding indeed the inclemencies of the weather but conscious of having an authorised mission on this earth and the moral support of his kind all the inhabitants of the immense town
the population of the whole country and even the teeming millions struggling upon the planet were with him down to the very thieves and mendicants yes the thieves themselves were sure to be with him in his present work
the consciousness of universal support in his general activity heartened him to grapple with the particular problem the problem immediately before the chief inspector was that of managing the assistant commissioner of his department his immediate superior
truth to say chief inspector heat thought but little of anarchism he did not attach undue importance to it and could never bring himself to consider it seriously it had more the character of disorderly conduct
disorderly without the human excuse of drunkenness which at any rate implies good feeling and an amiable leaning towards festivity as criminals anarchists were distinctly no class no class at all
and recalling the professor chief inspector heat without checking his swinging pace muttered through his teeth lunatic catching thieves was another matter altogether
it had that quality of seriousness belonging to every form of open sport
the morning sun hung a red lustreless ball in the dull grey sky a light snow had fallen in the night and the landscape crossed by spider like trails of fences
was as white and lifeless as if wrapped in a shroud a young man was driving down the road to rykman's corner the youthful face visible above the greatcoat was thoughtful and refined
the eyes deep blue and peculiarly beautiful the mouth firm yet sensitive it was not a handsome face but there was a strangely subtle charm about it
the chill breathlessness of the air seemed prophetic of more snow the reverend allan telford looked across the bare wastes and cold white hills and shivered as if the icy lifelessness about him were slowly
and relentlessly creeping into his own heart and life he felt utterly discouraged in his soul he was asking bitterly what good had come
of all his prayerful labours among the people of this pinched narrow world as rugged and unbeautiful in form and life as the barren hills that shut them in he had been two years among them and he counted it two years of failure
he had been too outspoken for them they resented sullenly his direct and incisive tirades against their pet sins they viewed his small innovations on their traditional ways of worship with disfavour and distrust
he had meant well and worked hard and he felt his failure keenly his thoughts reverted to a letter received the preceding day from a former classmate stating that the pastorate of a certain desirable town church had become vacant
and hinting that a call was to be moderated for him unless he signified his unwillingness to accept two years before allan telford fresh from college and full of vigorous enthusiasm and high ideas would have said no that is not for me
my work must lie among the poor and lowly of earth as did my master's shall i shrink from it because to worldly eyes the way looks dreary and uninviting now looking back on his two years ministry he said wearily
i can remain here no longer if i do i fear i shall sink down into something almost as pitiful as one of these canting gossiping people myself i can do them no good they do not like or trust me
i will accept this call and go back to my own world perhaps the keynote of his failure was sounded in his last words my own world he had never felt
or tried to feel that this narrow sphere was his own world it was some lower level to which he had come with good tidings and honest intentions but unconsciously he had held himself above it and his people felt and resented this they expressed it by saying
he was stuck up rykman's corner came into view as he drove over the brow of a long hill he hated the place knowing it well for what it was a festering hotbed of gossip and malice
the habitat of all the slanderous rumours and innuendoes that permeated the social tissue of the community the newest scandal the worst flavoured joke
the latest details of the most recent quarrel were always to be had at rykman's store as the minister drove down the hill a man came out of a small house at the foot and waited on the road
meant to be seen and hailed the minister cheerfully good mornin mister telford
telford checked his horse reluctantly and galletly crawled into the cutter he was that most despicable of created beings a male gossip
smoking his pipe in neighbourly kitchens and fanning into an active blaze all the smouldering feuds of the place he had been nicknamed the morning chronicle by a sarcastic schoolteacher who had sojourned a winter at the corner
the name was an apt one and clung telford had heard it
quite a fall of snow last night reckon we'll have more fore long that was a grand sermon ye gave us last sunday mister telford
home to some folks judgin from all i've heard it was needed and that's a fact live peaceably with all men' that's what i lay out to do there ain't a house in the district but what i can drop into and welcome tain't everybody in rykman's corner can say the same
telford's passive face was discouraging but galletly was not to be baffled
telford was vainly seeking to nip galletly's gossip in the bud the name of palmer conveyed no especial meaning to his ear
whose name was missus fuller and who came to church occasionally lived there his knowledge went no further he had called three times and found nobody at home at least to all appearances
now he was fated to have the whole budget of some vulgar quarrel forced on him by galletly no everyone's talkin of it
i believe the two women had an awful time min's a tartar when her temper's up and that's pretty often
but she has had to go at last goodness knows what the poor critter'll do she hasn't a cent nor a relation she was just an orphan girl that palmer brought up she is at rawlingses now
maybe when min cools off she'll let her go back but it's doubtful min hates her like p'isen to telford this was all very unintelligible
but he understood that missus fuller was in trouble of some kind and that it was his duty to help her if possible
for which he had often reproached himself who is this woman you call min palmer he said coldly what are the family circumstances
but i have no wish to hear idle gossip his concluding sentence was quite unheeded by galletly min palmer's the worst woman in rykman's corner or out of it she always was an odd one
i mind her when she was a girl a saucy black eyed baggage she was handsome some folks called her
jest let run wild all her life well rod palmer took to dancin attendance on her rod was a worthless scamp old palmer was well off and rod was his only child but this rose lived there and kept house for them after mis palmer died
she was a quiet well behaved little creetur folks said the old man wanted rod to marry her
in the end howsomever he had to marry min her brother got after him with a horse whip ye understand old palmer was furious but he had to give in and rod brought her home she was a bit sobered down by her trouble
her and rod fought like cat and dog rose married osh fuller a worthless drunken fellow he died in a year or so and left rose and her baby without a roof over their heads then old palmer went and brought her home
min had to be civil to rose as long as old palmer lived
then the queer part came in
i may have my own secret opinion of course old palmer had a regular mania as ye might say for makin wills
lawyer bell was there and made one bout eight months fore he died
he went off awful sudden anyway everything went to min's child to min as ye might say she's been boss
min's in one of her tantrums now and tain't safe to cross her path what is missus fuller to do asked telford anxiously that's the question she's sickly can't work much and then she has her leetle gal
min's own is an awful looking thing a cripple from the time twas born
in spite of his disgust
this min palmer must at least be different from the rest of the cornerites if only in the greater force of her wickedness
galletly eagerly joined the group of loungers on the dirty wet platform and telford passed into the store a couple of slatternly women were talking to missus rykman about the palmer row
telford made his small purchases hastily as he turned from the counter he came face to face with a woman who had paused in the doorway to survey the scene with an air of sullen scorn
by some subtle intuition telford knew that this was min palmer the young man's first feeling was one of admiration for the woman before him who in spite of her grotesque attire and defiant unwomanly air
was strikingly beautiful she was tall and not even the man's ragged overcoat which she wore could conceal the grace of her figure her abundant black hair was twisted into a sagging knot at her neck
and from beneath the old fur cap looked out a pair of large and brilliant black eyes heavily lashed and full of a smouldering fire
her skin was tanned and coarsened but the warm crimson blood glowed in her cheeks with a dusky richness and her face was a perfect oval with features chiselled in almost classic regularity of outline
telford had a curious experience at that moment he seemed to see looking out from behind this external mask of degraded beauty the semblance of what this woman might have been under more favouring circumstance of birth and environment
wherein her rich passionate nature potent for either good or evil might have been trained and swayed aright until it had developed grandly out into the glorious womanhood the creator must have planned for her
he knew as if by revelation that this woman had nothing in common with the narrow self righteous souls of rykman's corner warped and perverted though her nature might be
she was yet far nobler than those who sat in judgement upon her min made some scanty purchases and left the store quickly brushing unheedingly past the minister as she did so
and drive down the river road the platform loungers had been silent during her call but now the talk bubbled forth anew telford was sick at heart as he drove swiftly away he felt for min palmer a pity he could not understand or analyze
the attempt to measure the gulf between what she was and what she might have been hurt him like the stab of a knife he made several calls at various houses along the river during the forenoon after dinner he suddenly turned his horse towards the palmer place
comfortably curled up in a neighbour's chimney corner saw him drive past ef the minister ain't goin to palmers after all he chuckled
telford was not without his own misgivings as he drove into the palmer yard he tied his horse to the fence and looked doubtfully about him untrodden snowdrifts were heaped about the front door
so he turned towards the kitchen and walked slowly past the bare lilac trees along the fence there was no sign of life about the place it was beginning to snow again softly and thickly and the hills and river were hidden behind a misty white veil
he lifted his hand to knock but before he could do so the door was flung open and min herself confronted him on the threshold she did not now have on the man's overcoat which she had worn at the store
and her neat close fitting home spun dress revealed to perfection the full magnificent curves of her figure her splendid hair was braided about her head in a glossy coronet and her dark eyes were
ablaze with ill suppressed anger again telford was overcome by a sense of her wonderful loveliness not all the years of bondage to ill temper and misguided will had been able to blot out the beauty of that proud dark face
she lifted one large but shapely brown hand and pointed to the gate go she said threateningly missus palmer began telford but she silenced him with an imperious gesture i don't want any of your kind here
i hate all you ministers did you come here to lecture me i suppose some of the corner saints set
telford returned her defiant gaze unflinchingly his dark blue eyes magnetic in their power and sweetness looked gravely questioningly into min's stormy orbs
slowly the fire and anger faded out of her face and her head drooped
the corner saints say i'm possessed of the devil perhaps i am if there is one i do mean well said telford slowly
i came to help you if i could
don't call me that she interrupted passionately she flung out her hands as if pushing some loathly invisible thing from her i hate the name as i hated all who ever bore it
i never had anything but wrong and dog usage from them all call me min that's the only name that belongs to me now go why don't you go
i've been well sickened of that go telford threw back his head and looked once more into her eyes a long look passed between them then he silently lifted his cap and with no word of farewell
he turned and went down to the gate a bitter sense of defeat and disappointment filled his heart as he drove away min stood in the doorway and watched the sleigh out of sight down the river road
then she gave a long shivering sigh that was almost a moan if i had met that man long ago
i would never have become what i am i felt that as i looked at him it all came over me with an awful sickening feeling
just as if we were standing alone somewhere out of the world where there was no need of words to say things he doesn't despise me
if we had met in time but it's too late now she locked her hands over her eyes and groaned swaying her body to and fro as one in mortal agony presently she looked out again with hard dry eyes
what a fool i am she said bitterly how the corner saints would stare if they saw me i suppose some of them do
her face hardened the old sway of evil passion reasserted itself she shall never come back here never oh she was a sweet spoken cat of a thing but she had claws i've been blamed for all the trouble
i'd tell that minister how she used to twit and taunt me in that sugary way of hers
more fool i to care what he thinks either i wish i were dead
i'd be well out of the way it was a dull grey afternoon a week afterwards when allan telford again walked up the river road to the palmer place the wind was bitter and he walked with bent head to avoid its fury
his face was pale and worn and he looked years older
as he looked the kitchen door opened and min clad in the old overcoat came out and walked swiftly across the yard telford's eyes followed her with pitiful absorption
he saw her lead a horse from the stable and harness it into a wood sleigh loaded with bags of grain
laying her face against it with a caressing motion the pale minister groaned aloud he longed to snatch her forever from that hard unwomanly toil and fold her safely away from jeers and scorn in the shelter of his love
he knew it was madness he had told himself so every hour in which min's dark rebellious face had haunted him yet none the less was he under its control
min led the horse across the yard and left it standing before the kitchen door she had not seen the bowed figure at the gate when she reappeared
as she caught the horse by the bridle the kitchen door swung heavily to with a sharp sudden bang the horse a great powerful nervous brute started wildly and then reared in terror the ice underfoot was glib and treacherous
min lost her foothold and fell directly under the horse's hoofs as they came heavily down the animal freed from her detaining hand sprang forward dragging the laden sleigh over the prostrate woman
it had all passed in a moment the moveless figure lay where it had fallen one outstretched hand still grasping the whip telford sprang over the gate and rushed up the slope like a madman
he flung himself on his knees beside her min min he called wildly there was no answer he lifted her in his arms and staggered into the house with his burden his heart stilling with a horrible fear
as he laid her gently down on the old lounge in one corner of the kitchen the room was a large one and everything was neat and clean the fire burned brightly and a few green plants were in blossom by the south window
beside them sat a child of about seven years who turned a startled face at telford's reckless entrance the boy had min's dark eyes and perfectly chiselled features
and the silken hair fell in soft waving masses about the spiritual little face by his side nestled a tiny dog
telford paid heed to nothing not even the frightened child he was as one distraught min
while cold drops came out on his forehead min's face was as pallid as marble save for one heavy bruise across the cheek and a cruel cut at the edge of the dark hair from which the blood trickled down on the pillow
she opened her eyes wonderingly at his call looking up with a dazed appealing expression of pain and dread a low moan broke from her white lips telford sprang to his feet in a tumult of quivering joy
min dear he said gently you have been hurt not seriously i hope i must leave you for a minute while i run for help i will not be long come back said min in a low but distinct tone
he paused impatiently it is of no use to get help min went on calmly i'm dying i know it oh my god
telford turned desperately to the door min raised her arm come here she said resolutely he obeyed mutely she looked up at him with bright unquailing eyes don't you go one step
i'm past help and i've something to say to you i must say it and i haven't much time telford hardly heeded her in his misery min let me go for help
min had fallen back gasping on the blood stained pillow
i must hurry she said faintly i can't die with it on my mind rose it's all hers all there was a will he made it old gran'ther palmer he always hated me
i found it before he died and read it he left everything to her not a cent to me nor his son's child we were to starve beg i was like a madwoman when he died i hid the will
i meant to burn it but i never could it's tortured me night and day i've had no peace you'll find it in a box in my room tell her tell rose how wicked i've been
and my boy what will become of him rose hates him she'll turn him out or ill treat him telford lifted his white drawn face i will take your child min
an expression of unspeakable relief came into the dying woman's face it is good of
to get clear of it all i'm tired of living so perhaps i'll have a chance somewhere else i've never had any here the dark eyes drooped closed telford moaned shudderingly
once again min opened her eyes and looked straight into his if i had met you long ago you would have loved me and i would have been a good woman it is well for us for you
that i am dying your path will be clear you will be good and successful but you will always remember me telford bent and pressed his lips to min's pain blanched mouth
do you think we will ever meet again she said faintly out there it's so dark god can never forgive me i've been so wicked
min the all loving father is more merciful than man he will forgive you if you ask him and you will wait for me till i come i will stay here and do my duty i will try hard
his voice broke min's great black eyes beamed out on him with passionate tenderness the strong deep erring nature yielded at last
forgive me forgive me and with the cry the soul of poor suffering sinning sinned against min palmer fled who shall say whither who shall say that her remorseful cry was not heard
even at that late hour by a judge more merciful than her fellow creatures
knelt on the bare floor holding in his arms the dead form of the woman he loved his all his in death
death had bridged the gulf between them the room was very silent to min's face had returned something of its girlhood's innocence the hard unlovely lines were all smoothed out the little cripple
crept timidly up to telford with the silky head of the dog pressed against his cheek telford gathered the distorted little body to his side and looked earnestly into the small face min's face purified and spiritualized
he would have it near him always he bent and reverently kissed the cold face the closed eyelids and the blood stained brow of the dead woman then he stood up come with me dear he said gently to the child
the day after the funeral allan telford sat in the study of his little manse
close to the window sat min's child
and the bright eyed dog beside him telford was writing in his journal i shall stay here close to her grave i shall see it every time i look from my study window every time i stand in my pulpit
every time i go in and out among my people i begin to see wherein i have failed i shall begin again patiently and humbly i wrote today to decline the c church call
my heart and my work are here he closed the book and bowed his head on it outside the snow fell softly he knew that it was wrapping that new made grave on the cold
the tendency to idealize national heroes
the good is oft interred with their bones why do men as a rule idealize the dead does the primitive tendency to ancestor worship in part explain this
is the tendency to idealize the men of the past beneficial in its effect upon the race what would be the effect if all the iniquity of the past were remembered
greek roman and english history abounds in illustrations
the noblest ideals in each succeeding generation are often thus concretely embodied in the character of some national hero compare the great heroes of greek mythology with the early heroes of the old testament
do these differences correspond to the distinctive characteristics of the greeks and the hebrews are these differences due to the peculiar genius of each race or in part to the influence exerted by the ideals thus concretely presented
upon each succeeding generation is it probable that in the character of abraham the traditional father of the hebrew race was idealized is it possible that teachers of israel
consciously or unconsciously fostered this tendency that they might in this concrete and effective way impress their great teachings upon their race if so
in the early history of most countries there comes a pressure of population upon the productive powers of the land as numbers increase in the hunting stage game becomes scarce and more hunting grounds are needed tribes migrate from season to season
as did the american indians and eventually some members of the tribe are likely to go forth to seek new homes later in the pastoral stage of society as the wealth of flocks and herds increases more
pasturage is needed and similar results follow even after agriculture is well established and commerce is well begun as in ancient greece colonies have a like origin in the england of the nineteenth century
malthus and his followers taught the tendency of population to outgrow the means of subsistence a tendency overcome only by restraints on the growth of population or by new inventions that enable new sources of supply to be secured
or that render the old ones more efficient emigration and pioneering are thus a normal outgrowth of a progressive growing people in any stage of civilization
what does the statement about abraham's wealth in cattle and silver and gold show regarding the country from which he came and the probable cause of god's direction for his removal immigrants and pioneers are usually the self reliant
and courageous who dare to endure hardships and incur risks to secure for their country and posterity the benefits of new lands and broader opportunity the trials of new and untried experiences and often of dire peril
so that the pioneers in all lands and ages have been heroes whose exploits recounted in song and story have stirred the hearts and molded the faith of their descendants through many generations
in the light of later history what was the profound religious significance to his race and to the world of the migration represented by abraham
as he speaks to them now through their experiences and inner consciousness in what sense was abraham a pioneer was it for abraham's material interest to migrate to canaan
the permanent value and influence of the abraham narratives scholars will probably never absolutely agree regarding many problems connected with abraham some have gone so far as to question whether he was an historical character or not
is the question of fundamental importance other writers declare it probable that a tribal sheik by the name of abraham led one of the many nomad tribes that somewhere about the middle of the second millenium b c
it is probable that popular tradition has preserved certain facts regarding his life and character it is equally clear that the different groups of israel's teachers have each interpreted his character
and work in keeping with their distinctive ideals each individual narrative has an independent unity and the connection between the different accounts is far
abraham isaac and ishmael the sanctity of certain sacred places as for example beersheba the origin of important institutions as for example circumcision and the substitution of animal for human sacrifice
and the explanation of striking physical phenomena as for example the desolate shores of the dead sea some of these accounts like the table of nations in genesis ten preserve the memory of the relationship between israel and its neighbors
they preserve also the characteristic popular record of the early migrations which brought these peoples to palestine where they crystalized into the different nations
the permanent and universal value of these stories lies however in the great moral principles which they vividly and effectively illustrate the prophetic portrait of abraham was an inspiring example to hold up before a race
the characteristics of abraham can be traced in the ideals and character of the israelites they were unquestionably an important force in developing the prophet nation he was therefore pre eminently a spiritual pioneer
how far do these stories and especially the accounts of the covenant between jehovah and abraham embody the national and spiritual aspirations of the race are the abraham stories of practical inspiration to the present generation
what qualities in his character are essential to the all around man of any age how far would the abraham of the prophetic stories succeed were he living in america to day would he be appreciated by a majority of our citizens
are spiritual pioneers of the type of abraham absolutely needed in every nation and generation if the human race is to progress questions for further consideration are god's purposes often contrary to man's desires
ever to man's best interests what qualities must every true pioneer possess what is the ultimate basis of all true politeness who are some of the great pioneers of early american history
what were their chief contributions to their nation is your own conscientious conception of your duty to be considered as god's command to you does he give any other command does a high stage of civilization ennoble character or tend to degrade it
smith relig of the semites
gordon early traditions of genesis
four a comparison of the motives that inspired the migrations of the ancestors of the hebrews and our pilgrim fathers cheyney
but the heavy and most human form of calenus the priest of isis he scarcely noted the humble offerings of indifferent fruit and still more indifferent wine which the pious sosia had deemed good enough for the invisible stranger they were intended to allure
some tribute thought he to the garden god by my father's head if his deityship were never better served he would do well to give up the godly profession ah were it not for us priests
the gods would have a sad time of it and now for arbaces i am treading a quicksand but it ought to cover a mine i have the egyptian's life in my power what will he value it at as he thus soliloquised
and issuing from one of the chambers that bordered the colonnade suddenly encountered arbaces
as you will but the night is clear and balmy i have some remains of languor yet lingering on me from my recent illness the air refreshes me let us walk in the garden we are equally alone there
with all my heart answered the priest and the two friends passed slowly to one of the many terraces which bordered by marble vases and sleeping flowers intersected the garden it is a lovely night said arbaces
the shores of italy first broke upon my view my calenus age creeps upon us let us at least feel that we have lived thou at least mayst arrogate that boast said calenus
beating about as it were for an opportunity to communicate the secret which weighed upon him
from the quiet and friendly tone of dignified condescension which the egyptian assumed
thou hast had countless wealth a frame on whose close woven fibres disease can find no space to enter prosperous love inexhaustible pleasure and even at this hour triumphant revenge thou alludest to the athenian
ay to morrow's sun the fiat of his death will go forth the senate does not relent but thou mistakest his death gives me no other gratification
i entertain no other sentiment of animosity against that unfortunate homicide homicide repeated calenus slowly and meaningly and halting as he spoke he fixed his eyes upon arbaces
the stars shone pale and steadily on the proud face of their prophet but they betrayed there no change the eyes of calenus fell disappointed and abashed he continued rapidly
it is well to charge him with that crime but thou of all men knowest that he is innocent explain thyself said arbaces coldly for he had prepared himself for the hint his secret fears had foretold arbaces
answered calenus sinking his voice into a whisper i was in the sacred grove sheltered by the chapel and the surrounding foliage i overheard i marked the whole
i blame not the deed it destroyed a foe and an apostate thou sawest the whole said arbaces dryly so i imagined thou wert alone alone returned calenus surprised at the egyptian's calmness
and wherefore wert thou hid behind the chapel at that hour
because i knew that on that spot he was to meet the fierce olinthus because they were to meet there to discuss plans for unveiling the sacred mysteries of our goddess to the people and i was there to detect in order to defeat them
hast thou told living ear what thou didst witness no my master the secret is locked in thy servant's breast what even thy kinsman burbo guesses it not come the truth by the gods
hush we know each other what are the gods to us by the fear of thy vengeance then no and why hast thou hitherto concealed from me this secret
condemnation before thou hast ventured to tell me that arbaces is a murderer and having tarried so long why revealest thou now that knowledge because because stammered calenus coloring and in confusion
because interrupted arbaces with a gentle smile and tapping the priest on the shoulder with a kindly and familiar gesture
and to malice as well as to homicide that having myself whetted the appetite of the populace to blood no wealth no power could prevent my becoming their victim and thou tellest me thy secret now
ere the trial be over and the innocent condemned to show what a desperate web of villainy thy word to morrow could destroy to enhance in this the ninth hour the price of thy forbearance to show that my own arts
in arousing the popular wrath would at thy witness recoil upon myself and that if not for glaucus for me would gape the jaws of the lion is it not so arbaces replied calenus
losing all the vulgar audacity of his natural character verily thou art a magician thou readest the heart as it were a scroll it is my vocation answered the egyptian laughing gently well then forbear
we know each other if thou wouldst have me silent thou must pay something in advance as an offer to harpocrates if the rose sweet emblem of discretion is to take root firmly water her this night with a stream of gold
wilt thou not wait the morrow why this delay
the innocent man suffered thou wilt forget my claim and indeed thy present hesitation is a bad omen of thy future gratitude well then calenus what wouldst thou have me pay thee
returned the priest grinning wittier and more witty but speak out what shall be the sum arbaces i have heard that in thy secret treasury below beneath those rude oscan arches which prop thy stately halls
thou hast piles of gold of vases and of jewels which might rival the receptacles of the wealth of the deified nero
nor i a desire to stint thy reward thou shalt descend with me to that treasury thou referrest to thou shalt feast thine eyes with the blaze of uncounted gold and the sparkle of priceless gems and thou shalt for thy own reward
bear away with thee this night as much as thou canst conceal beneath thy robes nay when thou hast once seen what thy friend possesses
when glaucus is no more thou shalt pay the treasury another visit speak i frankly and as a friend
cried calenus almost weeping with joy canst thou thus forgive my injurious doubts of thy justice thy generosity hush
jehovah said to abraham go forth from thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house to the land that i will show thee
and i will surely bless thee and make thy name great so that thou shalt be a blessing i will also bless them that bless thee
so that all the families of the earth shall ask for themselves a blessing like thine own so abraham went forth
by faith abraham when he was called obeyed to go out into a place which he was to receive for an inheritance and he went out not knowing whither he went by faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise as in a land not his own
he that findeth his life shall lose it
and is told not of abraham but of isaac whose character it fits far more consistently similarly there are three accounts of the covenant with abimelech
differ rather widely in details in one account hagar is expelled and ishmael is born after the birth of isaac and in the other before that event do these variant versions indicate that they were drawn from different groups of narratives
finds in the different accounts of the same events or teachings in the life of jesus they suggest to many that the author of the book of genesis was eager to preserve each and every story regarding abraham
as in the case of the gospels they have been combined with great skill sometimes as in the case of the expulsion of hagar the two versions are introduced at different points in the life of the patriarch more commonly the two or more versions are closely interwoven
giving a composite narrative that closely resembles tatian's diatessaron which was one continuous narrative of the life and teachings of jesus based on quotations from each of the four gospels fortunately if this theory is right
the group of stories most fully quoted and therefore best preserved is the early judean prophetic narratives when these are separated from the later parallels they give a marvelously complete and consistent portrait of abraham two
the meaning of the early prophetic stories about abraham read the prophetic stories regarding abraham
like the story of the garden of eden do they have a deeper a more universal moral and religious significance back of the story of abraham's call and settlement in canaan clearly lies the historic fact that the ancestors of the hebrews as nomads
migrated from the land of aram to seek for themselves and their descendants a permanent home in the land of canaan abraham whose name in hebrew means exalted father or as it was later interpreted father of a multitude
four for those who will be led by him god has in store a noble destiny five blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of god six blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth
it is evident that like the opening narratives of genesis this story aimed to explain existing conditions as well as to illustrate the deeper truths of life similarly the story of the expulsion of hagar it is thought aims primarily
the nomadic ishmaelites who lived south of canaan in the inscriptions of the assyrian king
hargaranu is the name of an aramean tribe a tribe bearing a similar name is also mentioned in the south arabian inscriptions the hagar of the story is a typical daughter of the desert when she became the mother of a child
the highest honor that could come to a semitic woman she could not resist the temptation to taunt sarah
for in the eye of the law the slave wife was her property the tradition of the revelation to hagar also represented the popular explanation of the sanctity of the famous desert shrine beer lahal roi
like most of the prophetic stories this narrative teaches deeper moral lessons chief among these is the broad truth that the sphere of god's care
to the outcast and needy he ever comes with his message of counsel and promise was abraham right or wrong in yielding to sarah's wish was sarah right or wrong in her attitude toward hagar
was hagar's triumphal attitude toward sarah natural was it right in the story of the destruction of sodom lot appears as the central figure his choice of the fertile plain of the jordan
had brought him into close contact with its inhabitants the canaanites abandoning his nomadic life he had become a citizen of the corrupt city of sodom when at last jehovah had determined to destroy the city because of its wickedness
abraham persistently interceded that it be spared its wickedness proved however too great for pardon lot who true to his nomad training hospitably received the divine messengers
was finally persuaded to flee from the city and thus escaped the overwhelming destruction that felt upon it what was the possible origin of this story
what are the important religious teachings of this story were great calamities in the past usually the result of wickedness are they to day do people so interpret the destruction of san francisco and messina
the great epidemic of cholera in hamburg in eighteen ninety two
at that date the cholera germ had not been clearly identified and there was some doubt regarding the means by which the disease was spread was sanitary neglect then as much of a sin as it would be now
why did the prophets preserve the story of the sacrifices of isaac compare the parallel teaching in micah
with what shall i come before jehovah bow myself before the god on high shall i come before him with burnt offerings with calves a year old will jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams
with myriads of streams of oil shall i give him my first born for my guilt the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul which is the most important teaching of the story the importance of an unquestioning faith and obedience
or the needlessness of human sacrifice does god ever command any person to do anything that the person thinks wrong three the prophetic portrait of abraham in the so called later priestly stories regarding abraham
he is portrayed as a devoted servant of the law chiefly intent upon observing the simple ceremonial institutions revealed to him in that primitive age with him the later priests associated the origin of the distinctive rite of circumcision
in genesis fourteen abraham is pictured as a valiant warrior who espoused the cause of the weak and won a great victory over the united armies of the eastern kings
he restored the captured spoil to the city that had been robbed and gave a liberal portion to the priest king melchizedek who appears to have been regarded in later jewish tradition as the forerunner of the jerusalem priesthood
in the still later jewish traditions of which many have been preserved he is pictured sometimes as an invincible warrior before whom even the great city of damascus fell sometimes as an ardent foe of idolatry
the incarnation of the spirit of later judaism or else he is thought of as having been borne to heaven on a fiery chariot where he receives to his bosom the faithful of his race thus each succeeding generation or group of writers made abraham
as the traditional father of their race the embodiment of their highest ideals the abraham of the early prophetic narratives however is a remarkably consistent character he exemplifies that which is noblest in israel's
early ideals how is abraham's faith illustrated in the prophetic stories considered in the preceding paragraph his unselfishness and generosity his courtly hospitality was his politeness to strangers simply due to his training
and the traditions of the desert or was it the expression of his natural impulses was abraham's devoted interest in the future of his descendants a noble quality how are his devotion and obedience to god illustrated
it will be remembered that
and conversing there with her he learned from the confession of her despair and remorse that her hand and not julia's had administered to glaucus the fatal potion
at another time the egyptian might have conceived a philosophical interest in sounding the depths and origin
in blindness and in slavery this singular girl had dared to cherish but at present he spared no thought from himself as after her confession the poor nydia threw herself on her knees before him
and besought him to restore the health and save the life of glaucus for in her youth and ignorance she imagined the dark magician all powerful to effect both
a prisoner until the trial and fate of glaucus were decided
when he judged her merely the accomplice of julia in obtaining the philtre he had felt it was dangerous to the full success of his vengeance to allow her to be at large to appear perhaps as a witness
and inspired by love would be only anxious at any expense of shame to retrieve her error and preserve her beloved besides how unworthy of the rank and repute of arbaces
to be implicated in the disgrace of pandering to the passion of julia and assisting in the unholy rites of the saga of vesuvius
could ever have led him to contemplate the confession of julia as for nydia who was necessarily cut off by her blindness from much of the knowledge of active life and who a slave and a stranger was naturally ignorant of the perils of the roman law
than the crime of which she had vaguely heard him accused or the chances of the impending trial poor wretch that she was whom none addressed none cared for what did she know of the senate and the sentence the hazard of the law
the ferocity of the people the arena and the lion's den she was accustomed only to associate with the thought of glaucus everything that was prosperous and lofty she could not imagine that any peril save from the madness of her love
it was therefore to restore the brain that she had marred to save the life that she had endangered that she implored the assistance of the great egyptian daughter said arbaces waking from his reverie
wait here patiently for some days and glaucus shall be restored so saying and without waiting for her reply he hastened from the room drew the bolt across the door and consigned the care and wants of his prisoner
to the slave who had the charge of that part of the mansion alone then and musingly he waited the morning light and with it repaired
his primary object with respect to the unfortunate
to prevent her interesting herself actively in the trial of glaucus and also to guard against her accusing him which she would doubtless have done of his former act of perfidy and violence towards her his ward
denouncing his causes for vengeance against glaucus unveiling the hypocrisy of his character and casting any doubt upon his veracity in the charge which he had made against the athenian not till he had encountered her that morning
not till he had heard her loud denunciations was he aware that he had also another danger to apprehend
that one at once the object of his passion and his fear was in his power
to which he had consigned her when he found her overpowered by blow upon blow and passing from fit to fit from violence to torpor
could distort than of the woe which he had brought upon her
whether in fortune or love he flattered himself that when glaucus had perished when his name was solemnly blackened by the award of a legal judgment his title to her love for ever forfeited by condemnation
to death for the murder of her own brother her affection would be changed to horror and that his tenderness and his passion assisted by all the arts with which he well knew how to dazzle woman's imagination
might elect him to that throne in her heart from which his rival would be so awfully expelled this was his hope but should it fail his unholy and fervid passion whispered at the worst now she is in my power yet withal
which attended upon the chance of detection even when the criminal is insensible to the voice of conscience that vague terror of the consequences of crime which is often mistaken for remorse at the crime itself the buoyant air of campania
weighed heavily upon his breast he longed to hurry from a scene where danger might not sleep eternally with the dead and
gives me the possession of my bride
after novel luxuries and inexperienced pleasures cheered by my stars supported by the omens of my soul we will penetrate to those vast and glorious worlds which my wisdom tells me lie yet untracked
in the recesses of the circling sea there may this heart possessed of love grow once more alive to ambition there amongst nations uncrushed by the roman yoke and to whose ear the name of rome has not yet been wafted
the grateful consciousness that she shares the lot of one who far from the aged rottenness of this slavish civilization restores the primal elements of greatness and unites in one mighty soul
the worn and pallid cheek of his victim touched him less than the firmness of his nerves and the dauntlessness of his brow for arbaces was one who had little pity for what was unfortunate but a strong sympathy for what was bold
the congenialities that bind us to others ever assimilate to the qualities of our own nature the hero weeps less at the reverses of his enemy than at the fortitude with which he bears them all of us are human
and arbaces criminal as he was
but as an obstacle in his path yet was he not the less resolved the less crafty and persevering in the course he pursued for the destruction of one whose doom was become necessary to the attainment of his objects and while
with apparent reluctance and compassion he gave against glaucus the evidence which condemned him he secretly and through the medium of the priesthood fomented that popular indignation which made an effectual obstacle
to the pity of the senate he had sought julia
he had easily therefore lulled any scruple of conscience which might have led her to extenuate the offence of glaucus by avowing her share in his frenzy and the more readily for her vain heart had loved the fame and the prosperity of glaucus
not glaucus himself she felt no affection for a disgraced man
if glaucus could not be her slave neither could he be the adorer of her rival this was sufficient consolation for any regret at his fate volatile and fickle she began again to be moved by the sudden
and earnest suit of clodius and was not willing to hazard the loss of an alliance with that base but high born noble by any public exposure of her past weakness and immodest passion for another
britain an island in the atlantic formerly called albion
facing though at a considerable distance the coasts of germany france and spain which form the greatest part of europe it extends eight hundred miles in length towards the north
and is two hundred miles in breadth except where several promontories extend further in breadth by which its compass is made to be
to its nearest shore there is an easy passage from the city of rutubi portus
on the other side of the island where it opens upon the boundless ocean it has the islands called orcades britain is rich in grain and trees and is well adapted for feeding cattle and beasts of burden
it also produces vines in some places
it is remarkable also for rivers abounding in fish and plentiful springs it has the greatest plenty of salmon and eels seals are also frequently taken and dolphins as also whales
besides many sorts of shell fish such as mussels in which are often found excellent pearls of all colours red purple violet and green but chiefly white there is also a great abundance of snails
of which the scarlet dye is made a most beautiful red which never fades with the heat of the sun or exposure to rain but the older it is the more beautiful it becomes it has both salt and hot springs
and from them flow rivers which furnish hot baths proper for all ages and both sexes in separate places according to their requirements for water
and becomes not only hot but scalding britain is rich also in veins of metals as copper iron lead and silver it produces a great deal of excellent jet which is black and sparkling
and burns when put to the fire and when set on fire drives away serpents being warmed with rubbing it attracts whatever is applied to it like amber the island was formerly distinguished
by twenty eight famous cities besides innumerable forts which were all strongly secured with walls towers gates and bars and because it lies almost under the north pole the nights are light in summer
so that at midnight the beholders are often in doubt whether the evening twilight still continues or that of the morning has come since the sun at night returns to the east in the northern regions without passing far beneath the earth
for this reason the days are of a great length in summer and on the other hand the nights in winter are eighteen hours long for the sun then withdraws into southern parts in like manner the nights are very short in summer
and the days in winter that is only six equinoctial hours whereas in armenia macedonia italy and other countries of the same latitude the longest day or night extends but to fifteen hours
and the shortest to nine there are in the island at present following the number of the books in which the divine law was written
in the study and confession of the one self same knowledge which is of highest truth and true sublimity to wit english british scottish pictish and latin
the last having become common to all by the study of the scriptures but at first this island had no other inhabitants but the britons from whom it derived its name and who
starting from the south they had occupied the greater part of the island when it happened that the nation of the picts
in a few ships of war and being driven by the winds beyond the bounds of britain came to ireland and landed on its northern shores there finding the nation of the scots they begged to be allowed to settle among them
but could not succeed in obtaining their request ireland is the largest island next to britain and lies to the west of it but as it is shorter than britain to the north so on the other hand it runs out far beyond it to the south
over against the northern part of spain though a wide sea lies between them the picts then as has been said arriving in this island by sea desired to have a place granted them in which they might settle
could not contain them both but we can give you good counsel said they whereby you may know what to do we know there is another island not far from ours to the eastward which we often see at a distance when the days are clear
if you will go thither you can obtain settlements or if any should oppose you we will help you the picts accordingly sailing over into britain began to inhabit the northern parts thereof
for the britons had possessed themselves of the southern now the picts had no wives and asked them of the scots who would not consent to grant them upon any other terms than that when any question should arise
they should choose a king from the female royal race rather than from the male which custom as is well known
besides the britons and the picts received a third nation the scots who migrating from ireland under their leader reuda either by fair means or by force of arms secured to themselves those settlements among the picts which they still possess
from the name of their commander they are to this day called dalreudini
for the snow scarcely ever lies there above three days no man makes hay in the summer for winter's provision or builds stables for his beasts of burden no reptiles are found there and no snake can live there for
though snakes are often carried thither out of britain
and the scent of the air reaches them they die on the contrary almost all things in the island are efficacious against poison in truth we have known that when men have been bitten by serpents
the scrapings of leaves of books that were brought out of ireland being put into water and given them to drink have immediately absorbed the spreading poison and assuaged the swelling the island abounds in milk and honey
and it is noted for the hunting of stags and roe deer
migrating from thence as has been said
in addition to the britons and the picts there is a very large gulf of the sea which formerly divided the nation of the britons from the picts
how caius julius caesar was the first roman that came into britain now britain had never been visited by the romans and was entirely unknown to them before the time of caius julius caesar who
while he was making war upon the germans and the gauls who were divided only by the river rhine
whence is the nearest and shortest passage into britain here having provided about eighty ships of burden and fast sailing vessels he sailed over into britain where being first roughly handled in a battle and then caught in a storm
he lost a considerable part of his fleet no small number of foot soldiers and almost all his cavalry returning into gaul he put his legions into winter quarters and gave orders for building six hundred sail of both sorts with these
the ships riding at anchor were caught in a storm and either dashed one against another or driven upon the sands and wrecked forty of them were lost the rest were with much difficulty repaired
caesar's cavalry was at the first encounter defeated by the britons and there labienus the tribune was slain in the second engagement with great hazard to his men he defeated the britons
and put them to flight thence he proceeded to the river thames where a great multitude of the enemy had posted themselves on the farther side of the river
and almost all the ford under water with sharp stakes
apparently about the thickness of a man's thigh cased with lead and fixed immovably in the bottom of the river this being perceived and avoided by the romans
hid themselves in the woods whence they grievously harassed the romans with repeated sallies
giving him forty hostages many other cities following their example made a treaty with the romans guided by them caesar at length after severe fighting
fortified by sheltering woods and plentifully furnished with all necessaries
brought the islands orcades into subjection to the roman empire and vespasian sent by him reduced the isle of wight under the dominion of the romans
claudius fourth emperor from augustus being desirous to approve himself a prince beneficial to the republic and eagerly bent upon war and conquest on every side undertook an expedition into britain
which as it appeared was roused to rebellion by the refusal of the romans to give up certain deserters no one before or after julius caesar had dared to land upon the island claudius crossed over to it
and within a very few days without any fighting or bloodshed the greater part of the island was surrendered into his hands he also added to the roman empire
and returning to rome in the sixth month after his departure he gave his son the title of britannicus this war he concluded in the fourth year of his reign which is the forty sixth
in which year there came to pass a most grievous famine in syria which is recorded in the acts of the apostles to have been foretold by the prophet agabus
being sent into britain by the same claudius brought also under the roman dominion the isle of wight which is close to britain on the south and is about thirty miles in length from east to west and twelve from north to south
nero succeeding claudius in the empire
and therefore among countless other disasters brought by him upon the roman state he almost lost britain for in his time two most notable towns were there taken and destroyed
was made emperor together with his brother aurelius commodus
sent a letter to him entreating that by a mandate from him
and the britons preserved the faith which they had received uncorrupted and entire in peace and tranquillity until the time of the emperor diocletian
divided from the rest by a rampart that part of britain which had been recovered
severus an african born at leptis in the province of tripolis
and reigned seventeen years
and engaged in many wars he governed the state vigorously but with much trouble having been victorious in all the grievous civil wars which happened in his time he was drawn into britain by the revolt of almost all the confederated tribes
and after many great and severe battles he thought fit to divide that part of the island which he had recovered from the other unconquered nations
but a rampart with which camps are fortified to repel the assaults of enemies is made of sods cut out of the earth and raised high above the ground like a wall having in front of it the trench whence the sods were taken
with strong stakes of wood fixed above it
fortified with several towers from sea to sea and there at york he fell sick afterwards and died leaving two sons
adjudged an enemy of the state but bassianus having taken the surname of antonius obtained the empire
of the reign of diocletian and how he persecuted the christians in the year of our lord
diocletian the thirty third from augustus and chosen emperor by the army reigned twenty years and created maximian surnamed herculius his colleague in the empire
but a man of great ability and energy being appointed to guard the sea coasts then infested by the franks and saxons acted more to the prejudice than to the advantage of the commonwealth
by not restoring to its owners any of the booty taken from the robbers but keeping all to himself thus giving rise to the suspicion that by intentional neglect he suffered the enemy to infest the frontiers when therefore an order was sent by maximian
that he should be put to death he took upon him the imperial purple and possessed himself of britain and having most valiantly conquered and held it for the space of seven years he was at length put to death
having thus got the island from carausius held it three years and was then vanquished by
who thus at the end of ten years restored britain to the roman empire
and the slaughter of martyrs finally britain also attained to the great glory of bearing faithful witness to god
who at that time shed their blood for our lord
where he makes mention of the blessed martyrs
and fruitful britain noble alban rears this alban being yet a pagan
this man he observed to be engaged in continual prayer and watching day and night when on a sudden the divine grace shining on him he began to imitate the example of faith and piety which was set before him
and being gradually instructed by his wholesome admonitions he cast off the darkness of idolatry and became a christian in all sincerity of heart
that a confessor of christ to whom a martyr's place had not yet been assigned
whereupon he sent some soldiers to make a strict search after him
instead of his guest and master
and led before the judge it happened that the judge at the time when alban was carried before him was standing at the altar and offering sacrifice to devils when he saw alban being much enraged that he should thus
of his own accord dare to put himself into the hands of the soldiers and incur such danger on behalf of the guest whom he had harboured he commanded him to be dragged to the images of the devils before which he stood saying
because you have chosen to conceal a rebellious and sacrilegious man rather than to deliver him up to the soldiers
if you seek to abandon the worship of our religion
was not at all daunted by the prince's threats but putting on the armour of spiritual warfare publicly declared that he would not obey his command then said the judge of what family or race are you
what does it concern you answered alban of what stock i am if you desire to hear the truth of my religion be it known to you that i am now a christian and free to fulfil christian duties i ask your name said the judge
i am called alban by my parents replied he and i worship ever and adore the true and living god who created all things then the judge filled with anger said if you would enjoy the happiness of eternal life
do not delay to offer sacrifice to the great gods
neither can avail the worshippers nor fulfil the desires and petitions of the suppliants rather
shall receive the everlasting pains of hell for his reward the judge hearing these words and being much incensed ordered this holy confessor of god to be scourged by the executioners
he being most cruelly tortured bore the same patiently or rather joyfully for our lord's sake when the judge perceived that he was not to be overcome by tortures or withdrawn from the exercise of the christian religion he ordered him to be put to death
being led to execution he came to a river which with a most rapid course ran between the wall of the town and the arena
and of divers ages and conditions who were doubtless assembled by divine inspiration
and had so filled the bridge over the river that he could scarce pass over that evening in truth almost all had gone out so that the judge remained in the city without attendance saint alban therefore urged by an ardent and devout wish to attain the sooner to martyrdom
whereupon the channel was immediately dried up and he perceived that the water had given place and made way for him to pass among the rest the executioner who should have put him to death observed this and moved doubtless by divine inspiration
hastened to meet him at the appointed place of execution
fell at his feet praying earnestly that he might rather be accounted worthy to suffer with the martyr whom he was ordered to execute or if possible instead of him whilst he was thus changed from a persecutor
the holy confessor accompanied by the multitude
beautiful as was fitting and of most pleasing appearance adorned or rather clothed everywhere with flowers of many colours nowhere steep or precipitous or of sheer descent but with a long smooth natural slope
like a plain on its sides a place altogether worthy from of old
and immediately a living spring
so that all men acknowledged that even the stream had yielded its service to the martyr
who had left no water remaining in the river should desire it on the top of the hill unless he thought it fitting the river then having done service and fulfilled the pious duty returned to its natural course
therefore the head of the undaunted martyr was struck off
which god has promised to them that love him
was not permitted to rejoice over his dead body for his eyes dropped upon the ground at the same moment as the blessed martyr's head fell at the same time was also beheaded the soldier who before through the divine admonition
refused to strike the holy confessor of whom it is apparent that though he was not purified by the waters of baptism yet he was cleansed by the washing of his own blood and rendered worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven
and began to honour the death of the saints by which he once thought that they might have been turned from their zeal for the christian faith
verlamacaestir or
where afterwards when peaceable christian times were restored a church of wonderful workmanship and altogether worthy
who after that they had endured sundry torments and their limbs had been mangled after an unheard of manner when their warfare was accomplished
when the persecution ceased the church in britain enjoyed peace till the time of the arian heresy when the storm of persecution ceased the faithful christians
who during the time of danger had hidden themselves in woods and deserts and secret caves came forth and rebuilt the churches which had been levelled to the ground founded erected and finished the cathedrals
raised in honour of the holy martyrs and as if displaying their conquering standards in all places celebrated festivals and performed their sacred rites with pure hearts and lips this peace continued in the christian churches of britain
until the time of the arian madness which having corrupted the whole world infected this island also so far removed from the rest of the world with the poison of its error and when once a way was opened across the sea for that plague
straightway all the taint of every heresy fell upon the island ever desirous to hear some new thing and never holding firm to any sure belief
whilst diocletian was alive governed gaul and spain a man of great clemency and urbanity died in britain
emperor of the gauls eutropius writes that constantine being created emperor in britain succeeded his father in the sovereignty in his time the arian heresy broke out
the deadly poison of its evil spread as has been said to the churches in the islands
and rumors about them ran abroad this made the inhabitants of those countries to be in no small fear accordingly they sent ambassadors to one another and exhorted one another to defend themselves and to endeavor to destroy these men
those that induced the rest to do so were such as inhabited gobolitis and petra they were called amalekites and were the most warlike of the nations that lived thereabout and whose kings exhorted one another
and such a one as had run away from slavery under the egyptians lay in wait to ruin them which army they were not in common prudence and regard to their own safety to overlook
but to crush them before they gather strength and come to be in prosperity and perhaps attack them first in a hostile manner as presuming upon our indolence in not attacking them before and that we ought to avenge ourselves of them for what they have done in the wilderness
for these last seem to be angry only at the flourishing of others but the former do not leave any room for their enemies to become troublesome to them
who expected no such warlike preparations and when these nations were ready to fight and the multitude of the hebrews were obliged to try the fortune of war they were in a mighty disorder and in want of all necessaries
then therefore it was that moses began to encourage them and to exhort them to have a good heart and rely on god's assistance by which they had been state of freedom and to hope for victory over those who were ready to fight with them in order to deprive them of that blessing
that they were to suppose their own army to be numerous wanting nothing neither weapons nor money nor provisions nor such other conveniences as when men are in possession of they fight undauntedly
and that they are to judge themselves to have all these advantages in the divine assistance they are also to suppose the enemy's army to be small unarmed weak and such as want those conveniences which they know must be wanted when it is god's will
that they shall be beaten and how valuable god's assistance is they had experienced in abundance of trials and those such as were more terrible than war for that is only against men
but these were against famine and thirst things indeed that are in their own nature insuperable as also against mountains and that sea which afforded them no way for escaping
yet had all these difficulties been conquered by god's gracious kindness to them so he exhorted them to be courageous at this time and to look upon their entire prosperity
who then called together the princes of their tribes and their chief men
so the people were elevated in their minds and ready to try their fortune in battle
nay they desired that moses would immediately lead them against their enemies without the least delay that no backwardness might be a hindrance to their present resolution so moses sorted all that were fit for war into different troops and set joshua the son of nun
of the tribe of ephraim over them
and patient to undergo labors of great abilities to understand and to speak what was proper and very serious in the worship of god
he also appointed a small party of the armed men to be near the water and to take care of the children and the women and of the entire camp
they took their weapons if any of them had such as were well made and attended to their commanders as ready to rush forth to the battle as soon as moses should give the word of command moses also kept awake teaching joshua
after what manner he should order his camp but when the day began moses called for joshua again
he also gave a particular exhortation to the principal men of the hebrews and encouraged the whole army as it stood armed before him
and when he had thus animated the army both by his words and works and prepared every thing he retired to a mountain and committed the army to god
and it came to a close fight hand to hand both sides showing great alacrity and encouraging one another
he bade his brother aaron and hur their sister miriam's husband to stand on each side of him and take hold of his hands and not permit his weariness to prevent it but to assist him in the extension of his hands
when this was done the hebrews conquered the amalekites by main force and indeed they had all perished unless the approach of the night had obliged the hebrews to desist from killing any more so our forefathers obtained a most signal and most seasonable victory
for they not only overcame those that fought against them but terrified also the neighboring nations and got great and splendid advantages which they obtained of their enemies by their hard pains in this battle for when they had taken the enemy's camp
they got ready booty for the public and for their own private families whereas till then they had not any sort of plenty of even necessary food the forementioned battle when they had once got it was also the occasion of their prosperity
not only for the present but for the future ages also for they not only made slaves of the bodies of their enemies but subdued their minds also
moreover they acquired a vast quantity of riches for a great deal of silver and gold was left in the enemy's camp as also brazen vessels
which they made common use of in their families many utensils also that were embroidered there were of both sorts that is of what were weaved and what were the ornaments of their armor and other things that served for use in the family and for the furniture of their rooms
they got also the prey of their cattle and of whatsoever uses to follow camps when they remove from one place to another so the hebrews now valued themselves upon their courage and claimed great merit for their valor
and they perpetually inured themselves to take pains by which they deemed every difficulty might be surmounted
and gave rewards to such as had signalized themselves in the action and highly commended joshua their general who was attested to by all the army on account of the great actions he had done
nor was any one of the hebrews slain but the slain of the enemy's army were too many to be enumerated so moses offered sacrifices of thanksgiving to god and built an altar which he named
the lord the conqueror he also foretold that the amalekites should utterly be destroyed and that hereafter none of them should remain because they fought against the hebrews and this when they were in the wilderness and in their distress also
moreover he refreshed the army with feasting and thus did they fight this first battle with those that ventured to oppose them after they were gone out of egypt but when moses had celebrated this festival for the victory
he permitted the hebrews to rest for a few days and then he brought them out after the fight in order of battle
and going gradually on he came to mount sinai in three months time after they were removed out of egypt at which mountain as we have before related the vision of the bush and the other wonderful appearances had happened chapter three
that moses kindly received his father in law jethro when he came to him to mount sinai
he willingly came to meet him and moses and his children and pleased himself with his coming and when he had offered sacrifice he made a feast for the multitude near the bush he had formerly seen which multitude
every one according to their families partook of the feast but
and sung hymns to god as to him who had been the author procurer of their deliverance and their freedom they also praised their conductor as him by whose virtue it was that all things had succeeded with them
made great encomiums upon the whole multitude and he could not but admire moses for his fortitude and that humanity he had shewn in the delivery of his friends chapter four
under their rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds who lived without order before
every one still going to him and supposing that they should then only obtain justice if he were the arbitrator and those that lost their causes thought it no harm while they thought they lost them justly and not by partiality
but afterward he took him to himself
and advised him to leave the trouble of lesser causes to others
for that certain others of the hebrews might be found that were fit to determine causes but that nobody but a moses could take of the safety of so many ten thousands be therefore says he insensible of thine own virtue
and what thou hast done by ministering under god to the people's preservation permit therefore the determination of common causes to be done by others but do thou reserve thyself to the attendance on god only
and look out for methods of preserving the multitude from their present distress make use of the method i suggest to you as to human affairs and take a review of the army and appoint chosen rulers over tens of thousands and then over thousands
then divide them into five hundreds and again into hundreds and into fifties and set rulers over each of them who may distinguish them into thirties and keep them in order and at last number them by twenties and by tens
and let there be one commander over each number to be denominated from the number of those over whom they are rulers but such as the whole multitude have tried and do approve of
one with another but if any great cause arise let them bring the cognizance of it before the rulers of a higher dignity but if any great difficulty arise that is too hard for even their determination let them send it to thee
by these means two advantages will be gained the hebrews will have justice done them and thou wilt be able to attend constantly on god
and moses received his advice very kindly and acted according to his suggestion nor did he conceal the invention of this method nor pretend to it himself but informed the multitude who it was that invented it
as thinking it right to give a true testimony to worthy persons although he might have gotten reputation by ascribing to himself the inventions of other men whence we may learn the virtuous disposition of moses but of such his disposition
i arrived here yesterday and my first task is to assure my dear sister of my welfare and increasing confidence in the success of my undertaking i am already far north of london and as i walk in the streets of petersburgh
i feel a cold northern breeze play upon my cheeks which braces my nerves and fills me with delight do you understand this feeling this breeze which has travelled from the regions towards which i am advancing gives me a foretaste of those icy climes
inspirited by this wind of promise my daydreams become more fervent and vivid i try in vain to be persuaded that the pole is the seat of frost and desolation it ever presents itself to my imagination as the region of beauty and delight
there snow and frost are banished and sailing over a calm sea we may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe its productions and features
may be without example as the phenomena of the heavenly bodies undoubtedly are in those undiscovered solitudes what may not be expected in a country of eternal light
i may there discover the wondrous power which attracts the needle and may regulate a thousand celestial observations that require only this voyage to render their seeming eccentricities consistent forever
and may tread a land never before imprinted by the foot of man these are my enticements and they are sufficient to conquer all fear of danger or death and to induce me to commence this laborious voyage with the joy a child feels
when he embarks in a little boat with his holiday mates on an expedition of discovery up his native river but supposing all these conjectures to be false you cannot contest the inestimable benefit which i shall confer on all mankind
to the last generation by discovering a passage near the pole to those countries to reach which at present so many months are requisite or by ascertaining the secret of the magnet
which if at all possible can only be effected by an undertaking such as mine these reflections have dispelled the agitation with which i began my letter
and i feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye
this expedition has been the favourite dream of my early years i have read with ardour the accounts of the various voyages which have been made in the prospect of arriving at the north pacific ocean through the seas which surround the pole
you may remember that a history of all the voyages made for purposes of discovery composed the whole
my education was neglected yet i was passionately fond of reading these volumes were my study day and night and my familiarity with them increased that regret which i had felt as a child on learning that my father's dying injunction
had forbidden my uncle to allow me to embark in a seafaring life these visions faded when i perused for the first time those poets whose effusions entranced my soul and lifted it to heaven
i also became a poet and for one year lived in a paradise of my own creation i imagined that i also might obtain a niche in the temple where the names of homer and shakespeare are consecrated you are well acquainted with my failure
but just at that time i inherited the fortune of my cousin and my thoughts were turned into the channel of their earlier bent six years have passed since i resolved on my present undertaking
i can even now remember the hour from which i dedicated myself to this great enterprise i commenced by inuring my body to hardship i accompanied the whale fishers on several expeditions to the north sea
i voluntarily endured cold famine thirst and want of sleep i often worked harder than the common sailors during the day and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics the theory of medicine
and those branches of physical science from which a naval adventurer might derive the greatest practical advantage twice i actually hired myself as an under mate in a greenland whaler and acquitted myself to admiration
i must own i felt a little proud when my captain offered me the second dignity in the vessel and entreated me to remain with the greatest earnestness so valuable did he consider my services and now dear margaret
do i not deserve to accomplish some great purpose my life might have been passed in ease and luxury but i preferred glory to every enticement that wealth placed in my path
in the affirmative my courage and my resolution is firm but my hopes fluctuate and my spirits are often depressed i am about to proceed on a long and difficult voyage the emergencies of which will demand all my fortitude
i am required not only to raise the spirits of others but sometimes to sustain my own when theirs are failing this is the most favourable period for travelling in russia they fly quickly over the snow in their sledges the motion is pleasant
the cold is not excessive if you are wrapped in furs a dress which i have already adopted for there is a great difference between walking the deck and remaining seated motionless for hours when no exercise prevents the blood from actually freezing in your veins
i have no ambition to lose my life on the post road between saint petersburgh and archangel i shall depart for the latter town in a fortnight or three weeks and my intention is to hire a ship there
which can easily be done by paying the insurance for the owner and to engage as many sailors as i think necessary among those who are accustomed to the whale fishing i do not intend to sail until the month of june and when shall i return
ah dear sister how can i answer this question if i succeed many many months perhaps years will pass before you and i may meet if i fail you will see me again soon or never
farewell my dear excellent margaret heaven shower down blessings on you and save me that i may again and again testify my gratitude for all your love and kindness your affectionate brother
and am occupied in collecting my sailors those whom i have already engaged appear to be men on whom i can depend and are certainly possessed of dauntless courage but i have one want which i have never yet been able to satisfy
and the absence of the object of which i now feel as a most severe evil i have no friend margaret when i am glowing with the enthusiasm of success there will be none to participate my joy
if i am assailed by disappointment no one will endeavour to sustain me in dejection i shall commit my thoughts to paper it is true but that is a poor medium for the communication of feeling
i desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me whose eyes would reply to mine you may deem me romantic my dear sister but i bitterly feel the want of a friend i have no one near me
gentle yet courageous possessed of a cultivated as well as of a capacious mind whose tastes are like my own to approve or amend my plans how would such a friend repair the faults of your poor brother
i am too ardent in execution and too impatient of difficulties but it is a still greater evil to me that i am self educated for the first fourteen years of my life i ran wild on a common
that i perceived the necessity of becoming acquainted with more languages than that of my native country now i am twenty eight
but they want as the painters call it keeping and i greatly need a friend who would have sense enough not to despise me as romantic and affection enough for me to endeavour to regulate my mind well
these are useless complaints
he is madly desirous of glory or rather to word my phrase more characteristically of advancement in his profession he is an englishman and in the midst of national and professional prejudices
unsoftened by cultivation retains some of the noblest endowments of humanity i first became acquainted with him on board a whale vessel
finding that he was unemployed in this city i easily engaged him to assist in my enterprise the master is a person of an excellent disposition and is remarkable in the ship
this circumstance added to his well known integrity and dauntless courage
my best years spent under your gentle and feminine fosterage has so refined the groundwork of my character that i cannot overcome an intense distaste to the usual brutality exercised on board ship i have never believed it to be necessary
i felt myself peculiarly fortunate in being able to secure his services i heard of him first in rather a romantic manner from a lady who owes to him the happiness of her life this briefly is his story
some years ago he loved a young russian lady of moderate fortune and having amassed a considerable sum in prize money the father of the girl consented to the match he saw his mistress once before the destined ceremony
but she was bathed in tears and throwing herself at his feet entreated him to spare her confessing at the same time that she loved another but that he was poor and that her father would never consent to the union
my generous friend reassured the suppliant and on being informed of the name of her lover instantly abandoned his pursuit he had already bought a farm with his money on which he had designed to pass the remainder of his life
but he bestowed the whole on his rival together with the remains of his prize money to purchase stock and then himself solicited the young woman's father to consent to her marriage with her lover
but the old man decidedly refused thinking himself bound in honour to my friend who when he found the father inexorable quitted his country nor returned until he heard that his former mistress was married according to her inclinations
what a noble fellow you will exclaim he is so but then he is wholly uneducated he is as silent as a turk and a kind of ignorant carelessness attends him
which while it renders his conduct the more astonishing detracts from the interest and sympathy which otherwise he would command yet do not suppose because i complain a little or because i can conceive a consolation for my toils
which i may never know that i am wavering in my resolutions those are as fixed as fate and my voyage is only now delayed until the weather shall permit my embarkation the winter has been dreadfully severe
but the spring promises well and it is considered as a remarkably early season so that perhaps i may sail sooner than i expected i shall do nothing rashly you know me sufficiently to confide in my prudence and considerateness
whenever the safety of others is committed to my care i cannot describe to you my sensations on the near prospect of my undertaking
half pleasurable and half fearful with which i am preparing to depart i am going to unexplored regions to the land of mist and snow but i shall kill no albatross therefore do not be alarmed for my safety
you will smile at my allusion but i will disclose a secret i have often attributed my attachment to my passionate enthusiasm for the dangerous mysteries of ocean to that production
of the most imaginative of modern poets there is something at work in my soul which i do not understand i am practically industrious painstaking a workman to execute with perseverance and labour
but besides this there is a love for the marvellous a belief in the marvellous intertwined in all my projects which hurries me out of the common pathways of men
but to return to dearer considerations shall i meet you again after having traversed immense seas
i dare not expect such success yet i cannot bear to look on the reverse of the picture continue for the present to write to me by every opportunity
my dear sister i write a few lines in haste to say that i am safe and well advanced on my voyage this letter will reach england by a merchantman now on its homeward voyage from archangel more fortunate than i
who may not see my native land perhaps for many years i am however in good spirits my men are bold and apparently firm of purpose nor do the floating sheets of ice that continually pass us
indicating the dangers of the region towards which we are advancing appear to dismay them we have already reached a very high latitude but it is the height of summer and although not so warm as in england
the southern gales which blow us speedily towards those shores which i so ardently desire to attain breathe a degree of renovating warmth which i had not expected
that would make a figure in a letter one or two stiff gales and the springing of a leak are accidents which experienced navigators scarcely remember to record and i shall be well content if nothing worse happen to us during our voyage adieu my dear margaret
be assured that for my own sake as well as yours i will not rashly encounter danger i will be cool persevering and prudent but success shall crown my endeavours wherefore not
thus far i have gone tracing a secure way over the pathless seas the very stars themselves being witnesses and testimonies of my triumph why not still proceed over the untamed yet obedient element
what can stop the determined heart and resolved will of man my swelling heart involuntarily pours itself out thus but i must finish heaven bless my beloved sister r w
strange an accident has happened to us that i cannot forbear recording it although it is very probable that you will see me before these papers can come into your possession last monday july thirty first we were nearly surrounded by ice
our situation was somewhat dangerous especially as we were compassed round by a very thick fog we accordingly lay to hoping that some change would take place in the atmosphere and weather
about two o'clock the mist cleared away and we beheld stretched out in every direction vast and irregular plains of ice which seemed to have no end
we perceived a low carriage fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs pass on towards the north at the distance of half a mile a being which had the shape of a man
but apparently of gigantic stature sat in the sledge and guided the dogs we watched the rapid progress of the traveller with our telescopes until he was lost among the distant inequalities of the ice
this appearance excited our unqualified wonder we were as we believed many hundred miles from any land but this apparition seemed to denote that it was not in reality so distant as we had supposed
shut in however by ice it was impossible to follow his track which we had observed with the greatest attention about two hours after this occurrence we heard the ground sea and before night the ice broke and freed our ship
fearing to encounter in the dark those large loose masses which float about after the breaking up of the ice i profited of this time to rest for a few hours in the morning however as soon as it was light
which had drifted towards us in the night on a large fragment of ice only one dog remained alive but there was a human being within it whom the sailors were persuading to enter the vessel he was not as the other traveller seemed to be
a savage inhabitant of some undiscovered island but a european when i appeared on deck the master said here is our captain and he will not allow you to perish on the open sea on perceiving me the stranger addressed me in english
although with a foreign accent before i come on board your vessel said he will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound you may conceive my astonishment on hearing such a question addressed to me
from a man on the brink of destruction and to whom i should have supposed that my vessel would have been a resource which he would not have exchanged for the most precious wealth the earth can afford i replied however that we were on a voyage of discovery towards the northern pole
upon hearing this he appeared satisfied and consented to come on board good god margaret if you had seen the man who thus capitulated for his safety your surprise would have been boundless his limbs were nearly frozen
we accordingly brought him back to the deck and restored him to animation by rubbing him with brandy and forcing him to swallow a small quantity as soon as he showed signs of life we wrapped him up in blankets
and placed him near the chimney of the kitchen stove by slow degrees he recovered and ate a little soup which restored him wonderfully two days passed in this manner before he was able to speak
and i often feared that his sufferings had deprived him of understanding when he had in some measure recovered i removed him to my own cabin and attended on him as much as my duty would permit i never saw a more interesting creature
his eyes have generally an expression of wildness and even madness but there are moments when if anyone performs an act of kindness towards him or does him any the most trifling service
when my guest was a little recovered i had great trouble to keep off the men who wished to ask him a thousand questions but i would not allow him to be tormented by their idle curiosity in a state of body and mind whose restoration evidently depended upon entire repose
once however the lieutenant asked why he had come so far upon the ice in so strange a vehicle his countenance instantly assumed an aspect of the deepest gloom and he replied to seek one who fled from me
and did the man whom you pursued travel in the same fashion yes then i fancy we have seen him for the day before we picked you up we saw some dogs drawing a sledge with a man in it
across the ice this aroused the stranger's attention and he asked a multitude of questions concerning the route which the demon as he called him had pursued soon after when he was alone with me he said
i have doubtless excited your curiosity as well as that of these good people but you are too considerate to make inquiries certainly it would indeed be very impertinent and inhuman in me
the breaking up of the ice had destroyed the other sledge i replied that i could not answer with any degree of certainty for the ice had not broken until near midnight and the traveller might have arrived at a place of safety before that time
but of this i could not judge from this time a new spirit of life animated the decaying frame of the stranger he manifested the greatest eagerness to be upon deck to watch for the sledge which had before appeared
i have promised that someone should watch for him and give him instant notice if any new object should appear in sight such is my journal of what relates to this strange occurrence up to the present day
the stranger has gradually improved in health but is very silent and appears uneasy when anyone except myself enters his cabin yet his manners are so conciliating and gentle that the sailors are all interested in him
although they have had very little communication with him for my own part i begin to love him as a brother and his constant and deep grief fills me with sympathy and compassion he must have been a noble creature in his better days
being even now in wreck so attractive and amiable i said in one of my letters my dear margaret that i should find no friend on the wide ocean yet i have found a man who before his spirit had been broken by misery
i should have been happy to have possessed as the brother of my heart i shall continue my journal concerning the stranger at intervals should i have any fresh incidents to record august thirteenth
my affection for my guest increases every day he excites at once my admiration and my pity to an astonishing degree how can i see so noble a creature destroyed by misery without feeling the most poignant grief
he is so gentle yet so wise his mind is so cultivated and when he speaks although his words are culled with the choicest art yet they flow with rapidity and unparalleled eloquence he is now much recovered from his illness
and is continually on the deck apparently watching for the sledge that preceded his own yet although unhappy he is not so utterly occupied by his own misery but that he interests himself deeply in the projects of others
he has frequently conversed with me on mine which i have communicated to him without disguise he entered attentively into all my arguments in favour of my eventual success and into every minute detail of the measures i had taken to secure it
how gladly i would sacrifice my fortune my existence my every hope to the furtherance of my enterprise one man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which i sought for the dominion
i should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race as i spoke a dark gloom spread over my listener's countenance at first i perceived that he tried to suppress his emotion
he placed his hands before his eyes and my voice quivered and failed me as i beheld tears trickle fast
a groan burst from his heaving breast i paused at length he spoke in broken accents unhappy man do you share my madness have you drunk also of the intoxicating draught
hear me let me reveal my tale and you will dash the cup from your lips such words you may imagine strongly excited my curiosity
but the paroxysm of grief that had seized the stranger overcame his weakened powers and many hours of repose and tranquil conversation were necessary to restore his composure having conquered the violence of his feelings
he appeared to despise himself for being the slave of passion and quelling the dark tyranny of despair he led me again to converse concerning myself personally he asked me the history of my earlier years the tale was quickly told
but it awakened various trains of reflection i spoke of my desire of finding a friend of my thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever fallen to my lot and expressed my conviction that a man
could boast of little happiness who did not enjoy this blessing i agree with you replied the stranger we are unfashioned creatures but half made up if one wiser better dearer than ourselves
do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures i once had a friend the most noble of human creatures and am entitled therefore to judge respecting friendship you have hope
and the world before you and have no cause for despair but i i have lost everything and cannot begin life anew as he said this his countenance became expressive of a calm
no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature the starry sky the sea and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions seem still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth
such a man has a double existence he may suffer misery and be overwhelmed by disappointments yet when he has retired into himself he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him
within whose circle no grief or folly ventures will you smile at the enthusiasm i express concerning this divine wanderer you would not if you saw him
you have been tutored and refined by books and retirement from the world and you are therefore somewhat fastidious but this only renders you the more fit to appreciate the extraordinary merits of this wonderful man sometimes
i have endeavoured to discover what quality it is which he possesses that elevates him so immeasurably above any other person i ever knew
a quick but never failing power of judgment a penetration into the causes of things unequalled for clearness and precision add to this a facility of expression and a voice whose varied intonations
are soul subduing music august nineteenth
yesterday the stranger said to me you may easily perceive captain walton that i have suffered great and unparalleled misfortunes
but you have won me to alter my determination you seek for knowledge and wisdom as i once did and i ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you as mine has been
i do not know that the relation of my disasters will be useful to you yet when i reflect that you are pursuing the same course exposing yourself to the same dangers which have rendered me what i am
i imagine that you may deduce an apt moral from my tale one that may direct you if you succeed in your undertaking and console you in case of failure prepare to hear of occurrences which are usually deemed marvellous
were we among the tamer scenes of nature i might fear to encounter your unbelief perhaps your ridicule but many things will appear possible in these wild and mysterious regions which would provoke the laughter of those unacquainted
with the ever varied powers of nature nor can i doubt but that my tale conveys in its series internal evidence of the truth of the events of which it is composed
you may easily imagine that i was much gratified by the offered communication yet i could not endure that he should renew his grief by a recital of his misfortunes i felt the greatest eagerness to hear the promised narrative
partly from curiosity and partly from a strong desire to ameliorate his fate if it were in my power i expressed these feelings in my answer i thank you he replied for your sympathy but it is useless
my fate is nearly fulfilled i wait but for one event and then i shall repose in peace i understand your feeling continued he perceiving that i wished to interrupt him
but you are mistaken my friend if thus you will allow me to name you nothing can alter my destiny listen to my history and you will perceive how irrevocably
this promise drew from me the warmest thanks i have resolved every night when i am not imperatively occupied by my duties to record as nearly as possible in his own words what he has related during the day
if i should be engaged i will at least make notes this manuscript will doubtless afford you the greatest pleasure but to me who know him and who hear it from his own lips
with what interest and sympathy shall i read it in some future day even now as i commence my task his full toned voice swells in my ears his lustrous eyes dwell on me with all their melancholy sweetness
i see his thin hand raised in animation while the lineaments of his face are irradiated by the soul within strange and harrowing must be his story
the little gray man a nun a countryman and a blacksmith were once wandering through the world together one day they lost their way in a thick dark forest and were thankful when they saw in the distance
the walls of a house where they hoped they might obtain refuge for the night when they got close to the house they found that it was an old deserted castle fast falling into ruins but with some of the rooms in it still habitable
as they were homeless they determined to take up their abode in the castle and they arranged that one of them should always stay at home and keep house
the lot of remaining at home fell first to the nun and when the countryman and the blacksmith had gone out into the wood she set to work tidied up the house and prepared all the food for the day
as her companions did not come home for their mid day meal she ate up her own portion and put the rest in the oven to keep warm just as she was sitting down to sew the door opened
and a little gray man came in and standing before her said oh how cold i am the nun was very sorry for him and said at once sit down by the fire and warm yourself the little man did as he was told
and soon called out oh how hungry i am the nun answered there is food in the oven help yourself the little man did not need to be told twice
for he set to work and ate up everything with the greatest possible despatch when the nun saw this she was very angry and scolded the dwarf because he had left nothing for her companions
the little man resented her words and flew into such a passion that he seized the nun beat her and threw her first against one wall and then against the other
in the evening the countryman and the blacksmith returned home and when they found on demanding their dinner that there was nothing left for them they reproached the nun bitterly
and promised that if he remained at home no one should go hungry to bed so the other two went out into the forest and the countryman having prepared the food for the day
just as he had finished clearing away the door opened and the little gray man walked in and this time he had two heads he shook and trembled as before and exclaimed oh how cold i am the countryman
soon after the dwarf looked greedily round and said oh
there is food in the oven so you can eat replied the countryman then the little man fell to with both his heads and soon finished the last morsel when the countryman scolded him for this proceeding he treated him exactly as he had done the nun
and left the poor fellow more dead than alive now when the blacksmith came home with the nun in the evening and found nothing for supper
and that no one should go supperless to bed when day dawned the countryman and the nun set out into the wood and the blacksmith prepared all the food for the day as the others had done again the gray dwarf entered the house without knocking and this time he had
three heads when he complained of cold the blacksmith told him to sit near the fire and when he said he was hungry the blacksmith put some food on a plate and gave it to him the dwarf made short work of what was provided for him
and then looking greedily round with his six eyes he demanded more when the blacksmith refused to give him another morsel he flew into a terrible rage
but the blacksmith was a match for him for he seized a huge hammer and struck off two of the dwarf's heads with it the little man yelled with pain and rage and hastily fled from the house the blacksmith ran after him and pursued him for a long way
but at last they came to an iron door and through it the little creature vanished the door shut behind him and the blacksmith had to give up the pursuit and return home he found that the nun and the countryman had come back in the meantime
and they were much delighted when he placed some food before them and showed them the two heads he had struck off with his hammer the three companions determined there and then to free themselves from the power of the gray dwarf and the very next day they set to work to find him
they entered a large hall in which sat a young and lovely girl working at a table the moment she saw the nun the blacksmith and the countryman
she told them that she was a king's daughter who had been shut up in the castle by a mighty magician the day before just about noon she had suddenly felt the magic power over her disappear and ever since that moment
she had eagerly awaited the arrival of her deliverers she went on to say that there was yet another princess shut up in the castle who had also fallen under the might of the magician
they wandered through many halls and rooms till at last they found the second princess who was quite as grateful as the first
then the princesses told their rescuers that a great treasure lay hidden in the cellars of the castle
nothing daunted they all went down below at once and found the fierce animal mounting guard over the treasure as the princesses had said but one blow from the blacksmith's hammer soon made an end of the monster
and they found themselves in a vaulted chamber full of gold and silver and precious stones beside the treasure stood a young and handsome man who advanced to meet them and thanked the nun the blacksmith and the countryman for having freed him from the magic spell he was under
and that he had been changed into the three headed dwarf when he had lost two of his heads the magic power over the two princesses had been removed and when the blacksmith had killed the horrible dog then he too had been set free to show his gratitude
which they did but there was so much of it that it took a very long time
but boys grew fast in those days for they were out of doors all the time running swimming leaping on skees and hunting in the forest all that makes big manly boys
so now king halfdan was dead and buried and harald was to be king but first he must drink his father's funeral ale take down the gay tapestries that hang in the feast hall
he said to the thralls put up black and gray ones strew the floor with pine branches
scour every dish until it shines then harald sent messengers all over that country to his kinsmen and friends bid them come in three months time to drink my father's
tell them that no one shall go away empty handed so in three months men came riding up at every hour some came in boats but many had ridden far through mountains swimming rivers for there were
few roads or bridges in norway on account of that hard ride no women came to the feast at nine o'clock in the night the feast began
the clean smell of this wood smoke and of the pine branches on the floor was pleasant to the guests down each side of the hall stretched long backless benches with room for three hundred men
in the middle of each side rose the high seat a great carved chair on a platform all along behind the benches were the black and gray draperies
here hung the shields of the guests for every man when he was given his place turned and hung his shield behind him and set his tall spear by it so on each wall there was a long row of gay shields
red and green and yellow and all shining with gold or bronze trimmings and higher up there was another row of gleaming spear points
so that dragons seemed to be crawling across or eagles seemed to be swooping down the guests walked in laughing and talking with their big voices so that the rafters rang
they made the hall look all the brighter with their clothes of scarlet and blue and green with their flashing golden bracelets and head bands and sword scabbards with their flying hair of red or yellow
across the east end of the hall was a bench when the men were all in the queen harald's mother and the women who lived with her
other thralls ran in with large steaming kettles of meat they put big pieces of this meat into platters of wood and set it before the men they had a few dishes of silver
these they put before the guests at the middle of the tables for the great people sat here near the high seats when the meat came the talking stopped for norsemen ate only twice a day
and these men had had long rides and were hungry three or four persons ate from one platter and drank from the same big bowl of milk they had no forks
so they ate from their fingers and threw the bones under the table among the pine branches sometimes they took knives from their belts to cut the meat
harald called to the thralls carry out the tables so they did and brought in two great tubs of mead and set one at each end of the hall then the queen stood up and called some of her women
they went to the mead tubs they took the horns when the thralls had filled them and carried them to the men with some merry word
you must drink it at one draught perhaps another said mead loves a merry face the women were beautiful moving about the hall
the queen wore a trailing dress of blue velvet with long flowing sleeves she had a short apron of striped arabian silk with gold fringe along the bottom from her shoulders hung a long train of scarlet wool embroidered in gold
white linen covered her head her long yellow hair was pulled around at the sides and over her breast and was fastened under the belt of her apron
as she walked her train made a pleasant rustle among the pine branches she was tall and straight and strong
arms bare with bracelets shining on them they too were tall and strong all the time men were calling across the fire to one another asking news or telling jokes and laughing
an old man harald's uncle sat in the high seat on the north side that was the place of honor but the high seat on the south side was empty for that was the king's seat harald sat on the steps before it
the feast went merrily until long after midnight
and some to the beds around the sides of the feast hall but some men lay down on the benches and drew their cloaks over themselves on the next night there was another feast still harald sat on the step before the high seat
but when the tables were gone and the horns were going around he stood up and raised high a horn of ale and said loudly this horn of memory i drink in honor of my father halfdan son of gudrod
and they all drank it then a man stood up and said hear my song of king halfdan
yes the song shouted the men and harald nodded his head so the skald took down his great harp from the wall behind him and went and stood before harald
the bottom of the harp rested on the floor but the top reached as high as the skald's shoulders the brass frame shone in the light the strings were some of gold and some of silver the man struck them with his hand and sang of king halfdan of his battles
men loved him when he had finished king harald took a bracelet from his arm and gave it to him saying take this as thanks for your good song the guests stayed the next day
and at night there was another feast when the mead horns were going around king harald stood up and spoke i said that no man should go away empty handed from drinking my father's funeral ale
he beckoned the thralls and they brought in a great treasure chest and set it down by the high seat
king harald opened it and took out rich gifts capes and sword belts and beautiful cloth and bracelets and gold cloak pins these he sent about the hall and gave something to every man the guests wondered at the richness of his gifts
this young king has an open hand they said and deep treasure chests after breakfast the next morning the guests went out and stood by their horses ready to go but before they mounted
thralls brought a horn of mead to each man that was called the stirrup horn
chapter seven the troublesome phonograph when the boy opened his eyes next morning he looked carefully around the room these small munchkin houses seldom had more than one room in them
that in which ojo now found himself had three beds set all in a row on one side of it the glass cat lay asleep on one bed ojo was in the second and the third was neatly made up and smoothed for the day
on the other side of the room was a round table on which breakfast was already placed smoking hot only one chair was drawn up to the table where a place was set for one person no one seemed to be in the room except the boy and bungle
ojo got up and put on his shoes finding a toilet stand at the head of his bed he washed his face and hands and brushed his hair then he went to the table and said i wonder if this is my breakfast eat it commanded a voice at his side
he was hungry and the breakfast looked good so he sat down and ate all he wanted then rising he took his hat and wakened the glass cat come on bungle said he we must go
he cast another glance about the room and speaking to the air he said whoever lives here has been kind to me and i'm much obliged there was no answer so he took his basket and went out the door
the cat following him in the middle of the path sat the patchwork girl playing with pebbles she had picked up oh there you are she exclaimed cheerfully i thought you were never coming out it has been daylight a long time
sat here and watched the stars and the moon she replied they're interesting i never saw them before you know
of course not said ojo you were crazy to act so badly and get thrown outdoors remarked bungle as they renewed their journey that's all right said scraps
i wouldn't have seen the stars nor the big gray wolf what wolf inquired ojo
i don't see why that should be said the boy thoughtfully there was plenty to eat in that house for i had a fine breakfast and i slept in a nice bed don't you feel tired asked the patchwork girl noticing that the boy yawned
and aren't you hungry it's strange replied ojo i had a good breakfast and yet i think i'll now eat some of my crackers and cheese scraps danced up and down the path then she sang kizzle kazzle kore the wolf is at the door
no said the cat she's stark staring raving crazy
have you noticed how beautiful my patches are in this sunlight
and to the top was screwed fast a phonograph with a big gold horn hold on shouted the phonograph
goodness me it's that music thing which the crooked magician scattered the powder of life over said ojo so it is returned bungle in a grumpy tone of voice
and then as the phonograph overtook them the glass cat added sternly what are you doing here anyhow i've run away said the music thing
after you left old doctor pipt and i had a dreadful quarrel and he threatened to smash me to pieces if i didn't keep quiet of course i wouldn't do that because a talking machine is supposed to talk and make a noise and sometimes music
so i slipped out of the house while the magician was stirring his four kettles and i've been running after you all night now that i've found such pleasant company i can talk and play tunes all i want to
ojo was greatly annoyed by this unwelcome addition to their party at first he did not know what to say to the newcomer but a little thought decided him not to make friends
we are traveling on important business he declared and you'll excuse me if i say we can't be bothered how very impolite exclaimed the phonograph i'm sorry but it's true said the boy
you'll have to go somewhere else this is very unkind treatment i must say whined the phonograph in an injured tone everyone seems to hate me and yet i was intended to amuse people it isn't
you we hate especially observed the glass cat
it growls and grumbles and clicks and scratches so it spoils the music and your machinery rumbles so that the racket drowns every tune you attempt that isn't my fault it's the fault of my records
i must admit that i haven't a clear record answered the machine just the same you'll have to go away said ojo wait a minute cried scraps this music thing interests me
i remember to have heard music when i first came to life and i would like to hear it again
victor columbia edison it answered
the only record i have with me explained the phonograph
a what inquired scraps it is classical music and is considered the best and most puzzling ever manufactured you're supposed to like it whether you do or not
and if you don't the proper thing is to look as if you did understand not in the least said scraps then listen at once the machine began to play and in a few minutes
ojo put his hands to his ears to shut out the sounds and the cat snarled and scraps began to laugh cut it out vic she said that's enough
but the phonograph continued playing the dreary tune so ojo seized the crank jerked it free and threw it into the road however the moment the crank struck the ground it bounded back to the machine again and began winding it up
but the phonograph was right behind them and could run and play at the same time it called out reproachfully what's the matter don't you love classical music no vic said scraps halting
we will passical the classical and preserve what joy we have left i haven't any nerves thank goodness but your music makes my cotton shrink then turn over my record
there's a rag time tune on the other side said the machine what's rag time the opposite of classical all right said scraps and turned over the record
the phonograph now began to play a jerky jumble of sounds which proved so bewildering
if you don't shut off that music i'll smash your record threatened ojo the music stopped at that and the machine turned its horn from one to another and said with great indignation what's the matter now
is it possible you can't appreciate rag time scraps ought to being rags herself said the cat but i simply can't stand it it makes my whiskers curl
i'll tell you what vic she added as she smoothed out her apron and put it on again for some reason or other you've missed your guess you're not a concert you're a nuisance
asserted the phonograph sadly then we're not savages i advise you to go home and beg the magician's pardon never he'd smash me that's what we shall do if you stay here ojo declared
and stay with him till he repents in that way you can do some good in the world the music thing turned silently away and trotted down a side path toward a distant munchkin village
is that the way we go asked bungle anxiously no said ojo
belted at the waist with a strap he had on coarse shoes and leather leggings around his neck was an iron collar welded together so that it could not come off on it were strange marks called runes that said
olaf thrall of halfdan but harald's clothes were gay
when it waved in the wind a scarlet lining flashed out and the bottom of a little scarlet jacket showed his feet and legs were covered with gray woolen tights gold lacings wound around his legs from his shoes to his knees
a band of gold held down his long yellow hair it was a wild country that these two were walking over they were climbing steep rough hills some of them seemed made all of rock with a little earth lying in spots
great rocks hung out from them with trees growing in their cracks some big pieces had broken off and rolled down the hill thor broke them olaf said
he rides through the sky and hurls his hammer at clouds and at mountains that makes the thunder and the lightning and cracks the hills his hammer never misses its aim and it always comes back to his hand and is eager to go again
when they reached the top of the hill they looked back far below was a soft green valley in front of it the sea came up into the land and made a fiord on each side of the fiord high walls of rock stood up
all around the valley were high hills with dark pines on them far off were the mountains in the valley were halfdan's houses around their square yard how little our houses look down there harald said
but i can almost yes i can see the red dragon on the roof of the feast hall do you remember when i climbed up and sat on his head olaf
at last they came to aegir's rock and walked up on its flat top harald went to the edge and looked over a ragged wall of rock reached down
and two hundred feet below was the black water of the fiord olaf watched him for a while then he said no whitening of your cheek harald good a boy that can face the fall of aegir's rock
will not be afraid to face the war flash when he is a man ho i am not afraid of the war flash now cried harald he threw back his cape and drew a little dagger from his belt
does this not flash like a sword and i am not afraid but after all this is a baby thing when i am eight years old i will have a sword a sharp tooth of war he swung his dagger as though it were a long sword
then he ran and sat on a rock by olaf why is this aegir's rock he asked you know that asgard is up in the sky olaf said
it is a wonderful city where the golden houses of the gods are in the golden grove a high wall runs all around it in the house of odin the all father
its name is valhalla it has five hundred doors the rafters are spears the roof is thatched with shields armor lies on the benches
in the high seat sits odin a golden helmet on his head a spear in his hand
at his right hand and his left sit all the gods and goddesses and around the hall sit thousands and thousands of men
and there are skalds that sing wonderful songs that men never heard and before the doors of valhalla is a great meadow where the warriors fight every day and get glorious and sweet wounds and give many
and all night they feast and their wounds heal but none may go to valhalla except warriors that have died bravely in battle men who die from sickness go with women and children and cowards
there hela who is queen always sneers at them and a terrible cold takes hold of their bones and they sit down and freeze
aegir the big handed they called him in many a battle his sword had sung and he had sent many warriors to valhalla many swords had bit into his flesh and left marks there but never a one had struck him to death
so his hair grew white and his arms thin there was peace in that country then and aegir sorrowed saying i am old battles are still must i die in bed like a woman shall i not see valhalla
which so many have believed to be fabulous and that to day exists no more it is a strange story and i trust that it may interest you to read it when i am dead and buried
perhaps you would like to know the details of our homeward journey but in truth i have neither the strength nor the patience to set them down it was a terrible journey
and once we both of us fell ill with fever from which i thought that we should not recover but recover we did by the help of some wandering indians who nursed us and at length
reached this place from which we had fled for our lives nearly two years before we found the hacienda deserted for it had the reputation of being haunted though some of the indian
dependents or rather slaves of that great villain don pedro moreno still worked patches of the land
remaining relic of the people of the heart and with the proceeds we bought at a cheap rate from the government of the day who had entered into possession of them this house and
the wide lands round it that i have cultivated ever since for my friend now my ambitions were finished i had played my last card and it had failed me and albeit
i abandoned my hopes for the regeneration of the indians which i had no longer the means or the health and vigour to attempt also
for five years the seor and i lived here together but i think that during all this time he was dying
never regained his health or spirits from that hour when maya passed upon the pyramid and though he seldom spoke of her i know that night and day she was always present in his thoughts
i begged him to go to mexico for change
in vain he would not do it indeed i do not think that he cared whether he lived or died so the end of it was that the calentura took him again
and die he did in my arms happily as a child that falls asleep now my days are accomplished also and having failed in all things and known
much sorrow and disappointment i go to join him my friend farewell perhaps you will think of me from time to time and though you are a heretic
to search for the secret city of the indians we found ourselves together with molas at vera cruz waiting for a ship to take us to frontera where we proposed to disembark this port we had chosen in preference to
although the latter was nearer to the ruins where we hoped to find the indian zibalbay because from it we could travel in canoes
and other rivers unobserved by any save the natives things are changed now in these parts but in those days the white men who lived thereabouts beyond the circle of the towns
were too often robbers as molas had found to his cost some few weeks before at vera cruz we purchased such articles as were necessary to our journey
not many for we could not be sure of finding means to carry them among them were hammocks three guns that would shoot either ball or shot with ammunition as many muzzle loading colt's revolvers
some medicines blankets boots and spare clothes also we took with us all the money that we possessed amounting to something over fifteen hundred dollars in gold which sum we divided between us
carrying it in belts about our middles at vera cruz where people are very curious about the business of others
englishmen who love to visit old ruins for which purpose he was travelling to yucatan that i ignatio was his guide and companion and that molas my foster brother was our servant
as it chanced the departure of this ship was delayed for a week so being pressed for time and fearing lest we should catch the yellow fever that was raging in the town unhappily for ourselves we took passage
in a mexican boat called the santa maria she was an old sailing vessel of not more than two hundred and fifty tons burden that had been converted by her owners into a paddle wheel steamer
with the result that except in favourable weather she could neither sail nor steam with any speed or safety her business was to trade with passengers and cargo between vera cruz and the ports of frontera and
where for
frontera he answered your boat stops there does she not
first and return to frontera a week later but of this more in its place that afternoon the santa maria with us on board of her was piloted out of the harbour of vera cruz
and we heard the pilot swearing because she would not answer properly to her helm standing by the engines we noticed also that
it was found necessary to keep a stream of water in constant play upon the bearings the seor asked the reason of this of the man who was mate and engineer of the boat and he answered with a shrug
the bearings should it please the saints would last this voyage unless they had the bad luck to run into a norther as you english call
crossed himself to avert the omen and vanished down the stoke hole now we began to feel sorry that we had not taken passage in the american ship since of late northers had been frequent
we amused ourselves by studying our fellow passengers of these there were several on board perhaps twenty in all mexican landowners and officials returning to their haciendas
and native towns after a visit to vera cruz or the capital some of them pleasant companions enough and others not so three or four of these gentlemen were accompanied by their wives but the ladies
had already retired to the bunks opening out of the cabin where although the sea was quite smooth they could be heard suffering the pains of sickness
who particularly attracted our attention because of the gorgeousness of his dress in appearance he was large handsome and coarse and he had indian blood in his veins
you see yonder man with the silver buttons on his coat he is
who waylaid and robbed me of the nuggets which the old indian gave me for the cost of my journey to find you i heard at the time that he was away from the hacienda in vera cruz or mexico
and now doubtless he returns thither beware of him lord and bid the englishman to do the same for like his father he is a bad man and he told me certain things connected with him and his family
but i waited till he had finished before going down at the door of the cabin i met the captain a stout man with a face
my dinner seor i answered
i am a spaniard myself and do not care
so if you insist upon coming in there will be trouble now i heard and
insult was deep it was one to which i was accustomed for in this land which belongs to them and where their fathers ruled to be an indian is to be an outcast therefore not wishing to make a stir i bowed and turned away
meanwhile it seems that the seor strickland missing me in the cabin asked the captain where i was saying that perhaps i did not know that the meal was ready if you refer
i met him at the door and sent him away surely the seor knows that we do not sit at table with these people
if my friend is an indian he is as good a gentleman as you or anybody else in this cabin moreover
and has a right to first class accommodation i insist upon a seat being provided for him at my side as you wish answered the captain smiling for he was a man of peace only if he comes there will be trouble
and he ordered the steward to fetch me now this steward was an indian who knew my rank therefore not wishing to offend me by repeating what had passed he said simply that the captain sent his compliments
and begged that i would come down to dinner the end of it was that i went though doubtfully and seeing me in the doorway the seor strickland called to me in a loud voice saying you are late for dinner friend but i have
sit down quickly or the food will be cold i bowed to the company and obeyed and then the trouble commenced for all present had heard this talk as i took my seat the mexicans began to murmur
and the passenger who was next to me insolently moved his plate and glass away
it is not usual that indian dogs should sit at the same table with gentlemen the captain shrugged his shoulders and answered mildly
seor on my left to me it does not matter i am only a poor sailor and accustomed to every sort of company
order your servant to leave the cabin
i will see you in hell before i do so caramba said the mexican laying a hand upon the knife in his belt you shall pay for that englishman
and drawing a large pistol from his pocket he laid it by his plate seors both he said in a soft voice and with a gentle smile i am loth to interfere in a quarrel of two esteemed passengers
but though i am only a poor sailor it is my duty to see that there is
i hasten to withdraw myself but before i go i wish to say something not by way of boasting but to justify my friend the english gentleman in his action on my behalf
however well born you may be my descent is nobler and more ancient than yours and therefore it should be no shame to you to sit at table with me least of all should
whose father is a murderer
and whose mother was a half bred mestiza slut dare to be insolent to me who as any indian on board this ship can tell you am a prince among my own people
his sallow complexion turned to a whitish green as he listened to my words and for a moment he sank back in his chair overcome with rage then he sprung up once more gripping at his knife
you dog he gasped let me but come at you and i'll cut your lying tongue out
fixing my eyes upon his face what i have said of your father is true more there is a man on board this ship whom not three months since he robbed with violence if the gentlemen your companions
would like to hear the story i can tell it to them for the rest i am well able to defend myself moreover this vessel is manned by indians who know me
the seor strickland i warn you that you will not reach your home alive gentlemen
and i bowed and left the cabin
knowing who i am and seeing how in common with my race i am
hounds as these can you wonder that i am not fond of mexicans
but all the same i advise you to be careful of this
he is not a man to kiss the stick that beats him and he will make an end of you and
if he can do not be afraid seor i answered laughing besides the steward and molas there are twenty indians on board
two of these men are associates of the heart
without finding them ready for him only we shall do well to sleep on deck and not below
on the forecastle of the santa maria with molas sleeping close behind us
to be awakened by the sudden stoppage of the vessel the day was on the point of dawn a beautiful and pearly light lay upon the quiet surface of the sea above us the stars still shone faintly in the heavens
we sat up wondering what had happened and saw the captain wrapped in a dirty blanket engaged in earnest conversation with the engineer who wore a still dirtier shirt and nothing else
hearing that something was wrong the seor james went to the captain and asked him why we had stopped because the engines won't go any more and there is no wind to sail with he answered politely
nothing nothing replied the captain glancing anxiously at a narrow black band of cloud that lay on the rim of the horizon beneath the fleecy masses in which the lights of dawn were burning
white man's way no no exclaimed the captain crossing himself at the name of that evil power el norte
he hurried away as though to avoid further conversation presently the engines began to work again though haltingly like a lame mule and as the morning drew on the day became clear
and the thin black cloud vanished from the horizon towards three o'clock in the afternoon molas pointing to a low coast line and a spot on the sea where the ocean swell showed tipped with white told us that yonder was the bar of the
and that behind it lay the village of frontera our destination
that i will get my things on deck and going to his cabin he brought up a sack containing some wraps and food why do you fetch your baggage asked the captain presently you may want it to night
i do not wish to land at frontera with nothing
by the blessing of the saints we shall reach to morrow evening
the agent gave them to me
all being well we shall call at frontera this day week and then you can go ashore without extra charge but before this my orders are to put into no port except
that is unless a norther forces me to do so may the norther sink you your ship your agents
answered the seor in so angry a voice that the mexican passengers who were listening began to laugh at the englishman's discomfiture though the more thoughtful of them crossed themselves to avert the evil omen
as i have said was not of the coolest raged and swore in no measured terms the captain shrugged his shoulders and apologised the passengers smiled and seeing that there was no help for the matter i looked on patiently after the manner of my race
what manner of men are these english
heaven why are they always in a hurry
any good mood to descend to the cabin and meet
we had seen nothing since the previous night as we were finishing our meal the light faded and the sky grew curiously dark while suddenly to the north there appeared a rim of cloud
similar to that which we had seen upon the horizon at dawn
from a smelting furnace at night the sky looks very strange ignatio said the seor to me and at that moment we heard molas and an indian sailor speaking together in brief words
pointing towards the red rim of light si el norte answered the sailor as he went towards the cabin presently the captain hurried up the companion ladder and studied the horizon
in another minute the mate joined him appearing from the engine hatch and the two of them began to converse or rather to dispute i was sitting near unobserved in the darkness and so far as i could gather
the mate was in favour of putting the ship about and running for frontera from which port we were now distant some forty miles on the other hand the captain said that if they did so and the norther came up
and if by ill luck it should come their best course was to stand for the open sea and ride it out the mate answered that this would be an excellent plan if the ship were staunch and the engines to be relied on
that they might as well try to sail a boat with a mast made of cigarettes as to attempt to lie head
and a strained paddle wheel after this the discussion grew fierce and as full of oaths as a shark's mouth with teeth but in the end the two sailors determined that their safest plan would be to hold
on their present course and if necessary round point
and take shelter behind carmen island or if they could in the mouth of the
then they parted the captain
and stiller and yet more still the seor strickland who had been walking up and down the deck smoking a cigar came and sat beside me on a coil of rope and asked me if i thought the norther was coming yes
it is coming i answered and i fear that it will sink us at least so say the indian sailors you take the idea of being drowned like a puppy in a sack very coolly ignatio how far are we from point
about twelve miles i believe and i take it coolly because there is no use in making an outcry god will protect us if he chooses and if he chooses he will drown us
it is childish to struggle against destiny a true indian creed ignatio he answered you people sit down and say
but one that i and the men of my nation do not believe in if they had done so instead of being the first country in the world to day england long ago would have ceased to exist
for many a time she has stood face to face with fate and beaten her for my part if i must die i prefer to die fighting tell me are any of these people to be relied on if it comes to a pinch
also they know the coast and if need be they will do anything that i tell them for the rest i cannot say but the captain seems to understand something of his business look and listen
pierced the heavens above us followed by a deafening peal of thunder in its fierce and sudden glare we could see the coast some three or four miles away and almost ahead of us
and a sail that had been hoisted flapped to and fro for lack of wind to draw it a mile or so to windward however was a different sight for there came the norther rushing upon us like a thing alive
in front of it a line of white billows torn from the quiet surface of the sea and behind it fretted by little lightnings
in the strange silence that followed
he shouted to the helmsman to bring the ship head on to the sea and to the sailors to batten down the after hatch the only one that remained open shutting the passengers except ourselves and molas into the cabin
his orders were obeyed well and quickly the santa maria came round and began to paddle towards the open water and the advancing line of foam it was terrible to see her so small a thing
cut our faces like the lash of a whip a few more seconds and something white and enormous could be seen
the sight of it caused the captain whose face looked pale as death in the gleam of the lightnings to shriek another order to his crew lie down and hold on tight to the rope
chapter twenty three our flight and how it ended how came this lady here maya and what does she seek the seor asked i do not know how she came gasped his wife
when looking into yonder mirror i saw her behind me having in her hand a naked knife and searching the room with her eyes presently they fell upon the cradle and lifting the knife she took a step towards it
then i turned and gripped her holding her as well as i was able but she was too strong for me
is this true said the seor to nahua it is true white man she answered
amongst many other things i have learned white man
whereat my husband is to be deposed and my child dishonoured that they may make room for you and for your child you the white wanderer and your son the heaven born the fore ordained
what have we to do with these things o woman with the heart of a puma he asked if tikal is to be driven from his place it is because of his crimes and if you and yours are to be set in it white man
without doubt it is because of your virtues and yet
i know how you forged the writing setting the false for the true within the holy symbol of the heart i know also that my father helped you to the deed for although he is dead he wrote down that tale before he died
and gave it to me together with the ancient prophecy that you dared to steal from the holy sanctuary yes i have the proofs and when needful i will show them i did not come here to do murder
at least not upon the infant but the sight of it sleeping in its cradle overcame me and of a sudden i determined to wreak my wrongs upon it and upon its mother
in this i have failed but when i denounce you to the council then i shall not fail then you will be known for what you are and die the death that you deserve
it comes into my mind husband said maya coldly that if we would save our own lives we must rob this woman of hers such a doom she has richly earned
nor will any blame us when they learn what was her errand here now when she heard these words nahua struggled in the seor's grasp
if you wish to keep your soul in you ignatio close those doors and give me yonder shawl i did so and with the shawl we bound nahua's arms behind her fastening it over her mouth so that she could make no sound
then we took a leather girdle and strapped it about her knees
now let us take counsel i said
one of two things we must do kill that woman or fly the city for if she leaves this place alive we are certainly doomed to death before the altar ay and the child also fly said maya
how can we fly when i am still weak and the babe is so young and tender should we succeed in escaping from the city and across the lake certainly we must perish among the snows of the mountains
or in the deserts beyond also we should be missed and overtaken
as easily might you swear a snake not to use its fangs if one should chance to tread on it
that she would gladly die herself if thereby she could bring about my death and that of those who are dear to me so soon as she could leave her bed of sickness she came here to taunt me
with the doom she had prepared knowing that i was alone then she saw the child and so great was her desire for revenge that she could not even wait till the law should wreak it for her no the issue is plain
if we cannot fly either she must die or we must is it not so ignatio it seems that it is so i answered sadly and yet the thing is awful
and it falls on me to do it for the sake of my wife and child alas that i was ever born that i should live to stand face to face with such necessity could not another hand be found no
i seized her and killed her suddenly by my strength alone not meaning it in my wrath now he stepped to where nahua lay and knelt beside her and we two drew away sick at heart and hid our faces in our hands
presently he was with us again is it done asked maya hoarsely no
what then is to be done with this woman i asked we cannot take her with us no but we can leave her
hearken nahua we spare you and to do it go forth to our own deaths may your fierce heart learn a lesson of mercy from the deed farewell
which was used as a mooring place for boats during the months of inundation as was common at this season of the year the lake was already rising and floating in the shallow water at the end of the jetty lay a pleasure skiff
for a few hours from our wearisome life in the city into this skiff we entered and having hoisted the sail set our course by the stars
for the city of the heart the wind being favourable to us our progress was rapid and by the first grey light of dawn we caught sight of the village not a mile away here however we did not dare to land
for we should be seen and recognised therefore we beached our boat behind the shelter of some dwarf water palms three furlongs or more below the village and having hidden it as well as we were able
set out at once towards the mountains passing round the back of the village without being seen for as yet folk were scarcely astir we began our dreadful journey for a while maya bore up well
but as the heat of the day increased she showed signs of tiring which was little to be wondered at seeing that she carried in her arms a child not three weeks old at mid day we halted that she might rest
in the early afternoon we started on again and for the rest of
at length the evening fell and we camped for the night if camping it can be called to sleep beneath the shadow of a cedar tree without fire and with little food
towards morning the air grew cold for already we were at some height above the lake and the tender infant began to wail piteously a wail that wrung our hearts
still we rose with the sun and went on our way for it seemed that there was nothing else to do throughout that day with ever wearying footsteps we journeyed till at sunset we reached the snow line and saw before us
the hunter's rest house where we had slept when first we entered the country of the heart let us go in said maya and find food and shelter for the night
now our plan had been to avoid this house and gain the pass where we proposed to stay till daybreak and then to travel down the mountain slopes into the wilderness
our only safety lies in travelling through the pass before we are overtaken for it is against the law that any of your people should follow us into the wilderness if we do not enter my child will die in the cold she answered
was at the innocent age of eight when finding a small piece of somebody else's tobacco lying unclaimed on the ground
i decided to experiment with it numerous desert island stories had told me that the pangs of hunger could be allayed by chewing tobacco it was thus that the hero staved off death
before discovering the bread fruit tree every right minded boy of eight hopes to be shipwrecked one day and it was proper that i should find out for myself whether my authorities could be trusted in this matter
so i chewed tobacco in the sense that i certainly did not desire food for some time afterwards my experience justified the authorities but i felt at the time that it was not so much for staving off death
as for reconciling oneself to it that tobacco chewing
was to be recommended i have never practised it since at eighteen i went to cambridge and bought two pipes in a case in those days greek was compulsory but not more so
than two pipes in a case one of the pipes had an amber stem and the other a vulcanite stem and both of them had silver belts that also was compulsory
having bought them one was free to smoke cigarettes however at the end of my first year i got to work seriously on a shilling briar and i have smoked that or something like it ever since
in the last four years there has grown up a new school of pipe smokers by which i suspect i am hardly regarded as a pipe smoker at all
this school buys its pipes always at one particular shop its pupils would as soon think of smoking a pipe without the white spot as of smoking brown paper so far are they from smoking brown paper
that each one of them has his tobacco specially blended according to the colour of his hair his taste in revues and the locality in which he lives the first blend is naturally
not the ideal one it is only when he has been a confirmed smoker for at least three months and knows the best and worst of all tobaccos that his exact requirements can be satisfied however
it is the pipe rather than the tobacco which marks him as belonging to this particular school he pins his faith not so much to its labour saving devices
as to the white spot outside the white spot of an otherwise aimless life this tells the world that it is one of the pipes never was an announcement more superfluous
from the moment shortly after breakfast when he strikes his first match to the moment just before bed time when he strikes his hundredth it is obviously the pipe which he is smoking
for whereas men of an older school like myself smoke for the pleasure of smoking men of this school smoke for the pleasure of pipe owning of selecting which of their many white spotted pipes they will fill
with their specially blended tobacco of filling the one so chosen of lighting it of taking it from the mouth to gaze lovingly at the white spot and thus letting it go out of lighting it again
and putting it to bed and then the pleasure of beginning all over again with another white spotted one they are not so much pipe smokers as pipe keepers and to have spoken as i did just now
of their owning pipes was wrong for it is they who are in bondage to the white spot this school is founded firmly on four years of war when at the age of eighteen you are suddenly given a cheque book and called sir
you must do something by way of acknowledgment a pipe in the mouth makes it clear that there has been no mistake you are undoubtedly a man but you may be excused for feeling after the first pipe
that the joys of smoking have been rated too high and for trying to extract your pleasure from the polish on the pipe's surface the pride of possessing a special mixture of your own and such like matters
rather than from the actual inspiration and expiration of smoke in the same way a man not fond of reading
may find delight in a library of well bound books they are pleasant to handle pleasant to talk about
but it is the man without the library of well bound books who generally does most of the reading so i feel that it is we of the older school who do most of the smoking we smoke unconsciously
while we are doing other things they try but not very successfully to do other things while they are consciously smoking no doubt they despise us and tell themselves that we are
not real smokers but i fancy that they feel a little uneasy sometimes for my young friends are always trying to persuade me to join their school to become one of the white spotted ones
i have no desire to be of their company but i am prepared to make a suggestion to the founder of the school it is that he should invent a pipe white spot and all which smokes itself
it may rain in acacia road but never when i am there the sun shines on laburnum lodge with its pink may tree on the cedars with its two clean limes
is the true home after all when i pass laburnum lodge i think of him saying good bye to her at the gate as he takes the air each morning on his way to the station what if the train is crowded
and then how interesting will be everything which happens to him there since he has her to tell it to when he comes home the most ordinary street accident becomes exciting if a story has to be made of it
happy the man who can say of each little incident i must remember to tell her when i get home and it is only in the suburbs that one gets home one does not
get home to grosvenor square one is simply in or out but the master of laburnum lodge may have something better to tell his wife than the incident of the runaway horse
he may have heard a new funny story at lunch the joke may have been all over the city but it is unlikely that his wife in the suburbs will have heard it put it on the credit side of marriage that you can treasure up your jokes for some one else
so it will be a happy meeting under the pink may tree of laburnum lodge when these two are restored safely to each other after the excitements of the day possibly
they will even do a little gardening together in the still glowing evening if life has anything more to offer than this it will be found at holly house where there are babies
babies give an added excitement to the master's homecoming for almost anything may have happened to them while he has been away
in the morning too anne will walk with him to the end of the road
saying good bye to anne at the end of the road and knowing that she will be alive when he comes back in the evening that ought to make the day's work go quickly but it is the cedars which gives us the secret of the happiness of the suburbs
the delightful business of love making is in full swing marriages are not arranged in the suburbs they grow naturally out of the pleasant intercourse between the cedars
the elms and rose bank i see tom walking over to the elms racket in hand to play tennis with miss muriel he is hoping for an invitation to remain to supper
anyhow he is going to ask miss muriel to come across to lunch to morrow
but it will be tom who will do most of the talking i am sure that the marriages made in acacia road are happy that is why i have no fears for holly house and laburnum lodge of course they didn't make love in this acacia road
they are come from the acacia road of some other suburb wisely deciding that they will be better away from their people but they met each other in the same way as tom and muriel are meeting
at the tennis club surrounded by the young bounders confound them of turret court and the wilderness she has heard of him falling off his bicycle or quarrelling with his father bless you they know all about each other
as everybody knows or will know when they have read this article the four stages along the road to literary fame are marked by the four different manners
in which the traveller's presence at a public function is recorded in the press at the first stage the reporter glances at the list of guests and says to himself mister george meredith
never heard of him and for all the world knows next morning
the reporter murmurs to his neighbour in a puzzled sort of way george meredith
now where have i come across that name lately wasn't he the man who pushed a wheelbarrow across america
he says the guests included mister george meredith and many others
having seen an advertisement of one of his books and being pretty sure that the public has read none of them he refers to him as mister george meredith the well known novelist
the fourth and final stage beyond the reach of all but the favoured few
to his public unticketed and says again among those present was mister george meredith the third stage is easy to reach indeed too easy the well known actresses
are not ellen terry
and marie tempest but miss birdie
who has discovered a new way of darkening the hair and miss girlie de tracy who has been arrested for shop lifting in the same way the more the press insists that a writer is
better far to remain at the second stage and to flatter oneself that one has really arrived at the fourth but my friend sidney mandragon is indeed at the final stage now
it was not exactly milton and not exactly carlyle
i felt that i could not take the risk of refusing it myself this is a good man i would say before beginning his article this man obviously has style and i shouldn't be surprised
well take mister hugh walpole if he will allow me it is safe to say that when mister walpole's first book came out the average reader felt vaguely that she had heard of him before
she hadn't actually read his famous letters but she had often wanted to
or was that his uncle anyway she had often heard people talking about him what a very talented family it was in the same way sidney mandragon has had
another hall mark by which we can tell whether a man has arrived or not is provided by the interview if say a lepidopterist is just beginning his career
nobody bothers about his opinions on anything if he is moderately well known in his profession the papers will seek his help whenever his own particular subject comes up
in the day's news there is a suggestion perhaps in parliament that butterflies should be muzzled and our representative
what the world is eager for now is to be told his views on sunday games the decadence of the theatre or bands in the parks
the modern advertising provides a new scale of values no doubt mister pelman offers his celebrated hundred guineas fee equally to all his victims but we may be pretty sure
that in his business like brain he has each one of them nicely labelled a gallant soldier being good for so much new business a titled man of letters
he takes his place with brittlebones in the gallery of freaks the subject for essay has frequently been given if a million pounds were left to you
how could you do most good with it some say they would endow hospitals some
there may even be some who would go as far as to build half a dreadnought but there would be a more decisive way of doing good than any of these you might
refuse the million pounds that would be a shock to the systems of the comfortable a blow struck at the great money god which would make it totter a thrust in defence of pride
that would be a moral tonic more needed than all the draughts of your newly endowed hospitals will it ever be administered well perhaps when the d w t club has grown a little stronger
have you heard of the d w t the declined with thanks club there are no club rooms and not many members but the balance sheet for the last twelve months is wonderful showing that more than
is one hundred guineas and the annual subscription fifty guineas that is to say you must have refused a hundred guineas before you can be elected and you are expected to refuse
another fifty guineas a year while you retain membership it is possible also to compound with a life refusal but the sum is not fixed
and remains at the discretion of the committee baines is a life member he saved an old lady from being run over by a motor bus some years ago and when she died she left him a legacy
baines wrote to the executors and pointed out that he did not go about dragging persons from beneath motor buses as a profession that if she had offered him
he would have refused it not being in the habit of accepting money from strangers still less from women and that he did not see that the fact of the money being offered two years later in a will
made the slightest difference
and had a wife and four children but he will not admit that he did anything at all out of the common the case of sedley comes up for consideration at the next committee meeting sedley's rich uncle
a cantankerous old man insulted him grossly
and the old man left vowing to revenge himself by disinheriting his nephew and bequeathing his money to a cats home he died on his way to his solicitors and sedley
was told of his good fortune in good legal english he replied what on earth do you take me for i wouldn't touch a penny give it to the cats home or any blessed thing you like
sedley of course will be elected as an ordinary member but as there is a strong feeling on the committee that no decent man could have done anything else
his election as a life member is improbable though there are one or two other members like baines and sedley most of them are men who have refused professional openings rather than actual money
there are for instance half a dozen journalists and authors now a journalist before he can be elected must have a black list of papers for which he will refuse to write
a concocted wireless message in the daily blank which subsequent events proved to have been invented deliberately
so infuriated henderson to take a case that he has pledged himself never to write a line for any paper owned by the same proprietors curiously enough
he was asked a day or two later to contribute a series to a most respectable magazine published by this firm he refused in a letter which breathed hatred
and utter contempt in every word it was henderson too who resigned his position as dramatic critic because the proprietor of his paper did rather a shady thing in private life
i know the paper isn't mixed up in it at all he said but he's my employer and he pays me well i like to be loyal to my employers and if i'm loyal to this man
i can't go about telling everybody that he's a dirty cad as i particularly want to then there is the case of bolus the author he is only an honorary member for he has not
as yet had the opportunity of refusing money or work but he has refused to be photographed and interviewed and he has refused to contribute to symposia in the monthly magazines
he has declined with thanks moreover invitations to half a dozen houses sent to him by hostesses who only knew him by reputation myself
i think it is time that he was elected a full member indirectly he must have been a financial loser by his action and even if he is not actually assisting to topple over the money god
he is at least striking a blow for the cause of independence however there he is and with him goes a certain m p who contributed
and refused scornfully the peerage which was offered to him the bar is represented by p j brewster who was elected for refusing to defend a suspected murderer
but merely put the case for one side in a perfectly detached way according to the best traditions of the bar brewster replied that he was also quite capable of putting the case for tariff reform
in a perfectly detached way according to the best traditions of the morning post but as he was a free trader he thought he would refuse any such offer if it were made to him he added however
that he was not in the present case worrying about moral points of view he was simply expressing his opinion that the luxury of not having little notes passed to him in court
by a probable murderer of not sharing a page in an illustrated paper with him and of not having to shake hands with him if he were acquitted was worth paying for later on
raffles holmes was unusually thoughtful the other night when he entered my apartment and for a long time i could get nothing out of him save an occasional grunt of assent or dissent from propositions advanced by myself
it was quite evident that he was cogitating deeply over some problem that was more than ordinarily vexatious so i finally gave up all efforts at conversation pushed the cigars closer to him
and returned to my own work it was a full hour before he volunteered an observation of any kind and then he plunged rapidly into a very remarkable tale
i had a singular adventure to day jenkins he said do you happen to have in your set of my father's adventures a portrait of sherlock holmes yes i have i replied
and you've got the photograph before you i am so like him then he queried most of the time old man i am glad to say said i there are days when you are the living image of your grandfather raffles
but that is only when you are planning some scheme of villany i can almost invariably detect the trend of your thoughts by a glance at your face you are holmes himself in your honest moments raffles at others
i had evidence of it this afternoon on broadway said he it was bitterly cold up around fortieth street snowing like the
devil and such winds as you'd expect to find nowhere this side of greenland's icy mountains i came out of a broadway chop house and started north
when i was stopped by an ill clad down trodden specimen of humanity who begged me for the love of heaven to give him a drink the poor chap's condition was such that it would have been manslaughter to refuse him
and a moment later i had him before the skidmore bar gurgling down a tumblerful of raw brandy as though it were water he wiped his mouth on his sleeve
sherlock holmes he cried am i said i calmly my curiosity much excited him or his twin said he
i am not sherlock holmes however but his son will you let me take you by the hand governor he whispered hoarsely not for the kindness you've shown me here but for the service your old man did me
i am nervy jim the snatcher service said i with a laugh you consider it a service
the keepers was good to me i was well fed kept workin hard at an honest job pickin oakum
and i never went to bed by night or got up o mornin's worried over the question o how i was goin to get the swag to pay my rent compared to this' with a wave of his hand at the raging of the elements along broadway
sleepin in doorways chilled to the bone half starved with not a friendly eye in sight and nothin to do all day long and all night long but move on when the bobbies tell me to
and think about the happiness i'd left behind me when i left reading was you ever homesick governor
then you know says he how i feels now in a strange land dreamin of my comfortable little cell at reading the good meals the pleasant keepers and a steady job with nothin to worry about for ten short years
i want to go back governor i want to go back well said holmes lighting a cigar i was pretty nearly floored
but when the door of the saloon blew open and a blast of sharp air and a furry of snow came in i couldn't blame the poor beggar certainly any place in the world even a jail was more comfortable than broadway at that moment
i explained to him however that as far as reading gaol was concerned i was powerless to help him but there's just as good prisons here ain't there governor he pleaded oh yes said i laughing at the absurdity of the situation
sing sing is a first class up to date penitentiary with all modern improvements and a pretty select clientele couldn't you put me in there governor he asked wistfully i'll do anything you ask short o murder
governor if you only will why don't you get yourself arrested as a vagrant i asked that'll give you three months on blackwell's island and will tide you over the winter tain't permanent governor he objected
and for nervy jim to do three months time lor sir i couldn't bring myself to nothin so small there was no resisting the poor cuss jenkins and i promised to do what i could for him that's a nice job said i
what can you do that's what stumps me said raffles holmes scratching his head in perplexity i've set him up in a small tenement down on east houston street temporarily and meanwhile
it's up to me to land him in sing sing where he can live comfortably for a decade or so and i'm hanged if i know how to do it he used to be a first class second story man
as his name signifies and my father's diaries attest but i'm afraid his hand is out for a nice job such as i would care to have anything to do with myself better let him slide raffles said i
he introduces the third party element into our arrangement and that's mighty dangerous true but consider the literary value of a chap that's homesick for jail he answered persuasively
i don't know but i think he's new ah the insidious appeal of that man he knew the crack in my armor and with neatness and despatch he pierced it and i fell well i demurred good said he
we'll consider it arranged i'll fix him out in a week holmes left me at this point and for two days i heard nothing from him on the morning of the third day he telephoned me
to meet him at the stage door of the metropolitan opera house at four o'clock bring your voice with you said he enigmatically we may need it an immediate explanation of his meaning was impossible
when i asked his meaning later you and i are going to join mister conried's selected chorus of educated persons who want to earn their grand opera instead of paying five dollars a performance for it
and so we did although i objected a little at first i can't sing said i of course you can't said he if you could you wouldn't go into the chorus but don't bother about that
i have a slight pull here and we can get in all right as long as we are moderately intelligent and able bodied enough to carry a spear by the way
in musical circles my name is dickson don't forget that that holmes had a pull was shortly proven for although neither of us was more than ordinarily gifted vocally we proved acceptable
of what i presumed to be a mere frolic with enthusiasm merely for the experience of it to say nothing of the delight i took in the superb music which i have always loved and then the eventful night came it was monday
in wealth beauty and social prestige and in the matter of jewels of lavish display conspicuous in respect to the last was the ever popular though somewhat eccentric
were chiefly confined to observations on its social aspects put it the appearance of being lit up by electricity even from where i stood
made of mud from the bed of a river or tank another method is to pour a thousand pots of water over the lingam in the siva temple malas
tie a live frog to a mortar and put on the top thereof a mud figure representing the deity
mother frog playing in water pour rain by potsfull the villagers of other castes then come and pour water over the malas
s nicholson informs me that to produce rain in the telugu country two boys capture a frog and put it into a basket with some nim margosa melia azadirachta leaves
they tie the basket to the middle of a stick which they support on their shoulders in this manner they make a circuit of the village visiting every house singing the praises of the god of rain the greater the noise the captive animal makes
the better the omen and the more gain for the boys for at every house they receive something in recognition of their endeavours to bring rain upon the village fields in the bellary district when the rain fails the kapu
telugu cultivator females catch a frog and tie it alive to a new winnowing fan made of bamboo on this fan leaving the frog visible they spread a few margosa leaves and go singing from door to door
lady frog must have her bath oh rain god give at least a little water for her this means that the drought has reached such a stage that there is not even a drop of water for the frogs
when the kapu female sings this song the woman of the house brings a little water in a vessel pours it over the frog which is left on the fan outside the door sill and gives some alms
on the first full moon day in the month of bhadrapada september the agricultural population in the bellary district celebrate a festival called jokumara to appease the rain god
go round the village in which they live with a basket on their heads containing margosa leaves flowers of various kinds and sacred ashes they beg for alms especially from the cultivating classes and in return for the alms bestowed
usually grain or food they give some of the leaves flowers and ashes the cultivators take these to their fields prepare cholam sorghum kanji or gruel mix them with it and sprinkle the kanji over their fields
after this the cultivator proceeds to the potter's kiln in the village and fetches ashes from it with which he makes the figure of a human being this figure is placed in a field and called jokumara or rain god
and is supposed to have the power of bringing down the rain in due season a second kind of jokumara worship is called muddam or the outlining of rude representations of human figures with powdered charcoal these are made in the early morning
before the bustle of the day commences on the ground at cross roads and along thoroughfares
who draw these figures are paid a small remuneration in money or kind the figures represent jokumara who will bring down rain when insulted by people treading on him yet another kind of jokumara worship prevails in the bellary district
when rain fails the kapu females model a small figure of a naked human being which they place in a miniature palanquin and go from door to door singing indecent songs and collecting alms they continue this procession for three or four days
and then abandon the figure in a field adjacent to the village the malas take possession of the abandoned jokumara and in their turn go about singing indecent songs and collecting alms for three or four days and then throw the figure away in some jungle
this form of jokumara worship is also believed to bring down plenty of rain in the bellary district the agriculturists have a curious superstition about prophesying the state of the coming season the village of mailar contains a siva temple
which is famous throughout the district for an annual festival held there in the month of february this festival has now dwindled into more or less a cattle fair but the fame of the temple continues as regards the karanika which is a cryptic sentence uttered by the priest
containing a prophecy of the prospects of the agricultural season the pujari priest of the temple is a kuruba cultivating caste the feast at the temple lasts for ten days on the last day the god siva
is represented as returning victorious from the battlefield after having slain the demon malla mallasura with a huge bow he is met half way from the field of battle by the goddess the wooden bow is placed on end before the god
the kuruba priest climbs up it as it is held by two assistants and then gets on their shoulders in this posture he stands rapt in silence for a few minutes looking in several directions he then begins to quake and quiver from head to foot
this is the sign of the spirit of the god siva possessing him a solemn silence holds the assembly for the time of the karanika has arrived
to the removal of certain figures of the sacred bull nandi and lingams which were scattered about the fields on the ground that the rainfall would cease if these sacred objects were taken away to bring down rain
have their varuna japam or prayers to varuna the rain god some of the lower classes instead of addressing their prayers to varuna try to induce a spirit or devata named kodumpavi wicked one to send her paramour sukra
to the affected area the belief seems to be that sukra goes away to his concubinage for about six months
the ceremony consists in making a huge figure of kodumpavi in clay which is placed on a cart and dragged through the streets for seven to ten days on the last day the final death ceremonies of the figure are celebrated it is disfigured
especially in those parts which are usually concealed vettiyans paraiyan grave diggers who have been shaved accompany the figure and perform the funeral ceremonies this procedure is believed to put kodumpavi to shame
and to get her to induce sukra to return and stay the drought
which is made of clay or straw is dragged feet first through the village by the paraiyans who accompany it wailing as though they were at a funeral and beating drums in funeral time i am informed by mister f r hemingway that when rain is wanted in
the trichinopoly district an effigy called koman the king is dragged round the streets and its funeral performed with great attention to details or an effigy of kodumpavi is treated with contumely
in some places the women collect kanji rice gruel from door to door and drink it or throw it away on a tank bund embankment wailing the while as they do at funerals people of the higher castes repeat prayers to varuna
and read portions of the virata parvam in the mahabharata in the hope that the land will be as fertile as the country of the virats where the pandavas lived when the tanks and rivers threaten to breach their banks men stand naked on the bund and beat drums
and if too much rain falls naked men point firebrands at the sky their nudity is supposed to shock the powers that bring the rain
for a few days there were cold winds and some lightning but alas the japam was over and with that disappeared all signs of getting any showers in the near future it is noted by haddon
the impossible is never attempted and a rain charm would not be made when there was no expectation of rain coming or during the wrong season there is in some parts of the country a belief that if lepers are buried when they die
rain will not visit the locality where their corpses have been deposited so they disinter the bodies and throw the remains thereof into the river or burn them
his skeleton was disinterred put into a basket and hung to a tree with a garland of flowers round its neck
which they spit out to produce rain in the rainy season
these songs sold on every corner applauded in every tavern and repeated by the wives and children of the people propagated revolutionary fury there was a constant succession of gatherings brawls and riots the assembly had declared the country in danger
rumors of every sort excited popular imagination
the duke of brunswick's manifesto exasperated national sentiment
on july thirtieth the national guard was reconstructed by taking in all the vagabonds and bandits that the clubs could muster the famous federates of marseilles who were to take such an active part in the coming insurrection arrived in paris the same day
the girondins having failed to obtain their camp of twenty thousand men before paris had devised instead of it a reunion of federate volunteers summoned from every part of france
and chanted in a sort of frenzy
received from his old mother a royalist and catholic at heart a letter in which she said what is this revolutionary hymn which a horde of brigands are singing as they pass through france and in which your name is mixed up
at paris the accents of that terrible melody sounded like strokes of the tocsin the men who sang it filled the conservatives with terror they wore woollen cockades and insulted as aristocrats those who wore silk ones
there was no longer any dike to the torrent august first
joly was minister of justice champion de villeneuve of the interior
of foreign affairs du bouchage of the marine leroux de la ville of public taxes and d'abancourt of war but this ministry was to last only ten days
violent language this measure says barbaroux in his memoirs
and therefore his party violently clamored for it his creditors his hirelings and boon companions
all manner of swindlers and insolvent debtors thronged public places and incited to this deposition because they were hungry for money and positions under a regent who was their tool and their accomplice
august third he sent a message to the assembly in which he said
personal dangers are nothing compared to public ones oh what are personal dangers to a king whom men are seeking to deprive of his people's love this is the real plague spot in my heart perhaps the people will some day know how dear their welfare is to me
how many of my sorrows could be obliterated by the least evidence of a return to right feeling how did they respond to this conciliatory language after it had been read petion the mayor of paris presented himself at the bar
attached to the interests of the nation they would never separate them from those of the king except in so far as he separated them himself as to barbaroux like a true visionary he dreamed of i know not what rose water insurrection
they should not have entered the apartments of the palace he has said but merely blockaded them had this plan been followed the blood of frenchmen and swiss ignorant victims of court perfidy would not have been shed on the tenth of august the republic would have been founded
without convulsions or massacres and we corroded by popular gangrene should not have become the horror of all nations
the proof is that on august eighth in spite of the violent menaces of the galleries
this vote excited the wrath of the revolutionists to fury the conservative deputies were insulted pursued and struck several of them barely escaped assassination the sessions became stormier from day to day
not only were the large galleries of the assembly overthronged by violent crowds but the courtyards the approaches and the corridors were obstructed many sat or stood on the exterior entablatures of the high windows the upper part of the hall where the jacobins sat received many strangers
below this mountain sat the members of the centre the ventrus there were not seats enough for them
the discussions were like formidable tempests the effect produced by such a spectacle says count de vaublanc in his memoirs was still greater on those who entered the hall during one of those terrible moments i received this impression several times myself
and it will never be effaced from my mind
you made the profoundest impression on me which i ever received in my life i was young at the time i entered the galleries just as you were standing out against the furious shouts of a part of the deputies and the people in the galleries meanwhile the end was approaching
who is so ill disposed toward madame de stael says concerning this there was nobody even to madame de stael who either in the hope of being pardoned the injury her intrigues had done the king or else through her continual need of intrigue
had not invented some plan of escape for his majesty
but all of them had said we will let ourselves be killed to the last man rather than fail in honor or betray the sanctity of our oaths in company with a handful of noblemen these were to be the last defenders of the throne the fatal hour was approaching
a cadence of restraint in her behaviour producing poetry of life she has been an inspiration to man guiding most often unconsciously his restless energy into an immense variety of creations in literature art music and religion
this is why in india woman has been described as the symbol of shakti the creative power
psychologically she is identical with him if the human world in its mentality becomes exclusively male then before long it will be reduced to utter inanity for life finds its truth and beauty
not in any exaggeration of sameness but in harmony if woman's nature were identical with man's
it would only give rise to a monotonous superfluity but that she was not so was proved by the banishment she secured from a ready made paradise
she had the instinctive wisdom to realise that it was her mission to help her mate in creating a paradise of their own on earth whose ideal she was to supply with her life whose materials were to be produced and gathered by her comrade
are ready to assert that their difference from men is unimportant the reason for the vehement utterance of such a paradox cannot be ignored it is a rebellion against a necessity which is not equal for both the partners love in all forms has its obligations
but necessity is a tyrant making us submit to injury and indignity allowing advantage over us to those who are wholly or comparatively free from its burden such has been the case in the social relationship between man and woman
along with the difference inherent in their respective natures there have grown up between them inequalities fostered by circumstances man is not handicapped by the same biological and psychological responsibilities as woman
and therefore he has the liberty to give her the security of home this liberty exacts payment when it offers its boon because to give or to withhold the gift is within its power
it is the unequal freedom in their mutual relationships which has made the weight of life's tragedies so painfully heavy for woman to bear some mitigation of her disadvantage has been effected by her rendering herself and her home a luxury to man
she has accentuated those qualities in herself which insidiously impose their bondage over her mate some by pandering to his weakness and some by satisfying his higher nature till the sex consciousness in our society has grown abnormal and overpowering
there is no actual objection to this in itself for it offers a stimulus acting in the depth of life which leads to creative exuberance but a great deal of it is a forced growth of compulsion bearing seeds of degradation
in those ages when men acknowledged spiritual perfection to be their object women were denounced as the chief obstacle in their way the constant and conscious exercise of allurements which gave women their power attacked the weak spots in man's nature
and by doing so added to its weakness for all relationships tainted with repression of freedom must become sources of degeneracy to the strong who impose such repression balance of power however
between man and woman was in a measure established when home wielded a strong enough attraction to make men accept its obligations but at last the time has come when the material ambition of man has assumed such colossal proportions
that home is in danger of losing its centre of gravity for him and he is receding farther and farther from its orbit the arid zone in the social life is spreading fast the simple comforts of home made precious by the touch of love
are giving way to luxuries that can only have their full extension in the isolation of self centred life hotels are being erected on the ruins of homes productions are growing more stupendous than creations
and most men have for the materials of their happiness and recreation their dogs and horses their pipes guns and gambling clubs reactions and rebellions not being normal in their character go on hurting truth until peace is restored
therefore when woman refuses to acknowledge the distinction between her life and that of man she does not convince us of its truth but only proves to us that she is suffering all great sufferings indicate some wrong somewhere
which compels her to turn her disabilities into attractions and to use untruths as her allies in the battle of life while she is suffering from the precariousness of her position
from the beginning of our society women have naturally accepted the training which imparts to their life and to their home a spirit of harmony
that these through beauty might be raised from the domain of slavery to the realm of grace
they are artists and not artisans but all expressions of beauty lose their truth when compelled to accept the patronage of the gross and the indifferent therefore when necessity drives women to fashion their lives to the taste of the insensitive or the sensual
then the whole thing becomes a tragedy of desecration society is full of such tragedies many of the laws and social regulations guiding the relationships of man and woman are relics of a barbaric age
when the brutal pride of an exclusive possession had its dominance in human relations such as those of parents and children husbands and wives masters and servants teachers and disciples the vulgarity of it still persists in the social bond between the sexes
because of the economic helplessness of woman nothing makes us so stupidly mean as the sense of superiority which the power of the purse confers upon us the powers of muscle and of money have opportunities of immediate satisfaction
but the power of the ideal must have infinite patience the man who sells his goods or fulfils his contract is cheated if he fails to realise payment but he who gives form to some ideal may never get his due and be fully paid
what i have felt in the women of india is the consciousness of this ideal their simple faith in the sanctity of devotion lighted by love which is held to be divine true womanliness is regarded in our country as the saintliness of love
it is not merely praised there but literally worshipped and she who is gifted with it is called devi as one revealing in herself woman the divine
our mind is familiar with the idea of god in an eternal feminine aspect thus the eastern woman who is deeply aware in her heart of the sacredness of her mission is a constant education to man
it has to be admitted that there are chances of such an influence failing to penetrate the callousness of the coarse minded but that is the destiny of all manifestations whose value is not in success or reward in honour woman has to be ready to suffer
she cannot allow her emotions to be dulled or polluted for these are to create her life's atmosphere apart from which her world would be dark and dead this leaves her heart without any protection of insensibility at the mercy of the hurts and insults of life
women of india like women everywhere have their share of suffering but it radiates through the ideal and becomes like sunlight a creative force in their world our women know by heart the legends of the great women of the epic age savitri
who by the power of love conquered death and sita who had no other reward for her life of sacrifice but the sacred majesty of sorrow they know that it is their duty to make this life an image of the life eternal
it is a religious responsibility for them to live the life which is their own for their activity is not for money making or organising power or intellectually probing the mystery of existence but for establishing and maintaining human relationships
requiring the highest moral qualities it is the consciousness of the spiritual character of their life's work which lifts them above the utilitarian standard of the immediate and the passing surrounds them with the dignity of the eternal
and transmutes their suffering and sorrow into a crown of light i must guard myself from the risk of a possible misunderstanding the permanent significance of home is not in the narrowness of its enclosure but in an eternal moral idea
it represents the truth of human relationship it reveals loyalty and love for the personality of man let us take a wider view in a perspective truer than can be found in its present conventional associations
with the discovery and development of agriculture there came a period of settled life in our history the nomad ever moved on with his tents and cattle he explored space and exploited its contents the cultivator of land explored time in its immensity
for he had leisure comparatively secured from the uncertainty of his outer resources he had the opportunity to deal with his moral resources in the realm of human truth this is why agricultural civilisation like that of india and china
of the adjustment of mutual obligations it is deep rooted in the inner life of man its basis is co operation and not competition in other words its principle is the principle of home to which all its outer adventures are subordinated
in the meanwhile the nomadic life with its predatory instinct of exploitation has developed into a great civilisation it is immensely proud and strong killing leisure and pursuing opportunities it minimises the claims of personal relationship
and is jealously careful of its unhampered freedom for acquiring wealth and asserting its will upon others its burden is the burden of things which grows heavier and more complex every day disregarding the human and the spiritual its powerful pressure from all sides
narrows the limits of home the personal region of the human world thus in this region of life women are every day hustled out of their shelter for want of accommodation but such a state of things can never have the effect of changing woman into man
on the contrary it will lead her to find her place in the unlimited range of society and the guardian spirit of the personal in human nature will extend the ministry of woman over all developments of life habituated to deal with the world as a machine
man is multiplying his materials banishing away his happiness and sacrificing love to comfort which is an illusion at last the present age has sent its cry to woman asking her to come out from her segregation
in order to restore the spiritual supremacy of all that is human in the world of humanity
that womanliness is not chiefly decorative
the calmness of nature contrasted with the revolutionary passions that had been unchained on account of the heat
and from a distance the palace could be seen illuminated as if for a fete it had just struck midnight the revolution was executing the programme of the cordeliers section the tocsin was sounding all over the city everybody named the church whose bell he thought he recognized
the drums mingled with the tocsin the revolutionists beat the general alarm and the royalists the call to arms no one was asleep at the tuileries
there was no further question of etiquette the night reception in the royal bedchamber was omitted for the first time certain old servitors faithful guardians of tradition in vain recalled
and shutting himself up with this venerable priest
the carnelian pin which fastened her fichu these words surrounding the stalk of a lily were engraved on it forget offences pardon injuries i fear much said the virtuous princess
i consented to do so on the fourteenth of july said he because on that day i was merely going to a ceremony where an assassin's dagger might be apprehended but on a day when my party may be forced to fight with the revolutionists
i should think it cowardly to preserve my life by such means marie antoinette was grave and tranquil in her heroism there was nothing affected about her nothing theatrical neither passion despair nor the spirit of revenge
according to the expressions of roederer who never left her she was a woman a mother a wife in peril she feared she hoped she grieved
something like two hundred noblemen who had spontaneously repaired to the king seven hundred and fifty swiss
were the last resources of the commander in chief of the french army
were posted in the apartments the chapel and at the entry of the royal court baron de salis as the oldest captain of the regiment commanded at the stairways a reserve of three hundred men under captain durler was stationed in the swiss court before the pavilion of marsan
and the filles saint thomas showed themselves well disposed toward the king but it was different with the other companies
they seemed as if they had come to a fete instead of a combat the servants of the chateau joined them some of them had pistols and blunderbusses
had taken the tongs from the chimneys they jested with each other over their accoutrements no no there was nothing laughable in these champions of misfortune they represented the past with its ancient fidelity to the altar and the throne
a great poet who had the spirit of divination heinrich heine
the middle classes will possibly make less resistance than the aristocracy would do in a similar case even in its most pitiable weakness its enervation by immorality and its degeneration through flattery
the old nobility was still alive to a certain point of honor unknown to our middle classes who have become prosperous by industry
they shook hands with each other amid cries of long live the king long live the national guard but the troops outside did not share these sentiments jealous of the royalists assembled in the palace they wanted to have them sent out
nothing can separate us from these gentlemen they are our most faithful friends they will share the dangers of the national guard they will obey us put them at the cannon's mouth and they will show you how men die for their king
he arrived there at eleven in the evening
it seems there is a great deal of commotion yes sire he replied the excitement is great
and his pretended haste to wait upon the king
was in command of all military forces why exclaimed he have the police refused cartridges to the national guard
my men have only four charges apiece some of them have not one no matter i answer for everything my measures are taken providing i am authorized by an order signed by you to repel force by force
not daring to avow his complicity with the riot petion signed the order demanded then he made his escape under pretext of inspecting the gardens and fell amongst some royalist national guards who reprimanded him severely
to guarantee the palace against the attempts of the populace and went to the assembly it had adjourned at ten o'clock the evening before
they appointed commissaries of sections and dismissed the staff of the national guard
this new municipality whose very existence was unknown at the palace
it was necessary to get rid of this document at any cost the municipality sent mandat an order to come to the hotel de ville he knew nothing about the revolution that had just taken place there and yet he hesitated to obey a secret presentiment took possession of his soul finally
which was to be so fatal to him when he came before the municipality
pikes and sabres finished him his body was thrown into the seine such was the first exploit of the new commune it preluded thus the massacres of september
says count de vaublanc in his memoirs was beyond any doubt the chief cause of the calamities of the day if he had attacked the rebels as soon as they came near the palace he could have dispersed them with ease
no troop marching from a given point in this immense city knew whether it was seconded by the rebels from other quarters and lost much time in making sure the second exploit of the commune was to confine petion at the mayoralty under the guard of six men
looking with melancholy at the horizon which began to lighten sister said she to madame elisabeth
chapter four in spite of missus kendall's earnest efforts margaret was not easily convinced that marriage might be desirable and that all husbands were not patterned after tim sullivan and mike whalen
nor was this coming marriage the only thing that troubled margaret life at the alley was still too vividly before her eyes to allow her to understand any scheme of living that did not recognize the supremacy of the sharpest tongue and the heaviest fist
and this period of adjustment to the new order of things was not without its trials for herself as well as for her mother
but the niceties of speech and manner daily demanded of her terrified and dismayed her why bully and bang up should be frowned upon when after all they but expressed her pleasure in something provided for her happiness
she could not understand and why the handling of the absurdly large number of knives forks and spoons about her plate at dinner should be a matter of so great moment she could not see
as for the big white square of folded cloth that her mother thought so necessary at every meal its dainty purity filled margaret with dismay lest she soil or wrinkle it and for her part she would have much preferred to let it quite alone
there were the callers too beautiful ladies in trailing gowns who insisted upon seeing her though why margaret could not understand for they invariably cried and said poor little lamb when they did see her
in spite of her efforts to convince them that she was perfectly happy and there were the children they too were disconcerting they came sometimes alone and sometimes with their parents but always they stared
and seemed afraid of her there were others to be sure who were not afraid of her but they never called they slipped in through the back gate at the foot of the garden and they were really very nice they were nat and tom and roxy trotter
and they lived in a little house down by the river they never wore shoes nor stockings and their clothes were not at all like those of the other children margaret suspected that the trotters were poor
and she took pains that her mother should see nat and tom and roxy her mother however did not appear to know them which did not seem so very strange to margaret after all for of course her mother had not known there were any poor people so near
otherwise she would have shared her home with them long ago at first it was margaret's plan to rectify this little mistake immediately
inasmuch as they had been so good to her she determined therefore to wait awhile before suggesting the removal of the trotter family from their tiny inconvenient house to the more spacious and desirable five oaks
delightful as were the trotters however even they did not quite come up to bobby mc ginnis for real comradeship bobby lived with his mother and grandmother in the little red farmhouse farther up the hill
then she had become frightened at his father's drunken rage one day and had fled to the streets never to return all this margaret knew though she had but a faint recollection of it it made a bond of sympathy between them nevertheless
and caused them to become fast friends at once it was to bobby that she went for advice when the standards of houghtonsville and the alley clashed and it was to bobby that she went for sympathy when grievous mismanagement of the knives and forks
or of the folded square of cloth brought disaster to herself and tears to her mother's eyes she earnestly desired to as she expressed it to bobby come up to the scratch and walk straight and it was to bobby that she looked for aid and counsel
but you do know folks just like em and mother don't you see she knows only the kind that lives here and she she don't understand but you know both kinds
they're just bang up i mean beautiful folks she corrected hastily and mother's so good to me she's just margaret stopped suddenly a new thought seemed to have come to her bobby she cried with sharp abruptness
did you ever know any husbands that was good husbands good what do ye mean did you ever know any that was good i mean that didn't beat their wives and bang em round did you bobby bobby laughed
he lifted his chin quizzically and gazed down from the lofty superiority of his fourteen years
but mebbe you've already er picked him out eh margaret did not seem to hear she was looking straight through a little open space in the boughs of the apple tree to the blue sky far beyond bobby she began in a voice scarcely above a whisper
if that man should be bad to my mother i think i'd kill him bobby roused himself he suddenly remembered joe bagley and the kitten what man he asked doctor spencer doctor spencer
gasped bobby why doctor spencer wouldn't hurt a fly he's just bully margaret stirred restlessly she turned a grave face on her companion bobby she reproved gently
bobby uptilted his chin i've heard your ma say ain't wa'n't proper he observed virtuously
only well seein as how you're gettin so awful particular for the more telling effect he left the sentence unfinished again margaret did not seem to hear again her eyes had sought the patch of blue showing through the green leaves
doctor spencer may be nice now but he ain't a husband yet she said thoughtfully there was tim sullivan and patty's father and mike whalen she enumerated aloud and they was all
bobby was your father a good husband she demanded with a sudden turn that brought her eyes squarely round to his the boy was silent bobby was he slowly the boy's eyes fell well of course sometimes dad would
he began but margaret interrupted him i knew it i just knew it i just knew there wasn't any she moaned but i can't make mother see it i just can't this was but the first of many talks between margaret and bobby upon the same subject
and always margaret was seeking for a possible averting of the catastrophe to convince her mother of the awfulness of the fate awaiting her and so to persuade her to abandon the idea of marriage was out of the question margaret soon found
it was then perhaps that the idea of speaking to the doctor himself first came to her if i could only get him to promise things she said to bobby if i could only get him to promise promise yes to be good and kind you know
nodded margaret and not like a husband bobby laughed then he frowned and was silent suddenly his face changed i say you might make him sign a contract he hazarded contract sure
i'll draw it up for you that's what they call it he explained airily and as margaret bubbled over with delight and thanks he added not at all tain't nothin
for a month now bobby had swept the floor and dusted the books in the law office of burt and burt to say nothing of running errands and tending door in days gone by the law as represented by the policeman on the corner was something to be avoided
but to day as represented by a frock coat a tall hat and a vocabulary bristling with big words it was something that was most alluring so alluring in fact that bobby had determined to adopt it as his own he himself would be a lawyer
tall hat frock coat big words and all hence his readiness to undertake this little matter of drawing up a contract for margaret his first client it was some days nevertheless before the work was ready for the doctor's signature
the young lawyer unfortunately could not give all of his time to his own affairs there were still the trivial duties of his office to perform he found too that the big words which fell so glibly from the lips of the great burt and burt
were anything but easily managed when he tried to put them upon paper himself bobby was ambitious and persistent however and where knowledge failed imagination stepped boldly to the front in the end it was with no little pride
that he displayed the result of his labor to his client then with her gleeful words of approval still ringing in his ears he slipped it into its envelope sealed stamped and posted it
to whom it may concern whereas i the undersigned being in my sane mind do intend to commit matremony i the said undersigned do hereby solumly declare and agree to wit
not to bang her round not to falsely wickedly and maliciously treat her not once moreover i the said undersigned do solumly swear all this to margaret kendall
the dorter and lawfull protectur of the said wife to wit missus kendall and whereas if i
i do hereby swear that she to wit margaret kendall may bestow upon me such punishmunt as seems eminuntly proper to her at such time as she sees fit whereas and whereunto i have this day set my hand and seal
cotton mister allison had fully kept his promise to sophie and ashlands was again the fine old place it had been prior to the war the family consisting of the elder missus carrington a young man named george boyd
a nephew of hers who had taken charge of the plantation sophie and her four children had now been in possession for over a year sophie still an almost inconsolable mourner for the husband of her youth
lived a very retired life devoting herself to his mother and his orphaned little ones missus ross expecting to spend the fall and winter with them had brought all her children and a governess miss fisk
who undertook the tuition of the little carringtons also during her stay at ashlands thus leaving the mothers more at liberty for the enjoyment of each other's society it was in the midst of school hours that the ion carriage came driving up the avenue
and philip ross lifting his head from the slate over which he had been bending for the last half hour rose hastily threw down his pencil and hurried from the room paying no attention to miss fisk's query where are you going philip or her command
come back instantly it is quite contrary to rules for pupils to leave the school room during the hours of recitation without permission indeed he had reached the foot of the staircase before the last word had left her lips
she being very slow and precise in speech and action while his movements were of the quickest what now is to be done in this emergency soliloquized the governess unconsciously thinking aloud miss gertrude ross turning to a girl of nine
whose merry blue eyes were twinkling with fun follow your brother at once and inform him that i cannot permit any such act of insubordination and he must return instantly to the performance of his duties yes ma'am and gertrude vanished
glad enough of the opportunity to see for herself who were the new arrivals phil she said entering the drawing room where the guests were already seated miss fisk says you're an insubordination and must come back instantly gertude
said her mother laughing come and speak to mister travilla and your little friends why yes phil to be sure how came you here when you ought to be at your lessons because i wanted to see elsie travilla he answered nonchalantly yes
but you won't ma you know that as well as i do i'll not go back a step while elsie stays well well it seems you are bound to have your own way as usual lucy answered half laughing half sighing then resumed her talk with mister travilla
seeing that the little travillas had listened to this colloquy in blank amazement she felt much mortified at phil's behavior and on receiving the invitation threatened to leave him at home as a punishment but this only made matters worse
he insisted that go he would and if she refused permission he should never never love her again as long as he lived and she weakly yielded lucy said her mother when the guests were gone and the children had left the room
you are ruining that boy well i don't see how i can help it mamma how could i bear to lose his affection you are taking the very course to bring that about it is the weakly indulged not the wisely controlled children
who lose first respect and then affection for their parents look at elsie's little family for instance where can you find children ruled with a firmer hand or more devotedly attached to their parents eddie was at that moment saying to his father
papa isn't phil ross a very very naughty boy to be so saucy and disobedient to his mamma my son answered mister travilla with gentle gravity when you have corrected all eddie travilla's faults it will be time enough to attend to those of others
and the child hung his head and blushed for shame it was mister and missus horace dinsmore who did the honors at ion early in the evening receiving and welcoming each bevy of guests and replying to the oft repeated inquiry for the master and mistress of the establishment
that they would make their appearance shortly elsie's children most sweetly and becomingly dressed had gathered about aunt rosie in a corner of the drawing room and seemed to be waiting with a sort of intense but quiet eagerness
for the coming of some expected event at length every invited guest had arrived all being so thoroughly acquainted nearly all related there was an entire absence of stiffness and constraint and much lively chat had been carried on
and every eye turned toward the doors opening into the hall expecting they knew not what there were soft foot falls a slight rustle of silk and adelaide entered followed by mister travilla with elsie on his arm in bridal attire
the shimmering satin rich soft lace and orange blossoms became her well and never even on that memorable night ten years ago had she looked lovelier or more bride like never had her husband
bent a prouder fonder look upon her fair face than now as he led her to the centre of the room where they paused in front of their pastor a low murmur of surprise and delight ran round the room but was suddenly stilled as the venerable man rose and began to speak
ten years ago to night dear friends i united you in marriage edward travilla you then vowed to love honor and cherish till life's end the woman whom you now hold by the hand have you repented of that vow and would you be released not for worlds
there has been no repentance but my love has grown deeper and stronger day by day and you elsie dinsmore travilla also vowed to love honor and obey the man you hold by the hand have you repented never sir never for one moment
the accents were low sweet clear and full of pleasure i pronounce you a faithful man and wife and may god in his good providence grant you many returns of this happy anniversary old mister dinsmore stepped up
kissed the bride and shook hands with the groom blessings on you for making her so happy he said in quivering tones his son followed then the others in their turn and a merry scene ensued mamma it was so pretty so pretty
little elsie said clasping her arms about her mother's neck and now i just feel as if i'd been to your wedding thank you dear mamma and papa mamma you are so beautiful i'll just marry you myself when i'm a man remarked eddie giving her a hearty kiss
then gazing into her face with his great dark eyes full of love and admiration i too chimed in violet no no i forget i shall be a lady myself so i'll have to marry papa no vi oo tan't have my papa
climbing his father's knee what a splendid idea elsie lucy ross was saying to her friend you have made me regret for the first time not having kept my wedding dress for i believe my phil and i could go through that catechism quite as well as you and mister travilla
the whole thing i suppose was quite original among us my namesake daughter proposed the wearing of the dress and the ceremony turning to the minister was your idea mister wood was it not
partly missus travilla your father missus dinsmore and i planned it together your dress is as perfect a fit as when made but i presume you had it altered observed lucy making a critical examination of her friend's toilet
no not in the least answered elsie smiling the banquet to which the guests were presently summoned though gotten up so hastily more than fulfilled the expectation of the misses conly who as well as their mother and aunt enna
did it ample justice there was a good deal of gormandizing done by the spoiled children present spite of feeble protests from their parents but elsie's well trained little ones ate contentedly what was given them
nor even asked for the rich dainties on which others were feasting knowing that papa and mamma loved them too dearly to deny them any real good holloa neddie and vi why you've been overlooked said philip ross
here take some of this pound cake and these bonbons they're delicious i tell you no no thank you mamma says pound cake is much too rich for us and would make us sick said eddie specially at night added vi
and we're to have some bonbons to morrow goodest little tots ever i saw returned philip laughing ma wanted me to let em alone
he added with a pompous grown up air phil you certainly are an insubordination as miss fisk said remarked his sister gertrude standing near i believe you think you're most a man but it's a great mistake
people that live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones i heard you telling ma
elsie travilla allow me the pleasure of refilling your saucer no thank you phil i've had all mamma thinks good for me time to go to bed chillens said mammy approaching the little group de clock jes gwine strike nine here uncle joe
take dese empty saucers promptly and without a murmur the four little folks prepared to obey the summons but cast wistful longing glances toward mamma who was gayly chatting with her guests on the other side of the room just then the clock on the mantel struck
and excusing herself she came quickly toward them that is right dears come and say good night to papa and our friends then go with mammy and mamma will follow in a few moments
i wish mine were half as good said missus ross now ma don't expose us cried phil i've often heard you say missus travilla was a far better little girl than you so of course her children ought to be better than yours
some children keep their good behavior for company sneered enna and i've no doubt these little paragons have their naughty fits as well as ours it is quite true that they are not always good elsie said with patient sweetness
and now i beg you will all excuse me for a few moments as they never feel quite comfortable going to bed without a last word or two with mamma before i'd make myself such a slave to my children muttered enna looking after her as she glided from the room
if they couldn't be content to be put to bed by their mammies they might stay up all night
even the guests felt a subtle something in the air
while missus merideth and her brothers were plainly fighting a losing contest against a restlessness that sent a haunting fear to their eyes margaret
though scrupulously careful to show every attention to the guests that courtesy demanded was strangely quiet and not at all like the merry high spirited girl that most of them knew brandon who was again at the house
sought her out one day and said low in her ear if it were june and not december and if we were out in the auto instead of here by the fire i'm wondering would i need to watch out for those brakes the girl winced
no no she cried never i think i should simply crawl for fear that under the wheels somewhere would be a child a dog a chicken or even a helpless worm something that moved and that i might hurt
there is already so much suffering brandon laughed uneasily and drew back a puzzled frown on his face he had not meant that she should take his jest so seriously it was on the day after new year's when all the guests had gone
that margaret once more said to her guardian that she wished to speak to him and on business frank spencer told himself that he was used to this sort of thing now and that he was resigned to the inevitable
but his eyes were troubled and his lips were close shut as he motioned the girl to precede him into the den i thought i ought to tell you she began plunging into her subject with an abruptness that betrayed her nervousness
i thought i ought to tell you at once that i i cannot go with you when you all go away next week you cannot go with us no i must stay here here
why margaret child that is impossible here in this great house with only the servants no no you don't understand not here at hilcrest i shall be down in the town with patty margaret
the man was too dismayed to say more i know it seems strange to you of course rejoined the girl hastily but you will see you will understand when i explain i have thought of it in all its bearings
and it is the only way i could not go with you and sing and laugh and dance and all the while remember that my people back here were suffering your people dear child
they are not your people nor my people they are their own people they come and go as they like if not in my mills they work in some other man's mills you are not responsible for their welfare besides
you have already done more for their comfort and happiness than any human being could expect of you i know but you do not understand it is in a peculiar way that they are my people not because they are here
but because they are poor and unhappy margaret hesitated and then went on her eyes turned away from her guardian's face i don't know as i can make you understand as i do there are people lots of them
who are generous and kind to the poor but they are on one side of the line and the poor are on the other they merely pass things over the line they never go themselves and that is all right
they could not cross the line if they wanted to perhaps they would not know how all their lives they have been surrounded with tender care and luxury they do not know what it means to be hungry and cold and homeless
margaret paused her eyes still averted then suddenly she turned and faced the man sitting in silent dismay at the desk don't you see she cried i have crossed the line
i crossed it long ago when i was a little girl i do know what it means to be hungry and cold and homeless i do know what it means to fight the world with only two small empty hands
they are my people for a moment there was silence in the little room to the man at the desk the bottom seemed suddenly to have dropped out of his world for some time it had been growing on him the knowledge of how much the presence of this fair haired
winsome girl meant to him it came to him now with the staggering force of a blow in the face and she was going away to frank spencer the days suddenly stretched ahead in empty uselessness
there seemed to be nothing left worth while but my dear margaret he said at last unsteadily we tried we all tried to make you forget those terrible days you were so keenly sensitive
they weighed too heavily on your heart you you were morbid my dear i know she said i understand better now every one tried to interest me to amuse me to make me forget
i was kept from everything unpleasant and from everybody that suffered it comes to me very vividly now how careful every one was that i should know of only happiness we wanted you to forget
but i never did forget quite even when years and years had passed and i could go everywhere and see all the beautiful things and places i had read about and when i was with my friends
there was always something somewhere behind things those four years in new york were vague and elusive as time passed they seemed like a dream or like a life that some one else had lived
they were not a dream and they were not a life that some one else lived they were my life i lived them myself don't you see now margaret's eyes were luminous with feeling her lips trembled
but her face glowed with a strange exaltation of happiness but what do you mean to do faltered the man margaret flushed and leaned forward eagerly i am going to do all that i can
and i hope it will be a great deal i am going down there to live to live not to live child yes oh i know now she went on hurriedly i have been among them some are wicked and some are thoughtless
but all of them need teaching i am going to live there among them to show them the better way the man at the desk left his chair abruptly he walked over to the window and looked out the moon shone clear and bright in the sky
down in the valley the countless gleaming windows and the tall black chimneys showed where the mill workers still toiled those mill workers whom the man had come almost to hate it was because of them that margaret was going
he turned slowly and walked back to the girl margaret
i had not thought to speak of this at least not now perhaps it would be better if i never spoke of it but i am almost forced to say it now i can't let you go like this and not know
i must make one effort to keep you if you knew that there was some one here who loved you who loved you with the whole strength of his being
meant everything that was loneliness and grief would you could you stay margaret started she would not look into the eyes that were so earnestly seeking hers
it was of ned of course that he was speaking of that she was sure in some way he had discovered ned's feeling for her had perhaps even been asked to plead his cause with her
did you ever think began spencer again softly did you ever think that if you did stay you might find even here some one to whom you could show the better way that even here
you might do all these things you long to do and with some one close by your side to help you margaret thought of ned of his impulsiveness his light heartedness
his utter want of sympathy with everything she had been doing the last few weeks and involuntarily she shuddered spencer saw the sensitive quiver and drew back touched to the quick margaret struggled to her feet
no no she cried still refusing to meet his eyes i i cannot stay i am sorry believe me to give you pain but i i cannot stay
and she hurried from the room the man dropped back in his chair his face white she does not love me and no wonder
long ago there lived a king and he had three daughters the loveliest in all the world he loved them so well that he built a palace for them underground lest the rough winds should blow on them or the red sun scorch their delicate faces
a wonderful palace it was down there underground with fountains and courts and lamps burning and precious stones glittering in the light of the lamps and the three lovely princesses grew up in that palace underground
and knew no other light but that of the coloured lanterns and had never seen the broad world that lies open under the sun by day and under the stars by night indeed they did not know that there was a world outside those glittering walls
above that shining ceiling carved and gilded and set with precious stones but it so happened that among the books that were given them to read was one in which was written of the world how the sun shines in the sky how trees grow green
how the grass waves in the wind and the leaves whisper together how the rivers flow between their green banks and through the flowery meadows until they come to the blue sea that joins the earth and the sky they read in that book
of white walled towns of churches with gilded and painted domes of the brown wooden huts of the peasants of the great forests of the ships on the rivers
and when the king came to see them as he was used to do they asked him father is it true that there is a garden in the world yes said the king and green grass yes said the king
and little shining flowers why yes said the king wondering and stroking his silver beard and the three lovely princesses all begged him at once oh your majesty our own little father whom
we love let us out to see this world let us out just so that we may see this garden and walk in it on the green grass and see the shining flowers the king turned his head away and tried not to listen to them
but what could he do they were the loveliest princesses in the world and when they begged him just to let them walk in the garden he could see the tears in their eyes and after all he thought there were high walls to the garden
so he called up his army and set soldiers all round the garden and a hundred soldiers to each gate so that no one should come in and then he let the princesses come up from their underground palace
and step out into the sunshine in the garden with ten nurses and maids to each princess to see that no harm came to her the princesses stepped out into the garden under the blue sky
shading their eyes at first because they had never before been in the golden sunlight soon they were taking hands and running this way and that along the garden paths and over the green grass and gathering posies of shining flowers to set in their girdles
and to shame their golden crowns and the king sat and watched them with love in his eyes
and then with its swift whirling arms it caught up the three lovely princesses and carried them up into the air over the high walls and over the heads of the guarding soldiers for a moment the king saw them his daughters the three lovely princesses
spinning round and round as if they were dancing in the sky a moment later they were no more than little whirling specks like dust in the sunlight and then they were out of sight and the king and all the maids and nurses were alone in the empty garden
the noise of the wind had gone the soldiers did not dare to speak the only sound in the king's ears was the sobbing and weeping of the maids and nurses
the king called his generals and made them send the soldiers in all directions over the country to bring back the princesses if the whirlwind should tire and set them again upon the ground the soldiers went to the very boundaries of the kingdom
but they came back as they went not one of them had seen the three lovely princesses then the king called together all his faithful servants and promised a great reward to any one who should bring news of the three princesses
it was the same with the servants as with the soldiers far and wide they galloped out slowly one by one they rode back with bent heads on tired horses not one of them had seen the king's daughters
then the king called a grand council of his wise boyars and men of state they all sat round and listened as the king told his tale and asked if one of them would not undertake the task of finding and rescuing the three princesses
and now god knows they may be in the power of wicked men or worse he said he would give one of the princesses in marriage to any one who could follow where the wind went and bring his daughters back yes and besides
he would make him the richest man in the kingdom but the boyars and the wise men of state sat round in silence he asked them one by one they were all silent and afraid for they were boyars and wise men of state
and not one of them would undertake to follow the whirlwind and rescue the three princesses the king wept bitter tears i see he said i have no friends about me in the palace my soldiers cannot
my servants cannot and my boyars and wise men will not bring back my three sweet maids whom i love better than my kingdom and with that he sent heralds throughout the kingdom to announce the news
and to ask if there were none among the common folk the moujiks the simple folk like us who would put his hand to the work of rescuing the three lovely princesses since not one of the boyars and wise men was willing to do it
now at that time in a certain village lived a poor widow and she had three sons strong men true bogatirs and men of power all three had been born in a single night
the eldest at evening the middle one at midnight and the youngest just as the sky was lightening with the dawn for this reason they were called evening midnight and sunrise
evening was dusky with brown eyes and hair midnight was dark with eyes and hair as black as charcoal while sunrise had hair golden as the sun and eyes blue as morning sky and all three
were as strong as any of the strong men and mighty bogatirs who have shaken this land of russia with their tread as soon as the king's word had been proclaimed in the village the three brothers asked for their mother's blessing which she gave them
kissing them on the forehead and on both cheeks then they made ready for the journey and rode off to the capital evening on his horse of dusky brown midnight on his black horse
and sunrise on his horse that was as white as clouds in summer they came to the capital and as they rode through the streets everybody stopped to look at them and all the pretty young women waved handkerchiefs at the windows
but the three brothers looked neither to right nor left but straight before them and they rode to the palace of the king they came to the king bowed low before him and said may you live for many years o king
we have come to you not for feasting but for service let us o king ride out to rescue your three princesses god give you success my good young men says the king what are your names we are three brothers
evening midnight and sunrise what will you have to take with you on the road for ourselves o king we want nothing only do not leave our mother in poverty for she is old
the king sent for the old woman their mother and gave her a home in his palace and made her eat and drink at his table and gave her new boots made by his own cobblers and new clothes
who were used to make dresses for the three daughters of the king who were the loveliest princesses in the world and had been carried away by the whirlwind no old woman in russia
was better looked after than the mother of the three young bogatirs and men of power evening midnight and sunrise while they were away on their adventure seeking the king's daughters the young men rode out on their journey
a month they rode together two months and in the third month they came to a broad desert plain where there were no towns no villages no farms and not a human being to be seen
they rode on over the sand through the rank grass over the stony wastes at last on the other side of that desolate plain they came to a thick forest they found a path through the thick undergrowth
and rode along that path together into the very heart of the forest and there alone in the heart of the forest they came to a hut with a railed yard and a shed full of cattle and sheep
they called out with their strong young voices and were answered by the lowing of the cattle the bleating of the sheep and the strong wind in the tops of the great trees they rode through the railed yard and came to the hut evening
leant from his brown horse and knocked on the window there was no answer they forced open the door and found no one at all well brothers says evening let us make ourselves at home
let us stay here awhile we have been riding three months let us rest and then ride farther we shall deal better with our adventure if we come to it as fresh men and not dusty and weary from the long road
midnight and i are going hunting to day and you shall rest here and see what sort of dinner you can give us when we come back very well says evening but to morrow i shall go hunting and one of you shall stay here and cook the dinner
nobody made bones about that and so evening stood at the door of the hut while the others rode off midnight on his black horse and sunrise on his horse white as a summer cloud
they rode off into the forest and disappeared among the green trees evening watched them out of sight and then without thinking twice about what he was doing went out into the yard picked out the finest sheep he could see caught it
killed it skinned it cleaned it and set it in a cauldron on the stove so as to be ready and hot whenever his brothers should come riding back from the forest as soon as that was done evening lay down on the broad bench to rest himself
he looked round angrily and saw evening who yawned and sat up on the bench and began chuckling at the sight of him the little man screamed out what are you chuckling about how dare you play the master in my house how dare you kill my best sheep
evening answered him laughing grow a little bigger and it won't be so hard to see you down there
and came to the hut where they found their brother groaning on the ground unable to see out of his eyes and with a dishcloth round his head what are you tied up like that for they asked and where is our dinner
evening was ashamed to tell them the truth how he had been thumped about with a crust of bread by a little fellow only a yard high he moaned and said o my brothers i made a fire in the stove
and fell ill from the great heat in this little hut my head ached
i thought my head would burst with the heat and my brains fly beyond the seventh world next day sunrise went hunting with evening whose head was still bound up in a dishcloth and hurting so sorely that he could hardly see
midnight stayed at home it was his turn to see to the dinner sunrise rode out on his cloud white horse and evening on his dusky brown midnight stood in the doorway of the hut
watched them disappear among the green trees and then set about getting the dinner he lit the fire but was careful not to make it too hot
caught the very fattest of the sheep killed it skinned it cleaned it cut it up and set it on the stove then when all was ready he lay down on the bench and rested himself but before he had lain there long
there were a knocking a stamping a rattling a grumbling and in came the little old man one yard high with a beard seven yards long and without wasting words the little fellow
and set to beating him and thumping him first on one side of his head and then on the other he gave him such a banging that he very nearly made an end of him altogether then the little fellow ate up the whole of the sheep in a few mouthfuls
and went off angrily into the forest with his long white beard flowing behind him midnight tied up his head with a handkerchief and lay down under the bench groaning and groaning unable to put his head to the ground or even to lay it
in the crook of his arm it was so bruised by the beating given it by the little old man in the evening the brothers rode back and found midnight groaning under the bench with his head bound up in a handkerchief evening looked at him and said nothing
perhaps he was thinking of his own bruised head which was still tied up in a dishcloth what's the matter with you says sunrise there never was such another stove as this says midnight
i'd no sooner lit it than it seemed as if the whole hut were on fire my head nearly burst it's aching now and as for your dinner why i've not been able to put a hand to anything all day
evening chuckled to himself but sunrise only said that's bad brother but you shall go hunting to morrow and i'll stay at home and see what i can do with the stove and so on the third day the two elder brothers went hunting
midnight on his black horse and evening on his horse of dusky brown sunrise stood in the doorway of the hut and saw them disappear under the green trees the sun shone on his golden curls and his blue eyes were like the sky itself
there never was such another bogatir as he he went into the hut and lit the stove then he went out into the yard chose the best sheep he could find killed it skinned it cleaned it cut it up and set it on the stove
he made everything ready and then lay down on the bench before he had lain there very long he heard a stumping a thumping a knocking a rattling a grumbling a rumbling
sunrise leaped up from the bench and looked out through the window of the hut there in the yard was the little old man one yard high with a beard seven yards long he was carrying a whole haystack on his head and a great tub of water in his arms
he came into the middle of the yard and set down his tub to water all the beasts he set down the haystack and scattered the hay about all the cattle and the sheep came together to eat and to drink and the little man stood and counted them he counted the oxen
he counted them once and his eyes began to flash he counted them twice
he counted them a third time made sure that one was missing and then he flew into a violent rage rushed across the yard and into the hut and gave sunrise a terrific blow on the head sunrise shook his head as if a fly had settled on it
then he jumped suddenly and caught the end of the long beard of the little old man and set to pulling him this way and that round and round the hut as if his beard was a rope phew how the little man roared sunrise laughed
and tugged him this way and that and mocked him crying out if you do not know the ford it is better not to go into the water meaning that the little fellow had begun to beat him without finding out who was the stronger
o man of power o great and mighty bogatir have mercy upon me do not kill me leave me my soul to repent with
then with a heavy iron wedge he fixed the end of the little man's beard firmly in the oaken trunk
went back to the hut set it in order again saw that the sheep was cooking as it should and then lay down in peace to wait for the coming of his brothers evening and midnight rode home leapt from their horses and came into the hut to see how the little man
had dealt with their brother they could hardly believe their eyes when they saw him alive and well without a bruise lying comfortably on the bench he sat up and laughed in their faces well brothers says he come along with me into the yard
and i think i can show you that headache of yours it's a good deal stronger than it is big but for the time being you need not be afraid of it for it's fastened to an oak timber that all three of us together could not lift he got up and went into the yard
evening and midnight followed him with shamed faces but when they came to the oaken timber the little man was not there long ago he had torn himself free and run away into the forest but half his beard was left wedged in the trunk
tell me brothers was it the heat of the stove that gave you your headaches or had this long beard something to do with it the brothers grew red and laughed and told him the whole truth meanwhile
sunrise had been looking at the end of the beard the end of the half beard that was left and he saw that it had been torn out by the roots and that drops of blood from the little man's chin showed the way he had gone quickly the brothers went back to the hut
and ate up the sheep then they leapt on their horses and rode off into the green forest following the drops of blood that had fallen from the little man's chin for three days they rode through the green forest until at last the red drops of the trail led them to a deep pit
a black hole in the earth hidden by thick bushes and going far down into the underworld sunrise left his brothers to guard the hole while he went off into the forest and gathered bast and twisted it and made a strong rope and brought it to the mouth of the pit
and asked his brothers to lower him down he made a loop in the rope his brothers kissed him on both cheeks and he kissed them back then he sat in the loop and evening and midnight lowered him down into the darkness down and down he went
swinging in the dark till he came into a world under the world with a light that was neither that of the sun nor of the moon nor of the stars he stepped from the loop in the rope of twisted bast and set out walking through the underworld
going whither his eyes led him for he found no more drops of blood nor any other traces of the little old man he walked and walked and came at last to a palace of copper green and ruddy in the strange light he went into that palace
and there came to meet him in the copper halls a maiden whose cheeks were redder than the aloe and whiter than the snow she was the youngest daughter of the king and the loveliest of the three princesses who were the loveliest in all the world
sweetly she curtsied to sunrise as he stood there with his golden hair and his eyes blue as the sky at morning and sweetly she asked him how have you come hither my brave young man of your own will or against it
she bade him sit at the table and gave him food and brought him a little flask of the water of strength strong you are says she but not strong enough for what is before you drink this
for you will need all the strength you have and can win if you are to rescue us and live sunrise looked in her sweet eyes and drank the water of strength in a single draught and felt gigantic power forcing its way throughout his body
now thought he let come what may instantly a violent wind rushed through the copper palace and the princess trembled the snake that holds me here is coming says she he is flying hither on his strong wings
she took the great hand of the bogatir in her little fingers and drew him to another room and hid him there the copper palace rocked in the wind and there flew into the great hall a huge snake with three heads the snake hissed loudly and called out in a whistling voice
what visitor have you here how could any one come here said the princess you have been flying over russia
so that you think you smell them here it is true said the snake i have been flying over russia i have flown far let me eat and drink for i am both hungry and thirsty all this time sunrise was watching from the other room
the princess brought meat and drink to the snake and in the drink she put a philtre of sleep the snake ate and drank and began to feel sleepy he coiled himself up in rings
laid his three heads in the lap of the princess told her to scratch them for him and dropped into a deep sleep
swung his glittering sword three times round his golden head and cut off all three heads of the snake it was like felling three oak trees at a single blow then he made a great fire of wood and threw upon it the body of the snake
and when it was burnt up scattered the ashes over the open country and now fare you well says sunrise to the princess but she threw her arms about his neck fare you well says he
i go to seek your sisters as soon as i have found them i will come back and at that she let him go he walked on further through the underworld and came at last to a palace of silver gleaming in the strange light he went in there
and was met with sweet words and kindness by the second of the three lovely princesses in that palace he killed a snake with six heads the princess begged him to stay but he told her he had yet to find her eldest sister
at that she wished him the help of god and he left her and went on further he walked and walked and came at last to a palace of gold glittering in the light of the underworld all happened as in the other palaces
the eldest of the three daughters of the king met him with courtesy and kindness and he killed a snake with twelve heads and freed the princess from her imprisonment the princess rejoiced and thanked sunrise and set about her packing to go home
and this was the way of her packing she went out into the broad courtyard and waved a scarlet handkerchief and instantly the whole palace golden and glittering and the kingdom belonging to it became little little little
till it went into a little golden egg the princess tied the egg in a corner of her handkerchief and set out with sunrise to join her sisters and go home to her father her sisters did their packing in the same way
the silver palace and its kingdom were packed by the second sister into a little silver egg and when they came to the copper palace
clapped her hands and kissed sunrise on both his cheeks and waved a scarlet handkerchief and instantly the copper palace and its kingdom were packed into a little copper egg shining ruddy and green and so sunrise and the three daughters of the king
came to the foot of the deep hole down which he had come into the underworld and there was the rope hanging with the loop at its end and they sat in the loop and evening and midnight pulled them up one by one rejoicing together
then the three brothers took each of them a princess with him on his horse and they all rode together back to the old king telling talcs and singing songs as they went the princess from the golden palace rode with evening on his horse of dusky brown
the princess from the silver palace rode with midnight
but the princess from the copper palace the youngest of them all rode with sunrise on his horse white as a summer cloud merry was the journey through the green forest and gladly they rode over the open plain
till they came at last to the palace of her father there was the old king sitting melancholy alone
the old king was so glad that he laughed and cried at the same time and his tears ran down his beard ah me says the old king i am old and you young men have brought my daughters back from the very world under the world
safer they will be if they have you to guard them even than they were in the palace i had built for them underground but i have only one kingdom and three daughters do not trouble about that laughed the three princesses
and they all rode out together into the open country and there the princesses broke their eggs one after the other and there were the palaces of silver copper and gold with the kingdoms belonging to them and the cattle and the sheep and the goats
there was a kingdom for each of the brothers then they made a great feast and had three weddings all together and the old king sat with the mother of the three strong men and men of power the noble bogatirs evening midnight
and sunrise sitting at his side great was the feasting loud were the songs and the king made sunrise his heir so that some day he would wear his crown but little did sunrise think of that he thought of nothing but the youngest princess
chapter thirty eight of solitude
let us pretermit that long comparison
are in the right when they are cautious that those who embark with them in the same bottom be neither dissolute blasphemers nor vicious other ways looking upon such society as unfortunate
and therefore it was that bias pleasantly said to some who being with him in a dangerous storm implored the assistance of the gods
albuquerque viceroy in the indies for emmanuel king of portugal in an extreme peril of shipwreck took a young boy upon his shoulders for this only end that in the society of their common danger
his innocence might serve to protect him and to recommend him to the divine favour that they might get safe to shore tis not that a wise man may not live everywhere content
and be alone in the very crowd of a palace but if it be left to his own choice the schoolman will tell you that he should fly the very sight of the crowd he will endure it if need be but if it be referred to him
he will choose to be alone he cannot think himself sufficiently rid of vice if he must yet contend with it in other men charondas punished those as evil men who were convicted of keeping ill company
there is nothing so unsociable and sociable as man the one by his vice the other by his nature and antisthenes in my opinion did not give him a satisfactory answer
who reproached him with frequenting ill company by saying that the physicians lived well enough amongst the sick for if they contribute to the health of the sick
continual sight of and familiarity with diseases they must of necessity impair their own now the end i take it is all one to live at more leisure and at one's ease but men do not always take the right way
they often think they have totally taken leave of all business when they have only exchanged one employment for another there is little less trouble in governing a private family than a whole kingdom
by being moved up and down in the place where they are designed to stand therefore it is not enough to get remote from the public tis not enough to shift the soil only a man must flee from the popular conditions
as if without wife children goods train or attendance to the end that when it shall so fall out that we must lose any or all of these
there is not one of a thousand that concerns ourselves he that thou seest scrambling up the ruins of that wall furious and transported against whom so many harquebuss shots are levelled and that other all over scars
pale and fainting with hunger and yet resolved rather to die than to open the gates to him dost thou think that these men are there upon their own account no peradventure in the behalf of one whom they never saw
and who never concerns himself for their pains and danger but lies wallowing the while in sloth and pleasure this other slavering
that thou seest come out of his study after midnight dost thou think he has been tumbling over books to learn how to become a better man wiser and more content no such matter he will there end his days
but he will teach posterity the measure of plautus verses and the true orthography of a latin word
his repose and his very life
the most useless frivolous and false coin that passes current amongst us our own death does not sufficiently terrify and trouble us
after the example of thales we have lived enough for others
let us now call in our thoughts and intentions to ourselves and to our own ease and repose tis no light thing to make a sure retreat it will be enough for us to do without mixing other enterprises
since god gives us leisure to order our removal let us make ready truss our baggage take leave betimes of the company and disentangle ourselves from those violent importunities that engage us elsewhere
and separate us from ourselves we must break the knot of our obligations how strong soever and hereafter love this or that but espouse nothing but ourselves that is to say let the remainder be our own
but not so joined and so close as not to be forced away without flaying us or tearing out part of our whole the greatest thing in the world is for a man to know that he is his own tis time to wean ourselves from society
when we can no longer add anything to it he who is not in a condition to lend must forbid himself to borrow our forces begin to fail us let us call them in and concentrate them in and for ourselves
he that can cast off within himself and resolve the offices of friendship and company let him do it in this decay of nature which renders him useless burdensome and importunate to others
let him take care not to be useless
so far as they are pleasant to us but by no means to lay our principal foundation there tis no true one neither nature nor reason allows it so to be why therefore should we contrary to their laws
enslave our own contentment to the power of another to anticipate also the accidents of fortune to deprive ourselves
as several have done upon the account of devotion and some philosophers by reasoning to be one's own servant to lie hard to put out our own eyes to throw our wealth into the river to go in search of grief
i do not think arcesilaus the philosopher the less temperate and virtuous for knowing that he made use of gold and silver vessels
i have indeed a better opinion of him than if he had denied himself what he used with liberality and moderation i see the utmost limits of natural necessity and
considering a poor man begging at my door ofttimes more jocund and more healthy than i myself am i put myself into his place and attempt to dress my mind after his mode and running in like manner
poverty contempt and sickness treading on my heels i easily resolve not to be affrighted
takes them with so much patience and am not willing to believe that a less understanding can do more than a greater or that the effects of precept
as those of custom and knowing of how uncertain duration these accidental conveniences are i never forget in the height of all my enjoyments to make it my chiefest prayer to almighty god
that he will please to render me content with myself and the condition wherein i am i see young men very gay and frolic who nevertheless keep a mass of pills in their trunk at home to take when they've got a cold
which they fear so much the less because they think they have remedy at hand every one should do in like manner and moreover if they find themselves subject to some more violent disease should furnish themselves
with such medicines as may numb and stupefy the part the employment a man should choose for such a life ought neither to be a laborious nor an unpleasing one otherwise tis to no purpose at all to be retired
and this depends upon every one's liking and humour mine has no manner of complacency for husbandry and such as love it ought to apply themselves to it with moderation endeavour to make circumstances subject to me
filling their hopes and courage with certainty of divine promises in the other life is much more rationally founded
an infinite object in goodness and power the soul has there wherewithal at full liberty
afflictions and sufferings turn to their advantage being undergone for the acquisition of eternal health and joy death is to be wished and longed for where it is the passage to so perfect a condition
the asperity of the rules they impose upon themselves is immediately softened by custom and all their carnal appetites baffled and subdued by refusing to humour and feed them
these being only supported by use and exercise this sole end of another happily immortal life is that which really merits that we should abandon the pleasures and conveniences of this
and he who can really and constantly inflame his soul with the ardour of this vivid faith and hope erects for himself in solitude a more voluptuous and delicious life
neither the end then nor the means of this advice pleases me for we often fall out of the frying pan into the fire or we always relapse ill from fever into fever
this book employment is as painful as any other and as great an enemy to health which ought to be the first thing considered neither ought a man to be allured with the pleasure of it which is the same that destroys the frugal
wheedle and caress only to strangle us like those thieves the egyptians called philistae if the headache should come before drunkenness we should have a care of drinking too much but pleasure to deceive us
marches before and conceals her train books are pleasant but if by being over studious we impair our health and spoil our goodhumour the best pieces we have let us give it over i for my part
that no fruit derived from them can recompense so great a loss as men who have long felt themselves weakened by indisposition
and submit to certain rules of living which they are for the future never to transgress so he who retires weary of and disgusted with the common way of living ought to model this new one he enters into by the rules of reason
and establish it by premeditation
there are sterile knotty sciences
are things that cannot possibly inhabit in one and the same place for so much as i understand
the advice of two philosophers of two very different sects writing the one
their friends to retire into solitude from worldly honours and affairs
come now and die in the harbour you have given the first part of your life to the light give what remains to the shade it is impossible to give over business
therefore disengage yourselves from all concern of name and glory tis to be feared the lustre of your former actions will give you but too much light and follow you into your most private retreat
and parts never concern yourselves they will not lose their effect
remember him who being asked why he took so much pains in an art that could come to the knowledge of but few persons a few are enough for me replied he i have enough with one i have enough
you and a companion are theatre enough to one another or you to yourself let the people be to you one and be you one to the whole people tis an unworthy ambition
they will keep you in this way to be contented with yourself to borrow nothing of any other but yourself to stay and fix your soul in certain and limited thoughts wherein she may please herself
and having understood the true and real goods which men the more enjoy the more they understand to rest satisfied without desire of prolongation of life or name this is the precept of the true and natural philosophy
the exasperating little brats of twins began to quarrel again and jacky threw the ball out towards the sea and they both ran after it little monkeys common as ditchwater
someone ought to take them and give them a good hiding for themselves to keep them in their places the both of them and cissy and edy shouted after them to come back because they were afraid the tide might come in on them and be drowned jacky tommy
not they what a great notion they had so cissy said it was the very last time she'd ever bring them out she jumped up and called them and she ran down the slope past him tossing her hair behind her
but with all the thingamerry she was always rubbing into it she couldn't get it to grow long because it wasn't natural so she could just go and throw her hat at it she ran with long gandery strides
it was a wonder she didn't rip up her skirt at the side that was too tight on her because there was a lot of the tomboy about cissy caffrey and she was a forward piece whenever she thought she had a good opportunity to show and just because she was a good runner
she ran like that so that he could see all the end of her petticoat running and her skinny shanks up as far as possible it would have served her just right if she had tripped up over something accidentally on purpose
with her high crooked french heels on her to make her look tall and got a fine tumble tableau that would have been a very charming expose for a gentleman like that to witness queen of angels queen of patriarchs
queen of prophets of all saints they prayed queen of the most holy rosary and then father conroy handed the thurible to canon o'hanlon and he put in the incense and censed the blessed sacrament
and cissy caffrey caught the two twins and she was itching to give them a ringing good clip on the ear but she didn't because she thought he might be watching but she never made a bigger mistake in all her life
because gerty could see without looking that he never took his eyes off of her and then canon o'hanlon handed the thurible back to father conroy and knelt down looking up at the blessed sacrament and the choir began to sing the tantum ergo
to the tantumer gosa cramen tum three and eleven she paid for those stockings in sparrow's of george's street on the tuesday no the monday before easter and there wasn't a brack on them and that was what he was looking at transparent
and not at her insignificant ones that had neither shape nor form the cheek of her because he had eyes in his head to see the difference for himself cissy came up along the strand with the two twins and their ball
with her hat anyhow on her to one side after her run and she did look a streel tugging the two kids along with the flimsy blouse she bought only a fortnight before like a rag on her back and a bit of her petticoat hanging like a caricature
gerty just took off her hat for a moment to settle her hair and a prettier a daintier head of nutbrown tresses was never seen on a girl's shoulders a radiant little vision in sooth almost maddening in its sweetness
you would have to travel many a long mile before you found a head of hair the like of that she could almost see the swift answering flash of admiration in his eyes that set her tingling in every nerve she put on her hat so that she could see from underneath the brim
and swung her buckled shoe faster for her breath caught as she caught the expression in his eyes
her woman's instinct told her that she had raised the devil in him and at the thought a burning scarlet swept from throat to brow till the lovely colour of her face became a glorious rose edy boardman was noticing it too
because she was squinting at gerty half smiling with her specs like an old maid pretending to nurse the baby irritable little gnat she was and always would be and that was why no one could get on with her poking her nose into what was no concern of hers
what replied gerty with a smile reinforced by the whitest of teeth i was only wondering was it late because she wished to goodness they'd take the snottynosed twins and their babby home
to the mischief out of that so that was why she just gave a gentle hint about its being late and when cissy came up edy asked her the time and miss cissy as glib as you like said it was half past kissing time time to kiss again
but edy wanted to know because they were told to be in early wait said cissy i'll run ask my uncle peter over there what's the time by his conundrum so over she went and when he saw her coming
she could see him take his hand out of his pocket getting nervous and beginning to play with his watchchain looking up at the church passionate nature though he was gerty could see that he had enormous control over himself
one moment he had been there fascinated by a loveliness that made him gaze
selfcontrol expressed in every line of his distinguishedlooking figure cissy said to excuse her would he mind please telling her what was the right time and gerty could see him taking out his watch listening to it and looking up and clearing his throat
and he said he was very sorry his watch was stopped but he thought it must be after eight because the sun was set his voice had a cultured ring in it and though he spoke in measured accents there was a suspicion of a quiver in the mellow tones
cissy said thanks and came back with her tongue out and said uncle said his waterworks were out of order then they sang the second verse of the tantum ergo and canon o'hanlon got up again and censed the blessed sacrament and knelt down
and he told father conroy that one of the candles was just going to set fire to the flowers and father conroy got up and settled it all right and she could see the gentleman winding his watch and listening to the works and she swung her leg more in and out in time
it was getting darker but he could see and he was looking all the time that he was winding the watch or whatever he was doing to it and then he put it back and put his hands back into his pockets
and she knew by the feel of her scalp and that irritation against her stays that that thing must be coming on because the last time too was when she clipped her hair on account of the moon
literally worshipping at her shrine if ever there was undisguised admiration in a man's passionate gaze it was there plain to be seen on that man's face
edy began to get ready to go and it was high time for her and gerty noticed that that little hint she gave had had the desired effect because it was a long way along the strand to where there was the place to push up the pushcar
and canon o'hanlon stood up with his cope poking up at his neck and father conroy handed him the card to read off and he read out
eis and edy and cissy were talking about the time all the time and asking her but gerty could pay them back in their own coin and she just answered with scathing politeness when edy asked her was she heartbroken about her best boy throwing her over
gerty winced sharply a brief cold blaze shone from her eyes that spoke volumes of scorn immeasurable it hurt o yes
it cut deep because edy had her own quiet way of saying things like that she knew would wound like the confounded little cat she was gerty's lips parted swiftly to frame the word
but she fought back the sob that rose to her throat so slim so flawless
she had loved him better than he knew lighthearted deceiver and fickle like all his sex he would never understand what he had meant to her and for an instant there was in the blue eyes a quick stinging of tears
their eyes were probing her mercilessly but with a brave effort she sparkled back in sympathy as she glanced at her new conquest for them to see o responded gerty quick as lightning laughing
and the proud head flashed up i can throw my cap at who i like because it's leap year
but they cut the silence icily there was that in her young voice that told that she was not a one to be lightly trifled with
she could just chuck him aside as if he was so much filth and never again would she cast as much as a second thought on him and tear his silly postcard into a dozen pieces
and if ever after he dared to presume she could give him one look of measured scorn that would make him shrivel up on the spot miss puny little edy's countenance fell to no slight extent
and gerty could see by her looking as black as thunder that she was simply in a towering rage though she hid it the little kinnatt because that shaft had struck home for her petty jealousy and they both knew that she was something aloof apart
in another sphere that she was not of them and never would be and there was somebody else too that knew it and saw it so they could put that in their pipe and smoke it edy straightened up baby boardman to get ready to go
and cissy tucked in the ball and the spades and buckets and it was high time too because the sandman was on his way for master boardman junior and cissy told him too that billy winks was coming and that baby was to go deedaw
and baby looked just too ducky laughing up out of his gleeful eyes and cissy poked him like that out of fun in his wee fat tummy
sent up his compliments to all and sundry on to his brandnew dribbling bib
he has his bib destroyed the slight contretemps claimed her attention but in two twos she set that little matter to rights gerty stifled a smothered exclamation and gave a nervous cough and edy asked what
and she was just going to tell her to catch it while it was flying but she was ever ladylike in her deportment so she simply passed it off with consummate tact by saying that that was the benediction
because just then the bell rang out from the steeple over the quiet seashore because canon o'hanlon was up on the altar with the veil that father conroy put round his shoulders giving the benediction with the blessed sacrament in his hands
how moving the scene there in the gathering twilight the last glimpse of erin the touching chime of those evening bells and at the same time a bat flew forth from the ivied belfry
through the dusk hither thither with a tiny lost cry and she could see far away the lights of the lighthouses so picturesque she would have loved to do with a box of paints because it was easier than to make a man
and soon the lamplighter would be going his rounds past the presbyterian church grounds and along by shady tritonville avenue where the couples walked and lighting the lamp near her window
where reggy wylie used to turn his freewheel like she read in that book the lamplighter by miss cummins author of mabel vaughan and other tales for gerty had her dreams that no one knew of she loved to read poetry
and when she got a keepsake from bertha supple of that lovely confession album with the coralpink cover to write her thoughts in she laid it in the drawer of her toilettable which though it did not err on the side of luxury
was scrupulously neat and clean it was there she kept her girlish treasure trove the tortoiseshell combs her child of mary badge
the eyebrowleine her alabaster pouncetbox and the ribbons to change when her things came home from the wash and there were some beautiful thoughts written in it in violet ink that she bought in hely's of dame street
for she felt that she too could write poetry if she could only express herself like that poem that appealed to her so deeply that she had copied out of the newspaper she found one evening round the potherbs art thou real my ideal
it was called by louis j walsh magherafelt and after there was something about twilight wilt thou ever and ofttimes the beauty of poetry so sad in its transient loveliness had misted her eyes with silent tears
for she felt that the years were slipping by for her one by one and but for that one shortcoming she knew she need fear no competition and that was an accident coming down dalkey hill and she always tried to conceal it
but it must end she felt if she saw that magic lure in his eyes there would be no holding back for her love laughs at locksmiths she would make the great sacrifice
her every effort would be to share his thoughts dearer than the whole world would she be to him and gild his days with happiness there was the allimportant question and she was dying to know
had to have her put into a madhouse cruel only to be kind but even if what then would it make a very great difference from everything in the least indelicate her finebred nature instinctively recoiled
she loathed that sort of person the fallen women off the accommodation walk beside the dodder that went with the soldiers and coarse men with no respect for a girl's honour degrading the sex and being taken up to the police station no
no not that they would be just good friends like a big brother and sister without all that other in spite of the conventions of society with a big ess perhaps it was an old flame he was in mourning for from the days beyond recall
she thought she understood she would try to understand him because men were so different the old love was waiting waiting with little white hands stretched out with blue appealing eyes
heart of mine she would follow her dream of love the dictates of her heart that told her he was her all in all the only man in all the world for her for love was the master guide nothing else mattered
come what might she would be wild untrammelled
madcap ciss with her golliwog curls you had to laugh at her sometimes for instance when she asked you would you have some more chinese tea and jaspberry ram and when she drew the jugs too
and the men's faces on her nails with red ink make you split your sides
that was just like cissycums o
and walked down tritonville road smoking a cigarette there was none to come up to her for fun but she was sincerity itself one of the bravest and truest hearts heaven ever made
not one of your twofaced things too sweet to be wholesome and then there came out upon the air the sound of voices and the pealing anthem of the organ it was the men's temperance retreat
conducted by the missioner the reverend john hughes s j rosary sermon
they were there gathered together without distinction of social class and a most edifying spectacle it was to see in that simple fane beside the waves after the storms of this weary world
kneeling before the feet of the immaculate reciting the litany of our lady of loreto beseeching her to intercede for them the old familiar words holy mary holy virgin of virgins
how sad to poor gerty's ears had her father only avoided the clutches of the demon drink by taking the pledge or those powders the drink habit cured in pearson's weekly
she might now be rolling in her carriage second to none over and over had she told herself that as she mused by the dying embers in a brown study without the lamp because she hated two lights
or oftentimes gazing out of the window dreamily by the hour at the rain falling on the rusty bucket thinking but that vile decoction which has ruined so many hearths and homes
nay she had even witnessed in the home circle deeds of violence caused by intemperance and had seen her own father a prey to the fumes of intoxication forget himself completely
for if there was one thing of all things that gerty knew it was that the man who lifts his hand to a woman save in the way of kindness deserves to be branded as the lowest of the low
and still the voices sang in supplication to the virgin most powerful virgin most merciful and gerty rapt in thought scarce saw or heard her companions or the twins at their boyish gambols
or the gentleman off sandymount green that cissy caffrey called the man that was so like himself passing along the strand taking a short walk you never saw him any way screwed but still
and for all that she would not like him for a father because he was too old or something or on account of his face it was a palpable case of doctor fell or his carbuncly nose with the pimples on it and his sandy moustache a bit white under his nose
poor father with all his faults she loved him still when he sang tell me mary how to woo thee or my love and cottage near rochelle and they had stewed cockles and lettuce
her mother's birthday that was and charley was home on his holidays and tom and mister dignam and missus and patsy and freddy dignam and they were to have had a group taken no one would have thought the end was so near
now he was laid to rest and her mother said to him to let that be a warning to him for the rest of his days and he couldn't even go to the funeral on account of the gout
and she had to go into town to bring him the letters and samples from his office about catesby's cork lino artistic standard designs fit for a palace gives tiptop wear and always bright and cheery in the home
a sterling good daughter was gerty just like a second mother in the house a ministering angel too with a little heart worth its weight in gold and when her mother had those raging splitting headaches
who was it rubbed the menthol cone on her forehead but gerty though she didn't like her mother's taking pinches of snuff and that was the only single thing they ever had words about taking snuff everyone thought the world of her for her gentle ways
it was gerty who turned off the gas at the main every night and it was gerty who tacked up on the wall of that place where she never forgot every fortnight the chlorate of lime mister tunney the grocer's christmas almanac the picture of halcyon days
where a young gentleman in the costume they used to wear then with a threecornered hat was offering a bunch of flowers to his ladylove with oldtime chivalry through her lattice window you could see there was a story behind it
the colours were done something lovely she was in a soft clinging white in a studied attitude and the gentleman was in chocolate and he looked a thorough aristocrat
she often looked at them dreamily when she went there for a certain purpose and felt her own arms that were white and soft just like hers with the sleeves back and thought about those times
because she had found out in walker's pronouncing dictionary that belonged to grandpapa giltrap about the halcyon days what they meant the twins were now playing in the most approved brotherly fashion till at last master jacky who was really as bold as brass
there was no getting behind that deliberately kicked the ball as hard as ever he could down towards the seaweedy rocks needless to say poor tommy was not slow to voice his dismay but luckily the gentleman in black who was sitting there by himself
came gallantly to the rescue and intercepted the ball our two champions claimed their plaything with lusty cries and to avoid trouble cissy caffrey called to the gentleman to throw it to her please
the gentleman aimed the ball once or twice and then threw it up the strand towards cissy caffrey but it rolled down the slope and stopped right under gerty's skirt near the little pool by the rock the twins clamoured again for it
and cissy told her to kick it away and let them fight for it so gerty drew back her foot but she wished their stupid ball hadn't come rolling down to her and she gave a kick but she missed and edy and cissy laughed
if you fail try again edy boardman said gerty smiled assent and bit her lip a delicate pink crept into her pretty cheek but she was determined to let them see
so she just lifted her skirt a little but just enough and took good aim and gave the ball a jolly good kick and it went ever so far and the two twins after it down towards the shingle
pure jealousy of course it was nothing else to draw attention on account of the gentleman opposite looking she felt the warm flush a danger signal always with gerty mac dowell surging and flaming into her cheeks
till then they had only exchanged glances of the most casual but now under the brim of her new hat she ventured a look at him and the face that met her gaze there in the twilight wan and strangely drawn
seemed to her the saddest she had ever seen through the open window of the church the fragrant incense was wafted and with it the fragrant names of her who was conceived without stain of original sin
spiritual vessel pray for us honourable vessel pray for us vessel of singular devotion pray for us mystical rose and careworn hearts were there and toilers for their daily bread
and many who had erred and wandered their eyes wet with contrition but for all that bright with hope for the reverend father father hughes had told them what the great saint bernard said in his famous prayer of mary
the most pious virgin's intercessory power that it was not recorded in any age that those who implored her powerful protection were ever abandoned by her the twins were now playing again
cissy caffrey played with baby boardman till he crowed with glee clapping baby hands in air peep she cried behind the hood of the pushcar and edy asked where was cissy gone and then cissy popped up her head
and then she told him to say papa say papa baby say pa pa pa pa pa pa pa and baby did his level best to say it
for he was very intelligent for eleven months everyone said and big for his age and the picture of health a perfect little bunch of love and he would certainly turn out to be something great they said
cissy wiped his little mouth with the dribbling bib and wanted him to sit up properly and say pa pa pa but when she undid the strap she cried out holy saint denis
that he was possing wet and to double the half blanket the other way under him
it was all no use soothering him with no nono baby no and telling him about the geegee and where was the puffpuff but ciss always readywitted
gave him in his mouth the teat of the suckingbottle and the young heathen was quickly appeased gerty wished to goodness they would take their squalling baby home out of that and not get on her nerves no hour to be out
and the little brats of twins she gazed out towards the distant sea it was like the paintings that man used to do on the pavement with all the coloured chalks and such a pity too leaving them there to be all blotted out
the evening and the clouds coming out and the bailey light on howth and to hear the music like that and the perfume of those incense they burned in the church like a kind of waft and while she gazed her heart went pitapat
yes it was her he was looking at and there was meaning in his look his eyes burned into her as though they would search her through and through read her very soul wonderful eyes they were superbly expressive
but could you trust them people were so queer she could see at once by his dark eyes and his pale intellectual face that he was a foreigner the image of the photo she had of martin harvey the matinee idol only for the moustache
which she preferred because she wasn't stagestruck like winny rippingham that wanted they two to always dress the same on account of a play
he was in deep mourning she could see that and the story of a haunting sorrow was written on his face she would have given worlds to know what it was he was looking up so intently so still
and he saw her kick the ball and perhaps he could see the bright steel buckles of her shoes if she swung them like that thoughtfully with the toes down she was glad that something told her to put on the transparent stockings
here was that of which she had so often dreamed it was he who mattered and there was joy on her face because she wanted him because she felt instinctively that he was like no one else
the very heart of the girlwoman went out to him her dreamhusband because she knew on the instant it was him if he had suffered more sinned against than sinning or even even if he had been himself a sinner
a wicked man she cared not even if he was a protestant or methodist she could convert him easily if he truly loved her there were wounds that wanted healing with heartbalm she was a womanly woman
not like other flighty girls unfeminine he had known those cyclists showing off what they hadn't got and she just yearned to know all to forgive all if she could make him fall in love with her make him forget the memory of the past
then mayhap he would embrace her gently like a real man crushing her soft body to him and love her his ownest girlie for herself alone refuge of sinners
comfortress of the afflicted ora pro nobis well has it been said that whosoever prays to her with faith and constancy can never be lost or cast away
and fitly is she too a haven of refuge for the afflicted because of the seven dolours which transpierced her own heart gerty could picture the whole scene in the church
the stained glass windows lighted up the candles the flowers and the blue banners of the blessed virgin's sodality and father conroy was helping canon o'hanlon at the altar carrying things in and out with his eyes cast down
he looked almost a saint and his confessionbox was so quiet and clean and dark and his hands were just like white wax and if ever she became a dominican nun in their white habit
perhaps he might come to the convent for the novena of saint dominic he told her that time when she told him about that in confession crimsoning up to the roots of her hair for fear he could see not to be troubled because that was only the voice of nature
and we were all subject to nature's laws he said in this life and that that was no sin because that came from the nature of woman instituted by god he said
conquest of italy by the franks
there is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations in opposition to their inclination and interest
a torrent of barbarians may pass over the earth but an extensive empire must be supported by a refined system of policy and oppression in the centre
an absolute power prompt in action and rich in resources a swift and easy communication with the extreme parts
a regular administration to protect and punish
without provoking discontent and despair far different was the situation of the german caesars who were ambitious to enslave the kingdom of italy
their patrimonial estates were stretched along the rhine or scattered in the provinces
of successive princes and their revenue from minute and vexatious prerogative was scarcely sufficient for the maintenance of their household
whole armies were swept away by the pestilential
in the calamities of the barbarians this irregular tyranny might contend on equal terms with the petty tyrants of italy nor can the people or the reader
and their first privileges were granted by the favor and policy of the emperors who were desirous of erecting a plebeian
of the marquises and counts was banished from the land and the proudest nobles were persuaded or compelled to desert their solitary castles
and to embrace the more honorable character of freemen and magistrates the legislative authority was inherent in the general assembly
but the executive powers were intrusted to three consuls annually chosen from the three orders of captains valvassors
was soon guided by the use and discipline of arms at the foot of these popular ramparts the pride of the caesars was overthrown
with the arts of a statesman the valor of a soldier and the cruelty of a tyrant the recent discovery of the pandects had renewed a science most favorable to despotism
and his venal advocates proclaimed the emperor the absolute master of the lives and properties of his subjects his royal prerogatives in a less odious sense were acknowledged in the diet
were reduced by the terror or the force of his arms his captives were delivered to the executioner or shot from his military engines and after the siege and surrender of milan
the buildings of that stately capital were razed to the ground
their cause was espoused by venice pope alexander the third and the greek emperor the fabric of oppression was overturned in a day and in the treaty of constance
frederic subscribed with some reservations the freedom of four and twenty cities his grandson contended
the ghibelins were attached to the emperor
displayed the banner of liberty and the church the court of rome had slumbered when his father henry the sixth was permitted to unite with the empire the kingdoms of naples and sicily
and from these hereditary realms the son derived an ample and ready supply of troops and treasure yet frederic the second was finally oppressed by the arms of the lombards
on the armed freemen who were impatient of a magistrate on the bold who refused to obey on the powerful who aspired to command
was distributed among the dukes of the nations or provinces the counts of the smaller districts and the margraves of the marches or frontiers who all united the civil and military authority
as it had been delegated to the lieutenants of the first caesars the roman governors who for the most part were soldiers of fortune
assumed the imperial purple and either failed or succeeded in their revolt without wounding the power
the consequences of their success were more lasting and pernicious to the state instead of aiming at the supreme rank they silently labored to establish and appropriate their provincial independence
their ambition was seconded by the weight of their estates and vassals their mutual example and support the common interest of the subordinate nobility the change of princes and families
the minorities of otho the third and henry the fourth the ambition of the popes and the vain pursuit of the fugitive crowns of italy and rome
all the attributes of regal and territorial jurisdiction were gradually usurped by the commanders of the provinces the right of peace and war of life and death
and domestic economy
whatever had been granted to one could not without injury be denied to his successor or equal and every act of local or temporary possession was insensibly moulded into the constitution of the germanic
kingdom in every province the visible presence of the duke or count was interposed between the throne and the nobles the subjects of the law became the vassals of a private chief
or policy of the carlovingian and saxon dynasties who blindly depended on their moderation and fidelity and the bishoprics of germany were made equal in extent and privilege
superior in wealth and population to the most ample states of the military order as long as the emperors retained the prerogative of bestowing on every vacancy
these ecclesiastic and secular benefices their cause was maintained by the gratitude or ambition of their friends and favorites but in the quarrel of the investitures
they were deprived of their influence over the episcopal chapters the freedom of election was restored and the sovereign was reduced by a solemn mockery to his first prayers
the recommendation once in his reign to a single prebend in each church the secular governors instead of being recalled at the will of a superior
could be degraded only by the sentence of their peers in the first age of the monarchy the appointment of the son to the duchy or county of his father was solicited as a favor
it was gradually obtained as a custom and extorted as a right the lineal succession was often extended to the collateral or female branches
the states of the empire their popular and at length their legal appellation were divided and alienated by testament and sale and all idea of a public trust was lost in that of a private
and perpetual inheritance the emperor could not even be enriched by the casualties of forfeiture and extinction within the term of a year he was obliged to dispose of the vacant fief
and in the choice of the candidate it was his duty to consult either the general or the provincial diet after the death of frederic the second germany was left a monster with a
a crowd of princes and prelates disputed the ruins of the empire the lords of innumerable castles were less prone to obey than to imitate their superiors
and according to the measure of their strength their incessant hostilities received the names of conquest or robbery such anarchy was the inevitable consequence of the laws and manners of europe
and the kingdoms of france and italy were shivered into fragments by the violence of the same tempest but the italian cities and the french vassals were divided and destroyed while the union of the
under the name of an empire a great system of a federative republic
the perpetual institution of diets a national spirit was kept alive and the powers of a common legislature are still exercised by the three branches
or colleges of the electors the princes
with a distinguished name and rank the exclusive privilege of choosing the roman emperor and these electors were the king of bohemia the duke of saxony
purged themselves of a promiscuous multitude they reduced to four representative votes the long series of independent counts and excluded the nobles or equestrian order
sixty thousand of whom as in the polish diets had appeared on horseback
the hanseatic league commanded the trade and navigation of the north
a single province of trajan or constantine their unworthy successors were the counts of hapsburgh of nassau of luxemburgh and schwartzenburgh
the emperor henry the seventh procured for his son the crown of bohemia and his grandson charles the fourth was born among a people strange and barbarous
he received the gift or promise of the vacant empire from the roman pontiffs who in the exile and captivity of avignon affected the dominion of the earth
the death of his competitors united the electoral college and charles was unanimously saluted king of the romans and future emperor a title which in the same age was prostituted
to the caesars of germany and greece the german emperor was no more than the elective and impotent magistrate of an aristocracy of princes who had not left him a village that he might call his own
his best prerogative was the right of presiding and proposing in the national senate which was convened at his summons and his native kingdom of bohemia
less opulent than the adjacent city of nuremberg was the firmest seat of his power and the richest source of his revenue
in the cathedral of saint ambrose charles was crowned with the iron crown which tradition ascribed to the lombard monarchy but he was admitted only with a peaceful train
the gates of the city were shut upon him and the king of italy was held a captive by the arms
whom he confirmed in the sovereignty of milan in the vatican he was again crowned with the golden crown of the empire but in obedience to a secret treaty
is promulgated in the style of a sovereign and legislator a hundred princes bowed before his throne and exalted their own dignity by the voluntary honors which they yielded to their chief
or minister at the royal banquet the hereditary great officers the seven electors who in rank and title were equal to kings performed their solemn and domestic service of the palace
the seals of the triple kingdom were borne in state by the archbishops of mentz cologne and treves the perpetual arch chancellors of germany italy and arles
the great marshal on horseback exercised his function with a silver measure of oats which he emptied on the ground and immediately dismounted to regulate the order of the guests
the count palatine of the rhine place the dishes on the table the great chamberlain the margrave of brandenburgh presented after the repast
the golden ewer and basin to wash the king of bohemia as great cup bearer was represented by the emperor's brother the duke of luxemburgh and brabant
the temporal head of the great republic of the west
and his school resounded with the doctrine that the roman emperor was the rightful sovereign of the earth from the rising to the setting sun the contrary opinion was condemned not as an error
and the roman who disguised his strength under the semblance of modesty at the head of his victorious legions in his reign over the sea and land from the nile and euphrates to the atlantic ocean
augustus professed himself the servant of the state and the equal of his fellow citizens the conqueror of rome and her provinces assumed a popular and legal form of a censor a consul
and a tribune his will was the law of mankind but in the declaration of his laws he borrowed the voice of the senate and people and from their
after the defeat of cadesia a country intersected by rivers and canals might have opposed an insuperable barrier to the victorious cavalry
in the third month after the battle
who shouted with religious transport this is the white palace
this is the promise of the apostle of god the naked robbers of the desert were suddenly enriched beyond the measure of their hope or knowledge each chamber revealed a new treasure
secreted with art or ostentatiously displayed the gold and silver the various wardrobes and precious furniture
the estimate of fancy or numbers and another historian defines the untold and almost infinite mass by the fabulous computation
though curious facts represent the contrast of riches and ignorance
which is employed with a mixture of wax to illuminate the palaces of the east strangers to the name and properties of that odoriferous gum the saracens mistaking it for salt
mingled the camphire in their bread and were astonished at the bitterness of the taste one of the apartments of the palace was decorated with a carpet of silk sixty cubits in length
would be delighted with the splendid workmanship of nature and industry regardless of the merit of art and the pomp of royalty the rigid omar divided the prize among his brethren of medina
that carried away the tiara and cuirass
was overtaken by the pursuers the gorgeous trophy was presented to the commander of the faithful and the gravest of the companions condescended to smile when they beheld the white beard
the hairy arms and uncouth figure of the veteran
was followed by its desertion and gradual decay
and omar was advised by his general to remove the seat of government to the western side of the euphrates in every age the foundation and ruin of the assyrian cities has been easy and rapid
the country is destitute of stone and timber
but the importance of the new capital was supported by the numbers wealth and spirit of a colony of veterans and their licentiousness was indulged by the wisest caliphs
who were apprehensive of provoking the revolt of a hundred thousand swords ye men of cufa said ali who solicited their aid you have been always conspicuous by your valor
you conquered the persian king and scattered his forces till you had taken possession of his inheritance this mighty conquest was achieved by the battles of jalula
and nehavend after the loss of the former yezdegerd fled from holwan and concealed his shame and despair in the mountains of farsistan
with his equal and valiant companions the courage of the nation survived that of the monarch among the hills to the south of ecbatana or hamadan
one hundred and fifty thousand persians made a third and final stand for their religion and country and the decisive battle of nehavend was styled by the arabs the victory of victories
than the invasion of the arabs by the reduction of hamadan and ispahan of caswin tauris and rei they gradually approached the shores of the caspian sea
and the orators of mecca might applaud the success and spirit of the faithful who had already lost sight of the northern bear and had almost transcended the bounds of the habitable
they repassed the tigris over the bridge of mosul and in the captive provinces of armenia and mesopotamia embraced their victorious brethren of the syrian army
or persepolis and profaned the last sanctuary of the magian empire
was nearly surprised among the falling columns and mutilated figures
of kirman implored the aid of the warlike segestans and sought an humble refuge on the verge of the turkish and chinese power but a victorious army
is insensible of fatigue the arabs divided their forces in the pursuit of a timorous enemy and the caliph othman promised the government of chorasan to the first general
who should enter that large and populous country the kingdom of the ancient bactrians the condition was accepted the prize was deserved the standard of mahomet
in the public anarchy the independent governors of the cities and castles obtained their separate capitulations the terms were granted or imposed by the esteem the prudence or the compassion
of the victors and a simple profession of faith established the distinction between a brother and a slave after a noble defence harmozan the prince or satrap
of ahwaz and susa was compelled to surrender his person and his state to the discretion of the caliph and their interview exhibits a portrait of the arabian manners
in the presence and by the command of omar the gay barbarian was despoiled of his silken robes embroidered with gold and of his tiara bedecked with rubies and emeralds
said the conqueror to his naked
and of the different rewards of infidelity and obedience alas replied harmozan i feel them too deeply in the days of our common ignorance we fought with the weapons of the flesh
and my nation was superior god was then neuter since he has espoused your quarrel you have subverted our kingdom and religion
but discovered some apprehension lest he should be killed whilst he was drinking a cup of water be of good courage said the caliph your life is safe till you have drunk this water the crafty
satrap accepted the assurance and instantly dashed the vase against the ground omar would have avenged the deceit but his companions represented the sanctity of an oath and the speedy
conversion of harmozan entitled him not only to a free pardon but even to a stipend
the king of samarcand with the turkish tribes of sogdiana and scythia were moved by the lamentations and promises of the fallen monarch
and he solicited by a suppliant embassy the more solid and powerful friendship
of the dynasty of the tang may be justly compared
his people enjoyed the blessings of prosperity and peace and his dominion was acknowledged by forty four hordes of the barbarians of tartary his last garrisons of cashgar
and khoten maintained a frequent intercourse with their neighbors of the jaxartes and oxus a recent colony of persians had introduced into china the astronomy of the magi
and taitsong might be alarmed by the rapid progress and dangerous vicinity of the arabs the influence and perhaps the supplies of china revived the hopes of yezdegerd
and he returned with an army of turks to conquer the inheritance of his fathers the fortunate moslems without unsheathing their swords were the spectators of his ruin and death
insulted by the seditious inhabitants of merou and oppressed defeated and pursued by his barbarian allies he reached the banks of a river
and offered his rings and bracelets for an instant passage in a miller's boat ignorant or insensible of royal distress the rustic replied that four drams of silver were the daily profit of his mill
and the magian worship
on the banks of the indus the spacious regions between the oxus the jaxartes and the caspian sea were reduced by the arms of catibah to the obedience of the prophet and of
their idols were burnt or broken the mussulman chief pronounced a sermon
after several battles the turkish hordes were driven back to the desert and the emperors of china solicited the friendship of the victorious arabs to their industry the prosperity of the province
the sogdiana of the ancients may in a great measure be ascribed but the advantages of the soil and climate had been understood and cultivated
of the adjacent district
health and happiness and the mercy and blessing of god be upon you i praise the most high god and i pray for his prophet mahomet
and i would have you know that the fighting for religion is an act of obedience to god his messengers returned with the tidings of pious and martial ardor which they had kindled in every province
and the camp of medina was successively filled with the intrepid bands of the saracens who panted for action complained of the heat of the season and the scarcity of provisions
and accused with impatient murmurs the delays of the caliph as soon as their numbers were complete abubeker ascended the hill reviewed the men the horses and the arms
and poured forth a fervent prayer for the success of their undertaking in person and on foot he accompanied the first day's march and when the blushing leaders attempted to dismount
the caliph removed their scruples by a declaration
were equally meritorious
which advances to seize and affects to despise the objects of earthly ambition remember said the successor of the prophet that you are always in the presence of god on the verge of death
and the hope of paradise avoid injustice and oppression consult with your brethren and study to preserve the love and confidence of your troops when you fight the battles of the lord acquit yourselves like men
without turning your backs but let not your victory be stained with the blood of women or
destroy no palm trees nor burn any fields of corn cut down no fruit trees nor do any mischief to cattle only such as you kill to eat
when you make any covenant or article stand to it and be as good as your word as you go on
live retired in monasteries and propose to themselves to serve god that way
and give them no quarter till they either turn mahometans or pay tribute all profane or frivolous conversation all dangerous recollection of ancient quarrels
was severely prohibited among the arabs in the tumult of a camp the exercises of religion were assiduously practised and the intervals of action were employed in prayer
meditation and the study of the koran the abuse or even the use of wine was chastised by fourscore strokes on the soles of the feet and in the fervor of their primitive zeal
many secret sinners revealed their fault and solicited their punishment after some hesitation the command of the syrian army was delegated
one of the fugitives of mecca
without being abated by the singular
and benevolence of his temper but in all the emergencies of war the soldiers demanded the superior genius of caled
the sword of god was both in fact and fame the foremost leader of the saracens
and such was the spirit of the man or rather of the times that caled professed his readiness to serve under the banner of the faith though it were in the hands of a child or an enemy
glory and riches and dominion were indeed promised to the victorious mussulman but he was carefully instructed that if the goods of this life were his only incitement
knelt at her feet in an agony of remorse she had clung to hope while martin roget alternately coaxed and terrorised her while her father was dragged away from her while she endured
untold misery starvation humiliation at the hands of louise adet but now
wrapped in a dark mantle had stood in the corner of the room watching her like a serpent watches its prey had seemed like the forerunner of the
had already threatened her she knew of course that neither from him
could she expect the slightest justice or mercy
he suffered all that she suffered and in addition he must be tortured with anxiety for her and with remorse
yvonne for the past three days had only been vaguely conscious of time martin roget had spoken of a few hours respite only of the proconsul's desire to be soon rid of her well this meant no doubt that the morrow would see the end of it all
the end of her life which such a brief while ago seemed so full of delight of love and of happiness the end of her life
yvonne shivered beneath her thin gown the north westerly blast came in cruel gusts through the unglazed window and a vague instinct of self preservation caused yvonne to seek shelter in
the one corner of the room where the icy draught did not penetrate quite so freely eight nine and ten struck from the tower clock far away she heard these sounds as in a dream
and with her back resting against the wall she fell presently into a torpor like sleep suddenly something roused her and in an instant she sat up
wide awake and wide eyed every one of her senses conscious and on the alert something had roused her at first she could not say what it was or remember then presently individual sounds detached themselves from the buzzing in her ears
hitherto the house had always been so still
and his heavy tread had caused every loose board in the tumble down house to creak it was only louise adet's shuffling footsteps which had roused the dormant echoes
when she crept upstairs either to her own room or to throw a piece of stale bread to her prisoner but now
nor the shuffling gait of louise adet which had roused yvonne from her trance like sleep it was a gentle soft creeping step which was slowly cautiously mounting the stairs
yvonne crouching against the wall could count every tread now and then a board creaked now and then the footsteps halted yvonne wide eyed her heart stirred by a nameless terror was watching the door
the piece of tallow candle flickered in the draught its feeble light just touched the remote corner of the room and yvonne heard those soft creeping footsteps as they reached the landing and came to a halt outside the door
her knees shook her heart almost stopped its beating under the door something small and white had just been introduced a scrap of paper and there it remained white against the darkness of the unwashed boards
whilst the unknown footsteps softly crept down the stairs again for awhile longer yvonne remained as she was cowering against the wall
then at last she gathered courage trembling with excitement she raised herself to her knees and then on hands and knees for she was very weak and faint
her trembling hand closed over it with wide staring terror filled eyes she looked all round the narrow room ere she dared cast one more glance on that mysterious scrap of paper
then she struggled to her feet and tottered up to the table she sat down and with fingers numbed with cold she smoothed out the paper and held it close to the light trying to read what was written on it
her sight was blurred she had to pull herself resolutely together for suddenly she felt ashamed of her weakness
lady anthony
and just below them there was a small device drawn in red ink a tiny flower with five petals yvonne frowned and murmured vaguely puzzled no longer frightened now a flower drawn in red
what can it mean and as a vague memory struggled for expression in her troubled mind she added half aloud oh if it should be but now suddenly all her fears fell away from her
hope was once more knocking at the gates of her heart vague memories had taken definite shape the mysterious letter the message of hope the red flower all were gaining significance she stooped low to read the letter by the feeble light of the flickering candle
she read it through with her eyes first then with her lips in a soft murmur while her mind gradually took in all that it meant for her keep up your courage your friends are inside the city and on the watch
try the door of your prison every evening at one hour before midnight once you will find it yield slip out and creep noiselessly down the stairs
take it with confidence it will lead you to safety and to freedom courage and secrecy when she had finished reading
and now of a surety this message came from him
and it was more than hope that it brought to yvonne it brought certitude and happiness and a sweet tender remorse that she should ever have doubted
a distant clock had struck ten awhile ago
and lay down determined if possible to get a little sleep for indeed she felt that that was just what her dear milor would have wished her to do thus time went by
blissful moment the bit of candle burnt low and presently died out after that yvonne remained quite still upon the straw in total darkness
only the cold north westerly wind blew in in gusts
a drawing of bolts the grating of a key in the lock then again
at last
then she waited calling up all her strength
it yielded again and anon she was able to push open the door excited yet confident she tip toed out of the room the darkness like unto pitch was terribly disconcerting with the exception of her narrow prison
slowly and cautiously she crept a few paces forward
for a sound that would mean the near approach of danger hush sh sh came again as a gentle murmur from below and the something that moved and breathed in the darkness seemed to draw nearer to yvonne
a few more seconds of soul racking suspense a few more steps down the creaking stairs and she felt a strong hand laid upon her wrist and heard a muffled voice whisper in english
she did not recognise the voice even though there was something vaguely familiar in its intonation yvonne did not pause to conjecture she had been made happy by the very sound of the language which stood to her for every word of love she had ever heard
it restored her courage and her confidence in their fullest measure obeying the whispered command yvonne was content now to follow her mysterious guide who had hold of her hand
at a turn she perceived a feeble light at their foot down below up against this feeble light the form of her guide was silhouetted
he led her across louise adet's back kitchen it was from here that the feeble light came from a small oil lamp which stood on the centre table
then across the kitchen to the front door where again complete darkness reigned but soon yvonne who was following blindly whithersoever she was led heard the click of a latch and the grating of a door upon its hinges
a cold current of air caught her straight in the face she could see nothing for it seemed to be as dark out of doors as in but she had the sensation of that open door
of a threshold to cross of freedom and happiness beckoning to her straight out of the gloom within the next second or two she would be out of this terrible place its squalid and dank walls would be behind her
on ahead in that thrice welcome obscurity her dear milor and his powerful friend were beckoning to her to come boldly on
she filled her lungs with the keen winter air hope happiness excitement thrilled her every nerve
whispered the guide still speaking in english you are not cold no no i am not cold she whispered in reply i am conscious of nothing save that i am free and you are not afraid indeed
vaguely familiar in the way the man spoke which for the moment piqued yvonne's curiosity she did not of a truth know english well enough to detect the very obvious foreign intonation
something groaned and creaked persistently in the wind a little further on a street lanthorn was swinging aloft throwing a small circle of dim yellowish light on the unpaved street below
his shoulder brushing against the side of the nearest house as he kept closely within the shadow of its high wall the sight of his broad back thrilled her
so often spoke with an admiration that was akin to worship he too was probably tall and broad
and in her heart she felt that she was glad that she had suffered so much and then lived through such a glorious moment as this now from the narrow unpaved yard in front of the house the guide turned sharply to the right yvonne could only distinguish outlines
the lanthorn inside the clock tower of le bouffay guided her it was now on her right the house wherein she had been kept a prisoner these past three days was built against the walls of the great prison house
she felt neither fatigue nor cold for she was wildly excited the keen north westerly wind searched all the weak places in her worn clothing and her thin shoes were wet through
but her courage up to this point had never once forsaken her hope
and when her guide paused a moment ere he turned the angle of the high wall and whispered hurriedly you have courage my lady
the thing that had creaked so weirdly in the wind turned out to be a painted sign which swung out from an iron bracket fixed into the wall yvonne could not read the writing on the sign but she noticed that just above it there was a small window dimly lighted from within
what sort of a house it was yvonne could not of course see the frontage was dark save for narrow streaks of light which peeped through the interstices of the door and through the chinks of ill fastened shutters on either side not a sound came from within
whose nerves and senses had become preternaturally acute that the whole air around her was filled with muffled sounds
she was conscious right through the inky blackness of vague forms shapeless and silent that glided past her in the gloom
for you will find yourself in the company of poor people
above all you will find that they will pay no heed to you so i entreat you do not be afraid your friends would have arranged for a more refined place wherein to come and find you
you may have to wait an hour or even two you must have patience find a quiet place in one of the comers of the room and sit there quietly taking no notice of what goes on around you you will be quite safe
my friends sir she said earnestly and her voice shook slightly as she spoke
i cannot find the words now wherewith to thank you but i pray you do not thank me he broke in gruffly and do not waste time in parleying the open street is none too safe a place for you just now the house is
she whispered with passionate entreaty will you help him too
your friends are caring for him in the same way as they care for you then i shall see him soon very soon and in the meanwhile he added
despite anything you may see or hear your father's safety and your own not to speak of that of your friends hangs
i will remember sir rejoined yvonne quietly i in my turn entreat you to have no fears for me
she must wait patiently and silently for an hour or even two the room into which her guide now gently urged her forward was large and low only dimly lighted by an oil lamp which hung from the ceiling and emitted a thin stream of
such air as there was was foul and reeked of the fumes of alcohol and charcoal
the walls had no doubt been whitewashed once now they were of a dull greyish tint with here and there hideous stains of red
the plaster was hanging in strips and lumps from the ceiling it had fallen away in patches from the walls
there were two doors in the wall immediately facing the front entrance and on each side of the latter there was a small window both insecurely shuttered to yvonne the whole place appeared unspeakably squalid and noisome
there were perhaps sixteen to twenty people in the room amongst them a goodly number of women some of whom had tiny miserable atoms of humanity clinging to their ragged skirts a group of men in tattered shirts bare shins and sabots
stood in the centre of the room and had apparently been in conclave when the entrance of yvonne and her guide caused them to turn quickly to the door
the muttered blasphemy had come from this group
where yvonne instinctively had remained rooted to the spot as for the women they only betrayed their sex by the ragged clothes which they wore
they might have been old women or young their hair was of a uniform nondescript colour lank and unkempt hanging in thin strands over their brows their eyes were sunken their cheeks either flaccid or haggard there was no individuality amongst them
just one uniform sisterhood of wretchedness which had already gone hand in hand with crime across one angle of the room there was a high wooden counter like a bar on which stood a number of jugs and bottles
and a collection of pewter mugs an old man and a fat coarse featured middle aged woman stood behind it and dispensed various noxious looking liquors above their heads upon the grimy tumble down wall the republican device
huge characters and below it was scribbled the hideous doggrel
now she turned appealingly toward her guide
she pulled herself together resolutely
i entreat you to gather up your courage i assure you that these wretched people are not unkind misery not unlike that which you yourself have endured has made them what they are no doubt we should have arranged for a better place for you wherein to await your friends
but you will understand that your safety and our own had to be our paramount consideration and we had no choice i quite understand sir said yvonne valiantly and am already ashamed of my fears
and without another word of protest she stepped boldly into the room
up against the door opposite where she hoped or believed that she could remain unmolested
that muttered insults accompanied the furtive and glowering looks wherewith she was regarded more than one wretch spat upon her skirts on the way but now she was in no sense frightened only wildly excited
even her feeling of horror she contrived to conquer the knowledge that her own attitude
she felt quite confident that within an hour or two
who had risked his life in order to come to her it was indeed well worth while to have suffered as she had done to endure all that she might yet have to endure for the sake of the happiness which was in store for her
a look which was intended to reassure him completely as to her courage and her obedience but already he had gone and had closed the door behind him and quite against her will the sudden sense of loneliness and helplessness clutched at her heart with a grip that made it ache
of so valiant a friend the fact that she was safely out of louise adet's vengeful clutches was due to the man who had just disappeared behind that door it would be thanks to him presently if she saw her father again
milor's friend who kept his valiant personality a mystery even to those who owed their lives to him she had seen the outline of his broad figure
turned away from the door of the tavern as soon as it had closed on the young girl
at the angle formed by the high wall of the tavern he paused
quite safely the other gave a low cackle which might have been intended for a laugh the simplest means he said are always the best
you are a magician citizen chauvelin added martin roget grudgingly
you see rejoined chauvelin drily i graduated in the school of a master of all ruses
and hope was our great ally the hope that never forsakes a prisoner that of getting free your fair yvonne had boundless faith in the power of her english friends therefore she fell into our trap like a bird and like a bird she shall struggle in vain after this
said martin roget slowly oh that i could hasten the flight of time
and i wish too it were not so bitterly cold he added with a curse this north westerly wind has got into my bones on to your nerves i imagine citizen retorted chauvelin with a laugh for my part i feel as warm and comfortable as on a lovely day in june
hark who goes there broke in the other man abruptly as a solitary moving form detached itself from the surrounding inky blackness
quite in order citizen was the prompt reply the shadowy form came a step or two further forward is it you citizen fleury queried chauvelin himself citizen replied the other the men had spoken in a whisper
fleury now placed his hand on chauvelin's arm we had best not stand so close to the tavern he said
he led the others up the yard
in front of us the wall of the rat mort is on one side
on the other we can talk here undisturbed
chauvelin pointed up to it what is that he asked an aperture too small for any human being to pass through replied fleury drily it gives on a small landing at the foot of the stairs
i told friche to try and manoeuvre so that the wench and her father are pushed in there out of the way while the worst of the fracas is going on that was your suggestion citizen chauvelin it was
i was afraid the two aristos might get spirited away while your men were tackling the crowd in the tap room i wanted them put away in a safe place the staircase is safe enough rejoined fleury
the house has no back entrance it is built against the wall of le bouffay and what about your marats citizen commandant oh i have them all along the street entirely under cover but closely on the watch half a company and all keen after the game
the thousand francs you promised them has stimulated their zeal most marvellously and as soon as paul friche in there has whipped up the tempers of the frequenters of the rat mort we shall be ready to rush the place and i assure you citizen chauvelin
that only a disembodied ghost if there be one in the place will succeed in evading arrest
and at work or i'm much mistaken replied fleury as he suddenly gripped chauvelin by the arm
voices were raised to hoarse and raucous cries men and women all appeared to be shrieking together and presently there was a loud crash as of overturned furniture and broken glass a few minutes longer citizen fleury
said chauvelin as the commandant of the marats turned on his heel and started to go back to the carrefour de la poissonnerie
the coast is clear for them my marats are hidden from sight behind the doorways and shop fronts of the houses opposite in about three minutes from now i'll send them forward and good luck to your hunting citizen whispered chauvelin in response
fleury very quickly disappeared in the darkness
they hugged the wall of the rat mort as they went along and its shadow enveloped them completely their shoes made no sound on the unpaved ground chauvelin's nostrils quivered as he drew the keen cold air into his lungs
and faced the north westerly blast
his keen eyes tried to pierce the gloom
he knew he felt as certainly as he felt the air which he breathed
thinking planning intriguing pitting his sharp wits his indomitable pluck his impudent dare devilry against the sure and patient trap which had been set for him half a company of marats in front
poor widow once lived in a little cottage in front of the cottage was a garden in which were growing two rose trees one of these bore white roses and the other red
she had two children who resembled the rose trees one was called snow white and the other rose red and they were as religious and loving busy and untiring as any two children ever were
snow white was more gentle and quieter than her sister who liked better skipping about the fields seeking flowers and catching summer birds while snow white stayed at home with her mother
either helping her in her work or when that was done reading aloud the two children had the greatest affection the one for the other they were always seen hand in hand and should snow white say to her sister we will never separate the other would reply
the mother adding that which one has let her always share with the other they constantly ran together in the woods collecting ripe berries but not a single animal would have injured them
they all felt the greatest esteem for the young creatures the hare came to eat parsley from their hands the deer grazed by their side the stag bounded past them unheeding the birds likewise did not stir from the bough but sang in entire security
no mischance befell them if benighted in the wood they lay down on the moss to repose and sleep till the morning and their mother was satisfied as to their safety and felt no fear about them once when they had spent the night in the wood
and the bright sunrise awoke them they saw a beautiful child in a snow white robe shining like diamonds sitting close to the spot where they had reposed she arose when they opened their eyes and looked kindly at them
but said no word and passed from their sight into the wood
their mother said the beautiful child must have been the angel who watches over good children snow white and rose red kept their mother's cottage so clean that it gave pleasure only to look in
in summer time rose red attended to the house and every morning before her mother awoke placed by her bed a bouquet which had in it a rose from each of the rose trees in winter time
snow white set light to the fire and put on the kettle after polishing it until it was like gold for brightness in the evening when snow was falling her mother would bid her bolt the door and then sitting by the hearth
the good widow would read aloud to them from a big book while the little girls were spinning close by them lay a lamb
as they were all sitting cosily together like this there was a knock at the door as if someone wished to come in make haste rose red said her mother open the door it is surely some traveller seeking shelter rose red accordingly pulled back the bolt
expecting to see some poor man but it was nothing of the kind it was a bear that thrust his big head in at the open door rose red cried out and sprang back the lamb bleated the dove fluttered her wings and snow white hid herself behind her mother's bed
the bear began speaking and said do not be afraid i will not do you any harm i am half frozen and would like to warm myself a little at your fire poor bear the mother replied come in and lie by the fire
only be careful that your hair is not burnt then she called snow white and rose red telling them that the bear was kind and would not harm them they came as she bade them and presently the lamb and the dove drew near also without fear
after that he stretched himself out in front of the fire and pleased himself by growling a little only to show that he was happy and comfortable before long they were all quite good friends and the children began to play with their unlooked for visitor
pulling his thick fur or placing their feet on his back or rolling him over and over then they took a slender hazel twig using it upon his thick coat and they laughed when he growled the bear permitted them to amuse themselves in this way
only occasionally calling out when it went a little too far
and all were making ready to go to bed the widow told the bear you may stay here and lie by the hearth if you like
the offer was accepted but when morning came as the day broke in the east the two children let him out and over the snow he went back into the wood
when springtime came and all around began to look green and bright one morning the bear said to snow white now i must leave you and all the summer long i shall not be able to come back where then are you going dear bear asked snow white
i have to go to the woods to protect my treasure from the bad dwarfs in winter time when the earth is frozen hard they must remain underground and cannot make their way through but now that the sunshine has thawed the earth they can come to the surface and whatever gets into their hands
or is brought to their caves seldom if ever again sees daylight snow white was very sad when she said good bye to the good natured beast and unfastened the door that he might go but in going out he was caught by a hook in the lintel
snow white thought there was something shining like gold through the rent but he went out so quickly that she could not feel certain what it was and soon he was hidden among the trees
one day the mother sent her children into the wood to pick up sticks they found a big tree lying on the ground it had been felled and towards the roots they noticed something skipping and springing which they could not make out as it
as they came nearer they could see it was a dwarf with a shrivelled up face and a snow white beard an ell long
can't you come and try to help me what were you doing little fellow enquired rose red stupid inquisitive goose
not long afterwards the two sisters went to angle in the brook meaning to catch fish for dinner as they were drawing near the water they perceived something looking like a large grasshopper springing towards the stream as if it were going in
where are you going said rose red surely you will not jump into the water i'm not such a simpleton as that yelled the little man don't you see that a wretch of a fish is pulling me in
the dwarf had been sitting angling from the side of the stream when by ill luck the wind had entangled his beard in his line and just afterwards a big fish taking the bait
so the fish had the advantage and was dragging the dwarf after it
but that did not assist him greatly he was forced to follow all the twistings of the fish and was perpetually in danger of being drawn into the brook the girls arrived just in time they caught hold of him firmly and endeavoured to untwist his beard from the line
but in vain it was too tightly entangled there was nothing left but again to make use of the scissors so they were taken out and the tangled portion was cut off when the dwarf noticed what they were about he exclaimed in a great rage is this how you damage my beard
not content with making it shorter before you are now making it still smaller and completely spoiling it i shall not ever dare to show my face to my friends i wish you had missed your way before you took this road
then he fetched a sack of pearls that lay among the rushes and saying not another word hobbled off and disappeared behind a large stone
the way to the town ran over a common on which in every direction large masses of rocks were scattered about the children's attention was soon attracted to a big bird that hovered in the air they remarked that after circling slowly for a time
and gradually getting nearer to the ground
the setting sun was shining upon the brilliant stones and their changing hues and sparkling rays caused the children to pause to admire them also
what are you gazing at cried the dwarf at the same time becoming red with rage and what are you standing there for making ugly faces it is probable that he might have proceeded in the same complimentary manner
just see those precious stones lying there grant me my life what would you do with such an insignificant little fellow you would not notice me between your teeth see though those two children
they would be delicate morsels and are as plump as partridges i beg of you to take them good mister bear and let me go but the bear would not be moved by his speeches
making off for home as well as they could but all of a sudden they were stopped by a well known voice that called out snow white rose red stay do not fear i will accompany you the bear quickly came towards them but as he reached their side
and there before them was standing a handsome man completely garmented in gold who said i am a king's son who was enchanted by the wicked dwarf lying over there
he stole my treasure and compelled me to roam the woods transformed into a big bear until his death should set me free
awake my little ones and fill the cup
open then the door you know how little while we have to stay
the thoughtful soul to solitude retires where the white hand of moses on the bough puts out
the nightingale cries to the rose
come fill the cup and in the fire of spring the winter garment of repentance fling the bird of time has but a little way to fly and lo
let rustum lay about him as he will or hatim tai cry supper
ah take the cash in hand and waive the rest
at once the silken tassel of my purse tear
and anon like snow upon the desert's dusty face lighting a little hour or two
and those who flung it to the winds like rain alike to no such aureate earth are turn'd as
ah lean upon it lightly
the loveliest and the best that time and fate of all their vintage prest
i i ah make the most of what we yet may spend before we too into the dust descend dust into dust and under dust to lie sans wine sans song sans singer and
and those that after a to morrow stare a
their words to scorn are scatter'd
and leave the wise to talk one thing is certain
i yet in all i only cared to know
man's forgiveness give and take
my clay with long oblivion is gone dry
on the idle hill of summer sleepy with the flow of streams far i hear the steady drummer drumming like a noise in dreams far and near and low and louder on the roads of earth go by dear to friends and food for powder
soldiers marching all to die
lovely lads and dead and rotten none that go return again
still still the shadows stay
hand you have held true fellows hands
you and i must keep from shame in london streets the shropshire name
and friends abroad must bear in mind friends at home they leave behind oh i shall be stiff and cold when i forget you hearts of gold
so others wear the broom and climb the hedgerows heaped with may oh tarnish late on wenlock edge gold that i never see lie long high snowdrifts in the hedge that will not shower on me
that is the land of lost content i see it shining plain the happy highways where i went and cannot come again
in my own shire if i was sad homely comforters i had the earth because my heart was sore sorrowed for the son she bore and standing hills long to remain shared their short lived comrade's pain
and bound for the same bourn as i on every road i wandered by trod beside me close and dear the beautiful and death struck year whether in the woodland brown i heard the beechnut rustle down and saw the purple crocus pale flower about the autumn dale
yonder lightening other loads the seasons range the country roads but here in london streets i ken no such helpmates only men and these are not in plight to bear if they would another's care
they have enough as tis i see in many an eye that measures me the mortal sickness of a mind too unhappy to be kind undone with misery all they can is to hate their fellow man and till they drop they needs must still look at you and wish you ill
once in the wind of morning i ranged the thymy wold the world wide air was azure and all the brooks ran gold there through the dews beside me behold a youth that trod with feathered cap on forehead and poised a golden rod
with mien to match the morning and gay delightful guise and friendly brows and laughter he looked me in the eyes oh whence i asked and whither he smiled and would not say and looked at me and beckoned and laughed and led the way
and with kind looks and laughter and nought to say beside we two went on together i and my happy guide across the glittering pastures and empty upland still and solitude of shepherds high in the folded hill
by hanging woods and hamlets that gaze through orchards down on many a windmill turning and far discovered town with gay regards of promise and sure unslackened stride and smiles and nothing spoken led on my merry guide
by blowing realms of woodland with sunstruck vanes afield
by valley guarded granges and silver waters wide content at heart i followed with my delightful guide and like the cloudy shadows across the country blown we two face on for ever but not we two alone
with the great gale we journey that breathes from gardens thinned borne in the drift of blossoms whose petals throng the wind buoyed on the heaven heard whisper of dancing leaflets whirled
the man of flesh and soul be slain and the man of bone remain
this tongue that talks these lungs that shout these thews that hustle us about this brain that fills the skull with schemes and its humming hive of dreams these to day are proud in power and lord it in their little hour
the immortal bones obey control of dying flesh and dying soul tis long till eve and morn are gone slow the endless night comes on and late to fulness grows the birth that shall last as long as earth wanderers eastward wanderers west
know you why you cannot rest tis that every mother's son travails with a skeleton lie down in the bed of dust bear the fruit that bear you must bring the eternal seed to light and morn is all the same as night
rest you so from trouble sore fear the heat o the sun no more nor the snowing winter wild now you labour not with child empty vessel garment cast we that wore you long shall last another night another day
so my bones within me say therefore they shall do my will to day while i am master still and flesh and soul now both are strong shall hale the sullen slaves along
and leave with ancient night alone the stedfast and enduring bone
so quick so clean an ending oh that was right lad that was brave yours was not an ill for mending twas best to take it to the grave oh you had forethought you could reason and saw your road and where it led
and early wise and brave in season put the pistol to your head oh soon and better so than later after long disgrace and scorn you shot dead the household traitor the soul that should not have been born
you would not live to wrong your brothers oh lad you died as fits a man
turn safe to rest no dreams no waking and here man here's the wreath i've made tis not a gift that's worth the taking but wear it and it will not fade
pluck it out lad and be sound twill hurt but here are salves to friend you and many a balsam grows on ground
but play the man stand up and end you when your sickness is your soul
snap not from the bitter yew his leaves that live december through break no rosemary bright with rime and sparkling to the cruel clime nor plod the winter land to look for willows in the icy brook to cast them leafless round him
bring no spray that ever buds in spring but if the christmas field has kept awns the last gleaner overstept or shrivelled flax whose flower is blue a single season never two
or if one haulm whose year is o'er shivers on the upland frore oh bring from hill and stream and plain whatever will not flower again
live lads and i will die oh
had i stuck to plane and adze i had not been lost my lads then i might have built perhaps gallows trees for other chaps never dangled on my own had i but left ill alone
now you see they hang me high and the people passing by stop to shake their fists and curse so tis come from ill to worse here hang i and right and left two poor fellows hang for theft
comrades all that stand and gaze walk henceforth in other ways see my neck and save your own comrades all leave ill alone make some day a decent end shrewder fellows than your friend fare you well for ill fare i
live lads and i will die
be still my soul be still the arms you bear are brittle earth and high heaven are fixt of old and founded strong think rather call to thought if now you grieve a little the days when we had rest o soul for they were long
men loved unkindness then
we both were fashioned far away we neither knew when we were young these londoners we live among
what lad drooping with your lot i too would be where i am not i too survey that endless line of men whose thoughts are not as mine
and light on me my trouble lay and i slept out in flesh and bone manful like the man of stone
there in the windless night time the wanderer marvelling why halts on the bridge to hearken how soft the poplars sigh he hears long since forgotten in fields where i was known here i lie down in london and turn to rest alone
there by the starlit fences the wanderer halts and hears my soul that lingers sighing about the glimmering weirs
so take me in your arms a space before the east is grey when i from hence away am past i shall not find a bride and you shall be the first and last i ever lay beside
light was the air beneath the sky but dark under the shade oh do you breathe lad that your breast seems not to rise and fall and here upon my bosom prest there beats no heart at all
oh loud my girl it once would knock you should have felt it then but since for you i stopped the clock it never goes again oh lad what is it lad that drips wet from your neck on mine what is it falling on my lips my lad that tastes of brine
oh like enough tis blood my dear for when the knife has slit the throat across from ear to ear twill bleed because of it
with rue my heart is laden for golden friends i had for many a rose lipt maiden and many a lightfoot lad by brooks too broad for leaping the lightfoot boys are laid the rose lipt girls are sleeping in fields where roses fade
westward on the high hilled plains where for me the world began still i think in newer veins frets the changeless blood of man now that other lads than i strip to bathe on severn shore they no help for all they try tread the mill i trod before
where the lad lies down to rest stands the troubled dream beside there on thoughts that once were mine day looks down the eastern steep and the youth at morning shine makes the vow he will not keep
but since the man that runs away lives to die another day and cowards funerals when they come are not wept so well at home therefore though the best is bad stand and do the best my lad stand and fight and see your slain
you hearken to the lover's say and happy is the lover tis late to hearken late to smile but better late than never i shall have lived a little while before i die for ever
two friends kept step beside me two honest lads and hale now dick lies long in the churchyard and ned lies long in jail
the isle of portland the star filled seas are smooth to night from france to england strown black towers above the portland light the felon quarried stone
lie you easy dream you light and sleep you fast for aye and luckier may you find the night than ever you found the day
now hollow fires burn out to black and lights are guttering low square your shoulders lift your pack and leave your friends and go oh never fear man nought's to dread look not left nor right
in all the endless road you tread there's nothing but the night
and there lie hughley people and there lie friends of mine tall in their midst the tower divides the shade and sun and the clock strikes the hour and tells the time to none to south the headstones cluster the sunny mounds lie thick
the dead are more in muster at hughley than the quick north for a soon told number chill graves the sexton delves and steeple shadowed slumber the slayers of themselves to north to south lie parted with hughley tower above
the kind the single hearted the lads i used to love and south or north tis only a choice of friends one knows and i shall ne'er be lonely asleep with these or those
terence this is stupid stuff you eat your victuals fast enough there can't be much amiss tis clear to see the rate you drink your beer but oh good lord the verse you make it gives a chap the belly ache
the cow the old cow she is dead it sleeps well the horned head we poor lads tis our turn now to hear such tunes as killed the cow pretty friendship tis to rhyme your friends to death before their time moping melancholy mad
why if tis dancing you would be there's brisker pipes than poetry say for what were hop yards meant or why was burton built on trent oh many a peer of england brews livelier liquor than the muse
and malt does more than milton can to justify god's ways to man ale man ale's the stuff to drink for fellows whom it hurts to think look into the pewter pot to see the world as the world's not
and faith tis pleasant till tis past the mischief is that twill not last oh i have been to ludlow fair and left my necktie god knows where and carried half way home or near pints and quarts of ludlow beer
then the world seemed none so bad and i myself a sterling lad and down in lovely muck i've lain happy till i woke again then i saw the morning sky
heigho the tale was all a lie the world it was the old world yet i was i my things were wet and nothing now remained to do but begin the game anew therefore
i'd face it as a wise man would and train for ill and not for good tis true the stuff i bring for sale is not so brisk a brew as ale out of a stem that scored the hand i wrung it in a weary land but take it
if the smack is sour the better for the embittered hour it should do good to heart and head when your soul is in my soul's stead and i will friend you if i may in the dark and cloudy day there was a king reigned in the east
there when kings will sit to feast they get their fill before they think with poisoned meat and poisoned drink he gathered all that springs to birth from the many venomed earth first a little thence to more he sampled all her killing store
and easy smiling seasoned sound sate the king when healths went round they put arsenic in his meat and stared aghast to watch him eat
and shook to see him drink it up they shook they stared as white's their shirt them it was their poison hurt i tell the tale that i heard told mithridates he died old
i brought them home unheeded the hue was not the wear so up and down i sow them for lads like me to find when i shall lie below them a dead man out of mind
but here and there will flower the solitary stars and fields will yearly bear them as light leaved spring comes on and luckless lads will wear them
meantime as we have said despite the cries of his conscience and the wise counsels of athos d'artagnan became
thus he never failed to pay his diurnal court to her and the self satisfied gascon was convinced that sooner or later she could not fail to respond one day when he arrived with his head in the air
under the gateway of the hotel but this time the pretty kitty was not contented with touching him as he passed she took him gently by the hand good thought d'artagnan she is charged with some message for me from her mistress
she is about to appoint some rendezvous
that which i have to say is too long and above all too secret well what is to be done if monsieur chevalier would follow me said kitty timidly where you please my dear child
come then and kitty who had not let go the hand of d'artagnan led him up a little dark winding staircase and after ascending about fifteen steps opened a door come in here monsieur chevalier said she
here we shall be alone and can talk and whose room is this my dear child
it communicates with my mistress's by that door but you need not fear she will not hear what we say she never goes to bed before midnight d'artagnan cast a glance around him
the little apartment was charming for its taste and neatness but in spite of himself his eyes were directed to that door which kitty said led to milady's chamber kitty guessed what was passing in the mind of the young man and heaved a deep sigh
you love my mistress then very dearly monsieur chevalier said she oh more than i can say kitty i am mad for her kitty breathed a second sigh alas monsieur said she that is too bad
what the devil do you see so bad in it said d'artagnan because monsieur replied kitty my mistress loves you not at all hein said d'artagnan
can she have charged you to tell me so oh no monsieur but out of the regard i have for you i have taken the resolution to tell you so much obliged my dear kitty but for the intention only
for the information you must agree is not likely to be at all agreeable that is to say
is it not so we have always some difficulty in believing such things my pretty dear were it only from self love then you don't believe me
i confess that unless you deign to give me some proof of what you advance what do you think of this kitty drew a little note from her bosom for me said d'artagnan seizing the letter
no for another for another yes his name his name cried d'artagnan read the address monsieur el comte de wardes
the remembrance of the scene at saint germain presented itself to the mind of the presumptuous gascon as quick as thought he tore open the letter in spite of the cry which kitty uttered on seeing what he was going to do
or rather what he was doing oh good lord monsieur chevalier said she what are you doing i said d'artagnan nothing and he read
you have not answered my first note are you indisposed or have you forgotten the glances you favored me with
do not allow it to escape d'artagnan became very pale he was wounded in his self love he thought that it was in his love
poor dear monsieur d'artagnan said kitty in a voice full of compassion and pressing anew the young man's hand you pity me little one said d'artagnan oh yes
and with all my heart for i know what it is to be in love you know what it is to be in love said d'artagnan looking at her for the first time with much attention alas yes
well then instead of pitying me you would do much better to assist me in avenging myself on your mistress and what sort of revenge would you take i would triumph over her and supplant my rival
i will never help you in that monsieur chevalier said kitty warmly and why not demanded d'artagnan for two reasons what ones the first is that my mistress will never love you
how do you know that you have cut her to the heart i in what can i have offended her i who ever since i have known her have lived at her feet like a slave speak i beg you
i will never confess that but to the man who should read to the bottom of my soul d'artagnan looked at kitty for the second time the young girl had freshness and beauty which
kitty said he i will read to the bottom of your soul when ever you like don't let that disturb you and he gave her a kiss at which the poor girl became as red as a cherry oh no said kitty
it is not me you love it is my mistress you love you told me so just now
the second reason monsieur the chevalier replied kitty emboldened by the kiss in the first place and still further by the expression of the eyes of the young man is that in love everyone for herself
then only d'artagnan remembered the languishing glances of kitty her constantly meeting him in the antechamber the corridor or on the stairs those touches of the hand every time she met him and her deep sighs
but absorbed by his desire to please the great lady he had disdained the soubrette he whose game is the eagle takes no heed of the sparrow but this time our gascon saw at a glance
all the advantage to be derived from the love which kitty had just confessed so innocently or so boldly the interception of letters addressed to the comte de wardes news on the spot
entrance at all hours into kitty's chamber which was contiguous to her mistress's the perfidious deceiver was as may plainly be perceived already sacrificing in intention
willy nilly well said he to the young girl are you willing my dear kitty that i should give you a proof of that love which you doubt what love asked the young girl
of that which i am ready to feel toward you and what is that proof are you willing that i should this evening pass with you the time i generally spend with your mistress oh yes said kitty clapping her hands very willing
well then come here my dear said d'artagnan establishing himself in an easy chair come and let me tell you that you are the prettiest soubrette i ever saw and he did tell her so much
and so well that the poor girl who asked nothing better than to believe him did believe him nevertheless to d'artagnan's great astonishment the pretty kitty defended herself resolutely
time passes quickly when it is passed in attacks and defenses midnight sounded and almost at the same time the bell was rung in milady's chamber good god cried kitty there is my mistress calling me
go go directly d'artagnan rose took his hat as if it had been his intention to obey then opening quickly the door of a large closet instead of that leading to the staircase
what are you doing cried kitty d'artagnan who had secured the key shut himself up in the closet without reply
are you asleep that you don't answer when i ring and d'artagnan heard the door of communication opened violently here am i milady here am i cried kitty springing forward to meet her mistress
both went into the bedroom and as the door of communication remained open
she was at length appeased and the conversation turned upon him while kitty was assisting her mistress
what milady has he not come said kitty can he be inconstant before being happy oh no he must have been prevented by monsieur de treville or monsieur dessessart i understand my game kitty
i have this one safe what will you do with him madame what will i do with him be easy kitty there is something between that man and me that he is
quite ignorant of he nearly made me lose my credit with his eminence oh i will be revenged
an idiot who held the life of lord de winter in his hands and did not kill him
that's true said kitty your son was the only heir of his uncle and until his majority
in which the equipment of aramis and porthos is treated of since the four friends had been each in search of his equipments there had been no fixed meeting between them they dined apart from one another
wherever they might happen to be or rather where they could duty likewise on its part took a portion of that precious time which was gliding away so rapidly only they had agreed to meet once a week about one o'clock
at the residence of athos seeing that he in agreement with the vow he had formed did not pass over the threshold of his door this day of reunion was the same day as that on which kitty came to find d'artagnan
d'artagnan directed his steps
he found athos and aramis philosophizing aramis had some slight inclination to resume the cassock athos according to his system neither encouraged nor dissuaded him
athos believed that everyone should be left to his own free will he never gave advice but when it was asked and even then he required to be asked twice people in general he said
only ask advice not to follow it or if they do follow it it is for the sake of having someone to blame for having given it porthos arrived a minute after d'artagnan
the four countenances expressed four different feelings that of porthos tranquillity that of d'artagnan hope that of aramis uneasiness that of athos carelessness
at the end of a moment's conversation in which porthos hinted that a lady of elevated rank had condescended to relieve him from his embarrassment mousqueton entered he came to request his master to return to his lodgings
where his presence was urgent as he piteously said is it my equipment yes and no
well but can't you speak come monsieur porthos rose saluted his friends and followed mousqueton an instant after bazin made his appearance at the door
what do you want with me my friend said aramis
that his ideas were directed toward the church a man wishes to see monsieur at home replied bazin a man what man a mendicant give him alms bazin
and bid him pray for a poor sinner this mendicant insists upon speaking to you and pretends that you will be very glad to see him has he sent no particular message for me
yes if monsieur aramis hesitates to come he said tell him i am from tours from tours cried aramis a thousand pardons gentlemen but no doubt this man brings me the news i expected
and rising also he went off at a quick pace there remained athos and d'artagnan i believe these fellows have managed their business what do you think d'artagnan said athos
i know that porthos was in a fair way replied d'artagnan and as to aramis to tell you the truth i have never been seriously uneasy on his account but you my dear athos you who so
generously distributed the englishman's pistoles which were our legitimate property what do you mean to do i am satisfied with having killed that fellow my boy
an englishman but if i had pocketed his pistoles they would have weighed me down like a remorse go to my dear athos you have truly inconceivable ideas
let it pass
when he did me the honor to call upon me yesterday that you associated with the suspected english whom the cardinal protects
the one i named
the fair woman on whose account i gave you advice which naturally you took care not to adopt i gave you my reasons yes you look there for your outfit i think you said
not at all i have acquired certain knowledge that that woman was concerned in the abduction of madame bonacieux yes i understand now to find one woman you court another
it is the longest road but certainly the most amusing d'artagnan was on the point of telling athos all but one consideration restrained him athos was a gentleman punctilious in points of honor
he was therefore silent and as athos was the least inquisitive of any man on earth d'artagnan's confidence stopped there we will therefore leave the two friends who had nothing important to say to each other
and follow aramis upon being informed that the person who wanted to speak to him came from tours we have seen with what rapidity the young man followed
is that your name monsieur my very own you have brought me something yes
here it is said aramis taking a small key from his breast and opening a little ebony box inlaid with mother of pearl here it is look that is right replied the mendicant
dismiss your lackey in fact bazin curious to know what the mendicant could want with his master kept pace with him as well as he could and arrived almost at the same time he did
but his quickness was not of much use to him at the hint from the mendicant his master made him a sign to retire and he was obliged to obey
or hear him and opening his ragged vest badly held together by a leather strap he began to rip the upper part of his doublet from which he drew a letter aramis uttered a cry of joy at the sight of the seal
kissed the superscription with an almost religious respect and opened the epistle which contained what follows my friend it is the will of fate that we should be still for some time separated
but the delightful days of youth are not lost beyond return perform your duty in camp i will do mine elsewhere accept that which the bearer brings you
and think of me who kisses tenderly your black eyes
au revoir the mendicant continued to rip his garments and drew from amid his rags a hundred and fifty spanish double pistoles which he laid down on the table
then he opened the door bowed and went out before the young man stupefied by his letter had ventured to address a word to him aramis then reperused the letter and perceived a postscript
p s you may behave politely to the bearer who is a count and a grandee of spain golden dreams cried aramis oh beautiful life
yes we are young yes we shall yet have happy days my love my blood my life all all all are thine
my adored mistress and he kissed the letter with passion without even vouchsafing a look at the gold which sparkled on the table
and as aramis had no longer any reason to exclude him he bade him come in
who curious to know who the mendicant could be came to aramis on leaving athos
he announced himself the devil my dear aramis said d'artagnan if these are the prunes that are sent to you from tours i beg you will make my compliments to the gardener who gathers them
you are mistaken friend d'artagnan said aramis always on his guard this is from my publisher who has just sent me the price of that poem in one syllable verse which i began yonder
ah indeed said d'artagnan well your publisher is very generous my dear aramis that's all i can say how monsieur cried bazin a poem sell so dear as that it is incredible oh monsieur
monsieur de benserade i like that a poet is as good as an abbe ah monsieur aramis become a poet i beg of you
said aramis i believe you meddle with my conversation
he bowed and went out ah said d'artagnan with a smile you sell your productions at their weight in gold you are very fortunate my friend but take care or you will lose that letter
which is peeping from your doublet and which also comes no doubt from your publisher aramis blushed to the eyes crammed in the letter and re buttoned his doublet my dear d'artagnan said he
if you please we will join our friends as i am rich we will today begin to dine together again expecting that you will be rich in your turn my faith said d'artagnan with great pleasure
it is long since we have had a good dinner and i for my part have a somewhat hazardous expedition for this evening
agreed as to the old burgundy i have no objection to that said aramis
to answer the needs of the moment he placed the others in the ebony box inlaid with mother of pearl in which was the famous handkerchief which served him as a talisman the two friends repaired to athos's
and he faithful to his vow of not going out took upon him to order dinner to be brought to them as he was perfectly acquainted with the details of gastronomy d'artagnan and aramis made no objection
to abandoning this important care to him they went to find porthos and at the corner of the rue bac
who with a most pitiable air was driving before him a mule and a horse d'artagnan uttered a cry of surprise which was not quite free from joy ah my yellow horse cried he
aramis look at that horse oh the frightful brute said aramis ah my dear replied d'artagnan upon that very horse i came to paris what does monsieur know this horse
said mousqueton it is of an original color said aramis i never saw one with such a hide in my life i can well believe it replied d'artagnan and that was why i got three crowns for him
say nothing about it monsieur it is a frightful trick of the husband of our duchess how is that mousqueton why we are looked upon with a rather favorable eye by a lady of quality the duchesse de
but your pardon my master has commanded me to be discreet she had forced us to accept a little souvenir a magnificent spanish genet
which were beautiful to look upon the husband heard of the affair on their way he confiscated the two magnificent beasts which were being sent to us and substituted these horrible animals
which you are taking back to him said d'artagnan
you may well believe that we will not accept such steeds as these in exchange for those which had been promised to us no pardieu though i should like to have seen porthos on my yellow horse
but don't let us hinder you mousqueton go and perform your master's orders is he at home yes monsieur said mousqueton but in a very ill humor get up
he having seen them crossing the yard took care not to answer and they rang in vain meanwhile mousqueton continued on his way
to the knocker of the procurator's door then without taking any thought for their future he returned to porthos and told him that his commission was completed in a short time
the two unfortunate beasts who had not eaten anything since the morning made such a noise in raising and letting fall the knocker that the procurator ordered his errand boy to go and inquire in the neighborhood to whom this horse and mule belonged
recognized her present and could not at first comprehend this restitution but the visit of porthos soon enlightened her the anger which fired the eyes of the musketeer in spite of his efforts to suppress it
terrified his sensitive inamorata in fact mousqueton had not concealed from his master that he had met d'artagnan and aramis and that d'artagnan in the yellow horse
and which he had sold for three crowns porthos went away after having appointed a meeting with the procurator's wife
the procurator seeing he was going invited him to dinner an invitation which the musketeer refused with a majestic air
for she guessed the reproaches that awaited her there but she was fascinated by the lofty airs of porthos all that which a man wounded in his self love could let fall in the shape of imprecations
and reproaches upon the head of a woman porthos let fall upon the bowed head
alas said she i did all for the best one of our clients is a horsedealer he owes money to the office and is backward in his pay i took the mule and the horse for what he owed us he assured me
that they were two noble steeds well madame said porthos if he owed you more than five crowns your horsedealer is a thief
there is no harm in trying to buy things cheap monsieur porthos said the procurator's wife seeking to excuse herself no madame but they who so assiduously try to buy things cheap
ought to permit others to seek more generous friends and porthos turning on his heel made a step to retire monsieur porthos monsieur porthos cried the procurator's wife i have been wrong i see it
i ought not to have driven a bargain when it was to equip a cavalier like you porthos without reply retreated a second step the procurator's wife fancied she saw him in a brilliant cloud
all surrounded by duchesses and marchionesses who cast bags of money at his feet stop in the name of heaven monsieur porthos cried she stop and
but tell me what do you ask nothing for that amounts to the same thing as if i asked you for something the procurator's wife hung upon the arm of porthos
and in the violence of her grief she cried out monsieur porthos i am ignorant of all such matters how should i know what a horse is how should i know what horse furniture is you should have left it to me then madame who know what they are
but you wished to be frugal and consequently to lend at usury it was wrong monsieur porthos but i will repair that wrong upon my word of honor how so asked the musketeer listen
who has sent for him it is for a consultation which will last three hours at least come we shall be alone and can make up our accounts in good time
now you talk my dear you pardon me we shall see said porthos majestically and the two separated saying till this evening the devil thought porthos as he walked away
perhaps he did not take much delight in them he was no doubt impatient to commence that steady married life for which he had prepared himself but nevertheless just at present he lived a good deal at the beargarden where was he to live the boncassens were in paris
his sister was at matching with a houseful of other pallisers and his father was again deep in politics of course he was much in the house of commons but that also was stupid indeed everything would be stupid till isabel came back
perhaps dinner was more comfortable at the club than at the house and then as everybody knew it was a good thing to change the scene therefore he dined at the club
he spent many long hours at the beargarden there'll very soon be an end of this as far as you are concerned
he wrote to me and i answered him as you know but whither he vanished or what he is doing or how he is living i have not the least idea gone to join those other fellows abroad i should say
among them they got a lot of money as the duke ought to remember he is not with them said silverbridge as though he were in some degree mourning over the fate of his unfortunate friend i suppose captain green was the leader in all that
he was true to me till he thought i snubbed him i would not let him go down to silverbridge with me i always thought that i drove the poor major to his malpractices at this moment dolly longstaff sauntered into the room and came up to them
it may be remembered that dolly had declared his purpose of emigrating as soon as he heard that the duke's heir had serious thoughts of marrying the lady whom he loved he withdrew at once from the contest
but as he did so he acknowledged that there could be no longer a home for him in the country which isabel was to inhabit as the wife of another man gradually however better thoughts returned to him after all what was she but a pert poppet
he determined that marriage clips a fellow's wings confoundedly and so he set himself to enjoy life after his old fashion there was perhaps a little swagger as he threw himself into a chair and addressed the happy lover
tifto yes tifto
a shabby hat and old gloves did he speak to you asked silverbridge no nor i to him
nothing further was said about the man but silverbridge was uneasy and silent when his cigar was finished he got up saying that he should go back to the house as he left the club he looked about him as though expecting to see his old friend
and when he had passed through the first street and had got into the haymarket there he was the major came up to him touched his hat asked to be allowed to say a few words i don't think it can do any good said silverbridge
but seemed to be thoroughly humiliated i don't think i can be of any service to you and therefore i had rather decline i don't want you to be of any service my lord then what's the good
i have something to say may i come to you to morrow then silverbridge allowed himself to make an appointment and an hour was named at which tifto might call in carlton terrace
he felt that he almost owed some reparation to the wretched man whom he had unfortunately admitted among his friends whom he had used and to whom he had been uncourteous exactly at the hour named the major was shown into his room
dolly had said that he was shabby but the man was altered rather than shabby he still had rings on his fingers and studs in his shirt and a jewelled pin in his cravat but he had shaven off his moustache and the tuft from his chin
and in spite of his jewellery there was a hang dog look about him i've got something that i particularly want to say to you my lord silverbridge would not shake hands with him but could not refrain from offering him a chair well
but if you've got it here and feel it as i do
this put his hand upon his heart you can't sleep in your bed till it's out i did that thing that they said i did what thing why the nail it was i lamed the horse
i am sorry for it i can say nothing else you ain't so sorry for it as i am oh no you can never be that my lord after all what does it matter to you
very little i meant that i was sorry for your sake i believe you are my lord for though you could be rough you was always kind now i will tell you everything and then you can do as you please
i wish to do nothing as far as i am concerned the matter is over it made me sick of horses and i do not wish to have to think of it again nevertheless my lord i've got to tell it it was green who put me up to it
i got to think that your lordship was upsetting i don't know whether your lordship remembers but you did put me down once or twice rather uncommon i hope i was not unjust i don't say you was my lord
but i got a feeling on me that you wanted to get rid of me and i all the time doing the best i could for the orses i did do the best i could up to that very morning at doncaster well it was green put me up to it
i don't say i was to get nothing but it wasn't so much more than i could have got by the orse winning and i've lost pretty nearly all that i did get do you remember my lord and now the major sank his voice to a whisper
when i come up to your bedroom that morning i remember it the first time yes i remember it because i came twice my lord when i came first it hadn't been done
you turned me out that is true major tifto you was very rough then wasn't you rough a man's bedroom is generally supposed to be private
i came then to confess it all before it was done then why couldn't you let the horse alone i was in their hands and then you was so rough with me so i said to myself i might as well do it
and i did it what do you want me to say as far as my forgiveness goes you have it that's saying a great deal my lord a great deal said tifto now in tears but
i ain't said it all yet he's here in london who's here green he's here he doesn't think that i know but i could lay my hand on him to morrow
there is no human being alive major tifto whose presence or absence could be a matter of more indifference to me
i'll go before any judge or magistrate or police officer in the country and tell the truth
they shall punish me and him too i'm in that state of mind that any change would be for the better but he he ought to have it heavy it won't be done by me major tifto
look here major tifto you have come here to confess that you have done me a great injury yes i have and you say you are sorry for it indeed i am and i have forgiven you
there is only one way in which you can show your gratitude hold your tongue about it let it be as a thing done and gone the money has been paid the horse has been sold
and nothing is to be done to green i should say nothing on that score and he has got they say five and twenty thousand pounds clear money
it is a pity but it cannot be helped i will have nothing further to do with it of course i cannot bind you but i have told you my wishes the poor wretch was silent but still it seemed as though he did not wish to go quite yet
if you have said what you have got to say major tifto i may as well tell you that my time is engaged and must that be all what else
i am in such a state of mind lord silverbridge that it would be a satisfaction to tell it all even against myself i can't prevent you then tifto got up from his chair as though he were going
we was very much together at one time my lord yes major tifto we were of course i was a villain but it was only once and your lordship was so rough to me i am not saying but what i was a villain
master of hounds member of the club
and everybody knew as your lordship and me was together in him then he burst out into a paroxysm of tears and sobbing the young lord certainly could not take the man into partnership again
nor could he restore to him either the hounds or his club or his clean hands nor did he know in what way he could serve the man except by putting his hand into his pocket which he did
tifto accepted the gratuity and ultimately became an annual pensioner on his former noble partner
chapter seventeen madame goesler's story after all that has come and gone is it not odd that you and i should find ourselves riding about broughton spinnies together
that was the question which madame goesler asked phineas finn when they had both agreed that it was impossible to jump over the bank out of the wood and it was of course necessary that some answer should be given to it
i certainly did not think that we should meet again so soon no i left you as though i had grounds for quarrelling but there was no quarrel i wrote to you and tried to explain that you did
and though my answer was necessarily short i was very grateful and here you are back among us and it does seem so odd lady chiltern never told me that i was to meet you nor did she tell me
it is better so for otherwise i should not have come and then perhaps you would have been all alone in your discomfiture at the bank that would have been very bad you see i can be quite frank with you mister finn
i am heartily glad to see you but i should not have come had i been told and when i did see you it was quite improbable that we should be thrown together as we are now was it not ah here is a man and he can tell us the way back to copperhouse cross
but they resolved to abandon that and to ride direct to harrington hall it was now nearly three o'clock and they would not be subjected to the shame which falls upon sportsmen who are seen riding home very early in the day
to get oneself lost before twelve and then to come home is a very degrading thing
and to be returning after an excellent day's work then madame goesler began to talk about herself and to give a short history of her life during the last two and a half years she did this in a frank natural manner
continuing her tale in a low voice as though it were almost a matter of course that she should make the recital to so old a friend and phineas soon began to feel that it was natural that she should do so it was just before you left us she said
that the duke took to coming to my house the duke spoken of was the duke of omnium and phineas well remembered to have heard some rumours about the duke and madame max it had been hinted to him that the duke wanted to marry the lady
but that rumour he had never believed the reader if he has duly studied the history of the age will know that the duke did make an offer to madame goesler pressing it with all his eloquence
since the business had been completed she had spoken of it to no one but to lady glencora palliser who had forced herself into a knowledge of all the circumstances while they were being acted i met the duke once at matching said phineas
i remember it well i was there and first made the duke's acquaintance on that occasion i don't know how it was that we became intimate but we did and then i formed a sort of friendship with lady glencora
i suppose you like lady glencora very much indeed and the duke too the truth is mister finn that let one boast as one may of one's independence and i very often do boast of mine to myself
one is inclined to do more for a duke of omnium than for a mister jones the dukes have more to offer than the joneses i don't mean in the way of wealth only but of what one enjoys most in society generally
i suppose they have at any rate i am glad that you should make some excuse for me but i do like the man he is gracious and noble in his bearing
he is now very old and sinking fast into the grave but even the wreck is noble i don't know that he ever did much said phineas i don't know that he ever did anything according to your idea of doing
there must be some men who do nothing but a man with his wealth and rank has opportunities so great look at his nephew no doubt mister palliser is a great man
and is always thinking so much about the country that i doubt if he knows anything about his own affairs of course he is a man of a different stamp and of a higher stamp if you will but i have an idea that such characters as those of the present duke
are necessary to the maintenance of a great aristocracy he has had the power of making the world believe in him simply because he has been rich and a duke his nephew when he comes to the title
will never receive a tithe of the respect that has been paid to this old faineant but he will achieve much more than ten times the reputation said phineas i won't compare them nor will i argue but i like the duke
read to him talk to him give him his food and do all that in me lies to make his life bearable last year when it was thought necessary that very distinguished people should be entertained at the great family castle
in barsetshire you know i have heard of the place a regular treaty or agreement was drawn up conditions were sealed and signed one condition was that both lady glencora and i should be there
we put our heads together to try to avoid this as of course the prince would not want to see me particularly and it was altogether so grand an affair that things had to be weighed but the duke was inexorable
lady glencora at such a time would have other things to do and i must be there or gatherum castle should not be opened i suggested whether i could not remain in the background and look after the duke as a kind of upper nurse but lady glencora said it would not do
why should you subject yourself to such indignity simply from love of the man but you see i was not subjected for two days i wore my jewels beneath royal eyes eyes that will sooner or later belong to absolute majesty
you ask me why i did it the fact is that things sometimes become too strong for one even when there is no real power of constraint for years past i have been used to have my own way
but when there came a question of the entertainment of royalty i found myself reduced to blind obedience i had to go to gatherum castle to the absolute neglect of my business and i went do you still keep it up oh dear yes
he is at matching now and i doubt whether he will ever leave it again i shall go there from here as a matter of course and relieve guard with lady glencora i don't see what you get for it all get what should i get
you don't believe in friendship then certainly i do but this friendship is so unequal i can hardly understand that it should have grown from personal liking on your side i think it has
said madame goesler slowly you see mister finn that you as a young man can hardly understand how natural it is that a young woman if i may call myself young should minister to an old man
but there should be some bond to the old man there is a bond you must not be angry with me said phineas i am not in the least angry i should not venture to express any opinion of course
only that you ask me i do ask you and you are quite welcome to express your opinion and were it not expressed i should know what you thought just the same i have wondered at it myself sometimes
that i should have become as it were engulfed in this new life almost without will of my own and when he dies how shall i return to the other life
how will it be when he has gone ah how indeed lady glencora and i will have to curtsey to each other and there will be an end of it she will be a duchess then and i shall no longer be wanted but even if you were wanted
oh of course it must last the duke's time and last no longer it would not be a healthy kind of life were it not that i do my very best to make the evening of his days pleasant for him
let me see we are to turn here to the left that goes to copperhouse cross no doubt is it not odd that i should have told you all this history just because this brute would not jump over the fence i dare say i should have told you even if he had jumped over
but certainly this has been a great opportunity do you tell your friend lord chiltern not to abuse the poor duke any more before me i dare say our host is all right in what he says but i don't like it you'll come and see me in london mister finn
but you'll be at matching i do get a few days at home sometimes you see i have escaped for the present or otherwise you and i would not have come to grief together in broughton spinnies
soon after this they were overtaken by others who were returning home and who had been more fortunate than they in getting away with the hounds the fox had gone straight for trumpeton wood not daring to try the gorse on the way and then had been run to ground
chiltern was again in a towering passion as the earths he said had been purposely left open but on this matter the men who had overtaken our friends were both of opinion that chiltern was wrong he had allowed it to be understood that he would not draw trumpeton wood
and he had therefore no right to expect that the earths should be stopped but there were and had been various opinions on this difficult point as the laws of hunting are complex recondite numerous traditional and not always perfectly understood
perhaps the day may arrive in which they shall be codified under the care of some great and laborious master of hounds and they did nothing more asked phineas yes they chopped another fox before they left the place
so that in point of fact they have drawn trumpeton but they didn't mean it when madame max goesler and phineas had reached harrington hall they were able to give their own story of the day's sport to lady chiltern
the progress of the destruction the cloud which had scattered so deep a murkiness over the day had now settled into a solid and impenetrable mass it resembled less even the thickest gloom of a night in the open air
than the close and blind darkness of some narrow room but in proportion as the blackness gathered did the lightnings around vesuvius increase in their vivid and scorching glare
nor was their horrible beauty confined to the usual hues of fire no rainbow ever rivalled their varying and prodigal dyes now brightly blue as the most azure depth of a southern sky
now of a livid and snakelike green darting restlessly to and fro as the folds of an enormous serpent
gushing forth through the columns of smoke far and wide and lighting up the whole city from arch to arch then suddenly dying into a sickly paleness like the ghost of their own life
the grinding and hissing murmur of the escaping gases through the chasms of the distant mountain sometimes the cloud appeared to break from its solid mass and by the lightning to assume quaint and vast mimicries of human
or of monster shapes striding across the gloom hurtling one upon the other and vanishing swiftly into the turbulent abyss of shade
the unsubstantial vapors were as the bodily forms of gigantic foes the agents of terror and of death the ashes in many places were already knee deep and the boiling showers which came from the steaming breath of the volcano
forced their way into the houses bearing with them a strong and suffocating vapor in some places immense fragments of rock hurled upon the house roofs bore down along the streets masses of confused ruin
which yet more and more with every hour obstructed the way and as the day advanced the motion of the earth was more sensibly felt the footing seemed to slide and creep nor could chariot or litter be kept steady even on the most level ground
sometimes the huger stones striking against each other as they fell broke into countless fragments emitting sparks of fire which caught whatever was combustible within their reach and along the plains beyond the city
the darkness was now terribly relieved for several houses and even vineyards had been set on flames and at various intervals the fires rose suddenly and fiercely against the solid gloom
to add to this partial relief of the darkness the citizens had here and there in the more public places such as the porticoes of temples and the entrances to the forum endeavored to place rows of torches
but these rarely continued long the showers and the winds extinguished them and the sudden darkness into which their sudden birth was converted had something in it doubly terrible and doubly impressing on the impotence of human hopes
the lesson of despair frequently by the momentary light of these torches parties of fugitives encountered each other some hurrying towards the sea others flying from the sea back to the land
for the ocean had retreated rapidly from the shore an utter darkness lay over it and upon its groaning and tossing waves the storm of cinders and rock fell without the protection which the streets and roofs afforded to the land
wild haggard ghastly with supernatural fears these groups encountered each other but without the leisure to speak to consult to advise for the showers fell now frequently though not continuously
extinguishing the lights which showed to each band the deathlike faces of the other and hurrying all to seek refuge beneath the nearest shelter the whole elements of civilization were broken up ever and anon
by the flickering lights you saw the thief hastening by the most solemn authorities of the law laden with and fearfully chuckling over the produce of his sudden gains if in the darkness wife was separated from husband
or parent from child vain was the hope of reunion each hurried blindly and confusedly on nothing in all the various and complicated machinery of social life was left
save the primal law of self preservation through this awful scene did the athenian wade his way accompanied by ione and the blind girl suddenly a rush of hundreds in their path to the sea swept by them
nydia was torn from the side of glaucus who with ione was borne rapidly onward and when the crowd whose forms they saw not so thick was the gloom were gone nydia was still separated from their side
glaucus shouted her name no answer came they retraced their steps in vain they could not discover her
it was evident she had been swept along some opposite direction by the human current their friend their preserver was lost and hitherto nydia had been their guide
her blindness rendered the scene familiar to her alone accustomed through a perpetual night to thread the windings of the city she had led them unerringly towards the sea shore by which they had resolved to hazard an escape
now which way could they wend all was rayless to them a maze without a clue wearied despondent bewildered they however passed along the ashes falling upon their heads
the fragmentary stones dashing up in sparkles before their feet alas alas murmured ione i can go no farther my steps sink among the scorching cinders fly dearest
beloved fly and leave me to my fate hush my betrothed my bride death with thee is sweeter than life without thee yet whither oh whither can we direct ourselves through the gloom
already it seems that we have made but a circle and are in the very spot which we quitted an hour ago o gods yon rock see it hath riven the roof before us it is death to move through the streets
the portico of the temple of fortune is before us let us creep beneath it it will protect us from the showers he caught his beloved in his arms and with difficulty and labor gained the temple
he bore her to the remoter and more sheltered part of the portico
from the lightning and the showers the beauty and the unselfishness of love could hallow even that dismal time who is there said the trembling and hollow voice of one who had preceded them
in their place of refuge yet what matters
ione turned at the sound of the voice and with a faint shriek cowered again beneath the arms of glaucus and he looking in the direction of the voice beheld the cause of her alarm
through the darkness glared forth two burning eyes the lightning flashed and lingered athwart the temple and glaucus with a shudder perceived the lion to which he had been doomed couched beneath the pillars and close beside it
unwitting of the vicinity lay the giant form of him who had accosted them the wounded gladiator
that lightning had revealed to each other the form of beast and man yet the instinct of both was quelled nay the lion crept nearer and nearer to the gladiator as for companionship
and the gladiator did not recede or tremble the revolution of nature had dissolved her lighter terrors as well as her wonted ties while they were thus terribly protected
a group of men and women bearing torches passed by the temple
and a sublime and unearthly emotion had not indeed quelled their awe but it had robbed awe of fear they had long believed according to the error of the early christians that the last day was at hand
they imagined now that the day had come
behold the lord descendeth to judgment he maketh fire come down from heaven in the sight of men
woe to ye of the fasces and the purple woe to the idolater and the worshipper of the beast woe to ye who pour forth the blood of saints and gloat over the death pangs of the sons of god woe to the harlot of the sea
the nazarenes paced slowly on their torches still flickering in the storm their voices still raised in menace and solemn warning till lost amid the windings in the streets the darkness of the atmosphere
and the silence of death again fell over the scene there was one of the frequent pauses in the showers and glaucus encouraged ione once more to proceed just as they stood hesitating on the last step of the portico
an old man with a bag in his right hand and leaning upon a youth tottered by the youth bore a torch glaucus recognized the two as father and son miser and prodigal father said the youth
if you cannot move more swiftly i must leave you or we both perish fly boy then and leave thy sire but i cannot fly to starve give me thy bag of gold and the youth snatched at it
wretch wouldst thou rob thy father ay who can tell the tale in this hour miser perish the boy struck the old man to the ground plucked the bag from his relaxing hand
and fled onward with a shrill yell
the doctor's professional visit to hintock house was promptly repeated the next day and the next
and behaving generally as became a patient who was in no great hurry to lose that title on each occasion he looked gravely at the little scratch on her arm as if it had been a serious wound
he had also to his further satisfaction found a slight scar on her temple and it was very convenient to put a piece of black plaster on this conspicuous part of her person in preference to gold beater's skin
so that it might catch the eyes of the servants and make his presence appear decidedly necessary in case there should be any doubt of the fact oh you hurt me she exclaimed one day he was peeling off the bit of plaster on her arm
under which the scrape had turned the color of an unripe blackberry previous to vanishing altogether wait a moment then i'll damp it said fitzpiers he put his lips to the place and kept them there till the plaster came off easily
it was at your request i put it on said he i know it she replied is that blue vein still in my temple that used to show there the scar must be just upon it if the cut had been a little deeper it would have spilt
my hot blood indeed fitzpiers examined so closely that his breath touched her tenderly at which their eyes rose to an encounter hers showing themselves as deep and mysterious as interstellar space
she turned her face away suddenly ah none of that none of that i cannot coquet with you she cried don't suppose i consent to for one moment our poor brief youthful hour of love making was too long ago to bear continuing now
coquet nor i with you as it was when i found the historic gloves so it is now i might have been and may be foolish but i am no trifler
i naturally cannot forget that little space in which i flitted across the field of your vision in those days of the past and the recollection opens up all sorts of imaginings suppose my mother had not taken me away she murmured
her dreamy eyes resting on the swaying tip of a distant tree
and then then the fire would have burned higher and higher what would have immediately followed i know not but sorrow and sickness of heart at last
well that's the end of all love according to nature's law i can give no other reason oh don't speak like that she exclaimed since we are only picturing the possibilities of that time don't for pity's sake spoil the picture
her voice sank almost to a whisper as she added with an incipient pout upon her full lips let me think at least that if you had really loved me at all seriously you would have loved me for ever and ever you are right
think it with all your heart said he it is a pleasant thought and costs nothing she weighed that remark in silence a while did you ever hear anything of me from then till now she inquired not a word
so much the better i had to fight the battle of life as well as you i may tell you about it some day but don't ever ask me to do it and particularly do not press me to tell you now
thus the two or three days that they had spent in tender acquaintance on the romantic slopes above the neckar were stretched out in retrospect to the length and importance of years made to form a canvas for infinite fancies
idle dreams luxurious melancholies and sweet alluring assertions which could neither be proved nor disproved grace was never mentioned between them but a rumor of his proposed domestic changes somehow reached her ears
doctor you are going away she exclaimed confronting him with accusatory reproach in her large dark eyes no less than in her rich cooing voice oh yes you are she went on springing to her feet
with an air which might almost have been called passionate it is no use denying it you have bought a practice at budmouth
nobody can live at hintock least of all a professional man who wants to keep abreast of recent discovery and there is nobody here to induce such a one to stay for other reasons that's right
and my dear friend if i continue to feel about the business as i feel at this moment perhaps i may conclude never to go at all but you hate hintock and everybody and everything in it that you don't mean to take away with you
fitzpiers contradicted this idea in his most vibratory tones and she lapsed into the frivolous archness under which she hid passions of no mean strength strange smouldering erratic passions kept down like a stifled
conflagration but bursting out now here now there the only certain element in their direction being its unexpectedness
she liked mystery in her life in her love in her history
and many things of which she might have been proud but it had never been fathomed by the honest minds of hintock and she rarely volunteered her experiences as for her capricious nature the people on her estates grew accustomed to it
and with that marvellous subtlety of contrivance in steering round odd tempers that is found in sons of the soil and dependants generally they managed to get along under her government rather better than they would have done beneath a more equable rule
now with regard to the doctor's notion of leaving hintock he had advanced further towards completing the purchase of the budmouth surgeon's good will than he had admitted to missus charmond the whole matter hung upon what he might do
in the ensuing twenty four hours the evening after leaving her he went out into the lane and walked and pondered between the high hedges now greenish white with wild clematis here called old man's beard from its aspect later in the year
after which his departure from hintock would be irrevocable but could he go away remembering what had just passed the trees the hills the leaves the grass
each had been endowed and quickened with a subtle charm since he had discovered the person and history and above all mood of their owner there was every temporal reason for leaving it
his wife herself saw the awkwardness of their position here and cheerfully welcomed the purposed change towards which every step had been taken but the last but could he find it in his heart as he found it clearly enough in his conscience to go away
he drew a troubled breath and went in doors here he rapidly penned a letter
and so got the letter off the man returned met fitzpiers in the lane and told him the thing was done fitzpiers went back to his house musing
why had he carried out this impulse taken such wild trouble to effect a probable injury to his own and his young wife's prospects his motive was fantastic glowing shapeless as the fiery scenery about the western sky
missus charmond could overtly be nothing more to him than a patient now and to his wife at the outside a patron in the unattached bachelor days of his first sojourning here how highly proper an emotional reason for lingering on would have appeared
to troublesome dubiousness matrimonial ambition is such an honorable thing my father has told me that you have sent off one of the men with a late letter to budmouth cried grace coming out vivaciously to meet him under the declining light of the sky
wherein hung solitary the folding star i said at once that you had finally agreed to pay the premium they ask and that the tedious question had been settled when do we go edgar i have altered my mind said he
they want too much seven hundred and fifty is too large a sum and in short i have declined to go further we must wait for another opportunity i fear i am not a good business man
he spoke the last words with a momentary faltering at the great foolishness of his act for as he looked in her fair and honorable face his heart reproached him for what he had done her manner that evening showed her disappointment
personally she liked the home of her childhood much and she was not ambitious but her husband had seemed so dissatisfied with the circumstances hereabout since their marriage that she had sincerely hoped to go for his sake
it was two or three days before he visited missus charmond again the morning had been windy and little showers had sowed themselves like grain against the walls and window panes of the hintock cottages
ran down the bark of the oaks and elms the rind below being coated with a lichenous wash as green as emerald they were stout trunked trees that never rocked their stems in the fiercest gale
responding to it entirely by crooking their limbs wrinkled like an old crone's face and antlered with dead branches that rose above the foliage of their summits
and fitzpiers was much surprised to find that the window curtains were closed and a red shaded lamp and candles burning
though it was not cold what does it all mean he asked she sat in an easy chair her face being turned away oh she murmured it is because the world is so dreary outside
sorrow and bitterness in the sky and floods of agonized tears beating against the panes i lay awake last night and i could hear the scrape of snails creeping up the window glass it was so sad
my eyes were so heavy this morning that i could have wept my life away i cannot bear you to see my face i keep it away from you purposely
why should death only lend what life is compelled to borrow rest answer that doctor fitzpiers you must eat of a second tree of knowledge before you can do it felice charmond then when my emotions have exhausted themselves
i become full of fears till i think i shall die for very fear the terrible insistencies of society how severe they are and cold and inexorable ghastly towards those who are made of wax and not of stone oh i am afraid of them
correctives and regulations framed that society may tend to perfection
fitzpiers had seated himself near her what sets you in this mournful mood he asked gently in reality he knew that it was the result of a loss of tone from staying in doors so much but he did not say so
my reflections doctor you must not come here any more they begin to think it a farce already i say you must come no more
and she jumped up pressed his hand and looked anxiously at him it is necessary it is best for both you and me
done we have done nothing perhaps we have thought the more however it is all vexation i am going away to middleton abbey near shottsford where a relative of my late husband lives who is confined to her bed
the engagement was made in london and i can't get out of it perhaps it is for the best that i go there till all this is past when are you going to enter on your new practice and leave hintock behind forever with your pretty wife on your arm
i have refused the opportunity i love this place too well to depart you have
nothing besides you are going away
only to middleton abbey for a month or two yet perhaps i shall gain strength there particularly strength of mind i require it and when i come back i shall be a new woman and you can come and see me safely then and bring your wife with you
and we'll be friends she and i oh how this shutting up of one's self does lead to indulgence in idle sentiments i shall not wish you to give your attendance to me after to day
her whole being seemed to dissolve in a sad powerlessness to do anything and the sense of it made her lips tremulous
i returned for a moment to tell you that the evening is going to be fine the sun is shining so do open your curtains and put out those lights shall i do it for you
he drew back the window curtains whereupon the red glow of the lamp and the two candle flames became almost invisible with the flood of late autumn sunlight that poured in shall i come round to you he asked her back being towards him no
then i am going he said very well she answered stretching one hand round to him and patting her eyes with a handkerchief held in the other
no no a gentle reasonableness came into her tone as she added it must not be you know it won't do very well good by the next moment he was gone
in the evening with listless adroitness she encouraged the maid who dressed her for dinner to speak of doctor fitzpiers's marriage missus fitzpiers was once supposed to favor mister winterborne said the young woman
and why didn't she marry him said missus charmond because you see ma'am he lost his houses lost his houses
in refusing that poor man his reasonable request she said to herself i foredoomed my rejuvenated girlhood's romance who would have thought such a business matter could have nettled my own heart like this
now for a winter of regrets and agonies and useless wishes till i forget him in the spring oh i am glad i am going away she left her chamber and went down to dine with a sigh
half way up the steep green slope confronting her stood old timothy tangs who was shortening his way homeward by clambering here where there was no road and in opposition to express orders that no path was to be made there
tangs had momentarily stopped to take a pinch of snuff but observing missus charmond gazing at him he hastened to get over the top out of hail
he left her at the door of her father's house as he receded and was clasped out of sight by the filmy shades he impressed grace as a man who hardly appertained to her existence at all
cleverer greater than herself one outside her mental orbit as she considered him he seemed to be her ruler rather than her equal protector and dear familiar friend the disappointment she had experienced at his wish
the shock given to her girlish sensibilities by his irreverent views of marriage together with the sure and near approach of the day fixed for committing her future to his keeping made her so restless
she rose when the sparrows began to walk out of the roof holes sat on the floor of her room in the dim light and by and by peeped out behind the window curtains it was even now day out of doors
though the tones of morning were feeble and wan and it was long before the sun would be perceptible in this overshadowed vale not a sound came from any of the out houses as yet the tree trunks the road
the out buildings the garden every object wore that aspect of mesmeric fixity
lends to such scenes outside her window helpless immobility seemed to be combined with intense consciousness a meditative inertness possessed all things oppressively contrasting with her own active emotions
beyond the road were some cottage roofs and orchards over these roofs and over the apple trees behind
was the house yet occupied by her future husband the rough cast front showing whitely through its creepers the window shutters were closed the bedroom curtains closely drawn and not the thinnest coil of smoke rose from the rugged chimneys
something broke the stillness the front door of the house she was gazing at opened softly and there came out into the porch a female figure wrapped in a large shawl beneath which was visible
the white skirt of a long loose garment a gray arm stretching from within the porch adjusted the shawl over the woman's shoulders it was withdrawn and disappeared the door closing behind her
the woman went quickly down the box edged path between the raspberries and currants and as she walked her well developed form and gait betrayed her individuality
tim tangs at the bottom of the garden she entered the shelter of the tall hedge and only the top of her head could be seen hastening in the direction of her own dwelling
the sleeve of a dressing gown which mister fitzpiers had been wearing on her own memorable visit to him her face fired red she had just before thought of dressing herself and taking a lonely walk under the trees
preparing down stairs though on rousing herself to robe and descend she found that the sun was throwing his rays completely over the tree tops a progress of natural phenomena denoting that at least three hours had elapsed
when attired she searched about the house for her father she found him at last in the garden stooping to examine the potatoes for signs of disease hearing her rustle he stood up and stretched his back and arms saying
i congratulate ye it is only a month to day to the time she did not answer but without lifting her dress waded between the dewy rows of tall potato green into the middle of the plot where he was
i have been thinking very much about my position this morning ever since it was light she began excitedly and trembling so that she could hardly stand and i feel it is a false one i wish not to marry mister fitzpiers
i wish not to marry anybody but i'll marry giles winterborne if you say i must as an alternative her father's face settled into rigidity he turned pale and came deliberately out of the plot before he answered her
she had never seen him look so incensed before now hearken to me he said there's a time for a woman to alter her mind and there's a time when she can no longer alter it if she has any right eye to her parents honor
and the seemliness of things
i won't say to ye you shall marry him but i will say that if you refuse i shall forever be ashamed and a weary of ye as a daughter and shall look upon you as the hope of my life no more
what do you know about life and what it can bring forth and how you ought to act to lead up to best ends oh you are an ungrateful maid grace you've seen that fellow giles and he has got over ye
that's where the secret lies i'll warrant me no father no it is not giles it is something i cannot tell you of well make fools of us all make us laughing stocks break it off have your own way
but who knows of the engagement as yet how can breaking it disgrace you melbury then by degrees admitted that he had mentioned the engagement
till she perceived that in his restlessness and pride he had published it everywhere
you've had a tiff a lovers tiff that's all i suppose it is some woman
don't tell me now do you bide here i'll send fitzpiers to you i saw him smoking in front of his house but a minute by gone he went off hastily out of the garden gate and down the lane but she would not stay where she was
and edging through a slit in the garden fence walked away into the wood just about here the trees were large and wide apart and there was no undergrowth so that she could be seen to some distance a sylph like greenish white creature
as toned by the sunlight and leafage she heard a foot fall crushing dead leaves behind her and found herself reconnoitered by fitzpiers himself approaching gay and fresh as the morning around them
his remote gaze at her had been one of mild interest rather than of rapture but she looked so lovely in the green world about her her pink cheeks her simple light dress
and the delicate flexibility of her movement acquired such rarity from their wild wood setting that his eyes kindled as he drew near my darling what is it your father says you are in the pouts and jealous
and i don't know what ha ha ha
we know better jealous oh no
that's a mistake of his and yours sir i spoke to him so closely about the question of marriage with you that he did not apprehend my state of mind
she shrank away and his purposed kiss miscarried what is it he said more seriously for this little defeat she made no answer beyond mister fitzpiers i have had no breakfast i must go in
come he insisted fixing his eyes upon her tell me at once i say it was the greater strength against the smaller but she was mastered less by his manner than by her own sense of the unfairness of silence
she said with hesitation i'll tell you by and by i must go in doors i have had no breakfast by a sort of divination his conjecture went straight to the fact nor i said he lightly
indeed i rose late to day i have had a broken night or rather morning
perfectly maddened with an aching tooth as no body heard her ring she threw some gravel at my window till at last i heard her and slipped on my dressing gown and went down the poor thing begged me with tears in her eyes to take out her tormentor
if i dragged her head off down she sat and out it came a lovely molar not a speck upon it and off she went with it in her handkerchief
it was all so plausible so completely explained knowing nothing of the incident in the wood on old midsummer eve grace felt that her suspicions were unworthy and absurd and with the readiness of an honest heart
she jumped at the opportunity of honoring his word at the moment of her mental liberation the bushes about the garden had moved and her father emerged into the shady glade well i hope it is made up he said cheerily
oh yes said fitzpiers with his eyes fixed on grace whose eyes were shyly bent downward now said her father tell me the pair of ye
fitzpiers took her hand we declare it do we not my dear grace said he relieved of her doubt somewhat overawed and ever anxious to please she was disposed to settle the matter yet womanlike
she would not relinquish her opportunity
if our wedding can be at church i say yes she answered in a measured voice if not i say no fitzpiers was generous in his turn it shall be so he rejoined gracefully
to holy church we'll go and much good may it do us they returned through the bushes indoors grace walking full of thought between the other two somewhat comforted both by fitzpiers's ingenious explanation and by the sense that she was not
to be deprived of a religious ceremony
pray god it is for the best from this hour there was no serious attempt at recalcitration on her part fitzpiers kept himself continually near her dominating any rebellious impulse
and shaping her will into passive concurrence with all his desires apart from his lover like anxiety to possess her the few golden hundreds of the timber dealer ready to hand formed a warm background to grace's lovely face
and went some way to remove his uneasiness at the prospect of endangering his professional and social chances by an alliance with the family of a simple countryman the interim closed up its perspective
surely and silently whenever grace had any doubts of her position the sense of contracting time was like a shortening chamber at other moments she was comparatively blithe day after day waxed and waned
the one or two woodmen who sawed shaped spokeshaved on her father's premises at this inactive season of the year regularly came and unlocked the doors in the morning locked them in the evening supped
leaned over their garden gates for a whiff of evening air and to catch any last and farthest throb of news from the outer world which entered and expired at little hintock like the exhausted swell of a wave in some innermost cavern
of some innermost creek of an embayed sea yet no news interfered with the nuptial purpose at their neighbor's house the sappy green twig tips of the season's growth would not she thought be appreciably woodier
on the day she became a wife so near was the time the tints of the foliage would hardly have changed everything was so much as usual that no itinerant stranger would have supposed a woman's fate to be hanging in the balance at that summer's decline
but there were preparations imaginable readily enough by those who had special knowledge in the remote and fashionable town of sandbourne something was growing up under the hands of several persons who had never seen grace melbury
never would see her or care anything about her at all though their creation had such interesting relation to her life that it would enclose her very heart at a moment when that heart would beat if not with more emotional ardor
at least with more emotional turbulence than at any previous time why did missus dollery's van instead of passing along at the end of the smaller village to great hintock direct turn one saturday night into little hintock lane
and never pull up till it reached mister melbury's gates the gilding shine of evening fell upon a large flat box not less than a yard square and safely tied with cord as it was handed out from under the tilt
with a great deal of care but it was not heavy for its size missus dollery herself carried it into the house
and made remarks to each other as they watched its entrance melbury stood at the door of the timber shed in the attitude of a man to whom such an arrival was a trifling domestic detail with which he did not condescend to be concerned
yet he well divined the contents of that box and was in truth all the while in a pleasant exaltation at the proof that thus far at any rate no disappointment had supervened
been paid and had rumbled away he entered the dwelling
his wife and daughter in a flutter of excitement over the wedding gown just arrived from the leading dress maker of sandbourne watering place aforesaid during these weeks giles winterborne was nowhere to be seen or heard of
at the close of his tenure in hintock he had sold some of his furniture
in the house of a friendly neighbor and gone away people said that a certain laxity had crept into his life that he had never gone near a church latterly and had been sometimes seen on sundays with unblacked boots lying on his elbow under a tree
with a cynical gaze at surrounding objects he was likely to return to hintock when the cider making season came round his apparatus being stored there and travel with his mill and press from village to village
the narrow interval that stood before the day diminished yet there was in grace's mind sometimes a certain anticipative satisfaction the satisfaction of feeling that she would be the heroine of an hour
moreover she was proud as a cultivated woman to be the wife of a cultivated man it was an opportunity denied very frequently to young women in her position nowadays not a few
those in whom parental discovery of the value of education has implanted tastes which parental circles fail to gratify but what an attenuation was this cold pride of the dream of her youth
in which she had pictured herself walking in state towards the altar flushed by the purple light and bloom of her own passion without a single misgiving as to the sealing of the bond and fervently receiving as her due
the homage of a thousand hearts the fond deep love of one everything had been clear then in imagination now something was undefined she had little carking anxieties a curious fatefulness seemed to rule her
and she experienced a mournful want of some one to confide in the day loomed so big and nigh that her prophetic ear could in fancy catch the noise of it hear the murmur of the villagers as she came out of church
imagine the jangle of the three thin toned hintock bells the dialogues seemed to grow louder and the ding ding dong of those three crazed bells more persistent she awoke the morning had come
and tried to browse on the marine plants and dry reeds they found there nauseous to the taste as they must have been as soon as the whole party were ensconced in the roukah
a few words of which were intelligible to glenarvan thalcave spoke calmly but the lively frenchman gesticulated enough for both after a little thalcave sat silent and folded his arms what does he say asked glenarvan i fancied he was advising us to separate
yes into two parties those of us whose horses are so done out with fatigue and thirst that they can scarcely drag one leg after the other
while the others whose steeds are fresher are to push on in advance toward the river guamini which throws itself into lake san lucas about thirty one miles off if there should be water enough in the river they are to wait on the banks till their companions reach them
and what will we do then asked austin
it is wise counsel and we will act upon it without loss of time my horse is in tolerable good trim and i volunteer to accompany thalcave oh my lord take me said robert as if it were a question of some pleasure party
but would you be able for it my boy oh i have a fine beast
please my lord to take me come then my boy said glenarvan delighted not to leave robert behind
neither mulrady nor wilson nor myself would be able to rejoin thalcave at the given rendezvous but we will put ourselves under the banner of the brave jacques paganel with perfect confidence i resign myself said the geographer much flattered at having supreme command
oh you insufferable major it would serve you right replied paganel laughing
i suppose replied glenarvan
the supper was not very reviving without drink of any kind
but paganel dreamed of water all night of torrents and cascades and rivers and ponds and streams and brooks in fact he had a complete nightmare next morning at six o'clock
and drunk with more avidity than satisfaction
the three travelers then jumped into their saddles and set off shouting au revoir to their companions don't come back whatever you do called paganel after them the desertio de las salinas
covered with stunted trees not above ten feet high and small mimosas which the indians call curra mammel
a bushy shrub rich in soda here and there large spaces were covered with salt
toward which the travelers might possibly have to betake themselves should the guamini disappoint their hopes the landscape was totally different
and this was why thalcave thought it best to go first to guamini as it was not only much nearer but also on the direct line of route the three horses went forward might and main as if instinctively knowing whither they were bound
his loud joyous neighing seeming to bode success to the search the horses of glenarvan and robert though not so light footed felt the spur of his example and followed him bravely thalcave inspirited his companions as much as thaouka did his four footed brethren
he sat motionless in the saddle but often turned his head to look at robert
bravo robert said glenarvan thalcave is evidently congratulating you my boy and paying you compliments
i can hold firm on that's all replied robert blushing with pleasure at such an encomium
what would papa say to that said robert laughing he wants me to be a sailor the one won't hinder the other if all cavaliers wouldn't make good sailors there is no reason why all sailors should not make good horsemen to keep one's footing on the yards must teach a man to hold on firm
that's easily acquired indeed it comes naturally poor father said robert
you love him very much robert yes my lord dearly
and better still of loving words and caresses ah if you knew him you would love him too mary is most like him he has a soft voice like hers
yes robert very strange i see him still the boy went on as if speaking to himself good brave papa he put me to sleep on his knee crooning an old scotch ballad about the lochs of our country the time sometimes comes back to me
but very confused like so it does to mary too ah my lord how we loved him well i do think one needs to be little to love one's father like that yes and to be grown up my child to venerate him replied glenarvan
deeply touched by the boy's genuine affection during this conversation the horses had been slackening speed and were only walking now
yes we'll find him was glenarvan's reply
thalcave is a brave indian isn't he said the boy that indeed he is
what is it and then i will tell you that all the people you have with you are brave lady helena whom i love so and the major with his calm manner and captain mangles and monsieur paganel and all the sailors on the duncan how courageous and devoted they are
yes my boy i know that replied glenarvan
no most certainly i don't know that well it is time you did my lord said the boy seizing his lordship's hand and covering it with kisses glenarvan shook his head but said no more as a gesture from thalcave made them spur on their horses and hurry forward
but it was soon evident that with the exception of thaouka the wearied animals could not go quicker than a walking pace at noon they were obliged to let them rest for an hour
a poor burnt up sort of lucerne that grew there glenarvan began to be uneasy tokens of sterility were not the least on the decrease
thalcave said nothing thinking probably that it would be time enough to despair if the guamini should be dried up
spur and whip had both to be employed to induce the poor animals to resume the route and then they only crept along for their strength was gone thaouka indeed could have galloped swiftly enough and reached the rio in a few hours
it was hard work however to get the animal to consent to walk quietly he kicked and reared and neighed violently
the intelligent animal felt humidity in the atmosphere and drank it in with frenzy
the patagonian could not mistake him now water was not far off the two other horses seemed to catch their comrade's meaning and inspired by his example made a last effort and galloped forward after the indian
about three o'clock a white line appeared in a dip of the road and seemed to tremble in the sunlight water exclaimed glenarvan
their masters had to go on too whether they would or not but they were so rejoiced at being able to quench their thirst that this compulsory bath was no grievance oh how delicious this is exclaimed robert taking a deep draught drink moderately my boy said glenarvan but he did not set the example
thalcave drank very quietly without hurrying himself taking small gulps but as long as a lazo as the patagonians say he seemed as if he were never going to leave off and really there was some danger of his swallowing up the whole river at last glenarvan said
that is to say if thalcave leaves any for them but couldn't we go to meet them it would spare them several hours suffering and anxiety you're right my boy but how could we carry them this water the leather bottles were left with wilson no it is better for us to wait for them as we agreed
he had been fortunate enough to discover on the banks of the rio a ramada a sort of enclosure which had served as a fold for flocks and was shut in on three sides
and none of thalcave's companions had much solicitude on that score accordingly they took possession at once and stretched themselves at full length on the ground in the bright sunshine to dry their dripping garments well now we've secured a lodging we must think of supper said glenarvan
our friends must not have reason to complain of the couriers they sent to precede them and if i am not much mistaken they will be very satisfied it strikes me that an hour's shooting won't be lost time are you ready robert yes my lord replied the boy standing up gun in hand
a sort of partridge peculiar to the pampas called tinamous black wood hens
yellow rays and waterfowl with magnificent green plumage rose in coveys no quadrupeds however were visible but thalcave pointed to the long grass and thick brushwood and gave his friends to understand they were lying there in concealment
disdaining the feathered tribes when more substantial game was at hand the hunters first shots were fired into the underwood instantly there rose by the hundred roebucks and guanacos
though in an alimentary point of view nothing better could be wished a dozen of red partridges and rays were speedily brought down
a pachydermatous animal the flesh of which is excellent eating in less than half an hour the hunters had all the game they required
a sort of tatou covered with a hard bony shell in movable pieces and measuring a foot and a half long it was very fat and would make an excellent dish the patagonian said
thalcave did his part by capturing a nandou a species of ostrich remarkable for its extreme swiftness there could be no entrapping such an animal and the indian did not attempt it he urged thaouka to a gallop and made a direct attack
knowing that if the first aim missed the nandou would soon tire out horse and rider
the moment therefore that thalcave got to a right distance
in a few seconds it lay flat on the ground the indian had not made his capture for the mere pleasure and glory of such a novel chase the flesh of the nandou is highly esteemed
they returned to the ramada bringing back the string of partridges the ostrich the peccary and the armadillo
he carries his cooking apparatus with him and all that had to be done was to place him in his own shell over the glowing embers the substantial dishes were reserved for the night comers and the three hunters contented themselves with devouring the partridges and washed down their meal with clear fresh water
which was pronounced superior to all the porter in the world even to the famous highland usquebaugh or whisky
the word pampa of araucanian origin signifies grass plain
the mimosas growing on the western part
give those plains a peculiar appearance the soil is composed of sand and red or yellow clay and this is covered by a layer of earth in which the vegetation takes root the geologist would find rich treasures in the tertiary strata here
for it is full of antediluvian remains enormous bones which the indians attribute to some gigantic race that lived in a past age
so high and thick that the indians find shelter in it from storms at certain distances but increasingly seldom there were wet marshy spots almost entirely under water
here the horses drank their fill greedily as if bent on quenching their thirst for past present and future thalcave went first to beat the bushes and frighten away the cholinas a most dangerous species of viper
for two days they plodded steadily across this arid and deserted plain the dry heat became severe there were not only no rios but even the ponds dug out by the indians were dried up as the drought seemed to increase with every mile
at lake salinas replied the indian and when shall we get there to morrow evening
but the travelers could not fall back on this resource not having the necessary implements
their presence indicated a change of wind which shifted to the north a south or southwest wind generally puts to flight these little pests even these petty ills of life could not ruffle the major's equanimity
was perfectly exasperated by such trifling annoyances he abused the poor mosquitoes desperately and deplored the lack of some acid lotion which would have eased the pain of their stings
among the three hundred thousand naturalists reckon he would listen to nothing
for they had to get to lake salinas before sundown the horses were tired out and dying for water and though their riders had stinted themselves for their sakes still their ration was very insufficient the drought was constantly increasing and the heat none the less for the wind being north
this wind being the simoom of the pampas there was a brief interruption this day to the monotony of the journey mulrady who was in front of the others rode hastily back to report the approach of a troop of indians
the news was received with very different feelings by glenarvan and thalcave the scotchman was glad of the chance of gleaning some information about his shipwrecked countryman
knowing their bandit propensities
presently the nomads came in sight and the patagonian was reassured at finding they were only ten in number they came within a hundred yards of them and stopped this was near enough to observe them distinctly
with arched forehead and olive complexion they were dressed in guanaco skins and carried lances twenty feet long
showed themselves to be accomplished riders
the cowards exclaimed paganel they scampered off too quick for honest folks said mc nabbs
gauchos the gauchos cried paganel and turning to his companions he added
there was nothing to fear how is that asked mc nabbs because the gauchos are inoffensive peasants you believe that paganel certainly i do they took us for robbers and fled in terror
whatever they were that's my opinion too said the major for if i am not mistaken instead of being harmless
the idea exclaimed paganel and forthwith commenced a lively discussion of this ethnological thesis so lively that the major became excited
i believe you are wrong paganel wrong replied paganel yes thalcave took them for robbers and he knows what he is talking about well thalcave was mistaken this time retorted paganel somewhat sharply
retorted mc nabbs quite as obstinate as his opponent sir i think you are very annoying to day and i think you are very crabbed glenarvan thought it was high time to interfere
come now there is no doubt one of you is very teasing and the other is very crabbed and i must say i am surprised at both of you the patagonian without understanding the cause could see that the two friends were quarreling
it's the north wind the north wind
it's the north wind that has put you in a bad temper i have heard that in south america the wind greatly irritates the nervous system by saint patrick edward you are right said the major laughing heartily
but paganel in a towering rage would not give up the contest and turned upon glenarvan whose intervention in this jesting manner he resented and so my lord my nervous system is irritated he said
as the tramontane does in the campagna of rome crimes returned the geographer do i look like a man that would commit crimes that's not exactly what i said tell me at once that i want to assassinate you well i am really afraid replied glenarvan
even singly our wave girt land
the hay was all got in the fields round thornfield were green and shorn the roads white and baked the trees were in their dark prime hedge and wood
full leaved and deeply tinted contrasted well with the sunny hue of the cleared meadows between on midsummer eve adele
weary with gathering wild strawberries in hay lane half the day had gone to bed with the sun i watched her drop asleep and when i left her i sought the garden it was now
the sweetest hour of the twenty four day its fervid fires had wasted and dew fell cool on panting plain and scorched summit
and furnace flame at one point on one hill peak and extending high and wide soft and still
handbreadth i knew i might be watched thence so i went apart into the orchard
and more eden like it was full of trees it bloomed with flowers a very high wall shut it out from the court on one side on the other a beech avenue screened it from the lawn
at the bottom was a sunk fence
its sole separation from lonely fields a winding walk bordered with laurels and terminating in a giant horse chestnut circled at the base by a seat led down to the fence here one could wander unseen
while such honey dew fell such silence reigned such gloaming gathered i felt as if i could haunt such shade for ever
but in threading the flower and fruit parterres at the upper part of the enclosure enticed there by the light the now rising moon cast on this more open quarter my step
it is mister rochester's cigar i look round and i listen i see trees laden with ripening fruit i hear a nightingale
warbling in a wood half a mile off no moving form is visible no coming step
but that perfume increases i must flee i make for the wicket leading to the shrubbery and i see mister rochester entering
i step aside into the ivy recess he will not stay long he will soon return whence he came and if i sit still he will never see me but no
eventide is as pleasant to him as to me and this antique garden as attractive and he strolls on
now lifting the gooseberry tree branches to look at the fruit large as plums with which they are laden now taking a ripe cherry from the wall
now stooping towards a knot of flowers either to inhale their fragrance or to admire the dew beads on their petals a great moth goes humming by me
it alights on a plant at mister rochester's foot he sees it and bends to examine it now he has his back towards me thought i and he is occupied too
perhaps if i walk softly i can slip away unnoticed i trode on an edging of turf that the crackle of the pebbly gravel might not betray me
he was standing among the beds at a yard or two distant from where i had to pass the moth apparently engaged him i shall get by very well i meditated
i had made no noise he had not eyes behind could his shadow feel i started at first and then i approached him
look at his wings said he he reminds me rather of a west indian insect one does not often see so large and gay a night rover in england there
he is flown the moth roamed away i was sheepishly retreating also but mister rochester followed me and when we reached the wicket he said turn back
there are times when it sadly fails me in framing an excuse and always the lapse occurs at some crisis
i did not like to walk at this hour alone with mister rochester in the shadowy orchard but i could not find a reason to allege for leaving him i followed with lagging step
and thoughts busily bent on discovering a means of extrication but he himself looked so composed and so grave also i became ashamed of feeling any confusion
yes sir in different ways i have an affection for both
for the hour of repose is expired must i move on sir i asked must i leave thornfield
i believe you must jane i am sorry janet but i believe indeed you must this was a blow but i did not let it prostrate me
well sir i shall be ready when the order to march comes it is come now i must give it to night then you are going to be married sir
in short she's an extensive armful but that's not to the point
one can't have too much of such a very excellent thing as my beautiful blanche well as i was saying listen to me jane
you're not turning your head to look after more moths are you that was only a lady clock child flying away home
which is such that i have made it my law of action adele must go to school and you miss eyre must get a new situation yes sir
in about a month i hope to be a bridegroom continued mister rochester and in the interim i shall
myself look out for employment and an asylum for you thank you sir i am sorry to give oh
a dependent does her duty as well as you have done yours
heard of a place that i think will suit it is to undertake the education
bitternutt lodge connaught ireland you'll like ireland i think they're such warm hearted people there they say it is a long way off sir
i avoided sobbing the thought of missus o'gall and bitternutt lodge struck
custom intervened between me and what i naturally and inevitably loved it is a long way i again said
it is to be sure and when you get to bitternutt lodge connaught ireland i shall never see you again jane
we'll talk over the voyage and the parting quietly half an hour or so while the stars enter into their shining life up in heaven yonder here is the chestnut tree
here is the bench at its old roots come we will sit there in peace to night though we should never more be destined to sit there together he seated me
and himself it is a long way to ireland janet and i am sorry to send my little friend on such weary travels but if i can't do better
how is it to be helped are you anything akin to me do you think jane i could risk no sort of answer by this time my heart was still because he said
with regard to you especially when you are near me as now it is as if i had a string somewhere under my left ribs tightly and inextricably knotted
to a similar string situated in the corresponding quarter of your little frame
and if that boisterous channel and two hundred miles or so of land come broad between us i am afraid that cord of communion will be snapt and then
i've a nervous notion i should take to bleeding inwardly as for you you'd forget me that i never should sir you know impossible to proceed jane
in listening i sobbed convulsively for i could repress what i endured no longer i was obliged to yield and i was shaken from head to foot with acute distress
when i did speak it was only to express an impetuous wish that i had never been born or never come to thornfield because you are sorry to leave it
the vehemence of emotion stirred by grief and love within me was claiming mastery and struggling for full sway and asserting a right to predominate to overcome
because i have lived in it a full and delightful life momentarily at least i have not been trampled on i have not been petrified
with what i reverence with what i delight in with an original a vigorous an expanded mind i have known you mister rochester and it strikes me with terror
where you sir have placed it before me in what shape in the shape of miss ingram a noble and beautiful woman your bride my bride
what bride i have no bride but you will have yes i will i will he set his teeth
then i must go you have said it yourself no you must stay i swear it and the oath shall be kept
nothing to you do you think i am an automaton
do you think because i am poor obscure plain and little i am soulless and heartless you think wrong i have as much soul as you
and full as much heart and if god had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth i should have made it as hard for you to leave me as it is now for me to leave you
just as if both had passed through the grave and we stood at god's feet equal as we are as we are
i rejoined and yet not so for you are a married man or as good as a married man and wed to one inferior to you
to one with whom you have no sympathy whom i do not believe you truly love for i have seen and heard you sneer at her i would scorn such a union therefore i am better than you let me go
where jane to ireland yes to ireland i have spoken my mind and can go anywhere now jane be still don't struggle so like a wild frantic
another effort set me at liberty and i stood
yet a month elapsed before i quitted gateshead i wished to leave immediately after the funeral but georgiana entreated me to stay till she could get off to london whither
she was now at last invited by her uncle mister gibson
georgiana said she dreaded being left alone with eliza from her she got neither sympathy in her dejection support in her fears nor aid in her preparations
it is true that while i worked she would idle and i thought to myself if you and i were destined
i should assign you your share of labour and compel you to accomplish it or else it should be left undone
i should insist also on your keeping some of those drawling half insincere complaints hushed in your own breast
that i consent thus to render it so patient and compliant on my part at last i saw georgiana off
she stayed in her own room her door bolted within filling trunks emptying drawers burning papers and holding no communication with any one
she wished me to look after the house to see callers and answer notes of condolence
and she added i am obliged to you for your valuable services and discreet conduct there is some difference between living with such an one as you and with georgiana
you perform your own part in life and burden no one to morrow she continued i set out for the continent i shall take up my abode in a religious house near lisle
a nunnery you would call it there i shall be quiet and unmolested
decently and in order i shall embrace the tenets of rome and probably take the veil i neither expressed surprise at this resolution
nor attempted to dissuade her from it the vocation will fit you to a hair i thought much good may it do you when we parted she said good bye cousin jane eyre i wish you well
you have some sense i then returned you are not without sense cousin eliza but what you have i suppose in another year will be walled up alive in a french convent
however it is not my business and so it suits you i don't much care you are in the right said she and with these words we each went our separate way
as i shall not have occasion to refer either to her or her sister again i may as well mention here that georgiana made an advantageous match with a wealthy worn out man of fashion
and that eliza actually took the veil and is at this day superior of the convent where she passed the period of her novitiate and which she endowed with her fortune
how people feel when they are returning home from an absence long or short i did not know i had never experienced the sensation
to long for a plenteous meal and a good fire and to be unable to get either neither of these returnings was very pleasant or desirable
no magnet drew me to a given point increasing in its strength of attraction the nearer i came the return to thornfield was yet to be tried
my journey seemed tedious very tedious fifty miles one day a night spent at an inn fifty miles the next day
during the first twelve hours i thought of missus reed in her last moments i saw her disfigured and discoloured face and heard her
strangely altered voice i mused on the funeral day the coffin the hearse the black train of tenants and servants few was the number of relatives
the gaping vault the silent church the solemn service
of a ball room the other the inmate of a convent cell and i dwelt on and analysed their separate peculiarities of person and character
the evening arrival at the great town of scattered these thoughts night gave them quite another turn
i left reminiscence for anticipation i was going back to thornfield but how long was i to stay there not long of that i was sure
i had heard from missus fairfax in the interim of my absence the party at the hall was dispersed mister rochester had left for london three weeks ago
missus fairfax surmised
as he had talked of purchasing a new carriage she said the idea of his marrying miss ingram still seemed strange to her but from what everybody said
and mister rochester looked on with his arms folded smiling sardonically as it seemed at both her and me i had not notified to missus fairfax the exact
for i did not wish either car or carriage to meet me at millcote i proposed to walk the distance quietly by myself and very quietly after leaving my box in the ostler's care
did i slip away from the george inn about six o'clock of a june evening and take the old road to thornfield a road which lay chiefly through fields and was now little frequented
it was not a bright or splendid summer evening though fair and soft the haymakers were at work all along the road and the sky though far from cloudless
was such as promised well for the future its blue where blue was visible was mild and settled and its cloud strata high and thin
the west too was warm no watery gleam chilled it it seemed as if there was a fire lit an altar burning behind its screen of marbled vapour
shone a golden redness i felt glad as the road shortened before me so glad that i stopped once to ask myself
missus fairfax will smile you a calm welcome to be sure said i and little adele will clap her hands and jump to see you
and you are parted from him for ever and then i strangled a new born agony a deformed thing which i could not persuade myself to own and rear and ran on
they are making hay too in thornfield meadows or rather the labourers are just quitting their work and returning home with their rakes on their shoulders
now at the hour i arrive i have but a field or two to traverse and then i shall cross the road and reach the gates
how full the hedges are of roses but i have no time to gather any i want to be at the house i passed a tall briar shooting leafy and flowery branches across the path
i see the narrow stile with stone steps and i see mister rochester sitting there a book and a pencil in his hand he is writing
well he is not a ghost yet every nerve i have is unstrung for a moment i am beyond my own mastery what does it mean
i did not think i should tremble in this way when i saw him or lose my voice or the power of motion in his presence i will go back as soon as i can stir
i need not make an absolute fool of myself i know another way to the house it does not signify if i knew twenty ways for he has seen me
hillo he cries and he puts up his book and his pencil there you are come on if you please i suppose i do come on
which i feel rebel insolently against my will and struggle to express what i had resolved to conceal but i have a veil it is down
not to send for a carriage and come clattering over street and road like a common mortal but to steal into the vicinage of your home along with twilight
what the deuce have you done with yourself this last month i have been with my aunt sir who is dead
dead and tells me so when she meets me alone here in the gloaming if i dared i'd touch you to see if you are substance or shadow you elf
but i'd as soon offer to take hold of a blue ignis fatuus light in a marsh truant truant he added when he had paused an instant
absent from me a whole month and forgetting me quite i'll be sworn i knew there would be pleasure in meeting my master again
that he was so soon to cease to be my master
but of the crumbs he scattered to stray and stranger birds like me was to feast genially his last words were balm they seemed to imply that it imported something to him
he did not leave the stile and i hardly liked to ask to go by i inquired soon if he had not been to london
missus fairfax told me in a letter and did she inform you what i went to
oh yes sir everybody knew your errand you must see the carriage jane and tell me if you don't think it will suit missus rochester exactly
and whether she won't look like queen boadicea leaning back against those purple cushions i wish jane i were a trifle better adapted to match with her externally
it would be past the power of magic sir and in thought i added a loving eye is all the charm needed to such you are handsome enough
your sternness has a power beyond beauty mister rochester had sometimes read my unspoken thoughts with an acumen to me incomprehensible
in the present instance he took no notice of my abrupt vocal response but he smiled at me with a certain smile he had of his own
and which he used but on rare occasions he seemed to think it too good for common purposes it was the real sunshine of feeling he shed it over me now pass
janet said he making room for me to cross the stile go up home and stay your weary little wandering feet at a friend's threshold
all i had now to do was to obey him in silence no need for me to colloquise further i got over the stile without a word
and meant to leave him calmly an impulse held me fast a force turned me round i said or something in me said for me
and in spite of me thank you mister rochester for your great kindness i am strangely glad to get back again to you and wherever you are is my home
my only home i walked on so fast that even he could hardly have overtaken me had he tried little adele was half wild with delight when she saw me
missus fairfax received me with her usual plain friendliness leah smiled and even sophie bid me bon soir with glee
i that evening shut my eyes resolutely against the future
against the voice that kept warning me of near separation and coming grief
kneeling on the carpet had nestled close up to me and a sense of mutual affection seemed to surround us with a ring of golden peace i uttered a silent prayer
that we might not be parted far or soon but when as we thus sat mister rochester entered unannounced and looking at us
seemed to take pleasure in the spectacle of a group so amicable when he said he supposed the old lady was all right now that she had got her adopted daughter back again
and added that he saw adele was prete a
once she said she had actually put the question to mister rochester as to when he was going to bring his bride home but he had answered her
no visits to ingram park to be sure it was twenty miles off on the borders of another county but what was that distance to an ardent lover
to so practised and indefatigable a horseman as mister rochester it would be but a morning's ride i began to cherish hopes i had no right to conceive
that the match was broken off that rumour had been mistaken that one or both parties had changed their minds i used to look at my master's face to see if it were sad or fierce
ere that i farther in this tale pace me thinketh it accordant to reason
so as it seemed me and which they weren and of what degree and eke in what array that they were in and at a knight then will i first begin a knight there was and that a worthy man
that from the time that he first began to riden out he loved chivalry truth and honour freedom and courtesy full worthy was he in his lorde's war
full often time he had the board begun above alle nations in prusse seven
in grenade at the siege eke had he be of algesir
and at satalie when they were won and in the greate sea at many a noble army had he be at mortal battles had he been fifteen and foughten for our faith at tramissene
a lover and a lusty bacheler
and picardie and borne him well
singing he was or fluting all the day he was as fresh as is the month of may short was his gown with sleeves long and wide well could he sit on horse and faire ride
his arrows drooped not with feathers low
and on that other side a gay daggere
an horn he bare the baldric was of green
that of her smiling was full simple and coy
entuned in her nose full seemly
for french of paris was to her unknow
she let no morsel from her lippes fall
this is to say a monk out of his cloister this ilke text held he not worth an oyster and i say his opinion was good
how shall the world be served let austin have his swink to him reserved
his bootes supple his horse in great estate now certainly he was a fair prelate
his palfrey was as brown as is a berry
unto his order he was a noble post
for he had power of confession as said himselfe more than a curate for of his order he was licentiate full sweetely heard he confession
and certainly he had a merry note
and knew well the taverns in every town and every hosteler and gay tapstere
his purchase was well better than his rent
but he was like a master or a pope
clothed in black or red of aristotle and his philosophy
but all be that he was a philosopher yet hadde he but little gold in coffer
not one word spake he more than was need and that was said in form and reverence and short and quick and full of high sentence sounding in moral virtue was his speech and gladly would he learn and gladly teach a sergeant of the law
discreet he was and of great reverence he seemed such his wordes were so wise
so great a purchaser was nowhere none all was fee simple to him
well lov'd he in the morn a sop in wine
an householder and that a great was he
cloth'd in one livery of a solemn and great fraternity
and powder merchant tart and galingale well could he know a draught of london ale he could roast and stew and broil and fry make mortrewes and well bake a pie but great harm was it as it thoughte me
the hot summer had made his hue all brown and certainly he was a good fellaw
of nice conscience took he no keep if that he fought and had the higher hand
he kept his patient a full great deal in houres by his magic natural
he knew the cause of every malady were it of cold or hot or moist or dry
he was a very perfect practisour
to send his drugges and his lectuaries for each of them made other for to win their friendship was not newe to begin well knew he the old esculapius
damascene and constantin
for it was of no superfluity
she was a worthy woman all her live husbands at the church door had she had five withouten other company in youth
she hadde passed many a strange stream at rome she had been and at bologne
and on her head an hat as broad as is a buckler or a targe a foot mantle about her hippes large
but rich he was of holy thought and werk work he was also a learned man a clerk that christe's gospel truly woulde preach
but rather would he given out of doubt unto his poore parishens about
that if gold ruste what should iron do
to see a shitten shepherd and clean sheep well ought a priest ensample for to give by his own cleanness how his sheep should live
and left his sheep eucumber'd in the mire
so that the wolf ne made it not miscarry he was a shepherd and no mercenary
the miller was a stout carle for the nones full big he was of brawn and eke of bones
of masters had he more than thries ten that were of law expert and curious of which there was a dozen in that house worthy to be stewards of rent and land of any lord that is in engleland
well wist he by the drought and by the rain the yielding of his seed and of his grain
and by his cov'nant gave he reckoning since that his lord was twenty year of age
his lord well could he please subtilly to give and lend him of his owen good
of norfolk was this reeve of which i tell
and for to drink strong wine as red as blood then would he speak and cry as he were wood
then would he speake no word but latin a fewe termes knew he two or three that he had learned out of some decree
purse is the archedeacon's hell said he
no beard had he nor ever one should have
i trow he were a gelding or a mare
ne was there such another pardonere
for this ye knowen all so well as i whoso shall tell a tale after a man he must rehearse as nigh as ever he can every word if it be in his charge
or feigne things or finde wordes new he may not spare although he were his brother he must as well say one word as another christ spake himself full broad in holy writ and well ye wot no villainy is it
eke plato saith whoso that can him read the wordes must be cousin to the deed also i pray you to forgive it me
my wit is short ye may well understand great cheere made our host us every one and to the supper set he us anon and served us with victual of the best
and of manhoode lacked him right naught
now lordinges truly ye be to me welcome right heartily for by my troth if that i shall not lie i saw not this year such a company at once in this herberow
right at mine owen cost and be your guide and whoso will my judgement withsay
whoso is rebel to my judgement shall pay for all that by the way is spent now draw ye cuts
sir knight quoth he my master and my lord now draw the cut for that is mine accord come near quoth he my lady prioress and ye sir clerk let be your shamefastness nor study not lay hand to every man
anon to drawen every wight began and shortly for to tellen as it was
the cut fell to the knight of which full blithe and glad was every wight and tell he must his tale as was reason by forword and by composition as ye have heard what needeth wordes mo and when this good man saw that it was so
as he that wise was and obedient to keep his forword by his free assent he said
now let us ride and hearken what i say
the manciple's tale the prologue
there gan our hoste for to jape and play
as he would falle from his horse at ones
awake thou cook quoth he god give thee sorrow
the cook that was full pale and nothing red said to host so god my soule bless
well quoth the manciple if it may do ease to thee sir cook and to no wight displease which that here rideth in this company and that our host will of his courtesy i will as now excuse thee of thy tale for in good faith thy visage is full pale
that sheweth well thou art not well disposed
lo this drunken wight as though he would us swallow anon right
the devil of helle set his foot therein
f y stinking swine fy foul may thee befall ah take heed sirs of this lusty man now sweete sir will ye joust at the fan
and ere that he again were in the saddle there was great shoving bothe to and fro to lift him up and muche care and woe so unwieldy was this silly paled ghost and to the manciple then spake our host because that drink hath domination upon this man
that with his singing walled the city could never singe half so well as he
what needeth it his features to descrive
he was therewith full fill'd of gentleness of honour and of perfect worthiness
was wont to bearen in his hand a bow now had this phoebus in his house a crow which in a cage he foster'd many a day and taught it speaken as men teach a jay white was this crow as is a snow white swan and counterfeit the speech of every man he coulde
now had this phoebus in his house a wife which that he loved more than his life and night and day did ever his diligence her for to please and do her reverence save only if that i the sooth shall sayn jealous he was and would have kept her fain
but all for nought for it availeth nought a good wife that is clean of work and thought
but now to purpose as i first began this worthy phoebus did all that he can to please her weening through such pleasance and for his manhood and his governance that no man should have put him from her grace
but god it wot there may no man embrace as to distrain a thing
although the cage of gold be never so gay
and make her couch of silk and let her see a mouse go by the wall
and nothing by women for men have ever a lik'rous appetite on lower things to perform their delight than on their wives be they never so fair
which that thought upon no guile deceived was for all his jollity
what bird quoth phoebus what song sing'st thou now wert thou not wont so merrily to sing that to my heart it was a rejoicing to hear thy voice alas what song is this
by god quoth he i singe not amiss phoebus quoth he for all thy worthiness for all thy beauty and all thy gentleness
and told him oft he saw it with his eyen
and after that thus spake he to the crow traitor quoth he with tongue of scorpion thou hast me brought to my confusion alas that i was wrought
read david in his psalms and read senec
part two i was then in germany attracted thither by the wars in that country which have not yet been brought to a termination and as i was returning to the army from the coronation of the emperor
and was besides fortunately undisturbed by any cares or passions i remained the whole day in seclusion with full opportunity to occupy my attention with my own thoughts
of these one of the very first that occurred to me was that there is seldom so much perfection in works composed of many separate parts
upon which different hands had been employed as in those completed by a single master thus it is observable that the buildings which a single architect has planned and executed
are generally more elegant and commodious than those which several have attempted to improve
serve for purposes for which they were not originally built thus also those ancient cities which from being at first only villages have become in course of time large towns
are usually but ill laid out compared with the regularity constructed towns which a professional architect has freely planned on an open plain so that although the several buildings of the former
may often equal or surpass in beauty those of the latter yet when one observes their indiscriminate juxtaposition
one is disposed to allege that chance rather than any human will guided by reason must have led to such an arrangement and if we consider that nevertheless there have been at all times certain officers
whose duty it was to see that private buildings contributed to public ornament the difficulty of reaching high perfection with but the materials of others to operate on will be readily acknowledged in the same way
i fancied that those nations which starting from a semi barbarous state and advancing to civilization by slow degrees have had their laws successively determined and as it were
forced upon them simply by experience of the hurtfulness of particular crimes and disputes would by this process come to be possessed of less perfect institutions than those which from the commencement of their association as communities
have followed the appointments of some wise legislator it is thus quite certain that the constitution of the true religion the ordinances of which are derived from god must be incomparably superior to that of every other
and to speak of human affairs i believe that the pre eminence of sparta was due not to the goodness of each of its laws in particular for many of these were very strange and even opposed to good morals but to the circumstance that
in the same way i thought that the sciences contained in books
probable reasonings without demonstrations composed as they are of the opinions of many different individuals massed together are farther removed from truth than the simple inferences which a man of good sense
using his natural and unprejudiced judgment draws respecting the matters of his experience and because we have all to pass through a state of infancy to manhood and have been of necessity for a length of time
governed by our desires and preceptors whose dictates were frequently conflicting while neither perhaps always counseled us for the best i farther concluded that it is almost impossible that our judgments can be so correct or solid
and had we always been guided by it alone it is true however that it is not customary to pull down all the houses of a town with the single design of rebuilding them differently
and thereby rendering the streets more handsome but it often happens that a private individual takes down his own with the view of erecting it anew and that people are even sometimes constrained to this when their houses are in danger of falling from age
or when the foundations are insecure with this before me by way of example i was persuaded that it would indeed be preposterous for a private individual to think of reforming a state by fundamentally changing it throughout
and overturning it in order to set it up amended and the same i thought was true of any similar project for reforming the body of the sciences or the order of teaching them established in the schools
but as for the opinions which up to that time i had embraced i thought that i could not do better than resolve at once to sweep them wholly away that i might afterwards be in a position to admit either others more correct
i should much better succeed in the conduct of my life than if i built only upon old foundations and leaned upon principles which in my youth i had taken upon trust
for although i recognized various difficulties in this undertaking these were not however without remedy nor once to be compared with such as attend the slightest reformation in public affairs large bodies
if once overthrown are with great difficulty set up again or even kept erect when once seriously shaken and the fall of such is always disastrous then if there are any imperfections in the constitutions of states
and that many such exist the diversity of constitutions is alone sufficient to assure us custom has without doubt materially smoothed their inconveniences and has even managed to steer altogether clear of
or insensibly corrected a number which sagacity could not have provided against with equal effect and in fine the defects are almost always more tolerable
that i cannot in any degree approve of those restless and busy meddlers who called neither by birth nor fortune to take part in the management of public affairs are yet always projecting reforms
and if i thought that this tract contained aught which might justify the suspicion that i was a victim of such folly i would by no means permit its publication
i have never contemplated anything higher than the reformation of my own opinions and basing them on a foundation wholly my own and although my own satisfaction with my work has led me to present here a draft of it
i do not by any means therefore recommend to every one else to make a similar attempt those whom god has endowed with a larger measure of genius will entertain perhaps designs still more exalted
the single design to strip one's self of all past beliefs is one that ought not to be taken by every one the majority of men is composed of two classes
for neither of which would this be at all a befitting resolution in the first place of those who with more than a due confidence in their own powers are precipitate in their judgments and want the patience requisite for orderly and circumspect thinking
whence it happens that if men of this class once take the liberty to doubt of their accustomed opinions and quit the beaten highway they will never be able to thread the byway that would lead them by a shorter course
and will lose themselves and continue to wander for life in the second place of those who possessed of sufficient sense or modesty to determine that there are others who excel them in the power of discriminating between truth and error
and by whom they may be instructed ought rather to content themselves with the opinions of such than trust for more correct to their own reason for my own part
i should doubtless have belonged to the latter class had i received instruction from but one master or had i never known the diversities of opinion that from time immemorial have prevailed among men of the greatest learning
but i had become aware even so early as during my college life that no opinion however absurd and incredible can be imagined which has not been maintained by some on of the philosophers and afterwards
whose opinions are decidedly repugnant to ours are not in that account barbarians and savages but on the contrary that many of these nations make an equally good if not better use of their reason than we do
i took into account also the very different character which a person brought up from infancy in france or germany exhibits from that which
or with savages and the circumstance that in dress itself the fashion which pleased us ten years ago and which may again perhaps be received into favor before ten years have gone appears to us at this moment extravagant
and ridiculous i was thus led to infer that the ground of our opinions is far more custom and example than any certain knowledge and finally although such be the ground of our opinions
i remarked that a plurality of suffrages is no guarantee of truth where it is at all of difficult discovery as in such cases it is much more likely that it will be found by one than by many
as it were to use my own reason in the conduct of my life but like one walking alone and in the dark i resolved to proceed so slowly and with such circumspection
that if i did not advance far i would at least guard against falling i did not even choose to dismiss summarily any of the opinions that had crept into my belief without having been introduced by reason but first of all took sufficient time
carefully to satisfy myself of the general nature of the task i was setting myself and ascertain the true method by which to arrive at the knowledge of whatever lay within the compass of my powers
among the branches of philosophy i had at an earlier period given some attention to logic and among those of the mathematics to geometrical analysis and algebra
three arts or sciences which ought as i conceived to contribute something to my design but on examination i found that as for logic its syllogisms
and the majority of its other precepts are of avail rather in the communication of what we already know or even as the art of lully in speaking without judgment of things of which we are ignorant than in the investigation of the unknown
and although this science contains indeed a number of correct and very excellent precepts there are nevertheless so many others and these
either injurious or superfluous mingled with the former that it is almost quite as difficult to effect a severance of the true from the false as it is to extract a diana or a minerva from a rough block of marble
then as to the analysis of the ancients and the algebra of the moderns besides that they embrace only matters highly abstract and to appearance of no use the former is so exclusively restricted
to the consideration of figures that it can exercise the understanding only on condition of greatly fatiguing the imagination and in the latter there is so complete a subjection to certain rules and formulas
by these considerations i was induced to seek some other method which would comprise the advantages of the three and be exempt from their defects and as a multitude of laws often only hampers justice
so that a state is best governed when with few laws these are rigidly administered in like manner instead of the great number of precepts of which logic is composed i believed that the four following would prove perfectly sufficient for me
provided i took the firm and unwavering resolution never in a single instance to fail in observing them the first was never to accept anything for true
which i did not clearly know to be such that is to say carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice and to comprise nothing more in my judgement than what was presented
to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt the second
and as might be necessary for its adequate solution the third to conduct my thoughts in such order that by commencing with objects the simplest and easiest to know
i might ascend by little and little and as it were step by step to the knowledge of the more complex assigning in thought a certain order even to those objects which in their own nature do not stand in a relation of antecedence and sequence
and the last in every case to make enumerations so complete and reviews so general that i might be assured that nothing was omitted
the long chains of simple and easy reasonings by means of which geometers are accustomed to reach the conclusions of their most difficult demonstrations
had led me to imagine that all things to the knowledge of which man is competent are mutually connected in the same way and that there is nothing so far removed from us as to be beyond our reach or so hidden
that we cannot discover it provided only we abstain from accepting the false for the true and always preserve in our thoughts the order necessary for the deduction of one truth from another and
i had little difficulty in determining the objects with which it was necessary to commence for i was already persuaded that it must be with the simplest and easiest to know and considering that of all those who have hitherto sought
truth in the sciences the mathematicians alone have been able to find any demonstrations that is any certain and evident reasons i did not doubt but that such must have been the rule of their investigations
i resolved to commence therefore with the examination of the simplest objects not anticipating however from this any other advantage than that to be found in accustoming
my mind to the love and nourishment of truth and to a distaste for all such reasonings as were unsound but i had no intention on that account of attempting to master all
the particular sciences commonly denominated mathematics but observing that however different their objects they all agree in considering only the various relations or proportions
subsisting among those objects i thought it best for my purpose to consider these proportions in the most general form possible without referring them to any objects in particular
and without by any means restricting them to these that afterwards i might thus be the better able to apply them to every other class of objects to which they are legitimately applicable
perceiving further that in order to understand these relations i should sometimes have to consider them one by one and sometimes only to bear them in mind or embrace them in the aggregate
i thought that in order the better to consider them individually i should view them as subsisting between straight lines than which i could find no objects more simple
or capable of being more distinctly represented to my imagination and senses and on the other hand that in order to retain them in the memory or embrace an aggregate of many i should express them by certain characters
the briefest possible in this way i believed that i could borrow all that was best both in geometrical analysis and in algebra and correct all the defects of the one by help of the other
and in point of fact the accurate observance of these few precepts gave me i take the liberty of saying such ease in unraveling all the questions embraced in these two sciences
that in the two or three months i devoted to their examination not only did i reach solutions of questions i had formerly deemed exceedingly difficult but even as regards questions of the solution of which i continued ignorant
i was enabled as it appeared to me to determine the means whereby and the extent to which a solution was possible
results attributable to the circumstance that i commenced with the simplest and most general truths and that thus each truth discovered was a rule available in the discovery of subsequent ones
nor in this perhaps shall i appear too vain if it be considered that as the truth on any particular point is one whoever apprehends the truth knows all that on that point can be known
the child for example who has been instructed in the elements of arithmetic and has made a particular addition according to rule
in this instance is within the reach of human genius now in conclusion the method which teaches adherence to the true order and an exact enumeration of all the conditions of the thing sought
includes all that gives certitude to the rules of arithmetic but the chief ground of my satisfaction with thus method
was the assurance i had of thereby exercising my reason in all matters if not with absolute perfection at least with the greatest attainable by me besides i was conscious
that by its use my mind was becoming gradually habituated to clearer and more distinct conceptions of its objects and i hoped also from not having restricted this method to any particular matter to apply it to the difficulties of the other sciences
for this would have been contrary to the order prescribed in the method
in which i found nothing certain i thought it necessary first of all to endeavor to establish its principles and because i observed
and one in which precipitancy and anticipation in judgment were most to be dreaded i thought that i ought not to approach it till i had reached a more mature age being at that time but twenty three
employed much of my time in preparation for the work as well by eradicating from my mind all the erroneous opinions i had up to that moment accepted as by amassing variety of experience to afford materials for my reasonings
and by continually exercising myself in my chosen method
was this that he had no right to imperil tellson's by sheltering the wife of an emigrant prisoner under the bank roof his own possessions safety life he would have hazarded for lucie and her child
without a moment's demur but the great trust he held was not his own and as to that business charge
and he thought of finding out the wine shop again and taking counsel with its master in reference to the safest dwelling place in the distracted state of the city but the same consideration that suggested him
repudiated him he lived in the most violent quarter and doubtless was influential there and deep in its dangerous workings noon coming and the doctor not returning
and every minute's delay tending to compromise tellson's mister lorry advised with lucie she said that her father had spoken of hiring a lodging for a short term in that quarter near the banking house as there was no business objection to this
all well with charles and he were to be released he could not hope to leave the city mister lorry went out in quest of such a lodging and found a suitable one high up in a removed by street
to this lodging he at once removed lucie and her child and miss pross giving them what comfort he could and much more than he had himself he left jerry with them
as a figure to fill a doorway that would bear considerable knocking on the head and retained to his own occupations a disturbed and doleful mind he brought to bear upon them and slowly and heavily the day lagged on with him
it wore itself out and wore him out with it until the bank closed he was again alone in his room of the previous night considering what to do next when he heard a foot upon the stair
in a few moments a man stood in his presence who with a keenly observant look at him addressed him by his name your servant said mister lorry do you know me he was a strongly made man
with dark curling hair from forty five to fifty years of age for answer he repeated without any change of emphasis the words do you know me i have seen you somewhere perhaps at my wine shop
much interested and agitated mister lorry said
yes i come from doctor manette and what says he what does he send me
charles is safe but i cannot safely leave this place yet i have obtained the favour that the bearer has a short note from charles to his wife
within an hour will you accompany me said mister lorry joyfully relieved after reading this note aloud to where his wife resides
and they went down into the courtyard there they found two women one knitting
who had left her in exactly the same attitude some seventeen years ago it is she observed her husband does madame go with us inquired mister lorry seeing that she moved as they moved
yes that she may be able to recognise the faces and know the persons it is for their safety beginning to be struck by defarge's manner mister lorry looked dubiously at him and led the way
both the women followed the second woman being the vengeance they passed through the intervening streets as quickly as they might ascended the staircase of the new domicile were admitted by jerry and found lucie weeping
little thinking what it had been doing near him in the night and might but for a chance have done to him dearest take courage i am well and your father has influence around me you cannot answer this
kiss our child for me that was all the writing it was so much however to her who received it
loving thankful womanly action but the hand made no response dropped cold and heavy and took to its knitting again there was something in its touch that gave lucie a check
she stopped in the act of putting the note in her bosom and with her hands yet at her neck looked terrified at madame defarge
to the end that she may know them that she may identify them i believe said mister lorry rather halting in his reassuring words as the stony manner of all the three impressed itself upon him more and more
i state the case citizen defarge
you had better lucie said mister lorry doing all he could to propitiate by tone and manner have the dear child here and our good pross
is an english lady and knows no french the lady in question whose rooted conviction that she was more than a match for any foreigner was not to be shaken by distress and danger appeared with folded arms and observed in english
to the vengeance whom her eyes first encountered well i am sure boldface i hope
she also bestowed a british cough on madame defarge but neither of the two took much heed of her
at little lucie as if it were the finger of fate yes madame answered mister lorry this is our poor prisoner's darling daughter and only child
the shadow attendant on madame defarge and her party seemed to fall so threatening and dark on the child that her mother instinctively kneeled on the ground beside her and held her to her breast
and the child it is enough my husband said madame defarge i have seen them we may go but the suppressed manner had enough of menace in it
not visible and presented but indistinct and withheld to alarm lucie into saying as she laid her appealing hand on madame defarge's dress
you will do him no harm you will help me to see him if you can your husband is not my business here returned madame defarge looking down at her with perfect composure it is the daughter of your father who is my business here
who had been uneasily biting his thumb nail and looking at her collected his face into a sterner expression what is it that your husband says in that little letter
influence he says something touching influence
has much influence around him surely it will release him said madame defarge let it do so
but to use it in his behalf o sister woman think of me as a wife and mother
turning to her friend the vengeance the wives and mothers we have been used to see since we were as little as this child and much less have not been greatly considered
often enough all our lives we have seen our sister women suffer in themselves and in their children poverty nakedness hunger thirst sickness
misery oppression and neglect of all kinds we have seen nothing else returned the vengeance
judge you is it likely that the trouble of one wife and mother would be much to us now she resumed her knitting and went out the vengeance followed
and closed the door courage my dear lucie said mister lorry as he raised her courage courage so far all goes well with us
much much better than it has of late gone with many poor souls cheer up and have a thankful heart i am not thankless i hope
tut tut said mister lorry
a shadow indeed no substance in it lucie but the shadow of the manner of these defarges was dark upon himself for all that
the correct use of words is the most potent factor in the development of the thinker
which we are engaged in teaching and the equal diversity of terminology used in teaching the symbols by which musicians seek to record these facts
to the teacher of exact sciences our picturesque use of the same term to describe two or more entirely different things never ceases to be a marvel thoughtful men and women will become impressed with the untruthfulness of certain statements and little by little change their practice
at this meeting in los angeles a list of thirteen points was recommended by the committee and adopted by the music department
since nineteen o seven the committee consisting of chas i rice p c hayden w b kinnear leo r lewis and constance barlow smith have each year selected a number of topics for discussion
and have submitted valuable reports recommending the adoption of certain reforms
a complete list of all points adopted by the department since nineteen o seven has been made by mister rice for school music and this list is here reprinted from the january nineteen thirteen number of that magazine terminology adoptions
nineteen o seven nineteen ten one tone specific name for a musical sound of definite pitch use neither sound a general term nor note a term of notation two
interval the pitch relation between two tones not properly applicable to a single tone or scale degree example sing the fifth tone of the scale not sing the fifth interval of the scale
three key tones in relation to a tonic example in the key of g not in the scale of g scales major and minor
are composed of a definite selection from the many tones of the key and all scales extend through at least one octave of pitch the chromatic scale utilizes all the tones of a key within the octave four natural
not a suitable compound to use in naming pitches pitch names are either simple b or compound b sharp b double sharp b flat
example pitch b not b natural note l r l thinks that b natural should be the name when the notation suggests it five step
terms of interval measurement avoid tone semi tone or half tone major second and minor second are interval names example how large are the following intervals one
major second two minor second three augmented prime answer one a step two a half step
a half step six chromatic a tone of the key which is not a member of its diatonic scale n b an accidental
a notation sign is not a chromatic sign unless it makes a staff degree represent a chromatic tone seven
major and minor keys having the same signature should be called relative major and minor
should be called tonic major and minor
five horizontal lines and their spaces staff lines are named numbered upward in order first to fifth spaces space below first second third fourth space and space above
additional short lines and their short spaces numbered outward both ways from the main staff
give its degrees their first or primary pitch meaning each makes the degree it occupies represent a pitch of its respective name example the g clef makes the second line represent the pitch g avoid fixes g on
the staff with clef in position represents only pitches having simple or one word names a b c et cetera
given a staff with clef in position as in example above sharps and flats make staff degrees upon which they are placed represent pitches a half step higher or lower these pitches have compound or two word names example
the second line stands for the pitch g simple name sharp the second line and it will stand for the pitch g sharp compound name the third line stands for the pitch b simple name flat it
and the line will stand for the pitch b flat compound name n b these signs do not raise or lower notes tones pitches letters or staff degrees eleven double sharp double flat
given a staff with three or more degrees sharped in the signature double sharps are used
represent pitches one half step higher yet similarly when three or more degrees are flatted in the signature double flats are used to make certain degrees already flatted represent pitches one half step lower yet examples
to represent sharp two in the key of b major double sharp the c degree or equally good double sharp the third space g clef
double flat the b degree or equally good double flat the third line g clef do not say put a double sharp on six or put a double sharp on c or indicate
a higher or lower pitch on a sharped or flatted degree twelve signature sharps or flats used as signatures affect the staff degrees they occupy and all octaves of the same example
with signature of four sharps the first one affects the fifth line and the first space the second the third space the third the space above and the second line the fourth the fourth line and the space below do not say
f and c are sharped ti is sharped b is flatted
sharpened or flattened
thirteen brace the two or more staffs containing parts to be sounded together also the vertical line or bracket connecting such staffs not line or score
staff is better than line for a single staff
as vocal score orchestral score full score fourteen notes notes are characters designed to represent relative duration when placed on staff degrees they indicate pitch
note the difference between represent and indicate sing what the note calls for means sing a tone of the pitch represented by the staff degree occupied by the note head the answer to the question what is that note
would be half note eighth note according to the denomination of the note in question whether it was on or off the staff fifteen measure sign four four two four six eight are measure signs
avoid time signatures meter signatures the fraction time marks example what is the measure sign c
not four four time four four rhythm four four meter sixteen note placing place a quarter note on the fourth line not put a quarter note on d
seventeen beat pulse a tone or rest occurs on a certain beat or pulse of a measure
eighteen signature terminology the right hand sharp in the signature is on the staff degree that represents seven of the major scale not always on seven or ti nineteen signature terminology
the right hand flat in the signature is on the staff degree that represents four of the major scale not always on fa twenty rote note syllable
singing by rote means that the singer sings something learned by ear without regard to notes singing by note means that the singer is guided to the correct pitch by visible notes singing by syllable
instead of to words neutral vowels or the hum
whether in sight reading rote singing or memory work sing by syllable would be correct in each case adoptions of the nineteen eleven meeting at san francisco arabic numerals either two three
four five six nine or twelve placed on the staff directly after the signature and above the third line show the number of beats in a measure a note either a quarter or a dotted quarter
placed in parenthesis under the numeral represents the length of one beat and is called the beat note the numeral and the beat note thus grouped constitute the measure sign illustrative statements covering proper terminology
the tune america is written in three quarter measure the chorus how lovely are the messengers is written in two dotted quarter measure
the above forms of statement were adopted at denver in nineteen o nine and are recommended for general use when speaking of music written with the conventional measure signs et cetera in place of two two time three eight time four four time
say as above this piece is written in two half measure three eighth measure four quarter measure minor scales primitive minor ascending
the minor scale form having minor sixth and minor seventh above tonic to be called primitive minor illustrative examples a minor
in reverse order harmonic minor ascending
illustrative examples
d e f g sharp
d e flat f g a flat b
same pitches in reverse order melodic minor ascending the minor scale form having major sixth and major seventh above tonic to be called melodic minor illustrative examples a minor
a b
d e f sharp g sharp a
d e flat f g a b
descending same as the primitive adoptions of the nineteen twelve meeting at chicago pulse and beat the committee finds that the words pulse and beat
are in general use as synonymous terms meaning one of the succession of throbs or impulses of which we are conscious when listening to music each of these pulses or beats has an exact point of beginning a duration and an exact point of ending
the latter coincident with the beginning of the next pulse or beat when thus used both words are terms of ear beat one of these words beat is also in universal use
when thus used it becomes a term of eye the conductor's baton if it is to be authoritative cannot wander about through the whole duration of the pulse but must move quickly to a point of comparative repose
remaining until just before the arrival of the next pulse when it again makes a rapid swing finishing coincidently with the initial tone or silence of the new pulse thus it is practically the end of the conductor's beat that marks the beginning of the pulse
the committee is of opinion that beat might preferably be used as indicating the outward sign beat note this term beat note is already in use in another important connection see terminology report nineteen eleven
and the committee recommends that those using the above terms shall say this note is an on the beat note this one is an after the beat note this one a before the beat note definitions matters of ear
pulse the unit of movement in music one of a series of regularly recurring throbs or impulses measure a group of pulses pulse group two or more tones grouped within the pulse
beat one of a series of conventional movements made by the conductor this might include any unconventional motion which served to mark the movement of the music whether made by conductor performer or auditor beat note
a note of the denomination indicated by the measure sign as the unit of note value in a given measure example given the following measure signs two four two two two eight quarter
half or eighth notes respectively are beat notes beat group a group of notes or notes and rests of smaller denomination than the beat note which represents a full beat from beginning to end and is equal in value to the beat note
a beat group may begin with a rest on the beat note or rest any note or rest ranging in value from a full beat down which calls for musical action or inaction synchronously with the conductor's beat
after the beat note any note in a beat group which indicates that a tone is to be sounded after the beginning and before or at the middle of the pulse before the beat note
any note in a beat group which indicates that a tone is to be sounded after the middle of the pulse to illustrate terminology and to differentiate between pulse and beat as terms respectively of ear and eye the following is submitted
it may be regarded as an after the pulse tone and the note that calls for it as an after the beat note when it involves the idea of anticipation or preparation it may be regarded as a before the pulse tone and the note that calls for it as a before the beat note
measure and meter what is the measure sign what is the meter signature these two words are used synonymously and one of them is unnecessary the committee recommends that measure be retained and used
meter has its use in connection with hymns the author does not find it possible at present to agree with all the recommendations made in the above report but the summary is printed in full for the sake of completeness
the music teacher's national association has also interested itself mildly in the subject of terminology reform and at its meeting in washington d c in nineteen o eight professor waldo s pratt gave his address as president of the association on the subject
system and precision in musical speech
to look into the matter of reforms necessary in music terminology and report at a later session in nineteen ten professor pratt read a report in which he advocated the idea of making some changes in music nomenclature
but took the ground that the subject is too comprehensive to be mastered in the short time that can be given to it by a committee and that it is therefore impossible to recommend specific changes
is often not distinctly harmful and is not of sufficient importance to cause undue excitement on the part of reformers quoting from the report at this point a great deal of confusion is more apparent than real between note and tone between step and degree
no practical harm is done by speaking of the first note of a piece when really first tone would be more accurate to say that a piece is written in the key of b flat
the truth is that some of the niceties of expression upon which insistence is occasionally laid are merely fussy not because they have not some sort of reason but because they fail to take into account the practical difference between colloquial or off hand speech
and the diction of a scientific treatise this is said without forgetting that colloquialism
as if it were a mark of high artistic genius professor pratt's report is thus seen to be philosophic rather than constructive and terminology reform will undoubtedly make more immediate progress through the efforts of the n e a committee with its specific recommendations
even though these are sometimes admittedly fussy
of waiting for some one to get time to take up the subject in a scholarly way nevertheless the philosophic view is sometimes badly needed especially when the spirit of reform becomes too rabid and attaches too great importance to trifles
had driven the other off from a heap of rubbish which had been carried without the walls each party had a flag attached to a stick and the boys were armed with clubs such as those carried by the apprentice boys many of them carried mimic shields made of wood
see the blood is streaming down his face one would scarcely expect to see these varlets of the city playing so roughly the citizens have proved themselves sturdy fighters before now my prince the other said they are ever independent and hold to their rights even against the king
reached the top of the heap well done the young prince exclaimed clapping his hands see how he lays about him with that club of his there he has knocked down the leader of the defenders as if his club had been a battle axe well done young sir well done
but his followers waver
stand you cowards rally round your leader and in his enthusiasm the young prince urged his horse forward to the scene of conflict but the assailants were mastered
heavy blows were exchanged and blood flowed freely from many of their heads and faces for in those days boys thought less than they do now of hard knocks and manliness and courage were considered the first of virtues
though hardly pressed on all sides
in vain his followers attempted to come to his rescue each time they struggled up the heap they were beaten back again by those on the crest
urged his horse forward cease he said authoritatively
hitherto the lads absorbed in their strife had paid but little heed to the party of onlookers but at the word
and baring their heads stood still in confusion no harm is done the prince said
he moves not lift his head from the ground the boy was indeed still insensible my lords the prince said to the knights who had now ridden up i fear that this boy is badly hurt
citizen's son though he be my lord de vaux will you bid your squire ride at full speed to the tower and tell master roger the leech to come here with all haste
the tower was but half a mile distant but before master roger arrived walter had already recovered consciousness
you have arrived too late master roger the prince said
the leech poured some cordial from a vial into a small silver cup and held it to the boy's lips it was potent and nigh took his breath away but when he had drunk it he struggled to his feet
what is thy name good lad the prince asked i am known as walter fletcher you are a brave lad the prince said and if you bear you as well as a man as you did but now
that you shall have your share of fighting as stark as that of the assault of yon heap now my lords let us ride on
to inform his friend geoffrey of the honour which had befallen him of being addressed by the prince of wales during the interval he was forced to lie abed and he was soundly rated by master giles for again getting into mischief
geoffrey was far more sympathetic and said well walter although i would not that gaffer giles heard me say so i think you have had a piece of rare good fortune
you could wish for nothing better than to ride behind the prince of wales he is by all accounts
young as he is to be already highly skilled in arms men say that he will be a wise king and a gallant captain such a one as a brave soldier might be proud to follow
of distinguishing himself those who ride with him may be certain of a chance of doing valorous deeds i will go across the bridge tomorrow and will have a talk with master fletcher the sooner you are apprenticed
the sooner you will be out of your time and since madge married eight years since i have been lonely in the house and shall be glad to have you with me geoffrey ward found his friend more ready to accede to his request
that walter should be apprenticed to him than he had expected the bowyer indeed was a quiet man
gave him so much uneasiness that he was not sorry the responsibility of keeping him in order should be undertaken by geoffrey moreover he could not but agree with the argument that the promise of the prince of wales offered a more favourable opportunity for walter
to enter upon the career of arms and so perhaps someday to win his way back to rank and honours than could have been looked for therefore on the following week walter was indentured to the armourer and as was usual at the time
his frame and muscles developed with labour and he was now able to swing all save the very heaviest hammers in the shop he had never abated in his practice at arms and every day when work was over
he and his master had a long bout together with cudgel or quarterstaff sword or axe
that geoffrey ward acknowledged that he needed to put out all his skill to hold his own with his pupil but it was not alone with geoffrey that walter had an opportunity of learning the use of arms whenever a soldier returned from the wars
whom geoffrey represented as being eager to learn how to use the sword as well as how to make it thus walter became accustomed to different styles of fighting
at the age of fifteen walter had won the prize at the sports both for the best cudgel play and the best sword and buckler play among the apprentices to the great disgust of many who had almost reached the age of manhood and were just out of their time
on sundays walter always spent the day with giles fletcher and his wife going to mass with them and walking in the fields where
he had taken no part in the fights and frolics of his former comrades he was in fact far too tired at the end of his day's work to have any desire to do aught but to sit and listen to the tales of the wars
liking better to hang about taverns drinking at the expense of those to whom they related fabulous tales of the gallant actions they had performed many too wandered over the country sometimes in twos or threes sometimes in large bands
for great tracts of forests still covered a large portion of the country
in the country round london these pests were very numerous for here more than anywhere else was there a chance of plunder
since searchers could be seen approaching a long way off and escape could be made by paths across the swamp
further south in the wild country round westerham where miles of heath and forest stretched away in all directions was another noted place
the laws in those days were extremely severe and death was the penalty of those caught plundering the extreme severity of the laws however operated in favour of its breakers
or give testimony which would cost the life of a fellow creature the citizens of london were loud in their complaints against the discharged soldiers
and it was on their petitions to the king that the sheriffs of middlesex
were generally stirred up to put down the ill doers sometimes these hunts were conducted in a wholesale way and the whole posse of a county would be called out then all found within its limits
when they found the country becoming too hot for them these men would take service with some knight or noble going to the war anxious to take with him as strong a following as might be and not too particular as to the character of his soldiers
walter being of an adventurous spirit was sometimes wont of a summer evening when his work was done to wander across the marshes taking with him his bow and arrows and often bringing home a wild duck or two which he shot in the pools
more than once surly men had accosted him and had threatened to knock him on the head if they again found him wandering that way but walter laughed at their threats
they were content to leave him alone one day
he saw a figure making his way across the hour was already late and the night was falling and the appearance of the man was so different from that of the usual denizens of the swamp
that walter wondered what business there might be scarcely knowing why he did so walter threw himself down among some low brushwood and watched the approaching figure when he came near
he recognized the face and saw to his surprise that it was a knight
he had particularly noticed him because of the arrogant manner in which he spoke walter had himself put in the rivets and had thought as he buckled on the armour again how unpleasant a countenance was that of its wearer
he was a tall and powerful man and would have been handsome had not his eyes been too closely set together his nose was narrow and the expression of his face reminded walter of a hawk
it is assuredly no business of mine but it may lead to an adventure and i have had no real fun since i left aldgate i will follow
the knight paused and looked round as if uncertain of his way
walter saw a figure appear above some bushes some four hundred yards distant the knight at once directed his steps in that direction and walter crept cautiously after him a pest upon these swamps and quagmires the knight said angrily as he neared the other
for the light is waning fast it were ill for anyone i caught prying about here but come in sir knight my hovel is not what your lordship is accustomed to but we may as well talk there as here beneath the sky the two men disappeared from walter's sight the latter
he was unable to account for their disappearance then he saw that the spot although apparently a mere clump of bushes no higher than the surrounding country was really an elevated hummock of ground
without suspecting that aught lay among them in the centre however the ground had been cut away and a low doorway almost hidden by the bushes gave access into a half subterranean hut
the roof was formed of an old boat turned bottom upwards and this had been covered with brown turf it was an excellent place of concealment
without suspecting that aught lay concealed within them a clever hiding place walter thought to himself no wonder the posse search these swamps in vain this is the lowest and wettest part of the swamp and would be but lightly searched
for none would suspect that there was a human habitation among these brown ditches and stagnant pools to his disappointment the lad could hear nothing of the conversation which was going on within the hut the murmur of voices came to his ear but no words were audible
if one boat runs into another no one need be surprised
i would not give much for your life if you tried to find the way alone who would have thought when you got me off from being hung after that little affair at bruges
you may be sure the knight replied
is always handy in times like these
did it not strike you sir knight that it might enter my mind that it would be very advisable for me to free myself from one who stands towards me in that relation
that matter did not trouble me i knew better than to bring money into this swamp of yours when i might be attacked by half a dozen ruffians like yourself
bidding him in case i came not back to set a hue and cry on foot
with the especial description of your worthy self walter could hear no more he had taken off his shoes and followed them at a distance and their voices still acted as a guide to him through the swamp but he feared to keep too close
as although the darkness would conceal his figure he might at any moment tread in a pool or ditch and so betray his presence putting his foot each time to the ground with the greatest caution he moved quietly after them
they spoke little more but their heavy footsteps on the swampy ground were a sufficient guidance for him at last
and then he heard returning steps he drew aside a few feet and crouched down saw a dim figure pass through the mist and then resumed his way the ground was firmer now and replacing his shoes he walked briskly on
the marshes searched from end to end and all found there should be knocked on head and thrown into their own ditches there would be no fear of any honest man coming to his end thereby but now to bed lad
and the fire must be alight at daybreak on his way back
whether to inform his master of what had happened he was however bent upon having an adventure on his own account and
and two of the party taking oars they started up the river now i will tell you what we are bent on walter said from some words i overheard
are this evening going to make an attack upon a boat with a lady in it coming down the river we will be on the spot
i have not the least idea i only caught a few words and may be wrong
the tide was running down strongly
it was fine now but the stream was running down thick and turbid
they rowed by turns all were fairly expert at the exercise for in those days the thames was at once the great highway and playground of london
of italy and the low countries while from above the grain needed for the wants of the great city was floated down in barges from the west
it was a bitterly cold night in the month of november thirteen thirty the rain was pouring heavily when a woman
she had evidently come from a distance
she leant against the wall with a faint groan of exhaustion and disappointment
she feebly made her way into the village
for travelers like herself often arrived too late to enter the gates and had to abide outside for the night moreover house rent was dear within the walls of the crowded city and many whose business brought them to town
the lights came out brightly from many of the casements with sounds of boisterous songs and laughter the woman passed these without a pause presently she stopped before a cottage from which a feeble light alone showed that it was tenanted she knocked at the door
what is it he asked i am a wayfarer the woman answered feebly canst take me and my child in for the night
i have passed them the woman said but all seemed full of roisterers i am wet and weary and my strength is nigh spent i can pay thee good fellow and i pray you as a christian to let me come in and sleep before your fire for the night
when the gates are open in the morning i will go for i have a friend within the city who will methinks receive me the tone of voice and the addressing of himself as good fellow at once convinced the man that the woman before him
which she needs sorely i will fetch an armful of fresh rushes from the shed and strew them here i will sleep in the smithy quick girl he said sharply
until she recovered consciousness when geoffrey ward returned the woman was sitting in a settle by the fireside dressed in a warm woolen garment belonging to his sister madge had thrown fresh wood on the fire which was blazing brightly now
the woman drank the steaming beverage which her host brought with him
i thank you indeed she said for your kindness had you not taken me in i think i would have died at your door for indeed i could go no further and though i hold not to life yet would i fain live until i have delivered my boy
into the hands of those who will be kind to him and this will i trust be tomorrow say nought about it geoffrey answered madge and i are right glad to have been of service to you
to a fellow creature on such a night as this especially when that fellow creature is a woman with a child poor little chap he looks right well and sturdy and seems to have taken no ill from his journey
truly he is well and sturdy the mother said looking at him proudly indeed i have been almost wishing today that he were lighter by a few pounds
and his weight has sorely tried me his name is walter and i trust she added looking at the powerful figure of her host that he will grow up as straight and as stalwart as yourself
the child who was about three years old was indeed an exceedingly fine little fellow as he sat in one scanty garment in his mother's lap
the child and mother made she was a fair gentle looking girl some two and twenty years old and it was easy enough to see now from her delicate features and soft shapely hands that she had never been accustomed to toil and now the smith said
the hour is late and i shall be having the watch coming along to know why i keep a fire so long after the curfew should you be a stranger in the city
to the friends whom you seek that is should they be known to me but if not we shall doubtless find them without difficulty so saying the smith retired to his bed of rushes in the smithy and soon afterwards the tired visitor with her baby
lay down on the rushes in front of the fire for in those days none of the working or artisan class used beds which were not indeed for centuries afterwards in usage by the common people in the morning geoffrey ward
found that his guest desired to find one giles fletcher a maker of bows i know him well the smith said there are many who do a larger business and hold their heads higher but giles fletcher is well esteemed as a good workman whose wares can be depended upon it is often said of him
that did he take less pains he would thrive more but he handles each bow that he makes as if he loved it and finishes and polishes each with his own hand therefore he doeth not so much trade as those who are less particular with their wares
but none who have ever bought his bows have regretted the silver which they cost many and many a gross of arrowheads have i sold him
many a friendly wrangle have i had with him
and now madam i am at your service during the night the wayfarer's clothes had been dried the cloak was of rough quality such as might have been used by a peasant woman but the rest though of sombre colour were of good material and fashion
seeing that her kind entertainers would be hurt by the offer of money the lady contented herself with thanking madge warmly
with dame fletcher then under the guidance of geoffrey who insisted on carrying the boy she set out from the smith's cottage they passed under the outer gate and across the bridge which later on was covered with a double line of houses and shops
but was now a narrow structure over the gateway across the river upon pikes were a number of heads and human limbs the lady shuddered as she looked up
who fought against the king's grandfather some twenty years back but after all they fought for their country
that men who have done no other harm should be beheaded still less that their heads and limbs should be stuck up there gibbering at all passers by there are over a score of them and every fresh trouble adds to their number but pardon me
he said suddenly as a sob from the figure by his side
i am rough and heedless in speech as my sister madge does often tell me and it may well be that i have said something which wounded you
say not more about it i pray you they passed under the gateway with its ghastly burden and were soon in the crowded streets of london high overhead the houses extended each story advancing beyond that below it
until the occupiers of the attics could well nigh shake hands across they soon left the more crowded streets and turning to the right after ten minutes walking the smith stopped in front of a bowyer shop near aldgate
here i will leave you and will one of these days return to inquire if your health has taken ought of harm by the rough buffeting of the storm of yester even so saying he handed the child to its mother
with a bent bow in his arm taking aim at a spot in the wall through an open door three men could be seen in an inner workshop cutting and shaping the wood for bows the bowyer
looked round as his visitor entered the shop and then with a sudden exclamation lowered the bow hush giles the lady exclaimed it is i but name no names it were best that none knew me here
the craftsman closed the door of communication into the inner room my lady alice he exclaimed in a low tone you here and in such a guise surely it is i the lady sighed although sometimes i am well nigh inclined to ask myself
i had heard but vaguely of your troubles giles fletcher said but hoped that the rumours were false ever since the duke of kent was executed the air has been full of rumours then came news of the killing of mortimer and of the imprisonment of the king's mother
and it was said that many who were thought to be of her party had been attacked and slain and i heard and there he stopped you heard rightly good giles it is all true a week after the slaying of mortimer
was taken roland was killed and i was cast out with my child afterwards they repented that they had let me go and searched far and wide for me but i was hidden in the cottage of a woodcutter
they were too busy in hunting down others whom they proclaimed to be enemies of the king as they had wrongfully said of roland who had but done his duty faithfully to queen isabella and was assuredly no enemy of her son
believing that you and bertha would take me in and shelter me in my great need aye that will we willingly giles said was not bertha your nurse and to whom should you come if not to her but will it please you to mount the stairs for bertha will not forgive me if i keep you talking down here
what a joy it will be to her to see you again so saying giles led the way to the apartment above there was a scream of surprise and joy from his wife and then giles quietly withdrew downstairs again
geoffrey ward entered the shop of giles fletcher i have brought you twenty score of arrowheads master giles he said they have been longer in hand than is usual with me but i have been pressed and how goes it with the lady whom i brought to your door last week
she was little accustomed to such wet and hardship and doubtless they took all the more effect because she was low in spirit and weakened with much grieving that night she was taken with a sort of fever hot and cold by turns and at times off her head
and in troth master ward methinks that god would deal most gently with her
and that bertha would serve her as gladly and faithfully as ever she did when she was her nurse yet she could not but greatly feel the change she was tenderly brought up being as i told you last week the only daughter of sir harold broome
her brother who but a year ago became lord of broomecastle at the death of his father was one of the queen's men and it was he i believe who brought sir roland somers to that side he was slain on the same night as mortimer
and his lands like those of sir roland have been seized by the crown the child upstairs is by right heir to both estates seeing that his uncle died unmarried
they will doubtless be conferred upon those who have aided the young king in freeing himself from his mother's domination for which indeed although i lament that lady alice should have suffered so sorely in the doing of it i blame him not at all
he is a noble prince and will make us a great king and the doings of his mother have been a shame to us all however i meddle not in politics if the poor lady dies as methinks is well nigh certain bertha and i will bring up the boy as our own
i have talked it over with my wife and so far she and i are not of one mind i think it will be best to keep him in ignorance of his birth and lineage since the knowledge cannot benefit him and will but render him discontented with his lot
to take to my calling in which he might otherwise
but bertha hath notions you have not taken a wife to yourself master geoffrey or you would know that women oft have fancies which wander widely from hard facts and she says she would have him brought up as a man at arms
so that he may do valiant deeds and win back some day the title and honour of his family geoffrey ward laughed
you need not for the present trouble about the child's calling
at any rate whether he follows your trade
the knowledge of arms may well be of use to him and i promise you that such skill as i have i will teach him when he grows old enough to wield sword and battle axe as you know i may without boasting say
that he could scarce have a better master seeing that i have for three years carried away the prize for the best sword player at the sports
as to archery he need not go far to learn it since your apprentice will parker last year won the prize as the best marksman in the city bounds trust me
the rumours that we are likely ere long to have war with france have rarely bettered my trade since the wars in scotland men's arms have rusted somewhat
and my two men are hard at work mending armour and fitting swords to hilts and forging pike heads you see
the fever abated but left her prostrate in strength for a few weeks she lingered
teach him to be honest and true it were better methinks that he grew up thinking you his father and mother for otherwise he may grow discontented with his lot
as you see his disposition and mind if he is content to settle down to a peaceful life here say nought to him which would unsettle his mind but if walter turn out to have an adventurous disposition
of his history not encouraging him to hope to recover his father's lands and mine for that can never be seeing that before that time can come they would have been enjoyed for many years by others but that he may learn to bear himself bravely
and gently as becomes one of good blood a few days later lady alice breathed her last and at her own request was buried quietly and without pomp as if she had been a child of the bowman
a plain stone with the name dame alice somers marking the grave the boy grew and throve until at fourteen years old there was no stronger or sturdier lad of his age within the city bounds
giles had caused him to be taught to read and write accomplishments which were common among the citizens although they were until long afterwards rare among the warlike barons the greater part of his time however
ofttimes growing into earnest were fought between the lads of the different wards walter fletcher as he was known among his play fellows
won for himself the proud position of captain of the boys of the ward of aldgate geoffrey ward had kept his word and had already begun to give the lad lessons in the use of arms when not engaged otherwise walter would almost every afternoon
cross london bridge and would spend hours in the armourer's forge
as soon as the boy could handle a light tool geoffrey allowed him to work and although not able to wield the heavy sledge walter was able to do much of the finer work
in which case he would take him some day as his partner in the forge after work was over and the men had gone away
that he rapidly acquired their use and geoffrey foresaw that he would one day should his thoughts turn that way prove a mighty man at arms
which had much to do with walter's position among his comrades the skill and strength which he had acquired in wielding the hammer and by practice with the sword rendered him a formidable opponent with the sticks which formed the weapons in the mimic battles
and indeed not a few were the complaints which were brought before giles fletcher of bruises and hurts caused by him you are too turbulent walter the bowyer said one day when a haberdasher from the ward of aldersgate came to complain
that his son's head had been badly cut by a blow with a club from walter fletcher
why do you not play more quietly the feuds between the boys of different wards are becoming a serious nuisance and many injuries have been inflicted
that no boy not yet apprenticed to a trade
i don't want to be turbulent walter said
my father is talking of apprenticing me master geoffrey walter said that evening i hope that you will as you were good enough to promise talk with him about apprenticing me to your craft rather than to his i should never take to the making of bows
though indeed i like well to use them and will parker who is teaching me says that i show rare promise but it would never be to my taste to stand all day sawing and smoothing and polishing one bow is to me much like another though my father holds that there are rare differences between them
but some day master geoffrey when i have served my time i mean to follow the army there is always work there for armourers to do and sometimes at a pinch they may even get their share of fighting walter did not venture to say that he would prefer to be a man at arms
he should long to distinguish himself in the field he said nothing of this however but renewed his promise to speak to giles fletcher
melody unformulate music immaterial such was the voice of the singing mouse faint small and clear
a piping of fifes so fine a touching of strings so delicate that it seemed to come from instruments of beryl and of diamond a phantom music
impossible to fetter with staff or bar and past the hope of compassing in words it was the last night of the year and the bell upon the church near by
had made many strokes the last time it had been heard many heavy strokes which throbbed sullenly mournfully on the air the presence of passing time was at hand
regret remorse despair abandonment the hopelessness of humanity was it the breath of these which arose and burdened heavily the note of the chronicling bell
these shadows that you see are not upon the wall said the singing mouse they are very much beyond the windows if only we will look out from our windows
there are always great pictures waiting for us pictures in pearl and opal in liquid argent in crimson and gold but always there must be the shadows
without these there can be no picture anywhere have you not seen what the shadows do have you not seen them trooping through the oak forest in the evening through the pine forest in open day
across the prairies under the moon at night legions of them armies of them have you never seen them march across the grass lands in the daytime cohort after cohort
hurrying to the call of the unseen trumpets in the woods have you never heard strange sounds
sounds untraceable to any animate life have you never heard vague voices in the trees have you not heard distant mysterious noises in the forest
whose cause you could never learn seek no matter how you might these were the voices of the shadows the people who live there
who else should it be to whisper and sing to you and make you happy when you are there without these people what would be the woods the prairies the waters the sky
the world without the shadows too what would be our lives thoughts thoughts and remembrances what have we that is sweeter than these
have you never seen the smile upon the lips of those who have died they say they are looking upon the future perhaps
and therefore smile in happiness seeing again youth and hope and faith and trust which are tender and beautiful things life
has no actuality of its own and in material sense is only a continual change but the shadows of thought and of remembrance do not change it is only the shadows
that are real as i pondered upon this there passed by many pleasant pictures upon the wall after the way the singing mouse had many pictures of days gone by which made me think
that perhaps what the singing mouse had said was true i could see the boy sitting idle and a dream watching the shadows drifting across the clover fields
where the big bees came i saw the youth wandering in the woods where the squirrels lived loitering and looking peering into corners full of the secrets of the wild creatures unraveling the delicious mysteries
it was a comfortable picture full of the brilliant greens of springtime the mellow tints of summer the red and russet of autumn days the blue and white of winter
i could hear also sounds intimately associated with the scenes before me the bleat of little lambs the low of cattle
and then both sound and scene progressed and once more as the woods and hills grew bolder and more wild i could hear clearly the rifle's thin report
could note the whisper of the secret loving paddle the slipping of the snow shoe on the snow the clatter of the hoofs of horses the baying of the bell mouthed hounds
the delights of it all came back again and in this varied phantom chase among the keen joys of the past i saw as plainly and exultantly as ever in my life
the panorama of the brown woods and the gray plains and the purple hills saw it distinctly with all the old vibrant joy of youth line for line
sound for sound shadow for shadow joy for joy and then the singing mouse without wish of mine
caused these scenes to change into others of more quiet sort which told not of the fields but of the home in the shadows of evening
i seemed to see a pleasant place well surrounded by trees and flowers the leaves of which were stirred softly in the breath of a faint summer breeze strong enough
only to carry aloft in its hands the odor of the blooming rose this picture faded slowly there were shadows in the spaces between the trees
one could only guess if he caught sight of garb or of the outline of a form among the shadows he could only guess too whether he heard music faint as the breeze
faint as the incense of the flowers he could only guess if he had seen the image of the house beautiful that temple known as home thoughts
said the singing mouse softly thoughts and remembrances these are the things that live for ever it is only the shadows that are real
the solemn note of the bell struck in it counted twelve the new year had come the chimes of joy arose but still
the faint music from the past had not died away and still the shadows waved and beckoned on the wall strong and beautiful and enduring and not
like the fading of a dream so then i knew that what the singing mouse had said was true and that it is indeed
the house of truth one morning i lay upon my bed in the little room which i call my home now among the eaves which rise opposite to my window there are many sparrows
which have also made their homes in the morning before the sun has arisen
instead of somber and black these sparrows begin to chatter and chirp and sing in discordant notes and by this i know the day has come
upon this morning it seemed to me the sparrows chattered with an unusual commotion and as i listened i heard from another window near mine the voice of grief and lamentation
then i knew that one who had long been sick had passed away as the gray morning came on this spirit this spark of life had gone out from its accustomed place as the day came on
the sounds of lamentation arose the friends of that one wept so i asked the sparrows and the sun and the gray sky why these friends wept what is grief
why should these weep what has happened when one dies where has the spark of life gone did it fall to these sodden pavements for ever done
to meet the kiss of the rising sun and the sparrows which fall to the ground answered not the sun rose calm and passionless but dumb the sky folded in large but inscrutable
none the less arose the voice of lamentation and of woe i ask you singing mouse said i one night as we sat alone what is the truth how do we reach it
how shall we know it tell me of this spark that has gone out tell me what is life and where does it go there are many words tell me what is the truth
the singing mouse gazed at me in its way of pity so i knew i had asked that which could not be yet even as i saw this look appear it changed and vanished
and as the singing mouse waved its tiny paw i forbore reflection and looked only on the scene which now was spread before me it seemed a picture of actual colors
and i could see it plainly i saw a youth who stood with one older and of austere garb by the vestments of this older man
to him the young man had come in anguish of heart then the older man of priestly garb taught the young man in the teachings that had come down to him but the youth bowed his head in trouble
nor was the cloud cleared upon his heart i heard him murmur alas what is the truth so i saw this same youth pass on in various stages of this picture
and before him i saw drawn as though in another picture
but the years passed and the panorama of beliefs swept by and no one could tell this man
after this young man had ceased to query and had closed his books he one day entered alone into one of the great edifices built for the sake of that which he could not understand in the picture i could see all this
i saw the young man cast himself face down among the cushions of a seat and there he lay and listened to the music this too i could hear
i could hear the peal of the organ arise like voices of the spirits going up up whispering appealing promising assuring then for i could see and hear with him there came to that young man
when he ceased to seek the very exaltation he had longed to know ah yes singing mouse i said it was very beautiful but music is not final music is not the truth
tell me of these things the singing mouse again seemed to hesitate it may be said the singing mouse slowly that the truth will never be found between the covers of any book no matter how wise
it may be that no man can convey to another that which is the truth to him it may be that the truth can never be grasped never be weighed or formulated
the ways of nature are always the same but nature does not ask exactness of form why then shall we ask exactness of faith
the true faith is nothing final not more than are final the carved stones of the church which offers it so strenuously the stones crumble and decay
new faiths will rise but were not all well at these things i wondered and over them i thought for a time but yet i did not understand all that the singing mouse had said
as if it knew my thought the singing mouse said to me your vision is too narrow you seek the great truths in small places and wonder that you do not find them come with me
the singing mouse waved its hand
and as in a dream and as though i were now the young man whom we had lately seen
i could hear voices that sang up and up thrilling compelling the sense of the confinement of the building ceased insensibly i seemed to see the hewn stones of the walls
assume their primeval and untouched state beneath the grasses of the hills i could feel the rafters vanishing and going back into the bodies of the oaks
the voice of the organ remained with me but it might have been the roll of the waves upon the shore i was in the temple in the temple one needs not seek for names
it was night i lay upon a bank of sweet smelling grasses and about me were the great oaks the organ or the waves spoke on i looked up up
into the great circle of the sky so far so blue so kind in its bending over so pitying it seemed to me yet so high in its up reaching
i looked upon the glorious pageant of the stars that star thought i shone over the grave of some ancestor of mine back back in the unmirrored past some father of some father of mine
he is gone like a fly he is dust i may be lying on his grave soon like a fly i too shall be dead gone turned into dust
but the star will still shine on small as that father's dust may be that dust still lives it is about me this grass these trees may hold it
he has lived again in the cycle of natural forces my dust when i am dead will in turn make part of this world one of an unknown sea of stars
small then as i am i am kin to that star the stars go on nature goes on then shall man shall i
ah said the singing mouse its voice sounding i knew not whence from this place can you see so now i thought i began to see what i had not seen before
and since this was in the land of the singing mouse i sought to find no name for what i saw nor tried to measure it what one man sees is not what another sees
shall one claim wisdom beyond his neighbor are not the stars his also and the trees his to talk with him are not the doors always open
does not the music of the organ ever roll do not the voices always rise had it not been for the singing mouse
the singing mouse came out quaintly and sweetly and with wondrous clearness it began an old old song i first heard long ago and as it sang
back with red electric thrill came the fine blood of youth and beat in pulse with the song when all the world is young lad and all the trees are green
and every goose a swan lad and every lass a queen then hey for boot and saddle lad and round the world away young blood must have its course lad
and every dog his day and young blood began its course anew booted and spurred into the saddle again face toward the west and off
and tumbles of green oceans unswum continents untracked of thousandfold green then on beyond the gray the gray brown
nearer than that a broad slash of great golden yellow a band of the sturdy prairie sunflowers and nearer than that swimming on the surface of the mysterious wave
which constantly passes but is never past on the prairies bright red roses and strong larkspur and at the bottom of this ever shifting sea jewels
in god's best blue enamel you can not find this enamel in the windows one must send for it to the land of the unswum sea a little higher and stronger
piped the compelling melody why
god bless them nay brother god has blessed them blessed them with unbounded calm with boundless strength with unspeakable peace you can
take your troubles to the mountains if you are pueblo aztec you can select some big mountain and pray to it as its top shows the red sentience of the on coming day
you can take your troubles to the sea but the sea has troubles of its own and frets there is commerce on the sea and the people who live near it are fretful greedy grasping
the mountains have no troubles they have no commerce the dwellers of the mountains are calm and unfretted and on the broad shoulders of the mountains
once more was cast the burden of the young man's troubles and once more he walked deep into the peace of the big hills and the mountains smiled not neither wept
but gravely and kindly folded over about behind the gray mantle of the canyon walls and locked fast doors of adamant against all following
and swept a pitying hand of shadow
that wondrous unsyllabled voice of comfort which any mountain goer knows ay the goodness of such strength up by the clean snow over the big rocks
by the lace work stream where the trout are why it's all come again that was the clink made by a passing deer that was the touch of the green balsam smell it now
folding down the top and there is the crash of the thunder and this is the rush of the rain
over it all o singing mouse
now by some impulse of the dog which hasn't had any day it is winter now i remember singing mouse and i am walking by the shore of the great inland seas
there is snow on the ground the trees look black in contrast as you gaze up from the beach against the high bank it is cold it is dark
there are icicles in the sky something is flying through the trees but silent as if it came out of a grave i have been walking i know
i have walked a million miles and i'm tired my legs are stiff and my legging has frozen fast to my overshoe i remember that and so
i sit down right here you know and look out over the lake just over there you see the ice reaches out from the shore into the lake a long way
and it is covered with snow and looks white i can follow that white glimmer in a long long curve to the right twenty miles or more maybe yes
it is cold but ah what is that out there and what is it doing it is setting all the long white curves of ice afire
out there on the water those are not ripples that is silver there will be angels walking on that pathway before long that is not the moon coming up over the lake it is the swinging open
of the door of the white city of rest how old how sore a man climbed up the steep bank there were white fields
in the distance a dog barked away across the fields a bright and cheery light shone out from a window and as the moon rose higher it showed the house which held the light
it was not a large house but it seemed to be a home home what is that i wondered
that i pulled at the frozen legging and moved with pain the limbs grown tired and sore and as one looked at that twinkling comfortable light how plainly the rest of the old song
came back when all the world is old lad and all the trees are brown and all the sports are stale lad and all the wheels run down
creep home and take your place there the sick and maimed among god grant you find one face there you loved when
the light in the little house went out i think it was a happy home may yours be so
chapter six a laceration in the cottage he certainly was really grieved in a way he had seldom been before he had rushed in like a fool and meddled in what in a love affair
but what do i know about it what can i tell about such things he repeated to himself for the hundredth time flushing crimson oh being ashamed would be nothing shame is only the punishment i deserve
the trouble is i shall certainly have caused more unhappiness and father zossima sent me to reconcile and bring them together is this the way to bring them together then he suddenly remembered how he had tried to join their hands
and he felt fearfully ashamed again though i acted quite sincerely i must be more sensible in the future he concluded suddenly and did not even smile at his conclusion katerina
ivanovna's commission took him to lake street and his brother dmitri lived close by in a turning out of lake street alyosha decided to go to him in any case before going to the captain though he had a presentiment that he would not find his brother
he suspected that he would intentionally keep out of his way now but he must find him anyhow time was passing the thought of his dying elder had not left alyosha for one minute from the time he set off from the monastery
there was one point which interested him particularly about katerina ivanovna's commission when she had mentioned the captain's son the little schoolboy who had run beside his father crying
the idea had at once struck alyosha that this must be the schoolboy who had bitten his finger when he alyosha asked him what he had done to hurt him now alyosha felt practically certain of this
though he could not have said why thinking of another subject was a relief and he resolved to think no more about the mischief he had done and not to torture himself with remorse but to do what he had to do let come what would
at that thought he was completely comforted turning to the street where dmitri lodged he felt hungry and taking out of his pocket the roll he had brought from his father's he ate it it made him feel stronger
dmitri was not at home the people of the house an old cabinet maker his son and his old wife looked with positive suspicion at alyosha
the old man said in answer to alyosha's persistent inquiries alyosha saw that he was answering in accordance with instructions when he asked whether he were not at grushenka's or in hiding at foma's alyosha spoke so freely
on purpose all three looked at him in alarm they are fond of him they are doing their best for him thought alyosha that's good at last he found the house in lake street it was a decrepit little house
sunk on one side with three windows looking into the street and with a muddy yard in the middle of which stood a solitary cow he crossed the yard and found the door opening into the passage
on the left of the passage lived the old woman of the house with her old daughter both seemed to be deaf in answer to his repeated inquiry for the captain one of them at last understood that he was asking for their lodgers
and pointed to a door across the passage the captain's lodging turned out to be a simple cottage room alyosha had his hand on the iron latch to open the door
yet he knew from katerina ivanovna's words that the man had a family either they are all asleep or perhaps they have heard me coming and are waiting for me to open the door i'd better knock first and he knocked
an answer came but not at once after an interval of perhaps ten seconds who's there shouted some one in a loud and very angry voice then alyosha opened the door and crossed the threshold
he found himself in a regular peasant's room though it was large it was cumbered up with domestic belongings of all sorts and there were several people in it on the left was a large russian stove from the stove to the window on the left
and on it there were rags hanging there was a bedstead against the wall on each side right and left covered with knitted quilts on the one on the left was a pyramid of four print covered pillows
each smaller than the one beneath on the other there was only one very small pillow the opposite corner was screened off by a curtain or a sheet hung on a string behind this curtain could be seen a bed
made up on a bench and a chair the rough square table of plain wood had been moved into the middle window
gave little light and were close shut so that the room was not very light and rather stuffy on the table was a frying pan with the remains of some fried eggs a half eaten piece of bread
and a small bottle with a few drops of vodka a woman of genteel appearance wearing a cotton gown was sitting on a chair by the bed on the left her face was thin and yellow and her sunken cheeks
betrayed at the first glance that she was ill but what struck alyosha most was the expression in the poor woman's eyes a look of surprised inquiry and yet of haughty pride
and while he was talking to her husband her big brown eyes moved from one speaker to the other with the same haughty and questioning expression beside her at the window stood a young girl rather plain
with scanty reddish hair poorly but very neatly dressed she looked disdainfully at alyosha as he came in beside the other bed was sitting another female figure she was a very sad sight
a young girl of about twenty but hunchback and crippled with withered legs as alyosha was told afterwards her crutches stood in the corner close by the strikingly beautiful and gentle eyes of this poor girl
looked with mild serenity at alyosha a man of forty five was sitting at the table finishing the fried eggs he was spare small and weakly built he had reddish hair
and a scanty light colored beard very much like a wisp of tow this comparison and the phrase a wisp of tow flashed at once into alyosha's mind for some reason he remembered it afterwards
it was obviously this gentleman who had shouted to him as there was no other man in the room but when alyosha went in he leapt up from the bench on which he was sitting and hastily wiping his mouth with a ragged napkin
darted up to alyosha it's a monk come to beg for the monastery a nice place to come to the girl standing in the left corner said aloud the man spun round instantly towards her and answered her in an excited
and breaking voice no varvara you are wrong allow me to ask he turned again to alyosha what has brought you to our retreat alyosha looked attentively at him
it was the first time he had seen him there was something angular flurried and irritable about him though he had obviously just been drinking he was not drunk
and yet strange to say at the same time there was fear he looked like a man who had long been kept in subjection and had submitted to it and now
had suddenly turned and was trying to assert himself or better still like a man who wants dreadfully to hit you but is horribly afraid you will hit him
in his words and in the intonation of his shrill voice there was a sort of crazy humor at times spiteful and at times cringing and continually shifting from one tone to another
the question about our retreat he had asked as it were quivering all over rolling his eyes and skipping up so close to alyosha that he instinctively drew back a step
he was dressed in a very shabby dark cotton coat patched and spotted he wore checked trousers of an extremely light color long out of fashion and of very thin material they were so crumpled
and so short that he looked as though he had grown out of them like a boy i am alexey karamazov alyosha began in reply i quite understand that sir the gentleman snapped out at once to assure him
that he knew who he was already i am captain snegiryov sir but i am still desirous to know precisely what has led you oh i've come for nothing special i wanted to have a word with you if only you allow me
in that case here is a chair sir kindly be seated that's what they used to say in the old comedies kindly be seated and with a rapid gesture he seized an empty chair it was a rough wooden chair not upholstered
then taking another similar chair for himself he sat down facing alyosha so close to him that their knees almost touched
snegiryov sir formerly a captain in the russian infantry put to shame for his vices but still a captain though i might not be one now for the way i talk for the last half of my life i've learnt to say sir
it's a word you use when you've come down in the world that's very true smiled alyosha but is it used involuntarily or on purpose as god's above it's involuntary and i usen't to use it
i didn't use the word sir all my life but as soon as i sank into low water i began to say sir it's the work of a higher power
i've come about that business about what business the captain interrupted impatiently about your meeting with my brother dmitri fyodorovitch alyosha blurted out awkwardly what meeting sir
you don't mean that meeting about my wisp of tow then
his lips were strangely compressed like a thread what wisp of tow muttered alyosha he is come to complain of me father cried a voice familiar to alyosha the voice of the schoolboy from behind the curtain
i bit his finger just now the curtain was pulled and alyosha saw his assailant lying on a little bed made up on the bench and the chair in the corner under the ikons
he was evidently unwell and judging by his glittering eyes he was in a fever he looked at alyosha without fear as though he felt he was at home and could not be touched what did he bite your finger the captain jumped up from his chair
was it your finger he bit yes he was throwing stones with other schoolboys there were six of them against him alone i went up to him and he threw a stone at me and then another at my head i asked him what i had done to him
and then he rushed at me and bit my finger badly i don't know why i'll thrash him sir at once this minute the captain jumped up from his seat but i am not complaining at all i am simply telling you
i don't want him to be thrashed
and do you suppose i'd thrash him that i'd take my ilusha and thrash him before you for your satisfaction would you like it done at once sir said the captain suddenly turning to alyosha as though he were going to attack him
i am sorry about your finger sir but instead of thrashing ilusha would you like me to chop off my four fingers with this knife here before your eyes to satisfy your just wrath i should think four fingers would be enough to satisfy your thirst for vengeance
you won't ask for the fifth one too he stopped short with a catch in his throat every feature in his face was twitching and working he looked extremely defiant he was in a sort of frenzy
i think i understand it all now said alyosha gently and sorrowfully still keeping his seat so your boy is a good boy he loves his father and he attacked me as the brother of your assailant now i understand it
he repeated thoughtfully but my brother dmitri fyodorovitch regrets his action i know that and if only it is possible for him to come to you or better still to meet you in that same place
he will ask your forgiveness before every one if you wish it after pulling out my beard you mean he will ask my forgiveness and he thinks that will be a satisfactory finish doesn't he
oh no on the contrary he will do anything you like and in any way you like so if i were to ask his highness to go down on his knees before me in that very tavern metropolis it's called or in the market place
he would do it yes he would even go down on his knees you've pierced me to the heart sir touched me to tears and pierced me to the heart i am only too sensible of your brother's generosity
my two daughters and my son my litter if i die who will care for them and while i live who but they will care for a wretch like me that's a great thing the lord has ordained for every man of my sort sir
for there must be some one able to love even a man like me ah that's perfectly true exclaimed alyosha oh do leave off playing the fool some idiot comes in and you put us to shame cried the girl by the window
suddenly turning to her father with a disdainful and contemptuous air wait a little varvara cried her father speaking peremptorily
that's her character he said addressing alyosha again and in all nature there was naught that could find favor in his eyes or rather in the feminine that could find favor in her eyes
but now let me present you to my wife arina petrovna she is crippled she is forty three she can move but very little she is of humble origin arina petrovna compose your countenance
this is alexey fyodorovitch karamazov get up alexey fyodorovitch he took him by the hand and with unexpected force pulled him up you must stand up to be introduced to a lady
etcetera but his brother radiant with modest virtues come arina petrovna come mamma first your hand to be kissed and he kissed his wife's hand respectfully and even tenderly
the girl at the window turned her back indignantly on the scene an expression of extraordinary cordiality came over the haughtily inquiring face of the woman good morning sit down mister tchernomazov
she said karamazov mamma karamazov we are of humble origin he whispered again well karamazov or whatever it is but i always think of tchernomazov sit down why has he pulled you up
he calls me crippled but i am not only my legs are swollen like barrels and i am shriveled up myself once i used to be so fat but now it's as though i had swallowed a needle we are of humble origin the captain muttered again
oh father father the hunchback girl
have you heard our news said the mother pointing at her daughters it's like clouds coming over the clouds pass and we have music again when we were with the army we used to have many such guests
i don't mean to make any comparisons every one to their taste
alexandr alexandrovitch is a man of the noblest heart but nastasya petrovna she would say is of the brood of hell well i said that's a matter of taste but you are a little spitfire and you want keeping in your place
says she you black sword said i who asked you to teach me but my breath says she is clean and yours is unclean you ask all the officers whether my breath is unclean
not long ago i was sitting here as i am now when i saw that very general come in who came here for easter and i asked him your excellency said i can a lady's breath be unpleasant yes he answered
you ought to open a window pane or open the door for the air is not fresh here
and what is my breath to them the dead smell worse still i won't spoil the air said i
my darlings don't blame your own mother nikolay ilyitch how is it i can't please you there's only ilusha who comes home from school and loves me
forgive your own mother forgive a poor lonely creature
and the poor mad woman broke into sobs
the captain rushed up to her mamma mamma my dear give over you are not lonely every one loves you every one adores you he began kissing both her hands again and tenderly stroking her face
taking the dinner napkin he began wiping away her tears alyosha fancied that he too had tears in his eyes there you see you hear he turned with a sort of fury to alyosha pointing to the poor imbecile
i see and hear muttered alyosha father father how can you with him let him alone cried the boy sitting up in his bed and gazing at his father with glowing eyes do give over fooling
stamping her foot with passion your anger is quite just this time varvara and i'll make haste to satisfy you come put on your cap alexey fyodorovitch and i'll put on mine we will go out
i have a word to say to you in earnest but not within these walls this girl sitting here is my daughter nina i forgot to introduce her to you she is a heavenly angel incarnate who has flown down to us mortals if you can understand
there he is shaking all over as though he is in convulsions varvara went on indignantly
she is a heavenly angel incarnate too and she has good reason to call me so come along alexey fyodorovitch we must make an end and
and in the open air the air is fresh but in my apartment it is not so in any sense of the word let us walk slowly sir i should be glad of your kind interest
i too have something important to say to you observed alyosha only i don't know how to begin to be sure you must have business with me you would never have looked in upon me without some object unless you come simply to complain of the boy
and that's hardly likely and by the way about the boy i could not explain to you in there but here i will describe that scene to you my tow was thicker a week ago i mean my beard
that's the nickname they give to my beard the schoolboys most of all well your brother dmitri fyodorovitch was pulling me by my beard i'd done nothing
and with them ilusha as soon as he saw me in such a state he rushed up to me father he cried father he caught hold of me hugged me tried to pull me away crying to my assailant let go let go
it's my father forgive him yes he actually cried forgive him he clutched at that hand that very hand in his little hands and kissed it i remember his little face at that moment
i haven't forgotten it and i never shall i swear cried alyosha that my brother will express his most deep and sincere regret even if he has to go down on his knees in that same market place i'll make him or he is no brother of mine
aha then it's only a suggestion and it does not come from him but simply from the generosity of your own warm heart you should have said so no in that case
allow me to tell you of your brother's highly chivalrous soldierly generosity for he did give expression to it at the time
you are an officer he said and i am an officer if you can find a decent man to be your second send me your challenge i will give satisfaction though you are a scoundrel
a chivalrous spirit indeed i retired with ilusha and that scene is a family record imprinted for ever on ilusha's soul no it's not for us to claim the privileges of noblemen judge for yourself
you've just been in our mansion what did you see there three ladies one a cripple and weak minded another a cripple and hunchback and the third not crippled but far too clever she is a student dying to get back to petersburg
to work for the emancipation of the russian woman on the banks of the neva i won't speak of ilusha he is only nine i am alone in the world and if i die what will become of all of them i simply ask you that
and if i challenge him and he kills me on the spot what then what will become of them and worse still if he doesn't kill me but only cripples me i couldn't work but i should still be a mouth to feed who would feed it
must i take ilusha from school and send him to beg in the streets that's what it means for me to challenge him to a duel it's silly talk and nothing else he will beg your forgiveness he will bow down at your feet in the middle of the market place cried alyosha again
with glowing eyes i did think of prosecuting him the captain went on but look in our code could i get much compensation for a personal injury and then agrafena alexandrovna
sent for me and shouted at me don't dare to dream of it if you proceed against him i'll publish it to all the world that he beat you for your dishonesty and then you will be prosecuted i call god to witness whose was the dishonesty
and by whose commands i acted wasn't it by her own and fyodor pavlovitch's and what's more she went on i'll dismiss you for good and you'll never earn another penny from me i'll speak to my merchant too
that's what she calls her old man and he will dismiss you and if he dismisses me what can i earn then from any one those two are all i have to look to for your fyodor pavlovitch
for another reason but he means to make use of papers i've signed to go to law against me
and you have seen our retreat but now let me ask you did ilusha hurt your finger much
yes very much and he was in a great fury he was avenging you on me as a karamazov i see that now but if only you had seen how he was throwing stones at his school fellows
it's very dangerous they might kill him they are children and stupid a stone may be thrown and break somebody's head
not on the head but on the chest just above the heart he came home crying and groaning and now he is ill and you know he attacks them first he is bitter against them on your account they say he stabbed a boy called krassotkin
with a pen knife not long ago i've heard about that too it's dangerous krassotkin is an official here we may hear more about it i would advise you alyosha went on warmly
and his anger is passed anger the captain repeated that's just what it is he is a little creature but it's a mighty anger you don't know all sir let me tell you more
since that incident all the boys have been teasing him about the wisp of tow schoolboys are a merciless race individually they are angels but together especially in schools they are often merciless their teasing
an ordinary boy a weak son
against them all for his father and for truth and justice for what he suffered when he kissed your brother's hand and cried to him forgive father forgive him that only god knows and i his father
for our children not your children but ours the children of the poor gentlemen looked down upon by every one know what justice means sir even at nine years old how should the rich know
they don't explore such depths once in their lives but at that moment in the square when he kissed his hand at that moment my ilusha had grasped all that justice means that truth entered into him
and crushed him for ever sir the captain said hotly again with a sort of frenzy and he struck his right fist against his left palm as though he wanted to show how the truth crushed ilusha that very day sir he fell ill with fever
and was delirious all night all that day he hardly said a word to me but i noticed he kept watching me from the corner though he turned to the window and pretended to be learning his lessons but i could see his mind was not on his lessons
sinful man as i am and i don't remember much mamma began crying too i am very fond of mamma well i spent my last penny drowning my troubles don't despise me for that sir in russia men who drink are the best
i lay down and i don't remember about ilusha though all that day the boys had been jeering at him at school wisp of tow they shouted your father was pulled out of the tavern by his wisp of tow
on the third day when he came back from school i saw he looked pale and wretched what is it i asked he wouldn't answer well there's no talking in our mansion without mamma and the girls taking part in it what's more
the girls had heard about it the very first day varvara had begun snarling you fools and buffoons can you ever do anything rational quite so i said can we ever do anything rational
for the time i turned it off like that so in the evening
always the same way along which we are going now from our gate to that great stone
under the hurdle which marks the beginning of the town pasture a beautiful and lonely spot sir
he has a little hand his fingers are thin and cold
father said he father well said i i saw his eyes flashing father how he treated you then it can't be helped ilusha i said don't forgive him father don't forgive him
at school they say that he has paid you ten roubles for it no ilusha said i
took my hand in both his and kissed it again father he said father challenge him to a duel at school they say you are a coward and won't challenge him
i can't challenge him to a duel ilusha i answered and i told briefly what i've just told you he listened father he said anyway don't forgive it when i grow up i'll call him out myself and kill him
his eyes shone and glowed and of course i am his father and i had to put in a word it's a sin to kill i said even in a duel father he said when i grow up i'll knock him down knock the sword out of his hand
i'll fall on him wave my sword over him and say i could kill you but i forgive you so there you see what the workings of his little mind have been during these two days he must have been planning that vengeance all day and raving about it at night
but he began to come home from school badly beaten i found out about it the day before yesterday and you are right i won't send him to that school any more i heard that he was standing up against all the class alone and defying them all
that his heart was full of resentment of bitterness
author's note nostromo is the most anxiously meditated of the longer novels which belong to the period following upon the publication of the typhoon volume of short stories
i don't mean to say that i became then conscious of any impending change in my mentality
a phenomenon for which i can not in any way be held responsible what however did cause me some concern was that after finishing the last story of the typhoon volume
it seemed somehow that there was nothing more in the world to write about this so strangely negative but disturbing mood lasted some little time and then as with many of my longer stories
the first hint for nostromo came to me in the shape of a vagrant anecdote completely destitute of valuable details as a matter of fact in eighteen seventy five or six when very young
i was not likely to keep that one in my mind and i forgot it till twenty six or seven years afterwards i came upon the very thing in a shabby volume picked up outside a second hand book shop
it was the life story of an american seaman written by himself with the assistance of a journalist in the course of his wanderings that american sailor worked for some months on board a schooner the master and owner of which was the thief
of whom i had heard in my very young days i have no doubt of that because there could hardly have been two exploits of that peculiar kind in the same part of the world and both connected with a south american revolution
the fellow had actually managed to steal a lighter with silver and this it seems
and altogether unworthy of the greatness this opportunity had thrust upon him
there was also another curious point about the man once in the course of some quarrel the sailor threatened him
the cynical ruffian was not alarmed in the least he actually laughed you fool if you dare talk like that on shore about me you will get a knife stuck in your back
every man woman and child in that port is my friend and who's to prove the lighter wasn't sunk i didn't show you where the silver is hidden did i so you know nothing
ultimately the sailor disgusted with the sordid meanness of that impenitent thief deserted from the schooner the whole episode takes about three pages of his autobiography nothing to speak of
but as i looked them over the curious confirmation of the few casual words heard in my early youth evoked the memories of that distant time when everything was so fresh so surprising so venturesome
so interesting bits of strange coasts under the stars shadows of hills in the sunshine men's passions in the dusk gossip half forgotten
perhaps perhaps there still was in the world something to write about yet i did not see anything at first in the mere story a rascal steals a large parcel of a valuable commodity
so people say it's either true or untrue and in any case it has no value in itself to invent a circumstantial account of the robbery did not appeal to me because my talents not running that way
i did not think that the game was worth the candle it was only when it dawned upon me that the purloiner of the treasure need not necessarily be a confirmed rogue that he could be even a man of character
an actor and possibly a victim in the changing scenes of a revolution it was only then that i had the first vision of a twilight country which was to become the province of sulaco with its high shadowy sierra
and its misty campo for mute witnesses of events flowing from the passions of men short sighted in good and evil such are in very truth
the obscure origins of nostromo the book from that moment i suppose it had to be yet even then i hesitated as if warned by the instinct of self preservation
from venturing on a distant and toilsome journey into a land full of intrigues and revolutions but it had to be done it took the best part of the years nineteen o three four to do
with many intervals of renewed hesitation lest i should lose myself in the ever enlarging vistas opening before me as i progressed deeper in my knowledge of the country
often also when i had thought myself to a standstill over the tangled up affairs of the republic i would figuratively speaking pack my bag rush away from sulaco for a change of air
and write a few pages of the mirror of the sea but generally as i've said before my sojourn on the continent of latin america famed for its hospitality lasted for about two years
on my return i found speaking somewhat in the style of captain gulliver my family all well my wife heartily glad to learn that the fuss was all over and our small boy considerably grown
during my absence my principal authority for the history of costaguana is of course my venerated friend the late don jose avellanos minister to the courts of england and spain et cetera et cetera
in his impartial and eloquent history of fifty years of misrule that work was never published the reader will discover why and i am in fact the only person in the world possessed of its contents
i have mastered them in not a few hours of earnest meditation and i hope that my accuracy will be trusted in justice to myself and to allay the fears of prospective readers i beg to point out that
the few historical allusions are never dragged in for the sake of parading my unique erudition but that each of them is closely related to actuality either throwing a light on the nature of current events
or affecting directly the fortunes of the people of whom i speak as to their own histories i have tried to set them down aristocracy and people men and women latin and anglo saxon
how far they are deserving of interest in their actions and in the secret purposes of their hearts revealed in the bitter necessities of the time i confess that for me that time is the time of firm friendships
and unforgotten hospitalities and in my gratitude i must mention here missus gould the first lady of sulaco whom we may safely leave to the secret devotion of doctor monygham and charles gould
both captured by the silver of the san tome mine i feel bound to say something more i did not hesitate to make that central figure an italian first of all the thing is perfectly credible italians were swarming into the occidental province at the time
as anybody who will read further can see and secondly there was no one who could stand so well by the side of giorgio viola the garibaldino the idealist of the old humanitarian revolutions for myself
i needed there a man of the people as free as possible from his class conventions and all settled modes of thinking this is not a side snarl at conventions my reasons were not moral but artistic had he been an anglo saxon
but mainly nostromo is what he is because i received the inspiration for him in my early days from a mediterranean sailor those who have read certain pages of mine will see at once what i mean when i say that dominic
there must after all have been something in me worthy to command that man's half bitter fidelity his half ironic devotion many of nostromo's speeches i have heard first in dominic's voice
his hand on the tiller and his fearless eyes roaming the horizon from within the monkish hood shadowing his face
very much like nostromo but dominic the corsican nursed a certain pride of ancestry from which my nostromo is free for nostromo's lineage had to be more ancient still
he is a man with the weight of countless generations behind him and no parentage to boast of like the people in his firm grip on the earth he inherits in his improvidence and generosity
disdaining to lead but ruling from within years afterwards grown older as the famous captain fidanza with a stake in the country going about his many affairs followed by respectful glances
in the modernized streets of sulaco calling on the widow of the cargador attending the lodge listening in unmoved silence to anarchist speeches at the meeting
the enigmatical patron of the new revolutionary agitation the trusted the wealthy comrade fidanza with the knowledge of his moral ruin locked up in his breast he remains essentially a man
of the people in his mingled love and scorn of life and in the bewildered conviction of having been betrayed of dying betrayed he hardly knows by what or by whom he is still of the people their undoubted great man
with a private history of his own one more figure of those stirring times i would like to mention and that is
whether she is a possible variation of latin american girlhood i wouldn't dare to affirm but for me she is
the aspect of continued life antonia the aristocrat and nostromo the man of the people are the artisans of the new era the true creators of the new state he by his legendary and daring feat
of a trifler if anything could induce me to revisit sulaco i should hate to see all these changes it would be antonia and the true reason for that why not be frank about it
the true reason is that i have modelled her on my first love how we a band of tallish schoolboys the chums of her two brothers
just out of the schoolroom herself as the standard bearer of a faith to which we all were born but which she alone knew how to hold aloft with an unflinching hope she had perhaps more glow and less serenity in her soul than antonia
but she was an uncompromising puritan of patriotism with no taint of the slightest worldliness in her thoughts i was not the only one in love with her but it was i who had to hear oftenest her scathing criticism of my levities
i received a hand squeeze that made my heart leap and saw a tear that took my breath away she was softened at the last
we were such children still that i was really going away for good going very far away even as far as sulaco lying unknown
that's why i long sometimes for another glimpse of the beautiful antonia or can it be the other moving in the dimness of the great cathedral saying a short prayer at the
with her upright carriage and her white head a relic of the past disregarded by men awaiting impatiently the dawns of other new eras the coming of more revolutions but this is the idlest of dreams
for i did understand perfectly well at the time that the moment the breath left the body of the magnificent capataz the man of the people freed at last from the toils of love and wealth there was nothing more for me to do
chapter four the third son alyosha he was only twenty
while their elder brother dmitri was twenty seven first of all i must explain that this young man alyosha was not a fanatic and in my opinion at least was not even
a mystic i may as well give my full opinion from the beginning he was simply an early lover of humanity and that he adopted the monastic life was simply because at that time
that he found in it at that time as he thought an extraordinary being our celebrated elder zossima to whom he became attached with all the warm first love of his ardent heart
but i do not dispute that he was very strange even at that time and had been so indeed from his cradle i have mentioned already by the way that though he lost his mother in his fourth year
he remembered her all his life her face her caresses as though she stood living before me such memories may persist as every one knows from an even earlier age
except that fragment that is how it was with him he remembered one still summer evening an open window the slanting rays of the setting sun
that he recalled most vividly of all in a corner of the room the holy image before it a lighted lamp and on her knees before the image his mother sobbing hysterically
with cries and moans snatching him up in both arms squeezing him close till it hurt and praying for him to the mother of god holding him out in both arms to the image
as though to put him under the mother's protection and suddenly a nurse runs in and snatches him from her in terror that was the picture
and alyosha remembered his mother's face at that minute he used to say that it was frenzied but beautiful as he remembered but he rarely cared to speak of this memory to any one
yet no one ever looked on him as a simpleton or naive person there was something about him which made one feel at once and it was so all his life afterwards that he did not care to be a judge of others
to criticize and would never condemn any one for anything he seemed indeed to accept everything without the least condemnation though often grieving bitterly and this was so much so that no one could surprise or frighten him
even in his earliest youth coming at twenty to his father's house which was a very sink of filthy debauchery he chaste and pure as he was simply withdrew in silence when to look on was unbearable
but without the slightest sign of contempt or condemnation his father who had once been in a dependent position and so was sensitive and ready to take offense
met him at first with distrust and sullenness he does not say much he used to say and thinks the more but soon within a fortnight indeed he took to embracing him and kissing him terribly often
with drunken tears with sottish sentimentality yet he evidently felt a real and deep affection for him such as he had never been capable of feeling for any one before every one indeed
loved this young man wherever he went and it was so from his earliest childhood when he entered the household of his patron and benefactor
he gained the hearts of all the family so that they looked on him quite as their own child yet he entered the house at such a tender age that he could not have acted from design nor artfulness in winning affection so
that the gift of making himself loved directly and unconsciously
and rather solitary from his earliest childhood he was fond of creeping into a corner to read
he was rarely playful or merry but any one could see at the first glance that this was not from any sullenness on the contrary he was bright and good tempered he never tried to show off among his schoolfellows
perhaps because of this he was never afraid of any one yet the boys immediately understood that he was not proud of his fearlessness and seemed to be unaware that he was bold and courageous
he never resented an insult it would happen that an hour after the offense he would address the offender or answer some question with as trustful and candid an expression
this characteristic was a wild fanatical modesty and chastity he could not bear to hear certain words and certain conversations about women there are certain words and conversations
unhappily impossible to eradicate in schools boys pure in mind and heart almost children are fond of talking in school among themselves and even aloud of things pictures
would sometimes hesitate to speak more than that much that soldiers have no knowledge or conception of is familiar to quite young children of our intellectual and higher classes
there is no moral depravity no real corrupt inner cynicism in it but there is the appearance of it and it is often looked upon among them as something refined subtle daring and worthy of imitation
seeing that alyosha karamazov put his fingers in his ears when they talked of that they used sometimes to crowd round him pull his hands away and shout nastiness into both ears while he struggled slipped to the floor
they looked upon it with compassion as a weakness he was always one of the best in the class but was never first at the time of yefim petrovitch's death
with her whole family which consisted only of women and girls alyosha went to live in the house of two distant relations of yefim petrovitch ladies whom he had never seen before
and had from childhood been bitterly conscious of living at the expense of his benefactor but this strange trait in alyosha's character
to give it away for the asking either for good works or perhaps to a clever rogue in general he seemed scarcely to know the value of money not of course in a literal sense when he was given pocket money which he never asked for
he was either terribly careless of it so that it was gone in a moment or he kept it for weeks together not knowing what to do with it in later years pyotr alexandrovitch miuesov a man very sensitive on the score of money
and bourgeois honesty pronounced the following judgment after getting to know alyosha here is perhaps the one man in the world whom you might leave alone without a penny in the center of an unknown town of a million inhabitants
and he would not come to harm he would not die of cold and hunger for he would be fed and sheltered at once and if he were not he would find a shelter for himself and it would cost him no effort or humiliation
he did not finish his studies at the gymnasium a year before the end of the course he suddenly announced to the ladies that he was going to see his father about a plan which had occurred to him they were sorry and unwilling to let him go
the journey was not an expensive one
they provided him liberally with money and even fitted him out with new clothes and linen but he returned half the money they gave him saying that he intended to go third class on his arrival in the town
he made no answer to his father's first inquiry why he had come before completing his studies and seemed so they say unusually thoughtful it soon became apparent that he was looking for his mother's tomb
he practically acknowledged at the time that that was the only object of his visit but it can hardly have been the whole reason of it it is more probable that he himself did not understand
and could not explain what had suddenly arisen in his soul and drawn him
where she was buried fyodor pavlovitch by the way had for some time previously not been living in our town three or four years after his wife's death he had gone to the south of russia
jews high and low alike it may be presumed that at this period he developed a peculiar faculty for making and hoarding money
he finally returned to our town only three years before alyosha's arrival his former acquaintances found him looking terribly aged although he was by no means an old man
he behaved not exactly with more dignity but with more effrontery the former buffoon showed an insolent propensity for making buffoons of others his depravity with women
many of the inhabitants of the town and district were soon in his debt and of course had given good security of late too he looked somehow bloated and seemed more irresponsible
more uneven had sunk into a sort of incoherence used to begin one thing and go on with another
he was more and more frequently drunk
a cast iron tombstone cheap but decently kept on which were inscribed the name and age of the deceased and the date of her death and below a four lined verse such as are commonly used on old fashioned middle class tombs
to alyosha's amazement this tomb turned out to be grigory's doing he had put it up on the poor crazy woman's grave at his own expense after fyodor pavlovitch whom he had often pestered about the grave
had gone to odessa abandoning the grave and all his memories alyosha showed no particular emotion at the sight of his mother's grave he only listened to grigory's minute
of the erection of the tomb he stood with bowed head and walked away without uttering a word it was perhaps a year before he visited the cemetery again but
this little episode was not without an influence upon fyodor pavlovitch and a very original one he suddenly took a thousand roubles to our monastery to pay for requiems for the soul of his wife but not for the second
alyosha's mother the crazy woman but for the first adelaida ivanovna who used to thrash him in the evening of the same day he got drunk and abused the monks to alyosha
he himself was far from being religious he had probably never put a penny candle before the image of a saint
and sudden thought are common in such types i have mentioned already that he looked bloated his countenance at this time bore traces of something that testified unmistakably to the life he had led
like a great fleshy goiter which gave him a peculiar repulsive sensual appearance add to that a long rapacious mouth with full lips between which could be seen little stumps of black decayed teeth
he was fond indeed of making fun of his own face though i believe he was well satisfied with it he used particularly to point to his nose which was not very large but very delicate and conspicuously aquiline
a regular roman nose he used to say with my goiter i've quite the countenance of an ancient roman patrician of the decadent period he seemed proud of it not long after visiting his mother's grave
had made a special impression upon his gentle boy that is the most honest monk among them of course he observed after listening in thoughtful silence to alyosha
he was half drunk and suddenly he grinned his slow half drunken grin which was not without a certain cunning and tipsy slyness
i had a presentiment that you would end in something like this would you believe it you were making straight for it well to be sure you have your own two thousand that's a dowry for you and i'll never desert you
my angel and i'll pay what's wanted for you there if they ask for it but of course if they don't ask why should we worry them what do you say you know you spend money like a canary
town where every baby knows there are none but the monks wives living as they are called thirty women i believe i have been there myself you know
there are no french women there
if they get to hear of it they'll come along well there's nothing of that sort here no monks wives and two hundred monks they're honest they keep the fasts
and do you know i'm sorry to lose you alyosha would you believe it i've really grown fond of you well it's a good opportunity you'll pray for us sinners we have sinned too much here
i've always been thinking who would pray for me and whether there's any one in the world to do it my dear boy i'm awfully stupid about that you wouldn't believe it awfully you see
it's impossible i think for the devils to forget to drag me down to hell with their hooks when i die then i wonder hooks where would they get them what of iron hooks
where do they forge them have they a foundry there of some sort
now i'm ready to believe in hell but without a ceiling it makes it more refined more enlightened more lutheran that is and after all what does it matter whether it has a ceiling or hasn't
but do you know there's a damnable question involved in it if there's no ceiling there can be no hooks and if there are no hooks it all breaks down which is unlikely again
for then there would be none to drag me down to hell and if they don't drag me down what justice is there in the world
but there are no hooks there said alyosha looking gently and seriously at his father yes yes only the shadows of hooks i know i know
and get at the truth there and then come and tell me anyway it's easier going to the other world if one knows what there is there besides it will be more seemly for you with the monks than here with me
with a drunken old man and young harlots though you're like an angel nothing touches you and i dare say nothing will touch you there that's why i let you go because i hope for that you've got all your wits about you
and you will burn out you will be healed and come back again and i will wait for you i feel that you're the only creature in the world who has not condemned me my dear boy i feel it you know
i can't help feeling it and he even began blubbering he was sentimental
old harker's shrewd eyes travelling round the room as if to inspect the company in which he found himself fell almost immediately on bryce but not before bryce had had time to assume an air and look of innocent and genuine surprise
harker affected no surprise at all he looked the astonishment he felt as the younger man rose and motioned him to the comfortable easy chair which he himself had just previously taken dear me he exclaimed nodding his thanks
this is a long way from wrychester sir for wrychester folk to meet in i'd no idea of meeting you mister harker responded bryce but it's a small world you know and there are a good many coincidences in it
there's nothing very wonderful in my presence here though i ran down to see after a country practice i've left doctor ransford he had the lie ready as soon as he set eyes on harker and whether the old man believed it or not
he showed no sign of either belief or disbelief he took the chair which bryce drew forward and pulled out an old fashioned cigar case offering it to his companion will you try one doctor he asked genuine stuff that sir
no he went on as bryce thanked him and took a cigar i didn't know you'd finished with the doctor quietish place this to practise in i should think much quieter even than our sleepy old city
you know it inquired bryce
old friend of mine answered harker i come down to see him now and then i've been here since yesterday he does a bit of business for me stopping long doctor only just to look round answered bryce
i'm off tomorrow morning eleven o'clock said harker it's a longish journey to wrychester for old bones like mine oh you're all right worth half a dozen younger men responded bryce
well as you've treated me to a very fine cigar now you'll let me treat you to a drop of whisky they generally have something of pretty good quality in these old fashioned establishments i believe the two travellers sat talking until bedtime
but neither made any mention of the affair which had recently set all wrychester agog with excitement but bryce was wondering all the time if his companion's story of having a friend at barthorpe was no more than an excuse and when he was alone in his own bedroom and reflecting more seriously
he came to the conclusion that old harker was up to some game of his own in connection with the paradise mystery the old chap was in the library when ambrose campany said that there was a clue in that barthorpe history he mused
no no mister harker the facts are too plain the evidences too obvious and yet what interest has a retired old tradesman of wrychester got in this affair
and who his barthorpe friend is
and had taken the trouble to track old harker's movements he would have learnt something that would have made him still more suspicious but bryce seeing no reason for hurry lay in bed till well past nine o'clock and did not present himself in the coffee room until nearly half past ten
and at that hour simpson harker who had breakfasted before nine was in close consultation with his friend that friend being none other than the local superintendent of police who was confidentially closeted with the old man in his private house whither harker
by previous arrangement had repaired as soon as his breakfast was over had bryce been able to see through walls or hear through windows he would have been surprised to find that the harker of this consultation was not the quiet easy going
gossipy old gentleman of wrychester but an eminently practical and business like man of affairs and now as regards this young fellow who's staying across there at the peacock he was saying in conclusion
at the very time that bryce was leisurely munching his second mutton chop in the peacock coffee room he's after something or other
put your best plainclothes man on to him at once he'll easily know him from the description i gave you and let him shadow him wherever he goes and then let me know of his movement he's certainly on the track of something
and what he does may be useful to me i can link it up with my own work and as regards the other matter keep me informed if you come on anything further now i'll go out by your garden and down the back of the town to the station
let me know by the by when this young man at the peacock leaves here and if possible and you can find out for where
bryce was all unconscious that any one was interested in his movements when he strolled out into barthorpe market place just after eleven he had asked a casual question of the waiter and found that the old gentleman had departed he accordingly believed himself free from observation
and forthwith he set about his work of inquiry in his own fashion he was not going to draw any attention to himself by asking questions of present day inhabitants whose curiosity might then be aroused he knew better methods than that
possesses public records parish registers burgess rolls lists of voters even small towns have directories which are more or less complete he could search these for any mention or record of anybody or any family of the name of braden
and he spent all that day in that search inspecting numerous documents and registers and books and when evening came he had a very complete acquaintance with the family nomenclature of barthorpe
in all his searching he had not once come across the name the man who had spent a very lazy day in keeping an eye on bryce as he visited the various public places whereat he made his researches was also keeping an eye upon him next morning when bryce breakfasting earlier than usual
he followed his quarry away from the little town
in bryce's opinion it was something of a wild goose chase to go there but the similarity in the name of the village and of the dead man at wrychester might have its significance and it was but a two miles stroll from barthorpe
which promised good sport to anglers and there he pursued his tactics of the day before and went straight to the vicarage and its vicar
the vicar having no objection to earning the resultant fees hastened to comply with bryce's request and inquired how far back he wanted to search and for what particular entry no particular entry answered bryce and as to period
fairly recent the fact is i am interested in names
of writing a book on english surnames
then i can considerably simplify your labours said the vicar taking down a book from one of his shelves our parish registers have been copied and printed and here is the volume everything is in there from fifteen seventy to ten years ago and there is a very full index
in the neighbourhood yes in the village
answered bryce nodding through an open window at an ancient tavern which stood in the valley beneath close to an old stone bridge
then if i see anything very noteworthy in the index i can look at the actual registers when i bring it back
and bryce carried the book away and while he sat in the inn parlour awaiting his lunch he turned to the carefully compiled index
on the third page he saw the name bewery if the man who had followed bryce from barthorpe to braden medworth had been with him in the quiet inn parlour he would have seen his quarry start and heard him let a stifled exclamation escape his lips
but the follower knowing his man was safe for an hour was in the bar outside eating bread and cheese and drinking ale and bryce's surprise was witnessed by no one yet he had been so much surprised that if all wrychester had been there he could not
despite his self training in watchfulness have kept back either start or exclamation
a name so uncommon that here here in this out of the way midland village there must be some connection with the object of his search there the name stood out before him to the exclusion of all others bewery
he turned to page three hundred eighty seven with a sense of sure discovery and there an entry caught his eye at once and he knew that he had discovered more than he had ever hoped for he read it again and again gloating over his wonderful luck
june nineteenth eighteen ninety one john brake bachelor of the parish of saint pancras london to mary bewery spinster of this parish by the vicar witnesses
charles claybourne selina womersley mark ransford twenty two years ago the mary bewery whom bryce knew in wrychester was just about twenty this mary bewery
then in all probability her mother but john brake who married that mary bewery who was he who indeed laughed bryce
and there was the name of mark ransford as witness what was the further probability that mark ransford had been john brake's best man
that john braden or brake was the sticker of the same advertisement clear clear as noonday and what did it all mean and imply
and what bearing had it on braden or brake's death before he ate his cold beef bryce had copied the entry from the reprinted register and had satisfied himself that ransford was not a name known to that village
mark ransford was the only person of the name mentioned in the register and his lunch done he set off for the vicarage again intent on getting further information and before he reached the vicarage gates noticed by accident
a place whereat he was more likely to get it than from the vicar who was a youngish man at the end of the few houses between the inn and the bridge he saw a little shop with the name charles claybourne painted roughly above its open window
in that open window sat an old cheery faced man mending shoes who blinked at the stranger through his big spectacles bryce saw his chance and turned in to open the book and point out the marriage entry
are you the charles claybourne mentioned there he asked without ceremony that's me sir replied the old shoemaker briskly after a glance yes right enough how came you to witness that marriage
inquired bryce the old man nodded at the church across the way i've been sexton and parish clerk two and thirty years sir he said
and he had the job from his father do you remember this marriage asked bryce perching himself on the bench at which the shoemaker was working twenty two years since i see aye as if it was yesterday
answered the old man with a smile miss bewery's marriage why of course who was she demanded bryce governess at the vicarage replied claybourne nice sweet young lady
and the man she married mister brake continued bryce who was he a young gentleman that used to come here for the fishing now and then answered claybourne pointing at the river famous for our trout we are here you know sir
you remember him too asked bryce remember both of em very well indeed said claybourne though i never set eyes on either after miss mary was wed to mister brake but i saw plenty of em both before that
they came two or three times a year and they were a bit thick with our parson of that time not this one his predecessor
and of course mister brake and the governess fixed it up though you know at one time it was considered it was going to be her and the other young gentleman mister ransford yes but in the end it was brake and ransford stood best man for him
bruce assimilated all this information greedily and asked for more i'm interested in that entry he said tapping the open book i know some people of the name of bewery they may be relatives
the shoemaker shook his head as if doubtful i remember hearing it said he remarked that miss mary had no relations
nor her going away to see any do you know what brake was asked bryce as you say he came here for a good many times before the marriage i suppose you'd hear something about his profession or trade
he was a banker that one replied claybourne a banker that was his trade sir t'other gentleman mister ransford he was a doctor i mind that well enough because once when him and mister brake were fishing here
thomas joynt's wife fell downstairs and broke her leg and they fetched him to her he'd got it set before they'd got the reg'lar doctor out from barthorpe yonder bryce had now got all the information he wanted and he made the old parish clerk a small present and turned to go
but another question presented itself to his mind and he reentered the little shop your late vicar he said the one in whose family miss bewery was governess where is he now dead
replied claybourne he left this parish for another a living in a different part of england some years since
he never came back here once not even to pay us a friendly visit he was a queerish sort but i'll tell you what sir he added
and he'd tell you where his predecessor is now if he's alive name of reverend thomas gilwaters m a an oxford college man he was and very high learned bryce went back to the vicarage
returned the borrowed book and asked to look at the registers for the year eighteen ninety one he verified his copy and turned to the vicar
he said as he paid the search fees celebrated by your predecessor mister gilwaters
do you happen to possess a clerical directory the vicar produced a crockford and bryce turned over its pages mister gilwaters who from the account there given appeared to be an elderly man who had now retired lived in london in bayswater
and bryce made a note of his address and prepared to depart find any names that interested you asked the vicar as his caller left anything noteworthy i found two or three names which interested me immensely
answered bryce from the foot of the vicarage steps they were well worth searching for
having no cares in the world themselves were determined that no one else should have any the hunt family were drawn into the fun the kitchen was frequently invaded
and miss de lisle declared that even her sitting room was not sacred and was privately very delighted that it was not allenby began to develop a regrettable lack of control over his once stolid features
and rush from the dining room on more than one occasion and under cover of his most energetic fooling jim linton watched his father and sister
only silence and emptiness allenby appearing broke into a broad smile of pleasure as he greeted them every one's out mister jim so it seems jim answered where are they
not very far sir allenby said
allenby's face fell to france sir jim nodded the master and miss norah will be very sorry sir
thanks allenby we'll miss you all jim said pleasantly he sprang upstairs after wally missus hunt's sitting room was already dangerously crowded there seemed no room at all for the two tall lads
we're quite all right both boys eyes had sought norah as they entered and norah meeting the glance felt a sudden pang at her heart and knew
you can each have an arm good idea said wally perching on the broad arm of the easy chair that swallowed her up come along jim or we'll be lop sided we put norah in the biggest chair in the room
and everybody is treating her with profound respect missus hunt said this is the first day for quite a while that she hasn't been hostess so we made her chief guest and she is having a rest cure
if you treat norah with respect it won't have at all a restful effect on her said wally i've tried to which norah inquired when in a voice of such amazement that every one laughed
people only think you are a worm and trample on you come here geoff and take care of me and geoffrey who adored him came have you been riding old brecon lately
but it didn't hurt that's right you practise always falling on a soft spot and you need never worry but i'd rather practise sticking on said geoffrey it's nicer
you might practise both said wally you'll have plenty of both you know he laughed at the puzzled face never mind old chap
so you are are the others quite well oh yes geoffrey answered clearly regarding the question as foolish they're all right alison's got a puppy and michael's been eating plate powder
his mouf was all pink what's that about my michael demanded missus hunt oh yes we found him making a hearty meal of plate powder this morning douglas says it should make him very bright
i'm thankful to say it doesn't seem to be going to kill him michael never will realize that there is a war on said major hunt aggrieved i found him gnawing the strap of one of my gaiters the other day
you shouldn't underfeed the poor kid said wally it's clear that he's finding his nourishment when and how he can isn't there a society for dealing with people like you
there is said jim solemnly it's called the police force you're two horrible boys said their hostess laughing and my lovely fat michael
some more tea norah no thank you missus hunt norah's voice sounded strange in her own ears she wanted to get away from the room and the light hearted chatter to make sure
though she was sure already the guns of france seemed to sound very near her the party broke up after a while jim and wally lingered behind the others
missus hunt we're off to morrow oh i'm sorry missus hunt's face fell
norah will keep smiling said jim but i'm jolly glad you're so near her missus hunt you'll keep an eye on them won't you i'd be awfully obliged if you would
we won't lose any time in coming for it jim said
then you'll come to night of course we will she watched them stride off into the shrubbery and choked back a sigh norah came back to them through the trees
it's marching orders isn't it yes it's marching orders old kiddie jim answered they looked at each other steadily and then norah's eyes met wally's when she asked
to morrow morning well said norah and drew a long breath and i haven't your last week's socks darned that comes of having too many responsibilities
any buttons to be sewn on for either of you no thanks they told her greatly relieved
david linton came out hurriedly to meet them allenby says he began he did not need to go further we were trotting in to tell you said jim
we'll be just in time to give the boche a cheery christmas said wally norah are you going to send us a christmas hamper with a pudding rather norah answered
well if we don't go into hospital after them we'll let you know they came into the house where already the news of the boys going had spread and the once tired's as wally called their guests
were waiting to wish them luck then everybody faded away unobtrusively and left them to themselves they went into the morning room and norah darned socks vigorously
while the boys kept up a running fire of cheery talk whatever was to come they would meet it with their heads up
had sent up a dinner which really left her very little extra chance of celebrating peace when that most blessed day should come over dessert colonel west rose unexpectedly and made a little speech
greatest of luck to our host's sons ah that is to his son and to ah his ah encumbrance said wally firmly
make things hot for the boche ah
i we hope they will get plenty of chances
that we will see them ah back with decorations and promotion we will miss them ah very much
i came here fit for nothing and have ah
the tired people applauded energetically and missus west said quite quite but there was something like tears in her eyes as she said it the hunts arrived after dinner
made a lump come into norah's throat and there was no room for that to night of all nights jack blake sang them a stockrider's song with a chorus in which all the australians joined
and dick harrison recited the geebung polo club without any elocutionary tricks and brought down the house jim had slipped out to speak to allenby and presently going out
except those with jim and wally which they refused to partition
it was eleven o'clock when allenby announced stolidly supper is served sir supper said mister linton how's this norah i don't know said his daughter
ask miss de lisle they filed in to find a table laden and glittering in the centre a huge cake bearing the greeting good luck with a silken union jack waving proudly
norah whispered to her father and then ran away she returned presently dragging the half unwilling cook lady it's against all my rules protested the captive
against the evidence of his eyes as a tired person whom he had not previously chanced to meet my poor neglected babies said missus hunt tragically as twelve strokes chimed from the grandfather clock in the hall
wally and norah crowned with blue and scarlet paper caps the treasure of crackers
with no very good reason a tango it might have been anything but it satisfied the performers the music stopped suddenly and mister linton wound up the gramophone for the last time
slipping on a new record the notes of auld lang syne stole out they gathered round holding hands while they sang it singing with all their lungs and all their hearts
norah between jim and wally feeling her fingers crushed in each boyish grip then here's a hand my trusty friend and gie's a hand o thine
the train came slowly round the corner i'll look after him nor wally's voice shook don't worry too much old girl and yourself too she said
all aboard cheero norah wally cried from the window we'll be back in no time cheero she made the word come somehow
as meade minnigerode has accomplished for yale in the big year george morton might never have gone to any college if it had not been for sylvia planter
he was enamored of her from the very beginning when old planter engaged him to accompany his daughter on rides but his admiration did not become articulate until she fell off her horse
she seems to have done it extremely well he saw her horse refuse writes mister camp straightening his knees and sliding in the marshy ground he watched sylvia
shot across the hedge but young morton was much too intent upon the fate of his goddess to have eyes for anything else
and so george decided to go to college his high school preparation had been scant and irregular he went to princeton and after two months cramming passed all his examinations
football attracted him from the first as a means to the advancement which he desired with surprised eyes writes our author he saw estates as extravagant as oakmont and frequently in better taste
he told himself that some day he would enter those places as a guest bowed to by such servants as he had been it was possible he promised himself bravely
if only he could win a yale or a harvard game perhaps this explains why one meets so few princeton men socially some we have found
are occasionally invited to drop in after dinner these we assume are recruited from the ranks of those princetonians who have tied yale or harvard or at least held the score down
we are not prepared to say in fact the only princeton name which comes to mind at the moment is that of big bill edwards who used to sit in the customs house and throw them all for a loss
morton can hardly be intended for edwards because it seems unlikely that anybody would ever have engaged big bill to ride horses no not even to break them
a certain mister stringham here to be sure identification is easy stringham we haven't a doubt is roper we could wish mister camp had been more subtle
but he had more of an air with him thus in the account of the harvard game it is recorded
george yielded to his old habit and slipped off to one side at a hazard the enemy's secondary defense had been drawing in there was no one near enough to stop him within those ten yards
was the usual form of her replies to his ardent words of wooing naturally he knew that he had her on the run a man who had taken more than one straight arm squarely in the face during the course of his football career
was not to be rebuffed by a slip of a girl the war delayed matters for a time and george went and was good at that too
for a time we feared that he was in danger of becoming a snob but the great democratizing forces of the conflict carried him into the current one of the most thrilling chapters in the book
to go forward and rescue an american who turned out to be a yale man there was no stopping george morton in the end he wore sylvia down nothing else could be expected from such a man
and he had even hit the harvard line upon occasion without losing a yard his head was hard and he could not take a hint in the end sylvia just had to marry him
according to mister minnigerode the men of yale walk about their campus in big blue sweaters with y's on them smoking pipes and singing college songs under the windows of one another the seniors
starting off after a punt to tear back through a broken field thirty and forty yards at a clip tackling an opposing back with a deadliness which was final never hurt always smiling
a blond head of curly hair he never wore a headguard flashing in and out across the field the hands clapping together the plaintive voice calling all right all right give me the ball
when a game was going badly and then carrying it alone to touchdown after touchdown although we have seen all of yale's recent big games we recognized none of that except the plaintive voice
moral victory we waited to find mister minnigerode explaining that of course he was referring to the annual contest with the springfield training school but he did no such thing
and went straight ahead with the pretense that football at yale is romantic to be sure he attempts to justify this attitude by letting us see a good deal of the gridiron doings through the eyes of a bull terrier
who could not well be expected to be captious champ named after the yale chess team came by accident to the field just as curly corliss was off on one of his long runs
yes it was a game against the scrubs some one came tearing along and lunged at curly as he went by apparently trying to grab him about the legs champ cast all caution to the winds
interfere with curly would he well champ guessed not like an arrow from a bow champ hurled himself through the air and fastened his jaws firmly in the seat of the offender's pants
in a desperate effort to prevent him from further molesting curly champ was immediately adopted by the team as mascot it seems to us he deserved more
his romanticism like that of champ was understandable hadn't curly corliss once saved his life
jimmy as mister minnigerode tells the story started to run across the street without noticing the street car lumbering around the corner
but he heard people shouting and then something struck him and he was dragged violently away
only the man who rescued the newsboy was not the football captain but a substitute on the second team we have forgotten his name unlike corliss of yale
the harvard man did not bother to pick up the newsboy instead he seized the street car and threw it for a loss the first half was over
things looked blue for yale neither mascot was on hand yale was trying to win with nothing but students where was little jimmy the newsboy
if you must know he was in the hospital
the boy could not seem to break himself of the habit unfortunately he had picked out the afternoon of the princeton game
i'm all right now jimmy told the doctor honest i am can i go i gotta take champ out to the game he's the mascot and they can't win without him please mister let me go
is not so much a coaching system as a good leash to keep the mascots from getting run over champ and jimmy rushed into the locker room just as the big blue team was about to trot out for the second half after that
there was nothing to it yale won by a score of twelve to ten curly clapped his hands together writes mister minnigerode in describing the rally and kept calling out never mind the signal
give me the ball in his plaintive voice this sounds more like yale football than anything else in the book however it sufficed
curly corliss curly corliss he will leave old harvard scoreless it is said that a legend is now gaining ground in new haven that yale will not defeat harvard again until it is led
by some other captain whose name rhymes with scoreless the current captain of the elis is named jordan
still as professor billy phelps has taught his students to say football isn't everything perhaps something of sparta has gone from yale for a few years or forever
but just look at the yale poets and novelists all over the place there is a new
but they get over it right away it's just like changing into a new suit i expect yeah i guess so well goo night little feller
the daughter of the great mogul
in this time i pursued my voyage coasted the whole malabar shore and met with no purchase but a great portugal east india ship which i chased into goa where she got out of my reach
i took several small vessels and barks but little of value in them till i entered the great bay of bengal when i began to look about me with more expectation of success
though without prospect of what happened i cruised here about two months finding nothing worth while so i stood away to a port on the north point of the isle of sumatra where i made no stay
to the country of the king of pegu being to carry the granddaughter of the great mogul to pegu who was to be married to the king of that country
jewels and wealth this was a booty worth watching for though it had been some months longer so i resolved that we would go and cruise off point negaris on the east side of the bay near diamond isle
and here we plied off and on for three weeks and began to despair of success but the knowledge of the booty we expected spurred us on and we waited with great patience for we knew the prize would be immensely rich
at length we spied three ships coming right up to us with the wind we could easily see they were not europeans by their sails and began to prepare ourselves for a prize not for a fight
however we resolved to attack her if she had been full of devils as she was full of men accordingly when we came near them we fired a gun with shot as a challenge
and so to come thwart them if we could but falling for want of wind open to them we gave them a fair broadside we could easily see by the confusion that was on board that they were frightened out of their wits
they fired here a gun and there a gun and some on that side that was from us as well as those that were next to us the next thing we did was to lay them on board which we did presently and then gave them a volley of our small shot which
as they stood so thick killed a great many of them and made all the rest run down under their hatches crying out like creatures bewitched in a word we presently took the ship and having secured her men we chased the other two
one was chiefly filled with women and the other with lumber upon the whole as the granddaughter of the great mogul was our prize in the first ship so in the second was her women or in a word her household
her eunuchs all the necessaries of her wardrobe of her stables and of her kitchen and in the last great quantities of household stuff and things less costly though not less useful but the first was the main prize
and accordingly i jumped on board he told me he thought nobody but i ought to go into the great cabin or at least nobody should go there before me for that the lady herself and all her attendance was there
and he feared the men were so heated they would murder them all or do worse i immediately went to the great cabin door taking the lieutenant that called me along with me
but such a sight of glory and misery was never seen by buccaneer before the queen for such she was to have been was all in gold and silver but frightened and crying
and at the sight of me she appeared trembling and just as if she was going to die she sat on the side of a kind of a bed like a couch with no canopy over it or any covering only made to lie down upon
which he did the lady was young and i suppose in their country esteem very handsome but she was not very much so in my thoughts at first her fright
and the danger she thought she was in of being killed taught her to do everything that she thought might interpose between her and danger and that was to take off her jewels as fast as she could and give them to me and i
without any great compliment took them as fast as she gave them me and put them into my pocket taking no great notice of them or of her which frighted her worse than all the rest and she said something which i could not understand
however two of the other ladies came all crying and kneeled down to me with their hands lifted up what they meant i knew not at first
but by their gestures and pointings i found at last it was to beg the young queen's life and that i would not kill her when the three ladies kneeled down to me
i let them know i would not hurt the queen nor let any one else hurt her but that she must give me all her jewels and money upon this they acquainted her that i would save her life and no sooner had they assured her of that
but she got up smiling and went to a fine indian cabinet and opened a private drawer from whence she took another little thing full of little square drawers and holes
this she brings to me in her hand and offered to kneel down to give it me this innocent usage began to rouse some good nature in me though i never had much and i would not let her kneel
but sitting down myself on the side of her couch or bed made a motion to her to sit down too but here she was frightened again it seems
but as i did not offer anything of that kind only made her sit down by me they began all to be easier after some time and she gave me the little box or casket i know not what to call it but it was full of invaluable jewels
i have them still in my keeping and wish they were safe in england for i doubt not but some of them are fit to be placed on the king's crown being master of this treasure i was very willing to be good humored to the persons
causing the guard to be kept still that they might receive no more injury than i would do them myself after i had been out of the cabin some time a slave of the women's came to me and made sign to me that the queen would speak with me again
i made signs back that i would come and dine with her majesty and accordingly i ordered that her servants should prepare her dinner and carry it in and then call me they provided her repast after the usual manner
and when she saw it brought in she appeared pleased and more when she saw me come in after it for she was exceedingly pleased that i had caused a guard to keep the rest of my men from her
if she had understood english i could have said plainly and in good rough words madam be easy we are rude rough hewn fellows but none of our men should hurt you or touch you
we are for money indeed and we shall take what you have but we will do you no other harm but as i could not talk thus to her i scarce knew what to say
but i sat down and made signs to have her sit down and eat which she did but with so much ceremony that i did not know well what to do with it
and drinking some water out of a china cup sat her down on the side of the couch as before when she saw i had done eating she went then to another cabinet and pulling out a drawer she brought it to me
for that there was no subsisting in that manner upon this we called a short council and concluded to carry the great ship away with us but to put all the prisoners queen ladies and all the rest into the lesser vessels and let them go
and so far was i from ravishing this lady as i hear is reported of me that though i might rifle her of everything else yet i assure you i let her go untouched for me or as i am satisfied for any one of my men
but almost to have made a nation rich and to tell you the truth considering the costly things we took here which we did not know the value of and besides gold and silver and jewels i say we never knew how rich we were
which being for sale were perhaps as a cargo of goods to answer the bills which might be drawn upon them for the account of the bride's portion all which fell into our hands with a great sum in silver coin
too big to talk of among englishmen especially while i am living
on the nile it was a callous country inhabited by a callous race thought calder as he travelled down the nile from wadi halfa to assouan on his three months furlough
he leaned over the rail of the upper deck of the steamer and looked down upon the barge lashed alongside on the lower deck of the barge among the native passengers stood an angareb
shrouded in a black veil the angareb and its burden had been carried on board early that morning at korosko by two arabs who now sat laughing and chattering in the stern of the barge
so little heed did they give to it calder lifted his eyes and looked to his right and his left across glaring sand
the black veil lay close about the face outlining the nose the hollows of the eyes and the mouth but whether the lips wore a moustache and the chin a beard it did not reveal
the slanting sunlight crept nearer and nearer to the angareb the natives seated close to it moved into the shadow of the upper deck but no one moved the angareb and the two men laughing in the stern
gave no thought to their charge calder watched the blaze of yellow light creep over the black recumbent figure from the feet upwards it burnt at last bright and pitiless upon the face
yet the living creature beneath the veil never stirred the veil never fluttered above the lips the legs remained stretched out straight the arms lay close against the side
calder shouted to the two men in the stern move the angareb into the shadow he cried and be quick the arabs rose reluctantly and obeyed him is it a man or woman asked calder
a man we are taking him to the hospital at assouan but we do not think that he will live he fell from a palm tree three weeks ago you give him nothing to eat or drink he is too ill
it was a common story and the logical outcome of the belief that life and death are written and will inevitably befall after the manner of the writing
that man lying so quiet beneath the black covering had probably at the beginning suffered nothing more serious than a bruise which a few simple remedies would have cured within a week but he had been allowed to lie even as he lay upon the angareb
at the mercy of the sun and the flies unwashed unfed and with his thirst unslaked the bruise had become a sore the sore had gangrened
had discovered the accident and sent the man on the steamer down to assouan but familiar though the story was calder could not dismiss it from his thoughts the immobility of the sick man upon the native bedstead in a way fascinated him
and when towards sunset a strong wind sprang up and blew against the stream he felt an actual comfort in the knowledge that the sick man would gain some relief from it
and when his neighbour that evening at the dinner table spoke to him with a german accent he suddenly asked upon an impulse you are not a doctor by any chance not a doctor said the german but a student of medicine at bonn
i came from cairo to see the second cataract but was not allowed to go farther than wadi halfa calder interrupted him at once then i will trespass upon your holiday and claim your professional assistance for yourself
with pleasure though i should never have guessed you were ill said the student smiling good naturedly behind his eyeglasses nor am i it is an arab for whom i ask your help the man on the bedstead yes
if you will be so good i will warn you he was hurt three weeks ago and i know these people no one will have touched him since he was hurt the sight will not be pretty
this is not a nice country for untended wounds the german student shrugged his shoulders all experience is good said he and the two men rose from the table and went out on to the upper deck
the wind had freshened during the dinner and blowing up stream had raised waves so that the steamer and its barge tossed and the water broke on board he was below there
said the student as he leaned over the rail and peered downwards to the lower deck of the barge alongside it was night and the night was dark above that lower deck only one lamp swung from the centre of the upper deck
glimmered and threw uncertain lights and uncertain shadows over a small circle beyond the circle all was black darkness except at the bows where the water breaking on board flung a white sheet of spray
it could be seen like a sprinkle of snow driven by the wind it could be heard striking the deck like the lash of a whip he has been moved said the german no doubt he has been moved
there is no one in the bows calder bent his head downwards and stared into the darkness for a little while without speaking i believe the angareb is there he said at length i believe it is
followed by the german he hurried down the stairway to the lower deck of the steamer and went to the side he could make certain now the angareb stood in a wash of water on the very spot to which at calder's order
it had been moved that morning and on the angareb the figure beneath the black covering lay as motionless as ever as inexpressive of life and feeling
though the cold spray broke continually upon its face i thought it would be so said calder he got a lantern and with the german student climbed across the bulwarks on to the barge he summoned the two arabs
move the angareb from the bows he said and when they had obeyed now take that covering off i wish my friend who is a doctor to see the wound the two men hesitated
and then one of them with an air of insolence objected there are doctors in assouan whither we are taking him calder raised the lantern and himself drew the veil away from off the wounded man
now if you please he said to his companion the german student made his examination of the wounded thigh while calder held the lantern above his head as calder had predicted it was not a pleasant business
for the wound crawled the german student was glad to cover it up again i can do nothing he said perhaps in a hospital with baths and dressings
relief will be given at all events but more i do not know here i could not even begin to do anything at all do these two men understand english no answered calder
that is a lie the injury was done by the blade of a spear or some weapon of the kind are you sure yes calder bent down suddenly towards the arab on the angareb
although he never moved the man was conscious calder had been looking steadily at him and he saw that his eyes followed the spoken words you understand english said calder
the arab could not answer with his lips but a look of comprehension came into his face where do you come from asked calder the lips tried to move but not so much as a whisper escaped from them
yet his eyes spoke but spoke vainly for the most which they could tell was a great eagerness to answer calder dropped upon his knee close by the man's head and holding the lantern close
enunciated the towns from dongola no gleam in the arab's eyes responded to that name from metemneh from berber from omdurman ah
the arab answered to that word he closed his eyelids calder went on still more eagerly you were wounded there no where then at berber yes you were in prison
at omdurman and escaped no yet you were wounded calder sank back upon his knee and reflected his reflections roused in him some excitement
you were helping some one to escape yes who
it was effendi feversham then he said and the eyes assented as clearly as though the lips had spoken but this was all the information which calder could secure i too am pledged to help
effendi feversham he said but in vain the arab could not speak he could not so much as tell his name
whatever those two men knew or suspected they had no mind to meddle in the matter themselves and they clung consistently to a story which absolved them from responsibility
kinsmen of theirs in korosko hearing that they were travelling to assouan had asked them to take charge of the wounded man who was a stranger to them and they had consented
calder could get nothing more explicit from them than this statement however closely he questioned them he had under his hand the information which he desired the news of harry feversham
for which durrance asked by every mail but it was hidden from him in a locked book he stood beside the helpless man upon the angareb there he was eager enough to speak
but the extremity of weakness to which he had sunk laid a finger upon his lips
will he recover calder asked and the doctors shook their heads in doubt there was a chance perhaps a very slight chance but at the best recovery would be slow
calder continued upon his journey to cairo and europe an opportunity of helping harry feversham had slipped away
one day standing in that wild region of bare rock and sea called cornwall point whence one can see the crags and postillion wild rocks where land's end dashes out into the sea and all the wild blue sea between
and not a house in sight save the chimney of some little mill like place peeping between the rocks inland on that day i finished what i may call my official search in going away from that place walking northward
i came upon a lonely house by the sea a very beautiful house made it was clear by an artist of the bungalow type with an exquisitely sea side expression
or verandah sheltered by the overhanging upper story up to the first floor the exterior is of stone in rough hewn blocks with a distinct batter while extra protection from weather is afforded by green slating above
the roofs of low pitch are also covered with green slates and a feeling of strength and repose is heightened by the very long horizontal lines at one end of the loggia is a hexagonal turret
opening upon the loggia containing a study or nook in front the garden slopes down to the sea surrounded by an architectural sea wall and in this place i lived three weeks it was the house of the poet machen
whose name when i saw it i remembered very well and he had married a very beautiful young girl of eighteen obviously spanish who lay on the bed in the large bright bedroom to the right of the loggia
on her left exposed breast being a baby with an india rubber comforter in its mouth both mother and child wonderfully preserved she still quite lovely white brow under low curves of black hair
the poet strange to say had not died with them but sat in the sitting room behind the bedroom in a long loose silky grey jacket at his desk actually writing a poem writing i could see furiously fast
at three o'clock in the morning when as i knew the cloud overtook this end of cornwall and stopped him and put his head to rest on the desk and the poor little wife must have got sleepy waiting for it to come perhaps sleepless for many long nights before
and gone to bed he perhaps promising to follow in a minute to die with her but bent upon finishing that poem and writing feverishly on running a race with the cloud thinking no doubt just two couplets more
till the thing came and put his head to rest on the desk poor carle and i do not know that i ever encountered aught so complimentary to my race as this dead poet machen and his race with the cloud
for it is clear now that the better kind of those poet men did not write to please the vague inferior tribes who might read them but to deliver themselves of the divine warmth that thronged in their bosom
and if all the readers were dead still they would have written and for god to read they wrote at any rate i was so pleased with these poor people that i stayed with them three weeks sleeping under blankets on a couch in the drawing room
a place full of lovely pictures and faded flowers like all the house for i would not touch the young mother to remove her and finding on machen's desk a big note book with soft covers
dappled red and yellow not yet written in i took it and a pencil and in the little turret nook wrote day after day for hours this account of what has happened nearly as far as it has now gone
and i think that i may continue to write it for i find in it a strange consolation and companionship in the severn valley somewhere in the plain between gloucester and cheltenham in a rather lonely spot
i at that time travelling on a tricycle motor i spied a curious erection and went to it i found it of considerable size perhaps fifty feet square and thirty high made of pressed bricks
the perfectly flat roof too of brick and not one window and only one door this door which i found open was rimmed all round its slanting rims with india rubber and when closed must have been perfectly air tight
just inside i came upon fifteen english people of the dressed class except two who were evidently bricklayers six ladies and nine men and at the further end two more men
who had their throats cut along one wall from end to end were provisions and i saw a chest full of mixed potassic chlorate and black oxide of manganese with an apparatus for heating it and producing oxygen
a foolish thing for additional oxygen could not alter the quantity of breathed carbonic anhydride which is a direct narcotic poison whether the two with cut throats had sacrificed themselves for the others
when breathing difficulties commenced or been killed by the others was not clear when they could bear it no longer they must have finally opened the door hoping that by then after the passage of many days perhaps
the outer air would be harmless and so met their death i believe that this erection must have been run up by their own hands under the direction of the two bricklayers for they could not i suppose have got workmen
except on the condition of the workmen's admission on which condition they would naturally employ as few as possible in general i remarked that the rich must have been more urgent and earnest in seeking escape than the others
for the poor realised only the near and visible lived in to day and cherished the always false notion that to morrow would be just like to day in an out patients waiting room for instance in the gloucester infirmary
i chanced to see an astonishing thing five bodies of poor old women in shawls come to have their ailments seen to on the day of doom
and these i concluded had been unable to realise that anything would really happen to the daily old earth which they knew and had walked with assurance on for if everybody was to die they must have thought
who would preach in the cathedral on sunday evenings so they could not have believed in an adjoining room sat an old doctor at a table the stethoscope tips still clinging in his ears
a woman with bared chest before him and i thought to myself well this old man too died doing his work in this same infirmary there was one surgical ward
nor of suffocation but of hunger
double boarding the windows felting the doors and then locking them outside they themselves may have perished before their precautions for the imprisoned patients were complete for i found a heap of maimed shapes
mere skeletons crowded round the door within i knew very well that they had not died of the cloud poison for the pestilence of the ward was unmixed with that odour of peach which did not fail to have more or less embalming effects upon the bodies
which it saturated i rushed stifling from that place and thinking it a pity and a danger that such a horror should be i at once set to work to gather combustibles to burn the building to the ground
it was while i sat in an arm chair in the street the next afternoon smoking and watching the flames of this structure that something was suddenly born in me something from the lowest hell
and i smiled a smile that never yet man smiled and i said i will burn i will burn i will return to london while i was on this eastward journey stopping for the night at the town of swindon
i had a dream for i dreamed that a little brown bald old man with a bent back whose beard ran in one thin streamlet of silver from his chin to trail along the ground said to me
you think that you are alone on the earth its sole despot well have your fling but as sure as god lives as god lives as god lives' he repeated it six times
you will meet another and i started from that frightful sleep with the brow of a corpse wet with sweat i returned to london on the twenty ninth of march arriving within a hundred yards of the northern station
one windy dark evening about eight where i alighted and walked to euston road then eastward along it till i came to a shop which i knew to be a jeweller's though it was too dark to see any painted words the door to my annoyance was locked
like nearly all the shop doors in london i therefore went looking near the ground and into a cart for something heavy very soon saw a labourer's ponderous boots cut one from the shrivelled foot and set to beat at the glass till it came raining
no horrors now at that clatter of broken glass no sick qualms my pulse steady my head high my step royal my eye cold and calm
eight months previously i had left london a poor burdened cowering wight i could scream with laughter now at that folly but it did not last long i returned to it the sultan
no private palace being near i was going to that great hotel in bloomsbury but though i knew that numbers of candle sticks would be there i was not sure that i should find sufficient
for i had acquired the habit within the past few months of sleeping with at least sixty lighted about me and their form pattern style age and material was of no small importance i selected ten from the broken shop
eight gold and silver and two of old ecclesiastical brass and having made a bundle went out found a bicycle at the metropolitan station pumped it tied my bundle to the handle bar and set off riding
but since i was too lazy to walk i should certainly have procured some other means of travelling for i had not gone ten jolted and creaking yards when something went snap it was a front fork and i found myself half on the ground
and half across the bare knees of a highland soldier i flew with a shower of kicks upon the foolish thing but that booted nothing
doesn't the sun ever shine asked cap'n bill not in the blue part of sky island replied ghip ghisizzle the moon shines here every night but we never see the sun i am told however that on the other half of the island
which i have never seen the sun shines brightly but there is no moon at all oh said button bright is there another half to sky island yes a dreadful place called the pink country
a fearful place it must be indeed said the blueskin with a shudder
was the proud reply this enormous city extends a half mile in all directions from the center and the country outside the city is fully a half mile further in extent that's very big isn't it
not very replied cap'n bill with a smile we've cities on the earth ten times bigger an then some big besides we'd call this a small town in our country
our country is thousands of miles wide and thousands of miles long it's the great united states of america added the boy earnestly ghip ghisizzle seemed astonished he was silent a moment and then he said
here in sky island we prize truthfulness very highly our boolooroo is not very truthful i admit for he is trying to misrepresent the length of his reign
what button bright said is the honest truth every word of it but we have been led to believe that sky island is the greatest country in the universe meaning of course our half of it the blue country it may be for you perhaps
the sailor stated politely an i don't imagine any island floatin in the sky is any bigger but the universe is a big place an you can't be sure of what's in it till you've traveled like we have
perhaps you are right mused the blueskin but he still seemed to doubt them is the pink side of sky island bigger than the blue side asked button bright no it is supposed to be the same size was the reply
between them lies the great fog bank a fog bank why that's no barrier exclaimed cap'n bill
also it is full of dampness that wets your clothes and your hair until you become miserable it is furthermore said that those who enter the fog bank forfeit the six hundred years allowed them to live and are liable to die at any time
here we do not die you know we merely pass away how's that asked the sailor isn't pass'n away jus the same as dyin
that's queer said button bright what would happen if you didn't march through the arch i do not know for no one has ever refused to do so it is the law and we all obey it it saves funeral expenses anyhow
remarked cap'n bill where is this arch just outside the gates of the city there is a mountain in the center of the blue land and the entrance to the great blue grotto is at the foot of the mountain
according to our figures the boolooroo ought to march into this grotto a hundred years from next thursday
therefore if you will please be patient for about a hundred years you will discover what happens to one who breaks the law thank'e remarked cap'n bill i don't expect to be very curious a hundred years from now
nor i added button bright laughing at the whimsical speech but i don't see how the boolooroo is able to fool you all can't any of you remember two or three hundred years back when he first began to rule no
said ghip ghisizzle that's a long time to remember and we blueskins try to forget all we can especially whatever is unpleasant those who remember are usually the unhappy ones
only those able to forget find the most joy in life
set on the ends of long thin necks seemed so grotesque to the strangers that they could scarcely forbear laughing at them
the bodies of these people were short and round and their legs exceptionally long so when a blueskin walked he covered twice as much ground at one step as cap'n bill or button bright did
the women seemed just as repellent as the men and button bright began to understand that the six
there were no horses nor cows in this land but there were plenty of blue goats from which the people got their milk children tended the goats
wee blueskin boys and girls whose appearance was so comical that button bright laughed whenever he saw one of them although the natives had never seen before this any human beings made as button bright and cap'n bill were
they took a strong dislike to the strangers and several times threatened to attack them
but ghip ghisizzle's friendly protection made them hold aloof by and by they passed through a city gate and their guide showed them the outer walls which protected the city from the country beyond
there were several of these gates and from their recesses stone steps led to the top of the wall
which constantly rolled like billows of the ocean and really seemed from a distance quite forbidding but it wouldn't take long to get there decided button bright and if you were close up it might not be worse than any other fog
is the pink country on the other side of it so we are told in the book of records replied ghip ghisizzle none of us now living know anything about it but the book of records calls it the sunset country
and says that at evening the pink shades are drowned by terrible colors
and red wouldn't it be horrible to be obliged to look upon such a sight it must give the poor people who live there dreadful headaches
i'd like to see that book of records mused cap'n bill who didn't think the discription of the sunset country at all dreadful i'd like to see it myself returned ghip ghisizzle with a sigh but no one can lay hands on it
because the boolooroo keeps it safely locked up in his treasure chamber where's the key to the treasure chamber asked button bright the boolooroo keeps it in his pocket night and day was the reply
and leave the palace and live in a common house my magic umbrella is in that treasure chamber said button bright and i'm going to try to get it are you inquired ghip ghisizzle eagerly
well if you manage to enter the treasure chamber be sure to bring me the book of records if you can do that i will be the best and most grateful friend you ever had
i'll see said the boy it ought not to be hard work to break into the treasure chamber is it guarded yes the outside guard is jimfred jinksjones
the double patch of the fredjim whom you have met and the inside guard is a ravenous creature known as the blue wolf which has teeth a foot long and as sharp as needles oh
the saddest birds a season find to sing southwell
never weighed down by memory's clouds again to bow thy head thou art gone home missus hemans missus thornton came to see missus hale the next morning she was much worse one of those sudden changes
those great visible strides towards death had been taken in the night and her own family were startled by the gray sunken look her features had assumed in that one twelve hours of suffering missus thornton who had not seen her for weeks was softened all at once
she had come because her son asked it from her as a personal favour but with all the proud bitter feelings of her nature in arms against that family of which margaret formed one she doubted the reality of missus hale's illness
she doubted any want beyond a momentary fancy on that lady's part which should take her out of her previously settled course of employment for the day
that there had been no such useless languages as latin and greek ever invented he bore all this pretty silently but when she had ended her invective against the dead languages he quietly returned to the short curt decided expression of his wish
that she should go and see missus hale at the time appointed as most likely to be convenient to the invalid
all the time liking him the better for having it and exaggerating in her own mind the same notion that he had of extraordinary goodness on his part in so perseveringly keeping up with the hales his goodness verging on weakness as all the softer virtues did in her mind
were the ideas which occupied missus thornton till she was struck into nothingness before the dark shadow of the wings of the angel of death there lay missus hale a mother like herself
a much younger woman than she was on the bed from which there was no sign of hope that she might ever rise again no more variety of light and shade for her in that darkened room no power of action scarcely change of movement
faint alternations of whispered sound and studious silence and yet that monotonous life seemed almost too much when missus thornton strong and prosperous with life came in missus hale lay still
but she did not even open her eyes for a minute or two
or of her living daughter fanny that stirred her heart at last but a sudden remembrance suggested by something in the arrangement of the room of a little daughter dead in infancy long years ago that like a sudden sunbeam
melted the icy crust behind which there was a real tender woman
missus hale her eyes still fixed on missus thornton's face pressed the hand that lay below hers on the coverlet she could not speak missus thornton sighed i will be a true friend if circumstances require it
not a tender friend that i cannot be
but she relented at the sight of that poor anxious face is not my nature to show affection even where i feel it nor do i volunteer advice in general still at your request if it will be any comfort to you i will promise you then came a pause
missus thornton was too conscientious to promise what she did not mean to perform and to perform any thing in the way of kindness on behalf of margaret
was difficult almost impossible i promise said she with grave severity which after all inspired the dying woman with faith as in something more stable than life itself
by saying these words she was not sorry that they were not heard she pressed missus hale's soft languid hand and rose up and went her way out of the house without seeing a creature
during the time that missus thornton was having this interview with missus hale margaret and dixon were laying their heads together and consulting how they should keep frederick's coming a profound secret to all out of the house
a letter from him might now be expected any day and he would assuredly follow quickly on its heels martha must be sent away on her holiday dixon must keep stern guard on the front door
missus hale's extreme illness giving her a good excuse for this if mary higgins was required as a help to dixon in the kitchen she was to hear and see as little of frederick as possible and he was if necessary to be spoken of to her under the name of mister dickinson
but her sluggish and incurious nature was the greatest safeguard of all
margaret wished that she had been sent away on the previous day as she fancied it might be thought strange to give a servant a holiday when her mistress's state required so much attendance poor margaret all that afternoon she had to act the part of a roman daughter
and give strength out of her own scanty stock to her father mister hale would hope would not despair
he buoyed himself up in every respite from her pain and believed that it was the beginning of ultimate recovery and so when the paroxysms came on each more severe than the last they were fresh agonies and greater disappointments to him
this afternoon he sat in the drawing room unable to bear the solitude of his study or to employ himself in any way he buried his head in his arms which lay folded on the table margaret's heart ached to see him
yet as he did not speak she did not like to volunteer any attempt at comfort martha was gone dixon sat with missus hale while she slept the house was very still and quiet and darkness came on
margaret sat at the window
she did not like to go down for lights lest the tacit restraint of her presence being withdrawn he might give way to more violent emotion without her being at hand to comfort him
which there was nobody but herself to attend to when she heard the muffled door ring with so violent a pull that the wires jingled all through the house though the positive sound was not great she started up
returned and kissed him tenderly and still he never moved nor took any notice of her fond embrace then she went down softly through the dark to the door dixon would have put the chain on before she opened it
but margaret had not a thought of fear in her pre occupied mind a man's tall figure stood between her and the luminous street he was looking away but at the sound of the latch he turned quickly round is this mister hale's said he in a clear full delicate voice
margaret trembled all over at first she did not answer in a moment she sighed out frederick and stretched out both her hands to catch his and draw him in oh margaret said he
holding her off by her shoulders after they had kissed each other as if even in that darkness he could see her face
my mother is she alive yes she is alive dear dear brother she as ill as she can be she is but alive she is alive thank god said he papa is utterly prostrate with this great grief
you expect me don't you no
give me your hand what is this oh your carpet bag dixon has shut the shutters
and i can take you to a chair to rest yourself for a few minutes while i go and tell him
she suddenly felt shy when the little feeble light made them visible
and she caught the stealthy look of a pair of remarkably long cut blue eyes that suddenly twinkled up with a droll consciousness of their mutual purpose of inspecting each other
only margaret felt sure that she should like her brother as a companion
he threw himself forward and hid his face once more in his stretched out arms resting upon the table as heretofore she heard him whisper she bent tenderly down to listen i don't know
i cannot bear it i am too weak and his mother is dying he began to cry and wail like a child
that she turned sick with disappointment and was silent for an instant then she spoke again very differently not so exultingly far more tenderly and carefully papa it is frederick think of mamma
how glad she will be and oh for her sake how glad we ought to be for his sake too our poor poor boy her father did not change his attitude
where is he asked he at last his face still hidden in his prostrate arms in your study quite alone i lighted the taper and ran up to tell you
i will go to him broke in her father and he lifted himself up and leant on her arm as on that of a guide margaret led him to the study door but her spirits were so agitated that she felt she could not bear to see the meeting
she turned away and ran up stairs and cried most heartily
the strain had been terrible as she now felt but frederick was come he the one precious brother was there safe amongst them again she could hardly believe it she stopped her crying and opened her bedroom door she heard no sound of voices
and almost feared she might have dreamt she went down stairs and listened at the study door she heard the buzz of voices and that was enough
and prepared for the wanderer's refreshment
she knew that she did from the candle lighter thrust through the keyhole of her bedroom door the traveller could be refreshed and bright and the first excitement of the meeting with his father all be over before her mother became aware of anything unusual when all was ready
margaret opened the study door and went in like a serving maiden with a heavy tray held in her extended arms she was proud of serving frederick but he when he saw her sprang up in a minute and relieved her of her burden
the brother and sister arranged the table together saying little but their hands touching and their eyes speaking the natural language of expression so intelligible to those of the same blood the fire had gone out and margaret applied herself to light it
for the evenings had begun to be chilly
dixon says it is a gift to light a fire not an art to be acquired poeta nascitur non fit murmured mister hale and margaret was glad to hear a quotation once more however languidly given
dear old dixon how we shall kiss each other said frederick
and then set to again but margaret what a bungler you are i never saw such a little awkward good for nothing pair of hands run away and wash them ready to cut bread and butter for me and leave the fire i'll manage it
lighting fires is one of my natural accomplishments so margaret went away and returned and passed in and out of the room in a glad restlessness that could not be satisfied with sitting still the more wants frederick had
the better she was pleased and he understood all this by instinct it was a joy snatched in the house of mourning and the zest of it was all the more pungent because they knew in the depths of their hearts what irremediable sorrow awaited them
in the middle they heard dixon's foot on the stairs mister hale started from his languid posture in his great armchair
as if they were acting some drama of happiness
but which was distinct from reality and in which he had no part he stood up and faced the door showing such a strange sudden anxiety to conceal frederick from the sight of any person entering even though it were the faithful dixon that a shiver came over margaret's heart
it reminded her of the new fear in their lives she caught at frederick's arm and clutched it tight while a stern thought compressed her brows and caused her to set her teeth and yet they knew it was only dixon's measured tread
into the kitchen margaret rose up i will go to her and tell her
missus hale was awake she rambled at first but after they had given her some tea she was refreshed though not disposed to talk it was better that the night should pass over before she was told of her son's arrival
doctor donaldson's appointed visit would bring nervous excitement enough for the evening
he was there in the house could be summoned at any moment margaret could not sit still it was a relief to her to aid dixon in all her preparations for master frederick
each glimpse into the room where he sate by his father conversing with him about she knew not what nor cared to know was increase of strength to her her own time for talking and hearing would come at last
and she was too certain of this to feel in a hurry to grasp it now she took in his appearance and liked it he had delicate features redeemed from effeminacy by the swarthiness of his complexion and his quick intensity of expression his eyes were generally merry looking
but this look was only for an instant
it was rather the instantaneous ferocity of expression that comes over the countenances of all natives of wild or southern countries
margaret might fear the violence of the impulsive nature thus occasionally betrayed
or recoil in the least from the new found brother on the contrary all their intercourse was peculiarly charming to her from the very first she knew then how much responsibility she had had to bear from the exquisite sensation of relief which she felt in frederick's presence
he seemed to know instinctively when a little of the natural brilliancy of his manner and conversation would not jar on the deep depression of his father or might relieve his mother's pain
his patient devotion and watchfulness came into play and made him an admirable nurse
by the allusions which he often made to their childish days in the new forest he had never forgotten her or helstone either
she might talk to him of the old spot
even while she had longed for his coming seven or eight years had she felt produced such great changes in herself that forgetting how much of the original margaret was left she had reasoned that if her tastes and feelings had so materially altered even in her stay at home life
with which she was but imperfectly acquainted must have almost substituted another frederick for the tall stripling in his middy's uniform
but in their absence they had grown nearer to each other in age
i have credit in cadiz said he but none here owing to this wretched change of name why did my father leave helstone that was the blunder
my little margaret said he caressing her let us hope as long as we can poor little woman what is this face all wet with tears i will hope i will in spite of a thousand doctors bear up margaret and be brave enough to hope
margaret choked in trying to speak
i must try to be meek enough to trust oh frederick
come come come let us go up stairs and do something rather than waste time that may be so precious thinking has many a time made me sad darling but doing never did in all my life my theory is a sort of parody on the maxim of
get money my son honestly if you can but get money my precept is do something my sister do good if you can but at any rate do something not excluding mischief said margaret smiling faintly through her tears by no means
what i do exclude is the remorse afterwards blot your misdeeds out if you are particularly conscientious
just as we did a correct sum at school on the slate
both less loss of time where tears had to be waited for and a better effect at last if margaret thought frederick's theory rather a rough one at first she saw how he worked it out into continual production of kindness in fact
for he insisted on taking his turn as a sitter up he was busy next morning before breakfast
at breakfast time he interested mister hale with vivid graphic rattling accounts of the wild life he had led in mexico south america and elsewhere
it would even have affected herself and rendered her incapable of talking at all but fred true to his theory did something perpetually and talking was the only thing to be done besides eating at breakfast before the night of that day
but she knew them not she would never recognise them again till they met in heaven before the morning came all was over
for frederick had broken down now and all his theories were of no use to him he cried so violently when shut up alone in his little room at night that margaret and dixon came down in affright to warn him to be quiet
so different from the slower trembling agony of after life when we become inured to grief and dare not be rebellious against the inexorable doom knowing who it is that decrees margaret sate with her father in the room with the dead
but he sate by the bed quite quietly only from time to time he uncovered the face and stroked it gently
as if her affection disturbed him from his absorption in the dead he started when he heard frederick's cries and shook his head
poor boy he said and took no more notice margaret's heart ached within her she could not think of her own loss in thinking of her father's case the night was wearing away and the day was at hand when without a word of preparation
the journey across the heath thursday the thirty first of august was one of a series of days during which snug houses were stifling and when cool draughts were treats
when cracks appeared in clayey gardens and were called earthquakes by apprehensive children when loose spokes were discovered in the wheels of carts and carriages and when stinging insects haunted the air
the earth and every drop of water that was to be found in missus yeobright's garden large leaved plants of a tender kind flagged by ten o'clock in the morning rhubarb bent downward at eleven
and even stiff cabbages were limp by noon it was about eleven o'clock on this day that missus yeobright started across the heath towards her son's house to do her best in getting reconciled with him and eustacia
in conformity with her words to the reddleman she had hoped to be well advanced in her walk before the heat of the day was at its highest but after setting out she found that this was not to be done
even the purple heath flowers having put on a brownness under the dry blazes of the few preceding days every valley was filled with air like that of a kiln
had undergone a species of incineration since the drought had set in
but the present torrid attack made the journey a heavy undertaking for a woman past middle age and at the end of the third mile she wished that she had hired fairway to drive her a portion at least of the distance
as to get home again so she went on the air around her pulsating silently and oppressing the earth with lassitude she looked at the sky overhead
some in the air some on the hot ground and vegetation some in the tepid and stringy water of a nearly dried pool all the shallower ponds had decreased to a vaporous mud
amid which the maggoty shapes of innumerable obscure creatures could be indistinctly seen heaving and wallowing with enjoyment being a woman not disinclined to philosophize
she sometimes sat down under her umbrella to rest and to watch their happiness for a certain hopefulness as to the result of her visit gave ease to her mind and between important thoughts left it free to dwell
on any infinitesimal matter which caught her eyes missus yeobright had never before been to her son's house and its exact position was unknown to her
she tried one ascending path and another and found that they led her astray retracing her steps she came again to an open level where she perceived at a distance a man at work
she went towards him and inquired the way the labourer pointed out the direction and added
missus yeobright strained her eyes and at last said that she did perceive him
he's going to the same place ma'am she followed the figure indicated he appeared of a russet hue not more distinguishable from the scene around him than the green caterpillar from the leaf it feeds on
his progress when actually walking was more rapid than missus yeobright's but she was enabled to keep at an equable distance from him by his habit of stopping whenever he came to a brake of brambles
where he paused awhile on coming in her turn to each of these spots she found half a dozen long limp brambles which he had cut from the bush during his halt and laid out straight beside the path
they were evidently intended for furze faggot bonds which he meant to collect on his return the silent being who thus occupied himself seemed to be of no more account in life
than an insect he appeared as a mere parasite of the heath
as a moth frets a garment entirely engrossed with its products having no knowledge of anything in the world but fern furze heath lichens and moss
the furze cutter was so absorbed in the business of his journey that he never turned his head and his leather legged and gauntleted form at length became to her as nothing more than a moving handpost to show her the way
suddenly she was attracted to his individuality by observing peculiarities in his walk it was a gait she had seen somewhere before and the gait revealed the man to her as the gait of ahimaaz in the distant plain
made him known to the watchman of the king his walk is exactly as my husband's used to be she said and then the thought burst upon her that the furze cutter was her son
she was scarcely able to familiarize herself with this strange reality she had been told that clym was in the habit of cutting furze but she had supposed that he occupied himself with the labour
only at odd times by way of useful pastime yet she now beheld him as a furze cutter and nothing more wearing the regulation dress of the craft
and thinking the regulation thoughts to judge by his motions planning a dozen hasty schemes for at once preserving him and eustacia from this mode of life she throbbingly followed the way and saw him
enter his own door at one side of clym's house was a knoll and on the top of the knoll a clump of fir trees so highly thrust up into the sky that their foliage from a distance appeared
as a black spot in the air above the crown of the hill on reaching this place missus yeobright felt distressingly agitated weary and unwell she ascended
and sat down under their shade to recover herself and to consider how best to break the ground with eustacia so as not to irritate a woman underneath whose apparent indolence lurked passions
even stronger and more active than her own the trees beneath which she sat were singularly battered rude and wild and for a few minutes missus yeobright dismissed thoughts of her own storm broken
and exhausted state to contemplate theirs not a bough in the nine trees which composed the group but was splintered lopped and distorted by the fierce weather that there held them at its mercy
whenever it prevailed some were blasted and split as if by lightning black stains as from fire marking their sides while the ground at their feet was strewn with dead fir needles and heaps of cones
blown down in the gales of past years the place was called the devil's bellows and it was only necessary to come there on a march or november night to discover the forcible reasons for that name
on the present heated afternoon when no perceptible wind was blowing the trees kept up a perpetual moan which one could hardly believe to be caused by the air
here she sat for twenty minutes or more ere she could summon resolution to go down to the door her courage being lowered to zero by her physical lassitude
to any other person than a mother it might have seemed a little humiliating that she the elder of the two women should be the first to make advances but missus yeobright had well considered all that and she only thought
how best to make her visit appear to eustacia not abject but wise from her elevated position the exhausted woman could perceive the roof of the house below and the garden
and the whole enclosure of the little domicile and now at the moment of rising she saw a second man approaching the gate his manner was peculiar hesitating
and not that of a person come on business or by invitation he surveyed the house with interest and then walked round and scanned the outer boundary of the garden as one might have done had it been the birthplace of shakespeare
the prison of mary stuart or the chateau of hougomont after passing round and again reaching the gate he went in
but a moment's thought showed her that the presence of an acquaintance would take off the awkwardness of her first appearance in the house by confining the talk to general matters until she had begun to feel comfortable with them
she came down the hill to the gate and looked into the hot garden there lay the cat asleep on the bare gravel of the path as if beds rugs and carpets were unendurable
the leaves of the hollyhocks hung like half closed umbrellas the sap almost simmered in the stems and foliage with a smooth surface glared like metallic mirrors
a small apple tree of the sort called ratheripe grew just inside the gate the only one which throve in the garden by reason of the lightness of the soil and among the fallen apples on the ground beneath
were wasps rolling drunk with the juice or creeping about the little caves in each fruit which they had eaten out before stupefied by its sweetness by the door lay clym's furze hook
all that afternoon the expected arrival of the subject of eustacia's ruminations created a bustle of preparation at blooms end thomasin had been persuaded by her aunt
and by an instinctive impulse of loyalty towards her cousin clym to bestir herself on his account with an alacrity unusual in her during these most sorrowful days of her life
at the time that eustacia was listening to the rick makers conversation on clym's return thomasin was climbing into a loft over her aunt's fuelhouse where the store apples were kept
to search out the best and largest of them for the coming holiday time the loft was lighted by a semicircular hole through which the pigeons crept to their lodgings in the same high quarters of the premises
and from this hole the sun shone in a bright yellow patch upon the figure of the maiden as she knelt and plunged her naked arms into the soft brown fern which from its abundance
was used on egdon in packing away stores of all kinds the pigeons were flying about her head with the greatest unconcern and the face of her aunt was just visible above the floor of the loft
lit by a few stray motes of light as she stood halfway up the ladder looking at a spot into which she was not climber enough to venture now a few russets tamsin
he used to like them almost as well as ribstones thomasin turned and rolled aside the fern from another nook where more mellow fruit greeted her with its ripe smell before picking them out
she stopped a moment dear clym i wonder how your face looks now she said gazing abstractedly at the pigeon hole
which admitted the sunlight so directly upon her brown hair and transparent tissues that it almost seemed to shine through her if he could have been dear to you in another way said missus yeobright from the ladder
this might have been a happy meeting is there any use in saying what can do no good aunt yes said her aunt with some warmth to thoroughly fill the air with the past misfortune
so that other girls may take warning and keep clear of it thomasin lowered her face to the apples again i am a warning to others just as thieves and drunkards and gamblers are
she said in a low voice what a class to belong to do i really belong to them tis absurd yet why aunt does everybody keep on making me think that i do by the way they behave towards me
why don't people judge me by my acts now look at me as i kneel here picking up these apples do i look like a lost woman i wish all good women were as good as i she
strangers don't see you as i do said missus yeobright they judge from false report well it is a silly job and i am partly to blame how quickly a rash thing can be done
replied the girl her lips were quivering and tears so crowded themselves into her eyes that she could hardly distinguish apples from fern as she continued industriously searching to hide her weakness
come down and we'll go for the holly there is nobody on the heath this afternoon and you need not fear being stared at we must get some berries or clym will never believe in our preparations
thomasin came down when the apples were collected and together they went through the white palings to the heath beyond the open hills were airy and clear and the remote atmosphere appeared
as it often appears on a fine winter day in distinct planes of illumination independently toned the rays which lit the nearer tracts of landscape
a stratum of ensaffroned light was imposed on a stratum of deep blue and behind these lay still remoter scenes wrapped in frigid grey
they reached the place where the hollies grew which was in a conical pit so that the tops of the trees were not much above the general level of the ground thomasin stepped up into a fork of one of the bushes
as she had done under happier circumstances on many similar occasions and with a small chopper that they had brought she began to lop off the heavily berried boughs don't scratch your face
said her aunt who stood at the edge of the pit
will you walk with me to meet him this evening i should like to else it would seem as if i had forgotten him said thomasin tossing out a bough not that that would matter much
i belong to one man nothing can alter that
that weak girl how is she going to get a man to marry her when she chooses but let me tell you one thing aunt
any more than i am an improper woman he has an unfortunate manner and doesn't try to make people like him if they don't wish to do it of their own accord thomasin
said missus yeobright quietly fixing her eye upon her niece
how do you mean i have long had a suspicion that your love for him has changed its colour
and that you act a part to me he wished to marry me
now i put it to you would you at this present moment agree to be his wife if that had not happened to entangle you with him thomasin looked into the tree and appeared much disturbed
aunt she said presently i have i think a right to refuse to answer that question yes you have
you may think what you choose i have never implied to you by word or deed that i have grown to think otherwise of him and i never will and i shall marry him well wait till he repeats his offer
i think he may do it now that he knows something i told him i don't for a moment dispute that it is the most proper thing for you to marry him much as i have objected to him in bygone days i agree with you now you may be sure
it is the only way out of a false position and a very galling one what did you tell him that he was standing in the way of another lover of yours aunt
said thomasin with round eyes what do you mean don't be alarmed it was my duty
thomasin was perforce content and you will keep the secret of my would be marriage from clym for the present she next asked
but what is the use of it he must soon know what has happened a mere look at your face will show him that something is wrong thomasin turned and regarded her aunt from the tree
now hearken to me she said her delicate voice expanding into firmness by a force which was other than physical tell him nothing
let him but since he loved me once we will not pain him by telling him my trouble too soon the air is full of the story i know but gossips will not dare to speak of it to him for the first few days his closeness to me
is the very thing that will hinder the tale from reaching him early if i am not made safe from sneers in a week or two i will tell him myself the earnestness with which thomasin spoke prevented further objections
her aunt simply said very well he should by rights have been told at the time that the wedding was going to be he will never forgive you for your secrecy yes he will when he knows it was because i wished to spare him
and that i did not expect him home so soon and you must not let me stand in the way of your christmas party putting it off would only make matters worse of course i shall not i do not wish to show myself beaten before all egdon
thomasin came out of the tree shook from her hair and dress the loose berries which had fallen thereon and went down the hill with her aunt each woman bearing half the gathered boughs
it was now nearly four o'clock and the sunlight was leaving the vales when the west grew red the two relatives came again from the house and plunged into the heath in a different direction from the first
one tidings of the comer
certain ephemeral operations were apt to disturb in their trifling way the majestic calm of egdon heath they were activities which beside those of a town a village or even a farm
would have appeared as the ferment of stagnation merely a creeping of the flesh of somnolence but here away from comparisons shut in by the stable hills among which mere walking
had the novelty of pageantry and where any man could imagine himself to be adam without the least difficulty they attracted the attention of every bird within eyeshot every reptile not yet asleep
and set the surrounding rabbits curiously watching from hillocks at a safe distance the performance was that of bringing together and building into a stack the furze faggots
which humphrey had been cutting for the captain's use during the foregoing fine days the stack was at the end of the dwelling and the men engaged in building it were humphrey and sam the old man looking on
it was a fine and quiet afternoon about three o'clock but the winter solstice having stealthily come on the lowness of the sun caused the hour to seem later than it actually was
there being little here to remind an inhabitant that he must unlearn his summer experience of the sky as a dial in the course of many days and weeks
sunrise had advanced its quarters from northeast to southeast sunset had receded from northwest to southwest but egdon had hardly heeded the change
eustacia was indoors in the dining room which was really more like a kitchen having a stone floor and a gaping chimney corner the air was still and while she lingered a moment here alone
sounds of voices in conversation came to her ears directly down the chimney she entered the recess and listening looked up the old irregular shaft with its cavernous hollows where the smoke blundered about
on its way to the square bit of sky at the top from which the daylight struck down with a pallid glare upon the tatters of soot draping the flue as seaweed drapes a rocky fissure she remembered
the furze stack was not far from the chimney and the voices were those of the workers her grandfather joined in the conversation
i don't believe in these new moves in families my father was a sailor so was i and so should my son have been if i had had one the place he's been living at is paris said humphrey
and they tell me tis where the king's head was cut off years ago my poor mother used to tell me about that business hummy she used to say i was a young maid then
they've cut the king's head off jane and what twill be next god knows a good many of us knew as well as he before long said the captain chuckling i lived seven years under water on account of it in my boyhood
in that damned surgery of the triumph seeing men brought down to the cockpit with their legs and arms blown to jericho and so the young man has settled in paris manager to a diamond merchant or some such thing is he not
yes sir that's it tis a blazing great business that he belongs to so i've heard his mother say
i can well mind when he left home said sam tis a good thing for the feller said humphrey
and be neither drunkard nor glutton they say too that clym yeobright is become a real perusing man with the strangest notions about things there that's because he went to school early such as the school was
strange notions has he said the old man ah there's too much of that sending to school in these days it only does harm
a woman can hardly pass for shame sometimes
their fathers couldn't do it and the country was all the better for it now i should think cap'n that miss eustacia had about as much in her head that comes from books as anybody about here
said the captain shortly after which he walked away i say sam observed humphrey when the old man was gone
she and clym yeobright would make a very pretty pigeon pair hey if they wouldn't i'll be dazed both of one mind about niceties for certain and learned in print
clym's family is as good as hers
nothing would please me better than to see them two man and wife they'd look very natty arm in crook together and their best clothes on whether or no
well i should like to see the chap terrible much after so many years
and help carry anything for'n though i suppose he's altered from the boy he was they say he can talk french as fast as a maid can eat blackberries and if so depend upon it we who have stayed at home
shall seem no more than scroff in his eyes
that's a bad trouble about his cousin thomasin
what a nunnywatch we were in to be sure when we heard they weren't married at all
yes poor maid her heart has ached enough about it her health is suffering from it i hear for she will bide entirely indoors we never see her out now scampering over the furze with a face as red as a rose as she used to do
you have tis news to me while the furze gatherers had desultorily conversed thus eustacia's face gradually bent to the hearth
in a profound reverie her toe unconsciously tapping the dry turf which lay burning at her feet
a young and clever man was coming into that lonely heath from of all contrasting places in the world paris
more singular still the heathmen had instinctively coupled her and this man together in their minds as a pair born for each other
that five minutes of overhearing furnished eustacia with visions enough to fill the whole blank afternoon such sudden alternations from mental vacuity do sometimes occur
thus quietly she could never have believed in the morning that her colourless inner world would before night become as animated as water under a microscope and that without the arrival of a single visitor
the words of sam and humphrey on the harmony between the unknown and herself had on her mind the effect of the invading bard's prelude in the castle of indolence
at which myriads of imprisoned shapes arose where had previously appeared the stillness of a void
when she became conscious of externals it was dusk the furze rick was finished the men had gone home eustacia went upstairs thinking that she would take a walk at this her usual time
and she determined that her walk should be in the direction of blooms end the birthplace of young yeobright and the present home of his mother she had no reason for walking elsewhere and
why should she not go that way the scene of the daydream is sufficient for a pilgrimage at nineteen to look at the palings before the yeobrights house had the dignity of a necessary performance
strange that such a piece of idling should have seemed an important errand she put on her bonnet and leaving the house descended the hill on the side towards blooms end
of a mile and a half this brought her to a spot in which the green bottom of the dale began to widen
till they were diminished to an isolated one here and there by the increasing fertility of the soil
which marked the verge of the heath in this latitude they showed upon the dusky scene that they bordered as distinctly as white lace on velvet behind the white palings was a little garden behind the garden
an old irregular thatched house facing the heath and commanding a full view of the valley this was the obscure removed spot to which was about to return a man whose latter life
had been passed in the french capital the centre and vortex
from the very beginning at tuskegee i was determined to have the students do not only the agricultural and domestic work but to have them erect their own buildings my plan was to have them
while performing this service taught the latest and best methods of labour so that the school would not only get the benefit of their efforts but the students themselves would be taught to see not only utility in labour but beauty and dignity
would be taught in fact how to lift labour up from mere drudgery and toil and would learn to love work for its own sake my plan was not to teach them to work in the old way
but to show them how to make the forces of nature air water steam electricity horse power assist them in their labour at first many advised against the experiment of having the buildings
erected by the labour of the students but i was determined to stick to it
or so complete in their finish as buildings erected by the experienced hands of outside workmen but that in the teaching of civilization self help and self reliance the erection of buildings by the students themselves
would more than compensate for any lack of comfort or fine finish i further told those who doubted the wisdom of this plan that the majority of our students came to us in poverty from the cabins of the cotton sugar
and rice plantations of the south and that while i knew it would please the students very much to place them at once in finely constructed buildings i felt that it would be following out a more natural process of development
mistakes i knew would be made but these mistakes would teach us valuable lessons for the future during the now nineteen years existence of the tuskegee school
the plan of having the buildings erected by student labour has been adhered to in this time forty buildings counting small and large have been built and all except four are almost wholly the product of student labour
as an additional result hundreds of men are now scattered throughout the south who received their knowledge of mechanics while being taught how to erect these buildings
skill and knowledge are now handed down from one set of students to another in this way until at the present time a building of any description or size can be constructed
from the drawing of the plans to the putting in of the electric fixtures without going off the grounds for a single workman
not a few times when a new student has been led into the temptation of marring the looks of some building by leadpencil marks or by the cuts of a jack knife i have heard an old student remind him don't do that
that is our building i helped put it up in the early days of the school i think my most trying experience was in the matter of brickmaking
as soon as we got the farm work reasonably well started we directed our next efforts toward the industry of making bricks
but there was also another reason for establishing this industry there was no brickyard in the town and in addition to our own needs there was a demand for bricks in the general market
i had always sympathized with the children of israel in their task of making bricks without straw but ours was the task of making bricks with no money and no experience in the first place
the work was hard and dirty and it was difficult to get the students to help when it came to brickmaking their distaste for manual labour in connection with book education became especially manifest
it was not a pleasant task for one to stand in the mud pit for hours with the mud up to his knees more than one man became disgusted and left the school
we tried several locations before we opened up a pit that furnished brick clay i had always supposed that brickmaking was very simple but i soon found out by bitter experience that it required special skill and knowledge
particularly in the burning of the bricks after a good deal of effort we moulded about twenty five thousand bricks and put them into a kiln to be burned this kiln turned out to be a failure
because it was not properly constructed or properly burned we began at once however on a second kiln this for some reason also proved a failure the failure of this kiln
made it still more difficult to get the students to take part in the work several of the teachers however who had been trained in the industries at hampton volunteered their services and in some way we succeeded in getting a third kiln ready for burning
the burning of a kiln required about a week toward the latter part of the week when it seemed as if we were going to have a good many thousand bricks in a few hours in the middle of the night the kiln fell
for the third time we had failed the failure of this last kiln left me without a single dollar with which to make another experiment most of the teachers advised the abandoning of the effort to make bricks
i took the watch to the city of montgomery which was not far distant and placed it in a pawn shop i secured cash upon it to the amount of fifteen dollars
with which to renew the brickmaking experiment i returned to tuskegee and with the help of the fifteen dollars rallied our rather demoralized and discouraged forces and began a fourth attempt to make bricks
this time i am glad to say we were successful before i got hold of any money the time limit on my watch had expired and i have never seen it since but i have never regretted the loss of it
brickmaking has now become such an important industry at the school that last season our students manufactured twelve hundred thousand of first class bricks
aside from this scores of young men have mastered the brickmaking trade both the making of bricks by hand and by machinery and are now engaged in this industry in many parts of the south
the making of these bricks taught me an important lesson in regard to the relations of the two races in the south many white people who had had no contact with the school and perhaps no sympathy with it came to us to buy bricks
because they found out that ours were good bricks they discovered that we were supplying a real want in the community the making of these bricks caused many of the white residents of the neighbourhood to begin to feel that the education of the negro
was not making him worthless but that in educating our students we were adding something to the wealth and comfort of the community as the people of the neighbourhood came to us to buy bricks we got acquainted with them
they traded with us and we with them our business interests became intermingled we had something which they wanted they had something which we wanted
this in a large measure helped to lay the foundation for the pleasant relations that have continued to exist between us and the white people in that section and which now extend throughout the south
wherever one of our brickmakers has gone in the south we find that he has something to contribute to the well being of the community into which he has gone
something that has made the community feel that in a degree it is indebted to him and perhaps to a certain extent dependent upon him in this way pleasant relations between the races have been simulated
which always makes an individual recognize and reward merit
i have found too that it is the visible the tangible that goes a long ways in softening prejudices the actual sight of a first class house that a negro has built is ten times more potent
than pages of discussion about a house that he ought to build or perhaps could build the same principle of industrial education has been carried out in the building of our own wagons carts and buggies from the first
we now own and use on our farm and about the school dozens of these vehicles and every one of them has been built by the hands of the students aside from this we help supply the local market with these vehicles
the supplying of them to the people in the community has had the same effect as the supplying of bricks and the man who learns at tuskegee to build and repair wagons and carts is regarded
the people with whom he lives and works are going to think twice before they part with such a man the individual who can do something that the world wants done will in the end make his way regardless of race
one man may go into a community prepared to supply the people there with an analysis of greek sentences the community may not at the time be prepared for or feel the need of greek analysis
but it may feel its need of bricks and houses and wagons if the man can supply the need for those then it will lead eventually to a demand for the first product
and with the demand will come the ability to appreciate it and to profit by it about the time that we succeeded in burning our first kiln of bricks we began facing in an emphasized form the objection
of the students to being taught to work by this time it had gotten to be pretty well advertised throughout the state that every student who came to tuskegee
the more books the larger they were and the longer the titles printed upon them the better pleased the students and their parents seemed to be i gave little heed to these protests
except that i lost no opportunity to go into as many parts of the state as i could for the purpose of speaking to the parents and showing them the value of industrial education besides
i talked to the students constantly on the subject notwithstanding the unpopularity of industrial work the school continued to increase in numbers to such an extent that by the middle of the second year
there was an attendance of about one hundred and fifty representing almost all parts of the state of alabama and including a few from other states in the summer of eighteen eighty two
miss davidson and i both went north and engaged in the work of raising funds for the completion of our new building on my way north i stopped in new york to try to get a letter of recommendation
from an officer of a missionary organization who had become somewhat acquainted with me a few years previous this man not only refused to give me the letter but advised me most earnestly to go back home at once
and not make any attempt to get money for he was quite sure that i would never get more than enough to pay my travelling expenses i thanked him for his advice
where i spent nearly a half day in looking for a coloured family with whom i could board never dreaming that any hotel would admit me i was greatly surprised
we were successful in getting money enough so that on thanksgiving day of that year we held our first service in the chapel of porter hall although the building was not completed
in looking about for some one to preach the thanksgiving sermon i found one of the rarest men that it has ever been my privilege to know
robert c bedford a white man from wisconsin who was then pastor of a little coloured
i had never heard of mister bedford he had never heard of me he gladly consented to come to tuskegee and hold the thanksgiving service it was the first service of the kind that the coloured people there had ever observed
the sight of the new building made it a day of thanksgiving for them never to be forgotten mister bedford consented to become one of the trustees of the school and in that capacity and as a worker for it
he has been connected with it for eighteen years during this time he has borne the school upon his heart night and day and is never so happy as when he is performing some service no matter how humble for it
he completely obliterates himself in everything and looks only for permission to serve where service is most disagreeable and where others would not be attracted in all my relations with him
he has seemed to me to approach as nearly to the spirit of the master as almost any man i ever met a little later there came into the service of the school another man quite young at the time and fresh from hampton
without whose service the school never could have become what it is this was mister warren logan who now for seventeen years has been the treasurer of the institute and the acting principal during my absence
he has always shown a degree of unselfishness and an amount of business tact coupled with a clear judgment that has kept the school in good condition no matter how long i have been absent from it
during all the financial stress through which the school has passed his patience and faith in our ultimate success have not left him as soon as our first building was near enough to completion
so that we could occupy a portion of it which was near the middle of the second year of the school we opened a boarding department students had begun coming from quite a distance and in such increasing numbers that we felt more and more
that we were merely skimming over the surface in that we were not getting hold of the students in their home life we had nothing but the students and their appetites with which to begin a boarding department
no provision had been made in the new building for a kitchen and dining room but we discovered that by digging out a large amount of earth from under the building we could make a partially lighted basement room
that could be used for a kitchen and dining room again i called on the students to volunteer for work this time to assist in digging out the basement this they did and in a few weeks
we had a place to cook and eat in although it was very rough and uncomfortable any one seeing the place now would never believe that it was once used for a dining room the most serious problem though
was to get the boarding department started off in running order with nothing to do with in the way of furniture and with no money with which to buy anything the merchants in the town would let us have what food we wanted on credit
in fact in those earlier years i was constantly embarrassed because people seemed to have more faith in me than i had in myself it was pretty hard to cook however without stoves and awkward to eat without dishes
at first the cooking was done out of doors in the old fashioned primitive style in pots and skillets placed over a fire some of the carpenters benches that had been used in the construction of the building were utilized for tables
as for dishes there were too few to make it worth while to spend time in describing them
that meals must be served at certain fixed and regular hours and this was a source of great worry everything was so out of joint and so inconvenient that i feel safe in saying that for the first two weeks
something was wrong at every meal either the meat was not done
or the salt had been left out of the bread or the tea had been forgotten early one morning i was standing near the dining room door listening to the complaints of the students
the complaints that morning were especially emphatic and numerous because the whole breakfast had been a failure one of the girls who had failed to get any breakfast came out and went to the well to draw some water to drink
when she reached the well she found that the rope was broken and that she could get no water she turned from the well and said in the most discouraged tone not knowing that i was where i could hear her
we can't even get water to drink at this school i think no one remark ever came so near discouraging me as that one at another time when mister bedford
and a devoted friend of the institution was visiting the school he was given a bedroom immediately over the dining room early in the morning he was awakened by a rather animated discussion between two boys in the dining room below
the discussion was over the question as to whose turn it was to use the coffee cup that morning one boy won the case by proving that for three mornings he had not had an opportunity to use the cup at all
but gradually with patience and hard work we brought order out of chaos just as will be true of any problem if we stick to it with patience and wisdom and earnest effort
as i look back now over that part of our struggle i am glad to see that we had it i am glad that we endured all those discomforts and inconveniences
i am glad that our students had to dig out the place for their kitchen and dining room i am glad that our first boarding place was in the dismal ill lighted and damp basement had we started in a fine attractive convenient room
it means a great deal i think to start off on a foundation which one has made for one's self when our old students return to tuskegee now as they often do
and go into our large beautiful well ventilated and well lighted dining room and see tempting well cooked food largely grown by the students themselves and see tables neat tablecloths and napkins and vases of flowers upon the tables
and hear singing birds and note that each meal is served exactly upon the minute with no disorder and with almost no complaint coming from the hundreds that now fill our dining room
the word idealism is used by different philosophers in somewhat different senses we shall understand by it the doctrine that whatever exists or at any rate whatever can be known to exist must be in some sense mental
this doctrine which is very widely held among philosophers has several forms and is advocated on several different grounds the doctrine is so widely held and so interesting in itself that even the briefest survey of philosophy must give some account of it
those who are unaccustomed to philosophical speculation may be inclined to dismiss such a doctrine as obviously absurd there is no doubt that common sense regards tables and chairs and the sun and moon and material objects generally
as something radically different from minds and the contents of minds and as having an existence which might continue if minds ceased we think of matter as having existed long before there were any minds
and it is hard to think of it as a mere product of mental activity but whether true or false idealism is not to be dismissed as obviously absurd we have seen that even if physical objects do have an independent existence
they must differ very widely from sense data and can only have a correspondence with sense data in the same sort of way in which a catalogue has a correspondence with the things catalogued hence
common sense leaves us completely in the dark as to the true intrinsic nature of physical objects and if there were good reason to regard them as mental we could not legitimately reject this opinion merely because it strikes us as strange
the truth about physical objects must be strange it may be unattainable but if any philosopher believes that he has attained it the fact that what he offers as the truth is strange ought not to be made a ground of objection to his opinion
the grounds on which idealism is advocated are generally grounds derived from the theory of knowledge that is to say from a discussion of the conditions which things must satisfy in order that we may be able to know them
that our sense data cannot be supposed to have an existence independent of us but must be in part at least in the mind in the sense that their existence would not continue if there were no seeing or hearing or touching or smelling or tasting
so far his contention was almost certainly valid even if some of his arguments were not so but he went on to argue that sense data were the only things of whose existence our perceptions could assure us
and that to be known is to be in a mind and therefore to be mental hence he concluded that nothing can ever be known except what is in some mind and that whatever is known without being in my mind must be in some other mind
in order to understand his argument it is necessary to understand his use of the word idea he gives the name idea to anything which is immediately known as for example sense data are known
so is a voice which we hear and so on but the term is not wholly confined to sense data
for with such things also we have immediate acquaintance at the moment of remembering or imagining all such immediate data he calls ideas he then proceeds to consider common objects such as a tree for instance
he shows that all we know immediately when we perceive the tree consists of ideas in his sense of the word and he argues that there is not the slightest ground for supposing that there is anything real about the tree except what is perceived
its being he says consists in being perceived in the latin of the schoolmen
he fully admits that the tree must continue to exist even when we shut our eyes or when no human being is near it but this continued existence he says is due to the fact that god continues to perceive it
the real tree which corresponds to what we called the physical object consists of ideas in the mind of god ideas more or less like those we have when we see the tree
but differing in the fact that they are permanent in god's mind so long as the tree continues to exist all our perceptions according to him consist in a partial participation in god's perceptions and it is because of this participation
that different people see more or less the same tree thus apart from minds and their ideas there is nothing in the world nor is it possible that anything else should ever be known
since whatever is known is necessarily an idea there are in this argument a good many fallacies which have been important in the history of philosophy and which it will be as well to bring to light in the first place
there is a confusion engendered by the use of the word idea we think of an idea as essentially something in somebody's mind and thus when we are told that a tree consists entirely of ideas it is natural to suppose that if so
when a man says that some business he had to arrange went clean out of his mind he does not mean to imply that the business itself was ever in his mind but only that a thought of the business was formerly in his mind
but afterwards ceased to be in his mind and so when berkeley says that the tree must be in our minds if we can know it all that he really has a right to say is that a thought of the tree must be in our minds
to argue that the tree itself must be in our minds is like arguing that a person whom we bear in mind is himself in our minds this confusion may seem too gross to have been really committed by any competent philosopher
but various attendant circumstances rendered it possible in order to see how it was possible we must go more deeply into the question as to the nature of ideas
before taking up the general question of the nature of ideas we must disentangle two entirely separate questions which arise concerning sense data and physical objects we saw that for various reasons of detail
berkeley was right in treating the sense data which constitute our perception of the tree as more or less subjective in the sense that they depend upon us as much as upon the tree and would not exist if the tree were not being perceived
but this is an entirely different point from the one by which berkeley seeks to prove that whatever can be immediately known must be in a mind for this purpose arguments of detail as to the dependence of sense data upon us are useless
it is necessary to prove generally that by being known things are shown to be mental this is what berkeley believes himself to have done it is this question and not our previous question as to the difference between sense data and the physical object
that must now concern us taking the word idea in berkeley's sense there are two quite distinct things to be considered whenever an idea is before the mind there is on the one hand the thing of which we are aware
but is there any reason to suppose that the thing apprehended is in any sense mental our previous arguments concerning the colour did not prove it to be mental they only proved that its existence depends upon the relation of our sense organs
to the physical object in our case the table that is to say they proved that a certain colour will exist in a certain light if a normal eye is placed at a certain point relatively to the table
then forgetting that this was only true when ideas were taken as acts of apprehension we transfer the proposition that ideas are in the mind to ideas in the other sense
thus by an unconscious equivocation we arrive at the conclusion that whatever we can apprehend must be in our minds this seems to be the true analysis of berkeley's argument and the ultimate fallacy upon which it rests
this question of the distinction between act and object in our apprehending of things is vitally important since our whole power of acquiring knowledge is bound up with it
it is this that constitutes the mind's power of knowing things if we say that the things known must be in the mind we are either unduly limiting the mind's power of knowing or we are uttering a mere tautology
we are uttering a mere tautology if we mean by in the mind the same as by before the mind
if we mean merely being apprehended by the mind but if we mean this we shall have to admit that what in this sense is in the mind may nevertheless be not mental thus
when we realize the nature of knowledge berkeley's argument is seen to be wrong in substance as well as in form and his grounds for supposing that ideas' i e the objects apprehended must be mental are found to have no validity whatever
hence his grounds in favour of idealism may be dismissed it remains to see whether there are any other grounds it is often said as though it were a self evident truism
that we cannot know that anything exists which we do not know it is inferred that whatever can in any way be relevant to our experience must be at least capable of being known by us whence it follows that
if matter were essentially something with which we could not become acquainted matter would be something which we could not know to exist and which could have for us no importance whatever it is generally also implied for reasons which remain obscure
that what can have no importance for us cannot be real and that therefore matter if it is not composed of minds or of mental ideas is impossible and a mere chimaera
to go into this argument fully at our present stage would be impossible since it raises points requiring a considerable preliminary discussion but certain reasons for rejecting the argument may be noticed at once
to begin at the end there is no reason why what cannot have any practical importance for us should not be real it is true that if theoretical importance is included
everything real is of some importance to us since as persons desirous of knowing the truth about the universe we have some interest in everything that the universe contains but if this sort of interest is included
it is not the case that matter has no importance for us provided it exists even if we cannot know that it exists we can obviously suspect that it may exist and wonder whether it does hence it is connected with our desire for knowledge
and has the importance of either satisfying or thwarting this desire again it is by no means a truism and is in fact false that we cannot know that anything exists which we do not know the word know
is here used in two different senses one in its first use it is applicable to the sort of knowledge which is opposed to error the sense in which what we know is true the sense which applies to our beliefs and convictions
to what are called judgements in this sense of the word we know that something is the case this sort of knowledge may be described as knowledge of truths two in the second use of the word know above
the word applies to our knowledge of things which we may call acquaintance this is the sense in which we know sense data the distinction involved is roughly that between savoir
and kennen in german thus the statement which seemed like a truism becomes when re stated the following we can never truly judge that something with which we are not acquainted exists
this is by no means a truism but on the contrary a palpable falsehood i have not the honour to be acquainted with the emperor of china but i truly judge that he exists
it may be said of course that i judge this because of other people's acquaintance with him this however would be an irrelevant retort since if the principle were true i could not know that any one else is acquainted with him but further
there is no reason why i should not know of the existence of something with which nobody is acquainted this point is important and demands elucidation if i am acquainted with a thing which exists
my acquaintance gives me the knowledge that it exists but it is not true that conversely whenever i can know that a thing of a certain sort exists i or some one else must be acquainted with the thing
what happens in cases where i have true judgement without acquaintance is that the thing is known to me by description and that in virtue of some general principle the existence of a thing answering to this description can be inferred
from the existence of something with which i am acquainted in order to understand this point fully it will be well first to deal with the difference between knowledge by acquaintance and knowledge by description
and then to consider what knowledge of general principles if any has the same kind of certainty as our knowledge of the existence of our own experiences
reminiscences from the camden courier as i sat taking my evening sail across the delaware in the staunch ferry boat beverly a night or two ago i was join'd by two young reporter friends
i have a message for you said one of them the c folks told me to say they would like a piece sign'd by your name to go in their first number can you do it for them i guess so said i what might it be about
well anything on newspapers or perhaps what you've done yourself starting them and off the boys went for we had reach'd the philadelphia side the hour was fine and mild the bright half moon shining
venus with excess of splendor just setting in the west and the great scorpion rearing its length more than half up in the southeast as i cross'd leisurely for an hour in the pleasant night scene
my young friend's words brought up quite a string of reminiscences i commenced when i was but a boy of eleven or twelve writing sentimental bits for the old long island patriot in brooklyn this was about eighteen thirty two
soon after i had a piece or two in george p morris's then celebrated and fashionable mirror of new york city
how it made my heart double beat to see my piece on the pretty white paper in nice type my first real venture was the long islander in my own beautiful town of huntington in eighteen thirty nine
i was about twenty years old i had been teaching country school for two or three years in various parts of suffolk and queens counties but liked printing had been at it while a lad learn'd the trade of compositor
and was encouraged to start a paper in the region where i was born i went to new york bought a press and types hired some little help but did most of the work myself including the press work
everything seem'd turning out well only my own restlessness prevented me gradually establishing a permanent property there i bought a good horse and every week went all round the country serving my papers
devoting one day and night to it i never had happier jaunts going over to south side to babylon down the south road across to smithtown and comac and back home the experiences of those jaunts
the dear old fashion'd farmers and their wives the stops by the hay fields the hospitality nice dinners occasional evenings the girls the rides through the brush come up in my memory to this day
i next went to the aurora daily in new york city a sort of free lance also wrote regularly for the tattler an evening paper with these and a little outside work i was occupied off and on
until i went to edit the brooklyn eagle where for two years i had one of the pleasantest sits of my life a good owner good pay and easy work and hours the troubles in the democratic party broke forth about those times
and i split off with the radicals which led to rows with the boss and the party and i lost my place being now out of a job i was offer'd impromptu
it happen'd between the acts one night in the lobby of the old broadway theatre near pearl street new york city a good chance to go down to new orleans on the staff of the crescent a daily to be started there with plenty of capital behind it
one of the owners who was north buying material met me walking in the lobby and though that was our first acquaintance after fifteen minutes talk and a drink
we made a formal bargain and he paid me two hundred dollars down to bind the contract and bear my expenses to new orleans
first as a weekly then daily pretty soon the secession war broke out and i too got drawn in the current southward and spent the following three years there as memorandized preceding
i have had to do one time or another during my life with a long list of papers at divers places sometimes under queer circumstances during the war the hospitals at washington among other means of amusement
printed a little sheet among themselves surrounded by wounds and death the armory square gazette to which i contributed the same long afterward casually to a paper i think it was call'd the jimplecute out in colorado
where i stopp'd at the time when i was in quebec province in canada in eighteen eighty i went into the queerest little old french printing office near tadousac
it was far more primitive and ancient than my camden friend william kurtz's place up on federal street i remember as a youngster several characteristic old printers of a kind hard to be seen these days
the great unrest of which we are part my thoughts went floating on vast and mystic currents as i sat to day in solitude and half shade by the creek returning mainly to two principal centres
one of my cherish'd themes for a never achiev'd poem has been the two impetuses of man and the universe
poetry even morals but emotion
a hundred thousand years hence the imaginary dipper will be upside down and the stars which form the bowl and handle will have changed places the misty nebulae are moving
and besides are whirling around in great spirals some one way some another every molecule of matter in the whole universe is swinging to and fro every particle of ether
which fills space is in jelly like vibration light is one kind of motion heat another electricity another magnetism another sound another every human sense
is the result of motion every perception every thought is but motion of the molecules of the brain translated by that incomprehensible thing we call mind the processes of growth of existence of decay
by emerson's grave may sixth
we stand by emerson's new made grave without sadness indeed a solemn joy and faith almost hauteur our soul benison no mere warrior rest thy task is done
for one beyond the warriors of the world lies surely symboll'd here a just man poised on himself all loving all inclosing and sane and clear as the sun
nor does it seem so much emerson himself we are here to honor it is conscience simplicity culture humanity's attributes at their best
yet applicable if need be to average affairs and eligible to all so used are we to suppose a heroic death can only come from out of battle or storm or mighty personal contest
or amid dramatic incidents or danger have we not been taught so for ages by all the plays and poems that few even of those who most sympathizingly mourn emerson's late departure
will fully appreciate the ripen'd grandeur of that event with its play of calm and fitness like evening light on the sea
the clear eyes the silently smiling mouth
with so much spring and cheeriness and such an absence of decrepitude that even the term venerable hardly seem'd fitting perhaps the life now rounded and completed in its mortal development
and which nothing can change or harm more has its most illustrious halo not in its splendid intellectual or esthetic products but as forming in its entirety one of the few alas how few
of the entire literary class we can say as abraham lincoln at gettysburg it is not we who come to consecrate the dead we reverently come to receive if so it may be
some consecration to ourselves and daily work from him at present writing personal a letter to a german friend extract
from to day i enter upon my sixty fourth year
and will probably continue i easily tire am very clumsy cannot walk far but my spirits are first rate
keep up my activity and interest in life people progress and the questions of the day about two thirds of the time i am quite comfortable what mentality i ever had remains entirely unaffected
though physically i am a half paralytic and likely to be so long as i live
i have the most devoted and ardent of friends and affectionate relatives and of enemies i really make no account after trying a certain book
i tried to read a beautifully printed and scholarly volume on the theory of poetry received by mail this morning from england but gave it up at last for a bad job
here are some capricious pencillings that follow'd as i find them in my notes in youth and maturity poems are charged with sunshine and varied pomp of day but as the soul more and more takes precedence
the sensuous still included the dusk becomes the poet's atmosphere i too have sought and ever seek the brilliant sun and make my songs according
but as i grow old the half lights of evening are far more to me the play of imagination with the sensuous objects of nature for symbols and faith
with love and pride as the unseen impetus and moving power of all make up the curious chess game of a poem common teachers or critics are always asking what does it mean
symphony of fine musician or sunset or sea waves rolling up the beach what do they mean undoubtedly in the most subtle elusive sense they mean something as love does and religion does and the best poem
but who shall fathom and define those meanings i do not intend this as a warrant for wildness and frantic escapades but to justify the soul's frequent joy in what cannot be defined to the intellectual part
at its best poetic lore is like what may be heard of conversation in the dusk from speakers far or hid of which we get only a few broken murmurs what is not gather'd is far more perhaps the main thing
grandest poetic passages are only to be taken at free removes as we sometimes look for stars at night not by gazing directly toward them but off one side to a poetic student and friend
i only seek to put you in rapport your own brain heart evolution must not only understand the matter but largely supply it final confessions
literary tests so draw near their end these garrulous notes there have doubtless occurr'd some repetitions technical errors in the consecutiveness of dates
and perhaps elsewhere for in gathering up writing peremptorily dispatching copy this hot weather
and delaying not the printers i have had to hurry along no time to spare but in the deepest veracity of all in reflections of objects scenes nature's outpourings to my senses and receptivity as they seem'd to me
in the work of giving those who care for it some authentic glints specimen days of my life and in the bona fide spirit and relations from author to reader on all the subjects design'd and as far as they go
i feel to make unmitigated claims the synopsis of my early life long island new york city and so forth
commencing at noon flush and so through the after part of the day i suppose led to such idea by my own life afternoon now arrived but i soon found i could move at more ease by giving the narrative at first hand
nature seems to look on all fixed up poetry and art as something almost impertinent thus i went on years following various seasons and areas spinning forth my thought beneath the night and stars
or as i was confined to my room by half sickness or at midday looking out upon the sea or far north steaming over the saguenay's black breast
hardly even the seasons group'd together or anything corrected
i dared not try to meddle with or smooth them every now and then not often but for a foil i carried a book in my pocket or perhaps tore out from some broken or cheap edition a bunch of loose leaves
in that way utterly out of reach of literary conventions i re read many authors i cannot divest my appetite of literature yet i find myself eventually trying it all by nature
first premises many call it but really the crowning results of all laws tallies and proofs
the mountain and the forest putting their spirit in a judgment on our books i have fancied some disembodied human soul giving its verdict nature and democracy morality
democracy most of all affiliates with the open air is sunny and hardy and sane only with nature just as much as art is
to check them restrain them from excess morbidity i have wanted before departure to bear special testimony to a very old lesson and requisite american democracy
through the dense streets and houses of cities and all their manifold sophisticated life must either be fibred vitalized by regular contact with out door light and air and growths
fields trees birds sun warmth and free skies or it will certainly dwindle and pale we cannot have grand races of mechanics work people and commonalty
the only specific purpose of america on any less terms i conceive of no flourishing and heroic elements of democracy in the united states or of democracy maintaining itself at all
without the nature element forming a main part to be its health element and beauty element to really underlie the whole politics sanity religion and art of the new world finally the morality
virtue said marcus aurelius what is it only a living and enthusiastic sympathy with nature perhaps indeed the efforts of the true poets founders religions literatures
all ages have been and ever will be our time and times to come essentially the same to bring people back from their persistent strayings and sickly abstractions to the costless average
who foresee the final destiny which awaits the native population and who exert themselves to unite all the tribes in common hostility to the europeans but their efforts are unavailing
and even in our most ingenious handicraft he can see nothing but the labor of slaves not that he is devoid of admiration for the power and intellectual greatness of the whites but although the result of our efforts surprises him
he contemns the means by which we obtain it and while he acknowledges our ascendancy he still believes in his superiority war and hunting are the only pursuits which appear to him worthy to be the occupations of a man m
the indian in the dreary solitude of his woods cherishes the same ideas the same opinions as the noble of the middle ages in his castle
and that in the midst of the apparent diversity of human affairs
then i am inclined only to perceive barbarian habits and the opinions of savages in what we style feudal principles
becoming agricultural and civilized necessity sometimes obliges them to it
and who either descending the ohio or proceeding up the mississippi arrived simultaneously upon their borders these tribes have not been driven from place to place like their northern brethren but they have been gradually enclosed within narrow limits like the game within the thicket
before the huntsmen plunge into the interior the indians who were thus placed between civilization and death
and permit him to rank as their equal until he becomes their rival the one has might on his side the other has intelligence
the latter envies the power of the conquerors the barbarians at length admit civilized man into their palaces
the latter meets with a thousand obstacles in raising the fruits of the earth the european is placed amongst a population whose wants he knows and partakes the savage is isolated in the midst of a hostile people
with whose manners language and laws he is imperfectly acquainted but without whose assistance he cannot live
he cannot always meet with a purchaser whilst the european readily finds a market and the former can only produce at a considerable cost that which the latter vends at a very low rate thus the indian has no sooner escaped those evils to which barbarous nations are exposed
than he is subjected to the still greater miseries of civilized communities and he finds is scarcely less difficult to live in the midst of our abundance than in the depth of his own wilderness he has not yet lost the habits of his erratic life
it may easily be foreseen that if mexico takes no steps to check this change the province of texas will very shortly cease to belong to that government if the different degrees comparatively so slight
which exist in european civilization produce results of such magnitude the consequences which must ensue from the collision of the most perfect european civilization with indian savages may readily be conceived the indians
here i might stop but the reader would perhaps feel that i had not satisfied his expectations the absolute supremacy of democracy is not all that we meet with in america the inhabitants of the new world may be considered from more than one point of view
in the course of this work my subject has often led me to speak of the indians and the negroes
i have mentioned in what spirit and according to what laws the anglo american union was formed but i could only glance at the dangers which menace that confederation
whilst it was equally impossible for me to give a detailed account of its chances of duration independently of its laws and manners when speaking of the united republican states i hazarded no conjectures upon the permanence of republican forms in the new world
i was unable to inquire into the future condition of the americans as a commercial people these topics are collaterally connected with my subject without forming a part of it they are american without being democratic and to portray democracy has been my principal aim
the territory now occupied or claimed by the american union spreads from the shores of the atlantic to those of the pacific ocean on the east and west its limits are those of the continent itself
on the south it advances nearly to the tropic and it extends upwards to the icy regions of the north the human beings who are scattered over this space do not form as in europe so many branches of the same stock three races naturally distinct
almost insurmountable barriers had been raised between them by education and by law as well as by their origin and outward characteristics but fortune has brought them together on the same soil where although they are mixed they do not amalgamate
and each race fulfils its destiny apart
is the white or european the man pre eminent and in subordinate grades the negro and the indian these two unhappy races have nothing in common
neither birth nor features nor language nor habits their only resemblance lies in their misfortunes both of them occupy an inferior rank in the country they inhabit both suffer from tyranny
if we reasoned from what passes in the world we should almost say that the european is to the other races of mankind what man is to the lower animals he makes them subservient to his use and when he cannot subdue he destroys them
the language which his forefathers spoke is never heard around him he abjured their religion and forgot their customs when he ceased to belong to africa without acquiring any claim to european privileges but he remains half way between the two communities sold by the one repulsed by the other
except the faint image of a home which the shelter of his master's roof affords the negro has no family woman is merely the temporary companion of his pleasures
am i to call it a proof of god's mercy or a visitation of his wrath that man in certain states appears to be insensible to his extreme wretchedness and almost affects with a depraved taste the cause of his misfortunes
the negro who is plunged in this abyss of evils scarcely feels his own calamitous situation violence made him a slave
and finds his joy and his pride in the servile imitation of those who oppress him
the negro enters upon slavery as soon as he is born
and have begun his slavery before he began his existence
who has an interest in preserving his life and that the care of it does not devolve upon himself
if he becomes free independence is often felt by him to be a heavier burden than slavery for having learned in the course of his life to submit to everything except reason he is too much unacquainted with her dictates to obey them
and he is destitute of the knowledge and energy necessary to resist them these are masters which it is necessary to contend with and he has learnt only to submit and obey
in short he sinks to such a depth of wretchedness that while servitude brutalizes liberty destroys him oppression has been no less fatal to the indian than to the negro race but its effects are different
enduring the vicissitudes and practising the virtues and vices common to savage nations the europeans having dispersed the indian tribes and driven them into the deserts condemned them to a wandering life full of inexpressible sufferings
savage nations are only controlled by opinion and by custom when the north american indians had lost the sentiment of attachment to their country when their families were dispersed their traditions obscured and the chain of their recollections broken
when all their habits were changed and their wants increased beyond measure
the moral and physical condition of these tribes continually grew worse and they became more barbarous as they became more wretched nevertheless the europeans have not been able to metamorphose the character of the indians
the lot of the negro is placed on the extreme limit of servitude
and slavery does not produce more fatal effects upon the first than independence upon the second the negro has lost all property in his own person and he cannot dispose of his existence without committing a sort of fraud
he has never bent his will to that of any of his kind
and the very name of law is unknown to him to be free with him signifies to escape from all the shackles of society
civilization has little power over him
he conforms to the tastes of his oppressors adopts their opinions and hopes by imitating them to form a part of their community having been told from infancy that his race is naturally inferior to that of the whites he assents to the proposition and is ashamed of his own nature
in each of his features he discovers a trace of slavery and if it were in his power he would willingly rid himself of everything that makes him what he is the indian on the contrary has his imagination inflated with the pretended nobility of his origin
and lives and dies in the midst of these dreams of pride far from desiring to conform his habits to ours he loves his savage life as the distinguishing mark of his race and he repels every advance to civilization less perhaps from the hatred which he entertains for it
i arrived one day at the log house of a pioneer i did not wish to penetrate into the dwelling of the american but retired to rest myself for a while on the margin of a spring which was not far off in the woods
which was in the neighborhood of the creek territory an indian woman appeared followed by a negress and holding by the hand a little white girl of five or six years old whom i took to be the daughter of the pioneer a sort of barbarous luxury set off the costume of the indian
rings of metal were hanging from her nostrils and ears
the negress was clad in squalid european garments they all three came and seated themselves upon the banks of the fountain
lavished upon her such fond caresses as mothers give while the negress endeavored by various little artifices to attract the attention of the young creole the child displayed in her slightest gestures a consciousness of superiority
which formed a strange contrast with her infantine weakness
the negress was seated on the ground before her mistress watching her smallest desires
whilst the savage displayed in the midst of her tenderness an air of freedom and of pride which was almost ferocious
i had perceived from many different results the preponderance of the whites but in the picture which i have just been describing there was something peculiarly touching a bond of affection here united the oppressors with the oppressed
and the effort of nature to bring them together rendered still more striking the immense distance placed between them by prejudice and by law the present and probable future condition of the indian tribes which inhabit the territory possessed by the union
gradual disappearance of the native tribes manner in which it takes place miseries accompanying the forced migrations of the indians the savages of north america had only two ways of escaping destruction war or civilization
they are no longer able to make war
and why they cannot become so now that they desire it instance of the creeks and cherokees policy of the particular states towards these indians
none of the indian tribes which formerly inhabited the territory of new england the naragansetts
have any existence but in the recollection of man
this is done without difficulty as the territory of a hunting nation is ill defined it is the common property of the tribe and belongs to no one in particular
a few european families settled in different situations at a considerable distance from each other soon drive away the wild animals which remain between their places of abode
then find it difficult to subsist and still more difficult to procure the articles of barter which they stand in need of to drive away their game is to deprive them of the means of existence
as effectually as if the fields of our agriculturists were stricken with barrenness and they are reduced like famished wolves to prowl through the forsaken woods in quest of prey
and are guided by these wild animals in the choice of their future country
having answered my inquiries the woman put her own sordid construction on my motive for visiting the prisoner has the money you left upstairs gone into his greedy pockets already she asked if i was as rich as you are
i should let it go in your place i wouldn't touch him with a pair of tongs the woman's coarse warning actually proved useful to me it started a new idea in my mind before she spoke
i had been too dull or too preoccupied to see that it was quite needless to degrade myself by personally communicating with van brandt in his prison it only now occurred to me that my legal advisers were as a matter of course
with this additional advantage that they could keep my share in the transaction a secret even from van brandt himself i drove at once to the office of my lawyers the senior partner
the tried friend and adviser of our family received me my instructions naturally enough astonished him he was immediately to satisfy the prisoner's creditors on my behalf
without mentioning my name to any one and he was gravely to accept as security for repayment mister van brandt's note of hand i thought i was well acquainted with the various methods by which a gentleman can throw away his money
the senior partner remarked i congratulate you mister germaine on having discovered an entirely new way of effectually emptying your purse founding a newspaper taking a theater
keeping race horses gambling at monaco are highly efficient as modes of losing money
i left him and went home the servant who opened the door had a message for me from my mother she wished to see me as soon as i was at leisure to speak to her i presented myself at once in my mother's sitting room
well george she said without a word to prepare me for what was coming how have you left missus van brandt i was completely thrown off my guard who has told you that i have seen missus van brandt i asked
my dear your face has told me don't i know by this time how you look and how you speak when missus van brandt is in your mind sit down by me i have something to say to you which i wanted to say this morning
but i hardly know why my heart failed me i am bolder now and i can say it my son you still love missus van brandt you have my permission to marry her
those were the words hardly an hour had elapsed since missus van brandt's own lips had told me that our union was impossible not even half an hour had passed since i had given the directions
which would restore to liberty the man who was the one obstacle to my marriage and this was the time that my mother had innocently chosen for consenting to receive as her daughter in law missus van brandt
i see that i surprise you she resumed
that there are to your marrying this lady the only difference in my way of thinking is that i am now willing to set my objections aside out of regard for your happiness i am an old woman my dear
in the course of nature i cannot hope to be with you much longer when i am gone who will be left to care for you and love you in the place of your mother no one will be left unless you marry missus van brandt
your happiness is my first consideration and the woman you love sadly as she has been led astray is a woman worthy of a better fate marry her i could not trust myself to speak
i could only kneel at my mother's feet and hide my face on her knees as if i had been a boy again think of it george she said and come back to me when you are composed enough to speak as quietly of the future as i do
she lifted my head and kissed me as i rose to leave her
which struck a sudden fear through me keen and cutting like a stroke from a knife the moment i had closed the door i went downstairs to the porter in the hall has my mother left the house i asked
while i have been away no sir have any visitors called one visitor has called sir do you know who it was the porter mentioned the name of a celebrated physician a man at the head of his profession in those days
i instantly took my hat and went to his house he had just returned from his round of visits my card was taken to him and was followed at once by my admission to his consulting room you have seen my mother i said
and have you not concealed it from her for god's sake tell me the truth i can bear it the great man took me kindly by the hand your mother stands in no need of any warning
she sent for me to confirm her own conviction i could not conceal from her i must not conceal from you that the vital energies are sinking she may live for some months longer
at her age her days are numbered he gave me time to steady myself under the blow and then he placed his vast experience his matured and consummate knowledge at my disposal from his dictation
i committed to writing the necessary instructions for watching over the frail tenure of my mother's life let me give you one word of warning he said as we parted your mother is especially desirous
that you should know nothing of the precarious condition of her health her one anxiety is to see you happy if she discovers your visit to me i will not answer for the consequences make the best excuse you can think of
for at once taking her away from london and whatever you may feel in secret keep up an appearance of good spirits in her presence that evening i made my excuse it was easily found
i had only to tell my poor mother of missus van brandt's refusal to marry me and there was an intelligible motive assigned for my proposing to leave london the same night i wrote to inform missus van brandt of the sad event which was the cause of my sudden departure
my lawyers i wrote have undertaken to arrange mister van brandt's affairs immediately in a few hours he will be at liberty to accept the situation that has been offered to him
and entreated her to write to me before she left england this done all was done i was conscious strange to say of no acutely painful suffering at this saddest time of my life there is a limit
morally as well as physically to our capacity for endurance i can only describe my sensations under the calamities that had now fallen on me in one way
the physician's opinion six months have elapsed summer time has come again the last parting is over prolonged by my care the days of my mother's life have come to their end
she has died in my arms her last words have been spoken to me her last look on earth has been mine i am now in the saddest and plainest meaning of the words alone in the world
has left certain duties to be performed that require my presence in london my house is let i am staying at a hotel my friend sir james
we breakfast and dine together in my sitting room for the moment solitude is dreadful to me and yet i cannot go into society i shrink from persons who are mere acquaintances
at sir james's suggestion however one visitor at the hotel has been asked to dine with us who claims distinction as no ordinary guest the physician who first warned me of the critical state of my mother's health
is anxious to hear what i can tell him of her last moments his time is too precious to be wasted in the earlier hours of the day
at the dinner table when his patients leave him free to visit his friends the dinner is nearly at an end
and in few words have told the simple story of my mother's last peaceful days on earth the conversation turns next on topics of little interest to me my mind rests
after the effort that it has made my observation is left free to exert itself as usual little by little while the talk goes on
i observe something in the conduct of the celebrated physician which first puzzles me and then arouses my suspicion of some motive for his presence which has not been acknowledged and in which i am concerned
over and over again
and attention which he seems anxious to conceal over and over again
and to lure me into talking of myself and stranger still unless i am quite mistaken sir james understands and encourages him
under various pretenses i am questioned about what i have suffered in the past and what plans of life i have formed for the future among other subjects of personal interest to me
i am dexterously led into hinting that my views on this difficult and debatable question are in some degree influenced by experiences of my own hints however
are not enough to satisfy the doctor's innocent curiosity he tries to induce me to relate in detail what i have myself seen and felt
but by this time i am on my guard i make excuses i steadily abstain from taking my friend into my confidence it is more and more plain to me that i
am being made the subject of an experiment in which sir james and the physician are equally interested outwardly assuming to be guiltless of any suspicion of what is going on
i inwardly determine to discover the true motive for the doctor's presence that evening and for the part that sir james has taken in inviting him to be my guest
events favor my purpose soon after the dessert has been placed on the table
announcing the completion of some formal matter of business i at once seize the opportunity that is offered to me instead of sending a verbal message downstairs i make my apologies
and use the letter as a pretext for leaving the room dismissing the messenger who waits below i return to the corridor in which my rooms are situated and softly open the door of my bed chamber
a second door communicates with the sitting room and has a ventilator in the upper part of it i have only to stand under the ventilator and every word of the conversation between sir james and the physician reaches my ears
are the first words i hear in sir james's voice quite right the doctor answers i have done my best to make him change his dull way of life sir james proceeds
i have asked him to pay a visit to my house in scotland i have proposed traveling with him on the continent i have offered to take him with me on my next voyage in the yacht he has but one answer
he simply says no to everything that i can suggest you have heard from his own lips that he has no definite plans for the future what is to become of him what had we better do
it is not easy to say i hear the physician reply to speak plainly
i noticed something strange in him
the mischief has not been caused entirely by the affliction of her death in my belief
for some time past he is a very reserved person i suspect he has been oppressed by anxieties
the unacknowledged troubles of life are generally
to take the romantic view of love and some matter of fact woman of the present day may have bitterly disappointed him whatever may be the cause the effect is plain his nerves have broken down and
i have known men in his condition who have ended badly
if his present course of life is not altered
sir james remarks sheer delusion would be the more correct form of expression the doctor rejoins and other delusions may grow out of it at any moment
i hope you don't think the case is bad enough to be a case for restraint certainly not as yet answers the doctor so far there is no positive brain disease
and there is accordingly no sort of reason for placing him under restraint it is essentially a difficult and a doubtful case have him privately looked after by a competent person and thwart him in nothing
if you can possibly help it the merest trifle may excite his suspicions and if that happens
control over him you don't think he suspects us already do you doctor
i saw him once or twice look at me very strangely and he has certainly been a long time out of the room hearing this i wait to hear no more i return to the sitting room by way of the corridor
and resume my place at the table the indignation that i feel naturally enough i think under the circumstances makes a good actor of me for once in my life
i invent the necessary excuse for my long absence and take my part in the conversation keeping the strictest guard on every word that escapes me without betraying
any appearance of restraint in my manner early in the evening the doctor leaves us to go to a scientific meeting for half an hour or more sir james remains with me
of farther testing the state of my mind he renews the invitation to his house in scotland i pretend to feel flattered by his anxiety to secure me as his guest
we shake hands cordially and wish each other good night at last i am left alone my resolution as to my next course of proceeding is formed without a moment's hesitation
i determine to leave the hotel privately the next morning before sir james is out of his bedroom to what destination i am to betake myself is naturally the next question that arises and this
during the last days of my mother's life we spoke together frequently of the happy past days when we were living together on the banks of the greenwater lake the longing
thus inspired to look once more at the old scenes to live for a while again among the old associations has grown on me since my mother's death i have happily for myself
i resolve to go the next morning wandering among the scenes of my boyhood i can consider with myself how i may best bear the burden
of the life that lies before me after what i have heard that evening i confide in nobody
my own servant may be employed to morrow as the spy who watches my actions when the man makes his appearance to take his orders for the night i tell him to wake me at six the next morning
and release him from further attendance i next employ myself in writing two letters they will be left on the table to speak for themselves after my departure in the first letter
i briefly inform sir james that i have discovered his true reason for inviting the doctor to dinner while i thank him for the interest he takes in my welfare
i decline to be made the object of any further medical inquiries as to the state of my mind in due course of time when my plans are settled he will hear from me again meanwhile
he need feel no anxiety about my safety
my second letter is addressed to the landlord of the hotel and simply provides for the disposal of my luggage and the payment of my bill i enter my bedroom next
and pack a traveling bag with the few things that i can carry with me my money is in my dressing case opening it i discover my pretty keepsake the green flag can i return to greenwater broad
can i look again at the bailiff's cottage without the one memorial of little mary that i possess besides have i not promised miss dunross that mary's gift shall always go with me wherever i go
and is the promise not doubly sacred now that she is dead for a while i sit idly looking at the device on the flag the white dove embroidered on the green ground
i lie down on my bed and i discover that there is no rest for me that night now that i have no occupation to keep my energies employed now that my first sense of triumph
in the discomfiture of the friends who have plotted against me has had time to subside my mind reverts to the conversation that i have overheard and considers it
the terrible question confronts me the doctor's opinion on my case has been given very positively how do i know
this famous physician has risen to the head of his profession entirely by his own abilities he is one of the medical men who succeed by means of an ingratiating manner
and the dexterous handling of good opportunities even his enemies admit that he stands unrivaled in the art of separating the true conditions from the false in the discovery of disease
and in tracing effects accurately to their distant and hidden cause
likely to be mistaken about me is it not far more probable that i am mistaken in my judgment of myself
realities to me and to no one else what are the dreams of missus van brandt what are the ghostly apparitions of her which i believe myself to have seen
delusions which have been the stealthy growth of years delusions which are leading me by slow degrees nearer and nearer to madness in the end
is it insane suspicion which has made me so angry with the good friends who have been trying to save my reason is it insane terror which sets me on escaping
i rise and dress myself and wait for the daylight looking through my open window into the street the summer night is short the gray light of dawn
comes to me like a deliverance the glow of the glorious sunrise cheers my soul once more why should i wait in the room that is still haunted by my horrible doubts of the night
i take up my traveling bag i leave my letters on the sitting room table and i descend the stairs to the house door
the night porter at the hotel is slumbering in his chair he wakes as i pass him and god help me he too looks as if he thought
i was mad going to leave us already sir he says looking at the bag in my hand mad or sane i am ready with my reply i tell him i am
i decline to let anybody be disturbed he inquires if i have any messages to leave for my friend i inform him that i have left written messages upstairs for
sir james and the landlord upon this he draws the bolts and opens the door to the last he looks at me
as if he thought i was mad was he right or wrong who can answer for himself how
the narrative was written by myself
it described a dinner party at which we were present
in celebration of their marriage and it mentioned the circumstances under which we were intrusted with the story which has just come to an end in these pages having read the manuscript
mister and missus germaine left it to us to decide whether we should continue our friendly intercourse with them or not at three o'clock p m
we closed the last leaf of the story five minutes later i sealed it up in its cover my wife put her bonnet on and there we were bound straight
seeing this we sat down side by side to read the letter before we did anything else on reflection it strikes me that you may do well to read it too
missus germaine is surely by this time a person in whom you feel some interest and she is on that account as i think the fittest person to close the story here is her letter
be prepared if you please for a little surprise when you read these lines we shall have left london for the continent after you went away last night my husband
when mister germaine is far away from his false friends my experience of him tells me that he will recover his tranquillity that is enough for me
my little daughter goes with us of course early this morning i drove to the school in the suburbs at which she is being educated and
it is needless to say that she was delighted at the prospect of traveling she shocked the schoolmistress by waving her hat over her head and crying hooray like a boy
the good lady was very careful to inform me that my daughter could not possibly have learned to cry hooray in her house you have probably by this time read the narrative which i have committed to your care
as things are i must now tell you in writing what i should infinitely have preferred saying to you with your friendly hand in mine
to some report affecting my character you are quite right while i was taking elfie away from her school my husband called on one of his friends who dined with us
lawful wife in her intervals of sobriety
of van brandt who had persuaded mister germaine into disgracing himself by marrying her and becoming the step father of her child missus waring thereupon
the result you saw for yourselves when you dined at our house i inform you of what has happened without making any comment mister germaine's narrative
has already told you that i foresaw the deplorable consequences which might follow our marriage and that i over and over again
god knows at what cost of misery to myself refused to be his wife it was only when my poor little green flag had revealed us to each other
that i lost all control over myself the old time on the banks of the lake came back to me my heart hungered for its darling of happier days
and i said yes when as you may think i ought to have still said no will you take poor old dame dermody's view of it and believe that the kindred spirits
once reunited could be parted no more or will you take my view which is simpler still i do love him so dearly and he
whenever she can find the opportunity my child might hear the reports about her mother and might be injured by them when she gets older we propose to take up our abode for
a time at least in the neighborhood of naples here or further away yet we may hope to live without annoyance among a people whose social law
is the law of mercy whatever may happen we have always one last consolation to sustain us we have love
you talked of traveling on the continent when you dined with us if you should wander our way the english consul at naples is a friend of my husband's and
to whom i owe them is never likely to cross my path again the van brandts of amsterdam have received certain information that he is now on his way to new zealand
they are determined to prosecute him if he returns he is little likely to give them the opportunity the traveling carriage is at the door
i must say good by my husband sends to you both his kindest regards and best wishes his manuscript will be quite safe when you leave london
if you send it to his bankers at the address inclosed think of me sometimes and think of me kindly i
appeal confidently to your kindness for i don't forget that you kissed me at parting your grateful friend if you will let her be your friend
mary germaine we are rather impulsive people in the united states and we decide on long journeys by sea or land
without making the slightest fuss about it my wife and i looked at each other when we had read missus germaine's letter london is dull i remarked and waited to see what came of it my wife
read my remark the right way directly suppose we try naples she said that is all permit us to wish you good by we
chapter thirty five under the window
and then followed the course of the first street that lay before me on either side as i advanced the desolate old houses frowned on me there were no lights in the windows no lamps in the streets
for a quarter of an hour at least i penetrated deeper and deeper into the city without encountering a living creature on my way with only the starlight to guide me
turning by chance into a street broader than the rest i at last saw a moving figure
ahead under the shadows of the houses i quickened my pace and found myself following a man in the dress of a peasant hearing my footsteps behind him he turned
and looked at me discovering that i was a stranger he lifted a thick cudgel
him shook it threateningly and called to me in his own language as i gathered by his actions to stand back a stranger in eukhuizen at that time of night was evidently reckoned as a robber
in the estimation of this citizen i had learned on the voyage from the captain of the boat how to ask my way in dutch if i happened to be by myself in a strange town
asking my way to the fishing office of messrs van brandt either my foreign accent made me unintelligible or the man's suspicions disinclined him to trust me again he shook his cudgel
and again he signed to me to stand back it was useless to persist i crossed to the opposite side of the way and soon afterward lost sight of him under the portico of a house
where the ground rose a little some moldering fragments of brickwork looking onward as i reached the middle of the meadow i perceived on its further side towering gaunt
was one of the ancient gates of the city the walls crumbling to ruin had been destroyed as useless obstacles that cumbered the ground
palaces of the proudest nobles of north holland i was actually standing on what had been formerly the wealthy quarter of enkhuizen and what was left of it now
a few mounds of broken bricks a pasture land of sweet smelling grass and a little flock of sheep sleeping the mere desolation of the view
apart altogether from its history struck me with a feeling of horror my mind seemed to lose its balance in the dreadful stillness that was round me
i repented having left england my thoughts turned regretfully to the woody shores of greenwater broad
i might have been at rest now in the deep waters of the lake
perhaps only to find that i had lost the woman whom
i looked about me intending to return by the street which was known to me already just as i thought i had discovered it i noticed another living creature in the solitary city a man
on my right hand looking at me at the risk of meeting with another rough reception i determined to make a last effort to discover missus van brandt
seeing that i was approaching him the stranger met me midway his dress and manner showed plainly that i had not encountered this time a person in the lower ranks of life
he answered my question civilly in his own language seeing that i was at a loss to understand what he said he invited me by signs to follow him
in which a light dimly appeared my guide said in dutch office of van brandt sir bowed and left me
i advanced to the window it was open and it was just high enough to be above my head the light in the room found its way outward through the interstices of closed
wooden shutters still haunted by misgivings of trouble to come i hesitated to announce my arrival precipitately by ringing the house bell
not confront me when the door was opened i waited under the window and listened hardly a minute passed before i heard a woman's voice in the room
there was no mistaking the charm of those tones it was the voice of missus van brandt come darling she said
you ought to have been in bed two hours ago the child's voice answered i am not sleepy mamma
only lie down and you will soon fall asleep when i put the candle out you must not put the candle out the child returned with strong emphasis my new papa is coming
how is he to find his way to us if you put out the light the mother answered sharply
and you must go to bed mister germaine knows nothing about us mister germaine is in england i could restrain myself no longer
i called out under the window mister germaine
missus osgood
and that her papa had promised her a walk with him before breakfast if she were ready in time
which she was carefully sweeping up good morning mammy said the little girl
better lie still honey till de room gets warm i'll wait a little while mammy elsie said lying down again but i must get up soon for i wouldn't miss my walk with papa for a great deal please throw the shutters wide open and let the daylight in i'm so glad it has come
you didn't lie awake lookin for de mornin did you
as she hastily set down her broom and came toward the bed with a look of loving anxiety on her dark face oh no mammy i slept nicely and feel as well as can be replied the little girl
carry howard and a good many of my little friends are coming you know
your ole mammy hopes you will darlin replied chloe heartily an
but jes you lie still till it gets warm here i'll open de shutters an fotch some more wood for de fire an clar up de room an by dat time i reckon you can get up elsie waited patiently till chloe pronounced the room warm enough
that she might go to her papa
beginning her work with all speed however
oh yes mammy and that reminds me that papa said i must eat a cracker or something before i take my walk because he thinks it isn't good for people to exercise much on an entirely empty stomach said elsie
will you get me one when you have done my curls yes honey dere's a paper full in de drawer yonder replied chloe an i reckon you better eat two or three or you'll be mighty hungry fore you gits your breakfast
he opened it and stooping to give her a good morning kiss said with a pleased smile how bright and well my darling looks had you a good night's rest
and now i'm all ready for our walk in good season too he said
but take off your hat and come and sit on my knee a little while first breakfast will be late this morning and we need not hurry did you get something to eat he asked as he seated himself by the fire and drew her to his side
yes papa i ate a cracker and i think i will not get very hungry before nine o'clock and i'm very glad we have so much time for our walk she replied as she took her place on his knee shall we not start soon presently he said stroking her hair
and oh it is so nice to have a papa to love me and take care of me and it is so nice to have a dear little daughter to love and to take care of he answered pressing her closer to him
the house was still very quiet no one seeming to be astir but the servants as mister dinsmore and elsie went down the stairs and passed out through the hall
but alas it cannot be my darling he added with a sigh i know that papa she said with sudden gravity for man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble the bible says
but i don't feel frightened at that because it tells me besides that jesus loves me
and will never leave nor forsake me and that he has all power in heaven and in earth and will never let anything happen to me but what shall do me good
yes papa it is because i love him so she answered simply and the father sighed as the thought arose better than she loves me even as she told me herself ah i would i could be all
everything to her as she is fast becoming to me i cannot feel satisfied and yet i believe few daughters love their fathers as well as she loves me and fondly pressing the little hand he held he looked down upon her with beaming eyes
she raised hers to his face with an expression of confiding affection and as though she had read his thoughts yes papa she said i love you dearly dearly too
breakfast
was already upon the table when they returned and they brought to it appetites sufficiently keen to make it very enjoyable elsie spent the first hour after breakfast at the piano practising and the second in her papa's dressing room
studying and reciting to him then they took a long ride on horseback and when they returned she found that quite a number of the expected guests had already arrived among them was caroline howard a favorite friend of elsie's
a pretty sweet tempered little girl about a year older than herself caroline had been away paying a long visit to some friends in the north and so the two little girls had not met for nearly a year and of course they had a great deal to say to each other
they chatted a few moments in the drawing room and then elsie carried her friend off with her to her own room that they might go on with their talk while she was getting dressed for dinner
and of all she had seen and heard and elsie of her new found parent and her happiness in being so loved and cared for and so the little tongues ran very fast neither of them feeling chloe's presence any restraint but
she soon completed her task and went out leaving the two sitting on the sofa together laughing and talking merrily while awaiting the summons to dinner
how pretty your hair is elsie said caroline winding the glossy ringlets around her finger i wish you'd give me one of these curls i want to get a bracelet made for mamma and she thinks so much of you and your hair is such a lovely color
a christmas gift is it to be asked elsie
yes i know but if i could get into the city this afternoon i think i might get them to promise it by to morrow night
but mind she added as caroline prepared to avail herself of the permission
of course i will i don't want to spoil your beauty though you are so much prettier than i was caroline's laughing rejoinder there she cried holding up the severed ringlet isn't it a beauty but don't look scared it will never be missed among so many
i don't even miss it myself although i know it is gone
or if he is too busy to go himself to let pomp or ajax drive us in i think it would be better fun to go alone elsie don't you asked caroline with some hesitation adding quickly
i am more than half afraid of your father
elsie answered in her eager way i was a little myself at first but now i love him so dearly i never want to go anywhere without him
he was conversing with a strange gentleman and his little girl stood quietly at his side patiently waiting until he should be ready to give her his attention she had to wait some moments for the gentlemen were discussing some political question
and were too much engaged to notice her but at length her father put his arm around her and with a kind smile asked what is it daughter
won't you take us papa i wish i could my dear but i have an engagement which makes it quite impossible
no daughter i am sorry to disappoint you but i am afraid you are too young to be trusted on such an expedition with only a servant you must wait until to morrow when i can take you myself but papa we want to go to day
oh please do say yes we want to go so very much and i'm sure we could do very nicely by ourselves her arm was around his neck and both tone and look were very coaxing
my little daughter forgets that when papa says no she is never to ask again elsie blushed and hung her head his manner was quite too grave and decided for her to venture another word
what is the matter what does elsie want asked adelaide who was standing near and had overheard enough to have some idea of the trouble mister dinsmore explained
thank you said her brother looking very much pleased that obviates the difficulty entirely elsie you may go if missus howard gives caroline permission
and secure missus howard's permission which was easily obtained
and had taken a great deal of pleasure in making out a list of such articles as she thought would be suitable but on examining her purse she found to her dismay that she had already spent so much on the miniature and various gifts intended for other members of the family
all ready my darling he said holding out his hand i think you will have a pleasant ride ah yes if you were only going too papa she answered regretfully
use it wisely and he put a twenty dollar gold piece in her hand
he only smiled lifted her up in his arms and kissed her fondly
placing her in the carriage said to the coachman drive carefully ajax you are carrying my greatest treasure nebber fear marster
as he touched his horses with the whip and drove off it was growing quite dark when the carriage again drove up the avenue and mister horace dinsmore who was beginning to feel a little anxious came out to receive them and ask what had detained them so long
long said adelaide in a tone of surprise you gentlemen really have no idea what an undertaking it is to shop why i thought we got through in a wonderfully short time
such as tobacco pipes red flannel
indeed miss adelaide exclaimed carry somewhat indignantly
ah i forgot i mustn't tell papa papa cried elsie catching hold of his hand
here bill to a servant carry these bundles to miss elsie's room then picking her up he tossed her over his shoulder and carried her up stairs as easily as though she had been a baby she clinging to him and laughing merrily
why papa how strong you are she said as he set her down i believe you can carry me as easily as i can my doll
but here come the bundles what a number no wonder you were late in getting home
this is a turban for aunt phillis and this is a pound of tobacco for old uncle jack and a nice pipe too look mammy won't he be pleased
aunt dinah who has the rheumatism and that oh no no mammy don't you open that it's a nice shawl for her papa she whispered in his ear
there is none here for you sir she replied looking up into his face with an arch smile i would give you the bundle you carried up stairs just now
indeed it does and i feel richer in that possession than all the gold of california could make me he said pressing her to his heart she looked surpassingly lovely at that moment her cheeks burning and her eyes sparkling with excitement
the dark fur trimmed pelisse and the velvet hat and plumes setting off to advantage the whiteness of her pure complexion and the glossy ringlets falling in rich masses on her shoulders
my own papa i'm so glad i do belong to you she said throwing her arms around his neck and laying her cheek to his for an instant
there are a good many more and she went on opening bundle after bundle displaying their contents and telling him for whom she intended them until at last they had all been examined and then she said a little wearily
now mammy please put them all away until to morrow but first take off my things and get me ready to go downstairs no daughter mister dinsmore said in a gentle but firm tone
you are not ready to have them put away until the price of each has been set down in your book
there is nearly an hour yet before tea and i do not think it need fatigue you much elsie's face clouded and the slightest approach to a pout might have been perceived i hope my little girl is not going to be naughty
he said very gravely her face brightened in an instant no papa she answered cheerfully i will be good and do whatever you bid me
he opened her writing desk as he spoke and took out her account book oh papa she cried in a startled tone springing forward and taking hold of his hand please please don't look you know you said i need not show you until after christmas
no i will not he replied smiling at her eagerness
and seating herself before the desk took out her pen and ink chloe put the hat and pelisse carefully away brought a comb and brush and smoothed her nursling's hair and then began her share of the business on hand
half an hour's work finished it all and elsie wiped her pen and laid it away saying joyously
papa knew best after all did he not asked her father drawing her to him and patting her cheek yes papa she said softly you always know best and i am very sorry i was naughty he answered with a kiss and taking her hand led her down to the drawing room
quite early in the evening and greatly to elsie's delight
they soon found that he could enter heartily into their sports and before the time came to separate for the night he had made himself very popular with nearly all time flew fast and elsie was very much surprised when the clock struck eight
half past was her bedtime and as she now and then glanced up at the dial plate she thought the hands had never moved so fast as it struck the half hour she drew near her father's side papa she asked is the clock right
half hoping for permission to stay up a little longer yes daughter keep to rules
no i cannot often allow a departure from rules he said kindly but firmly and to morrow night elsie will find it harder to go to bed in season than to night bid your little friends good night my dear and go at once
elsie obeyed readily and cheerfully you too papa she said coming to him last no darling he answered laying his hand caressingly on her head and smiling approvingly on her
i will come for my good night kiss before you are asleep elsie looked very glad and went away feeling herself the happiest little girl in the land in spite of the annoyance of being forced to leave the merry group in the nursery
she was just ready for bed when her papa came in and taking her in his arms folded her to his heart saying my own darling my good obedient little daughter
dear papa i love you so much she replied twining her arms around his neck i love you all the better for never letting me have my own way
i don't doubt it daughter he said
usually have very little love for their parents or indeed for any one but themselves but i must put you in your bed or you will be in danger of taking cold
it was intolerably unchanged the dim dark toned room in an agony of recognition my glance ran from one to another of the comfortable familiar things that my earthly life had been passed among
incredibly distant from it all as i essentially was i noted sharply that the very gaps that i myself had left in my bookshelves still stood unfilled
that the soft agreeable chuckle of my own little clock like some elderly woman with whom conversation has become automatic was undiminished unchanged or so it seemed at first
but there were certain trivial differences that shortly smote me the windows were closed too tightly for i had always kept the house very cool although i had known that theresa preferred warm rooms and my work basket was in disorder
it was preposterous that so small a thing should hurt me so then for this was my first experience of the shadow folded transition the odd alteration of my emotions bewildered me for at one moment the place seemed so humanly familiar
so distinctly my own proper envelope that for love of it i could have laid my cheek against the wall while in the next i was miserably conscious of strange new shrillnesses how could they be endured and had i ever endured them
those harsh influences that i now perceived at the window light and color so blinding that they obscured the form of the wind tumult so discordant that one could scarcely hear the roses open in the garden below but theresa did not seem to mind any of these things
disorder it is true the dear child had never minded she was sitting all this time at my desk at my desk occupied i could only too easily surmise how in the light of my own habits of precision
but i believe that i did not really reproach theresa for i knew that her notes when she did write them were perhaps less perfunctory than mine she finished the last one as i watched her and added it to the heap of black bordered envelopes that lay on the desk
poor girl i saw now that they had cost her tears yet living beside her day after day year after year i had never discovered what deep tenderness my sister possessed toward each other it had been our habit to display only a temperate affection
and i remember having always thought it distinctly fortunate for theresa since she was denied my happiness that she could live so easily and pleasantly without emotions of the devastating sort and now for the first time i was really to behold her
could it be theresa after all this tangle of subdued turbulences let no one suppose that it is an easy thing to bear the relentlessly lucid understanding that i then first exercised
or that in its first enfranchisement the timid vision does not yearn for its old screens and mists suddenly as theresa sat there her head filled with its tender thoughts of me held in her gentle hands
i felt allan's step on the carpeted stair outside theresa felt it too but how for it was not audible she gave a start swept the black envelopes out of sight and pretended to be writing in a little book
then i forgot to watch her any longer in my absorption in allan's coming it was he of course that i was awaiting it was for him that i had made this first lonely frightened effort to return to recover
it was not that i had supposed he would allow himself to recognize my presence for i had long been sufficiently familiar with his hard and fast denials of the invisible he was so reasonable always so sane so blindfolded
but i had hoped that because of his very rejection of the ether that now contained me i could perhaps all the more safely the more secretly watch him linger near him he was near now very near
but why did theresa sitting there in the room that had never belonged to her appropriate for herself his coming it was so manifestly i who had drawn him i whom he had come to seek the door was ajar
he knocked softly at it are you there theresa he called he expected to find her then there in my room i shrank back fearing almost to stay i shall have finished in a moment
theresa told him and he sat down to wait for her no spirit still unreleased can understand the pang that i felt with allan sitting almost within my touch
almost irresistibly the wish beset me to let him for an instant feel my nearness then i checked myself remembering oh absurd piteous human fears that my too unguarded closeness might alarm him
it was not so remote a time that i myself had known them those blind uncouth timidities i came therefore somewhat nearer but i did not touch him i merely leaned toward him and with incredible softness whispered his name
that much i could not have forborne the spell of life was still too strong in me but it gave him no comfort no delight theresa he called in a voice dreadful with alarm and in that instant the last veil fell
and desperately scarce believingly i beheld how it stood between them those two she turned to him that gentle look of hers forgive me came from him hoarsely
unaccountable sensation can there be too many windows open there is such a chill about there are no windows open theresa assured him i took care to shut out the chill you are not well allan
perhaps not he embraced the suggestion and yet i feel no illness apart from this abominable sensation that persists persists theresa you must tell me do i fancy it or do you too feel something
strange here oh there is something very strange here she half sobbed there always will be good heavens child i didn't mean that he rose and stood looking about him
i know of course that you have your beliefs and i respect them but you know equally well that i have nothing of the sort so don't let us conjure up anything inexplicable i stayed impalpably imponderably near him
wretched and bereft though i was i could not have left him while he stood denying me what i mean he went on in his low distinct voice is a special an almost ominous sense of cold
upon my soul theresa he paused if i were superstitious if i were a woman i should probably imagine it to seem a presence he spoke the last word very faintly
but theresa shrank from it nevertheless don't say that allan she cried out
i've tried so hard myself not to think it and you must help me you know it is only perturbed uneasy spirits that wander with her it is quite different she has always been so happy she must still be i listened stunned
to theresa's sweet dogmatism from what blind distances came her confident misapprehensions how dense both for her and for allan was the separating vapor allan frowned don't take me literally theresa he explained
and i who a moment before had almost touched him
spirits it's something much more terrible he allowed his head to sink heavily on his chest if i did not positively know that i had never done her any harm i should suppose myself to be suffering from guilt from remorse
theresa you know better than i perhaps was she content always did she believe in me believe in you when she knew you to be so good when you adored her she thought that she said it
then what in heaven's name ails me unless it is all as you believe theresa and she knows now what she didn't know then poor dear and minds minds what
i who with my perhaps illegitimate advantage saw so clear knew that he had not meant to tell her i did him that justice even in my first jealousy if i had not tortured him so by clinging near him he would not have told her
but the moment came and overflowed and he did tell her passionate tumultuous story that it was during all our life together allan's and mine he had spared me had kept me wrapped in the white cloak of an unblemished loyalty
but it would have been kinder i now bitterly thought if like many husbands he had years ago found for the story he now poured forth some clandestine listener i should not have known but he was faithful and good
and so he waited till i mute and chained was there to hear him so well did i know him as i thought so thoroughly had he once been mine that i saw it in his eyes heard it in his voice before the words came
and yet when it came it lashed me with the whips of an unbearable humiliation for i his wife had not known how greatly he could love and that theresa soft little traitor should in her still way have cared too
from the moment he bade her she turned her soft little petals up to him
and none the less so that in another moment she had prompted by some belated thought of me renounced him allan was hers yet she put him from her and it was my part to watch them both
then in the anguish of it all i remembered awkward untutored spirit that i was that i now had the great recourse whatever human things were unbearable i had no need to bear i ceased therefore to make the effort that kept me with them
the pitiless poignancy was dulled the sounds and the light ceased the lovers faded from me and again i was mercifully drawn into the dim infinite spaces
there followed a period whose length i cannot measure and during which i was able to make no progress in the difficult dizzying experience of release earth bound my jealousy relentlessly kept me
though my two dear ones had forsworn each other i could not trust them for theirs seemed to me an affectation of a more than mortal magnanimity
i could manifest myself as palely as transiently as a thought i could produce the merest necessary flicker like the shadow of a just opened leaf on his trembling tortured consciousness
and these unrealized perceptions of me he interpreted as i had known that he would as his soul's inevitable penance he had come to believe that he had done evil in silently loving theresa all these years
and it was my vengeance to allow him to believe this to prod him ever to believe it afresh i am conscious that this frame of mind was not continuous in me for i remember too that when allan and theresa were safely apart and sufficiently miserable
i loved them as dearly as i ever had more dearly perhaps for it was impossible that i should not perceive in my new emancipation that they were each of them something more and greater than the two beings i had once ignorantly pictured them
for years they had practiced a selflessness of which i could once scarcely have conceived and which even now i could only admire without entering into its mystery while i had lived solely for myself these two divine creatures had lived exquisitely for me
they had granted me everything themselves nothing for my undeserving sake their lives had been a constant torment of renunciation a torment they had not sought to alleviate by the exchange of a single glance of understanding
there were even marvelous moments when from the depths of my newly informed heart i pitied them poor creatures who withheld from the infinite solaces that i had come to know were still utterly within that shell of sense
so frail so piteously contrived for pain within it yes yet exercising qualities that so sublimely transcended it
yet the shy hesitating compassion that thus had birth in me was far from being able to defeat the earlier earthlier emotion the two i recognized were in a sort of conflict and i regarding it assumed that the conflict would never end
that for years as allan and theresa reckoned time i should be obliged to withhold myself from the great spaces and linger suffering grudging shamed where they lingered it can never have been explained i suppose
what to devitalized perception such as mine the contact of mortal beings with each other appears to be once to have exercised this sense freed perception is to realize that the gift of prophecy although the subject of such frequent marvel is no longer mysterious
the merest glance of our sensitive and uncloyed vision can detect the strength of the relation between two beings and therefore instantly calculate its duration if you see a heavy weight suspended from a slender string
that in a few moments the string will snap well such if you admit the analogy is prophecy is foreknowledge and it was thus that i saw it with theresa and allan
for it was perfectly visible to me that they would very little longer have the strength to preserve near each other
and that they would have to separate it was my sister perhaps the more sensitive who first realized this it had now become possible for me to observe them almost constantly the effort necessary to visit them had so greatly diminished
so that i watched her poor anguished girl prepare to leave him i saw each reluctant movement that she made i saw her eyes worn from self searching i heard her step grown timid from inexplicable fears
i entered her very heart and heard its pitiful wild beating and still i did not interfere
at any moment i could have checked their miseries could have restored happiness and peace yet it gave me and i could weep to admit it a monstrous joy to know that theresa thought she was leaving allan of her own free intention when it was i who was contriving
arranging insisting and yet she wretchedly felt my presence near her i am certain of that a few days before the time of her intended departure my sister told allan that she must speak with him after dinner
our beautiful old house branched out from a circular hall with great arched doors at either end and it was through the rear doorway that always in summer after dinner we passed out into the garden adjoining as usual therefore when the hour came theresa led the way
that dreadful daytime brilliance that in my present state i found so hard to endure was now becoming softer a delicate capricious twilight breeze danced inconsequently through languidly whispering leaves
and over them the breath of mignonette hung heavily it was a perfect place and it had so long been ours allan's and mine it made me restless and a little wicked that those two should be there together now
for a little they walked about together speaking of common daily things then suddenly theresa burst out i am going away allan i have stayed to do everything that needed to be done now your mother will be here to care for you and it is time for me to go
he stared at her and stood still theresa had been there so long she so definitely to his mind belonged there and she was as i also had jealously known so lovely there
the small dark dainty creature in the old hall on the wide staircases in the garden life there without theresa even the intentionally remote the perpetually renounced theresa he had not dreamed of it he could not so suddenly conceive of it
sit here he said and drew her down beside him on a bench and tell me what it means why you are going is it because of something that i have been have done she hesitated
i wondered if she would dare tell him she looked out and away from him and he waited long for her to speak the pale stars were sliding into their places the whispering of the leaves was almost hushed
all about them it was still and shadowy and sweet it was that wonderful moment when for lack of a visible horizon the not yet darkened world seems infinitely greater a moment when anything can happen anything be believed in
to me watching listening hovering there came a dreadful purpose and a dreadful courage suppose for one moment theresa should not only feel but see me would she dare to tell him then
there came a brief space of terrible effort all my fluttering uncertain forces strained to the utmost the instant of my struggle was endlessly long and the transition seemed to take place outside me
as one sitting in a train motionless sees the leagues of earth float by and then in a bright terrible flash i knew i had achieved it i had attained visibility
she gave a cry and then thing of silly cruel impulses that i was i saw what i had done the very thing that i wished to avert i had precipitated for allan in his sudden terror and pity had bent and caught her in his arms for the first time they were together
then to his whispered urging to tell the reason of her cry theresa said frances was here
my dear my dear
he knew that she was right i suppose you know what it means she asked him calmly dear theresa allan said slowly if you and i should go away somewhere could we not evade all this ghostliness
and will you come with me distance would not banish her my sister confidently asserted and then she said softly have you thought what a lonely awesome thing it must be to be so newly dead
pity her allan we who are warm and alive should pity her
it was your face that i saw allan solemnly told her oh how different he had grown from the allan that i had known and yours is the only face that i shall ever see and again he drew her to him
she sprang from him you are defying her allan she cried and you must not it is her right to keep us apart if she wishes it must be as she insists i shall go as i told you
they stood facing each other in the deep dusk and the wounds that i had dealt them gaped red and accusing we must pity her theresa had said and as i remembered that extraordinary speech and saw the agony in her face
and the greater agony in allan's there came the great irreparable cleavage between mortality and me in a swift merciful flame the last of my mortal emotions gross and tenacious they must have been was consumed
my cold grasp of allan loosened and a new unearthly love of him bloomed in my heart i was now however in a difficulty with which my experience in the newer state was scarcely sufficient to deal
how could i make it plain to allan and theresa that i wished to bring them together to heal the wounds that i had made pityingly remorsefully i lingered near them all that night and the next day
and by that time had brought myself to the point of a great determination in the little time that was left before theresa should be gone and allan bereft and desolate
when they think of me allan and theresa i pray now that they will recall what i did that night and that my thousand frustrations and selfishnesses may shrivel and be blown from their indulgent memories
above in her room there were the sounds of departure they spoke little during the brief meal but when it was ended allan said theresa there is half an hour before you go will you come upstairs with me i had a dream that i must tell you of
allan she looked at him frightened but went with him it was of frances you dreamed she said quietly as they entered the library together did i say it was a dream but i was awake thoroughly awake
i had not been sleeping well and i heard twice the striking of the clock
thinking of you theresa she came to me stood there before me in my room it was no sheeted specter you understand it was frances literally she in some inexplicable fashion i seemed to be aware that she wanted to make me know something
watching her face after a few moments it came she did not speak precisely that is i am sure i heard no sound yet the words that came from her were definite enough she said don't let theresa leave you
then she went away was that a dream i had not meant to tell you theresa eagerly answered but now i must it is too wonderful what time did your clock strike allan
one the last time yes it was then that i awoke and she had been with me i had not seen her but her arm had been about me and her kiss was on my cheek oh i knew it was unmistakable and the sound of her voice was with me
then she bade you too yes to stay with you i am glad we told each other she smiled tearfully and began to fasten her wrap but you are not going now allan cried
you know that you cannot now that she has asked you to stay then you believe as i do that it was she theresa demanded i can never understand but i know he answered her and now you will not go
i am freed there will be no further semblance of me in my old home no sound of my voice no dimmest echo of my earthly self
she found herself standing partly resting upon the table great tearing sobs racked her slight young body but at least she was breathing there was no more constriction of her windpipe
her head still ached however her neck felt stiff and sore and she remained somewhat giddy and confused she eyed rather wildly her hands
the other the weapon with which she had cheated death a bronze paperweight probably a miniature copy of a barye an elephant trumpeting the up flung trunk was darkly stained and sticky with a shudder
she dropped the bronze and looked down victor lay at her feet supine grotesquely asprawl his face was bruised and livid the cheek laid open by the bronze was smeared with scarlet
his mouth was ajar his eyes half closed hideously revealed slender slits of white more blood discoloured his right temple welling from under the matted coarse black hair
he was terribly motionless if he breathed sofia could detect no sign of it in panic she knelt beside the body threw back victor's dinner coat and laid an ear above his heart at first in her mad anxiety she could hear nothing
but presently a beating registered slow and harsh but steady paced with a sob of relief she sat back on her heels and after a little while got unsteadily to her feet
the house door closed with a dull bang and from the entrance hallway came a sound of voices she stood petrified in dread till the voices fell and she heard stairs creak under an ascending tread
thus reminded that lanyard's return might occur at any moment she made all haste to patch up the disarray of veil and coiffure fortunately her costume protected by the cloak of heavy and sturdy stuff was quite undamaged
not till on the point of leaving did she remember the painting it lay unharmed where it had fallen when victor seized her veil she was calm enough now to consider herself fortunate in finding it so poorly secured in its frame
without the latter it would be far easier to smuggle the canvas away under her cloak in the final glance she bent upon victor's beaten and insensible body there was no pity no regret no trace of compunction
what he had suffered he had ten times no a hundred a thousand earned long before she left him sofia had lost count of the blows she had taken at his hands the insults worse than blows
the lesser indignities innumerable but in those abolished days she had never once struck back she had been faint of heart cowed and terrified and had lacked what two years of separation had given her
that spiritual independence which never before had been able to realize itself lift up its head and grow strong in the assurance of its own integrity two years ago she would not have dared to lift a hand to victor
no matter how sore the provocation to night if she had one regret it was that she had struck so feebly not that she desired his death but that she knew it was now her life or his
she knew the man too well to flatter herself that he would rest before he had compassed such revenge as the baseness of his degenerate soul would deem adequate half the world were not too much to put between them
if she were now to sleep of nights in comfortable consciousness of security from his quenchless hatred callously enough she switched off the lights and left him lying there
in darkness but for the ash dimmed glimmer of a dying fire in the entrance hallway she hesitated
but seemingly the noise of their struggle had not carried beyond the door there was no one about with neither haste nor faltering without the least misadventure
she let herself quietly out into the empty silent rain swept street and scurried toward the lights of piccadilly before long a cruising four wheeler overhauled her in its obscure and stuffy refuge
she sat hugging her precious canvas and pondering her plight it was borne in upon her that she would do well to leave london yes and england too before victor recovered sufficiently to scheme and put a watch upon her movements
she had need henceforth to be swift and wary and shrewd a singular elation began to colour her temper a quickening sense of emancipation necessity at a stroke had set her free
because she must fly and hide to save her life society had no more hold upon her she need no longer fight to keep up appearances in spite of her status as a woman living apart from her husband little better than a divorcee
an estate anathema to the english of those days she experienced through the play of her imagination upon this new and startling conception of life an intoxicating prelibation of freedom such as she had never dreamed to savour
in this humour she was set down at her door none saw her enter
she might be detained heaven alone knew how late she might be but she had her latch key and was quite competent to undress and put herself to bed and therese had taken her at her word she was glad of that
with the canvas clumsily hidden under her cloak so she exercised much circumspection in shutting and bolting the door mounted the stairs without making any unnecessary stir and at the door of her boudoir waited
listening for several moments in the course of which she heard or fancied she heard a slight noise on the far side of the door which made her suspect therese might after all still be up and about
the sound was not repeated but to make sure sofia slipped out of her cloak and wrapped it round the canvas before she went in
but though the maid had left the lights on she was nowhere to be seen nor did she answer from the bedchamber when the princess called her
sofia threw the cloak across a chaise longue and bore her prize in triumph to the escritoire it was her intention to rip the canvas off with a knife to get at the letters
and a long thin bladed spanish dagger that now did service as a paper knife was actually in her hand when she noticed how slightly the painting was tacked to its stretcher and for the first time was visited by premonition
dropping the knife she caught a loose edge of the canvas and with one swift tug stripped it clear of the unpainted fabric beneath
fortune had failed her then the jade had tricked her heartlessly
victor had been beforehand with her had purloined the letters and restored the canvas to its frame she might have suspected as much if she had only had the wit to draw a natural inference from the way the painting had parted company with its frame when she dropped it
so the letters for which she had risked and suffered so much must be back there in lanyard's lodgings in victor's possession lost irretrievably since she would never find the courage to go back for them
even if she dared assume that victor had not yet recovered and escaped or that lanyard had not yet come home
too late she uttered in despair ah madame never say that she swung round but shocked as she was to the verge of stupefaction made no outcry the intruder stood within arm's length
collected amiable debonair nothing threatening in his attitude
his bow was humorous without mockery madame la princesse does me much honour she was silent another instant in a wide stare comprehending the incredible
the lone wolf oh come now he remonstrated indulgently that's downright flattery she moved aside lifting a hand toward the bell cord wait
involuntarily she deferred her arm dropped
but surely madame la princesse must appreciate the police might be at a loss to know which housebreaker to arrest he cocked an eye of mocking significance toward the purloined corot
and in sharp revulsion of feeling sofia had need to bite her lip to keep from laughing she hesitated
it is fortunate that some things do not have to be described suppose one had to explain to the pallid people of the thither moon what a noonday sunshine is like in new york about the nones of may it could not be done to carry credence
let it be said it was a day and leave it so you have all known that gilded envelopment of sunshine and dainty air these pitiful creatures arose from the subway at fourteenth street
and took the world in their right hands from this revolving orb said they they would squeeze a luncheon hour of exquisite satisfactions they gazed sombrely at union square
and uttered curious reminiscences of the venerable days when one of them had worked actually toiled for a living upon the shores of that expanse
upon a wall these observant strollers saw a tablet to the memory of william lloyd garrison strange said they we never
it was near here that i used to borrow a quarter the day before pay day to buy my lunch the other contributed similar recollections and now quoth he i am grown so prosperous
that when i need money i can't afford to borrow less than two hundred dollars they lunched one brushes away the mist of time to recall the details where the bright sunlight fell athwart a tablecloth of excellent whiteness
they ate may one be precise at so great a distance yes they ate broiled mackerel to begin with
spanish whereupon succeeded a course of honeycomb tripe which moved dactyl to quoting rabelais something that grangousier had said about tripes only by these tripes is memory supported
and made positive for it was the first time either had tackled this dish
one inducted the other into the true mystery of blending shandygaff explaining the first doctrine of that worthy draught which is that the beer must be poured into the beaker before the ginger ale
for so arises a fatter and lustier bubblement of foam the reason whereof they leave no testament while this portion of the meal was under discussion
their minds moved free unpinioned with airy lightness over all manner of topics it seemed no effort at all to talk
their comments were notable for wisdom and sagacity the waiter overhearing shreds of their discourse made a private notation to the effect that these
were men of large affairs then they embarked upon some salty crackers
and green gage jam by this time they were touching upon religion from which they moved lightly to the poems of louise imogen guiney
let us fare forward upon this street and see what happens this is ever a comely doctrine adds the chronicler they moved gently not without a lilac trailing of tobacco fume
across quiet stretches of pavement in the blue upwardness stood the tower of the metropolitan life building
pays its premiums with decent regularity
of thrift and of their misspent years lexington avenue lay guileless beneath their rambling footfalls at the corner of twenty second street was a crowd gathered
and a man with the customary reverted cap in charge of a moving picture machine a swift car drew up before the large house at the southeast corner thrill upon thrill something being filmed for the movies
a handsome young rogue at the wheel
in shiny leather coat and leather cap with crumpling dark curls cascading beneath it
in those days a valiant movie fan up got the young man and hopped out of the car
a heavenly forked radish and those shining riding boots she dismounted lifted down so unnecessarily it seemed by the rogue
she stood there a moment and spondee was convinced dorothy gish said he to dactyl
a white haired lady was looking out between lace curtains with a sort of horror query was she part of the picture or only the aristocratic owner of the house dismayed at finding her home
suddenly become part of a celluloid drama spondee had always had a soft spot in his heart for miss dorothy esteeming her a highly entertaining creature
he was disappointed in the tranquil outcome of the scene he had hoped to see leaping from windows and all manner of hot stuff near by stood a coloured groom with a horse
the observers concluded that miss gish was to do a little galloping shortly dactyl and spondee moved away spondee quoted a poem he had once written about miss dorothy
he recollected only two lines she makes all the rest seem a shoal of poor fish so we cast our ballot for dorothy gish
peering again into the dark backward and abysm it seems that the two rejuvenated gossips trundled up on lexington avenue to alfred goldsmith's cheerful bookshop here they were startled to hear mister goldsmith cry
well chris here are some nice bones for you one of these visitors assumed this friendly greeting was for him but then it was explained that mister goldsmith's dog named christmas was feeling seedy and was to be pampered
at this moment in came the postman with a package of books arrived all the way from canada one of these books was salt of the sea a volume of tales by morley roberts
and upon this spondee fell with a loud cry for it contained the promotion of the admiral being to his mind a tale of great virtue which he had not seen in several years
both these creatures might have been seen a pleasant radiation of innocent cheer mister goldsmith also exhibited it is still remembered a beautiful photo of walt whitman which entertained the visitors
for it showed old walt with his coat sleeve full of pins which was ever walt's way how long ago it all seems does miss dorothy still act for the pictures
does chris the amiable scots terrier still enjoy his bones does old dactyl still totter about his daily tasks queer to think that it happened only yesterday well
dropping hat and canvas lanyard gave chase and overhauled the marauder as he was clambering out through the open window where a firm hand on his collar checked his preparations to drop half a dozen feet to the flagged court
so the virtuous householder was rather more than unceremonious about yanking the princely housebreaker inside and lending him a foot to accelerate his return to the living room where victor brought up on all fours again
in almost precisely the spot from which he had risen he bounced up however with a surprising amount of animation and ambition and flew back to the offensive with flailing fists
in this his judgment was grievously in fault lanyard sidestepped nipped a wrist twitched it smartly up between the man's shoulder blades with a wrench that won a grunt of agony caught the other arm from behind by the hollow of its elbow and held his victim helpless though ill advised enough to continue to hiss and spit and squirm and kick
when it was suspended he was breathless but thoughtful and offered no objection to being searched
lanyard relieved him of a revolver and a dirk then with a push sent victor reeling to the table where he stood panting quivering and glaring murder while his captor put the dagger away and examined the firearm wicked thing
he commented loaded too really monsieur le prince should be more careful one of these fine days if you don't stop playing with such weapons
and the next high light in your history will be when the judge says and may the lord have mercy on your soul victor confided his sentiments to a handkerchief with which he was mopping his face
lanyard sat down and wagged a reproving head didn't catch he said perhaps it's just as well though sounded like bad words hope i'm mistaken of course
he cocked a critical eye
look as if the sky had caved in on you may one ask what happened did it stub its toe and fall
his head was still heavy hot and painful his mental processes thick with lees of coma but now he began to appreciate what naturally seemed apparent that lanyard must be unacquainted with the cause of his injuries
a searching look round the room confirmed him in this error the canvas lay where lanyard had dropped it on entering not in the spot where victor remembered seeing it last but where conceivably an unheeded kick might have sent it in the course of his struggle with sofia
she must have forgotten it then when she fled from what she probably thought was murder and what might well have been
he was much too sore and shaken to be subtle and the general trend of his conjectures was perfectly legible to lanyard who without delay set himself to conjure away any lingering suspicion of his guilelessness not
squiffy are you by any chance he enquired with the kindliest interest you look as if you'd wound up a spree by picking a fight with a bobby your cheek's cut and all shall we say
in deference to the well known prejudices of the dear b p
and so forth he got up clapped a hand on prince victor's shoulder and steered him into an easy chair anything more i can do to put you at your ease would a brandy and soda help do you think the suggestion was acceptable
victor signified as much with an ungracious mumble lanyard fetched glasses a decanter a siphon bottle and supplied his guest with a liberal hand before helping himself victor took the drink without a word of thanks and gulped it down noisily
lanyard drank sparingly then crossed the room to a bell push seeing his finger on it prince victor started from his chair but lanyard hospitably waved him back don't go yet he pleaded
you've only just dropped in we haven't had half a chance to chat besides you mustn't forget i've got your pistol and your dirk and the upper hand
and a sustaining sense of moral superiority and no end of other advantages over you
the prince demanded nervously why did you ring to call a cab for you of course i don't imagine you want to walk home do you in your present state of shocking disrepair of course if you'd rather
but do sit down compose yourself let me be the other snapped as lanyard offered good naturedly to thrust him back into the chair i am quite composed
i'm only going to do you a service
lanyard insisted unabashed or you will when you learn what a kind heart i've got now do be nice and stop protesting you see you've touched my heart
i'd no idea you were so passionate about that painting if i had for one instant imagined you cared enough about it to burglarize my rooms but now that i do understand my
i make you a free present of it at the price i paid twenty thousand and one hundred guineas exacting no bonus or commission whatever
you'll find blank cheques in the upper right hand drawer of my desk there fill in one to my order and the corot's yours for a moment longer the prince stared
hate and perplexity in equal measure tincturing his regard then slowly the look of doubt gave way to the ghost of a crafty smile
yet there it was egregious indisputable
to secure what he had sought the letters concealed between the canvases and turn them against sofia
all at one stroke the opportunity was too rich to be slighted he dissembled his exultation or plumed himself on doing so
he mumbled sulkily i'll draw the cheque that's the right spirit lanyard declared
a knock sounded lanyard called come in a sleepy manservant half dressed and warm from his bed entered you rang sir yes harris lanyard tossed him a sovereign
sorry to rout you out so late but i need a cab whistle up a growler will you nk you sir the man retired cheerfully rewarded for many a night of broken slumber
prince victor got up from the desk and proffered lanyard the cheque i fancy he said with a leer you'll find that all right lanyard scrutinized the cheque minutely nodded his satisfaction
thanks ever so no
i know i'm too good but i really can't help it it's my nature and there you are
now where did you leave your coat and hat on my bed as you came in he smiled charmingly and darted through the portieres returning with the articles in question do let me help you
the prince struggled into the coat and grunted an acknowledgment of the service lanyard pressed the hat into his hand picked up the canvas replaced it in its frame and tucked both under the princely arm another knock harris returned
half a moment i want a word with you you see this gentleman lanyard caught victor's look of angry resentment and interrupted himself don't forget yourself monsieur le prince remember
he patted significantly the pocket which held the revolver and turned back to harris this gentleman he said consulting the signature to the cheque is prince victor vassilyevski please remember him
you may have to bear witness against him in court what insolence is this victor demanded hotly calm yourself monsieur le prince lanyard repeated the warning gesture he is
a nobleman of russia or says he is and strangely enough harris a burglar i caught him burglarizing my rooms when i came home just now you may judge from his appearance what difficulty i had in subduing him
e do seem fair used up sir harris admitted eyeing victor indignantly would you wish me to call a bobby and give im in charge
prince victor and i have compromised he doesn't relish going to jail
that painting you see under his arm and i've agreed to sell it to him
providing payment is not stopped on it harris you will hear no more of this incident but if by any chance the cheque should come back from his bank
sorry lanyard cut in but it so happens that the gentleman who has the rooms immediately above came in when i did and can testify that i was alone that's all monsieur le prince
your carriage waits harris opened the door choking with rage the prince shuffled out lanyard politely escorting him to the curb there with a foot lifted to enter the four wheeler
prince victor turned shaking an impassioned hand in lanyard's face you'll pay me for this
better not lanyard warned him fairly if you do i'll push you in
chapter five the reconstruction period the years from eighteen sixty seven to eighteen seventy eight
this included the time that i spent as a student at hampton and as a teacher in west virginia during the whole of the reconstruction period two ideas were constantly agitating in the minds of the coloured people
or at least in the minds of a large part of the race one of these was the craze for greek and latin learning and the other was a desire to hold office
it could not have been expected that a people who had spent generations in slavery and before that generations in the darkest heathenism could at first form any proper conception of what an education meant
in every part of the south during the reconstruction period schools both day and night were filled to overflowing with people of all ages and conditions some being as far along in age as sixty and seventy years
the ambition to secure an education was most praiseworthy and encouraging the idea however was too prevalent that as soon as one secured a little education
of the greek and latin languages would make one a very superior human being something bordering almost on the supernatural i remember that the first coloured man whom i saw who knew something about foreign languages
impressed me at the time as being a man of all others to be envied
still a large proportion took up teaching or preaching as an easy way to make a living many became teachers who could do little more than write their names
and how he could teach the children concerning the subject he explained his position in the matter by saying that he was prepared to teach that the earth was either flat or round according to the preference of a majority of his patrons
the ministry was the profession that suffered most and still suffers though there has been great improvement on account of not only ignorant but in many cases immoral men who claimed that they were
called to preach in the earlier days of freedom almost every coloured man who learned to read would receive a call to preach within a few days after he began reading
at my home in west virginia the process of being called to the ministry was a very interesting one usually the call came when the individual was sitting in church
without warning the one called would fall upon the floor as if struck by a bullet and would lie there for hours speechless and motionless then the news would spread all through the neighborhood that this individual had received a call
if he were inclined to resist the summons he would fall or be made to fall a second or third time in the end he always yielded to the call while i wanted an education badly
i would receive one of these calls but for some reason my call never came when we add the number of wholly ignorant men who preached or exhorted to that of those who possessed something of an education
it can be seen at a glance that the supply of ministers was large in fact some time ago i knew a certain church that had a total membership of about two hundred and eighteen of that number were ministers
but i repeat in many communities in the south the character of the ministry is being improved and i believe that within the next two or three decades a very large proportion of the unworthy ones will have disappeared
the calls to preach i am glad to say are not nearly so numerous now as they were formerly and the calls to some industrial occupation are growing more numerous
during the whole of the reconstruction period our people throughout the south looked to the federal government for everything very much as a child looks to its mother this was not unnatural
the central government gave them freedom and the whole nation had been enriched for more than two centuries by the labour of the negro even as a youth and later in manhood
so that the people would be the better prepared for the duties of citizenship it is easy to find fault to remark what might have been done
those in charge of the conduct of affairs did the only thing that could be done at the time still as i look back now over the entire period of our freedom
i cannot help feeling that it would have been wiser if some plan could have been put in operation which would have made the possession of a certain amount of education or property or both a test for the exercise of the franchise
and a way provided by which this test should be made to apply honestly and squarely to both the white and black races though i was but little more than a youth during the period of reconstruction
i had the feeling that mistakes were being made and that things could not remain in the condition that they were in then very long i felt that the reconstruction policy so far as it related to my race
was in a large measure on a false foundation was artificial and forced in many cases it seemed to me that the ignorance of my race was being used as a tool
i felt that the negro would be the one to suffer for this in the end besides the general political agitation drew the attention of our people away from the more fundamental matters
of perfecting themselves in the industries at their doors and in securing property the temptations to enter political life were so alluring that i came very near yielding to them at one time
but i was kept from doing so by the feeling that i would be helping in a more substantial way by assisting in the laying of the foundation of the race
and whose morals were as weak as their education not long ago when passing through the streets of a certain city in the south i heard some brick masons calling out from the top of a two story brick building on which they were working
for the governor to hurry up and bring up some more bricks several times i heard the command hurry up governor hurry up governor my curiosity was aroused to such an extent
that i made inquiry as to who the governor was and soon found that he was a coloured man who at one time had held the position of lieutenant governor of his state
but not all the coloured people who were in office during reconstruction were unworthy of their positions by any means some of them like the late senator b k bruce governor pinchback and many others
were strong upright useful men neither were all the class designated as carpetbaggers dishonourable men some of them like ex governor bullock of georgia were men of high character and usefulness
made tremendous mistakes just as many people similarly situated would have done many of the southern whites have a feeling that if the negro is permitted to exercise his political rights now to any degree
the mistakes of the reconstruction period will repeat themselves i do not think this would be true because the negro is a much stronger and wiser man than he was thirty five years ago
and he is fast learning the lesson that he cannot afford to act in a manner that will alienate his southern white neighbours from him
and without opportunity for double dealing or evasion to both races alike any other course my daily observation in the south convinces me will be unjust to the negro unjust to the white man
and will be like slavery a sin that at some time we shall have to pay for in the fall of eighteen seventy eight after having taught school in malden for two years
and after i had succeeded in preparing several of the young men and women besides my two brothers to enter the hampton institute i decided to spend some months in study at washington d c
i remained there for eight months i derived a great deal of benefit from the studies which i pursued and i came into contact with some strong men and women at the institution i attended
there was no industrial training given to the students and i had an opportunity of comparing the influence of an institution with no industrial training with that of one like the hampton institute that emphasizes the industries
that while the institution would be responsible for securing some one to pay the tuition for the students the men and women themselves must provide for their own board books clothing and room wholly by work
or partly by work and partly in cash at the institution at which i now was i found that a large portion of the students by some means had their personal expenses paid for them
at hampton the student was constantly making the effort through the industries to help himself and that very effort was of immense value in character building
in a word they did not appear to me to be beginning at the bottom on a real solid foundation to the extent that they were at hampton they knew more about latin and greek when they left school but they seemed to know less about life
the city was crowded with coloured people many of whom had recently come from the south a large proportion of these people had been drawn to washington because they felt that they could lead a life of ease there
others had secured minor government positions and still another large class was there in the hope of securing federal positions a number of coloured men some of them very strong and brilliant were in the house of representatives at that time
all this tended to make washington an attractive place for members of the coloured race
were better then than they were elsewhere i took great interest in studying the life of our people there closely at that time i found that while among them there was a large element of substantial worthy citizens
there was also a superficiality about the life of a large class that greatly alarmed me i saw young coloured men who were not earning more than four dollars a week
i saw other young men who received seventy five or one hundred dollars per month from the government who were in debt at the end of every month i saw men who but a few months previous were members of congress
then without employment and in poverty among a large class there seemed to be a dependence upon the government for every conceivable thing the members of this class had little ambition to create a position for themselves
but wanted the federal officials to create one for them how many times i wished then and have often wished since that by some power of magic i might remove the great bulk of these people into the county districts
but one that nevertheless is real in washington i saw girls whose mothers were earning their living by laundrying
the industry of laundrying later these girls entered the public schools and remained there perhaps six or eight years when the public school course was finally finished
they wanted more costly dresses more costly hats and shoes in a word while their wants have been increased their ability to supply their wants had not been increased in the same degree on the other hand
chapter nine anxious days and sleepless nights the coming of christmas that first year of our residence in alabama gave us an opportunity to get a farther insight into the real life of the people
asking for chris'mus gifts chris'mus gifts between the hours of two o'clock and five o'clock in the morning i presume that we must have had a half hundred such calls
this custom prevails throughout this portion of the south to day during the days of slavery it was a custom quite generally observed throughout all the southern states to give the coloured people a week of holiday at christmas
or to allow the holiday to continue as long as the yule log lasted the male members of the race and often the female members were expected to get drunk
we found that for a whole week the coloured people in and around tuskegee dropped work the day before christmas and that it was difficult for any one to perform any service from the time they stopped work until after the new year
persons who at other times did not use strong drink thought it quite the proper thing to indulge in it rather freely during the christmas week there was a widespread hilarity
i went some distance from the town to visit the people on one of the large plantations in their poverty and ignorance it was pathetic to see their attempts to get joy out of the season that in most parts of the country is so sacred and so dear to the heart
in one cabin i notice that all that the five children had to remind them of the coming of christ was a single bunch of firecrackers which they had divided among them in another cabin where there were at least a half dozen persons
in another family they had only a few pieces of sugarcane in still another cabin i found nothing but a new jug of cheap mean whiskey which the husband and wife were making free use of
notwithstanding the fact that the husband was one of the local ministers in a few instances i found that the people had gotten hold of some bright coloured cards that had been designed for advertising purposes and were making the most of these
in other homes some member of the family had bought a new pistol in the majority of cases there was nothing to be seen in the cabin to remind one of the coming of the saviour
except that the people had ceased work in the fields and were lounging about their homes at night during christmas week they usually had what they called a frolic in some cabin on the plantation that meant a kind of rough dance
where there was likely to be a good deal of whiskey used and where there might be some shooting or cutting with razors while i was making this christmas visit i met an old coloured man who was one of the numerous local preachers
who tried to convince me from the experience adam had in the garden of eden that god had cursed all labour and that therefore it was a sin for any man to work for that reason this man sought to do as little work as possible
he seemed at that time to be supremely happy because he was living as he expressed it through one week that was free from sin in the school we made a special effort to teach our students the meaning of christmas
and to give them lessons in its proper observance in this we have been successful to a degree that makes me feel safe in saying that the season now has a new meaning not only through all that immediate region but in a measure
is the unselfish and beautiful way in which our graduates and students spend their time in administering to the comfort and happiness of others especially the unfortunate
not long ago some of our young men spent a holiday in rebuilding a cabin for a helpless coloured women who was about seventy five years old at another time i remember that i made it known in chapel one night
i have referred to the disposition on the part of the white people in the town of tuskegee and vicinity to help the school from the first i resolved to make the school a real part of the community in which it was located
i was determined that no one should have the feeling that it was a foreign institution dropped down in the midst of the people for which they had no responsibility and in which they had no interest
i noticed that the very fact that they had been asking to contribute toward the purchase of the land made them begin to feel as if it was going to be their school to a large degree
i noted that just in proportion as we made the white people feel that the institution was a part of the life of the community and that while we wanted to make friends in boston for example we also wanted to make white friends in tuskegee
and that we wanted to make the school of real service to all the people their attitude toward the school became favourable perhaps i might add right here what i hope to demonstrate later that so far as i know
the tuskegee school at the present time has no warmer and more enthusiastic friends anywhere than it has among the white citizens of tuskegee and throughout the state of alabama and the entire south from the first
i have advised our people in the south to make friends in every straightforward manly way with their next door neighbour whether he be a black man or a white man i have also advised them where no principle is at stake
to consult the interests of their local communities and to advise with their friends in regard to their voting for several months the work of securing the money with which to pay for the farm went on without ceasing
at the end of three months enough was secured to repay the loan of two hundred and fifty dollars to general marshall and within two months more we had secured the entire five hundred dollars and had received a deed of the one hundred acres of land
this gave us a great deal of satisfaction it was not only a source of satisfaction to secure a permanent location for the school but it was equally satisfactory to know that the greater part of the money with which it was paid for
had been gotten from the white and coloured people in the town of tuskegee the most of this money was obtained by holding festivals and concerts and from small individual donations
our next effort was in the direction of increasing the cultivation of the land
all the industries at tuskegee have been started in natural and logical order growing out of the needs of a community settlement we began with farming because we wanted something to eat
many of the students also were able to remain in school but a few weeks at a time because they had so little money with which to pay their board thus another object which made it desirable to get an industrial system started
was in order to make it available as a means of helping the students to earn money enough so that they might be able to remain in school during the nine months session of the school year the first animal that the school came into possession of
was an old blind horse given us by one of the white citizens of tuskegee perhaps i may add here that at the present time the school owns over two hundred horses colts mules cows calves and oxen
the cultivation of the land begun and the old cabins which we had found on the place somewhat repaired we turned our attention toward providing a large substantial building after having given a good deal of thought to the subject
we finally had the plans drawn for a building that was estimated to cost about six thousand dollars this seemed to us a tremendous sum but we knew that the school must go backward or forward
and that our work would mean little unless we could get hold of the students in their home life one incident which occurred about this time gave me a great deal of satisfaction as well as surprise
when it became known in the town that we were discussing the plans for a new large building a southern white man who was operating a sawmill not far from tuskegee
came to me and said that he would gladly put all the lumber necessary to erect the building on the grounds with no other guarantee for payment than my word that it would be paid for when we secured some money
i think i never saw a community of people so happy over anything as were the coloured people over the prospect of this new building one day when we were holding a meeting to secure funds for its erection
an old ante bellum coloured man came a distance of twelve miles and brought in his ox cart a large hog when the meeting was in progress he rose in the midst of the company and said that he had no money which he could give
but he had raised two fine hogs and that he had brought one of them as a contribution toward the expenses of the building he closed his announcement by saying any nigger that's got any love for his race or any respect for himself
will bring a hog to the next meeting quite a number of men in the community also volunteered to give several days work each toward the erection of the building after we had secured all the help that we could in tuskegee
miss davidson decided to go north for the purpose of securing additional funds for weeks she visited individuals and spoke in churches and before sunday schools and other organizations
they fell into a conversation and the northern lady became so much interested in the effort being made at tuskegee that before they parted miss davidson was handed a check for fifty dollars for some time before our marriage and also after it
miss davidson kept up the work of securing money in the north and in the south by interesting people by personal visits and through correspondence at the same time she kept in close touch with the work at tuskegee
but never seemed happy unless she was giving all of her strength to the cause which she loved often at night after spending the day in going from door to door trying to interest persons in the work at tuskegee
she would be so exhausted that she could not undress herself a lady upon whom she called in boston afterward told me that at one time when miss davidson called her to see and send up her card
the lady was detained a little before she could see miss davidson and when she entered the parlour she found miss davidson so exhausted that she had fallen asleep while putting up our first building
i had given one of our creditors a promise that upon a certain day he should be paid four hundred dollars on the morning of that day we did not have a dollar the mail arrived at the school at ten o'clock
and in this mail there was a check sent by miss davidson for exactly four hundred dollars i could relate many instances of almost the same character this four hundred dollars was given by two ladies in boston
two years later when the work at tuskegee had grown considerably and when we were in the midst of a season when we were so much in need of money that the future looked doubtful and gloomy the same two boston ladies sent us six thousand dollars
words cannot describe our surprise or the encouragement that the gift brought to us
as soon as the plans were drawn for the new building the students began digging out the earth where the foundations were to be laid working after the regular classes were over
they had not fully outgrown the idea that it was hardly the proper thing for them to use their hands since they had come there as one of them expressed it to be educated and not to work
gradually though i noted with satisfaction that a sentiment in favour of work was gaining ground after a few weeks of hard work the foundations were ready and a day was appointed for the laying of the corner stone
when it is considered that the laying of this corner stone took place in the heart of the south in the black belt in the centre of that part of our country that was most devoted to slavery
that at that time slavery had been abolished only about sixteen years that only sixteen years before no negro could be taught from books without the teacher receiving the condemnation of the law or of public sentiment
when all this is considered the scene that was witnessed on that spring day at tuskegee was a remarkable one i believe there are few places in the world
the principal address was delivered by the hon waddy thompson the superintendent of education for the county
about the corner stone were gathered the teachers the students their parents and friends the county officials who were white and all the leading white men in that vicinity
together with many of the black men and women whom the same white people but a few years before had held a title to as property the members of both races were anxious to exercise the privilege of placing under the corner stone some momento
before the building was completed we passed through some very trying seasons more than once our hearts were made to bleed as it were because bills were falling due that we did not have the money to meet
perhaps no one who has not gone through the experience month after month of trying to erect buildings and provide equipment for a school when no one knew where the money was to come from
can properly appreciate the difficulties under which we laboured during the first years at tuskegee i recall that night after night i would roll and toss on my bed without sleep
we were trying an experiment that of testing whether or not it was possible for negroes to build up and control the affairs of a large education institution i knew that if we failed it would injure the whole race
i knew that the presumption was against us i knew that in the case of white people beginning such an enterprise it would be taken for granted that they were going to succeed but in our case i felt that people would be surprised if we succeeded
all this made a burden which pressed down on us sometimes it seemed at the rate of a thousand pounds to the square inch in all our difficulties and anxieties however
i never went to a white or a black person in the town of tuskegee for any assistance that was in their power to render without being helped according to their means more than a dozen times when bills figuring up into the hundreds of dollars were falling due
i applied to the white men of tuskegee for small loans often borrowing small amounts from as many as a half dozen persons to meet our obligations
one thing i was determined to do from the first and that was to keep the credit of the school high and this i think i can say without boasting we have done all through these years
i shall always remember a bit of advice given me by mister george w campbell the white man to whom i have referred to as the one who induced general armstrong to send me to tuskegee soon after i entered upon the work
mister campbell said to me in his fatherly way washington always remember that credit is capital at one time when we were in the greatest distress for money that we ever experienced
i placed the situation frankly before general armstrong without hesitation he gave me his personal check for all the money which he had saved for his own use
this was not the only time that general armstrong helped tuskegee in this way i do not think i have ever made this fact public before during the summer of eighteen eighty two at the end of the first year's work of the school
we began keeping house in tuskegee early in the fall this made a home for our teachers who now had been increase to four in number my wife was also a graduate of the hampton institute
unpacking and arranging but everything inside the house still looked in disorder and outside a thick fog crept up to the very windows and was driven in to every open door in choking white wreaths
of unwholesome mist oh margaret are we to live here asked missus hale in blank dismay margaret's heart echoed the dreariness of the tone in which this question was put
oh the fogs in london are sometimes far worse but then you knew that london itself and friends lay behind it here well we are desolate oh dixon what a place this is
indeed ma'am i'm sure it will be your death before long and then i know who'll stay
not at all thank you dixon replied margaret coldly the best thing we can do for mamma
mister hale was equally out of spirits and equally came upon margaret for sympathy margaret
i wish i had gone into some country place in wales this is really terrible said he going up to the window there was no comfort to be given they were settled in milton
and must endure smoke and fogs for a season indeed all other life seemed shut out from them by as thick a fog
only the day before mister hale had been reckoning up with dismay how much their removal and fortnight at heston had cost and he found it had absorbed nearly all his little stock of ready money
and here they must remain
she felt inclined to sit down in a stupor of despair the heavy smoky air hung about her bedroom
the window placed at the side of the oblong looked to the blank wall of a similar projection not above ten feet distant it loomed through the fog like a great barrier to hope
inside the room everything was in confusion
margaret sat down on a box the direction card upon which struck her as having been written at helstone beautiful beloved helstone she lost herself in dismal thought
but at last she determined to take her mind away from the present and suddenly remembered that she had a letter from edith which she had only half read in the bustle of the morning it was to tell of their arrival at corfu
the gay new life opening upon her
and its views over white cliffs and deep blue sea edith wrote fluently and well if not graphically
for margaret to make it out for herself captain lennox and another lately married officer shared a villa
late as it was in the year seemed spent in boating or land pic nics all out of doors pleasure seeking and glad
free utterly free from fleck or cloud
and she the most musical officer's wife there had to copy the new and popular tunes
those seemed their most severe and arduous duties she expressed an affectionate hope that if the regiment stopped another year at corfu margaret
she asked margaret if she remembered the day twelve month on which she edith wrote how it rained all day long in harley street
yes margaret remembered it well
margaret had joined the party in the evening
all came vividly before her in strange contrast to the present time the smooth sea of that old life closed up without a mark left to tell where they had all been
the dancing evenings were all going on going on for ever though her aunt shaw and edith were no longer there
she doubted if any one of that old set ever thought of her except henry lennox
she had heard him often boast of his power of putting any disagreeable thought far away from him then she penetrated farther into what might have been if she had cared for him as a lover and had accepted him
and this change in her father's opinions
she could not doubt but that it would have been impatiently received by mister lennox it was a bitter mortification to her in one sense but she could bear it patiently
because she knew her father's purity of purpose and that strengthened her to endure his errors grave and serious though in her estimation they were but the fact of the
in its rough wholesale judgment would have oppressed and irritated mister lennox as she realised what might have been she grew to be thankful for what was they were at the lowest now they could not be worse
edith's astonishment and her aunt shaw's dismay would have to be met bravely when their letters came so margaret rose up and began slowly to undress herself
late as it was after all the past hurry of the day
but if she had known how long it would be before the brightness came her heart would have sunk low down the time of the year was most unpropitious to health as well as to spirits
her mother caught a severe cold and dixon herself was evidently not well although margaret could not insult her more than by trying to save her or by taking any care of her
they could hear of no girl to assist her all were at work in the factories at least those who applied were well scolded by dixon for thinking that such as they could ever be trusted to work in a gentleman's house
so they had to keep a charwoman in almost constant employ margaret longed to send for charlotte
the distance was too great mister hale met with several pupils recommended to him by mister bell or by the more
they were mostly of the age when many boys would be still at school but according to the prevalent and apparently well founded notions of milton to make a lad into a good tradesman he must be caught young
if he were sent to even the scotch universities he came back unsettled for commercial pursuits how much more so if he went to oxford or cambridge where he could not be entered till he was eighteen
so most of the manufacturers placed their sons in sucking situations at fourteen or fifteen years of age
in hopes of throwing the whole strength and vigour of the plant into commerce still there were some wiser parents and some young men who had sense enough to perceive their own deficiencies
and strive to remedy them nay there were a few no longer youths but men in the prime of life who had the stern wisdom to acknowledge their own ignorance
mister thornton was perhaps the oldest of mister hale's pupils
that it became a little domestic joke to wonder what time
margaret rather
because she felt that her mother was inclined to look upon this new friendship of her husband's with jealous eyes as long as his time had been solely occupied with his books and his parishioners
as at helstone she had appeared to care little whether she saw much of him or not but now that he looked eagerly forward to each renewal of his intercourse with mister thornton she seemed hurt and annoyed
as if he were slighting her companionship for the first time mister hale's over praise had the usual effect of over praise upon his auditors they were a little inclined to rebel against
always called the just after a quiet life in a country parsonage for more than twenty years there was something dazzling to mister hale in the energy which conquered immense difficulties with ease
impressed him with a sense of grandeur
of its exercise but margaret went less abroad among machinery and men saw less of power in its public effect
she was thrown with one or two of those who in all measures affecting masses of people must be acute sufferers for the good of many the question always is
has everything been done to make the sufferings of these exceptions as small as possible or in the triumph of the crowded procession have the helpless been trampled on
on his march it fell to margaret's share to have to look out for a servant to assist dixon
who had at first undertaken to find just the person she wanted to do all the rough work of the house but dixon's ideas of helpful girls were founded on the recollection of tidy elder scholars at helstone school
who were only too proud to be allowed to come to the parsonage on a busy day
dixon was not unconscious of this awed reverence which was given to her
the fourteenth was flattered by his courtiers
could have made her endure the rough independent way in which all the milton girls
having doubts and fears of their own as to the solvency of a family who lived in a house of thirty pounds a year
and kept two servants one of them so very high and mighty
margaret was weary and impatient of the accounts which dixon perpetually brought
would be servants not but what margaret was repelled by the rough uncourteous manners of these people not but what she shrunk with fastidious pride from their hail fellow accost
and severely resented their unconcealed curiosity as to the means and position of any family who lived in milton
the more likely she was to be silent on the subject and at any rate if she took upon herself to make inquiry for a servant she could spare her mother the recital
who did not prefer the better wages and greater independence of working in a mill it was something of a trial to margaret
of propriety and her own helpless dependence on others had always made her insist that a footman should accompany edith and margaret if they went beyond harley street or the immediate neighbourhood
the limits by which this rule of her aunt's had circumscribed margaret's independence had been silently rebelled against at the time and she had doubly enjoyed the free walks and rambles of her forest life
from the contrast which they presented she went along there with a
if she were in a hurry and occasionally was stilled into perfect repose as she stood listening to
from the low brushwood or tangled furze it was a trial to come down from such motion or such stillness
if it had not been accompanied by what was a more serious annoyance the side of the town on which crampton lay was especially a thoroughfare for the factory people
in the back streets around them there were many mills out of which poured streams of men and women two or three times a day until margaret had learnt the times of their ingress and egress
she was very unfortunate in constantly falling in with them they came rushing along with bold fearless faces and loud laughs and jests
the tones of their unrestrained voices and their carelessness
would comment on her dress even touch her shawl or gown to
nay once or twice she was asked questions relative to some article which they particularly admired there was such a simple reliance on her womanly sympathy with their love of dress and on her
and half smiled back at their remarks she did not mind meeting any number of girls loud spoken and boisterous though they might be but she alternately dreaded and fired up against the workmen
who commented not on her dress but on her looks in the same open fearless manner she who had hitherto felt that even the most refined remark on her personal appearance was an impertinence
from these outspoken men
as she would have perceived if she had been less frightened by the disorderly tumult out of her fright came a flash of indignation which made her face scarlet and her dark eyes
when she reached the quiet safety of home amused her even while they irritated her for instance one day after she had passed a number of men
one of the lingerers added your bonny face my lass makes the day look brighter and another day as she was unconsciously smiling at some passing thought she was addressed by a poorly dressed middle aged workman with
you may well smile my lass many a one would smile to have such a bonny face this man looked so careworn that margaret could not help giving him an answering smile
glad to think that her looks such as they were should have had the power to call up a pleasant thought he seemed to understand her acknowledging glance and a silent recognition was established between them
but that first compliment yet somehow
once or twice on sundays she saw him walking with a girl evidently his daughter and if possible still more unhealthy than he was himself one day margaret and her father had been as far
and she had gathered some of the hedge and ditch flowers dog violets
like with an unspoken lament in her heart for the sweet profusion of the south her father had left her to go into milton upon some business
the girl looked wistfully at the flowers and acting on a sudden impulse margaret offered them to her her pale blue eyes lightened up as she took them and her father spoke for her thank yo miss bessy'll
and i shall think a deal o yor kindness yo're not of this country i reckon no said margaret half sighing i come from the south from hampshire she continued a little afraid of wounding his consciousness
of ignorance if she used a name which he did not understand
and yet yo see north and south has both met and made kind o friends in this big smoky place margaret had slackened her pace to walk alongside of the man and his daughter
whose steps were regulated by the feebleness of the latter she now spoke to the girl and there was a sound of tender pity in the tone of her voice as she did so that went right to the heart of the father
no said the girl nor never will be spring is coming said margaret as if to suggest pleasant hopeful thoughts spring nor summer will do me good said the girl quietly
margaret looked up at the man almost expecting some contradiction from him or at least some remark
i'm afeared hoo speaks truth i'm afeared hoo's too far gone in a waste
i'm none so sure o that
we meet so often on this road we put up at nine frances street second turn to th left at after yo've past
and your name i must not forget that i'm none ashamed o my name it's nicholas higgins hoo's called bessy higgins whatten yo asking for margaret was surprised at this last question
after the inquiries she had made that she intended to come and call upon any poor neighbour whose name and habitation
she read this meaning too in the man's eyes i'm none so fond of having strange folk in my house but then relenting as he saw her heightened colour he added yo're a foreigner as one may say
and maybe don't know many folk here and yo've given my wench here flowers out of yo'r own hand yo may come if yo like
permission was given so like a favour conferred but when they came to the town into frances street the girl stopped a minute and said yo'll not forget yo're to come and see us
aye aye said the father impatiently hoo'll come
but hoo'll think better on it and come
proud bonny face like a book come along bess there's the mill bell ringing margaret went home wondering at her new friends and smiling at the man's insight
and she was most beautiful to look upon her soft browny gold hair was so long and thick that it would cover her from the crown of her head to her little feet and her deep brown eyes
look into the face of her child loki the mischief maker among the giants often looked at sib and longed to do her some evil
he could find no one who did not speak well of her it happened one day when the summer was nearly gone that loki found sib alone and sleeping on a bank near the river so he drew his knife and creeping softly nearer and nearer cut off her beautiful flowing hair quite close to her head
as the winds blew it about and the rains beat upon it and crushed it in between the rocks and stones when sib awoke and was about to push the hair from her face she felt that something was wrong
saw that nothing but a short stubble stood up all over her head all her lovely hair was gone only one would have dared to treat her so badly
and tried to shrink deeper into the crevices between the great stones but the awful sound grew louder
then thor pulled him out and shook him from side to side in his enormous hands
to make some golden hair for sib as good as that which he had destroyed
in the great caverns which lie below the mountains and these sons were small and dark they did not like the daylight for they were dwarfs who could see best without the sun to dazzle their eyes they knew where gold and silver grew and they could tell where to find beautiful shining stones
which were red and white and yellow and green they knew the way all over the world by running through caverns and passages under the mountains and wherever they could find precious stones or metals they built a furnace and made an anvil and hammer and bellows
and everything that was wanted in a smithy for they knew how to fashion the most wonderful things from gold and iron and stone and they had knowledge which made them more powerful than the people who lived above the ground
and then he promptly dropped into it there in a dark cave gleaming with many sparkling lights he went to the two
that he would be in sore trouble with thor
now sindri and brok knew all about loki perfectly well they knew all about his mischievous ways and the evil he so often wrought but as they liked thor and sib they were willing to give the help which was asked of them thus without more ado for these dwarfs never wasted their words
sindri and brok began their work huge blocks of earth brown stone were cast into the furnace until they were in a white heat when drop by drop red gold trickled from them into the ashes
this was all gathered together and the glistening heap taken to the dwarf women who crushing it in their hands before it had hardened drew it out upon their wheels and spun it into fine soft hair
while they were doing this brok sought amongst his treasures until he found the blue of the ocean and the tough inner pith of an underground tree these with other things were cast into the furnace and afterwards beaten with his hammer as the rhythmic strokes fell
the women sang a song which was like the voice of a strong steady wind then when this work was finished the smith drew forth a little ship which was carefully placed on one side the third time the dwarf went to a dark corner and brought out
an ugly bent bar of iron and this with two feathers from the wings of the wind was heated to melting whiteness and wrought with great cunning and extreme care for it was to be a spear for odin himself the greatest of all the heroes
then brok and sindri called loki to them and giving him these three things bade him hasten back to the gods at asgard and appease their wrath loki however was already beginning to feel sorry that he had been so successful
he liked teasing folk but he did not like having to atone for his mischief afterwards he turned the marvelous gifts over scornfully in his hands and said that he did not see anything very wonderful in them then looking at sindri he added however
now the brother dwarfs had not by any means expected gratitude
going to one corner of the smithy he picked up a pig skin and taking the hammer in his hands told his brother to blow steadily
then with strength and gentleness he wrought with his tools having cast nothing into the heat but the pig skin with mighty blows and delicate touches he brought thickness and substance into it until a board looked at him from the flames
loki fearing for his head changed himself into an enormous forest fly and settling upon brok's hand stung with vicious fury
whose bristles were of the finest gold
which loki kept uttering sindri chose from a heap of gold the most solid lump he could find and flung it into the white flames
and in the glow loki saw a broad red ring which seemed to live and move again he tried to spoil the work as a fly and bit deeply into brok's neck but brok would not so much as raise his hand to rid him of the pain
now came the last test of sindri's cunning
or the whole of their work would be useless then with wild songs of strength upon his lips he hammered and tapped until those who were in the cave felt that they were out among the roaring waves they could hear the ice mountains grind and crash to pieces
he knew that it would be his own ruin so
then the dwarf let go of the bellows for one moment to clear his eyes
it was neither pretty nor particularly large while the handle was an inch too short because of loki's spite then brok and loki set out for asgard loki carrying the three wonderful things
which had been given to him while brok carried the three marvels which sindri had so cunningly wrought and accompanied the mischief maker that the gods might judge who had won the wager so rashly offered by loki
and frey should be judges in this case first loki offered to odin the spear gungner which was so wonderfully made that it never failed to hit the thing at which it was thrown and it always sped back to the hand which had thrown it later when odin carried this spear in battle
but if he shook it over his friends they were so filled with courage that they could not be conquered then thor received the hair
to frey the ship was given and though it was so small that it could be folded and carried in his pocket when it was placed upon the waves it would grow large enough to hold an army of warriors with all their war gear besides as soon as the sails were hoisted
the wind would blow it whithersoever it was desired that the ship should go brok then made his offerings and to odin he gave the ring drapnir which had been made with such magic skill that every ninth night eight other rings dropped off it though
no one could see how they came this the greatest of the gods ever wore upon his arm until the death of his beautiful son baldur when as token of his great love
to frey was given the golden boar which would run faster than any horse over the sea or through the air and wherever it went there it would be light because the bristles shone so brightly to thor brok gave the dull looking hammer
saying that whatever he struck with it would be destroyed that no blow could be hard enough to hurt it that if he threw it it would return to him so that he could never lose it and that as he wished so would its size be
it was with great joy that thor took this treasure knowing that in it he had something to help him in fighting the evil rime giants who were always trying to get the whole world for themselves until driven back by him
loki offered to give all sorts of things to save himself but the dwarf would not listen to any of them catch me then cried the mischievous one but when brok stretched his hand upon him loki had gone
and that not one little tiny bit of his neck might be taken or the dwarf would have more than his bargain at this brok cried impatiently that the head of a wicked person was of no use to him all that he wanted was to stop loki's tongue
and he took a knife and thread and tried to pierce holes in loki's lips
if only i had sindri's awl sighed the dwarf and instantly his brother's awl was in his hand swiftly it pierced the lips of the mischief maker and swiftly brok sewed them together and broke off the thread at the end of the sewing
how many holidays have we in a whole year stop and count not a great number we must admit
next best to new year's our little girl cousin likes the feast of dolls
at that time the stores are filled with dolls big dolls little dolls dolls dressed like princesses with flounced silk gowns dolls made up as servants as dancing girls and
dolls the very image of the mikado the ruler of japan nothing but dolls and dolls furniture when the great day arrives lotus blossom's mamma makes a throne in the house
she brings out the two dolls that she herself received when she was born besides those of her mother and grandmother and great grandmother they have been carefully packed away in soft papers in the family storehouse
with all the new ones that have been bought for lotus blossom the mikado doll is first placed on his throne surrounded by his court and then the soldiers and dancers and working people are made to stand at either side
but this grand array is not all there are all kinds of doll's furniture too little tables only four inches high with dolls tea sets the tiniest prettiest china dishes
there are the wadded silk quilts for the dolls to sleep on and wooden pillows
yes there are dolls fans and even dolls games on this great occasion there is a dinner party for the whole family of dolls lotus blossom and her little friends as well as her father and mother
are quite busy serving their guests with rice fish soup and all kinds of sweet dainties somehow or other all these nice things are eaten what wonderful dolls they have in japan don't they
toyo enjoys the day as well as lotus blossom but still
that will be his favourite time of all the year
soldiers tents armour et cetera toyo's father will place a tall bamboo pole in front of the house and hang an immense paper fish on the top of it the fish's mouth will be wide open
so that the air will fill his big body at some of the other houses there will be a banner instead of a fish
when toyo was a baby his father bought him a banner stand it has been kept very carefully and is now put in the place where the doll's throne stood a little while ago the banners of great generals are hung up and figures of soldiers are placed on the stand
it is such a pretty sight in the evening light the bright dresses the graceful figures the gorgeous lanterns oh japan is the land of happy children young and old one pleasant summer afternoon
as lotus blossom and toyo were playing on their veranda they noticed some one stopping at the gateway and then coming up the walk to the house
whose father was very rich toyo whispered oh lotus blossom i believe he's bringing us an invitation to chrysanthemum's party you know
presented them with two daintily folded papers and then departed they hastened to open them and found with delight
and cried oh mamma my precious honourable mother what shall i wear see this do look at my invitation
my dear little pearl of a lotus blossom i have almost finished embroidering your new silk garment it shall be finished
to fold about your throat
even though your friend is more wealthy than ourselves you shall not disgrace your honoured father toyo too must have a new garment all was made ready and thursday came at last
received the guests with smiles and with many long phrases of politeness lacquered trays were brought in and placed in front of each one on these were beautiful china cups with no handles what do you think was served in them don't get up your hopes now and say lemonade
for you will surely be disappointed it was tea simply tea without milk or sugar
but something better still was to come the tea was removed and fresh trays covered with dainty pink papers were brought in a cake made of red beans lay on the middle of each tray and around it were placed sugar maple leaves
and all after these came other cakes and sweetmeats enough to delight the heart of every one now for games
it is played very much like the american game of authors
next comes blind man's buff
than you are in the habit of playing it wine cakes dainties and tea are served next and then the best part of the fun arrives the screens are moved aside and the children behold a little stage they sit or rather squat
down on the mats about the room while some hired performers represent one of their loved fairy stories in a play the actresses have lovely gowns and are very graceful it is a very enjoyable occasion
the time to leave comes all too soon the jinrikisha men arrive and after assuring their hostess that they never had had so lovely a time before lotus blossom and toyo make two deep bows and return home very happy
i believe you would not object to a party like that yourself would you among
the winter season is very short in japan and the houses are not built to keep out the cold very well as you must have already perceived
the child people are very happy if they are happy of course they must show it how can they do it so well as by having out door picnics in the plum orchards the children watch for the great day's arrival when the flowers will be in full bloom
they save up their yen to spend and plan for a great good time no school on that day no practising on the koto no embroidery for lotus blossom every one is up early on the bright clear morning
and baskets are filled with the nice luncheon mamma has prepared
it is about two miles from their home
the throng of gaily dressed and happy people grows larger every moment
it seems as though everything one could desire were on sale cakes tea fruit fans
ever a lovelier sight hundreds of trees loaded with fragrant pink blossoms the people write poems about them and pin them on the branches to show
tea drinking story telling and the entertainments of travelling showmen take up the day sunset bids them leave the beautiful scene and go back to home and work
we must bid these dear cousins good bye for a little while
and read their books upside down besides doing many other things in a manner that seems strange to us yet
every night he rang her up and they had a long conversation many times in the day also nothing as it happened could have saved his life but this modern device lightened his last weeks his death
she merely installed his memory in the place of his rich personality and loved that he almost more than ever was her standard what he would have liked she did what he would have disliked she left undone
and under his dominion she was equable and gentle although broken at heart she took all things as they came since how could anything matter now that everything that mattered was over one perplexity only had power to trouble her
and that was the wonder the amazement the horror
and all that made for the world's good and happiness should be so wantonly extinguished but that no touch of the vanished hand should be permitted to the one soul now left behind with whom his soul had been fused
this she could neither understand nor forgive religious she had never been in the ordinary sense although such religion as must sway a true idealistic lover was hers but now
to orthodoxy she threw off the creed of her parents as naturally and simply as if it were a borrowed garment
which was also her joy without another thought of here or hereafter
during which time his house had remained empty save for a caretaker for she who was rich could not bear that any one else should live there and his room exactly as he had died in it
one evening she dined out her next neighbor on one side was a young american engineer
it was a case said the engineer of supply following demand all americans required time and labor saving appliances and they obtained them where servants abounded and there was no servant problem as in england and on the continent
the need for such contrivances was not acute and so on the conversation thus begun reached at last specific inventions and the engineer told of a remarkable one which had come under his notice just before he left new york
you will probably not believe me he said the thing sounds incredible but then who would have believed once that there could be a telegraph and still less a telephone who would have believed that the camera would ever be anything but a dream
i will tell you what this is it is a machine in which you insert a portion no matter how small of a telephone wire and by turning a handle you compel this piece of wire to give back every message that has ever passed over it she held her heart
this really exists she forced herself to ask actually said the engineer but when i left home the inventor was in a difficulty all the messages were coming out all right but backwards
that he can devise some mechanical system of reversing at the time which will make the messages read forward as they should just think of the excitement of the detective listening through all the voices and ordinary conversations on the wire
but are you ill no no she said
tell me some more about your inventive friend is he wealthy indeed no said the engineer that is his trouble if he had more money or if he had some rich backers who believed in him he might do wonders i should like to help him she said
this kind of work interests me could you not cable him to come over and bring the thing with him i would gladly finance him i want some sporting outlet like that for my money cable yes cable there are things that one does by impulse or not at all
the butler here will get you a form
she had been to the empty house that day with an employee of the telephone company
a few minutes ago she had held it in her trembling fingers and placed it in the machine now
and carried the machine to the farthest corner of the room there with a sigh of relief and tense and almost terrible anticipation
are you there it was quite clear so clear and unmistakable and actual
she turned on are you there the familiar tones repeated and then the reply yes who is it in a woman's voice then he spoke again ernest he said is it helen again her hand paused helen
she remembered now that she had been away when the telephone was installed and others had talked on it before her it could not be helped
there must be many conversations before she came to her own she would have to listen to them all she turned on and the laughing chaffing conversation with this foolish little helen person repeated itself out of the past now so tragic
to other talks with other friends and now and then with a tradesman she had to listen but at last came her hour is that you she heard her own voice saying knowing it was her own rather by instinct than by hearing is that you
and his soft vibrant laugh how are you dear better i hope have you missed me missed you and then the endearments the confidences the hopes and fears the plans for the morrow the plans for all life
as she listened the tears ran down her face but still she turned on and on sometimes he was so hopeful and bright and again so despairing
it was an amusing play and she was in good spirits she rang him up between the acts and found him depressed hurrying home she had settled down to talk to him at her ease how it all came back to her now are you there my dearest yes but oh
so tired so old it is a bad day every one has been complaining of tiredness to day you say that because you are kind just to comfort me it's no use i can see so clearly sometimes
to night i know it my darling no and then silence complete terrifying she had rung up without effect he had fainted she thought and had dropped the receiver she was in a fever of agony
but there was no sleep for her that night what if he were right if he really knew in her heart she feared that he did with the rest of her she fought that fear as she listened the tears ran down her face but still she turned on
and on she sat there for hours before the last words came
it was to make an engagement he had rallied wonderfully at the end and was confident of recovery
he had insisted on it the dress she was to wear on his first outing at eleven he had said mind you don't forget but then you never forget anything good night once more my sweet good night
he died before the morning she put the machine away and looked out of the window the sun had risen the sky was on fire with the promise of a beautiful day
to wake to what to such awakening as there is for those who never forget anything
she had learned now when not to listen she had timed the reproduction absolutely and watch in hand she waited until the other messages were done
there was no condensing possible one must either each time have every conversation or stop it but how could she stop it before the end locking the door and drawing the heavy curtain
she knew just how fast to turn for others so slowly for herself when the watch gave her the signal she would begin to listen is that you
how distinctly you speak yes it's me and the soft vibrant laugh
and to protect our very useful pet pussy laws have been framed for the good of horses dogs and game nay even the very wild birds of the field have their friends in parliament but the poor cat is left out in the cold
in the columns of a paper called the bazaar a few months ago a correspondence was kept up for several weeks on the subject of cat extermination no doubt it is highly annoying to have one's beautiful flower beds torn up
worse torture than giving a shark a red hot brick or a lady's steel crinoline fastened up with hide and wire fences so constructed that the cat might find easy access into a garden but no egress and so be torn to pieces with dogs
but i would fain enlist even these men on pussy's side not certainly for sake of the cats but for their own comfort for no good unless the gratification of a feeling of revenge can accrue from attempts at extermination
and only from legislation can they hope to get redress you may exterminate the modoc indians extirpate the maories and annihilate the ashantees
in many a nobleman's and gentleman's family and still more so at many a poor man's fireside who cannot afford to maintain any larger domestic animal and because
so gentle loving and kind and capable of such high training
and because she loves the children so she is indeed the pet par excellence of babyhood and infancy secondly because we are christians
are harrowing to all our feelings
because the cat is an animal of great utility putting aside then all sentimentality let us look at the matter in a plain business point of view we ought to do all in our power for the protection and improvement
of every domesticated animal under our care whether kept for use or ornament no one will think of denying that but there is no creature under the sun which is so systematically ill used and carelessly treated as pussy
and even if we do being all naturally selfish we like to have and hold all we can for the least possible outlay and trouble thus
if horses or other cattle were treated in like manner
but the cat looked upon as a mere vermin killer is different her presence alone however skinny and lean being generally enough to frighten away those pests rats and mice indeed very few of us i fear
fully appreciate the amount of real good done or the large amount of valuable property saved annually in a preventive way alone by cats more quickly than almost any other animal do rats and mice multiply take the field mouse for example
the mus leacopus or the mus sylvaticus with the nests of which nearly every school boy is familiar those wee bit heaps o straw and stubble
these creatures breed at least four or five times a year and you seldom find fewer than seven little baby mice in each nest the mischief these creatures sometimes work in grass fields and in fields of newly sown grain
is almost incalculable whole acres
in doors again what would the baker the miller the draper the grocer or even the bookseller do without his cat there is no prettier ornament i think a shop window can have than an honest looking sleek tom tabby
i do like my cat i shan't tell you because you could not be expected to believe it not being a business man
i verily believe they danced to it so failing that i got twa kittens and three weeks after i hadn't a rat about the place but looking at the matter statistically it is the very lowest average to say that every cat in this country
does away with twenty mice or rats per annum and also on the lowest average each mouse or rat will destroy one pound's worth of property a year
that multiplied by twenty
worth of property and those cats do not take
not more at any rate surely then so useful a friend to man ought to be protected by law until however
i think it behoves the public in general and owners of pets and cat fanciers in particular to do everything they can to check cruelty to cats and try to make her life a more comfortable and endurable one
and i would in the name of common humanity earnestly beseech my readers to try the effect of kindness
cat shows ought to receive more encouragement than they do at present nothing can be better calculated both to foster a love for these beautiful creatures and increase and perfect the different breeds than those interesting exhibitions
at present only a very few of our leading aristocracy and gentry patronize cat shows but they are every day becoming more and more popular birmingham has emulated the crystal palace and edinburgh rivals both
and before very long i hope to see every town in the united kingdom holding its annual show of cats now every one i have spoken to on the subject
for the protection of the domestic cat
where to begin and what sort of laws to frame begin i say by putting
stiff hill and we are sure to do some good the following hints are merely meant to be suggestive and by no means of a
indeed i should feel much obliged to my readers
their views on this subject the law for the destruction of worthless dogs found straying and begging in the streets
was really both humane and kind
there were too many useless curs without owners
thousands on thousands who never had a home and never will preferring a nomadic life because they never knew a better how can we get rid of this surplus feline population i would introduce a cat licence
this licence of course should cost a mere nominal sum
could easily pay the licences should be of two kinds namely one for mere utility cats
the first to cost one shilling and threepence the other two shillings a cat's collar to be presented to the owner on payment of the fee the collar stamped and numbered the shilling licence collar to be dark the other of coloured material
in the event of a cat being wantonly killed a fine to be inflicted of not more
this would have a salutary effect in checking the present trade of cat skin hunting a place would be required in every town or district
to be either sold given away or destroyed cats found doing damage to gardens poultry rabbit warrens or pigeon lofts to be captured if possible and the owners made to pay damages
all cases of cruelty to cats to be punished by fines et cetera starving cats to be penal i should have an inspector to visit every house once or twice a year and see that the cats were in good condition
which may be very much improved upon
the elder was married to a tradesman in town the younger to a peasant in the village as the sisters sat over their tea talking the elder began to boast of the advantages of town life saying how comfortably they lived there how well they dressed
what fine clothes her children wore what good things they ate and drank and how she went to the theatre promenades and entertainments the younger sister was piqued and in turn disparaged the life of a tradesman and stood up for that of a peasant
i would not change my way of life for yours said she we may live roughly but at least we are free from anxiety you live in better style than we do but though you often earn more than you need
you know the proverb loss and gain are brothers twain it often happens that people who are wealthy one day are begging their bread the next our way is safer though a peasant's life is not a fat one
it is a long one we shall never grow rich but we shall always have enough to eat the elder sister said sneeringly enough
what do you know of elegance or manners however much your good man may slave you will die as you are living on a dung heap and your children the same
well what of that replied the younger of course our work is rough and coarse but on the other hand it is sure and we need not bow to any one but you in your towns are surrounded by temptations
today all may be right but tomorrow the evil one may tempt your husband with cards wine or women and all will go to ruin don't such things happen often enough pahom
the master of the house was lying on the top of the oven and he listened to the women's chatter it is perfectly true thought he
our only trouble is that we haven't land enough
the women finished their tea chatted a while about dress and then cleared away the tea things and lay down to sleep but the devil had been sitting behind the oven and had heard all that was said
all right thought the devil we will have a tussle
who had an estate of about three hundred acres she had always lived on good terms with the peasants until she engaged as her steward an old soldier who took to burdening the people with fines
however careful pahom tried to be it happened again and again that now a horse of his got among the lady's oats now a cow strayed into her garden now his calves found their way into her meadows
and he always had to pay a fine pahom paid but grumbled and going home in a temper was rough with his family all through that summer pahom had much trouble because of this steward
and he was even glad when winter came and the cattle had to be stabled though he grudged the fodder when they could no longer graze on the pasture land at least he was free from anxiety about them
in the winter the news got about that the lady was going to sell her land and that the keeper of the inn on the high road was bargaining for it when the peasants heard this they were very much alarmed well thought they
if the innkeeper gets the land he will worry us with fines worse than the lady's steward we all depend on that estate so the peasants went on behalf of their commune
and asked the lady not to sell the land to the innkeeper offering her a better price for it themselves the lady agreed to let them have it then the peasants tried to arrange for the commune to buy the whole estate so that it might be held by all in common
they met twice to discuss it but could not settle the matter the evil one sowed discord among them and they could not agree so they decided to buy the land individually each according to his means and the lady agreed to this plan
as she had to the other presently pahom heard that a neighbor of his was buying fifty acres and that the lady had consented to accept one half in cash and to wait a year for the other half
pahom felt envious look at that thought he the land is all being sold and i shall get none of it so he spoke to his wife other people are buying said he
and we must also buy twenty acres or so life is becoming impossible that steward is simply crushing us with his fines so they put their heads together and considered how they could manage to buy it they had one hundred roubles laid by
they sold a colt and one half of their bees hired out one of their sons as a laborer
having done this pahom chose out a farm of forty acres some of it wooded and went to the lady to bargain for it they came to an agreement and he shook hands with her upon it and paid her a deposit in advance
then they went to town and signed the deeds he paying half the price down and undertaking to pay the remainder within two years so now pahom had land of his own he borrowed seed and sowed it on the land he had bought
the harvest was a good one and within a year he had managed to pay off his debts both to the lady and to his brother in law so he became a landowner ploughing and sowing his own land making hay on his own land
cutting his own trees and feeding his cattle on his own pasture when he went out to plough his fields or to look at his growing corn or at his grass meadows his heart would fill with joy
the grass that grew and the flowers that bloomed there seemed to him unlike any that grew elsewhere formerly when he had passed by that land it had appeared the same as any other land but now it seemed quite
and everything would have been right if the neighboring peasants would only not have trespassed on his corn fields and meadows he appealed to them most civilly but they still went on
now the communal herdsmen would let the village cows stray into his meadows then horses from the night pasture would get among his corn
pahom turned them out again and again and forgave their owners and for a long time he forbore from prosecuting any one but at last he lost patience and complained to the district court
he knew it was the peasants want of land and no evil intent on their part that caused the trouble but he thought i cannot go on overlooking it or they will destroy all i have they must be taught a lesson
so he had them up gave them one lesson and then another and two or three of the peasants were fined after a time pahom's neighbours began to bear him a grudge for this
and would now and then let their cattle on his land on purpose one peasant even got into pahom's wood at night and cut down five young lime trees for their bark pahom passing through the wood one day noticed something white
he came nearer and saw the stripped trunks lying on the ground and close by stood the stumps where the tree had been pahom was furious if he had only cut one here and there it would have been bad enough thought pahom
but the rascal has actually cut down a whole clump if i could only find out who did this i would pay him out he racked his brains as to who it could be finally he decided
and only had an angry scene
that simon had done it and he lodged a complaint simon was summoned
there being no evidence against him pahom felt still more aggrieved and let his anger loose upon the elder and the judges you let thieves grease your palms said he
if you were honest folk yourselves you would not let a thief go free so pahom quarrelled with the judges and with his neighbors threats to burn his building began to be uttered so though pahom had more land
his place in the commune was much worse than before about this time a rumor got about that many people were moving to new parts there's no need for me to leave my land thought pahom
but some of the others might leave our village and then there would be more room for us i would take over their land myself and make my estate a bit bigger i could then live more at ease as it is i am still too cramped to be comfortable
one day pahom was sitting at home when a peasant passing through the village happened to call in he was allowed to stay the night and supper was given him pahom had a talk with this peasant and asked him where he came from
the stranger answered that he came from beyond the volga where he had been working one word led to another and the man went on to say that many people were settling in those parts he told how some people from his village had settled there
they had joined the commune and had had twenty five acres per man granted them the land was so good he said that the rye sown on it grew as high as a horse
and so thick that five cuts of a sickle made a sheaf one peasant he said had brought nothing with him but his bare hands and now he had six horses and two cows of his own
pahom's heart kindled with desire he thought why should i suffer in this narrow hole if one can live so well elsewhere i will sell my land and my homestead here and with the money i will start afresh
over there and get everything new in this crowded place one is always having trouble but i must first go and find out all about it myself towards summer he got ready and started
he went down the volga on a steamer to samara then walked another three hundred miles on foot and at last reached the place it was just as the stranger had said the peasants had plenty of land
every man had twenty five acres of communal land given him for his use and any one who had money could buy besides at fifty cents an acre as much good freehold land as he wanted
having found out all he wished to know pahom returned home as autumn came on and began selling off his belongings he sold his land at a profit sold his homestead and all his cattle and withdrew from membership of the commune
he applied for admission into the commune of a large village he stood treat to the elders and obtained the necessary documents five shares of communal land were given him for his own and his sons use
besides the use of the communal pasture pahom put up the buildings he needed and bought cattle of the communal land alone he had three times as much as at his former home and the land was good corn land
he was ten times better off than he had been he had plenty of arable land and pasturage and could keep as many head of cattle as he liked at first
in the bustle of building and settling down pahom was pleased with it all but when he got used to it he began to think that even here he had not enough land the first year he sowed wheat on his share of the communal land and had a good crop
he wanted to go on sowing wheat but had not enough communal land for the purpose and what he had already used was not available for in those parts wheat is only sown on virgin soil or on fallow land
it is sown for one or two years and then the land lies fallow till it is again overgrown with prairie grass there were many who wanted such land and there was not enough for all so that people quarrelled about it
those who were better off wanted it for growing wheat and those who were poor wanted it to let to dealers so that they might raise money to pay their taxes
pahom wanted to sow more wheat so he rented land from a dealer for a year he sowed much wheat and had a fine crop but the land was too far from the village the wheat had to be carted more than ten miles
after a time pahom noticed that some peasant dealers were living on separate farms and were growing wealthy and he thought if i were to buy some freehold land and have a homestead on it
it would be a different thing altogether then it would all be nice and compact the question of buying freehold land recurred to him again and again he went on in the same way for three years renting land and sowing wheat
the seasons turned out well and the crops were good so that he began to lay money by he might have gone on living contentedly but he grew tired of having to rent other people's land every year and having to scramble for it
wherever there was good land to be had the peasants would rush for it and it was taken up at once so that unless you were sharp about it you got none it happened in the third year that he and a dealer together rented a piece of pasture land from some peasants
and they had already ploughed it up when there was some dispute and the peasants went to law about it and things fell out so that the labor was all lost
so pahom began looking out for land which he could buy and he came across a peasant who had bought thirteen hundred acres but having got into difficulties was willing to sell again cheap pahom bargained and haggled with him
and at last they settled the price at
part in cash and part to be paid later they had all but clinched the matter when a passing dealer happened to stop at pahom's one day to get a feed for his horse he drank tea with pahom and they had a talk
the dealer said that he was just returning from the land of the bashkirs far away where he had bought thirteen thousand acres of land all for one thousand roubles pahom questioned him further
and the tradesman said all one need do is to make friends with the chiefs i gave away about one hundred roubles worth of dressing gowns and carpets besides a case of tea
and i got the land for less than two cents an acre and he showed pahom the title deeds saying the land lies near a river and the whole prairie is virgin soil pahom plied him with questions and the tradesman said
they are as simple as sheep and land can be got almost for nothing
with my one thousand roubles why should i get only thirteen hundred acres and saddle myself with a debt besides
three questions it once occurred to a certain king that if he always knew the right time to begin everything if he knew who were the right people to listen to and whom to avoid
and above all if he always knew what was the most important thing to do he would never fail in anything he might undertake and this thought having occurred to him he had it proclaimed throughout his kingdom
that he would give a great reward to any one who would teach him what was the right time for every action and who were the most necessary people and how he might know what was the most important thing to do
and learned men came to the king but they all answered his questions differently in reply to the first question some said that to know the right time for every action
one must draw up in advance a table of days months and years and must live strictly according to it only thus said they could everything be done at its proper time
others declared that it was impossible to decide beforehand the right time for every action but that not letting oneself be absorbed in idle pastimes one should always attend to all that was going on
and then do what was most needful others again said that however attentive the king might be to what was going on it was impossible for one man to decide correctly the right time for every action but that he should have a council of wise men
who would help him to fix the proper time for everything but then again others said there were some things which could not wait to be laid before a council but about which one had at once to decide whether to undertake them or not
but in order to decide that one must know beforehand what was going to happen it is only magicians who know that and therefore in order to know the right time for every action one must consult magicians
equally various were the answers to the second question some said the people the king most needed were his councillors others the priests others the doctors while some said the warriors were the most necessary
to the third question as to what was the most important occupation some replied that the most important thing in the world was science others said it was skill in warfare and others again that it was religious worship
all the answers being different the king agreed with none of them and gave the reward to none but still wishing to find the right answers to his questions he decided to consult a hermit
widely renowned for his wisdom the hermit lived in a wood which he never quitted and he received none but common folk so the king put on simple clothes
and before reaching the hermit's cell dismounted from his horse and leaving his body guard behind went on alone when the king approached the hermit was digging the ground in front of his hut
seeing the king he greeted him and went on digging the hermit was frail and weak and each time he stuck his spade into the ground and turned a little earth he breathed heavily
the king went up to him and said i have come to you wise hermit to ask you to answer three questions how can i learn to do the right thing at the right time
and what affairs are the most important and need my first attention the hermit listened to the king but answered nothing he just spat on his hand and recommenced digging
you are tired said the king let me take the spade and work awhile for you thanks said the hermit and giving the spade to the king he sat down on the ground
when he had dug two beds the king stopped and repeated his questions the hermit again gave no answer but rose stretched out his hand for the spade and said now rest awhile and let me work a bit
but the king did not give him the spade and continued to dig one hour passed and another the sun began to sink behind the trees and the king at last stuck the spade into the ground and said
i came to you wise man for an answer to my questions if you can give me none tell me so and i will return home here comes some one running said the hermit let us see who it is the king turned round
and saw a bearded man come running out of the wood the man held his hands pressed against his stomach and blood was flowing from under them when he reached the king he fell fainting on the ground moaning feebly
the king and the hermit unfastened the man's clothing there was a large wound in his stomach the king washed it as best he could and bandaged it with his handkerchief and with a towel the hermit had but the blood would not stop flowing
and the king again and again removed the bandage soaked with warm blood and washed and rebandaged the wound when at last the blood ceased flowing the man revived and asked for something to drink
the king brought fresh water and gave it to him meanwhile the sun had set and it had become cool so the king with the hermit's help carried the wounded man into the hut and laid him on the bed lying on the bed the man
closed his eyes and was quiet but the king was so tired with his walk and with the work he had done that he crouched down on the threshold and also fell asleep so soundly that he slept all through the short summer night
when he awoke in the morning it was long before he could remember where he was or who was the strange bearded man lying on the bed and gazing intently at him with shining eyes forgive me
said the bearded man in a weak voice when he saw that the king was awake and was looking at him i do not know you and have nothing to forgive you for said the king you do not know me but i know you
i am that enemy of yours who swore to revenge himself on you because you executed his brother and seized his property i knew you had gone alone to see the hermit and i resolved to kill you on your way back
but the day passed and you did not return so i came out from my ambush to find you and i came upon your bodyguard and they recognized me and wounded me i escaped from them but should have bled to death had you not dressed my wound
i wished to kill you and you have saved my life now if i live and if you wish it i will serve you as your most faithful slave and will bid my sons do the same
forgive me the king was very glad to have made peace with his enemy so easily and to have gained him for a friend
and he not only forgave him but said he would send his servants and his own physician to attend him and promised to restore his property having taken leave of the wounded man the king went out into the porch and looked around for the hermit
before going away he wished once more to beg an answer to the questions he had put the hermit was outside on his knees sowing seeds in the beds that had been dug the day before the king approached him and said
for the last time i pray you to answer my questions wise man you have already been answered said the hermit still crouching on his thin legs and looking up at the king who stood before him
how answered what do you mean asked the king do you not see replied the hermit if you had not pitied my weakness yesterday and had not dug those beds for me
but had gone your way that man would have attacked you
so the most important time was when you were digging the beds and i was the most important man
afterwards when that man ran to us the most important time was when you were attending to him for if you had not bound up his wounds he would have died without having made peace with you so he was the most important man
and what you did for him was your most important business remember then there is only one time that is important now it is the most important time because it
when we have any power the most necessary man is he with whom you are for no man knows whether he will ever have dealings with any one else
and the most important affair is to do him good
by the beards of all my sainted buccaneers began morgan springing angrily to his feet i'll have your life gentlemen gentlemen my noble ruffians expostulated kidd come come this will never do
i must have no quarrelling among my aides this is no time for divisions in our councils an entirely unexpected element has entered into our affairs
we can set them to work there is plenty for them to do keeping things tidy and if we get into a very hard fight
morgan laughed sarcastically
you have guessed correctly replied morgan icily i have quite forgotten your date were you a success in the year one or when admiral abeuchapeta sir henry interposed kidd fearing a further outbreak of hostilities
he never went forth without at least seventy galleys and a hundred other vessels
six ninety eight was my great year he said that's what i thought said morgan that is to say you got your ideas of women twelve hundred years ago and the ladies have changed somewhat since that time i have great respect for you sir as a ruffian
i have no doubt that as a ruffian you are a complete success
i stand corrected the study of women my dear peter
why i venture even to say that no individual woman is alike that's rather a hazy thought said kidd scratching his head in a puzzled sort of way i mean that she's different from herself at different times said morgan
what is it the poet called her infinite variety show or something of that sort a perpetual vaudeville a continuous performance as it were from twelve to twelve
morgan is right admiral put in conrad the corsair acting temporarily as bo'sun the times are sadly changed and woman is no longer what she was she is hardly what she is much less what she was
or to keep the fringe on his epaulets curled they're no longer sewing machines they are keeley motors for mystery and perpetual motion women have views now they are no longer content to be looked at merely they must see for themselves
it's my private opinion that if we are to get along with them at all the best thing to do is to let em alone i have always found i was better off in the abstract and if this question is going to be settled in a purely democratic fashion by submitting it to a vote i'll vote for any measure which involves leaving them strictly to themselves
they're nothing but a lot of ghosts anyhow like ourselves and we can pretend we don't see them if that could be it would be excellent said morgan but it is impossible
for a pirate of the byronic order my dear conrad you are strangely unversed in the ways of the sex which cheers but not inebriates we can no more ignore their presence upon this boat than we can expect whales to spout kerosene
to decline to speak to them if they should address us we may be pirates ruffians cutthroats but i hope we shall never forget that we are gentlemen the whole situation is rather contrary to etiquette don't you think suggested conrad
you forget said kidd two essential features of the situation these women are at present or shortly will be when they realize their situation in distress and a true gentleman may always fly to the rescue of a distressed female
the introduction business isn't going to stand in my way
you said something about feeding them and dressing them and keeping them in bonnets
and as for their gowns and hats they can make em themselves every woman is a milliner at heart
you cannot nowadays find it on the high seas modern civilization said kidd has ruined the pirate's business
to become somethin different from the little willies an the clever tommies what i read about therein
too soon in life for me who even in them days regarded death as a stuffy an unpleasant diversion learnin at an early period that virtue was its only reward an a wish in others
but if so be as how you're bad you may become famous an go to congress an have your picture in the sunday noospapers so i looks around for books tellin how to get famous in fifty ways an after due reflection i settles in my mind that to be a pirate's just the thing for me
i ran away to sea an by dint of perseverance as the sunday school book useter say in my badness i soon became the centre of a evil lot an when i says to em boys i wants to be a pirate chief they hollers back loud like jim we're with you an they was
takin out twelve million dollars and the jewels of a certain prima donna valued at five hundred thousand here's my chance says i an i goes to sea and lies in wait for the steamer i captures her easy my crew bein hungry an fightin according like
we steals the box a hold in the jewels an the bag containin the millions
but happy twelve an a half millions at one break is enough to make anybody happy i should say so said abeuchapeta with an ecstatic shake of his head i didn't get that in all my career nor i sighed kidd but go on hawkins
says he carryin the bag ashore i don't care how light it is so long as it's twelve millions henderson says i but my heart sinks inside o me at his words an the minute we lands i sits down to investigate right there on the beach
i opens the bag an it's the one i was after but the twelve millions weren't there cried conrad yes they was there sighed hawkins but every bloomin million was represented by a certified check an payable in london by jingo cried morgan what
fearful luck but you had the prima donna's jewels
of great events great hazards great adventures great men thank god we have seen enough we have them heaped higher than our heads we would exchange caesar for prusias and napoleon for the king of yvetot what a good little king was he
we have marched since daybreak we have reached the evening of a long and toilsome day we have made our first change with mirabeau the second with robespierre the third with bonaparte we are worn out each one demands a bed
devotion which is weary heroism which has grown old ambitions which are sated fortunes which are made seek demand implore solicit what a shelter they have it they take possession of peace of tranquillity of leisure
but at the same time certain facts arise compel recognition and knock at the door in their turn these facts are the products of revolutions and wars they are they exist they have the right to install themselves in society and they do install themselves therein
at the same time that weary men demand repose accomplished facts demand guarantees guarantees are the same to facts that repose is to men this is what england demanded of the stuarts after the protector
this is what france demanded of the bourbons after the empire these guarantees are a necessity of the times they must be accorded princes grant them
a profound truth and one useful to know which the stuarts did not suspect in sixteen sixty two and which the bourbons did not even obtain a glimpse of in eighteen fourteen the predestined family which returned to france when napoleon fell
was detached by the house of bourbon and graciously given to the people until such day as it should please the king to reassume it still the house of bourbon should have felt from the displeasure created by the gift that it did not come from it
it thought that it had roots
the roots of french society were not fixed in the bourbons but in the
never since the origin of history had princes been so blind in the presence of facts and the portion of divine authority
what it termed our encroachments were our rights when the hour seemed to it to have come the restoration supposing itself victorious over bonaparte and well rooted in the country that is to say believing itself to be strong and deep
and to the citizen that which made him a citizen this is the foundation of those famous acts which are called the ordinances of july the restoration fell it fell justly but we admit
it had not been absolutely hostile to all forms of progress great things had been accomplished with it alongside under the restoration the nation had grown accustomed to calm discussion which had been lacking under the republic
and to grandeur in peace which had been wanting under the empire france free and strong had offered an encouraging spectacle to the other peoples of europe
on the lofty heights the pure light of mind could be seen flickering a magnificent useful and charming spectacle for a space of fifteen years those great principles which are so old for the thinker so new for the statesman
could be seen at work in perfect peace on the public square equality before the law liberty of conscience liberty of speech liberty of the press the accessibility of all aptitudes to all functions thus it proceeded until eighteen thirty
the bourbons were an instrument of civilization which broke in the hands of providence
they departed that is all
they were worthy but they were not august they lacked
appeared to be more anxious about imperilled etiquette than about the crumbling monarchy this diminution saddened devoted men who loved their persons and serious men who honored their race
the nation attacked one morning with weapons by a sort of royal insurrection felt itself in the possession of so much force that it did not go into a rage
it touched the royal personages only with sadness and precaution
who seemed to be coming to herself and who put into practice
the bourbons carried away with them respect but not regret as we have just stated their misfortune was greater than they were they faded out in the horizon the revolution of july instantly had friends and enemies throughout the entire world
the first rushed toward her with joy and enthusiasm the others turned away each according to his nature
this strange revolution had hardly produced a shock it had not even paid to vanquished royalty the honor of treating it as an enemy and of shedding its blood in the eyes of despotic governments who are always interested in having liberty calumniate itself
the revolution of july committed the fault of being formidable and of remaining gentle
whatever our egotism and our rancor may be a mysterious respect springs from events in which we are sensible of the collaboration of some one who is working above man
the revolution of july is the triumph of right overthrowing the fact a thing which is full of splendor right overthrowing the fact hence the brilliancy of the revolution of eighteen thirty
right is the just and the true the property of right is to remain eternally beautiful and pure the fact even when most necessary to all appearances
is infallibly destined to become in the course of time deformed impure perhaps even monstrous
the fact can attain viewed at the distance of centuries let him look at machiavelli
after this she thought except of her journey only of one thing she must go and see pansy from her she couldn't turn away
she had not seen her yet as osmond had given her to understand that it was too soon to begin she drove at five o'clock to a high floor in a narrow street
and was admitted by the portress of the convent a genial and obsequious person isabel had been at this institution before she had come with pansy to see the sisters she knew they were good women
and she saw that the large rooms were clean and cheerful and that the well used garden had sun for winter and shade for spring but she disliked the place which affronted and almost frightened her
not for the world would she have spent a night there it produced to day more than before the impression of a well appointed prison for it was not possible to pretend pansy was free to leave it this innocent creature
had been presented to her in a new and violent light but the secondary effect of the revelation was to make her reach out a hand
the portress left her to wait in the parlour of the convent while she went to make it known that there was a visitor for the dear young lady the parlour was a vast cold apartment with new looking furniture
a large clean stove of white porcelain unlighted a collection of wax flowers under glass and a series of engravings from religious pictures on the walls
on the other occasion isabel had thought it less like rome than like philadelphia but to day she made no reflexions the apartment only seemed to her very empty and very soundless
ushering in another person isabel got up expecting to see one of the ladies of the sisterhood but to her extreme surprise found herself confronted with madame merle the effect was strange
isabel had been thinking all day of her falsity her audacity her ability her probable suffering and these dark things seemed to flash with a sudden light as she entered the room
of handwritings of profaned relics of grim things produced in court it made isabel feel faint if it had been necessary to speak on the spot she would have been quite unable
but no such necessity was distinct to her it seemed to her indeed that she had absolutely nothing to say to madame merle in one's relations with this lady however there were never any absolute necessities
she had a manner which carried off not only her own deficiencies but those of other people but she was different from usual she came in slowly behind the portress and isabel instantly perceived
that she was not likely to depend upon her habitual resources for her too the occasion was exceptional and she had undertaken to treat it by the light of the moment this gave her a peculiar gravity
she pretended not even to smile and though isabel saw that she was more than ever playing a part it seemed to her that on the whole the wonderful woman had never been so natural she looked at her young friend from head to foot
but not harshly nor defiantly with a cold gentleness rather and an absence of any air of allusion to their last meeting it was as if she had wished to mark a distinction she had been irritated then
and had let her eyes wander as far as the limits of the room would allow she wished never to look at madame merle again you're surprised to find me here and i'm afraid you're not pleased this lady went on
it's as if i had anticipated you i confess i've been rather indiscreet i ought to have asked your permission there was none of the oblique movement of irony in this it was said simply and mildly
but isabel far afloat on a sea of wonder and pain could not have told herself with what intention it was uttered but i've not been sitting long madame merle continued that is i've not been long with pansy
i came to see her because it occurred to me this afternoon that she must be rather lonely and perhaps even a little miserable
at any rate it's a little dismal therefore i came on the chance i knew of course that you'd come and her father as well still i had not been told other visitors were forbidden
the good woman what's her name madame catherine made no objection whatever i stayed twenty minutes with pansy she has a charming little room not in the least conventual with a piano and flowers she has arranged it delightfully
she has so much taste of course it's all none of my business but i feel happier since i've seen her she may even have a maid if she likes but of course she has no occasion to dress she wears a little black frock
she looks so charming i went afterwards to see mother catherine who has a very good room too i assure you i don't find the poor sisters at all monastic mother catherine has a most coquettish little toilet table
with something that looked uncommonly like a bottle of eau de cologne she speaks delightfully of pansy says it's a great happiness for them to have her she's a little saint of heaven and a model to the oldest of them
just as i was leaving madame catherine the portress came to say to her that there was a lady for the signorina of course i knew it must be you and i asked her to let me go and receive you in her place she demurred greatly
i must tell you that and said it was her duty to notify the mother superior it was of such high importance that you should be treated with respect i requested her to let the mother superior alone
so madame merle went on with much of the brilliancy of a woman who had long been a mistress of the art of conversation but there were phases and gradations in her speech not one of which was lost upon isabel's ear
though her eyes were absent from her companion's face she had not proceeded far before isabel noted a sudden break in her voice a lapse in her continuity which was in itself a complete drama
this subtle modulation marked a momentous discovery the perception of an entirely new attitude on the part of her listener madame merle had guessed in the space of an instant
and in the space of another instant she had guessed the reason why the person who stood there was not the same one she had seen hitherto but was a very different person a person who knew her secret
this discovery was tremendous and from the moment she made it the most accomplished of women faltered and lost her courage but only for that moment then
the conscious stream of her perfect manner gathered itself again and flowed on as smoothly as might be to the end but it was only because she had the end in view that she was able to proceed
but this is not what she saw she saw nothing of the budding plants and the glowing afternoon she saw in the crude light of that revelation which had already become a part of experience
and to which the very frailty of the vessel in which it had been offered her only gave an intrinsic price
an applied handled hung up tool as senseless and convenient
and iron all the bitterness of this knowledge surged into her soul again it was as if she felt on her lips the taste of dishonour there was a moment during which
if she had turned and spoken she would have said something that would hiss like a lash but she closed her eyes and then the hideous vision dropped
what remained was the cleverest woman in the world standing there within a few feet of her and knowing as little what to think as the meanest isabel's only revenge was to be silent still
to leave madame merle in this unprecedented situation she left her there for a period that must have seemed long to this lady who at last seated herself with a movement which was in itself a confession
of helplessness then isabel turned slow eyes looking down at her madame merle was very pale her own eyes covered isabel's face
madame merle recovered herself she had a chance to express sympathy do you go alone yes without my husband
a sort of recognition of the general sadness of things mister touchett never liked me but i'm sorry he's dying shall you see his mother yes she has returned from america
she used to be very kind to me but she has changed others too have changed
she paused a moment then added and you'll see dear old gardencourt again
isabel answered naturally in your grief but it's on the whole
the one i should have liked best to live in i don't venture to send a message to the people madame merle added but i should like to give my love to the place isabel turned away i had better go to pansy
i've not much time while she looked about her for the proper egress the door opened and admitted one of the ladies of the house who advanced with a discreet smile gently rubbing under her long loose sleeves a pair of plump white hands
isabel recognised madame catherine whose acquaintance she had already made and begged that she would immediately let her see miss osmond madame catherine looked doubly discreet but smiled very blandly and said
it will be good for her to see you i'll take you to her myself then she directed her pleased guarded vision to madame merle will you let me remain a little this lady asked it's so good to be here
and the good sister gave a knowing laugh she led isabel out of the room through several corridors and up a long staircase all these departments were solid and bare light and clean
so thought isabel are the great penal establishments madame catherine gently pushed open the door of pansy's room and ushered in the visitor then stood smiling with folded hands
while the two others met and embraced she's glad to see you she repeated it will do her good and she placed the best chair carefully for isabel but she made no movement to seat herself
she seemed ready to retire how does this dear child look she asked of isabel lingering a moment she looks pale isabel answered that's the pleasure of seeing you she's very happy
elle eclaire la maison said the good sister pansy wore as madame merle had said a little black dress it was perhaps this that made her look pale they're very good to me they think of everything
she exclaimed with all her customary eagerness to accommodate we think of you always you're a precious charge madame catherine remarked in the tone of a woman with whom benevolence was a habit and whose conception of duty
it fell with a leaden weight on isabel's ears it seemed to represent the surrender of a personality the authority of the church when madame catherine had left them together pansy kneeled down
it's very pretty you're very comfortable isabel scarcely knew what she could say to her on the one hand she couldn't let her think she had come to pity her and on the other it would be a dull mockery to pretend to rejoice with her
to england not to come back i don't know when i shall come back ah
isabel said ah yes you told me he would die of course you must go and will papa go no i shall go alone for a moment the girl said nothing
isabel had often wondered what she thought of the apparent relations of her father with his wife but never by a glance by an intimation had she let it be seen that she deemed them deficient in an air of intimacy
she made her reflexions isabel was sure and she must have had a conviction that there were husbands and wives who were more intimate than that but pansy was not indiscreet even in thought
she would as little have ventured to judge her gentle stepmother as to criticise her magnificent father her heart may have stood almost as still as it would have done
turn their painted heads and shake them at each other but as in this latter case she would for very solemnity's sake never have mentioned the awful phenomenon so she put away all knowledge of the secrets of larger lives than her own
you'll be very far away she presently went on yes i shall be far away but it will scarcely matter isabel explained since so long as you're here i can't be called near you
yes but you can come and see me though you've not come very often i've not come because your father forbade it to day i bring nothing with me i can't amuse you i'm not to be amused
that's not what papa wishes then it hardly matters whether i'm in rome or in england you're not happy missus osmond said pansy not very but it doesn't matter
that's what i say to myself what does it matter but i should like to come out i wish indeed you might don't leave me here pansy went on gently
isabel said nothing for a minute her heart beat fast will you come away with me now she asked pansy looked at her pleadingly did papa tell you to bring me
no it's my own proposal i think i had better wait then did papa send me no message i don't think he knew i was coming
he thinks i've not had enough said pansy but i have the ladies are very kind to me and the little girls come to see me there are some very little ones such charming children then my room
what have you thought well that i must never displease papa you knew that before yes but i know it better i'll do anything i'll do anything said pansy
then as she heard her own words a deep pure blush came into her face isabel read the meaning of it she saw the poor girl had been vanquished
had kept his enamels isabel looked into her eyes and saw there mainly a prayer to be treated easily she laid her hand on pansy's as if to let her know
seemed only her tribute to the truth of things she didn't presume to judge others but she had judged herself she had seen the reality she had no vocation for struggling with combinations
there was something that overwhelmed her she bowed her pretty head to authority and only asked of authority to be merciful yes
isabel got up her time was rapidly shortening good bye then i leave rome to night pansy took hold of her dress there was a sudden change in the child's face you look strange you frighten me
my dear child what can i do for you she asked i don't know but i'm happier when i think of you you can always think of me not when you're so far i'm a little afraid
said pansy what are you afraid of of papa a little and of madame merle she has just been to see me you must not say that isabel observed oh i'll do everything they want
only if you're here i shall do it more easily isabel considered i won't desert you she said at last good bye my child then they held each other a moment in a silent embrace like two sisters
and afterwards pansy walked along the corridor with her visitor to the top of the staircase madame merle has been here
and as isabel answered nothing she added abruptly i don't like madame merle isabel hesitated then stopped you must never say that that you don't like madame merle pansy looked at her in wonder
but wonder with pansy had never been a reason for non compliance i never will again she said with exquisite gentleness at the top of the staircase they had to separate as it appeared to be part of the mild
but very definite discipline under which pansy lived that she should not go down isabel descended and when she reached the bottom the girl was standing above you'll come back
she called out in a voice that isabel remembered afterwards yes i'll come back madame catherine met missus osmond below and conducted her to the door of the parlour outside of which the two stood talking a minute
i won't go in said the good sister madame merle's waiting for you at this announcement isabel stiffened she was on the point of asking if there were no other egress from the convent
about my step daughter oh it would take long to tell you we think it's enough madame catherine distinctly observed and she pushed open the door of the parlour
madame merle was sitting just as isabel had left her like a woman so absorbed in thought
she was in full possession of her resources i found i wished to wait for you she said urbanely but it's not to talk about pansy isabel wondered what it could be to talk about
and in spite of madame merle's declaration she answered after a moment madame catherine says it's enough yes it also seems to me enough i wanted to ask you another word about poor mister touchett
madame merle added have you reason to believe that he's really at his last i've no information but a telegram unfortunately it only confirms a probability
i'm going to ask you a strange question said madame merle are you very fond of your cousin and she gave a smile as strange as her utterance yes i'm very fond of him
but i don't understand you she just hung fire it's rather hard to explain something has occurred to me which may not have occurred to you and i give you the benefit of my idea
your cousin did you once a great service have you never guessed it he has done me many services yes but one was much above the rest he made you a rich woman
he made me madame merle appearing to see herself successful she went on more triumphantly he imparted to you that extra lustre which was required to make you a brilliant match
at bottom it's him you've to thank she stopped there was something in isabel's eyes i don't understand you it was my uncle's money yes it was your uncle's money
he brought his father over to it ah my dear the sum was large isabel stood staring
i don't know why you say such things i don't know what you know i know nothing but what i've guessed but i've guessed that isabel went to the door and when she had opened it stood a moment
with her hand on the latch then she said it was her only revenge i believed it was you i had to thank madame merle dropped her eyes
she stood there in a kind of proud penance you're very unhappy i know but i'm more so yes
madame merle raised her eyes i shall go to america
the jar of rosemary there was once a little prince whose mother the queen was sick all summer she lay in bed and everything was kept quiet in the palace but
when the autumn came she grew better every day brought color to her cheeks and strength to her limbs and by and by the little prince was allowed to go into her room and stand beside her bed to talk to her
he was very glad of this for he wanted to ask her what she would like for a christmas present and as soon as he had kissed her and laid his cheek against hers he whispered his question in her ear
said the queen a smile and a kiss and a hug around the neck these are the dearest gifts i know but the prince was not satisfied with this answer
i believe a little jar of rosemary like that which bloomed in my mother's window when i was a little girl would please me better than anything else the little prince was delighted to hear this
and as soon as he had gone out of the queen's room he sent a servant to his father's greenhouses to inquire for a rosemary plant but the servant came back with disappointing news
there were carnation pinks in the king's greenhouses and roses with golden hearts and lovely lilies but there was no rosemary rosemary was a common herb and grew mostly in country gardens
but each one came back with the same story to tell there was rosemary enough and to spare in the spring but the frost had been in the country
and there was not a green sprig left to bring to the little prince for his mother's christmas present two days before christmas however news was brought that rosemary had been found
a lovely green plant growing in a jar right in the very city where the prince himself lived
why have you not brought it with you go and get it at once well as for that
there is a little difficulty the old woman to whom the rosemary belongs did not want to sell it even though i offered her a handful of silver for it then give her a purse of gold said the little prince
so a purse filled so full of gold that it could not hold another piece was taken to the old woman but presently it was brought back she would not sell her rosemary no not even for a purse of gold
said the prince's nurse so the royal carriage drawn by six white horses was brought and the little prince and his servants rode away to the old woman's house and when they got there the first thing they spied
was the little green plant in a jar standing in the old woman's window the old woman herself came to the door and she was glad to see the little prince she invited him in and bade him warm his hands by the fire
and gave him a cooky from her cupboard to eat she had a little grandson no older than the prince but he was sick and could not run about and play like other children he lay in a little white bed in the old woman's room
and took out his favorite plaything which he always carried in his pocket and showed it to him the prince's favorite plaything was a ball which was like no other ball that had ever been made
it was woven of magic stuff as bright as the sunlight as sparkling as the starlight and as golden as the moon at harvest time and when the little prince threw it into the air or bounced it on the floor
or turned it in his hands it rang like a chime of silver bells the sick child laughed to hear it and held out his hands for it and the prince let him hold it
but she would answer nothing till they had taken her to the little prince silver and gold would not buy the rosemary she said when she saw him
but my ball is the most wonderful ball that was ever made cried the little prince and it is my favorite plaything i would not give it away for anything
and so the old woman had to go home with her jar of rosemary under her shawl the next day was the day before christmas and there was a great stir and bustle in the palace
the queen's physician had said that she might sit up to see the christmas tree that night and have her presents with the rest of the family and every one was running to and fro to get things in readiness for her
the queen had so many presents and very fine they were too that the christmas tree could not hold them all so they were put on a table before the throne and wreathed around with holly and with pine
the little prince went in with his nurse to see them and to put his gift which was a jewel among them she wanted a jar of rosemary he said as he looked at the glittering heap
she will never think of it again when she sees these things you may be sure of that said the nurse but the little prince was not sure he thought of it himself many times that day and once when he was playing with his ball
he said to the nurse if i had a rosemary plant i'd be willing to sell it for a purse full of gold wouldn't you indeed yes said the nurse and so would any one else in his right senses you may be sure of that
the little boy was not satisfied though
he said to the nurse i wish it were spring it is easy to get rosemary then is it not
with your rosemary rosemary rosemary
you may be sure of that but the little prince was not sure and when the nurse had gone to her supper and he was left by chance for a moment alone he put on his coat of fur and taking the ball with him
he slipped away from the palace and hastened toward the old woman's house he had never been out at night by himself before and he might have felt a little afraid
had it not been for the friendly stars that twinkled in the sky above him we will show you the way they seemed to say and he trudged on bravely in their light
the old woman made haste to answer the knock and when she saw the prince she was too astonished to speak here is the ball he cried putting it into her hands please give me the rosemary for my mother
and so it happened that when the queen sat down before her great table of gifts the first thing she spied was a jar of sweet rosemary like that which had bloomed in her mother's window when she was a little girl
she said and she took the little prince in her arms
a goodly apple rotten at the heart o what a goodly outside falsehood hath shakespeare's merchant of venice
and of this fact no one was better aware than himself he did not confine his attentions to elsie and soon found himself a prime favorite among the ladies of the town no female coquette ever coveted the admiration of the other sex more than he or sought more assiduously to gain it
he carried on numerous small flirtations among the belles of the place yet paid court to elsie much oftener than to any one else using every art of which he was master in the determined effort to win her affection and to make himself necessary to her happiness he had read many books and seen much of life
having travelled all over our own country and visited both europe and south america and possessing a retentive memory fine descriptive powers a fund of humor and a decided talent for mimicry was able when he chose to make his conversation exceedingly amusing and interesting
and very instructive also he seemed all that was good and noble and she soon gave him a very warm place in her regard much warmer than she herself at first suspected
he was telling of one of these in which he had risked and nearly lost his life from mere love of adventure elsie shuddered and drew a long breath of relief as the story reached its close
he asked with a smile yes
ah if you were a man or boy you would understand that more than half the charm of such adventures lies in the risk but is it right or wise a mere matter of taste or choice i should say a long dull life or a short and lively one
elsie's face had grown very grave are those really your sentiments mister egerton she asked in a pained disappointed tone i had thought better of you i do not understand have i said anything very dreadful
is it not a sin to throw away the life which god has given us to be used in his service ah perhaps that may be so but i had not looked at it in precisely that way
i had only thought of the fact that life in this world is not so very delightful that one need be anxious to continue it for a hundred years we grow tired of it at times and are almost ready to throw it away to use your expression ah
before doing that we should be very sure of going to a better place but how can we be sure of that or indeed of anything what is there that we know absolutely and beyond question how can i be sure of even my own existence
there are crazy men who firmly believe themselves kings and princes or something else quite as far from the truth and how do i know that i am not as much mistaken as they she gave him a look of grieved surprise and he laughingly asked well now miss dinsmore
as lottie drew near the log on which the two were seated they had taken a long ramble through the woods that morning and egerton and elsie had some ten minutes before sat down here to rest and wait for their companions who had wandered a little from the path they were pursuing
cogito ergo sum she answered gayly also i am sure we have had a very pleasant walk but isn't it time we were moving toward home yes elsie answered consulting her watch that's a pretty little thing observed egerton may i look at it
and he held out his hand one of papa's birthday gifts to his petted only daughter she said with a smile as she allowed him to take it i value it very highly on that account even more than for its intrinsic worth though it is an excellent time keeper
it must have cost a pretty penny the pearls and diamonds alone must be worth quite a sum he said turning it about and examining it with eager interest i would be careful miss dinsmore
how i let it be known that i carried anything so valuable about me or wore it into lonely places such as these woods he added as he returned it to her i never come out alone she said looking slightly anxious and troubled
papa laid his commands upon me never to do so but i shall leave it at home in future riches bring cares that's the way i comfort myself in my poverty remarked lottie lightly but elsie my dear don't allow anxious fears to disturb you we are a
very moral people at lansdale i never heard of a robbery there yet
yet i seldom suffer from fear i always feel very safe when papa is near to protect me and our heavenly father's care is always about us that reminds me that you have not answered my question remarked egerton switching off the head of a clover blossom with his cane
is the care you speak of one thing of which you feel certain yes and there are others may i ask what she turned her sweet soft eyes full upon him as she answered in low clear tones i know that in me that is in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing i know that my redeemer liveth i know that it shall be well with them that fear god you are quoting yes from a book that i know is true
ah auntie but a christian surely could not say such things even in jest she answered with a little sigh and a look of sorrowful concern on her face half an hour later elsie sat reading in the abode of the vine covered porch while her aunt enjoyed her customary after dinner nap
she presently heard the gate swing to and the next moment mister egerton was helping himself to a seat by her side i hope i don't intrude miss dinsmore he began assuming a slightly embarrassed air
ah no matter i wouldn't have her disturbed for the world and in fact i am rather glad of the opportunity of seeing you alone i
i am really quite shocked at the sentiments i then expressed though they were spoken more than half in jest miss dinsmore i am not a christian
and i've come to you to learn the way for somehow i seem to feel that you could make the thing plainer to me than any one else what must i do first
believe on the lord jesus christ and thou shalt be saved believe only believe but i must do something
and he will have mercy upon him and to our god for he will abundantly pardon the man was an arrant knave and hypocrite simulating anxiety about his soul's salvation only for the purpose of ingratiating himself with elsie but
the sword of the spirit which is the word of god pricked him for the moment as she wielded it in faith and prayer what ways what thoughts were his truly they had need to be forsaken if he would hope ever to see that holy city of which we are told
neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie for a moment he sat silent and abashed before the gentle earnest young christian feeling her very purity a reproach and fearing that she must read his hypocrisy and the baseness of his motives in his countenance
but hers was a most innocent and unsuspicious nature apt to believe others as true and honest as herself she went on presently it is so beautifully simple and easy god's way of saving us poor sinners
it is its very simplicity that so stumbles wise men and women while little children in their sweet trustfulness
understand it without any difficulty she spoke in a musing tone not looking at egerton at all but with her eyes fixed meditatingly upon the floor
i fear i am one of the wise ones you speak of for i confess i do not see the way yet can you not explain it more fully i will try she said you believe that you are a sinner deserving of god's wrath yes
you have broken his law and his justice demands your punishment
but what am i to do
then ask for the teachings of the spirit ask jesus to give you repentance and faith ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you for every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened elsie's voice was low and pleading her tones were tremulous with earnest entreaty
for she felt that the eternal interests of her hearer were trembling in the balance he looked at her admiringly and lost in the contemplation of her beauty had almost betrayed himself by his want of interest in what she was saying but just then miss stanhope joined them and shortly after he took his leave
from this time egerton played his part with consummate skill deceiving elsie so completely that she had not the slightest doubt of his being an humble penitent rejoicing believer and great were her joy and thankfulness when he told her that she had been the means of leading him to christ that her words had made the way plain to him as he had never been able to see it before
it seemed to her a very tender strong tie between them and he appeared to feel it to be so also she was not conscious of looking upon him in the light of a lover but he saw with secret exultation that he was fast winning her heart he read it in the flushing of her cheek and the brightening of her eye at his approach
he wrote to arthur that the prize was nearly won so nearly that he had no doubt of his ultimate success and i'll not be long now about finishing up the job he continued it's such precious hard work to be so good and pious all the time that i can hardly wait till matters are fully ripe for action
if the winning of them would lay me under the necessity of continuing it for the rest of my days or even for any length of time but once the knot is tied and the property secured there'll be an end of this farce i'll let her know i'm done with cant will neither talk it nor listen to it
arthur dinsmore's face darkened as he read and in a sudden burst of fury he tore the letter into fragments then threw them into the empty grate he was not yet so hardened as to feel willing to see elsie in the power of such a heartless wretch such a villain as he knew tom jackson to be
many times already had he bitterly repented of having told him of her wealth and helped him to an acquaintance with her his family pride revolted against the connection
and some latent affection for his niece prompted him to save her from the life of misery that must be hers as the wife of one so utterly devoid of honor or integrity yet arthur lacked the moral courage to face the disagreeable consequences of a withdrawal from his compact with jackson
and a confession to his father or horace of the wretch's designs upon elsie and his own disgraceful entanglement with him he concluded to take a middle course he wrote immediately to jackson somewhat haughtily advising him at once to give up the whole thing
you will inevitably fail to accomplish your end he said elsie will never marry without her father's consent and that you will find it utterly impossible to gain horace is too sharp to be hoodwinked or deceived even by you
he will ferret out your whole past lay bare the whole black record of your rascalities and hypocrisies and forbid his daughter ever again to hold the slightest communication with you and she will obey if it kills her on the spot there's some comfort in that last reflection
muttered arthur to himself as he folded and sealed his epistle
two days later egerton took this letter from the post office in lansdale he read it with a scowl on his brow ah i see your game young man he muttered with an oath but you'll find that you've got hold of the wrong customer
my reply shall be short and sweet and quite to the point it ran thus your warning and advice come too late my young friend
they will find they cannot help themselves the girl loves me and believes in me and i defy all the fathers and relations in creation to keep us apart
his thoughts ran on all that he was to leave on the well known peat stack and potatoe ground and on the mud cabin which humble as it was was still his home he was never again to see the familiar faces round the turf fire or to hear the familiar notes of the old celtic songs
the ocean was to roll between him and the dwelling of his greyheaded parents and his blooming sweetheart here were some who unable to bear the misery of such a separation
sprang into the river and gained the opposite bank the number of these daring swimmers however was not great and the army would probably have been transported almost entire if it had remained at limerick till the day of embarkation but many of the vessels in which the voyage was to be performed lay at cork
and it was necessary that sarsfield should proceed thither with some of his best regiments it was a march of not less than four days through a wild country to prevent agile youths familiar with all the shifts of a vagrant and predatory life from stealing off to the bogs and woods under cover of the night
was impossible indeed many soldiers had the audacity to run away by broad daylight before they were out of sight of limerick cathedral the royal regiment which had on the day of the review set so striking an example of fidelity to the cause of james
but more than a century passed away without one general insurrection during that century two rebellions were raised in great britain by the adherents of the house of stuart but neither when the elder pretender was crowned at scone nor when the younger held his court at holyrood
was the standard of that house set up in connaught or munster in seventeen forty five indeed when the highlanders were marching towards london the roman catholics of ireland were so quiet that the lord lieutenant could without the smallest risk
send several regiments across saint george's channel to recruit the army of the duke of cumberland nor was this submission the effect of content but of mere stupefaction and brokenness of heart the iron had entered into the soul
the memory of past defeats the habit of daily enduring insult and oppression had cowed the spirit of the unhappy nation there were indeed irish roman catholics of great ability energy and ambition
but they were to be found every where except in ireland at versailles and at saint ildefonso in the armies of frederic and in the armies of maria theresa one exile became a marshal of france another became prime minister of spain if he had staid in his native land
he would have been regarded as an inferior by all the ignorant and worthless squireens who drank the glorious and immortal memory in his palace at madrid he had the pleasure of being assiduously courted by the ambassador of george the second
dexterous irish diplomatists irish counts irish barons irish knights of saint lewis and of saint leopold of the white eagle and of the golden fleece who if they had remained in the house of bondage
were excited to new and terrible energy by the combination of stimulants which in any other society would have counteracted each other the spirit of popery and the spirit of jacobinism irreconcilable antagonists every where else
were for once mingled in an unnatural and portentous union their joint influence produced the third and last rising up of the aboriginal population against the colony the greatgrandsons of the soldiers of galmoy and sarsfield
were opposed to the greatgrandsons of the soldiers of wolseley and mitchelburn the celt again looked impatiently for the sails which were to bring succour from brest and the saxon was again backed by the whole power of england
again the victory remained with the well educated and well organized minority but happily the vanquished people found protection in a quarter from which they would once have had to expect nothing but implacable severity by this time the philosophy of the eighteenth century
enlightened men had begun to feel that the arguments by which milton and locke tillotson and burnet had vindicated the rights of conscience might be urged with not less force in favour of the roman catholic than in favour of the independent or the baptist
the great party which traces its descent through the exclusionists up to the roundheads continued during thirty years in spite of royal frowns and popular clamours to demand a share in all the benefits of our free constitution for those irish papists whom the roundheads and the exclusionists
had considered merely as beasts of chase or as beasts of burden but it will be for some other historian to relate the vicissitudes of that great conflict
suckling adelaide's marriage was fixed for christmas eve and mister dinsmore and elsie decided to take their trip to louisiana at once that they might be able to return in season for the wedding at which elsie was to be first bridesmaid
it was elsie herself who broke the news of her intended journey to her faithful old nurse explaining why she felt it her duty to go and kindly leaving to chloe's own decision whether she would accompany her or not the dusky face grew very sad for a moment tears springing to the dark eyes
but the voice was almost cheerful as she answered
an she no dar to take care ob her that's right my own dear old mammy i shall be glad to have you along
but we must trust the lord to take care of us all for he only can prevent the accidents you fear yes yes honey dat's de truff an we'll trust him an not be fraid cause don't he say not a hair ob your head shall perish
what time i am afraid i will trust in thee murmured elsie softly ah the joy the peace of knowing that his presence and his love will ever go with us everywhere and that he has all power in heaven and in earth
a week later mister dinsmore was showing his daughter the beauties of new orleans where they had arrived without accident or loss they remained in the city long enough to attend thoroughly to the business which had called them there and to see everything worth looking at elsie's plantation was in the teche country
the very loveliest part of grand old louisiana in order that suitable preparations might be made for their reception word had been sent that they might be expected on a certain day we have allowed more time than necessary for this place said mister dinsmore to his daughter one evening on returning to their hotel
after seeing the last of the lions of the crescent city we have two days to spare what shall be done in them let us go on to viamede at once then papa replied elsie promptly i have been regretting that we sent notice of our coming i doubt if it would not have been wiser to take them by surprise
there would not be the same preparations for your comfort replied her father taking a seat by her on the sofa for they were in their own private parlor you may find unaired bed linen and an empty larder
i should be sorry you should have an inhospitable reception papa but fires are soon kindled and linen aired and is not the pantry kept supplied with canned and preserved fruits and are there not fresh fruits vegetables chickens and eggs at hand for immediate use
yes certainly and we are not likely to suffer we will then leave here to morrow if you wish taking the steamer for berwick bay but why prefer to come upon them unexpectedly elsie smiled and blushed slightly
you know i never have any concealments from you papa and i will be frank about this she said
and yet the thought has come to me several times within the last few days that the overseer has had every opportunity to abuse my poor people if he happens to be of a cruel disposition and if he is ill treating them i should like to catch him at it she added her eyes kindling and the color deepening on her cheek
dismiss him i suppose papa i don't know what else i could do to punish him or prevent further cruelties i should not like to shoot him down she added laughingly and i doubt if i should have strength to flog him doubt laughed her father
certainly you could not single handed unless his politeness should lead him to refrain from any effort to defend himself and i it would seem am not expected to have anything to do with the matter a deeper blush than before now suffused elsie's fair cheek
forgive me dear papa she said laying her head on his shoulder and fondly stroking his face with her pretty white hand please consider yourself master there as truly as at the oaks and as you have been for years and understand that your daughter means to take no important step without your entire approval
no i do not go there as master but as your guest he answered half playfully half tenderly my guest that seems pleasant indeed papa and yet i want you to be master too but you will at least advise me
to the best of my ability my little girl thank you my dear kind father i have another reason for wishing to start to morrow i'm growing anxious and impatient to see my birthplace again and she added low and tenderly mamma's grave
yes we will visit it together for the first time though i have stood there alone again and again and her baby daughter used to be taken there frequently to scatter flowers over it and play beside it
yes sir as an almost forgotten dream as i do the house and grounds and some of the old servants who petted and humored me while father and daughter conversed thus together in the parlor a dusky figure sat at a window in the adjoining bedroom
gazing out upon the moonlighted streets and watching the passers by but her thoughts too were straying to viamede fast coming memories of earlier days some all bright and joyous others filled with the gloom and thick darkness of a terrible anguish
made her by turns long for and dread the arrival at her journey's end a light touch on her shoulder and she turned to find her young mistress at her side my poor old mammy i bring you news you will be sorry to hear
what dat honey we start to morrow for viamede papa has sent john to engage our passage on the steamer dat all darlin queried chloe with a sigh of relief if we's got to go might's well go quick an hab it ober
well i'm glad you take so sensible a view of it remarked elsie relieved in her turn and i hope you will find much less pain and more pleasure than you expect in going back to the old home the next morning as mister dinsmore and his daughter sat upon the deck of the steamer
enjoying the sunlight the breeze and the dancing of the water having cleared their port and gotten fairly out into the gulf a startling incident occurred chloe stood at a respectful distance leaning over the side of the vessel
watching the play of the wheel and the rainbow in the spray that fell in showers at its every revolution an old negro busied about the deck drew near and addressed her well auntie you watchin dat ole wheel dar fust time you trable on dis boat eh
chloe started at the sound of the voice turned suddenly round and faced the speaker her features working with emotion one moment of earnest scrutiny on the part of both and with a wild cry aunt chloe my ole woman uncle joe it can't be you
papa what is it exclaimed elsie greatly surprised at the little scene her husband no doubt he's too old to be a son
and elsie started to her feet her eyes full of tears and her sweet face sparkling all over with sympathetic joy papa i shall buy him they must never be parted again till death comes between a little crowd had already gathered about the excited couple every one on deck hurrying to the spot
eager to learn the cause of the tumult of joy and grief into which the two seemed to have been so suddenly thrown
and giving his arm to elsie led her towards the throng saying in answer to her last remark better act through me then daughter or you will probably be asked two or three prices o papa yes please attend to it for me only only i must have him for dear old mammy's sake at whatever cost
the crowd opened to the lady and gentleman as they drew near my poor old mammy what is it whom have you found asked elsie but chloe was speechless with a joy so deep that it wore the aspect of an almost heart breaking sorrow
she could only cling with choking sobs to her husband's arm what's all this fuss uncle joe queried the captain let go the old darkie what's she to you my wife sah dat i ain't seed for twenty years sah
replied the old man trying to steady his trembling tones obeying the order but making no effort to shake off chloe's clinging hold leave him for a little now mammy dear you shall never be parted again whispered elsie in her nurse's ear come with me and let papa talk to the captain
chloe obeyed silently following her young mistress to the other side of the deck but ever and anon turning her head to look back with wet eyes at the old wrinkled black face and white beard that to her were so dear so charming his eyes were following her with a look of longing yearning affection
and involuntarily he stretched out his arms towards her off to your work sir ordered the captain and let's have no more of this nonsense old joe moved away with a patient sigh the woman is your property i presume sir
the captain remarked in a respectful tone addressing mister dinsmore yes my daughter's which amounts to the same thing that gentleman replied in a tone of indifference then changing the subject made some inquiries about the speed and safety of the boat the length of her trips et cetera
the captain answered pleasantly showing pride in his vessel then they spoke of other things the country the crops the weather sit down mammy said elsie pityingly as they reached the settee where she and her father had been sitting you are trembling so you can scarcely stand
o darlin dat's true nuff i'se mos ready to drop she said tremulously coming down heavily upon a trunk that stood close at hand oh de good lord hab bring me face to face wid my ole uncle joe oh i neber spected to see him no more in dis wicked world
but dey'll take im off again an dis ole heart'll break she added with a bursting sob no no mammy you shall have him if money can accomplish it you buy im darlin oh your ole mammy can neber t'ank you nuff
and a low happy laugh mingled with the choking sobs but dey'll ask heaps ob money you shall have him let the price be what it will was elsie's assurance see papa is bargaining with the captain now for they look at uncle joe as they talk
chloe regarded them with eager interest yes they were looking at uncle joe and evidently speaking of him by the way mister dinsmore remarked carelessly does uncle joe belong to you or is he merely a hired hand he's my property sir
would you like to sell i am not anxious he's a good hand faithful and honest quite a religious character in fact he concluded with a sneer overshoots the mark in prayin and psalm singing but do you want to buy well yes my daughter is fond of her old mammy
and for her sake would be willing to give a reasonable sum what do you ask make me an offer five hundred dollars five hundred ridiculous he's worth twice that i think not he is old not far from seventy and will soon be past work and only a burden and expense
my offer is a good one make it seven hundred and i'll take it mister dinsmore considered a moment that is too high he said at length but for the sake of making two poor creatures happy i will give it cash down
yes a check on a new orleans bank please walk down into the cabin then sir and we'll conclude the business at once in a few moments mister dinsmore returned to his daughter's side and placing the receipted bill of sale in her hands asked have i given too much
oh no papa no indeed i should have given a thousand without a moment's hesitation if asked it five ten thousand if need be rather than have them parted again she exclaimed the bright tears shining in her eyes mammy my poor old mammy uncle joe belongs to me now
and you can have him always with you as long as the lord spares your lives now bress de lord cried the old woman devoutly raising her streaming eyes and clasped hands to heaven
go break the news to uncle joe mammy said elsie see yonder he stands looking so eager and wistful chloe hurried to his side spoke a few rapid words there was another long clinging tearful embrace and they hastened to their master and mistress to pour out their thanks and blessings upon them
mingled with praises and fervent thanksgivings to the giver of all good the joy and gratitude of the poor old couple were very sweet very delightful to elsie and scarcely less so to her father mammy dear i never saw you wear so happy a face elsie said
as chloe returned to her after an hour or two spent in close conversation with her newly recovered spouse
clasping her hands together in an ecstasy of joy and gratitude while the big tears shone in her eyes
an he not de same he bettah man christian man he say aunt chloe we uns trabble de same road now honey young joe proud angry swearing drinkin boy your ole joe he lub de lord an try to sarve him wid all he might and de lord good massa de debbil berry bad one
dear mammy i am very glad for you i think nothing else could have made you so happy
dinah by name waiting maid in a wealthy family but how is that mammy papa and i thought all your children died young no darlin when massa grayson buy me in new orleans an de odder gentleman buy uncle joe
we hab little girl four years ole an de ole missus keep her sobbed chloe living over again the agony of the parting an dinah her chile mammy if money will buy her you shall have her too said elsie earnestly
chloe with her restored husband by her side now looking forward to the visit to viamede with almost unmingled pleasure
chapter eight however continued armand after a pause while i knew myself to be still in love with her i felt more sure of myself and part of my desire to speak to marguerite again
was a wish to make her see that i was stronger than she how many ways does the heart take how many reasons does it invent for itself in order to arrive at what it wants
i could not remain in the corridor and i returned to my place in the stalls looking hastily around to see what box she was in she was in a ground floor box quite alone she had changed as i have told you
and no longer wore an indifferent smile on her lips she had suffered she was still suffering though it was april she was still wearing a winter costume all wrapped up in furs
i gazed at her so fixedly that my eyes attracted hers she looked at me for a few seconds put up her opera glass to see me better and seemed to think she recognised me without being quite sure who i was
for when she put down her glasses a smile that charming feminine salutation flitted across her lips as if to answer the bow which she seemed to expect but i did not respond
so as to have an advantage over her as if i had forgotten while she remembered supposing herself mistaken she looked away the curtain went up i have often seen marguerite at the theatre
i never saw her pay the slightest attention to what was being acted as for me the performance interested me equally little and i paid no attention to anything but her though doing my utmost to keep her from noticing it
presently i saw her glancing across at the person who was in the opposite box on looking i saw a woman with whom i was quite familiar she had once been a kept woman and had tried to go on the stage had failed
and relying on her acquaintance with fashionable people in paris had gone into business and taken a milliner's shop i saw in her a means of meeting with marguerite
and profited by a moment in which she looked my way to wave my hand to her as i expected she beckoned to me to come to her box prudence duvernoy that was the milliner's auspicious name
was one of those fat women of forty with whom one requires very little diplomacy to make them understand what one wants to know especially when what one wants to know is as simple as what i had to ask of her
i took advantage of a moment when she was smiling across at marguerite to ask her whom are you looking at marguerite gautier you know her yes i am her milliner and she is a neighbour of mine
the window of her dressing room looks on to the window of mine they say she is a charming girl don't you know her no but i should like to shall i ask her to come over to our box no
i would rather for you to introduce me to her at her own house yes that is more difficult why because she is under the protection of a jealous old duke protection is charming
yes protection replied prudence poor old man he would be greatly embarrassed to offer her anything else prudence then told me how marguerite had made the acquaintance of the duke at bagneres
that then i continued is why she is alone here precisely but who will see her home he will
and you who is seeing you home no one may i offer myself but you are with a friend are you not
who is your friend a charming fellow very amusing he will be delighted to make your acquaintance well all right we will go after this piece is over for i know the last piece with pleasure
i will go and tell my friend go then ah added prudence as i was going there is the duke just coming into marguerite's box i looked at him a man of about seventy had sat down behind her
and was giving her a bag of sweets into which she dipped at once smiling then she held it out toward prudence with a gesture which seemed to say will you have some no signalled prudence
marguerite drew back the bag and turning began to talk with the duke it may sound childish to tell you all these details but everything relating to marguerite is so fresh in my memory that i can not help recalling them now
i went back to gaston and told him of the arrangement i had made for him and for me he agreed
we had scarcely opened the door leading into the stalls when we had to stand aside to allow marguerite and the duke to pass i would have given ten years of my life to have been in the old man's place
when they were on the street he handed her into a phaeton which he drove himself and they were whirled away by two superb horses we returned to prudence's box and when the play was over
at the door prudence asked us to come up and see her showrooms which we had never seen and of which she seemed very proud you can imagine how eagerly i accepted it seemed to me as if i was coming nearer and nearer to marguerite
i soon turned the conversation in her direction the old duke is at your neighbours i said to prudence oh no she is probably alone but she must be dreadfully bored said gaston
we spend most of our evening together or she calls to me when she comes in she never goes to bed before two in the morning she can't sleep before that why because she suffers in the chest and is almost always feverish
hasn't she any lovers i asked i never see any one remain after i leave i don't say no one ever comes when i am gone often in the evening i meet there a certain comte de n
who thinks he is making some headway by calling on her at eleven in the evening and by sending her jewels to any extent but she can't stand him she makes a mistake he is very rich it is in vain that i say to her from time to time
my dear child there's the man for you she who generally listens to me turns her back and replies that he is too stupid stupid indeed he is but it would be a position for her
while this old duke might die any day old men are egoists his family are always reproaching him for his affection for marguerite there are two reasons why he is likely to leave her nothing i give her good advice
and she only says it will be plenty of time to take on the count when the duke is dead it isn't all fun continued prudence to live like that i know very well it wouldn't suit me and i should soon send the old man about his business he is so dull
he calls her his daughter looks after her like a child and is always in the way i am sure at this very moment one of his servants is prowling about in the street to see who comes out and especially who goes in ah
poor marguerite said gaston sitting down to the piano and playing a waltz i hadn't a notion of it but i did notice she hasn't been looking so gay lately hush said prudence listening gaston stopped
she is calling me i think we listened a voice was calling prudence come now you must go
ah that is your idea of hospitality said gaston laughing we won't go till we please why should we go i am going over to marguerite's we will wait here you can't
then we will go with you that still less i know marguerite said gaston i can very well pay her a call but armand doesn't know her i will introduce him impossible
we again heard marguerite's voice calling to prudence who rushed to her dressing room window i followed with gaston as she opened the window we hid ourselves so as not to be seen from outside
i have been calling you for ten minutes said marguerite from her window in almost an imperious tone of voice what do you want i want you to come over at once why
because the comte de n is still here and he is boring me to death i can't now what is hindering you there are two young fellows here who won't go
i have told them well then leave them in the house they will soon go when they see you have gone they will turn everything upside down but what do they want they want to see you
what are they called you know one
and you don't know him no but bring them along anything is better than the count i expect you come at once marguerite closed her window and prudence hers
who had remembered my face for a moment did not remember my name i would rather have been remembered to my disadvantage than thus forgotten i knew said gaston that she would be delighted to see us
delighted isn't the word
try to be more agreeable than he is or i know marguerite she will put it all down to me we followed prudence downstairs i trembled it seemed to me that this visit was to have a great influence on my life
i was still more agitated than on the evening when i was introduced in the box at the opera comique as we reached the door that you know my heart beat so violently that i was hardly able to think we heard the sound of a piano
prudence rang the piano was silent a woman who looked more like a companion than a servant opened the door we went into the drawing room and from that to the boudoir which was then just as you have seen it since
a young man was leaning against the mantel piece marguerite seated at the piano let her fingers wander over the notes beginning scraps of music without finishing them the whole scene breathed boredom
the man embarrassed by the consciousness of his nullity the woman tired of her dismal visitor
chapter nine the contents of the packet i pulled up sharply as if a brake had been suddenly and even mercilessly applied to bring me to a standstill
in front of the window i stood shivering a shower had recently commenced the falling rain was being blown before the breeze i was in a terrible sweat yet tremulous as with cold covered with mud
bruised and cut and bleeding as piteous an object as you would care to see every limb in my body ached every muscle was exhausted mentally and physically i was done
had i not been held up willy nilly by the spell which was upon me i should have sunk down then and there in a hopeless helpless hapless heap but my tormentor was not yet at an end with me
as i stood there like some broken and beaten hack waiting for the word of command it came it was as if some strong magnetic current had been switched on to me through the window to draw me into the room
over the low wall i went over the sill once more i stood in that chamber of my humiliation and my shame and once again i was conscious of that awful sense of the presence of an evil thing
how much of it was fact and how much of it was the product of imagination i cannot say but looking back it seems to me that it was as if i had been taken out of the corporeal body
there was the sound of something flopping from off the bed on to the ground and i knew that the thing was coming at me across the floor my stomach quaked my heart melted within me
the very anguish of my terror gave me strength to scream and scream sometimes even now i seem to hear those screams of mine ringing through the night and i bury my face in the pillow
and it is as though i was passing through the very valley of the shadow the thing went back i could hear it slipping and sliding across the floor there was silence and presently the lamp was lit
and the room was all in brightness there on the bed in the familiar attitude between the sheets his head resting on his hand his eyes blazing like living coals was the dreadful cause of all my agonies
he looked at me with his unpitying unblinking glance so through the window again like a thief is it always through that door that you come into a house he paused
as if to give me time to digest his gibe you saw paul lessingham well the great paul lessingham was he then so great
reminded me in some uncomfortable way of a rusty saw the things he said and the manner in which he said them were alike intended to add to my discomfort it was solely because the feat was barely possible
that he only partially succeeded like a thief you went into his house did i not tell you that you would like a thief he found you were you not ashamed since like a thief he found you how comes it that you have escaped
by what robber's artifice have you saved yourself from g a o l his manner changed so that all at once he seemed to snarl at me
you are small but he is smaller your great paul lessingham
i could not but feel that there might be a modicum of truth in what with such an intensity of bitterness the speaker suggested the picture which in my mental gallery i had hung in the place of honour seemed to say the least
to have become a trifle smudged as usual the man in the bed seemed to experience not the slightest difficulty in deciphering what was passing through my mind that is so you and he you are a pair
the great paul lessingham is as great a thief as you and greater for at least than you he has more courage for some moments he was still then exclaimed with sudden fierceness
give me what you have stolen i moved towards the bed most unwillingly and held out to him the packet of letters which i had abstracted from the little drawer perceiving my disinclination to his near neighbourhood
he set himself to play with it ignoring my outstretched hand he stared me straight in the face what ails you
is it not sweet to stand close at my side you with your white skin if i were a woman would you not take me for a wife there was something about the manner in which this was said which was so essentially feminine
that once more i wondered if i could possibly be mistaken in the creature's sex i would have given much to have been able to strike him across the face or better to have taken him by the neck and thrown him through the window and rolled him in the mud
he condescended to notice what i was holding out to him so that is what you have stolen that is what you have taken from the drawer in the bureau the drawer which was locked
and which you used the arts in which a thief is skilled to enter give it to me thief he snatched the packet from me scratching the back of my hand as he did so as if his nails had been talons
he turned the packet over and over glaring at it as he did so it was strange what a relief it was to have his glance removed from off my face you kept it in your inner drawer paul lessingham
you hid it as one hides treasure there should be something here worth having worth seeing worth knowing yes worth knowing since you found it worth your while to hide it up so closely as i have said
the packet was bound about by a string of pink ribbon a fact on which he presently began to comment with what a pretty string you have encircled it and how neatly it is tied surely only a woman's hand could tie a knot like that
who would have guessed yours were such agile fingers so an endorsement on the cover what's this let's see what's written the letters of my dear love marjorie lindon
as he read these words which as he said were endorsed upon the outer sheet of paper which served as a cover for the letters which were enclosed within his face became transfigured never did i suppose that rage could have so possessed a human countenance
his jaw dropped open so that his yellow fangs gleamed though his parted lips he held his breath so long that each moment i looked to see him fall down in a fit the veins stood out all over his face and head like seams of blood
i know not how long he continued speechless when his breath returned it was with chokings and gaspings in the midst of which he hissed out his words as if their mere passage through his throat brought him near to strangulation
the letters of his dear love of his dear love his paul lessingham's so it is as i guessed as i knew as i saw marjorie lindon
sweet marjorie his dear love paul lessingham's dear love she with the lily face the corn hued hair what is it his dear love has found in her fond heart to write paul lessingham
sitting up in bed he tore the packet open it contained perhaps eight or nine letters some mere notes some long epistles but short or long
he devoured them with equal appetite each one over and over again till i thought he never would have done re reading them they were on thick white paper of a peculiar shade of whiteness with untrimmed edges
on each sheet a crest and an address were stamped in gold and all the sheets were of the same shape and size i told myself that if anywhere at any time i saw writing paper like that again
i should not fail to know it the caligraphy was like the paper unusual bold decided and i should have guessed produced by a j pen all the time that he was reading
he kept emitting sounds more resembling yelps and snarls than anything more human like some savage beast nursing its pent up rage when he had made an end of reading for the season he let his passion have full vent
so that is what his dear love has found it in her heart to write paul lessingham paul lessingham pen cannot describe the concentrated frenzy of hatred with which the speaker dwelt upon the name
he shall be ground between the upper and the nether stones in the towers of anguish
to stink under the blood grimed sun
for marjorie lindon for his dear love it shall come to pass that she shall wish that she was never born nor he and the gods of the shadows shall smell the sweet incense of her suffering
it shall be it shall be it is i that say it even i in the madness of his rhapsodical frenzy i believe that he had actually forgotten i was there but on a sudden glancing aside
he saw me and remembered and was prompt to take advantage of an opportunity to wreak his rage upon a tangible object it is you you thief you still live to make a mock of one of the children of the gods
he leaped shrieking off the bed and sprang at me clasping my throat with his horrid hands bearing me backwards on to the floor i felt his breath mingle with mine
morlvera the olympic toy emporium occupied a conspicuous frontage in an important west end street
it was happily named toy emporium because one would never have dreamed of according it the familiar and yet pulse quickening name of toyshop there was an air of cold splendour and elaborate failure about the wares that were set out in its ample windows
they were the sort of toys that a tired shop assistant displays and explains at christmas time to exclamatory parents and bored silent children
the animal toys looked more like natural history models than the comfortable sympathetic companions that one would wish at a certain age to take to bed with one and to smuggle into the bath room
it was a merciful reflection that in any right minded nursery the lifetime would certainly be short prominent among the elegantly dressed dolls that filled an entire section of the window frontage
she lacked nothing that is to be found in a carefully detailed fashion plate in fact she might be said to have something more than the average fashion plate female possesses in place of a vacant expressionless stare she had character in her face
it must be admitted that it was bad character cold hostile inquisitorial with a sinister lowering of one eyebrow and a merciless hardness about the corners of the mouth
one might have imagined histories about her by the hour histories in which unworthy ambition the desire for money and an entire absence of all decent feeling would play a conspicuous part
and bert aged seven had halted on the way from their obscure back street to the minnow stocked water of saint james's park and were critically examining the hobble skirted doll
and dissecting her character in no very tolerant spirit there is probably a latent enmity between the necessarily under clad and the unnecessarily overdressed
but a little kindness and good fellowship on the part of the latter will often change the sentiment to admiring devotion if the lady in peach coloured velvet and leopard skin had worn a pleasant expression in addition to her other elaborate furnishings
emmeline at least might have respected and even loved her as it was she gave her a horrible reputation based chiefly on a secondhand knowledge of gilded depravity
derived from the conversation of those who were skilled in the art of novelette reading bert filled in a few damaging details from his own limited imagination she's a bad lot that one is declared emmeline after a long unfriendly stare
e knocks er abart said bert with enthusiasm no e don't cos e's dead she poisoned im slow and gradual so that nobody didn't know now she wants to marry a lord with eaps and eaps of money
but she's going to poison er too she's a bad lot said bert with growing hostility er mother ates her and she's afraid of er too cos she's got a serkestic tongue always talking serkesms she is
she's greedy too if there's fish going she eats er own share and er little girl's as well
she ad a little boy once said bert but she pushed im into the water when nobody wasn't looking
they ill treat im somethink cruel
said emmeline thinking hard er nime's morlvera it was as near as she could get to the name of an adventuress who figured prominently in a cinema drama
there was silence for a moment while the possibilities of the name were turned over in the children's minds
she thinks she'll get the rich lord to pay for em but e won't
e won't pay for the clothes said bert with conviction evidently there was some limit to the weak good nature of wealthy lords at that moment a motor carriage with liveried servants drew up at the emporium entrance
followed slowly and sulkily by a small boy who had a very black scowl on his face and a very white sailor suit over the rest of him the lady was continuing an argument which had probably commenced in portman square
now victor you are to come in and buy a nice doll for your cousin bertha she gave you a beautiful box of soldiers on your birthday and you must give her a present on hers
bertha is a fat little fool said victor in a voice that was as loud as his mother's and had more assurance in it victor you are not to say such things bertha is not a fool and she is not in the least fat
you are to come in and choose a doll for her the couple passed into the shop out of view and hearing of the two back street children my he is in a wicked temper exclaimed emmeline
but both she and bert were inclined to side with him against the absent bertha who was doubtless as fat and foolish as he had described her to be
it's for a little girl of eleven a fat little girl of eleven added victor by way of supplementary information victor if you say such rude things about your cousin you shall go to bed the moment we get home without having any tea
this is one of the newest things we have in dolls said the assistant removing a hobble skirted figure in peach coloured velvet from the window
they've bin and took morlvera there was a mingling of excitement and a certain sense of bereavement in her mind she would have liked to gaze at that embodiment of overdressed depravity for just a little longer
i spect she's going away in a kerridge to marry the rich lord hazarded bert she's up to no good said emmeline vaguely inside the shop the purchase of the doll had been decided on
oh very well said victor sulkily you needn't have it stuck into a box and wait an hour while it's being done up into a parcel i'll take it as it is and we can go round to manchester square and give it to bertha and get the thing done with
that will save me the trouble of writing for dear bertha with victor's love on a bit of paper very well said his mother we can go to manchester square on our way home
i won't let the little beast kiss me stipulated victor his mother said nothing victor had not been half as troublesome as she had anticipated when he chose he could really be dreadfully naughty
emmeline and bert were just moving away from the window when morlvera made her exit from the shop very carefully in victor's arms a look of sinister triumph seemed to glow in her hard inquisitorial face
as for victor a certain scornful serenity had replaced the earlier scowls he had evidently accepted defeat with a contemptuous good grace
the tall lady gave a direction to the footman and settled herself in the carriage the little figure in the white sailor suit clambered in beside her still carefully holding the elegantly garbed doll
the car had to be backed a few yards in the process of turning very stealthily very gently very mercilessly victor sent morlvera flying over his shoulder
so that she fell into the road just behind the retrogressing wheel with a soft pleasant sounding scrunch the car went over the prostrate form then it moved forward again with another scrunch
the carriage moved off and left bert and emmeline gazing in scared delight at a sorry mess of petrol smeared velvet sawdust and leopard skin which was all that remained of the hateful morlvera
they gave a shrill cheer and then raced away shuddering from the scene of so much rapidly enacted tragedy later that afternoon when they were engaged in the pursuit of minnows by the waterside in saint james's park
emmeline said in a solemn undertone to bert i've bin finking do you know oo e was e was er little boy wot she'd sent away to live wiv poor folks
ah well you're one of the stevenson idolators aren't you and this is said with a curious air of cynical superiority
as of one who has experienced all these things and is superbly tolerant of the shallow mind that can still admire tusitala his work such people will generally tell you was brilliant but artificial
and hergesheimer and cabell for these artists each in his due place we have only the most genial respect but when the passion of our youth is impugned as idolatry
we feel in our spirit an intense weariness we feel the pacifism of the wise and secretive mind that remains tacit when its most perfect inward certainties are assailed
one does not argue for there are certain things not arguable one shrugs after all what human gesture more eloquent or more satisfying to the performer than the shrug
there is a little village on the skirts of the forest of fontainebleau heavenly region of springtime and romance where the crystal green eddies of the loing
slip under an old gray bridge with sharp angled piers of stone near the bridge is a quiet little inn
behind the inn is a garden beside the river bank
in the summer of eighteen seventy six an anxious rumour passed among the artist colonies it was said that an american lady and her two children had arrived at grez
and the young bohemians who regarded this region as their own sacred retreat were startled and alarmed were their chosen haunts to be invaded by tourists and tourists of the disturbing sex
among three happy irresponsibles this humorous anxiety was particularly acute one of the trio was sent over to grez as a scout to spy out the situation and report the emissary went
and failed to return a second explorer was dispatched to study the problem he too was swallowed up in silence the third impatiently waiting tidings from his faithless friends
set out to make an end of this mystery he reached the inn at dusk it was a gentle summer evening the windows were open to the tender air lamps were lit within and a merry party sat at dinner
through the open window the suspicious venturer saw the recreant ambassadors gay with laughter and there sitting in the lamplight was the american lady a slender thoughtful
there is a young scotchman here a mister stevenson
mama is ever so much better and is getting prettier every day the life of missus robert louis stevenson written by her sister missus sanchez
the mother of little louis sanchez on the beach at monterey remembered by lovers of a child's garden of verses is a book that none of the so called idolaters will want to overlook
r l s had been thrilled enough by a few nights spent in the dark with the docile ass of the cevennes
but here was one sprung from sober philadelphia blood born in indianapolis and baptized by henry ward beecher who had pioneered across the fabled isthmus lived in the roaring mining camps of nevada
worked for a dressmaker in frisco and venturously taken her young children to belgium and france to study art she had been married at seventeen
had already once thought herself to be a widow in fact by the temporary disappearance of her first husband and was now after enduring repeated infidelities prepared to make herself a widow in law
daring horse woman a good shot a supreme cook artist writer and a very gene stratton porter among flowers fearless beautiful and of unique charm
where could another woman have been found so marvellously gifted to be the wife of a romancer it seems odd that philadelphia and edinburgh
the two most conservatively minded cities of the anglo saxon earth should have combined to produce this the most radiant pair of adventurers in our recent annals
the reading of this delightful book has taken us back into the very pang and felicity of our first great passion our idolatry if you will which we are proud here and now to re avow
himself incredibly stevensonian in appearance with whom we lay afield in our later teens reading r l s aloud by the banks of a small stream which we vowed should become famous in the world of letters
for at the crystal headwater of that same creek was penned the amenities of book collecting
that enchanting volume of bookish essays which has swelled the correspondence of a philadelphia business man to insane proportions and even brought him offers from three newspapers to conduct a book page
it seems appropriate to the present chronicler that in a quiet library overlooking the clear fount and origin of dear darby creek there are several of the most cherished association volumes of r l s
and the manuscript of little smoutie's very first book the history of moses was there ever a more joyous covenant of affection than that of mifflin mc gill and ourself
in our boyish madness for tusitala
before the multiplying responsibilities of maturity press upon him to pour out his enthusiasm in an obsession such as that and when this passion can be shared and doubled and knitted
in partnership with an equally freakish insane and innocent idiot such as our generously mad friend mifflin admirable adventures are sure to follow
never in any young lives past or to come could there be an instant of purer excitement and glory than when after bicycling hotly all day with the blue outline of arthur's seat
apparently always receding before us we trundled grimly into auld reekie and set out for the old stevenson home at seventeen heriot row halting only to bestow our pneumatic steeds in the nearest and humblest available hostelry
there for we found the house empty and to let we sat on the doorstep evening by evening smoking in the long northern twilight and spinning our youthful dreams
this lust for hunting out our favourite author's footsteps even led one of the pair to a place perhaps never visited by any other stevensonian pilgrim old cockfield rectory in suffolk
where missus sitwell and sidney colvin first met the bright eyed scotch boy in eighteen seventy three the tracker of footprints remembers how kind were the then occupants of the old rectory and how
in a daze of awe he trod the green and tranquil lawn and hastened to visit a cottage near by where there was an ancient rustic who had been coachman at the rectory when r l s stayed there
fabled to retain some pithy recollection alas the suffolk ancient eager enough to share tobacco and speech would only mull over his memories of a previous rector
the memories come bustling and one knows not where to stop the supreme adventure for one of the pair lay in the kindness of sir sidney colvin to this prince of gentlemen and scholars one of these lads wrote
sending his letter with subtle cunning from a village in suffolk only a few miles from sir sidney's boyhood home he calculated that this might arouse the interest of sir sidney
whom he knew to be cruelly badgered with letters from enthusiasts and fortune turned in his favour granting him numerous ecstatic visits to sir sidney and lady colvin and much unwarranted generosity
but since our mind has been turned in this direction by missus sanchez's book
crowned by an afternoon at grez one remembers the old gray bridge across the eddying water and the door of the inn where the young pilgrim lingered trying to visualize scenes of thirty five years before
sir humphrey gilbert colonel of the british forces in the netherlands was poring over the manuscript narrative of david ingram mariner
whether it was or was not a part of asia surely gilbert said to his half brother walter raleigh a youth of twenty three this knave hath seen strange things
he hath been set ashore by john hawkins in the gulf of mexico and there left behind he hath travelled northward with two of his companions along indian trails he hath even reached norumbega
he hath seen that famous city with its houses of crystal and silver pine logs and hemlock bark belike said raleigh scornfully nay said gilbert he hath carefully written it down
he saw kings decorated with rubies six inches long
and they were borne on chairs of silver and crystal adorned with precious stones he saw pearls as common as pebbles and the natives were laden down by their ornaments of gold and silver
the city of bega was three quarters of a mile long and had many streets wider than those of london some houses had massive pillars of crystal and silver what assurance can he give asked raleigh
he offers on his life to prove it a small offer mayhap there be many of these lying mariners whose lives are as worthless as the stories they relate
he returned said gilbert
a french vessel commanded by captain champagne
good ale never gives such fantasies doth he perchance speak of elephants he
but heard of them only what says he of them asked raleigh
but the houses said raleigh tell me of the houses in every house said gilbert reading from the manuscript they have scoops
the women wear great plates of gold covering their bodies and chains of great pearls in the manner of curvettes and the men wear manilions or bracelets on each arm and each leg some of gold and some of silver
whence come they these gauds there are great rivers where one may find pieces of gold as big as the
published without his knowledge by george gascoigne
any uncolonized lands in north america paying for these a fifth of all gold and silver found the next year he sailed with raleigh for newfoundland
but one vessel was lost and the others returned to england in fifteen eighty three he sailed again taking with him the narrative of ingram which he reprinted he also took with him a learned hungarian from buda
named parmenius who went for the express purpose of singing the praise of norumbega in latin verse but was drowned in sir humphrey's great flag ship the delight
this wreck took place near sable island and as most of the supplies for the expedition went down in the flag ship the men in the remaining vessels grew so impatient as to compel a return
there were two vessels the golden hind of forty tons and the squirrel of ten tons this last being a mere boat then called a frigate
a small vessel propelled by both sails and oars quite unlike the war ship afterwards called by that name
on both these vessels the men were so distressed that they gathered on the bulwarks pointing to their empty mouths and their ragged clothing
the officers of the golden hind were unwilling to return but consented on sir humphrey's promise that they should come back in the spring they sailed for england on the thirty first of august
all wished him to return in the golden hind as a much larger and safer vessel
but when he was begged to remove into the larger vessel he said i will not forsake my little company going homeward with whom i have passed so many storms and perils one reason for this was
on the very day of sailing they caught their first glimpse of some large species of seal or walrus which is thus described by the old narrator of the expedition
a very lion to our seeming in shape hair and colour not swimming after the maner of a beast by moouing of his feete but rather sliding vpon the water with his whole body excepting the legs in sight
porposes and all other fish
as all creatures will be commonly at a sudden gaze and sight of men
roaring or bellowing as doeth a lion
as this doubtlesse was to see a lion in the ocean sea or fish in shape of a lion what opinion others had thereof and chiefly the generall himselfe i forbeare to deliuer
but he tooke it for bonum omen a good omen
most outrageous seas
saint elmo's fire yet they had but one of these at a time
who visited new england in that year describes it as the capital of a great fur country students of indian tongues defined the word as meaning
as to the locality it appeared first on the maps as a large island then as a smaller one and after fifteen sixty nine no longer as an island but a part of the mainland bordering apparently on the penobscot river
whittier in his poem of norumbega describes a norman knight as seeking it in vain he turned him back o master dear we are but men misled and thou hast sought a city here
to find a grave instead no builded wonder of these lands my weary eyes shall see a city never made with hands alone awaiteth me
writing in sixteen o nine says if this beautiful town ever existed in nature i would like to know who pulled it down for there is nothing here but huts made of pickets and covered with the barks of trees or skins
yet it kept its place on maps till sixteen forty and even heylin in his cosmography sixteen sixty nine
this was the dream of all french explorers and of champlain in particular and his interest was at once excited by anything that looked toward the pacific
he said that during his winter with the indians he had made the very discovery needed
they had with them an english boy whom they were keeping to present to champlain
had heard some garbled account and which he used as coloring for his story
near the mouth of that river where a creature dwelt having the form of a woman and called by the indians gougou
she was very frightful and so enormous that the masts of the vessel could not reach her waist she had already eaten many savages and constantly continued to do so putting them first into a great pocket to await her hunger
this creature habitually made dreadful noises and several savages who came on board claimed to have heard them a man from saint malo in france the sieur de prevert confirmed this story
and they found themselves fairly in the saint lawrence and past the haunted bay of chaleurs
they certainly heard a roaring and a hissing in the distance but it may have been the waves on the beach but this was not their last glimpse of the supposed guardians of the saint lawrence
as the ship proceeded farther up the beautiful river they saw one morning a boat come forth from the woods bearing three men dressed to look like devils wrapped in dogs skins white and black their faces besmeared as black as any coals
then many indians collected in the woods and began a loud talk which they could hear on board the ships and which lasted half an hour
holding their hands upward joined together and meanwhile carrying their hats under their upper garments and showing great reverence looking upward they sometimes cried jesus jesus or jesus maria
this made the frenchmen laugh saying in reply that their god cudraigny was but a fool and a noddy and knew not what he said tell him said a frenchman that christ will defend them from all cold if they will believe in him
the indians then asked the captain if he had spoken with jesus he answered no but that his priests had and they had promised fair weather
hearing this they thanked the captain and told the other indians in the woods who all came rushing out seeming to be very glad giving great shouts they began to sing and dance as they had done before they also began to bring to the ships
great stores of fish and of bread made of millet casting it into the french boats so thickly that it seemed to fall from heaven then the frenchmen went on shore and the people came clustering about them
bringing children in their arms to be touched as if to hallow them then the captain in return arranged the women in order and gave them beads made of tin and other trifles and gave knives to the men
all that night the indians made great fires and danced and sang along the shore
ascending the ottawa in canoes past cataracts boulders and precipices they at last with great labor reached the island of allumette at a distance of two hundred and twenty five miles
often it was impossible to carry their canoes past waterfalls because the forests were so dense so that they had to drag the boats by ropes wading among rocks or climbing along precipices
gradually they left behind them their armor their provisions and clothing keeping only their canoes they lived on fish and wild fowl and were sometimes twenty four hours without food champlain himself
carried three french arquebuses or short guns three oars his cloak
the tribe of indians whom they at last reached had chosen the spot as being inaccessible to their enemies and thought that the newcomers had fallen from the clouds
he learned to his indignation that the whole tale was false
where they were but confessed that he had never gone a league further north the indians knew of no such sea
and craved permission to torture and kill him for his deceptions they called him loudly a liar and even the children took up the cry and jeered at him they said
do you not see that he meant to cause your death give him to us and we promise you that he shall not lie any more
bore it all philosophically
went back to france having given up hope of reaching the salt sea except as champlain himself coolly said in imagination
the guardians of the saint lawrence had at least exerted their spell to the extent of saying thus far and no farther
and had bribed the indians who acted the part of devils and perhaps he did not
you dear dear man she exclaimed to think what you have missed it would have been the evening of your life it's a success do you hear a great success it was wonderful
he seemed almost to himself to be playing a part he was so calm yet so gracefully happy i am glad for both our sakes he said she indicated the others with a little wave of the hand
i don't think you know a soul do you she asked they none of them quite believe in your existence down at the theatre this is my leading man noel bridges you should have seen how splendid he was as carriston
mister noel bridges with a deprecating smile towards elizabeth held out his hand he was tall and of rather a rugged type for the new york stage like the rest of the little party his eyes were full of curiosity
as he shook hands with philip so you are something human after all he remarked we began to think you lived underground and only put your head up every now and then for a little air i am glad to meet you mister ware
and i hope it's only the first of many you are very kind philip murmured cordially elizabeth glanced around the little group dear me i am forgetting my manners she declared
i ought to have presented you to sara denison first sara is really the star of your play mister ware although i have the most work to do she loves her part and has asked about you nearly every day
miss denison a young lady of the smaller gibson type with large eyes and a very constant smile greeted philip warmly do you know she told him that this is the first time i have ever been in a play
in which the author hasn't been round setting us to rights most of the time i can't imagine how you kept away mister ware perhaps observed philip my absence has contributed to your success i am sure i shouldn't have known what to tell you
you see i am so absolutely ignorant of the technique i've got to shake hands with you mister ware a stout middle aged clean shaven man with narrow black eyes and pale cheeks declared stepping forward
i am the manager of the theatre and i'm thundering glad that your first play has been produced at the new york sir there's good stuff in it and if i am any judge and i'm supposed to be
there's plenty of better stuff behind shake hands if you please sir you know me by name paul fink i hope you'll see my signature at the bottom of a good many fat cheques before you've finished writing plays
that's very nice of you mister fink philip declared now i am sure you all want your supper
mister fink raised his glass here's success to the play he exclaimed and good luck to all of us he tossed off the contents of the glass and they all followed his example then they took their places at the little round table
it was unusual almost dramatic and for a time both elizabeth and he himself found themselves hard put to it to escape the constant wave of good natured but very pertinent questions
mister fink promised him they'll be buzzing around you all day long they'll want to know everything from where you get your clothes and what cigarettes you smoke to how you like best to do your work and what complexioned typist you prefer
they're some boys i can tell you philip's eyes met elizabeth's across the table the same instinct of disquietude kept them both for a moment silent i am afraid elizabeth sighed
that mister ware will find it rather hard to appreciate some of our journalistic friends they're good fellows mister fink declared heartily white men all of them so long as you don't try to put em off on a false stunt or anything of that sort
they'll sling the ink about some ed harris was in my room just after the second act and he showed me some of his stuff i tell you he means to boost us elizabeth laid her hand upon her manager's arm
they're delightful every one of them she agreed but mister fink you have such influence with them i wonder if i dare give you just a hint mister ware has passed through some very painful times lately
he is so anxious to forget and i really don't wonder at it myself i am sure he will be delighted to talk with all of them as to the future and his future plans but do you think you could just drop them a hint to go quietly
as regards the past mister fink was a little perplexed but inclined to be sympathetic he glanced towards philip who was deep in conversation with sara denison why i'll do my best miss dalstan he promised
they do love a story i am not going to have mister ware's story published in every newspaper in new york elizabeth said firmly and the newspaper man who worms the history of mister ware's misfortunes out of him
and then makes use of it will be no friend of mine ask them to be sports mister fink there's a dear i'll do what i can he promised mister ware isn't the first man in the world who has funked the limelight
and from what i can see of him it probably wasn't his fault if things did go a little crooked in the past i'll do my best miss dalstan i promise you that i'll look in at the club to night and drop a few hints around
elizabeth patted his hand and smiled at him very sweetly the conversation flowed back once more into its former channels became a medley of confused chaff disjointed streams of congratulation
of toast drinking and pleasant speeches then mister fink suddenly rose to his feet say he exclaimed we've all drunk one another's healths there's just one other friend i think we ought to take a glass of wine with
gee he'd give something to be with us to night you'll agree with me miss dalstan i know let's empty a full glass to sylvanus power there was a curious silence for a second or two
for a single moment philip felt a sharp pang at his heart elizabeth was gazing steadily out of the room a queer tremble at her lips a look in her eyes which puzzled him a look almost of fear
of some sort of apprehension the moment passed but her enthusiasm as she raised her glass was a little overdone her gaiety too easily assumed why of course she declared
fancy not thinking of sylvanus they drank his health noisily philip set down his glass empty a curious instinct kept his lips sealed he crushed down and stifled the memory of that sudden stab
he did not even ask the one natural question
but then one never knows really where he is philip became naturally the central figure of the little gathering mister fink was anxious to arrange a little dinner to introduce him to some fellow workers
noel bridges insisted upon a card for the lambs club and a luncheon there philip accepted gratefully everything that was offered to him it was no good doing things by halves he told himself
the days of his solitude were over even when after the departure of his guests he glanced for a moment into the anteroom beyond and remembered those few throbbing moments of suspense
they came back to him with a curious sense of unreality they belonged surety to some other man living in some other world you are happy elizabeth murmured
as she took his arm and they waited in the portico below for her automobile he had no longer any idea of telling her of that disquieting visit the touch of her hair blown against his cheek
as he had helped her on with her cloak something in her voice some slight diffidence a queer half expostulating look in the eyes
drove every thought of future danger out of his mind he had at least the present he answered without a moment's hesitation for the first time in my life
she gave the chauffeur a whispered order as she stepped into the car i have told him to go home by riverside drive she said as they glided off it is a little farther
and i love the air at this time of night he clasped her fingers suddenly felt with the leaning of her body
with that wave of passion there was an instant and portentous change in their attitudes the soft protectiveness which had sometimes seemed to shine out of her face to envelop him in its warmth had disappeared
she was no longer the stronger she looked at him almost with fear and he was electrically conscious of all the vigour and strength of his stunted manhood was master at last of his fate
accepting battle willing to fight whatever might come for the sake of the joy of these moments
twardowski the polish faust toward the close of the eighteenth century there was pointed out to visitors in the old town of krakau the house of the magician twardowski who quite properly was called
the faust of poland because of his dealings with the evil one in his youth twardowski had followed the study of medicine
that it was not long before he was the most celebrated doctor in all poland but twardowski was not satisfied with this he craved greater and still greater power at last one day as he was reading
he found in an old book of magic that for which he had long been seeking the formula for summoning the devil when night came a storm had risen but caring not for that he hurried away to the lonely mountain kremenki
there in a rudely constructed hut he began his incantations before long there was an earthquake great rocks were loosened the ground opened at twardowski's feet and flames leaped out
and in the flames appeared the evil one himself in the form of a man
what do you wish the devil asked the power of your most secret wisdom was the answer and how is this to be done
and shall besides give me such happiness as no man has ever enjoyed upon this earth before so be it said the devil but on condition that at the end of seven years i gain possession of your soul
but only in rome may you have power over me thither at the end of seven years will i go the devil hesitated over this clause but thinking of the fun he could have in the holy city finally agreed
leaning against the wall of stone he wrote the compact which twardowski making a slight wound in his arm signed with his own blood when twardowski descended from the mountain and made his way
book under arm through the valley he heard the bells in all the towers of the city ringing out clearly and solemnly on the still night air he listened wondering at the unaccustomed noise then
hurried into the town inquiring from every one he met what the occasion was but no one seemed to have heard the sound then a deep feeling of sadness came over him as he realized the meaning of the bells
they were the funeral knell of his own soul when morning came however doubts were forgotten and twardowski was glad to have the devil at his command
the first thing that he demanded was to have all the silver of poland gathered together in one place and covered over with great mounds of sand similar requests followed and it was not long before the devil repented of his bargain
one day it would please twardowski to fly without wings through the air on another to the delight of the crowd to gallop backward on a cock on another to float in a boat without a rudder or sail accompanied by some maiden
who for the moment had inflamed his heart one day by the use of his magic mirror he set fire to the castle of an enemy a mile away this last feat made him greatly feared by people far and wide
at last the seven years were up the devil appeared to twardowski and said twardowski the time of our pact is over and i command you to fulfill your promise and go to rome what shall i do there
give me your immortal soul was the answer do you think i am a fool asked twardowski you gave me your promise to go to rome after seven years that i have already done said twardowski
and i did not promise to stay in rome noble deceiver exclaimed the evil one stupid devil cried twardowski then after a struggle the devil vanished
and twardowski returned home for over a year he pored incessantly over his books of magic until at last he found a formula for warding off death
and explained that he was going to test the formula you have always obliged me without question said twardowski and i expect you to now take this knife and thrust it into my heart
why are you frightened i know what i am doing take the knife and kill me as the parchment directs i cannot you must insisted twardowski it is impossible
no more exclamations do as i tell you
strike thundered twardowski or i will kill you this instant then famulus did as he was bid and forced the blade into his master's heart twardowski uttered a low cry
fell and was soon dead
what he must do to restore the body to life then he set about the task severed the limbs of the dead body and worked and brewed and distilled until the elixir described in the parchment was prepared
with the elixir he rubbed the members of the master's body put them together and laid the corpse in a coffin this he buried on the following night explaining to twardowski's friends
that such had been the master's wish now the parchment stated that the body must remain in the grave seven years seven months seven days and seven hours
at last the time had expired and on a snowy cold december night he found his way to the grave he dug out the coffin brushed off the snow and earth opened the casket
and found not the body of twardowski but that of a child who lay sleeping in a bed of fragrant violets the child is like twardowski
under his cloak and carried him home the next morning the child was the size of a twelve year old and after seven weeks he was a full grown man twardowski who now seemed quite himself
only younger and stronger thanked famulus and resumed again his study of magic he desired above all things to be freed forever from his compact with the devil this he read in one of the books
he might do if he would brave the terrors of the underworld so twardowski determined to enter the gates of hell at his magic speech the ground opened and he began the path of descent
blue flames lighted the way deeper and deeper he went through dark and winding passages at last he reached the underworld itself and many awful sights did he behold
and the farther he went the more frightened did he become he could not help feeling that the devil had plotted something against him finally he found himself in a small room and cast a hasty glance around
looking for a means of escape seeing a child in a cradle in one corner of the room he seized it hastily threw his cloak around it and was about to leave when the door opened and the evil one entered
he made a respectful bow and said will you be good enough to go with me now why so asked twardowski obstinately because of our agreement but said the magician
only in rome have you power over me yes replied the devil and rome is the name of this house you think to trick me by a pun but you cannot
i carry this talisman of innocence and throwing aside his cloak he disclosed the sleeping child anger showed in the face of the devil but he stepped nearer to twardowski and said softly
what are you thinking of twardowski have you forgotten your promise
pride awoke in the breast of the magician i must keep my word he said
the magician was so terrified and suffered such anguish in the clutches of the evil one that in a few moments he was changed into an old man but he did not lose consciousness at last so high were they
that cities appeared like flies and krakau with its mighty turrets like two spiders deeply moved twardowski looked down upon the scene of all his struggles and all his joys
but higher and higher they went higher than any eagle has ever flown and more lonely and more fearful did it seem to twardowski only occasionally bright stars passed by them or fiery meteors
leaving a long streak of light behind at last they came to the moon which stared at them with dead eyes then a song that twardowski had read in his mother's hymn book rose to his lips
and as he repeated mechanically the prayer his mother had taught him an angel suddenly appeared and said satan let twardowski go and you twardowski hang you there between heaven and earth
to atone for your sin until the last judgment then will you be reunited with your mother in heaven the prayer which you remembered in your hour of need has saved you and so
was regarded by the greeks first as the god of all aerial phenomena secondly as the personification of the laws of nature thirdly as lord of state life and fourthly
as the father of gods and men as the god of aerial phenomena
tempests and intense darkness at his command the mighty thunder rolls the lightning flashes and the clouds open and pour forth their refreshing streams to fructify the earth
as the personification of the operations of nature he represents those grand laws of unchanging and harmonious order by which not only the physical but
hence he is the god of regulated time as marked by the changing seasons and by the regular succession of day and night in contradistinction to his father cronus
who represents time absolutely
eternity as the lord of state life he is the founder of kingly power the upholder of all institutions connected with the state and the special friend and patron of princes
whom he guards and assists with his advice and counsel he protects the assembly of the people and in fact watches over the welfare of the whole community as the father of the gods
zeus sees that each deity performs his or her individual duty punishes their misdeeds settles their disputes and acts towards them on all occasions
as the father of men he takes a paternal interest in the actions and well being of mortals he watches over them with tender solicitude rewarding truth charity and uprightness
but severely punishing perjury cruelty and want of hospitality even the poorest and most forlorn wanderer finds in him a powerful advocate for he
by a wise and merciful dispensation ordains that the mighty ones of the earth should succour their distressed and needy brethren
was on the top of mount olympus that high and lofty mountain between thessaly and macedon whose summit wrapt in clouds and mist was hidden from mortal view
it was supposed that this mysterious region which even a bird could not reach extended beyond the clouds
the realm of the immortal gods the poets describe this ethereal atmosphere as bright glistening and refreshing exercising a peculiar gladdening influence
over the minds and hearts of those privileged beings permitted to share its delights here youth never ages and the passing years leave no traces on its favoured inhabitants on the cloud capped summit of olympus
were yet similar to that of zeus in design and workmanship all being the work of the divine artist hephaestus below these were other palaces of silver ebony ivory or burnished brass
where the heroes or demi gods resided as the worship of zeus formed so important a feature in the religion of the greeks his statues were necessarily both numerous and magnificent
his countenance expressing all the lofty majesty of the omnipotent ruler of the universe combined with the gracious yet serious benignity of the father and friend of mankind
he may be recognized by his rich flowing beard and the thick masses of hair which rise straight from the high and intellectual forehead and fall to his shoulders in clustering locks
the nose is large and finely formed
which invites confidence he is always accompanied by an eagle which either surmounts his sceptre or sits at his feet he generally bears in his uplifted hand a sheaf of thunder bolts
just ready to be hurled whilst in the other he holds the lightning the head is frequently encircled with
was that by the famous athenian sculptor phidias which was forty feet high and stood in the temple of zeus at olympia it was formed of ivory and gold
that it was reckoned among the seven wonders of the world it represented the god seated on a throne holding in his right hand a life sized image of nike the goddess of victory
and in his left a royal sceptre surmounted by an eagle it is said that the great sculptor had concentrated all the marvellous powers of his genius on this sublime conception
and earnestly entreated zeus to give him a decided proof that his labours were approved an answer to his prayer came through the open roof of the temple in the shape of a flash of lightning
which phidias interpreted as a sign that the god of heaven was pleased with his work zeus was first worshipped at dodona
where at the foot of mount tomarus on the woody shore of lake joanina was his famous oracle the most ancient in greece here the voice of the eternal and invisible god
was supposed to be heard in the rustling leaves of a giant oak announcing to mankind the will of heaven and the destiny of mortals these revelations being interpreted to the people by the priests of zeus
who were called selli recent excavations which have been made at this spot have brought to light the ruins of the ancient temple of zeus and also among other interesting relics some plates of lead
on which are engraved inquiries which were evidently made by certain individuals who consulted the oracle these little leaden plates speak to us as it were in a curiously homely manner
of a by gone time in the buried past one person inquires what god he should apply to for health and fortune another asks for advice concerning his child and a third evidently a shepherd
promises a gift to the oracle should a speculation in sheep turn out successfully had these little memorials been of gold instead of lead they would doubtless have shared the fate of the numerous treasures
which adorned this and other temples in the universal pillage which took place when greece fell into the hands of barbarians though dodona was the most ancient of his shrines
the great national seat of the worship of zeus was at olympia in elis
above described crowds of devout worshippers flocked to this world renowned fane from all parts of greece
but also to join in the celebrated games which were held there at intervals of four years the olympic games were such a thoroughly national institution that even greeks who had left their native country
made a point of returning on these occasions if possible in order to contend with their fellow countrymen in the various athletic sports which took place at these festivals
it will be seen on reflection that in a country like greece which contained so many petty states often at variance with each other these national gatherings must have been most valuable as a means of uniting the greeks
in one great bond of brotherhood on these festive occasions the whole nation met together forgetting for the moment all past differences and uniting in the enjoyment of the same festivities
it will doubtless have been remarked that in the representations of zeus he is always accompanied by an eagle this royal bird was sacred to him probably from the fact of its being the only creature capable
of gazing at the sun without being dazzled which may have suggested the idea that it was able to contemplate the splendour of divine majesty unshrinkingly the oak tree and also the summits of mountains
were sacred to zeus his sacrifices consisted of white bulls cows and goats zeus had seven immortal wives whose names were metis themis eurynome
turned the point of sandy hook and put to sea during the day she skirted long island passed fire island and directed her course rapidly eastward
it might be thought that this was captain speedy not the least in the world it was phileas fogg esquire as for captain speedy he was shut up in his cabin under lock and key and was uttering loud cries which signified an anger at once pardonable and excessive what had happened was very simple
phileas fogg wished to go to liverpool but the captain would not carry him there
and were not on the best terms with the captain went over to him in a body
why the captain was a prisoner in his cabin and why in short the henrietta was directing her course towards liverpool it was very clear to see mister fogg manage the craft that he had been a sailor how the adventure ended will be seen anon
as for passepartout he thought mister fogg's manoeuvre simply glorious the captain had said between eleven and twelve knots and the henrietta confirmed his prediction if then for there were ifs still the sea did not become too boisterous if the wind did not veer round to the east if no accident happened to the boat or its machinery
the henrietta might cross the three thousand miles from new york to liverpool in the nine days between the twelfth and the twenty first of december it is true that once arrived the affair on board the henrietta added to that of the bank of england might create more difficulties for mister fogg
or could desire during the first days they went along smoothly enough
his master's last exploit the consequences of which he ignored enchanted him never had the crew seen so jolly and dexterous a fellow he formed warm friendships with the sailors and amazed them with his acrobatic feats he thought they managed the vessel like gentlemen
and that the stokers fired up like heroes his loquacious good humour infected everyone he had forgotten the past its vexations and delays he only thought of the end so nearly accomplished and sometimes he boiled over with impatience as if heated by the furnaces of the henrietta
often also the worthy fellow revolved around fix looking at him with a keen distrustful eye but he did not speak to him
was not going to liverpool at all but to some part of the world where the robber turned into a pirate would quietly put himself in safety the conjecture was at least a plausible one and the detective began to seriously regret that he had embarked on the affair
as for captain speedy he continued to howl and growl in his cabin
courageous as he was took the greatest precautions mister fogg did not seem even to know that there was a captain on board on the thirteenth they passed the edge of the banks of newfoundland a dangerous locality during the winter especially there are frequent fogs and heavy gales of wind
ever since the evening before the barometer suddenly falling had indicated an approaching change in the atmosphere and during the night the temperature varied the cold became sharper and the wind veered to the south east this was a misfortune mister fogg in order not to deviate from his course
furled his sails and increased the force of the steam but the vessel's speed slackened owing to the state of the sea the long waves of which broke against the stern she pitched violently and this retarded her progress
and for two days the poor fellow experienced constant fright
and knew how to maintain headway against the sea and he kept on his course without even decreasing his steam
sometimes the screw rose out of the water beating its protruding end when a mountain of water raised the stern above the waves but the craft always kept straight ahead the wind however did not grow as boisterous as might have been feared it was not one of those tempests which burst
and rush on with a speed of ninety miles an hour it continued fresh but unhappily it remained obstinately in the south east rendering the sails useless the sixteenth of december was the seventy fifth day since phileas fogg's departure from london and the henrietta had not yet been seriously delayed
half of the voyage was almost accomplished and the worst localities had been passed
in winter they were at the mercy of the bad season passepartout said nothing but he cherished hope in secret and comforted himself with the reflection that if the wind failed them they might still count on the steam on this day the engineer came on deck went up to mister fogg and began to speak earnestly with him
he would have given one of his ears to hear with the other what the engineer was saying
you are certain of what you tell me certain sir replied the engineer you must remember that since we started we have kept up hot fires in all our furnaces and though we had coal enough to go on short steam from new york to bordeaux
he was seized with mortal anxiety the coal was giving out ah if my master can get over that muttered he he'll be a famous man he could not help imparting to fix what he had overheard
of course ass replied the detective shrugging his shoulders and turning on his heel
the reason of which he could not for the life of him comprehend
after having so awkwardly followed a false scent around the world and refrained and now what course would phileas fogg adopt it was difficult to imagine nevertheless he seemed to have decided upon one for that evening he sent for the engineer and said to him
feed all the fires until the coal is exhausted a few moments after the funnel of the henrietta vomited forth torrents of smoke the vessel continued to proceed with all steam on but on the eighteenth the engineer as he had predicted
replied mister fogg keep them up to the last let the valves be filled towards noon phileas fogg having ascertained their position called passepartout and ordered him to go for captain speedy
it was as if the honest fellow had been commanded to unchain a tiger he went to the poop saying to himself he will be like a madman in a few moments with cries and oaths a bomb appeared on the poop deck the bomb was captain speedy
it was clear that he was on the point of bursting where are we were the first words his anger permitted him to utter had the poor man been an apoplectic he could never have recovered from his paroxysm of wrath
seven hundred and seven miles from liverpool replied mister fogg with imperturbable calmness
cried captain speedy i have sent for you sir pickaroon sir continued mister fogg to ask you to sell me your vessel no
but i shall be obliged to burn her burn the henrietta yes at least the upper part of her the coal has given out burn my vessel cried captain speedy who could scarcely pronounce the words
a vessel worth fifty thousand dollars here are sixty thousand replied phileas fogg handing the captain a roll of bank bills this had a prodigious effect on andrew speedy an american can scarcely remain unmoved at the sight of sixty thousand dollars
the henrietta was twenty years old it was a great bargain
mister fogg had taken away the match and i shall still have the iron hull
the iron hull and the engine is it agreed agreed and andrew speedy seizing the banknotes counted them and consigned them to his pocket during this colloquy
nearly twenty thousand pounds had been expended and fogg left the hull and engine to the captain that is near the whole value of the craft it was true however that fifty five thousand pounds had been stolen from the bank when andrew speedy had pocketed the money mister fogg said to him
don't let this astonish you sir you must know that i shall lose twenty thousand pounds unless i arrive in london by a quarter before nine on the evening of the twenty first of december i missed the steamer at new york and as you refused to take me to liverpool
for i have gained at least forty thousand dollars by it he added more sedately
fogg captain fogg
and having paid his passenger what he considered a high compliment he was going away when mister fogg said the vessel now belongs to me
very well have the interior seats bunks and frames pulled down and burn them
and on that day the poop cabins bunks and the spare deck were sacrificed on the next day the nineteenth of december the masts rafts and spars were burned the crew worked lustily keeping up the fires
with all steam on and the steam was about to give out altogether sir said captain speedy who was now deeply interested in mister fogg's project i really commiserate you everything is against you
ah said mister fogg is that place where we see the lights queenstown yes can we enter the harbour
stay replied mister fogg calmly without betraying in his features that by a supreme inspiration he was about to attempt once more to conquer ill fortune queenstown is the irish port at which the trans atlantic steamers stop to put off the mails
these mails are carried to dublin by express trains always held in readiness to start from dublin they are sent on to liverpool by the most rapid boats and thus gain twelve hours on the atlantic steamers phileas fogg counted on gaining twelve hours in the same way
instead of arriving at liverpool the next evening by the henrietta he would be there by noon and would therefore have time to reach london before a quarter before nine in the evening the henrietta entered queenstown harbour at one o'clock in the morning it then being high tide
left that gentleman on the levelled hulk of his craft
the party went on shore at once fix was greatly tempted to arrest mister fogg on the spot but he did not why what struggle was going on within him had he changed his mind about his man did he understand that he had made a grave mistake
he did not however abandon mister fogg they all got upon the train which was just ready to start at half past one at dawn of day they were in dublin and they lost no time in embarking on a steamer which disdaining to rise upon the waves invariably cut through them
at twenty minutes before twelve twenty first december he was only six hours distant from london
chapter twelve two years afterward it was a pleasant morning in early june a warm wind was rustling the trees which were covered thickly with half opened leaves and looked like fountains of green spray thrown high into the air
doctor carr's front door stood wide open through the parlor window came the sound of piano practice and on the steps under the budding roses sat a small figure busily sewing this was clover little clover still though more than two years had passed since we saw her last
and she was now over fourteen clover was never intended to be tall her eyes were as blue and sweet as ever
but the brown pig tails were pinned up into a round knot and the childish face had gained almost a womanly look old mary declared that miss clover was getting quite young ladyfied and miss clover was quite aware of the fact and mightily pleased with it
it delighted her to turn up her hair and she was very particular about having her dresses made to come below the tops of her boots she had also left off ruffles and wore narrow collars instead and little cuffs with sleeve buttons to fasten them
these sleeve buttons which were a present from cousin helen clover liked best of all her things papa said that he was sure she took them to bed with her but of course that was only a joke though she certainly was never seen without them in the daytime
he had grown into a big boy all his pretty baby curls were cut off and his frocks had given place to jacket and trousers in his hand he held something what clover could not see what's that she said as he reached the steps
why of course they're not ripe said clover putting one into her mouth can't you tell by the taste they're as green as can be i don't care if katy says they're ripe i shall eat em
answered phil defiantly marching into the house what did philly want asked elsie opening the parlor door as phil went up stairs
how particular he always is about asking now said elsie he's afraid of another dose of salts i should think he would be replied clover laughing
yes went on elsie and you know dorry held his in his mouth for ever so long and then went round the corner of the house and spat it out papa said he had a good mind to make him take another spoonful
but he remembered that after all dorry had the bad taste a great deal longer than the others so he didn't i think it was an awful punishment don't you yes but it was a good one
for none of them have ever touched the green gooseberries since have you got through practising it doesn't seem like an hour yet oh it isn't it's only twenty five minutes but katy told me not to sit more than half an hour at a time without getting up and running round to rest
i'm going to walk twice down to the gate and twice back i promised her i would and elsie set off clapping her hands briskly before and behind her as she walked why what is bridget doing in papa's room she asked as she came back the second time
are the girls up there i thought they were cleaning the dining room they're doing both katy said it was such a good chance having papa away that she would have both the carpets taken up at once
there isn't going to be any dinner today only just bread and butter and milk and cold ham up in katy's room because debby is helping too so as to get through and save papa all the fuss and see exhibiting her sewing katy's making a new cover for papa's pincushion
and i'm hemming the ruffle to go round it how nicely you hem said elsie i wish i had something for papa's room too there's my washstand mats but the one for the soap dish isn't finished
do you suppose if katy would excuse me from the rest of my practising i could get it done i've a great mind to go and ask her there's her bell said clover as a little tinkle sounded up stairs i'll ask her if you like no let me go
i'll see what she wants but clover was already half way across the hall and the two girls ran up side by side there was often a little strife between them as to which should answer katy's bell both liked to wait on her so much katy came to meet them as they entered
not on her feet that alas was still only a far off possibility but in a chair with large wheels with which she was rolling herself across the room this chair was a great comfort to her sitting in it she could get to her closet and her bureau drawers
and help herself to what she wanted without troubling anybody it was only lately that she had been able to use it doctor carr considered her doing so as a hopeful sign but he had never told katy this she had grown accustomed to her invalid life at last
which might after all end in fresh disappointment she met the girls with a bright smile as they came in and said oh clovy it was you i rang for
you know he likes them to be left just so will you please go and remind her that she is not to touch them at all after the carpet is put down i want you to dust the table so as to be sure that everything is put back in the same place will you
of course i will said clover who was a born housewife and dearly loved to act as katy's prime minister sha'n't i fetch you the pincushion too while i'm there oh yes please do i want to measure
katy said elsie those mats of mine are most done and
mayn't i stop practising now and bring my crochet up here instead will there be plenty of time to learn the new exercise before miss phillips comes if you do i think so plenty she doesn't come till friday you know
and elsie dear run into papa's room first and bring me the drawer out of his table i want to put that in order myself elsie went cheerfully she laid the drawer across katy's lap and katy began to dust and arrange the contents pretty soon clover joined them
i like this sort of day when nobody comes in to interrupt us somebody tapped at the door as she spoke katy called out come
and is turning out clever in several ways among the rest he has developed a strong turn for mechanics here's your clock katy he said i've got it fixed so that it strikes all right
only you must be careful not to hit the striker when you start the pendulum have you really said katy why dorry you're a genius i'm ever so much obliged
went on dorry so it'll strike pretty soon i guess i'd better stay and hear it so as to be sure that it is right that is he added politely
said katy stroking his arm here this drawer is arranged now don't you want to carry it into papa's room and put it back into the table your hands are stronger than elsie's dorry looked gratified
when he came back the clock was just beginning to strike there he exclaimed that's splendid isn't it but alas the clock did not stop at eleven it went on twelve thirteen
fourteen fifteen sixteen dear me said clover what does all this mean
dorry stared with open mouth at the clock
elsie screaming with laughter kept count thirty thirty one
you've bewitched it dorry said katy as much entertained as the rest then they all began counting dorry seized the clock shook it slapped it turned it upside down
till it was tired out at last at the one hundred and thirtieth stroke it suddenly ceased and dorry
it's very queer he said
i can fix it though if you'll let me try again may i katy i'll promise not to hurt it for a moment katy hesitated clover pulled her sleeve and whispered don't
then seeing the mortification on dorry's face she made up her mind yes take it dorry i'm sure you'll be careful
and talk it over with them together you could hit on just the right thing
perhaps said dorry
then he departed with the clock under his arm while clover called after him teasingly lunch at one hundred thirty two o'clock don't forget no i won't said dorry
how could you let him take your clock again said clover as soon as the door was shut
and you think so much of it i thought he would feel mortified if i didn't let him try replied katy quietly i don't believe he'll hurt it wetherell's man likes dorry and he'll show him what to do
you were real good to do it responded clover but if it had been mine i don't think i could just then the door flew open and johnnie rushed in
she gasped won't you please tell philly not to wash the chickens in the rain water tub he's put in every one of speckle's and is just beginning on dame durden's i'm afraid one little yellow one is dead already
what made him think of such a thing he says they're dirty because they've just come out of egg shells and he insists that the yellow on them is yolk of egg i told him it wasn't but he wouldn't listen to me and johnnie wrung her hands
cried katy won't you run down and ask philly to come up to me speak pleasantly you know i spoke pleasantly
but it wasn't any use said johnnie on whom the wrongs of the chicks had evidently made a deep impression what a mischief phil is getting to be
papa says his name ought to be pickle
replied katy laughing pretty soon philly came up escorted by clover he looked a little defiant but katy understood how to manage him she lifted him into her lap which big boy as he was he liked extremely
and talked to him so affectionately about the poor little shivering chicks that his heart was quite melted
he said but they were all dirty and yellow with egg you know and i thought you'd like me to clean em up but that wasn't egg philly it was dear little clean feathers like a canary bird's wings was it
yes and now the chickies are as cold and forlorn as you would feel if you tumbled into a pond and nobody gave you any dry clothes don't you think you ought to go and warm them how
in your hands very gently and then i would let them run round in the sun
only kiss me first because i didn't mean to you know philly was very fond of katy miss petingill said it was wonderful to see how that child let himself be managed but i think the secret was that katy didn't manage
before the echo of phil's boots had fairly died away on the stairs old mary put her head into the door there was a distressed expression on her face miss katy she said
i wish you'd speak to alexander about putting the woodshed in order i don't think you know how bad it looks i don't suppose i do said katy smiling and then sighing
she had never seen the wood shed since the day of her fall from the swing never mind mary i'll talk to alexander about it and he shall make it all nice mary trotted down stairs satisfied
but in the course of a few minutes she was up again
miss katy and here's the bill he says it's resated
and elsie had to move from her seat at the table oh dear she said
she was not left to wonder long almost as she spoke there was another knock at the door
said katy rather wearily the door opened shall i said a voice
katy could not think who it was at first
i found the front door open
and as nobody seemed to hear when i rang the bell i ventured to come right up stairs i hope i'm not interrupting anything private not at all said katy politely elsie dear move up that low chair please
do sit down imogen i'm sorry nobody answered your ring but the servants are cleaning house to day and i suppose they didn't hear so imogen sat down and began to rattle on in her usual manner
while elsie from behind katy's chair took a wide awake survey of her dress
when she waved her head about she still had the little round curls stuck on to her cheeks and elsie wondered anew what kept them in their places
the clark family were all going back to jacksonville to live did you ever see the brigand again asked clover who had never forgotten that eventful tale told in the parlor yes replied imogen
several times and i get letters from him quite often
you would enjoy it i know let me see perhaps i have and she put her hand into her pocket sure enough there was a letter
hm hm
i took dinner at the rock house on christmas it was lonesome without you i had roast turkey roast goose roast beef mince pie plum pudding and nuts and raisins a pretty good dinner was it not
but nothing tastes first rate when friends are away katy and clover stared as well they might such language from a brigand john billings has bought a new horse
continued imogen hm hm hm him i don't think there is anything else you'd care about oh yes just here at the end is some poetry come little dove with azure wing
and brood upon my breast that's sweet ain't it hasn't he reformed said clover he writes as if he had reformed
he was always just as good as he could be there was nothing to be said in reply to this
about something else all the time she found herself taking measure of imogen and thinking did i ever really like her how queer
then she took her leave she never asked how you were cried elsie indignantly
then the door bell rang and bridget with a disturbed face came up stairs miss katy she said
and i reckon's she's come to spend the day for she's brought her bag what ever shall i tell her katy looked dismayed oh dear she said how unlucky
what can we do missus worrett was an old friend of aunt izzie's who lived in the country about six miles from burnet and was in the habit of coming to doctor carr's for lunch on days when shopping or other business brought her into town
this did not occur often and as it happened katy had never had to entertain her before tell her ye're busy and can't see her suggested bridget there's no dinner nor nothing you know
the katy of two years ago would probably have jumped at this idea but the katy of to day was more considerate
i don't like to do that we must just make the best of it bridget run down clover dear that's a good girl
bridget you can bring up the luncheon just the same only take out some canned peaches by way of a dessert and make missus worrett a cup of tea she drinks tea always i believe i can't bear to send the poor old lady away when she has come so far
she explained to elsie after the others were gone pull the rocking chair a little this way elsie and oh push all those little chairs back against the wall missus worrett broke down in one the last time she was here don't you recollect
it took some time to cool missus worrett off so nearly twenty minutes passed before a heavy creaking step on the stairs announced that the guest was on her way up elsie began to giggle missus worrett always made her giggle
katy had just time to give her a warning glance before the door opened missus worrett was the most enormously fat person ever seen nobody dared to guess how much she weighed but she looked as if it might be a thousand pounds
her face was extremely red in the coldest weather she appeared hot
her bonnet strings were flying loose as she came in and she fanned herself all the way across the room which shook as she walked
she said as she plumped herself into the rocking chair and how do you do very well thank you replied katy thinking that she never saw missus worrett look half so fat before
and how's your pa inquired missus worrett katy answered politely and then asked after missus worrett's own health well i'm so's to be round was the reply
i had business at the bank continued the visitor and i thought while i was about it i'd step up to miss petingill's and see if i couldn't get her to come and let out my black silk it was made quite a piece back
and i seem to have fleshed up since then for i can't make the hooks and eyes meet at all but when i got there she was out so i'd my walk for nothing do you know where she's sewing now
no said katy feeling her chair shake and keeping her own countenance with difficulty she was here for three days last week to make johnnie a school dress
but i haven't heard anything about her since elsie
a a glass of iced water for missus worrett she looks warm after her walk elsie dreadfully ashamed made a bolt from the room and hid herself in the hall closet to have her laugh out
she came back after a while with a perfectly straight face luncheon was brought up missus worrett made a good meal and seemed to enjoy everything
oh how long that afternoon did seem to the poor girls sitting there and trying to think of something to say to their vast visitor at last missus worrett got out of her chair and prepared to depart well she said tying her bonnet strings
i've had a good rest and feel all the better for it
i'd like to have you first rate if you will tain't every girl would know how to take care of a fat old woman and make her feel to home as you have me katy i wish your aunt could see you all as you are now
she'd be right pleased i know that somehow this sentence rang pleasantly in katy's ears ah don't laugh at her she said later in the evening when the children after their tea in the clean fresh smelling dining room were come up to sit with her
and cecy in her pretty pink lawn and white shawl had dropped in to spend an hour or two she's a real kind old woman and i don't like to have you it isn't her fault that she's fat and aunt izzie was fond of her you know
it is doing something for her when we can show a little attention to one of her friends i was sorry when she came but now it's over i'm glad it feels so nice when it stops aching quoted elsie mischievously
isn't katy sweet isn't she replied clover
chapter twenty two desolation in the meantime there was grief down at the great house of clavering and grief we must suppose also at the house in berkeley square
as soon as the news from his country home had reached sir hugh clavering little hughy his heir was dead
early one morning missus clavering at the rectory received a message from lady clavering begging that she would go up to the house and on arriving there she found that the poor child was very ill
the doctor was then at clavering and had recommended that a message should be sent to the father in london begging him to come down this message had been already despatched when missus clavering arrived
the poor mother was in a state of terrible agony but at that time there was yet hope missus clavering then remained with lady clavering for two or three hours but just before dinner on the same day
another messenger came across to say that hope was past and that the child had gone could missus clavering come over again as lady clavering was in a sad way
no i think not i shall wish to make her take something and i can do it better if i ask for tea for myself i will go at once poor dear little boy it was a blow i always feared
said the rector to his daughter as soon as his wife had left them indeed i knew that it was coming and she was always fearing it said fanny but i do not think he did he never seems to think that evil will come to him
he will feel this said the rector feel it papa of course he will feel it
who ever heard him say a soft word to his wife but he will feel it now for this child was his heir he will be hit hard now and i pity him
missus clavering went across the park alone and soon found herself in the poor bereaved mother's room she was sitting by herself having driven the old house keeper away from her
and there were no traces of tears then on her face though she had wept plentifully when missus clavering had been with her in the morning
which nothing but such sorrow as this can produce missus clavering was surprised to see that she had dressed herself carefully since the morning as was her custom to do daily even when alone
and that she was not in her bedroom but in a small sitting room which she generally used when sir hugh was not at the park
yes i am poor poor enough why have they troubled you to come across again did you not send for me but it was quite right whether you sent or no of course i should come when i heard it
it cannot be good for you to be all alone i suppose he will be here to night yes if he got your message before three o'clock oh he will have received it and i suppose he will come
you think he will come eh of course he will come i do not know he does not like coming to the country he will be sure to come now hermione and who will tell him some one must tell him before he comes to me
should there not be some one to tell him they have sent another message hannah shall be at hand to tell him hannah was the old housekeeper who had been in the family when sir hugh was born
or if you wish it henry shall come down and remain here i am sure he will do so if it will be a comfort no he would perhaps be rough to mister clavering he is so very hard hannah shall do it
will you make her understand missus clavering promised that she would do this wondering as she did so at the wretched frigid immobility of the unfortunate woman before her she knew lady clavering well
knew her to be in many things weak to be worldly listless and perhaps somewhat selfish but she knew also that she had loved her child as mothers always love
missus clavering had sat down by her and taken her hand and was still so sitting in silence when lady clavering spoke again i suppose he will turn me out of his house now she said
who will do so hugh oh
my darling how could i help it and he scolded me because there was none other but he he will turn me out altogether now oh missus clavering you do not know how hard he is
anything was better than this and therefore missus clavering asked the poor woman to take her into the room where the little body lay in its little cot if she could induce the mother to weep for the child
even that would be better than this hard persistent fear as to what her husband would say and do
whose short sufferings had thus been brought to an end my poor dear what can i say to comfort you missus clavering as she asked this knew well that no comfort could be spoken in words but if she could only make the sufferer weep
comfort said the mother there is no comfort now i believe in anything it is long since i knew any comfort not since julia went have you written to julia
no i have written to no one i cannot write i feel as though if it were to bring him back again i could not write of it my boy my boy my boy but still
there was not a tear in her eye i will write to julia said missus clavering and i will read to you my letter no do not read it me what is the use he has made her quarrel with me
julia cares nothing now for me or for my angel why should she care when she came home we would not see her of course she will not care who is there that will care for me
yes because you are here
if they were rightly performed would in their performance soften the misery of her lot lady clavering listened with that dull useless attention
which on such occasions sorrow always gives to the prudent counsels of friendship
and watching the moment of his expected return in her heart she wished that he might not come on that evening at last at half past nine she exerted herself to send away her visitor
he will be here soon if he comes to night lady clavering said and it will be better that he should find me alone will it be better
yes yes cannot you see how he would frown and shake his head if you were here i would sooner be alone when he comes good night
but you are always kind things are done kindly always at your house because there is so much love there you will write to julia for me good night then missus clavering kissed her and went
thinking as she walked home in the dark to the rectory how much she had to be thankful in that these words had been true which her poor neighbor had spoken
i conceived the desire of writing a book to scribble secretly and dream of authorship was one of my chief alleviations and i read with a sympathetic envy every scrap
i could get about the world of literature and the lives of literary people it is something even amidst this present happiness to find leisure and opportunity to take up and partially realize these old and hopeless dreams
would not i think suffice to set me at this desk i find some such recapitulation of my past as this will involve is becoming necessary to my own secure mental continuity
the passage of years brings a man at last to retrospection at seventy two one's youth is far more important than it was at forty and i am out of touch with my youth
the old life seems so cut off from the new so alien and so unreasonable that at times i find it bordering upon the incredible the data have gone the buildings and places
i stopped dead the other afternoon in my walk across the moor where once the dismal outskirts of swathinglea straggled toward leet
and loaded my revolver ready for murder did ever such a thing happen in my life was such a mood and thought and intention ever possible to me
rather has not some queer nightmare spirit out of dreamland slipped a pseudo memory into the records of my vanished life
and i think too that those who are now growing up to take our places in the great enterprise of mankind will need many such narratives as mine for even the most partial conception of the old world of shadows that came before our day
i was caught midway in a gust of passion and a curious accident put me for a time in the very nucleus of the new order
to a little ill lit room with a sash window open to a starry sky and instantly there returns to me the characteristic smell of that room the penetrating odor of an ill trimmed lamp
burning cheap paraffin lighting by electricity had then been perfected for fifteen years but still the larger portion of the world used these lamps
all this first scene will go in my mind at least to that olfactory accompaniment that was the evening smell of the room by day it had a more subtle aroma a closeness
let me describe this room to you in detail it was perhaps eight feet by seven in area and rather higher than either of these dimensions the ceiling was of plaster cracked and bulging in places
gray with the soot of the lamp and in one place discolored by a system of yellow and olive green stains caused by the percolation of damp from above
the walls were covered with dun colored paper upon which had been printed in oblique reiteration a crimson shape something of the nature of a curly ostrich feather or an acanthus flower
that had in its less faded moments a sort of dingy gaiety there were several big plaster rimmed wounds in this
caused by parload's ineffectual attempts to get nails into the wall whereby there might hang pictures one nail had hit between two bricks and got home
and from this depended sustained a little insecurely by frayed and knotted blind cord parload's hanging bookshelves planks painted over with a treacly blue enamel and further decorated by a fringe of pinked american cloth
insecurely fixed by tacks below this was a little table that behaved with a mulish vindictiveness to any knee that was thrust beneath it suddenly
had been rendered less monotonous
stood and stank the lamp this lamp you must understand was of some whitish translucent substance that was neither china nor glass
it had a shade of the same substance a shade that did not protect the eyes of a reader in any measure and it seemed admirably adapted to bring into pitiless prominence the fact that
after the lamp's trimming dust and paraffin had been smeared over its exterior with a reckless generosity the uneven floor boards of this apartment were covered with scratched enamel of chocolate hue
on which a small island of frayed carpet dimly blossomed in the dust and shadows there was a very small grate made of cast iron in one piece and painted buff
and a still smaller misfit of a cast iron fender that confessed the gray stone of the hearth no fire was laid only a few scraps of torn paper and the bowl of a broken corn cob pipe were visible behind the bars
and in the corner and rather thrust away was an angular japanned coal box with a damaged hinge
it was the custom in those days to warm every room separately from a separate fireplace more prolific of dirt than heat and the rickety sash window the small chimney and the loose fitting door
parload's truckle bed hid its gray sheets beneath an old patchwork counterpane on one side of the room and veiled his boxes and suchlike oddments
and invading the two corners of the window were an old whatnot
by some one with an excess of turnery appliances in a hurry who had tried to distract attention from the rough economies of his workmanship by an arresting ornamentation of blobs and bulbs upon the joints and legs
varnish and a set of flexible combs this person had first painted the article then i fancy smeared it with varnish
and then sat down to work with the combs to streak and comb the varnish into a weird imitation of the grain of some nightmare timber
the washhandstand so made had evidently had a prolonged career of violent use had been chipped kicked splintered punched stained scorched hammered dessicated
damped and defiled had met indeed with almost every possible adventure except a conflagration or a scrubbing until at last it had come to this high refuge of parload's attic
to sustain the simple requirements of parload's personal cleanliness there were in chief a basin and a jug of water and a slop pail of tin and further a piece of yellow soap in a tray a tooth brush
a rat tailed shaving brush one huckaback towel and one or two other minor articles in those days only very prosperous people had more than such an equipage
and it is to be remarked that every drop of water parload used had to be carried by an unfortunate servant girl the slavey parload called her up from the basement
to the top of the house and subsequently down again already we begin to forget how modern an invention is personal cleanliness it is a fact that parload had never stripped for a swim in his life
never had a simultaneous bath all over his body since his childhood not one in fifty of us did in the days of which i am telling you a chest also singularly grained and streaked
of two large and two small drawers held parload's reserve of garments and pegs on the door carried his two hats and completed this inventory of a bed sitting room as i knew it before the change
but i had forgotten there was also a chair with a squab that apologized inadequately for the defects of its cane seat i forgot that for the moment because i was sitting on the chair on the occasion that best begins this story
i have described parload's room with such particularity because it will help you to understand the key in which my earlier chapters are written
but you must not imagine that this singular equipment or the smell of the lamp engaged my attention at that time to the slightest degree
i took all this grimy unpleasantness as if it were the most natural and proper setting for existence imaginable it was the world as i knew it
my mind was entirely occupied then by graver and intenser matters
i recall with a vivid precision her queer start when she heard the rustle of my approaching feet her surprise her eyes almost of dismay for me
i could recollect i believe every significant word she spoke during our meeting and most of what i said to her at least it seems i could though indeed i may deceive myself but i will not make the attempt
we stamped out our feelings with clumsy stereotyped phrases you who are better taught would fail to catch our intention the effect would be inanity but our first words i may give you
afterwards they meant much you willie she said i have come i said forgetting in the instant all the elaborate things i had intended to say i thought i would surprise you surprise me
yes she stared at me for a moment i can see her pretty face now as it looked at me her impenetrable dear face she laughed a queer little laugh and her color went for a moment
and then so soon as she had spoken came back again surprise me at what she said with a rising note i was too intent to explain myself to think of what might lie in that i wanted to tell you i said that i didn't mean
quite the things i put in my letter section four when i and nettie had been sixteen we had been just of an age and contemporaries altogether
now we were a year and three quarters older and she her metamorphosis was almost complete and i was still only at the beginning of a man's long adolescence
in an instant she grasped the situation the hidden motives of her quick ripened little mind flashed out their intuitive scheme of action she treated me with that neat perfection of understanding a young woman has for a boy
but how did you come she asked i told her i had walked walked in an instant she was leading me towards the gardens
i must come home with her at once and sit down indeed it was near tea time the stuarts had tea at the old fashioned hour of five every one would be so surprised to see me fancy walking fancy but
she supposed a man thought nothing of seventeen miles when could i have started all the while keeping me at a distance without even the touch of her hand but nettie i came over to talk to you my dear boy
tea first if you please and besides aren't we talking the dear boy was a new note that sounded oddly to me she quickened her pace a little i wanted to explain i began
when we were well past the shrubbery she slackened a little in her urgency and so we came along the slope under the beeches to the garden she kept her bright straightforward looking girlish eyes on me as we went
it seemed she did so all the time but now i know better than i did then that every now and then she glanced over me and behind me towards the shrubbery
and all the while behind her quick breathless inconsecutive talk she was thinking her dress marked the end of her transition can i recall it not i am afraid in the terms a woman would use
was now caught up into an intricacy of pretty curves above her little ear and cheek and the soft long lines of her neck her white dress had descended to her feet
her slender waist which had once been a mere geographical expression an imaginary line like the equator was now a thing of flexible beauty
every movement and particularly the novel droop of her hand and arm to the unaccustomed skirts she gathered about her and a graceful forward inclination that had come to her called softly to my eyes
a very fine scarf i suppose you would call it a scarf of green gossamer that some new wakened instinct had told her to fling about her shoulders clung now closely to the young undulations of her body
and like some shy independent tentacle with a secret to impart came into momentary contact with my arm she caught it back and reproved it we went through the green gate in the high garden wall
i held it open for her to pass through for this was one of my restricted stock of stiff politenesses and then for a second she was near touching me
so we came to the trim array of flower beds near the head gardener's cottage and the vistas of glass on our left
and so we came to the wistaria smothered porch the door was wide open and she walked in before me guess who has come to see us she cried her father answered indistinctly from the parlor
and a chair creaked i judged he was disturbed in his nap
she told them in a marveling key that i had walked all the way from clayton and they gathered about me and echoed her notes of surprise you'd better sit down willie said her father now you have got here how's your mother
he looked at me curiously as he spoke he was dressed in his sunday clothes a sort of brownish tweeds but the waistcoat was unbuttoned for greater comfort in his slumbers
he was a brown eyed ruddy man and i still have now in my mind the bright effect of the red golden hairs that started out from his cheek to flow down into his beard he was short but strongly built
and his beard and mustache were the biggest things about him
his clear skin his bright hazel brown eyes and wedded them to a certain quickness she got from her mother her mother i remember as a sharp eyed woman of great activity
she seems to me now to have been perpetually bringing in or taking out meals or doing some such service and to me for my mother's sake and my own she was always welcoming and kind
puss was a youngster of fourteen perhaps of whom a hard bright stare and a pale skin like her mother's are the chief traces on my memory all these people were very kind to me
and among them there was a common recognition sometimes very agreeably finding expression that i was clever they all stood about me as if they were a little at a loss
we talked a little stiffly they were evidently surprised by my sudden apparition dusty fatigued and white faced
there she cried suddenly as if she were vexed i declare and she darted out of the room lord what a girl it is said missus stuart i don't know what's come to her it was half an hour before nettie came back
it seemed a long time to me and yet she had been running for when she came in again she was out of breath in the meantime i had thrown out casually that i had given up my place at rawdon's i can do better than that i said
i left my book in the dell she said panting is tea ready and that was her apology we didn't shake down into comfort even with the coming of the tea things tea at the gardener's cottage was a serious meal
with a big cake and little cakes and preserves and fruit a fine spread upon a table you must imagine me sullen awkward and preoccupied perplexed by the something that was inexplicably unexpected in nettie
saying little and glowering across the cake at her
miserably lost somewhere in the back of my mind nettie's father tried to set me talking he had a liking for my gift of ready speech for his own ideas came with difficulty
and it pleased and astonished him to hear me pouring out my views indeed over there i was i think even more talkative than with parload though to the world at large i was a shy young lout
you ought to write it out for the newspapers he used to say that's what you ought to do i never heard such nonsense or
but that afternoon even in his eyes i didn't shine
it was now for more than the middle span of our allotted years that he had passed through the thousand vicissitudes of existence and being of a wary ascendancy and self a man of rare forecast
foster within his breast that plenitude of sufferance which base minds jeer at rash judgers scorn and all find tolerable and but tolerable to those who create themselves wits at the cost of feminine delicacy
a habit of mind which he never did hold with to them he would concede neither to bear the name nor to herit the tradition of a proper breeding while for such that having lost all forbearance can lose no more
there remained the sharp antidote of experience to cause their insolency to beat a precipitate and inglorious retreat not but what he could feel with mettlesome youth which caring nought for the mows of dotards or the gruntlings of the severe is ever
as the chaste fancy of the holy writer expresses it for eating of the tree forbid it yet not so far forth as to pretermit humanity upon any condition soever towards a gentlewoman when she was about her lawful occasions to conclude
accordingly he broke his mind to his neighbour saying that to express his notion of the thing his opinion
who ought not perchance to express one was that one must have a cold constitution and a frigid genius not to be rejoiced by this freshest news of the fruition of her confinement since she had been in such pain through no fault of hers
the dressy young blade said it was her husband's that put her in that expectation or at least it ought to be unless she were another ephesian matron i must acquaint you said mister crotthers clapping on the table so as to evoke a resonant comment of emphasis
old glory allelujurum was round again today an elderly man with dundrearies preferring through his nose a request to have word of wilhelmina my life as he calls her i bade him hold himself in readiness for that the event would burst anon
slife i'll be round with you i cannot but extol the virile potency of the old bucko that could still knock another child out of her all fell to praising of it each after his own fashion though the same young blade held with his former view that another than her conjugial had been the man in the gap
a clerk in orders a linkboy virtuous or an itinerant vendor of articles needed in every household singular communed the guest with himself the wonderfully unequal faculty of metempsychosis possessed by them
that the puerperal dormitory and the dissecting theatre should be the seminaries of such frivolity that the mere acquisition of academic titles should suffice to transform in a pinch of time these votaries of levity into exemplary practitioners of an art which most men anywise eminent have esteemed the noblest
but with what fitness let it be asked of the noble lord his patron has this alien whom the concession of a gracious prince has admitted to civic rights constituted himself the lord paramount of our internal polity
during the recent war whenever the enemy had a temporary advantage with his granados did this traitor to his kind not seize that moment to discharge his piece against the empire of which he is a tenant at will while he trembled for the security of his four per cents
has he forgotten this as he forgets all benefits received
his own and his only enjoyer far be it from candour to violate the bedchamber of a respectable lady the daughter of a gallant major or to cast the most distant reflections upon her virtue but if he challenges attention there as it was indeed highly his interest not to have done
unhappy woman she has been too long and too persistently denied her legitimate prerogative to listen to his objurgations with any other feeling than the derision of the desperate he says this a censor of morals a very pelican in his piety who did not scruple
oblivious of the ties of nature to attempt illicit intercourse with a female domestic drawn from the lowest strata of society nay had the hussy's scouringbrush not been her tutelary angel it had gone with her as hard as with hagar the egyptian
in the question of the grazing lands his peevish asperity is notorious
it ill becomes him to preach that gospel has he not nearer home a seedfield that lies fallow for the want of the ploughshare a habit reprehensible at puberty is second nature and an opprobrium in middle life
the lewd suggestions of some faded beauty may console him
when rooted in its native orient throve and flourished and was abundant in balm but transplanted to a clime more temperate its roots have lost their quondam vigour while the stuff that comes away from it is stagnant acid and inoperative
silent in unanimous exhaustion and approbation the delegates chafing under the length and solemnity of their vigil
every phase of the situation was successively eviscerated the prenatal repugnance of uterine brothers
posthumity with respect to the father and that rarer form with respect to the mother the fratricidal case known as the childs murder and rendered memorable by the impassioned plea of mister advocate bushe which secured the acquittal of the wrongfully accused
the rights of primogeniture and king's bounty touching twins and triplets miscarriages and infanticides simulated or dissimulated
one ear could hear what the other spoke the benefits of anesthesia or twilight sleep the prolongation of labour pains in advanced gravidancy by reason of pressure on the vein the premature relentment of the amniotic fluid as exemplified in the actual case
the problem of the perpetration of the species in the case of females impregnated by delinquent rape
the recorded instances of multiseminal twikindled and monstrous births conceived during the catamenic period or of consanguineous parents in a word all the cases of human nativity which aristotle has classified in his masterpiece
with chromolithographic illustrations the gravest problems of obstetrics and forensic medicine were examined with as much animation as the most popular beliefs on the state of pregnancy
by her movement the navelcord should strangle her creature and the injunction upon her in the event of a yearning ardently and ineffectually entertained to place her hand against that part of her person which long usage has consecrated as the seat of castigation the abnormalities of harelip
breastmole supernumerary digits negro's inkle strawberry mark and portwine stain were alleged by one as a prima facie and natural hypothetical explanation of those swineheaded the case of madame grissel steevens was not forgotten
an outlandish delegate sustained against both these views with such heat as almost carried conviction the theory of copulation between women and the males of brutes his authority being his own avouchment in support of fables such as that of the minotaur
impression made by his words was immediate but shortlived
postulating as the supremest object of desire a nice clean old man contemporaneously a heated argument having arisen between mister delegate madden and mister candidate lynch regarding the
juridical and theological dilemma created in the event of one siamese twin predeceasing the other the difficulty by mutual consent was referred to mister canvasser bloom for instant submittal to mister coadjutor deacon dedalus hitherto silent
whether the better to show by preternatural gravity that curious dignity of the garb with which he was invested or in obedience to an inward voice
perfunctorily the ecclesiastical ordinance forbidding man to put asunder what god has joined
he conjured up the scene before them the secret panel beside the chimney slid back and in the recess appeared haines which of us did not feel his flesh creep
and how i am punished the inferno has no terrors for me this is the appearance is on me tare and ages what way would i be resting at all he muttered thickly
my hell and ireland's is in this life it is what i tried to obliterate my crime distractions rookshooting the erse language he recited some laudanum
camping out in vain his spectre stalks me dope is my only hope ah destruction the black panther with a cry he suddenly vanished and the panel slid back an instant later his head appeared in the door opposite and said
meet me at westland row station at ten past eleven he was gone tears gushed from the eyes of the dissipated host the seer raised his hand to heaven murmuring the vendetta of mananaun the sage repeated lex talionis
the mystery was unveiled haines was the third brother his real name was childs the black panther was himself the ghost of his own father he drank drugs to obliterate for this relief much thanks the lonely house by the graveyard is uninhabited no soul will live there
as she hath the virtue of the chameleon to change her hue at every new approach to be gay with the merry and mournful with the downcast so too is her age changeable as her mood
a score of years are blown away he is young leopold there as in a retrospective arrangement a mirror within a mirror hey presto he beholdeth himself that young figure of then is seen precociously manly
walking on a nipping morning from the old house in clanbrassil street to the high school his booksatchel on him bandolierwise and in it a goodly hunk of wheaten loaf a mother's thought or it is the same figure a year or so gone over in his first hard hat ah that was a day
already on the road a fullfledged traveller for the family firm equipped with an orderbook a scented handkerchief not for show only his case of bright trinketware alas a thing now of the past
and a quiverful of compliant smiles for this or that halfwon housewife reckoning it out upon her fingertips or for a budding virgin shyly acknowledging but the heart tell me his studied baisemoins the scent the smile but
more than these the dark eyes and oleaginous address brought home at duskfall many a commission to the head of the firm seated with jacob's pipe after like labours in the paternal ingle a meal of noodles you may be sure is aheating
reading through round horned spectacles some paper from the europe of a month before but hey presto the mirror is breathed on and the young knighterrant recedes shrivels dwindles to a tiny speck within the mist
now he is himself paternal and these about him might be his sons who can say the wise father knows his own child he thinks of a drizzling night in hatch street hard by the bonded stores there the first together
yours and mine and of all for a bare shilling and her luckpenny together they hear the heavy tread of the watch as two raincaped shadows pass the new royal university bridie bridie kelly
he will never forget the name ever remember the night first night the bridenight they are entwined in nethermost darkness the willer with the willed and in an instant
light shall flood the world did heart leap to heart nay fair reader in a breath twas done but hold back it must not be in terror the poor girl flees away through the murk she is the bride of darkness a daughter of night
she dare not bear the sunnygolden babe of day no leopold name and memory solace thee not that youthful illusion of thy strength was taken from thee and in vain no son of thy loins is by thee
there is none now to be for leopold what leopold was for rudolph the voices blend and fuse in clouded silence silence that is the infinite of space
and swiftly silently the soul is wafted over regions of cycles of generations that have lived a region where grey twilight ever descends never falls on wide sagegreen pasturefields shedding her dusk
scattering a perennial dew of stars she follows her mother with ungainly steps a mare leading her fillyfoal twilight phantoms are they yet moulded in prophetic grace of structure slim shapely haunches
a supple tendonous neck the meek apprehensive skull they fade sad phantoms all is gone
netaim the golden is no more
the lancinating lightnings of whose brow are scorpions elk and yak
mammoth and mastodon they come trooping to the sunken sea lacus mortis ominous revengeful zodiacal host they moan passing upon the clouds horned and capricorned the trumpeted with the tusked
francis was reminding stephen of years before when they had been at school together in conmee's time he asked about glaucon alcibiades pisistratus where were they now neither knew
who supposes it i bous stephanoumenos bullockbefriending bard am lord and giver of their life he encircled his gadding hair with a coronal of vineleaves smiling at vincent that answer and those leaves vincent said to him
will adorn you more fitly when something more and greatly more than a capful of light odes can call your genius father all who wish you well hope this for you
all could see how hard it was for him to be reminded of his promise and of his recent loss he would have withdrawn from the feast had not the noise of voices allayed the smart madden had lost five drachmas on sceptre for a whim of the rider's name lenehan as much more he told them of the race
she was leading the field all hearts were beating even phyllis could not contain herself she waved her scarf and cried
juno she cried i am undone but her lover consoled her and brought her a bright casket of gold in which lay some oval sugarplums which she partook a tear fell one only a whacking fine whip said lenehan is w lane
four winners yesterday and three today what rider is like him mount him on the camel or the boisterous buffalo the victory in a hack canter is still his but let us bear it as was the ancient wont mercy on the luckless poor sceptre he said with a light sigh
she is not the filly that she was never by this hand shall we behold such another by gad sir a queen of them do you remember her vincent
in the sunny patches one might easily have cooked on a stone a batch of those buns with corinth fruit in them that periplipomenes sells in his booth near the bridge but she had nought for her teeth but the arm with which i held her and in that she nibbled mischievously when i pressed too close
a week ago she lay ill four days on the couch but today she was free blithe mocked at peril she is more taking then her posies tool mad romp that she is she had pulled her fill as we reclined together
and in your ear my friend you will not think who met us as we left the field conmee himself he was walking by the hedge reading i think a brevier book with i doubt not a witty letter in it from glycera or chloe to keep the page
feigning to reprove a slight disorder in her dress a slip of underwood clung there for the very trees adore her when conmee had passed she glanced at her lovely echo in that little mirror she carries but he had been kind in going by he had blessed us
warily malachi whispered preserve a druid silence his soul is far away it is as painful perhaps to be awakened from a vision as to be born
the individual whose visual organs while the above was going on were at this juncture commencing to exhibit symptoms of animation
during the past four minutes or thereabouts
and which was certainly calculated to attract anyone's remark on account of its scarlet appearance he was simply and solely as it subsequently transpired for reasons best known to himself
which put quite an altogether different complexion on the proceedings after the moment before's observations about boyhood days and the turf recollecting two or three private transactions of his own which the other two were as mutually innocent of as the babe unborn eventually however
both their eyes met and as soon as it began to dawn on him that the other was endeavouring to help himself to the thing he involuntarily determined to help him himself and so he accordingly took hold of the neck of the mediumsized glass recipient which contained the fluid sought after
and made a capacious hole in it by pouring a lot of it out with also at the same time however a considerable degree of attentiveness in order not to upset any of the beer that was in it about the place
the debate which ensued was in its scope and progress an epitome of the course of life neither place nor council was lacking in dignity the debaters were the keenest in the land the theme they were engaged on the loftiest and most vital
the high hall of horne's house had never beheld an assembly so representative and so varied nor had the old rafters of that establishment ever listened to a language so encyclopaedic a gallant scene in truth it made crotthers was there at the foot of the table in his striking highland garb
his face glowing from the briny airs of the mull of galloway there too opposite to him was lynch whose countenance bore already the stigmata of early depravity and premature wisdom
while at his side was seated in stolid repose the squat form of madden
lastly at the head of the board was the young poet
while to right and left of him were accommodated the flippant prognosticator
and stained by the mire of an indelible dishonour but from whose steadfast and constant heart no lure or peril or threat or degradation could ever efface the image of that voluptuous loveliness which the inspired pencil of lafayette has limned for ages yet to come
div scep contentions would appear to prove him pretty badly addicted runs directly counter to accepted scientific methods science it cannot be too often repeated deals with tangible phenomena
the man of science like the man in the street has to face hardheaded facts that cannot be blinked and explain them as best he can there may be it is true some questions which science cannot answer
between the nisus formativus of the nemasperm on the one hand and on the other a happily chosen position succubitus felix of the passive element the other problem raised by the same inquirer is scarcely less vital infant mortality
it is interesting because as he pertinently remarks we are all born in the same way but we all die in different ways mister m mulligan hyg et eug doc blames the sanitary conditions in which our
would soon be generally adopted and all the graces of life genuinely good music agreeable literature light philosophy instructive pictures plastercast reproductions of the classical statues such as venus and apollo
artistic coloured photographs of prize babies all these little attentions would enable ladies who were in a particular condition to pass the intervening months in a most enjoyable manner mister j crotthers
and to marital discipline in the home but by far the vast majority to neglect private or official culminating in the exposure of newborn infants the practice of criminal abortion or in the atrocious crime of infanticide
or give it life as he phrased it to save her own at the risk of her own was the telling rejoinder of his interlocutor none the less effective for the moderate and measured tone in which it was delivered
meanwhile the skill and patience of the physician had brought about a happy accouchement
she had fought the good fight and now she was very very happy
are happy too as they gaze down and smile upon the touching scene reverently look at her as she reclines there with the motherlight in her eyes
in the first bloom of her new motherhood breathing a silent prayer of thanksgiving to one above the universal husband and as her loving eyes behold her babe she wishes only one blessing more
o doady loved one of old faithful lifemate now it may never be again that faroff time of the roses with the old shake of her pretty head she recalls those days god how beautiful now across the mist of years
but their children are grouped in her imagination about the bedside hers and his charley mary alice frederick albert if he had lived mamy budgy victoria frances tom violet constance louisa
let us call them as the world calls them evil memories which are hidden away by man in the darkest places of the heart but they abide there and wait he may suffer their memory to grow dim let them be as though they had not been and all but persuade himself that they were not or at least were otherwise
yet a chance word will call them forth suddenly and they will rise up to confront him in the most various circumstances a vision or a dream or while timbrel and harp soothe his senses or amid the cool silver tranquility of the evening or at the feast at midnight when he is now filled with wine
not to insult over him will the vision come as over one that lies under her wrath not for vengeance to cut him off from the living but shrouded in the piteous vesture of the past silent remote reproachful
the stranger still regarded on the face before him a slow recession of that false calm there imposed as it seemed by habit or some studied trick upon words so embittered as to accuse in their speaker an unhealthiness a flair for the
cruder things of life a scene disengages itself in the observer's memory evoked it would seem by a word of so natural a homeliness as if those days were really present there as some thought with their immediate pleasures
a shaven space of lawn one soft may evening the wellremembered grove of lilacs at roundtown purple and white fragrant slender spectators of the game but with much real interest in the pellets as they run slowly forward over the sward
or collide and stop one by its fellow with a brief alert shock and yonder about that grey urn where the water moves at times in thoughtful irrigation you saw another as fragrant sisterhood floey atty
blossomtime but there will be cheer in the kindly hearth when ere long the bowls are gathered and hutched is standing on the urn secured by that circle of girlish fond hands he frowns a little just as this young man does now with a perhaps too conscious enjoyment of the danger but must needs glance at whiles towards where his mother watches from the piazzetta
giving upon the flowerclose with a faint shadow of remoteness or of reproach
mark this farther and remember the end comes suddenly enter that antechamber of birth where the studious are assembled and note their faces nothing as it seems there of rash or violent quietude of custody rather befitting their station in that house
till in an instant a flash rives their centres and with the reverberation of the thunder the cloudburst pours its torrent so and not otherwise was the transformation violent and instantaneous upon the utterance of the word
zermatt alpenstocks and what not a dedale of lusty youth noble every student there
nor smiling surgeon coming downstairs with news of placentation ended a full pound if a milligramme they hark him on the door it is open ha they are out tumultuously off for a minute's race all bravely legging it burke's of denzille and holles their ulterior goal
dixon follows giving them sharp language but raps out an oath he too and on bloom stays with nurse a thought to send a kind word to happy mother and nurseling up there doctor diet and doctor quiet looks she too not other now
god's air the allfather's air scintillant circumambient cessile air breathe it deep into thee by heaven theodore purefoy thou hast done a doughty deed and no botch
pshaw i tell thee he is a mule a dead gasteropod without vim or stamina not worth a cracked kreutzer copulation without population no say i herod's slaughter of the innocents were the truer name vegetables forsooth and sterile cohabitation
a truce to threnes and trentals and jeremies and all such congenital defunctive music twenty years of it regret them not with thee it was not as with many that will and would and wait and never do thou sawest thy america
transpontine bison how saith zarathustra deine kuh truebsal melkest du
milk of madness the honeymilk of canaan's land thy cow's dug was tough what ay but her milk is hot and sweet and fattening
all off for a buster armstrong hollering down the street bonafides where you slep las nigh timothy of the battered naggin
last word in art shades most beautiful book come out of ireland my time silentium get a spurt on tention proceed to nearest canteen and there annex liquor stores march tramp tramp tramp the boys are atitudes parching
bishops boosebox halt heave to rugger scrum in no touch kicking wow my tootsies you hurt most amazingly sorry query who's astanding this here do
proud possessor of damnall declare misery bet to the ropes me nantee saltee not a red at me this week gone yours mead of our fathers for the uebermensch dittoh five number ones you sir ginger cordial
have an eggnog or a prairie oyster enemy avuncular's got my timepiece ten to obligated awful don't mention it got a pectoral trauma eh dix pos fact got bet be a boomblebee whenever he wus settin sleepin in hes bit garten digs up near the mater
buckled he is know his dona yup sartin i do full of a dure see her in her dishybilly peels off a credit lovey lovekin none of your lean kine not much pull down the blind love two ardilauns
and her take me to rests and her anker of rum must be seen to be believed your starving eyes and allbeplastered neck you stole my heart o gluepot
all poppycock you'll scuse me saying for the hoi polloi i vear thee beest a gert vool well doc back fro lapland your corporosity sagaciating o k how's the squaws and papooses womanbody after going on the straw
baddybad stephen lead astray goodygood malachi hurroo collar the leather youngun roun wi the nappy here
lang may your lum reek and your kailpot boil my tipple merci here's to us how's that leg before wicket don't stain my brandnew sitinems give's a shake of peppe you there catch aholt caraway seed to carry away twig
shrieks of silence every cove to his gentry mort venus pandemos
on the road to malahide me
machree macruiskeen smutty moll for a mattress jig and a pull all together ex waiting guvnor most deciduously bet your boots on stunned like seeing as how no shiners is acoming underconstumble
us come right in on your invite see up to you matey out with the oof two bar and a wing you larn that go off of they there frenchy bilks won't wash here for nuts nohow
tis sure what say in the speakeasy tight i shee you shir bantam two days teetee bowsing nowt but claretwine garn have a glint do gum i'm jiggered
and been to barber he have too full for words with a railway bloke how come you so opera he'd like rose of castile rows of cast police some h two o for a gent fainted look at bantam's flowers gemini
shut his blurry dutch oven with a firm hand
he strike a telegramboy paddock wire big bug bass to the depot shove him a joey and grahamise mare on form hot order guinea to a goosegog tell a cram that gospeltrue criminal diversion i think that yes sure thing
land him in chokeechokee if the harman beck copped the game madden back madden's a maddening back o lust our refuge and our strength decamping must you go off to mammy stand by hide my blushes someone
dinna forget the cowslips for hersel cornfide wha gev ye thon colt pal to pal jannock of john thomas her spouse no fake old man leo s'elp me honest injun shiver my timbers if i had
you move a motion steve boy you're going it some more bluggy drunkables will immensely splendiferous stander permit one stooder of most extreme poverty and one largesize grandacious thirst to terminate one expensive inaugurated libation give's a breather
closingtime gents eh rome boose for the bloom toff i hear you say onions bloo cadges ads photo's papli by all that's gorgeous play low pardner slide
and snares of the poxfiend where's the buck and namby amby skunked leg bail aweel ye maun e e n gang yer gates checkmate king to tower
crickey i'm about sprung tarnally dog gone my shins if this beent the bestest puttiest longbreak yet item curate couple of cookies for this child cot's plood and prandypalls none not a pite of sheeses
thrust syphilis down to hell and with him those other licensed spirits time gents who wander through the world health all a la votre golly whatten tunket's yon guy in the mackintosh dusty rhodes peep at his wearables by mighty what's he got
d'ye ken bare socks seedy cuss in the richmond rawthere thought he had a deposit of lead in his penis trumpery insanity bartle the bread we calls him that sir was once a prosperous cit
man all tattered and torn that married a maiden all forlorn slung her hook she did here see lost love walking mackintosh of lonely canyon tuck and turn in schedule time nix for the hornies pardon seen him today at a runefal
chum o yourn passed in his checks ludamassy pore piccaninnies thou'll no be telling me thot pold veg did ums blubble bigsplash crytears cos fren padney was took off in black bag of all de darkies massa pat was verra best
i never see the like since i was born tiens tiens but it is well sad that my faith yes o get rev on a gradient one in nine live axle drives are souped lay you two to one jenatzy licks him ruddy well hollow jappies
high angle fire inyah sunk by war specials be worse for him says he nor any rooshian time all there's eleven of them get ye gone forward woozy wobblers night night
come on you triple extract of infamy
containing the further progress of the plot contrived by mister ralph nickleby and mister arthur gride with that settled resolution and steadiness of purpose to which extreme circumstances so often give birth
by whose slight and fragile thread her only remaining hope of escape depended although to restless and ardent minds morning may be the fitting season for exertion and activity it is not always at
that time that hope is strongest or the spirit most sanguine and buoyant in trying and doubtful positions youth custom a steady contemplation of the difficulties which surround us and a familiarity with them
imperceptibly diminish our apprehensions and beget comparative indifference if not a vague and reckless confidence in some relief the means or nature of which we care not to foresee
but when we come fresh upon such things in the morning with that dark and silent gap between us and yesterday with every link in the brittle chain of hope to rivet afresh
as the traveller sees farthest by day and becomes aware of rugged mountains and trackless plains which the friendly darkness had shrouded from his sight and mind together so the wayfarer in the toilsome path of human life sees
with each returning sun some new obstacle to surmount some new height to be attained distances stretch out before him which last night were scarcely taken into account and the light which gilds all nature with its cheerful beams
seems but to shine upon the weary obstacles that yet lie strewn between him and the grave
he softly left the house and
were to lose most precious time and to be up and stirring were in some way to promote the end he had in view wandered into london perfectly well
but now when he thought how regularly things went on from day to day in the same unvarying round how youth and beauty died and ugly griping age lived tottering on how crafty avarice grew rich
and manly honest hearts were poor and sad how few they were who tenanted the stately houses and how many of those who lay in noisome pens or rose each day and laid them down
race upon race and generation upon generation without a home to shelter them or the energies of one single man directed to their aid how in seeking not a luxurious and splendid life
but the bare means of a most wretched and inadequate subsistence there were women and children in that one town divided into classes numbered and estimated as regularly as the noble families and folks of great degree
for thousands urged towards them by circumstances darkly curtaining their very cradles heads and but for which they might have earned their honest bread and lived in peace how many died in soul and had no chance of life how many
who could scarcely go astray be they vicious as they would turned haughtily from the crushed and stricken wretch who could scarce do otherwise and who would have been a greater wonder had he or she done well than even they had they done ill
on which his thoughts were bent he felt indeed that there was little ground for hope and little reason why it should not form an atom in the huge aggregate of distress and sorrow and add one small and unimportant unit to swell the great amount
by dint of reflecting on what he had to do and reviving the train of thought which night had interrupted nicholas gradually summoned up his utmost energy and when the morning was sufficiently advanced for his purpose had no thought but that of using
it to the best advantage a hasty breakfast taken and such affairs of business as required prompt attention disposed of he directed his steps to the residence of madeline bray whither he lost no time in arriving it had occurred to him that
very possibly the young lady might be denied although to him she never had been and he was still pondering upon the surest method of obtaining access to her in that case when coming to the door of the house he found it had been left ajar
receiving permission to enter from some person on the other side he opened the door and walked in bray and his daughter were sitting there alone it was nearly three weeks since he had seen her last but there was a change in the lovely girl before him which told nicholas in startling terms
how much mental suffering had been compressed into that short time there are no words which can express nothing with which can be compared the perfect pallor the clear transparent whiteness of the beautiful face which turned towards him when he entered
her hair was a rich deep brown but shading that face and straying upon a neck that rivalled it in whiteness it seemed by the strong contrast raven black something of wildness and restlessness there was in the dark eye
but there was the same patient look the same expression of gentle mournfulness which he well remembered and no trace of a single tear most beautiful more beautiful perhaps than ever there was something in her face which quite unmanned him
it was not merely calm and composed but fixed and rigid as though the violent effort which had summoned that composure beneath her father's eye while it mastered all other thoughts
had prevented even the momentary expression they had communicated to the features from subsiding and had fastened it there as an evidence of its triumph
not looking directly in her face but glancing at her as he talked with a gay air which ill disguised the anxiety of his thoughts the drawing materials were not on their accustomed table nor were any of the other tokens of her usual occupations to be seen
the little vases which nicholas had always seen filled with fresh flowers were empty or supplied only with a few withered stalks and leaves the bird was silent the cloth that covered his cage at night was not removed his mistress had forgotten him
there are times when
this was one for nicholas had but glanced round him when he was recognised by mister bray who said impatiently now sir what do you want name your errand here quickly
and more important matters than those you come about come sir address yourself to your business at once
and that bray in his heart was rejoiced at any interruption which promised to engage the attention of his daughter he bent his eyes involuntarily upon the father as he spoke and marked his uneasiness for he coloured and turned his head away
the device however so far as it was a device for causing madeline to interfere was successful she rose and advancing towards nicholas paused half way
miss bray expects an inclosure perhaps said nicholas speaking very distinctly and with an emphasis she could scarcely misunderstand my employer is absent from england or i should have brought a letter with me i hope she will give me time a little time
if that is all you come about sir said mister bray
madeline my dear i didn't know this person was in your debt a a trifle i believe returned madeline faintly i suppose you think now said bray wheeling his chair round and confronting nicholas
i have not thought about it returned nicholas you have not thought about it sneered the invalid you know you have thought about it and have thought that and think so every time you come here do you suppose young man that i don't know what little purse proud tradesmen are
when through some fortunate circumstances they get the upper hand for a brief day or think they get the upper hand of a gentleman my business said nicholas respectfully is with a lady
but remembering the necessity of supporting his assumed character produced a scrap of paper purporting to contain a list of some subjects for drawings which his employer desired to have executed and with which he had prepared himself in case of any such contingency
oh said mister bray these are the orders are they since you insist upon the term sir yes replied nicholas then you may tell your master said bray tossing the paper back again with an exulting smile
that my daughter miss madeline bray condescends to employ herself no longer in such labours as these
that he may give whatever he owes us to the first beggar that passes his shop or add it to his own profits next time he calculates them and that he may go to the devil for me that's my acknowledgment of his orders sir
and this is the independence of a man who sells his daughter as he has sold that weeping girl thought nicholas the father was too much absorbed with his own exultation to mark the look of scorn which for an instant nicholas could not have suppressed had he been upon the rack
there he continued after a short silence you have your message and can retire unless you have any further ha any further orders i have none said nicholas nor in the consideration of the station you once held have i used that or any other word
which however harmless in itself
or dependence on yours i have no orders but i have fears fears that i will express chafe as you may fears that you may be consigning that young lady to something worse than supporting you by the labour of her hands had she worked herself dead
upon your own demeanour your conscience will tell you sir whether i construe it well or not
and remember i am ill he fell into a paroxysm of his disorder so violent that for a few moments nicholas was alarmed for his life but finding that he began to recover he withdrew
after signifying by a gesture to the young lady that he had something important to communicate and would wait for her outside the room
came gradually but slowly to himself and that without any reference to what had just occurred as though he had no distinct recollection of it as yet he requested to be left alone
oh thought nicholas that this slender chance might not be lost and that i might prevail if it were but for one week's time and reconsideration you are charged with some commission to me sir said madeline presenting herself in great agitation
do not press it now i beg and pray you the day after tomorrow come here then it will be too late too late for what i have to say rejoined nicholas and you will not be here oh madam if you have but one thought of him who sent me here
but one last lingering care for your own peace of mind and heart i do for god's sake urge you to give me a hearing she attempted to pass him but nicholas gently detained her a hearing said nicholas i ask you but to hear me not me alone but him for whom i speak
the poor attendant with her eyes swollen and red with weeping stood by and to her nicholas appealed in such passionate terms that she opened a side door and supporting her mistress into an adjoining room beckoned nicholas to follow them
leave me sir pray said the young lady i cannot
nicholas i have a duty to discharge and either here or in the room from which we have just now come at whatever risk or hazard to mister bray i must beseech you to contemplate again the fearful course to which you have been impelled
what course is this you speak of and impelled by whom sir demanded the young lady with an effort to speak proudly i speak of this marriage returned nicholas of this marriage fixed for tomorrow by one who never faltered in a bad purpose
or lent his aid to any good design of this marriage the history of which is known to me better far better than it is to you i know what web is wound about you
you are betrayed and sold for money for gold whose every coin is rusted with tears if not red with the blood of ruined men
say rather with the help of devils
with the help of men one of them your destined husband who are i must not hear this cried the young lady striving to repress a shudder occasioned as it seemed even by this slight allusion to arthur gride
evil it be has been of my own seeking i am impelled to this course by no one but follow it of my own free will you see i am not constrained or forced report this said madeline to my dear friend and benefactor
and taking with you my prayers and thanks for him and for yourself leave me for ever not until i have besought you with all the earnestness and fervour by which i am animated cried nicholas to postpone this marriage for one short week
influenced as you are upon the step you are about to take although you cannot be fully conscious of the villainy of this man to whom you are about to give your hand some of his
on the mockery of plighting to him at the altar faith in which your heart can have no share of uttering solemn words against which nature and reason must rebel of the degradation of yourself in your own esteem which must ensue
and must be aggravated every day as his detested character opens upon you more and more shrink from the loathsome companionship of this wretch as you would from corruption and disease
suffer toil and labour if you will but shun him shun him and be happy for believe me i speak the truth the most abject poverty the most wretched condition of human life
i do not love this gentleman the difference between our ages tastes and habits forbids it this he knows and knowing still offers me his hand by accepting it and by that step alone i can release my father who is dying in this place
prolong his life perhaps for many years restore him to comfort i may almost call it affluence and relieve a generous man from the burden of assisting one by whom i grieve to say his noble heart is little understood
i do not feel do not report so ill of me for that i could not bear if i cannot in reason or in nature love the man who pays this price for my poor hand i can discharge the duties of a wife
i can be all he seeks in me and will he is content to take me as i am i have passed my word and should rejoice not weep that it is so i do
the interest you take in one so friendless and forlorn as i the delicacy with which you have discharged your trust the faith you have kept with me have my warmest thanks and while i make this last feeble acknowledgment
move me to tears as you see but i do not repent nor am i unhappy i am happy in the prospect of all i can achieve so easily i shall be more so when i look back upon it and all is done i know
your tears fall faster as you talk of happiness said nicholas and you shun the contemplation of that dark future which must be laden with so much misery to you defer this marriage for a week for but one week
to have seen of old and have not seen for many and many a day of the freedom that was to come tomorrow said madeline with momentary firmness of the welcome change the fresh air all the new scenes and objects
that would bring fresh life to his exhausted frame his eye grew bright and his face lightened at the thought i will not defer it for an hour these are but tricks and wiles to urge you on cried nicholas i'll hear no more said madeline hurriedly
what i have said to you sir i have said as to that dear friend to whom i trust in you honourably to repeat it some time hence when i am more composed and reconciled to my new mode of life if i should live so long i will write to him
meantime all holy angels shower blessings on his head and prosper and preserve him she was hurrying past nicholas when he threw himself before her and implored her to think but once again upon the fate to which she was precipitately hastening
there is no retreat said nicholas in an agony of supplication no withdrawing all regret will be unavailing and deep and bitter it must be what can i say that will induce you to pause at this last moment what can i do to save you
nothing she incoherently replied this is the hardest trial i have had have mercy on me sir i beseech and do not pierce my heart with such appeals as these i i hear him calling i i must not
will not remain here for another instant if this were a plot said nicholas with the same violent rapidity with which she spoke a plot not yet laid bare by me but which with time i might unravel if you were
not knowing it entitled to fortune of your own which being recovered would do all that this marriage can accomplish would you not retract
no no no it is impossible it is a child's tale
be sure to tell them that you left me calm and happy and god be with you sir and my grateful heart and blessing she was gone nicholas staggering from the house thought of the hurried scene which had just closed upon him
as if it were the phantom of some wild unquiet dream the day wore on at night having been enabled in some measure to collect his thoughts he issued forth again that night being the last of arthur gride's bachelorship
found him in tiptop spirits and great glee the bottle green suit had been brushed ready for the morrow peg sliderskew
and the accounts were not usually balanced more than twice a day every preparation had been made for the coming festival and arthur might have sat down and contemplated his approaching happiness
but that he preferred sitting down and contemplating the entries in a dirty old vellum book with rusty clasps well a day he chuckled as sinking on his knees before a strong chest
screwed down to the floor he thrust in his arm nearly up to the shoulder and slowly drew forth this greasy volume
none of your storybook writers will ever make as good a book as this i warrant me
and adjusting it upon a dusty desk put on his spectacles and began to pore among the leaves it's a large sum to mister nickleby he said in a dolorous voice
additional sum as per bond five hundred pound one thousand four hundred and seventy five pounds four shillings and threepence tomorrow at twelve o'clock on the other side though there's the per contra
by means of this pretty chick but again there's the question whether i mightn't have brought all this about myself faint heart never won fair lady why was my heart so faint why didn't i boldly open it to bray myself
ralph's debt and being by no means confident that he would have succeeded had he undertaken his enterprise alone he regained his equanimity and chattered and mowed
a beautiful bird said arthur after inquiring the price and finding it proportionate to the size with a rasher of ham and an egg made into sauce and potatoes and greens and an apple pudding peg and a little bit of cheese we shall have a dinner
for an emperor there'll only be she and me and you peg when we've done don't you complain of the expense afterwards said missus sliderskew sulkily i am afraid we must live expensively for the first week returned arthur with a groan
and then we must make up for it i won't eat more than i can help and i know you love your old master too much to eat more than you can help don't you peg don't i what said peg love your old master too much no not a bit too much said peg
oh dear i wish the devil had this woman cried arthur love him too much to eat more than you can help at his expense at his what said peg oh dear she can never hear the most important word and hears all the others whined gride
at his expense you catamaran the last mentioned tribute to the charms of missus sliderskew being uttered in a whisper that lady assented to the general proposition by a harsh growl
bell as loud as he could roar and his meaning being rendered further intelligible to missus sliderskew's dull sense of hearing by pantomime expressive
peg hobbled out after sharply demanding why he hadn't said there was a ring before instead of talking about all manner of things that had nothing to do with it and keeping her half pint of beer waiting on the steps
turning over the leaves of his book as he muttered this he soon lighted upon something which attracted his attention and forgot peg sliderskew and everything else in the engrossing interest of its pages
the room had no other light than that which it derived from a dim and dirt clogged lamp whose lazy wick being still further obscured by a dark shade cast its feeble rays over a very little space
and left all beyond in heavy shadow this lamp the money lender had drawn so close to him that there was only room between it and himself for the book over which he bent
and as he sat with his elbows on the desk and his sharp cheek bones resting on his hands it only served to bring out his ugly features in strong relief together with the little table at which he sat
as he made some mental calculation arthur gride suddenly met the fixed gaze of a man
yes yes cried arthur gride shading his eyes with his hand it is a man and not a spirit it is a man robbers robbers for what are these cries raised unless indeed you know me and have some purpose in your brain
said the stranger coming close up to him i am no thief what then and how come you here cried gride somewhat reassured but still retreating from his visitor what is your name and what do you want my name you need not know was the reply
i came here because i was shown the way by your servant i have addressed you twice or thrice but you were too profoundly engaged with your book to hear me and i have been silently waiting until you should be less abstracted what i want i will tell you
up courage enough to hear and understand me arthur gride venturing to regard his visitor more attentively and perceiving that he was a young man of good mien and bearing
and muttering that there were bad characters about and that this with former attempts upon his house had made him nervous requested his visitor to sit down this however he declined
good god i don't stand up to have you at an advantage said nicholas for nicholas it was as he observed a gesture of alarm on the part of gride
who said i was how do you know that no matter how replied nicholas i know it the young lady who is to give you her hand hates and despises you her blood runs cold at the mention of your name the vulture and the lamb the rat and the dove could not be worse matched than you and she
you see i know her gride looked at him as if he were petrified with astonishment but did not speak perhaps lacking the power you and another man ralph nickleby by name have hatched this plot between you pursued nicholas
him for his share in bringing about this sale of madeline bray you do a lie is trembling on your lips i see he paused but arthur making no reply resumed again you pay yourself by defrauding her
how or by what means for i scorn to sully her cause by falsehood or deceit i do not know at present i do not know but i am not alone or single handed in this business
if the energy of man can compass the discovery of your fraud and treachery before your death if wealth revenge and just hatred can hunt and track you through your windings you will yet be called to a dear account for this
we are on the scent already judge you who know what we do not when we shall have you down he paused again and still arthur gride glared upon him in silence if you were a man
his compassion or humanity said nicholas
the helplessness the innocence the youth of this lady her worth and beauty her filial excellence and last and more than all
men like you and ask what money will buy you off remember the danger to which you are exposed you see i know enough to know much more with very little help bate some expected gain for the risk you save and say what is your price
old arthur gride moved his lips but they only formed an ugly smile and were motionless again you think said nicholas that the price would not be paid miss bray has wealthy friends who would coin their very hearts to save her in such a strait as this
name your price defer these nuptials for but a few days and see whether those i speak of shrink from the payment do you hear me when nicholas began arthur gride's impression was that ralph nickleby had betrayed him but as he proceeded
he felt convinced that however he had come by the knowledge he possessed the part he acted was a genuine one and that with ralph he had no concern all he seemed to know for certain was that he gride paid ralph's debt
whether or no he had clearly no key to the mystery and could not hurt him who kept it close within his own breast the allusion to friends and the offer of money gride held
for purposes of delay and even if money were to be had thought arthur gride as he glanced at nicholas and trembled with passion at his boldness and audacity
i'd have that dainty chick for my wife and cheat you of her young smooth face long habit of weighing and noting well what clients said
and nicely balancing chances in his mind and calculating odds to their faces without the least appearance of being so engaged had rendered gride quick in forming conclusions and arriving from puzzling intricate and often
contradictory premises at very cunning deductions hence it was that as nicholas went on he followed him closely with his own constructions and when he ceased to speak was as well prepared as if he had deliberated for a fortnight
i hear you he cried starting from his seat casting back the fastenings of the window shutters and throwing up the sash help here help help what are you doing said nicholas seizing him by the arm
i'll cry robbers thieves murder alarm the neighbourhood struggle with you let loose some blood and swear you came to rob me if you don't quit my house replied gride drawing in his head with a frightful grin i will wretch cried nicholas
whom jealousy of nicholas and a sense of his own triumph had converted into a perfect fiend you the disappointed lover oh dear he he he but you shan't have her nor she you
she's my wife my doting little wife do you think she'll miss you do you think she'll weep i shall like to see her weep i shan't mind it she looks prettier in tears
oh yes sneered arthur gride if i was but a younger man it wouldn't be so bad but for me so old and ugly to be jilted by little madeline for me hear me said nicholas and be thankful i have enough command over myself not to fling you into the street
which no aid could prevent my doing if i once grappled with you i have been no lover of this lady's no contract or engagement no word of love has ever passed between us she does not even know my name i'll ask it for all that i'll beg it of her
with kisses said arthur gride yes and she'll tell me and pay them back and we'll laugh together and hug ourselves and be very merry
this taunt brought such an expression into the face of nicholas that arthur gride plainly apprehended it
in immediate execution for he thrust his head out of the window and holding tight on with both hands raised a pretty brisk alarm
nicholas gave vent to an indignant defiance and stalked from the room
drawing in his head fastened the window as before and sat down to take breath
she'll little think i know about him and if i manage it well i can break her spirit by this means and have her under my thumb i'm glad nobody came i didn't call too loud the audacity to enter my house and open upon me
but i shall have a very good triumph tomorrow
i shouldn't wonder that would make it quite complete that would quite when he had become restored to his usual condition by these and other comments on his approaching triumph
with great caution descended into the kitchen to warn peg sliderskew to bed and scold her for having afforded such ready admission to a stranger the unconscious peg however not being able to comprehend the offence of which she had been guilty
he summoned her to hold the light while he made a tour of the fastenings and secured the street door with his own hands top bolt muttered arthur fastening as he spoke bottom bolt chain bar double lock and key out
to put under my pillow so if any more rejected admirers come they may come through the keyhole and now i'll go to sleep till half past five when i must get up to be married peg
with that he jocularly tapped missus sliderskew under the chin and appeared for the moment inclined to celebrate the close of his bachelor days by imprinting a kiss on her shrivelled lips
the roaring abysmal beast during the long period of our stay in the refuge we were kept closely in touch with what was happening in the world without and we were learning thoroughly the strength of the oligarchy with which we were at war
out of the flux of transition the new institutions were forming more definitely and taking on the appearance and attributes of permanence the oligarchs had succeeded in devising a governmental machine as intricate as it was vast that worked
and this despite all our efforts to clog and hamper this was a surprise to many of the revolutionists they had not conceived it possible nevertheless the work of the country went on the men toiled in the mines and fields perforce they were no more than slaves
as for the vital industries everything prospered the members of the great labor castes were contented and worked on merrily for the first time in their lives they knew industrial peace no more were they worried by slack times strike and lockout and the union label
they lived in more comfortable homes and in delightful cities of their own delightful compared with the slums and ghettos in which they had formerly dwelt they had better food to eat less hours of labor more holidays and a greater amount and variety of interests and pleasures
and for their less fortunate brothers and sisters the unfavored laborers the driven people of the abyss they cared nothing an age of selfishness was dawning upon mankind and yet this is not altogether true the labor castes were honeycombed by our agents
men whose eyes saw beyond the belly need the radiant figure of liberty and brotherhood another great institution that had taken form and was working smoothly was the mercenaries this body of soldiers had been evolved out of the old regular army and was now a million strong
to say nothing of the colonial forces the mercenaries constituted a race apart they dwelt in cities of their own which were practically self governed and they were granted many privileges by them a large portion of the perplexing surplus was consumed
they were losing all touch and sympathy with the rest of the people and in fact were developing their own class morality and consciousness and yet we had thousands of our agents among them
the mercenaries in the last days of the iron heel played an important role they constituted the balance of power in the struggles between the labor castes and the oligarchs and now to one side and now to the other threw their strength according to the play of intrigue and conspiracy
and it must be confessed unexpected development as a class they disciplined themselves every member had his work to do in the world and this work he was compelled to do there were no more idle rich young men their strength was used to give united strength to the oligarchy
they found careers in applied science and many of them became great engineers they went into the multitudinous divisions of the government took service in the colonial possessions and by tens of thousands went into the various secret services
they were i may say apprenticed to education to art to the church to science to literature
in the direction of the perpetuity of the oligarchy they were taught and later they in turn taught that what they were doing was right they assimilated the aristocratic idea from the moment they began as children to receive impressions of the world the aristocratic idea was woven into the making of them
until it became bone of them and flesh of them they looked upon themselves as wild animal trainers rulers of beasts from beneath their feet rose always the subterranean rumbles of revolt violent death ever stalked in their midst
bomb and knife and bullet were looked upon as so many fangs of the roaring abysmal beast they must dominate if humanity were to persist they were the saviours of humanity and they regarded themselves as heroic and sacrificing laborers for the highest good
they as a class believed that they alone maintained civilization it was their belief that if ever they weakened the great beast would ingulf them and everything of beauty and wonder and joy and good in its cavernous and slime dripping maw
without them anarchy would reign and humanity would drop backward into the primitive night out of which it had so painfully emerged the horrid picture of anarchy was held always before their child's eyes until they in turn obsessed by this cultivated fear
held the picture of anarchy before the eyes of the children that followed them this was the beast to be stamped upon and the highest duty of the aristocrat was to stamp upon it in short they alone by their unremitting toil and sacrifice stood between weak humanity
and the all devouring beast and they believed it firmly believed it i cannot lay too great stress upon this high ethical righteousness of the whole oligarch class this has been the strength of the iron heel
and too many of the comrades have been slow or loath to realize it many of them have ascribed the strength of the iron heel to its system of reward and punishment this is a mistake heaven and hell may be the prime factors of zeal in the religion of a fanatic
but for the great majority of the religious heaven and hell are incidental to right and wrong love of the right desire for the right unhappiness with anything less than the right in short right conduct is the prime factor of religion
and so with the oligarchy prisons banishment and degradation honors and palaces and wonder cities are all incidental the great driving force of the oligarchs is the belief that they are doing right
never mind the exceptions and never mind the oppression and injustice in which the iron heel was conceived all is granted the point is that the strength of the oligarchy today lies in its satisfied conception of its own righteousness
out of the ethical incoherency and inconsistency of capitalism the oligarchs emerged with a new ethics coherent and definite sharp and severe as steel the most absurd and unscientific and at the same time the most potent ever possessed by any tyrant class
and because of their faith for three centuries they were able to hold back the mighty tide of human progress a spectacle profound tremendous puzzling to the metaphysical moralist and one that to the materialist is the cause of many doubts and reconsiderations
for that matter the strength of the revolution during these frightful twenty years has resided in nothing else than the sense of righteousness in no other way can be explained our sacrifices and martyrdoms
for no other reason did rudolph mendenhall flame out his soul for the cause and sing his wild swan song that last night of life for no other reason did hurlbert die under torture refusing to the last to betray his comrades
for no other reason has anna roylston refused blessed motherhood for no other reason has john carlson been the faithful and unrewarded custodian of the glen ellen refuge it does not matter
young or old man or woman high or low genius or clod go where one will among the comrades of the revolution the motor force will be found to be a great and abiding desire for the right but i have run away from my narrative
ernest and i well understood before we left the refuge how the strength of the iron heel was developing the labor castes the mercenaries and the great hordes of secret agents and police of various sorts were all pledged to the oligarchy
in the main and ignoring the loss of liberty they were better off than they had been on the other hand the great helpless mass of the population the people of the abyss was sinking into a brutish apathy of content with misery
whenever strong proletarians asserted their strength in the midst of the mass they were drawn away from the mass by the oligarchs and given better conditions by being made members of the labor castes or of the mercenaries thus discontent was lulled
and the proletariat robbed of its natural leaders the condition of the people of the abyss was pitiable common school education so far as they were concerned had ceased they lived like beasts in great squalid labor ghettos
festering in misery and degradation all their old liberties were gone they were labor slaves choice of work was denied them likewise was denied them the right to move from place to place or the right to bear or possess arms
they were not land serfs like the farmers they were machine serfs and labor serfs when unusual needs arose for them such as the building of the great highways and air lines of canals tunnels subways and fortifications
levies were made on the labor ghettos and tens of thousands of serfs willy nilly were transported to the scene of operations great armies of them are toiling now at the building of ardis housed in wretched barracks where family life cannot exist
and where decency is displaced by dull bestiality in all truth there in the labor ghettos is the roaring abysmal beast the oligarchs fear so dreadfully but it is the beast of their own making in it
all this of course in the event of the first revolt being a failure
among the revolutionists were many surgeons and in vivisection they attained marvellous proficiency in avis everhard's words they could literally make a man over
they changed the features with such microscopic care that no traces were left of their handiwork the nose was a favorite organ to work upon skin grafting and hair transplanting were among their commonest devices the changes in expression they accomplished were wizard like
eyes and eyebrows lips mouths and ears were radically altered by cunning operations on tongue throat larynx and nasal cavities a man's whole enunciation and manner of speech could be changed desperate times give need for desperate remedies and the surgeons of the revolution rose to the need
among other things they could increase an adult's stature by as much as four or five inches and decrease it by one or two inches what they did is to day a lost art we have no need for it
it was not until january nineteen seventeen that we left the refuge all had been arranged
i was supposed to be ernest's sister by oligarchs and comrades on the inside who were high in authority place had been made for us
nightmare i had not closed my eyes the night before on the twentieth century and what of that and of my exhaustion i slept soundly when i first awoke it was night
garthwaite had not returned i had lost my watch and had no idea of the time as i lay with my eyes closed i heard the same dull sound of distant explosions the inferno was still raging i crept through the store to the front
the reflection from the sky of vast conflagrations made the street almost as light as day one could have read the finest print with ease from several blocks away came the crackle of small hand bombs and the churning of machine guns
and from a long way off came a long series of heavy explosions
when next i awoke a sickly yellow light was filtering in on me it was dawn of the second day i crept to the front of the store a smoke pall shot through with lurid gleams filled the sky
down the opposite side of the street tottered a wretched slave one hand he held tightly against his side and behind him he left a bloody trail his eyes roved everywhere and they were filled with apprehension and dread once he looked straight across at me
and in his face was all the dumb pathos of the wounded and hunted animal he saw me
and with him at least no sympathy of understanding for he cowered perceptibly and dragged himself on he could expect no aid in all god's world he was a helot in the great hunt of helots that the masters were making
all he could hope for all he sought was some hole to crawl away in and hide like any animal the sharp clang of a passing ambulance at the corner gave him a start ambulances were not for such as he with a groan of pain he threw himself into a doorway
a minute later he was out again and desperately hobbling on
my headache had not gone away on the contrary it was increasing it was by an effort of will only that i was able to open my eyes and look at objects and with the opening of my eyes and the looking came intolerable torment also a great pulse was beating in my brain
weak and reeling i went out through the broken window and down the street seeking to escape instinctively and gropingly from the awful shambles and thereafter i lived nightmare
my memory of what happened in the succeeding hours is the memory one would have of nightmare many events are focussed sharply on my brain but between these indelible pictures i retain are intervals of unconsciousness what occurred in those intervals i know not and never shall know
i remember stumbling at the corner over the legs of a man it was the poor hunted wretch that had dragged himself past my hiding place how distinctly do i remember his poor pitiful gnarled hands as he lay there on the pavement hands that were more hoof and claw than hands
all twisted and distorted by the toil of all his days with on the palms a horny growth of callous a half inch thick and as i picked myself up and started on i looked into the face of the thing and saw that it still lived for the eyes dimly intelligent were looking at me
and seeing me after that came a kindly blank i knew nothing saw nothing merely tottered on in my quest for safety my next nightmare vision was a quiet street of the dead
i came upon it abruptly as a wanderer in the country would come upon a flowing stream only this stream i gazed upon did not flow it was congealed in death from pavement to pavement and covering the sidewalks it lay there spread out quite evenly
but this time in a stream that flowed and came on and then i saw there was nothing to fear the stream moved slowly while from it arose groans and lamentations cursings babblings of senility hysteria and insanity for these were the very young and the very old
the feeble and the sick the helpless and the hopeless all the wreckage of the ghetto the burning of the great ghetto on the south side had driven them forth into the inferno of the street fighting and whither they wended and whatever became of them i did not know and never learned it
but it is definitely settled now that the ghetto was fired by the mercenaries under orders from their chiefs i have faint memories of breaking a window and hiding in some shop to escape a street mob that was pursued by soldiers
also a bomb burst near me once in some still street where look as i would up and down i could see no human being but my next sharp recollection begins with the crack of a rifle
the shot missed and the next moment i was screaming and motioning the signals my memory of riding in the automobile is very hazy though this ride in turn is broken by one vivid picture the crack of the rifle of the soldier sitting beside me made me open my eyes
and i saw george milford whom i had known in the pell street days sinking slowly down to the sidewalk even as he sank the soldier fired again and milford doubled in
the soldier chuckled and the automobile sped on the next i knew after that i was awakened out of a sound sleep by a man who walked up and down close beside me his face was drawn and strained and the sweat rolled down his nose from his forehead
one hand was clutched tightly against his chest by the other hand and blood dripped down upon the floor as he walked he wore the uniform of the mercenaries from without as through thick walls came the muffled roar of bursting bombs i was in some building that was locked in combat with some other building
a surgeon came in to dress the wounded soldier and i learned that it was two in the afternoon my headache was no better and the surgeon paused from his work long enough to give me a powerful drug that would depress the heart and bring relief i slept again and the next i knew i was on top of the building
some one had an arm around me and i was leaning close against him it came to me quite as a matter of course that this was ernest and i found myself wondering how he had got his hair and eyebrows so badly singed it was by the merest chance that we had found each other in that terrible city
he had had no idea that i had left new york and coming through the room where i lay asleep could not at first believe that it was i little more i saw of the chicago commune after watching the balloon attack ernest took me down into the heart of the building where i slept the afternoon out and the night
the third day we spent in the building and on the fourth ernest having got permission and an automobile from the authorities we left chicago my headache was gone but body and soul i was very tired i lay back against ernest in the automobile
and with apathetic eyes watched the soldiers trying to get the machine out of the city fighting was still going on but only in isolated localities here and there whole districts were still in possession of the comrades but such districts were surrounded and guarded by heavy bodies of troops
in a hundred segregated traps were the comrades thus held while the work of subjugating them went on subjugation meant death for no quarter was given and they fought heroically to the last man numbers
while one held out eleven days each building had to be stormed like a fort and the mercenaries fought their way upward floor by floor it was deadly fighting quarter was neither given nor taken and in the fighting the revolutionists had the advantage of being above
while the revolutionists were wiped out the loss was not one sided the proud chicago proletariat lived up to its ancient boast for as many of itself as were killed it killed that many of the enemy
whenever we approached such localities the guards turned us back and sent us around once the only way past two strong positions of the comrades was through a burnt section that lay between from either side we could hear the rattle and roar of war
while the automobile picked its way through smoking ruins and tottering walls often the streets were blocked by mountains of debris that compelled us to go around we were in a labyrinth of ruin and our progress was slow the stockyards ghetto plant and everything
were smouldering ruins far off to the right a wide smoke haze dimmed the sky the town of pullman the soldier chauffeur told us or what had been the town of pullman for it was utterly destroyed he had driven the machine out there with despatches on the afternoon of the third day
some of the heaviest fighting had occurred there he said many of the streets being rendered impassable by the heaps of the dead swinging around the shattered walls of a building in the stockyards district the automobile was stopped by a wave of dead it was for all the world like a wave tossed up by the sea
it was patent to us what had happened as the mob charged past the corner it had been swept at right angles and point blank range by the machine guns drawn up on the cross street but disaster had come to the soldiers a chance bomb must have exploded among them for the mob
checked until its dead and dying formed the wave had white capped and flung forward its foam of living fighting slaves soldiers and slaves lay together torn and mangled around and over the wreckage of the automobiles and guns ernest sprang out
a familiar pair of shoulders in a cotton shirt and a familiar fringe of white hair had caught his eye i did not watch him and it was not until he was back beside me and we were speeding on that he said it was bishop morehouse
soon we were in the green country and i took one last glance back at the smoke filled sky
for the cause that was lost ernest's arm about me was eloquent with love for this time lost dear heart he said but not forever we have learned to morrow the cause will rise again
strong with wisdom and discipline the automobile drew up at a railroad station
as we waited on the platform three trains thundered past bound west to chicago they were crowded with ragged unskilled laborers people of the abyss slave levies for the rebuilding of chicago ernest said
the bishop's vision the bishop is out of hand ernest wrote me he is clear up in the air tonight he is going to begin putting to rights this very miserable world of ours
he is going to deliver his message he has told me so and i cannot dissuade him
to night he is chairman of the i p h and he will embody his message in his introductory remarks there is no clew to the name of the organization for which these initials stand
may i bring you to hear him of course he is foredoomed to futility it will break your heart it will break his but for you it will be an excellent object lesson
i want to redeem in your eyes some small measure of my unworthiness and so it is that my pride desires that you shall know my thinking is correct and right my views are harsh
the futility of so noble a soul as the bishop will show you the compulsion for such harshness so come to night sad though this night's happening will be i feel that it will but draw you more closely to me
the i p h held its convention that night in san francisco
this convention had been called to consider public immorality and the remedy for it bishop morehouse presided he was very nervous as he sat on the platform and i could see the high tension he was under by his side were bishop dickinson
and then in the darkness the question came to me what is to be done what is to be done a little later the question came to me in another way what would the master do and with the question a great light seemed to fill the place
as saul saw his on the way to damascus i stopped the carriage got out and after a few minutes conversation persuaded two of the public women to get into the brougham with me if jesus was right then these two unfortunates were my sisters
and the only hope of their purification was in my affection and tenderness i live in one of the loveliest localities of san francisco the house in which i live cost a hundred thousand dollars and its furnishings books and works of art cost as much more
the house is a mansion no it is a palace wherein there are many servants i never knew what palaces were good for i had thought they were to live in but now i know i took the two women of the street to my palace
and they are going to stay with me i hope to fill every room in my palace with such sisters as they the audience had been growing more and more restless and unsettled and the faces of those that sat on the platform had been betraying greater and greater dismay and consternation
fled from the platform and the hall but bishop morehouse oblivious to all his eyes filled with his vision continued
they are made to carry the weak the sick and the aged they are made to show honor to those who have lost the sense even of shame i did not know what palaces were made for but now i have found a use for them the palaces of the church should be hospitals
and nurseries for those who have fallen by the wayside and are perishing he made a long pause plainly overcome by the thought that was in him and nervous how best to express it i am not fit dear brethren
to tell you anything about morality i have lived in shame and hypocrisies too long to be able to help others but my action with those women sisters of mine shows me that the better way is easy to find to those who believe in jesus and his gospel
there can be no other relation between man and man than the relation of affection love alone is stronger than sin stronger than death i therefore say to the rich among you that it is their duty to do what i have done and am doing
let each one of you who is prosperous take into his house some thief and treat him as his brother some unfortunate and treat her as his sister and san francisco will need no police force and no magistrates the prisons will be turned into hospitals
and the criminal will disappear with his crime we must give ourselves and not our money alone we must do as christ did that is the message of the church today
we have put mammon in the place of christ i have here a poem that tells the whole story i should like to read it to you
it is an attack upon all churches upon the pomp and splendor of all churches that have wandered from the master's path and hedged themselves in from his lambs here it is the silver trumpets rang across the dome
the people knelt upon the ground with awe and borne upon the necks of men i saw like some great god the holy lord of rome priest like he wore a robe more white than foam
and king like swathed himself in royal red three crowns of gold rose high upon his head in splendor and in light the pope passed home my heart stole back across wide wastes of years to one who wandered by a lonely sea
that bitterly you oppress the master's lambs
the voices of pain and sorrow that you will not hear but that some day will be heard and so i say but at this point h h jones and philip ward who had already risen from their chairs led the bishop off the platform while the audience sat breathless and shocked
ernest laughed harshly and savagely when he had gained the street his laughter jarred upon me my heart seemed ready to burst with suppressed tears he has delivered his message ernest cried the manhood and the deep hidden tender nature of their bishop burst out
and his christian audience that loved him concluded that he was crazy did you see them leading him so solicitously from the platform there must have been laughter in hell at the spectacle nevertheless it will make a great impression what the bishop did and said to night i said
think so ernest queried mockingly it will make a sensation i asserted didn't you see the reporters scribbling like mad while he was speaking not a line of which will appear in to morrow's papers i can't believe it i cried
just wait and see was the answer not a line not a thought that he uttered the daily press the daily suppressage
i saw them not a word that he uttered will see print you have forgotten the editors they draw their salaries for the policy they maintain their policy is to print nothing that is a vital menace to the established
the bishop's utterance was a violent assault upon the established morality it was heresy they led him from the platform to prevent him from uttering more heresy the newspapers will purge his heresy in the oblivion of silence the press of the united states
it is a parasitic growth that battens on the capitalist class its function is to serve the established by moulding public opinion and right well it serves it let me prophesy
to morrow's papers will merely mention that the bishop is in poor health that he has been working too hard and that he broke down last night the next mention some days hence will be to the effect that he is suffering from nervous prostration
after that one of two things will happen either the bishop will see the error of his way and return from his vacation a well man in whose eyes there are no more visions or else he will persist in his madness and then you may expect to see in the papers
couched pathetically and tenderly the announcement of his insanity after that
now there you go too far i cried out in the eyes of society it will truly be insanity he replied what honest man who is not insane would take lost women and thieves into his house to dwell with him sisterly and brotherly
true christ died between two thieves but that is another story insanity the mental processes of the man with whom one disagrees are always wrong therefore the mind of the man is wrong where is the line between wrong mind and insane mind
it is inconceivable that any sane man can radically disagree with one's most sane conclusions there is a good example of it in this evening's paper mary mc kenna lives south of market street she is a poor but honest woman she is also patriotic
but she has erroneous ideas concerning the american flag and the protection it is supposed to symbolize and here's what happened to her
in spite of taking in washing she got behind in her rent yesterday they evicted her but first she hoisted an american flag and from under its folds she announced that by virtue of its protection they could not turn her out on to the cold street what was done
she was arrested and arraigned for insanity to day she was examined by the regular insanity experts she was found insane she was consigned to the napa asylum
suppose i should disagree with everybody about the literary style of a book they wouldn't send me to an asylum for that very true he replied but such divergence of opinion would constitute no menace to society therein lies the difference
the divergence of opinion on the parts of mary mc kenna and the bishop do menace society what if all the poor people should refuse to pay rent and shelter themselves under the american flag landlordism would go crumbling
the bishop's views are just as perilous to society ergo to the asylum with him
wait and see ernest said and i waited next morning i sent out for all the papers so far ernest was right not a word that bishop morehouse had uttered was in print mention was made in one or two of the papers that he had been overcome by his feelings
yet the platitudes of the speakers that followed him were reported at length several days later the brief announcement was made that he had gone away on a vacation to recover from the effects of overwork
the sixteenth chapter
too too the listener having thanked the sharks again for their kindness the doctor and his pets set off once more on their journey home in the swift ship with the three red sails as they moved out into the open sea
the animals all went downstairs to see what their new boat was like inside while the doctor leant on the rail at the back of the ship with a pipe in his mouth watching the canary islands fade away in the blue dusk of the evening
while he was standing there wondering how the monkeys were getting on and what his garden would look like when he got back to puddleby
there are thick soft carpets on the floors the dishes are made of silver and there are all sorts of good things to eat and drink special things
you never saw anything like it in your life
door locked and we are all crazy to get in and see what's inside jip says it must be where the pirates kept their treasure but we
come down and see if you can let us in so the doctor went downstairs and he saw that it was indeed a beautiful ship he found the animals gathered round a little door all talking at once trying to guess what was inside
the doctor turned the handle but it wouldn't open then they all started to hunt for the key they looked under the mat
they looked in all the cupboards and drawers and lockers in the big chests in the ship's dining room they looked everywhere while they were doing this they discovered a lot of new and wonderful things that the pirates must have stolen from other ships
embroidered with flowers of gold jars of fine tobacco from jamaica carved ivory boxes full of russian tea an old violin with a string broken and a picture on the back
a set of big chess men carved out of coral and amber a walking stick which had a sword inside
six wine glasses with turquoise and silver round the rims and a lovely great sugar bowl made of mother o pearl but nowhere in the whole boat could they find a key to fit that lock
so they all came back to the door and jip peered through the key hole but something had been stood against the wall on the inside and he could see nothing while they were standing around wondering what they should do the owl
i do believe there's some one in there they all kept still a moment then the doctor said you must be mistaken too too i don't hear anything
said the owl sh there it is again don't you hear that no i do not said the doctor what kind of a sound is it
i hear the noise of some one putting his hand in his pocket said the owl but that makes hardly any sound at all said the doctor you couldn't hear that out here
pardon me but i can said too too i tell you there is some one on the other side of that door putting his hand in his pocket almost
everything makes some noise if your ears are only sharp enough to catch it bats can hear a mole walking in his tunnel under the earth
and they think they're good hearers
using only one ear the color of a kitten from the way it winks in the dark well well said the doctor you surprise me that's very interesting
listen again and tell me what he's doing now i'm not sure yet said too too if it's a man at all maybe it's a woman
lift me up and let me listen at the key hole and i'll soon tell you
after a moment too too said
now he pushes his hair back off his forehead it's a man all right women sometimes do that said the doctor true said the owl
but when they do their long hair makes quite a different sound
now all hold your breath a moment so i can listen well
what i'm doing now
everybody quite still shut your eyes and don't breathe too too leaned down and listened again very hard and long at last he looked up into the doctor's face and said
the man in there is unhappy he weeps he has taken care not to blubber or sniffle lest we should find out that he is crying but i heard
such ignorance sniffed too too a drop of water falling off the ceiling would have made ten times as much noise well said the doctor
if the poor fellow's unhappy we've got to get in and see what's the matter with him
the ocean gossips right away an axe was found and the doctor soon chopped a hole in the door big enough to clamber through at first he could see nothing at all it was so dark inside so he struck a match
the room was quite small no window the ceiling low for furniture there was only one little stool
fastened at the bottom so they wouldn't tumble with the rolling of the ship and above the barrels pewter jugs of all sizes hung from wooden pegs there was a strong winey smell and in the middle of the floor sat a little boy
about eight years old crying bitterly
said jip in a whisper yes very rum said gub gub the smell makes me giddy
the little boy seemed rather frightened to find a man standing there before him and all those animals staring in through the hole in the broken door but as soon as he saw john dolittle's face by the light of the match he stopped crying and got up
you aren't one of the pirates are you he asked and when the doctor threw back his head and laughed long and loud the little boy smiled too and came and took his hand you laugh like a friend
he said not like a pirate could you tell me where my uncle is i am afraid i can't said the doctor when did you see him last it was the day before yesterday said the boy
when the pirates came and caught us they sunk our fishing boat and brought us both on to this ship they told my uncle that they wanted him to be a pirate like them for he was clever at sailing a ship in all weathers
but he said he didn't want to be a pirate because killing people and stealing was no work for a good fisherman to do then the leader ben ali got very angry and gnashed his teeth
and said they would throw my uncle into the sea if he didn't do as they said they sent me downstairs and i heard the noise of a fight going on above and when they let me come up again next day
my uncle was nowhere to be seen i asked the pirates where he was but they wouldn't tell me i am very much afraid they threw him into the sea and drowned him
and the little boy began to cry again well now wait a minute said the doctor don't cry let's go and have tea in the dining room and we'll talk it over maybe your uncle is quite safe all the time
and that's something perhaps we can find him for you first we'll go and have tea with strawberry jam
and when they had gone into the ship's dining room and were having tea dab dab came up behind the doctor's chair and whispered ask the porpoises if the boy's uncle was drowned they'll know all right said the doctor
taking a second piece of bread and jam what are those funny clicking noises you are making with your tongue asked the boy oh i just said a couple of words in duck language the doctor answered
this is dab dab one of my pets i didn't even know that ducks had a language said the boy are all these other animals your pets too what is that strange looking thing with two heads
sh the doctor whispered that is the pushmi pullyu don't let him see we're talking about him he gets so dreadfully embarrassed tell me how did you come to be locked up in that little room
the pirates shut me in there when they were going off to steal things from another ship when i heard some one chopping on the door i didn't know who it could be i was very glad to find it was you
do you think you will be able to find my uncle for me well we are going to try very hard said the doctor now what was your uncle like to look at he had red hair the boy answered very red hair
and the picture of an anchor tattooed on his arm he was a strong man a kind uncle and the best sailor in the south atlantic his fishing boat was called the saucy sally a cutter rigged sloop
what's cutterigsloop whispered gub gub turning to jip sh that's the kind of a ship the man had said jip
keep still can't you oh said the pig is that all i thought it was something to drink so the doctor left the boy to play with the animals in the dining room
and went upstairs to look for passing porpoises and soon a whole school came dancing and jumping through the water on their way to brazil when they saw the doctor leaning on the rail of his ship they came over to see how he was getting on
and the doctor asked them if they had seen anything of a man with red hair and an anchor tattooed on his arm
asked the porpoises yes said the doctor that's the man has he been drowned
said the porpoises for we saw it lying on the bottom of the sea but there was nobody inside it because we went and looked his little nephew is on the ship with me here said the doctor and he is terribly afraid that the pirates threw his uncle into the sea
would you be so good as to find out for me for sure whether he has been drowned or not
he isn't drowned said the porpoises if he were we would be sure to have heard of it from the deep sea decapods we hear all the salt water news the shell fish call us the ocean gossips no tell the little boy we are sorry we do not know where his uncle is
but we are quite certain he hasn't been drowned in the sea so the doctor ran downstairs with the news and told the nephew who clapped his hands with happiness and the pushmi pullyu took the little boy on his back and gave him a ride round the dining room table
prefatory note by the author if this discourse appear too long to be read at once it may be divided into six parts
and in the first will be found various considerations touching the sciences in the second the principal rules of the method which the author has discovered in the third certain of the rules of morals which he has deduced from this method in the fourth
which are the foundations of his metaphysic in the fifth the order of the physical questions which he has investigated and in particular the explication of the motion of the heart and of some other difficulties pertaining to medicine
as also the difference between the soul of man and that of the brutes and in the last what the author believes to be required in order to greater advancement in the investigation of nature than has yet been made with the reasons that have induced him to write
good sense is of all things among men the most equally distributed for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it
than they already possess and in this it is not likely that all are mistaken the conviction is rather to be held as testifying that the power of judging aright and of distinguishing truth from error
which is properly what is called good sense or reason is by nature equal in all men
does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others but solely from this that we conduct our thoughts along different ways and do not fix our attention on the same objects
for to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough the prime requisite is rightly to apply it the greatest minds as they are capable of the highest excellences are open likewise to the greatest aberrations
and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress provided they keep always to the straight road than those who while they run forsake it
for myself i have never fancied my mind to be in any respect more perfect than those of the generality on the contrary i have often wished that i were equal to some others in promptitude of thought or in clearness and distinctness of imagination
or in fullness and readiness of memory and besides these i know of no other qualities that contribute to the perfection of the mind
and distinguishes us from the brutes i am disposed to believe that it is to be found complete in each individual and on this point to adopt the common opinion of philosophers who say that the difference of greater and less holds only among the accidents
i will not hesitate however to avow my belief that it has been my singular good fortune to have very early in life fallen in with certain tracks which have conducted me to considerations and maxims of which i have formed a method that gives me the means as i think
of gradually augmenting my knowledge and of raising it by little and little to the highest point which the mediocrity of my talents and the brief duration of my life will permit me to reach for i have already reaped from it such fruits that
although i have been accustomed to think lowly enough of myself and although when i look with the eye of a philosopher at the varied courses and pursuits of mankind at large i find scarcely one which does not appear in vain and useless
and cannot help entertaining such expectations of the future as to believe that if among the occupations of men as men there is any one really excellent and important it is that which i have chosen after all it is possible i may be mistaken
and it is but a little copper and glass perhaps that i take for gold and diamonds i know how very liable we are to delusion in what relates to ourselves and also how much the judgments of our friends are to be suspected when given in our favor
but i shall endeavor in this discourse to describe the paths i have followed and to delineate my life as in a picture in order that each one may also be able to judge of them for himself and that in the general opinion entertained of them as gathered from current report
i myself may have a new help towards instruction to be added to those i have been in the habit of employing my present design then is not to teach the method which each ought to follow for the right conduct of his reason
but solely to describe the way in which i have endeavored to conduct my own they who set themselves to give precepts must of course regard themselves as possessed of greater skill than those to whom they prescribe
and if they err in the slightest particular they subject themselves to censure but as this tract is put forth merely as a history or if you will as a tale in which amid some examples worthy of imitation
there will be found perhaps as many more which it were advisable not to follow i hope it will prove useful to some without being hurtful to any and that my openness will find some favor with all
from my childhood i have been familiar with letters and as i was given to believe that by their help a clear and certain knowledge of all that is useful in life might be acquired i was ardently desirous of instruction
but as soon as i had finished the entire course of study at the close of which it is customary to be admitted into the order of the learned i completely changed my opinion for i found myself involved in so many doubts and errors
that i was convinced i had advanced no farther in all my attempts at learning than the discovery at every turn of my own ignorance and yet i was studying in one of the most celebrated schools in europe in which i thought there must be learned men
if such were anywhere to be found i had been taught all that others learned there and not contented with the sciences actually taught us i had in addition read all the books that had fallen into my hands
treating of such branches as are esteemed the most curious and rare i knew the judgment which others had formed of me and i did not find that i was considered inferior to my fellows
although there were among them some who were already marked out to fill the places of our instructors and in fine our age appeared to me as flourishing and as fertile in powerful minds as any preceding one
i was thus led to take the liberty of judging of all other men by myself and of concluding that there was no science in existence that was of such a nature as i had previously been given to believe i still continued however
to hold in esteem the studies of the schools i was aware that the languages taught in them are necessary to the understanding of the writings of the ancients that the grace of fable stirs the mind that the memorable deeds of history elevate it and
if read with discretion aid in forming the judgment that the perusal of all excellent books is as it were to interview with the noblest men of past ages who have written them and even a studied interview in which are discovered to us
only their choicest thoughts that eloquence has incomparable force and beauty that poesy has its ravishing graces and delights that in the mathematics there are many refined discoveries eminently suited to gratify the inquisitive
as well as further all the arts an lessen the labour of man that numerous highly useful precepts and exhortations to virtue are contained in treatises on morals that theology points out the path to heaven
that philosophy affords the means of discoursing with an appearance of truth on all matters and commands the admiration of the more simple that jurisprudence medicine and the other sciences secure for their cultivators honors and riches and in fine
that it is useful to bestow some attention upon all even upon those abounding the most in superstition and error that we may be in a position to determine their real value and guard against being deceived
but i believed that i had already given sufficient time to languages and likewise to the reading of the writings of the ancients to their histories and fables
for to hold converse with those of other ages and to travel are almost the same thing it is useful to know something of the manners of different nations that we may be enabled to form a more correct judgment regarding our own
and be prevented from thinking that everything contrary to our customs is ridiculous and irrational a conclusion usually come to by those whose experience has been limited to their own country on the other hand when too much time is occupied in traveling
we become strangers to our native country and the over curious in the customs of the past are generally ignorant of those of the present besides fictitious narratives lead us to imagine the possibility of many events that are impossible
and even the most faithful histories if they do not wholly misrepresent matters or exaggerate their importance to render the account of them more worthy of perusal omit at least almost always the meanest and least striking of the attendant circumstances
hence it happens that the remainder does not represent the truth and that such as regulate their conduct by examples drawn from this source are apt to fall into the extravagances of the knight errants of romance and to entertain projects that exceed their powers
i esteemed eloquence highly and was in raptures with poesy but i thought that both were gifts of nature rather than fruits of study those in whom the faculty of reason is predominant and who most skillfully dispose their thoughts with a view to render them clear and intelligible
are always the best able to persuade others of the truth of what they lay down though they should speak only in the language of lower brittany and be wholly ignorant of the rules of rhetoric and those whose minds are stored with the most agreeable fancies
and who can give expression to them with the greatest embellishment and harmony are still the best poets though unacquainted with the art of poetry i was especially delighted with the mathematics on account of the certitude and evidence of their reasonings
but i had not as yet a precise knowledge of their true use and thinking that they but contributed to the advancement of the mechanical arts i was astonished that foundations so strong and solid should have had no loftier superstructure reared on them
on the other hand i compared the disquisitions of the ancient moralists to very towering and magnificent palaces with no better foundation than sand and mud they laud the virtues very highly and exhibit them as estimable far above anything on earth
but they give us no adequate criterion of virtue and frequently that which they designate with so fine a name is but apathy or pride or despair or parricide i revered our theology and aspired as much as any one to reach heaven
but being given assuredly to understand that the way is not less open to the most ignorant than to the most learned and that the revealed truths which lead to heaven are above our comprehension i did not presume to subject them to the impotency of my reason
and i thought that in order competently to undertake their examination there was need of some special help from heaven and of being more than man
of philosophy i will say nothing except that when i saw that it had been cultivated for many ages by the most distinguished men and that yet there is not a single matter within its sphere which is not still in dispute
and nothing therefore which is above doubt i did not presume to anticipate that my success would be greater in it than that of others and further when i considered the number of conflicting opinions touching a single matter
that may be upheld by learned men while there can be but one true i reckoned as well nigh false all that was only probable as to the other sciences
i judged that no solid superstructures could be reared on foundations so infirm and neither the honor nor the gain held out by them was sufficient to determine me to their cultivation for i was not thank heaven
in a condition which compelled me to make merchandise of science for the bettering of my fortune and though i might not profess to scorn glory as a cynic
i yet made very slight account of that honor which i hoped to acquire only through fictitious titles and in fine of false sciences i thought i knew the worth sufficiently to escape being deceived by the professions of an alchemist the predictions of an astrologer
the impostures of a magician or by the artifices and boasting of any of those who profess to know things of which they are ignorant for these reasons as soon as my age permitted me to pass from under the control of my instructors
i entirely abandoned the study of letters and resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself or of the great book of the world i spent the remainder of my youth in traveling in visiting courts and armies
in holding intercourse with men of different dispositions and ranks in collecting varied experience in proving myself in the different situations into which fortune threw me and above all
in making such reflection on the matter of my experience as to secure my improvement for it occurred to me that i should find much more truth in the reasonings of each individual with reference to the affairs in which he is personally interested
and the issue of which must presently punish him if he has judged amiss than in those conducted by a man of letters in his study regarding speculative matters that are of no practical moment and followed by no consequences to himself farther perhaps
than that they foster his vanity the better the more remote they are from common sense requiring as they must in this case the exercise of greater ingenuity and art to render them probable in addition
i had always a most earnest desire to know how to distinguish the true from the false in order that i might be able clearly to discriminate the right path in life and proceed in it with confidence it is true that
while busied only in considering the manners of other men i found here too scarce any ground for settled conviction and remarked hardly less contradiction among them than in the opinions of the philosophers
so that the greatest advantage i derived from the study consisted in this that observing many things which however extravagant and ridiculous to our apprehension
i learned to entertain too decided a belief in regard to nothing of the truth of which i had been persuaded merely by example and custom and thus
i gradually extricated myself from many errors powerful enough to darken our natural intelligence and incapacitate us in great measure from listening to reason but after i had been occupied several years in thus studying the book of the world
and in essaying to gather some experience i at length resolved to make myself an object of study and to employ all the powers of my mind in choosing the paths i ought to follow
the whole house was in a state of alarm and commotion natasha was very ill
poisoned herself the night after she had been told that anatole was married with some arsenic she had stealthily procured after swallowing a little she had been so frightened
that she woke sonya and told her what she had done the necessary antidotes had been administered in time and she was now out of danger though still so weak
that it was out of the question to move her to the country and so the countess had been sent for pierre saw the distracted count and sonya who had a tear stained face but he could not see natasha
assuring everyone that nothing had happened except that his brother in law had proposed to her and been refused it seemed to pierre that it was his duty to conceal the whole affair
with great impatience some days after anatole's departure pierre received a note from prince andrew informing him of his arrival and asking him to come to see him
breaking off her engagement mademoiselle bourienne had purloined it from princess mary and given it to the old prince and he heard from him the story of natasha's elopement
prince andrew had arrived in the evening and pierre came to see him next morning pierre expected to find prince andrew in almost the same state as natasha
and was therefore surprised on entering the drawing room to hear him in the study talking in a loud animated voice about some intrigue going on in petersburg
the old prince's voice and another now and then interrupted him princess mary came out to meet pierre she sighed looking toward the door of the room where prince andrew was
evidently intending to express her sympathy with his sorrow but pierre saw by her face that she was glad both at what had happened
and at the way her brother had taken the news of natasha's faithlessness he says he expected it she remarked i know his pride will not let him express his feelings but
he has taken it better far better than i expected evidently it had to be but is it possible that all is really ended asked pierre princess mary looked at him with astonishment
but with a fresh horizontal wrinkle between his brows stood in civilian dress facing his father and prince
warmly disputing and vigorously gesticulating the conversation was about speranski the news of whose sudden exile and alleged treachery had just reached moscow
and by those who were unable to understand his aims to judge a man who is in disfavor
but i maintain that if anything good has been accomplished in this reign it was done by him by him alone he paused at the sight of pierre his face quivered
and immediately assumed a vindictive expression posterity will do him justice he concluded and at once turned to pierre well
still getting stouter he said with animation but the new wrinkle on his forehead deepened yes i am well he said in answer to pierre's question and smiled
to pierre that smile said plainly i am well
after a few words to pierre about the awful roads from the polish frontier about people he had met in switzerland who knew pierre
whom he had brought from abroad to be his son's tutor prince andrew again joined warmly in the conversation about speranski which was still going on between the two old men
if there were treason or proofs of secret relations with napoleon they would have been made public he said with warmth and haste i do not and never did like speranski personally
but i like justice pierre now recognized in his friend a need with which he was only too familiar to get excited and to have arguments about extraneous matters
in order to stifle thoughts that were too oppressive and too intimate when prince meshcherski had left prince andrew took pierre's arm and asked him into the room that had been assigned him
a bed had been made up there and some open portmanteaus and trunks stood about prince andrew went to one and took out a small casket from which he drew a packet wrapped in paper
he did it all silently and very quickly he stood up and coughed his face was gloomy and his lips compressed forgive me for troubling you
pierre saw that prince andrew was going to speak of natasha and his broad face expressed pity and sympathy this expression irritated prince andrew
i have received a refusal from countess rostova and have heard reports of your brother in law having sought her hand or something of that kind is that true
here are her letters and her portrait said he he took the packet from the table and handed it to pierre give this to the countess if you see her she is very ill said pierre
then she is here still said prince andrew and prince kuragin he added quickly he left long ago
i much regret her illness said prince andrew and he smiled like his father coldly maliciously and unpleasantly so
monsieur kuragin has not honored countess rostova with his hand said prince andrew and he snorted several times
prince andrew laughed disagreeably again reminding one of his father and where is your brother in law now if i may ask he said
but i don't know said pierre well it doesn't matter said prince andrew tell countess rostova that she was and is perfectly free
pierre took the packet prince andrew as if trying to remember whether he had something more to say or waiting to see if pierre would say anything looked fixedly at him
i say do you remember our discussion in petersburg asked pierre about
i said that a fallen woman should be forgiven
i could forgive her i can't but can this be compared said pierre prince andrew interrupted him and cried sharply yes ask her hand again be magnanimous and so on
yes that would be very noble but i am unable to follow in that gentleman's footsteps if you wish to be my friend never speak to me of that
well good by so you'll give her the packet pierre left the room and went to the old prince and princess mary the old man seemed livelier than usual
princess mary was the same as always but beneath her sympathy for her brother pierre noticed her satisfaction that the engagement had been broken off looking at them pierre realized
following day on that day june twenty seventh the preliminaries of peace were signed the emperors exchanged decorations alexander received the cross of the legion of honor
given by a battalion of the french guards to the preobrazhensk battalion the emperors were to be present at that banquet
that when the latter looked in after supper he pretended to be asleep and early next morning went away avoiding boris in his civilian clothes and a round hat he wandered about the town
staring at the french and their uniforms and at the streets and houses where the russian and french emperors were staying in a square he saw tables being set up and preparations made for the dinner
he saw the russian and french colors draped from side to side of the streets with huge monograms a and n
boris doesn't want to help me and i don't want to ask him
thought rostov who had unconsciously returned to the house where alexander lodged saddled horses were standing before the house
i may see him at any moment thought rostov if only i were to hand the letter direct to him and tell him all
surely not he would understand on whose side justice lies he understands everything knows everything who can be more just more magnanimous than he
what would it matter thought he looking at an officer who was entering the house the emperor occupied after all people do go in
no i won't miss my opportunity now as i did after austerlitz he thought expecting every moment to meet the monarch and conscious of the blood that rushed to his heart
he entered the porch of the emperor's house a broad staircase led straight up from the entry
below under the staircase was a door leading to the lower floor whom do you want someone inquired
the door leading downstairs only it won't be accepted on hearing this indifferent voice rostov grew frightened at what he was doing
the thought of meeting the emperor at any moment was so fascinating and consequently so alarming that he was ready to run away but the official who had questioned him opened the door and rostov entered
and his valet was buttoning on to the back of his breeches a new pair of handsome silk embroidered braces that for some reason attracted rostov's attention
this man was speaking to someone in the adjoining room a good figure and in her first bloom
he was saying but on seeing rostov he stopped short and frowned what is it a petition what is it asked the person in the other room another petitioner answered the man with the braces
tell him to come later he'll be coming out directly we must go later later tomorrow it's too late rostov turned and was about to go but the man in the braces stopped him
whom have you come from who are you i come from major denisov answered rostov
lieutenant count rostov what audacity
whom he had to pass cursing his temerity his heart sinking at the thought of finding himself at any moment face to face with the emperor and being put to shame
and arrested in his presence fully alive now to the impropriety of his conduct and repenting of it rostov with downcast eyes was making his way out of the house
through the brilliant suite when a familiar voice called him and a hand detained him what are you doing here sir in civilian dress asked a deep voice
but seeing the kindly jocular face of the general he took him aside and in an excited voice told him the whole affair asking him to intercede for denisov whom the general knew
having heard rostov to the end the general shook his head gravely i'm sorry sorry for that fine fellow give me the letter
hardly had rostov handed him the letter and finished explaining denisov's case when hasty steps and the jingling of spurs were heard on the stairs
the gentlemen of the emperor's suite
hayne the same groom who had been at austerlitz led up the emperor's horse
and again after two years saw those features he adored that same face and same look and step and the same union of majesty
and the feeling of enthusiasm and love for his sovereign
in all its old force in the uniform of the preobrazhensk regiment white chamois leather breeches and high boots and wearing a star rostov did not know it was that of the legion d'honneur
the monarch came out into the porch putting on his gloves and carrying his hat under his arm
all the suite drew back and rostov saw the general talking for some time to the emperor the emperor said a few words to him and took a step toward his horse
again the crowd of members of the suite and street gazers among whom was rostov moved nearer to the emperor
stopping beside his horse with his hand on the saddle the emperor turned to the cavalry general and said in a loud voice evidently wishing to be heard by all i cannot do it general
i cannot because the law is stronger than i and he raised his foot to the stirrup the general bowed his head respectfully
and the monarch mounted and rode down the street at a gallop beside himself with enthusiasm
when in reply to an invitation to dinner he had had to listen to an angry reprimand for not having provided his full quota of men natasha on the other hand
so ready to be fond of him for being his father and of her for being his sister
they drove up to the gloomy old house on the vozdvizhenka and entered the vestibule well the lord have mercy on us said the count
half in jest half in earnest but natasha noticed that her father was flurried on entering the anteroom and inquired timidly and softly
whether the prince and princess were at home when they had been announced a perturbation was noticeable among the servants the footman who had gone to announce them
and they whispered to one another then a maidservant ran into the hall and hurriedly said something mentioning the princess at last
an old cross looking footman came and announced to the rostovs that the prince was not receiving but that the princess begged them to walk up
the first person who came to meet the visitors was mademoiselle bourienne she greeted the father and daughter with special politeness
and at ease from the first glance princess mary did not like natasha she thought her too fashionably dressed frivolously gay and vain
she was prejudiced against her by involuntary envy of her beauty youth and happiness as well as by jealousy of her brother's love for her
apart from this insuperable antipathy to her princess mary was agitated just then
but they were not to be admitted to him
lest the prince might at any moment indulge in some freak as he seemed much upset by the rostovs visit
bowing and looking round uneasily as if afraid the old prince might appear i am so glad you should get to know one another very sorry the prince is still ailing
in the dogs square and then
the count had devised this diplomatic ruse as he afterwards told his daughter to give the future sisters in law an opportunity to talk to one another freely
but another motive was to avoid the danger of encountering the old prince of whom he was afraid he did not mention this to his daughter but natasha noticed her father's nervousness and anxiety
and felt mortified by it she blushed for him grew still angrier at having blushed and looked at the princess with a bold and defiant expression which said
that she was not afraid of anybody the princess told the count that she would be delighted and only begged him to stay longer at anna semenovna's and he departed
who wished to have a tete a tete with natasha mademoiselle bourienne remained in the room and persistently talked about moscow amusements and theaters
natasha felt offended by the hesitation she had noticed in the anteroom by her father's nervousness
was making a favor of receiving her and so everything displeased her she did not like princess mary
natasha suddenly shrank into herself and involuntarily assumed an offhand air which alienated princess mary still more
after five minutes of irksome constrained conversation
princess mary looked frightened the door opened and the old prince in a dressing gown and a white nightcap came in ah madam he began madam countess
countess rostova if i am not mistaken i beg you to excuse me to excuse me i did not know madam
so unnaturally and so unpleasantly that princess mary stood with downcast eyes
either at her father or at natasha nor did the latter having risen and curtsied know what to do mademoiselle bourienne alone smiled agreeably
i beg you to excuse me excuse me god is my witness i did not know muttered the old man and after looking natasha over from head to foot he went out
mademoiselle bourienne was the first to recover herself after this apparition and began speaking about the prince's indisposition
and the longer they did so without saying what they wanted to say
i couldn't begin talking about him in the presence of that frenchwoman
and because without knowing why she felt it very difficult to speak of the marriage when the count was already leaving the room princess mary went up hurriedly to natasha
took her by the hand and said with a deep sigh wait i must
natasha noticed this and guessed its reason i think princess it is not convenient to speak of that now she said with external dignity and coldness though she felt the tears choking her
they waited a long time for natasha to come to dinner that day she sat in her room crying like a child blowing her nose and sobbing sonya stood beside her kissing her hair
natasha what is it about she asked what do they matter to you it will all pass natasha
as if i don't talk about it natasha
kiss me said sonya natasha raised her head and kissing her friend on the lips pressed her wet face against her i can't tell you i don't know
no one's to blame said natasha it's my fault but it all hurts terribly oh why doesn't he come
how did you get here said a voice
he had probably soiled them when he too had knelt before the icon came up to him smiling boris was elegantly dressed with a slightly martial touch appropriate to a campaign
he wore a long coat and like kutuzov had a whip slung across his shoulder meanwhile kutuzov had reached the village and seated himself in the shade of the nearest house on a bench
which one cossack had run to fetch and another had hastily covered with a rug an immense and brilliant suite surrounded him the icon was carried further
accompanied by the throng pierre stopped some thirty paces from kutuzov talking to boris he explained his wish to be present at the battle and to see the position
i am in attendance on him you know i'll mention it to him but if you want to ride round the position come along with us we are just going to the left flank then when we get back
of course you know dmitri sergeevich
but i should like to see the right flank
yes yes but where is prince bolkonski's regiment
prince andrew's we shall pass it and i'll take you to him what about the left flank asked pierre to tell you the truth between ourselves
god only knows what state our left flank is in said boris confidentially lowering his voice it is not at all what count bennigsen intended
he meant to fortify that knoll quite differently but
or someone persuaded him you see but boris did not finish for at that moment kaysarov kutuzov's adjutant came up to pierre ah
yes exactly the left flank is now extremely strong though kutuzov had dismissed all unnecessary men from the staff
boris had contrived to remain at headquarters after the changes he had established himself
considered young prince drubetskoy an invaluable man in the higher command there were two sharply defined parties kutuzov's party and that of bennigsen the chief of staff
boris belonged to the latter and no one else while showing servile respect to kutuzov could so create an impression that the old fellow was not much good
and that bennigsen managed everything now the decisive moment of battle had come when kutuzov would be destroyed and the power pass to bennigsen
by bennigsen in any case many great rewards would have to be given for tomorrow's action and new men would come to the front
and he had not time to reply to all the questions about moscow that were showered upon him or to listen to all that was told him
was occupied by the different expression he saw on other faces an expression that spoke not of personal matters but of the universal questions of life and death
kutuzov noticed pierre's figure and the group gathered round him call him to me said kutuzov
and has crawled into the enemy's picket line at night he's a brave fellow pierre took off his hat and bowed respectfully to kutuzov i concluded
please think of me perhaps i may prove useful to your serene highness yes yes kutuzov repeated his laughing eye narrowing more and more as he looked at pierre
stepped up to pierre's side near kutuzov and in a most natural manner
said to pierre as though continuing an interrupted conversation the militia have put on clean white shirts to be ready to die what heroism count
they have put on clean shirts ah a wonderful a matchless people said kutuzov and he closed his eyes and swayed his head a matchless people he repeated with a sigh
so you want to smell gunpowder he said to pierre
i have the honor to be one of your wife's adorers is she well my quarters are at your service and as often happens with old people
kutuzov began looking about absent mindedly as if forgetting all he wanted to say or do then evidently remembering what he wanted
he beckoned to andrew kaysarov his adjutant's brother those verses
those he wrote about gerakov lectures for the corps inditing
them recite them said he evidently preparing to laugh
kutuzov smilingly nodded his head to the rhythm of the verses when pierre had left kutuzov dolokhov came up to him and took his hand
i am very glad to meet you here count he said aloud regardless of the presence of strangers and in a particularly resolute and solemn tone on the eve of a day
when god alone knows who of us is fated to survive
with tears in his eyes dolokhov embraced pierre and kissed him boris said a few words to his general and count bennigsen turned to pierre and proposed that he should ride with him along the line
and though thy spirit's life trials untold assail with giant strength good cheer good cheer soon ends the bitter strife and thou shalt reign in peace with christ at length
ay sooth we feel too strong in weal to need thee on that road but woe being come the soul is dumb that crieth not on god missus browning
that afternoon she walked swiftly to the higgins's house mary was looking out for her with a half distrustful face margaret smiled into her eyes to re assure her they passed quickly through the house place upstairs and into the quiet presence of the dead
then margaret was glad that she had come the face often so weary with pain so restless with troublous thoughts had now the faint soft smile of eternal rest upon it
and that was death it looked more peaceful than life all beautiful scriptures came into her mind they rest from their labours the weary are at rest he giveth his beloved sleep slowly slowly margaret turned away from the bed
mary was humbly sobbing in the back ground they went down stairs without a word
studying the reality of her death bringing himself to understand that her place should know her no more
dying so long that he had persuaded himself she would not die that she would pull through margaret felt as if she had no business to be there familiarly acquainting herself with the surroundings of death which he the father had only just learnt
there had been a pause of an instant on the steep crooked stair
the noise appeared to rouse him he took sudden hold of margaret's arm and held her till he could gather words to speak
they came up thick and choked and hoarse were yo with her
no replied margaret standing still with the utmost patience now she found herself perceived it was some time before he spoke again but he kept his hold on her arm all men must die said he at last with a strange sort of gravity
which first suggested to margaret the idea that he had been drinking not enough to intoxicate himself but enough to make his thoughts bewildered but she were younger than me
suddenly he looked up at her with a wild searching inquiry in his glance
faint she's been so before often she is dead replied margaret
though he hurt her arm with his gripe and wild gleams came across the stupidity of his eyes she is dead she said he looked at her still with that searching look which seemed to fade out of his eyes as he gazed
mary came trembling towards him get thee gone get thee gone he cried striking wildly and blindly at her what do i care for thee margaret took her hand and held it softly in hers he tore his hair
he beat his head against the hard wood then he lay exhausted and stupid still his daughter and margaret did not move mary trembled from head to foot at last it might have been a quarter of an hour it might have been an hour he lifted himself up
he shook himself heavily gave them one more sullen look spoke never a word but made for the door oh father father said mary throwing herself upon his arm
any night but to night oh help me he's going out to drink again father i'll not leave yo
she told me last of all to keep yo fro drink
he looked up at her defyingly it's my own house stand out o the way wench or i'll make yo he had shaken off mary with violence he looked ready to strike margaret but she never moved a feature never took her deep serious eyes off him
he stared back on her with gloomy fierceness if she had stirred
margaret felt that he acknowledged her power what could she do next he had seated himself on a chair
but unwilling to use the violence he had threatened not five minutes before margaret laid her hand on his arm come with me she said come and see her
he stood uncertain with dogged irresolution upon his face
but at last he moved towards the stairs she and he stood by the corpse
nought can hurt her now then raising his voice to a wailing cry he went on
we may clem to skin and bone and
for her heart smote her at the idea of leaving the poor affectionate girl alone but mary had friends among the neighbours she said who would come in and sit a bit with her it was all right but father he was there by them
as she would have spoken more he had shaken off his emotion as if he was ashamed of having ever given way to it
nor to the left while he tramped along by margaret's side he feared being upset by the words still more the looks of sympathising neighbours so he and margaret walked in silence as he got near the street in which he knew she lived he looked down at his clothes his hands and shoes
it certainly would have been desirable but margaret assured him
while he followed the house servant along the passage and through the kitchen stepping cautiously on every dark mark in the pattern of the oil cloth in order to conceal his dirty foot prints margaret ran upstairs she met dixon on the landing how is mamma where is papa
so far so good but where was mister hale
missus hale lifted herself up from a doze when did you write to frederick margaret yesterday or the day before yesterday mamma yesterday and the letter went
oh margaret i'm so afraid of his coming if he should be recognised if he should be taken if he should be executed after all these years that he has kept away and lived in safety i keep falling asleep and dreaming that he is caught and being tried oh mamma don't be afraid
there will be some risk no doubt but we will lessen it as much as ever we can and it is so little
while here nobody knows or cares for us enough to notice what we do
while he is here they'll be clever if they come in past me said dixon showing her teeth at the bare idea
poor fellow echoed missus hale but i almost wish you had not written would it be too late to stop him if you wrote again margaret i'm afraid it would mamma said margaret remembering the urgency with which she had entreated him to come directly if he wished to see his mother alive
i always dislike that doing things in such a hurry said missus hale margaret was silent come now ma'am said dixon with a kind of cheerful authority you know seeing master frederick is just the very thing of all others you're longing for
i've been thinking she might go and see her mother just at that very time
but i'll see about her being safe off as soon as we know when he comes god bless him so take your tea ma'am in comfort and trust to me missus hale did trust in dixon more than in margaret dixon's words quieted her for the time
margaret poured out the tea in silence trying to think of something agreeable to say
therefore to rectify your opinions in is the science of trade i'm glad sir said higgins with a curious wink of his eye that yo put in so they think
i don't expect to convince you in a day not in one conversation but let us know each other and speak freely to each other about these things and the truth will prevail
mister higgins i trust whatever else you have given up you believe' mister hale's voice dropped low in reverence
at last higgins found words man i could fell yo to the ground for tempting me
that there is a god and that he set her her life i dunnot believe she'll ever live again
such trouble and had such never ending care and i cannot bear to think it were all a set o chances that might ha been altered
margaret touched his arm very softly she had not spoken before nor had he heard her rise
come up now my heart's welly brossen
that were all but that were enough for me mister hale blew his nose and got up to snuff the candles in order to conceal his emotion
margaret how could you say so muttered he reproachfully
not yet papa i think perhaps not at all let us ask him about the strike and give him all the sympathy he needs
they reckoned on their fellow men as if they possessed the calculable powers of machines no more no less no allowance for human passions getting the better of reason as in the case of boucher and the rioters and believing that the representations of their injuries
would have the same effect on strangers far away as the injuries fancied or real had upon themselves
you forget said margaret i don't know much of boucher but the only time i saw him it was not his own sufferings he spoke of but those of his
you don't seem to have much respect for him nor gained much good from having him in
what they does they does
on which to argue for the right and the just and what are the union's ways and means
but her calm face fixed on his patient and trustful compelled him to answer
i some places them's fined who speaks to him yo try that miss try living a year or two among them as looks away if yo look at em try working within two yards o crowds o men who
and a man s no man who'll groan out loud
why said margaret
ye think i forget who's lying there and how hoo loved yo and
along wi it come crimes but i think it were a greater crime to let it alone our only chance is binding men together in one common interest and if some are cowards and some are fools they mun come along and join the great march whose only strength is in numbers oh
if it were but for an end which affected the good of all instead of that of merely one class as opposed to another i reckon it's time for me to be going sir said higgins as the clock struck ten home
said margaret very softly he understood her and took her offered hand home miss
mister higgins i'm sure you'll join us in family prayer higgins looked at margaret doubtfully her grave sweet eyes met his there was no compulsion only deep interest in them he did not speak but he kept his place
no very long time afterward and having gotten together a great army they made war against the israelites and having seized a place between shochoh and azekah they there pitched their camp saul also drew out his army to oppose them
now there came down a man out of the camp of the philistines whose name was goliath of the city of gath a man of vast bulk for he was of four cubits and a span in tallness
and had about him weapons suitable to the largeness of his body for he had a breastplate on that weighed five thousand shekels he had also a helmet and greaves of brass as large as you would naturally suppose might cover the limbs of so vast a body
his spear was also such as was not carried like a light thing in his right hand but he carried it as lying on his shoulders he had also a lance of six hundred shekels and many followed him to carry his armor
wherefore this goliath stood between the two armies as they were in battle array and sent out aloud voice and said to saul and the hebrews i will free you from fighting and from dangers for what necessity is there
that your army should fall and be afflicted give me a man of you that will fight with me and he that conquers shall have the reward of the conqueror and determine the war for these shall serve those others to whom the conqueror shall belong
and did not leave off for forty days together to challenge the enemy in the same words till saul and his army were therewith terrified while they put themselves in array as if they would fight
and to be partners in the dangers of the war and at first david returned to feed his sheep and his flocks but after no long time he came to the camp of the hebrews as sent by his father to carry provisions to his brethren and to know what they were doing
he heard the philistine reproaching and abusing the army and had indignation at it and said to his brethren i am ready to fight a single combat with this adversary whereupon eliab his eldest brother reproved him
and said that he spoke too rashly and improperly for one of his age and bid him go to his flocks and to his father so he was abashed at his brother's words and went away but still he spake to some of the soldiers that he was willing to fight with him that challenged them
and when they had informed saul what was the resolution of the young man the king sent for him to come to him and when the king asked what he had to say he replied o king be not cast down nor afraid for i will depress the insolence of this adversary
as tall and as great as he is till he shall be sufficiently laughed at
but durst not presume on his ability by reason of his age but said he must on that account be too weak to fight with one that was skilled in the art of war i undertake this enterprise said david in dependence on god's being with me
for i have had experience already of his assistance for i once pursued after and caught a lion that assaulted my flocks and took away a lamb from them and i snatched the lamb out of the wild beast's mouth and when he leaped upon me with violence
and let this adversary of ours be esteemed like one of these wild beasts since he has a long while reproached our army and blasphemed our god
saul prayed that the end might be by god's assistance not disagreeable to the alacrity and boldness of the child and said go thy way to the fight so he put about him his breastplate and girded on his sword and fitted the helmet to his head
and as i myself desire accordingly he laid by the armor and taking his staff with him and putting five stones out of the brook into a shepherd's bag and having a sling in his right hand he went towards goliath
but the adversary seeing him come in such a manner disdained him and jested upon him as if he had not such weapons with him as are usual when one man fights against another but such as are used in driving away and avoiding of dogs
but i have god for my armor in coming against thee who will destroy thee and all thy army by my hands for i will this day cut off thy head and cast the other parts of thy body to the dogs
and all men shall learn that god is the protector of the hebrews and that our armor and our strength is in his providence and that without god's assistance all other warlike preparations and power are useless
so the philistine being retarded by the weight of his armor when he attempted to meet david in haste came on but slowly as despising him and depending upon it that he should slay him
for he had no sword himself and upon the fall of goliath the philistines were beaten and fled for when they saw their champion prostrate on the ground they were afraid of the entire issue of their affairs and resolved not to stay any longer
but committed themselves to an ignominious and indecent flight and thereby endeavored to save themselves from the dangers they were in but saul and the entire army of the hebrews made a shout and rushed upon them and slew a great number of them
but dedicated his sword to god at the tabernacle chapter ten saul envies david for his glorious success and takes an occasion of entrapping him from the promise he made him
of giving him his daughter in marriage but this upon condition
for they came to meet their victorious army with cymbals and drums and all demonstrations of joy and sang thus the wives said that saul had slain his many thousands of the philistines the virgins replied
that david had slain his ten thousands now when the king heard them singing thus and that he had himself the smallest share in their commendations and the greater number the ten thousands
and when he considered with himself that there was nothing more wanting to david after such a mighty applause but the kingdom he began to be afraid and suspicious of david accordingly he removed him from the station he was in before
for he was his armor bearer which out of fear seemed to him much too near a station for him and so he made him
and accordingly he greatly prospered in his undertakings and it was visible that he had mighty success
as intending to make use of it for a snare against david and he hoped that it would prove the cause of destruction and of hazard to him so he told those that informed him of his daughter's affection that he would willingly give david the virgin in marriage
and said i engage myself to marry my daughter to him if he will bring me six hundred heads
and when he should aim to get him great glory by undertaking a thing so dangerous and incredible he would immediately set about it and so perish by the philistines and my designs about him will succeed finely to my mind
for i shall be freed from him and get him slain not by myself but by another man so he gave order to his servants to try how david would relish this proposal of marrying the damsel
accordingly they began to speak thus to him that king saul loved him as well as did all the people and that he was desirous of his affinity by the marriage of this damsel to which he gave this answer
seemeth it to you a light thing to be made the king's son in law it does not seem so to me especially when i am one of a family that is low and without any glory or honor
now when saul was informed by his servants what answer david had made he said tell him that i do not want any money nor dowry from him which would be rather to set my daughter to sale than to give her in marriage
but i desire only such a son in law as hath in him fortitude and all other kinds of virtue of which he saw david was possessed and that his desire was to receive of him on account of his marrying his daughter
neither gold nor silver nor that he should bring such wealth out of his father's house but only some revenge on the philistines and indeed six hundred of their heads than which a more desirable or a more glorious present
could not be brought him and that he had much rather obtain this than any of the accustomed dowries for his daughter viz that she should be married to a man of that character and to one who had a testimony
he was pleased with them and supposed that saul was really desirous of this affinity with him so that without bearing to deliberate any longer or casting about in his mind whether what was proposed was possible
or was difficult or not he and his companions immediately set upon the enemy and went about doing what was proposed as the condition of the marriage accordingly because it was god who made all things easy and possible to david
he slew many of the philistines and cut off the heads of six hundred of them and came to the king and by showing him these heads of the philistines required that he might have his daughter in marriage accordingly
chapter seven saul's war with the amalekites
that he was sent by god to put him in mind that god had preferred him before all others and ordained him king that he therefore ought to be obedient to him and to submit to his authority as considering
beginning with the women and the infants and to require this as a punishment to be inflicted upon them for the mischief they did to our forefathers to spare nothing neither asses nor other beasts
but to devote them universally to god and in obedience to the commands of moses
accordingly saul made an irruption into the country of the amalekites and set many men in several parties in ambush at the river
but might fall upon them unexpectedly in the ways
compass them round about and kill them and when he had joined battle with the enemy he beat them and pursuing them as they fled he destroyed them all and when that undertaking had succeeded according as god had foretold
he set upon the cities of the amalekites
and took them by force partly by warlike machines partly by mines dug under ground and partly by building walls on the outsides some they starved out with famine and some they gained by other methods
and after all he betook himself to slay the women and the children and thought he did not act therein either barbarously or inhumanly first because they were enemies whom he thus treated and
in the next place because it was done by the command of god whom it was dangerous not to obey he also took agag the enemies king captive the beauty and tallness of whose body he admired so much that he thought him worthy of preservation
yet was not this done however according to the will of god but by giving way to human passions and suffering himself to be moved with an unseasonable commiseration in a point where it was not safe for him to indulge it
for god hated the nation of the amalekites to such a degree that he commanded saul to have no pity on even those infants which we by nature chiefly compassionate
for they spared the herds and the flocks and took them for a prey when god had commanded they should not spare them they also carried off with them the rest of their wealth and riches
but for the nation of the shechemites he did not touch them although they dwelt in the very middle of the country of midian for before the battle saul had sent to them and charged them to depart thence lest they should be partakers of the miseries of the amalekites
for he had a just occasion for saving them
and for the conquest of his enemies as though he had not neglected any thing which the prophet had enjoined him to do when he was going to make war with the amalekites and as though he had exactly observed all that he ought to have done
but god was grieved that the king of the amalekites was preserved alive and that the multitude had seized on the cattle for a prey because these things were done without his permission for he thought it an intolerable thing that they should conquer
and overcome their enemies by that power which he gave them and then that he himself should be so grossly despised and disobeyed by them that a mere man that was a king would not bear it he therefore
told samuel the prophet that he repented that he had made saul king while he did nothing that he had commanded him but indulged his own inclinations when samuel heard that he was in confusion and began to beseech god all that night to be reconciled to saul
and not to be angry with him but he did not grant that forgiveness to saul which the prophet asked for as not deeming it a fit thing to grant forgiveness of such sins at his entreaties
since injuries do not otherwise grow so great as by the easy tempers of those that are injured or while they hunt after the glory of being thought gentle and good natured before they are aware they produce other sins
as soon therefore as god had rejected the intercession of the prophet and it plainly appeared he would not change his mind at break of day samuel came to saul at gilgal when the king saw him he ran to him and embraced him and said
i return thanks to god who hath given me the victory for i have performed every thing that he hath commanded me to which samuel replied how is it then that i hear the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the greater cattle in the camp saul made answer
that the people had reserved them for sacrifices but that as to the nation of the amalekites it was entirely destroyed as he had received it in command to see done and that no one man was left but that he had saved alive the king alone
and brought him to him concerning whom he said they would advise together what should be done with him but the prophet said
but with good and with righteous men who are such as follow his will and his laws and never think that any thing is well done by them
that he then looks upon himself as affronted not when any one does not sacrifice but when any one appears to be disobedient to him
but that from those who do not obey him nor pay him that duty which is the alone true and acceptable worship he will not kindly accept their oblations be those they offer ever so many and so fat and be the presents they make him ever so ornamental
nay though they were made of gold and silver themselves but he will reject them and esteem them instances of wickedness and not of piety and that he is delighted with those that still bear in mind this one thing and this only
and when these do sacrifice though it be a mean oblation he better accepts of it as the honor of poverty than such oblations as come from the richest men that offer them to him wherefore take notice
that thou art under the wrath of god for thou hast despised and neglected what he commanded thee how dost thou then suppose that he will respect a sacrifice out of such things as he hath doomed to destruction
unless perhaps thou dost imagine that it is almost all one to offer it in sacrifice to god as to destroy it do thou therefore expect that thy kingdom will be taken from thee
and that authority which thou hast abused by such insolent behavior as to neglect that god who bestowed it upon thee then did saul confess that he had acted unjustly and did not deny that he had sinned because he had transgressed the injunctions of the prophet
but forgive me said he and be merciful to me for i will be cautious how i offend for the time to come he also entreated the prophet to go back with him that he might offer his thank offerings to god but samuel went home
upon which the prophet said that after the same manner should the kingdom be rent from him
that god persevered in what he had decreed about him that to be mutable and changeable in what is determined is agreeable to human passions only but is not agreeable to the divine power hereupon saul said that he had been wicked
samuel said as thou hast made many of the hebrew mothers to lament and bewail the loss of their children so shalt thou by thy death cause thy mother to lament thee also
he went up to his royal palace at gibeah which name denotes a hill and after that day he came no more into the presence of the prophet and when samuel mourned for him god bid him leave off his concern for him and to take the holy oil and go to bethlehem to jesse
the son of obed and to anoint such of his sons as he should show him for their future king but samuel said he was afraid lest saul when he came to know of it should kill him either by some private method or even openly
but upon god's suggesting to him a safe way of going thither he came to the forementioned city and when they all saluted him and asked what was the occasion of his coming he told them he came to sacrifice to god when therefore he had gotten the sacrifice ready
he called jesse and his sons to partake of those sacrifices and when he saw his eldest son to be a tall and handsome man he guessed by his comeliness that he was the person who was to be their future king but he was mistaken in judging about god's providence
for when samuel inquired of god whether he should anoint this youth whom he so admired and esteemed worthy of the kingdom god said men do not see as god seeth thou indeed hast respect to the fine appearance of this youth
and thence esteemest him worthy of the kingdom
and i inquire after one that is perfectly comely in that respect i mean one who is beautiful in piety and righteousness and fortitude and obedience for in them consists the comeliness of the soul
and when god said it was none of them he asked jesse whether he had not some other sons besides these and when he said that he had one more named david but that he was a shepherd and took care of the flocks samuel bade them call him immediately
for that till he was come they could not possibly sit down to the feast now as soon as his father had sent for david and he was come he appeared to be of a yellow complexion of a sharp sight and a comely person in other respects also
this is he said samuel privately to himself whom it pleases god to make our king so he sat down to the feast and placed the youth under him and jesse also with his other sons after which he took oil in the presence of david
and anointed him and whispered him in the ear and acquainted him that god chose him to be their king and exhorted him to be righteous and obedient to his commands for that by this means his kingdom would continue for a long time
went away but the divine power departed from saul and removed to david who upon this removal of the divine spirit to him
but as for saul some strange and demoniacal disorders came upon him and brought upon him such suffocations as were ready to choke him for which the physicians could find no other remedy but this
that if any person could charm those passions by singing and playing upon the harp they advised them to inquire for such a one and to observe when these demons came upon him and disturbed him and to take care that such a person might stand over him
and when a certain stander by said that he had seen in the city of bethlehem
a son of jesse who was yet no more than a child in age but comely and beautiful and in other respects one that was deserving of great regard who was skillful in playing on the harp and in singing of hymns and an excellent soldier in war he sent to jesse
and desired him to take david away from the flocks and send him to him for he had a mind to see him as having heard an advantageous character of his comeliness and his valor so jesse sent his son and gave him presents to carry to saul
and when he was come saul was pleased with him and made him his armor bearer and had him in very great esteem for he charmed his passion and was the only physician against the trouble he had from the demons whensoever it was that it came upon him
and this by reciting of hymns and playing upon the harp and bringing saul to his right mind again however he sent to jesse the father of the child and desired him to permit david to stay with him for that he was delighted with his sight and company
without his approbation they accused him and suspected that he made it his business to keep in a distressed condition that they might always stand in need of his assistance accordingly they resolved to fight with the canaanites
and said that god gave them his assistance not out of regard to moses's intercessions but because he took care of their entire nation on account of their forefathers whose affairs he took under his own conduct as also
and would be assisting to them now they were willing to take pains for it they also said that they were possessed of abilities sufficient for the conquest of their enemies although moses should have a mind to alienate god from them
and not so far to rejoice in their deliverance from the indignities they endured under the egyptians as to bear the tyranny of moses over them and to suffer themselves to be deluded and live according to his pleasure as though god did only foretell what concerns us
as if they were not all the posterity of abraham that god made him alone the author of all the knowledge we have and we must still learn it from him
that it would be a piece of prudence to oppose his arrogant pretenses and to put their confidence in god and to resolve to take possession of that land which he had promised them
they went against their enemies but those enemies were not dismayed either at the attack itself or at the great multitude that made it and received them with great courage many of the hebrews were slain and the remainder of the army upon the disorder of their troops were pursued and fled
made them quite despond and they hoped for nothing that was good as gathering from it that this affliction came from the wrath of god
for they were sensible that without his care for them their affairs could not be in a good condition and he caused the host to remove and he went further into the wilderness as intending there to let them rest
chapter two the sedition of corah and of the multitude against moses and against his brother
and especially upon ill success to be hard to be pleased and governed with difficulty did now befall the jews for they being in number six hundred thousand and by reason of their great multitude
not readily subject to their governors even in prosperity they at this time were more than usually angry both against one another and against their leader because of the distress they were in
by which they were in danger of being all destroyed but were notwithstanding saved by moses
he delivered them from those terrible calamities which without his providential care had been brought upon them by this sedition so i will first explain the cause whence this sedition arose
and then will give an account of the sedition itself
and was at it and envied him on that account he of the same tribe with moses and of kin to him was particularly grieved because he thought he better deserved that honorable post on account of great riches
and paved the way to glory for himself and by ill arts should obtain it under the pretense of god's command while contrary to laws he had given the priesthood to aaron
he added that this concealed way of imposing on them was harder to be borne than if it had been done by an open force upon them
even while they think themselves concealed in their designs and not suffer them to gain strength till they have them for their open enemies for what account added he is moses able to give
why he has bestowed the priesthood on aaron and his sons for
that of reuben might have it most justly
and abiram and on the son of peleth would have it
had a mind to appear to take care of the public welfare but in reality he was endeavoring to procure to have that dignity transferred by the multitude to himself thus did he out of a malignant design
when these words did gradually spread to more people and when the hearers still added to what tended to the scandals that were cast upon aaron the whole army was full of them now of those that conspired with corah
there were two hundred and fifty and those of the principal men also who were eager to have the priesthood taken away from moses's brother and to bring him into disgrace nay the multitude themselves were provoked to be seditious
and attempted to stone moses and gathered themselves together after an indecent manner with confusion and disorder and now all were in a tumultuous manner raising a clamour before the tabernacle of god
to prosecute the tyrant and to relieve the multitude from their slavery under him who under color of the divine laid violent injunctions upon them
he would have raised person to that dignity and would not produced such a one as was inferior to many others nor have given him that office
he would have permitted it to the multitude to bestow it
and knowing that his brother had been made partaker of the priesthood at the command of god and not by his own favor to him he came to the assembly and as for the multitude he said not a word to them
but spake as loud to corah as he could and being very skillful in making speeches and having this natural talent among others that he could greatly move the multitude with his discourses he said o corah
both thou and all these with thee pointing to the two hundred and fifty men seem to be worthy of this honor
although they may not be so rich or so great as you are nor have i taken and given this office to my brother because he excelled others in riches
has made our families equal nay nor was it out of brotherly affection which another might yet have justly done for certainly unless i had bestowed this honor out of regard to god and to his laws
i had not passed by myself and given it to another as being nearer of kin to myself than to my brother and having a closer intimacy with myself than i have with him for surely
nor would god have overlooked this matter and seen himself thus despised nor would he have suffered you to be ignorant of what you were to do in order to please him
and thereby freed us from that care so that it was not a thing that i pretend to give but only according to the determination of god i therefore propose it still to be contended for
by such as please to put in for it only desiring that he who has been already preferred and has already obtained it may be allowed now also to offer himself for a candidate
he prefers your peace and your living without sedition to this honorable employment although in truth it was with your approbation that he obtained it for though god were the donor
yet do we not offend when we think fit to accept it with your good will yet would it have been an instance of impiety not to have taken that honorable employment when he offered it nay it had been exceedingly unreasonable
any one should have it for all time to come and had made it secure and firm to him to have refused it however he himself will judge again who it shall be whom he would have to offer sacrifices to him
and to have the direction of matters of religion for it is absurd that corah who is ambitious of this honor should deprive god of the power of giving it to whom he pleases
put an end therefore to your sedition and disturbance on this account and tomorrow morning do every one of you that desire the priesthood bring a censer from home and come hither with incense and fire
do thou also come that this contest about this honorable employment
without offense to offer himself to this scrutiny since he is of the same lineage with thyself and has done nothing in his priesthood that can be liable to exception come ye therefore together
and offer your incense in public before all the people and when you offer it he whose sacrifice god shall accept shall be ordained to the priesthood
on the morning appointed for her departure tess was awake before dawn at the marginal minute of the dark when the grove is still mute save for one prophetic bird who sings with a clear voiced conviction
that he at least knows the correct time of day the rest preserving silence as if equally convinced that he is mistaken she remained upstairs packing till breakfast time
and then came down in her ordinary week day clothes her sunday apparel being carefully folded in her box her mother expostulated
but i am going to work said tess well yes said missus durbeyfield and in a private tone at first there mid be a little pretence o't
to put your best side outward she added very well i suppose you know best
saying serenely do what you like with me mother missus durbeyfield was only too delighted at this tractability first she fetched a great basin
and washed tess's hair with such thoroughness that when dried and brushed it looked twice as much as at other times she tied it with a broader pink ribbon than usual
then she put upon her the white frock that tess had worn at the club walking
i declare there's a hole in my stocking heel said tess
they don't speak when i was a maid so long as i had a pretty bonnet the devil might ha found me in heels her mother's pride in the girl's appearance led her to step back like a painter from his easel
and survey her work as a whole you must zee yourself she cried
as the looking glass was only large enough to reflect a very small portion of tess's person at one time missus durbeyfield hung a black cloak outside the casement
i'll tell ee what tis durbeyfield
he'll never have the heart not to love her
don't zay too much to tess of his fancy for her and this chance she has got she is such an odd maid that it mid zet her against him or against going there even now if all goes well
dear good man however as the moment for the girl's setting out drew nigh when the first excitement of the dressing had passed off a slight misgiving found place in joan durbeyfield's mind
it prompted the matron to say that she would walk a little way as far as to the point where the acclivity from the valley began its first steep ascent to the outer world at the top
and her box had already been wheeled ahead towards this summit by a lad with trucks to be in readiness seeing their mother put on her bonnet the younger children clamoured to go with her
i do want to walk a little ways wi sissy now she's going to marry our gentleman cousin and wear fine cloze now said tess flushing and turning quickly i'll hear no more o that mother
how could you ever put such stuff into their heads going to work my dears for our rich relation
said missus durbeyfield pacifically goodbye father said tess with a lumpy throat
said sir john raising his head from his breast as he suspended his nap induced by a slight excess this morning in honour of the occasion well i hope my young friend will like such a comely sample of his own blood and tell'n tess
i'll sell him the title yes sell it and at no onreasonable figure not for less than a thousand pound cried lady durbeyfield tell'n i'll take a thousand pound
well i'll take less when i come to think o't
but i won't stand upon trifles
yes twenty pound that's the lowest dammy family honour is family honour and i won't take a penny less tess's eyes were too full and her voice too choked to utter the sentiments that were in her
she turned quickly and went out so the girls and their mother all walked together a child on each side of tess holding her hand
and looking at her meditatively from time to time as at one who was about to do great things her mother just behind with the smallest the group forming a picture of honest beauty flanked by innocence
they followed the way till they reached the beginning of the ascent on the crest of which the vehicle from trantridge was to receive her this limit having been fixed to save the horse the labour of the last slope far away behind the first hills
the cliff like dwellings of shaston broke the line of the ridge nobody was visible in the elevated road which skirted the ascent save the lad whom they had sent on before them
sitting on the handle of the barrow that contained all tess's worldly possessions bide here a bit and the cart will soon come no doubt said missus durbeyfield
it had come appearing suddenly from behind the forehead of the nearest upland and stopping beside the boy with the barrow her mother and the children thereupon decided to go no farther and bidding them a hasty goodbye
tess bent her steps up the hill they saw her white shape draw near to the spring cart on which her box was already placed but before she had quite reached it another vehicle shot out from a clump of trees on the summit
came round the bend of the road there passed the luggage cart and halted beside tess who looked up as if in great surprise her mother perceived for the first time
that the second vehicle was not a humble conveyance like the first but a spick and span gig or dog cart highly varnished and equipped the driver was a young man of three or four and twenty with a cigar between his teeth
wearing a dandy cap drab jacket breeches of the same hue white neckcloth stick up collar and brown driving gloves
to get her answer about tess missus durbeyfield clapped her hands like a child then she looked down then stared again
who'll make sissy a lady asked the youngest child meanwhile the muslined form of tess could be seen standing still undecided beside this turn out whose owner was talking to her her seeming indecision was in fact
more than indecision it was misgiving she would have preferred the humble cart the young man dismounted and appeared to urge her to ascend she turned her face down the hill to her relatives
and regarded the little group something seemed to quicken her to a determination possibly the thought that she had killed prince she suddenly stepped up he mounted beside her and immediately whipped on the horse
in a moment they had passed the slow cart with the box and disappeared behind the shoulder of the hill directly tess was out of sight and the interest of the matter as a drama was at an end
the youngest child said i wish poor poor tess wasn't gone away to be a lady and lowering the corners of his lips burst out crying the new point of view was infectious
and the next child did likewise and then the next till the whole three of them wailed loud there were tears also in joan durbeyfield's eyes as she turned to go home but by the time she had got back to the village
she was passively trusting to the favour of accident however in bed that night she sighed and her husband asked her what was the matter oh i don't know exactly she said
oughtn't ye to have thought of that before well tis a chance for the maid still if twere the doing again i wouldn't let her go
and choice over her as his kinswoman
snored sir john joan durbeyfield always managed to find consolation somewhere well as one of the genuine stock she ought to make her way with en if she plays her trump card aright
she did not know what the other occupants said to her as she entered though she answered them and when they had started anew she rode along with an inward and not an outward eye
one among her fellow travellers addressed her more pointedly than any had spoken before why you be quite a posy and such roses in early june
then she became aware of the spectacle she presented to their surprised vision roses at her breasts roses in her hat roses and strawberries in her basket to the brim she blushed
and said confusedly that the flowers had been given to her when the passengers were not looking she stealthily removed the more prominent blooms from her hat and placed them in the basket where she covered them with her handkerchief
then she fell to reflecting again and in looking downwards a thorn of the rose remaining in her breast accidentally pricked her chin
tess was steeped in fancies and prefigurative superstitions she thought this an ill omen the first she had noticed that day
and there were several miles of pedestrian descent from that mountain town into the vale to marlott her mother had advised her to stay here for the night at the house of a cottage woman they knew if she should feel too tired to come on
and this tess did not descending to her home till the following afternoon when she entered the house she perceived in a moment from her mother's triumphant manner that something had occurred in the interim
i told ee it would be all right and now tis proved since i've been away what has said tess rather wearily her mother surveyed the girl up and down with arch approval and went on banteringly
so you've brought em round how do you know mother i've had a letter tess then remembered that there would have been time for this they say missus d'urberville says
that she wants you to look after a little fowl farm which is her hobby but this is only her artful way of getting ee there without raising your hopes
but i didn't see her you zid somebody i suppose i saw her son and did he own ee well he called me coz
cried joan to her husband well he spoke to his mother of course and she do want ee there but i don't know that i am apt at tending fowls said the dubious tess
then i don't know who is apt you've be'n born in the business and brought up in it they that be born in a business always know more about it than any prentice besides
that's only just a show of something for you to do that you midn't feel beholden i don't altogether think i ought to go said tess thoughtfully who wrote the letter
the letter was in the third person and briefly informed missus durbeyfield that her daughter's services would be useful to that lady in the management of her poultry farm
that a comfortable room would be provided for her if she could come and that the wages would be on a liberal scale if they liked her oh that's all said tess
tess looked out of the window i would rather stay here with father and you she said
i'd rather not tell you why mother indeed i don't quite know why a week afterwards she came in one evening from an unavailing search for some light occupation in the immediate neighbourhood
her idea had been to get together sufficient money during the summer to purchase another horse hardly had she crossed the threshold before one of the children danced across the room saying the gentleman's been here
her mother hastened to explain smiles breaking from every inch of her person missus d'urberville's son had called on horseback having been riding by chance in the direction of marlott
he had wished to know finally in the name of his mother if tess could really come to manage the old lady's fowl farm or not
mister d'urberville says you must be a good girl if you are at all as you appear he knows you must be worth your weight in gold he is very much interested in ee truth to tell
in her own esteem she had sunk so low it is very good of him to think that she murmured and if i was quite sure how it would be living there i would go any when
he is a mighty handsome man i don't think so said tess coldly well there's your chance whether or no and i'm sure he wears a beautiful diamond ring
yes said little abraham brightly from the window bench and i seed it and it did twinkle when he put his hand up to his mistarshers mother
hark at that child cried missus durbeyfield with parenthetic admiration
i'll think it over said tess leaving the room well she's made a conquest o the younger branch of us straight off continued the matron to her husband and she's a fool if she don't follow it up
i don't quite like my children going away from home said the haggler as the head of the family the rest ought to come to me but do let her go jacky
you can see that he called her coz he'll marry her most likely and make a lady of her and then she'll be what her forefathers was john durbeyfield had more conceit than energy or health
and this supposition was pleasant to him well perhaps that's what young mister d'urberville means he admitted and sure enough he mid have serious thoughts about improving his blood
tess the little rogue and have she really paid em a visit to such an end as this meanwhile tess was walking thoughtfully among the gooseberry bushes in the garden and over prince's grave
when she came in her mother pursued her advantage well what be you going to do she asked i wish i had seen missus d'urberville said tess
then you'll see her soon enough her father coughed in his chair
it is for you to decide i killed the old horse and i suppose i ought to do something to get ye a new one
which they imagined the other family to be as a species of dolorifuge after the death of the horse began to cry at tess's reluctance and teased and reproached her for hesitating
tess won't go o o and be made a la a dy of no she says she wo o on't they wailed with square mouths and we shan't have a nice new horse
and tess won't look pretty in her best cloze no mo o ore her mother chimed in to the same tune
a certain way she had of making her labours in the house seem heavier than they were by prolonging them indefinitely also weighed in the argument her father alone preserved an attitude of neutrality
i will go said tess at last her mother could not repress her consciousness of the nuptial vision conjured up by the girl's consent that's right
for such a pretty maid as tis this is a fine chance tess smiled crossly i hope it is a chance for earning money it is no other kind of chance
missus durbeyfield did not promise she was not quite sure that she did not feel proud enough after the visitor's remarks to say a good deal thus it was arranged
and the young girl wrote agreeing to be ready to set out on any day on which she might be required she was duly informed that missus d'urberville was glad of her decision
and that a spring cart should be sent to meet her and her luggage at the top of the vale on the day after the morrow when she must hold herself prepared to start missus d'urberville's handwriting seemed rather masculine
it might have been a carriage for her own kin having at last taken her course tess was less restless and abstracted
going about her business with some self assurance in the thought of acquiring another horse for her father by an occupation which would not be onerous
being mentally older than her mother she did not regard missus durbeyfield's matrimonial hopes for her in a serious aspect for a moment
having mounted beside her alec d'urberville drove rapidly along the crest of the first hill chatting compliments to tess as they went the cart with her box being left far behind rising still
an immense landscape stretched around them on every side behind the green valley of her birth before a gray country of which she knew nothing except from her first brief visit to trantridge
thus they reached the verge of an incline down which the road stretched in a long straight descent of nearly a mile ever since the accident with her father's horse
had been exceedingly timid on wheels the least irregularity of motion startled her she began to get uneasy at a certain recklessness in her conductor's driving
you will go down slow sir i suppose she said with attempted unconcern d'urberville looked round upon her nipped his cigar with the tips of his large white centre teeth
and allowed his lips to smile slowly of themselves why tess he answered after another whiff or two it isn't a brave bouncing girl like you who asks that
why i always go down at full gallop there's nothing like it for raising your spirits but perhaps you need not now ah he said shaking his head there are two to be reckoned with
tib has to be considered and she has a very queer temper who why this mare i fancy she looked round at me in a very grim way just then didn't you notice it don't try to frighten me sir
said tess stiffly well i don't if any living man can manage this horse i can i won't say any living man can do it but if such has the power i am he why do you have such a horse
ah well may you ask it it was my fate i suppose tib has killed one chap and just after i bought her she nearly killed me and then take my word for it i nearly killed her
but she's touchy still very touchy and one's life is hardly safe behind her sometimes they were just beginning to descend and it was evident that the horse whether of her own will or of his
the latter being the more likely knew so well the reckless performance expected of her that she hardly required a hint from behind down down they sped the wheels humming like a top
the dog cart rocking right and left its axis acquiring a slightly oblique set in relation to the line of progress the figure of the horse rising and falling in undulations before them
sometimes a wheel was off the ground it seemed for many yards sometimes a stone was sent spinning over the hedge and flinty sparks from the horse's hoofs outshone the daylight
the aspect of the straight road enlarged with their advance the two banks dividing like a splitting stick one rushing past at each shoulder the wind blew through tess's white muslin to her very skin
and her washed hair flew out behind she was determined to show no open fear but she clutched d'urberville's rein arm don't touch my arm we shall be thrown out if you do hold on round my waist
she grasped his waist and so they reached the bottom safe thank god in spite of your fooling said she her face on fire
said d'urberville tis truth
she had not considered what she had been doing whether he were man or woman stick or stone in her involuntary hold on him recovering her reserve she sat without replying
and thus they reached the summit of another declivity now then again said d'urberville no no said tess show more sense do please
they must get down again he retorted he loosened rein and away they went a second time d'urberville turned his face to her as they rocked and said in playful raillery
now then put your arms round my waist again as you did before my beauty never said tess independently holding on as well as she could without touching him let me put one little kiss on those holmberry lips tess
or even on that warmed cheek and i'll stop on my honour i will tess surprised beyond measure slid farther back still on her seat at which he urged the horse anew and rocked her the more
will nothing else do she cried at length in desperation her large eyes staring at him like those of a wild animal this dressing her up so prettily by her mother had apparently been to lamentable purpose
nothing dear tess he replied oh i don't know very well i don't mind she panted miserably he drew rein and as they slowed he was on the point of imprinting the desired salute
she dodged aside his arms being occupied with the reins there was left him no power to prevent her manoeuvre now damn it i'll break both our necks swore her capriciously passionate companion
so you can go from your word like that you young witch can you very well said tess i'll not move since you be so determined but i thought you would be kind to me and protect me as my kinsman
kinsman be hanged now but i don't want anybody to kiss me sir she implored a big tear beginning to roll down her face
he was inexorable and she sat still and d'urberville gave her the kiss of mastery no sooner had he done so than she flushed with shame took out her handkerchief
and wiped the spot on her cheek that had been touched by his lips his ardour was nettled at the sight for the act on her part had been unconsciously done you are mighty sensitive for a cottage girl said the young man
tess made no reply to this remark of which indeed she did not quite comprehend the drift unheeding the snub she had administered by her instinctive rub upon her cheek she had in fact undone the kiss as far as such a thing was physically possible
with a dim sense that he was vexed she looked steadily ahead as they trotted on near melbury down and wingreen till she saw to her consternation that there was yet another descent to be undergone
he resumed his injured tone still remaining as he flourished the whip anew unless that is you agree willingly to let me do it again and no handkerchief she sighed very well sir she said
oh let me get my hat at the moment of speaking her hat had blown off into the road their present speed on the upland being by no means slow d'urberville pulled up and said he would get it for her
but tess was down on the other side she turned back and picked up the article you look prettier with it off upon my soul if that's possible he said contemplating her over the back of the vehicle now then up again
what's the matter the hat was in place and tied but tess had not stepped forward no sir she said revealing the red and ivory of her mouth as her eye lit in defiant triumph not again
if i know it what you won't get up beside me no i shall walk
i don't care if tis dozens besides the cart is behind you artful hussy now tell me didn't you make that hat blow off on purpose i'll swear you did her strategic silence confirmed his suspicion
but he could not do this short of injuring her you ought to be ashamed of yourself for using such wicked words cried tess with spirit from the top of the hedge into which she had scrambled i don't like ee at all i hate and detest you
i'll go back to mother i will d'urberville's bad temper cleared up at sight of hers and he laughed heartily well i like you all the better he said come let there be peace
i'll never do it any more against your will my life upon it now
she did not however object to his keeping his gig alongside her and in this manner at a slow pace they advanced towards the village of trantridge from time to time d'urberville exhibited a sort of fierce distress
at the sight of the tramping he had driven her to undertake by his misdemeanour she might in truth have safely trusted him now but he had forfeited her confidence for the time and she kept on the ground progressing thoughtfully
as if wondering whether it would be wiser to return home her resolve however had been taken
unless for graver reasons how could she face her parents get back her box and disconcert the whole scheme for the rehabilitation of her family on such sentimental grounds
i'm askin of ye an ye know them spoons yes yes dear i'll go interrupted the woman hurriedly and jane yes
she knew quite well what was coming but it was the very exquisiteness of her patient care
every night for long years past an ye might count em them spoons said the old man
all right father the woman turned away her step was slow but confident the last word had been said to jane pendergast her father had gone with the going of his keen clear mind twenty years before
this fretful childish exacting old man that pottered about the house all day was but the shell that had held the kernel the casket that had held the jewel but because of what it had held jane guarded it tenderly
laying at its feet her life as a willing sacrifice there had been four children edgar the eldest jane mary and fred edgar had left home early and was a successful business man in boston
mary had married a wealthy lawyer of the same city and fred had opened a real estate office in a thriving southern town jane had stayed at home there had been a time it is true when she had planned to go away to school
but the death of missus pendergast left no one at home to care for mary and fred so jane had abandoned the idea later after mary had married and fred had gone away
though at this time he was well and strong jane had passed her thirty fifth birthday
blue gray eyes and a determined smooth shaven chin belonging to the recently arrived principal of the village school in spite of her stern admonition to herself to remember her years and not quite lose her head
she was fast drifting into a rosy dream of romance that was all the more enthralling because so belated when the summons of a small boy brought her sharply back to the realities it's yer father miss they want ye ter come he panted
somethin has took him he's in mackey's drug store talkin awful queer he ain't his self ye know
jane went at once but she could do nothing except to lead gently home the chattering shifting eyed thing that had once been her father one after another the village physicians shook their heads they could do nothing
there was nothing that could be done they said except to care for him as one would for a child he would live years probably his constitution was wonderfully good
he would not be violent just foolish and childish with perhaps a growing irritability as the years passed and his physical strength failed mary and edgar had come home at once
and followed her about the house with unfailing persistence
remonstrated jane mary shuddered and covered her face with her hands jane jane how can you take it so calmly she moaned how can you bear it there was a moment's pause a curious expression had come to jane's face
some one has to she said at last quietly jane went down to the village the next afternoon leaving her sister in charge at home when she returned an hour later mary met her at the gate crying and wringing her hands
jane jane i thought you would never come i can't do a thing with him he insists that he isn't at home and that he wants to go there i told him over and over again that he was at home already but it didn't do a bit of good i've had a perfectly awful time
yes i know where is he in the kitchen i i tied him he just would go and i couldn't hold him oh mary and jane fairly flew up the walk to the kitchen door a minute later she appeared leading an old man who was whimpering pitifully
and mary watched with wondering eyes while the two walked down the path through the gate and across the street to the next corner then slowly crossed again and came back through the familiar doorway
mary went back to boston the next day she said it was fortunate indeed that jane's nerves were so strong for her part she could not have stood it another day
to come in for an hour or two once or twice a week when she herself was obliged to leave the house the owner of the blue gray eyes did not belie the determination of his chin but made a valiant effort to establish himself on the basis of the old intimacy
in a year he had left town but it was not his fault that he was obliged to go away alone as jane pendergast well knew one by one the years passed
jane was fifty five now a thin faced stoop shouldered tired woman
for she was not yet fifty six when her father died all the children and some of the grandchildren came to the funeral
while upstairs the woman whose fate was most concerned laid herself wearily in bed
in the sitting room below discussion waxed warm but what shall we do with her demanded mary
but it seems there's nothing to give no there's nothing to give returned edgar
and it will have to be sold but she's got to live somewhere mary's voice was fretful questioning for a moment there was silence then edgar stirrad in his chair well
why edgar when you know how much i have on my hands with my great house and all my social duties to say nothing of belle's engagement well maybe jane could help help how pray to entertain my guests and even edgar smiled
as he thought of jane in her five year old bonnet and her ten year old black gown standing in the receiving line at an exclusive commonwealth avenue reception well but edgar paused impotently
why don't you take her it was mary who made the suggestion i oh but i edgar stopped and glanced uneasily at his wife why of course if it's necessary murmured missus edgar with a resigned air
i should certainly never wish it said that i refused a home to any of my husband's poor relations oh good heavens let her come to us cut in fred sharply i reckon we can take care of our poor relations for a spell yet eh sally
why sure we can retorted fred's wife in her soft southern drawl
and there the matter ended jane pendergast had been south two months when one day edgar received a letter from his brother fred jane's going north wrote fred sally says she can't have her in the house another week
course we don't want to tell jane exactly that but we've fixed it so she's going to leave i'm sorry if this move causes you folks any trouble but there just wasn't any other way out of it you see sally is southern and easy going
northerners i don't mind things either and i suppose i'm easy too well great scott jane hadn't been down here five minutes before she began to slick up as she called it and she's been slickin up ever since
sally always left things round handy and so've the children but since jane came we haven't been able to find a thing when we wanted it all our boots and shoes are put away turned toes out and all our hats and coats are snatched up and hung on pegs the minute we toss them off
maybe this don't seem much to you but it's lots to us anyhow jane's going north
she'll be there about the twentieth will wire you what train your affectionate brother fred as gently as possible edgar broke to his wife the news of the prospective guest julia pendergast was a good woman
at least she often said that she was adding at the same time
she said the same thing now to her husband and she immediately made some very elaborate and very apparent changes in her home and in her plans all with an eye to the expected guest
at four o'clock wednesday afternoon edgar met his sister at the station well i don't see as you've changed much he said kindly haven't i why seems as if i must look changed a lot chirruped jane
i'm so rested and fred and sally were so good to me why they tried not to have me do a thing and i didn't do much only a little
well i'm glad to see you're rested julia met them in the hall of the beautiful brookline residence lined up with her were the four younger children who lived at home they made an imposing array and jane was visibly affected
oh it's so good of you to meet me like this she faltered why we wished to i'm sure returned missus pendergast with a half stifled sigh
i hope i understand my duty to my guest and my sister in law sufficiently to know what is her due i did not allow anything not even my committee meeting to day to interfere with this call for duty at home
but missus pendergast raised a deprecatory hand say no more it was nothing now come let me show you to your room i've given you ella's room and put ella in tom's and tom in bert's and moved bert upstairs to the little room over
oh don't interrupted jane in quick distress i don't want to put people out so let me go upstairs missus pendergast frowned and sighed she had the air of one whose kindest efforts are misunderstood my dear jane
i am sorry but i shall have to ask you to be as satisfied as you can be with the arrangements i am able to make for you you see even though this house is large i am in a way cramped for room
i always have to keep three guest rooms ready for immediate occupancy i am a member of four clubs and six charitable and religious organizations besides the church and there are always ministers and delegates whom i feel it my duty to entertain
but that is all the more reason why i should go upstairs and not put all those children out of their rooms begged jane missus pendergast shook her head it does them good she said decidedly to learn to be self sacrificing
that is a virtue we all must learn to practice jane flushed again then she turned abruptly julia did you want me to to come to see you she asked why certainly what a question
returned missus pendergast in a properly shocked tone of voice as if i could do otherwise than to want my husband's sister to come to us jane smiled faintly but her eyes were troubled thank you i'm glad you feel that way
you see at fred's i wouldn't have them know it for the world they were so good to me but i thought lately that maybe they didn't want but it wasn't so of course it couldn't have been i
not six weeks later mary in her beautiful commonwealth avenue home received a call from a little thin faced woman who curtsied to the butler and asked him to please tell her sister that she wished to speak to her
mary looked worried and not over cordial when she rustled into the room why jane did you find your way here all alone she cried yes no well i asked a man at the last but you know i've been here twice before with the others
yes i know said mary there was a pause then jane cleared her throat timidly mary i i've been thinking you see just as soon as i'm strong enough i
i'm going to take care of myself and then i won't be a burden to to anybody jane was talking very fast now her words came tremulously between short broken breaths but until i get well enough to earn money i can't you see and i've been thinking
i'm lots better already and getting stronger every day it wouldn't be for long why of course jane mary spoke cheerfully and in a tone a little higher than her ordinary voice i should have asked you
only i feared you wouldn't be happy here such a different life for you and so much noise and confusion with belle's wedding coming on and all jane gave her a grateful glance i know of course you'd think that
and it isn't that i'm finding fault with julia and edgar i couldn't do that they're so good to me but you see i put them out so
you see i've got ella's room and ella's got tom's and tom's got bert's it's a regular house that jack built' and i'm the jack i see laughed mary constrainedly and you want to come here well you shall you
i have a reception and a dinner here the first of the week and you'd better stay away until after that oh thank you sighed jane you are so good i shall tell julia that i'm invited here so she won't think i'm dissatisfied
they're so good to me i wouldn't want to hurt their feelings of course not murmured mary the big fat tire of the touring car popped like a pistol shot directly in front of the large white house with the green blinds
this is the time we're in luck belle laughed the good natured young fellow who had been driving the car do you see that big piazza just aching for you to come and sit on it are we really stalled will asked the girl looks like it for a while
of course to day is the day we didn't take it some minutes later the girl found herself on the cool
we are staying at the lindsays in north belton explained the girl when he was gone and we came out for a little spin before dinner isn't this belton i have an aunt who used to live here somewhere aunt jane pendergast
the old lady sat suddenly erect in her chair my dear she cried you don't mean to say that you're jane pendergast's niece now that is queer why this was her very house we bought it
when the old gentleman died last year but come we'll go inside you'll want to see everything of course it was some time before the young man came back from telephoning and it was longer still before peters came with the new tire
and helped get the touring car ready for the road the girl was very quiet when they finally left the house and there was a troubled look deep in her eyes why belle what's the matter asked the young fellow concernedly as he slackened speed in the cool twilight of the woods
some minutes later what's troubling you dear will the girl's voice shook will that was aunt jane's house
aunt jane yes yes the little gray haired woman that came to live with us two months ago you know her
the girl winced as from a blow will don't i can't bear it she choked it only shows how we've treated her how little we've made of her when we ought to have done everything everything to make her happy instead of that we were brutes all of us
belle the tone was an indignant protest but we were listen she lived in that house all her life till last year she never went anywhere or did anything for twenty years she lived with an old man who had lost his mind
only a baby grows older all the time and more interesting while he oh will it was awful that old lady told me by jove exclaimed the young fellow under his breath and there were other things hurried on the girl tremulously
some way i never thought of aunt jane only as old and timid but she was young like us once she wanted to go away to school but she couldn't go and there was some one who loved her once later and she sent him away
that was after after grandfather lost his mind
then last year grandfather died the girl paused and moistened her lips
i heard to day how how proud and happy aunt jane was that uncle fred had asked her to come and live with him resumed the girl after a minute that old lady told me how aunt jane talked and talked about it before she went away
though of course she should do everything she could to help and she hoped she could still be of some use well she has been hasn't she the girl shook her head that's the worst of it
well i'm sure you've been good to her but we haven't cried the girl mother meant all right i know but she didn't think and i've been horrid aunt jane tried to show her interest in my wedding plans but i only laughed at her and said she wouldn't understand
we've pushed her aside always we've never made her one of us and we've always made her feel her dependence but you'll do differently now dear now that you understand again the girl shook her head we can't she moaned it's too late
i had a letter from mother last night aunt jane's sick awfully sick mother said i might expect to to hear of the end any day but there's some time left a little his voice broke and choked into silence
suddenly he made a quick movement and the car beneath them leaped forward like a charger that feels the prick of the spur the girl gave a frightened cry then a tremulous little sob of joy the man had cried in her ear in response to her questioning eyes we're going to aunt jane
on the third day of my compulsory idleness i crawled out near the grub wagon and reclined helpless under the conversational fire of judson odom the camp cook
jud was a monologist by nature whom destiny with customary blundering had set in a profession wherein he was bereaved for the greater portion of his time of an audience therefore i was manna in the desert of jud's obmutescence
betimes i was stirred by invalid longings for something to eat that did not come under the caption of grub i had visions of the maternal pantry deep as first love and wild with all regret and then i asked jud can you make pancakes
jud laid down his six shooter with which he was preparing to pound an antelope steak and stood over me in what i felt to be a menacing attitude he further endorsed my impression that his pose was resentful by fixing upon me with his light blue eyes a look of
cold suspicion say you he said with candid though not excessive choler did you mean that straight or was you trying to throw the gaff into me some of the boys been telling you about me and that pancake racket
no jud i said sincerely i meant it it seems to me i'd swap my pony and saddle for a stack of buttered brown pancakes with some first crop open kettle new orleans sweetening was there a story about pancakes
jud was mollified at once when he saw that i had not been dealing in allusions he brought some mysterious bags and tin boxes from the grub wagon and set them in the shade of the hackberry where i lay reclined i watched him as he began to arrange them leisurely and untie their many strings
no not a story
i don't mind telling you i was punching then for old bill toomey on the san miguel one day i gets all ensnared up in aspirations for to eat some canned grub that hasn't ever mooed or baaed or grunted or been in peck measures
about three in the afternoon i throwed my bridle rein over a mesquite limb and walked the last twenty yards into uncle emsley's store i got up on the counter and told uncle emsley that the signs pointed to the devastation of the fruit crop of the world
in a minute i had a bag of crackers and a long handled spoon with an open can each of apricots and pineapples and cherries and greengages beside of me with uncle emsley busy chopping away with the hatchet at the yellow clings
i was feeling like adam before the apple stampede and was digging my spurs into the side of the counter and working with my twenty four inch spoon when i happened to look out of the window into the yard of uncle emsley's house which was next to the store
there was a girl standing there an imported girl with fixings on philandering with a croquet maul and amusing herself by watching my style of encouraging the fruit canning industry i slid off the counter and delivered up my shovel to uncle emsley
the holy land i says to myself my thoughts milling some as i tried to run em into the corral why not there was sure angels in pales
so uncle emsley took me out in the yard and gave us each other's entitlements i never was shy about women i never could understand why some men who can break a mustang before breakfast and shave in the dark
get all left handed and full of perspiration and excuses when they see a bold of calico draped around what belongs to it inside of eight minutes me and miss willella was aggravating the croquet balls around as amiable as second cousins
she gave me a dig about the quantity of canned fruit i had eaten and i got back at her flat footed about how a certain lady named eve started the fruit trouble in the first free grass pasture
that was how i acquired cordiality for the proximities of miss willella learight and the disposition grew larger as time passed
she was stopping at pimienta crossing for her health which was very good and for the climate which was forty per cent hotter than palestine i rode over to see her once every week for a while and then i figured it out that if i doubled the number of trips i would see her twice as often
one week i slipped in a third trip and that's where the pancakes and the pink eyed snoozer busted into the game
that evening while i set on the counter with a peach and two damsons in my mouth i asked uncle emsley how miss willella was why says uncle emsley she's gone riding with jackson bird the sheep man from over at mired mule canada
i guess somebody held the counter by the bridle while i got off and then i walked out straight ahead till i butted against the mesquite where my roan was tied
did you get that old leather and gallops that bronc of mine wept in his way he'd been raised a cow pony and he didn't care for snoozers i went back and said to uncle emsley
did you say a sheep man i said a sheep man says uncle emsley again you must have heard tell of jackson bird he's got eight sections of grazing and four thousand head of the finest merinos south of the arctic circle
i went out and sat on the ground in the shade of the store and leaned against a prickly pear i sifted sand into my boots with unthinking hands while i soliloquised a quantity about this bird with the jackson plumage to his name
i never had believed in harming sheep men i see one one day reading a latin grammar on hossback and i never touched him they never irritated me like they do most cowmen
i had always let em pass just as you would a jack rabbit with a polite word and a guess about the weather but no stopping to swap canteens i never thought it was worth while to be hostile with a snoozer
the sheep person helped her off and they stood throwing each other sentences all sprightful and sagacious for a while
and then this feathered jackson flies up in his saddle and raises his little stewpot of a hat and trots off in the direction of his mutton ranch by this time i had turned the sand out of my boots and unpinned myself from the prickly pear
his seeing arrangement was grey enough but his eye lashes was pink and his hair was sandy and that gave you the idea sheep man he wasn't more than a lamb man anyhow
a little thing with his neck involved in a yellow silk handkerchief and shoes tied up in bowknots
you now ride with a equestrian who is commonly called dead moral certainty judson on account of the way i shoot when i want a stranger to know me i always introduce myself before the draw for i never did like to shake hands with ghosts
i'm jackson bird from over at mired mule ranch
i popped over one after the other with my forty five just to show him two out of three says i birds just naturally seem to draw my fire wherever i go
nice shooting says the sheep man without a flutter but don't you sometimes ever miss the third shot elegant fine rain that was last week for the young grass mister judson says he willie says i riding over close to his palfrey
your infatuated parents may have denounced you by the name of jackson but you sure moulted into a twittering willie let us slough off this here analysis of rain and the elements and get down to talk that is outside the vocabulary of parrots
that is a bad habit you have got of riding with young ladies over at pimienta i've known birds says i to be served on toast for less than that
dead moral certainty attachment to my name which is good for two hyphens and at least one set of funeral obsequies
why mister judson says he you've got the wrong idea i've called on miss learight a few times but not for the purpose you imagine my object is purely a gastronomical one
what would i do with a wife
eating that's all the pleasure i get out of sheep raising mister judson did you ever taste the pancakes that miss learight makes me
honey browned by the ambrosial fires of epicurus i'd give two years of my life to get the recipe for making them pancakes that's what i went to see miss learight for says jackson bird but i haven't been able to get it from her
it's an old recipe that's been in the family for seventy five years they hand it down from one generation to another but they don't give it away to outsiders if i could get that recipe so i could make them pancakes for myself on my ranch i'd be a happy man says bird
to convince you that i am sincere says the sheep man i'll ask you to help me miss learight and you being closer friends maybe she would do for you what she wouldn't for me if you will get me a copy of that pancake recipe i give you my word that i'll never call upon her again
that's fair i says and i shook hands with jackson bird i'll get it for you if i can and glad to oblige and he turned off down the big pear flat on the piedra in the direction of mired mule
and i steered northwest for old bill toomey's ranch it was five days afterward when i got another chance to ride over to pimienta miss willella and me passed a gratifying evening at uncle emsley's
she sang some and exasperated the piano quite a lot with quotations from the operas i gave imitations of a rattlesnake and told her about snaky mc fee's new way of skinning cows and described the trip i made to saint louis once
we was getting along in one another's estimations fine thinks i if jackson bird can now be persuaded to migrate i win
i recollect his promise about the pancake receipt and i thinks i will persuade it from miss willella and give it to him and then if i catches birdie off of mired mule again i'll make him hop the twig
miss willella gives a little jump on the piano stool and looked at me curious
what did you say was the name of that street in saint louis mister odom where you lost your hat
come now miss willella i says let's hear how you make em
start her off now pound of flour eight dozen eggs and so on how does the catalogue of constituents run excuse me for a moment please says miss willella and she gives me a quick kind of sideways look and slides off the stool
she ambled out into the other room and directly uncle emsley comes in in his shirt sleeves with a pitcher of water he turns around to get a glass on the table and i see a forty five in his hip pocket
great post holes thinks i but here's a family thinks a heap of cooking receipts protecting it with firearms i've known outfits that wouldn't do that much by a family feud
drink this here down says uncle emsley handing me the glass of water you've rid too far to day jud and got yourself over excited try to think about something else now do you know how to make them pancakes uncle emsley i asked
and mix em with eggs and buttermilk as usual
that was all the pancake specifications i could get that night i didn't wonder that jackson bird found it uphill work
and then miss willella came and said good night and i hit the breeze for the ranch
did you try i did says i and twas like trying to dig a prairie dog out of his hole with a peanut hull that pancake receipt must be a jookalorum the way they hold on to it
but i did want to know how to make them pancakes to eat on my lonely ranch says he i lie awake at nights thinking how good they are
one of us is bound to get a rope over its horns before long well so long jacksy
you see by this time we were on the peacefullest of terms when i saw that he wasn't after miss willella i had more endurable contemplations of that sandy haired snoozer
in order to help out the ambitions of his appetite i kept on trying to get that receipt from miss willella but every time i would say pancakes she would get sort of remote and fidgety about the eye and try to change the subject
one day i galloped over to the store with a fine bunch of blue verbenas that i cut out of a herd of wild flowers over on poisoned dog prairie uncle emsley looked at em with one eye shut and says haven't ye heard the news
cattle up i asks willella and jackson bird was married in palestine yesterday says he just got a letter this morning
i dropped them flowers in a cracker barrel and let the news trickle in my ears and down toward my upper left hand shirt pocket until it got to my feet
maybe my hearing has got wrong and you only said
married yesterday says uncle emsley and gone to waco and niagara falls on a wedding tour why didn't you see none of the signs all along jackson bird has been courting willella ever since that day he took her out riding
then says i in a kind of yell what was all this zizzaparoola he gives me about pancakes tell me that when i said pancakes uncle emsley sort of dodged and stepped back
somebody's been dealing me pancakes from the bottom of the deck i says and i'll find out i believe you know talk up says i or we'll mix a panful of batter right here
i slid over the counter after uncle emsley he grabbed at his gun but it was in a drawer and he missed it two inches i got him by the front of his shirt and shoved him in a corner talk pancakes says i or be made into one
does miss willella make em
you've got excited and that wound in your head is contaminating your sense of intelligence try not to think about pancakes uncle emsley says i i'm not wounded in the head except so far as my natural cognitive instincts run to runts
jackson bird told me he was calling on miss willella for the purpose of finding out her system of producing pancakes
i done so with the results as you see have i been sodded down with johnson grass by a pink eyed snoozer or what slack up your grip in my dress shirt says uncle emsley and i'll tell you
yes it looks like jackson bird has gone and humbugged you some the day after he went riding with willella he came back and told me and her to watch out for you whenever you got to talking about pancakes
jackson said that whenever you got overhot or excited that wound hurt you and made you kind of crazy and you went raving about pancakes
that jackson bird is sure a seldom kind of a snoozer during the progress of jud's story he had been slowly but deftly combining certain portions of the contents of his sacks and cans toward the close of it he set before me the finished product
from some secret hoarding he also brought a lump of excellent butter and a bottle of golden syrup how long ago did these things happen i asked him three years said jud they're living on the mired mule ranch now
but i haven't seen either of em since they say jackson bird was fixing his ranch up fine with rocking chairs and window curtains all the time he was putting me up the pancake tree
but the boys kept the racket up did you make these cakes by the famous recipe i asked
how does the truck taste
many of my readers will remember the mysterious radio messages which were heard by both amateur and professional short wave operators during the nights of the twenty third and twenty fourth of last september
and even more will remember the astounding discovery made by professor montescue of the lick observatory on the night of september twenty fifth at the time some inspired writers tried to connect the two events maintaining that the discovery of the fact that the earth had a new satellite
coincident with the receipt of the mysterious messages was evidence that the new planetoid was inhabited and that the messages were attempts on the part of the inhabitants to communicate with us
and the additional fact that they appeared to come from an immense distance lent a certain air of plausibility to these ebullitions in the sunday magazine sections for some weeks the feature writers harped on the subject
but the hurried construction of new receivers which would work on a lower wave length yielded no results and the solemn pronouncements of astronomers to the effect that the new celestial body could by no possibility have an atmosphere on account of its small size finally put an end to the talk
so the matter lapsed into oblivion
he was a man of some local prominence but he had no more than a local fame and few papers outside of california even noted the event in their columns i do not think that anyone ever tried to connect up his disappearance with the radio messages or the discovery of the new earthly satellite
yet the three events were closely bound up together
doctor livermore taught physics at calvada or at least he taught the subject when he remembered that he had a class and felt like teaching his students never knew whether he would appear at class or not but he always passed everyone who took his courses and so of course they were always crowded
the university authorities used to remonstrate with him but his ability as a research worker was so well known and recognized that he was allowed to go about as he pleased he was a bachelor who lived alone and who had no interests in life so far as anyone knew other than his work
i first made contact with him when i was a freshman at calvada and for some unknown reason he took a liking to me my father had insisted that i follow in his footsteps as an electrical engineer
as he was paying my bills i had to make a show at studying engineering while i clandestinely pursued my hobby literature doctor livermore's courses were the easiest in the school and they counted as science so i regularly registered for them cut them and attended a class in literature as an auditor
the doctor used to meet me on the campus and laughingly scold me for my absence but he was really in sympathy with my ambition and he regularly gave me a passing mark and my units of credit without regard to my attendance or rather lack of it when i graduated from calvada i was theoretically an electrical engineer
practically i had a pretty good knowledge of contemporary literature and knew almost nothing about my so called profession i stalled around dad's office for a few months until i landed a job as a cub reporter on the san francisco graphic and then i quit him cold
when the storm blew over dad admitted that you couldn't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and agreed with a grunt to my new line of work he said that i would probably be a better reporter than an engineer because i couldn't by any possibility be a worse one and let it go at that
however all this has nothing to do with the story it just explains how i came to be acquainted with doctor livermore in the first place and why he sent for me on september twenty second in the second place the morning of the twenty second the city editor called me in and asked me if i knew old liverpills
went on barnes i offered to send out a good man for when old liverpills starts a story it ought to be good but all i got was a high powered bawling out
you'd better take a run out to calvada and see what he has to say
i was more or less used to that sort of talk from barnes so i paid no attention to it i drove my flivver down to calvada and asked for the doctor doctor livermore said the bursar why he hasn't been around here for the last ten months
you'll have to go there if you want to see him i knew better than to report back to barnes without the story so there was nothing to it but to drive up to hat creek and a long hard drive it was i made redding late that night
the next day i drove on to burney and asked for directions to the doctor's ranch so you're going up to doc livermore's are you asked the postmaster my informant
it's been going on ever since he landed there
forced to be satisfied with this meager information i started old lizzie and lit out for the ranch after i had turned off the main trail i met no one until the ranch house was in sight
as i rounded a bend in the road which brought me in sight of the building i was forced to put on my brakes at top speed to avoid running into a chain which was stretched across the road an indian armed with a winchester rifle stood behind it
my business is with doctor livermore i said tartly you got letter he inquired no i answered no ketchum letter no ketchum doctor he replied and walked stolidly back to his post
this is absurd i shouted and drove lizzie up to the chain
a thirty thirty bullet embedded itself in the post an inch or two from my head and i changed my mind about taking down that chain no ketchum letter no ketchum doctor said the indian laconically as he pumped another shell into his gun i was balked
the indian grunted an assent doctor livermore telephoned me to come and see him i said can't i call him up and see if he still wants to see me
i cranked the old coffee mill type of telephone which i found and presently heard the voice of doctor livermore this is tom faber doctor i said the graphic sent me up to get a story from you but there's an indian here who started to murder me when i tried to get past your barricade
good for him chuckled the doctor i heard the shot but didn't know that he was shooting at you tell him to talk to me the indian took the telephone at my bidding and listened for a minute you go in
he took down the chain and i drove on up to the house to find the doctor waiting for me on the veranda hello tom he greeted me heartily so you had trouble with my guard did you i nearly got murdered i said ruefully
he remarked cheerfully i forgot to tell him that you were coming to day i told him you would be here yesterday but yesterday isn't to day to that indian i wasn't sure you would get here at all in point of fact for i didn't know whether that old fool i talked to in your office would send you or some one else
i haven't one i replied i went to calvada yesterday to see you and didn't know until i got there that you were up here the doctor chuckled i guess i forgot to tell where i was he said that man i talked to got me so mad that i hung up on him before i told him
come in i followed him into the house and he showed me a room fitted with a crude bunk a washstand a bowl and a pitcher you won't have many luxuries here tom he said but you won't need to stay here for more than a few days my work is done i am ready to start
now don't ask any questions it's nearly lunch time what's the story doctor i asked after lunch as i puffed one of his excellent cigars and why did you pick me to tell it to for several reasons he replied ignoring my first question
in the second place i have always found that you had the gift of vision or imagination and have the ability to believe in the third place you are the only man i know who had the literary ability to write up a good story and at the same time has the scientific background to grasp what it is all about
understand that unless i have your promise not to write this story until i tell you that you can not a word will i tell you i reflected for a moment
the graphic would expect the story when i got back but on the other hand i knew that unless i gave the desired promise the doctor wouldn't talk all right i assented i'll promise good he replied in that case i'll tell you all about it
in point of fact i had often harbored such a suspicion oh that's all right he went on cheerfully i am crazy crazy as a loon which by the way is a highly sensible bird with a well balanced mentality there is no doubt that i am crazy but my craziness is not of the usual type
mine is the insanity of genius he looked at me sharply as he spoke but long sessions at poker in the san francisco press club had taught me how to control my facial muscles and i never batted an eye he seemed satisfied and went on
from your college work you are familiar with the laws of magnetism he said perhaps considering just what your college career really was i might better say that you are supposed to be familiar with them i joined with him in his laughter
it won't require a very deep knowledge to follow the thread of my argument he went on you know of course that the force of magnetic attraction is inversely proportional to the square of the distances separating the magnet and the attracted particles
and also that each magnetized particle had two poles a positive and a negative pole
i nodded consider for a moment that the laws of magnetism insofar as concerns the relation between distance and power of attraction are exactly matched by the laws of gravitation but there the similarity between the two forces ends i interrupted but there the similarity does not end
he said sharply that is the crux of the discovery which i have made
the parallel between the two grows closer with each succeeding experiment you know for example that each magnetized particle has two poles
to the public having heard for the first time that my adventures have been
this i have been forced into in regard of my own honour
at the city of london england we the undersigned as true believers in the profit do most solemnly affirm that all the adventures of our friend baron munchausen in whatever country they may lie are positive and simple facts and
as we have been believed whose adventures are tenfold more wonderful so do we hope all true believers will give him their full faith and credence
john the porter travels of baron munchausen chapter one
the astonishing effects of a storm arrives at ceylon combats and conquers two extraordinary opponents returns to holland some years before my beard announced approaching manhood or in other words when i was neither man nor boy
but between both i expressed in repeated conversations a strong desire of seeing the world from which i was discouraged by my parents though my father had been no inconsiderable traveller himself
a cousin by my mother's side took a liking to me often said i was fine forward youth and was much inclined to gratify my curiosity his eloquence had more effect than mine for my father consented to my accompanying him in a voyage to the island of ceylon
we sailed from amsterdam with despatches from their high mightinesses the states of holland the only circumstance which happened on our voyage worth relating was the wonderful effects of a storm which had torn up by the roots a great number of trees of enormous bulk and height
some of these trees weighed many tons yet they were carried by the wind so amazingly high that they appeared like the feathers of small birds floating in the air for they were at least five miles above the earth
however as soon as the storm subsided they all fell perpendicularly into their respective places and took root again except the largest which happened
a very honest old couple upon its branches gathering cucumbers in this part of the globe that useful vegetable grows upon trees the weight of this couple as the tree descended over balanced the trunk
and brought it down in a horizontal position it fell upon the chief man of the island and killed him on the spot he had quitted his house in the storm under an apprehension of its falling upon him and was returning through his own garden when this fortunate accident happened
the word fortunate here requires some explanation this chief was a man of a very avaricious and oppressive disposition and though he had no family the natives of the island were half starved by his oppressive and infamous impositions
the very goods which he had thus taken from them were spoiling in his stores
though the destruction of this tyrant was accidental the people chose the cucumber gatherers for their governors as a mark of their gratitude for destroying though accidentally
after we had repaired the damages we sustained in this remarkable storm and taken leave of the new governor and his lady
the following singular adventures may not prove unentertaining after we had resided at ceylon about a fortnight i accompanied one of the governor's brothers upon a shooting party
he was a strong athletic man and being used to that climate for he had resided there some years he bore the violent heat of the sun much better than i could in our excursion he had made a considerable progress through a thick wood when i was only at the entrance
i thought i heard a rustling noise behind on turning about i was almost petrified as who would not be at the sight of a lion which was evidently approaching with the intention of satisfying his appetite with my poor carcase
and that without asking my consent what was to be done in this horrible dilemma
and i had no other about me however though i could have no idea of killing such an animal with that weak kind of ammunition yet i had some hopes of frightening him by the report and perhaps of wounding him also i immediately let fly without waiting till he was within reach
about i found a large crocodile with his mouth extended almost ready to receive me on my right hand was the piece of water before mentioned and on my left a deep precipice said to have
as i have since learned a receptacle at the bottom for venomous creatures in short i gave myself up as lost for the lion was now upon his hind legs just in the act of seizing me i fell involuntarily to the ground with fear
and as it afterwards appeared he sprang over me i lay some time in a situation which no language can describe expecting to feel his teeth or talons
i heard a violent but unusual noise different from any sound that had ever before assailed my ears
i ventured to raise my head and look round when
which as before observed was wide open the head of the one stuck in the throat of the other and they were struggling to extricate themselves i fortunately recollected my couteau de chasse
and destroyed him by suffocation for he could neither gorge nor eject it
my companion arrived in search of me for finding i did not follow him into the wood he returned apprehending i had lost my way or met with some accident after mutual congratulations we measured the crocodile which was just
and shows that even a beadle may be susceptible on some points the night was bitter cold the snow lay on the ground frozen into a hard thick crust so that only the heaps that had drifted into byways and corners were affected by the sharp wind that howled abroad
which as if expending increased fury on such prey as it found caught it savagely up in clouds
bleak dark and piercing cold it was a night for the well housed and fed to draw round the bright fire and thank god they were at home and for the homeless starving wretch to lay him down and die
many hunger worn outcasts close their eyes in our bare streets at such times who let their crimes have been what they may can hardly open them in a more bitter world such was the aspect of out of doors affairs when missus corney
the matron of the workhouse to which our readers have been already introduced as the birthplace of oliver twist sat herself down before a cheerful fire in her own little room and glanced with no small degree of complacency at a small round table on which stood a tray of corresponding size
furnished with all necessary materials for the most grateful meal that matrons enjoy in fact missus corney was about to solace herself with a cup of tea as she glanced from the table to the fireplace where the smallest of all possible kettles was singing a small song in a small voice
her inward satisfaction evidently increased so much so indeed that missus corney smiled well said the matron leaning her elbow on the table and looking reflectively at the fire
missus corney shook her head mournfully as if deploring the mental blindness of those paupers who did not know it and thrusting a silver spoon private property
proceeded to make the tea how slight a thing will disturb the equanimity of our frail minds the black teapot being very small and easily filled ran over while missus corney was moralising and the water slightly scalded missus corney's hand drat the pot
said the worthy matron setting it down very hastily on the hob
oh dear with these words the matron dropped into her chair and once more resting her elbow on the table thought of her solitary fate
recollections of mister corney who had not been dead more than five and twenty years and she was overpowered
said missus corney pettishly i shall never get another like him
and took it up afterwards she had just tasted her first cup when she was disturbed by a soft tap at the room door
they always die when i'm at meals
nothing ma'am nothing replied a man's voice
in a much sweeter tone is that mister bumble at your service ma'am said mister bumble
and to shake the snow off his coat and who now made his appearance bearing the cocked hat in one hand and a bundle in the other shall i shut the door ma'am the lady modestly hesitated to reply
mister bumble taking advantage of the hesitation and being very cold himself shut it without permission hard weather mister bumble said the matron hard indeed ma'am replied the beadle
of course not when would they be mister bumble said the matron sipping her tea when indeed ma'am rejoined mister bumble
is he grateful ma'am is he grateful not a copper farthing's worth of it
so like mister grannett wasn't it interposed the matron well mister bumble well ma'am rejoined the beadle he went away and he did die in the streets there's a obstinate pauper for you
out of door relief properly managed properly managed ma'am is the porochial safeguard the great principle of out of door relief is to give the paupers exactly what they don't want
betwixt you and me ma'am returned mister bumble
stopping to unpack his bundle these are official secrets ma'am not to be spoken of except as i may say among the porochial officers such as ourselves
that the board ordered for the infirmary real fresh genuine port wine
it blows ma'am replied mister bumble turning up his coat collar enough to cut one's ears off the matron looked from the little kettle to the beadle who was moving towards the door and as the beadle coughed preparatory to bidding her good night bashfully inquired whether
mister bumble instantaneously turned back his collar again laid his hat and stick upon a chair and drew another chair up to the table as he slowly seated himself he looked at the lady she fixed her eyes upon the little teapot mister bumble coughed again and slightly smiled
as she sat down her eyes once again encountered those of the gallant beadle she coloured and applied herself to the task of making his tea again mister bumble coughed louder this time than he had coughed yet
sweet mister bumble inquired the matron taking up the sugar basin very sweet indeed ma'am replied mister bumble he fixed his eyes on missus corney as he said this
and if ever a beadle looked tender mister bumble was that beadle at that moment the tea was made and handed in silence mister bumble having spread a handkerchief over his knees to prevent the crumbs from sullying the splendour of his shorts
varying these amusements occasionally by fetching a deep sigh
you have a cat ma'am i see said mister bumble glancing at one who in the centre of her family was basking before the fire and kittens too i declare i am so fond of them mister bumble you can't think replied the matron
they're so happy so frolicsome and so cheerful that they are quite companions for me very nice animals ma'am replied mister bumble approvingly so very domestic oh yes rejoined the matron with enthusiasm
missus corney ma'am said mister bumble slowly and marking the time with his teaspoon i mean to say this ma'am that any cat or kitten that could live with you ma'am and not be fond of its home
oh mister bumble remonstrated missus corney
i would drown it myself with pleasure
as she held out her hand for the beadle's cup and a very hard hearted man besides
and inflicting two open handed slaps upon his laced waistcoat gave a mighty sigh and hitched his chair a very little morsel farther from the fire
it was a round table and as missus corney and mister bumble had been sitting opposite each other with no great space between them and fronting the fire it will be seen that mister bumble
to give utterance to certain soft nothings which however well they may become the lips of the light and thoughtless do seem immeasurably beneath the dignity of judges of the land members of parliament
ministers of state lord mayors and other great public functionaries but more particularly beneath the stateliness and gravity of a beadle who as is well known should be the sternest and most inflexible among them all
and continuing to travel round the outer edge of the circle brought his chair in time close to that in which the matron was seated indeed the two chairs touched
and if to the left she must have fallen into mister bumble's arms so
she remained where she was and handed mister bumble another cup of tea hard hearted missus corney said mister bumble stirring his tea and looking up into the matron's face are you hard hearted missus corney dear me exclaimed the matron
what a very curious question from a single man
the beadle drank his tea to the last drop finished a piece of toast whisked the crumbs off his knees wiped his lips and deliberately kissed the matron mister bumble cried that discreet lady in a whisper for the fright was so great that she had quite lost her voice
mister bumble i shall scream mister bumble made no reply but in a slow and dignified manner put his arm round the matron's waist
which was no sooner heard than mister bumble darted with much agility to the wine bottles and began dusting them with great violence while the matron sharply demanded who was there
if you please mistress said a withered old female pauper hideously ugly
old sally is a going fast well what's that to me angrily demanded the matron i can't keep her alive can i no no mistress replied the old woman nobody can she's far beyond the reach of help
she'll never die quiet till you come mistress
acquired great additional interest from his close observance of the game and his attentive perusal of mister chitling's hand upon which from time to time as occasion served he bestowed a variety of earnest glances
it being a cold night the dodger wore his hat as indeed was often his custom within doors he also sustained a clay pipe between his teeth which he only removed for a brief space when he deemed it necessary to apply for refreshment to a quart pot upon the table
which stood ready filled with gin and water for the accommodation of the company master bates was also attentive to the play but being of a more excitable nature than his accomplished friend it was observable that he more frequently applied himself to the gin and water
and moreover indulged in many jests and irrelevant remarks all highly unbecoming a scientific rubber indeed the artful presuming upon their close attachment
all of which remonstrances master bates received in extremely good part merely requesting his friend to be blowed or to insert his head in a sack or replying with some other neatly turned witticism of a similar kind the happy application of which
excited considerable admiration in the mind of mister chitling it was remarkable that the latter gentleman and his partner invariably lost and that the circumstance so far from angering master bates
appeared to afford him the highest amusement inasmuch as he laughed most uproariously at the end of every deal and protested that he had never seen such a jolly game in all his born days
that's two doubles and the rub said mister chitling with a very long face as he drew half a crown from his waistcoat pocket i never see such a feller as you jack you win everything
delighted charley bates so much that his consequent shout of laughter roused the jew from his reverie and induced him to inquire what was the matter matter fagin cried charley
and i went partners with him against the artfull and dumb
try em again tom try em again
you must get up very early in the morning to win against the dodger morning said charley bates
mister dawkins received these handsome compliments with much philosophy and offered to cut any gentleman in company for the first picture card at a shilling at a time nobody accepting the challenge and his pipe being by this time smoked out
which had served him in lieu of counters whistling meantime with peculiar shrillness
about his losses maybe
but it turned out a good job for you didn't it fagin and what's six weeks of it
ah to be sure my dear replied the jew
if bet was all right i mean to say that i shouldn't replied tom angrily there now ah
nobody my dear replied the jew not a soul tom i don't know one of em that would do it besides you not one of em my dear
angrily pursued the poor half witted dupe
you were too stout hearted for that a deal too stout my dear perhaps i was rejoined tom looking round and if i was
the jew perceiving that mister chitling was considerably roused hastened to assure him that nobody was laughing and to prove the gravity of the company appealed to master bates the principal offender
was unable to prevent the escape of such a violent roar that the abused mister chitling without any preliminary ceremonies rushed across the room and aimed a blow at the offender who being skilful in evading pursuit ducked to avoid it and chose his time so well
that it lighted on the chest of the merry old gentleman
hark cried the dodger at this moment i heard the tinkler
and whispered fagin mysteriously what cried the jew alone the dodger nodded in the affirmative and shading the flame of the candle with his hand gave charley bates a private intimation in dumb show that he had better not be funny just then
and meditated for some seconds his face working with agitation the while as if he dreaded something and feared to know the worst at length he raised his head where is he he asked
yes said the jew
bring him down hush quiet charley gently tom scarce scarce this brief direction to charley bates and his recent antagonist was softly and immediately obeyed there was no sound of their whereabout when the dodger descended the stairs bearing the light in his hand
you'll be a fine young cracksman afore the old file now with these words he pulled up the smock frock and winding it round his middle drew a chair to the fire and placed his feet upon the hob
pointing disconsolately to his top boots
the jew motioned to the dodger to place what eatables there were upon the table and seating himself opposite the housebreaker waited his leisure to judge from appearances toby was by no means in a hurry to open the conversation
at first the jew contented himself with patiently watching his countenance as if to gain from its expression some clue to the intelligence he brought but in vain
and through dirt and beard and whisker there still shone unimpaired the self satisfied smirk of flash toby crackit
pacing up and down the room meanwhile in irrepressible excitement
toby continued to eat with the utmost outward indifference until he could eat no more then
first and foremost faguey said toby yes yes interposed the jew drawing up his chair
excellent then placing his feet against the low mantelpiece so as to bring his boots to about the level of his eye he quietly resumed first and foremost faguey said the housebreaker how's bill what
screamed the jew starting from his seat
said toby faintly i know it replied the jew tearing a newspaper from his pocket and pointing to it
we stopped to take him between us his head hung down and he was cold they were close upon our heels every man for himself and each from the gallows
alive or dead that's all i know about him the jew stopped to hear no more but uttering a loud yell and twining his hands in his hair rushed from the room
the people were by this time pouring forth as he had seen them with the ghost of christmas present and walking with his hands behind him scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile he looked so irresistibly pleasant in a word that three or four good humoured fellows said good morning sir a merry christmas to you and scrooge said often afterwards that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard those were the blithest in his ears
my dear sir said scrooge quickening his pace and taking the old gentleman by both his hands how do you do
mister scrooge yes said scrooge that is my name and i fear it may not be pleasant to you allow me to ask your pardon and will you have the goodness here scrooge whispered in his ear
if you please said scrooge not a farthing less a great many back payments are included in it i assure you will you do me that favour my dear sir said the other shaking hands with him i don't know what to say to such munifi don't say anything please retorted scrooge
thank'ee said scrooge i am much obliged to you i thank you fifty times bless you he went to church and walked about the streets and watched the people hurrying to and fro and patted children on the head and questioned beggars
and found that everything could yield him pleasure he had never dreamed that any walk that anything could give him so much happiness in the afternoon he turned his steps towards his nephew's house he passed the door a dozen times before he had the courage to go up and knock
but he made a dash and did it is your master at home my dear said scrooge to the girl nice girl very yes sir where is he my love said scrooge
and he did it yes he did the clock struck nine no bob a quarter past no bob he was full eighteen minutes and a half behind his time scrooge sat with his door wide open that he might see him come into the tank
in his accustomed voice as near as he could feign it what do you mean by coming here at this time of day i am very sorry sir said bob i am behind my time you are repeated scrooge
please it's only once a year sir pleaded bob appearing from the tank it shall not be repeated i was making rather merry yesterday sir now i'll tell you what my friend said scrooge
i am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer and therefore he continued leaping from his stool and giving bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into the tank again and therefore i am about to raise your salary
and calling to the people in the court for help and a strait waistcoat a merry christmas bob said scrooge with an earnestness that could not be mistaken as he clapped him on the back a merrier christmas bob my good fellow than i have given you for many a year
scrooge was better than his word he did it all and infinitely more and to tiny tim who did not die he was a second father
as the good old city knew or any other good old city town or borough in the good old world some people laughed to see the alteration in him but he let them laugh and little heeded them for he was wise enough to know
at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset
he had no further intercourse with spirits but lived upon the total abstinence principle ever afterwards and it was always said of him
and all of us and so as tiny tim observed god bless us
remember that practice makes perfect speaking of brush wolves the kind of dog needed is a good ranger extra good cold trailer and an everlasting stayer
then if he will only run a short distance after starting the wolf and come back and hunt the pups and then bark at them when found you have a good valuable dog
there are plenty of dogs that will hunt and trail wolves all right but very few that will hunt the pups sometimes when your dog trails in near the pups you will get a fight and sometimes they will jump out and run for it
sometimes if the pups are quite young you will find the mother in with them and for the first few days she will be found near them but as they grow older she will be found farther away
a minnesota wolfer who averages thirty five wolves a year pins his faith in the long eared variety of hounds with features of strength endurance good
but don't take your dogs out in summer
and there is where you will hurt some of your best dogs i use a pack of from three to five but the more the better
i have tried most all kinds of dogs and have found a cross with stag hound and english greyhound suits me the best i don't have any use for a full blood english greyhound they cannot stand the cold weather and are too easily hurt in a fight
i want a dog that will weigh seventy five pounds with long legs and short back so he can gather himself up quickly i don't think foxhounds are any good for wolves i have seen thirty five of them start after the same wolf
in good weather and four hours afterward there were only two the smallest of the pack still in the race i have no doubt but that they could have taken the wolf several times in the race but all they could do was to bark
i will not say a full blood stag hound is not all right in a level unobstructed country but in many parts of the country many large dogs would not be able to get thru the fences
or over the rough ground with the ease that the smaller ones do i have never seen the big dog that could catch and kill a wolf by himself i have killed them with two but would rather have four or five
well broken and not afraid of wire i never carry a gun of any kind but always have a hammer and if i want to succor the dogs in the race i will ride up to the dogs and kill the wolf for them the irish wolfhound
the irish wolfhound of history is no more the breed having become extinct years ago
the modern irish wolfhound is a cross between the scottish deerhound and the great dane other combinations have also been tried with more or less good effect according to the idea of the american irish wolfhound club
the irish wolfhound should be not quite so heavy or massive as the great dane but more so than the deerhound which in general type
of great size and commanding appearance very muscular strongly though gracefully built movements easy and active head and neck carried high the tail carried with an upward sweep
with a slight curve toward the extremity the minimum height and weight of dogs should be thirty one inches and one hundred twenty pounds bitches twenty eight inches and ninety pounds
anything below this should be debarred from competition great size including height and shoulder and proportionate length of body is the desideratum to be aimed at and it is desired
to firmly establish a race that shall average from thirty two to thirty four inches in dogs showing the requisite power
of wavy or curly hair in general appearance says an authority he is an elegant graceful aristocrat among dogs
now what are the dog's duties the matter of still hunters vs tonguers
it will be discussed in a subsequent and separate chapter having impressed your dog with the fact that you want him to look out for skunk possum and mink as well as coon the next point of importance
is to insist on the dog staying with the quarry and barking until you arrive
and full of holes if the dog is too long and too vigorous in the task many hunters pick up many of the skunk on the field
in this connection a contributor writes we walk right up to the skunks and pick them up by the tails then hit them on the head with a club and kill them or put them in the bag and take them home alive as the occasion may suit
now i won't tell that i can catch skunks without getting scented but will say this we have caught hundreds by the tail and after lifting them clear off the ground never have been scented by them as i said before i go for the business end of it
if you get it in your eyes it feels about as if you had horse radish or hot water in them for the next ten minutes which is not altogether pleasant the skunk is a foolish unresourceful animal
and were it not for its natural unique means of defense would be utterly at the mercy of dogs and hunters many dogs object to the scent and will trail and bring to bay a skunk only with reluctance
only those who hunt for profit care to take the skunk and he must needs learn the finer points by experience the scotch terrier and beagle
let your young dog shake and chew at the game you are training him to hunt for
tie a rope three feet long to it and keep throwing it toward him and pulling it quickly away to teach him to grab at it and hold on and also bark
a live skunk generally gives a young dog such a lesson the first time that he is always afraid of one afterwards
or bull dog or beagle crossed these two breeds are good ones for any kind of night hunting take a live animal a coon or something and lead it past your young dog's box where he is tied and let him see it and take notice
how he will want it but all you want is to teach him the scent and how to tongue when he comes up on the game i believe what i have told will generally break any dog a good dog well broken to hunt coon skunk or opossum
is worth scores of traps don't be afraid to switch a young dog some to make him learn good from bad like tonguing track and rabbit always pet him and be friendly after chastising him
will take the place of a whipping don't use a stick unless necessary use judgment the same as you would want some one to use you
the tale of timmy tiptoes
there was a little fat comfortable grey squirrel called timmy tiptoes he had a nest thatched with leaves in the top of a tall tree and
he had a little squirrel wife called goody timmy tiptoes sat out enjoying the breeze he whisked his tail and chuckled little wife goody the nuts are ripe
we must lay up a store for winter and spring goody tiptoes was busy pushing moss under the thatch the nest is so snug we shall be sound asleep all winter
then we shall wake up all the thinner when there is nothing to eat in spring time replied prudent timothy when timmy and goody tiptoes came to the nut thicket they found other squirrels were there already
timmy took off his jacket and hung it on a twig they worked away quietly by themselves every day they made several journeys
they carried them away in bags and stored them in several hollow stumps near the tree where they had built their nest when these stumps were full they began to empty the bags into a hole high up a tree
that had belonged to a woodpecker the nuts rattled down down down inside how shall you ever get them out again it is like a money box said goody
i shall be much thinner before springtime my love said timmy tiptoes peeping into the hole they did collect quantities because they did not lose them squirrels who bury their nuts in the ground
lose more than half because they cannot remember the place the most forgetful squirrel in the wood was called silvertail he began to dig and he could not remember
and then he dug again and found some nuts that did not belong to him and there was a fight and other squirrels began to dig the whole wood was in commotion unfortunately
just at this time a flock of little birds flew by from bush to bush searching for green caterpillars and spiders there were several sorts of little birds twittering different songs
the first one sang who's bin digging up my nuts who's been digging up my nuts and another sang
the squirrels followed and listened the first little bird flew into the bush where timmy and goody tiptoes were quietly tying up their bags
timmy tiptoes went on with his work without replying indeed the little bird did not expect an answer it was only singing its natural song and it meant nothing at all but when the other squirrels heard that song
they rushed upon timmy tiptoes and cuffed and scratched him and upset his bag of nuts the innocent little bird which had caused all the mischief flew away in a fright timmy rolled over and over
and then turned tail and fled towards his nest followed by a crowd of squirrels shouting who's been digging up my nuts they caught him
where there was the little round hole and they pushed him in the hole was much too small for timmy tiptoes figure they squeezed him dreadfully it was a wonder they did not break his ribs
we will leave him here till he confesses said silvertail squirrel and he shouted into the hole who's been digging up my nuts timmy tiptoes made no reply he had tumbled down inside the tree
upon half a peck of nuts belonging to himself he lay quite stunned and still goody tiptoes picked up the nut bags and went home she made a cup of tea for timmy but he didn't come and didn't come
goody tiptoes passed a lonely and unhappy night next morning she ventured back to the nut bushes to look for him but the other unkind squirrels drove her away
she wandered all over the wood calling timmy tiptoes timmy tip toes oh where is timmy tiptoes in the meantime timmy tiptoes came to his senses
he found himself tucked up in a little moss bed very much in the dark feeling sore it seemed to be under ground timmy coughed and groaned because his ribs hurted him
there was a chirpy noise and a small striped chipmunk appeared with a night light and hoped he felt better it was most kind to timmy tiptoes it lent him its nightcap and the house was full of provisions
the chipmunk explained that it had rained nuts through the top of the tree besides i found a few buried it laughed and chuckled when it heard timmy's story
my wife will be anxious just another nut or two nuts let me crack them for you said the chipmunk timmy tiptoes grew fatter and fatter now goody tiptoes had set to work again by herself
she did not put any more nuts into the woodpecker's hole because she had always doubted how they could be got out again she hid them under a tree root they rattled down down down
once when goody emptied an extra big bagful there was a decided squeak and next time goody brought another bagful a little striped chipmunk scrambled out in a hurry it is getting perfectly full up downstairs
the sitting room is full and they are rolling along the passage and my husband chippy hackee has run away and left me what is the explanation of these showers of nuts i am sure i beg your pardon i did not know that anybody lived here
said missus goody tiptoes but where is chippy hackee my husband timmy tiptoes has run away too
a little bird told me said missus chippy hackee
down below there was a noise of nutcrackers and a fat squirrel voice and a thin squirrel voice were singing together my little old man and i fell out how shall we bring this matter about
bring it about as well as you can and get you gone you little old man you could squeeze in through that little round hole said goody tiptoes yes i could said the chipmunk but my husband
chippy hackee bites down below there was a noise of cracking nuts and nibbling and then the fat squirrel voice and the thin squirrel voice sang for the diddlum day day diddle durn di day diddle diddle dum day
then goody peeped in at the hole and called down timmy tiptoes
and timmy replied is that you goody tiptoes why certainly he came up and kissed goody through the hole but he was so fat that he could not get out chippy hackee was not too fat but he did not want to come
and so it went on for a fort night till a big wind blew off the top of the tree and opened up the hole and let in the rain then timmy tiptoes came out and went home with an umbrella but chippy hackee continued
to camp out for another week although it was uncomfortable at last a large bear came walking through the wood perhaps he also was looking for nuts he seemed to be sniffing around chippy hackee went home in a hurry
and when chippy hackee got home he found he had caught a cold in his head and he was more uncomfortable still and now timmy and goody tiptoes keep their nut store fastened up with a little padlock
he had forgotten that he struggled against his thirst till his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth then no longer able to resist he called out the sentinel opened the door it was a new face
he thought it would be better to transact business with his old acquaintance
something to drink your excellency knows that wine is beyond all price near rome
endeavoring to parry the blow oh water is even more scarce than wine your excellency there has been such a drought
it is the same old story and while he smiled as he attempted to regard the affair as a joke he felt his temples get moist with perspiration
you will not refuse me a glass of wine i have already told you that we do not sell at retail well then let me have a bottle of the least expensive they are all the same price
who is he the person to whom you were conducted yesterday where is he here let me see him certainly
you sent for me he said to the prisoner are you sir the chief of the people who brought me here yes your excellency what then how much do you require for my ransom merely the five million you have about you
but this is all i have left in the world he said out of an immense fortune if you deprive me of that take away my life also we are forbidden to shed your blood and by whom are you forbidden by him we obey
you do then obey some one yes a chief i thought you said you were the chief so i am of these men but there is another over me and did your superior order you to treat me in this way yes
but my purse will be exhausted probably
no two millions three four come four i will give them to you on condition that you let me go why do you offer me four million for what is worth five million
this is a kind of usury banker that i do not understand take all then take all i tell you and kill me
be more economical but when i have no more money left to pay you asked the infuriated danglars then you must suffer hunger
most likely replied vampa coolly but you say you do not wish to kill me no and yet you will let me perish with hunger ah that is a different thing
i would rather die at once you may torture torment kill me but you shall not have my signature again as your excellency pleases said vampa as he left the cell
raving threw himself on the goat skin who could these men be who was the invisible chief what could be his intentions towards him and why when every one else was allowed to be ransomed might he not also be
oh yes certainly a speedy violent death would be a fine means of deceiving these remorseless enemies who appeared to pursue him with such incomprehensible vengeance but to die for the first time in his life
with a mixture of dread and desire the time had come when the implacable spectre which exists in the mind of every human creature arrested his attention and called out with every pulsation of his heart thou shalt die
danglars resembled a timid animal excited in the chase first it flies then despairs and at last by the very force of desperation sometimes succeeds in eluding its pursuers
but the walls were solid rock a man was sitting reading at the only outlet to the cell and behind that man shapes armed with guns continually passed
after which he offered a million for some food they sent him a magnificent supper and took his million from this time the prisoner resolved to suffer no longer but to have everything he wanted at the end of twelve days
after having made a splendid dinner he reckoned his accounts and found that he had only fifty thousand francs left then a strange reaction took place
he who had just abandoned five million endeavored to save the fifty thousand francs he had left and sooner than give them up he resolved to enter again upon a life of privation he was deluded by the hopefulness that is a premonition of madness
he who for so long a time had forgotten god began to think that miracles were possible
who would release him that then he would have fifty thousand remaining
and finally he prayed that this sum might be preserved to him and as he prayed he wept three days passed thus during which his prayers were frequent if not heartfelt
sometimes he was delirious and fancied he saw an old man stretched on a pallet he also was dying of hunger on the fourth he was no longer a man but a living corpse
he had picked up every crumb that had been left from his former meals and was beginning to eat the matting which covered the floor of his cell then he entreated peppino as he would a guardian angel to give him food
he offered him one thousand francs for a mouthful of bread but peppino did not answer on the fifth day he dragged himself to the door of the cell are you not a christian he said falling on his knees
do you wish to assassinate a man who in the eyes of heaven is a brother oh my former friends my former friends he murmured and fell with his face to the ground then rising in despair he exclaimed the chief the chief
here i am said vampa instantly appearing what do you want take my last gold muttered danglars holding out his pocket book and let me live here i ask no more for liberty i only ask to live then you suffer a great deal
oh yes yes cruelly still there have been men who suffered more than you i do not think so yes those who have died of hunger danglars thought of the old man whom in his hours of delirium
he had seen groaning on his bed he struck his forehead on the ground and groaned yes he said there have been some who have suffered more than i have but then they must have been martyrs at least
do you repent asked a deep solemn voice which caused danglars hair to stand on end his feeble eyes endeavored to distinguish objects and behind the bandit he saw a man enveloped in a cloak half lost in the shadow of a stone column
of the evil you have done said the voice oh yes oh yes i do indeed repent and he struck his breast with his emaciated fist then i forgive you said the man dropping his cloak and advancing to the light
more pale from terror than he had been just before from hunger and misery you are mistaken i am not the count of monte cristo then who are you i am he whom you sold and dishonored i am he whose betrothed you prostituted
i am he upon whom you trampled that you might raise yourself to fortune i am he whose father you condemned to die of hunger i am he whom you also condemned to starvation and who yet forgives you because he hopes to be forgiven
and fell prostrate rise said the count your life is safe the same good fortune has not happened to your accomplices one is mad the other dead keep the fifty thousand francs you have left i give them to you
the five million you stole from the hospitals has been restored to them by an unknown hand and now eat and drink i will entertain you to night vampa when this man is satisfied let him be free
when he raised his head he saw disappearing down the passage nothing but a shadow before which the bandits bowed according to the count's directions danglars was waited on by vampa who brought him the best wine and fruits of italy
then having conducted him to the road and pointed to the post chaise left him leaning against a tree he remained there all night not knowing where he was when daylight dawned he saw that he was near a stream
renee was with all the rest of the company anxiously awaiting him
well decapitator guardian of the state royalist brutus what is the matter said one speak out are we threatened with a fresh reign of terror asked another has the corsican ogre broken loose cried a third
i request your pardon for thus leaving you will the marquis honor me by a few moments private conversation
so serious that i must take leave of you for a few days so added he turning to renee judge for yourself if it be not important you are going to leave us cried renee unable to hide her emotion at this unexpected announcement
alas returned villefort i must
that madame is an official secret but if you have any commissions for paris a friend of mine is going there to night and will with pleasure undertake them the guests looked at each other you wish to speak to me alone said the marquis
yes let us go to the library please the marquis took his arm and they left the salon well asked he as soon as they were by themselves tell me what it is an affair of the greatest importance that demands my immediate presence in paris
now excuse the indiscretion marquis but have you any landed property all my fortune is in the funds seven or eight hundred thousand francs then sell out sell out marquis or you will lose it all but how can i sell out here
you have a broker have you not yes then give me a letter to him and tell him to sell out without an instant's delay perhaps even now i shall arrive too late the deuce you say replied the marquis let us lose no time then
and sitting down he wrote a letter to his broker ordering him to sell out at the market price
to whom to the king to the king yes i dare not write to his majesty i do not ask you to write to his majesty
i want a letter that will enable me to reach the king's presence without all the formalities of demanding an audience that would occasion a loss of precious time
he has the right of entry at the tuileries and can procure you audience at any hour of the day or night doubtless but there is no occasion to divide the honors of my discovery with him the keeper would leave me in the background and take all the glory to himself
i tell you marquis my fortune is made if i only reach the tuileries the first for the king will not forget the service i do him in that case go and get ready i will call salvieux and make him write the letter be as quick as possible i must be on the road in a quarter of an hour
tell your coachman to stop at the door you will present my excuses to the marquise and mademoiselle renee whom i leave on such a day with great regret you will find them both here and can make your farewells in person a thousand thanks and now for the letter
the marquis rang a servant entered say to the comte de salvieux that i would like to see him now then go said the marquis i shall be gone only a few moments
but reflecting that the sight of the deputy procureur running through the streets would be enough to throw the whole city into confusion he resumed his ordinary pace at his door he perceived a figure in the shadow that seemed to wait for him it was mercedes
who hearing no news of her lover had come unobserved to inquire after him
her beauty and high bearing surprised him and when she inquired what had become of her lover it seemed to him that she was the judge and he the accused
but at least tell me where he is that i may know whether he is alive or dead said she
and desirous of putting an end to the interview he pushed by her and closed the door as if to exclude the pain he felt but remorse is not thus banished like virgil's wounded hero he carried the arrow in his wound
then the first pangs of an unending torture seized upon his heart the man he sacrificed to his ambition that innocent victim immolated on the altar of his father's faults appeared to him pale and threatening
leading his affianced bride by the hand and bringing with him remorse not such as the ancients figured furious and terrible but that slow and consuming agony whose pangs are intensified from hour to hour up to the very moment of death
then he had a moment's hesitation he had frequently called for capital punishment on criminals and owing to his irresistible eloquence they had been condemned
because they were guilty at least he believed so but here was an innocent man whose happiness he had destroyed in this case he was not the judge but the executioner
as he thus reflected he felt the sensation we have described and which had hitherto been unknown to him arise in his bosom and fill him with vague apprehensions
it is thus that a wounded man trembles instinctively at the approach of the finger to his wound until it be healed
or if they do only close to reopen more agonizing than ever if at this moment the sweet voice of renee had sounded in his ears pleading for mercy or the fair mercedes had entered and said
in the name of god i conjure you to restore me my affianced husband his cold and trembling hands would have signed his release
who came to tell him that the travelling carriage was in readiness
hastily opened one of the drawers of his desk emptied all the gold it contained into his pocket stood motionless an instant his hand pressed to his head muttered a few inarticulate sounds
and then perceiving that his servant had placed his cloak on his shoulders he sprang into the carriage
the hapless dantes was doomed
he started when he saw renee for he fancied she was again about to plead for dantes
and renee far from pleading for dantes hated the man whose crime separated her from her lover meanwhile what of mercedes she had met fernand at the corner of the rue de la loge she had returned to the catalans
and had despairingly cast herself on her couch fernand kneeling by her side took her hand and covered it with kisses that mercedes did not even feel she passed the night thus
the lamp went out for want of oil but she paid no heed to the darkness and dawn came but she knew not that it was day grief had made her blind to all but one object that was edmond
i have not quitted you since yesterday returned fernand sorrowfully
he had learned that dantes had been taken to prison and he had gone to all his friends and the influential persons of the city but the report was already in circulation that dantes was arrested as a bonapartist agent
and as the most sanguine looked upon any attempt of napoleon to remount the throne as impossible he met with nothing but refusal and had returned home in despair declaring that the matter was serious and that nothing more could be done
he had shut himself up with two bottles of black currant brandy in the hope of drowning reflection but he did not succeed and became too intoxicated to fetch any more drink and yet not so intoxicated as to forget what had happened
with his elbows on the table he sat between the two empty bottles while spectres danced in the light of the unsnuffed candle spectres such as hoffmann strews over his punch drenched pages like black fantastic dust
danglars alone was content and joyous he had got rid of an enemy and made his own situation on the pharaon secure danglars was one of those men born with a pen behind the ear
everything with him was multiplication or subtraction the life of a man was to him of far less value than a numeral especially when by taking it away he could increase the sum total of his own desires
he went to bed at his usual hour and slept in peace
embraced renee kissed the marquise's hand and shaken that of the marquis started for paris along the aix road
we awake from every sleep except the one dreaded by danglars he awoke to a parisian accustomed to silken curtains walls hung with velvet drapery and the soft perfume of burning wood
the white smoke of which diffuses itself in graceful curves around the room the appearance of the whitewashed cell which greeted his eyes on awakening seemed like the continuation of some disagreeable dream
but in such a situation a single moment suffices to change the strongest doubt into certainty yes yes he murmured i am in the hands of the brigands of whom albert de morcerf spoke
his first idea was to breathe that he might know whether he was wounded he borrowed this from don quixote the only book he had ever read but which he still slightly remembered no he cried they have not wounded but perhaps they have robbed me
and he thrust his hands into his pockets they were untouched the hundred louis he had reserved for his journey from rome to venice were in his trousers pocket and in that of his great coat he found the little note case containing his letter of credit for five million fifty thousand francs
singular bandits he exclaimed they have left me my purse and pocket book as i was saying last night they intend me to be ransomed hallo here is my watch let me see what time it is danglars watch one of breguet's repeaters
which he had carefully wound up on the previous night struck half past five without this danglars would have been quite ignorant of the time for daylight did not reach his cell should he demand an explanation from the bandits or should he wait patiently for them to propose it
the last alternative seemed the most prudent so he waited until twelve o'clock during all this time a sentinel who had been relieved at eight o'clock had been watching his door danglars suddenly felt a strong inclination to see the person who kept watch over him
he had noticed that a few rays not of daylight but from a lamp penetrated through the ill joined planks of the door he approached just as the brigand was refreshing himself with a mouthful of brandy which
owing to the leathern bottle containing it sent forth an odor which was extremely unpleasant to danglars faugh he exclaimed retreating to the farther corner of his cell at twelve this man was replaced by another functionary
and danglars wishing to catch sight of his new guardian approached the door again he was an athletic gigantic bandit with large eyes thick lips and a flat nose his red hair fell in dishevelled masses like snakes around his shoulders
ah ha cried danglars this fellow is more like an ogre than anything else however i am rather too old and tough to be very good eating
at the same time as though to disprove the ogreish propensities the man took some black bread cheese and onions from his wallet which he began devouring voraciously may i be hanged said danglars glancing at the bandit's dinner through the crevices of the door
may i be hanged if i can understand how people can eat such filth and he withdrew to seat himself upon his goat skin which reminded him of the smell of the brandy
but the mysteries of nature are incomprehensible and there are certain invitations contained in even the coarsest food which appeal very irresistibly to a fasting stomach danglars felt his own not to be very well supplied just then
and gradually the man appeared less ugly the bread less black and the cheese more fresh while those dreadful vulgar onions recalled to his mind certain sauces and side dishes which his cook prepared in a very superior manner whenever he said
monsieur deniseau let me have a nice little fricassee to day he got up and knocked on the door the bandit raised his head danglars knew that he was heard so he redoubled his blows
i think it is quite time to think of giving me something to eat but whether he did not understand him or whether he had received no orders respecting the nourishment of danglars the giant without answering went on with his dinner
danglars feelings were hurt and not wishing to put himself under obligations to the brute the banker threw himself down again on his goat skin and did not breathe another word four hours passed by and the giant was replaced by another bandit
danglars who really began to experience sundry gnawings at the stomach arose softly again applied his eye to the crack of the door and recognized the intelligent countenance of his guide it was indeed peppino
who was preparing to mount guard as comfortably as possible by seating himself opposite to the door and placing between his legs an earthen pan containing chick pease stewed with bacon
near the pan he also placed a pretty little basket of villetri grapes and a flask of orvieto peppino was decidedly an epicure danglars watched these preparations and his mouth watered
and he tapped gently at the door
coming exclaimed peppino who from frequenting the house of signor pastrini understood french perfectly in all its idioms danglars immediately recognized him as the man who had called out in such a furious manner put in your head
but this was not the time for recrimination so he assumed his most agreeable manner and said with a gracious smile excuse me sir but are they not going to give me any dinner does your excellency happen to be hungry happen to be hungry
then he added aloud yes sir i am hungry very hungry what would your excellency like and peppino placed his pan on the ground so that the steam rose directly under the nostrils of danglars give your orders have you kitchens here
kitchens of course complete ones and cooks excellent well a fowl fish game it signifies little so that i eat as your excellency pleases you mentioned a fowl i think yes a fowl
peppino turning around shouted a fowl for his excellency his voice yet echoed in the archway when a handsome graceful and half naked young man appeared bearing a fowl in a silver dish on his head without the assistance of his hands
here your excellency said peppino taking the fowl from the young bandit and placing it on the worm eaten table which with the stool and the goat skin bed formed the entire furniture of the cell danglars asked for a knife and fork here excellency said peppino
offering him a little blunt knife and a boxwood fork danglars took the knife in one hand and the fork in the other and was about to cut up the fowl pardon me excellency said peppino placing his hand on the banker's shoulder people pay here before they eat
they might not be satisfied and ah ha thought danglars this is not so much like paris except that i shall probably be skinned never mind i'll fix that all right i have always heard how cheap poultry is in italy
i should think a fowl is worth about twelve sous at rome there he said throwing a louis down peppino picked up the louis and danglars again prepared to carve the fowl stay a moment your excellency said peppino rising you still owe me something
i said they would skin me thought danglars but resolving to resist the extortion he said come how much do i owe you for this fowl your excellency has given me a louis on account a louis on account for a fowl
certainly and your excellency now owes me four thousand nine hundred ninety nine louis danglars opened his enormous eyes on hearing this gigantic joke come come this is very droll very amusing i allow
but as i am very hungry pray allow me to eat stay here is another louis for you then that will make only four thousand nine hundred ninety eight louis more said peppino with the same indifference i shall get them all in time
as for that you won't get them at all go to the devil you do not know with whom you have to deal peppino made a sign and the youth hastily removed the fowl danglars threw himself upon his goat skin
and peppino reclosing the door again began eating his pease and bacon though danglars could not see peppino the noise of his teeth allowed no doubt as to his occupation he was certainly eating and noisily too like an ill bred man
peppino pretended not to hear him and without even turning his head continued to eat slowly danglars stomach felt so empty that it seemed as if it would be impossible ever to fill it again still he had patience for another half hour
which appeared to him like a century he again arose and went to the door come sir do not keep me starving here any longer but tell me what they want nay your excellency it is you who should tell us what you want give your orders and we will execute them
then open the door directly peppino obeyed now look here i want something to eat to eat do you hear are you hungry come you understand me
what would your excellency like to eat a piece of dry bread since the fowls are beyond all price in this accursed place bread very well hallo there some bread he called the youth brought a small loaf how much asked danglars
four thousand nine hundred and ninety eight louis said peppino
what one hundred thousand francs for a loaf one hundred thousand francs repeated peppino
we have a fixed price for all our provisions it signifies nothing whether you eat much or little whether you have ten dishes or one it is always the same price what still keeping up this silly jest
oh dear no your excellency unless you intend to commit suicide pay and eat and what am i to pay with brute said danglars enraged do you suppose i carry one hundred thousand francs in my pocket
your excellency has five million fifty thousand francs in your pocket that will be fifty fowls at one hundred thousand francs apiece and half a fowl for the fifty thousand danglars shuddered
the bandage fell from his eyes and he understood the joke which he did not think quite so stupid as he had done just before come he said if i pay you the one hundred thousand francs will you be satisfied and allow me to eat at my ease
certainly said peppino but how can i pay them oh nothing easier you have an account open with messrs thomson and french via dei banchi rome give me a draft for four thousand nine hundred ninety eight louis on these gentlemen
and our banker shall take it danglars thought it as well to comply with a good grace so he took the pen ink and paper peppino offered him wrote the draft and signed it here he said here is a draft at sight
chapter one the letter towards the middle of the month of may in the year sixteen sixty at nine o'clock in the morning when the sun already high in the heavens was fast absorbing the dew from the ramparts of the castle of blois
without producing any other effect upon the passengers of the quay beyond a first movement of the hand to the head as a salute and a second movement of the tongue to express in the purest french then spoken in france there is monsieur returning from hunting and that was all
whilst however the horses were climbing the steep acclivity which leads from the river to the castle several shop boys approached the last horse from whose saddle bow a number of birds were suspended by the beak
on seeing this the inquisitive youths manifested with rustic freedom their contempt for such paltry sport
they returned to their occupations one only of the curious party a stout stubby cheerful lad having demanded how it was that monsieur who from his great revenues had it in his power to amuse himself so much better
could be satisfied with such mean diversions do you not know one of the standers by replied that monsieur's principal amusement is to weary himself the light hearted boy shrugged his shoulders with a gesture which said as clear as day
in that case i would rather be plain jack than a prince and all resumed their labors in the meanwhile monsieur continued his route with an air at once so melancholy and so majestic
but the good citizens of blois could not pardon monsieur for having chosen their gay city for an abode in which to indulge melancholy at his ease
they stole away gaping or drew back their heads into the interior of their dwellings to escape the soporific influence of that long pale face of those watery eyes and that languid address
so that the worthy prince was almost certain to find the streets deserted whenever he chanced to pass through them now on the part of the citizens of blois this was a culpable piece of disrespect for monsieur was after the king nay even perhaps before the king
it was not then or at least it ought not to have been a trifling source of pride for the city of blois
and held his court in the ancient castle of the states but it was the destiny of this great prince to excite the attention and admiration of the public in a very modified degree wherever he might be monsieur had fallen into this situation by habit
it was not perhaps this which gave him that air of listlessness monsieur had already been tolerably busy in the course of his life a man cannot allow the heads of a dozen of his best friends to be cut off without feeling a little excitement
and as since the accession of mazarin to power no heads had been cut off monsieur's occupation was gone and his morale suffered from it the life of the poor prince was then very dull after his little morning hawking party on the banks of the beuvron
or in the woods of cheverny monsieur crossed the loire went to breakfast at chambord with or without an appetite and the city of blois heard no more of its sovereign lord and master till the next hawking day
monsieur rode a little steady paced horse equipped with a large saddle of red flemish velvet with stirrups in the shape of buskins the horse was of a bay color monsieur's pourpoint of crimson velvet corresponded with the cloak of the same shade
and the horse's equipment and it was only by this red appearance of the whole that the prince could be known from his two companions the one dressed in violet the other in green he on the left in violet was his equerry he on the right in green was the grand veneur
one of the pages carried two gerfalcons upon a perch the other a hunting horn which he blew with a careless note at twenty paces from the castle every one about this listless prince did what he had to listlessly
at this signal eight guards who were lounging in the sun in the square court ran to their halberts and monsieur made his solemn entry into the castle when he had disappeared under the shades of the porch three or four idlers who had followed the cavalcade to the castle
after pointing out the suspended birds to each other dispersed with comments upon what they saw and when they were gone the street the palace and the court all remained deserted alike monsieur dismounted without speaking a word went straight to his apartments where his valet changed his dress
and as madame had not yet sent orders respecting breakfast monsieur stretched himself upon a chaise longue and was soon as fast asleep as if it had been eleven o'clock at night the eight guards who concluded their service for the day was over
laid themselves down very comfortably in the sun upon some stone benches the grooms disappeared with their horses into the stables and with the exception of a few joyous birds startling each other with their sharp chirping in the tufted shrubberies
it might have been thought that the whole castle was as soundly asleep as monsieur was all at once in the midst of this delicious silence there resounded a clear ringing laugh which caused several of the halberdiers in the enjoyment of their siesta
to open at least one eye this burst of laughter proceeded from a window of the castle visited at this moment by the sun
the little balcony of wrought iron which advanced in front of this window was furnished with a pot of red gilliflowers another pot of primroses and an early rose tree the foliage of which beautifully green was variegated with numerous red specks announcing future roses
covered with an old large flowered haarlem tapestry in the center of this table was a long necked stone bottle in which were irises and lilies of the valley at each end of this table was a young girl
the position of these two young people was singular they might have been taken for two boarders escaped from a convent one of them with both elbows on the table and a pen in her hand was tracing characters upon a sheet of fine dutch paper
the other kneeling upon a chair which allowed her to advance her head and bust over the back of it to the middle of the table was watching her companion as she wrote or rather hesitated to write
thence the thousand cries the thousand railleries the thousand laughs one of which more brilliant than the rest had startled the birds in the gardens and disturbed the slumbers of monsieur's guards we are taking portraits now
we shall be allowed therefore we hope to sketch the two last of this chapter the one who was leaning in the chair that is to say the joyous laughing one was a beautiful girl of from eighteen to twenty
with brown complexion and brown hair splendid from eyes which sparkled beneath strongly marked brows and particularly from her teeth which seemed to shine like pearls between her red coral lips her every movement seemed the accent of a sunny nature
she did not walk she bounded the other she who was writing looked at her turbulent companion with an eye as limpid as pure and as blue as the azure of the day her hair of a shaded fairness arranged with exquisite taste
fell in silky curls over her lovely mantling cheeks she passed across the paper a delicate hand whose thinness announced her extreme youth at each burst of laughter that proceeded from her friend she raised as if annoyed
her white shoulders in a poetical and mild manner but they were wanting in that richfulness of mold that was likewise to be wished in her arms and hands montalais montalais said she at length in a voice soft and caressing as a melody
you laugh too loud you laugh like a man you will not only draw the attention of messieurs the guards but you will not hear madame's bell when madame rings this admonition neither made the young girl called montalais cease to laugh nor gesticulate
she only replied louise you do not speak as you think my dear you know that messieurs the guards as you call them have only just commenced their sleep and that a cannon would not waken them you know that madame's bell can be heard at the bridge of blois
and that consequently i shall hear it when my services are required by madame what annoys you my child is that i laugh while you are writing and what you are afraid of is that madame de saint remy your mother should come up here as she does sometimes when we laugh too loud
that she should surprise us and that she should see that enormous sheet of paper upon which in a quarter of an hour you have only traced the words monsieur raoul
say and montalais redoubled her laughter and noisy provocations the fair girl at length became quite angry she tore the sheet of paper on which in fact the words monsieur raoul were written in good characters
there there said mademoiselle de montalais there is our little lamb our gentle dove angry
besides what can be more permissible than to write to an old friend of twelve years standing particularly when the letter begins with the words monsieur raoul it is all very well i will not write to him at all said the young girl ah ah
in good sooth montalais is properly punished cried the jeering brunette still laughing come come let us try another sheet of paper and finish our dispatch off hand good there is the bell ringing now
by my faith so much the worse madame must wait or else do without her first maid of honor this morning a bell in fact did ring it announced that madame had finished her toilette and waited for monsieur to give her his hand
and conduct her from the salon to the refectory this formality being accomplished with great ceremony the husband and wife breakfasted and then separated till the hour of dinner invariably fixed at two o'clock
the sound of this bell caused a door to be opened in the offices on the left hand of the court from which filed two maitres d'hotel followed by eight scullions bearing a kind of hand barrow loaded with dishes under silver covers
he even carried his kindness so far as to place the halbert which stood against the wall in the hands of the man stupid with sleep after which the soldier without explanation escorted the viande of monsieur to the refectory preceded by a page and the two maitres d'hotel
wherever the viande passed the soldiers ported arms mademoiselle de montalais and her companion had watched from their window the details of this ceremony
they must have been pretty well accustomed but they did not look so much from curiosity as to be assured they should not be disturbed so guards scullions maitres d'hotel and pages having passed they resumed their places at the table
and the sun which through the window frame had for an instant fallen upon those two charming countenances now only shed its light upon the gilliflowers primroses and rose tree
said mademoiselle de montalais taking her place again madame will breakfast very well without me oh montalais you will be punished
that is just the way in which i wish to be punished to go out in the grand coach perched upon a doorstep to turn to the left twist round to the right over roads full of ruts where we cannot exceed a league in two hours
so that madame never fails to say could one believe it possible that mary de medici should have escaped from that window forty seven feet high the mother of two princes and three princesses
if you call that relaxation louise all i ask is to be punished every day
montalais montalais there are duties to be performed you talk of them very much at your ease dear child you who are left quite free amidst this tedious court you are the only person that reaps the advantages of them without incurring the trouble
you who are really more one of madame's maids of honor than i am because madame makes her affection for your father in law glance off upon you so that you enter this dull house as the birds fly into yonder court
inhaling the air pecking the flowers picking up the grain without having the least service to perform or the least annoyance to undergo and you talk to me of duties to be performed in sooth my pretty idler
what are your own proper duties unless to write to the handsome raoul and even that you don't do so that it looks to me as if you likewise were rather negligent of your duties
louise assumed a serious air leant her chin upon her hand and in a tone full of candid remonstrance
said she can you have the heart to do it you have a future you will belong to the court the king if he should marry
poor raoul sighed louise now is the time to write to him my pretty dear come begin again with that famous monsieur raoul which figures at the top of the poor torn sheet
she then held the pen toward her and with a charming smile encouraged her hand which quickly traced the words she named what next asked the younger of the two girls why now write what you think louise replied montalais
are you quite sure i think of anything you think of somebody and that amounts to the same thing or rather even more do you think so montalais louise louise your blue eyes are as deep as the sea i saw at boulogne last year
no no i mistake the sea is perfidious
look over our heads well since you can read so well in my eyes tell me what i am thinking about montalais in the first place you don't think monsieur raoul you think my dear raoul oh never blush for such a trifle as that
as you must be very dull there to seek for amusement in the remembrance of a provinciale louise rose up suddenly no montalais said she with a smile
i should have been very unhappy if your entreaties to obtain a remembrance of me had been less warm everything here reminds me of our early days which so quickly passed away which so delightfully flew by
that no others will ever replace the charm of them in my heart montalais who watched the flying pen and read the wrong way upwards as fast as her friend wrote here interrupted by clapping her hands capital cried she
there is frankness there is heart there is style show these parisians my dear that blois is the city for fine language he knows very well that blois was a paradise to me replied the girl
and she continued as follows you often think of me you say monsieur raoul i thank you but that does not surprise me when i recollect how often our hearts have beaten close to each other oh oh
said montalais beware my lamb you are scattering your wool and there are wolves about louise was about to reply when the gallop of a horse resounded under the porch of the castle what is that said montalais approaching the window
a handsome cavalier by my faith oh raoul exclaimed louise who had made the same movement as her friend and becoming pale as death sunk back beside her unfinished letter now he is a clever lover upon my word cried montalais
he arrives just at the proper moment come in come in i implore you
chapter six the unknown thus founded and recommended by its sign the hostelry of master cropole held its way steadily on towards a solid prosperity it was not an immense fortune that cropole had in perspective
himself his wife pittrino and two cooks immediately laid hands upon all the inhabitants of the dove cote the poultry yard and the rabbit hutches
cropole had at the time but one single traveler in his house this was a man of scarcely thirty years of age handsome tall austere or rather melancholy in all his gestures and looks
he was dressed in black velvet with jet trimmings a white collar as plain as that of the severest puritan set off the whiteness of his youthful neck a small dark colored mustache scarcely covered his curled disdainful lip
he spoke to people looking them full in the face without affectation it is true but without scruple so that the brilliancy of his black eyes became so insupportable that more than one look had sunk beneath his like the weaker sword in a single combat
the gentlemen and the commoner as they are really divided into two races the black and the white
to ascertain this there was no necessity to consult anything but his hands long slender and white of which every muscle every vein became apparent through the skin at the least movement and eloquently spoke of good descent
he had taken without hesitation without reflection even the principal apartment which the hotelier had pointed out to him with a rapacious aim very praiseworthy some will say very reprehensible will say others if they admit that cropole was a physiognomist
and judged people at first sight this apartment was that which composed the whole front of the ancient triangular house a large salon lighted by two windows on the first stage a small chamber by the side of it and another above it
now from the time he had arrived this gentleman had scarcely touched any repast that had been served up to him in his chamber he had spoken but two words to the host to warn him that a traveler of the name of parry would arrive
and to desire that when he did he should be shown up to him immediately he afterwards preserved so profound a silence that cropole was almost offended so much did he prefer people who were good company
this gentleman had risen early the morning of the day on which this history begins and had placed himself at the window of his salon seated upon the ledge and leaning upon the rail of the balcony gazing sadly but persistently on both sides of the street
watching no doubt for the arrival of the traveler he had mentioned to the host in this way he had seen the little cortege of monsieur return from hunting then had again partaken of the profound tranquillity of the street absorbed in his own expectations
all at once the movement of the crowd going to the meadows couriers setting out washers of pavement purveyors of the royal household gabbling scampering shop boys chariots in motion hair dressers on the run and pages toiling along
this tumult and bustle had surprised him but without losing any of that impassible and supreme majesty which gives to the eagle and the lion that serene and contemptuous glance amidst the hurrahs and shouts of hunters or the curious
soon the cries of the victims slaughtered in the poultry yard the hasty steps of madame cropole up that little wooden staircase so narrow and so echoing the bounding pace of pittrino who only that morning was smoking at the door with all the phlegm of a dutchman
all this communicated something like surprise and agitation to the traveler as he was rising to make inquiries the door of his chamber opened the unknown concluded they were about to introduce the impatiently expected traveler
and made three precipitate steps to meet him but instead of the person he expected it was master cropole who appeared and behind him in the half dark staircase the pleasant face of madame cropole rendered trivial by curiosity
she only gave one furtive glance at the handsome gentleman and disappeared cropole advanced cap in hand rather bent than bowing a gesture of the unknown interrogated him without a word being pronounced monsieur said cropole
i come to ask how what ought i to say your lordship monsieur le comte or monsieur le marquis say monsieur and speak quickly replied the unknown with that haughty accent which admits of neither discussion nor reply
i came then to inquire how monsieur had passed the night and if monsieur intended to keep this apartment yes monsieur something has happened upon which we could not reckon what
great astonishment was painted on the countenance of the unknown the king of france is coming to blois he is on the road monsieur then there is the stronger reason for my remaining said the unknown
very well but will monsieur keep all the apartments i do not understand you why should i require less to day than yesterday because monsieur your lordship will permit me to say
yesterday i did not think proper when you chose your lodging to fix any price that might have made your lordship believe that i prejudged your resources whilst to day the unknown colored the idea at once struck him that he was supposed to be poor and was being insulted
whilst to day replied he coldly you do not prejudge monsieur i am a well meaning man thank god and simple hotelier as i am there is in me the blood of a gentleman
i do not contest that point with you i only wish to know and that quickly to what your questions tend you are too reasonable monsieur not to comprehend that our city is small that the court is about to invade it that the houses will be overflowing with inhabitants
and that lodgings will consequently obtain considerable prices again the unknown colored name your terms said he i name them with scruple monsieur because i seek an honest gain
and that i wish to carry on my business without being uncivil or extravagant in my demands now the room you occupy is considerable and you are alone that is my business oh certainly i do not mean to turn monsieur out
do you desire me to go said he explain yourself but quickly monsieur monsieur you do not understand me it is very critical i know that which i am doing
i express myself badly or perhaps as monsieur is a foreigner which i perceive by his accent in fact the unknown spoke with that impetuosity which is the principal character of english accentuation
even among men who speak the french language with the greatest purity as monsieur is a foreigner i say it is perhaps he who does not catch my exact meaning i wish for monsieur to give up one or two of the apartments he occupies
which would diminish his expenses and ease my conscience indeed it is hard to increase unreasonably the price of the chambers when one has had the honor to let them at a reasonable price how much does the hire amount to since yesterday
monsieur to one louis with refreshments and the charge for the horse very well and that of to day ah there is the difficulty this is the day of the king's arrival if the court comes to sleep here the charge of the day is reckoned
from that it results that three chambers at two louis each make six louis two louis monsieur are not much but six louis make a great deal the unknown from red as we have seen him became very pale
he drew from his pocket with heroic bravery a purse embroidered with a coat of arms which he carefully concealed in the hollow of his hand this purse was of a thinness a flabbiness a hollowness which did not escape the eye of cropole
the unknown emptied the purse into his hand it contained three double louis which amounted to the six louis demanded by the host but it was seven that cropole had required he looked therefore at the unknown as much as to say and then
there remains one louis does there not master hotelier yes monsieur but
and emptied it it contained a small pocket book a gold key and some silver with this change he made up a louis thank you monsieur said cropole it now only remains for me to ask whether monsieur intends to occupy his apartments to morrow
in which case i will reserve them for him whereas if monsieur does not mean to do so i will promise them to some of the king's people who are coming that is but right said the unknown after a long silence
but as i have no more money as you have seen and as i yet must retain the apartments you must either sell this diamond in the city or hold it in pledge cropole looked at the diamond so long that the unknown said hastily
i prefer your selling it monsieur for it is worth three hundred pistoles a jew are there any jews in blois would give you two hundred or a hundred and fifty for it take whatever may be offered for it if it be no more than the price of your lodging
begone oh monsieur replied cropole ashamed of the sudden inferiority which the unknown reflected upon him by this noble and disinterested confidence as well as by the unalterable patience opposed to so many suspicions and evasions
oh monsieur i hope people are not so dishonest at blois as you seem to think and that the diamond being worth what you say the unknown here again darted at cropole one of his withering glances
i really do not understand diamonds monsieur i assure you cried he but the jewelers do ask them said the unknown now i believe our accounts are settled are they not monsieur l'hote yes monsieur
not at all replied the unknown with ineffable majesty or have appeared to be extortionate with a noble traveler consider monsieur the peculiarity of the case say no more about it i desire and leave me to myself
the unknown himself shut the door after him and when left alone looked mournfully at the bottom of the purse from which he had taken a small silken bag containing the diamond his last resource he dwelt likewise upon the emptiness of his pockets
turned over the papers in his pocket book and convinced himself of the state of absolute destitution in which he was about to be plunged he raised his eyes towards heaven with a sublime emotion of despairing calmness
brushed off with his hand some drops of sweat which trickled over his noble brow and then cast down upon the earth a look which just before had been impressed with almost divine majesty
that the storm had passed far from him perhaps he had prayed in the bottom of his soul he drew near to the window resumed his place in the balcony and remained there motionless annihilated dead
while poland suffers and dreams of liberation while serbia is waiting for redemption there is a little country the soul of which is torn to pieces a little country that is so remote so remote that her ardent sighs cannot be heard
the country that saw abraham build the altar upon which he was ready to immolate his only son the country that moses saw from a distance stretching in beauty and loveliness a land of promise never to be attained the country
that gave the world its symbols of soul and spirit palestine no war correspondents no red cross or relief committees have gone to palestine because no actual fighting has taken place there
and yet hundreds of thousands are suffering there that worst of agonies the agony of the spirit those who have devoted their lives to show the world that palestine can be made again a country flowing with milk and honey
those who have dreamed of reviving the spirit of the prophets and the great teachers are hanged and persecuted and exiled their dreams shattered their holy places profaned their work ruined
cut off from the world with no bread to sustain the starving body
of a barbarian soldiery trampling their very soul the dreamers of palestine refuse to surrender and amidst the clash of guns and swords they are battling for the spirit with the weapons of the spirit
the time has not yet come to write the record of these battles
in that fertile coastal region close to the ancient plains of armageddon
i was born my childhood was passed here in the peace and harmony of this little agricultural community
against the native arabs who at first menaced the life of the new colony the village was far more suggestive of switzerland than of the conventional slovenly villages of the east mud built and filthy
for while it was the purpose of our people in returning to the holy land to foster the jewish language
dry farming which some people consider a recent discovery
was introduced and extended with american agricultural implements blooded cattle were imported and poultry raising on a large scale was undertaken with the aid of incubators to the disgust of the arabs who look
as against nature and sinful our people replaced the wretched native trails with good roads bordered by hedges of thorny acacia which in season were covered with downy little yellow blossoms
that smelled sweeter than honey when the sun was on them
as shut up in harems a short experience with turkish courts and turkish justice taught our people that they would have to establish a legal system of their own
one to interpret the mosaic law another
all jewish disputes were settled by this court its effectiveness may be judged by the fact that the arabs
began in increasing numbers to bring their difficulties to our tribunal jews
zicron jacob
when in nineteen ten on the advice of my elder brother
at athlit an ancient town of the crusaders i left for america to enter the service of the united states in the department of agriculture a few days after reaching this country
i took out my first naturalization papers and proceeded to washington where i became part of that great government service whose beneficent activity is too little known by americans
and stereopticon views these i intended to use in a lecturing tour
during the years of my residence in america i was able to appreciate and judge in their right value
which my people led in the holy land from a distance too i saw better the need for organization among our communities
all over the country two months after my return from america an event occurred which gave impetus to these projects the physician of our village an old man who had devoted his entire life to serving
and healing the people of palestine without distinction of race or religion was driving home one evening in his carriage from a neighboring settlement with him was a young girl of sixteen in a deserted place
they were set upon by four armed arabs who beat the old man to unconsciousness as he tried in vain to defend the girl from the terrible fate which awaited her night came on
with tragedy close at hand i made my comrades take oath on the honor of their sisters to organize themselves into a strong society for the defense of the life and honor of our villagers and
of our people at large these details
of the disturbances that came thick and fast when in august nineteen fourteen
was at once felt even in our remote corner of the earth soon after the german invasion of belgium the turkish army was mobilized and all citizens of the empire between nineteen and forty five years
were called to the colors as the young turk constitution of nineteen o nine provided that all christians and jews were equally liable to military service
our young men knew that they too would be called upon to make the common sacrifice for the most part they were not unwilling to sustain the turkish government while the constitution imposed on them the burden of militarism
it had brought with it the compensation of freedom of religion and equal rights and we could not forget that for six hundred years turkey
and similar ministrations of other civilized countries of course we never dreamed that turkey would do anything but remain neutral
things were ultimately to take we should have given a different greeting to the mouchtar or sheriff who came to our village with the list of mobilizable men to be called on for service my own position was a curious one
i had every intention of completing the process of becoming an american citizen which i had begun by taking out first papers in the eyes of the law however i was still a turkish subject with no claim to american protection
by the american consul at haifa who happens to be a german
there was no question as to my eligibility for service i was young and strong and healthy and even if i had not been the physical examination of turkish recruits is a farce
the enlisting officers have a theory of their own that no man is really unfit for the army a theory
to these wild people the protracted discipline of military training is simply a purgatory and for weeks before the recruiting officers are due
and nurse sores into being until they are in a really deplorable condition some of them go so far as to cut off a finger or two the officers however have learned to see beyond these little tricks
and few arabs succeed in wriggling through their drag net i have watched dozens of arabs being brought in to the recruiting office on camels or horses so weak were they and welcomed into the service with a severe beating
the sick and the shammers sharing the same fate thus it often happens that some of the new recruits die after their first day of garrison life together with twenty of my comrades
we had been given to understand that once our names were registered we should be allowed to return home to provide ourselves with money suitable clothing
as well as to bid our families good bye
we were marched off to the han or caravanserai
darkness came and finally we had to stretch ourselves on the ground and make the best of a bad situation it was a night of horrors few of us had closed an eye when at dawn an officer appeared and ordered us out of the han
where our garrison was to be located
four days of heat and dust and physical suffering the september sun smote us mercilessly as we straggled along the miserable native trail full of gullies and loose stones it would not have been so bad
if we had been adequately shod or clothed but soon we found ourselves envying the ragged arabs as they trudged along barefoot paying no heed to the jagged flints
to add to our troubles the turkish officers with characteristic fatalism had made no commissary provision for us whatever any food we ate had to be purchased by the roadside from our own funds
which were scant enough to start with the arabs were in a terrible plight most of them were penniless and as the pangs of hunger set in they began pillaging right and left from the little farms by the wayside
from modest beginnings poultry and vegetables they progressed to larger game unhindered by the officers houses were entered women insulted time and again
seized by a crowd of grinning arabs who piled on the poor beast's back until he was almost crushed to earth and rode off triumphantly while their comrades held back the weeping owner the result of this sort of requisitioning
was that our band of recruits was followed by an increasing throng of farmers imploring threatening trying by hook or by crook to win back the stolen goods little satisfaction did they get
our garrison town is not an inviting place nor has it an inviting reputation lord kitchener himself had good reason to remember it
in the royal engineering corps
kitchener had a narrow escape of it one of his fellow officers was shot dead close by him but he went calmly ahead and completed his maps splendid large scale affairs which have never since been equaled
and which are now in use by the turkish and german armies
there on the bare stone floor in close packed promiscuity
we spent our first night as soldiers of the sultan while the milky moonlight streamed in through every chink and aperture
above the snoring carcasses of the recruits next morning we were routed out at five the black depths of the well in the center of the mosque courtyard provided doubtful water for washing bathing and drinking then came breakfast
our first government meal consisting simply enough of boiled rice which was ladled out into tin wash basins holding rations for ten men in true eastern fashion we squatted down round the basin
and dug into the rice with our fingers at first i was rather upset by this sort of table manners
avoid seeing the arabs who fill the palms of their hands with rice pat it into a ball and cram it into their mouths just so the bolus making a great lump in their lean throats as it reluctantly descends
in the course of that same morning we were allotted our uniforms
it is of khaki a greener khaki than that of the british army and of conventional european cut spiral puttees and good boots are provided the only peculiar feature is the headgear
with commendable thrift enver patented his invention and it is rumored that he has drawn a comfortable fortune from its sale an excellent uniform it is on the whole but to our disgust we found
that in the great olive drab pile to which we were led there was not a single new one
made me shudder after some indecision
with the money we expected daily from our families
gave his consent the days and weeks following were busy ones from morning till night it was drill drill and again drill
we were divided into groups of fifty each of which was put in charge of a young non commissioned officer
or damascus or of some arab who had seen several years service these instructors had a hard time of it
they kept mixing up the old and the new methods of training with the result that it was often hopeless to try and make out their orders
the names of the different parts of the rifle weeks more went to teaching them to clean it although it must be said that once they had mastered these technicalities they were excellent shots their efficiency would have been considerably greater
from the very first however we felt that there was a scarcity of ammunition this shortage the drill masters in a spirit of compensation attempted to make up by abundant severity
he exercises it himself on every possible victim
so far as my comrades and i were concerned i must admit that we were generally treated kindly we knew most of the drill exercises from the gymnastic training we had practiced since childhood
when turkey threw in her lot with the germanic powers the attitude toward the jews and christians changed radically but of this i shall speak later
evening would find us dead tired and little disposed for anything but rest as the tremendous light play of the eastern sunsets faded away we would gather in little groups in the courtyard
and talk fitfully of the little happenings of the day while the arabs murmured gutturally around us occasionally one of them would burst into a quavering hot blooded tribal love song it happened that i was fairly well known among these natives
through my horse kochba of pure maneghi
which i had purchased from some
or of antar the glorious politics of which they have amazing ideas also came in for discussion napoleon bonaparte and queen victoria are still living figures to them but significantly enough
they considered the kaiser king
with the exception of the sultan whom they admitted to equality seldom did an evening pass without a dance as darkness fell the arabs would gather in a great circle around one of their comrades
who squatted on the ground with a bamboo flute to a weird minor music they would begin swaying and moving about while some self chosen poet among them would sing impromptu verses to the flute obbligato as a rule the themes were homely
all the others the chorus was tremendously effective
these dances lasted for hours and as they progressed the men gradually worked themselves up into a frenzy i never failed to wonder at these people who without the aid of alcohol
i reflected that they were just in the condition when one word from a holy man would suffice
i had had experience with corruptible turkish officers and one day when barrack conditions became unendurable i went to the officer commanding our division an old arab from latakieh
he lived in a little tent near the mosque where i found him squatting on the floor nodding drowsily over his comfortable paunch as he was an officer of the old regime i entered boldly squatted beside him
and told him my troubles the answer came with an enormous shrug of the shoulders you are serving the sultan hardship should be sweet i should be more fit to serve him if i got more sleep and rest
he waved a fat hand about the tent look at me
i have not even a nice blanket a crime a crime i interrupted to think of it when i a humble soldier have dozens of them at home
my voice trailed off suggestively how could you get one he asked
i must be able to sleep in a nice place of course certainly what would you suggest that hotel kept by the jewish widow might do i replied
was that my four friends and i were given permission to sleep at the inn a humble place but infinitely better than the mosque
the village was full of soldiers and civilians had to put up with all kinds of ill treatment moreover our people were in a state of great excitement because an order had recently come from the turkish authorities bidding them surrender
whatever fire arms or weapons they had in their possession a sinister command this we knew that similar measures had been taken before the terrible armenian massacres
and they had refused to give them up a house to house search had been made fruitlessly for our little arsenal was safely cached in a field beneath growing grain it was a tense unpleasant situation
at any time the turks might decide to back up their demand by some of the violent methods of which they are past masters a family council was held in my home and it was decided to send my sister a girl of twenty three to some friends
at the american syrian protestant college
so that we might be able to move freely without the responsibility of having a girl at home in a country where as a matter of course the women folk are seized and carried off before a massacre
we knew that there was an american consul general who kept in continual touch with the battleship anchored in the harbor for the protection of american interests my sister got away none too soon one evening shortly after her departure
when i was standing in the doorway of our house watching the ever fresh miracle of the eastern sunset a turkish officer came riding down the street with about thirty cavalrymen he called me out and ordered me to follow him to the little village inn where he dismounted
and led me to one of the inner rooms his spurs jingling loudly as we passed along the stone corridor i never knew whether i had been selected for this attention because of my prominence as a leader of the jewish young men
or simply because i had been standing conveniently in the doorway the officer closed the door and came straight to the point by asking me where our store of arms was hidden he was a big fellow
with the handsome cruel features usual enough in his class there was no open menace in his first question when i refused to tell him he began wheedling and offering all sorts of favors if i would betray my people then all of a sudden
he whipped out a revolver and stuck the muzzle right in my face i felt the blood leave my heart but i was able to control myself and refuse his demand
but i felt sure that this was only the beginning sure enough next morning the sabbath the same officer returned and put three of the leading elders of the village together with myself under arrest
after another fruitless inquisition at the hotel we were handcuffed and started on foot toward the prison a day's journey away as our little procession passed my home
came tottering forward to say good bye to me a soldier pushed him roughly back
then fell full length in the street before my eyes it was a dismal departure we were driven through the streets shackled like criminals and the women and children came out of the houses and watched us in silence
their heads bowed tears running down their cheeks they realized that for thirty five years these old men my comrades had been struggling and suffering for their ideal a regenerated palestine
now in the dusk of their life it seemed as if all their hopes and dreams were coming to ruin the oppressive tragedy of the situation settled down on me more and more heavily
as the day wore on and heat and fatigue told on my companions
that we must not rely upon strength of arms and that our spirit could never be broken no matter how defenseless we were thus he an old man was encouraging me instead of receiving help from my youth and enthusiasm
at last we arrived at the prison
that same night we were tortured with the falagy or bastinado the victim of this horrible punishment is trussed up arms and legs and thrown on his knees then on the bare soles of his feet a pliant green rod is brought down with
blood leaps out at the first cut and strong men usually faint after thirty or forty strokes strange to say the worst part of it is not the blow itself but the whistling of the rod through the air as it rushes to its mark
the groans of my older comrades whose gasps and prayers i could hear through the walls of the cell helped me bear the agony until unconsciousness mercifully came to the rescue for several days more we were kept in the prison
sick and broken with suffering the second night as i lay sleepless and desperate on the strip of dirty matting that served as bed i heard a scratch scratching at the grated slit of a window and presently a slender stick was inserted into the cell
some one at the other end was holding it firm and then a curious whispering sound began to come from the end of the stick i put my ear down and caught the voice of one of the men from our village he had taken a long bamboo pole
pierced the joints and crept up behind a broken old wall close beneath my window by means of this primitive telephone we talked as long as we dared i assured him that we were still enduring and
urged him on no account to give up the arms to the turkish authorities not even if we had to make the ultimate sacrifice finally when it was found that torture and imprisonment would not make us yield our secret
the turks resorted to the final test the ordeal which we could not withstand
a number of our young girls would be carried off and handed over to the officers to be kept until the arms were disclosed we knew that they were capable of carrying out this threat we knew exactly what it meant there was no alternative
i had often wondered how our people had been able to bear the rack and thumbscrew of the spanish inquisition but when my turn and my comrades came for torture i realized that the same spirit that helped our ancestors was working in us also
now i knew that our suffering had been useless whenever the turkish authorities wished the horrors of the armenian massacres would live again in zicron jacob and we should be powerless to raise a hand to protect ourselves
as we came limping home through the streets of our village i caught sight of my own smith and wesson revolver in the hands of a mere boy of fifteen the son of a well known arab outlaw
why didn't she help us against the italians during the war for tripoli they said now that she is in trouble she is drawing us into the fight their opinions however soon underwent a change in the first place
they came to realize that turkey had taken up arms against russia and russia is considered first and foremost the arch enemy
also had a powerful effect on them they began to grow boastful arrogant
and christians convinced them that a very desirable regime was setting in
and it was torment for me to have to witness the outrages that my people suffered in the name of requisitioning the final blow came one morning when all the jewish and christian soldiers of our regiment were called out and told that henceforth
in the taboor amlieh or working corps the object of this action plainly enough was to conciliate and flatter the mohammedan population and at the same time to put the jews and christians
and we became hard driven gangsters i shall never forget the humiliation of that day when we who after all were the best disciplined troops of the lot were first herded to our work of pushing wheelbarrows and handling spades
by grinning arabs rifle on shoulder
on the sea of galilee a link in the military highway from damascus to the coast which would be used for the movement of troops in case the railroad should be cut off
it had no immediate strategic bearing on the attack against suez however from six in the morning till seven at night we were hard at it except for one hour's rest at noon
while we had money it was possible to get some slight relief by bribing our taskmasters but this soon came to an end
the wheelbarrows we used were the property of a french company
no grease was provided for the wheels so that there was a maddening squeaking and squealing in addition to the difficulty of pushing the barrows one day i suggested to an inspection officer
he agreed with me and issued an order that the men were to provide their own oil to lubricate the wheels i shall not dwell on the physical sufferings we underwent while working on this road
for the reason that the conditions i have described were prevalent over the whole country and later when i had the opportunity to visit some construction camps in samaria and judaea found that in comparison our lot had been a happy one
while we were breaking stones and trundling squeaking wheelbarrows however the most disquieting rumors began to drift in to us from our home villages plundering had been going on in the name of requisitioning
the country was full of soldiery whose capacity for mischief making was well known to us and it was torture to think of what might be happening in our peaceful homes where so few men had been left for protection
all the barbed wire fences we heard had been torn up
in a wild land like palestine where the native has no respect for property where fields and crops are always at the mercy of marauders the barbed wire fence has been a tremendous factor for civilization
and with these gone the arabs were once more free to sweep across the country unhindered stealing and destroying the situation grew more and more unbearable one day a little christian soldier
disappeared from the ranks we never saw him again but we learned that his sister a very young girl had been forcibly taken by a turkish officer of the nazareth garrison in palestine the dishonor of a girl can be redeemed by blood alone
he then surrendered himself to the military authorities who undoubtedly put him to death
for he knew that this would not only bring death to his family
i determined to get out of the army and return to my village at all costs nine turkish officers out of ten can be bought
now according to the law of the country
but everything is possible in turkey i set to work and in less than two weeks i had bought half a dozen officers ranging from corporal to captain and had obtained consent of the higher authorities to my departure provided
i could get a physician's certificate declaring me unfit for service this was arranged in short order although i am healthy looking and the doctor found some difficulty in hitting on an appropriate ailment finally he decided that i had too much blood
whatever that might mean with his certificate in hand i paid the regular price of two hundred dollars from funds which had been sent me by my family and walked out of the barracks a free man
my happiness was mingled with sadness at the thought of leaving the comrades with whom i had suffered and hoped the four boys from my village were splendid they felt that i was right in going home
but when they kissed me good bye in the eastern fashion the tears were running down their cheeks and they were all strong brave fellows on my way back to zicron jacob i passed through the town of sheff'amr
where i got a foretaste of the conditions i was to find at home a turkish soldier sauntering along the street helped himself to fruit from the basket of an old vender and went on without offering to pay a farthing when the old man ventured to protest
the soldier turned like a flash and began beating him mercilessly knocking him down and battering him until he was bruised bleeding and covered with the mud of the street there was a hubbub a crowd formed through which a turkish officer forced his way demanding explanations
his native country the african magician observing in aladdin's countenance something which assured him that he was a fit boy for his purpose inquired his name and history of some of his companions and when he had learned all he desired to know
went up to him and taking him aside from his comrades said child was not your father called mustapha the tailor yes sir answered the boy but he has been dead a long time
with tears in his eyes and said i am your uncle your worthy father was my own brother i knew you at first sight you are so like him then he gave aladdin a handful of small money saying go my son to your mother
give my love to her and tell her that i will visit her to morrow that i may see where my good brother lived so long and ended his days aladdin ran to his mother overjoyed at the money his uncle had given him mother
said he have i an uncle no child replied his mother you have no uncle by your father's side or mine i am just now come said aladdin from a man
who says he is my uncle and my father's brother he cried and kissed me
and gave me money sending his love to you and promising to come and pay you a visit that he may see the house my father lived and died in indeed child replied the mother your father had no brother
nor have you an uncle the next day the magician found aladdin playing in another part of the town and embracing him as before put two pieces of gold into his hand and said to him carry this child to your mother
and bid her get us something for supper
aladdin showed the african magician the house and carried the two pieces of gold to his mother who went out and bought provisions and considering she wanted various utensils borrowed them of her neighbors
she spent the whole day in preparing the supper and at night when it was ready said to her son perhaps the stranger knows not how to find our house go and bring him if you meet with him
aladdin was just ready to go when the magician knocked at the door and came in loaded with wine and all sorts of fruits which he brought for a dessert after he had given what he brought into aladdin's hands
and when she had done so he fell down and kissed it several times crying out with tears in his eyes my poor brother how unhappy am i
aladdin's mother desired him to sit down in the same place but he declined no said he i shall not do that
when the magician had made choice of a place and sat down he began to enter into discourse with aladdin's mother my good sister said he
and to embrace my dear brother and finding i had strength enough to undertake so long a journey i made the necessary preparations and set out nothing ever afflicted me so much as hearing of my brother's death
my brother in a son who has his most remarkable features the african magician perceiving that the widow wept at the remembrance of her husband changed the conversation and turning toward her son asked him
what business do you follow are you of any trade
aladdin is an idle fellow
and since his death notwithstanding all i can say to him he does nothing but idle away his time in the streets as you saw him without considering he is no longer a child and if you do not make him ashamed of it i despair of his ever coming to any good
for my part i am resolved one of these days to turn him out of doors and let him provide for himself after these words aladdin's mother burst into tears and the magician said this is not well nephew
there are many sorts of trades perhaps you do not like your father's and would prefer another
i will take a shop for you furnish it with all sorts of fine stuffs and linens and then with the money you make of them you can lay in fresh goods and live in an honorable way tell me freely what you think of my proposal
you shall always find me ready to keep my word this plan just suited aladdin who hated work he told the magician he had a greater inclination to that business than to any other and that he should be much obliged to him for his kindness well then
said the african magician i will carry you with me to morrow
the widow after his promises of kindness to her son no longer doubted that the magician was her husband's brother
aladdin to render himself worthy of his uncle's favor served up supper at which they talked of several indifferent matters and then the magician took his leave and retired he came again the next day as he had promised and took aladdin with him to a merchant
who sold all sorts of clothes for different ages
who thus addressed him as you are soon to be a merchant it is proper you should frequent these shops and be acquainted with them he then showed him the largest and finest mosques carried him to the khans or inns where the merchants and travellers lodged
and afterward to the sultan's palace where he had free access and at last brought him to his own khan where meeting with some merchants he had become acquainted with since his arrival he gave them a treat
to make them and his pretended nephew acquainted this entertainment lasted till night when aladdin would have taken leave of his uncle to go home the magician would not let him go by himself but conducted him to his mother who as soon as she saw him
so well dressed was transported with joy and bestowed a thousand blessings upon the magician early the next morning the magician called again for aladdin and said he would take him to spend that day in the country and on the next he would purchase the shop
he then led him out at one of the gates of the city to some magnificent palaces to each of which belonged beautiful gardens into which anybody might enter at every building he came to he asked aladdin
if he did not think it fine and the youth was ready to answer when any one presented itself crying out here is a finer house uncle than
he meant to carry him further to execute his design he took an opportunity to sit down in one of the gardens on the brink of a fountain of clear water which discharged itself by a lion's mouth
as well as i let us rest ourselves and we shall be better able to pursue our walk
the magician next pulled from his girdle a handkerchief with cakes and fruit and during this short repast he exhorted his nephew to leave off bad company and to seek that of wise and prudent men to improve by their conversation for said he
when they had eaten as much as they liked they got up
answered the magician if i help you we shall be able to do nothing
you will find it will come easily aladdin did as the magician bade him raised the stone with ease and laid it on one side when the stone was pulled up there appeared a staircase
about three or four feet deep leading to a door descend my son said the african magician those steps and open that door it will lead you into a palace divided into three great halls in each of these
full of gold and silver but take care you do not meddle with them before you enter the first hall be sure to tuck up your robe wrap it about you and then pass through the second into the third without stopping
have a care that you do not touch the walls so much as with your clothes for if you do you will die instantly at the end of the third hall you will find a door which opens into a garden planted with fine trees loaded with fruit
and in that niche a lighted lamp take the lamp down and put it out when you have thrown away the wick and poured out the liquor
do not be afraid that the liquor will spoil your clothes for it is not oil and the lamp will be dry as soon as it is thrown out after these words the magician drew a ring off his finger and put it on one of aladdin's saying
it is a talisman against all evil so long as you obey me go therefore boldly and we shall both be rich all our lives aladdin descended the steps and opening the door found the three halls just as the african magician had described
crossed the garden without stopping
threw out the wick and the liquor and as the magician had desired put it in his waistband but as he came down from the terrace seeing it was perfectly dry he stopped in the garden to observe the trees which were loaded with extraordinary fruit of different colors on each tree
some bore fruit entirely white and some clear and transparent as crystal some pale red and others deeper
in short there was fruit of all colors the white were pearls the clear and transparent diamonds the deep red rubies the paler
balas rubies the green emeralds the blue turquoises the purple amethysts and the yellow topazes aladdin ignorant of their value would have preferred figs or grapes or pomegranates but as he had
he wrapped some up in the skirts of his vest and crammed his bosom as full as it could hold aladdin having thus loaded himself with riches of which he knew not the value
returned through the three halls with the utmost precaution and soon arrived at the mouth of the cave where the african magician awaited him with the utmost impatience as soon as aladdin saw him he cried out pray uncle
it will be troublesome to you indeed uncle answered aladdin i cannot now
and aladdin who had encumbered himself so much with his fruit that he could not well get at it refused to give it him till he was out of the cave the african magician provoked at this obstinate refusal flew into a passion
threw a little of his incense into the fire and pronounced two magical words when the stone which had closed the mouth of the staircase moved into its place
as it lay at the arrival of the magician and aladdin
but one who designed him evil the truth was that he had learned from his magic books the secret
and hence his journey to china his art had also told him that he was not permitted to take it himself
when he found that his attempt had failed he set out to return to africa but avoided the town lest any person who had seen him leave in company with aladdin should make inquiries after the youth aladdin being suddenly enveloped in darkness cried and called out to his uncle to tell him
he was ready to give him the lamp but in vain since his cries could not be heard he descended to the bottom of the steps with a design to get into the palace but the door which was opened before by enchantment was now shut by the same means he then redoubled his cries and tears sat down on the steps without any hopes of ever seeing light again
and in an expectation of passing
there is no strength or power but in the great and high god and in joining his hands to pray he rubbed the ring which the magician had put on his finger immediately a genie of frightful aspect appeared and said
i and the other slaves of that ring at another time aladdin would have been frightened at the sight of so extraordinary a figure but the danger he was in made him answer without hesitation
whoever thou art deliver me from this place he had no sooner spoken these words than he found himself on the very spot where the magician had last left him and no sign of cave or opening
returning god thanks to find himself once more in the world he made the best of his way home when he got within his mother's door the joy to see her
and his weakness for want of sustenance made him so faint that he remained for a long time as dead as soon as he recovered
he wanted something to eat and wished she would give him his breakfast alas child said she i have not a bit of bread to give you you ate up all the provisions i had in the house yesterday
but i have a little cotton which i have spun i will go and sell it and buy bread and something for our dinner mother replied aladdin keep your cotton for another time and give me the lamp i brought home with me yesterday
i will go and sell it and the money i shall get for it will serve both for breakfast and dinner and perhaps supper too aladdin's mother took the lamp and said to her son here it is but it is very dirty if
i believe it would bring something more she took some fine sand and water to clean it but
what wouldst thou have i am ready to obey thee as thy slave and the slave of all those who have that lamp in their hands i and the other slaves of the lamp aladdin's mother terrified at the sight of the genie fainted
i am hungry bring me something to eat the genie disappeared immediately and in an instant returned with a large silver tray holding twelve covered dishes of the same metal
and two silver cups all these he placed upon a carpet and disappeared
aladdin had fetched some water and sprinkled it in her face to recover her whether that or the smell of the meat effected her cure it was not long before she came to herself mother said aladdin be not afraid get up and eat here is what
will put you in heart and at the same time satisfy my extreme hunger
child said she to whom are we obliged for this great plenty and liberality has the sultan been made acquainted with our poverty and had compassion on us
it is no matter mother said aladdin let us sit down and eat for you have almost as much need of a good breakfast as myself
accordingly both mother and son sat down and ate with the better relish as the table was so well furnished
though she could not judge whether they were silver or any other metal and the novelty more than the value attracted her attention the mother and son sat at breakfast till it was dinner time and then they thought
it would be best to put the two meals together yet after this they found they should have enough left for supper and two meals for the next day
i expect now that you should satisfy my impatience
which he readily complied with she was in as great amazement at what her son told her as at the appearance of the genie and said to him but son
how came that vile genie to address himself to me and not to you to whom he had appeared before in the cave mother answered aladdin the genie you saw is not the one who appeared to me if you remember
he that i first saw called himself the slave of the ring on my finger and this you saw called himself the slave of the lamp you had in your hand but i believe you did not hear him for i think you fainted as soon as he began to speak
what cried the mother was your lamp then the occasion of that cursed genie's addressing himself rather to me than to you ah my son take it out of my sight and put it where you please
and if you would take my advice you would
with your leave mother replied aladdin i shall now take care how i sell a lamp which may be so serviceable both to you and me
that false and wicked magician would not have undertaken so long a journey to secure this wonderful lamp if he had not known its value to exceed that of gold and silver and since we have honestly come by it let us make a profitable use of it
without making any great show and exciting the envy and jealousy of our neighbors however since the genies frighten you so much i will take it out of your sight and put it where i may find it when i want it
the ring i cannot resolve to part with for without that you had never seen me again and though i am alive now perhaps if it were gone i might not be so some moments hence therefore i hope you will give me leave to keep it
and to wear it always on my finger aladdin's mother replied that he might do what he pleased for her part she would have nothing to do with genies and never say anything more about them
by the next night they had eaten all the provisions the genie had brought and the next day aladdin who could not bear the thought of hunger putting one of the silver dishes under his vest went out early to sell it and addressing himself to a jew
whom he met in the streets took him aside and pulling out the plate asked him if he would buy it the cunning jew took the dish examined it and as soon as he found that it was good silver asked aladdin at how much he valued it aladdin
who had never been used to such traffic told him he would trust to his judgment and honor the jew was somewhat confounded at this plain dealing and doubting whether aladdin understood the material or the full value of what he offered to sell
though it was but the sixtieth part of the worth of the plate aladdin taking the money very eagerly retired with so much haste that the jew not content with the exorbitancy of his profit was vexed he had not penetrated into his ignorance
and was going to run after him to endeavor to get some change out of the piece of gold but he ran so fast and had got so far that it would have been impossible for him to overtake him before aladdin went home he called at a baker's
bought some cakes of bread changed his money and on his return gave the rest to his mother who went and purchased provisions enough to last them some time after this manner they lived till aladdin had sold the twelve dishes singly
as necessity pressed to the jew for the same money who after the first time durst not offer him less for fear of losing so good a bargain when he had sold the last dish he had recourse to the tray
which weighed ten times as much as the dishes and would have carried it to his old purchaser but that it was too large and cumbersome therefore he was obliged to bring him home with him to his mother's where
he laid down ten pieces of gold
when all the money was spent aladdin had recourse again to the lamp he took it in his hand looked for that part where his mother had rubbed it with the sand rubbed it also when the genie immediately appeared and said
what wouldst thou have i am ready to obey thee as thy slave
for religious purposes as great as the creator of the universe must naturally be and knowing that it remains for man himself to reach his highest state of perfection
without any supernatural influence whatsoever they therefore abolished all forms of religious worship and established a code of ethics which was termed natural law
religion teaches one to believe in an unnatural god who apparently must be ever ready to answer anybody's prayerful cry and act as a general servant to humanity
by distributing good things to those who beg for them a sort of meddlesome god who enters into all the petty quarrels
the deity who created the principle of life and one who does not deviate from his eternal and immutable laws an all wise everlasting and unchangeable being
his power unlimited his laws supreme his goodness incalculable natural law explains that he created the principle from which humanity evolved
but that it remains for all living things to make better or worse their own conditions
but to claim to know the reasons of the creator's actions would be to assume his wisdom and knowledge
natural law sets
governed by the almighty there is a reason for its existence and a work for it to perform like other bodies in space it contains particles of living matter which are constantly passing through
a course of development with methodical changes from life to death and from death to life but while all living things live and die
human beings are a species of these particles all living things are composed of three parts matter energy and soul the matter is the machinery energy the motion
and soul the engineer the mind is that part of the machinery having power to control its movements the soul is the spark of life
the soul always pure is continually striving to improve the condition of the mind the mind alone is responsible for the disposition of the body and the evils arising therefrom
the soul merely acting as its instructor for good it is the mind which inherits evil instincts and but for the good influence of the soul living creatures would not exist in harmony
as the mind hardens against righteousness the sway of the soul is lessened but as the mind softens towards goodness the soul increases its power
there is a continual struggle between the soul for good and the mind for evil
and all living things will be cleansed of impurities the body including the mind
the material disintegrates and passes into the composition of other forms the soul never dies it remains in one body until its collapse and then transmigrates into another
may be that of a lower animal tomorrow therefore he should use the greatest kindness and consideration toward all living things
there is only a certain quantity of matter upon earth to be moulded together in living forms
so that with the increase of mankind there must naturally be a decrease in the ranks of other animals hence it remains the duty of man to extend in number
in existence is utilized by human beings
humanity however will never rise above the savage state until the barbarous custom of killing and eating other animals is abolished selfishness is the root of all evil
eradicate selfishness from humanity
man's heaven is here on earth if he is only capable of making it so but men cannot enjoy heavenly blessings with hellish minds and no selfish being
can properly enjoy the sweets of life the real essence and pleasure of life can only be extracted when mankind labors
to obtain the largest portion of the earth's blessings the production of the world must be divided equally among all honest toilers
and man's greatest happiness must arise from serving others instead of himself
therefore all human beings should work together as one enjoying equally the fruits of their combined efforts the weak
there must be but one master the entire human race bound together as one
then will it rule the earth and gain knowledge of extraneous matters thus the wisdom of inhabitants of older and more advanced worlds will be attained and intercourse with them practiced
thereby unraveling many apparent mysteries of the universe it is an error to suppose that the deity is your maker he created the source from which all living things sprung
but collectively man makes himself and is responsible for his own conditions if the almighty was your maker
so do not try to shift the blame
the deity controls the principle of life man controls himself do not pray you cannot alter the creator's plans
when claiming that he wants to be worshipped
you proffer insults
when you pretend to communicate with him
it is within the power of mankind to perfect itself but this can only be accomplished through the unselfish efforts of the whole people
and thereby stamp a good or bad impression upon the lives of his descendants the creature who passes his life without adding to the knowledge and goodness of the world has lived for naught
for which his descendants must suffer
each generation should be an improvement upon the preceding one having been entrusted with a piece of living machinery it is the duty of everyone to give it the very best care and attention possible
that its value might be increased to nature hence moral mental and physical perfection are the highest aims of life to achieve parents should have
no off spring when one or both of them are insane
practice moderation in all things that you may live longer and acquire strength to enjoy natural blessings and bestow character upon those to follow pleasure can only be extracted from temperateness
mused the lovely the idea struck me to name her arletta tell me what happened to the rest of my people not knowing anything about the matter it is impossible for me to answer that question replied i
at this remark she turned abruptly and walked or rather flew so easy and graceful were her movements
then returning she said
according to my chronometer
ejaculated i great heavens that must have been about the time of the flood what flood inquired she then i proceeded to tell her how in those days the people of the world
being so wicked that god during a terrible fit of anger made it rain for forty days and forty nights causing the destruction of every living thing on earth except one noah
his family and a male and female of every animal bird and insect who were saved by being taken aboard of a huge ark built for the purpose by noah
of the story and at its conclusion merely remarked noah evidently had more good sense than his god then she added as to the rainbow that was seen
by the inhabitants of the earth millions of years before noah's time so the world has retrogressed during the past four thousand years mused she sadly
answered i proudly motioning me to an opposite position she majestically seated herself upon the couch and after seriously looking at me for some time she finally said
this is one of nature's most extraordinary proceedings and there are many things i wish to talk with you about but before going into the details of this matter
here i interrupted her by bursting forth into loud laughter not because i enjoyed being called an animal myself but at the thought of how some of my civilized friends would feel if informed that they were lower
animals my intervention however not disturbing her in the least she resumed in our nomenclature your species was known as the apeman and represented in the chain
of evolution the link between the ape and man our scientists placed the apeman within the ranks of the lower animals for reasons i shall make clear later but to continue you have observed
but with the mind the most effectual agent of communication and one of the senses the apeman has not cultivated now i shall show you how to see without eyes
mind sight is an occult force which was exercised to great advantage by my people this force eliminates both distance and obstruction and exposes to view the object sought even
if it is located on the opposite side of the globe any mind if sufficiently strong can contract distance and bring any mundane scene within its range while penetrating solid matter
as if it did not exist at all so by utilizing this power which i possess to a considerable degree
it is my intention to make a hurried survey of the earth's surface in order to obtain an exact idea of present conditions furthermore
and you shall act as my mental consort on a trip around the world
it was my opinion that there was nothing impossible for this beautiful woman to perform so i mildly informed her that i was at her service and ready for the journey to begin well then
or by trying to offer any comments whatsoever at this remark i was brought to a realization of the fact that arletta whom i so ardently loved aye even worshipped
was treating me in about the same manner as i would have treated a pet monkey had i been teaching it some new tricks she evidently regarded my smiles and feelings for her
with about the same consideration as i should have given to those of some grinning female baboon had it been trying to make love to me her last thoughts therefore aroused my sensitive nature
quite unmoved by my wrath but sat looking calmly and alternately at me and one of the figures in the picture while her face bore an expression of sadness and pity then i felt ashamed to think
and humbly begged her pardon but now said arletta and i fancied that she called me john your soul is at present
i now say however that you have been chosen by nature for a great and glorious work and from this time forward you must make use of your reasoning faculties
for reasonable purposes and cast aside all the animal passions silly ideas and antiquated superstitions which you have inherited from the ignorant of ages and begin afresh
it would be well for us to take some refreshments in order that our minds may remain strong and clear during the trip
said arletta as she went to one of the artificial flower gardens began inhaling and motioned me to do likewise but we are not cannibals i mildly remonstrated
we do not kill and eat human beings
inquired she yes replied i our diet consists of the flesh of birds fish and cattle which god with great wisdom created for that purpose did he
for it is but a very short step between eating the flesh of your own species
at her suggestion i stationed myself near the flower bed
she had caught him by the arm as he was about leaving the room with his father and he felt himself obliged to stop and listen i start for springfield to day she announced
i have another relative there living at the house when shall i have the pleasure of seeing you in my new home never it was said regretfully and yet with a certain brusqueness
occasioned perhaps by over excited feeling hard as it is for me to say it amabel
friendship between us would be mockery and any closer relationship has become impossible it had cost him an immense effort to say these words and he expected fondly expected
then slipped her hand down his arm till she reached his palm which she pressed with sudden warmth drawing him into the room as she did so and shutting the door behind them
for she never had looked so handsome or so glowing instead of showing depression or humiliation even
with a smile more dangerous than any display of grief for it contained what it had hitherto lacked positive and irresistible admiration her words were equally dangerous
i kiss your hand as the spaniards say and she almost did so
he was astounded
as if he had never made a study of her caprices and sought an explanation for her ever shifting expressions i am sensible of the honour said he
but hardly understand how i have earned it
ah he ejaculated his face contracting with sudden pain your love then is but a potentiality
as for me who have not been as wise as you frederick she had come so near he did not have the strength to finish her face
then so very much he was angry possibly because he felt his resolution failing him you know he hotly began stepping back then
with a sudden burst of feeling that was almost like prayer he resumed do not tempt me amabel i have trouble enough without lamenting the failure of my first steadfast purpose
ah she said stopping where she was but drawing him toward her by every witchery of which her mobile features were capable your generous impulse
well i'm not worth it frederick more and more astounded understanding her less than ever but charmed by looks that would have moved an anchorite he turned
his head away in a vain attempt to escape an influence that was so rapidly undermining his determination she saw the movement recognised the weakness it bespoke
and in the triumph of her heart allowed a low laugh
her voice as i have before said
you will come to springfield soon she avowed slipping from before him so as to leave the way to the door open amabel
and the involuntary opening and shutting of his hands revealed the emotion under which he was labouring
now and then but always as if you did not mean it
and this time as if you did mean it what is the truth tell me without coquetry or dissembling
and he paused choked
but a few minutes before he had taken that solemn oath the remembrance of it seemed to come back with the movement flushing with a new agitation he wheeled upon her sharply no no
and if you swore that you did i should only find it harder to repeat what must again be said
can never take place i have given my solemn promise to well well
am i so hard to talk to that the words will not leave your lips i have promised my father i will never marry you he feels that he has grounds of complaint against you and as i owe him everything
you think you ought not to marry me after what took place last night
but do not struggle too relentlessly
and if you really love me stop
to in speaking of last night
i do not allude to our talk or or in the one dance we had frederick
the word seemed to strike him with the force of a blow innocent he repeated innocent becoming paler still as the full weight of her meaning broke gradually upon him
i followed you into town she whispered coming closer and breathing the words into his ear but
henceforth our lives are one my god it was all he said but it seemed to create a gulf between them in the silence that followed
while upon his face after the first paralysing effect of her words had passed
that this was more than a passing impulse
i do not know what you saw me do said he but whatever it was it can make no difference in our relations her whisper which had been but a breath before
i did not pause at the gate you entered said she
a gasp of irresistible feeling escaped him
she went on but previous to that time
and hush he commanded in uncontrollable passion pressing his hand with impulsive energy against her mouth not another word of that or i shall forget you are a woman
or that i have ever loved you her eyes
and for the first time began to regard her with anything but a lover's eyes i was the only person in sight at that time she continued you have nothing to fear from the world at large fear
even by a smile but she watched him as it sunk into his consciousness with an intentness
suddenly her bearing and expression changed the few remains of sweetness in her face vanished and even the allurement which often lasts when the sweetness is gone
the utmost reason prevails for all of her acts but the simplest of nature's laws appears complex and incomprehensible to the apeman
for self gratification instead of an instrument to grasp natural laws for which purpose it is intended and therefore
by misusing it for the base purpose of accumulating individual wealth our great men utilized their brains to receive understand and operate the wise laws established by nature
of all mankind and therein lies the chief difference between the piece of human machinery your soul now occupies and that which it once directed
behold said she dramatically pointing at the director of the band that you were and then casting her eyes upon me that you are does your mind lack the strength to fully appreciate the magnificent lesson
and which no doubt stands unparalleled in the history of your species oh if each little apeman could only be made to understand that
the present body is but one little installment of the innumerable lives his soul has to preside over and that the rich and powerful today may be the weak and lowly tomorrow
he would begin at once to treat all living things with equal kindness and sympathy if he could only realize that the dog he kicks the horse he mistreats
or the poor mental or physical weakling he takes advantage of might possibly be impelled by the same soul that moved the form of his deceased father mother or offspring
his selfishness and cruelty would vanish forever if he could only comprehend that the soul suffers as well as the flesh it stimulates and that it must naturally continue to do so
more or less until every particle of living matter
himself and urge others to do likewise
a moment of selfish pleasure now means an age of suffering and torment in the future such are the immutable laws of nature
and these laws must be obeyed before mankind can climb the ladder of greatness it sometimes appears as if natural law works very slowly before reaching a given point
but there is always a reason for every one of its movements while apparently incomprehensible still it was in accordance with an eternal law
might have remained here for millions of years had you not come back to release it from its peculiar bondage but you did return and nature thereby demonstrated that it never forgets anything
from the workings of the great living things of which the suns moons and planets are but mere organs
first by a natural course of instruction you proved to the sagemen
and have had a positive manifestation of the identical principle thus established in order that you might resurrect and make known to all mankind the unalterable truth natural law
after having allowed the sagemen to reach such a state of physical mental and moral superiority should destroy them just when they had reached the threshold of success nature did not destroy the sagemen
if one of your little apemen experiments with steam or dynamite and is blown to atoms that is his own fault not nature's
they had mastered themselves and had learned to think both individually and collectively and also to properly distribute and enjoy the products of their combined efforts they had acquired
a thorough knowledge of the particles of which the earth is composed and had secured control of the atmosphere that surrounds it they had harnessed the chemical properties of the sun after reaching the earth
and had gained possession of many other valuable utilities by following the course of natural law but when they undertook to regulate the earth's path in space they simply over stepped
the confines of their abilities and failed that was one of nature's laws they were not thoroughly acquainted with however as it requires many drawbacks to achieve extraordinary success in all things
but gradually work its way up again
in the great stretch called time the length of one little human existence is but a mere fraction of a moment therefore one should devote his best efforts during that brief period
to making better the conditions of the place in which he has to spend many lives for according to what he has done in one life so must he contend
he assists in upholding a corrupt social system which takes from the weak and gives to the strong he must expect these same conditions to exist when he returns as a weakling
for as long as hogs are bred and slaughtered so must he take his chances of being one of them
how much better to help mankind seek a higher plane of intelligence in which equality would be a reality thus firmly cementing the tie of sympathy and love between all living things
in this case he would have no fear concerning his chances upon the next visit no matter in what form he might appear and how much better to carry on the work of decreasing the birth of the lower animals
until there was nothing left on earth but the very best type of human beings for all souls to inhabit natural law is very easily understood if the mind is properly directed toward it
this principle plainly shows an evolutionary tendency
this intelligence is absorbed by the mind the mind itself is expanded in proportion to the quantity it takes in
or evil purposes the difference between good and evil is merely that between unselfishness and selfishness
for selfish ends and here is where the soul or conscience has its work to perform in trying to direct it into good channels intelligence means the ability to think or understand the thoughts conceived by others
as an unselfish medium with which to aid others the poorly developed brain stifles the pleadings of the conscience and utilizes it as a selfish weapon to secure the power to take from others
the battle of existence is constantly carried on between selfishness which is bred from the very lowest form of intelligence and unselfishness
a well balanced mind wants all men to enjoy equal rights and opportunities in common with one another affording each a chance to rise as high as his capabilities will permit
but deep awnings made a clear cool shade indoors and the wide rooms were delightfully breezy margaret busy with a ledger and cheque book smiled absently finished a long column made an orderly entry and wiped her pen
seven said she smiling seven
my heaven seven children how early victorian isn't it said a third woman a very beautiful woman missus watts watson
as brisk as ever in her crisp linen gown she was signing the cheques that margaret handed her frowningly busy and absorbed with her accounts now she leaned back in her chair glanced at the watch at her wrist and relaxed the cramped muscles of her body that's exactly it rose
said she to missus crawford life is more complicated
can you blame a woman whose life is packed full of other things she simply cannot avoid if she declines to complicate things any further our grandmothers didn't have telephones or motor cars or week end affairs or even for that matter manicures and hair dressers
a good heavy silk was full dress all the year round they washed their own hair the up stairs girl answered the doorbell why they didn't even have talcum powder and nursery refrigerators and sanitary rugs that have to be washed every day
do you suppose my grandmother ever took a baby's temperature or had its eyes and nose examined or its adenoids cut they had more children and they lost more children without any reason or logic whatever poor things they never thought of doing anything else i suppose
i insisted on that and both nurseries were washed out every day with chloride of potash solution and the iron beds washed every week and even then vic had this mastoid trouble and harriet got everything almost exactly
said missus watson that's you hattie with all the money in the world
she finished decidedly do you wonder that people are not having children at first naturally one doesn't want them for three or four years i'm sure the thought doesn't come into one's head but then afterwards you see i've been married fifteen years now
if it was a possible thing but it isn't no it isn't missus crawford agreed
if i were hat here i'd have a dozen oh no you wouldn't missus carr boldt assured her promptly no you wouldn't you can't leave everything to servants there are clothes to think of and dentists and special teachers and it's frightfully hard to get a nursery governess
and give them parties i tell you it's a strain
said margaret with the admiration in her eyes that was so sweet to the older woman look at this morning did you sit down before you came in here twenty minutes ago i indeed i didn't
bath at eight straightened out that squabble between swann and the cook
then i telephoned mother and saw harriet's violin man
he's in the gallery now and let's see italian lesson margaret prompted italian lesson the other echoed and then came in here to sign my cheques you're so executive harriet
said missus crawford languidly apropos of swann margaret said
on a little farm down on long island the butler oh i dare say missus watson agreed they can because they've no standard to maintain seven or seventeen
it's too bad said missus crawford but you've got to handle the question sanely and reasonably like any other now i love children she went on i'm perfectly crazy about my sister's little girl she's eleven now
we're in an apartment hotel with one maid there's no room for a second maid no porch and no back yard well the baby comes one loses before and after the event just about six months of everything and of course the expense is frightful but no matter the baby comes
we take a house that means three indoor maids george's chauffeur a man for lawn and furnace that's five doubling expenses said missus carr boldt thoughtfully doubling trebling or more but that's not all
baby must be out from eleven to three every day
or if you're out for luncheon or giving a luncheon she brings baby home bumps the carriage into the basement
a baby takes so much fussing and then she lost that splendid cook of hers germaine she wouldn't stand it up to that time she'd been cooking and waiting too but the baby ended that mabel took a house and sid paid studio rent beside and they had two maids and then three maids
mabel was a wreck i've seen her trying to play a bridge hand with dorothy bobbing about on her arm poor girl finally they went to a hotel and of course the child got older and was less trouble but to this day mabel doesn't dare leave her alone for one second
of course the child cries that's the worst of a kiddie missus watson said you can't ever turn em off as it were or make it spades they're always right on the job i'll never forget elsie clay she was the best friend i had
my bridesmaid too she married
i went out there to lunch one day there she was in a house perfectly buried in trees with the rain sopping down outside and smoke blowing out of the fireplace and the drawing room as dark as pitch at two o'clock
sitting there all afternoon long listening to the trains whistling and the maid thumping irons in the kitchen and picking up the baby's blocks
that was the beginning of the trouble finally the boy went to his grandmother and now believe elsie's married again and living in california somewhere margaret hanging over the back of her chair was an attentive listener but people people in town have children
she said the blankenships have one
said missus carr boldt and the little de normandys lived with their grandmother until they were old enough for boarding school well the deanes have three margaret said triumphantly ah well my dear harry deane's a rich man
missus crawford supplied promptly now the eastmans have three too with a trained nurse apiece i see margaret admitted slowly
margaret returned to her cheque book with speed the other two glad to be aroused heartily approved the idea well what does this very businesslike aspect imply missus carr boldt asked her secretary it means that i can't play cards
and i promised swann i'd talk to him about favors and things for tomorrow night well
margaret reached for a well filled date book you were to decide about those alterations the porch and dining room you know said she there are some architect's sketches around here the man's going to be here early in the morning
to see about the stage for the children's play you were to stop on the way back and see old missus mc nab a moment
and luncheon's early because of the kellogg bridge she shut the book and call mister carr boldt at the club at one she added all that now fancy said her employer admiringly she had swept some scattered magazines from a small table
and was now seated there negligently shuffling a pack of cards in her fine white hands ring will you peggy said she and the boat races are to day and you dine at oaks in the field margaret supplemented inflexibly yes
said missus carr boldt spreading the deck for the draw fraulein
tell miss harriet that mother doesn't want her to do her german to day it's too warm tell her that she's to go with you and miss victoria for a drive thank you and fraulein will you telephone old missus mc nab and say that missus carr boldt is lying down with a severe headache
and she won't be able to come in this morning thank you and
i'll talk to him before the children's races and one thing more
thank you so much no shut it thank you have a nice drive they all drew up their chairs to the table you and i rose said missus watson i'm so glad you suggested this hattie i am dying to play
it really rests me more than anything else said missus carr boldt
the years passed swiftly without bringing any great changes in our quiet life our grandparents had aged a bit and teresa was not quite as active as formerly while a few wrinkles had gathered on our father's forehead but all this had come so slowly that the change was hardly noticed
rosa who was now eighteen years old was studying in the city she was still the same studious faithful and sincere in all that she did her quiet reserved manner caused some people to call her proud but those who knew her better loved her and knew she could be depended on in time of trouble
catalina still suffered somewhat but now was able to walk around a bit without crutches and in spite of her delicate health and poor twisted body she had come bravely to take her true place among us as our big sister so loving and solicitous for everybody's welfare
paula was now fourteen years of age
our joys were hers our sorrows were her sorrows she had grown in body and mind and yet had kept the same characteristics always bright and happy and full of fun she had the same simple humble ways as when at ten years of age she had come among us
her special summer delight was to run through the fields always returning to the house with a big bunch of wild flowers for catalina in one thing only she always seemed to fail teresa had a fearful task in teaching her to sew and to knit
what are you going to do in the future if you don't know how to do these things i'm sure i don't know paula would say sadly and would take up the work once more with such sweet resignation that teresa moved with compassion
then away paula would go into the garden or under the trees that lined the village street soon she was back with such a happy smile that teresa forgave her completely once however teresa lost all patience with her exclaiming
drop that work and go where you please but remember this never will you be called a dorcas never will you be able to sew and provide garments for the poor it's not enough to tell them you love them you must show it by your works and the best way to do that would be to learn to be useful to them
paula sat back stiff and straight in consternation
oh please let me go on i will try to do better but teresa had taken away the work and was not inclined to be easily persuaded no not now
paula therefore had to submit but that was the last time that teresa had any reason to complain that afternoon paula had gone straight to her room and i followed soon after to comfort her but i found her kneeling by her bedside
i closed the door gently behind me and stole away later paula said to me oh lisita i'm surely bad indeed one thing i've certainly hated to do and that is to sit down and learn to sew especially in fine weather like this
i seem to hear a thousand voices that call me out of doors i never could see any earthly reason why i should have to learn how to sew and so i never even tried to please teresa in that way but now she tells me that if i go on like this
i shall never be able to sew for the poor i never thought of that i wonder what the lord jesus must think of me he gave his life for me and here i am not willing to learn something that would help me to put clothes on poor folks oh i must i must learn to sew no matter what it costs
that was it to do something for others that was the principal thing in all her thoughts in school paula never did win prizes nor did i both of us were generally about on an equal level at the bottom of our class
teresa made a magnificent apple cake as a sign of her pleasure my father also showed his great satisfaction and in fact everybody rejoiced to see that at last we were both making progress in spite of all however there was one great heavy weight on my heart
and i cried myself to sleep that night
but she made us promise to come and visit her you are no longer my pupils she said but you are still and will be always my dear friends gabriel was so glad to see us that it was always a joy to go and play with him on our thursday half holidays
paula always told him bible stories for that seemed to be his chief pleasure and i taught him to read
if i had been able to leave my victoria in school she would have become as wise and learned as you mesdemoiselles she would say a bit sadly at times but there i can't complain
one afternoon we said good bye to gabriel and mounted the stairs to visit the blind girl left alone for most of the day she passed the long hours knitting she was about the same age as our catalina but she appeared to be much older
the first time we had visited her she had hardly raised her head from her work and showed but little interest in the stories that her mother had asked us to read to her it was not so much indifference as an apparent incapacity to comprehend the meaning of what she heard
but on this particular afternoon paula started singing a hymn
when paula had finished she exclaimed oh mamma mamma tell her to please sing again
and so paula sang hymn after hymn as paula at last stopped singing for the time had come to go home poor marguerite stretched out her arms as if groping for something please do not be offended mademoiselle paula implored madame bertin
she wants you to come nearer that she may feel your face the blind have no other eyes paula kneeled at marguerite's side and the blind girl passed her hands gently over the upturned face
that smiled softly as she touched them you have not seen her hair said the mother as she guided the girl's hands upward and over the waves of light brown hair that seemed like an aurora fit for such a face and then finally down the long braids that extended below paula's waist
then with one of those sudden movements characteristic of the blind
then just as suddenly
at this paula sprang to her feet and put her arms about the poor girl and murmured in her ear we do love you so marguerite
her indifference and sadness disappeared giving place to a quiet peace and joy that was contagious for all who came in contact with her
only my marguerite for the next two years she became our constant delight
which gave us almost as much joy as we carried them to marguerite as she herself felt on receiving them one day gabriel came running to tell us that marguerite was quite ill and we lost no time in going to see her
as she slightly raised the sick girl's head dearest marguerite said our teacher here are paula and lisita
and marguerite spread out her ams toward us adding oh paula please sing again
don't cry mother she said as she caught a low sob from the other end of the room
one regret only i have mamma marguerite said and that is that i have never seen your face oh that i might have seen it just once in heaven interrupted our teacher your eyes will be open forever
oh yes said the dying girl
then suddenly paula she called paula here i am marguerite and paula came closer taking her hand ah you are here thanks dear paula she gasped
many thanks for telling me about jesus and his love for me sing the sentence was never finished but paula's sweet voice rose as once again she sang the sublime words
then margaret was transformed within a few hours from a merely pretty very dignified perfectly contented secretary entirely satisfied with what she wore as long as it was suitable and fresh into a living woman
it all came about very simply
would like to hear a very interesting young american professor lecture this morning wondered when they were fanning themselves in the airy lecture room if they would care to meet professor tension
answered with her own smile professor tension's sudden charming one lost her small hand in his big firm one then she listened to him talk as he strode about the platform boyishly shaking back the hair that fell across his forehead after that he walked to the hotel with them
through dazzling seas of perfume and of flowers under the enchanted shifting green of great trees or so margaret thought there was a plunge from the hot street into the awning cool gloom of the hotel and then a luncheon
when the happy steady murmur from their own table seemed echoed by the murmurs clink and stir and laughter all about them and accented by the not too close music from the band doctor tension was everything charming margaret thought instantly drawn by the unaffected friendly manner
he was a gentleman to begin with distinguished at thirty two in his chosen work big and well built without suggesting the athlete of an old and honored american family and the only son of a rich and eccentric old doctor
whom missus carr bolt chanced to know he was frankly delighted at the chance that had brought him in contact with these charming people and as missus carr bolt took an instant fancy to him
they saw him after that every day and several times a day margaret would come down the great sun bathed stairway in the morning to find him patiently waiting in a porch chair her heart would give a great leap half joy half new strange pain as she recognized him
or missus carr bolt swathed in cream colored coat and flying veils joined them with an approving good morning margaret would remember these breakfasts all her life the sun splashed little table in a corner of the great dining room
the rosy fatherly waiter who was so much delighted with her german the busy picturesque traffic in the street just below the wide open window she would always remember a certain filmy silk striped gown a wide hat loaded with daisies
sometimes after luncheon they all went on an expedition together and now and then margaret and doctor tension went off alone on foot to explore the city
and come home tired and merry in the long shadows of the spring sunset with wilted flowers from the street markets in their hands there was one glorious tramp in the rain when the professor's great laugh rang out like a boy's for sheer high spirits
and when margaret was an enchanting vision in her long coat with her cheeks glowing through the blown wet tendrils of her hair that day they had tea in the deserted charming little parlor of a tiny inn and drank it toasting their feet over a glowing fire
is missus carr bolt your mother's or your father's sister john tension asked watching his companion with approval oh good gracious said margaret laughing over her teacup
haven't i told you yet that i'm only her secretary i never saw missus carr bolt until five years ago perhaps you did tell me but i got it into my head that first day that you were aunt and niece people do i think margaret said thoughtfully
because we're both fair she did not say that but for missus carr bolt's invaluable maid the likeness would have been less marked on this score at least i taught school she went on simply and missus carr bolt happened to come to my school and she asked me to come to her
he was eyeing her amusingly the direct question came quite naturally
i'd forgotten said professor tenison and he carried the matter entirely out of margaret's hands much much further indeed than she would have carried it by continuing she tells me that quincyport was named for your mother's grandfather and that judge paget was your father's father
father's uncle margaret corrected although as a matter of fact judge paget had been no nearer than her father's second cousin but father always called him uncle margaret assured herself inwardly to the quincy port claim she said nothing
quincyport was in the county that mother's people had come from quincy was a very unusual name and the original quincy had been a charles which certainly was one of mother's family names margaret and julie
browsing about among the colonial histories and genealogies of the weston public library years before had come to a jubilant certainty that mother's grandfather must have been the same man but she did not feel quite so positive now your people aren't still in the south you said
he was like an eager child why my aunt pamela lives there the only mother i ever knew i knew weston too a little lovely homes there some of them old colonial houses and your mother lives there is she fond of flowers she loves them
margaret said vaguely uncomfortable well she must know aunt pamela said john tenison enthusiastically i expect they'd be great friends and you must know aunt pam she's like a dainty old piece of china or a i don't know a tea rose
and she lives in the most charming brick house with brick walls and hollyhocks all about it and such an atmosphere inside she has an old maid and an old gardener
in a dim parlor full of mahogany and rose jars
how cousin this married a man whose people aren't anybody
she's a funny dear old lady you know miss paget the professor went on with his eager impersonal air
if that's the word aunt pam you know she's my only mother i got all my early knowledge from her aunt pam detests the usual new york girl and the minute i met you i knew she'd like you
margaret said simply i would love to meet her and began slowly to draw on her gloves
my mother would not understand one tenth of your aunt's conversation your aunt would find very uninteresting the things that are vital to my mother no she couldn't say that she picked up her dashing little hat and pinned it over her loosened soft mass of yellow hair and buttoned up her storm coat
no the professor would call on her at bar harbor
for just two happy weeks margaret lived in wonderland the fourteen days were a revelation to her life seemed to grow warmer more rosy colored little things became significant every moment carried its freight of joy
her beauty always notable became almost startling there was a new glow in her cheeks and lips new fire in the dark lashed eyes that were so charming a contrast to her bright hair like a pair of joyous and irresponsible children she and john tenison walked through the days
too happy ever to pause and ask themselves whither they were going then abruptly it ended victoria brought down from school in switzerland with various indications of something wrong was in a flash a sick child
eager to get started doctor tenison accompanied them to the station
arriving as they were departing were the saint george allens noisy rich arrogant new yorkers for whom margaret had a special dislike the allens fell joyously upon the carr boldt party
doing here i'm feeling a little lonely said the professor smiling at missus carr boldt
said maude allen cheerfully mamma make him dine with us say you will i assure you i was dreading the lonely evening john tenison said gratefully margaret's last glimpse of his face was between lily's pink and cherry hat
and maude's astonishing headgear of yellow straw gold braid spangled quills and calla lilies she carried a secret heartache through the worried fortnight of victoria's illness and the busy days that followed for missus carr boldt had one of many nervous break downs
and took her turn at the hospital when victoria came home for the first time in five happy years margaret drooped and for the first time a longing for money and power of her own gnawed at the girl's heart
she could hold her own against a hundred maude and lily allens as it was she told herself a little bitterly she was only a secretary one of the hundred paid dependents of a rich woman
saved that night on our return we poured into teresa's sympathetic ears all that had occurred during our eventful visit that afternoon at celestina's house then somewhat later as i was helping her with the dishes in the kitchen teresa said do you know lisita
it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see the breton converted
no one seems to be able to resist paula when she begins to speak of god's love she seems truly inspired by his holy spirit child though she is she surely is his messenger to all with whom she comes in contact but there's just one thing
and teresa seemed to hesitate to express herself then finally she continued i cannot seem to shake off the feeling that she will not be with us much longer i believe somehow i know it sounds absurd in one way
but i have a feeling that god will call her to his side some day soon oh teresa i cried how can you say such a thing
she's much bigger and stronger and more vigorous than even i am and besides i never never could bear it to have paula taken from me hush hush child don't shout that way
she looked at me surprised
she laughed what put such a notion in your head do i look as if i was sick i was so relieved teresa was quite mistaken no continued paula
in fact as i look around and see so much sickness and suffering
and as i looked at her tall well developed figure outlined against the window i laughed at my foolish fears
and as i looked at that pure beautiful face with the eyes closed in prayer with its frame of glorious hair i knew that never had i seen anything so lovely as this child companion of mine just budding into womanhood
who had come into my life and who had transformed so many other lives around me as she rose at the conclusion of the prayer finding me still on my feet she said with surprise in her tone not in bed yet lisita no
i said confused that she should find me still seated on the edge of my bed lost in my own reflections paula suddenly went to the window and looked out oh lisita she exclaimed
the storm had stopped in the late afternoon
touching the snow with silver and making millions of its crystals sparkle like diamonds in the moonlight how white and pure and beautiful everything is said paula
she hesitated a moment and then continued in her quiet simple way
he takes it stained and scarred with sin and then he makes it white like the snow don't you see lisita yes i see i said do you really see dear lisita
but when i get thinking of the fact that you never really have given your heart to him and if one of us should die i could not bear another word the very idea of death either for paula or myself was simply unbearable stop i cried
in such a terrible tone that paula i could see was frightened you mustn't die i cannot live and i won't live without you i know i'm not good but if you weren't here to help me what would i do my overwrought nerves
were too much for me and here i broke down completely
you must get to bed and don't let's talk any more tonight i dreamed of paula the whole night long i saw her either dying or dead or in heaven with the angels but in the morning all my fears had disappeared and a few days later i even forgot the whole thing
a week passed and we had seen nothing of the breton paula mentioned him several times
apparently he had gone out early each day and had returned very late he had been the principal subject of our conversation as each night we came together in the big warm kitchen on those long winter evenings
there came two hesitating knocks on the outer door
it sounds like some child that can't knock very well said catalina
only too glad to abandon my towel i ran to open the door but hardly had i done so when i remained petrified and dumb with surprise hardly able to believe my own eyes there stood the breton twisting his battered cap nervously between his bony fingers
the little oil lamp which we always kept lighted at night in the passageway illuminated his pale face and gaunt figure good evening mademoiselle he finally managed to say and then he stopped apparently as embarrassed as i was
as she started to come to my rescue it's the breton i said
said the old woman kindly as timidly as a child the breton advanced over the threshold a few paces
i wish to speak with the master he said directing his words to teresa
i declare said rosa think of the breton
the breton knows very well that when your father got rid of him he well deserved it said teresa as she adjusted her spectacles and settled down to her knitting my father did not keep him long
from the kitchen we could hear the door open and my father's voice bidding the breton a kindly good night
go tell the breton to come into the kitchen lisita said teresa i wondered as i saw him enter with such a humble frank air and with a new look of peace that seemed almost to beautify the brutalized face mademoiselle paula
he said as he stopped in the middle of our kitchen
my head wasn't in very good condition as i'd left my wits behind at the liquor shop
and you also said that god would change me if i really desired i didn't dare believe such a thing mademoiselle it
that night i simply couldn't sleep i seemed to feel my hands in yours and to hear your voice saying i'll do what i can to help you at last i couldn't stand it any longer i got out on the floor and kneeled there before god
i deserved to be refused
and now mademoiselle will you continue to help me as you promised to do yes of course said paula
but i don't know how to begin and when one has served the devil as many years as i have
and i had almost yielded when suddenly i cried to the lord jesus to help me and then a wonderful thing happened all desire for the drink went away and i've been free ever since then too i had no work and my wife taunted me with that
and i wandered up and down looking everywhere for something to do unfortunately everybody knew me and knew too much about me so there was no work for such as me then suddenly the poor thin face was illuminated with a smile as the breton triumphantly said
how glad i am exclaimed paula yes mademoiselle but i have you to thank for your great kindness to me
you mademoiselle you made me feel that you really loved me
what's that it's a book a part of the bible that tells us about the lord jesus and how he saves us from the guilt and power of sin and how we can serve him well mademoiselle replied the breton if it's a book it's of no use to me i don't know how to read
i might have been able to read continued the poor fellow
but i scarcely ever actually appeared in the school room the streets in those days were too attractive a playground
and the breton shook his head sadly it's too late now to get anything of that sort in this dull head
chapter seventeen the fate of sir john franklin the forward succeeded in cutting straight across james ross strait but not without difficulty the crew were obliged
to work the saws and use petards and they were worn out with fatigue happily the temperature was bearable
the thermometer marked thirty four degrees on saturday they doubled cape felix at the northern extremity of king william's land one of the middle sized isles of the northern seas
the crew there experienced a strong and painful sensation and many a sad look was turned towards the island as they sailed by the coast
this island had been the theatre of the most terrible tragedy of modern times
the sailors knew about the attempts made to find admiral franklin and the results but they were ignorant of the affecting details of the catastrophe
several of them bell bolton and simpson approached and entered into conversation with him their comrades animated by curiosity soon followed them while the brig flew along with extreme rapidity
and the coast with its bays capes and promontories
hatteras was marching up and down the poop with quick steps the doctor on the deck looked round and saw himself surrounded by almost the whole crew he saw
how powerful a recital would be in such a situation and he continued the conversation begun with johnson as follows you know how franklin began my friends he was a cabin boy like cook and nelson
after having employed his youth in great maritime expeditions he resolved in eighteen forty five to launch out in search of the north west passage he commanded the erebus and the terror two vessels
already famous that had just made an antarctic campaign under james ross in eighteen forty the erebus equipped by franklin carried a crew of seventy men officers and sailors
with fitz james as captain gore and le vesconte lieutenants
the terror had sixty eight men
lieutenants little hodgson and irving horesby and thomas were the boatswains and peddie the surgeon in the names on the map of the capes straits points and channels you may read those of these unfortunate men
there were a hundred and thirty eight men in all we know that franklin's last letters were addressed from disko island and were dated july twelfth eighteen forty five i hope he said
to get under way to night for lancaster strait what happened after his departure from disko bay the captains of two whalers the prince of wales and the enterprise
perceived the two ships in melville bay for the last time and after that day nothing was heard of them however we can follow franklin in his westerly course he passed through lancaster and barrow straits
and arrived at beechey island where he passed the winter of eighteen forty five and forty six but how do you know all this asked bell the carpenter by three tombs
which austin discovered on that island in eighteen fifty three of franklin's sailors were buried there
of the fox which bears the date of april twenty fifth eighteen forty eight we know that after their wintering the erebus and the terror went up wellington strait as far as the seventy seventh parallel
which was probably not practicable they returned south and that was their ruin said a grave voice safety lay to the north every one turned round
hatteras leaning on the rail of the poop had just uttered that terrible observation there is not a doubt continued the doctor that franklin's intention was to get back to the american coast
but tempests stopped him and on the twelfth september eighteen forty six the two ships were seized by the ice at a few miles from here to the north west of cape felix
said the doctor pointing to a part of the sea now he continued the ships were not abandoned till the twenty second of april eighteen forty eight
what did the poor unfortunate men do they doubtless explored the surrounding land attempting any chance of safety for the admiral was an energetic man and if he did not succeed
very likely his crew betrayed him added hatteras the sailors dared not raise their eyes these words pricked their conscience
that john franklin succumbed to fatigue on the eleventh of june eighteen forty seven honour to his memory said the doctor taking off his hat his audience imitated him in silence
after they had lost their chief they remained on board their vessels and only resolved to abandon them in april eighteen forty eight a hundred and five men out of a hundred and thirty eight were still living
and there deposited their last document see my friends we are passing the point now you can still see the remains of the cairn placed on the extreme point reached by john ross in eighteen thirty one
there is jane franklin cape there is franklin point there is le vesconte point
silver spoons provisions in abundance chocolate tea and religious books were found there too
started for great fish river where did they get to did they succeed in reaching hudson's bay did any survive what became of them after this last departure
i will tell you what became of them said john hatteras in a firm voice yes they did try to reach hudson's bay and they split up into several parties yes they did make for the south
contained the information that in eighteen fifty the esquimaux had met on king william's land a detachment of forty men travelling on the ice and dragging a boat thin emaciated
worn out by fatigue and suffering later on they discovered thirty corpses on the continent and five on a neighbouring island some half buried some left without burial
some under a boat turned upside down others under the remains of a tent
and a loaded gun at his side further on a boiler with the remnants of a horrible meal when the admiralty received these tidings it begged the hudson's bay company
to send its most experienced agents to the scene they descended back river to its mouth they visited the islands of montreal maconochie and ogle point but they discovered nothing
all the poor wretches had died from misery suffering and hunger
that is what became of them on the southern route well do you still wish to march in their footsteps his trembling voice his passionate gestures and beaming face produced an
indescribable effect the crew
to the north to the north yes to the north safety and glory lie to the north heaven is for us the wind is changing the pass is free
so saying hatteras gave orders to turn the vessel the sailors went to work with alacrity the ice streams got clear little by little the forward with all steam on made for mc clintock channel
hatteras was right when he counted upon a more open sea he followed up the supposed route taken by franklin sailing along the western coast of prince of wales's land
whilst the opposite shore is still unknown it was evident that the breaking up of the ice had taken place in the eastern locks for this strait appeared entirely free
the forward made up for lost time she fled along so quickly that she passed osborne bay on the fourteenth of june
the collision in the fog hullo
remarked sam as the seashell dropped at his feet there is something inside of the shell said tom a bit of paper perhaps it's a message i'll soon see returned his younger brother
and ran to where he could not be seen from the other yacht he pulled from the seashell a small square of paper upon which had been hastily scrawled the following in lead pencil i will help you all
i can and hope you won't prosecute me i will see that dora s gets something to eat even if i give her my share they intend to go to sand haven if they can give you the slip
good for mumps he's coming to his senses cried sam and showed the others the message dick read the words with much satisfaction i hope he does stand by dora he said
if he tells the truth we may as well put into harbor and make for sand haven said martin harris who had now resumed the chase once more yes
was sergeant brown's comment the whole thing may be a trick to get us to go to sand haven
to give her up to us would have been no hardship that's it put in martin harris well
the matter was talked over at some length and it was finally decided
if when night came on the other craft should steer in the direction of sand haven they would do likewise
slowly the day wore along and the two yachts kept at about the same distance they were both running due south and land was out of sight as before
and no mistake remarked tom
who would have thought it when we left cedarville in such a hurry i'd like to know how things are going up there mused dick it will be too bad if josiah crabtree succeeds in marrying missus stanhope while we are away
let us hope for the best put in sam
what does that mean harris cried dick it means that they want to make the most of this wind responded the skipper of the yacht grimly
you can't do it any too quick answered dick when next we meet there won't be quite so much talking instead we'll have some acting and pretty lively at that sergeant brown was questioned concerning his weapons
and said he had two pistols and carter had the same one of the extra weapons was loaned to dick and the second went to tom it was decided
anything that was handy but otherwise they were to attend to the sailing of the searchlight provisions to use tom's way of expressing it were now
and as they ate the scant food dealt around dick could not help but think of how dora might be faring i'd willingly starve myself if only it would give her what she needs he thought it made him sick at heart
to think of how she might be suffering mile after mile was passed until the sun began to descend over to the westward the yachts were now close on to quarter of a mile apart
here comes another steamer cried tom presently look here why can't we get some help from her perhaps we can burst out dick i never thought of that let us signal her anyway suggested sergeant brown
a flag was run up as high as the topmast permitted and they headed directly for the steamer's course
for the benefit of those who do not know let me state that a tramp steamer is one going from one port to another regardless of any regular route the movements of the craft depending entirely upon the freight to be picked up
she sees the signal exclaimed dick after an anxious wait of several minutes slowly the steamer came up to them and then her ponderous engines ceased to work what is wanted came in spanish
from a dark looking man on the forward deck can't you talk english cried dick a leetle we are after that other sail boat
will you help us catch them at this the man on the steamer drew down his face and held a consultation with several behind him you are sure they are thieves he asked presently yes
we are pretty certain they have and the girl yes
well i declare burst out tom they are after a reward the first thing no reward yet answered dick but there may be at this the south american scowled
we cannot lose time on a hunt that is worth nothing he said we must get to brooklyn by tomorrow morning you won't help us bring them to justice we cannot afford to lose the time
without further words the big steamer's engines were started up again and away she sped leaving the searchlight to sink and rise on the rollers left in her wake
groaned dick he isn't doing a single thing without pay we might have bought some provisions from him put in martin harris
i don't want his stuff remarked sam i'm afraid it would choke me if i tried to eat it the stop had given the flyaway an advantage
but before the gun went down those on the other yacht saw her head for the coast once more i guess the note told the truth said harris is sand haven near here questioned tom
and how far are we out was the police sergeant's question between five and six miles as near as i can calculate will they be able to run in by dark i think so
and it depends a good bit on how much it veers around concluded the old sailor
it was growing cloudy and a mist was rising the mist made martin harris shake his head but not wishing to alarm the others he said nothing but soon dick noticed the mist and so did the rest
gracious supposing we get caught in a fog muttered tom i was just thinking of it returned his elder brother there will be no fun in it if we are out of sight of land
a quarter of an hour went by and still no land appeared it was now so raw that the boys were glad enough to button their coats tightly about them then of a sudden
and they were unable to see a dozen yards in any direction this is the worst yet groaned sam what's to do now yes what's to do now repeated sergeant brown can you make the coast skipper
to be sure i can replied harris as he looked at the compass but i don't know about landing
perhaps the fog will lift suggested carter a fog like this isn't lifting in a hurry said dick like as not it won't move until the sun comes up tomorrow morning and in this guess he was right
a half hour went by and from a distance came the deep note of a fog horn sounding apparently from up the shore we ought to have a horn said sam some big boat may come along and run us down
there is a horn in the cabin pantry replied martin harris we might as well bring it out if we are sunk one or more of us will most likely be drowned
i'll get the horn and running below he brought it up and he and sam took turns at blowing it with all the strength of their lungs one thing is comforting those rascals are no better off than we are
was tom's comment yes but if they founder what will become of dora i don't believe any one of them would put himself out to save her i guess you're right there dick
i never thought of her poor girl replied the brother dick and sergeant brown were well up in the bow one watching to starboard and the other to port for anything which might appear through the gloom
the horn was blowing constantly and now from a distance came the sounds of both horns and bells we are getting close to some other ships said martin harris i reckon we had best take a few reefs in the mainsail
and these suggestions were carried out the minutes that followed were anxious ones for all felt that a collision might occur at any moment the fog was growing thicker each instant and this coupled with the coming of night
a boat is dead ahead came suddenly from dick and sergeant brown also gave a cry of warning then came a shock and a crash and a splintering of wood followed by the cries of men and boys and the screams of a woman and a girl
we've struck the flyaway called out tom
a few months ago we visited a plain old house in copenhagen the boyhood home of the great danish sculptor here he worked with his father a poor wood carver who
thinking his boy would be a more skilful workman if he learned to draw sent him to the free royal academy of fine arts when he was twelve years old
and the fact was mentioned in the newspapers the next day one of the teachers asked thorwaldsen is it your brother who has carried off the prize bertel's cheeks colored with pride as he said no sir it is i
the teacher changed his tone and replied mister thorwaldsen you will go up immediately to the first rank years afterward
he said no praise was ever so sweet as being called mister when he was poor and unknown two years later he won another prize but he was now obliged to stay at home half the time to help support the large family
although so modest that after the examination he escaped from the midst of the candidates by a private staircase he determined to try for the large gold medal if he could obtain this
he would receive a hundred and twenty dollars a year for three years and study art in italy he at once began to give drawing lessons
and helped illustrate books working from early morning till late at night he was rarely seen to smile so hard was the struggle for daily bread but he tried for the medal and won
what visions of fame must have come before him now as he said good by to his poor parents whom alas he was never to see again and taking his little dog hector started for far away italy
when he arrived he was so ill and homesick that several times he decided to give up art and go back
and tried in vain to earn a little money he sent some small works of his own to copenhagen but nobody bought them he made jason with the golden fleece and when no one ordered it
the discouraged artist broke it in pieces the next year he modelled another jason a lady furnishing the means and while everybody praised it and canova said
this young dane has produced a work in a new and grand style
an artist could not live on praise alone
he must leave rome and go back to the wood carving in copenhagen for no one wanted beautiful things unless the maker was famous he deferred going from week to week till at last his humble furniture had been sold
and his trunks waited at the door as he was leaving the house his travelling companion said to him we must wait till to morrow from a mistake in our passports a few hours later mister thomas hope an english banker
and struck with the grandeur of his model of jason asked the cost in marble six hundred sequins over twelve hundred dollars he answered not daring to hope for such good fortune that is not enough
you should ask eight said the generous man who at once ordered it and this was the turning point in bertel's life how often a rich man might help a struggling artist and save a genius to the world
as did this banker young thorwaldsen now made the acquaintance of the danish ambassador to naples who introduced him to the family of baron wilhelm von humboldt
soon a leading countess commissioned him to cut four marble statues bacchus ganymede apollo and venus two years later he was made professor in the royal academy of florence
the academy of copenhagen now sent him five hundred dollars as an expression of their pride in him how much more he needed it when he was near starving all those nine years in rome
the bashful student had become the genial companion and interesting talker louis of bavaria who made munich one of the art centres of the world was his admirer and friend
the danish king urged him to return to copenhagen but as the quirinal was to be decorated with great magnificence rome could not spare him for this he made in three months his famous
entry of alexander into babylon and soon after his exquisite bas reliefs night and morning the former a goddess carrying in her arms two children sleep and death the latter
a goddess flying through the air scattering flowers with both hands in eighteen sixteen when he was forty six he finished his venus after having made thirty models of the figure
he threw away the first attempt and devoted three years to the completion of the second three statues were made one of which is at chatsworth the elegant home of the duke of devonshire
and one was lost at sea a year later he carved his exquisite byron now at trinity college cambridge he was now made a member of three other famous academies
having been absent from denmark twenty three years the king urged his return for a visit at least
cannon were fired poems read cantatas sung and the king created him councillor of state
no the first person he met at the palace was the old man who had served as a model for the boys when thorwaldsen was at school
that he fell upon the old man's neck and embraced him heartily after some of the grandest work of his life in the frue kirke christ and the twelve apostles and others he returned to rome
visiting on the way alexander of russia who after thorwaldsen had made his bust presented the artist with a diamond ring although a protestant accounted now the greatest living sculptor
he was made president of the academy of saint luke a position held by canova when he was alive
mendelssohn the great composer had become his warm friend and used to play for him as he worked in his studio sir walter scott came to visit the artist
the two shook hands heartily and clapped each other on the shoulder as they parted when thorwaldsen was sixty eight years old he left rome to end his days among his own people the enthusiasm on his arrival was unbounded
the whole city waited nearly three days for his coming boats decked with flowers went out to meet him and so many crowded on board his vessel that it was feared she would sink
the members of the academy came in a body and the crowd took the horses from the carriage and drew it themselves through the streets to the palace of charlottenburg in the evening there was a grand torchlight procession
followed by a constant round of parties so beset was he with invitations to dinner that to save a little time for himself he told his servant wilkins that he would dine with him and his wife
wilkins greatly confused replied what would the world think if it found out that the chancellor dined with his servant the world the world have i not told you a thousand times
that i don't care in the least what the world thinks about these things sometimes he refused even to dine with the king finding at last that society would give him no rest
seven hours by boat from copenhagen once more he visited rome for a year receiving royal attentions all through germany two years after as he was sitting in the theatre he rose to let a lady pass
have you dropped something the great man made no answer he was dead the funeral was a grand expression of love and honor his body lay in state in the royal palace
laurel about his brow the coffin ornamented with floral crowns one made by the queen of denmark his chisel laid in the midst of laurel and palm and his great works of art placed about him
houses were draped in black bells tolled in all the churches
and the king and prince royal received it in person at the frue kirke then it was borne to the large museum which copenhagen had built to receive his work and buried in the centre of the inner court
which had been prepared under his own hand a low granite coping surrounds the grave which is entirely covered with ivy
humpty dumpty however the egg only got larger and larger
when she had come within a few yards of it she saw that it had eyes and a nose and mouth and when she had come close to it she saw
clearly that it was humpty dumpty himself it can't be anybody else she said to herself i'm as certain of it
as if his name were written all over his face it might have been written a hundred times easily on that enormous face humpty dumpty was sitting with
his legs crossed like a turk on the top of a high wall such a narrow one that alice quite wondered how he could keep his balance and
as his eyes were steadily fixed in the opposite direction and he didn't take the least notice of her she thought he must be a stuffed figure after all
and how exactly like an egg he is she said aloud standing with her hands ready to catch him for she was every moment expecting him to fall
it's very provoking humpty dumpty said after a long silence looking away from alice as he spoke to be called an egg very
i said you looked like an egg sir alice gently explained
she added hoping to turn her remark into a sort of a compliment some people said humpty dumpty looking away from her as usual have no more sense than a baby
alice didn't know what to say to this it wasn't at all like conversation she thought as he never said anything to her in fact his last remark was
evidently addressed to a tree so she stood and softly repeated to herself humpty dumpty sat on a wall humpty dumpty had a great fall all the king's
horses and all the king's men couldn't put humpty dumpty in his place again that last line is much too long for the poetry she added
almost out loud forgetting that humpty dumpty would hear her don't stand there chattering to yourself like that humpty dumpty said looking at her for the first time
but tell me your name and your business my name is alice but it's a stupid enough name humpty dumpty interrupted impatiently
alice asked doubtfully of course it must humpty dumpty said with a short laugh my name means the shape i am
and a good handsome shape it is too with a name like yours you might be any shape almost
said alice not wishing to begin an argument why
cried humpty dumpty
ask another don't you think you'd be safer down on the ground
anxiety for the queer creature that wall is so very narrow what tremendously easy riddles you ask humpty dumpty growled out
of course i don't think so why if
humpty dumpty cried breaking into a sudden passion you've been listening at doors and behind trees and down chimneys or you couldn't have known it
i haven't indeed alice said very gently it's in a book ah well they may write such things in a book humpty dumpty said in a calmer tone
that's what you call a history of england that is now take a good look at me i'm one that has spoken to a king i am
mayhap you'll never see such another
i'm not proud you may shake hands with me
and as nearly as possible fell off the wall in doing so and offered alice his hand she watched him a little anxiously as she took it
if he smiled much more the ends of his mouth might meet behind she thought and then i don't know what would happen to his head i'm afraid it would come off
yes all his horses and all his men humpty dumpty went on they'd pick me up again in a minute they would however
let's go back to the last remark but one i'm afraid i can't quite remember it alice said very politely in that case we start fresh
said humpty dumpty and it's my turn to choose a subject he talks about it just as if it was a game thought alice so here's a question for you
how old did you say you were alice made a short calculation and said seven years and six months wrong
humpty dumpty exclaimed triumphantly you never said a word like it
how old are you alice explained if i'd meant that
said humpty dumpty alice didn't want to begin another argument so she said nothing seven years and six months humpty dumpty repeated thoughtfully
an uncomfortable sort of age now if you'd asked my advice i'd have said leave off at seven but it's too late now
alice said indignantly too proud the other inquired
she said that one can't help growing older one can't perhaps said humpty dumpty but two can
with proper assistance you might have left off at seven
they had had quite enough of the subject of age she thought and if they really were to take turns in choosing subjects it was her turn now at least
she corrected herself on second thoughts a beautiful cravat i should have said
a belt i mean i beg your pardon she added in dismay
which was neck and which was waist evidently humpty dumpty was very angry
when he did speak again it was in a deep growl
he said at last when a person doesn't know a cravat from a belt i know it's very ignorant of me alice said
and a beautiful one as you say it's a present from the white king and queen there now is it really said alice quite pleased to find that she had
i beg your pardon alice said with a puzzled air i'm not offended said humpty dumpty i mean what is an un birthday present
i like birthday presents best she said at last
three hundred and sixty five said alice and how many birthdays have you one
three hundred and sixty four of course humpty dumpty looked doubtful i'd rather see that done on paper he said
alice couldn't help smiling as she took out her memorandum book and worked the sum for him
humpty dumpty took the book and looked at it carefully that seems to be done right he began you're holding it upside down alice interrupted
to be sure i was humpty dumpty said gaily as she turned it round for him i thought it looked a little queer as i was saying that seems to be done right
though i haven't time to look it over thoroughly just now
three hundred and sixty four days when you might get
certainly said alice
there's glory for you
humpty dumpty smiled contemptuously of course you don't till i tell you i meant there's a nice knock down argument for you
but glory doesn't mean a nice knock down argument alice objected when i use a word humpty dumpty said in rather a scornful tone
it means just what
neither more nor less the question is said alice whether you can make words mean so many different things
alice was too much puzzled to say anything so after a minute humpty dumpty began again they've a temper some of them
particularly verbs they're the proudest adjectives you can do anything with but not verbs however i can manage the whole lot of them
impenetrability that's what i say
said alice what that means now you talk like a reasonable child said humpty dumpty looking very much pleased i meant by impenetrability
that we've had enough of that subject and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next as i suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life
that's a great deal to make one word mean alice said in a thoughtful tone when i make a word do a lot of work like that said humpty dumpty
oh said alice she was too much puzzled to make any other remark ah you should see em
humpty dumpty went on wagging his head gravely from side to side for to get their wages you know alice didn't venture to ask what he paid them with
jabberwocky let's hear it said humpty dumpty i can explain all the poems that were ever invented
and a good many that haven't been invented just yet this sounded very hopeful so alice repeated the first verse twas brillig
and the mome raths
there are two meanings packed up into one word i see it now alice remarked thoughtfully and what are toves
are something like badgers
and they're something like corkscrews
they are that said humpty dumpty also they make their nests under sun dials also they live on cheese
gyroscope to gimble
is the grass plot round a sun dial i suppose said alice surprised at her own ingenuity
and a long way beyond it on each side alice added exactly so
there's another portmanteau for you
is a thin shabby looking bird
i'm not certain about i think it's short for from home meaning that they'd lost their way you know and what does outgrabe mean well
with a kind of sneeze in the middle however you'll hear it done maybe down in the wood yonder and when you've once heard it you'll be quite content
all that hard stuff to you i read it in a book said alice but i had some poetry repeated to me much easier than that
i think it was
said humpty dumpty stretching out one of his great hands
if it comes to that oh it needn't come to that alice hastily said hoping to keep him from beginning the piece i'm going to repeat
he went on without noticing her remark was written entirely for your amusement
so she sat down and said
in winter when the fields are white i sing this song for your delight only i don't sing it he added as an explanation
i see you don't said alice
humpty dumpty remarked severely alice was silent in spring when woods are getting green
in summer when the days are long perhaps you'll understand the song in autumn when the leaves are brown take pen and ink
and write it down i will if i can remember it so long
and they put me out i sent a message to the fish i told them
the little fishes of the sea they sent an answer back to me
i'm afraid i don't quite understand said alice it gets easier further on humpty dumpty replied i sent to them again to say
the fishes answered
in i told them once i told them twice they would not listen to advice i took a kettle large and new
fit for the deed i had to do my heart went hop my heart went thump i filled the kettle at the pump then some one came to me and said
the little fishes are in bed i said to him i said it plain then you must wake them up again i said it very loud and clear
i went and shouted in his ear humpty dumpty raised his voice almost to a scream
and alice thought with a shudder i wouldn't have been the messenger for anything but he was very stiff and proud he said you needn't shout so loud
he said i'd go and wake them if i took a corkscrew from the shelf i went to wake them up myself and when i found the door was locked i pulled and pushed
and kicked and knocked and when i found the door was shut i tried to turn the handle but there was a long pause is that all alice timidly asked
that's all said humpty dumpty good bye this was rather sudden alice thought but after such a very strong hint that she ought to be going
she felt that it would hardly be civil to stay so she got up and held out her hand good bye
she said as cheerfully as she could i shouldn't know you again if we did meet humpty dumpty replied in a discontented tone giving her one of his fingers to shake
you're so exactly like other people the face is what one goes by generally alice remarked in a thoughtful tone that's just what i complain of
mouth under it's always the same now if you had the two eyes on the same side of the nose for instance or the mouth at the top that
but humpty dumpty only shut his eyes and said wait till you've tried alice waited a minute to see if he would speak again
she said good bye once more and getting no answer to this she quietly walked away but she couldn't help saying to herself as she went
of all the unsatisfactory she repeated this aloud as it was a great comfort to have such a long word to say of all the unsatisfactory people
she never finished the sentence for at this moment
but he had the finest false collars in the world and it is about one of these collars that we are now to hear a story it was so old that it began to think of marriage
and it happened that it came to be washed in company with a garter nay said the collar
and so fine so soft and so neat
that i shall not tell you said the garter
but the garter was so bashful so modest and thought it was a strange question to answer you are certainly a girdle said the collar that is to say an inside girdle
i see well that you are both for use and ornament
was not true for it was his master who had them but he boasted don't come so near me said the garter
prude exclaimed the collar and then it was taken out of the washing tub it was starched hung over the back of a chair in the sunshine and was then laid on the ironing blanket
then came the warm box iron
i am quite changed i begin to unfold myself you will burn a hole in me oh i offer you my hand rag said the box iron
and went proudly over the collar for she fancied she was a steam engine that would go on the railroad and draw the waggons rag
at the edge and so came the long scissors to cut off the jagged part oh said the collar you are certainly the first opera dancer
how well you can stretch your legs out it is the most graceful performance i have ever seen
you deserve to be a baroness said the collar all that i have is a fine gentleman a boot jack and a hair comb if i only had the barony
do you seek my hand said the scissors
him and then he was condemned i shall now be obliged to ask the hair comb it is surprising how well you preserve your teeth miss said the collar
have you never thought of being betrothed yes of course you may be sure of that said the hair comb
exclaimed the collar now there was no other to court and so he despised it a long time passed away then the collar came into the rag chest at the paper mill
there was a large company of rags the fine by themselves and the coarse by themselves just as it should be they all had much to say
but the collar the most for he was a real boaster i have had such an immense number of sweethearts said the collar i could not be in peace it is true
i was always a fine starched up gentleman i had both a boot jack and a hair comb
you should have seen me then you should have seen me when i lay down
she was a girdle so fine so soft and so charming she threw herself into a tub of water for my sake
who became glowing hot but i left her standing till she got black again there was also the first opera dancer she gave me that cut
she was so ferocious my own hair comb was in love with me she lost all her teeth
but i am extremely sorry for the garter i mean the girdle that went into the water tub i have much on my conscience i want to become white paper
and it became so
but the collar came to be just this very piece of white paper we here see and on which the story is printed and that was because it boasted so terribly afterwards of what had
never happened to it it would be well for us to beware
for we can never know if we may not in the course of time also come into the rag chest and be made into white paper and then have our
whole life's history printed on it even the most secret
the prognostication made by the citizens of prouty that it was gettin ready for somethin seemed about to be verified out on the sheep range twenty miles distant for at five o'clock one afternoon
the wind stopped as suddenly as it had arisen and heavy snow clouds came out of the northeast with incredible swiftness mormon joe walked to the door of the cook tent and swept the darkening hills with anxious eyes
kate should have been back long before this he always had a dread of her horse falling on her and hurting her too badly to get back that was about all there was to fear in summer time but to night there was the coming storm
kate's sense of direction was remarkable but the most experienced plainsman would be apt to lose himself in these foothills with the snow falling thick and the night so black he could not see his hand before his face
mormon joe shook his head and turned back to his task of peeling potatoes while he worked he reproached himself that he had not hunted those horses himself but she had been so insistent upon going
she did not mind the wind she had said but then she did not mind anything when it came to that
at any rate kate was more comfortable now than she had been the year before he smiled a little as he recalled her delight in the sheep wagon which he had given her to be her own quarters
but his circumstances justified it he was getting ahead not with phenomenal rapidity but satisfactorily with the leases and the land he owned he was building the future upon a substantial foundation
a few years more of economy and attention to business and he could give kate the advantages he wished he listened got up from the condensed milk box upon which he sat and walked to the entrance of the tent once more
he strained his ears but death itself was not more still than the opaque night kate had left immediately after breakfast and since the horses had only a few hours start and would probably feed as they went
she had expected to be back by noon kate was exceedingly resourceful she knew what to do if caught out he assured himself unless she had been hurt
what would life be without her now with the knife in his hand he stopped as he turned inside and stared at the potatoes on the box he never had thought of that before it left him aghast
the girl had twined herself into every fiber of his nature from the time she had come to him as a child she was identified with every hope humph he knew well enough what the answer would be if anything happened to kate
he would shoot the chutes again quick it was she who had awakened his ambition and kept him tolerably straight without her humph he stoked the sheet iron camp stove
put the potatoes to boil cut chops enough for two
then he set out a tin of molasses and the sour dough bread after which there was nothing to do but wait for the potatoes to boil and for kate he was trying the potatoes with a fork when he raised his head sharply
he was sure he heard the rattle of rocks a faint whoop followed thank god he breathed the ejaculation fervently yet he said merely as he stood in the entrance puffing his pipe as she rode up got em i see katie
sure don't i always get what i go after then with a tired laugh
he smiled quizzically i don't know why you'd think that i'll know better next time she replied good humoredly as she swung down with obvious weariness there won't be any next time he replied abruptly
at least not at this season of the year oh but i'm glad i went she interposed hastily as mormon joe unwrapped the lead rope from the saddle horn and took the horses away to picket he wondered what wonderful adventure she would have to relate
for she seemed able to extract entertainment from nearly anything by the time he returned she had removed her hat gloves and spurs washed her dust streaked face smoothed her hair
slipped on an enveloping apron over her riding clothes and had the chops frying the sight warmed his heart as he paused for a moment outside the circle of light which came through the entrance
he had seen the same thing often before but it never had impressed him particularly her presence in the canvas tent made the difference between home and a mere shelter the small crumbs of bread he had cast upon the water
were indeed coming back to him i've ridden over forty miles since morning she chattered while he flung the snow flakes from his hat brim and brushed them from his shoulders the wind blew the horses tracks out so i couldn't follow them
i never caught sight of them until just this side of prouty you can sit down uncle joe everything's ready they talked of the coming snowstorm and the advisability of holding the sheep on the bed ground if it should be a bad one
of the trip to town that he was contemplating of the coyote that was bothering and the possibility of trapping him there was no dearth of topics of mutual interest nevertheless mormon joe knew that she was holding something in reserve
and wondered at this reticence it came finally when they had finished and still lingered at the table
teeters mormon joe was tearing a leaf from his book of cigarette papers guess again he shook his head can't imagine she announced impressively missus toomey
he was distributing tobacco from the sack upon the crease in the paper with exactitude he made no comment so kate said with increased emphasis she was crying
still he was silent and she demanded aren't you surprised she looked crestfallen so he asked obligingly where did all of this happen
they had gone there to get out of the wind and it was by only a chance that i rode down into it she was in the bottom huddled against a rock and didn't see me until i was nearly on her i thought she was sick she looked terrible
and was she no she was worried naturally any woman would be who married toomey about money indeed his tone and smile were ironic
kate a trifle disconcerted continued he's had bad luck he's had the best opportunities of any man who's come into the country anyway she faltered they haven't a penny except when they sell something
he shrugged a shoulder then asked teasingly well what were you thinking of doing about it i said
bluntly that we'd loan them money what incredulously i did uncle joe he answered with a frown of annoyance you exceeded your authority katie but you will won't you she pleaded
you've never refused me anything that i really wanted badly and i've never asked much have i no girl you haven't he replied gently and there's hardly anything you could ask within reason that wouldn't be granted
but they only need five hundred until he gets into something you could let them have that couldn't you his face and eyes hardened i could but i won't he replied curtly when prouty was in its infancy
certain citizens had been misled by mormon joe's mild eyes low voice and quiet manner his easy going exterior concealed an incredible hardness upon occasions but this was kate's first knowledge of it
in any difference when he had not yielded to her good naturedly they had argued it out as though they were in reality partners at another time she would have been wounded by his brusque refusal but to night it angered her
because of her intense eagerness and confidence that she had only to ask him it came as the keenest of disappointments this together with her fatigue combined to produce a display of temper as unusual in her
as mormon joe's own attitude but i promised she cried impatiently and you've told me i must always keep my promise if it takes the hide you exceeded your authority he reiterated
you've no right to promise what doesn't belong to you then it's all talk about our being partners she said sneeringly
because you don't care for friends you don't want me to have any she flung at him hotly he was silent a long time thinking while she waited angrily then he responded quietly and with obvious effort
that's where you're mistaken katie if i have one regret it is that in the past i have not more deliberately cultivated the friendship of true men and gentle women when i have had the opportunity
it doesn't make much difference whether they are brilliant or rich or successful if only they are true hearted loyalty is the great attribute but and he shrugged a shoulder it is my judgment
that you will not find it in that quarter
we were going to be friends missus toomey and i we shook hands on it
he replied doggedly if you have to buy your friendships katie you'd better keep your money the speech stung her she glared at him across the narrow table and in the moment each had a sense of unreality
the quarrel was like a bolt from the blue as startling and unexpected as most quarrels are the bitterest and most lasting then she sprang to her feet and hurled a taunt at him some imp of darkness must have suggested
you're jealous she stamped a foot at him that's the real reason you're jealous of everybody that would be friends with me you're jealous of hughie you didn't like his coming here and you don't like his writing to me i hate you i won't stay any longer
and there was the look of her mother on the girl's face in her reckless uncontrolled fury mormon joe winced exactly as though she had struck him he sat quite still while the color faded leaving his face bloodless
kate never had known anything like the white rage it depicted persons at the sand coulee who lost their temper cursed volubly and loudly and threatened or made bodily attacks upon the cause of it
in spite of herself she shrank a little as he too got up slowly and faced her she didn't know him at all this man who first threw his cigarette away carefully as though he were in a drawing room and must regard the ashes
he was a personality from an environment with which she was unfamiliar then as though she were his equal in years experience and intelligence he spoke to her in a tone that was cool and impersonal
yet which went slash slash slash like the fine deep quick cut of a razor i had no notion that you entertained any such feeling towards me it is something in the nature of a er revelation
you are quite right about leaving upon second thought you are quite right about everything right to keep your promise to missus toomey since you gave it right in your assertion that i am jealous i am but not in the sense in which you mean it
i have been jealous of your dignity of the respect that is due you i have resented keenly any attempt to belittle you
it is the reason why i have not shown a pleasure i did not feel in his writing you what do you mean she demanded i mean that he took you to that dance on a wager a bet to prove that he had the courage
to make a spectacle of you for a story with which to regale his friends and laugh over she groped for the edge of the table who told you toomey i don't believe it teeters verified it
she sat down on the box from which she had risen unmoved by the blow he had dealt her he continued you went to that dance against my wishes what i expected to happen did happen though you did not choose to tell me
in my descent through various strata of society i have learned something of types and of human nature in protesting my only thought was to save you pain and disappointment as in this instance
but experience it seems is the only teacher to morrow i am going to prouty hire a herder to do your work and mortgage the outfit for half its value it will be yours to use as it pleases you you have earned it
then with a gesture of finality the door is open to you i want you to go where you will be happy with his usual deliberation of movement he put on his hat and went out to change the horses on picket
while kate stunned by the incredible crisis and the revelation concerning hugh disston sat where she had dropped staring at the agate ware platter upon which the mutton grease was hardening
it was mormon joe's invariable custom to help her with the dishes but he did not return so she arose finally and set the food away automatically with the unseeing look of a hypnotic subject
she washed the dishes and dried them trying to realize that she would be leaving this shortly that there would be a last time in the immediate future her anger was lost in grief and amazement
there was something so implacable so steel like in mormon joe's hardness that it did not occur to her to plead with him for forgiveness and hughie she told herself that she could not turn to a traitor for help or sympathy
she blew out the lantern tied the tent flap behind her and ran through the fast falling snow to her wagon kate dozed towards morning
and was awakened by a horse's whinny listening a moment she sprang out and looked through the upper half of the door which opened on hinges it was a white world that she saw with some four inches of snow on the level
though the fall had ceased and it was colder mormon joe dressed warmly in leather chaps and sheep lined coat was riding away on one of the work horses never since they had been together had he gone to prouty
without some word of farewell careless and casual but unfailing nor could she remember when he had not turned in the saddle and waved at her before they lost sight of each other altogether this time she waited vainly
he went without looking behind him while she stood in the cold watching his peaked high crowned hat bobbing through the giant sagebrush until it vanished she had thrust out a hand to detain him to call after him and had withdrawn it
chapter six the wolf scratches mormon joe had underestimated jasper toomey's capacity for extravagance and mismanagement when he had given him five years to go broke in
as he had accomplished it in four most effectively so completely in fact that they had moved into town with only enough furniture to furnish a small house which they spoke of as having rented
it was close to a year after their advent in prouty that missus toomey awakened in the small hours listened a moment then prodded her husband sharply the wind's coming up jap and i left out my washing
never mind i'll borrow a saddle horse in the morning and go after it everything will be whipped to ribbons she declared plaintively i'm not going out this time of night to collect laundry
besides the exercise would make me hungrier are you hungry jap hungry i've been lying here thinking of everything i ever left on my plate since i was a baby missus toomey sighed deeply
wouldn't a fat club sandwich with chicken lettuce thin bacon and mayonnaise dressing hush toomey exploded savagely if you say that again i'll dress and go out and rob a hen roost
missus toomey suggested hopefully perhaps if you light the lamp and smoke it will take your mind off your stomach i surmise that's all there is on it
toomey lighted the lamp on the table beside the bed and looked at the clock on the bureau hours yet my love before i can gorge myself on a shredded wheat biscuit
missus toomey braided a wisp of hair to an infinitesimal end and said firmly jap we've simply got to do something can't you borrow borrow
i couldn't throw a rock inside the city limits without hitting some one to whom i owe money come again old dear mockingly wouldn't mormon joe i'd starve before i'd ask that sheepherder
i'm surprised at you that you haven't more pride you know he broke me shutting me off from water with his leases i've explained all that to you she was silent she didn't have the heart to hit him when he was down
though she had her own opinion as to the cause of his failure since she did not reply he went on vindictively
his damned insolence every time i see him going into his shack over there he nodded towards the diagonal corner
his building it to save hotel bills when he comes to town yes ironically i can see him lending me money missus toomey sat up and cried excitedly
jap let's sell something there's that silver punch bowl that your uncle jasper gave us for a wedding present and aunt sarah page's silver teapot missus sudds admires it tremendously toomey's brow cleared instantly
we can do that i'll raffle it the punch bowl and get a hundred and fifty out of it easily he discussed the details enthusiastically
but in the darkness missus toomey cried quietly selling tickets for a raffle which was for their personal benefit seemed a kind of genteel begging she wondered that jap did not feel as she did about it
and what would missus pantin think
the wind had risen to a gale and she thought nervously of fringed napkins and pillow slips the wind always gave her the blues anyway and now it reminded her of winter which was close with its bitter cold
of snow driven across trackless wastes of gaunt predatory animals of cattle and horses starving in draws and gulches and all the other things which winter meant in that barren country
she slept after a time to find the next morning that the wind still howled and the fringe on her laundry was all she had pictured toomey set forth gaily immediately after breakfast with the punch bowl wrapped in a newspaper
and missus toomey nerved herself to negotiate for the sale of the teapot to missus sudds in the event of his being unsuccessful she watched for his return eagerly but it was two o'clock before she saw him coming
leaning against the wind and clasping the punch bowl to his bosom her heart sank for his face told her the result without asking toomey set uncle jasper's wedding gift upon the dining room table with disrespectful violence
you must be crazy to think i could sell that in prouty you should have known better didn't anybody want it jap missus toomey asked timidly want it angrily
tinhorn thought it was some kind of a tony cuspidor and a round up cook offered me a dollar and a half for it to set bread sponge in never mind soothingly i'm sure missus sudds will take the teapot
we can't live all winter on a teapot he answered gloomily but you're sure to get into something pretty quick now when i land i'll land big i'll land with both feet he responded more cheerfully
of course you will i never doubt it missus toomey endeavored to make her tone convincing let's have tea in the heirloom before we part with it she suggested brightly it's never been used that i can remember
it's ugly enough to be valuable toomey observed eyeing the teapot as she took it from the top of the bookcase solid nearly and came over in the mayflower missus toomey replied proudly
we'll have tea and toast and codfish the information is superfluous toomey sniffed the air and made a wry face i'd as soon eat billposter's paste as codfish
to night we'll have steak thick like that
toomey eyed the codfish darkly when his wife placed it on the table sit down jap she urged the tea will be steeped in just a second don't wait a scream completed the sentence
toomey overturned his chair as he rushed to the kitchen he arrived in time to see the lid of the priceless heirloom disappearing in a puddle of pewter it seemed to the toomeys that the fates had singled them out as special objects for their malevolence
the wind continued to blow as though it meant never to stop it was a wind of which the people of the east who speak awesomely of their own gales and tempest wot not
this wind which had kept prouty indoors for close to a week came out of a cloudless sky save for a few innocent looking streaks on the western horizon it had blown away everything that would move
all the loose papers had sailed through the air to an unknown destination nebraska perhaps while an endless procession of tumble weed had rolled in the same direction from an apparently inexhaustible supply in the west
found their satisfaction short lived for as quickly they acquired the rubbish that belonged to their neighbor on the other side shingles flew off and chimney bricks
and ends of corrugated iron roofing slapped and banged as though frantic to be loose houses shivered on their foundations and lesser buildings lay on their sides clouds of dust obscured the sun at intervals
and the sharp edged gravel driven before the gale cut like tiny knives any daring chicken that ventured from its coop slid away as if it were on skates pitchforks were useless
and those who had horses to feed carried the hay in sacks the caged inhabitants stood at their windows and made caustic comments upon the legs and general contour of such unfortunates as necessity took out
while those pedestrians who would converse upon catching sight of each other made a dive for the nearest telephone pole there clinging by an arm like a shipwrecked sailor to a mast
it seemed as though the earth would soon be denuded of its soil leaving the rocks exposed like a skeleton stripped of its flesh
was as varied as that of drink no one could seem to remember that the wind had not always blown or realize that it would sometime stop no character was strong enough to maintain a perfect equilibrium after three days of it
logic or philosophy made no more impression upon the mental state than water slipping over a rock it set the nerves on edge irritation restlessness and discontent were as uncontrollable as great fear
two wildcats tied together were not more incompatible than husbands and wives who under normal conditions lived together happily doting mothers became shrews
fond fathers brutes lambasting their offspring on the smallest pretext while seven was too conservative an estimate to place upon the devils of which the children who turned the house into bedlam seemed to be possessed
optimists grew green with melancholia pessimists considered suicide as an escape from the futility of life neighbors resurrected buried hatchets friends found fault with friends
enemies vowed to kill each other as soon as the wind let up if the combination of wind and altitude had this effect upon phlegmatic temperaments something of missus toomey's state may be surmised
with nerves already overwrought this prolonged windstorm put her in a condition in which as she declared hysterically to her husband she was ready to fly lying on his back
on the one time handsome sofa where he spent many of his waking hours
chapter nineteen angel visits as angels in some brighter dreams call to the soul when man doth sleep so some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes and into glory peep henry vaughan
missus hale was curiously amused and interested by the idea of the thornton dinner party she kept wondering about the details with something of the simplicity of a little child who wants to have all its anticipated pleasures
described beforehand but the monotonous life led by invalids often makes them like children inasmuch as they have neither of them any sense of proportion in events and seem each to believe that the walls and curtains which shut in their world
and shut out everything else must of necessity be larger than anything hidden beyond besides missus hale had had her vanities as a girl had perhaps unduly felt their mortification when she became a poor clergyman's wife
they had been smothered and kept down but they were not extinct and she liked to think of seeing margaret dressed for a party and discussed what she should wear with an unsettled anxiety that amused margaret who had been more accustomed to society
than her mother in five and twenty years of helstone then
are you sure it will fit
oh yes mamma missus murray made it and it's sure to be right it may be a straw's breadth shorter or longer waisted according to my having grown fat or thin but i don't think i've altered in the least
hadn't you better let dixon see it it may have gone yellow with lying by if you like mamma but if the worst comes to the worst i've a very nice pink gauze which aunt shaw gave me only two or three months before edith was married
that can't have gone yellow no but it may have faded well then i've a green silk i feel more as if it was the embarrassment of riches
i wish i knew what you ought to wear said missus hale nervously margaret's manner changed instantly shall i go and put them on one after another mamma and then you could see which you liked best
but yes perhaps that will be best so off margaret went she was very much inclined to play some pranks when she was dressed up at such an unusual hour
to make her rich white silk balloon out into a cheese to retreat backwards from her mother as if she were the queen but when she found that these freaks of hers were regarded as interruptions to the serious business and as such annoyed her mother
she became grave and sedate what had possessed the world her world to fidget so about her dress she could not understand but that very after noon on naming her engagement to bessy higgins
apropos of the servant that missus thornton had promised to inquire about bessy quite roused up at the intelligence dear and are you going to dine at thornton's at marlborough mills yes bessy
bessy's cheeks flushed a little at her thought being thus easily read well said she yo see they thinken a deal o money here and i reckon yo've not getten much no said margaret
that's very true but we are educated people and have lived amongst educated people is there anything so wonderful in our being asked out to dinner by a man who owns himself inferior to my father by coming to him to be instructed
i don't mean to blame mister thornton few drapers assistants as he was once could have made themselves what he is but can yo give dinners back in yo'r small house thornton's house is three times as big
well i think we could manage to give mister thornton a dinner back as you call it perhaps not in such a large room nor with so many people but i don't think we've thought about it at all in that way i never thought yo'd be dining with thorntons
why the mayor hissel dines there and the members of parliament and all i think i could support the honour of meeting the mayor of milton but them ladies dress so grand said bessy
with an anxious look at margaret's print gown which her milton eyes appraised at sevenpence a yard margaret's face dimpled up into a merry laugh thank you bessy for thinking so kindly about my looking nice among all the smart people
but i've plenty of grand gowns a week ago i should have said they were far too grand for anything i should ever want again but as i'm to dine at mister thornton's and perhaps to meet the mayor i shall put on my very best gown you may be sure
what win yo wear asked bessy somewhat relieved white silk said margaret
that'll do said bessy falling back in her chair i should be loth to have yo looked down upon oh i'll be fine enough if that will save me from being looked down upon in milton i wish i could see you dressed up
said bessy i reckon
yo've not red and white enough for that but dun yo know
nonsense bessy ay but i did
and going out like rays round yo'r forehead which was just as smooth and as straight as it is now and yo always came to give me strength which i seemed to
so yo see it was yo nay bessy said margaret gently it was but a dream
as well as others did not many a one the bible ay and see visions too why
i tell yo again i saw yo as plainly coming swiftly towards me wi yo'r hair blown back wi the very swiftness o the motion
let me come and see yo in it i want to see yo and touch yo as in very deed yo were in my dream my dear bessy it is quite a fancy of yours fancy or no fancy yo've come
as i knew yo would when i saw yo'r movement in my dream and when yo're here about me i reckon i feel easier in my mind and comforted just as a fire comforts one on a dree day
please god i'll come and see yo oh bessy you may come and welcome but don't talk so it really makes me sorry it does indeed
if i bite my tongue out not but what it's true for all that margaret was silent at last she said let us talk about it sometimes if you think it true but not now tell me
has your father turned out ay said bessy heavily in a manner very different from that she had spoken in but a minute or two before he and many another all hamper's men
food is high and they mun have food for their childer i reckon suppose thorntons sent em their dinner out
would keep many a crying babby quiet and hush up its mother's heart for a bit don't speak so said margaret you'll make me feel wicked and guilty in going to this dinner no said bessy
some's pre elected to sumptuous feasts and purple and fine linen may be yo're one on em others toil and moil all their lives long and the very dogs are not pitiful in our days
i'll come across the great gulf to yo
bessy you're very feverish i can tell it in the touch of your hand as well as in what you're saying it won't be division enough in that awful day that some of us have been beggars here
but by our faithful following of christ margaret got up and found some water and soaking her pocket handkerchief in it she laid the cool wetness on bessy's forehead and began to chafe the stone cold feet
bessy shut her eyes and allowed herself to be soothed at last she said
if yo'd had one body after another coming in to ask for father and staying to tell me each one their tale
but more being women kept plaining plaining wi the tears running down their cheeks and never wiped away nor heeded
and do they think the strike will mend this asked margaret they say so replied bessy
and the masters has made no end o money how much father doesn't know
if they don't make the masters give em their share
the way they keep on grinning and fighting at each other till even while they fight they are picked off into the pit just then nicholas higgins came in he caught his daughter's last words ay
and i'll fight on too and i'll get it this time it'll not take long for to make em give in for they've getten a pretty lot of orders all under contract and they'll soon find out they'd better give us our five per cent than lose the profit they'll gain
my masters i know who'll win margaret fancied from his manner that he must have been drinking
and she was rather confirmed in this idea by the evident anxiety bessy showed to hasten her departure bessy said to her the twenty first that's thursday week
before margaret could answer higgins broke out thornton's ar t going to dine at thornton's
tell him there's seven hundred'll come marching into marlborough mills the morning after he gives the five per cent and will help him through his contract in no time you'll have em all there my master hamper
ne'er meets a man bout an oath or a curse
and yo may tell him one o his turn outs said so if yo like
i should like to get speech o them when they're a bit inclined to sit still after dinner
good bye said margaret hastily good bye bessy i shall look to see you on the twenty first if you're well enough the medicines and treatment which doctor donaldson had ordered for missus hale
did her so much good at first that not only she herself but margaret began to hope that he might have been mistaken and that she could recover permanently as for mister hale
although he had never had an idea of the serious nature of their apprehensions he triumphed over their fears with an evident relief which proved how much his glimpse into the nature of them had affected him
only dixon croaked for ever into margaret's ear however margaret defied the raven and would hope they needed this gleam of brightness in doors for out of doors
even to their uninstructed eyes there was a gloomy brooding appearance of discontent mister hale had his own acquaintances among the working men and was depressed with their earnestly told tales of suffering and long endurance
from his position have understood it without their words but here was this man from a distant county who was perplexed by the workings of the system
and each was eager to make him a judge and to bring witness of his own causes for irritation then mister hale brought all his budget of grievances and laid it before mister thornton for him with his experience as a master
to arrange them and explain their origin which he always did on sound economical principles showing that as trade was conducted there must always be a waxing and waning of commercial prosperity and that in the waning
a certain number of masters as well as of men must go down into ruin and be no more seen among the ranks of the happy and prosperous he spoke as if this consequence were so entirely logical
that neither employers nor employed had any right to complain if it became their fate the employer to turn aside from the race he could no longer run with a bitter sense of incompetency and failure wounded in the struggle
trampled down by his fellows in their haste to get rich slighted where he once was honoured humbly asking for instead of bestowing employment with a lordly hand of course speaking so of the fate that as a master
might be his own in the fluctuations of commerce he was not likely to have more sympathy with that of the workmen who were passed by in the swift merciless improvement or alteration who would fain lie down and quietly die out of the world that needed them not
but felt as if they could never rest in their graves for the clinging cries of the beloved and helpless they would leave behind who envied the power of the wild bird that can feed her young with her very heart's blood
margaret's whole soul rose up against him while he reasoned in this way as if commerce were everything and humanity nothing she could hardly thank him for the individual kindness which brought him that very evening to offer her
for the delicacy which made him understand that he must offer her privately every convenience for illness that his own wealth or his mother's foresight had caused them to accumulate in their household and which
as he learnt from doctor donaldson missus hale might possibly require his presence after the way he had spoken his bringing before her the doom which she was vainly trying to persuade herself might yet be averted from her mother
all conspired to set margaret's teeth on edge as she looked at him and listened to him what business had he to be the only person except doctor donaldson and dixon admitted to the awful secret
not daring to look at it unless she invoked heavenly strength to bear the sight that some day soon she should cry aloud for her mother and no answer would come out of the blank dumb darkness
yet he knew all she saw it in his pitying eyes she heard it in his grave and tremulous voice how reconcile those eyes that voice with the hard reasoning dry merciless way
in which he laid down axioms of trade and serenely followed them out to their full consequences the discord jarred upon her inexpressibly the more because of the gathering woe of which she heard from bessy
to be sure nicholas higgins the father spoke differently he had been appointed a committee man and said that he knew secrets of which the exoteric knew nothing he said this more expressly and particularly
on the very day before missus thornton's dinner party when margaret going in to speak to bessy found him arguing the point with boucher the neighbour of whom she had frequently heard mention as by turns exciting higgins's compassion
as an unskilful workman with a large family depending upon him for support and at other times enraging his more energetic and sanguine neighbour by his want of what the latter called spirit
it was very evident that higgins was in a passion when margaret entered boucher stood with both hands on the rather high mantel piece swaying himself a little on the support which his arms thus placed gave him
and looking wildly into the fire with a kind of despair that irritated higgins even while it went to his heart bessy was rocking herself violently backwards and forwards as was her wont margaret knew by this time
when she was agitated her sister mary was tying on her bonnet in great clumsy bows as suited her great clumsy fingers to go to her fustian cutting blubbering out loud the while
and evidently longing to be away from a scene that distressed her margaret came in upon this scene she stood for a moment at the door then her finger on her lips
nicholas saw her come in and greeted her with a gruff but not unfriendly nod mary hurried out of the house catching gladly at the open door and crying aloud when she got away from her father's presence
it was only john boucher that took no notice whatever who came in and who went out it's no use higgins hoo cannot live long a this'n hoo's just
ay clemming five shilling a week may do well enough for thee wi but two mouths to fill and one on em a wench who can welly earn her own meat
an look thee lad i'll hate thee
i will lad i will if yo're leading me astray this matter thou saidst nicholas on wednesday sennight
that afore a fortnight we'd ha the masters coming a begging to us to take back our work at our own wage and time's nearly up and there's our lile jack lying a bed
too weak to cry but just every now and then sobbing up his heart for want o food our lile jack i tell thee lad hoo's never looked up sin he were born and hoo loves him as if he were her very life as he is
cost me that precious price our lile jack
a seeking a smooth place to kiss an he lies clemming here the deep sobs choked the poor man and nicholas looked up with eyes brimful of tears to margaret
before he could gain courage to speak hou'd up man thy lile jack shall na clem i ha getten brass and we'll go buy the chap a sup o milk an a good four pounder this very minute
only dunnot lose heart man continued he as he fumbled in a tea pot for what money he had
it's but bearing on one more week
praying on us to come back to our mills an th union that's to say i
so dunnot turn faint heart
the man turned round at these words turned round a face so white and gaunt and tear furrowed and hopeless that its very calm forced margaret to weep
says clem to death
yo know it well nicholas for a yo're one on em yo may be kind hearts each separate but once banded together yo've no more pity for a man than a wild hunger maddened wolf
nicholas had his hand on the lock of the door he stopped and turned round on boucher close following so help me god man alive if i think not i'm doing best for thee
and for all on us if i'm going wrong when i think i'm going right it's their sin
in my ignorance i ha thought till my brains ached beli me john i have an i say again
they'll win the day see if they dunnot not one word had margaret or bessy spoken they had hardly uttered the sighing
that the eyes of each called to the other to bring up from the depths of her heart at last bessy said i never thought to hear father call on god again but yo heard him say so help me god yes
said margaret let me bring you what money i can spare let me bring you a little food for that poor man's children don't let them know it comes from any one but your father it will be but little
bessy lay back without taking any notice of what margaret said she did not cry she only quivered up her breath
she said boucher's been in these days past a telling me of his fears and his troubles
wi him an his wife as knew no more nor him how to manage yet yo see all folks isn't wise yet god lets em live ay an gives em some one to love and be loved by just as good as solomon
an if sorrow comes to them they love it hurts em as sore as e'er it did solomon i can't make it out
and put em one by one face to face wi boucher i reckon if they heard him they'd tell him if i cotched em one by one he might go back and get what he could for his work even if it weren't so much as they ordered
margaret sat utterly silent how was she ever to go away into comfort and forget that man's voice with the tone of unutterable agony telling more by far than his words of what he had to suffer
she took out her purse she had not much in it of what she could call her own but what she had she put into bessy's hand without speaking thank yo
and is not so bad off leastways does not show it as he does but father won't let em want now he knows yo see boucher's been pulled down wi his childer and her being so cranky
for all we're a bit pressed oursel if neighbours doesn't see after neighbours i dunno who will bessy seemed almost afraid
and to a certain degree the power of helping one whom she evidently regarded as having a claim upon them besides she went on father is sure and positive the masters must give in within these next few days
that they canna hould on much longer but i thank yo all the same
for it just makes my heart warm to yo more and more bessy seemed much quieter to day but fearfully languid and exhausted as she finished speaking she looked so faint and weary
that margaret became alarmed it's nout said bessy it's not death yet i had a fearfu night wi dreams or somewhat like dreams for i were wide awake
and i'm all in a swounding daze to day only yon poor chap made me alive again no it's not death yet but death is not far off ay cover me up and i'll may be sleep
good night
chapter fifteen the next day rameses sent his black men with commands to memphis and about midday came a great boat toward sarah's house from the direction of the city
when a second messenger from the prince detained them he commanded the soldiers to remain at the shore and summoned only their leader patrokles they halted and stood without movement
like two rows of columns covered with glittering armor after the messenger went patrokles in a helmet with plumes wearing a purple tunic over which he had gilded armor ornamented on the breast with the picture of a woman's head bristling with serpents instead of hair
tell the greek warriors that i will not review them until their lord his holiness
they have lost that honor by uttering in dramshops shouts worthy of drunkards these shouts offend me i call attention also to this worthiness that the greek regiments do not show sufficient discipline
in public places the soldiers of this corps discuss politics and a certain possible war this looks like treason to the state only the pharaoh and members of his supreme council may speak of such matters but we
soldiers and servants of our lord whatever position we occupy may only execute the commands of our most gracious ruler and be silent at all times i beg thee to communicate these considerations to my regiments and i wish all success to thee worthiness
it will be as commanded worthiness
he turned on his heel and standing erect moved with a rattle toward the boat he knew about these discussions of the soldiers in the dramshops and understood straightway that something disagreeable had happened to the heir whom the troops worshipped
and hens will lay eggs in your helmets such is the fate waiting for stupid soldiers who know not how to keep their tongues quiet and now to the left to the rear turn and march to the boat may the plague strike you
and commanded them to sing the song of that priest's daughter who so loved soldiers that she put a doll in her bed and passed the whole night in the booth of the sentries keeping time to this song they always marched best and moved the oars with most nimbleness
in the evening another boat approached sarah's dwelling out of which came the chief steward of the prince's property rameses received this official at the garden gate also perhaps he did this through sternness
or perhaps not to constrain the man to enter the house of his mistress and a jewess i wished said the heir to see thee and to say that among my people certain improper conversations circulate concerning decrease of rent
or something of that kind i wish those people to know that i will not decrease rents but should any man in spite of warnings persist in his folly and talk about rents he will receive blows of canes perhaps it would be better if he paid a line
an uten or a drachma whatever is commanded worthiness said the chief steward yes but the worst offender might be beaten i make bold to offer a remark worthiness said the steward in a low tone inclining continually
that the earth workers roused by some unknown person really did talk for a time about decrease of rent but some days ago they ceased on a sudden in that case we might withhold the blows of canes said rameses unless as preventive means put in the steward
we shall never lack articles of that sort but with moderation in every case i do not wish it to go to his holiness that i torture men without need for rebellious conversation we must beat and take fines in money
but when there is no cause for punishment we may be magnanimous i understand
let them cry out as much as they like if they do not whisper blasphemy these talks with patrokles and the steward were reported throughout egypt after the steward's departure the prince yawned and looking around with a tired glance
he said to himself i have done all i could but now if i can i will do nothing at that moment from the direction of the outhouses low groans and the sound of frequent blows reached the prince rameses turned his head
son of reuben was beating some subordinate with a cane pacifying him meanwhile be quiet be silent low beast the beaten workman lying on the ground closed his mouth with his hand so as not to cry
at first the prince rushed like a panther toward the outhouses suddenly he halted what am i to do whispered he this is sarah's place and the jew is her relative he bit his lips
and disappeared among the trees the more readily since the flogging was finished is this the management of the humble jews thought rameses is this the way that man looks at me as a frightened dog might but he beats the workmen
are the hebrews all like him and for the first time the thought was roused in the prince's soul that under the guise of kindness sarah too might conceal falsehood certain changes had indeed taken place in sarah
and heir to the throne of egypt when tutmosis bargained with gideon to take her to the prince's house sarah fell into a state of bewilderment she would not renounce rameses for any treasure nor at the cost of life
but one could not say that she loved him at that time love demands freedom and time to give forth its most beautiful blossoms neither freedom nor time had been left to her she made the acquaintance of the prince on a certain day
the following day they took her away almost without consulting her wishes and bore her to that villa opposite memphis in a couple of days she became the prince's favorite astonished frightened not understanding what had taken place with her
moreover before she could make herself used to the new impressions the jewess was disturbed by ill will from surrounding people then the visit of unknown ladies
that attack on the villa then because rameses took her part and wished to rush on the rioters she was still more terrified she lost presence of mind at the thought that she was in the hands of a man of such power
and so violent who if it suited him had the right to shed blood to slay people sarah fell into despair for the moment it seemed to her that she would go mad
she heard the terrible commands of the prince who summoned the servants to arms but at that very moment a slight thing took place one little word was heard which sobered sarah and gave a new turn to her feelings the prince
thinking that she was wounded drew the bandage from her head but when he saw the bruise he cried that is only a blue spot how that blue spot changes the face at these words sarah forgot pain and fear new alarm seized her
so she had changed to such a degree that it astonished the prince but he was only astonished the blue spot disappeared in a couple of days but feelings unknown up to that time remained in sarah's soul and increased there
his faithful servant his devoted slave as inseparable as his shadow but at the same time she desired that he at least when he fondled her should not treat her as though he were lord and master she was his indeed
but he was hers also why does he not show then that he belonged to her even in some degree but with every word and motion
what kind of gulf has she not held him in her embraces has he not kissed her lips and bosom a certain day the prince came to her with a dog he stayed only a couple of hours
but during that entire interval the dog lay at his feet in sarah's place and when she wished to sit there the dog growled and the prince laughed
as he had into her hair and the dog looked into the prince's eyes just as she had with this difference perhaps that he looked with more confidence she could not pacify herself and she hated the clever beast which was taking a part of the tenderness due to her
not long before this incident the prince mentioned dancers a second time then sarah burst out angrily how did he permit himself to be familiar with those naked shameless women and jehovah looking down from high heaven
did not hurl his thunders at those monstrous creatures it is true that rameses told her that she was dearer than all else to him but these words did not pacify sarah they only produced this effect
that she determined not to think of aught beyond her love what would come on the morrow never mind and when at the feet of the prince she sang that hymn about those sufferings which pursue mankind from the cradle to the grave
and her last hope which was jehovah that day rameses was with her hence she had enough she had all the happiness which life could give but just there began for sarah the greatest bitterness
the prince lived under one roof with her he walked with her in the garden and sometimes went out on the nile in a boat with her but he was not more accessible by the width of one hair than when he was on the other side of the river
within the limits of the pharaoh's palace he was with her but his mind was in some other place sarah could not even divine where he embraced her or toyed with her hair but he looked toward the city
at those immense many colored pylons of the pharaoh's palace or at some unknown object
chapter fourteen in the month of choeak from the middle of september to the middle of october the waters of the nile were highest and began to fall slightly in the gardens people gathered tamarinds dates olives
and trees blossomed a second time at this juncture
and with a grand suite on some tens of stately barges
to thank the gods there for the bounteous inundation and also to place offerings on the tombs of his eternally living ancestors the most worthy ruler took farewell of his heir very graciously but the direction of state affairs during his absence he left with herhor
so as not to meet herhor or annoy his own mother whom he considered the cause of his failures on the following day tutmosis visited him in this retreat bringing two boats filled with musicians and dancers and a third containing baskets of food and flowers
with pitchers of wine but the prince commanded the musicians and dancers to depart and taking tutmosis to the garden he said of course my mother may she live through eternity sent thee to separate me from the jewess
tell her worthiness that were herhor to become not merely viceroy but the son of my father i should do that which pleases me i know how to do it to day they wish to deprive me of sarah and to morrow they would take my power from me
how canst thou wonder if the priests are displeased because the heir to the throne has connected his life with a woman of another country and a strange religion sarah does not please them especially since thou hast her alone
hadst thou a number of various women like all noble youths they would not mind the jewess but have they done her harm no on the contrary even some priest defended her against a raging crowd which it pleased thee to liberate from imprisonment
tutmosis laughed thy worthy mother loves thee as her own eyes and heart of course sarah does not please her either
this that i should entice sarah from thee what a jest on her part to this i answered with a second jest rameses has given me a brace of hunting dogs and two syrian horses because he has grown tired of them
perhaps some day he will give me his mistress too of course i shall have to take her with other things do not think of it i would not give sarah to any man were it only for this because of her my father has not appointed me viceroy tutmosis shook his head
so much mistaken that i am terrified dost thou not really understand the causes of the disfavor every enlightened egyptian knows them i know nothing so much the worse said the anxious tutmosis
thou dost not know then that warriors since the manoeuvres especially greek warriors drink thy health in every dramshop they got money to do so true but not to cry out with all the voice that is in them
that when thou shalt succeed to his holiness may he live through eternity thou wilt begin a great war after which there will be changes in egypt what changes and who is the man who during the life of the pharaoh may dare to speak of the plans of his successor now the prince grew gloomy
that is one thing but i will tell thee another said tutmosis for misfortunes like hyenas never come singly dost thou know that the lowest people sing songs about thee sing how thou didst free the attackers from prison
or egypt is divided into as many parts as there are nomarchs finally judge for thyself is it proper that any man's name should be mentioned oftener than the pharaoh's and that any man should stand between the people and our lord if thou permit
when the moon follows the god of light from afar we have brightness in the daytime and clearness at night when the moon wishes to be too near the sun it disappears itself and the nights are dark but if the moon stands before the sun there is an eclipse
and in the world great terror and all this babble interrupted rameses goes to the ears of his holiness misfortune on my head would that i had never been the son of a pharaoh the pharaoh as a god upon earth knows everything
but he is too mighty to care for the drunken shouts of soldiers or the whispers of earth tillers he understands that every egyptian would die for him and thou first of all thou hast spoken truth answered the anxious prince
but in all this i see new vileness and deceit of the priests added he rousing himself it is i then who hide the majesty of our lord because i free the innocent from prison or do not let my tenant torture earth workers with unjust tribute
but when his worthiness herhor manages the army appoints leaders negotiates with foreign princes and directs my father to spend his time in prayers tutmosis covered his ears and stamping cried be silent be silent
and whatever is done on earth proceeds from his will herhor is a servant of the pharaoh and does what his lord enjoins on him if thou wilt convince thyself
the prince grew so gloomy that tutmosis broke off the conversation and took farewell of his friend at the earliest when he sat down in his boat which was furnished with a baldachin and curtains he drew a deep breath
i thank the gods for not giving me such a character as that which rameses has
he might have the most beautiful women in memphis but he sticks to one to annoy his mother meanwhile it is not his mother that he annoys but all the virtuous virgins and faithful wives who are withering from sadness that the heir to the throne
and moreover a youth of great comeliness does not snatch from them virtue
he might not only drink but even swim in the best wine meanwhile he prefers the wretched camp beer and bread rubbed with garlic whence came these low inclinations i cannot imagine
or was it that the worthy nikotris in her critical period looked at workmen while they were eating he might do nothing from daylight till darkness if he wished the most famous lords with their wives sisters and daughters would serve food to him
he not only stretches forth his own hands to take food but to the torment of our noble youths he washes himself dresses himself and his barber spends whole days in snaring birds and thus wastes his abilities
oh how happy i am that i need not divine what they are thinking of in tyre or nineveh break my head over wages for the army calculate how many people have been added to egypt or taken from it and what rents must be collected
it is a terrible thing to say to one's self my tenant does not pay what i need and expend but what the increase of the nile permits thus meditated the exquisite tutmosis while he strengthened his anxious soul with golden wine
before the boat had sailed up to memphis heavy sleep had mastered him in such wise that his slaves had to carry their lord to the litter after the departure of tutmosis which resembled a flight the heir fell to thinking deeply
and the all commanding lord of this world was really just such a person as others only a little more weakly than ordinary old men and very much limited in power by the priestly order the prince saw all this and jeered in his soul
and even in public at many things but all his infidelity fell before the actual truth that no one was permitted to trifle with the titles of the pharaoh rameses knew the history of his country and he remembered that in egypt many things were forgiven the mighty
kill a man in secret revile the gods privately take presents from ambassadors of foreign states but two sins were not forgiven the betrayal of priestly secrets and treason to the pharaoh a man who committed one or the other disappeared
but where he had been put or what had been done with him no one even dared to mention
from the time that the army and the people began to mention his name and speak of certain plans of his changes in the state future wars thinking of this the prince felt as if a nameless crowd of rebels and unfortunates were pushing him violently to the point of the highest obelisk
from which he must tumble down and be crushed into jelly later on when after the longest life of his father possible he became pharaoh he would have the right and the means to accomplish many deeds of which no one in egypt could even think without terror
but to day he must in truth have a care lest they declare him a traitor and a rebel against the fundamental laws of egypt in that state there was one visible ruler the pharaoh
no changes could come save from that place there burned the only visible lamp of political wisdom the light of which illuminated egypt but touching that light it was safer to be silent
all these considerations flew through the prince's head with the swiftness of a whirlwind
under the chestnut tree in sarah's garden and looking at the landscape there around him the water of the nile had fallen a little and had begun to grow as transparent as a crystal but the whole country looked yet like an arm of the sea
thickly dotted with islands on which rose buildings gardens and orchards while here and there groups of great trees served as ornament around all these islands were well sweeps with buckets by which bronze hued naked men with dirty breech clouts
raised water from the nile and poured it into higher reservoirs one such place was in the prince's mind especially that was a steep eminence on the side of which three men were working at three well sweeps one
drew water in buckets and irrigated beds of vegetables or watered trees from sprinkling pots the movement of the sweeps going down and rising the turn of the buckets the gushing of the pots was so rhythmic
he merely bent and rose in one single method from daylight until evening from one month to another and doubtless he had worked thus from childhood and would so work till death took him
and creatures such as these thought the prince as he looked at their toil desire me to realize their imaginings what change in the state can they wish is it that he who draws from the lowest well should go to the highest
or instead of pouring from a bucket should sprinkle trees with a watering pot anger rose to his head and humiliation crushed him because he the heir to the throne thanks to the fables of creatures like those who nodded all their lives over wells of dirty water
was not now the vice pharaoh at that moment he heard a low rustle among the trees and delicate hands rested on his shoulder well sarah asked the prince without turning his head thou art sad my lord
and i have not seen thy smile yet thou dost not even speak to me but movest about in gloom and at night thou dost not fondle me but only sighest i have trouble
grief is like a treasure given to be guarded as long as we guard it ourselves even sleep flees away
rameses embraced sarah and seated her on the bench at his side
said he smiling is unable to bring in all his crops from the field before the overflow his wife helps him she helps him to milk cows too she takes out food to the field for him she washes the man on his return from labor
hence the belief has come that woman can lighten man's troubles dost thou not believe this lord the cares of a prince answered rameses cannot be lightened by a woman even by one as wise and powerful as my mother
in god's name what are thy troubles tell me insisted sarah
according to our traditions adam left paradise for eve and he was surely the greatest king in the most beautiful kingdom the prince became thoughtful our sages also teach said he that man has often abandoned dignities for woman
but it has not been heard that any man ever achieved something great through a woman unless he was a leader to whom a pharaoh gave his daughter with a great dowry and high office but a woman cannot help a man to reach a higher place or even help him out of troubles
this may be because she does not love as i do whispered sarah thy love for me is wonderful i know that never hast thou asked for gifts or favored those who do not hesitate to seek success even under the beds of princes favorites
thou art milder than a lamb and as calm as a night on the nile thy kisses are like perfume from the land of punt
i have no measure for thy beauty or words for thy attractions thou art a marvel among women women's lips are rich in trouble and their love is very costly but with all thy perfection how canst thou ease my troubles
canst thou cause his holiness to order a great expedition to the east and name me to command it canst thou give me the army corps in memphis for which i asked or wilt thou in the pharaoh's name make me governor of lower egypt
or canst thou bring all subjects of his holiness to think and feel as i his most devoted subject sarah dropped her hands on her knees and whispered sadly true i cannot do those things i can do nothing
thou canst do much thou canst cheer me
i know that thou hast learned to dance and sing take off those long robes therefore which become priestesses
and array thyself in transparent muslin as phoenician dancers do and so dance and fondle me as they sarah seized his hands and cried with flaming eyes hast thou to do with outcasts such as these tell me let me know my wretchedness
send me then to my father send me to our valley in the desert oh that i had never seen thee in it well well calm thyself said the prince toying with her hair i must of course see dancers if not at feasts at royal festivals
or during services in temples but all of them together do not concern me as much as thou alone moreover who among them could equal thee
cut out of ivory and each of those dancers has some defect some are too thick others have thin legs or ugly hands still others have false hair who of them is like thee if thou wert an egyptian
all our temples would strive to possess thee as the leader of their chorus what do i say wert thou to appear now in memphis in transparent robes the priests would be glad if thou wouldst take part in processions
it is not permitted us daughters of judah to wear immodest garments nor to dance or sing why didst thou learn then our women dance and our virgins sing by themselves for the glory of the lord
but not for the purpose of sowing fiery seeds of desire in men's hearts but we sing wait my lord i will sing to thee she rose from the bench and went toward the house soon she returned followed by a young girl with black frightened eyes
who was bearing a harp who is this maiden asked the prince but wait i have seen that look somewhere ah when i was here the last time a frightened girl looked from the bushes at me this is esther
she has lived with me a month now but she fears thee lord so she runs away always perhaps she looked at thee sometime from out the bushes thou mayst go my child said the prince to the maiden who seemed petrified and when she had hidden behind the bushes he asked
is she a jewess too and this guard of thy house who looks at me as a sheep at a crocodile that is samuel the son of esdras he also is a relative i took him in place of the black man to whom thou hast given freedom
but hast thou not permitted me to choose my servants that is true and so also the overseer of the workmen is a jew for he has a yellow complexion and looks with a lowliness which no egyptian could imitate
answered sarah is ezechiel the son of reuben a relative of my father does he not please thee my lord these are all thy very faithful servants does he please me said the prince dissatisfied drumming with his fingers on the bench
where is he who has no care who is he who in lying down to slumber has the right to say this is a day that i have spent without sorrow where is the man who lying down for the grave can say
my life has passed without pain without fear like a calm evening on the jordan but how many are there who moisten their bread with tears daily and whose houses are filled with sighing a wail is man's earliest speech on this earth
and a groan his farewell to it full of suffering does he come into life full of sorrow does he go to his resting place and no one asks him where he would like to be where is that offspring of man who has not tasted the bitterness of being
is it the child which death has snatched from its mother or is it the babe whose mother's breast was drained by hunger ere the little one could place lips to it
the man who can look with unfailing eye at the morrow does he who toils on the field know that rain is not under his power and that not he shows its way to the locust swarm does the merchant who gives his wealth to the winds which come he knows not whence
and his life to the waves on that abyss which swallows all and returns nothing where is the man without dread in his spirit is it the hunter who chases the nimble deer and on the road meets a lion which mocks at his arrows
is it the warrior who goes forth to gain glory with toiling and meets a forest of sharp lances and bronze swords which are thirsting for his life blood is it the great king who under his purple puts on heavy armor who spies out with sleepless eye the treachery of overpowering neighbors
and seizes with his ear the rustle of the curtain lest treason overturn him in his own tent for this reason men's hearts in all places and at all times are overflowing with sadness in the desert the lion and the scorpion are his danger
in the cave lurks the dragon among flowers the poisonous serpent in the sunshine a greedy neighbor is thinking how to decrease his land in the night the active thief is breaking through the door to his granary in childhood he is incompetent in old age stripped of strength
when full of power he is surrounded by perils as a whale is surrounded by abysses of water therefore o lord my creator to thee the tortured human soul turns itself thou hast brought it into a world full of ambushes
thou hast grafted into it the terror of extinction thou hast barred before it all roads of peace save the one road which leads to thee and as a child which cannot walk grasps its mother's skirt lest it fall
and struggles out of uncertainty sarah was silent the prince fell into meditation and then said ye jews are a gloomy nation if men in egypt believed as thy song teaches
when he rushed among two thousand five hundred hostile chariots each of which carried three warriors only then did amon the eternal father reach his hand down and end the battle with victory but if instead of fighting he had waited for the aid of your god
long ago would the egyptians have been moving along the nile each of them bearing a brick and a bucket while the vile hittites would be masters going around with clubs and papyruses therefore sarah thy charms will scatter my sorrows sooner than thy song
if i had acted as your jewish song teaches and waited for divine assistance wine would have flowed away from my lips and women would have fled from my household above all i could not be the pharaoh's heir any more than my brothers
gentlemen said the count of monte cristo as he entered i pray you excuse me for suffering my visit to be anticipated but i feared to disturb you by presenting myself earlier at your apartments
franz and i have to thank you a thousand times count returned albert you extricated us from a great dilemma and we were on the point of inventing a very fantastic vehicle when your friendly invitation reached us indeed returned the count
it was the fault of that blockhead pastrini that i did not sooner assist you in your distress he did not mention a syllable of your embarrassment to me when he knows that alone and isolated as i am i seek every opportunity of making the acquaintance of my neighbors
as soon as i learned i could in any way assist you i most eagerly seized the opportunity of offering my services the two young men bowed franz had as yet found nothing to say
he had come to no determination and as nothing in the count's manner manifested the wish that he should recognize him he did not know whether to make any allusion to the past or wait until he had more proof
besides although sure it was he who had been in the box the previous evening he could not be equally positive
moreover he had this advantage he was master of the count's secret while the count had no hold on franz who had nothing to conceal however he resolved to lead the conversation to a subject which might possibly clear up his doubts
count said he you have offered us places in your carriage and at your windows in the rospoli palace can you tell us where we can obtain a sight of the piazza del popolo ah said the count negligently looking attentively at morcerf
is there not something like an execution upon the piazza del popolo yes returned franz finding that the count was coming to the point he wished
he extended his hand and rang the bell thrice did you ever occupy yourself said he to franz
i have when i ring once it is for my valet twice for my majordomo thrice for my steward thus i do not waste a minute or a word here he is
but he did not appear to recognize him it was evident he had his orders monsieur bertuccio said the count you have procured me windows looking on the piazza del popolo as i ordered you yesterday
but it was very late did i not tell you i wished for one replied the count frowning and your excellency has one which was let to prince lobanieff but i was obliged to pay a hundred
that will do that will do monsieur bertuccio spare these gentlemen all such domestic arrangements you have the window that is sufficient give orders to the coachman and be in readiness on the stairs to conduct us to it the steward bowed and was about to quit the room
ah continued the count be good enough to ask pastrini if he has received the tavoletta and if he can send us an account of the execution
these gentlemen added he turning to the two friends will i trust do me the honor to breakfast with me but my dear count said albert we shall abuse your kindness not at all on the contrary you will give me great pleasure
you will one or other of you perhaps both return it to me at paris
we announce he read in the same tone with which he would have read a newspaper
andrea rondolo guilty of murder on the person of the respected and venerated don cesare torlini canon of the church of saint john lateran and peppino called rocca priori convicted of complicity
with the detestable bandit luigi vampa and the men of his band hum the first will be mazzolato the second decapitato yes continued the count it was at first arranged in this way
but i think since yesterday some change has taken place in the order of the ceremony really said franz
and there mention was made of something like a pardon for one of the two men for andrea rondolo asked franz no replied the count carelessly for the other he glanced at the tablets as if to recall the name for peppino called rocca priori
and even the second while the other as you must know is very simple the mandaia never fails never trembles never strikes thirty times ineffectually
and to whose tender mercy richelieu had doubtless recommended the sufferer ah added the count in a contemptuous tone
there are at least few that i have not seen said the count coldly and you took pleasure in beholding these dreadful spectacles my first sentiment was horror the second indifference the third curiosity
curiosity that is a terrible word why so in life our greatest preoccupation is death is it not then curious to study the different ways by which the soul and body can part
and how according to their different characters temperaments and even the different customs of their countries different persons bear the transition from life to death from existence to annihilation as for myself i can assure you of one thing
the more men you see die the easier it becomes to die yourself
but it is not an expiation i do not quite understand you replied franz pray explain your meaning for you excite my curiosity to the highest pitch
listen said the count and deep hatred mounted to his face as the blood would to the face of any other if a man had by unheard of and excruciating tortures destroyed your father your mother your betrothed a
a wound that never closes in your breast do you think the reparation that society gives you is sufficient
to escape with a few moments of physical pain yes i know said franz that human justice is insufficient to console us she can give blood in return for blood that is all but you must demand from her only what it is in her power to grant
i will put another case to you continued the count that where society attacked by the death of a person avenges death by death but are there not a thousand tortures by which a man may be made to suffer without society taking the least cognizance of them
or offering him even the insufficient means of vengeance of which we have just spoken are there not crimes for which the impalement of the turks the augers of the persians the stake and the brand of the iroquois indians are inadequate tortures
and which are unpunished by society answer me do not these crimes exist yes answered franz and it is to punish them that duelling is tolerated ah duelling cried the count a
pleasant manner upon my soul of arriving at your end when that end is vengeance a man has carried off your mistress a man has seduced your wife a man has dishonored your daughter
he has rendered the whole life of one who had the right to expect from heaven that portion of happiness god has promised to every one of his creatures an existence of misery and infamy and you think you are avenged because you send a ball through the head
or pass a sword through the breast of that man who has planted madness in your brain and despair in your heart and remember moreover that it is often he
no no continued the count had i to avenge myself it is not thus i would take revenge then you disapprove of duelling you would not fight a duel asked albert in his turn astonished at this strange theory
oh yes replied the count understand me i would fight a duel for a trifle for an insult for a blow and the more so that thanks to my skill in all bodily exercises and the indifference to danger i have gradually acquired
i should be almost certain to kill my man oh i would fight for such a cause but in return for a slow profound eternal torture i would give back the same were it possible an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth as the orientalists say
but said franz to the count with this theory which renders you at once judge and executioner of your own cause it would be difficult to adopt a course that would forever prevent your falling under the power of the law hatred is blind rage carries you away
and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a bitter draught yes if he be poor and inexperienced not if he be rich and skilful besides the worst that could happen to him would be the punishment of which we have already spoken
and which the philanthropic french revolution has substituted for being torn to pieces by horses or broken on the wheel what matters this punishment as long as he is avenged on my word i almost regret that in all probability
this miserable peppino will not be beheaded as you might have had an opportunity then of seeing how short a time the punishment lasts and whether it is worth even mentioning
it hung sumptuously framed in plush over the widow morris's mantel the one resplendent note in an otherwise modest home in a characteristic queen anne village
one had only to see the rapt face of its owner as she sat in her weeds before the picture which she tearfully pronounced a strikin likeness to sympathize with the townsfolk who looked askance at the bereaved woman
feeling sure that her sudden sorrow had set her mind agog when she had received the picture through the mail some months before the fire which consumed the hotel a fire through which she had not passed
but out of which she had come a widow she proudly passed it around among the friends waiting with her at the post office
an them that ain't down
that is to say it's his jurisdiction
he knows who's gettin what an he's firm morris always was he's like the iron law of the ephesians what key it was an old lady who held the picture at arm's length
the more closely to scan it who asked the question she asked it partly to know as neither man nor key appeared in the photograph and partly to parry the historic allusion
a disturbing sort of fire for which missus morris was rather noted and which made some of her most loyal townsfolk a bit shy of her oh i ain't referrin to the picture she hastened to explain
as a similitude to the kingdom o heaven in a hotel
providential supply department which in a manner hangs to his belt
the widow morris had sought solace in this her only cherished relic after the half hour of sky works which had made her in her own vernacular a lonely conflagrated widow with a heart full of ashes
before the glad moment when it was given her to discern in it an unsuspected and novel value first had come as a faint gleam of comfort the reflection that although
he had really been inside the building when the photograph was taken and so of course he must be in there yet
at first she experienced a slight disappointment that her man was not visible at door or window but it was only a passing regret it was really better to feel him surely and broadly within
at large in the great house free to pass at will from one room to another to have had him fixed no matter how effectively would have been a limitation as it was she pressed the picture to her bosom
he would not some day come out of his hiding to meet her it was a muffled pleasure and tremulously entertained at first
and so when finally the thing did really happen it is small wonder that it came somewhat as a shock it appears that one day feeling particularly lonely and forlorn and having no other comfort
in the room without awnings this being her nearest approach to the alleged occupant's bosom when she was suddenly startled by a peculiar swishing sound as of wind blown rain
whereupon she lifted her face to perceive that it was indeed raining and then glancing back at the photograph
window to another drawing down the sashes on the side of the house that would have been exposed to the real shower whose music was in her ears
this was a great discovery and naturally enough it set her weeping for she sobbed it made her feel for a minute that she had lost her widowhood and that after the shower he'd be coming home
to suddenly lose the pivot upon which his emotions are swung at any rate missus morris cried she said that she cried all night first because it seemed so spooky to see him
whose remains she had so recently buried on faith waiving recognition in the debris
and then she wept because after all he did not come this was the formal beginning of her sense of personal companionship in the picture companionship yes of delight in it
for there is even delight in tears in some situations in life especially is this true of one whose emotions are her only guides
after seeing him draw the window sashes and he had drawn them down ignoring her presence she sat for hours waiting for the rain to stop
it seemed to have set in for a long spell for when she finally fell asleep from sheer disappointment long towards morning it was still raining but when she awoke the sun shone
and all the windows in the picture were up again this was a misleading experience however for she soon discovered that she could not count upon any line of conduct by the man in the hotel
as the fact that it had one time rained in the photograph at the same time that it rained outside was but a coincidence and she was soon surprised to perceive all quiet
not even an awning flapping while the earth on her plane was torn by storms on one memorable occasion when her husband had appeared flapping the window panes from within with a towel
she had thought for one brief moment that he was beckoning to her and that she might have to go to him and she was beginning to experience terror with shortness of breath and other premonitions of sudden passing
when she discovered that he was merely killing flies and she flurriedly fanned herself with the asbestos mat which she had seized from the stove beside her
and staggered out to a seat under the mulberries as she stammered i do declare morris'll be the death of me yet
he's most as much care to me dead as he was alive i made sure made sure he'd come after me then feeling her own fidelity challenged she hastened to add not that i hadn't rather
and since i've got used to seein him there so constant i feel sure
a swedenborgian and a gates ajar that of course engrafted on to a methodist now that hotel when it was consumed by fire which to it was the same as mortal death why
it either ascended into heaven in smoke or it fell in ashes to the other place if it died worthy like as not it's undergoin repairs now for a mansion jasper
an' but of course such as that could be run up in a twinklin still from what i've heard it's more likely gone down to its deserts it would seem hard for a hotel with so many awned off corridors
an palmed embrasures with teet a teet sofas to live along without sin she stood on her step ladder wiping the face of the picture as she spoke
and as she began to back down she discovered the cat under her elbow glaring at the picture
and as she slipped the ladder back into the closet she remarked this to herself strictly if it hadn't a been for poor puss i'd a had a heap more pleasure out o this picture
or will be likely to have again the way she's taken on i've almost come to hate it a serpent had entered her poor little eden even the green eyed monster constrictor who if given full swing
would not spare a bone of her meager comfort
chanced to come in at the time unobserved overheard the last remark and missus morris seeing that she was there continued in an unchanged tone while she gave her a chair
you know a man's a man mis withers
an indefinitely divorced by a longevitied family an another burned in with him well his faithfulness is put to a trial by fire as you might say so as i say
it spoiled the picture for me for a while an to make matters worse
that campbellite preacher thet was burned in with them an with that my imagination run riot an i'd think to myself if they're inclined they cert'n'y have things handy then i'd ketch myself an say
an born daughter to an apostle what's the use i'd say an so first an last i'd get a sort o
when them three would loom up
i know his license to marry would run out in time but for eternity of course we don't know
good as he was morris was fickle tasted
an even if he'd be taken up with her he'd get
an me his own selected an didn't i use to make some excuse to send
and she was ninety odd an asthmatic but he'd come home from them visits an call me his child wife i've had my happy moments you know a man'll get tired of himself even if he's condemned
to it too continual and think of that blondinetted typewriter for a steady diet to a man like morris imagine her when her hair dye started to give out
green streaks in that pompadour so knowin my man i'd take courage an i'd think
glance up at that hotel any time i will i can generally find him on the lookout
when we'd be alone an nobody to remark about me breakin my mournin dear me how full o b'oyancy
was it any wonder that her friends exchanged glances while missus morris entertained them in so droll a way still as time passed and she not only brightened in the light of her delusion
but proceeded to meet the conditions of her own life by opening a small shop in her home and when she exhibited a wholesome sense of profit and loss
responsibility with occupation and a modest success emotional disturbance was surely giving place to an even calm when one day something happened
missus morris sat behind her counter sorting notions puss asleep beside her when she heard the swish of thin silk with a breath of familiar perfume and looking up
whom did she see but the blond lady of her troubled dreams striding bodily up to the counter smiling as she swished
flopped breathless and white
that is if we may believe the flurried testimony of the blonde who in going over it two hours later had more than once to stop for breath
such a turn as took her
when she succumbed green as the ganges
when i scrambled over the counter breakin my straight front in two
then i loaned her my smellin' salts which she held her breath against until it got to be a case of smell or die an she smelt then it was a case of temporary spasms for a minute
the salts spillin out over her face but when the accident evaporated an she opened her eyes rational i thought to myself maybe she don't know she's keeled an would be humiliated if she did
so i acted callous an i says offhand like i says pushin her apron around behind her over its vice versa
so's to cover up the eggs which i thought had better be broke to her gently i says
recipe for angel cake or maybe get you to bake one for us i knew she baked on orders an with that what does she do but go over again limp as wet starch
down an through every egg in that basket
well by this time a man who had seen her
an whilst they were bowin to each other an backin i giv er stimulus an d'rectly she turned
would you think they'd have the gall to try to get me to cook for em they've ordered angel ca an with that
over she toppled again no pulse nor nothin same as the dead while the blonde talked she busied herself with her loosely falling locks which she tried vainly to entrap
an yet you say she ain't classed as crazy i'd say it of her sure an so old morris is dead
she spoke through a mouthful of gilt hairpins and her voice was as an a eolian harp an he burned in it an she's a widow yet yes i did hear there'd been a fire
i thought the chimney might a burned out an i was in the thick of bein engaged to the night clerk at the singin needles hotel
an there's no regular mail there i thought the story might be exaggerated oh no i didn't marry the night clerk i'm a bride now married to the head steward same rank as poor old morris an we're just as happy
i used to pleg morris about her hair but i'd have to let up on that now mine's as red again as hers no not my hair mine's hair it's as red as a flannen drawer every bit an grain
but say she added presently when she gets better
even if you never need it mine's in that frame of mind now that transforms my gingerbread into angel cake but the time may come when i'll have to beat my eggs to a fluff even for angel cake
oh no he's not with me this trip i just run down for a lark to show my folks my ring an things an let em see it's really so
considerable jewelry his first's taste run that way an they ain't no children yes this amethyst is the weddin' ring
the year not bein up is why he stayed home this trip he didn't like to be seen traversin the same old haunts with another till it was up i wouldn't wait because tell the truth i was afraid
he ain't like a married man with me about money yet an it's liable to seize him any day he might say that he couldn't afford the trip or that we couldn't which would amount to the same thing
i rather liked him bein a little ticklish about goin around with me for a while it's one thing to do a thing an another to be brazen about it it but if she don't get better the reversion was to the widow morris
an i'd like the best in the world to look out for her
they say they have high old times there some days they let the inmates do most any old thing that's harmless
an then another chased him around for a stick of peppermint candy think of all that inside a close fence
yes they say thursdays is paint days an of course fridays they are scrub days they pass around turpentine an hide the matches but of course mis morris may get the better of it tain every woman that can stand widowin
an sometimes
will seem the most deprived to lose it so they say the blonde was a person of words
had got her bearings and when she realized clearly that her supposed rival had actually shown up in the flesh she visibly braced up her neighbors understood that it must have been a shock to be suddenly confronted
with any souvenir of the hotel fire so one had expressed it and the incident soon passed out of the village mind it was not long after this incident that the widow confided to a friend
that she was coming to depend upon morris for advice in her business standing as he does in that hotel door between two worlds as you might say why he sees both ways
an get the better of things
and she declared herself happy indeed a certain ineffable light such as we sometimes see in the eyes of those newly in love came to shine from the face of the widow
who did not hesitate to affirm looking into space as she said it takin all things into consideration
and she smiled as she added marriage the earthly way is vicissitudinous for everybody knows that anything is liable to happen to a man at large
there had been a time when she lamented that her picture was not life sized as it would seem so much more natural but she immediately reflected that that hotel
as the months passed missus morris
grew very white and still fire is white in its ultimate intensity the top spinning its fastest is said to sleep
and the dancing dervish is still so misleading signs sometimes mark the danger line under eating and over thinking was what the doctor said while he felt her
drinking water if he secretly knew
so that a waiting spirit might easily pass well he was a doctor not a minister his business was with the body and he ordered repairs she was only thirty seven
and well when she passed painlessly out of life it seemed to be simply a case of going there were several friends at her bedside the night she went and to them she turned feeling the time come
i just wanted to give out that the first thing i intend to do when i'm relieved is to call by there for morris
for morris and i want it understood that it'll be a vacant house from the minute i depart so if there's any other woman that's calculatin to have any carryin's on from them windows
why she'll be disappointed she or they the one obnoxious person
my imagination was tempted of satan an i was misled
just a photographer's photograph if it's a picture with a past why everybody knows what that past is and will respect it
myself enough to bequeath it to the young lady i suspicioned but human nature is frail an i can't quite do it although doubtless she would like it as a souvenir
maybe she'd find it a little too souvenirish to suit my wifely taste and yet
partly to recompense her for her discretion in leaving that hotel when she did an partly for undue suspicion there's a few debts to be paid but there's eggs an things that'll pay them
it was a good advertisement but i've often thought it might be embarrassin to her she was growing weaker but she roused herself to amend better raffle the picture
for a dollar a chance an let the proceeds go to my funeral an i want to be buried in the hotel fire general grave
left over after the debts are paid i bequeath to her to make amends an if she don't care to come for it
but she'll come most any woman'll
but look she raised her eyes excitedly toward the mantel look what's that he's wavin it looks oh yes it is it's our wings two pairs
mine a little smaller i s'pose it'll be the same old story i'll never be able to keep up to keep up with him
into a peaceful sleep from which she easily passed just before dawn when all was well over the sitting women rose with one accord and went to the mantel where one
even lighted an extra candle more clearly to scan the mysterious picture finally one said you may think i'm queer but it does look different to me already
like a house for rent i declare it gives me the cold shivers
but i wouldn't let such a thing as that enter my happy home neither would i nor me neither i've had trouble enough my husband's first wife's portrait has brought me discord enough
an it was a straight likeness i don't want any more pictures to put in the
loft so the feeling ran among the wives well said she who was blowing out the candle i'll draw for it an take it if i win it an consider it a sort of inheritance
i never inherited anything but indigestion the last speaker was a maiden lady
she who answered chuckling that's what i say anything for a change
i do declare it's just scandalous the way we're gigglin an the poor soul hardly out o hearin she had a kind heart mis morris had an she made herself happy with a mighty slim chance
pacific thundered in upon them they could hear the winds calling and calling with an immemorial invitation they knew of the little jewelled islands that lay out in the seas and of the lands of eld on the far far shore
and they dreamed strange dreams sitting in the twilight watching the light reluctantly leave the sea they spoke of many things they spoke most of all of women and it sometimes seemed as they sat there
one at the doorway of the house of life and one in a shaded inner chamber as if the rune of women came to them from their far sisters from those in their harems from others in the blare of commercial occidental life
from those in chambers of pain from those freighted with the poignant burdens which women bear in their bodies and in their souls as the darkness deepened
they grew unashamed and then reticences fell from them the eternally flowing sea the ever recurrent night gave them courage though they were women to speak the truth
than i would have cast away a hope of heaven if i had seen that shining before me i would no more have turned from it than i would have turned from food if i had been starving or water after i had been thirsting in the desert why
kate to marry him was inevitable the bird doesn't think when it sings or the bud when it flowers it does what it was created to do i married david the same way i understand said kate
they sat on their little low sand swept balcony facing the sea the rising tide filled the world with its soft and indescribable cadence the stars came out into the sky according to their rank
the greatest first and after them the less and the less no more lacking in beauty than the great all was as it should be all was ordered all was fit and wonderful
so went on honora after a silence which the sea filled in with its low harmonies if you loved karl wait said kate so honora waited
another silence fell then kate spoke brokenly if to feel when i am with him that i have reached my home
and to feel less familiar with myself than with him is to love then i love him honora if to want to work with him and to feel there could be no exultation like overcoming difficulties with him is love
then truly i love him if just to see him at a distance enriches the world and makes the stream of time turn from lead to gold is anything in the nature of love
then i am his lover if to long to house with him to go by the same name that he does to wear him so to speak carved on my brow is to love then i do
then i foresee that you will be one of the happiest women in the world no no you mustn't say that aren't there other things than love honora better things than selfish delight
unselfish people or those who mean to be so contrive when they refuse to follow the instincts of their hearts to cause more suffering even than the out and out selfish ones
i can set in motion a movement which may have a more lasting effect upon my country than any victory ever gained by it on a field of battle and perhaps in time the example set by this land will be followed by others
i give him all my life and i resign my birthright of labor
i let the dream perish i hinder a great work oh honora i want him i want him but am i for that reason to be false to my destiny
you want celebrity said honora with sudden bitterness you want to go to washington to have your name numbered among the leading ones of the nation
you are not willing to spend your days in the solitude of williston ranch as wife to its master i will not say that you are speaking falsely but i think you know you are setting out only a little part of the truth
admit it honora honora sighed heavily oh yes
you must forgive me kate it seems so easy for you two to be happy that i can't help feeling it blasphemous for you to be anything else if it were an ordinary marriage or an ordinary separation
it would be epic and i should rejoice that you were living in that savage world instead of in a city you two would need room like great beautiful buildings who would wish to see you in the jumble of a city
with you to aid him karl may become a distinguished man your lives would go on together widening widening oh interrupted kate with a sharp ejaculation we'll not talk of it any more honora
you must not think because i cannot marry him that he will always be unhappy in time he will find another woman kate will you find another man
any man would be an anticlimax to me after him can you suspect him of a passion or a fealty less than your own if you refuse to marry him i believe you will frustrate a great purpose of nature
why kate it will be a crime against love
than i can make the words convey to you but you must think them over kate i beg you to think them over in the darkness kate heard honora stealing away to her room
so she was alone and the hour had come for her decision bitter alas she quoted to the rising trouble of the sea the sorrow of lonely women
we who suffer most are those who most do love she went down upon the sands the tongues of the sea came up and lapped her feet the winds of the sea enfolded her in an embrace
for the first time in her life freely without restraint bravely as sometime she might face god she confronted the idea of love and a secret wonderful knowledge came to her
the knowledge of lovely spiritual ecstasies the realization of rich human delights sorrow and cruel loss might be on their way but joy was hers now
she feigned that karl was waiting for her a little way on in the warm darkness on around that scimitar shaped bend of the beach she chose to believe that he was running to meet her his eyes aflame
his great arms outstretched she thrilled to the rain of his kisses she thought those stars might hear the voice with which he shouted kate then calmer yet as if she had run a race
panting palpitant she seated herself on the sands she let her imagination roam through the years she saw the road of life they would take together how they would stand on peaks of lofty desire in sunlight
how unfaltering they would pace tenebrous valleys always they would be together their laughter would chime and their tears would fall in unison where one failed the other would redeem where one doubted the other would hope
they would bear their children to be the vehicle of their ideals these fresh new creatures born of their love would be trained to achieve what they their parents had somehow missed then her bolder thought died
she who had forced herself so relentlessly to face the world as a woman faces it with the knowledge and the courage of maturity felt her wisdom slip from her she was a girl very lonely
facing a task too large for her needing the comfort of her lover's word she stretched herself upon the sand face downward weeping because she was afraid of life
because she was wishful for the joy of woman and dared not take it have you decided asked honora in the morning i think so
answered kate honora scrutinized the face of her friend accept she said my profound commiseration her tone seemed to imply that she included contempt
after this there was a change in honora's attitude toward her kate felt herself more alone than she ever had been in her life it was as if she had been cast out into a desert
and in it was no house of refuge no comfortable tree no waters of healing no nor any other soul alone she walked there and the only figures she saw were those of the mirage
it gave her a sort of relief to turn her face eastward and to feel that she must traverse the actual desert
they could raise a druidical or magic fog which hid things from view or bring on darkness in the day like the blackest night they could bring down showers of fire or blood cause a snowfall even in summer
till the ground was covered half a yard deep and bring on storms and tempests on sea or land they could drive a man mad by their sorcery a power which was dreaded most of all by the people in general
for this purpose the druid prepared what was called a madman's wisp that is a little wisp of straw or grass into which he pronounced some foul baleful verses
and watching his opportunity he flung it into the face of the poor victim who straightway became a madman or what was just as bad an idiot all beyond cure
many other instances of the power of their spells are related in old irish tales they were often employed in divination
often by interpreting dreams or from sneezing or by the voices of birds especially the croaking of the raven
by some or all of these means they professed to be able to tell the issue of a coming battle or whether a man's life was to be long or short and what were the lucky or unlucky days for beginning any work or for undertaking any enterprise
the greeks and romans of old had as we know their augurs or soothsayers
who forecasted the future like our druids and by much the same observations signs and tokens we must not judge those old people whether greek roman or irish too severely for believing in these prophets
for although there are no druids or soothsayers now we have amongst us plenty of palmists and fortune tellers of various kinds who make a good living out of those people who are simple enough to believe in them
there were druids in every part of ireland but tara as being the residence of the over kings was their chief seat where they were most powerful
and how he put them down in argument the pagan irish had many gods and many idols among other things they worshipped the fairies who were and are still called in irish shee
the fairies dwelt under pleasant green little hills and there they built themselves palaces all ablaze with light and glittering with gems and gold these residences as well as the elves or fairies themselves were called shee
many of the old fairy hills all over the country are still well known and to this day there is a superstition among many of the people that the fairies still remain in them and that they also dwell in the old lisses
raths or forts that are found everywhere in ireland the fairies were not always confined to their dwellings they often got out but they were generally invisible
whenever they made themselves visible to mortals and that was only seldom they were seen to be very small hardly the height of a man's knee people had to be careful of them for they often did mischief when interfered with
mannanan mac lir was the irish sea god like neptune of the greeks and romans he generally lived on the sea riding in his chariot at the head of his followers he is in his glory on a stormy night
and on such a night when you look over the waste of waters there before your eyes in the dim gloom are thousands of mannanan's white steeds careering along after their great chief's chariot
there were many other gods and there were goddesses also poets physicians and smiths had three goddesses whom they severally worshipped three sisters all named brigit
there were also many fairy queens who were considered as goddesses and worshipped in their several districts all living in their palaces under fairy mounds or rocks
many of these residences are still well known such as carrigcleena a circle of grey rocks near mallow where lived cleena the fairy queen of south munster
the people of several districts had local gods also such as donn
near croom in limerick john macananty of scrabo carn near newtownards and tierna the powerful and kindly fairy lord
besides those that were acknowledged and worshipped as gods or goddesses there were battle furies who delighted in blood and slaughter
some harmless some malignant who will be found enumerated and described in either of my two social histories the idols worshipped by the pagan irish were nearly all of them stones mostly pillar stones
which were sometimes covered over with gold silver or bronze the people also worshipped the elements that is to say water fire the sun the wind and such like the worship of wells was very general
most of those old pagan fountains were taken possession of by saint patrick saint columkille and other early missionaries who blessed them and devoted them to baptism and other christian uses so that they came to be called holy wells
and though they were no longer worshipped they were as much venerated by the christians as they had been by the pagans it must not be supposed that each of the objects mentioned above was worshipped by all the people of ireland
each person in fact worshipped whichever he pleased and it was usual for individuals or a tribe to choose some idol or element or pagan divinity which they held in veneration as their special guardian god
it was inhabited by fairies but it was not for human beings except a few individuals who were brought thither by the fairies
and when it had touched the land a fairy like a human being and richly dressed came forth from it and addressing connla tried to entice him into it no one saw this strange being save connla alone
though all heard the conversation and the king and the nobles marvelled and were greatly troubled
at last the fairy chanted the following words in a very sweet voice and the moment the chant was ended the poor young prince stepped into the crystal boat which in a moment glided swiftly away to the west
and prince connla was never again seen in his native land
a land from sorrow free it lies far off in the golden west on the verge of the azure sea a swift canoe of crystal bright that never met mortal view
we shall reach the land ere fall of night in that strong and swift canoe we shall reach the strand of that sunny land from druids and demons free
from pain and sorrow free
the sun comes down each evening in its lovely vales to rest and though far and dim on the ocean's rim it seems to mortal view we shall reach its halls ere the evening falls in my strong and swift canoe
of the flowing golden hair it will guard thee from the druids from the demons of the air my crystal boat will guard thee till we reach that western shore where thou and i in joy and love shall live for evermore
from the druid's incantation from his black and deadly snare from the withering imprecation of the demon of the air it will guard thee gentle connla of the flowing golden hair
my crystal boat will guard thee till we reach that silver strand
some new plenitude had come to him since kate had seen him last his full manhood seemed to be realized a fine seriousness invested him a seriousness which included the observer felt sure
all imaginable fit forms of joy clothed in gray save for the inevitable sombrero clean shaven bright eyed capable renewed with hope
he took both women with a protecting gesture into his embrace the three rejoiced together in that honest demonstration which seems permissible in the west where social forms and fears have not much foothold
they talked as happily of little things as if great ones were not occupying their minds to listen one would have thought that only little joys and small vexations had come their way
it would be by looking into their faces that one could see the marks of passion the passion of sorrow of love of sacrifice as they came out of the pinon grove honora discovered her babies
they were in white fresh as lilies or perhaps as little angels well beloved of heavenly mothers and they came running from the house their golden hair shining like aureoles about their eager faces
their sandaled feet hardly touched the ground and indeed could they have been weighed at that moment it surely had been found that they had become almost imponderable because of the ethereal lightness of their spirits
their arms were outstretched their eyes burning like the eyes of seraphs stop cried honora to karl in a choking voice he drew up his restless home bound horses and she leaped to the ground
as she ran toward her little ones on swift feet the two who watched her were convinced that she had regained her old time vigor and had acquired an eloquence of personality which never before had been hers
she gathered her treasures in her arms and walked with them to the house kate had not many minutes to wait in the living room before wander joined her it was a long room with triplicate lofty windows facing the mountains
which wheeled in majestic semicircle from north to west at this hour the purple shadows were gathering on them and great peace and beauty lay over the world there was but one door to this room and wander closed it
i may as well know my fate now he said i've waited for this from the moment i saw you last are you going to be my wife kate he stood facing her breathing rather heavily
his face commanded to a tense repose my answer is no cried kate holding out her hands to him i love you as my life and my answer is no
he took the hands she had extended kiss me he gathered her into his arms and upon her welcoming lips
he laid his own in such a kiss as a man places upon but one woman's lips now what is your answer he breathed after a time tell me your answer now you much loved woman
tell it beloved she kissed his brow and his eyes he felt her tears upon his cheeks you know all that i have thought and felt she said
you know for i have written what my life may be do you ask me to let it go and to live here in this solitude with you yes by heaven he said his eyes blazing i ask it
some influence had gone out from them which seemed to create a palpitant atmosphere of delight in which they stood it was as if the spiritual essence of them mingling
had formed the perfect fluid of the soul in which it was a privilege to live and breathe and dream i am so blessed in you whispered karl so completed by you
that i cannot let you go even though you go on to great usefulness and great goodness i tell you your place is here in my home it is safe here
i warned you of its danger you told me of its glory but i repeat my warning now for i see you venturing on to that precipice of loneliness and fame on which none but sad and lonely women stand
oh i know what you say is true karl i mean to do my work with all the power there is in me and i shall be rejoicing in that and in life it's in me to be glad merely that i'm living
but deep within my heart i shall as you say be both lonely and sad if there's any comfort in that for you no there's no comfort at all for me in that kate
stay with me stay with me be my wife why it's your destiny kate crossed the room as if she would move beyond that aura which vibrated about him
and in which she could not stand without a too dangerous delight she was very pale
i mean to be the mother to many many children karl she said in a voice which thrilled with sorrow and pride and a strange joy to thousands and thousands of children
but for the idea i represent and the work i mean to do they would be trampled in the dust of the world can't you see that i am called to this as men are called to honorable services for their country
this is a woman's form of patriotism it's a higher one than the soldier's i think it's come my way to be the banner carrier and i'm glad of it
i take my chance and my honor just as you would take your chance and your honor but i could resign the glory karl for your love and count it worth while kate
but the thing to which i am faithful is my opportunity for great service come with me karl my dear think how we could work together in washington
think what such a brain and heart as yours would mean to a new cause we'd lose ourselves and find ourselves laboring for one of the kindest lovingest ideas the hard old world has yet devised will you come and help me karl
man he moved toward her his hands outspread with a protesting gesture you know that all my work is here kate this is my home these mines are mine the town is mine
it is not only my own money which is invested but the money of other men friends who have trusted me and whose prosperity depends upon me oh but karl aren't there ways of arranging such things
you say i am dear to you transfer your interests and come with me karl her voice was a pleader's yet it kept its pride
kate how can i do you want me to be a supplement to you a hanger on don't you see that you would make me ridiculous would i said kate does it seem that way to you
then you haven't learned to respect me after all i worship you he cried kate smiled sadly i know she said but worship passes no he flung out
starting toward her but she held him back with a gesture you have stolen my word she said with an accent of finality no is the word you force me to speak i am going on to washington in the morning karl
nestling against her dark one as she left the room moving unseeingly she heard the hard wrung groan that came from his lips a moment later as she mounted the stairs she saw him striding up the trail
which they together had ascended once when the sun of their hope was still high she did not meet him again that day she and honora ate their meals in silence honora dark with disapproval
kate clinging to her spar of spiritual integrity if that no thundered in karl's ears the night through while he kept the company of his ancient comforters the mountains
no less did it beat shatteringly in the ears of the woman who had spoken it no to the deep and mystic human joys no to the most holy privilege of women
no to light laughter and a dancing heart no to the lowly satisfying labor of a home for her the steep path alone for her the precipice
from it she might behold the sunrise and all the glory of the world but no exalted sense of duty or of victory could blind her to its solitude and to its danger yet now if ever
women must be true to the cause of liberty they had been through all the ages willing martyrs to the general good now it was laid upon them to assume the responsibilities of a new crusade to undertake a fresh martyrdom
and this time it was for themselves leagued against them was half quite half of their sex vanity and prettiness dalliance and dependence were their characteristics
with a shrug of half bared shoulders they dismissed all those who painfully nobly gravely were fighting to restore woman's connection with reality to put her back somehow into the procession
to make by new methods the coming lady as essential to the commonwealth as was the old time chatelaine before commercialism filched her vocations and left her the most cultivated and useless of parasites
oh it was no little thing for which she was fighting kate tried to console herself with that if she passionately desired to create an organization which should exercise parental powers over orphaned or poorly guarded children
still more did she wish to set an example of efficiency for women illustrating to them with how firm a step woman might tread the higher altitudes of public life making an achievement not a compromise of labor
moreover no other woman in the country had at present had an opportunity that equaled her own look at it how she would throb as she might with a woman's immemorial nostalgia for a true man's love
she could not escape the relentless logic of the situation
and shine in one part more and in another less within that heaven which most his light receives was i
who from above descends because in drawing near to its desire our intellect ingulphs itself so far that after it the memory cannot go truly
whatever of the holy realm i had the power to treasure in my mind shall now become the subject of my song o good apollo for this last emprise make of me such a vessel of thy power
as giving the beloved laurel asks one summit of parnassus hitherto has been enough for me but now with both i needs must enter the arena left enter into my bosom thou
and breathe as at the time when marsyas thou didst draw out of the scabbard of those limbs of his o power divine lend'st thou thyself to me
i can make manifest thou'lt see me come unto thy darling tree and crown myself thereafter with those leaves of which the theme and thou shall make me worthy so seldom father do we gather them
for triumph or of caesar or of poet the fault and shame of human inclinations that the peneian foliage should bring forth joy to the joyous delphic deity
is followed by great flame perchance with better voices after me shall prayer be made that cyrrha may respond to mortal men by passages diverse uprises the world's lamp
but by that one which circles four uniteth with three crosses with better course and with a better star conjoined it issues and the mundane wax tempers and stamps more after its own fashion
i saw turned round and gazing at the sun never did eagle fasten so upon it and even as a second ray is wont to issue from the first and reascend like to a pilgrim who would fain return
thus of her action through the eyes infused in my imagination mine i made and sunward fixed mine eyes beyond our wont
there much is lawful which is here unlawful unto our powers by virtue of the place made for the human species as its own not long i bore it nor so little while but
i beheld it sparkle round about like iron that comes molten from the fire and suddenly it seemed that day to day was added as if he who has the power had with another sun the heaven adorned
tasting of the herb that made him peer of the other gods beneath the sea to represent transhumanise in words impossible were the example then
suffice him for whom grace the experience reserves if i was merely what of me thou newly createdst love who governest the heaven thou knowest who didst lift me with thy light
e'er made a lake so widely spread abroad the newness of the sound and the great light kindled in me a longing for their cause never before with such acuteness felt whence she
who saw me as i saw myself to quiet in me my perturbed mind opened her mouth ere i did mine to ask and she began thou makest thyself so dull
with false imagining that thou seest not what thou wouldst see if thou hadst shaken it off thou art not upon earth as thou believest but lightning fleeing its appropriate site
ne'er ran as thou who thitherward returnest if of my former doubt i was divested by these brief little words more smiled than spoken i in a new one was the more ensnared and said
her eyes directed tow'rds me with that look a mother casts on a delirious child and she began all things whate'er they be have order among themselves and this is form
that makes the universe resemble god here do the higher creatures see the footprints of the eternal power which is the end
in the order that i speak of are inclined all natures by their destinies diverse more or less near unto their origin hence they move onward unto ports diverse
o'er the great sea of being and each one with instinct given it which bears it on this bears away the fire towards the moon this is in mortal hearts the motive power this binds together
and unites the earth nor only the created things that are without intelligence this bow shoots forth but those that have both intellect and love the providence that regulates all this
makes with its light the heaven forever quiet wherein that turns which has the greatest haste and thither now as to a site decreed bears us away the virtue of that cord
doth deviate sometimes the creature who the power possesses though thus impelled to swerve some other way in the same wise as one may see the fire fall from a cloud
she heavenward turned again her face paradiso canto two
who in some pretty little boat eager to listen have been following behind my ship that singing sails along turn back to look again upon your shores do not put out to sea lest
peradventure in losing me you might yourselves be lost the sea i sail has never yet been passed minerva breathes and pilots me apollo and muses nine
ye other few who have the neck uplifted
who unto colchos passed were not so wonder struck as you shall be when jason they beheld a ploughman made the con created and perpetual thirst for the realm deiform did bear us on as swift
almost as ye the heavens behold
and in such space perchance as strikes a bolt and flies and from the notch unlocks itself
towards me turning blithe as beautiful said unto me fix gratefully thy mind on god who unto the first star has brought us
it seemed to me a cloud encompassed us luminous dense consolidate and bright as adamant on which the sun is striking
into itself did the eternal pearl receive us even as water doth receive a ray of light remaining still unbroken if i was body
and we here conceive not how one dimension tolerates another which needs must be if body enter body more the desire should be enkindled in us that essence to behold wherein is seen how god and our own nature were united
madonna as devoutly as most i can do i give thanks to him who has removed me from the mortal world but tell me what the dusky spots may be upon this body which below on earth
make people tell that fabulous tale of cain somewhat she smiled and then if the opinion of mortals be erroneous she said
where'er the key of sense doth not unlock
forasmuch as following the senses thou seest that the reason has short wings but tell me what thou think'st of it thyself and i
if this were caused by rare and dense alone one only virtue would there be in all or more or less diffused or equally virtues diverse
must be perforce the fruits of formal principles and these save one of course would by thy reasoning be destroyed besides if rarity were of this dimness the cause thou askest
either through and through this planet thus attenuate were of matter or else as in a body is apportioned the fat and lean so in like manner this would in its volume interchange the leaves
and if it chance the other i demolish then falsified will thy opinion be but if this rarity go not through and through there needs must be a limit
beyond which its contrary prevents the further passing and thence the foreign radiance is reflected even as a colour cometh back from glass the which behind itself concealeth lead
now thou wilt say the sunbeam shows itself more dimly there than in the other parts by being there reflected farther back
which is wont to be the fountain to the rivers of your arts three mirrors shalt thou take and two remove alike from thee the other more remote between the former two shall meet thine eyes
turned towards these cause that behind thy back be placed a light illuming the three mirrors and coming back to thee by all reflected though in its quantity be not so ample the image most remote
there shalt thou see how it perforce is equally resplendent now
thee thus remaining in thy intellect will i inform with such a living light that it shall tremble in its aspect to thee within the heaven of the divine repose revolves a body
the other spheres by various differences all the distinctions which they have within them dispose unto their ends and their effects thus do these organs of the world proceed as thou perceivest now from grade to grade
since from above they take and act beneath observe me well how through this place i come unto the truth thou wishest that hereafter thou mayst alone know how to keep the ford
the power and motion of the holy spheres as from the artisan the hammer's craft forth from the blessed motors must proceed the heaven which lights so manifold make fair
from the intelligence profound which turns it the image takes and makes of it a seal and even as the soul within your dust through members different and accommodated to faculties diverse expands itself
so likewise this intelligence diffuses its virtue multiplied among the stars itself revolving on its unity virtue diverse doth a diverse alloyage make
with the precious body that it quickens in which as life in you it is combined from the glad nature whence it is derived the mingled virtue through the body shines even as gladness through the living pupil
from this proceeds whate'er from light to light appeareth different not from dense and rare this is the formal principle that produces according to its goodness dark and bright
paradiso canto three that sun which erst with love my bosom warmed of beauteous truth had unto me discovered
by proving and reproving the sweet aspect and that i might confess myself convinced and confident so far as was befitting i lifted more erect my head to speak but there appeared a vision
that my confession i remembered not such as through polished and transparent glass or waters crystalline and undisturbed but not so deep as that their bed be lost come back again the outlines of our faces so feeble
that a pearl on forehead white comes not less speedily unto our eyes such saw i many faces prompt to speak so that i ran in error opposite to that which kindled love twixt man and fountain
into the light of my sweet guide who smiling kindled in her holy eyes marvel thou not she said to me because i smile at this thy puerile conceit
since on the truth it trusts not yet its foot but turns thee as tis wont on emptiness true substances are these which thou beholdest here relegate for breaking of some vow therefore speak with them
listen and believe for the true light which giveth peace to them permits them not to turn from it their feet and i unto the shade that seemed most wishful to speak directed me and i began
as one whom too great eagerness bewilders o well created spirit who in the rays of life eternal dost the sweetness taste which being untasted ne'er is comprehended
grateful twill be to me if thou content me both with thy name
whereat she promptly and with laughing eyes our charity doth never shut the doors against a just desire except as one who wills that all her court be like herself
all our affections that alone inflamed are in the pleasure of the holy ghost rejoice at being of his order formed and this allotment which appears so low
therefore is given us because our vows have been neglected and in some part void whence i to her in your miraculous aspects there shines i know not what of the divine
which doth transform you from our first conceptions therefore i was not swift in my remembrance but what thou tellest me now aids me so that the refiguring is easier to me but tell me
ye who in this place are happy are you desirous of a higher place to see more or to make yourselves more friends first with those other shades she smiled a little
thereafter answered me so full of gladness she seemed to burn in the first fire of love brother our will is quieted by virtue of charity
nay tis essential to this blest existence to keep itself within the will divine whereby our very wishes are made one so that as we are station above station throughout this realm
to all the realm tis pleasing as to the king who makes his will our will and his will is our peace this is the sea to which is moving onward whatsoever it doth create
and all that nature makes then it was clear to me how everywhere in heaven is paradise although the grace of good supreme there rain not in one measure but as it comes to pass
if one food sates and for another still remains the longing we ask for this and that decline with thanks e'en thus did i with gesture and with word
to learn from her what was the web wherein she did not ply the shuttle to the end a perfect life and merit high in heaven a lady o'er us said she by whose rule down in your world they vest and veil themselves
that until death they may both watch and sleep beside that spouse who every vow accepts which charity conformeth to his pleasure
and pledged me to the pathway of her sect then men accustomed unto evil more than unto good from the sweet cloister tore me god knows what afterward my life became
this other splendour which to thee reveals itself on my right side and is enkindled with all the illumination of our sphere what of myself i say applies to her
of the heart's veil she never was divested of great costanza this is the effulgence
brought forth the third and latest puissance thus unto me she spake and then began ave maria singing and in singing vanished as through deep water something heavy
my sight that followed her
when it had lost her turned round unto the mark of more desire and wholly unto beatrice reverted but she such lightnings flashed into mine eyes
and tempting a free man would die of hunger ere either he could bring unto his teeth so would a lamb between the ravenings of two fierce wolves stand fearing both alike
hence if i held my peace myself i blame not
since it must be so nor do i commend i held my peace but my desire was painted upon my face and questioning with that more fervent far than by articulate speech
beatrice did as daniel had done relieving nebuchadnezzar from the wrath which rendered him unjustly merciless and said well see i how attracteth thee one and the other wish
so that forth it does not breathe thou arguest if good will be permanent the violence of others for what reason doth it decrease the measure of my merit again for doubting
furnish thee occasion souls seeming to return unto the stars according to the sentiment of plato these are the questions which upon thy wish are thrusting equally and therefore first will i treat that which hath the most of gall
he of the seraphim most absorbed in god moses and samuel and whichever john thou mayst select i say and even mary have not in any other heaven their seats than have those spirits that just appeared to thee
nor of existence more or fewer years but all make beautiful the primal circle and have sweet life in different degrees by feeling more or less the eternal breath they showed themselves here
not because allotted this sphere has been to them but to give sign of the celestial which is least exalted
since only through the sense it apprehendeth
on this account
and feet and hands to god attributes and means something else and holy church under an aspect human gabriel and michael represent to you and him who made tobias whole again that which timaeus argues of the soul
doth not resemble that which here is seen because it seems that as he speaks he thinks he says the soul unto its star returns believing it to have been severed thence whenever nature gave it as a form
perhaps his bow doth hit upon some truth
the other doubt which doth disquiet thee less venom has for its malevolence could never lead thee otherwhere from me that as unjust our justice should appear in eyes of mortals is an argument of faith
and not of sin heretical but still that your perception may be able to thoroughly penetrate this verity as thou desirest i will satisfy thee
if their will had been perfect like to that which lawrence fast upon his gridiron held and mutius made severe to his own hand it would have urged them back along the road whence they were dragged as soon as they were free
but such a solid will is all too rare and by these words if thou hast gathered them as thou shouldst do the argument is refuted that would have still annoyed thee many times
but now another passage runs across before thine eyes and such that by thyself thou couldst not thread it ere thou wouldst be weary i have for certain put into thy mind that soul beatified could never lie
for it is near the primal truth and then thou from piccarda might'st have heard costanza kept affection for the veil so that she seemeth here to contradict me many times brother has it come to pass that to escape from peril
with reluctance that has been done it was not right to do e'en as alcmaeon
that force with will commingles and they cause that the offences cannot be excused will absolute consenteth not to evil but in so far consenteth as it fears if it refrain
to fall into more harm hence when piccarda uses this expression she meaneth the will absolute and i the other
such was the flowing of the holy river that issued from the fount whence springs all truth this put to rest my wishes one and all o love of the first lover
o divine said i forthwith whose speech inundates me and warms me so it more and more revives me my own affection is not so profound as to suffice in rendering grace for grace
well i perceive that never sated is our intellect unless the truth illume it beyond which nothing true expands itself it rests therein as wild beast in his lair when it attains it
and it can attain it if not then each desire would frustrate be
doubt at the foot of truth and this is nature which to the top from height to height impels us this doth invite me
another truth which is obscure to me i wish to know if man can satisfy you for broken vows with other good deeds so that in your balance they will not be light
beatrice gazed upon me with her eyes full of the sparks of love and so divine that overcome my power i turned my back and almost lost myself with eyes downcast paradiso
if in the heat of love i flame upon thee beyond the measure that on earth is seen so that the valour of thine eyes i vanquish marvel thou not thereat for this proceeds from perfect sight
which as it apprehends to the good apprehended moves its feet well i perceive how is already shining into thine intellect the eternal light that only seen enkindles always love
and if some other thing your love seduce tis nothing but a vestige of the same ill understood which there is shining through thou fain wouldst know
if with another service for broken vow can such return be made as to secure the soul from further claim this canto thus did beatrice begin and as a man who breaks not off his speech
continued thus her holy argument the greatest gift that in his largess god creating made and unto his own goodness nearest conformed and that which he doth prize most highly is the freedom of the will
a sacrifice is of this treasure made such as i say and made by its own act what can be rendered then as compensation think'st thou to make good use of what thou'st offered
with gains ill gotten thou wouldst do good deed now art thou certain of the greater point but because holy church in this dispenses which seems against the truth which i have shown thee
because the solid food which thou hast taken requireth further aid for thy digestion open thy mind to that which i reveal and fix it there within for tis not knowledge
the having heard without retaining it in the essence of this sacrifice two things convene together and the one is that of which tis made the other is the agreement this last for evermore is cancelled not
unless complied with and concerning this with such precision has above been spoken therefore it was enjoined upon the hebrews to offer still though sometimes what was offered might be commuted as thou ought'st to know the other
which is known to thee as matter may well indeed be such that one errs not
at his arbitrament without the turning both of the white and of the yellow key and every permutation deem as foolish if in the substitute the thing relinquished as the four is in six be not contained
therefore whatever thing has so great weight in value that it drags down every balance cannot be satisfied with other spending let mortals never take a vow in jest
be faithful and not blind in doing that as jephthah was in his first offering whom more beseemed to say i have done wrong than to do worse by keeping
and as foolish thou the great leader of the greeks wilt find whence wept iphigenia her fair face and made for her both wise and simple weep
be ye more serious in your movements be ye not like a feather at each wind and think not every water washes you ye have the old and the new testament and the pastor of the church who guideth you let this suffice you unto your salvation
if evil appetite cry aught else to you be ye as men and not as silly sheep so that the jew among you may not mock you be ye not as the lamb that doth abandon its mother's milk
silence imposed upon my eager mind that had already in advance new questions and as an arrow that upon the mark strikes ere the bowstring quiet hath become so did we speed into the second realm
my lady there so joyful i beheld as into the brightness of that heaven she entered more luminous thereat the planet grew and if the star itself was changed and smiled
what became i who by my nature am exceeding mutable in every guise as in a fish pond which is pure and tranquil the fishes draw to that which from without comes in such fashion that their food they deem it
full of beatitude the shade was seen by the effulgence clear that issued from it think reader if what here is just beginning no farther should proceed
thou'lt see how i from these was in desire of hearing their conditions as they unto mine eyes were manifest o thou well born unto whom grace concedes to see the thrones of the eternal triumph
or ever yet the warfare be abandoned with light that through the whole of heaven is spread kindled are we and hence if thou desirest to know of us at thine own pleasure sate thee
and by beatrice speak speak securely and believe them even as gods well i perceive how thou dost nest thyself in thine own light and drawest it from thine eyes
because they coruscate when thou dost smile but know not who thou art nor why thou hast spirit august thy station in the sphere that veils itself to men in alien rays
even as the sun that doth conceal himself by too much light
without betraying his intentions or his thoughts without in short revealing more or less of the secret he is endeavoring to conceal all criminals even the most simple minded understand this
confining themselves to the few facts upon which they have founded their defense
unless absolutely compelled to do so and even then they only speak with the utmost caution when questioned they reply of course but always briefly and they are very sparing of details
in the present instance however the prisoner was prodigal of words
he did not hesitate like those who are afraid of misplacing a word of the romance they are substituting for the truth under other circumstances this fact would have been a strong argument in his favor
you may tell your own story then
the presumed murderer did not try to hide the satisfaction he experienced at thus being allowed to plead his own cause in his own way his eyes sparkled and his nostrils dilated as if with pleasure
he sat himself dawn threw his head back passed his tongue over his lips as if to moisten them and said am i to understand that you wish to hear my history yes
he had with him two large vehicles containing his wife the necessary theatrical paraphernalia and the members of the company well soon after passing chatelaudren he perceived something white lying by the roadside
he stopped the horses alighted from the vehicle he was in went to the ditch picked up the object he had noticed and uttered a cry of surprise you will ask me what he had found ah good heavens a mere trifle
he had found your humble servant then about six months old with these last words the prisoner made a low bow to his audience naturally father tringlot carried me to his wife
she was a kind hearted woman she took me examined me fed me and said he's a strong healthy child and we'll keep him since his mother has been so wicked as to abandon him by the roadside i will teach him
and in five or six years he will be a credit to us they then asked each other what name they should give me
they decided to call me after the month
entirely ignorant of the law
and for this reason although i was living i did not legally exist for to have a legal existence it is necessary that one's name parentage and birthplace should figure upon a municipal register
and a positive dread of bullets and cannon balls later on when i had passed the proper age for the conscription
and so i decided to exist surreptitiously and this is why i have no christian name and why i can't exactly say where i was born if truth has any particular accent of its own
as moralists have asserted the murderer had found that accent
not a word of his long story had rung false now
what are your means of subsistence by the prisoner's discomfited mien one might have supposed that he had expected to see the prison doors fly open at the conclusion of his narrative i have a profession
he replied plaintively the one that mother tringlot taught me i subsist by its practise and i have lived by it in france and other countries the magistrate thought he had found a flaw in the prisoner's armor
you say you have lived in foreign countries he inquired
i traveled most of the time in england and germany then you are a gymnast and an athlete how is it that your hands are so white and soft
far from being embarrassed the prisoner raised his hands from his lap and examined them with evident complacency it is true they are pretty said he but this is because i take good care of them and scarcely use them
do they pay you then for doing nothing ah no indeed
and without boasting i flatter myself that i have a certain knack
according to his habit whenever he considered that a prisoner had committed some grave blunder in that case said he will you give me a specimen of your talent
evidently supposing this to be a jest on the part of the magistrate ah ha
the supposed murderer made no objection his face at once assumed a different expression his features wearing a mingled air of impudence conceit and irony
and flourishing it wildly began as follows in a shrill falsetto voice
unequaled in the world for their feats upon the trapeze and the tight rope and in innumerable other exercises of grace suppleness and strength that is sufficient interrupted the magistrate
you can speak like that in france but what do you say in germany of course i use the language of that country let me hear then
the prisoner ceased his mocking manner assumed an air of comical importance and without the slightest hesitation began to speak as follows
with the permission of the local authorities there will now be presented before the honorable citizens for the first time genevieve or the enough said the magistrate harshly he rose perhaps to conceal his chagrin and added
on hearing these words lecoq modestly stepped forward i understand english said he very well you hear prisoner but the man was already transformed
british gravity and apathy were written upon his features
and in the most ponderous tones he exclaimed walk up
long life to the queen
his face hidden by his hands
and persuaded that no proofs can be produced against him it is a yet more arduous task to make a woman similarly situated speak the truth as they say at the palais de justice
one might as well try to make the devil confess
who was as skilful in managing his questions as a tried general in maneuvering his troops
was conniving with the murderer the motive of her connivance was yet unknown
that the old hag knew everything it is almost certain remarked the magistrate that she was acquainted with the people who came to her house with the women the victims the murderer with all of them in fact
i read it in her eyes
the mysterious personage who evidently possesses the key to the enigma that man must be found
remarked lecoq yes but she won't the young detective shook his head despondently such was his own opinion he did not delude himself with false hopes
and he had noticed between the widow chupin's eyebrows those furrows which according to physiognomists indicate a senseless brutish obstinacy women never confess resumed the magistrate
and even when they seemingly resign themselves to such a course they are not sincere they fancy they have discovered some means of misleading their examiner on the contrary
evidence will crush the most obstinate man he gives up the struggle and confesses now a woman scoffs at evidence show her the sun tell her it's daytime at once she will close her eyes and say to you
no it's night male prisoners plan and combine different systems of defense according to their social positions
the women on the contrary have but one system no matter what may be their condition in life they deny everything persist in their denials even when the proof against them is overwhelming and then they cry
when i worry the chupin with disagreeable questions at her next examination you may be sure she will turn her eyes into a fountain of tears
he had many weapons in his arsenal but none strong enough to break a woman's dogged resistance if i only understood the motive that guides this old hag he continued but not a clue
who can tell me what powerful interest induces her to remain silent
yes this supposition very naturally presents itself to the mind
if the widow chupin is an accomplice the murderer is not the person we have supposed him to be he is simply the man he seems to be
what is your opinion he asked the young detective had formed his opinion a long while ago but how could he a humble police agent venture to express any decided views when the magistrate hesitated
he understood well enough that his position necessitated extreme reserve hence it was in the most modest tone that he replied might not the pretended drunkard have dazzled mother chupin's eyes with the prospect of a brilliant reward
might he not have promised her a considerable sum of money
the smiling clerk had just returned behind him stood a private of the garde de paris who remained respectfully on the threshold his heels in a straight line his right hand raised to the peak of his shako
and his elbow on a level with his eyes in accordance with the regulations the governor of the depot said the soldier sends me to inquire if he is to keep the widow chupin in solitary confinement she complains bitterly about it
certainly he murmured as if replying to an objection made by his own conscience certainly it is an undoubted aggravation of suffering
but if i allow this woman to associate with the other prisoners she will certainly find some opportunity to communicate with parties outside
the interests of justice and truth must be considered first the thought embodied in these last words decided him despite her complaints the prisoner must be kept in solitary confinement until further orders he said
the soldier allowed his right hand to fall to his side
before proceeding with the examination of the prisoner may
this prisoner has been in such a state of excitement that we have been obliged to keep him in a strait waistcoat he did not close his eyes all last night
i have rarely seen a more determined criminal i think him capable of any desperate act
if i were in your place sir i would only let him in here with an escort of soldiers what
can it be that you're frightened frightened no certainly not but nonsense interrupted lecoq in a tone that betrayed superlative confidence in his own muscles am i not here
he would have blushed to have taken the slightest measure of self protection accordingly he went and sat down by the fireplace
and then ordered his door keeper to admit the prisoner alone he emphasized this word alone a moment later the door was flung open with a violent jerk and the prisoner entered
or rather precipitated himself into the room
turned pale behind his table and lecoq advanced a step forward ready to spring upon the prisoner and pinion him should it be requisite but when the latter reached the centre of the room he paused and looked around him
where is the magistrate he inquired in a hoarse voice
no the other one what other one the one who came to question me last evening he has met with an accident yesterday after leaving you he fell down and broke his leg oh
and i am to take his place the prisoner was apparently deaf to the explanation excitement had seemingly given way to stupor his features hitherto contracted with anger now relaxed
he grew pale and tottered as if about to fall compose yourself said the magistrate in a benevolent tone if you are too weak to remain standing take a seat
the man had recovered his self possession a momentary gleam flashed from his eyes many thanks for your kindness he replied but this is nothing i felt a slight sensation of dizziness but it is over now
is it long since you have eaten anything i have eaten nothing since that man
brought me some bread and wine at the station house wouldn't you like to take something
and yet if you would be so kind i should like a glass of water will you not have some wine with it i should prefer pure water his request was at once complied with
he drained a first glassful at a single draft the glass was then replenished and he drank again this time however more slowly one might have supposed that he was drinking in life itself
he was in that state of nervous prostration which so often follows protracted but fruitless efforts he had scarcely strength enough to bathe his burning forehead and gleaming eyes with cool refreshing water
this frightful examination had lasted no less than seven consecutive hours the smiling clerk who had kept his place at his desk busily writing the whole while now rose to his feet
glad of an opportunity to stretch his limbs and snap his fingers cramped by holding the pen still he was not in the least degree bored
that were daily enacted in his presence
owing to the uncertainty that shrouded the finish of the final act a finish that only too often belied the ordinary rules and deductions of writers for the stage what a knave he exclaimed
he sometimes even went so far as to consult him doubtless somewhat in the same style that moliere consulted his servant but on this occasion he did not accept his opinion no
ah he's a man of wonderful power observed lecoq the detective was sincere in his praise although the prisoner had disappointed his plans and had even insulted him
and he hoped to conquer in the end nevertheless in his secret soul he felt for his adversary admiring that sympathy which a foeman worthy of one's steel always inspires
what coolness what courage continued the young detective ah there's no denying it his system of defense of absolute denial is a masterpiece it is perfect
at times i could scarcely restrain my admiration what is a famous comedian beside that fellow the greatest actors need the adjunct of stage scenery to support the illusion whereas this man entirely unaided
almost convinced me even against my reason do you know what your very appropriate criticism proves inquired the magistrate i am listening sir ah well
it is only in the lowest or in the highest ranks that you encounter such grim energy as he has displayed such scorn of life as well as such remarkable presence of mind and resolution
would have confessed it long ago but sir this man is surely not the buffoon may replied the young detective no certainly not
we must therefore decide upon some plan of action he smiled kindly and added in a friendly voice it was unnecessary to tell you that monsieur lecoq quite unnecessary
since to you belongs the honor of having detected this fraud as for myself i confess that if i had not been warned in advance i should have been the dupe of this clever artist's talent the young detective bowed
but a gleam of pleased vanity sparkled in his eyes what a difference between this friendly benevolent magistrate
so taciturn and haughty this man at least understood appreciated and encouraged him and it was with a common theory and an equal ardor that they were about to devote themselves to a search for the truth
and that success was still extremely doubtful with this chilling conclusion presence of mind returned turning toward the magistrate he exclaimed you will recollect sir
that the widow chupin mentioned a son of hers a certain polyte yes why not question him
and might perhaps give us valuable information regarding gustave lacheneur and the murderer himself as he is not in solitary confinement he has probably heard of his mother's arrest but it seems to me impossible
that he should suspect our present perplexity ah you are a hundred times right exclaimed the magistrate i ought to have thought of that myself in his position he can scarcely have been tampered with as yet
and i'll have him up here to morrow morning i will also question his wife
prepare a summons in the name of the wife of hippolyte chupin and address an order to the governor of the depot to produce her husband but night was coming on it was already too dark to see to write
and accordingly the clerk rang the bell for lights just as the messenger who brought the lamps turned to leave the room a rap was heard at the door immediately afterward the governor of the depot entered
during the past twenty four hours this worthy functionary had been greatly perplexed concerning the mysterious prisoner
and he now came to the magistrate for advice regarding him i come to ask said he if i am still to retain the prisoner may in solitary confinement yes
although i fear fresh attacks of frenzy i dislike to confine him in the strait jacket again leave him free in his cell
and tell the keepers to watch him well but to treat him kindly
accused parties are placed in the custody of the government but the investigating magistrate is allowed to adopt such measures concerning them as he may deem necessary for the interest of the prosecution
and then added you have doubtless succeeded in establishing the prisoner's identity unfortunately i have not the governor shook his head with a knowing air in that case said he
my conjectures were correct it seems to me evident that this man is a criminal of the worst description an old offender certainly and one who has the strongest interest in concealing his identity
you will find that you have to deal with a man
and who has managed to escape from cayenne perhaps you are mistaken hum i shall be greatly surprised if such should prove the case i must admit
the most experienced and the most skilful of our inspectors i agree with him in thinking that young detectives are often overzealous and run after fantoms originated in their own brains lecoq
was about to make an angry response
then with a smile on his face the magistrate replied to the governor upon my word my dear friend he said the more i study this affair the more convinced i am of the correctness of the theory advanced by the
but after all i am not infallible and i shall depend upon your counsel and assistance oh i have means of verifying my assertion interrupted the governor
either by the police or by one of his fellow prisoners with these words he took his leave scarcely had he done so than lecoq sprang to his feet the young detective was furious
you see that gevrol already speaks ill of me he is jealous ah well what does that matter to you if you succeed you will have your revenge if you are mistaken then i am mistaken too
he also placed in his hands the diamond earring the owner of which must be discovered and the letter signed lacheneur which had been found in the pocket of the spurious soldier
eighteen out of every twenty criminals who appear before our investigating magistrates come prepared with a more or less complete plan of defense which they have conceived during their preliminary confinement
innocent or guilty they have resolved on playing some part or other which they begin to act as soon as they cross the threshold of the room where the magistrate awaits them the moment they enter his presence
the magistrate needs to bring all his powers of penetration into play for such a culprit's first attitude as surely betrays his plan of defense as an index reveals a book's contents
it seemed evident to him that the prisoner was not feigning
was as real as his after stupor at all events there seemed no fear of the danger the governor of the depot had spoken of
here he felt stronger and more at ease for his back being turned to the window his face was half hidden in shadow and in case of need he could by bending over his papers conceal any sign of surprise or discomfiture
the prisoner on the contrary stood in the full light and not a movement of his features not the fluttering of an eyelid could escape the magistrate's attention he seemed to have completely recovered from his indisposition
and his features assumed an expression which indicated either careless indifference or complete resignation do you feel better
i feel very well i hope continued the magistrate paternally that in future you will know how to moderate your excitement yesterday you tried to destroy yourself
it would have been another great crime added to many others a crime which with a hasty movement of the hand the prisoner interrupted him i have committed no crime said he
but my conscience does not reproach me that much the prisoner's that much was a contemptuous snap of his finger and thumb and yet i've been arrested and treated like an assassin he continued
when i saw myself interred in that living tomb which you call a secret cell i grew afraid i lost my senses i said to myself my boy they've buried you alive and it is better to die to die quickly if you don't wish to suffer
so i tried to strangle myself my death wouldn't have caused the slightest sorrow to any one
however my attempt was frustrated i was bled and then placed in a strait waistcoat as if i were a madman mad i really believed i should become so
all night long the jailors sat around me like children amusing themselves by tormenting a chained animal they watched me talked about me and passed the candle to and fro before my eyes the prisoner talked forcibly but without any attempt at oratorical display
this man they thought is very clever it won't be easy to get the better of him
this explains your first act of despair but later on for instance even this morning you refused to eat the food that was offered you as the prisoner heard this remark his lowering face suddenly brightened
now i wasn't going to submit to that so i closed my lips as tightly as i could then he tried to force my mouth open and push the spoon in just as one might force a sick dog's jaws apart and pour some medicine down its throat
the deuce take his impertinence i tried to bite him that's the truth and if i had succeeded in getting his finger between my teeth it would have stayed there however
because i wouldn't be fed like a baby all the prison officials raised their hands to heaven in holy horror and pointed at me saying what a terrible man what an awful rascal the prisoner seemed to thoroughly enjoy the recollection of the scene he had described
you are too reasonable i hope he said at last
were merely obeying the orders of their superior officers with the view of protecting you from your own violent passions hum responded the prisoner suddenly growing serious i do blame them however
and if i had one of them in a corner but never mind i shall get over it if i know myself aright i have no more spite in my composition than a chicken
if you will only remain calm you shan't be put in a strait waistcoat again but you must promise me that you will be quiet and conduct yourself properly the murderer sadly shook his head
i shall be very prudent hereafter said he but it is terribly hard to stay in prison with nothing to do if i had some comrades with me we could laugh and chat and the time would slip by
where not a sound can be heard the magistrate bent over his desk to make a note the word comrades had attracted his attention and he proposed to ask the prisoner to explain it at a later stage of the inquiry
if you are innocent he remarked you will soon be released but it is necessary to prove your innocence what must i do to prove it tell the truth the whole truth
as for that you may depend upon me as he spoke the prisoner lifted his hand as if to call upon god to witness his sincerity
prisoners do not take the oath said he indeed ejaculated the man with an astonished air that's strange although the magistrate had apparently paid but little attention to the prisoner
he had in point of fact carefully noted his attitude his tone of voice his looks and gestures
to quiet all possible suspicion of a trap and his inspection of the prisoner's person led him to believe that this result had been attained now said he you will give me your attention
and do not forget that your liberty depends upon your frankness what is your name may what is your christian name i have none that is impossible
i have been told that already three times since yesterday rejoined the prisoner impatiently
if i were a liar i could easily tell you that my name was peter james or john but lying is not in my line really i have no christian name if it were a question of surnames it would be quite another thing i have had plenty of them
what were they let me see to commence with when i was with father fougasse i was called affiloir because you see
the great wild beast tamer sir
serpents as big round as your thigh parrakeets of every color under the sun ah it was a wonderful collection but unfortunately was the man jesting or was he in earnest
enough interrupted the magistrate how old are you forty four or forty five years of age where were you born in brittany probably
i warn you said he severely that if you go on in this way your chances of recovering your liberty will be greatly compromised
mister ralph nickleby has some confidential intercourse with another old friend they concert between them a project which promises well for both there go the three quarters past muttered newman noggs listening to the chimes of some neighbouring church
and my dinner time's two he does it on purpose he makes a point of it it's just like him
and the soliloquy referred as newman's grumbling soliloquies usually did to ralph nickleby i don't believe he ever had an appetite said newman except for pounds shillings and pence and with them he's as greedy as a wolf
i should like to have him compelled to swallow one of every english coin the penny would be an awkward morsel but the crown ha ha his good humour being in some degree restored by the vision of ralph nickleby swallowing perforce a five shilling piece
newman slowly brought forth from his desk one of those portable bottles currently known as pocket pistols and shaking the same close to his ear so as to produce a rippling sound very cool and pleasant to listen to suffered his features to relax and took a gurgling drink which relaxed them still more
replacing the cork he smacked his lips twice or thrice with an air of great relish and the taste of the liquor having by this time evaporated recurred to his grievance again five minutes to three growled newman
and my right dinner time two and i might have a nice little bit of hot roast meat spoiling at home all this time how does he know i haven't don't go till i come back don't go till i come back day after day what do you always go out at my dinner time for then eh
these words though uttered in a very loud key were addressed to nothing but empty air the recital of his wrongs however seemed to have the effect of making newman noggs desperate for he flattened his old hat upon his head and drawing on the everlasting gloves
declared with great vehemence that come what might he would go to dinner that very minute carrying this resolution into instant effect
here he is growled newman and somebody with him now it'll be stop till this gentleman's gone but i won't that's flat so saying newman slipped into a tall empty closet which opened with two half doors
and shut himself up intending to slip out directly ralph was safe inside his own room noggs cried ralph where is that fellow noggs but not a word said newman
not at all mister nickleby oh not at all all places are alike to me sir
the parson who made this reply was a little old man of about seventy or seventy five years of age of a very lean figure much bent and slightly twisted he wore a grey coat with a very narrow collar an old fashioned waistcoat of ribbed black silk
and such scanty trousers as displayed his shrunken spindle shanks in their full ugliness the only articles of display or ornament in his dress were a steel watch chain to which were attached some large gold seals
and a black ribbon into which in compliance with an old fashion scarcely ever observed in these days his grey hair was gathered behind his nose and chin were sharp and prominent his jaws had fallen inwards from loss of teeth
his face was shrivelled and yellow save where the cheeks were streaked with the colour of a dry winter apple and where his beard had been there lingered yet a few grey tufts which seemed like the ragged eyebrows to denote the badness of the soil from which they sprung
the whole air and attitude of the form was one of stealthy cat like obsequiousness the whole expression of the face was concentrated in a wrinkled leer compounded of cunning lecherousness slyness and avarice
such was old arthur gride in whose face there was not a wrinkle in whose dress there was not one spare fold or plait but expressed the most covetous and griping penury and sufficiently indicated his belonging to that class of which ralph nickleby was a member
such was old arthur gride as he sat in a low chair looking up into the face of ralph nickleby who lounging upon the tall office stool with his arms upon his knees looked down into his a match for him on whatever errand he had come
and how have you been said gride feigning great interest in ralph's state of health i haven't seen you for oh not for not for a long time said ralph with a peculiar smile
importing that he very well knew it was not on a mere visit of compliment that his friend had come it was a narrow chance that you saw me now for i had only just come up to the door as you turned the corner i am very lucky observed gride so men say
replied ralph drily the older money lender wagged his chin and smiled but he originated no new remark and they sat for some little time without speaking each was looking out to take the other at a disadvantage come gride
said ralph at length what's in the wind today aha you're a bold man mister nickleby cried the other apparently very much relieved by ralph's leading the way to business
why you have a sleek and slinking way with you that makes me seem so by contrast returned ralph i don't know but that yours may answer better but i want the patience for it you were born a genius mister nickleby
said old arthur deep deep deep ah deep enough retorted ralph to know that i shall need all the depth i have when men like you begin to compliment
you know i have stood by when you fawned and flattered other people and i remember pretty well what that always led to ha ha ha rejoined arthur rubbing his hands so you do so you do no doubt not a man knows it better
well it's a pleasant thing now to think that you remember old times oh dear now then said ralph composedly what's in the wind i ask again what is it see that now cried the other
he can't even keep from business while we're chatting over bygones oh dear dear what a man it is which of the bygones do you want to revive said ralph one of them i know or you wouldn't talk about them
he suspects even me cried old arthur holding up his hands even me oh dear even me what a man it is ha ha ha what a man it is mister nickleby against all the world there's nobody like him
a giant among pigmies a giant a giant ralph looked at the old dog with a quiet smile as he chuckled on in this strain and newman noggs in the closet felt his heart sink within him as the prospect of dinner grew fainter and fainter
i must humour him though cried old arthur he must have his way a wilful man as the scotch say well well they're a wise people the scotch he will talk about business and won't give away his time for nothing
he's very right time is money time is money he was one of us who made that saying i should think said ralph time is money and very good money too to those who reckon interest by it
time is money yes and time costs money it's rather an expensive article to some people we could name or i forget my trade in rejoinder to this sally old arthur again raised his hands again chuckled and again ejaculated what a man it is
which done he dragged the low chair a little nearer to ralph's high stool and looking upwards into his immovable face said what would you say to me if i was to tell you that i was that i was
going to be married i should tell you replied ralph looking coldly down upon him that for some purpose of your own you told a lie and that it wasn't the first time and wouldn't be the last that i wasn't surprised and wasn't to be taken in
then i tell you seriously that i am said old arthur and i tell you seriously rejoined ralph what i told you this minute stay let me look at you there's a liquorish devilry in your face what is this
i wouldn't deceive you you know whined arthur gride i couldn't do it i should be mad to try i
the pigmy to impose upon the giant
to some old hag said ralph no no cried arthur interrupting him and rubbing his hands in an ecstasy
out quite out to a young and beautiful girl fresh lovely bewitching and not nineteen dark eyes long eyelashes
ripe and ruddy lips that to look at is to long to kiss beautiful clustering hair that one's fingers itch to play with such a waist as might make a man clasp the air involuntarily thinking of twining his arm about it
little feet that tread so lightly they hardly seem to walk upon the ground to marry all this sir this hey hey this is something more than common drivelling said ralph after listening with a curled lip to the old sinner's raptures
the girl's name oh deep deep see now how deep that is exclaimed old arthur he knows i want his help
he knows it must all turn to his advantage he sees the thing already her name is there nobody within hearing
no he never had a daughter you remember bray rejoined arthur gride no
the dashing man who used his handsome wife so ill if you seek to recall any particular dashing man to my recollection by such a trait as that said ralph shrugging his shoulders
both of us did business with him why he owes you money
rejoined ralph ay ay
oh it's his daughter is it naturally as this was said it was not said so naturally but that a kindred spirit like old arthur gride might have discerned a design upon the part of ralph
to lead him on to much more explicit statements and explanations than he would have volunteered or that ralph could in all likelihood have obtained by any other means old arthur however was so intent upon his own designs
i knew you couldn't forget him when you came to think for a moment he said you were right
but old arthur gride and matrimony is a most anomalous conjunction of words old arthur gride and dark eyes and eyelashes and lips that to look at is to long to kiss and clustering hair that he wants to play with and waists that he wants to span
and little feet that don't tread upon anything old arthur gride and such things as these is more monstrous still but old arthur gride marrying the daughter of a ruined dashing man in the rules of the bench is the most monstrous and incredible of all
plainly friend arthur gride if you want any help from me in this business which of course you do or you would not be here speak out and to the purpose and above all don't talk to me of its turning to my advantage for i know it must turn to yours also
and to a good round tune too or you would have no finger in such a pie as this there was enough acerbity and sarcasm not only in the matter of ralph's speech but in the tone of voice in which he uttered it and the looks with which he eked it out
to have fired even the ancient usurer's cold blood and flushed even his withered cheek but he gave vent to no demonstration of anger contenting himself with exclaiming as before
what a man it is and rolling his head from side to side as if in unrestrained enjoyment of his freedom and drollery clearly observing however from the expression in ralph's features that he had best come to the point as speedily as might be
he composed himself for more serious business and entered upon the pith and marrow of his negotiation first he dwelt upon the fact that madeline bray was devoted to the support and maintenance and was a slave to every wish of her only parent
who had no other friend on earth to which ralph rejoined that he had heard something of the kind before and that if she had known a little more of the world she wouldn't have been such a fool
secondly he enlarged upon the character of her father arguing that even taking it for granted that he loved her in return with the utmost affection of which he was capable yet he loved himself a great deal better
which ralph said it was quite unnecessary to say anything more about as that was very natural and probable enough and thirdly old arthur premised that the girl was a delicate and beautiful creature and that he had really a hankering to have her for his wife
to this ralph deigned no other rejoinder than a harsh smile and a glance at the shrivelled old creature before him which were however sufficiently expressive now said gride
because i haven't offered myself even to the father yet i should have told you but that you have gathered already ah oh dear oh dear what an edged tool you are don't play with me then said ralph impatiently you know the proverb
a reply always on the tip of his tongue cried old arthur raising his hands and eyes in admiration he is always prepared oh dear what a blessing to have such a ready wit and so much ready money to back it
then suddenly changing his tone he went on i have been backwards and forwards to bray's lodgings several times within the last six months it is just half a year since i first saw this delicate morsel and oh dear what a delicate morsel it is
but that is neither here nor there i am his detaining creditor for seventeen hundred pounds you talk as if you were the only detaining creditor said ralph pulling out his pocket book i am another for
nine hundred and seventy five pounds four and threepence the only other mister nickleby said old arthur eagerly the only other nobody else went to the expense of lodging a detainer
trusting to our holding him fast enough i warrant you we both fell into the same snare oh dear what a pitfall it was it almost ruined me and lent him our money upon bills with only one name besides his own which to be sure everybody supposed to be a good one
and was as negotiable as money but which turned out you know how just as we should have come upon him he died insolvent ah it went very nigh to ruin me that loss did go on with your scheme said ralph
returned old arthur with a chuckle whether there's anybody to hear us or not practice makes perfect you know now if i offer myself to bray as his son in law upon one simple condition that the moment i am fast married he shall be quietly released
and have an allowance to live just t'other side the water like a gentleman he can't live long for i have asked his doctor and he declares that his complaint is one of the heart and it is impossible
do you think he could resist me and if he could not resist me do you think his daughter could resist him shouldn't i have her missus arthur gride
a tit bit a dainty chick shouldn't i have her missus arthur gride in a week a month a day
go on said ralph nodding his head deliberately and speaking in a tone whose studied coldness presented a strange contrast to the rapturous squeak to which his friend had gradually mounted go on you didn't come here to ask me that
oh dear how you talk cried old arthur edging himself closer still to ralph of course i didn't
i came to ask what you would take from me if i prospered with the father for this debt of yours five shillings in the pound six and eightpence ten shillings
but you won't be so hard upon me as that i know now will you there's something more to be told said ralph as stony and immovable as ever yes yes there is but you won't give me time returned arthur gride i want a backer in this matter
one who can talk and urge and press a point which you can do as no man can i can't do that for i am a poor timid nervous creature now if you get a good composition for this debt which you long ago gave up for lost
you'll stand my friend and help me won't you there's something more said ralph no no indeed cried arthur gride yes yes indeed i tell you yes said ralph
oh returned old arthur feigning to be suddenly enlightened you mean something more as concerns myself and my intention ay surely surely shall i mention that i think you had better
rejoined ralph drily i didn't like to trouble you with that because i supposed your interest would cease with your own concern in the affair said arthur gride
why supposing i had a knowledge of some property some little property very little to which this pretty chick was entitled which nobody does or can know of at this time but which her husband could sweep into his pouch if he knew as much as i do
would that account for for the whole proceeding rejoined ralph abruptly now let me turn this matter over and consider what i ought to have if i should help you to success
cried old arthur raising his hands with an imploring gesture
it's a very small property it is indeed say the ten shillings and we'll close the bargain it's more than i ought to give but you're so kind shall we say the ten do now do
ralph took no notice of these supplications but sat for three or four minutes in a brown study looking thoughtfully at the person from whom they proceeded after sufficient cogitation he broke silence and it certainly could not be objected that he used any needless circumlocution
or failed to speak directly to the purpose if you married this girl without me said ralph
with these reflections and a very hard knock on the crown of his unfortunate hat at each repetition of the last word newman noggs whose brain was a little muddled by so much of the contents of the pocket pistol as had found their way there during his recent concealment
went forth to seek such consolation as might be derivable from the beef and greens of some cheap eating house meanwhile the two plotters had betaken themselves to the same house whither nicholas had repaired for the first time but a few mornings before
and having obtained access to mister bray and found his daughter from home had by a train of the most masterly approaches that ralph's utmost skill could frame at length laid open the real object of their visit there he sits mister bray said ralph
as the invalid not yet recovered from his surprise reclined in his chair looking alternately at him and arthur gride what if he has had the ill fortune to be one cause of your detention in this place i have been another men must live
you are too much a man of the world not to see that in its true light we offer the best reparation in our power reparation here is an offer of marriage that many a titled father would leap at for his child mister arthur gride with the fortune of a prince
think what a haul it is my daughter sir returned bray haughtily as i have brought her up would be a rich recompense for the largest fortune that a man could bestow in exchange for her hand
precisely what made me consider the thing so fair and easy there is no obligation on either side you have money and miss madeline has beauty and worth she has youth you have money she has not money you have not youth
matches are made in heaven they say added arthur gride leering hideously at the father in law he wanted if we are married it will be destiny according to that
then think mister bray said ralph hastily substituting for this argument considerations more nearly allied to earth think what a stake is involved in the acceptance or rejection of these proposals of my friend how can i accept or reject
interrupted mister bray with an irritable consciousness that it really rested with him to decide it is for my daughter to accept or reject it is for my daughter you know that true said ralph emphatically
to state the reasons for and against
returned the debtor proud and mean by turns and selfish at all times i am her father am i not why should i hint and beat about the bush do you suppose like her mother's friends and my enemies a curse upon them all
and that she should command and i should obey hint a wish too perhaps you think because you see me in this place and scarcely able to leave this chair without assistance that i am some broken spirited dependent creature
without the courage or power to do what i may think best for my own child still the power to hint a wish i hope so pardon me returned ralph who thoroughly knew his man and had taken his ground accordingly you do not hear me out
i was about to say that your hinting a wish even hinting a wish would surely be equivalent to commanding why of course it would retorted mister bray in an exasperated tone
if you don't happen to have heard of the time sir i tell you that there was a time when i carried every point in triumph against her mother's whole family
still rejoined ralph as mildly as his nature would allow him you have not heard me out you are a man yet qualified to shine in society with many years of life before you that is if you lived in freer air
and under brighter skies and chose your own companions gaiety is your element you have shone in it before fashion and freedom for you france and an annuity that would support you there in luxury would give you a new lease of life
the town rang with your expensive pleasures once and you could blaze up on a new scene again profiting by experience and living a little at others cost instead of letting others live at yours what is there on the reverse side of the picture
what is there i don't know which is the nearest churchyard but a gravestone there wherever it is and a date perhaps two years hence perhaps twenty that's all mister bray rested his elbow on the arm of his chair and shaded his face with his hand
i speak plainly said ralph sitting down beside him because i feel strongly it's my interest that you should marry your daughter to my friend gride because then he sees me paid in part that is i don't disguise it i acknowledge it openly
but what interest have you in recommending her to such a step keep that in view she might object remonstrate shed tears talk of his being too old and plead that her life would be rendered miserable but what is it now
several slight gestures on the part of the invalid showed that these arguments were no more lost upon him than the smallest iota of his demeanour was upon ralph what is it now i say pursued the wily usurer or what has it a chance of being
if you died indeed the people you hate would make her happy but can you bear the thought of that no returned bray urged by a vindictive impulse he could not repress i should imagine not indeed said ralph quietly
if she profits by anybody's death this was said in a lower tone let it be by her husband's don't let her have to look back to yours as the event from which to date a happier life where is the objection let me hear it stated what is it
that her suitor is an old man why how often do men of family and fortune who haven't your excuse but have all the means and superfluities of life within their reach how often do they marry their daughters to old men or worse still to young men without heads or hearts
to tickle some idle vanity strengthen some family interest or secure some seat in parliament judge for her sir judge for her you must know best and she will live to thank you hush hush
cried mister bray suddenly starting up and covering ralph's mouth with his trembling hand i hear her at the door there was a gleam of conscience in the shame and terror of this hasty action
which in one short moment tore the thin covering of sophistry from the cruel design and laid it bare in all its meanness and heartless deformity the father fell into his chair pale and trembling
arthur gride plucked and fumbled at his hat and durst not raise his eyes from the floor
cowed by the presence of one young innocent girl the effect was almost as brief as sudden ralph was the first to recover himself and observing madeline's looks of alarm entreated the poor girl to be composed assuring her that there was no cause for fear
a sudden spasm said ralph glancing at mister bray he is quite well now it might have moved a very hard and worldly heart to see the young and beautiful creature whose certain misery they had been contriving but a minute before throw her arms about her father's neck
and pour forth words of tender sympathy and love the sweetest a father's ear can know or child's lips form but ralph looked coldly on and arthur gride whose bleared eyes gloated only over the outward beauties
and were blind to the spirit which reigned within evinced a fantastic kind of warmth certainly but not exactly that kind of warmth of feeling which the contemplation of virtue usually inspires madeline
said her father gently disengaging himself it was nothing
nothing just now here are two gentlemen madeline one of whom you have seen before she used to say added mister bray addressing arthur gride
well well perhaps she may change her mind on that point girls have leave to change their minds you know you are very tired my dear i am not indeed indeed you are you do too much i wish i could do more
i know you do but you overtask your strength this wretched life my love
poor madeline with these and many more kind words mister bray drew his daughter to him and kissed her cheek affectionately ralph watching him sharply and closely in the meantime made his way towards the door and signed to gride to follow him
you will communicate with us again said ralph yes yes returned mister bray hastily thrusting his daughter aside in a week give me a week one week said ralph turning to his companion from today good morning
miss madeline i kiss your hand we will shake hands gride said mister bray extending his as old arthur bowed you mean well no doubt i am bound to say so now if i owed you money that was not your fault madeline my love your hand here
oh dear if the young lady would condescent only the tips of her fingers said arthur hesitating and half retreating madeline shrunk involuntarily from the goblin figure but she placed the tips of her fingers in his hand and instantly withdrew them
after an ineffectual clutch intended to detain and carry them to his lips old arthur gave his own fingers a mumbling kiss and with many amorous distortions of visage went in pursuit of his friend who was by this time in the street
what does he say what does he say what does the giant say to the pigmy inquired arthur gride hobbling up to ralph what does the pigmy say to the giant rejoined ralph elevating his eyebrows and looking down upon his questioner
he doesn't know what to say replied arthur gride he hopes and fears but is she not a dainty morsel i have no great taste for beauty growled ralph but i have rejoined arthur rubbing his hands
such long lashes such delicate fringe she she looked at me so soft not over lovingly i think said ralph did she no
you think not replied old arthur but don't you think it can be brought about don't you think it can ralph looked at him with a contemptuous frown and replied with a sneer and between his teeth
thomas the nestorian had been in many lands and in the midst of many dangers but he had never before found himself in quite so unpleasant a position as now six ugly tartar horsemen with very uncomfortable looking spears and appalling shouts
were charging down upon him
these dirt cliffs or loess to give them their scientific name are remarkable banks of brownish yellow loam found largely in northern and western china and rising sometimes to a height of a thousand feet
the imperial throne is the hwang wei or yellow throne of china the great river formerly spelled in your school geographies hoang ho is hwang ho the yellow river
et cetera these hwang cliffs or dirt cliffs are full of caves and crevices but the good priest could see no convenient cave and he had therefore no alternative but to boldly face his fate
and like a brave man calmly meet what he could not avoid but just as he had singled out as his probable captor one peculiarly unattractive looking horseman whose crimson sheepskin coat
and long horsetail plume were streaming in the wind and just as he had braced himself to meet the onset against the great loess or dirt cliff he felt a twitch at his black upper robe and a low voice a girl's
never to appear surprised and always to be ready to act quickly so knowing nothing of the possible results of his action
he leaped back as bidden the next instant he found himself flat upon his back in one of the low ceiled cliff caves that abound in western china while the screen of vines that had concealed its entrance still quivered from his fall
picking himself up and breathing a prayer of thanks for his deliverance he peered through the leafy doorway
six much astonished tartar robbers regarding with looks of puzzled wonder a defiant little chinese girl
as he had tumbled in she was facing the enemy
at once he recognized the child she was woo the high spirited or dauntless one the bright young girl whom he had often noticed in the throng at his mission house in tung chow
the little city by the yellow river where her father the bannerman held guard at the dragon gate he was about to call out to the girl to save herself when with a sudden swoop
and with a shrill laugh of derision sprang up the sharp incline and disappeared in one of the many cliff caves before the now doubly baffled horsemen could see what had become of her with a grunt of discomfiture and disgust
for over two thousand years was the capital of china
was great and powerful throughout the length and breadth of chung kwoh the middle kingdom as the chinese for nearly thirty centuries have called their vast country
and among all the races of men the only nation that was civilized and learned and cultivated and refined in this
a branch of the christian church originating in asia minor in the fifth century and often called the protestants of the east had been spreading the story of the life and love of christ and here
had his christian mission house and was zealously bringing to the knowledge of a great and enlightened people the still greater and more helpful light of christianity my daughter said the nestorian after his words of thanks were uttered
this is a gracious deed done to me and one that i may not easily repay yet would i gladly do so if i might tell me what wouldst thou like above all other things
the answer of the girl was as ready as it was unexpected
was full as strange as any for china
subordination passive submission to the law to parents and to all superiors and a peaceful demeanor
i hate this great emperor as men do wrongfully call him and i hate the young prince kaou may lung wang the god of the dragons dash them both beneath the yellow river
he regarded his defiant young companion in sheer amazement have a care have a care my daughter he said at length
that the tongue is a little member but it can kindle a great fire how mayst thou hope to say such direful words against the son of heaven
the son of heaven killed the emperor my father said the child the emperor thy father thomas the nestorian almost gasped in this latest surprise is the girl crazed
or doth she sport with one who seeketh her good and amazement and perplexity settled upon his face the princess woo is neither crazed nor doth she sport with the master said the girl
i do but speak the truth great is tai tsung whom he will he slayeth and whom he will he keepeth alive and then she told the astonished priest that the bannerman of the dragon gate
was not her father at all for she said as she had lain awake only the night before she had heard enough in talk between the bannerman and his wife to learn her secret
how that she was the only daughter of the rightful emperor the prince kung ti whose guardian and chief adviser the present emperor had been how this trusted protector had made away with poor kung ti
in order that he might usurp the throne and how she the princess woo had been flung into the swift hwang ho from the turbid waters of which she had been rescued by the bannerman of the dragon gate
pulcheria of constantinople the girl of the golden horn afterward known as pulcheria augusta empress of the east
there was trouble and confusion in the imperial palace of theodosius the little emperor of the east
though he bore the name of his mighty grandfather theodosius the great emperor of both the east and west he had as yet done nothing worthy any other title than that of the little or the child for theodosius
emperor though he was called was only a boy of twelve and not a very bright boy at that his father arcadius the emperor and his mother eudoxia the empress were dead and in the great palace at constantinople in this year of grace
theodosius the boy emperor and his three sisters pulcheria marina and arcadia
which their great ancestors constantine and theodosius had established and strengthened and now there was confusion in the imperial palace
king of the huns sweeping down from the east was ravaging the lands along the upper danube and with his host of barbarous warriors was defeating the legions and devastating the lands of the empire the wise anthemius
prefect of the east and governor or guardian of the young emperor was greatly disturbed by the tidings of this new invasion already he had repelled at great cost the first advance of these terrible huns
and had quelled into a sort of half submission the less ferocious followers of ulpin the thracian but now he knew that his armies along the danube were in no condition to withstand the hordes of huns
bazars dogs and donkeys these i suppose are what constantinople suggests whenever its name is mentioned to any girl or boy of to day the capital of modern turkey the city of the sublime porte
but the greatest glory of constantinople was away back in the early days before the time of mohammed or of the crusaders when it was the centre of the christian religion the chief and gorgeous capital of a christian empire
and the residence of christian emperors from the days of constantine the conqueror to those of justinian
it was the metropolis of the eastern half of the great roman empire and during this period of over five hundred years all the wealth and treasure of the east poured into constantinople while all the glories of the empire
although troubled with fear of a barbarian invasion and attack glittered with all the gorgeousness and display of the most magnificent empire in the world in the great daphne or central space of the imperial palace
the prefect anthemius with the young emperor the three princesses and their gorgeously arrayed nobles and attendants awaited one day the envoys of ruas the hun who sought lands and power within the limits of the empire
they came at last great fierce looking fellows not at all pleasant to contemplate big boned broad shouldered flat nosed swarthy and small eyed
of hunnish spearmen and in the company of these the princess pulcheria noted a lad of ten or twelve years short swarthy big headed and flat nosed like his brother barbarians
but with an air of open and hostile superiority that would not be moved even by all the glow and glitter of an imperial court then eslaw the chief of the envoys of king ruas the hun made known his master's demands
these be bold words said anthemius the prefect and what if our lord the emperor shall say thee nay but ere the chief of the envoys could reply the lad whose presence in the escort
sprang into the circle before the throne brandishing his long spear in hot defiance dogs and children of dogs ye dare not say us nay he cried harshly except we be made the friends and allies of the emperor
and are given full store of southern gold and treasure
and make you all captives and slaves it shall be war between you and us forever thus saith my spear and as he spoke he dashed his long spear upon the floor until the mosaic pavement rang again boy emperor and princesses
prefect and nobles and imperial guards sprang to their feet as the spear clashed on the pavement and even the barbarian envoys while they smiled grimly at their young comrade's energy pulled him hastily back but ere
the prefect anthemius could sufficiently master his astonishment to reply the young princess pulcheria faced the savage envoys and pointing to the cause of the disturbance asked calmly who is this brawling boy
and what doth he here in the palace of the emperor and the boy made instant and defiant answer i am attila the son of mundzuk kinsman to ruas the king and deadly foe to rome
said the clear calm voice of the unterrified girl were it not wise to tell this wild young prince from the northern forest that the great emperor hath gold for his friends but only iron for his foes
t is ever better to be friend than foe bid i pray that the arras of the hippodrome be parted and let our guests see the might and power of our arms
with a look of pleased surprise at this bold stroke of the princess the prefect clapped his hands in command and the heavily brocaded curtain that screened the gilded columns parted as if by unseen hands
and the hunnish envoys with a gaze of stolid wonder looked down upon the great hippodrome of constantinople it was a vast enclosure spacious enough for the marshalling of an army
heroes of the eastern and western empires the bright oriental sun streamed down upon it and as the trumpets sounded from beneath the imperial balcony
woven in gold and jewels the sacred banner of constantine marching and counter marching around and around and in and out until it seemed wellnigh endless
the martial procession passed before the eyes of the northern barbarians watchful of every movement eager as children to witness this royal review these
said the prefect anthemius when the glittering rear guard had passed from the hippodrome and the princess pulcheria added and these o men from the north are to help and succor the friends of the great emperor
even as they are for the terror and destruction of his foes bid the messengers from ruas the king consider good anthemius whether it were not wiser for their master
rather than the foe of the emperor ask him whether it would not be in keeping with his valor and his might
who had seen so shrewdly and so well the way to the hearts of these northern barbarians to whom gold and warlike display were as meat and drink you hear the words of this wise young maid he said
would it not please ruas the king to be the friend of the emperor a general of the empire and the acceptor on each recurring season
of full two hundred pounds of gold
say rather three hundred pounds said eslaw the chief of the envoys and our master may perchance esteem it wise and fair nay it is not for the great emperor to chaffer with his friends
said pulcheria the princess bid that the stipend be fixed at three hundred and fifty pounds of gold good anthemius and let our guests bear to ruas the king pledges and tokens of the emperor's friendship
come down from thy bauble of a chair and thou and i will try even in your circus yonder which is the better boy and which should rightly be hostage for faith and promise given
how now exclaimed the boy emperor altogether unused to such uncourtier like language
scythia should be mine persia should be mine rome should be mine and look you sir emperor the time shall surely come when the king of the huns shall be content not with paltry tribute and needless office
but with naught but roman treasure and roman slaves but into this torrent of words came pulcheria's calm voice again nay good attila
nor yet of hostage freely did'st thou come and as freely shalt thou go and let this pledge tell of friendship between theodosius the emperor and ruas the king and with a step forward
anthemius the prefect like the wise man he was recognized the worth of the young princess pulcheria he saw how great was her influence over her brother the emperor and noted with astonishment and pleasure her words of wisdom
and her rare common sense rule thou in my place o princess he said soon after this interview with the barbarian envoys thou alone of all in this broad empire
as he may take the guidance on himself nay not so princess the old prefect said she who can shape the ways of a boy may guide the will of an empire be thou then regent and augusta
and rule this empire as becometh the daughter of arcadius and the granddaughter of the great theodosius and as he desired so it was decided the senate of the east decreed it and in long procession
over flower strewn pavements and through gorgeously decorated streets with the trumpets sounding their loudest with swaying standards and rank upon rank of imperial troops with great officers of the government
proceeded to the church of the holy apostles and was there publicly proclaimed pulcheria augusta regent of the east solemnly accepting the trust as a sacred and patriotic duty and not
many days after before the high altar of this same church of the holy apostles pulcheria the princess stood with her younger sisters arcadia and marina and with all the impressive ceremonial of the eastern church
made a solemn vow to devote their lives to the keeping of their father's heritage and the assistance of their only brother to forswear the world and all its allurements never to marry
and to be in all things faithful and constant to each other in this their promise and their pledge and they were faithful and constant the story of those three determined young maidens yet scarcely in their teens
with their train of attendant maidens renounced the vanity of dress wearing only plain and simple robes they spent their time in making garments for the poor and embroidered work for church decorations and with song and prayer and frugal meals
interspersed with frequent fasts
and the simplicity and soberness of this wise young girl's life in the very midst of so much power and luxury made even the worst elements in the empire respect and honor her it would be interesting did space permit
of a girlish princess of sixteen granddaughter and sole inheritor of the genius and courage of theodosius the great governing the empires of the east and west and being proclaimed on the death of her brother
augusta imperatrix and mistress of the world this last event the death of theodosius the younger
and pulcheria ascended the golden throne of constantinople the first woman that ever ruled as sole empress of the roman world she died
that same year saw the death of her youthful acquaintance attila the hun that fierce barbarian whom men had called
his mighty empire stretched from the great wall of china to the western alps but though he ravaged the lands of both eastern and western rome he seems to have been so managed or controlled
which offered so rare and tempting a booty it is not given to the girls of to day to have any thing like the magnificent opportunities of the young pulcheria but duty in many a form faces them again and again
saw her duty plainly and undertook it simply and without hesitation
for her cruel uncle gundebald waging war against his brother chilperic the rightful king of burgundy had with a band of savage followers burst into his brother's palace and after the fierce and relentless fashion of those cruel days
had murdered king chilperic the father of little clotilda the queen her mother
and was now searching for her and her sister sedelenda to kill them also poor sedelenda had hidden away in some other far off corner but even as clotilda hung for protection to the robe
on his homeward journey from jerusalem
not one of the tyrant's brood shall live i say it and who art thou to judge of life or death demanded the priest sternly as he still shielded the trembling child i am gundebald
king of burgundy by the grace of mine own good sword and the right of succession was the reply trifle not with me sir priest but thrust away the child she is my lawful prize to do with as i will ho sigebert
drag her forth quick as a flash the brave priest stepped before the cowering child
he raised the other in stern and fearless protest and boldly faced the murderous throng back men of blood he cried back
when extended to persons in peril was called the right of sanctuary
her sister sedelenda had found refuge and safety in the convent of ainay near at hand and there too clotilda would have gone but her uncle the new king said no the maidens must be forever separated
he expressed a willingness however to have the princess clotilda brought up in his palace which had been her father's
to remain awhile and look after the girl's education in those days a king's request was a command and the good ugo though stern and brave in the face of real danger
so he continued in the palace of the king looking after the welfare of his little charge until suddenly the girl took matters into her own hands and decided his future and her own
it was a land of forest and vineyards of fair valleys and sheltered hill sides and of busy cities that the fostering hand of rome had beautified while through its broad domain the rhone
pure and sparkling swept with a rapid current from swiss lake and glacier southward to the broad and beautiful mediterranean lyons was its capital and on the hill of fourviere overlooking the city below it
rose the marble palace of the burgundian kings near to the spot where to day the ruined forum of the old roman days is still shown to tourists it had been a palace for centuries roman governors of imperial gaul
had made it their head quarters and their home three roman emperors had cooed and cried as babies within its walls and it had witnessed also many a feast and foray and the changing fortunes of roman gallic and burgundian conquerors and over lords
but it was no longer home to the little princess clotilda she thought of her father and mother and of her brothers the little princes with whom she had played in this very palace as it now seemed to her so many years ago
and the more she feared her cruel uncle the more did she desire to go far far away from his presence so after thinking the whole matter over as little girls of ten can sometimes think she told her good friend ugo
who lived in the priest's own boyhood home of tournay in far off belgium and who though so brave and daring was still a pagan when all the world was fast becoming christian and as clotilda listened
she wished that she could turn this brave young chief away from his heathen deities thor and odin
and revolving strange fancies in her mind she determined what she would do when she grew up as many a girl since her day has determined but even as they reached the fair city of geneva then half roman half gallic in its buildings and its life
how this boy king clovis sending a challenge to combat to the prefect syagrius the last of the roman governors
at soissons and broken forever the power of rome in gaul war which is never any thing but terrible was doubly so in those savage days and the plunder of the captured cities and homesteads
the desire to convert him from paganism and to revenge her father's murder took shape in her mind for
fourteen centuries of progress and education have made us more loving and less vindictive
king gundebald declined longer to shelter his niece in his palace at geneva and why may i not go with you the girl asked of ugo but the old priest knew that a conquered and plundered land was no place to which to convey a young maid for safety
and the princess therefore found refuge among the sisters of the church of saint peter in geneva and here she passed her girlhood as the record says in works of piety and charity
the young girl brought the pilgrim food and then according to the custom of the day kneeling on the earthen floor she began to bathe his feet but as she did so the pilgrim bending forward said in a low voice lady
of the sad condition of one who is the daughter of a royal line he bade me use all my wit to come nigh to thee and to say that if it be the will of the gods he would fain raise thee to his rank by marriage
came into the girl's mind and that as the record states she accepted the ring with great joy return promptly to thy lord she said to the messenger and bid him if he would fain unite me to him in marriage
to send messengers without delay to demand me of my uncle king gundebald and let those same messengers take me away in haste so soon as they shall have obtained permission for this wise young princess knew
that her uncle's word was not to be long depended upon and she feared too that certain advisers at her uncle's court might counsel him to do her harm before the messengers of king clovis could have conducted her beyond the borders of burgundy aurelian
that we may take her to king clovis who waiteth for us even now at chalons to conclude these nuptials so almost before he knew what he was doing king gundebald had bidden his niece farewell
shrewd young princess she knew her uncle the king of burgundy too well when once he was roused to action he was fierce and furious good aurelian
who rode by her side if that thou wouldst take me into the presence of thy lord the king of the franks let me descend from this carriage mount me on horseback and let us speed hence as fast as we may
for never in this carriage shall i reach the presence of my lord the king and none too soon was her advice acted upon for the counsellors of king gundebald
concluded that after all they had made a mistake in betrothing her to king clovis thou shouldst have remembered my lord they said that thou didst slay clotilda's father her mother and the young princes her brothers
where in the campania or plain country later known as the province of champagne she met the king of the franks i am sorry to be obliged to confess
that the first recorded desire of this beautiful brave and devout young maiden when she found herself safely among the fierce followers of king clovis was a request for vengeance but we must remember girls and boys
young clovis in a dress of crimson and gold and milk white silk and with his yellow hair coiled in a great top knot on his uncovered head advanced to meet his bride my lord king said clotilda
the bands of the king of burgundy follow hard upon us to bear me off command i pray thee that these my escort scatter themselves right and left for twoscore miles
and plunder and burn the lands of the king of burgundy probably in no other way could this wise young girl of seventeen have so thoroughly pleased the fierce and warlike young king he gladly ordered her wishes to be carried out
meaning the brilliant and noble maid in spite of the wicked uncle gundebald were married at soissons
and as the fairy stories say
the record of their later years has no place in this sketch of the girlhood of clotilda but it is one of the most interesting and dramatic of the old time historic stories
to make her boy hero a christian and to be revenged on the murderer of her parents was in time fulfilled
in the days when passion instead of love ruled the hearts of men and women and of boys and girls as well and how favored are we of this nineteenth century in all the peace and prosperity and home happiness that surround us
he brought all the land under his sway from the rhine to the rhone the ocean and the pyrenees he was hailed by his people with the old roman titles of consul and augustus
clotilda after years of wise counsel and charitable works upon which her determination for revenge seems to be the only stain
a typical girl of those harsh old days of the long ago loving and generous toward her friends unforgiving and revengeful to her enemies reared in the midst of cruelty and of charity she did her duty according to the light given her
made france a christian nation and so helped on the progress of civilization
the history of this adventurer is rendered more than usually interesting from the fact that several authors have taken up cudgels on his behalf and vehemently assert that he was truly
the man he asserted himself to be not only authors ink but unfortunately a great quantity of human blood was wasted in the dispute and that too
without the world being any the wiser the facts as they are recounted by historians stand thus voldemar the second marquis of brandenburg was the thirteenth
elector of the family of the counts of ascagne a family closely related
and left his brother john the fourth in possession of his electorate he started upon his pilgrimage attended only by two men he set off on his journey without informing his brother or any of his subjects
what route he intended taking or indeed furnishing information of any kind relative to his intentions voldemar and his brother john were the only surviving members of the elder branch of the house of ascagne
but previous to his departure the royal pilgrim obliged his subjects to swear that in the event of him and his brother dying childless they would receive for their sovereign
which was a branch of the ascagne family this was a d thirteen twenty twenty four days after voldemar's departure his brother john died suddenly not without suspicion that he had been poisoned
the absent elector apparently unconscious of the sad event did not return and it was quickly noised abroad had also met with a sudden death
the emperor louis acting in opposition to all right save that of might instead of allowing the duly recognized prince to succeed took possession of the electorate and invested his own son louis with it
in order to afford a fair idea of this pretender's claims it will be necessary in the first place to recount the story of his appearance as detailed by the authors favouring the theory of his being an impostor and then
to produce the evidence offered by those of the opposite party on his behalf the received opinion is that rudolph
of saxony and brandenburg vested in one person produced a certain man whom he doubtless meant to use as a tool this man he declared to be his dear cousin voldemar
who had disappeared nearly twenty five years previously on a pilgrimage to the chief places of the holy land which he had it was given forth visited but had been taken prisoner and been kept in captivity by the infidels until recently
named jacques reboc he was they moreover allege an habitual liar and a cunning vagabond possessing some resemblance in form and face to the lost prince such resemblance indeed
dwelt for a number of years in saxony where he had been well instructed as to the former life and family connections of the deceased elector as well as put in the way of counterfeiting on his person
the various marks by which he might deceive the world thus runs the story as told by the advocates for the imposture theory presently it will be seen what can be said on the other side whilst now
it will be as well to hear what happened upon the appearance of the claimant the rumour of voldemar's return from a long and painful captivity in turkey
in a state of intense excitement to see
the populace at once declared for him and compelled the elector louis to retire charles the fourth who had succeeded louis the fourth as emperor and was on bad terms with the elector louis the late monarch's son
declared for the claimant as did also the rulers of brunswick pomerania mecklenburg and several others including voldemar's relatives the duke of saxony and the princes of anhalt
they received him back with transports of joy such was their enthusiasm
indeed and their delight at being delivered from the dominion of the bavarians who had taken possession of their country after it had been for two hundred years governed by the house of ascagne that they furnished the supposed voldemar
bountifully with goods and money and rendered him every assistance towards driving out louis almost all the towns and cities acknowledged his authority and promised obedience to his rule
the king of denmark who singularly enough was also named voldemar and by some other potentates equally desirous of having a hand in their neighbour's affairs he soon found himself able to place a good army in the field
that endured for some years now commenced between the rival electors but finally voldemar inflicted such a signal defeat upon his opponent's forces that louis relinquished the contest in disgust
and retired to his domains in the tyrol making over his claim upon brandenburg to his two younger brothers this transference of the electorate it should be mentioned the emperor charles afterwards
confirmed by letters patent in thirteen fifty notwithstanding the contestation of voldemar and his partisans according to the popular account the pseudo voldemar was ultimately overthrown
thus runs the commonly accredited story but summing up later and equally reliable records the favourers of the idea that it was really the elector himself who reappeared put the case thus
the archbishop of magdeburg primate of germany a man totally uninterested either way and known for his probity would not they say have recognised and have given his testimony on behalf of the claimant
moreover one historian shows from contemporary records
the statement as to his decease in thirteen twenty two is they point out contradictory whilst had the elector louis known of his predecessor's death why did he not procure documentary evidence of the same
the emperor louis was known moreover to have entertained great hatred against the house of ascagne in consequence of its chiefs rudolph of saxony and voldemar the first uncle of the second voldemar
having declared for his rival for the empire frederick of austria in thirteen thirteen what however chiefly confirms their view of the case in the eyes of the claimant's advocates is
not only did voldemar's relatives the duke of saxony and the princes of anhalt and that apparently contrary to their interest acknowledge the wanderer but they even
in the chapel du saint esprit which was the general place of sepulture
i can get nothing into your head you must go from hence i will give you into the care of a celebrated master who shall see what he can do with you the youth was sent into a strange town
and remained a whole year with the master at the end of this time he came home again and his father asked now my son what have you learnt father i have learnt what the dogs say when they bark
lord have mercy on us cried the father is that all you have learnt i will send you into another town to another master the youth was taken thither and stayed a year with this master likewise
when he came back the father again asked my son what have you learnt he answered father i have learnt what the birds say then the father fell into a rage and said oh you lost man
are you not ashamed to appear before my eyes i will send you to a third master but if you learn nothing this time also i will no longer be your father the youth remained a whole year with the third master also
and when he came home again and his father inquired my son what have you learnt he answered dear father i have this year learnt what the frogs croak
they took him forth but when they should have killed him they could not do it for pity and let him go
that they might carry them to the old man as a token the youth wandered on and after some time came to a fortress where he begged for a night's lodging yes said the lord of the castle if you will pass the night
whom they at once devour the whole district was in sorrow and dismay because of them and yet no one could do anything to stop this the youth however was without fear and said
they are bewitched and are obliged to watch over a great treasure which is below in the tower and they can have no rest until it is taken away and i have likewise learnt from their discourse
he did it thoroughly and brought a chest full of gold out with him the howling of the wild dogs was henceforth heard no more they had disappeared and the country was freed from the trouble after some time
he took it in his head that he would travel to rome on the way he passed by a marsh in which a number of frogs were sitting croaking he listened to them and when he became aware of what they were saying he grew very thoughtful and sad
ivan the terrible of russia having murdered his eldest son left the crown to the next feodore a prince so feeble in body and mind that the government of the country had to be committed to the care
of his brother in law boris this bold and unscrupulous man aspired to the throne but between him and the imbecile who occupied it stood demetrius another child of the late monarch
the regent left this boy to the care of his mother the dowager czarina under whose charge he attained to the age of ten one afternoon of may fifteen ninety one the child was playing with four other boys
or dispersed for their hasty judgment upon the supposed assassins the palace was razed to the ground the flourishing town turned into a desert and the dowager czarina forced into a convent
the slovenly way in which the inquiry had been made the fact that it had been conducted by creatures of boris that the body was never examined nor the knife compared with the wound together with the attempted obliteration of all surrounding dwellings
afford very strong evidence that a murder had been done and by the instigation of the regent but that demetrius died there can scarcely be the shadow of a doubt after seven years feodore died
in lithuania in whose employ he was was that the physician in attendance upon him demetrius having been solicited by boris to destroy him consented but instead of doing so substituted the body of a serf's child
nevertheless the unknown produced a russian seal bearing the name and arms
and a valuable jewelled cross this was in the summer of sixteen o three when demetrius if living would have been about twenty two an age apparently corresponding with that of the claimant to his name
visitors arrived who quickly recognized their resuscitated prince warts which the late emperor's son had had on the forehead and under the right eye were discovered whilst one arm being longer than another
espoused his cause george the palatine of sandomir gave him his daughter in marriage and the pope of rome upon his secret confession of the catholic faith sanctioned his pretensions thus encouraged
on the twentieth of june sixteen o five the adventurer entered moscow in state amid the acclamations of believing multitudes on entering the church of saint michael the pseudo demetrius according to all accounts
this he owes to thy holy prayers the audience was convinced sobbed in unison and from all sides arose the cry he is the son of the terrible
but a still more formidable test was to be undergone the dowager czarina forsook the convent
to behold the man claiming to be her son demetrius went to meet her in regal state and their first interview took place in a magnificent tent specially prepared for the interesting ceremony
after they had been left together for a few minutes they came out and threw themselves into one another's arms in the full view of the enormous multitude which had assembled
had recognized her son and the new monarch was master of the situation he respectfully conducted the czarina to a carriage walking bare headed by its side in the capital he treated her with every attention
demetrius now set to work to govern with humanity and justice both qualities quite unsuited to russian tastes who soon grew as tired of their new czar as they had been of his predecessors
he appears to have been an able and forbearing man but he outraged the nobles
and the greek priesthood by a careless or irreverent demeanour towards their church
upon his destruction on the twenty ninth of may sixteen o six death to the heretic rang through the streets of moscow the excited mobs headed by priests and shuiski
a discontented noble who had previously been pardoned for conspiracy broke into the palace hunted their prey from room to room until already bleeding from a sabre wound the unfortunate victim leaped out of a window
into the court below a height of thirty feet he broke his leg in the fall and fainted the insurgents speedily found him dragged him mid curses and blows into the palace
and taunted him as to his birth the wretched man collecting his strength exclaimed i am your czar the son of ivan vassilievitch when his agony was terminated by a shot from an arquebuss
his followers were destroyed his wife barely escaped with life and every kind of indignity was offered to the polish ladies in attendance upon her the body of the murdered man
after lying exposed for some days was unceremoniously buried without the walls then disinterred and burnt the ashes collected and to make sure of no further resuscitation
shuiski then pretended to have discovered the body of young demetrius in the ruins of uglitch and his clerical friends contrived a miracle for the occasion when the body was brought to moscow
they recognized the corpse as that of the real prince and affirmed that by heavenly providence it had been preserved in its then condition it being found quite uncorrupt and the glow of life not even faded from the cheek
but this miraculous interposition did not satisfy everybody and whilst the partizans of the late czar were affirming that a body had been substituted for the occasion the whole country was roused to a state of frenzy
had murdered burnt and fired from the cannon's mouth the wrong man this time a substituted corpse could not be produced a civil war broke out
at last a lithuanian jew was selected by the insurgents who aided by the poles
a feasible story was invented to account for the escape of the intended victim of the late massacre and to confirm the nation in the belief of his identity with their late czar marina the widowed czarina
publicly acknowledged him as her own demetrius lived with him as his consort and had a child by him her father the palatine of sandomir also recognized him as his son in law
and in a short time almost the whole empire declared for him his reign however was short deserted by his foreign allies he was forced to fly and eventually was assassinated
his consort marina died in prison and ivan one of their children
the water of life long before you or i were born there reigned in a country a great way off a king who had three sons this king
once fell very ill so ill that nobody thought he could live his sons were very much grieved at their father's sickness and as they were walking together very mournfully in the garden of the palace
a little old man met them and asked what was the matter they told him that their father was very ill and that they were afraid nothing could save him i know what would said the little old man
it is the water of life if he could have a draught of it he would be well again but it is very hard to get then the eldest son said i will soon find it and he went to the sick king
and begged that he might go in search of the water of life as it was the only thing that could save him no said the king i had rather die than place you in such great danger as you must meet with in your journey
but he begged so hard that the king let him go and the prince thought to himself if i bring my father this water he will make me sole heir to his kingdom then he set out
a little ugly dwarf with a sugarloaf cap and a scarlet cloak and the dwarf called to him and said prince whither so fast what is that to thee you ugly imp
said the prince haughtily and rode on but the dwarf was enraged at his behaviour and laid a fairy spell of ill luck upon him so that as he rode on the mountain pass became narrower
and narrower and at last the way was so straitened that he could not go to step forward and when he thought to have turned his horse round and go back the way he came he heard a loud laugh ringing round him
and found that the path was closed behind him so that he was shut in all round he next tried to get off his horse and make his way on foot but again the laugh rang in his ears
and he found himself unable to move a step and thus he was forced to abide spellbound meantime
in daily hope of his son's return
father i will go in search of the water of life for he thought to himself my brother is surely dead and the kingdom will fall to me if i find the water the king was at first very unwilling to let him go
said the prince scornfully and rode on but the dwarf put the same spell upon him as he put on his elder brother and he too was at last obliged
to take up his abode in the heart of the mountains thus it is with proud silly people who think themselves above everyone else and are too proud to ask or take advice
when the second prince had thus been gone a long time the youngest son said he would go and search for the water of life and trusted he should soon be able to make his father well again
so he set out and the dwarf met him too at the same spot in the valley among the mountains and said prince whither so fast and the prince said
they will let you pass then hasten on to the well and take some of the water of life before the clock strikes twelve for if you tarry longer the door will shut upon you for ever then
the prince thanked his little friend with the scarlet cloak for his friendly aid
and when the lions were quieted he went on through the castle and came at length to a beautiful hall around it he saw several knights sitting in a trance then he pulled off their rings
and put them on his own fingers in another room
which he also took further on
and she welcomed him joyfully and said if he would set her free from the spell that bound her the kingdom should be his if he would come back in a year and marry her then she told him
that he would rest himself for a while and gaze on the lovely scenes around him
so that he did not wake up till the clock was striking a quarter to twelve then he sprang from the couch dreadfully frightened ran to the well filled a cup that was standing by him full of water and hastened to get away in time
to think that he had got the water of life and as he was going on his way homewards he passed by the little dwarf who when he saw the sword and the loaf said you have made a noble prize with the sword you can at a blow
slay whole armies and the bread will never fail you then the prince thought to himself i cannot go home to my father without my brothers so he said my dear friend cannot you tell me where my two brothers are
who set out in search of the water of life before me and never came back i have shut them up by a charm between two mountains said the dwarf because they were proud and ill behaved and scorned to ask advice
the prince begged so hard for his brothers that the dwarf at last set them free though unwillingly saying beware of them for they have bad hearts their brother however
and then to marry him and to give him the kingdom then they all three rode on together and on their way home came to a country that was laid waste by war and a dreadful famine
so that it was feared all must die for want but the prince gave the king of the land the bread and all his kingdom ate of it and he lent the king the wonderful sword and he slew the enemy's army with it
and thus the kingdom was once more in peace and plenty in the same manner he befriended two other countries through which they passed on their way when they came to the sea they got into a ship
the youngest son brought his cup to the sick king that he might drink and be healed scarcely however had he tasted the bitter sea water when he became worse even than he was before and then both the elder sons came in
and blamed the youngest for what they had done and said that he wanted to poison their father but that they had found the water of life and had brought it with them he no sooner began to drink of what they brought him than he felt his sickness leave him
and was as strong and well as in his younger days then they went to their brother and laughed at him and said well brother you found the water of life did you you have had the trouble
and we shall have the reward pray with all your cleverness
you shall lose your life into the bargain but be quiet and we will let you off
so he called his court together and asked what should be done and all agreed that he ought to be put to death the prince knew nothing of what was going on till one day when the king's chief huntsmen went a hunting with him
and they were alone in the wood together the huntsman looked so sorrowful that the prince said my friend what is the matter with you
said he but the prince begged very hard and said only tell me what it is and do not think i shall be angry for i will forgive you alas said the huntsman the king has ordered me to shoot you
let me live and i will change dresses with you you shall take my royal coat to show to my father and do you give me your shabby one with all my heart said the huntsman i am sure i shall be glad to save you
for i could not have shot you then he took the prince's coat and gave him the shabby one and went away through the wood some time after three grand embassies came to the old king's court
and i am glad that i had pity on him but let him go in peace and brought home his royal coat at this the king was overwhelmed with joy and made it known throughout all his kingdom
that if his son would come back to his court he would forgive him meanwhile the princess was eagerly waiting till her deliverer should come back
it is a pity to ride upon this beautiful road so he turned aside and rode on the right hand side of it but when he came to the gate the guards who had seen the road he took said to him
he could not be what he said he was and must go about his business the second prince set out soon afterwards on the same errand and when he came to the golden road and his horse had set one foot upon it
the guards said he was not the true prince and that he too must go away about his business and away he went now when the full year was come round the third brother
left the forest in which he had lain hid for fear of his father's anger and set out in search of his betrothed bride so he journeyed on thinking of her all the way and rode so quickly that he did not even see what the road was made of
but went with his horse straight over it and as he came to the gate it flew open and the princess welcomed him with joy and said he was her deliverer and should now be her husband and lord of the kingdom
when the first joy at their meeting was over the princess told him she had heard of his father having forgiven him and of his wish to have him home again so before his wedding with the princess he went to visit his father
taking her with him then he told him everything how his brothers had cheated and robbed him and yet that he had borne all those wrongs for the love of his father and the old king was very angry
and wanted to punish his wicked sons but they made their escape and got into a ship and sailed away over the wide sea and where they went to nobody knew and nobody cared
and now the old king gathered together his court and asked all his kingdom to come and celebrate the wedding of his son and the princess and young and old noble and squire
gentle and simple came at once on the summons and among the rest came the friendly dwarf with the sugarloaf hat and a new scarlet cloak and the wedding was held and the merry bells run
the knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of god which every idea involves is adequate and perfect
the proof of the last proposition is universal and whether a thing be considered as a part or a whole the idea thereof whether of the whole or of a part
will involve god's eternal and infinite essence wherefore that which gives knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of god is common to all
note hence we see that the infinite essence and the eternity of god are known to all now as all things are in god and are conceived through god
we can from this knowledge infer many things which we may adequately know and we may form that third kind of knowledge of which we spoke
men have not so clear a knowledge of god as they have of general notions because they are unable to imagine god as they do bodies and also because they have associated the name god
with images of things that they are in the habit of seeing
and continually affected by external bodies many errors in truth can be traced to this head
he then at all events assuredly attaches a meaning to the word circle
after we have proved that these faculties of ours are general notions which cannot be distinguished from the particular instances on which they are based
we must inquire whether volitions themselves are anything besides the ideas of things we must inquire i say whether there is in the mind any affirmation or negation beyond that
which the idea in so far as it is an idea involves
lest the idea of pictures should suggest itself
or in the midst of the brain but the conceptions of thought
save that which an idea inasmuch as it is an idea involves
there is in the mind no absolute faculty of positive or negative volition but only particular volitions namely this or that affirmation
now let us conceive a particular volition
are equal to two right angles this affirmation involves the conception or idea of a triangle that is without the idea of a triangle it cannot be conceived
it is the same thing to say that the concept a must involve the concept b as it is to say that a cannot be conceived without b
without the idea of a triangle therefore
again this idea of a triangle must involve this same affirmation namely that its three interior angles are equal to two right angles wherefore and vice versa
this idea of a triangle can neither be nor be conceived without this affirmation therefore this affirmation belongs to the essence of the idea of a triangle and is nothing besides
inasmuch as we have selected it at random may be said of any other volition
in order that the foregoing proposition may be fully explained i will draw attention to a few additional points and i will furthermore answer the objections which may be advanced against our doctrine lastly
in order to remove every scruple i have thought it worth while to point out some of the advantages which follow therefrom
those who think that ideas consist in images which are formed in us by contact with external bodies persuade themselves that the ideas of those things whereof we can form no mental picture
they thus regard ideas as though they were inanimate pictures on a panel and filled with this misconception do not see that an idea inasmuch as it is an idea
involves an affirmation or negation again those who confuse words with ideas or with the affirmation which an idea involves think that they can wish something contrary to what they feel affirm or deny
this misconception will easily be laid aside by one who reflects on the nature of knowledge and seeing that it in no wise involves the conception of extension will therefore clearly understand
does not consist in the image of anything nor in words the essence of words and images is put together by bodily motions which in no wise involve the conception of thought these few words on this subject will suffice
i will therefore pass on to consider the objections which may be raised against our doctrine of these the first is advanced by those who think that the will has a wider scope than the understanding
than the understanding is that they assert that
that is of affirmation or negation in order to assent to an infinity of things which we do not perceive but that they have need of an increase in their faculty of understanding
the will is thus distinguished from the intellect
that we are able to suspend our judgment before assenting to things which we perceive this is confirmed by the fact
that no one is said to be deceived in so far as he perceives anything but only in so far as he assents or dissents for instance he who feigns a winged horse
does not therefore admit that a winged horse exists that is he is not deceived unless he admits in addition that a winged horse does exist nothing therefore seems to be taught more clearly by experience
than that the will or faculty of assent is free and different from the faculty of understanding thirdly
for as objects are some more excellent than others so also are the ideas of them some more excellent than others this also seems to point to a difference between the understanding and the will
fourthly it may be objected if man does not act from free will what will happen if the incentives to action are equally balanced
as in the case of buridan's ass will he perish of hunger and thirst if i say that he would i shall seem to have in my thoughts an ass or the statue of a man
rather than an actual man if i say that he would not he would then determine his own action and would consequently possess the faculty of going and doing whatever he liked other objections might also be raised
i will only set myself to the task of refuting those i have mentioned
that i admit that the will has a wider scope than the understanding
and the faculty of forming conceptions nor do i see why the faculty of volition should be called infinite any more than the faculty of feeling for as we are able by the same faculty of volition to affirm an infinite number of things
so also can we by the same faculty of feeling feel or perceive in succession an infinite number of bodies if it be said that there is an infinite number of things which we cannot perceive
i answer that we cannot attain to such things by any thinking nor consequently by any faculty of volition but it may still be urged
if god wished to bring it about that we should perceive them he would be obliged to endow us with a greater faculty of perception but not a greater faculty of volition than we have already
this is the same as to say that if god wished to bring it about that we should understand an infinite number of other entities it would be necessary for him to give us a greater understanding
but not a more universal idea of entity than that which we have already in order to grasp such infinite entities we have shown that will is a universal entity or idea
whereby we explain all particular volitions
common or universal to all volitions is a faculty it is little to be wondered at that they assert that such a faculty extends itself into the infinite beyond the limits of the understanding
for what is universal is predicated alike of one of many and of an infinite number of individuals to the second objection
i reply by denying that we have a free power of suspending our judgment for when we say that anyone suspends his judgment we merely mean that he sees that he does not perceive the matter in question adequately
strictly speaking a perception and not free will in order to illustrate the point
he will necessarily regard the horse as present he will not be able to doubt of its existence although he be not certain thereof we have daily experience of such a state of things in dreams
that while he is dreaming he has the free power of suspending his judgment concerning the things in his dream and bringing it about that he should not dream those things which he dreams that he sees
yet it happens notwithstanding
namely when we dream that we are dreaming further i grant that no one can be deceived so far as actual perception extends that is i grant that the mind's imaginations regarded in themselves do not involve error
make any affirmation for what is the perception of a winged horse save affirming that a horse has wings if the mind could perceive nothing else but the winged horse it would regard the same as present to itself
it would have no reasons for doubting its existence nor any faculty of dissent unless the imagination of a winged horse be joined to an idea which precludes the existence of the said horse
or unless the mind perceives that the idea which it possess of a winged horse is inadequate in which case it will either necessarily deny the existence of such a horse
or will necessarily be in doubt on the subject i think that i have anticipated my answer to the third objection namely that the will is something universal which is predicated of all ideas
and that it only signifies that which is common to all ideas namely an affirmation whose adequate essence must therefore in so far as it is thus conceived in the abstract
be in every idea and be in this respect alone the same in all not in so far as it is considered as constituting the idea's essence for in this respect particular
that there is no emotion directly contrary to this love whereby this love can be destroyed therefore we may conclude that this love towards god is the most constant of all the emotions
and that in so far as it is referred to the body it cannot be destroyed unless the body be destroyed also as to its nature in so far as it is referred to the mind only
with the emotion of another and see that one man is more troubled than another by the same emotion or when we are comparing the various emotions of the same man one with another
possesses over the emotions if it does not absolutely destroy them
at any rate it causes them to occupy a very small part of the mind
further it begets a love towards a thing immutable and eternal
neither can it be defiled with those faults which are inherent in ordinary love but it may grow from strength to strength and may engross the greater part of the mind and deeply penetrate it
and now i have finished with all that concerns this present life
is that very love of god whereby god loves himself not in so far as he is infinite but in so far as he can be explained through the essence of the human mind
this love of the mind is part of the infinite love wherewith god loves himself
corollary hence it follows that god in so far as he loves himself loves man and consequently
that the love of god towards men and the intellectual love of the mind towards god are identical note from what has been said we clearly understand
as to its essence and existence follows from the divine nature and constantly depends on god
in order to show by this example how the knowledge of particular things which i have called intuitive or of the third kind
which i have styled knowledge of the second kind
and consequently also the human mind
does not affect our mind so much as when the same conclusion is derived from the actual essence of some particular thing which we say depends on god
i there is nothing in nature which is contrary to this intellectual love
and consequently in proportion as the mind loves god more
according to the intellectual order and consequently of bringing it about that all the modifications of the body should be referred to the idea of god
must occupy or constitute
and therefore that they should scarcely fear death but in order that this may be understood more clearly we must here call to mind that we live in a state of perpetual variation
we are called happy or unhappy for he who from being an infant or a child becomes a corpse is called unhappy whereas it is set down to happiness if we have been able to live through the whole period of life
with a sound mind in a sound body and in reality he who as in the case of an infant or a child has a body capable of very few activities
is scarcely conscious of itself or of god or of things
has a mind which considered in itself alone
in this life therefore we primarily endeavour to bring it about
may be changed into something else capable of very many activities and referable to a mind which is highly conscious of itself of god and of things
and we desire so to change it that what is referred to its imagination and memory may become insignificant in comparison with its intellect as i have already said in the note to the last proposition
so is it more active and less passive and vice versa in proportion as it is more active so is it more perfect
in proportion as each thing is more perfect
and consequently
be it great or small is more perfect than the latter
note such are the doctrines which i had purposed to set forth concerning the mind in so far as it is regarded without relation to the body
it is plain that our mind in so far as it understands is an eternal mode of thinking which is determined by another eternal mode of thinking and this other by a third and so on to infinity
in the first place that which was born with him and secondly
he never went anywhere except on condition of being the chief person there there are people who will have influence at any price and who will have other people busy themselves over them when they cannot be oracles they turn wags
his domination in the royalist salons which he frequented cost his self respect nothing he was an oracle everywhere it had happened to him
about eighteen seventeen he invariably passed two afternoons a week in a house in his own neighborhood in the rue ferou with madame la baronne de t a worthy and respectable person whose husband had been ambassador of france to berlin
and magnetic visions had died bankrupt during the emigration leaving as his entire fortune some very curious memoirs about mesmer and his tub
in ten manuscript volumes bound in red morocco and gilded on the edges madame de t had not published the memoirs out of pride and maintained herself on a meagre income which had survived no one knew how
madame de t lived far from the court a very mixed society as she said in a noble isolation proud and poor a few friends assembled twice a week about her widowed hearth
and these constituted a purely royalist salon they sipped tea there and uttered groans or cries of horror at the century the charter
towards elegy or dithyrambs and they spoke in low tones of the hopes which were presented by monsieur afterwards
the songs of the fishwomen in which napoleon was called nicolas
duchesses the most delicate and charming women in the world
in the fualdes affair which belongs to this epoch
they designated the liberals as friends and brothers this constituted the most deadly insult
of whom it was whispered about with a sort of respect do you know
singular amnesties do occur in parties let us add the following in the bourgeoisie
though true because of his name of valois
in spite of his levity and without its interfering in any way with his dignity a certain manner about him which was imposing dignified honest and lofty
all kings who are not the king of france said he are provincial kings one day
there goes his excellency the evil one
that tall mademoiselle who was over forty and looked fifty and by a handsome little boy of seven years white rosy fresh with happy and trusting eyes who never appeared in that salon without hearing voices murmur around him
how handsome he is what a pity poor child
charlemagne succeeded in all his attempts and compelled marsilius to submit and pay tribute to france our readers will remember gano otherwise called gan or ganelon
whom we mentioned in one of our early chapters as an old courtier of charlemagne and a deadly enemy of orlando rinaldo and all their friends he had great influence over charles
from equality of age and long intimacy and he was not without good qualities he was brave and sagacious but envious false and treacherous
to arrange the tribute he embraced orlando over and over again at taking leave using such pains to seem loving and sincere that
but the old monarch he fastened with equal tenderness on oliver who smiled contemptuously in his face and thought to himself you may make as many fair speeches as you choose but you lie
all the other paladins who were present thought the same and they said as much to the emperor adding that gan should on no account be sent ambassador to the spaniards but charles was infatuated
gan was received with great honor by marsilius the king attended by his lords came fifteen miles out of saragossa to meet him and then conducted him into the city with acclamations
there was nothing for several days but balls games and exhibitions of chivalry the ladies throwing flowers on the heads of the french knights and the people shouting france mountjoy and saint denis
after the ceremonies of the first reception the king and the ambassador began to understand one another one day they sat together in a garden on the border of a fountain the water was so clear and smooth it reflected every object around
and the spot was encircled with fruit trees which quivered with the fresh air as they sat and talked as if without restraint gan without looking the king in the face was enabled to see the expression of his countenance in the water
and governed his speech accordingly marsilius was equally adroit and watched the face of gan while he addressed him marsilius began by lamenting not as to the ambassador but as to the friend
charging him with wishing to take his kingdom from him and give it to orlando till at length he plainly uttered his belief that if that ambitious paladin were but dead good men would get their rights gan heaved a sigh
as if he was unwillingly compelled to allow the force of what the king said but unable to contain himself long he lifted up his face radiant with triumphant wickedness and exclaimed every word you utter is truth die he must
and die also must oliver who struck me that foul blow at court is it treachery to punish affronts like these i have planned everything i have settled everything already with their besotted master orlando
will come to your borders to roncesvalles for the purpose of receiving the tribute charles will await him at the foot of the mountains orlando will bring but a small band with him you
when you meet him will have secretly your whole army at your back you surround him and who receives tribute then the new judas had scarcely uttered these words when his exultation was interrupted
by a change in the face of nature the sky was suddenly overcast there was thunder and lightning a laurel was split in two from head to foot and the carob tree under which gan was sitting
which is said to be the species of tree on which judas iscariot hung himself dropped one of its pods on his head marsilius as well as gan was appalled at this omen but on assembling his soothsayers
they came to the conclusion that the laurel tree turned the omen against the emperor the successor of the caesars though one of them renewed the consternation of gan by saying that he did not understand the meaning of the tree of judas and intimating
that perhaps the ambassador could explain it gan relieved his vexation by anger the habit of wickedness prevailed over all other considerations and the king prepared to march to roncesvalles at the head of all his forces
gan wrote to charlemagne to say how humbly and submissively marsilius was coming to pay the tribute into the hands of orlando and how handsome it would be of the emperor to meet him half way
and so be ready to receive him after the payment at his camp he added a brilliant account of the tribute and the accompanying presents the good emperor wrote in turn to say how pleased he was with the ambassador's diligence
and that matters were arranged precisely as he wished his court however had its suspicion still though they little thought gan's object in bringing charles into the neighborhood of roncesvalles
was to deliver him into the hands of marsilius after orlando should have been destroyed by him orlando however did as his lord and sovereign desired he went to roncesvalles
accompanied by a moderate train of warriors not dreaming of the atrocity that awaited him gan meanwhile had hastened back to france in order to show himself free and easy in the presence of charles
while marsilius to make assurance doubly sure brought into the passes of roncesvalles no less than three armies which were successively to fall on the paladin in case of the worst
and so extinguish him with numbers he had also by gan's advice brought heaps of wine and good cheer to be set before his victims in the first instance for that said the traitor
will render the onset the more effective the feasters being unarmed one thing however i must not forget added he my son baldwin is sure to be with orlando
you must take care of his life for my sake i give him this vesture off my own body said the king let him wear it in the battle and have no fear my soldiers shall be directed not to touch him
gan went away rejoicing to france he embraced the sovereign and the court all round with the air of a man who had brought them nothing but blessings and the old king wept for very tenderness and delight
the good wizard rinaldo is not here and it is indispensably necessary that he should be i must find out where he is and ricciardetto too and send for them with all speed
tell me and tell me truly of rinaldo
the demon looked hard at the paladin and said nothing his aspect was clouded and violent the enchanter with an aspect still cloudier bade ashtaroth lay down that look
and made signs as if he would resort to angrier compulsion and the devil alarmed loosened his tongue and said you have not told me what you desire to know of rinaldo
i desire to know what he has been doing and where he is he has been conquering and baptizing the world east and west said the demon
and what is to come of it i know not said the devil i was not attending to gan at the time and we fallen spirits know not the future all i discern
is that by the signs and comets in the heavens something dreadful is about to happen something very strange
and that gan has a seat ready prepared for him in hell within three days cried the enchanter loudly bring rinaldo and ricciardetto into the pass of ronces valles do it
and i hereby undertake to summon thee no more suppose they will not trust themselves with me said the spirit enter rinaldo's horse and bring him whether he trust thee or not
it shall be done returned the demon there was an earthquake and ashtaroth disappeared marsilius now made his first movement towards the destruction of orlando by sending before him his vassal
king blanchardin with his presents of wines and other luxuries the temperate but courteous hero took them in good part and distributed them as the traitor wished and then blanchardin on pretence of going forward to salute charlemagne
returned and put himself at the head of the second army which was the post assigned him by his liege lord king falseron whose son orlando had slain in battle headed the first army and king balugante the third
marsilius made a speech to them in which he let them into his design and concluded by recommending to their good will the son of his friend gan whom they would know by the vest he had sent him
and who was the only soul amongst the christian they were to spare this son of gan meanwhile and several of the paladins who distrusted the misbelievers and were anxious at all events to be with orlando had joined the hero in the fatal valley
so that the little christian host considering the tremendous valor of their lord and his friends were not to be sold for nothing rinaldo alas the second thunderbolt of christendom was destined not to be there in time to meet the issue
the paladins in vain begged orlando to be on his guard against treachery and send for a more numerous body of men the great heart of the champion of the faith was unwilling to harbor suspicion as long as he could help it
he refused to summon aid which might be superfluous neither would he do anything but what his liege lord had directed and yet he could not wholly repress a misgiving a shadow had fallen on his heart
in spite of the face with which he met them perhaps by a certain foresight he felt his death approaching but he felt bound not to encourage the impression besides time pressed the moment of the looked for tribute was at hand
a young lawyer named nathan goodbody whom he knew but slightly he told him as much of the case as he thought proper and then gave him a note to the prisoner addressing him as harry king armed with this letter
the young lawyer was soon in close consultation with his new client despite nathan goodbody's youth harry was favorably impressed the young man was so interested so alert so confident that all would be well
he seemed to believe so completely the story harry told him and took careful notes of it saying he would prepare a brief of the facts and the law and that harry might safely leave everything to him
you were wounded in the hip you say nathan goodbody questioned him we must not neglect the smallest item that may help you for your case needs strengthening you say you were lamed by it but you seem to have recovered from that
is there no scar that will not help me my cousin was wounded also but his was only a flesh wound from which he quickly recovered and of which he thought nothing
but it's the irony of fate that he was more badly scarred by it than i he was struck by a spent bullet that tore the flesh only while the one that hit me went cleanly to the bone and splintered it
while he was back at his post in a week and both wounds were in the same place on the same side for instance on the same side yes but his was lower down mine entered the hip here while he was struck about here
harry indicated the places with a touch of his finger i think it would be best to say nothing about the scars unless forced to do so for i walk as well now as i ever did and that will be against me that's a pity now isn't it
suppose you try to get back a little of the old limp harry laughed no i'll walk straight besides they've seen me on the street and even in my father's bank too bad too bad why did you do it
how could i guess there would be such an impossible development until i saw miss ballard here in this cell i thought my cousin dead why my reason for coming here was to confess my crime but they won't give me the chance they arrest me first of all for killing myself
now that i know my cousin lives i don't seem to care what happens to me except for others but man you must put up a fight suppose your cousin is no longer living you don't want to spend the rest of your life in the penitentiary because he can't be found
i see if he is living this whole trial is a farce and if he is not it's a tragedy we'll never let it become a tragedy i'll promise you that the young man spoke with smiling confidence
but when he reached his office again and had closed the door behind him his manner changed quickly to seriousness and doubt i don't know he said to himself i don't know if this story can be made to satisfy a jury or not a little shady
too much coincidence to suit me he sat drumming with his fingers on his desk for a while and then rose and turned to his books i'll have a little law on this case some point upon which we can go to the supreme court
and long into the night nathan goodbody consulted with his library in anticipation of the unusual public interest the district attorney directed the summoning of twenty five jurors in addition to the twenty five of the regular panel
on the day set for the trial the court room was packed to the doors inside the bar were the lawyers and the officers of the court elder craigmile sat by milton hibbard
in the front seats just outside the bar were the fifty jurors and back of them were the ladies who had come early or who had been given the seats of their gentlemen friends who had come early and whose gallantry had momentarily gotten the better of their judgment
the stillness of the court room like that of a church was suddenly broken by the entrance of the judge a tall spare man with gray hair and a serious outlook upon life as he walked toward his seat the lawyers and officers of the court
rose and stood until he was seated the clerk of the court read from a large book the journal of the court of the previous day and then handed the book to the judge to be signed when this ceremony was completed
the judge took up the court calender and said the state
and turning to the lawyers engaged in the case added gentlemen are you ready we are ready answered the district attorney bring in the prisoner when harry entered the court room in charge of the sheriff
he looked neither to the right nor to the left and saw no one before him but his own counsel who arose and extended a friendly hand and led him to a seat beside himself within the bar
nathan goodbody then rose and addressing the court with an air of confident modesty as if he were bringing forward a point so strong as to require nothing more than the simple statement to give it weight said if the court please the defense is ready
but i have noticed as no doubt the court has noticed a distinguished member of this bar sitting with the district attorney as though it were intended that he should take part in the trial of this case and i am advised that he intends to do so
i am also advised that he is in the employ of the complaining witness who sits beside him and that he has received or expects to receive compensation from him for his services
i desire at the outset of this case to raise a question as to whether counsel employed and paid by a private person has a right to assist in the prosecution of a criminal cause
i therefore object to the appearance of mister hibbard as counsel in this case and to his taking any part in this trial if the facts i have stated are questioned i will ask elder craigmile to be sworn
the court replied i shall assume the facts to be as stated by you unless the counsel on the other side dissent from such a statement considering the facts to be as stated your objection raises a novel question
i do not know that the supreme court of this state has passed upon this question i do not think it has but my objection finds support in the well established rule in this country
his object like that of the court should be simple justice the district attorney represents the public interest which can never be promoted by the conviction of the innocent
as the district attorney himself could not accept a fee or reward from private parties so i urge counsel employed to assist him must be equally disinterested the court considers the question an interesting one
but the practice in the past has been against your contention i will overrule your objection and give you an exception mister clerk call a jury
until nearly the entire panel of fifty jurors was exhausted in this way two days were spent with a result that when counsel on both sides expressed themselves as satisfied with the jury every one in the court room doubted it
as the sheriff confided to the clerk it was an even bet that the first twelve men drawn were safer for both sides than the twelve men who finally stood with uplifted hands
began to grow interested in these details quite aside from his own part therein he watched the clerk shaking the box wondering why he did so until he saw the slips of paper being drawn forth one by one from the small aperture on the top
and listened while the name written on each was called aloud some of the names were familiar to him and it seemed as if he must turn about and speak to the men who responded to their roll call saying here as each rose in his place behind him
but he resisted the impulse never turning his head and only glancing curiously at each man as he took his seat in the jury box at the order of the judge during all these proceedings the elder sat looking straight before him
glancing at the prisoner only when obliged to do so and coldly as an outsider might do the trial was taking more time than he had thought possible and he saw no reason for such lengthy technicalities and the delay in calling the witnesses
his air was worn and weary the prisoner sitting beside his counsel had taken less and less interest in the proceedings and the crowds who had at first filled the court room had also lost interest
and had drifted off about their own affairs until the real business of the taking of testimony should come on till at the close of the second day the court room was almost empty of visitors the prisoner was glad to see them go
so many familiar faces faces from whom he might reasonably expect a smile or a handshake were it possible or at the very least a nod of recognition all with their eyes fixed on him in a blank gaze of aloofness or speculation
he felt as if his soul must have been in some way separated from his body and then returned to it to find all the world gazing at the place where his soul should be without seeing that it had returned and was craving their intelligent support
the whole situation seemed to him cruelly impossible a sort of insane delusion only one face never failed him that of bertrand ballard who sat where he might now and then meet his eye
and who never left the court room while the case was on when the time arrived for the introduction of the witnesses the court room again filled up but he no longer looked for faces he knew he held himself sternly aloof
as if he feared his reason might leave him if he continued to strive against those baffling eyes who knew him and did not know that they knew him but who looked at him as if trying to penetrate a mask when he wore no mask
occasionally his counsel turned to him for brief consultation in which his part consisted generally of a nod or a shake of the head as the case might be while the district attorney was addressing the jury
milton hibbard moved forward and took the district attorney's seat then followed the testimony of the boys now shy lads in their teens who had found the evidences of a struggle and possible murder so long before on the river bluff
under the adroit lead of counsel they told each the same story and were excused cross examination both boys had identified the hat found on the bluff and testified that the brown stain which now appeared somewhat faintly
had been a bright red and had looked like blood then bertrand ballard was called and the questions put to him were more searching though the manner of the examiner was respectful and courteous
he still contrived to leave the impression on those in the court room that he hoped to draw out some fact that would lead to the discovery of matters more vital to the case than the mere details to which the witness testified but bertrand ballard's prompt and straightforward answers
and his simple and courteous manner were a full match for the able lawyer and after two hours of effort he subsided then the testimony of the other witnesses was taken even to that of the little housemaid who had been in the family at the time
and who had seen peter junior wear the hat did she know it for his yes why did she know it because of the little break in the straw on the edge of the brim but any man's hat might have such a break
what was there about this particular break to make it the hat of peter junior because she had made it herself she had knocked it down one day when she was brushing up in the front hall and when she hung it up again she had seen the break and knew she had done it
and thus in the careful scrutiny of small things relating to the habits life and manner of dressing of the two young men matters about which nobody raised any question and in which no one except the examiner took any interest
the luck of roaring camp there was commotion in roaring camp it could not have been a fight for in eighteen fifty that was not novel enough to have called together the entire settlement
the ditches and claims were not only deserted but tuttle's grocery had contributed its gamblers who it will be remembered calmly continued their game the day that french pete and kanaka joe shot each other to death
the whole camp was collected before a rude cabin on the outer edge of the clearing
but the name of a woman was frequently repeated it was a name familiar enough in the camp cherokee sal perhaps the less said of her the better she was a coarse and it is to be feared a very sinful woman
when she most needed the ministration of her own sex dissolute abandoned and irreclaimable she was yet suffering a martyrdom hard enough to bear even when veiled by sympathizing womanhood
but now terrible in her loneliness the primal curse had come to her in that original isolation which must have made the punishment of the first transgression so dreadful it was perhaps part of the expiation of her sin
that at a moment when she most lacked her sex's intuitive tenderness and care
sandy tipton thought it was rough on sal and in the contemplation of her condition for a moment rose superior to the fact that he had an ace and two bowers in his sleeve it will be seen also that the situation was novel
deaths were by no means uncommon in roaring camp but a birth was a new thing people had been dismissed the camp effectively finally and with no possibility of return but this was the first time that anybody had been introduced a b initio
hence the excitement you go in there stumpy said a prominent citizen known as kentuck addressing one of the loungers go in there and see what you kin do you've had experience in them things
perhaps there was a fitness in the selection stumpy in other climes had been the putative head of two families in fact it was owing to some legal informality in these proceedings that roaring camp a city of refuge
was indebted to his company the crowd approved the choice and stumpy was wise enough to bow to the majority the door closed on the extempore surgeon and midwife and roaring camp sat down outside smoked its pipe and awaited the issue
the assemblage numbered about a hundred men one or two of these were actual fugitives from justice some were criminal and all were reckless physically they exhibited no indication of their past lives and character
the greatest scamp had a raphael face with a profusion of blonde hair oakhurst a gambler had the melancholy air and intellectual abstraction of a hamlet the coolest and most courageous man
the term roughs applied to them was a distinction rather than a definition
the camp may have been deficient but these slight omissions did not detract from their aggregate force the strongest man had but three fingers on his right hand the best shot had but one eye
such was the physical aspect of the men that were dispersed around the cabin
the only outlet was a steep trail over the summit of a hill that faced the cabin now illuminated by the rising moon the suffering woman might have seen it from the rude bunk whereon she lay
seen it winding like a silver thread until it was lost in the stars above a fire of withered pine boughs added sociability to the gathering
bets were freely offered and taken regarding the result three to five that sal would get through with it even that the child would survive side bets as to the sex and complexion of the coming stranger
those nearest the door and the camp stopped to listen above the swaying and moaning of the pines the swift rush of the river and the crackling of the fire
the pines stopped moaning
it seemed as if nature had stopped to listen too the camp rose to its feet as one man it was proposed to explode a barrel of gunpowder
but in consideration of the situation of the mother better counsels prevailed
for whether owing to the rude surgery of the camp or some other reason cherokee sal was sinking fast within an hour she had climbed as it were that rugged road that led to the stars
and so passed out of roaring camp its sin and shame forever i do not think that the announcement disturbed them much except in speculation as to the fate of the child can he live now was asked of stumpy
the answer was doubtful the only other being of cherokee sal's sex and maternal condition in the settlement was an ass there was some conjecture as to fitness but the experiment was tried it was less problematical
than the ancient treatment of romulus and remus and apparently as successful when these details were completed which exhausted another hour the door was opened and the anxious crowd of men
beside the low bunk or shelf on which the figure of the mother was starkly outlined below the blankets stood a pine table on this a candle box was placed and within it
lay the last arrival at roaring camp beside the candle box was placed a hat its use was soon indicated gentlemen said stumpy with a singular mixture of authority and ex officio complacency
gentlemen will please pass in at the front door round the table and out at the back door them as wishes to contribute anything toward the orphan will find a hat handy the first man entered with his hat on
he uncovered however as he looked about him
good and bad actions are catching as the procession filed in comments were audible criticisms addressed perhaps rather to stumpy in the character of showman is that him mighty small specimen
ain't bigger nor a derringer
a silver tobacco box a doubloon a navy revolver silver mounted a gold specimen a very beautifully embroidered lady's handkerchief from oakhurst the gambler
a diamond breastpin a diamond ring
he saw that pin and went two diamonds better a slung shot a bible contributor not detected a golden spur a silver teaspoon the initials i regret to say were not the giver's a pair of surgeon's shears
a lancet a bank of england note for five pounds and about two hundred dollars in loose gold and silver coin
a gravity as inscrutable as that of the newly born on his right only one incident occurred to break the monotony of the curious procession as kentuck bent over the candle box
half curiously the child turned and in a spasm of pain caught at his groping finger and held it fast for a moment kentuck looked foolish and embarrassed
the damned little cuss he said as he extricated his finger with perhaps more tenderness and care than he might have been deemed capable of showing he held that finger a little apart from its fellows as he went out
in fact he seemed to enjoy repeating it
the damned little cuss it was four o'clock before the camp sought repose a light burnt in the cabin where the watchers sat for stumpy did not go to bed that night nor did kentuck
he drank quite freely and related with great gusto his experience invariably ending with his characteristic condemnation of the newcomer
and kentuck had the weaknesses of the nobler sex when everybody else had gone to bed
then he walked up the gulch past the cabin still whistling with demonstrative unconcern
and again passed the cabin halfway down to the river's bank he again paused and then returned and knocked at the door it was opened by stumpy how goes it said kentuck looking past stumpy toward the candle box
all serene replied stumpy anything up nothing there was a pause an embarrassing one stumpy still holding the door then kentuck had recourse to his finger which he held up to stumpy
rastled with it the
he said and retired the next day cherokee sal had such rude sepulture as roaring camp afforded
but the unlucky suggestion met with fierce and unanimous opposition it was evident that no plan which entailed parting from their new acquisition would for a moment be entertained besides said tom ryder
them fellows at red dog would swap it and ring in somebody else on us a disbelief in the honesty of other camps prevailed at roaring camp as in other places
also met with objection it was argued that no decent woman could be prevailed to accept roaring camp as her home and the speaker urged that they didn't want any more of the other kind this unkind allusion to the defunct mother
was the first spasm of propriety the first symptom of the camp's regeneration stumpy advanced nothing perhaps he felt a certain delicacy in interfering with the selection of a possible successor in office
but when questioned he averred stoutly that he and jinny the mammal before alluded to could manage to rear the child there was something original independent and heroic about the plan that pleased the camp
stumpy was retained certain articles were sent for to sacramento mind said the treasurer as he pressed a bag of gold dust into the expressman's hand the best that can be got lace you know and filigree work and frills
damn the cost strange to say the child thrived perhaps the invigorating climate of the mountain camp was compensation for material deficiencies nature took the foundling to her broader breast
in that rare atmosphere of the sierra foothills that air pungent with balsamic odor that ethereal cordial at once bracing and exhilarating he may have found food and nourishment
me and that ass he would say has been father and mother to him don't you he would add apostrophizing the helpless bundle before him never go back on us
by the time he was a month old the necessity of giving him a name became apparent he had generally been known as the kid stumpy's boy the coyote
an allusion to his vocal powers and even by kentuck's endearing diminutive of the damned little cuss but these were felt to be vague and unsatisfactory and were at last dismissed under another influence
gamblers and adventurers are generally superstitious and oakhurst one day declared that the baby had brought the luck to roaring camp it was certain that of late they had been successful luck
no allusion was made to the mother and the father was unknown it's better said the philosophical oakhurst to take a fresh deal all round
call him luck and start him fair a day was accordingly set apart for the christening what was meant by this ceremony the reader may imagine who has already gathered some idea
of the reckless irreverence of roaring camp the master of ceremonies was one boston a noted wag and the occasion seemed to promise the greatest facetiousness this ingenious satirist
had spent two days in preparing a burlesque of the church service with pointed local allusions the choir was properly trained and sandy tipton was to stand godfather
but after the procession had marched to the grove with music and banners and the child had been deposited before a mock altar stumpy stepped before the expectant crowd
eyeing the faces around him but it strikes me that this thing ain't exactly on the squar it's playing it pretty low down on this yer baby to ring in fun on him that he ain't goin to understand
and ef there's goin to be any godfathers round i'd like to see who's got any better rights than me a silence followed stumpy's speech
but said stumpy quickly following up his advantage we're here for a christening and we'll have it i proclaim you thomas luck according to the laws of the united states and the state of california
so help me god it was the first time that the name of the deity had been otherwise uttered than profanely in the camp the form of christening was perhaps even more ludicrous than the satirist had conceived
but strangely enough nobody saw it and nobody laughed tommy was christened as seriously as he would have been under a christian roof and cried and was comforted
almost imperceptibly a change came over the settlement the cabin assigned to tommy luck or the luck as he was more frequently called first showed signs of improvement
it was kept scrupulously clean and whitewashed then it was boarded clothed and papered the rose wood cradle packed eighty miles by mule had in stumpy's way of putting it sorter killed the rest of the furniture
so the rehabilitation of the cabin became a necessity the men who were in the habit of lounging in at stumpy's to see how the luck got on seemed to appreciate the change
again stumpy imposed a kind of quarantine upon those who aspired to the honor and privilege of holding the luck it was a cruel mortification to kentuck
which like a snake's only sloughed off through decay to be debarred this privilege from certain prudential reasons yet such was the subtle influence of innovation that he thereafter appeared regularly every afternoon in a clean shirt and face
nor were moral and social sanitary laws neglected tommy
must not be disturbed by noise
the men conversed in whispers or smoked with indian gravity profanity was tacitly given up in these sacred precincts and throughout the camp a popular form of expletive known as
and curse the luck was abandoned as having a new personal bearing vocal music was not interdicted being supposed to have a soothing tranquilizing quality and one song
sung by man o' war jack an english sailor from her majesty's australian colonies was quite popular as a lullaby it was a lugubrious recital of the exploits of the arethusa seventy four
smoking their pipes and drinking in the melodious utterances an indistinct idea that this was pastoral happiness pervaded the camp this ere kind o think
said the cockney simmons meditatively reclining on his elbow is evingly it reminded him of greenwich on the long summer days
the luck was usually carried to the gulch from whence the golden store of roaring camp was taken there on a blanket spread over pine boughs he would lie while the men were working in the ditches below
the men had suddenly awakened to the fact that there were beauty and significance in these trifles
fragment of variegated quartz a bright pebble from the bed of the creek became beautiful to eyes thus cleared and strengthened
it was wonderful how many treasures the woods and hillsides yielded that would do for tommy surrounded by playthings such as never child out of fairyland had before it is to be hoped that tommy was content
he appeared to be serenely happy albeit there was an infantine gravity about him
that sometimes worried stumpy he was always tractable and quiet and it is recorded that once having crept beyond his corral a hedge of tessellated pine boughs which surrounded his bed
he dropped over the bank on his head in the soft earth
i hesitate to record the many other instances of his sagacity which rest unfortunately upon the statements of prejudiced friends
i crep up the bank just now said kentuck one day in a breathless state of excitement
to him the birds sang the squirrels chattered and the flowers bloomed nature was his nurse and playfellow for him she would let slip between the leaves golden shafts of sunlight that fell just within his grasp
she would send wandering breezes to visit him with the balm of bay and resinous gum
the bumblebees buzzed and the rooks cawed a slumbrous accompaniment such was the golden summer of roaring camp they were flush times and the luck was with them
the claims had yielded enormously the camp was jealous of its privileges and looked suspiciously on strangers no encouragement was given to immigration
the land on either side of the mountain wall that surrounded the camp they duly preempted this
kept the reserve of roaring camp inviolate the expressman their only connecting link with the surrounding world sometimes told wonderful stories of the camp he would say they've a street up there in roaring
that would lay over any street in red dog they've got vines and flowers round their houses and they wash themselves twice a day but they're mighty rough on strangers
and to invite one or two decent families to reside there for the sake of the luck
to its general virtue and usefulness can only be accounted for by their affection for tommy a few still held out but the resolve could not be carried into effect for three months
and the minority meekly yielded in the hope that something might turn up to prevent it and it did the winter of eighteen fifty one will long be remembered in the foothills the snow lay deep on the sierras
each gorge and gulch
that descended the hillsides
red dog had been twice under water and roaring camp had been forewarned
it been here once and will be here again and that night the north fork suddenly leaped over its banks and swept up the triangular valley of roaring camp
but little could be done to collect the scattered camp when the morning broke the cabin of stumpy nearest the river bank was gone higher up the gulch they found the body of its unlucky owner but the pride the hope the joy
the luck of roaring camp had disappeared they were returning with sad hearts when a shout from the bank recalled them it was a relief boat from down the river they had picked up they said a man and an infant
nearly exhausted about two miles below
and did they belong here it needed but a glance to show them kentuck lying there cruelly crushed and bruised but still holding the luck of roaring camp in his arms
as they bent over the strangely assorted pair they saw that the child was cold and pulseless he is dead said one kentuck opened his eyes dead he repeated feebly yes my man
and you are dying too a smile lit the eyes of the expiring kentuck dying he repeated he's a taking me with him tell the boys i've got the luck with me now and the strong man
why the mountain lion is long and lean have you ever seen the plains in the morning a june morning when the spurred lark soars and sings when the plover calls
his shriller notes to the rising sun then is there music indeed for no bird outsings the spurred lark and thanks to old man he is not wanting in numbers either the plains are wonderful then
but on their western edge superb mountains rear themselves all over this vast country the indians roamed following the great buffalo herds as did the wolves and making their living
with the bow and lance since the horse came to them in the very old days the piskun was used and buffalo were enticed to follow a fantastically dressed man toward a cliff far enough
to get the herd moving in that direction when the buffalo man gained cover and hidden indians raised from their hiding places behind the animals and drove them over the cliff where they were killed in large numbers
not until cortez came with his cavalry from spain were there horses on this continent and then generations passed ere the plains tribes possessed this valuable animal that so materially changed their lives
dogs dragged the indian's travois or packed his household goods in the days before the horse came and for hundreds perhaps thousands of years these people had no other means of transporting their goods and chattels
as the indian is slow to forget or change the ways of his father we should pause before we brand him as wholly improvident i think he has always been a family man has the indian
and small children had to be carried
wolf dogs had to be fed too in some way thus adding to his burden for it took a great many to make it possible for him to travel at all when the night came and we visited war eagle
we found he had other company so we waited until their visit was ended before settling ourselves to hear the story that he might tell us the crows have stolen some of our best horses
said war eagle as soon as the other guests had gone that is all right we shall get them back and more too the crows have only borrowed those horses and will pay for their use with others of their own
to night i shall tell you why the mountain lion is so long and thin and why he wears hair that looks singed i shall also tell you why that person's nose is black because it is part of the story
a long time ago the mountain lion was a short thick set person i am sure you didn't guess that he was always a great thief like old man but once he went too far as you shall see
one day old man was on a hilltop and saw smoke curling up through the trees away off on the far side of a gulch ho he said i wonder who builds fires except me
i guess i will go and find out he crossed the gulch and crept carefully toward the smoke when he got quite near where the fire was he stopped and listened he heard some loud laughing
they were running and laughing and having a big time too what do you think they were doing they were running about the fire all chasing one squirrel as soon as the squirrel was caught
in turn the captive would submit to being buried and so on while the racing and laughing continued they never left the buried one in the ashes after he cried but always kept their promise and dug him out right away
say let me play won't you asked old man but the squirrel people all ran away and he had a hard time getting them to return to the fire you can't play this game replied the chief squirrel
after they had returned to the fire yes i can declared old man and you may bury me first but be sure to dig me out when i cry and not let me burn for those ashes are hot near the fire
all right said the chief squirrel we will let you play lie down and old man did lie down near the fire then the squirrels began to laugh and bury old man in the ashes as they did their own kind
in no time at all old man cried ouch you are burning me quick dig me out true to their promise the squirrel people dug old man out of the ashes and laughed at him because he cried so quickly
now it is my turn to cover the captive said old man and as there are so many of you i have a scheme that will make the game funnier and shorter
all of you lie down at once in a row then i will cover you all at one time when you cry i will dig you out right away and the game will be over they didn't know old man very well
so they said all right and then they all laid down in a row about the fire old man buried them all in the ashes then he threw some more wood on the fire and went away and left them
was buried in the ashes except one woman squirrel and she told old man she couldn't play and had to go home if she hadn't gone
yes it is lucky that she went home for a minute or so old man watched the fire as it grew hotter and then went down to a creek where willows grew and made himself a great plate by weaving them together
when he had finished making the plate he returned to the fire and it had burned low again he laughed at his wicked work and a raven flying over just then called him forked tongue or liar
but he didn't mind that at all old man cut a long stick and began to dig out the squirrel people one by one he fished them out of the hot ashes and they were roasted fine and were ready to eat
as he fished them out he counted them and laid them on the willow plate he had made when he had dug out the last one he took the plate to the creek and there sat down to eat the squirrels for he was hungry as usual old man is a big eater
but he couldn't eat all of the squirrels at once and while eating he fell asleep with the great plate in his lap nobody knows how long it was that he slept but when he waked his plate of squirrels was gone gone completely
he looked behind him he looked about him but the plate was surely gone ho but he was angry he stamped about in the brush and called aloud to those who might hear him but nobody answered
and then he started to look for the thief old man has sharp eyes and he found the trail in the grass where somebody had passed while he slept ho he said
the mountain lion has stolen my squirrels i see his footprints see where he has mashed the grass as he walked with those soft feet of his but i shall find him for i made him and know all his ways
old man got down on his hands and knees to walk as the bear people do just as he did that night in the sun's lodge and followed the trail of the mountain lion over the hills and through the swamps
at last he came to a place where the grass was all bent down and there he found his willow plate but it was empty that was the place where the mountain lion had stopped to eat the rest of the squirrels you know
but he didn't stay there long because he expected that old man would try to follow him the mountain lion had eaten so much that he was sleepy
he thought he would rest he hadn't intended to go to sleep but he crawled upon a big stone near the foot of a hill and sat down where he could see a long way here his eyes began to wink
and his head began to nod and finally he slept without stopping once old man kept on the trail that is what counts sticking right to the thing you are doing and just before sundown old man
saw the sleeping lion carefully lest he wake the sleeper old man crept close being particular not to move a stone or break a twig for the mountain lion is much faster than men are you see
and if old man had wakened the lion he would never have caught him again perhaps little by little he crept to the stone where the mountain lion was dreaming and at last grabbed him by the tail it wasn't much of a tail then
ho the lion was scared and begged hard saying spare me old man you were full and i was hungry i had to have something to eat had to get my living please let me go and do not hurt me ho old man was angry
more angry than he was when he waked and found that he had been robbed because he had travelled so far on his hands and knees i'll show you i'll teach you i'll fix you right now steal from me will you
steal from the man that made you you night prowling rascal old man put his foot behind the mountain lion's head and still holding the tail pulled hard and long stretching the lion out to great length
stretched that out until the tail was nearly as long as the body there you thief now you are too long and lean to get fat and you shall always look just like that your children shall all grow to look the same way
from the man that made you come on with me and he dragged the poor lion back to the place where the fire was and there rolled him in the hot ashes singeing his robe till it looked a great deal like burnt hair
then old man stuck the lion's nose against the burnt logs and blackened it some that is why his face looks as it does to day the mountain lion was lame and sore but old man scolded him some more
and told him that it would take lots more food to keep him after that and that he would have to work harder to get his living to pay for what he had done then he said go now and remember all the mountain lions that ever live
shall look just as you do and they do too that is the story that is why the mountain lion is so long and lean but he is no bigger thief than old man nor does he tell any more lies
firelight what a charm it adds to story telling how its moods seem to keep pace with situations pictured by the oracle offering shadows when dread is abroad
and light when a pleasing climax is reached for interest undoubtedly tends the blaze while sympathy contributes or withholds fuel according to its dictates the lodge was alight when i approached
and i could hear the children singing in a happy mood but upon entering the singing ceased and embarrassed smiles on the young faces greeted me nor could i coax a continuation of the song seated beside war eagle
was a very old indian whose name was red robe and as soon as i was seated the host explained that he was an honored guest that he was a sioux and a friend of long standing then war eagle lighted the pipe
passing it to the distinguished friend who in turn passed it to me after first offering it to the sun the father and the earth the mother of all that is
in a lodge of the blackfeet the pipe must never be passed across the doorway to do so would insult the host and bring bad luck to all who assembled therefore if there be a large number of guests ranged about the lodge
once the moon made the sun a pair of leggings such beautiful work had never been seen before they were worked with the colored quills of the porcupine and were covered with strange signs which none but the sun and the moon could read
and it took the moon many snows to make them yes they were wonderful leggings and the sun always wore them on fine days for they were bright to look upon every night when the sun went to sleep in his lodge away in the west
when he worked he almost always wore them as i have told you so that there was no danger of losing them in the daytime but the sun was careful of his leggings when night came and he slept
you wouldn't think that a person would be so foolish as to steal from the sun but one night old man who is the only person who ever knew just where the sun's lodge was crept near enough to look in
and saw the leggings under the sun's head we have all travelled a great deal but no man ever found the sun's lodge no man knows in what country it is of course we know it is located somewhere west of here
for we see him going that way every afternoon but old man knew everything except that he could not fool the sun yes old man looked into the lodge of the sun and saw the leggings there
saw the sun too and the sun was asleep he made up his mind that he would steal the leggings so he crept through the door of the lodge there was no one at home but the sun for the moon has work to do at night just as the children the stars do
so he thought he could slip the leggings from under the sleeper's head and get away he got down on his hands and knees to walk like the bear people and crept into the lodge but in the black darkness
he put his knee upon a dry stick near the sun's bed the stick snapped under his weight with so great a noise that the sun turned over and snorted scaring old man so badly that he couldn't move for a minute his heart was not strong
wickedness makes every heart weaker and after making sure that the sun had not seen him he crept silently out of the lodge and ran away on the top of a hill old man stopped to look and listen but all was still
so he sat down and thought i'll get them to morrow night when he sleeps again he said to himself i need those leggings myself and i'm going to get them because they will make me handsome as the sun
he watched the moon come home to camp and saw the sun go to work but he did not go very far away because he wanted to be near the lodge when night came again
and only those who have work to do measure time he was close to the lodge when the moon came out and there he waited until the sun went inside from the bushes old man saw the sun take off his leggings
and his eyes glittered with greed as he saw their owner fold them and put them under his head as he had always done then he waited a while before creeping closer little by little the old rascal crawled toward the lodge
till finally his head was inside the door then he waited a long long time even after the sun was snoring the strange noises of the night bothered him for he knew he was doing wrong
and when a loon cried on a lake near by he shivered as with cold
without waking the sun his breath was short and his heart was beating as a war drum beats
cold sweat that great fear always brings to the weak hearted was dripping from his body and once
but greed whispered again and listening to its voice he stole the leggings from under the sun's head carefully
he wasted much breath laughing at his smartness as he ran and soon he grew tired ho he said to himself i am far enough now and i shall sleep it's easy to steal from the sun
old man sat up and there was the sun looking right in his face and laughing he was frightened and ran away leaving the leggings behind him laughingly the sun put on the leggings
and went on toward the west for he is always busy he thought he would see old man no more but it takes more than one lesson to teach a fool to be wise and old man
then he ran westward and hid himself near the sun's lodge again intending to wait for the night and steal the leggings
he was much afraid this time but as soon as the sun was asleep he crept to the lodge and peeked inside here he stopped and looked about
for he was afraid the sun would hear his heart beating finally he started toward the sun's bed and just then
and this scared him more for that is very bad luck and he knew it but he kept on creeping until he could almost touch the sun all about the lodge were beautiful linings tanned and painted by the moon and the queer signs on them
made the old coward tremble he heard a night bird call outside and he thought it would surely wake the sun so he hastened to the bed and with cunning fingers stole the leggings as he had done the night before
without waking the great sleeper then he crept out of the lodge talking bravely to himself as cowards do when they are afraid now he said to himself i shall run faster and farther than before
when day began to break old man was far from the sun's lodge and he hid himself in a deep gulch among some bushes that grew there he listened a long time before he dared to go to sleep but finally he did
he was tired from his great run and slept soundly and for a long time but when he opened his eyes there was the sun looking straight at him and this time he was scowling
old man started to run away but the sun grabbed him and threw him down upon his back my but the sun was angry and he said old man you are a clever thief but a mighty fool as well
for you steal from me and expect to hide away twice you have stolen the leggings my wife made for me and twice i have found you easily don't you know that the whole world is my lodge and that you can never get outside of it if you run
your foolish legs off don't you know that i light all of my lodge every day and search it carefully don't you know that nothing can hide from me and live i shall not harm you this time but i warn you now that if you ever steal from me again i will hurt you badly
now go and don't let me catch you stealing again away went old man and on toward the west went the busy sun that is all
i am sure that the plains indian never made nor used the stone arrow head i have heard white men say that they had seen indians use them but i have never found an indian that ever used them himself or knew of their having been used by his people
thirty years ago i knew indians intimately who were nearly a hundred years old who told me that the stone arrow head had never been in use in their day nor had their fathers used them in their own time indians find these arrow points
just as they find the stone mauls and hammers which i have seen them use thousands of times but they do not make them any more than they make the stone mauls and hammers in the old days both the head of the lance and the point of the arrow were of bone
even knives were of bone but some other people surely made the arrow points that are scattered throughout the united states and europe i am told one night i asked war eagle if he had ever known the use by indians
but intervening there was a narrow beach of stones here he said the stone arrow heads had been made by little ghost people who lived there and he assured me that he had often seen these strange little beings when he was a small boy
whenever his people were camped by this lake the old folks waked the children at daybreak to see the inhabitants of this strange island and always when a noise was made or the sun came up the little people hid away
i never saw those little people shoot an arrow but there are so many arrows there and so many pieces of broken ones that it proves that my grandfather was right in what he told me besides nobody could ever sleep on that island
i have heard a legend wherein old man in the beginning killed an animal for the people to eat and then instructed them to use the ribs of the dead brute to make knives and arrow points i have seen lance heads made from shank bones
that were so highly polished that they resembled pearl and i have in my possession bone arrow points such as were used long ago indians do not readily forget their tribal history
and i have photographed a war bonnet made of twisted buffalo hair that was manufactured before the present owner's people had or ever saw the horse the owner of this bonnet has told me that the stone arrow head was never used by indians
and that he knew that ghost people made and used them when the world was young the bow of the plains indian was from thirty six to forty four inches long and made from the wood of the choke cherry tree sometimes
bows were made from the service or sarvice berry bush and this bush furnished the best material for arrows i have seen hickory bows among the plains indians too and these were longer and always straight
instead of being fashioned like cupid's weapon these hickory bows came from the east of course and through trading reached the plains country i have also seen bows covered with the skins of the bull snake or wound with sinew
and bows have been made from the horns of the elk in the early days after a long course of preparation before lewis and clark crossed this vast country the blackfeet had traded with the hudson bay company
and steel knives and lance heads bearing the names of english makers still remain to testify to the relations existing in those days between those famous traders and men of the piegan blood and blackfoot tribes
to gain their friendship indeed trappers and traders blamed the hudson bay company for the feeling of hatred held by the three tribes of blackfeet for the americans and there is no doubt that they were right to some extent
unless they were hudson bay men and in eighteen ten drove the american trappers and traders from their fort at three forks it was early when we gathered in war eagle's lodge the children and i
now i shall tell you a story that will show you how little old man cared for the welfare of others said war eagle it happened in the fall this thing i shall tell you
old man and his brother the red fox were travelling together for company they were on a hillside when old man said i am hungry can you not kill a rabbit or something for us to eat the way is long and i am getting old you know
you are swift of foot and cunning and there are rabbits among these rocks ever since morning came i have watched for food but the moon must be wrong or something for i see nothing that is good to eat replied the fox
besides that my medicine is bad and my heart is weak you are great and i have heard you can do most anything many snows have known your footprints and the snows make us all wise
i think you are the one to help not i listen brother said old man i have neither bow nor lance nothing to use in hunting your weapons are ever with you your great nose and your sharp teeth
i shall pull out all of your hair leaving your body white and smooth like that of the fish i shall leave only the white hair that grows on the tip of your tail and that will make you funny to look at
then you are to go before the bulls and commence to dance and act foolish of course the bulls will laugh at you and as soon as they get to laughing you must act sillier than ever that will make them laugh so hard
that they will fall down and laugh on the ground when they fall i shall come upon them with my knife and kill them will you do as i suggest brother or will you starve what pull out my hair
i shall freeze with no hair on my body old man no i will not suffer you to pull my hair out when the winter is so near cried the fox ho it is vanity my brother not fear of freezing
if you will do this we shall have meat for the winter and a fire to keep us warm see the wind is in the south and warm there is no danger of freezing come let me do it replied old man well
if you are sure that i won't freeze all right said the fox but i'll bet i'll be sorry
leaving only the white tip that grew near the end of his tail poor little red fox shivered in the warm breeze that old man told about and kept telling old man that the hair pulling hurt badly
finally old man finished the job and laughed at the fox saying why you make me laugh too now go and dance before the bulls and i shall watch and be ready for my part of the scheme
around the hill went the poor red fox and found the bulls then he began to dance before them as old man had told him the bulls took one look at the hairless fox and began to laugh
my how they did laugh and then the red fox stood upon his hind legs and danced some more acted sillier as old man had told him louder and louder laughed the bulls
until they fell to the ground with their breath short from the laughing the red fox kept at his antics lest the bulls get up before old man reached them
with a knife in his hand running up to the bulls old man plunged his knife into their hearts and they died into the ground ran their blood and then old man laughed and said
ho i am the smart one i am the real hunter i depend on my head for meat ha ha ha then old man began to dress and skin the bulls and he worked hard and long
in fact it was nearly night when he got the work all done poor little red fox had stood there all the time and old man never noticed that the wind had changed and was coming from the north yes poor red fox stood there
and spoke no word said nothing at all even when old man had finished hi there you what's the matter with you are you sorry that we have meat say answer me but the red fox was frozen stiff
was dead yes the north wind had killed him while old man worked at the skinning the fox had been caught by the north wind naked and was dead old man built a fire and warmed his hands
that is all of that story to morrow night i shall tell you why the birch tree wears those slashes in its bark that was some of old man's work too
as we desire throughout this tale to make the actors themselves wherever it be possible the narrators using their words in preference to our own we shall now place before the reader
a letter written by colonel harcourt about a week after his arrival at glencore which will at least serve to rescue him and ourselves from the task of repetition it was addressed to sir horace upton
her majesty's envoy at stuttgard one who had formerly served in the same regiment with glencore and himself but who left the army early to follow the career of diplomacy
he had risen to the rank of a minister it is not important at this moment to speak more particularly of his character than that it was in almost every respect the opposite of his correspondent's where the one was frank open and unguarded
the other was cold cautious and reserved where one believed the other doubted where one was hopeful the other had nothing but misgivings
harcourt would have twenty times a day wounded the feelings or jarred against the susceptibility of his best friend upton could not be brought to trench upon the slightest prejudice of his greatest enemy
we might continue this contrast to every detail of their characters but enough has now been said and we proceed to the letter in question glencore castle dear upton
true to my promise to give you early tidings of our old friend i sit down to pen a few lines which if a rickety table and some infernal lampblack for ink should make illegible you ll have to wait for the elucidation till my arrival
i found glencore terribly altered
he used to be muscular and rather full in habit he is now a mere skeleton his hair and mustache were coal black they are a motley gray he was straight as an arrow pretentiously erect many thought he is stooped now
and bent nearly double his voice too the most clear and ringing in the squadron is become a hoarse whisper you remember what a passion he had for dress and how heartily we all deplored the chance of his being colonel
well knowing what precious caprices of costly costume would be the consequence well a discharged corporal in a cast off mufti is stylish compared to him i don't think he has a hat
i have only seen an oilskin cap but his coat his one coat is a curiosity of industrious patchwork and his trousers are a pair of our old overalls the same pattern we wore at hounslow when the king reviewed us
great as these changes are they are nothing to the alteration in the poor fellow's disposition he that was generous to munificence is now an absolute miser
descending to the most pitiful economy and moaning over every trifling outlay he is irritable too to a degree far from the jolly light hearted comrade ready to join in the laugh against himself and enjoy a jest of which he was the object
he suspects a slight in every allusion and bristles up to resent a mere familiarity as though it were an insult of course i put much of this down to the score of illness and of bad health before he was so ill
but depend upon it he's not the man we knew him heaven knows if he ever will be so again the night i arrived here he was more natural more like himself in fact than he has ever been since
his manner was heartier and in his welcome there was a touch of the old jovial good fellow who never was so happy as when sharing his quarters with a comrade since that he has grown punctilious anxiously asking me if i am comfortable
and teasing me with apologies for what i don't miss and excuses about things that i should never have discovered wanting i think i see what is passing within him he wants to be confidential and he does n't know how to go about it
i suppose he looks on me as rather a rough father to confess to he is n't quite sure what kind of sympathy if any he ll meet with from me and he more than half dreads a certain careless outspoken way in which i have now and then addressed his boy
of whom more anon i may be right or i may be wrong in this conjecture but certain it is that nothing like confidential conversation has yet passed between us and each day seems to render the prospect of such only less and less likely
i wish from my heart you were here you are just the fellow to suit him just calculated to nourish the susceptibilities that i only shock i said as much t other day in a half careless way and he immediately caught it up and said
ay george upton is a man one wants now and then in life and when the moment comes there is no such thing as a substitute for him in a joking manner i then remarked why not come over to see him
more brutal pity in a torrent of passion he went on in this strain till i heartily regretted that i had ever touched this unlucky topic i date his greatest reserve from that same moment
and i am sure he is disposed to connect me with the casual suggestion to go over to stuttgard and deems me in consequence one utterly deficient in all true feeling and delicacy
is the reverse of a pleasure i m never what fine people call bored anywhere and i could amuse myself gloriously in this queer spot i have shot some half dozen seals
and have had rare coursing not to say that glencore's table with certain reforms i have introduced is very tolerable and his cellar unimpeachable
i'll back his chambertin against your excellency's and i have discovered a bin of red hermitage that would convert a whole vineyard of the smallest lafitte
but with all these seductions i can't stand the life of continued restraint i m reduced to glencore evidently sent for me to make some revelations which now that he sees me he cannot accomplish
for aught i know there may be as many changes in me to his eyes as to mine there are in him i only can vouch for it that if i ride three stone heavier
and i don't detect any striking falling off in my appreciation of good fare and good fellows i spoke of the boy he is a fine lad somewhat haughty perhaps a little spoiled by the country people calling him the young lord
but a generous fellow and very like glencore when he first joined us at canterbury by way of educating him himself glencore has been driving virgil and decimal fractions into him and the boy bred in the country
never out of it for a day can't load a gun or tie a hackle not the worst thing about the lad is his inordinate love for glencore whom he imagines to be about the greatest and most gifted being that ever lived
i can scarcely help smiling at the implicitness of this honest faith but i take good care not to smile on the contrary i give every possible encouragement to the belief i conclude the disenchantment will arrive only too early at last
you ll not know what to make of such a lengthy epistle from me and you ll doubtless torture that fine diplomatic intelligence of yours to detect the secret motive of my long windedness but the simple fact is it has rained incessantly for the last three days
and promises the same cheering weather for as many more glencore doesn't fancy that the boy's lessons should be broken in upon and hinc istae litterae that's classical for you i wish i could say when i am likely to beat my retreat
if i thought myself of any use but i cannot persuade myself that i am such glencore is now about again feeble of course and much pulled down but able to go about the house and the garden
i can contribute nothing to his recovery and i fear as little to his comfort i even doubt if he desires me to prolong my visit but such is my fear of offending him that i actually dread to allude to my departure till i can sound my way as to how he ll take it
this fact alone will show you how much he is changed from the glencore of long ago another feature in him totally unlike his former self struck me the other evening we were talking of old messmates croydon stanhope loftus and yourself
and instead of dwelling as he once would have done exclusively on your traits of character and disposition he discussed nothing but your abilities and the capacity by which you could win your way to honors and distinction
you came off best indeed he professes the highest esteem for your talents and says you'll see upton either a cabinet minister or ambassador at paris yet and this he repeated in the same words last night
as if to show it was not dropped as a mere random observation i have some scruples about venturing to offer anything bordering on a suggestion to a great and wily diplomatist like yourself
but if an illustrious framer of treaties and protocols would condescend to take a hint from an old dragoon colonel
and lead him to unburthen to you what he evidently cannot persuade himself to reveal to me i can see plainly enough that there is something on his mind but i know it just as a stupid old hound feels there is a fox in the cover
but cannot for the life of him see how he's to draw him a letter from you would do him good at all events even the little gossip of your gossiping career would cheer and amuse him he said very plaintively two nights ago
when a man retires from the world he begins to die
to a long agony of torture do write to him then the address is glencore castle leenane ireland where i suppose i shall be still a resident for another fortnight to come
glencore has just sent for me but i must close this for the post or it will be too late yours ever truly george harcourt i open this to say that he sent for me to ask your address whether through the foreign office or direct to stuttgard
poor fellow he looks very ill to day he says that he never slept the whole night and that the laudanum he took to induce drowsiness only excited and maddened him i counselled a hot jorum of mulled porter before getting into bed
but he deemed me a monster for the recommendation and seemed quite disgusted besides could n't you send him over a despatch
billy traynor and the colonel it was a fine breezy morning as the colonel set out with billy traynor for belmullet the bridle path by which they travelled led through a wild and thinly inhabited tract now dipping down between grassy hills
now tracing its course along the cliffs over the sea tall ferns covered the slopes protected from the west winds
it was on the whole a silent and dreary region so that the travellers felt it even relief as they drew nigh the bright blue sea and heard the sonorous booming of the waves as they broke along the shore
it cheers one to come up out of those dreary dells and hear the pleasant plash of the sea said harcourt and his bright face showed that he felt the enjoyment so it does sir said billy and yet
homer makes his hero go heavy hearted as he hears the ever sounding sea what does that signify doctor said harcourt impatiently telling me what a character in a fiction feels affects me no more than telling me what he does
why man the one is as unreal as the other the fellow that created him fashioned his thoughts as well as his actions
but when the fellow is a janius what he makes is as much a crayture as either you or myself come come doctor no mystification i don't mean any broke in billy what i want to say is this
that as we read every character to elicit truth truth in the working of human motives truth in passion
or shakspeare or milton be better able to show us this in some picture drawn by themselves than you or i be able to find it out for ourselves harcourt shook his head doubtfully well now said billy returning to the charge
did you ever see a waxwork model of anatomy every nerve and siny of a nerve was there
the artist that made it all just wanted to show you where everything was but he never wanted you to believe it was alive or ever had been but with janius it's different
he just gives you some traits of a character he points him out to you passing just as i would to a man going along the street
not like you and me that will be dead and buried to morrow or next day and the most known of us three lines in a parish registhry but he goes down to posterity an example an illustration
or a warning maybe to thousands and thousands of living men don't talk to me about fiction what he thought and felt is truer than all that you and i and a score like us ever did or ever will do
the creations of janius are the landmarks of humanity and well for us is it that we have such to guide us all this may be very fine said harcourt contemptuously
but give me the sentiments of a living man or one that has lived in preference to all the imaginary characters that have ever adorned a story
just as i suppose that you'd say that a soldier in the blues or some big hulking corporal in the guards is a finer model of the human form than ever praxiteles chiselled
i know which i d rather have alongside of me in a charge doctor said harcourt laughing and then to change the topic he pointed to a lone cabin on the sea shore miles away as it seemed from all other habitations
that's michel cady's sir said traynor he lives by birds hunting them saygulls and cormorants through the crevices of the rocks and stealing the eggs there isn't a precipice that he won't climb not a cliff that he won't face
tis as good as breaking stones on the road for four pence a day or carrying sea weed five miles on your back to manure the potatoes said billy mournfully that's exactly the very thing that puzzles me said harcourt
why in a country so remarkable for fertility every one should be so miserably poor and you never heard any explanation of it never at least never one that satisfied me nor ever will you said billy
sententiously and why so because said he drawing a long breath as if preparing for a discourse because there's no man capable of going into the whole subject
for it's not merely an economical question or a social one but it is metaphysical and religious and political and ethnological and historical ay and geographical too
you have to consider first who and what are the aborigines a conquered people that never gave in they were conquered who are the rulers a saxon race that always felt that they were infarior to them they ruled over
by jove doctor i must stop you there i never heard any acknowledgment of this inferiority you speak of
said billy and after all i don't see how it would resolve the original doubt said harcourt i want to know why the people are so poor
there it is you'd like to narrow down a great question of race language traditions and laws to a little miserable dispute about labor and wages o manchester manchester
how ye're in the heart of every englishman rich or poor gentle or simple you say you never heard of any confession of inferiority
when you find yourself dead bate and not a word to reply you ll go home to a good dinner and a bottle of wine dry clothes and a bright fire and no matter how hard my argument pushed you you'll remember that i'm in rags
in a dirty cabin with potatoes to ate and water to drink and you ll say at all events
and there's your superiority neither more or less
and all the while i'm saying the same thing to myself
and the like in those elegant attributes that as the poet says in all our pursuits lifts us high above brutes in these i say again i m his master
as billy finished his growing panegyric upon his country and himself he burst out in a joyous laugh and cried did ye ever hear conceit like that did ye ever expect to see the day
it's the greatest compliment i could pay you how so billy i don't exactly see that why that if you weren't a gentleman
and if they had any wit in their heads
that's what pitt meant when he said let me make the songs of a people and i don't care who makes the laws look down now in that glen before you as far as you can see there's belmullet and ain't you glad to be so near your journey's end
for you're mighty tired of all this discoorsin on the contrary billy even when i disagree with what you say i'm pleased to hear your reasons at the same time i m glad we are drawing nigh to this poor boy
and i only trust we may not be too late billy muttered a pious concurrence in the wish and they rode along for some time in silence
there's the bay of belmullet now under your feet cried billy as he pulled up short and pointed with his whip seaward there's five fathoms and fine anchoring ground on every inch ye see there
there's elegant shelter from tempestuous winds there's a coast rich in herrings oysters lobsters and crabs farther out there's cod and haddock and mackerel in the sayson there's sea wrack for kelp
and every other con vanience any one can require and a poorer set of devils than ye ll see when we get down there there's nowhere to be found well well if idleness is bliss it's folly to work hard
the papers also described how margaret langmore had fainted and been placed at a nurse's residence under the care of a physician and guarded by the police by a few it was supposed that the girl's illness was genuine
but the general opinion was that it was assumed in order to draw public sympathy raymond case was pictured as a loyal but misguided young man and it was hinted that his relatives were much chagrined to see him remaining at the accused girl's side
in view of the evidence which had been brought to light the detective read the accounts with interest and then leaned back in his office chair in a thoughtful mood letty had absented herself and in the outer office was another girl
who had done substitute work before suddenly the detective arose with decision went to the telephone and rang up central hullo give me four five six seven eight park there was a buzz and then a heavy voice came over the phone
hullo is that you vapp yes is this mister adams yes are you particularly busy not if there is any money afloat and a chuckle came over the wire i want you to do some shadowing for me
i don't know how long it will take it's a man a commercial traveler you can pick out your own make up when am i on right away want me up there first i think it will be best i want to give you some details
it will give me an easy way to get around answered charles vapp i'm andy weber representing the boxton seed company
he thinks it a good joke and he will keep mum now what's the game i want you to do some shadowing for me all right that's my line this is a bit out of the ordinary vapp well that makes it more interesting who is the party
the fellow's name is tom ostrello
no he is american born the son of missus langmore you don't mean the woman who was murdered with her husband yes he is a commercial traveler for a drug concern good i'm glad i elected to be a traveler myself
as i said vapp this is no ordinary case i want you to keep track of this man day and night i'll do it if it can be done i want you to note every person he communicates with
try to find out if it is good money
you want me to look out for counterfeits exactly that is not so easy but i'll do my best went on charley vapp and then he asked a number of questions regarding tom ostrello all of which adam adams answered as well as he was able
you are to stay on this case until i tell you to drop it said the detective and remember if anything unusual occurs let me know as soon as you can reach me i understand anything more adam adams mused for a moment
yes you know miss bernard who works for me here sure well take care that she doesn't see you shadowing ostrello i'm wise answered the shadower smiling and the next moment he was gone
he was not flustered by what was before him for he had been shadowing people for eleven years and as long as there was five dollars per day and his expenses in the work he was willing to continue indefinitely
in his pockets he placed several large but rather flat packages i am going out miss harringford he said to the clerk if i am not back by five o'clock you may lock up and go home be on hand as usual in the morning
down in the street he hopped aboard a passing car and rode eight blocks he entered an office building went up in an elevator to the third floor and took himself to a suite of offices occupied by certain united states secret service officers
i want to see mister breslow he said and was shown to a private apartment
rather busy to day but what can i do for you i want to sell you some bank bills was the reply and adam adams dumped the package on the desk mister breslow opened it and examined the contents
by the jumping judas where did you get those say this is worth while i guess you haven't rounded up quite as many as i have have you said the detective with a grim smile as many why man
we've only run across sixteen so far and you've got thirty they are such a clever counterfeit that even the banks get nipped this is wonderful i didn't know you were following this trail
or maybe you wanted to spring a surprise and make some of the boys down here feel cheap no it was nothing but blind luck i wasn't on the trail at all i simply stumbled over the bills did you get your man there was no man to get
do you mean to say you found the bills i did and i didn't they were in the safe of a man who was murdered i guess i'll have to tell you the best part of the story and adam adams did so this is of course confidential he went on
trust me for that adams strange complication as you just remarked i suppose you are going to follow up the murder mystery will you follow this up too i think so i can't get it out of my head that the two are related to each other
more than likely now you just said you wanted to know something
you are safe with me i'll have the record brought in there was a wait of several minutes
here you are adams john s watkins bryport born at new haven october fourth eighteen sixty two former occupation model maker and cabinet maker private detective for four years
and one year with the cassell agency entered the united states service three years ago never been advanced cases forty five thousand two hundred fifty four forty seven thousand seven hundred thirty two
forty six thousand eight hundred twenty nine wait till i see what those cases are then three other records were brought forth and examined humph all small affairs no wonder he hasn't been promoted
the first is that of a young woman who used washed postage stamps they found four dollars worth of washed stamps in her possession the next is the arrest of a cigar dealer who used stamped boxes more than once
he was a fellow sixty eight years old and got two years the last case is a mail order swindle a ten cent puzzle a small affair run by a nineteen year old boy and sentence was suspended
not a very brilliant record was adams's comment it's a wonder he can hold his job it is a wonder but he may have political influence or something else or it is barely possible that he may be doing some work that is not on record here
that is all i can tell you what is his salary a thousand or twelve hundred a year not a very elaborate income
of course it's none of my business and you needn't answer if you don't care to i don't know what i'll do yet this is a complication i want to study first i see well if we can help you i'll send word don't fear
and if i do send word i want you to act on the jump don't worry about that i know if you send word it means business answered the secret service officer with a laugh an hour later found adam adams on a train bound for bryport
he reached that city in the evening and from a directory he learned where the secret service man resided a street car brought him to within two blocks of the dwelling it was a building of no mean pretentions and on a corner which looked to be valuable
walking along the side street he saw that two domestics were at work in the kitchen and dining room he certainly lives in style mused adam adams wonder if he manages it on twelve hundred a year
from their talk he learned that missus watkins and her two daughters were at saratoga
and we'll have good times when he's gone ain't that so caddie said one of the domestics that we will was the answer better times than now anyway when you can't tell when he is coming in and when he is going out
why what do you know about that caddie dix what do i know nellie casey tim corey told me missus watkins didn't git a cent of the old grandfather's money although she said she did and so did the master say so
don't ask me tim says he is flush enough at the club and other places the government must pay him more than most folks imagine is tim goin to the rosebud's picnic yes and dan's goin too and dan wants me to bring you went on one of the domestics
and then the talk drifted into a channel which was of no further interest to adam adams he rightfully surmised that john watkins was not home and was somewhat puzzled to decide what he should do next it was a long journey from bryport to sidham
he had just come out to the corner of the street and was halting at the curb when he saw two men approaching one of the pair was john watkins and the other was a heavy set stranger with bushy hair and a round red nose and mutton chop whiskers
here we are styles said john watkins it's a little late but i reckon the girls can fix us up something to eat it's better than going to a restaurant anything will do me if you've got a glass of ale to go with it was the reply
well i've remembered you and i can fix you up to the queen's taste come on inside
chapter twenty tom gets a clue out of the cabin of the now stationary airship hurried the three travelers out into the pelting rain which was lashed into their faces by the strong wind tom was the first to emerge
we're on something solid he cried stamping his feet a rock i guess
bless my soul though the water does seem to be running around my ankles
tom can you make out where we are not exactly is the ship all right
the plight of the travelers of the air was anything but enviable they were wet through for it needed only a few minutes exposure to the pelting storm to bring this about
over which they might tumble if they took a false step
it's warm and dry there at all events bless my umbrella i don't know when i've been so wet
while it was so black that had not the lights in the cabin of the airship been faintly glowing they could hardly have found the craft had they moved ten feet away from it tom soon returned with the portable electric lamp operated by dry batteries
he flashed it on the surface of where they were standing and uttered an exclamation we're on a roof he cried a roof repeated mister damon yes the roof of some large building and what you thought was a river is the rain water running off it see
of that upon which the airship rested there was no doubt of it they were on top of a large building
maybe the storm put the lights out of business suggested mister sharp that often occurs
how start up our search lamp and play it all around we can't make sure how large this roof is in the dark and it's risky trying to trace the edges by walking around yes and it would be risky to start our searchlight going objected mister sharp
people would see it and there'd be a crowd up here in less than no time storm or no storm no we've got to keep dark until i can see what's the matter we must leave here before daylight suppose we can't asked mister damon
even if our gas container is so damaged that it will not sustain us we are still an aeroplane and this roof being flat will make a good place to start from no we can leave as soon as this storm lets up a little
and while mister sharp began a survey as well as he could in the dark of the airship the young inventor proceeded cautiously to ascertain the extent of the roof the rain was not coming down quite so hard now and tom found it easier to see
at the queer predicament in which they found themselves flashing his light every few seconds
and an expanse of dark wall met his eyes must have come to one side he reasoned
then maybe i can see a sign that will tell me what i want to know the lad turned to the left and presently came to another parapet it was higher and ornamented with terra cotta bricks this evidently was the front
as tom peered over the edge of the little raised ledge there flashed out below him hundreds of electric lights
and as soon as our hero saw the words he knew where the airship had landed for what he read as he leaned over was this middleville arcade tom gave a cry what's the matter called mister sharp
his eyes shone brightly this is the building where anson morse one of the gang that robbed dad once had an office went on tom eagerly that was brought out at the trial and it's the place where they used to do some of their conspiring
maybe some of the crowd are here now laying low
we can't arrest them besides i've found out that our ship is all right after all we can proceed as soon as we like
the lad leaped forward and whispered the remainder of the sentence into the ear of the balloonist you don't mean it exclaimed mister sharp in a tense whisper tom nodded vigorously
he could see it looming up in the semidarkness a sort of box covering a stairway that led down into the building the door was locked but tom forced it and felt justified a few minutes later
cautiously flashing his light almost like a burglar he thought he was prowling around the corridors of the office structure was it deserted that was what he wanted to know he knew the office morse had formerly occupied was two floors from the top
tom descended the staircase trying to think up some excuse to offer in case he met the watchman or janitor but he encountered no one
then as the sound of the storm became less he fancied he heard the murmur of voices
pausing at almost every other step to listen the voices became louder
great thump as he noticed that the place was lighted the lad could read the name on the door industrial development company that was the name of a fake concern headed by morse as our hero looked he saw the shadows of two men thrown on the ground glass
the low murmur went on for several seconds the listener could make out no words suddenly the low even mumble was broken some one cried out
there's got to be a divvy soon there's no use letting morse hold that whole seventy five thousand any longer i'm going to get what's coming to me or hush some one else cried be quiet no i won't i want my share i've waited long enough if i don't get what's coming to me inside of a week
the door opened a crack letting out a pencil of light the men were evidently coming out
andy gives the clue when mister swift followed the chief of police and the constable to the town hall his mind was filled with many thoughts all his plans for revolutionizing submarine travel were of course forgotten and he was only concerned with the charge that had been made against his son
it seemed incredible yet the officers were not ones to perpetrate a joke the chief and constable had driven from town in a carriage and they now invited the inventor to ride back with them do you mean to tell me a warrant has actually been sworn out against my son chief
asked the father when they were near the town hall that's just what i mean to say mister swift and i'm sorry on your account that i have to serve it hub don't look like you was goin to serve it remarked the constable he's skipped out
that's all right higby went on the chief i'll catch em both even if they have escaped in an airship with their booty i'll nab em i'll have a general alarm out all over the country in less than an hour they can't stay up in the air forever
a warrant for tom my son murmured mister swift as if he could not believe it yes and for that damon man too added the chief i want him as well as tom and i'll get em would you mind letting me see the warrants asked the inventor
and the official passed them over the documents were made out in regular form and the complaints had been sworn to by isaac pendergast the bank president i can't understand it went on tom's father seventy five thousand dollars it's incredible
why he suddenly exclaimed it can't be true just before he left mister damon yes what did he do asked the chief eagerly thinking he might secure some valuable evidence i guess i'll say nothing until i have seen the bank president replied mister swift
the financiers were rather angry when they learned that the accused persons had not been caught but the chief said he would soon have them in custody in the meanwhile will you kindly explain what this means asked mister swift of the president
you may come and look at the looted vault if you like mister swift replied mister pendergast it was a very thorough job and will seriously cripple the bank there was no doubt that the vault had been forced open for the locks and bars were bent and twisted as if by heavy tools
mister swift made a careful examination and was shown the money drawers that had been smashed this was the work of experts he declared exactly what we think said the president of course we don't believe your son was a professional bank robber mister swift
we have a theory that mister damon did the real work but that tom helped him with the tools he had there is no doubt about it what right have you to accuse my son burst out the aged inventor
why have you any more cause to suspect him than any other lad in town why do you fix on him and mister damon i demand to know mister damon's eccentric actions for a few days past and his well known oddity of character make him an object of suspicion
declared the president in judicial tones as for tom we have i regret to say even better evidence against him but what is it what who gave you any clues to point to my son do you really wish to know i certainly do was the sharp reply
mister swift the police and several bank officials were now in the president's office
send young foger here at the mention of this name mister swift started he well knew the red haired bully was an enemy of his son andy entered walking rather proudly at the attention he attracted this is mister swift said the president
aw i know him blurted out andy you will please tell him what you told us went on mister pendergast well i seen tom swift hanging around this bank with burglar tools in his possession last night just before it was robbed
hanging around the bank last night with burglar tools repeated mister swift in dazed tones that's right from andy how do you know they were burglar tools because i saw em cried andy he had em in a valise on his motor cycle
and you're sure they were burglar tools asked the chief for he depended on andy to be his most important witness
he tried to hide em but me an sam was too quick for him he wanted to lick me too
but how do you know my son was waiting for a chance to break into the bank
inquired andy as if that was unanswerable what were you hanging around here for mister swift demanded quickly me oh well me an sam snedecker was out takin a walk that's all
andy told more along the same line but his testimony of having seen tom near the bank with a bag of odd tools could not be shaken
in fact it was true as far as it went but of course the tools were only those for the airship the same ones mister sharp had sent the lad after sam snedecker was called in after andy and told substantially the same story
still of course he knew tom had nothing to do with the robbery and he knew his son had been at home all the night previous still this was rather negative evidence
you say you also suspect mister damon of complicity in this affair he went on to the chief of police we sure do replied mister simonson
would he rob the bank where his own funds were we are prepared for that declared the president it is true that mister damon has about ten thousand dollars in our bank but we believe he deposited it only as a blind so as to cover up his tracks
it is a deep laid scheme and escaping in the airship is part of it i am sorry mister swift that i have to believe your son and his accomplice guilty but i am obliged to chief you had better send out a general alarm the airship ought to be easy to trace
i'll telegraph at once said the official and you believe my son guilty solely on the testimony of these two boys who as is well known are his enemies asked mister swift the clue they gave us is certainly most important said the president
andy came to us and told what he had seen as soon as it became known that the bank had been robbed
ah then there is a reward offered inquired mister swift five thousand dollars answered mister pendergast
met early this morning and decided to offer that sum and i'm going to get it announced the red haired lad again mister swift was much downcast there seemed to be nothing more to say and being a man unversed in the ways of the world he did not know what to do
he returned hone when missus baggert was made acquainted with the news she waxed indignant our tom a thief she cried
why don't they accuse me and mister jackson and you the idea you ought to hire a lawyer mister swift and prosecute those men for slander do you think it would be a good plan i certainly do why they have no evidence at all
get a lawyer and have tom's interests looked after mister swift glad to have someone share the responsibility with felt somewhat better when a well known shopton attorney assured him that the evidence against tom was of such a flimsy character
that it would scarcely hold in a court of justice but they have warrants for him and mister damon declared the inventor very true but it is easy to swear out a warrant against any one it's a different matter to prove a person guilty but they can arrest my son
it's disgraceful said missus baggert not at all my dear madam not at all good and innocent persons have been arrested they are going to send out a general alarm for my son bewailed mister swift
i can't think of a better way to keep out of the clutches of the police and their silly charge chuckled the lawyer now don't worry mister swift it will all come out right
the inventor tried to believe so but though he knew his son was innocent it was rather hard to see within the next few days big posters on all the vacant walls and fences
i guess tom swift will wish he'd been more decent to me when i collect that money for his arrest said andy to his crony sam the day the bills were posted yes but i get my share don't i asked sam
wish they'd hurry up and arrest him within the next few days the country was covered with posters telling of the robbery and the reward and police officials in cities large and small and in towns and villages
were notified by telegraph to arrest and capture at any cost the occupants of a certain large red airship mister swift on the advice of his lawyer sent several telegrams to tom apprising him of what had happened
that is his only recollection was of a definite scene experienced through the eyes and ears of his agent the place was a large high ceilinged room its architecture suggesting some public building in the center and directly in front of van emmon's agent
stood a large rectangular table about which sat a number of men van emmon counted nine of them the whole atmosphere was solemn and important van emmon was reminded of old photographs of cabinet meetings in washington
of strategy boards during the great war he listened intently for something to be said near the foot of the table van emmon's agent sat at the head a tall man with an imposing square cut beard
forgot to marvel that these men were undeniably human beings of exceptional character gentlemen said the man who had risen i do not need to remind you of the seriousness of this occasion
i only wish to congratulate you and myself on the fact that we now have a chairman to whom we can look with confidence i say this without meaning any reflection upon his predecessor he sat down
as he would care to fill it he took his seat amid
a general murmur of approval while nine pair of eyes were turned in unison upon the pair van emmon was sharing his agent then was chairman of some sort of a council known as the commission powart got to his feet
even in this simple act his motions were swift and sure they harmonized perfectly with the way he talked thanks both you to be frank i am glad for the sake of the association that the youngest commissioner has come to its head at this time
if there were a younger than myself i would say the same he paused and glanced at some memoranda in his hand van emmon was struck first by the smooth skin and perfect formation of the hand and wrist
and second by the peculiar writing on the papers he had no idea what it meant although his agent certainly did afterward the four concluded that in the case of words written in code or otherwise requiring an effort
being in touch only with the subconscious were never informed
an undersized man with a remarkably large head of hair spoke up from the righthand side of the table i want to suggest that it is high time we sent another expedition to alma i agree from the man who had been powart's predecessor
apparently these ten men had nearly dispensed with parlimentary rules what are the prospects powart first rate runled's old space boat has been renovated recently
to insure one round trip
it is very fortunate that we shall be able to visit alma again even though we use up our entire supply in the attempt it seems that we shall soon need and need badly certain chemical secrets which they alone possess when can the boat start
within a week i shall keep in touch with the crew by wireless and advise you of their progress from time to time
of course we are mainly concerned with the demonstration in calastia as to its cause i may mention that eklan norbith was in a hospital at the time having a substitution
and a search for arms is now in progress
he takes his confinement as a matter of course and no amount of pressure will induce him to talk neither can we get anything from his companions nor from his son
i admire your bluntness remarked the former chairman across the table although i can't say as much for your philosophy it is our duty to keep everybody contented
until the others are satisfied that the malcontents are really weeds that is clear enough spoke the shock headed man
what are the conditions powart nearly normal the percentage of overhead is only slightly higher than average until ernol moved into the locality every one seemed contented with the regular arrangements
what is his contention the usual democratic nonsense he claims that the commission is autocratic down to its last deputy denies that we have the right to apportion one half the earnings to the workers and the other half to the owners
states that our system is wasteful unjust and demoralizing and what does he propose democratic control of industry you know that old line of talk
no but he points out that our present standard of living has not changed for generations and argues that degeneration must result of course he is right in his fact but wrong in his conclusion
a general smile of derision greeted this the only face that remained serious was that of the shock headed man he said there must be a slip somewhere powart isn't there a heavy fine and imprisonment for teaching such stuff
how did ernol ever get hold of the notion probably through tradition we can't keep people from talking to their own children perhaps ernol's great grandparents told him of the days when every one was allowed to vote the shock headed man got another idea
says it's all right in principle but he claims that the earth belongs to one and all equally and therefore each should have an equal voice in its disposition and government this time there was no smiling the pugnacious looking man spoke for the rest when he said
we cannot allow such ideas to gain headway powart have you a plan we must keep a close watch upon calastia and allow no one to leave its borders as for ernol i have concluded that the best thing will be turn him loose
they looked at him in consternation he explained i have been reading up the experience of the past few centuries in such cases
but disregard him and ridicule him and his philosophy doesn't last long
it may be that he will object to this he may have discovered the same truths i have been reading
but suppose he continues his talking in that case we must simply watch our chance and take him secretly
the former chairman approved heartily you've got the right idea powart is there anything further on tap powart put his notes away
the men got to their feet with the usual accompanying noises
van emmon noticed that they shook hands almost exactly as americans would
things seem to be coming your way my boy said the bearded man his keen eyes softening slightly i saw the paper this morning congratulations she is one girl in millions has she fixed the date no
mona was rather taken by surprise to be frank with you uncle as powart spoke he was eyeing the door and nodding permission for an attendant to enter the man stepped obsequiously forward and presented a message for all the world like any ordinary aerogram
powart opened it while his uncle signed the chairman gave a low whistle of surprise
a chap named fort she is now recuperating on board the cobulus
van emmon caught a glimpse of a clock and he noted the pendulum especially but before he could learn anything further doctor kinney's hand jerked as before and the gong rang the four awakened they had been visiting
van emmon's friend powart
is also probably a member of the leisure class on the other hand we have smith's agent whose name we do not know he seems to be one of the working class which powart despises
the two are at opposite ends of the social scale young ernol whose father is in trouble appears to be a rising young revolutionist but mona
the girl whose life fort
but that remark she made about people being cattle
that she is an aristocrat at heart i call her a mystery for the time being as for the planet itself of course
this daughter of capella's capellette from billie promptly fine
what shall we say of her people in general speaking for my surgeon observed billie doesn't she argue a rather high degree of development the others were plainly willing for the doctor to take the lead he rubbed his knuckles
not in general perhaps we'll do well to consider other things first take those two clocks for instance the one that i saw had a pendulum of ordinary length
twenty five hour dial and a pendulum of the usual length same as yours
at the place where i saw the clock is fifty per cent greater than at the point where van's agent is located maybe ten thousand miles in its greatest diameter capellette
would explain why that disabled aircraft which smith saw fell so very slowly the planet has much more air than the earth which means far greater density near the surface
it also explains those big sailing cruisers nothing else can at any rate we can guess why we have seen no surface travel the people of capellette never tried to work out such a thing as an automobile why should they
with the birds to imitate and extra dense air all about them i think we have found the key the doctor cogitated for a second or two however let's consider that schoolroom a bit
it was in no way different from what you will find on the earth right now why smith had a notion
from van emmon yes and that is undoubtedly how the capellettes look at the matter why haven't they got talking pictures
but that doesn't explain objected billie why they've been content
why of course their government is autocratic dear how else can it be protective
but without the direct consent of the people what of that warmly most folks don't care to burden their heads with law making anyhow they'd rather leave it up to specialists
the doctor put in hastily from what you tell me van this commission determines the living conditions for the majority although it has no popular authority whatever
moreover conditions are no better than they were a hundred years ago there's been no progress powart admits that now placing that fact alongside the rest i reach
this conclusion that the people of capallette no matter what may have been their experience in the past do not now care for revolutionary ideas they want standardization not change
apparently the three did not the doctor explained life is much easier for them than for us it is no great struggle to gain a livelihood
where transportation is so easy and simple in consequence of this their advancement was much more rapid than ours here on the earth up to a certain point and they've reached that point already coming back to that commission again
they've standardized the protective paternalistic principle
suppose remarked billie suppose government becomes so thoroughly standardized that it can't be improved further then it becomes permanent if it isn't overthrown
the doctor smilingly interposed let me finish and get this out of my system
which is said to be the same thing as bliss this man ernol and his pitiful rebellion only serve to prove the rule in a word the capellans
have carried the principle of improvement as opposed to reform to its logical conclusion
at length one morning when she believed missus redmain would not rise before noon mary felt she must go and see letty she did not find her in the quarters where she had left her but a story higher
in a mean room sitting with her hands in her lap she did not lift her eyes when mary entered where hope is dead curiosity dies not until she had come quite near did she raise her head
and then she seemed to know nothing of her when she did recognize her she held out her hand in a mechanical way as if they were two specters met in a miserable dream in which they were nothing to each other and neither could do
or cared to do anything for the other my poor letty
has anything happened to tom she broke into a low childish wail and for a time that was all mary heard presently however she became aware of a feeble moaning in the adjoining chamber
the sound of a human sea in trouble mixed with a wandering babble which to letty was but as the voice of her own despair and to mary was a cry for help she abandoned the attempt to draw anything from letty
and went into the next room the door of which stood wide there lay tom but so changed that mary took a moment to be certain it was he going softly to him she laid her hand on his head
it was burning he opened his eyes but she saw their sense was gone she went back to letty and sitting down beside her put her arm about her and said why didn't you send for me letty
i will come now to night and help you to nurse him where is the baby letty gave a shriek and starting from her chair walked wildly about the room wringing her hands mary went after her
and taking her in her arms said letty dear has god taken your baby letty gave her a lack luster look then said mary he is not far away
for we are all in god's arms but what is the use of the most sovereign of medicines while they stand on the sick man's table what is the mightiest of truths so long as it is not believed
the spiritually sick still mocks at the medicine offered he will not know its cure mary saw that for any comfort to letty god was nowhere it went to her very heart
death and desolation and the enemy were in possession she turned to go that she might return able to begin her contest with ruin letty saw that she was going and imagined her offended and abandoning her to her misery
she flew to her stretching out her arms like a child but was so feeble that she tripped and fell mary lifted her and laid her wailing on her couch letty said mary
but i must go for an hour perhaps two to make arrangements for staying with you
then letty clasped her hands in her old beseeching way and looked up with a faint show of comfort
she drove straight home and heard that missus redmain was annoyed that she had gone out i offered to dress her said jemima and she knows i can quite well but she would not get up till you came
and made me fetch her a book so there she is a waiting for you i am sorry said mary but i had to go and she was fast asleep when she entered her room
hesper gave her a cold glance over the top of her novel and went on with her reading mary proceeded to get her things ready for dressing but by this time she had got interested in the story i shall not get up yet
she said then please ma'am replied mary would you mind letting jemima dress you i want to go out again and should be glad if you could do without me for some days my friend's baby is dead
and both she and her husband are very ill hesper threw down her book and her eyes flamed
she said i am very sorry to put you to inconvenience answered mary but the husband seems dying and the wife is scarcely able to crawl i have nothing to do with it interrupted hesper
for me to part with my maid you undertook to perform her duties i did not engage you as a sick nurse for other people no ma'am replied mary but this is an extreme case
how pray is the world to go on if this kind of thing be permitted i may be going out to dinner or to the opera to night
no on principle and for the sake of example i will not let you go i thought said mary not a little disappointed in hesper
i did not stand to you quite in the relation of an ordinary servant certainly you do not
ungrateful creature who thinks only of herself but you are all alike more and more distressed to find one she had loved so long show herself so selfish mary's indignation had almost got the better of her
but a little heightening of her color was all the show it made indeed it is quite necessary ma'am she persisted that i should go the law has fortunately made provision against such behavior
said hesper you can not leave without giving me a month's notice the understanding on which i came to you was very different said mary sadly it was but since then
you consented to become my maid it is ungenerous to take advantage of that returned mary growing angry again i have to protect myself and the world in general
from the consequences that must follow were such lawless behavior allowed to pass hesper spoke with calm severity and mary making up her mind answered now with almost equal calmness
the law was made for both sides ma'am and as you bring the law to me i will take refuge in the law it is i believe a month's warning or a month's wages
and as i have never had any wages i imagine i am at liberty to go good by ma'am hesper made her no answer and mary left the room she went to her own
stuffed her immediate necessities into a bag let herself out of the house called a cab and with a great lump in her throat drove to the help of letty first she had a talk with the landlady and learned all she could tell
then she went up and began to make things as comfortable as she could all was in sad disorder and neglect with the mere inauguration of cleanliness and the first dawn of coming order
the courage of letty began to revive a little the impossibility of doing all that ought to be done had in her miserable weakness so depressed her that she had not done even as much as she could except where tom was immediately concerned
there she had not failed of her utmost mary next went to the doctor to get instructions and then to buy what things were most wanted and now she almost wished missus redmain had paid her for her services
for she must write to mister turnbull for money and that she disliked but by the very next post she received inclosed in a business memorandum in george's writing the check for fifty pounds she had requested
she did not dare write to tom's mother because she was certain were she to come up her presence would only add to the misery and take away half the probability of his recovery and of letty's too in the case of both
nourishment was the main thing and to the fit providing and the administering of it she bent her energy for a day or two she felt at times as if she could hardly get through what she had undertaken
but she soon learned to drop asleep at any moment and wake immediately when she was wanted and thereafter her strength was by no means so sorely tried under her skillful nursing
skillful not from experience but simply from her faith whence came both conscience of and capacity for doing what the doctor told her things went well it is from their want of this faith
and their consequent arrogance and conceit that the ladies who aspire to help in hospitals give the doctors so much trouble they have not yet learned obedience the only path to any good the one essential to the saving of the world
one who can not obey is the merest slave essentially and in himself a slave the crisis of tom's fever was at length favorably passed but the result remained doubtful
by late hours and strong drink he had done not a little to weaken a constitution in itself as i have said far from strong while the unrest of what is commonly and foolishly called a bad conscience
with misery over the death of his child and the conduct which had disgraced him in his own eyes and ruined his wife's happiness combined to retard his recovery while he was yet delirious
and grief and shame and consternation operated at will on his poetic nature the things he kept saying over and over were very pitiful but they would have sounded more miserable by much
in the ears of one who did not look so far ahead as mary she trained to regard all things in their true import was rejoiced to find him loathing his former self and beyond the present suffering
saw the gladness at hand for the sorrowful man the repenting sinner had she been mother or sister to him she could hardly have waited on him with more devotion or tenderness one day
as his wife was doing some little thing for him he took her hand in his feeble grasp and pressing it to his face wet with the tears of reviving manhood said we might have been happy together letty
if i had but known how much you were worth and how little i was worth myself oh me oh me he burst into an incontrollable wail that tortured letty with its likeness to the crying of her baby
she cried when you speak as if i belonged to you it makes me as happy as a queen when you are better you will be happy too dear mary says you will o letty he sobbed the baby
the baby's all right mary says and some day she says he will run into your arms and know you for his father
said tom an hour or so after he woke from a short sleep and his eyes sought letty's watching face i have seen baby he said
and he has forgiven me i dare say it was only a dream he added but somehow it makes me happier at least i know how the thing might be it was true
whether it was but a dream or something more said mary who happened to be by thank you mary he returned you and letty have saved me from what i dare not think of i could die happy now
if it weren't for one thing what is that asked mary
he replied but i ought to say it and bear the shame for the man who does shamefully ought to be ashamed it is that when i am in my grave or somewhere else
for i know mary does not like people to talk about being in their graves you say it is heathenish don't you mary when i am where they can't find me then it is horrid to think that people up here
will have a hold on me and a right over me still because of debts i shall never be able to pay them don't be too sure of that tom said mary cheerfully i think you will pay them yet but i have heard it said
she went on that a man in debt never tells the truth about his debts as if he had only the face to make them not to talk about them can you make a clean breast of it tom i don't exactly know what they are
but i always did mean to pay them and i have some idea about them i don't think they would come to more than a hundred pounds your mother would not hesitate to pay that for you said mary
i know she wouldn't but then i'm thinking of letty he paused and mary waited you know when i am gone he resumed there will be nothing for her but to go to my mother
and it breaks my heart to think of it every sin of mine she will lay to her charge and how am i to lie still in my grave oh i beg your pardon mary i will pay your debts tom and gladly
said mary if they don't come to much more than you say than you think i mean but don't you see mary
and from that day began to recover many who would pay money to keep a man alive or to deliver him from pain would pay nothing to take a killing load off the shoulders of his mind hunger they can pity
not mental misery tom would not hear of his mother being written to i have done letty wrong enough already he said without subjecting her to the cruel tongue of my mother
but tom expostulated mary if you want to be good one of your first duties is to be reconciled to your mother i am very sorry things are all wrong between us mary
said tom but if you want her to come here you don't know what you are talking about she must have everything her own way or storm from morning to night i would gladly make it up with her
but live with her or die with her i could not to make either possible you must convert her too when you have done that i will invite her at once never mind me tom
said letty so long as you love me i don't care what even your mother thinks of me i will do everything i can to make her comfortable and satisfied with me wait till i am better anyhow letty
for i solemnly assure you i haven't a chance if my mother comes i will tell you what mary i promise you if i get better
and for the present i will dictate a letter if you will write it bidding her good by and asking her pardon for everything i have done wrong by her which you will please send if i should die
i can not and i will not promise more he was excited and exhausted and mary dared not say another word nor truly did she at the moment see what more could be said
where all relation has been perverted things can not be set right by force perhaps all we can do sometimes is to be willing and wait the letter was dictated and written
a lovely one mary thought and it made her weep as she wrote it tom signed it with his own hand mary folded sealed addressed it and laid it away in her desk
the same evening tom said to letty putting his thin long hand in hers mary thinks we shall know each other there letty tom interrupted letty
chapter nineteen mary in the shop more than a year had now passed from the opening of my narrative it was full summer again at testbridge and things to the careless eye were unchanged
and to the careless mind would never change although in fact nothing was the same and nothing could continue as it now was for were not the earth and the sun a little colder
letty was gone and the link between mister wardour and her not only broken but a gulf of separation in its place not the less remained the good he had given her no good is ever lost the heavenly porter was departed
but had left the door wide she had seen him but once since letty's marriage and then his salutation was like that of a dead man in a dream for in his sore heart he still imagined her the confidante of letty's deception
but the shadow of her father's absence swallowed all the other shadows the air of warmth and peace and conscious safety which had hitherto surrounded her was gone and in its place cold exposure and annoyance
between them her father and she had originated a mutually protective atmosphere of love when that failed the atmosphere of earthly relation rushed in and enveloped her the moment of her father's departure
malign influences inimical to the very springs of her life concentrated themselves upon her it was the design of john turnbull that she should not be comfortable so long as she did not irrevocably cast in her lot with his family
and the rest in the shop being mostly creatures of his own choice by a sort of implicit understanding they proceeded to make her uncomfortable so long as they confined themselves to silence neglect and general exclusion
mary heeded little their behavior for no intercourse with them beyond that of external good offices could be better than indifferent to her but when they advanced to positive interference her position became indeed hard to endure
they would for instance keep watch on her serving and as soon as the customer was gone would find open fault with this or that she had said or done but even this was comparatively endurable
when they advanced to the insolence of doing the same in the presence of the customer she found it more than she could bear with even a show of equanimity she did her best however and for some time things went on without any symptom of approaching crisis
but it was impossible this should continue for had she been capable of endless endurance her persecutors would only have gone on to worse but mary was naturally quick tempered and the chief trouble they caused her was the control of her temper
for although she had early come to recognize the imperative duty of this branch of self government she was not yet perfect in it not every one who can serve unboundedly can endure patiently and the more gentle some natures
the more they resent the rudeness which springs from an opposite nature absolutely courteous they flame at discourtesy and thus lack of the perfection to which patience would and must raise them
when turnbull in the narrow space behind the counter would push his way past her without other pretense of apology than something like a sneer she did feel for a moment as if evil were about to have the victory over her
and when missus turnbull came in which happily was but seldom she felt as if from some sepulchre in her mind a very demon sprang to meet her for she behaved to her worst of all
she would heave herself in with the air and look of a vulgar duchess for from the height of her small consciousness she looked down upon the shop and never entered it save as a customer the daughter of a small country attorney
who notwithstanding his unneglected opportunities had not been too successful to accept as a husband for his daughter such a tradesman as john turnbull she arrogated position from her idea of her father's position and
while bitterly cherishing the feeling that she had married beneath her obstinately excluded the fact that therein she had descended to her husband's level regarding herself much in the light of a princess whose disguise takes nothing from her rank
she was like those ladies who having set their seal to the death of their first husbands by marrying again yet cling to the title they gave them and continue to call themselves by their name
missus turnbull never bought a dress at the shop no one should say of her it was easy for a snail to live in a castle she took pains to let her precious public know that she went to london to make her purchases
if she did not mention also that she made them at the warehouses where her husband was a customer procuring them at the same price he would have paid it was because she saw no occasion it was indeed only for some small occasional necessity
she ever crossed the threshold of the place whence came all the money she had to spend when she did she entered it with such airs as she imagined to represent the consciousness of the scion of a county family
there is one show of breeding vulgarity seldom assumes simplicity no sign of recognition would pass between her husband and herself by one stern refusal to acknowledge his advances
she had from the first taught him that in the shop they were strangers he saw the rock of ridicule ahead and required no second lesson when she was present he never knew it george had learned the lesson before he went into the business
and mary had never required it the others behaved to her as to any customer known to stand upon her dignity but she made them no return in politeness and the way she would order mary now there was no father to offend
would have been amusing enough but for the irritation its extreme rudeness caused her she did however manage sometimes to be at once both a little angry and much amused
small idea had missus turnbull of the diversion which on such occasions she afforded the customers present one day a short time before her marriage delayed by the illness of mister redmain miss mortimer happened to be in the shop
and was being served by mary when missus turnbull entered careless of the customer she walked straight up to her as if she saw none and in a tone that would be dignified and was haughty desired her to bring her a reel of marking cotton
now it had been a principle with mary's father and she had thoroughly learned it that whatever would be counted a rudeness by any customer must be shown to none if all are equal in the sight of god he would say
how dare i leave a poor woman to serve a rich would i leave one countess to serve another my business is to sell in the name of christ to respect persons in the shop would be just the same as to do it in the chapel and would be
to deny him excuse me ma'am said mary i am waiting on miss mortimer and went on with what she was about missus turnbull flounced away a little abashed not by mary but by finding who the customer was
and could not attend to you your tone was
cried the grand lady but what more she would have said i can not tell for just then miss mortimer resumed her place in front of mary she had no idea of her position in the shop neither suspected who her assailant was and
fearing the woman's accusation might do her an injury felt compelled to interfere miss marston she said she had just heard missus turnbull use her name if you should be called to account by your employer will you please refer to me
you were perfectly civil both to me and to this she hesitated a perceptible moment but ended with the word lady peculiarly toned thank you ma'am said mary with a smile
but it is of no consequence this answer would have almost driven the woman out of her reason already between annoyance with herself and anger with mary her hue was purple something she called her constitution
required a nightly glass of brandy and water but she was so dumfounded by miss mortimer's defense of mary which she looked upon as an assault on herself so painfully aware that all hands were arrested and all eyes fixed on herself
and so mortified with the conviction that her husband was enjoying her discomfiture that with what haughtiness she could extemporize from consuming offense she made a sudden vertical gyration and walked from the vile place
now george never lost a chance of recommending himself to mary by siding with her but only after the battle he came up to her now with a mean unpleasant look intended to represent sympathy and approaching his face to hers
said confidentially what made my mother speak to you like that mary you must ask herself she answered there you are as usual mary he protested you will never let a fellow take your part
if you wanted to take my part you should have done so when there would have been some good in it how could i before miss mortimer you know then why do it now
well you see it's hard to bear hearing you ill used what did you say to miss mortimer that angered my mother his father heard him and taking the cue called out in the rudest fashion
on an exceptionally hot evening early in july a young man came out of the garret in which he lodged in s place and walked slowly as though in hesitation towards k bridge
he had successfully avoided meeting his landlady on the staircase his garret was under the roof of a high five storied house and was more
room the landlady who provided him with garret dinners and attendance lived on the floor below and every time he went out
invariably stood open and each time he passed the young man had a sick frightened feeling which made him scowl and feel ashamed
he was hopelessly in debt to his landlady and was afraid of meeting her this was not because he was cowardly and abject
quite the contrary but for some time past he had been in an overstrained irritable condition
he had become so completely absorbed in himself and isolated from his fellows
but anyone at all he was crushed by poverty
he had given up attending to matters of practical importance he had lost all desire to do so
that any landlady could do
but to be stopped on the stairs to be forced to listen to her trivial irrelevant gossip to pestering demands for payment threats and complaints
and to rack his brains for excuses to prevaricate
he would creep down the stairs like a cat and slip out unseen this evening
on coming out into the street he became
all is in a man's hands and he lets it all slip from cowardice that's an axiom it would be interesting to know what it is men are most afraid of
uttering a new word is what they fear most but i am talking too much
i chatter because i do nothing
am i capable of that is that serious it is not serious at all it's simply a fantasy to amuse myself a plaything yes
maybe it is a plaything the heat in the street was terrible
airlessness the bustle and the plaster scaffolding bricks and dust all about him and that special petersburg stench
so familiar to all who are unable to get out of town in summer
and the drunken men whom he met continually
an expression of the profoundest disgust gleamed for a moment in the young man's refined face he was
exceptionally handsome above the average in height slim well built with beautiful dark eyes and dark brown hair
soon he sank into deep thought or more accurately speaking into a complete blankness of mind
from time to time he would mutter something from the habit of talking to himself to which he had just confessed at these moments he would become conscious
that his ideas were sometimes in a tangle and that he was very weak for two days he had scarcely tasted food
would have been ashamed to be seen in the street in such rags in that quarter of the town however
would have created surprise owing to the proximity of the hay market the number of establishments of bad character the preponderance of the trading
and working class population crowded in these streets and alleys in the heart of petersburg
in the streets that no figure however queer would have caused surprise but there was such accumulated bitterness and contempt in the young man's heart
whom indeed he disliked meeting at any time and yet
was being taken somewhere in a huge waggon dragged by a heavy dray horse suddenly shouted at him as he drove past
bawling at the top of his voice and pointing at him the young man stopped suddenly and clutched tremulously at his hat
but completely worn out
all torn and bespattered brimless and bent on one side in a most unseemly fashion
had overtaken him i knew it he muttered in confusion i thought so
the most trivial detail
yes my hat is too noticeable
that makes it noticeable with my rags i ought to wear a cap any sort of old pancake but not this grotesque thing
it would be noticed a mile off it would be remembered what matters is that people would remember it
for this business one should be as little conspicuous as possible trifles trifles are what matter why it's just such trifles
he had not far to go he knew indeed how many steps it was from the gate of his lodging house exactly seven hundred and thirty he had counted them once
when he had been lost in dreams at the time he had put no faith
now a month later he had begun to look upon them differently and in spite of the monologues in which he jeered at his own impotence and indecision
as an exploit to be attempted although he still did not realise this himself
and at every step his excitement grew more and more violent
on the right and up the staircase it was a back staircase dark
of the old woman's flat the bell gave a faint tinkle as though it were made of tin and not of copper the little flats in such houses always have bells
he had forgotten the note of that bell and now its peculiar tinkle seemed to remind him of something
he started his nerves were terribly overstrained by now in a little while the door was opened a tiny crack the old woman eyed her visitor
with evident distrust through the crack and nothing could be seen but her little eyes
but seeing a number of people on the landing she grew bolder and opened the door wide the young man stepped into the dark entry which was
partitioned off from the tiny kitchen the old woman stood facing him in silence
and in spite of the heat
the old woman coughed and groaned at every instant the young man must have looked at her with a rather peculiar expression for a gleam of mistrust came into her eyes again
remembering that he ought to be more polite
the old woman said distinctly still keeping her inquiring eyes on his face and here
i am again on the same errand raskolnikov continued a little disconcerted and surprised at the old woman's mistrust perhaps she is always like that though
as though hesitating then stepped on one side and pointing to the door of the room she said letting her visitor pass in front of her step in my good sir
the little room into which the young man walked with yellow paper on the walls geraniums and muslin curtains in the windows was brightly lighted up at that moment by the setting sun
flashed as it were by chance
trying as far as possible to notice and remember its arrangement but there was nothing special in the room
an oval table in front of the sofa a dressing table with a looking glass fixed on it between the windows chairs along the walls
representing german damsels with birds in their hands that was all in the corner a light was burning before a small ikon
the floor and the furniture were brightly polished
there was not a speck of dust to be seen in the whole flat
that one finds such cleanliness raskolnikov thought again and he stole a curious glance at the cotton curtain
in which stood the old woman's bed and chest of drawers
these two rooms made up the whole flat
and he drew out of his pocket an old fashioned flat silver watch on the back of which was engraved a globe the chain was of steel but the time is up for your last pledge
the month was up the day before yesterday
to wait or to sell your pledge at once how much will you give me for the watch
you come with such trifles my good sir it's scarcely worth anything i gave you two roubles last time
give me four roubles for it i shall redeem it it was my father's i shall be getting some money soon
if you like a rouble and a half cried the young man please yourself and the old woman handed him back the watch the young man took it
but checked himself at once remembering that there was nowhere else he could go
hand it over he said roughly the old woman fumbled in her pocket for her keys and disappeared behind the curtain into the other room
the young man left standing alone in the middle of the room listened inquisitively thinking he could hear her unlocking the chest of drawers
it must be the top drawer he reflected so she carries the keys in a pocket on the right
three times as big as all the others
that's worth knowing strong boxes always have keys like that
degrading it all is the old woman came back here sir as we say ten copecks the rouble a month
and a half for the month in advance but for the two roubles i lent you before you owe me now twenty copecks on the same reckoning in advance
that makes thirty five copecks altogether so i must give you a rouble and fifteen copecks
only a rouble and fifteen copecks now just so the young man did not dispute it and took the money
and was in no hurry to get away as though there was still something he wanted to say or to do
he broke off in confusion well we will talk about it then sir good bye are you always at home alone your sister is not here with you
he asked her as casually as possible
you are too quick good day alyona ivanovna
this confusion became more and more intense as he went down the stairs
two or three times as though suddenly struck by some thought when he was in the street he cried out oh god
and can i can i possibly
he added resolutely
what filthy things my heart is capable of yes filthy above all disgusting loathsome loathsome
but no words no exclamations could express his agitation the feeling of intense repulsion
while he was on his way to the old woman had by now reached such a pitch and had taken such a definite form that he did not know what to do with himself to escape from his wretchedness
he walked along the pavement like a drunken man regardless of the passers by and jostling against them and only came to his senses when he was in the next street
looking round he noticed that he was standing close to a tavern which was entered by steps leading from the pavement to the basement at that instant two drunken men
and abusing and supporting one another
without stopping to think raskolnikov went down the steps at once
but now he felt giddy and was tormented by a burning thirst he longed for a drink of cold beer and attributed his sudden weakness to the want of food
he sat down at a sticky little table in a dark and dirty corner
and eagerly drank off the first glassful at once he felt easier and his thoughts became clear all that's nonsense he said hopefully
it's simply physical derangement just a glass of beer a piece of dry bread
the mind is clearer and the will is firm phew
he was by now looking cheerful as though he were suddenly set free from a terrible burden and he gazed round in a friendly way at the people in the room but even at that moment he had a dim foreboding
mind was also not normal
besides the two drunken men he had met on the steps a group consisting of about five men and a girl
had gone out at the same time their departure left the room quiet and rather empty the persons still in the tavern were a man who appeared to be an
drunk but not extremely so sitting before a pot of beer and his companion a huge stout man
in a short full skirted coat he was very drunk and had dropped asleep on the bench every now and then he began as though in his sleep
with his arms wide apart
while he hummed some meaningless refrain
recall some such lines as these
or suddenly waking up again
his silent companion
there was another man in the room
raskolnikov thought but what help can he be to me now suppose he gets me lessons
if he has any farthings
ordinary action could i have expected to set it all straight and to find a way out by means of razumihin alone
in perplexity he pondered
as if it were spontaneously and by chance
to razumihin's he said all at once calmly
i shall go to razumihin's of course but not now i shall go to him on the next day after it when it will be over and everything
will begin afresh and suddenly he realised what he was thinking after it he shouted jumping up from the seat but
really going to happen is it possible it really will happen he left the seat and went off almost at a run he meant to turn back homewards
but the thought of going home suddenly filled him with intense loathing in that hole in that awful little cupboard of his all this had for a month past been growing up in him
his nervous shudder had passed into a fever that made him feel shivering
with a kind of effort he began almost unconsciously from some inner craving to stare at all the objects before him as though looking for something to distract his attention
but he did not succeed
when with a start he lifted his head again
he forgot at once what he had just been thinking about and even where he was going in this way
came out on to the lesser neva crossed the bridge and turned towards the islands the greenness and freshness were at first restful
to his weary eyes after the dust of the town and the huge houses that hemmed him in
no stifling closeness no stench but soon these new pleasant sensations passed into morbid irritability sometimes he stood still before a brightly
he gazed through the fence he saw in the distance smartly dressed women on the verandahs and balconies
the flowers especially caught his attention he gazed at them longer than at anything he was met too by luxurious carriages and by men and women on horseback
he watched them with curious eyes and forgot about them before they had vanished from his sight once he stood still and counted his money
so i must have given forty seven
he thought reckoning it up for some unknown reason but he soon forgot with what object he had taken the money out of his pocket he recalled it
on passing an eating house or tavern and felt that he was hungry
as he walked away it was a long while since he had taken vodka and it had an effect upon him at once though he only drank a wineglassful his legs felt suddenly heavy
and a great drowsiness came upon him he turned homewards but reaching petrovsky ostrov he stopped completely exhausted turned off the road into the bushes sank down upon the grass
and instantly fell asleep in a morbid condition of the brain dreams often have a singular actuality vividness and extraordinary semblance of reality
at times monstrous images are created
and filled with details so delicate so unexpectedly but so artistically consistent that the dreamer were he an artist like pushkin or turgenev even
could never have invented them in the waking state such sick dreams always remain long in the memory and make a powerful impression on the overwrought and deranged nervous system
raskolnikov had a fearful dream he dreamt he was back in his childhood in the little town of his birth he was a child about seven years old
on the evening of a holiday it was a grey and heavy day the country was exactly as he remembered it indeed he recalled it far more vividly in his dream
than he had done in memory the little town stood on a level flat as bare as the hand
a big tavern which had always aroused in him a feeling of aversion even of fear when he walked by it with his father there was always a crowd there
laughter and abuse hideous hoarse singing and often fighting
he used to cling close to his father trembling all over
near the tavern the road became a dusty track the dust of which was always black
and about a hundred paces further on it turned to the right to the graveyard
with a green cupola where he used to go to mass two or three times a year with his father and mother when a service was held in memory of his grandmother
who had long been dead and whom he had never seen on these occasions
tied up in a table napkin a special sort of rice pudding with raisins stuck in it
the old fashioned unadorned ikons and the old priest with the shaking head
was the little grave of his younger brother who had died at six months old he did not remember him at all but he had been told about his little brother
and whenever he visited the graveyard he used religiously and reverently to cross himself and to bow down
on the way to the graveyard
a peculiar circumstance attracted his attention there seemed to be some kind of festivity going on there were crowds of gaily dressed townspeople peasant women
their husbands and riff raff of all sorts
near the entrance of the tavern stood a cart
shanty boat tim's story withstood the most vigorous cross examination after him mister bronson from the theater corroborated miss hope's story of jennie brice's attack of hysteria in the dressing room
and told of taking her home that night he was a poor witness nervous and halting he weighed each word before he said it and he made a general unfavorable impression i thought he was holding something back
in view of what mister pitman would have called the denouement his attitude is easily explained but i was puzzled then so far the prosecution had touched but lightly on the possible motive for a crime the woman
but i remember her testimony perfectly she was a widow living above a small millinery shop on federal street allegheny she had one daughter alice who did stenography and typing as a means of livelihood
she had no office and worked at home many of the small stores in the neighborhood employed her to send out their bills there was a card at the street entrance beside the shop and now and then strangers brought her work
early in december the prisoner had brought her the manuscript of a play to type and from that time on he came frequently sometimes every day bringing a few sheets of manuscript at a time
sometimes he came without any manuscript and would sit and talk while he smoked a cigarette they had thought him unmarried on wednesday february twenty eighth alice murray had disappeared she had taken some of her clothing
not all and had left a note the witness read the note aloud in a trembling voice dear mother when you get this i shall be married to mister ladley
lovingly alice from that time until a week before she had not heard from her daughter then she had a card mailed from madison square station new york city the card merely said am well and working
alice the defense was visibly shaken they had not expected this and i thought even mister ladley whose calm had continued unbroken paled so far all had gone well for the prosecution
as nearly as circumstantial evidence could prove a crime and they had established a motive but in the identification of the body so far they had failed the prosecution rested as they say although they didn't rest much
on the afternoon of the third day the defense called first of all eliza shaeffer she told of a woman answering the general description of jennie brice having spent two days at the shaeffer farm at horner
being shown photographs of jennie brice she said she thought it was the same woman but was not certain she told further of the woman leaving unexpectedly on wednesday of that week from thornville on cross examination
being shown the small photograph which mister graves had shown me she identified the woman in the group as being the woman in question as the face was in shadow knew it more by the dress and hat she described the black and white dress and the hat with red trimming
the defense then called me i had to admit that the dress and hat as described were almost certainly the ones i had seen on the bed in jennie brice's room the day before she disappeared i could not say definitely
whether the woman in the photograph was jennie brice or not under a magnifying glass thought it might be defense called jonathan alexander a druggist who testified that on the night in question
he had been roused at half past three by the prisoner who had said his wife was ill and had purchased
his identification was absolute the defense called jennie brice's sister and endeavored to prove that jennie brice had had no such scar
it was shown that she was on intimate terms with her family and would hardly have concealed an operation of any gravity from them the defense scored that day they had shown that the prisoner had told the truth
and they had shown that a woman answering the description of jennie brice spent two days in a town called horner and had gone from there on wednesday after the crime and they had shown that this woman was attired as jennie brice had been
that was the way things stood on the afternoon of the fourth day when court adjourned mister reynolds was at home when i got there he had been very much subdued since the developments of that first day of the trial
mister holcombe came down a moment after with his face beaming i think we've got him missus pitman he said the jury won't even go out of the box but further than that he would not explain he said he had a witness locked in his room
and he'd be glad of supper for him as they'd both come a long ways and he went out and bought some oysters and a bottle or two of beer but as far as i know he kept him locked up all that night in the second story front room
i don't think the man knew he was a prisoner i went in to turn down the bed and he was sitting by the window reading the evening paper's account of the trial an elderly gentleman rather professional looking
mister holcombe slept on the upper landing of the hall that night rolled in a blanket not that i think his witness even thought of escaping but the little man was taking no chances at eight o'clock that night the bell rang it was mister howell
you haven't been sick mister howell have you i asked oh no i'm well enough i've been traveling about those infernal sleeping cars his voice trailed off and i saw him looking at my mother's picture
with the jonquils beneath that's curious he said going closer it it looks almost like lida harvey my mother i said simply have you seen her lately
my mother i asked startled no lida i saw her a few days ago here yes she came here mister howell two weeks ago she looks badly
instead of facing things like a man i was trying to find the one person who could clear me missus pitman he sat back with his eyes closed he looked ill enough to be in bed and you succeeded no
i thought perhaps he had not been eating and i offered him food as i had once before but he refused it with the ghost of his boyish smile i'm hungry but it's not food i want
her he said i sat down across from him and tried to mend a table cloth but i could not sew i kept seeing those two young things each sick for a sight of the other and from wishing they could have a minute together
i got to planning it for them perhaps i said finally if you want it very much very much and if you will sit quiet and stop tapping your fingers together until you drive me crazy i might contrive it for you
for five minutes i said not a second longer he came right over and put his arms around me who are you anyhow he said you who turn to the world the frozen mask of a union street boarding house landlady
who are a gentlewoman by every instinct and training and a girl at heart who are you i'll tell you what i am i said i'm a romantic old fool and you'd better let me do this quickly before i change my mind
he freed me at that but he followed to the telephone and stood by while i got lida he was in a perfect frenzy of anxiety turning red and white by turns and in the middle of the conversation
taking the receiver bodily from me and holding it to his own ear she said she thought she could get away she spoke guardedly as if alma were near but i gathered that she would come as soon as she could and from the way her voice broke
i knew she was as excited as the boy beside me she came heavily coated and veiled at a quarter after ten that night and i took her back to the dining room where he was waiting he did not make a move toward her
but stood there with his very lips white looking at her and at first she did not make a move either but stood and gazed at him thin and white a wreck of himself then ell she cried
and ran around the table to him as he held out his arms the school teacher was out i went into the parlor bedroom and sat in the cozy corner in the dark i had done a wrong thing and i was glad of it
and sitting there in the darkness i went over my own life again after all it had been my own life i had lived it no one else had shaped it for me and if it was cheerless and colorless now
it had had its big moments life is measured by big moments if i let the two children in the dining room have fifteen big moments instead of five
mister ladley had once been well known in new york among the people who frequent the theaters and jennie brice was even better known a good many lawyers i believe said that the police had not a leg to stand on
and i know the case was watched with much interest by the legal profession people wrote letters to the newspapers protesting against mister ladley being held and i believe that the district attorney in taking him before the grand jury
hardly hoped to make a case but he did to his own surprise i fancy and the trial was set for may but in the meantime many curious things happened in the first place the week following mister ladley's arrest
my house was filled up with eight or ten members
very cheerful and jolly and well behaved three men i think and the rest girls one of the men was named bellows john bellows and it turned out that he had known jennie brice very well
from the moment he learned that mister holcombe hardly left him he walked to the theater with him and waited to walk home again he took him out to restaurants and for long street car rides in the mornings and on the last night of their stay
saturday they got gloriously drunk together mister holcombe no doubt in his character of ladley and came reeling in at three in the morning singing mister holcombe was very sick the next day but by monday he was all right
and he called me into the room we've got him missus pitman he said looking mottled but cheerful as sure as god made little fishes we've got him that was all he would say however
it seemed he was going to new york and might be gone for a month i've no family he said and enough money to keep me if i find my relaxation in hunting down criminals it's a harmless and cheap amusement
and it's my own business he went away that night and i must admit i missed him i rented the parlor bedroom the next day to a school teacher and i found the periscope affair very handy
i could see just how much gas she used and although the notice on each door forbids cooking and washing in rooms i found she was doing both making coffee and boiling an egg in the morning and rubbing out stockings and handkerchiefs in her wash bowl
i'd much rather have men as boarders than women the women are always lighting alcohol lamps on the bureau and wanting the bed turned into a cozy corner so they can see their gentlemen friends in their rooms
well with mister holcombe gone and mister reynolds busy all day and half the night getting out the summer silks and preparing for remnant day and with mister ladley in jail and lida out of the city for i saw in the papers
that she was not well and her mother had taken her to bermuda i had a good bit of time on my hands and so i got in the habit of thinking things over and trying to draw conclusions as i had seen mister holcombe do
and study them over and especially i worried over how we could have found a slip of paper in mister ladley's room with a list almost exact of the things we had discovered there i used to read it over rope
knife shoe towel horn and get more and more bewildered horn might have been a town or it might not have been there was such a town according to mister graves
but apparently he had made nothing of it was it a town that was meant the dictionary gave only a few words beginning with horn hornet hornblende hornpipe and horny
none of which was of any assistance and then one morning i happened to see in the personal column of one of the newspapers that a woman named eliza shaeffer of horner
perhaps it had been horner and possibly this very eliza shaeffer i suppose my lack of experience was in my favor for after all eliza shaeffer is a common enough name
and the horn might have stood for hornswoggle for all i knew the story of the man who thought of what he would do if he were a horse came back to me and for an hour or so i tried to think i was jennie brice
trying to get away and hide from my rascal of a husband but i made no headway i would never have gone to horner or to any small town if i had wanted to hide i think i should have gone around the corner
and taken a room in my own neighborhood or have lost myself in some large city it was that same day that since i did not go to horner horner came to me
the bell rang about three o'clock and i answered it myself for with times hard and only two or three roomers all winter i had not had a servant except terry to do odd jobs for some months
there stood a fresh faced young girl with a covered basket in her hand are you missus pitman she asked i don't need anything to day i said trying to shut the door and at that minute
something in the basket cheeped young women selling poultry are not common in our neighborhood what have you there i asked more agreeably chicks day old chicks but i'm not trying to sell you any i
may i come in it was dawning on me then that perhaps this was eliza shaeffer i led her back to the dining room with peter sniffing at the basket my name is shaeffer she said
i've seen your name in the papers and i believe i know something about jennie brice eliza shaeffer's story was curious she said that she was postmistress at horner
and was much disappointed to find no store of any size in the town the woman who had registered as missus jane bellows said she was tired and would like to rest for a day or two on a farm
she was told to see eliza shaeffer at the post office and as a result drove out with her to the farm after the last mail came in that evening asked to describe her she was over medium height light haired
quick in her movements and wore a black and white striped dress with a red collar and a hat to match she carried a small brown valise that miss shaeffer presumed contained her samples
missus shaeffer had made her welcome although they did not usually take boarders until june she had not eaten much supper and that night she had asked for pen and ink and had written a letter
the letter was not mailed until wednesday all of tuesday missus bellows had spent in her room and missus shaeffer had driven to the village in the afternoon with word that she had been crying all day
and bought some headache medicine for her on wednesday morning however she had appeared at breakfast
it was addressed to mister ellis howell in care of a pittsburgh newspaper that night when miss eliza went home about half past eight the woman was gone
she had paid for her room and had been driven as far as thornville where all trace of her had been lost on account of the disappearance of jennie brice being published shortly after that she and her mother had driven to thornville
but the station agent there was surly as well as stupid they had learned nothing about the woman since that time three men had made inquiries about the woman in question one had a pointed vandyke beard
the second from the description i fancied must have been mister graves the third without doubt was mister howell eliza shaeffer said that this last man had seemed half frantic
i brought her a photograph of jennie brice as topsy and another one as juliet she said there was a resemblance but that it ended there but of course as mister graves had said
by the time an actress gets her photograph retouched to suit her it doesn't particularly resemble her and unless i had known jennie brice myself i should hardly have recognized the pictures well in spite of all that
there seemed no doubt that jennie brice had been living three days after her disappearance and that would clear mister ladley but what had mister howell to do with it all why had he not told the police of the letter from horner
or about the woman on the bridge why had mister bronson who was likely the man with the pointed beard said nothing about having traced jennie brice to horner i did as i thought mister holcombe would have wished me to do
all that eliza shaeffer said the description of the black and white dress the woman's height and the rest and then i took her to the court house chicks and all and she told her story there to one of the assistant district attorneys
the young man was interested but not convinced he had her story taken down and she signed it he was smiling as he bowed us out i turned in the doorway this will free mister ladley i suppose
to the last stilted arch and colonial volute in every newspaper in the united states that evening the newspapers announced that during a conference at the jail between mister ladley and james bronson
mister ladley had attacked mister bronson with a chair
chapter eighteen a hole in the wall my taking the detective out to sunnyside raised an unexpected storm of protest from gertrude and halsey i was not prepared for it
and i scarcely knew how to account for it to me mister jamieson was far less formidable under my eyes where i knew what he was doing
twisting circumstances and motives to suit himself and learning what he wished to know about events at sunnyside in some occult way i was glad enough to have him there when excitements began to come thick and fast
a new element was about to enter into affairs monday or tuesday at the latest would find doctor walker back in his green and white house in the village and louise's attitude to him in the immediate future
would signify halsey's happiness or wretchedness as it might turn out then too
from the day mister jamieson came to sunnyside there was a subtle change in gertrude's manner to me it was elusive difficult to analyze but it was there
gertrude spent much of her time wandering through the grounds or taking long cross country walks halsey played golf at the country club day after day and after louise left as she did the following week
he played a fair game of cribbage but he cheated at solitaire the night the detective arrived saturday i had a talk with him i told him of the experience louise armstrong had had the night before on the circular staircase
i saw that he thought the information was important and to my suggestion that we put an additional lock on the east wing door he opposed a strong negative i think it probable he said that our visitor will be back again
to avoid rousing suspicion then i can watch for at least a part of each night and probably mister innes will help us out i would say as little to thomas as possible the old man knows more than he is willing to admit
i suggested that alex the gardener would probably be willing to help and mister jamieson undertook to make the arrangement for one night however mister jamieson preferred to watch alone apparently nothing occurred
the detective sat in absolute darkness on the lower step of the stairs dozing he said afterwards now and then nothing could pass him in either direction and the door in the morning remained as securely fastened as it had been the night before
and yet one of the most inexplicable occurrences of the whole affair took place that very night liddy came to my room on sunday morning with a face as long as the moral law she laid out my things as usual
but i missed her customary garrulousness i was not regaled with the new cook's extravagance as to eggs and she even forbore to mention that jamieson on whose arrival she had looked with silent disfavor what's the matter liddy
i asked at last didn't you sleep last night
she said stiffly did you have two cups of coffee at your dinner i inquired no ma'm indignantly i sat up and almost upset my hot water i always take a cup of hot water with a pinch of salt before i get up
through good temper and bad the idea
but i guess i can't stand it any longer my trunk's packed who packed it i asked expecting from her tone to be told she had wakened to find it done by some ghostly hand i did miss rachel you won't believe me when i tell you this house is
i'm doing my best to find out i said what in the world are you driving at she drew a long breath there is a hole in the trunk room wall dug out since last night
it's big enough to put your head in and the plaster's all over the place
but liddy clenched that just ask alex she said when he put the new cook's trunk there last night the wall was as smooth as this this morning it's dug out and there's plaster on the cook's trunk miss rachel
and you'll never catch anything there's some things you can't handcuff
i went up to the trunk room which was directly over my bedroom the plan of the upper story of the house was like that of the second floor in the main one end however over the east wing had been left only roughly finished
the intention having been to convert it into a ball room at some future time
opened from a long corridor like that on the second floor and in the trunk room as liddy had said was a fresh break in the plaster
i reached into the opening and three feet away perhaps i could touch the bricks of the partition wall for some reason the architect in building the house had left a space there that struck me even in the surprise of the discovery
as an excellent place for a conflagration to gain headway you are sure the hole was not here yesterday i asked liddy whose expression was a mixture of satisfaction and alarm
in answer she pointed to the new cook's trunk that necessary adjunct of the migratory domestic the top was covered with fine white plaster as was the floor but there were no large pieces of mortar lying around no bits of lathing
being quite confident that the gap was of unholy origin she did not concern herself with such trifles as a bit of mortar and lath no doubt they were even then heaped neatly on a gravestone in the casanova churchyard
i brought mister jamieson up to see the hole in the wall directly after breakfast his expression was very odd when he looked at it and the first thing he did was to try to discover what object if any such a hole could have
he got a piece of candle and by enlarging the aperture a little was able to examine what lay beyond the result was nil the trunk room although heated by steam heat like the rest of the house
boasted of a fireplace and mantel as well the opening had been made between the flue and the outer wall of the house there was revealed however on inspection only the brick of the chimney on one side and the outer wall of the house on the other
in depth the space extended only to the flooring the breach had been made about four feet from the floor and inside were all the missing bits of plaster it had been a methodical ghost
it was very much of a disappointment i had expected a secret room at the very least and i think even mister jamieson had fancied he might at last have a clue to the mystery there was evidently nothing more to be discovered
liddy reported that everything was serene among the servants and that none of them had been disturbed by the noise the maddening thing however was that the nightly visitor had evidently more than one way of gaining access to the house and
we made arrangements to redouble our vigilance as to windows and doors that night halsey was inclined to pooh pooh the whole affair he said a break in the plaster might have occurred months ago and gone unnoticed
and that the dust had probably been stirred up the day before after all we had to let it go at that but we put in an uncomfortable sunday gertrude went to church and halsey took a long walk in the morning
louise was able to sit up and she allowed halsey and liddy to assist her down stairs late in the afternoon the east veranda was shady green with vines and palms cheerful with cushions and lounging chairs
we put louise in a steamer chair and she sat there passively enough her hands clasped in her lap we were very silent
halsey sat on the rail with a pipe openly watching louise as she looked broodingly across the valley to the hills there was something baffling in the girl's eyes and gradually halsey's boyish features
lost their glow at seeing her about again and settled into grim lines he was like his father just then we sat until late afternoon halsey growing more and more moody shortly before six he got up
and went into the house and in a few minutes he came out and called me to the telephone it was anna whitcomb in town and she kept me for twenty minutes telling me the children had had the measles and how
madame sweeny had botched her new gown when i finished liddy was behind me her mouth a thin line i wish you would try to look cheerful liddy i groaned your face would sour milk
but liddy seldom replied to my gibes she folded her lips a little tighter he called her up she said oracularly he called her up
so he could talk to miss louise a thankless child is sharper than a serpent's tooth nonsense i said bruskly i might have known enough to leave them it's a long time since you and i were in love liddy and
we forget liddy sniffed
look where father's picture stands father that here kissed his boy not a month since father kind who this night may never mind mother's sob my willie dear cry out loud that he may hear
who is god of battles cry god keep father safe this day by the alma river ask no more child never heed either russ or frank or turk
right of nations trampled creed chance poised victory's bloody work
on thy heights sevastopol willie all to you and me is that spot whate'er it be where he stands no other word stands god sure the child's prayers heard
near the alma river willie listen to the bells ringing in the town to day that's for victory no knell swells for the many swept away hundreds thousands let us weep
we who need not just to keep reason clear in thought and brain till the morning comes again till the third dread morning tell who they were that fought and fell
by the alma river come we'll lay us down my child poor the bed is poor and hard but thy father far exiled sleeps upon the open sward
dreaming of us two at home or beneath the starry dome digs out trenches in the dark where he buries willie mark where he buries those who died fighting fighting at his side
by the alma river willie willie go to sleep god will help us o my boy he will make the dull hours creep faster and send news of joy
when i need not shrink to meet those great placards in the street that for weeks will ghastly stare in some eyes child say that prayer once again a different one say o god thy will be done
by the alma river open your atlas at the map of russia look down toward the bottom at that part of the great empire which borders on the euxine or black sea
there you will find a small peninsula it is really almost an island being surrounded on three sides by water labeled crimea it is only a part of one of the smallest of russia's forty odd provinces
the province of taurida yet it is one of the famous places of history for here in the years eighteen fifty four and eighteen fifty five was fought the crimean war one of the greatest wars of modern times
russia and turkey have never been good neighbors
always quarreling about this or that the fact being that each is afraid of the other's getting too much land and too much power in these disputes the other countries of europe have generally sympathized with turkey
feeling that russia had quite enough power and that if she had more it might be dangerous for all of them some day you will read in history about the eastern question and the balance of power
and will find out just what these meant in the fifties but this is all that you need know now in order to understand what i am going to tell you in eighteen fifty four turkey feeling that russia was pressing too hard upon her
called upon the other european powers to help her the result was that england france sardinia now a part of italy but then a separate kingdom and turkey made an agreement with one another and all together
declared war upon russia england had been at peace with all the world for forty years ever since the wars of napoleon which were closed by the great victory of waterloo the english are a brave race
they had forgotten the horrors of war and remembered only its glories and its victories and they sprang to arms as joyously as boys run to a football game sharpen your cutlasses and the day is ours said sir charles napier to his men
just before the british fleet sailed and this was the feeling all through the country the fleets of the allied powers gathered in the black sea forming one great armada surrounded the peninsula of the crimea and landed their armies
in september eighteen fifty four was fought the first great battle by the alma river the allies were victorious and a great shout of joy went up all over england victory victory cried old and young
there were bells and bonfires and illuminations the whole country went mad with joy
no one thought of anything except glory waving banners and sounding trumpets but banners and trumpets though a real part of war are only a very small part after a little time through the shouting and rejoicing
a different sound was heard the sound of weeping and lamentation not only for the hundreds of brave men who were lying dead beside the fatal river but for the other hundreds of sick and wounded soldiers dying for want of care
there had been gross neglect and terrible mismanagement in the carrying on of the war nobody knew just whose fault it was but everything seemed to be lacking that was most needed on that desolate shore of the crimea
the english troops were in an enemy's country and a poor country at that whatever supplies there were had been taken by the russian armies for their own needs food and clothing had been sent out from england in great quantities
but somehow no one could find them some supplies had been stowed in the hold of vessels and other things piled on top so that they could not be got at some were stored in warehouses which no one had authority to open
some were actually rotting at the wharves for want of precise orders as to their disposal the surgeons had no bandages the doctors no medicines it was a state of things that to day we can hardly imagine indeed
it seemed as if the need were so great and terrible that it paralyzed those who saw it it is now pouring rain wrote william howard russell to the london times
the wind is howling over the staggering tents the trenches are turned into dykes in the tents the water is sometimes a foot deep our men have not either warm or waterproof clothing they are out for twelve hours at a time in the trenches
they are plunged into the inevitable miseries of a winter campaign and not a soul seems to care for their comfort or even for their lives these are hard truths but the people of england must hear them
they must know that the wretched beggar who wanders about the streets of london in the rain leads the life of a prince compared with the british soldiers who are fighting out here for their country the commonest accessories of a hospital are wanting
there is not the least attention paid to decency or clean linen the stench is appalling the fetid air can hardly struggle out to taint the atmosphere save through the chinks in the walls and roofs and for all i can observe
these men die without the least effort being made to save them there they lie just as they were let gently down on the ground by the poor fellows their comrades who brought them on their backs from the camp with the greatest tenderness
but who are not allowed to remain with them the sick appear to be tended by the sick and the dying by the dying he added that the snow was three feet deep on a level
and the cold so intense that many soldiers were frozen in their tents no one meant to be cruel or neglectful but there were not half enough doctors and think of it children there were no nurses how did this happen
well when the war broke out the military authorities did not want female nurses the matter was talked over and it was decided that things would go better without them this was put on the ground that the class of nurses as i have told you
was at that time in england a very poor one they were often drunken generally unfeeling and always ignorant the war department decided that this kind of nurse would do more harm than good they did not realize that
the old order changeth yielding place to new and that the time was come when the new nurse must replace the old but now the need was come immediate and terrible and there was no one to meet it when the people of england realized this
when they learned that the hospital at scutari was filled with sick and wounded and dying men and no one to care for them save a few male orderlies wholly untrained for the task when they heard that in the hospitals of the french army the sisters of mercy were doing their blessed work tending the wounded
healing the sick and comforting the dying and realized that the english soldiers their own sons brothers and husbands had no such help and no such comfort the sound of bell and trumpet was lost in a great cry of anger and sorrow
that went up from the whole country and matters grew worse and worse as one great battle after another sent its dreadful fruits to the already overflowing hospital at scutari on october twenty fifth came balaklava
yet i ask you to read it again here so that it may fit into its place in the story of this terrible war remember it is only one incident of that great battle of balaklava in which both sides claimed the victory
while neither gained any signal advantage
all in the valley of death rode the six hundred forward the light brigade charge for the guns he said into the valley of death rode the six hundred forward the light brigade
was there a man dismayed not though the soldier knew someone had blundered theirs not to make reply theirs not to reason why theirs but to do and die into the valley of death rode the six hundred
cannon to right of them cannon to left of them cannon in front of them volleyed and thundered stormed at with shot and shell boldly they rode and well into the jaws of death
into the mouth of hell rode the six hundred flashed all their sabres bare flashed as they turned in air sabring the gunners there charging an army while all the world wondered
plunged in the battery smoke right through the line they broke cossack and russian reeled from the sabre stroke shattered and sundered then they rode back but not not the six hundred
cannon to right of them cannon to left of them cannon behind them volleyed and thundered stormed at with shot and shell while horse and hero fell they that had fought so well
came through the jaws of death back from the mouth of hell all that was left of them left of six hundred when can their glory fade o the wild charge they made all the world wondered
honor the charge they made honor the light brigade noble six hundred i have already spoken of william howard russell
he was the war correspondent of the times the great english newspaper and a man of intelligence heart and feeling he was on the spot and saw the horrors of the war at first hand his heart was filled with sorrow and pity for the suffering around him
and he wrote day after day home to england telling what he saw and what was needed soon after balaklava he wrote are there no devoted women amongst us
able and willing to go forth to minister to the sick and suffering soldiers of the east in the hospitals at scutari are there none of the daughters of england at this extreme hour of need ready for such a work of mercy
france has sent forth her sisters of mercy unsparingly and they are even now by the bedsides of the wounded and the dying giving what woman's hand alone can give of comfort and relief
must we fall so far below the french in self sacrifice and devotedness in a work which christ so signally blesses as done unto himself i was sick and ye visited me
this was the trumpet call that rang in the ears of the women of england sounding a clearer note than all the clarions of victory
the barrack hospital the barrack hospital at scutari was just what its name implies it was built for soldiers to live in and was big enough to take in whole regiments surrounding the four sides of a quadrangle
each one of its sides was nearly a quarter of a mile long and it was believed that twelve thousand men could be exercised in the great central court three sides of the building were arranged in galleries and corridors rising story upon story
we are told that these long narrow rooms if placed end to end would cover four miles of ground at each corner rose a tower the building was well situated and looked out over the bosporus toward the glittering mosques and minarets of stamboul
seven others were erected and all were filled to overflowing but the barrack hospital was miss nightingale's headquarters and the chief scene of her labors though she had authority over all
i shall therefore describe the situation and the work as she found it there if there had been mismanagement at home in england there had been even worse at the seat of war
the battles you remember were all fought in the crimea they were cruel terrible battles too terrible to dwell upon here hundreds and thousands were killed but other hundreds and thousands lay wounded and helpless on the field
in those days there was no red cross no field practice no first aid to the injured the poor sufferers were taken all bleeding and fainting as they were to the water side
across to scutari several days would pass before any were got from the battlefield to the ferry below the hospital and most of them had not had their wounds dressed or their broken limbs set often they had had no food
they were tortured by fever and thirst and now they must walk if they could drag themselves or be dragged or carried by others up the hill to the hospital we can fancy how they looked forward to rest how they thought of comfort aid
relief from pain alas they found little of all these things the barrack hospital had been built by the turks and lent to the english by the turkish government
it had been meant for the hardy turkish soldiery to sleep in and there were no appliances to fit it for a hospital we are told that in the early months of the war there were no vessels for water or utensils of any kind
no soap towels or cloths no hospital clothes the men lying in their uniforms stiff with gore and covered with filth to a degree and of a kind no one could write about their persons covered with vermin
which crawled about the floors and walls of the dreadful den of dirt pestilence and death to which they were consigned is this too dreadful to read about but it was not too dreadful to happen
the poor fellows laid down in the midst of all this horror would wait with a soldier's patience hoping for the doctor or surgeon who should bind up their wounds and relieve their terrible suffering alas often and often
death was more prompt than the doctor and stilled the pain forever before any human aid had been given one of miss nightingale's assistants writes how can i ever describe my first day in the hospital at scutari
vessels were arriving and orderlies carrying the poor fellows who with their wounds and frost bites had been tossing about on the black sea for two or three days and sometimes more where were they to go not an available bed
they were laid on the floor one after another till the beds were emptied of those dying of cholera and every other disease many died immediately after being brought in their moans would pierce the heart
and the look of agony on those poor dying faces will never leave my heart they may well be called the martyrs of the crimea where were the doctors they were there doing their very best working day and night
giving their strength and their lives freely but there were not half not a tenth part enough of them and there was no one to help them but the orderlies who as i have said had had no training and knew nothing of sickness or hospital work
the conditions grew so frightful that a kind of paralysis seemed to fall upon the minds of the workers they felt that the task was hopeless and they went about their duties like people in a nightmare the strangest thing of all to us now
seems to be that they did not tell though mister russell and others wrote to england of the horrors of the hospitals
or if questioned would only reply that everything was all right there was no inspection that was worthy of the name the same officers who would front death on the battlefield with a song and a laugh shrank from meeting it in the hospital wards
the air of which was heavy with the poison of cholera and fever an orderly officer took the rounds of the wards every night to see that all was in order he was of course expected by the orderlies
and the moment he raised the latch he received the word all right your honor and passed on
and were in many cases rough unfeeling ignorant men sometimes it was for this reason that they drank the brandy which should have been given to their patients but often again it was because they were ill themselves
or else because they were so overcome by the horrors around them that they drank just to bring forgetfulness for a time the strange paralysis of which i have spoken seemed to hang over everything connected with the unfortunate soldiers of the crimea
mister sidney herbert assured miss nightingale that the hospitals were supplied with every necessary he had reason to think so for the things had been sent had left england had reached the shores of the bosporus
medical stores had been sent out by the ton but where were they i have already told you they were rotting on the wharves locked up in the warehouses buried in the holds of vessels
they were everywhere except in the hospitals the doctors had nothing to work with but they could not leave their work to find out why it was the other authorities said it was all right
they knew the things had come but they were not sure just who were the proper persons to open the cargoes take out and distribute the stores it must not be done except by the proper persons this is what is called red tape
and many books have been written about it i remember when i was a child a cartoon in punch showing the british soldier entangled in the coils of a frightful serpent struggling for life the serpent was labeled red tape
but he is not nearly so powerful and people are always on the lookout for him and can generally drive him away this was the state of things when miss nightingale and her band of nurses arrived at scutari
her first round of the hospitals was a terrible experience which no later one ever effaced from her mind the air of the wards was so polluted as to be perfectly stifling the sheets she said were of canvas
and so coarse that the wounded men begged to be left in their blankets it was indeed impossible to put men in such a state of emaciation into those sheets there was no bedroom furniture of any kind
lying on the floor with the rats running over them she looked out of the windows under them were lying dead animals in every state of decay refuse and filth of every description she sought the kitchens
there were no kitchens and no cooks at least nothing that would be recognized to day as a hospital kitchen in the barrack kitchen were thirteen huge coppers in these the men cooked their own food meat and vegetables together
the separate portions inclosed in nets all plunged in together and taken out when some one was ready to take them part of the food would be raw when it came out another part boiled to rags this was all the food there was
for sick and well the wounded the fever stricken the cholera patient no doubt hundreds died from improper feeding alone she looked for the laundry there was no laundry there were washing contracts
but up to the time of her arrival only seven shirts had been washed the clothes and bed linen of wounded men and of those sick with infectious diseases were thrown in together
moreover the contractors stole most of the clothes that came into their hands so that the sick did not like to part with their few poor garments for fear of never seeing them again and were practically without clean linen
except when a soldier's wife would now and then take compassion on them and wash out a few articles these were the conditions that florence nightingale had to meet a delicate and sensitive woman reared amid beauty and luxury
these were the scenes among which she was to live for nearly two years but one thing more must be noted do you think everyone was glad to see her and her nurses not by any means
the overwrought doctors were dismayed and angered at the prospect of a parcel of women coming as they fancied to interfere with their work and make it harder than it was already the red tape officials were even less pleased what
a woman in petticoats a lady in chief coming to inquire into their deeds and their methods had they not said repeatedly that everything was all right what was the meaning of this this was her coming this is what she found
a modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people in ireland
seventeen twenty nine it is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country when they see the streets the roads and cabbin doors
these mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood are forced to employ all their time in stroling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who
to fight for the pretender in spain or sell themselves to the barbadoes
a very great additional grievance and therefore whoever could find out a fair cheap and easy method of making these children
it is of a much greater extent
at a certain age who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them as those who demand our charity in the streets as to my own part having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject
i have always found them grossly mistaken in their computation it is true a child just dropt from its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year with little other nourishment
which the mother may certainly get or the value in scraps by her lawful occupation of begging and it is exactly at one year old that i propose to provide for them
in such a manner as instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish
they shall on the contrary contribute to the feeding and partly to the cloathing of many thousands there is likewise another great advantage in my scheme
that it will prevent those voluntary abortions and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children alas too frequent among us
sacrificing the poor innocent babes i doubt more to avoid the expence than the shame which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast
the number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half of these i calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders
who are able to maintain their own children although i apprehend there cannot be so many under the present distresses of the kingdom but this being granted there will remain
an hundred and seventy thousand breeders i again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry or whose children die by accident or disease within the year
the question therefore is how this number shall be reared and provided for which as i have already said under the present situation of affairs is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed
for we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture we neither build houses i mean in the country nor cultivate land they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing till they arrive at six years old
except where they are of towardly parts although i confess they learn the rudiments much earlier during which time they can however be properly looked upon only as probationers
who protested to me that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art
i have been assured by a very knowing american of my acquaintance in london that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious
nourishing and wholesome food whether stewed roasted baked or boiled and i make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie or a ragoust
i do therefore humbly offer it to publick consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed twenty thousand may be reserved for breed whereof only one fourth part to be males
black cattle or swine and my reason is that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage a circumstance not much regarded by our savages therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females
and when the family dines alone the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day especially in winter
i have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh twelve pounds and in a solar year if tolerably nursed encreaseth to twenty eight pounds
i grant this food will be somewhat dear and therefore very proper for landlords who as they have already devoured most of the parents seem to have the best title to the children infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year
because the number of popish infants is at least three to one in this kingdom and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage by lessening the number of papists among us
i have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child
to be about two shillings per annum rags included
for the carcass of a good fat child which as i have said will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat when he hath only some particular friend or his own family to dine with him thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord
and grow popular among his tenants the mother will have eight shillings neat profit and be fit for work till she produces another child those who are more thrifty as i must confess the times require
as to our city of dublin shambles may be appointed for this purpose in the most convenient parts of it and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting although i rather recommend
buying the children alive and dressing them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs a very worthy person
a true lover of his country and whose virtues i highly esteem was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement upon my scheme he said that many gentlemen of this kingdom
not exceeding fourteen years of age nor under twelve so great a number of both sexes in every country being now ready to starve for want of work and service and these to be disposed of by their parents if alive
for as to the males my american acquaintance assured me from frequent experience that their flesh was generally tough and lean like that of our school boys by continual exercise and their taste disagreeable
and to fatten them would not answer the charge
but in order to justify my friend he confessed that this expedient was put into his head by the famous salmanaazor a native of the island formosa
who came from thence to london above twenty years ago and in conversation told my friend that in his country when any young person happened to be put to death the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality as a prime dainty
and that in his time the body of a plump girl of fifteen who was crucified for an attempt to poison the emperor was sold to his imperial majesty's prime minister of state and other great mandarins of the court
cannot stir abroad without a chair
and i have been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken to ease the nation of so grievous an incumbrance but i am not in the least pain upon that matter
because it is very well known that they are every day dying and rotting by cold and famine and filth and vermin
they cannot get work and consequently pine away from want of nourishment
they have not strength to perform it and thus the country and themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come i have too long digressed and therefore shall return to my subject
i think the advantages by the proposal which i have made are obvious and many as well as of the highest importance for first as i have already observed
it would greatly lessen the number of papists with whom we are yearly over run being the principal breeders of the nation as well as our most dangerous enemies and who
stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the pretender hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good protestants who have chosen rather to leave their country than stay at home and pay tithes
against their conscience to an episcopal curate secondly the poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own which by law
their corn and cattle being already seized and money a thing unknown thirdly whereas the maintainance of an hundred thousand children from two years old and upwards cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a piece per annum
besides the profit of a new dish introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom who have any refinement in taste and the money will circulate among our selves the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture
this food would likewise bring great custom to taverns where the vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts for dressing it to perfection and consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentlemen
who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in good eating and a skilful cook who understands how to oblige his guests will contrive to make it as expensive as they please sixthly
this would be a great inducement to marriage which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards or enforced by laws and penalties it would encrease the care and tenderness of mothers towards their children
which of them could bring the fattest child to the market men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy as they are now of their mares in foal their cows in calf
nor offer to beat or kick them as is too frequent a practice for fear of a miscarriage many other advantages might be enumerated for instance
the propagation of swine's flesh and improvement in the art of making good bacon so much wanted among us by the great destruction of pigs too frequent at our tables
which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a lord mayor's feast
but this and many others i omit being studious of brevity supposing that one thousand families in this city would be constant customers for infants flesh besides
others who might have it at merry meetings particularly at weddings and christenings i compute that dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses
and the rest of the kingdom where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper the remaining eighty thousand
this i freely own and twas indeed one principal design in offering it to the world i desire the reader will observe that i calculate my remedy for this one individual kingdom of ireland
and for no other that ever was is or i think ever can be upon earth therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients
of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury
vanity idleness and gaming in our women of introducing a vein of parsimony prudence and temperance of learning to love our country wherein we differ even from laplanders and the inhabitants of
of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing
lastly of putting a spirit of honesty industry and skill into our shop keepers who
the measure and the goodness nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing though often and earnestly invited to it therefore i repeat
let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients till he hath at least some glympse of hope that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice but
as to my self having been wearied out for many years with offering vain idle visionary thoughts and at length utterly despairing of success i fortunately fell upon this proposal which as it is wholly new
full in our own power and whereby we can incur no danger
for this kind of commodity will not bear exportation and flesh being of too tender a consistence to admit a long continuance in salt
although perhaps i could name a country which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it after all i am not so violently bent upon my own opinion as to reject any offer proposed by wise men
which shall be found equally innocent cheap easy and effectual but before something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme and offering a better i desire the author or authors
will be pleased maturely to consider two points first as things now stand how they will be able to find food
for a hundred thousand useless mouths and backs and secondly there being a round million of creatures in humane figure throughout this kingdom
adding those who are beggars by profession to the bulk of farmers cottagers and labourers with their wives and children who are beggars in effect i desire those politicians who dislike my overture
that they will first ask the parents of these mortals whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food at a year old in the manner i prescribe
and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through by the oppression of landlords the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade the want of common sustenance
with neither house nor cloaths to cover them
and the most inevitable prospect of intailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever i profess in the sincerity of my heart
that i have not the least personal interest in endeavouring to promote this necessary work having no other motive than the publick good of my country by advancing our trade providing for infants relieving the poor
chapter five the picture of crowd splendor
and when he will go to the picture show to verify it the shoddiest silent drama may contain noble views of the sea this part is almost sure to be good it is a fundamental resource
ragged glowering strikers and gossiping dickering people in the marketplace only griffith and his close disciples can do these as well as almost any manager can reproduce the ocean
yet the sea of humanity is dramatically blood brother to the pacific atlantic or mediterranean
to bring us these panoramic drama elements by the law of compensation while the motion picture is shallow in showing private passion it is powerful in conveying the passions of masses of men bernard shaw
answered several questions in regard to the photoplay here are two bits from his discourse strike the dialogue from moliere's tartuffe and what audience would bear its mere stage business
what becomes of the difference between shakespeare and sheridan knowles in the film or between shakespeare's lear and any one else's lear no it seems to me that all the interest lies in the new opening
formerly disabled by incidental deficiencies of one sort or another that do not matter in the picture theatre
who can write novels and epics but cannot for the life of them write plays well the film lends itself admirably to the succession of events proper to narrative and epic but physically
impracticable on the stage paradise lost would make a far better film than ibsen's john gabriel borkman though borkman is a dramatic masterpiece and milton could not write an effective play
note in especial what shaw says about narrative epic and paradise lost he has in mind no doubt the pouring hosts of demons and angels this is
one kind of a crowd picture
impersonates the italian in a film of that title by thomas h ince and g gardener sullivan the first part taken ostensibly in venice delineates the festival spirit of the people on the bridges
and in gondolas it gives out the atmosphere of town crowd happiness
a merry grape harvest then the
telling good by to their kindred on the piers then the drama of arrival in new york the wonder of the steerage people pouring down their proper gangway is contrasted with the conventional
they besiege the fountain end of the street sprinkling wagon quite closely rejoicing to have their clothes soaked they gather round the fire plug that is turned on for their benefit and again become wet as drowned rats passing through these crowds
and clara williams as the italian and his sweetheart they owe the force of their acting to the fact that they express each mass of humanity in turn their child is born it does not flourish
it represents in an acuter way another phase of the same child struggle with the heat that the gamins indicate in their pursuit of the water cart then a deeper matter
drab east side the gondolier becomes boot black the grape gathering peasant girl becomes the suffering slum mother they are not specialized characters like pendennis or becky sharp in the novels of thackeray
an old griffith biograph first issued in nineteen eleven before griffith's name or that of any actor in films was advertised blanche sweet is the leading lady and charles h west the leading man
the psychology of a bevy of village lovers is conveyed in a lively sweet hearting dance then the boy and his comrades go forth to war the lines pass between hand waving crowds of friends
these friends give the sense of patriotism in mass then as the consequence of this feeling as the special agents to express it the soldiers are in battle by the fortunes of war
the onset is unexpectedly near to the house where once was the dance the boy is at first a coward he enters the old familiar door he appeals to the girl to hide him
and for the time breaks her heart he goes forth a fugitive not only from battle but from her terrible girlish anger but later he rallies he
brings a train of powder wagons through fires built in his path by the enemy's scouts he loses every one of his men and all but the last wagon which he drives himself his return with that ammunition saves the hard fought day
glimpses of the battle are given with a splendor that only griffith has attained blanche sweet
and the whole body social of the village how the costumes flash and the handkerchiefs wave around her
only the girl knows he was first a failure the wounded general honors him as the hero above all now she is radiant she cannot help but be triumphant
though the side of the house is blown out by a shell and the dying are everywhere this one reel work of art has been reissued of late by the biograph company
it should be kept in the libraries of the universities as a standard one reel films are unfortunate in this sense that in order to see a favorite the student must wait
through five other reels of a mixed programme that usually is bad that is the reason one reel masterpieces seldom appear now the producer in a mood to make a special effort
of twenty minutes each these have the advantage that if they please at all one can see them again at once without
i shall reiterate throughout this work the necessity for restraint a one hour programme is long enough for any one if the observer is pleased he will sit it through again and take another hour
there is not a good film in the world but is the better for being seen in immediate succession to itself six reel programmes are a weariness to the flesh the best of the old one reel biographs of griffith
contained more in twenty minutes than these ambitious incontinent six reel displays give us in two hours
but it is griffith's great film the battle
to continue the contrast between private passion in the theatre and crowd passion in the photoplay let us turn to shaw again consider his illustration of iago othello and lear these parts as he implies
would fall flat in motion pictures the minor situations of dramatic intensity might in many cases be built up the crisis would inevitably fail iago and othello and lear
are essentially private persons individuals in extremis if you go to a motion picture and feel yourself suddenly gripped by the highest dramatic tension as on the old stage and reflect afterward that it was a fight between only
stop to analyze what they stood for
that had been pursuing each other earlier in the film otherwise the conflict however violent appealed mainly to the sense of speed so
in the birth of a nation which could better be called the overthrow of negro rule the ku klux klan dashes down the road as powerfully as niagara pours over the cliff finally the white girl elsie stoneman
impersonated by lillian gish is rescued by the ku klux klan from the mulatto politician silas lynch impersonated by george seigmann the lady is brought forward as a typical helpless white maiden
impersonated by henry b walthall enters not as an individual but as representing the whole anglo saxon niagara he has the mask of the ku klux klan on his face
till the crisis has passed the wrath of the southerner against the blacks and their northern organizers has been piled up through many previous scenes
something the photoplays that trace strictly personal hatreds cannot achieve the birth of a nation is a crowd picture in a triple sense on the films as in the audience
it turns the crowd into a mob that is either for or against the reverend thomas dixon's poisonous hatred of the negro griffith is a chameleon in interpreting his authors wherever the scenario shows traces of the clansman
the original book by thomas dixon it is bad wherever it is unadulterated griffith which is half the time it is good the reverend thomas dixon is a rather stagy simon legree in his avowed views a
hydrophobia in the latter end of uncle tom's cabin unconsciously mister dixon has done his best to prove that legree was not a fictitious character
i recommend their works to him as a better basis for future southern scenarios the birth of a nation has been very properly denounced for its simon legree qualities by francis hackett jane addams and others
but it is still true that it is a wonder in its griffith sections in its handling of masses of men it further illustrates the principles that made notable the old one reel battle film described in the beginning of this chapter
the battle in the end is greater because of its self possession and concentration all packed into twenty minutes when in the birth of a nation lincoln
goes down before the assassin it is a master scene he falls as the representative of the government and a thousand high and noble crowd aspirations the mimic audience in the restored ford's theatre rises in panic
this crowd is interpreted in especial for us
in the seats nearest and the freezing horror of the treason sweeps from the ford's theatre audience to the real audience beyond them the real crowd touched with terror beholds its natural face
in the glass later
mobs splendidly handled tossing wildly and rhythmically like the sea then is delineated the rise of the ku klux klan
the birth of a nation read the fourteenth chapter entitled the orchestra conversation and the censorship
mob movements of anger and joy will go through fanatical and provincial whirlwinds into great national movements of anger and joy a book by gerald stanley lee that has a score of future scenarios in it a book that might
well be dipped into by the reader before he goes to such a play as the italian or the battle is the work which bears the title of this chapter crowds
mister lee is far from infallible in his remedies for factory and industrial relations but in sensitiveness to the flowing street of humanity he is indeed a man
listen to the names of some of the divisions of his book crowds and machines letting the crowds be good letting the crowds be beautiful crowds and heroes
where are we going the crowd scare the strike an invention for making crowds think the crowd's imagination about people speaking as one of the crowd
will become sacred in each other's eyes in pictures and in fact a further discussion of this theme on other planes
architecture in motion and the fifteenth chapter
i'm going to let that fill now and we'll go up don't you want to steer mister fenwick no you manage it tom until it's in good running shape i don't want to hoodoo it i worked as hard as i could and never got more than two feet off the ground
now i'm really sailing it's great he was very enthusiastic and tom himself was not a little pleased at his own success for certainly the airship had looked to be a very dubious proposition at first bless my gaiters
remarked mister damon looking down on the field where mister fenwick's friends and the machinists were gathered cheering and waving their hands we'll do better declared tom
it needed some adjustments which he made
it was about two hundred feet high but soon after the gas began to enter the bag it rose until it was nearly five thousand feet high this satisfied tom that the airship could do better than he expected and he decided to return nearer earth
in going down he put the craft through a number of evolutions designed to test her ability to answer the rudders promptly the lad saw opportunity for making a number of changes and suggested them to mister fenwick are you going any farther
asked the owner of the whizzer as he saw that his craft was slowly settling no i think we've done enough for the first day said tom but i'd like you to handle her now mister fenwick you can make the landing while i watch the motor and other machines yes
i guess i can make a landing all right assented the inventor i'm better at coming down than going up he did make a good descent and received the congratulation of his friends as he stepped from the airship tom was also given much praise for his success in making the craft go at all
mister fenwick wanted to know of the young inventor who replied that as soon as some further changes had been made they would attempt a long flight this promise was kept two days later they were busy days for tom mister fenwick and the latter's assistants
tom sent a short note to his father telling of the proposed long flight and intimated that he might make a call in shopton if all went well he also sent a wire to miss nestor hinting that she might have some apple turnovers ready for him
but tom never called for that particular pastry though it was gotten ready for him when the girl received his message
all was in readiness for the long flight and a preliminary test had demonstrated that the whizzer had been wonderfully improved by the changes tom made the young inventor looked over the supply of food mister fenwick had placed aboard
glanced at the other stores and asked how long do you expect to be gone mister fenwick
that's quite a while responded tom we may be glad to return in two days or less but i think we're all ready to start are any of your friends going
i guess we three will make up the party this time though if our trip is a successful one i'll be overwhelmed with requests for rides i suppose as before a little crowd gathered to see the start the day was warm
but there was a slight haziness which tom did not like he hoped though that it would pass over before they had gone far do you wish to head for any particular spot mister fenwick asked tom as they were entering the cabin
if we could i have a friend who has a summer cottage there and he was always laughing at my airship i'd just like to drop down in front of his place now and pay him a call we'll try it assented tom with a smile
an auspicious start was made the whizzer taking the air after a short flight across the ground and then with the lifting gas aiding in pulling the craft upward the airship started to sail high over the city of philadelphia
so swiftly did it rise that the cheers of the little crowd of mister fenwick's friends were scarcely heard up and up it went and then a little later to the astonishment of the crowds in the streets tom put the airship twice in a circle around the statue of william penn
now you steer the lad invited mister fenwick take her straight across the delaware river and over camden new jersey and then head south for cape may
leaving the owner in charge of his craft to that gentleman's no small delight tom and mister damon began an inspection of the electrical and other machinery
several times the young investor looked out of the windows with which the cabin was fitted mister damon noticed this bless my shoe laces tom he said what's the matter
i don't like the looks of the weather was the answer i think we're in for a storm then let's put back no it would be too bad to disappoint mister fenwick now that we have made such a good start
he wants to make a long flight and i can't blame him spoke tom in a low voice but if there's danger oh well we can soon be at cape may and start back the wind is freshening rather suddenly though
and tom looked at the anemometer which showed a speed of twenty miles an hour however it was in their favor aiding them to make faster time
the speed of the whizzer was now about forty miles an hour not fast for an air craft but sufficiently speedy in trying out a new machine tom looked at the barograph and noted that they had attained an altitude of seven thousand five hundred feet
that's better than millionaire daxtel's distance of seven thousand one hundred and five feet remarked the lad with a smile and it breaks jackson's climb of seven thousand three hundred and three feet which is pretty good for your machine mister fenwick
do you really think so asked the pleased inventor
this is high and fast enough for the present
the whizzer at once leaped forward and a little later they came within sight of cape may the jersey coast resort now to drop down and visit my friend said mister fenwick with a smile won't he be surprised
i don't think we'd better do it said tom why not well the wind is getting stronger every minute and it will be against us on the way back if we descend and try to make another ascension we may fail
we're up in the air now and it may be easy to turn around and go back then again it may not but it certainly will be easier to shift around up here than down on the ground so i'd rather not descend that is not entirely to the ground
well just as you say though i wanted my friend to know i could build a successful airship
tom sent the whizzer down until the hotels and cottages could be made out quite plainly after looking with a pair of opera glasses mister fenwick picked out the residence of his friend and tom prepared to circle about the roof
by this time the presence of the airship had become known to hundreds and crowds were eagerly watching it there he is there's my friend who didn't believe i would ever succeed
in front of a large white house i'll drop him a message
the airship was moving slowly as it was beating against the wind leaning out of the cabin window mister fenwick shouted to his friend hey will i thought you said my airship would never go i'll come and give you a ride some day
whether the gentleman understood what mister fenwick shouted at him is doubtful but he saw the inventor waving his hand and he saw the falling cylinder and a look of astonishment spread over his face as he ran to pick up the message
we're going up now and will try to head for home said tom a moment later as he shifted the rudder bless my storage battery cried mister damon but we have had a fine trip
a much better one than we'll have going back observed tom in a low voice why what's the matter asked the eccentric man the wind has increased to a gale and will be dead against us answered tom
no sooner had he done so than the airship was met by the full force of the wind which was now almost a hurricane it had steadily increased but as long as they were moving with it
once they attempted to stem its fury they found themselves almost helpless tom quickly realized this and giving up his intention of beating up against the wind he turned the craft around and let it fly before the gale
the propellers aiding to get up a speed of seventy miles an hour mister fenwick who had dropped the last of his messages came from his small private cabin to where mister damon and tom were in a low voiced conversation near the engines
the owner of the whizzer happened to look down through a plate glass window in the floor of car what he saw caused him to give a gasp of astonishment why why he exclaimed we we're over the ocean
yes answered tom quietly as he gazed down on the tumbling billows below them they had quickly passed over cape may across the sandy beach and were now well out over the atlantic why why are we out here
asked mister fenwick isn't it dangerous in an airship that hasn't been thoroughly tried yet dangerous yes somewhat replied tom slowly but we can't help ourselves mister fenwick we can't turn around and go back in this gale
and we can't descend then what's to be done nothing except to keep on until the gale blows itself out and how long will that be i don't know a week maybe
between james and penn there had long been a familiar acquaintance the quaker now became a courtier and almost a favourite he was every day summoned from the gallery into the closet
and sometimes had long audiences while peers were kept waiting in the antechambers it was noised abroad that he had more real power to help and hurt than many nobles who filled high offices
he was loudly accused of being a papist nay a jesuit some affirmed that he had been educated at saint omers and others that he had been ordained at rome
these calumnies indeed could find credit only with the undiscerning multitude but with these calumnies were mingled accusations much better founded
to speak the whole truth concerning penn is a task which requires some courage for he is rather a mythical than a historical person rival nations and hostile sects have agreed in canonising him
england is proud of his name a great commonwealth beyond the atlantic regards him with a reverence similar to that which the athenians felt for theseus and the romans for quirinus
the respectable society of which he was a member honours him as an apostle by pious men of other persuasions he is generally regarded as a bright pattern of christian virtue
meanwhile admirers of a very different sort have sounded his praises the french philosophers of the eighteenth century pardoned what they regarded as his superstitious fancies
in consideration of his contempt for priests and of his cosmopolitan benevolence impartially extended to all races and to all creeds his name has thus become
throughout all civilised countries a synonyme for probity and philanthropy nor is this high reputation altogether unmerited penn was without doubt a man of eminent virtues
he had a strong sense of religious duty and a fervent desire to promote the happiness of mankind on one or two points of high importance he had notions more correct than were in his day
common even among men of enlarged minds and as the proprietor and legislator of a province which being almost uninhabited when it came into his possession afforded a clear field for moral experiments
he had the rare good fortune of being able to carry his theories into practice without any compromise and yet without any shock to existing institutions he will always be mentioned with honour as a founder of a colony
who did not in his dealings with a savage people abuse the strength derived from civilisation and as a lawgiver who in an age of persecution made religious liberty the cornerstone of a polity
but his writings and his life furnish abundant proofs that he was not a man of strong sense he had no skill in reading the characters of others
his confidence in persons less virtuous than himself led him into great errors and misfortunes his enthusiasm for one great principle sometimes impelled him to violate other great principles
which he ought to have held sacred nor was his rectitude altogether proof against the temptations to which it was exposed in that splendid and polite but deeply corrupted society
the whole court was in a ferment with intrigues of gallantry and intrigues of ambition the traffic in honours places and pardons was incessant
and who was known to have free access to majesty should be frequently importuned to use his influence for purposes which a rigid morality must condemn the integrity of penn had stood firm against obloquy and persecution
but now attacked by royal smiles by female blandishments by the insinuating eloquence and delicate flattery of veteran diplomatists and courtiers his resolution began to give way
titles and phrases against which he had often borne his testimony dropped occasionally from his lips and his pen it would be well if he had been guilty of nothing worse than such compliances
with the fashions of the world unhappily it cannot be concealed that he bore a chief part in some transactions condemned not merely by the rigid code of the society to which he belonged but by the general sense of all honest men
he afterwards solemnly protested that his hands were pure from illicit gain and that he had never received any gratuity from those whom he had
in some unjustifiable transactions of which others enjoyed the profits the first use which he made of his credit was highly commendable
he strongly represented the sufferings of his brethren to the new king who saw with pleasure that it was possible to grant indulgence to these quiet sectaries and to the roman catholics without showing similar favour to other classes
which were then under persecution a list was framed of prisoners against whom proceedings had been instituted for not taking the oaths or for not going to church
and of whose loyalty certificates had been produced to the government these persons were discharged and orders were given that no similar proceeding should be instituted till the royal pleasure should be further signified
in this way about fifteen hundred quakers and a still greater number of roman catholics
were so numerous that there was much doubt whether their chamber as it was then fitted up would afford sufficient accommodation for them they employed the days which immediately preceded the opening of the session
in talking over public affairs with each other and with the agents of the government a great meeting of the loyal party was held at the fountain tavern in the strand and roger lestrange who had recently been knighted by the king
and returned to parliament by the city of winchester
the tory country gentlemen were with scarcely one exception desirous to maintain the test act and the habeas corpus act and some among them talked of voting the revenue only for a term of years
but they were perfectly ready to enact severe laws against the whigs and would gladly have seen all the supporters of the exclusion bill made incapable of holding office
a revenue for life the admission of roman catholics to office and the repeal of the habeas corpus act on these three objects his heart was set
and he was by no means disposed to accept as a substitute for them a penal law against exclusionists such a law indeed would have been positively unpleasing to him
for one class of exclusionists stood high in his favour that class of which sunderland was the representative that class which had joined the whigs in the days of the plot merely because the whigs were predominant
and which had changed with the change of fortune james justly regarded these renegades as the most serviceable tools that he could employ it was not from the stouthearted cavaliers
who had been true to him in his adversity that he could expect abject and unscrupulous obedience in his prosperity the men who impelled not by zeal for liberty or for religion
in which he showed a generous compassion to those who had opposed him honestly and on public grounds but he frequently spared and promoted those whom some vile motive had induced to injure him
for that meanness which marked them out as fit implements of tyranny was so precious in his estimation that he regarded it with some indulgence even when it was exhibited at his own expense
the king's wishes were communicated through several channels to the tory members of the lower house the majority was easily persuaded to forego all thoughts of a penal law against the exclusionists
that great party which in the last three parliaments had been predominant had now dwindled to a pitiable minority and was indeed little more than a fifteenth part of the house
of the five hundred and thirteen knights and burgesses
it is evident that a body of men so raw and inexperienced must have been in some important qualities
to two peers of the kingdom of scotland one of them charles middleton earl of middleton
had shortly before the death of the late king been sworn of the english privy council and appointed one of the secretaries of state
who had long held the post of envoy at versailles the first business of the commons was to elect a speaker who should be the man was a question which had been much debated in the cabinet
guildford had recommended sir thomas meres who like himself ranked among the trimmers jeffreys who missed no opportunity of crossing the lord keeper
had pressed the claims of sir john trevor trevor had been bred half a pettifogger and half a gambler had brought to political life sentiments and principles worthy of both his callings had become a parasite of the chief justice
and could on occasion imitate not unsuccessfully the vituperative style of his patron the minion of jeffreys was as might have been expected preferred by james
he was the right heir male
who had been brother in law of king henry the eighth and protector of the realm of england in the limitation of the dukedom of somerset the elder son of the protector had been postponed to the younger son
from the younger son the dukes of somerset were descended from the elder son was descended the family which dwelt at berry pomeroy seymour's fortune was large
nor was the importance derived from descent and wealth the only importance which belonged to him he was one of the most skilful debaters and men of business in the kingdom he had sate many years in the house of commons
had studied all its rules and usages and thoroughly understood its peculiar temper he had been elected speaker in the late reign under circumstances which made that distinction peculiarly honourable
during several generations none but lawyers had been called to the chair and he was the first country gentleman whose abilities and acquirements had enabled him to break that long prescription
he had subsequently held high political office
but his haughty and unaccommodating temper had given so much disgust that he had been forced to retire he was a tory and a churchman he had strenuously opposed the exclusion bill
he had been persecuted by the whigs
and he could therefore safely venture to hold language for which any person suspected of republicanism would have been sent to the tower he had long been at the head of a strong parliamentary connection
to opulence and illustrious descent must be highly considered but in a house of commons from which many of the most eminent orators and parliamentary tacticians of the age were excluded
who had never heard a debate the influence of such a man was peculiarly formidable
he was licentious profane corrupt too proud to behave with common politeness yet not too proud to pocket illicit gain but he was so useful an ally
that he was frequently courted
his interest had been weakened in some places by the remodelling of the western boroughs his pride had been wounded by the elevation of trevor to the chair
thus was scotland governed by that prince whom ignorant men have represented as a friend of religious liberty whose misfortune it was to be too wise and too good for the age in which he lived
nay even those laws which authorised him to govern thus were in his judgment reprehensibly lenient while his officers were committing the murders which have just been related
compared with which all former acts might be called merciful in england his authority though great was circumscribed by ancient and noble laws which even the tories would not patiently have seen him infringe
here he could not hurry dissenters before military tribunals or enjoy at council the luxury of seeing them swoon in the boots here he could not drown young girls for refusing to take the abjuration
or shoot poor countrymen for doubting whether he was one of the elect yet even in england he continued to persecute the puritans as far as his power extended till events which will hereafter be related
induced him to form the design of uniting puritans and papists in a coalition for the humiliation and spoliation of the established church one sect of protestant dissenters indeed he
regarded with some tenderness the society of friends his partiality for that singular fraternity cannot be attributed to religious sympathy for of all who acknowledge the divine mission of jesus
the roman catholic and the quaker differ most widely it may seem paradoxical to say that this very circumstance constituted a tie between the roman catholic and the quaker yet such was really the case
for they deviated in opposite directions so far from what the great body of the nation regarded as right that even liberal men generally considered them both as lying beyond the pale of the largest toleration
thus the two extreme sects precisely because they were extreme sects had a common interest distinct from the interest of the intermediate sects the quakers were also guiltless of all offence against james and his house
they had been cruelly persecuted by some of the revolutionary governments they had since the restoration in spite of much ill usage submitted themselves meekly to the royal authority for they had
but were generally engaged in agriculture a pursuit from which they have been gradually driven by the vexations consequent on their strange scruple about paying tithe they were therefore far removed from the scene of political strife
they also even in domestic privacy avoided on principle all political conversation for such conversation was in their opinion unfavourable to their spirituality of mind
and which had during four generations borne peculiar enmity to the house of stuart it happened moreover that it was possible to grant large relief to the roman catholic and to the quaker
a law was in force which imposed severe penalties on every person who refused to take the oath of supremacy when required to do so this law did not affect presbyterians independents or baptists
for they were all ready to call god to witness that they renounced all spiritual connection with foreign prelates and potentates but the roman catholic would not swear that the pope had no jurisdiction in england and the quaker would not swear to anything
widely distinguished from the rest by station and fortune lived in the highest circles and had constant access to the royal ear this was the celebrated william penn his father had held great naval commands
had been a commissioner of the admiralty had sate in parliament had received the honour of knighthood and had been encouraged to expect a peerage
but had while still young injured his prospects and disgusted his friends by joining what was then generally considered as a gang of crazy heretics he had been sent sometimes to the tower and sometimes to newgate
he had been tried at the old bailey for preaching in defiance of the law
he had been reconciled to his family and had succeeded in obtaining such powerful protection that while all the gaols of england were filled with his brethren he was permitted during many years to profess his opinions
without molestation towards the close of the late reign he had obtained in satisfaction of an old debt due to him from the crown
but it was empty it was empty in the sense that a dying queenless hive is empty in a queenless hive no life is left though to a superficial glance it seems as much alive as other hives
the bees circle round a queenless hive in the hot beams of the midday sun as gaily as around the living hives from a distance it smells of honey like the others and bees fly in and out in the same way
the same way the smell and the sound that meet the beekeeper are not the same to the beekeeper's tap on the wall of the sick hive
instead of the former instant unanimous humming of tens of thousands of bees with their abdomens threateningly compressed and producing by the rapid vibration of their wings an aerial living sound
the only reply is a disconnected buzzing from different parts of the deserted hive from the alighting board instead of the former spirituous fragrant smell of honey and venom
and the warm whiffs of crowded life comes an odor of emptiness and decay
there is no longer the measured quiet sound of throbbing activity like the sound of boiling water but diverse discordant sounds of disorder in and out of the hive
long black robber bees smeared with honey fly timidly and shiftily
formerly only bees laden with honey flew into the hive and they flew out empty now they fly out laden the beekeeper opens the lower part of the hive and peers in
instead of black glossy bees tamed by toil clinging to one another's legs and drawing out the wax with a ceaseless hum of labor that used to hang
drowsy shriveled bees crawl about separately in various directions on the floor and walls of the hive instead of a neatly glued floor swept by the bees with the fanning of their wings
there is a floor littered with bits of wax excrement dying bees scarcely moving their legs and dead ones that have not been cleared away
instead of serried rows of bees sealing up every gap in the combs and keeping the brood warm
no longer in their former state of purity all is neglected and foul black robber bees are swiftly and stealthily prowling about the combs and the short home bees shriveled
and listless as if they were old creep slowly about without trying to hinder the robbers having lost all motive and all sense of life drones bumblebees wasps and butterflies knock
here and there among the cells containing dead brood and honey an angry buzzing can sometimes be heard here and there a couple of bees by force of habit and custom cleaning out the brood cells
with efforts beyond their strength laboriously drag away a dead bee or bumblebee without knowing why they do it in another corner two old bees are languidly fighting or cleaning themselves or feeding one another
without themselves knowing whether they do it with friendly or hostile intent in a third place a crowd of bees crushing one another attack some victim and fight and smother it and the victim
drops from above slowly and lightly as a feather among the heap of corpses the keeper opens the two center partitions to examine the brood cells
in place of the former close dark circles formed by thousands of bees sitting back to back and guarding the high mystery of generation he sees hundreds of dull
listless and sleepy shells of bees
sitting in the sanctuary they had guarded and which is now no more they reek of decay and death only a few of them still move
rise and feebly fly to settle on the enemy's hand lacking the spirit to die stinging him the rest are dead and fall as lightly as fish scales
the beekeeper closes the hive chalks a mark on it and when he has time
and burns it clean so in the same way moscow was empty when napoleon weary uneasy and morose
was a necessary if but formal observance of the proprieties a deputation in various corners of moscow there still remained a few people aimlessly moving about
following their old habits and hardly aware of what they were doing when with due circumspection napoleon was informed that moscow was empty he looked angrily at his informant turned away
and silently continued to walk to and fro my carriage he said he took his seat beside the aide de camp on duty and drove into the suburb
he said to himself what an incredible event
tipsy and perspiring with dim eyes and wide open mouths they were all laboriously singing some song or other they were singing discordantly arduously and with great effort evidently not because they wished to sing
but because they wanted to show they were drunk and on a spree one a tall fair haired lad in a clean blue coat was standing over the others his face with its fine straight nose would have been handsome
twitching lips and dull gloomy fixed eyes evidently possessed by some idea he stood over those who were singing and solemnly and jerkily flourished above their heads his white arm
with the sleeve turned up to the elbow trying unnaturally to spread out his dirty fingers the sleeve of his coat kept slipping down and he always carefully rolled it up again with his left hand
as if it were most important that the sinewy white arm he was flourishing should be bare
the tall lad waved his arm stop it he exclaimed peremptorily there's a fight lads
the factory hands followed him these men who under the leadership of the tall lad were drinking in the dramshop that morning had brought the publican some skins from the factory and for this had had drink served them
the blacksmiths from a neighboring smithy hearing the sounds of revelry in the tavern and supposing it to have been broken into wished to force their way in too and a fight in the porch had resulted
the publican was fighting one of the smiths at the door and when the workmen came out the smith wrenching himself free from the tavern keeper fell face downward on the pavement another smith tried to enter the doorway
said a voice addressing the publican what have you killed a man for you thief the tall lad standing in the porch turned his bleared eyes from the publican to the smith and back again as if considering whom he ought to fight now
he shouted suddenly to the publican bind him lads i daresay you would like to bind me shouted the publican pushing away the men advancing on him and snatching his cap from his head he flung it on the ground
as if this action had some mysterious and menacing significance the workmen surrounding the publican paused in indecision i know the law very well mates i'll take the matter to the captain of police
you think i won't get to him
shouted the publican picking up his cap come along then come along then the publican and the tall young fellow repeated one after the other and they moved up the street together the bloodstained smith went beside them
the factory hands and others followed behind talking and shouting
stood a score of thin worn out gloomy faced bootmakers wearing overalls and long tattered coats he should pay folks off properly a thin workingman with frowning brows and a straggly beard was saying
but he's sucked our blood and now he thinks he's quit of us
on seeing the crowd and the bloodstained man the workman ceased speaking and with eager curiosity all the bootmakers joined the moving crowd where are all the folks going why to the police of course i say is it true that we have been beaten and
questions and answers were heard the publican taking advantage of the increased crowd dropped behind and returned to his tavern the tall youth not noticing the disappearance of his foe
waved his bare arm and went on talking incessantly attracting general attention to himself it was around him that the people chiefly crowded expecting answers from him to the questions that occupied all their minds he must keep order
keep the law that's what the government is there for am i not right good christians
will they give up moscow like this they told you that for fun and you believed it aren't there plenty of troops on the march let him in indeed that's what the government is for you'd better listen to what people are saying
said some of the mob pointing to the tall youth by the wall of china town a smaller group of people were gathered round a man in a frieze coat who held a paper in his hand
and the people rushed toward the reader
when the crowd collected round him he seemed confused but at the demand of the tall lad who had pushed his way up to him he began in a rather tremulous voice to read the sheet from the beginning
early tomorrow i shall go to his serene highness he read sirin highness said the tall fellow with a triumphant smile on his lips and a frown on his brow to
consult with him to act and to aid the army to exterminate these scoundrels we too will take part the reader went on and then paused do you see shouted the youth victoriously he's going to clear up the whole affair for you
in destroying them and will send these visitors to the devil i will come back to dinner and we'll set to work we will do completely do and undo these scoundrels
read out in the midst of complete silence
the people's minds were tuned to a high pitch and this was too simple and needlessly comprehensible
emanating from the highest authority should not say they all stood despondent and silent the tall youth moved his lips and swayed from side to side
that's he himself yes ask him indeed why not he'll explain
which drove into the square attended by two mounted dragoons
at that moment in his pocket on seeing a crowd bearing down upon him told his coachman to stop what people are these he shouted to the men who were moving singly and timidly in the direction of his trap
what people are these he shouted again receiving no answer your honor replied the shopman in the frieze coat your honor in accord with the proclamation of his highest excellency the count
they desire to serve not sparing their lives and it is not any kind of riot
the count has not left he is here and an order will be issued concerning you said the superintendent of police go on he ordered his coachman
the crowd halted pressing around those who had heard what the superintendent had said and looking at the departing trap the superintendent of police turned round at that moment with a scared look said something to his coachman
and his horses increased their speed it's a fraud lads lead the way to him himself shouted the tall youth don't let him go lads let him answer us keep him
following the superintendent of police and talking loudly the crowd went in the direction of the lubyanka street
only here and there round the taverns solitary shouts or drunken songs could be heard nobody drove through the streets and footsteps were rarely heard the povarskaya was quite still and deserted
the huge courtyard of the rostovs house was littered with wisps of hay and with dung from the horses and not a soul was to be seen there in the great drawing room of the house which had been left with all it contained
they were the yard porter ignat and the page boy mishka vasilich's grandson who had stayed in moscow with his grandfather mishka had opened the clavichord and was strumming on it with one finger
the yard porter his arms akimbo stood smiling with satisfaction before the large mirror isn't it fine eh uncle ignat said the boy suddenly beginning to strike the keyboard with both hands
only fancy answered ignat surprised at the broadening grin on his face in the mirror impudence impudence they heard behind them the voice of mavra kuzminichna who had entered silently
how he's grinning the fat mug is that what you're here for
ignat left off smiling adjusted his belt and went out of the room with meekly downcast eyes
i did it gently said the boy i'll give you something gently you monkey you cried mavra kuzminichna raising her arm threateningly go and get the samovar to boil for your grandfather mavra kuzminichna
flicked the dust off the clavichord and closed it and with a deep sigh left the drawing room and locked its main door going out into the yard she paused to consider where she should go next
or into the storeroom to put away what still lay about she heard the sound of quick footsteps in the quiet street someone stopped at the gate and the latch rattled as someone tried to open it
who do you want the count count ilya andreevich rostov and who are you an officer i have to see him came the reply in a pleasant well bred russian voice
and an officer of eighteen with the round face of a rostov entered the yard they have gone away sir
said mavra kuzminichna cordially the young officer standing in the gateway as if hesitating whether to enter or not clicked his tongue ah how annoying he muttered
i should have come yesterday ah what a pity meanwhile
was attentively and sympathetically examining the familiar rostov features of the young man's face his tattered coat and trodden down boots what did you want to see the count for she asked oh well
he again paused in indecision you see he suddenly said i am a kinsman of the count's and he has been very kind to me as you see
he glanced with an amused air and good natured smile at his coat and boots my things are worn out and i have no money so i was going to ask the count
just wait a minute sir
she turned and hurrying away on her old legs went through the back yard to the servants quarters while mavra kuzminichna was running to her room
the officer walked about the yard gazing at his worn out boots with lowered head and a faint smile on his lips
what a nice old woman where has she run off to
thought he just then
appeared from behind the corner of the house with a frightened yet resolute look carrying a rolled up check kerchief in her hand while still a few steps from the officer
if his excellency had been at home as a kinsman he would of course but as it is mavra kuzminichna grew abashed and confused the officer did not decline
the note quietly and thanked her if the count had been at home mavra kuzminichna went on apologetically christ be with you sir may god preserve you said she
swaying his head and smiling as if amused at himself the officer ran almost at a trot through the deserted streets toward the yauza bridge to overtake his regiment
pensively swaying her head
and bore away with them the wounded and the last of the inhabitants who were leaving the greatest crush during the movement of the troops took place at the stone moskva and yauza bridges
while the troops dividing into two parts when passing around the kremlin were thronging the moskva and the stone bridges a great many soldiers taking advantage of the stoppage and congestion
turned back from the bridges and slipped stealthily and silently past the church of vasili the beatified and under the borovitski gate
crowds of the kind seen at cheap sales filled all the passages and alleys of the bazaar but there were no dealers with voices of ingratiating affability inviting customers to enter
there were no hawkers nor the usual motley crowd of female purchasers but only soldiers in uniforms and overcoats though without muskets entering the bazaar empty handed
and silently making their way out through its passages with bundles tradesmen and their assistants of whom there were but few moved about among the soldiers quite bewildered
they unlocked their shops and locked them up again and themselves carried goods away with the help of their assistants on the square in front of the bazaar were drummers beating the muster call
but made them on the contrary run farther away among the soldiers in the shops and passages some men were to be seen in gray coats with closely shaven heads
two officers one with a scarf over his uniform and mounted on a lean dark gray horse the other in an overcoat and on foot stood at the corner of ilyinka street talking
a third officer galloped up to them the general orders them all to be driven out at once without fail this is outrageous half the men have dispersed where are you off to where
he shouted to three infantrymen without muskets who holding up the skirts of their overcoats were slipping past him into the bazaar passage stop you rascals but how are you going to stop them replied another officer
there is no getting them together the army should push on before the rest bolt that's all how can one push on they are stuck there wedged on the bridge and don't move shouldn't we put a cordon round to prevent the rest from running away come
the officer in the scarf dismounted called up a drummer and went with him into the arcade some soldiers started running away in a group a shopkeeper with red pimples on his cheeks near the nose and a
calm persistent calculating expression on his plump face hurriedly and ostentatiously approached the officer swinging his arms your honor
we won't grudge trifles you are welcome to anything we shall be delighted pray i'll fetch a piece of cloth at once for such an honorable gentleman
for we feel how it is but what's all this sheer robbery if you please could not guards be placed if only to let us close the shop several shopkeepers crowded round the officer
what twaddle said one of them a thin stern looking man when one's head is gone one doesn't weep for one's hair take what any of you like
he turned sideways to the officer
please step inside your honor talk indeed cried the thin one in my three shops here i have a hundred thousand rubles worth of goods
our hands can't fight come inside your honor repeated the tradesman bowing the officer stood perplexed and his face showed indecision it's not my business he exclaimed
and strode on quickly down one of the passages from one open shop came the sound of blows and vituperation
was flung out violently this man bent double rushed past the tradesman and the officer the officer pounced on the soldiers who were in the shops
but at that moment fearful screams reached them from the huge crowd on the moskva bridge and the officer ran out into the square what is it what is it he asked but his comrade was already galloping off past vasili the beatified
in the direction from which the screams came the officer mounted his horse and rode after him when he reached the bridge he saw two unlimbered guns the infantry crossing the bridge several overturned carts
and frightened and laughing faces among the troops beside the cannon a cart was standing to which two horses were harnessed
with collars were pressing close to the wheels
sat a peasant woman uttering piercing and desperate shrieks
that night when he was alone in his room a beautiful lady suddenly appeared before him her long dress was as white as snow and she had a crown of white roses upon her head the good king was very much surprised to see her
for he knew his door had been tightly shut and he could not think how she had got in but she said to him i am the fairy truth i was passing through the wood when you were out hunting
for i know that those who are merciful to animals will be still kinder to their fellow men if you had refused to help me
madam said the good king since you are a fairy you no doubt know all my wishes i have but one son whom i love very dearly that is why he is called prince darling if you are really good enough to wish to do me a favor
with all my heart answered the fairy i can make your son the handsomest prince in the world or the richest or the most powerful choose whichever you like for him i do not ask either of these things for my son replied the good king but if you will make him the best of princes
i shall indeed be grateful to you what good would it do him to be rich or handsome or to possess all the kingdoms of the world if he were wicked you know well he would still be unhappy only a good man can be really contented you are quite right answered the fairy
unless he will help me he must himself try hard to become good i can only promise to give him good advice to scold him for his faults
the good king was quite satisfied with this promise and very soon afterward he died prince darling was very sorry
and he would willingly have given all his kingdoms and all his treasures of gold and silver if they could have kept the good king with him two days afterward when the prince had gone to bed the fairy suddenly appeared to him and said
i promised your father that i would be your friend and to keep my word i have come to bring you a present at the same time she put a little gold ring upon his finger take great care of this ring she said it is more precious than diamonds every time you do a bad deed it will prick your finger
but if in spite of its pricking you go on in your own evil way you will lose my friendship and i shall become your enemy so saying the fairy disappeared leaving prince darling very much astonished for some time he behaved so well that the ring never pricked him
one day however he went out hunting but could get no sport which put him in a very bad temper it seemed to him as he rode along that his ring was pressing into his finger but as it did not prick him he did not heed it when he got home and went to his own room
his little dog bibi ran to meet him jumping round him with pleasure get away said the prince quite gruffly i don't want you you are in the way the poor little dog who didn't understand this at all pulled at his coat to make him at least look at her
and this made prince darling so cross that he gave her quite a hard kick instantly his ring pricked him sharply
he was very much surprised and sat down in a corner of his room feeling quite ashamed of himself
what is the good of my being ruler of a great kingdom if i am not even allowed to beat my own dog
answering prince darling's thoughts you have committed three faults
you were out of temper because you could not have what you wanted and you thought all men and animals were only made to do your pleasure
which is very naughty indeed and lastly you were cruel to a poor little animal who did not in the least deserve to be ill treated i know you are far above a little dog
i might at this moment beat you or kill you for a fairy is greater than a man the advantage of possessing a great empire is not to be able to do the evil that one desires but to do all the good that one possibly can
the prince saw how naughty he had been and promised to try and do better in future but he did not keep his word the fact was he had been brought up by a foolish nurse who had spoiled him when he was little
if he wanted anything he only had to cry and fret and stamp his feet and she would give him whatever he asked for which had made him self willed also she had told him from morning to night that he would one day be a king and that kings were very happy
when the prince grew old enough to understand he soon learned that there could be nothing worse than to be proud obstinate and conceited and he had really tried to cure himself of these defects but by that time all his faults had become habits
and a bad habit is very hard to get rid of not that he was naturally of a bad disposition he was truly sorry when he had been naughty and said i am very unhappy to have to struggle against my anger and pride every day if i had been punished for them when i was little
they would not be such a trouble to me now his ring pricked him very often and sometimes he left off what he was doing at once
trifling fault but when he was really naughty it made his finger actually bleed at last he got tired of being constantly reminded and wanted to be able to do as he liked so he threw his ring aside
he gave himself up to doing every foolish thing that occurred to him
and nobody could like him any longer one day when the prince was walking about
her name was celia and she was as good as she was beautiful prince darling fancied that celia would think herself only too happy if he offered to make her a great queen but she said fearlessly sire i am only a shepherdess
and a poor girl but nevertheless i will not marry you do you dislike me
no my prince replied celia i cannot help thinking you very handsome but what good would riches be to me and all the grand dresses and splendid carriages that you would give me
the prince was very angry at this speech and commanded his officers to make celia a prisoner and carry her off to his palace all day long the remembrance of what she had said annoyed him but as he loved her he could not make up his mind to have her punished
one of the prince's favorite companions was his foster brother whom he trusted entirely
and encouraged him in all his evil ways when he saw the prince so downcast he asked what was the matter
and was resolved to be a better man
this evil adviser said to him you are very kind to trouble yourself about this little girl if i were you i would soon make her obey me remember that you are a king and that it would be laughable to see you trying to please a shepherdess who ought to be only too glad to be one of your slaves
keep her in prison and feed her on bread and water for a little while and then if she still says she will not marry you have her head cut off
why if you cannot make a girl like that do as you wish
but said prince darling would it not be a shame if i had an innocent girl put to death for celia has done nothing to deserve punishment if people will not do as you tell them they ought to suffer for it answered his foster brother but even if it were unjust
you had better be accused of that by your subjects
in saying this he was touching a weak point in his brother's character for the prince's fear of losing any of his power made him at once abandon his first idea of trying to be good and resolve to try and frighten the shepherdess into consenting to marry him
his foster brother who wanted him to keep this resolution
and they persuaded him to drink a great deal of wine and continued to excite his anger against celia by telling him that she had laughed at his love for her until at last in quite a furious rage he rushed off to find her declaring that if she still refused to marry him
she should be sold as a slave the very next day but when he reached the room in which celia had been locked up he was greatly surprised to find that she was not in it though he had the key in his own pocket all the time his anger was terrible
his bad friends when they heard him resolved to turn his wrath upon an old nobleman who had formerly been his tutor and who still dared sometimes to tell the prince of his faults for he loved him as if he had been his own son at first prince darling had thanked him
but after a time he grew impatient and thought it must be just mere love of fault finding that made his old tutor blame him when everyone else was praising and flattering him so he ordered him to retire from his court though he still from time to time spoke of him as a worthy man whom he respected
even if he no longer loved him his unworthy friends feared that he might some day take it into his head to recall his old tutor
they reported to the prince that suliman for that was the tutor's name had boasted of having helped celia to escape and they bribed three men to say that suliman himself had told them about it the prince in great anger sent his foster brother with a number of soldiers to bring his tutor before him in chains
like a criminal after giving this order he went to his own room but he had scarcely got into it when there was a clap of thunder which made the ground shake and the fairy truth appeared suddenly before him i promised your father said she sternly to give you good advice
really you are a monster the horror of everyone who knows you it is time that i should fulfil my promise and begin your punishment i condemn you to resemble the animals whose ways you have imitated you have made yourself like the lion by your anger and like the wolf by your greediness
therefore in your new form take the appearance of all these animals
as they approached the town he saw that some great rejoicing was being held and when the hunters asked what had happened they were told that the prince whose only pleasure it was to torment his people had been found in his room killed by a thunder bolt
four of his courtiers those who had encouraged him in his wicked doings had tried to seize the kingdom and divide it between them but the people who knew it was their bad counsels which had so changed the prince had cut off their heads and had offered the crown to suliman
whom the prince had left in prison this noble lord had just been crowned and the deliverance of the kingdom was the cause of the rejoicing for they said he is a good and just man and we shall once more enjoy peace and prosperity prince darling roared with anger when he heard this
he was led away by flatterers i knew his heart and am certain that if it had not been for the bad influence of those who surrounded him he would have been a good king and a father to his people we may hate his faults
as for me i would die gladly if that could bring back our prince to reign justly and worthily once more these words went to prince darling's heart he realized the true affection and faithfulness of his old tutor
and to admit that his punishment was not more than he had deserved he left off tearing at the iron bars of the cage in which he was shut up and became as gentle as a lamb the hunters who had caught him took him to a great menagerie
by being gentle and obedient to the man who had to take care of him unfortunately this man was very rough and unkind and though the poor monster was quite quiet he often beat him without rhyme or reason when he happened to be in a bad temper
one day when this keeper was asleep a tiger broke its chain and flew at him to eat him up
but soon thought better of it and wished that he were free i would return good for evil he said to himself and save the unhappy man's life he had hardly wished this when his iron cage flew open and he rushed to the side of the keeper who was awake and was defending himself against the tiger
when he saw the monster had got out he gave himself up for lost
and very soon killed it and then came and crouched at the feet of the man it had saved overcome with gratitude the keeper stooped to caress the strange creature which had done him such a great service but suddenly a voice said in his ear a good action should never go unrewarded
and he saw at his feet only a pretty little dog prince darling
and the man taking him up in his arms carried him to the king
the queen said she would like to have this wonderful little dog
the queen petted and took care of him but she was so afraid that he would get too fat that she consulted the court physician who said that he was to be fed only upon bread and was not to have much even of that so poor prince darling was terribly hungry all day long
but he was very patient about it one day when they gave him his little loaf for breakfast he thought he would like to eat it out in the garden
and where it had been stood a great house that seemed to be built of gold and precious stones numbers of people splendidly dressed were going into it
from the windows but what seemed very strange was that those people who came out of the house were pale and thin and their clothes were torn and hanging in rags about them some fell down dead as they came out before they had time to get away others crawled farther with great difficulty
fainting with hunger and begged a morsel of bread from those who were going into the house
prince darling went up to a young girl
touched with compassion he said to himself i am very hungry but i shall not die of starvation before i get my dinner if i give my breakfast to this poor creature perhaps i may save her life so he laid his piece of bread in the girl's hand and saw her eat it up
eagerly she soon seemed to be quite well again and the prince delighted to have been able to help her was thinking of going home to the palace when he heard a great outcry and turning round saw celia who was being carried against her will into the great house
for the first time the prince regretted that he was no longer the monster then he would have been able to rescue celia
who were carrying her off and try to follow them but they chased and kicked him away he determined not to quit the place till he knew what had become of celia and blamed himself for what had befallen her alas he said to himself
but isn't that exactly what i did myself and if i had not been prevented did i not intend to be still more cruel to her
who came forward and threw out a plate of most delicious looking food then the window was shut again and prince darling who had not had anything to eat all day thought he might as well take the opportunity of getting something
but the young girl to whom he had given his bread gave a cry of terror and took him up in her arms saying don't touch it my poor little dog that house is the palace of pleasure and everything that comes out of it is poisoned at the same moment a voice said you see a good action always brings its reward
and the prince found himself changed into a beautiful white dove he remembered that white was the favorite color of the fairy truth and began to hope that he might at last win back her favor but just now his first care was for celia
and rising into the air he flew round and round the house until he saw an open window but he searched through every room in vain
and the prince in despair determined to search through the world till he found her he flew on and on for several days till he came to a great desert where he saw a cavern and to his delight there sat celia sharing the simple breakfast of an old hermit overjoyed to have found her
prince darling perched upon her shoulder trying to express by his caresses how glad he was to see her again and celia surprised and delighted by the tameness of this pretty white dove stroked it softly and said though she never thought of its understanding her
i accept the gift that you make me of yourself and i will love you always
who was at that moment restored to his natural shape you promised to love me always tell me that you really mean what you said or i shall have to ask the fairy to give me back the form of the dove which pleased you so much you need not be afraid that she will change her mind said the fairy
throwing off the hermit's robe in which she had been disguised and appearing before them celia has loved you ever since she first saw you only she would not tell you while you were so obstinate and naughty
celia and prince darling threw themselves at the fairy's feet
celia was delighted to hear how sorry he was for all his past follies and misdeeds and promised to love him as long as she lived rise my children said the fairy and i will transport you to the palace and prince darling
shall have back again the crown he forfeited by his bad behavior while she was speaking they found themselves in suliman's hall and his delight was great at seeing his dear master once more he gave up the throne joyfully to the prince and remained always the most faithful of his subjects
cross section and side view of the nautilus then he began his description as follows here professor aronnax are the different dimensions of this boat now transporting you
it's a very long cylinder with conical ends it noticeably takes the shape of a cigar a shape already adopted in london for several projects of the same kind
the length of this cylinder from end to end is exactly seventy meters and its maximum breadth of beam is eight meters so it isn't quite built on the ten to one ratio of your high speed steamers
but its lines are sufficiently long and their tapering gradual enough so that the displaced water easily slips past and poses no obstacle to the ship's movements these two dimensions allow you to obtain
via a simple calculation the surface area and volume of the nautilus its surface area totals
point four five square meters
which is tantamount to saying that when it's completely submerged
in drawing up plans for a ship meant to navigate underwater i wanted it when floating on the waves to lie nine tenths below the surface and to emerge only one tenth consequently
under these conditions it needed to displace only nine tenths of its volume hence one thousand three hundred fifty six point four eight cubic meters in other words it was to weigh only that same number of metric tons
so i was obliged not to exceed this weight while building it to the aforesaid dimensions the nautilus is made up of two hulls one inside the other between them
joining them together are iron t bars that give this ship the utmost rigidity in fact thanks to this cellular arrangement it has the resistance of a stone block as if it were completely solid
the two hulls are manufactured from boilerplate steel
the first hull has a thickness of no less than five centimeters
my second hull the outer cover includes a keel fifty centimeters high by twenty five wide which by itself weighs sixty two metric tons this hull the engine the ballast
the various accessories and accommodations plus the bulkheads and interior braces
which when added to three hundred ninety four point nine six metric tons
clear clear i replied so the captain went on when the nautilus lies on the waves under these conditions one tenth of it does emerge above water
and if i fill them with water the boat then displaces one thousand five hundred seven point two metric tons or it weighs that much and it would be completely submerged that's what comes about professor
these ballast tanks exist within easy access in the lower reaches of the nautilus
the boat sinks and it's exactly flush with the surface of the water fine captain but now we come to a genuine difficulty you're able to lie flush with the surface of the ocean that i understand
but lower down while diving beneath that surface isn't your submersible going to encounter a pressure and consequently undergo an upward thrust that must be assessed at one atmosphere per every thirty feet of water hence at about one
kilogram per each square centimeter precisely sir then unless you fill up the whole nautilus i don't see how you can force it down into the heart of these liquid masses professor captain nemo replied
static objects mustn't be confused with dynamic ones or we'll be open to serious error comparatively little effort is spent in reaching the ocean's lower regions because all objects have a tendency to become sinkers
follow my logic here i'm all ears captain when i wanted to determine what increase in weight the nautilus needed to be given in order to submerge i had only to take note of the
proportionate reduction in volume that salt water experiences in deeper and deeper strata that's obvious i replied now then if water isn't absolutely incompressible at least it compresses very little
or per every thirty feet of depth
consequently i'd have to increase my weight from one thousand five hundred seven point two metric tons to one thousand five hundred thirteen point seven seven so the added weight would only be six point five seven metric tons
that's all that's all professor aronnax and the calculation is easy to check now then i have supplementary ballast tanks
so i can descend to considerable depths when i want to rise again and lie flush with the surface all i have to do is expel that water and if i desire that the nautilus emerge above the waves to one tenth of its total capacity
i empty all the ballast tanks completely this logic backed up by figures left me without a single objection
since your daily experience bears them out but at this juncture i have a hunch that we're still left with one real difficulty what's that sir when you're at a depth of one thousand meters the nautilus's
plating bears a pressure of one hundred atmospheres if at this point you want to empty the supplementary ballast tanks in order to lighten your boat and rise to the surface your pumps must overcome that pressure of one hundred atmospheres
this demands a strength that electricity alone can give me captain nemo said swiftly sir i repeat the dynamic power of my engines is nearly infinite
besides i use my supplementary ballast tanks only to reach an average depth of
and that with a view to conserving my machinery accordingly when i have a mind to visit the ocean depths two or three vertical leagues beneath the surface i use maneuvers that are more time consuming but no less infallible
what are they captain i asked here i'm naturally led into telling you how the nautilus is maneuvered i can't wait to find out in order to steer this boat to port or starboard in short
to make turns on a horizontal plane i use an ordinary wide bladed rudder that's fastened to the rear of the sternpost and worked by a wheel and tackle
but i can also move the nautilus upward and downward on a vertical plane by the simple method of slanting its two fins which are attached to its sides at its center of flotation these fins are flexible able to assume any position
if these fins stay parallel with the boat the latter moves horizontally if they slant the nautilus follows the angle of that slant and under its propeller's thrust either sinks on a diagonal as steep as it suits me
i throw the propeller in gear and the water's pressure makes the nautilus rise vertically as an air balloon inflated with hydrogen lifts swiftly into the skies bravo captain i exclaimed
but in the midst of the waters how can your helmsman follow the course you've given him my helmsman is stationed behind the windows of a pilothouse which protrudes from the topside of the nautilus's hull and is fitted with
biconvex glass is glass capable of resisting such pressures perfectly capable though fragile on impact crystal can still offer considerable resistance
in eighteen sixty four during experiments on fishing by electric light in the middle of the north sea glass panes less than seven millimeters thick
all the while letting through strong heat generating rays whose warmth
now then i use glass windows measuring no less than twenty one centimeters at their centers in other words they've thirty times the thickness fair enough captain
oh bravo bravo three times over captain that explains the phosphorescent glow from this so called narwhale that so puzzled us scientists pertinent to this
i'll ask you if the nautilus's running afoul of the scotia which caused such a great uproar was the result of an accidental encounter entirely accidental sir
when the collision occurred however i could see that it had no dire consequences none sir but as for your encounter with the abraham lincoln professor that troubled me
because it's one of the best ships in the gallant american navy but they attacked me and i had to defend myself all the same i was content simply to put the frigate in a condition where it could do me no harm
yes professor captain nemo replied with genuine excitement and i love it as if it were my own flesh and blood aboard a conventional ship facing the ocean's perils danger lurks everywhere on the surface of the sea
your chief sensation is the constant feeling of an underlying chasm as the dutchman jansen so aptly put it but below the waves aboard the nautilus your heart never fails you
no rigging to be worn out by rolling and pitching on the waves no sails for the wind to carry off no boilers for steam to burst open no fires to fear because this submersible is made of sheet iron not wood
no coal to run out of since electricity is its mechanical force no collisions to fear because it navigates the watery deep all by itself no storms to brave because just a few meters beneath the waves it finds absolute tranquility
there sir there's the ideal ship and if it's true that the engineer has more confidence in a craft than the builder and the builder more than the captain himself
you can understand the utter abandon with which i place my trust in this nautilus since i'm its captain builder and engineer all in one captain nemo spoke with winning eloquence
the fire in his eyes and the passion in his gestures transfigured him yes he loved his ship the same way a father loves his child but one question perhaps indiscreet naturally popped up
and i couldn't resist asking it you're an engineer then captain nemo yes professor he answered me i studied in london paris and new york back in the days when i was a resident of the earth's continents
but how were you able to build this wonderful nautilus in secret each part of it professor aronnax came from a different spot on the globe and reached me at a cover address its keel was forged by creusot
in france its propeller shaft by pen and co in london the sheet iron plates for its hull by laird's in liverpool its propeller by scott's in glasgow its tanks were manufactured by cail and co in paris
its engine by krupp in prussia its spur by the motala workshops in sweden its precision instruments by hart brothers in new york et cetera and each of these suppliers received my specifications under a different name
but i went on once these parts were manufactured didn't they have to be mounted and adjusted professor i set up my workshops on a deserted islet in midocean
there our nautilus was completed by me and my workmen in other words by my gallant companions whom i've molded and educated then when the operation was over we burned every trace of our stay on that islet which if i could have
i'd have blown up from all this may i assume that such a boat costs a fortune an iron ship professor aronnax runs one thousand one hundred twenty five francs per metric ton now then
consequently it cost one million six hundred eighty seven thousand francs hence two million francs including its accommodations
one last question captain nemo ask professor you're rich then infinitely rich sir and without any trouble i could pay off the ten billion franc french national debt
sneffels is the termination of a long range of volcanic mountains of a different character to the system of the island itself one of its peculiarities is its two huge pointed summits
the commencement of the great undertaking filled me with awe now that we had actually started i began to believe in the reality of the undertaking our party formed quite a procession
we walked in single file preceded by hans the imperturbable eider duck hunter he calmly led us by narrow paths where two persons could by no possibility walk abreast
we found ourselves making our way through fibrous turf over which grew a scanty vegetation of grass the residuum of the ancient vegetation of the swampy peninsula the vast mass of this combustible
the field of which as yet is utterly unexplored would suffice to warm iceland for a whole century this mighty turf pit measured from the bottom of certain ravines is often not less than seventy feet deep
burned up rocky detritus separated by thin streaks of porous sandstone the grandeur of the spectacle was undoubted as well as its arid and deserted air
as a true nephew of the great professor hardwigg and despite my preoccupation and doleful fears of what was to come
looking back to my recent studies i went over in thought the whole geological history of iceland
this extraordinary and curious island must have made its appearance from out of the great world of waters at a comparatively recent date like the coral islands of the pacific it may for aught we know
be still rising by slow and imperceptible degrees if this really be the case its origin can be attributed to only one cause that of the continued action of subterranean fires
away with the authority of the parchment of arne saknussemm the wonderful pretensions to discovery on the part of my uncle and to our journey all must end in smoke charmed with the idea
i began more carefully to look about me a serious study of the soil was necessary to negative or confirm my hypothesis i took in every item of what i saw
and i began to comprehend the succession of phenomena which had preceded its formation iceland being absolutely without sedimentary soil is composed exclusively of volcanic tufa that is to say
of an agglomeration of stones and of rocks of a porous texture long before the existence of volcanoes it was composed of a solid body of massive trap rock lifted bodily and slowly out of the sea
by the action of the centrifugal force at work in the earth the internal fires however had not as yet burst their bounds and flooded the exterior cake of mother earth with hot and raging lava
a huge and mighty fissure must reasoning by analogy have been dug diagonally from the southwest to the northeast of the island through which by degrees flowed the volcanic crust the great and wondrous phenomenon
then went on without violence the outpouring was enormous and the seething fused matter ejected from the bowels of the earth spread slowly and peacefully in the form of vast level plains or what are called
but as a natural consequence of this overflow the depth of the island increased it can readily be believed what an enormous quantity of elastic fluids were piled up within its centre
when at last it afforded no other openings after the process of cooling the crust had taken place at length a time came when despite the enormous thickness and weight of the upper crust
the mechanical forces of the combustible gases below became so great that they actually upheaved the weighty back and made for themselves huge and gigantic shafts
hence the volcanoes which suddenly arose through the upper crust and next the craters which burst forth at the summit of these new creations
it will be seen that the first phenomena in connection with the formation of the island were simply eruptive to these however shortly succeeded the volcanic phenomena
through the newly formed openings escaped the marvelous mass of basaltic stones with which the plain we were now crossing was covered we were trampling our way over heavy rocks of dark grey color
which while cooling had been moulded into six sided prisms in the back distance we could see a number of flattened cones which formerly were so many fire vomiting mouths
after the basaltic eruption was appeased and set at rest the volcano the force of which increased with that of the extinct craters gave free passage to the fiery overflow of lava
stone now scattered over the sides of the mountain like disheveled hair on the shoulders of a
here in a nutshell i had the whole history of the phenomena from which iceland arose all take their rise in the fierce action of interior fires
and to believe that the central mass did not remain in a state of liquid fire white hot was simply and purely madness
and therefore went like a brave soldier mounting a bristling battery to the assault of old sneffels as we advanced the road became every moment more difficult the soil was broken and dangerous
the rocks broke and gave way under our feet and we had to be scrupulously careful in order to avoid dangerous and constant falls hans advanced as calmly as if he had been walking over salisbury plain
sometimes he would disappear behind huge blocks of stone and we momentarily lost sight of him there was a little period of anxiety and then there was a shrill whistle
and silently pile them up into small heaps in order that we might not lose our way on our return he had no idea of the journey we were about to undertake at all events the precaution was a good one
though how utterly useless and unnecessary but i must not anticipate three hours of terrible fatigue walking incessantly had only brought us to the foot of the great mountain
this will give some notion of what we had still to undergo suddenly however hans cried a halt that is he made signs to that effect and a summary kind of breakfast was laid out on the lava before us
my uncle who now was simply professor hardwigg was so eager to advance that he bolted his food like a greedy clown this halt for refreshment was also a halt for repose
the professor was therefore compelled to wait the good pleasure of his imperturbable guide who did not give the signal for departure for a good hour the three icelanders
who were as taciturn as their comrade did not say a word but went on eating and drinking very quietly and soberly from this our first real stage we began to ascend the slopes of the sneffels volcano
its magnificent snowy nightcap as we began to call it by an optical delusion very common in mountains appeared to me to be close at hand
what unheard of fatigue must we endure the stones on the mountain side held together by no cement of soil bound together by no roots or creeping herbs gave way continually under our feet
and went rushing below into the plains like a series of small avalanches in certain places the sides of this stupendous mountain were at an angle so steep that it was impossible to climb upwards
and we were compelled to get round these obstacles as best we might those who understand alpine climbing will comprehend our difficulties often we were obliged to help each other along by means of our climbing poles
i must say this for my uncle that he stuck as close to me as possible he never lost sight of me and on many occasions his arm supplied me with firm and solid support he was strong
the icelanders though heavily loaded climbed with the agility of mountaineers looking up every now and then at the height of the great volcano of sneffels it appeared to me wholly impossible to reach to the summit on that side
at all events if the angle of inclination did not speedily change fortunately after an hour of unheard of fatigues and of gymnastic exercises that would have been trying to an acrobat
and their roads table bay here to our mutual surprise we found an actual flight of stone steps which wonderfully assisted our ascent this singular flight of stairs was like everything else volcanic
the icelandic name is stina if this singular torrent had not been checked in its descent by the peculiar shape of the flanks of the mountain it would have swept into the sea and would have formed new islands
such as it was it served us admirably the abrupt character of the slopes momentarily increased but these remarkable stone steps a little less difficult than those of the egyptian pyramids
after having clambered up two thousand of these rough steps we found ourselves overlooking a kind of spur or projection of the mountain a sort of buttress upon which the conelike crater properly so called
leaned for support the ocean lay beneath us at a depth of more than three thousand two hundred feet a grand and mighty spectacle we had reached the region of eternal snows the cold was keen
searching and intense the wind blew with extraordinary violence i was utterly exhausted my worthy uncle the professor saw clearly that my legs refused further service and that in fact
i was utterly exhausted despite his hot and feverish impatience he decided with a sigh upon a halt he called the eider duck hunter to his side that worthy however shook his head
was his sole spoken reply it appears says my uncle with a woebegone look that we must go higher
decisive response mistour replied the guide ja mistour yes the mistour cried one of the icelandic guides in a terrified tone
of sand of dust rising to the heavens in the form of a mighty waterspout it resembled the fearful phenomenon of a similar character known to the travelers in the desert of the great sahara
on which we were perched this opaque veil standing up between us and the sun projected a deep shadow on the flanks of the mountain if this sand spout broke over us we must all be infallibly destroyed
crushed in its fearful embraces this extraordinary phenomenon very common when the wind shakes the glaciers and sweeps over the arid plains is in the icelandic tongue called mistour
hastigt hastigt cried our guide now i certainly knew nothing of danish but i thoroughly understood that his gestures were meant to quicken us
the guide turned rapidly in a direction which would take us to the back of the crater all the while ascending slightly we followed rapidly despite our excessive fatigue
a quarter of an hour later hans paused to enable us to look back the mighty whirlwind of sand was spreading up the slope of the mountain to the very spot where we had proposed to halt huge stones were caught up
cast into the air and thrown about as during an eruption we were happily a little out of the direction of the wind
but for the precaution and knowledge of our guide our dislocated bodies our crushed and broken limbs would have been cast to the wind like dust from some unknown meteor
hans however did not think it prudent to pass the night on the bare side of the cone we therefore continued our journey in a zigzag direction the fifteen hundred feet which remained to be accomplished took us at
least five hours the turnings and windings the no thoroughfares the marches and marches turned that insignificant distance into at least three leagues i never felt such misery
when i thought myself at my last gasp about eleven at night it being in that region quite dark we reached the summit of mount sneffels
reflected from the volcano it stretches its humble tenements along the end of a little fjord
basalt is a brown rock of igneous origin it assumes regular forms which astonish
as if she had employed the plummet line the compass and the rule
if elsewhere we see truncated cones imperfect pyramids with an odd succession of lines here as if wishing to give a lesson in regularity
lay scattered on the ground like the ruins of an ancient temple ruins eternally young
was the last stage of our journey
when we halted before the house of the rector
kyrkoherde cried hans turning round and introducing him to my uncle
it appears my dear harry that this worthy man is the rector
i had however nothing to fear
it was narrow dirty
this point was settled before they would agree
my uncle partly confided in hans the eider duck hunter
but now i was once more destined to realize the actual state of affairs
it should have been at hamburg and not at the foot of sneffels one idea above all others began to trouble me a very terrible idea
if this thrice unhappy
and upon them i reflected long and deeply i could not lie down in search of sleep without dreaming of eruptions
so i determined at last to submit the whole case to my uncle in the most adroit manner possible
in fact i was only too anxious not to interrupt him and allowed him to reflect at his leisure after some moments
for nothing would be unwiser and more inconsistent than to act with imprudence i heartily agree with you my dear uncle was my somewhat hopeful rejoinder
it is now six hundred years since sneffels has spoken but though now reduced to a state of utter silence
she said it hath reached me o auspicious king
there is no help for it but thou send out horsemen
then he turned to ni'amah and said to him and thy slave girl return not i will give thee ten slave girls from my house and ten from that of the chief of police and he again bade the captain of the watch go and seek for the girl
so he went out and ni'amah returned home full of trouble and despairing of life for he had now reached the age of fourteen and there was yet no hair on his side cheeks so he wept and lamented and shut himself up from his household
and ceased not to weep and lament he and his mother till the morning when his father came in to him and said
but from hour to hour allah giveth relief however grief redoubled on ni'amah so that he knew not what he said nor knew he who came in to him and he fell sick for three months his charms were changed his father despaired of him
and the physicians visited him and said there is no remedy for him save the damsel now as his father was sitting one day behold he heard tell of a skillful persian physician
so al rabi'a sent for him and seating him by his side entreated him with honour and said to him look into my son's case
then he laughed and turning to his father said
thou sayest sooth o sage but apply thy skill to his state and case and acquaint me with the whole thereof and hide naught from me of his condition quoth the persian of a truth he is enamoured of a slave girl
and this slave girl is either in bassorah or damascus and there is no remedy for him but reunion with her said al rabi'a
answered the persian in good sooth this be an easy matter and soon brought about and he turned to ni'amah and said to him no hurt shall befall thee so be of good cheer and keep thine eyes cool and clear then quoth he to al rabi'a
i wish to carry thy son with me to damascus and almighty allah willing i will not return thence but with the damsel then he turned to the youth and asked what is thy name and he answered ni'amah quoth the persian
and when he sat up the leach continued be of good cheer for we set out for damascus this very day put thy trust in the lord and eat and drink and be cheerful so as to fortify thyself for travel
such as presents and rarities
together with horses and camels and beasts of burden and other requisites then ni'amah farewelled his father and mother and journeyed with the physician to aleppo they could find no news of naomi there so they fared on to damascus
and he adorned even the shelves with vessels of costly porcelain with covers of silver and with gildings and stuffs of price moreover he set before himself vases and flagons of glass
full of all manner of ointments and ups and he surrounded them with cups of crystal and placing astrolabe and geomantic tablet facing him he donned a physician's habit and took his seat in the shop
then he set ni'amah standing before him clad in a shirt and gown of silk and girding his middle with a silken kerchief gold embroidered
o ni'amah henceforth thou art my son so call me naught but sire and i will call thee naught but son and he replied i hear and i obey
that they might gaze on the youth's goodliness and the beauty of the shop
and he answered him in the same tongue for he knew the language after the wont of the sons of the notables so that persian doctor soon became known among the townsfolk and they began to acquaint him with their ailments and he to prescribe for them remedies
he whose water this is is suffering from such and such a disease and the patient would declare verily this physician sayeth sooth so he continued to do the occasions of the folk
now one day as he sat in his shop
with jewels and stopping before the persian's shop drew rein and beckoned him saying take my hand he took her hand and she alighted and asked him
o my mistress tell me thy daughter's name that i may calculate her horoscope and learn the hour in which it will befit her to drink medicine she replied
and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the two hundred and forty second night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that when the persian heard the name of naomi
he fell to calculating and writing on his hand and presently said o my lady i cannot prescribe a medicine for her till i know what country woman she is because of the difference of climate
the old woman replied she is fourteen years old and she was brought up in cufa of irak he asked and how long hath she sojourned in this country
then said the persian such and such medicines will suit her case and the old woman rejoined
so saying she threw upon the shop board ten gold pieces and he looked at ni'amah and bade him prepare the necessary drugs whereupon she also looked at the youth and exclaimed allah have thee in his keeping o my son
o my brother the persian is this thy slave or thy son he is my son answered he so ni'amah put up the medicine and placing it in a little box took a piece of paper
but none is like her i will not forget he pressed the paper into the box and sealing it up wrote upon the cover the following words in cufic characters i am ni'amah of al rabi'a of cufa
then he set it before the old woman who took it and bade them farewell and returned to the caliph's palace and when she went up with the drugs to the damsel she placed the little box of medicine at her feet saying o my lady
know that there is lately come to our town a persian physician than whom i never saw a more skilful nor a better versed in matters of malady i told him thy name after showing him the water bottle
and forthwith he knew thine ailment and prescribed a remedy then he bade his son make thee up this medicine and there is not in damascus a comelier or a seemlier youth than this lad of his
so naomi took the box and seeing the names of her lord and his father written on the cover changed colour and said to herself doubtless the owner of this shop is come in search of me so she said to the old woman
answered the old woman his name is ni'amah he hath a mole on his right eyebrow is richly clad and is perfectly handsome cried naomi give me the medicine whereon be the blessing and help of almighty allah
so she drank off the potion and
opened it read it understood it and knew that this was indeed her lord whereas her heart was solaced and she rejoiced now when the old woman saw her laughing she exclaimed this is indeed a blessed day and naomi said
o nurse i have a mind for something to eat and drink the old woman said to the serving women
o commander of the faithful i give thee joy of thy hand maid naomi's recovery and the cause is that there is lately come to this our city a physician than whom i never saw a better versed in diseases and their remedies
i fetched her medicine from him and she hath drunken of it
and he went away rejoicing in the damsel's recovery whilst the old woman betook herself to the persian's house and delivered the thousand dinars giving him to know that she was become the caliph's slave and also handing him a letter which naomi had written
he took it and gave the letter to ni'amah who at first sight knew her hand and fell down in a swoon when he revived he opened the letter and found these words written therein
from the slave despoiled of her ni'amah her delight her whose reason hath been beguiled and who is parted from the core of her heart but afterwards of a truth thy letter hath reached me and hath broadened my breast and solaced my soul
even as saith the poet thy note came long lost hungers wrote that note till drop they sweetest scents for what they wrote twas moses to his mother's arms restored
my son allah never cause thine eye to shed tears cried the persian o my lady how should my son not weep seeing that this is his slave girl and he her lord
ni'amah son of al rabi'a of cufa and her health dependeth on her seeing him for naught aileth her but loving him and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased to say her permitted say
when it was the two hundred and forty third night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that the persian cried out to the old woman how shall my son not weep seeing that this is his slave girl
and he her lord ni'amah son of al rabi'a of cufa and the health of this damsel dependeth on her seeing him and naught aileth her but loving him
so do thou o my lady take these thousand dinars to thyself and thou shalt have of me yet more than this only look on us with eyes of rush for we know not how to bring this affair to a happy end
save through thee then she said to ni'amah say art thou indeed her lord he replied yes and she rejoined thou sayest sooth
then he told her all that had passed from first to last and she said o youth
so she mounted and at once returning to naomi looked in her face and laughed saying
quoth naomi verily the veil hath been withdrawn for thee and the truth revealed to thee rejoined the old woman be of good cheer and take heart for i will assuredly bring you together though it cost me my life
then she returned to ni'amah and said to him i went to thy slave girl and conversed with her
she refuseth herself to him but if thou be stout of purpose and firm of heart i will bring you together and venture my life for you and play some trick
where thou shalt meet her for she cannot come forth and ni'amah answered allah requite thee with good then she took leave of him and went back to naomi and said thy lord is indeed dying of love for thee and would
fain see thee and foregather with thee what sayest thou naomi replied and i too am longing for his sight and dying for his love whereupon the old woman took a parcel of women's clothes and ornaments and
repairing to ni'amah said to him come with me into some place apart so he brought her into the room behind the shop where she stained his hands and decked his wrists and plaited his hair
till he was as one of the houris of the garden of heaven and when she saw him thus she exclaimed
coming as it did at a period of exceptional dullness it attracted perhaps rather more attention than it deserved but it offered to the public that mixture of the whimsical and the tragic which is most stimulating to the popular imagination
interest drooped however when after weeks of fruitless investigation it was found that no final explanation of the facts was forthcoming and the tragedy seemed from that time
it would be as well perhaps that i should refresh their memories as to the singular facts upon which this commentary is founded these facts were briefly as follows at five o'clock on the evening of the eighteenth of march
in the year already mentioned a train left euston station for manchester it was a rainy squally day which grew wilder as it progressed so it was by no means the weather in which anyone would travel who was not driven to do so by necessity
the train however is a favourite one among manchester business men who are returning from town for it does the journey in four hours and twenty minutes with only three stoppages upon the way
in spite of the inclement evening it was therefore fairly well filled upon the occasion of which i speak the guard of the train was a tried servant of the company a man who had worked for twenty two years without a blemish or complaint
his name was john palmer the station clock was upon the stroke of five and the guard was about to give the customary signal to the engine driver when he observed two belated passengers hurrying down the platform the one was
an exceptionally tall man dressed in a long black overcoat with astrakhan collar and cuffs i have already said that the evening was an inclement one and the tall traveller had the high warm collar
turned up to protect his throat against the bitter march wind he appeared as far as the guard could judge by so hurried an inspection to be a man between fifty and sixty years of age
which outpaced the gentleman beside her she wore a long fawn coloured dust cloak a black close fitting toque and a dark veil which concealed the greater part of her face the two might very well have passed as father and daughter
they walked swiftly down the line of carriages glancing in at the windows until the guard john palmer overtook them now then sir look sharp the train is going said he first class the man answered
the guard turned the handle of the nearest door in the carriage which he had opened there sat a small man with a cigar in his mouth his appearance seems to have impressed itself upon the guard's memory for he was prepared afterwards
to describe or to identify him he was a man of thirty four or thirty five years of age dressed in some grey material sharp nosed alert with a ruddy weather beaten face and a small
he glanced up as the door was opened the tall man paused with his foot upon the step this is a smoking compartment the lady dislikes smoke
all right here you are sir said john palmer he slammed the door of the smoking carriage opened that of the next one which was empty and thrust the two travellers in at the same moment he sounded his whistle
and the wheels of the train began to move the man with the cigar was at the window of his carriage and said something to the guard as he rolled past him but the words were lost in the bustle of the departure palmer stepped into the guard's van
as it came up to him and thought no more of the incident twelve minutes after its departure the train reached willesden junction where it stopped for a very short interval an examination of the tickets has made it certain
that no one either joined or left it at this time and no passenger was seen to alight upon the platform at five fourteen the journey to manchester was resumed and rugby was reached at six fifty
the express being five minutes late at rugby the attention of the station officials was drawn to the fact that the door of one of the first class carriages was open an examination of that compartment and of its neighbour
disclosed a remarkable state of affairs the smoking carriage in which the short red faced man
save for a half smoked cigar there was no trace whatever of its recent occupant the door of this carriage was fastened in the next compartment to which attention had been originally drawn
there was no sign either of the gentleman with the astrakhan collar or of the young lady who accompanied him all three passengers had disappeared on the other hand there was found upon the floor of this carriage
the one in which the tall traveller and the lady had been a young man fashionably dressed and of elegant appearance he lay with his knees
an elbow upon either seat a bullet had penetrated his heart and his death must have been instantaneous no one had seen such a man enter the train and no railway ticket was found in his pocket
as what had occurred to the three people who had started an hour and a half before from willesden in those two compartments i have said that there was no personal property which might help to identify him
but it is true that there was one peculiarity about this unknown young man which was much commented upon at the time in his pockets were found no fewer than six valuable gold watches
three in the various pockets of his waist coat one in his ticket pocket
and that this was his plunder was discounted by the fact that all six were of american make and of a type which is rare in england three of them bore the mark of the rochester watchmaking company
and the small one which was highly jewelled and ornamented was from tiffany of new york the other contents of his pocket consisted of an ivory knife with a corkscrew by rodgers of sheffield a small circular mirror
one inch in diameter a readmission slip to the lyceum theatre a silver box full of vesta matches and a brown leather cigar case containing two cheroots
also two pounds fourteen shillings in money it was clear then that whatever motives may have led to his death robbery was not among them as already mentioned there were no markings upon the man's linen
which appeared to be new and no tailor's name upon his coat in appearance he was young short smooth cheeked and delicately featured one of his front teeth
the two compartments in question was uncoupled and side tracked then on the arrival of inspector vane of scotland yard and of mister henderson a detective in the service of the railway company an exhaustive inquiry
was made into all the circumstances that crime had been committed was certain the bullet which appeared to have come from a small pistol or revolver had been fired from some little distance
as there was no scorching of the clothes no weapon was found in the compartment which finally disposed of the theory of suicide nor was there any sign of the brown leather bag which the guard had seen in the hand of the tall gentleman
could get out of the train and one other get in during the unbroken run between willesden and rugby
john palmer the guard was able at the inquest to give some evidence which threw a little light upon the matter there was a spot between tring and cheddington according to his statement where on account of some repairs to the line
the train had for a few minutes slowed down to a pace not exceeding eight or ten miles an hour at that place it might be possible for a man or even for an exceptionally active woman to have left the train without serious injury
it was true that a gang of platelayers was there and that they had seen nothing but it was their custom to stand in the middle between the metals and the open carriage door was upon the far side
so that it was conceivable that someone might have alighted unseen as the darkness would by that time be drawing in a steep embankment would instantly screen anyone who sprang out from the observation of the navvies
a careful examination of the line between willesden and rugby resulted in one discovery which might or might not have a bearing upon the tragedy near tring at the very place where the train slowed down
there was found at the bottom of the embankment a small pocket testament very shabby and worn it was printed by the bible society of london and bore an inscription from john to alice
upon the fly leaf underneath was written james
eighteen fifty nine and beneath that again edward november first eighteen sixty nine all the entries being in the same handwriting this was the only clue if it could be called a clue
which was solid enough to form the basis for a profitable investigation it would be a mistake however
on the contrary the press both in england and in america teemed with suggestions and suppositions most of which were obviously absurd the fact that the watches were of american make
and some peculiarities in connection with the gold stopping of his front tooth appeared to indicate that the deceased was a citizen of the united states though his linen clothes and boots were undoubtedly of british manufacture
it was surmised by some that he was concealed under the seat and that being discovered he was for some reason possibly because he had overheard their guilty secrets put to death by his fellow passengers
when coupled with generalities as to the ferocity and cunning of anarchical and other secret societies this theory sounded as plausible as any the fact that he should be without a ticket would be consistent
with the idea of concealment and it was well known that women played a prominent part in the nihilistic propaganda on the other hand it was clear from the guard's statement that the man must have been hidden there before
the others arrived and how unlikely the coincidence that conspirators should stray exactly into the very compartment in which a spy was already concealed besides this explanation ignored the man in the smoking carriage
the police had little difficulty in showing that such a theory would not cover the facts but they were unprepared in the absence of evidence to advance any alternative explanation there was a letter in the daily gazette
over the signature of a well known criminal investigator which gave rise to considerable discussion at the time he had formed a hypothesis which had at least ingenuity to recommend it
and i cannot do better than append it in his own words whatever may be the truth said he it must depend upon some bizarre and rare combination of events
so we need have no hesitation in postulating such events in our explanation in the absence of data we must abandon the analytic or scientific method of investigation and must approach it
in the synthetic fashion in a word instead of taking known events and deducing from them what has occurred we must build up a fanciful explanation if it will only be consistent with known events
we can then test this explanation by any fresh facts which may arise if they all fit into their places the probability is that we are upon the right track
now there is one most remarkable and suggestive fact which has not met with the attention which it deserves there is a local train running through harrow and king's langley which is timed in such a way
that the express must have overtaken it at or about the period when it eased down its speed to eight miles an hour on account of the repairs of the line the two trains would at that time be travelling in the same direction
at a similar rate of speed and upon parallel lines
this young man with the abnormal number of watches was alone in the carriage of the slow train his ticket with his papers and gloves and other things was we will suppose on the seat beside him
he was probably an american and also probably a man of weak intellect the excessive wearing of jewellery is an early symptom in some forms of mania as he sat watching the carriages of the express which were
on account of the state of the line going at the same pace as himself
that these people were a woman whom he loved and a man whom he hated and who in return hated him the young man was excitable and impulsive he opened the door of his carriage stepped from the footboard
of the local train to the footboard of the express opened the other door and made his way into the presence of these two people the feat on the supposition that the trains were going at the same pace is by no means so perilous
that the pair were also americans
if our supposition of incipient mania is correct the young man is likely to have assaulted the other as the upshot of the quarrel the elder man shot the intruder and then made his escape from the carriage
and that the train was still going at so slow a pace that it was not difficult for them to leave it a woman might leave a train going at eight miles an hour
that this woman did do so and now we have to fit in the man in the smoking carriage presuming that we have up to this point reconstructed the tragedy correctly
to cause us to reconsider our conclusions
saw him open the door heard the pistol shot
realized that murder had been done and sprang out himself in pursuit why he has never been heard of since whether he met his own death in the pursuit or whether as is more likely he was made to realize that it was not a case for his interference
is a detail which we have at present no means of explaining i acknowledge that there are some difficulties in the way at first sight it might seem improbable that at such a moment a murderer would burden himself in his flight with a brown leather bag
my answer is that he was well aware that if the bag were found his identity would be established it was absolutely necessary for him to take it with him my theory stands or falls upon one point
and i call upon the railway company to make strict inquiry
and king's langley upon the eighteenth of march if such a ticket were found my case is proved if not my theory may still be the correct one for it is conceivable either that he travelled without a ticket or that his ticket was lost
and thirdly that the local train had been stationary in king's langley station when the express going at fifty miles an hour had flashed past it so perished the only satisfying explanation and five years have elapsed without supplying a new one
you'll excuse me if i'm not very free with names there's less reason now than there was five years ago when mother was still living but for all that i had rather cover up our tracks all i can
but i owe you an explanation for if your idea of it was wrong it was a mighty ingenious one all the same i'll have to go back a little so as you may understand all about it
my people came from bucks england and emigrated to the states in the early fifties they settled in rochester in the state of new york where my father ran a large dry goods store
but there was always a soft spot in him and it was like mould in cheese for it spread and spread and nothing that you could do would stop it mother saw it just as clearly as i did but she went on spoiling him all the same
for he had such a way with him that you could refuse him nothing i did all i could to hold him in and he hated me for my pains at last he fairly got his head and nothing that we could do would stop him
he got off into new york and went rapidly from bad to worse at first he was only fast and then he was criminal and then at the end of a year or two he was one of the most notorious young crooks in the city
he had formed a friendship with sparrow mac coy who was at the head of his profession as a bunco steerer green goodsman and general rascal they took to card sharping
and then one day he dressed himself as a girl and he carried it off so well and made himself such a valuable decoy that it was their favourite game afterwards they had made it right with tammany and with the police
so it seemed as if nothing could ever stop them
and if you only had a pull you could do pretty nearly everything you wanted and nothing would have stopped them if they had only stuck to cards and new york but they must needs come up rochester way and forge a name upon a cheque
it was my brother that did it though everyone knew that it was under the influence of sparrow mac coy i bought up that cheque and a pretty sum it cost me
and swore to him that i would prosecute if he did not clear out of the country at first he simply laughed i could not prosecute he said without breaking our mother's heart and he knew that i would not do that
i made him understand however that our mother's heart was being broken in any case and that i had set firm on the point that i would rather see him in rochester gaol than in
so at last he gave in and he made me a solemn promise that he would see sparrow mac coy no more that he would go to europe and that he would turn his hand to any honest trade that i helped him to get
i took him down right away to an old family friend joe willson who is an exporter of american watches and clocks and i got him to give edward an agency in london
with a small salary and a fifteen per cent commission on all business his manner and appearance were so good that he won the old man over at once and within a week he was sent off to london with a case full of samples
and what she said had touched him for she had always been the best of mothers to him and he had been the great sorrow of her life but i knew that this man sparrow mac coy had a great influence over edward and my chance of keeping the lad
straight lay in breaking the connection between them i had a friend in the new york detective force
when within a fortnight of my brother's sailing i heard that mac coy had taken a berth in the etruria i was as certain as if he had told me that he was going over to england
that it was my duty we passed the last night together in prayer for my success and she gave me her own testament that my father had given her on the day of their marriage in the old country
so that i might always wear it next my heart i was a fellow traveller on the steamship with sparrow mac coy and at least i had the satisfaction of spoiling his little game for the voyage the very first night
i went into the smoking room and found him at the head of a card table with a half a dozen young fellows who were carrying their full purses and their empty skulls over to europe
he was settling down for his harvest and a rich one it would have been but i soon changed all that gentlemen said i are you aware whom you are playing with what's that to you you mind your own business
said he with an oath who is it anyway asked one of the dudes he's sparrow mac coy the most notorious card sharper in the states up he jumped with a bottle in his hand
said he i will said i if you will turn up your right shirt sleeve to the shoulder i will either prove my words or i will eat them he turned white and said not a word you see
i knew something of his ways and i was aware of that part of the mechanism which he and all such sharpers use consists of an elastic down the arm with a clip just above the wrist it is by means of this clip
that they withdraw from their hands the cards which they do not want while they substitute other cards from another hiding place i reckoned on it being there and it was he cursed me
he outweighed me every time edward had kept himself straight in london for the first few weeks and had done some business with his american watches until this villain came across his path once more i did my best
but the best was little enough the next thing i heard there had been a scandal at one of the northumberland avenue hotels a traveller had been fleeced of a large sum by two confederate card sharpers
and the matter was in the hands of scotland yard the first i learned of it was in the evening paper and i was at once certain that my brother and mac coy were back at their old games i hurried at once to edward's lodgings
ending with euston station and she had accidentally overheard the tall gentleman saying something about manchester she believed that that was their destination a glance at the time table showed me that the most likely train was at five
though there was another at four thirty five which they might have caught i had only time to get the later one but found no sign of them either at the depot or in the train
one last appeal to my brother by all that he owed to my mother might even now be the salvation of him my nerves were overstrung and i lit a cigar to steady them at that moment just as the train was moving off
the door of my compartment was flung open and there were mac coy and my brother on the platform they were both disguised and with good reason for they knew that the london police were after them mac coy had a great astrakhan collar
drawn up so that only his eyes and nose were showing my brother was dressed like a woman with a black veil half down his face but of course it did not deceive me for an instant nor would it have done
so even if i had not known that he had often used such a dress before i started up and as i did so mac coy recognized me he said something the conductor slammed the door and they were shown into the next compartment
i tried to stop the train so as to follow them but the wheels were already moving and it was too late when we stopped at willesden i instantly changed my carriage it appears that i was not seen to do so which is not surprising
i had never found him so impossible to soften or to move i tried this way and i tried that i pictured his future in an english g a o l i described the sorrow of his mother when i came back with the news i said everything to touch his heart
but all to no purpose he sat there with a fixed sneer upon his handsome face while every now and then sparrow mac coy
or some word of encouragement to hold my brother to his resolutions why don't you run a sunday school he would say to me and then in the same breath he thinks you have no will of your own
he thinks you are just the baby brother and that he can lead you where he likes he's only just finding out that you are a man as well as he it was those words of his which set me talking bitterly we had left willesden
you understand for all this took some time my temper got the better of me and for the first time in my life i let my brother see the rough side of me perhaps it would have been better had i done so earlier and more often a man
i don't suppose in all this country there is a more contemptible looking creature than you are as you sit there with that dolly pinafore upon you he coloured up at that for he was a vain man and he winced from ridicule
one's scent and i had no other way to do it he took his toque off with the veil attached
you'll never make a mary jane of yourself while i can help it if nothing but that disguise stands between you and a gaol then to gaol you shall go that was the way to manage him i felt my advantage at once
his supple nature was one which yielded to roughness far more readily than to
he's my brother and you shall not ruin him said i i believe a spell of prison is the very best way of keeping you apart and you shall have it or it will be no fault of mine
i sprang for his hand but saw that i was too late and jumped aside at the same instant he fired and the bullet which would have struck me passed through the heart of my unfortunate brother
but his anger against me and my resentment towards him had both for the moment been swallowed up in this sudden tragedy it was he who first realized the situation the train was for some reason going very slowly at the moment
and he saw his opportunity for escape in an instant he had the door open but i was as quick as he and jumping upon him the two of us fell off the
and somebody was bathing my head with a wet handkerchief it was sparrow mac coy i guess i couldn't leave you said he i didn't want to have the blood of two of you on my hands in one day you loved your brother i've no doubt
but you didn't love him a cent more than i loved him though you'll say that i took a queer way to show it anyhow it seems a mighty empty world now that he is gone and i don't care a continental whether you give me over to the hangman or not
and to turn into something like sympathy what was the use of revenging his death upon a man who was as much stricken by that death as i was and then as my wits gradually returned i began to realize
also that i could do nothing against mac coy which would not recoil upon my mother and myself how could we convict him without a full account of my brother's career being made public the very thing which of all others we wished to avoid
and as we groped our way through it i found myself consulting the slayer of my brother as to how far it would be possible to hush it up i soon realized from what he said
that unless there were some papers of which we knew nothing in my brother's pockets there was really no possible means by which the police could identify him or learn how he had got there his ticket was in mac coy's pocket
and so was the ticket for some baggage which they had left at the depot like most americans he had found it cheaper and easier to buy an outfit in london than to bring one from new york so that all his linen and clothes were new and unmarked
the bag containing the dust cloak which i had thrown out of the window may have fallen among some bramble patch where it is still concealed or may have been carried off by some tramp or may have come into the possession of the police who kept
the incident to themselves anyhow i have seen nothing about it in the london papers as to the watches they were a selection from those which had been intrusted to him for business purposes
it may have been for the same business purposes that he was taking them to manchester but well it's too late to enter into that i don't blame the police for being at fault
i don't see how it could have been otherwise there was just one little clue
which was found in my brother's pocket
with a table beside it covered with rolls of canvas bottles of oil and varnish
and a few finished paintings mostly of landscapes and figures i must make you welcome to my studio said missus graham
and disengaging a couple of chairs from the artistical lumber that usurped them she bid us be seated and resumed her place beside the easel not facing it exactly but now and then glancing at the picture upon it while she conversed
and giving it an occasional touch with her brush as if she found it impossible to wean her attention entirely from her occupation to fix it upon her guests it was a view of wildfell hall as seen at early morning from the field below
rising in dark relief against a sky of clear silvery blue with a few red streaks on the horizon faithfully drawn and coloured and very elegantly and artistically handled i see your heart is in your work missus graham observed i
for if you suffer our presence to interrupt you we shall be constrained to regard ourselves as unwelcome intruders oh no replied she throwing her brush on to the table as if startled into politeness
you have almost completed your painting said i approaching to observe it more closely and surveying it with a greater degree of admiration and delight than i cared to express
a few more touches in the foreground will finish it i should think but why have you called it fernley manor cumberland instead of wildfell hall shire i asked alluding to the name she had traced in small characters at the bottom of the canvas
but immediately i was sensible of having committed an act of impertinence in so doing for she coloured and hesitated but after a moment's pause with a kind of desperate frankness she replied because i have friends
acquaintances at least in the world from whom i desire my present abode to be concealed and as they might see the picture and might possibly recognise the style in spite of the false initials i have put in the corner
then you don't intend to keep the picture said i anxious to say anything to change the subject no
mamma sends all her pictures to london said arthur and somebody sells them for her there and sends us the money in looking round upon the other pieces i remarked a pretty sketch of linden hope from the top of the hill
another view of the old hall basking in the sunny haze of a quiet summer afternoon and a simple but striking little picture of a child brooding with looks of silent but deep and sorrowful regret
and a dull beclouded sky above you see there is a sad dearth of subjects observed the fair artist i took the old hall once on a moonlight night and i suppose i must take it again on a snowy winter's day
and then again on a dark cloudy evening for i really have nothing else to paint
or nearly so little short of eight miles there and back and over a somewhat rough fatiguing road in what direction does it lie
it's mamma's friend said arthur rose and i looked at each other
whispered rose the child looked at her in grave surprise she straightway began to talk to him on indifferent matters while i amused myself with looking at the pictures there was one in an obscure corner that i had not before observed
it was a little child seated on the grass with its lap full of flowers the tiny features and large blue eyes smiling through a shock of light brown curls
bore sufficient resemblance to those of the young gentleman before me to proclaim it a portrait of arthur graham in his early infancy in taking this up to bring it to the light i discovered another behind it with its face to the wall
i ventured to take that up too it was the portrait of a gentleman in the full prime of youthful manhood handsome enough and not badly executed
but if done by the same hand as the others it was evidently some years before for there was far more careful minuteness of detail and less of that freshness of colouring and freedom of handling that delighted and surprised me in them
nevertheless i surveyed it with considerable interest there was a certain individuality in the features and expression that stamped it at once a successful likeness
the bright blue eyes regarded the spectator with a kind of lurking drollery you almost expected to see them wink the lips a little too voluptuously full seemed ready to break into a smile
the warmly tinted cheeks were embellished with a luxuriant growth of reddish whiskers while the bright chestnut hair clustering in abundant wavy curls trespassed too much upon the forehead and seemed to
intimate that the owner thereof was prouder of his beauty than his intellect as perhaps he had reason to be and yet he looked no fool i had not had the portrait in my hands two minutes before the fair artist returned
only some one come about the pictures said she in apology for her abrupt departure i told him to wait
to presume to look at a picture that the artist has turned to the wall but may i ask
replied she attempting to cover the tartness of her rebuke with a smile
said i sulkily resigning the picture into her hands for without a grain of ceremony she took it from me and quickly restoring it to the dark corner with its face to the wall
but i was in no humour for jesting i carelessly turned to the window and stood looking out upon the desolate garden leaving her to talk to rose for a minute or two
and then telling my sister it was time to go shook hands with the little gentleman coolly bowed to the lady and moved towards the door but having bid adieu to rose missus graham presented her hand to me
saying with a soft voice and by no means a disagreeable smile not the sun go down upon your wrath mister markham i'm sorry i offended you by my abruptness
who entertained an idea that the mysterious occupant of wildfell hall would wholly disregard the common observances of civilized life in which opinion she was supported by the wilsons who testified that neither their call
nor the millwards had been returned as yet now however the cause of that omission was explained
missus graham had brought her child with her and on my mother's expressing surprise that he could walk so far she replied
for i never leave him alone and i think missus markham i must beg you to make my excuses to the millwards and missus wilson when you see them as i fear i cannot do myself the pleasure of calling upon them
but you have a servant said rose could you not leave him with her she has her own occupations to attend to
and he is too mercurial to be tied to an elderly woman but you left him to come to church
and i think in future i must contrive to bring him with me or stay at home is he so mischievous asked my mother considerably shocked no replied the lady
sadly smiling as she stroked the wavy locks of her son who was seated on a low stool at her feet but he is my only treasure and i am his only friend so we don't like to be separated but my dear i call that doting
as well to save your son from ruin as yourself from ridicule ruin missus markham yes it is spoiling the child
but she seemed to think enough had been said on the subject and abruptly turned the conversation just as i thought said i to myself the lady's temper is none of the mildest notwithstanding her sweet pale face and lofty brow
where thought and suffering seem equally to have stamped their impress
apparently immersed in the perusal of a volume of the farmer's magazine
and not choosing to be over civil i had merely bowed as she entered and continued my occupation as before in a little while however i was sensible that some one was approaching me with a light but slow and hesitating tread
it was little arthur
that was lying at my feet on looking up i beheld him standing about two yards off with his clear blue eyes wistfully gazing on the dog transfixed to the spot
but by a timid disinclination to approach its master a little encouragement however induced him to come forward the child though shy was not sullen in a minute he was kneeling on the carpet
surveying with eager interest the various specimens of horses cattle pigs and model farms
and i saw by the unquiet aspect of her eye that for some reason or other she was uneasy at the child's position arthur
come here you are troublesome to mister markham he wishes to read by no means missus graham pray let him stay i am as much amused as he is pleaded i but still with hand and eye she silently called him to her side
no mamma said the child
they will all be here i expect thank you i never go to parties oh but this will be quite a family concern
i do know something of him but you must excuse me this time
we must defer the enjoyment of your hospitality
rose now at a hint from my mother produced a decanter of wine with accompaniments of glasses and cake from the cupboard and the oak sideboard and the refreshment was duly presented to the guests
arthur especially shrank from the ruby nectar
never mind arthur said his mamma missus markham thinks it will do you good as you were tired with your walk but she will not oblige you to take it
he detests the very sight of wine she added and the smell of it almost makes him sick
by way of medicine when he was sick
everybody laughed except the young widow and her son well missus graham said my mother wiping the tears of merriment from her bright blue eyes
if you persist in i think it a very excellent plan interrupted missus graham with imperturbable gravity
by that means i hope to save him from one degrading vice at least i wish i could render the incentives to every other equally innoxious in his case but by such means said i you will never render him virtuous
what is it that constitutes virtue missus graham
or that of having no temptations to resist is he a strong man that overcomes great obstacles and performs surprising achievements though by dint of great muscular exertion
and carrying his food to his mouth
but teach him to walk firmly over them
it is all very well to talk about noble resistance and trials of virtue but for fifty or five hundred men that have yielded to temptation
like the rest of mankind unless i take care to prevent it you are very complimentary to us all i observed i know nothing about you i speak of those i do know
and when i see the whole race of mankind with a few rare exceptions
yes but the surest means will be to endeavour to fortify him against temptation not to remove it out of his way i will do both mister markham god knows he will have temptations enough to assail him
both from within and without when i have done all i can to render vice as uninviting to him as it is abominable in its own nature i myself have had indeed but few incentives to what the world calls vice
that have required on many occasions more watchfulness and firmness to resist than i have hitherto been able to muster against them and this i believe is what most others would acknowledge who are accustomed to reflection
and wishful to strive against their natural corruptions yes said my mother but half apprehending her drift
and my dear missus graham let me warn you in good time against the error the fatal error i may call it of taking that boy's education upon yourself because you are clever in some things and well informed you may fancy yourself equal to the task
but indeed you are not and if you persist in the attempt believe me you will bitterly repent it when the mischief is done i am to send him to school i suppose to learn to despise his mother's authority and affection
oh no but if you would have a boy to despise his mother
i perfectly agree with you missus markham but nothing can be further from my principles and practice than such criminal weakness as that
and tell you what you ought to do and all about it and i don't doubt he'll be able to convince you in a minute no occasion to trouble the vicar said missus graham glancing at me
if i hear not him neither should i be convinced though one rose from the dead he would tell you
but sent out to battle against it alone and unassisted not taught to avoid the snares of life but boldly to rush into them or over them as he may to seek danger rather than shun it and feed his virtue by temptation would you
i only say that it is better to arm and strengthen your hero than to disarm and enfeeble the foe and if you were to rear an oak sapling in a hothouse tending it carefully night and day and shielding it from every breath of wind
you could not expect it to become a hardy tree like that which has grown up on the mountain side
and not even sheltered from the shock of the tempest granted but would you use the same argument with regard to a girl certainly not
you would have her to be tenderly and delicately nurtured like a hot house plant taught to cling to others for direction and support and guarded as much as possible from the very knowledge of evil but will you be so good as to inform me why you make this distinction
is it that you think she has no virtue assuredly not well but you affirm that virtue is only elicited by temptation and you think that a woman cannot be too little exposed to temptation or too little acquainted with vice
or anything connected therewith it must be either that you think she is essentially so vicious or so feeble minded that she cannot withstand temptation and though she may be pure and innocent as long as she is kept in ignorance and restraint
to teach her how to sin is at once to make her a sinner and the greater her knowledge the wider her liberty the deeper will be her depravity whereas in the nobler sex there is a natural tendency to goodness
well then it must be that you think they are both weak and prone to err and the slightest error the merest shadow of pollution will ruin the one while the character of the other will be strengthened and embellished
such experience to him to use a trite simile will be like the storm to the oak which though it may scatter the leaves and snap the smaller branches
while our daughters must not even profit by the experience of others now i would have both so to benefit by the experience of others and the precepts of a higher authority that they should know beforehand to refuse the evil and choose the good
and require no experimental proofs to teach them the evil of transgression i would not send a poor girl into the world unarmed against her foes and ignorant of the snares that beset her path
nor would i watch and guard her till deprived of self respect and self reliance she lost the power or the will to watch and guard herself and as for my son
what you call a man of the world one that has seen life and glories in his experience even though he should so far profit by it as to sober down at length
i would rather that he died to morrow rather a thousand times she earnestly repeated pressing her darling to her side and kissing his forehead with intense affection he had already left his new companion
and been standing for some time beside his mother's knee looking up into her face and listening in silent wonder to her incomprehensible discourse well you ladies must always have the last word i suppose
said i observing her rise and begin to take leave of my mother you may have as many words as you please only i can't stay to hear them no that is the way you hear just as much of an argument as you please and the rest may be spoken to the wind
replied she as she shook hands with rose you must bring your sister to see me some fine day and i'll listen as patiently as you could wish to whatever you please to say
because i should have less remorse in telling you at the end of the discourse that i preserve my own opinion precisely the same as at the beginning as would be the case i am persuaded with regard to either logician
yes of course replied i determined to be as provoking as herself for when a lady does consent to listen to an argument against her own opinions she is always predetermined to withstand it to listen only with her bodily ears
good morning mister markham said my fair antagonist with a pitying smile and deigning no further rejoinder she slightly bowed and was about to withdraw but her son with childish impertinence arrested her by exclaiming
she laughingly turned round and held out her hand i gave it a spiteful squeeze
without knowing anything about my real disposition and principles she was evidently prejudiced against me and seemed bent upon showing me that her opinions respecting me on every particular fell far below those i entertained of myself
i was naturally touchy or it would not have vexed me so much
a slow and sluggish stream compared to the neighbouring river of wharfe keighley station is on this line of railway about a quarter of a mile from the town of the same name the number of inhabitants and the importance of keighley
have been very greatly increased during the last twenty years owing to the rapidly extended market for worsted manufactures a branch of industry that mainly employs the factory population of this part of yorkshire
old fashioned village into a still more populous and flourishing town it is evident to the stranger that as the gable ended houses which obtrude themselves corner wise on the widening street fall vacant
they are pulled down to allow of greater space for traffic and a more modern style of architecture the quaint and narrow shop windows of fifty years ago are giving way to large panes and plate glass
nearly every dwelling seems devoted to some branch of commerce in passing hastily through the town one hardly perceives where the necessary lawyer and doctor can live
so little appearance is there of any dwellings of the professional middle class such as abound in our old cathedral towns in fact nothing can be more opposed than the state of society the modes of thinking
the standards of reference on all points of morality manners and even politics and religion in such a new manufacturing place as keighley in the north and any stately sleepy picturesque cathedral town in the south
yet the aspect of keighley promises well for future stateliness if not picturesqueness grey stone abounds and the rows of houses built of it have a kind of solid grandeur
connected with their uniform and enduring lines the frame work of the doors and the lintels of the windows even in the smallest dwellings are made of blocks of stone
or else present a shabby aspect and the stone is kept scrupulously clean by the notable yorkshire housewives such glimpses into the interior as a passer by obtains
and diligent and active habits in the women but the voices of the people are hard and their tones discordant promising little of the musical taste that distinguishes the district and which has already furnished a carrodus to the musical world
the names over the shops of which the one just given is a sample seem strange even to an inhabitant of the neighbouring county and have a peculiar smack and flavour of the place
the town of keighley never quite melts into country on the road to haworth although the houses become more sparse as the traveller journeys upwards to the grey round hills that seem to bound his journey in a westerly direction
first come some villas just sufficiently retired from the road to show that they can scarcely belong to any one liable to be summoned in a hurry at the call of suffering or danger from his comfortable fireside
the lawyer the doctor and the clergyman live at hand and hardly in the suburbs with a screen of shrubs for concealment in a town one does not look for vivid colouring
what there may be of this is furnished by the wares in the shops not by foliage or atmospheric effects but in the country some brilliancy and vividness seems to be instinctively expected
and there is consequently a slight feeling of disappointment at the grey neutral tint of every object near or far off on the way from keighley to haworth the distance is about four miles
and as i have said what with villas great worsted factories rows of workmen's houses with here and there an old fashioned farmhouse and out buildings it can hardly be called country
any part of the way for two miles the road passes over tolerably level ground distant hills on the left a beck flowing through meadows on the right and furnishing water power at certain points
to the factories built on its banks the air is dim and lightless with the smoke from all these habitations and places of business the soil in the valley or bottom to use the local term is rich
but as the road begins to ascend the vegetation becomes poorer it does not flourish it merely exists and instead of trees there are only bushes and shrubs about the dwellings
right before the traveller on this road rises haworth village he can see it for two miles before he arrives for it is situated on the side of a pretty steep hill with a back ground of dun and purple moors
rising and sweeping away yet higher than the church which is built at the very summit of the long narrow street all round the horizon there is this same line of sinuous wave like hills the scoops into which they fall
crowned with wild bleak moors grand from the ideas of solitude and loneliness which they suggest or oppressive from the feeling which they give of being pent up by some monotonous
and illimitable barrier according to the mood of mind in which the spectator may be for a short distance the road appears to turn away from haworth as it winds round the base of the shoulder of a hill
but then it crosses a bridge over the beck and the ascent through the village begins the flag stones with which it is paved are placed end ways in order to give a better hold to the horses feet and
even with this help they seem to be in constant danger of slipping backwards the old stone houses are high compared to the width of the street which makes an abrupt turn before reaching the more level ground at the head of the village
so that the steep aspect of the place in one part is almost like that of a wall but this surmounted the church lies a little off the main road on the left a hundred yards or so and the driver relaxes his care
and the horse breathes more easily as they pass into the quite little by street that leads to haworth parsonage the churchyard is on one side of this lane the school house and the sexton's dwelling where the curates formerly lodged
the parsonage stands at right angles to the road facing down upon the church so that in fact parsonage church and belfried school house form three sides of an irregular oblong
as the entrance to this from the road is at the side the path goes round the corner into the little plot of ground underneath the windows is a narrow flower border carefully tended in days of yore
although only the most hardy plants could be made to grow there within the stone wall which keeps out the surrounding churchyard are bushes of elder and lilac
the rest of the ground is occupied by a square grass plot and a gravel walk the house is of grey stone two stories high heavily roofed with flags
in order to resist the winds that might strip off a lighter covering it appears to have been built about a hundred years ago and to consist of four rooms on each story
the two windows on the right as the visitor stands with his back to the church ready to enter in at the front door belonging to mister bronte's study the two on the left to the family sitting room
everything about the place tells of the most dainty order the most exquisite cleanliness the door steps are spotless the small old fashioned window panes glitter like looking glass
inside and outside of that house cleanliness goes up into its essence purity
and the graveyard rises above the church and is terribly full of upright tombstones the chapel or church claims greater antiquity than any other in that part of the kingdom but there is no appearance of this in the external aspect
of the present edifice unless it be in the two eastern windows which remain unmodernized and in the lower part of the steeple
it is probable that there existed on this ground a field kirk or oratory in the earliest times
that is to say before the preaching of christianity in northumbria
orate pro bono statu eutest tod now every antiquary knows that the formula of prayer bono statu always refers to the living i suspect this singular christian name
has been mistaken by the stone cutter for austet
which has been mis read for the arabic figures six hundred is perfectly fair and legible on the presumption of this foolish claim to antiquity the people would needs set up for independence
and contest the right of the vicar of bradford to nominate a curate at haworth i have given this extract in order to explain the imaginary groundwork of a commotion which took place in haworth about five and thirty years ago
to which i shall have occasion to allude again more particularly the interior of the church is commonplace it is neither old enough nor modern enough to compel notice the pews are of black oak with high divisions
and the names of those to whom they belong are painted in white letters on the doors there are neither brasses nor altar tombs nor monuments but there is a mural tablet on the right hand side of the communion table
a b she died aged twenty seven years
in their fond affection thought little of the margin and verge they were leaving for those who were still living but as one dead member of the household follows another fast to the grave the lines are pressed together and the letters become small and cramped
after the record of anne's death there is room for no other but one more of that generation the last of that nursery of six little motherless children was yet to follow before the survivor
the childless and widowed father found his rest on another tablet below the first the following record has been added to that mournful list adjoining lie the remains of charlotte
she died march thirty first eighteen fifty five
but it did not take him long to come to one conclusion on the matter that he had been captured at night thrust into the frail boat and sent adrift on the ocean who had been the authors of the job there could be no doubt in his mind about that
the greyvilles or the greggs as he believed they were were anxious to have him leave the neighborhood and had probably through their agents caused his removal in this very promiscuous manner
by an effort he sat up in the little boat and gazed around him he was now some distance from the beach beyond the white capped breakers
and as the tide was receding the frail craft was of course drifting farther and farther from land each moment a reflection that might have caused any one a start while to fritz bound and helpless it was the next thing to being alarming
was his exclamation as he gazed dolefully around him off i don'd vas in a duyfel off a fix den i don'd vant a cent they've come von cute game ofer me und i'll bet a half dollar i go down der same throat vot jonah did der w'ale's
vonder vich von off dem vellers put up der shob on me i'd like to punch his nose
i vonder vot der plazes a veller can do anyhow there was a sorry prospect for his being able to do anything much toward helping himself from the unenviable situation in which he had been placed he was unable to use his hands or feet
and was therefore helpless and at the mercy of the wild waters over which he was drifting
for the boat was without oars and the distance to the land was so great as to make it a daring attempt to breast the outgoing tide in a struggle to reach the shore by swimming
and he was not the one to despair without first proving to his satisfaction that it was the only thing left for him to do therefore he set to work industriously in an attempt to loosen the bonds from his hands
luckily they were not bound behind his back which was one advantage as he could use his teeth upon them but being leather straps he made slow headway nibbling at the strap around his hand but little by little it yielded
so that after awhile a violent wrench broke it asunder and his hands were free py shimminy dot ish goot anyhow he muttered making haste to unloosen his feet now der next t'ings is somedings else
how ish i going to got pack mit der shore it was an all important question the boat was perhaps a mile farther from shore than when he first had estimated the distance i don'd know vedder i can swum dot furder or not he muttered doubtfully
but subbosin der whale or der duyfel fish
he was in the midst of these reflections when he heard a shout farther out at sea and for the first time beheld dimly a dusky object floating in the water not far ahead of him hello
i am a poor devil more or less drowned and can't hang on to this barrel much longer be you man or devil for heaven's sake hurry along with your boat
i vil pe dere in der sweedness py und py keep a stiff upper lip und i'll got you soon the young detective replied heartily dere's nodding like hang on at der critical minute
kneeling and leaning over the front part of the boat he used his hands as propellers and in this way was able to improve the slow progress of his light craft to some extent and in a few moments was alongside the barrel
on top of which a drenched human was balancing himself at a glance fritz perceived who it was hartly he exclaimed in surprise yes what's left of me the sentenced smuggler replied clambering into the boat
thank heaven you came along just as you did for my gripe wouldn't hold out much longer vel i should dink not i'd giffen you up ash dead
hartly replied grimly they chucked me under night afore last miles out at sea supposing my hands and feet were bound and a heavy stone tied to my head
but while they were rowing me out i contrived to loosen up matters so that i was really free the minute i struck water but i went under all the same to deceive them when they headed for shore i arose to the surface and after swimming about until nearly exhausted
i caught onto this empty cask which has in one sense been my salvation
and the outgoing tide has carried me out again not so far as it would however if i had not struggled shoreward constantly
fritz explained as far as he had known and hartly scowled there'll be a reckoning for some one he said if i ever succeed in getting ashore but there's not much prospect of that unless we can get some oars or something to pull ashore with
the tide will begin to ebb in before a great while too i haff von idea fritz said uff ve can got der parrel apart we might do somedings vid der staves
good idea we can easily get the staves
now then for shore he cried when we get there i will leave you on business for a few hours after which i will join you and we will work together against the gregg gang we will paddle to land on the lower side of the bluff
as it wouldn't be particularly healthy for me to land in front of the village you can and in fact had better keep shady in the vicinity of the old rookery on the bluff and i will join you as soon as possible
accordingly they paddled as rapidly toward the beach as their strength would permit by the time it was daybreak they had landed below the bluff here they drew the light boat up on the beach and hartly said i'll leave you now but will return in the course of a few hours
fritz replied and then the young smuggler clambered up the side of the bluff and was soon gone from view i vonder vot dot veller ish oop to now
der is somet'ing he vas goin to do
i have haff a notion dot he ain'd vos so nice a veller vot i firsd t'ought und i vouldn't pe much surprised if he vould give me avay off he got a chance
in der meantime der is somet'ing i vant to investigate this was something he had noticed as he and hartly had paddled in to the shore from the ocean
in about the center of the bluff at the water's edge as it faced the open atlantic was a dark hole of considerable size which looked as if it might lead to a cavern in the hill if hartly knew of its existence he had kept it a secret
but our german detective had noticed it and resolved to see where the aperture led to under any other circumstances he would not have given it a second thought
but the fact that the smugglers held out in this vicinity of which he now had no doubt gave that hole in the bluff more than ordinary significance jumping into the boat he paddled off once more into the water and headed toward the front of the bluff
not knowing what danger he might unexpectedly run into he had drawn his revolver which strangely enough his captors had not taken from him and placed it on the stern seat beside him working silently but steadily along the face of the bluff
which was quite perpendicular he soon came before the aperture and headed his boat into it
sat in his private study this same morning engaged in smoking a cigar as he rocked in an easy chair and gazed out through an open glass door upon the pretty lawn that his thoughts were of an unpleasant nature was evident by a frown which disfigured his florid countenance
and this frown did not lessen but rather increased as there suddenly appeared in the doorway no less a wild looking personage than silly sue whom fritz had encountered upon the beach
well he growled angrily what brings you here
i want to come back and play up high cockolorum like my big feelin sister s'pose that's silly too ain't it daddy
but i won't accept em then clear out
bah it ain't yours you're a bad wicked man and you got it wickedly and get all your wealth wickedly and the more you get the wickeder you get get out i'd cut my head off silly's i am before i'd give you up the money
curses on your mulishness ha ha i know you cherish the most fatherly regard for me
by the way old man what have you done with my feller your fellow yes hal hartly how should i know anything about him
oh you wicked monster take care girl no i won't take care and her eyes flashed in defiance of his anger
because i can outrun any dog in the town
your tools took him out and chucked him under but ha ha he's all right greyville started a little what foolishness is this of yours
but hal's all right and now that his scruples have had a pickle i allow he'll come around to my cherished plan and we'll make it warm for you what you dare to threaten me didn't i tell you i'd go for you if you didn't reform
well i must be off how's my stately sister how's the countess ha ha ha shoot her she's an old hag with a glass eye and false teeth the future missus g
still it serves its purpose i'm off now just come up to spice your breakfast better mend your ways the way of the transgressor is hard by by yours truly silly sue
it's kilt sure i am ontirely helloo what the devil is the matter here the captain shouted waving his lantern on high who is it that's making all this noise spies detectives suggested one of his companions
shoot em down hurrah death to the spy cried a third and then they made a rush forward and seized upon pat despite his lively use of his bit o buckthorn on the defensive
the yelling had ceased in the vicinity of the house and the lantern light had disappeared from view leaving naught but blank darkness and the pouring rain which came down monotonously but heavily
i'll bet a half dollar dot they've choked der life oud off dot duke's son off a gun fritz muttered creeping under the cover of a dense tree i vonder off i proke any of his pones ven i lit on him
by shimminy he must haff a gonstitution like a mule or i'd a smashed him all to sausage meat evidently something was to pay for except the sound of the storm and the dashing of the ocean against the bluff all was quiet
the smugglers had either killed grogan on the spot or taken him back into the house with them and poor hartly what had become of him that was the question which troubled fritz far more than the fate of the lean man from kilkenny
and fritz heartily wished that he was back in philadelphia sitting in the old pawnbroker shop beside his girl rebecca still he would not willingly have given up what he had learned in reference to the smugglers league for a good deal
and he was resolved to hang to the matter attentively until he should be able to trip and trap the rogues and break up their existence as an organization
knowing of no other available shelter in the vicinity he resolved to linger under the tree until the smugglers should leave the building when he would once more take possession the night was well advanced however when he heard them leave in a body and start off down the lonely road
on first thought he was tempted to follow them but a cold blast of wind from off the ocean warned him that he was wet to the skin and the best thing he could do would be to get under roof and dry off
he accordingly went back into the deserted house and sat down in the lower hall though not cowardly he had no desire to keep further company with the grinning skull of the late lamented budge whoever he may have been
rolling up one end of the old carpet he converted it into a sort of pillow and lay down out of the draft sleep soon came to his relief and he slept soundly until morning when he was awakened by the sun shining in his face
through a rear hall window rising he went out of doors to reconnoiter and consider what was best to do next it was a clear glorious morning after the storm the sun shone brightly
and a soft salt breeze blew off from the ocean which was at once refreshing and invigorating but it was not this sort of refreshment that fritz now yearned for he had had nothing to eat since the previous morning and was decidedly hungry and faint
but ten to one uff i ask em for somedings to eat dey bounce me oud he advanced to the northern edge of the bluff and took a look in that direction
this village for charity's sake we will call millburg as that name will answer quite us well as any other there might have been a hundred buildings all told and it was evidently a fishing hamlet as a number of small boats and smacks were drawn up along the beach
just outside the breakers an ocean steamship of small size and trim build was anchored upon her sides was painted in large letters the word countess i don'd know petter i go down there or not fritz muttered gazing down upon the village
der smuggler pizness or der girl pizness for der latter i haff der bromise of five t'ousand dollars for der former i like ash not get paid off mit a proken head
after some deliberation he decided to go down to the village the people would not offer him any molestation probably unless he gave them cause to suspect him and he resolved to be constantly upon his guard
descending from the bluff he walked along the beach and finally entered the little burg it was rather a rough looking place built up of weather worn wooden shanties a few stores and a sort of tavern
there were however two imposing residences on opposite sides of the only street which were built of stone and set down in large shaded lawns
passing up the street fritz was the target for many curious glances of rough looking men who sat in their doorways but paying no attention to them he entered the tavern and purchased his breakfast to which he was able to do full justice
afterward he came out in the bar room and sat down a half a dozen rough looking fellows were lounging about who to judge from their looks were in the habit of ingulfing more grog than was good for them
he was not a villainous looking man like the rest and this fact impressed fritz more favorably than anything else he saw about the premises
during the forenoon a well dressed fine looking man with iron gray hair and mustache galloped up to the tavern on horseback he looked as if he had been reared in luxury
good morning john he said as the tavern keeper waddled to the door will you send up a basket of champagne during the day and a barrel of good ale the champy for her ladyship the countess you know and the ale for the villagers
going to have a sort of a jollification at the lawn to night you know in honor of the arrival of the countess and want you all to turn out then he galloped on quite as airily as he had come who vas dot big feelin rooster
fritz asked when john re entered the tavern that why that's honorable granby greyville the fat man replied the rich haristocrat who owns most of the land hereabouts a right big feeling man too as you say
fritz commented under his breath vel dot ish funny i thought sure dot was captain gregg der smuggler und i don'd vas so much foolished apoud it yet
resolved to remain a few days in the village for the purpose of prospecting fritz made himself at home about the hotel one suspicion after another was gradually occurring to him and he was not slow to give them a thorough consideration prior to putting them to test
of all things he was desirous of attending the jollification as the horseman had termed it with a view of seeing the countess who he learned had lately arrived from england in her own steamship for a few weeks stay upon the atlantic coast and a visit to her prospective husband greyville
during the afternoon a man entered the tavern who evidently had blood in his eye his whole appearance seemed to indicate that he was anxious to have a fight with some one and was not particular who it was
he was a large raw boned fellow with great muscular development his face was large with a bristling stubble of black beard upon the lower portion his eyes were dark and wild
his mouth was large and his teeth projected beyond his lips in a horrible manner his attire too was ragged and greasy with clumsy stogy boots upon his feet and a dilapidated hat upon his head
on entering the room he paused and glared around him as if in search of some one on whom to vent his wrath well bully jake what'll ye have the tavern keeper demanded with a frown for the ruffian was evidently an unwelcome intruder
waal i don't keer ef i do take a drap o likker the man growled glaring around you to blazes i mean what d'ye want here fat john grunted a fureigner a fureigner
ye know i'm death on em an thar can't none o em can stay around hyar while i hev things my way
then with a tragic stride he made for fritz pausing but a few paces away from him and shaking his fist fairly in his face you look the ruffian cried
vel i dinks i don'd vas haff made your acquaintance fritz replied retaining his seat but on guard for an attack if one was made ho ho i reckon not an ye'll wish ye never had afore i git through with yer bully jake declared
commonly known as bully jake the terror o ther coast
then i'm prime minister ter his honor granby greyville an from him i hev orders to demolish every furin craft wot sots anchor in his domains therefore ef ye wanter escape teetotal annihilation i'd advise ye ter git
ef ye ain't seen goin in less'n two seconds i'll stamp ye out o existence
bill budge's conversation to fritz the scene below of course began to grow more interesting
und vot ish more uff der verdict don't vas in his favor he vas goin der git sp'iled
for he perched himself upon the table while the six jurors sat in a semicircle facing him and the captain a little to one side
that you are a traitor to our cause nothing sir except that whoever started the suspicion is a liar and a coward was the retort then you deny that you have ever betrayed the existence of this band outside of its own membership
i do most emphatically what assurance have you that any one has betrayed you is it not ample proof when strange men haunt this vicinity and haunt the members to their very doors
these law sharks or detectives only wait for some disclosure to spring their traps on me and my faithful followers i am not to blame though forced into service against my will
and made to swear the oath of allegiance rather than lose my life i have kept such secrets as came into my possession i believe i know who has excited the suspicious feeling against me well sir who
your rascally son for one your jealous daughter for another hartly replied shrugging his shoulders with a contemptuous laugh how dare you term my son rascally sir and accuse my child of jealousy
because the boy is as unprincipled a villain as yourself and as for your daughter when she found that i did not court her favor she at once turned against me
i despise both your son and your daughter captain gregg and that is all i have to say except that i am not guilty of the charge preferred against me that remains to be told by the jury you see the head of bill budge
just above you hartly he was caught in an intended act of treachery and you see his end if bill could speak he'd tell you that the fate of the traitor is hard
budge's suspended remnant seemed to say in a deep hoarse voice the captain and the jury uttered each a startled oath and gazed at the offending head in astonishment who called me a liar gregg demanded fiercely by the gods
i thought it was budge's lips that uttered those words so it was the head seemed to say then there was a gurgling sort of laugh and the head shook perceptibly
gregg yelled and hastily wrenching open the door he made a hasty exit from the room followed by the jurors nor did they stop short of the bottom of the stairs
hartly did not leave the room but dismounting from his perch upon the table walked off a few paces to where he could get a good look at budge's unfortunate pate
i'm blowed if there ain't he soliloquized apparently quite composed it's the first time i have ever heard dead men talk i say budge how's the temperature up your way two t'ousand degrees above blood heat
fritz while perpetrating the ventriloquism was also listening and planning
accordingly he slid down the rope into the room below hartly looked surprised who the deuce are you he demanded stepping back a pace fritz snyder detective fritz replied i come here on pizness
i vant you to helb me oud mit it und i vil see dot you haff your liberty ha ha that's your game is it well my friend i'd like to do it first rate but i can not oblige you vy not
so i was against my will but that does not lessen the obligations of my oath while i live i shall adhere to my sworn promise you vas foolish you don'd vil get any credit for your resolve
yoost ash like ash not you will pe killed on der suspicion dot's already against you perhaps if so i shall submit knowing i have been innocent of breaking my word
you don'd vas vant to die no more ash any odder man
nothing would please me more but owing to my oath i must positively refuse to do anything of the kind hartly persisted firmly i admire your proposed attempt and while i shall do nothing to interrupt it
i can not conscientiously do anything to help it along can you enlighten me any as to the mystery of this head which though not possessed of life yet uses its voice so naturally i dells you noddings apoud it fritz replied shaking his head hark
yes i hear it it is gregg and the boys coming back quick or you will be seen
seeing that no harm had come to hartly they then ventured in ha ha you're brave fellows ain't you he laughed i didn't cut tail and run although i have not even the use of my hands
gregg growled evidently not liking the taunt did that thing speak again with a wry glance at the guiltless pate of the departed budge of course i've had quite a chat with william hartly replied
he says he's in a very warm latitude at present and so he's come back spiritually for a short cooling off gregg uttered an oath pooh i don't believe such bosh but it's a fact nevertheless
budge says they've got a little corner left up in his country for you too when you get ready to emigrate which will be mighty soon judging by the active preparations that are being made to receive you such as gathering kindling wood making matches and the like
curse you they'll git you first the smuggler said with vicious emphasis go ahead boys an tell him the decision you've made well
we've concluded that hal hartly is a traitor to our cause and for the sake of protection it will be necessary to feed him to the fishes one of the jurors said
a grunt of assent from the others was the answer then it shall be so captain gregg ordered i am sorry for you hartly but treachery merits death as you were informed when you joined
as an organization which must exist in secrecy we are forced to adopt harsh rules your companions have carefully weighed all the evidence and have decided that the safety of the organization demands your death as you have sown
so shall you reap do you mean this captain gregg i do sir emphatically then you shall live to repent ever having pronounced my doom
henceforth i shall not consider my oath of allegiance obligatory as i have hitherto done i'll show you what harm i can do your vile organization but you shall have no chance
jim hovel and his brother have already consented to sink you to the bottom of the atlantic for a stated sum and thus rid us of you effectually they are waiting below for you as it is a safe night for such work
if you have any prayers to make you had better make the best use of your time i'll suit myself about that you villain numbers two and three take the prisoner down stairs the captain ordered two of the smugglers seized hold of poor hartly and led him from the room
up in the attic fritz was in a predicament the majority of the smugglers yet remained in the room below and he could not get out of the house in that way as was his desire to make an attempt if possible to rescue hal hartly
yoost like ash not dey vil pe gone off mit him ven i git down dere und den he vil pe a goner sure ash der dickens it required several minutes to find the trap in the roof and it was no slight job to displace it
when he had accomplished this much however it was but a moment's work to clamber out upon the roof in the pouring rain and replace the door py shimminy dot vas a hard storm he soliloquized
that portion of the main roof of the building was quite steep and the eaves were at least twenty five feet from the ground
on the other side of the ridge the roof sloped down to meet a gable from where the gable's roof took another descent so as to bring the eaves about seven feet nearer to the ground aside from this there was no possible way of reaching terra firma
eighteen feet i don'd know vedda i can stand dot or no
or hal hartly vas a dead codfish sure using extreme caution he slid from one ridge to the other and then from that to the eaves from where he was to drop
vel here's der blace vere i don'd vas so much tickled but pizness vas pizness und a veller don'd vas can rise in der vorld vidout dropping sometimes so here goes he muttered
and clinging to the eaves for a second he let himself drop down down he went with great velocity and finally struck upon something softer than mother earth from which he tumbled end over end to the ground
the following instant a wild unearthly howl rent the night och murther murther shrieked a man's voice i'm kilt i'm kilt
chapter fifteen emily may i say a word missus mosey inquired she entered the room pale and trembling seeing that ominous change
emily dropped back into her chair dead she said faintly missus mosey looked at her in vacant surprise
that your aunt has frightened me even that vague allusion was enough for emily you need say no more she replied
confused and frightened as she was missus mosey still found relief in her customary flow of words many and many a person have i nursed in fever she announced
emily interposed oh but i must tell you in your own interests miss emily in your own interests i won't be inhuman enough to leave you alone in the house to night
but if this delirium goes on i must ask you to get another nurse shocking suspicions are lying in wait for me in that bedroom as it were
i can't resist them as i ought if i go back again and hear your aunt saying what she has been saying for the last half hour and more
warn me speaking you will please to understand in the strictest confidence elizabeth she says you know how wildly people talk in miss letitia's present condition
if miss emily asks questions you know nothing about it if she's frightened you know nothing about it
but take no notice all very well and sounds like speaking out doesn't it nothing of the sort missus ellmother warns me to expect this that and the other but there is one
horrid thing which i heard mind over and over again at your aunt's bedside that she does not prepare me for
and waited to see what effect she had produced sorely tried already by the cruel perplexities of her position emily's courage failed to resist the first sensation of horror
aroused in her by the climax of the nurse's hysterical narrative encouraged by her silence missus mosey went on she lifted one hand with theatrical solemnity
and luxuriously terrified herself with her own horrors an inn miss emily a lonely inn somewhere in the country and a comfortless room at the inn
with a makeshift bed at one end of it and a makeshift bed at the other i give you my word of honor that was how your aunt put it she spoke of
in the two beds i think she called them gentlemen but i can't be sure and i wouldn't deceive you you know i wouldn't deceive you for the world
miss letitia muttered and mumbled poor soul i own i was getting tired of listening when she burst out plain again in that one horrid word
oh miss don't be impatient don't interrupt me emily did interrupt nevertheless in some degree at least she had recovered herself no more of it she said
was too resolutely bent on asserting her own importance by making the most of the alarm that she had suffered to be repressed by any ordinary method of remonstrance without paying the slightest attention to what emily had said
listen miss listen the dreadful part of it is to come you haven't heard about the two gentlemen yet
what do you think of that and the other i heard your aunt say it
did miss letitia fancy she was addressing a lot of people when you were nursing her she called out like a person making public proclamation when i was in her room whoever you are good people
she says a hundred pounds reward if you find the runaway murderer
my friends the wretch the monster
that was how she put it did you hear her scream ah my dear young lady so much the better for you
i'll take my bible oath before the magistrate cried missus mosey starting out of her chair your aunt said hush it up emily crossed the room
the energy of her character was roused at last she seized the foolish woman by the shoulders forced her back in the chair and looked her straight in the face without uttering a word for the moment
missus mosey was petrified she had fully expected having reached the end of her terrible story to find emily at her feet entreating her not to carry out her intention of leaving the cottage
to grant the prayer of the helpless young lady those were her anticipations and how had they been fulfilled
god knows i meant well you are not the first person emily answered quietly releasing her who has done wrong with the best intentions i
did my duty miss when i told you what your aunt said you forgot your duty when you listened to what my aunt said
remain here if you please i have something to suggest in your own interests wait and compose yourself the purpose which had taken a foremost place in emily's mind
rested on the firm foundation of her love and pity for her aunt now that she had regained the power to think she felt a hateful doubt
having taken for granted that there was a foundation in truth for what she herself had heard in her aunt's room could she reasonably resist the conclusion that there must be a foundation in truth
for what missus mosey had heard under similar circumstances there was but one way of escaping from this dilemma and emily deliberately took it she turned her back on her own convictions
and persuaded herself that she had been in the wrong when she had attached importance to anything that her aunt had said under the influence of delirium having adopted this conclusion
she resolved to face the prospect of a night's solitude by the death bed rather than permit missus mosey to have a second opportunity of drawing her own inferences
do you mean to keep me waiting much longer miss not a moment longer now you are composed again emily answered i have been thinking of what has happened
and i fail to see any necessity for putting off your departure until the doctor comes to morrow morning there is
i am not an inhuman woman said missus mosey putting her handkerchief to her eyes smitten with pity for herself emily tried the effect of a conciliatory reply
i am grateful for your kindness in offering to stay with me she said very good of you i'm sure missus mosey answered ironically but for all that you persist in sending me away
i persist in thinking that there is no necessity for my keeping you here until to morrow oh
i am not reduced to forcing my company on anybody
what a disheartening contrast did cecilia's happy life present to the life of her friend who in emily's position could have read that joyously written letter from switzerland and not have lost heart and faith for the moment at least
as the inevitable result a buoyant temperament is of all moral qualities the most precious in this respect it is the one force in us when virtuous resolution proves insufficient
which resists by instinct the stealthy approaches of despair i shall only cry emily thought if i stay at home better go out observant persons
accustomed to frequent the london parks can hardly have failed to notice the number of solitary strangers sadly endeavoring to vary their lives by taking a walk they linger about the flower beds
they sit for hours on the benches they look with patient curiosity at other people who have companions they notice ladies on horseback and children at play with submissive interest some of the men
find company in a pipe without appearing to enjoy it some of the women find a substitute for dinner in little dry biscuits wrapped in crumpled scraps of paper they are not sociable
perhaps they are shame faced or proud or sullen perhaps they despair of others being accustomed to despair of themselves perhaps they have their reasons
for never venturing to encounter curiosity or their vices which dread detection or their virtues which suffer hardship with the resignation that is sufficient for itself the one thing certain is
that these unfortunate people resist discovery we know that they are strangers in london and we know no more and emily was one of them among the other forlorn wanderers in the parks
there appeared latterly a trim little figure in black with the face protected from notice behind a crape veil which was beginning to be familiar day after day to nursemaids and children
and to rouse curiosity among harmless solitaries meditating on benches and idle vagabonds strolling over the grass the woman servant whom the considerate doctor had provided
missus ellmother had never shown herself again since the funeral missus mosey could not forget that she had been no matter how politely requested to withdraw to whom could emily say
let us go out for a walk she had communicated the news of her aunt's death to miss ladd at brighton and had heard from francine the worthy schoolmistress had written to her with the truest kindness
choose your own time my poor child and come and stay with me at brighton the sooner the better emily shrank
but from encountering francine the hard west indian heiress looked harder than ever with a pen in her hand her letter announced that she was getting on wretchedly with her studies which she hated
she found the masters appointed to instruct her ugly and disagreeable and loathed the sight of them she had taken a dislike to miss ladd and time only confirmed that unfavorable impression
brighton was always the same the sea was always the same the drives were always the same francine felt a presentiment that she should do something desperate unless emily joined her and made brighton endurable
behind the horrid schoolmistress's back solitude in london was a privilege and a pleasure viewed as the alternative to such companionship as this emily wrote gratefully to miss ladd
other days had passed drearily since that time but the one day that had brought with it cecilia's letter set past happiness and present sorrow together
that emily's courage sank she had forced back the tears in her lonely home she had gone out to seek consolation and encouragement under the sunny sky
to find comfort for her sore heart in the radiant summer beauty of flowers and grass in the sweet breathing of the air
no mother nature is stepmother to the sick at heart soon too soon she could hardly see where she went again and again she resolutely cleared her eyes under the shelter of her veil
when passing strangers noticed her and again and again the tears found their way back oh if the girls at the school were to see her now the girls who used to say in their moments of sadness
let us go to emily and be cheered would they know her again she sat down to rest and recover herself on the nearest bench it was unoccupied no passing footsteps were audible on the remote path
to which she had strayed solitude at home solitude in the park
happy in the company of her light hearted friend the lonely interval passed and persons came near two sisters girls like herself stopped to rest on the bench
they were full of their own interests
and the elder was to be bridesmaid they talked of their dresses and their presents they compared the dashing bridegroom of one with the timid lover of the other
over their joyous dreams of the future
too joyfully restless to remain inactive any longer they jumped up again from the seat one of them said polly i'm too happy and danced as she walked away the other cried sally for shame
and laughed as if she had hit on the most irresistible joke that ever was made emily rose and went home by some mysterious influence which she was unable to trace
the boisterous merriment of the two girls had roused in her a sense of revolt against the life that she was leading change speedy change to some occupation that would force her to exert herself
presented the one promise of brighter days that she could see to feel this was to be inevitably reminded of sir jervis redwood here was a man who had never seen her
transformed by the incomprehensible operation of chance into the friend of whom she stood in need the friend who pointed the way to a new world of action the busy world of readers in the library of the museum
early in the new week emily had accepted sir jervis's proposal and had so interested the bookseller to whom she had been directed to apply that he took it on himself
to modify the arbitrary instructions of his employer the old gentleman has no mercy on himself and no mercy on others he explained where his literary labors are concerned
you must spare yourself miss emily it is not only absurd it's cruel to expect you to ransack old newspapers for discoveries in yucatan
from the time when stephens published his travels in central america' nearly forty years since begin with back numbers published within a few years
five years from the present date and let us see what your search over that interval will bring forth accepting this friendly advice emily began with the newspaper volume dating from new year's day
eighteen seventy six the first hour of her search strengthened the sincere sense of gratitude with which she remembered the bookseller's kindness to keep her attention steadily fixed
on the one subject that interested her employer and to resist the temptation to read those miscellaneous items of news which especially interest women put her patience and resolution to a merciless test
happily for herself her neighbors on either side were no idlers to see them so absorbed over their work
was to find exactly the example of which she stood most in need as the hours wore on she pursued her weary way down one column and up another resigned at least if not quite reconciled yet
to her task her labors ended for the day with such encouragement as she might derive from the conviction of having thus far honestly pursued a useless search news was waiting for her when she reached home
which raised her sinking spirits on leaving the cottage that morning she had given certain instructions relating to the modest stranger who had taken charge of her correspondence in case of his paying a second visit
during her absence at the museum the first words spoken by the servant on opening the door informed her that the unknown gentleman had called again this time he had boldly left his card
there was the welcome name that she had expected to see
emily's first day in the city library proved to be a day wasted she began reading the back numbers of the newspaper at haphazard without any definite idea of what she was looking for
conscious of the error into which her own impatience had led her she was at a loss how to retrace the false step that she had taken but two alternatives presented themselves either to abandon the hope of making any discovery
or to attempt to penetrate alban s motives by means of pure guesswork pursued in the dark how was the problem to be solved this serious question troubled her all through the evening and kept her awake when she went to bed
in despair of her capacity to remove the obstacle that stood in her way she decided on resuming her regular work at the museum turned her pillow to get at the cool side of it and made up her mind to go asleep
in the case of the wiser animals the person submits to sleep it is only the superior human being who tries the hopeless experiment of making sleep submit to the person wakeful on the warm side of the pillow
emily remained wakeful on the cool side thinking again and again of the interview with alban which had ended so strangely little by little her mind passed the limits which had restrained it thus far
alban's conduct in keeping his secret in the matter of the newspapers now began to associate itself with alban's conduct in keeping that other secret which concealed from her his suspicions of missus rook
in speaking of the disaster which had compelled mister and missus rook to close the inn cecilia had alluded to an inquest held on the body of the murdered man had the inquest been mentioned in the newspapers at the time
and had alban seen something in the report which concerned missus rook led by the new light that had fallen on her emily returned to the library the next morning with a definite idea of what she had to look for
incapable of giving exact dates cecilia had informed her that the crime was committed in the autumn the month to choose in beginning her examination was therefore the month of august no discovery rewarded her
she tried september next with the same unsatisfactory results on monday the first of october she met with some encouragement at last at the top of a column appeared a telegraphic summary of all that was then known of the crime
in the number for the wednesday following she found a full report of the proceedings at the inquest passing over the preliminary remarks emily read the evidence with the closest attention the jury having viewed the body
and having visited an outhouse in which the murder had been committed the first witness called was mister benjamin rook landlord of the hand in hand inn on the evening of sunday september thirtieth eighteen seventy seven
two gentlemen presented themselves at mister rook's house under circumstances which especially excited his attention the youngest of the two was short and of fair complexion he carried a knapsack
like a gentleman on a pedestrian excursion his manners were pleasant and he was decidedly good looking his companion older taller and darker and a finer man altogether leaned on his arm
and seemed to be exhausted in every respect they were singularly unlike each other the younger stranger excepting little half whiskers was clean shaved the elder wore his whole beard
not knowing their names the landlord distinguished them at the coroner's suggestion as the fair gentleman and the dark gentleman it was raining when the two arrived at the inn there were signs in the heavens of a stormy night
on accosting the landlord the fair gentleman volunteered the following statement approaching the village he had been startled by seeing the dark gentleman a total stranger to him stretched prostrate on the grass at the roadside
so far as he could judge in a swoon having a flask with brandy in it he revived the fainting man and led him to the inn this statement was confirmed by a laborer who was on his way to the village at the time
the dark gentleman endeavored to explain what had happened to him he had as he supposed allowed too long a time to pass after an early breakfast that morning without taking food
he could only attribute the fainting fit to that cause he was not liable to fainting fits what purpose if any had brought him into the neighborhood of zeeland he did not state he had no intention of remaining at the inn
except for refreshment and he asked for a carriage to take him to the railway station the fair gentleman seeing the signs of bad weather desired to remain in mister rook's house for the night
and proposed to resume his walking tour the next day excepting the case of supper which could be easily provided the landlord had no choice but to disappoint both his guests in his small way of business
as for beds the few rooms which the inn contained were all engaged including even the room occupied by himself and his wife an exhibition of agricultural implements had been opened in the neighborhood
only two days since and a public competition between rival machines was to be decided on the coming monday not only was the hand in hand inn crowded but even the accommodation offered
by the nearest town had proved barely sufficient to meet the public demand the gentlemen looked at each other and agreed that there was no help for it but to hurry the supper and walk to the railway station
a distance of between five and six miles in time to catch the last train while the meal was being prepared the rain held off for a while the dark man asked his way to the post office
and went out by himself he came back in about ten minutes and sat down afterward to supper with his companion neither the landlord nor any other person in the public room noticed any change in him on his return
he was a grave quiet sort of person and unlike the other one not much of a talker as the darkness came on the rain fell again heavily and the heavens were black a flash of lightning startled the gentlemen
when they went to the window to look out the thunderstorm began it was simply impossible that two strangers to the neighborhood could find their way to the station through storm and darkness in time to catch the train with or without bedrooms
they must remain at the inn for the night having already given up their own room to their lodgers the landlord and landlady had no other place to sleep in than the kitchen next to the kitchen and communicating with it by a door was an outhouse
used partly as a scullery partly as a lumber room there was an old truckle bed among the lumber on which one of the gentlemen might rest a mattress on the floor could be provided for the other
after adding a table and a basin for the purposes of the toilet the accommodation which mister rook was able to offer came to an end the travelers agreed to occupy this makeshift bed chamber the thunderstorm passed away
but the rain continued to fall heavily soon after eleven the guests at the inn retired for the night there was some little discussion between the two travelers as to which of them should take possession of the truckle bed it was put an end to
by the fair gentleman in his own pleasant way he proposed to toss up for it and he lost the dark gentleman went to bed first the fair gentleman followed after waiting a while
mister rook took his knapsack into the outhouse and arranged on the table his appliances for the toilet contained in a leather roll and including a razor
mister rook fastened the other door the lock and bolts of which were on the side of the kitchen he then secured the house door and the shutters over the lower windows
returning to the kitchen he noticed that the time was ten minutes short of midnight soon afterward he and his wife went to bed nothing happened to disturb mister and missus rook during the night
at a quarter to seven the next morning he got up his wife being still asleep
receiving no answer after repeatedly knocking he opened the door and stepped into the outhouse at this point in his evidence the witness's recollections appeared to overpower him
give me a moment gentlemen he said to the jury i have had a dreadful fright and i don't believe i shall get over it for the rest of my life the coroner helped him by a question
what did you see when you opened the door mister rook answered i saw the dark man stretched out on his bed dead with a frightful wound in his throat i saw an open razor
stained with smears of blood at his side did you notice the door leading into the yard it was wide open sir when i was able to look round me the other traveler
what did you do after making these discoveries i closed the yard door then i locked the other door
after that i roused the servant and sent him to the constable who lived near to us while i ran for the doctor whose house was at the other end of our village the doctor sent his groom on horseback to the police office in the town
when i returned to the inn the constable was there and he and the police took the matter into their own hands you have nothing more to tell us
twenty third july sailed the day before yesterday for godhaab the fog was thick and wind strong and contrary
when early this morning our fore topmast was carried away this accident induced me to run in and anchor for the purpose of repairing the damage after passing within the outer islets the moravian settlement of lichtenfels came in view upon the right hand
it consists of a large sombre looking wooden house over which is a belfry a smaller wooden house and about a dozen native huts roofed with sods and scarcely distinguishable from the ground they stand on even at a very short distance the land immediately behind is a barren rocky steep
a strong tide was setting out of the fiord as we approached and anchored in the rocky little cove of fiskernaes here we were not only sheltered from the wind but the steep dark rocks within a ship's length on each side of us reflected a strong heat whilst large mosquitoes lost no time in paying us their annoying visits
this remote spot has been visited by the arctic voyagers captain inglefield r n and doctor kane u s n and still more recently by prince napoleon
and acknowledged she was heartily tired of the solitude she gave me coffee and some seeds for cultivation at our winter quarters these were lettuce spinach turnips caraway and peas the latter being the common kind used on board ship usually they have only produced leaves on this spot
but once the young peas grew large enough for the table i expressed a wish to see the interior of an esquimaux tent petersen pulled aside the thin membrane of some animal which hung across the doorway and served to exclude the wind but admitted light for although past midnight the sun was up
some seven or eight individuals lay within closely packed upon the ground the heads of old and young males and females being just visible above the common covering going to bed here only means lying down with your clothes on upon a reindeer skin wherever you can find room and pulling another fur robe over you
fiskernaes appeared to be a sunny little nook
the boys brought us handfuls of rough garnets some of them as large as walnuts receiving with evident satisfaction biscuits in exchange by next morning we were able to put to sea
it is in the gilbert sound of davis and appears in many old charts as baal's river almost adjoining godhaab is the moravian settlement of new herrnhut
the missionary father of greenland established himself in seventeen twenty one
at present the moravians support four missions in greenland
we soon obtained ten of the former but were advised to go into disco fiord
and where some would most probably be obtained i was much pleased with mister olrik's kind reception of me
i came away enriched by some fossils from the fossil forest of atanekerdluk also with specimens of native coal it was here i met with the late commanders of the whalers gipsy and undaunted of peterhead which had been crushed by the ice in melville bay five or six weeks previously
all the other whalers had returned from the north along the pack edge and passed south of disco they said that the ice in melville bay was all broken up
after despatching the pilot to announce our arrival to his countrymen at their fishing station seven or eight miles further up
and was accepted he is about twenty three years of age unmarried and an orphan the men soon thoroughly washed and cropped him soap and scissors being novelties to an esquimaux
he was evidently not at home in them but was not the less proud of his improved appearance as reflected in the admiring glances of his countrymen
as a kayak is usually about eighteen feet long eight inches deep
fourth august entered the waigat yesterday morning slowly steaming through a sea of glass its surface was only rippled by the myriads of eider ducks which extended over it for several miles most of them were immature in plumage
after running about twenty four miles towards evening we approached a low range of sandstone cliffs on the disco shore in which horizontal seams of coal were seen here we anchored and immediately commenced coaling it was fortunate we did so for soon it began to blow hard
and his unlooked for re appearance astonished and delighted the small community more especially governor fliescher and his household who received us with a most hearty welcome
the weather was very bad and rapidly growing worse therefore our stay was limited to a couple of hours the last letters for home were landed
it was then blowing a southerly gale with overcast murky sky and a heavy sea running when four miles outside the outer island breakers were suddenly discovered ahead only just in time to avoid the ledge of sunken rocks upon which the sea was beating most violently
and greatly add to the dangers of its navigation
an occasional iceberg is seen the officers amuse themselves in trying new guns and shooting sea birds for our dogs governor fliescher told me yesterday that for the last four weeks southerly winds prevailed
and that only a fortnight ago his boat was unable to reach the loom cliffs at cape shackleton fifty miles north of upernivik in consequence of the ice being pressed in against the land i fear these same winds have closed together the ice which occupies the middle of davis strait hence called the middle ice so that we shall not be able to penetrate it
it may be as well to observe that each winter the sea called baffin's bay freezes over in spring this vast body of ice breaks up and drifting southward in a mass called the main pack or the middle ice obstructs the passage across from east to west
the north passage is made by sailing round the north end of this pack the middle passage by pushing through it and the southern passage by passing round its southern extreme but seasons do occur when none of these routes are practicable it is very remarkable that southward of disco northerly winds have prevailed
they greatly impeded our progress up davis strait but we cheered ourselves with the hope that they would effectually clear a path for us across the northern part of baffin's bay
this morning in thick fog the ship was caught in its margin of loose ice the fog soon after cleared off and we saw the clear sea about two miles to the eastward whilst all to the west was impenetrable closely packed floe pieces after steaming out of our predicament
a matter which we could not accomplish under sail we ran on to the southward until evening
i was satisfied that we could not force a passage through it across baffin's bay as is frequently done in ordinary seasons therefore taking advantage of a fair wind we steered to the northward in order to seek an opening in that direction
sailing along the edge of the middle ice but here we find it pressing in against browne's islands and covering the whole bay to the northward quite in the steep face of the glacier this is evidently the result of long continued southerly winds
but as the ice is very much broken up we may expect it to move off rapidly before the autumnal northerly winds now due and these winds invariably remove the previous season's ice
all that we know of melville bay navigation in august is derived from the experience of government and private searching expeditions during eight or nine seasons my own three previous transits across it were made in this month the whalers either get through in june or july or give up the attempt as being too late for their fishing
but we have no accounts of these voyages nor should i be justified at this late period of the season in abandoning the prospect before me in order to attempt a route which even if successful would lengthen our voyage to barrow strait by seven hundred or eight hundred miles
we have already passed what is usually the most difficult and dangerous part of the melville bay transit there is much to excite intense admiration and wonder around us one cannot at once appreciate the grandeur of this mighty glacier extending unbroken for forty or fifty miles
its sea cliffs about five or six miles from us appear comparatively low yet the icebergs detached from it are of the loftiest description
it is almost horizontal and of unknown distance and elevation there is an unusual dearth of birds and seals everything around us is painfully still excepting when an occasional iceberg splits off from the parent glacier then we hear a rumbling crash like distant thunder
and the wave occasioned by the launch reaches us in six or seven minutes
i cannot imagine that within the whole compass of nature's varied aspects there is presented to the human eye a scene so well adapted for promoting deep and serious reflection for lifting the thoughts from trivial things of every day life
we have been visited by the danish residents the chief trader or governor the priest and two others their latest european intelligence is not more recent than our own but the danish ship is hourly expected she usually leaves copenhagen about the middle of march
the winter here has been just the reverse of our own experience it has been severe in point of temperature but with very little wind the land lies buried in snow and as yet there is no thaw it is too early for the cod fishery and not a single reindeer has been killed throughout the winter
eider ducks looms and dovekies are abundant as well as hares and ptarmigan
our poor half famished dogs have been landed near the carcases of four whales so they must be supremely happy i visited the governor to day and found his little wooden house as scrupulously clean and neat as the houses of the danish residents in greenland invariably are
and the ill fated vessel has never since been heard of poor governor elberg is in ill health and talks of returning home
the inhabitants are all dressed in their sunday clothes at least all who have got a change of garments and there is both morning and evening service in the small wooden church as the governor could not be persuaded to unlock the door of the dance house our men returned on board early
yesterday evening they were all on shore and with the esquimaux were squeezed into this one large room
old harvey constituted himself master of the ceremonies and with his flute led the orchestra it consisted of one other flute and a fiddle he managed to perch himself above all the rest at one end of the room
and played with such vigor that our bluejackets and the esquimaux ladies danced away most furiously for hours these ladies can dance in the least possible space their costume being particularly well adapted for the purpose partaking as it does much more of the bloomer than the crinoline
it is said to occupy the centre of an extinct volcano but i saw nothing to bear out the assertion this is the only part of greenland where earthquakes are felt the governor told me of an unusually severe shock which occurred a winter or two ago
he was sitting in his room reading at the time when he heard a loud noise like the discharge of a cannon immediately afterwards a tremulous motion was felt some glasses upon the table began to dance about and papers lying upon the window sill fell down after a few seconds it ceased
but a little more animal life reindeer for instance would make it far more pleasing in our eyes
the clergyman of holsteinborg was born in this colony and has succeeded his father in the priestly office his wife is the only european female in the colony
being told that fuel was extremely scarce in the danish houses and that the priest's wife was blue with the cold i sent on shore a present of some coals on sunday afternoon hearing the church bell ringing i went on shore it proved to be only a christening
but he replied with great simplicity that he had never promised her and would not marry her as his friends objected to the match what are the good greenlanders coming to i recommended that he should have his betrothed in her own home with her mother and family his asking a passage for her
in order to leave her with his mother is strong proof of the sincerity of his engagement not only to his lady love but to the fox also i have written to the admiralty to account for my prolonged absence from england and to doctor rink to acquaint him with the cause of my second visit to his inspectorate
governor elberg has promised to get me some fossil fish to be found only in north strom fiord they are interesting as being of unknown geological date
out in the offing the weather was gloomy and cold and strong northerly winds were blowing on closing the land again we regained the off shore wind and bright weather
this was a bitter disappointment more particularly as a gale of wind with heavy sea was fast rising and snow beginning to fall thickly
on the evening of the tenth we stood off from the inhospitable barrier of ice prepared to meet the storm snow fell so thickly that we could hardly see the icebergs in time to avoid them we supposed ourselves to be well to leeward of the whalefish islands but were deceived by the tides
suddenly a small low islet was seen on the lee bow not being able to pass to windward we were obliged to wear ship and in doing so passed within the ship's length of destruction for we were certainly within that distance of the rocks
on the eleventh the weather improved and in the evening we came to our present anchorage from a hill we can watch an opportunity to enter godhavn
notwithstanding the blowing weather some natives came about five miles off to us the water washed over their little kayaks and kept the occupants seal skin dresses streaming with wet up to their shoulders this part of their dress seems rather part of the kayak
as it is attached to it round the hole in which the kayaker sits so that no water can enter it is wonderful to see how closely a man can assimilate his habits to those of a fish
two vessels are in sight the world it appears is at peace petersen was at one time in charge of this station he is now seeking out his old acquaintances
requesting her captain to lend me some newspapers the note reached captain j walker of the jane and yesterday his ship accompanied by the heroine captain j simpson approached us and they both came in to call upon me each of them bringing the very acceptable present of some newspapers besides a quarter of beef with vegetables
nothing could exceed their sincere good feeling and kindness they offered to supply me with anything their ships could afford the account they give of last season is as follows the whalers reached devil's point near melville bay as early as the twenty first of may
southerly winds then set in and blew incessantly for six weeks during all which time they were closely beset and the ships gipsy and undaunted were crushed when able to move the fleet returned southward along the pack edge which was everywhere found to be impenetrable they sailed southward of disco
the former lying against the west land about cape searle whilst the latter was forced northward and pressed closely into melville bay the ships sailed freely between these two great divisions and found the west water unusually extensive
had i been able to collect a sufficient number of sledge dogs at godhavn last year it was my intention to have sailed across to the west side if possible instead of pursuing the usual route through melville bay but the opinions of the captains of the lost whalers were in favor of a melville bay passage
only a few days after the commencement of the summer's thaw captain walker tells me there are many years in which the whalers can pass up the western shore late in the season but not always so far as pond's bay of melville bay after the tenth or fifteenth july they know nothing
but the voyages of discovery afford us ample details whilst of the southern route almost nothing has been made publicly known there are many intelligent whaling captains who possess much valuable knowledge of these lands and seas and even in the terra incognita of frobisher's straits
whalers have wintered whilst our charts scarcely afford even a vague idea of the configuration of these extensive islands
scott's inlet is also said to be a strait leading into a western arm of the same sea
we are refitting shooting and devouring quantities of excellent mussels eider ducks are very abundant but extremely shy poor puss has been killed
this evening young and i examined a narrow rocky cove upernivik bay of the natives finding it suitable for our purpose the ship was brought in and moored to the rocks we were received with much kindness by our friends mister and missus olrik and were presented with a file of late english papers
a considerable supply of beer was ordered to be brewed for us i found missus olrik without a fire in her sitting room it was unnecessary
the windows looked to the south and the sun shone brightly in upon a profusion of geraniums and european flowers at once reminding one of home and refreshing the senses by their perfume and beauty the merry voices of the children were also a most pleasing novelty
mister olrik says the past winter has not been in any way remarkable except for the prevalence of strong winds
we did honor to her majesty's birthday by dressing the fox in all her flags and regaling her crew with plum pudding and grog the ice having moved off we have come into the harbor of godhavn as being more convenient and safe the day has been a busy one
i have added another esquimaux lad to our crew taking with him his rifle kayak and sledge this evening there has been a brisk interchange of presents between us and our danish friends i have been given an eider down coverlet by the governor mister andersen
and by missus olrik some delicious preserve of greenland cranberries a tin of preserved ptarmigan and a jar of pickled whale skin my table is decked with european flowers including roses mignonette and violets with good reason shall we remember godhavn
a party of seal hunters from atanekerdluk came off to us and their hunting having terminated successfully they will assist us in coaling from these men i obtained much information about this part of the coast
within a range of twenty miles upon the disco shore there are four distinct coaling places but at this early season two of them are deeply covered with snow
the ice in this strait broke up as long ago as the third april it has all drifted out to the northward only a few icebergs now remain
the business of coaling was very speedily and satisfactorily completed but the quality of the coals is very inferior upon the green slopes our sportsmen found nothing but a few ptarmigan and a hare shortly after running close past the deserted settlement of noursoak
we arrived off a small bay and were startled by finding the water had suddenly changed from transparent blue to a thick muddy color but there was no change in its depth we were crossing the stream of makkaks elvin or clay river
which empties itself into the bay after running through a broad and extensive valley said to abound with reindeer this river has its origin in lakes and glaciers in the interior and the discoloration of the water is probably the chief cause of success in white whale fishing
the season appears forward and the ice much decayed but southerly winds prevail retarding its disruption and removal captain parker of the emma tells me he does not expect to make a north passage this year
and as his experience extends over a period of at least thirty years i give his reason it is simply this that as during the months of february march and april northerly winds prevailed to an unusual degree therefore southerly winds may now be expected to continue if he prove a prophet
the former has generously supplied us with many things we were rather short of not only in ship's stores but provisions and coals and in return i have of course furnished him with a receipt for his owners
captain simpson has most handsomely presented the fox with a sail and yards which after some slight alterations will enable us to add a main topsail to our spread of canvas
for the two days we lay at the iceberg alongside of the emma i made furious attacks upon captain parker's beefsteaks and porter we amply availed ourselves of his hearty welcome by the arrival of the fine steam whaler tay from scotland we have received papers up to seventeenth april
this morning we slowly steamed away from upernivik threading our way betwixt islands and ice for about thirty miles and now await further ice movement before it will be possible to proceed
these are called the woman islands so named by the celebrated arctic explorer john davis who visited them in queen elizabeth's reign
upon one of these islands a stone was picked up some thirty years ago bearing a runic inscription it was sent home to copenhagen as a most interesting relic of the early scandinavian voyagers but nothing was on it except the names of those men who cleared this place or formed a settlement
and the date eleven thirty five in all probability their sojourn was extremely short
the danish trading establishments gradually extended along the coast and upernivik was one of them
during napoleon's wars all the danish posts were withdrawn as the british fleet effectually cut off communication with europe
dedication my dear lady franklin there is no one to whom i could with so much propriety or willingness dedicate my journal as to you for you it was originally written and to please you it now appears in print
to our mutual friend sherard osborn
and also for pointing out some omissions and technicalities
these kind hints have been but partially attended to and as time presses it appears with the mass of its original imperfections as when you read it in manuscript such as it is however it affords me this valued opportunity of assuring you of the real gratification i feel
believe me to be with sincere respect most faithfully yours f l m'clintock london twenty fourth november
list of officers and ship's company of the fox f l m'clintock
captain mercantile marine david walker m d surgeon and naturalist george brands engineer died sixth november eighteen fifty eight apoplexy carl petersen interpreter
thomas blackwell ship's steward died fourteenth june eighteen fifty nine scurvy wm harvey chief quartermaster henry toms quartermaster alex thompson
john simmonds boatswain's mate george edwards carpenter's mate robert scott leading stoker died fourth december eighteen fifty seven in consequence of a fall thomas grinstead sailmaker
george hobday captain of hold
john a haselton
wm walters carpenter's crew wm jones dog driver
richard shingleton officers steward
admiralty london twenty fourth october
in bringing home the only authentic intelligence of the death of the late sir john franklin and of the fate of the crews of the erebus and terror her majesty has been pleased by her order in council of the twenty second instant
viz from the thirtieth june eighteen fifty seven to the twenty first september eighteen fifty nine to reckon as time served by a captain in command of one of her majesty's ships and my lords have given the necessary directions accordingly i am sir
and also let it be said to that of the united states of america many have been the efforts made to discover the route followed by our missing explorers the highly deserving men who have so zealously searched the arctic seas and lands in this cause must now rejoice
the merit of rescuing from the frozen north the record of the last days of franklin has fallen to the share of his noble minded widow lady franklin has indeed well shown what a devoted and true hearted english woman can accomplish
the moment that relics of the expedition commanded by her husband were brought home in eighteen fifty four by rae and that she heard of the account given to him by the esquimaux of a large party of englishmen having been seen struggling with difficulties on the ice near the mouth of the back or great fish river
she resolved to expend all her available means already much exhausted in four other independent expeditions in an exploration of the limited area to which the search must thenceforward be necessarily restricted
and that he was precluded from acceding to their petition by nothing but the strongly expressed opinion of official authorities that after so many failures the government were no longer justified in sending out more brave men to encounter fresh dangers in a cause which was viewed as hopeless
hence it devolved on lady franklin and her friends to be the sole means of endeavoring to bring to light the true history of her husband's voyage and fate looking to the list of naval worthies who during the preceding years had been exploring the arctic regions
lady franklin was highly gratified when she obtained the willing services of captain m'clintock to command the yacht fox which she had purchased for that officer had signally distinguished himself in the voyages of sir john ross and captain now admiral austin
and especially in his extensive journeys on the ice when associated with captain kellett with such a leader she could not but entertain sanguine hopes of success when the fast and well adapted little vessel sailed from aberdeen on the first of july eighteen fifty seven
which after sundry mishaps was again starting to cross baffin's bay
the real difficulties of the enterprise were to commence any such misgivings were happily illusory
and then through the hitherto unnavigated waters of bellot strait in one summer season
whilst the revelation obtained from the long sought records which were discovered by lieutenant hobson is most satisfactory to those who speculated on the probability of franklin having in the first instance tried to force his way northwards through wellington channel as we now learn he did
at the same time the public should fully understand the motive which prompted the supporters of lady franklin in advocating the last search
we had every reason to expect that if the ships were discovered the scientific documents of the voyage including valuable magnetic observations would be recovered
that the reader may comprehend the vast extent of sea traversed by franklin in the two summers before his ships were beset
the dotted lines and arrows which extend from the then known seas and lands into the unknown waters or blank spaces on this old map indicate franklin's route the novelty range rapidity and boldness of which as thus delineated may well surprise the geographer
those who have not closely attended to the results of other arctic voyages may be informed that rarely has an expedition in the first year accomplished more by its ships than the establishing of good winter quarters from whence the real researches began by sledge work in the ensuing spring
franklin however not only reached beechey island but ascended wellington channel
and much to the north of the points reached by penny and de haven
which he thus proved to be an island the last discovery of a navigable channel throughout between cornwallis and bathurst islands though made in the very summer he left england has remained even to this day unknown to other navigators
after his companion the brave lieutenant bellot and which has hitherto been regarded only as an impassable frozen channel or ignored as a channel at all is a navigable strait the south shore of which is thus seen to be the northernmost land of the continent of america
m'clintock has also laid down the hitherto unknown coast line of boothia
has delineated the whole of king william's island and opened a new and capacious though ice choked channel suspected before but not proved to exist extending from victoria strait in a north west direction to melville or parry sound
the latter discovery rewarded the individual exertions of captain allen young but will very properly at lady franklin's request bear the name of the leader of the fox expedition
as well as of the lower animals the man of science will hereafter be further gratified by having presented to him
botany meteorology and especially to the terrestrial magnetism of the region examined lastly m'clintock has convinced himself that the best way of securing the passage of a ship from the atlantic to the pacific is by following as near as possible the coast line of north america
founded upon a large experience that no passage by a ship can ever be accomplished in a more northern direction this it is well known was the favorite theory of franklin who had himself along with richardson back beechey dease simpson and rae
surveyed the whole of that same north american coast from the back or great fish river to behring strait thus when franklin sailed in eighteen forty five
and the discoveries of parry who had already to his great renown opened the first half of a more northern course from east to west when he was arrested by the impenetrable ice barrier at melville island
and here it is to be remembered that the tract in which the record and the relics have been found is just that to which lady franklin herself specially directed kennedy the commander of the prince albert in her second private expedition in eighteen fifty two
and had that intrepid explorer not been induced to search northwards of bellot strait but had felt himself able to follow the course indicated by his sagacious employer
the natural modesty of this commander has i am bound to say prevented his doing common justice in the following journal to his own conduct conduct which can be estimated by those only who have listened to the testimony of the officers serving with and under the man
and ensured their perfect confidence
in writing this preface which i do at the request of the promoters of the last search i may state that having occupied the chair of the royal geographical society in eighteen forty five when my cherished friend sir john franklin went forth for the third time to seek a north west passage it became my bounden duty in subsequent years when his absence created much anxiety
ardently to promote the employment of searching expeditions and warmly to sustain lady franklin's endeavors in this holy cause
whose labors to support and carry out this last search have been signally serviceable forwarded to me a telegram to be communicated to the british association at aberdeen announcing the success of m'clintock that document reached balmoral on the twenty second of september last
when the men of science were invited thither by their sovereign great was the satisfaction caused by the diffusion of these good tidings among my associates the distinguished arctic explorers admiral sir james ross and general sabine being present
the immediate bestowal of the arctic medal upon all the officers and men of the fox is a pleasing proof that this interest is well sustained but these few introductory sentences must not be extended and i invite the reader at once to peruse the journal of m'clintock
which will gratify every lover of truthful and ardent research though it will leave him impressed with the sad belief
who saw these noble fellows fall down and die as they walked along the ice looking to the fact that little or no fresh food could have been obtained by the crews of the erebus and terror during their long imprisonment of twenty months in so frightfully sterile a region as that in which the ships were abandoned
so sterile that it is even deserted by the esquimaux and also to the want of sustenance in spring at the mouth of the back river
painful as is the realisation of this tragic event let us now dwell only on the reflection that while the north west passage has been solved by the heroic self sacrifice of franklin crozier fitzjames and their associates
the searches after them which are now terminated have at a very small loss of life not only added prodigiously to geographical knowledge but have in times of peace been the best school for testing by the severest trials the skill and endurance of many a brave seaman
nearly two years before this in eighteen o eight pierre on returning to petersburg after visiting his estates had involuntarily found himself in a leading position among the petersburg freemasons
he arranged dining and funeral lodge meetings enrolled new members and busied himself uniting various lodges and acquiring authentic charters he gave money for the erection of temples and supplemented as far as he could the collection of alms
in regard to which the majority of members were stingy and irregular he supported almost singlehanded a poorhouse the order had founded in petersburg his life meanwhile continued as before with the same infatuations and dissipations
he liked to dine and drink well and though he considered it immoral and humiliating could not resist the temptations of the bachelor circles in which he moved amid the turmoil of his activities and distractions however
the more masonic ground on which he stood gave way under him at the same time he felt that the deeper the ground sank under him the closer bound he involuntarily became to the order when he had joined the freemasons he had experienced the feeling
of one who confidently steps onto the smooth surface of a bog when he put his foot down it sank in to make quite sure of the firmness of the ground he put his other foot down and sank deeper still became stuck in it and involuntarily waded knee deep
in the bog joseph alexeevich was not in petersburg he had of late stood aside from the affairs of the petersburg lodges and lived almost entirely in moscow all the members of the lodges were men pierre knew in ordinary life
and it was difficult for him to regard them merely as brothers in freemasonry and not as prince b or ivan vasilevich d whom he knew in society mostly as weak and insignificant men
under the masonic aprons and insignia he saw the uniforms and decorations at which they aimed in ordinary life often after collecting alms and reckoning up twenty to thirty rubles received for the most part in promises from a dozen members
arose in his soul he divided the brothers he knew into four categories in the first he put those who did not take an active part in the affairs of the lodges or in human affairs but were exclusively occupied with the mystical science of the order
with questions of the threefold designation of god the three primordial elements sulphur mercury and salt or the meaning of the square and all the various figures of the temple of solomon
pierre respected this class of brothers to which the elder ones chiefly belonged including pierre thought joseph alexeevich himself
in the second category pierre reckoned himself and others like him seeking and vacillating who had not yet found in freemasonry a straight and comprehensible path but hoped to do so
in the third category he included those brothers the majority who saw nothing in freemasonry but the external forms and ceremonies and prized the strict performance of these forms without troubling about their purport or significance
such were willarski and even the grand master of the principal lodge finally to the fourth category also a great many brothers belonged particularly those who had lately joined these according to pierre's observations were men who had no belief in anything
nor desire for anything but joined the freemasons merely to associate with the wealthy young brothers who were influential through their connections or rank and of whom there were very many in the lodge pierre began to feel dissatisfied with what he was doing
freemasonry at any rate as he saw it here sometimes seemed to him based merely on externals he did not think of doubting freemasonry itself
and deviated from its original principles and so toward the end of the year he went abroad to be initiated into the higher secrets of the order in the summer of eighteen o nine pierre returned to petersburg
our freemasons knew from correspondence with those abroad that bezukhov had obtained the confidence of many highly placed persons
the petersburg freemasons all came to see him tried to ingratiate themselves with him and it seemed to them all that he was preparing something for them and concealing it a solemn meeting of the lodge of the second degree was convened
at which pierre promised to communicate to the petersburg brothers what he had to deliver to them from the highest leaders of their order the meeting was a full one after the usual ceremonies pierre rose and began his address
dear brothers he began blushing and stammering with a written speech in his hand it is not sufficient to observe our mysteries in the seclusion of our lodge we must act act we are drowsing but we must act
pierre raised his notebook and began to read for the dissemination of pure truth and to secure the triumph of virtue he read we must cleanse men from prejudice
diffuse principles in harmony with the spirit of the times undertake the education of the young
boldly yet prudently overcome superstitions infidelity and folly and form of those devoted to us a body linked together by unity of purpose and possessed of authority and power
and must endeavor to secure that the honest man may even in this world receive a lasting reward for his virtue but in these great endeavors we are gravely hampered by the political institutions of today
what is to be done in these circumstances to favor revolutions overthrow everything repel force by force no we are very far from that every violent reform deserves censure
for it quite fails to remedy evil while men remain what they are and also because wisdom needs no violence the whole plan of our order should be based on the idea of preparing men of firmness and virtue
bound together by unity of conviction aiming at the punishment of vice and folly and patronizing talent and virtue raising worthy men from the dust and attaching them to our brotherhood
only then will our order have the power unobtrusively to bind the hands of the protectors of disorder and to control them without their being aware of it in a word we must found a form of government holding universal sway
and beside which all other governments can continue in their customary course and do everything except what impedes the great aim of our order which is to obtain for virtue the victory over vice this aim was that of christianity itself
it taught men to be wise and good and for their own benefit to follow the example and instruction of the best and wisest men at that time when everything was plunged in darkness preaching alone was of course sufficient
the novelty of truth endowed her with special strength but now we need much more powerful methods it is now necessary that man governed by his senses should find in virtue a charm palpable to those senses
it is impossible to eradicate the passions but we must strive to direct them to a noble aim and it is therefore necessary that everyone should be able to satisfy his passions within the limits of virtue our order should provide means to that end
as soon as we have a certain number of worthy men in every state each of them again training two others and all being closely united everything will be possible for our order which has already in secret accomplished much for the welfare of mankind
this speech not only made a strong impression but created excitement in the lodge the majority of the brothers seeing in it dangerous designs of illuminism
the grand master began answering him and pierre began developing his views with more and more warmth it was long since there had been so stormy a meeting parties were formed some accusing pierre of illuminism others supporting him
at that meeting he was struck for the first time by the endless variety of men's minds which prevents a truth from ever presenting itself identically to two persons even those members who seemed to be on his side understood him
particularly those he knew to be in power and whose aid he might need in petersburg he now experienced the same feeling he had had on the eve of a battle
where the future on which the fate of millions depended was being shaped from the irritation of the older men the curiosity of the uninitiated the reserve of the initiated the hurry and preoccupation of everyone
and the innumerable committees and commissions of whose existence he learned every day he felt that now in eighteen o nine here in petersburg a vast civil conflict was in preparation
but who was supposed to be a man of genius speranski and this movement of reconstruction of which prince andrew had a vague idea and speranski its chief promoter
began to interest him so keenly that the question of the army regulations quickly receded to a secondary place in his consciousness
the reforming party cordially welcomed and courted him
he had obtained the reputation of being a liberal the party of the old and dissatisfied who censured the innovations
simply because he was the son of his father the feminine society world welcomed him gladly because he was rich distinguished a good match and almost a newcomer
and the tragic loss of his wife
having softened and grown more manly lost his former affectation pride and contemptuous irony and acquired the serenity that comes with years people talked about him were interested in him and wanted to meet him
he told the count of his interview with sila andreevich
mon cher
he manages everything i'll speak to him he has promised to come this evening what has speranski to do with the army regulations asked prince andrew
we were talking to him about you a few days ago kochubey continued and about your freed plowmen
it was a small estate that brought in no profit replied prince andrew trying to extenuate his action so as not to irritate the old man uselessly afraid of being late said the old man looking at kochubey
there's one thing i don't understand he continued who will plow the land if they are set free it is easy to write laws but difficult to rule just the same as now i ask you count
who will be heads of the departments when everybody has to pass examinations those who pass the examinations i suppose replied kochubey crossing his legs and glancing round well
i have pryanichnikov serving under me a splendid man a priceless man but he's sixty is he to go up for examination yes that's a difficulty as education is not at all general but count kochubey did not finish
with a large open forehead and a long face of unusual and peculiar whiteness who was just entering the newcomer wore a blue swallow tail coat with a cross suspended from his neck and a star on his left breast
it was speranski prince andrew recognized him at once and felt a throb within him as happens at critical moments of life
speranski's whole figure was of a peculiar type that made him easily recognizable in the society in which prince andrew lived he had never seen anyone who together with awkward and clumsy gestures possessed such calmness and self assurance
he had never seen so resolute yet gentle an expression as that in those half closed rather humid eyes or so firm a smile that expressed nothing nor had he heard such a refined smooth soft voice above all
hands which were broad but very plump soft and white such whiteness and softness prince andrew had only seen on the faces of soldiers who had been long in hospital this was speranski secretary of state reporter to the emperor
and his companion at erfurt where he had more than once met and talked with napoleon speranski did not shift his eyes from one face to another as people involuntarily do on entering a large company and was in no hurry to speak
he spoke slowly with assurance that he would be listened to and he looked only at the person with whom he was conversing prince andrew followed speranski's every word and movement with particular attention as happens to some people
especially to men who judge those near to them severely he always on meeting anyone new especially anyone whom like speranski he knew by reputation expected to discover in him the perfection of human qualities
as he had been detained at the palace he did not say that the emperor had kept him and prince andrew noticed this affectation of modesty
customary smile and looked at him in silence i am very glad to make your acquaintance i had heard of you as everyone has he said after a pause
speranski smiled more markedly the chairman of the committee on army regulations is my good friend
he said fully articulating every word and syllable and if you like i can put you in touch with him he paused at the full stop i hope you will find him sympathetic and ready to co operate in promoting all that is reasonable
a circle soon formed round speranski and the old man who had talked about his subordinate pryanichnikov addressed a question to him prince andrew without joining in the conversation watched every movement of speranski's
this man not long since an insignificant divinity student who now bolkonski thought held in his hands those plump white hands the fate of russia
prince andrew was struck by the extraordinarily disdainful composure with which speranski answered the old man he appeared to address condescending words to him from an immeasurable height
or disadvantage of what pleased the sovereign having talked for a little while in the general circle speranski rose and coming up to prince andrew took him along to the other end of the room it was clear that he thought it necessary to interest himself in bolkonski
he said with a mildly contemptuous smile as if intimating by that smile that he and prince andrew understood the insignificance of the people with whom he had just been talking this flattered prince andrew
a first example of which it is very desirable that there should be more imitators and secondly because you are one of those gentlemen of the chamber
no said prince andrew my father did not wish me to take advantage of the privilege i began the service from the lower grade your father a man of the last century evidently stands
above our contemporaries who so condemn this measure which merely reestablishes natural justice i think however that these condemnations have some ground returned prince andrew trying to resist
speranski's influence of which he began to be conscious he did not like to agree with him in everything and felt a wish to contradict
grounds of personal ambition maybe speranski put in quietly and of state interest to some extent said prince andrew
it is a source of emulation in pursuit of commendation and rewards which recognize it his arguments were concise simple and clear an institution upholding honor the source of emulation is one similar to the legion d'honneur
of the great emperor napoleon not harmful but helpful to the success of the service
i do not dispute that but it cannot be denied that court privileges have attained the same end returned prince andrew every courtier considers himself bound to maintain his position worthily
yet you do not care to avail yourself of the privilege prince said speranski indicating by a smile that he wished to finish amiably an argument which was embarrassing for his companion
if you will do me the honor of calling on me on wednesday he added i will after talking with magnitski let you know what may interest you and shall also have the pleasure of a more detailed chat with you
abolishing court ranks and introducing examinations to qualify for the grades of collegiate assessor and state councilor and not merely these but a whole state constitution intended to change the existing order of government in russia legal administrative and financial
and which he had tried to put into effect with the aid of his associates czartoryski novosiltsev
were taking shape and being realized
the emperor though he met him twice did not favor him with a single word it had always seemed to prince andrew before that he was antipathetic to the emperor and that the latter disliked his face and personality generally
and in the cold repellent glance the emperor gave him he now found further confirmation of this surmise the courtiers explained the emperor's neglect of him by his majesty's displeasure
at bolkonski's not having served since eighteen o five i know myself that one cannot help one's sympathies and antipathies thought prince andrew
but the project will speak for itself he mentioned what he had written to an old field marshal a friend of his father's the field marshal made an appointment to see him received him graciously and promised to inform the emperor
a few days later prince andrew received notice that he was to go to see the minister of war count arakcheev on the appointed day prince andrew entered count arakcheev's waiting room at nine in the morning
he did not know arakcheev personally had never seen him and all he had heard of him inspired him
he has been commissioned to consider my project so he alone can get it adopted thought prince andrew as he waited among a number of important and unimportant people in count arakcheev's waiting room
and the different types of such rooms were well known to him count arakcheev's anteroom had quite a special character the faces of the unimportant people awaiting their turn for an audience showed embarrassment and servility
the faces of those of higher rank expressed a common feeling of awkwardness covered by a mask of unconcern and ridicule of themselves their situation and the person for whom they were waiting some walked thoughtfully up and down others whispered and laughed
uncle will give it to us hot in reference to count arakcheev one general an important personage evidently feeling offended at having to wait so long sat crossing and uncrossing his legs and smiling contemptuously to himself
but the moment the door opened one feeling alone appeared on all faces that of fear prince andrew for the second time asked the adjutant on duty to take in his name but received an ironical look
and was told that his turn would come in due course after some others had been shown in and out of the minister's room by the adjutant on duty an officer who struck prince andrew by his humiliated and frightened air was admitted at that terrible door
this officer's audience lasted a long time then suddenly the grating sound of a harsh voice was heard from the other side of the door and the officer with pale face and trembling lips came out and passed through the waiting room clutching his head
after this prince andrew was conducted to the door and the officer on duty said in a whisper to the right at the window prince andrew entered a plain tidy room and saw at the table a man of forty with a long waist
a long closely cropped head deep wrinkles scowling brows above dull greenish hazel eyes and an overhanging red nose arakcheev turned his head toward him without looking at him what is your petition asked arakcheev
returned prince andrew quietly arakcheev's eyes turned toward him sit down said he
his majesty the emperor has deigned to send your excellency a project submitted by me you see my dear sir i have read your project interrupted arakcheev uttering only the first words amiably and then again without looking at prince andrew
relapsing gradually into a tone of grumbling contempt you are proposing new military laws there are many laws but no one to carry out the old ones
said prince andrew politely i have endorsed a resolution on your memorandum and sent it to the committee i do not approve of it
across the paper was scrawled in pencil without capital letters misspelled and without punctuation unsoundly constructed because resembles an imitation of the french military code and from the articles of war needlessly deviating
to what committee has the memorandum been referred inquired prince andrew to the committee on army regulations and i have recommended that your honor should be appointed a member but without a salary prince andrew smiled i don't want one
a member without salary
conversational though mordaunt had been so completely taken by surprise and had mounted the stairs in such utter confusion when once seated he recovered himself as it were and prepared to seize any possible opportunity of escape
and he instinctively slipped it around within reach of his right hand d'artagnan was waiting for a reply to his remark and said nothing aramis muttered to himself we shall hear nothing but the usual commonplace things porthos sucked his mustache muttering
the silence however could not last forever so d'artagnan began sir he said with desperate politeness
mordaunt did not reply just now d'artagnan continued you were disguised i mean to say attired as a murderer and now and now i look very much like a man who is going to be murdered oh sir
said d'artagnan how can you talk like that when you are in the company of gentlemen
no sword is excellent enough to be of use against four swords and daggers well that is scarcely the question i had the honor of asking you why you altered your costume the mask and beard became you very well and as to the axe
i do not think it would be out of keeping even at this moment why then have you laid it aside because remembering the scene at armentieres i thought i should find four axes for one as i was to meet four executioners sir
you are very young i shall therefore overlook your frivolous remarks what took place at armentieres has no connection whatever with the present occasion
aha it is a duel then cried mordaunt as if disposed to reply at once to the provocation porthos rose always ready for this kind of adventure pardon me said d'artagnan do not let us do things in a hurry we will arrange the matter rather better
confess monsieur mordaunt that you are anxious to kill some of us all replied mordaunt then my dear sir
of course they will do so as honorable gentlemen and the best proof i can furnish is this so saying he threw his hat on the ground
and bowed to mordaunt with true french grace at your service sir he continued my sword is shorter than yours it's true but bah i think the arm will make up for the sword halt cried porthos coming forward i begin and without any rhetoric
allow me porthos said aramis
he might have been taken for a statue even his breathing seemed to be arrested gentlemen said d'artagnan you shall have your turn monsieur mordaunt dislikes you sufficiently not to refuse you afterward
i have particular business to settle with this gentleman and i shall and will begin porthos and aramis drew back disappointed and drawing his sword d'artagnan turned to his adversary sir i am waiting for you
and for my part gentlemen i admire you you are disputing which shall fight me first but you do not consult me who am most concerned in the matter i hate you all but not equally i hope to kill all four of you but i am more likely to kill the first than the second
the second than the third and the third than the last i claim then the right to choose my opponent if you refuse this right you may kill me but i shall not fight it is but fair said porthos and aramis hoping he would choose one of them
but their silence seemed to imply consent well then said mordaunt
but after an instant of motionless silence he said to the astonishment of his friends monsieur mordaunt a duel between us is impossible submit this honour to somebody else and he sat down ah
there's one who is afraid zounds
who says that athos is afraid
is it your decision athos resumed the gascon irrevocably you hear sir said d'artagnan turning to mordaunt the comte de la fere will not do you the honor of fighting with you choose one of us to replace the comte de la fere
as long as i don't fight with him it is the same to me with whom i fight put your names into a hat and draw lots a good idea said d'artagnan at least that will conciliate us all said aramis
said porthos and yet it is very simple come aramis said d'artagnan
he stood with his arms folded apparently as calm as any man could be in such circumstances if he had not courage he had what is very like it namely pride aramis went to cromwell's desk tore off three bits of paper of equal size
wrote on the first his own name and on the others those of his two companions and presented them open to mordaunt
he then rolled them separately and put them in a hat which he handed to mordaunt mordaunt put his hand into the hat took out one of the three papers and disdainfully dropped it on the table without reading it
muttered d'artagnan i would give my chance of a captaincy in the mousquetaires for that to be my name aramis opened the paper and in a voice trembling with hate and vengeance read d'artagnan the gascon uttered a cry of joy and turning to mordaunt
i hope sir said he you have no objection to make none whatever replied the other drawing his sword and resting the point on his boot the moment that d'artagnan saw that his wish was accomplished and his man would not escape him he recovered his usual tranquillity
he turned up his cuffs neatly and rubbed the sole of his right boot on the floor but did not fail however to remark that mordaunt was looking about him in a singular manner are you ready sir he said at last
i was waiting for you sir said mordaunt raising his head and casting at his opponent a look it would be impossible to describe well then said the gascon take care of yourself for i am not a bad hand at the rapier nor i either so much the better
that sets my mind at rest defend yourself one minute said the young man give me your word gentlemen
is it to have the pleasure of insulting us that you say that my little viper no but to set my mind at rest as you observed just now it is for something else than that i imagine muttered d'artagnan shaking his head doubtfully
on the honor of gentlemen said aramis and porthos in that case gentlemen have the kindness to retire into the corners so as to give us ample room we shall require it yes gentlemen said d'artagnan we must not leave this person the slightest pretext for behaving badly
which with all due respect i fancy he is anxious still to do this new attack made no impression on mordaunt the space was cleared the two lamps placed on cromwell's desk in order that the combatants might have as much light as possible and the swords crossed
he made a rapid and brilliant feint which mordaunt parried
ah sir said d'artagnan you have a wicked smile it must have been the devil who taught it you was it not
he succeeded in meeting his sword which slid along his own without touching his chest mordaunt rapidly sprang back a step ah you lose ground you are turning well as you please i even gain something by it for i no longer see that wicked smile of yours
you have no idea what a false look you have particularly when you are afraid look at my eyes and you will see what no looking glass has ever shown you a frank and honorable countenance
to this flow of words not perhaps in the best taste but characteristic of d'artagnan whose principal object was to divert his opponent's attention mordaunt did not reply but continuing to turn around he succeeded in changing places with d'artagnan
he smiled more and more sarcastically and his smile began to make the gascon anxious come come cried d'artagnan we must finish with this and in his turn he pressed mordaunt hard who continued to lose ground but evidently on purpose and without letting his sword leave the line for a moment
however as they were fighting in a room and had not space to go on like that forever mordaunt's foot at last touched the wall against which he rested his left hand
no well then you shall see it now
all of which touched but only pricked him the three friends looked on panting and astonished
but the moment when after a fine quick feint he was attacking as sharply as lightning the wall seemed to give way mordaunt disappeared through the opening
had felt for the knob with his left hand pressed it and disappeared the gascon uttered a furious imprecation which was answered by a wild laugh on the other side of the iron panel
it is the devil in person said aramis hastening forward he escapes us growled porthos pushing his huge shoulder against the hinges but in vain sblood he escapes us
i thought as much said d'artagnan wasting his strength in useless efforts zounds i thought as much when the wretch kept moving around the room i thought he was up to something it's a misfortune to which his friend the devil treats us said aramis
really said d'artagnan abandoning the attempt to burst open the panel after several ineffectual attempts
you cannot understand the position we are in in this kind of game not to kill is to let one's self be killed this fox of a fellow will be sending us a hundred iron sided beasts who will pick us off like sparrows in this place come come we must be off
if we stay here five minutes more there's an end of us yes you are right but where shall we go asked porthos to the hotel to be sure to get our baggage and horses and from there
i understand the architecture of the houses
it was in fact mordaunt whom d'artagnan had followed without knowing it
then mounting a staircase had opened a door
this man was cromwell cromwell had two or three of these retreats in london
it is you mordaunt he said you are late general i wished to see the ceremony to the end which delayed me ah i scarcely thought you were so curious as that i am always curious to see the downfall of your honor's enemies and he was not among the least of them
but you general were you not at whitehall no said cromwell there was a moment's silence have you had any account of it none
ah you knew that said mordaunt it matters little four men disguised as workmen
and knowing all that your honor remained here far from the city tranquil and inactive tranquil yes replied cromwell but who told you i was inactive but if the plot had succeeded i wished it to do so
yes his death but it would have been more seemly not upon the scaffold why so asked mordaunt cromwell smiled
that i had had him condemned for the sake of justice and had let him escape out of pity but
impossible my precautions were taken and does your honor know the four men who undertook to rescue him the four frenchmen of whom two were sent by the queen to her husband and two by mazarin to me
and do you think mazarin commissioned them to act as they have done it is possible but he will not avow it how so because they failed your honor gave me
now that they are guilty of a conspiracy against england will your honor give me all four of them take them said cromwell mordaunt bowed with a smile of triumphant ferocity did the people shout at all cromwell asked very little except long live cromwell
i was so situated as to hear and see everything he answered it was now cromwell's turn to look fixedly at mordaunt and mordaunt to make himself impenetrable it appears said cromwell that this improvised executioner did his duty remarkably well
mordaunt remembered that cromwell had told him he had had no detailed account
hidden behind some screen or curtain in fact said mordaunt with a calm voice and immovable countenance a single blow sufficed perhaps it was some one in that occupation said cromwell do you think so sir he did not look like an executioner
but said mordaunt it might have been some personal enemy of the king who had made a vow of vengeance and accomplished it in this way perhaps it was some man of rank who had grave reasons for hating the fallen king
threw himself in the way with a mask on his face and an axe in his hand
but as an ambassador of fate possibly and if that were the case would your honor condemn his action it is not for me to judge it rests between his conscience and his god but if your honor knew this man
it is the axe not the man we must thank and yet without the man
cromwell smiled they would have carried him to greenwich he said and put him on board a felucca with five barrels of powder in the hold once out to sea you are too good a politician not to understand the rest mordaunt yes
they would have all been blown up just so the explosion would have done what the axe had failed to do
you see now why i did not care to know your gentleman in the mask
in spite of his excellent intentions i could not thank him for what he has done mordaunt bowed humbly sir he said you are a profound thinker and your plan was sublime say absurd since it has become useless
the only sublime ideas in politics are those which bear fruit so to night mordaunt go to greenwich and ask for the captain of the felucca lightning show him a white handkerchief knotted at the four corners and tell the crew to disembark and carry the powder back to the arsenal unless indeed
unless said mordaunt
this skiff might be of use to you for personal projects oh my lord my lord that title said cromwell laughing is all very well here
but your honor will soon be called so generally i hope so at least said cromwell rising and putting on his cloak you are going sir yes said cromwell i slept here last night and the night before and you know it is not my custom to sleep three times in the same bed
then said mordaunt your honor gives me my liberty for to night and even for all day to morrow if you want it since last evening he added smiling you have done enough in my service and if you have any personal matters to settle
it is just that i should give you time thank you sir it will be well employed i hope cromwell turned as he was going are you armed he asked i have my sword and no one waiting for you outside no
then you had better come with me thank you sir but the way by the subterranean passage would take too much time and i have none to lose
it closed after him with a spring this door communicated with a subterranean passage leading under the street to a grotto in the garden of a house about a hundred yards from that of the future protector it was just before this that grimaud had perceived the two men seated together
d'artagnan was the first to recover from his surprise mordaunt he cried ah by heaven
yes said porthos let us break the door in and fall upon him no replied d'artagnan no noise now grimaud you come here climb up to the window again and tell us if mordaunt is alone
and whether he is preparing to go out or go to bed if he comes out we shall catch him if he stays in we will break in the window it is easier and less noisy than the door grimaud began to scale the wall again
porthos and i will stay here the friends obeyed he is alone said grimaud we did not see his companion come out he may have gone by the other door what is he doing putting on his cloak and gloves he's ours muttered d'artagnan
porthos mechanically drew his dagger from the scabbard put it up again my friend said d'artagnan
hush said grimaud he is coming out
i can see nothing now get down then and quickly grimaud leaped down the snow deadened the noise of his fall
and clap their hands if they catch him we will do the same the next moment the door opened and mordaunt appeared on the threshold face to face with d'artagnan
mordaunt was livid but he uttered no cry nor called for assistance d'artagnan quietly pushed him in again and by the light of a lamp on the staircase made him ascend the steps backward one by one keeping his eyes all the time on mordaunt's hands who however knowing that it was useless attempted no resistance
porthos came up behind and unhooking the lamp on the staircase relit that in the room
oblige me by taking a seat said d'artagnan pushing a chair toward mordaunt who sat down pale but calm aramis porthos and d'artagnan drew their chairs near him
as if determined to be merely a spectator of the proceedings he seemed to be quite overcome porthos rubbed his hands in feverish impatience aramis bit his lips till the blood came d'artagnan alone was calm at least in appearance
the skiff lightning d'artagnan had judged correctly mordaunt felt that he had no time to lose and he lost none
this time the musketeers had an adversary who was worthy of them after closing the door carefully behind him mordaunt glided into the subterranean passage
and thus reached the neighboring house where he paused to examine himself and to take breath good he said nothing almost nothing scratches nothing more two in the arm and one in the breast the wounds that i make are better than that
witness the executioner of bethune my uncle and king charles now not a second to lose for a second lost will perhaps save them they must die die all together killed at one stroke by the thunder of men in default of god's
they must disappear broken scattered annihilated i will run then till my legs no longer serve till my heart bursts in my bosom but i will arrive before they do mordaunt proceeded at a rapid pace to the nearest cavalry barracks about a quarter of a league distant
he made that quarter of a league in four or five minutes arrived at the barracks he made himself known took the best horse in the stables mounted and gained the high road
there is the port he murmured that dark point yonder is the isle of dogs good i am half an hour in advance of them an hour perhaps
which i wonder is the lightning at this moment as if in reply to his words a man lying on a coil of cables rose and advanced a few steps toward him mordaunt drew a handkerchief from his pocket and tying a knot at each corner the signal agreed upon
waved it in the air and the man came up to him he was wrapped in a large rough cape which concealed his form and partly his face
said the sailor yes just so along the isle of dogs and perhaps you have a preference for one boat more than another
lightning interrupted mordaunt then mine is the boat you want sir i'm your man i begin to think so particularly if you have not forgotten a certain signal
good quite right cried mordaunt springing off his horse there's not a moment to lose now take my horse to the nearest inn and conduct me to your vessel but asked the sailor where are your companions i thought there were four of you
listen to me sir i'm not the man you take me for you are in captain rogers's post are you not under orders from general cromwell
indeed sir i recognize you you are captain mordaunt mordaunt was startled oh fear nothing said the skipper showing his face i am a friend captain groslow cried mordaunt himself
the general remembered that i had formerly been a naval officer and he gave me the command of this expedition is there anything new in the wind nothing
has only hastened their flight in ten minutes they will perhaps be here what have you come for then to embark with you ah ah the general doubted my fidelity
no but i wish to have a share in my revenge haven't you some one who will relieve me of my horse groslow whistled and a sailor appeared patrick said groslow take this horse to the stables of the nearest inn if any one asks you whose it is
the sailor departed without reply now said mordaunt
there is no danger dressed as i am in this pilot coat on a night as dark as this besides even you didn't recognize me they will be much less likely to
everything is ready is it not yes the cargo on board yes five full casks and fifty empty ones good we are carrying port wine to anvers excellent
for they will soon be here i am ready it is important that none of your crew should see me i have but one man on board and i am as sure of him as i am of myself besides he doesn't know you
like his mates he is ready to obey our orders knowing nothing of our plan very well let us go they then went down to the thames
groslow jumped in followed by mordaunt and in five minutes they were quite away from that world of houses which then crowded the outskirts of london and mordaunt could discern the little vessel riding at anchor near the isle of dogs when they reached the side of this felucca mordaunt
dexterous in his eagerness for vengeance seized a rope and climbed up the side of the vessel with a coolness and agility very rare among landsmen he went with groslow to the captain's berth a sort of temporary cabin of planks
for the chief apartment had been given up by captain rogers to the passengers who were to be accommodated at the other end of the boat
said mordaunt nothing at all that's a capital arrangement return to greenwich and bring them here i shall hide myself in your cabin you have a longboat that in which we came it appeared light and well constructed
quite a canoe fasten it to the poop with a rope
put a good supply of rum and biscuit in it for the seamen should the night happen to be stormy they will not be sorry to find something to console themselves with consider all this done do you wish to see the powder room no when you return i will set the fuse myself
never fear there's ten o'clock striking at greenwich groslow then having given the sailor on duty an order to be on the watch with more than usual vigilance went down into the longboat and soon reached greenwich
the wind was chilly and the jetty was deserted as he approached it but he had no sooner landed than he heard a noise of horses galloping upon the paved road these horsemen were our friends or rather an avant garde
as soon as they arrived at the spot where groslow stood they stopped as if guessing that he was the man they wanted
whilst d'artagnan ever cautious remained on horseback one hand upon his pistol leaning forward watchfully
even if the night had not been so dark as to render precaution superfluous
i wish to inform you my lord replied groslow with an irish accent feigned of course
he fell down this morning and broke his leg but i'm his cousin he told me everything and desired me to watch instead of him and in his place to conduct wherever they wished to go the gentlemen who should bring me a handkerchief tied at each corner like that one which you hold
or any other port you choose in france
it seems a likely story to me
besides we can but blow out his brains if he proves false said the gascon
i dare say you know how to navigate should he fail us my dear friend you guess well my father meant me for the navy and i have some vague notions about navigation you see
they then summoned their friends who with blaisois mousqueton and grimaud promptly joined them
and of their lackeys which had been sold to the host in settlement of their account with him thanks to this stroke of business the four friends were able to take away with them a sum of money which if not large
was sufficient as a provision against delays and accidents parry parted from his friends regretfully they had proposed his going with them to france but he had straightway declined it is very simple mousqueton had said he is thinking of groslow
it was captain groslow the reader will remember who had broken parry's head d'artagnan resumed immediately the attitude of distrust that was habitual with him he found the wharf too completely deserted
the captain too accommodating he had reported to aramis what had taken place and aramis not less distrustful than he had increased his suspicions
the boat is waiting for us come besides said aramis what prevents our being distrustful and going aboard at the same time
and if he doesn't go straight i will crush him that's all
let us go then you first mousqueton and he stopped his friends directing the valets to go first in order to test the plank leading from the pier to the boat the three valets passed without accident
d'artagnan went last still shaking his head what in the devil is the matter with you my friend said porthos upon my word you would make caesar afraid the matter is
that i can see upon this pier neither inspector nor sentinel nor exciseman and you complain of that said porthos everything goes as if in flowery paths everything goes too well porthos but no matter
we must trust in god as soon as the plank was withdrawn the captain took his place at the tiller and made a sign to one of the sailors who boat hook in hand began to push out from the labyrinth of boats in which they were involved
the other sailor had already seated himself on the port side and was ready to row as soon as there was room for rowing his companion rejoined him and the boat began to move more rapidly at last we are off exclaimed porthos alas
yes but all four together and without a scratch which is a consolation we are not yet at our destination observed the prudent d'artagnan beware of misadventure ah my friend cried porthos like the crows you always bring bad omens
pitch dark when one does not see more than twenty yards before one yes but to morrow morning to morrow we shall be at boulogne i hope so with all my heart said the gascon and i confess my weakness
but as long as we were within gunshot of the pier or of the vessels lying by it i was looking for a frightful discharge of musketry which would crush us but said porthos with great wisdom that was impossible
bah much monsieur mordaunt would care
i not only confess it but am proud of it returned the gascon i'm not such a rhinoceros as you are oho what's that the lightning answered the captain our felucca
they went on board and the captain instantly conducted them to the berth prepared for them a cabin which was to serve for all purposes and for the whole party he then tried to slip away under pretext of giving orders to some one
pray how many men have you on board captain i don't understand was the reply
groslow on the question being interpreted answered three without counting myself d'artagnan understood for while replying the captain had raised three fingers oh he exclaimed
whilst you settle yourselves i shall make the round of the boat as for me said porthos
a very good idea porthos said the gascon
go grimaud
d'artagnan finding a lantern on the deck took it up and with a pistol in his hand he said to the captain in english come being with the classic english oath the only english words he knew and so saying he descended to the lower deck
this was divided into three compartments
the second was to serve as the sleeping room for the servants
was under the temporary cabin in which mordaunt was concealed
preceded by the lantern what a number of barrels one would think one was in the cave of ali baba what is there in them he added putting his lantern on one of the casks the captain seemed inclined to go upon deck again
but controlling himself he answered port wine
said the gascon since we shall not die of thirst are they all full grimaud translated the question and groslow who was wiping the perspiration from off his forehead answered some full others empty
greatly to the captain's alarm into the interstices between the barrels and finding that there was nothing concealed in them come along he said and he went toward the door of the second compartment stop
and he opened the door with a trembling hand into the second compartment where mousqueton and blaisois were preparing supper here there was evidently nothing to seek or to apprehend and they passed rapidly to examine the third compartment
this was the room appropriated to the sailors two or three hammocks hung upon the ceiling a table and two benches composed the entire furniture d'artagnan picked up two or three old sails hung on the walls and meeting nothing to suspect
regained by the hatchway the deck of the vessel and this room he asked pointing to the captain's cabin that's my room replied groslow open the door
put his head in at the half opened door and seeing that the cabin was nothing better than a shed good he said if there is an army on board it is not here that it is hidden let us see what porthos has found for supper
and thanking the captain he regained the state cabin where his friends were
well said aramis all is well we may sleep tranquilly on this assurance the two friends fell asleep
little indeed
arming himself capa pie to go to his club at nine
the chinese tiger equipping himself for combat or the comanche warrior painting up for going on the war path all hands make ready for action as the men of war's men say
in his left hand
in the right he carried a sword cane in his left pocket a life preserver in the right a revolver
betwixt outer and under garment lay a malay kreese but never any poisoned arrows they are weapons altogether too unfair before starting
in the silence and obscurity of his study he exercised himself for a while warding off imaginary cuts and thrusts lunging at the wall and giving his muscles play then he took his master key
without hurrying mark you cool and calm british courage that is the true sort gentlemen at the garden end he opened the heavy iron door
violently and abruptly so that it should slam against the outer wall if they had been skulking behind it you may wager they would have been jam
unhappily they were not there the way being open
quickly glancing to the right and left ere banging the door to and fastening it smartly with double locking then on the way not so much as a cat upon the avignon road
all the doors closed and no lights in the casements
except for the parish lamps well spaced apart blinking in the river mist calm and proud
ringing his heels with regularity and sending sparks out of the paving stones
whether in avenues streets or lanes he took care to keep in the middle of the road an excellent method of precaution allowing one to see danger coming and above all
to avoid any droppings from windows as happens after dark in tarascon and the old town of edinburgh
that instead of going to the club by the shortest cut he went over the town by the longest and darkest way round through a mass of vile paltry alleys at the mouth of which the rhone could be seen ominously gleaming
constantly hoped that beyond the turn of one of these cut throats haunts they would leap from the shadow and fall on his back i warrant you they would have been warmly received though
but alack by reason of some nasty meanness of destiny
not so much as a dog or a drunken man nothing at all still there were false alarms somewhiles he would catch a sound of steps and muffled voices ware hawks
and stop short as if taking root on the spot scrutinising the gloom sniffing the wind even glueing his ear to the ground in the orthodox red indian mode
the steps would draw nearer and the voices grow more distinct till no more doubt was possible they were coming in fact here they were
steady with eye afire and heaving breast
in readiness to spring forward whilst uttering his war cry when all of a sudden out of the thick of the murkiness
good night old fellow maledictions upon it it was the chemist bezuquet with his family coming from singing their family ballad at costecalde's oh good even good even
and plunging fiercely into the gloom with his cane waved on high
the dauntless one would linger yet a moment
but finally weary of awaiting them and certain they would not show themselves he would fling a last glare of defiance into the shades
and snarl wrathfully nothing nothing at all there never is nothing upon which double negation which he meant as a stronger affirmative
but yet he was even then the cock of the walk at tarascon let us show whence arose this sovereignty in the first place you must know that everybody is shooting mad in these parts
from the greatest to the least the chase is the local craze and so it has ever been since the mythological times when the tarasque as the county dragon was called
flourished himself and his tail in the town marshes and entertained shooting parties got up against him so you see the passion has lasted a goodish bit it follows that
together with a hurly burly of hounds cracking of whips and blowing of whistles and hunting horns it's splendid to see unfortunately there's a lack of game an
absolute dearth stupid as the brute creation is you can readily understand that in time it learnt some distrust
and yet the pretty hillocks are mightily tempting sweet smelling as they are of myrtle lavender and rosemary and the fine muscatels plumped out with sweetness even unto bursting
as they spread along the banks of the rhone are deucedly tempting too true true but tarascon lies behind all this and tarascon is down in the black books of the world of fur and feather
the very birds of passage have ticked it off on their guide books and when the wild ducks coming down towards the camargue in long triangles
save one old rogue of a hare escaped by miracle from the massacres who is stubbornly determined to stick to it all his life he is very well known at tarascon
and a name has been given him rapid is what they call him
has doubled ay tripled the value of the property but nobody has yet managed to lay him low at present
only two or three inveterate fellows worry themselves about him the rest have given him up as a bad job and old rapid has long ago passed into the legendary world
although your tarasconer is very slightly superstitious naturally and would eat cock robins on toast or the swallow which is our lady's own bird for that matter if he could find any but that won't do
they go out into the real country two or three leagues from town they gather in knots of five or six
extract from their game bags a good sized piece of boiled beef raw onions a sausage and anchovies and commence a next to endless snack washed down with one of those nice rhone wines
which sets a toper laughing and singing after that when thoroughly braced up they rise whistle the dogs to heel set the guns on half cock and go on the shoot
another way of saying that every man plucks off his cap shies it up with all his might
according to what he is loaded for the man who lodges most shot in his cap is hailed as king of the hunt and stalks back triumphantly at dusk into tarascon
with his riddled cap on the end of his gun barrel amid any quantity of dog barks and horn blasts it is needless to say that cap selling is a fine business in the town
there are even some hatters who sell hunting caps ready shot torn and perforated for the bad shots but the only buyer known is the chemist bezuquet
every sunday morning out he would march in a new cap and back he would strut every sunday evening with a mere thing of shreds the loft of baobab villa
and had read all the handbooks of all possible kinds of venery from cap popping to burmese tiger shooting the sportsmen constituted him their great cynegetical judge
and took him for referee and arbitrator in all their differences between three and four daily at costecalde the gunsmith's
chiefly to the account of these diverse talents
the brave commandant bravida honorary captain retired in the military clothing factory department called him a game fellow and you may well admit that the warrior knew all about game fellows
he played such a capital knife and fork on game of all kinds so was the legislature on tartarin's side two or three times in open court the old chief judge
lastly
he had become the swell bruiser the aristocratic pugilist the crack bully of the local corinthians for the tarasconers from his build bearing style that aspect of a guard's
trumpeter's charger which fears no noise his reputation as a hero coming from nobody knew whence or for what and some scramblings for coppers and a few kicks to the little ragamuffins basking at his doorway
along the waterside
with his cap on the muzzle of his gun and his fustian shooting jacket belted in tightly the sturdy river lightermen would respectfully bob and blinking towards the huge biceps swelling out his arms
would mutter among one another in admiration now there's a powerful chap if you like he has double muscles double muscles why you never heard of such a thing outside of tarascon
with all his numberless parts double muscles the popular favour and the so precious esteem of brave commandant bravida ex captain in the army clothing factory tartarin was not happy
this life in a petty town weighed upon him and suffocated him the great man of tarascon was bored in tarascon
a wild adventurous spirit which dreamt of nothing but battles races across the pampas mighty battues desert sands blizzards and typhoons it was not enough to go out every sunday to pop at a cap
and the rest of the time to ladle out casting votes at the gunmaker's
there would be sufficient tedium in it to kill him with consumption in vain did he surround himself with baobabs and other african trees to widen his horizon
and some little to forget his club and the market place in vain did he pile weapon upon weapon and malay kreese upon malay kreese in vain did he cram with romances
endeavouring like the immortal don quixote to wrench himself by the vigour of his fancy out of the talons of pitiless reality
the sight of all the murderous implements kept him in a perpetual stew of wrath and exaltation his revolvers repeating rifles and ducking guns shouted battle battle
out of their mouths through the twigs of his baobab the tempest of great voyages and journeys
when he was reading alone amidst his blades points and edges how many times did he dash down his book and rush to the wall to unhook a deadly arm the poor man forgot he was at home in tarascon in his underclothes
and with a handkerchief round his head he would translate his readings into action and goading himself with his own voice
now only let em come them who were they tartarin did not himself any too clearly understand they was all that should be attacked and fought with
all that bites claws scalps whoops and yells
the grizzly of the rocky mountains who wobbles on his hind legs and licks himself with a tongue full of blood
the malay pirate the brigand of the abruzzi in short they was warfare travel adventure and glory but alas it was to no avail that the fearless tarasconer
called for and defied them never did they come odsboddikins what would they have come to do in tarascon nevertheless tartarin always expected to run up against them
for that is a fact up to the age of five and forty the dreadless tarasconian
he had not even taken that obligatory trip to marseilles
included beaucaire and yet that's not far from tarascon there being merely the bridge to go over unfortunately this rascally bridge has so often been blown away by the gales it is so long and frail
preferred terra firma we are afraid we must make a clean breast of it in our hero there were two very distinct characters
some father of the church has said i feel there are two men in me
who carried in his frame the soul of don quixote the same chivalric impulses
and crankiness for the grandiose and romantic but worse is the luck he had not the body of the celebrated hidalgo that thin and meagre apology for a body on which material life failed to take a hold
one that could get through twenty nights without its breast plate being unbuckled off and forty eight hours on a handful of rice on the contrary
was a stout honest bully of a body very fat very weighty most sensual and fond of coddling highly touchy full of low class appetite and homely requirements
the short paunchy body on stumps of the immortal sancho panza don quixote and sancho panza in the one same man you will readily comprehend what a cat and dog couple they made
what strife what clapper clawing oh the fine dialogue for lucian or saint evremond to write between the two tartarins
and shouting up and at em
and murmuring i mean to stay at home the duet
above all self control
sweetly smelling and with the play of light on watered silk upon its unctuous surface and with succulent grilled steak flavoured with anise seed
i am abed still and slept so soundly nothing but your letter could have waked me you shall hear from me as soon as we have dined farewell
can you endure that word no out upon't i'll see you anon
fye upon't i shall grow too good now i am taking care to know how your worship slept to night better i hope than you did the last send me word how you do
and don't put me off with a bit of a note now you could write me a fine long letter when i did not deserve it half so well
saturday i confess was devoted to my lady but yesterday
my cold would not suffer me but kept me prisoner all the day i went to your lodging to tell you that visiting the sick was part of the work of the day but you were gone and so i went to bed again
i find my conscience a little troubled till i have asked your pardon for my ill humour last night will you forgive it me in earnest i could not help it
but i met with a cure for it my brother kept me up to hear his learned lecture till after two o'clock and i spent all my ill humour upon him and yet we parted very quietly
and look'd as if a little good fortune might make us good friends but your special friend my elder brother i have a story to tell you of him will my cousin f come think you
send me word it maybe twas a compliment if i can see you this morning i will but i dare not promise it
sir this is to tell you that you will be expected to morrow morning about nine o'clock at a lodging over against the place where charinge crosse stood
if with these directions you can find it out you will there find one that is very much your servant
now i have got the trick of breaking my word i shall do it every day i must go to roehampton to day but tis all one you do not care much for seeing me
well my master remember last night you swaggered like a young lord
i have a heart still that cannot resolve to refuse you anything within its power to grant but lord when shall i see you
people will think me mad if i go abroad this morning after having seen me in the condition i was in last night and they will think it strange to see you here
could you not stay till they are all gone to roehampton they go this morning i do but ask though do what you please only believe you do a great injustice if you think me false
i never resolv'd to give you an eternal farewell but i resolv'd at the same time to part with all the comfort of my life and whether i told it you or not i shall die yours
here comes the note again to tell you i cannot call on you to night i cannot help it and you must take it as patiently as you can but i am engaged to night at the three rings to sup and play
poor man i am sorry for you in earnest i shall be quite spoiled i see no remedy think whether it were not best to leave me and begin a new adventure
the silly syclopedia a terrible thing in the form of a literary torpedo which is launched for hilarious purposes only inaccurate in every particular containing copious etymological derivations
jumped over the fence climbed a telegraph pole burst its cylinder head exploded all its tires and then turned around and barked at me abbreviations used in this work
a b at the bat
butt in c o catch on d t l down the line e s easy street i t n in the neck
it's up to you i f m i'm from missouri m m t s make mine the same n g nice gentleman o t l on the level p d q
pass the butter t l the limit preface some eighteen months ago i took this brilliant bunch of brain burrs to my esteemed publisher
and with much enthusiasm invited him to spend a lot of money thereon the main stem in the works informed me that he had his fingers on the public pulse
and just as soon as that pulse began to jump and yell for something from my fiery pen he would throw the silly syclopedia at it then
gave me a fairly good cigar and began to look hard in the direction of the elevator last week while searching for some missing government bonds
he at once reached over and grabbed the public pulse to his astonishment
in a frenzied effort to make up for lost time my publisher then yelled feverishly for a printer enclosed please find the result in the meantime however
seventy four dollars worth of glory and about fourteen cents worth of fame tough isn't it i think my publisher should be censured for going out golfing
and taking his fingers off the public pulse don't you noah lott chestnut hill
a flush fool a man can drop a lot of dough trying to pick up money
are soon spotted an accommodation liar soon learns to run like an express a guilty conscience needs no accuser if you catch him at it a an adjective
commonly called the indefinite article because the higher the fewer a bas
a musical term which cannot be explained here because the musical union might get sore a flat a people coop seven rooms and a landlord with hot and cold gas and running servants
a flat is the poor relation of an apartment abroad a place where people go to be cured of visiting foreign lands abscond to duck with the dough
from the latin word absconditto meaning to grab the long green and hike for the bad lands absinthe the national headache of the french a jag builder which is mostly wormwood
and bad dreams a liquid substance which when applied to a holdover revivifies it and enables its owner to sit up and notice the bar tender abstain
the stepladder which leads up to the water wagon abstemious having an aisle seat on the water wagon acrobat a fellow of infinite chest
accumulate to collect or bring together for example he borrowed two dollars from his wife whereupon he went out and accumulated a bunch of boozerine
until we get used to it alcohol the forefather of a hold over boozerine in the raw state from the latin words alco and haul meaning
haul him to the alcove see lord macaulay's jags of ancient rome ambition the only disease which laziness can cure amusement
the hard work a man does on the golf links to give himself an appetite for sausage links angel something behind a show and always something behind ape
to imitate for instance the man who imitates his betters is the easiest man to make a monkey of applause the fuss which we think the world ought to make over us
for doing our duty automobile a horseless idea which makes people go fast and the money go faster a tide in the affairs of man which taken between the shoulder blades and the curbstone
leads on to the hospital axe grinding the art practiced by those who give you a cookie so they can touch you for a barrel of flour the axe grinding industry
had its origin in the garden of eden the serpent was extremely partial to autumn so he gave eve a nice red apple and in exchange she gave the serpent an early fall
a machine invented for the purpose of flying through the newspapers see m santos dumont in case he isn't in when you call a part of his autobiography is printed herewith my first yearning
writes m santos see page ninety seven was for an opportunity to rise in the world when but a little boy my dearest wish was to get up to the top of the ladder and then have someone remove the ladder
if i stayed up i knew i was successful if i came down i didn't know anything for a week or two the reader will notice a peculiarity about this gentleman's name
it starts off with m and then there is eight bars rest until it comes to santos this is a french custom every man in france begins his first name with m
happened while i was extremely young one day while out in the brazilian diamond fields picking the luscious white stones from the trees it suddenly occurred to me what a frivolous life i was leading
diamonds diamonds everywhere and not a place to pawn i became restless my father owned the diamond plantation so i went to him and explained what a tired feeling i had
and how i longed to rise in the world father at once turned about fifteen volts into his right shoe and i rose for a distance of four feet
but this short flying trip made a deep impression upon my mind and otherwise ten years later i left home just to convince my father
that i could rise in the world without his kindly collaboration one day while in new york i went up to the fifty ninth floor of a sky remover building the elevator was extremely nervous that day
i was pained and surprised to observe that my stomach did not travel with me
i complained bitterly to him about such an inhuman invention which rushed through space with a man's exterior and left his interior to bump its way downstairs
told me if i did not like it to get out and fly that was the inspiration which drove me to build the flying machine
the kangaroo did not attempt to continue the upward ascent but followed a slope of the rugged hill leaping from rock to rock
so that the blackfellows and the dogs easily followed every movement as they pursued the hunt on a smoother level below the blacks were trying to hurry on so as to cut off the kangaroo's retreat at a spur of the hill where to get away
she would have to leave the rocks and descend towards them
and hideous noises from the blacks
they were perched on a rock and the moonlight lit all their surroundings like day to the right was a deep black chasm with a white foaming waterfall pouring into the darkness below in front was the same wide chasm
only less wide and beyond it on the other side of the great yawning cleft in the earth was a wild spread of morass country a gloomy terrible looking place to the left was a steep slope of small rocks and stones
leading downwards to the hollow of sedgy land that fringed the cliffs of the chasm the only retreat possible was to pass down this declivity and try to escape by the sedgy land
and everything looked dark and dismal under the moonlight as it streamed between stormy black clouds in that light dot could see the blacks hurrying forward already one of the dogs had far outrun the others
and with wolfish gait and savage sounds was pressing towards their place of observation the panting trembling kangaroo saw the approaching dog also and leaped down from the crag
as she dropped to earth she stooped and quickly lifted dot out of her pouch and almost before dot could realize the movement she found herself standing alone whilst the kangaroo hopped forward to the front of a big boulder as if to meet the dog
here the poor hunted creature took her stand with her back close to the rock gentle and timid as she was and unfitted by nature to fight for her life against fierce odds it was brave indeed of the poor kangaroo to face her enemies
prepared to do battle for the lives of little dot and herself
standing erect waiting for her foe and conquering her naturally frightened nature by a grand effort of courage
for a moment the dingo hound seemed daunted by her bravery and paused a little way off panting with its great tongue lolling out of its mouth dot could see its sharp wicked teeth gleaming in the moonlight for a few seconds it hesitated to make the attack
then the dog could no longer control its savage nature it longed to leap at the poor kangaroo's throat
and it was impatient to fix its terrible teeth there and hold and hold in a wild struggle until the poor kangaroo should gradually weaken from fear and exhaustion and be choked to death these thoughts filled the dog with a wicked joy
it wouldn't wait any longer for the other dingo hounds it wanted to murder the kangaroo all by itself so with a toss of its head and a terrible snarl it sprang forward ferociously with open jaws aiming at the victim's throat
the dog had made its spring upon her friend the brave kangaroo instead of trying to avoid her fierce enemy opened her little arms and stood erect and tall to receive the attack
the dog in its eagerness and owing to the nature of the ground misjudged the distance it had to spring it failed to reach the throat it had aimed at and in a moment the kangaroo had seized the hound in a tight embrace there was a momentary struggle
the dog snapping and trying to free itself and the kangaroo holding it firmly then she used the only weapon she had to defend herself from dogs and men the long sharp claw in her foot whilst she held the dog in her arms
she raised her powerful leg and with that long strong claw tore open the dog's body the dog yelped in pain as the kangaroo threw it to the ground where it lay rolling in agony and dying for the kangaroo had given it a terrible wound
the other dogs were still some distance below and the cries of their companion caused them to pause in fear and wonder while the black men could be seen advancing in the dim light
and where dot and her kangaroo were they were hemmed in by a rocky cliff
she picked up dot placed her in her pouch and without a word
it seemed impossible that with one bound she could span that terrible place and reach the sedged morass beyond and still more impossible that it should be done by the poor animal with heavy dot in her pouch
they had just reached the other side no they had not quite what was the matter what a struggle stones falling twigs and grasses wrenching the courageous kangaroo fighting for a foothold on the very brink of the precipice what a terrible moment
to be dashed to pieces on the rocks and the tree tops
the little reeds and rushes held tightly in the earth and the poor struggling animal exerting all her remaining strength gained the reedy slope safely
from the desolate morass and from the gully in darkness below came the sound of a bellowing she stopped crying and listened and could hear those awesome voices all around and the echoes made them still more hobgoblinish the kangaroo's eyes brightened
with the wind storming in the trees and the black clouds flying over the moon it frightened the blackfellows directly they stopped in their headlong speed shouting together in their shrill voices
and they tumbled over one another in their hurry to get away from a place haunted as they thought by that wicked demon which they fear so much
and the mysterious bellowing noise following them on the breeze and they never stopped running until they regained the light of their camp fires there they told the gins in awe struck voices
how it had been no kangaroo they had hunted but the bunyip who had pretended to be one and the black gins eyes grew wider and wider and they made strange noises and exclamations as they listened to the story of how the bunyip
had led the huntsmen to that dreadful place how it had torn one of the dogs to pieces and had leaped over the precipice into dead man's gully where it had cried like a picaninny and bellowed like a bull no one slept in the camp that night
and early next morning the whole tribe went away being afraid to remain so near the haunt of the dreaded bunyip dot saw the flight of the blacks in the dim distance and told the good news to the kangaroo who however was too exhausted to rejoice at their escape
she still lay where she had fallen gasping and with her tongue hanging down from her mouth like that of a dog in vain dot caressed her and called her by endearing names she lay quite still as if unable to hear or feel
and taking the poor animal's drooping head on her lap she sat quite still and tearless waiting in that solitude for her one friend to die leaving her lonely and helpless presently
she was startled by hearing a brisk voice then it was a human picaninny after all
dot turned her head without moving and saw a little way behind her a brown bird on long legs standing with its feet close together with the self satisfied air of a dancing master about to begin a lesson
dot did not care for any other creature in the bush just then but her kangaroo and the perky air of the bird annoyed her in her sorrow without answering she bent her head closer down to that of her poor friend to see if her eyes were still shut
and wondered if they would ever open and look bright and gentle again the little brown bird strutted with an important air to where it had a better view of dot and her companion and eyed them both in the same perky manner
friend kangaroo's in a bad way it said why don't you do something sensible
said the little bird contemptuously
will fill with water why i'd do it myself in a moment only your claws are better suited for the purpose than mine set about it at once it said sharply in an instant dot did what the bird directed
and thrust her little hands into the soft grass roots and moss out of which water pressed as if from a sponge she had soon made a little hole and the most beautiful clear water welled up into it at once then in the hollows of her little hands she collected it
and dashed it over the kangaroo's parched tongue and further instructed by the kindly though rude little bird she had soon well wetted the suffering animal's fur gradually the breathing of the kangaroo became less of an effort
her tongue moistened and returned to the mouth and at last dot saw with joy the brown eyes open and she knew that her good friend was not going to die but would get well again whilst all this took place the little brown bird stood on one leg
with its head cocked on one side watching the exhausted kangaroo's recovery with a comic expression of curiosity and conceit when it spoke to dot it did so without any attempt at being polite and dot thought it the strangest possible creature
because it was really very kind in helping her to save the kangaroo's life and yet it seemed to delight in spoiling its kindheartedness by its rudeness afterwards the kangaroo told her that the little bittern is a really tender hearted fellow
but he has an idea that kindness in rather small creatures provokes the contempt of the big ones as he always wants to be thought a bigger bird than he is he pretends to be hard hearted by being rough
simply regard him as a rude little bird because bad manners are no proof of being grown up rather the contrary how do you feel now asked the bittern as the kangaroo presently struggled up and squatted rather feebly on her haunches
looking about in a somewhat dazed way
so i told dot to make a noise in the hope of frightening them the bittern was really touched by the kangaroo's gratitude and was delighted at being called clever so it became still more ungracious
and making a face at dot exclaimed
chapter three javert satisfied this is what had taken place the half hour after midnight had just struck
he regained his inn just in time to set out again by the mail wagon in which he had engaged his place a little before six o'clock in the morning
and his first care had been to post a letter
then to enter the infirmary and see fantine however he had hardly quitted the audience hall of the court of assizes when the district attorney recovering from his first shock
to declare that his convictions had not been in the least modified by that curious incident which would be explained thereafter and to demand in the meantime the condemnation of that champmathieu
who was evidently the real jean valjean the district attorney's persistence was visibly at variance with the sentiments of every one of the public of the court and of the jury
the counsel for the defence had some difficulty in refuting this harangue and in establishing that
of the real jean valjean the aspect of the matter had been thoroughly altered and that the jury had before their eyes now only an innocent man thence the lawyer
not very fresh unfortunately
the president in his summing up had joined the counsel for the defence and in a few minutes the jury had thrown champmathieu out of the case nevertheless the district attorney was bent on having a jean valjean
and as he had no longer champmathieu he took madeleine immediately after champmathieu had been set at liberty the district attorney shut himself up with the president they conferred
written with his own hand on the minutes of his report to the attorney general his first emotion having passed off the president did not offer many objections justice must after all take its course
and then when all was said although the president was a kindly and a tolerably intelligent man he was at the same time a devoted and almost an ardent royalist
and not bonaparte when alluding to the landing at cannes the order for his arrest was accordingly despatched the district attorney
at full speed and entrusted its execution to police inspector javert the reader knows that javert
m immediately after having given his deposition javert was just getting out of bed when the messenger handed him the order of arrest and the command to produce the prisoner the messenger himself was a very clever member of the police
the order of arrest signed by the district attorney was couched in these words inspector javert will apprehend the body of the sieur madeleine
was recognized as the liberated convict jean valjean any one who did not know javert and who had chanced to see him at the moment when he penetrated the antechamber of the infirmary could have divined nothing of what had taken place
and would have thought his air the most ordinary in the world he was cool calm grave his gray hair was perfectly smooth upon his temples and he had just mounted the stairs with his habitual deliberation
any one who was thoroughly acquainted with him and who had examined him attentively at the moment would have shuddered the buckle of his leather stock was under his left ear instead of at the nape of his neck this betrayed
unwonted agitation javert was a complete character who never had a wrinkle in his duty or in his uniform methodical with malefactors rigid with the buttons of his coat
that he should have set the buckle of his stock awry it was indispensable that there should have taken place in him one of those emotions which may be designated as internal earthquakes he had come in a simple way
had made a requisition on the neighboring post for a corporal and four soldiers had left the soldiers in the courtyard had had fantine's room pointed out to him by the portress who was utterly unsuspicious
accustomed as she was to seeing armed men inquiring for the mayor on arriving at fantine's chamber javert turned the handle pushed the door open with the gentleness of a sick nurse or a police spy and entered
properly speaking he did not enter he stood erect in the half open door his hat on his head and his left hand thrust into his coat which was buttoned up to the chin in the bend of his elbow
which was hidden behind him could be seen thus he remained for nearly a minute without his presence being perceived all at once fantine raised her eyes saw him
the instant that madeleine's glance encountered javert's glance javert without stirring without moving from his post without approaching him became terrible
no human sentiment can be as terrible as joy it was the visage of a demon who has just found his damned soul the satisfaction of at last getting hold of jean valjean
caused all that was in his soul to appear in his countenance the depths having been stirred up mounted to the surface the humiliation of having in some slight degree lost the scent and of having indulged for a few moments
in an error with regard to champmathieu was effaced by pride at having so well and accurately divined in the first place and of having for so long cherished a just instinct
javert's content shone forth in his sovereign attitude the deformity of triumph overspread that narrow brow all the demonstrations of horror which a satisfied face can afford were there
javert was in heaven at that moment without putting the thing clearly to himself but with a confused intuition of the necessity of his presence and of his success
personified justice light and truth in their celestial function of crushing out evil behind him and around him at an infinite distance he had authority reason the case judged the legal conscience
the public prosecution all the stars he was protecting order he was causing the law to yield up its thunders he was avenging society he was lending a helping hand to the absolute
he was standing erect in the midst of a glory there existed in his victory a remnant of defiance and of combat erect haughty brilliant
the terrible shadow of the action which he was accomplishing caused the vague flash of the social sword to be visible in his clenched fist happy and indignant he held his heel upon crime vice rebellion perdition hell
he was radiant he exterminated he smiled and there was an incontestable grandeur in this monstrous saint michael
candor conviction the sense of duty are things which may become hideous when wrongly directed but which even when hideous remain grand their majesty
the majesty peculiar to the human conscience clings to them in the midst of horror they are virtues which have one vice error the honest pitiless joy of a fanatic in the full flood of his atrocity
preserves a certain lugubriously venerable radiance without himself suspecting the fact javert in his formidable happiness was to be pitied as is every ignorant man who triumphs
fantine had not seen javert since the day on which the mayor had torn her from the man her ailing brain comprehended nothing but the only thing which she did not doubt was that he had come to get her
she could not endure that terrible face she felt her life quitting her she hid her face in both hands and shrieked in her anguish monsieur madeleine save me jean valjean we shall henceforth not speak of him otherwise
had risen he said to fantine in the gentlest and calmest of voices be at ease it is not for you that he is come
i know what you want javert replied be quick about it there lay in the inflection of voice which accompanied these words something indescribably fierce and frenzied javert did not say
be quick about it he said
no orthography can do justice to the accent with which it was uttered it was no longer a human word it was a roar he did not proceed according to his custom he did not enter into the matter he exhibited no warrant of arrest
in his eyes jean valjean was a sort of mysterious combatant who was not to be laid hands upon a wrestler in the dark whom he had had in his grasp for the last five years without being able to throw him
this arrest was not a beginning but an end he confined himself to saying be quick about it as he spoke thus he did not advance a single step
and with which he was accustomed to draw wretches violently to him it was this glance which fantine had felt penetrating to the very marrow of her bones two months previously at javert's exclamation fantine opened her eyes once more
but the mayor was there what had she to fear javert advanced to the middle of the room and cried see here now art thou coming the unhappy woman glanced about her no one was present excepting the nun and the mayor
to whom could that abject use of thou be addressed to her only she shuddered then she beheld a most unprecedented thing a thing so unprecedented that nothing equal to it had appeared to her even in the blackest deliriums of fever
she beheld javert the police spy seize the mayor by the collar she saw the mayor bow his head it seemed to her that the world was coming to an end javert had in fact
javert burst out laughing with that frightful laugh which displayed all his gums there is no longer any monsieur le maire here jean valjean made no attempt to disengage the hand which grasped the collar of his coat
he said javert javert interrupted him
i should like to say a word to you in private aloud say it aloud replied javert people are in the habit of talking aloud to me jean valjean went on in a lower tone i have a request to make of you
i tell you to speak loud but you alone should hear it what difference does that make to me i shall not listen jean valjean turned towards him and said very rapidly and in a very low voice
grant me three days grace three days in which to go and fetch the child of this unhappy woman i will pay whatever is necessary you shall accompany me if you choose
come now i did not think you such a fool you ask me to give you three days in which to run away you say that it is for the purpose of fetching that creature's child ah ah that's good that's really capital
fantine was seized with a fit of trembling my child she cried to go and fetch my child she is not here then answer me sister where is cosette i want my child monsieur madeleine monsieur le maire javert stamped his foot
and now there's the other one will you hold your tongue you hussy
ah but we are going to change all that it is high time he stared intently at fantine and added once more taking into his grasp jean valjean's cravat shirt and collar i tell you that there is no monsieur madeleine and that there is no monsieur le maire
there is a thief a brigand a convict named jean valjean and i have him in my grasp that's what there is
she gazed at the nun she opened her mouth as though to speak a rattle proceeded from the depths of her throat her teeth chattered she stretched out her arms in her agony opening her hands convulsively and fumbling about her like a drowning person
then suddenly fell back on her pillow her head struck the head board of the bed and fell forwards on her breast with gaping mouth and staring sightless eyes she was dead
jean valjean laid his hand upon the detaining hand of javert and opened it as he would have opened the hand of a baby
you have murdered that woman let's have an end of this shouted javert in a fury i am not here to listen to argument let us economize all that the guard is below march on instantly or you'll get the thumb screws
in the corner of the room stood an old iron bedstead which was in a decidedly decrepit state and which served the sisters as a camp bed when they were watching with the sick
in a twinkling wrenched off the head piece which was already in a dilapidated condition an easy matter to muscles like his grasped the principal rod like a bludgeon
jean valjean armed with his bar of iron walked slowly up to fantine's couch when he arrived there he turned and said to javert
i advise you not to disturb me at this moment one thing is certain and that is that javert trembled it did occur to him to summon the guard
so he remained grasped his cane by the small end
no one on earth heard them did the dead woman hear them there are some touching illusions which are perhaps sublime realities
question seventy eight of the specific powers of the soul in four articles we next treat of the powers of the soul specifically the theologian however has only to inquire specifically concerning the intellectual and appetitive powers
in which the virtues reside and since the knowledge of these powers depends to a certain extent on the other powers our consideration of the powers of the soul taken specifically will be divided into three parts
first we shall consider those powers which are a preamble to the intellect secondly the intellectual powers thirdly the appetitive powers under the first head there are four points of inquiry
one the powers of the soul considered generally two the various species of the vegetative part three the exterior senses
but only three parts of the soul are commonly assigned namely the vegetative soul the sensitive soul and the rational soul therefore there are only three genera of powers in the soul and not five
further the powers of the soul are the principles of its vital operations now in four ways is a thing said to live for the philosopher says
in several ways a thing is said to live and even if only one of these is present the thing is said to live as intellect and sense local movement and rest and lastly movement of decrease and increase due to nourishment
therefore there are only four genera of powers of the soul as the appetitive is excluded
further a special kind of soul ought not to be assigned as regards what is common to all the powers now desire is common to each power of the soul for sight desires an appropriate visible object whence we read
but more than these green sown fields in the same way every other power desires its appropriate object therefore the appetitive power should not be made a special genus of the powers of the soul
further the moving principle in animals is sense intellect or appetite as the philosopher says
ten therefore the motive power should not be added to the above as a special genus of soul
the powers are the vegetative the sensitive the appetitive the locomotion and the intellectual i answer that there are five genera of powers of the soul as above numbered
of these three are called souls and four are called modes of living the reason of this diversity lies in the various souls being distinguished accordingly
and is related to it as its matter and instrument
and such is the operation of the rational soul below this there is another operation of the soul which is indeed performed
and this is the operation of the sensitive soul for though hot and cold wet and dry
yet they are not required in such a way that the operation of the senses takes place by virtue of such qualities but only for the proper disposition of the organ the lowest of the operations of the soul
because the movements of bodies are caused by an extrinsic principle while these operations are from an intrinsic principle for this is common to all the operations of the soul since every animate thing in some way moves itself
such is the operation of the vegetative soul for digestion and what follows is caused instrumentally by the action of heat
now the powers of the soul are distinguished generically by their objects for the higher a power is the more universal is the object to which it extends as we have said above
ad four but the object of the soul's operation may be considered in a triple order for in the soul there is a power the object of which is only the body that is united to that soul
the powers of this genus are called vegetative for the vegetative power acts only on the body to which the soul is united there is another genus in the powers of the soul which genus regards a more universal object
namely every sensible body not only the body to which the soul is united and there is yet another genus in the powers of the soul which genus regards a still more universal object namely not only the sensible body
but all being in universal wherefore it is evident that the latter two genera of the soul's powers have an operation in regard not merely to that which is united to them but also to something extrinsic
now since whatever operates must in some way be united to the object about which it operates it follows of necessity that this something extrinsic which is the object of the soul's operation must be related to the soul in a twofold manner
first inasmuch as this something extrinsic has a natural aptitude to be united to the soul and to be by its likeness in the soul in this way there are two kinds of powers namely the sensitive in regard to the less common object
the sensible body and the intellectual in regard to the most common object universal being secondly forasmuch as the soul itself has an inclination and tendency to the something extrinsic
and in this way there are again two kinds of powers in the soul one the appetitive in respect of which the soul is referred to something extrinsic as to an end which is first in the intention the other the locomotive power
in respect of which the soul is referred to something extrinsic as to the term of its operation and movement for every animal is moved for the purpose of realizing its desires and intentions
the modes of living are distinguished according to the degrees of living things there are some living things in which there exists only vegetative power as the plants there are others in which with the vegetative there exists also the sensitive
but not the locomotive power such as immovable animals as shellfish there are others which besides this have locomotive powers as perfect animals
and there are some living things which with these have intellectual power namely men but the appetitive power does not constitute a degree of living things because wherever there is sense there is also appetite
thus the first two objections are hereby solved
the natural appetite is that inclination which each thing has of its own nature for something wherefore by its natural appetite each power desires something suitable to itself but the animal appetite
results from the form apprehended this sort of appetite requires a special power of the soul mere apprehension does not suffice for a thing is desired as it exists in its own nature
whereas in the apprehensive power it exists not according to its own nature but according to its likeness whence it is clear that sight desires naturally a visible object for the purpose of its act only
namely for the purpose of seeing but the animal by the appetitive power desires the thing seen not merely for the purpose of seeing it but also for other purposes but if the soul did not require things perceived by the senses
except on account of the actions of the senses that is for the purpose of sensing them there would be no need for a special genus of appetitive powers since the natural appetite of the powers would suffice
although sense and appetite are principles of movement in perfect animals yet sense and appetite as such are not sufficient to cause movement unless another power be added to them
for immovable animals have sense and appetite and yet they have not the power of motion now this motive power is not only in the appetite and sense as commanding the movement but also in the parts of the body
of this we have a sign in the fact that when the members are deprived of their natural disposition
are not fittingly described namely the nutritive augmentative and generative for these are called natural forces but the powers of the soul are above the natural forces therefore we should not class the above forces as powers of the soul
further we should not assign a particular power of the soul to that which is common to living and non living things but generation is common to all things that can be generated and corrupted whether living or not living
therefore the generative force should not be classed as a power of the soul
further the soul is more powerful than the body but the body by the same force gives species and quantity much more therefore does the soul therefore the augmentative power of the soul is not distinct from the generative power
further everything is preserved in being by that whereby it exists but the generative power is that whereby a living thing exists therefore by the same power the living thing is preserved
the newspaper is the great educator of the nineteenth century there is no force compared with it it is book pulpit platform forum all in one and there is not an interest
religious literary commercial scientific agricultural or mechanical that is not within its grasp all our churches and schools and colleges and asylums and art galleries feel the quaking of the printing press
i shall try to bring to your parlor tables the periodicals that are worthy of the christian fireside and try to pitch into the gutter of scorn and contempt those newspapers that are not fit for the hand of your child or the vision of your wife
the institution of newspapers arose in italy in venice the first newspaper was published and monthly during the time that venice was warring against solyman the second in dalmatia
it was printed for the purpose of giving military and commercial information to the venetians
and called the english mercury others were styled the weekly discoverer the secret owl heraclitus ridens et cetera
who can estimate the political scientific commercial and religious revolutions roused up in england for many years past by bell's weekly dispatch the standard the morning chronicle the post and the london times
the first attempt at this institution in france was in sixteen thirty one by a physician who published the news for the amusement and health of his patients the french nation understood fully how to appreciate this power
napoleon with his own hand wrote articles for the press and so early as in eighteen twenty nine
but in the united states the newspaper has come to unlimited sway though in seventeen seventy five there were but thirty seven in the whole country the number of published journals is now counted by thousands
and to day we may as well acknowledge it as not the religious and secular newspapers are the great educators of the country in our pulpits we preach to a few hundreds or thousands of people
the newspaper addresses an audience of twenty thousand fifty thousand or two hundred thousand we preach three or four times a week they every morning or evening of the year
if they are wrong they are awfully wrong i find no difficulty in accounting for the world's advance four centuries ago in germany in courts of justice
and if the judge's decision was unsatisfactory then the judge fought with the counsel many of the lords could not read the deeds of their own estates what has made the change books you say
no sir the vast majority of citizens do not read books take this audience or any other promiscuous assemblage and how many histories have they read how many treatises on constitutional law or political economy
or works of science how many elaborate poems or books of travel how much of boyle or de tocqueville xenophon or herodotus or percival not many
whence then this intelligence this capacity to talk about all themes secular and religious this acquaintance with science and art this power to appreciate the beautiful and grand next to the bible the newspaper
swift winged and everywhere present flying over the fences shoved under the door tossed into the counting house laid on the work bench hawked through the cars all read it white and black german
irishman swiss spaniard american old and young good and bad sick and well before breakfast and after tea monday morning saturday night sunday and week day
i now declare that i consider the newspaper to be the grand agency by which the gospel is to be preached ignorance cast out oppression dethroned crime extirpated the world raised heaven rejoiced and god glorified
in the clanking of the printing press as the sheets fly out i hear the voice of the lord almighty proclaiming to all the dead nations of the earth lazarus come forth and to the retreating surges of darkness let there be light
in many of our city newspapers professing no more than secular information there have appeared during the past ten years some of the grandest appeals in behalf of religion and some of the most effective interpretations of god's government among the nations
that man has a shrivelled heart who begrudges the five pennies he pays to the newsboy who brings the world to his feet there are to day connected with the editorial and reportorial corps of newspaper establishments men of the highest culture
and most unimpeachable morality who are living on the most limited stipends martyrs to the work to which they feel themselves called while you sleep in the midnight hours their pens fly and their brains ache in preparing the morning intelligence
many of them go unrested and unappreciated their cheeks blanched and their eyes half quenched with midnight work toward premature graves to have the proof sheet of their life corrected by divine mercy
glad at last to escape the perpetual annoyances of a fault finding public and the restless impatient cry for more copy nations are to be born in a day
will this great inrush come from personal presence of missionary or philanthropist no when the time comes for that grand demonstration i think the press in all the earth will make the announcement and give the call to the nations
as at some telegraphic centre an operator will send the messages north and south and east and west san francisco and heart's content catching the flash at the same instant so standing at some centre to which shall reach all the electric wires that cross the continent
and undergird the sea some one shall with the forefinger of the right hand click the instrument that shall thrill through all lands across all islands under all seas through all palaces into all dungeons
and startle both hemispheres with the news that in a few moments shall rush out from the ten thousand times ten thousand printing presses of the earth glory to god in the highest and on earth peace good will toward men
you see therefore that in the plain words to be written i have no grudges to gratify against the newspaper press professional men are accustomed to complain of injustice done them but i take the censure i have sometimes received
and place it on one side the scales and the excessive praise and place it on the other side and they balance and so i consider i have had simple justice but we are all aware that there is a class of men in towns and cities
who send forth a baleful influence from their editorial pens there are enough bad newspapers weekly poured out into the homes of our country to poison a vast population in addition to the home manufacture of iniquitous sheets
the mail bags of other cities come in gorged with abominations new york scoops up from the sewers of other cities and adds to its own newspaper filth and to night lying on the tables of this city or laid away on the shelf or in the trunk
for more private perusal are papers the mere mention of the names of which would send a blush to the cheek and make the decent and christian world cry out god save the city there is a paper published in boston of outrageous character
and yet there are seven thousand copies of that paper coming weekly to new york for circulation i will not mention the name lest some of you should go right away and get it it is wonderful how quick the fingers of the printer boy fly
but the fingers of sin and pollution can set up fifty thousand types in an instant the supply of bad newspapers in new york does not meet the insatiable appetite of our people for refuse and garbage and moral swill
we must therefore import corrupt weeklies published elsewhere that make our newspaper stands groan under the burden but we need not go abroad there are papers in new york that long ago came to perfection of shamelessness
and there is no more power in venom and mud and slime to pollute them they have dashed their iniquities into the face of everything decent and holy and their work will be seen in the crime and debauchery and the hell of innumerable victims
their columns are not long and broad enough to record the tragedies of their horrible undoing of immortal men and women
and the whole universe will cry out for their damnation see the work of bad newspapers in the false tidings they bring there are hundreds of men to day penniless who were during the war
hurled from their affluent positions by incorrect accounts of battles that shook the money market and the gold gamblers with their hoofs trampled these honest men into the mire and many a window was hoisted at the hour of midnight as the boy shouted extra extra
with trembling hand and blanched cheek and sinking heart read of battles that had never occurred god pity the father and mother who have a boy at the front when evil tidings come if an individual makes a false statement one or twenty persons may be damaged
but a newspaper of large circulation that wilfully makes a misstatement in one day tells fifty thousand falsehoods the most stupendous of all lies is a newspaper lie a bad newspaper scruples not at any slander
it may be that to escape the grip of the law the paragraphs will be nicely worded so that the suspicion is thrown out and the damage done without any exposure to the law year by year thousands of men are crushed by the ink roller
an unscrupulous man in the editorial chair may smite as with the wing of a destroying angel what to him is commercial integrity or professional reputation or woman's honor or home's sanctity
but between the tracks there is a trough one fourth of a mile in length filled with water and the engine drops a hose that catches up the water while the train flies so with bad newspapers that fly along the track of death without pausing a moment
yet scooping up into themselves the pollution of society and in the awful rush making the earth tremble the most abandoned man of the city may go to the bad newspaper and get a slander inserted about the best man
if he cannot do it in any other way he can by means of an anonymous communication now a man who to injure another will write an anonymous letter is in the first place a coward and in the second place a villain
many of these offensive anonymous letters you see in the bad newspaper have been found to be written in the editorial chair the bad newspaper stops not at any political outrage
it would arouse a revolution and empty the hearts of a million brave men in the trenches rather than not have its own circulation multiply what to it are the hard earned laurels of the soldier or the exalted reputation of the statesman
its editors would if they dared blow up the capitol of the nation if they could only successfully carry off the frieze of one of the corridors there are enough falsehoods told at any one of our autumnal elections
to make the father of lies disown his monstrous progeny now it is the mayor then the governor now the secretary of state and then the president until the air is so full of misrepresentation that truth is hidden from the view
as beautiful landscapes by the clouds of summer insects blown up from the marshes the immoral newspaper stops not at the unclean advertisement
than the new edition of pilgrim's progress a book such as no decent man would touch was a few months ago advertised in a new york paper and the getter up of the book passing down one of our streets the other day
in one column of a paper we see a grand ethical discussion
oh you cannot by all your religion in one column atone for one of your abominations in another i am rejoiced that some of our papers have addressed those who have proposed to compensate them for bad use of their columns in the words of peter to simon magus
thy money perish with thee but i arraign the newspapers that give their columns to corrupt advertising for the nefarious work they are doing the most polluted plays that ever oozed from the poisonous pen of leprous dramatist
have won their deathful power through the medium of newspapers the evil is stupendous o ye reckless souls get money though morality dies and society is dishonored and god defied and the doom of the destroyed opens before you
get money though the melted gold be poured upon your naked blistered and consuming soul get money get money it will do you good when it begins to eat like a canker it will solace the pillow of death and soothe the pangs of an agonized eternity
though in the game thou dost stake thy soul and lose it forever get money the bad newspaper hesitates not to assault christianity and its disciples with what exhilaration it puts in capitals that fill one fourth of a column
the defalcation of some agent of a benevolent society there is enough meat in such a carcass of reputation to gorge all the carrion crows of an iniquitous printing press they put upon the back of the church all the inconsistencies of hypocrites
as though a banker were responsible for all the counterfeits upon his institution they jeer at religion and lift up their voices until all the caverns of the lost resound with the howl of their derision they forget that christianity is the only hope for the world
and that but for its enlightenment they would now be like the hottentots living in mud hovels or like the chinese eating rats what would you think of a wretch who during a great storm while the ship was being tossed to and fro on the angry waves
are being tossed and driven hither and thither are trying to climb up and put out the only light of a lost world the bad newspaper stops not at publishing the most damaging and unclean story the only question is will it pay
and there are scores of men who day by day bring into the newspaper offices manuscripts for publication which unite all that is pernicious and before the ink is fairly dry tens of thousands are devouring with avidity the impure issue
their sensibilities deadened their sense of right perverted their purity of thought tarnished their taste for plain life despoiled the printing press with its iron foot hath dashed their life out
while i speak there are many people with feet on the ottoman and the gas turned on looking down on the page submerged mind and soul in the perusal of this god forsaken periodical literature
under the coverlet for the night before they will rouse up as the city clock strikes the hour of midnight to go death struck to their prayerless pillows
one of the proprietors of a great paper in this country gave his advice to a young man then about to start a paper if you want to succeed said he make your paper trashy intensely trashy make it all trash
unless some benevolent and christian men come up to sustain it by contributions of money and means but few religious newspapers in this country are self supporting the reason urged is the country cannot stand so much religion hear it
christian men and philanthropists many papers that are most rapidly increasing to day are unscrupulous the facts are momentous and appalling
away with it from parlor and shop and store there is so much newspaper literature that is pure and cheap and elegant shove back this leprosy from your door mark it well
a man is no better than the newspaper he habitually reads you may think it a bold thing thus to arraign an unprincipled printing press but i know there are those reading this who will take my counsel and in the discharge of my duty to god and man
i defy all the hostilities of earth and hell representatives of the secular and religious press i thank you in the name of christianity and civilization for the enlightenment of ignorance the overthrow of iniquity and the words you have uttered in the cause of god and your country
but i charge you in the name of god before whom you must account for the tremendous influence you hold in this country to consecrate yourselves to higher endeavors you are the men to fight back this invasion of corrupt literature
lift up your right hand and swear new allegiance to the cause of philanthropy and religion and when at last standing on the plains of judgment you look out upon the unnumbered throngs over whom you have had influence
upon the exalted pathway that leads to the renown of heaven better than to have sat in editorial chair from which with the finger of type you decided the destinies of empires but decided them wrong
that you had been some dungeoned exile who by the light of window iron grated on scraps of a new testament leaf picked up from the hearth
fourth and last part ah where in the world have there been greater follies than with the pitiful and what in the world hath caused more suffering than the follies of the pitiful
woe unto all loving ones who have not an elevation which is above their pity thus spake the devil unto me once on a time
it is his love for man and lately
and he heeded it not his hair however became white one day when he sat on a stone in front of his cave and gazed calmly into the distance one there gazeth
out on the sea and away beyond sinuous abysses then went his animals thoughtfully round about him and at last set themselves in front of him
of what account is my happiness answered he i have long ceased to strive any more for happiness i strive for my work o zarathustra said the animals once more
ye wags answered zarathustra and smiled how well did ye choose the simile but ye know also that my happiness is heavy
and will not leave me and is like molten pitch then went his animals again thoughtfully around him and placed themselves once more in front of him o zarathustra said they
it is consequently for that reason that thou thyself always becometh yellower and darker although thy hair looketh white and flaxen
lo thou sittest in thy pitch what do ye say mine animals said zarathustra laughing verily i reviled when i spake of pitch
as it happeneth with me so is it with all fruits that turn ripe it is the honey in my veins that maketh my blood thicker and also my soul stiller
so will it be o zarathustra answered his animals and pressed up to him but wilt thou not to day ascend a high mountain the air is pure
and to day one seeth more of the world than ever yea mine animals answered he ye counsel admirably and according to my heart i will to day ascend a high mountain
but see that honey is there ready to hand yellow white good ice cool golden comb honey for know that when aloft i will make the honey sacrifice
when zarathustra however was aloft on the summit he sent his animals home that had accompanied him and found that he was now alone
then he laughed from the bottom of his heart looked around him and spake thus that i spake of sacrifices and honey sacrifices it was merely a ruse in talking and verily
a useful folly here aloft can i now speak freer than in front of mountain caves and anchorites domestic animals what to sacrifice i squander what is given me
a squanderer with a thousand hands how could i call that sacrificing and when i desired honey i only desired bait and sweet mucus and mucilage
as huntsmen and fishermen require it for if the world be as a gloomy forest of animals and a pleasure ground for all wild huntsmen it seemeth to me rather and preferably a fathomless
rich sea a sea full of many hued fishes and crabs for which even the gods might long and might be tempted to become fishers in it and casters of nets
so rich is the world in wonderful things great and small especially the human world the human sea towards it do i now throw out my golden angle rod and say open up
thou human abyss open up and throw unto me thy fish and shining crabs with my best bait shall i allure to myself to day the strangest human fish
my happiness itself do i throw out into all places far and wide twixt orient noontide and occident
until biting at my sharp hidden hooks they have to come up unto my height the motleyest abyss groundlings to the wickedest of all fishers of men
for this am i from the heart and from the beginning drawing hither drawing upward drawing upbringing a drawer a trainer a training master
once on a time become what thou art thus may men now come up to me for as yet do i await the signs that it is time for my down going
as yet do i not myself go down as i must do amongst men therefore do i here wait crafty and scornful upon high mountains no impatient one
no patient one rather one who hath even unlearnt patience because he no longer suffereth for my fate giveth me time it hath forgotten me perhaps
or doth it sit behind a big stone and catch flies and verily i am well disposed to mine eternal fate because it doth not hound and hurry me but leaveth me time for merriment and mischief
so that i have to day ascended this high mountain to catch fish did ever any one catch fish upon high mountains and though it be a folly what i here seek and do
a posturing wrath snorter with waiting a holy howl storm from the mountains an impatient one that shouteth down into the valleys hearken else i will scourge you with the scourge of god
not that i would have a grudge against such wrathful ones on that account they are well enough for laughter to me impatient must they now be those big alarm drums which find a voice now or never
myself however and my fate we do not talk to the present neither do we talk to the never for talking we have patience and time and more than time
for one day must it yet come and may not pass by what must one day come and may not pass by our great hazar
that is to say our great remote human kingdom the zarathustra kingdom of a thousand years how remote may such remoteness be what doth it concern me
but on that account it is none the less sure unto me with both feet stand i secure on this ground on an eternal ground
unto which all winds come as unto the storm parting asking where and whence and whither here laugh laugh my hearty healthy wickedness from high mountains cast down thy glittering scorn laughter
allure for me with thy glittering the finest human fish and whatever belongeth unto me in all seas my in and for me in all things fish that out for me
for that do i wait the wickedest of all fish catchers out out my fishing hook in and down thou bait of my happiness drip thy sweetest dew
thou honey of my heart bite my fishing hook into the belly of all black affliction look out look out mine eye oh how many seas round about me what dawning human futures
and above me what rosy red stillness
a few parables in a field of ripening corn i came to a place which had been trampled down by some ruthless foot
every one of them alike standing there so erect and bearing the full weight of the ear
red and blue and violet how pretty they looked as they grew there so naturally with their little foliage but thought i they are quite useless they bear no fruit they are mere weeds
suffered to remain only because there is no getting rid of them and yet but for these flowers there would be nothing to charm the eye in that wilderness of stalks they are emblematic of
poetry and art which in civic life so severe but still useful and not without its fruit play the same part as flowers in the corn
there are some really beautifully landscapes in the world but the human figures in them are poor and you had not better look at them
the fly should be used as the symbol of impertinence and audacity for whilst all other animals shun man more than anything else and run away
even before he comes near them the fly lights upon his very nose two chinamen traveling in europe went to the theatre for the first time
one of them did nothing but study the machinery and he succeeded in finding out how it was worked the other tried to get at the meaning of the piece in spite of his ignorance of the language here
you have the astronomer and the philosopher wisdom which is only theoretical and never put into practice is like a double rose
its color and perfume are delightful but it withers away and leaves no seed no rose without a thorn yes but many a thorn without a rose
a wide spreading apple tree stood in full bloom and behind it a straight fir raised its dark and tapering head
look at the thousands of gay blossoms which cover me everywhere said the apple tree what have you to show in comparison dark green needles that is true replied the fir
but when winter comes you will be bared of your glory and i shall be as i am now once as i was botanizing under an oak
i found amongst a number of other plants of similar height one that was dark in color with tightly closed leaves
when i touched it it said to me in firm tones let me alone i am not for your collection like these plants to which nature has given only a single year of life i am a little oak
as a child as a youth often even as a full grown man nay his whole life long he goes about among his fellows looking like them and seemingly as unimportant
but let him alone he will not die time will come and bring those who know how to value him
the man who goes up in a balloon does not feel as though he were ascending he only sees the earth sinking deeper under him there is a mystery
which only those will understand who feel the truth of it your estimation of a man's size will be affected by the distance at which you stand from him
but in two entirely opposite ways according as it is his physical or his mental stature that you are considering the one will seem smaller the farther off you move the other
greater nature covers all her works with a varnish of beauty like the tender bloom that is breathed as it were on the surface of a peach or a plum
painters and poets lay themselves out to take off this varnish to store it up and give it us to be enjoyed at our leisure we drink deep of this beauty
long before we enter upon life itself and when afterwards we come to see the works of nature for ourselves the varnish is gone the artists have used it up and we have enjoyed it in advance
thus it is that the world so often appears harsh and devoid of charm nay actually repulsive it were better to leave us to discover the varnish for ourselves this would mean
that we should not enjoy it all at once and in large quantities we should have no finished pictures no perfect poems but we should look at all things in that genial and pleasing light in which
even now a child of nature sometimes sees them some one who has not anticipated his aesthetic pleasures by the help of art or taken the charms of life too early
is so shut in by the houses that are built round about it that there is no one spot from which you can see it as a whole this is symbolic of everything great or beautiful in the world
it ought to exist for its own sake alone but before very long it is misused to serve alien ends
people come from all directions wanting to find in it support and maintenance for themselves they stand in the way and spoil its effect to be sure there is nothing surprising in this
for in a world of need and imperfection everything is seized upon which can be used to satisfy want nothing is exempt from this service no
not even those very things which arise only when need and want are for a moment lost sight of the beautiful and the true sought for their own sakes
this is especially illustrated and corroborated in the case of institutions whether great or small wealthy or poor founded no matter in what century or in what land to maintain and advance human knowledge
and generally to afford help to those intellectual efforts which ennoble the race wherever these institutions may be
it is not long before people sneak up to them under the pretence of wishing to further those special ends while they are really led on by the desire to secure the emoluments which have been left for their furtherance
and thus to satisfy certain coarse and brutal instincts of their own thus it is that we come to have so many charlatans in every branch of knowledge the charlatan
takes very different shapes according to circumstances but at bottom he is a man who cares nothing about knowledge for its own sake and only strives to gain the semblance of it that he may use it for his own personal ends
which are always selfish and material every hero is a samson the strong man succumbs to the intrigues of the weak
and the many and if in the end he loses all patience he crushes both them and himself or he is like gulliver at lilliput
overwhelmed by an enormous number of little men a mother gave her children aesop's fables to read in the hope of educating and improving their minds
but they very soon brought the book back and the eldest wise beyond his years delivered himself as follows this is no book for us it's much too childish and stupid
you can't make us believe that foxes and wolves and ravens are able to talk we've got beyond stories of that kind in these young hopefuls you have the enlightened rationalists of the future
a number of porcupines huddled together for warmth on a cold day in winter but as they began to prick one another with their quills
they were obliged to disperse however the cold drove them together again when just the same thing happened at last after many turns of huddling and dispersing
in the same way the need of society drives the human porcupines together only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature
is the code of politeness and fine manners and those who transgress it are roughly told in the english phrase to keep their distance by this arrangement
the mutual need of warmth is only very moderately satisfied but then people do not get pricked
prefers to remain outside where he will neither prick other people
then said i with all my heart i agree with plato indeed this is now the second time that these things have been brought back to my mind first i lost them through the clogging contact of the body
then after through the stress of heavy grief then she continued if thou wilt reflect upon thy former admissions it will not be long before thou dost also recollect that of which
erstwhile thou didst confess thyself ignorant what is that said i the principles of the world's government said she yes i remember my confession and
although i now anticipate what thou intendest i have a desire to hear the argument plainly set forth awhile ago thou deemedst it beyond all doubt that god doth govern the world
i do not think it doubtful now nor shall i ever and by what reasons i am brought to this assurance i will briefly set forth
and when it had once come together
were there not one who keeps together what he has joined nor would the order of nature proceed so regularly nor could its course exhibit motions so fixed in respect of position time range efficacy
and character unless there were one who himself abiding disposed these various vicissitudes of change this power whatsoever it be whereby they remain as they were created and are kept in motion
i call by the name which all recognise god then said she seeing that such is thy belief it will cost me little trouble i think to enable thee to win happiness and return in safety to thy own country
but let us give our attention to the task that we have set before ourselves have we not counted independence in the category of happiness and agreed that god is absolute happiness truly we have then
he will need no external assistance for the ruling of the world otherwise if he stands in need of aught he will not possess complete independence that is necessarily so said i then
by his own power alone he disposes all things it cannot be denied now god was proved to be absolute good
then he disposes all things by the agency of good if it be true that he rules all things by his own power whom we have agreed to be good and he is as it were the rudder and helm by which the world's mechanism is kept steady and in order
heartily do i agree and indeed i anticipated what thou wouldst say though it may be in feeble surmise only i well believe it said she for as i think
thou now bringest to the search eyes quicker in discerning truth but what i shall say next is no less plain and easy to see what is it said i why said she
since god is rightly believed to govern all things with the rudder of goodness and since all things do likewise as i have taught haste towards good by the very aim of nature can it be doubted that his governance is willingly accepted
necessarily so said i no rule would seem happy if it were a yoke imposed on reluctant wills and not the safe keeping of obedient subjects there is nothing then which
while it follows nature endeavours to resist good no nothing but if anything should will it have the least success against him whom we rightly agreed to be supreme lord of happiness
it would be utterly impotent there is nothing then which has either the will or the power to oppose this supreme good no i think not so then
said she it is the supreme good which rules in strength and graciously disposes all things then said i how delighted am i at thy reasonings and the conclusion to which thou hast brought them
but most of all at these very words which thou usest i am now at last ashamed of the folly that so sorely vexed me thou hast heard the story of the giants assailing heaven
of mutual collision it may be from the impact some fair spark of truth may be struck out if it be thy good pleasure said i no one can doubt that god is all powerful
no one at all can question it who thinks consistently now there is nothing which one who is all powerful cannot do nothing but can god do evil then
nay by no means then evil is nothing said she since he to whom nothing is impossible is unable to do evil art thou mocking me said i
weaving a labyrinth of tangled arguments now seeming to begin where thou didst end and now to end where thou didst begin or dost thou build up some wondrous circle of divine simplicity for truly
a little before thou didst begin with happiness and say it was the supreme good and didst declare it to be seated in the supreme godhead god himself too
and from this thou didst go on to add as by the way the proof that no one would be happy unless he were likewise god again thou didst say that the very form of good was the essence both of god
and of happiness and didst teach that the absolute one was the absolute good which was sought by universal nature
thou didst maintain also that god rules the universe by the governance of goodness that all things obey him willingly and that evil has no existence in nature and all this
thou didst unfold without the help of assumptions from without but by inherent and proper proofs drawing credence one from the other then answered she far is it from me to mock thee nay
by the blessing of god whom we lately addressed in prayer
for such is the form of the divine essence that neither can it pass into things external nor take up anything external into itself but as parmenides says of it
in body like to a sphere on all sides perfectly rounded it rolls the restless orb of the universe keeping itself motionless the while
and if i have also employed reasonings not drawn from without but lying within the compass of our subject there is no cause for thee to marvel since thou hast learnt on plato's authority that words ought to be akin to the matter of which they treat
beside the fount of good blest he whose will could break earth's chains for wisdom's sake the thracian bard tis said mourned his dear consort dead
to hear the plaintive strain the woods moved in his train and the stream ceased to flow held by so soft a
without dismay beside the lion lay the hound by song subdued no more the hare pursued
in his own bosom raged the music that could calm all else brought him no balm chiding the powers immortal he came unto hell's portal
there breathed all tender things upon his sounding strings each rhapsody high wrought his goddess mother taught all he from grief could borrow and love redoubling sorrow till
as the echoes waken all taenarus is shaken whilst he to ruth persuades
falls crouching at his feet the dread avengers too that guilty minds pursue with ever haunting fears are all dissolved in tears ixion on his wheel a respite
brief doth feel for lo the wheel stands still and while those sad notes thrill thirst maddened tantalus listens oblivious of the stream's mockery and his long agony
the vulture too doth spare some little while to tear
sated and pacified at length the shadowy king his sorrows pitying he hath prevailed cried we give him back his bride to him she shall belong
of his song one sole condition yet upon the boon is set let him not turn his eyes to view his hard won prize till they securely pass the gates of hell alas what law
can lovers move a higher law is love for orpheus woe is me
day's threshold all but won looked lost and was undone ye who the light pursue this story is for you who seek to find a way
unto the clearer day if on the darkness past one backward look ye cast your weak and wandering eyes
by hans christian andersen a story about a tinder box yes but then it was such a wonderful one
it belonged to an old witch this tinder box but it had been left right down inside a tree by the ugly old witch's grandmother but get it again she must
for she knew it really was a magic tinder box but how could she get it
here was her chance tramp tramp right left right left she heard the steps come nearer and nearer she looked there was a soldier coming along
tramp tramp she could see him now with a knapsack on his back and his sword at his side
said the soldier but he did not tell her that she did not look as though she had much money to spare he was too wise to say anything but thank you old witch do you see
she said and she pointed to one that stood close by the wayside it is hollow inside climb up to the top
but what am i to do under the tree asked the soldier what are you to do
copper silver gold
you see he had been to the wars and was a brave man splendid but what am i to give you old witch you will wish something i am quite certain of that
well tie the rope round my waist said the soldier
said the witch and here is my blue checked apron it is very important up the tree climbed the soldier into the tree he crept through the hole at the top
and there he was in a wide passage lighted as the witch had said by a hundred burning lamps the soldier unlocked the first door he saw there sat the dog with eyes as big as saucers staring at him in great surprise
he placed the witch's apron on the floor seized the dog bravely and placed him on the apron then he opened the box it was full of copper coins he crammed as many as he could into his pocket shut the lid
placed the dog again on the box and passed on to the second door he unlocked it yes there sat another dog on another box with great eyes as big as mill wheels
if you stare at me so hard you will hurt your eyes said the soldier
then he seized the dog placed it on the witch's apron and raised the lid of the second box
he must have silver he stuffed his pockets and his knapsack with the silver coins and clapped his hands he was rich now on he went
he unlocked it there indeed was another box and another dog and oh horrible the soldier almost shut his eyes the dog had eyes great
big rolling eyes eyes as large as the round tower and they would not keep still no round and round they rolled
but the soldier was brave he had been to the wars good evening he said and he lifted his hat respectfully for never before in
all his life had he seen so big so enormous a creature then he walked straight up to the dog could he lift him yes
he took the immense animal in his arms set him on the witch's apron
the soldier was delighted he threw away his silver money
he filled his pockets and his knapsack but he could not bear to stop there no he crammed his cap and his boots so full that he could hardly walk he was really rich at last
he shut the lid placed the dog again on the box and went out of the room along the passage then he shouted up the tree halloo old witch haul me up again have
when he came back the witch took the rope and hauled and hauled till there was the soldier once more safe on the high road just as he was before only now he was rich so rich that he had become very bold
he had gold in his pockets gold in his knapsack gold in his cap gold in his boots
just tell me that said the soldier
rubbish said the soldier
rubbish take your choice
then the soldier cut off her head and the poor witch lay there dead but the soldier did not stay to look at her in a great hurry he took all his gold and tied it up in the blue checked apron he slung it across his shoulder
put the tinder box in his pocket and marched off to town how grand he felt what heaps of gold he had in his bundle when the soldier reached the town he walked straight to the finest hotel
and asked for the best rooms and for dinner ordered all his favorite puddings and fruits the servant who cleaned his boots tossed her head shabby boots for a rich man to wear she said
shabby no he was a great man now and people crowded round this rich fellow told him all the sights there were to be seen in their city all about their king too and the beautiful princess his daughter
i should like to see her this wonderful princess said the soldier but you cannot see her they told him she lives the beautiful princess in a great copper castle
that she would marry a common soldier and that our king does not wish i must see her once just once thought the soldier but how was he going to find the way into the castle that was the question meanwhile
he led a merry life he drove about in the king's park he went to the theater he gave money to the poor because he remembered how miserable it was to have no money in his own pocket the soldier was always gaily dressed now
he had a great many friends who said he was a real gentleman and that pleased him very much and so he went on day after day spending money and giving money but getting none till at last
the gold came to an end he had only two copper coins left he was only a poor soldier once more leaving the grand hotel he went to live in a small room
he found a tiny attic just under a roof up oh so many stairs here he lived mending his own clothes brushing his own boots he had no visitors
hungry yes he was hungry too
one evening he suddenly thought of the witch's tinder box surely in it there were matches the soldier opened it eagerly yes there lay the matches
he seized one and struck it on the tinder box no sooner had he done this than the door burst suddenly open and there there staring at him stood the dog with eyes as big as saucers
does my master command asked the dog
aloud he said to the dog fetch me some money and the dog instantly vanished to do his master's bidding he was back in a moment and lo in his mouth was a big bag full of pennies
this is a magic box said the soldier i have a treasure indeed and so he had for listen strike the box once the dog with eyes as large as saucers appeared
strike it twice and the dog with eyes as big as mill wheels appeared strike it thrice and there appeared the monster dog with eyes that rolled round and round and were as large as the round tower itself
all three dogs did the soldier's bidding
ever he wished he moved once more to the grand rooms in the fine hotel he had gay clothes again and now strangely enough all his friends came to see him and liked him as much as ever one evening
the soldier's thoughts wandered away to the beautiful princess
it is ridiculous that no one sees the princess thought the soldier
and i shall he pulled out his tinder box struck a light and lo there stood the dog with eyes as large as saucers it is the middle of the night said the soldier
but i must see the princess if it is only for a moment the dog bounded out of the door and before the soldier had time to wonder what he would do or say if the beautiful princess really appeared there she was yes
there she was fast asleep on the dog's back she was beautiful
he stooped and kissed her hand
then off ran the dog back to the copper palace with the princess i had such a strange dream last night the princess told the king and queen at breakfast next morning
and the soldier kissed my hand it was a strange dream she murmured
she may be frightened if she dreams again and she told an old dame who lived at court to sit in the princess's room at night but what would the queen have said if she had known that what the princess told them was no dream but something that had really and truly
happened well that evening the soldier thought he would like to see the princess again he struck a light and there stood one of his obedient dogs bring the princess
ordered the soldier and the dog vanished to do his master's will the old dame sat beside the princess's bed she had heard all about the princess's dream was she dreaming herself now she wondered
she pinched herself no she was wide awake yet she saw a dog a real dog with eyes as large as saucers in front of her the dog seized the princess
and ran off but although he ran very quickly the old dame found time to put on her goloshes before she followed how she panted along how she ran the faithful old dame
she was just in time to see the princess on the dog's back disappear into a large house i shall mark the house so that i may know it in the morning she thought and she took a piece of white chalk and made a great white cross on the door
then she walked home and slept soon afterwards the dog carried the princess back to the copper palace and noticed the great white cross on the door of the hotel where his master lived
he took a piece of chalk and he put a great white cross on every door in the town early next morning the king and queen and all the lords and ladies of the court were astir
they had scarcely started when the king's eyes fell on a great white cross here it is
it is here said the queen for almost at the same moment she too had seen a door with a great white cross then all the lords and ladies cried
the hubbub was terrible and the poor old dame was quite bewildered how could she tell which door she had marked it was quite useless the dog had perplexed everybody
and they went back to the copper palace knowing no more than when they left it but the queen was a clever woman she could do more than just sit very properly on a throne the same evening she took her big gold scissors
and cut up a large piece of silk into small pieces these she sewed together into a pretty little bag then she filled the bag with the finest grains of wheat
a hole just big enough to let the grains of wheat
that night the dog came again and carried the princess off to the soldier and the soldier wished he were a prince for then he would marry this beautiful princess now although the dog had very big eyes
eyes as large as saucers he did not notice the tiny grains of wheat as they dropped out all along the road from the palace to the soldier's window under the window the dog stopped and climbed up the wall with the princess into the soldier's room
the next morning the king and queen followed the little grains of wheat and very easily found out where the princess had been then the soldier was seized and put into prison
oh how dark and tiresome it was but it was worse than that one day when they told him he was to be hanged hanged to morrow they told him what a fright the soldier was in and
morning came through the narrow bars of his little window the soldier could see the people all hurrying out of town they were going to see him hanged he heard the drums
he saw the soldiers marching along he wished he were marching with them
a little shoemaker's apprentice with a leather apron came running along he was in such a hurry that he lost one of his slippers it fell close under the soldier's window as he sat peering out through the narrow bars
the soldier called to the boy there is no hurry for i am still here nothing will happen till i go i will give you two pence if you will run to the house where i used to live and fetch me my tinder box
you must run all the way the shoemaker's boy thought he would like to earn twopence and off he raced to bring the tinder box he found
but back he raced with it to the soldier and then
outside the town the scaffold had been raised the soldiers were drawn up round it as well as crowds of people the king and queen were there too seated on a magnificent throne exactly opposite the judges and councilors
the rope was being put round the soldier's neck when he turned to the king and queen and earnestly entreated one last favor only to be allowed to smoke one pipe of tobacco what a harmless request
yes said his majesty you may smoke one pipe of tobacco the soldier took out his tinder box struck a match once twice thrice and lo there before him
stood the three enormous dogs waiting his commands help me shouted the soldier do not let me be hanged
the king began to speak perhaps he was going to forgive the soldier but no one knows what he was going to say for the biggest dog gave him no time to finish his sentence
he rushed at the king and queen flung them high into the air so that when they fell down they too were broken all to pieces then the soldiers and the people who were all terribly frightened shouted in a great hurry brave soldier
you shall be our king and the beautiful princess shall be our queen and while they led the soldier to the royal carriage the great big dogs bounded along in front little boys whistled gaily and the guards presented arms
then the princess was sent for and made queen which she liked much better than living shut up in a copper palace and the wedding feast lasted for eight whole days and the three monster wizard dogs sat at the table
chapter six across the channel dawn had given place to day and day was well advanced toward noon before the stout little steamer gained her port it was hours after the usual time for arrival
the train for paris must long since have started and katy felt dejected and forlorn as making her way out of the terrible ladies' cabin she crept on deck for her first glimpse of france
the sun was struggling through the fog with a watery smile and his faint beams shone on a confusion of stone piers higher than the vessel's deck intersected with canal like waterways
through whose intricate windings the steamer was slowly threading her course to the landing place looking up katy could see crowds of people assembled to watch the boat come in workmen peasants women children soldiers
moving to and fro and all this crowd were talking all at once and all were talking french
she knew of course that people of different countries were liable to be found speaking their own languages but somehow the spectacle of the chattering multitude
filled her with a sense of dismayed surprise good gracious she said to herself even the babies understand it she racked her brains to recall what she had once known of french
what is the word for trunk key she asked herself they will all begin to ask questions
and missus ashe will be even worse off i know
and she felt her heart sink within her but after all when the time came it did not prove so very bad katy's pleasant looks and courteous manner stood her in good stead
she did not trust herself to say much
and in a surprisingly short time all was pronounced right the baggage had passed
which fortunately was close at hand inquiry revealed the fact that no train for paris left till four in the afternoon i am rather glad declared poor missus ashe for i feel too used up to move
i will lie here on this sofa and katy dear
and send me a cup of tea i don't like to leave you alone katy was beginning but at that moment a nice old woman who seemed to be in charge of the waiting room appeared and with a flood of french which none of them could follow
but which was evidently sympathetic in its nature flew at missus ashe and began to make her comfortable from a cupboard in the wall she produced a pillow
i am to be taken care of and katy and amy passed through the same door into the buffet and sat down at a little table it was a particularly pleasant looking place to breakfast in
there were many windows with bright polished panes and very clean short muslin curtains and on the window sills stood rows of thrifty potted plants in full bloom marigolds balsams nasturtiums
and many colored geraniums two birds in cages were singing loudly the floor was waxed to a glass like polish
and such a good breakfast as was presently brought to them delicious coffee in bowl like cups crisp rolls and rusks
stewed chicken little pats of freshly churned butter without salt shaped like shells and tasting like solidified cream and a pot of some sort of nice preserve amy made great delighted eyes at katy and remarking
began to eat with a will and katy herself felt that if this railroad meal was a specimen of what they had to expect in the future they had indeed come to a land of plenty fortified with the satisfactory breakfast
she felt equal to a walk and after they had made sure that missus ashe had all she needed she and amy and mabel set off by themselves
and even the more modern streets had a novel look to her unaccustomed eyes at first they only ventured a timid turn or two marking each corner and going back now and then to reassure themselves by a look at the station but after a while
growing bolder katy ventured to ask a question or two in french and was surprised and charmed to find herself understood after that she grew adventurous and no longer fearful of being lost
led amy straight down a long street lined with shops almost all of which were for the sale of articles in ivory
there were cases full windows full counters full of the most exquisite combs and brushes some with elaborate monograms in silver and colors others plain there were boxes and caskets of every size and shape
ornaments fans parasol handles looking glasses frames for pictures large and small napkin rings katy was particularly smitten with a paper knife in the form of an angel
with long slender wings raised over its head and meeting to form a point its price was twenty francs and she was strongly tempted to buy it for clover or rose red
this is the first shop i have been into and the first thing i have really wanted to buy and very likely as we go on i shall see things i like better and want more so it would be foolish to do it no i won't
and she resolutely turned her back on the ivory angel and walked away
the next turn brought them to a gay looking little market place where old women in white caps were sitting on the ground beside baskets and panniers full of apples pears and various queer and curly vegetables none of which katy recognized as familiar
fish of all shapes and colors were flapping in shallow tubs of sea water there were piles of stockings muffetees and comforters in vivid blue and red worsted and coarse pottery glazed in bright patterns
the faces of the women were brown and wrinkled there were no pretty ones among them but their black eyes were full of life and quickness and their fingers one and all clicked with knitting needles as their tongues flew equally fast in the chatter and the chaffer
which went on without stop or stay though customers did not seem to be many and sales were few returning to the station they found that missus ashe had been asleep during their absence
following a star in their choice of a hotel for having no better advice they had decided upon one of those thus distinguished in baedeker's guide book the star did not betray their confidence for the
to which it led them proved to be quaint and old and very pleasant of aspect the lofty chambers with their dimly frescoed ceilings and beds curtained with faded patch
might to all appearances have been furnished about the time when columbus crossed the ocean blue but everything was clean and had an air of old time respectability the dining room which was evidently of more modern build
whose tinkle and plash blended agreeably with the rattle of the knives and forks in one corner of the room was a raised and railed platform where behind a desk sat the mistress of the house busy with her account books
but keeping an eye the while on all that went forward missus ashe walked past this personage without taking any notice of her as americans are wont to do under such circumstances but presently the observant katy noticed that every one else
as they went in or out of the room addressed a bow or a civil remark to this lady
how rude we must have seemed she thought i am afraid the people here think that americans have awful manners everybody is so polite
to the waiters even well there is one thing i am going to reform
they will think that i am miraculously improved by one night on french soil but never mind
she kept her resolution and astonished missus ashe next morning by bowing to the dame on the platform in the most winning manner
as they went by but katy who is that person why do you speak to her don't you see that they all do she is the landlady i think at all events everybody bows to her
and just notice how prettily these ladies at the next table speak to the waiter
i noticed it last night and i liked it so much that i made a resolution to get up and be as polite as the french themselves this morning
from the spot which grace had reached a stone could easily have been thrown over or into the birds' nested chimneys of the mansion its walls were surmounted by a battlemented parapet
but the gray lead roofs were quite visible behind it with their gutters laps rolls and skylights together with incised letterings and shoe patterns cut by idlers thereon
the front of the house exhibited an ordinary manorial presentation of elizabethan windows mullioned and hooded worked in rich snuff colored freestone from local quarries
was coated with lichen of every shade intensifying its luxuriance with its nearness to the ground
above the house to the back was a dense plantation the roots of whose trees were above the level of the chimneys the corresponding high ground on which grace stood was richly grassed with only an old tree here and there
a few sheep lay about which as they ruminated looked quietly into the bedroom windows the situation of the house prejudicial to humanity was a stimulus to vegetation
on which account an endless shearing of the heavy armed ivy was necessary and a continual lopping of trees and shrubs it was an edifice built in times when human constitutions were damp proof
when shelter from the boisterous was all that men thought of in choosing a dwelling place the insidious being beneath their notice and its hollow site was an ocular reminder
of the fragility to which these have declined
and ruthless ignorance could have done little to make it unpicturesque it was vegetable nature's own home a spot to inspire the painter and poet of still life if they did not suffer too much from the relaxing atmosphere
and to draw groans from the gregariously disposed grace descended the green escarpment by a zigzag path into the drive which swept round beneath the slope the exterior of the house had been familiar to her from her childhood
but she had never been inside and the approach to knowing an old thing in a new way was a lively experience it was with a little flutter that she was shown in but she recollected that missus charmond would probably be alone
up to a few days before this time that lady had been accompanied in her comings stayings and goings by a relative believed to be her aunt latterly however these two ladies had separated
and missus charmond had been left desolate being presumably a woman who did not care for solitude this deprivation might possibly account for her sudden interest in grace
when miss melbury was announced and saw her through the glass doors between them she came forward with a smile on her face and told the young girl it was good of her to come ah you have noticed those she said
seeing that grace's eyes were attracted by some curious objects against the walls they are man traps my husband was a connoisseur in man traps and spring guns and such articles collecting them from all his neighbors
he knew the histories of all these which gin had broken a man's leg which gun had killed a man that one i remember his saying
but the keeper forgetting what he had done went that way himself received the charge in the lower part of his body and died of the wound i don't like them here but i've never yet given directions for them to be taken away she added playfully
man traps are of rather ominous significance where a person of our sex lives are they not grace was bound to smile but that side of womanliness was one which her inexperience had no great zest in contemplating
they are interesting no doubt as relics of a barbarous time happily past she said looking thoughtfully at the varied designs of these instruments of torture some with semi circular jaws some with rectangular
most of them with long sharp teeth but a few with none so that their jaws looked like the blank gums of old age well we must not take them too seriously said missus charmond with an indolent turn of her head
and they moved on inward when she had shown her visitor different articles in cabinets that she deemed likely to interest her some tapestries wood carvings ivories miniatures and so on
always with a mien of listlessness which might either have been constitutional or partly owing to the situation of the place they sat down to an early cup of tea will you pour it out please do she said
leaning back in her chair and placing her hand above her forehead while her almond eyes those long eyes so common to the angelic legions of early italian art became longer and her voice more languishing
she showed that oblique mannered softness which is perhaps most frequent in women of darker complexion and more lymphatic temperament than missus charmond's was who lingeringly smile their meanings to men rather than speak them
and take advantage of currents rather than steer i am the most inactive woman when i am here she said i think sometimes i was born to live and do nothing nothing nothing but float about
as we fancy we do sometimes in dreams but that cannot be really my destiny and i must struggle against such fancies i am so sorry you do not enjoy exertion it is quite sad i wish i could tend you and make you very happy
there was something so sympathetic so appreciative in the sound of grace's voice that it impelled people to play havoc with their customary reservations in talking to her it is tender and kind of you to feel that said missus charmond
perhaps i have given you the notion that my languor is more than it really is but this place oppresses me and i have a plan of going abroad a good deal i used to go with a relative but that arrangement has dropped through
regarding grace with a final glance of criticism she seemed to make up her mind to consider the young girl satisfactory and continued now i am often impelled to record my impressions of times and places
i have often thought of writing a new sentimental journey but i cannot find energy enough to do it alone when i am at different places in the south of europe i feel a crowd of ideas and fancies thronging upon me continually
but to unfold writing materials take up a cold steel pen and put these impressions down systematically on cold smooth paper that i cannot do so i have thought that if i always could have somebody at my elbow with whom i am in sympathy
and directly i had made your acquaintance the other day it struck me that you would suit me so well would you like to undertake it you might read to me too if desirable will you think it over and ask your parents if they are willing
oh yes said grace i am almost sure they would be very glad you are so accomplished i hear i should be quite honored by such intellectual company
grace modestly blushing deprecated any such idea do you keep up your lucubrations at little hintock oh no lucubrations are not unknown at little hintock but they are not carried on by me
what another student in that retreat there is a surgeon lately come and i have heard that he reads a great deal i see his light sometimes through the trees late at night
oh yes a doctor i believe i was told of him it is a strange place for him to settle in it is a convenient centre for a practice they say but he does not confine his studies to medicine it seems
he investigates theology and metaphysics and all sorts of subjects what is his name fitzpiers he represents a very old family i believe the fitzpierses of buckbury fitzpiers
not a great many miles from here i am not sufficiently local to know the history of the family i was never in the county till my husband brought me here missus charmond did not care to pursue this line of investigation
whatever mysterious merit might attach to family antiquity it was one which though she herself could claim it her adaptable wandering weltburgerliche nature had grown tired of caring about
a peculiarity that made her a contrast to her neighbors it is of rather more importance to know what the man is himself than what his family is she said if he is going to practise upon us as a surgeon have you seen him
grace had not i think he is not a very old man she added has he a wife i am not aware that he has well i hope he will be useful here i must get to know him when i come back
it will be very convenient to have a medical man if he is clever in one's own parish i get dreadfully nervous sometimes living in such an outlandish place and sherton is so far to send to
no doubt you feel hintock to be a great change after watering place life i do but it is home it has its advantages and its disadvantages grace was thinking less of the solitude than of the attendant circumstances
they chatted on for some time grace being set quite at her ease by her entertainer missus charmond was far too well practised a woman not to know that to show a marked patronage to a sensitive young girl who would probably be very quick to discern it
was to demolish her dignity rather than to establish it in that young girl's eyes so being violently possessed with her idea of making use of this gentle acquaintance ready and waiting at her own door she took great pains to win her confidence at starting
just before grace's departure the two chanced to pause before a mirror which reflected their faces in immediate juxtaposition so as to bring into prominence their resemblances and their contrasts
both looked attractive as glassed back by the faithful reflector but grace's countenance had the effect of making missus charmond appear more than her full age there are complexions which set off each other to great advantage
and there are those which antagonize the one killing or damaging its neighbor unmercifully this was unhappily the case here missus charmond fell into a meditation and replied abstractedly to a cursory remark of her companion's
however she parted from her young friend in the kindliest tones promising to send and let her know as soon as her mind was made up on the arrangement she had suggested when grace had ascended nearly to the top of the adjoining slope
she looked back and saw that missus charmond still stood at the door meditatively regarding her often during the previous night after his call on the melburys
winterborne's thoughts ran upon grace's announced visit to hintock house why could he not have proposed to walk with her part of the way something told him that she might not on such an occasion care for his company
he was still more of that opinion when standing in his garden next day he saw her go past on the journey with such a pretty pride in the event he wondered if her father's ambition which had purchased for her the means of intellectual light and culture
far beyond those of any other native of the village would conduce to the flight of her future interests above and away from the local life which was once to her the movement of the world nevertheless he had her father's permission to win her if he could
and to this end it became desirable to bring matters soon to a crisis if he ever hoped to do so if she should think herself too good for him he could let her go and make the best of his loss but until he had really tested her
he could not say that she despised his suit the question was how to quicken events towards an issue he thought and thought and at last decided that as good a way as any would be to give a christmas party and ask grace and her parents to come as chief guests
he descended the path and looked out and beheld marty south dressed for out door work why didn't you come mister winterborne she said i've been waiting there hours and hours and at last i thought i must try to find you
bless my soul i'd quite forgot said giles what he had forgotten was that there was a thousand young fir trees to be planted in a neighboring spot which had been cleared by the wood cutters
and that he had arranged to plant them with his own hands he had a marvellous power of making trees grow although he would seem to shovel in the earth quite carelessly
there was a sort of sympathy between himself and the fir oak or beech that he was operating on so that the roots took hold of the soil in a few days when on the other hand any of the journeymen planted
although they seemed to go through an identically similar process one quarter of the trees would die away during the ensuing august hence winterborne found delight in the work even when as at present
he contracted to do it on portions of the woodland in which he had no personal interest marty who turned her hand to anything was usually the one who performed the part of keeping the trees in a perpendicular position while he threw in the mould
he accompanied her towards the spot being stimulated yet further to proceed with the work by the knowledge that the ground was close to the way side along which grace must pass on her return from hintock house
you've a cold in the head marty he said as they walked that comes of cutting off your hair i suppose it do yes i've three headaches going on in my head at the same time three headaches
yes a rheumatic headache in my poll a sick headache over my eyes and a misery headache in the middle of my brain however i came out for i thought you might be waiting and grumbling like anything if i was not there
winterborne's fingers were endowed with a gentle conjuror's touch in spreading the roots of each little tree resulting in a sort of caress under which the delicate fibres all laid themselves out in their proper directions for growth
he put most of these roots towards the south west for he said in forty years time when some great gale is blowing from that quarter the trees will require the strongest holdfast on that side to stand against it and not fall
how they sigh directly we put em upright though while they are lying down they don't sigh at all said marty do they said giles i've never noticed it
she erected one of the young pines into its hole and held up her finger the soft musical breathing instantly set in which was not to cease night or day till the grown tree should be felled
probably long after the two planters should be felled themselves it seems to me the girl continued as if they sigh because they are very sorry to begin life in earnest just as we be just as we be
he looked critically at her you ought not to feel like that marty her only reply was turning to take up the next tree and they planted on through a great part of the day almost without another word
winterborne's mind ran on his contemplated evening party his abstraction being such that he hardly was conscious of marty's presence beside him from the nature of their employment in which he handled the spade and she merely held the tree
it followed that he got good exercise and she got none but she was an heroic girl and though her out stretched hand was chill as a stone and her cheeks blue and her cold worse than ever
she would not complain while he was disposed to continue work but when he paused she said mister winterborne can i run down the lane and back to warm my feet why yes of course
though i was just thinking what a mild day it is for the season now i warrant that cold of yours is twice as bad as it was you had no business to chop that hair off marty it serves you almost right look here cut off home at once
a run down the lane will be quite enough no it won't you ought not to have come out to day at all but i should like to finish the
i can manage to keep the rest of them upright with a stick or something she went away without saying any more when she had gone down the orchard a little distance she looked back giles suddenly went after her
marty it was for your good that i was rough you know but warm yourself in your own way i don't care when she had run off he fancied he discerned a woman's dress through the holly bushes which divided the coppice from the road
it was grace at last on her way back from the interview with missus charmond he threw down the tree he was planting and was about to break through the belt of holly when he suddenly became aware of the presence of another man
who was looking over the hedge on the opposite side of the way upon the figure of the unconscious grace he appeared as a handsome and gentlemanly personage of six or eight and twenty and was quizzing her through an eye glass
seeing that winterborne was noticing him he let his glass drop with a click upon the rail which protected the hedge and walked away in the opposite direction giles knew in a moment that this must be mister fitzpiers
whatever the papers say it was the hottest afternoon of the year at six thirty i had just finished dressing after my third cold bath since lunch when celia tapped on the door i want you to do something for me she said
it is rather a shame i agreed but i can always refuse oh but you mustn't we haven't got any ice and the thompsons are coming to dinner
jane's busy and i'm busy and and i'm busy i said opening and shutting a drawer with great rapidity just threepennyworth she pleaded nice cool ice think of sliding home on it
well of course it had to be done i took my hat and staggered out on an ordinary cool day it is about half a mile to the fishmonger to day it was about two miles and a quarter
i arrived exhausted and with only just strength enough to kneel down and press my forehead against the large block of ice in the middle of the shop round which the lobsters nestled here you mustn't do that said the fishmonger waving me away
i got up slightly refreshed i want i said some and then a thought occurred to me after all did fishmongers sell ice probably the large block in front of me was just a trade sign
like the coloured bottles at the chemist's suppose i said to a fellow of the pharmaceutical society i want some of that green stuff in the window he would only laugh the tactful thing to do
would be to buy a pint or two of laudanum first and then having established pleasant relations
so i said to the fishmonger i want some some nice lobsters how many would you like one i said
leaving only the whiskers visible and gave it to me the ice being now broken i mean the ice being now well you see what i mean i was now in a position to ask for some of his ice
i wonder if you could let me have a little piece of your ice i ventured
sixpennyworth i said feeling suddenly that celia's threepennyworth sounded rather paltry
he wrapped a piece of daily news round it and gave it to me
that is all i said faintly and with algernon the overwhiskered crustacean firmly clutched in the right hand and stonehenge supported on the palm of the left hand i retired the flat seemed a very long way away
and an entirely unnecessary lobster i was not going to waste still more money in taxis hot though it was i would walk for some miles all went well then the ice began to drip through the paper and in a little while
the underneath part of the daily news had disappeared altogether tucking the lobster under my arm i turned the block over so that it rested on another part of the paper soon that had dissolved too
our radical contemporary had been entirely eaten fortunately the daily mail remained but to get it i had to disentangle algernon first
i put the block of ice down on the pavement unwrapped the lobster put the lobster next to the ice spread its daily mail out
and looked up and saw missus thompson approaching
in an hour and a half she would be dining with us algernon would not be dining with us if algernon and missus thompson were to meet now
would she not be expecting him to turn up at every course think of the long drawn out disappointment for her not even lobster sauce there was no time to lose i decided to abandon the ice
leaving it on the pavement i clutched the lobster and walked hastily back the way i had come by the time i had shaken off missus thompson i was almost at the fishmonger's that decided me i would begin all over again
and would do it properly this time i want three of ice i said with an air
said the fishmonger and bill gave me quite a respectable segment in the morning post and i want a taxi i said and i waved my lobster at one
i suddenly became nervous about algernon i could not take him red and undraped past the hall porter past all the other residents who might spring out at me on the stairs accordingly i placed the block of ice on the seat
took off some of its morning post and wrapped algernon up decently then i sprang out gave the man a coin and hastened into the building bless you said celia have you got it how sweet of you
and she took my parcel from me now we shall be able why what's this i looked at it closely it's it's a lobster i said didn't you say lobster
i said ice oh i said oh i didn't understand i thought you said lobster you can't put lobster in cider cup said celia severely of course
i quite see that it was foolish of me however
and began eagerly to look homeward but in the contrary direction five hundred miles to the south of his frontier town on the other side of the great nubian desert and the belly of stones
on the deserted track between berber
the wells of obak are sunk deep amongst mounds of shifting sand eastward a belt of trees divides the dunes from a hard stony plain
to mahobey and berber on the nile a desert so flat that the merest tuft of grass knee high seems at the distance of a mile a tree promising shade for a noonday halt
and a pile of stones no bigger than one might see by the side of any roadway in repair achieves the stature of a considerable hill in this particular may there could be no spot more desolate than the wells of obak
the sun blazed upon it from six in the morning with an intolerable heat and all night the wind blew across it piercingly cold and played with the sand as it would building pyramids house high and levelling them
tunnelling valleys silting up long slopes so that the face of the country was continually changed the vultures and the sand grouse
and to make the spot yet more desolate there remained scattered here and there the bleached bones and skeletons of camels to bear evidence that about these wells once the caravans had crossed and halted
and the remnants of a house built of branches bent in hoops showed that once arabs had herded their goats and made their habitation there now the sun rose and set
silence brooded there like night upon the waters
yet in this month of may one man sojourned by the wells and sojourned secretly every morning at sunrise he drove two camels swift riding mares of the pure bisharin breed from the belt of trees
watered them and sat by the well mouth for the space of three hours then he drove them back again into the shelter of the trees and fed them delicately with dhoura upon a cloth and for the rest of the day he appeared no more
for five mornings he thus came from his hiding place and sat looking toward the sand dunes and berber and no one approached him but on the sixth as he was on the point of returning to his shelter he saw the figures of a man and a donkey
suddenly outlined against the sky upon a crest of the sand the arab seated by the well looked first at the donkey and remarking its grey colour half rose
to his feet but as he rose he looked at the man who drove it and saw that while his jellab was drawn forward over his face to protect it from the sun his bare legs showed
the donkey driver was a negro the arab sat down again and waited with an air of the most complete indifference for the stranger to descend to him he did not even move or turn when he heard the negro's feet treading the sand close behind him
salam aleikum said the negro as he stopped he carried a long spear and a short one and a shield of hide these he laid upon the ground and sat by the arab's side
the arab bowed his head and returned the salutation aleikum es salam said he and he waited
asked the negro the arab nodded an assent two days ago
abou fatma at the wells of obak
as though now for the first time he had remarked it tayeeb he said no less carelessly the donkey is mine and he sat inattentive
and he might go the negro however held his ground
again on the third morning from now in the market place of berber
abou fatma took his knife from the small of his back and picking up a stick from the ground notched it thrice at each end this shall be a sign to moussa fedil and he handed the stick to his companion
the negro tied it securely into a corner of his wrap loosed his water skin from the donkey's back filled it at the well and slung it about his shoulders
to a stem examined its shoulders in the left shoulder a tiny incision had been made and the skin neatly stitched up again with fine thread he cut the stitches and pressing open the two edges of the wound forced out a tiny package
little bigger than a postage stamp the package was a goat's bladder and enclosed within the bladder was a note written in arabic and folded very small
he had been taught during his service to read he unfolded the note and this is what was written the houses which were once berber are destroyed and a new town of wide streets is building
nor does yusef any longer sell rock salt in the bazaar yet wait for me another week
harry feversham wearing the patched jubbeh of the dervishes over his stained skin his hair frizzed on the crown of his head
a warren of ruined houses facing upon narrow alleys and winding streets the front walls had been pulled down the roofs carried away only the bare inner walls were left standing
and each court was only distinguishable from its neighbour by a degree of ruin already the foxes made their burrows beneath the walls he had calculated that one night would have been the term of his stay in berber
the stars his face should be set towards obak now he must go steadily forward amongst the crowds like a man that has business of moment dreading conversation lest his tongue should betray him
listening ever for the name of yusef to strike upon his ears despair kept him company at times and fear always but from the sharp pangs of these emotions a sort of madness was begotten in him
a frenzy of obstinacy a belief fanatical as the dark religion of those amongst whom he moved
that there could be no injustice in the whole scheme of the universe great enough to lay this heavy burden upon
the one man least fitted to bear it and then callously to destroy him because he tried fear had him in its grip on that morning three days after he had left abou fatma at the wells when coming over a slope
he first saw the sand stretched like a lagoon up to the dark brown walls of the town and the overshadowing foliage of the big date palms rising on the nile bank beyond
it was surely the merest madness for a man to imagine that he could escape
even for an hour was it right he began to ask that a man should even try the longer he stood the more insistent did this question grow the low mud walls grew strangely sinister
the welcome green of the waving palms after so many arid days of sun and sand and stones became an ironical invitation to death he began to wonder whether he had not already done enough for honour in venturing so near
the sun beat upon him his strength ebbed from him as though his veins were opened if he were caught he thought as surely he would be oh very surely he saw the fanatical faces crowding fiercely about him
were not mutilations practised he looked about him shivering even in that strong heat and the great loneliness of the place smote upon him so that his knees shook he faced about and commenced to run
leaping in a panic alone and unpursued across the naked desert under the sun while from his throat feeble cries broke inarticulately
he had schooled himself in the tongue he had lived in the bazaars to no end he was still
sent in his papers the quiet confidence with which he had revealed his plan to lieutenant sutch over the table in the criterion grill room was the mere vainglory of a man who continually deceived himself
he dropped upon the ground and
he shut the prospect from his eyes and over the thousands of miles of continent and sea he drew ethne's face towards him a little while and he was back again in donegal the summer night whispered through the open doorway in the hall
he might perhaps some day see that face cleared of its trouble
undoubtedly shared the ponderousness of all dutch workmanship weight is required only when crashing through a bushy country where a wagon must break down all before it in every other case it is objectionable
it is a saving of labour to have one large wagon rather than two small ones because a driver and a leader are thereby spared but if a very light wagon has to be taken i should greatly prefer its being made on the swiss and german fashion
the pole and the fore wheels forming one and the perch and the hind wheels another now should a great loss occur among the traveller's cattle or should he break a wheel or even strain an axle tree
and to build up a cart for carrying on the remainder
and they can make it any length they please it is of so simple a construction that every farmer can repair his own and make anything of it if he has a perch a pole and four wheels that is enough with a little ingenuity
this latter forms the axletree the body of the dray is built where the two cross and the cattle are yoked or harnessed to the long end of the bar which acts as a pole tarring wheels
tar is absolutely essential in a hot country to mix with the grease
grease alone melts and runs away like water the object of the tar is to give consistency to the grease a very small proportion of tar suffices but without any at all a wagon is soon brought to a standstill
tar is also of very great use in hot dry countries for daubing over the wheels
during extreme heat when the wood is ready to crack all the paint should be scraped off it and the tar applied plentifully it will soak in deeply and preserve the wood in excellent condition
see tar to make it is not necessary to take off the wheels in order to grease the axles it is sufficient to bore an auger hole right through the substance of the nave between the feet of two of the spokes
and to keep a plug in the hole then when you want to tar a wheel turn it till the hole is uppermost take the plug out and pour in the tar breaks and drags breaks
every cart and wagon in switzerland and indeed in most parts of the continent
the simplest kind of break is shown in fig two which represents a cart tilted upwards fig one shows the break itself fig two explains how it is fitted on to the cart fig one
is shown in fig three a rail is lashed to the body of the cart both before and behind the wheel and is made to press against the wheel either both lashings can be tightened at the same time as at a a or
in going down a steep hill a middling sized tree may be felled and its root tied to the hind axletree
top sweeps along the ground as is seen in the lowermost wagon in the sketch sketch of horses and wagons on hill in the south west of france the leaders of the team are unharnessed and taken to the back of the wagon
and fasten a rope round the axle of the wagon then passing the other end round a tree or rock as a check you may let her slide which she will do without any further trouble on your part
that the wagon settles down into a more horizontal position than before i have seen timber carried on a wagon down a steep hill by separating the front wheels from the hind ones lashing a trail
see travail below or two short poles to the fore axletree and resting one end of the timber on the hind axletree and the other end on the trail shoe the wheel on the side furthest from the precipice
a little with an axe if necessary a few bars may be fixed across the fork so as to make a stage great distances may be traversed by one of these rude affairs if the country is not very stony
should it capsize no great harm is done and if it breaks down or is found to have been badly made an hour's labour will suffice to construct another
but no wagon or packing gear north american travail in a north american indian horse travail the crossing of the poles they are the poles of the wigwams
usually rests on a rough pack saddle or pad which a breast strap keeps from slipping backwards in a dog travail the cross of the poles
there is no such inconvenience things may be quickly thrown into them or taken out pockets and drawers may be fitted up
would afford some shelter in rain
feversham returns to ramelton on an august morning of the same year harry feversham rode across the lennon bridge into ramelton the fierce suns of the soudan had tanned his face
to letterkenny he rode rather quickly in a company of ghosts the intervening years had gradually been dropping from his thoughts all through his journey across egypt and the continent
they were no more than visionary now nor was he occupied with any dream of the things which might have been but for his great fault the things which had been here in this small town of ireland
were too definite here he had been most happy here he had known the uttermost of his misery
here too he had done his worst harm
set high above the road upon his right hand
there were larks singing in the pale blue above his head
its harsh cry from the meadow on the left the crow of a cock rose clear from the valley he looked about him and rode briskly on down the incline in front of him and up the ascent beyond
a broken fence a gateway with no gate inattentive to these evidences of desertion he turned in at the gate and rode along a weedy and neglected drive
and tying his horse to the branch of a tree ran quickly into the house and called aloud no voice answered him he ran from deserted room to deserted room
in ramelton he stopped at the inn gave his horse to the ostler and ordered lunch for himself he said to the landlady who waited upon him so lennon house has been burned down when was that
just five years ago this summer and she proceeded without further invitation to give a voluminous account of the conflagration and the cause of it
of bastable and the death of dermod eustace at glenalla but we hope to see the house rebuilt it's likely to be we hear when miss eustace is married
she said in a voice which suggested that she was full of interesting information upon the subject of miss eustace's marriage her guest however did not respond to the invitation
and where does miss eustace live now at glenalla she replied halfway on the road to rathmullen there's a track leads up to your left it's a poor mountain village
at all at all perhaps you will be wanting to see her yes i shall be glad if you will order my horse to be brought round to the door said the man and he rose from the table to put an end to the interview
the landlady however was not so easily dismissed she stood at the door and remarked well that's curious that's most curious for only a fortnight ago a gentleman burnt just as black as yourself
stayed a night here on the same errand he asked for miss eustace's address and drove up to glenalla perhaps you have business with her
will you be good enough to give orders about my horse while he was waiting for his horse he looked through the leaves of the hotel book and saw under a date towards the end of july the name of colonel trench
you will come back sir to night said the landlady as he mounted no he answered i do not think i shall come again to ramelton
of the lough and turning into it he rode past a few white cottages up to the purple hollow of the hills it was about five o'clock when he came to the long straggling village
beyond the house was another gap through which he could see straight down to the water of the lough shining in the afternoon sun and the white gulls poising and swooping above it
and after passing that gap he came to a small grey church standing bare to the winds upon its tiny plateau a pathway of white shell dust led from the door of the church to the little wooden gate
he glanced towards the church and saw that the door stood open at once he dismounted he fastened his horse to the fence and entered
the collie thrust its muzzle into the back of his knee sniffed once or twice doubtfully and suddenly broke into an exuberant welcome the collie dog had a better memory than the landlady of the inn
he barked wagged his tail crouched and sprang at the stranger's shoulders whirled round and round in front of him burst into sharp excited screams of pleasure ran up to the church door and barked furiously there
then ran back and jumped again upon his friend the man caught the dog as it stood up with its forepaws upon his chest patted it and laughed suddenly he ceased laughing and stood stock still with his eyes
he put the dog down and slowly walked up the path towards her she waited on the threshold without moving without speaking she waited watching him until he came close to her then she said simply harry
six years had passed since his feet crushed the gravel on the dawn
and the changes unnoticed and almost imperceptible to those who had lived daily in their company sprang very distinct to the eyes of these two feversham was thin his face was wasted the strain of life
in the house of stone had left its signs about his sunken eyes and in the look of age beyond his years but these were not the only changes
they were not indeed the most important ones her heart although she stood so still and silent went out to him in grief for the great troubles which he had endured but she saw too
that he came back without a thought of anger towards her for that fourth feather snapped from her fan but she was clear eyed even at this moment she saw much more she understood that the man who stood quietly before her now
was not the same man whom she had last seen in the hall of ramelton there had been a timidity in his manner in those days
and he knew that he had not failed all that she saw and her face lightened as she said it is not all harm which has come of these years they were not wasted but feversham thought of her lonely years in this village of glenalla
and thought with a man's thought unaware that nowhere else would she have chosen to live
it was not that she had aged so much her big grey eyes shone as clearly as before
but there was more of character she had suffered she had eaten
i am sorry he said i did you a great wrong six years ago and i need not she held out her hand to him will you give it me please and for a moment he did not understand
that fourth feather she said
the larger one the ostrich feather he held out to her but she said both there was no reason why he should keep castleton's feather any longer he handed them both to her since she asked for them and she clasped them
and with a smile treasured them against her breast i have the four feathers now she said yes answered feversham all four
do with them she cried in scorn i shall do nothing with them i shall keep them i am very proud to have them to keep she kept them as she had once kept harry feversham's portrait there was something perhaps in durrance's contention
that women so much more than men gather up their experiences and live upon them looking backwards feversham at all events would now have dropped the feathers then and there and crushed them into the dust of the path with his heel they had done their work
to her they were not dead colonel trench was here a fortnight ago she said he told me you were bringing it back to me but he did not know of the fourth feather said feversham i never told any man that i had it
i am glad of that said feversham he is a great friend of mine
we were alone in the dog cart and we spoke of the friends whom one knows for friends the first moment and whom one seems to recognise even though one has never seen them before
interrupted feversham indeed i remember and whom one never loses whether absent or dead continued ethne i said that one could always be sure of such friends and you answered i answered that one could make mistakes again
feversham interrupted yes and i disagreed i said that one might seem to make mistakes and perhaps think so for a long while but that in the end one would be proved not to have made them i have often thought of those words
i remembered them very clearly when captain willoughby brought to me the first feather and with a great deal of remorse i remember them again very clearly to day although i have no room in my thoughts for remorse i was right you see
and i should have clung firmly to my faith but i did not her voice shook a little and pleaded as she went on i was young i knew very little i was unaware how little i judged hastily but to day i understand
best form for memoranda
has written them in a remarkably small but distinct handwriting hard pencil marks h h h pencils on common paper
or on metallic paper are very durable doctor barth wrote his numerous observations entirely in indian ink he kept a tiny saucer in his pocket rubbed with the ink when he wanted to use it he rubbed it up with his wetted finger tip
or resupplied it with fresh ink and filled his pen and wrote captain burton wrote very much in the dark when lying awake at night
a traveller may die and his uncompleted work perish with him or he may return and years will pass by and suddenly some observations he had made will be called in question professor j forbes says
the practice which i have long adopted is this to carry a memorandum book with harwood's prepared paper in this point of detail i do not concur see next paragraph
and metallic pencil in which notes and observations and slight sketches of every description are made on the spot and in the exact order in which they occur these notes are almost ineffaceable and are preserved for reference
they are then extended as far as possible every evening with pen and ink in a suitable book in the form of a journal from which finally they may be extracted and modified for any ultimate purpose
and very often whilst ambiguities or contradictions admit of removal by a fresh appeal to facts
by the loss of a pocket book may be avoided
m s s captain blakiston who surveyed the northern part of the rocky mountains and subsequently received the medal of the royal geographical society for his exploration and admirable map of the
yang tse kiang in china paid great attention to the subject he was fully in possession of all i had to say on the matter and i gladly quote the method he adopted in north america with slight modifications
additions of my own for the purposes of memoranda and mapping data he uses three sets of books which can be ordered at any lithographer's no one pocket memorandum book
measuring three inches and a half by five made of strong paper captain blakston did not use and i should not advise travellers to use prepared paper for it soon becomes rotten and the leaves fall out besides that
wet makes the paper soppy the books are paged with bold numbers printed in the corners two faint red lines are ruled down the middle of each page
half an inch apart to enable the book to be used as a field surveyor's book when required in this pocket book
everything is written consecutively without confusion or attempt to save space
and a sufficient number should be procured to admit of having at least one per month do not stint yourself in these no two log book this is an orderly way of collecting such parts of the surveying material
as has been scattered over each day in your note book it is to be neatly written out and will become the standard of future reference by using a printed form
are so exceedingly diverse
a traveller does excellently who takes latitudes by meridian altitudes
on purpose and in preparing them he should bear the following well known maxims in mind let all careful observations be in doubles if they be for latitudes
the errors of your instruments will then affect the results in opposite directions and the mean of the results will destroy the error so if for time
and bring away a reliable series you will be thus possessed of a certainty to work upon instead of the miserably unsatisfactory results obtained from a single set of lunars taken here and another set there scattered
all over the country and impossible to correlate a series should consist of six sets each set including three simple distances three of these sets should be to a star
of moon and three to a star
no matter how numerous they may be for the sextant et cetera might be inaccurate to any amount and yet no error be manifest in their results
mercilessly and also eliminates them one of the best authorities on the requirements of sextant observations in rude land travel the astronomer royal of cape town says to this effect
do not observe the altitude of the star in taking lunars but compute it the labour requisite for that observation is better bestowed in taking a large number of distances
these things being premised it will be readily understood that outline forms sufficient for an entire series of lunars will extend over many pages they will in fact require eighteen pages
there are four sets of observations for time
both at beginning and close of the whole
six for six sets of lunars as described above six for the corresponding altitudes of the stars which have to be computed and finally one page for taking means and recording the observations for adjustment et cetera
one of which would be for time at this rate and taking the observations mentioned above a book of five hundred pages would last half a year of course where the means of transport is limited
travellers must content themselves with less thus captain speke who started on his great journey amply equipped with log books and calculation books such as i have described found them too great an incumbrance and was compelled
adventures by the shore troy wandered along towards the south a composite feeling made up of disgust with the to him humdrum tediousness of a farmer's life gloomy images of her who lay in the churchyard
remorse and a general averseness to his wife's society impelled him to seek a home in any place on earth save weatherbury the sad accessories of fanny's end confronted him as vivid pictures
which threatened to be indelible and made life in bathsheba's house intolerable at three in the afternoon he found himself at the foot of a slope more than a mile in length which ran to the ridge of a range of hills lying
parallel with the shore and forming a monotonous barrier between the basin of cultivated country inland and the wilder scenery of the coast up the hill stretched a road nearly straight and perfectly white
the two sides approaching each other in a gradual taper till they met the sky at the top about two miles off throughout the length of this narrow and irksome inclined plane not a sign of life was visible on this garish afternoon
experienced for many a day and year before the air was warm and muggy and the top seemed to recede as he approached at last he reached the summit and a wide and novel prospect
burst upon him with an effect almost like that of the pacific upon balboa's gaze
stretched the whole width of his front and round to the right where near the town and port of budmouth the sun bristled down upon it
oily polish nothing moved in sky land or sea except a frill of milkwhite foam along the nearer angles of the shore shreds of which licked the contiguous stones like tongues
he descended and came to a small basin of sea enclosed by the cliffs troy's nature freshened within him he thought he would rest and bathe here before going farther
he undressed and plunged in inside the cove the water was uninteresting to a swimmer being smooth as a pond and to get a little of the ocean swell
which formed the pillars of hercules to this miniature mediterranean unfortunately for troy a current unknown to him existed outside which unimportant to craft of any burden
was awkward for a swimmer who might be taken in it unawares troy found himself carried to the left and then round in a swoop out to sea
many bathers had there prayed for a dry death from time to time and like gonzalo also had been unanswered and troy began to deem it possible that he might be added to their number
not a boat of any kind was at present within sight but far in the distance budmouth lay upon the sea as it were quietly regarding his efforts
after well nigh exhausting himself in attempts to get back to the mouth of the cove in his weakness swimming several inches deeper than was his wont
turning upon his back a dozen times over
troy resolved as a last resource to tread water at a slight incline and so endeavour to reach the shore at any point merely giving himself a gentle impetus inwards whilst
carried on in the general direction of the tide this necessarily a slow process he found to be not altogether so difficult
of a landing place the objects on shore passing by him in a sad and slow procession he perceptibly approached the extremity of a spit of land yet further to the right
now well defined against the sunny portion of the horizon while the swimmer's eye's were fixed upon the spit as his only means of salvation on this side of the unknown
a moving object broke the outline of the extremity and immediately a ship's boat appeared manned with several sailor lads her bows towards the sea
all troy's vigour spasmodically revived to prolong the struggle yet a little further swimming with his right arm he held up his left to hail them
splashing upon the waves and shouting with all his might from the position of the setting sun his white form was distinctly visible upon the now deep hued bosom of the sea to the east of the boat
and the men saw him at once backing their oars and putting the boat about they pulled towards him with a will and in five or six minutes from the time of his first halloo
two of the sailors hauled him in over the stern they formed part of a brig's crew
lending him what little clothing they could spare among them as a slight protection against the rapidly cooling air they agreed to land him in the morning and without further delay for it was growing late they made again towards the roadstead where their vessel lay
and now night drooped slowly upon the wide watery levels in front and at no great distance from them where the shoreline curved round
a series of points of yellow light began to start into existence denoting the spot to be the site of budmouth where the lamps were being lighted along the parade the cluck of their oars
was the only sound of any distinctness upon the sea and as they laboured amid the thickening shades the lamp lights grew larger each appearing to send a flaming sword
t taffel table taffelost denmark a danish brand name for an ordinary slicing cheese tafi argentina
made in the rich province of tucuman taiviers
taleggio lombardy italy soft whole milk stracchino type tallance france goat
tamie france port salut made by trappist monks at savoy from their method that is more or less a trade secret tome de beaumont
is an imitation produced not far away tanzenberger carinthia
limburger type
or tofu china
soybean curd or cheese made from the milk of soybeans the beans are ground and steeped made into a paste that's boiled so the starch dissolves
with the casein after being strained off the milk is coagulated with a solution of gypsum
in making ordinary cow milk cheeses after being salted and pressed in molds it is ready to be warmed up and added to soups and cooked dishes
as well as being eaten as is teleme rumania similar to brinza and sometimes called branza de bralia
made of sheep's milk and rapidly ripened so it is ready to eat in ten days terzolo italy term used
to designate parmesan type cheese made in winter tete a tete tete de maure moor's head france round in shape
monk's head france a soft head weighing ten to twenty pounds creamy tasty summer swiss imitated in jura france and also called
tete de mort see fromage gras for this death's head the tempting cheese of fyvie scotland something on the order of eve's apple
according to the scottish rhyme that exposes it
was the tempting cheese of fyvie
to the tempting cheese the tempting cheese of fyvie
and follow a fottman laddie texel
off the coast of the netherlands thenay
france resembles camembert and vendome
switzerland a fine emmentaler three counties ireland an undistinguished cheddar named for the three counties
that make most of the irish cheese thuringia caraway germany a hand cheese spiked with caraway thyme syria
soft and mellow with the contrasting pungence of thyme two other herbal cheeses are flavored with thyme both french
two tibet tibet the small hard grating cheeses named after the country tibet are of sheep's milk in cubes about two inches on all sides
with holes to string them through the middle fifty to a hundred on each string they suggest chinese strings of cash and doubtless served as currency
in the same way as chinese cheese money see under money
savoy france hard sheep or goat blue veined sharp
similar to gex
mexico hard sharp biting named from the border race track town tillamook see chapter four tilsit
ragnit germany this classical variety of east prussia is similar to american brick made of whole milk with many small holes that give it an open texture as in port salut
which it also resembles although it is stronger and coarser
is something special in aromatic tang and attempts to imitate it are made around the world one of them ovar is such a good copy it is called
hungarian tilsit there are american danish and canadian even swiss imitations
but not suitable for elegant post prandial dallying tilziski yugoslavia a montenegrin
tilsiter tome de beaumont france whole cow's milk tome la
france also called fourme cantal
a kind of cheddar that comes from ambert aubrac
grand murol roche salers et cetera
soft goat cheese tome de savoie france soft paste goat or cow others in the same category are
tomelitan gruyere norway imitation of french gruyere
germany a cooked cheese to which pennsylvania pot is similar sour skim milk cheese eaten fresh and sold in packages of one ounce
when cured it is flaky toscano or pecorino toscano tuscany italy
sheep's milk cheese like romano but softer and therefore used as a table cheese toscanello tuscany italy a smaller edition of toscano
berber africa skim milk often curdled with korourou leaves the soft curd is then dipped out onto mats
like pancake batter and sun dried for ten days
very hard and dry and never salted
to the barbary states by berber tribes tour eiffel berry france besides naming this berry cheese tour eiffel serves as a picturesque label and trademark for a brand of camembert
touloumisio greece similar to feta tournette france small goat cheese tourne de
dauphine france goat cheese trappe la or oka canada truly fine port salut named for the trappist order and its canadian monastery
trappist see chapter three trappist yugoslavia trappist port salut imitation trauben grape switzerland
aged in swiss neuchatel wine and so named for the grape travnik travnicki albania russia yugoslavia soft sheep whole milk
with a little goat sometimes and occasionally skim milk more than a century of success in europe turkey and adjacent lands where it is also known as arnauten
and vlasic when fresh it is almost white
and is not so good if holes should develop in it the pure sheep milk type when aged is characteristically oily and sharp
portugal soft sheep oily rich sapid for city turophiles nostalgically named from the mountains all sheep cheese is oily
some of it a bit muttony but none of it at all tallowy trecce italy small braided cheese eaten fresh
france normandy cheese in season all the year around troo france made and consumed in touraine from may to january trouville
france soft fresh whole milk
troyes fromage de see barberey and ervy truckles england
wiltshire england skimmed milk blue veined variety like blue vinny the quaint word is the same as used in truckle or trundle bed
on shrove monday wiltshire kids went from door to door singing for a handout pray dame something an apple or a dumpling or a piece of truckle cheese of your own making
local name in the west of england for a full cream cheddar put up in loaves
armenia also known as leaf
skim milk of either sheep or cows made into cakes and packed in skins in a land where wine is drunk
tuile de flandre france
tullum penney turkey salty from being soaked in brine tuna prickly pear mexico
not an animal milk cheese but a vegetable one made by boiling and straining the pulp of the cactuslike prickly pear fruit to cheeselike consistency it is chocolate color and sharp
piquantly pleasant when hard and dry it is sometimes enriched with nuts spices and or flowers it will keep for a very long time
and has been a dessert or confection in mexico for centuries tuscano italy semihard cream color a sort of tuscany parmesan
semisoft sheep skim milk cheese with small holes and a sharp taste pressed in forms two by ten to twelve inches in diameter
similar to brick or limburger twin cheese u s a outstanding american cheddar marketed by joannes brothers green bay wisconsin tworog
russia semihard sour milk farm not factory made it is used in the cheese bread called notruschki
denmark made in copenhagen from pasteurized skim milk tyrol sour german a typical tyrolean hand cheese
dalmatia the opposite number of tzigen just below
austria semisoft skimmed sheep goat or cow milk white sharp and salty originated in dalmatia u
rumania creamy sweet mild
switzerland hard brittle white
made in the canton of uri eight by eight to twelve inches weight twenty to forty pounds
switzerland mild flavored cooked curd
fromage d soft port salut type of the basque country v vacherin france and switzerland one
savoy france firm leathery rind
round five to six by twelve inches in diameter made in summer to eat in winter when fully ripe it is almost a cold version of the great dish called fondue
inside the hard rind container is a velvety spicy aromatic cream more runny than brie so it can be eaten with a spoon dunked in or spread on bread
the local name is tome
two
fondu or spiced fondu switzerland although called fondu from being melted
which we spell with an e
for the original cheese is made and ripened about the same as the swiss classic and is afterward melted spiced and reformed into vacherin val d'andorre
andorra france sheep milk valdeblore le nice france hard dried small alpine goat cheese
france soft cream goat milk similar to saint maure in season from may to december this was a favorite
valio finland one ounce wedges six to a box labeled pasteurized process swiss cheese made by the cooperative butter export
association helsinki finland to sell to north americans to help them forget what real cheese is valsic albania crumbly and sharp
varalpenland germany alpine piquant strong in flavor and smell varennes fromage de france
soft fine strong variety from upper burgundy vaesterbottenost west bothnia slow maturing
one to one and a half years in ripening to a pungent almost bitter taste vaestgoetaost west gothland sweden semihard
sweet and nutty takes a half year to mature weight twenty to thirty pounds vendome fromage de france hard sheep
round and flat like la cendree in being ripened under ashes there is also a soft vendome sold mostly in paris
veneto venezza italy parmesan type similar to asiago usually sharp
bigorre france winter cheese
in season october to may victoria england the brand name of a cream cheese made in guilford
france
winter specialty in season from november to may
or vary france fresh cream cheese viterbo italy sheep milk usually curdled with wild artichoke cynara
scolymus strong grating and seasoning type of the parmesan romano pecorino family
greece ewe's milk suitable for grating
soft associate of pont l'eveque and limburger volvet kaas holland the name means full cream cheese and that according to law
has forty five percent fat in the dry product see gras vorarlberg sour milk greasy hard greasy semicircular form
of different sizes with extra strong flavor and odor the name indicates that it is made of sour milk
fresh cream variety like neufchatel and petit suisse w warshawski syr poland semihard fine nutty flavor
warwickshire england derbyshire type washed curd cheese u s a similar to cheddar the curd is washed to remove acidity
and any abnormal flavors wedesslborg denmark a mild full cream loaf of danish blue that can be very good if fully ripened
bavaria germany similar
a slow ripening variety that takes four months weisslacker white lacquer bavaria soft piquant semisharp
type put up in cylinders and rectangles
welsh cheeses the words welsh and cheese have become synonyms down the ages welsh cheeses can be attractive the pale mild
was famous at one time and nowadays has usually a factory flavor a soft cream cheese can be obtained at some farms and sometimes holds the same delicate melting
sensuousness that is found in the poems of john keats the resurrection cheese of llanfihangel abercowyn is no longer available
at least under that name this cheese was so called because it was pressed by gravestones
evans aged seventy two from my wales by rhys davies wensleydale england one england yorkshire hard
blue veined double cream similar to stilton this production of the medieval town of wensleydale in the ure valley is also called yorkshire stilton
and is in season from june to september it is put up in the same cylindrical form as stilton but smaller the rind is corrugated from the way the wrapping is put on
two white flat shaped eaten fresh made mostly from january through the spring skipping the season when
throughout the summer and beginning to be made again in the fall and winter werder elbinger and niederungskaese west prussia semisoft
cow's milker mildly acid shaped like gouda west friesian netherlands skim milk cheese eaten when only a week old
the honored antiquity of it is preserved in the anonymous english couplet good bread good butter and good cheese is good english and good friese
westphalia sour milk or brioler germany sour milk hand cheese kneaded by hand butter and or egg yolk
is mixed in with salt and either pepper or caraway seeds then the richly colored curd is shaped by hand into small balls or rolls of about one pound
it is dried for a couple of hours before being put down cellar to ripen the peculiar flavor is due partly to the seasonings and partly to the curd being allowed to putrify a little
like limburger before pressing this sour milker is as celebrated as westphalian raw ham it is so soft and fat it makes a sumptuous spread
similar to tilsit and brinza
brioler inn where it was perfected by the owner frau westphal well over a century ago the english sometimes miscall it bristol
from a hobson jobson of the name briol whale cheese u s a in the cheddar box dean collins tells of an ancient legend
in which the whales came into tillamook bay to be milked and he poses the possible origin of some waxy fossilized deposits along the shore as petrified whale milk cheese
made by the aboriginal indians after milking the whales white
france skim milk summer cheese made in many parts of the country and eaten fresh with or without salt white cheddar u s a
any cheddar that isn't colored with anatto is known as white cheddar green bay brand is a fine example of it white gorgonzola this type without the distinguishing blue veins
is little known outside of italy where it is highly esteemed see gorgonzola white stilton england
this white form of england's royal blue cheese lacks the aristocratic veins that are really as green as ireland's flag whitethorn
ireland firm white
boxed saltee is the same except that it is colored
holsteiner marsch schleswig holstein germany semihard full cream rapidly cured tilsit type very fine
made at itzehoe wiltshire or wilts england a derbyshire type of sharp cheddar popular in wiltshire see north wilts
wisconsin factory cheeses u s a have the date
indicating by the age whether the flavor is mild mellow nippy or sharp
to a year to ripen properly but most of it is sold green when far too young notable wisconsiners are loaf limburger redskin and swiss
withania india cow taboos affect the cheesemaking in india and in place of rennet from calves a vegetable rennet is made
from withania berries this names a cheese of agreeable flavor when ripened but unfortunately it becomes acrid with age y
yoghurt or yogurt u s a
that develops the acidity of the milk it is similar to the english
york york curd and cambridge york england a high grade cream cheese similar to slipcote both of which are becoming almost extinct since world war two
also this type is too rich to keep any length of time and is sold on the straw mat on which it is cured for local consumption yorkshire stilton cotherstone england
this stilton made chiefly at cotherstone develops with age a fine internal fat which makes it so extra juicy that it's a general favorite with english
epicures who like their game well hung york state u s a short for new york state the most venerable of our cheddars
young america u s a a mild young yellow cheddar yo yo u s a
copying pear and apple shaped balls of italian provolone hanging on strings a new york cheesemonger put out a cheddar on a string shaped like a yo yo z
ziegel austria whole milk or whole milk with cream added aged only two months
germany a general name in germanic lands for cheeses made of goat's milk altenburger is a leader among
this whey product is not a true cheese but a cheap form of food made in all countries of central europe and called albumin cheese
serac ceracee et cetera some are flavored with cider and others with vinegar there is also a whey bread two similar to corsican broccio
and made of sour sheep milk instead of whey sometimes mixed with sugar into small cakes zips see brinza zomma
but marian's father had decreed that no positive pledge should pass between them until marian was twenty one esterbrook accepted his mapped out destiny and selected bride with the conviction that he was an exceptionally lucky fellow
out of all the women in the world marian was the very one whom he would have chosen as mistress of his fine old home she had been his boyhood's ideal he believed that he loved her sincerely
but he was not too much in love to be blind to the worldly advantages of his marriage with his cousin his father had died two years previously leaving him wealthy and independent marian had lost her mother in childhood
her father died when she was eighteen since then she had lived alone with her aunt her life was quiet and lonely esterbrook's companionship was all that brightened it but it was enough marian lavished on him all the rich womanly love of her heart
on her twenty first birthday they were formally betrothed they were to be married in the following autumn no shadow had drifted across the heaven of her happiness she believed herself secure in her lover's unfaltering devotion
passing acquaintances called her cold and proud only the privileged few knew the rich depths of womanly tenderness in her nature esterbrook thought that he fully appreciated her
as he had walked homeward the night of their betrothal he had reviewed with unconscious criticism his mental catalogue of marian's graces and good qualities admitting with supreme satisfaction that there was not one thing about her that he could wish changed
there was no one to consult but themselves they were to be married early in september and then go abroad esterbrook mapped out the details of their bridal tour with careful thoughtfulness
they would visit all the old world places that marian wished to see afterwards they would come back home
he did most of the planning marian was content to listen in happy silence afterwards she had proposed this walk to the cove what particular object of charity have you found at the cove now asked esterbrook with lazy interest as they walked along
missus barrett's little bessie is very ill with fever answered marian then catching his anxious look she hastened to add it is nothing infectious some kind of a slow sapping variety there is no danger esterbrook i was not afraid for myself he replied quietly
my alarm was for you you are too precious to me marian for me to permit you to risk health and life if it were dangerous what a lady bountiful you are to those people at the cove when we are married you must take me in hand and teach me your creed of charity
i'm afraid i've lived a rather selfish life you will change all that dear you will make a good man of me you are that now esterbrook she said softly if you were not i could not love you
it is a negative sort of goodness i fear i have never been tried or tempted severely perhaps i should fail under the test i am sure you would not answered marian proudly esterbrook laughed her faith in him was pleasant
he had no thought but that he would prove worthy of it the cove so called was a little fishing hamlet situated on the low sandy shore of a small bay the houses clustered in one spot seemed like nothing so much as larger shells washed up by the sea
so grey and bleached were they from long exposure to sea winds and spray dozens of ragged children were playing about them mingled with several disreputable yellow curs that yapped noisily at the strangers
down on the sandy strip of beach below the houses groups of men were lounging about the mackerel season had not yet set in the spring herring netting was past it was holiday time among the sea folks they were enjoying it to the full
a happy ragged colony careless of what the morrows might bring forth out beyond the boats were at anchor floating as gracefully on the twinkling water as sea birds their tall masts bowing landward on the swell
a lazy dreamful calm had fallen over the distant seas the horizon blues were pale and dim faint purple hazes blurred the outlines of far off headlands and cliffs the yellow sands sparkled in the sunshine as if powdered with jewels
a murmurous babble of life buzzed about the hamlet pierced through by the shrill undertones of the wrangling children
marian led the way to a house apart from the others at the very edge of the shelving rock the dooryard was scrupulously clean and unlittered
standing in the crepuscular light of the corner her marvellous beauty shone out with the vivid richness of some rare painting she was tall and the magnificent proportions of her figure were enhanced rather than marred by the severely plain dress of dark print that she wore
the heavy masses of her hair a shining auburn dashed with golden foam were coiled in a rich glossy knot at the back of the classically modelled head and rippled back from a low brow whose waxen fairness even the breezes of the ocean had spared
the girl's face was a full perfect oval with features of faultless regularity and the large full eyes were of tawny hazel darkened into inscrutable gloom in the dimness of the corner not even marian lesley's face was more delicately tinted
there was no trace of embarrassment or self consciousness in her pose when missus barrett said this is my niece magdalen crawford she merely inclined her head in grave silent acknowledgement
marian rose and went over to the cot laying her slender hand on the hot forehead of the little sufferer the child opened its brown eyes questioningly how are you today bessie mad'len i want mad'len
moaned the little plaintive voice magdalen came over and stood beside marian lesley she wants me she said in a low thrilling voice free from all harsh accent or intonation i am the only one she seems to know always
yes darling mad'len is here right beside you she will not leave you she knelt by the little cot and passed her arm under the child's neck drawing the curly head close to her throat with a tender soothing motion
esterbrook elliott watched the two women intently the one standing by the cot arrayed in simple yet costly apparel with her beautiful high bred face and the other kneeling on the bare sanded floor in her print dress with her splendid head bent low over the child
and the long fringe of burnished lashes sweeping the cold pallor of the oval cheek from the moment that magdalen crawford's haunting eyes had looked straight into his for one fleeting second an unnamable thrill of pain and pleasure stirred his heart
a thrill so strong and sudden and passionate that his face paled with emotion the room seemed to swim before his eyes in a mist out of which gleamed that wonderful face with its mesmeric darkly radiant eyes
when the mist cleared away and his head grew steadier he wondered at himself yet he trembled in every limb and the only clear idea that struggled out of his confused thoughts was an overmastering desire to take that cold face between his hands and kiss it
i must see what i can do for her but her manner seemed rather repellent don't you think hardly responded esterbrook curtly she seemed surprisingly dignified and self possessed i fancied for a girl in her position a princess could not have looked and bowed more royally
you had much better leave her alone marian in all probability she would resent any condescension on your part what wonderful deep lovely eyes she has again the sensitive colour flushed marian's cheek
as his voice lapsed unconsciously into a dreamy retrospective tone and a slight restraint came over her manner which did not depart esterbrook went away at sunset marian asked him to remain for the evening
but he pleaded some excuse i shall come tomorrow afternoon he said as he stooped to drop a careless good bye kiss on her face marian watched him wistfully as he rode away with an unaccountable pain in her heart
she felt more acutely than ever that there were depths in her lover's nature that she was powerless to stir into responsive life had any other that power she thought of the girl at the cove with her deep eyes and wonderful face
a chill of premonitory fear seized upon her i feel exactly as if esterbrook had gone away from me forever she said slowly to herself
stooping to brush her cheek against a dew cold milk white acacia bloom and would never come back to me again if that could happen i wonder what there would be left to live for
esterbrook elliott meant or honestly thought he meant to go home when he left marian
nevertheless when he reached the road branching off to the cove he turned his horse down it with a flush on his dark cheek he realized that the motive of the action was disloyal to marian and he felt ashamed of his weakness but the desire to see magdalen crawford once more and to look into the depths of her eyes was stronger than all else and overpowered every throb of duty and resistance
he saw nothing of her when he reached the cove he could think of no excuse for calling at the barrett cottage so he rode slowly past the hamlet and along the shore the sun red as a smouldering ember
was half buried in the silken violet rim of the sea the west was a vast lake of saffron and rose and ethereal green through which floated the curved shallop of a thin new moon
through gleaming silver into burnished gold and attended by one solitary pearl white star the vast concave of sky above was of violet infinite and flawless
the little pools of water along the low shores glowed like mirrors of polished jacinth the small pine fringed headlands ran out into the water cutting its lustrous blue expanse like purple wedges
as esterbrook turned one of them he saw magdalen standing out on the point of the next a short distance away her back was towards him and her splendid figure was outlined darkly against the vivid sky
esterbrook sprang from his horse and left the animal standing by itself while he walked swiftly out to her his heart throbbed suffocatingly he was conscious of no direct purpose save merely to see her she turned when he reached her with a slight start of surprise
his footsteps had made no sound on the tide rippled sand for a few moments they faced each other so eyes burning into eyes with mute soul probing and questioning the sun had disappeared leaving a stain of fiery red to mark his grave
the weird radiant light was startlingly vivid and clear little crisp puffs and flakes of foam scurried over the point like elfin things the fresh wind blowing up the bay tossed the lustrous rings of hair about magdalen's pale face
all the routed shadows of the hour had found refuge in her eyes not a trace of colour appeared in her face under esterbrook elliott's burning gaze but when he said magdalen
a single hot scorch of crimson flamed up into her cheeks protestingly she lifted her hand with a splendid gesture but no word passed her lips magdalen
have you nothing to say to me he asked coming closer to her with an imploring passion in his face never seen by marian lesley's eyes he reached out his hand but she stepped back from his touch what should i have to say to you say that you are glad to see me
but i knew you would come you knew it how your eyes told me so today i am not blind i can see further than those dull fisher folks yes i knew you would come
why must you tell me that magdalen
but if i will not obey you if i will come in defiance of your prohibition she turned her steady luminous eyes on his pale set face you would stamp yourself as a madman then she said coldly i know that you are miss lesley's promised husband
therefore you are either false to her or insulting to me in either case the companionship of magdalen crawford is not what you must seek go she turned away from him with an imperious gesture of dismissal
esterbrook elliott stepped forward and caught one firm white wrist i shall not obey you he said in a low intense tone his fine eyes burned into hers you may send me away but i will come back again and yet again until you have learned to welcome me
why should you meet me like an enemy why can we not be friends the girl faced him once more because she said proudly
i am not your equal there can be no friendship between us there ought not to be magdalen crawford the fisherman's niece is no companion for you you will be foolish as well as disloyal if you ever try to see me again
go back to the beautiful high bred woman you love and forget me perhaps you think i am talking strangely perhaps you think me bold and unwomanly to speak so plainly to you a stranger but there are some circumstances in life when plain speaking is best i do not want to see you again
now go back to your own world esterbrook elliott slowly turned from her and walked in silence back to the shore
in the shadows of the point he stopped to look back at her standing out like some inspired prophetess against the fiery background of the sunset sky and silver blue water the sky overhead was thick sown with stars
magdalen crawford lingered on the point until the last dull red faded out into the violet gloom of the june sea dusk than which nothing can be rarer or diviner
and listened to the moan and murmur of the sea far out over the bay with sorrowful eyes and sternly set lips
he found it deserted a rumour of mackerel had come and every boat had sailed out
she was watching a huddle of gulls clustered on the tip of a narrow sandy spit
foot fall behind her her face paled slightly and into the depths of her eyes leapt a passionate mesmeric glow that faded as quickly as it came you see i have come back in spite of your command magdalen i do see it
she answered in a gravely troubled voice
where are you going magdalen she had loosened the rope from the wreck i am going to row over to chapel point for salt they think the boats will come in tonight loaded with mackerel
can you row so far alone easily
since coming here i find it of great service to me she stepped lightly into the tiny shallop and picked up an oar the brilliant sunshine streamed about her
the man looking at her felt his brain reel good bye mister elliott for answer he sprang into the dory and snatching an oar pushed against the old wreck with such energy that the dory shot out from the shore like a foam bell
his sudden spring had set it rocking violently magdalen almost lost her footing and caught blindly at his arm as her fingers closed on his wrist a thrill as of fire shot through his every vein
why have you done this mister elliott you must go back but i will not he said masterfully looking straight into her eyes with an imperiousness that sat well upon him i am going to row you over to chapel point i have the oars i will be master this once at least
for an instant her eyes flashed defiant protest then drooped before his a sudden hot blush crimsoned her pale face his will had mastered hers the girl trembled from head to foot and the proud sensitive mouth quivered
into the face of the man watching her breathlessly flashed a triumphant passionate joy he put out his hand and gently pushed her down into the seat sitting opposite he took up the oars and pulled out over the sheet of sparkling blue water
through which at first the bottom of white sand glimmered wavily but afterwards deepened to translucent dim depths of greenness his heart throbbed tumultuously once the thought of marian drifted across his mind like a chill breath of wind
but it was forgotten when his eyes met magdalen's tell me about yourself magdalen he said at last breaking the tremulous charmed sparkling silence
you must not go away magdalen you must stay here with me you forget yourself she said proudly how dare you speak to me so have you forgotten miss lesley or are you a traitor to us both
esterbrook made no answer he bowed his pale miserable face before her self condemned the breast of the bay sparkled with its countless gems like the breast of a fair woman
the shores were purple and amethystine in the distance far out bluish phantom like sails clustered against the pallid horizon the dory danced like a feather over the ripples they were close under the shadow of chapel point
marian lesley waited in vain for her lover that afternoon
when he came at last in the odorous dusk of the june night she met him on the acacia shadowed verandah with cold sweetness perhaps some subtle woman instinct whispered to her where and how he had spent the afternoon for she offered him no kiss
his eyes lingered on her in the dim light taking in every detail of her sweet womanly refinement and loveliness and with difficulty he choked back a groan
again he asked himself what madness had come over him and again for an answer rose up the vision of magdalen crawford's face as he had seen it that day crimsoning beneath his gaze it was late when he left
for it may never have been mine i know that esterbrook elliott will be true to the letter of his vows to me no matter what it may cost him but i want no pallid shadow of the love that belongs to another the hour of abdication is at hand i fear and what will be left for throneless vashti then
esterbrook elliott walking home through the mocking calm of the night fought a hard battle with himself he was face to face with the truth at last the bitter knowledge that he had never loved marian lesley save with a fond brotherly affection
and that he did love magdalen crawford with a passion that threatened to sweep before it every vestige of his honour and loyalty he had seen her but three times and his throbbing heart lay in the hollow of her cold white hand he shut his eyes and groaned
what madness what unutterable folly he was not free he was bound to another by every cord of honour and self respect and even were he free magdalen crawford would be no fit wife for him
in the eyes of the world at least a girl from the cove a girl with little education and no social standing aye but he loved her he groaned again and again in his misery
if he had weakly given way to the first mad sweep of a new passion the strength of his manhood reasserted itself at last faltering and wavering were over though there was passionate pain in his voice when he said at last
i am not coming back again magdalen they were standing in the shadow of the pine fringed point that ran out to the left of the cove they had been walking together along the shore watching the splendour of the sea sunset that flamed and glowed in the west
where there was a sea of mackerel clouds crimson and amber tinted with long ribbon like strips of apple green sky between
yet with the stir and throb of a mighty passion seething in their hearts magdalen turned as esterbrook spoke and looked at him in a long silence the bay stretched out before them tranced and shimmering
a few stars shone down through the gloom of dusk right across the translucent greens and roses and blues of the west hung a dark unsightly cloud like the blurred outline of a monstrous bat in the dim reflected light the girl's mournful face
took on a weird unearthly beauty
that is best she answered at last slowly best yes better that we had never met i love you you know it words are idle between us
i never loved before i thought i did i made a mistake and i must pay the penalty of that mistake you understand me i understand she answered simply i do not excuse myself i have been weak and cowardly and disloyal
but i have conquered myself i will be true to the woman to whom i am pledged you and i must not meet again i will crush this madness to death i think i have been delirious ever since that day i saw you first magdalen
my brain is clearer now i see my duty and i mean to do it at any cost i dare not trust myself to say more
i have been weak too and i deserve to atone for my weakness by suffering there is only one path open to us esterbrook good bye
magdalen good bye my darling kiss me once only once before i go she loosened his arms and stepped back proudly no
he bowed his head silently and went away looking back not once else he might have seen her kneeling on the damp sand weeping noiselessly and passionately
marian lesley looked at his pale determined face the next evening and read it like an open book she had grown paler herself
she saw the traces of the struggle through which he had passed and knew that he had come off victor the knowledge made her task a little harder it would have been easier to let slip the straining cable than to cast it from her when it lay unresistingly in her hand for an instant
might he not forget in time need she snap in twain the weakened bond between them after all perhaps she might win back her lost sceptre yet if womanly pride throttled the struggling hope
no divided allegiance no hollow semblance of queenship for her
could he not have his bride in august for a fleeting second marian closed her eyes and the slender hands lying among the laces in her lap clasped each other convulsively then she said quietly
sometimes i have thought esterbrook that it might be better if we were never married at all esterbrook turned a startled face upon her not married at all marian what do you mean just what i say
i do not think we are as well suited to each other after all as we have fancied
that is all i think it will be best to be brother and sister forever nothing more esterbrook sprang to his feet marian do you know what you are saying
have you ceased to care for me the rigidly locked hands were clasped a little tighter no i shall always care for you as my friend if you will let me but i know we could not make each other happy
the time for that has gone by i would never be satisfied nor would you esterbrook will you release me from a promise which has become an irksome fetter he looked down on her upturned face mistily
a great joy was surging up in his heart yet it was mingled with great regret he knew none better what was passing out of his life what he was losing when he lost that pure womanly nature if you really mean this marian he said slowly
if you really have come to feel that your truest love is not and never can be mine that i cannot make you happy then there is nothing for me to do but to grant your request you are free
thank you dear she said gently as she stood up she slipped his ring from her finger and held it out to him he took it mechanically he still felt dazed and unreal marian held out her hand
good night esterbrook she said a little wearily i feel tired i am glad you see it all in the same light as i do marian he said earnestly clasping the outstretched hand are you sure that you will be happy
are you sure that you are doing a wise thing quite sure she answered with a faint smile i am not acting rashly i have thought it all over carefully things are much better so dear we will always be friends
when another love comes to bless your life esterbrook i will be glad and now good night i want to be alone now
then he went out into the darkness of the summer night an hour later he stood alone on the little point where he had parted with magdalen the night before a restless night wind was moaning through the pines that fringed the bank behind him
the moon shone down radiantly turning the calm expanse of the bay into a milk white sheen he took marian's ring from his pocket and kissed it reverently then he threw it from him far out over the water
then with a tiny splash it fell among the ripples esterbrook turned his face to the cove
the fact that lady grant had gone to dresden was not long in reaching the ears of missus western dick ross had heard at the club at perth that she had gone and had told sir francis
sir francis passed on the news to miss altifiorla and from her it had reached the deserted wife miss altifiorla had not told it direct because at that time she and cecilia were not supposed to be
on friendly terms but the tidings had got about and missus western had heard them she's a good woman said cecilia to her mother i knew her to be that the first moment that she came to me
she is rough as he is and stern and has a will of her own but her heart is tender and true as is his also at the core i don't know about that said missus holt with the angry tone
which she allowed herself to use only when speaking of mister western yes he is mamma in your affection for me you will not allow yourself to be just to him in truth you hardly know him
i know that he has destroyed your happiness for ever and made me very wretched
it may be that he will come for me and that then we shall be as happy as the day is long as she said this a vision came before her eyes of the birth of her child and of her surroundings at the time the anxious solicitude of a loving husband
the care of attendants who would be happy because she was happy the congratulations of friends and the smiles of the world but above all she pictured to herself her husband standing by her bedside with the child in his arms
the dream had been dreamed before and was re dreamed during every hour of the day lady grant is strong she continued and can plead for me better than i could plead
plead for you why should there be anyone wanted to plead for you will lady grant plead with you for her brother it is not necessary my own heart pleads for him it is because he has been in the wrong
that an intercessor is necessary for me it is they who commit the injury that have a difficulty in forgiving if he came to me do you not know that i should throw myself into his arms and be the happiest woman
in the world without a word spoken the conversation was not then carried further but missus holt continued to shake her head as she sate at her knitting in her estimation no husband could have behaved worse
than had her son in law and she was of opinion that he should be punished for his misconduct before things could be made smooth again some days afterwards miss altifiorla called at the house and sent in a note
while she stood waiting in the hall in the note she merely asked whether her dear cecilia would be willing to receive her after what had passed she had news to tell of much importance and she hoped that her dear cecilia would receive her
there had been no absolute quarrel no quarrel known to the servants and cecilia did receive her oh my dear she said bustling into the room with an air of affected importance you will be surprised
i think that you must be surprised at what i have to tell you i will be surprised if you wish it said cecilia let me first begin by assuring you that you must not make light of my news it is of the greatest importance
not only to me but of some importance also to you it shall be of importance because you begin with that little sneer which has become so common with you
you must be aware of it amidst the troubles of your own life which we all admit to be very grievous there has come upon you a way of thinking that no one else's affairs can be of any importance
it is so a little and pray believe me that i am not in the least angry about it i knew that it would be so when i came to you this morning and yet i could not help coming
indeed as the thing has now been made known to the dean's family i could not bear that you should be left any longer in ignorance what is the thing there it is again that sneer i cannot tell you unless you will interest yourself
does nothing interest you now beyond your own misfortunes alas no i fear not but this shall interest you you must be awaked to the affairs of the world especially such an affair as this
you must be shaken up this i suppose will shake you up if not you must be past all hope what on earth is it sir francis geraldine
well yes i have not as yet forgotten the name i should think not sir francis geraldine has and then she paused again cut his little finger said cecilia had she dreamed of what was to come she would not have turned sir francis
into ridicule but she had been aware of miss altifiorla's friendship with sir francis or rather what she had regarded as an affectation of friendship and did not for a moment anticipate such a communication as was
to be made to her cecilia holt that at any rate is not my name i dare say you wish it were i would not change my real name for that of any woman under the sun
perhaps not but there are other women in a position of less grandeur i am going to change mine no i thought you would be surprised because it would look as though i were about to abandon my great doctrine
it is not so my opinions on that great subject are not in the least changed but of course there must be some women whom the exigencies of the world will require to marry a good many first and last
ally myself then there was a pause and the speaker discovered when it was too late that she was verging on the ridiculous in declaring her purpose of forming an alliance that is to say i am going to marry sir francis geraldine
sir francis geraldine do you see any just cause or impediment none in the least and yet how am i to answer such a question i saw cause or impediment why i should not marry him you
both saw it i suppose said miss altifiorla with an air of grandeur you both supposed that you were not made for each other and wisely determined to give up the idea you did not remain single and i suppose we need not either
certainly not for my sake our intimacy since that time has been increased by circumstances and we have now discovered that we can both of us best suit our own interests by an
an alliance suggested missus western if you please though i am quite aware that you use the term as a sneer as to this missus western was too honest to deny the truth and remained silent i thought it proper
continued miss altifiorla as we had been so long friends to inform you that it will be so you had your chance and as you let it slip i trust that you will not envy me mine not in the least
at any rate you do not congratulate me i have been very remiss i acknowledge it but upon my word the news has so startled me that i have been unable to remember the common courtesies of the world
i thought when i heard of your travelling up to london together that you were becoming very intimate oh it had been ever so much before that the intimacy at least
of course i did not know him before he came to this house but a great many things have happened since that have there not well good bye dear i have no doubt we shall continue as friends especially as we shall be living almost in the
neighbourhood castle gerald is to be at once fitted up for me and i hope you will forget all our little tiffs and often come and stay with me so saying miss altifiorla
having told her grand news made her adieus and went away a great many things have happened since that said cecilia repeating to herself her friend's words it seemed to her to be
so many that a lifetime had been wasted since sir francis had first come to that house she had won the love of the best man she had ever known and married him and had then lost his love
and now she had been left as a widowed wife with all the coming troubles of maternity on her head she had understood well the ill natured sarcasm of miss altifiorla we shall be living almost in the same neighbourhood
yes if her separation from her husband was to be continued then undoubtedly she would live at exeter and as far as the limits of the county were concerned she would be the neighbour of the future lady geraldine
that she should ever willingly be found under the same roof with sir francis was as she knew well as impossible to miss altifiorla as to herself the invitation contained the sneer and was intended to contain it
but it created no anger she too had sneered at miss altifiorla quite as bitterly they had each learned to despise the other and not to sneer was impossible
miss altifiorla had come to tell of her triumph and to sneer in return but it mattered nothing what did matter was whether that threat should come true should she always be left living
at exeter with her mother then she dreamed her dream again that he had come back to her and was sitting by her bedside with his hand in hers and whispering sweet words to her
while a baby was lying in her arms his child as she thought of the bliss of the fancied moment the still possible bliss her anger seemed to fade away what would she not do to bring him back
what would she not say she had done amiss in keeping that secret so long and though the punishment had been severe it was not altogether undeserved it had come to him as a terrible blow and he had been unable to suppress
his agony he should not have treated her so no he should not have sent her away but she could make excuses now which but a few weeks since seemed to her to be impossible and she understood
she told herself that she understood the difference between herself as a woman and him as a man
to command a right to be obeyed a right to be master he had a right to know all the secrets of her heart and to be offended when one so important had been kept from him
he had lifted his hand in great wrath and the blow he had struck had been awful but she would bear it without a word of complaint if only he would come back to her
as she thought of it she declared to herself that she must die if he did not come back to live as she was living now would be impossible to her but if he would come back how absolutely would she disregard all that the world might say
as to their short quarrel it would indeed be known to all the world but what could the world do to her if she once again had her husband by her side
when the blow first fell on her she had thought much of the ignominy which had befallen her and which must ever rest with her even though she should be taken back again people would know that she had been discarded
but now she told herself that for that she cared not at all then she again dreamed her dream her child was born and her husband was standing by her with that sweet manly smile upon his face
she put out her hand as though he would touch it and was conscious of an involuntary movement as though she were bending her face towards him for a kiss surely he would come to her his sister had gone to him
and would have told him the absolute truth she had never sinned against him even by intentional silence there had been no thought of hers since she had been his wife which he had not been welcome to share
it had in truth been for his sake rather than for her own that she had been silent she was aware that from cowardice her silence had been prolonged but surely now at last he would forgive her that offence
then she thought of the words she would use as she owned her fault he was a man and as a man had a right to expect that she would confess it if he would come to her and stand once again with his arm round her waist
she would confess it my dear here is a letter the postman has just brought it she took the letter from her mother's hand and hardly knew whether to be pleased or disappointed when she found that the address
was in the handwriting of lady grant lady grant would of course write whether with good news or with bad the address told her nothing but yet she could not tear the envelope
she turned a soft supplicating painful look up to her mother's face as she begged for grace i will go up stairs mamma and will tell you by and by then she left the room with the letter unopened in her hand
it was with difficulty that she could examine its contents so apprehensive was she and yet so hopeful so confident at one moment of her coming happiness and yet so fearful at another that she should be again enveloped
in the darkness of her misery but she did at last persuade herself to read the words which lady grant had written they were very short and ran as follows my dear cecilia my brother returns with me
and will at once go down to exeter the shock of her joy was so great that she could hardly see what followed he will hope to reach that place on the fifteenth by the train which leaves london at nine in the morning that was all but that
was enough she was sure that he would not come with the purpose of telling her that he must again leave her and she was sure also that if he would once put himself within the sphere of her personal influence it should be so used
that he would never leave her again of course he is coming i knew he would come why should he not come this she exclaimed to her mother and then went on to speak of him with a wild rhapsody of joy as though there had
hardly been any breach in her happiness and she continued to sing the praises of her husband till missus holt hardly knew how to bear her enthusiasm in a fitting mood for she
had been scandalous wicked and cruel and if to be forgiven only to be forgiven because of the general wickedness and cruelty of man
it had not been without great difficulty that lady grant induced her brother to assent to her writing the letter which has been given above when he had agreed to return with her to england
he had no doubt assented to her assertion that he was bound to take his wife back again even without any confession and this had been so much to gain had been so felt to be the one
only material point necessary that he was not pressed as to his manner of doing it but before they reached london it was essential that some arrangement should be made for bringing them together
could not i go down to durton he had said and could not she come to me there no doubt he might have gone to durton and no doubt she would have gone to him if asked she would have flown to him at dresden or
to jerusalem at a word spoken by him absence had made him so precious to her that she would have obeyed the slightest behest with joy as long as the order given were to bring them once more together
but of this lady grant was not aware and had she been so the sense of what was becoming would have restrained her i think george that you had better go to exeter she said should we not
be more comfortable at durton i think that when at durton you will be more happy if you shall yourself have fetched her from her mother's home i think you owe it to your wife to go to her and make the journey with her
what is your objection i do not wish to be seen in exeter he replied nor did she you may be sure when she returned there alone but what does it matter if you can be happy in once more possessing her
chapter seven marian's home three weeks after her return from the country which took place a week later than that of jasper milvain marian yule was working one afternoon at her usual place
in the museum reading room it was three o'clock and with the interval of half an hour at midday when she went away for a cup of tea and a sandwich she had been closely occupied since half past nine
her task at present was to collect materials for a paper on french authoresses of the seventeenth century the kind of thing which her father supplied on stipulated terms for anonymous publication
marian was by this time almost able to complete such a piece of manufacture herself and her father's share in it was limited to a few hints and corrections
the greater part of the work by which yule earned his moderate income was anonymous volumes and articles which bore his signature dealt with much the same subjects as his unsigned matter
but the writing was laboured with a conscientiousness unusual in men of his position the result unhappily was not correspondent with the efforts alfred yule had made a recognisable name among the critical writers of the day
seeing him in the title lists of a periodical most people knew what to expect but not a few forbore the cutting open of the pages he occupied he was learned copious occasionally mordant in style
he had of late begun to perceive the fact that those passages of marian's writing which were printed just as they came from her pen
and it began to be a question with him whether it would not be advantageous to let the girl sign these compositions a matter of business to be sure at all events in the first instance
for a long time marian had scarcely looked up from the desk but at this moment she found it necessary to refer to the invaluable larousse as so often happened the particular volume of which she had need was not upon the shelf
she turned away and looked about her with a gaze of weary disappointment at a little distance were standing two young men engaged as their faces showed in facetious colloquy as soon as she observed them
marian's eyes fell but the next moment she looked again in that direction her face had wholly changed she wore a look of timid expectancy the men were moving towards her still talking and laughing
she turned to the shelves and affected to search for a book the voices drew near and one of them was well known to her now she could hear every word now the speakers were gone by was it possible that mister milvain had not recognised her
she went back to her place and for some minutes sat trifling with a pen when she made a show of resuming work it was evident that she could no longer apply herself as before every now and then she glanced at people who were passing
there were intervals when she wholly lost herself in reverie she was tired and had even a slight headache when the hand of the clock pointed to half past three
she closed the volume from which she had been copying extracts and began to collect her papers a voice spoke close behind her where's your father miss yule the speaker was a man of sixty
save where one of the cheeks was marked with a mulberry stain his eyes grey orbed in a yellow setting glared with good humoured inquisitiveness and his mouth was that of the confirmed gossip
for eyebrows he had two little patches of reddish stubble for moustache what looked like a bit of discoloured tow and scraps of similar material hanging beneath his creasy chin represented a beard
his garb must have seen a great deal of museum service it consisted of a jacket something between brown and blue hanging in capacious shapelessness
a waistcoat half open for lack of buttons and with one of the pockets coming unsewn a pair of bronze hued trousers which had all run to knee
necktie he had none and his linen made distinct appeal to the laundress marian shook hands with him he went away at half past two was her reply to his question
how annoying i wanted particularly to see him i have been running about all day and couldn't get here before something important most important at all events i can tell you
mister quarmby that was his name had taken a vacant chair and drawn it close to marian's he was in a state of joyous excitement and talked in thick rather pompous tones
with a pant at the end of a sentence to emphasise the extremely confidential nature of his remarks he brought his head almost in contact with the girl's and one of her thin delicate hands was covered with his
red podgy fingers i've had a talk with nathaniel walker he continued a long talk
no no how should you he's a man of business close friend of rackett's rackett you know the owner of the study upon this he made a grave pause and glared more excitedly than ever
i have heard of mister rackett said marian of course of course
father told me it was probable rackett and he have done nothing but quarrel for months the paper is falling off seriously well now when i came across nat walker this afternoon the first thing he said to me was
you know alfred yule pretty well i think pretty well i answered why i'll tell you he said but it's between you and me you understand rackett is thinking about him in connection with the study
i'm delighted to hear it to tell you the truth went on nat i shouldn't wonder if yule gets the editorship
it's very good news answered marian i should think so ho ho mister quarmby laughed in a peculiar way which was the result of long years of mirth subdual in the reading room
but not a breath to anyone but your father he'll be here to morrow break it gently to him you know he's an excitable man can't take things quietly like i do ho ho his suppressed laugh
ended in a fit of coughing the reading room cough when he had recovered from it he pressed marian's hand with paternal fervour and waddled off to chatter with someone else
marian replaced several books on the reference shelves returned others to the central desk and was just leaving the room when again a voice made demand upon her attention miss yule one moment if you please
it was a tall meagre dry featured man dressed with the painful neatness of self respecting poverty the edges of his coat sleeves were carefully darned
were evidently of home manufacture he smiled softly and timidly with blue rheumy eyes two or three recent cuts on his chin and neck were the result of conscientious shaving with an unsteady hand
i have been looking for your father he said as marian turned isn't he here he has gone mister hinks ah then would you do me the kindness to take a book for him in fact it's my little
essay on the historical drama just out he spoke with nervous hesitation and in a tone which seemed to make apology for his existence
if you will kindly wait one minute miss yule it's at my place over there he went off with long strides and speedily came back panting in his hand a thin new volume my kind regards to him miss yule
you are quite well i hope i won't detain you and he backed into a man who was coming inobservantly this way marian went to the ladies cloak room put on her hat and jacket and left the museum
some one passed out through the swing door a moment before her and as soon as she had issued beneath the portico she saw that it was jasper milvain she must have followed him through the hall but her eyes had been cast down
the young man was now alone as he descended the steps he looked to left and right but not behind him marian followed at a distance of two or three yards nearing the gateway she quickened her pace a little
so as to pass out into the street almost at the same moment as milvain but he did not turn his head he took to the right marian had fallen back again
but she still followed at a very little distance his walk was slow and she might easily have passed him in quite a natural way in that case he could not help seeing her
but there was an uneasy suspicion in her mind that he really must have noticed her in the reading room this was the first time she had seen him since their parting at finden had he any reason for avoiding her
did he take it ill that her father had shown no desire to keep up his acquaintance she allowed the interval between them to become greater in a minute or two milvain turned up charlotte street and so she lost sight of him
in tottenham court road she waited for an omnibus that would take her to the remoter part of camden town obtaining a corner seat she drew as far back as possible and paid no attention to her fellow passengers
so you're going back to college in a fortnight i said to the bright young thing on the veranda of the summer hotel aren't you sorry in a way i am she said but in another sense i'm glad to go back one can't loaf all the time
she looked up from her rocking chair over her red cross knitting with great earnestness how full of purpose these modern students are i thought to myself in my time we used to go back to college as to a treadmill
i know that i said but what i mean is that college after all is a pretty hard grind things like mathematics and greek are no joke are they in my day as i remember it we used to think spherical trigonometry about the hardest stuff of the lot
she looked dubious i didn't elect mathematics she said oh i said i see so you don't have to take it and what have you elected for this coming half semester that's six weeks you know
i've elected social endeavour ah i said that's since my day what is it oh it's awfully interesting it's the study of conditions what kind of conditions i asked all conditions
perhaps i can't explain it properly but i have the prospectus of it indoors if you'd like to see it we take up society and what do you do with it
but it must mean reading a tremendous lot of books no she answered we don't use books in this course it's all laboratory work now i am mystified i said what do you mean by laboratory work
well answered the girl student with a thoughtful look upon her face you see we are supposed to break society up into its elements in six weeks some of the girls do it in six weeks some put in a whole semester and take twelve weeks at it
so as to break up pretty thoroughly i said yes she assented but most of the girls think six weeks is enough that ought to pulverize it pretty completely but how do you go at it
well the girl said it's all done with laboratory work we take for instance department stores i think that is the first thing we do we take up the department store
we study it as a social germ ah i said as a social germ yes said the girl delighted to see that i was beginning to understand as a germ all the work is done in the concrete
the class goes down with the professor to the department store itself and then then they walk all through it observing but have none of them ever been in a departmental store before oh of course
but you see we go as observers ah now i understand you mean you don't buy anything and so you are able to watch everything no she said it's not that we do buy things that's part of it most of the girls like to buy little knick knacks
but while they are there they are observing then afterwards they make charts charts of what i asked charts of the employes they're used to show the brain movement involved do you find much
well she said hesitatingly the idea is to reduce all the employes to a curve to a curve i exclaimed an in or an out no no not exactly that
didn't you use curves when you were at college never i said oh well nowadays nearly everything you know is done into a curve we put them on the board and what is this particular curve of the employe used for i asked
why said the student
get his norm i asked yes get the norm
and what can you do with that oh when we have that we can tell what the employe would do under any and every circumstance at least that's the idea though i'm really only quoting she added breaking off in a diffident way
from what miss thinker the professor of social endeavour says she's really fine she's making a general chart of the female employes of one of the biggest stores to show what percentage in case of fire would jump out of the window
and what percentage would run to the fire escape it's a wonderful course i said we had nothing like it when i went to college and does it only take in departmental stores no said the girl
the laboratory work includes for this semester ice cream parlours as well what do you do with them we take them up as social cells nuclei i think the professor calls them and how do you go at them i asked
why the girls go to them in little laboratory groups and study them they eat ice cream in them they have to she said to make it concrete
but while they are doing it they are considering the ice cream parlour merely as a section of social protoplasm does the professor go i asked oh yes she heads each group professor thinker never spares herself from work
dear me i said you must be kept very busy and is social endeavour all that you are going to do no she answered i'm electing a half course in nature work as well nature work
well well that i suppose means cramming up a lot of biology and zoology does it not no said the girl it's not exactly done with books i believe it is all done by field work field work
yes field work four times a week and an excursion every saturday and what do you do in the field work the girls she answered go out in groups anywhere out of doors and make a nature study of anything they see
how do they do that i asked why they look at it suppose for example they come to a stream or a pond or anything yes well they look at it had they never done that before i asked
i think we only do one unit each day we go out it must i said be pretty fatiguing work and what about the excursion that's every saturday we go out with miss stalk the professor of ambulation
and where do you go oh anywhere one day we go perhaps for a trip on a steamer and another saturday somewhere in motors and so on doing what i asked field work the aim of the course
i'm afraid i'm quoting miss stalk but i don't mind she's really fine is to break nature into its elements i see so as to view it as the external structure of society and make deductions from it have you made any i asked
oh no she laughed i'm only starting the work this term but of course i shall have to each girl makes at least one deduction at the end of the course some of the seniors make two or three but you have to make one
it's a great course i said no wonder you are going to be busy and as you say how much better than loafing round here doing nothing isn't it said the girl student with enthusiasm in her eyes it gives one such a sense of purpose
such a feeling of doing something it must i answered oh goodness she exclaimed there's the lunch bell i must skip and get ready she was just vanishing from my side when the burly male student who was also staying in the hotel
came puffing up after his five mile run he was getting himself into trim for enlistment so he told me he noted the retreating form of the college girl as he sat down i've just been talking to her i said about her college work
she seems to be studying a queer lot of stuff social endeavour and all that awful piffle said the young man but the girls naturally run to all that sort of rot you know now your work i went on is no doubt very different
i mean what you were taking before the war came along i suppose you fellows have an awful dose of mathematics and philology and so on just as i did in my college days something like a blush came across the face of the handsome youth well no he said
i didn't co opt mathematics at our college you know we co opt two majors and two minors i see i said and what were you co opting i co opted turkish music and religion he answered oh yes
i said with a sort of reverential respect fitting yourself for a position of choir master in a turkish cathedral no doubt no no he said i'm going into insurance but you see those subjects fitted in better than anything else fitted in
yes turkish comes at nine music at ten and religion at eleven so they make a good combination they leave a man free to to develop his mind i said we used to find in my college days that lectures interfered with it badly
search me said the student all you have to do is answer the roll and go out forty roll calls give you one turkish unit but say i must get on i've got to change so long i could not help reflecting as the young man left me
to talk with a quiet sombre man himself a graduate student in philosophy on this topic he agreed with me that the old strenuous studies seem to be very largely abandoned i looked at the sombre man with respect
now your work i said is very different from what these young people are doing hard solid definite effort what a relief it must be to you to get a brief vacation up here i couldn't help thinking to day as i watched you moving round doing nothing
how fine it must feel for you to come up here after your hard work and put in a month of out and out loafing loafing he said indignantly i'm not loafing i'm putting in a half summer course in introspection that's why i'm here
i get credit for two majors for my time here ah i said as gently as i could you get credit here he left me i am still pondering over our new education
a harmless deception miss margaret goodwin's narrative continued they say that everyone is capable of one novel and in my opinion most people could write one play whether i wrote mine in an inspiration of despair i cannot say
i wrote it three years had passed and james was still haggling with those who buy men's brains his earnings were enough just to keep his head above water but not enough to make us two one perhaps because everything is clear and easy for us now
i am gradually losing a proper appreciation of his struggle that should never be he did not win but he did not lose which means nearly as much
so my mother has told me in modern journalistic london and i know that he would have won
what he went through while trying with his pen to make a living for himself and me i learned from his letters london he wrote is not paved with gold but in literary fields there are nuggets to be had by the lightest scratching and those nuggets are plays
a successful play gives you money and a name automatically what the ordinary writer makes in a year the successful dramatist receives without labour in a fortnight
some men he said have some of the qualifications while falling short of the others they have a sense of situation without the necessary tricks of technique or they sacrifice plot to atmosphere or atmosphere to plot
i worse luck have not one single qualification the nursing of a climax the tremendous omissions in the dialogue the knack of stage characterisation all these things are in some inexplicable way outside me
it was this letter that set me thinking ever since james had left the island i had been chafing at the helplessness of my position
nothing i suppose i helped him in a way the thought of me would be with him always spurring him on to work that the time of our separation might be less but it was not enough i wanted to be doing something
and it was during these restless weeks that i wrote my play i think nothing will ever erase from my mind the moment when the central idea of the girl who waited came to me it was a boisterous october evening the wind had been rising all day
now the branches of the lilac were dancing in the rush of the storm and far out in the bay one could see the white crests of the waves gleaming through the growing darkness we had just finished tea the lamp was lit in our little drawing room and on the sofa
so placed that the light fell over her left shoulder in the manner recommended by oculists sat my mother with schopenhauer's art of literature ponto slept on the rug something in the unruffled peace of the scene tore at my nerves
i have seldom felt so restless it may have been the storm that made me so i think myself that it was james's letter the boat had been late that morning owing to the weather and i had not received the letter till after lunch
i listened to the howl of the wind and longed to be out in it my mother looked at me over her book you are restless margie she said there is a volume of marcus aurelius on the table beside you if you care to read
no thank you mother i said i think i shall go for a walk wrap up well my dear she replied she then resumed her book i went out of our little garden and stood on the cliff the wind flew at me like some wild thing
spray stung my face i was filled with a wild exhilaration and then the idea came to me the simplest most dramatic idea quaint whimsical
the central idea to be brief of the girl who waited of my maenad tramp along the cliff top with my brain afire and my return draggled and dripping an hour late for dinner of my writing and re writing
of my tears and black depression of the pens i wore out and the quires of paper i spoiled and finally of the ecstasy of the day when the piece began to move and the characters to live i need not speak anyone who has ever written will know the sensations
james must have gone through a hundred times what i went through once
for two days i gloated alone over the great pile of manuscript then i went to my mother my diffidence was exquisite it was all i could do to tell her the nature of my request when i spoke to her after lunch
at last she understood that i had written a play and wished to read it to her she took me to the bow window with gentle solicitude and waited for me to proceed at first she encouraged me for i faltered over my opening words
but as i warmed to my work and as my embarrassment left me she no longer spoke her eyes were fixed intently upon the blue space beyond the lilac i read on and on till at length my voice trailed over the last line
rose gallantly at the last fence the single word curtain and abruptly broke the strain had been too much for me
and quietly with closed eyelids i lay there until in the soft cool of the evening i asked for her verdict seeing as she did instantly that it would be more dangerous to deny my request than to accede to it she spoke
that there is an absence my dear margie of any relationship with life that not a single character is in any degree human that passion and virtue and vice and real feeling are wanting this surprises me more than i can tell you
i had expected to listen to a natural ordinary unactable episode arranged more or less in steichomuthics there is no work so scholarly and engaging as the amateur's
but in your play i am amazed to find the touch of the professional and experienced playwright yes my dear you have proved that you happen to possess the quality one that is most difficult to acquire of surrounding a situation which is improbable enough
as your mother i am disappointed i had hoped for originality as your literary well wisher i stifle my maternal feelings and congratulate you unreservedly i thanked my mother effusively i think i cried a little
she said affectionately that the hour had been one of great interest to her
she then resumed her book i went to my room and re read the last letter i had had from james the barrel club covent garden london my darling margie
i am writing this line simply and solely for the selfish pleasure i gain from the act of writing to you i know everything will come right some time or other but at present i am suffering from a bad attack of the blues i am like a general who has planned out a brilliant attack
and realises that he must fail for want of sufficient troops to carry a position on the taking of which the whole success of the assault depends briefly my position is like this
my name is pretty well known in a small sort of way among editors and the like as that of a man who can turn out fairly good stuff besides this i have many influential friends you see where this brings me
i am in the middle of my attacking movement and i have not been beaten back but the key to the enemy's position is still uncaptured you know what this key is from my other letters it's the stage
ah margie one acting play only one it would mean everything apart from the actual triumph and the direct profits it would bring so much with it
i should have an accepted position in the literary world which would convert all the other avenues to wealth on which i have my eye instantly into royal roads obstacles would vanish
the fact that i was a successful playwright would make the acceptance of the sort of work i am doing now inevitable and i should get paid ten times as well for it and it would mean well you know what it would mean don't you darling margie tell me again that i have your love
that the waiting is not too hard that you believe in me dearest it will come right in the end nothing can prevent that love and the will of a man have always beaten time and fate write to me dear ever your devoted james
how utterly free from thought of self his magnificent loyalty forgot the dreadful tension of his own great battle and pictured only the tedium of waiting which it was my part to endure i finished my letter to james very late that night
it was a very long and explanatory letter and it enclosed my play the main point i aimed at was not to damp his spirits he would i knew well see that the play was suitable for staging
he would in short see that i an inexperienced girl had done what he a trained professional writer had failed to do lest therefore his pique should kill admiration and pleasure when he received my work i wrote as one begging a favour
here i said we have the means to achieve all we want do not oh do not criticise i have written down the words but the conception is yours the play was inspired by you but for you i should never have begun it
take my play james take it as your own for yours it is put your name to it and produce it if you love me under your own signature if this hurts your pride i will word my request differently you alone are able to manage the business side of the production
you know the right men to go to to approach them on behalf of a stranger's work is far less likely to lead to success i have assumed you will see that the play is certain to be produced but that will only be so if you adopt it as your own
claim the authorship and all will be well much more i wrote to james in the same strain and my reward came next day in the shape of a telegram accept thankfully cloyster
of the play and its reception by the public there is no need to speak the criticisms were all favourable neither the praise of the critics nor the applause of the public aroused any trace of jealousy in james
their unanimous note of praise has been a source of pride to him he is proud ah joy that i am to be his wife i have blotted the last page of this commonplace love story of mine
the moon has come out from behind a cloud and the whole bay is one vast sheet of silver i could sit here at my bedroom window and look at it all night but then i should be sure to oversleep myself and be late for breakfast
chapter twenty three one day only had passed since anne's conversation with missus smith but a keener interest had succeeded and she was now so little touched by mister elliot's conduct except by its effects in one quarter
that it became a matter of course the next morning still to defer her explanatory visit in rivers street she had promised to be with the musgroves from breakfast to dinner her faith was plighted and mister elliot's character
must live another day she could not keep her appointment punctually however the weather was unfavourable and she had grieved over the rain on her friends account and felt it very much on her own before she was able to attempt the walk
when she reached the white hart and made her way to the proper apartment she found herself neither arriving quite in time nor the first to arrive the party before her were missus musgrove talking to missus croft
and captain harville to captain wentworth and she immediately heard that mary and henrietta too impatient to wait had gone out the moment it had cleared but would be back again soon and that the strictest injunctions had been left with missus musgrove
she had only to submit sit down be outwardly composed and feel herself plunged at once in all the agitations which she had merely laid her account of tasting a little before the morning closed
there was no delay no waste of time she was deep in the happiness of such misery or the misery of such happiness instantly two minutes after her entering the room captain wentworth said
we will write the letter we were talking of harville now if you will give me materials materials were at hand on a separate table he went to it and nearly turning his back to them all was engrossed by writing
missus musgrove was giving missus croft the history of her eldest daughter's engagement and just in that inconvenient tone of voice which was perfectly audible
anne felt that she did not belong to the conversation and yet as captain harville seemed thoughtful and not disposed to talk she could not avoid hearing many undesirable particulars such as
how mister musgrove and my brother hayter had met again and again to talk it over what my brother hayter had said one day and what mister musgrove had proposed the next and what had occurred to my sister hayter and what the young people had wished
and what i said at first i never could consent to but was afterwards persuaded to think might do very well and a great deal in the same style of open hearted communication minutiae which
even with every advantage of taste and delicacy which good missus musgrove could not give could be properly interesting only to the principals missus croft was attending with great good humour
and whenever she spoke at all it was very sensibly anne hoped the gentlemen might each be too much self occupied to hear
said missus musgrove in her powerful whisper though we could have wished it different yet altogether we did not think it fair to stand out any longer for charles hayter was quite wild about it and henrietta was pretty near as bad
and so we thought they had better marry at once and make the best of it as many others have done before them at any rate said i it will be better than a long engagement that is precisely what i was going to observe cried missus croft
i would rather have young people settle on a small income at once and have to struggle with a few difficulties together than be involved in a long engagement i always think that no mutual oh dear missus croft cried missus musgrove
unable to let her finish her speech
it is what i always protested against for my children it is all very well i used to say for young people to be engaged if there is a certainty of their being able to marry in six months or even in twelve but a long engagement
yes dear ma'am said missus croft or an uncertain engagement an engagement which may be long to begin without knowing that at such a time there will be the means of marrying i hold to be very unsafe and unwise
and what i think all parents should prevent as far as they can anne found an unexpected interest here she felt its application to herself
felt it in a nervous thrill all over her and at the same moment that her eyes instinctively glanced towards the distant table captain wentworth's pen ceased to move his head was raised pausing listening
and he turned round the next instant to give a look one quick conscious look at her the two ladies continued to talk to re urge the same admitted truths
and enforce them with such examples of the ill effect of a contrary practice as had fallen within their observation but anne heard nothing distinctly it was only a buzz of words in her ear her mind was in confusion
captain harville who had in truth been hearing none of it now left his seat and moved to a window and anne seeming to watch him though it was from thorough absence of mind
became gradually sensible that he was inviting her to join him where he stood he looked at her with a smile and a little motion of the head which expressed come to me i have something to say
and the unaffected easy kindness of manner which denoted the feelings of an older acquaintance than he really was strongly enforced the invitation she roused herself and went to him the window at which he stood
was at the other end of the room from where the two ladies were sitting and though nearer to captain wentworth's table not very near as she joined him captain harville's countenance re assumed the serious thoughtful expression
which seemed its natural character look here said he unfolding a parcel in his hand and displaying a small miniature painting do you know who that is certainly captain benwick
yes and you may guess who it is for but in a deep tone it was not done for her miss elliot do you remember our walking together at lyme and grieving for him
i little thought then but no matter this was drawn at the cape he met with a clever young german artist at the cape and in compliance with a promise to my poor sister sat to him and was bringing it home for her
and i have now the charge of getting it properly set for another it was a commission to me but who else was there to employ i hope i can allow for him i am not sorry indeed to make it over to another
he undertakes it looking towards captain wentworth he is writing about it now and with a quivering lip he wound up the whole by adding poor fanny she would not have forgotten him so soon
no replied anne in a low feeling voice that i can easily believe it was not in her nature she doted on him it would not be the nature of any woman who truly loved
it is perhaps our fate rather than our merit we cannot help ourselves we live at home quiet confined and our feelings prey upon us you are forced on exertion
you have always a profession pursuits business of some sort or other to take you back into the world immediately and continual occupation and change soon weaken impressions
which however i do not think i shall grant it does not apply to benwick he has not been forced upon any exertion the peace turned him on shore at the very moment and he has been living with us in our little family circle ever since
true said anne very true i did not recollect but what shall we say now captain harville if the change be not from outward circumstances
it must be from within it must be nature man's nature which has done the business for captain benwick no no it is not man's nature
i believe the reverse i believe in a true analogy between our bodily frames and our mental and that as our bodies are the strongest so are our feelings capable of bearing most rough usage and riding out the heaviest weather
your feelings may be the strongest replied anne but the same spirit of analogy will authorise me to assert that ours are the most tender man is more robust than woman
but he is not longer lived which exactly explains my view of the nature of their attachments nay it would be too hard upon you if it were otherwise
you are always labouring and toiling exposed to every risk and hardship your home country friends all quitted neither time nor health nor life to be called your own it would be hard indeed with a faltering voice
it was nothing more than that his pen had fallen down but anne was startled at finding him nearer than she had supposed and half inclined to suspect that the pen had only fallen because he had been occupied by them
striving to catch sounds which yet she did not think he could have caught have you finished your letter said captain harville not quite a few lines more i shall have done in five minutes
there is no hurry on my side i am only ready whenever you are i am in very good anchorage here smiling at anne well supplied and want for nothing no hurry for a signal at all
well miss elliot lowering his voice
no man and woman would probably but let me observe that all histories are against you all stories prose and verse if i had such a memory as benwick i could bring you fifty quotations in a moment on my side the argument
and i do not think i ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy songs and proverbs all talk of woman's fickleness but perhaps you will say these were all written by men
perhaps i shall yes
men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story education has been theirs in so much higher a degree the pen has been in their hands i will not allow books to prove anything but how shall we prove anything
we never shall we never can expect to prove any thing upon such a point it is a difference of opinion which does not admit of proof we each begin probably with a little bias towards our own sex
and upon that bias build every circumstance in favour of it which has occurred within our own circle many of which circumstances perhaps those very cases which strike us the most
may be precisely such as cannot be brought forward without betraying a confidence or in some respect saying what should not be said ah cried captain harville in a tone of strong feeling
if i could but make you comprehend what a man suffers when he takes a last look at his wife and children and watches the boat that he has sent them off in as long as it is in sight and then turns away and says god knows whether we ever meet again
and then if i could convey to you the glow of his soul when he does see them again when
and obliged to put into another port he calculates how soon it be possible to get them there pretending to deceive himself and saying they cannot be here till such a day but all the while hoping for them twelve hours sooner and seeing them arrive at last
as if heaven had given them wings by many hours sooner still if i could explain to you all this and all that a man can bear and do and glories to do for the sake of these treasures of his existence i speak you know
only of such men as have hearts pressing his own with emotion oh cried anne eagerly i hope i do justice to all that is felt by you and by those who resemble you
god forbid that i should undervalue the warm and faithful feelings of any of my fellow creatures i should deserve utter contempt if i dared to suppose that true attachment and constancy were known only by woman no
i believe you capable of everything great and good in your married lives i believe you equal to every important exertion and to every domestic forbearance so long as if i may be allowed the expression so long as you have an object
i mean while the woman you love lives and lives for you all the privilege i claim for my own sex
is that of loving longest when existence or when hope is gone she could not immediately have uttered another sentence her heart was too full her breath too much oppressed
there is no quarrelling with you and when i think of benwick my tongue is tied their attention was called towards the others missus croft was taking leave
i am going home and you have an engagement with your friend to night we may have the pleasure of all meeting again at your party turning to anne we had your sister's card yesterday and i understood frederick had a card too though i did not see it
and you are disengaged frederick are you not as well as ourselves captain wentworth was folding up a letter in great haste and either could not or would not answer fully yes said he very true
here we separate but harville and i shall soon be after you that is harville if you are ready i am in half a minute i know you will not be sorry to be off i shall be at your service in half a minute missus croft left them
and captain wentworth having sealed his letter with great rapidity was indeed ready and had even a hurried agitated air which shewed impatience to be gone
she had the kindest good morning god bless you from captain harville but from him not a word nor a look he had passed out of the room without a look
she had only time however to move closer to the table where he had been writing when footsteps were heard returning the door opened it was himself he begged their pardon
but he had forgotten his gloves and instantly crossing the room to the writing table he drew out a letter from under the scattered paper placed it before anne with eyes of glowing entreaty fixed on her for a time
and hastily collecting his gloves was again out of the room almost before missus musgrove was aware of his being in it the work of an instant the revolution which one instant had made in anne was almost beyond expression the letter
with a direction hardly legible to miss a e was evidently the one which he had been folding so hastily while supposed to be writing only to captain benwick
he had been also addressing her on the contents of that letter depended all which this world could do for her anything was possible anything might be defied rather than suspense missus musgrove had little arrangements of her own at her own table
to their protection she must trust and sinking into the chair which he had occupied succeeding to the very spot where he had leaned and written
i can listen no longer in silence i must speak to you by such means as are within my reach you pierce my soul i am half agony half hope tell me not that i am too late that such precious feelings are gone for ever
i offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman that his love has an earlier death i have loved none but you
unjust i may have been weak and resentful i have been but never inconstant you alone have brought me to bath for you alone i think and plan have you not seen this can you fail to have understood my wishes
i had not waited even these ten days could i have read your feelings as i think you must have penetrated mine i can hardly write i am every instant hearing something which overpowers me you sink your voice
but i can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others too good too excellent creature you do us justice indeed you do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men
believe it to be most fervent most undeviating in f w i must go uncertain of my fate but i shall return hither or follow your party as soon as possible a word
a look will be enough to decide whether i enter your father's house this evening or never such a letter was not to be soon recovered from half an hour's solitude and reflection might have tranquillized her
but the ten minutes only which now passed before she was interrupted with all the restraints of her situation could do nothing towards tranquillity every moment rather brought fresh agitation it was overpowering happiness
and before she was beyond the first stage of full sensation charles mary and henrietta all came in the absolute necessity of seeming like herself produced then an immediate struggle but after a while she could do no more
she began not to understand a word they said and was obliged to plead indisposition and excuse herself they could then see that she looked very ill were shocked and concerned and would not stir without her for the world
this was dreadful would they only have gone away and left her in the quiet possession of that room it would have been her cure but to have them all standing or waiting around her was distracting and in desperation she said she would go home
by all means my dear cried missus musgrove go home directly and take care of yourself that you may be fit for the evening i wish sarah was here to doctor you but i am no doctor myself charles
but the chair would never do worse than all to lose the possibility of speaking two words to captain wentworth in the course of her quiet solitary progress up the town and she felt almost certain of meeting him could not be borne
the chair was earnestly protested against and missus musgrove who thought only of one sort of illness having assured herself with some anxiety that there had been no fall in the case
that she was perfectly convinced of having had no fall could part with her cheerfully and depend on finding her better at night anxious to omit no possible precaution anne struggled and said i am afraid ma'am
that it is not perfectly understood pray be so good as to mention to the other gentlemen that we hope to see your whole party this evening i am afraid there had been some mistake and i wish you particularly to assure captain harville and captain wentworth that we hope to see them both
oh my dear it is quite understood i give you my word captain harville has no thought but of going do you think so but i am afraid and i should be so very sorry will you promise me to mention it when you see them again
you will see them both this morning i dare say do promise me to be sure i will if you wish it charles if you see captain harville anywhere remember to give miss anne's message
captain harville holds himself quite engaged i'll answer for it and captain wentworth the same i dare say anne could do no more but her heart prophesied some mischance to damp the perfection of her felicity it could not be very lasting however
even if he did not come to camden place himself it would be in her power to send an intelligible sentence by captain harville another momentary vexation occurred charles in his real concern and good nature would go home with her
there was no preventing him this was almost cruel but she could not be long ungrateful he was sacrificing an engagement at a gunsmith's to be of use to her and she set off with him with no feeling but gratitude apparent
it was by no means the first time that the brother had been forced to give something to him and he was not better pleased at being asked now than he generally was if you will do what i ask you
you shall have a whole ham said he the poor one immediately thanked him and promised this well here is the ham and now you must go straight to dead man's hall said the rich brother
throwing the ham to him well i will do what i have promised said the other and he took the ham and set off he went on and on for the livelong day and at nightfall he came to a place where there was a bright light
i have no doubt this is the place thought the man with the ham an old man with a long white beard was standing in the outhouse chopping yule logs good evening said the man with the ham good evening to you
where are you going at this late hour said the man i am going to dead man's hall if only i am on the right track answered the poor man oh yes you are right enough for it is here said the old man
when you get inside they will all want to buy your ham for they don't get much meat to eat there but you must not sell it unless you can get the hand mill which stands behind the door for it when you come out again
everything happened just as the old man had said it would all the people great and small came round him like ants on an ant hill and each tried to outbid the other for the ham by rights
my old woman and i ought to have it for our christmas dinner but since you have set your hearts upon it
but if i sell it i will have the hand mill which is standing there behind the door at first they would not hear of this and haggled and bargained with the man but he stuck to what he had said
and the people were forced to give him the hand mill when the man came out again into the yard he asked the old wood cutter how he was to stop the hand mill and when he had learned that he thanked him and set off home with all the speed he could
but did not get there until after the clock had struck twelve on christmas eve where in the world have you been said the old woman here i have sat waiting hour after hour
and have not even two sticks to lay across each other under the christmas porridge pot oh i could not come before i had something of importance to see about and a long way to go too but now you shall just see said the man
bless me said the old woman as one thing after another appeared and she wanted to know where her husband had got the mill from but he would not tell her that never mind where i got it
you can see that it is a good one and the water that turns it will never freeze said the man so he ground meat and drink and all kinds of good things to last all christmas tide
and on the third day he invited all his friends to come to a feast now when the rich brother saw all that there was at the banquet and in the house he was both vexed and angry for he grudged everything his brother had
on christmas eve he was so poor that he came to me and begged for a trifle for god's sake and now he gives a feast as if he were both a count and a king thought he but for heaven's sake tell me where you got your riches from said he to his brother
from behind the door said he who owned the mill for he did not choose to satisfy his brother on that point but later in the evening when he had taken a drop too much he could not refrain from telling how he had come by the hand mill
but he had to give three hundred dollars for it and the poor brother was to keep it till the haymaking was over for he thought if i keep it as long as that i can make it grind meat and drink that will last many a long year
during that time you may imagine that the mill did not grow rusty and when hay harvest came the rich brother got it but the other had taken good care not to teach him how to stop it
it was evening when the rich man got the mill home and in the morning he bade the old woman go out and spread the hay after the mowers and he would attend to the house himself that day he said so
when dinner time drew near he set the mill on the kitchen table and said grind herrings and milk pottage and do it both quickly and well so the mill began to grind herrings and milk pottage
and first all the dishes and tubs were filled and then it came out all over the kitchen floor the man twisted and turned it and did all he could to make the mill stop but howsoever he turned it and screwed it the mill went on grinding
and in a short time the pottage rose so high that the man was like to be drowned so he threw open the parlor door but it was not long before the mill had ground the parlor full too
and it was with difficulty and danger that the man could go through the stream of pottage and get hold of the door latch when he got the door open he did not stay long in the room but ran out and the herrings and pottage came after him
and it streamed out over both farm and field now the old woman who was out spreading the hay began to think dinner was long in coming and said to the women and the mowers though the master does not call us home
we may as well go it may be that he finds he is not good at making pottage and i should do well to help him so they began to straggle homeward but when they had got a little way up the hill
they met the herrings and pottage and bread all pouring forth and winding about one over the other and the man himself in front of the flood would to heaven that each of you had a hundred stomachs
take care that you are not drowned in the pottage he cried as he went by them as if mischief were at his heels down to where his brother dwelt then he begged him for god's sake to take the mill back again and that in an instant
now the poor brother had both the money and the mill again so it was not long before he had a farmhouse much finer than that in which his brother lived but the mill ground him so much money
that he covered it with plates of gold and the farmhouse lay close by the sea shore so it shone and glittered far out to sea
and everyone wanted to see the wonderful mill for the report of it spread far and wide and there was no one who had not heard tell of it after a long long time
he asked if it could make salt yes it could make salt said he who owned it and when the skipper heard that he wished with all his might and main to have the mill let it cost what it might
for he thought if he had it he would get off having to sail far away over the perilous sea for freights of salt at first the man would not hear of parting with it but the skipper begged and prayed
and at last the man sold it to him and got many many thousand dollars for it when the skipper had got the mill on his back he did not stay there long for he was so afraid that the man would change his mind and he had no time to ask how he was to stop it grinding
but got on board his ship as fast as he could when he had gone a little way out to sea he took the mill on deck grind salt and grind both quickly and well said the skipper so the mill
and the heap of salt grew higher and higher until at last the ship sank there lies the mill at the bottom of the sea and still day by day it grinds on
and blew three feathers up into the air saying as they fly thither shall you follow one feather flew east another west and the third went in a straight line between the two for a little way and then fell suddenly to the ground
so one brother went east and another west and poor dummling was left to follow the third feather which had gone no distance at all whereat his brothers were much amused dummling sat down beside his feather feeling very sad and doleful
and then he knocked immediately he heard a voice singing little frog so green and cold i prithee open and behold who it is that knocks so bold and the door opened
the frog rolled her eyes for a minute and then turning to one of the little ones at her side said
and came back dragging a large box then the mother frog took a key that hung around her neck on a chain and opened the box and drew forth the most beautiful carpet that was ever seen
and thanking her very heartily he hurried up the steps eager to take it to the palace meanwhile the two brothers never thinking that dummling was clever enough to find any sort of carpet at all said to each other
let us buy the shawl of the first peasant woman we meet that should be good enough to win us the kingdom so they bought a common old shawl at the first opportunity
but dummling's feather did as it did the first time and fell to earth just by the trapdoor so he pulled it up once again and went down the steps when the door was opened he told the big frog that he wanted the most beautiful ring in the world
so she sent one of her little attendants hopping for her jewel casket and when it was come she took out of it a ring that fairly blazed with diamonds and other jewels and finer than the finest workmanship that could be obtained
you may imagine dummling thanked her very warmly for the ring and hurried off back to the palace as fast as his legs could carry him
than to beat two rusty nails into circlets as soon as the king saw dummling's lovely jewel he cried out the kingdom belongs to him but the brothers again flew into a passion at this and said that a youth
so they worried the father at last to make just one more condition and this time he said that whoever should bring home the most beautiful woman in the world should succeed to the throne a third time he blew the feathers into the air
still i will do my best for you nevertheless but first take this
made of a hollow carrot to which were harnessed six beautiful white mice the youth looked at this rather doubtfully
and put her on the carrot and lo and behold no sooner was she seated than she changed into a beautiful maiden and the carrot and the mice into a grand chariot drawn by six prancing horses
as soon as he could stop rubbing his eyes from wonder dummling kissed the maiden and drove off in triumph to the palace meanwhile the brothers as usual had taken no trouble whatever and at the moment dummling drove up in his glory
they appeared with two peasant girls
of course the king had nothing for it but to award the kingdom to his youngest son and of course the elder brothers still grumbled and made such a fuss that at last the poor king had to consent to yet another trial
felt that the life he was leading in the castle was entirely inconsistent with the order of chivalry he professed so he determined to ask the duke and duchess to permit him to take his departure for saragossa
as the time of the festival was now drawing near and he hoped to win there the suit of armour which is the prize at festivals of the sort
but one day at table with the duke and duchess just as he was about to carry his resolution into effect and ask for their permission lo and behold suddenly there came in through the door of the great hall two women
as they afterwards proved to be draped in mourning from head to foot one of whom approaching don quixote flung herself at full length at his feet
so sad so deep and so doleful that she put all who heard and saw her into a state of perplexity
and though the duke and duchess supposed it must be some joke their servants were playing off upon don quixote still the earnest way the woman sighed and moaned and wept puzzled them and made them feel uncertain
until don quixote touched with compassion raised her up and made her unveil herself and remove the mantle from her tearful face she complied and disclosed what no one could have ever anticipated
they did not think her capable of crazy pranks dona rodriguez at length turning to her master and mistress said to them will your excellences be pleased to permit me to speak to this gentleman for a moment
for it is requisite i should do so in order to get successfully out of the business in which the boldness of an evil minded clown has involved me the duke said that for his part he gave her leave
i gave you an account of the injustice and treachery of a wicked farmer to my dearly beloved daughter the unhappy damsel here before you and you promised me to take her part and right the wrong that has been done her
for to expect that my lord the duke will do me justice is to ask pears from the elm tree for the reason i stated privately to your worship and so may our lord grant you good health and forsake us not
and spare your sighs for i take it upon myself to obtain redress for your daughter for whom it would have been better not to have been so ready to believe lovers promises
which are for the most part quickly made and very slowly performed and so with my lord the duke's leave i will at once go in quest of this inhuman youth and will find him out and challenge him and slay him
if so be he refuses to keep his promised word for the chief object of my profession is to spare the humble and chastise the proud i mean to help the distressed and destroy the oppressors
there is no necessity said the duke for your worship to take the trouble of seeking out the rustic of whom this worthy duenna complains nor is there any necessity either for asking my leave to challenge him
for i admit him duly challenged and will take care that he is informed of the challenge and accepts it and comes to answer it in person to this castle of mine
where i shall afford to both a fair field observing all the conditions which are usually and properly observed in such trials and observing too justice to both sides
as all princes who offer a free field to combatants within the limits of their lordships are bound to do then with that assurance and your highness's good leave said don quixote
i hereby for this once waive my privilege of gentle blood and come down and put myself on a level with the lowly birth of the wrong doer
making myself equal with him and enabling him to enter into combat with me and so i challenge and defy him though absent on the plea of his malfeasance in breaking faith with this poor damsel
who was a maiden and now by his misdeed is none and say that he shall fulfill the promise he gave her to become her lawful husband or else stake his life upon the question
and then plucking off a glove he threw it down in the middle of the hall and the duke picked it up saying as he had said before that he accepted the challenge in the name of his vassal
and fixed six days thence as the time the courtyard of the castle as the place and for arms the customary ones of knights lance and shield and full armour
with all the other accessories without trickery guile or charms of any sort and examined and passed by the judges of the field but first of all he said
it is requisite that this worthy duenna and unworthy damsel should place their claim for justice in the hands of don quixote for otherwise nothing can be done nor can the said challenge be brought to a lawful issue
and i too added her daughter all in tears and covered with shame and confusion this declaration having been made and the duke having settled in his own mind what he would do in the matter
the ladies in black withdrew and the duchess gave orders that for the future they were not to be treated as servants of hers but as lady adventurers who came to her house to demand justice
entered the hall and the duke and duchess were very well pleased to see him being anxious to know the result of his journey
but when they asked him the page said in reply that he could not give it before so many people or in a few words and begged their excellences to be pleased to let it wait for a private opportunity
and in the meantime amuse themselves with these letters and taking out the letters he placed them in the duchess's hand one bore by way of address letter for my lady the duchess so and so of i don't know where
she read out as follows teresa panza's letter to the duchess the letter your highness wrote me my lady gave me great pleasure for indeed i found it very welcome
the string of coral beads is very fine and my husband's hunting suit does not fall short of it
they may all say what they like though to tell the truth if the coral beads and the suit had not come i would not have believed it either for in this village everybody thinks my husband a numskull
and except for governing a flock of goats they cannot fancy what sort of government he can be fit for god grant it and direct him according as he sees his children stand in need of it
and go to court to stretch myself at ease in a coach
for a loaf costs a real and meat thirty maravedis a pound which is beyond everything
and my friends and neighbours tell me that if my daughter and i make a figure and a brave show at court my husband will come to be known far more by me than i by him
i am as vexed as vexed can be that they have gathered no acorns this year in our village for all that i send your highness about half a peck
and i could find no bigger ones i wish they were as big as ostrich eggs let not your high mightiness forget to write to me
and whatever news there may be in this place where i remain praying our lord to have your highness in his keeping and not to forget me sancha my daughter and my son kiss your worship's hands
she who would rather see your ladyship than write to you
all were greatly amused by teresa panza's letter but particularly the duke and duchess
which she suspected must be very good don quixote said that to gratify them he would open it and did so and found that it ran as follows teresa panza's letter to her husband sancho panza
i got thy letter sancho of my soul and i
that i was within two fingers breadth of going mad i was so happy i can tell thee brother when i came to hear that thou wert a governor i thought i should have dropped dead with pure joy
and thou knowest they say sudden joy kills as well as great sorrow and as for sanchica thy daughter
verily believed and thought that what i saw and handled was all a dream for who could have thought that a goatherd would come to be a governor of islands thou knowest my friend what my mother used to say
still they make and handle money my lady the duchess will tell thee the desire i have to go to the court consider the matter and let me know thy pleasure i will try to do honour to thee by going in a coach
send me some strings of pearls if they are in fashion in that island
to be sure he has now laid aside his paint brush and taken a spade in hand and goes to the field like a gentleman pedro lobo's son has received the first orders
evil tongues say she is with child by him but he denies it stoutly
a company of soldiers passed through here when they left they took away with them three of the girls of the village i will not tell thee who they are
perhaps they will come back and they will be sure to find those who will take them for wives with all their blemishes good or bad
which she puts into a moneybox as a help towards house furnishing but now that she is a governor's daughter thou wilt give her a portion without her working for it the fountain in the plaza has run dry
i look for an answer to this and to know thy mind about my going to the court and so god keep thee longer than me or as long for i would not leave thee in this world without me
the letters were applauded laughed over relished and admired and then as if to put the seal to the business the courier arrived bringing the one sancho sent to don quixote
and this too was read out and it raised some doubts as to the governor's simplicity the duchess withdrew to hear from the page about his adventures in sancho's village
which he narrated at full length without leaving a single circumstance unmentioned he gave her the acorns and also a cheese which teresa had given him as being particularly good and superior to those of tronchon
the duchess received it with greatest delight in which we will leave her to describe the end of the government of the great sancho panza flower and mirror of all governors of islands
to fancy that in this life anything belonging to it will remain for ever in the same state is an idle fancy on the contrary in it everything seems to go in a circle i mean round and round
the spring succeeds the summer the summer the fall the fall the autumn the autumn the winter and the winter the spring and so time rolls with never ceasing wheel man's life alone swifter than time
speeds onward to its end without any hope of renewal save it be in that other life which is endless and boundless
for there are many that by the light of nature alone without the light of faith have a comprehension of the fleeting nature and instability of this present life and the endless duration of that eternal life we hope for
melted away disappeared vanished as it were in smoke and shadow for as he lay in bed on the night of the seventh day of his government sated not with bread and wine
but with delivering judgments and giving opinions and making laws and proclamations just as sleep in spite of hunger was beginning to close his eyelids he heard such a noise of bell ringing and shouting
that one would have fancied the whole island was going to the bottom he sat up in bed and remained listening intently to try if he could make out what could be the cause of so great an uproar
not only however was he unable to discover what it was but as countless drums and trumpets now helped to swell the din of the bells and shouts he was more puzzled than ever
and filled with fear and terror and getting up he put on a pair of slippers because of the dampness of the floor and without throwing a dressing gown or anything of the kind over him he rushed out of the door of his room
to arms to arms senor governor to arms the enemy is in the island in countless numbers and we are lost unless your skill and valour come to our support keeping up this noise tumult and uproar
they came to where sancho stood dazed and bewildered by what he saw and heard and as they approached one of them called out to him arm at once your lordship if you would not have yourself destroyed and the whole island lost
for i sinner that i am god help me don't understand these scuffles ah senor governor said another what slackness of
come out to the plaza and be our leader and captain
arm me then in god's name said sancho and they at once produced two large shields they had come provided with and placed them upon him over his shirt without letting him put on anything else
the fire was nice and bright and on one of the side tables were four very big barmbracks these barmbracks seemed uncut
she was always sent for when the women quarrelled over their tubs and always succeeded in making peace one day the matron had said to her maria you are a veritable peace maker
and the sub matron and two of the board ladies had heard the compliment and ginger mooney was always saying what she wouldn't do to the dummy who had charge of the irons if it wasn't for maria everyone was so fond of maria
the women would have their tea at six o'clock and she would be able to get away before seven from ballsbridge to the pillar twenty minutes from the pillar to drumcondra twenty minutes and twenty minutes to buy the things
she would be there before eight she took out her purse with the silver clasps and read again the words a present from belfast she was very fond of that purse because joe had brought it to her five years before
when he and alphy had gone to belfast on a whit monday trip in the purse were two half crowns and some coppers she would have five shillings clear after paying tram fare
only she hoped that joe wouldn't come in drunk he was so different when he took any drink often he had wanted her to go and live with them but she would have felt herself in the way
mamma is mamma but maria is my proper mother after the break up at home the boys had got her that position in the dublin by lamplight laundry and she liked it
she used to have such a bad opinion of protestants but now she thought they were very nice people a little quiet and serious but still very nice people to live with
then she had her plants in the conservatory and she liked looking after them she had lovely ferns and wax plants and whenever anyone came to visit her she always gave the visitor one or two slips from her conservatory
there was one thing she didn't like and that was the tracts on the walks but the matron was such a nice person to deal with so genteel when the cook told her everything was ready
she went into the women's room and began to pull the big bell in a few minutes the women began to come in by twos and threes wiping their steaming hands in their petticoats
and pulling down the sleeves of their blouses over their red steaming arms they settled down before their huge mugs which the cook and the dummy filled up with hot tea already mixed with milk and sugar in huge tin cans
maria superintended the distribution of the barmbrack and saw that every woman got her four slices there was a great deal of laughing and joking during the meal
lizzie fleming said maria was sure to get the ring and though fleming had said that for so many hallow eves maria had to laugh and say she didn't want any ring or man either
and when she laughed her grey green eyes sparkled with disappointed shyness and the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin
then ginger mooney lifted her mug of tea and proposed maria's health while all the other women clattered with their mugs on the table and said she was sorry she hadn't a sup of porter to drink it in
and maria laughed again till the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin and till her minute body nearly shook itself asunder because she knew that mooney meant well though of course
she had the notions of a common woman but wasn't maria glad when the women had finished their tea and the cook and the dummy had begun to clear away the tea things
and her tiny dress boots beside the foot of the bed she changed her blouse too and as she stood before the mirror she thought of how she used to dress for mass on sunday morning when she was a young girl
and she looked with quaint affection at the diminutive body which she had so often adorned in spite of its years she found it a nice tidy little body when she got outside the streets were shining with rain
and she was glad of her old brown waterproof the tram was full and she had to sit on the little stool at the end of the car facing all the people with her toes barely touching the floor
and to have your own money in your pocket she hoped they would have a nice evening she was sure they would but she could not help thinking what a pity it was alphy and joe were not speaking
they were always falling out now but when they were boys together they used to be the best of friends but such was life she got out of her tram at the pillar and ferreted her way quickly among the crowds
and at last came out of the shop laden with a big bag then she thought what else would she buy she wanted to buy something really nice they would be sure to have plenty of apples and nuts
it was hard to know what to buy and all she could think of was cake
so she went over to a shop in henry street here she was a long time in suiting herself and the stylish young lady behind the counter who was evidently a little annoyed by her
asked her was it wedding cake she wanted to buy that made maria blush and smile at the young lady but the young lady took it all very seriously and finally cut a thick slice of plumcake
parcelled it up and said two and four please she thought she would have to stand in the drumcondra tram because none of the young men seemed to notice her but an elderly gentleman made room for her
he was a stout gentleman and he wore a brown hard hat he had a square red face and a greyish moustache
he supposed the bag was full of good things for the little ones and said it was only right that the youngsters should enjoy themselves while they were young maria agreed with him and favoured him with demure nods and hems
he was very nice with her and when she was getting out at the canal bridge she thanked him and bowed and he bowed to her and raised his hat and smiled agreeably and while she was going up along the terrace bending her tiny head under the rain
she thought how easy it was to know a gentleman even when he has a drop taken everybody said o here's maria when she came to joe's house
and missus donnelly said it was too good of her to bring such a big bag of cakes and made all the children say thanks maria but maria said she had brought something special for papa and mamma something they would be sure to like
and she began to look for her plumcake she tried in downes's bag and then in the pockets of her waterproof and then on the hallstand but nowhere could she find it then she asked all the children had any of them eaten it by mistake of course
maria remembering how confused the gentleman with the greyish moustache had made her coloured with shame and vexation and disappointment at the thought of the failure of her little surprise and of the two and fourpence she had thrown away for nothing
maria did not understand why joe laughed so much over the answer he had made but she said that the manager must have been a very overbearing person to deal with joe said he wasn't so bad when you knew how to take him
that he was a decent sort so long as you didn't rub him the wrong way missus donnelly played the piano for the children and they danced and sang then the two next door girls handed round the nuts
then joe asked would she take a bottle of stout and missus donnelly said there was port wine too in the house if she would prefer that maria said she would rather they didn't ask her to take anything but joe insisted
so maria let him have his way and they sat by the fire talking over old times and maria thought she would put in a good word for alphy but joe cried that god might strike him stone dead if ever he spoke a word to his brother again
maria was delighted to see the children so merry and joe and his wife in such good spirits the next door girls put some saucers on the table and then led the children up to the table blindfold
one got the prayer book and the other three got the water and when one of the next door girls got the ring missus donnelly shook her finger at the blushing girl as much as to say o i know all about it
they insisted then on blindfolding maria and leading her up to the table to see what she would get and while they were putting on the bandage maria laughed and laughed again till the tip of her nose nearly met the tip of her chin
they led her up to the table amid laughing and joking and she put her hand out in the air as she was told to do she moved her hand about here and there in the air and descended on one of the saucers
she felt a soft wet substance with her fingers and was surprised that nobody spoke or took off her bandage there was a pause for a few seconds and then a great deal of scuffling and whispering
somebody said something about the garden and at last missus donnelly said something very cross to one of the next door girls and told her to throw it out at once that was no play maria understood that it was wrong that time and so she had to do it over again
and this time she got the prayer book after that missus donnelly played miss mc cloud's reel for the children and joe made maria take a glass of wine soon they were all quite merry again
and missus donnelly said maria would enter a convent before the year was out because she had got the prayer book maria had never seen joe so nice to her as he was that night so full of pleasant talk and reminiscences
she said they were all very good to her at last the children grew tired and sleepy and joe asked maria would she not sing some little song before she went one of the old songs
missus donnelly said do please maria and so maria had to get up and stand beside the piano missus donnelly bade the children be quiet and listen to maria's song then she played the prelude and said now maria
he said that there was no time like the long ago and no music for him like poor old balfe whatever other people might say
i admire cows in their proper places they are undoubtedly useful animals some may think them handsome and graceful this is as yet an unsettled question
i do not object to see them at a distance quietly grazing in a meadow by the brink of a winding stream and all that sort of thing provided the distance is very great and a strong fence intervenes for
and have a mortal dread of cows i am not used to the customs of country life which place this animal on a level with domestic pets and when my brother asked me to pat the side of one of these great coarse brutes
i screamed at the mere idea for i should be extremely unwilling to provoke one of them because i have been told that when heated with passion as these beasts often are it sometimes happens
that the powder horns on top of their heads explode and spread ruin and desolation around people here bestow a vast deal too much consideration on these unpleasant animals
who wear veils in the streets but i never will yield my point i will wear my veil so long as i have a complexion worth protecting and so long as there are gentlemen worth cutting
the brighton bridge battery is a delightful promenade on a warm summer's day it is so shady but it is closed i may say every wednesday and thursday to accommodate these detestable pets of the public
it seems as my brother informs me that the drovers from humane considerations are in the habit of driving their cattle over to brighton when the weather is pleasant
and back again on the next day in order that their health may be improved by the sea air which blows up charles river now i think that when the cow takes precedence of the lady and usurps to the utter exclusion of the latter
the most delightful promenade in cambridge
and so i told my brother he considered for a moment and then advised me not to bear it any longer but to go upon brighton bridge in spite of the cows and assert my independence i followed his advice as i always do
and viewing the honest sailors as they promenaded up and down the string ladders at the command of their captains my fears were aroused by a distant commotion i hastily turned and looked over the railing into the street
urged on by two fiendish boys and a savage dog was rapidly approaching me from the cambridge side what should i do i was too much fatigued to run and i had never learned to swim my plans were hastily formed
lest the gay colors should still more enrage the wild animals i jumped over the outside railing towards the river and hung by one arm over the angry flood during a moment of speechless agony
on they came with lightning speed in a whirlwind of dust a rapid succession of earthquakes bellowings groans and all was over i was safe
on inspection of the footmarks i felt quite sure that some of them must have approached within ten yards of me
an honest tar from one of the men of war employed in unloading coal at willard's wharf took the captain's gig
the sufferings of a soul the first ordeal and so mitya sat looking wildly at the people round him not understanding what was said to him suddenly he got up flung up his hands and shouted aloud i'm not guilty
i'm not guilty of that blood i'm not guilty of my father's blood i meant to kill him but i'm not guilty not i but he had hardly said this before grushenka rushed from behind the curtain and flung herself at the police captain's feet
it was my fault mine my wickedness she cried in a heartrending voice bathed in tears stretching out her clasped hands towards them he did it through me i tortured him and drove him to it
i tortured that poor old man that's dead too in my wickedness and brought him to this
yes it's your fault you're the chief criminal you fury you harlot you're the most to blame shouted the police captain threatening her with his hand but he was quickly and resolutely suppressed the prosecutor positively seized hold of him
this is absolutely irregular mihail makarovitch he cried you are positively hindering the inquiry you're ruining the case he almost gasped
otherwise it's absolutely impossible
grusha my life my blood my holy one mitya fell on his knees beside her and held her tight in his arms don't believe her he cried she's not guilty of anything of any blood of anything
he remembered afterwards that he was forcibly dragged away from her by several men and that she was led out and that when he recovered himself he was sitting at the table beside him and behind him stood the men with metal plates
facing him on the other side of the table sat nikolay parfenovitch the investigating lawyer
that will refresh you that will calm you be calm don't be frightened he added extremely politely mitya he remembered it afterwards became suddenly intensely interested in his big rings
one with an amethyst and another with a transparent bright yellow stone of great brilliance and long afterwards he remembered with wonder how those rings had riveted his attention through all those terrible hours of interrogation
and on mitya's right hand where grushenka had been was a rosy cheeked young man in a sort of shabby hunting jacket with ink and paper before him this was the secretary of the investigating lawyer who had brought him with him
the police captain was now standing by the window at the other end of the room beside kalganov who was sitting there drink some water said the investigating lawyer softly for the tenth time i have drunk it gentlemen i have but come gentlemen
crush me punish me decide my fate cried mitya staring with terribly fixed wide open eyes at the investigating lawyer so you positively declare that you are not guilty of the death of your father fyodor pavlovitch
asked the investigating lawyer softly but insistently i am not guilty i am guilty of the blood of another old man but not of my father's and i weep for it i killed i killed the old man and knocked him down
but it's hard to have to answer for that murder with another a terrible murder of which i am not guilty it's a terrible accusation gentlemen a knock down blow
you need not worry yourself about the old servant grigory vassilyevitch he is alive he has recovered and in spite of the terrible blows inflicted according to his own and your evidence by you there seems no doubt that he will live
so the doctor says at least alive he's alive cried mitya flinging up his hands his face beamed lord i thank thee for the miracle thou has wrought for me a sinner and evildoer
that's an answer to my prayer i've been praying all night and he crossed himself three times he was almost breathless
he too leapt to his feet mitya was seized by the men with the metal plates but he sat down of his own accord gentlemen what a pity i wanted to see her for one minute only i wanted to tell her that it has been washed away it has gone
that blood that was weighing on my heart all night and that i am not a murderer now gentlemen she is my betrothed he said ecstatically and reverently looking round at them all oh thank you gentlemen oh in one minute you have given me new life new heart
that old man used to carry me in his arms gentlemen he used to wash me in the tub when i was a baby three years old abandoned by every one he was like a father to me and so you the investigating lawyer began
allow me gentlemen allow me one minute more interposed mitya putting his elbows on the table and covering his face with his hands let me have a moment to think let me breathe gentlemen all this is horribly upsetting horribly a man is not a drum gentlemen
mitya took his hands from his face and laughed his eyes were confident he seemed completely transformed in a moment his whole bearing was changed he was once more the equal of these men with all of whom he was acquainted
as though they had all met the day before when nothing had happened at some social gathering we may note in passing that on his first arrival mitya had been made very welcome at the police captain's but later during the last month especially
mitya had hardly called at all and when the police captain met him in the street for instance mitya noticed that he frowned and only bowed out of politeness his acquaintance with the prosecutor was less intimate though he sometimes paid his wife a nervous and fanciful lady
visits of politeness without quite knowing why and she always received him graciously and had for some reason taken an interest in him up to the last he had not had time to get to know the investigating lawyer though he had met him and talked to him twice
each time about the fair sex you're a most skillful lawyer i see nikolay parfenovitch cried mitya laughing gayly but i can help you now oh gentlemen i feel like a new man
and don't be offended at my addressing you so simply and directly i'm rather drunk too i'll tell you that frankly i believe i've had the honor and pleasure of meeting you nikolay parfenovitch at my kinsman miuesov's
i understand of course in what character i am sitting before you
if grigory has given evidence a horrible suspicion it's awful awful i understand that but to business gentlemen i am ready and we will make an end of it in one moment for listen listen gentlemen
since i know i'm innocent we can put an end to it in a minute can't we can't we mitya spoke much and quickly nervously and effusively as though he positively took his listeners to be his best friends
he dictated to him in an undertone what to write write it down you want to write that down
stay stay write this of disorderly conduct i am guilty of violence on a poor old man i am guilty and there is something else at the bottom of my heart of which i am guilty too but that you need not write down
he turned suddenly to the secretary that's my personal life gentlemen that doesn't concern you the bottom of my heart that's to say but of the murder of my old father i'm not guilty that's a wild idea it's quite a wild idea
i will prove you that and you'll be convinced directly you will laugh gentlemen you'll laugh yourselves at your suspicion be calm dmitri fyodorovitch said the investigating lawyer evidently trying to allay mitya's excitement by his own composure
here at least a quarter of an hour ago you exclaimed that you wanted to kill him i didn't kill him you said but i wanted to kill him
many times i wanted to unhappily unhappily you wanted to would you consent to explain what motives precisely led you to such a sentiment of hatred for your parent what is there to explain gentlemen
mitya shrugged his shoulders sullenly looking down i have never concealed my feelings all the town knows about it every one knows in the tavern only lately i declared them in father zossima's cell
and the very same day in the evening i beat my father i nearly killed him and i swore i'd come again and kill him before witnesses oh a thousand witnesses i've been shouting it aloud for the last month any one can tell you that
the fact stares you in the face it speaks for itself it cries aloud but feelings gentlemen feelings are another matter you see gentlemen mitya frowned it seems to me that about feelings you've no right to question me
i know that you are bound by your office i quite understand that but that's my affair my private intimate affair yet since i haven't concealed my feelings in the past in the tavern for instance i've talked to every one so
so i won't make a secret of it now you see i understand gentlemen that there are terrible facts against me in this business i told every one that i'd kill him and now all of a sudden he's been killed
so it must have been me ha ha i can make allowances for you gentlemen i can quite make allowances i'm struck all of a heap myself for who can have murdered him if not i that's what it comes to isn't it if not i who can it be
who gentlemen i want to know i insist on knowing he exclaimed suddenly where was he murdered how was he murdered how and with what tell me he asked quickly looking at the two lawyers
we found him in his study lying on his back on the floor with his head battered in said the prosecutor that's horrible mitya shuddered and putting his elbows on the table hid his face in his right hand
disputes about money yes about money too there was a dispute about three thousand roubles i think which you claimed as part of your inheritance three thousand more more cried mitya hotly
more than six thousand more than ten perhaps i told every one so shouted it at them but i made up my mind to let it go at three thousand i was desperately in need of that three thousand so the bundle of notes for three thousand that i knew he kept under his pillow ready for grushenka
i considered as simply stolen from me yes gentlemen i looked upon it as mine as my own property the prosecutor looked significantly at the investigating lawyer and had time to wink at him on the sly
we will return to that subject later said the lawyer promptly you will allow us to note that point and write it down that you looked upon that money as your own property
you have to deal with a man of honor a man of the highest honor above all don't lose sight of it a man who's done a lot of nasty things but has always been and still is honorable at bottom in his inner being
i don't know how to express it that's just what's made me wretched all my life that i yearned to be honorable that i was so to say a martyr to a sense of honor
and yet all my life i've been doing filthy things like all of us gentlemen that is like me alone that was a mistake like me alone me alone gentlemen my head aches his brows contracted with pain
you see gentlemen i couldn't bear the look of him there was something in him ignoble impudent trampling on everything sacred something sneering and irreverent loathsome loathsome but now that he's dead
i feel differently how do you mean i don't feel differently but i wish i hadn't hated him so you feel penitent no not penitent don't write that
i'm not much good myself i'm not very beautiful so i had no right to consider him repulsive that's what i mean write that down if you like saying this mitya became very mournful he had grown more and more gloomy as the inquiry continued
at that moment another unexpected scene followed though grushenka had been removed she had not been taken far away only into the room next but one from the blue room in which the examination was proceeding
it was a little room with one window next beyond the large room in which they had danced and feasted so lavishly she was sitting there with no one by her but maximov who was terribly depressed terribly scared and clung to her side as though for security
at their door stood one of the peasants with a metal plate on his breast grushenka was crying and suddenly her grief was too much for her she jumped up flung up her arms and with a loud wail of sorrow rushed out of the room to him to her mitya
and so unexpectedly that they had not time to stop her mitya hearing her cry trembled jumped up and with a yell rushed impetuously to meet her not knowing what he was doing but they were not allowed to come together though they saw one another
he was seized by the arms he struggled and tried to tear himself away it took three or four men to hold him she was seized too and he saw her stretching out her arms to him crying aloud as they carried her away
when the scene was over he came to himself again sitting in the same place as before opposite the investigating lawyer and crying out to them what do you want with her why do you torment her she's done nothing nothing
the lawyers tried to soothe him about ten minutes passed like this at last mihail makarovitch who had been absent came hurriedly into the room and said in a loud and excited voice to the prosecutor
she's been removed she's downstairs will you allow me to say one word to this unhappy man gentlemen in your presence gentlemen in your presence by all means mihail makarovitch answered the investigating lawyer in the present case we have nothing against it
listen dmitri fyodorovitch my dear fellow began the police captain and there was a look of warm almost fatherly feeling for the luckless prisoner on his excited face i took your agrafena alexandrovna downstairs myself
she's a sensible girl my boy a good hearted girl she would have kissed my old hands begging help for you she sent me herself to tell you not to worry about her and i must go my dear fellow i must go and tell her that you are calm and comforted about her
i was unfair to her she is a christian soul gentlemen yes i tell you she's a gentle soul and not to blame for anything so what am i to tell her dmitri fyodorovitch will you sit quiet or not
the good natured police captain said a great deal that was irregular but grushenka's suffering a fellow creature's suffering touched his good natured heart and tears stood in his eyes
and yet she's proud and has done nothing how can i help adoring her how can i help crying out and rushing to her as i did just now gentlemen forgive me but now now i am comforted
and he sank back in his chair and covering his face with his hands burst into tears but they were happy tears he recovered himself instantly the old police captain seemed much pleased and the lawyers also
they felt that the examination was passing into a new phase when the police captain went out mitya was positively gay now gentlemen i am at your disposal entirely at your disposal
and if it were not for all these trivial details we should understand one another in a minute i'm at those details again i'm at your disposal gentlemen but i declare that we must have mutual confidence you in me and i in you
i speak in your interests to business gentlemen to business and don't rummage in my soul don't tease me with trifles but only ask me about facts and what matters and i will satisfy you at once and damn the details
and because he found all the other suburbs of dublin mean modern and pretentious he lived in an old sombre house and from his windows he could look into the disused distillery or upwards along the shallow river on which dublin is built
the lofty walls of his uncarpeted room were free from pictures he had himself bought every article of furniture in the room a black iron bedstead an iron washstand four cane chairs a clothes rack
a coal scuttle a fender and irons and a square table on which lay a double desk a bookcase had been made in an alcove by means of shelves of white wood the bed was clothed with white bedclothes and a black and scarlet rug covered the foot
a little hand mirror hung above the washstand and during the day a white shaded lamp stood as the sole ornament of the mantelpiece the books on the white wooden shelves were arranged from below upwards according to bulk
a complete wordsworth stood at one end of the lowest shelf and a copy of the maynooth catechism sewn into the cloth cover of a notebook stood at one end of the top shelf writing materials were always on the desk
in the desk lay a manuscript translation of hauptmann's michael kramer the stage directions of which were written in purple ink and a little sheaf of papers held together by a brass pin in these sheets a sentence was inscribed from time to time
and in an ironical moment the headline of an advertisement for bile beans had been pasted on to the first sheet on lifting the lid of the desk a faint fragrance escaped the fragrance of new cedarwood pencils or of a bottle of gum
or of an overripe apple which might have been left there and forgotten mister duffy abhorred anything which betokened physical or mental disorder a mediaeval doctor would have called him saturnine
his face which carried the entire tale of his years was of the brown tint of dublin streets on his long and rather large head grew dry black hair and a tawny moustache did not quite cover an unamiable mouth
his cheekbones also gave his face a harsh character but there was no harshness in the eyes which looking at the world from under their tawny eyebrows gave the impression of a man ever alert to greet a redeeming instinct in others
but often disappointed he lived at a little distance from his body regarding his own acts with doubtful side glances he had an odd autobiographical habit which led him to compose in his mind from time to time
a short sentence about himself containing a subject in the third person and a predicate in the past tense he never gave alms to beggars and walked firmly carrying a stout hazel
he had been for many years cashier of a private bank in baggot street every morning he came in from chapelizod by tram at midday he went to dan burke's and took his lunch a bottle of lager beer and a small trayful of arrowroot biscuits
at four o'clock he was set free he dined in an eating house in george's street where he felt himself safe from the society of dublin's gilded youth and where there was a certain plain honesty in the bill of fare
these were the only dissipations of his life he had neither companions nor friends church nor creed he lived his spiritual life without any communion with others visiting his relatives at christmas
and escorting them to the cemetery when they died he performed these two social duties for old dignity's sake but conceded nothing further to the conventions which regulate the civic life
but as these circumstances never arose his life rolled out evenly an adventureless tale one evening he found himself sitting beside two ladies in the rotunda the house thinly peopled and silent
gave distressing prophecy of failure the lady who sat next him looked round at the deserted house once or twice and then said what a pity there is such a poor house tonight it's so hard on people to have to sing to empty benches
he took the remark as an invitation to talk he was surprised that she seemed so little awkward while they talked he tried to fix her permanently in his memory when he learned that the young girl beside her was her daughter
he judged her to be a year or so younger than himself her face which must have been handsome had remained intelligent it was an oval face with strongly marked features the eyes were very dark blue and steady
their gaze began with a defiant note but was confused by what seemed a deliberate swoon of the pupil into the iris revealing for an instant a temperament of great sensibility the pupil reasserted itself quickly
this half disclosed nature fell again under the reign of prudence and her astrakhan jacket moulding a bosom of a certain fullness struck the note of defiance more definitely he met her again a few weeks afterwards at a concert in earlsfort terrace
and seized the moments when her daughter's attention was diverted to become intimate she alluded once or twice to her husband but her tone was not such as to make the allusion a warning her name was missus sinico
her husband's great great grandfather had come from leghorn her husband was captain of a mercantile boat plying between dublin and holland and they had one child meeting her a third time by accident he found courage to make an appointment
she came this was the first of many meetings they met always in the evening and chose the most quiet quarters for their walks together mister duffy however had a distaste for underhand ways
and finding that they were compelled to meet stealthily he forced her to ask him to her house captain sinico encouraged his visits thinking that his daughter's hand was in question he had dismissed his wife so sincerely from his gallery of pleasures
that he did not suspect that anyone else would take an interest in her as the husband was often away and the daughter out giving music lessons mister duffy had many opportunities of enjoying the lady's society
neither he nor she had had any such adventure before and neither was conscious of any incongruity
he entangled his thoughts with hers he lent her books provided her with ideas shared his intellectual life with her she listened to all sometimes in return for his theories she gave out some fact of her own life
with almost maternal solicitude she urged him to let his nature open to the full she became his confessor he told her that for some time he had assisted at the meetings of an irish socialist party
where he had felt himself a unique figure amidst a score of sober workmen in a garret lit by an inefficient oil lamp when the party had divided into three sections each under its own leader and in its own garret he had discontinued his attendances
the workmen's discussions he said were too timorous the interest they took in the question of wages was inordinate he felt that they were hard featured realists and that they resented an exactitude which was the produce of a leisure not within their reach
to compete with phrasemongers incapable of thinking consecutively for sixty seconds to submit himself to the criticisms of an obtuse middle class which entrusted its morality to policemen and its fine arts to impresarios
he went often to her little cottage outside dublin often they spent their evenings alone little by little as their thoughts entangled they spoke of subjects less remote
her companionship was like a warm soil about an exotic many times she allowed the dark to fall upon them refraining from lighting the lamp the dark discreet room their isolation
the music that still vibrated in their ears united them this union exalted him wore away the rough edges of his character emotionalised his mental life sometimes he caught himself listening to the sound of his own voice
insisting on the soul's incurable loneliness we cannot give ourselves it said we are our own the end of these discourses was that one night during which she had shown every sign of unusual excitement
as he did not wish their last interview to be troubled by the influence of their ruined confessional they met in a little cakeshop near the parkgate it was cold autumn weather but in spite of the cold they wandered up and down the roads of the park for nearly three hours
they agreed to break off their intercourse every bond he said is a bond to sorrow when they came out of the park they walked in silence towards the tram but here she began to tremble so violently
that fearing another collapse on her part he bade her good bye quickly and left her a few days later he received a parcel containing his books and music four years passed mister duffy returned to his even way of life
his room still bore witness of the orderliness of his mind some new pieces of music encumbered the music stand in the lower room and on his shelves stood two volumes by nietzsche thus spake zarathustra and the gay science
he wrote seldom in the sheaf of papers which lay in his desk one of his sentences written two months after his last interview with missus sinico read love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse
and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse he kept away from concerts lest he should meet her
unfortunately this happy state of affairs did not continue for long and our work was soon interrupted in a rude and startling manner two most voracious and insatiable man eating lions appeared upon the scene and for over nine months waged an intermittent warfare against the railway
and all those connected with it in the vicinity of tsavo this culminated in a perfect reign of terror in december eighteen ninety eight when they actually succeeded in bringing the railway works to a complete standstill for about three weeks
braved any danger in order to obtain their favourite food their methods then became so uncanny and their man stalking so well timed and so certain of success that the workmen firmly believed that they were not real animals at all but devils in lions shape
many a time the coolies solemnly assured me that it was absolutely useless to attempt to shoot them they were quite convinced that the angry spirits of two departed native chiefs had taken this form in order to protest against a railway being made through their country
and by stopping its progress to avenge the insult thus shown to them i had only been a few days at tsavo when i first heard that these brutes had been seen in the neighbourhood shortly afterwards one or two coolies mysteriously disappeared and i was told
that they had been carried off by night from their tents and devoured by lions at the time i did not credit this story and was more inclined to believe that the unfortunate men had been the victims of foul play at the hands of some of their comrades
they were as it happened very good workmen and had each saved a fair number of rupees so i thought it quite likely that some scoundrels from the gangs had murdered them for the sake of their money this suspicion however was very soon dispelled about three weeks after my arrival
i was roused one morning about daybreak and told that one of my jemadars a fine powerful sikh named ungan singh had been seized in his tent during the night and dragged off and eaten
naturally i lost no time in making an examination of the place and was soon convinced that the man had indeed been carried off by a lion as its pug marks were plainly visible in the sand while the furrows made by the heels of the victim showed the direction in which he had been dragged away
moreover the jemadar shared his tent with half a dozen other workmen and one of his bedfellows had actually witnessed the occurrence he graphically described how at about midnight the lion suddenly put its head in at the open tent door and seized ungan singh who
happened to be nearest the opening by the throat the unfortunate fellow cried out choro let go and threw his arms up round the lion's neck the next moment he was gone and his panic stricken companions lay helpless
forced to listen to the terrible struggle which took place outside poor ungan singh must have died hard but what chance had he as a coolie gravely remarked was he not fighting with a lion
on hearing this dreadful story i at once set out to try to track the animal and was accompanied by captain haslem who happened to be staying at tsavo at the time and who poor fellow himself met with a tragic fate very shortly afterwards
we found it an easy matter to follow the route taken by the lion as he appeared to have stopped several times before beginning his meal pools of blood marked these halting places where he doubtless indulged in the man eaters habit of licking the skin off
so as to get at the fresh blood i have been led to believe that this is their custom from the appearance of two half eaten bodies which i subsequently rescued the skin was gone in places and the flesh looked dry
as if it had been sucked on reaching the spot where the body had been devoured a dreadful spectacle presented itself the ground all round was covered with blood and morsels of flesh and bones
but the unfortunate jemadar's head had been left intact save for the holes made by the lion's tusks on seizing him and lay a short distance away from the other remains the eyes staring wide open with a startled horrified look in them
the place was considerably cut up and on closer examination we found that two lions had been there and had probably struggled for possession of the body it was the most gruesome sight i had ever seen
we collected the remains as well as we could and heaped stones on them
for it we did not bury but took back to camp for identification before the medical officer thus occurred my first experience of man eating lions and i vowed there and then that i would spare no pains to rid the neighbourhood of the brutes
i little knew the trouble that was in store for me or how narrow were to be my own escapes from sharing poor ungan singh's fate that same night i sat up in a tree close to the late jemadar's tent
hoping that the lions would return to it for another victim i was followed to my perch by a few of the more terrified coolies who begged to be allowed to sit up in the tree with me all the other workmen remained in their tents but no more doors were left open
and a twelve bore shot gun one barrel loaded with ball and the other with slug shortly after settling down to my vigil my hopes of bagging one of the brutes were raised by the sound of their ominous roaring coming closer and closer
presently this ceased and quiet reigned for an hour or two as lions always stalk their prey in complete silence all at once however we heard a great uproar and frenzied cries coming from another camp about half a mile away
we knew then that the lions had seized a victim there and that we should see or hear nothing further of them that night next morning i found that one of the brutes had broken into a tent at railhead camp whence we had heard the commotion during the night
and had made off with a poor wretch who was lying there asleep after a night's rest therefore i took up my position in a suitable tree near this tent
i felt fairly safe as one of my men carried a bright lamp close behind me he in his turn was followed by another leading a goat which i tied under my tree in the hope that the lion might be tempted to seize it instead of a coolie
and i was soon thoroughly chilled and wet i stuck to my uncomfortable post however hoping to get a shot but i well remember the feeling of impotent disappointment i experienced when about midnight i heard screams and cries and a heart rending shriek
which told me that the man eaters had again eluded me and had claimed another victim elsewhere at this time the various camps for the workmen were very scattered so that the lions had a range of some eight miles on either side of tsavo to work upon
and as their tactics seemed to be to break into a different camp each night it was most difficult to forestall them they almost appeared too to have an extraordinary and uncanny faculty of finding out our plans beforehand
so that no matter in how likely or how tempting a spot we lay in wait for them they invariably avoided that particular place and seized their victim for the night from some other camp
hunting them by day moreover in such a dense wilderness as surrounded us was an exceedingly tiring and really foolhardy undertaking in a thick jungle of the kind round tsavo the hunted animal has every chance against the hunter
as however careful the latter may be a dead twig or something of the sort is sure to crackle just at the critical moment and so give the alarm still i never gave up hope of some day finding their lair and accordingly continued to devote
all my spare time to crawling about through the undergrowth many a time when attempting to force my way through this bewildering tangle i had to be released by my gun bearer from the fast clutches of the wait a bit
after they had seized a victim only to lose the trail from there onwards owing to the rocky nature of the ground which they seemed to be careful to choose in retreating to their den
at this early stage of the struggle i am glad to say the lions were not always successful in their efforts to capture a human being for their nightly meal and one or two amusing incidents occurred to relieve the tension from which our nerves were beginning to suffer
on one occasion an enterprising bunniah indian trader was riding along on his donkey late one night when suddenly a lion sprang out on him knocking over both man and beast the donkey was badly wounded and the lion was just about to seize the trader
when in some way or other his claws became entangled in a rope by which two empty oil tins were strung across the donkey's neck the rattle and clatter made by these as he dragged them after him gave him such a fright
who quickly made his way up the nearest tree and remained there shivering with fear for the rest of the night shortly after this episode a greek contractor named themistocles pappadimitrini had an equally marvellous escape
he was sleeping peacefully in his tent one night when a lion broke in and seized and made off with the mattress on which he was lying though rudely awakened the greek was quite unhurt and suffered from nothing worse than a bad fright this same man however
met with a melancholy fate not long afterwards he had been to the kilima n'jaro district to buy cattle and on the return journey attempted to take a short cut across country to the railway but perished miserably of thirst on the way
on another occasion fourteen coolies who slept together in a large tent were one night awakened by a lion suddenly jumping on to the tent and breaking through it the brute landed with one claw on a coolie's shoulder which was badly torn
but instead of seizing the man himself in his hurry he grabbed a large bag of rice which happened to be lying in the tent and made off with it dropping it in disgust some little distance away when he realised his mistake
these however were only the earlier efforts of the man eaters later on as will be seen nothing flurried or frightened them in the least and except as food they showed a complete contempt for human beings having once marked down a victim
as yet nothing had come ten o'clock had sounded from saint merry enjolras and combeferre had gone and seated themselves carbines in hand near the outlet of the grand barricade they no longer addressed each other they listened seeking to catch even the faintest and most distant sound of marching
suddenly in the midst of the dismal calm a clear gay young voice which seemed to come from the rue saint denis rose and began to sing distinctly to the old popular air of by the light of the moon
en capote bleue la poule au shako
he is warning us said combeferre a hasty rush troubled the deserted street they beheld a being more agile than a clown climb over the omnibus and gavroche bounded into the barricade all breathless saying
my gun here they are an electric quiver shot through the whole barricade and the sound of hands seeking their guns became audible would you like my carbine said enjolras to the lad
and he seized javert's gun
they were the sentinels from the end of the street and the vidette of the rue de la petite truanderie
and halles the rue de la chanvrerie of which a few paving stones alone were dimly visible in the reflection of the light projected on the flag
offered to the insurgents the aspect of a vast black door vaguely opened into a smoke each man had taken up his position for the conflict forty three insurgents among whom were enjolras combeferre courfeyrac
with their heads on a level with the crest of the barrier the barrels of their guns and carbines aimed on the stones as though at loop holes attentive mute ready to fire six commanded by feuilly
had installed themselves with their guns levelled at their shoulders at the windows of the two stories of corinthe several minutes passed thus then a sound of footsteps measured heavy and numerous became distinctly audible in the direction of saint leu
this sound faint at first then precise then heavy and sonorous approached slowly without halt without intermission with a tranquil and terrible continuity nothing was to be heard but this
it was that combined silence and sound of the statue of the commander but this stony step had something indescribably enormous and multiple about it which awakened the idea of a throng and at the same time the idea of a spectre
this tread drew near it drew still nearer and stopped it seemed as though the breathing of many men could be heard at the end of the street nothing was to be seen however but at the bottom of that dense obscurity there could be distinguished a multitude of metallic threads
as fine as needles and almost imperceptible which moved about like those indescribable phosphoric networks which one sees beneath one's closed eyelids in the first mists of slumber at the moment when one is dropping off to sleep
these were bayonets and gun barrels confusedly illuminated by the distant reflection of the torch a pause ensued as though both sides were waiting all at once from the depths of this darkness a voice which was all the more sinister since no one was visible
and which appeared to be the gloom itself speaking shouted who goes there at the same time the click of guns as they were lowered into position was heard enjolras replied in a haughty and vibrating tone
the french revolution fire shouted the voice a flash empurpled all the facades in the street as though the door of a furnace had been flung open and hastily closed again
a fearful detonation burst forth on the barricade the red flag fell the discharge had been so violent and so dense
bullets which had rebounded from the cornices of the houses penetrated the barricade and wounded several men the impression produced by this first discharge was freezing the attack had been rough and of a nature to inspire reflection in the boldest
it was evident that they had to deal with an entire regiment at the very least comrades shouted courfeyrac let us not waste our powder let us wait until they are in the street before replying and above all said enjolras
let us raise the flag again he picked up the flag which had fallen precisely at his feet outside the clatter of the ramrods in the guns could be heard the troops were re loading their arms enjolras went on
who is there here with a bold heart who will plant the flag on the barricade again not a man responded to mount on the barricade at the very moment when without any doubt it was again the object of their aim was simply death the bravest hesitated to pronounce his own condemnation
enjolras himself felt a thrill he repeated does no one volunteer chapter two the flag act second
and as soon as he was addressed his lips became motionless and his eyes no longer had the appearance of being alive several hours before the barricade was attacked he had assumed an attitude which he did not afterwards abandon with both fists planted on his knees
and his head thrust forward as though he were gazing over a precipice
he started up abruptly crossed the room
his presence produced a sort of commotion in the different groups a shout went up it is the voter it is the member of the convention it is the representative of the people
it is probable that he did not hear them he strode straight up to enjolras the insurgents withdrawing before him with a religious fear he tore the flag from enjolras who recoiled in amazement
and then since no one dared to stop or to assist him this old man of eighty with shaking head but firm foot began slowly to ascend the staircase of paving stones arranged in the barricade this was so melancholy and so grand that all around him cried
off with your hats at every step that he mounted it was a frightful spectacle his white locks his decrepit face his lofty bald and wrinkled brow his amazed and open mouth his aged arm upholding the red banner rose through the gloom
and were enlarged in the bloody light of the torch and the bystanders thought that they beheld the spectre of ninety three emerging from the earth with the flag of terror in his hand
erect on that pile of rubbish in the presence of twelve hundred invisible guns
the whole barricade assumed amid the darkness a supernatural and colossal form there ensued one of those silences which occur only in the presence of prodigies in the midst of this silence the old man waved the red flag and shouted
long live the revolution long live the republic
like the murmur of a priest who is despatching a prayer in haste
fire said the voice a second discharge similar to the first rained down upon the barricade the old man fell on his knees then rose again dropped the flag and fell backwards on the pavement like a log at full length with outstretched arms
rivulets of blood flowed beneath him his aged head pale and sad seemed to be gazing at the sky one of those emotions which are superior to man which make him forget even to defend himself seized upon the insurgents
and they approached the body with respectful awe what men these regicides were said enjolras
then he raised his voice citizens this is the example which the old give to the young we hesitated he came we were drawing back he advanced this is what those who are trembling with age teach to those who tremble with fear
this aged man is august in the eyes of his country he has had a long life and a magnificent death now let us place the body under cover that each one of us may defend this old man dead as he would his father living
and may his presence in our midst render the barricade impregnable a murmur of gloomy and energetic assent followed these words enjolras bent down raised the old man's head and fierce as he was he kissed him on the brow
enjolras said to the spy it will be your turn presently during all this time little gavroche
jean prouvaire combeferre joly bahorel bossuet and all the rest ran tumultuously from the wine shop it was almost too late they saw a glistening density of bayonets undulating above the barricade
municipal guards of lofty stature were making their way in some striding over the omnibus others through the cut thrusting before them the urchin who retreated but did not flee the moment was critical
it was that first redoubtable moment of inundation when the stream rises to the level of the levee and when the water begins to filter through the fissures of dike
bahorel dashed upon the first municipal guard who was entering and killed him on the spot with a blow from his gun
the largest of all a sort of colossus marched on gavroche with his bayonet fixed the urchin took in his arms javert's immense gun levelled it resolutely at the giant and fired no discharge followed javert's gun was not loaded
the municipal guard burst into a laugh and raised his bayonet at the child before the bayonet had touched gavroche the gun slipped from the soldier's grasp a bullet had struck the municipal guardsman in the centre of the forehead and he fell over on his back
a second bullet struck the other guard who had assaulted courfeyrac in the breast and laid him low on the pavement
chapter four the barrel of powder marius still concealed in the turn of the rue mondetour had witnessed shuddering and irresolute the first phase of the combat
but he had not long been able to resist that mysterious and sovereign vertigo which may be designated as the call of the abyss in the presence of the imminence of the peril
that melancholy enigma in the presence of bahorel killed
of that child threatened of his friends to succor or to avenge
with his first shot he had saved gavroche and with the second delivered courfeyrac amid the sound of the shots amid the cries of the assaulted guards the assailants had climbed the entrenchment on whose summit municipal guards soldiers of the line
and national guards from the suburbs could now be seen gun in hand rearing themselves to more than half the height of their bodies they already covered more than two thirds of the barrier but they did not leap into the enclosure as though wavering in the fear of some trap
the light of the torch illuminated only their bayonets their bear skin caps and the upper part of their uneasy and angry faces marius had no longer any weapons he had flung away his discharged pistols after firing them
as he turned half round gazing in that direction a soldier took aim at him at the moment when the soldier was sighting marius a hand was laid on the muzzle of the gun and obstructed it this was done by some one who had darted forward the young workman in velvet trousers
the shot sped traversed the hand and possibly also the workman since he fell but the ball did not strike marius all this which was rather to be apprehended than seen through the smoke marius who was entering the tap room hardly noticed
still he had in a confused way perceived that gun barrel aimed at him and the hand which had blocked it and he had heard the discharge but in moments like this the things which one sees vacillate and are precipitated and one pauses for nothing
one feels obscurely impelled towards more darkness still and all is cloud the insurgents surprised but not terrified had rallied enjolras had shouted wait don't fire at random
in the first confusion they might in fact wound each other the majority of them had ascended to the window on the first story and to the attic windows whence they commanded the assailants the most determined
had proudly placed themselves with their backs against the houses at the rear unsheltered and facing the ranks of soldiers and guards who crowned the barricade all this was accomplished without haste with that strange and threatening gravity which precedes engagements they took aim
point blank on both sides they were so close that they could talk together without raising their voices when they had reached this point where the spark is on the brink of darting forth
fire replied enjolras the two discharges took place at the same moment and all disappeared in smoke an acrid and stifling smoke in which dying and wounded lay with weak dull groans when the smoke cleared away
the combatants on both sides could be seen to be thinned out but still in the same positions reloading in silence all at once a thundering voice was heard shouting
all turned in the direction whence the voice proceeded marius had entered the tap room and had seized the barrel of powder then he had taken advantage of the smoke and the sort of obscure mist which filled the entrenched enclosure to glide along the barricade
as far as that cage of paving stones where the torch was fixed to tear it from the torch to replace it by the barrel of powder to thrust the pile of stones under the barrel which was instantly staved in with a sort of horrible obedience
all this had cost marius but the time necessary to stoop and rise again and now all national guards municipal guards officers soldiers
his haughty face illuminated by a fatal resolution
where they could make out the broken barrel of powder and giving vent to that startling cry be off with you or i'll blow up the barricade marius on that barricade after the octogenarian was the vision of the young revolution after the apparition of the old
blow up the barricade said a sergeant and yourself with it marius retorted and myself also
but there was no longer any one on the barrier the assailants abandoning their dead and wounded flowed back pell mell and in disorder towards the extremity of the street and there were again lost in the night it was a headlong flight the barricade
was free chapter five end of the verses of jean prouvaire all flocked around marius courfeyrac flung himself on his neck here you are what luck said combeferre you came in opportunely ejaculated bossuet
marius asked where is the chief you are he said enjolras
produced on him the effect of being outside of him and of bearing him away it seemed to him that he was already at an immense distance from life his two luminous months of joy and love ending abruptly at that frightful precipice
himself the leader of the insurgents all these things appeared to him like a tremendous nightmare he was obliged to make a mental effort to recall the fact that all that surrounded him was real
marius had already seen too much of life not to know that nothing is more imminent than the impossible
he had looked on at his own drama as a piece which one does not understand
had not so much as moved his head during the whole of the attack on the barricade and who had gazed on the revolt seething around him with the resignation of a martyr and the majesty of a judge marius had not even seen him in the meanwhile the assailants did not stir
they could be heard marching and swarming through at the end of the street but they did not venture into it either because they were awaiting orders or because they were awaiting reinforcements before hurling themselves afresh on this impregnable redoubt
the insurgents had posted sentinels and some of them who were medical students set about caring for the wounded they had thrown the tables out of the wine shop with the exception of the two tables reserved for lint and cartridges and
and her servants on these mattresses they had laid the wounded as for the three poor creatures who inhabited corinthe no one knew what had become of them they were finally found however hidden in the cellar
a poignant emotion clouded the joy of the disencumbered barricade the roll was called one of the insurgents was missing and who was it one of the dearest one of the most valiant jean prouvaire
he was sought among the wounded he was not there he was sought among the dead he was not there he was evidently a prisoner combeferre said to enjolras they have our friend
we have their agent are you set on the death of that spy yes replied enjolras but less so than on the life of jean prouvaire
well resumed combeferre
to offer to exchange our man for theirs listen said enjolras laying his hand on combeferre's arm at the end of the street there was a significant clash of arms they heard a manly voice shout
they recognized the voice of prouvaire a flash passed a report rang out silence fell again they have killed him exclaimed combeferre enjolras glanced at javert and said to him
at the arizona cave it was dark when i opened my eyes again strange stiff garments were upon my body
i felt myself over from head to foot and from head to foot i was clothed
before me was a small patch of moonlit sky which showed through a ragged aperture as my hands passed over my body they came in contact with pockets and in one of these a small parcel of matches wrapped in oiled paper
one of these matches i struck and its dim flame lighted up what appeared to be a huge cave toward the back of which i discovered a strange still figure huddled over a tiny bench as i approached it
and mummified remains of a little old woman with long black hair and the thing it leaned over was a small charcoal burner upon which rested a round copper vessel containing a small quantity of greenish powder
behind her depending from the roof upon rawhide thongs and stretching entirely across the cave was a row of human skeletons from the thong which held them stretched another to the dead hand of the little old woman
as i touched the cord the skeletons swung to the motion with a noise as of the rustling of dry leaves it was a most grotesque and horrid tableau and i hastened out into the fresh air glad to escape from so gruesome a place
the sight that met my eyes as i stepped out upon a small ledge which ran before the entrance of the cave filled me with consternation a new heaven and a new landscape met my gaze
the silvered mountains in the distance the almost stationary moon hanging in the sky the cacti studded valley below me were not of mars
but the truth slowly forced itself upon me i was looking upon arizona from the same ledge from which ten years before i had gazed with longing upon mars burying my head in my arms i turned
did the vitalizing air reach the people of that distant planet in time to save them
or did her beautiful body lie cold in death beside the tiny golden incubator in the sunken garden
the jeddak of helium for ten years i have waited and prayed for an answer to my questions for ten years i have waited and prayed to be taken back to the world of my lost love i would rather lie dead beside her there
than live on earth all those millions of terrible miles from her the old mine which i found untouched has made me fabulously wealthy but what care i for wealth
as i sit here tonight in my little study overlooking the hudson just twenty years have elapsed since i first opened my eyes upon mars
and tonight she seems calling to me again as she has not called before since that long dead night and i think i can see across that awful abyss of space a beautiful black haired woman standing in the garden of a palace and at her side is a little boy who puts his arm around her
lost in the sky without effort at concealment i hastened to the vicinity of our quarters
as i neared the building i became more careful as i judged and rightly that the place would be guarded several men in civilian metal loitered near the front entrance and in the rear were others my only means of reaching
unseen the upper story where our apartments were situated was through an adjoining building and after considerable maneuvering i managed to attain the roof of a shop several doors away leaping from roof to roof
i soon reached an open window in the building where i hoped to find the heliumite and in another moment i stood in the room before him he was alone and showed no surprise at my coming saying he had expected me much earlier
as my tour of duty must have ended some time since i saw that he knew nothing of the events of the day at the palace and when i had enlightened him he was all excitement the news that dejah thoris had promised her hand to sab than
filled him with dismay it cannot be he exclaimed it is impossible why no man in all helium but would prefer death to the selling of our loved princess to the ruling house of zodanga
she must have lost her mind to have assented to such an atrocious bargain you who do not know how we of helium love the members of our ruling house cannot appreciate the horror with which i contemplate such an unholy alliance
what can be done john carter he continued you are a resourceful man can you not think of some way to save helium from this disgrace if i can come within sword's reach of sab than i answered
i can solve the difficulty in so far as helium is concerned but for personal reasons i would prefer that another struck the blow that frees dejah thoris kantos kan eyed me narrowly before he spoke
she knows it kantos kan and repulses me only because she is promised to sab than the splendid fellow sprang to his feet
and had the choice been left to me i could not have chosen a more fitting mate for the first princess of barsoom here is my hand upon your shoulder john carter and my word
for dejah thoris and for you this very night i shall try to reach his quarters in the palace how i asked you are strongly guarded and a quadruple force patrols the sky he bent his head in thought
a moment then raised it with an air of confidence i only need to pass these guards and i can do it he said at last
i fell upon it by chance one day as i was passing above the palace on patrol duty in this work it is required that we investigate any unusual occurrence we may witness and a face peering from the pinnacle of the high tower of the palace was to me most
unusual i therefore drew near and discovered that the possessor of the peering face was none other than sab than he was slightly put out at being detected and commanded me to keep the matter to myself explaining that the passage from the tower
led directly to his apartments and was known only to him if i can reach the roof of the barracks and get my machine i can be in sab than's quarters in five minutes but how am i to escape from this building guarded as you say it is
i asked there is usually but one man on duty there at night upon the roof go to the roof of this building kantos kan and wait me there
the building was an enormous one rearing its lofty head fully a thousand feet into the air but few buildings in zodanga were higher than these barracks though several topped it by a few hundred feet
the docks of the great battleships of the line standing some fifteen hundred feet from the ground while the freight and passenger stations of the merchant squadrons rose nearly as high it was a long climb up the face of the building and one fraught with much danger but
there was no other way and so i essayed the task the fact that barsoomian architecture is extremely ornate made the feat much simpler than i had anticipated since i found ornamental ledges and projections
which fairly formed a perfect ladder for me all the way to the eaves of the building here i met my first real obstacle the eaves projected nearly twenty feet from the wall to which i clung and though i encircled the great building i could find no opening through them
the top floor was alight and filled with soldiers engaged in the pastimes of their kind
there was one slight desperate chance and that i decided i must take it was for dejah thoris and no man has lived who would not risk a thousand deaths for such as she clinging to the wall with my feet
and one hand i unloosened one of the long leather straps of my trappings at the end of which dangled a great hook by which air sailors are hung to the sides and bottoms of their craft for various purposes of repair
and by means of which landing parties are lowered to the ground from the battleships i swung this hook cautiously
gently i pulled on it to strengthen its hold but whether it would bear the weight of my body i did not know it might be barely caught upon the very outer verge of the roof
so that as my body swung out at the end of the strap it would slip off and launch me to the pavement a thousand feet below an instant i hesitated and then releasing my grasp upon the supporting ornament i swung out into space at the end of the strap
far below me lay the brilliantly lighted streets the hard pavements and death there was a little jerk at the top of the supporting eaves
grating sound which turned me cold with apprehension then the hook caught and i was safe clambering quickly aloft i grasped the edge of the eaves and drew myself to the surface of the roof above
as i gained my feet i was confronted by the sentry on duty into the muzzle of whose revolver i found myself looking who are you and whence came you he cried
i am an air scout friend and very near a dead one for just by the merest chance i escaped falling to the avenue below i replied but how came you upon the roof man no one has landed or come up from the building for the past hour
quick explain yourself or i call the guard look you here sentry and you shall see how i came
i answered turning toward the edge of the roof where twenty feet below at the end of my strap hung all my weapons the fellow acting on impulse of curiosity stepped to my side and to his undoing
for as he leaned to peer over the eaves i grasped him by his throat and his pistol arm and threw him heavily to the roof the weapon dropped from his grasp and my fingers choked off his attempted cry for assistance i gagged and bound him
and then hung him over the edge of the roof as i myself had hung a few moments before i knew it would be morning before he would be discovered and i needed all the time that i could gain donning my trappings and weapons
i hastened to the sheds and soon had out both my machine and kantos kan's
i dove down into the streets of the city far below the plane usually occupied by the air patrol in less than a minute i was settling safely upon the roof of our apartment beside the astonished kantos kan
i lost no time in explanation but plunged immediately into a discussion of our plans for the immediate future
if successful he was then to follow me he set my compass for me a clever little device which will remain steadfastly fixed upon any given point on the surface of barsoom and bidding each other farewell we rose together
as we neared the high tower a patrol shot down from above
and a voice roared out a command to halt following with a shot as i paid no attention to his hail kantos kan dropped quickly into the darkness while i rose steadily
and later by a swift cruiser carrying a hundred men and a battery of rapid fire guns
i managed to elude their search lights most of the time but i was also losing ground by these tactics and so i decided to hazard everything on a straight away course and leave the result to fate and the speed of my machine
gradually i left my pursuers further and further behind and i was just congratulating myself on my lucky escape
the concussion nearly capsized her and with a sickening plunge she hurtled downward through the dark night
i must have been very close to the ground when i started to rise again as i plainly heard the squealing of animals below me rising again i scanned the heavens for my pursuers and finally making out their lights far behind me saw that they were landing
evidently in search of me not until their lights were no longer discernible did i venture to flash my little lamp upon my compass
and then i found to my consternation that a fragment of the projectile had utterly destroyed my only guide as well as my speedometer it was true i could follow the stars in the general direction of helium but without knowing the exact location of the city
or the speed at which i was traveling my chances for finding it were slim helium lies a thousand miles southwest of zodanga and with my compass intact i should have made the trip
as it turned out however morning found me speeding over a vast expanse of dead sea bottom after nearly six hours of continuous flight at high speed presently a great city showed below me but it was not helium
as that alone of all barsoomian metropolises consists in two immense circular walled cities
and west i turned back in a southeasterly direction
but none resembling the description which kantos kan had given me of helium
love making on mars following the battle with the air ships the community remained within the city for several days abandoning the homeward march until they could feel reasonably assured that the ships would not return
for to be caught on the open plains with a cavalcade of chariots and children was far from the desire of even so warlike a people as the green martians during our period of inactivity
tars tarkas had instructed me in many of the customs and arts of war familiar to the tharks including lessons in riding and guiding the great beasts which bore the warriors these creatures which are known as thoats are as dangerous and vicious as their masters but when once subdued
two of these animals had fallen to me from the warriors whose metal i wore and in a short time i could handle them quite as well as the native warriors the method was not at all complicated
they were dealt a terrific blow between the ears with the butt of a pistol and if they showed fight this treatment was continued until the brutes either were subdued or had unseated their riders
though upon some other beast if not his torn and mangled body was gathered up by his women and burned in accordance with tharkian custom
my experience with woola determined me to attempt the experiment of kindness in my treatment of my thoats first i taught them that they could not unseat me and even rapped them sharply between the ears to impress upon them my authority and mastery
i was ever a good hand with animals and by inclination as well as because it brought more lasting and satisfactory results i was always kind and humane in my dealings with the lower orders
i could take a human life if necessary with far less compunction than that of a poor
they would follow me like dogs rubbing their great snouts against my body in awkward evidence of affection and respond to my every command with an alacrity and docility which caused the martian warriors to ascribe to me the possession of some earthly power unknown on mars
asked tars tarkas one afternoon when he had seen me run my arm far between the great jaws of one of my thoats which had wedged a piece of stone between two of his teeth while feeding upon the moss like vegetation within our court yard
by kindness i replied you see tars tarkas the softer sentiments have their value even to a warrior in the height of battle as well as upon the march i know that my thoats will obey my every command
and therefore my fighting efficiency is enhanced and i am a better warrior for the reason that i am a kind master your other warriors would find it to the advantage of themselves as well as of the community to adopt my methods in this respect
only a few days since you yourself told me that these great brutes by the uncertainty of their tempers often were the means of turning victory into defeat since at a crucial moment they might elect to unseat and rend their riders
show me how you accomplish these results was tars tarkas only rejoinder and so i explained as carefully as i could the entire method of training i had adopted with my beasts and later he had me repeat it before lorquas ptomel and the assembled warriors
that moment marked the beginning of a new existence for the poor thoats
i had the satisfaction of observing a regiment of as tractable and docile mounts as one might care to see the effect on the precision and celerity of the military movements was so remarkable that lorquas ptomel presented me with a massive
anklet of gold from his own leg as a sign of his appreciation of my service to the horde on the seventh day following the battle with the air craft we again took up the march toward thark all probability of another attack being deemed remote
during the days just preceding our departure i had seen but little of dejah thoris
as well as in the training of my thoats the few times i had visited her quarters she had been absent walking upon the streets with sola or investigating the buildings in the near vicinity of the plaza
i had warned them against venturing far from the plaza for fear of the great white apes whose ferocity i was only too well acquainted with however since woola accompanied them on all their excursions and as sola was well armed
there was comparatively little cause for fear on the evening before our departure i saw them approaching along one of the great avenues which lead into the plaza from the east
i advanced to meet them and telling sola that i would take the responsibility for dejah thoris safekeeping i directed her to return to her quarters on some trivial errand i liked and trusted sola but for some reason i desired to be alone with dejah thoris
who represented to me all that i had left behind upon earth in agreeable and congenial companionship there seemed bonds of mutual interest between us as powerful as
that she shared my sentiments in this respect i was positive for on my approach the look of pitiful hopelessness left her sweet countenance to be replaced by a smile of joyful welcome
as she placed her little right hand upon my left shoulder in true red martian salute sarkoja told sola that you had become a true thark she said
notwithstanding the proud claim of the tharks to absolute verity dejah thoris laughed i knew that even though you became a member of the community you would not cease to be my friend a warrior may change his metal but not his heart as the saying is upon barsoom
i think they have been trying to keep us apart she continued for whenever you have been off duty one of the older women of tars tarkas retinue has always arranged to trump up some excuse to get sola and me out of sight
they have had me down in the pits below the buildings helping them mix their awful radium powder and make their terrible projectiles you know that these have to be manufactured by artificial light
their bullets explode when they strike an object well the opaque outer coating is broken by the impact exposing a glass cylinder almost solid in the forward end of which is a minute particle of radium powder
the moment the sunlight even though diffused strikes this powder it explodes with a violence which nothing can withstand if you ever witness a night battle you will note the absence of these explosions
i asked feeling the hot blood of my fighting ancestors leap in my veins as i awaited her reply only in little ways john carter she answered nothing that can harm me outside my pride
they know that i am the daughter of ten thousand jeddaks that i trace my ancestry straight back without a break to the builder of the first great waterway
at heart they hate their horrid fates and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for everything they have not and for all they most crave and never can attain let us pity them my chieftain
for even though we die at their hands we can afford them pity since we are greater than they and they know it
i should have had the surprise of my life but i did not know at that time nor for many months thereafter yes i still had much to learn upon barsoom i presume it is the better part of wisdom that we bow to our fate with as good grace as possible dejah thoris
but i hope nevertheless that i may be present the next time that any martian green red pink or violet has the temerity to even so much as frown on you my princess
and gazed upon me with dilated eyes and quickening breath
which brought roguish dimples to the corners of her mouth she shook her head and cried what a child a great warrior and yet a stumbling little child what have i done now i asked in sore perplexity
some day you shall know john carter if we live but i may not tell you and i
she soliloquized in conclusion then she broke out again into one of her gay happy laughing moods joking with me on my prowess as a thark warrior as contrasted with my soft heart and natural kindliness i presume
that should you accidentally wound an enemy you would take him home and nurse him back to health she laughed that is precisely what we do on earth i answered at least among civilized men this made her laugh again
she could not understand it for with all her tenderness and womanly sweetness she was still a martian and to a martian the only good enemy is a dead enemy for every dead foeman means so much more to divide between those who live
a moment before and so i continued to importune her to enlighten me no she exclaimed it is enough that you have said it and that i have listened and when you learn john carter and if i be dead
and that i smiled it was all greek to me but the more i begged her to explain the more positive became her denials of my request and so in very hopelessness i desisted
day had now given away to night and as we wandered along the great avenue lighted by the two moons of barsoom and with earth looking down upon us out of her luminous green eye it seemed that we were alone in the universe and i at least
was content that it should be so the chill of the martian night was upon us and removing my silks i threw them across the shoulders of dejah thoris as my arm rested for an instant upon her i felt a thrill pass through every fiber of my being
such as contact with no other mortal had even produced and it seemed to me that she had leaned slightly toward me but of that i was not sure only i knew that as my arm rested there across her shoulders
longer than the act of adjusting the silk required she did not draw away nor did she speak and so in silence we walked the surface of a dying world but in the breast of one of us at least had been born that
which is ever oldest yet ever new i loved dejah thoris the touch of my arm upon her naked shoulder had spoken to me in words i would not mistake
in submitting captain carter's strange manuscript to you in book form i believe that a few words relative to this remarkable personality will be of interest my first recollection of captain carter is of the few months
he spent at my father's home in virginia just prior to the opening of the civil war i was then a child of but five years
dark smooth faced athletic man whom i called uncle jack he seemed always to be laughing
and he entered into the sports of the children with the same hearty good fellowship he displayed toward those pastimes in which the men and women of his own age indulged
wild life in all parts of the world we all loved him and our slaves fairly worshipped the ground he trod he was a splendid specimen of manhood standing a good two inches over six feet broad of shoulder and narrow of hip
with the carriage of the trained fighting man his features were regular and clear cut his hair black and closely cropped while his eyes were of a steel gray reflecting a strong and loyal character filled with fire
and initiative his manners were perfect and his courtliness was that of a typical southern gentleman of the highest type his horsemanship especially after hounds was a marvel and delight
even in that country of magnificent horsemen i have often heard my father caution him against his wild recklessness but he would only laugh and say that the tumble that killed him would be from the back of a horse yet unfoaled
when the war broke out he left us nor did i see him again for some fifteen or sixteen years when he returned it was without warning and i was much surprised to note that he had not aged apparently a moment
the same genial happy fellow we had known of old but when he thought himself alone i have seen him sit for hours gazing off into space his face set in a look of wistful longing and hopeless misery and at night he would sit thus
looking up into the heavens at what i did not know until i read his manuscript years afterward he told us that he had been prospecting and mining in arizona part of the time since the war
and that he had been very successful was evidenced by the unlimited amount of money with which he was supplied
in fact he would not talk of them at all he remained with us for about a year and then went to new york where he purchased a little place on the hudson where i visited him once a year on the occasions of my trips to the new york market
my father and i owning and operating a string of general stores throughout virginia at that time captain carter had a small but beautiful cottage situated on a bluff overlooking the river and during one of my last visits in the winter of eighteen eighty five
i observed he was much occupied in writing i presume now upon this manuscript he told me at this time that if anything should happen to him he wished me to take charge of his estate
telling me i would find his will there and some personal instructions which he had me pledge myself to carry out with absolute fidelity after i had retired for the night
i have seen him from my window standing in the moonlight on the brink of the bluff overlooking the hudson with his arms stretched out to the heavens as though in appeal i thought at the time that he was praying
although i never understood that he was in the strict sense of the term a religious man several months after i had returned home from my last visit
i received a telegram from him asking me to come to him at once i had
and so i hastened to comply with his demand i arrived at the little station about a mile from his grounds on the morning of march fourth eighteen eighty six
if i was a friend of the captain's he had some very bad news for me the captain had been found dead shortly after daylight that very morning by the watchman attached to an adjoining property for some reason this news did not surprise me but
i hurried out to his place as quickly as possible so that i could take charge of the body and of his affairs i found the watchman who had discovered him together with the local police chief and several townspeople assembled in his little study
the watchman related the few details connected with the finding of the body
when he came upon it it lay he said stretched full length in the snow with the arms outstretched above the head toward the edge of the bluff and when he showed me the spot it flashed upon me that it was the identical one
where i had seen him on those other nights with his arms raised in supplication to the skies there were no marks of violence on the body and with the aid of a local physician the coroner's jury quickly reached a decision of death from heart failure
left alone in the study i opened the safe and withdrew the contents of the drawer in which he had told me i would find my instructions they were in part peculiar indeed
but i have followed them to each last detail as faithfully as i was able he directed that i remove his body to virginia without embalming and that he be laid in an open coffin within a tomb
which he previously had had constructed and which as i later learned
even in secrecy if necessary his property was left in such a way that i was to receive the entire income for twenty five years when the principal was to become mine
his further instructions related to this manuscript which i was to retain sealed and unread just as i found it for eleven years nor was i to divulge its contents until twenty one years after his death
a strange feature about the tomb where his body still lies is that the massive door is equipped with a single huge gold plated spring lock which can be opened only from the inside
he said missus linton was thrang and the master was not in zillah has told me something of the way they go on
she thinks catherine haughty and does not like her i can guess by her talk
and zillah willingly acquiesced being a narrow minded selfish woman catherine evinced a child's annoyance at this neglect repaid it with contempt and thus enlisted my informant among her enemies as securely as if she had done her some great wrong
i had a long talk with zillah about six weeks ago a little before you came
and this is what she told me the first thing missus linton did she said on her arrival at the heights was to run up stairs without even wishing good evening to me and joseph
her cousin was very ill we know that answered heathcliff but his life is not worth a farthing and i won't spend a farthing on him but i cannot tell how to do she said and if nobody will help me he'll die
walk out of the room cried the master and let me never hear a word more about him none here care what becomes of him if you do act the nurse if you do not lock him up and leave him then she began to bother me
we each had our tasks and hers was to wait on linton
i did pity her then i'm sure still i didn't wish to lose my place you know
tell mister heathcliff that his son is dying i'm sure he is this time get up instantly and tell him having uttered this speech she vanished again
and inform them that he wouldn't have that noise repeated i delivered catherine's message
afterwards he turned to her now catherine he said how do you feel she was dumb how do you feel catherine he repeated he's safe and i'm free she answered
i should feel well but she continued with a bitterness she couldn't conceal
i feel like death and she looked like it too i gave her a little wine
and heard our talk from outside now entered joseph was fain i believe of the lad's removal
well let her be till after the funeral and go up now and then to get her what is needful and as soon as she seems better tell me cathy stayed upstairs a fortnight according to zillah
the poor creature was threatened or coaxed into that act during her week's absence when his uncle died the lands being a minor he could not meddle with however mister heathcliff has claimed and kept them in his wife's right and his also
destitute of cash and friends cannot disturb his possession nobody said zillah ever approached her door except that once but i and nobody asked anything about her
joseph and i generally go to chapel on sundays the kirk you know has no minister now explained missus dean and they call the methodists or baptists place i can't say which it is at gimmerton a chapel
joseph had gone she continued but i thought proper to bide at home
i let him know that his cousin would very likely sit with us
he coloured up at the news and cast his eyes over his hands and clothes the train oil and gunpowder were shoved out of sight in a minute
so laughing as i durst not laugh when the master is by i offered to help him if he would
he grew sullen and began to swear now missus dean zillah went on seeing me not pleased by her manner
he was sure she was starved i've been starved a month and more she answered resting on the word as scornful as she could
she was instantly upon her feet again stretching to reach them
she held her frock and he filled it with the first that came to hand
she continued reading or seeking for something to read
her face he couldn't see and she couldn't see him and perhaps not quite awake to what he did but attracted like a child to a candle at last he proceeded from staring to touching he put out his hand and stroked one curl
she started round in such a taking get away this moment
she cried in a tone of disgust
i'm stalled of doing naught and i do like i could like to hear her
i said immediately he'd take it very kind he'd be much obliged she frowned and looking up answered mister hareton and the whole set of you
i despise you and will have nothing to say to any of you when i would have given my life for one kind word even to see one of your faces you all kept off but i won't complain to you i'm driven down here by the cold not either to amuse you or enjoy your society
how was i to blame oh you are an exception answered missus heathcliff i never missed such a concern as you but i offered more than once and asked he said kindling up at her pertness i asked mister heathcliff to let me wake for you be silent
ever since i've been as stiff as herself and she has no lover or liker among us and she does not deserve one
and as good as dares him to thrash her and the more hurt she gets the more venomous she grows at first on hearing this account from zillah i determined to leave my situation take a cottage and get catherine to come and live with me
and that scheme it does not come within my province to arrange thus ended missus dean's story notwithstanding the doctor's prophecy i am rapidly recovering strength and though it be only the second week in january
and riding over to wuthering heights to inform my landlord that i shall spend the next six months in london and if he likes he may look out for another tenant to take the place after october
chapter twenty two summer drew to an end and early autumn
mister linton and his daughter would frequently walk out among the reapers at the carrying of the last sheaves they stayed till dusk and the evening happening to be chill and damp my master caught a bad cold that settled obstinately on his lungs and confined him indoors throughout the whole of the winter
nearly without intermission poor cathy frightened from her little romance had been considerably sadder and duller since its abandonment
and then my society was obviously less desirable than his on an afternoon in october or the beginning of november a fresh watery afternoon when the turf and paths were rustling with moist withered leaves
and the cold blue sky was half hidden by clouds dark grey streamers rapidly mounting from the west and boding abundant rain
because i was certain of showers she refused and i unwillingly donned a cloak
a formal walk which she generally affected if low spirited
a thing never known from his confession but guessed both by her and me from his increased silence and the melancholy of his countenance she went sadly on there was no running or bounding now
and often from the side of my eye i could detect her raising a hand and brushing something off her cheek i gazed round for a means of diverting her thoughts on one side of the road rose a high rough bank
where hazels and stunted oaks with their roots half exposed held uncertain tenure the soil was too loose for the latter and strong winds had blown some nearly horizontal in summer miss catherine delighted to climb along these trunks
and sit in the branches swinging twenty feet above the ground and i pleased with her agility and her light childish heart still considered it proper to scold every time i caught her at such an elevation
from dinner to tea she would lie in her breeze rocked cradle doing nothing except singing old songs my nursery lore to herself or watching the birds joint tenants feed and entice their young ones to fly or nestling with closed lids
there's a little flower up yonder the last bud from the multitude of bluebells that clouded those turf steps in july with a lilac mist will you clamber up and pluck it to show to papa
trembling in its earthy shelter and replied at length
but it looks melancholy does it not ellen yes i observed
let us take hold of hands and run you're so low i daresay i shall keep up with you no she repeated and continued sauntering on
or a fungus spreading its bright orange among the heaps of brown foliage and ever and anon her hand was lifted to her averted face
be thankful it is nothing worse she now put no further restraint on her tears her breath was stifled by sobs oh it will be something worse she said
master is young and i am strong and hardly forty five my mother lived till eighty a canty dame to the last and suppose mister linton were spared till he saw sixty
but aunt isabella was younger than papa she remarked gazing up with timid hope to seek further consolation
i replied she wasn't as happy as master
and avoid giving him anxiety on any subject mind that cathy
i fret about nothing on earth except papa's illness
i care for nothing in comparison with papa and i'll never never oh never while i have my senses do an act or say a word to vex him i love him better than myself ellen and i know it by this i pray every night that i may live after him
because i would rather be miserable than that he should be that proves i love him better than myself good words i replied but deeds must prove it also
and as the door was locked she proposed scrambling down to recover it i bid her be cautious lest she got a fall and she nimbly disappeared but the return was no such easy matter the stones were smooth and neatly cemented
and the rose bushes and black berry stragglers could yield no assistance in re ascending i like a fool didn't recollect that till i heard her laughing and exclaiming you'll have to fetch the key or else i must run round to the porter's lodge
i can't scale the ramparts on this side stay where you are i answered
if not i'll go catherine amused herself with dancing to and fro before the door
i had applied the last and found that none would do so repeating my desire that she would remain there i was about to hurry home as fast as i could when an approaching sound arrested me it was the trot of a horse cathy's dance stopped also
who is that i whispered
whispered back my companion anxiously
and you hate both him and me and ellen says the same
said heathcliff he it was i don't hate my son i suppose and it is concerning him that i demand your attention yes you have cause to blush two or three months since were you not in the habit of writing to linton
you especially the elder and less sensitive as it turns out i've got your letters
i presume you grew weary of the amusement and dropped it didn't you well you dropped linton with it into a slough of despond he was in earnest in love really as true as i live he's dying for you breaking his heart at your fickleness
not figuratively but actually though hareton has made him a standing jest for six weeks and i have used more serious measures and attempted to frighten him out of his idiotcy he gets worse daily and he'll be under the sod before summer unless you restore him
how can you lie so glaringly to the poor child i called from the inside pray ride on how can you deliberately get up such paltry falsehoods miss cathy i'll knock the lock off with a stone you won't believe that vile nonsense
i was not aware there were eavesdroppers muttered the detected villain worthy missus dean i like you but i don't like your double dealing he added aloud
how could you lie so glaringly as to affirm i hated the poor child and invent bugbear stories to terrify her from my door stones catherine linton the very name warms me my bonny lass
i swear on my salvation he's going to his grave and none but you can save him the lock gave way and i issued out i swear linton is dying repeated heathcliff looking hard at me
and grief and disappointment are hastening his death nelly if you won't let her go you can walk over yourself but i shall not return till this time next week and i think your master himself would scarcely object to her visiting her cousin come in said i
for she lingered viewing with troubled eyes the features of the speaker too stern to express his inward deceit he pushed his horse close and bending down observed
i'll own to you that i have little patience with linton
i'll own that he's with a harsh set he pines for kindness as well as love and a kind word from you would be his best medicine don't mind missus dean's cruel cautions but be generous and contrive to see him
he dreams of you day and night and cannot be persuaded that you don't hate him since you neither write nor call i closed the door and rolled a stone to assist the loosened lock in holding it and spreading my umbrella
i drew my charge underneath for the rain began to drive through the moaning branches of the trees and warned us to avoid delay our hurry prevented any comment on the encounter with heathcliff as we stretched towards home but i divined instinctively
that catherine's heart was clouded now in double darkness her features were so sad they did not seem hers she evidently regarded what she had heard as every syllable true
he had fallen asleep she returned and asked me to sit with her in the library we took our tea together and afterwards she lay down on the rug and told me not to talk for she was weary i got a book and pretended to read
as soon as she supposed me absorbed in my occupation she recommenced her silent weeping it appeared at present her favourite diversion i suffered her to enjoy it a while then i expostulated
as if i were certain she would coincide alas i hadn't skill to counteract the effect his account had produced it was just what he intended you may be right ellen she answered but i shall never feel at ease till i know
and i must tell linton it is not my fault that i don't write and convince him that i shall not change what use were anger and protestations against her silly credulity we parted that night hostile but next day beheld me on the road to wuthering heights
by the side of my wilful young mistress's pony i couldn't bear to witness her sorrow to see her pale dejected countenance and heavy eyes
chapter thirty one yesterday was bright calm and frosty
my housekeeper entreated me to bear a little note from her to her young lady and i did not refuse
the front door stood open but the jealous gate was fastened as at my last visit
he unchained it and i entered the fellow is as handsome a rustic as need be seen i took particular notice of him this time but then he does his best apparently to make the least of his advantages
he answered no but he would be in at dinner time it was eleven o'clock and i announced my intention of going in and waiting for him at which he immediately flung down his tools and accompanied me in the office of watchdog not as a substitute for the host
we entered together catherine was there making herself useful in preparing some vegetables for the approaching meal she looked more sulky and less spirited than when i had seen her first she hardly raised her eyes to notice me
and continued her employment with the same disregard to common forms of politeness as before never returning my bow and good morning by the slightest acknowledgment she does not seem so amiable i thought as missus dean would persuade me to believe
she's a beauty it is true but not an angel
but she asked aloud what is that and chucked it off a letter from your old acquaintance the housekeeper at the grange i answered annoyed at her exposing my kind deed and fearful lest it should be imagined a missive of my own
she would gladly have gathered it up at this information
after struggling awhile to keep down his softer feelings pulled out the letter and flung it on the floor beside her as ungraciously as he could catherine caught and perused it eagerly then she put a few questions to me concerning the inmates rational and irrational
of her former home and gazing towards the hills murmured in soliloquy i should like to be riding minny down there i should like to be climbing up there oh i'm tired i'm stalled hareton and she leant her pretty head back against the sill with half a yawn and half a sigh
and lapsed into an aspect of abstracted sadness neither caring nor knowing whether we remarked her missus heathcliff i said after sitting some time mute you are not aware that i am an acquaintance of yours
my housekeeper never wearies of talking about and praising you
except that you received her letter and said nothing she appeared to wonder at this speech and asked does ellen like you yes very well i replied hesitatingly you must tell her she continued
that i would answer her letter but i have no materials for writing not even a book from which i might tear a leaf
if i may take the liberty to inquire though provided with a large library i'm frequently very dull at the grange take my books away and i should be desperate i was always reading when i had them said catherine and mister heathcliff never reads
and once hareton i came upon a secret stock in your room some latin and greek and some tales and poetry all old friends i brought the last here and you gathered them as a magpie gathers silver spoons for the mere love of stealing they are of no use to you
or else you concealed them in the bad spirit that as you cannot enjoy them nobody else shall perhaps your envy counselled mister heathcliff to rob me of my treasures but i've most of them written on my brain and printed in my heart and you cannot deprive me of those
earnshaw blushed crimson when his cousin made this revelation of his private literary accumulations and stammered an indignant denial of her accusations
he is not envious but emulous of your attainments he'll be a clever scholar in a few years and he wants me to sink into a dunce meantime answered catherine
and pretty blunders he makes i wish you would repeat chevy chase as you did yesterday it was extremely funny i heard you and i heard you turning over the dictionary to seek out the hard words
the young man evidently thought it too bad that he should be laughed at for his ignorance and then laughed at for trying to remove it i had a similar notion and remembering missus dean's anecdote of his first attempt at enlightening the darkness in which he had been reared i observed
we have each had a commencement and each stumbled and tottered on the threshold had our teachers scorned instead of aiding us we should stumble and totter yet oh she replied i don't wish to limit his acquirements still he has no right to appropriate what is mine
those books both prose and verse are consecrated to me by other associations and i hate to have them debased and profaned in his mouth
as if out of deliberate malice hareton's chest heaved in silence a minute
which it was no easy task to suppress i rose and from a gentlemanly idea of relieving his embarrassment took up my station in the doorway surveying the external prospect as i stood he followed my example and left the room but presently reappeared
i never want to hear or read or think of them again i won't have them now she answered i shall connect them with you and hate them she opened one that had obviously been often turned over and read a portion in the drawling tone of a beginner then laughed and threw it from her
and listen she continued provokingly commencing a verse of an old ballad in the same fashion but his self love would endure no further torment i heard and not altogether disapprovingly
the little wretch had done her utmost to hurt her cousin's sensitive though uncultivated feelings and a physical argument was the only mode he had of balancing the account and repaying its effects on the inflictor he afterwards gathered the books and hurled them on the fire
i read in his countenance what anguish it was to offer that sacrifice to spleen
he recalled the pleasure they had already imparted
and i fancied i guessed the incitement to his secret studies also he had been content with daily labour and rough animal enjoyments till catherine crossed his path shame at her scorn and hope of her approval were his first prompters to higher pursuits
and instead of guarding him from one and winning him to the other his endeavours to raise himself had produced just the contrary result yes that's all the good that such a brute as you can get from them cried catherine sucking her damaged lip and watching the conflagration with indignant eyes
naught naught he said and broke away to enjoy his grief and anger in solitude heathcliff gazed after him and sighed it will be odd if i thwart myself he muttered unconscious that i was behind him
but when i look for his father in his face i find her every day more how the devil is he so like i can hardly bear to see him he bent his eyes to the ground and walked moodily in
there was a restless anxious expression in his countenance i had never remarked there before and he looked sparer in person his daughter in law on perceiving him through the window immediately escaped to the kitchen so that i remained alone
oh indeed you're tired of being banished from the world are you he said but if you be coming to plead off paying for a place you won't occupy your journey is useless i never relent in exacting my due from any one i'm coming to plead off nothing about it i exclaimed
considerably irritated should you wish it i'll settle with you now and i drew my note book from my pocket no no he replied coolly you'll leave sufficient behind to cover your debts if you fail to return i'm not in such a hurry sit down and take your dinner with us
a guest that is safe from repeating his visit can generally be made welcome catherine bring the things in where are you catherine reappeared bearing a tray of knives and forks you may get your dinner with joseph muttered heathcliff aside
with mister heathcliff grim and saturnine on the one hand
what she was and where she was born he never informed us
every object she saw the moment she crossed the threshold appeared to delight her and every circumstance that took place about her except the preparing for the burial and the presence of the mourners i thought she was half silly from her behaviour while that went on
she ran into her chamber and made me come with her though i should have been dressing the children and there she sat shivering and clasping her hands and asking repeatedly
then she began describing with hysterical emotion the effect it produced on her to see black and started and trembled
but she felt so afraid of dying i imagined her as little likely to die as myself she was rather thin but young and fresh complexioned and her eyes sparkled as bright as diamonds i did remark to be sure
that mounting the stairs made her breathe very quick that the least sudden noise set her all in a quiver
but i knew nothing of what these symptoms portended
we don't in general take to foreigners here mister lockwood unless they take to us first
and spoke and dressed quite differently and on the very day of his return he told joseph and me we must thenceforth quarter ourselves in the back kitchen and leave the house for him
but his wife expressed such pleasure at the white floor and huge glowing fireplace at the pewter dishes and delf case and dog kennel and the wide space there was to move about in where they usually sat that he thought it unnecessary to her comfort and so dropped the intention
she expressed pleasure too at finding a sister among her new acquaintance and she prattled to catherine and kissed her and ran about with her and gave her quantities of presents at the beginning her affection tired very soon however and when she grew peevish
hindley became tyrannical a few words from her evincing a dislike to heathcliff were enough to rouse in him all his old hatred of the boy he drove him from their company to the servants deprived him of the instructions of the curate
so they kept clear of him he would not even have seen after their going to church on sundays
and catherine a fast from dinner or supper but it was one of their chief amusements to run away to the moors in the morning and remain there all day
the curate might set as many chapters as he pleased for catherine to get by heart and joseph might thrash heathcliff till his arm ached they forgot everything the minute they were together again at least the minute they had contrived some naughty plan of revenge
for fear of losing the small power i still retained over the unfriended creatures one sunday evening
where is miss catherine i cried hurriedly no accident i hope at thrushcross grange he answered
and while he undressed and i waited to put out the candle he continued
and getting a glimpse of the grange lights we thought we would just go and see whether the lintons passed their sunday evenings standing shivering in corners while their father and mother sat eating and drinking and singing and laughing
don't cant nelly he said nonsense we ran from the top of the heights to the park without stopping catherine completely beaten in the race because she was barefoot you'll have to seek for her shoes in the bog to morrow we crept through a broken hedge
and we saw ah it was beautiful a splendid place carpeted with crimson and crimson covered chairs and tables and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold
and shimmering with little soft tapers
and now guess what your good children were doing isabella i believe she is eleven a year younger than cathy lay screaming at the farther end of the room shrieking as if witches were running red hot needles into her edgar stood on the hearth weeping silently
and in the middle of the table sat a little dog shaking its paw and yelping which from their mutual accusations we understood they had nearly pulled in two between them the idiots that was their pleasure to quarrel who should hold a heap of warm hair
and each begin to cry because both after struggling to get it refused to take it we laughed outright at the petted things we did despise them when would you catch me wishing to have what catherine wanted
or find us by ourselves seeking entertainment in yelling and sobbing and rolling on the ground divided by the whole room
there was silence and then a cry oh mamma mamma oh papa oh mamma come here oh papa oh they really did howl out something in that way we made frightful noises to terrify them still more
i did though i vociferated curses enough to annihilate any fiend in christendom and i got a stone and thrust it between his jaws and tried with all my might to cram it down his throat a beast of a servant came up with a lantern at last shouting
keep fast skulker keep fast he changed his note however when he saw skulker's game the dog was throttled off his huge purple tongue hanging half a foot out of his mouth and his pendent lips streaming with bloody slaver the man took cathy up
she was sick not from fear i'm certain but from pain he carried her in i followed grumbling execrations and vengeance what prey robert hallooed linton from the entrance skulker has caught a little girl sir
he replied and there's a lad here he added making a clutch at me who looks an out and outer
that they might murder us at their ease hold your tongue you foul mouthed thief you you shall go to the gallows for this mister linton sir don't lay by your gun no no robert said the old fool the rascals knew that yesterday was my rent day
they thought to have me cleverly come in i'll furnish them a reception there john fasten the chain give skulker some water jenny to beard a magistrate in his stronghold and on the sabbath too where will their insolence stop oh my dear mary look here
don't be afraid it is but a boy yet the villain scowls so plainly in his face
he's exactly like the son of the fortune teller that stole my tame pheasant isn't he edgar while they examined me cathy came round she heard the last speech and laughed
collected sufficient wit to recognise her they see us at church you know though we seldom meet them elsewhere that's miss earnshaw he whispered to his mother and look how skulker has bitten her how her foot bleeds miss earnshaw
nonsense cried the dame miss earnshaw scouring the country with a gipsy and yet my dear the child is in mourning surely it is and she may be lamed for life what culpable carelessness in her brother
exclaimed mister linton turning from me to catherine i've understood from shielders that was the curate sir that he lets her grow up in absolute heathenism but who is this where did she pick up this companion oho
a little lascar or an american or spanish castaway a wicked boy at all events remarked the old lady and quite unfit for a decent house did you notice his language linton
i recommenced cursing don't be angry nelly and so robert was ordered to take me off i refused to go without cathy he dragged me into the garden pushed the lantern into my hand assured me that mister earnshaw should be informed of my behaviour
and bidding me march directly secured the door again
and i resumed my station as spy
i intended shattering their great glass panes to a million of fragments unless they let her out she sat on the sofa quietly missus linton took off the grey cloak of the dairy maid which we had borrowed for our excursion
shaking her head and expostulating with her i suppose she was a young lady and they made a distinction between her treatment and mine then the woman servant brought a basin of warm water and washed her feet and mister linton mixed a tumbler of negus
and isabella emptied a plateful of cakes into her lap and edgar stood gaping at a distance afterwards they dried and combed her beautiful hair
and wheeled her to the fire and i left her as merry as she could be dividing her food between the little dog and skulker whose nose she pinched as he ate and kindling a spark of spirit in the vacant blue eyes of the lintons a dim reflection from her own enchanting face
this little collection differs it is believed from others in the attempt made to include in it all the best original lyrical pieces and songs in our language by writers not living and none beside the best
many familiar verses will hence be met with many also which should be familiar the editor will regard as his fittest readers those who love poetry so well that he can offer them nothing not already known and valued
for those who take up the book in a serious and scholarly spirit the following remarks on the plan and the execution are added the editor is acquainted with no strict and exhaustive definition of lyrical poetry
but he has found the task of practical decision increase in clearness and in facility as he advanced with the work whilst keeping in view a few simple principles lyrical has been here held essentially to imply
that each poem shall turn on some single thought feeling or situation in accordance with this narrative descriptive and didactic poems unless accompanied by rapidity of movement
brevity and the colouring of human passion have been excluded humorous poetry except in the very unfrequent instances where a truly poetical tone pervades the whole
with what is strictly personal occasional and religious has been considered foreign to the idea of the book blank verse and the ten syllable couplet with all pieces markedly dramatic
have been rejected as alien from what is commonly understood by song and rarely conforming to lyrical conditions in treatment but it is not anticipated nor is it possible that all readers shall think the line accurately drawn
some poems as gray's elegy the allegro and penseroso wordsworth's ruth
might be claimed with perhaps equal justice for a narrative or descriptive selection whilst with reference especially to ballads and sonnets the editor can only state that he has taken his utmost pains to decide without caprice
or partiality this also is all he can plead in regard to a point even more liable to question what degree of merit should give rank among the best that a poem shall be worthy of the writer's genius
that it shall reach a perfection commensurate with its aim that we should require finish in proportion to brevity
unity or truth that a few good lines do not make a good poem that popular estimate is serviceable as a guidepost more than as a compass above all that excellence should be looked for
rather in the whole than in the parts such and other such canons have been always steadily regarded he may however add that the pieces chosen and a far larger number rejected
have been carefully and repeatedly considered and that he has been aided throughout by two friends of independent and exercised judgment besides the distinguished person addressed in the dedication it is hoped that by this procedure
the volume has been freed from that one sidedness which must beset individual decisions but for the final choice the editor is alone responsible chalmers vast collection with the whole works of all accessible poets
not contained in it and the best anthologies of different periods have been twice systematically read through and it is hence improbable that any omissions which may be regretted are due to oversight
the poems are printed entire except in a very few instances specified in the notes where a stanza has been omitted the omissions have been risked only when the piece could be thus brought to a closer lyrical unity
and as essentially opposed to this unity extracts obviously such are excluded in regard to the text the purpose of the book has appeared to justify the choice of the most poetical version
wherever more than one exists and much labour has been given to present each poem in disposition spelling and punctuation to the greatest advantage in the arrangement the most poetically effective order has been attempted
the english mind has passed through phases of thought and cultivation so various and so opposed during these three centuries of poetry that a rapid passage between old and new
like rapid alteration of the eye's focus in looking at the landscape will always be wearisome and hurtful to the sense of beauty the poems have been therefore distributed into books corresponding
to the ninety years closing about sixteen sixteen two thence to seventeen hundred three to eighteen hundred
or looking at the poets who more or less give each portion its distinctive character they might be called the books of shakespeare milton gray and wordsworth the volume in this respect
so far as the limitations of its range allow accurately reflects the natural growth and evolution of our poetry a rigidly chronological sequence however rather fits a collection aiming at instruction than at pleasure
and the wisdom which comes through pleasure within each book the pieces have therefore been arranged in gradations of feeling or subject the development of the symphonies of mozart and beethoven
has been here thought of as a model and nothing placed without careful consideration and it is hoped that the contents of this anthology will thus be found to present a certain unity as episodes in the noble language of shelley
to that great poem which all poets like the co operating thoughts of one great mind have built up since the beginning of the world as he closes his long survey the editor trusts he may add without egotism
that he has found the vague general verdict of popular fame more just than those have thought who with too severe a criticism would confine judgments on poetry to the selected few of many generations
not many appear to have gained reputation without some gift or performance that in due degree deserved it and if no verses by certain writers who show less strength than sweetness
or more thought than mastery in expression are printed in this volume it should not be imagined that they have been excluded without much hesitation and regret far less that they have been slighted
throughout this vast and pathetic array of singers now silent few have been honoured with the name poet
a sympathy with beauty a tenderness of feeling or seriousness in reflection which render their works although never perhaps attaining that loftier and finer excellence here required better worth reading than
much of what fills the scanty hours that most men spare for self improvement or for pleasure in any of its more elevated and permanent forms and if this be true of even mediocre poetry for how much more are we indebted to the best
the magic of this art can confer on each period of life its appropriate blessing on early years experience on maturity calm on age youthfulness poetry gives treasures more golden than gold
leading us in higher and healthier ways than those of the world and interpreting to us the lessons of nature
come away come away hark to the summons come in your war array gentles and commons come from deep glen and from mountain so rocky the war pipe and pennon
are at inverlochy come every hill plaid and true heart that wears one come every steel blade and strong hand that bears one leave untended the herd the flock without shelter
leave the corpse uninterr'd the bride at the altar leave the deer leave the steer leave nets and barges come with your fighting gear broadswords and targes
come as the winds come when forests are rended come as the waves come when navies are stranded faster come faster come faster and faster chief vassal page and groom
tenant and master fast they come fast they come see how they gather wide waves the eagle plume blended with heather cast your plaids draw your blades
forward each man set pibroch of donuil dhu knell for the onset sir w scott
a wet sheet and a flowing sea a wind that follows fast and fills the white and rustling sail and bends the gallant mast and bends the gallant mast my boys
while like the eagle free away the good ship flies and leaves old england on the lee o for a soft and gentle wind i heard a fair one cry
but give to me the snoring breeze and white waves heaving high and white waves heaving high my lads the good ship tight and free
the world of waters is our home and merry men are we there's tempest in yon horned moon and lightning in yon cloud but hark the music mariners the wind is piping loud
while the hollow oak our palace is our heritage the sea a cunningham
ye mariners of england that guard our native seas whose flag has braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze your glorious standard launch again to match another foe
and sweep through the deep while the stormy winds do blow while the battle rages loud and long and the stormy winds do blow the spirits of your fathers shall start from every wave
for the deck it was their field of fame and ocean was their grave where blake and mighty nelson fell your manly hearts shall glow as ye sweep through the deep
while the stormy winds do blow while the battle rages loud and long and the stormy winds do blow
with thunders from her native oak she quells the floods below as they roar on the shore when the stormy winds do blow when the battle rages loud and long and the stormy winds do blow
the meteor flag of england shall yet terrific burn till danger's troubled night depart and the star of peace return then then ye ocean warriors
our song and feast shall flow to the fame of your name when the storm has ceased to blow when the fiery fight is heard no more and the storm has ceased to blow t campbell
battle of the baltic of nelson and the north sing the glorious day's renown when to battle fierce came forth all the might of denmark's crown
and her arms along the deep proudly shone by each gun the lighted brand in a bold determined hand and the prince of all the land led them on
like leviathans afloat lay their bulwarks on the brine while the sign of battle flew on the lofty british line it was ten of april morn by the chime
as they drifted on their path there was silence deep as death and the boldest held his breath for a time but the might of england flush'd to anticipate the scene
and her van the fleeter rush'd o'er the deadly space between hearts of oak our captains cried when each gun from its adamantine lips spread a death shade round the ships
like the hurricane eclipse of the sun again again again and the havoc did not slack till a feeble cheer the dane to our cheering sent us back
their shots along the deep slowly boom then ceased and all is wail as they strike the shatter'd sail
light the gloom out spoke the victor then as he hail'd them o'er the wave ye are brothers ye are men and we conquer but to save so peace instead of death let us bring
but yield proud foe thy fleet with the crews at england's feet and make submission meet to our king then denmark blest our chief
from her people wildly rose as death withdrew his shades from the day while the sun look'd smiling bright o'er a wide and woeful sight where the fires of funeral light
died away now joy old england raise for the tidings of thy might by the festal cities blaze whilst the wine cup shines in light and yet amidst that joy and uproar
let us think of them that sleep full many a fathom deep by thy wild and stormy steep elsinore brave hearts to britain's pride once so faithful and so true
on the deck of fame that died with the gallant good riou soft sigh the winds of heaven o'er their grave while the billow mournful rolls
and the mermaid's song condoles singing glory to the souls of the brave t campbell
ode to duty stern daughter of the voice of god o duty if that name thou love who art a light to guide a rod to check the erring and reprove
thou who art victory and law when empty terrors overawe from vain temptations dost set free
there are who ask not if thine eye
where no misgiving is rely upon the genial sense of youth glad hearts without reproach or blot who do thy work and know it not
oh if through confidence misplaced they fail thy saving arms dread power around them cast serene will be our days and bright and happy will our nature be
when love is an unerring light and joy its own security and they a blissful course may hold
live in the spirit of this creed yet find that other strength according to their need i loving freedom and untried no sport of every random gust
yet being to myself a guide too blindly have reposed my trust and oft when in my heart was heard thy timely mandate i deferr'd
the task in smoother walks to stray but thee i now would serve more strictly if i may through no disturbance of my soul or strong compunction in me wrought
i supplicate for thy controul but in the quietness of thought
i feel the weight of chance desires my hopes no more must change their name i long for a repose which ever is the same stern lawgiver yet thou dost wear
as is the smile upon thy face flowers laugh before thee on their beds and fragrance in thy footing treads thou dost preserve the stars from wrong
and the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong to humbler functions awful power i call thee i myself commend unto thy guidance from this hour
o let my weakness have an end give unto me made lowly wise the spirit of self sacrifice the confidence of reason give and in the light of truth thy bondman
let me live w wordsworth
on the castle of chillon
brightest in dungeons liberty thou art
the heart which love of thee alone can bind and when thy sons to fetters are consign'd to fetters and the damp vault's dayless gloom their country conquers with their martyrdom
and freedom's fame finds wings on every wind chillon thy prison is a holy place and thy sad floor an altar for twas trod until his very steps have left a trace
worn as if thy cold pavement were a sod by bonnivard may none those marks efface for they appeal from tyranny to god lord byron
one of the mountains each a mighty voice in both from age to age thou didst rejoice they were thy chosen music liberty there came a tyrant and with holy glee
thou fought'st against him but hast vainly striven thou from thy alpine holds at length are driven where not a torrent murmurs heard by thee
of one deep bliss thine ear hath been bereft then cleave o cleave to that which still is left for high soul'd maid what sorrow would it be
one hundred ninety five the flight of love when the lamp is shatter'd the light in the dust lies dead when the cloud is scatter'd the rainbow's glory is shed when the lute is broken
sweet tones are remember'd not when the lips have spoken loved accents are soon forgot as music and splendour survive not the lamp and the lute the heart's echoes render
no song when the spirit is mute no song but sad dirges
when hearts have once mingled love first leaves the well built nest the weak one is singled to endure what it once possest o love who bewailest the frailty of all things here
why choose you the frailest for your cradle your home and your bier its passions will rock thee as the storms rock the ravens on high
bright reason will mock thee like the sun from a wintry sky from thy nest every rafter
can lend an hour of cheering disease had been in mary's bower and slow decay from mourning though now she sits on neidpath's tower to watch her love's returning
all sunk and dim her eyes so bright her form decay'd by pining till through her wasted hand at night you saw the taper shining by fits a sultry hectic hue
across her cheek was flying by fits so ashy pale she grew her maidens thought her dying yet keenest powers to see and hear seem'd in her frame residing
before the watch dog prick'd his ear she heard her lover's riding ere scarce a distant form was kenn'd she knew and waved to greet him and o'er the battlement did bend as on the wing to meet him
her welcome spoke in faltering phrase lost in his courser's prancing the castle arch whose hollow tone returns each whisper spoken could scarcely catch the feeble moan
she's at the window many an hour his coming to discover and he look'd up to ellen's bower and she look'd on her lover but ah so pale he knew her not
and am i then forgot forgot it broke the heart of ellen in vain he weeps in vain he sighs her cheek is cold as ashes
nor love's own kiss shall wake those eyes to lift their silken lashes t campbell one hundred ninety eight bright star would i were steadfast as thou art
not in lone splendour hung aloft the night and watching with eternal lids apart like nature's patient sleepless eremite the moving waters at their priestlike task
of pure ablution round earth's human shores
no yet still steadfast still unchangeable pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast to feel for ever its soft fall and swell awake for ever in a sweet unrest
still still to hear her tender taken breath and so live ever or else swoon to death
one hundred ninety nine the terror of death when i have fears that i may cease to be before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain
before high piled books in charact'ry hold like rich garners the full ripen'd grain when i behold upon the night's starr'd face huge cloudy symbols of a high romance
and think that i may never live to trace their shadows with the magic hand of chance
that i shall never look upon thee more never have relish in the fairy power of unreflecting love then on the shore of the wide world i stand alone and think till love and fame
to nothingness do sink j keats two hundred desideria surprized by joy impatient as the wind i turn'd to share the transport oh with whom
but thee deep buried in the silent tomb that spot which no vicissitude can find love faithful love recall'd thee to my mind but how could i forget thee through what power
even for the least division of an hour have i been so beguiled as to be blind to my most grievous loss that thought's return was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore save one
one only when i stood forlorn knowing my heart's best treasure was no more that neither present time nor years unborn could to my sight that heavenly face restore w wordsworth
at the mid hour of night when stars are weeping i fly to the lone vale we loved when life shone warm in thine eye and i think oft if spirits can steal from the regions of air
to revisit past scenes of delight thou wilt come to me there and tell me our love is remember'd even in the sky then i sing the wild song it once was rapture to hear
when our voices commingling breathed like one on the ear and as echo far off through the vale my sad orison rolls i think o my love tis thy voice from the kingdom of souls
faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear t moore
elegy on thyrza and thou art dead as young and fair as aught of mortal birth and forms so soft and charms so rare too soon return'd to earth though earth received them in her bed
the crowd may tread in carelessness or mirth
nor gaze upon the spot there flowers and weeds at will may grow so i behold them not it is enough for me to prove that what i loved and long must love like common earth can rot
to me there needs no stone to tell tis nothing that i loved so well yet did i love thee to the last as fervently as thou
who didst not change through all the past and canst not alter now the love where death has set his seal nor age can chill nor rival steal nor falsehood disavow
and what were worse thou canst not see or wrong or change or fault in me the better days of life were ours the worst can be but mine
the sun that cheers the storm that lours shall never more be thine the silence of that dreamless sleep i envy now too much to weep
that all those charms have pass'd away i might have watch'd through long decay the flower in ripen'd bloom unmatch'd must fall the earliest prey
though by no hand untimely snatch'd the leaves must drop away and yet it were a greater grief to watch it withering leaf by leaf than see it pluck'd to day
since earthly eye but ill can bear to trace the change from foul to fair i know not if i could have borne to see thy beauties fade the night that follow'd such a morn
had worn a deeper shade thy day without a cloud hath past and thou wert lovely to the last extinguish'd not decay'd as stars that shoot along the sky
shine brightest as they fall from high as once i wept if i could weep my tears might well be shed to think i was not near to keep
to gaze how fondly on thy face to fold thee in a faint embrace uphold thy drooping head
nor thou nor i can feel again yet how much less it were to gain though thou hast left me free the loveliest things that still remain than thus remember thee
the all of thine that cannot die through dark and dread eternity returns again to me and more thy buried love endears than aught except its living years lord byron
one word is too often profaned for me to profane it one feeling too falsely disdain'd for thee to disdain it one hope is too like despair for prudence to smother
i can give not what men call love but wilt thou accept not the worship the heart lifts above and the heavens reject not the desire of the moth for the star
of the night for the morrow the devotion to something afar from the sphere of our sorrow
those who have taken upon them to lay down the law of nature as a thing already searched out and understood
for as they have been successful in inducing belief so they have been effective in quenching and stopping inquiry and have done more harm by spoiling and putting an end to other men's efforts
than good by their own those on the other hand who have taken a contrary course and asserted that absolutely nothing can be known whether it were from hatred of the ancient sophists or from
uncertainty and fluctuation of mind or even from a kind of fulness of learning that they fell upon this opinion have certainly advanced reasons for it that are not to be despised but yet
they have neither started from true principles nor rested in the just conclusion zeal and affectation having carried them much too far the more ancient of the greeks whose writings are lost
a position between these two extremes
and the despair of comprehending anything
and the obscurity of things and like impatient horses champing the bit
thinking it seems that this very question viz whether or no anything can be known
but by trying and yet they too
but made everything turn upon hard thinking and perpetual working and exercise of the mind now my method
and it is this i propose to establish progressive stages of certainty the evidence of the sense helped and guarded by a certain process of correction i retain
but the mental operation which follows the act of sense i for the most part reject and instead of it i open and lay out a new and certain path for the mind to proceed in
starting directly from the simple sensuous perception the necessity of this was felt no doubt by those who attributed so much importance to logic showing thereby
that they were in search of helps for the understanding and had no confidence in the native and spontaneous process of the mind but this remedy comes too late to do any good
when the mind is already through the daily intercourse and conversation of life
and beset on all sides by vain imaginations and therefore that art of logic coming as i said too late to the rescue and no way able to set matters right again
has had the effect of fixing errors rather than disclosing truth there remains but one course for the recovery of a sound and healthy condition namely
that the entire work of the understanding be commenced afresh and the mind itself be from the very outset not left to take its own course but guided at every step and the business be done
as if by machinery certainly if in things mechanical men had set to work with their naked hands
very small would the matters have been which even with their best efforts applied in conjunction they could have attempted or accomplished now to pause while upon this example
and look in it as in a glass let us suppose that some vast obelisk were for the decoration of a triumph or some such magnificence to be removed from its place
and that men should set to work upon it with their naked hands would not any sober spectator think them mad and if they should then send for more people thinking that in that way they might manage it
would he not think them all the madder and if they then proceeded to make a selection putting away the weaker hands and using only the strong and vigorous would he not think them madder than ever
and if lastly not content with this they resolved to call in aid the art of athletics and required all their men to come with hands arms and sinews well anointed and medicated
according to the rules of art would he not cry out that they were
yet just so it is that men proceed in matters intellectual with just the same kind of mad effort and useless combination of forces when they hope great things
either from the number and cooperation or from the excellency and acuteness of individual wits yea and when they endeavour by logic which may be considered as a kind of athletic art
to strengthen the sinews of the understanding and yet with all this study and endeavour it is apparent to any true judgment
whereas in every great work to be done by the hand of man it is manifestly impossible without instruments or machinery either for the strength of each to be exerted or the strength of all to be united
upon these premises two things occur to me of which that they may not be overlooked i would have men reminded first it falls out fortunately as i think
for the allaying of contradictions and heart burnings that the honour and reverence due to the ancients remains untouched and undiminished
while i may carry out my designs and at the same time reap the fruit of my modesty for if i should profess that i
there must needs have been some comparison or rivalry between us not to be avoided by any art of words in respect of excellency or ability of wit
and though in this there would be nothing unlawful or new for if there be anything misapprehended by them or falsely laid down why may not i using a liberty common to all
take exception to it yet the contest however just and allowable would have been an unequal one perhaps in respect of the measure of my own powers as it is however
my object being to open a new way for the understanding a way by them untried and unknown the case is altered party zeal and emulation are at an end and i appear
merely as a guide to point out the road an office of small authority
and thus much relates to the persons only the other point of which i would have men reminded relates to the matter itself be it remembered then
that i am far from wishing to interfere with the philosophy which now flourishes or with any other philosophy more correct and complete than this which has been or may hereafter be propounded
for i do not object to the use of this received philosophy or others like it
or ornaments for discourse for the professor's lecture and for the business of life nay more i declare openly that for these uses the philosophy which i bring forward will not be much available
it does not lie in the way it cannot be caught up in passage it does not flatter the understanding by conformity with preconceived notions nor will it come down to the apprehension of the vulgar
except by its utility and effects let there be therefore and may it be for the benefit of both two streams and two dispensations of knowledge and in like manner
two tribes or kindreds of students in philosophy tribes not hostile or alien to each other but bound together by mutual services
let there in short be one method for the cultivation another for the invention of knowledge and for those who prefer the former either from hurry or from considerations of business
or for want of mental power to take in and embrace the other which must needs be most men's case i wish that they may succeed to their desire in what they are about and obtain what they are pursuing
but if any man there be who not content to rest in and use the knowledge which has already been discovered
not an adversary in argument but nature in action to seek not pretty and probable conjectures but certain and demonstrable knowledge
i invite all such to join themselves as true sons of knowledge with me that passing by the outer courts of nature which numbers have trodden
we may find a way at length into her inner chambers and to make my meaning clearer
i have chosen to call one of these methods or ways anticipation of the mind the other interpretation of nature moreover i have one request to make
i have on my own part made it my care and study
should not only be true
preoccupied and obstructed in a manner not harsh or unpleasant it is but reasonable however especially in so great a restoration
of learning and knowledge that i should claim of men one favour in return which is this if any one would form an opinion or judgment either out of his own observation
or out of the crowd of authorities or out of the forms of demonstration which have now acquired a sanction like that of judicial laws concerning these speculations of mine
let him not hope that he can do it in passage or by the by but let him examine the thing thoroughly
of the way which i describe and lay out let him familiarise his thoughts with that subtlety of nature to which experience bears witness let him correct by seasonable patience and due delay
the depraved and deep rooted habits of his mind
is always really and essentially only negative and never positive it is not an original gratification coming to us of itself but must always be the satisfaction of a wish the wish
is the condition which precedes every pleasure but with the satisfaction the wish and therefore the pleasure cease thus the satisfaction or the pleasing can never be more than the deliverance from a pain from a want
for such is not only every actual open sorrow but every desire the importunity of which disturbs our peace and indeed the deadening ennui also that makes life a burden to us it is however
difficulties and troubles without end are opposed to every purpose and at every step hindrances accumulate but when finally everything is overcome and attained nothing can ever be gained
but deliverance from some sorrow or desire so that we find ourselves just in the same position as we occupied before this sorrow or desire appeared all that is even directly given us
the satisfaction and the pleasure we can only know indirectly through the remembrance of the preceding suffering and want which ceases with its appearance hence it arises that we are not properly conscious of the blessings and advantages we actually possess
nor do we prize them but think of them merely as a matter of course for they gratify us only negatively by restraining suffering
only when we have lost them do we become sensible of their value for the want the privation the sorrow is the positive communicating itself directly to us
that just on this account it cannot be lasting satisfaction and gratification but merely delivers us from some pain or want which must be followed either by a new pain or by languor empty longing and ennui
and especially in poetry every epic and dramatic poem can only represent a struggle an effort and fight for happiness never enduring and complete happiness itself it conducts its heroes through a thousand difficulties and dangers to the goal
as soon as this is reached it hastens to let the curtain fall for now there would remain nothing for it to do but to show that the glittering goal in which the hero expected to find happiness had only disappointed him and that
after its attainment he was no better off than before because a genuine enduring happiness is not possible it cannot be the subject of art
but one also sees that the idyll as such cannot continue the poet always finds that it either becomes epical in his hands
this is the commonest case or else it becomes a merely descriptive poem
pure knowing free from will which certainly as a matter of fact is the only pure happiness which is neither preceded by suffering or want nor necessarily followed by repentance sorrow emptiness or satiety
what we see in poetry we find again in music in the melodies of which we have recognised the universal expression of the inmost history of the self conscious will the most secret life longing suffering and delight the ebb and flow of the human heart
even to the most painful discord and then a final return to the keynote which expresses the satisfaction and appeasing of the will
and the continuance of which any longer would only be a wearisome and unmeaning monotony corresponding to ennui all that we intend to bring out clearly
and the negative nature of all happiness
is a striving without aim or end we find the stamp of this endlessness imprinted upon all the parts of its whole manifestation from its most universal form endless time and space
up to the most perfect of all phenomena the life and efforts of man we may theoretically assume three extremes of human life and treat them as elements of actual human life first the powerful will the strong passions
radscha guna it appears in great historical characters it is described in the epic and the drama
by the degree in which they influence the will not according to their external relations secondly pure knowing the comprehension of the ideas
the life of genius satwa guna
life benumbing languor tama guna the life of the individual far from becoming permanently fixed in one of these extremes seldom touches any of them
and is for the most part only a weak and wavering approach to one or the other side a needy desiring of trifling objects constantly recurring and so escaping ennui
it is really incredible how meaningless and void of significance when looked at from without how dull and unenlightened by intellect when felt from within
it is a weary longing and complaining a dream like staggering through the four ages of life to death
such men are like clockwork which is wound up
and every time a man is begotten and born the clock of human life is wound up anew to repeat the same old piece it has played innumerable times before passage after passage
measure after measure with insignificant variations
is but another short dream of the endless spirit of nature of the persistent will to live is only another fleeting form which it carelessly sketches on its infinite page space and time
allows to remain for a time so short that it vanishes into nothing in comparison with these and then obliterates to make new room and yet
these empty fancies must be paid for by the whole will to live in all its activity with many and deep sufferings and finally with a bitter death long feared and coming at last this is why the sight of a corpse
makes us suddenly so serious the life of every individual if we survey it as a whole and in general and only lay stress upon its most significant features
is really always a tragedy but gone through in detail it has the character of a comedy for the deeds and vexations of the day the restless irritation of the moment the desires and fears of the week
the mishaps of every hour are all through chance which is ever bent upon some jest scenes of a comedy but the never satisfied wishes the frustrated efforts the hopes unmercifully crushed by fate
the unfortunate errors of the whole life with increasing suffering and death at the end are always a tragedy thus as if fate would add derision to the misery of our existence
our life must contain all the woes of tragedy and yet we cannot even assert the dignity of tragic characters but in the broad detail of life must inevitably be the foolish characters
of a comedy but however much great and small trials may fill human life they are not able to conceal its insufficiency to satisfy the spirit
they cannot hide the emptiness and superficiality of existence nor exclude ennui which is always ready to fill up every pause that care may allow
also in the form of a thousand different superstitions then finds all manner of employment with this and wastes time and strength upon it
man creates in his own image and to them he must
every event of life is regarded as the work of these beings the intercourse with them occupies half the time of life constantly sustains hope and by the charm of illusion often becomes more interesting than intercourse with real beings
it is the expression and symptom of the actual need of mankind
partly for occupation and diversion and if it often works in direct opposition to the first need because when accidents and dangers arise valuable time and strength instead of being directed to warding them off are uselessly wasted on prayers and offerings
contemptible gain of all superstitions
if we have so far convinced ourselves a priori by the most general consideration by investigation of the primary and elemental features of human life
that in its whole plan it is capable of no true blessedness but is in its very nature suffering in various forms and throughout a state of misery we might now awaken this conviction much more vividly within us
call up pictures to the fancy and illustrate by examples the unspeakable misery which experience and history present wherever one may look and in whatever direction one may seek but the
chapter would have no end and would carry us far from the standpoint of the universal which is essential to philosophy and moreover such a description might easily be taken for a mere declamation on human misery such as has often been given and
as such might be charged with one sidedness because it started from particular facts
suspicion our perfectly cold and philosophical investigation of the inevitable suffering which is founded in the nature of life is free
is everywhere easily obtained every one who has awakened from the first dream of youth who has considered his own experience and that of others who has studied himself in life
and finally in the works of the great poets will
is the kingdom of chance and error which rule without mercy in great things and in small and along with
hence it arises that everything better only struggles through with difficulty what is noble and wise seldom attains to expression becomes effective and claims attention but the absurd and the perverse in the sphere of
really assert a supremacy only disturbed by short interruptions on the other hand everything that is excellent is always a mere exception one case in millions and therefore if it presents itself in a lasting work
this when it has outlived the enmity of its contemporaries
sprung from an order of things different from that which prevails here but as far as the life of the individual is concerned every biography is the history of suffering for every life is as a rule
and small misfortunes which each one conceals as much as possible because he knows that others can seldom feel sympathy or compassion but almost always satisfaction at the sight of the woes from which
they are themselves for the moment exempt
he will never wish to have it to live over again but rather than this he will much prefer absolute annihilation
our state is so wretched that absolute annihilation would be decidedly preferable if suicide really offered us this so that the alternative to be or not to be in the full sense of the word was placed before us
then it would be unconditionally to be chosen as a consummation devoutly to be wished
the case suicide is not the end death is not absolute annihilation in like manner
him been contradicted that no man has ever lived who has not wished more than once that he had not to live the following day according to this the brevity of life which is so constantly lamented may
if finally we should bring clearly to a man's sight the terrible
he would be seized with horror and if we were to conduct the confirmed optimist through the hospitals infirmaries and surgical operating rooms through the prisons torture chambers and slave kennels over battle fields and places of execution
and finally allow him to glance into the starving dungeon of ugolino he too would understand at last the nature of this best of possible worlds for whence did dante take the materials for his hell
and yet he made a very proper hell of it and when on the other hand he came to the task of describing heaven and its delights
therefore there remained nothing for him to do but instead of describing the joys of paradise to repeat to us the instruction given him there by his ancestor by beatrice and
but from this it is sufficiently clear what manner of world it is certainly human life like all bad ware is covered over with a false lustre what suffers always conceals itself on the other hand
whatever pomp or splendour any one can get he makes a show of openly and the more inner contentment deserts him the more he desires to exist as fortunate in the opinion of others to such an extent does folly go
and the opinion of others is a chief aim of the efforts of every one
originally signifies emptiness and nothingness but under all this false show the miseries of life can so increase and this happens every day
even this refuge is denied to the sufferer and in the hands of enraged enemies he may remain exposed to terrible and slow tortures without remedy in vain the sufferer then calls on his gods for help
of which his person is the objectivity as little as an external power can change or suppress this will so little can a foreign power deliver it
a man is always thrown back upon himself in vain does he make to himself gods in order to get from them by prayers and flattery what can only be accomplished by his own will power the old testament made the world and man the work of a god
but the new testament saw that in order to teach that holiness and salvation from the sorrows of this world can only come from the world itself it was necessary that this god should become man
it is and remains the will of man upon which everything depends for him fanatics martyrs saints of every faith and name have voluntarily and gladly endured every torture because in them the will to live had suppressed itself
was welcome to them but i do not wish to anticipate the later exposition for the rest i cannot here avoid the statement that to me optimism when it is not merely the thoughtless talk of such as harbour
nothing but words under their low foreheads
we have now completed the two expositions it was necessary to insert the exposition of the freedom of the will in itself together with the necessity of its phenomenon and the exposition of its lot in the world which reflects its own nature
and upon the knowledge of which it has to assert or deny itself therefore we can now proceed to bring out more clearly the nature of this assertion and denial itself
which was referred to and explained in a merely general way above this we shall do by exhibiting the conduct in which alone it finds its expression and considering it in its inner significance the assertion of the will
is the continuous willing itself undisturbed by any knowledge as it fills the life of man in general for even the body of a man is the objectivity of the will as it appears at this grade and in this individual
an elucidation of the significance of the whole and its parts it is another way of exhibiting the same thing in itself of which the body is already the phenomenon therefore instead of saying assertion of the will
we may say assertion of the body
is the satisfaction of the wants which are inseparable from the existence of the body in health they already have their expression in it and may be referred to the maintenance of the individual and the propagation of the species
but indirectly the most different kinds of motives obtain in this way power over the will and bring about the most multifarious acts of will each of these is only an example an instance of the will which here manifests itself generally
what form the motive may have and impart to it is not essential the important point here is that something is willed in general and the degree of intensity with which it is so willed
as the eye only manifests its power of seeing in the light the motive in general stands before the will in protean forms it constantly promises complete satisfaction the quenching of the thirst of will
but whenever it is attained it at once appears in another form and thus influences the will anew always according to the degree of the intensity of this will and its relation to knowledge which are revealed as empirical character
in these very examples and instances from the first appearance of consciousness a man finds himself a willing being and as a rule his knowledge remains in constant relation to his will
and then the means of attaining them now he knows what he has to do and as a rule he does not strive after other knowledge he moves and acts his consciousness keeps him always working directly
and actively towards the aims of his will his thought is concerned with the choice of motives such is life for almost all men they wish they know what they wish and they strive after it
with sufficient success to keep them from despair and sufficient failure to keep them from ennui and its consequences from this proceeds a certain serenity or at least indifference which cannot be affected by wealth or poverty
for this as we have shown acts in a purely negative way
they press forward with much earnestness and indeed with an air of importance thus children also pursue their play it is always an exception if such a life suffers interruption from the fact that either the aesthetic demand for contemplation
or the ethical demand for renunciation proceed from a knowledge which is independent of the service of the will and directed to the nature of the world in general most men are pursued by want all through life
without ever being allowed to come to their senses on the other hand the will is often inflamed to a degree that far transcends the assertion of the body and then violent emotions and powerful passions
show themselves in which the individual not only asserts his own existence but denies and seeks to suppress that of others when it stands in his way the maintenance of the body through its own powers
is so small a degree of the assertion of will that if it voluntarily remains at this degree we might assume that with the death of this body the will also which appeared in it would be extinguished
but even the satisfaction of the sexual passions goes beyond the assertion of one's own existence which fills so short a time and asserts life for an indefinite time after the death of the individual
here even naive exhibits to us openly the inner significance of the act of generation our own consciousness the intensity of the impulse teaches us that in this act the most decided assertion of the will to live expresses itself
pure and without further addition
a new life appears in time and the causal series e in nature the begotten appears before the begetter different as regards the phenomenon but
according to the idea identical with him therefore it is this act through which every species of living creature binds itself to a whole and is perpetuated generation is with reference to the begetter
only the expression the symptom of his decided assertion of the will to live with reference to the begotten it is not the cause of the will which appears in him for the will in itself knows neither cause nor effect but like all causes
it is merely the occasional cause of the phenomenal appearance of this will at this time in this place as thing in itself the will of the begetter and that of the begotten are not different for only the phenomenon not the thing in itself
suffering and death as belonging to the phenomenon of life have also been asserted anew
has for this time been shown to be fruitless here lies the profound reason of the shame connected with the process of generation this view is mythically expressed in the dogma of christian theology
that we are all partakers in adam's first transgression which is clearly just the satisfaction of sexual passion and through it are guilty of suffering and death
in this theology goes beyond the consideration of things according to the principle of sufficient reason and recognises the idea of man the unity of which is re established out of its dispersion into innumerable individuals
through the bond of generation which holds them all together accordingly it regards every individual as on one side identical with adam the representative of the assertion of life and so far as subject to sin
original sin suffering and death on the other side the knowledge of the idea of man enables it to regard every individual as identical with the saviour the representative of the denial of the will to live and
so far as a partaker of his sacrifice of himself saved through his merits and delivered from the bands of sin and death e the world
another mythical exposition of our view of sexual pleasure as the assertion of the will
or as it were a renewed assignment of life
its fruit but who became subject to it altogether through eating the pomegranate this meaning appears very clearly in goethe's incomparable presentation of this myth especially when
she has tasted the pomegranate the invisible chorus of the fates thou art ours fasting shouldest thou return and the bite of the apple makes thee ours
eighteen fifty two the maya of the hindus whose work and web is the whole world of illusion is also symbolised by love the genital organs are far more than
any other external member of the body subject merely to the will and not at all to knowledge indeed the will shows itself here almost as independent
as in those parts which acting merely in consequence of stimuli are subservient to vegetative life and reproduction in which the will works blindly as in unconscious nature
at the second power as death is only excretion at the second power according to all this the genitals are properly the focus of will and consequently the opposite pole of the brain
the former are the life sustaining principle ensuring endless life to time in this respect they were worshipped by the greeks in the phallus and by the hindus in the lingam which are thus the symbol of the assertion of the will
knowledge on the other hand affords the possibility of the suppression of willing of salvation through freedom
of conquest and annihilation of the world we already considered fully at the beginning of this fourth book how the will to live in its assertion must regard its relation to death we saw that death does not trouble it
because it exists as something included in life itself and belonging to it its opposite generation completely counterbalances it and in spite of the death
of the individual ensures and guarantees life to the will to live through all time to express this the hindus made the lingam an attribute of siva the god of death we also fully explained there how
awaits death without fear we shall therefore say nothing more about this here without clear consciousness most men occupy this standpoint and continually assert life the world exists as the mirror of this assertion with
innumerable individuals in infinite time and space in infinite suffering between generation and death without end
for the will conducts the great tragedy and comedy at its own expense and is also its own spectator the world is just what it is because the will whose manifestation it is
in this phenomenon also the will asserts itself and this assertion is justified and balanced by the fact that the will bears the suffering here
we shall recognise it later more definitely and distinctly and also in the particular but first we must consider temporal or human justice
it may be remembered from the second book that in the whole of nature at all the grades of the objectification of will
and in this way was expressed the inner contradiction of the will to live with itself at the highest grade of the objectification this phenomenon like all others will exhibit itself with
greater distinctness and will therefore be more easily explained with this aim we shall next attempt to trace the source of egoism as the starting point of all conflict
possible they are the essential forms of natural knowledge
knowledge springing from the will therefore the will everywhere manifests itself in the multiplicity of individuals but this multiplicity does not concern the will as thing in itself but only its phenomena the will itself is present whole and undivided
in every one of these and beholds around it the innumerably repeated image of its own nature but this nature itself the actually real it finds directly only in its inner self therefore every
it is only conscious of them as its idea thus merely indirectly as something which is dependent on its own nature and existence
and indistinguishable every knowing individual
as a microcosm which is of equal value with the macrocosm nature itself which is everywhere and always truthful gives him this knowledge originally
now from these two necessary properties we have given the fact may be explained that every individual though vanishing altogether and diminished to nothing in the
yet makes itself the centre of the world has regard for its own existence and well being before everything else indeed from the natural standpoint is ready to sacrifice everything else for this
that the inner conflict of the will with itself attains to such a terrible revelation
and being in that opposition of the microcosm and macrocosm or in the fact that the objectification of will
individual is given to itself directly as the whole will and the whole subject of ideas other individuals are only given it as ideas therefore its own being and the maintenance of it
is of more importance to it than that of all others together every one looks upon his own death as upon the end of the world
as a matter of comparative indifference
grade also and the conflict of individuals which is conditioned by it must appear in its most terrible form and indeed we see this everywhere before our eyes in small things as in great
now its absurd side in which it is the theme of comedy and very specially appears as self conceit and vanity
understood this better than any one else and presented it in the abstract
in our own experience but it appears most distinctly of all when any mob of men is set free from all law and order
has so admirably described in the
we see not only
from the other what he wants himself but how often one will destroy the whole happiness or life of another for the sake of an insignificant addition to his own happiness this is the highest expression of egoism
the manifestations of which in this regard are only surpassed by those of actual wickedness which seeks quite disinterestedly
which many people a good deal older than he will be at no loss to understand an unfinished coffin on black tressels which stood in the middle of the shop looked so gloomy and death like
that a cold tremble came over him every time his eyes wandered in the direction of the dismal object from which he almost expected to see some frightful form slowly rear its head to drive him mad with terror
against the wall were ranged in regular array a long row of elm boards cut in the same shape looking in the dim light like high shouldered ghosts with their hands in their breeches pockets
coffin plates elm chips bright headed nails and shreds of black cloth lay scattered on the floor and the wall behind the counter was ornamented with a lively representation of two mutes
in very stiff neckcloths on duty at a large private door with a hearse drawn by four black steeds approaching in the distance the shop was close and hot
the atmosphere seemed tainted with the smell of coffins the recess beneath the counter in which his flock mattress was thrust looked like a grave nor were these the only dismal feelings which depressed oliver
he was alone in a strange place and we all know how chilled and desolate the best of us will sometimes feel in such a situation the boy had no friends to care for or to care for him
the regret of no recent separation was fresh in his mind the absence of no loved and well remembered face sank heavily into his heart but his heart was heavy notwithstanding
and he wished as he crept into his narrow bed that that were his coffin and that he could be lain in a calm and lasting sleep in the churchyard ground with the tall grass waving gently above his head
and the sound of the old deep bell to soothe him in his sleep oliver was awakened in the morning by a loud kicking at the outside of the shop door which before he could huddle on his clothes was repeated
in an angry and impetuous manner about twenty five times when he began to undo the chain the legs desisted and a voice began open the door will yer
i will directly sir replied oliver undoing the chain and turning the key i suppose yer the new boy ain't yer said the voice through the key hole yes sir replied oliver how old are yer inquired the voice
oliver had been too often subjected to the process to which the very expressive monosyllable just recorded bears reference to entertain the smallest doubt that the owner of the voice whoever he might be
would redeem his pledge most honourably he drew back the bolts with a trembling hand and opened the door for a second or two oliver glanced up the street and down the street and over the way
impressed with the belief that the unknown who had addressed him through the key hole had walked a few paces off to warm himself for nobody did he see but a big charity boy sitting on a post in front of the house eating a slice of bread and butter
which he cut into wedges the size of his mouth with a clasp knife and then consumed with great dexterity i beg your pardon sir said oliver at length
did you knock i kicked replied the charity boy did you want a coffin sir inquired oliver innocently
at this the charity boy looked monstrous fierce and said that oliver would want one before long if he cut jokes with his superiors in that way yer don't know who i am i suppose work'us said the charity boy in continuation
descending from the top of the post meanwhile with edifying gravity no sir rejoined oliver i'm mister noah claypole said the charity boy and you're under me take down the shutters yer idle young ruffian
with this mister claypole administered a kick to oliver and entered the shop with a dignified air which did him great credit it is difficult for a large headed small eyed youth of lumbering make and heavy countenance
to look dignified under any circumstances but it is more especially so when superadded to these personal attractions are a red nose and yellow smalls
oliver having taken down the shutters and broken a pane of glass in his effort to stagger away beneath the weight of the first one to a small court at the side of the house in which they were kept during the day was graciously assisted by noah
who having consoled him with the assurance that he'd catch it condescended to help him mister sowerberry came down soon after shortly afterwards missus sowerberry appeared oliver having caught it in fulfilment of noah's prediction
followed that young gentleman down the stairs to breakfast come near the fire noah said charlotte i saved a nice little bit of bacon for you from master's breakfast oliver shut that door at mister noah's back
d'ye hear work'us said noah claypole
don't you let the boy alone let him alone said noah
all his relations let him have his own way pretty well eh charlotte he he he oh you queer soul said charlotte bursting into a hearty laugh in which she was joined by noah after which they both looked scornfully at poor oliver twist
as he sat shivering on the box in the coldest corner of the room and ate the stale pieces which had been specially reserved for him
no chance child was he for he could trace his genealogy all the way back to his parents who lived hard by his mother being a washerwoman and his father a drunken soldier discharged with a wooden leg and a diurnal pension of twopence halfpenny and an unstateable fraction
the shop boys in the neighbourhood had long been in the habit of branding noah in the public streets with the ignominious epithets of leathers charity and the like and noah had bourne them without reply
but now that fortune had cast in his way a nameless orphan at whom even the meanest could point the finger of scorn he retorted on him with interest this affords charming food for contemplation it shows us what a beautiful thing human nature may be made to be
and how impartially the same amiable qualities are developed in the finest lord and the dirtiest charity boy oliver had been sojourning at the undertaker's some three weeks or a month mister and missus sowerberry the shop being shut up
were taking their supper in the little back parlour when mister sowerberry after several deferential glances at his wife said my dear he was going to say more but missus sowerberry looking up with a peculiarly unpropitious aspect
he stopped short well said missus sowerberry sharply nothing my dear nothing said mister sowerberry ugh you brute said missus sowerberry
not at all my dear said mister sowerberry humbly i thought you didn't want to hear my dear i was only going to say oh don't tell me what you were going to say interposed missus sowerberry i am nobody don't consult me pray
as missus sowerberry said this she gave an hysterical laugh which threatened violent consequences but my dear said sowerberry i want to ask your advice no no don't ask mine
replied missus sowerberry in an affecting manner ask somebody else's here there was another hysterical laugh which frightened mister sowerberry very much this is a very common and much approved matrimonial course of treatment which is often very effective
it at once reduced mister sowerberry to begging as a special favour to be allowed to say what missus sowerberry was most curious to hear after a short duration the permission was most graciously conceded
it's only about young twist my dear said mister sowerberry a very good looking boy that my dear he need be for he eats enough observed the lady there's an expression of melancholy in his face my dear
resumed mister sowerberry which is very interesting he would make a delightful mute my love missus sowerberry looked up with an expression of considerable wonderment
and without allowing time for any observation on the good lady's part proceeded i don't mean a regular mute to attend grown up people my dear but only for children's practice it would be very new to have a mute in proportion my dear
missus sowerberry who had a good deal of taste in the undertaking way was much struck by the novelty of this idea
under existing circumstances she merely inquired with much sharpness why such an obvious suggestion had not presented itself to her husband's mind before mister sowerberry rightly construed this as an acquiescence in his proposition
it was speedily determined therefore that oliver should be at once initiated into the mysteries of the trade and with this view that he should accompany his master on the very next occasion of his services being required
the occasion was not long in coming half an hour after breakfast next morning mister bumble entered the shop and supporting his cane against the counter drew forth his large leathern pocket book
from which he selected a small scrap of paper which he handed over to sowerberry aha said the undertaker glancing over it with a lively countenance
for a coffin first and a porochial funeral afterwards replied mister bumble fastening the strap of the leathern pocket book
bumble shook his head as he replied obstinate people mister sowerberry very obstinate proud too i'm afraid sir
come that's too much oh it's sickening replied the beadle antimonial mister sowerberry so it is acquiesced the undertaker we only heard of the family the night before last said the beadle
and we shouldn't have known anything about them then only a woman who lodges in the same house made an application to the porochial committee for them to send the porochial surgeon to see a woman as was very bad he had gone out to dinner
but his prentice which is a very clever lad sent em some medicine in a blacking bottle offhand ah there's promptness said the undertaker promptness indeed replied the beadle
but what's the consequence what's the ungrateful behaviour of these rebels sir why the husband sends back word that the medicine won't suit his wife's complaint and so she shan't take it
says she shan't take it sir good strong wholesome medicine as was given with great success to two irish labourers and a coal heaver
as the atrocity presented itself to mister bumble's mind in full force he struck the counter sharply with his cane and became flushed with indignation well
never did sir ejaculated the beadle no nor nobody never did but now she's dead we've got to bury her and that's the direction and the sooner it's done the better
and flounced out of the shop why he was so angry oliver that he forgot even to ask after you said mister sowerberry looking after the beadle as he strode down the street yes sir replied oliver who had carefully kept himself out of sight
until such time as he should be firmly bound for seven years and all danger of his being returned upon the hands of the parish should be thus effectually and legally overcome well said mister sowerberry taking up his hat
the sooner this job is done the better noah look after the shop oliver put on your cap and come with me oliver obeyed and followed his master on his professional mission
they walked on for some time through the most crowded and densely inhabited part of the town and then striking down a narrow street more dirty and miserable than any they had yet passed through paused to look for the house which was the object of their search
as their neglected appearance would have sufficiently denoted without the concurrent testimony afforded by the squalid looks of the few men and women who with folded arms and bodies half doubled occasionally skulked along
a great many of the tenements had shop fronts but these were fast closed and mouldering away
seemed to have been selected as the nightly haunts of some houseless wretches for many of the rough boards which supplied the place of door and window were wrenched from their positions to afford an aperture wide enough
for the passage of a human body the kennel was stagnant and filthy the very rats which here and there lay putrefying in its rottenness were hideous with famine
so groping his way cautiously through the dark passage and bidding oliver keep close to him and not be afraid the undertaker mounted to the top of the first flight of stairs stumbling against a door on the landing he rapped at it with his knuckles
it was opened by a young girl of thirteen or fourteen the undertaker at once saw enough of what the room contained to know it was the apartment to which he had been directed he stepped in oliver followed him
there was no fire in the room but a man was crouching mechanically over the empty stove an old woman too had drawn a low stool to the cold hearth and was sitting beside him there were some ragged children in another corner
and in a small recess opposite the door there lay upon the ground something covered with an old blanket oliver shuddered as he cast his eyes toward the place and crept involuntarily closer to his master
for though it was covered up the boy felt that it was a corpse the man's face was thin and very pale his hair and beard were grizzly his eyes were bloodshot
the old woman's face was wrinkled her two remaining teeth protruded over her under lip and her eyes were bright and piercing oliver was afraid to look at either her or the man
they seemed so like the rats he had seen outside
keep back damn you keep back if you've a life to lose nonsense my good man said the undertaker who was pretty well used to misery in all its shapes nonsense
clenching his hands and stamping furiously on the floor
the undertaker offered no reply to this raving
kneel down kneel down kneel round her every one of you and mark my words i say she was starved to death i never knew how bad she was till the fever came upon her
and then her bones were starting through the skin there was neither fire nor candle she died in the dark in the dark
she couldn't even see her children's faces though we heard her gasping out their names
he twined his hands in his hair and with a loud scream rolled grovelling upon the floor his eyes fixed and the foam covering his lips
the terrified children cried bitterly but the old woman who had hitherto remained as quiet as if she had been wholly deaf to all that passed menaced them into silence
having unloosened the cravat of the man who still remained extended on the ground she tottered towards the undertaker she was my daughter said the old woman
nodding her head in the direction of the corpse and speaking with an idiotic leer more ghastly than even the presence of death in such a place lord
lord well it is strange that i who gave birth to her and was a woman then should be alive and merry now and she lying there so cold and stiff
lord lord to think of it it's as good as a play
the undertaker turned to go away stop stop said the old woman in a loud whisper will she be buried to morrow or next day or to night
i laid her out and i must walk
send me a large cloak a good warm one for it is bitter cold we should have cake and wine too before we go never mind send some bread
only a loaf of bread and a cup of water shall we have some bread dear she said eagerly catching at the undertaker's coat as he once more moved towards the door
he disengaged himself from the old woman's grasp and drawing oliver after him hurried away the next day the family having been meanwhile relieved with a half quartern loaf and a piece of cheese left with them by mister bumble himself
oliver and his master returned to the miserable abode where mister bumble had already arrived accompanied by four men from the workhouse who were to act as bearers an old black cloak had been thrown over the rags of the old woman and the man
and the bare coffin having been screwed down was hoisted on the shoulders of the bearers and carried into the street now you must put your best leg foremost old lady
we are rather late and it won't do to keep the clergyman waiting move on my men as quick as you like
and the two mourners kept as near them as they could mister bumble and sowerberry walked at a good smart pace in front and oliver whose legs were not so long as his master's ran by the side
there was not so great a necessity for hurrying as mister sowerberry had anticipated however for when they reached the obscure corner of the churchyard in which the nettles grew and where the parish graves were made
the clergyman had not arrived and the clerk who was sitting by the vestry room fire seemed to think it by no means improbable that it might be an hour or so before he came so they put the bier on the brink of the grave
and the two mourners waited patiently in the damp clay with a cold rain drizzling down while the ragged boys whom the spectacle had attracted into the churchyard played a noisy game at hide and seek among the tombstones
or varied their amusements by jumping backwards and forwards over the coffin mister sowerberry and bumble being personal friends of the clerk sat by the fire with him and read the paper
at length after a lapse of something more than an hour mister bumble and sowerberry and the clerk were seen running towards the grave
and the reverend gentleman having read as much of the burial service as could be compressed into four minutes gave his surplice to the clerk and walked away again now bill said sowerberry to the grave digger fill up it was no very
difficult task for the grave was so full that the uppermost coffin was within a few feet of the surface
shouldered his spade and walked off followed by the boys who murmured very loud complaints at the fun being over so soon come my good fellow said bumble tapping the man on the back they want to shut up the yard
the man who had never once moved since he had taken his station by the grave side started raised his head stared at the person who had addressed him
the crazy old woman was too much occupied in bewailing the loss of her cloak which the undertaker had taken off to pay him any attention so they threw a can of cold water over him and when he came to
saw him safely out of the churchyard locked the gate and departed on their different ways well oliver said sowerberry as they walked home how do you like it pretty well thank you sir
replied oliver with considerable hesitation not very much sir
nothing when you are used to it my boy oliver wondered in his own mind whether it had taken a very long time to get mister sowerberry used to it
the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of america when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another
and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's god entitle them a decent respect to the opinions of mankind
requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation we hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal
that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government
laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness prudence indeed will dictate
that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed but when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism
it is their right it is their duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies and such is now the necessity
which constrains them to alter their former systems of government the history of the present king of great britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations all having in direct object
the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states to prove this let facts be submitted to a candid world he has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good
till his assent should be obtained and when so suspended he has utterly neglected to attend to them he has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people
unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only he has called together legislative bodies at places unusual
uncomfortable and distant from the depository of their public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures he has dissolved representative houses repeatedly
for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people he has refused for a long time after such dissolutions to cause others to be elected
have returned to the people at large for their exercise the state remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without and convulsions within
he has endeavoured to prevent the population of these states
refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands
he has obstructed the administration of justice by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers he has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices
and the amount and payment of their salaries he has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance
he has kept among us in times of peace standing armies without the consent of our legislatures
he has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation
for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us for protecting them by a mock trial from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states
for cutting off our trade with all parts of the world for imposing taxes on us without our consent for depriving us in many cases of the benefits of trial by jury
for transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offences for abolishing the free system of english laws in a neighbouring province establishing therein an arbitrary government
and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments for suspending our own legislatures and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever he has abdicated government here
by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us he has plundered our seas ravaged our coasts burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people he is at this time
transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death desolation and tyranny already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages
he has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country to become the executioners of their friends and brethren or to fall themselves by their hands
he has excited domestic insurrections amongst us and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless indian savages
is an undistinguished destruction of all ages sexes and conditions in every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms
our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury a prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people
nor have we been wanting in attention to our brittish brethren we have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us
we have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here we have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations
and of consanguinity we must therefore acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separation and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind enemies in war in peace friends
in general congress assembled appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions do in the name and by the authority of the good people of these colonies solemnly publish and declare
that these united colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states that they are absolved from all allegiance to the british crown
and that all political connection between them and the state of great britain is and ought to be totally dissolved
there were three thousand five hundred of them they formed a front a quarter of a league in extent they were giant men on colossal horses there were six and twenty squadrons of them
the light cavalry of the guard eleven hundred and ninety seven men
with horse pistols in their holsters and long sabre swords that morning the whole army had admired them when at nine o'clock with braying of trumpets and all the music playing let us watch o'er the safety of the empire
they had come in a solid column with one of their batteries on their flank another in their centre and deployed in two ranks between the roads to genappe and frischemont
and taken up their position for battle in that powerful second line so cleverly arranged by napoleon which
aide de camp bernard carried them the emperor's orders
then a formidable spectacle was seen all their cavalry with upraised swords standards and trumpets flung to the breeze
formed in columns by divisions descended by a simultaneous movement and like one man with the precision of a brazen battering ram which is effecting a breach
disappeared there in the smoke then emerging from that shadow reappeared on the other side of the valley still compact and in close ranks mounting at a full trot through a storm of grape shot which burst upon them
the terrible muddy slope of the table land of mont saint jean they ascended grave threatening imperturbable in the intervals between the musketry and the artillery their colossal trampling was audible
being two divisions there were two columns of them wathier's division held the right delort's division was on the left it seemed as though two immense adders of steel
were to be seen crawling towards the crest of the table land it traversed the battle like a prodigy
but ney was again present it seemed as though that mass had become a monster and had but one soul
they could be seen through a vast cloud of smoke which was rent here and there a confusion of helmets of cries of sabres a stormy heaving of the cruppers of horses amid the cannons and the flourish of trumpets
a terrible and disciplined tumult over all
like the scales on the hydra these narrations seemed to belong to another age
those titans with human heads and equestrian chests who scaled olympus at a gallop horrible invulnerable sublime gods and beasts odd numerical coincidence
they heard the swelling noise of three thousand horse the alternate and symmetrical tramp of their hoofs at full trot
the clang of the sabres and a sort of grand and savage breathing there ensued a most terrible silence
and casques trumpets and standards and three thousand heads with gray mustaches shouting vive l'empereur
all at once a tragic incident on the english left on our right
on arriving at the culminating point of the crest ungovernable utterly given over to fury and their course of extermination of the squares and cannon
a trench between them and the english it was the hollow road of ohain it was a terrible moment the ravine was there unexpected yawning
directly under the horses feet two fathoms deep between its double slopes the second file pushed the first into it
landed on their haunches slid down all four feet in the air crushing and overwhelming the riders and there being no means of retreat the whole column being no longer anything more than a projectile the force which had been acquired to crush the english
crushed the french the inexorable ravine could only yield when filled horses and riders rolled there pell mell grinding each other forming but one mass of flesh in this gulf
this began the loss of the battle a local tradition which evidently exaggerates matters says
this figure probably comprises all the other corpses which were flung into this ravine
let us note in passing that it was dubois's sorely tried brigade which an hour previously making a charge to one side had captured the flag of the lunenburg battalion napoleon
but had not been able to see that hollow road which did not even form a wrinkle on the surface of the plateau warned nevertheless and put on the alert by the little white chapel
he had probably put a question as to the possibility of an obstacle to the guide lacoste the guide had answered no we might almost affirm that napoleon's catastrophe
originated in that sign of a peasant's head other fatalities were destined to arise was it possible that napoleon should have won that battle we answer no why
because of wellington because of blucher no because of god bonaparte victor at waterloo that does not come within the law of the nineteenth century
another series of facts was in preparation in which there was no longer any room for napoleon
these plethoras of all human vitality concentrated in a single head the world mounting to the brain of one man this would be mortal to civilization were it to last
the moment had arrived for the incorruptible and supreme equity to alter its plan probably the principles and the elements
had complained smoking blood over filled cemeteries mothers in tears these are formidable pleaders when the earth is suffering from too heavy a burden
there are mysterious groanings of the shades to which the abyss lends an ear napoleon had been denounced in the infinite and his fall had been decided on he embarrassed god
waterloo is not a battle
as soon as we reckoned everybody was asleep that night we went down the lightning rod and shut ourselves up in the lean to and got out our pile of fox fire and went to work
tom said he was right behind jim's bed now and we'd dig in under it and when we got through there couldn't nobody in the cabin ever know there was any hole there because jim's counter pin hung down most to the ground
and you'd have to raise it up and look under to see the hole so we dug and dug with the case knives till most midnight and then we was dog tired and our hands was blistered and yet you couldn't see we'd done anything hardly
at last i says this ain't no thirty seven year job this is a thirty eight year job tom sawyer he never said nothing but he sighed and pretty soon he stopped digging
then he says it ain't no use huck it ain't a going to work if we was prisoners it would because then we'd have as many years as we wanted and no hurry and we wouldn't get but a few minutes to dig every day
while they was changing watches and so our hands wouldn't get blistered and we could keep it up right along year in and year out and do it right and the way it ought to be done but we can't fool along we got to rush we ain't got no time to spare
if we was to put in another night this way we'd have to knock off for a week to let our hands get wellcouldn't touch a case knife with them sooner well then what we going to do tom i'll tell you it ain't right and it ain't moral
we got to dig him out with the picks and let on it's case knives now you're talking i says your head gets leveler and leveler all the time tom sawyer i says picks is the thing moral or no moral
and as for me i don't care shucks for the morality of it nohow when i start in to steal a nigger or a watermelon or a sunday school book i ain't no ways particular how it's done so it's done
what i want is my nigger or what i want is my watermelon or what i want is my sunday school book and if a pick's the handiest thing that's the thing i'm a going to dig that nigger or that watermelon or that sunday school book out with
and i don't give a dead rat what the authorities thinks about it nuther well he says there's excuse for picks and letting on in a case like this
if it warn't so i wouldn't approve of it nor i wouldn't stand by and see the rules brokebecause right is right and wrong is wrong and a body ain't got no business doing wrong when he ain't ignorant and knows better
but it wouldn't for me because i do know better gimme a case knife he had his own by him but i handed him mine he flung it down and says gimme a case knife i didn't know just what to dobut then i thought
i scratched around amongst the old tools and got a pickaxe and give it to him and he took it and went to work and never said a word he was always just that particular full of principle
so then i got a shovel and then we picked and shoveled turn about and made the fur fly
which was as long as we could stand up but we had a good deal of a hole to show for it when i got up stairs i looked out at the window and see tom doing his level best with the lightning rod but he couldn't come it
his hands was so sore at last he says it ain't no use it can't be done what you reckon i better do can't you think of no way yes i says but i reckon it ain't regular
come up the stairs and let on it's a lightning rod so he done it next day tom stole a pewter spoon and a brass candlestick in the house for to make some pens for jim out of and six tallow candles
and i hung around the nigger cabins and laid for a chance and stole three tin plates tom says it wasn't enough but i said nobody wouldn't ever see the plates that jim throwed out because they'd fall in the dog fennel and jimpson weeds under the window holethen
so tom was satisfied then he says now the thing to study out is how to get the things to jim take them in through the hole i says when we get it done he only just looked scornful
and said something about nobody ever heard of such an idiotic idea and then he went to studying by and by he said he had ciphered out two or three ways but there warn't no need to decide on any of them yet
said we'd got to post jim first that night we went down the lightning rod a little after ten and took one of the candles along and listened under the window hole and heard jim snoring so we pitched it in and it didn't wake him
then we whirled in with the pick and shovel and in about two hours and a half the job was done we crept in under jim's bed and into the cabin and pawed around and found the candle and lit it and stood over jim awhile
and found him looking hearty and healthy and then we woke him up gentle and gradual he was so glad to see us he most cried and called us honey and all the pet names he could think of
and clearing out without losing any time but tom he showed him how unregular it would be and set down and told him all about our plans
and how we could alter them in a minute any time there was an alarm and not to be the least afraid because we would see he got away sure
and then tom asked a lot of questions and when jim told him uncle silas come in every day or two to pray with him and aunt sally come in to see if he was comfortable and had plenty to eat
now i know how to fix it we'll send you some things by them i said don't do nothing of the kind it's one of the most jackass ideas i ever struck but he never paid no attention to me went right on
it was his way when he'd got his plans set
and other large things by nat the nigger that fed him and he must be on the lookout and not be surprised and not let nat see him open them and we would put small things in uncle's coat pockets and he must steal them out
and we would tie things to aunt's apron strings or put them in her apron pocket if we got a chance and told him what they would be and what they was for and told him how to keep a journal on the shirt with his blood and all that
he told him everything
so he was satisfied and said he would do it all just as tom said jim had plenty corn cob pipes and tobacco so we had a right down good sociable time then we crawled out through the hole
and so home to bed with hands that looked like they'd been chawed tom was in high spirits he said it was the best fun he ever had in his life
and the most intellectural and said if he only could see his way to it we would keep it up all the rest of our lives and leave jim to our children to get out for he believed jim would come to like it better and better the more he got used to it
he said that in that way it could be strung out to as much as eighty year and would be the best time on record and he said it would make us all celebrated that had a hand in it
in the morning we went out to the woodpile and chopped up the brass candlestick into handy sizes and tom put them and the pewter spoon in his pocket
then we went to the nigger cabins and while i got nat's notice off tom shoved a piece of candlestick into the middle of a corn pone that was in jim's pan and we went along with nat to see how it would work and it just worked noble
when jim bit into it it most mashed all his teeth out and there warn't ever anything could a worked better tom said so himself
jim he never let on but what it was only just a piece of rock or something like that that's always getting into bread you know but after that he never bit into nothing but what he jabbed his fork into it in three or four places first
and whilst we was a standing there in the dimmish light here comes a couple of the hounds bulging in from under jim's bed
by jings we forgot to fasten that lean to door
and keeled over on to the floor amongst the dogs and begun to groan like he was dying tom jerked the door open and flung out a slab of jim's meat and the dogs went for it and in two seconds he was out himself and back again and shut the door
and i knowed he'd fixed the other door too then he went to work on the nigger coaxing him and petting him and asking him if he'd been imagining he saw something again he raised up and blinked his eyes around and says mars sid
i did mos sholy mars sid i felt um i felt um
tom says well i tell you what i think
it's because they're hungry that's the reason
but my lan mars sid
i hain't ever hearn er sich a thing b'fo well then i'll have to make it myself will you do it honey will you i'll wusshup de groun und yo foot i will
all right i'll do it seeing it's you and you've been good to us and showed us the runaway nigger but you got to be mighty careful when we come around you turn your back and
earthquakes so you have been looking at that beautiful drawing of the ruin of arica in the illustrated london news and it has puzzled you and made you sad you want to know why god killed all those people
therefore it is that you cannot be content and ought not to be content with asking how things happen but must go on to ask why you cannot be content with knowing the causes of things
and if you knew all the natural science that ever was or ever will be known to men that would not satisfy you for it would only tell you the causes of things while your souls want to know the reasons of things besides
and though i may not be able to tell you the reasons of things or show you aught but a tiny glimpse here and there of that which i called the other day the glory of lady why yet i believe that somehow somewhen somewhere
you will learn something of the reason of things for that thirst to know why was put into the hearts of little children by god himself and i believe that god would never have given them that thirst if he had not meant to satisfy it
there you do not understand me i trust that you will understand me some day meanwhile i think i only say i think you know i told you how humble we must be whenever we speak of lady why
that we may guess at something like a good reason for the terrible earthquakes in south america i do not wish to be hard upon poor people in great affliction but i cannot help thinking that they have been doing for hundreds of years past
something very like what the bible calls tempting god staking their property and their lives upon the chances of no earthquakes coming while they ought to have known that an earthquake might come any day they have fulfilled
or by the slag and cinders which lay all about them till the mountain blew up and destroyed them miserably then i think that they ought to have expected an earthquake well it is not for us to judge any one
especially if they live in a part of the world in which we have not been ourselves but i think that we know and that they ought to have known enough about earthquakes to have been more prudent than they have been for many a year
at least we will hope that though they would not learn their lesson till this year they will learn it now and will listen to the message which i think madam how has brought them spoken in a voice of thunder
and written in letters of flame and what is that my dear child if the landlord of our house was in the habit of pulling the roof down upon our heads and putting gunpowder under the foundations to blow us up
do you not think we should know what he meant even though he never spoke a word he would be very wrong in behaving so of course
that he did not intend us to live in his house any longer if he could help it and was giving us in a very rough fashion notice to quit
such a notice to quit as perhaps no people ever had before which says to them in unmistakable words you must leave this country or perish and i believe that that message
like all lady why's messages is at heart a merciful and loving one
and cross the andes into the green forests of the eastern side of their own land they might not only live free from earthquakes but if they would only be good and industrious
become a great rich and happy nation instead of the idle and useless
for in that eastern part of their own land god's gifts are waiting for them in a paradise such as i can neither describe nor you conceive precious woods fruits drugs and what not
boundless wealth in one word waiting for them to send it all down the waters of the mighty river amazon enriching us here in the old world and enriching themselves there in the new if they would only go and use these gifts of god
instead of neglecting them as they have been doing for now three hundred years they would be a blessing to the earth instead of being that which they have been god grant my dear child
that these poor people may take the warning that has been sent to them the voice of god revealed in facts as the great lord bacon would have called it and see not only that god has bidden them leave the place where they are now
but has prepared for them in their own land a home a thousand times better than that in which they now live but you ask how ought they to have known that an earthquake would come well
to make you understand that we must talk a little about earthquakes and what makes them and in order to find out that let us try the very simplest cause of which we can think
that is the wise and scientific plan now whatever makes these earthquakes must be enormously strong that is certain and what is the strongest thing you know of in the world think
gunpowder well gunpowder is strong sometimes but not always you may carry it in a flask or in your hand and then it is weak enough
it only becomes strong by being turned into gas and steam but steam is always strong and if you look at a railway engine still more if you had ever seen which god forbid you should a boiler explosion
you would agree with me that the strongest thing we know of in the world is steam now i think that we can explain almost if not quite all that we know about earthquakes if we believe that on the whole they are caused by steam
and other gases expanding that is spreading out with wonderful quickness and strength of course there must be something to make them expand and that is heat but we will not talk of that yet
now do you remember that riddle which i put to you the other day what had the rattling of the lid of the kettle to do with hartford bridge flat being lifted out of the ancient sea the answer to the riddle i believe
is steam has done both the lid of the kettle rattles because the expanding steam escapes in little jets and so causes a lid quake now suppose that there was steam under the earth trying to escape
as the lid of the kettle is loose and yet hard with cracks in it it may be like the crack between the edge of the lid and the edge of the kettle itself
might not the steam try to escape through the cracks and rattle the surface of the earth and so cause an earthquake so the steam would escape generally easily and would only make a passing rattle
and i will tell you why i was travelling in the pyrenees and i came one evening to the loveliest spot a glen or rather a vast crack in the mountains so narrow that there was no room for anything at the bottom of it
save a torrent roaring between walls of polished rock high above the torrent the road was cut out among the cliffs and above the road rose more cliffs with great black cavern mouths hundreds of feet above our heads
out of each of which poured in foaming waterfalls streams large enough to turn a mill and above them mountains piled on mountains
all covered with woods of box which smelt rich and hot and musky in the warm spring air among the box trees and fallen boulders grew hepaticas blue and white and red such as you see in the garden
till they stood out at last in a jagged saw edge against the purple evening sky along the mountain ranges thousands of feet aloft and beyond them again at the head of the valley rose vast cones of virgin snow
miles away in reality but looking so brilliant and so near that one fancied at the first moment that one could have touched them with one's hand snow white they stood the glorious things seven thousand feet into the air
and when he set fade into dull cold gray till the bright moon came out to light them up once more when i was tired of wondering and admiring i went into bed
and there i had a dream such a dream as alice had when she went into wonderland such a dream as i dare say you may have had ere now some noise or stir puts into your fancy as you sleep
a whole long dream to account for it and yet that dream which seems to you to be hours long has not taken up a second of time for the very same noise which begins the dream wakes you at the end of it
and so it was with me i dreamed that some english people had come into the hotel where i was and were sleeping in the room underneath me and that they had quarrelled and fought and broke their bed down with a tremendous crash
well the rocks have been where they are for many a year and they will wait our leisure patiently enough but midsummer and the hay field will not wait
rather than things which are old and worn and dead let us leave the old stones and the old bones and the old shells the wrecks of ancient worlds which have gone down into the kingdom of death to teach us their grand lessons some other day
and let us look now at the world of light and life and beauty which begins here at the open door and stretches away over the hay fields over the woods over the southern moors over sunny france and sunnier spain
and over the tropic seas down to the equator and the palm groves of the eternal summer if we cannot find something even at starting from the open door to teach us about why and how
we must be very short sighted or very shallow hearted there is the old cock starling screeching in the eaves because he wants to frighten us away and take a worm to his children without our finding out whereabouts his hole is
how does he know that we might hurt him and how again does he not know that we shall not hurt him we who for five and twenty years have let him and his ancestors build under those eaves in peace how did he get that quantity of half wit
that sort of stupid cunning into his little brain and yet get no more
does he labour all day long hunting for worms and insects for his children while his wife nurses them in the nest why too did he help her to build that nest with toil and care this spring
for the sake of a set of nestlings who can be of no gain or use to him but only take the food out of his mouth simply out of what shall i call it my child love that same sense of love and duty
coming surely from that one fountain of all duty and all love which makes your father work for you that the mother should take care of her young is wonderful enough but that at least among many birds
the father should help likewise is as you will find out as you grow older more wonderful far so there already the old starling has set us two fresh puzzles about how and why neither of which we shall get answered
what a gay picture he is painting now with his light pencils for in them remember and not in the things themselves the colour lies see how where the hay has been already carried
he floods all the slopes with yellow light making them stand out sharp against the black shadows of the wood while where the grass is standing still he makes the sheets of sorrel flower blush rosy red
or dapples the field with white oxeyes but is not the sorrel itself red and the oxeyes white what colour are they at night when the sun is gone dark that is no colour
the very grass is not green at night oh but it is if you look at it with a lantern no no it is the light of the lantern which happens to be strong enough to make the leaves look green
though it is not strong enough to make a geranium look red not red no the geranium flowers by a lantern look black while the leaves look green if you don't believe me we will try
but why is that why i cannot tell and how you had best ask professor tyndall if you ever have the honour of meeting him but now hark to the mowing machine humming like a giant night jar
come up and look at it and see how swift and smooth it shears the long grass down so that in the middle of the swathe it seems to have merely fallen flat and you must move it before you find that it has been cut off ah
there is a proof to us of what men may do if they will only learn the lessons which madam how can teach them there is that boy fresh from the national school cutting more grass in a day than six strong mowers could have cut
and cutting it better too for the mowing machine goes so much nearer to the ground than the scythe that we gain by it two hundredweight of hay on every acre and see too how persevering old madam how will not stop her work
though the machine has cut off all the grass which she has been making for the last three months for as fast as we shear it off she makes it grow again there are fresh blades here at our feet a full inch long
which have sprung up in the last two days for the cattle when they are turned in next week but if the machine cuts all the grass the poor mowers will have nothing to do not so
they are all busy enough elsewhere there is plenty of other work to be done thank god and wholesomer and easier work than mowing with a burning sun on their backs drinking gallons of beer and getting first hot and then cold across the loins
to cripple them in their old age you delight in machinery because it is curious you should delight in it besides because it does good and nothing but good where it is used according to the laws of lady why with care
which they used to catch in the draught and dust of the unhealthiest place in the whole parish which is the old fashioned barn's floor and so we may hope in future years all heavy drudgery and dirty work
a live manure cart yes child if you had seen as i have seen in foreign lands poor women haggard dirty grown old before their youth was over
toiling up hill with baskets of foul manure upon their backs you would have said as i have said oh for madam how to cure that ignorance oh for lady why to cure that barbarism
oh that madam how would teach them that machinery must always be cheaper in the long run than human muscles and nerves oh that lady why would teach them that a woman is the most precious thing on earth and that if she be turned into a beast of burden
lady why and madam how likewise will surely avenge the wrongs of their human sister there you do not quite know what i mean and i do not care that you should
it is good for little folk that big folk should now and then talk over their heads as the saying is and make them feel how ignorant they are and how many solemn and earnest questions there are in the world on which they must make up their minds some day though not yet
but now we will talk about the hay or rather do you and the rest go and play in the hay and gather it up build forts of it
storm them pull them down build them up again shout laugh and scream till you are hot and tired you will please madam how thereby and lady why likewise how because madam how naturally wants her work to succeed
and she is at work now making you making me of course making a man of you out of a boy and that can only be done by the life blood which runs through and through you and the more you laugh and shout
the more pure air will pass into your blood and make it red and healthy and the more you romp and play unless you overtire yourself the quicker will that blood flow through all your limbs to make bone and muscle
but why does lady why like to see us play she likes to see you happy as she likes to see the trees and birds happy for she knows well that there is no food nor medicine either like happiness
if people are not happy enough they are often tempted to do many wrong deeds and to think many wrong thoughts and if by god's grace they know the laws of lady why and keep from sin still
unhappiness if it goes on too long wears them out body and mind and they grow ill and die of broken hearts and broken brains my child and so at last poor souls find rest beneath the cross
children too who are unhappy children who are bullied and frightened and kept dull and silent never thrive their bodies do not thrive for they grow up weak their minds do not thrive for they grow up dull their souls do not thrive
for they learn mean sly slavish ways which god forbid you should ever learn well said the wise man the human plant like the vegetables can only flower in sunshine so do you go and enjoy yourself in the sunshine
but remember this you know what happiness is then if you wish to please lady why and lady why's lord and king likewise you will never pass a little child without trying to make it happier even by a passing smile
and now be off and play in the hay and come back to me when you are tired
as you would find if you tried to see what makes that midsummer hum of which the haymakers are so fond because it promises fair weather why it is only the gnats and flies only the gnats and flies
you might study those gnats and flies for your whole life without finding out all or more than a very little about them i wish i knew how they move those tiny wings of theirs a thousand times in a second i dare say some of them
i wish i knew how far they know that they are happy for happy they must be whether they know it or not i wish i knew how they live at all i wish i even knew how many sorts there are humming round us at this moment how many kinds
but why should there be so many kinds of living things would not one or two have done just as well
why should there not have been only one sort of butterfly and he only of one colour a plain brown or a plain white and why should there be so many sorts of birds all robbing the garden at once
thrushes and blackbirds and sparrows and chaffinches and greenfinches and bullfinches and tomtits and there are four kinds of tomtits round here remember but we may go on with such talk for ever
however there is another question which madam how seems inclined to answer just now which is almost as deep and mysterious what how all these different kinds of things became different oh
do tell me not i you must begin at the beginning before you can end at the end or even make one step towards the end
you must learn the differences between things before you can find out how those differences came about you must learn madam how's alphabet before you can read her book and madam how's alphabet of animals and plants is species
kinds of things you must see which are like and which unlike what they are like in and what they are unlike in you are beginning to do that with your collection of butterflies you like to arrange them
and those that are most like nearest to each other and to compare them you must do that with thousands of different kinds of things before you can read one page of madam how's natural history book rightly
but it will take so much time and so much trouble god grant that you may not spend more time on worse matters and take more trouble over things which will profit you far less but so it must be willy nilly
you must learn the alphabet if you mean to read and you must learn the value of the figures before you can do a sum why what would you think of any one who sat down to play at cards for money too which i hope and trust you never will do
before he knew the names of the cards and which counted highest and took the other of course he would be very foolish just as foolish are those who make up theories as they call them about this world and how it was made
ah yes the old story my child was not the earth always just what it is now let us see for ourselves whether this was always a hay field how
just pick out all the different kinds of plants and flowers you can find round us here how many do you think there are oh there seem to be four or five
just as there were three or four kinds of flies in the air pick them child and count let us have facts how many what a dozen already yes and here is another and another why
and a little stitchwort and pignut and mouse ear hawkweed too which nobody wants why
what do you mean look outside the boundary fence at the moors and woods they are forest wild wald as the germans would call it inside the fence is field feld as the germans would call it
guess why is it because the trees inside have been felled well some say so who know more than i but now go over the fence and see how many of these plants you can find on the moor
oh i think i know
there are hardly any grasses on the moor save deer's hair and glade grass
at all events the plants outside are on the whole quite different from the hay field of course that is what makes the field look green and the moor brown not a doubt
they are so different that they look like bits of two different continents scrambling over the fence is like scrambling out of europe into australia now how was that difference made think don't guess but think
why does the rich grass come up to the bank and yet not spread beyond it i suppose because it cannot get over not get over would not the wind blow the seeds and the birds carry them they do get over
in millions i don't doubt every summer then why do they not grow think is there any difference in the soil inside and out a very good guess but guesses are no use without facts
look oh i remember now i know now the soil of the field is brown like the garden
so perhaps the top soils were once both alike i know well and what
i want you to look and think i want every one to look and think half the misery in the world comes first from not looking and then from not thinking and i do not want you to be miserable
but shall i be miserable if i do not find out such little things as this you will be miserable if you do not learn to understand little things because then you will not be able to understand great things when you meet them
what men call dreamers and bigots and fanatics causing misery to themselves and to all who deal with them so i say again think well
well done but why do you think so
and the brown soil only goes up to it well that is something like common sense now you will not say any more as the cows or the butterflies might that the hay field was always there
and how did men change the soil by tilling it with the plough to sweeten it and manuring it to make it rich and then did all these beautiful grasses grow up of themselves you ought to know that they most likely did not
yes well then do rich grasses come up on them now that they are broken up oh no nothing but groundsel and a few weeds
but this land was tilled for corn for hundreds of years i believe and just about one hundred years ago it was laid down in grass that is sown with grass seeds and where did men get the grass seeds from
ah that is a long story and one that shows our forefathers though they knew nothing about railroads or electricity were not such simpletons as some folks think
and many other parts of england and then they saved the seeds of those fattening wild grasses and sowed them in fresh spots often they made mistakes they were careless and got weeds among the seed
like the buttercups which do so much harm to this pasture or they sowed on soil which would not suit the seed and it died but at last
after many failures they have grown so careful and so clever that you may send to certain shops saying what sort of soil yours is
and they will send you just the seeds which will grow there and no other and then you have a good pasture for as long as you choose to keep it good and how is it kept good
do you think you can take all that away without putting anything in its place why not if i took all the butter out of the churn what must i do if i want more butter still
if i want more grass to grow i must put on the soil more of what grass is made of but the butter don't grow and the grass does what does the grass grow in the soil yes
just as the butter grows in the churn so you must put fresh grass stuff continually into the soil as you put fresh cream into the churn you have heard the farm men say that crop has taken a good deal out of the land
yes then they spoke exact truth what will that hay turn into by christmas can't you tell into milk of course which you will drink and into horseflesh too which you will use
use horseflesh not eat it no we have not got as far as that we did not even make up our minds to taste the cambridge donkey but every time the horse draws the carriage he uses up so much muscle
and that hay and corn must be put back again into the land by manure
for one cannot eat one's cake and keep it too and no more can one eat one's grass so this field is a truly wonderful place it is no ugly pile of brick and mortar
well and this hay field is a manufactory
and therefore it is a flesh and milk manufactory we must put into it every year yard stuff tank stuff guano bones and anything and everything of that kin
that madam how may cook it for us into grass and cook the grass again into milk and meat but if we don't give madam how material to work on we cannot expect her to work for us and what do you think will happen then
she will set to work for herself the rich grasses will dwindle for want of ammonia that is smelling salts and the rich clovers for want of phosphates
that is bone earth and in their places will come over the bank the old weeds and grass off the moor which have not room to get in now because the ground is coveted already they want no ammonia nor phosphates
it hath reached me o auspicious king that nuzhat al zaman continued
and it so befel him that he saw omar's son and gave him a dirham out of the treasury
i returned to my own house and while i was sitting there behold a messenger came to me from omar and i was afraid and went to him
and when i came into his presence in his hand was the dirham i had given his son he said to me
whereupon ziyad shed tears othman asked why weepest thou and ziyad answered i once brought omar bin al khattab the like of this and his son took a dirham
quoth omar o aslam i think these must be travellers who are suffering from the cold come let us join them
the cold and the night trouble us he asked what aileth these little people that they weep and she answered they are hungry he enquired and what is in this cauldron and she replied
it is what i quiet them withal and allah will question omar bin al khattab of them on the day of doom he said and what should omar know of their case why then rejoined she
should he manage people's affairs and yet be unmindful of them thereupon omar turned to me continned aslam and cried come with us so we set off running till we reached the pay department of his treasury
and a pot holding fat and said to me load these on my back
then he turned to me and said o aslam i see it was indeed hunger made them weep and i am glad i did not go away ere i found out the cause of the light i saw and shahrazad per ceived the dawn of day and ceased to say
her permitted say when it was the sixty fourth night she said it hath reached me o auspicious king that nuzhat al zaman continued it is related that omar passed by a flock of sheep
kept by a mameluke and asked him to sell him a sheep he answered they are not mine
and himself wear rough garments he rendered unto all men their due and exceeded in his giving to them he once gave a man four thousand dirhams
the due of kinship o hafsah replied he verily allah hath enjoined us to satisfy the dues of kinship but not with the monies of the true believers indeed thou pleasest thy family
being about to die sent for his son mohammed and admonished him saying o my son i see the summoner of death summoning me
to praise allah and to be soothfastin thy speech for such praise bringeth increase of prosperity and piety in itself is the best of provision for the next world even as saith one of the poets
i see not happiness lies in gathering gold the man most pious is man happiest in truth the fear of god is best of stores and god shall make the pious choicely blest
then quoth nuzhat al zaman
daughter of marwan and she sent to him saying i must needs speak to thee so she came to him by night
o aunt it is for thee to speak first since thou hast some thing to ask tell me then what thou wouldst with me replied she o commander of the faithful it is thine to speak first
for thy judgment perceiveth that which is hidden from the intelligence of others then said omar of a verity allah almighty sent mohammed as a blessing to some and a bane to others and he elected for him those with him
and commissioned him as his apostle and took him to himself and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day and ceased saying her permitted say when it was the sixty fifth night she said
it hath reached me o auspicious king that nuzhat al zaman continued thus said omar verily allah commissioned as his apostle mohammed upon whom be the benediction of allah and his salvation
but when othman arose to power
when fatimah heard this she said i came wishing only to speak and confer with thee but if this be thy word i have nothing to say to thee then she returned to the ommiades
how wilt thou leave thy children paupers and thou their protector none can hinder thee in thy lifetime from giving them what will suffice them out of the treasury and this indeed were better than leaving the good work to him who shall rule after thee
omar looked at him with a look of wrath and wonder and presently replied o maslamah i have defended them from this sin all the days of my life and shall i make them miserable after my death of a truth
my sons are like other men either obedient to almighty allah who will prosper them or disobedient and i will not help them in their disobedience know o maslamah that i was present even as thou
and i fell asleep by him and saw him in a dream given over to one of the punishments of allah to whom belong honour and glory
this terrified me and made me tremble and i vowed to allah that if ever i came to power i would not do such deeds as the dead man had done i have striven to fulfil this vow all the length of my life and i hope to die in the mercy of my lord
quoth maslamah a certain man died and i was present at his burial and when all was over i fell asleep and i saw him as a sleeper seeth a dream walking in a garden of flowing waters clad in white clothes
he came up to me and said o maslamah it is for the like of this that rulers should rule many are the instances of this kind and quoth one of the men of authority i used to milk the ewes in the caliphate of omar bin abd al aziz
and one day i met a shepherd among whose sheep i saw a wolf or wolves i thought them to be dogs for i had never before seen wolves so i asked what dost thou with these dogs
make clean your inmost hearts that your outward lives may be dean to your brethren and abstain ye from the things of the world know that between us and adam there is no one man alive among the dead
dead are abd al malik and those who forewent him and omar also shall die and those who forewent him asked maslamah o commander of the faithful
an we set a pillow behind thee wilt thou lean on it a little while but omar answered i fear lest it be a fault about my neck on resurrection day
she replied o commander of the faithful i saw thee lying prostrate before us and thought of thy prostration in death before almighty allah
this is what made me weep answered he enough o fatimah for indeed thou exceedest then he would have risen but fell down and fatimah strained him to her and said
thou art to me as my father and my mother o commander of the faithful we cannot speak to thee all of us then quoth nuzhat al zaman to her brother sharrkan and the four kazis here endeth
the second section of the first chapter and shahrazad perceived the dawn of day
whilst i was every day devoutly attending mass sermons and every office of the church i received from venice a letter containing the pleasant information that my affair had followed its natural course namely
that it was entirely forgotten and in another letter
that the minister had written to the venetian ambassador in rome with instructions to assure the holy father that baron bavois would immediately after his arrival in venice receive in the army of the republic an appointment
which would enable him to live honourably and to gain a high position by his talents
and i completed his happiness by telling him that nothing hindered me from going back to my native city he immediately made up his mind to go to modena in order to explain to his pupil how he was to act in venice
to open for himself the way to a brilliant fortune de la haye depended on me in every way he saw my fanaticism and he was well aware that it is a disease which rages as long as the causes from which it has sprung
are in existence as he was going with me to venice he flattered himself that he could easily feed the fire he had lighted therefore he wrote to bavois that he would join him immediately and two days after he took leave of me
weeping abundantly praising highly the virtues of my soul calling me his son his dear son and assuring me that his great affection for me had been caused by the mark of election which he had seen on my countenance after that
i felt my calling and election were sure a few days after the departure of de la haye i left parma in my carriage with which i parted in fusina and from there i proceeded to venice after an absence of a year
my three friends received me as if i had been their guardian angel they expressed their impatience to welcome the two saints announced by my letters
who had not yet entered the service of the republic two rooms had been engaged for bavois in the neighbourhood they were thoroughly amazed at the wonderful change which had taken place in my morals
every day attending mass often present at the preaching and at the other services never shewing myself at the casino
frequenting only a certain cafe which was the place of meeting for all men of acknowledged piety and reserve and always studying when i was not in their company when they compared my actual mode of living with the former one
they marvelled and they could not sufficiently thank the eternal providence of god whose inconceivable ways they admired they blessed the criminal actions which had compelled me to remain one year away from my native place
not having given me anything for one year had religiously put together every month the sum he had allowed me i need not say how pleased the worthy friends were when they saw that i had entirely given up gambling
i had a letter from de la haye in the beginning of may he announced that he was on the eve of starting with the son so dear to his heart and that he would soon place himself at the disposition of the respectable men to whom i had announced him
knowing the hour at which the barge arrived from modena we all went to meet them
we returned to the palace before him and when he came back finding us all together
i must give his portrait to my readers baron bavois was a young man of about twenty five of middle size handsome in features well made fair of an equable temper speaking well and with intelligence
and uttering his words with a tone of modesty which suited him exactly his features were regular and pleasing his teeth were beautiful his hair was long and fine
always well taken care of and exhaling the perfume of the pomatum with which it was dressed that individual who was the exact opposite of the man that de la haye had led me to imagine surprised my friends greatly
but their welcome did not in any way betray their astonishment for their pure and candid minds would not admit a judgment contrary to the good opinion they had formed of his morals
as soon as we had established de la haye in his beautiful apartment i accompanied bavois to the rooms engaged for him where his luggage had been sent by my orders
he found himself in very comfortable quarters and being received with distinction by his worthy host who was already greatly prejudiced in his favour the young baron embraced me warmly pouring out all his gratitude and assuring me
that he felt deeply all i had done for him without knowing him as de la haye had informed him of all that had occurred i pretended not to understand what he was alluding to and to change the subject of conversation
i asked him how he intended to occupy his time in venice until his military appointment gave him serious duties to perform i trust he answered
for i have no doubt that our inclinations are the same mercury and de la haye had so completely besotted me that i should have found some difficulty in understanding these words however intelligible they were
but if i did not go any further than the outward signification of his answer i could not help remarking that he had already taken the fancy of the two daughters of the house they were neither pretty nor ugly
but he shewed himself gracious towards them like a man who understands his business i had however already made such great progress in my mystical education that i considered the compliments he addressed to the girls as mere forms of politeness
for the first day i took my young baron only to the saint mark's square and to the cafe where we remained until supper time as it had been arranged that he would take his meals with us at the supper table
named an hour for the next day when he intended to present him to the secretary for war in the evening i accompanied him to his lodging where i found that the two young girls were delighted because the young swiss nobleman had no servant and because they hoped to convince him
this did not indicate a sainted man yet my two friends did not feel scandalized although their astonishment was very evident for they had not expected that show of gallantry from a young neophyte
we would not have time to hear mass whereupon bavois enquired whether it was a festival
answered negatively and after that mass was not again mentioned when bavois was ready i left them and went a different way i met them again at dinner time during which
the reception given to the young baron by the secretary was discussed and in the evening
in less than a week he was so well known that there was no fear of his time hanging wearily on his hands but that week was likewise enough to give me a perfect insight into his nature and way of thinking
i should not have required such a long study if i had not at first begun on a wrong scent or rather if my intelligence had not been stultified by my fanaticism bavois was particularly fond of women of gambling
of every luxury and as he was poor women supplied him with the best part of his resources as to religious faith
such as you are to deceive de la haye god forbid i should deceive anyone de la haye is perfectly well aware of my system and of my way of thinking on religious matters but being himself very devout
he entertains a holy sympathy for my soul and i do not object to it he has bestowed many kindnesses upon me and i feel grateful to him
my affection for him is all the greater because he never teases me with his dogmatic lessons or with sermons respecting my salvation of which i have no doubt that god in his fatherly goodness will take care all this is settled between de la haye and me
and we live on the best of terms the best part of the joke is that while i was studying him bavois without knowing it restored my mind to its original state and i was ashamed of myself when i realized that i had been the dupe of a jesuit
who was an arrant hypocrite in spite of the character of holiness which he assumed and which he could play with such marvellous ability from that moment i fell again into all my former practices but let us return to de la haye
that late jesuit who in his inmost heart loved nothing but his own comfort already advanced in years and therefore no longer caring for the fair sex was exactly the sort of man to please my simpleminded trio of friends
as he never spoke to them but of god of his angels and of everlasting glory and as he was always accompanying them to church they found him a delightful companion they longed for the time when he would discover himself
they felt grieved because the oracle had forbidden them through my cabalistic lips ever to mention my science in the presence of tartufe as i had foreseen
that interdiction left me to enjoy as i pleased all the time that i would have been called upon to devote to their devout credulity and besides i was naturally afraid lest de la haye such as i truly believed him to be would never lend himself to that trifling nonsense
and would for the sake of deserving greater favour at their hands endeavour to undeceive them and to take my place in their confidence i soon found out that i had acted with prudence for in less than three weeks
the cunning fox had obtained so great an influence over the mind of my three friends that he was foolish enough not only to believe that he did not want me any more to support his credit with them but likewise that he could supplant me whenever he chose
i could see it clearly in his way of addressing me as well as in the change in his proceedings he was beginning to hold with my friends frequent conversations to which i was not summoned and he had contrived to make them introduce him
to several families which i was not in the habit of visiting he assumed his grand jesuitic airs and although with honeyed word he would take the liberty of censuring me because i sometimes spent a night out and as he would say god knows where
i was particularly vexed at his seeming to accuse me of leading his pupil astray he then would assume the tone of a man speaking jestingly but i was not deceived i thought it was time to put an end to his game
and with that intention i paid him a visit in his bedroom when i was seated i said i come as a true worshipper of the gospel to tell you in private something that another time i would say in public what is it my dear friend
i advise you for the future not to hurl at me the slightest taunt respecting the life i am leading with bavois when we are in the presence of my three worthy friends i do not object to listen to you when we are alone
you are wrong in taking my innocent jests seriously wrong or right that does not matter why do you never attack your proselyte be careful for the future or i might on my side and only in jest like you
throw at your head some repartee which you have every reason to fear and thus repay you with interest and bowing to him i left his room
anything that might be recommended or even insinuated by valentine that was the cabalistic name of the disciple of escobar i knew i could rely upon their obedience to that order de la haye soon took notice of some slight change he became more reserved and bavois
whom i informed of what i had done gave me his full approbation he felt convinced as i was that de la haye had been useful to him only through weak or selfish reasons that is that he would have cared little for his soul if his face had not been handsome
and if he had not known that he would derive important advantages from having caused his so called conversion finding that the venetian government was postponing his appointment from day to day bavois entered the service of the french ambassador
but even to give up his intercourse with de la haye who was the guest of that senator it is one of the strictest laws of the republic that the patricians and their families shall not hold any intercourse with the foreign ambassadors and their suites
but the decision taken by bavois did not prevent my friends speaking in his favour and they succeeded in obtaining employment for him as will be seen further on the husband of christine whom i never visited invited me to go to the casino
which he was in the habit of frequenting with his aunt and his wife who had already presented him with a token of their mutual affection i accepted his invitation and i found christine as lovely as ever and speaking the venetian dialect like her husband
i made in that casino the acquaintance of a chemist who inspired me with the wish to follow a course of chemistry i went to his house where i found a young girl who greatly pleased me
she was a neighbour and came every evening to keep the chemist's elderly wife company and at a regular hour
i had never made love to her but once in a trifling sort of way and in the presence of the old lady but i was surprised not to see her after that for several days and i expressed my astonishment
the good lady told me that very likely the girl's cousin an abbe with whom she was residing had heard of my seeing her every evening had become jealous and would not allow her to come again an abbe jealous why not
he never allows her to go out except on sundays to attend the first mass at the church of santa maria mater domini close by his dwelling he did not object to her coming here because he knew that we never had any visitors and very likely he has heard through the servant of your being here every evening
a great enemy to all jealous persons and a greater friend to my amorous fancies i wrote to the young girl that if she would leave her cousin for me i would give her a house in which she should be the mistress
i added that i would be in the church on the following sunday to receive her answer i did not forget my appointment and her answer was that the abbe being her tyrant she would consider herself happy to escape out of his clutches
but that she could not make up her mind to follow me unless i consented to marry her she concluded her letter by saying that in case i entertained honest intentions towards her i had only to speak to her mother jeanne marchetti
this letter piqued my curiosity and i even imagined that she had written it in concert with the abbe thinking that they wanted to dupe me and besides finding the proposal of marriage ridiculous i determined on having my revenge
but i wanted to get to the bottom of it and i made up my mind to see the girl's mother she felt honoured by my visit and greatly pleased when after i had shewn her her daughter's letter
i told her that i wished to marry her but that i should never think of it as long as she resided with the abbe that abbe she said is a distant relative he used to live alone in his house in venice and two years ago he told me that he was in want of a housekeeper
he asked me to let my daughter go to him in that capacity assuring me that in venice she would have good opportunities of getting married he offered to give me a deed in writing stating that on the day of her marriage he would give her all his furniture valued at about
and the inheritance of a small estate
it seemed to me a good bargain and my daughter being pleased with the offer i accepted he gave me the deed duly drawn by a notary and my daughter went with him
nevertheless i need not tell you that my most ardent wish is to see her married for as long as a girl is without a husband she is too much exposed to temptation and the poor mother cannot rest in peace then come to venice with me
you will take your daughter out of the abbe's house and i will make her my wife unless that is done i cannot marry her for i should dishonour myself if i received my wife from his hands oh no
for he is my cousin although only in the fourth degree and what is more he is a priest and says the mass every day you make me laugh my good woman everybody knows that a priest says the mass without depriving himself of certain trifling enjoyments
take your daughter with you or give up all hope of ever seeing her married but if i take her with me he will not give her his furniture and perhaps he will sell his small estate here i undertake to look to that part of the business
i promise to take her out of his hands and to make her come back to you with all the furniture and to obtain the estate when she is my wife if you knew me better you would not doubt what i say come to venice and i assure you
that you shall return here in four or five days with your daughter she read the letter which had been written to me by her daughter again and told me that being a poor widow she had not the money necessary to pay the expenses of her journey to venice or of her return to louisa
in venice you shall not want for anything i said in the mean time here are ten sequins ten sequins then i can go with my sister in law come with anyone you like but let us go soon so as to reach chiozza where we must sleep
to morrow we shall dine in venice and i undertake to defray all expenses we arrived in venice the next day at ten o'clock and i took the two women to castello to a house the first floor of which was empty
i left them there and provided with the deed signed by the abbe i went to dine with my three friends to whom i said that i had been to chiozza on important business after dinner i called upon the lawyer marco de lesse
who told me that if the mother presented a petition to the president of the council of ten she would immediately be invested with power to take her daughter away with all the furniture in the house which she could send wherever she pleased i instructed him to have the petition ready
saying that i would come the next morning with the mother who would sign it in his presence i brought the mother early in the morning and after she had signed the petition we went to the boussole where she presented it to the president of the council
and of all the furniture which she would immediately take away the order was carried into execution to the very letter i was with the mother in a gondola as near as possible to the house
and i had provided a large boat in which the sbirri stowed all the furniture found on the premises when it was all done the daughter was brought to the gondola and she was extremely surprised to see me her mother kissed her and told her that i would be her husband the very next day
she answered that she was delighted and that nothing had been left in her tyrant's house except his bed and his clothes when we reached castello i ordered the furniture to be brought out of the boat we had dinner and i told the three women that they must go back to lusia
where i would join them as soon as i had settled all my affairs i spent the afternoon gaily with my intended she told us that the abbe was dressing when the bailiff presented the order of the council of ten with injunctions to allow its free execution under penalty of death
that the abbe finished his toilet went out to say his mass and that everything had been done without the slightest opposition i was told she added
but i did not expect to find you and i never suspected that you were at the bottom of the whole affair it is the first proof i give you of my love these words made her smile very pleasantly i took care to have a good supper and some excellent wines
and after we had spent two hours at table in the midst of the joys of bacchus i devoted four more to a pleasant tete a tete with my intended bride the next morning after breakfast i had the whole of the furniture stowed in a peotta
which i had engaged for the purpose and paid for beforehand i gave ten more sequins to the mother and sent them away all three in great delight
early next morning dot came out of the house with a basket on her arm so big and heavy she could hardly carry it indeed she stopped several times between the house and the gap in the big hedge to set the basket down while she rested
once she was sorely tempted to chase a pretty butterfly that fluttered lazily over the lawn near by but a glance at the basket and a thought of tot
and so she trudged steadily on and passed through the hedge
and his face and hands had been freshly washed for the important occasion when he saw dot's basket his eyes grew big and round and he asked what you got oh that's our lunch said the girl setting down her burden with a sigh of relief
what's lunch demanded tot why something to eat you know she answered oh said tot then he looked at the basket with new interest and asked
yes replied dot with some pride i begged cook to give me all the good things she had in the pantry cause you and i are going to have a picnic and eat our lunch down by the river
to the top cause cook always does anything i ask and it's a great big basket tot too yes answered tot gravely big basket then he jumped up and all eagerness approached the basket let's eat it he exclaimed
oh no cried dot reprovingly it isn't time for lunch yet and i've just had my breakfast but we'll go down to the river and start the picnic right away and if you're good tot perhaps i'll give you just one piece of jelly cake before lunch time
tot's mother came out and kissed her boy good bye and then he and dot took hold of the handle of the big basket and started for the river of course it took them a long time to get there for often they set down the basket to pick flowers or watch a robin redbreast
carrying food to its nest full of babies or to run over the soft close cropped grass and chase each other in very joyful and good spirits but they always returned to the basket and at last carried it down to the water's edge
where they placed it upon a large flat stone that will be our table when it's time for lunch said dot time now remarked tot wistfully not yet said the girl but you shall have the jelly cake
cause there's plenty to last all day so she drew aside the white cloth that covered the basket and took out two big slices of cake one for tot and one for herself while they ate it they walked along the shore
the river was entirely deserted by boats for it was a warm day and even the fisher folk did not care to be out on the opposite shore were great walls of rock rising up from the river but at the foot of the cliffs were bushy trees that lined the further edge of the water
just like whiskers said tot so they are from here agreed dot but if we were on the other side of the river we would find them to be big trees it's because they are so far away that they look like the river's whiskers
they walked farther along the shore until they were past the grounds of roselawn and then turning a little bend in the river they came to some low bushes growing down by the water oh tot cried the girl
let us go back and fetch the basket tot followed obediently for he recognized dot as the leader not only because she was older but because she possessed the wonderful basket of good things
they walked back to the big stone where they had left the basket and after a good deal of labor managed to carry it to the grove of low trees pushing the branches aside they crept through the bushes until they reached the edge of the river and then dot uttered
an exclamation of delight here's a boat she said and a pretty boat too i wonder whom it belongs to but never mind there's no one here so we will climb into it and eat our luncheon on the seats it really was a pretty boat
painted all white except for a red stripe running along the outer edge there was a broad seat at each end and two seats in the middle and in the bottom of the boat under the seats were two oars one end of the boat was drawn up on the shore
while the rest of it lay quietly upon the water but the branches of the trees threw a cool shade over all and it seemed to dot and tot the most pleasant place to eat their luncheon they carried the basket to the broad seat farthest out in the water
let's play house said tot not house corrected dot we'll play this is a ship and we're on a trip across the ocean won't it be jolly
sitting upon the bottom of the boat close to the seat which formed their table they laughed and talked and ate their luncheon with the keen appetites all healthy children have the time passed so quickly they never knew how long they sat there but suddenly tot exclaimed
it's hot and put on his hat to keep the sun from his head dot looked up surprised to find that the sun was indeed shining full upon them then she noticed that the shade of the trees was gone and only the blue of the sky was over the boat
so his mother undressed him put him to bed and had the tea pot brought in to make him a good cup of elderflower tea just at that moment the merry old man came in who lived up a top of the house all alone
but he liked children very much and knew so many fairy tales
now drink your tea said the boy's mother then perhaps you may hear a fairy tale if i had but something new to tell said the old man but how did the child get his feet wet that is the very thing that nobody can make out said his mother
am i to hear a fairy tale asked the little boy yes if you can tell me exactly for i must know that first how deep the gutter is in the little street opposite that you pass through in going to school
just up to the middle of my boot said the child but then i must go into the deep hole
that's where the wet feet came from said the old man i ought now to tell you a story but i don't know any more you can make one in a moment said the little boy my mother says that
all you look at can be turned into a fairy tale and that you can find a story in everything yes but such tales and stories are good for nothing the right sort come of themselves they tap at my forehead and say here we are
won't there be a tap soon asked the little boy and his mother laughed put some elder flowers in the tea pot and poured boiling water upon them do tell me something pray do yes if a fairy tale
would come of its own accord but they are proud and haughty and come only when they choose
i have it pay attention there is one in the tea pot and the little boy looked at the tea pot the cover rose more and more and the elder flowers came forth so fresh and white and shot up long branches
out of the spout even did they spread themselves on all sides and grew larger and larger it was a splendid elderbush a whole tree and it reached into the very bed and pushed the curtains aside how it bloomed and what an odour
in the middle of the bush sat a friendly looking old woman in a most strange dress it was quite green like the leaves of the elder and was trimmed with large white elder flowers so that at first
a stuff or a natural green and real flowers
the greeks and romans said the old man called her a dryad but that we do not understand the people who live in the new booths have a much better name for her they call her old granny'
and she it is to whom you are to pay attention now listen
and were soon to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage but they could not exactly recollect the date and old granny sat in the tree and looked as pleased as now i know the date said she
but those below did not hear her for they were talking about old times
and we stuck slips in the ground and made a garden i remember it well said the old woman i remember it quite well we watered the slips and one of them was an elderbush it took root put forth green shoots and
grew up to be the large tree under which we old folks are now sitting to be sure said he and there in the corner stood a waterpail where i used to swim my boats true but first we went to school to learn somewhat
said she and then we were confirmed we both cried but in the afternoon we went up the round tower and looked down on copenhagen and far far away over the water then we went to friedericksberg
yes many a time have i wept for your sake said she i thought you were dead and gone and lying down in the deep waters many a night have i got up to see if the wind had not changed and changed it had sure enough
but you never came i remember so well one day when the rain was pouring down in torrents the scavengers were before the house where i was in service and i had come up with the dust and remained standing at the door
it was dreadful weather when just as i was there the postman came and gave me a letter it was from you what a tour that letter had made i opened it instantly and read i laughed and wept i was so happy
in it i read that you were in warm lands where the coffee tree grows what a blessed land that must be
and i standing there with the dust box at the same moment came someone who embraced me yes but you gave him a good box on his ear that made it tingle but i did not know it was you
that you still are and had a long yellow silk handkerchief round your neck and a bran new hat on oh you were so dashing good heavens what weather it was and what a state the street was in
and then we married said he don't you remember and then we had our first little boy and then mary and nicholas and peter and christian yes and how they all grew up to be honest people and were beloved by everybody
and their children also have children said the old sailor yes those are our grand children full of strength and vigor it was methinks about this season that we had our wedding yes this very day is the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage said old granny
sticking her head between the two old people who thought it was their neighbor who nodded to them they looked at each other and held one another by the hand soon after came their children and their grand children for they knew well enough that it was the day of the fiftieth anniversary
and had come with their gratulations that very morning but the old people had forgotten it although they were able to remember all that had happened many years ago and the elderbush sent forth a strong odour in the sun that was just about to set
and shone right in the old people's faces they both looked so rosy cheeked and the youngest of the grandchildren danced around them and called out quite delighted that there was to be something very splendid that evening
they were all to have hot potatoes and old nanny nodded in the bush and shouted hurrah with the rest but that is no fairy tale said the little boy who was listening to the story
the thing is you must understand it said the narrator let us ask old nanny that was no fairy tale tis true said old nanny but now it's coming the most wonderful fairy tales grow out of that which is reality
and then she took the little boy out of bed laid him on her bosom and the branches of the elder tree full of flowers closed around her they sat in an aerial dwelling and it flew with them through the air oh it was wondrous beautiful
old nanny had grown all of a sudden a young and pretty maiden but her robe was still the same green stuff with white flowers which she had worn before on her bosom she had a real elderflower and in her yellow waving hair a wreath of the flowers
she kissed the boy and now they were of the same age and felt alike hand in hand they went out of the bower and they were standing in the beautiful garden of their home near the green lawn papa's walking stick was tied
the round polished knob was turned into a magnificent neighing head
fluttered in the breeze and four slender yet strong legs shot out the animal was strong and handsome and away they went at full gallop round the lawn huzza now we are riding miles off said the boy
we are riding away to the castle where we were last year
and the little maiden who we know was no one else but old nanny kept on crying out now we are in the country don't you see the farm house yonder
standing beside it and the cock is scraping away the earth for the hens look how he struts and now we are close to the church it lies high upon the hill between the large oak trees one of which is half decayed
and now we are by the smithy where the fire is blazing and where the half naked men are banging with their hammers till the sparks fly about away away to the beautiful country seat and all that the little maiden who sat behind on the stick spoke of
flew by in reality the boy saw it all and yet they were only going round the grass plot then they played in a side avenue and marked out a little garden on the earth and they took elder blossoms from their
planted them and they grew just like those the old people planted when they were children as related before they went hand in hand as the old people had done when they were children but not to the round tower or to friedericksberg no
the little damsel wound her arms round the boy and then they flew far away through all denmark and spring came and summer and then it was autumn and then winter and a thousand pictures were reflected in the eye and in the heart of the boy
and the little girl always sang to him this you will never forget and during their whole flight the elder tree smelt so sweet and odorous he remarked the roses and the fresh beeches but the elder tree had a more wondrous fragrance for its flowers
hung on the breast of the little maiden and there too did he often lay his head during the flight it is lovely here in spring said the young maiden and they stood in a beech wood that had just put on its first green where the woodroof
at their feet sent forth its fragrance and the pale red anemony looked so pretty among the verdure oh
and she flew past old castles of by gone days of chivalry where the red walls and the embattled gables were mirrored in the canal where the swans were swimming and peered up into the old cool avenues
in the fields the corn was waving like the sea in the ditches red and yellow flowers were growing while wild drone flowers and blooming convolvuluses were creeping in the hedges and towards evening the moon rose round and large
and the haycocks in the meadows smelt so sweetly this one never forgets it is lovely here in autumn said the little maiden and suddenly the atmosphere grew as blue again as before the forest grew red
and green and yellow colored the dogs came leaping along and whole flocks of wild fowl flew over the cairn where blackberry bushes were hanging round the old stones the sea was dark blue covered with ships full of white sails
and in the barn old women maidens and children were sitting picking hops into a large cask the young sang songs but the old told fairy tales of mountain sprites and soothsayers nothing could be more charming
and all the trees were covered with hoar frost they looked like white corals the snow crackled under foot as if one had new boots on and one falling star after the other was seen in the sky
the christmas tree was lighted in the room presents were there and good humor reigned in the country the violin sounded in the room of the peasant the newly baked cakes were attacked even the poorest child said
it is really delightful here in winter yes it was delightful and the little maiden showed the boy everything and the elder tree still was fragrant and the red flag with the white cross was still waving
the flag under which the old seaman in the new booths had sailed and the boy grew up to be a lad and was to go forth in the wide world far
far away to warm lands where the coffee tree grows but at his departure the little maiden took an elder blossom from her bosom
and it was placed between the leaves of his prayer book and when in foreign lands he opened the book
and the more he looked at it the fresher it became
the fragrance of the danish groves and from among the leaves of the flowers he could distinctly see the little maiden peeping forth
and then she whispered it is delightful here in spring summer autumn and winter and a hundred visions glided before his mind thus passed many years and he was now an old man and sat with his old wife under the blooming tree
they held each other by the hand as the old grand father and grand mother yonder in the new booths did and they talked exactly like them of old times and of the fiftieth anniversary of their wedding
nodded to both of them and said to day is the fiftieth anniversary
then like gold and when they laid them on the heads of the old people each flower became a golden crown so there they both sat like a king and a queen under the fragrant tree that looked exactly like an elder
the old man told his wife the story of old nanny as it had been told him when a boy and it seemed to both of them it contained much that resembled their own history
some call me old nanny others a dryad but in reality my name is remembrance tis i who sit in the tree that grows and grows i can remember i can tell things let me see if you have my flower still
and the old man opened his prayer book there lay the elder blossom as fresh as if it had been placed there but a short time before and remembrance nodded and the old people decked with crowns of gold sat in the flush of the evening sun
they closed their eyes and and yes that's the end of the story the little boy lay in his bed he did not know if he had dreamed or not or if he had been listening while someone told him the story
and he did go how splendid that was said the little boy mother i have been to warm countries
when one has drunk two good cupfuls of elder flower tea tis likely enough one goes into warm climates and she tucked him up nicely least he should take cold you have had a good sleep while i have been sitting here and arguing with him
i don't know yes yes it's walt he's breathing what shall i do drag him over to one side i've got mister phipps here i'll have him over there in a minute tad began tugging with hands under the shoulders of the guide
understanding instinctively that he must get him where they could work over him and try to bring him back to consciousness something whizzed by in the darkness
i i don't know answered tad yes i do too it
the lad's knees went weak under him when it came to him that he had only a second before dragged the unconscious figure of the young engineer from that very track
it was a roar heavier than any that they had heard before and as near as they could tell it was from the direction that they had come hurry ned shouted tad butler fairly electrified by the thought that suddenly flashed over him what is it what is it i i don't know
we're dead ones then cried ned be quick ned grab walt and run as you never ran before on on keep to your right
with his heavy burden with almost marvelous speed under the circumstances he was none too soon
then came the heart rending crash the car of ore had plunged into the wreck of their empty car hurling rocks in all directions had they remained where they had been there would have been none left to tell the story of their experiences i guess it's all over shouted ned
but there will be more soon and some of them may hit us in obedience to tad's command ned dragged walter along a few rods further where on a curve both boys laid down their burdens
tom phipps under the rough treatment that he had received was stirring and making an effort to sit up tad helped him along by slapping him vigorously between the shoulders ned was shaking walter almost savagely wake up walt wake up
what's the matter with you walter groaned by this time tom phipps had partially
tad's heart leaped with joy walt will be all right in a minute i guess ned informed him and so will mister phipps
we've had an accident mister phipps replied tad how do you feel as if i had been put through the ore mill did we have a smash i should say we did who's hurt walter was knocked out too
ned thinks the boy is not hurt very badly no i'm half scared to death
which track are we on demanded phipps suddenly trying to locate his position our own
i'll thank you later there must be a cross cut near here if we can find it we'll be able to get to a point where i can telephone them to hold back the cars they'll fill the tunnel before they know anything has happened if i don't get word to them at once
i should think they would miss the cars they should answered the engineer is your friend able to walk
yes i can run if it will take me out of this terrible place any sooner then we'll run decided tom phipps i must have gotten an awful hit on my right leg for i can scarcely bear my weight upon it
shall i rub it for you asked tad no we haven't time we must look for that cross cut which leads into the number eleven drift
i know that answered tad he shuddered as he recalled the black projectile like object that had whisked by him just after he had pulled mister phipps from the return track
where he could notify the terminals to stop the cars he did not confide this to his young friends not wishing to disturb them any more than they had been all hands started on a trot now stumbling now falling but without a single murmur or protest
never saw anything to equal you gasped the engineer i can't forgive myself for getting you into this wretched mix up you never mind us we're all right answered tad brightly i'm sorry you got knocked out so here's the cross cut cried the miner
the boys breathed a sigh of relief now run as if the indians were after you i'm in a bigger hurry than i ever have been in my life and run they did the boys had no idea what tom phipps's reasons were for urging such haste upon them
but they knew they must be urgent ones tad found himself wondering what new peril might be facing them he decided that the assistant superintendent must be seeking to protect the company's property by stopping the sending of more cars through the tunnel
yet if this were so why had the guide urged them to such haste no said tad to himself it's something that we don't know anything about but unless i am greatly mistaken we are going to find out pretty soon
in this the boy was right they were to find out what it was that tom phipps feared and in a manner that they would not soon forget
little higher than their heads and was very narrow so that by raising their elbows they could barely touch the sides and keep themselves in the middle of the passage way look out for a turn just ahead warned phipps after that it is straight away
the turn which they made a few seconds later tad imagined led back toward the place where the car had started from but they came to the end of the passage abruptly they caught a faint click and instantly they were surrounded by dazzling light
as soon as they became used to the brightness they discovered that they were in a sort of chamber which looked as if it had been worn out by constant and long action of water instantly upon switching on the light the young engineer sprang to a telephone on the wall
tad observed that the wires from it followed out into the passage through which they had entered the assistant superintendent was telephoning now and the lads listened intently hello hello called phipps in an impatient voice yes who's this
acomb say acomb there's been a wreck on the number one track just west of here two cars smashed one loaded the other carrying myself and some young men guests of the company don't let any more through until the wreck is cleared away
send an empty along with the wrecking crew so we can get out what's that tom phipps shuffled his feet about nervously on the stone floor hurry then hurry yes we're all here but hurry the boys instinctively drew near
they imagined that they could hear each other's hearts beat so tense was the silence he turned halfway around to glance at the boys is it anything serious asked ned in a strained voice i hope not i can't tell you just yet
we shall know in a minute well send some one for him he snapped answering something the man at the other end of the line had said to him hello hello that you bob did acomb tell you of our predicament yes
what i wanted to say was don't for goodness sake send out the red car while the line is blocked the red car repeated ned and tad in one voice neither knew what it meant
what gone gone groaned phipps are you sure how long ago ten minutes shut off the current quick i hope so the assistant superintendent hung up the telephone deliberately and turned toward them
the boys observed that his face was white and drawn what what is it asked tad there's a car of dynamite
the fighting begins saturday lives in my memory as a day of suspense it was a day of lassitude too hot and close with i am told a rapidly fluctuating barometer
i had slept but little though my wife had succeeded in sleeping and i rose early
but towards the common there was nothing stirring but a lark the milkman came as usual i heard the rattle of his chariot
he told me that during the night the martians had been surrounded by troops and that guns were expected then a familiar reassuring note i heard a train running towards woking
they aren't to be killed said the milkman if that can possibly be avoided
and then strolled in to breakfast it was a most unexceptional morning
or to destroy the martians during the day it's a pity they make themselves so unapproachable he said it would be curious to know how they live on another planet
he came up to the fence and extended a handful of strawberries for his gardening was as generous as it was enthusiastic at the same time he told me of the burning of the pine woods about the byfleet golf links
they say said he that there's another of those blessed things fallen there number two but one's enough surely this lot'll cost the insurance people a pretty penny before everything's settled
the woods he said were still burning and pointed out a haze of smoke to me they will be hot under foot for days on account of the thick soil of pine needles and turf he said and then grew serious over
poor ogilvy after breakfast instead of working i decided to walk down towards the common
dirty red jackets unbuttoned
i saw one of the cardigan men standing sentinel there i talked with these soldiers for a time i told them of my sight of the martians on the previous evening none of them had seen the martians
they said that they did not know who had
their idea was that a dispute had arisen at the horse guards the ordinary sapper is a great deal better educated than the common soldier and they discussed the peculiar conditions of the possible fight with some acuteness
i described the heat ray to them and they began to argue among themselves crawl up under cover and rush em say i said one
blow yer trenches you always want trenches
been born a rabbit snippy ain't they got any necks then said a third abruptly a little contemplative dark man smoking a pipe i repeated my description octopuses said he that's what i calls em
talk about fishers of men fighters of fish it is this time it ain't no murder killing beasts like that said the first speaker
you carn tell what they might do where's your shells said the first speaker there ain't no time
so they discussed it after a while i left them and went on to the railway station to get as many morning papers as i could but i will not weary the reader with a description of that long morning and of the longer afternoon
i did not succeed in getting a glimpse of the common for even horsell and chobham church towers were in the hands of the military authorities the soldiers i addressed didn't know anything
that his son was among the dead on the common the soldiers had made the people on the outskirts of horsell lock up and leave their houses i got back to lunch about two very tired for as i have said the day was extremely hot and dull
and in order to refresh myself i took a cold bath in the afternoon about half past four i went up to the railway station to get an evening paper for the morning papers had contained only a very inaccurate description of the killing of stent
henderson ogilvy and the others but there was little i didn't know
and an almost continuous streamer of smoke
fresh attempts have been made to signal but without success was the stereotyped formula of the papers a sapper told me it was done by a man in a ditch with a flag on a long pole the martians took as much notice of such advances
as we should of the lowing of a cow i must confess the sight of all this armament all this preparation greatly excited me my imagination became belligerent and defeated the invaders in a dozen striking ways
something of my schoolboy dreams of battle and heroism came back
about three o'clock there began the thud of a gun at measured intervals from chertsey or addlestone i learned that the smouldering pine wood into which the second cylinder had fallen was being shelled
it was only about five however
about six in the evening as i sat at tea with my wife in the summerhouse talking vigorously about the battle that was lowering upon us i heard a muffled detonation from the common and immediately after a gust of firing
close on the heels of that came a violent rattling crash quite close to us that shook the ground and starting out upon the lawn i saw the tops of the trees about the oriental college burst into smoky red flame
and the tower of the little church beside it slide down into ruin the pinnacle of the mosque had vanished and the roof line of the college itself
one of our chimneys cracked as if a shot had hit it flew and a piece of it came clattering down the tiles
upon the flower bed by my study window i and my wife stood amazed
now that the college was cleared out of the way at that
then i fetched out the servant telling her i would go upstairs myself for the box she was clamouring for we can't possibly stay here i said and as i spoke the firing reopened for a moment upon the common
said my wife in terror i thought perplexed then i remembered her cousins at leatherhead leatherhead i shouted above the sudden noise she looked away from me downhill the people were coming out of their houses astonished
how are we to get to leatherhead she said
three galloped through the open gates of the oriental college two others dismounted and began running from house to house
seemed blood red and threw an unfamiliar lurid light upon everything stop here said i you are safe here and i started off at once for the spotted dog
i ran for i perceived that in a moment everyone upon this side of the hill would be moving i found him in his bar quite unaware of what was going on behind his house a man stood
i must have a pound said the landlord and i've no one to drive it
lord said the landlord what's the hurry i'm selling my bit of a pig
what's going on now i explained hastily that i had to leave my home and so secured the dog cart at the time it did not seem to me
i took care to have the cart there and then drove it off down the road and leaving it in charge of my wife and servant rushed into my house and packed a few valuables such plate as we had and so forth
the beech trees below the house were burning while i did this and the palings up the road glowed red while i was occupied in this way one of the dismounted hussars came running up he was going from house to house warning people to leave
i shouted after him what news he turned stared bawled something about crawling out in a thing like a dish cover
a sudden whirl of black smoke driving across the road hid him for a moment i ran to my neighbour's door and rapped to satisfy myself of what i already knew that his wife had gone to london with him
i went in again according to my promise to get my servant's box lugged it out
in another moment we were clear of the smoke and noise and spanking down the opposite slope of maybury hill towards old woking
and the maybury inn with its swinging sign i saw the doctor's cart ahead of me at the bottom of the hill i turned my head to look at the hillside i was leaving thick streamers of black smoke
shot with threads of red fire were driving up into the still air and throwing dark shadows upon the green treetops eastward the smoke already extended far away to the east and west to the byfleet pine woods eastward
and to woking on the west the road was dotted with people running towards us and very faint now but very distinct through the hot quiet air one heard the whirr of a machine gun
had immediately to turn my attention to the horse when i looked back again the second hill had hidden the black smoke i slashed the horse with the whip and gave him a loose rein until woking and send lay between us and that quivering tumult
of all the strange and wonderful things that happened upon that friday was the dovetailing of the commonplace habits of our social order with the first beginnings of the series of events that was to topple that social order headlong
if on friday night you had taken a pair of compasses
if you would have had one human being outside it unless it were some relation of stent
many people had heard of the cylinder of course and talked about it in their leisure but it certainly did not make the sensation that an ultimatum to germany would have done in london that night poor henderson's telegram
and his evening paper after wiring for authentication from him and receiving no reply
all over the district people were dining and supping working men were gardening after the labours of the day
students sat over their books maybe there was a murmur in the village streets
and here and there a messenger
caused a whirl of excitement a shouting and a running to and fro but for the most part the daily routine of working eating drinking sleeping went on as it had done for countless years
as though no planet mars existed in the sky even at woking station and horsell and chobham that was the case in woking junction until a late hour trains were stopping and going on
others were shunting on the sidings passengers were alighting and waiting and everything was proceeding in the most ordinary way a boy from the town trenching on smith's monopoly was selling papers with the afternoon's news
the ringing impact of trucks the sharp whistle of the engines from the junction mingled with their shouts of men from mars excited men came into the station about nine o'clock with incredible tidings
and caused no more disturbance than drunkards might have done people rattling londonwards peered into the darkness outside the carriage windows and saw only a rare flickering vanishing spark dance up from the direction of horsell
a red glow and a thin veil of smoke driving across the stars and thought that nothing more serious than a heath fire was happening it was only round the edge of the common that any disturbance was perceptible
there were half a dozen villas burning on the woking border
a curious crowd lingered restlessly people coming and going but the crowd remaining
one or two adventurous souls it was afterwards found went into the darkness and crawled quite near the martians but they never returned for now and again a light ray
swept the common and the heat ray was ready to follow save for such that big area of common was silent and desolate and the charred bodies lay about on it all night under the stars and all the next day a
noise of hammering from the pit was heard by many people so you have the state of things on friday night in the centre sticking into the skin of our old planet earth like a poisoned dart was this cylinder
but the poison was scarcely working yet around it was a patch of silent common
beyond was a fringe of excitement and farther than that fringe the inflammation had not crept as yet in the rest of the world the stream of life
the fever of war that would presently clog vein and artery deaden nerve and destroy brain had still to develop all night long the martians were hammering and stirring sleepless indefatigable
at work upon the machines they were making ready and ever and again a puff of greenish white smoke
about eleven a company of soldiers came through horsell
had been on the common earlier in the day
the military authorities were certainly alive to the seriousness of the business
two maxims and about four hundred men of the cardigan regiment started from aldershot a few seconds after midnight
the sign in the morning however after this night zarathustra jumped up from his couch and having girded his loins he came out of his cave glowing and strong
like a morning sun coming out of gloomy mountains thou great star spake he as he had spoken once before thou deep eye of happiness
what would be all thy happiness if thou hadst not those for whom thou shinest
and comest and bestowest and distributest how would thy proud modesty upbraid for it well they still sleep these higher men whilst i am awake
they are not my proper companions not for them do i wait here in my mountains at my work i want to be at my day but they understand not what are the signs of my morning
my step is not for them the awakening call they still sleep in my cave their dream still drinketh at my drunken songs the audient ear for me the obedient ear
this had zarathustra spoken to his heart when the sun arose
for he heard above him the sharp call of his eagle well
mine animals are awake for i am awake mine eagle is awake and like me honoureth the sun
ye are my proper animals i love you but still do i lack my proper men thus spake zarathustra then however it happened that all on a sudden he became aware that he was flocked around and fluttered around
the whizzing of so many wings however and the crowding around his head was so great that he shut his eyes and verily there came down upon him as it were a cloud like a cloud of arrows which poureth upon a new enemy but behold
here it was a cloud of love and showered upon a new friend what happeneth unto me thought zarathustra in his astonished heart and slowly seated himself on the big stone which lay close to the exit from his cave
around him above him and below him and repelled the tender birds behold there then happened to him something still stranger for he grasped thereby unawares into a mass of thick warm
shaggy hair at the same time however there sounded before him a roar a long soft lion roar the sign cometh said zarathustra
and a change came over his heart and in truth when it turned clear before him there lay a yellow powerful animal at his feet
unwilling to leave him out of love and doing like a dog which again findeth its old master the doves however were no less eager with their love than the lion and whenever a dove whisked over its nose
the lion shook its head and wondered and laughed when all this went on zarathustra spake only a word my children are nigh my children then he became quite mute
his heart however was loosed and from his eyes there dropped down tears and fell upon his hands and he took no further notice of anything but sat there motionless without repelling the animals further
then flew the doves to and fro and perched on his shoulder and caressed his white hair
the strong lion however licked always the tears that fell on zarathustra's hands and roared and growled shyly
all this went on for a long time or a short time
meanwhile however
and give him their morning greeting for they had found when they awakened that he no longer tarried with them when however they reached the door of the cave
the lion started violently
and roaring wildly sprang towards the cave the higher men however when they heard the lion roaring cried all aloud as with one voice fled back and vanished in an instant zarathustra himself however
stunned and strange rose from his seat looked around him stood there astonished
bethought himself and remained alone what did i hear
what happened unto me just now but soon there came to him his recollection and he took in at a glance all that had taken place between yesterday and to day here is indeed the stone
on it sat i yester morn and here came the soothsayer unto me and here heard i first the cry which i heard just now the great cry of distress o ye higher men
your distress was it that the old soothsayer foretold to me yester morn unto your distress did he want to seduce and tempt me
to my last sin cried zarathustra and laughed angrily at his own words what hath been reserved for me as my last sin
and once more zarathustra became absorbed in himself and sat down again on the big stone and meditated suddenly he sprang up fellow suffering
fellow suffering with the higher men he cried out and his countenance changed into brass well that
my suffering and my fellow suffering what matter about them do i then strive after happiness
well the lion hath come my children are nigh zarathustra hath grown ripe mine hour hath come this is my morning
arise now arise
thus spake zarathustra and left his cave glowing and strong
one my mouthpiece is of the people too coarsely and cordially do i talk for angora rabbits and still stranger soundeth my word unto all ink fish and pen foxes
my hand is a fool's hand woe unto all tables and walls and whatever hath room for fool's sketching fool's scrawling my foot is a horse foot
therewith do i trample and trot over stick and stone in the fields up and down and am bedevilled with delight in all fast racing my stomach is surely an eagle's stomach
for it preferreth lamb's flesh certainly it is a bird's stomach nourished with innocent things and with few
why should there not be something of bird nature therein and especially that i am hostile to the spirit of gravity that is bird nature verily deadly hostile supremely hostile
originally hostile oh whither hath my hostility not flown and misflown thereof could i sing a song and will sing it though i be alone in an empty house and must sing it to mine own ears
to whom only the full house maketh the voice soft the hand eloquent the eye expressive the heart wakeful those do i not resemble two he who one day teacheth men to fly
will have shifted all landmarks to him will all landmarks themselves fly into the air the earth will he christen anew as the light body the ostrich runneth faster than the fastest horse
but it also thrusteth its head heavily into the heavy earth
heavy unto him are earth and life and so willeth the spirit of gravity
and be a bird must love himself thus do i teach
with the love of the sick and infected for with them stinketh even self love one must learn to love oneself thus do i teach with a wholesome and healthy love that one may endure to be with oneself
and not go roving about such roving about christeneth itself brotherly love with these words hath there hitherto been the best lying and dissembling and especially by those
who have been burdensome to every one and verily it is no commandment for to day and to morrow to learn to love oneself
subtlest last
for to its possessor
and of all treasure pits one's own is last excavated so causeth the spirit of gravity
good and evil
for the sake of it we are forgiven for living and therefore suffereth one little children to come unto one to forbid them betimes to love themselves
of gravity and we we bear loyally what is apportioned unto us on hard shoulders over rugged mountains and when we sweat then do people say to us yea life is hard to bear
but man himself only is hard to bear the reason thereof is that he carrieth too many extraneous things on his shoulders like the camel kneeleth he down and letteth himself be well laden
especially the strong load bearing man in whom reverence resideth too many extraneous heavy words and worths loadeth he upon himself then seemeth life to him a desert
and verily many a thing also that is our own is hard to bear and many internal things in man are like the oyster repulsive and slippery and hard to grasp
with elegant adornment must plead for them
to have a shell and a fine appearance and sagacious blindness again it deceiveth about many things in man that many a shell is poor and pitiable and too much of a shell
much concealed goodness and power is never dreamt of the choicest dainties find no tasters women know that the choicest of them a little fatter a little leaner oh
how much fate is in so little man is difficult to discover and unto himself most difficult of all
so causeth the spirit of gravity he however hath discovered himself who saith this is my good and evil therewith hath he silenced the mole and the dwarf who say good for all
evil for all verily neither do i like those who call everything good and this world the best of all those do i call the all satisfied all satisfiedness which knoweth how to taste everything
that is not the best taste i honour the refractory fastidious tongues and stomachs which have learned to say i and yea and nay
ever to say ye a that hath only the ass learnt and those like it deep yellow and hot red so wanteth my taste it mixeth blood with all colours
he however who whitewasheth his house betrayeth unto me a whitewashed soul with mummies some fall in love others with phantoms
both alike hostile to all flesh and blood oh how repugnant are both to my taste for i love blood
where every one spitteth and speweth that is now my taste
nobody carrieth gold in his mouth
all lickspittles and the most repugnant animal of man that i found did i christen parasite it would not love and would yet live by love
either to become evil beasts or evil beast tamers amongst such would i not build my tabernacle
who have ever to wait
and traders and kings and other landkeepers and shopkeepers verily i learned waiting also and thoroughly so but only waiting for myself and above all did i learn standing and walking and running
and leaping and climbing and dancing this however is my teaching he who wisheth one day to fly must first learn standing and walking and running and climbing and dancing
one doth not fly into flying with rope ladders learned i to reach many a window with nimble legs did i climb high masts to sit on high masts of perception seemed to me no small bliss
to flicker like small flames on high masts a small light certainly but a great comfort to cast away sailors and ship wrecked ones
by divers ways and wendings did i arrive at my truth not by one ladder did i mount to the height
that was always counter to my taste rather did i question and test the ways themselves a testing and a questioning hath been all my travelling and verily
one must also learn to answer such questioning that however is my taste neither a good nor a bad taste but my taste
this is now my way where is yours thus did i answer those who asked me the way for the way it doth not exist
if i be a diviner and full of the divining spirit which wandereth on high mountain ridges twixt two seas wandereth twixt the past and the future as a heavy cloud hostile to sultry plains
and to all that is weary and can neither die nor live ready for lightning in its dark bosom and for the redeeming flash of light charged with lightnings which say yea which laugh yea ready for divining flashes of lightning
who shall one day kindle the light of the future oh how could i not be ardent for eternity and for the marriage ring of rings the ring of the return never yet have i found the woman by whom i should like to have children
unless it be this woman whom i love for i love thee o eternity for i love thee o eternity two if ever my wrath hath burst graves shifted landmarks
or rolled old shattered tables into precipitous depths
and as a cleansing wind to old charnel houses if ever i have sat rejoicing where old gods lie buried world blessing world loving
for even churches and gods' graves do i love if only heaven looketh through their ruined roofs with pure eyes gladly do i sit like grass and red poppies on ruined churches
oh how could i not be ardent for eternity and for the marriage ring of rings the ring of the return never yet have i found the woman by whom i should like to have children unless it be this woman whom i love for i love thee o eternity
o eternity three if ever a breath hath come to me of the creative breath and of the heavenly necessity which compelleth even chances to dance star dances
if ever i have laughed with the laughter of the creative lightning to which the long thunder of the deed followeth grumblingly but obediently if ever i have played dice with the gods at the divine table of the earth
so that the earth quaked and ruptured and snorted forth fire streams for a divine table is the earth and trembling with new creative dictums and dice casts of the gods
and for the marriage ring of rings the ring of the return never yet have i found the woman by whom i should like to have children unless it be this woman whom i love for i love thee o eternity
o eternity four if ever i have drunk a full draught of the foaming spice and confection bowl in which all things are well mixed if ever my hand hath mingled the furthest with the nearest
fire with spirit joy with sorrow and the harshest with the kindest if i myself am a grain of the saving salt which maketh everything in the confection bowl mix well
for there is a salt which uniteth good with evil
as spicing and as final over foaming oh how could i not be ardent for eternity and for the marriage ring of rings the ring of the return never yet have i found the woman by whom i should like to have children
unless it be this woman whom i love
for i love thee o eternity five
if the exploring delight be in me which impelleth sails to the undiscovered if the seafarer's delight be in my delight if ever my rejoicing hath called out
the shore hath vanished now hath fallen from me the last chain the boundless roareth around me far away sparkle for me space and time well cheer up old heart
oh how could i not be ardent for eternity and for the marriage ring of rings
never yet have i found the woman by whom i should like to have children unless it be this woman whom i love for i love thee o eternity for i love thee o eternity
six if my virtue be a dancer's virtue and if i have often sprung with both feet into golden emerald rapture if my wickedness be a laughing wickedness
at home among rose banks and hedges of lilies for in laughter is all evil present but it is sanctified and absolved by its own bliss and if it be my alpha and omega that everything heavy shall become light
every body a dancer and every spirit a bird and verily that is my alpha and omega oh how could i not be ardent for eternity
and for the marriage ring of rings the ring of the return never yet have i found the woman by whom i should like to have children unless it be this woman whom i love for i love thee o eternity
o eternity seven if ever i have spread out a tranquil heaven above me and have flown into mine own heaven with mine own pinions
and if my freedom's avian wisdom hath come to me thus however speaketh avian wisdom lo there is no above and no below throw thyself about outward backward thou light one
sing speak no more are not all words made for the heavy do not all words lie to the light ones sing speak no more oh how could i not be ardent for eternity
and for the marriage ring of rings the ring of the return
unless it be this woman whom i love for i love thee o eternity for i love thee
the second dance song one into thine eyes gazed i lately o life
my heart stood still with delight
a sinking drinking reblinking golden swing bark at my dance frantic foot dost thou cast a glance a laughing questioning melting thrown glance
then did my feet swing with dance fury my heels reared aloft my toes they hearkened thee they would know hath not the dancer his ear in his toe
flying tresses round away from thee did i spring and from thy snaky tresses then stoodst thou there half turned and in thine eye caresses
with crooked glances dost thou teach me crooked courses on crooked courses learn my feet crafty fancies i fear thee near i love thee far thy flight allureth me
thy seeking secureth me i suffer but for thee what would i not gladly bear for thee whose coldness inflameth whose hatred misleadeth
whose mockery pleadeth
inwindress temptress seekress
who would not love thee thou innocent impatient wind swift child eyed sinner whither pullest thou me now thou paragon and tomboy
thou sweet romp dost annoy i dance after thee i follow even faint traces lonely where art thou give me thy hand or thy finger only
here are caves and thickets we shall go astray halt stand still
thou bat thou owl
thou gnashest on me sweetly with little white teeth
thy curly little mane from underneath this is a dance over stock and stone i am the hunter wilt thou be my hound
now beside me and quickly wickedly springing now up and over
oh see me lying thou arrogant one and imploring grace gladly would i walk with thee in some lovelier place in the paths of love through bushes variegated quiet
trim or there along the lake
there above are sheep and sun set stripes is it not sweet to sleep the shepherd pipes thou art so very weary i carry thee thither let just thine arm sink
and art thou thirsty i should have something but thy mouth would not like it to drink oh that cursed nimble supple serpent and lurking witch where art thou gone
but in my face do i feel through thy hand two spots
i am verily weary of it ever thy sheepish shepherd to be thou witch if i have hitherto sung unto thee now shalt thou cry unto me
to the rhythm of my whip shalt thou dance and cry i forget not my whip not i two then did life answer me thus
o zarathustra crack not so terribly with thy whip thou knowest surely that noise killeth thought and just now there came to me such delicate thoughts
we are both of us genuine ne'er do wells and ne'er do ills beyond good and evil found we our island and our green meadow we two alone therefore must we be friendly to each other
and even should we not love each other from the bottom of our hearts must we then have a grudge against each other if we do not love each other perfectly and that i am friendly to thee and often too friendly that knowest thou
ah this mad old fool wisdom if thy wisdom should one day run away from thee ah
thereupon did life look thoughtfully behind and around and said softly o zarathustra thou art not faithful enough to me thou lovest me not nearly so much as thou sayest
i know thou thinkest of soon leaving me there is an old heavy heavy booming clock it boometh by night up to thy cave when thou hearest this clock strike the hours at midnight
then thinkest thou between one and twelve thereon thou thinkest thereon o zarathustra i know it of soon leaving me yea answered i hesitatingly
but thou knowest it also and i said something into her ear in amongst her confused yellow foolish tresses thou knowest that o zarathustra
that knoweth no one and we gazed at each other and looked at the green meadow o'er which the cool evening was just passing and we wept together
then however was life dearer unto me than all my wisdom had ever been thus spake zarathustra three
one o man take heed two what saith deep midnight's voice indeed three i slept my sleep four
five the world is deep six and deeper than the day could read seven deep is its woe eight joy
deeper still than grief can be nine woe saith hence go ten
eleven want deep profound eternity
then said she this debate about providence is an old one and is vigorously discussed by cicero in his divination thou also hast long and earnestly pondered the problem
yet no one has had diligence and perseverance enough to find a solution and the reason of this obscurity is that the movement of human reasoning cannot cope
no shadow of uncertainty would remain with a view of making this at last clear and plain i will begin by considering the arguments by which thou art swayed first
i inquire into the reasons why thou art dissatisfied with the solution proposed which is to the effect that
foreknowledge is not to be deemed any hindrance to the freedom of the will now surely the sole ground on which thou arguest the necessity of the future is that things which are foreknown cannot fail to come to pass but if
as thou wert ready to acknowledge just now the fact of foreknowledge imposes no necessity on things future what reason is there for supposing the results of voluntary action constrained to a fixed issue suppose for the sake of argument
and to see what follows we assume that there is no foreknowledge are willed actions then tied down to any necessity in this case certainly not
let us assume foreknowledge again but without its involving any actual necessity the freedom of the will i imagine will remain in complete integrity but
granted but in this case it is plain that even if there had been no foreknowledge
for a sign only indicates something which is does not bring to pass that of which it is the sign we require to show beforehand that all things without exception happen of necessity
otherwise if there is no such universal necessity neither can any preconception be a sign of a necessity which exists not
must be drawn not from signs and loose general arguments but from suitable and necessary causes but how can it be that things foreseen should ever fail to come to pass
were not about to happen instead of our supposing that although they should come to pass yet there was no necessity involved in their own nature compelling their occurrence
there are many things which we see taking place before our eyes the movements of charioteers for instance in guiding and turning their cars and so on now is any one of these movements compelled by any necessity no certainly not
there would be no efficacy in skill if all motions took place perforce then things which in taking place are free from any necessity as to their being in the present must also before they take place be about to happen without necessity
wherefore there are things which will come to pass the occurrence of which is perfectly free from necessity at all events i imagine that no one will deny that things now taking place were about to come to pass before they were actually happening
such things however much foreknown are in their occurrence free
but this thou wilt say is the very point in dispute whether any foreknowing is possible of things whose occurrence is not necessary for here there seems to thee a contradiction and if they are foreseen their necessity follows
whereas if there is no necessity they can by no means be foreknown and thou thinkest that nothing can be grasped as known unless it is certain but if things whose occurrence is uncertain are foreknown as certain
this is the very mist of opinion not the truth of knowledge
thou believest to be incompatible with the soundness of knowledge now the cause of the mistake is this that men think that all knowledge is cognized purely by the nature and efficacy of the thing known
whereas the case is the very reverse all that is known is grasped not conformably to its own efficacy but rather conformably to the faculty of the knower
the roundness of a body is recognised in one way by sight in another by touch sight looks upon it from a distance as a whole by a simultaneous reflection of rays touch grasps the roundness piecemeal
by contact and attachment to the surface and by actual movement round the periphery itself man himself likewise is viewed in one way by sense in another by imagination in another way again by thought
in another by pure intelligence sense judges figure clothed in material substance imagination figure alone without matter thought transcends this again
the eye of intelligence is yet more exalted
by the pure force of the mind's vision wherein the main point to be considered is this the higher faculty of comprehension embraces the lower while the lower cannot rise to the higher for sense has no efficacy beyond matter
nor can imagination behold universal ideas nor thought embrace pure form but intelligence looking down as it were from its higher standpoint in its intuition of form discriminates also the several elements which underlie it
but it comprehends them in the same way as it comprehends that form itself which could be cognized by no other than itself
but surveying all things so to speak under the aspect of pure form by a single flash of intuition thought also
embraces images and sense impressions without resorting to imagination or sense
man is a two legged animal endowed with reason this is indeed a universal notion yet no one is ignorant that the thing is imaginable and presentable to sense because thought considers it not by imagination or sense
but by means of rational conception
is founded upon the senses nevertheless surveys sense impressions without calling in sense not in the way of sense perception but of imagination
than the faculty of the things which they cognize nor is this strange for since every judgment is the act of the judge it is necessary that each should accomplish its task by its own not by another's power
comes a doctrine sage that doth liken living mind to a written page since all knowledge comes through sense graven by experience as say they the pen its marks curiously doth trace
on the smooth unsullied white of the paper's face so do outer things impress images on consciousness but if verily the mind thus all passive lies if no living power within its own force supplies
if it but reflect again like a glass things false and vain
grasps each whole that sense presents or breaks into elements so divides and recombines and in changeful wise now to low descends and now to the height doth rise
last in inward swift review strictly sifts the false and true of these ample potencies fitter cause i ween were mind's self than marks impressed by the outer scene yet the body through the sense
stirs the soul's intelligence when light flashes on the eye or sound strikes the ear mind aroused to due response makes the message clear
my dear sir the facts detailed in my last letter will satisfy you as to the manner in which the increase of mass in an animal that is its growth is accomplished
the function performed in the animal system by substances destitute of nitrogen
the graminivora cannot live without these substances their food must contain a certain amount of one or more of them and if these compounds are not supplied death quickly ensues
this important inquiry extends also to the constituents of the food of carnivorous animals in the earliest periods of life for this food also contains substances which are not necessary for their support in the adult state
their development is dependent on the supply of a fluid which the body of the mother secretes in the shape of milk milk contains only one nitrogenised constituent known under the name of caseine besides this its chief ingredients are butter
the blood of the young animal its muscular fibre cellular tissue nervous matter and bones must have derived their origin from the nitrogenised constituent of milk the caseine for butter and sugar of milk contain no nitrogen
now the analysis of caseine has led to the result which after the details i have given can hardly excite your surprise that this substance also is identical in composition with the chief constituents of blood fibrine and albumen
nay more a comparison of its properties with those of vegetable caseine has shown that these two substances are identical in all their properties insomuch that certain plants such as peas beans and lentils are capable of producing the same substance
which is formed from the blood of the mother and employed in yielding the blood of the young animal the young animal therefore receives in the form of caseine
which is distinguished from fibrine and albumen by its great solubility and by not coagulating when heated the chief constituent of the mother's blood to convert caseine into blood no foreign substance is required and in the conversion of the mother's blood into caseine
when chemically examined caseine is found to contain a much larger proportion of the earth of bones than blood does and that in a very soluble form capable of reaching every part of the body thus even in the earliest period of its life
the development of the organs in which vitality resides is in the carnivorous animal dependent on the supply of a substance
what then is the use of the butter and the sugar of milk how does it happen that these substances are indispensable to life butter and sugar of milk contain no fixed bases no soda nor potash
sugar of milk has a composition closely allied to that of the other kinds of sugar of starch and of gum all of them contain carbon and the elements of water the latter precisely in the proportion to form water
there is added therefore by means of these compounds to the nitrogenised constituents of food a certain amount of carbon or as in the case of butter of carbon and hydrogen that is an excess of elements
which cannot possibly be employed in the production of blood
already contain exactly the amount of carbon which is required for the production of fibrine and albumen
which neither gains nor loses weight perceptibly from day to day its nourishment the waste of organised tissue and its consumption of oxygen stand to each other in a well defined and fixed relation the carbon of the carbonic acid given off with that of the urine
the nitrogen of the urine and the hydrogen given off as ammonia and water these elements taken together must be exactly equal in weight to the carbon nitrogen and hydrogen of the metamorphosed tissues
and since these last are exactly replaced by the food to the carbon nitrogen and hydrogen of the food were this not the case the weight of the animal could not possibly remain unchanged
this fact presupposes
more intense than the process of transformation in the existing tissues if both processes were equally active the weight of the body could not increase and were the waste by transformation greater the weight of the body would decrease
now the circulation in the young animal is not weaker but on the contrary more rapid the respirations are more frequent and for equal bulks the consumption of oxygen must be greater rather than smaller in the young than in the adult animal
but since the metamorphosis of organised parts goes on more slowly there would ensue a deficiency of those substances
because in the carnivora nature has destined the new compounds produced by the metamorphosis of organised parts to furnish the necessary resistance to the action of the oxygen and to produce animal heat
no part of either of which can yield blood fibrine or albumen are destined for the support of the respiratory process at an age when a greater resistance is opposed to the metamorphosis of existing organisms or in other words to the production of compounds which
in the adult state are produced in quantity amply sufficient for the purpose of respiration the young animal receives the constituents of its blood in the caseine of the milk a metamorphosis of existing organs goes on for bile and urine are secreted
the materials of the metamorphosed parts are given off in the form of urine of carbonic acid and of water but the butter and sugar of milk also disappear they cannot be detected in the faeces the butter and sugar of milk are given out in the form of carbonic acid and water
and their conversion into oxidised products furnishes the clearest proof that far more oxygen is absorbed than is required to convert the carbon and hydrogen of the metamorphosed tissues into carbonic acid and water
much less carbon and hydrogen in the form adapted for the respiratory process than correspond to the oxygen taken up in the lungs
and would necessarily yield to the action of the oxygen were not the deficiency of carbon and hydrogen supplied from another source the continued increase of mass or growth
and the free and unimpeded development of the organs in the young animal are dependent on the presence of foreign substances which in the nutritive process have no other function than to protect the newly formed organs from the action of the oxygen
the elements of these substances unite with the oxygen the organs themselves could not do so without being consumed that is growth or increase of mass in the body the consumption of oxygen remaining the same would be utterly impossible
the preceding considerations leave no doubt as to the purpose for which nature has added to the food of the young of carnivorous mammalia substances devoid of nitrogen
which their organism cannot employ for nutrition strictly so called that is for the production of blood substances which may be entirely dispensed with in their nourishment in the adult state
in the young of carnivorous birds the want of all motion is an obvious cause of diminished waste in the organised parts hence milk is not provided for them the nutritive process in the carnivora thus presents itself under two distinct forms
their existence depends on a supply of substances having a composition identical with that of sugar of milk or closely resembling it everything that they consume as food contains a certain quantity of starch gum or sugar mixed with other matters
the function performed in the vital process of the graminivora by these substances is indicated in a very clear and convincing manner when we take into consideration the very small relative amount of the carbon
which these animals consume in the nitrogenised constituents of their food which bears no proportion whatever to the oxygen absorbed through the skin and lungs a horse for example
if we now calculate
but along with this nitrogen
without going further into the calculation it will readily be admitted
the quantity of oxygen consumed and as a necessary consequence the amount of carbonic acid given out by the animal are much greater than in the respiratory process in man but an adult man consumes daily abut fourteen oz of carbon
according to which a horse expires seventy nine oz daily cannot be very far from the truth
the horse receives rather less than the fifth part of the carbon which his organism requires for the support of the respiratory process and we see that the wisdom of the creator has added to his food the four fifths which are wanting
it is obvious that in the system of the graminivora whose food contains so small a portion relatively of the constituents of the blood the process of metamorphosis in existing tissues and consequently their restoration or reproduction
must go on far less rapidly than in the carnivora were this not the case a vegetation a thousand times more luxuriant than the actual one would not suffice for their nourishment sugar gum and starch would no longer be necessary to support life in these animals
because in that case the products of the waste or metamorphosis of the organised tissues
let me now apply the principles announced in the preceding letters to the circumstances of our own species man when confined to animal food
even more widely extended than the lion and tiger because when he has the opportunity he kills without eating a nation of hunters
on a limited space is utterly incapable of increasing its numbers beyond a certain point which is soon attained the carbon necessary for respiration must be obtained from the animals
of which only a limited number can live on the space supposed these animals collect from plants the constituents of their organs and of their blood and yield them in turn to the savages who live by the chase alone
they again receive this food unaccompanied by those compounds destitute of nitrogen which during the life of the animals served to support the respiratory process in such men
confined to an animal diet it is the carbon of the flesh and of the blood which must take the place of starch and sugar
and while the savage with one animal
he would be compelled if confined to flesh alone in order to procure the carbon necessary for respiration during the same time to consume five such animals it is easy to see from these considerations
how close the connection is between agriculture and the multiplication of the human species the cultivation of our crops has ultimately no other object than the production of a maximum of those substances
which are adapted for assimilation and respiration in the smallest possible space grain and other nutritious vegetables yield us not only in starch sugar and gum the carbon which protects our organs from the action of oxygen
and produces in the organism the heat which is essential to life but also in the form of vegetable fibrine albumen and caseine our blood from which the other parts of our body are developed man
when confined to animal food respires like the carnivora at the expense of the matters produced by the metamorphosis of organised tissues and
hyaena in the cages of a menagerie are compelled to accelerate the waste of the organised tissues by incessant motion in order to furnish the matter necessary for respiration so the savage for the very same object
is forced to make the most laborious exertions and go through a vast amount of muscular exercise he is compelled to consume force merely in order to supply matter for respiration cultivation is the economy of force
and with given means to produce a maximum of force the unprofitable exertion of power the waste of force in agriculture in other branches of industry in science or in social economy
is characteristic of the savage state or of the want of knowledge in accordance with what i have already stated you will perceive that the substances of which the food of man is composed may be divided into two classes
into nitrogenised and non nitrogenised the former are capable of conversion into blood the latter are incapable of this transformation
out of those substances which are adapted to the formation of blood are formed all the organised tissues the other class of substances in the normal state of health
serve to support the process of respiration the former may be called the plastic elements of nutrition the latter elements of respiration among the former we reckon
vegetable fibrine vegetable albumen vegetable caseine animal flesh animal blood among the elements of respiration in our food are
fat pectine starch bassorine gum wine cane sugar beer grape sugar spirits sugar of milk
the most recent and exact researches have established as a universal fact to which nothing yet known is opposed that the nitrogenised constituents of vegetable food
have a composition identical with that of the constituents of the blood no nitrogenised compound the composition of which differs from that of fibrine albumen and caseine
is capable of supporting the vital process in animals the animal organism unquestionably possesses the power of forming from the constituents of its blood
of the nerves and brain and of the organic part of cartilages and bones but the blood must be supplied to it perfect in everything but its form that is in its chemical composition
if this be not done a period is rapidly put to the formation of blood and consequently to life this consideration enables us easily to explain how it happens
that the tissues yielding gelatine or chondrine as for example the gelatine of skin or of bones are not adapted for the support of the vital process for their composition is different from that of fibrine or albumen
in the arrangement of the elements of gelatine or of those tissues which contain it the gelatinous tissues the gelatine of the bones the membranes the cells and the skin suffer in the animal body under the influence of oxygen and moisture
a progressive alteration a part of these tissues is separated and must be restored from the blood but this alteration and restoration are obviously confined within very narrow limits
while in the body of a starving or sick individual the fat disappears and the muscular tissue takes once more the form of blood we find that the tendons and membranes retain their natural condition
and the limbs of the dead body their connections which depend on the gelatinous tissues on the other hand we see that the gelatine of bones devoured by a dog entirely disappears
while only the bone earth is found in his excrements the same is true of man when fed on food rich in gelatine as for example strong soup the gelatine is not to be found either in the urine or in the faeces and consequently
must have undergone a change and must have served some purpose in the animal economy it is clear that the gelatine must be expelled from the body in a form different from that in which it was introduced as food
when we consider the transformation of the albumen of the blood into a part of an organ composed of fibrine the identity in composition of the two substances renders the change easily conceivable indeed
natural and easily explained on account of this very identity of composition
that gelatine when taken in the dissolved state is again converted in the body into cellular tissue membrane and cartilage
and for their growth and when the powers of nutrition in the whole body are affected by a change of the health then
the organic force by which the constituents of the blood are transformed into cellular tissue and membranes must necessarily be enfeebled by sickness in the sick man the intensity of the vital force its power to produce metamorphoses
must be diminished as well in the stomach as in all other parts of the body in this condition the uniform experience of practical physicians shows that gelatinous matters in a dissolved state exercise a most decided influence on the state of the health
given in a form adapted for assimilation they serve to husband the vital force just as may be done in the case of the stomach by due preparation of the food in general
brittleness in the bones of graminivorous animals is clearly owing to a weakness in those parts of the organism whose function it is to convert the constituents of the blood into cellular tissue and membrane
and if we can trust to the reports of physicians who have resided in the east
what happened at maudesley abbey early the next day clement austin walked to maudesley abbey in order to procure all the information likely to facilitate margaret wilmot's grand purpose
he stopped at the gate of the principal lodge the woman who kept it was an old servant of the dunbar family and had known clement austin in percival dunbar's lifetime she gave him a hearty welcome
and he had no difficulty whatever in setting her tongue in motion upon the subject of henry dunbar she told him a great deal she told him that the present owner of the abbey never had been liked
and never would be liked for his stern and gloomy manner was so unlike his father's easy affable good nature that people were always drawing comparisons between the dead man and the living
this in a few words is the substance of what the worthy woman said in a good many words missus grumbleton gave clement all the information he required
as to the banker's daily movements at the present time henry dunbar was now in the habit of rising about two o'clock in the day at which time he was assisted from his bedroom to his sitting room where he remained
until seven or eight o'clock in the evening he had no visitors except the surgeon mister daphney who lived in the abbey and a gentleman called vernon who had bought woodbine cottage near lisford
and who now and then was admitted to mister dunbar's sitting room this was all clement austin wanted to know surely it might be possible with a little clever management
to throw the banker completely off his guard and to bring about the long delayed interview between him and margaret wilmot clement returned to the reindeer had a brief conversation with margaret and made all arrangements
at four o'clock that afternoon miss wilmot and her lover left the reindeer in a fly at a quarter to five the fly stopped at the lodge gates i will walk to the house margaret said
my coming will attract less notice but i may be detained for some time clement pray don't wait for me your dear mother will be alarmed if you are very long absent go back to her and send the fly for me by and by nonsense madge
i won't go with you to the abbey for it will be as well that henry dunbar should remain in ignorance of my presence in the neighbourhood i will walk up and down the road here and wait for you but you may have to wait so long clement
no matter how long i can wait patiently
they were standing before the great iron gates as clement said this he pressed margaret's cold hand he could feel how cold it was even through her glove and then rang the bell
she looked at him as the gate was opened she turned and looked at him with a strangely earnest gaze as she crossed the boundary of henry dunbar's domain and then walked slowly along the broad avenue
that last look had shown clement austin a pale resolute face something like the countenance of a fair young martyr going quietly to the stake he walked away from the gates
and they shut behind him with a loud clanging noise then he went back to them and watched margaret's figure growing dim and distant in the gathering dusk as she approached the abbey
a faint glow of crimson firelight reddened the gravel drive before the windows of mister dunbar's apartments
with a glimmer of light shining out of the hall behind him i do not suppose i shall have to wait very long for my poor girl clement thought as he left the gates and walked briskly up and down the road henry dunbar is a resolute man
he will refuse to see her to day as he refused before margaret found the footman lolling against the clustered pillars of the gothic porch
staring thoughtfully at the low evening light yellow and red behind the brown trunks of the elms and picking his teeth with a gold toothpick the sight of the open hall door
and this languid footman lolling in the porch suddenly inspired margaret wilmot with a new idea would it not be possible to slip quietly past this man and walk straight to the apartments of mister dunbar
unquestioned uninterrupted clement had pointed out to her the windows of the rooms occupied by the banker they were on the left hand side of the entrance hall it would be impossible for her to mistake the door leading to them
it was dusk and she was very plainly dressed with a black straw bonnet and a veil over her face surely she might deceive this languid footman by affecting to be some hanger on of the household
which of course was a large one in that case she had no right to present herself at the front door certainly but then before the languid footman could recover from the first shock of indignation at her impertinence
she might slip past him and reach the door leading to those apartments in which the banker hid himself and his guilt margaret lingered a little in the avenue watching for a favourable opportunity in which she might hazard this attempt
she waited five minutes or so the curve of the avenue screened her in some wise from the man in the porch who never happened to roll his languid eyes towards the spot where she was standing
a flight of rooks came scudding through the sky presently very much excited and cawing and screeching as if they had been an ornithological fire brigade hurrying to extinguish the flames of some distant rookery
the footman who was suffering acutely from the complaint of not knowing what to do with himself came out of the porch and stood in the middle of the gravelled drive with his back towards margaret
staring at the birds as they flew westward this was her opportunity the girl hurried to the door with a light step so light upon the smooth solid gravel that the footman heard nothing until she was on the broad stone step
you there young woman he exclaimed without stirring from his post where are you going to what's the meaning of your coming to this door
that there's such a place as a servants all and a servants hentrance but the languid retainer was too late margaret's hand was upon the massive knob of the door upon the left side of the hall
before the footman had put this last indignant question he listened for an apologetic murmur from the young woman but hearing none concluded that she had found her way to the servants hall
where she had most likely some business or other with one of the female members of the household a dressmaker i dessay the footman thought
those gals spend all their earnings in finery and fallals instead of behaving like respectable young women and saving up their money against they can go into the public line with the man of their choice he yawned
and went on staring at the rooks without troubling himself any further about the impertinent young person who had dared to present herself at the grand entrance margaret opened the door
and went into the room next the hall it was a handsome apartment lined with books from the floor to the ceiling but it was quite empty
the girl put up her veil and looked about her she was very very pale now and trembled violently but she controlled her agitation by a great effort and went slowly on to the next room
she heard the low sound of the light ashes falling on the hearth and the shorting breath of a dog she knew that the man she sought and had so long sought without avail was in that room alone
and her courage failed her all at once and her heart sank in her breast on the very threshold of the chamber in which she was to stand face to face with henry dunbar the murderer of my father
she thought the man whose influence blighted my father's life and made him what he was the man through whose reckless sin my father lived a life that left him
oh how sadly unprepared to die the man who knowing this sent his victim before an offended god without so much warning as would have given him time to think one prayer
i am going to meet that man face to face her breath came in faint gasps and the firelit chamber swam before her eyes as she crossed the threshold of that door
and went into the room where henry dunbar was sitting alone before the low fire he was wrapped in crimson draperies of thick woollen stuff and the leopard skin railway rug
was muffled about his knees a dog of the bull dog breed was lying asleep at the banker's feet half hidden in the folds of the leopard skin henry dunbar's head was bent over the fire
and his eyes were closed in a kind of dozing sleep as margaret wilmot went into the room there was an empty chair opposite to that in which the banker sat an old fashioned carved oak chair
with a high back and crimson morocco cushions margaret went softly up to this chair and laid her hand upon the oaken framework her footsteps made no sound on the thick turkey carpet
the banker never stirred from his doze and even the dog at his feet slept on mister dunbar cried margaret in a clear resolute voice awake
it is i margaret wilmot the daughter of the man who was murdered in the grove near winchester the dog awoke and snapped at her the man lifted his head and looked at her
even the fire seemed roused by the sound of her voice for a little jet of vivid light leaped up out of the smouldering log and lighted the scared face of the banker clement austin had promised margaret
and he meant to keep his promise but there are some limits even to the patience of a lover though he were the veriest knight errant who was ever eager to shiver a lance or hack the edge of a battle axe for love of his liege lady
when you have nothing to do but to walk up and down a few yards of hard dusty high road upon a bleak evening in january an hour more or less is of considerable importance
but the faint strokes of lisford church clock died away upon the cold evening wind and clement was still pacing up and down and the fly was still waiting
the horse comfortable enough with a rug upon his back and his nose in a bag of oats the man walking up and down by the side of the vehicle slapping his gloved hands across his shoulders every now and then to keep himself warm
in that long hour between six and seven clement austin's patience wore itself almost threadbare it is one thing to ride into the lists on a prancing steed
caparisoned with embroidered trappings worked by the fair hands of your lady love and with the trumpets braying and the populace shouting and the queen of beauty smiling sweet approval of your prowess
but it is quite another thing to walk up and down a dusty country road with the wind biting like some ravenous animal at the tip of your nose
and no more consciousness of your legs and arms than if you were a miss biffin by the time seven o'clock struck clement austin's patience had given up the ghost and to impatience
and executed with such a diabolical cunning that he had been able so far to escape detection in his own house surrounded by prying servants he would never dare to assail this girl by so much as a harsh word
but notwithstanding this clement was determined to wait no longer he would go to the abbey at once and ascertain the cause of margaret's delay he rang the bell went into the park
lights were shining in mister dunbar's windows but the great hall door was closely shut the languid footman came in answer to clement's summons there is a young lady here clement said breathlessly
asked the footman satirically
there was a young pusson with mister dunbar above a hour ago if that's what you mean above an hour ago cried clement austin heedless of the man's impertinence in his own growing anxiety
she have left
she went away from this house an hour ago more than a hour ago impossible clement said impossible
who was of an ironical turn of mind but i let her out with my own hands
the man shut the door before clement had recovered from his surprise and left him standing in the porch bewildered though he scarcely knew why frightened
chapter fifteen baffled mister dunbar was sitting in a luxurious easy chair with a newspaper lying across his knee mister balderby had returned to london upon the previous evening
everybody who looked at him saw the change which the last ten days had made in his appearance he was very pale there were dark purple rings about his eyes the eyes themselves were unnaturally bright and the mouth
that tell tale feature over whose expression no man has perfect control betrayed that the banker had suffered arthur lovell had been indefatigable in the service of his client not from any love towards the man
but always influenced more or less by the reflection that henry dunbar was laura's father and that to serve henry dunbar was in some manner to serve the woman he loved
mister dunbar had only been discharged from custody upon the previous evening after a long and wearisome examination and cross examination of the witnesses who had given evidence at the coroner's inquest
and that additional testimony upon which the magistrate had issued his warrant he had slept till late and had only just finished breakfast when the waiter entered with margaret's message a young person wishes to see you sir
he said respectfully a young person exclaimed mister dunbar impatiently i can't see any one what should any young person want with me she wants to see you particularly sir she says her name is wilmot
the sickly pallor of mister dunbar's face
and arthur lovell looking at his client at this moment saw the change it was the first time he had seen any evidence of fear either in the face or manner of henry dunbar i will not see her
exclaimed mister dunbar
this woman is some impudent impostor who wants to extort money out of me
let her be sent about her business the waiter hesitated she is a very respectable looking person sir he said she doesn't look anything like an impostor perhaps not answered mister dunbar haughtily
but she is an impostor for all that joseph wilmot had no daughter to my knowledge pray do not let me be disturbed about this business i have suffered quite enough already on account of this man's death he sank back in his chair
and took up his newspaper as he finished speaking his face was completely hidden behind the newspaper shall i go and speak to this girl asked arthur lovell on no account the girl is an impostor let her be sent about her business
the waiter left the room pardon me mister dunbar said the young lawyer but if you will allow me to make a suggestion as your legal adviser in this business i would really recommend you to see this girl why
because the people in a place like this are notorious gossips and scandal mongers if you refuse to see this person who at any rate calls herself joseph wilmot's daughter they may say they may say what asked henry dunbar
they may say that it is because you have some special reason for not seeing her indeed mister lovell then i am to put myself out of the way after being fagged and harassed to death already about this business
and am to see every adventuress who chooses to trade upon the name of the murdered man in order to stop the mouths of the good people of winchester i
if people choose to think that henry dunbar is the murderer of his old servant they are welcome to their opinion i shall not trouble myself to set them right the waiter re entered the room as mister dunbar finished speaking
the young person says that she must see you sir the man said she says that if you refuse to see her
you can find out if she is really related to that unhappy man here is my purse you can let her have any money you think proper if she is the daughter of that wretched man i should of course wish her to be well provided for
always on condition that she does not intrude herself upon me but remember whatever i give is contingent upon her own good conduct and must not in any way be taken as a bribe
if she chooses to think and speak ill of me she is free to do so i have no fear of her nor of any one else arthur lovell took the millionaire's purse and went down stairs with the waiter
no violence in her manner but there was a steady fixed resolute look in her white face the young lawyer felt that this girl would not be easily put off by any denial of mister dunbar
he ushered margaret into a private sitting room leading out of the hall and then closed the door behind him the disappointed waiter lingered upon the door mat but the george is a well built house and that waiter lingered in vain
you want to see mister dunbar he said
i will tell that to mister dunbar himself you are really the daughter of joseph wilmot mister dunbar seems to doubt the fact of his having had a daughter perhaps so mister dunbar may have been unaware of my existence until this moment
i did not know until last night what had happened she stopped for a moment half stifled by a hysterical sob which she could not repress but she very quickly regained her self control and continued slowly and deliberately
the horrible word seemed to suffocate her but she still went bravely on i searched a box of my father's and found this she took from her pocket the letter directed to norfolk island and handed it to the lawyer
read it she said you will see then how my father had been wronged by henry dunbar arthur lovell unfolded the worn and faded letter it had been written five and twenty years before by sampson wilmot
margaret pointed to one passage on the second page your bitterness against henry dunbar is very painful to me my dear joseph yet i cannot but feel that your hatred against my employer's son is only natural
your lot in life might have been very different try to forgive him try to forget him even if you cannot forgive do not talk of revenge
the revelation of that secret which you hold respecting the forged bills would bring disgrace not only upon him but upon his father and his uncle they are both good and honourable men
and i think that shame would kill them remember this and keep the secret of that painful story arthur lovell's face grew terribly grave as he read these lines
he had heard the story of the forgery hinted at but he had never heard its details he had looked upon it as a cruel scandal which had perhaps arisen out of some trifling error some unpaid debt of honour
suggested a motive the young lawyer dropped into a chair and sat for some minutes silently poring over the clerk's letter he did not like henry dunbar his generous young heart
which had yearned towards laura's father had sunk in his breast with a dull chill feeling of disappointment at his first meeting with the rich man still after carefully sifting the evidence of the coroner's inquest
no the murder could scarcely have happened in this way the assassin had been armed with the cruel rope and had crept stealthily behind his victim it was not a common murder the rope and the slip knot
the treacherous running noose hinted darkly at oriental experiences somewhat in this fashion might a murderous thug have assailed his unconscious victim but then on the other hand there was one circumstance that always remained in henry dunbar's favour
that circumstance was the robbery of the dead man's clothes the anglo indian might very well have rifled the pocket book and left it empty upon the scene of the murder in order to throw the officers of justice upon a wrong scent
that would have been only the work of a few moments but was it probable was it even possible that the murderer would have lingered in broad daylight with every chance against him long enough to strip off the garments of his victim
in order still more effectually to hoodwink suspicion was it not a great deal more likely that joseph wilmot had spent the afternoon drinking in the tap room of some roadside public house and had rambled back into the grove after dark
to meet his death at the hands of some every day assassin bent only upon plunder all these thoughts passed through arthur lovell's mind as he sat with sampson's faded letter in his hands
margaret wilmot watched him with eager scrutinizing eyes she saw doubt perplexity horror indecision all struggling in his handsome face but the lawyer felt that it was his duty to act
he was only horror stricken by the first whisper of doubt mister dunbar declines to see you he said to margaret and i do not really see what good could possibly arise out of an interview between you in the meantime
if you are in any way distressed and you must most likely need assistance at such a time as this he is quite ready to help you and he is also ready to give you permanent help if you require it he opened henry dunbar's purse as he spoke
but the girl rose and looked at him with icy disdain in her fixed white face i would sooner crawl from door to door begging my bread of the hardest strangers in this cruel world
than i would accept help from henry dunbar no power on earth will ever induce me to take a sixpence from that man's hand why not you know why not i can see that knowledge in your face
tell mister dunbar that i will wait at the door of this house till he comes out to speak to me i will wait until i drop down dead arthur lovell went back to his client and told him what the girl said
mister dunbar was walking up and down the room with his head bent moodily upon his breast by heavens he cried angrily i will have this girl removed by the police if he stopped abruptly and his head sank once more upon his breast
i would most earnestly advise you to see her pleaded arthur lovell if she goes away in her present frame of mind she may spread a horrible scandal against you your refusing to see her will confirm the suspicions which what
cried henry dunbar does she dare to suspect me i fear so has she said as much not in actual words but her manner betrayed her suspicions you must not wonder if this girl is unreasonable
her father's miserable fate must have been a terrible blow to her did you offer her money i did and she she refused it mister dunbar winced
as if the announcement of the girl's refusal had stung him to the quick since it must be so he said i will see this importunate woman but not to day to day i must and will have rest
tell her to come to me to morrow morning at ten o'clock i will see her then arthur lovell carried this message to margaret the girl looked at him with an earnest questioning glance you are not deceiving me she said no
mister dunbar said that he did then i will go away but do not let henry dunbar try to deceive me for i will follow him to the end of the world i care very little where i go in my search for the man who murdered my father
she went slowly away she went down into the cathedral yard across which the murdered man had gone arm in arm with his companion some boys loitering about at the entrance to the meadows
it was a dull misty day
the rain drops from the fading leaves fell into the streamlet from whose shallow waters the dead man's face had looked up to the moonlit sky later in the afternoon margaret found her way to a cemetery outside the town
where under a newly made mound of turf the murdered man lay a great many people had been to see this grave and had been very much disappointed at finding it in no way different from other graves
already the good citizens of winchester had begun to hint that the grove near saint cross was haunted
punctual to the very striking of the clock margaret wilmot presented herself at the george at the time appointed by mister dunbar
in those troubled dreams she had met the rich man perpetually now in one place now in another but always in the most unlikely places yet she had never seen his face she had tried to see it
but by some strange devilry or other peculiar to the incidents of a dream it had been always hidden from her the same waiter was lounging in the same attitude at the door of the hotel he looked up with an expression of surprise as margaret approached him
you've not gone then miss he exclaimed gone no i have waited to see mister dunbar well that's queer said the waiter did he tell you he'd see you yes he promised to see me at ten o'clock this morning that's uncommon queer
because mister dunbar and that young gent as was with him
margaret wilmot gave no utterance to either surprise or indignation she walked quietly away and went once more to the house of sir arden westhorpe she told him what had occurred and her statement was written down and signed as upon the previous day
mister dunbar murdered my father she said after this had been done and he's afraid to see me
he was sitting on the fence at the end of his garden and surveying the great bun hill gas works with an eye that neither praised nor blamed above the clustering gasometers three unfamiliar shapes appeared thin wallowing bladders that flapped and rolled about and grew bigger and bigger and rounder and rounder
balloons in course of inflation for the south of england aero club's saturday afternoon ascent they goes up every saturday
and now every little place in the country has its weekly outings uppings rather it's been the salvation of them gas companies larst satiday i got three barrer loads of gravel off my petaters said mister tom smallways
what they dropped as ballase
i suppose we got to call em ladies said mister tom smallways
throwing gravel at people it ain't what i been accustomed to consider ladylike whether or no mister stringer nodded his head approvingly and for a time they continued to regard the swelling bulks with expressions that had changed from indifference to disapproval
mister tom smallways was a green grocer by trade and a gardener by disposition his little wife jessica saw to the shop and heaven had planned him for a peaceful world
unfortunately heaven had not planned a peaceful world for him he lived in a world of obstinate and incessant change and in parts where its operations were unsparingly conspicuous vicissitude was in the very soil he tilled
and overshadowed by a huge board that proclaimed it not so much a garden as an eligible building site he was horticulture under notice to quit the last patch of country in a district flooded by new and other things
he did his best to console himself to imagine matters near the turn of the tide you'd hardly think it could keep on he said mister smallways aged father could remember bun hill
as an idyllic kentish village he had driven sir peter bone until he was fifty and then he took to drink a little and driving the station bus
then he retired he sat by the fireside a shrivelled very very old coachman full charged with reminiscences and ready for any careless stranger he could tell you of the vanished estate of sir peter bone long since cut up for building
and how that magnate ruled the country side when it was country side of shooting and hunting and of caches along the high road of how where the gas works is was a cricket field and of the coming of the crystal palace
the crystal palace was six miles away from bun hill a great facade that glittered in the morning and was a clear blue outline against the sky in the afternoon and of a night a source of gratuitous fireworks for all the population of bun hill
and then had come the railway
and then drainage and the water vanished out of the otterbourne and left it a dreadful ditch and then a second railway station bun hill south and more houses and more more shops more competition
plate glass shops a school board rates omnibuses tramcars going right away into london itself bicycles motor cars and then more motor cars a carnegie library
you'd hardly think it could keep on said mister tom smallways growing up among these marvels but it kept on
even from the first the green grocer's shop which he had set up in one of the smallest of the old surviving village houses in the tail of the high street had a submerged air an air of hiding from something that was looking for it
they levelled that up so that one had to go down three steps into the shop tom did his best to sell only his own excellent but limited range of produce but progress came shoving things into his window
foreign apples apples from the state of new york apples from california apples from canada apples from new zealand pretty lookin fruit but not what i should call english apples said tom bananas unfamiliar nuts
grape fruits mangoes the motor cars that went by northward and southward grew more and more powerful and efficient whizzed faster and smelt worse
there appeared great clangorous petrol trolleys delivering coal and parcels in the place of vanishing horse vans motor omnibuses ousted the horse omnibuses even the kentish strawberries going londonward in the night took to machinery
and clattered instead of creaking and became affected in flavour by progress and petrol and then young bert smallways got a motor bicycle two
bert it is necessary to explain was a progressive smallways nothing speaks more eloquently of the pitiless insistence of progress and expansion in our time than that it should get into the smallways blood
but there was something advanced and enterprising about young smallways before he was out of short frocks he was lost for a whole day before he was five
he had a real pistol taken away from him by a real policeman when he was ten and he learnt to smoke not with pipes and brown paper and cane as tom had done but with a penny packet of boys of england american cigarettes his language shocked his father before he was twelve
and spending it on chips comic cuts ally sloper's half holiday cigarettes and all the concomitants of a life of pleasure and enlightenment all of this without hindrance to his literary studies which carried him up to the seventh standard
at an exceptionally early age i mention these things so that you may have no doubt at all concerning the sort of stuff bert had in him he was six years younger than tom
and for a time there was an attempt to utilise him in the green grocer's shop when tom at twenty one married jessica who was thirty and had saved a little money in service but it was not bert's forte to be utilised he hated digging
and when he was given a basket of stuff to deliver a nomadic instinct arose irresistibly it became his pack and he did not seem to care how heavy it was nor where he took it so long as he did not take it to its destination
glamour filled the world and he strayed after it basket and all so tom took his goods out himself and sought employers for bert who did not know of this strain of poetry in his nature
and bert touched the fringe of a number of trades in succession draper's porter chemist's boy doctor's page junior assistant gas fitter
milk cart assistant golf caddie and at last helper in a bicycle shop here apparently he found the progressive quality his nature had craved his employer was a pirate souled young man named grubb
with a black smeared face by day and a music hall side in the evening who dreamt of a patent lever chain and it seemed to bert that he was the perfect model of a gentleman of spirit
he hired out quite the dirtiest and unsafest bicycles in the whole south of england and conducted the subsequent discussions with astonishing verve bert and he settled down very well together bert lived in became almost a trick rider
he could ride bicycles for miles that would have come to pieces instantly under you or me
and spent his surplus money upon remarkable ties and collars cigarettes and shorthand classes at the bun hill institute
he would go round to tom at times and look and talk so brilliantly that tom and jessie who both had a natural tendency to be respectful to anybody or anything looked up to him immensely
he's a go ahead chap is bert said tom he knows a thing or two let's hope he don't know too much said jessica who had a fine sense of limitations it's go ahead times said tom noo petaters and english at that
see his tie last night it wasn't suited to him tom it was a gentleman's tie he wasn't up to it not the rest of him it wasn't becoming then presently
bert got a cyclist's suit cap badge and all and to see him and grubb going down to brighton and back heads down handle bars down backbones curved was a revelation in the possibilities of the smallways blood
go ahead times old smallways would sit over the fire mumbling of the greatness of other days of old sir peter who drove his coach to brighton and back in eight and twenty hours
of old sir peter's white top hats of lady bone who never set foot to ground except to walk in the garden of the great prize fights at crawley he talked of pink and pig skin breeches of
of lady bone's chintzes and crinolines nobody heeded him the world had thrown up a new type of gentleman altogether a gentleman of most ungentlemanly energy a gentleman in dusty oilskins and motor goggles
and a wonderful cap a stink making gentleman a swift high class badger who fled perpetually along high roads from the dust and stink he perpetually made and his lady as they were able to see her at bun hill
was a weather bitten goddess as free from refinement as a gipsy
but at last his savings accumulated and his chance came the hire purchase system bridged a financial gap and one bright and memorable sunday morning he wheeled his new possession through the shop into the road
got on to it with the advice and assistance of grubb and
to add himself as one more voluntary public danger to the amenities of the south of england
when i was is age i'd never been to london never bin south of crawley
and nobody didn't go not unless they was gentry
wonder they all get back orf to brighton indeed
you can't say i bin to brighton father said tom
creering about and spendin your money three
regardless of the new direction in which the striving soul of man was finding exercise and refreshment he failed to observe that the type of motor car like the type of bicycle was settling down and losing its adventurous quality
but his gardening made him attentive to the heavens and the proximity of the bun hill gas works and the crystal palace from which ascents were continually being made and presently the descent of ballast upon his potatoes conspired to bear in upon
his unwilling mind the fact that the goddess of change was turning her disturbing attention to the sky the first great boom in aeronautics was beginning grubb and bert heard of it in a music hall
then it was driven home to their minds by the cinematograph then bert's imagination was stimulated by a sixpenny edition of that aeronautic classic mister george griffith's clipper of the clouds and so the thing really got hold of them
at first the most obvious aspect was the multiplication of balloons the sky of bun hill began to be infested by balloons on wednesday and saturday afternoons particularly you could scarcely look skyward for a quarter of an hour without discovering a balloon somewhere
and then one bright day bert motoring toward croydon was arrested by the insurgence of a huge bolster shaped monster from the crystal palace grounds and obliged to dismount and watch it
it was like a bolster with a broken nose and below it and comparatively small was a stiff framework bearing a man and an engine with a screw that whizzed round in front and a sort of canvas rudder behind
the framework had an air of dragging the reluctant gas cylinder after it like a brisk little terrier towing a shy gas distended elephant into society the combined monster certainly travelled and steered
it went overhead perhaps a thousand feet up bert heard the engine sailed away southward vanished over the hills reappeared a little blue outline far off in the east going now very fast before a gentle south west gale
returned above the crystal palace towers circled round them chose a position for descent and sank down out of sight bert sighed deeply and turned to his motor bicycle again and
cylinders cones pear shaped monsters even at last a thing of aluminium that glittered wonderfully and that grubb through some confusion of ideas about armour plates was inclined to consider a war machine
there followed actual flight this however was not an affair that was visible from bun hill it was something that occurred in private grounds or other enclosed places
or by cinematograph records
and in those days if ever one heard a man saying in a public place in a loud reassuring confident tone it's bound to come the chances were ten to one he was talking of flying and bert got a box lid and wrote out in correct window ticket style
and grubb put in the window this inscription aeroplanes made and repaired it quite upset tom it seemed taking one's shop so lightly but most of the neighbours
and all the sporting ones approved of it as being very good indeed everybody talked of flying everybody repeated over and over again bound to come
and then you know it didn't come there was a hitch they flew that was all right they flew in machines heavier than air but they smashed sometimes they smashed the engine sometimes they smashed the aeronaut usually they smashed both
machines that made flights of three or four miles and came down safely went up the next time to headlong disaster there seemed no possible trusting to them the breeze upset them
the eddies near the ground upset them a passing thought in the mind of the aeronaut upset them also they upset simply it's this stability does em said grubb repeating his newspaper
experiments fell away after two expectant years of this sort of success the public and then the newspapers tired of the expensive photographic reproductions the optimistic reports
the perpetual sequence of triumph and disaster and silence flying slumped even ballooning fell away to some extent
though it remained a fairly popular sport and continued to lift gravel from the wharf of the bun hill gas works and drop it upon deserving people's lawns and gardens there were half a dozen reassuring years for tom at least so far as flying was concerned
but that was the great time of mono rail development and his anxiety was only diverted from the high heavens by the most urgent threats and symptoms of change in the lower sky there had been talk of mono rails for several years
but the real mischief began when brennan sprang his gyroscopic mono rail car upon the royal society it was the leading sensation of the nineteen o seven soirees that celebrated demonstration room was all too small for its exhibition
brave soldiers leading zionists deserving novelists noble ladies congested the narrow passage and thrust distinguished elbows into ribs the world would not willingly let break deeming themselves fortunate
if they could see just a little bit of the rail inaudible but convincing the great inventor expounded his discovery and sent his obedient little model of the trains of the future up gradients round curves and across a sagging wire
it ran along its single rail on its single wheels simple and sufficient it stopped reversed stood still balancing perfectly
it maintained its astounding equilibrium amidst a thunder of applause the audience dispersed at last discussing how far they would enjoy crossing an abyss on a wire cable suppose the gyroscope stopped
in a few years they realised better in a little while no one thought anything of crossing an abyss on a wire and the mono rail was superseding the tram lines railways and indeed every form of track for mechanical locomotion
along made tracks upon the ground
tom could think of nothing more striking to say of him than that when he was a boy there wasn't nothing higher than your chimbleys there wasn't a wire nor a cable in the sky old smallways went to his grave under an intricate network of wires and cables
for bun hill became not only a sort of minor centre of power distribution the home counties power distribution company set up transformers and a generating station close beside the old gas works but also a junction on the suburban mono rail system
moreover every tradesman in the place and indeed nearly every house had its own telephone the mono rail cable standard became a striking fact in urban landscape for the most part stout iron erections rather like tapering trestles
and painted a bright bluish green one it happened bestrode tom's house which looked still more retiring and apologetic beneath its immensity and another giant stood just inside the corner of his garden
which was still not built upon and unchanged except for a couple of advertisement boards one recommending a two and sixpenny watch and one a nerve restorer these by the bye were placed almost horizontally to catch the eye of the passing mono rail passengers above
and so served admirably to roof over a tool shed and a mushroom shed for tom all day and all night the fast cars from brighton and hastings went murmuring by overhead
long broad comfortable looking cars that were brightly lit after dusk as they flew by at night transient flares of light and a rumbling sound of passage they kept up a perpetual summer lightning
and thunderstorm in the street below presently the english channel was bridged a series of great iron eiffel tower pillars carrying mono rail cables at a height of a hundred and fifty feet above the water
except near the middle where they rose higher to allow the passage of the london and antwerp shipping and the hamburg america liners then heavy motor cars began to run about on only a couple of wheels one behind the other
which for some reason upset tom dreadfully and made him gloomy for days after the first one passed the shop all this gyroscopic and mono rail development naturally absorbed a vast amount of public attention
and there was also a huge excitement consequent upon the amazing gold discoveries off the coast of anglesea made by a submarine prospector miss patricia giddy
she had been struck by the possibility of these reefs cropping up again under the water she had set herself to verify this supposition by the use of the submarine crawler invented by doctor alberto cassini
by a happy mingling of reasoning and intuition peculiar to her sex she found gold at her first descent and emerged after three hours submersion with about two hundredweight of ore containing gold
in the unparalleled quantity of seventeen ounces to the ton but the whole story of her submarine mining intensely interesting as it is must be told at some other time
it is curious how that revival began it was like the coming of a breeze on a quiet day nothing started it it came people began to talk of flying with an air of never having for one moment dropped the subject
pictures of flying and flying machines returned to the newspapers articles and allusions increased and multiplied in the serious magazines people asked in mono rail trains when are we going to fly
a new crop of inventors sprang up in a night or so like fungi the aero club announced the project of a great flying exhibition in a large area of ground that the removal of slums in whitechapel had rendered available
the advancing wave soon produced a sympathetic ripple in the bun hill establishment grubb routed out his flying machine model again
and then springing from nowhere sustained one knew not how came a persistent disturbing rumour
bert met it one early closing afternoon as he refreshed himself in an inn near nutfield whither his motor bicycle had brought him there smoked and meditated a person in khaki
an engineer who presently took an interest in bert's machine it was a sturdy piece of apparatus
it was now nearly eight years old its points discussed the soldier broke into a new topic with my next's going to be an aeroplane so far as i can see i've had enough of roads and ways they tork said bert
they talk and they do said the soldier the thing's coming it keeps on coming said bert i shall believe when i see it that won't be long said the soldier
the conversation seemed degenerating into an amiable wrangle of contradiction i tell you they are flying the soldier insisted i see it myself
smash up i mean real safe steady controlled flying against the wind good and right you ain't seen that
bert's incredulity was shaken he asked questions and the soldier expanded
chaps about the camp now and then we get a peep it isn't only us neither there's the japanese you bet they got it too and the germans the soldier stood with his legs very wide apart and filled his pipe thoughtfully
funny thing fighting'll be he said flying's going to break out said the soldier when it does come when the curtain does go up i tell you you'll find every one on the stage busy
such fighting too i suppose you don't read the papers about this sort of thing i read em a bit said bert
the inventor who turns up in a blaze of publicity fires off a few successful experiments and vanishes
they disappear gone no address first oh it's an old story now there was those wright brothers out in america they glided they glided miles and miles finally they glided off stage
why it must be nineteen hundred and four or five they vanished then there was those people in ireland no i forget their names everybody said they could fly they went they ain't dead that i've heard tell but you can't say they're alive
not a feather of em can you see then that chap who flew round paris and upset in the seine de booley was it i forget that was a grand fly in spite of the accident but where's he got to
the soldier prepared to light his pipe looks like a secret society got hold of them said bert
and drew secret society he repeated with his pipe between his teeth and the match flaring in response to his words
he threw his match aside and walked to his machine i tell you sir he said there isn't a big power in europe or asia or america
that hasn't got at least one or two flying machines hidden up its sleeve at the present time not one real workable flying machines and the spying
or for the matter of that an unaccredited native can't get within four miles of lydd nowadays not to mention our little circus at aldershot and the experimental camp in galway no
well said bert i'd like to see one of them anyhow jest to help believing i'll believe when i see that i'll promise you
he left bert on his wall grave and pensive with his cap on the back of his head and a cigarette smouldering in the corner of his mouth if what he says is true said bert me and grubb
five
the coming of flying occurred people talk glibly enough of epoch making events this was an epoch making event it was the unanticipated and entirely successful flight
of mister alfred butteridge from the crystal palace to glasgow and back in a small businesslike looking machine heavier than air an entirely manageable and controllable machine that could fly as well as a pigeon
it wasn't one felt a fresh step forward in the matter so much as a giant stride a leap mister butteridge remained in the air altogether for about nine hours and during that time
he flew with the ease and assurance of a bird his machine was however neither bird like nor butterfly like nor had it the wide lateral expansion of the ordinary aeroplane the effect upon the observer was rather something
in the nature of a bee or wasp parts of the apparatus were spinning very rapidly and gave one a hazy effect of transparent wings but parts including two
peculiarly curved wing cases if one may borrow a figure from the flying beetles remained expanded stiffly
could be seen sitting astride much as a man bestrides a horse the wasp like resemblance was increased by the fact that the apparatus flew with a deep booming hum exactly the sound made by a wasp at a windowpane
mister butteridge took the world by surprise he was one of those gentlemen from nowhere fate still succeeds in producing for the stimulation of mankind he came it was variously said from australia
and america and the south of france he was also described quite incorrectly as the son of a man who had amassed a comfortable fortune in the manufacture of gold nibs and the butteridge fountain pens
and an implacable manner he had been an undistinguished member of most of the existing aeronautical associations then one day he wrote to all the london papers to announce that he had made arrangements for an ascent from the crystal palace
of a machine that would demonstrate satisfactorily that the outstanding difficulties in the way of flying were finally solved few of the papers printed his letter still fewer were the people who believed in his claim
no one was excited even when a fracas on the steps of a leading hotel in piccadilly in which he tried to horse whip a prominent german musician upon some personal account delayed his promised ascent the quarrel was
inadequately reported and his name spelt variously betteridge and betridge until his flight indeed he did not and could not contrive to exist in the public mind
there were scarcely thirty people on the look out for him in spite of all his clamour when about six o'clock one summer morning the doors of the big shed in which he had been putting together his apparatus opened it was near the
big model of a megatherium in the crystal palace grounds and his giant insect came droning out into a negligent and incredulous world
but before he had made his second circuit of the crystal palace towers fame was lifting her trumpet she drew a deep breath as the startled tramps who sleep
on the seats of trafalgar square were roused by his buzz and awoke to discover him circling the nelson column and by the time he had got to birmingham which place he crossed about half past ten
her deafening blast was echoing throughout the country the despaired of thing was done a man was flying securely and well scotland was agape for his coming
resumed work before half past two the public mind was just sufficiently educated
to appreciate mister butteridge at his proper value he circled the university buildings and dropped to within shouting distance of the crowds in west end park and on the slope of gilmorehill
the thing flew quite steadily at a pace of about three miles an hour in a wide circle making a deep hum
assistant commissioner of police t x meredith did not occupy offices in new scotland yard it is the peculiarity of public offices that they are planned with the idea of supplying the margin of space above all requirements
and that on their completion they are found wholly inadequate to house the various departments which mysteriously come into progress coincident with the building operations
the house was an old one facing the board of trade and the inscription on the ancient door told passers by that this was the public prosecutor special branch the duties of t x were multifarious
people said of him and like most public gossip this was probably untrue
if by chance you lost the keys of your safe
to justify a prosecution and if it was necessary for the good of the community that that person should be deported it was t x who arrested the obnoxious person
hustled him into a cab and did not loose his hold upon his victim until he had landed him on the indignant shores of an otherwise friendly power
burnt the locks from his safe and secured the necessary incriminating evidence
mysterious under secretaries of state who discuss things in whispers in the remote corners of their clubrooms and the more frank views of american correspondents who had no hesitation in putting those views into print for the benefit of their readers
that t x had a more legitimate occupation we know for it was that flippant man whose outrageous comment on the home office administration is popularly supposed to have sent one home secretary to his grave
and who brought to book sir julius waglite though he had covered his trail of defalcation through the balance sheets of thirty four companies
in appearance t x conveyed the impression of extreme youth for his face was almost boyish and it was only when you looked at him closely and saw the little creases about his eyes the setting of his straight mouth that you guessed he was on the way to forty
and had written a slight volume of woodland lyrics the mention of which at this later stage was sufficient to make him feel violently unhappy in manner he was tactful but persistent his language was at times marked by a violent extravagance
and he had had the distinction of having provoked by certain correspondence which had seen the light the comment of a former home secretary that it was unfortunate that mister meredith did not take his position with the seriousness which was expected from a public official
his language was as i say under great provocation violent and unusual
and illustrating his instruction or his admonition with the quaintest phraseology now he was tilted back in his office chair at an alarming angle scowling at his distressed subordinate who sat on the edge of a chair at the other side of his desk
but t x protested the inspector there was nothing to be found it was the outrageous practice of mister meredith to insist upon his associates calling him by his initials a practice which had earnt disapproval in the highest quarters
nothing is to be found he repeated wrathfully
he sat up with a suddenness which caused the police officer to start back in alarm listen said t x grasping an ivory paperknife savagely in his hand and tapping his blotting pad to emphasize his words
a policeman exclaimed the exasperated t x you're worse than a pie you're a slud
he shook his head sorrowfully at the smiling mansus who had been in the police force when t x was a small boy at school you are neither wise nor wily you combine the innocence of a baby with the grubbiness of a county parson you ought to be in the choir
at this outrageous insult mister mansus was silent what he might have said or what further provocation he might have received may be never known for at that moment the chief himself walked in
the chief of the police in these days was a grey man rather tired with a hawk nose and deep eyes that glared under shaggy eyebrows
he nodded curtly to mansus
he turned from t x to the discomforted inspector very little said t x i've had mansus on the job
he has found all that it is possible to find said t x we do not perform miracles in this department sir george nor can we pick up the threads of a case at five minutes notice
mansus has done his best the other went on easily
sir george dropped heavily into the arm chair and stretched out his long thin legs what i want he said looking up at the ceiling and putting his hands together
who has no particular position in london society and therefore has no reason for coming here who openly expresses his detestation of the climate who has a magnificent estate in some wild place in the balkans who is an excellent horseman a magnificent shot and a passable aviator
t x nodded to mansus and with something of gratitude in his eyes the inspector took his leave now mansus has departed said t x sitting himself on the edge of his desk and selecting with great care a cigarette from the case he took from his pocket
sir george smiled grimly i have the interest which is the interest of my department he said that is to say i want to know a great deal about abnormal people we have had an application from him he went on which is rather unusual
and wants to know if he can have a private telephone connection between his house and the central office we told him that he could always get the nearest police station on the phone but that doesn't satisfy him he has made bad friends with some gentleman of his own country who sooner or later he thinks will cut his throat
all this i know he said patiently if you will further unfold the secret dossier sir george i am prepared to be thrilled
but i remember the macedonian shooting case in south london
by all means said t x let them personally i don't care where they go but if that is the extent of your information i can supplement it
the room in which he lives is practically a safe sir george raised his eyebrows a safe he repeated
there is one door which in addition to its ordinary lock is closed by a sort of steel latch which he lets fall when he retires for the night and which he opens himself personally in the morning
and altogether the room is planned to stand a siege
any more he asked let me think said t x looking up at the ceiling
because i've been in the room said t x simply having by an underhand trick succeeded in gaining the misplaced confidence of kara's housekeeper who by the way he turned round to his desk and scribbled a name on the blotting pad will be discharged to morrow and must be found a place
began the chief funny business interrupted t x not a bit house and man are quite normal save for these eccentricities he has announced his intention of spending three months of the year in england and nine months abroad
he is very rich has no relations and has a passion for power then he'll be hung said the chief rising i doubt it said the other people with lots of money seldom get hung you only get hung for wanting money
then you're in some danger t x smiled the chief for according to my account you're always more or less broke a genial libel said t x but talking about people being broke i saw john lexman to day you know him the chief commissioner nodded
i've an idea he's rather hit for money he was in that roumanian gold swindle and by his general gloom which only comes to a man when he's in love and he can't possibly be in love since he's married or when he's in debt i fear that he is still feeling the effect of that rosy adventure
a telephone bell in the corner of the room rang sharply and t x picked up the receiver he listened intently
it may be something interesting a little pause then a hoarse voice spoke to him is that you t x that's me said the assistant commissioner commonly it's john lexman speaking
and even over the telephone t x recognized the distress
old simpson harker who sat near the librarian's table his hands folded on the crook of his stout walking stick glanced out of a pair of unusually shrewd and bright eyes at bryce as he crossed the room and approached the pair of gossipers
i think the doctor was there when that book you're speaking of was found he remarked so i understood from mitchington yes i was there said bryce who was not unwilling to join in the talk he turned to campany
what makes you think there's a clue in that he asked why this answered the librarian here's a man in possession of an old history of barthorpe barthorpe is a small market town in the midlands leicestershire i believe
of no particular importance that i know of but doubtless with a story of its own why should any one but a barthorpe man past or present be interested in that story so far as to carry an old account of it with him
therefore i conclude this stranger was a barthorpe man and it's at barthorpe that i should make inquiries about him simpson harker made no remark and bryce remembered what mister dellingham had said when the book was found
oh i don't know he replied carelessly i don't see that that follows i saw the book a curious old binding and queer old copper plates the man may have picked it up for that reason i've bought old books myself for less
all the same retorted campany i should make inquiry at barthorpe you've got to go on probabilities the probabilities in this case are that the man was interested in the book because it dealt with his own town
bryce turned away towards a wall on which hung a number of charts and plans of wrychester cathedral and its precincts it was to inspect one of these that he had come to the library
but suddenly remembering that there was a question which he could ask without exciting any suspicion or surmise he faced round again on the librarian isn't there a register of burials within the cathedral he inquired some book in which they're put down
campany lifted his quill pen and pointed to a case of big leather bound volumes in a far corner of the room third shelf from the bottom doctor he replied you'll see two books there one's the register of all burials within the cathedral itself up to date
the other's the register of those in paradise and the cloisters what names are you wanting to trace but bryce affected not to hear the last question he walked over to the place which campany had indicated
and taking down the second book carried it to an adjacent table campany called across the room to him you'll find useful indexes at the end he said they're all brought up to the present time from four hundred years ago nearly
bryce turned to the index at the end of his book an index written out in various styles of handwriting and within a minute he found the name he wanted there it was plainly before him
richard jenkins died march eighth seventeen fifteen buried in paradise march tenth he nearly laughed aloud at the ease with which he was tracing out what at first had seemed a difficult matter to investigate
but lest his task should seem too easy he continued to turn over the leaves of the big folio and in order to have an excuse if the librarian should ask him any further questions he memorized some of the names which he saw and after a while he took the book back to its shelf
and turned to the wall on which the charts and maps were hung there was one there of paradise whereon was marked the site and names of all the tombs and graves in that ancient enclosure
but here bryce met his first check down each side of the old chart dated eighteen fifty there was a tabulated list of the tombs in paradise the names of families and persons were given in this list
against each name was a number corresponding with the same number marked on the various divisions of the chart
obviously if the tomb of richard jenkins who was buried in paradise in seventeen fifteen
the name and inscription on it had vanished worn away by time and weather when that chart had been made a hundred and thirty five years later
he turned away at last from the chart at a loss and campany glanced at him found what you wanted he asked oh yes replied bryce primed with a ready answer i just wanted to see where the spelbanks were buried quite a lot of them i see
southeast corner of paradise said campany several tombs i could have spared you the trouble of looking you're a regular encyclopaedia about the place laughed bryce i suppose you know every spout and gargoyle ought to answered the librarian
i've been fed on it man and boy for five and forty years bryce made some fitting remark and went out and home to his rooms there to spend most of the ensuing evening in trying to puzzle out the various mysteries of the day
he got no more light on them then and he was still exercising his brains on them when he went to the inquest next morning to find the coroner's court packed to the doors with an assemblage of townsfolk just as curious as he was
and as he sat there listening to the preliminaries and to the evidence of the first witnesses his active and scheming mind figured to itself not without much cynical amusement
he thought of what he might tell if he told all the truth he thought of what he might get out of ransford if he bryce were coroner or solicitor and had ransford in that witness box he would ask him on his oath if he knew that dead man
if he had had dealings with him in times past if he had met and spoken to him on that eventful morning he would ask him point blank if it was not his hand that had thrown him to his death but bryce had no intention of making any revelations just then
as for himself he was going to tell just as much as he pleased and no more
and that that man was himself the evidence given in the first stages of the inquiry was all known to bryce and to most people in the court already
journeying from london to wrychester missus partingley told how he had arrived at the mitre registered in her book as mister john braden and had next morning asked if he could get a conveyance for saxonsteade in the afternoon as he wished to see the duke
mister folliot testified to having seen him in the cathedral going towards one of the stairways leading to the gallery varner most important witness of all up to that point told of what he had seen
bryce himself followed by ransford gave medical evidence mitchington told of his examination of the dead man's clothing and effects in his room at the mitre and mitchington added the first information which was new to bryce
in consequence of finding the book about barthorpe in the suit case said mitchington we sent a long telegram yesterday to the police there telling them what had happened
and asking them to make the most careful inquiries at once about any townsman of theirs of the name of john braden and to wire us the result of such inquiries this morning this is their reply received by us an hour ago
nothing whatever is known at barthorpe which is a very small town of any person of that name so much for that thought bryce he turned with more interest to the next witness the duke of saxonsteade the great local magnate
a big bluff man who had been present in court since the beginning of the proceedings in which he was manifestly highly interested it was possible that he might be able to tell something of moment he might after all know something of this apparently mysterious stranger
who for anything that missus partingley or anybody else could say to the contrary might have had an appointment and business with him but his grace knew nothing
he had just seen the body of the unfortunate man and had looked carefully at the features he was not a man of whom he had any knowledge whatever he could not recollect ever having seen him anywhere at any time he knew literally nothing of him
could not think of any reason at all why this mister john braden should wish to see him
some of them perhaps with men whom your grace only saw for a brief space of time a few minutes possibly you don't remember ever seeing this man in that way i'm credited with having an unusually good memory for faces answered the duke
and if i may say so rightly but i don't remember this man at all in fact i'd go as far as to say that i'm positive i've never knowingly set eyes on him in my life
none but then replied the duke there might be many reasons unknown to me but at which i can make a guess if he was an antiquary there are lots of old things at saxonsteade which he might wish to see or he might be a lover of pictures
our collection is a bit famous you know perhaps he was a bookman we have some rare editions
the fact is your grace doesn't know him and knows nothing about him observed the coroner
it was at this stage that the coroner sent the jurymen away in charge of his officer to make a careful personal inspection of the gallery in the clerestory and while they were gone there was some commotion caused in the court by the entrance of a police official
who conducted to the coroner a middle aged well dressed man whom bryce at once set down as a london commercial magnate of some quality between the new arrival and the coroner an interchange of remarks was at once made
shared in presently by some of the officials at the table and when the jury came back the stranger was at once ushered into the witness box and the coroner turned to the jury and the court
we are unexpectedly able to get some evidence of identity gentlemen he observed the gentleman who has just stepped into the witness box is mister alexander chilstone manager of the london and colonies bank in threadneedle street
mister chilstone saw particulars of this matter in the newspapers this morning and he at once set off to wrychester to tell us what he knows of the dead man we are very much obliged to mister chilstone
in the midst of the murmur of sensation which ran round the court
beyond the table in the centre of the room he saw at once that ransford however strenuously he might be fighting to keep his face under control
his cheeks had paled his eyes were a little dilated
altogether it was more than mere curiosity that was indicated on his features and bryce satisfied and secretly elated turned to hear what mister alexander chilstone had to tell
but it was of considerable importance only two days before said mister chilstone that was on the day previous to his death mister john braden had called at the london and colonies bank of which he mister chilstone was manager
and introducing himself as having just arrived in england from australia where he said he had been living for some years had asked to be allowed to open an account he produced some references from agents of the london and colonies bank in melbourne which were highly satisfactory
the account being opened he paid into it a sum of ten thousand pounds in a draft at sight drawn by one of those agents he drew nothing against this remarking casually that he had plenty of money in his pocket for the present he did not even take the cheque book which was offered him
saying that he would call for it later he did not give us any address in london nor in england continued the witness he told me that he had only arrived at charing cross that very morning having travelled from paris during the night
he said that he should settle down for a time at some residential hotel in london and in the meantime he had one or two calls or visits to make in the country when he returned from them he said he would call on me again he gave me very little information about himself
it was not necessary for his references from our agents in australia were quite satisfactory but he did mention that he had been out there for some years and had speculated in landed property he also said that he was now going to settle in england for good
that concluded mister chilstone is all i can tell of my own knowledge but he added drawing a newspaper from his pocket here is an advertisement which i noticed in this morning's times as i came down you will observe he said as he passed it to the coroner
the advertisement is as follows he announced if this meets the eye of old friend marco he will learn that sticker wishes to see him again write j braden
was he mistaken in believing that he saw him start
and bryce turned again to coroner and witness but the witness had no more to say except to suggest that the bank's melbourne agents should be cabled to for information since it was unlikely that much more could be got in england
and with that the middle stage of the proceedings ended and the last one came watched by bryce with increasing anxiety for it was soon evident from certain remarks made by the coroner
that the theory which archdale had put forward at the club in bryce's hearing the previous day had gained favour with the authorities and that the visit of the jurymen to the scene of the disaster had been intended by the coroner to predispose them in behalf of it
and now archdale himself as representing the architects who held a retaining fee in connection with the cathedral was called to give his opinion
after him came the master mason expressing the same decided conviction that the real truth was that the pavement of the gallery had at that particular place become so smooth and was inclined towards the open doorway at such a sharp angle
that the unfortunate man had lost his footing on it and before he could recover it had been shot out of the arch and over the broken head of saint wrytha's stair and though at a juryman's wish varner was recalled and stuck stoutly to his original story of having seen a hand
which he protested was certainly not that of the dead man it soon became plain that the jury shared the coroner's belief that varner in his fright and excitement had been mistaken and no one was surprised when the foreman after a very brief consultation with his fellows
announced a verdict of death by misadventure
that's a good job anyway nasty thing doctor
to dream of cats means enemies
suckling's aglaura it was friday and the next morning was the when the reports were to be presented school had closed and all but elsie had already left the room
for she was very neat and orderly in her habits when she had quite finished her work she took up her report book and glanced over it as her eye rested for an instant upon the one bad mark she sighed a little and murmured to herself i am so sorry
i wish papa knew how little i really deserved it i don't know why i never can get the courage to tell him then laying it aside she opened her copy book and turned over the leaves with unalloyed pleasure for not one of its pages was defaced by a single blot
and from beginning to end it gave evidence of painstaking carefulness and decided improvement ah surely this will please dear papa she exclaimed half aloud how good aunt adelaide was to sit here with me
then putting it carefully in its place she closed and locked the desk
now it so happened that afternoon that arthur who had made himself sick by over indulgence in sweetmeats and had in consequence been lounging about the house doing nothing for the last day or two remained at home while all the rest of the family were out walking riding or visiting
he was not usually very fond of reading
it suddenly occurred to him that he would like to look at a book he had seen elsie reading that morning to be sure the book belonged to her and she was not there to be consulted as to her willingness to lend it but that made no difference to arthur who had very little respect for the rights of property
excepting where his own were concerned elsie he knew was out and chloe in the kitchen so feeling certain there would be no one to interfere with him he went directly to the little girl's room to look for the book he soon found it lying on the mantel but the desk key lay right beside it
and as he caught sight of that he gave a half scream of delight for he guessed at once to what lock it belonged and felt that he now could accomplish the revenge he had plotted ever since the affair of the watch he put out his hand to take it
but drew it back again and stood for a moment balancing in his mind the chances of detection he could deface elsie's copy book but adelaide could testify to the little girl's carefulness and the neatness of her work up to that very day for she had been in the school room that morning during the writing hour
but then adelaide had just left home to pay a visit to a friend living at some distance
miss day to be sure knew the appearance of elsie's book quite as well but there was still less danger of her interference
so he decided to run the risk and laying down the book he took the key went to the door looked carefully up and down the hall to make sure of not being seen by any of the servants and having satisfied himself on that point hurried to the school room unlocked elsie's desk took out her copy book
proceeded deliberately to blot nearly every page in it on some he made a large blot on others a small one and on some two or three and also scribbled between the lines and on the margin so as completely to deface poor elsie's work
but to do arthur justice though he knew his brother would be pretty sure to be very angry with elsie he did not know of the threatened punishment he stopped once or twice as he thought he heard a footstep and shut down the lid until it had passed when he raised it again and went on with his wicked work
it did not take long however and he soon replaced the copy book in the precise spot in which he had found it wiped the pen and put it carefully back in its place relocked the desk hurried back to elsie's room put the key just where he had found it and taking the book
returned to the nursery without having met any one he threw himself down on a couch and tried to read but in vain he could not fix his attention upon the page
and its probable consequences and now when it was too late he more than half repented yet as to confessing and thus saving elsie from unmerited blame he did not for a single moment entertain the thought
but at length it suddenly occurred to him that if it became known that he had been into elsie's room to get the book he might be suspected and he started up with the intention of replacing it but he found that it was too late she had already returned for he heard her voice in the hall
so he lay down again and kept the book until she came in search of it he looked very guilty as the little girl came in but not seeming to notice it she merely said i am looking for my book i thought perhaps some one might have brought it in here oh you have it arthur
well keep it if you wish i can read it just as well another time here take it said he roughly pushing it toward her
but if you don't care to i will take it young ladies and gentlemen said the governess as they were about closing their exercises the next morning this is the regular day for the reports and they are all made out
elsie obeyed not without some trembling yet hoping as there was but one bad mark in the report and the copy book showed such evident marks of care and painstaking her papa would not be very seriously displeased
it being the last day of the term the exercises of the morning had varied somewhat from the usual routine and the writing hour had been entirely omitted thus it happened that elsie had not opened her copy book and was in consequence still in ignorance of its sadly altered appearance
she found her father in his room he took the report first from her hand and glancing over it said with a slight frown i see you have one very bad mark for recitation but as there is only one and the others are remarkably good i will excuse it
then taking the copy book and opening it much to elsie's surprise and alarm he gave her a glance of great displeasure turned rapidly over the leaves then laying it down said in his sternest tones i see i shall have to keep my promise elsie
what papa she asked turning pale with terror what said he do you ask me what did i not tell you positively that i would punish you if your copy book this month did not present a better appearance than it did last o papa does it not
no blots said he what do you call these and he turned over the leaves again holding the book so that she could see them and showing that almost every one was blotted in several places elsie gazed at them in unfeigned astonishment
then looking up into his face she said earnestly but fearfully papa i did not do it who did then he asked indeed papa i do not know she replied i must inquire into this business he said rising
and if it is not your fault you shall not be punished but if i find you have been telling me a falsehood elsie i shall punish you much more severely than if you had not denied your fault and taking her by the hand as he spoke he led her back to the school room miss day said he showing the book
elsie says these blots are not her work can you tell me whose they are miss elsie generally tells the truth sir replied miss day sarcastically but i must say that in this instance i think she has failed as her desk has a good lock and she herself keeps the key
turning to her is this so yes papa and have you ever left your desk unlocked or the key lying about no papa i am quite certain i have not she answered unhesitatingly though her voice trembled and she grey very pale
very well then i am quite certain you have told me a falsehood since it is evident this must have been your work elsie i can forgive anything but falsehood but that i never will forgive come with me i shall teach you to speak the truth to me at least if to no one else
and taking her hand again he led or rather dragged her from the room for he was terribly angry his face fairly pale with passion lora came in while he was speaking and certain that elsie would never be caught in a falsehood her eye quickly sought arthur's desk
she hastily crossed the room and speaking in a low tone said arthur you have had a hand in this business i very well know now confess it quickly or horace will half kill elsie you don't know anything about it said he doggedly
yes i do she answered and if you do not speak out at once i shall save elsie and find means to prove your guilt afterwards
seeing it was useless to try to move him lora turned away and hurried to horace's room which in her haste she entered without knocking he having fortunately neglected to fasten the door she was just in time he had a small riding whip in his hand
and elsie stood beside him pale as death too much frightened even to cry and trembling so that she could scarcely stand he turned an angry glance on his sister as she entered but taking no notice of it she exclaimed eagerly horace
don't punish elsie for i am certain she is innocent he laid down the whip asking how do you know it what proof have you i shall be very glad to be convinced he added his countenance relaxing somewhat in its stern and angry expression
in the first place replied his sister there is elsie's established character for truthfulness in all the time she has been with us we have ever found her perfectly truthful in word and deed and then horace what motive could she have had for spoiling her book
knowing as she did that certain punishment would follow besides
for though he will not acknowledge he does not deny it ah yes and now i recollect
and it was then quite free from blots a great change had come over her brother's countenance while she was speaking thank you lora he said cordially as soon as she had done you have quite convinced me and saved me from punishing elsie as unjustly as severely
that last assurance i consider quite sufficient of itself to establish her innocence lora turned and went out feeling very happy and as she closed the door elsie's papa took her in his arms saying in loving tender tones my poor little daughter my own darling child
i have been cruelly unjust to you have i not dear papa you thought i deserved it she said with a burst of tears and sobs throwing her arms around his neck and laying her head on his breast
do you love me elsie dearest he asked folding her closer to his heart
than all the world beside o papa if you would only love me the last word was almost a sob i do my darling my own precious child he said caressing her again and again i do love my little girl
and i am more thankful than words can express that i have been saved from punishing her unjustly
do that and the little arms were clasped closer and closer about his neck and the tears again fell like rain as she timidly pressed her quivering lips to his cheek there there daughter don't cry any more we will try to forget all about it and talk of something else
he said soothingly elsie dear your aunt adelaide thinks perhaps you were not so very much to blame the other day and now i want you to tell me all the circumstances for though i should be very sorry to encourage you to find fault with your teacher
i am by no means willing to have you abused please papa don't ask me she begged aunt lora was there and she will tell you about it no elsie he said very decidedly i want the story from you and remember
i want every word that passed between you and miss day as far as you can possibly recall it seeing that he was determined elsie obeyed him though with evident reluctance
while she by no means extenuated her own yet her father listened with feelings of strong indignation elsie he said when she had done
why did you not tell me my daughter
i did ask you if it was true that you contradicted her did i not yes papa and it was true you ought to have told me the whole story though but i see how it was i frightened you by my sternness
well daughter he added kissing her tenderly i shall endeavor to be less stern in future
i will papa she replied meekly but indeed i cannot help feeling frightened when you are angry with me
caressing her more tenderly than ever before and elsie was very happy and talked more freely to him than she had ever done telling him of her joys and her sorrows how dearly she had loved miss allison what happy hours they had spent together in studying the bible and in prayer
how grieved she was when her friend went away
and he listened to it all apparently both pleased and interested encouraging her to go on by an occasional question or a word of assent or approval what is this elsie he asked taking hold of the chain she always wore around her neck
and drawing the miniature from her bosom but as he touched the spring the case flew open revealing the sweet girlish face it needed not elsie's low murmured mamma to tell him who that lovely lady was
he gazed upon it with emotion carried back in memory to the time when for a few short months she had been his own most cherished treasure then looking from it to his child he murmured yes she is very like the same features
the same expression complexion
dear papa am i like mamma asked elsie who had caught a part of his words yes darling very much indeed and i hope you will grow more so you loved mamma she said inquiringly dearly very dearly
o papa tell me about her do dear papa she pleaded eagerly i have not much to tell he said sighing i knew her only for a few short months ere we were torn asunder never to meet again on earth
but we may hope to meet her in heaven dear papa said elsie softly for she loved jesus and if we love him we shall go there too when we die do you love jesus papa she timidly inquired for she had seen him do a number of things which she knew to be wrong
such as riding out for pleasure on the sabbath reading secular newspapers and engaging in worldly conversation and she greatly feared he did not but instead of answering her question he asked do you elsie oh yes sir
how do you know he asked looking keenly into her face just as i know that i love you papa or any one else she replied lifting her eyes to his face in evident surprise at the strangeness of the question
ah papa she added in her own sweet simple way i do so love to talk of jesus to tell him all my troubles and ask him to forgive my sins and make me holy and then it is so sweet to know that he loves me and will always love me
even if no one else does he kissed her very gravely and set her down saying go now my daughter and prepare for dinner it is almost time for the bell you are not displeased papa she inquired looking up anxiously into his face
no darling not at all he replied stroking her hair shall i ride with my little girl this afternoon oh papa do you really mean it i shall be so glad she exclaimed joyfully very well then he said
it is settled but go now there is the bell no stay he added quickly as she turned to obey
for it must have been then the mischief was done had you it with you when you rode out suddenly elsie's face flushed and she exclaimed eagerly
but here she paused as if sorry she had said so much and what he asked i think i had better not say it papa
for i don't really know anything and it seems so wrong to suspect people you need not express any suspicions said her father i do not wish you to do so
and did not come up again until after i returned very well
i do not know papa but i think arthur must have been in because when i came home i found him reading a book which i had left lying on the mantel piece she answered in a low reluctant tone ah ha
with a satisfied nod there that will do elsie go now and make haste down to your dinner but elsie lingered and in answer to a look of kind inquiry from her father said coaxingly please papa
don't be very angry with him i think he did not know how much i cared about my book you are very forgiving elsie but go child
mister dinsmore answered with an imperative gesture and the little girl hurried from the room it happened that just at this time the elder mister dinsmore and his wife were paying a visit to some friends in the city and thus elsie's papa had been left head of the house for the time
arthur knowing this to be the state of affairs
was beginning to be a good deal fearful of the consequences of his misconduct and not without reason for his brother's wrath was now fully aroused and he was determined that the boy should not on this occasion escape the penalty of his misdeeds
arthur was already in the dining room when mister dinsmore came down
muttered the boy with a dogged look and standing perfectly still i dare say not sir but that makes no difference replied his brother walk into the library at once arthur returned a scowl of defiance muttering almost under his breath i'll do as i please about that
but cowed by his brother's determined look and manner he slowly and reluctantly obeyed now sir said mister dinsmore when he had him fairly in the room and had closed the door behind them i wish to know how you came to meddle with elsie's copy book
i didn't was the angry rejoinder take care sir i know all about it said mister dinsmore in a warning tone it is useless for you to deny it yesterday while elsie was out and aunt chloe in the kitchen you went to her room
took the key of her desk from the mantel piece where she had left it went to the school room and did the mischief hoping to get her into trouble thereby and then relocking the desk and returning the key to its proper place thought you had escaped detection
and i was very near giving my poor innocent little girl the whipping you so richly deserve arthur looked up in astonishment who told you he asked nobody saw me then catching himself said hastily i tell you i didn't do it i don't know anything about it
will you dare to tell me such a falsehood as that again exclaimed mister dinsmore angrily taking him by the collar and shaking him roughly
you'll get no dinner to day i can tell you replied his brother i am going to lock you into your bedroom and keep you there until your father comes home and then if he doesn't give you the flogging you deserve i will for i intend you shall have your deserts for once in your life
i know that all this is in revenge for elsie's forced testimony in the affair of the watch and i gave you fair warning then that i would see to it that any attempt to abuse my child should receive its just reward he took the boy by the arm as he spoke to lead him from the room
at first arthur seemed disposed to resist but soon seeing how useless it was to contend against such odds he resigned himself to his fate saying sullenly you wouldn't treat me this way if mamma was at home she is not however as it happens
though i can tell you that even she could not save you now replied his brother as he opened the bedroom door and pushing him in locked it upon him and put the key in his pocket
never to open it again why have i broken my resolution why have i gone back to this secret friend of my wretchedest and wickedest hours because i am more friendless than ever because i am more lonely than ever
though my husband is sitting writing in the next room to me my misery is a woman's misery and it will speak here rather than nowhere to my second self in this book if i have no one else to hear me
how happy i was in the first days that followed our marriage and how happy i made him only two months have passed and that time is a by gone time already i try to think of anything i might have said or done wrongly on my side
of anything he might have said or done wrongly on his and i can remember nothing unworthy of my husband nothing unworthy of myself i cannot even lay my finger on the day when the cloud first rose between us
i could bear it if i loved him less dearly than i do i could conquer the misery of our estrangement if he only showed the change in him as brutally as other men would show it but this never has happened never will happen
not a hard word not a hard look escapes him it is only at night when i hear him sighing in his sleep and sometimes when i see him dreaming in the morning hours that i know how hopelessly i am losing the love he once felt for me he hides
or tries to hide it in the day for my sake he is all gentleness
day after day the hours that he gives to his hateful writing grow longer and longer
and with all this there is nothing that i can complain of nothing marked enough to justify me in noticing it his disappointment shrinks from all open confession his resignation collects itself by such fine degrees
that even my watchfulness fails to see the growth of it fifty times a day i feel the longing in me to throw my arms round his neck and say for god's sake do anything to me rather than treat me like this
which gives me no excuse for speaking them i thought i had suffered the sharpest pain that i could feel when my first husband laid his whip across my face i thought i knew the worst that despair could do on the day when i knew that the other villain the meaner villain still
had cast me off live and learn
there is bitterer despair than the despair i knew when manuel deserted me am i too old for him surely not yet have i lost my beauty not a man passes me in the street but his eyes tell me i am as handsome as ever
ah no no the secret lies deeper than that i have thought and thought about it till a horrible fancy has taken possession of me he has been noble and good in his past life and i have been wicked and disgraced
unknown to him and unknown to me it is folly it is madness but when i lie awake by him in the darkness i ask myself whether any unconscious disclosure of the truth escapes me in the close intimacy that now unites us
is there an unutterable something left by the horror of my past life which clings invisibly to me still and is he feeling the influence of it sensibly and yet incomprehensibly to himself oh me is there no purifying power in such love as mine
are there plague spots of past wickedness on my heart which no after repentance can wash out who can tell there is something wrong in our married life i can only come back to that there is some adverse influence that neither he nor i can trace
which is parting us further and further from each other day by day well i suppose i shall be hardened in time and learn to bear it an open carriage has just driven by my window with a nicely dressed lady in it
she had her husband by her side and her children on the seat opposite at the moment when i saw her she was laughing and talking in high spirits a sparkling light hearted happy woman ah my lady when you were a few years younger
when we were married he said nothing about it to me when we woke nor i to him but i thought i would make it the occasion at breakfast time of trying to win him back i don't think i ever took such pains with my toilet before
i don't think i ever looked better than i looked when i went downstairs this morning he had breakfasted by himself and i found a little slip of paper on the table with an apology written on it
went out that day and his letter to the newspaper must be finished
rather than breakfast without him i went into his room there he was immersed body and soul in his hateful writing can't you give me a little time this morning i asked he got up with a start certainly if you wish it
he never even looked at me as he said the words the very sound of his voice told me that all his interest was centered in the pen that he had just laid down i see you are occupied i said i don't wish it before i had closed the door on him
he was back at his desk i have often heard that the wives of authors have been for the most part unhappy women and now i know why i suppose as i said yesterday i shall learn to bear it
i hope the trumpery newspaper he writes for won't succeed i hope his rubbishing letter will be well cut up by some other newspaper as soon as it gets into print what am i to do with myself all the morning i can't go out it's raining
if i open the piano i shall disturb the industrious journalist who is scribbling in the next room oh dear
shall i read no books don't interest me i hate the whole tribe of authors i think i shall look back through these pages and live my life over again when i was plotting and planning
though he was so busy with his writing he might have said how nicely you are dressed this morning he might have remembered never mind what all he remembers is the newspaper twelve o'clock
i have been reading and thinking and thanks to my diary i have got through an hour what a time it was what a life it was at thorpe ambrose i wonder i kept my senses it makes my heart beat
it makes my face flush only to read about it now the rain still falls and the journalist still scribbles i don't want to think the thoughts of that past time over again and yet what else can i do supposing
i only say supposing i felt now as i felt when i traveled to london with armadale and when i saw my way to his life as plainly as i saw the man himself all through the journey
i'll go and count the people as they pass by a funeral has gone by with the penitents in their black hoods and the wax torches sputtering in the wet and the little bell ringing and the priests droning their monotonous chant
i shall go back to my diary supposing i was not the altered woman i am i only say supposing how would the grand risk that i once thought of running look now i have married midwinter in the name that is really his own
and by doing that i have taken the first of those three steps which were once to lead me through armadale's life to the fortune and the station of armadale's widow no matter how innocent my intentions might have been on the wedding day and they were innocent
this is one of the unalterable results of the marriage well having taken the first step then whether i would or no how supposing i meant to take the second step which i don't how would present circumstances stand toward me
would they warn me to draw back i wonder or would they encourage me to go on it will interest me to calculate the chances and i can easily tear the leaf out and destroy it if the prospect looks too encouraging
we are living here for economy's sake far away from the expensive english quarter in a suburb of the city on the portici side we have made no traveling acquaintances among our own country people our poverty is against us
midwinter's shyness is against us and with the women my personal appearance is against us the men from whom my husband gets his information for the newspaper meet him at the cafe and never come here
i discourage his bringing any strangers to see me for though years have passed since i was last at naples i cannot be sure that some of the many people i once knew in this place may not be living still
the moral of all this is as the children's storybooks say that not a single witness has come to this house who could declare if any after inquiry took place in england that midwinter and i had been living here as man and wife
so much for present circumstances as they affect me armadale next has any unforeseen accident led him to communicate with thorpe ambrose has he broken the conditions which the major imposed on him
and asserted himself in the character of miss milroy's promised husband since i saw him last nothing of the sort has taken place no unforeseen accident has altered his position his tempting position toward myself
i know all that has happened to him since he left england through the letters which he writes to midwinter and which midwinter shows to me he has been wrecked to begin with
a firm union will be of the utmost moment to the peace and liberty of the states as a barrier against domestic faction and insurrection it is impossible to read the history of the petty republics of greece and italy
without feeling sensations of horror and disgust at the distractions with which they were continually agitated and at the rapid succession of revolutions by which they were kept in a state of perpetual vibration between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy
if they exhibit occasional calms these only serve as short lived contrast to the furious storms that are to succeed if now and then intervals of felicity open to view we behold them with a mixture of regret
arising from the reflection that the pleasing scenes before us are soon to be overwhelmed by the tempestuous waves of sedition and party rage if momentary rays of glory break forth from the gloom while they dazzle us with a transient and fleeting brilliancy
they at the same time admonish us to lament that the vices of government should pervert the direction and tarnish the lustre of those bright talents and exalted endowments for which the favored soils that produced them have been so justly celebrated
from the disorders that disfigure the annals of those republics the advocates of despotism have drawn arguments not only against the forms of republican government but against the very principles of civil liberty
they have decried all free government as inconsistent with the order of society and have indulged themselves in malicious exultation over its friends and partisans happily for mankind stupendous fabrics reared on the basis of liberty
which have flourished for ages have in a few glorious instances refuted their gloomy sophisms and i trust america will be the broad and solid foundation of other edifices not less magnificent
which will be equally permanent monuments of their errors but it is not to be denied that the portraits they have sketched of republican government were too just copies of the originals from which they were taken
if it had been found impracticable to have devised models of a more perfect structure the enlightened friends to liberty would have been obliged to abandon the cause of that species of government as indefensible the science of politics however
like most other sciences has received great improvement the efficacy of various principles is now well understood which were either not known at all or imperfectly known to the ancients the regular distribution of power into distinct departments
the introduction of legislative balances and checks the institution of courts composed of judges holding their offices during good behavior the representation of the people in the legislature by deputies of their own election these are wholly new discoveries
or have made their principal progress towards perfection in modern times they are means and powerful means by which the excellences of republican government may be retained and its imperfections lessened or avoided
to this catalogue of circumstances that tend to the amelioration of popular systems of civil government i shall venture however novel it may appear to some to add one more on a principle which has been made the foundation of an objection to the new constitution
i mean the enlargement of the orbit within which such systems are to revolve either in respect to the dimensions of a single state or to the consolidation of several smaller states into one great confederacy
the latter is that which immediately concerns the object under consideration it will however be of use to examine the principle in its application to a single state which shall be attended to in another place the utility of a confederacy
as well to suppress faction and to guard the internal tranquillity of states as to increase their external force and security is in reality not a new idea it has been practiced upon in different countries and ages
and has received the sanction of the most approved writers on the subject of politics the opponents of the plan proposed have with great assiduity cited and circulated the observations of montesquieu on the necessity of a contracted territory for a republican government
but they seem not to have been apprised of the sentiments of that great man expressed in another part of his work nor to have adverted to the consequences of the principle to which they subscribe
when montesquieu recommends a small extent for republics the standards he had in view were of dimensions far short of the limits of almost every one of these states neither virginia massachusetts pennsylvania new york north carolina
nor georgia can by any means be compared with the models from which he reasoned and to which the terms of his description apply if we therefore take his ideas on this point as the criterion of truth
we shall be driven to the alternative either of taking refuge at once in the arms of monarchy or of splitting ourselves into an infinity of little jealous clashing tumultuous commonwealths the wretched nurseries of unceasing discord
and the miserable objects of universal pity or contempt some of the writers who have come forward on the other side of the question seem to have been aware of the dilemma and have even been bold enough to hint at the division of the larger states as a desirable thing
such an infatuated policy such a desperate expedient might by the multiplication of petty offices answer the views of men who possess not qualifications to extend their influence beyond the narrow circles of personal intrigue
but it could never promote the greatness or happiness of the people of america referring the examination of the principle itself to another place as has been already mentioned it will be sufficient to remark here that
in the sense of the author who has been most emphatically quoted upon the occasion it would only dictate a reduction of the size of the more considerable members of the union but would not militate against their being all comprehended in one confederate government
and this is the true question in the discussion of which we are at present interested so far are the suggestions of montesquieu from standing in opposition to a general union of the states that he explicitly treats of a confederate republic
as the expedient for extending the sphere of popular government and reconciling the advantages of monarchy with those of republicanism it is very probable says he
had they not contrived a kind of constitution that has all the internal advantages of a republican together with the external force of a monarchical government i mean a confederate republic
this form of government is a convention by which several smaller states agree to become members of a larger one which they intend to form it is a kind of assemblage of societies that constitute a new one capable of increasing by means of new associations
till they arrive to such a degree of power as to be able to provide for the security of the united body a republic of this kind able to withstand an external force may support itself without any internal corruptions
the form of this society prevents all manner of inconveniences if a single member should attempt to usurp the supreme authority he could not be supposed to have an equal authority and credit in all the confederate states
were he to have too great influence over one this would alarm the rest were he to subdue a part that which would still remain free might oppose him with forces independent of those which he had usurped and overpower him before he could be settled in his usurpation
should a popular insurrection happen in one of the confederate states the others are able to quell it should abuses creep into one part they are reformed by those that remain sound the state may be destroyed on one side and not on the other
the confederacy may be dissolved and the confederates preserve their sovereignty as this government is composed of small republics it enjoys the internal happiness of each and with respect to its external situation
it is possessed by means of the association of all the advantages of large monarchies i have thought it proper to quote at length these interesting passages because they contain a luminous abridgment of the principal arguments in favor of the union
and must effectually remove the false impressions which a misapplication of other parts of the work was calculated to make they have at the same time an intimate connection with the more immediate design of this paper which is
to illustrate the tendency of the union to repress domestic faction and insurrection a distinction more subtle than accurate has been raised between a confederacy and a consolidation of the states the essential characteristic of the first is said to be
the restriction of its authority to the members in their collective capacities without reaching to the individuals of whom they are composed it is contended that the national council ought to have no concern with any object of internal administration
an exact equality of suffrage between the members has also been insisted upon as a leading feature of a confederate government these positions are in the main arbitrary they are supported neither by principle nor precedent
it has indeed happened that governments of this kind have generally operated in the manner which the distinction taken notice of supposes to be inherent in their nature but there have been in most of them extensive exceptions to the practice which serve to prove
as far as example will go that there is no absolute rule on the subject and it will be clearly shown in the course of this investigation that as far as the principle contended for has prevailed it has been the cause of incurable disorder and imbecility in the government
the definition of a confederate republic seems simply to be an assemblage of societies or an association of two or more states into one state the extent modifications and objects of the federal authority
are mere matters of discretion so long as the separate organization of the members be not abolished so long as it exists by a constitutional necessity for local purposes though it should be in perfect subordination to the general authority of the union
it would still be in fact and in theory an association of states or a confederacy the proposed constitution so far from implying an abolition of the state governments makes them constituent parts of the national sovereignty
by allowing them a direct representation in the senate and leaves in their possession certain exclusive and very important portions of sovereign power this fully corresponds in every rational import of the terms with the idea of a federal government
which consisted of twenty three cities or republics the largest were entitled to three votes in the common council those of the middle class to two and the smallest to one the common council had the appointment of all the judges and magistrates of the respective cities
this was certainly the most delicate species of interference in their internal administration for if there be any thing that seems exclusively appropriated to the local jurisdictions it is the appointment of their own officers yet montesquieu
speaking of this association says were i to give a model of an excellent confederate republic it would be that of lycia thus we perceive that the distinctions insisted upon were not within the contemplation of this enlightened civilian
and got our clothes washed we had tried washing them ourselves in the river under george's superintendence and it had been a failure indeed it had been more than a failure
because we were worse off after we had washed our clothes than we were before before we had washed them they had been very very dirty it is true but they were just wearable after we had washed them well
the river between reading and henley was much cleaner after we had washed our clothes in it than it was before all the dirt contained in the river between reading and henley we collected during that wash and worked it into our clothes
the washerwoman at streatley said she felt she owed it to herself to charge us just three times the usual prices for that wash she said it had not been like washing it had been more in the nature of excavating
we paid the bill without a murmur the neighbourhood of streatley and goring is a great fishing centre there is some excellent fishing to be had here
the river abounds in pike roach dace gudgeon and eels just here and you can sit and fish for them all day some people do they never catch them
i never knew anybody catch anything up the thames except minnows and dead cats but that has nothing to do of course with fishing the local fisherman's guide doesn't say a word about catching anything all it says is the place is
a good station for fishing and from what i have seen of the district i am quite prepared to bear out this statement there is no spot in the world where you can get more fishing
some fishermen come here and fish for a day and others stop and fish for a month
it will be all the same the angler's guide to the thames says that jack and perch are also to be had about here but there the angler's guide is wrong
jack and perch may be about there indeed i know for a fact that they are you can see them there in shoals when you are out for a walk along the banks
they come and stand half out of the water with their mouths open for biscuits and if you go for a bathe they crowd round and get in your way and irritate you but they are not to be had by a bit of worm on the end of a hook nor anything like it
not they i am not a good fisherman myself i devoted a considerable amount of attention to the subject at one time and was getting on as i thought fairly well but the old hands told me that i should never be any real good at it
and advised me to give it up they said that i was an extremely neat thrower and that i seemed to have plenty of gumption for the thing and quite enough constitutional laziness but they were sure i should never make anything of a fisherman
i had not got sufficient imagination they said that as a poet or a shilling shocker or a reporter or anything of that kind i might be satisfactory but that to gain any position as a thames angler
would require more play of fancy more power of invention than i appeared to possess some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing
but this is a mistake mere bald fabrication is useless the veriest tyro can manage that it is in the circumstantial detail the embellishing touches of probability
the general air of scrupulous almost of pedantic veracity that the experienced angler is seen anybody can come in and say oh i caught fifteen dozen perch yesterday evening or
last monday i landed a gudgeon weighing eighteen pounds and measuring three feet from the tip to the tail there is no art no skill required for that sort of thing it shows pluck but that is all
no your accomplished angler would scorn to tell a lie that way his method is a study in itself he comes in quietly with his hat on appropriates the most comfortable chair
lights his pipe and commences to puff in silence he lets the youngsters brag away for a while and then during a momentary lull he removes the pipe from his mouth and remarks as he knocks the ashes out against the bars
well i had a haul on tuesday evening that it's not much good my telling anybody about oh why's that they ask because i don't expect anybody would believe me if i did replies the old fellow calmly
and without even a tinge of bitterness in his tone as he refills his pipe and requests the landlord to bring him three of scotch cold there is a pause after this
so he has to go on by himself without any encouragement no he continues thoughtfully i shouldn't believe it myself if anybody told it to me but it's a fact for all that i had been sitting there all the afternoon and had caught literally nothing
and i was just about giving it up as a bad job when i suddenly felt a rather smart pull at the line i thought it was another little one and i went to jerk it up
it took me half an hour half an hour sir to land that fish and every moment i thought the line was going to snap i reached him at last
a sturgeon a forty pound sturgeon taken on a line sir yes you may well look surprised i'll have another three of scotch landlord please and then he goes on to tell of the astonishment of everybody who saw it
and what his wife said when he got home and of what joe buggles thought about it i asked the landlord of an inn up the river once if it did not injure him sometimes listening to the tales that the fishermen about there told him and he said
oh no not now sir it did used to knock me over a bit at first but lor love you me and the missus we listens to em all day now it's what you're used to you know it's what you're used to
i knew a young man once he was a most conscientious fellow and when he took to fly fishing he determined never to exaggerate his hauls by more than twenty five per cent when i have caught forty fish said he
then i will tell people that i have caught fifty and so on but i will not lie any more than that because it is sinful to lie but the twenty five per cent plan did not work well at all he never was able to use it
the greatest number of fish he ever caught in one day was three and you can't add twenty five per cent to three at least not in fish so he increased his percentage to thirty three and a third
but that again was awkward when he had only caught one or two so to simplify matters he made up his mind to just double the quantity
and then he grew dissatisfied with it nobody believed him when he told them that he only doubled and he therefore gained no credit that way whatever while his moderation put him at a disadvantage among the other anglers
when he had really caught three small fish and said he had caught six it used to make him quite jealous to hear a man whom he knew for a fact had only caught one going about telling people he had landed two dozen
so eventually he made one final arrangement with himself which he has religiously held to ever since and that was to count each fish that he caught as ten and to assume ten to begin with for example
if he did not catch any fish at all then he said he had caught ten fish you could never catch less than ten fish by his system that was the foundation of it
then if by any chance he really did catch one fish he called it twenty while two fish would count thirty three forty and so on it is a simple and easily worked plan
and there has been some talk lately of its being made use of by the angling fraternity in general indeed the committee of the thames angler's association did recommend its adoption about two years ago but some of the older members opposed it
they said they would consider the idea if the number were doubled and each fish counted as twenty if ever you have an evening to spare up the river i should advise you to drop into one of the little village inns and take a seat in the tap room
you will be nearly sure to meet one or two old rod men sipping their toddy there and they will tell you enough fishy stories in half an hour to give you indigestion for a month george and i i don't know what had become of harris
he had gone out and had a shave early in the afternoon and had then come back and spent full forty minutes in pipeclaying his shoes we had not seen him since
and coming home we called in at a little river side inn for a rest and other things we went into the parlour and sat down there was an old fellow there smoking a long clay pipe and we naturally began chatting
he told us that it had been a fine day to day and we told him that it had been a fine day yesterday
and george said the crops seemed to be coming up nicely after that it came out somehow or other that we were strangers in the neighbourhood
during which our eyes wandered round the room they finally rested upon a dusty old glass case fixed very high up above the chimney piece and containing a trout it rather fascinated me that trout it was such a monstrous fish
in fact at first glance i thought it was a cod ah said the old gentleman following the direction of my gaze fine fellow that ain't he quite uncommon i murmured
and george asked the old man how much he thought it weighed eighteen pounds six ounces said our friend rising and taking down his coat yes he continued it wur sixteen year ago come the third o next month that i landed him
i caught him just below the bridge with a minnow they told me he wur in the river and i said i'd have him and so i did you don't see many fish that size about here now i'm thinking good night gentlemen good night
and out he went and left us alone we could not take our eyes off the fish after that it really was a remarkably fine fish we were still looking at it when the local carrier who had just stopped at the inn
came to the door of the room with a pot of beer in his hand and he also looked at the fish good sized trout that said george turning round to him ah you may well say that sir replied the man
no we told him we were strangers in the neighbourhood ah said the carrier then of course how should you it was nearly five years ago that i caught that trout oh was it you who caught it then said i
yes sir replied the genial old fellow i caught him just below the lock leastways what was the lock then one friday afternoon and the remarkable thing about it is that i caught him with a fly
i'd gone out pike fishing bless you never thinking of a trout and when i saw that whopper on the end of my line blest if it didn't quite take me aback well you see he weighed twenty six pound good night gentlemen good night
five minutes afterwards a third man came in and described how he had caught it early one morning with bleak and then he left and a stolid solemn looking middle aged individual came in
and sat down over by the window none of us spoke for a while but at length george turned to the new comer and said i beg your pardon i hope you will forgive the liberty that we perfect strangers in the neighbourhood are taking
but my friend here and myself would be so much obliged if you would tell us how you caught that trout up there why who told you i caught that trout was the surprised query
we said that nobody had told us so but somehow or other we felt instinctively that it was he who had done it well it's a most remarkable thing most remarkable
because as a matter of fact you are quite right i did catch it but fancy your guessing it like that dear me it's really a most remarkable thing and then he went on and told us how it had taken him half an hour to land it
and how it had broken his rod he said he had weighed it carefully when he reached home and it had turned the scale at thirty four pounds he went in his turn and when he was gone the landlord came in to us
we told him the various histories we had heard about his trout and he was immensely amused and we all laughed very heartily
fancy jim bates and joe muggles and mister jones and old billy maunders all telling you that they had caught it ha ha ha well that is good said the honest old fellow laughing heartily
yes they are the sort to give it me to put up in my parlour if they had caught it they are ha ha ha and then he told us the real history of the fish it seemed that he had caught it himself years ago when he was quite a lad
not by any art or skill but by that unaccountable luck that appears to always wait upon a boy when he plays the wag from school and goes out fishing on a sunny afternoon with a bit of string tied on to the end of a tree
he said that bringing home that trout had saved him from a whacking and that even his school master had said it was worth the rule of three and practice put together he was called out of the room at this point
it really was a most astonishing trout the more we looked at it the more we marvelled at it it excited george so much that he climbed up on the back of a chair to get a better view of it and then the chair slipped
and george clutched wildly at the trout case to save himself
you haven't injured the fish have you i cried in alarm rushing up i hope not said george rising cautiously and looking about but he had
that trout lay shattered into a thousand fragments i say a thousand but they may have only been nine hundred i did not count them
we thought it strange and unaccountable that a stuffed trout should break up into little pieces like that and so it would have been strange and unaccountable if it had been a stuffed trout but it was not
the passing of san juan hill when i was a boy i thought battles were fought in waste places selected for the purpose
i thought opposing armies also marched out of town until they reached some desolate spot where there were no window panes and where their cannon balls would hurt no one but themselves even later when i saw battles fought among villages
artillery galloping through a cornfield garden walls breached for rifle fire and farm houses in flames it always seemed as though the generals had elected to fight in such surroundings
after theatrical effect as though they wished to furnish the war correspondents with a chance for descriptive writing with the horrors of war as horrible as they are without any aid from these contrasts
as unnecessary as turning a red light on the dying gladiator there are so many places which are scenes set apart for battles places that look as though nature had condemned them for just such sacrifices colenso with its bare kopjes
and great stretch of veldt is one of these and so also is spion kop and in manchuria nan shan hill the photographs have made all of us familiar with the vast desolate approaches to port arthur
these are among the waste places of the earth barren deserted fit meeting grounds only for men whose object in life for the moment is to kill men were you shown over one of these places and told a battle was fought here you would answer why of course
where the united states army fought its solitary and modest battle with spain you might many times pass by san juan hill and think of it if you thought of it at all as only a pretty site for a bungalow as a place obviously intended for orchards and gardens
it still was an irregular ridge of smiling sunny hills with fat comfortable curves and in some places a steep straight front but above the steepest highest front frowned an aggressive block house
i find that on the day of the fight twelve years ago i cabled my paper that san juan hill reminded the americans of a sunny orchard in new england
and rough riders having taken kettle hill
it may then have looked like a sunny new england orchard but before night fell the intrenching tools had lent those sunny slopes a fierce and terrible aspect
we saw the hill eaten up by our trenches hidden by a vast laundry of shelter tents and torn apart by bomb proofs their jutting roofs of logs and broken branches weighed down by earth and stones and looking like the pit mouths to many mines
that probably is how most of the american army last saw san juan hill and that probably is how it best remembers it as a fortified camp that was twelve years ago when i revisited it
san juan hill was again a sunny smiling farm land the trenches planted with vegetables the roofs of the bomb proofs fallen in and buried beneath creeping vines and the barbed wire entanglements holding in check only the browsing cattle
san juan hill is not a solitary hill but the most prominent of a ridge of hills with kettle hill a quarter of a mile away on the edge of the jungle and separated from the ridge by a tiny lake in the local nomenclature
kettle hill which is the name given to it by the rough riders has always been known as san juan hill with an added name to distinguish it from the other san juan hill of greater renown the days we spent on those hills were so rich in incident and interest and were filled with moments of such excitement
of such pride in one's fellow countrymen of pity for the hurt and dying of laughter and good fellowship that one supposed he might return after even twenty years and recognize every detail of the ground but a shorter time has made startling and confusing changes
now a visitor will find that not until after several different visits and by walking and riding foot by foot over the hills can he make them fall into line as he thinks he once knew them
a barbed wire fence with a gateway encircles the block house which has been converted into a home for the caretaker of the park and then skirting the road to santiago to include the tree under which the surrender was arranged
this monument was erected by americans to commemorate the battle it is now rapidly falling to pieces
show that they approve of its results the public park is less than a quarter of a mile square except for it
has done all in her power to disguise and forever obliterate the scene of the army's one battle those features which still remain unchanged are very few the treaty tree now surrounded by a tall fence is one the block house is another
the little lake in which even when the bullets were dropping the men used to bathe and wash their clothes the big iron sugar kettle that gave a new name to kettle hill and here and there a trench hardly deeper than a ploughed furrow and nearly hidden by growing plants
are the few landmarks that remain of the camps of generals chaffee lawton bates sumner and wheeler
there are but the slightest traces the bloody bend as some call it in the san juan river as some call that stream
not the slightest physical resemblance to that ford
the san juan stream has carried away its banks and the trees that lined them and the trails that should mark where the ford once crossed have so altered and so many new ones have been added that the exact location of the once famous dressing station is now most difficult if not impossible
on the high shoulder of the hill just above the camp of the engineers who were on the side of the road opposite the camps of generals chaffee lawton hawkins ludlow
one can place only relatively
all the underbrush and small trees that might conceal the advance of our men had been cleared away by the spaniards leaving the hill except for the high crest comparatively bare to day the hills are thick with young trees and enormous bushes
the alteration in the landscape is as marked as is the difference between ground cleared for golf and the same spot planted with corn and fruit trees of all the camps the one that to day bears the strongest evidences of its occupation is that of the rough riders
a part of the camp of that regiment which was situated on the ridge some hundred feet from the santiago road was pitched under a clump of shade trees
where stood tiffany's quick firing gun and parker's gatling has been almost obliterated the tree under which colonel pitched his tent
are now levelled to make a kitchen garden sometimes the ex president is said to have too generously given office and promotion to the friends he made in cuba these men he met in the trenches were then not necessarily his friends to day they are not necessarily his friends
they are the men the free life of the rifle pits enabled him to know and to understand as the settled relations of home life and peace would never have permitted at that time none of them guessed that the amateur colonel to whom they talked freely as to a comrade would be their commander in chief
they did not suspect that he would become even the next governor of new york certainly not that in a few years he would be the president of the united states so they showed themselves to him frankly unconsciously they criticised argued disagreed
and remembered the seeds planted in those half obliterated trenches have borne greater results than ever will the kitchen garden the kitchen garden is immediately on the crest of the hill and near it a cuban farmer has built a shack of mud and twigs and cultivated several acres of land
to find how the presence on the hills of twelve thousand men and the excitement of the time magnified distances and disarranged the landscape during the fight i walked along a portion of the santiago road
and for many years i always have thought of that walk as extending over immense distances it started from the top of san juan hill beside the block house where i had climbed to watch our artillery in action
only about three minutes during that brief moment the black powder it burned drew upon it the fire of every rifle in the spanish line to load his piece each of our men was forced to crawl to it on his stomach rise on one elbow in order to shove in the shell and lock the breech
and then still flat on the ground wriggle below the crest in the three minutes three men were wounded and two killed and the guns were withdrawn i also withdrew i withdrew first
indeed all that happened after the first three seconds of those three minutes is hearsay for i was in the santiago road at the foot of the hill and retreating briskly this road also was under a cross fire which made it stretch in either direction to an interminable distance
seated beside him was a small boy freckled and sunburned a stowaway from one of the transports
was that he was not under fire from our coign of safety with our backs to the hill the teamster and i assured him that on that point he need feel no morbid doubt but until a bullet embedded itself in the blue board of the wagon he was not convinced
then with his jack knife he dug it out and shouted with pleasure i guess the folks will have to believe i was in a battle now he said that coign of safety ceasing to be a coign of safety
blocking the road with his dynamite gun he and his brother and three regulars were busily correcting a hitch in its mechanism an officer carrying an order along the line halted his sweating horse and gazed at the strange gun with professional knowledge
that must be the dynamite gun i have heard so much about he shouted borrowe saluted and shouted assent the officer greatly interested forgot his errand
beamed with equal eagerness in just a moment sir he said
the officer for the first time seeing the shell stuck in the breech hurriedly gathered up his reins he seemed to be losing interest with elaborate carelessness i began to edge off down the road wait borrowe begged we'll have it out in a minute
suddenly i heard the officer's voice raised wildly what what he gasped is that man doing with that axe he's helping me to get out this shell said borrowe good god said the officer then he remembered his errand
until last year when i again met young borrowe gayly disporting himself at a lawn tennis tournament at mattapoisett i did not know whether his brother's method of removing dynamite with an axe had been entirely successful he said it worked all right
at the turn of the road i found colonel leonard wood and a group of rough riders who were busily intrenching at the same moment stephen crane came up with jimmy hare
crane walked to the crest and stood there as sharply outlined as a semaphore observing the enemy's lines and instantly bringing upon himself
with every one else wood was crouched below the crest and shouted to crane to lie down crane still standing as though to get out of ear shot moved away and wood again ordered him to lie down you're drawing the fire on these men wood commanded although the heat
it was the first of july in the tropics was terrific crane wore a long india rubber rain coat and was smoking a pipe he appeared as cool as though he were looking down from a box at a theatre i knew that to crane anything that savored of a pose was hateful
as i hoped he would he instantly dropped to his knees when he crawled over to where we lay i explained i knew that would fetch you and he grinned and said oh was that it
a captain of the cavalry came up to wood and asked permission to withdraw his troop from the top of the hill to a trench forty feet below the one they were in they can't possibly live where they are now he explained and they're doing no good there for they can't raise their heads to fire
in that lower trench they would be out of range themselves and would be able to fire back yes said wood but all the other men in the first trench would see them withdraw and the moral effect would be bad they needn't attempt to return the enemy's fire but they must not retreat
the officer looked as though he would like to argue he was a west point graduate and a full fledged captain in the regular army to him wood
owing to the illness of general young had placed him in command of a brigade was still a doctor but discipline was strong in him and though he looked many things he rose from his knees and grimly saluted but at that moment without waiting for the permission of any one the men leaped out of the trench and ran
and instantly turning began pumping lead at the enemy since five that morning wood had been running about on his feet his clothes stuck to him with sweat and the mud and water of forded streams and as he rose he limped slightly
my but i'm tired he said
he limped over to the trench in which the men were now busily firing off their rifles and waved a riding crop he carried at the trench they had abandoned he was standing as crane had been standing in silhouette against the sky line come back boys we heard him shouting
the other men can't withdraw and so you mustn't it looks bad come on get out of that what made it more amusing was that although wood had like every one else discarded his coat
white riding breeches and a cowboy stetson with no insignia of rank not even straps
and although for over a mile of the way the trail was under fire crane and hare each insisted on giving me an arm and kept step with my stumblings whenever i protested and refused their sacrifice and pointed out the risk they were taking they smiled
crane called the attention of hare to the effect of the setting sun behind the palm trees to the reader all these little things that one remembers seem very little indeed but they were vivid at the moment
and i have always thought of them as stretching over a long extent of time and territory before i revisited san juan
to where i joined wood was three quarters of a mile when i paced it later i found the distance was about seventy five yards i do not urge my stupidity
but if only for the sake of the stupid ones it seems a pity that the landmarks of san juan should not be rescued from the jungle and a few sign posts placed upon the hills it is true that the great battles of the civil war and those of the one in manchuria
where the men killed and wounded in a day outnumber all those who fought on both sides at san juan make that battle read like a skirmish but the spanish war had its results
at least it made cuba into a republic and so enriched or burdened us with colonies that our republic changed into something like an empire but i do not urge that it will never be because san juan changed our foreign policy that people will visit the spot
and will send from it picture postal cards the human interest alone will keep san juan alive the men who fought there came from every state in our country and from every class of our social life we sent there the best of our regular army and with them cowboys clerks
bricklayers foot ball players three future commanders of the greater army that followed that war the future governor of cuba future commanders of the philippines the commander of our forces in china a future president of the united states and
or rose to be presidents and mounted policemen
and there must be many more besides who hold the place in memory
who did not in his or her heart send a substitute to cuba for these it seems as though san juan might be better preserved
but as it was the efforts already made to keep the place in memory and to honor the americans who died there are the public park which i have mentioned the monument on san juan and one other monument at guasimas to the regulars and rough riders who were killed there
to these monuments the society of santiago will add four more which will mark the landing place of the army at daiquairi and the fights at guasimas el caney and san juan hill but i believe even more than this might be done to preserve to the place its proper values
these values are sentimental historical and possibly to the military student educational if to day there were erected at daiquairi
and on and about san juan a dozen iron or bronze tablets that would tell from where certain regiments advanced what posts they held how many or how few were the men who held those positions how near they were to the trenches of the enemy and by whom these men were commanded
not only for the returning volunteer but for any casual tourist
is now at the mercy of the caretaker of the park and the cuban guides from the hotel the caretaker speaks only spanish
it is a pity when they are talking to americans they are not forced to use the same language when last i visited it carlos portuondo was the official guardian of san juan hill he is an aged cuban and he fought through the ten years war
but during the last insurrection and the spanish american war he not only was not near san juan but was not even on the island of cuba he is a charming old person and so is his aged wife their chief concern in life when i saw them
was to sell me a pair of breeches made of palm fibre which carlos had worn throughout the entire ten years of battle
and he very properly regarded them as of historic value but of what happened at san juan he knew nothing and when i asked him why he held his present post and occupied the block house he said to keep the cows out of the park
i assured him that under no stress of terror could the entire american army have been driven into his back yard and pointed out where it had stretched along the ridge of hills for five miles he politely but unmistakably showed that he thought i was a liar from the venus hotel
there were two guides old casanova
his languid and good natured son a youth of sixteen years old casanova like most cubans is not inclined to give much credit for what they did in cuba to the americans after all he says they came only just as the cubans themselves were about to conquer the spaniards
and by a lucky chance received the surrender and then claimed all the credit as other cubans told me had the americans left us alone a few weeks longer we would have ended the war how they were to have taken havana and sunk cervera's fleet
and why they were not among those present when our men charged san juan i did not inquire old casanova again like other cubans ranks the fighting qualities of the spaniard much higher than those of the american this is only human
the yankee in eight weeks received his surrender and began to ship him home the way casanova describes the fight at el caney is as follows the americans thought they could capture el caney in one day but the brave general toral
the statement is correct
the americans did make the mistake of thinking they could eat up el caney in an hour and then march through it to san juan owing to the splendid courage of toral and his few troops
were held in check from seven in the morning
but the difference between seven hours of one day and six days is considerable still at present at san juan that is the sort of information upon which the patriotic and puzzled american tourist is fed young casanova the only other authority in santiago
is not so sure of his facts as is his father and is willing to learn he went with me to hold my pony while i took the photographs that accompany this article and i listened with great interest to his accounts of the battle finally he made a statement that was correct
this is the inside story of the surrender during the spanish war of the town of coamo it is written by the man to whom the town surrendered immediately after the surrender this same man became military governor of coamo
he held office for fully twenty minutes before beginning this story the reader must forget all he may happen to know of this particular triumph of the porto rican expedition
he must forget that the taking of coamo has always been credited to major general james h wilson who on that occasion commanded captain anderson's battery the sixteenth pennsylvania troop c of brooklyn
and under general ernst the second and third wisconsin volunteers he must forget that in the records of the war department all the praise and it is of the highest for this victory is bestowed upon general wilson and his four thousand soldiers
even the writer of this when he cabled an account of the event to his paper gave with every one else the entire credit to general wilson and ever since his conscience has upbraided him his only claim for tolerance as a war correspondent
has been that he always has stuck to the facts and now he feels that in the sacred cause of history his friendship and admiration for general wilson that veteran of the civil philippine and chinese wars
in order to get there they had spent the night in crawling over mountain trails and scrambling through streams and ravines it was general wilson's plan that by this flanking night march the sixteenth pennsylvania would reach the road leading from coamo to san juan
in time to cut off the retreat of the spanish garrison when general wilson with the main body attacked it from the opposite side at seven o'clock in the morning general wilson began the frontal attack by turning loose the artillery on a block house which threatened his approach
and by advancing the wisconsin volunteers the cavalry he sent to the right to capture los banos at eight o'clock from where the main body rested two miles from coamo we could hear the sixteenth pennsylvania open its attack
and instantly become hotly engaged the enemy returned the fire fiercely
either would take the town without the main body or that they would greatly need its assistance the artillery was accordingly advanced one thousand yards and the infantry was hurried forward the second wisconsin approached coamo along the main road from ponce
the third wisconsin through fields of grass to the right of the road
but before they met from a position near the artillery i had watched through my glasses the second wisconsin with general ernst at its head advancing along the main road and as when i saw them they were near the river
as the firing from the sixteenth still continued it seemed obvious that general ernst would be the first general officer to enter coamo
i had never seen five thousand people surrender to one man
my best plan was to abandon the artillery and as quickly as possible pursue the second wisconsin i did not want to share the spectacle of the surrender with my brother correspondents so i tried to steal away from the three who were present they were thomas f millard
walstein root of the sun and horace thompson by dodging through a coffee central i came out a half mile from them and in advance of the third wisconsin there i encountered two boy officers
captain john c breckenridge and lieutenant fred s titus who had temporarily abandoned their thankless duties in the commissariat department in order to seek death or glory in the skirmish line they wanted to know where i was going and when i explained
but from the bald ridge where the artillery was still hammering the town the three correspondents and captain alfred paget her majesty's naval attache observed our attempt to steal a march on general wilson's forces and pursued us and soon overtook us
or to be exact eight for with mister millard was jimmy who in times of peace sells papers in herald square
and started on a gallop along the mile of military road that lay between us and coamo the firing from the sixteenth pennsylvania had slackened but as we advanced it became sharper more insistent and seemed to urge us to greater speed
across the road were dug rough rifle pits which had the look of having been but that moment abandoned
was burning in pots over tiny fires little heaps of cartridges lay in readiness upon the edges of each pit and an arm chair
the only living things we saw were the chickens and pigs in the kitchen gardens on either hand was every evidence of hasty and panic stricken flight we rejoiced at these evidences of the fact that the wisconsin volunteers had swept all before them
our rejoicings were not entirely unselfish it was so quiet ahead that some one suggested the town had already surrendered
we refused to believe it and whipped the ponies into greater haste we were now only a quarter of a mile distant from the built up portion of coamo where the road turned sharply into the main street of the town captain paget
who in the absence of the british military attache on account of sickness accompanied the army as a guest of general wilson gave way to thoughts of etiquette
the words were jolted out of him as he rose in the saddle the noise of the ponies hoofs made conversation difficult i shouted back that the presence of general ernst in the town made it quite proper for a foreign attache to enter it it must have surrendered by now i shouted
it's been half an hour since ernst crossed the bridge at these innocent words all my companions tugged violently at their bridles and shouted whoa crossed the bridge they yelled there is no bridge the bridge is blown up if he hasn't crossed by the ford
he isn't in the town then in my turn i shouted whoa but by now the porto rican ponies had decided that this was the race of their lives and each had made up his mind that mexican bit or no mexican bit until he had carried his rider first into the town of coamo
he would not be halted as i tugged helplessly at my mexican bit i saw how i had made my mistake the volunteers on finding the bridge destroyed instead of marching upon coamo had turned to the ford the same ford which we had crossed
we seven unarmed men and jimmy
i shouted back that no one regretted the fact that he was not more keenly than i did myself titus and breckenridge each glanced at a new full dress sword we might as well go in they shouted and take it anyway
i decided that titus and breckenridge were wasted in the commissariat department the three correspondents looked more comfortable
wait shouted her majesty's representative
but paget's pony refused to consider the feelings of the lords of the admiralty as successfully paget might have tried to pull back a row boat from the edge of niagara and moreover millard in order that jimmy might be the first to reach ponce with despatches
had mounted him on the fastest pony in the bunch and he already was far in the lead his sporting instincts nursed in the pool rooms of the tenderloin and at guttenburg had sent him three lengths to the good it never would do to have a newsboy tell in new york
that he had beaten the correspondents of the papers he sold in the streets nor to permit commissioned officers to take the dust of one who never before had ridden on anything but a cable car so we all raced forward and bunched together swept into the main street of coamo
it was gratefully empty there were no american soldiers but then neither were there any spanish soldiers across the street stretched more rifle pits and barricades of iron pipes but in sight there was neither friend nor foe
on the stones of the deserted street the galloping hoofs sounded like the advance of a whole regiment of cavalry their clatter gave us a most comfortable feeling we almost could imagine the townspeople believing us to be the rough riders themselves and fleeing before us
and then the empty street seemed to threaten an ambush we thought hastily of sunken mines of soldiers crouching behind the barriers behind the houses at the next corner of mausers covering us from the latticed balconies overhead
a lonely man dashed into the middle of the street hurled a white flag in front of us and then dived headlong under the porch of a house the next instant as though at a signal a hundred citizens each with a white flag in both hands ran from cover
waving their banners and gasping in weak and terror shaken tones vivan los americanos we tried to pull up but the ponies had not yet settled among themselves which of us had won and carried us to the extreme edge of the town
where a precipice seemed to invite them to stop and we fell off into the arms of the porto ricans
and demijohns of native rum they were abject trembling tearful they made one instantly forget that the moment before he had been extremely frightened one of them spoke to me the few words of spanish with which i had an acquaintance
he told me he was the alcalde and that he begged to surrender into my hands the town of coamo i led him instantly to one side i was afraid that if i did not take him up he would surrender to paget or to jimmy i bade him conduct me to his official residence
he did so and gave me the key to the cartel a staff of office of gold and ebony and the flag of the town
i decided that with whatever else i might part that flag would always be mine that the chance of my again receiving the surrender of a town of five thousand people was slender and that this token would be wrapped around me in my coffin
i accordingly hid it in my poncho and strapped it to my saddle then i appointed a hotel keeper who spoke a little english as my official interpreter and told the alcalde that i was now military governor mayor and chief of police
he gave me a rubber stamp with a coat of arms cut in it and i wrote myself three letters which to insure their safe arrival i addressed to three different places and stamped them with the rubber seals in time all three reached me
of coamo during that brief administration i detailed titus and breckenridge to wigwag the sixteenth pennsylvania that we had taken the town
in order to compromise paget they used his red silk handkerchief root i detailed to conciliate the inhabitants by drinking with every one of them he tells me he carried out my instructions to the letter i also settled one assault and battery case and put the chief offender under arrest
my administration came to an end in twenty minutes when general wilson rode into coamo at the head of his staff and three thousand men
and ran out into the street to snap a picture of him he looked greatly surprised and asked me what i was doing in his town the tone in which he spoke
i pulled it off my saddle and said general it's too long a story to tell you now but here is the flag of the town it's the first spanish flag and it was that has been captured in porto rico general wilson smiled again and accepted the flag
he and about four thousand other soldiers think it belongs to them but the truth will out
on the mountain called hiyei zan near kyoto one summer day this good priest after a visit to the city was returning to his temple by way of kita no oji
they had caught the bird in a snare and were beating it with sticks oh the poor creature compassionately exclaimed the priest why do you torment it so children
one of the boys made answer we want to kill it to get the feathers moved by pity the priest persuaded the boys to let him have the kite in exchange for a fan that he was carrying
and he set the bird free it had not been seriously hurt and was able to fly away happy at having performed this buddhist act of merit the priest then resumed his walk
he had not proceeded very far when he saw a strange monk come out of a bamboo grove by the road side and hasten towards him the monk respectfully saluted him and said sir
really i cannot remember to have ever seen you before please tell me who you are it is not wonderful that you cannot recognize me in this form returned the monk
i am the kite that those cruel boys were tormenting at kita no oji you saved my life and there is nothing in this world more precious than life so i now wish to return your kindness in some way or other
anything that i can do for you in short please to tell me for as i happen to possess in a small degree the six supernatural powers i am able to gratify almost any wish that you can express
on hearing these words the priest knew that he was speaking with a tengu and he frankly made answer my friend i have long ceased to care for the things of this world i am now seventy years of age
neither fame nor pleasure has any attraction for me i feel anxious only about my future birth but as that is a matter in which no one can help me it were useless to ask about it
never a day passes in which this regret does not come to me in the hour of morning or of evening prayer ah my friend if it were possible to conquer time and space like the bodhisattvas
so that i could look upon that marvellous assembly how happy should i be why the tengu exclaimed that pious wish of yours can easily be satisfied i perfectly well remember the assembly on the vulture peak
you must not bow down nor pray nor utter
you must not speak at all
the priest gladly promised to follow these injunctions and the tengu hurried away as if to prepare the spectacle the day waned and passed and the darkness came but the old priest waited patiently beneath a tree
keeping his eyes closed at last a voice suddenly resounded above him a wonderful voice deep and clear like the pealing of a mighty bell the voice of the buddha sakyamuni
proclaiming the perfect way then the priest opening his eyes in a great radiance perceived that all things had been changed the place was indeed the vulture peak
the holy indian mountain gridhrakuta and the time was the time of the sutra of the lotos of the good law now there were no pines about him but strange shining trees
and the ground was covered with mandarava and manjushaka flowers showered from heaven and the night was filled with fragrance and splendour and the sweetness of the great voice and in mid air
shining as a moon above the world
with samantabhadra at his right hand and manjusri at his left and before them assembled immeasurably spreading into space like a flood of stars the hosts of the mahasattvas and the bodhisattvas
with their countless following gods demons nagas goblins men and beings not human sariputra he saw and kasyapa and ananda
and the gods of the sun and the moon and the wind and the shining myriads of brahma's heaven and incomparably further than even the measureless circling of the glory of these he saw
made visible by a single ray of light that shot from the forehead of the blessed one to pierce beyond uttermost time the eighteen hundred thousand
and the beings in each of the six states of existence and even the shapes of the buddhas extinct that had entered into nirvana these and all the gods
and all the demons he saw bow down before the lion throne and he heard that multitude incalculable of beings praising the sutra of the lotos of the good law like the roar of a sea before the lord
then forgetting utterly his pledge foolishly dreaming that he stood in the very presence of the very buddha he cast himself down in worship with tears of love and thanksgiving
crying out with a loud voice
instantly with a shock as of earthquake the stupendous spectacle disappeared and the priest found himself alone in the dark kneeling upon the grass of the mountain side
then a sadness unspeakable fell upon him because of the loss of the vision
and heedlessly allowed your feelings to overcome you the gohotendo who is the guardian of the doctrine swooped down suddenly from heaven upon us
crying out how do ye dare thus to deceive a pious person then the other monks whom i had assembled all fled in fear as for myself one of my wings has been broken
so that now i cannot fly and with these words the tengu vanished forever
this story may be found in the curious old japanese book called jikkun sho the same legend has furnished the subject of an interesting no play called dai e the great assembly
in japanese popular art the tengu are commonly represented either as winged men with beak shaped noses or as birds of prey
there are different kinds of tengu but all are supposed to be mountain haunting spirits capable of assuming many forms and occasionally appearing as crows vultures or eagles
and sidled towards the basement where he was wont to keep his hat during business hours he was aware that it would be a matter of some delicacy to leave the bank at that hour
there was a certain quantity of work still to be done in the fixed deposits department work in which by rights as mike's understudy he should have lent a sympathetic and helping hand
but what of that he mused thoughtfully smoothing his hat with his knuckles comrade gregory is a man who takes such an enthusiastic pleasure in his duties
as he walked delicately not courting observation he reminded himself of the hero of pilgrim's progress on all sides of him lay fearsome beasts lying in wait to pounce upon him
at any moment mister gregory's hoarse roar might shatter the comparative stillness or the sinister note of mister bickersdyke make itself heard
however said psmith philosophically these are life's trials and must be borne patiently a roundabout route
via the postage and inwards bills departments took him to the swing doors it was here that the danger became acute the doors were well within view of the fixed deposits department
and mister gregory had an eye compared with which that of an eagle was more or less bleared psmith sauntered to the door and pushed it open in a gingerly manner
mister gregory was leaning over the barrier which divided his lair from the outer world and gesticulating violently where are you going roared the head of the fixed deposits
psmith did not reply with a benevolent smile and a gesture intended to signify all would come right in the future he slid through the swing doors
one is practically a hunted hare either the heads of my department must refrain from view halloos when they observe me going for a stroll or i abandon commerce for some less exacting walk in life
he removed his hat
the episode had been disturbing he was to meet his father at the mansion house
certainly my boy said mister smith senior
excellent we must be getting on we must not miss a moment of the match
where's a cab hi cabby no that one's got some one in it there's another hi here lunatic are you blind good he's seen us
lord's cricket ground cabby as quick as you can jump in rupert my boy jump in psmith rarely jumped
he entered the cab with something of the stateliness of an old roman emperor boarding his chariot and settled himself comfortably in his seat mister smith dived in like a rabbit
a vendor of newspapers came to the cab thrusting an evening paper into the interior psmith bought it let's see how they're getting on he said opening the paper where are we
lunch scores lord's
thirty at lunch time he would appear to be making something of a stand with his brother joe who has made sixty one up to the moment of going to press it's possible he may still be in when we get there in which case we shall not be able to slide into the pavilion
a grand bat that boy i said so last summer better than any of his brothers
what
psmith related briefly the history of mike's departure mister smith listened with interest well he said at last
i should have done the same myself in his place psmith smoothed his waistcoat
this bank business is far from being much of a catch indeed i should describe it definitely as a bit off i have given it a fair trial and i now denounce it unhesitatingly as a shade too thick
what are you getting tired of it not precisely tired but
i have come to the conclusion that my talents lie elsewhere at lugging ledgers i am among the also rans a mere cipher i have been wanting to speak to you about this for some time if you have no objection i should like to go to the bar
the bar well i fancy i should make a pretty considerable hit as a barrister mister smith reflected the idea had not occurred to him before now that it was suggested
there was a good deal to be said for the bar as a career psmith knew his father
it was a new idea and as such was bound to be favourably received what i should do if i were you
he went on as if he were advising a friend on some course of action
the blow to the management especially to comrade bickersdyke will be a painful one but it is the truest kindness to administer it swiftly let me resign tomorrow and devote my time to quiet study
let us do it now
mister smith hesitated for a moment then made up his mind very well he said i really think it is a good idea there are great opportunities open to a barrister i wish we had thought of it before i am
not altogether sorry that we did not said psmith i have enjoyed the chances my commercial life has given me of associating with such a man as comrade bickersdyke in many ways a master mind but perhaps
it is as well to close the chapter how it happened it is hard to say but somehow i fancy i did not precisely hit it off with comrade bickersdyke with psmith the worker he had no fault to find
but it seemed to me sometimes during our festive evenings together at the club that all was not well from little almost imperceptible signs i have suspected now and then that he would just as soon have been without my company
one cannot explain these things it must have been some incompatibility of temperament perhaps he will manage to bear up at my departure but here we are he added as the cab drew up
they passed through the turnstile and caught sight of the telegraph board
while these conversations were going on in the reception room and the princess room a carriage containing pierre who had been sent for
was driving into the court of count bezukhov's house as the wheels rolled softly over the straw beneath the windows
having turned with words of comfort to her companion realized that he was asleep in his corner and woke him up rousing himself
and only then began to think of the interview with his dying father which awaited him he noticed that they had not come to the front entrance but to the back door
while he was getting down from the carriage steps two men who looked like tradespeople ran hurriedly from the entrance and hid in the shadow of the wall pausing for a moment
of the same kind hiding in the shadow of the house on both sides
nor the coachman who could not help seeing these people took any notice of them it seems to be all right pierre concluded and followed anna mikhaylovna
she hurriedly ascended the narrow dimly lit stone staircase calling to pierre who was lagging behind to follow though
halfway up the stairs they were almost knocked over by some men who carrying pails came running downstairs their boots clattering these men pressed close to the wall
to let pierre and anna mikhaylovna pass and did not evince the least surprise at seeing them there is this the way to the princesses apartments
asked anna mikhaylovna of one of them yes replied a footman in a bold loud voice as if anything were now permissible the door to the left ma'am
perhaps the count did not ask for me said pierre when he reached the landing i'd better go to my own room anna mikhaylovna paused and waited for him to come up
ah my friend she said touching his arm as she had done her son's when speaking to him that afternoon believe me i suffer no less than you do but be a man
but really hadn't i better go away he asked
pierre had never been in this part of the house and did not even know of the existence of these rooms
addressing a maid who was hurrying past with a decanter on a tray as my dear and my sweet asked about the princess health and then led pierre along a stone passage
everything in the house was done in haste at that time and pierre and anna mikhaylovna in passing instinctively glanced into the room where prince vasili and the eldest princess
were sitting close together talking seeing them pass
while the princess jumped up and with a gesture of desperation
with all her might this action was so unlike her usual composure and the fear depicted on prince vasili's face so out of keeping with his dignity
that pierre stopped and glanced inquiringly over his spectacles at his guide anna mikhaylovna evinced no surprise she only smiled faintly and sighed as if to say
that this was no more than she had expected be a man my friend i will look after your interests said she in reply to his look
and went still faster along the passage pierre could not make out what it was all about and still less what watching over his interests meant
but he decided that all these things had to be from the passage they went into a large dimly lit room adjoining the count's reception room
it was one of those sumptuous but cold apartments known to pierre only from the front approach but even in this room there now stood an empty bath and water had been spilled on the carpet
they were met by a deacon with a censer and by a servant who passed out on tiptoe without heeding them they went into the reception room familiar to pierre
with its large bust and full length portrait of catherine the great the same people
and at the big stout figure of pierre who hanging his head meekly followed her
anna mikhaylovna's face expressed a consciousness that the decisive moment had arrived with the air of a practical petersburg lady she now
keeping pierre close beside her entered the room even more boldly than that afternoon she felt that as she brought with her the person
the dying man wished to see her own admission was assured casting a rapid glance at all those in the room and noticing the count's confessor there she glided up to him with a sort of amble
all we relatives have been in such anxiety this young man is the count's son she added more softly what a terrible moment
having said this she went up to the doctor dear doctor said she this young man is the count's son is there any hope
the doctor cast a rapid glance upwards and silently shrugged his shoulders
almost closing the latter sighed and moved away from the doctor to pierre to him in a particularly respectful and tenderly sad voice
mercy and pointing out a small sofa for him to sit and wait for her she went silently toward the door that everyone was watching
as soon as anna mikhaylovna had disappeared he noticed that the eyes of all in the room turned to him with something more than curiosity and sympathy he noticed that they whispered to one another
casting significant looks at him with a kind of awe and even servility
a strange lady the one who had been talking to the priests rose and offered him her seat an aide de camp picked up and returned a glove pierre had dropped
the doctors became respectfully silent as he passed by and moved to make way for him
and also to pick up the glove himself and to pass round the doctors who were not even in his way but all at once he felt that this would not do and that tonight
he was a person obliged to perform some sort of awful rite which everyone expected of him and that he was therefore bound to accept their services he took the glove in silence from the aide de camp
and sat down in the lady's chair placing his huge hands symmetrically on his knees in the naive attitude of an egyptian statue and decided in his own mind that all was as it should be
and that in order not to lose his head and do foolish things he must not act on his own ideas tonight but must yield himself up entirely to the will of those who were guiding him
not two minutes had passed before prince vasili with head erect majestically entered the room
he seemed to have grown thinner since the morning his eyes seemed larger than usual when he glanced round and noticed pierre he went up to him took his hand a thing he never used to do
and he turned to go but pierre thought it necessary to ask how is and hesitated not knowing whether it would be proper to call the dying man
and only later grasped that a stroke was an attack of illness prince vasili said something to lorrain in passing and went through the door on tiptoe
the eldest princess followed him and the priests and deacons and some servants also went in at the door through that door
had plunged into his room with a long statement of how psmith deputed to help in the life and thought of the fixed deposits department had left the building at four o'clock
moreover mister gregory deposed the errant one seen sliding out of the swinging door and summoned in a loud clear voice to come back had flatly disobeyed
and had gone upon his ways grinning at me
like a dashed ape a most unjust description of the sad sweet smile which psmith had bestowed upon him from the doorway
but now he had slipped to go off an hour and a half before the proper time and to refuse to return when summoned by the head of his department these were offences for which he could be dismissed without fuss
mister bickersdyke looked forward to tomorrow's interview with his employee meanwhile having enjoyed an excellent dinner he was now as psmith had predicted
engaged with a cigar and a cup of coffee in the lower smoking room of the senior conservative club psmith and mike entered the room when he was about half through these luxuries psmith's first action was to summon a waiter
not for myself he explained to mike for comrade bickersdyke he is about to sustain a nasty shock and may need a restorative at a moment's notice for all we know his heart may not be strong
in any case it is safest to have a pick me up handy he paid the waiter and advanced across the room followed by mike in his hand extended at arm's length
pityingly through his eyeglass mike who felt embarrassed took a seat some little way behind his companion this was psmith's affair and he proposed to allow him to do the talking
mister bickersdyke except for a slight deepening of the colour of his complexion gave no sign of having seen them he puffed away at his cigar his eyes fixed on the ceiling an
began psmith in a low sorrowful voice and it must not be shirked have i your ear mister bickersdyke addressed thus directly
the manager allowed his gaze to wander from the ceiling he eyed psmith for a moment like an elderly basilisk then looked back at the ceiling again i shall speak to you tomorrow he said
urged psmith sympathetically holding out the glass be brave he went on rapidly time softens the harshest blows
little by little we come to ourselves again life which we had thought could hold no more pleasure for us gradually shows itself not wholly grey
mister bickersdyke seemed about to make an observation at this point but psmith with a wave of the hand hurried on we find that the sun still shines the birds still sing
and begin if you have anything to say to me said the manager i should be glad if you would say it and go
said psmith perhaps you are wise in a word then he picked up the brandy and held it out to him
are leaving the bank i am aware of that said mister bickersdyke drily psmith put down the glass you have been told already he said that accounts for your calm
that our grip on the work of the bank made a prosperous career in commerce certain for us it may be so but somehow we feel that our talents lie elsewhere to comrade jackson
the management of the psmith estates seems the job on which he can get the rapid half nelson for my own part i feel that my long suit is the bar i am a poor unready speaker
but i intend to acquire a knowledge of the law which shall outweigh this defect before leaving you i should like to say i may speak for you as well as myself comrade jackson
our place is elsewhere he rose mike followed his example with alacrity
this is unmanly comrade bickersdyke he said i had not expected this that you should be dazed by the shock was natural
our resolve and return to the bank is unworthy of you be a man bite the bullet the first keen pang will pass time will soften the feeling of bereavement you must be brave
mike responded to the call without hesitation
it had to be however the bank was no place for us an excellent career in many respects but unsuitable for you and me it is hard on comrade bickersdyke especially as he took such trouble to get me into it
but i think we may say that we are well out of the place mike's mind roamed into the future
the problem of life seemed to him to be solved he looked on down the years
reason suggested that there were probably one or two knocking about somewhere but this was no time to think of them he examined the future and found it good
tall fair and grey eyed with the sunset light coming down over the dark firs through the window behind her and making a primrose nimbus around her shapely head
anna dark vivid and slender was perched on the edge of the table idly swinging her slippered foot at the cat's head she smiled wickedly at alma before replying i am not going to answer it tonight
or any other night she said twisting her full red lips in a way that alma had learned to dread mischief was ripening in anna's brain when that twist was out what do you mean asked alma anxiously
just what i say dear responded anna with deceptive meekness poor gilbert is gone and i don't intend to bother my head about him any longer he was amusing while he lasted but of what use is a beau two thousand miles away alma
alma was patient outwardly it was never of any avail to show impatience with anna anna you are talking foolishly of course you are going to answer his letter you are as good as engaged to him
wasn't that practically understood when he left no no dear and anna shook her sleek black head with the air of explaining matters to an obtuse child i was the only one who understood gil mis understood
he thought that i would really wait for him until he should have made enough money to come home and pay off the mortgage i let him think so because i hated to hurt his little feelings but now it's off with the old love and on with a new one for me
anna you cannot be in earnest exclaimed alma but she was afraid that anna was in earnest anna had a wretched habit of being in earnest when she said flippant things
you don't mean that you are not going to write to gilbert at all after all you promised
dropped her pointed chin in her hands and looked at alma with black demure eyes i do mean just that she said slowly i never mean to marry gilbert murray
this is final alma and you need not scold or coax because it would be a waste of breath gilbert is safely out of the way and now i am going to have a good time with a few other delightful men creatures in exeter
anna nodded decisively flashed a smile at alma picked up her cat and went out at the door she turned and looked back with the big black cat snuggled under her chin if you think gilbert will feel very badly over his letter not being answered
you might answer it yourself alma she said teasingly there it is she took the letter from the pocket of her ruffled apron and threw it on a chair you may read it if you want to it isn't really a love letter
i told gilbert he wasn't to write silly letters come pussy i'm going to get ready for prayer meeting we've got a nice new young good looking minister in exeter pussy and that makes prayer meeting very interesting anna shut the door
her departing laugh rippling mockingly through the dusk alma picked up gilbert murray's letter and went to her room she wanted to cry since she could not shake anna even if she could have shook her it would only have made her more perverse
anna was in earnest alma knew that even while she hoped and believed that it was but the earnestness of a freak that would pass in time anna had had one like it a year ago when she had cast gilbert off for three months
driving him distracted by flirting with charlie moore then she had suddenly repented and taken him back alma thought that this whim would run its course likewise and leave a repentant anna but meanwhile everything might be spoiled
gilbert might not prove forgiving a second time alma would have given much if she could only have induced anna to answer gilbert's letter but coaxing anna to do anything was a very sure and effective way of preventing her from doing it
alma and anna had lived alone at the old williams homestead ever since their mother's death four years before exeter matrons thought this hardly proper since alma in spite of her grave ways was only twenty four
the farm was rented so that alma's only responsibilities were the post office which she kept and that harum scarum beauty of an anna the murray homestead adjoined theirs gilbert murray had grown up with alma
they had been friends ever since she could remember alma loved gilbert with a love which she herself believed to be purely sisterly and which nobody else doubted could be since she had been at pains to make a match exeter matrons phrasing
between gil and anna and was manifestly delighted when gilbert obligingly fell in love with the latter there was a small mortgage on the murray place which mister murray senior had not been able to pay off
gilbert determined to get rid of it and his thoughts turned to the west his father was an active hale old man quite capable of managing the farm in gilbert's absence
alexander mac nair had gone to the west two years previously and got work on a new railroad he wrote to gilbert to come too promising him plenty of work and good pay gilbert went but before going he had asked anna to marry him
it was the first proposal anna had ever had and she managed it quite cleverly from her standpoint she told gilbert that he must wait until he came home again before settling that meanwhile they would be very good friends
emphasized with a blush and that he might write to her she kissed him goodbye and gilbert honest fellow was quite satisfied when an exeter girl had allowed so much to be inferred it was understood to be equivalent to an engagement
but was a law unto herself alma sat down by her window and looked out over the lane where the slim wild cherry trees were bronzing under the autumn frosts her lips were very firmly set something must be done but what
alma's heart was set on this marriage for two reasons firstly if anna married gilbert she would be near her all her life she could not bear the thought that some day anna might leave her and go far away to live
in the second and largest place she desired the marriage because gilbert did
she had always been desirous even in the old childish play days that gilbert should get just exactly what he wanted she had always taken a keen strange delight in furthering his wishes
anna's falseness would surely break his heart and alma winced at the thought of his pain there was one thing she could do anna's tormenting suggestion had fallen on fertile soil
alma balanced pros and cons admitting the risk but she would have taken a tenfold larger risk in the hope of holding secure anna's place in gilbert's affections until anna herself should come to her senses
when it grew quite dark and anna had gone lilting down the lane on her way to prayer meeting alma lighted her lamp read gilbert's letter and answered it her handwriting was much like anna's she signed the letter a williams
and there was nothing in it that might not have been written by her to gilbert but she knew that gilbert would believe anna had written it and she intended him so to believe alma never did a thing halfway when she did it at all
at first she wrote rather constrainedly but reflecting that in any case anna would have written a merely friendly letter she allowed her thoughts to run freely and the resulting epistle was an excellent one of its kind
alma had the gift of expression and more brains than exeter people had ever imagined she possessed when gilbert read that letter a fortnight later he was surprised to find that anna was so clever he had always with a secret regret
thought her much inferior to alma in this respect but that delightful letter witty wise fanciful was the letter of a clever woman when a year had passed alma was still writing to gilbert the letters signed a williams
she had ceased to fear being found out and she took a strange pleasure in the correspondence for its own sake at first she had been quakingly afraid of discovery
when she smuggled the letters addressed in gilbert's handwriting to miss anna williams out of the letter packet and hid them from anna's eyes she felt as guilty as if she were breaking all the laws of the land at once
to be sure she knew that she would have to confess to anna some day when the latter repented and began to wish she had written to gilbert but that was a very different thing from premature disclosure
but anna had as yet given no sign of such repentance although alma looked for it anxiously anna was having the time of her life she was the acknowledged beauty of five settlements and she went forward on her career of conquest
quite undisturbed by the jealousies and heart burnings she provoked on every side one moonlight night she went for a sleigh drive with charlie moore of east exeter and returned to tell alma that they were married
i knew you would make a fuss alma because you don't like charlie so we just took matters into our own hands it was so much more romantic too i'd always said i'd never be married in any of your dull commonplace ways
you might as well forgive me and be nice right off alma because you'd have to do it anyway in time well you do look surprised alma accepted the situation with an apathy that amazed anna
the truth was that alma was stunned by a thought that had come to her even while anna was speaking gilbert will find out about the letters now and despise me nothing else not even the fact that anna had married shiftless charlie moore
seemed worth while considering beside this the fear and shame of it haunted her like a nightmare she shrank every morning from the thought of all the mail that was coming that day fearing that there would be an angry puzzled letter from gilbert
he must certainly soon hear of anna's marriage he would see it in the home paper other correspondents in exeter would write him of it alma grew sick at heart
thinking of the complications in front of her when gilbert's letter came she left it for a whole day before she could summon courage to open it but it was a harmless epistle after all he had not yet heard of anna's marriage
no more letters came from gilbert for six weeks then came one alarmed at anna's silence anxiously asking the reason for it gilbert had heard no word of the marriage
he was working in a remote district where newspapers seldom penetrated he had no other correspondent in exeter now except his mother and she not knowing that he supposed himself engaged to anna had forgotten to mention it
alma answered that letter she told herself recklessly that she would keep on writing to him until he found out she would lose his friendship anyhow when that occurred but meanwhile she would have the letters a little longer
she could not learn to live without them until she had to the correspondence slipped back into its old groove the harassed look which alma's face had worn
and which exeter people had attributed to worry over anna disappeared she did not even feel lonely and reproached herself for lack of proper feeling in missing anna so little
besides to her horror and dismay she detected in herself a strange undercurrent of relief at the thought that gilbert could never marry anna now she could not understand it
had not that marriage been her dearest wish for years why then should she feel this strange gladness at the impossibility of its fulfilment altogether alma feared that her condition of mind and morals must be sadly askew
perhaps she thought mournfully this perversion of proper feeling was her punishment for the deception she had practised she had deliberately done evil that good might come
and now the very imaginations of her heart were stained by that evil alma cried herself to sleep many a night in her repentance but she kept on writing to gilbert for all that the winter passed
and the spring and summer waned and alma's outward life flowed as smoothly as the currents of the seasons broken only by vivid eruptions from anna who came over often from east exeter glorying in her young matronhood
to cheer alma up alma so said exeter people was becoming unsociable and old maidish she lost her liking for company and seldom went anywhere among her neighbours
her once frequent visits across the yard to chat with old missus murray became few and far between she could not bear to hear the old lady talking about gilbert and she was afraid that some day she would be told that he was coming home
gilbert's home coming was the nightmare dread that darkened poor alma's whole horizon one october day two years after gilbert's departure alma standing at her window in the reflected glow of a red maple outside
looked down the lane and saw him striding up it she had had no warning of his coming his last letter dated three weeks back had not hinted at it yet there he was and with him alma's nemesis
she was very calm now that the worst had come she felt quite strong to meet it
but she deserved it as she went downstairs the only thing that really worried her was the thought of the pain gilbert would suffer when she told him of anna's faithlessness she had seen his face as he passed under her window
and it was the face of a blithe man who had not heard any evil tidings it was left to her to tell him surely she thought apathetically that was punishment enough for what she had done with her hand on the doorknob she paused
to wonder what she should say when he asked her why she had not told him of anna's marriage when it occurred why she had still continued the deception when it had no longer an end to serve well she would tell him the truth
that it was because she could not bear the thought of giving up writing to him it was a humiliating thing to confess but that did not matter nothing mattered now she opened the door gilbert was standing on the big round door stone under the red maple
a tall handsome young fellow with a bronzed face and laughing eyes his exile had improved him alma found time and ability to reflect that she had never known gilbert was so fine looking
he put his arm around her and kissed her cheek in his frank delight at seeing her again alma coldly asked him in her face was still as pale as when she came downstairs
but a curious little spot of fiery red blossomed out where gilbert's lips had touched it gilbert followed her into the sitting room and looked about eagerly when did you come home she said slowly
i did not know you were expected got homesick and just came i wanted to surprise you all he answered laughing i arrived only a few minutes ago just took time to hug my mother and here i am where's anna
the pent up retribution of two years descended on alma's head in the last question of gilbert's but she did not flinch she stood straight before him tall and fair and pale with the red maple light streaming in through the open door behind her
staining her light house dress and mellowing the golden sheen of her hair gilbert reflected that alma williams was really a very handsome girl these two years had improved her what splendid big grey eyes she had
he had always wished that anna's eyes had not been quite so black anna is not here said alma she is married married gilbert sat down suddenly on a chair and looked at alma in bewilderment
she has been married for a year said alma steadily she married charlie moore of east exeter and has been living there ever since then said gilbert laying hold of the one solid fact that loomed out of the mist of his confused understanding
why did she keep on writing letters to me after she was married she never wrote to you at all it was i that wrote the letters gilbert looked at alma doubtfully was she crazy there was something odd about her
now that he noticed as she stood rigidly there with that queer red spot on her face a strange fire in her eyes and that weird reflection from the maple enveloping her like an immaterial flame
i don't understand he said helplessly still standing there alma told the whole story giving full explanations but no excuses she told it clearly and simply for she had often pictured this scene to herself
and thought out what she must say her memory worked automatically and her tongue obeyed it promptly to herself she seemed like a machine talking mechanically while her soul stood on one side and listened
would gilbert overwhelm her with angry reproaches or would he simply rise up and leave her in unutterable contempt it was the most tragic moment of her life and her whole personality was strung up to meet it and withstand it
well they were good letters anyhow said gilbert finally interesting letters he added as if by way of a meditative afterthought it was so anti climactic that alma broke into an hysterical giggle cut short by a sob
she dropped into a chair by the table and flung her hands over her face laughing and sobbing softly to herself gilbert rose and walked to the door where he stood with his back to her until she regained her self control
then he turned and looked down at her quizzically alma's hands lay limply in her lap and her eyes were cast down with tears glistening on the long fair lashes she felt his gaze on her
can you ever forgive me gilbert she said humbly i don't know that there is much to forgive he answered i have some explanations to make too and since we're at it we might as well get them all over and have done with them
two years ago i did honestly think i was in love with anna at least when i was round where she was she had a taking way with her but somehow even then when i wasn't with her she seemed to kind of grow dim
and not count for so awful much after all i used to wish she was more like you quieter you know and not so sparkling when i parted from her that last night before i went west i did feel very bad and she seemed very dear to me
but it was six weeks from that before her your letter came and in that time she seemed to have faded out of my thoughts honestly i wasn't thinking much about her at all then came the letter and it was a splendid one too
i had never thought that anna could write a letter like that and i was as pleased as punch about it the letters kept coming and i kept on looking for them more and more all the time i fell in love all over again with the writer of those letters
i thought it was anna but since you wrote the letters it must have been with you alma i thought it was because she was growing more womanly that she could write such letters that was why i came home
i wanted to get acquainted all over again before she grew beyond me altogether i wanted to find the real anna the letters showed me i
it's you i love alma he bent down and put his arm about her laying his cheek against hers
one afternoon kit and kat were playing around the kitchen doorstep while their mother sat on a bench by the door peeling some onions for supper it was not yet supper time
was always ahead of the clock with the work kit and kat had a pan of water and were teaching their ducklings to swim they each had one little fat duckling of their very own the ducklings squawked
well anyway they're tired and want to go to their mother said kat let's do something else i'll tell you what let's go out to the garden and help father get the boat loaded for market all right said kit may we mother
yes
and you may ask father if he will take you to market with him to morrow if it's fair tell him i said you could ask oh goody goody said kit and kat both at once and they ran as fast as their wooden shoes would take them
out into the garden they found their father cutting cabbages and gathering them into piles he was stopping to light his pipe when they reached him o father said kit and kat both together
may we go on the boat to market with you to morrow morning mother said we might ask father vedder blew two puffs from his pipe without answering we'll help you load the boat said kit yes said kat
i can carry two said kit we'll both be good said kat very well said father at last we'll see how you work and to morrow morning if it's fair i'll see
but you must go to bed early to night because you'll have to get up very early in the morning if you go with me now you each take a cabbage and run along father vedder went back to his work kit and kat ran to the cabbage pile
kat took one and kit took two just to show that he could when father says i'll see he always means yes kat said to kit perhaps it seems queer to you that they should go to market in a boat
but it didn't seem queer at all to the twins
they cross the fields like roadways of water
washing the vegetables and packing them in baskets until their good old boat was filled with cabbages and onions and beets and carrots and all sorts of good things to eat
by that time it was nearly dark and they were all three very hungry so they went home they found that mother vedder had made buttermilk porridge for supper the twins loved buttermilk porridge
and then their mother put them to bed this is a picture of the bed it opened like a cupboard right into the kitchen and it was like going to bed on a shelf in the pantry
the very next thing the twins knew it was morning
father was there before them he helped them into the boat and put them both on one seat and told them to sit still then he got in and took the pole and pushed off
be good children mind father and don't get lost she called after them kit and kat were very busy all the way to town looking at the things to be seen on each side of the canal
it was so early in the morning that the grass was all shiny with dew black and white cows were eating the rich green grass and a few laborers were already in the fields
they passed little groups of farm buildings their red tiled roofs shining in the morning sun and the windmills threw long long shadows across the fields the blue blossoms of the flax
nodded to them from the canal bank and once they saw a stork fly over a mossy green roof to her nest on the chimney with a frog in her mouth they went under bridges and by little canals that opened into the main canal
they passed so close to some of the houses that kit and kat could see the white curtains blowing in the windows and the pots of red geraniums standing on the sill in one house the family waved their hands to kit and kat
from the breakfast table and a little farther on they passed a woman who was washing clothes in the canal other boats filled with vegetables and flowers of all colors passed them and they were going to market too
only no other boat had twins in it good day neighbor vedder one man called out are you taking a pair of fat pigs to market by and by they came to the town
the twins thought it must be grand to live on a boat like that just going about from town to town seeing new sights every day we should never have to go to school at all said kit
they wished their own boat were big enough to move about in but father told them they must sit very very still all the time there were houses on each side of the canal in the town
and people were clattering along over the pavement in their wooden shoes the market place was an open square in the middle of the town it had little booths and stalls all about it
the farmers brought their fresh vegetables and flowers or whatever they had to sell into these stalls and then sat there waiting for customers kit and kat helped their father to unload the boat
then they sat down on a box and father gave them each some bread and cheese to eat for they were hungry again they put the cheese between slices of bread and took bites while they looked about
soon there were a good many people in the square most of them were women with market baskets on their arms they went to the different stalls to see what they would buy for dinner
yes ma'am said kit and kat and kat said we're five years old o my soul said the large woman so you are what are your names christopher and katrina
but they call us kit and kat for short it was kat who said this
when we are four feet and a half high we are going to be called christopher and katrina well well well said the large woman so you are
are you helping father yes said the twins we're going to help him sell things then you may sell me a cabbage and ten onions
father vedder's eyes twinkled
you can get the ten onions he said to kat you see really kit couldn't count ten and be sure of it so he asked kat to do it kat wasn't afraid she took out a little pile of onions in a measure
there were eleven and so she gave back one then she gave kat the money for the onions and kit the money for the cabbage father vedder said now kit and kat by and by when you get hungry again
the twins helped father vedder a long time they learned to count ten and to do several other things then their father gave them the money for the cabbage and the ten onions
you may walk around the market and look in all the stalls and buy the thing you like best that costs just two cents then come back here to me kit and kat set forth on their travels to see the world
they each held the money tightly shut in one hand and with the other hand they held on to each other the world is very large said kit and kat they saw all sorts of strange things in the market
there were tables piled high with flowers there was a stall full of birds in cages singing away with all their might one cage had five little birds in it sitting in a row
o kit cried kat let's buy the birds they asked the woman if the birds cost two cents
no my angels they cost fifty cents you see now that the twins could count ten they knew they couldn't get the birds for two cents when they cost fifty so they went to the next place
there there were chickens and ducks for sale but the twins had plenty of those at home there were stalls and stalls of vegetables just like father's and there were booths where meat and fish and wood and peat were sold
but the twins couldn't find anything they wanted that cost exactly two cents at last what should they see
they cost one cent apiece the twins were discouraged i don't believe there's a single thing in this whole market that costs just two cents said kat keep still said kit let me think
they sat down on the curb kat kept still and kit took hold of his head with both hands and thought hard
i tell you what it is kat he said at last if those saint nicholas dolls cost one cent apiece i think we could get two of them for two cents
who was selling some coffee bread to a woman with a basket
he thinks we could get two for two cents do you think so of course you can
but you've got two cents and i've got two said kat to kit if you should get two nicholas dolls
i should have my two cents left shouldn't i oh dear it won't come out right anyway let me think some more said kit and when he had thought some more he said i'll tell you what let's
you get two with your two cents and i'll get two with mine and i'll give my other one to mother and you can give your other one to father that's just what we'll do said kat
we'll take four dolls said kat
so you've figured it all out have you and she counted out the dolls
and one for mother and an extra one for good measure o kit she's given us one more said kat let's eat it right now
so they ate up the one more then and there beginning with the feet kit bit one off and kat bit the other and they took turns until the saint nicholas doll was all gone
then they took the four others
and went back to father's stall they found that father had sold all his things and was ready to go home they carried their empty baskets back to the boat and soon were on their way home
the twins sat on one seat holding tight to their dolls which were growing rather sticky the boat was so light that they went home from market much more quickly than they had come
dinner was all ready and the twins set the four saint nicholas dolls in a row in the middle of the table there's one for father and one for mother and one for kat and one for me said kit
o mother said kat kit can think he thought just how many dolls he could buy when they were one for one cent isn't it fine that he can do that
i can think a little bit too said kat can't i go
girls shouldn't think much it isn't good for them
the next morning kit and kat woke up very early without any one's calling them you see they were afraid they would be too late to go with the milk cart but grandfather winkle
had only just gone out to get the milk ready and they had plenty of time to dress while grandmother got breakfast grandmother helped with the buttons and the hard parts grandmother winkle's kitchen was quite like the kitchen at home
only a little nicer it had red tiles on the floor and it had ever so many blue plates hanging around on the walls and standing on edge in a row on the shelves
there was a warming pan with a bright brass cover hanging on the wall and i wish you could have seen the pillows and the coverlet on the best bed grandmother winkle had embroidered those all herself
when the twins were all dressed grandmother said mercy sakes you have on your best clothes now that's just like a man to promise to take you out in your best clothes in a milk wagon
whatever was grandfather thinking about kit and kat thought she was going to say that they couldn't go so they dug their knuckles in their eyes and began to cry but they hadn't got farther than the first whimper
when grandmother said well well we must fix it somehow don't cry now that's a good kit and kat so the twins took their knuckles out of their eyes and began to smile grandmother
went to the press and brought out two aprons one was a very small apron it wouldn't reach to kit's knees but she put it on him and tied it around his waist
had taken it with him when he went to america but he didn't say so then grandmother took another apron out of the press it looked as if it had been there a long time
it was your mother's when she was a little girl now this apron was all faded and it had patches on it of different kinds of cloth kat looked at her best dress then she looked at the apron then she thought about the milk cart
she wondered if she wanted to go in the milk cart badly enough to wear that apron over her sunday dress she stuck her finger in her mouth and looked sidewise at grandmother winkle grandmother
she just looked firm and held up the apron very soon kat came slowly very slowly and grandmother buttoned the apron up behind and that was the end of that
the twins could hardly eat any breakfast they were in such a hurry to go as soon as they had taken the last spoonful and grandfather winkle had finished his coffee they ran out into the place where the dogs were kept
to help grandfather harness them there were two black and white dogs their names were peter and paul the wagon was small just the right size for the dogs and it was painted blue
the bright brass cans full of milk were already in and there was a little seat for kat to sit on when the last strap was fastened grandfather lifted kat up and set her on the seat she held on with both hands
then grandfather gave the lines to kit
and told him to walk slowly along beside the dogs he told him to be sure not to let go of the lines grandfather walked behind carrying some milk cans grandmother stood in the door to see them off
and as they started away kat took one hand off the cart long enough to wave it to her then she held on again for the bricks in the pavement made the cart joggle a good deal
grandfather called out she takes one quart of milk go slowly at first kit went slowly but pretty soon there was a great rattling behind him and hans hite a boy he knew
kit forgot all about going slowly get up he said to the dogs and he touched them with his long stick peter and paul got up they jumped forward and began to run
didn't know what to make of it so they ran and ran and ran kat held on the best she could but she bounced up ever so far in the air every time the cart struck a bump in the street so did the milk cans and when they came down again
the milk splashed out kat didn't always come down in the same spot all the spots were hard so it didn't really matter much which one she struck as she came down
but kat didn't think about that she just screamed and peter and paul ran and ran and kit ran and ran until he couldn't run any more he just sat down hard on the pavement and slid along
then she stopped going but she didn't stop screaming and though kit was a boy he screamed some too then peter and paul pointed their noses up in the air and began to howl way back
ever so far grandfather was coming along as fast as he could but that wasn't very fast all the doors on the street flew open and all the good housewives came clattering out to see what was the matter
they picked kat up and told her not to cry and wiped her eyes with their aprons and stood kit on his feet and patted the dogs and pretty soon peter and paul stopped barking and kit and kat stopped screaming and then it was time to find out
neither of the twins had any broken bones the good housewives wiggled all their arms and legs and felt of their bones to see but shocking things had happened nevertheless kat had torn a great hole in the front of her best dress
and kit had worn two round holes in the seat of his sunday clothes where he slid along on the pavement and besides that the milk was slopped all over the bottom of the cart just then grandfather came up
if it hadn't been that his pipe was still in his mouth i really don't know what he might not have said he looked at the cart and he looked at the twins then he took his pipe out of his mouth and said sternly to kit
why didn't you do as i told you i did said kit very much scared
i never let go once yes and look at his clothes said one of the women she turned him around and showed grandfather the holes i told you to go slowly said grandfather now look at the cart
and see what you've done by not minding spoiled your best clothes and kat's and spilled the milk go back to grandmother but i couldn't mind twice at one time said kit i was minding about not letting go
oh dear sobbed kat i wish we were four and a half feet high now if we were this never would have happened grandfather took the dogs
without another word the twins took each other's hands and walked back to grandmother's house quite a number of little boys and girls in wooden shoes clattered along with them grandmother heard all the noise
and ran to the door to see what was the matter laws a mercy me i told you so she cried the moment she saw them
i can't see the holes in mine said kit but i can said kat and then all the children talked at once
grandmother clapped her hands over her ears to shut out the noise then she took kit and kat into the kitchen and shut the door she put on her glasses and got down on the floor so she could see better
that had been patched a great deal and found a good piece to patch with then she patched the holes in kit's breeches so neatly that one had to look very carefully indeed to see that there had ever been any holes there at all
she went over to the cupboard bed and there were kit and kat fast asleep with their cheeks all stained with tears and dirt grandmother winkle kissed them kit and kat woke up
by and by grandfather winkle came home from going about with the milk grandmother winkle scrubbed the cart and made it all clean again and by noon you would never have known unless you had looked very very closely
much more closely than would be polite that anything had happened to the twins or the milk cart or their clothes or anything after they had eaten their dinner and the dogs were rested
kit if you think you can mind i will take you and kat both home in the dog cart kit and kat both nodded their heads very hard only i'll do the driving myself said grandfather winkle and he did
one summer morning very early
and stepped out she looked across the road which ran by the house across the canal on the other side across the level green fields that lay beyond clear to the blue rim of the world where the sky touches the earth
the sky was very blue
as she went back into her kitchen kit and kat were still asleep
she gave them each a kiss the twins opened their eyes and sat up
the sun is up the birds are all awake and singing and grandfather is going fishing to day if you will hurry you may go with him
so pop out of bed and get dressed i will put some lunch for you in the yellow basket and you may dig worms for bait in the garden only be sure not to step on the young cabbages that father planted
their mother helped them put on their clothes and new wooden shoes then she gave them each a bowl of bread and milk for their breakfast they ate it sitting on the kitchen doorstep this is a picture of kit and kat digging worms
you see they did just as their mother said and did not step on the young cabbages they sat on them instead but that was an accident kit dug the worms and kat put them into a basket with some earth in it
to make them feel at home when grandfather came he brought a large fishing rod for himself and two little ones for the twins there was a little hook on the end of each line
kissed kit and kat good bye mind grandfather and don't fall into the water she said grandfather and the twins started off together down the long road beside the canal
the house where the twins lived was right beside the canal their father was a gardener and his beautiful rows of cabbages and beets and onions stretched in long lines across the level fields by the roadside
grandfather lived in a large town a little way beyond the farm where the twins lived he did not often have a holiday because he carried milk to the doors of the people in the town every morning early
sometime i will tell you how he did it but i must not tell you now because if i do i can't tell you about their going fishing this morning grandfather carried his rod and the lunch basket
across the green fields to what looked like a hill but it wasn't a hill at all really
it was a long long wall of earth very high oh as high as a house or even higher and it had sloping sides
there has to be a wall
if there were no walls to shut out the sea the whole country would be covered with water and if that were so then there wouldn't be any holland or any holland twins or any story so you see it was very lucky for the twins that the wall was there
grandfather and kit and kat climbed the dyke when they reached the top they sat down a few minutes to rest and look at the great blue sea grandfather sat in the middle with kit on one side
and kat on the other and the basket of worms and the basket of lunch were there too they saw a great ship sail slowly by making a cloud of smoke where do the ships go grandfather
asked kit to america and england and china and all over the world said grandfather why asked kat kat almost always said why and when she didn't kit did
and lots of other things besides and bring back to us wheat and meat and all sorts of good things from the lands across the sea i think i'll be a sea captain when i'm big said kit
so will i said kat girls can't said kit but grandfather shook his head and said you can't tell what a girl may be by the time she's four feet and a half high and is called katrina
there's no telling what girls will do anyway but children if we stay here we shall not catch any fish so they went down the other side of the dyke and cut onto a little pier
that ran from the sandy beach into the water grandfather showed them how to bait their hooks kit baited kat's for her because kat said it made her all wriggly inside to do it she did not like it neither did the worm
they all sat down on the end of the pier grandfather sat on the very end and let his wooden shoes hang down over the water but he made kit and kat sit with their feet stuck straight out in front of them
and it grew hotter and hotter on the pier the flies tickled kat's nose and made her sneeze keep still can't you said kit crossly you'll scare the fish girls don't know how to fish anyway
pretty soon kat felt a queer little jerk on her line she was perfectly sure she did kat squealed and jerked her rod she jerked it so hard
that one foot flew right up in the air and one of her new wooden shoes went splash right into the water but that wasn't the worst of it before you could say jack robinson kat's hook flew around
and caught in kit's clothes and pricked him kit jumped and said ow and then no one could ever tell how it happened there was kit in the water too splashing like a young whale
with kat's hook still holding fast to his clothes in the back grandfather jumped then too you may be sure he caught hold of kat's rod and pulled hard and called out steady there steady
and in one minute there was kit in the shallow water beside the pier puffing and blowing like a grampus grandfather reached down and pulled him up when kit was safely on the pier
kat threw her arms around his neck though the water was running down in streams from his hair and eyes and ears o kit she said i truly thought it was a fish on my line when i jumped
you see his teeth were chattering because the water was cold well anyway said kat
then kat thought of something else she shook her finger at kit o kit she said mother told you not to fall into the water t t twas all your fault roared kit
no one had thought about shoes because they were thinking so hard about kit they ran to the end of the pier and looked there was kat's shoe sailing away toward america
kit's were still bobbing about in the water near the pier oh oh
but the tide was going out
they could not get it but grandfather reached down with his rod and fished out both of kit's shoes then kat took off her other one and her stockings and they all three went back to the beach
and kat put their three wooden shoes in a row beside kit
so by and by he went back to the pier and caught one while the twins played in the sand he put it in the lunch basket to carry home
and kit built a play dyke all around himself with them and kat dug a canal outside the dyke then she made sand pies in clam shells and set them in a row in the sun to bake
they climbed the dyke and crossed the fields and walked along the road by the canal the road shone like a strip of yellow ribbon across the green field they walked quite slowly for they were tired and sleepy
by and by kit said i see our house and kat said i see mother at the gate grandfather gave the fish he caught to kit and kat
for that night when she put kit to bed she felt of his clothes carefully but she didn't say a word about their being damp and she said to kat to morrow we will see the shoemaker and have him make you another shoe
chapter six cyrus harding stood still without saying a word his companions searched in the darkness on the wall in case the wind should have moved the ladder and on the ground thinking that it might have fallen down
but the ladder had quite disappeared as to ascertaining if a squall had blown it on the landing place half way up that was impossible in the dark
to come home and find no staircase to go up to your room by that's nothing for weary men to laugh at
oh oh i begin to think that very curious things happen in lincoln island said pencroft curious replied gideon spilett
some one has come during our absence taken possession of our dwelling and drawn up the ladder
well if there is any one up there replied pencroft who began to lose patience i will give them a hail and they must answer and in a stentorian voice the sailor gave a prolonged
halloo which was echoed again and again from the cliff and rocks the settlers listened and they thought they heard a sort of chuckling laugh of which they could not guess the origin but no voice replied to pencroft
at not being able to get into his kitchen for the provisions which they had had on their expedition were exhausted and they had no means of renewing them my friends at last said cyrus harding
the only thing practicable was to do as the engineer proposed to go to the chimneys
and when top received an order he obeyed it without any questioning
to say that the settlers notwithstanding their fatigue slept well on the sandy floor of the chimneys would not be true it was not only that they were extremely anxious to find out the cause of what had happened
or whether on the contrary it was the work of a human being but they also had very uncomfortable beds that could not be helped however for in some way or other at that moment their dwelling was occupied
and they could not possibly enter it now granite house was more than their dwelling it was their warehouse there were all the stores belonging to the colony weapons instruments tools ammunition provisions et cetera to think that all that might be pillaged
and that the settlers would have all their work to do over again fresh weapons and tools to make was a serious matter their uneasiness led one or other of them also to go out every few minutes to see if top was keeping good watch
which baffled even their intelligence and experience it is a joke said pencroft it is a trick some one has played us well i don't like such jokes and the joker had better look out for himself if he falls into my hands i can tell him
as soon as the first gleam of light appeared in the east the colonists suitably armed repaired to the beach under granite house the rising sun now shone on the cliff and they could see the windows the shutters of which were closed through the curtains
of foliage all here was in order but a cry escaped the colonists when they saw that the door which they had closed on their departure was now wide open some one had entered granite house there could be no more doubt about that the upper ladder
which generally hung from the door to the landing was in its place but the lower ladder was drawn up and raised to the threshold it was evident that the intruders had wished to guard themselves against a surprise pencroft hailed again no reply the beggars exclaimed the sailor
there they are sleeping quietly as if they were in their own house hallo there you pirates brigands robbers sons of john bull when pencroft being a yankee treated any one to the epithet of son of john bull
he considered he had reached the last limits of insult the sun had now completely risen and the whole facade of granite house became illuminated by its rays but in the interior as well as on the exterior all was quiet and calm
the settlers asked if granite house was inhabited or not and yet the position of the ladder was sufficient to show that it was it was also certain that the inhabitants whoever they might be had not been able to escape but how were they to be got at
herbert then thought of fastening a cord to an arrow and shooting the arrow so that it should pass between the first rounds of the ladder which hung from the threshold by means of the cord
they would then be able to draw down the ladder to the ground and so re establish the communication between the beach and granite house there was evidently nothing else to be done and with a little skill this method might succeed very fortunately
bows and arrows had been left at the chimneys where they also found a quantity of light hibiscus cord
cyrus harding gideon spilett pencroft
the bow was bent the arrow flew taking the cord with it and passed between the two last rounds the operation had succeeded herbert immediately seized the end of the cord
but at that moment when he gave it a pull to bring down the ladder an arm thrust suddenly out between the wall and the door
no it was a monkey a sapajou an orangoutang a baboon a gorilla a sagoin our dwelling has been invaded by monkeys who climbed up the ladder during our absence
but one of the jokers shall pay the penalty for the rest so saying the sailor raising his piece took a rapid aim at one of the monkeys and fired all disappeared except one who fell mortally wounded on the beach this monkey which was of a large size
evidently belonged to the first order of the quadrumana whether this was a chimpanzee an orangoutang or a gorilla he took rank among the anthropoid apes who are so called from their resemblance to the human race
why these apes are so cunning returned pencroft they won't show themselves again at the windows and so we can't kill them and when i think of the mischief they may do in the rooms and storehouse have patience replied harding
these creatures cannot keep us long at bay i shall not be sure of that till i see them down here replied the sailor and now captain do you know how many dozens of these fellows are up there it was difficult to reply to pencroft and as for the young boy making another attempt
the engineer's orders were obeyed and while the reporter and the lad the best marksmen in the colony posted themselves in a good position but out of the monkeys sight
in half an hour the hunters returned with a few rock pigeons which they roasted as well as they could not an ape had appeared gideon spilett and herbert went to take their share of the breakfast leaving top to watch under the windows
but what seemed more probable was that terrified by the death of one of their companions and frightened by the noise of the firearms they had retreated to the back part of the house or probably even into the store room
and when they thought of the valuables which this storeroom contained the patience so much recommended by the engineer fast changed into great irritation and there certainly was room for it decidedly it is too bad said the reporter and the worst of it is
we must meet them hand to hand come now is there no way of getting at them let us try to enter granite house by the old opening at the lake replied the engineer oh shouted the sailor and i never thought of that
this was in reality the only way by which to penetrate into granite house so as to fight with and drive out the intruders the opening was it is true closed up with a wall of cemented stones which it would be necessary to sacrifice
but that could easily be rebuilt fortunately cyrus harding had not as yet effected his project of hiding this opening by raising the waters of the lake for the operation would then have taken some time
it was already past twelve o'clock when the colonists well armed and provided with picks and spades left the chimneys passed beneath the windows of granite house
after telling top to remain at his post and began to ascend the left bank of the mercy so as to reach prospect heights but they had not made fifty steps in this direction when they heard the dog barking furiously
perhaps in their terror they had forgotten this way of escape the colonists now being able to take aim without difficulty fired some wounded or killed fell back into the rooms uttering piercing cries the rest throwing themselves out were dashed to pieces in their fall
so far as they knew there was not a living quadrumana in granite house
very strange murmured the engineer leaping first up the ladder take care captain cried pencroft perhaps there are still some of these rascals
all his companions followed him and in a minute they had arrived at the threshold they searched everywhere there was no one in the rooms nor in the storehouse which had been respected by the band of quadrumana well now and the ladder cried the sailor
who can the gentleman have been who sent us that down
ah the robber cried pencroft and hatchet in hand he was about to cleave the head of the animal when cyrus harding seized his arm saying spare him pencroft pardon this rascal yes it was he who threw us the ladder
and the engineer said this in such a peculiar voice that it was difficult to know whether he spoke seriously or not nevertheless
it was an orangoutang and as such had neither the ferocity of the gorilla nor the stupidity of the baboon it is to this family of the anthropoid apes that so many characteristics belong which prove them to be possessed of an almost human intelligence
employed in houses they can wait at table sweep rooms brush clothes clean boots handle a knife fork and spoon properly and even drink wine doing everything as well as the best servant that ever walked upon two legs
the one which had been seized in the hall of granite house was a great fellow six feet high with an admirably poportioned frame a broad chest head of a moderate size
the facial angle reaching sixty five degrees round skull projecting nose skin covered with soft glossy hair in short
are we going to take him as a servant
and i hope he will make an excellent servant added herbert he appears young and will be easy to educate and we shall not be obliged to use force to subdue him nor draw his teeth as is sometimes done he will soon grow fond of his masters if they are kind to him and they will be
then approaching the orang well old boy he asked how are you the orang replied by a little grunt which did not show any anger you wish to join the colony again asked the sailor you are going to enter the service of captain cyrus harding
cyrus harding and his companions slept like innocent marmots in the cave which the jaguar had so politely left at their disposal
and their gaze was directed towards the horizon of which two thirds of the circumference were visible for the last time the engineer could ascertain that not a sail nor the wreck of a ship was on the sea and even with the telescope nothing suspicious could be discovered
there was nothing either on the shore at least in the straight line of three miles which formed the south side of the promontory for beyond that rising ground had the rest of the coast and even from the extremity
this was not included in their first plan in fact when the boat was abandoned at the sources of the mercy it had been agreed that after having surveyed the west coast they should go back to it and return to granite house by the mercy
harding then thought that the western coast would have offered refuge either to a ship in distress or to a vessel in her regular course but now as he saw that this coast presented no good anchorage he wished to seek on the south
what they had not been able to find on the west gideon spilett proposed to continue the exploration that the question of the supposed wreck might be completely settled and he asked at what distance claw cape might be from the extremity of the peninsula
about thirty miles replied the engineer if we take into consideration the curvings of the coast thirty miles returned spilett that would be a long day's march nevertheless i think that we should return to granite house by the south coast
but observed herbert from claw cape to granite house there must be at least another ten miles make it forty miles in all replied the engineer
at least we should survey the unknown shore and then we shall not have to begin the exploration again very good said pencroft but the boat the boat has remained by itself for one day at the sources of the mercy replied gideon spilett
it may just as well stay there two days as yet we have had no reason to think that the island is infested by thieves yet said the sailor when i remember the history of the turtle i am far from confident of that
who knows murmured the engineer but said
by the mercy of course replied herbert and we shall have neither bridge nor boat by which to cross but captain added pencroft with a few floating trunks we shall have no difficulty in crossing the river
a bridge cried pencroft well is not the captain the best engineer in his profession he will make us a bridge when we want one as to transporting you this evening to the other side of the mercy and that without wetting one thread of your clothes
i will take care of that we have provisions for another day and besides we can get plenty of game forward
but there was not an hour to lose for forty miles was a long march and they could not hope to reach granite house before night at six o'clock in the morning the little band set out as a precaution the guns were loaded with ball and top who led the van
received orders to beat about the edge of the forest from the extremity of the promontory which formed the tail of the peninsula the coast was rounded for a distance of five miles which was rapidly passed over
without even the most minute investigations bringing to light the least trace of any old or recent landings no debris no mark of an encampment no cinders of a fire nor even a footprint from the point of the peninsula
appeared as if suspended between land and water between the place occupied by the colonists and the other side of the immense bay the shore was composed first of a tract of low land bordered in the background by trees
then the shore became more irregular projecting sharp points into the sea and finally ended in the black rocks which accumulated in picturesque disorder formed claw cape
such was the development of this part of the island which the settlers took in at a glance while stopping for an instant if a vessel ran in here said pencroft she would certainly be lost sandbanks and reefs everywhere bad quarters
but at least something would be left of the ship observed the reporter there might be pieces of wood on the rocks but nothing on the sands replied the sailor why
in a few days the hull of a ship of several hundred tons would disappear entirely in there so pencroft asked the engineer if a ship has been wrecked on these banks is it not astonishing that there is now no trace of her remaining
no captain with the aid of time and tempest however it would be surprising even in this case that some of the masts or spars should not have been thrown on the beach out of reach of the waves let us go on with our search then returned cyrus harding
the long sea swell could be seen breaking over the rocks in the bay forming a foamy fringe from this point to claw cape the beach was very narrow between the edge of the forest and the reefs walking was now more difficult
and not a spot among the rocks was left unexamined
would have been seen directly or any of her masts and spars would have been washed on shore just as the chest had been which was found twenty miles from here but there was nothing towards three o'clock
harding and his companions arrived at a snug little creek it formed quite a natural harbor invisible from the sea and was entered by a narrow channel at the back of this creek some violent convulsion had torn up the rocky border
and a cutting by a gentle slope gave access to an upper plateau
and consequently four miles in a straight line from prospect heights gideon spilett proposed to his companions that they should make a halt here they agreed readily for their walk had sharpened their appetites
and though the engineer swept the horizon with his glass no vessel could be found the shore was of course examined with the same care from the edge of the water to the cliff and nothing could be discovered even with the aid of the instrument
well said gideon spilett it seems we must make up our minds to console ourselves with thinking that no one will come to dispute with us the possession of lincoln island but the bullet cried herbert
that was not imaginary i suppose hang it no exclaimed pencroft thinking of his absent tooth then what conclusion may be drawn asked the reporter this
replied the engineer that three months or more ago a vessel either voluntarily or not came here what then you admit cyrus that she was swallowed up without leaving any trace cried the reporter
no my dear spilett but you see that if it is certain that a human being set foot on the island it appears no less certain that he has now left it then if i understand you right captain said herbert the vessel has left again
evidently and we have lost an opportunity to get back to our country
i fear so very well since the opportunity is lost let us go on it can't be helped said pencroft who felt home sickness for granite house but just as they were rising top was heard loudly barking
and the dog issued from the wood holding in his mouth a rag soiled with mud
it was a piece of strong cloth top still barked and by his going and coming seemed to invite his master to follow him into the forest now there's something to explain the bullet exclaimed pencroft a castaway replied herbert
all ran after the dog among the tall pines on the border of the forest harding and his companions made ready their firearms in case of an emergency they advanced some way into the wood but to their great disappointment
they as yet saw no signs of any human being having passed that way shrubs and creepers were uninjured and they had even to cut them away with the axe as they had done in the deepest recesses of the forest it was difficult to fancy that any human creature had ever passed there
who is following up an idea in about seven or eight minutes top stopped in a glade surrounded with tall trees the settlers gazed around them but saw nothing neither under the bushes nor among the trees
what is the matter top said cyrus harding top barked louder bounding about at the foot of a gigantic pine all at once pencroft shouted ho splendid capital what is it asked spilett
i beg your pardon returned pencroft
is all that remains of our airy boat of our balloon
pencroft was not mistaken and he gave vent to his feelings in a tremendous hurrah adding there is good cloth there is what will furnish us with linen for years there is what will make us handkerchiefs and shirts ha ha mister spilett
it was certainly a lucky circumstance for the settlers in lincoln island that the balloon after having made its last bound into the air had fallen on the island and thus given them the opportunity of finding it again
whether they kept the case under its present form or whether they wished to attempt another escape by it or whether they usefully employed the several hundred yards of cotton which was of fine quality
pencroft's joy was therefore shared by all but it was necessary to bring down the remains of the balloon from the tree to place it in security and this was no slight task
and the circle and the anchor the case except for the fracture was in good condition only the lower portion being torn it was a fortune which had fallen from the sky
all the same captain said the sailor if we ever decide to leave the island it won't be in a balloon will it these airboats won't go where we want them to go and we have had some experience in that way
look here we will build a craft of some twenty tons and then we can make a main sail a foresail and a jib out of that cloth as to the rest of it that will help to dress us we shall see pencroft replied cyrus harding we shall see
in the meantime we must put it in a safe place
it was of importance that this treasure should not be left longer exposed to the mercies of the first storm the settlers uniting their efforts managed to drag it as far as the shore where they discovered a large rocky cavity
which owing to its position could not be visited either by the wind or rain
said pencroft but as we cannot lock it up it will be prudent to hide the opening i don't mean from two legged thieves but from those with four paws at six o'clock all was stowed away and after having given the creek the very suitable name of port balloon
the settlers pursued their way along claw cape pencroft and the engineer talked of the different projects which it was agreed to put into execution with the briefest possible delay it was necessary first of all to throw a bridge over the mercy
so as to establish an easy communication with the south of the island then the cart must be taken to bring back the balloon for the canoe alone could not carry it then they would build a decked boat and pencroft would rig it as a cutter
and they would be able to undertake voyages of circumnavigation round the island et cetera in the meanwhile night came on and it was already dark when the settlers reached flotsam point where they had found the precious chest
at the first angle formed by the mercy there the river was eighty feet in breadth which was awkward to cross but as pencroft had taken upon himself to conquer this difficulty he was compelled to do it the settlers certainly had reason to be pretty tired
they were anxious to reach granite house to eat and sleep and if the bridge had been constructed in a quarter of an hour they would have been at home the night was very dark pencroft prepared to keep his promise by constructing a sort of raft on which to make the passage of the mercy
chose two trees near the water and began to attack them at the base
exclaimed what is floating there pencroft stopped working and seeing an indistinct object moving through the gloom a canoe cried he
no reply the boat still drifted onward and it was not more than twelve feet off when the sailor exclaimed but it is our own boat she has broken her moorings and floated down the current i must say she has arrived very opportunely
it was very important to seize it before the rapid current should have swept it away out of the mouth of the river
cleverly managed this by means of a long pole the canoe touched the shore the engineer leaped in first and found on examining the rope that it had been really worn through by rubbing against the rocks
this is a strange thing strange indeed returned cyrus harding strange or not it was very fortunate herbert
embarked in turn there was no doubt about the rope having been worn through but the astonishing part of the affair was that the boat should arrive just at the moment when the settlers were there to seize it on its way for a quarter of an hour earlier or later it would have been lost in the sea
if they had been living in the time of genii this incident would have given them the right to think that the island was haunted by some supernatural being who used his power in the service of the castaways
to halt we knew not where and stilled us and our gaping guns were dumb with our despair the grey tribes flowed for ever from the infinite lifeless lands and a norman to a breton spoke his chin upon his hands
there was an end to ilium and an end came to rome and a man plays on a painted stage in the land that he calls home arch after arch of triumph but floor beyond falling floor
that lead to a low door at last and beyond there is no door and the breton to the norman spoke like a small child spoke he and his sea blue eyes were empty as his home beside the sea there are more windows in one house than there are eyes to see
there are more doors in a man's house but god has hid the key ruin is a builder of windows her legend witnesseth barbara the saint of gunners and a stay in sudden death it seemed the wheel of the world stood still an instant in its turning
more than the kings of the earth that turned with the turning of valmy mill while trickled the idle tale and the sea blue eyes were burning still as the heart of a whirlwind the heart of the world stood still barbara the beautiful had praise of lute and pen
her hair was like a summer night dark and desired of men her feet like birds from far away that linger and light in doubt and her face was like a window where a man's first love looked out her sire was master of many slaves a hard man of his hands
they built a tower about her in the desolate golden lands sealed as the tyrants sealed their tombs planned with an ancient plan and set two windows in the tower like the two eyes of a man
our guns were set toward the foe we had no word for firing grey in the gateway of saint gond the guard of the tyrant shone dark with the fate of a falling star retiring and retiring the breton line went backward and the breton tale went on
her father had sailed across the sea from the harbour of africa when all the slaves took up their tools for the bidding of barbara she smote the bare wall with her hand and bad them smite again she poured them wealth of wine and meat
to stay them in their pain and cried through the lifted thunder of thronging hammer and hod throw open the third window in the third name of god then the hearts failed and the tools fell and far towards the foam men saw a shadow on the sands and her father coming home
speak low and low along the line the whispered word is flying before the touch before the time we may not loose a breath
till the hand is raised to fling us for the final dice to death there were two windows in your tower barbara barbara for all between the sun and moon in the lands of africa hath a man three eyes barbara a bird three wings
that you have riven roof and wall to look upon vain things her voice was like a wandering thing that falters yet is free whose soul has drunk in a distant land of the rivers of liberty there are more wings than the wind knows or eyes than see the sun
in the light of the lost window and the wind of the doors undone for out of the first lattice are the red lands that break and out of the second lattice sea like a green snake but out of the third lattice
under low eaves like wings is a new corner of the sky and the other side of things it opened in the inmost place an instant beyond uttering a casement and a chasm and a thunder of doors undone
from a light behind the sun then he drew sword and drave her where the judges sat and said caesar sits above the gods barbara the maid
all the gods that men can praise praise him every one
with the fish god where the whirlpool is a winding stair to hell with the pathless pyramids of slime where the mitred negro lifts to his black cherub in the cloud abominable gifts with the leprous silver cities
where the dumb priests dance and nod but not with the three windows and the last name of god they are firing we are falling and the red skies rend and shiver us
barbara barbara we may not loose a breath be at the bursting doors of doom and in the dark deliver us who loosen the last window on the sun of sudden death barbara the beautiful stood up as queen set free
i have looked forth from a window that no man now shall bar caesar's toppling battle towers shall never stretch so far
the slaves are dancing in their chains the child laughs at the rod because of the bird of the three wings and the third face of god the sword upon his shoulder shifted and shone and fell and barbara lay very small and crumpled like a shell
what wall upon what hinges turned stands open like a door too simple for the sight of faith too huge for human eyes what light upon what ancient way shines to a far off floor
and the songs ceased and the slaves were dumb and far towards the foam men saw a shadow on the sands and her father coming home blood of his blood upon the sword stood red but never dry he wiped it slowly till the blade was blue as the blue sky
they are stopped and gapped and battered as we blast away the weather building window upon window to our lady of the light for the light is come on liberty her foes are falling falling they are reeling they are running as the shameful years have run
she is risen for all the humble she has heard the conquered calling saint barbara of the gunners with her hand upon the gun they are burst asunder in the midst that eat of their own flatteries whose lip is curled to order as its barbered hair is curled
blast of the beauty of sudden death saint barbara of the batteries that blow the new white window in the wall of all the world for the hand is raised behind us and the bolt smites hard through the rending of the doorways through the death gap of the guard
as day returns as death returns swung backwards and swung home back on the barbarous reign returns the battering ram of rome
where the hunt is up and racing over stream and swamp and tarn and their batteries black with battle hold the bridgeheads of the marne and across the carnage of the guard by paris in the plain the normans to the bretons cried and the bretons cheered again
but he that told the tale went home to his house beside the sea and burned before saint barbara the light of the windows three
chapter twenty two day dawn all this time the attendant george had been sitting very much at his ease on horseback looking after sir norman's charger and admiring the beauties of sunrise
he had seen sir norman in conversation with a strange female and not much liking his near proximity to the plague pit was rather impatient for it to come to an end
but when he saw the tragic manner in which it did end his consternation was beyond all bounds sir norman in his horrified flight would have fairly passed him unnoticed had not george arrested him by a loud shout
i beg your pardon sir norman he exclaimed as that gentleman turned his distracted face but it seems to me you are running away here is your horse
sir norman leaned against his horse
why did that woman leap into the plague pit inquired george looking at him curiously was it not the sorceress la masque yes yes do not ask me any questions now replied sir norman in a smothered voice
and with an impatient wave of his hand whatever you please sir said george with the flippancy of his class but still i must repeat
and my master the count is not one who brooks delay
and started off at a break neck pace into the city george almost unable to keep up with him followed instead of leading
once or twice he shouted out a sharp toned inquiry as to whether he knew where he was going and that they were taking the wrong way altogether to all of which sir norman deigned not the slightest reply but rode more and more recklessly on
there were but few people abroad at that hour indeed for that matter the streets of london in the dismal summer of sixteen sixty five were comparatively speaking always deserted
and the few now wending their way homeward were tired physicians and plague nurses from the hospitals and several hardy country folks with more love of lucre than fear of death bending their steps with produce to the market place
these people sleepy and pallid in the gray haze of daylight stared in astonishment after the two furious riders and windows were thrown open and heads thrust out to see what the unusual thunder of horses hoofs
at that early hour meant george followed dauntlessly on determined to do it or die in the attempt and if he had ever heard of the flying dutchman would undoubtedly have come to the conclusion
that he was just then following his track on dry land but unlike the hapless vanderdecken sir norman came to a halt at last and that so suddenly that his horse stood on his beam ends and flourished his two fore limbs in the atmosphere
it was before la masque's door and sir norman was out of the saddle in a flash and knocking like a postman with the handle of his whip on the door
making it shake to its centre and hurriedly brought to the door the anatomy who acted as guardian angel of the establishment la masque is not at home and i cannot admit you was his sharp salute
then i shall just take the trouble of admitting myself said sir norman shortly and without further ceremony he pushed aside the skeleton and entered but that outraged servitor sprang in his path indignant and amazed
no sir i cannot permit it i do not know you and it is against all orders to admit strangers in la masque's absence bah you old simpleton remarked sir norman
losing his customary respect for old age in his impatience i have la masque's order for what i am about to do get along with you directly will you
he tapped his sword hilt significantly as he spoke and that argument proved irresistible grumbling in low tones the anatomy stalked up stairs and the other followed
with very different feelings from those with which he had mounted that staircase last his guide paused in the hall above with his hand on the latch of a door this is her private room is it demanded sir norman yes
just stand aside then and let me pass the room he entered was small simply furnished and seemed to answer as bed chamber and study all in one
and he glanced at them with some curiosity they were classics greek and latin and other little known tongues perhaps sanscrit and chaldaic
and a few rare old english books there were no papers however and those were what he was in search of so spying a drawer in the table he pulled it hastily open
it was full of jewels of incomparable beauty and value strewn as carelessly about as if they were valueless the blaze of gems at the midnight court seemed to him as nothing compared with the golconda
the valley of diamonds shooting forth sparks of rainbow fire before him now around one magnificent diamond necklace was entwined a scrap of paper on which was written
that settled their destiny all this blaze of diamonds rubies and opals were leoline's and with the energetic rapidity characteristic of our young friend that morning he swept them out on the table
and resumed his search for papers no document was there to reward his search but the brief one twined round the necklace and he was about giving up in despair when a small brass slide in one corner caught his eye
instantly he was at it trying it every way shoving it out and in and up and down until at last
disclosing an inner drawer full of papers and parchments
and numerous other documents relative to his wealth and estates these precious manuscripts he rolled together in a bundle
and placed carefully in his doublet and then seizing a beautifully wrought brass casket that stood beneath the table he swept the jewels in secured it and strapped it to his belt this brisk and important little affair being over he arose to go
and in turning saw the skeleton porter standing in the door way looking on in speechless dismay it's all right my ancient friend observed sir norman gravely these papers must go before the king and these jewels to their proper owner
their proper owner repeated the old man shrilly that is la masque thief robber housebreaker stop my good old friend you will do yourself a mischief if you bawl like that
undoubtedly these things were la masque's but they are so no longer since la masque herself is among the things that were you shall not go yelled the old man trembling with rage and anger help help help
you noisy old idiot cried sir norman losing all patience i will throw you out of the window if you keep up such a clamor as this i tell you la masque is dead at this ominous announcement the ghastly porter fell back
and became if possible a shade more ghastly than was his wont dead and buried repeated sir norman with gloomy sternness and there will be somebody else coming to take possession shortly how many more servants are there here beside yourself
only one sir my wife joanna in mercy's name sir do not turn us out in the streets at this dreadful time not i you and your wife joanna
but keep the door fast my good old friend and admit no strangers but those who can tell you la masque is dead with which parting piece of advice sir norman left the house and joined george who sat like an effigy before the door
in a state of great mental wrath and who accosted him rather suddenly the moment he made his appearance i tell you what sir norman kingsley if you have many more morning calls to make i shall beg leave to take my departure
as it is i know we are behind time and his ma the count i mean is not one who it accustomed or inclined to be kept waiting i am quite at your service now said sir norman springing on horseback
george wanted no second order before the words were well out of his companion's mouth he was dashing away like a bolt from a bow as furiously as if on a steeple chase with sir norman close at his heels and they rode
flushed and breathless with their steeds all a foaming into the court yard of the royal palace at whitehall just as the early rising sun was showing his florid and burning visage
the court yard unlike the city streets swarmed with busy life pages and attendants and soldiers moving hither and thither or lounging about preparing for the morning's journey to oxford among the rest
sir norman observed hubert lying very much at his ease wrapped in his cloak on the ground and chatting languidly with a pert and pretty attendant of the fair mistress stuart he cut short his flirtation however abruptly enough
and sprang to his feet as he saw sir norman while george immediately darted off and disappeared from the palace am i late hubert said his hurried questioner
as he drew the lad's arm within his own and led him off out of hearing i think not the count said hubert with laughing emphasis has not been visible since he entered yonder doorway
doubtless now that george has arrived the message will soon be here for the royal procession starts within half an hour are you sure there is no trick hubert even now he may be with leoline hubert shrugged his shoulders he maybe
we must take our chance for that but we have his royal word to the contrary not that i have much faith in that said hubert if he were king of the world instead of only england cried sir norman with flashing eyes
regicide exclaimed hubert
i tell you any one be he whom he may that attempts to take leoline from me must reach her over my dead body bravo you ought to be a frenchman sir norman and what if the lady herself finding her dazzling suitor drop his barnyard feathers
and soar over her head in his own eagle plumes may not give you your dismissal and usurp the place of pretty madame stuart you cold blooded young villain if you insinuate such a thing again i'll throttle you
doubtless she thinks so but she has yet to learn she has a king for a suitor bah you are nothing but a heartless cynic said sir norman yet with an anxious and irritated flush on his face too
royal rivals are dangerous things yet charles has kind impulses and has been known to do generous acts has he you expect him beyond doubt to do precisely as he said
prefers the knight to the king he will yield her unresistingly to you i have nothing but his word for it said sir norman in a distracted tone and at present can do nothing but bide my time
i have been thinking of that too i promised you know when i left her last night that we would return before day dawn and rescue her
and has half wept her bright eyes out by this time
and o hubert if you only knew what she is to you i do know she told me she was my sister sir norman looked at him in amazement she told you and you take it like this certainly i take it like this
it is nothing to go into hysterics about after all of all the cold blooded young reptiles i ever saw exclaimed sir norman with infinite disgust you are the worst if you were told you were to receive the crown of france to morrow
you would probably open your eyes a trifle and take it as you would a new cap of course i would i haven't lived in courts half my life to get up a scene for a small matter
that she must be my sister or something of that sort and so you felt no emotion whatever on hearing it i don't know as i properly understand what you mean by emotion said herbert reflectively
she is so like me and so uncommonly handsome humph there's a reason did she tell you how she discovered it herself let me see no i think not she simply mentioned the fact
she did not tell you either i suppose that you had more sisters than herself more than herself no that would be a little too much of a good thing one sister is quite enough for any reasonable mortal
but there were two more my good young friend is it possible said hubert in a tone that betrayed not the slightest symptom of emotion who are they
sir norman paused one instant combating a strong temptation to seize the phlegmatic page by the collar and give him such another shaking as he would not get over for a week to come
he merely paused to cast a withering look upon him and walked on well said hubert i am waiting to be told you may wait then said sir norman with a smothered growl
and i give you joy when i tell you such extra communicativeness to one so stolid could do no good but i am not stolid i am in a perfect agony of anxiety said hubert you young jackanapes
said sir norman half laughing half incensed it were a wise deed and a godly one to take you by the hind leg and nape of the neck and pitch you over yonder wall but for your master's sake i will desist
which of them inquired hubert with provoking gravity it would be more to the point if you asked me who the others were i think so i have and you merely abused me for it but i think i know one of them without being told
and who is the other her name is la masque
la masque nonsense exclaimed hubert with some energy in his voice at last you but jest sir norman kingsley no such thing it is a positive fact she told me the whole story herself
and what is the whole story and why did she not tell it to me instead of you
and she told it to me as leoline's future husband it is somewhat long to relate but it will help to beguile the time while we are waiting for the royal summons and hereupon sir norman
without farther preface launched into a rapid resume of la masque's story feeling the cold chill with which he had witnessed it creep over him as he narrated her fearful end it struck me concluded sir norman
that it would be better to procure any papers she might possess at once lest by accident they should fall into other hands so i rode there directly and in spite of the cantankerous old porter searched diligently until i found them
here they are said sir norman drawing forth the roll and what do you intend doing with them inquired hubert glancing at the papers with an unmoved countenance show them to the king and though his mediation with louis
obtain for you the restoration of your rights and do you think his majesty will give himself so much trouble for the earl of rochester's page i think he will take the trouble to see justice done or at least he ought to
and you and i will seek louis ourselves please god the earl of rochester's page will yet wear the coronet
has la masque left nothing for her do you see this casket tapping the one of cared brass dangling from his belt well it is full of jewels worth a king's ransom i found them in a drawer of la masque's house
with directions that they were to be given to her sisters at her death
this is a queer business altogether said hubert musingly and i am greatly mistaken if king louis will not regard it as a very pretty little work of fiction but i have proofs lad
the authenticity of these papers cannot be doubted with all my heart
and go back to la belle france out of this land of plague and fog won't some of my friends here be astonished
ah here comes george
george approached and intimated that sir norman was to follow him to the presence of his master au revoir then said hubert
sir norman with a slight tremor of the nerves at what was to come followed the king's page through halls and anterooms full of loiterers courtiers and their attendants once a hand was laid on his shoulder
a laughing voice met his ear and the earl of rochester stood beside him good morning sir norman
your lordship has probably seen him since i have and should be able to answer that question best
in faith kingsley i never saw such a charming little beauty and i shall do combat with you yet with both the count and yourself and outwit the pair of you permit me to differ from your lordship leoline would not touch you with a pair of tongs
ah she has better taste than you give her credit for but if i should fail i know what to do to console myself may i ask what yes there is hubert as like her an two peas in a pod
i shall dress him up in lace and silks and gewgaws and have a leoline of my own already made its order
on this last sententious remark he resumed his march after george and was ushered at last into an ante room near the audience chamber
and as the page salaamed and withdrew he turned round and greeted sir norman with his suavest air the appointed hour is passed sir norman kingsley but that is partly your own fault
your guide hither tells me that you stopped for some time at the house of a fortune teller known as la masque why was this i was forced to stop on most important business
still resolved to treat him as the count
of which you shall hear anon just now
true and as in a short time i start with yonder cavalcade there is but little time to lose apropos kingsley who is that mysterious woman la masque she is
her sister and have you discovered leoline's history i have and her name and her name she is leoline de montmorenci and with the proudest blood of france in her veins living obscure and unknown
a stranger in a strange land since childhood but with god's grace and your help i hope to see her restored to all she has lost before long you know me then said his companion half smiling
of pearls and precious stones spain had declared the pacific a closed sea to the rest of the world but in fifteen sixty seven it happened that sir john hawkins an english mariner was cruising in the gulf of mexico when a terrific squall as he said
drove his ships landward to vera cruz and he sent a messenger to the spanish viceroy there asking permission to dock and repair his battered vessels now on one of the english ships was a young officer not yet twenty five years of age named francis drake
twelve spanish merchantmen rigged as frigates lay in the harbour and drake observed that cargo of small bulk but ponderous weight and evidently precious was being stowed in their capacious holds
whence did it come could english privateers intercept it on the high seas perhaps the english adventurers evinced too great interest in that precious cargo for though the spanish governor had granted them permission to repair their ships the english had barely dismantled
when spanish fire ships came drifting down on their moorings a cannon shot knocked a mug of beer from hawkins's hand and head over heels he fell into the sea while a thousand spaniards began sabring the english crew ashore
some friendly hand threw out a rope to hawkins who was clad in complete armour in the dark unseen by the enemy he pulled himself up the side of a smaller ship and cutting hawsers scudded for the open sea
there escaped also of hawkins's fleet another small ship which was commanded by francis drake and after much suffering both vessels reached england one can imagine the effect on young drake of the treacherous act and of the glimpse of that cargo of gold and silver treasure
he would meet the raid with counter raid three years later he was cruising the spanish main capturing and plundering ships and forts and towns
in fifteen seventy two he led his men across the isthmus of panama and intercepted and captured a spanish convoy of treasure coming overland near the south side of the isthmus he climbed a tree and had his first glimpse of the pacific it set his blood on the leap
on bended knee he prayed aloud to the almighty to be permitted to sail the first english ship on that faire sea and having recrossed the isthmus and loaded his ships with plunder he bore away for england and reached plymouth in august fifteen seventy three
the raid on panama had brought drake enormous wealth at his own cost he built three frigates and two sloops to explore the south seas his purpose being to enter the pacific through the strait of magellan which no englishman had yet ventured to pass
these ships he equipped as if for royal tournament players of the violin and the harp discoursed music at each meal rarest wines filled the lockers
who never sat or donned hat in his presence and on his own ship the pelican afterwards called the golden hind he had a hundred picked marines men eager for battle and skilful in wielding the cutlass
his men loved him as a dauntless leader they feared him too with a fear that commanded obedience on the instant queen elizabeth was in a quandary how to treat her gallant buccaneer and rover of the high seas
england and spain were at peace and she could not give drake an open royal commission to raid the commerce of a friendly power but she did present him with a magnificent sword to signify that she would have no objection if he should cut his way through the portals leading to the closed sea
the fleet set sail in december fifteen seventy seven and steered by the west coast of morocco and the cape verde islands the coast of brazil was reached in april two of the ships were abandoned near the mouth of the rio de la plata
after having been stripped of provisions in august the remaining three ships entered the tempestuous seas around cape horn drake drove before the gales with sails close reefed and hatches battened
the first english keel to cleave the waters of the pacific in honour of the feat drake renamed his ship the golden hind
certain it is the crew of the golden hind were well content with the possession of both gold and speed before advancing far up the west coast of south america quite by chance which seems always to favour the daring
somewhere off the coast of chile drake picked up an indian fisherman the natives of south america for the best of reasons hated their spanish masters who enslaved them treated them brutally and forced them to work in the pearl fisheries and the mines
never dreaming that any foreign vessel had entered the pacific spanish treasure ships lay rocking to the tide in fancied security and actually dipped colours to drake drake laughed waved his plumed hat back in salute
dealt out wine to give courage to his merrie boys and sailed straight amid the anchored treasure ships barely had the golden hind taken a position in the midst of the enemy's fleet
drake had grappling irons thrown out clamping his ship to her victim in a trice the english sailors were on the spanish deck with swords out and the rallying cry of god and saint george down with spanish dogs
dumbfounded and unarmed down the hatches over the bulwarks into the sea reeled the surprised spaniards drake clapped hatches down upon those trapped inside and turned his cannon on the rest of the unguarded spanish fleet literally not a drop of blood was shed
the treasure ships were looted of their cargoes and sent drifting out to sea all the other harbours of the pacific were raided and looted in similar summary fashion and somewhere seaward from lima drake learned of a treasure ship bearing untold riches
the glory of the south seas the huge caravel in which the spaniards sent home to spain the yearly tribute of bullion the golden hind with her sails spread to the wind sought for the glory like a harrier for its quarry
one crew of spaniards on a small ship that was scuttled saved their throats by telling drake that the great ship was only two days ahead and loaded to the water line with wealth untold
and called on his crew to quit themselves like men and when the wind went down he ordered small boats out to tow the golden hind for five days the hunt lasted never slackening by day or by night and when at three in the afternoon of a day in march
drake's brother shouted from the cross trees sail ho every man aboard went mad with impatience to crowd on the last inch of canvas and overtake the rich prize the englishmen saw that the spanish ship was so heavily laden that she was making but slow progress
and so unconscious was the spanish captain of danger that when he discerned a ship approaching he actually lowered canvas and awaited what he thought might be fresh orders from the viceroy the golden hind sped on till she was almost alongside the spaniard
then drake let go full blast all thirty cannon as fast as he could shift and veer for the cannoneers to take aim yards sails masts fell shattered and torn from the splendid spanish ship
the english clapped their grappling hooks to her sides and naked swords did the rest to save their lives the spanish crew after a feeble resistance
drake's vessel was now loaded deep with treasure and preparations were made to sail homeward
it was then that legends of a north east passage came into his mind he would sail northward in search of the strait that was supposed to lead through the continent to the atlantic the mythical strait of anian as the world knows there was no such passage
but how far north did drake sail seeking it some accounts say as far as oregon others as far as the northern coast of california but at all events as he advanced farther north he found that the coast sheered farther and farther west
so he gave over his attempt to find the strait of the legends and turned back and anchored in a faire and good bay which is now known as drake's bay a short distance north of san francisco and naming the region new albion he claimed it for queen elizabeth
in july fifteen seventy nine
in june he rounded the cape of good hope and then beat his way up the atlantic to england in september fifteen eighty the golden hind entered the harbour of plymouth how drake became the lion of the hour when he reached england
after having circumnavigated the globe need not be told ballads were recited in his honour queen elizabeth dined in state on the golden hind and after the dinner with the sword which she had given him when he set out she conferred on drake the honour of knighthood
as the seal of his country's acclaim drake's conclusions regarding the supposed passage from the pacific to the atlantic were correct though for two hundred years they were rejected by geographers his words are worth setting down
the asian and american continents if they be not fully joined
the snow hardly departeth from these hills at all
kind solace in a dying hour such father is not now my theme i will not madly deem that power of earth may shrive me of the sin unearthly pride hath revell'd in
i have no time to dote or dream you call it hope that fire of fire it is but agony of desire if i can hope oh god i can its fount is holier more divine
i would not call thee fool old man but such is not a gift of thine know thou the secret of a spirit bow'd from its wild pride into shame o
the searing glory which hath shone amid the jewels of my throne halo of hell and with a pain not hell shall make me fear again o craving heart for the lost flowers and sunshine of my summer hours
upon thy emptiness a knell i have not always been as now the fever'd diadem on my brow i claim'd and won usurpingly
which hath striven triumphantly with human kind on mountain soil i first drew life
and i believe the winged strife and tumult of the headlong air have nestled in my very hair so late from heaven that dew it fell mid dreams of an unholy night upon me with the touch of hell
appeared to my half closing eye the pageantry of monarchy and the deep trumpet thunder's roar came hurriedly upon me telling of human battle where my voice my own voice silly child was swelling
the battle cry of victory the rain came down upon my head unshelter'd and the heavy wind was giantlike so thou my mind it was but man i thought who shed laurels upon me and the rush
the torrent of the chilly air gurgled within my ear the crush of empires with the captive's prayer the hum of suiters and the tone of flattery round a sovereign's throne
my passions from that hapless hour usurp'd a tyranny which men have deem'd since i have reach'd to power my innate nature be it so but father there liv'd one who then
then in my boyhood when their fire burn'd with a still intenser glow for passion must with youth expire e'en then who knew this iron heart in woman's weakness had a part
i have no words alas to tell the loveliness of loving well nor would i now attempt to trace the more than beauty of a face whose lineaments upon my mind are shadows
with their meaning melt to fantasies with none o she was worthy of all love love as in infancy was mine twas such as angel minds above might envy
her young heart the shrine on which my ev'ry hope and thought were incense then a goodly gift for they were childish and upright pure as her young example taught why did i leave it and adrift
trust to the fire within for light we grew in age and love together roaming the forest and the wild my breast her shield in wintry weather
she would mark the opening skies i saw no heaven but in her eyes young love's first lesson is the heart for mid that sunshine and those smiles when from our little cares apart
and laughing at her girlish wiles i'd throw me on her throbbing breast and pour my spirit out in tears there was no need to speak the rest no need to quiet any fears of her who ask'd no reason why
but turn'd on me her quiet eye yet more than worthy of the love my spirit struggled with and strove when on the mountain peak alone ambition lent it a new tone i had no being but in thee
the world and all it did contain in the earth the air the sea its joy its little lot of pain that was new pleasure the ideal dim vanities of dreams by night and dimmer nothings which were real
shadows and a more shadowy light parted upon their misty wings and so confusedly became thine image and a name a name two separate yet most intimate things
i was ambitious have you known the passion father you have not
and murmur'd at such lowly lot but just like any other dream upon the vapour of the dew my own had past
the hour the day oppress my mind with double loveliness
on the hills the dwindled hills begirt with bowers and shouting with a thousand rills i spoke to her of power and pride but mystically
in such guise that she might deem it nought beside the moment's converse in her eyes i read perhaps too carelessly a mingled feeling with my own the flush on her bright cheek
to me seem'd to become a queenly throne too well that i should let it be light in the wilderness alone i wrapp'd myself in grandeur then and donn'd a visionary crown yet it was not that fantasy had thrown her mantle over me
but that among the rabble men lion ambition is chain'd down and crouches to a keeper's hand not so in deserts where the grand the wild
the terrible conspire with their own breath to fan his fire look round thee now on samarcand is not she queen of earth her pride above all cities in her hand their destinies
in all beside of glory which the world hath known stands she not nobly and alone falling her veriest stepping stone shall form the pedestal of a throne and who her sovereign timour
a diadem'd outlaw o human love thou spirit given on earth of all we hope in heaven which fall'st into the soul like rain upon the siroc wither'd plain
farewell for i have won the earth when hope the eagle that tower'd could see no cliff beyond him in the sky his pinions were bent droopingly and homeward turn'd his soften'd eye twas sunset
when the sun will part there comes a sullenness of heart to him who still would look upon the glory of the summer sun that soul will hate the ev'ning mist so often lovely
and will list to the sound of the coming darkness known to those whose spirits hearken as one who in a dream of night would fly but cannot from a danger nigh
what tho the moon the white moon shed all the splendour of her noon her smile is chilly and her beam in that time of dreariness will seem so like you gather in your breath a portrait taken after death
and boyhood is a summer sun whose waning is the dreariest one for all we live to know is known and all we seek to keep hath flown
let life then as the day flower fall with the noon day beauty which is all i reach'd my home my home no more for all had flown who made it so
and tho my tread was soft and low a voice came from the threshold stone of one whom i had earlier known o i defy thee hell to show on beds of fire that burn below a humbler heart
a deeper wo father i firmly do believe i know for death who comes for me from regions of the blest afar where there is nothing to deceive hath left his iron gate ajar
and rays of truth you cannot see are flashing thro eternity i do believe that eblis hath a snare in ev'ry human path else how when in the holy grove i wandered of the idol love
who daily scents his snowy wings with incense of burnt offerings from the most unpolluted things whose pleasant bowers are yet so riven above with trelliced rays from heaven no mote may shun
no tiniest fly the light'ning of his eagle eye how was it that ambition crept unseen amid the revels there till growing bold he laughed and leapt in the tangles of love's very hair
together with other matters worth knowing and telling
as to what senor samson said that he would like to know by whom or how or when my ass was stolen i say in reply that the same night we went into the sierra morena flying from the holy brotherhood
after that unlucky adventure of the galley slaves and the other of the corpse that was going to segovia my master and i ensconced ourselves in a thicket and there my master leaning on his lance and i seated on my dapple
battered and weary with the late frays we fell asleep as if it had been on four feather mattresses and i in particular slept so sound that whoever he was
he was able to come and prop me up on four stakes which he put under the four corners of the pack saddle in such a way that he left me mounted on it and took away dapple from under me without my feeling it
and it is no new occurrence for the same thing happened to sacripante at the siege of albracca the famous thief brunello by the same contrivance took his horse
from between his legs
and the moment i stirred the stakes gave way and i fell to the ground with a mighty come down i looked about for the ass but could not see him
the tears rushed to my eyes and i raised such a lamentation that if the author of our history has not put it in he may depend upon it he has left out a good thing
some days after i know not how many travelling with her ladyship the princess micomicona
the great rogue and rascal that my master and i freed from the chain that is not where the mistake is replied samson
that before the ass has turned up the author speaks of sancho as being mounted on it
unless that the historian made a mistake or perhaps it might be a blunder of the printer's no doubt that's it said samson but what became of the hundred crowns did they vanish
and my wife's and my children's and it is they that have made my wife bear so patiently all my wanderings on highways and byways in the service of my master
if after all this time i had come back to the house without a rap and without the ass it would have been a poor look out for me and if anyone wants to know anything more about me here i am ready to answer
the king himself in person and it is no affair of anyone's whether i took or did not take whether i spent or did not spend for the whacks that were given me in these journeys were to be paid for in money
even if they were valued at no more than four maravedis apiece another hundred crowns would not pay me for half of them let each look to himself and not try to make out
white black and black white for each of us is as god made him aye and often worse i will take care said carrasco to impress upon the author of the history that if he prints it again he must not forget
what worthy sancho has said for it will raise it a good span higher
the same importance as those i have mentioned does the author promise a second part at all
nor does he know who has got it and we cannot say whether it will appear or not and so on that head as some say that no second part has ever been good
though some who are jovial rather than saturnine say let us have more
and no matter what it may turn out we shall be satisfied with that and what does the author mean to do
which he is now searching for with extraordinary diligence he will at once give it to the press moved more by the profit that may accrue to him from doing so than by any thought of praise
it will be a wonder if he succeeds for it will be only hurry hurry with him like the tailor on easter eve and works done in a hurry are never finished as perfectly as they ought to be
and my master will give him as much grouting ready to his hand in the way of adventures and accidents of all sorts as would make up not only one second part but a hundred the good man fancies no doubt that we are
but let him hold up our feet to be shod and he will see which foot it is we go lame on all i say is that if my master would take my advice we would be now afield redressing outrages and righting wrongs
as is the use and custom of good knights errant
accepted as a happy omen and he resolved to make another sally in three or four days from that time announcing his intention to the bachelor he asked his advice as to the quarter in which he ought to commence his expedition
and the bachelor replied that in his opinion he ought to go to the kingdom of aragon and the city of saragossa where there were to be certain solemn joustings at the festival of saint george at which he might win renown above all the knights of aragon
which would be winning it above all the knights of the world he commended his very praiseworthy and gallant resolution but admonished him to proceed with greater caution in encountering dangers because his life did not belong to him
but to all those who had need of him to protect and aid them in their misfortunes there's where it is what i abominate senor samson
my master will attack a hundred armed men as a greedy boy would half a dozen melons body of the world senor bachelor there is a time to attack and a time to retreat
santiago and close spain
that the mean of valour lies between
or to attack when the odds make it better not but above all things i warn my master that if he is to take me with him it must be on the condition that he is to do all the fighting
and that i am not to be called upon to do anything except what concerns keeping him clean and comfortable in this i will dance attendance on him readily but to expect me to draw sword even against rascally churls
of the hatchet and hood is idle i don't set up to be a fighting man senor samson but only the best and most loyal squire that ever served knight errant
is pleased to give me some island of the many his worship says one may stumble on in these parts i will take it as a great favour and if he does not give it to me
i was born like everyone else and a man must not live in dependence on anyone except god and what is more my bread will taste as well and perhaps even better without a government than if i were a governor
and how do i know but that in these governments the devil may have prepared some trip for me to make me lose my footing and fall and knock my grinders out sancho i was born and sancho i mean to die
but for all that if heaven were to make me a fair offer of an island or something else of the kind without much trouble and without much risk i am not such a fool as to refuse it for they say too
when they offer thee a heifer run with a halter and when good luck comes to thee
but for all that put your trust in god and in
the kingdom he might give me into a sack all in holes for i have felt my own pulse and i find myself sound enough to rule kingdoms and govern islands
and i have before now told my master as much take care sancho said samson
dulcinea del toboso and to see that a letter of her name was placed at the beginning of each line so that at the end of the verses dulcinea del toboso
might be read by putting together the first letters the bachelor replied that although he was not one of the famous poets of spain who were they said only three and a half he would not fail to compose the required verses
if he made four ballad stanzas of four lines each there would be a letter over and if he made them of five what they called decimas or
there were three letters short nevertheless he would try to drop a letter as well as he could so that the name dulcinea del toboso might be got into four ballad stanzas it must be
by some means or other said don quixote for unless the name stands there plain and manifest no woman would believe the verses were made for her
they agreed upon this and that the departure should take place in three days from that time
charged the bachelor to keep it a secret especially from the curate and master nicholas and from his niece and the housekeeper lest they should prevent the execution of his praiseworthy and valiant purpose
of his good or evil fortunes whenever he had an opportunity and thus they bade each other farewell
to make the necessary preparations for their expedition chapter five of the shrewd and droll conversation that passed between
and his wife teresa panza and other matters worthy of being duly recorded the translator of this history when he comes to write this fifth chapter says that he considers it apocryphal
because in it sancho panza speaks in a style unlike that which might have been expected from his limited intelligence and says things so subtle
however desirous of doing what his task imposed upon him he was unwilling to leave it untranslated and therefore he went on to say
that his wife noticed his happiness a bowshot off so much so that it made her ask him what have you got sancho friend that you are so glad to which he replied wife if it were god's will i should be very glad
not to be so well pleased as i show myself i don't understand you husband said she and i don't know what you mean by saying you would be glad if it were god's will not to be well pleased for fool as i am
hark ye teresa replied sancho i am glad because i have made up my mind to go back to the service of my master don quixote who means to go out a third time to seek for adventures
and i am going with him again for my necessities will have it so and also the hope that cheers me with the thought that i may find another hundred crowns like those we have spent
and if god would be pleased to let me have my daily bread dry shod and at home without taking me out into the byways and cross roads and he could do it at small cost by merely willing it it is clear my happiness would be more solid and lasting
so that i was right in saying i would be glad if it were god's will not to be well pleased
said teresa ever since you joined on to a knight errant you talk in such a roundabout way that there is no understanding you
for he is the understander of all things that will do but mind sister you must look to dapple carefully for the next three days so that he may be fit to take arms
double his feed and see to the pack saddle and other harness for it is not to a wedding we are bound but to go round the world and play at give and take with giants and dragons and monsters and hear hissings and roarings and bellowings and howlings
and even all this would be lavender
with yanguesans and enchanted moors i know well enough husband said teresa that squires errant don't eat their bread for nothing
and so i will be always praying to our lord to deliver you speedily from all that hard fortune i can tell you wife said sancho if i did not expect to see myself governor of an island before long i would drop down dead on the spot
nay then husband said teresa let the hen live though it be with her pip live and let the devil take all the governments in the world you came out of your mother's womb without a government
you have lived until now without a government and when it is god's will you will go or be carried to your grave without a government how many there are in the world who live without a government
and continue to live all the same and are reckoned in the number of the people the best sauce in the world is hunger and as the poor are never without that they always eat with a relish
don't forget me and your children remember that sanchico is now full fifteen and it is right he should go to school if his uncle the abbot has a mind to have him trained for the church
consider too that your daughter
will not die of grief if we marry her for i have my suspicions that she is as eager to get a husband as you to get a government and after all a daughter looks better ill married than well whored
i intend wife to make such a high match for mari sancha that there will be no approaching her without calling her my lady nay sancho returned teresa
marry her to her equal that is the safest plan for if you put her out of wooden clogs into high heeled shoes out of her grey flannel petticoat into hoops and silk gowns out of the plain
marica and thou into dona so and so and my lady the girl won't know where she is and at every turn she will fall into a thousand blunders that will show the thread of her coarse homespun stuff
it will be only to practise it for two or three years and then dignity and decorum will fit her as easily as a glove and if not what matter
my lady and never mind what happens
replied teresa don't try to raise yourself higher and bear in mind the proverb that says wipe the nose of your neigbbour's son and take him into your house
a fine thing it would be indeed to marry our maria to some great count or grand gentleman who when the humour took him would abuse her and call her clown bred and clodhopper's daughter and spinning wench
juan tocho's son a stout sturdy young fellow that we know and i can see he does not look sour at the girl and with him one of our own sort she will be well married
and we shall have her always under our eyes and be all one family parents and children grandchildren and sons in law and the peace and blessing of god will dwell among us
so don't you go marrying her in those courts and grand palaces where they won't know what to make of her or she what to make of herself why you idiot and wife for barabbas said sancho
what do you mean by trying without why or wherefore to keep me from marrying my daughter to one who will give me grandchildren that will be called your lordship look ye teresa
i have always heard my elders say that he who does not know how to take advantage of luck when it comes to him has no right to complain if it gives him the go by and now
it will not do to shut it out let us go with the favouring breeze that blows upon us it is this sort of talk and what sancho says lower down that made the translator of the history say he considered this chapter apocryphal
lift us out of the mire and marry mari sancha to whom i like and you yourself will find yourself called dona teresa panza and sitting in church on a fine carpet and cushions and draperies
in spite and in defiance of all the born ladies of the town no stay as you are growing neither greater nor less like a tapestry figure let us say no more about it
for sanchica shall be a countess say what you will
replied teresa well for all that i am afraid this rank of countess for my daughter will be her ruin you do as you like make a duchess or a princess of her but i can tell you
it will not be with my will and consent i was always a lover of equality brother and i can't bear to see people give themselves airs without any right they called me teresa at my baptism
a plain simple name without any additions or tags or fringes of dons or donas cascajo was my father's name and as i am your wife i am called teresa panza
but kings go where laws like and i am content with this name without having the don put on top of it to make it so heavy that i cannot carry it
and i don't want to make people talk about me when they see me go dressed like a countess or governor's wife for they will say at once see what airs the slut gives herself only yesterday she was always spinning flax
and used to go to mass with the tail of her petticoat over her head instead of a mantle and there she goes to day in a hooped gown with her broaches and airs as if we didn't know her
i am not going to bring myself to such a pass go you brother and be a government or an island man and swagger as much as you like for by the soul of my mother neither my daughter nor i are going to stir a step from our village
a respectable woman should have a broken leg and keep at home and to be busy at something is a virtuous damsel's holiday
for god will mend them for us according as we deserve it i don't know i'm sure who fixed the don to him what neither his father
i declare thou hast a devil of some sort in thy body
god help thee what a lot of things thou hast strung together
look here fool and dolt for so i may call you when you don't understand my words and run away from good fortune if i had said that my daughter was to throw herself down from a tower or go roaming
the world as the infanta dona urraca wanted to do you would be right in not giving way to my will but if in an instant in less than the twinkling of an eye i put the don
and my lady on her back and take her out of the stubble and place her under a canopy
ever had in their family why won't you consent and fall in with my wishes do you know why husband replied teresa because of the proverb that says who covers thee discovers thee
at the poor man people only throw a hasty glance on the rich man they fix their eyes and if the said rich man was once on a time poor it is then there is the sneering
and the tattle and spite of backbiters and in the streets here they swarm as thick as bees look here teresa
and listen to what i am now going to say to you
you never heard it in all your life and i do not give my own notions for what i am about to say are the opinions of his reverence the preacher who preached in this town last lent and who said if i remember rightly
that all things present that our eyes behold bring themselves before us and remain and fix themselves on our memory much better and more forcibly than things past
these observations which sancho makes here are the other ones on account of which the translator says he regards this chapter as apocryphal inasmuch as they are beyond sancho's capacity
whence it arises he continued that when we see any person well dressed and making a figure with rich garments and retinue of servants it seems to lead and impel us perforce to respect him
in which we have seen him but which whether it may have been poverty or low birth being now a thing of the past has no existence while the only thing that has any existence is what we see before us
and if this person whom fortune has raised from his original lowly state these were the very words the padre used to his present height of prosperity
be well bred generous courteous to all without seeking to vie with those whose nobility is of ancient date depend upon it teresa no one will remember what he was and everyone will respect what he is
except indeed the envious from whom no fair fortune is safe i do not understand you husband replied teresa do as you like and don't break my head with any more speechifying and rethoric
and if you have revolved to do what you say resolved you should say woman said sancho not revolved don't set yourself to wrangle with me husband said teresa i speak as god pleases and don't deal
in out of the way phrases and i say if you are bent upon having a government take your son sancho with you and teach him from this time on how to hold a government
i will send for him by post and i will send thee money of which i shall have no lack for there is never any want of people to lend it to governors when they have not got it and do thou dress him so as to hide what he is
and make him look what he is to be you send the money said teresa and i'll dress him up for you as fine as you please
replied teresa it will be the same to me as if i was burying her but once more i say do as you please for we women are born to this burden of being obedient to our husbands though they be dogs
chapter eight a discontented shade it seems to me said shakespeare wearily one afternoon at the club
didn't somebody once say he'd rather ride fifty years on a trolley in europe than on a bicycle in cathay
said johnson i said something like it observed tennyson doctor johnson looked around to see who it was that spoke you he cried and who pray may you be
my name is tennyson replied the poet
said doctor johnson did you make it yourself i did said the late laureate proudly in what pursuit asked doctor johnson poetry said tennyson
i wrote locksley hall and come into the garden maude humph said doctor johnson i never read em
they were written after you moved over here and they were good stuff
i did a few things myself which i fancy you never heard of oh as for that retorted doctor johnson with a smile i've heard of you
you are the man who wrote the life of frederick the great in nine hundred and two volumes seven snapped carlyle well seven then returned johnson
i never saw the work but i heard frederick speaking of it the other day bonaparte asked him if he had read it and frederick said no he hadn't time bonaparte cried haven't time why my dear king you've got all eternity
i know it replied frederick but that isn't enough read a page or two my dear napoleon and you'll see why frederick will have his joke said shakespeare
with a wink at tennyson and a smile for the two philosophers intended no doubt to put them in a more agreeable frame of mind why he even asked me the other day why i never wrote a tragedy about him
i spoke of that and he said oh i was only joking i apologized i didn't know that said i and why should you said he you're english
a very rude remark said johnson as if we english were incapable of seeing a joke exactly put in carlyle it strikes me as the absurdest notion that the englishman can't see a joke
to the mind that is accustomed to snap judgments i have no doubt the englishman appears to be dull of apprehension but the philosophy of the whole matter is apparent to the mind that takes the trouble to investigate
the briton weighs everything carefully before he commits himself and even though a certain point may strike him as funny he isn't going to laugh until he has fully made up his mind that it is funny
and he began to laugh immoderately over something
that isn't so funny said i as i read the paragraph on which his eye was resting no said froude i wasn't laughing at that
the whole point the englishman always laughs over last week's punch not this week's and that is why you will find a file of that interesting journal in the home of all well to do britons it is the back number that amuses him
which merely proves that he is a deliberative person who weighs even his humor carefully before giving way to his emotions what is the average weight of a copy of punch
drawled artemas ward who had strolled in during the latter part of the conversation shakespeare snickered quietly but carlyle and johnson looked upon the intruder severely we will take that question into consideration
said carlyle perhaps to morrow we shall have a definite answer ready for you never mind returned the humorist you've proved your point tennyson tells me you find life here dull shakespeare somewhat
said shakespeare i don't know about the rest of you fellows but i was not cut out for an eternity of ease i must have occupation and the stage isn't popular here the trouble about putting on a play here
is that our managers are afraid of libel suits the chances are that if i should write a play with cassius as the hero cassius would go to the first night's performance with a dagger concealed in his toga
with which to punctuate his objections to the lines put in his mouth there is nothing i'd like better than to manage a theatre in this place but think of the riots we'd have suppose for an instant that i wrote a play about bonaparte
if he didn't happen to like the play he'd greet me with a salvo of artillery instead of applause
said tennyson no doubt returned shakespeare sadly but in that event wellington would be in the other stage box and i'd get the greeting from him
asked johnson why come out at all echoed shakespeare what fun is there in writing a play if you can't come out and show yourself at the first night that's the author's reward if it wasn't for the first night business though
all would be plain sailing
how the deuce could you put in carlyle a most extraordinary proposition sneered johnson yes said ward but wait a week you'll see the point then
there isn't any doubt in my mind said shakespeare reverting to his original proposition
the one we have quitted or this there we had hard work in which our mortal limitations hampered us grievously here we have the freedom of the immortal with no hard work in other words
now that we feel like fighting cocks there isn't any fighting to be done the great life in my estimation would be to return to earth and battle with mortal problems but equipped mentally
and physically with immortal weapons some people don't know when they are well off said beau brummel this strikes me as being an ideal life there are no tailors bills to pay we are ourselves nothing but memories
and a memory can clothe himself in the shadow of his former grandeur
and as my memory is good i flatter myself i'm the best dressed man here the fact that there are ghosts of departed unpaid bills haunting my bedside at night doesn't bother me in the least
because the bailiffs that in the old life lent terror to an overdue account
are kept in the less agreeable sections of hades
but now i rejoice at it if they had been of a different order they might have proven unpleasant here you are right my dear brummel interposed munchausen
this life is far preferable to that in the other sphere any of you gentlemen who happen to have had the pleasure of reading my memoirs must have been struck with the tremendous difficulties that encumbered my progress
if i wished for a rare liqueur for my luncheon a liqueur served only at the table of an oriental potentate
one thousand queens
had to be performed by myself alone and unaided to secure the desired thimbleful i have destroyed empires for a bon bon at great expense of nervous energy that's very likely true said carlyle
i should think your feats of strength would have wrecked your imagination in time not so said munchausen on the contrary continuous exercise served only to make it stronger but
as i was going to say in this life we have none of these fearful obstacles it is a life of leisure and if i want a bird and a cold bottle at any time instead of placing my life in peril and jeopardizing the peace of all mankind to get it
dine thereon like a well ordered citizen and smoke the spirit of the best cigar my imagination can conjure up you miss my point said shakespeare
i don't say this life is worse or better than the other we used to live what i do say is that a combination of both would suit me in short i'd like to live here and go to the other world every day to business
hire an office there and put out a sign something like this william shakespeare dramatist plays written while you wait i guess i'd find plenty to do guess again said tennyson
my dear boy you forget one thing you are out of date people don't go to the theatres to hear you they go to see the people who do you that is true said ward
and they do do you my beloved william it's a wonder to me you are not dizzy turning over in your grave the way they do you can it be that i can ever be out of date asked shakespeare
i know of course that i have to be adapted at times but to be wholly out of date strikes me as a hard fate you're not out of date interposed carlyle the date is out of you
there is a great demand for shakespeare in these days but there isn't any stuff then i should succeed said shakespeare no i don't think so returned carlyle you couldn't stand the pace
the world revolves faster to day than it did in your time men write three or four plays at once this is what you might call a type writer age
that is true observed tennyson
and to be perfectly frank with you i cannot even conjure up in my fancy a picture of you knocking out a tragedy with the right hand on one machine
he might do as a great many modern writers do said ward
cut the whole thing out with a pair of scissors as the poet might have said if he'd been clever enough oh bring me the scissors and bring me the glue and a couple of dozen old plays
i'll cut out and paste a drama for you that'll run for quite sixty two days oh bring me a dress made of satin and lace and a book say joe miller's of wit
and i'll make the old dramatists blue in the face with the play that i'll turn out for it so bring me the scissors and bring me the paste and a dozen fine old comedies
a fine line of dresses and popular taste i'll make a strong effort to please you draw a very blue picture it seems to me said shakespeare sadly well it's true
said carlyle the world isn't at all what it used to be in any one respect and you fellows who made great reputations centuries ago
the old gentleman couldn't make enough out of them in these days to pay taxes on his tub let alone earning his bread that is exactly so said tennyson i'd be willing to wager too that in the line of personal prowess
even d'artagnan and athos and porthos and aramis couldn't stand london for one day or new york either said mister barnum who had been an interested listener a new york policeman could have managed that quartet with one hand
then said shakespeare in the opinion of you gentlemen we old time lions would appear to modern eyes to be more or less stuffed that's about the size of it said carlyle
but you'd draw said barnum his face lighting up with pleasure you'd drive a five legged calf to suicide from envy if i could take you and caesar and napoleon bonaparte and nero
over for one circus season we'd drive the mint out of business there's your chance william said ward you write a play for bonaparte and caesar and let nero take his fiddle and be the orchestra
under barnum's management you'd get enough activity in one season to last you through all eternity you can count on me said barnum rising let me know when you've got your plan laid out
adam has promised to give me points on the management of wild animals without cages so i can't wait by by humph said shakespeare as the eminent showman passed out that's a gay proposition
when monkeys move in polite society
they do now said thackeray quietly which merely proved that shakespeare did not mean what he said for in spite of thackeray's insinuation as to the monkeys and polite society
he has not yet accepted the barnum proposition though there can be no doubt of its value
well done and ill paid
who had to drive his sledge to the wood for fuel so a bear met him out with your horse said the bear or i'll strike all your sheep dead by summer oh heaven help me then said the man
there's not a stick of firewood in the house you must let me drive home a load of fuel else we shall be frozen to death i'll bring the horse to you to morrow morning yes on those terms he might drive the wood home that was a bargain but bruin said
if he didn't come back he should lose all his sheep by summer so the man got the wood on the sledge and rattled homewards but he wasn't over pleased at the bargain you may fancy so just then a fox met him why what's the matter said the fox
why are you so down in the mouth oh if you want to know said the man i met a bear up yonder in the wood and i had to give my word to him to bring dobbin back to morrow at this very hour for if he didn't get him he said he would tear all my sheep to death by summer
stuff nothing worse than that said the fox if you'll give me your fattest wether i'll soon set you free see if i don't yes the man gave his word and swore he would keep it too well when you come with dobbin to morrow for the bear said the fox
tis peter the marksman who is the best shot in the world and after that you must help yourself next day off set the man and when he met the bear
hist what's that said the bear oh that's peter the marksman to be sure said the than he's the best shot in the world i know him by his voice
have you seen any bears about here eric shouted out a voice in the wood say no said the bear no i haven't seen any said eric what's that then that stands alongside your sledge bawled out the voice in the wood
say it's an old fir stump said the bear oh it's only an old fir stump said the man such fir stumps we take in our country and roll them on our sledges bawled out the voice if you can't do it yourself i'll come and help you
say you can help yourself and roll me up on the sledge said the bear no thank ye i can help myself well enough said the man and rolled the bear on to the sledge
bawled out the voice shall i come and help you say you can help yourself and bind me fast do said the bear
who set to binding bruin fast with all the ropes he had so that at last the bear couldn't stir a paw such fir stumps we always drive our axes into in our part of the world bawled out the voice
for then we guide them better going down the steep pitches pretend to drive your axe into me do now said the bear then the man took up his axe and at one blow split the bear's skull so that bruin lay dead in a trice
but when they came near the farm the fox said i've no mind to go right home with you for i can't say i like your tykes
but mind and pick out one nice and fat yes the man would be sure to do that and thanked the fox much for his help so when he had put up dobbin he went across to the sheep stall whither away now asked his old dame
oh said the man i'm only going to the sheep stall to fetch a fat wether for that cunning fox who set our dobbin free i gave him my word i would whither indeed said the old dame never a one shall that thief of a fox get haven't we got dobbin safe
and the bear into the bargain and as for the fox
he will no no take a brace of your swiftest hounds in a sack and slip them loose after him and then perhaps we shall be rid of this robbing reynard
have you brought the wether said the fox yes come and take it said the man as he untied the sack and let slip the hounds huf said the fox and gave a great spring
well done is often ill paid
the lad who went to the north wind once on a time there was an old widow who had one son and as she was poorly and weak her son had to go up into the safe to fetch meal for cooking
but when he got outside the safe and was just going down the steps there came the north wind puffing and blowing caught up the meal and so away with it through the air then the lad went back into the safe for more
but when he came out again on the steps if the north wind didn't come again and carry off the meal with a puff and more than that he did so the third time at this the lad got very angry and as he thought it hard that the north wind should behave so
he thought he'd just look him up and ask him to give up his meal so off he went but the way was long and he walked and walked but at last he came to the north wind's house good day said the lad and thank you for coming to see us yesterday
good day answered the north wind for his voice was loud and gruff and thanks for coming to see me what do you want oh answered the lad i only wished to ask you to be so good as to let me have back that meal you took from me on the safe steps
there'll be nothing for it but to starve i haven't got your meal said the north wind but if you are in such need i'll give you a cloth which will get you everything you want if you only say
cloth spread yourself and serve up all kind of good dishes with this the lad was well content but as the way was so long he couldn't get home in one day so
cloth spread yourself and serve up all kinds of good dishes he had scarce said so before the cloth did as it was bid and all who stood by thought it a fine thing but most of all the landlady
so when all were fast asleep at dead of night she took the lad's cloth and put another in its stead
but which couldn't so much as serve up a bit of dry bread so when the lad woke he took his cloth and went off with it and that day he got home to his mother now said he i've been to the north wind's house and a good fellow he is
for he gave me this cloth and when i only say to it cloth spread yourself and serve up all kind of good dishes i get any sort of food i please all very true i daresay said his mother
but seeing is believing and i shan't believe it till i see it so the lad made haste drew out a table laid the cloth on it and said cloth spread yourself and serve up all kind of good dishes
there's no help for it but to go to the north wind again and away he went
good evening said the lad good evening said the north wind
for as for that cloth i got it isn't worth a penny i've got no meal said the north wind but yonder you have a ram which coins nothing but golden ducats as soon as you say to it rain ram make money
so the lad thought this a fine thing but as it was too far to get home that day he turned in for the night to the same inn where he had slept before before he called for anything he tried the truth of what the north wind had said of the ram and found it all right but when the landlord saw that
he thought it was a famous ram and when the lad had fallen asleep he took another which couldn't coin gold ducats and changed the two next morning off went the lad and when he got home to his mother he said after all
the north wind is a jolly fellow for now he has given me a ram which can coin golden ducats if i only say ram ram make money all very true i daresay said his mother
but i shan't believe any such stuff until i see the ducats made ram ram make money said the lad but if the ram made anything it wasn't money so the lad went back again to the north wind and blew him up
well said the north wind
but it's a stick of that kind that if you say stick stick lay on it lays on till you say stick stick now stop so as the way was long
the lad turned in this night too to the landlord
now the landlord who easily saw that the stick must be worth something hunted up one which was like it and when he heard the lad snore was going to change the two but just as the landlord was about to take it the lad bawled out stick stick lay on
so the stick began to beat the landlord till he jumped over chairs and tables and benches and yelled and roared oh my oh my bid the stick be still else it will beat me to death and you shall have back both your cloth and our ram
when the lad thought the landlord had got enough he said stick stick now stop then he took the cloth and put it into his pocket and went home with his stick in his hand leading the ram by a cord round its horns
pleasure in itself is not bad but good contrariwise pain in itself is bad proof pleasure
is emotion whereby the body's power of activity is increased or helped pain is emotion whereby the body's power of activity is diminished
proof mirth
is pleasure which in so far as it is referred to the body consists in all parts of the body being affected equally
the body's power of activity is increased or aided in such a manner
on the other hand grief may be good in so far as stimulation or pleasure is bad proof localized pleasure or stimulation titillatio
is pleasure which in so far as it is referred to the body consists in one or some of its parts being affected more than the rest
the power of this emotion may be sufficient to overcome other actions of the body
is defined by the power of an external cause compared with our own
we can therefore conceive it as capable of restraining stimulation and preventing its becoming excessive and hindering the body's capabilities thus to this extent it will be good
and desire may be excessive proof love is pleasure accompanied by the idea of an external cause
therefore stimulation
note mirth which i have stated to be good can be conceived more easily than it can be observed for the emotions whereby we are daily assailed are generally referred to some part of the body
which is affected more than the rest hence the emotions are generally excessive and so fix the mind in the contemplation of one object that it is unable to think of others and although men as a rule
are a prey to many emotions and very few are found who are always assailed by one and the same yet there are cases where one and the same emotion remains obstinately fixed we sometimes see men so absorbed in one object
that although it be not present they think they have it before them when this is the case with a man who is not asleep we say he is delirious or mad nor are those persons who are inflamed with love and who dream all night and all day about nothing but their mistress or some woman
considered as less mad for they are made objects of ridicule but when a miser thinks of nothing but gain or money or when an ambitious man thinks of nothing but glory
and are thought worthy of being hated but in reality avarice ambition
though they may not be reckoned among diseases
envy derision contempt
and laughter i recognize a great difference for laughter as also jocularity is merely pleasure
and have convinced myself as follows no deity nor anyone else save the envious takes pleasure in my infirmity and discomfort nor sets down to my virtue the tears sobs fear and the like
which axe signs of infirmity of spirit on the contrary the greater the pleasure wherewith we are affected the greater the perfection
in other words the more must we necessarily partake of the divine nature therefore to make use of what comes in our way and to enjoy it as much as possible not to the point of satiety for that would not be enjoyment
is the part of a wise man i say it is the part of a wise man to refresh and recreate himself with moderate and pleasant food and drink and also with perfumes with the soft beauty of growing plants
with dress with music with many sports with theatres and the like such as every man may make use of without injury to his neighbour for the human body is composed of very numerous parts of diverse nature
which continually stand in need of fresh and varied nourishment so that the whole body may be equally capable of performing all the actions
and consequently so that the mind may also be equally capable of understanding many things simultaneously this way of life then agrees best with our principles and also with general practice
therefore if there be any question of another plan the plan we have mentioned is the best and in every way to be commended
preface human infirmity in moderating and checking the emotions i name bondage for when a man is a prey to his emotions he is not his own master but lies at the mercy of fortune
so much so that he is often compelled while seeing that which is better for him to follow that which is worse why this is so and what is good or evil in the emotions i propose to show in this part of my treatise
but before i begin it would be well to make a few prefatory observations on perfection and imperfection good and evil when a man has purposed to make a given thing and has brought it to perfection
his work will be pronounced perfect not only by himself but by everyone who rightly knows or thinks that he knows the intention and aim of its author for instance suppose anyone sees a work which i assume to be not yet completed
he will on the other hand call it perfect as soon as he sees that it is carried through to the end which its author had purposed for it but if a man sees a work the like whereof he has never seen before and if he knows not the intention of the artificer
he plainly cannot know whether that work be perfect or imperfect such seems to be the primary meaning of these terms but after men began to form general ideas
it came about that each man called perfect that which he saw agree with the general idea he had formed of the thing in question and called imperfect that which he saw agree less with his own preconceived type
even though it had evidently been completed in accordance with the idea of its artificer this seems to be the only reason for calling natural phenomena which indeed are not made with human hands perfect or imperfect
for men are wont to form general ideas of things natural no less than of things artificial and such ideas they hold as types believing that nature who they think does nothing without an object has them in view and has set them
as types before herself therefore when they behold something in nature which does not wholly conform to the preconceived type which they have formed of the thing in question they say that nature has fallen short or has blundered and has left her work incomplete
thus we see that men are wont to style natural phenomena perfect or imperfect rather from their own prejudices than from true knowledge of what they pronounce upon now
that nature does not work with an end in view for the eternal and infinite being which we call god or nature
that by the same necessity of its nature whereby it exists it likewise works
the reason or cause why god or nature exists and the reason why he acts are one and the same therefore as he does not exist for the sake of an end so neither does he act for the sake of an end
of his existence and of his action there is neither origin nor end wherefore a cause which is called final is nothing else but human desire in so far as it is considered as the origin or cause of anything
for example when we say that to be inhabited is the final cause of this or that house we mean nothing more than that a man conceiving the conveniences of household life had a desire to build a house wherefore
is nothing else but this particular desire which is really the efficient cause it is regarded as the primary cause because men are generally ignorant of the causes of their desires they are as i have often said already conscious of their own actions and appetites
but ignorant of the causes whereby they are determined to any particular desire therefore the common saying that nature sometimes falls short or blunders
perfection and imperfection then are in reality merely modes of thinking or notions which we form from a comparison among one another of individuals of the same species
that by reality and perfection i mean the same thing for we are wont to refer all the individual things in nature to one genus which is called the highest genus namely to the category of being
thus in so far as we refer the individuals in nature to this category and comparing them one with another find that some possess more of being or reality than others we to this extent
say that some are more perfect than others again in so far as we attribute to them anything implying negation as term end infirmity et cetera we to this extent call them imperfect
not because they have any intrinsic deficiency or because nature has blundered for nothing lies within the scope of a thing's nature save that which follows from the necessity of the nature of its efficient cause
and whatsoever follows from the necessity of the nature of its efficient cause necessarily comes to pass as for the terms good and bad they indicate no positive quality in things
regarded in themselves but are merely modes of thinking or notions which we form from the comparison of things one with another thus one and the same thing can be at the same time good bad and indifferent for instance
music is good for him that is melancholy bad for him that mourns for him that is deaf it is neither good nor bad nevertheless though this be so the terms should still be retained
for inasmuch as we desire to form an idea of man as a type of human nature which we may hold in view it will be useful for us to retain the terms in question in the sense i have indicated in what follows then
i shall mean by good that which we certainly know to be a means of approaching more nearly to the type of human nature which we have set before ourselves by bad that which we certainly know to be a hindrance to us in approaching the said type
are more perfect or more imperfect in proportion as they approach more or less nearly to the said type for it must be specially remarked that when i say that a man passes from a lesser to a greater perfection or vice versa
i do not mean that he is changed from one essence or reality to another for instance a horse would be as completely destroyed by being changed into a man as by being changed into an insect what i mean is that we conceive the thing's power of action
in so far as this is understood by its nature to be increased or diminished lastly by perfection in general i shall as i have said mean reality in other words
for no given thing can be said to be more perfect because it has passed a longer time in existence the duration of things cannot be determined by their essence for the essence of things involves no fixed and definite period of existence but everything
whether it be more perfect or less perfect will always be able to persist in existence with the same force wherewith it began to exist wherefore in this respect all things are equal definitions
one by good i mean that which we certainly know to be useful to us two by evil i mean that which we certainly know to be a hindrance to us in the attainment of any good
concerning these terms see the foregoing preface towards the end three particular things i call contingent in so far as while regarding their essence only we find nothing therein
which necessarily asserts their existence or excludes it four particular things i call possible in so far as while regarding the causes
by conflicting emotions i mean those which draw a man in different directions though they are of the same kind such as luxury and avarice which are both species of love and are contraries not by nature
but by accident six what i mean by emotion felt towards a thing future present and past
but i should here also remark that we can only distinctly conceive distance of space or time up to a certain definite limit that is
all objects distant from us more than two hundred feet or whose distance from the place where we are exceeds that which we can distinctly conceive seem to be an equal distance from us and all in the same plane
so also objects whose time of existing is conceived as removed from the present by a longer interval than we can distinctly conceive seem to be all equally distant from the present and are set down as it were to the same moment of time
seven by an end for the sake of which we do something i mean a desire eight by virtue virtus and power i mean the same thing that is
as it is referred to man is a man's nature or essence in so far as it has the power of effecting what can only be understood by the laws of that nature axiom
there is no individual thing in nature than which there is not another more powerful and strong whatsoever thing be given
it is necessarily good proof in so far as a thing is in harmony with our nature it cannot be bad for it it will therefore necessarily be either good or indifferent
if it be assumed that it be neither good nor bad nothing will follow from its nature
that is by the hypothesis which tends to the preservation of the thing itself but this
therefore in so far as a thing is in harmony with our nature it is necessarily good
corollary hence it follows that in proportion as a thing is in harmony with our nature so is it more useful or better for us and vice versa in proportion as a thing is more useful for us
so is it more in harmony with our nature for in so far as it is not in harmony with our nature it will necessarily be different therefrom
be said to be naturally in harmony proof things which are said to be in harmony naturally are understood to agree in power
or negation and consequently not in passion
wherefore men in so far as they are a prey to their passions cannot be said to be naturally in harmony
note this is also self evident for if we say that white and black only agree in the fact that neither is red we absolutely affirm that the do not agree in any respect
so if we say that a man and a stone only agree in the fact that both are finite wanting in power not existing by the necessity of their own nature or lastly indefinitely surpassed by the power of external causes
cannot be explained solely through our essence or nature
by the nature of external causes in comparison with our own hence it follows that there are as many kinds of each emotion as there are external objects whereby we are affected
and that men may be differently affected by one and the same object
proof a man for instance peter can be the cause of paul's feeling pain because he peter possesses something similar to that which paul hates
or because peter has sole possession of a thing which paul also loves
note i said that paul may hate peter because he conceives that peter possesses something which he paul
we shall see that the discrepancy vanishes for the two men are not in one another's way in virtue of the agreement of their natures that is through both loving the same thing but in virtue of one differing from the other
for in so far as each loves the same thing the love of each is fostered thereby
the pleasure of each is fostered thereby wherefore it is far from being the case that they are at variance through both loving the same thing and through the agreement in their natures
the cause for their opposition lies as i have said solely in the fact that they are assumed to differ for we assume that peter has the idea of the loved object as already in his possession
while paul has the idea of the loved object as lost hence the one man will be affected with pleasure the other will be affected with pain
in so far as they act in obedience to reason
therefore what so ever follows from human nature in so far as it is defined by reason must
be understood solely through human nature as its proximate cause but since every man by the laws of his nature desires that which he deems good and endeavours to remove that which he deems bad
and further since that which we in accordance with reason deem good or bad necessarily is good or bad
necessarily do only such things
men will be most useful one to another when each seeks most that which is useful to him
note what we have just shown is attested by experience so conspicuously that it is in the mouth of nearly everyone man is to man a god
that they are generally envious and troublesome one to another nevertheless they are scarcely able to lead a solitary life
has met with general assent in fact men do derive from social life much more convenience than injury
let theologians rail and let misanthropes praise to their utmost the life of untutored rusticity let them heap contempt on men and praises on beasts when all is said they will find that men can provide for their wants
much more easily by mutual help and that only by uniting their forces can they escape from the dangers that on every side beset them
desire arising from the knowledge of good and evil in so far as such knowledge regards what is future may be more easily controlled or quenched than the desire for what is agreeable at the present moment proof
emotion towards a thing which we conceive as future is fainter than emotion towards a thing that is present
but desire which arises from the true knowledge of good and evil though it be concerned with things which are good at the moment can be quenched or controlled by any headstrong desire
is of universal application wherefore desire arising from such knowledge when concerned with the future can be more easily controlled or quenched
why it is that the true knowledge of good and evil stirs up conflicts in the soul and often yields to every kind of passion
i have not written the above with the object of drawing the conclusion that ignorance is more excellent than knowledge or that a wise man is on a par with a fool in controlling his emotions but because it is necessary to know the power and the infirmity of our nature
before we can determine what reason can do in restraining the emotions and what is beyond her power i have said that in the present part i shall merely treat of human infirmity
is other conditions being equal stronger than desire arising from pain proof desire is the essence of a man
that is the endeavour whereby a man endeavours to persist in his own being wherefore desire arising from pleasure is by the fact of pleasure being felt increased or helped on the contrary desire arising from pain
is by the fact of pain being felt diminished or hindered hence the force of desire arising from pleasure must be defined
together with the power of an external cause whereas desire arising from pain
note in these few remarks i have explained the causes of human infirmity and inconstancy and shown why men do not abide by the precepts of reason it now remains for me to show what course is marked out for us by reason
which of the emotions are in harmony with the rules of human reason
but before i begin to prove my propositions in detailed geometrical fashion it is advisable to sketch them briefly in advance so that everyone may more readily grasp my meaning as reason makes no demands contrary to nature
it demands that every man should love himself should seek that which is useful to him i mean that which is really useful to him should desire everything which really brings man to greater perfection and should each for himself
endeavour as far as he can to preserve his own being this is as necessarily true as that a whole is greater than its part
again as virtue is nothing else but action in accordance with the laws of one's own nature
and as no one endeavours to preserve his own being except in accordance with the laws of his own nature it follows first that the foundation of virtue is the endeavour to preserve one's own being and that happiness consists
in man's power of preserving his own being secondly that virtue is to be desired for its own sake
that suicides are weak minded and are overcome by external causes repugnant to their nature
that we can never arrive at doing without all external things for the preservation of our being or living so as to have no relations with things which are outside ourselves again if we consider our mind
we see that our intellect would be more imperfect if mind were alone and could understand nothing besides itself there are then many things outside ourselves which are useful to us and are therefore to be desired
of such none can be discerned more excellent than those which are in entire agreement with our nature for if for example two individuals of entirely the same nature are united they form a combination twice as powerful
as either of them singly therefore to man there is nothing more useful than man nothing i repeat more excellent for preserving their being can be wished for by men than that all should so in all points agree
of all should form as it were one single mind and one single body and that all should with one consent as far as they are able endeavour to preserve their being and all with one consent seek what is useful to them all hence
men who are governed by reason that is who seek what is useful to them in accordance with reason desire for themselves nothing which they do not also desire for the rest of mankind and consequently are just faithful and honourable in their conduct
such are the dictates of reason which i purposed thus briefly to indicate before beginning to prove them in greater detail i have taken this course in order if possible to gain the attention of those who believe that the principle that every man
is bound to seek what is useful for himself is the foundation of impiety rather than of piety and virtue therefore after briefly showing that the contrary is the case i go on to prove it by the same method
as that whereby i have hitherto proceeded
every man by the laws of his nature necessarily desires or shrinks from that which he deems to be good or bad proof the knowledge of good and evil is
or pain in so far as we are conscious thereof therefore every man necessarily desires what he thinks good and shrinks from what he thinks bad now this appetite is nothing else but man's nature or essence
therefore every man solely by the laws of his nature desires the one
in other words to preserve his own being the more is he endowed with virtue on the contrary in proportion as a man neglects to seek what is useful to him that is to preserve his own being he is wanting in power proof
virtue is human power which is defined solely by man's essence
that is which is defined solely by the endeavour made by man to persist in his own being wherefore the more a man endeavours and is able to preserve his own being the more is he endowed with virtue
neglects to preserve his own being he is wanting in power
note no one therefore neglects seeking his own good or preserving his own being unless he be overcome by causes external and foreign to his nature no one i say from the necessity of his own nature or otherwise
than under compulsion from external causes shrinks from food or kills himself which latter may be done in a variety of ways a man for instance kills himself under the compulsion of another man who twists round his right hand
and forces him to turn the blade against his own heart or again he may be compelled like seneca by a tyrant's command to open his own veins that is to escape a greater evil by incurring a lesser or lastly latent external causes
may so disorder his imagination and so affect his body that it may assume a nature contrary to its former one and whereof the idea cannot exist in the mind
but that a man from the necessity of his own nature should endeavour to become non existent is as impossible as that something should be made out of nothing
five oaks awoke to a new existence on the first morning after the arrival of its guests from new york an existence of wild shouts gleeful laughter scampering feet and confusion
in the kitchen and the garden old mister and missus barrett no longer held full sway for some time there had been a cook a waitress a laundress and an experienced gardener as well
in the barn too there was now a stalwart fellow who was coachman and chauffeur by turns according to whether the old family carriage or the new four cylinder touring car was wanted
tom peter mary patty and the twins had not been at five oaks twenty four hours before they were fitted to new clothing throughout missus kendall had not slept until she had interviewed the town clothier
as to ways and means of immediately providing two boys and four girls with shoes stockings hats coats trousers dresses and undergarments course tain't zactly necessary patty had said
but it's awful nice cause now we don't have ter go ter bed when ours is washed an they be awful nice just bang up no wonder five oaks awoke to a new existence the wide spreading lawns knew now
what it was to be pressed by a dozen little scampering feet at once and the great stone lions knew
and try to dig sharp little heels into their stone sides within the house the attic sacred for years to cobwebs and musty memories knew what it was to yield its treasured bonnets shawls and quilted skirts
to a swarm of noisy children who demanded them for charades tom peter mary patty arabella and clarabella had been at five oaks two weeks when one day bobby mc ginnis found margaret
crying all alone in the old summerhouse down in the garden gorry what's up he questioned adding cheerily soldiers daughters don't cry it was a quotation from margaret's own childhood's creed
and one which in the old days
even now it was not without its effect for her head came up with a jerk i i know it she sobbed and i ain't i mean i are not going to there you see she broke off miserably
falling back into her old despondent attitude ain't should be are not always and i never can remember pooh is that all laughed bobby twould take more'n a are not ter make me cry
but that ain't all wailed margaret and she did not notice that at one of her words bobby chuckled and parted his lips only to close them again with a snap
there's heaps more of em bully and bang up and gee and drownded and g on the ends of things and well almost everything i say seems so well what of it you'll get over it
you're a learnin all the time ain't ye are not you bobby sighed margaret well are not you then snapped bobby margaret shook her head a look that was almost terror came to her eyes
she leaned forward and clutched the boy's arm bobby that's just it she whispered looking fearfully over her shoulder to make sure that no one heard that's just it i'm not a learnin
why not because of them tom and patty and the rest bobby looked dazed and margaret plunged headlong into her explanation it's them they do em all of em
don't you see they say ain't and gee and bully all the time and i see now how bad tis and i want to stop but i can't stop bobby i just can't i try to but it just comes before i know it
i tried to stop them sayin em first went on margaret feverishly just as i tried to make em act ladylike with their feet and their knives and forks but it didn't do a mite o good first they laughed at me then they got mad
you know how twas bobby you saw em bobby whistled yes i know he said soberly but when they go away that's just it cut in margaret tragically
and now i bobby i want them to go she paused and let the full enormity of her confession sink into her hearer's comprehension then she repeated i want them to go well
what of it retorted bobby
what of it wept margaret why bobby don't you see i was goin to divvy up and i ought to divvy up too i've got trees and grass and flowers and beds with sheets on em and enough to eat
and they hain't got anything not anything and now i don't want to divvy up i don't want to divvy up because i don't want them here margaret covered her face with her hands and rocked herself to and fro
bobby was silent his hands were in his pocket and his eyes were on an ant struggling with a burden almost as large as itself don't you see bobby it's wicked that i am awful wicked
after a minute i want to be nice and gentle like mother wants me to be i don't want to be mag of the alley i i hate mag of the alley but if tom and patty and the rest stays
i shall be just like them bobby i know i shall and and so i don't want em to stay bobby stirred uneasily changing his position well you you hain't asked em to yet have ye
he questioned no mother spressly stip'lated that i shouldn't say anything about their stayin always till their visit was over
then what ye cryin bout you ain't bound by no contract you don't have ter divvy up but i ought to divvy up
scoffed bobby hain't folks got a right ter have their own things margaret frowned doubtfully i don't know she began with some hesitation if i've got nice things and more of em than patty has
why shouldn't she have some of mine tain't fair somehow somebody ain't playin straight i
not once but many times during the next few days did margaret talk with her mother on this subject that so troubled her the result of these conferences bobby learned not five days later
when margaret ran down to meet him at the great driveway gate back on the veranda patty and the others were playing housekeeping and margaret spoke low
i am goin to divvy up she announced in triumph but not here huh frowned bobby
explained margaret then when they go back mother's goin with em and find a better place for em to live in
margaret flushed a little and threw a questioning look into bobby's face there seemed to be a laugh in bobby's voice though there was none on his lips yes she nodded hurriedly you see
mother thinks it's best she says that they hadn't ought to be here now with me that it's my form'tive period and that everything about me ought to be just right so as to form me right see
yes i see said bobby so crossly that margaret opened her eyes in wonder why bobby you don't care cause they're goin away do you don't i he growled humph
i s'pose twill be me next that'll be sent flyin you why you live here well i say ain't an bully don't i he retorted aggressively
margaret stepped back her face changed why so you do she breathed and i never once thought of it bobby said nothing he was standing on one foot
digging the toe of the other into the graveled driveway for a time margaret regarded him with troubled eyes then she sighed well anyhow you don't live here all the time right in the house
a particularly joyous whistle a whistle that broke and wheezed into silence however
i don't care he blustered glaring at the chipmunk that eyed him from the top rail of the fence bully gee ain't hain't bang up there then
he went home to the little red farmhouse on the hill and spent an hour hunting for a certain book of his mother's in the attic when he had found it he spent another hour poring over its contents
it was indeed lucky stars as little maggie soon found out others found it out too but to some of these it was not lucky stars at the dinner table on that first night after the visit to patty's house
margaret threw the family into no little consternation by abruptly asking how do you go to work to get men and things to put houses into livable shape i don't suppose i did word it in a very businesslike manner she added laughingly
in response to frank spencer's amazed ejaculation but what perhaps i don't quite understand he murmured no of course you don't replied margaret and no wonder i'll explain
you see i've found another of my friends it's the little girl patty with whom i lived three years in new york she's down in one of the mill cottages and it leaks and is in bad shape generally i want to fix it up
there was a dazed silence then frank spencer recovered his wits and his voice by all means he rejoined hastily it shall be attended to at once
just give me your directions and i will send the men around there right away thank you then i'll meet them there and tell them just what i want done frank spencer moistened his lips which had grown unaccountably dry but
my dear margaret he remonstrated surely it isn't necessary that you yourself should be subjected to such annoyance i can attend to all that is necessary oh but i don't mind a bit returned margaret brightly
i want to do it it's for patty you know and frank spencer could only fall back in his chair with an uneasy glance at his sister before the week was out
there was the skilled physician summoned to prescribe for maggie and there was the strong capable woman hired to care for her and to give the worn out mother a much needed rest there were the large baskets of fruit and vegetables
and the boxes of beautiful flowers in fact there seemed to be almost nothing throughout the whole week that was not for patty you know even margaret's time that too was given to patty
the golf links and the tennis court were deserted neither ned nor the beautiful october weather could tempt margaret to a single game the music room too was silent and the piano was closed
down in the little house on the prospect hill road however a radiant young woman was superintending the work
lucky stars as the child insisted upon calling her and maggie were firm friends good food and proper care were fast bringing the little girl back to health
who had never yet failed to bring toy or game or flower for her delight and how old are you now margaret would laughingly ask each day just to hear the prompt response i'm most five goin on six
an i'll be twelve ter morrow margaret always chuckled over this retort and never tired of hearing it until one day patty sharply interfered don't please don't
i can't bear it when you don't half know what it means when i don't know what it means why patty exclaimed margaret yes it's sam he learned it to her well margaret's eyes were still puzzled
he likes it he wants her ter be twelve ye know explained patty with an effort then as she saw her meaning was still not clear she added miserably she can work then in the mills
in the mills at twelve years old that's the age ye know when they can git their papers that is if it's summer vacation time
when they does gits em after that it don't count they jest works lots of em summer or winter school or no school
do you mean that they let mere children twelve years old work in those mills for a moment patty stared silently then she shook her head i reckon mebbe ye don't know much about it she said wearily
nellie magoon's eleven an bess is ten an susie mc dermot ain't but nine
sam's jest a learnin maggie ter say she's twelve even now an the minute she's big enough ter work she will be twelve it makes me jest sick an that's why i can't bear ter hear her say it margaret shuddered
her face lost a little of its radiant glow and her hand trembled as she raised it to her head you are right i did not know she said faintly there must be something that can be done there must be
i will see and she did see
it's business again she began smiling faintly and it's the mills may i speak to you a moment of course you may
what is it margaret did not answer at once her head drooped forward a little she had seated herself near the desk and her left hand and arm rested along the edge of its smooth flat top
the man's gaze drifted from her face to the arm the slender wrist and the tapering fingers so clearly outlined in all their fairness against the dark mahogany and so plainly all unfitted for strife or struggle with a sudden movement
he leaned forward and covered the slim fingers with his own warm clasping hand margaret dear child don't he begged it breaks my heart to see you like this you are carrying the whole world on those two frail shoulders of yours
no no it's not the whole world at all protested the girl it's only a wee small part of it and such a defenseless little part too it's the children down at the mills unconsciously the man straightened himself
his clasp on the outstretched hand loosened until margaret as if in answer to the stern determination of his face drew her hand away and raised her head until her eyes met his unfalteringly
it is useless of course to pretend not to understand he began stiffly
has been asking your help for some of his pet schemes on the contrary mister mc ginnis has not spoken to me of the mill workers corrected margaret quietly
but with a curious little thrill that resolved itself into a silent exultation that there was then at least one at the mills on whose aid she might count i have not seen him indeed since that first morning i met him she finished coldly
though margaret would not own it to herself the fact that she had not seen the young man robert mc ginnis had surprised and disappointed her not a little margaret kendall was not used to having her presence and her gracious invitations ignored
oh then you haven't seen him murmured her guardian and there was a curious intonation of relief in his voice who then has been talking to you no one in the way you mean patty inadvertently mentioned it to day
and i questioned her i was shocked and distressed those little children just think of it twelve years old and working in the mills the man made a troubled gesture but my dear margaret
i did not put them there their parents did it but you could refuse to take them why should i he shrugged they would merely go into some other man's mill but you don't know the worst of it moaned the girl they've lied to you
they aren't even twelve some of them they're babies of nine and ten she paused expectantly but he did not speak he only turned his head so that she could not see his eyes
she went on feverishly but you do now and surely now now you can do something still he was silent then he turned sharply margaret
i beg of you to believe me when i say that you do not understand the matter at all those people are poor they need the money you would deprive some of the families of two thirds of their means of support if you took away what the children earn help them
pity them be as charitable as you like that is well and good but margaret don't for heaven's sake let your heart run away with your head when it comes to the business part of it business with babies nine years old
the man sprang to his feet and walked twice the length of the room then he turned about and faced the scornful eyes of the girl by the desk margaret don't look at me as if you thought i was a fiend incarnate
i regret this sort of thing as much as you do indeed i do but my hands are tied i am simply a part of a great machine a gigantic system and i must run my mills as other men do surely you must see that
just think it over and give me the credit at least for knowing a little more of the business than you do when i and my father before me have been here as many years as you have days come please don't let us talk of this thing any more to night
you are tired and overwrought
margaret had been at home four weeks when the invitation for patty arabella clarabella and three of the whalens to visit her finally left her mother's hands there had not been a day of all those four weeks that margaret had not talked of the coming visit
at first to be sure she had not called it a visit she had referred to it as the time when patty and the whalens come here to live gradually however her mother had persuaded her to let them try it and see how they liked it
and to this compromise margaret finally gave a somewhat reluctant consent missus kendall herself was distinctly uneasy over the whole affair and on one pretext and another
left her no choice in the matter not but that she was grateful to the two families that had been so good to margaret in her hour of need but she would have preferred to show that gratitude in some way not quite so intimate as taking them into her house and home
for an indefinite period margaret however was still intent on divvying up and missus kendall could not look into her daughter's clear blue eyes and explain why patty arabella clarabella and the whalens might not be the most
desirable guests in the world it had been margaret's intention to invite all of the whalen family she had hesitated a little it is true over mike whalen the father
he's cross mostly she explained to her mother but we can't leave just him behind
besides if he's goin to live here why he might as well come right now at the first no certainly we couldn't leave mister whalen behind alone missus kendall had returned with dry lips
so suppose we don't take any of the whalens this time just devote ourselves to patty and the twins to this however margaret refused to give her consent what not take any of the whalens
the whalens who had been so good as to give them one whole corner of their kitchen rent free certainly not she agreed however after considerable discussion to take only tom mary
and peter of the whalen family leaving the rest of the children and missus whalen to keep old mike whalen company
if tom and mary and peter like it here the rest will they always like what tom does he makes em
she even dreamed once of this all powerful tom he stood over her with clinched fists and flashing eyes
clearly as she understood that this was only a dream yet the vision haunted her and it was not without some apprehension that she went with margaret to the station to meet her guests on the day appointed
a letter from margaret had gone to patty and one from missus kendall to miss murdock the city missionary who had been so good to margaret houghtonsville was on a main line to new york and but a few hours ride from the city
missus kendall had given full instructions as to trains and had sent the money for the six tickets she had also asked miss murdock to place the children in care of the conductor
saying that she would meet them herself at the houghtonsville station promptly in return had come miss murdock's letter telling of the children's delighted acceptance of the invitation
and almost immediately had followed patty's elaborately flourished scrawl much obliged for de invite an wes acomin tanks clarabella arabella an patty at yer service
to come to a standstill then she looked down at the sweet faced daintily gowned little maid at her side and shuddered it is one thing to carry beef tea and wheel chairs to our unfortunate fellow men
and quite another to invite those same fellow men to a seat at our own table or by our own fireside margaret and her mother had not long to wait tom whalen in spite of the conductor's restraining hand
was on the platform before the wheels had ceased to turn behind him tumbled peter mary and clarabella while patty carefully guiding arabella's twisted feet brought up the rear there was an instant's pause
then tom spied margaret and with a triumphant come on here she is to those behind he dashed down the platform my but ain't you slick he cried admiringly stopping short before margaret
hi thar patty he called hailing the gleeful children behind him
there was a moment's pause eagerly as the children had followed tom's lead they stood abashed now before the tall beautiful woman and the pretty little girl they had once known as mag of the alley almost instantly
margaret saw and understood and with all the strength of her hospitable little soul she strove to put her guests at their ease with a glad little cry she gave one after another a bear like hug then
she stood back with a flourish and prepared for the introductions unconsciously her words and manner aped those of her mother in sundry other introductions that had figured in her own experience during the last four weeks
and before missus kendall knew what was happening she found herself being ceremoniously presented to tom whalen late of the alley new york tom this is my dear mother that i lost long ago said margaret
mother dear can't you shake hands with tom tom advanced his face was a fiery red and the freckles shone luridly through the glow proud ter know ye ma'am he stammered
clutching frantically at the daintily gloved outstretched hand margaret sighed with relief tom did know how to behave after all
and this is mary whalen and peter she went on as missus kendall clasped in turn two limp hands belonging to a white faced girl and a frightened boy and here's patty and the twins clarabella and arabella
and now you know em all finished margaret beaming joyously upon her mother who was leaning with tender eyes over the little lame arabella my dear
yes she is kind o peaked volunteered patty miss murdock says as how her food don't similate
pointing to the little twisted feet and legs
an how her legs didn't go straight like ours added patty giving her usual explanation of her sister's misfortune yes choked missus kendall hurriedly she told me that the little girl was lame now my dears
we we'll go home missus kendall hesitated and looked about her you you haven't any bags or or anything she asked them gee cried tom turning sharply toward the track where had stood a moment before the train that brought them
an if tain't gone so soon gone the bag chorused five shrill voices sure nodded tom then with a resigned air he thrust both hands into his trousers pockets
gone she is bag and baggage oh i'm so sorry murmured missus kendall pooh tain't a mite o matter assured patty quickly ye see dar wa'n't nothin in it anyhow only a extry ribb'n fur arabella's hair
we only took it cause katy sovrensky said folks allers took em when they went trav'lin so we fished dis out o de ash barrel an fixed it up wid strings an tacks we didn't have nothin ter put in it course
all our clo's is on us we didn't need nothin else anyhow piped up arabella for all our things is span clean we went ter bed most all day yisterday so's patty could wash em
yes yes of course certainly agreed missus kendall faintly as she turned and led the way to the big four seated carryall waiting for them then we'll go home right away
to tom peter mary patty arabella and clarabella it was all so wonderful that they fairly pinched themselves to make sure they were awake the drive through the elm bordered streets with everywhere flowers
vine covered houses and velvety lawns it was all quite unbelievable it's more like mont lawn than anythin i ever see murmured arabella
and missus kendall who heard the words reproached herself because for four long weeks she had stood jealous guard over this heaven and refused to divvy up its enjoyment the next moment she shuddered
and unconsciously drew margaret close to her side patty had said gee whiz mag ain't you lucky wis't i was a lost an founded the house with its great stone lions was hailed with an awed
as were the wide lawns and brilliant flower beds inside the house the children blinked in amazement at the lace hung windows and gold framed pictures and clarabella balancing herself on her toes
looked fearfully at the woven pinks and roses at her feet and demanded don't walkin on em hurt em seems so twould she added her eyes distrustfully bent on margaret who had laughed and by way of proving
the carpet's durability was dancing up and down upon it the matter of choosing beds in the wide airy chambers was a momentous one in the boys room to be sure it was a simple matter for there were only two beds
and tom settled the question at once by unceremoniously throwing peter on to one of them
until he howled for mercy the girls had two rooms opening out of each other and in each room were two dainty white beds here the matter of choosing was only settled amicably at last
by a rigid system of counting out by eeny meany miny mo and even this was not accomplished without much shouting and laughter and not a few angry words margaret was distressed for a time she was silent
then she threw herself into the discussion
the eeny meany miny mo finally won the day
chapter three snow storms as has been already stated the first of the great snow storms that replenish the yosemite fountains
and burrowing marmots mountain beavers wood rats and other small mountain people go into winter quarters some of them not again to see the light of day until the general awakening and resurrection of the spring
in june or july the fertile clouds drooping and condensing in brooding silence seem to be thoughtfully examining the forests and streams with reference to the work that lies before them
at length all their plans perfected tufted flakes and single starry crystals come in sight solemnly swirling and glinting to their blessed appointed places
and soon the busy throng fills the sky and makes darkness like night the first heavy fall is usually from about two to four feet in depth then with intervals of days or weeks of bright weather
storm succeeds storm heaping snow on snow until thirty to fifty feet has fallen but on account of its settling and compacting and waste from melting and evaporation
the average depth actually found at any time seldom exceeds ten feet in the forest regions or fifteen feet along the slopes of the summit peaks after snow storms come avalanches
varying greatly in form size behavior and in the songs they sing some on the smooth slopes of the mountains are short and broad others long and river like in the side canyons of yosemites
and in the main canyons flowing in regular channels and booming like waterfalls while countless smaller ones fall everywhere from laden trees and rocks and lofty canyon walls
then the dense masses on the ends of the leafy branches begin to shift and fall those from the upper branches striking the lower ones in succession enveloping each tree in a hollow conical avalanche of fairy fineness
while the relieved branches spring up and wave with startling effect in the general stillness as if each tree was moving of its own volition hundreds of broad cloud shaped masses may also be seen
leaping over the brows of the cliffs from great heights descending at first with regular avalanche speed until worn into dust by friction they float in front of the precipices like irised clouds
those which descend from the brow of el capitan are particularly fine but most of the great yosemite avalanches flow in regular channels like cascades and waterfalls when the snow first gives way on the upper slopes of their basins
a dull rushing rumbling sound is heard which rapidly increases and seems to draw nearer with appalling intensity of tone presently the white flood comes bounding into sight over bosses and sheer places
leaping from bench to bench spreading and narrowing and throwing off clouds of whirling dust like the spray of foaming cataracts compared with waterfalls and cascades
avalanches are short lived few of them lasting more than a minute or two and the sharp clashing sounds so common in falling water are mostly wanting
and in their dress gait gestures and general behavior they are much alike avalanches
besides these common after storm avalanches that are to be found not only in the yosemite but in all the deep sheer walled canyon of the range there are two other important kinds
which may be called annual and century avalanches which still further enrich the scenery the only place about the valley where one may be sure to see the annual kind is on the north slope of clouds rest
where the slopes are inclined at an angle too low to shed off the dry winter snow and which accumulates until the spring thaws sap their foundations and make them slippery
then away in grand style go the ponderous icy masses without any fine snow dust those of clouds rest descend like thunderbolts for more than a mile
the great century avalanches and the kind that mow wide swaths through the upper forests occur on mountain sides about ten or twelve thousand feet high
where under ordinary weather conditions the snow accumulated from winter to winter lies at rest for many years allowing trees fifty to a hundred feet high to grow undisturbed on the slopes beneath them
on their way down through the woods they seldom fail to make a perfectly clean sweep stripping off the soil as well as the trees clearing paths two or three hundred yards wide from the timber line
and piling their uprooted trees head downward in rows along the sides of the gaps like lateral moraines scars and broken branches of the trees standing on the sides of the gaps record the depth of the overwhelming flood
a ride on an avalanche few yosemite visitors ever see snow avalanches and fewer still know the exhilaration of riding on them
in all my mountaineering i have enjoyed only one avalanche ride and the start was so sudden and the end came so soon i had but little time to think of the danger that attends this sort of travel
though at such times one thinks fast one fine yosemite morning after a heavy snowfall being eager to see as many avalanches as possible and wide views of the forest and summit peaks in their new white robes
before the sunshine had time to change them i set out early to climb by a side canyon to the top of a commanding ridge a little over three thousand feet above the valley on account of the looseness of the snow that blocked the canyon
i knew the climb would require a long time some three or four hours as i estimated but it proved far more difficult than i had anticipated most of the way i sank waist deep
almost out of sight in some places after spending the whole day to within half an hour or so of sundown i was still several hundred feet below the summit then my hopes were reduced
and i was swished down to the foot of the canyon as if by enchantment the wallowing ascent had taken nearly all day the descent only about a minute when the avalanche started
i threw myself on my back and spread my arms to try to keep from sinking fortunately though the grade of the canyon is very steep it is not interrupted by precipices large enough to cause outbounding or free plunging
on no part of the rush was i buried i was only moderately imbedded on the surface or at times a little below it and covered with a veil of back streaming dust particles
and as the whole mass beneath and about me joined in the flight there was no friction though i was tossed here and there and lurched from side to side when the avalanche swedged and came to rest
i found myself on top of the crumpled pile without bruise or scar this was a fine experience hawthorne says somewhere that steam has spiritualized travel though unspiritual smells
smoke et cetera still attend steam travel this flight in what might be called a milky way of snow stars was the most spiritual and exhilarating of all the modes of motion i have ever experienced
elijah's flight in a chariot of fire could hardly have been more gloriously exciting the streams in other seasons in the spring
after all the avalanches are down and the snow is melting fast then all the yosemite streams from their fountains to their falls sing their grandest songs countless rills make haste to the rivers
running and singing soon after sunrise louder and louder with increasing volume until sundown then they gradually fail through the frosty hours of the night
in this way the volume of the upper branches of the river is nearly doubled during the day rising and falling as regularly as the tides of the sea
beginning to rise towards sundown just when the streams on the fountains are beginning to diminish the difference in time of the daily rise and fall being caused by the distance the upper flood streams have to travel before reaching the valley
compelling huge sleeping boulders to wake up and join in their dance and song to swell their exulting chorus in early summer after the flood season the yosemite streams are in their prime
running crystal clear deep and full but not overflowing their banks about as deep through the night as the day the difference in volume so marked in spring being now too slight to be noticed
nearly all the weather is cloudless and everything is at its brightest lake river garden and forest with all their life most of the plants are in full flower
and are now singing their best songs with the streams in tranquil mellow autumn when the year's work is about done and the fruits are ripe birds and seeds out of their nests
and all the landscape is glowing like a benevolent countenance then the streams are at their lowest ebb with scarce a memory left of their wild spring floods
the small tributaries that do not reach back to the lasting snow fountains of the summit peaks shrink to whispering tinkling currents after the snow is gone from the basins excepting occasional thundershowers
they are now fed only by small springs whose waters are mostly evaporated in passing over miles of warm pavements and in feeling their way slowly from pool to pool through the midst of boulders and sand
protected by entail against forfeiture in the case of grey and of men situated like him it was impossible to gratify cruelty and rapacity at once but a rich trader might be both hanged and plundered
the commercial grandees however though in general hostile to popery and to arbitrary power had yet been too scrupulous or too timid to incur the guilt of high treason one of the most considerable among them
was henry cornish he had been an alderman under the old charter of the city and had filled the office of sheriff when the question of the exclusion bill occupied the public mind in politics he was a whig
he had indeed when sheriff been very unwilling to employ as his deputy a man so violent and unprincipled as goodenough when the rye house plot was discovered great hopes were entertained at whitehall that cornish would appear to have been concerned
more than two years had since elapsed cornish thought himself safe but the eye of the tyrant was upon him goodenough terrified by the near prospect of death
and was brought altogether unprepared to the bar of the old bailey the case against him rested wholly on the evidence of rumsey and goodenough both were by their own confession accomplices in the plot with which they charged the prisoner
both were impelled by the strongest pressure of hope end fear to criminate him evidence was produced
rumsey's story was inconsistent with the story which he had told when he appeared as a witness against lord russell but these things were urged in vain on the bench sate three judges who had been with jeffreys in the west
and it was remarked by those who watched their deportment that they had come back from the carnage of taunton in a fierce and excited state it is indeed but too true that the taste for blood
is a taste which even men not naturally cruel may by habit speedily acquire the bar and the bench united to browbeat the unfortunate whig the jury named by a courtly sheriff
readily found a verdict of guilty and in spite of the indignant murmurs of the public cornish suffered death within ten days after he had been arrested that no circumstance of degradation might be wanting
the gibbet was set up where king street meets cheapside in sight of the house where he had long lived in general respect of the exchange where his credit had always stood high and of the guildhall where he had distinguished himself as a popular leader
he died with courage and with many pious expressions but showed by look and gesture such strong resentment at the barbarity and injustice with which he had been treated that his enemies spread a calumnious report concerning him
he was drunk they said or out of his mind when he was turned off
was a man named james burton by his own confession he had been present when the design of assassination was discussed by his accomplices when the conspiracy was detected a reward was offered for his apprehension
he was saved from death by an ancient matron of the baptist persuasion named elizabeth gaunt this woman
had a large charity her life was passed in relieving the unhappy of all religious denominations and she was well known
her political and theological opinions as well as her compassionate disposition led her to do everything in her power for burton she procured a boat which took him to gravesend where he got on board of a ship
and took refuge in the house of john fernley a barber in whitechapel fernley was very poor he was besieged by creditors
for the apprehension of burton but the honest man was incapable of betraying one who in extreme peril had come under the shadow of his roof
was the most unpardonable burton knew this he delivered himself up to the government and he gave information against fernley and elizabeth gaunt they were brought to trial the villain whose life they had preserved
had the heart and the forehead to appear as the principal witness against them they were convicted fernley was sentenced to the gallows elizabeth gaunt to the stake even after all the horrors of that year
many thought it impossible that these judgments should be carried into execution but the king was without pity fernley was hanged elizabeth gaunt was burned alive at tyburn on the same day on which cornish
suffered death in cheapside she left a paper written indeed in no graceful style yet such as was read by many thousands with compassion and horror my fault she said
and of the tyranny of him the great one of all to whose pleasure she and so many other victims had been sacrificed in so far as they had injured herself she forgave them but
in that they were implacable enemies of that good cause which would yet revive and flourish she left them to the judgment of the king of kings to the last she preserved a tranquil courage which reminded the spectators of the most heroic deaths
of which they had read in fox william penn for whom exhibitions which humane men generally avoid seem to have had a strong attraction hastened from cheapside
to tyburn in order to see elizabeth gaunt burned he afterwards related that when she calmly disposed the straw about her in such a manner as to shorten her sufferings all the bystanders burst into tears
it was much noticed that while the foulest judicial murder which had disgraced even those times was perpetrating a tempest burst forth such as had not been known since that great hurricane which had raged round the deathbed of oliver
the oppressed puritans reckoned up not without a gloomy satisfaction the houses which had been blown down and the ships which had been cast away and derived some consolation from thinking that heaven was bearing awful testimony
against the iniquity which afflicted the earth since that terrible day no woman has suffered death in england
the government was bent on destroying a victim of no high rank a surgeon in the city named bateman he had attended shaftesbury professionally and had been a zealous exclusionist
he may possibly have been privy to the whig plot but it is certain that he had not been one of the leading conspirators for in the great mass of depositions published by the government his name occurs only once and then not in connection with any crime
bordering on high treason from his indictment and from the scanty account which remains of his trial it seems clear that he was not even accused of participating in the design of murdering the royal brothers the malignity with which so obscure a man
guilty of so slight an offence was hunted down while traitors far more criminal and far more eminent were allowed to ransom themselves by giving evidence against him seemed to require explanation and a disgraceful explanation was found
when oates after his scourging was carried into newgate insensible and as all thought in the last agony he had been bled and his wounds had been dressed by bateman this was an offence
not to be forgiven bateman was arrested and indicted the witnesses against him were men of infamous character men too who were swearing for their own lives none of them had yet got his pardon
and it was a popular saying that they fished for prey like tame cormorants with ropes round their necks the prisoner stupefied by illness was unable to articulate or to understand what passed his son and daughter
stood by him at the bar they read as well as they could some notes which he had set down and examined his witnesses it was to little purpose
but he had still to listen to remonstrances similar in effect though uttered in a tone even more cautious and subdued some men who had hitherto served him but too strenuously for their own fame and for the public welfare
had begun to feel painful misgivings and occasionally ventured to hint a small part of what they felt during many years the zeal of the english tory for hereditary monarchy
and his zeal for the established religion had grown up together and had strengthened each other it had never occurred to him that the two sentiments which seemed inseparable and even identical
might one day be found to be not only distinct but incompatible from the commencement of the strife between the stuarts and the commons the cause of the crown and the cause of the hierarchy had to all appearance
been one charles the first was regarded by the church as her martyr if charles the second had plotted against her he had plotted in secret in public he had ever professed himself
whatever conflicts therefore the honest cavalier might have had to maintain against whigs and roundheads he had at least been hitherto undisturbed by conflict in his own mind
he had seen the path of duty plain before him through good and evil he was to be true to church and king but if those two august and venerable powers
could not be false to the other should be divided by a deadly enmity what course was the orthodox royalist to take what situation could be more trying than that in which he would be placed
distracted between two duties equally sacred between two affections equally ardent how was he to give to caesar all that was caesar's and yet to withhold from god no part of what was god's
none who felt thus could have watched without deep concern and gloomy forebodings the dispute between the king and the parliament on the subject of the test
such were the sentiments of the king's two kinsmen the earls of clarendon and rochester the power and favour of these noblemen seemed to be great indeed
the venerable ormond took the same side middleton and preston who as managers of the house of commons
these statesmen and the great party which they represented had to suffer a cruel mortification that the late king had been at heart a roman catholic had been during some months
suspected and whispered but not formally announced the disclosure indeed could not be made without great scandal charles had times without number declared himself a protestant
and had been in the habit of receiving the eucharist from the bishops of the established church those protestants who had stood by him in his difficulties and who still cherished an affectionate remembrance of him
must be filled with shame and indignation by learning that his whole life had been a lie that while he professed to belong to their communion he had really regarded them as heretics
had been the only people who had formed a correct judgment of his character even lewis understood enough of the state of public feeling in england to be aware that the divulging of the truth might do harm
and had of his own accord
had thought that on this point it was advisable to be cautious and had not ventured to inter his brother with the rites of the church of rome for a time therefore every man was at liberty to believe what he wished
the papists claimed the deceased prince as their proselyte the whigs execrated him as a hypocrite and a renegade the tories regarded the report of his apostasy
as a calumny which papists and whigs had for very different reasons a common interest in circulating james now took a step which greatly disconcerted the whole anglican party
two papers in which were set forth very concisely the arguments ordinarily used by roman catholics in controversy with protestants had been found in charles's strong box
and appeared to be in his handwriting these papers james showed triumphantly to several protestants and declared that to his knowledge his brother had lived and died
he read them with much emotion and remained silent such silence was only the natural effect of a struggle between respect and vexation
but james supposed that the primate was struck dumb by the irresistible force of reason and eagerly challenged his grace to produce with the help of the whole episcopal bench a satisfactory reply
let me have a solid answer and in a gentlemanlike style and it may have the effect which you so much desire of bringing me over to your church
for the memory of his deceased master this plea the king considered as the subterfuge
he would have known that the documents to which he attached so much value might have been composed by any lad of fifteen
and contained nothing which had not in the opinion of all protestant divines been ten thousand times refuted in his ignorant exultation
he ordered these tracts to be printed with the utmost pomp of typography and appended to them a declaration attested by his sign manual and certifying that the originals were in his brother's own hand
james himself distributed the whole edition among his courtiers and among the people of humbler rank who crowded round his coach he gave one copy to a young woman of mean condition
whom he supposed to be of his own religious persuasion and assured her that she would be greatly edified and comforted by the perusal in requital of his kindness she delivered to him a few days later
there was scarcely one eminent peer attached to the old faith whose honour whose estate whose life had not been in jeopardy who had not passed months in the tower
of obtaining at once greatness and revenge but neither fanaticism nor ambition neither resentment for past wrongs nor the intoxication produced by sudden good fortune
could prevent the most eminent roman catholics from perceiving that the prosperity which they at length enjoyed was only temporary and unless wisely used might be fatal to them
they had been taught by a cruel experience that the antipathy of the nation to their religion was not a fancy which would yield to the mandate of a prince but a profound sentiment
the growth of five generations diffused through all ranks and parties and intertwined not less closely with the principles of the tory than with the principles of the whig
it was indeed in the power of the king by the exercise of his prerogative of mercy to suspend the operation of the penal laws it might hereafter be in his power by discreet management
to obtain from the parliament a repeal of the acts which imposed civil disabilities on those who professed his religion but if he attempted to subdue the protestant feeling of england by rude means
it was easy to see that the violent compression of so powerful and elastic a spring would be followed by as violent a recoil the roman catholic peers
by prematurely attempting to force their way into the privy council and the house of lords might lose their mansions and their ample estates and might end their lives as traitors on tower hill or as beggars
at the porches of italian convents such was the feeling of william herbert earl of powis who was generally regarded as the chief of the roman catholic aristocracy
with these distinguished leaders all the noblest and most opulent members of their church concurred except lord arundell of wardour an old man
his duties then had seldom permitted him to leave the court if he had given no sign of life during the empire it was because he had not been compelled to submit to the humiliations and suffering which so many of the emigrants were obliged to endure in their exile
on the contrary he had received in exchange for the wealth of which he had been deprived by the revolution a princely fortune taking refuge in london after the defeat of the army of conde
he had been so fortunate as to please the only daughter of lord holland one of the richest peers in england and he had married her she possessed a fortune of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling more than six million francs
still the marriage was not a happy one the chosen companion of the dissipated and licentious count d'artois was not likely to prove a very good husband
as soon as les convenances permitted he confided his son to the care of a relative of his wife and began his roving life again rumor had told the truth he had fought and that furiously against france in the austrian
and then in the russian ranks and he took no pains to conceal the fact convinced that he had only performed his duty he considered that he had honestly and loyally gained the rank of general which the emperor of all the russias had bestowed upon him
he had not returned to france during the first restoration but his absence had been involuntary his father in law lord holland had just died and the duke was detained in london by business connected with his son's immense inheritance
then followed the hundred days they exasperated him but the good cause as he styled it having triumphed anew he hastened to france alas lacheneur judged the character of his former master correctly
this man who had been compelled to conceal himself during the first restoration knew only too well that the returned emigres had learned nothing and forgotten nothing the duc de sairmeuse was no exception to the rule
he thought and nothing could be more sadly absurd that a mere act of authority would suffice to suppress forever all the events of the revolution and of the empire when he said
i do not admit that he firmly believed that there was nothing more to be said that controversy was ended and that what had been was as if it had never been
assured the duke that france had changed in many respects since seventeen eighty nine he responded with a shrug of the shoulders nonsense as soon as we assert ourselves all these rascals whose rebellion alarms you
will quietly sink out of sight such was really his opinion on the way from montaignac to sairmeuse the duke comfortably ensconced in his berlin unfolded his theories for the benefit of his son
the king has been poorly advised he said in conclusion besides i am disposed to believe that he inclines too much to jacobinism if he would listen to my advice he would make use of the twelve hundred thousand soldiers
which our friends have placed at his disposal to bring his subjects to a sense of their duty
he continued his remarks on this subject until the carriage approached sairmeuse though but little given to sentiment he was really affected by the sight of the country in which he was born
where he had played as a child and of which he had heard nothing since the death of his aunt
i recognize it he exclaimed with a delight that made him forget politics i recognize it soon the changes became more striking the carriage entered sairmeuse and rattled over the stones of the only street in the village
this street in former years had been unpaved and had always been rendered impassable by wet weather ah ha murmured the duke this is an improvement it was not long before he noticed others
the dilapidated thatched hovels had given place to pretty and comfortable white cottages with green blinds and a vine hanging gracefully over the door as the carriage passed the public square in front of the church martial observed the groups of peasants who were still talking there
do they have the appearance of people who are preparing a triumphal reception for their old masters
and pleased by these cries that proved him in the right
the old rascal his wife and his children all possessed powerful voices and it was not strange that the duke believed the whole village was welcoming him he was convinced of it
that the prestige of the nobility was greater than ever upon the threshold of the parsonage bibiaine the old housekeeper was standing she knew who these guests must be for the cure's servants always know what is going on
monsieur has not yet returned from church she said in response to the duke's inquiry but if the gentlemen wish to wait it will not be long before he comes for the poor dear man has not breakfasted yet
let us go in the duke said to his son and guided by the housekeeper they entered a sort of drawing room where the table was spread
the habits of a house reveal those of its master this was clean poor and bare the walls were whitewashed a dozen chairs composed the entire furniture upon the table laid with monastic simplicity
were only tin dishes this was either the abode of an ambitious man or a saint will these gentlemen take any refreshments inquired bibiaine upon my word replied martial
i must confess that the drive has whetted my appetite amazingly blessed jesus exclaimed the old housekeeper in evident despair what am i to do i who have nothing that is to say yes i have an old hen left in the coop
give me time to wring its neck to pick it and clean it she paused to listen and they heard a step in the passage
tall angular and solemn he was as cold and impassive as the stones of his church by what immense efforts of will at the cost of what torture had he made himself what he was
one could form some idea of the terrible restraint to which he had subjected himself by looking at his eyes which occasionally emitted the lightnings of an impassioned soul was he old or young
cut in two by an immense nose
he wore a white cassock which had been patched and darned in numberless places but which was a marvel of cleanliness and which hung about his tall attenuated body like the sails of a disabled vessel
at the sight of the two strangers seated in his drawing room he manifested some slight surprise the carriage standing before the door had announced the presence of a visitor but he had expected to find one of his parishioners
no one had warned him or the sacristan and he was wondering with whom he had to deal and what they desired of him mechanically he turned to bibiaine but the old servant had taken flight the duke understood his host's astonishment
who makes himself at home everywhere we have taken your house by storm and hold the position as you see i am the duc de sairmeuse and this is my son the marquis
it is a great honor for me he replied in a more than reserved tone to receive a visit from the former master of this place
unfortunately he continued you will not find here the comforts to which you are accustomed and i fear nonsense interrupted the duke an old soldier is not fastidious and what suffices for you monsieur abbe will suffice for us
the priest's eye flashed
this last insulting remark kindled the anger of the man concealed beneath the priest besides added martial gayly
we already know that there is a chicken in the coop that is to say there was one monsieur le marquis the old housekeeper who suddenly reappeared explained her master's response she seemed overwhelmed with despair blessed virgin
monsieur what shall i do she clamored the chicken has disappeared someone has certainly stolen it for the coop is securely closed
no one has stolen it from us bertrande was here this morning to ask alms in the name of her sick daughter
this explanation changed bibiaine's consternation to fury planting herself in the centre of the room one hand upon her hip and gesticulating wildly with the other she exclaimed pointing to her master
that is just the sort of man he is he has less sense than a baby any miserable peasant who meets him can make him believe anything he wishes any great falsehood brings tears to his eyes and then they can do what they like with him
in that way they take the very shoes off his feet and the bread from his mouth bertrande's daughter messieurs is no more ill than you or i enough said the priest sternly enough
then knowing by experience that his voice had not the power to check her flood of reproaches he took her by the arm and led her out into the passage
was this a comedy that had been prepared for their benefit evidently not since their arrival had not been expected but the priest whose character had been so plainly revealed by this quarrel with his domestic was not a man to their taste
at least he was evidently not the man they had hoped to find not the auxiliary whose assistance was indispensable to the success of their plans yet they did not exchange a word they listened
they heard the sound as of a discussion in the passage the master spoke in low tones but with an unmistakable accent of command the servant uttered an astonished exclamation but the listeners could not distinguish a word
soon the priest re entered the apartment i hope gentlemen he said with a dignity that could not fail to check any attempt at raillery that you will excuse this ridiculous scene
is not so poor as she says
had the much lamented chicken constituted the dinner the rations would have been short
though it was two o'clock and he had eaten nothing since the previous evening the sudden arrival of the former masters of sairmeuse filled his heart with gloomy forebodings their coming he believed
the greatest misfortunes so while he played with his knife and fork pretending to eat he was really occupied in watching his guests and in studying them with all the penetration of a priest
the duc de sairmeuse was fifty seven but looked considerably younger the storms of his youth the dissipation of his riper years the great excesses of every kind in which he had indulged had not impaired his iron constitution in the least
of herculean build he was extremely proud of his strength and of his hands which were well formed but large firmly knit and powerful
such hands as rightly belonged to a gentleman whose ancestors had given many a crushing blow with ponderous battle axe in the crusades his face revealed his character
he possessed all the graces and all the vices of a courtier he was at the same time spirituel and ignorant sceptical and violently imbued with the prejudices of his class
though less robust than his father martial was a no less distinguished looking cavalier it was not strange that women raved over his blue eyes and the beautiful blond hair which he inherited from his mother
to his father he owed energy courage and it must also be added perversity but he was his superior in education and in intellect if he shared his father's prejudices
he had not adopted them without weighing them carefully what the father might do in a moment of excitement the son was capable of doing in cold blood it was thus that the abbe with rare sagacity
so it was with great sorrow but without surprise that he heard the duke advance on the questions of the day the impossible ideas shared by nearly all the emigres knowing the condition of the country and the state of public opinion
but upon this subject the duke would not permit contradiction or even raillery and he was fast losing his temper when bibiaine appeared at the parlor door
this name lacheneur awakened no recollection in the mind of the duke first he had never lived at sairmeuse
ever troubled himself about the individual names of the peasants whom he regarded with such profound indifference when a grand seigneur addressed these people he said halloo hi there friend my worthy fellow
so it was with the air of a man who is making an effort of memory that the duc de sairmeuse repeated lacheneur monsieur lacheneur
but martial a closer observer than his father had noticed that the priest's glance wavered at the sound of this name who is this person abbe demanded the duke lightly
replied the priest with very evident hesitation
martial the precocious diplomat could not repress a smile on hearing this response which he had foreseen but the duke bounded from his chair ah he exclaimed it is the rascal who has had the impudence let him come in old woman let him come in
to remark that monsieur lacheneur exercises a great influence in this region to offend him would be impolitic i understand you advise me to be conciliatory such sentiments are purely jacobin
if his majesty listens to the advice of such as you all these sales of confiscated estates will be ratified zounds our interests are the same if the revolution has deprived the nobility of their property it has also impoverished the clergy
the wretched man was ghastly pale great drops of perspiration stood out upon his temples his restless haggard eyes revealed his distress of mind
but her attitude and the light that burned in her eyes told of invincible energy and determination ah well friend said the duke so we are the owner of sairmeuse it seems
this was said with such a careless insolence of manner
a man whom he considered his equal he rose and offered the visitors chairs will you take a seat dear monsieur lacheneur said he with a politeness intended as a lesson for the duke and you also mademoiselle do me the honor
but the father and the daughter both refused the proffered civility with a motion of the head monsieur le duc continued lacheneur i am an old servant of your house ah indeed
mademoiselle armande your aunt accorded my poor mother the honor of acting as my godmother ah yes interrupted the duke i remember you now our family has shown great goodness to you and yours
he understood his own worth much as he was disliked and even detested by his neighbors everyone respected him and here was a man who treated him with undisguised scorn why by what right
indignant at the outrage he made a movement as if to retire no one save his daughter knew the truth he had only to keep silence and sairmeuse remained his
yes he had still the power to keep sairmeuse and he knew it for he did not share the fears of the ignorant rustics he was too well informed not to be able to distinguish between the hopes of the emigres and the possible
he knew that an abyss separated the dream from the reality a beseeching word uttered in a low tone by his daughter made him turn again to the duke if i purchased sairmeuse he answered in a voice husky with emotion
it was in obedience to the command of your dying aunt and with the money which she gave me for that purpose if you see me here it is only because i come to restore to you the deposit confided to my keeping
but the duke thought this grand act of honesty and of generosity the most simple and natural thing in the world that is very well so far as the principal is concerned said he
sairmeuse if i remember rightly
these revenues well invested should have amounted to a very considerable amount where is this this claim thus advanced and at such a moment was so outrageous that martial disgusted
made a sign to his father which the latter did not see
exclaimed monsieur le duc oh monsieur le duc lacheneur shrugged his shoulders with an air of resignation the income i have used for my own living expenses and in educating my children
but most of it has been expended in improving the estate which today yields an income twice as large as in former years that is to say for twenty years monsieur lacheneur has played the part of lord of the manor a delightful comedy
you are rich now i suppose i possess nothing but i hope you will allow me to take ten thousand francs which your aunt gave to me ah she gave you ten thousand francs and when
on the same evening that she gave me the eighty thousand francs intended for the purchase of the estate perfect what proof can you furnish that she gave you this sum lacheneur stood motionless and speechless
he tried to reply but he could not if he opened his lips it would only be to pour forth a torrent of menaces insults and invectives
the proof monsieur said she in a clear ringing voice is the word of this man who of his own free will comes to return to you to give you a fortune as she sprang forward her beautiful dark hair escaped from its confinement
the rich blood crimsoned her cheeks her dark eyes flashed brilliantly and sorrow anger horror at the humiliation imparted a sublime expression to her face she was so beautiful that martial regarded her with wonder
lovely he murmured in english beautiful as an angel these words which she understood abashed marie anne but she had said enough her father felt that he was avenged he drew from his pocket a roll of papers and throwing them upon the table
here are your titles he said addressing the duke in a tone full of implacable hatred keep the legacy that your aunt gave me i wish nothing of yours i shall never set foot in sairmeuse again
penniless i will leave it he quitted the room with head proudly erect
well you have done your duty she replied it is those who have not done it who are to be pitied she had no opportunity to say more martial came running after them
i hastened after you
to reassure you all this will be arranged mademoiselle eyes so beautiful as yours should never know tears i will be your advocate with my father mademoiselle lacheneur has no need of an advocate
a harsh voice interrupted martial turned and saw the young man
i am the marquis de sairmeuse he said insolently and i said the other quietly
they surveyed each other for a moment each expecting perhaps an insult from the other instinctively they felt that they were to be enemies and the bitterest animosity spoke in the glances they exchanged
perhaps they felt a presentiment that they were to be champions of two different principles as well as rivals martial remembering his father yielded we shall meet again monsieur d'escorval he said as he retired
there was not a sound that stillness weird unnerving that permeated as it were everywhere through that mysterious house was if that were possible accentuated now
the four masked men in evening dress five including their leader for the man who had appeared in that other room with the rabbit was not here were as silent as motionless as the dead man who was lashed there in the chair
and to jimmie dale it seemed at first as though his brain stunned and stupefied at the shock refused its functions and left him groping blindly vaguely
imminent hanging over him he tried to rouse himself mentally to prod his brain to action to pit it in a fight for life against these self confessed criminals and murderers with their mask of culture who surrounded him now
was there a way out what was it the tocsin had said the most powerful and pitiless organisation of criminals the world has ever known the stake a fortune of millions her life there had indeed been no overemphasis in the words she had used
they had taken pains themselves to make that ominously clear these men every detail of the strange house with its luxurious furnishings its cleverly contrived appointments breathed a horribly suggestive degree of power
a deadly purpose and an organisation swayed by a master mind and grim evidence of the merciless inexorable length to which they would go was the ghastly white face of the dead chauffeur bound hand and foot in the chair before him
that empty glass in the hand of one of the men he could not take his eyes from it except as his eyes were drawn magnetically to that full glass in the hand of one of the others what height of sardonic irony
he was to drink that other glass to die because he refused to answer questions that for years with every resource at his command risking his liberty his wealth his name his life with everything that he cared for thrown into the scales
he had struggled to solve and failed and then the leader spoke mister dale he said with cold significance i regret to admit that your pseudo taxicab driver
was so ill advised as to refuse to answer the same questions that i have put to you five to one that was the only way out and it was hopeless it was the only way out because convinced
that he could answer those questions if he wanted to these men were in deadly earnest it was hopeless because they were five to one and probably there were as many more twice or three times as many more within call
but what did it matter how many more there were he could fight until he was overpowered that was all he could do and the five could accomplish that still if he could knock the full glass out of that man's hand and gain the door
then perhaps he turned quickly as the door opened it was as though they had read his thoughts a number of men were grouped outside in the corridor then the door closed again with a cordon ranged against it inside the room
and at the same instant his arms and wrists were caught in a powerful grasp by the two men immediately behind him who all along had enacted the role of guards again the leader spoke i will repeat the questions he said sharply
where is the woman whose ring was found on that man there in the chair and where is the package that you two men had with you in the taxicab to night jimmie dale glanced from the tall straight immaculately clothed figure of the speaker
from the threatening smile on the set lips that just showed under the edge of the mask to the dead man in the chair he had faced the prospect of death before many times
it had come quickly abruptly with every faculty called into action to combat it without time to dwell upon it to sift weigh or measure its meaning and if there had been fear it had been subordinate to other emotions but it was different now
nor he was doggedly conscious would he have answered them if he could and there was no middle course death within the next few moments stared him in the face and it seemed curiously irrelevant that in a sort of unnatural calmness
and emotions concerning it all his life it had seemed to him that the acme of human mental torture was the cell of a condemned criminal with the horror of its hopelessness with the time to dwell upon it
and that the acme of that torture itself must be that awful moment immediately preceding execution when anticipation at last was to merge into soul sickening reality strange that thought should come
strange that he should be framing a brain picture of such a scene vivid minute in detail no not strange he was picturing himself the analogy was not perfect it was true
he had not had the months weeks days and hours of suspense but it was perfect enough to bring home to him with appalling force the realisation of his position he was standing as a condemned man might stand in those last final moments
those moments which he had imagined must be the most terrible that could exist in life but that dismay of soul the horror the terror were not his there was instead a smouldering fury a passionate amazement
that was threatened it seemed impossible that it could be his voice that was speaking now in such quiet measured tones is it worth while will it convince you now any more than before to repeat that there is some mistake here
i am no more able to answer your questions than you are yourselves i never saw that man in the chair there in my life until the moment that i hailed him in his cab to night i do not know who the woman is to whom that ring belongs
and if there was a package of any sort in the taxicab as you state i never saw it the lips under the mask curved into a lupine smile think well mister dale the man's voice was low menacing ethically
if you so choose to consider it your refusal may be the act of a brave man
now your answer i have answered you said jimmie dale and relaxing the muscles in his arms let them hang limply for an instant in the grip of the two men behind him i have no other answer it was only a sign a motion of the leader's hand
but with it quick as a lightning flash jimmie dale was in action the limp arms tautened into steel as he wrenched them loose and whirling around
in an instant with the blow as the man staggered backward the room was in pandemonium there was a rush from the door and two three four leaping forms hurled themselves upon jimmie dale he shook them off and they came again
there was no chance ultimately he knew that it was only the elemental within him that rose in fierce revolt at the thought of tame submission that bade him sell his life as dearly as he could
panting gasping for breath dragging them by sheer strength as they clung to him he got his back to the wall fighting with the savage fury and abandon of a wild cat but it could not last
where one man went down before him two remorselessly appeared the room seemed filled with men they poured in through the door he laughed at them in a half demented way more and more of them came
there was no play for his arms no room to fight they seemed so close around him so many of them upon him that he could not breathe and he was bending being crushed down
and then his feet were jerked from beneath him he crashed to the floor and in another moment bound hand and foot he was tied into a chair beside that other chair whose grim occupant sat in such ghastly apathy of the scene
the room cleared instantly of all but the original five his head was drawn suddenly violently backward and clamped in that position and a metal instrument forced into his mouth
pried jaws apart and held them open one drop the leader ordered curtly the man with the full glass bent over him and dipped a glass rod into the liquid the drop glistened a ruby red on the end of the rod
and fell with a sharp acrid burning sensation upon jimmie dale's tongue for a moment jimmie dale's animation mental and physical seemed swept away from him in as it were a hiatus of hideous suspense
what was it to be like this passing
they had showed him in the other room yes he remembered it took more than one drop for a man and besides this was diluted one drop had no effect on a man it required good god one drop even of this was enough
he strained forward in the chair until the sweat in great beads sprang from his forehead
of madness to free himself while there still remained a little strength there was something filming before his eyes a numbed feeling was creeping through his limbs robbing them sapping them of their vitality and power
he felt himself slipping away into a state of utter weakness and his brain began to grow confused a voice seemed to float in the air near him for the last time will you answer
with a supreme effort jimmie dale strove to rally his tottering senses did they not understand the stupendous mockery of their questions did they not understand that he did not know he had told them so perhaps
he had better tell them so again i he tried to speak and found the words thick upon his tongue i do not know the glass itself was thrust abruptly between his lips
some of the contents spilled and trickled upon his chin and then a flood of it
poured down his throat a flood of it and it needed but three drops and there had been ten in the glass so this was death a hazy nebulous thing there was no pain it was like like nothingness
strange that she should come alone she had fought these fiends and outwitted them for how long was it three years she would be more than ever alone now pray god she did not finally fall into their clutches
and how it gripped at him and seemed to eat and bore its way into the very tissues it was the end and no it was stimulating him strength seemed to be returning to his limbs
as though the bonds about him were being loosened and now his brain seemed to be growing clearer he roused up with a startled exclamation
he was back in the same room in which he had first returned to consciousness after the accident he was on the same couch the same masked figure was at the same desk had he been dreaming was this then
only some horrible ghastly nightmare through which he had passed no it had been real enough his clothes rent and torn and the blood upon his hands where the skin had been scraped from his knuckles in the fight bore evidence to that
though it seemed to him that at no moment hazy irrational though his brain might have been had he become entirely oblivious to what was taking place around him
and yet it must have been so the eyes from behind the mask were fixed steadily upon him and below the mask there was the hard unpleasant set
the man spoke abruptly that you find yourself alive mister dale he said grimly is no confession of weakness upon the part of those with whom you have had to deal here to bear witness to that
there is one who is not alive as you have seen that man we knew with you it was somewhat different your presence in the taxicab was only suspicious there was always the possibility that you might be one of those
ubiquitous innocent bystanders your name your position the improbability that you could have anything in common with shall we say the matter that so deeply interests us was all in your favour
however presumption and probability are the tools of fools we do not depend upon them we apply the test and having applied the test we are convinced that you have told the truth that is all
he rose from his chair brusquely i shall not apologise to you for what has happened
i imagine rather that you are promising yourself that we shall pay and pay dearly for this
all this will be quite within your province mister dale and quite fruitless to morrow morning the story that you are preparing to tell now would sound incredible even in your own ears furthermore as we shall take pains to see that you leave
this place with as little knowledge of its location as you obtained when you arrived your story even if believed would do little service to you and less harm to us i think of nothing more mister dale except
there was a whimsical smile on the lips now ah yes the matter of your clothes we can and shall be glad to make reparation to you to the slight extent of offering you a new suit before you go
jimmie dale scowled sick shaken and weak as he was the cool imperturbable impudence of the man was fast growing unbearable the man laughed i am sure you will not refuse mister dale since we insist
it is not at all likely of course but we prefer to discount even so remote a possibility when you have changed you will be motored back to your home i bid you good night mister dale jimmie dale rubbed his eyes
the man was gone through a door at the rear of the desk a door that he had not noticed before that was not even in evidence now that was simply a movable section of the wall panelling
and for an instant jimmie dale experienced a sense of sickening impotence it was as though he stood defenceless unarmed and utterly at the mercy of some venomous power
and at will in its might the place was a veritable maze a lair of hellish cleverness he had no illusions now he laboured under no false estimate of either the ingenuity or the resources of this inhuman nest of vultures
to whom murder was no more than a matter of detail
there could be no truce no armistice
well he was alive now the first round was over and so far he had won his brows furrowed suddenly had he he was not so sure after all he was conscious of a disquieting premonitory intuition that in some way
he was apparently the apparently was a mental reservation quite alone in the room he got up from the couch and walked shakily across the floor to the desk a revolver lay invitingly upon the blotting pad it was his own
the one they had taken from him after the accident jimmie dale picked it up examined it and smiled a little sarcastically
it was unloaded of course he was twirling it in his hand as a man masked as every one in the house was masked and carrying a neatly folded suit over his arm entered from the corridor
the car is ready as soon as you are dressed announced the other briefly he laid the clothes upon the couch and settled himself significantly in a chair jimmie dale hesitated then with a shrug of his shoulders recrossed the room
and began to remove his torn garments what was the use they would certainly have their own way in the end it wasn't worth another fight and there was nothing to be gained by a refusal except to offer a sop to his own exasperation
he dressed quickly in what proved to be an exceedingly well fitting suit and finally turned tentatively to the man in the chair the other stood up and produced a heavy black silk scarf
and reminded her that she stood in need of indulgence which even so good a man might hesitate to grant bennydeck's first words told the friendless girl that her fears had wronged him my dear how like your father you are
you have his eyes and his smile i can't tell you how pleasantly you remind me of my dear old friend he took her hand and kissed her as he might have kissed a daughter of his own do you remember me at home sydney when you were a child no
she was deeply touched in faint trembling tones she said i remember your name
when that woman has suffered bennydeck consoled interested charmed sydney by still speaking of the bygone days at home
the captain went on you have forgotten i dare say the old fashioned sea songs that he used to be so fond of teaching you it was the strangest and prettiest contrast
and thunder and lightning and reefing sails in cold and darkness without the least idea of what it all meant your mother was strict in those days you never amused her as you used to amuse your father and me
when she caught you searching my pockets for sweetmeats she accused me of destroying your digestion before you were five years old i went on spoiling it for all that the last time i saw you my child your father was singing the mariners of england
you must have often wondered why you never saw anything more of me
i am quite sure i never thought that you see i was in the navy at the time
when i got back to england miserable news was waiting for me i heard of your father's death and of that shameful trial poor fellow he was as innocent sydney as you are of the offense which he was accused of committing
the first thing i did was to set inquiries on foot after your mother and her children it was some consolation to me to feel that i was rich enough to make your lives easy and agreeable to you i thought money could do anything a serious mistake my dear
money couldn't find the widow and her children we supposed you were somewhere in london and there
from time to time long afterward when we thought we had got the clew in our hands i continued my inquiries still without success
years passed more of them than i like to reckon up before i heard of you at last by name the person from whom i got my information told me how you were employed and where oh captain bennydeck who could the person have been
you were his favorite pupil do you remember him i should be ungrateful indeed if i could forget him
is the good old man still living no he rests at last i am glad to say i was able to make his last days on earth the happiest days of his life i wonder sydney confessed
how you met with him there was nothing at all romantic in my first discovery of him i was reading the police reports in a newspaper the poor wretch was brought before a magistrate charged with breaking a window
the magistrate questioned him and brought to light a really heart breaking account of misfortune
he was remanded so that inquiries might be made i attended the court on the day when he appeared there again and heard his statement confirmed i paid his fine
he was very grateful and came now and then to thank me
he had asked for a small advance on the wretched wages that he received can you guess how the schoolmistress answered him i know but too well how she answered him sydney said i was turned out of the house too
and i heard of it the captain replied
everything that could distress me she was ready to mention she told me of your mother's second marriage of her miserable death of the poor boy your brother missing and never heard of since
she had nothing more to say she knew nothing and cared nothing about you if i had not become acquainted with mister randal linley i might never have heard of you again we will say no more of that and no more of anything that has happened in the past time
from to day my dear we begin a new life and please god a happier life have you any plans of your own for the future perhaps if i could find help
sydney said resignedly i might emigrate
no honest employment would be beneath my notice besides if i went to america i might meet with my brother my dear child after the time that has passed there is no imaginable chance of your meeting with your brother
and you wouldn't know each other again if you did meet give up that vain hope and stay here with me be useful and be happy in your own country useful sydney repeated sadly
captain bennydeck is deceiving you to be useful means i suppose to help others who will accept help from me i will for one the captain answered you yes
you can be of the greatest use to me you shall hear how he told her of the founding of his home and of the good it had done you are the very person he resumed
she said and to give it up as soon as it is seen why give it up
you are as good as a father to those lost daughters of yours if you give them a sister friend she ought to have set them a good example
gladly
because it is animated by something that they can all feel in common something nearer and dearer to them than a sense of duty you won't consent sydney for their sakes
for my sake she looked at him hardly able to understand or as it might have been perhaps afraid to understand him he spoke to her more plainly i have kept it concealed from you he continued
so cruelly tried already let me only say that i am in great distress if you were with me my child i might be better able to bear it he held out his hand
even a happy woman could hardly have found it in her heart to resist him in silent sympathy and respect sydney kissed the hand that he had offered to her
still encouraging her to see new hopes and new interests in the future the good captain spoke of the share which she might take in the management of the home
relating to the institution which had been sent to him during the time of his residence at sydenham she read them with an interest and attention which amply justified his confidence in her capacity these reports he explained to her
but as a means of saving time the substance of them is entered in the daily journal of our proceedings come sydney venture on a first experiment in your new character i see pen ink and paper on the table try if you can shorten one of the reports
for instance the writer gives reasons for making his statement very well expressed no doubt but we don't want reasons then again he offers his own opinion on the right course to take
but i don't want his opinion i want his facts take the pen my secretary and set down his facts never mind his reflections proud and pleased sydney obeyed him
and was reading it to him at his request while he compared it with the report when they were interrupted by a visitor randal linley came in and noticed the papers on the table with surprise
randal at once understood what had happened he took his friend's arm and led him to the other end of the room you good fellow he said add to your kindness by excusing me if i ask for a word with you in private sydney rose to retire
after having encouraged her by a word of praise the captain proposed that she should get ready to go out and should accompany him on a visit to the home he opened the door for her as respectfully as if the poor girl had been one of the highest ladies in the land
i have seen my friend sarrazin randal began and i have persuaded him to trust me with catherine's present address i can send herbert there immediately if you will only help me
will you allow me to tell my brother that your engagement is broken off bennydeck shrank from the painful allusion and showed it randal explained i am grieved he said to distress you by referring to this subject again
but if my brother is left under the false impression that your engagement will be followed by your marriage he will refuse to intrude himself on the lady who was once his wife the captain understood say what you please about me
he replied unite the father and child
have you forgotten randal asked that the marriage has been dissolved bennydeck's answer ignored the law i remember he said
chapter thirty four missus presty belonging to the generation which has lived to see the age of hurry and has no sympathy with it missus presty entered the sitting room at the hotel
with her mind at ease on the subject of her luggage my boxes are locked strapped and labeled i hate being hurried what's that you're reading she asked discovering a book on her daughter's lap and a hasty action on her daughter's part
which looked like trying to hide it missus norman made the most common and where the object is to baffle curiosity the most useless of prevaricating replies when her mother asked her what she was reading
she answered nothing nothing missus presty repeated with an ironical assumption of interest the work of all others catherine that i most want to read she snatched up the book opened it at the first page
and discovered an inscription in faded ink which roused her indignation to dear catherine from herbert on the anniversary of our marriage what unintended mockery in those words read by the later light of the divorce
this is mean said missus presty keeping that wretch's present after the public exposure which he has forced on you oh catherine catherine was not quite so patient with her mother as usual
she answered misplaced sentiment missus presty declared
my dear under the influence of this stupefying place catherine asserted her own opinion against her mother's opinion for the second time
give me the shop windows the streets the life the racket and the smoke of london cried missus presty thank heaven these rooms are let over our heads and out we must go whether we like it or not
this expression of gratitude was followed by a knock at the door
which was beyond all doubt the voice of randal linley with catherine's book still in her possession missus presty opened the table drawer threw it in and closed the drawer with a bang
discovering the two ladies randal stopped in the doorway and stared at them in astonishment didn't you expect to see us missus presty inquired i heard you were here from our friend sarrazin randal said
but i expected to see captain bennydeck have i mistaken the number surely these are his rooms catherine attempted to explain they were captain bennydeck's rooms she began but he was so kind
missus presty interposed my dear catherine
to make a complicated statement in few words permit me to seize the points in the late mister presty's style and to put them in the strongest light this place randal is always full and we didn't write long enough beforehand to secure rooms
and that one of us was a lady in delicate health this sweetest of men
conduct worthy of sir charles grandison himself when i went downstairs to thank him he was gone
sometimes seeing the captain's yacht but to our great surprise never seeing the captain himself there's nothing to be surprised at missus presty captain bennydeck likes doing kind things and hates being thanked for it
i expected him to meet me here to day catherine went to the window he is coming to meet you she said there is his yacht in the bay and in a dead calm randal added joining her the vessel will not get here
catherine looked at him timidly do i drive you away she asked in tones that faltered a little randal wondered what she could possibly be thinking of and acknowledged it in so many words
of course and perhaps you take your brother's part i do nothing of the sort ma'am my brother has been in the wrong from first to last he turned to catherine
he said earnestly and kindly the truth is i am on my way to visit some friends and if captain bennydeck had got here in time to see me i must have gone away to the junction to catch the next train westward
i had only two words to say to the captain
he wrote in pencil on one of his visiting cards and laid it on the table i shall be back in london in a week he resumed and you will tell me at what address i can find you in the meanwhile i miss kitty where is she
kitty was sent for she entered the room looking unusually quiet and subdued but discovering randal became herself again in a moment and jumped on his knee oh uncle randal i'm so glad to see you
she checked herself and looked at her mother
she asked or has he changed his name too missus presty shook a warning forefinger at her granddaughter
randal saw the child's look of bewilderment and felt for her she may talk as she pleases to me he said but not to strangers she understands that i am sure
kitty laid her cheek fondly against her uncle's cheek everything is changed she whispered
we are norman now i wish i was grown up and old enough to understand it randal tried to reconcile her to her own happy ignorance
and some nice boys and girls to play with cried kitty eagerly following the new suggestion
you will stay and have dinner too won't you randal promised to dine with kitty when they met in london before he left the room he pointed to his card on the table let my friend see that message he said as he went out
the moment the door had closed on him missus presty startled her daughter by taking up the card and looking at what randal had written on it it isn't a letter catherine and you know how superior i am to common prejudices
with that defense of her proceeding she coolly read the message i am sorry to say that i can tell you nothing more of your old friend's daughter as yet i can only repeat that she neither needs nor deserves the help that you kindly offer to her
missus presty laid the card down again and owned that she wished randal had been a little more explicit who can it be she wondered
kitty turned to her mother with a look of alarm what's a hussy she asked does grandmamma mean me the great hotel clock in the hall struck two and the child's anxieties took a new direction
she said it was half an hour past the time
and missus romsey and inquire if anything had happened to cause the delay as she told kitty to ring the bell the waiter came in with two letters addressed to missus norman missus presty had her own ideas and drew her own conclusions
she watched catherine attentively
you look as if you were frightened mamma there was no reply kitty began to feel so uneasy on the subject of her dinner and her guests
will they be long do you think before they come she asked
by this time from a state of suspicion to a state of certainty my child she answered they won't come at all kitty ran to her mother eager to inquire if what missus presty had told her could possibly be true
before a word had passed her lips she shrank back too frightened to speak never in her little experience had she been startled by such a look in her mother's face as the look that confronted her now
for the first time catherine saw her child trembling at the sight of her before that discovery the emotions that shook her under the insult which she had received lost their hold
my darling my angel it isn't you i am thinking of i love you i love you in the whole world there isn't such a good child such a sweet lovable pretty child as you are oh
how disappointed she looks she's crying don't break my heart don't cry kitty held up her head and cleared her eyes with a dash of her hand i won't cry mamma and child as she was
she was as good as her word her mother looked at her and burst into tears
the better nature that was in missus presty rose to the surface forced to show itself cry catherine she said kindly it will do you good leave the child to me with a gentleness that astonished kitty
she led her little granddaughter to the window and pointed to the public walk in front of the house i know what will comfort you the wise old woman began
kitty obeyed i don't see my little friends coming she said missus presty still pointed to some object on the public walk that's better than nothing isn't it she persisted come with me to the maid
sensible missus presty delayed the kiss for a while wait till you come back and then you can tell your mamma
kitty whispered again i want to say something
will you tell the donkey boy to make him gallop
and you will see what he does then kitty looked up earnestly in her grandmother's face what a pity it is you are not always like what you are now she said
i have something to say catherine which i'm afraid will distress you his voice faltered his eyes rested on her
he had spoken a few commonplace words and yet he had said enough she saw the truth in his eyes heard the truth in his voice a fit of trembling seized her linley stepped forward in the fear that she might fall
she instantly controlled herself and signed to him to keep back don't touch me she said you come from miss westerfield that reproach roused him
i own that i come from miss westerfield he answered she addresses a request to you through me i refuse to grant it hear it first no hear it
in your own interest she asks permission to leave the house never to return again while she is still innocent
he submitted to it but not in silence a man doesn't lie catherine who makes such a confession as i am making now miss westerfield offers the one atonement in her power
is that all missus linley asked it rests with you he replied to say if there is any other sacrifice of herself which will be more acceptable to you
let me understand first what the sacrifice means does miss westerfield make any conditions
and goes out into the world helpless and friendless yes even under the terrible trial that wrung her the nobility of the woman's nature spoke in her next words
give me time to think of what you have said she pleaded i have led a happy life
they were both silent kitty's voice was audible on the stairs that led to the picture gallery disputing with the maid neither her father nor her mother heard her miss westerfield is innocent of having wronged me
except in thought missus linley resumed do you tell me that on your word of honor on my word of honor so far his wife was satisfied my governess she said
might have deceived me she has not deceived me i owe it to her to remember that she shall go but not helpless and not friendless her husband forgot the restraints he had imposed on himself
is there another woman in the world like you he exclaimed many other women she answered firmly a vulgar termagant feeling a sense of injury
you have always lived among ladies surely you ought to know that a wife in my position who respects herself restrains herself
as well as what they owe to me she approached the writing table and took up a pen feeling his position acutely linley refrained from openly admiring her generosity until he had deserved to be forgiven
he had forfeited the right to express an opinion on her conduct she misinterpreted his silence
but he had no word of encouragement for an act of self sacrifice on his wife's side she threw down the pen with the first outbreak of anger that had escaped her yet
you have spoken for the governess she said to him i haven't heard yet sir what you have to say for yourself
have you perverted her gratitude and led her blindfold to love cruel
defend yourself if you can he made no reply is it not worth your while to defend yourself she burst out passionately your silence is an insult my silence is a confession
he answered sadly she may accept your mercy i may not even hope for it something in the tone of his voice reminded her of past days
when she had been the one woman in the world to him
filled her heart with tenderness and dimmed with tears the angry light that had risen in her eyes there was no pride no anger in his wife when she spoke to him now oh my husband
has she taken your love from me judge for yourself catherine if there is no proof of my love for you in what i have resisted and no remembrance of all that i owe to you in what i have confessed
she ventured a little nearer to him can i believe you put me to the test she instantly took him at his word when miss westerfield has left us promise not to see her again i promise
and not even to write to her i promise
my heart is easier she said simply i can be merciful to her now after writing a few lines she rose and handed the paper to him he looked up from it in surprise
addressed to missus mac edwin he said addressed she answered to the only person i know who feels a true interest in miss westerfield have you not heard of it i remember he said and read the lines that followed
industry and good temper while she has been governess to my child she leaves her situation in my service under circumstances which testify to her sense of duty and her sense of gratitude have i said she asked
more than i could honorably and truly say even after what has happened he could only look at her no words could have spoken for him as his silence spoke for him at that moment
the last worst trial remained to be undergone she faced it resolutely
on the point of leaving the room herbert was called back
his wife added will you ask her to come to me missus presty knew her daughter's nature missus presty had been waiting near at hand in expectation of the message which she now received tenderly and respectfully
missus linley addressed herself to her mother when we last met i thought you spoke rashly and cruelly i know now that there was truth some truth let me say
in what offended me at the time if you felt strongly it was for my sake i wish to beg your pardon i was hasty i was wrong on an occasion when she had first irritated and then surprised him
randal linley had said to missus presty
her reply to her daughter showed that view of her character to be the right one say no more my dear she answered i was hasty i was wrong the words had barely fallen from her lips
before herbert returned he was followed by sydney westerfield the governess stopped in the middle of the room her head sank on her breast her quick convulsive breathing
missus linley advanced to the place in which sydney stood there was something divine in her beauty as she looked at the shrinking girl
sydney fell on her knees in silence
in silence missus linley raised her took the writing which testified to her character from the table and presented it linley looked at his wife looked at the governess he waited
and still neither the one nor the other uttered a word it was more than he could endure he addressed himself to sydney first try to thank missus linley he said she answered faintly i can't speak
he appealed to his wife next say a last kind word to her he pleaded she made an effort a vain effort to obey him a gesture of despair answered for her as sydney had answered i can't speak
true nobly true to the christian virtue that repents to the christian virtue that forgives
and forced their frail humanity to suffer and submit in mercy to the woman linley summoned the courage to part them he turned to his wife first
that she has your good wishes for happier days to come missus linley pressed his hand he approached sydney and gave his wife's message it was in his heart to add something equally kind on his own part
he could only say what we have all said how sincerely how sorrowfully we all know the common word good by the common wish god bless you at that last moment
the child ran into the room in search of her mother there was a low murmur of horror at the sight of her that innocent heart they had all hoped might have been spared the misery of the parting scene
you're dressed to go out she said sydney turned away to hide her face it was too late kitty had seen the tears oh my darling
she looked at her father and mother
they were afraid to answer her with all her little strength she clasped her beloved friend and play fellow round the waist my own dear you're not going to leave me
he placed kitty in her mother's arms the child's piteous cry oh don't let her go don't let her go followed the governess as she suffered her martyrdom and went out
he watched her until she was lost to view gone
gone forever missus presty heard him and answered him
half a minute conducted them through the pump yard to the archway opposite union passage but here they were stopped everybody acquainted with bath may remember the difficulties of crossing cheap street at this point
it is indeed a street of so impertinent a nature so unfortunately connected with the great london and oxford roads and the principal inn of the city that a day never passes in which parties of ladies however important their business
whether in quest of pastry millinery or even as in the present case of young men are not detained on one side or other by carriages horsemen or carts
and she was now fated to feel and lament it once more for at the very moment of coming opposite to union passage
and threading the gutters of that interesting alley
driven along on bad pavement by a most knowing looking coachman with all the vehemence that could most fitly endanger the lives of himself his companion and his horse oh these odious gigs said isabella looking up how i detest them
but this detestation though so just was of short duration for she looked again and exclaimed delightful mister morland and my brother good heaven tis james was uttered at the same moment by catherine
the horse was immediately checked with a violence which almost threw him on his haunches
catherine by whom this meeting was wholly unexpected received her brother with the liveliest pleasure and he being of a very amiable disposition and sincerely attached to her gave every proof on his side of equal satisfaction
which he could have leisure to do while the bright eyes of miss thorpe were incessantly challenging his notice and to her his devoirs were speedily paid with a mixture of joy and embarrassment which might have informed catherine
and less simply engrossed by her own that her brother thought her friend quite as pretty as she could do herself john thorpe who in the meantime had been giving orders about the horses soon joined them and from him she directly received the amends which were her due
for while he slightly and carelessly touched the hand of isabella on her he bestowed a whole scrape and half a short bow he was a stout young man of middling height who with a plain face and ungraceful form
and too much like a gentleman unless he were easy where he ought to be civil and impudent where he might be allowed to be easy he took out his watch how long do you think we have been running it from tetbury miss morland i do not know the distance
her brother told her that it was twenty three miles three and twenty cried thorpe five and twenty if it is an inch morland remonstrated pleaded the authority of road books innkeepers and milestones
but his friend disregarded them all he had a surer test of distance i know it must be five and twenty said he by the time we have been doing it it is now half after one we drove out of the inn yard at tetbury as the town clock struck eleven
and i defy any man in england to make my horse go less than ten miles an hour in harness that makes it exactly twenty five you have lost an hour said morland it was only ten o'clock when we came from tetbury ten o'clock
it was eleven upon my soul i counted every stroke this brother of yours would persuade me out of my senses miss morland do but look at my horse
the servant had just mounted the carriage and was driving off such true blood
look at that creature and suppose it possible if you can he does look very hot to be sure hot he had not turned a hair till we came to walcot church
look at his loins only see how he moves that horse cannot go less than ten miles an hour tie his legs and he will get on what do you think of my gig miss morland
he ran it a few weeks till i believe it was convenient to have done with it
but i chanced to meet him on magdalen bridge as he was driving into oxford last term ah thorpe said he do you happen to want such a little thing as this it is a capital one of the kind but i am cursed tired of it
and how much do you think he did miss morland i am sure i cannot guess at all curricle hung you see seat trunk sword case splashing board lamps silver moulding all you see complete the iron work as good as new or better
he asked fifty guineas i closed with him directly threw down the money and the carriage was mine and i am sure said catherine
and on finding whither they were going it was decided that the gentlemen should accompany them to edgar's buildings and pay their respects to missus thorpe james and isabella led the way and so well satisfied was the latter with her lot
so contentedly was she endeavouring to ensure a pleasant walk to him who brought the double recommendation of being her brother's friend and her friend's brother so pure and uncoquettish were her feelings that
though they overtook and passed the two offending young men in milsom street she was so far from seeking to attract their notice that she looked back at them only three times john thorpe kept of course with catherine
renewed the conversation about his gig you will find however miss morland it would be reckoned a cheap thing by some people for i might have sold it for ten guineas more the next day jackson of oriel bid me sixty at once morland was with me at the time
yes said morland who overheard this but you forget that your horse was included my horse
i would not sell my horse for a hundred are you fond of an open carriage miss morland yes very i have hardly ever an opportunity of being in one but i am particularly fond of it i am glad of it i will drive you out in mine every day
thank you said catherine
i will drive you up lansdown hill tomorrow thank you but will not your horse want rest rest he has only come three and twenty miles today all nonsense nothing ruins horses so much as rest nothing knocks them up so soon
no no i shall exercise mine at the average of four hours every day while i am here shall you indeed said catherine very seriously
forty aye fifty for what i care well i will drive you up lansdown tomorrow mind i am engaged how delightful that will be cried isabella turning round my dearest catherine i quite envy you
a third indeed no no i did not come to bath to drive my sisters about that would be a good joke faith morland must take care of you this brought on a dialogue of civilities between the other two
but catherine heard neither the particulars nor the result her companion's discourse now sunk from its hitherto animated pitch to nothing more than a short decisive sentence of praise or condemnation on the face of every woman they met and catherine
after listening and agreeing as long as she could with all the civility and deference of the youthful female mind fearful of hazarding an opinion of its own in opposition to that of a self assured man especially where the beauty of her own sex is concerned
it was have you ever read udolpho mister thorpe udolpho oh lord not i i never read novels i have something else to do catherine humbled and ashamed
there has not been a tolerably decent one come out since tom jones except the monk i read that t'other day but as for all the others they are the stupidest things in creation i think you must like udolpho if you were to read it it is so very interesting
not i faith no if i read any it shall be missus radcliffe's her novels are amusing enough they are worth reading some fun and nature in them udolpho was written by missus radcliffe said catherine
with some hesitation from the fear of mortifying him no sure was it aye i remember so it was i was thinking of that other stupid book written by that woman they make such a fuss about she who married the french emigrant
i suppose you mean camilla yes
i took up the first volume once and looked it over but i soon found it would not do indeed i guessed what sort of stuff it must be before i saw it
i have never read it you had no loss i assure you it is the horridest nonsense you can imagine there is nothing in the world in it but an old man's playing at see saw and learning latin upon my soul there is not
this critique the justness of which was unfortunately lost on poor catherine brought them to the door of missus thorpe's lodgings and the feelings of the discerning and unprejudiced reader of camilla gave way to the feelings of the dutiful and affectionate son
as they met missus thorpe who had descried them from above in the passage ah mother how do you do said he giving her a hearty shake of the hand where did you get that quiz of a hat it makes you look like an old witch
and this address
for she received him with the most delighted and exulting affection on his two younger sisters he then bestowed an equal portion of his fraternal tenderness for he asked each of them how they did
these manners did not please catherine but he was james's friend and isabella's brother and her judgment was further bought off by isabella's assuring her when they withdrew to see the new hat that john thought her the most charming girl in the world
and by john's engaging her before they parted to dance with him that evening had she been older or vainer such attacks might have done little
it requires uncommon steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most charming girl in the world
and the consequence was
set off to walk together to mister allen's and james as the door was closed on them said well catherine how do you like my friend thorpe instead of answering as she probably would have done had there been no friendship and no flattery in the case i do not like him at all
she directly replied i like him very much he seems very agreeable he is as good natured a fellow as ever lived a little of a rattle but that will recommend him to your sex i believe and how do you like the rest of the family
very very much indeed isabella particularly
she is just the kind of young woman i could wish to see you attached to she has so much good sense and is so thoroughly unaffected and amiable i always wanted you to know her and she seems very fond of you she said the highest things in your praise that could possibly be
and the praise of such a girl as miss thorpe even you catherine
may be proud of indeed i am she replied i love her exceedingly and am delighted to find that you like her too you hardly mentioned anything of her when you wrote to me after your visit there because i thought i should soon see you myself
i hope you will be a great deal together while you are in bath she is a most amiable girl such a superior understanding how fond all the family are of her she is evidently the general favourite
is not she yes very much indeed i fancy mister allen thinks her the prettiest girl in bath i dare say he does and i do not know any man who is a better judge of beauty than mister allen
i need not ask you whether you are happy here my dear catherine with such a companion and friend as isabella thorpe it would be impossible for you to be otherwise
yes very kind i never was so happy before
james accepted this tribute of gratitude and qualified his conscience for accepting it too by saying with perfect sincerity indeed catherine i love you dearly
the situation of some the growth of the rest and other family matters now passed between them and continued with only one small digression on james's part in praise of miss thorpe till they reached pulteney street
where he was welcomed with great kindness by mister and missus allen invited by the former to dine with them and summoned by the latter to guess the price and weigh the merits of a new muff and tippet a pre engagement in edgar's buildings
prevented his accepting the invitation of one friend and obliged him to hurry away as soon as he had satisfied the demands of the other
being correctly adjusted catherine was then left to the luxury of a raised restless and frightened imagination over the pages of udolpho
if the man heard her he gave no evidence of the fact his face was set forward and he was guiding the horses with a firm unquivering hand the coach rattled and bounded along the dangerous way hewn in the side of the mountain
a misstep or a false turn might easily start the clumsy vehicle rolling down the declivity on the right the convict was taking desperate chances and with a cool calculating brain prepared to leap to the ground in case of accident
and save himself without a thought for the victims inside stop turn around she cried in a frenzy
by this time they had struck a descent in the road and were rushing along at breakneck speed into oppressive shadows that bore the first imprints of night realizing at last that her cries were falling upon purposely deaf ears
beverly calhoun sank back into the seat weak and terror stricken it was plain to her that the horses were not running away for the man had been lashing them furiously there was but one conclusion
he was deliberately taking her farther into the mountain fastnesses his purpose known only to himself a hundred terrors presented themselves to her
her tender body tossed furiously about with the sway of the vehicle
but apart from this her quick brain was evolving all sorts of possible endings none short of absolute disaster even as she prayed that something might intervene to check the mad rush
the raucous voice of the driver was heard calling to his horses
the awful rocking and the jolting grew less severe
and then the coach stopped with a mighty lurch dragging herself from the corner poor beverly calhoun no longer a disdainful heroine
expecting the murderous blade of the driver to meet her as she did so pauloff had swung from the box of the coach and was peering first into the woodland below
he wore the expression of a man trapped and seeking means of escape suddenly he darted behind the coach almost brushing against beverly's hat as he passed the window she opened her lips to call to him but even as she did so he took to his heels
and raced back over the road they had traveled so precipitously overcome by surprise and dismay
less than a hundred feet from where the coach was standing he turned to the right and was lost among the rocks ahead four horses covered with sweat were panting and heaving as if in great distress after their mad run
aunt fanny was still moaning and praying by turns in the bottom of the carriage darkness was settling down upon the pass and objects a hundred yards away were swallowed by the gloom there was no sound save the blowing of the tired animals
and the moaning of the old negress beverly realized with a sinking heart that they were alone and helpless in the mountains with night upon them she never knew where the strength and courage came from
but she forced open the stubborn coachdoor and scrambled to the ground looking frantically in all directions for a single sign of hope in the most despairing terror she had ever experienced she started toward the lead horses
hoping against hope that at least one of her men had remained faithful a man stepped quietly from the inner side of the road and advanced with the uncertain tread of one who is overcome by amazement he was a stranger
and wore an odd uncouth garb the failing light told her that he was not one of her late protectors she shrank back with a faint cry of alarm ready to fly to the protecting arms of hopeless aunt fanny if her uncertain legs could carry her
at the same instant another ragged stranger then two three four or five appeared as if by magic some near her others approaching from the shadows who
who in heaven's name are you she faltered
unconsciously this slim sprig of southern valor threw back her shoulders and lifted her chin if they were brigands they should not find her a cringing coward after all she was a calhoun
the man she had first observed stopped near the horses heads and peered intently at her from beneath a broad and rakish hat he was tall and appeared to be more respectably clad than his fellows
although there was not one who looked as though he possessed a complete outfit of wearing apparel poor wayfarers may it please your highness replied the tall vagabond bowing low to her surprise he spoke in very good english his voice was clear
and there was a tinge of polite irony in the tones but all people are alike in the mountains the king and the thief the princess and the jade live in the common fold and his hat swung so low that it touched the ground
i am powerless i only implore you to take what valuables you may find and let us proceed unharmed she cried rapidly eager to have it over pray how can your highness proceed you have no guide no driver no escort
said the man mockingly beverly looked at him appealingly
the tears were welling to her eyes
in after life she was able to picture in her mind's eye all the details of that tableau in the mountain pass the hopeless coach the steaming horses the rakish bandit and his picturesque men the towering crags
and a mite of a girl facing the end of everything your highness is said to be brave but even your wonderful courage can avail nothing in this instance said the leader pleasantly
your escort has fled as though pursued by something stronger than shadows your driver has deserted your horses are half dead you are indeed as you have said powerless and you are besides all these
oh moaned beverly suddenly leaning against the fore wheel her eyes almost starting from her head the leader laughed quietly yes good naturedly oh you won't
you won't kill us she had time to observe that there were smiles on the faces of all the men within the circle of light rest assured your highness said the leader leaning upon his rifle barrel with careless grace we intend no harm to you
every man you meet in graustark is not a brigand i trust for your sake we are simple hunters and not what we may seem it is fortunate that you have fallen into honest hands there is someone in the coach he asked quickly alert
a prolonged groan proved to beverly that aunt fanny had screwed up sufficient courage to look out of the window my old servant she half whispered then as several of the men started toward the door but she is old and wouldn't harm a fly
please please don't hurt her compose yourself she is safe said the leader by this time it was quite dark at a word from him two or three men lighted lanterns the picture was more weird than ever in the fitful glow
may i ask your highness how do you intend to reach edelweiss in your present condition
and besides you do not know the way aren't you going to rob us demanded beverly hope springing to the surface with a joyful bound the stranger laughed heartily and shook his head do we not look like honest men
he cried with a wave of his hand toward his companions beverly looked dubious
out door life is necessary for our health
but why have you stopped us in this manner stopped you cried the man with the patch i implore you to unsay that your highness
you do us a grave injustice it's very strange muttered beverly somewhat taken aback
asked the leader putting away his brief show of indignation
cried she now able to think more clearly and you are miles from an inn or house of any kind he went on
i'm i'm not afraid bravely shivered beverly it is most dangerous i have a revolver the weak little voice went on oho what is it for
such as repelling brigands who suddenly appear upon the scene yes may i ask why you did not use it this evening because it is locked up in one of my bags i don't know just which one and aunt fanny has the key
confessed beverly the chief of the honest men laughed again a clear ringing laugh that bespoke supreme confidence in his right to enjoy himself and who is aunt fanny he asked
covering his patch carefully with his slouching hat my servant she's colored colored he asked in amazement
why she's a negress don't you know what a colored person is you mean she is a slave a black slave we don't own slaves any mo' more he looked more puzzled than ever
then at last to satisfy himself walked over and peered into the coach aunt fanny set up a dismal howl an instant later sir honesty was pushed aside and miss calhoun was anxiously trying to comfort her old friend through the window
is yo daid yit miss bev'ly is de end came moaned aunt fanny beverly could not repress a smile i am quite alive auntie these men will not hurt us they are very nice gentlemen
she uttered the last observation in a loud voice and it had its effect for the leader came to her side with long strides convince your servant that we mean no harm your highness he said eagerly a new deference in his voice and manner
we have only the best of motives in mind true the hills are full of lawless fellows and we are obliged to fight them almost daily but you have fallen in with honest men very nice gentlemen i trust less than an hour ago we put a band of robbers to flight
i heard the shooting cried beverly it was that which put my escort to flight they could not have been soldiers of graustark then your highness quite gallantly they were cossacks or whatever you call them
but pray why do you call me your highness demanded beverly the tall leader swept the ground with his hat once more all the outside world knows the princess yetive why not the humble mountain man you will pardon me
we are not so far from the world after all we rough people of the hills
even the hills have eyes and ears beverly listened with increasing perplexity it was true that she had left saint petersburg on sunday that the unprecedented floods had stopped all railway traffic in the hills
compelling her to travel for many miles by stage and that the whole country was confusing her in some strange way with the princess yetive the news had evidently sped through axphain and the hills with the swiftness of fire
it would be useless to deny the story these men would not believe her in a flash
it remained only for her to impress upon aunt fanny the importance of this resolution what wise old hills they must be she said with evasive enthusiasm you cannot expect me to admit however that i am the princess she went on
so what matters after all we reserve the right however to do homage to the queen who rules over these wise old hills i offer you the humble services of myself and my companions we are yours to command
i am very grateful to find that you are not brigands believe me said beverly pray tell me who you are then
i oh your highness i am baldos the goat hunter a poor subject for reward at your hands i may as well admit that i am a poacher and have no legal right to the prosperity of your hills
the only reward i can ask is forgiveness for trespassing upon the property of others you shall receive pardon for all transgressions but you must get me to some place of safety said beverly eagerly and quickly too you might well have added
he said lightly the horses have rested i think
i know of a place where you may spend the night comfortably and be refreshed for the rough journey to morrow to morrow how can i go on i am alone she cried despairingly
permit me to remind you that you are no longer alone you have a ragged following your highness but it shall be a loyal one will you re enter the coach it is not far to the place i speak of and i myself will drive you there come
it is getting late and your retinue at least is hungry he flung open the coach door and his hat swept the ground once more the light of a lantern played fitfully upon his dark gaunt face
with its gallant smile and ominous patch she hesitated fear entering her soul once more
the mute appeal trust me your highness he said gravely and she allowed him to hand her into the coach a moment later he was upon the driver's box reins in hand
calling out to his companions in a language strange to beverly he cracked the whip and once more they were lumbering over the wretched road beverly sank back into the seat with a deep sigh of resignation well i'm in for it she thought
it doesn't matter whether they are thieves or angels i reckon i'll have to take what comes he doesn't look very much like an angel
when elsie's holidays i beg pardon vacation came to an end she proposed to return to her high school in london zeal for the higher mathematics devoured her but she still looked so frail and coughed so often a
in spite of her summer of open air exercise
not one of the fortescue langley order the report he gave was mildly unfavourable he spoke disrespectfully of the apex of her right lung it was not exactly tubercular he remarked but he feared tuberculosis'
excuse the long words the phrase was his not mine i repeat verbatim he vetoed her exposing herself to a winter in london in her present unstable condition davos well no
with deliberative thumb and finger on close shaven chin he judged her too delicate for such drastic remedies those high mountain stations suited best the robust invalid who had dropped by accident into casual phthisis
for miss petheridge's case looking wise he would not recommend the riviera either too stimulating too exciting what this young lady needed most was rest rest in some agreeable southern town
some city of the soul say rome or florence
in the new world of art that opened around her very well i said promptly that's settled elsie the apex and you shall winter in florence but brownie can we afford it
but what will miss latimer say she depends upon me to come back at the beginning of term
elsie petheridge unable through ill health to resume her duties ordered to florence resigns post engage substitute that's the way to do it
but dearest the girls they'll be so disappointed they'll get over it i answered grimly there are worse disappointments in store for them in life which is a fine old crusted platitude worthy of aunt susan anyhow i've decided
our fellow creatures as usual i answered with prompt callousness i object to these base utilitarian considerations being imported into the discussion of a serious question
as a woman of culture it behoves you to revel in it your medical attendant sends you there as a patient and an invalid you can revel with a clear conscience money well money is a secondary matter
all philosophies and all religions agree that money is mere dross filthy lucre rise superior to it we have a fair sum in hand to the credit of the firm we can pick up some more i suppose in florence how
i reflected elsie i said you are deficient in faith which is one of the leading christian graces
now observe how beautifully all these events work in together the winter comes when no man can bicycle especially in switzerland therefore what is the use of my stopping on here after october again
i confess at once that people come to switzerland to tour and are therefore liable to need our machines
still we may sell a few but i descry another opening you write shorthand don't you a little dear
we exist to supply it we will set up the florentine school of stenography and typewriting
i walked across to missus evelegh's desk and began writing a letter it occurred to me that mister hitchcock who was a man of business might be able to help a woman of business in this delicate matter i put the point to him fairly and squarely
without circumlocution we were going to start an english typewriting office in florence what was the ordinary way for people to become possessed of a typewriting machine without the odious and mercenary preliminary of paying for it
dear miss your spirit of enterprise is really remarkable
for the sale of their machines in florence italy and giving them my estimate of your business capacities i have advised their london house to present you with two complimentary machines for your own use and your partner's
if you would further like to undertake an agency for the development of the trade in salt codfish
messrs abel woodward and co exporters of preserved provisions
but perhaps in this suggestion i am not sufficiently high toned respectfully cyrus w hitchcock the moment had arrived for elsie to be firm i have no prejudice against trade brownie she observed emphatically
but i do draw the line at salt fish so do i dear i answered she sighed her relief i really believe she half expected to find me trotting about florence with miscellaneous samples of messrs abel woodward's
esteemed productions protruding from my pocket so to florence we went my first idea was to travel by the brenner route through the tyrol but a queer little episode which met us at the outset on the austrian frontier put a check to this plan
when we went to claim them at the austrian custom house
not at all look here and he drew a small book out of elsie's portmanteau what elsie a conspirator elsie in league with nihilists
i took the book in my hands and read the title revolution of the heavenly bodies but this
don't you see sun and star circling
come elsie i said firmly this is too ridiculous let us give them a clear berth
with a swelling heart it is true the tuscan painter's unaccountable predilection for the rare spellings scool without an h and stenografy with an f
i called them customers elsie maintained that we ought rather to say clients being by temperament averse to sectarianism i did not dispute the point with her we reposed on our laurels in vain
it surprised me to find that any undertaking of mine did not succeed immediately however reflecting that my fairy godmother's name was really enterprise i recalled mister cyrus w hitchcock's advice and advertised
there's one good thing about florence elsie i said just to keep up her courage when the customers do come they'll be interesting people and it will be interesting work
fra angelico and della robbia and all that sort of thing or else
no doubt elsie answered dubiously
it strikes me there isn't quite that literary stir and ferment one might expect in florence dante and petrarch appear to be dead the distinguished authors fail to stream in upon us as one imagined with manuscripts to copy
i affected an air of confidence for i had sunk capital in the concern that's business like sunk capital oh we're a new firm i assented carelessly our enterprise is yet young when cultivated florence learns we're here
but we sat in our office and bit our thumbs all day the thousands stopped at home
elsie's notebook contains i believe eleven hundred separate sketches of the campanile from the right end the left end and the middle of our window with eight hundred and five distinct distortions of the individual statues
on the side turned towards us at last
and sketched the four greater prophets for a fortnight on end an immense excitement occurred an old gentleman was distinctly seen to approach and to look up at the sign board which decorated our office i instantly slipped in a sheet of foolscap
and began to type write with alarming speed click click click while elsie rising to the occasion set to work to transcribe imaginary shorthand
the old gentleman after a moment's hesitation lifted the latch of the door somewhat nervously i affected to take no notice of him so breathless was the haste with which our immense business connection compelled me to finger the keyboard
but looking up at him under my eyelashes i could just make out he was a peculiarly bland and urbane old person dressed with the greatest care and some attention to fashion his face was smooth it tended towards portliness
he made up his mind and entered the office i continued to click till i had reached the close of a sentence
and by opposing end them then i looked up sharply
he looked as if he had just landed from the eighteenth century his figure was that of mister edward gibbon yes madam he said in a markedly deferential tone fussing about with the rim of his hat as he spoke and adjusting his pince nez
i was recommended to your
but i am rather particular i require a quick worker excuse my asking it
shorthand i asked sharply for i wished to imitate official habits the urbane old gentleman bowed yes shorthand certainly i waved my hand with careless grace towards elsie as if these things happened to us daily
miss petheridge undertakes the shorthand department i said with decision i am the typewriting from dictation
elsie rose to it like an angel a hundred she answered confronting him the old gentleman bowed again and your terms he inquired in a honey tongued voice if i may venture to ask them
we handed him our printed tariff he seemed satisfied could you spare me an hour this morning he asked still fingering his hat nervously with his puffy hand but perhaps you are engaged i fear i intrude upon you
not at all i answered consulting an imaginary engagement list this work can wait
i think you have nothing to do before one that cannot be put off quite so very well then yes we are both at your service the urbane old gentleman looked about him for a seat i pushed him our one easy chair
he withdrew his gloves with great deliberation and sat down in it with an apologetic glance i could gather from his dress and his diamond pin that he was wealthy indeed i half guessed who he was already
there was a fussiness about his manner which seemed strangely familiar to me he sat down by slow degrees edging himself about till he was thoroughly comfortable
he took out his notes and a packet of letters which he sorted slowly
after a time he spoke i think he said in a most leisurely voice i will not trouble your friend to write shorthand for me after all or should i say your assistant excuse my change of plan i will content myself with dictation
you can follow on the machine as fast as you choose to dictate to me he glanced at his notes and began a letter it was a curious communication it seemed to be all about buying bertha and selling clara
i gathered he was giving instructions to his agent could he have business relations with cuba i wondered but there were also hints of mysterious middies
perhaps my bewilderment showed itself upon my face for at last he looked queerly at me you don't quite like this i'm afraid he said breaking off short i was the soul of business not at all i answered i am an automaton
nothing more it is a typewriter's function to transcribe the words a client dictates as if they were absolutely meaningless to her quite right he answered approvingly quite right i see you understand a very proper spirit then
the woman within me got the better of the typewriter though i confess i continued i do feel it is a little unkind to sell clara at once for whatever she will fetch it seems to me well
he smiled but held his peace still the middies i went on they will perhaps take care that these poor girls are not ill treated he leaned back clasped his hands and regarded me fixedly
bertha he said after a pause is brighton a's to be strictly correct london brighton and south coast first preference debentures clara is glasgow and south western deferred stock
hungarians were only to be dealt in if they hardened hardened sinners i know but what are hardened hungarians
consols it appeared were certain to give way for political reasons
i was relieved to learn for the honour of so great a group of colonies could only be temporary greeks were growing decidedly worse
and argentine central were likely to be weak but provincials must soon become commendably firm and if uruguays went flat something good ought to be made out of them scotch rails might shortly be quiet i always understood they were based upon sleepers
but if south eastern stiffened advantage should certainly be taken of their stiffening he would telegraph particulars on monday morning and so on till my brain reeled oh artistic florence
at the end of the hour the urbane old gentleman rose urbanely he drew on his gloves again with the greatest deliberation and hunted for his stick as if his life depended upon it let me see i had a pencil oh thanks
this cover protects the point my hat ah certainly and my notes much obliged notes always get mislaid people are so careless then i will come again to morrow
the same hour if you will kindly keep yourself disengaged though excuse me you had better make an entry of it at once upon your agenda i shall remember it i answered smiling no will you but you haven't my name i know it i answered
at least i think so you are mister marmaduke ashurst lady georgina fawley sent you here he laid down his hat and gloves again so as to regard me more undistracted you
are a most remarkable young lady he said in a very slow voice i impressed upon georgina that she must not mention to you that i was coming
intuition most likely he stared at me with a sort of suspicion
to the inscrutable decrees of providence
still there are points about lady georgina which i cannot conscientiously assert i approve of i remembered marmy's a fool and held my tongue judiciously i do not resemble her i hope he persisted
with a look which i could almost describe as wistful a family likeness perhaps i put in family likenesses exist you know often with complete divergence of tastes and character he looked relieved that is true oh how true
but the likeness in my case i must admit escapes me i temporised strangers see these things most i said airing the stock platitudes it may be superficial and of course
one knows that profound differences of intellect and moral feeling often occur within the limits of a single family you are quite right he said with decision georgina's principles are not mine excuse my remarking it but you seem to be a young lady of unusual penetration
he bowed to us each separately as if we had been duchesses as soon as he was gone elsie turned to me brownie how on earth did you guess it they're so awfully different
not at all i answered a few surface unlikenesses only just mask an underlying identity their features are the same but his are plump hers shrunken lady georgina's expression is sharp and worldly
mister ashurst's is smooth and bland and financial and then their manner both are fussy but lady georgina's is honest open ill tempered fussiness mister ashurst's is concealed under an artificial mask of
obsequious politeness one's cantankerous the other's only pernicketty it's one tune after all in two different keys from that day forth the urbane old gentleman was a daily visitor
the hour lengthened out apologetically to an entire morning he presumed to ask my christian name the second day and remembered my father
or else poor girl she would have felt sadly slighted i was glad she had something to do the sense of dependence weighed heavily upon her the urbane old gentleman did not confine himself entirely after the first few days
to stock exchange literature he was engaged on a work he spoke of it always with bated breath and a capital letter was implied in his intonation the work was one on the interpretation of prophecy unlike lady georgina who was tart and crisp
where she said pack of fools he talked with unction of the mental deficiencies of our poorer brethren but his religious opinions and his stockbroking had got strangely mixed up at the wash somehow
he was convinced that the british nation represented the lost ten tribes of israel and in particular ephraim a matter on which as a mere lay woman i would not presume either to agree with him or to differ from him that being so miss cayley
we can easily understand that the existing commercial prosperity of england depends upon the promises made to abraham i assented without committing myself it would seem to follow mister ashurst encouraged by so much assent
went on to unfold his system of interpretation which was of a strictly commercial or company promoting character it ran like a prospectus
we have inherited the gold of australia and the diamonds of the cape he said growing didactic and lifting one fat forefinger we are now inheriting klondike and the rand
again the chief things of the ancient mountains and the precious things of the everlasting hills what does that mean the ancient mountains are clearly the rockies can the everlasting hills be anything but the himalayas
for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas that refers of course to our world wide commerce due mainly to imports and of the treasures hid in the sand which sand undoubtedly i say the desert of mount sinai
what then is our obvious destiny a lady of your intelligence must gather at once that it is he paused and gazed at me
and to annex palestine to our practical province of egypt he leaned back in his chair and folded his fat hands in undisguised satisfaction now you are a thinker of exceptional penetration he broke out
do you know miss cayley
and many leading financiers in the city of london
why i endeavoured to interest rothschild and induce him to join me in my palestine development syndicate and will you believe it the man refused point blank though
they see nothing above percentages that's it he replied lighting up they have no higher feelings though mind you there will be dividends too mark my words there will be dividends
will pay forty per cent on every penny embarked in it only forty per cent for ephraim i murmured half below my breath why judah is said to batten upon sixty he caught at it eagerly without perceiving my gentle sarcasm
in that case we might even expect seventy he put in with a gasp of anticipation though
so that israel and judah might once more unite in sharing the promises your combined generosity and commercial instinct does you credit i answered it is rare to find so much love for an abstract study side by side
though as i show them there are shekels in it too dividends dividends di vidends but you are a lady of understanding and comprehension you have been to girton haven't you perhaps you read greek then
certainly in the original oh dear yes he regarded me once more with the same astonished glance
into an english gentleman then he informed me that he wished me to hunt up certain facts in herodotus and elsewhere confirmatory of his view that the english were the descendants of the ten tribes i promised to do so
it was none of my business to believe or disbelieve i was paid to get up a case and i got one up to the best of my ability i imagine it was at least as good as most other cases in similar matters at any rate it pleased the old gentleman vastly
by dint of listening i began to like him but elsie couldn't bear him
after a week or two devoted to the interpretation of prophecy on a strictly commercial basis of founders shares with interludes of mining engineers reports upon the rubies of mount sinai
the urbane old gentleman trotted down to the office one day carrying a packet of notes of most voluminous magnitude can we work in a room alone this morning miss cayley he asked with mystery in his voice he was always mysterious
in point of fact he dropped his voice to a whisper i want you to draw up my will for me
i must keep my promise could i wish him to be rich could i wish him to be poor my heart stood divided two ways within me the urbane old gentleman began with immense deliberation as befits a man of principle when property is at stake
is a typewritten form legal i ventured to inquire a most perspicacious young lady he interjected well pleased i have investigated that point and find it perfectly regular only if i may venture to say so there should be no erasures
there shall be none i answered
and began dictating from his notes with tantalising deliberateness this was the last will and testament of him marmaduke courtney ashurst its verbiage wearied me i was eager for him to come to the point about harold instead of that he did
what it seems is usual in such cases set out with a number of unimportant legacies to old family servants and other hangers on among our poorer brethren i fumed and fretted inwardly next came a series of quaint bequests of a quite novel character
the sum of five hundred pounds in consideration of the benefit they have conferred upon humanity by the invention of a sugar spoon or silver sugar sifter by means of which it is possible to dust sugar upon a tart or pudding without letting the whole or the greater part of the material
run through the apertures uselessly in transit you must have observed miss cayley with your usual perspicacity that most sugar sifters allow the sugar to fall through them on to the table prematurely i have noticed it i answered trembling with anxiety
run through the apertures uselessly in transit i think i said last yes thank you very good we will now continue and i give and bequeath the like sum of five hundred pounds did i say free of legacy duty no
then please add it to james walsh's clause five hundred pounds free of legacy duty to thomas webster jones of wheeler street soho for his admirable invention of a pair of braces which will not slip down on the wearer's shoulders after half an hour's use
he gazed at me and twirled his fat thumbs of course he murmured of course but most braces you may not be aware slip down unpleasantly on the shoulder blade
such a habit must be felt to be ungraceful thomas webster jones to whom i pointed out this error of manufacture has invented a brace the two halves of which diverge at a higher angle than usual
pardon these details so as to obviate that difficulty he has given me satisfaction and he deserves to be rewarded i heard through it all the voice of lady georgina observing tartly
mister ashurst was lady georgina veneered with a thin layer of ingratiating urbanity lady georgina was clever and therefore acrimonious mister ashurst was astute and therefore obsequious
he went on with legacies to the inventor of a sauce bottle which did not let the last drop dribble down so as to spot the table cloth
and on without injury to the temper a real benefactor miss cayley a real benefactor to the link wearing classes for he has sensibly diminished the average annual output of profane swearing
when he left five hundred pounds to his faithful servant frederic higginson courier i was tempted to interpose but i refrained in time and i was glad of it afterwards at last
harold ashurst tillington younger of gledcliffe dumfriesshire
my house and estate of ashurst court in the county of gloucester and my town house at twenty four park lane north in london together with the residue
and so forth i breathed again at least i had not been called upon to disinherit harold provided always he went on in the same voice i wondered what was coming provided always that
the said harold ashurst tillington does not marry
you heard of him i suppose from georgina georgina is prejudiced he has come back to me i am glad to say an excellent servant higginson though a trifle too omniscient
but we must have due subordination a courier ought not to be better informed than his master
well higginson knows this young person's name my sister wrote to me about her disgraceful conduct when she first went to schlangenbad an adventuress it seems an adventuress quite a shocking creature foisted herself upon lady georgina in kensington gardens
unintroduced if you can believe such a thing with the most astonishing effrontery and georgina who will forgive anything on earth for the sake of what she calls originality
took the young woman with her as her maid to germany there this minx tried to set her cap at my nephew harold
and harold was bowled over almost got engaged to her georgina took a fancy to the girl later having a taste for dubious people i cannot say i approve of georgina's friends and wrote again to say her first suspicions were unfounded
the young woman was in reality a paragon of virtue but i know better than that georgina has no judgment i regret to be obliged to confess it but cleverness i fear is the only thing in the world my excellent sister cares for
i ought not to discuss such painted jezebels before you we will leave this person's name blank i will not sully your pen
i made up my mind at once mister ashurst i said looking up from my keyboard i can give you this girl's name and then you can insert the proviso immediately you can
you seem to know everybody and everything
and you were there also she was i answered deliberately the name you want is lois cayley
i went on with my typewriting unmoved provided always that the said harold ashurst tillington does not marry lois cayley in which case i will and desire that the said estate shall pass to whom shall i put in mister ashurst
he leant forward with his fat hands on his ample knees it was really you he inquired open mouthed i nodded there is no use in denying the truth mister tillington did ask me to be his wife and i refused him
but my dear miss cayley
yes i know i admit all that so i declined his offer i did not wish to ruin his prospects the urbane old gentleman eyed me with a sudden tenderness in his glance young men are lucky he said slowly after a short pause
and higginson is an idiot
my dear excuse the familiarity from one who may consider himself in a certain sense a contingent uncle suppose we amend the last clause by the omission of the word not it strikes me as superfluous provided always
the said harold ashurst tillington consents to marry i think that sounds better he looked at me with such fatherly regard that it pricked my heart ever to have poked fun at his interpretation of prophecy on stock exchange principles i think i flushed crimson no
no i answered firmly that will not do either please that's worse than the other way you must not put it mister ashurst i could not consent to be willed away to anybody he leant forward with real earnestness my dear he said
that's not the point pardon my reminding you that you are here in your capacity as my amanuensis i am drawing up my will and if you will allow me to say so i cannot admit that anyone has a claim to influence me in the disposition of my property
please i cried pleadingly he looked at me and paused well he went on at last after a long interval since you insist upon it i will leave the bequest to stand without condition
a confounded jackass i do not usually indulge in intemperate language but i desire to assure you with the utmost calmness
lord southminster is a con founded jackass i rose and took his hand in my own spontaneously mister ashurst i said you may interpret prophecy as long as ever you like but you are a dear kind old gentleman
i should like to be your uncle i trembled all over
i will only add that when mister ashurst left
i am in charge of the will and i will take it myself to mister ashurst i will be even with you yet he snapped out
on the contrary i answered smiling a polite smile i rejoice to hear it if you say nothing more against me to your employer i will not disclose to him what i know about you but if you slander me i will
which we hope will be very attentively perused by young people of both sexes partridge had no sooner left mister jones than mister nightingale with whom he had now contracted a great intimacy came to him
and after a short salutation said so tom i hear you had company very late last night upon my soul you are a happy fellow
and can keep chairs waiting at your door till two in the morning he then ran on with much commonplace raillery of the same kind till jones at last interrupted him saying i suppose you have received all this information from missus miller
who hath been up here a little while ago to give me warning the good woman is afraid it seems of the reputation of her daughters oh she is wonderfully nice says nightingale upon that account
if you remember she would not let nancy go with us to the masquerade nay upon my honour i think she's in the right of it says jones however i have taken her at her word and have sent partridge to look for another lodging if you will says nightingale
we may i believe be again together for to tell you a secret which i desire you won't mention in the family i intend to quit the house to day what hath missus miller given you warning too my friend cries jones no answered the other
so i am going to pall mall and do you intend to make a secret of your going away said jones i promise you answered nightingale i don't intend to bilk my lodgings but i have a private reason for not taking a formal leave
not so private answered jones
here will be some wet eyes on your departure poor nancy i pity her faith indeed jack you have played the fool with that girl you have given her a longing which i am afraid nothing will ever cure her of
nightingale answered what the devil would you have me do
no answered jones i would not have had you make love to her as you have often done in my presence i have been astonished at the blindness of her mother in never seeing it
that you have made her daughter distractedly in love with you the poor girl cannot conceal it a moment her eyes are never off from you and she always colours every time you come into the room indeed i pity her heartily
indeed jack said jones you wilfully misunderstand me
i do not suppose so ill of you nay i will go farther i do not imagine you have laid a regular premeditated scheme for the destruction of the quiet of a poor little creature or have even foreseen the consequence
for i am sure thou art a very good natured fellow and such a one can never be guilty of a cruelty of that kind but at the same time you have pleased your own vanity without considering that this poor girl was made a sacrifice to it
and while you have had no design but of amusing an idle hour you have actually given her reason to flatter herself that you had the most serious designs in her favour prithee jack answer me honestly
to what have tended all those elegant and luscious descriptions of happiness arising from violent and mutual fondness all those warm professions of tenderness and generous disinterested love did you imagine she would not apply them
or speak ingenuously
upon my soul tom cries nightingale
thou wilt make an admirable parson so i suppose you would not go to bed to nancy now if she would let you no cries jones
tom tom answered nightingale last night remember last night when every eye was closed and the pale moon and silent stars shone conscious of the theft lookee mister nightingale said jones
i am no canting hypocrite nor do i pretend to the gift of chastity more than my neighbours i have been guilty with women i own it
nor would i to procure pleasure to myself be knowingly the cause of misery to any human being well well said nightingale i believe you and i am convinced you acquit me of any such thing
i do from my heart answered jones of having debauched the girl but not from having gained her affections if i have said nightingale i am sorry for it
but time and absence will soon wear off such impressions it is a receipt i must take myself for to confess the truth to you i never liked any girl half so much in my whole life but i must let you into the whole secret tom
my father hath provided a match for me with a woman i never saw and she is now coming to town in order for me to make my addresses to her at these words jones burst into a loud fit of laughter
oh jones jones i wish i had a fortune in my own possession i heartily wish you had cries jones for if this be the case i sincerely pity you both but surely you don't intend to go away without taking your leave of her
i would not answered nightingale undergo the pain of taking leave for ten thousand pounds besides i am convinced instead of answering any good purpose it would only serve to inflame my poor nancy the more
and in the evening or to morrow morning i intend to depart jones promised he would not and said upon reflection he thought as he had determined and was obliged to leave her he took the most prudent method
he then told nightingale he should be very glad to lodge in the same house with him and it was accordingly agreed between them that nightingale should procure him either the ground floor
for the young gentleman himself was to occupy that which was between them this nightingale of whom we shall be presently obliged to say a little more was in the ordinary transactions of life a man of strict honour
and what is more rare among young gentlemen of the town one of strict honesty too yet in affairs of love he was somewhat loose in his morals not that he was even here as void of principle as gentlemen sometimes are
and oftener affect to be but it is certain he had been guilty of some indefensible treachery to women and had in a certain mystery called making love practised many deceits which if he had used in trade
but as the world i know not well for what reason agree to see this treachery in a better light he was so far from being ashamed of his iniquities of this kind that he gloried in them
and would often boast of his skill in gaining of women and his triumphs over their hearts for which he had before this time received some rebukes from jones who always exprest great bitterness against any misbehaviour to the fair part of the species
who if considered he said as they ought to be in the light of the dearest friends were to be cultivated honoured and caressed with the utmost love and tenderness but if regarded as enemies
than to value himself upon it chapter five a short account of the history of missus miller jones this day eat a pretty good dinner for a sick man
that is to say the larger half of a shoulder of mutton
for that good woman having learnt either by means of partridge or by some other means natural or supernatural that he had a connexion with mister allworthy could not endure the thoughts of parting with him in an angry manner jones accepted the invitation
and the girls sent out of the room than the widow without much preface began as follows well there are very surprizing things happen in this world but certainly it is a wonderful business that i should have a relation of mister allworthy in my house
alas sir you little imagine what a friend that best of gentlemen hath been to me and mine yes sir i am not ashamed to own it it is owing to his goodness that i did not long since perish for want and leave my poor little wretches two destitute
helpless friendless orphans to the care or rather to the cruelty of the world you must know sir though i am now reduced to get my living by letting lodgings i was born and bred a gentlewoman my father was an officer of the army
and died in a considerable rank but he lived up to his pay and as that expired with him his family at his death became beggars we were three sisters one of us had the good luck to die soon after of the small pox
and having inherited a vast fortune from her father which he had got by pawnbroking was married to a gentleman of great estate and fashion she used my sister so barbarously often upbraiding her with her birth and poverty
calling her in derision a gentlewoman that i believe she at length broke the heart of the poor girl in short she likewise died within a twelvemonth after my father fortune thought proper to provide better for me
and within a month from his decease i was married to a clergyman
he had not learned to read in his childhood
his father was called jean valjean or vlajean probably a sobriquet
jean valjean was of that thoughtful but not gloomy disposition which constitutes the peculiarity of affectionate natures on the whole however
he had lost his father and mother at a very early age his mother had died of a milk fever which had not been properly attended to his father a tree pruner like himself had been killed by a fall from a tree
was a sister older than himself a widow with seven children boys and girls this sister had brought up jean valjean and so long as she had a husband she lodged and fed her young brother the husband died
the eldest of the seven children was eight years old the youngest one jean valjean had just attained his twenty fifth year he took the father's place and in his turn supported the sister who had brought him up
this was done simply as a duty and even a little churlishly on the part of jean valjean thus his youth had been spent in rude and ill paid toil he had never known a kind woman friend in his native parts
he had not had the time to fall in love he returned at night weary and ate his broth without uttering a word his sister mother jeanne often took the best part of his repast from his bowl while he was eating
a bit of meat a slice of bacon the heart of the cabbage to give to one of her children as he went on eating with his head bent over the table and almost into his soup his long hair falling about his bowl and concealing his eyes
he had the air of perceiving nothing and allowing it
a farmer's wife named marie claude the valjean children habitually famished sometimes went to borrow from marie claude a pint of milk in their mother's name which they drank behind a hedge or in some alley corner snatching the jug from each other so hastily
that the little girls spilled it on their aprons and down their necks if their mother had known of this marauding she would have punished the delinquents severely jean valjean gruffly and grumblingly paid marie claude for the pint of milk behind their mother's back
and the children were not punished in pruning season he earned eighteen sous a day then he hired out as a hay maker as laborer as neat herd on a farm as a drudge he did whatever he could
his sister worked also but what could she do with seven little children it was a sad group enveloped in misery which was being gradually annihilated a very hard winter came jean had no work
the family had no bread no bread literally seven children
was preparing to go to bed when he heard a violent blow on the grated front of his shop he arrived in time to see an arm passed through a hole made by a blow from a fist through the grating and the glass
the arm seized a loaf of bread and carried it off isabeau ran out in haste the robber fled at the full speed of his legs isabeau ran after him and stopped him the thief had flung away the loaf but his arm was still bleeding
it was jean valjean this took place in seventeen ninety five
he had a gun which he used better than any one else in the world he was a bit of a poacher and this injured his case there exists a legitimate prejudice against poachers the poacher like the smuggler smacks too strongly of the brigand
nevertheless we will remark cursorily there is still an abyss between these races of men and the hideous assassin of the towns the poacher lives in the forest the smuggler lives in the mountains or on the sea
the cities make ferocious men because they make corrupt men the mountain the sea the forest make savage men they develop the fierce side but often without destroying the humane side
jean valjean was pronounced guilty the terms of the code were explicit there occur formidable hours in our civilization there are moments when the penal laws decree a shipwreck
what an ominous minute is that in which society draws back and consummates the irreparable abandonment of a sentient being
the victory of montenotte won by the general in chief of the army of italy whom the message of the directory to the five hundred
was announced in paris on that same day a great gang of galley slaves was put in chains at bicetre jean valjean formed a part of that gang an old turnkey of the prison who is now nearly eighty years old
still recalls perfectly that unfortunate wretch who was chained to the end of the fourth line in the north angle of the courtyard he was seated on the ground like the others he did not seem to comprehend his position except that it was horrible
it is probable that he also was disentangling from amid the vague ideas of a poor man ignorant of everything something excessive while the bolt of his iron collar was being riveted behind his head with heavy blows from the hammer
he wept his tears stifled him they impeded his speech he only managed to say from time to time
then still sobbing he raised his right hand and lowered it gradually seven times as though he were touching in succession seven heads of unequal heights
he set out for toulon he arrived there after a journey of twenty seven days on a cart with a chain on his neck at toulon he was clothed in the red cassock all that had constituted his life even to his name was effaced
he was no longer even jean valjean he was number twenty four thousand six hundred one what became of his sister what became of the seven children who troubled himself about that
what becomes of the handful of leaves from the young tree which is sawed off at the root it is always the same story these poor living beings these creatures of god henceforth without support without guide without refuge
wandered away at random who even knows each in his own direction perhaps and little by little buried themselves in that cold mist which engulfs solitary destinies gloomy shades into which disappear in succession so many unlucky heads
in the sombre march of the human race they quitted the country the clock tower of what had been their village forgot them the boundary line of what had been their field forgot them after a few years residence in the galleys
in that heart where there had been a wound there was a scar that is all only once during all the time which he spent at toulon did he hear his sister mentioned this happened i think towards the end of the fourth year of his captivity
i know not through what channels the news reached him some one who had known them in their own country had seen his sister she was in paris
she had with her only one child a little boy the youngest where were the other six perhaps she did not know herself every morning she went to a printing office
where she was a folder and stitcher she was obliged to be there at six o'clock in the morning long before daylight in winter in the same building with the printing office there was a school and to this school she took her little boy
who was seven years old but as she entered the printing office at six and the school only opened at seven the child had to wait in the courtyard for the school to open for an hour one hour of a winter night in the open air
they would not allow the child to come into the printing office because he was in the way they said when the workmen passed in the morning they beheld this poor little being seated on the pavement overcome with drowsiness and often fast asleep in the shadow
crouched down and doubled up over his basket when it rained an old woman the portress took pity on him she took him into her den where there was a pallet a spinning wheel and two wooden chairs and the little one slumbered in a corner
pressing himself close to the cat that he might suffer less from cold at seven o'clock the school opened and he entered that is what was told to jean valjean they talked to him about it for one day it was a moment
a flash as though a window had suddenly been opened upon the destiny of those things whom he had loved then all closed again he heard nothing more forever nothing from them ever reached him again he never beheld them
he never met them again and in the continuation of this mournful history they will not be met with any more towards the end of this fourth year jean valjean's turn to escape arrived
his comrades assisted him as is the custom in that sad place he escaped he wandered for two days in the fields at liberty if being at liberty is to be hunted to turn the head every instant to quake at the slightest noise to be afraid of everything
of a smoking roof of a passing man of a barking dog of a galloping horse of a striking clock of the day because one can see of the night because one cannot see of the highway of the path of a bush of sleep
he had neither eaten nor slept for thirty six hours the maritime tribunal condemned him for this crime to a prolongation of his term for three years which made eight years
in the sixth year his turn to escape occurred again he availed himself of it but could not accomplish his flight fully he was missing at roll call the cannon were fired
and at night the patrol found him hidden under the keel of a vessel in process of construction he resisted the galley guards who seized him escape and rebellion this case provided for by a special code
was punished by an addition of five years two of them in the double chain thirteen years in the tenth year his turn came round again he again profited by it he succeeded no better
three years for this fresh attempt sixteen years finally i think it was during his thirteenth year he made a last attempt and only succeeded in getting retaken at the end of four hours of absence
three years for those four hours nineteen years in october eighteen fifteen he was released he had entered there in seventeen ninety six for having broken a pane of glass
and taken a loaf of bread room for a brief parenthesis this is the second time during his studies on the penal question and damnation by law that the author of this book has come across the theft of a loaf of bread
as the point of departure for the disaster of a destiny claude gueux had stolen a loaf jean valjean had stolen a loaf english statistics prove the fact that four thefts out of five in london
have hunger for their immediate cause jean valjean had entered the galleys sobbing and shuddering he emerged impassive
charles a celebrated wrestler was there who had killed many men in contests of this kind orlando the young man he was to wrestle with was so slender and youthful that rosalind and celia thought he would surely be killed
as others had been so they spoke to him and asked him not to attempt so dangerous an adventure but the only effect of their words was to make him wish more to come off well in the encounter so as to win praise from such sweet ladies
orlando like rosalind's father was being kept out of his inheritance by his brother and was so sad at his brother's unkindness that
he did not care much whether he lived or died but now the sight of the fair rosalind gave him strength and courage so that he did marvelously and at last threw charles to such a tune that the wrestler had to be carried off the ground
duke frederick was pleased with his courage and asked his name my name is orlando and i am the youngest son of sir rowland de boys said the young man now sir rowland de boys when he was alive
had been a good friend to the banished duke so that frederick heard with regret whose son orlando was and would not befriend him but rosalind was delighted to hear that this handsome young stranger was the son of her father's old friend
and as they were going away she turned back more than once to say another kind word to the brave young man gentleman she said giving him a chain from her neck wear this for me
i could give more but that my hand lacks means rosalind and celia when they were alone began to talk about the handsome wrestler
said celia wrestle with thy affections oh answered rosalind they take the part of a better wrestler than myself look here comes the duke with his eyes full of anger said celia
you must leave the court at once he said to rosalind why she asked never mind why answered the duke you are banished if within ten days you are found within twenty miles of my court you die
so rosalind set out to seek her father the banished duke in the forest of arden celia loved her too much to let her go alone and as it was rather a dangerous journey rosalind being the taller
dressed up as a young countryman and her cousin as a country girl and rosalind said that she would be called ganymede and celia aliena they were very tired when at last they came to the forest of arden
and as they were sitting on the grass a countryman passed that way and ganymede asked him if he could get them food he did so and told them that a shepherd's flocks and house were to be sold
they bought these and settled down as shepherd and shepherdess in the forest in the meantime oliver having sought to take his brother orlando's life orlando also wandered into the forest
and being kindly received stayed with him now orlando could think of nothing but rosalind and he went about the forest carving her name on trees and writing love sonnets and hanging them on the bushes and there rosalind and celia found them
one day orlando met them but he did not know rosalind in her boy's clothes though he liked the pretty shepherd youth because he fancied a likeness in him to her he loved there is a foolish lover said rosalind
who haunts these woods and hangs sonnets on the trees if i could find him i would soon cure him of his folly orlando confessed that he was the foolish lover
and i will take her part and be wayward and contrary as is the way of women till i make you ashamed of your folly in loving her and so every day he went to her house and took a pleasure in saying to her all the pretty things he would have said to rosalind
and she had the fine and secret joy of knowing that all his love words came to the right ears thus many days passed pleasantly away one morning as orlando was going to visit ganymede he saw a man asleep on the ground
and that there was a lioness crouching near waiting for the man who was asleep to wake for they say that lions will not prey on anything that is dead or sleeping then orlando looked at the man and saw that it was his wicked brother oliver who had tried to take his life
he fought with the lioness and killed her and saved his brother's life while orlando was fighting the lioness oliver woke to see his brother whom he had treated so badly saving him from a wild beast at the risk of his own life
this made him repent of his wickedness and he begged orlando's pardon and from thenceforth they were dear brothers the lioness had wounded orlando's arm so much that he could not go on to see the shepherd
so he sent his brother to ask ganymede to come to him oliver went and told the whole story to ganymede and aliena and aliena was so charmed with his manly way of confessing his faults that she fell in love with him at once
but when ganymede heard of the danger orlando had been in she fainted and when she came to herself said truly enough i should have been a woman by right oliver went back to his brother and told him all this saying
i love aliena so well that i will give up my estates to you and marry her and live here as a shepherd let your wedding be to morrow said orlando and i will ask the duke and his friends
oh how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes then answered rosalind still in ganymede's dress and speaking with his voic if you do love rosalind so near the heart then when your brother marries aliena
shall you marry her now the next day the duke and his followers and orlando and oliver and aliena were all gathered together for the wedding then ganymede came in and said to the duke
if i bring in your daughter rosalind will you give her to orlando here that i would said the duke if i had all kingdoms to give with her and you say you will have her when i bring her
that would i he answered were i king of all kingdoms then rosalind and celia went out and rosalind put on her pretty woman's clothes again and after a while came back she turned to her father
i give myself to you for i am yours if there be truth in sight he said you are my daughter then she said to orlando i give myself to you for i am yours
if there be truth in sight he said you are my rosalind i will have no father if you be not he she said to the duke and to orlando i will have no husband if you be not he
so orlando and rosalind were married and oliver and celia and they lived happy ever after returning with the duke to the kingdom for frederick had been shown by a holy hermit the wickedness of his ways and so gave back the dukedom of his brother
and himself went into a monastery to pray for forgiveness the wedding was a merry one in the mossy glades of the forest a shepherd and shepherdess who had been friends with rosalind when she was herself disguised as a shepherd were married on the same day
and all with such pretty feastings and merrymakings as could be nowhere within four walls
she was an honest woman and very sensible although completely uneducated
after many scenes of hysterics and reproaches condescended to enter into a kind of contract with me which she kept throughout our married life she was considerably older than i and besides she always kept a clove or something in her mouth
there was so much swinishness in my soul and honesty too of a sort as to tell her straight out that i couldn't be absolutely faithful to her this confession drove her to frenzy but yet
she seems in a way to have liked my brutal frankness she thought it showed i was unwilling to deceive her if i warned her like this beforehand and for a jealous woman you know that's the first consideration
after many tears an unwritten contract was drawn up between us first that i would never leave marfa petrovna and would always be her husband secondly that i would never absent myself without her permission
thirdly that i would never set up a permanent mistress fourthly in return for this marfa petrovna gave me a free hand with the maidservants but only with her secret knowledge fifthly
marfa petrovna was fairly at ease she was a sensible woman
as a dissolute profligate incapable of real love but a sensible woman and a jealous woman are two very different things and that's where the trouble came in but to judge some people impartially
we must renounce certain preconceived opinions and our habitual attitude to the ordinary people about us i have reason to have faith in your judgment
perhaps you have already heard a great deal that was ridiculous and absurd about marfa petrovna she certainly had some very ridiculous ways but i tell you frankly
of which i was the cause well and that's enough i think by way of a decorous
when we quarrelled i usually held my tongue and did not irritate her and that gentlemanly conduct rarely failed to attain its object it influenced her it pleased her indeed
my explanation is that marfa petrovna was an ardent and impressionable woman and simply
would you believe it would you believe it too that marfa petrovna was positively angry with me at first for my persistent silence about your sister for my careless reception of her
well of course marfa petrovna told avdotya romanovna every detail about me she had the unfortunate habit of telling literally everyone all our family secrets and continually complaining of me
i don't mind betting that you too have heard something of the sort already i have
is that true don't refer to those vulgar tales i beg said svidrigailov with disgust and annoyance
whom you treated badly i beg you to drop the subject svidrigailov interrupted again with obvious impatience was that the footman who came to you after death to fill your pipe
you told me about it yourself raskolnikov felt more and more irritated svidrigailov looked at him attentively and raskolnikov fancied he caught a flash of spiteful mockery in that look but svidrigailov restrained himself
and answered very civilly yes it was i see that you too are extremely interested and shall feel it my duty to satisfy your curiosity at the first opportunity upon my soul
judge how grateful i must be to marfa petrovna for having repeated to avdotya romanovna such mysterious and interesting gossip about me i dare not guess what impression it made on her
but in any case it worked in my interests with all avdotya romanovna's natural aversion and in spite of my invariably gloomy and repellent aspect
feel pity for me pity for a lost soul and if once a girl's heart is moved to pity it's more dangerous than anything she is bound to want to save him
to bring him to his senses and lift him up and draw him to nobler aims and restore him to new life and usefulness well we all know how far such dreams can go
i saw at once that the bird was flying into the cage of herself and i too made ready
there's no need as you know it all ended in smoke hang it all what a lot i am drinking do you know i always from the very beginning
regretted that it wasn't your sister's fate to be born in the second
as the daughter of a reigning prince or some governor or pro consul in asia minor she would undoubtedly have been one of those who would endure martyrdom and would have smiled
when they branded her bosom with hot pincers and she would have gone to it of herself and in the fourth or fifth century she would have walked away into the egyptian desert and would have stayed there thirty years
razumihin he's said to be a sensible fellow his surname suggests it indeed he's probably a divinity student well he'd better look after your sister i believe i understand her
and i am proud of it but at the beginning of an acquaintance as you know one is apt to be more heedless and stupid one doesn't see clearly hang it all why is she so handsome
it's not my fault in fact it began on my side with a most irresistible physical desire avdotya romanovna is awfully chaste incredibly and phenomenally so take note
i tell you this about your sister as a fact she is almost morbidly chaste in spite of her broad intelligence and it will stand in her way there happened to be a girl in the house then parasha
a black eyed wench whom i had never seen before she had just come from another village very pretty but incredibly stupid she burst into tears
one day after dinner
and with flashing eyes insisted on my leaving poor parasha alone it was almost our first conversation by ourselves i of course was only too pleased to obey her wishes
tried to appear disconcerted embarrassed in fact played my part not badly then came interviews mysterious conversations exhortations entreaties
a weapon which never fails one it's the well known resource flattery nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery
if there's the hundredth part of a false note in speaking the truth it leads to a discord and that leads to trouble but if all to the last note is false in flattery it is just as agreeable
i can never remember without laughter how i once seduced a lady who was devoted to her husband her children and her principles what fun it was and how little trouble and the lady really had principles
and prostrate before her purity i flattered her shamelessly and as soon as i succeeded in getting a pressure of the hand even a glance from her i would reproach myself for having snatched it by force
and would declare that she had resisted
in fact i triumphed while my lady remained firmly convinced that she was innocent chaste and faithful to all her duties and obligations and had succumbed
and how angry she was with me when i explained to her at last that it was my sincere conviction that she was just as eager as i poor marfa petrovna was awfully weak on the side of flattery and if
i had only cared to i might have had all her property settled on me during her lifetime i am drinking an awful lot of wine now and talking too much
if i mention now that i was beginning to produce the same effect on avdotya romanovna but i was stupid and impatient and spoiled it all avdotya romanovna had several times and one time in particular
would you believe it there was sometimes a light in them which frightened her and grew stronger and stronger and more unguarded till it was hateful to her no need to go into detail but we parted there i acted stupidly again
never mind my being drunk at this moment and having had a whole glass of wine i am speaking the truth i assure you that this glance has haunted my dreams the very rustle of her dress
but by then it was impossible and imagine what i did then to what a pitch of stupidity a man can be brought by frenzy
i reflected that avdotya romanovna was after all a beggar
all my money thirty thousand roubles i could have realised then if she would run away with me here to petersburg of course i should have vowed eternal love rapture and so on do you know
i was so wild about her at that time that if she had told me to poison marfa petrovna or to cut her throat and to marry herself it would have been done at once but it ended in the catastrophe
of which you know already you can fancy how frantic i was when i heard that marfa petrovna had got hold of that scoundrelly attorney luzhin and had almost made a match between them which would really
as i was proposing wouldn't it
you interesting young man svidrigailov struck the table with his fist impatiently he was flushed raskolnikov saw clearly that the glass or glass and a half of champagne that he had sipped
almost unconsciously was affecting him and he resolved to take advantage of the opportunity
that you have come to petersburg with designs on my sister he said directly to svidrigailov in order to irritate him further oh nonsense said svidrigailov seeming to rouse himself why i told you besides your sister
will you answer for it that avdotya romanovna regarded me with aversion from some words you've dropped i notice that you still have designs and of course evil ones on dounia
and mean to carry them out promptly what have i dropped words like that svidrigailov asked in naive dismay taking not the slightest notice
why you are dropping them even now
me afraid afraid of you you have rather to be afraid of me cher ami but what nonsense i've drunk too much though i see that i was almost saying too much again damn the wine
he snatched up the champagne bottle and flung it without ceremony out of the window philip brought the water that's all nonsense said svidrigailov wetting a towel and putting it to his head
you told me so before did i i've forgotten but i couldn't have told you so for certain for i had not even seen my betrothed i only meant to but now
and it's a settled thing and if it weren't that i have business that can't be put off i would have taken you to see them at once
only ten minutes left see look at the watch
only not now for you'll soon have to be off you have to go to the right and i to the left do you know that madame
i know what you're thinking that she's the woman whose girl they say drowned herself in the winter come are you listening she arranged it all for me you're bored she said you want something to fill up your time
for you know i am a gloomy depressed person do you think i'm light hearted no i'm gloomy i do no harm but sit in a corner without speaking a word for three days at a time
she told me the father was a broken down retired official
with his legs paralysed the mamma she said was a sensible woman there is a son serving in the provinces but he doesn't help there is a daughter who is married but she doesn't visit them
and they've two little nephews on their hands as though their own children were not enough and they've taken from school their youngest daughter a girl who'll be sixteen in another month
she was for me we went there how funny it was i present myself a landowner a widower
with connections with a fortune
but it's fascinating isn't it it is fascinating ha ha you should have seen how i talked to the papa and mamma
to have seen me at that moment she comes in curtseys you can fancy still in a short frock an unopened bud flushing like a sunset she had been told no doubt
i don't know how you feel about female faces but to my mind these sixteen years these childish eyes shyness and tears of bashfulness are better than beauty
and she is a perfect little picture too fair hair in little curls like a lamb's full little rosy lips tiny feet a charmer
i told them i was in a hurry owing to domestic circumstances
that is the day before yesterday we were betrothed when i go now i take her on my knee at once and keep her there well she flushes like a sunset and i kiss her every minute
here you have what is called
i sat her on my knee yesterday and i suppose rather too unceremoniously she flushed crimson and the tears started but she didn't want to show it
she suddenly flung herself on my neck for the first time of her own accord put her little arms round me kissed me and vowed that she would be an obedient faithful and good wife would make me happy
would devote all her life every minute of her life would sacrifice everything everything
she wants nothing nothing more from me no presents you'll admit that to hear such a confession alone from an angel of sixteen in a muslin frock with little curls
with a flush of maiden shyness in her cheeks and tears of enthusiasm in her eyes is rather fascinating isn't it fascinating
excites your sensuality will you really make such a marriage why of course everyone thinks of himself and he lives most gaily who knows best how to deceive himself ha ha
have mercy on me my good friend i am a sinful man ha ha ha
though though you had your own reasons i understand it all now i am always fond of children very fond of them laughed svidrigailov i can tell you one curious instance of it
can find a great deal yes upon my soul
and all the rest give themselves up to debauchery from the first hour the town reeked of its familiar odours i chanced to be in a frightful den i like my dens dirty
such as i never saw in my day yes there you have progress all of a sudden i saw a little girl of thirteen nicely dressed dancing with a specialist in that line with another one
seized her and began whirling her round and performing before her everyone laughed and i like your public even the cancan public they laughed and shouted serves her right serves her right
i at once fixed on my plan sat down by the mother and began by saying that i too was a stranger and that people here were ill bred
they were lodging in a miserable little hole and had only just arrived from the country she told me that she and her daughter could only regard my acquaintance as an honour i found out
that they had nothing of their own and had come to town upon some legal business i proffered my services and money i learnt that they had gone to the dancing saloon by mistake
and we are still friendly if you like we'll go and see them
muttered raskolnikov angrily svidrigailov laughed heartily finally he called philip paid his bill and began getting up i say but i am drunk
it's been a pleasure i should rather think it must be a pleasure cried raskolnikov getting up no doubt it is a pleasure for a worn out profligate to describe such adventures
with a monstrous project of the same sort in his mind especially under such circumstances and to such a man as me it's stimulating well if you come to that svidrigailov answered
but enough i sincerely regret not having had more talk with you but i shan't lose sight of you only wait a bit svidrigailov walked out of the restaurant
raskolnikov walked out after him svidrigailov was not however very drunk the wine had affected him for a moment but it was passing off every minute he was preoccupied with something
of importance and was frowning he was apparently excited and uneasy in anticipation of something his manner to raskolnikov had changed during the last few minutes and he was ruder
and more sneering every moment raskolnikov noticed all this and he too was uneasy he became very suspicious of svidrigailov and resolved to follow him
raskolnikov walked after him what's this cried svidrigailov turning round i thought i said it means that i am not going to lose sight of you now what
both stood still and gazed at one another as though measuring their strength
raskolnikov observed harshly i am positive that you have not given up your designs on my sister but are pursuing them more actively than ever i have learnt that my sister received a letter this morning
you have hardly been able to sit still all this time you may have unearthed a wife on the way but that means nothing i should like to make certain myself
raskolnikov could hardly have said himself what he wanted and of what he wished to make certain upon my word i'll call the police call away again they stood for a minute
facing each other at last svidrigailov's face changed having satisfied himself that raskolnikov was not frightened at his threat he assumed a mirthful and friendly air what a fellow
i purposely refrained from referring to your affair though i am devoured by curiosity it's a fantastic affair i've put it off till another time but you're enough to rouse the dead well
let us go only i warn you beforehand i am only going home for a moment to get some money then i shall lock up the flat take a cab and go to spend the evening at the islands now now are you going to follow me
i'm coming to your lodgings not to see you but sofya semyonovna to say i'm sorry not to have been at the funeral that's as you like but sofya semyonovna is not at home
the patroness of some orphan asylums whom i used to know years ago
i told her too the story of sofya semyonovna in full detail suppressing nothing it produced an indescribable effect on her that's why sofya semyonovna has been invited to call to day at the x
it teaches one to show delicacy and to listen at doors ah that's it is it laughed svidrigailov yes i should have been surprised if you had let that pass after all that has happened
ha ha though i did understand something of the pranks you had been up to
what was the meaning of it perhaps i am quite behind the times and can't understand for goodness sake explain it my dear boy expound the latest theories you couldn't have heard anything
you're making it all up but i'm not talking about that though i did hear something no i'm talking of the way you keep sighing and groaning now
the schiller in you is in revolt every moment and now you tell me not to listen at doors if that's how you feel go and inform the police that you had this mischance
you made a little mistake in your theory but if you are convinced that one mustn't listen at doors but one may murder old women at one's pleasure you'd better be off to america and make haste run young man
there may still be time i'm speaking sincerely haven't you the money i'll give you the fare i'm not thinking of that at all raskolnikov interrupted with disgust i understand
but don't put yourself out don't discuss it if you don't want to i understand the questions you are worrying over moral ones aren't they duties of citizen and man
lay them all aside they are nothing to you now ha ha you'll say you are still a man and a citizen if so you ought not to have got into this coil
it's no use taking up a job you are not fit for well you'd better shoot yourself or don't you want to you seem trying to enrage me to make me leave you what a queer fellow but here we are
welcome to the staircase you see that's the way to sofya semyonovna look there is no one at home don't you believe me ask kapernaumov she leaves the key with him
here is madame de kapernaumov herself hey what she is rather deaf has she gone out where did you hear she is not in and won't be till late in the evening probably
the bureau is locked the flat is locked and here we are again on the stairs shall we take a cab i'm going to the islands would you like a lift i'll take this carriage ah
you are tired of it come for a drive i believe it will come on to rain never mind we'll put down the hood svidrigailov was already in the carriage raskolnikov decided that his suspicions
were at least for that moment unjust without answering a word he turned and walked back towards the hay market if he had only turned round on his way he might have seen svidrigailov get out
not a hundred paces off dismiss the cab and walk along the pavement but he had turned the corner and could see nothing intense disgust drew him away from svidrigailov
to think that i could for one instant have looked for help from that coarse brute that depraved sensualist and blackguard he cried raskolnikov's judgment was uttered too lightly and hastily
there was something about svidrigailov which gave him a certain original even a mysterious character as concerned his sister raskolnikov was convinced that svidrigailov would not leave her in peace
on the bridge he stood by the railing and began gazing at the water and his sister was standing close by him he met her at the entrance to the bridge but passed by without seeing her
dounia had never met him like this in the street before and was struck with dismay she stood still
suddenly she saw svidrigailov coming quickly from the direction of the hay market he seemed to be approaching cautiously he did not go on to the bridge but stood aside on the pavement
she fancied he was signalling to beg her not to speak to her brother but to come to him that was what dounia did she stole by her brother and went up to svidrigailov let us make haste away
svidrigailov whispered to her i don't want rodion romanovitch to know of our meeting i must tell you i've been sitting with him in the restaurant close by where he looked me up and i had great difficulty in getting rid of him
he has somehow heard of my letter to you and suspects something it wasn't you who told him of course but if not you who then well we've turned the corner now dounia interrupted
and my brother won't see us i have to tell you
speak to me here you can tell it all in the street in the first place i can't say it in the street secondly you must hear sofya semyonovna too and thirdly i will show you some papers
oh well if you won't agree to come with me i shall refuse to give any explanation and go away at once but i beg you not to forget that a very curious secret of your beloved brother's
is entirely in my keeping dounia stood still hesitating and looked at svidrigailov with searching eyes what are you afraid of he observed quietly the town is not the country
and even in the country you did me more harm than i did you have you prepared sofya semyonovna no i have not said a word to her and am not quite certain whether she is at home now
but most likely she is she has buried her stepmother to day she is not likely to go visiting on such a day
chapter sixteen an exposition and a tragedy
you may have wondered thorndyke commenced when he had poured out the coffee and handed round the cups what induced me to undertake the minute investigation of so apparently simple and straightforward a case perhaps i had better explain that first
and let you see what was the real starting point of the inquiry when you mister marchmont and mister stephen introduced the case to me
there were one or two which immediately attracted my attention in the first place there was the will
it was perfectly unnecessary it contained no new matter it expressed no changed intentions it met no new circumstances as known to the testator in short it was not really a new will at all
but merely a repetition of the first one drafted in different and less suitable language it differed only in introducing a certain ambiguity from which the original was free it created the possibility that in certain circumstances
not known to or anticipated by the testator john blackmore might become the principal beneficiary contrary to the obvious wishes of the testator the next point that impressed me was the manner of missus wilson's death
she died of cancer now people do not die suddenly and unexpectedly of cancer this terrible disease stands almost alone
months in advance a person who has an incurable cancer is a person whose death may be predicted with certainty and its date fixed within comparatively narrow limits and now observe
the remarkable series of coincidences that are brought into light when we consider this peculiarity of the disease
mister jeffrey's second will was signed on the twelfth of november of last year at a time that is to say when the existence of cancer must have been known to missus wilson's doctor and might have been known to any of her relatives who chose to inquire after her
then you will observe that the remarkable change in mister jeffrey's habits coincides in the most singular way with the same events the cancer must have been detectable as early as september of last year about the time in fact
at which missus wilson made her will mister jeffrey went to the inn at the beginning of october from that time his habits were totally changed and i can demonstrate to you that a change
came into existence about the time when missus wilson was first known to be suffering from cancer this struck me as a very suggestive fact then there is the extraordinarily opportune date
of mister jeffrey's death missus wilson died on the twelfth of march mister jeffrey was found dead on the fifteenth of march having apparently died on the fourteenth on which day he was seen alive
if he had died only three days sooner he would have predeceased missus wilson and her property would never have devolved on him at all while if he had lived only a day or two longer
he would have learned of her death and would certainly have made a new will or codicil in his nephew's favour circumstances therefore conspired in the most singular manner in favour of john blackmore
but there is yet another coincidence jeffrey's body was found by the merest chance the day after his death but it might have remained undiscovered for weeks or even months and if it had
then missus wilson's next of kin would certainly have contested john blackmore's claim and probably with success on the ground that jeffrey died before missus wilson but all this uncertainty
is provided for by the circumstance that mister jeffrey paid his rent personally and prematurely to the porter on the fourteenth of march thus establishing beyond question the fact that he was alive on that date and yet further
in case the porter's memory should be untrustworthy or his statement doubted jeffrey furnished a signed and dated document the cheque which could be produced in a court to furnish incontestable proof of survival to sum up this part of the evidence
here was a will which enabled john blackmore to inherit the fortune of a man who almost certainly had no intention of bequeathing it to him the wording of that will seemed to be adjusted to the peculiarities of missus wilson's disease
and the death of the testator occurred under a peculiar set of circumstances which seemed to be exactly adjusted to the wording of the will or to put it in another way the wording of the will and the time the manner and the circumstances of the testator's death
all seemed to be precisely adjusted to the fact that the approximate date of missus wilson's death was known some months before it occurred now you must admit that this compound group of coincidences all conspiring to a single end
the enrichment of john blackmore has a very singular appearance coincidences are common enough in real life but we cannot accept too many at a time
thorndyke paused and mister marchmont who had listened with close attention nodded as he glanced at his silent partner
my first idea thorndyke resumed was that john blackmore taking advantage of the mental enfeeblement produced by the opium habit had dictated this will to jeffrey it was then that i sought permission to inspect jeffrey's chambers
to learn what i could about him and to see for myself whether they presented the dirty and disorderly appearance characteristic of the regular opium smoker's den but when during a walk into the city i thought over the case
it seemed to me that this explanation hardly met the facts then i endeavoured to think of some other explanation and looking over my notes i observed two points that seemed worth considering
was really acquainted with jeffrey blackmore both being strangers who had accepted his identity on his own statement
with the single exception of his brother john had ever seen jeffrey at the inn what was the import of these two facts probably they had none but still they suggested the desirability of considering the question
was the person who signed the will really jeffrey blackmore
and forged his signature to a false will seemed wildly improbable especially in view of the identification of the body but it involved no actual impossibility and it offered a complete explanation of the
otherwise inexplicable coincidences that i have mentioned i did not however for a moment think that this was the true explanation but i resolved to bear it in mind to test it when the opportunity arose
and consider it by the light of any fresh facts that i might acquire the new facts came sooner than i had expected that same evening
and found mister stephen in the chambers by him i was informed that jeffrey was a learned orientalist with a quite expert knowledge of the cuneiform writing and even as he was telling me this i looked over his shoulder
and saw a cuneiform inscription hanging on the wall upside down now of this there could be only one reasonable explanation disregarding the fact that no one would screw the suspension plates on a frame without ascertaining which was the right way up
he was not blind though his sight was defective the frame was thirty inches long and the individual characters nearly an inch in length about the size of the d eighteen letters of snellen's test types
at a distance of fifty five feet there was i repeat only one reasonable explanation which was that the person who had inhabited those chambers was not jeffrey blackmore this conclusion
received considerable support from a fact which i observed later but mention in this place on examining the soles of the shoes taken from the dead man's feet i found only the ordinary mud of the streets
there was no trace of the peculiar gravelly mud that adhered to my own boots and jervis's and which came from the square of the inn yet the porter distinctly stated that the deceased after paying the rent
walked back towards his chambers across the square the mud of which should therefore have been conspicuous on his shoes thus in a moment a wildly speculative hypothesis had assumed a high degree of probability
when mister stephen was gone jervis and i looked over the chambers thoroughly and then another curious fact came to light on the wall
all of which showed recent damp spots now apart from the consideration that jeffrey who had been at the trouble and expense of collecting these valuable prints would hardly have allowed them to rot on his walls there arose the question how came they to be damp
there was a gas stove in the room
it was winter weather when the stove would naturally be pretty constantly alight how came the walls to be so damp the answer seemed to be that the stove had not been constantly alight but had been lighted only occasionally
this suggestion was borne out by a further examination of the rooms in the kitchen there were practically no stores and hardly any arrangements even for simple bachelor cooking the bedroom offered the same suggestion
one is that the spectacles found by us at kennington lane were undoubtedly jeffrey's
as that there exists another face exactly like jeffrey's face the second fact is that the description of jeffrey tallies completely with that of the sick man graves as given by doctor jervis and the third is that when jeffrey was seen by mister hindley
there was no sign of his being addicted to the taking of morphine the first and second facts you will agree constitute complete identification yes said marchmont i think we must admit the identification as being quite conclusive
though the evidence is of a kind that is more striking
you will not have that complaint to make against the next item of evidence said thorndyke it is after the lawyer's own heart as you shall hear a few days ago i wrote to mister stephen asking him
if he possessed a recent photograph of his uncle jeffrey he had one and he sent it to me by return this portrait i showed to doctor jervis and asked him if he had ever seen the person it represented after examining it attentively
without any hint whatever from me he identified it as the portrait of the sick man graves indeed exclaimed marchmont this is most important
i have not the slightest doubt i replied that the portrait is that of mister graves excellent said marchmont rubbing his hands gleefully this will be much more convincing to a jury pray go on doctor thorndyke
that said thorndyke completes the first part of my investigation we had now reached a definite demonstrable fact and that fact as you see disposed at once of the main question the genuineness of the will
for if the man at kennington lane was jeffrey blackmore then the man at new inn was not but it was the latter who had signed the will therefore the will was not signed by jeffrey blackmore that is to say it was a forgery
the case was complete for the purposes of the civil proceedings the rest of my investigations had reference to the criminal prosecution that was inevitable shall i proceed or is your interest confined to the will hang the will exclaimed stephen
i think there is no doubt of it replied thorndyke then said marchmont we will hear the rest of the argument if you please very well said thorndyke as the evidence stands we have proved that jeffrey blackmore
was a prisoner in the house in kennington lane and that some one was personating him at new inn that some one we have seen was in all probability john blackmore
we may note in passing that weiss and the coachman were apparently one and the same person they were never seen together when weiss was present the coachman was not available even for so urgent a service as the obtaining of an antidote to the poison
weiss always appeared some time after jervis's arrival and disappeared some time before his departure in each case sufficiently long to allow of a change of disguise but we need not labour the point
as it is not of primary importance to return to weiss he was clearly heavily disguised as we see by his unwillingness to show himself even by the light of a candle but there is an item of positive evidence on this point
these spectacles had very peculiar optical properties when you looked through them they had the properties of plain glass when you looked at them they had the appearance of lenses but only one kind of glass possesses these properties
namely that which like an ordinary watch glass has curved parallel surfaces but for what purpose could a person wear watch glass spectacles clearly not to assist his vision the only alternative is disguise
to a person of normal eyesight it is nothing of the kind for if he wears spectacles suited for long sight he cannot see distinctly through them at all while if he wears concave or near sight glasses the effort to see through them
on the stage the difficulty is met by using spectacles of plain window glass but in real life this would hardly do the property spectacles would be detected at once and give rise to suspicion the personator
is therefore in this dilemma if he wears actual spectacles he cannot see through them if he wears sham spectacles of plain glass his disguise will probably be detected there is only one way out of the difficulty and that not a very satisfactory one
in lieu of a better it is that of using watch glass spectacles such as i have described
in the first place they confirm our opinion that weiss was wearing a disguise but
the second inference is then that these spectacles were prepared to be worn under more trying conditions of light out of doors for instance the third inference is that weiss was a man with normal eyesight for otherwise he could have worn real spectacles
suited to the state of his vision these are inferences by the way to which we may return but these glasses furnish a much more important suggestion on the floor of the bedroom at new inn i found some fragments of glass which had been trodden on
by joining one or two of them together we have been able to make out the general character of the object of which they formed parts my assistant who was formerly a watch maker judged that object to be the thin crystal glass of a lady's watch
furnishes proof in two respects that this was not a watch glass in the first place
i found that its curve was part of an ellipse but watch glasses nowadays are invariably circular in the second place watch glasses are ground on the edge to a single bevel to snap into the bezel or frame but the edge of this object
was ground to a double bevel like the edge of a spectacle glass which fits into a groove in the frame
was that this was a spectacle glass but if so it was part of a pair of spectacles identical in properties with those worn by mister weiss the importance of this conclusion emerges when we consider the exceptional character
of mister weiss's spectacles they were not merely peculiar or remarkable they were probably unique it is exceedingly likely that there is not in the entire world another similar pair of spectacles
whence the finding of these fragments of glass in the bedroom establishes a considerable probability that mister weiss was at some time in the chambers at new inn and now let us gather up the threads of this part of the argument
who was he in the first place we find him committing a secret crime from which john blackmore alone will benefit this suggests
that he was john blackmore then we find that he was a man of normal eyesight who was wearing spectacles for the purpose of disguise but the tenant of new inn
and whom we will for the present assume to have been john blackmore was a man with normal eyesight who wore spectacles for disguise john blackmore did not reside at new inn
but weiss resided at a place within easy reach of new inn john blackmore must have had possession and control of the person of jeffrey but weiss had possession and control of the person of jeffrey
weiss wore spectacles of a certain peculiar and probably unique character but portions of such spectacles were found in the chambers at new inn the overwhelming probability therefore is that weiss and the tenant of new inn
were one and the same person and that that person was john blackmore that said mister winwood is a very plausible argument but you observe sir that it contains an undistributed middle term
thorndyke smiled genially i think he forgave winwood everything for that remark you are quite right sir he said it does and for that reason the demonstration is not absolute but we must not forget
what logicians seem occasionally to overlook that the undistributed middle while it interferes with absolute proof may be quite consistent with a degree of probability that approaches very near to certainty both the bertillon system
and the english fingerprint system involve a process of reasoning in which the middle term is undistributed but the great probabilities are accepted in practice as equivalent to certainties mister winwood grunted a grudging assent
we have proved that the sick man graves was jeffrey blackmore that the tenant of new inn was john blackmore and that the man weiss was also john blackmore we now have to prove that john and jeffrey were together in the chambers at new inn on the night of jeffrey's death
we know that two persons and two persons only came from kennington lane to new inn but one of those persons was the tenant of new inn that is john blackmore who was the other
jeffrey is known by us to have been at kennington lane his body was found on the following morning in the room at new inn no third person
no third person is known to have arrived at new inn the inference by exclusion is that the second person the woman was jeffrey
but john was personating jeffrey and was made up to resemble him very closely if jeffrey were undisguised the two men would be almost exactly alike which would be very noticeable in any case and suspicious after the death of one of them therefore
jeffrey would have to be disguised in some way and what disguise could be simpler and more effective than the one that i suggest was used again it was unavoidable that some one the cabman should know that jeffrey was not alone when he came to the inn that night
if the fact had leaked out and it had become known that a man had accompanied him to his chambers some suspicion might have arisen
who was directly interested in his brother's death but if it had transpired that jeffrey was accompanied by a woman there would have been less suspicion and that suspicion would not have pointed to john blackmore thus all the general probabilities are in favour
of the hypothesis that this woman was jeffrey blackmore there is however an item of positive evidence that strongly supports this view when i examined the clothing of the deceased i found on the trousers a horizontal crease on each leg
as if the trousers had been turned up half way to the knees this appearance is quite understandable if we suppose that the trousers were worn under a skirt and were turned up so that they should not be accidentally seen otherwise it is quite incomprehensible
is it not rather strange said marchmont
i think not
you have heard jervis's description of his condition that of a mere automaton you know that without his spectacles he was practically blind and that he could not have worn them since we found them at the house in kennington lane
probably his head was wrapped up in the veil and the skirt and mantle put on afterwards but in any case his condition rendered him practically devoid of will power that is all the evidence i have to prove that the unknown woman was jeffrey
it is not conclusive but it is convincing enough for our purpose seeing that the case against john blackmore does not depend upon it your case against him is on the charge of murder i presume said stephen undoubtedly
and you will notice that the statements made by the supposed jeffrey to the porter hinting at suicide are now important evidence by the light of what we know the announcement of intended suicide becomes the announcement of intended murder
it conclusively disproves what it was intended to prove that jeffrey died by his own hand yes i see that said stephen and then after a pause he asked did you identify missus schallibaum
you have told us nothing about her i have considered her as being outside the case as far as i am concerned replied thorndyke she was an accessory my business was with the principal but of course she will be swept up in the net
the evidence that convicts john blackmore will convict her i have not troubled about her identity if john blackmore is married
yes but missus john blackmore is not much like missus schallibaum excepting that she has a cast in the left eye she is a dark woman with very heavy eyebrows
and resembles her in the one feature that is unchangeable do you know if her christian name happens to be pauline yes it is she was a miss pauline hagenbeck a member of an american theatrical company what made you ask
the name which jervis heard poor jeffrey struggling to pronounce seemed to me to resemble pauline more than any other name there is one little point that strikes me said marchmont is it not rather remarkable that the porter
should have noticed no difference between the body of jeffrey and the living man whom he knew by sight and who must after all have been distinctly different in appearance
you raised that question thorndyke replied for that very difficulty presented itself to me at the beginning of the case but on thinking it over i decided that it was an imaginary difficulty assuming as we do that there was a good deal of resemblance between the two men
put yourself in the porter's place and follow his mental processes he is informed that a dead man is lying on the bed in mister blackmore's rooms naturally he assumes that the dead man is mister blackmore who by the way
if he notes any difference of appearance
looks somewhat different from the same man alive i take it as evidence of great acuteness on the part of john blackmore that he should have calculated so cleverly
but the erroneous reasoning which every one would base on the porter's conclusions for since the body was actually jeffrey's and was identified by the porter as that of his tenant it has been assumed by every one that no question was possible
as to the identity of jeffrey blackmore
may we take it that we have now heard all the evidence yes replied thorndyke that is my case have you given information to the police stephen asked eagerly yes as soon as i had obtained the statement of the cabman ridley
and felt that i had enough evidence to secure a conviction i called at scotland yard and had an interview with the assistant commissioner the case is in the hands of superintendent miller of the criminal investigation department a most acute and energetic officer
i have been expecting to hear that the warrant has been executed for mister miller is usually very punctilious in keeping me informed of the progress of the cases to which i introduce him we shall hear to morrow no doubt and for the present said marchmont
i shall enter a caveat all the same said mister winwood that doesn't seem very necessary marchmont objected the evidence that we have heard is amply sufficient to ensure a conviction and there will be plenty more when the police go into the case
and a conviction on the charges of forgery and murder would of course invalidate the second will i shall enter a caveat all the same repeated mister winwood as the two partners showed a disposition to become heated over this question
thorndyke suggested that they might discuss it at leisure by the light of subsequent events acting on this hint for it was now close upon midnight our visitors prepared to depart and were in fact just making their way towards the door when the bell rang
thorndyke flung open the door and as he recognized his visitor greeted him with evident satisfaction ha mister miller
these gentlemen are mister stephen blackmore and his solicitors mister marchmont and mister winwood you know doctor jervis i think the officer bowed to our friends and remarked
you haven't let that villain escape i hope stephen exclaimed well
if you would be so kind said thorndyke motioning the officer to a chair
and forthwith began his story as soon as we had your information we procured a warrant for the arrest of both parties and then i went straight to their flat with inspector badger and a sergeant
we kept a watch on the premises and this morning about the time appointed
which we did as fast as we could race but they got to their landing first and we were only just in time to see them nip in and shut the door however it seemed that we had them safe enough
so we sent the sergeant to get a locksmith to pick the lock or force the door while we kept on ringing the bell about three minutes after the sergeant left i happened to look out of the landing window and saw a hansom pull up opposite the flats
and hang me if i didn't see our two friends getting into the cab it seems that there was a small lift inside the flat communicating with the kitchen
well of course we raced down the stairs like acrobats but by the time we got to the bottom the cab was off with a fine start we ran out into victoria street and there we could see it half way down the street and going like a chariot race we managed to pick up another hansom
and told the cabby to keep the other one in sight and away we went like the very deuce along victoria street and broad sanctuary across parliament square over westminster bridge and along york road we kept the other beggar in sight but we couldn't gain an inch on him
then we turned into waterloo station and as we were driving up the slope we met another hansom coming down
however i took a chance i remembered that the southampton express was due to start about this time and i took a short cut across the lines and made for the platform that it starts from
the man and the woman managed to scramble into one of the rear compartments and badger and i raced up the platform like mad
and we both sprinted harder than ever and just hopped on the foot board of the guard's van as the train began to get up speed the guard couldn't risk putting us off
which suited us exactly as we could watch the train on both sides from the look out and we did watch i can tell you for our friend in front had seen us his head was out of the window as we climbed on to the foot board however nothing happened until we stopped at southampton west
for we naturally expected our friends to make a rush for the exit but they didn't
that they didn't slip away across the line from the off side but still there was no sign of them then i walked up the train to the compartment which i had seen them enter and there they were apparently fast asleep in the corner by the off side window
the man leaning back with his mouth open and the woman resting against him with her head on his shoulder she gave me quite a turn when i went in to look at them for she had her eyes half closed and seemed to be looking round at me with a most horrible expression
they were dead i suppose said thorndyke yes sir stone dead
he held up two tiny yellow glass tubes each labelled hypodermic tabloids
ha exclaimed thorndyke this fellow was well up in alkaloidal poisons it seems
these tubes each contained twenty tabloids a thirty second of a grain altogether so we may assume that about twelve times the medicinal dose was swallowed death must have occurred in a few minutes and a merciful death too
a more merciful death than they deserved exclaimed stephen when one thinks of the misery and suffering that they inflicted on poor old uncle jeffrey i would sooner have had them hanged it's better as it is sir
to raise any questions in detail at the inquest the publicity of a trial for murder would have been very unpleasant for you
but there i mustn't run down my brother officers and it's easy to be wise after the event
patricia speaks frankly it was lawyer watson's suggestion that she was being unjust to beth and louise in encouraging them to hope they might inherit elmhurst
that finally decided aunt jane to end all misunderstandings and inform her nieces of the fact that she had made a final disposition of her property so one morning she sent word asking them all into her room
and when the nieces appeared they found uncle john and the lawyer already in their aunt's presence there was an air of impressive formality pervading the room although miss merrick's brother at least was as ignorant as her nieces
of the reason why they had been summoned patsy came in last hobbling actively on her crutches although the leg was now nearly recovered and seated herself somewhat in the rear of the apartment
aunt jane looked into one expectant face after another with curious interest and then broke the silence by saying gravely but in more gentle tones than she was accustomed to use
i am old and must soon pass away and instead of leaving you and your parents who would be my legitimate heirs to squabble over my property when i am gone i decided to excute a will
bequeathing my estate to some one who would take proper care of it and maintain it in a creditable manner i had no personal acquaintance with any of you but judged that one out of the three might serve my purpose and therefore invited you all here
by this time the hearts of louise and beth were fluttering with excitement and even patsy looked interested uncle john sat a little apart watching them with an amused smile upon his face
and the lawyer sat silent with his eyes fixed upon a pattern in the rug in arriving at a decision which i may say i have succeeded in doing continued aunt jane calmly
and selected the niece i prefer to become my heiress you cannot accuse of injustice because none of you had a right to expect anything of me but i will say this that i am well pleased with all three of you
and now wish that i had taken pains to form your acquaintance earlier in life you might have cheered my old age and rendered it less lonely and dull well said jane remarked uncle john nodding his head approvingly
she did not notice the interruption but presently continued some days ago i asked my lawyer mister watson to draw up my will it was at once prepared and signed and now stands as my last will and testament
i have given to you louise the sum of five thousand dollars louise laughed nervously and threw out her hands with an indifferent gesture many thanks aunt she said lightly
to you beth continued miss merrick i have given the same sum beth's heart sank and tears forced themselves into her eyes in spite of her efforts to restrain them she said nothing
aunt jane turned to her brother i have also provided for you john in the sum of five thousand dollars
he exclaimed astounded why suguration jane i don't
if you take care of the money john it will last you as long as you live
shaking his little round body as if he had met with the most amusing thing that had ever happened in his life aunt jane stared at him while louise and beth looked their astonishment but patsy's clear laughter rang above uncle john's gasping chuckles
i hope dear uncle said she mischievously that when poor aunt jane is gone you'll be able to buy a new necktie he looked at her whimsically and wiped the tears from his eyes thank you jane
said the little man to his sister it's a lot of money and i'll be proud to own it why did you laugh demanded aunt jane i just happened to think that our old dad once said i'd never be worth a dollar in all my life
what would he say now jane if he knew i stood good to have five thousand if i can manage to outlive you she turned from him with an expression of scorn in addition to these bequests said she
i have left five thousand to the boy and twenty thousand to mister watson
will go to patricia for a moment the room was intensely still then patricia said
you may as well make another will aunt i'll not touch a penny of your money why not asked the woman almost fiercely
ah aunt can't you understand without my speaking no said the other but a flush crossed her pale cheek nevertheless patsy arose and stumped to a position
directly in front of jane merrick where she rested on her crutches
and her plain little face was so white that every freckle showed distinctly there was a time years ago she began in a low voice when you were very rich and your sister violet my mother
was very poor her health was bad and she had me to care for while my father was very ill with a fever
but for my sake she asked her rich sister to loan her a little money to tide her over her period of want
retorted the elder woman stubbornly they were after me like a drove of wolves every merrick of them all and they would have ruined me if i had let them bleed me as they wished so far as my mother is concerned that's a lie
said patsy quietly she never appealed to you but that once
to earn money in her own poor way the result was that she died and i was left to the care of strangers until my father was well enough to support me she paused and again the room seemed unnaturally still
i'm sorry girl said aunt jane at last in trembling tones i was wrong i see it now and i am sorry i refused violet then i forgive you said patsy impulsively
i forgive you all aunt jane for through your own selfishness you cut yourself off from all your family
there'll be no grudge of mine to follow you to the grave aunt jane but her voice hardening i'll never touch a penny of the money that was denied my poor dead mother thank god the old dad and i are independent and can earn our own living
uncle john came to where patsy stood and put both arms around her pressing her crutches and all close to his breast then he released her and without a word stalked from the room leave me now
said aunt jane in a husky voice i want time to think patricia hobbled forward placed one hand caressingly upon the gray head and then bent and kissed aunt jane's withered cheek
but not a penny aunt remember not a penny will i take then she left the room followed by louise and beth both of whom were glad to be alone that they might conquer their bitter disappointment
louise however managed to accept the matter philosophically
chapter twenty one the end of the struggle being unable to obtain any supplies at wilmington lord cornwallis determined to march on into virginia
and to effect a junction with the british force under general arnold operating there
the marquis de la fayette who commanded the colonial forces here fell back just at this time
with a large french fleet arrived off the coast and after some consultation with general washington determined that the french fleet and the whole american army should operate together to crush the forces
under lord cornwallis the english were hoodwinked by reports that the french fleet was intended to operate against new york
that the true object of the expedition was seen a portion of the english fleet encountered them but after irregular actions lasting over five days the english drew off and retired to new york
the commander in chief then attempted to effect a diversion in order to draw off some of the enemy who were surrounding cornwallis the fort of new london was stormed after some desperate fighting
matters were in a most critical condition for although to the english the prospect of ultimate success appeared slight indeed the americans were in a desperate condition their immense and long continued efforts had been unattended
with any material success it was true that the british troops held no more ground now than they did at the end of the first year of the war but no efforts of the colonists had succeeded in wresting that ground from them
the people were exhausted and utterly disheartened business of all sorts was at a standstill money had ceased to circulate and the credit of congress stood so low that its bonds had ceased to have any value whatever
the soldiers were unpaid ill fed and mutinous if on the english side it seemed that the task of conquering was beyond them the americans were ready to abandon the defense from sheer exhaustion
it was then of paramount necessity to general washington that a great and striking success should be obtained to animate the spirits of the people cornwallis seeing the formidable combination which the french and americans were making to crush him
sent message after message to new york to ask for aid from the commander in chief and received assurances from him that he would at once sail with four thousand troops to join him accordingly in obedience to his orders
lord cornwallis fortified himself at yorktown on september twenty eighth the combined army of french and americans consisting of seven thousand of the former and twelve thousand of the latter appeared before yorktown and the post at gloucester
but so great had been the effects of the deadly climate in the autumn months
the enemy at once invested the town and opened their trenches against it from their fleet they had drawn an abundance of heavy artillery and on october ninth their batteries opened a tremendous fire upon the works
each day they pushed their trenches closer and the british force was too weak in comparison with the number of its assailants to venture upon sorties the fire from the works was completely overpowered by that of the enemy
and the ammunition was nearly exhausted day after day passed and still the promised re enforcements did not arrive lord cornwallis was told positively that the fleet would set sail on october eighth
but it came not nor did it leave port until the nineteenth the day on which lord cornwallis surrendered on the sixteenth finding that he must either surrender or break through
he determined to cross the river and fall on the french rear with his whole force and then turn northward and force his way through maryland pennsylvania and the jerseys in the night the light infantry the greater part of the guards
and part of the twenty third were embarked in boats
at this critical moment a violent storm arose which prevented the boats returning the enemy's fire reopened at daybreak and the engineer and principal officers of the army
gave it as their opinion that it was impossible to resist longer only one eight inch shell and a hundred small ones remained the defenses had in many places tumbled to ruins
and no effectual resistance could be opposed to an assault accordingly lord cornwallis sent out a flag of truce and arranged terms of surrender on the twenty fourth the fleet and re enforcements arrived off the mouth of the chesapeake
had they left new york at the time promised the result of the campaign would have been different the army surrendered as prisoners of war until exchanged the officers with liberty to proceed on parole to europe and not to serve until exchanged
the loyal americans were embarked on the bonito sloop of war and sent to new york in safety lord cornwallis having obtained permission to send off the ship without her being searched with as many soldiers on board as he should think fit
so that they were accounted for in any further exchange he was thus enabled to send off such of the inhabitants and loyalist troops as would have suffered from the vengeance of the americans
virtually ended the war the burden entailed on the people in england by the great struggle against france spain holland and america united in arms against her was enormous
but the conviction that it was impossible for them to wage a war with half of europe and at the same time to conquer a continent had been gaining more and more in strength even the most sanguine
were silenced by the surrender of yorktown and a cry arose throughout the country that peace should at once be made as usual under the circumstances a change of ministry took place
negotiations for peace were at once commenced and the war terminated in the acknowledgment of the entire independence of the united states of america harold with his companions had fallen back to charleston with lord rawdon
after the relief of ninety six and remained there until the news arrived that the negotiations were on foot and that peace was now certain then he took his discharge and sailed at once for england accompanied by jake
peter lambton taking a passage to canada to carry out his intention of settling at montreal harold was now past twenty two and his father and mother did not recognize him when without warning
he arrived at their residence in devonshire it was six years since his mother had seen him when she sailed from boston before its surrender in seventeen seventy six for a year he remained quiet at home
and then carried out his plan of returning to the american continent and settling in canada accompanied by jake he sailed for the saint lawrence and purchased a snug farm on its banks
he greatly improved it built a comfortable house upon it
whence he brought back his cousin nelly as his wife her little fortune was used in adding to the farm and it became one of the largest and best managed in the country peter lambton found montreal too crowded for him
and settled down on the estate supplying it with fish and game so long as his strength enabled him to go about and enjoying the society of jack pearson who had married and established himself on a farm close by
and harold before he died was one of the wealthiest and most respected men in the colony
but after her death his family and farm had so increased that it was inconvenient to leave them his father therefore returned with him to canada and ended his life there
jake lived to a good old age and was harold's faithful friend and right hand man to the last
were so far conversant with the arabic language as to be able to discourse freely and be mutually understood the egyptian began to fly into a passion what a scandalous place is this balzora said he
where they refuse to lend me a thousand ounces of gold upon the best security that can possibly be offer'd pray said setoc what may the commodity be that you would deposit as a pledge for the sum you mention
corpse of my deceased aunt said he who was one of the finest women in all egypt she was my constant companion but unhappily died upon the road i have taken so much care
and was i in my own country
tis a strange thing that nobody here will advance so small a sum upon so valuable a commodity no sooner had he express'd his resentment but he was going to cut up a fine boil'd pullet in order to make a meal on't
cried out for god's sake what are you about why said the egyptian i design to make a wing of this fowl one part of my supper pray good sir consider what you are doing said the indian
tis very possible that the soul of the deceas'd lady may have taken its residence in that fowl and you wouldn't surely run the risque of eating up your aunt to boil a fowl is doubtless a most shameful outrage done to nature pshaw
what a pother you make about the boiling of a fowl and flying in the face of nature replied the egyptian in a pet tho we egyptians pay divine adoration to the ox yet we can make a hearty meal of a piece of roast beef for all that
is it possible sir that your country men should act so absurdly as to pay an ox the tribute of divine worship said the indian absurd as you think it said the other the ox has been the principal object of adoration
has never been as yet so impious as to gain say it ay sir an hundred
surely you must be out a little in your calculation tis but about fourscore thousand years since india was first inhabited sure i am
and our brama prohibited the eating of beef long before your nation ever erected an altar in honour of the ox or ever put one upon a spit what a racket you make about your brama
is he able to stand the least in competition with our apis
let us hear pray what mighty feats have been done by your boasted brama why replied the bramin he first taught his votaries to write and read and tis to him alone all the world is indebted for the invention of the noble game of chess
you are quite out sir in your notion said a chaldean who sat within hearing all these invaluable blessings were deriv'd from the fish
and tis that alone to which the tribute of divine adoration is justly due all the world will tell you that twas a divine being whose tail was pure gold whose head resembled that of a man tho indeed the features were
visit the earth three hours every day for the instruction of mankind he had a numerous issue as is very well known and all of them were powerful monarchs i have a picture of it at home to which as in duty i ought
i say my prayers at night before i go to bed and every morning that i rise there is no harm sir as i can conceive in partaking of a piece of roast beef but doubtless tis a mortal sin a crime of the blackest dye
to touch a piece of fish besides you cannot justly boast of so illustrious an origin and you are both of you mere moderns in comparison to us chaldeans you egyptians lay claim to
and you indians but of eighty thousand whereas we have almanacks that are dated four thousand centuries backwards take my word for it i speak nothing but truth renounce your errors and i'll make each of you
a native of cambalu entring into the debate said i have a very great veneration not only for the egyptians
but in my humble opinion the li or as tis by some call'd the tien is an object more deserving of divine adoration than any ox or fish
how much soever you may boast of their respective perfections all i shall say in regard to my native country tis of much greater extent than all egypt
i shall lay no stress on the antiquity of my country for i imagine tis of much greater importance to be the happiest people
however since you were talking of the almanacks i must beg the liberty to tell you that
you know nothing of the chaos and that the world as it now stands is owing wholly to matter and form the greek ran on for a considerable time
having drank deep during the whole time of this debate thought himself ten times wiser than any of his antagonists and wrapping out a great oath insisted that all their gods were nothing
if set in competition with the teutath or the misletoe on the oak
i carry some of it always in my pocket as to my ancestors
and the only men worth talking of in the whole world tis true indeed they would now and then make a meal of their country men but that ought not to be urg'd as any objection to his country
or all of you shall dare to say any thing disrespectful of teutath i'll defend its cause to the last drop of my blood the quarrel grew warmer and warmer and setoc expected that the table would be overset
and that blood shed would ensue zadig who hadn't once open'd his lips during the whole controversy at last rose up
as being the most noisy and outrageous
very just good sir oblige me with a bit of your misletoe then turning about he expatiated on the eloquence of the grecian
all the contending parties he said but little indeed to the cathayian because he was more cool and sedate than any of the others to conclude he address'd them all in general terms to this or the like effect my dear friends
while about an important topick in which tis evident you are all unanimously agreed
in an angry tone how so pray why said he to the hot testy celt is it not true that you do not in effect adore this misletoe but that being who created that misletoe and the oak
doubtless sir reply'd the celt and you sir said he to the egyptian you revere thro your venerable apis the great author of every ox's being we do so said the egyptian
tho the sovereign of the sea continued he
who made both the sea and every fish that dwells therein we allow it said the chaldean the indian adds he and the cathayan acknowledge one supreme being
as well as you as to what that profound worthy gentleman the grecian has advanc'd is i must own a little above my weak comprehension but i am fully persuaded that he will allow there is a supreme being on whom his favourite matter and form
are entirely dependent the grecian who was look'd upon as a sage amongst them said with abundance of gravity that zadig had made a very just construction of his meaning now gentlemen i appeal to you all said zadig
and whether there are any just grounds for the least divisions or animosities amongst you the whole company cool at once caress'd him
after he had sold off all his goods and merchandize at a round price took his friend zadig home with him to the land of horeb
when zadig had travelled some few leagues from arbogad's castle he found himself arriv'd at the banks of a little river incessantly deploring as he went along his unhappy fate and looking upon himself as the very picture of ill luck
reclin'd on a verdant bank by the river side trembling scarce able to hold his net in his hand which he seem'd but little to regard and with uplift eyes imploring heaven's assistance
it is very well known was ever so noted for selling cream cheeses as myself and yet i am ruin'd to all intents and purposes no man of my profession ever had a handsomer more compleat housewife than my dame was
but i have been treacherously depriv'd of her i had still left a poor pitiful cottage but that i saw plunder'd and destroy'd
and not one single fish have i caught thou unfortunate net
no sooner were the words out of his mouth but he started up and ran to the river side like one that was resolutely bent to plunge in and get rid of a miserable life at once is it possible said zadig
is there then the man in being more wretched than myself his benevolence and good will to save the poor man's life was as quick as the reflection he had just made he ran to his assistance he laid hold of him and ask'd him
the cause of his rash intention tis an old saying that a person is less unhappy when he sees himself not singular in misfortune but if we will credit zoroaster this is not from a principle of malignity
but the effect of a fatal necessity he was attracted as it were to any person in distress as being one in the same unhappy circumstances the transport of a happy man would be a kind of insult
but two persons in bad circumstances are like two weak shrubs which by propping up each other are fenc'd against a storm why are you thus cast down said zadig to the fisherman
never sink man under the weight of your burden i can't help it said the poor fisherman i have not the least prospect of redress
made the best cream cheeses that were ever eaten in the persian empire
and the famous prime minister zadig were very fond of them i serv'd the court with about six hundred of them i went the other day in hopes of being paid but before i had well got into the suburbs of babylon
i was inform'd that not only the queen but zadig too had privately left the court whereupon i ran directly to zadig's house tho i never sat eye on the man in all my life
desterham plundering by virtue of his majesty's mandate all his effects in the most loyal manner from thence i made the best of my way to the queen's kitchin
and his inferior officers one of them told me she was dead
a third indeed said that she had made her escape by flight all in general however assur'd me for my comfort that my cheeses would never be paid for from thence i went with my wife in my hand to lord orcan's
who was another of my court customers
the favour i confess was readily granted to my wife but as for my own part i was absolutely rejected she was fairer sir than the fairest cheese i ever sold
from whence i date all my misfortunes and the red that adorn'd her blushing cheeks was ten times more lively than any tyrian scarlet and between you and i sir that was the main cause of my wife's reception and my disgrace
whereupon i wrote a doleful letter to my wife in all the agonies of one in the deepest despair tis very well
i have some little knowledge of the man i have heard say no one sells better cream cheeses than he does desire him next time he comes to bring a small parcel with him and let him know i'll take care he shall be punctually paid
in the height of my misfortunes i determin'd to seek redress in a court of equity i had but six ounces of gold left two whereof went for a fee to my counsellor
the other two to the judge's clerk notwithstanding what i had done my cause was not so much as commenc'd and i had already disburs'd more money than all my cheeses and my wife with them were worth
i return'd therefore to my native habitation
my little cot with the appurtenances
but as the purchasers found i was necessitous and drove to my last shifts the first whom i apply'd to offer'd me thirty ounces the second twenty and the third but ten
the prince of hyrcania came to babylon and swept all before him my little cottage with all its furniture was first plunder'd of all that was valuable and at last reduc'd to ashes having thus lost my money
my wife and my house i withdrew to this desart where you see me
but the fish as well as all mankind desert me i scarce catch one in a day i am half starv'd and had it not been for your unexpected benevolence and generosity i had been at the bottom of the river before this
this long detail of particulars however was not deliver'd without several interruptions for said zadig with abundance of warmth and confusion have you never heard sir of what is become of the queen astarte
but this i know to my sorrow that neither the queen nor zadig ever paid me the least consideration in the world for my cream cheeses that my dear spouse is taken from me and that i am drove to the very brink of despair
i am verily persuaded said zadig that you will not lose all your money
they say he is very honest and that if ever he returns to babylon as tis to be hop'd he will he'll discharge his debts with interest like a man of honour but as for your wife who appears to me to be no better than a wag tail
never take the trouble if you'll take my advice to hunt after her any more be rul'd and make the best of your way to babylon i shall be there before you as i shall ride and you will be on foot
tell him you met his friend upon the road and stay there still i come observe my orders
you have made me tis true an instrument of comfort to this poor man but what friend will you raise for me to alleviate my sorrows having utter'd this short expostulation he gave the distrest fisherman one full moiety
of all the money he brought with him out of arabia the fisherman thunder struck and transported with joy at so unexpected a benefaction kiss'd the feet of cador's friend and cried out
sure you are a messenger of heaven sent down to be my saviour in the mean time zadig every now and then ask'd him questions and wept as he ask'd them what sir said the fisherman
can you who are so bountiful a benefactor be in distress yourself alas said he friend i am a hundred times more unhappy than thou art but pray sir said the good man how can it possibly be
that he who is so lavish of his favours should be overwhelm'd with greater misfortunes than the man he so generously relieves your greatest uneasiness said he arose from the narrowness of your circumstances
but mine proceeds from an internal and much deeper cause pray sir said the fisherman has orcan robb'd you of your wife this interrogatory put zadig in a moment upon a retrospection of all his past adventures
he recollected the whole series of his misfortunes commencing from that of the eunuch and the huntsman to his arrival at the free booter's castle alas said he to the fisherman orcan tis true
deserves severely to be punish'd but for the generality we find such worthless barbarians are the favourites of fortune be that however as it will go as i bade you to my friend cador
and passing by a very strong castle several arm'd arabians rush'd out upon him and surrounding him cried out
but as for your person that is entirely at our sovereign's disposal zadig instead of making any reply drew his sword and as his attendant was a very couragious fellow he drew likewise
those who laid hold on them first fell a sacrifice to their fury their numbers redoubled yet still both dauntless determin'd to conquer or to die when two men defend themselves against a whole gang
the contest doubtless cannot last long the master of the castle one arbogad by name having been an eye witness from his window of the intrepidity and surprising exploits of zadig took a fancy to him
deliver'd the two travellers out of their hands whatever goods or chattels said he come upon my territories are my effects and whatever i find likewise that is valuable upon the premises of others is my free booty
but as you appear sir to me to be a gentleman of uncommon courage you shall prove an exception to my general rule upon this he invited zadig into his magnificent mansion
giving his inferior officers strict orders to use him with all due respect and at night arbogad was desirous of supping with zadig
that are call'd free booters but a man who now and then did good actions amongst a thousand bad ones he plunder'd without mercy but was liberal in his benefactions when in action intrepid but in traffick easy enough a perfect epicure
in his eating and drinking an absolute debauchee but very frank and open zadig pleas'd him extremely his conversation being very lively prolong'd their repast at last arbogad said to him
you cannot possibly do a better thing my profession is none of the worst and in time you may become perhaps as great a man as myself may i presume sir to ask you one question
from my youth upwards replied his host i was only a valet at first to an arabian who indeed was courteous enough but servitude was a state of life i could not brook it made me stark mad to see
in a wide world which ought to be divided fairly between mankind that fate had reserv'd for me so scanty a portion i communicated my grievance to an old sage arabian son said he never despair
once upon a time there was a grain of sand that bemoan'd itself as being nothing more than a worthless atom of the deserts
it became that inestimable diamond
the atom he mention'd but was determin'd if possible to become the diamond at my first setting out i stole two horses
stopp'd the small caravans thus i gradually lessen'd the wide disproportion
i enjoy'd not only my full share of the good things of this life but enjoy'd them with usury i was look'd upon as a man of consequence and i procur'd this castle by my military atchievements the satrap of syria
had thoughts of dispossessing me but i was then too rich to be any ways afraid of him i gave the satrap a certain sum of money upon condition that i kept quiet possession of my castle and moreover
i aggrandiz'd my domains for he constituted me at the same time treasurer of the imports that arabia petraea paid to the king of kings i executed my trust in every respect as i ought in the capacity of a collector
never intended to balance my accounts the grand desterham of babylon sent hither in the name of the king moabdar a petty satrap with a commission to strangle me
he and his attendants arriv'd here with his royal warrant
accordingly order'd his whole retinue
to be strangled before his face after the same manner as was intended for my execution after this
he answer'd that he presum'd his premium had he succeeded might have amounted to about three hundred pieces of gold
officer under me i made him accordingly deputy free booter he is at this very day not only the best officer but the richest i have in all my court if my word may be credited i'll raise your fortune as i have done his
never was trade brisker in our way for moabdar is knock'd on the head and all babylon in the utmost confusion moabdar kill'd said you cry'd zadig and pray sir what is become of his royal consort
i know nothing at all of that affair replied arbogad all that i have to say is that moabdar became a perfect madman and had his brains beat out
that all the people in babylon are cutting one another's throats and that the whole empire is laid waste that there is still an opportunity for making several bold pushes and let me tell you sir i have done my part
and made the most on't but the queen sir said zadig pray favour me so far as to inform me if you know any thing of the queen
of a certain prince of hyrcania tis very possible
if she had the good fortune to escape the resentment of those popular tumults but my head sir is better turn'd for the highway than for news i have taken several ladies prisoners
i keep none of them for my part and as to such as are handsomer than ordinary i make the best market i can of them without enquiring who they are their quality or titles will fetch no price at all
a queen if she be homely is worth nothing tis probable sir i have dispos'd of the lady myself and tis possible likewise she may be dead
after this declaration he drank so hard
that zadig was not one whit the wiser upon which he was struck dumb confounded and stood as motionless as a statue arbogad in the mean while swill'd down whole bumpers told a hundred merry tales
and swore a thousand times over that he was the happiest creature upon god's earth persuading zadig to be as merry and thoughtless as himself at last being gradually overcome by the fumes of his liquor
he fell fast asleep zadig spent the remainder of the night in deep contemplation and in all the uneasiness of mind imaginable what said he the king first became crazy and then was murder'd
i think i have just grounds for complaint the whole empire is in confusion and torn to pieces and this free booter is as happy as a king o fortune o fate a highwayman as happy as a monarch
an ignominious death or perhaps is in a state of life a thousand times worse than death itself o astarte astarte
and ask'd every one he saw if they knew any thing of her but the whole gang were too intent upon other matters to return him any answer by virtue of their night's excursions they had brought in some fresh booty and were busy in dividing the spoil
all the favour he could procure in their hurry and tumult was to go away without the least examination he took the advantage of their remissness and mov'd off the premises
but more overwhelm'd with grief and deep reflection than ever zadig in his march was very restless and uneasy his thoughts were forever rolling on the unfortunate astarte the king of babylon his bosom friend cador
the happy free booter arbogad the fair coquet that was taken prisoner on the confines of egypt by the babylonish courier
those pretty wrongs that liberty commits when i am sometime absent from thy heart thy beauty and thy years full well befits for still temptation follows where thou art gentle thou art
and therefore to be won beauteous thou art therefore to be assail'd and when a woman woos what woman's son will sourly leave her till he have prevail'd ay me but yet
thou mightst my seat forbear and chide thy beauty and thy straying youth who lead thee in their riot even there where thou art forced to break a twofold truth hers by thy beauty tempting her to thee
thine by thy beauty being false to me
and yet it may be said i loved her dearly that she hath thee is of my wailing chief a loss in love that touches me more nearly loving offenders thus i will excuse ye
thou dost love her because thou know'st i love her and for my sake even so doth she abuse me suffering my friend for my sake to approve her if i lose thee my loss is my love's gain and losing her
my friend hath found that loss both find each other and i lose both twain and both for my sake lay on me this cross but here's the joy my friend and i are one
in dreams they look on thee and darkly bright are bright in dark directed then thou whose shadow shadows doth make bright how would thy shadow's form form happy show to the clear day
with thy much clearer light when to unseeing eyes thy shade shines so how would i say
when in dead night thy fair imperfect shade
for nimble thought can jump both sea and land as soon as think the place where he would be but ah thought kills me that i am not thought to leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone
but that so much of earth and water wrought i must attend time's leisure with my moan receiving nought by elements so slow but heavy tears badges of either's woe
slight air and purging fire are both with thee wherever i abide the first my thought the other my desire these present absent with swift motion slide
for when these quicker elements are gone in tender embassy of love to thee my life being made of four with two alone sinks down to death
no longer glad i send them back again and straight grow sad
how to divide the conquest of thy sight mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar my heart mine eye the freedom of that right my heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie
but the defendant doth that plea deny and says in him thy fair appearance lies
and the dear heart's part as thus mine eye's due is thy outward part and my heart's right thy inward love of heart
and each doth good turns now unto the other when that mine eye is famish'd for a look or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother with my love's picture then my eye doth feast and to the painted banquet bids my heart
another time mine eye is my heart's guest and in his thoughts of love doth share a part so either by thy picture or my love thy self away art present still with me
and i am still with them and they with thee or if they sleep
to heart's and eye's delight
how careful was i when i took my way each trifle under truest bars to thrust
from hands of falsehood in sure wards of trust but thou to whom my jewels trifles are most worthy comfort now my greatest grief thou best of dearest and mine only care
art left the prey of every vulgar thief thee have i not lock'd up in any chest save where thou art not though i feel thou art within the gentle closure of my breast from whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part
for truth proves thievish for a prize so dear
if ever that time come when i shall see thee frown on my defects when as thy love hath cast his utmost sum
against that time when thou shalt strangely pass and scarcely greet me with that sun thine eye when love converted from the thing it was shall reasons find of settled gravity
against that time do i ensconce me here within the knowledge of mine own desert and this my hand against my self uprear to guard the lawful reasons on thy part
to leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws since why to love i can allege no cause
how heavy do i journey on the way when what i seek my weary travel's end doth teach that ease and that repose to say thus far the miles are measured from thy friend
the beast that bears me tired with my woe plods dully on to bear that weight in me as if by some instinct the wretch did know his rider lov'd not speed being made from thee
the bloody spur cannot provoke him on that sometimes anger thrusts into his hide which heavily he answers with a groan more sharp to me than spurring to his side for that same groan doth put this in my mind
or i shall live your epitaph to make or you survive when i in earth am rotten from hence your memory death cannot take although in me
your name from hence immortal life shall have though i once gone to all the world must die the earth can yield me but a common grave when you entombed in men's eyes shall lie
your monument shall be my gentle verse which eyes not yet created shall o'er read and tongues to be your being shall rehearse when all the breathers of this world are dead
you still shall live
finding thy worth a limit past my praise and therefore art enforced to seek anew
and do so love
thou truly fair wert truly sympathiz'd in true plain words
and therefore have i slept in your report that you yourself
what worth in you doth grow this silence for my sin you did impute which shall be most my glory being dumb
which should example where your equal grew lean penury within that pen doth dwell that to his subject lends not some small glory but he that writes of you if he can tell that you are you so dignifies his story
let him but copy what in you is writ not making worse what nature made so clear and such a counterpart shall fame his wit making his style admired every where
whilst others write good words
to every hymn that able spirit affords in polish'd form of well refined pen hearing you praised i say tis so tis true and to the most of praise add something more but that is in my thought
whose love to you though words come hindmost holds his rank before then others for the breath of words respect me for my dumb thoughts speaking in effect
was it the proud full sail of his great verse bound for the prize of all too precious you that did my ripe thoughts in my brain inhearse making their tomb the womb wherein they grew
was it his spirit by spirits taught to write above a mortal pitch that struck me dead no neither he nor his compeers by night giving him aid
he nor that affable familiar ghost which nightly gulls him with intelligence as victors of my silence cannot boast
and like enough thou know'st thy estimate the charter of thy worth gives thee releasing my bonds in thee are all determinate for how do i hold thee but by thy granting and for that riches
where is my deserving the cause of this fair gift in me is wanting and so my patent back again is swerving
so thy great gift upon misprision growing comes home again on better judgement making thus have i had thee as a dream doth flatter in sleep a king but waking no such matter
and place my merit in the eye of scorn upon thy side against myself i'll fight and prove thee virtuous though thou art forsworn with mine own weakness
being best acquainted upon thy part i can set down a story of faults conceal'd wherein i am attainted that thou in losing me shalt win much glory and i by this will be a gainer too
for bending all my loving thoughts on thee the injuries that to myself i do doing thee vantage double vantage me such is my love to thee i so belong that for thy right myself will bear all wrong
say that thou didst forsake me for some fault and i will comment upon that offence speak of my lameness and i straight will halt against thy reasons making no defence thou canst not love disgrace me half so ill
to set a form upon desired change as i'll myself disgrace knowing thy will i will acquaintance strangle and look strange be absent from thy walks and in my tongue thy sweet beloved name no more shall dwell
lest i too much profane should do it wrong and haply of our old acquaintance tell for thee against my self i'll vow debate for i must ne'er love him whom thou dost hate
then hate me when thou wilt if ever now now while the world is bent my deeds to cross join with the spite of fortune make me bow and do not drop in for an after loss
ah do not when my heart hath scap'd this sorrow come in the rearward of a conquer'd woe give not a windy night a rainy morrow to linger out a purpos'd overthrow if thou wilt leave me
do not leave me last when other petty griefs have done their spite but in the onset come so shall i taste at first the very worst of fortune's might and other strains of woe which now seem woe compar'd with loss of thee
some glory in their birth some in their skill some in their wealth some in their body's force some in their garments though new fangled ill some in their hawks and hounds some in their horse
wherein it finds a joy above the rest but these particulars are not my measure all these i better in one general best thy love is better than high birth to me
richer than wealth prouder than garments costs of more delight than hawks and horses be and having thee of all men's pride i boast wretched in this alone that thou mayst take all this away
and me most wretchcd make
for term of life thou art assured mine and life no longer than thy love will stay for it depends upon that love of thine then need i not to fear the worst of wrongs when in the least of them my life hath end
i see a better state to me belongs than that which on thy humour doth depend thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind since that my life on thy revolt doth lie o what a happy title do i find
happy to have thy love happy to die
therefore in that i cannot know thy change in many's looks the false heart's history is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange but heaven in thy creation did decree
and husband nature's riches from expense they are the lords and owners of their faces others but stewards of their excellence the summer's flower is to the summer sweet though to itself it only live and die
but if that flower with base infection meet the basest weed outbraves his dignity for sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds
dost thou make the shame which like a canker in the fragrant rose doth spot the beauty of thy budding name o in what sweets dost thou thy sins enclose that tongue that tells the story of thy days
making lascivious comments on thy sport cannot dispraise but in a kind of praise naming thy name blesses an ill report o what a mansion have those vices got which for their habitation chose out thee
where beauty's veil doth cover every blot and all things turns to fair that eyes can see take heed dear heart of this large privilege
wantonness some say thy grace is youth and gentle sport both grace and faults are lov'd of more and less thou mak'st faults graces that to thee resort
so are those errors that in thee are seen to truths translated
if like a lamb he could his looks translate how many gazers mightst thou lead away if thou wouldst use the strength of all thy state
what old december's bareness everywhere and yet this time removed was summer's time the teeming autumn big with rich increase bearing the wanton burden of the prime
like widow'd wombs after their lords decease yet this abundant issue seem'd to me but hope of orphans and unfather'd fruit for summer and his pleasures wait on thee and thou away
the very birds are mute or if they sing tis with so dull a cheer that leaves look pale dreading the winter's near
from you have i been absent in the spring when proud pied april dress'd in all his trim hath put a spirit of youth in every thing that heavy saturn laugh'd and leap'd with him
yet nor the lays of birds nor the sweet smell of different flowers in odour and in hue could make me any summer's story tell or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew
nor did i wonder at the lily's white nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose they were but sweet but figures of delight drawn after you you pattern of all those
yet seem'd it winter still and you away as with your shadow i with these did play
the forward violet thus did i chide sweet thief whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells if not from my love's breath the purple pride which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells
in my love's veins thou hast too grossly dy'd the lily i condemned for thy hand and buds of marjoram had stol'n thy hair the roses fearfully on thorns did stand one blushing shame another
white despair a third nor red nor white had stol'n of both and to his robbery had annex'd thy breath but for his theft in pride of all his growth a vengeful canker
eat him up to death more flowers i noted yet i none could see but sweet or colour it had stol'n from thee
where art thou muse that thou forget'st so long to speak of that which gives thee all thy might spend'st thou thy fury on some worthless song darkening thy power to lend base subjects light
return forgetful muse and straight redeem in gentle numbers time so idly spent sing to the ear that doth thy lays esteem and gives thy pen both skill and argument
my love's sweet face survey if time have any wrinkle graven there if any be a satire to decay and make time's spoils despised every where
thy bosom is endeared with all hearts which i by lacking have supposed dead and there reigns love and all love's loving parts and all those friends
how many a holy and obsequious tear hath dear religious love stol'n from mine eye as interest of the dead which now appear but things remov'd that hidden in thee lie
thou art the grave where buried love doth live hung with the trophies of my lovers gone who all their parts of me to thee did give
is thine alone their images i lov'd i view in thee and thou all they hast all the all of me
when that churl death my bones with dust shall cover and shalt by fortune once more re survey these poor rude lines of thy deceased lover compare them with the bett'ring of the time
and though they be outstripp'd by every pen reserve them for my love not for their rhyme exceeded by the height of happier men o then vouchsafe me but this loving thought
had my friend's muse grown with this growing age a dearer birth than this his love had brought to march in ranks of better equipage but since he died and poets better prove
with heavenly alchemy anon permit the basest clouds to ride with ugly rack on his celestial face and from the forlorn world his visage hide stealing unseen to west with this disgrace
even so my sun one early morn did shine with all triumphant splendour on my brow but out alack he was but one hour mine
the region cloud hath mask'd him from me now yet him for this my love no whit disdaineth suns of the world may stain when heaven's sun staineth
and make me travel forth without my cloak to let base clouds o'ertake me in my way hiding thy bravery in their rotten smoke tis not enough that through the cloud thou break to dry the rain on my storm beaten face
for no man well of such a salve can speak that heals the wound and cures not the disgrace nor can thy shame give physic to my grief though thou repent yet i have still the loss
the offender's sorrow lends but weak relief to him that bears the strong offence's cross ah but those tears are pearl which thy love sheds and they are rich
roses have thorns and silver fountains mud clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun
all men make faults and even i in this authorizing thy trespass with compare myself corrupting salving thy amiss excusing thy sins more than thy sins are for to thy sensual fault
i bring in sense thy adverse party is thy advocate and gainst myself a lawful plea commence such civil war is in my love and hate that i an accessary needs must be to that sweet thief
which sourly robs from me
although our undivided loves are one so shall those blots that do with me remain without thy help by me be borne alone in our two loves there is but one respect
though in our lives a separable spite which though it alter not love's sole effect yet doth it steal sweet hours from love's delight i may not evermore acknowledge thee lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame
nor thou with public kindness honour me unless thou take that honour from thy name
made lame by fortune's dearest spite take all my comfort of thy worth and truth for whether beauty birth or wealth or wit or any of these all or all or more
entitled in thy parts do crowned sit i make my love engrafted to this store so then i am not lame poor
whilst that this shadow doth such substance give that i in thy abundance am suffic'd and by a part of all thy glory
for who's so dumb that cannot write to thee when thou thy self dost give invention light be thou the tenth muse ten times more in worth than those old nine which rhymers invocate and he that calls on thee
let him bring forth eternal numbers to outlive long date if my slight muse do please these curious days the pain be mine but thine shall be the praise
what can mine own praise to mine own self bring and what is't but mine own when i praise thee even for this let us divided live and our dear love lose name of single one
that by this separation i may give that due to thee which thou deserv'st alone o absence what a torment wouldst thou prove were it not thy sour leisure gave sweet leave to entertain the time with thoughts of love
which time and thoughts so sweetly doth deceive and that thou teachest how to make one twain by praising him here who doth hence remain
what hast thou then more than thou hadst before no love my love that thou mayst true love call all mine was thine before thou hadst this more then if for my love thou my love receivest i cannot blame thee
for my love thou usest but yet be blam'd if thou thy self deceivest by wilful taste of what thyself refusest i do forgive thy robbery gentle thief although thou steal thee all my poverty and yet
i should come to our third talk with a great curiosity to hear of the last portion of the rule
and rules that would aim at once at health and that constant exercise of will that makes life good save in specified exceptional circumstances the samurai must bathe in cold water and the men must shave every day
they have the precisest directions in such matters the body must be in health
or the samurai must go to the doctors of the order and give implicit obedience to the regimen prescribed
every month they must buy and read faithfully through at least one book that has been published during the past five years and the only intervention with private choice in that matter
is the prescription of a certain minimum of length for the monthly book or books but the full rule in these minor compulsory matters
and it abounds with alternatives its aim is rather to keep before the samurai by a number of sample duties as it were the need of
towards health of body and mind rather than to provide a comprehensive rule and to ensure the maintenance of a community of feeling and interests among the samurai through habit intercourse and a living contemporary literature
all sorts of physical and intellectual sluggishness and the development of unsocial preoccupations of many sorts women samurai who are married my double told me
must bear children if they are to remain married as well as in the order before the second period for terminating a childless marriage is exhausted
but i think it is beyond doubt that it is from samurai mothers of the greater or lesser rule that a very large proportion of the future population of utopia will be derived
there is one liberty accorded to women samurai which is refused to men and that is to marry outside the rule and women married to men not under the rule are also free to become samurai
for novels and the drama of life in practice it seems that it is only men of great poietic distinction outside the rule or great commercial leaders who have wives under it the tendency of such unions is either to bring the husband under the rule
or take the wife out of it there can be no doubt that these marriage limitations tend to make the samurai something of an hereditary class their children as a rule become samurai
subject to the most reasonable qualifications anyone who sees fit can enter it at any time and so unlike all other privileged castes the world has seen
but now he came to the heart of all his explanations to the will and motives at the centre that made men and women ready to undergo discipline
to master emotions and control impulses to keep in the key of effort while they had abundance about them to rouse and satisfy all desires and his exposition was more difficult
on the whole is good that is their cardinal belief man has pride and conscience they hold
he has remorse and sorrow in his being coming on the heels of all inconsequent enjoyments how can one think of him as bad he is religious religion is as natural to him as lust and anger
and in utopia they understand this or at least the samurai do clearly they accept religion as they accept thirst as something inseparably
a failure to think hard and discriminate as fairly as possible in religious matters is just as alien to the men under the rule as it would be to drink deeply because they were thirsty
evade a bath because the day was chilly or make love to any bright eyed girl who chanced to look pretty in the dusk utopia which is to have every type of character that one finds on earth will have its temples and its priests
just as it will have its actresses and wine but the samurai will be forbidden the religion of dramatically lit altars organ music and incense as distinctly as they are forbidden the love of painted women or the consolations of brandy
and to all the things that are less than religion and that seek to comprehend it to cosmogonies and philosophies to creeds and formulae to catechisms and easy explanations the attitude of the samurai the note of the book of samurai
will be distrust these things the samurai will say are part of the indulgences that should come before a man submits himself to the rule they are like the early gratifications of young men experiences to establish renunciation
they will hold god to be complex and of an endless variety of aspects to be expressed by no universal formula nor approved in any uniform manner
of every man's individuality and the intimate thing of religion must therefore exist in human solitude between man and god alone religion in its quintessence is a relation between god and man
it is perversion to make it a relation between man and man and a man may no more reach god through a priest than love his wife through a priest but just as a man in love may refine the interpretation of his feelings and borrow expression from the poems and music of poietic men
so an individual man may at his discretion read books of devotion
will set themselves private regimens that will help their secret religious life will pray habitually and read books of devotion but with these things the rule of the order will have nothing to do clearly
the god of the samurai is a transcendental and mystical god so far as the samurai have a purpose in common in maintaining the state and the order and progress of the world so far by their discipline and denial by their public work and effort they worship god together
for seven consecutive days in the year at least each man or woman under the rule
of man into some wild and solitary place must speak to no man or woman and have no sort of intercourse with mankind they must go bookless and weaponless without pen or paper or money provisions must be taken for the period of the journey a rug or sleeping sack
for they must sleep under the open sky but no means of making a fire they may study maps beforehand to guide them showing any difficulties and dangers in the journey but they may not carry such helps they must not go by beaten ways or wherever there are inhabited houses
but into the bare quiet places of the globe the regions set apart for them this discipline my double said was invented to secure a certain stoutness of heart and body in the members of the order which otherwise might have lain open to too many timorous merely abstemious
men and women many things had been suggested swordplay and tests that verged on torture climbing in giddy places and the like before this was chosen partly it is to ensure good training and sturdiness of body and mind but partly
from the intricate arguments and the fretting effort to work from personal quarrels and personal affections and the things of the heated room
certain great areas are set apart for these yearly pilgrimages beyond the securities of the state there are thousands of square miles of sandy desert in africa and asia set apart much of the arctic and antarctic circles vast areas of mountain land and frozen marsh
upon the seas one must go in a little undecked sailing boat that may be rowed in a calm all the other journeys one must do afoot none aiding there are about all these
it is good i said it is good my double answered we civilised men go back to the stark mother that so many of us would have forgotten were it not for this rule and one thinks only two weeks ago i did my journey for the year i went with my gear
the envoy so i end this compact statement of the renascent religion which i believe to be crystallising out of the intellectual social and spiritual confusions of this time it is an account rendered
have transferred the statements of science into religious terminology rejected obsolescent definitions and re coordinated propositions that had drifted into opposition thus i see ideas are developing and thus have i written them down
it is a secondary matter that i am convinced that this trend of intelligent opinion is a discovery of truth the reader is told of my own belief merely to avoid an affectation of impartiality and aloofness
the theogony here set forth is ancient one can trace it appearing and disappearing
of many different schools of speculation the conception of god as finite is one that has been discussed very illuminatingly in recent years in the work of one i am happy to write of as my friend and master that very great american the late william james
increasingly important to him towards the end of his life and it is the most releasing idea in the system only in the most general terms can i trace the other origins of these present views i do not think modern religion
owes much to what is called deism or theism the rather abstract and futile deism of the eighteenth century
who bored the friends of robespierre was a sterile thing it has little relation to these modern developments it conceived of god as an infinite being of no particular character whereas
on the other hand men and women who have set themselves with unavoidable theological preconceptions it is true to speculate upon the actual teachings and quality of christ have produced interpretations
that have interwoven insensibly with thoughts more apparently new there is a curious modernity about very many of christ's recorded sayings revived religion has also no doubt
religion thus restated must i think presently incorporate great sections of thought that are still attached to formal christianity the time is at hand when many of the organised christian churches
their positions either in terms that will identify them with this renascence or that will lead to the release
its probable obligations to eastern thought are less readily estimated by a european writer modern religion has no revelation and no founder it is the privilege and possession of no coterie of disciples or exponents
it is appearing simultaneously round and about the world exactly as a crystallising substance appears here and there in a super saturated solution it is a process of truth guided by the divinity in men
it needs no other guidance and no protection it needs nothing but freedom free speech and honest statement out of the most mixed and impure solutions a growing crystal is infallibly able to select its substance
and pure out of a dark matrix of structureless confusion this metaphor of crystallisation is perhaps the best symbol of the advent and growth of the new understanding it has no church no authorities no teachers no orthodoxy
it does not even thrust and struggle among the other things simply it grows clear there will be no putting an end to it it arrives inevitably
noor it is a mountain of light growing and increasing it is an all pervading lucidity a brightness and clearness it has no head to smite no body you can destroy it overleaps all barriers it breaks out in despite of every enclosure
it will compel all things to orient themselves to it it comes as the dawn comes through whatever clouds and mists may be here or whatever smoke and curtains may be there
and the prisoner was dragged forth from his cell
that sir guy of gisborne had also failed
early as was the hour yet both the sheriff and the bishop of hereford were present the space before the castle was thronged with people
the crowd swayed and roared and a small disturbance broke out on the right of the sheriff at once the soldiers hurried to quell it as the prisoner neared the gallows the crowd so bore upon the cart in which
he stood upright that progress for a few minutes was out of all question another disturbance broke out in the rear of the procession next instant the prisoner was seen to have free hands he stooped and sliced the cords about his feet
and releasing himself all at once he sprang out of the cart then was an uproar indeed the soldiers had strict orders that the episode of stuteley's escape was not to be repeated but whilst they exerted themselves desperately a sudden hail of arrows fell upon them from the sky as it were
robin hood's horn was heard blowing merrily and the sheriff saw the huge mob of people break up into billows of contending portions under his very eyes lock the gates of the city screamed carfax at this juncture we have them trapped at last
much and middle had brought bags of meal with them and both repeated the miller's old trick of flinging the white meal into the eyes of the enemy robin had broken up his band into small parties and all were engaged simultaneously in less time than it takes to tell
again and again robin's horn sounded
as they were together with little john safely in the middle of them they fell to their bows and sped a cloud of arrows amongst the sheriff's men then they turned to retreat and fell back so suddenly
they sped towards the north gate that one being nearest to barnesdale
the north gate was closed hard and fast and the bridge drawn the outlaws doubled on their track
and allowed them passage to the west gate robin hasten cried a shrill voice
someone hath smashed the winch robin's heart leaped in his body
marian breathed he
follow follow she cried with flashing eyes there is not a moment to be lost robin saw that it was a matter of life or death now in any case to the west gate he called locksley a locksley it was the old battle cry and only a few of them remembered it
yet it served and served well the greenwood men formed up into close ranks and all followed the little page shouting lustily locksley a locksley in the rush and hurry robin saw that scarlett was there and warrenton and allan a dale
and with the little page ran another a fair haired boy with strangely familiar face tis fennel whispered allan at robin's side she would not be left
every now and again the outlaws turned and sped a hail of arrows into the mob behind them the west bridge was gained and scarlett had dispossessed the warder of his keys in a moment he unlocked the gates and flung them wide open the two boys for so they seemed
raced through and over the broken bridge and allan followed next the outlaws were soon free of the town and once more in their own element but little john must needs go back to cover the retreat with stuteley
carfax and the sheriff were close at hand with their men furious and determined even as the last of robin's men gained and fell over the bridge
in a moment robin's arms were about him lean on my shoulder dear heart cried robin and sure twas a ludicrous sight to see this stripling seeking to hold up the great form of little john they ran along in this way and the outlaws formed a bodyguard about them
and the smoke began to roll heavily against the faces of the soldiers this gave the greenwood men a small advantage and they gained the open country but not for long did the honors of this day rest on one side or the other the sheriff and his fellows broke through the fire
and then it was seen that some of them were mounted on fleet horses little john begged to be left behind and again did robin try to rally him onward they ran and presently found themselves approaching a hill thickly wooded about the base
they gained cover of these trees and turned at bay hidden behind tree trunks they sent forth a death volume of peacock shafts to the sheriff master carfax was seen to fall and with him six of the horsemen
the soldiers halted and prepared their crossbows a volley of their arrows crashed and splintered the trees whilst carfax rose up stiffly to give fresh orders a duello commenced of longbow against crossbow and as the freebooters could deliver near
a dozen shafts to each bolt they more than held their own when a bolt did strike however death was instant a man was shot near to marian and fell with his head shattered and ghastly she gave a little scream and put her hands over her eyes
behind me sweetheart cried he feverishly that naught
so they fought for near an hour and then the greenwood men saw that reinforcements were coming to their enemies robin's horn gave once more the order for retreat slowly they fell back through the woods and up the rising ground
wringing her hands in utter forgetfulness that now she was dressed as a man we are undone here come others to meet us with pikes and many men robin saw that upon the hill top there was a grey castle from its open gate
crowd of men armed rudely with pikes and with staves
and robin thought that in truth he and his merry men were trapped at last but oh joyful sight foremost among those coming from the castle was the once mournful knight sir richard of the lee he was smiling now and very excited a hood a hood he cried
never was there more welcome sight and hearing than this without a word the outlaws raced up to meet their timely friends and gained shelter of the castle
then when all were safely across the little drawbridge the knight gave the word
the bridge was drawn and the gates clashed together almost in the frantic hideous face of master simeon upon whose features showed streaks of blood from his wound and rage commingled the knight stationed his men about the walls
he commanded the knight to deliver up robin
my word is enough for you richard of the lee roared he furiously am i not sheriff of nottingham you cannot be the sheriff of nottingham good man answered the knight getting ready to close the wicket for he is master
you need say no more sir richard interposed robin tis we who owe all to you as for your debt why it hath been repaid me already by my lord of hereford is it not so stuteley
the little esquire protested solemnly that the bishop had paid it to them as conscience money then i will pay it again cried the knight cheerfully
and i have a few presents for you but these i will show you later robin thanked him gratefully and taking him on one side told how boy's clothes were covering mistress marian and dame fennel at this instant would the knight's wife take charge of them
and find them some apparel as would ease one of them at least from most uneasy feelings that evening
they all sat to a great feast little john was already so much recovered of his wound as to sing them a song
presently his treasury and again implored him to take the
if he would take no interest but his guest was firm keep the money for it is your own i have but made the bishop return to you that which he had first stolen from your hands sir richard again expressed his thanks and now led them to his armory
therein robin saw placed apart a hundred strong bows with fine waxen silk strings and a hundred sheaves of arrows
that this man with a heart of bronze and muscles of steel had left house and friends everything in short to go in search of fortune and death the one that is to say death had constantly retreated before him as if afraid of him
no one is as brave as adventurous or as skillful as d'artagnan without at the same time being inclined to be a dreamer he had picked up here and there some scraps of
worthy of being translated into latin
and he had made a collection en passant
that contempt of riches which our gascon had observed as an article of faith during the thirty five first years of his life had for a long time been considered by him as the first article of the code of bravery
d'artagnan was no sooner possessed of riches than he felt it necessary to ask himself if in spite of his riches he were still brave to this for any other but d'artagnan
but d'artagnan was brave enough to ask himself sincerely and
if he were brave therefore to this but it appears to me that i drew promptly enough and cut and thrust
to be satisfied of my bravery d'artagnan had himself replied gently captain that is not an answer i was brave that day because they were burning my house and there are a hundred and even a thousand to speak against one
that if those gentlemen of the riots had not formed that unlucky idea
now what will be brought against me i have no house to be burnt in bretagne
which to him is worth more than all the houses and all the treasures of the world that skin to which i cling above everything
which encloses a heart very warm and ready to fight and consequently to live then i do desire to live and in reality i live much better more completely since i have become rich who the devil ever said that money spoiled life upon my soul it is no such thing
on the contrary it seems as if i absorbed a double quantity of air and sun mordioux what will it be then if i double that fortune and if instead of the switch i now hold in my hand
in fact this is not a dream who the devil would oppose it if the king made me a marechal
luckily if there is any justice in this world fortune owes me many compensations she owes me certainly a recompense for all i did for anne of austria
for if he is resolved to reign he will want me and if he wants me he will give me what he has promised me warmth and light so that i march comparatively now as i marched formerly from nothing to everything
only the nothing of to day is the all of former days
of the heart as i just now was speaking of it but in truth i only spoke of it from memory
smiling with bitterness ah poor mortal species you hoped for an instant that you had not a heart and now you find you have one bad courtier as thou art and even one of the most seditious
a conspirator a real conspirator
therefore what a weapon would you not have against him if his good grace and his intelligence
now then let us see knowing all that and holding my tongue
for a diamond worth a thousand pistoles for a smile in which there was as much bitterness as kindness i save his life
now then the king becomes my sun
impediments which were able to retard the progress of d'artagnan these reflections once made he increased the speed of his horse but however perfect his horse zephyr might be it could not hold out at such a pace forever
the day after his departure from paris his mount was left at chartres at the house of an old friend d'artagnan had met with in an
from that moment the musketeer travelled on post horses thanks to this mode of locomotion he traversed the space
without suspecting that he who was only at present a rather poor star in the heaven of royalty would one day make that star his emblem
one of those animals which an officer of the cavalry would never choose for fear of being disgraced excepting the color this new acquisition recalled to the mind of d'artagnan the famous orange colored horse with which or rather upon which
he had made his first appearance in the world truth to say from the moment he crossed this new steed it was no longer d'artagnan who was travelling it was a good man clothed in an iron gray justaucorps
that which brought him nearest to the churchman was that d'artagnan had placed on his head a calotte of threadbare velvet and over the calotte a large black hat no more sword a stick hung by a cord to his wrist
but to which he promised himself as an unexpected auxiliary to join upon occasion a good dagger ten inches long
or rather d'artagnan called if furet ferret
of my own name so instead of d'artagnan i will be agnan short that is a concession which i naturally owe to my gray coat my round hat and my rusty calotte
monsieur d'artagnan traveled then pretty easily upon furet who ambled like a true butter woman's pad and who
twelve leagues a day upon four spindle shanks of which the practiced eye of d'artagnan had appreciated the strength and safety beneath the thick mass of hair which covered them jogging along the traveler took notes studied the country which he traversed reserved and silent
and for seeing everything without arousing suspicion in this manner he was enabled to convince himself of the importance the event assumed in proportion as he drew near to it in this remote country in this ancient duchy of bretagne which was not france at that period
the people knew nothing of the king of france they not only did not know him but were unwilling to know him one face a single one floated visibly for them upon the political current their ancient dukes no longer ruled them government was a void nothing more
even in the country even within sight of that mysterious isle legends and traditions consecrate its wonders every one might not penetrate it the isle of an extent of six leagues in length and six in breadth
which the people had for a long time respected covered as it was with the name of retz so redoubtable in the country shortly after the erection of this seignory into a marquistate
the celebrity of the isle did not date from yesterday its name or rather its qualification is traced back to the remotest antiquity
from two greek words signifying beautiful isle thus at a distance of eighteen hundred years it had borne in another idiom the same name it still bears
abbe said he you were speaking to me only to day of certain people you maintain yes monsieur replied the abbe tell me precisely who are these people the abbe hesitated come no fear i am not threatening
no romancing for i am not joking
here it is i have a hundred and twenty friends or companions of pleasure
and you think you can depend on them
i will not even make my appearance are they men of resolution they would burn paris if i promised them they should not be burnt in turn the thing i ask of you abbe said fouquet wiping the sweat which fell from his brow
is to throw your hundred and twenty men upon the people i will point out to you at a certain moment given is it possible it will not be the first time such a thing has happened to them monseigneur that is well but would these bandits attack an armed force
there will be blows to be got a number no doubt are you afraid not for myself but for you your men will know then what they have to do
of what importance is that to you i pray besides if i fall you fall with me it would then be more prudent monsieur not to stir in the affair and leave the king to take this little satisfaction think well of this abbe
are a prelude of ruin for my house i repeat it i arrested you will be imprisoned i imprisoned you will be exiled monsieur i am at your orders
what i told you i wish that to morrow the two financiers of whom they mean to make victims
should be snatched from the fury of my enemies take your measures accordingly is it possible it is possible
in every crowd composed of a hundred thousand spectators there are ten thousand bandits or cut purses
ten thousand auxiliaries to my hundred and twenty men the attack commenced by the latter the others will finish it that all appears feasible
they must be thrust into some house that will make a siege necessary to get them out again and stop here is another idea more sublime still certain houses have two issues
one of my friends lends me sometimes the keys of a house which he rents rue baudoyer
i know it said the abbe this cabaret has windows opening upon the place a place of exit into the court
have you understood me perfectly well how much will it amount to to make your bandits all drunk with wine and to satisfy them with gold oh monsieur what an expression oh monsieur if they heard you some of them are very susceptible
i mean to say they must be brought to the point where they cannot tell the heavens from the earth for i shall to morrow contend with the king and when i fight i mean to conquer please to understand it shall be done monsieur give me your other ideas that is your business
then give me your purse gourville
good and spare nothing did you not say nothing that is well monseigneur objected gourville if this should be known we should lose our heads eh gourville replied fouquet purple with anger you excite my pity
speak for yourself if you please
now abbe is everything arranged everything at two o'clock to morrow at twelve because it will be necessary to prepare our auxiliaries in a
that is true do not spare the wine of the cabaretier
i have my plan i tell you leave me to set it in operation and you shall see where shall you be yourself everywhere nowhere and how shall i receive information by a courier whose horse shall be kept in the very same garden of your friend a propos the name of your friend
fouquet looked again at gourville
and count him down the money one moment abbe one moment gourville what name will be given to this carrying off a very natural one monsieur the riot the riot on account of what for if ever the people of paris are disposed to pay their court to the king it is when he hangs financiers
i will manage that said the abbe yes but you may manage it badly and people will guess not at all not at all i have another idea what is that my men shall cry out colbert vive colbert
monsieur we are worthy of our family replied the abbe proudly
a stormy night when toby awoke it was nearly dark and the bustle around him told very plainly that the time for departure was near at hand he rubbed his eyes just enough to make sure that he was thoroughly awake
and then jumped down from his rather lofty bed and ran around to the door of the cage to assure himself that mister stubbs was safe this done his preparations for the journey were made now
toby noticed that each one of the drivers was clad in rubber clothing and after listening for a moment he learned the cause of their water proof garments it was raining very hard and toby thought with dismay of the long ride
with no protection whatever save that afforded by his ordinary clothing while he was standing by the side of the wagon wondering how he should get along old ben came in the water was pouring from his clothes in little rivulets
and he afforded most unmistakable evidence of the damp state of the weather it's a nasty night my boy said the old driver in much the same cheery tone that he would have used had he been informing toby that it was a beautiful moonlight evening
i guess i'll get wet said toby ruefully as he looked up at the lofty seat which he was to occupy bless me said ben as if the thought had just come to him it won't do for you to ride outside on a night like this
you wait here an i'll see what i can do for you the old man hurried off to the other end of the tent and almost before toby thought he had time to go as far as the ring he returned
it's all right he said and this time in a gruff voice as if he were announcing some misfortune you're to ride in the women's wagon come with me
toby followed without a question though he was wholly at a loss to understand what the women's wagon was
he soon learned however when old ben stopped in front or rather at the end of a long covered wagon that looked like an omnibus except that it was considerably longer and the seats inside were divided by arms padded to make them comfortable to lean against
here's the boy said ben as he lifted toby up on the step gave him a gentle push to intimate that he was to get inside and then left him
as toby stepped inside he saw that the wagon was nearly full of women and children and fearing lest he should take a seat that belonged to some one else he stood in the middle of the wagon not knowing what to do
why don't you sit down little boy asked one of the ladies after toby had remained standing nearly five minutes and the wagon was about to start well said toby with some hesitation as he looked around at the two or three empty seats that remained
come right here said the lady as she pointed to a seat by the side of a little girl who did not look any older than toby the lady who usually occupies that seat will not be here to night and you can have it thank you ma'am
said toby as he sat timidly down on the edge of the seat hardly daring to sit back comfortably and feeling very awkward
but congratulating himself on being thus protected from the pouring rain the wagon started and as each one talked with her neighbor toby felt a most dismal sense of loneliness and almost wished that he was riding on the monkey cart with ben
where he could have some one to talk with he gradually pushed himself back into a more comfortable position
she was quite as young as toby and small of her age but there was an old look about her face that made the boy think of her as being an old woman cut down to fit children's clothes toby had looked at her so earnestly that she observed him and asked
what is your name toby tyler what do you do in the circus sell candy for mister lord
toby knew by the tone of her voice that he had fallen considerably in her estimation by not being one of the performers and it was some little time before he ventured to speak and then he asked timidly what do you do
four horses asked toby in awe that he should be conversing with so famous a person
and about mister stubbs and in return had told him that her name was ella mason though on the bills she was called mademoiselle jeannette
mademoiselle jeannette curled herself up on the seat with her head in her mother's lap and went to sleep toby had resolved to keep awake and watch her for he was struck with admiration at her face
but sleep got the better of him in less than five minutes after he had made the resolution and he sat bolt upright with his little round head nodding and bobbing until it seemed almost certain that he would shake it off
when toby awoke the wagon was drawn up by the side of the road the sun was shining brightly preparations were being made for the entree into town and the harsh voice of mister job lord
when he should make his appearance toby would have hesitated before meeting his angry employer but that he knew it would only make matters worse for him when he did show himself and he mentally braced himself for the trouble which he knew was coming
the little girl whose acquaintance he had made the night previous was still sleeping and wishing to say good bye to her in some way without awakening her he stooped down and gently kissed the skirt of her dress then he went out to meet his master
mister lord was thoroughly enraged when toby left the wagon and saw the boy just as he stepped to the ground the angry man gave a quick glance around to make sure that none of toby's friends were in sight
with the small rubber cane that he usually carried mister job lord lifted the poor boy entirely clear of the ground and each blow that he struck could be heard almost the entire length of the circus train
you've been makin so many acquaintances here that you hain't willin to do any work he said savagely as he redoubled the force of his blows oh please stop please stop shrieked the poor boy in his agony
i'll do everything you tell me to if you won't strike me again this piteous appeal seemed to have no effect upon the cruel man and he continued to whip the boy despite his cries and entreaties until his arm fairly ached from the exertion
and toby's body was crossed and recrossed with the livid marks of the cane now let's see whether you'll tend to your work or not said the man as he flung toby from him
with such force that the boy staggered reeled and nearly fell into the little brook that flowed by the roadside i'll make you understand that all the friends you've whined around in this show can't save you from a lickin when i get ready to give you one
now go an do your work that ought to have been done an hour ago mister lord walked away with the proud consciousness of a man who has achieved a great victory and toby was limping painfully along toward the cart that was used in conveying mister lord's stock in trade
and heard a childish voice say don't cry toby some time when i get big enough
looking around toby saw his little acquaintance of the evening previous and he tried to force back the big tears that were rolling down his cheeks as he said in a voice choked with grief
did it hurt you much she asked feelingly
but it don't a bit now that you've come then i'll go and talk to that mister lord and i'll come and see you again after we get into town said the little miss as she hurried away to tell the candy vender what she thought of him
that day as on all others since he had been with the circus toby went to his work with a heavy heart and time and time again did he count the money
three dollars and twenty five cents was the total amount of his treasure and large as that sum appeared to him he could not satisfy himself that he had sufficient to enable him to get back to the home which he had so wickedly left
whenever he thought of this home of the uncle daniel who had in charity cared for him a motherless fatherless boy and of returning to it with not even as much right as the prodigal son of whom he had heard uncle daniel tell
his heart sunk within him
this day passed so far as toby was concerned very much as had the others he could not satisfy either of his employers try as hard as he might but as usual he met with two or three kindly disposed people
who added to the fund that he was accumulating for his second venture of running away by little gifts of money
during the entire week he was thus equally fortunate each day added something to his fund and each night it seemed to toby that he was one day nearer the freedom for which he so ardently longed
the skeleton the fat lady old ben the albino children little ella and even the sword swallower all gave him a kindly word
or saw him as the preparations for the grand entree were being made the time had passed slowly to toby and yet sunday came again as sundays always come and on this day old ben hunted him up
made him wash his face and hands until they fairly shone from very cleanliness and then took him to church toby was surprised to find that it was really a pleasant thing to be able to go to church after being deprived of it
the skeleton had invited him to another dinner party but toby had declined the invitation agreeing to present himself in time for supper instead he hardly cared to go through the ordeal of another state dinner and besides
he wanted to go off to the woods with the old monkey where he could enjoy the silence of the forest which seemed like a friend to him because it reminded him of home
don't you dare to go into a picture gallery or a museum until i give the word grandpapa had laid down the law i'm not going to begin by being all tired out so polly and jasper had gone sometimes with mister king and phronsie
who had a habit of wandering off by themselves or as the case might be mister henderson would pilot them about till they learnt the ways of the old town and missus fisher and missus henderson would confess now and then that they would
than do any more sight seeing and then again they would all come together and go about in a big party all but doctor fisher he was for hospitals every time that's what i've come for wife
he would reply to all remonstrance and don't ask me to put my head into a cathedral or a museum to mister king land alive man i've got to find out how to take care of living bodies before i stare at bones and relics
and mister king would laugh and let him alone he's incorrigible that husband of yours missus fisher he would add and we must just let him have his way and mamsie would smile and every night the little doctor would tome from his tramps and medical study
tired but radiant at last one morning grandpapa said
they were at breakfast and everybody in the vicinity turned and stared at their table don't mind it polly said jasper her next neighbour i want to do the same thing and it will do some of those starched and prim people good to hear a little enthusiasm
which caused her to lift her head the carriages are ordered so as soon as we are through breakfast we will be off oh father exclaimed jasper in dismay must we go in carriages how else would you go jasper asked his father
oh by the tramway oh by all means cried jasper perfectly delighted that he could get his father even to listen to any other plan the dirty tram cars ejaculated mister king in disgust how can you ask it jasper
no indeed we must go in carriages or not at all but father and jasper's face fell don't you see the upper deck of the tram car is so high and there are fine seats there
and we can see so much better than driving in a stupid carriage polly's face had drooped too mister king in looking from one to the other was dismayed and a good bit annoyed
to find that his plan wasn't productive of much happiness after all he had just opened his mouth to say authoritatively
when phronsie slipped out of her chair where she happened this morning to be sitting next to mother fisher and running around to his chair piped out
do let us sit up top we'll do it now polly whispered jasper in a transport when phronsie looks like that see her face do you really want to go in a dirty old tram car phronsie instead of in a carriage
old mister king pushed back his chair and looked steadily at her oh yes yes grandpapa please phronsie beat her hands softly together to ride on top may we dear grandpapa that dear grandpapa settled it
jasper never heard such a welcome command as that mister king was just issuing go to the office and countermand the order for the carriages my son tell them to put the amount on my bill the same as if i'd used them
unless they get a chance to let them to some one else they needn't be the losers now then as jasper bounded off to execute the command get on your bonnets and hats all of you and we'll try this wonderful tram car
i am going for there is a marine hospital for children there that i wouldn't miss for the world
well hurry now all of you and we will be off now then all scramble up here phronsie you go with me cried old mister king as they stood in plein and the tram car halted before them he was surprised to find that he liked this sort of thing
he had an exhilaration already that made him feel almost as young as polly and jasper scampering up the circular stairway at the other end well bless me we are up aren't we he exclaimed sitting down and casting a glance around
did you ever see anything so fascinating cried polly pepper clasping her hands in delight and not stopping to sit down but looking all around you had better sit down advised mother fisher
else when the car starts you may go over the railing oh i can't fall mamsie said polly carelessly yet she sat down while jasper got out of his seat and ran up to old mister king
now run off with you you've planned it well so jasper made happy for the day rushed back to his seat a hand not over clean was laid on it and a tall individual
who was pouring out very bad provincial french at a fearful rate was just about to worm himself into it polly who sat next had turned around to view the scenery from the other side and hadn't seen his advance
this is my seat i only left it to speak to my father but the frenchman being there thought that he could get still further into the seat so he twisted and edged but jasper slipped neatly in and looked calmly up at him
the frenchman unable to get his balance sat down in jasper's lap but he bounded up again blue with rage what's all this demanded mister king who never could speak french in a hurry
being very elegant at it and exceedingly careful as to his accent phronsie turned pale and clung to his hand nothing said jasper in english only this person chose to try to take my seat and i chose to have it myself
you take yourself off commanded mister king in an irate voice to the french individual or i'll see that some one attends to your case not understanding the language all might have gone well
but the french person could interpret the expression of the face under the white hair and he accordingly left a position in front of jasper to sidle up toward mister king's seat in a threatening attitude
at that jasper got out of his seat again and went to his father's side
cried the little doctor standing on his tiptoes and bristling with indignation his big spectacles had slipped to the end of his nose his sharp little eyes blazing above them frenchy stared at him in amazement unable to find his tongue
and then he saw another gentleman in the person of the parson who was just as big as the doctor was small with one look he glanced around to see if there were any more such specimens at any rate it was time to be going
so he took a bee line for the nearest stairway and plunged down but he gave the little doctor the compliment of his parting regard well ejaculated mister king when his party had regained their seats and the car started off
with a sly look at jasper but anything like this might not happen again in a hundred times father said jasper i suppose i must say yes i know it to that said his father
and as everybody had regained composure he was beginning to feel very happy himself as the car rumbled off this is fine he kept saying to himself the boy knew what was best
who was pointing out this and that to polly jasper nodded back again don't let him bother you to see everything polly called grandpapa take my advice it's a nuisance to try to compass the whole place on the first visit
but polly laughed back and the advice went over her head as he very well knew it would was anything ever more beautiful exclaimed mother fisher drawing in long breaths of delight
the little doctor leaned back in his seat and beamed at her over his big glasses she began to look rested and young already this journey is the very thing he declared to himself and his hard worked hand slipped itself over her toil worn one
as it lay on her lap she turned to him with a smile adoniram i never imagined anything like this she said simply no more did i he answered that's the good of our coming wife
she exclaimed as enthusiastically as polly herself and what a perfect arch
polly had a china windmill and an inkstand of delft ware and several other things and jasper carried all the big bundles o dear me said polly now we must run or we sha'n't have much time to stay on the beach
and besides grandpapa will worry over us if we're not there we can't run much loaded down with this said jasper looking at his armful and laughing
they stopped at the top of the stone stairway leading down to the sands where some comely peasant women fishermen's wives
oh some grapes please jasper said polly
i should say they were they are black hamburgs declared jasper now then my good woman give us a couple of pounds he put down the coin she asked for and she weighed them out in her scales
never mind said jasper looking over his armful of presents to investigate his paper of grapes if we don't lose but one we're lucky
well i declare exclaimed old mister king peering out of his bath chair if you children aren't loaded down he was eating black hamburg grapes phronsie sat opposite him almost lost in the depth of another bath chair
similarly occupied and at a little remove was the remainder of the party
we've had such fun sighed polly and she and jasper cast their bundles on the soft sand then she threw herself down next to them and pushed up the little brown rings from her damp brow jasper set his paper of grapes in her lap then rushed off
so had i he confessed running back and throwing himself down beside her now then do begin on your grapes polly we'll begin together she said poking open the paper oh aren't they good though
i should rather say they were declared jasper dear me what a bunch it's not as big as mine said polly holding up hers to the light you made me take that one jasper
it's no better than mine said jasper eating away i'm going to hop into one of the chairs just a minute before we go said polly nodding at the array along the beach and eating her grapes busily to see how they feel
setting down the remainder of his bunch of grapes and springing up oh i don't want to i really and truly don't jasper
then i should want to hop out with all my might i just know i should i'm of your mind said jasper coming back to his seat on the sand again they must be very stuffy polly well now you are here
i think i should said polly slowly bringing her gaze around over the sea to the dunes the beach with the crowds of people of all nationalities and the peasant folk
we will come out here again child and stay a week
i will engage the rooms before we go back this afternoon
incessantly extended to the very smallest things after having been several months without any news of my papers when some pressed me to write and blamed my neglect
an invisible hand held me back my peace and confidence were great i received a letter from the ecclesiastic at home which informed me that he had orders to come and see me
i gave myself no trouble i always thought they would be found the man who had taken charge of them made a search after them a whole month
in all the environs without hearing any news at the end of three months they were brought to me having been found in the house of a poor man who had not opened them
nor knew who brought them there once i had sent for all the money which was to serve me a whole year the person who had been to receive cash for the bill of exchange
having put that money in two bags on horseback forgot that it was there and gave the horse to a little boy to lead the money fell from the horse in the middle of the market
was in this place and not one had perceived it many such things have attended me
the continual protection of god the bishop of geneva continued to persecute me when he wrote it was with politeness and thanks for my charities at gex
while at the same time he said to others
gave nothing to that house he wrote against me to the ursulines with whom i lived charging them to hinder me from having any conferences with father la combe
and the prioress as well as the community were so irritated
testifying it to him
excused himself with a pretended respect saying he did not mean it that way they wrote to him that i did not see the father but at the confessional and not in conference
that they were so much edified by me as to think themselves happy in having me and to esteem it a greater favor from god what they said out of pure charity
i were out of the diocese though i knew all this and these good sisters were troubled at it i could have no trouble by reason of the calm establishment which i was in
an habitual faith causes everything to be seen in god without distinction thus when i see poor souls so ruffled for discourses in the air
so uneasy for explanations i pity them they have reasons i know which self love causes to appear very just to relieve myself a little
from the fatigue of continual conversation i desired father la combe to allow me a retreat it was then that i let myself be consumed by love all the day long
also i perceived the quality of a spiritual mother for the lord gave me what i cannot express for the perfection of souls
total death and the entire destruction of the old man he would have me contribute
and be instrumental to cause him to walk in the way in which he had led me first in order that i might be in a condition to direct others to tell them the way
through which i have passed the lord would have us to be conformed and to become both one
though my soul was more advanced now yet he should one day pass beyond it with a bold and rapid flight god knows with what joy
i would see my spiritual children surpass their mother in this retreat i felt a strong propensity to write
i had nothing to write about not one idea to begin with it was a divine impulse with such a fulness of grace as was hard to contain
on account of my weakness i told him that weakness was the effect of my resistance and i believed it would through my writing go off again he asked
but what is it you will write i replied i know nothing of it nor desire to know leaving it entirely to god to direct me
he ordered me to do so at my taking the pen i knew not the first word i should write when i began suitable matter flowed copiously
as i was writing i was relieved and grew better i wrote an entire treatise on the interior path of faith under the comparison of torrents or of streams and rivers
as the way wherein god now conducted father la combe was very different from that in which he had formerly walked all light knowledge
what it has cost my heart before he was formed according to the will of god meanwhile the possession which the lord had of my soul became every day stronger
that i passed whole days without being able to pronounce one word the lord was pleased to make me pass wholly into him by an entire internal transformation
he became more and more the absolute master of my heart to such a degree as not to leave me a movement of my own this state did not hinder me
from condescending to my sister and the others in the house nevertheless the useless things with which they were taken up could not interest me that
was what induced me to ask leave to make a retreat
extravagant stories against father la combe the more they said to me to his disadvantage the more esteem i felt for him i answered them
perhaps i may never see him again but i shall ever be glad
it is only because i know it to be none of my vocation they asked me who could know that better than the bishop they further told me
i was under a deception and my state was good for nothing
of requiring and of exacting what he requires and in whatever manner he demands it a soul in this state seeks nothing for itself but all for god
it leaves itself to be conducted by god's providences and creatures outwardly its life seems quite common inwardly
it is wholly resigned to the divine will the more everything appears adverse and even desperate
in spite of the annoyance and pain of the senses and of the creatures which for some time after the new life raise some clouds and obstructions
as i have already signified but when the soul is entirely passed into its original being all these things no more cause any separation or partition it finds
no more of that impurity which came from self seeking from a human manner of acting from an unguarded word from any warm emotion or eagerness which caused
could neither prevent nor remedy having so often experienced its own efforts to be useless and even hurtful as they did nothing else
the whole work of purification comes from god only afterward this conduct becomes natural then the soul can say with the royal prophet
though an host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear though war should rise up against me in him
sees meet to order be it what it may
great or small sweet or bitter honor wealth life
it is true our nature is so crafty that it worms itself through everything a selfish sight
it destroys
whether conducted by lights gifts or ecstasies or by the entire destruction of self in the way of naked faith both these states are found in the apostle paul
he tells us and lest i should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations there was given to me a thorn in the flesh the messenger
of satan to buffet me he prayed thrice
my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness he proved also another state
through his own life then there is no longer a sting in death or thorn in the flesh capable of paining or hurting any more at first indeed
without allowing it the least indulgence till it leaves everything to go on with god in purity as it comes from him till the soul
it always sullies by its own mixture the operation of god like those rivulets which contract the corruption of the places they pass through but flowing in a pure place
remain in the purity of their source unless god through experience makes known his guidance to the soul it can never comprehend it oh
if souls had courage enough to resign themselves to the work of purification without having any weak and foolish pity on themselves what a noble rapid
and happy progress would they make
not to afford any nourishment to self love which is so deep rooted that its empire is not easily demolished often the idea which a man falsely conceives
of the greatness of his advancement in divine experience makes him want to be seen and known of men and to wish to see the very same perfection in others
and too high of his own state then it becomes a pain to him to converse with people too human
truly mortified and resigned would rather converse with the worst by the order of providence than with the best of its own choice wanting
nor wants to know anything but what god calls it to
after a manner vast immense and independent of exterior events more satisfied in its humiliation
by the order of providence than on the throne of its own choice it is here that the apostolic life begins
but do all reach that state very few indeed as far as i can comprehend
gifts and graces a holy life in which the creature appears all admirable as this life is more apparent
were continually mortified and under perpetual restraint to conquer them totally it is necessary to deny them the smallest relaxation until the victory is completed
we see those who content themselves practicing great
to destroy their power the most effectual means is in general to deny them firmly what will please
until they are reduced to be without desire or repugnance if we attempt during the warfare to grant them any relaxation we act like those who
under pretext of strengthening a man
should give him from time to time a little nourishment
and postpone his death it is just the same with the death of the senses the powers the understanding and self will if we do not eradicate
subsisting in these we support them in a dying life to the end this state and its termination are clearly set forth by paul
but
it is only by a total death to self we can be lost in god he who is thus dead has no further need of mortification
the very end of mortification is accomplished in him and all is become new it is an unhappy error in those good souls who have arrived at a
conquest of the bodily senses through this unremitted and continual mortification that they should still continue
the sweet as the bitter and bend their whole attention to a labor of greater importance namely the mortification of the mind and self will
they should begin by dropping all the activity of self which can never be done without the most profound prayer no more than the death of the senses
can be perfected without profound recollection joined to mortification indeed recollection is the chief means whereby
we attain to a conquest of the senses it detaches and separates us from them and sweetly saps the very cause
their influence over us the more thou didst augment my love and my patience o my lord the less
but love rendered them easy to bear o ye poor souls who exhaust yourselves with needless vexation if you would but seek god in your hearts
there would be a speedy end to all your troubles the increase of crosses would proportionately increase your delight love at the beginning
another kind was pointed to me and i was inwardly led to pursue it divine love so enlightened my heart and so scrutinized into its secret springs
that the smallest defects became exposed if i was about to speak something wrong was instantly pointed to me and i was compelled to silence
faults were presently discovered in every action there was something defective in my mortifications my penances my alms giving my retirement i was faulty
i observed there was something wrong if i spoke any way in my own favor i saw pride if i said within myself alas i will speak no more
it was not that i was particularly attentive over myself for it was even with constraint that i could look at all at myself my attention toward god
was without intermission
all things i knew not how to communicate what i felt to anyone i was so lost to myself that i could scarcely go about self examination
when i attempted it all ideas of myself immediately disappeared i found myself
the most loving and beloved of thy children i mean not externally for this would be inadequate to the smallest fault in a soul that god is about to purify radically
the punishments it can inflict on itself are rather gratifications and refreshments than otherwise indeed the manner in which
except to experienced souls
an internal burning a secret fire sent from god to purge away the fault giving extreme pain until this purification is complete it is like a
she frustrates god's designs toward her it is of the utmost consequence to know what use to make of the distress the whole of one's spiritual advancement
we should at these seasons of internal
co operate with god endure this consuming torture in its utmost extent while it continues without attempting to lessen or increase it
even in an instant as one takes off a robe after that time i had none for any whatsoever though he had done me that favor
for which i can never be sufficiently grateful i was however neither more contented
my god seemed to be so estranged and displeased with me that there remained nothing but the grief of having lost his blessed presence through my fault
became sensible to my heart though i was not allowed to justify or bewail myself as i became always more impotent for every kind of exterior works
nor stay at church nor practice prayer as i became colder toward god in proportion as i was more sensible of my wrong steps all this destroyed me the more
both in my own eyes and in those of others there were some very considerable gentlemen who made proposals for me and even such persons as according to the rules of fashion
ought not to think of me they presented themselves during the very depth of my outward and inward desolation at first
but it seemed to me then notwithstanding my pains of body and mind that if a king had presented himself to me i would have refused him with pleasure
i was resolved to be thine alone if thou wouldst not accept of me i should at least have the consolation of having been faithful to thee
to the utmost of my power for as to my inward state i never mentioned it to anybody i never spoke thereof nor of the suitors
though my mother in law would say that if i did not marry
it was sufficient for me that thou o my god knewest that i sacrificed them to thee without saying a word to anybody
especially one whose high birth and amiable exterior qualities might have tempted both my vanity and inclination
oh could i but have hoped to become agreeable to thee such a hope would have been like a change from hell to heaven
so far was i from presuming to hope for it that i feared this sea of affliction might also be followed by everlasting misery in the loss of thee
i dared not even desire to enjoy thee i only desired not to offend thee i was for five or six weeks at the last extremity
a spoonful of broth made me faint my voice was so gone
they could scarcely distinguish my words i could not see any hope of salvation yet was not unwilling to die i bore a strong impression that the longer i lived
the more i would sin of the two i thought i would rather choose hell
all the good which god made me do now seemed to me evil or full of faults all my prayers penances alms and charities
seemed to rise up against me and heighten my condemnation i thought there appeared on the side of god on my own and from all creatures one general condemnation
my conscience was a witness against me which i could not appease what may appear strange the sins of my youth did not then give me any pain at all
they did not rise up in judgment against me but there appeared one universal testimony against all the good i had done and all the sentiments of evil
i had entertained if i went to confessors i could tell them nothing of my condition
they would have regarded as eminent virtues what o my god thy eyes all pure and chaste rejected as infidelity
it was then that i felt the truth of what thou hast said that thou judgest our righteousness oh how pure art thou
who can comprehend it it was then that i turned my eyes on every side to see what way succor might come to me but my succor
as i saw there was no safety for me or spiritual health in myself i entered into a secret complacency in seeing no good in myself
whereon to rest or presume for salvation the nearer my destruction appeared the more i found in god himself wherewith to augment my trust and confidence
notwithstanding he seemed so justly irritated against me it seemed to me that i had in jesus christ all that was wanting in myself
oh ye stout and righteous men observe as much as ye please of excellence in what ye have done to the glory of god as for me
i only glory in my infirmities since they have merited for me such a saviour all my troubles joined to the loss of my reputation
which yet was not so great as i apprehended it being only among a party rendered me so unable to eat that it seemed wonderful how i lived in four days
i did not eat as much as would make one very moderate repast i was obliged to keep my bed through mere weakness my body
being no longer able to support the burden laid upon it if i had thought known
spiritual books when i tried to read them all contributed only to augment it i saw in myself none of those states which they set down
i did not so much as comprehend them and when they treated the pains of certain states i was very far from attributing any of them to myself i said to myself
wicked state i could have wished to separate the sin from the confusion of sin and provided i had not offended god all would have been easy to me
a slight sketch of my last miseries which i am glad to let you know because in their beginning i omitted many infidelities having had too much of an earnest attachment
vain complaisance unprofitable
the influence of beauty in determining the marriages of mankind in civilised life man is largely but by no means exclusively influenced in the choice of his wife by external appearance but we are chiefly concerned with primeval times
and our only means of forming a judgment on this subject is to study the habits of existing semi civilised and savage nations if it can be shewn that the men of different races prefer women having various characteristics or conversely with the women
we have then to enquire whether such choice continued during many generations would produce any sensible effect on the race
necklaces armlets ear rings et cetera they paint themselves in the most diversified manner if painted nations as humboldt observes had been examined with the same attention as clothed nations it would have been perceived that the most fertile imagination
have created the fashions of painting as well as those of garments in one part of africa the eyelids are coloured black in another the nails are coloured yellow or purple in many places the hair is dyed of various tints
in different countries the teeth are stained black red blue et cetera and in the malay archipelago it is thought shameful to have white teeth like those of a dog not one great country can be named from the polar regions in the north to new zealand in the south
in which the aborigines do not tattoo themselves this practice was followed by the jews of old and by the ancient britons in africa some of the natives tattoo themselves but it is a much more common practice to raise protuberances by rubbing salt into incisions
made in various parts of the body and these are considered by the inhabitants of kordofan and darfur
tried in vain to alter this fashion in various parts of africa and in the malay archipelago the natives file the incisors into points like those of a saw or pierce them with holes into which they insert studs
as the face with us is chiefly admired for its beauty so with savages it is the chief seat of mutilation in all quarters of the world the septum and more rarely the wings of the nose are pierced
rings sticks feathers and other ornaments being inserted into the holes the ears are everywhere pierced and similarly ornamented and with the botocudos and lenguas of south america the hole is gradually so much enlarged that the lower edge touches the shoulder
in north and south america and in africa either the upper or lower lip is pierced and with the botocudos the hole in the lower lip is so large that a disc of wood four inches in diameter is placed in it
and of the ridicule which he excited when he sold his tembeta the large coloured piece of wood which is passed through the hole in central africa the women perforate the lower lip and wear a crystal which from the movement of the tongue has a wriggling motion
for many of the operations require several years for their completion
as the women are made by savages to perform the greatest share of the work and as they are not allowed to eat the best kinds of food so it accords with the characteristic selfishness of man that they should not be allowed to obtain or use the finest ornaments
lastly it is a remarkable fact as proved by the foregoing quotations that the same fashions in modifying the shape of the head in ornamenting the hair in painting tattooing in perforating the nose lips or ears
in removing or filing the teeth et cetera now prevail and have long prevailed in the most distant quarters of the world it is extremely improbable that these practices followed by so many distinct nations should be due to tradition from any common source
they indicate the close similarity of the mind of man to whatever race he may belong just as do the almost universal habits of dancing masquerading and making rude pictures
having made these preliminary remarks on the admiration felt by savages for various ornaments and for deformities most unsightly in our eyes let us see how far the men are attracted by the appearance of their women
that the chinese of the interior think europeans hideous with their white skins and prominent noses the nose is far from being too prominent according to our ideas in the natives of ceylon yet
the chinese in the seventh century accustomed to the flat features of the mongol races were surprised at the prominent noses of the cingalese and thsang described them as having the beak of a bird with the body of a man finlayson
after minutely describing the people of cochin china says that their rounded heads and faces are their chief characteristics and he adds the roundness of the whole countenance is more striking in the women who are reckoned beautiful in proportion as they display this form of face
and according to burton the somal men are said to choose their wives by ranging them in a line
knitted their brows and seemed to shudder at the whiteness of his skin on the eastern coast the negro boys when they saw burton cried out look at the white man does he not look like a white ape
the negroes admire a very black skin more than one of a lighter tint but their horror of whiteness may be attributed according to this same traveller partly to the belief held by most negroes that demons and spirits are white and partly to their thinking it a sign of ill health
the banyai of the more southern part of the continent are negroes but a great many of them are of a light coffee and milk colour and indeed this colour is considered handsome throughout the whole country so that here we have a different standard of taste
with the kaffirs who differ much from negroes the skin except among the tribes near delagoa bay is not usually black the prevailing colour being a mixture of black and red the most common shade being chocolate dark complexions as being most common
are naturally held in the highest esteem to be told that he is light coloured or like a white man
the natives sometimes increase the apparent length of their hair
although the hair on the head is thus cherished that on the face is considered by the north american indians as very vulgar
i have met with very few statements opposed to this conclusion
not only with the negroes of the west coast of africa
is convinced that their ideas of beauty are on the whole the same as ours and doctor rohlfs writes to me to the same effect with respect to bornu and the countries inhabited by the pullo tribes
and that their appreciation of the beauty of european women corresponded with ours they admire long hair and use artificial means to make it appear abundant they admire also a beard though themselves very scantily provided
a girl has been heard to say i do not want to marry him he has got no nose and this shews that a very flat nose is not admired we should however bear in mind that the depressed broad noses and projecting jaws of the negroes of the west coast
notwithstanding the foregoing statements
they look on blue eyes with aversion
the skull has been greatly modified during ancient and modern times by many nations
humboldt thinks that the american indians prefer colouring their bodies with red paint in order to exaggerate their natural tint and until recently european women added to their naturally bright colours by rouge and white cosmetics
but it may be doubted whether barbarous nations have generally had any such intention in painting themselves in the fashions of our own dress we see exactly the same principle and the same desire to carry every point to an extreme we exhibit also the same spirit of emulation
but the fashions of savages are far more permanent than ours and whenever their bodies are artificially modified this is necessarily the case the arab women of the upper nile occupy about three days in dressing their hair they never imitate other tribes
they do not admire a medium standard
they admire solely what they are accustomed to
arrests of development there is a difference between arrested development and arrested growth for parts in the former state continue to grow whilst still retaining their early condition various monstrosities come under this head and some as a cleft palate
they cannot acquire the power of speech and are wholly incapable of prolonged attention but are much given to imitation they are strong and remarkably active continually gambolling and jumping about and making grimaces
they often ascend stairs on all fours and are curiously fond of climbing up furniture or trees we are thus reminded of the delight shewn by almost all boys in climbing trees and this again reminds us how lambs and kids originally alpine animals
delight to frisk on any hillock however small idiots also resemble the lower animals in some other respects thus several cases are recorded of their carefully smelling every mouthful of food before eating it
one idiot is described as often using his mouth in aid of his hands whilst hunting for lice they are often filthy in their habits
in some lower and adult member of the same group it may in one sense be considered as a case of reversion the lower members in a group give us some idea how the common progenitor was probably constructed and it is hardly credible
that a complex part arrested at an early phase of embryonic development should go on growing so as ultimately to perform its proper function unless it had acquired such power during some earlier state of existence when the present exceptional
or arrested structure was normal the simple brain of a microcephalous idiot in as far as it resembles that of an ape may in this sense be said to offer a case of reversion thirty eight
is thus much weakened nevertheless it still seems to me probable because two pairs are often found symmetrically on the breast and of this i myself have received information in several cases it is well known
that some lemurs normally have two pairs of mammae on the breast five cases have been recorded of the presence of more than a pair of mammae of course rudimentary in the male sex of mankind
in which two brothers exhibited this peculiarity
in reichert's and du bois reymond's archiv eighteen seventy two p three hundred four in one of the cases alluded to by doctor bartels a man bore five mammae one being medial and placed above the navel
meckel von hemsbach thinks that this latter case is illustrated by a medial mamma occurring in certain cheiroptera on the whole we may well doubt if additional mammae would ever have been developed in both sexes of mankind had not his early progenitors been provided with more than a single pair
i also attributed though with much hesitation
which is provided with articulated bony rays on both sides of a central chain of bones there seems no great difficulty in admitting that six or more digits on one side or on both sides might reappear through reversion
i am informed by doctor zouteveen that there is a case on record of a man having twenty four fingers and twenty four toes i was chiefly led to the conclusion
that the presence of supernumerary digits might be due to reversion from the fact that such digits not only are strongly inherited but as i then believed had the power of regrowth after amputation like the normal digits of the lower vertebrata
but i have explained in the second edition of my variation under domestication why i now place little reliance on the recorded cases of such regrowth nevertheless it deserves notice
inasmuch as arrested development and reversion are intimately related processes that various structures in an embryonic or arrested condition such as a cleft palate
are frequently accompanied by polydactylism this has been strongly insisted on by meckel and isidore geoffroy saint hilaire but at present it is the safest course to give up altogether the idea that there is any relation between the development of supernumerary digits
and reversion to some lowly organised progenitor of man
there are other cases which come more strictly under our present head of reversion certain structures regularly occurring in the lower members of the group to which man belongs occasionally make their appearance in him though not found in the normal human embryo or
if normally present in the human embryo they become abnormally developed although in a manner which is normal in the lower members of the group these remarks will be rendered clearer by the following illustrations in various mammals
the uterus graduates from a double organ with two distinct orifices and two passages as in the marsupials
which is in no way double except from having a slight internal fold as in the higher apes and man the rodents exhibit a perfect series of gradations between these two extreme states
in all mammals the uterus is developed from two simple primitive tubes the inferior portions of which form the cornua and it is in the words of doctor farre by the coalescence of the two cornua at their lower extremities
that the body of the uterus is formed in man while in those animals in which no middle portion or body exists the cornua remain ununited as the development of the uterus proceeds the two cornua become gradually shorter
until at length they are lost or as it were absorbed into the body of the uterus the angles of the uterus are still produced into cornua even in animals as high up in the scale as the lower apes and lemurs
now in women anomalous cases are not very infrequent in which the mature uterus is furnished with cornua or is partially divided into two organs and such cases according to owen repeat
the grade of concentrative development attained by certain rodents here perhaps we have an instance of a simple arrest of embryonic development with subsequent growth and perfect functional development for either side of the partially double uterus
though perhaps not impossible that the two simple minute primitive tubes should know how if such an expression may be used
each with a well constructed orifice and passage and each furnished with numerous muscles nerves glands and vessels if they had not formerly passed through a similar course of development as in the case of existing marsupials
no one will pretend that so perfect a structure as the abnormal double uterus in woman could be the result of mere chance but the principle of reversion by which a long lost structure is called back into existence might serve as the guide for its full development
it sometimes remains thus in man when adult more especially in the lower prognathous races hence canestrini concludes that some ancient progenitor of man must have had this bone normally divided into two portions which afterwards became fused together
according to my theory every transient condition of an organ during its development is not only a means to an end but once was an end in itself this does not seem to me necessarily to hold good why should not variations occur
during an early period of development having no relation to reversion yet such variations might be preserved and accumulated if in any way serviceable for instance
and by a stronger fang than the incisors nevertheless this tooth no longer serves man as a special weapon for tearing his enemies or prey it may therefore as far as its proper function is concerned
are left for the reception of the canines of the opposite jaw an inter space of this kind in a kaffir skull
no trace of it in only two out of thirty female subjects was this muscle developed on both sides but in three others the rudimentary ligament was present this muscle therefore appears to be much more common in the male than in the female sex
and on the belief in the descent of man from some lower form the fact is intelligible for it has been detected in several of the lower animals
in our nearest allies the quadrumana are too numerous to be here even specified in a single male subject having a strong bodily frame and well formed skull no less than seven muscular variations were observed
all of which plainly represented muscles proper to various kinds of apes this man for instance had on both sides of his neck a true and powerful
and others in woman without our being able to assign any reason mister wood after describing numerous variations
of thumb and fingers characteristic of the macaque but whether such a case should be regarded as a macaque passing upwards into a man or a man passing downwards into a macaque or as a congenital freak of nature i cannot undertake to say
it is satisfactory to hear so capable an anatomist and so embittered an opponent of evolutionism admitting even the possibility
and how often and how closely the variations resemble the normal muscles of the lower animals he sums up by remarking it will be enough for my purpose if i have succeeded in shewing the more important forms which when occurring as varieties in the human subject
tend to exhibit in a sufficiently marked manner what may be considered as proofs and examples of the darwinian principle of reversion or law of inheritance in this department of anatomical science
it is quite incredible
on the other hand if man is descended from some ape like creature
why certain muscles should not suddenly reappear after an interval of many thousand generations
asses and mules dark coloured stripes suddenly reappear on the legs and shoulders after an interval of hundreds or more probably of thousands of generations
these various cases of reversion are so closely related to those of rudimentary organs given in the first chapter that many of them might have been indifferently introduced either there or here thus a human uterus furnished with cornua
may be said to represent in a rudimentary condition the same organ in its normal state in certain mammals some parts which are rudimentary in man as the os coccyx in both sexes and the mammae in the male sex are always present whilst others
only occasionally appear and therefore might have been introduced under the head of reversion these several reversionary structures as well as the strictly rudimentary ones reveal the descent of man from some lower form in an unmistakable manner
correlated variation in man as in the lower animals many structures are so intimately related that when one part varies so does another
without our being able in most cases to assign any reason we cannot say whether the one part governs the other or whether both are governed by some earlier developed part various monstrosities as i geoffroy repeatedly insists
are thus intimately connected homologous structures are particularly liable to change together as we see on the opposite sides of the body
the discovery of the total loss of their last piece of plate had the effect of sobering them just enough to enable them to stand over gluck beating him very steadily for a quarter of an hour
at the expiration of which period they dropped into a couple of chairs and requested to know what he had got to say for himself gluck told them his story of which of course they did not believe a word
they beat him again till their arms were tired and staggered to bed
the immediate consequence of which was that the two brothers after wrangling a long time on the knotty question which of them should try his fortune first drew their swords and began fighting
the noise of the fray alarmed the neighbors who finding they could not pacify the combatants sent for the constable hans on hearing this contrived to escape and hid himself
but schwartz was taken before the magistrate fined for breaking the peace and having drunk out his last penny the evening before was thrown into prison till he should pay when hans heard this
he was much delighted and determined to set out immediately for the golden river how to get the holy water was the question he went to the priest
but the priest could not give any holy water to so abandoned a character so hans went to vespers in the evening for the first time in his life and under pretense of crossing himself stole a cupful
and returned home in triumph next morning he got up before the sun rose put the holy water into a strong flask and two bottles of wine and some meat in a basket slung them over his back
took his alpine staff in his hand and set off for the mountains on his way out of the town he had to pass the prison and as he looked in at the windows
shook the bottle of holy water in schwartz's face till it frothed again and marched off in the highest spirits in the world it was indeed a morning that might have made anyone happy
even with no golden river to seek for level lines of dewy mist lay stretched along the valley out of which rose the massy mountains their lower cliffs in pale gray shadow
hardly distinguishable from the floating vapor but gradually ascending till they caught the sunlight which ran in sharp touches of ruddy color along the angular crags and pierced in long level rays
through their fringes of spearlike pine far above shot up red splintered masses of castellated rock
with here and there a streak of sunlit snow traced down their chasms like a line of forked lightning and far beyond and far above all these fainter than the morning cloud but purer and changeless
slept in the blue sky the utmost peaks of the eternal snow the golden river which sprang from one of the lower and snowless elevations was now nearly in shadow
all but the uppermost jets of spray which rose like slow smoke above the undulating line of the cataract and floated away in feeble wreaths upon the morning wind on this object and on this alone
hans's eyes and thoughts were fixed forgetting the distance he had to traverse he set off at an imprudent rate of walking which greatly exhausted him before he had scaled the first range of the green and low hills
he was moreover surprised on surmounting them to find that a large glacier of whose existence notwithstanding his previous knowledge of the mountains he had been absolutely ignorant lay between him
and the source of the golden river he entered on it with the boldness of a practiced mountaineer yet he thought he had never traversed so strange or so dangerous a glacier in his life the ice was excessively slippery
not monotonous or low but changeful and loud rising occasionally into drifting passages of wild melody then breaking off into short melancholy tones
or sudden shrieks resembling those of human voices in distress or pain the ice was broken into thousands of confused shapes but none hans thought like the ordinary forms of splintered ice
there seemed a curious expression about all their outlines a perpetual resemblance to living features distorted and scornful
myriads of deceitful shadows and lurid lights played and floated about and through the pale blue pinnacles dazzling and confusing the sight of the traveler while his ears grew dull and his head giddy
with the constant gush and roar of the concealed waters these painful circumstances increased upon him as he advanced the ice crashed and yawned into fresh chasms at his feet
tottering spires nodded around him and fell thundering across his path and though he had repeatedly faced these dangers on the most terrific glaciers and in the wildest weather
it was with a new and oppressive feeling of panic terror that he leaped the last chasm and flung himself exhausted and shuddering on the firm turf of the mountain
he had been compelled to abandon his basket of food which became a perilous incumbrance on the glacier and had now no means of refreshing himself but by breaking off and eating some of the pieces of ice
this however relieved his thirst an hour's repose recruited his hardy frame and with the indomitable spirit of avarice he resumed his laborious journey
and the rays beat intensely upon the steep path while the whole atmosphere was motionless and penetrated with heat intense thirst was soon added to the bodily fatigue with which hans was now afflicted
glance after glance he cast on the flask of water which hung at his belt three drops are enough at last thought he
he opened the flask and was raising it to his lips when his eye fell on an object lying on the rock beside him he thought it moved it was a small dog
apparently in the last agony of death from thirst its tongue was out its jaws dry its limbs extended lifelessly and a swarm of black ants were crawling about its lips and throat
its eye moved to the bottle which hans held in his hand he raised it drank spurned the animal with his foot and passed on and he did not know how it was
but he thought that a strange shadow had suddenly come across the blue sky the path became steeper and more rugged every moment and the high hill air instead of refreshing him
seemed to throw his blood into a fever the noise of the hill cataracts sounded like mockery in his ears they were all distant and his thirst increased every moment another hour passed
and he again looked down to the flask at his side it was half empty but there was much more than three drops in it he stopped to open it and again as he did so something moved in the path above him
it was a fair child stretched nearly lifeless on the rock its breast heaving with thirst its eyes closed and its lips parched and burning hans eyed it deliberately
drank and passed on and a dark gray cloud came over the sun and long snakelike shadows crept up along the mountain sides hans struggled on the sun was sinking
but its descent seemed to bring no coolness the leaden height of the dead air pressed upon his brow and heart but the goal was near he saw the cataract of the golden river springing from the hillside
scarcely five hundred feet above him he paused for a moment to breathe and sprang on to complete his task at this instant a faint cry fell on his ear
he turned and saw a gray haired old man extended on the rocks his eyes were sunk his features deadly pale and gathered into an expression of despair water
he stretched his arms to hans and cried feebly water i am dying i have none replied hans thou hast had thy share of life
he strode over the prostrate body and darted on and a flash of blue lightning rose out of the east shaped like a sword it shook thrice over the whole heaven
he stood at the brink of the chasm through which it ran its waves were filled with the red glory of the sunset they shook their crests like tongues of fire and flashes of bloody light gleamed along their foam
as he did so an icy chill shot through his limbs he staggered shrieked and fell the waters closed over his cry
chapter ten a heavy trouble thank you ma'am that's a tip top book specially the pictures but i can't bear to see these poor fellows
and ben brooded over the fine etching of the dead and dying horses on a battle field one past all further pain the other helpless but lifting his head from his dead master to neigh a farewell to the comrades
who go galloping away in a cloud of dust
muttered ben hastily turning back to the cheerful picture of the three happy horses in the field standing knee deep among the grass as they prepare to drink at the wide stream
ain't that black one a beauty seems as if i could see his mane blow in the wind and hear him whinny to that small feller trotting down to see if he can't get over and be sociable how i'd like to take a rousin run round that meadow on the whole lot of em
and ben swayed about in his chair as if he was already doing it in imagination you may take a turn round my field on lita any day she would like it
no i brought the book but in the hurry of my tea party forgot to unpack it i'll hunt it up to night remind me thorny there now i've forgotten something too
squire sent you a letter and i'm having such a jolly time i never thought of it ben rummaged out the note with remorseful haste protesting that he was in no hurry for mister gulliver
and very glad to save him for another day leaving the young folks busy with their games miss celia sat in the porch to read her letters for there were two and as she read her face grew so sober
then so sad that if any one had been looking he would have wondered what bad news had chased away the sunshine so suddenly no one did look
no one saw how pitifully her eyes rested on ben's happy face when the letters were put away and no one minded the new gentleness in her manner as she came back to the table
but ben thought there never was so sweet a lady as the one who leaned over him to show him how the dissected map went together and never smiled at his mistakes
so kind so very kind was she to them all that when after an hour of merry play she took her brother in to bed the three who remained fell to praising her enthusiastically
as they put things to rights before taking leave she's like the good fairies in the books and has all sorts of nice pretty things in her house said betty enjoying a last hug of the fascinating doll
whose lids would shut so that it was a pleasure to sing bye sweet baby bye with no staring eyes to spoil the illusion what heaps she knows more than teacher i do believe
and she doesn't mind how many questions we ask i like folks that will tell me things added bab whose inquisitive mind was always hungry
and ben gratefully surveyed the arab chief now his own though the best of all the collection won't we have splendid times she says we may come over every night and play with her and thorny
and she's goin to have the seats in the porch lift up
as she said the last two words with her hand on ben's shoulder made him look up quickly and turn red with pleasure wondering what the squire had written about him mother must have some of the party
she is so nicely asleep it is a pity to wake her good by till to morrow little neighbors continued miss celia and dismissed the girls with a kiss is ben coming too
asked bab as betty trotted off in a silent rapture with the big darling bobbing over her shoulder not yet i've several things to settle with my new man
with a shadow creeping over her face as softly as the twilight was stealing over the world while the dew fell and every thing grew still and dim ben dear i've something to tell you
she began slowly and the boy waited with a happy face for no one had called him so since melia died the squire has heard about your father
and this is the letter mister smithers sends hooray where is he please cried ben wishing she would hurry up for miss celia did not even offer him the letter
yes he said he might go as far as california and if he did he'd send for me i'd like to go there it's a real splendid place they say he has gone further away than that to a lovelier country than california i hope
and miss celia's eyes turned to the deep sky where early stars were shining didn't he send for me where's he gone when s he coming back asked ben quickly
for there was a quiver in her voice the meaning of which he felt before he understood miss celia put her arms about him and answered very tenderly ben dear
if i were to tell you that he was never coming back could you bear it i guess i could but you don't mean it oh ma'am he isn't dead cried ben with a cry that made her heart ache
my poor little boy i wish i could say no there was no need of any more words no need of tears or kind arms around him
he knew he was an orphan now and turned instinctively to the old friend who loved him best throwing himself down beside his dog ben clung about the curly neck sobbing bitterly
questioning the new friend meantime with eyes so full of dumb love and sympathy and sorrow that they seemed almost human wiping away her own tears
miss celia stooped to pat the white head and to stroke the black one lying so near it that the dog's breast was the boy's pillow presently the sobbing ceased and ben whispered without looking up
tell me all about it i'll be good then as kindly as she could miss celia read the brief letter which told the hard news bluntly
for mister smithers was obliged to confess that he had known the truth months before and never told the boy lest he should be unfitted for the work they gave him of ben brown the elder's death there was little to tell
except that he was killed in some wild place at the west and a stranger wrote the fact to the only person whose name was found in ben's pocket book
mister smithers offered to take the boy back and do well by him averring that the father wished his son to remain where he left him and follow the profession to which he was trained
will you go ben asked miss celia hoping to distract his mind from his grief by speaking of other things no no i'd rather tramp and starve
and he'd be worse now father's gone don't send me back let me stay here
there's nowhere else to go and the head ben had lifted up with a desperate sort of look went down again on sancho's breast as if there were no other refuge left
you shall stay here and no one shall take you away against your will i called you my boy in play now you shall be my boy in earnest this shall be your home and thorny your brother
we are orphans too and we will stand by one another till a stronger friend comes to help us said miss celia with such a mixture of resolution and tenderness in her voice that ben felt comforted at once
and thanked her by laying his cheek against the pretty slipper that rested on the step beside him as if he had no words in which to swear loyalty to the gentle mistress whom he meant henceforth to serve with grateful fidelity
with a low whine as if he said count me in and let me help to pay my master's debt if i can miss celia shook the offered paw cordially
and the good creature crouched at her feet like a small lion bound to guard her and her house for evermore don't lie on that cold stone ben come here and let me try to comfort you
she said stooping to wipe away the great drops that kept rolling down the brown cheek half hidden in her dress but ben put his arm over his face and sobbed out with a fresh burst of grief
you can't you didn't know him oh daddy daddy if i'd only seen you jest once more no one could grant that wish but miss celia did comfort him
for presently the sound of music floated out from the parlor music so soft so sweet that involuntarily the boy stopped his crying to listen then quieter tears dropped slowly
seeming to soothe his pain as they fell while the sense of loneliness passed away and it grew possible to wait till it was time to go to father in that far off country lovelier than golden california
how long she played miss celia never minded but when she stole out to see if ben had gone she found that other friends even kinder than herself
had taken the boy into their gentle keeping the wind had sung a lullaby among the rustling lilacs
still kept guard beside his little master who with his head pillowed on his arm lay fast asleep
how little gluck set off on an expedition to the golden river and how he prospered therein with other matters of interest when gluck found that schwartz did not come back he was very sorry and did not know what to do
he had no money and was obliged to go and hire himself again to the goldsmith who worked him very hard and gave him very little money
and made up his mind to go and try his fortune with the golden river the little king looked very kind thought he i don't think he will turn me into a black stone so he went to the priest
then gluck took some bread in his basket
and set off very early for the mountains
it was twenty times worse for him who was neither so strong nor so practiced on the mountains he had several very bad falls lost his basket and bread and was very much frightened at the strange noises under the ice
he lay a long time to rest on the grass after he had got over
when he had climbed for an hour he got dreadfully thirsty and was going to drink like his brothers when he saw an old man coming down the path above him looking very feeble and leaning on a staff
why son said the old man i am faint with thirst give me some of that water then gluck looked at him and when he saw that he was pale and weary
he gave him the water only pray don't drink it all said gluck but the old man drank a great deal and gave him back the bottle two thirds empty then he bade him good speed
and gluck went on again merrily and the path became easier to his feet and two or three blades of grass appeared upon it and some grasshoppers began singing on the bank beside it and gluck thought he had never heard such merry singing
then he went on for another hour
but as he raised the flask he saw a little child lying panting by the roadside
then gluck struggled with himself and determined to bear the thirst a little longer and he put the bottle to the child's lips and it drank it all but a few drops
then it smiled on him and got up and ran down the hill and gluck looked after it till it became as small as a little star and then turned and began climbing again
and then there were all kinds of sweet flowers growing on the rocks bright green moss with pale pink starry flowers and soft belled gentians more blue than the sky at its deepest
and pure white transparent lilies and crimson and purple butterflies darted hither and thither and the sky sent down such pure light that gluck had never felt so happy in his life
his thirst became intolerable again and when he looked at his bottle he saw that there were only five or six drops left in it and he could not venture to drink and as he was hanging the flask to his belt again
he saw a little dog lying on the rocks gasping for breath just as hans had seen it on the day of his ascent and gluck stopped and looked at it and then at the golden river not five hundred yards above him
and he thought of the dwarf's words that no one could succeed except in his first attempt
poor beastie said gluck it'll be dead when i come down again if i don't help it then he looked closer and closer at it and its eye turned on him so mournfully
confound the king and his gold too said gluck and he opened the flask and poured all the water into the dog's mouth the dog sprang up and stood on its hind legs
its tail disappeared its ears became long longer silky golden its nose became very red its eyes became very twinkling in three seconds the dog was gone
and before gluck stood his old acquaintance the king of the golden river thank you said the monarch
for gluck showed manifest symptoms of consternation at this unlooked for reply to his last observation why didn't you come before continued the dwarf
instead of sending me those rascally brothers of yours for me to have the trouble of turning into stones very hard stones they make too o dear me said gluck have you really been so cruel
cruel said the dwarf they poured unholy water into my stream do you suppose i'm going to allow that why said gluck i am sure sir
but and his countenance grew stern as he spoke the water which has been refused to the cry of the weary and dying is unholy though it had been blessed by every saint in heaven
and the water which is found in the vessel of mercy is holy though it had been defiled with corpses so saying the dwarf stooped and plucked a lily that grew at his feet
and the dwarf shook them into the flask which gluck held in his hand cast these into the river he said and descend on the other side of the mountains into the treasure valley and so good speed
as he spoke the figure of the dwarf became indistinct
and gluck climbed to the brink of the golden river and its waves were as clear as crystal and as brilliant as the sun
there opened where they fell a small circular whirlpool into which the waters descended with a musical noise gluck stood watching it for some time very much disappointed
because not only the river was not turned into gold but its waters seemed much diminished in quantity yet he obeyed his friend the dwarf and descended the other side of the mountains towards the treasure valley
and as he went he thought he heard the noise of water working its way under the ground and when he came in sight of the treasure valley behold a river like the golden river was springing from a new cleft of the rocks above it
and was flowing in innumerable streams among the dry heaps of red sand and as gluck gazed fresh grass sprang beside the new streams
and creeping plants grew and climbed among the moistening soil young flowers opened suddenly along the riversides as stars leap out when twilight is deepening and thickets of myrtle and tendrils of vine
and thus the treasure valley became a garden again and the inheritance which had been lost by cruelty was regained by love and gluck went and dwelt in the valley and the poor were never driven from his door
so that his barns became full of corn and his house of treasure and for him the river had according to the dwarf's promise become a river of gold
and to this day the inhabitants of the valley point out the place where the three drops of holy dew were cast into the stream and trace the course of the golden river under the ground until it emerges in the treasure valley
and at the top of the cataract of the golden river are still to be seen two black stones round which the waters howl mournfully every day at sunset and these stones are still called by the people of the valley
you are not so stunned and faint but that i am as much so or more and if i should tell you the simple truth i think you would not be loath to hear it for if i have lent you anything of mine
you have fully paid me back principal and interest for you were more ready to pay back
but however that may be since you wish me to inform you of my name it shall not be kept from you
as soon as my lord yvain heard that he was amazed and sorely troubled angry and grief stricken he cast upon the ground his bloody sword and broken shield then dismounted from his horse and cried alas
what mischance is this through what unhappy ignorance in not recognising each other have we waged this battle for if i had known who you were i should never have fought with you but upon my word i should have surrendered without a blow
who are you then i am yvain who love you more than any man in the whole wide world for you have always been fond of me and shown me honour in every court but i wish to make you such amends and do you such honour in this affair
that i will confess myself to have been defeated will you do so much for my sake
surely i should be presumptuous to accept any such amends from you this honour shall never be claimed as mine but it shall be yours to whom i resign it ah fair sire do not speak so for that could never be
i am so wounded and exhausted that i cannot endure more surely you have no cause to be concerned his friend and companion replies but for my part i am defeated and overcome
i say it not as a compliment for there is no stranger in the world to whom i would not say as much rather than receive any more blows thus saying he got down from his horse and they threw their arms about each other's neck kissing each other
the argument is still in progress when the king and the knights come running up from every side at the sight of their reconciliation and great is their desire to hear how this can be and who these men are who manifest such happiness
the king says gentlemen tell us now who it is that has so suddenly brought about this friendship and harmony between you two after the hatred and strife there has been this day then his nephew
my lord you shall be informed of the misfortune and mischance which have been the cause of our strife
who am your nephew did not recognise this companion of mine my lord yvain until he fortunately by the will of god asked me my name after each had informed the other of his name
we recognised each other but not until we had fought it out our struggle already has been long
it would have fared ill with me for by my head he would have killed me what with his prowess and the evil cause of her who chose me as her champion but i would rather be defeated than killed by a friend in battle
then my lord yvain's blood was stirred as he said to him in reply fair dear sire so help me god you have no right to say so much let my lord the king
well know in this battle i am surely the one who has been defeated and overcome i am the one no i am thus each cries out and both are so honest and courteous
that each allows the victory and crown to be the other's prize while neither one of them will accept it
that he has been defeated and overthrown but when he had listened to them for a while the king terminated the dispute he was well pleased with what he heard and with the sight of them in each other's arms
though they had wounded and injured each other in several places my lords he says there is deep affection between you two you give clear evidence of that when each insists that it is he who has been defeated now leave it all to me
then they both promised him that they would do his will in every particular and the king says that he will decide the quarrel fairly and faithfully where is the damsel he inquires
my lord she answers here i am are you there then draw near to me i saw plainly some time ago that you were disinheriting her but her right shall no longer be denied for you yourself have avowed the truth to me
you must now resign her share to her sire she says if i uttered a foolish and thoughtless word you ought not to take me up in it for god's sake sire do not be hard on me you are a king
and you ought to guard against wrong and error the king replies that is precisely why i wish to give your sister her rights for i have never defended what is wrong
and you have surely heard how your knight and hers have left the matter in my hands i shall not say what is altogether pleasing to you for your injustice is well known in his desire to honour the other
each one says that he has been defeated but there is no need to delay further since the matter has been left to me either you will do in all respects what i say without resistance or i shall announce that my nephew has been defeated in the fight
and i shall be sorry to make such a declaration in reality he would not have said it for anything but he spoke thus in order to see if he could frighten her into restoring the heritage to her sister
for he clearly saw that she never would surrender anything to her for any words of his unless she was influenced by force or fear in fear and apprehension she replied to him fair lord i must now respect your desire
though my heart is very loath to yield yet however hard it may go with me i shall do it and my sister shall have what belongs to her i give her your own person as a pledge of her share in my inheritance
in order that she may be more assured of it endow her with it then at once the king replies let her receive it from your hands and let her vow fidelity to you do you love her as your vassal
and let her love you as her sovereign lady and as her sister thus the king conducts the affair until the damsel takes possession of her land and offers her thanks to him for it
then the king asked the valiant and brave knight who was his nephew to allow himself to be disarmed and he requested my lord yvain to lay aside his arms also for now they may well dispense with them
then the two vassals lay aside their arms and separate on equal terms and while they are taking off their armour they see the lion running up in search of his master as soon as he catches sight of him he begins to show his joy
my lord yvain cries out stand still all why do you flee no one is chasing you have no fear that yonder lion will do you harm believe me please when i say that he is mine and i am his
and we are both companions
that this must be the very man who had killed the wicked giant
i did not deserve the service that you did me
i have been thinking about you for some time and i was troubled because it was said that we were acquainted as loving friends i have surely thought much upon the subject but i could not hit upon the truth
and had never heard of any knight that i had known in any land where i had been who was called the knight with the lion
and showed such joy as a dumb beast could then the two knights had to be removed to a sick room and infirmary for they needed a doctor and piaster to cure their wounds king arthur
who loved them well had them both brought before him and summoned a surgeon whose knowledge of surgery was supreme
for it seemed as if the whole forest must surely be engulfed the lady fears for her town lest it too will crumble away the walls totter and the tower rocks so that it is on the verge of falling down
the bravest turk would rather be a captive in persia than be shut up within those walls the people are so stricken with terror that they curse all their ancestors saying
and all those who built this town
unless you seek for him afar in the future we shall never be secure in this town nor dare to pass beyond the walls and gate you know full well that were some one to summon together all your knights for this cause
the best of them would not dare to step forward if it is true that you have no one to defend your spring you will appear ridiculous and humiliated
if he who has attacked you shall retire without a fight surely you are in a bad predicament if you do not devise some other plan to benefit yourself the lady replies do thou who art so wise
tell me what plan i can devise and i will follow thy advice indeed lady if i had any plan i should gladly propose it to you but you have great need of a wiser counsellor
so i shall certainly not dare to intrude and in common with the others i shall endure the rain and wind until if it please god
but i do not believe that that will happen to day and we have not yet seen the worst of your urgent need then the lady replies at once damsel speak now of something else say no more of the people of my household
for i cherish no further expectation that the spring and its marble brim will ever be defended by any of them but if it please god let us hear now what is your opinion and plan for people always say that in time of need
and defeated the three knights he would do well to go to search for him but so long as he shall incur the enmity wrath and displeasure of his lady i fancy there is not under heaven any man or woman whom he would follow
until he had been assured upon oath that everything possible would be done to appease the hostility which his lady feels for him and which is so bitter that he is dying of the grief and anxiety it causes him and the lady said
before you enter upon the quest i am prepared to promise you upon my word and to swear that if he will return to me i will openly and frankly do all i can to bring about his peace of mind
then lunete replies to her lady have no fear that you cannot easily effect his reconciliation when once it is your desire to do so
i have no objection the lady says with delicate courtesy lunete procured at once for her a very precious relic and the lady fell upon her knees thus lunete very courteously accepted her upon her oath
in administering the oath she forgot nothing which it might be an advantage to insert lady she says now raise your hand i do not wish that the day after to morrow you should lay any charge upon me
for you are not doing anything for me but you are acting for your own good if you please now you shall swear that you will exert yourself in the interests of the knight with the lion
as completely as he ever possessed it the lady then raised her right hand and said i swear to all that thou hast said so help me god and his holy saint
and in a happy frame of mind lunete mounts and rides away until she finds beneath the pine tree
she had thought that she would have to seek afar before discovering him as soon as she saw him she recognised him by the lion and coming toward him rapidly she dismounted upon the solid earth
and my lord yvain recognised her as soon as he saw her and greeted her as she saluted him with the words sire
how is that were you looking for me then yes sire and in all my life i have never felt so glad for i have made my mistress promise if she does not go back upon her word
that she will be again your lady as was once the case and that you shall be her lord this truth i make bold to tell my lord yvain was greatly elated at the news he hears and which he had never expected to hear again
he could not sufficiently show his gratitude to her who had accomplished this for him he kisses her eyes and then her face saying surely my sweet friend i can never repay you for this service
i fear that ability and time will fail me to do you the honour and service which is your due sire she replies have no concern and let not that thought worry you
for you will have an abundance of strength and time to show me and others your good will if i have paid this debt i owed i am entitled to only so much gratitude as the man who borrows another's goods and then discharges the obligation
even now i do not consider that i have paid you the debt i owed indeed you have as god sees me
whom she was very anxious to meet and know and see all clad in his arms my lord yvain fell at her feet upon his knees while lunete who was standing by said to her raise him up lady
and apply all your efforts and strength and skill in procuring that peace and pardon which no one in the world except you can secure for him then the lady bade him rise and said he may dispose of all my power
i shall be very happy if possible to accomplish his wish and his desire surely my lady lunete replied i would not say it if it were not true but all this is even more possible for you than i have said
but now i will tell you the whole truth and you shall see you never had and you never will have such a good friend as this gentleman god whose will it is that there should be unending peace and love between you and him
has caused me to find him this day so near at hand in order to test the truth of this
and a charming way of serving me i would rather endure the winds and the tempests all my life and if it were not a mean and ugly thing to break one's word he would never make his peace
and dearly to pay for my mad act it was madness that made me stay away and i now admit my guilt and sin i have been bold indeed in daring to present myself to you but if you will deign to keep me now
i never again shall do you any wrong she replied i will surely consent to that for if i did not do all i could to establish peace between you and me i should be guilty of perjury so if you please
for he is beloved and treasured by his lady and she by him
we have turned ourselves into the besieged and while i'm expecting everything to turn out for the best said langdon i don't know that we've made anything at all by the exchange we're in the fort but the mechanics and mill hands
are on the slope in a good position to pepper us or to wait for reinforcements said harry
said saint clair they may send up into the mountains and bring four or five times our numbers patterson's army must be somewhere near but we'll hope that they won't said langdon
the northern troops ceased their fire presently but the officers examining the woods with their glasses said they were still there then came the grim task of burying the dead which was done inside the earthworks
nearly two score of the invincibles had fallen to rise no more and about a hundred were wounded it was no small loss even for a veteran force and colonel talbot and lieutenant colonel saint hilaire looked grave
many of the recruits had turned white and they had strange sinking sensations there was little laughter or display of triumph inside the earthworks nor was there any increase of cheer when the recruits saw the senior officers
draw aside and engage in anxious talk i'm thinking that idea of yours harry about yankee reinforcements must have occurred to colonel talbot also said langdon it seems that we have nothing else to fear
the yankees that we drove out are not strong enough to come back and drive us out so they must be looking for a heavy force from patterson's army the conference of the officers was quickly over and then the men were put to work building higher the walls of earth
and deepening the ditches many picks and spades had been captured in the fort and others used bayonets all
or three hours without interruption it was now noon and food was served an abundance of water in barrels had been found in the fort and the men drank it eagerly as the sun was warm and the work with spade and shovel made them very thirsty
the three boys despite their rank had been taking turns with the men and they leaned wearily against the earthwork the clatter of tools had ceased the men ate and drank in silence no sound came from the northern troops in the wood
a heavy ominous silence brooded over the little valley which had seen so much battle and passion harry felt relaxed and for the moment nerveless his eyes wandered to the new earth beneath which the dead lay
and he shivered the wounded were lying patiently on their blankets and those of their comrades and they did not complain the surgeons had done their best for them and the more skillful among the soldiers had helped
the silence was very heavy upon harry's nerves overhead great birds hovered on black wings and when he saw them he shuddered saint clair saw them too no pleasant sight he said
i'm thinking that we're going to be besieged in this fort and we're not overburdened with supplies i wonder what the colonel will do he'll try to hold it said langdon he was sent here for that purpose and we all know what the colonel is he will certainly stay said harry
throwing the earthworks higher and ever higher it was clear to the three lads that colonel talbot expected a heavy attack perhaps we have underrated our mill hands and mechanics said saint clair in his precise dandyish way
they may not ride as well or shoot as well as we do but they seem to be in no hurry about going back to their factories harry glanced at him saint clair was always extremely particular
about his dress it was a matter to which he gave time and thought freely now despite all his digging he was again trim immaculate and showed no signs of perspiration
he would have died rather than betray nervousness or excitement i've no doubt that we've underrated them said harry just as the people up north have underrated us
colonel talbot told me long ago that this was going to be a terribly big war and now i know he was right a long time passed without any demonstration on the part of the enemy the sun reached the zenith and blazed
redly upon the men in the fort harry looked longingly at the dark green woods he remembered cool brooks swelling into deep pools here and there in just such woods as these in which he used to bathe when he was a little boy
an intense wish to swim again in the cool waters seized him he believed it was so intense because those beautiful woods there on the slope where the running water must be were filled with the northern riflemen
three scouts sent out by colonel talbot returned with reports that justified his suspicions a heavy force evidently from patterson's army operating in the hills and mountains was marching down the valley to join those
who had been driven from the fort the junction would be formed within an hour harry was present when the report was made and he understood its significance he rejoiced that the walls of earth had been thrown so much higher
and that the trenches had been dug so much deeper in the middle of the afternoon when the cool shade was beginning to fall on the eastern forest they noticed a movement in the woods they saw the swaying of bushes and the officers who had glasses
caught glimpses of the men moving in the undergrowth then came a mighty crash and the shells from a battery of great guns sang in the air and burst about them it was well for the invincibles that they had dug their trenches deep
harry was with colonel talbot now acting as an aide and he heard the leader's quiet comment the reinforcements have brought more big guns they will deliver a heavy cannonade and then under cover of the smoke they will charge
lieutenant kenton tell our gunners that it is my positive orders that they are not to fire a single shot until i give the word the yankees can see us but we cannot see them and we'll save our ammunition for their charge
the invincibles hugged their shelter gladly enough while the fire from the great guns continued a second battery opened from a point further down the slope and the fort was swept by a cross fire of ball and shell yet
the loss of life was small the trenches were so deep and so well constructed that only chance pieces of shell struck human targets harry remained with colonel talbot ready to carry any order that he might give
the colonel peered over the earthwork at intervals and searched the woods closely with a powerful pair of glasses his face was very grave but harry presently saw him smile a little he wondered but he had learned enough of discipline
now not to ask questions of his commanding officer at length he heard the colonel mutter it is carrington it surely must be carrington a third battery now opened at a point almost midway between the other two
and the smile of the colonel came again but now it lingered longer it is bound to be carrington he said it cannot possibly be any other
that way of opening with a battery on one flank then on the other and then with a third midway between was always his
heavens what an artillery officer i doubt whether there is such another in either army or in the world and he is better too than ever he caught harry looking at him in wonder and he smiled once more
a friend of mine commands the northern artillery he said i have not seen him of course but he is making all the signs and using all the passwords we are exactly the same age and we were chums at west point
we were together in the indian wars and together in all the battles from vera cruz to the city of mexico it's john carrington and he's from new york he's perfectly wonderful with the guns lord lad look how he lives up to his reputation
not a shot misses he must have been training those gunners for months thunder but that was magnificent a huge shell struck squarely in the center of the earthwork burst with a terrible crash
and sent steel splinters and fragments flying in every direction a rain of dirt followed the rain of steel and when the colonel wiped the last mote from his eye he said triumphantly and joyously it's carrington not a shadow of doubt can be left
oh i tell you harry he's a marvel has the wonderful mathematical and engineering eye the eyes of colonel leonidas talbot beamed with admiration of his old comrade mingled with a strong affection
nevertheless he did not relax his vigilance and caution for an instant he made the circuit of the fort and saw that everything was ready the southern riflemen lined every earthwork and the guns had been wheeled into the best positions with the gunners ready
then he returned to his old place the charge will come soon lieutenant kenton he said to harry their cannonade serves a double purpose it keeps us busy dodging ball and shell
and it creates a bank of smoke through which their infantry can advance almost to the fort and yet remain hidden see how the smoke covers the whole side of the mountain
i have never known him to do better harry wished that carrington would not do quite so well he was tired of crouching in a ditch he was growing somewhat used to the hideous howling of the shells but it was still unsafe
anywhere except in the trenches it seemed to him too that the cannon fire was increasing in volume
heavier and heavier grew the bank of smoke over and against the forest it was impossible to see what was going on there but harry had no doubt that the northern regiments were massing themselves for the attack the youth remained with colonel talbot
being held by the latter to carry orders when needed to other points in the fort saint clair and langdon were kept near for a similar use and they were crouching in the same trench if everything happens for the best it's time it was happening said langdon in an impatient whisper
these shells and cannon balls flying over me make my head ache and scare me to death besides if the yankees don't hurry up and charge they'll find me dead killed by the collapse of worn out nerves i intend to be ready when they come said saint clair
i've made every preparation that i can call to mind which means that your coat must be setting just right and that your collar isn't ruffled rejoined langdon yes arthur you are ready now you are certainly the neatest and best dressed man in the regiment
if the yankees take us they can't say that they captured a slovenly prisoner then said saint clair smiling let them come on their cannon fire is sinking exclaimed colonel talbot in a minute it will cease and then will come the charge
tis carrington's way and a good way hark listen to it the signal ready men ready here they come the great cannonade ceased so abruptly that for a few moments the stillness was more awful than the thunder of the guns had been
the recruits could hear the great pulses in their temples throbbing then the silence was pierced by the shrill notes of a brazen bugle steadily rising higher and always calling insistently to the men to come
then they heard the heavy thud of many men advancing with swiftness and regularity the southern troops were at the earthworks in double rows and the gunners were at the guns all eager all watching intently for what might come out of the smoke
and vapors and whirled the whole aside then harry saw he saw a long line of men their front bristling with the blue steel of bayonets and behind them other lines and yet other lines
it seemed to harry that the points of the bayonets were almost in his face and then at the shouted command the whole earthwork burst into a blaze the cannon and hundreds of rifles sent their deadly volleys
the fort had turned into a volcano pouring forth a rain of fire and deadly missiles the front line of the northern force was shot away but the next line took its place and rushed at the fort
with those behind pressing close after them the defenders loaded and fired as fast as they could and the high walls of earth helped them the loose dirt gave away as the northern men attempted to climb them and dirt and men
fell together back to the bottom the northern gunners in the rear of the attack could not fire for fear of hitting their own troops but the southern cannon at the embrasures had a clear target shot and shell crashed into the northern ranks
and the deadly hail of bullets beat upon them without ceasing but still they came the mechanics and mill hands are as good as anybody it appears shouted saint clair in harry's ear and harry nodded
but the defenses of the fort were too strong the charge driven home with reckless courage beat in vain upon those high earthen walls behind which the defenders standing upon narrow platforms
the assailants broke at last and once more the shrill notes of the brazen bugle pierced the air but instead of saying come it said fall back fall back and the great clouds of smoke that had protected the northern advance
now covered the northern retreat the firing had been so rapid and so heavy that the whole field in front of the fort was covered with smoke through which they caught only the gleam of bayonets and glimpses of battle flags
but they knew that the northern troops were retiring carrying with them their wounded but leaving the dead behind harry excited and eager was about to leap upon the crest of the earthwork but colonel talbot sharply ordered him down
you'd be killed inside of a minute he cried carrington is out there with the guns as soon as their troops are far enough back he'll open on us with the cannon and he'll rake this fort like a hurricane beating upon a forest
only the earthworks will protect us from certain destruction he sent the order fierce and sharp along the line for every one to keep under cover and there was ample proof soon that he knew his man
the northern infantry had retired and the smoke in front was beginning to lift when the figure of a tall man in blue appeared on a hillock at the edge of the forest harry who had snatched up a rifle levelled it instantly and took aim
but before his finger could pull the trigger colonel talbot knocked it down again my god he exclaimed i was barely in time to save him it was carrington himself
our enemy our official enemy yes but my friend my life long friend
we slept under the same blanket on the icy plateaux of mexico no harry i could not let you or any other slay him the figure disappeared from the hillock and the next moment the great guns opened again from the forest
the orders of colonel talbot had not been given a moment too soon huge shells and balls raked the fort once more and the defenders crouched lower than ever in the trenches harry surmised that the new cannonade
was intended mainly to prevent a possible return attack by the southern troops but they were too cautious to venture from their earthworks the invincibles had grown many years older in a few hours
when it became evident that no sally would be made from the fort the fire of the cannon in front ceased and the smoke lifted disclosing a field black with the slain harry looked shuddered and refused to look again
they are there yet and they will remain he announced at last we have beaten back the assault they may hold us here until a great army comes and with heavy loss to them but we are yet besieged carrington will not let us rest
he will send a shell to some part of this fort every three or four minutes you will see they heard a roar and hiss a minute later and a shell burst inside the walls through all the afternoon carrington played upon the shaken nerves of the invincibles
it seemed that he could make his shells hit wherever he wished if a recruit left a trench it was only to make a rush for another if their nerves settled down for a moment that solemn boom from the forest and the shriek of the shell
made them jump again wonderful wonderful murmured colonel talbot but terribly trying to new men carrington certainly grows better with the years harry tried to compose himself and rest as he lay in the trench with saint clair and langdon
they had had their battle face to face and all three of them were terribly shaken but they recovered themselves at last despite the shells which burst at short but irregular intervals inside the fort thus the last hours of the afternoon waned
and as the twilight came they went more freely about the fort colonel talbot called a conference of the senior officers in a corner of the enclosure well under the shelter of the earthen walls
they bathed their faces freely in the brook and sat down on the bank to rest the sergeant a regular and a veteran of many border campaigns against the indians regarded them benevolently
and i thought you might be concerned in it if it hadn't been for my orders i'd have come forward with some of the men sergeant said saint clair if you were in the west again and you were all alone in the hills or on the plains
and a band of yelling sioux or blackfeet were to set after you with fell designs upon your scalp what would you do i'd run sir with all my might i'd run faster than i ever ran before
i'd run so fast sir that my feet wouldn't touch the ground more than once every forty yards it would be the wisest thing one could do under the circumstances the only thing in fact i'm glad to hear you say so sergeant carrick
because you are a man of experience and magnificent sense what you say proves that harry and i are full of wisdom they weren't sioux or blackfeet back there and i don't suppose they'd have scalped us but they were yankees
and their intentions weren't exactly peaceful so we took your advice before you gave it if you'll examine the earth out there tomorrow you'll find our footprints only five times to the mile far to the right and left other scattering shots had been fired
where skirmishers in the night came in touch with one another hence the adventure of harry and saint clair attracted but little attention shots at long range were fired nearly every night and sometimes it was difficult to keep the raw recruits
from pulling trigger merely for the pleasure of hearing the report but when harry and saint clair related the incident the next morning to colonel talbot he spoke with gravity there are many young men of birth and family in our army he said
and they must learn that war is a serious business it is more than that it is a deadly business the most deadly business of all if the yankees had caught you two it would have served you right they scared us badly enough as it was sir
said saint clair colonel leonidas talbot smiled slightly that part of it at least will do you good he said you young men don't know what war is and you are growing fat and saucy in a pleasant country in june
but there is something ahead that will take a little of the starch out of you and teach you sense no you needn't look inquiringly at me because i'm not going to tell you what it is but go get some sleep which you will need badly
and be ready at four o'clock this afternoon because the invincibles march then and you march with them harry and saint clair saluted and retired
since he had met him again in virginia harry had recognized a difference in this south carolina colonel the kindliness was still there but there was a new sternness also the friend was being merged into the commander
they chose a tent in order to shut out the noise and make sleep possible but on their way to it they were waylaid by langdon who had heard something of their adventure the night before and who felt chagrin because he had lacked a part in it
although everything generally happens for the best there is a slip sometimes he said
there is a rumor that the invincibles are to march you have been before the colonel and you ought to know is it true it is replied harry but that's all we do know he was pretty sharp with us tom
and among our three selves we are not going to get any favors from colonel leonidas talbot and lieutenant colonel hector saint hilaire because we're friends of theirs and would be likely to meet in the same drawing rooms if there were no war
harry and saint clair slept well despite the noises of a camp but they were ready at the appointed time very precise in their new uniforms langdon was with them and the three were eager for the movement
the invincibles were an infantry regiment and the three youths like the men were on foot they filed off to the left behind the front line of the southern army and marched steadily westward
inclining slightly to the north many of the men or rather boys not yet fast in the bonds of discipline began to talk and guess together about their errand but colonel talbot and lieutenant colonel
saint hilaire rode along the line and sternly commanded silence once or twice making the menace of the sword the lads scarcely understood it but they were awed into silence
then there was no noise but the rattle of their weapons and the steady tread of eight hundred men the young troops had been kept in splendid condition drilling steadily and they marched well
they passed to the extreme western end of the confederate camp and continued into the hills the sun had passed its zenith when they started and a pleasant cool breeze blew from the slopes of the western mountains the sun set late
but the twilight began to fall at last and they saw about them many places suitable for a camp and supper but colonel talbot who was now at the head of the line
if i were riding a bay horse fifteen hands high i could go on too forever whispered langdon to harry remember your belief that everything happens for the best and just keep on marching the twilight retreated before the dark
but the regiment continued harry saw a dusky colonel on a dusky horse at the head of the line and nearer by was lieutenant colonel saint hilaire also riding silent and stern the invincibles were weary
it was now nine o'clock and they had marched many hours without a rest but they did not dare to murmur
and his lieutenant colonel hector saint hilaire i wonder if this is going on all night whispered langdon very likely returned harry but remember that everything is for the best langdon gave him a reproachful look
but trudged sturdily on they halted about an hour later but only for fifteen or twenty minutes they had now come into much rougher country steep with high hills and populated thinly
westward the mountains seemed very near in the clear moonlight no explanation was given to the invincibles but the officers rode among the groups and made a careful inspection of arms and equipment then the word to march once more was given
they did not stop except for short rests until about three o'clock in the morning when they came to the crest of a high ridge covered with dense forest but without undergrowth then the officers dismounted
and the word was passed to the men that they would remain there until dawn but before they lay down on the ground colonel talbot told them what was expected of them which was much
it is in a position from which the left flank of our main army can be threatened our enemies there are fortified with earthworks and they have cannon if they hold the place they are likely to increase heavily in numbers
it is our business to drive them out the colonel told some of the officers within harry's hearing that they could attack before dawn but night assaults unless with veteran troops generally defeated themselves through confusion and uncertainty
nevertheless he hoped to surprise the northern soldiers over their coffee for that reason the men were compelled to lie down in their blankets in the dark not a single light was permitted
which they brought in their knapsacks although it was june the night was chill on the high hills and harry and his two friends after their duties were done wrapped their blankets closely around themselves as they sat on the ground
with their backs against a big tree the physical relaxation after such hard marching and the sharp wind of the night made harry shiver despite his blanket saint clair and langdon shivered too
they did not know that part of it was that three o'clock in the morning feeling harry sensitive keenly alive to impressions was oppressed by a certain heavy and uncanny feeling
they were going into battle in the morning and with men whom he did not hate the attacks on the star of the west and sumter had been bombardments distant affairs where he did not see the face of his enemy
but here it would be another matter the real shock of battle would come and the eyes of men seeking to kill would look into the eyes of others who also sought to kill he and saint clair were not sleepy
as they had slept through most of the day but langdon was already nodding most of the soldiers also had fallen asleep through exhaustion and harry saw them in the dusk lying in long rows
the faint moon throwing a ghostly light over so many motionless forms made the whole scene weird and unreal to harry he shook himself to cast off the spell and closing his eyes sought sleep
but sleep would not come and the obstinate lids lifted again it had turned a little darker and the motionless forms at the far end of the line were hidden
but those nearer were so still that they seemed to have been put there to stay forever saint clair had yielded at last to weariness and with his back against the tree slept by harry's side
he saw four figures moving up and down like ghosts through the shadows they were colonel talbot lieutenant colonel saint hilaire and two captains watching their men seeing that silence and caution were preserved
harry knew that sentinels were posted further down the ridge but he could not see them from where he lay although it was a long time the forest and human figures wavered at last and he dozed for a while
the response from the whole country was like a blast of hot storm the insurgents never got a chance to say openly their opinion to the masses of workers and soldiers upon the tsay ee kah rolled in like breakers the fierce popular condemnation of the deserters
from the petrograd factories why did they dare leave the government were they paid by the bourgeoisie to destroy the revolution they must return and submit to the decisions of the central committee only in the petrograd garrison was there still uncertainty
a great soldier meeting was held on november twenty fourth addressed by representatives of all the political parties by a vast majority lenin's policy was sustained and the left socialist revolutionaries were told that they must enter the government
see next page the mensheviki delivered a final ultimatum demanding that all ministers and yunkers be released that all newspapers be allowed full freedom that the red guard be disarmed and the garrison put under command of the duma
that all newspapers were free except the bourgeois press and that the soviet would remain in command of the armed forces on the nineteenth the conference to form a new government disbanded and the opposition one by one slipped away to moghilev
where under the wing of the general staff
to surrender its powers on the fifteenth the tsay ee kah following its procedure toward the peasants called an all russian congress of railway workers for december first
on november sixteenth
the tsay ee kah formally offered the post of commissar of ways and communications
which accepted having settled the question of power the bolsheviki turned their attention to problems of practical administration first of all the city the country the army must be fed
bands of sailors and red guards scoured the warehouses the railway terminals even the barges in the canals unearthing and confiscating thousands of poods of food held by private speculators
expeditions of sailors heavily armed were sent out in groups of five thousand to the south to siberia with roving commissions to capture cities still held by the white guards establish order and get food
passenger traffic on the trans siberian railroad was suspended for two weeks while thirteen trains loaded with bolts of cloth and bars of iron assembled by the factory shop committees were sent out eastward each in charge of a commissar to
barter with the siberian peasants for grain and potatoes kaledin being in possession of the coal mines of the don the fuel question became urgent
cut down the number of street cars and confiscated the private stores of fire wood held by the fuel dealers and when the factories of petrograd were about to close down for lack of coal the sailors of the baltic fleet turned over to the workers two hundred thousand poods
from the bunkers of battle ships toward the end of november occurred the wine pogroms
looting of the wine cellars beginning with the plundering of the winter palace vaults for days there were drunken soldiers on the streets
in all this was evident the hand of the counter revolutionists who distributed among the regiments plans showing the location of the stores of liquor the commissars of smolny began by pleading and arguing
which did not stop the growing disorder followed by pitched battles between soldiers and red guards
and by executive order the wine cellars were invaded by committees with hatchets who smashed the bottles or blew them up with dynamite companies of red guards
disciplined and well paid were on duty at the headquarters of the ward soviets day and night replacing the old militia
the great hotels where the speculators still did a thriving business were surrounded by red guards and the speculators thrown into jail
alert and suspicious the working class of the city constituted itself a vast spy system through the servants prying into bourgeois households and reporting all information to the military revolutionary committee which struck with an iron hand unceasing
in this way was discovered the monarchist plot led by former duma member purishkevitch and a group of nobles and officers who had planned an officers uprising and had written a letter inviting kaledin to petrograd
in this way was unearthed the conspiracy of the petrograd cadets who were sending money and recruits to kaledin neratov frightened at the outburst of popular fury provoked by his flight
or disobeyed the law and were closed
still the strike of the ministries went on still the sabotage of the old officials the stoppage of normal economic life behind smolny was only the will of the vast unorganised popular masses
directing revolutionary mass action against its enemies in eloquent proclamations
couched in simple words and spread over russia lenin explained the revolution urged the people to take the power into their own hands by force to break down the resistance of the propertied classes
by force to take over the institutions of government revolutionary order revolutionary discipline
on the twentieth of november the military revolutionary committee issued a warning the rich classes oppose the power of the soviets the government of workers soldiers and peasants
their sympathisers halt the work of the employees of the government and the duma incite strikes in the banks try to interrupt communication by the railways the post and the telegraph
the country and the army are threatened with famine to fight against it the regular functioning of all services is indispensable the workers and peasants government is taking every measure to assure the country and the army
opposition to these measures is a crime against the people we warn the rich classes and their sympathisers that if they do not cease their sabotage and their provocation in halting the transportation of food they will be the first to suffer
they will be deprived of the right of receiving food all the reserves which they possess will be requisitioned the property of the principal criminals will be confiscated we have done our duty in warning those who play with fire
we are convinced that in case decisive measures become necessary we shall be solidly supported by all workers soldiers and peasants
there must be no further delay do not let the army die of hunger the armies of the northern front have not received a crust of bread now for several days
and in two or three days they will not have any more biscuits which are being doled out to them from reserve supplies until now never touched already delegates from all parts of the front are talking of a necessary removal
of part of the army to the rear foreseeing that in a few days there will be headlong flight of the soldiers dying from hunger ravaged by the three years war in the trenches sick insufficiently clothed bare footed
driven mad by superhuman misery the military revolutionary committee brings this to the notice of the petrograd garrison and the workers of petrograd
meanwhile the higher functionaries of the government institutions banks railroads post and telegraph are on strike and impeding the work of the government in supplying the front with provisions
each hour of delay may cost the life of thousands of soldiers
chapter ten moscow the military revolutionary committee with a fierce intensity followed up its victory
to all army corps divisional and regimental committees to all soviets of workers soldiers and peasants deputies to all all all
conforming to the agreement between the cossacks yunkers soldiers sailors and workers it has been decided to arraign alexander feodorvitch kerensky before a tribunal of the people
we demand that kerensky be arrested and that he be ordered in the name of the organisations hereinafter mentioned
people's commissar dybenko the committee for salvation the duma the central committee of the socialist revolutionary party proudly claiming kerensky as a member
all passionately protested that he could only be held responsible to the constituent assembly on the evening of november sixteenth i watched two thousand red guards swing down the zagorodny prospekt behind a military band playing the marseillaise
and how appropriate it sounded
in the bitter dusk they tramped men and women their tall bayonets swaying through streets faintly lighted and slippery with mud between silent crowds of bourgeois contemptuous but fearful
business men speculators investors land owners army officers politicians teachers students professional men shop keepers clerks agents the other socialist parties hated the bolsheviki with an implacable hatred
on the side of the soviets were the rank and file of the workers the sailors all the undemoralised soldiers the landless peasants and a few a very few intellectuals from the farthest corners of great russia
whereupon desperate street fighting burst like a wave news of kerensky's defeat came echoing back the immense roar of proletarian victory kazan saratov novgorod vinnitza
where the streets had run with blood moscow where the bolsheviki had turned their artillery against the last strong hold of the bourgeoisie the kremlin they are bombarding the kremlin
almost with a sense of terror travellers from white and shining little mother moscow told fearful tales thousands killed the tverskaya and the kuznetsky most in flames
the church of vasili blazheiny a smoking ruin usspensky cathedral crumbling down the spasskaya gate of the kremlin tottering the duma burned to the ground
nothing that the bolsheviki had done could compare with this fearful blasphemy in the heart of holy russia
to the ears of the devout sounded the shock of guns crashing in the face of the holy orthodox church and pounding to dust the sanctuary of the russian nation on november fifteenth
commissar of education broke into tears at the session of the council of people's commissars and rushed from the room crying i cannot stand it i cannot bear the monstrous destruction of beauty and tradition
that afternoon his letter of resignation was published in the newspapers i have just been informed by people arriving from moscow what has happened there
the kremlin where are now gathered the most important art treasures of petrograd and of moscow is under artillery fire there are thousands of victims the fearful struggle there has reached a pitch of bestial ferocity
what is left what more can happen i cannot bear this my cup is full i am unable to endure these horrors it is impossible to work under the pressure of thoughts which drive me mad
that is why i am leaving the council of people's commissars i fully realise the gravity of this decision but i can bear no more
that same day the white guards and yunkers in the kremlin surrendered and were allowed to march out unharmed the treaty of peace follows one the committee of public safety
ceases to exist two the white guard gives up its arms and dissolves the officers retain their swords and regulations side arms
all others are surrendered by the yunkers
three to settle the question of disarmament as set forth in section two a special commission is appointed consisting of representatives from all organisations which took part in the peace negotiations
four from the moment of the signature of this peace treaty both parties shall immediately give order to cease firing and halt all military operations taking measures to ensure punctual obedience to this order
five at the signature of the treaty all prisoners made by the two parties shall be released for two days now the bolsheviki had been in control of the city
the frightened citizens were creeping out of their cellars to seek their dead the barricades in the streets were being removed instead of diminishing however the stories of destruction in moscow continued to grow
and it was under the influence of these fearful reports that we decided to go there petrograd after all in spite of being for a century the seat of government is still an artificial city moscow is real russia
russia as it was and will be in moscow we would get the true feeling of the russian people about the revolution life was more intense there for the past week the petrograd military revolutionary committee
aided by the rank and file of the railway workers had seized control of the nicolai railroad and hurled trainload after trainload of sailors and red guards southwest we were provided with passes from smolny
without which no one could leave the capital when the train backed into the station a mob of shabby soldiers all carrying huge sacks of eatables stormed the doors smashed the windows and poured into all the compartments
filling up the aisles and even climbing onto the roof three of us managed to wedge our way into a compartment but almost immediately about twenty soldiers entered there was room for only four people we argued expostulated
and the conductor joined us but the soldiers merely laughed
instantly the soldiers changed their attitude come comrades cried one these are american tovarishtchi they have come thirty thousand versts to see our revolution and they are naturally tired
with polite and friendly apologies the soldiers began to leave shortly afterward we heard them breaking into a compartment occupied by two stout well dressed russians who had bribed the conductor and locked their door
about seven o'clock in the evening we drew out of the station an immense long train drawn by a weak little locomotive burning wood and stumbled along slowly with many stops
the soldiers on the roof kicked with their heels and sang whining peasant songs
occasionally the conductor came through as a matter of habit looking for tickets he found very few except ours
in the morning hours late we looked out upon a snowy world it was bitter cold
from then on until dark there was nothing but the packed train jolting and stopping
and further along was bukharin a short red bearded man with the eyes of a fanatic more left than lenin they said of him then the three strokes of the bell and we made a rush for the train
worming our way through the packed and noisy aisle a good natured crowd bearing the discomfort with humorous patience
before we reached moscow almost every car had organised a committee to secure and distribute food and these committees became divided into political factions who wrangled over fundamental principles
the station at moscow was deserted we went to the office of the commissar in order to arrange for our return tickets
when we showed him our papers from smolny he lost his temper and declared that he was no bolshevik
it was characteristic in the general turmoil attending the conquest of the city the chief railway station had been forgotten by the victors not a cab in sight
a few blocks down the street however we woke up a grotesquely padded izvostchik asleep upright on the box of his little sleigh
he scratched his head the barini won't be able to find a room in any hotel he said but i'll take you around for a hundred rubles
i get to a nice quiet street and stop
in the centre of the town the snow piled streets were quiet with the stillness of convalescence only a few arc lights were burning only a few pedestrians hurried along the side walks an icy wind blew from the great plain
cutting to the bone at the first hotel we entered an office illuminated by two candles yes we have some very comfortable rooms but all the windows are shot out if the gospodin does not mind a little fresh air
down the tverskaya the shop windows were broken and there were shell holes and torn up paving stones in the street
on the top floor the manager showed us where shrapnel had shattered several windows the animals said he shaking his first at imaginary bolsheviki but wait their time will come
we dined at a vegetarian restaurant with the enticing name i eat nobody
the headquarters of the moscow soviet was in the palace of the former governor general an imposing white building fronting skobeliev square
at the head of the wide formal stairway whose walls were plastered with announcements of committee meetings and addresses of political parties we passed through a series of lofty ante rooms
hung with red shrouded pictures in gold frames to the splendid state salon
a low voiced hum of talk underlaid with the whirring bass of a score of sewing machines filled the place
huge bolts of red and black cotton cloth were unrolled serpentining across the parqueted floor and over tables at which sat half a hundred women cutting and sewing streamers and banners for the funeral of the revolutionary dead
the faces of these women were roughened and scarred with life at its most difficult they worked now sternly many of them with eyes red from weeping the losses of the red army had been heavy
at a desk in one corner was rogov an intelligent bearded man with glasses wearing the black blouse of a worker he invited us to march with the central executive committee in the funeral procession next morning
it is impossible to teach the socialist revolutionaries and the mensheviki anything he exclaimed they compromise from sheer habit imagine
i was with the boys in the kremlin when the yunkers came the first time they shut me up in the cellar and swiped my overcoat my money watch and even the ring on my finger this is all i've got to wear
from him i learned many details of the bloody six day battle which had rent moscow in two unlike in petrograd in moscow the city duma had taken command of the yunkers and white guards
a man of democratic instincts had hesitated about opposing the military revolutionary committee
they will never dare fire on you there he said one garrison regiment badly demoralised by long inactivity had been approached by both sides
the regiment held a meeting to decide what action to take resolved that the regiment remain neutral and continue its present activities which consisted in peddling rubbers and sunflower seeds
but worst of all said melnichansky we had to organise while we were fighting the other side knew just what it wanted but here the soldiers had their soviet and the workers theirs
there was a fearful wrangle over who should be commander in chief some regiments talked for days before they decided what to do and when the officers suddenly deserted us we had no battle staff to give orders vivid little pictures he gave me
a throng of little boys were gathered there street waifs who used to be newsboys shrill excited as if with a new game
many were killed but the rest dashed backward and forward laughing daring each other late in the evening i went to the dvorianskoye sobranie the nobles club
the meeting place was a theatre in which under the old regime to audiences of officers and glittering ladies
amateur presentations of the latest french comedy had once taken place at first the place filled with the intellectuals
but about midnight they began to clump up the stairs in groups of ten or twenty big rough men in coarse clothes fresh from the battle line where they had fought like devils for a week seeing their comrades fall all about them
scarcely had the meeting formally opened before nogin was assailed with a tempest of jeers and angry shouts in vain he tried to argue to explain they would not listen
he had left the council of people's commissars he had deserted his post while the battle was raging as for the bourgeois press here in moscow there was no more bourgeois press even the city duma had been dissolved
bukharin stood up savage logical with a voice which plunged and struck plunged and struck
chief of the military revolutionary committee for the secretary late in the night we went through the empty streets and under the iberian gate to the great red square in front of the kremlin
the church of vasili blazheiny loomed fantastic its bright coloured convoluted and blazoned cupolas vague in the darkness there was no sign of any damage
along one side of the square the dark towers and walls of the kremlin stood up on the high walls flickered redly the light of hidden flames voices reached us across the immense place and the sound of picks and shovels we crossed over
mountains of dirt and rock were piled high near the base of the wall climbing these we looked down into two massive pits ten or fifteen feet deep and fifty yards long where hundreds of soldiers and workers were digging in the light of huge fires
a young student spoke to us in german the brotherhood grave he explained to morrow we shall bury here five hundred proletarians who died for the revolution he took us down into the pit
in frantic haste swung the picks and shovels and the earth mountains grew no one spoke overhead the night was thick with stars and the ancient imperial kremlin wall towered up immeasurably here in this holy place
holiest of all russia we shall bury our most holy
the people shall sleep his arm was in a sling from a bullet wound gained in the fighting he looked at it you foreigners look down on us russians because so long we tolerated a mediaeval monarchy said he
but we saw that the tsar was not the only tyrant in the world capitalism was worse and in all the countries of the world capitalism was emperor russian revolutionary tactics are best as we left
across the red square a dark knot of men came hurrying they swarmed into the pits picked up the tools and began digging digging without a word so all the long night volunteers of the people relieved each other
never halting in their driving speed
white with snow and the yawning brown pits of the brotherhood grave quite finished we rose before sunrise and hurried through the dark streets to skobeliev square
in all the great city not a human being could be seen but there was a faint sound of stirring far and near like a deep wind coming
the central executive committee of the moscow soviets it grew light from afar the vague stirring sound deepened and became louder a steady and tremendous bass the city was rising
we set out down the tverskaya the banners flapping overhead the little street chapels along our way were locked and dark as was the chapel of the iberian virgin which each new tsar used to visit before he went to the kremlin to crown himself
now for the first time since napoleon was in moscow they say the candles were out the holy orthodox church had withdrawn the light of its countenance from moscow
dark and silent and cold were the churches the priests had disappeared
metropolitan of moscow was soon to excommunicate the soviets also the shops were closed and the propertied classes stayed at home but for other reasons this was the day of the people
the rumour of whose coming was thunderous as surf already through the iberian gate a human river was flowing and the vast red square was spotted with people thousands of them i remarked that as the throng passed the iberian chapel
we forced our way through the dense mass packed near the kremlin wall and stood upon one of the dirt mountains
through all the streets to the red square the torrents of people poured thousands upon thousands of them all with the look of the poor and the toiling
from the top of the kremlin wall gigantic banners unrolled to the ground red with great letters in gold and in white saying martyrs of the beginning of world social revolution and
long live the brotherhood of workers of the world a bitter wind swept the square lifting the banners now from the far quarters of the city the workers of the different factories were arriving with their dead
they could be seen coming through the gate the blare of their banners and the dull red like blood of the coffins they carried these were rude boxes made of unplaned wood and daubed with crimson
borne high on the shoulders of rough men who marched with tears streaming down their faces and followed by women who sobbed and screamed or walked stiffly with white dead faces some of the coffins were open the lid carried behind them
others were covered with gilded or silvered cloth or had a soldier's hat nailed on the top there were many wreaths of hideous artificial flowers
knots of crepe hanging from the top and some anarchist flags black with white letters the band was playing the revolutionary funeral march and against the immense singing of the mass of people
standing uncovered the paraders sang hoarsely choked with sobs between the factory workers came companies of soldiers with their coffins too and squadrons of cavalry riding at salute and artillery batteries
the cannon wound with red and black forever it seemed their banners said long live the third international or we want an honest general democratic peace
slowly the marchers came with their coffins to the entrance of the grave and the bearers clambered up with their burdens and went down into the pit many of them were women squat strong proletarian women
behind the dead came other women women young and broken or old wrinkled women making noises like hurt animals who tried to follow their sons and husbands into the brotherhood grave and shrieked when compassionate hands restrained them
the poor love each other so all the long day the funeral procession passed
a river of red banners bearing words of hope and brotherhood and stupendous prophecies against a back ground of fifty thousand people under the eyes of the world's workers and their descendants forever
one by one the five hundred coffins were laid in the pits dusk fell and still the banners came drooping and fluttering the band played the funeral march and the huge assemblage chanted
in the leafless branches of the trees above the grave the wreaths were hung like strange multi coloured blossoms two hundred men began to shovel in the dirt it rained dully down upon the coffins with a thudding sound
the lights came out the last banners passed and the last moaning women looking back with awful intensity as they went
slowly from the great square ebbed the proletarian tide i suddenly realised that the devout russian people no longer needed priests to pray them into heaven
chapter five the pecuniary standard of living for the great body of the people in any modern community the proximate ground of expenditure in excess of what is required for physical comfort
is not a conscious effort to excel in the expensiveness of their visible consumption so much as it is a desire to live up to the conventional standard of decency in the amount and grade of goods consumed this desire is not guided by a rigidly invariable standard
which must be lived up to and beyond which there is no incentive to go the standard is flexible and especially it is indefinitely extensible if only time is allowed for habituation to any increase in pecuniary ability
and for acquiring facility in the new and larger scale of expenditure that follows such an increase it is much more difficult to recede from a scale of expenditure once adopted
it is quite as hard to give up these as it is to give up many items that conduce directly to one's physical comfort or even that may be necessary to life and health that is to say the conspicuously wasteful honorific expenditure that confers spiritual well being
may become more indispensable than much of that expenditure which ministers to the lower wants of physical well being or sustenance only it is notoriously just as difficult to recede from a high standard of living as it is to lower a standard which is already relatively low
although in the former case the difficulty is a moral one while in the latter it may involve a material deduction from the physical comforts of life but while retrogression is difficult a fresh advance in conspicuous expenditure is relatively easy
indeed it takes place almost as a matter of course in the rare cases where it occurs a failure to increase one's visible consumption when the means for an increase are at hand is felt in popular apprehension to call for explanation
and unworthy motives of miserliness are imputed to those who fall short in this respect a prompt response to the stimulus on the other hand is accepted as the normal effect
this suggests that the standard of expenditure which commonly guides our efforts is not the average ordinary expenditure already achieved it is an ideal of consumption that lies just beyond our reach or to reach which requires some strain
the motive is emulation the stimulus of an invidious comparison which prompts us to outdo those with whom we are in the habit of classing ourselves
in the social scale while it rarely compares itself with those below or with those who are considerably in advance that is to say in other words our standard of decency in expenditure as in other ends of emulation
is set by the usage of those next above us in reputability until in this way especially in any community where class distinctions are somewhat vague all canons of reputability and decency and all standards of consumption
are traced back by insensible gradations to the usages and habits of thought of the highest social and pecuniary class the wealthy leisure class it is for this class to determine in general outline what scheme of life the community shall accept as decent or honorific
and it is their office by precept and example to set forth this scheme of social salvation in its highest ideal form but the higher leisure class can exercise this quasi sacerdotal office only under certain material limitations
the class cannot at discretion effect a sudden revolution or reversal of the popular habits of thought with respect to any of these ceremonial requirements it takes time for any change to permeate the mass and change the habitual attitude of the people
and especially it takes time to change the habits of those classes that are socially more remote from the radiant body the process is slower where the mobility of the population is less or where the intervals between the several classes are wider and more abrupt
but if time be allowed the scope of the discretion of the leisure class as regards questions of form and detail in the community's scheme of life is large while as regards the substantial principles of reputability the changes which it can effect lie within a narrow margin of tolerance
its example and precept carries the force of prescription for all classes below it but in working out the precepts which are handed down as governing the form and method of reputability in shaping the usages and the spiritual attitude of the lower classes
tempered in varying degree by the instinct of workmanship to those norms is to be added another broad principle of human nature the predatory animus which in point of generality and of psychological content lies between the two just named
the effect of the latter in shaping the accepted scheme of life is yet to be discussed the canon of reputability then must adapt itself to the economic circumstances
the traditions and the degree of spiritual maturity of the particular class whose scheme of life it is to regulate it is especially to be noted that however high its authority and however true to the fundamental requirements of reputability it may have been at its inception
a specific formal observance can under no circumstances maintain itself in force if with the lapse of time or on its transmission to a lower pecuniary class it is found to run counter to the ultimate ground of decency among civilized peoples namely
serviceability for the purpose of an invidious comparison in pecuniary success it is evident that these canons of expenditure have much to say in determining the standard of living for any community and for any class
and as to the degree to which this higher need will dominate a people's consumption in this respect the control exerted by the accepted standard of living is chiefly of a negative character
it acts almost solely to prevent recession from a scale of conspicuous expenditure that has once become habitual a standard of living is of the nature of habit it is an habitual scale and method of responding to given stimuli
the difficulty in the way of receding from an accustomed standard is the difficulty of breaking a habit that has once been formed the relative facility with which an advance in the standard is made means that the life process is a process of unfolding activity
and that it will readily unfold in a new direction whenever and wherever the resistance to self expression decreases but when the habit of expression along such a given line of low resistance has once been formed
the discharge will seek the accustomed outlet even after a change has taken place in the environment whereby the external resistance has appreciably risen that heightened facility of expression in a given direction which is called habit
may offset a considerable increase in the resistance offered by external circumstances to the unfolding of life in the given direction
there is an appreciable difference in point of persistence under counteracting circumstances and in point of the degree of imperativeness with which the discharge seeks a given direction that is to say in the language of current economic theory
while men are reluctant to retrench their expenditures in any direction they are more reluctant to retrench in some directions than in others so that while any accustomed consumption is reluctantly given up there are certain lines of consumption which are given up with relatively extreme reluctance
the articles or forms of consumption to which the consumer clings with the greatest tenacity are commonly the so called necessaries of life or the subsistence minimum the subsistence minimum is of course not a rigidly determined allowance of goods
is ordinarily given up last in case of a progressive retrenchment of expenditure that is to say in a general way the most ancient and ingrained of the habits which govern the individual's life those habits that touch his existence as an organism are the most persistent and imperative
beyond these come the higher wants later formed habits of the individual or the race in a somewhat irregular and by no means invariable gradation some of these higher wants as for instance the habitual use of certain stimulants or the need of salvation
in the eschatological sense or of good repute may in some cases take precedence of the lower or more elementary wants in general the longer the habituation the more unbroken the habit and the more nearly it coincides with previous habitual forms of the life process
the more persistently will the given habit assert itself the habit will be stronger if the particular traits of human nature which its action involves or the particular aptitudes that find exercise in it are traits or aptitudes that are already largely and profoundly concerned in the life process
goes to say that the formation of specific habits is not a matter of length of habituation simply inherited aptitudes and traits of temperament count for quite as much as length of habituation in deciding what range of habits will come to dominate any individual's scheme of life
and the prevalent type of transmitted aptitudes or in other words the type of temperament belonging to the dominant ethnic element in any community will go far to decide what will be the scope and form of expression of the community's habitual life process
how greatly the transmitted idiosyncrasies of aptitude may count in the way of a rapid and definitive formation of habit in individuals is illustrated by the extreme facility with which an all dominating habit of alcoholism is sometimes formed
or in the similar facility and the similarly inevitable formation of a habit of devout observances in the case of persons gifted with a special aptitude in that direction
much the same meaning attaches to that peculiar facility of habituation to a specific human environment that is called romantic love men differ in respect of transmitted aptitudes
or in respect of the relative facility with which they unfold their life activity in particular directions and the habits which coincide with or proceed upon a relatively strong specific aptitude or a relatively great specific facility of expression become of great consequence to the man's well being
the part played by this element of aptitude in determining the relative tenacity of the several habits which constitute the standard of living goes to explain the extreme reluctance with which men give up any habitual expenditure in the way of conspicuous consumption
the aptitudes or propensities to which a habit of this kind is to be referred as its ground are those aptitudes whose exercise is comprised in emulation and the propensity for emulation for invidious comparison is of ancient growth and is a pervading trait of human nature
it is easily called into vigorous activity in any new form and it asserts itself with great insistence under any form under which it has once found habitual expression when the individual has once formed the habit of seeking expression in a given line of honorific expenditure
when a given set of stimuli have come to be habitually responded to in activity of a given kind and direction under the guidance of these alert and deep reaching propensities of emulation it is with extreme reluctance that such an habitual expenditure is given up
and on the other hand whenever an accession of pecuniary strength puts the individual in a position to unfold his life process in larger scope and with additional reach the ancient propensities of the race will assert themselves in determining the direction which the new unfolding of life is to take
and those propensities which are already actively in the field under some related form of expression which are aided by the pointed suggestions afforded by a current accredited scheme of life and for the exercise of which the material means and opportunities are readily available
these will especially have much to say in shaping the form and direction in which the new accession to the individual's aggregate force will assert itself that is to say in concrete terms in any community where conspicuous consumption is an element of the scheme of life
of an expenditure for some accredited line of conspicuous consumption with the exception of the instinct of self preservation the propensity for emulation is probably the strongest and most alert and persistent of the economic motives proper
in an industrial community this propensity for emulation expresses itself in pecuniary emulation and this so far as regards the western civilized communities of the present is virtually equivalent to saying that it expresses itself in some form of conspicuous waste
the need of conspicuous waste therefore stands ready to absorb any increase in the community's industrial efficiency or output of goods after the most elementary physical wants have been provided for where this result does not follow under modern conditions
the reason for the discrepancy is commonly to be sought in a rate of increase in the individual's wealth too rapid for the habit of expenditure to keep abreast of it or it may be that the individual in question defers the conspicuous consumption of the increment to a later date
ordinarily with a view to heightening the spectacular effect of the aggregate expenditure contemplated as increased industrial efficiency makes it possible to procure the means of livelihood with less labor
the energies of the industrious members of the community are bent to the compassing of a higher result in conspicuous expenditure rather than slackened to a more comfortable pace the strain is not lightened as industrial efficiency increases and makes a lighter strain possible
but the increment of output is turned to use to meet this want which is indefinitely expansible after the manner commonly imputed in economic theory to higher or spiritual wants
the accepted standard of expenditure in the community or in the class to which a person belongs largely determines what his standard of living will be it does this directly by commending itself to his common sense as right and good
through his habitually contemplating it and assimilating the scheme of life in which it belongs but it does so also indirectly through popular insistence on conformity to the accepted scale of expenditure as a matter of propriety under pain of disesteem and ostracism
to accept and practice the standard of living which is in vogue is both agreeable and expedient commonly to the point of being indispensable to personal comfort and to success in life the standard of living of any class
so far as concerns the element of conspicuous waste is commonly as high as the earning capacity of the class will permit with a constant tendency to go higher the effect upon the serious activities of men is therefore to direct them with great singleness of purpose to the largest possible acquisition of wealth
and to discountenance work that brings no pecuniary gain at the same time the effect on consumption is to concentrate it upon the lines which are most patent to the observers whose good opinion is sought
through this discrimination in favor of visible consumption it has come about that the domestic life of most classes is relatively shabby as compared with the eclat of that overt portion of their life that is carried on before the eyes of observers
as a secondary consequence of the same discrimination people habitually screen their private life from observation so far as concerns that portion of their consumption that may without blame be carried on in secret they withdraw from all contact with their neighbors
hence the exclusiveness of people as regards their domestic life in most of the industrially developed communities and hence by remoter derivation the habit of privacy and reserve that is so large a feature in the code of proprieties of the better class in all communities
the low birthrate of the classes upon whom the requirements of reputable expenditure fall with great urgency is likewise traceable to the exigencies of a standard of living based on conspicuous waste the conspicuous consumption and the consequent increased expense
required in the reputable maintenance of a child is very considerable and acts as a powerful deterrent
the effect of this factor of the standard of living both in the way of retrenchment in the obscurer elements of consumption that go to physical comfort and maintenance and also in the paucity or absence of children
is perhaps seen at its best among the classes given to scholarly pursuits because of a presumed superiority and scarcity of the gifts and attainments that characterize their life these classes are by convention subsumed under a higher social grade than their pecuniary grade should warrant
and it consequently leaves an exceptionally narrow margin disposable for the other ends of life by force of circumstances their habitual sense of what is good and right in these matters as well as the expectations of the community in the way of pecuniary decency among the learned
are excessively high as measured by the prevalent degree of opulence and earning capacity of the class relatively to the non scholarly classes whose social equals they nominally are in any modern community where there is no priestly monopoly of these occupations
the people of scholarly pursuits are unavoidably thrown into contact with classes that are pecuniarily their superiors
chapter six pecuniary canons of taste the caution has already been repeated more than once
that while the regulating norm of consumption is in large part the requirement of conspicuous waste it must not be understood that the motive on which the consumer acts in any given case is this principle in its bald unsophisticated form
ordinarily his motive is a wish to conform to established usage to avoid unfavorable notice and comment to live up to the accepted canons of decency in the kind amount and grade of goods consumed
especially as regards consumption carried on under the eyes of observers but a considerable element of prescriptive expensiveness is observable also in consumption that does not in any appreciable degree become known to outsiders
as for instance articles of underclothing some articles of food
in all such useful articles a close scrutiny will discover certain features which add to the cost and enhance the commercial value of the goods in question but do not proportionately increase the serviceability of these articles for the material purposes
which alone they ostensibly are designed to serve under the selective surveillance of the law of conspicuous waste there grows up a code of accredited canons of consumption the effect of which is to hold the consumer up to a standard of expensiveness and wastefulness
in his consumption of goods and in his employment of time and effort this growth of prescriptive usage has an immediate effect upon economic life
of what is good and right in life in other directions also in the organic complex of habits of thought which make up the substance of an individual's conscious life the economic interest does not lie isolated and distinct from all other interests
something for instance has already been said of its relation to the canons of reputability the principle of conspicuous waste guides the formation of habits of thought as to what is honest and reputable in life and in commodities
in so doing this principle will traverse other norms of conduct which do not primarily have to do with the code of pecuniary honor but which have directly or incidentally an economic significance of some magnitude
so the canon of honorific waste may immediately or remotely influence the sense of duty the sense of beauty the sense of utility the sense of devotional or ritualistic fitness and the scientific sense of truth
or the particular manner in which the canon of honorific expenditure habitually traverses the canons of moral conduct the matter is one which has received large attention and illustration at the hands of those whose office it is to watch and admonish with respect to any departures
from the accepted code of morals in modern communities where the dominant economic and legal feature of the community's life is the institution of private property one of the salient features of the code of morals is the sacredness of property
there needs no insistence or illustration to gain assent to the proposition that the habit of holding private property inviolate is traversed by the other habit of seeking wealth for the sake of the good repute to be gained through its conspicuous consumption
most offenses against property especially offenses of an appreciable magnitude come under this head it is also a matter of common notoriety and byword that in offenses which result in a large accession of property to the offender
he does not ordinarily incur the extreme penalty or the extreme obloquy with which his offenses would be visited on the ground of the naive moral code alone the thief or swindler who has gained great wealth by his delinquency
has a better chance than the small thief of escaping the rigorous penalty of the law and some good repute accrues to him from his increased wealth and from his spending the irregularly acquired possessions in a seemly manner
a well bred expenditure of his booty especially appeals with great effect to persons of a cultivated sense of the proprieties and goes far to mitigate the sense of moral turpitude with which his dereliction is viewed by them it may be noted also
that we are all inclined to condone an offense against property in the case of a man whose motive is the worthy one of providing the means of a decent manner of life for his wife and children if it is added that the wife has been nurtured in the lap of luxury
as is demanded by the standard of pecuniary decency in such a case the habit of approving the accustomed degree of conspicuous waste traverses the habit of deprecating violations of ownership to the extent even of sometimes leaving the award
of praise or blame uncertain this is peculiarly true where the dereliction involves an appreciable predatory or piratical element this topic need scarcely be pursued further here
but the remark may not be out of place that all that considerable body of morals that clusters about the concept of an inviolable ownership is itself a psychological precipitate of the traditional meritoriousness of wealth
and it should be added that this wealth which is held sacred is valued primarily for the sake of the good repute to be got through its conspicuous consumption
also as regards the sense of devout or ritual merit and adequacy in this connection little need be said in this place that topic will also come up incidentally in a later chapter still
and the bearing of the principle of conspicuous waste upon some of the commonplace devout observances and conceits may therefore be pointed out obviously the canon of conspicuous waste is accountable for a great portion of what may be called devout consumption as e g
the sacred buildings and the other properties of the cult are constructed and decorated with some view to a reputable degree of wasteful expenditure and it needs but little either of observation or introspection and either will serve the turn
with which any evidence of indigence or squalor about the sacred place affects all beholders
than the dwelling houses of the congregation this is true of nearly all denominations and cults whether christian or pagan but it is true in a peculiar degree of the older and maturer cults
at the same time the sanctuary commonly contributes little if anything to the physical comfort of the members indeed the sacred structure not only serves the physical well being of the members to but a slight extent as compared with their humbler dwelling houses
but it is felt by all men that a right and enlightened sense of the true the beautiful and the good demands that in all expenditure on the sanctuary anything that might serve the comfort of the worshipper should be conspicuously absent if any element of comfort is admitted in the fittings of the sanctuary
it should be at least scrupulously screened and masked under an ostensible austerity in the most reputable latter day houses of worship where no expense is spared the principle of austerity is carried to the length of making the fittings of the place a means of mortifying the flesh
especially in appearance there are few persons of delicate tastes in the matter of devout consumption to whom this austerely wasteful discomfort does not appeal as intrinsically right and good
backed by the principle that vicarious consumption should conspicuously not conduce to the comfort of the vicarious consumer
the sanctuary and its fittings have something of this austerity in all the cults in which the saint or divinity to whom the sanctuary pertains is not conceived to be present and make personal use of the property for the gratification of luxurious tastes imputed to him
the character of the sacred paraphernalia is somewhat different in this respect in those cults where the habits of life imputed to the divinity more nearly approach those of an earthly patriarchal potentate where he is conceived to make use of these consumable goods in person
in the latter case the sanctuary and its fittings take on more of the fashion given to goods destined for the conspicuous consumption of a temporal master or owner on the other hand where the sacred apparatus is simply employed in the divinity's service
that is to say where it is consumed vicariously on his account by his servants there the sacred properties take the character suited to goods that are destined for vicarious consumption only
in the latter case the sanctuary and the sacred apparatus are so contrived as not to enhance the comfort or fullness of life of the vicarious consumer or at any rate not to convey the impression that the end of their consumption is the consumer's comfort
for the end of vicarious consumption is to enhance not the fullness of life of the consumer but the pecuniary repute of the master for whose behoof the consumption takes place therefore priestly vestments are notoriously expensive ornate
and inconvenient and in the cults where the priestly servitor of the divinity is not conceived to serve him in the capacity of consort they are of an austere comfortless fashion and such it is felt that they should be
it is not only in establishing a devout standard of decent expensiveness that the principle of waste invades the domain of the canons of ritual serviceability it touches the ways as well as the means and draws on vicarious leisure as well as on vicarious consumption
priestly demeanor at its best is aloof leisurely perfunctory and uncontaminated with suggestions of sensuous pleasure this holds true in different degrees of course for the different cults and denominations
tendency to reduce itself to a rehearsal of formulas this development of formula is most noticeable in the maturer cults which have at the same time a more austere ornate and severe priestly life and garb
but it is perceptible also in the forms and methods of worship of the newer and fresher sects whose tastes in respect of priests vestments and sanctuaries are less exacting the rehearsal of the service
the term service carries a suggestion significant for the point in question grows more perfunctory as the cult gains in age and consistency and this perfunctoriness of the rehearsal is very pleasing to the correct devout taste and with a good reason
for the fact of its being perfunctory goes to say pointedly that the master for whom it is performed is exalted above the vulgar need of actually proficuous service on the part of his servants they are unprofitable servants
and there is an honorific implication for their master in their remaining unprofitable it is needless to point out the close analogy at this point between the priestly office and the office of the footman
it is pleasing to our sense of what is fitting in these matters in either case to recognize in the obvious perfunctoriness of the service that it is a pro forma execution only
there should be no show of agility or of dexterous manipulation in the execution of the priestly office such as might suggest a capacity for turning off the work
tastes propensities and habits of life imputed to the divinity by worshippers who live under the tradition of these pecuniary canons of reputability through its pervading men's habits of thought
it is of course in the more naive cults that this suffusion of pecuniary beauty is most patent but it is visible throughout all peoples at whatever stage of culture or degree of enlightenment
are fain to eke out a sensibly scant degree of authentic formation regarding the personality and habitual surroundings of their divinities in so calling in the aid of fancy to enrich and fill in their picture of the divinity's presence and manner of life they habitually impute to him
such traits as go to make up their ideal of a worthy man and in seeking communion with the divinity the ways and means of approach are assimilated as nearly as may be to the divine ideal that is in men's minds at the time
it is felt that the divine presence is entered with the best grace and with the best effect according to certain accepted methods and with the accompaniment of certain material circumstances which in popular apprehension are peculiarly consonant with the divine nature
this popularly accepted ideal of the bearing and paraphernalia adequate to such occasions of communion is of course to a good extent shaped by the popular apprehension of what is intrinsically worthy and beautiful in human carriage and surroundings on all occasions of dignified intercourse
of a pecuniary standard of reputability back directly and baldly to the underlying norm of pecuniary emulation
as well as our notions of what are the fit and adequate manner and circumstances of divine communion it is felt that the divinity must be of a peculiarly serene and leisurely habit of life and whenever his local habitation is pictured in poetic imagery
for edification or in appeal to the devout fancy the devout word painter as a matter of course brings out before his auditors imagination a throne with a profusion of the insignia of opulence and power and surrounded by a great number of servitors
in the common run of such presentations of the celestial abodes the office of this corps of servants is a vicarious leisure their time and efforts being in great measure taken up with an industrially unproductive
rehearsal of the meritorious characteristics and exploits of the divinity while the background of the presentation is filled with the shimmer of the precious metals and of the more expensive varieties of precious stones
it is only in the crasser expressions of devout fancy that this intrusion of pecuniary canons into the devout ideals reaches such an extreme an extreme case occurs in the devout imagery of the negro population of the south
a strict observer of justice gracious merciful and liberal and his valour made him terrible to his neighbours he loved the poor and protected the learned
whom he advanced to the highest dignities this sultan had a vizier who was prudent wise sagacious and well versed in all sciences this minister had two sons
the vizier their father being dead the sultan caused them both to put on the robes of a vizier i am as sorry said he
as you are for the loss of your father and because i know you live together and love one another cordially i will bestow his dignity upon you conjointly
and attended their duties when the sultan hunted one of the brothers accompanied him and this honour they had by turns
one evening as they were conversing together after a cheerful meal the next day being the elder brother's turn to hunt with the sultan he said to his younger brother since neither of us is yet married
and we live so affectionately together let us both wed the same day sisters out of some family that may suit our quality what do you think of this plan brother
there cannot be a better thought for my part i will agree to any thing you approve but this is not all said the elder my fancy carries me farther
suppose both our wives should conceive the first night of our marriage and should happen to be brought to bed on one day yours of a son and mine of a daughter
we will give them to each other in marriage nay said noor ad deen aloud i must acknowledge that this prospect is admirable such a marriage will perfect our union
and i willingly consent to it but then brother said he farther if this marriage should happen
would you expect that my son should settle a jointure on your daughter there is no difficulty in that replied the other
for i am persuaded that besides the usual articles of the marriage contract you will not fail to promise in his name at least three thousand sequins
three landed estates and three slaves no said the younger i will not consent to that are we not brethren and equal in title and dignity do not you and i know what is just
by what i perceive you are a man that would have your business done at another's charge
his brother being of a hasty temper was offended and falling into a passion said a mischief upon your son since you prefer him before my daughter
i wonder you had so much confidence as to believe him worthy of her you must needs have lost your judgment to think you are my equal and say we are colleagues
i would have you to know that since you are so vain i would not marry my daughter to your son though you would give him more than you are worth
this pleasant quarrel between two brothers about the marriage of their children before they were born went so far that shumse ad deen concluded by threatening
upon this he retired to his apartment in anger shumse ad deen rising early next morning attended the sultan who went to hunt near the pyramids
as for noor ad deen he was very uneasy all night and supposing it would not be possible to live longer with a brother who had treated him with so much haughtiness he provided a stout mule
furnished himself with money and jewels and having told his people that he was going on a private journey for two or three days departed when out of cairo
he rode by way of the desert towards arabia but his mule happening to tire was forced to continue his journey on foot a
courier who was going to bussorah by good fortune overtaking him took him up behind him as soon as the courier reached that city noor ad deen alighted and returned him thanks for his kindness
as he went about to seek for a lodging he saw a person of quality with a numerous retinue to whom all the people shewed the greatest respect and stood still till he had passed
this personage was grand vizier to the sultan of bussorah who was passing through the city to see that the inhabitants kept good order and discipline
this minister casting his eyes by chance on noor ad deen ali perceiving something extraordinary in his aspect looked very attentively upon him
born at cairo and have left my country because of the unkindness of a near relation resolved to travel through the world and rather to die than return home
the grand vizier who was a good natured man after hearing these words said to him son beware do not pursue your design
you are not sensible of the hardships you must endure follow me i may perhaps make you forget the misfortunes which have forced you to leave your own country
noor ad deen followed the grand vizier who soon discovered his good qualities and conceived for him so great an affection that one day he said to him in private my son
i am as you see so far gone in years that it is not probable i shall live much longer heaven has bestowed on me only one daughter who is as beautiful as you are handsome
and now fit for marriage several nobles of the highest rank at this court have sought her for their sons but i would not grant their request
and think you so worthy to be received into my family
and intreat him to grant you the reversion of my dignity of grand vizier in the kingdom of bussorah in the mean time nothing being more requisite for me than ease in my old age
i will not only put you in possession of great part of my estate but leave the administration of public affairs to your management
when the grand vizier had concluded this kind and generous proposal noor ad deen fell at his feet and expressing himself in terms that demonstrated his joy and gratitude
assured him that he was at his command in every way upon this the vizier sent for his chief domestics ordered them to adorn the great hall of his palace and prepare a splendid feast
he afterwards sent to invite the nobility of the court and city to honour him with their company and when they were all met noor ad deen having made known his quality he said to the noblemen present
for he thought it proper to speak thus on purpose to satisfy those to whom he had refused his alliance i am now my lords
i have a brother who is grand vizier to the sultan of egypt this brother has but one son whom he would not marry in the court of egypt but sent him hither to wed my daughter
in order that both branches of our family may be united
and wished that god might prolong his days to enjoy the satisfaction of the happy match the lords met at the vizier of bussorah's palace
having testified their satisfaction at the marriage of his daughter with noor ad deen ali sat down to a magnificent repast after which notaries came in with the marriage contrast and the chief lords signed it
who was exceedingly pleased with his noble demeanour having made him sit down my son said he
you have declared to me who you are and the office you held at the court of egypt
which occasioned you to leave your country i desire you to make me your entire confidant and to acquaint me with the cause of your quarrel for now you have no reason either to doubt my affection
or to conceal any thing from me noor ad deen informed him of every circumstance of the quarrel at which the vizier burst out into a fit of laughter and said
this is one of the strangest occurrences i ever heard is it possible my son that your quarrel should rise so high about an imaginary marriage
and i ought to thank heaven for that difference which has procured me such a son in law but continued the vizier
noor ad deen ali took leave of his father in law and retired to his bridal apartment it is remarkable that shumse ad deen mahummud
happened also to marry at cairo the very same day that this marriage was solemnized at bussorah the particulars of which are as follow
after noor ad deen ali left cairo with an intention never to return his elder brother who was hunting with the sultan of egypt was absent for a month
for the sultan being fond of the chase continued it often for so long a period at his return shumse ad deen was much surprised when he understood
his brother departed from cairo on a mule the same day as the sultan and had never appeared since it vexed him so much the more because he did not doubt but the harsh words
he had used had occasioned his flight
but noor ad deen was then at bussorah when the courier returned and brought no news of him shumse ad deen intended to make further inquiry after him in other parts
and on the same day
who was called buddir ad deen houssun the grand vizier of bussorah testified his joy for the birth of his grandson by gifts and public entertainments
and to shew his son in law the great esteem he had for him
standards and writing apparatus of gold richly enamelled and set with jewels the next day
as he himself had done and perform all the offices of grand vizier his joy was complete
and engaged the approbation of the sultan and reverence and affection of the people the old vizier of bussorah died about four years afterwards with great satisfaction
seeing a branch of his family that promised so fair to support its future consequence and respectability noor ad deen ali performed his last duty to him with all possible love and gratitude
and as soon as his son buddir ad deen houssun had attained the age of seven years provided him an excellent tutor who taught him such things as became his birth
the child had a ready wit and a genius capable of receiving all the good instructions that could be given after buddir ad deen had been two years under the tuition of his master who taught him perfectly to read
his father put him afterwards to other tutors by whom his mind was cultivated to such a degree that when he was twelve years of age he had no more occasion for them and then as his physiognomy promised wonders
he was admired by all who saw him hitherto his father had kept him to study but now he introduced him to the sultan who received him graciously the people who saw him in the streets were charmed with his demeanour
and gave him a thousand blessings his father proposing to render him capable of supplying his place accustomed him to business of the greatest moment on purpose to qualify him betimes
in short he omitted nothing to advance a son he loved so well but as he began to enjoy the fruits of his labour he was suddenly seized by a violent fit of sickness
and finding himself past recovery disposed himself to die a good mussulmaun in that last and precious moment he forgot not his son but called for him and said
my son you see this world is transitory there is nothing durable but in that to which i shall speedily go
you must therefore from henceforth begin to fit yourself for this change as i have done
so as to have no trouble of conscience for not having acted the part of a really honest man as for your religion you are sufficiently instructed in it by what you have learnt from your tutors and your own study
and as to what belongs to an upright man i shall give you some instructions of which i hope you will make good use as it is a necessary thing to know one's self
and you cannot come to that knowledge without you first understand who i am
i am a native of egypt my father your grandfather was first minister to the sultan of that kingdom
i had myself the honour to be vizier to that sultan and so has my brother your uncle who i suppose is yet alive his name is shumse ad deen mahummud
i was obliged to leave him and come into this country where i have raised myself to the high dignity i now enjoy but you will understand all these matters more fully by a manuscript that i shall give you
at the same time noor ad deen ali gave to his son a memorandum book saying take and read it at your leisure you will find among other things
the day of my marriage and that of your birth these are circumstances which perhaps you may hereafter have occasion to know therefore you must keep it very carefully
not to do violence to any body whatever for in that case you will draw every body's hatred upon you
and in this case particularly you ought to practice it you also know what one of our poets says upon this subject that silence is the ornament and safe guard of life that our speech
ought not to be like a storm of hail that spoils all never did any man yet repent of having spoken too little whereas many have been sorry that they spoke so much fourthly
to drink no wine for that is the source of all vices fifthly to be frugal in your way of living if you do not squander your estate
it will maintain you in time of necessity i do not mean you should be either profuse or niggardly for though you have little if you husband it well and lay it out on proper occasions
the virtuous noor ad deen continued till the last aspiration of his breath to give good advice to his son and when he was dead he was magnificently interred
noor ad deen was buried with all the honours due to his rank buddir ad deen houssun of bussorah for so he was called because born in that city
was with grief for the death of his father that instead of a month's time to mourn according to custom he kept himself shut up in tears and solitude about two months without seeing any body
suffered his passion to prevail and in his anger called for the new grand vizier for he had created another on the death of noor ad deen commanded him to go to the house of the deceased
and seize upon it with all his other houses lands and effects without leaving any thing for buddir ad deen houssun and to confine his person the new grand vizier
accompanied by his officers went immediately to execute his commission but one of buddir ad deen houssun's slaves happening accidentally to come into the crowd
he found him sitting in the vestibule of his house as melancholy as if his father had been but newly dead he fell down at his feet out of breath and alter he had kissed the hem of his garment cried out
my lord save yourself immediately the unfortunate youth lifting up his head exclaimed what news dost thou bring my lord said he there is no time to be lost the sultan is incensed against you
the words of this faithful and affectionate slave occasioned buddir ad deen houssun great alarm may not i have so much time said he as to take some money and jewels along with me
no sir replied the slave the grand vizier will be here this moment be gone immediately save yourself the unhappy youth rose hastily from his sofa
put his feet in his sandals and after he had covered his head with the skirt of his vest that his face might not be known fled without knowing what way to go to avoid the impending danger
he ran without stopping till he came to the public burying ground and as it was growing dark resolved to pass that night in his father's tomb
which noor ad deen ali as is common with the mussulmauns had erected for his sepulture on the way
who was a banker and merchant and was returning from a place where his affairs had called him to the city the jew knowing buddir ad deen stopped and saluted him very courteously
isaac the jew after he had paid his respects to buddir ad deen houssun by kissing his hand said my lord
dare i be so bold as to ask whither you are going at this time of night alone and so much troubled has any thing disquieted you yes said buddir ad deen a
looking very fiercely upon me as if much displeased
my lord said the jew who did not know the true reason why buddir ad deen had left the town your father of happy memory and my good lord
i will pay you down in part of payment a thousand sequins and drawing out a bag from under his vest he shewed it him sealed up with one seal
i sell it to you for a thousand sequins it is done upon this the jew delivered him the bag of a thousand sequins and offered to count them but buddir ad deen said he would trust his word
since it is so my lord said he
presented it to him with a piece of paper buddir ad deen houssun wrote these words
has sold to isaac the jew for the sum of one thousand sequins received in hand the lading of the first of his ships that shall arrive in this port
this note he delivered to the jew after having stamped it with his seal and then took his leave of him while isaac pursued his journey to the city
buddir ad deen made the best of his way to his father's tomb when he came to it he prostrated himself to the ground and with his eyes full of tears deplored his miserable condition
alas said he unfortunate buddir ad deen
whither canst thou fly for refuge against the unjust prince who persecutes thee was it not enough to be afflicted by the death of so dear a father
must fortune needs add new misfortunes to just complaints he continued a long time in this posture
but at last rose up and leaning his head upon his father's tombstone his sorrows returned more violently than before so that he sighed and mourned till overcome with heaviness
he sunk upon the floor
he had not slept long when a genie who had retired to the cemetery during the day and was intending according to his custom to range about the world at night entered the sepulchre
and finding buddir ad deen lying on his back was surprised at his beauty when the genie had attentively considered buddir ad deen houssun he said to himself
to judge of this creature by his beauty he would seem to be an angel of the terrestrial paradise whom god has sent to put the world in a flame by his charms
at last after he had satisfied himself with looking at him
they saluted one another after which he said to her pray descend with me into the cemetery where i dwell
replied i must confess that he is a very handsome man but i am just come from seeing an objets at cairo more admirable than this and if you will hear me
i will relate her unhappy fate you will very much oblige me
shumse ad deen mahummud who has a daughter most beautiful and accomplished the sultan having heard of this young lady's beauty sent the other day for her father and said
will not you consent the vizier who did not expect this proposal was troubled and instead of accepting it joyfully which another in his place would certainly have done
he answered the sultan may it please your majesty
and i most humbly beseech you to pardon me if i do not accede to your request
who had the honour as well as myself to be one of your viziers we had some difference together which was the cause of his leaving me suddenly since that time i have had no account of him
till within these four days that i heard he died at bussorah being grand vizier to the sultan of that kingdom he has left a son
i am persuaded he intended that match when he died and being desirous to fulfil the promise on my part i conjure your majesty to grant me permission the sultan of egypt
provoked at this denial of his vizier said to him in anger which he could not restrain is this the way in which you requite my condescension
i know how to revenge your presumption in daring to prefer another to me and i swear that your daughter shall be married
to the most contemptible and ugly of my slaves having thus spoken he angrily commanded the vizier to quit his presence
the vizier retired to his palace full of confusion and overwhelmed in despair this very day the sultan sent for one of his grooms who is hump backed
he caused the contract to be made and signed by witnesses in his own presence the preparations for this fantastical wedding are all ready and this very moment
all the slaves belonging to the lords of the court of egypt are waiting at the door of a bath each with a flambeau in his hand for the crook back groom who is bathing
to go along with them to his bride who is already dressed to receive him and when i departed from cairo the ladies met for that purpose
her hump backed bridegroom and is this minute expecting him i have seen her and do assure you that no person can behold her without admiration
the genie said to her whatever you think or say i cannot be persuaded that the girl's beauty exceeds that of this young man
for i must confess he deserves to be married to that charming creature whom they design for hump back and i think it were a deed worthy of us
and put this young gentleman in the room of the slave
let us comfort a distressed father and make his daughter as happy as she thinks herself miserable
and afterwards leave it to your care to carry him elsewhere when we have accomplished our design
whence hump back was to come with a train of slaves that waited for him buddir ad deen awoke and was naturally alarmed at finding himself in the middle of a city he knew not
he was going to cry out but the genie touched him gently on the shoulder
the bridegroom is a hump backed fellow and by that you will easily know him put yourself at the right hand as you go in open the purse of sequins you have in your bosom
distribute them among the musicians and dancers as they go along and when you are got into the hall give money also to the female slaves you see about the bride but every time you put your hand in your purse
be sure to take out a whole handful and do not spare them observe to do everything exactly as i have desired you be not afraid of any person
all who received it fixed their eyes upon him
as for that said sir tristram i will answer you this shield was given me not desired of queen morgan le fay and as for me i can not descrive these arms
for it is no point of my charge and yet i trust to god to bear them with worship truly said king arthur ye ought not to bear none arms but if ye wist what ye bear but i pray you tell me your name
to what intent said sir tristram for i would wit said arthur sir ye shall not wit as at this time
then shall ye and i do battle together said king arthur why said sir tristram will ye do battle with me but if i tell you my name and that little needeth you an ye were a man of worship for ye have seen me this day
have had great travail and therefore ye are a villainous knight to ask battle of me considering my great travail howbeit i will not fail you
yet shall i right well endure you and there withal king arthur dressed his shield and his spear and sir tristram against him and they came so eagerly together
and there king arthur brake his spear all to pieces upon sir tristram's shield but sir tristram hit arthur again that horse and man fell to the earth and there was king arthur wounded on the left side
a great wound and a perilous then when sir uwaine saw his lord arthur lie on the ground sore wounded he was passing heavy and then he dressed his shield and his spear
and cried aloud unto sir tristram and said knight defend thee so they came together as thunder and sir uwaine brised his spear all to pieces upon sir tristram's shield
and sir tristram smote him harder and sorer with such a might that he bare him clean out of his saddle to the earth with that sir tristram turned about and said fair knights i had no need to joust with you
for i have had enough to do this day then arose arthur and went to sir uwaine and said to sir tristram we have as we have deserved
we demanded battle of you and yet we knew not your name nevertheless by saint cross said sir uwaine he is a strong knight at mine advice as any is now living then sir tristram departed
and in every place he asked and demanded after sir launcelot but in no place he could not hear of him whether he were dead or alive wherefore sir tristram made great dole and sorrow so sir tristram rode by a forest
on that one side and on that other side a fair meadow and there he saw ten knights fighting together and ever the nearer he came he saw how there was but one knight did battle against nine knights
and then within a little while he had slain half their horses and unhorsed them
then sir tristram had so great pity of that one knight that endured so great pain
and so he rode unto the knights and cried unto them
for they did themselves great shame so many knights to fight with one
that was at that time the most mischievoust knight living
and therefore an ye be wise depart on your way as ye came for this knight shall not escape us that were pity said sir tristram that so good a knight as he is should be slain so cowardly
and saved me from my death what is your name said sir tristram he said
thou hast a fair grace of me this day that i should rescue thee and thou art the man in the world that i most hate but now make thee ready for i will do battle with thee
my name is sir tristram your mortal enemy
but ye have done over much for me this day that i should fight with you for inasmuch as ye have saved my life it will be no worship for you to have ado with me for ye are fresh and i am wounded sore
and therefore an ye will needs have ado with me assign me a day
ye say well said sir tristram now i assign you to meet me in the meadow by the river of camelot where merlin set the peron so they were agreed
why the ten knights did battle with him
and a lady weeping beside him and when i saw her making such dole i asked her who slew her lord sir she said the falsest knight of the world now living and he is the most villain that ever man heard speak of
and i promised her to be her warrant and to help her to inter her lord and so suddenly as i came riding by this tower
and suddenly he struck me from my horse and then or i might recover my horse this sir breuse slew the damosel and so i took my horse again and i was sore ashamed and so began the medley betwixt us
and this is the cause wherefore we did this battle well said sir tristram now i understand the manner of your battle but in any wise have remembrance of your promise that ye have made with me to do battle with me this day fortnight
well said sir tristram as at this time i will not fail you till that ye be out of the danger of your enemies so they mounted upon their horses and rode together unto that forest
and there they found a fair well with clear water bubbling fair sir said sir tristram to drink of that water have i courage and then they alighted off their horses
and then were they ware by them where stood a great horse tied to a tree and ever he neighed and then were they ware of a fair knight armed under a tree lacking no piece of harness
save his helm lay under his head by the good lord said sir tristram
what is best to do awake him
so sir tristram awaked him with the butt of his spear and so the knight rose up hastily and put his helm upon his head and gat a great spear in his hand and without any more words he hurled unto sir tristram
and smote him clean from his saddle to the earth and hurt him on the left side that sir tristram lay in great peril then he walloped farther
and there he struck him a part through the body that he fell from his horse to the earth and then this strange knight left them there and took his way through the forest
and i will repose me hereby with a friend of mine
that ye have set with me to do battle for as i deem ye will not hold your day
nor prisoner i will not fail you but i have cause to have more doubt of you that ye will not meet with me for ye ride after yonder strong knight and if ye meet with him it is an hard adventure
an ever ye escape his hands right so sir tristram
who hath slain your lord sir she said here came a knight riding as my lord and i rested us here and asked him of whence he was
and my lord said of arthur's court therefore said the strong knight i will joust with thee
dead amounted upon his horse and the strong knight and my lord encountered together and there he smote my lord throughout with his spear
that me repenteth said sir tristram of your great anger an it please you tell me your husband's name sir said she his name was galardoun
that would have proved a good knight so departed sir tristram from that dolorous lady and had much evil lodging then on the third day sir tristram met with sir gawaine
and with sir bleoberis in a forest at a lodge and either were sore wounded then sir tristram asked sir gawaine and sir bleoberis if they met with such a knight
with such a cognisance with a covered shield fair sir said these knights such a knight met with us to our great damage and first he smote down my fellow sir bleoberis
i should not have ado with him for why he was overstrong for me that strong knight took his words at scorn and said
and then they rode together and so he hurt my fellow and when he had done so i might not for shame but i must joust with him and at the first course he smote me down and my horse to the earth
and there he had almost slain me and from us he took his horse and departed and in an evil time we met with him fair knights said sir tristram so he met with me
and he smote us both down with one spear and hurt us right sore by my faith said sir gawaine
and seek him no further for at the next feast of the round table upon pain of my head ye shall find him there by my faith said sir tristram i shall never rest till that i find him
and then sir gawaine asked him his name then he said my name is sir tristram and so either told other their names and then departed sir tristram and rode his way
and by fortune in a meadow sir tristram met with sir kay the seneschal and sir dinadan what tidings with you said sir tristram with you knights not good said these knights
why so said sir tristram i pray you tell me for i ride to seek a knight what cognisance beareth he said sir kay he beareth said sir tristram a covered shield close with cloth
by my head said sir kay that is the same knight that met with us
and when he wist we were of arthur's court he spoke great villainy by the king
was waged battle with him for that cause and at the first recounter said sir kay
and thus he departed and then sir tristram asked them their names and so either told other their names and so sir tristram departed from sir kay and from sir dinadan
and so he passed through a great forest into a plain till he was ware of a priory
that sir tristram had been refreshed his harness was brised and broken and when gouvernail his servant was come with his apparel he took his leave at the widow and mounted upon his horse
and rode his way early on the morn and by sudden adventure sir tristram met with sir sagramore le desirous and with sir dodinas le savage
and these two knights met with sir tristram and questioned with him and asked him if he would joust with them fair knights said sir tristram with a good will i would joust with you
but i have promised at a day set near hand to do battle with a strong knight and therefore i am loath to have ado with you for an it misfortuned me here to be hurt
i should not be able to do my battle which i promised as for that said sagramore maugre your head ye shall joust with us or ye pass from us well said sir tristram
but through sir tristram's great force he struck sir sagramore from his horse then he hurled his horse farther and said to sir dodinas knight make thee ready
and rode forth on his way and his man gouvernail with him anon as sir tristram was passed sir sagramore and sir dodinas gat again their horses
and mounted up lightly and followed after sir tristram and when sir tristram saw them come so fast after him he returned with his horse to them and asked them what they would
it is not long ago sithen i smote you to the earth at your own request and desire i would have ridden by you but ye would not suffer me and now meseemeth ye would do more battle with me
that is truth said sir sagramore and sir dodinas for we will be revenged of the despite ye have done to us fair knights said sir tristram that shall little need you for all that i did to you ye caused it
leave me as at this time for i am sure an i do battle with you i shall not escape without great hurts and as i suppose ye shall not escape all lotless
and this is the cause why i am so loath to have ado with you for i must fight within these three days with a good knight and as valiant as any is now living and if i be hurt i shall not be able to do battle with him
that ye shall fight withal sirs said he it is a good knight
by my head said sir sagramore and sir dodinas ye have cause to dread him for ye shall find him a passing good knight and a valiant and because ye shall have ado with him we will forbear you as at this time
and else ye should not escape us lightly but fair knight said sir sagramore tell us your name sir said he my name is sir tristram de liones ah said sagramore
that was the king's son of ireland was slain by the hands of balin and in that same place was the fair lady colombe slain
she took his sword and thrust it through her body and by the craft of merlin
under one stone and at that time merlin prophesied that in that same place should fight two the best knights that ever were in arthur's days and the best lovers so when sir tristram came to the tomb where
with a covered shield when he came nigh sir tristram he said on high ye be welcome sir knight and well and truly have ye holden your promise
and then they dressed their shields and spears and came together with all their might of their horses and they met so fiercely that both their horses and knights fell to the earth and as fast as they might
and put their shields afore them and they struck together with bright swords as men that were of might
and thus they fought the space of four hours that never one would speak to other one word and of their harness they had hewn off many pieces
i marvel greatly of the strokes my master hath given to your master by my head said sir launcelot's servant your master hath not given so many but your master has received as many or more
and yet pity it were that either of these good knights should destroy other's blood so they stood and wept both and made great dole when they saw the bright swords over covered with blood of their bodies
then at the last spake sir launcelot and said knight thou fightest wonderly well as ever i saw knight therefore an it please you tell me your name sir said sir tristram that is me loath
to tell any man my name truly said sir launcelot an i were required i was never loath to tell my name it is well said said sir tristram then i require you to tell me your name
fair knight he said my name is sir launcelot du lake alas said sir tristram what have i done for ye are the man in the world that i love best
fair knight said sir launcelot tell me your name truly said he my name is sir tristram de liones
what adventure is befallen me and therewith sir launcelot kneeled down and yielded him up his sword and therewith sir tristram kneeled adown and yielded him up his sword
and so either gave other the degree and then they both forthwithal went to the stone and set them down upon it and took off their helms to cool them
and either kissed other an hundred times and then anon after they took off their helms and rode to camelot
license and slavery peculiar defects in republican governments application of this reflection to the state of florence giovanni di bicci di medici re establishes the authority of his family
filippo visconti duke of milan
their jealousy of him
war declared the florentines are routed by the ducal forces republican governments more especially those imperfectly organized frequently change their rulers and the form of their institutions
not by the influence of liberty or subjection as many suppose but by that of slavery and license for with the nobility or the people the ministers respectively of slavery or licentiousness
neither of them choosing to be subject either to magistrates or laws when however a good wise and powerful citizen appears which is but seldom
who establishes ordinances capable of appeasing or restraining these contending dispositions so as to prevent them from doing mischief then the government may be called free and
its institutions firm and secure for having good laws for its basis and good regulations for carrying them into effect it needs not like others
but these advantages are and always have been denied to those which frequently change from tyranny to license or the reverse because
from the powerful enemies which each condition creates itself they neither have nor can possess any stability for tyranny cannot please the good and license is offensive to the wise
in the former the insolent have too much authority and in the latter the foolish
who may be removed by death or become unserviceable by misfortune hence it appears that the government which commenced in florence at the death of giorgio scali in thirteen eighty one
and then by those of niccolo da uzzano the city remained tranquil from fourteen fourteen to fourteen twenty two
so that there was nothing either internal or external to occasion uneasiness next to niccolo da uzzano in authority were bartolomeo valori
and lapo niccolini the factions that arose from the quarrels of the albizzi and the ricci and which were afterward so unhappily revived by salvestro de medici
and in thirteen eighty one was put down still as it comprehended the greatest numerical proportion it was never entirely extinct though the frequent balias and persecutions of its leaders from thirteen eighty one
reduced it almost to nothing the first families that suffered in this way were the alberti the
which were frequently deprived both of men and money and if any of them remained in the city they were deprived of the honors of government
these oft repeated acts of oppression humiliated the faction and almost annihilated it
destroyed that vigilance over those who might injure them which they ought to have exercised thus daily renewing the hatred of a mass of the people by their sinister proceedings
and either negligent of the threatened dangers because rendered fearless by prosperity or encouraging them through mutual envy they gave an opportunity to the family of the medici to recover their influence
the first to do so was giovanni di bicci de medici who having become one of the richest men and being of a humane and benevolent disposition
this circumstance gave so much gratification to the mass of the people the multitude thinking they had now found a defender that not without occasion the judicious of the party observed it with jealousy
explaining to them how dangerous it was to aggrandize one who possessed so much influence that it was easy to remedy an evil at its commencement
and that giovanni possessed several qualities far surpassing those of salvestro the associates of niccolo were uninfluenced by his remarks for they were jealous of his reputation and desired to exalt some person
by means of whom he might be humbled this was the state of florence in which opposing feelings began to be observable when filippo visconti
having by the death of his brother become master of all lombardy and thinking he might undertake almost anything
which enjoyed freedom under the dogiate of tommaso da campo fregoso he did not think it advisable to attempt this
and made his good understanding with them known but with the aid of their reputation he trusted he should attain his wishes he therefore sent ambassadors to florence to signify his desires
many others were inclined to accede to it
the duke took possession of brescia and shortly afterward of genoa contrary to the expectation of those who had advocated peace for they thought brescia would be defended by the venetians and genoa
and as in the treaty which filippo made with the doge of genoa
upon condition that if he wished to alienate them they should be given to the genoese it
and he had besides entered into another treaty with the legate of bologna
these things disturbed the minds of the citizens and made them apprehensive of new troubles consider the means to be adopted for their defense
the dissatisfaction of the florentines coming to the knowledge of filippo he either to justify himself or to become acquainted with their prevailing feelings
sent ambassadors to the city to intimate that he was greatly surprised at the suspicions they entertained and offered to revoke whatever he had done
and prepare to frustrate the enemy's designs and if he were to remain quiet it would not be necessary to go to war with him
many others whether envious of those in power or fearing a rupture with the duke considered it unadvisable so lightly to entertain suspicions of an ally
and thought his proceedings need not have excited so much distrust that appointing the ten and hiring forces was in itself a manifest declaration of war which if undertaken against so great a prince
and the vicinity of the church ought to prevent any attempt against romagna itself however
prevailed the council of ten were appointed forces were hired and new taxes levied which as they were more burdensome upon the lower than the upper ranks filled the city
with complaints and all condemned
declaring that to gratify themselves and oppress the people they would go to war without any justifiable motive they had not yet come to an open rupture with the duke
but everything tended to excite suspicion
who was in fear of antonio bentivogli an emigrant of bologna at castel bolognese sent forces to that city which being close upon the florentine territory filled the citizens with apprehension
but what gave every one greater alarm and offered sufficient occasion for the declaration of war was the expedition made by the duke against furli
giorgio ordelaffi was lord of furli
under the guardianship of filippo the boy's mother suspicious of his guardian sent him to lodovico alidossi her father who was lord of imola but she was compelled
by the people of furli to obey the will of her deceased husband
and place him in the hands of the duke upon this filippo
to send guido torello as his agent with forces to seize the government of furli and thus the territory fell into the duke's hands when this was known at florence
the arguments in favor of war were greatly strengthened but
and among the rest giovanni de medici who publicly endeavored to show
it would still be better to wait and let him commence the attack than to assail him for in the former case they would be justified in the view of the princes of italy as well as in their own
but if they were to strike the first blow at the duke public opinion would be as favorable to him as to themselves and besides they could not so confidently demand assistance as assailants
as they might do if assailed and that men always defend themselves more vigorously when they attack others the advocates of war considered it improper to await the enemy in their houses
and better to go and seek him that fortune is always more favorable to assailants than to such as merely act on the defensive and that it is less injurious even when attended with greater immediate expense
to make war at another's door than at our own these views prevailed and it was resolved that the ten should provide all the means in their power for rescuing furli from the hands of the duke
postponed all personal considerations and sent agnolo della pergola with a strong force against imola
might be unable to protect the interests of his grandson agnolo approached imola while the forces of the florentines were at modigliana
and an intense frost having rendered the ditches of the city passable he crossed them during the night captured the place and sent lodovico a prisoner to milan
the florentines finding imola in the hands of the enemy and the war publicly known sent their forces to furli and besieged it on all sides that the duke's people might not relieve it
they hired count alberigo who from zagonara his own domain overran the country daily up to the gates of imola agnolo della pergola
finding the strong position which the florentines had taken prevented him from relieving furli determined to attempt the capture of zagonara thinking they would not allow that place to be lost
which he obtained on condition of giving up zagonara if the florentines did not relieve him within fifteen days this misfortune being known in the florentine camp and in the city
and all being anxious that the enemy should not obtain the expected advantage they enabled him to secure a greater for having abandoned the siege of furli to go to the relief of zagonara
on encountering the enemy they were soon routed not so much by the bravery of their adversaries as by the severity of the season for having marched many hours through deep mud and heavy rain
for some weeks christie rested and refreshed herself by making her room gay
and by sharing with others the money which harry had smuggled into her possession after she had steadily refused to take one penny more than the sum agreed upon when she first went to them
she took infinite satisfaction in sending one hundred dollars to uncle enos
and set her heart on repaying every fraction of it another hundred she gave to hepsey who found her out and came to report her trials and tribulations
the good soul had ventured south and tried to buy her mother but ole missis would not let her go at any price and the faithful chattel would not run away
you must take it hepsey for i could not rest happy if i put it away to lie idle while you can save men and women from torment with it i'd give it if it was my last penny
for i can help in no other way and if i need money i can always earn it thank god said christie as hepsey hesitated to take so much from a fellow worker
the thought of that investment lay warm at christie's heart and never woke a regret for well she knew that every dollar of it would be blessed
since shares in the underground railroad pay splendid dividends that never fail another portion of her fortune as she called harry's gift was bestowed in wedding presents upon lucy who at length
and distracting legs and having gained her point married him with dramatic celerity and went west to follow the fortunes of her lord the old theatre was to be demolished and the company scattered
so a farewell festival was held and christie went to it feeling more solitary than ever as she bade her old friends a long good bye the rest of the money burned in her pocket
she liked to return at night to her own little home solitary and simple as it was and felt a great repugnance to accept any place where she would be mixed up with family affairs again
so day after day she went to her seat in the workroom where a dozen other young women sat sewing busily on gay garments with as much lively gossip to beguile the time as miss cotton the forewoman would allow
for a while it diverted christie as she had a feminine love for pretty things and enjoyed seeing delicate silks costly lace and all the indescribable fantasies of fashion
bob o' links making rapturous music by the river and the smell of new mown hay
most assuredly she would have gone to find these things led by the instincts of a healthful nature had not one slender tie held her till it grew into a bond so strong she could not break it
among her companions was one and one only who attracted her the others were well meaning girls but
and their dull life fostered
and wages were the three topics which absorbed them christie soon tired of the innumerable changes rung upon these themes
her evenings at home were devoted to books for she had the true new england woman's desire for education and read or studied for the love of it thus she had much to think of as her needle flew
and was rapidly becoming a sort of sewing machine when life was brightened for her by the finding of a friend among the girls was one quiet skilful creature
whose black dress peculiar face and silent ways attracted christie her evident desire to be let alone amused the new comer at first and she made no effort to know her but presently she became aware
but rachel only colored kept her eyes fixed on her work and was more reserved than ever this interested christie
for she was different from the others though evidently younger than she looked rachel's face was that of one who had known some great sorrow some deep experience
for there were lines on the forehead that contrasted strongly with the bright abundant hair above
and the eyes were old with that indescribable expression which comes to those who count their lives by emotions not by years strangely haunting eyes to christie for they seemed to appeal to her
with a mute eloquence she could not resist in vain did rachel answer her with quiet coldness nod silently when she wished her a cheery good morning and keep resolutely in her own somewhat isolated corner
though invited to share the sunny window where the other sat her eyes belied her words and those fugitive glances betrayed the longing of a lonely heart
so freely offered it christie was sure of this
for her own heart was very solitary she missed helen and longed to fill the empty place
as patiently and as gently as a lover might determined to win her confidence because all the others had failed to do it sometimes she left a flower in rachel's basket always smiled and nodded as she entered
and often stopped to admire the work of her tasteful fingers it was impossible to resist such friendly overtures
or know what a blessed thing it is to find such an one as you are then i may love you and not be afraid of offending cried christie much touched yes
but remember i didn't ask it first said rachel half dropping the hand she had held in both her own you proud creature i'll remember
and when we quarrel i'll take all the blame upon myself then christie kissed her warmly whisked away the tear
and a smile that showed how winsome her face had been before many tears washed its bloom away
christie kept her word asked no questions volunteered no confidences but heartily enjoyed the new friendship
which it had lacked before now some one cared for her and better still she could make some one happy and in the act of lavishing the affection of her generous nature on a creature sadder
and more solitary than herself
there was nothing in her possession that she did not offer rachel
the florentines murmur against those who had been advocates of the war
measures for the prosecution of the war attempt of the higher classes to deprive the plebeians of their share in the government
rinaldo degli albizzi addresses an assembly of citizens and advises the restoration of the grandi
but none felt it so severely as the nobility who had been in favor of the war for they perceived their enemies to be inspirited and themselves disarmed without friends and opposed by the people
who at the corners of streets insulted them with sarcastic expressions complaining of the heavy taxes and the unnecessary war and saying oh they appointed the ten to frighten the enemy have they relieved furli
but to aggrandize their own power which god has very justly abated this is not the only enterprise by many a one with which they have oppressed the city
to whom will they flee for assistance now to pope martin whom they ridiculed before the face of braccio or to queen giovanna whom they abandoned
to these reproaches was added all that might be expected from an enraged multitude seeing the discontent so prevalent
the eldest son of maso who by his own talents and the respect he derived from the memory of his father aspired to the first offices in the government
showing that it is not right to judge of actions merely by their effects for it often happens that what has been very maturely considered is attended with unfavorable results
that if we are to applaud evil counsels because they are sometimes followed by fortunate events we should only encourage men in error which would bring great mischief upon the republic
in the same way it would be wrong to blame a wise resolution
their loss would be still greater if they allowed themselves to be dejected but if they set a bold front against adversity and made good use of the means within their power
they would not be sensible of their loss or the duke of his victory he assured them they ought not to be alarmed by impending expenses and consequent taxation because the latter might be reduced
and the future expense would not be so great as the former had been for less preparation is necessary for those engaged in self defense than for those who design to attack others
he advised them to imitate the conduct of their forefathers who by courageous conduct in adverse circumstances had defended themselves against all their enemies
thus encouraged the citizens engaged count oddo the son of braccio and united with him for directing the operations of the war
to these they added other leaders and remounted some of those who had lost their horses in the late defeat they also appointed twenty citizens to levy new taxes
took courage and drained them without mercy
who at first in order to conciliate did not complain of their own particular hardships
and advised that something should be done in the way of relief but their advice was rejected in the councils therefore to render the law as offensive as possible
and to make all sensible of its injustice they contrived that the taxes should be levied with the utmost rigor and made it lawful to kill any that might resist the officers employed to collect them
hence followed many lamentable collisions
it began to be the impression of all that arms would be resorted to and all prudent persons apprehended some approaching evil
could not endure to be used like dogs and the rest were desirous that the taxation should be equalized
that some attempt should be made to recover the government since their want of vigilance had encouraged men to censure public actions and allowed those to interfere in affairs
who had hitherto been merely the leaders of the rabble having repeatedly discussed the subject they resolved to meet again at an appointed hour
with the permission of lorenzo ridolfi and francesco gianfigliazzi
giovanni de medici was not among them either because being under suspicion he was not invited or that entertaining different views he was unwilling to interfere
describing the condition of the city and showing how by their own negligence it had again fallen under the power of the plebeians from whom it had been wrested by their fathers in thirteen eighty one
he reminded them of the iniquity of the government which was in power from thirteen seventy eight
some a father others a grandfather put to death by its tyranny he assured them they were now in the same danger and that the city was sinking under the same disorders
and would soon if not restrained by greater force or better regulations appoint the magistrates who
and overturn the government which for forty two years had ruled the city with so much glory the citizens would then be subject to the will of the multitude and live disorderly and dangerous
or be under the command of some individual who might make himself prince for these reasons he was of opinion that whoever loved his country and his honor must arouse himself and call to mind
who by the ruin of the alberti rescued the city from the dangers then impending and that the cause of the audacity now assumed by the multitude was the extensive squittini or pollings which by their negligence
were allowed to be made for thus the palace had become filled with low men he therefore concluded that the only means of remedying the evil was to restore the government to the nobility
by reducing the companies from fourteen to seven
both by the reduction in their number and by increasing the authority of the great who on account of former enmities would be disinclined to favor them he added that it is a good thing
that now the great having been humbled and the plebeians become insolent it was well to restrain the insolence of the latter by the assistance of the former to effect this they might proceed either openly
or otherwise for some of them belonging to the council of ten forces might be led into the city without exciting observation rinaldo was much applauded
and his advice was approved of by the whole assembly
all that rinaldo had advanced was correct and the remedies he proposed good and certain if they could be adopted without an absolute division of the city and this he had no doubt
but that if he did not concur with them they could do nothing without arms and that with them they would incur the risk of being vanquished or of not being able to reap the fruit of victory
he then modestly reminded them of what he had said upon a former occasion and of their reluctance to remedy the evil when it might easily have been done
that now the same remedy could not be attempted without incurring the danger of greater evils and therefore there was nothing left for them to do
and try if he could induce him to join them he undertook this commission and in the most prevailing words he could make use of
enable them to complete the ruin both of the government and the city to this giovanni replied that he considered it the duty of a good and wise citizen to avoid altering the institutions
to which a city is accustomed there being nothing so injurious to the people as such a change for many are necessarily offended and where there are several discontented
may be constantly apprehended he said it appeared to him that their resolution would have two exceedingly pernicious effects the one conferring honors on those who having never possessed them
esteemed them the less and therefore had the less occasion to grieve for their absence the other taking them from those who being accustomed to their possession
it would thus be evident that the injury done to one party
he would gain few friends and make many enemies
while the former brings alike gratification and profit then directing his discourse more particularly to rinaldo he said
missus dale's little party the next day was the day of the party
and when crosbie suggested to his friend on the following morning that they should both step down and see how the preparations were getting on at the small house bernard declined you forget my dear fellow that i'm not in love as you are said he
but i thought you were said crosbie
are you are an accepted lover and will be allowed to do anything whip the creams and tune the piano if you know how
meditating a mariage de convenance to oblige an uncle and by no means required by the terms of my agreement to undergo a very rigid amount of drill your position is just the reverse
in saying all which captain dale was no doubt very false but if falseness can be forgiven to a man in any position it may be forgiven in that which he then filled
so crosbie went down to the small house alone dale wouldn't come said he speaking to the three ladies together i suppose he's keeping himself up for the dance on the lawn i hope he will be here in the evening said missus dale
but bell said never a word she had determined that under the existing circumstances it would be only fair to her cousin that his offer and her answer to it
but she said nothing of her knowledge lily looked at her but looked without speaking
thus they passed the afternoon together without further mention of bernard dale and it may be said at any rate of lily and crosbie that his presence was not missed
it is so nice of you to come early said lily trying on the spur of the moment to say something which should sound pleasant and happy but in truth using that form of welcome which to my ears sounds always the most ungracious
ten minutes before the time named and of course you must have understood that i meant thirty minutes after it
that is my interpretation of the words when i am thanked for coming early but missus eames was a kind patient unexacting woman who took all civil words as meaning civility and indeed
yes we did come early said missus eames
so she shall said lily who had taken mary by the hand and we knew we shouldn't be in the way johnny can go out into the garden if there's anything left to be done he shan't be banished unless he likes it said missus dale
if he finds us women too much for his unaided strength john eames muttered something about being very well as he was and then got himself into an arm chair he had shaken hands with lily trying as he did so
to pronounce articulately a little speech which he had prepared for the occasion i have to congratulate you lily and i hope with all my heart that you will be happy the words were simple enough and were not ill chosen but the poor young man
never got them spoken the word congratulate did reach lily's ears and she understood it all both the kindness of the intended speech and the reason why it could not be spoken thank you john she said
she had her own voice and the pulses of her heart better under command than had he but she also felt that the occasion was trying to her the man had loved her honestly and truly still did love her paying her the
great homage of bitter grief in that he had lost her
him who declares it then came in old missus hearn whose cottage was not distant two minutes walk from the small house she always called missus dale my dear
and petted the girls as though they had been children when told of lily's marriage she had thrown up her hands with surprise for she had still left in some corner of her drawers remnants of sugar plums which she had bought for lily
wish he lived in the country eight hundred a year my dear she had said to missus dale that sounds nice down here because we are all so poor but i suppose eight hundred a year isn't very much up in london
the squire's coming i suppose isn't he said missus hearn as she seated herself on the sofa close to missus dale yes he'll be here by and by unless he changes his mind you know he doesn't stand on ceremony with me
he change his mind when did you ever know christopher dale change his mind
if he promised to give a man a penny he'd give it but if he promised to take away a pound he'd take it though it cost him years to get it he's going to turn me out of my cottage he says nonsense missus hearn jolliffe came and told me
jolliffe i should explain was the bailiff that if i didn't like it as it was i might leave it and that the squire could get double the rent for it now all i asked was that he should do a little painting in the kitchen and the wood is all as black as his hat
i thought it was understood you were to paint inside
who have lived in the parish for fifty years here he is and missus hearn majestically raised herself from her seat as the squire entered the room with him
entered mister and missus boyce from the parsonage with dick boyce the ungrown gentleman and two girl boyces who were fourteen and fifteen years of age
missus dale with the amount of good nature usual on such occasions asked reproachfully why jane and charles and florence and bessy did not come boyce being a man who had his quiver full of them
and missus boyce giving the usual answer declared that she already felt that they had come as an avalanche
they'll be across in two or three hours time said the squire they both dressed for dinner and as i thought made themselves very smart but for such a grand occasion as this
she did not moreover like to be thought rheumatic this
i did have a twinge in the spring
i suppose i should be better off over with her
in one parish you mustn't think of going away from us missus boyce said speaking by no means loud but slowly and plainly hoping thereby to
flatter the old woman but the old woman understood it all
missus hearn said to missus dale before the evening was out there are some old people whom it is very hard to flatter and with whom it is nevertheless almost impossible to live
unless you do flatter them at last the two heroes came in across the lawn at the drawing room window and lily as they entered
gently swelling down upon the ground with her light muslin dress till she looked like some wondrous flower that had bloomed upon the carpet
and putting her two hands with the backs of her fingers pressed together on the buckle of her girdle she said we are waiting upon your honours kind grace and feel how much we owe to you for favouring our poor abode
and the puffings and swellings went out of her muslin i think there is nothing in the world so pretty
that she has given herself away to him i am not sure that crosbie liked it all as much as he should have done the bold assurance of her love when they two were alone together he did like
what man does not like such assurances on such occasions but perhaps he would have been better pleased had lily shown more reticence
soon he saw therefore before him some little embarrassment and was inclined to wish that lily would abstain from that manner which seemed to declare to all the world that she was about to be married immediately
i must speak to her to morrow he said to himself as he accepted her salute with a mock gravity equal to her own poor lily how little she understood as yet what was passing through his mind had she known his wish
but she would never be ashamed of hers or of him she had given herself to him and now all the world might know it if all the world cared for such knowledge why should she be ashamed of that which to her thinking was so great an honour to her
she had heard of girls who would not speak of their love arguing to themselves cannily that there may be many a slip between the cup and the lip there could be no need of any such caution with her there could surely be no such slip
should any such fate either by falseness or misfortune come upon her no such caution could be of service to save her the cup would have been so shattered in its fall that no further piecing of its parts
would be in any way possible so much as this she did not exactly say to herself but she
bold in her love and careful to hide it from none who chanced to see it they had gone through the ceremony with the cake and teacups and had decided that at any rate the first dance or two
should be held upon the lawn when the last of the guests arrived oh adolphus i am so glad he has come said lily do try to like him of doctor crofts who was the new comer
she had sometimes spoken to her lover
nevertheless crosbie had in some way conceived the idea that this crofts either had been or was or was to be in love with bell
and as he was prepared to advocate his friend dale's claims in that quarter he was not particularly anxious to welcome the doctor as a thoroughly intimate
friend of the family he knew nothing as yet of dale's offer or of bell's refusal but he was prepared for war if war should be necessary of the squire at the present moment he was not very fond but
he should prefer the owner of allington and nephew of lord de guest as a brother in law to a village doctor as he took upon himself in his pride to call doctor crofts
it is very unfortunate said he but i never do like paragons
for he smokes and hunts and does all manner of wicked things and then she went forward to welcome her friend doctor crofts was a slight spare man
about five feet nine in height with very bright dark eyes a broad forehead with dark hair that almost curled but which did not come so forward over his brow as it should have done
for purposes of beauty with a thin well cut nose and a mouth that would have been perfect had the lips been a little fuller the lower part of his face when seen alone
were by far the more handsome lily went across to him and greeted him heartily declaring how glad she was to have him there
as though she was determined to carry her point the two men shook hands with each other coldly without saying a word as young men are apt to do when they are brought together in that way then they separated at once
somewhat to the disappointment of lily crosbie stood off by himself both his eyes turned up towards the ceiling and looking as though he meant to give himself airs while crofts got himself quickly up to the fireplace
to missus dale missus boyce and missus hearn and then at last he made his way round to bell i am so glad he said to congratulate you on your sister's engagement yes said bell
we knew that you would be glad to hear of her happiness indeed i am glad and thoroughly hope that she may be happy you all like him do you not we like him very much and i am told that he is well off he is a very fortunate man
very fortunate very fortunate of course we think so said bell not however because he is rich no not because he is rich but because being worthy of such happiness
but as soon as the words were spoken she declared to herself that it was not so and that crofts was wrong we love him she said to herself not because he is rich enough to marry without anxious thought but because he
dares to marry although he is not rich and then she told herself that she was angry with the doctor after that doctor crofts got off towards the door and stood there by himself leaning against the wall
with the thumbs of both his hands stuck into the armholes of his waistcoat people said that he was a shy man i suppose he was shy and yet
whether it was a multitude of men or of women he could be very fixed too in his own opinion and eager if not violent in the prosecution of his purpose
but he could not stand and say little words when he had in truth nothing to say he could not keep his ground when he felt that he was not using the ground upon which he stood
he had not learned the art of assuming himself to be of importance in whatever place he might find himself it was this art which
so crofts retired and leaned against the wall near the door and crosbie came forward and shone like an apollo among all the guests
is it that he does it said john
the perfect happiness of the london man of fashion
and then they managed to go through one quadrille but it was found that it did not answer the music of the single fiddle which crosbie had hired from guestwick was not
was not pleasant to the feet for dancing this is very nice said bernard to his cousin i don't know anything that could be nicer but perhaps i know what you mean said lily but i shall stay here
there's no touch of romance about any of you look at the moon there at the back of the steeple
then she walked off by one of the paths and her lover went after her don't you like the moon she said as she took his arm to which she was now so accustomed that she hardly thought of it as she took it
like the moon well i fancy i like the sun better i don't quite believe in moonlight i think it does best to talk about when one wants to be sentimental ah that is just what i fear
that is what i say to bell when i tell her that her romance will fade as the roses do
and yet i do like the moonlight and the poetry and the love yes
and the love more to be loved by you
and his unchecked arm stole round her waist it is the meaning of the moonlight
continued the impassioned girl
it was because i longed to be loved and to love oh yes
but that you know is your delight
the other is mine and yet it is a delight to love you to know that i may love you you mean that this is the realization of your romance yes
i will not think it dry and cruel even though sorrow should come upon us if you i think you know what i mean if i am good to you i am not afraid of that i am not the least afraid of that
but as he said it he pressed her closer to his side and his tone was pleasant to her
you liked me better when i was talking about the pigs didn't you no i like you best now and why didn't you like me then did i say anything to offend you i like you best now because
they were standing in the narrow pathway of the gate leading from the bridge into the gardens of the great house and the shadow of the thick spreading laurels
but the moonlight still pierced brightly through the little avenue
my love as crosbie walked back to the great house that night he made a firm resolution that no consideration of worldly welfare should ever induce him
get his affairs arranged in that time to be sure he must give up
elating her into a seventh heaven of happiness what could the world afford
and poor mary eames could waltz well though she could not talk much as she danced
and was too anxious to do the mechanical part of the work in a manner that should be satisfactory to her partner oh thank you it's very nice i shall be able to go on again directly
her conversation with crosbie did not get much beyond that and yet she felt that she had never done better than on this occasion
and though they who did not dance such as the squire and mister boyce and a curate from a neighbouring parish had in fact nothing to amuse them the affair was kept on very merrily
for a considerable number of hours exactly at twelve o'clock there was a little supper
which no doubt served to relieve missus hearn's ennui and at which missus boyce also seemed to enjoy herself as to the missus boyces on such occasions i profess that i feel no pity
they are generally happy in their children's happiness or if not they ought to be at any rate they are simply performing a manifest duty which duty in their time was performed on their behalf
but on what account do the missus hearns betake themselves to such gatherings why did that ancient lady sit there hour after hour yawning longing for her bed looking every ten minutes at her watch
while her old bones were stiff and sore and her old ears pained with the noise it could hardly have been simply for the sake of the supper after the supper however her maid took her across to her cottage
and missus boyce also then stole away home and the squire went off with some little parade suggesting to the young men that they should make no noise in the house as they returned
but the poor curate remained talking a dull word every now and then to missus dale and looking on with tantalized eyes at the joys which the world had prepared for others than him
in the latter part of the night's delight when time and practice had made them all happy together john eames stood up for the first time to dance with lily she had done all she could short of asking him
to induce him to do her this favour for she felt that it would be a favour how great had been the desire on his part to ask her and at the same time how great the repugnance
lily perhaps did not quite understand and yet she understood much of it
uncontrolled heartiness of his feelings at length he did come up to her and though in truth she was engaged she at once accepted his offer then she tripped across the room adolphus she said
i can't dance with you though i said i would john eames has asked me and i haven't stood up with him before you understand and you'll be a good boy won't you
crosbie not being in the least jealous was a good boy and sat himself down to rest hidden behind a door for the first few minutes the conversation between eames and lily was of a very matter of fact kind
she repeated her wish that she might see him in london and he said that of course he should come and call then there was silence for a little while and they went through their figure dancing i don't at all know yet when we are to be married said lily
as soon as they were again standing together no i dare say not said eames but not this year i suppose indeed i should say of course not in the spring perhaps suggested eames he had an unconscious desire
that it might be postponed to some greek kalends and yet he did not wish to injure lily the reason i mention it is this that we should be so very glad if you could be here
we all love you so much and i should so like to have you here on that day why is it that girls so constantly do this so frequently ask men who have loved them to be present at their marriages
with other men there is no triumph in it it is done in sheer kindness and affection they intend to offer something which shall soften
you can't marry me yourself the lady seems to say but the next greatest blessing which i can offer you shall be yours you shall see me married to somebody else i fully appreciate the intention but in honest truth
i doubt the eligibility of the proffered entertainment on the present occasion john eames seemed to be of this opinion for he did not at once accept the invitation will you not oblige me so far as that
almost anything but not that no not that i could not do that then he went off upon his figure and when they were next both standing together
they remained silent till their turn for dancing had again come why was it that after that night
felt for him i mean a higher respect as for a man who had a will of his own and in that quadrille crofts and bell had been dancing together
and they also had been talking of lily's marriage a man may undergo what he likes for himself he had said but he has no right to make a woman undergo poverty perhaps not said bell
that which is no suffering for a man which no man should think of for himself will make a hell on earth for a woman i suppose it would said bell
answering him without a sign of feeling in her face or voice but she took in every word that he spoke and disputed their truth inwardly with all the strength of her heart and mind and with the very vehemence of her soul
as if a woman cannot bear more than a man she said to herself as she walked the length of the room alone
but she was dutiful and she was really fond of aunt hannah so she accepted as gracefully as possible that good lady's dictum that a woman who could not sew and sew well
was to play on cyril's piano she was very careful however that mister cyril himself did not find this out cyril was frequently gone from the house and almost as frequently
aunt hannah took naps at such times it was very easy to slip up stairs to cyril's rooms and once at the piano billy forgot everything else
one day however the inevitable happened cyril came home unexpectedly the man heard the piano from william's floor and with a surprised ejaculation
he hurried upstairs two steps at a time at the door he stopped in amazement billy was at the piano but she was not playing rag time the storm
there was no music before her but under her fingers big bass notes very much like cyril's own were marching on and on to victory
billy's face was rapturously intent and happy by jove billy gasped the man billy leaped to her feet and whirled around guiltily oh
mister cyril i'm so sorry sorry and you play like that no no i'm not sorry i played it's because you found me
billy's cheeks were a shamed red but her eyes were defiantly brilliant and her chin was at a rebellious tilt
not if you weren't here with your nerves the man laughed and came slowly into the room billy who taught you to play no one i can't play
but you do play i just heard you
didn't you ever study music billy's eyes dimmed no that was the only thing aunt ella and i didn't think alike about she had an old square piano
all tin panny and thin you know i played some on it and wanted to take lessons but i didn't want to practise on that i wanted a new one that's what she wouldn't do
get me a new piano or let me do it she said she practised on that piano and that it was quite good enough for me especially to learn on
i hated that piano so
when when aunt ella died and all you play then is just by ear by ear
if you mean what i hear easy things i can play quick but but those chords are hard they skip around so cyril smiled oddly
dropping herself on to the piano stool and whisking about billy was not afraid now nor defiant she was only eager and happy again in a moment a dreamy waltz fell upon cyril's ears
a waltz that he often played himself it was not played correctly it is true there were notes and sometimes whole measures that were very different from the printed music but the tune the rhythm and the spirit were there
and there's this said billy and this she went on sliding into one little strain after another all of which were recognized by the amazed man at her side billy he cried when she had finished
and whirled upon him again billy would you like to learn to play really play from notes
we'll have a piano tomorrow in your rooms for you to practise on and i'll teach you myself oh thank you mister cyril
you don't know how i thank you exulted billy as she danced from the room to tell aunt hannah of this great and good thing that had come into her life to billy
this promise of cyril's to be her teacher was very kind very delightful but it was not in the least a thing at which to marvel to bertram however it most certainly was
well guess what's happened he said to william that night after he had heard the news
that you'll raffle off your collection of teapots at the next church fair or that i shall go to egypt as a cooky guide
chapter thirty two coming events roger had turned over many plans in his mind by which he thought that he could obtain sufficient money for the purpose he desired to accomplish his careful grandfather who had been a merchant in the city
and if he died before that age the money that would then have been his went to one of his cousins on the maternal side in short the old merchant had taken as many precautions about his legacy as if it had been for tens instead of units of thousands
of course roger might have slipped through all these meshes by insuring his life until the specified age and probably if he had consulted any lawyer
would be patent to the light of nature and common sense he was a little mistaken in this but not the less resolved that money in some way he would have in order to fulfil his promise to his father and for the ulterior purpose of giving the squire some daily interest
it was roger hamley senior wrangler and fellow of trinity to the highest bidder no matter what honest employment and presently it came down to any bidder at all another perplexity and distress at this time weighed upon roger
the hamley property was entailed on heirs male born in lawful wedlock was the wedlock lawful osborne never seemed to doubt that it was never seemed in fact to think twice about it and if he the husband did not
how much less did aimee the trustful wife yet who could tell how much misery any shadows of illegality might cast into the future one evening roger
began to question him as to the details of the marriage osborne knew instinctively at what roger was aiming it was not that he did not desire perfect legality in justice to his wife it was that he was so indisposed at the time
it was something like the refrain of gray's scandinavian prophetess leave me leave me to repose but do try and tell me how you managed it how tiresome you are roger put in osborne well i daresay i am go on
i've told you morrison married us you remember old morrison at trinity yes as good and blunder headed a fellow as ever lived well he's taken orders and the examination for priest's orders fatigued him so much
that he got his father to give him a hundred or two for a tour on the continent he meant to get to rome because he heard that there were such pleasant winters there so he turned up at metz in august i don't see why no more did he
he never was great in geography you know and somehow he thought that metz pronounced french fashion must be on the road to rome some one had told him so in fun however it was very well for me that i met with him there
and that without loss of time but aimee is a catholic that's true but you see i am not you don't suppose i would do her any wrong roger asked osborne sitting up in his lounging chair and speaking rather indignantly to roger
his face suddenly flushing red
i'm sure you would not mean it but you see there's a child coming and this estate is entailed on heirs male now i want to know if the marriage is legal or not and it seems to me it's a ticklish question oh
said osborne falling back into repose if that's all i suppose you're next heir male and i can trust you as i can myself you know my marriage is bona fide in intention and i believe it to be legal in fact we went over to strasbourg
i think morrison rather enjoyed the spree
i did not read them over for fear lest i could not sign them conscientiously it was the safest plan aimee kept trembling so i thought she would faint and then we went off to the nearest english chaplaincy carlsruhe
and we were married the next day but surely some registration or certificate was necessary morrison said he would undertake all those forms and he ought to know his own business i know i tipped him pretty well for the job
you must be married again said roger after a pause and that before the child is born have you got a certificate of the marriage i daresay morrison has got it somewhere
but i believe i'm legally married according to the laws both of england and france i really do old fellow i've got the prefet's papers somewhere never mind
yes she is so good i wouldn't disturb her in her religion for the world
said roger decidedly it's a great deal of trouble unnecessary trouble and unnecessary expense i should say said osborne why can't you leave well alone neither aimee nor i are of the sort of stuff to turn scoundrels and deny the legality of our marriage
and if the child is a boy and my father dies and i die why i'm sure you'll do him justice as sure as i am of myself old fellow but if i die into the bargain
one of the irish hamleys i suppose i fancy they are needy chaps perhaps you're right but what need to have such gloomy forebodings the law makes one have foresight in such affairs said roger so i'll go down to aimee next week when i'm in town
and i'll make all necessary arrangements before you come i think you'll be happier if it is all done i shall be happier if i've a chance of seeing the little woman that i grant you but what is taking you up to town i wish i'd money to run about like you
instead of being shut up for ever in this dull old house osborne was apt occasionally to contrast his position with roger's in a tone of complaint forgetting that both were the results of character and also that out of his income
but if this ungenerous thought of osborne's had been set clearly before his conscience
it was only that he was too indolent to keep an unassisted conscience i shouldn't have thought of going up said roger reddening as if he had been accused of spending another's money instead of his own
lord hollingford has written for me he knows my great wish for employment and has heard of something which he considers suitable there's his letter if you care to read it but it does not tell anything definitely osborne read the letter and returned it to roger
he spoke as if roger had been reproaching him my dear fellow
i must do something for myself sometimes and i've been on the look out besides i want my father to go on with his drainage it would do good both to his health and his spirits
so roger went up to london and osborne followed him and for two or three weeks the gibsons saw nothing of the brothers but as wave succeeds to wave so interest succeeds to interest the family as they were called came down for their autumn sojourn at the towers
missus gibson found the chances of intercourse with the towers rather more personally exciting than roger's visits or the rarer calls of osborne hamley cynthia had an old antipathy to the great family who had made so much of her mother and so little of her
and whom she considered as in some measure the cause why she had seen so little of her mother in the days when the little girl had craved for love and found none moreover cynthia missed her slave although she did not care for roger one thousandth part of what he did for her
and whom men in general respected the subject of her eye the glad ministrant to each scarce spoken wish a person in whose sight all her words were pearls or diamonds all her actions heavenly graciousness and in whose thoughts she reigned supreme
she had no modest unconsciousness about her and yet she was not vain she knew of all this worship and when from circumstances she no longer received it she missed it the earl and the countess lord hollingford and lady harriet lords and ladies in general
liveries dresses bags of game and rumours of riding parties were as nothing to her
and yet she did not love him no she did not love him molly knew that cynthia did not love him
molly did not know her own feelings roger had no overwhelming interest in what they might be while his very life breath seemed to depend on what cynthia felt and thought therefore molly had keen insight into her sister's heart and she knew that cynthia did not love roger
at the thought of the unvalued treasure lying at cynthia's feet and it would have been a merely unselfish regret it was the old fervid tenderness
cynthia's love was the moon roger yearned for and molly saw that it was far away and out of reach else would she have strained her heart cords to give it to roger i am his sister she would say to herself that old bond is not done away with
though he is too much absorbed by cynthia to speak about it just now his mother called me fanny it was almost like an adoption i must wait and watch and see if i can do anything for my brother
these obstacles were not unlike the shield of the knight in the old story only instead of the two sides presented to the two travellers approaching it from opposite quarters one of which was silver and one of which was gold lady harriet saw the smooth and shining yellow radiance
while poor molly only perceived a dull and heavy lead to lady harriet it was molly is gone out she will be so sorry to miss you
whom she ought not to neglect as i said to her constancy is everything it is sterne i think who says
but dear lady harriet you'll stop till she comes home won't you i know how fond you are of her in fact with a little surface playfulness i sometimes say you come more to see her than your poor old clare
lady harriet is coming here this morning i can't have any one else coming in
of course she'll ask for you out of common civility but you would only interrupt us if you came in as you did the other day now addressing molly i hardly like to say so
put in molly simply very forward indeed continued missus gibson taking no further notice of the interruption except to strengthen the words to which molly's little speech had been intended as a correction
you had better go to the holly farm and speak about those damsons i ordered and which have never been sent i'll go said cynthia it's far too long a walk for molly she's had a bad cold and isn't as strong as she was a fortnight ago i delight in long walks
replied missus gibson you always put things in such an exaggerated
and i would not have you break off old friendships for the world constancy above everything is my motto as you know and the memory of the dead ought always to be cherished now mamma where am i to go asked cynthia
though lady harriet doesn't care for me as much as she does for molly indeed quite the contrary i should say yet she might ask after me
meditatively yet unconscious of any satire in cynthia's speech
or you might go to the holly farm
or you might stay here in the dining room you know
she is very fanciful is dear lady harriet i would not like her to think we made any difference in our meals because she stayed simple elegance as i tell her always is what we aim at but still you could put out the best service and arrange some flowers
and ask cook what there is for dinner that she could send us for lunch and make it all look pretty and impromptu and natural i think you had better stay at home cynthia
you know and you two could take a walk together after lady harriet was fairly gone i understand mamma off with you molly make haste or lady harriet may come and ask for you as well as mamma
so that no one shall learn from me where you are and i'll answer for mamma's loss of memory
said missus gibson fluttered and annoyed as she usually was with the lilliputian darts cynthia flung at her she had recourse to her accustomed feckless piece of retaliation bestowing some favour on molly and this did not hurt cynthia one whit
molly darling there's a very cold wind though it looks so fine you had better put on my indian shawl and it will look so pretty too on your grey gown scarlet and grey it's not everybody i would lend it to but you're so careful thank you said molly
and she left missus gibson in careless uncertainty as to whether her offer would be accepted or not lady harriet was sorry to miss molly as she was fond of the girl
but sat down in a little low chair with her feet on the fender this said fender was made of bright bright steel and was strictly tabooed to all household and plebeian feet indeed the position if they assumed it was considered low bred and vulgar
that's right dear lady harriet you can't think what a pleasure it is to me to welcome you at my own fireside into my humble home humble now clare that's a little bit of nonsense begging your pardon i don't call this pretty little drawing room a bit of a humble home
and of pretty things too as any room of its size can be ah how small you must feel it even i had to reconcile myself to it at first well perhaps your schoolroom was larger but remember how bare it was
how empty of anything but deal tables and forms and mats oh indeed clare i quite agree with mamma
and mister gibson too what an agreeable well informed man yes he is said his wife slowly
he is very agreeable very only we see so little of him and of course he comes home tired and hungry
and apt to go to sleep come come said lady harriet i'm going to have my turn now we've had the complaint of a doctor's wife
solitude exclaimed missus gibson would you rather be alone slightly aggrieved no you dear silly woman my solitude requires a listener to whom i may say how sweet is solitude but i am tired of the responsibility of entertaining
so she gets wearied and worried by a crowd of people who are all of them open mouthed for amusement of some kind just like a brood of fledglings in a nest
and pop morsels into their yellow leathery bills to find them swallowed down before i can think of where to find the next oh it's entertaining
so i have told a few lies this morning and come off here for quietness and the comfort of complaining lady harriet threw herself back in her chair and yawned missus gibson took one of her ladyship's hands in a soft sympathizing manner
and murmured poor lady harriet and then she purred affectionately after a pause lady harriet started up and said
very wicked indeed i think i may say
i am sure you thought that you meant what you said when you said it no i didn't put in lady harriet and besides if you didn't
yes it was certainly their fault not yours and then you know the conventions of society ah what trammels they are lady harriet was silent for a minute or two then she said tell me clare you've told lies sometimes haven't you
i should have been miserable if i ever had
if we are humble we are also simple and unshackled by etiquette then you blame me very much if somebody else will blame me i sha'n't be so unhappy at what i said this morning i am sure i never blamed you
not in my innermost heart dear lady harriet blame you indeed that would be presumption in me i think i shall set up a confessor and it sha'n't be you clare for you have always been only too indulgent to me
i don't mean to go home till three my business will take me till then as the people at the towers are duly informed certainly i shall be delighted but you know we are very simple in our habits
that were to have been for the late dinner were instantly put down to the fire
and the table decked with flowers and fruit arranged with all cynthia's usual dexterity and taste so that when the meal was announced and lady harriet entered the room she could not but think her hostess's apologies had been quite unnecessary
and be more and more convinced that clare had done very well for herself cynthia now joined the party pretty and elegant as she always was but somehow she did not take lady harriet's fancy she only noticed her on account of her being her mother's daughter
her presence made the conversation more general and lady harriet gave out several pieces of news none of them of any great importance to her but as what had been talked about by the circle of visitors assembled at the towers
but he is obliged or fancies himself obliged which is all the same thing to stay in town about this crichton legacy a legacy to lord hollingford i am so glad don't be in a hurry to be glad it's nothing for him but trouble
who died some time ago and
left a sum of money in the hands of trustees of whom my brother is one to send out a man with a thousand fine qualifications to make a scientific voyage with a view to bringing back specimens of the fauna of distant lands and so forming the nucleus of a museum
and so perpetuate the founder's name such various forms does man's vanity take sometimes it stimulates philanthropy sometimes a love of science
said missus gibson safely i daresay it is
but it's rather tiresome to us privately for it keeps hollingford in town or between it and cambridge and each place as dull and empty as can be
the two other trustees have run away to the continent feeling as they say the utmost confidence in him but in reality shirking their responsibilities however i believe he likes it so i ought not to grumble
for he is a fellow of trinity senior wrangler or something and they're not so foolish as to send their crack man to be eaten up by lions and tigers it must be roger hamley exclaimed cynthia her eyes brightening and her cheeks flushing he's not the eldest son
asked lady harriet is and she looked into missus gibson's face for an answer
gave an intelligent and very expressive glance at cynthia who however did not perceive it oh no not at all and missus gibson nodded a little at her daughter as much as to say if any one that lady harriet
began to look at the pretty miss kirkpatrick with fresh interest her brother had spoken in such a manner of this young mister hamley that every one connected with the phoenix was worthy of observation then
she never knows when to come home said missus gibson the miss brownings oh i'm so glad you named them
pecksy and flapsy i may call them so in molly's absence i'll go and see them before i go home and then perhaps i shall see my dear little molly too do you know clare i've quite taken a fancy to that girl so missus gibson after all her precautions
along the pretty lanes with grassy sides and high hedge banks not at all in the style of modern agriculture at first she made herself uncomfortable with questioning herself as to how far it was right to leave unnoticed the small domestic failings
the webs the distortions of truth which had prevailed in their household ever since her father's second marriage she knew that very often she longed to protest
from the desire of sparing her father any discord and she saw by his face that he too was occasionally aware of certain things that gave him pain
was not as high as he would have liked
with a girl's want of toleration and want of experience to teach her the force of circumstances and of temptation she had often been on the point of telling her stepmother some forcible home truths
although implying that there was a great deal said which was so purely confidential that she was bound in honour not to repeat it her three auditors listened to her without interrupting her much indeed without bestowing extreme attention on what she was saying
but as lord hollingford is the only trustee who takes any interest and being lord cumnor's son it is next to certain
and he relapsed into silence keeping his ears open however henceforward how long will he be away asked cynthia we shall miss him sadly molly's lips formed an acquiescing yes to this remark but no sound was heard
there was a buzzing in her ears as if the others were going on with the conversation but the words they uttered seemed indistinct and blurred they were merely conjectures and did not interfere with the one great piece of news
to the rest of the party she appeared to be eating her dinner as usual and if she were silent there was one listener the more to missus gibson's stream of prattle
chapter twenty seven fruit piece for never any thing can be amiss when simpleness and duty tender it
mister thornton went straight and clear into all the interests of the following day there was a slight demand for finished goods and as it affected his branch of the trade he took advantage of it and drove hard bargains
he was sharp to the hour at the meeting of his brother magistrates giving them the best assistance of his strong sense
and so coming to a rapid decision older men men of long standing in the town men of far greater wealth realised and turned into land while his was all floating capital engaged in his trade looked to him for prompt ready wisdom
to lead in all the requisite steps
no more than for the soft west wind that scarcely made the smoke from the great tall chimneys swerve in its straight upward course
if it had been otherwise
as it was he looked to the speedy accomplishment of that alone it was his mother's greedy ears that sucked in from the women kind of these magistrates and wealthy men how highly mister this or mister that thought of mister thornton that if he had not been there
very badly indeed he swept off his business right and left that day it seemed as though his deep mortification of yesterday and the stunned purposeless course of the hours afterwards had cleared away all the mists from his intellect
the evidence against boucher and other ringleaders of the riot was taken before him that against the three others for conspiracy failed
for the swift right arm of the law should be in readiness to strike as soon as they could prove a fault and then he left the hot reeking room in the borough court and went out into the fresher but still sultry street it seemed as though he gave way all at once
he was so languid that he could not control his thoughts they would wander to her they would bring back the scene not of his repulse and rejection the day before but the looks the actions of the day before that he went along the crowded streets
mechanically winding in and out among the people but never seeing them almost sick with longing for that one half hour that one brief space of time when she clung to him and her heart beat against his to come once again
why mister thornton you're cutting me very coolly i must say and how is missus thornton brave weather this we doctors don't like it i can tell you i beg your pardon doctor donaldson
if the wheat is well got in we shall have a brisk trade next year whatever you doctors have ay ay each man for himself
when trade is bad there's more undermining of health and preparation for death going on among you milton men than you're aware of not with me doctor i'm made of iron the news of the worst bad debt i ever had never made my pulse vary
this strike which affects me more than any one else in milton more than hamper never comes near my appetite
by the way you've recommended me a good patient poor lady not to go on talking in this heartless way i seriously believe that missus hale that lady in crampton you know hasn't many weeks to live i never had any hope of cure as i think i told you
mister thornton was silent the vaunted steadiness of pulse failed him for an instant can i do anything doctor he asked in an altered voice you know you would see that money is not very plentiful
are there any comforts or dainties she ought to have no replied the doctor shaking his head she craves for fruit she has a constant fever on her but jargonelle pears will do as well as anything
few even would have given him credit for strong affections
to marlborough mills i suppose sir no mister thornton said give the basket to me i'll take it it took up both his hands to carry it
for feminine shopping many a young lady of his acquaintance turned to look after him and thought it strange to see him occupied
or an errand boy he was thinking i will not be daunted from doing as i choose by the thought of her
and it is simply right that i should she shall never scorn me out of doing what i please a pretty joke indeed if for fear of a haughty girl i failed in doing a kindness to a man i liked i do it for mister hale i do it in defiance of her
he went at an unusual pace and was soon at crampton he went upstairs two steps at a time and entered the drawing room before dixon could announce him his face flushed his eyes shining with kindly earnestness
missus hale lay on the sofa heated with fever mister hale was reading aloud margaret was working on a low stool by her mother's side her heart fluttered if his did not at this interview but he took no notice of her
he went up straight with his basket to missus hale and said in that subdued and gentle tone which is so touching when used by a robust man in full health speaking to a feeble invalid
and as he said fruit would be good for you i have taken the liberty the great liberty of bringing you some that seemed to me fine missus hale was excessively surprised excessively pleased
mister hale with fewer words expressed a deeper gratitude fetch a plate margaret a basket anything margaret stood up by the table half afraid of moving or making any noise to arouse mister thornton into a consciousness of her being in the room
if i should see any that is tempting good afternoon mister hale good bye ma'am he was gone not one word not one look to margaret she believed that he had not seen her she went for a plate in silence
and lifted the fruit out tenderly with the points of her delicate taper fingers it was good of him to bring it and after yesterday too oh it is so delicious said missus hale in a feeble voice how kind of him to think of me margaret love
only taste these grapes was it not good of him yes said margaret quietly
you won't like anything mister thornton does i never saw anybody so prejudiced mister hale had been peeling a peach for his wife and cutting off a small piece for himself he said if i had any prejudices the gift of such delicious fruit as this
would melt them all away i have not tasted such fruit no not even in hampshire since i was a boy and to boys i fancy all fruit is good i remember eating sloes and crabs with a relish do you remember the matted up currant bushes margaret
at the corner of the west wall in the garden at home did she not did she not remember every weather stain on the old stone wall the gray and yellow lichens that marked it like a map the little crane's bill that grew in the crevices she had been shaken by the events of the last two days
and somehow these careless words of her father's touching on the remembrance of the sunny times of old made her start up and dropping her sewing on the ground she went hastily out of the room into her own little chamber
she had hardly given way to the first choking sob when she became aware of dixon standing at her drawers and evidently searching for something bless me miss how you startled me missus is not worse is she is anything the matter
no nothing only i'm silly dixon and want a glass of water
i keep my muslins in that drawer dixon did not speak but went on rummaging the scent of lavender came out and perfumed the room at last dixon found what she wanted what it was margaret could not see dixon faced round and spoke to her
because you've fretting enough to go through and i know you'll fret about this
or such times as that what is the matter pray tell me dixon at once
well well she died this morning and her sister is here come to beg a strange thing it seems the young woman who died had a fancy for being buried in something of yours and so the sister's come to ask for it and i was looking for a night cap that wasn't too good to give away
oh let me find one said margaret in the midst of her tears poor bessy i never thought i should not see her again why that's another thing this girl down stairs wanted me to ask you if you would like to see her but she's dead
said margaret turning a little pale i never saw a dead person no i would rather not
i told her you wouldn't i will go down and speak to her said margaret afraid lest dixon's harshness of manner might wound the poor girl so taking the cap in her hand
mary's face was all swollen with crying and she burst out afresh when she saw margaret oh ma'am she loved yo she loved yo she did indeed and for a long time margaret could not get her to say anything more than this
some neighbour ran to the room where mary was working they did not know where to find her father mary had only come in a few minutes before she died
she used to say yo were the prettiest thing she'd ever clapped eyes on she loved yo dearly her last words were give her my affectionate respects and keep father fro drink yo'll come and see her ma'am
margaret shrank a little from answering yes perhaps i may yes i will i'll come before tea but where's your father mary mary shook her head and stood up to be going miss hale said dixon in a low voice
i'd never say a word against it if it could do the girl any good
here said she turning sharply round i'll come and see your sister
or else she would the girl looked wistfully at margaret dixon's coming might be a compliment but it was not the same thing to the poor sister who had had her little pangs of jealousy during bessy's lifetime at the intimacy between her and the young lady
philip's way home lay through the town but he made a circuit of the country
so heartsick was he so utterly choked with bitter feelings he felt as if all the angels and devils together must be making a mock at him the thing he had worked for through five heavy years the end he had aimed at
the goal he had fought for was his already his for the stretching out of his hand yet now that it was his he could not have it oh the mockery of his fate oh the irony of his life
it was shrieking it was frantic then his bolder spirit seemed to say what is all this childish fuming about fortune comes to you with both hands full be bold and you may have both the wish of your soul
and the desire of your heart both the deemster ship and kate it was impossible to believe that if he married kate the governor would not recommend him as deemster
had he not admitted that he stood in some fear of the public opinion of the island and was it not conceivable that besides the unselfish interest which the governor had shown in him there was even a personal one that would operate more powerfully
than fear of the old fashioned manx conventions to prevent any recommendation of the husband of the wrong woman at one moment a vague memory rose before philip as he crossed the fields of the lunch at government house
of the governor's wife and daughter of their courtesy and boundless graciousness at the next moment he had drawn up sharply with pangs of self contempt hating himself loathing himself swearing at himself for a mean souled ingrate
as he kicked up the grass and the turf beneath it but the idea had taken root he could not help it the governor's interest went for nothing in his reckoning what a fool you are philip something seemed to whisper out of the darkest corner of his conscience
take the deemstership first and marry kate afterwards but it was impossible to think of that either say it could be done by any arts of cunning or duplicity what then
then there were the high walls of custom and prejudice to surmount philip remembered the garden party and saw that they could never be surmounted the deemster who slapped the conventions in the face would suffer for it
he would be taboo to half the life of the island in public an official in private a recluse an icy picture rose before his mind's eye of the woman who would be his wife in her relations with the ladies he had just left
she might be their superior in education certainly in all true manners and in natural grace and beauty in sweetness and charm their mistress beyond a dream of comparison but they would never forget that she was the daughter of a country innkeeper
and every little cobble in the rickety pyramid even from the daughter of the innkeeper in the town would look down on her as from a throne he could see them leaving their cards at his door and driving hurriedly off they must do that much
it was the bitter pill which the deemster's doings made them swallow then he could see his wife sitting alone a miserable woman despised envied isolated shut off from her own class by her marriage with the deemster
and from his class by the deemster's marriage with her again he could see himself too powerful to offend too dangerous to ignore going out on his duties without cheer and returning to his wife without company
finally he remembered his father and his mother and he could not help but picture himself sitting at home with kate five years after their marriage when the first happiness of each other's society had faded had staled
had turned to the wretchedness of starvation in its state of siege or perhaps going out for walks with her just themselves always themselves only they two together this evening last evening and to morrow evening
through the streets crowded by visitors down the harbour where the fishermen congregate across the bridge and over the head between sea and sky people bowing to them respectfully rigidly freezingly people nudging and whispering and looking their way
oh god what end could come of such an abject life but that beginning by being unhappy they should descend to being bad as well what a fuss you are making of things said the voice again but more loudly
this hubbub only means that you can't have your cake and eat it very well take kate and let the deemstership go to perdition there was not much comfort in that counsel for it made no reckoning with the certainty that if marriage with kate would prevent him from being deemster
it would prevent him from being anything in the isle of man as it had happened with his father so it would happen with him there would be no standing ground in the island for the man who had deliberately put himself outside the pale
don't worry me with silly efforts to draw a line so straight if you can't have kate and the deemstership together and if you can't have kate without the deemstership there is only one thing left the deemstership without kate
you must take the office and forego the girl it is your duty your necessity this was how philip put it to himself at length and the daylight had gone by that time and he was walking in the dark
but the voice which had been pleading on his side now protested on hers don't prate of duty and necessity you mean self love and self interest man be honest because this woman is an obstacle in your career
you would sacrifice her it is boundless pitiless selfishness suppose you abandon her dare you think of her without shame she loves you she trusts you and she has given you proof of her love and trust hold your tongue
that you will be silent that she will have no temptation to speak she loves you she has given you all god bless her affectionate pity swept down the selfish man in him as the lights of the town appeared on his path
he was saying to himself boldly since either way there is trouble i'll do as i said last night i'll leave heaven to decide whether i'm to be a great man or a little man and decide for myself whether i'm to be a true man or a happy man
i'll take my heart in my hand and go right forward in this temper he returned to his chambers the rooms fronted to athol street but backed on to the churchyard of saint george's they were quiet and not overlooked
his lamp was lit the servant was laying the cloth lay covers for two jemmy said philip then he began to hum something presently in feeling for his keys his fingers touched an unfamiliar substance in his pocket
he remembered what it was it was the cracked medallion of his father he could not bear to look at it unlocking a chest he buried it at the bottom under a pile of winter clothing this recalled a possession yet more painful
and going to a desk he drew out the packet of his father's letters and proceeded to hide them away with the medallion as he did so his hand trembled his limbs shook he felt giddy and he thought the voice that had tormented him with conflicting taunts was ringing in his ears again
bury him deep bury your father out of all sight and all remembrance bury his love of you his hopes of you his expectations and dreams of you bury and forget him for ever philip hesitated a moment
and then banged down the lid of the chest and relocked it as his servant returned to the room the man was a solemn dignified and reticent person who had been groom to the late bishop his gravity he had acquired from his horses
his dignity from his master but his reticence he had created for himself being a thing beyond nature in creature or man his proper name was cottier he had always been known as jemy lord
company not arrived sir he said wait or serve what is the time said philip struck eight but clock two minutes soon
when the dishes had been brought in and the man dismissed philip taking his place at the table drew from his button hole a flower which he had picked out of his water bowl at lunch
and first putting it to his lips he tossed it on to the empty place before the chair which had been drawn up opposite then he sat down to eat he ate little and do what he would he could not keep his mind from wandering
he thought of his aunt and how hurt she had been the previous night of his uncle and how he had snubbed and then slavered over him of the governor and how strange the interest he had shown in him
and finally he thought of pete and how lately he was dead and how soon forgotten in the midst of these memories all sad and some bitter suddenly he remembered again that he was supping with kate then he struggled to be bright and even a little gay
he knew that she would be taking her supper at sulby at that moment thinking of him and making believe that he was with her so he tried to think that she was with him sitting in the chair opposite looking across the table between the white cloth and the blue lamp shade
out of her beaming eyes with her rings of dark hair dancing on her forehead and her ripe mouth twitching merrily then the air of the room seemed to be filled with a sweet presence he could have fancied there was a perfume of lace and dainty things
sweetheart he laughed he hardly knew if it was himself that had spoken it was dear delicious fooling but his eyes fell on the chest wherein he had buried the letters and the medallion and his mind wandered again
he thought of his father of his grandfather of his lost inheritance and how nearly he had reclaimed the better part of it and then once more of pete crying aloud at last in the coil of his trouble oh if pete had only lived
his voice startled and his words horrified him to wipe out both in the first moment of recovered consciousness he filled his glass to the brim and lifted it up rising at the same time looking across the table
and saying in a soft whisper your health darling your health the bell rang from the street door and he stood listening with the wine glass in his hand when he knew anything more
a voice at his elbow was saying out of a palpitating gloom the gentleman can't come seemingly he has sent a telegram it was jem y lord holding a telegram in his hand
after a time pete remembered that he was sitting in the dark and he got up to light a candle looking for candlestick and matches he went from table to dresser from dresser to table and from table back to dresser doing the same thing over and over again
and not perceiving that he was going round and round when at length the candle was lighted he took it in his hand and went into the parlour like a sleepwalker he set it on the mantelpiece and sat down on the stool
in his blurred vision confused forms floated about him ah my tools he thought and picked up the mallet and two of the chisels he was sitting with these in his hands when his eyes fell on the other candlestick the one in which the candle had gone out
when he came back with another lighted candle he perceived that there were two i'm going stupid he thought and he blew out the first one a moment afterwards he forgot that he had done so and seeing the second still burning he blew that out also
so dull were his senses that he did not realise that anything was amiss his eyes were seeing objects everywhere about they were growing to awful size and threatening him
his ears were hearing noises they were making a fearful tumult inside his head the room was not entirely dark a shaft of bleared moonlight came and went at intervals
the moon was scudding through an angry sky sometimes appearing sometimes disappearing pete returned to the stool and then he was in the light but the nameless stone leaning against the wall was in the shade
he took up the mallet and chisels again intending to work hush he said as he began the clamour in his brain was so loud that he thought some one was making a noise in the house this task was sacred he always worked at it in silence
pat put pat put how long he worked he never knew there are moments which are not to be measured as time in the uncertain handling of the chisel and the irregular beat of the mallet something gave way there was a harsh sound like a groan
a crack like a flash of forked lightning had shot across the face of the stone he had split it in half its great pieces fell to the floor on either side of him then he remembered that the stone had been useless it doesn't matter now he thought
nothing mattered with the mallet hanging from his hand he continued to sit in the drifting moonlight feeling as if everything in the world had been shivered to atoms his two idols had been scattered at one blow his wife and his friend
the golden threads that had bound him to life were broken when poverty had come he had met it without repining when death had seemed to come he had borne up against it bravely but wifeless friendless deceived where he had loved
betrayed where he had worshipped he was bankrupt he was broken and a boundless despair took hold of him when hope is entirely gone anguish will sometimes turn a man into a monster there was a fretful cry from the cradle
and still in the stupor of his despair he went out to rock it the fire which had only slid and smouldered was now struggling into flame and the child looked up at him with philip's eyes a knife seemed to enter his heart at that moment
he was more desolate than he had thought hush my child hush he said without thinking his child he had none that solace was gone anger came to save his reason
not to have felt anger he must have been less than a man or more he remembered what the child had been to him he remembered what it was when it came and again when he thought its mother was dead he remembered what it was when death frowned on it
and what it had been since death passed it by flesh of his flesh blood of his blood bone of his bone heart of his heart not his merely but himself
a lie a mockery a delusion a deception she has practised it oh she had hidden her secret she had thought it was safe but the child itself had betrayed it the secret had spoken from the child's own face
yet i've seen her kneel by the cot and pray god bless my baby and its father and its mother' why had he not killed her a wild vision rose before him of killing kate and then going to the deemster and saying
take me i have murdered her because you have dishonoured her condemn me to death yet remember god lives and he will condemn you to damnation but the pity of it the pity of it
by a quick revolt of tenderness he recalled kate as he had just seen her crouching at the back of the cradle like a hunted hare with uplifted paws uttering its last pitiful cry he remembered her altered face so pale even in the firelight
so thin so worn and his anger began to smoke against philip the flower that he would have been proud to wear on his breast philip had buried in the dark curse him curse him she had given up all for that man
husband child father mother her friends her good name the very light of heaven how she must have loved him yet he had been ashamed of her had hidden her away had been in fear lest the very air should whisper of her whereabouts
curse him curse him curse him in the heat of his great anger pete thought of himself also jealousy was far beneath him
two streams running into them and taking heaven into their bosom but philip had kept him apart had banked him off and yet drained him to the dregs he had uncovered his nakedness the nakedness of his soul itself
bit by bit pete pieced together the history of the past months he remembered the night of kate's disappearance when he had gone to ballure and shouted up at the lighted window
thinking to hide her fault at that moment philip had known all where she was for it was where he had sent her why she was gone and that she was gone for ever curse him curse him pete recalled the letters
the first one that he had put into philip's hand the second that he had read to him the third that philip had written to his dictation the little forgeries to keep her poor name sweet the little inventions to make his story plausible the little lies of love
the little jests of a breaking heart and then the messages the presents to the child the reference to the deemster himself and the deemster had sat there and seen through it all as the sun sees through glass yet he had given no sign
he had never spoken he had held a quivering naked heart in his hand while his own lay within as cold as a stone curse him o god curse him pete remembered the night when philip came to tell him that kate was dead
and how he had comforted himself with the thought that he was not altogether alone in his great trouble because his friend was with him he remembered the journey to the grave the grave itself another's grave
how he knelt at the foot of it and prayed aloud in philip's hearing forgive me my poor girl how shall i kill him thought pete deemster too first deemster now and held high in honour worshipped for his justice
beloved for his mercy o god o god there are passions so overmastering that they stifle speech and man sinks back to the animal with an inarticulate shout pete went to the parlour and caught up the mallet
a frantic thought had flashed on him of killing philip as he sat on the bench which he had disgraced administering the law which he had outraged the wild justice of this idea made the blood to bubble in his ears he saw himself holding the deemster by the throat
and crying aloud to the people you think this man is a just judge he is a whited sepulchre you think he is as true as the sun he is as false as the sea he has robbed me of wife and child
at the very gates of heaven he has lied to me like hell the hour of justice has struck and thus i pay him and thus and thus but the power of words was lost in the drunkenness of his rage
with a dismal roar he flung the mallet away and it rolled on the ground in narrowing circles my hands my hands he thought he would strangle philip and then he would kill everybody in his way merely for the lust of killing why not
the fatal line was past nothing sacred remained the world was a howling wilderness of boundless license with the savage growl of a caged beast this wild man flung himself on the door tore it open and bounded on to the path
then he stopped suddenly there was a thunderous noise outside such as the waves make in a cave a company of people were coming in at the gate some were walking with the heavy step of men who carry a corpse
others were bearing lanterns and a few held high over their heads the torches which fishermen use when they are hauling the white nets at night who's there cried pete in a voice that was like a howl your friend said somebody
my friend i have no friend cried pete in a broken roar deed he's gone seemingly said a voice out of the dark pete did not hear seeing the crowd and the lights but only as darkness veined with fire
he thought philip was coming again as he had so often seen him come in his glory in his greatness in his triumph where is he he roared he's here they answered and then philip was brought up the path in the arms of four bearers his head hanging aside
and shaking at every step his face white as the wig above it and his gown trailing along the earth there was a sudden calm and pete dropped back in awe and horror a bolt out of heaven seemed to have fallen at his feet
and he trembled as if lightning had blinded him dead his anger had ebbed his fury had dashed itself against a rock his towering rage had shrunk to nothing in the face of this awful presence
the dark spirit had gone before him and snatched his victim out of his hands he had come out to kill this man and here he met him being brought home dead dead then his sin was dead also god forgive him
god forgive him where he was gone presumptuous man stand back oh mighty and merciful death death the liberator the deliverer the pardoner the peace maker even the shadow of thy face can quench the fires of revenge
the labors of hercules before the birth of hercules jupiter had explained in the council of the gods that the first descendant of perseus should be the ruler of all the others of his race this honor was intended for the son of perseus
and alcmene but juno was jealous and brought it about that eurystheus who was also a descendant of perseus should be born before theseus so eurystheus became king in mycene and the later born hercules remained inferior to him
now eurystheus watched with anxiety the rising fame of his young relative and called his subject to him demanding that he carry through certain great tasks or labors when hercules did not immediately obey
jupiter himself sent word to him that he should fulfill his service to the king of greece nevertheless the hero son of a god could not make up his mind easily to render service to a mere mortal so he traveled to delphi
this was the answer the overlordship of eurystheus will be qualified on condition that hercules perform ten labors that eurystheus shall assign him when this is done hercules shall be numbered
among the immortal gods hereupon hercules fell into deep trouble to serve a man of less importance than himself hurt his dignity and self esteem but jupiter would not listen to his complaints the first labor
the first labor that eurystheus assigned to hercules was to bring him the skin of the nemean lion this monster dwelt on the mountain of peloponnesus in the forest between kleona and nemea and could be wounded by no weapons made of man
some said he was the son of the giant typhon and the snake echidna
hercules set out on his journey and came to kleona where a poor laborer molorchus received him hospitably he met the latter
good man said hercules let the animal live thirty days longer then if i return offer it to jupiter my deliverer and if i do not return
who has attained immortality so hercules continued on his way his quiver of arrows over his shoulder his bow in one hand and in the other a club made from the trunk of a wild olive tree
and pulled up by the roots when he at last entered the nemean wood he looked carefully in every direction in order that he might catch sight of the monster lion before the lion should see him it was mid day and nowhere could he discover any trace of the lion
or any path that seemed to lead to his lair he met no man in the field or in the forest fear held them all shut up in their distant dwellings the whole afternoon he wandered through the thick undergrowth
at last toward evening the monster came through the forest returning from his trap in a deep fissure of the earth he was saturated with blood head mane and breast were reeking and his great tongue was licking his jaws
the hero who saw him coming long before he was near took refuge in a thicket and waited until the lion approached then with his arrow he shot him in the side but the shot did not pierce his flesh instead it flew back as if it had struck stone
and fell on the mossy earth then the animal raised his bloody head looked around in every direction and in fierce anger showed his ugly teeth
hoping to pierce him through the lungs again the arrow did not enter the flesh
hercules took a third arrow while the lion casting his eyes to the side watched him his whole neck swelled with anger he roared and his back was bent like a bow he sprang toward his enemy
but hercules threw the arrow and cast off the lion skin in which he was clothed with the left hand while with the right he swung his club over the head of the beast and gave him such a blow on the neck that all ready to spring as the lion was he fell back and came to a stand on trembling legs
with shaking head before he could take another breath hercules was upon him throwing down his bow and quiver that he might be entirely unencumbered
then for a long time he sought in vain to strip the fallen animal of his hide it yielded to no weapon or no stone at last the idea occurred to him of tearing it with the animal's own claws and this method immediately succeeded
later he prepared for himself a coat of mail out of the lion's skin and from the neck a new helmet
and with the lion's skin over his arm took his way back
the second labor the second labor consisted in destroying a hydra this monster dwelt in the swamp of lerna but came occasionally over the country destroying herds and laying waste the fields the hydra was an enormous creature
hercules set out with high courage for this fight
who for a long time had been his inseparable companion
at last the hydra was visible on a hill by the springs of amymone where its lair was found here
it came forth hissing its nine heads raised and swaying like the branches of a tree in a storm undismayed hercules approached it seized it and held it fast but the snake wrapped itself around one of his feet
then he began with his sword to cut off its heads but this looked like an endless task for no sooner had he cut off one head than two grew in its place at the same time an enormous crab came to the help of the hydra and began biting the hero's foot killing this with his club
the latter had lighted a torch set fire to a portion of the nearby wood and with brands therefrom touched the serpent's newly growing heads and prevented them from living in this way the hero was at last master of the situation
and was able to cut off even the head of the hydra that could not be killed this he buried deep in the ground and rolled a heavy stone over the place the body of the hydra he cut into half dipping his arrows in the blood which was poisonous
from that time the wounds made by the arrows of hercules were fatal the third labor the third demand of eurystheus was that hercules bring to him alive the hind cerynitis
this was a noble animal with horns of gold and feet of iron she lived on a hill in arcadia and was one of the five hinds which the goddess diana had caught on her first hunt this one of all the five was permitted to run loose again in the woods
for it was decreed by fate that hercules should one day hunt her for a whole year hercules pursued her came at last to the river ladon and there captured the hind
the mountains of diana
so he lamed her with an arrow and then carried her over his shoulder through arcadia here he met diana herself with apollo
how otherwise could i hold my own against eurystheus and thus he softened the anger of the goddess and brought the animal to mycene the fourth labor then hercules set out on his fourth undertaking
it consisted in bringing alive to mycene a boar which likewise sacred to diana was laying waste the country around the mountain of erymanthus on his wanderings in search of this adventure he came to the dwelling of pholus the son of silenus
dear guest said pholus there is a cask in my cellar but it belongs to all the centaurs jointly and i hesitate to open it because i know how little they welcome guests open it with good courage answered hercules i promise to defend you against all displeasure
as it happened the cask of wine had been given to the centaurs by bacchus the god of wine with the command that they should not open it until after four centuries hercules should appear in their midst pholus went to the cellar
his brother centaurs had fled for protection but hercules still continued shooting and sent an arrow through the arm of an old centaur which unhappily went quite through and fell on chiron's knee piercing the flesh
then for the first time hercules recognized his friend of former days ran to him in great distress pulled out the arrow and laid healing ointment on the wound as the wise chiron himself had taught him
filled with the poison of the hydra could not be healed so the centaur was carried into his cave there he wished to die in the arms of his friend vain wish
the great deliverer death and we know that he kept his word when hercules from the pursuit of the other centaurs returned to the dwelling of pholus he found him also dead he had drawn the deadly arrow from the lifeless body of one centaur
the poisoned arrow slipped through his fingers and pierced his foot killing him instantly hercules was very sad and buried his body reverently beneath the mountain
the fifth labor thereupon king eurystheus sent him upon the fifth labor which was one little worthy of a hero it was to clean the stables of augeas in a single day augeas was king in elis and had great herds of cattle
so much manure had accumulated that it seemed an insult to ask hercules to clean them in one day when the hero stepped before king augeas and without telling him anything of the demands of eurystheus
the latter measured the noble form in the lion skin and could hardly refrain from laughing when he thought of so worthy a warrior undertaking so menial a work but he said to himself necessity has driven many a brave man
perhaps this one wishes to enrich himself through me that will help him little i can promise him a large reward if he cleans out the stables for he can in one day clear little enough then he spoke confidently listen o stranger
if you clean all of my stables in one day i will give over to you the tenth part of all my possessions in cattle hercules accepted the offer and the king expected to see him begin to shovel but hercules
after he had called the son of augeas to witness the agreement tore the foundations away from one side of the stables directed to it by means of a canal the streams of alpheus and peneus that flowed near by and let the waters carry away the filth through another opening
without stooping to anything unworthy of an immortal
he refused the reward and said that he had not promised it but he declared himself ready to have the question settled in court when the judges were assembled phyleus commanded by hercules to appear testified against his father
and explained how he had agreed to offer hercules a reward augeas did not wait for the decision he grew angry and commanded his son as well as the stranger to leave his kingdom instantly the sixth labor
he sent the hero forth upon a sixth adventure commanding him to drive away the stymphalides these were monster birds of prey as large as cranes with iron feathers beaks and claws they lived on the banks of lake stymphalus in arcadia
and had the power of using their feathers as arrows
when he saw the frightful crowd not knowing how he could become master over so many enemies then he felt a light touch on his shoulder and glancing behind him saw the tall figure of the goddess minerva who gave into his hands two mighty brass rattles made by vulcan
telling him to use these to drive away the stymphalides she disappeared hercules mounted a hill near the lake and began frightening the birds by the noise of the rattles the stymphalides could not endure the awful noise and flew terrified out of the forest
shooting many as they flew those who were not killed left the lake and never returned the seventh labor king minos of crete had promised neptune poseidon god of the sea
to offer to him whatever animal should first come up out of the water
therefore the god caused a very beautiful ox to rise out of the sea but the king was so taken with the noble appearance of the animal that he secretly placed it among his own herds
the king was not a little pleased over the prospect of ridding the island of the bull and he himself helped hercules to capture the raging animal hercules approached the dreadful monster without fear and so thoroughly did he master him that he rode home on the animal the whole way to the sea
with this work eurystheus was pleased and after he had regarded the animal for a time with pleasure set it free no longer under hercules management the ox became wild again wandered through all laconia and arcadia
crossed over the isthmus to marathon in attica
later it was given to the hero theseus to become master over him the eighth labor the eighth labor of hercules
diomede was a son of mars and ruler of the bistonians a very warlike people he had mares so wild and strong that they had to be fastened with iron chains their fodder was chiefly hay
but strangers who had the misfortune to come into the city were thrown before them their flesh serving the animals as food when hercules arrived the first thing he did was to seize the inhuman king himself and after he had overpowered the keepers
throw him before his own mares with this food the animals were satisfied and hercules was able to drive them to the sea but the bistonians followed him with weapons and hercules was forced to turn and fight them
hercules returning was greatly grieved over this loss and later founded a city in honor of abderus
for the present he was content to master the mares and drive them without further mishap to eurystheus the latter consecrated the horses to juno their descendants were very powerful
and the great king alexander of macedonia rode one of them the ninth labor returning from a long journey the hero undertook an expedition against the amazons in order to finish the ninth adventure and bring to king eurystheus
the sword belt of the amazon hippolyta the amazons inhabited the region of the river thermodon and were a race of strong women who followed the occupations of men from their children they selected only such as were girls
united in an army they waged great wars their queen hippolyta wore as a sign of her leadership
hercules gathered his warrior companions together into a ship
and at last into the mouth of the river thermodon and the harbor of the amazon city themiscira here the queen of the amazons met him the lordly appearance of the hero flattered her pride and when she heard the object of his visit
she promised him the belt but juno the relentless enemy of hercules
mingled among the others and spread the news that a stranger was about to lead away their queen
and the best fighters of them attacked the hero and gave him a hard battle the first who began fighting with him was called because of her swiftness
bride of the wind but she found in hercules a swifter opponent was forced to yield and was in her swift flight overtaken by him and vanquished a second fell at the first attack then
the third who had come off victor in seven duels also fell hercules laid low eight others among them three hunter companions of diana who although formerly always certain with their weapons
and vainly covering themselves with their shields fell before the arrows of the hero
fell who had sworn to live her whole live unmarried the vow she kept but not her life after even melanippe the brave leader of the amazons was made captive all the rest took to wild flight
and hippolyta the queen handed over the sword belt which she had promised even before the fight hercules took it as ransom
and possessed a herd of beautiful red brown cattle which were guarded by another giant and a two headed dog
no son of earth had ever measured his strength against him and hercules realized exactly how many preparations were necessary for this heavy undertaking
geryone's father who bore the name gold sword because of his riches was king of all iberia spain besides geryone he had three brave giant sons who fought for him and each son had a mighty army of soldiers under his command
for these very reasons had eurystheus given the task to hercules for he hoped that his hated existence would at last be ended in a war in such a country yet hercules set out on this undertaking
and landed first in libya here he met the giant antaeus whose strength was renewed as often as he touched the earth he also freed libya of birds of prey for he hated wild animals and wicked men because he saw in all of them the image of the overbearing and unjust lord
after long wandering through desert country he came at last to a fruitful land through which great streams flowed here he founded a city of vast size
hecatompylos city of a hundred gates then at last he reached the atlantic ocean and planted the two mighty pillars which bear his name the sun burned so fiercely that hercules could bear it no longer he raised his eyes to heaven
and with raised bow threatened the sun god apollo wondered at his courage and lent him for his further journeys the bark in which he himself was accustomed to lie from sunset to sunrise in this hercules sailed to iberia
here he found the three sons of gold sword with three great armies camping near each other
and plundered the land then he sailed to the island erythia where geryone dwelt with his herds as soon as the two headed dog knew of his approach he sprang toward him but hercules struck him with his club and killed him
he killed also the giant herdsman who came to the help of the dog then he hurried away with the cattle but geryone overtook him and there was a fierce struggle juno herself offered to assist the giant but hercules shot her with an arrow deep in the heart
and the goddess wounded fled even the threefold body of the giant which ran together in the region of the stomach felt the might of the deadly arrows and was forced to yield with glorious adventures hercules continued his way home
driving the cattle across country through iberia and italy at rhegium in lower italy one of his oxen got away and swam across the strait to sicily
and swam holding one by the horns to sicily then the hero pursued his way without misfortune through italy illyria and thrace to greece hercules had now accomplished ten labors but eurystheus was still unsatisfied
and there were two more tasks to be undertaken the eleventh labor at the celebration of the marriage of jupiter and juno when all the gods were bringing their wedding gifts to the happy pair mother earth did not wish to be left out
so she caused to spring forth on the western borders of the great world sea a many branched tree full of golden apples four maidens called the hesperides daughters of night were the guardians of this sacred garden and with them watched the hundred headed dragon
was phorkys the parent of many monsters sleep came never to the eyes of this dragon and a fearful hissing sound warned one of his presence for each of his hundred throats had a different voice from this monster so was the command of eurystheus
should hercules seize the golden apples
and placed himself in the hands of blind chance for he did not know where the hesperides dwelt he went first to thessaly where dwelt the giant termerus
the head of the giant himself was split open farther on the hero came upon another monster in his way cycnus
he when asked concerning the garden of the hesperides instead of answering challenged the wanderer to a duel and was beaten by hercules then appeared mars the god of war himself to avenge the death of his son
and hercules was forced to fight with him but jupiter did not wish that his sons should shed blood and sent his lightning bolt to separate the two
hastened over the river eridanus and came to the nymphs of jupiter and themis who dwelt on the banks of the stream to these hercules put his question go to the old river god nereus was their answer
he is a seer and knows all things surprise him while he sleeps and bind him
hercules followed this advice and became master of the river god although the latter according to his custom assumed many different forms
he could find the golden apples of the hesperides informed of this
over the latter land ruled busiris the son of neptune and lysianassa to him during the period of a nine year famine
that the land would again bear fruit if a stranger were sacrificed once a year to jupiter in gratitude busiris made a beginning with the priest himself later he found great pleasure in the custom and killed all strangers who came to egypt
so hercules was seized and placed on the altar of jupiter but he broke the chains which bound him and killed busiris and his son and the priestly herald with many adventures the hero continued his way set free as has been told elsewhere
prometheus the titan who was bound to the caucasus mountains and came at last to the place where atlas stood carrying the weight of the heavens on his shoulders near him grew the tree which bore the golden apples of the hesperides prometheus had advised the hero
not to attempt himself to make the robbery of the golden fruit but to send atlas on the errand the giant offered to do this if hercules would support the heavens while he went this hercules consented to do and atlas set out
he put to sleep the dragon who lived beneath the tree and killed him then with a trick he got the better of the keepers and returned happily to hercules with the three apples which he had plucked but he said
i have now found out how it feels to be relieved of the heavy burden of the heavens i will not carry them any longer then he threw the apples down at the feet of the hero and left him standing with the unaccustomed awful weight upon his shoulders
hercules had to think of a trick in order to get away let me he said to the giant just make a coil of rope to bind around my head
atlas found this new demand reasonable and consented to take over the burden again for a few minutes but the deceiver was at last deceived and hercules picked up the apples from the ground and set out on his way back he carried the apples to eurystheus
the latter laid them on the altar of minerva
returned the apples to the garden of the hesperides the twelfth labor instead of destroying his hated enemy the labors which eurystheus had imposed upon hercules
but the last labor he was to undertake in the region in which his hero strength
from which incessantly poison flowed a dragon's tail hung from his body and the hair of his head and of his back formed hissing coiling serpents to prepare himself for this fearful journey hercules went to the city of eleusis in
attic territory where from a wise priest he received secret instruction in the things of the upper and lower world and where also he received pardon for the murder of the centaur then with strength to meet the horrors of the underworld hercules traveled on to peloponnesus
which contained the opening to the lower world here accompanied by mercury
the former hercules wished to overthrow with his sword but mercury touched him on the arm and told him that the souls of the departed
with the soul of meleager the hero chatted in friendly fashion and received from him loving messages for the upper world still nearer to the gates of hades
when both saw the friendly form of hercules they stretched beseeching hands towards him trembling with the hope that through his strength they might again reach the upper world hercules grasped theseus by the hand freed him from his chains and raised him from the ground
for the ground opened beneath his feet at the gate of the city of the dead stood king pluto and denied entrance to hercules but with an arrow the hero shot the god in the shoulder so that he feared the mortal
and when hercules then asked whether he might lead away the dog of hades he did not longer oppose him but he imposed the condition that hercules should become master of cerberus without using any weapons so the hero set out
and without paying any attention to the bellowing of the three heads which was like the echo of fearful resounding thunder he seized the dog by the legs put his arms around his neck and would not let him go
and did not let go until he was really master of the monster then he raised it and through another opening of hades returned in happiness to his own country when the dog of hades saw the light of day he was afraid and began to spit poison from which poisonous plants sprung up out of the earth
the astonished eurystheus who could not believe his eyes now at last the king doubted whether he could ever rid himself of the hated son of jupiter he yielded to his fate and dismissed the hero who led the dog of hades back to his owner in the lower world
many many centuries ago there lived two brothers prometheus or forethought
did not care for idle life among the gods on mount olympus instead he preferred to spend his time on the earth helping men to find easier and better ways of living
in the golden days when saturn ruled
without fire without food and with no shelter but miserable caves with fire they could at least warm their bodies and cook their food prometheus thought and later they could make tools and build houses for themselves
and enjoy some of the comforts of the gods so prometheus went to jupiter and asked that he might be permitted to carry fire to the earth but jupiter shook his head in wrath fire indeed he exclaimed
never will i give my consent prometheus made no reply but he didn't give up his idea of helping men some other way must be found he thought then one day as he was walking among some reeds
he broke off one and seeing that its hollow stalk was filled with a dry soft pith exclaimed at last in this i can carry fire
immediately taking a long stalk in his hands he set out for the dwelling of the sun in the far east he reached there in the early morning just as apollo's chariot was about to begin its journey across the sky
lighting his reed he hurried back carefully guarding the precious spark that was hidden in the hollow stalk then he showed men how to build fires for themselves and it was not long before they began to do all the wonderful things
of which prometheus had dreamed they learned to cook and to domesticate animals and to till the fields and to mine precious metals and melt them into tools and weapons and they came out of their dark and gloomy caves
they began to laugh and sing behold the age of gold has come again they said but jupiter was not so happy
and their very prosperity made him angry that young titan he cried out when he heard what prometheus had done i will punish him but before punishing prometheus he decided to vex the children of men
when the work was done he carried it to olympus jupiter called the other gods together bidding them give her each a gift one bestowed upon her beauty another kindness another skill another curiosity and so on
jupiter himself gave her the gift of life and they named her pandora which means
at last she could not contain her curiosity any longer she opened the box just a little to take a peep inside immediately there was a buzzing whirring sound and before she could snap down the lid ten thousand ugly little creatures had jumped out
they were diseases and troubles and very glad they were to be free all over the earth they flew entering into every household and carrying sorrow and distress wherever they went how jupiter must have laughed when he saw the result of pandora's curiosity
soon after this the god decided that it was time to punish prometheus he called strength and force and bade them seize the titan and carry him to the highest peak of the caucasus mountains
then he sent vulcan to bind him with iron chains making arms and feet fast to the rocks vulcan was sorry for prometheus but dared not disobey so the friend of man lay
miserably bound naked to the winds while the storms beat about him and an eagle tore at his liver with its cruel talons but prometheus did not utter a groan in spite of all his sufferings
and yet he would not complain beg for mercy or repent of what he had done men were sorry for him but could do nothing then one day a beautiful white cow passed over the mountain
go southward and then west until you come to the great river nile there you shall again become a maiden fairer than ever before and shall marry the king of that country
and from your race shall spring the hero who will break my chains and set me free centuries passed and then a great hero hercules came to the caucasus mountains
did not certainly imply any feeling that he had disgraced himself by what he had done either at manor cross or up in london perhaps the ladies there did not know as much of his habits as did missus walker at scumberg's
perhaps the feeling was strong that popenjoy was popenjoy
if a child be born in british purple true purple though it may have been stained by circumstances that purple is very sacred
there was still a good deal of mystery both as to popenjoy and as to the fireplace
everyone at rudham was anxious to sit by his side and to be allowed to talk to him when he abused the dean which he did freely those who heard him assented to all he said
the baroness banmann held up her hands in horror when she heard the tale
was pertinacious in her enquiries after popenjoy and cruelly sarcastic upon the dean think what was his bringing up said missus houghton
that lord george should have made that match not but what she is a good creature in her way she is no better than she should be
then missus houghton found herself able to insinuate that perhaps after all mary was not a good creature even in her own way
he talked to jack about races and billiards and women but though he did not refrain from abusing the dean he said no word to jack against mary
he would do nothing to prevent it they tell me she's a beautiful woman
she is very beautiful said jack why the devil she should have married george i can't think she doesn't care for him the least don't you think she does i'm sure she don't
i suppose her pestilent father thought it was the nearest way to a coronet i don't know why men should marry at all they always get into trouble by it somebody must have children suggested jack i don't see the necessity
as they were talking the baroness had come up to them and made her little proposition what a lecture if mister de baron pleases of course i never listen to lectures myself except from my wife
ah dat is vat i vant to prevent
very interesting but i don't think i'm well enough myself here is captain de baron a young man as strong as a horse and very fond of women he'll sit it out i beg your pardon what is it
then the baroness with rapid words told her own sad story she had been deluded defrauded and ruined by those wicked females lady selina protest and doctor fleabody
she was rapid and eloquent but not always intelligible
pecuniary assistance i think my lord yah yah i have been bamboozled of everything my lord marquis
would you mind telling my fellow to give her a ten pound note jack said that he would not mind and the baroness stuck to him pertinaciously not leaving his side a moment till she had got the money of course there was no lecture
the baroness was made to understand that visitors at a country house in england could not be made to endure such an infliction but she succeeded in levying a contribution from missus montacute jones and there were rumours afloat that she got a sovereign out of mister houghton
lord giblet had come with the intention of staying a week but the day after the attack made upon him by missus montacute jones news arrived which made it absolutely necessary that he should go to castle gossling at once
we shall be so sorry to miss you said missus montacute jones whom he tried to avoid in making his general adieux but who was a great deal too clever not to catch him my father wants to see me about the property you know
of course there must be a great deal to do between you everybody who knew the affairs of the family was aware that the old earl never thought of consulting his son and missus montacute jones knew everything ever so much therefore i must be off at once
my fellow is packing my things now and there is a train in an hour's time did you hear from olivia this morning not to day i hope you are as proud as you ought to be of having such a sweet girl belonging to you
i told missus green that you were here and that you were coming to meet olivia on the twenty seventh what did she say she thinks you ought to see mister green as you go through london he is the easiest most good natured man in the world don't you think you might as well speak to him
who was missus montacute jones that she should talk to him in this way i would send a telegram if i were you to say i would be there to night perhaps it would be best said lord giblet oh certainly now mind we expect you to dinner on the twenty seventh
is there anybody else you'd specially like me to ask nobody in particular thank ye isn't jack de baron a friend of yours yes i like jack pretty well he thinks a great deal of himself you know all the young men do that now
at any rate i'll ask jack to meet you unfortunately for lord giblet jack appeared in sight at this very moment captain de baron lord giblet has been good enough to say that he'll come to my little place at killancodlem
on the twenty seventh can you meet him there delighted missus jones who ever refuses to go to killancodlem it isn't killancodlem and its little comforts that are bringing his lordship
we shall be delighted to see him but he is coming to see well i suppose it's no secret now lord giblet jack bowed his congratulations and lord giblet again blushed as red as a rose detestable old woman
whither should he take himself in what furthest part of the rocky mountains should he spend the coming autumn if neither mister nor missus green called upon him for an explanation what possible right could this abominable old harpy have to prey upon him
he knew men who had done ten times as much and had not been as severely handled and he was sure that jack de baron had had something to do with it jack had been hand in hand with missus jones at the making up of the kappa kappa
but as he went to the station he reflected that olivia green was a very nice girl if those ten thousand pounds were true they would be a great comfort to him his mother was always bothering him to get married
if he could bring himself to accept this as his fate he would be saved a deal of trouble spooning at killancodlem after all would not be bad fun he almost told himself that he would marry miss green
were it not that he was determined not to be dictated to by that old harridan many people came and went at rudham park but among those who did not go was guss mildmay aunt julia
who had become thoroughly ashamed of the baroness had wished to take her departure on the third day but guss had managed to stop her what's the good of coming to a house for three days you said you meant to stay a week they know what she is now and the harm's done
it was your own fault for bringing her i don't see why i'm to be thrown over because you've made a mistake about a vulgar old woman
and now we are out of town for heaven's sake let us stay as long as we can in this way guss carried her point watching her opportunity for a little conversation with her former lover at last the opportunity came
at last she made the opportunity calling upon him to walk with her one sunday morning when all other folk were in church or perhaps in bed no i won't go to church she had said to aunt ju
what is the use of your asking why not i won't go they are quite accustomed at rudham to people not going to church i always go in a stiff house but i won't go here when you are at rome you should do as the romans do
i don't suppose there'll be half a dozen there out of the whole party aunt ju went to church as a matter of course
are you going to killancodlem she said i suppose i shall for a few days have you got anything to say before you go nothing particular of course i don't mean to me
i've nothing particular to say to anybody just at present
it's quite a pleasure to hear him abuse the dean and the dean's daughter he has not much good to say about her either i'm not surprised at that jack
very little guss and what are you going to say to me about her nothing at all guss she's all the world to you i suppose what's the use of your saying that in one sense she's nothing to me
my belief is that the only man she'll ever care a pin about is her husband at any rate she does not care a straw for me nor you for her well yes i do she's one of my pet friends
there's nobody i like being with better and if she were not married god knows what might have happened i might have asked her to have me because she has got money of her own what's the use of coming back to the old thing guss
money money money nothing more unfair was ever said to anyone have i given any signs of selling myself for money have i been a fortune hunter no one has ever found me guilty of so much prudence
no i can't said guss i can two cradles and very little of the hashed mutton and my lady wife with no one to pin her dress for her but the maid of all work with black fingers it wouldn't be like that it very soon would
if i were to marry a girl without a fortune and i know myself i'm a very good fellow while the sun shines but i couldn't stand hardship i shouldn't come home to the hashed mutton i should dine at the club even though i had to borrow the money
i should come to hate the cradle and its occupant and the mother of its occupant i should take to drink and should blow my brains out just as the second cradle came i can see it all as plain as a pikestaff i often lay awake the whole night and look at it
you and i guss have made a mistake from the beginning being poor people we have lived as though we were rich i have never done so oh yes you have instead of dining out in fitzroy square and drinking tea in tavistock place
you have gone to balls in grosvenor square and been presented at court it wasn't my fault it has been so and therefore you should have made up your mind to marry a rich man who was it asked me to love him
say that i did if you please upon my word i forget how it began but say that it was my fault of course it was my fault are you going to blow me up for that i see a girl
and then i love her and then i tell her so or else she finds it out without my telling was that a sin you can't forgive i never said it was a sin
was there ever a moment in which you thought that i thought of marrying you a great many jack did i ever say so never i'll do you justice there you have been very cautious of course you can be severe
and of course i am bound to bear it i have been cautious for your sake oh jack for your sake when i first saw how it was going to be how it might be between you and me
i took care to say outright that i couldn't marry unless a girl had money there will be something when papa dies the most healthy middle aged gentleman in london there might be half a dozen cradles guss before that day
if it will do you good you shall say i'm the greatest rascal walking that will do me no good but i don't know that i can give you any other privilege
god bless my soul that's going back to the beginning you are heartless absolutely heartless it has come to that with you
i can't afford it my dear but is there no such thing as love that you can't help can you drop a girl out of your heart altogether simply because she has got no money i suppose you did love me once here jack scratched his head
you did love me once she said persevering with her question of course i did said jack who had no objection to making assurances of the past and you don't now whoever said so
what's the good of talking about it do you think you owe me nothing what's the good of owing if a man can't pay his debts you will own nothing then yes i will if anyone left me twenty thousand pounds to morrow then i should owe you something
what would you owe me half of it and how would you pay me he thought a while before he made his answer
you mean then that you would marry me
in that case you would marry me a man has no right to take so much on himself as to say that
i suppose i should i should make a devilish bad husband even then why should you be worse than others i don't know perhaps i was made worse i can't fancy myself doing any duty well
if i had a wife of my own i should be sure to fall in love with somebody else's lady george for instance no not lady george it would not be with somebody whom i had learned to think the very best woman in all the world
i am very bad but i'm just not bad enough to make love to her or rather i am very foolish but just not foolish enough to think that i could win her
she's not just the same to me but i'd rather not talk about her guss i'm going to killancodlem in a day or two and i shall leave this to morrow to morrow well yes to morrow i must be a day or two in town and there is not much doing here
and there's no more fun to be made of the baroness i'm not sure but that she has the best of the fun i didn't think there was an old woman in the world could get a five pound note out of me but she had how could you be so foolish how indeed
you'll go back to london i suppose so unless i drown myself don't do that guss i often think it will be best you don't know what my life is how wretched and you made it so is that fair guss
quite fair quite true you have made it miserable you know you have of course you know it can i help it now yes you can i can be patient if you will say that it shall be some day
when you have got that twenty thousand pounds but i shall never have it if you do will you marry me then will you promise me that you will never marry anybody else i never shall but will you promise me
if you will not say so much as that to me you must be false indeed when you have the twenty thousand pounds will you marry me oh certainly and you can laugh about such a matter when i am pouring out my very soul to you
you can make a joke of it when it is all my life to me jack if you will say that it shall happen some day some day i will be happy if you won't i can only die
it may be play to you but it's death to me he looked at her and saw that she was quite in earnest she was not weeping but there was a drawn heavy look about her face which in truth touched his heart
whatever might be his faults he was not a cruel man he had defended himself without any scruples of conscience when she had seemed to attack him but now he did not know how to refuse her request it amounted to so little
i don't suppose it will ever take place but i think i ought to allow myself to consider myself as engaged to you she said as it is you are free to marry anyone else he replied i don't care for such freedom i don't want it
i couldn't marry a man whom i didn't love nobody knows what that they can do till they're tried do you suppose sir i've never been tried but i can't bring myself to laugh now jack don't joke now
heaven knows when we may see each other again you will promise me that jack yes if you wish it and so at last she had got a promise from him she said nothing more to fix it fearing that in doing so
she might lose it but she threw herself into his arms and buried her face upon his bosom afterwards when she was leaving him she was very solemn in her manner to him i will say good bye now jack
for i shall hardly see you again to speak to you do love me you know i do i am so true to you i have always been true to you god bless you jack write me a line sometimes
then he escaped having brought her back to the garden among the flowers and he wandered away by himself across the park at last he had engaged himself he knew that it was so and he knew that she would tell all her friends
adelaide houghton would know and would of course congratulate him there never could be a marriage that would of course be out of the question but
he would be the young man engaged to marry augusta mildmay and then he could hardly now refuse to answer the letters which she would be sure to write to him at least twice a week there had been a previous period of letter writing
but that had died a natural death through utter neglect on his part but now it might be as well that he should take advantage of the new law and exchange into an indian regiment but even in his present condition
his mind was not wholly occupied with augusta mildmay the evil words which had been spoken to him of mary had not been altogether fruitless his cousin adelaide had told him over and over again
that lady george was as other women by which his cousin had intended to say that lady george was the same as herself augusta mildmay had spoken of his phoenix in the same strain
it was not that he wished to think of her as they thought or that he could be brought so to think but these suggestions coming as they did from those who knew how much he liked the woman amounted to ridicule aimed against the purity of his worship
they told him almost told him that he was afraid to speak of love to lady george indeed he was afraid and within his own breast he was in some sort proud of his fear but nevertheless he was touched by their ridicule
he and mary had certainly been dear friends certainly that friendship had given great umbrage to her husband was he bound to keep away from her because of her husband's anger he knew that they two were not living together
he knew that the dean would at any rate welcome him and he knew too
he had no purpose as to anything that he would say to her but he was resolved that he would see her if then some word warmer than any he had yet spoken should fall from him he would gather from her answer what her feelings were towards him
it was difficult to encounter a wayfarer of more wretched appearance he was a man of medium stature thickset and robust in the prime of life he might have been forty six or forty eight years old
a cap with a drooping leather visor partly concealed his face burned and tanned by sun and wind and dripping with perspiration his shirt of coarse yellow linen fastened at the neck by a small silver anchor
permitted a view of his hairy breast he had a cravat twisted into a string trousers of blue drilling worn and threadbare white on one knee and torn on the other an old gray tattered blouse
patched on one of the elbows with a bit of green cloth sewed on with twine a tightly packed soldier knapsack well buckled and perfectly new on his back an enormous knotty stick in his hand iron shod shoes on his stockingless feet a shaved head
and a long beard the sweat the heat the journey on foot the dust added i know not what sordid quality to this dilapidated whole his hair was closely cut yet bristling for it had begun to grow a little
seven months previously had witnessed the passage of the emperor napoleon
this man must have been walking all day he seemed very much fatigued some women of the ancient market town which is situated below the city
and drink at the fountain which stands at the end of the promenade he must have been very thirsty for the children who followed him saw him stop again for a drink two hundred paces further on at the fountain in the market place
on arriving at the corner of the rue poichevert he turned to the left and directed his steps toward the town hall he entered then came out a quarter of an hour later
a gendarme was seated near the door on the stone bench which general drouot had mounted on the fourth of march to read to the frightened throng of the inhabitants of d the proclamation of the gulf juan the man pulled off his cap
the gendarme without replying to his salute stared attentively at him
and then entered the town hall there then existed at d a fine inn at the sign of the cross of colbas this inn had for a landlord a certain jacquin labarre a man of consideration in the town on account of his relationship
in grenoble and had served in the guides at the time of the emperor's landing many rumors had circulated throughout the country
had made frequent trips thither in the month of january and that he had distributed crosses of honor to the soldiers and handfuls of gold to the citizens the truth is that when the emperor entered grenoble he had refused to install himself at the hotel
of the prefecture he had thanked the mayor saying i am going to the house of a brave man of my acquaintance and he had betaken himself to the three dauphins this glory of the labarre of the three dauphins was reflected upon the labarre
that is the cousin of the man of grenoble the man bent his steps towards this inn which was the best in the country side he entered the kitchen which opened on a level with the street all the stoves were lighted
was going from one stew pan to another very busily superintending an excellent dinner designed for the wagoners whose loud talking conversation and laughter
any one who has travelled knows that there is no one who indulges in better cheer than wagoners a fat marmot flanked by white partridges and heather cocks was turning on a long spit before the fire on the stove
two huge carps from lake lauzet
food and lodging said the man nothing easier replied the host at that moment he turned his head took in the traveller's appearance with a single glance and added by paying for it
put it on the ground near the door retained his stick in his hand and seated himself
the evenings are cold there in october but as the host went back and forth he scrutinized the traveller will dinner be ready soon said the man immediately replied the landlord
while the newcomer was warming himself before the fire with his back turned the worthy host jacquin labarre drew a pencil from his pocket then tore off the corner of an old newspaper which was lying on a small table near the window
on the white margin he wrote a line or two folded it without sealing and then intrusted this scrap of paper to a child who seemed to serve him in the capacity both of scullion and lackey the landlord whispered a word in the scullion's ear
and the child set off on a run in the direction of the town hall the traveller saw nothing of all this once more he inquired will dinner be ready soon immediately responded the host
the child returned he brought back the paper the host unfolded it eagerly like a person who is expecting a reply he seemed to read it attentively then tossed his head and remained thoughtful for a moment
do you want me to pay you in advance i have money i tell you it is not that what then you have money yes said the man and i said the host have no room the man resumed tranquilly
put me in the stable i cannot why the horses take up all the space very well retorted the man a corner of the loft then
i cannot give you any dinner this declaration made in a measured but firm tone struck the stranger as grave he rose ah bah but i am dying of hunger
i have been walking since sunrise i have travelled twelve leagues i pay i wish to eat i have nothing said the landlord
and turned towards the fireplace and the stoves nothing and all that all that is engaged by whom by messieurs the wagoners how many are there of them twelve there is enough food there for twenty
the man seated himself again and said without raising his voice i am at an inn i am hungry and i shall remain then the host bent down to his ear
go away at that moment the traveller was bending forward and thrusting some brands into the fire with the iron shod tip of his staff he turned quickly round
so saying he held out to the stranger fully unfolded the paper which had just travelled from the inn to the town hall and from the town hall to the inn the man cast a glance upon it the landlord resumed after a pause
he would have seen the host of the cross of colbas standing on his threshold surrounded by all the guests of his inn and all the passers by in the street talking vivaciously and pointing him out with his finger and
from the glances of terror and distrust cast by the group he might have divined that his arrival would speedily become an event for the whole town he saw nothing of all this people who are crushed do not look behind them
they know but too well the evil fate which follows them thus he proceeded for some time walking on without ceasing traversing at random streets of which he knew nothing forgetful of his fatigue as is often the case when a man is sad
all at once he felt the pangs of hunger sharply night was drawing near he glanced about him to see whether he could not discover some shelter the fine hostelry was closed to him
and peeped through the window into the interior
and by a large fire on the hearth some men were engaged in drinking there the landlord was warming himself an iron pot suspended from a crane bubbled over the flame
the entrance to this public house which is also a sort of an inn is by two doors one opens on the street the other upon a small yard filled with manure the traveller dare not enter by the street door
he slipped into the yard halted again then raised the latch timidly and opened the door who goes there said the master some one who wants supper and bed good we furnish supper and bed here he entered
all the men who were drinking turned round the lamp illuminated him on one side the firelight on the other they examined him for some time while he was taking off his knapsack the host said to him there is the fire the supper is cooking in the pot
come and warm yourself comrade he approached and seated himself near the hearth he stretched out his feet which were exhausted with fatigue to the fire a fine odor was emitted by the pot
all that could be distinguished of his face beneath his cap which was well pulled down assumed a vague appearance of comfort mingled with that other poignant aspect which habitual suffering bestows
it was moreover a firm energetic and melancholy profile this physiognomy was strangely composed it began by seeming humble and ended by seeming severe
the eye shone beneath its lashes like a fire beneath brushwood one of the men seated at the table however was a fishmonger who before entering the public house of the rue de chaffaut
had been to stable his horse at labarre's it chanced that he had that very morning encountered this unprepossessing stranger on the road between bras d'asse and i have forgotten the name
i think it was escoublon now when he met him the man who then seemed already extremely weary had requested him to take him on his crupper to which the fishmonger had made no reply except by redoubling his gait
this fishmonger had been a member half an hour previously of the group which surrounded jacquin labarre and had himself related his disagreeable encounter of the morning to the people at the cross of colbas from where he sat
he made an imperceptible sign to the tavern keeper the tavern keeper went to him they exchanged a few words in a low tone the man had again become absorbed in his reflections
the tavern keeper returned to the fireplace laid his hand abruptly on the shoulder of the man and said to him you are going to get out of here the stranger turned round and replied gently ah you know yes
and you are to be turned out of this one where would you have me go elsewhere the man took his stick and his knapsack and departed as he went out some children who had followed him from the cross of colbas
and who seemed to be lying in wait for him threw stones at him he retraced his steps in anger and threatened them with his stick the children dispersed like a flock of birds he passed before the prison
he rang the wicket opened turnkey said he removing his cap politely will you have the kindness to admit me and give me a lodging for the night a voice replied the prison is not an inn
the wicket closed again he entered a little street in which there were many gardens some of them are enclosed only by hedges which lends a cheerful aspect to the street in the midst of these gardens and hedges
he caught sight of a small house of a single story the window of which was lighted up he peered through the pane as he had done at the public house within was a large whitewashed room with a bed draped in printed cotton stuff
and a cradle in one corner a few wooden chairs and a double barrelled gun hanging on the wall a table was spread in the centre of the room a copper lamp illuminated the tablecloth of coarse white linen the pewter jug shining like silver
and filled with wine and the brown smoking soup tureen at this table sat a man of about forty with a merry and open countenance who was dandling a little child on his knees
close by a very young woman was nursing another child the father was laughing the child was laughing the mother was smiling the stranger paused a moment in revery before this tender and calming spectacle
what was taking place within him he alone could have told it is probable that he thought that this joyous house would be hospitable and that in a place where he beheld so much happiness
he tapped on the pane with a very small and feeble knock they did not hear him he tapped again he heard the woman say
no replied the husband he tapped a third time the husband rose took the lamp and went to the door which he opened he was a man of lofty stature half peasant half artisan
he wore a huge leather apron which reached to his left shoulder
a powder horn and all sorts of objects which were upheld by the girdle as in a pocket caused to bulge out he carried his head thrown backwards his shirt widely opened and turned back displayed his bull neck white and bare
he had thick eyelashes enormous black whiskers prominent eyes the lower part of his face like a snout and besides all this that air of being on his own ground which is indescribable
pardon me sir said the wayfarer could you in consideration of payment give me a plate of soup and a corner of that shed yonder in the garden in which to sleep tell me can you for money
who are you demanded the master of the house the man replied i have just come from puy moisson i have walked all day long i have travelled twelve leagues can you if i pay i would not refuse said the peasant
to lodge any respectable man who would pay me but why do you not go to the inn there is no room bah impossible this is neither a fair nor a market day have you been to labarre yes well
the peasant's countenance assumed an expression of distrust he surveyed the newcomer from head to feet and suddenly exclaimed with a sort of shudder
meanwhile at the words are you the man the woman had risen had clasped her two children in her arms and had taken refuge precipitately behind her husband staring in terror at the stranger
with her bosom uncovered and with frightened eyes as she murmured in a low tone
after having scrutinized the man for several moments as one scrutinizes a viper the master of the house returned to the door and said clear out for pity's sake a glass of water said the man a shot from my gun said the peasant
and the man heard him shoot two large bolts a moment later the window shutter was closed and the sound of a bar of iron which was placed against it was audible outside night continued to fall
a cold wind from the alps was blowing by the light of the expiring day the stranger perceived in one of the gardens which bordered the street a sort of hut which seemed to him to be built of sods
he climbed over the wooden fence resolutely and found himself in the garden he approached the hut its door consisted of a very low and narrow aperture and it resembled those buildings which road laborers construct for themselves along the roads
he thought without doubt that it was in fact the dwelling of a road laborer he was suffering from cold and hunger but this was at least a shelter from the cold this sort of dwelling is not usually occupied at night
he threw himself flat on his face and crawled into the hut it was warm there
he set about unbuckling one of the straps at that moment a ferocious growl became audible he raised his eyes the head of an enormous dog was outlined in the darkness at the entrance of the hut
it was a dog's kennel he was himself vigorous and formidable he armed himself with his staff made a shield of his knapsack and made his way out of the kennel in the best way he could not without enlarging the rents in his rags
he left the garden in the same manner but backwards being obliged in order to keep the dog respectful to have recourse to that manoeuvre with his stick which masters in that sort of fencing designate as la rose couverte
and found himself once more in the street alone without refuge without shelter without a roof over his head chased even from that bed of straw and from that miserable kennel he dropped rather than seated himself on a stone
and it appears that a passer by heard him exclaim i am not even a dog he soon rose again and resumed his march he went out of the town
hoping to find some tree or haystack in the fields which would afford him shelter he walked thus for some time with his head still drooping when he felt himself far from every human habitation
was not alone the obscurity of night it was caused by very low hanging clouds which seemed to rest upon the hill itself and which were mounting and filling the whole sky meanwhile as the moon was about to rise
was still surrounded in eighteen fifteen by ancient walls flanked by square towers which have been demolished since he passed through a breach and entered the town again it might have been eight o'clock in the evening
as he was not acquainted with the streets he recommenced his walk at random in this way he came to the prefecture then to the seminary as he passed through the cathedral square he shook his fist at the church
at the corner of this square there is a printing establishment it is there that the proclamations of the emperor and of the imperial guard to the army brought from the island of elba and dictated by napoleon himself were printed for the first time
worn out with fatigue and no longer entertaining any hope he lay down on a stone bench which stands at the doorway of this printing office at that moment an old woman came out of the church
what are you doing there my friend said she he answered harshly and angrily as you see my good woman i am sleeping the good woman who was well worthy the name in fact was
i have had a mattress of wood for nineteen years said the man to day i have a mattress of stone you have been a soldier yes my good woman a soldier why do you not go to the inn
because i have no money alas said madame de r i have only four sous in my purse give it to me all the same the man took the four sous madame de r continued
who spent all her days in looking after her farm with the help of her niece tephany early and late the two might be seen in the fields or in the dairy milking cows making butter feeding fowls working hard themselves and taking care that others worked too
for soon she grew to love money for its own sake and only gave herself and tephany the food and clothes they absolutely needed and as for poor people she positively hated them and declared that such lazy creatures had no business in the world well
this being the sort of person barbaik was it is easy to guess at her anger when one day she found tephany talking outside the cowhouse to young denis who was nothing more than a day labourer from the village of plover seizing her niece by the arm she pulled her sharply away exclaiming
who is as poor as a rat when there are
what does fortune matter when one is young and strong asked tephany but her aunt amazed at such words would hardly let her finish what does fortune matter repeated barbaik in a shocked voice is it possible
that you are really so foolish as to despise money
i forbid you to speak to him and i will have him turned out of the farm if he dares to show his face here again now go and wash the clothes and spread them out to dry tephany did not dare to disobey but with a heavy heart went down the path to the river
she is harder than these rocks said the girl to herself yes
denis is the only pleasure i have
you would like to sit down and rest granny asked tephany pushing aside her bundle
replied the old woman in trembling tones are you so lonely then inquired tephany full of pity have you no friends who would welcome you into their houses the old woman shook her head they all died long long ago she answered
take this she said to day at any rate you shall dine well and the old woman took it gazing at tephany the while those who help others deserve to be helped she answered
you cried tephany stupefied at discovering that the beggar knew all about her affairs but the old woman did not hear her
in order to go and count her cabbages
then rising she nodded to tephany and vanished
if it had not been for the pin in her hands she would have thought she was dreaming but by that token she knew it was no common old woman who had given it to her but a fairy wise in telling what would happen in the days to come
then suddenly tephany's eyes fell on the clothes and to make up for lost time she began to wash them with great vigour next evening at the moment when denis was accustomed to wait for her in the shadow of the cowhouse tephany stuck the pin in her dress
then at last tephany began to notice something and the something made her very sad at first denis seemed to find the hours that they were together fly as quickly as she did but when he had taught her all the songs he knew
and told her all the plans he had made for growing rich and a great man he had nothing more to say to her for he like a great many other people was fond of talking himself but not of listening to any one else sometimes indeed he never came at all
but though she never reproached him
day by day her heart grew heavier and her cheeks paler and one evening when she had waited for him in vain she put her water pot on her shoulder and went slowly down to the spring on the path in front of her stood the fairy who had given her the pin
and as she glanced at tephany she gave a little mischievous laugh and said why my pretty maiden hardly looks
in a moment she heard denis whistling gaily and as her aunt was safely counting her cabbages she hurried out to meet him the young man was struck dumb by her talk there was nothing that she did not seem to know and as for songs
she not only could sing those from every part of brittany but could compose them herself
only to find her growing wiser and wiser soon the neighbours whispered their surprise among themselves for tephany
and many were the jokes she made about them of course they heard of her jests and shook their heads saying she is an ill natured little cat
it was not long before denis began to agree with them and
as he had promised to go to a dance that was to be held in the next village tephany's face fell
she did her best to persuade him to remain with her but he would not listen and at last she grew angry
it is because aziliez of pennenru will be there now aziliez was the loveliest girl for miles round and she and denis had known each other from childhood oh yes aziliez will be there answered denis who was quite pleased to see her jealous
cried tephany and entering the house she slammed the door behind her lonely and miserable she sat down by the fire and stared into the red embers
since you wish it so much you shall have beauty said a voice at her side and looking round she beheld the old woman leaning on her stick
with a little shriek of joy tephany took the necklace and snapping the clasp ran to the mirror which hung in the corner
or of any other girl for surely none could be as fair and white as she and with the sight of her face a thought came to her and putting on hastily her best dress
on the way she met a beautiful carriage with a young man seated in it what a lovely maiden he exclaimed as tephany approached why
she and no other shall be my bride the carriage was large and barred the narrow road so tephany was forced much against her will to remain where she was but she looked the young man full in the face as she answered go your way noble lord and let me go mine
i am only a poor peasant girl accustomed to milk and make hay and spin peasant you may be but
at the end of an hour they arrived at a splendid castle and tephany who would not move was lifted out and carried into the hall while a priest was sent for to perform the marriage ceremony
but tephany did not listen to him and looked about to see if there was any means by which she could escape
and the one through which she had entered shut with a spring but her feather was still in her hair and by its aid she detected a crack in the wooden panelling through which a streak of light could be dimly seen touching the copper pin which fastened her dress
the girl sent every one in the hall to count the cabbages while she herself passed through the little door not knowing whither she was going by this time night had fallen and tephany was very tired thankfully she found herself at the gate of a convent
and asked if she might stay there till morning but
when their mother heard tephany's request to be given a bed the good wife's heart softened and she was just going to invite her inside when the young men whose heads were turned by the girl's beauty began to quarrel as to which should do most for her from words they came to blows
she bethought herself of her necklace with a violent effort she burst the clasp and flung it round the neck of a pig which was grunting in a ditch
on she went scarcely knowing where she was going till she found herself to her surprise and joy close to her aunt's house for several days she felt so tired and unhappy that she could hardly get through her work and to make matters worse denis scarcely ever came near her
he was too busy he said and really it was only rich people who could afford to waste time in talking
the water pot was almost too heavy for her now but morning and evening she carried it to the spring though the effort to lift it to her shoulder was often too much for her how could i have been so foolish she whispered to herself when she went down as usual at sunset
it was not freedom to see denis that i should have asked for for he was soon weary of me nor a quick tongue for he was afraid of it nor beauty for that brought me nothing but trouble
ah if i only dared to beg this gift from the fairy i should be wiser than before and know how to choose better be satisfied said the voice of the old woman who seemed to be standing unseen at tephany's elbow
if you look in your right hand pocket when you go home you will find a small box
she did not know why in counting cabbages everything had gone wrong and she could not get a labourer to stay with her because of her bad temper when therefore she saw her niece standing quietly before her mirror barbaik broke out
it is no wonder if the farm is ruined are you not ashamed girl to behave so tephany tried to stammer some excuse but her aunt was half mad with rage and a box on the ears was her only answer at this tephany hurt bewildered and excited could control herself no longer
and turning away burst into tears but what was her surprise when she saw that each tear drop was a round and shining pearl barbaik who also beheld this marvel uttered a cry of astonishment and threw herself on her knees to pick them up from the floor
when the door opened and in came denis pearls are they really pearls he asked falling on his knees also and looking up at tephany he perceived others still more beautiful rolling down the girl's cheeks
said barbaik of course you shall have your share but nobody else shall get a single one cry on my dear cry on she continued to tephany it is for your good as well as ours and she held out her apron to catch them and denis his hat
but tephany could hardly bear any more she felt half choked at the sight of their greediness and wanted to rush from the hall and though barbaik caught her arm to prevent this and said all sorts of tender words which she thought would make the girl weep the more
cried barbaik in a tone of disappointment oh try again my dear do you think it would do any good to beat her a little she added to denis who shook his head that is enough for the first time
then i will go with you said barbaik who never trusted anyone and was afraid of being cheated so the two went out leaving tephany behind them she sat quite still on her chair her hands clasped tightly together as if she was forcing something back
on the nature of the house and its situation a country house where visitors are few and life is simple demands a less formal treatment than a house in a city or town while a villa
in a watering place where there is much in common with town life has necessarily many points of resemblance to a town house it should be borne in mind of entrances in general that
is to exclude the outer door which separates the hall or vestibule from the street should clearly proclaim itself an effectual barrier it should look strong enough to give a sense of security
and be so plain in design as to offer no chance of injury by weather and give no suggestion of interior decoration
and as little decorative detail as possible the necessary ornament should be contributed by the design of locks hinges and handles these like the door itself should be strong and serviceable
with nothing finikin in their treatment and made of a substance which does not require cleaning for the latter reason bronze and iron are more fitting than brass or steel
should be as permanent as possible in character
the floor should be of stone marble or tiles even a linoleum or oil cloth
for the same reason it is best to treat the walls with a decoration of stone or marble in simpler houses the same effect may be produced
at much less cost by dividing the wall spaces into panels with wooden mouldings applied directly to the plaster the whole being painted in oil
during the day the vestibule is usually subdivided
placed a few feet from the entrance this arrangement has the merit of keeping the house warm
the french architect always provides an antechamber for this purpose no furniture which is easily soiled or damaged
is appropriate in a vestibule in large and imposing houses
the excellent reproductions of robbia ware made by cantagalli of florence
less expensive and equally decorative especially against a pale blue or green background the lantern the traditional form of fixture for lighting vestibules is certainly the best in so exposed a situation
when after him another young man advanced and the count exclaimed
i summoned all my strength and courage to my support perhaps i turned pale and trembled
poor maximilian murmured valentine valentine the time has arrived when you must answer me and remember my life depends on your answer
valentine held down her head she was overwhelmed listen said morrel it is not the first time you have contemplated our present position which is a serious and urgent one
i do not think it is a moment to give way to useless sorrow
and god will doubtless reward them in heaven
but those who mean to contend must not lose one precious moment but must return immediately the blow which fortune strikes do you intend to struggle against our ill fortune tell me valentine for it is that i came to know
the idea of resisting her father her grandmother and all the family had never occurred to her what do you say maximilian asked valentine what do you mean by a struggle oh it would be a sacrilege what
i resist my father's order
impossible morrel started you are too noble not to understand me and you understand me so well that you already yield dear maximilian no no i shall need all my strength to struggle with myself
and support my grief in secret as you say but to grieve my father to disturb my grandmother's last moments never you are right said morrel calmly in what a tone you speak
i speak as one who admires you mademoiselle
you mistake i understand you perfectly
and to morrow you will sign the contract which will bind you to your husband but mon dieu tell me how can i do otherwise do not appeal to me mademoiselle
my selfishness will blind me replied morrel whose low voice and clinched hands announced his growing desperation what would you have proposed maximilian had you found me willing to accede
it is not for me to say you are wrong
you seriously ask my advice valentine certainly dear maximilian for if it is good i will follow it you know my devotion to you valentine said morrel pushing aside a loose plank
my senses are confused and during the last hour the most extravagant thoughts have passed through my brain oh if you refuse my advice what do you advise said valentine raising her eyes to heaven and sighing i am free
and rich enough to support you i swear to make you my lawful wife before my lips even shall have approached your forehead you make me tremble said the young girl follow me said morrel i will take you to my sister
who is worthy also to be yours
for england for america or if you prefer it retire to the country
when our friends have reconciled your family valentine shook her head
did i not stop you at once with the word impossible impossible
to what fate decrees for you without even attempting to contend with it said morrel sorrowfully yes if i die
i can only say again that you are right truly it is i who am mad and you prove to me that passion blinds the most well meaning i appreciate your calm reasoning
it is then understood that to morrow you will be irrevocably promised
not only by that theatrical formality invented to heighten the effect of a comedy called the signature of the contract
you drive me to despair maximilian said valentine again you plunge the dagger into the wound
if your sister listened to such a proposition mademoiselle
and as a selfish man i think not of what others would do in my situation but of what i intend doing myself i think only that i have known you not a whole year from the day i first saw you
all my hopes of happiness have been in securing your affection one day you acknowledged that you loved me and since that day my hope of future happiness has rested on obtaining you for to gain you
would be life to me now i think no more i say only that fortune has turned against me i had thought to gain heaven and now i have lost it it is an every day occurrence
for a gambler to lose not only what he possesses but also what he has not morrel pronounced these words with perfect calmness valentine looked at him a moment with her large scrutinizing eyes
endeavoring not to let morrel discover the grief which struggled in her heart
asked she i am going to have the honor of taking my leave of you mademoiselle solemnly assuring you that i wish your life may be so calm so happy and so fully occupied
that there may be no place for me even in your memory oh murmured
adieu valentine adieu
cried the young girl extending her hand through the opening and seizing maximilian by his coat for she understood from her own agitated feelings
and to set an example which every honest and devoted man
she soon told him that she shared his love
that this love would create great trouble he could never be happy the distance that separated them was too wide she then recommended to rodolph the most profound discretion
for fear of arousing the grand duke's suspicions as he would be inexorable and deprive them of their only happiness that of seeing each other every day the young prince promised to be cautious and conceal his love the scotch maiden was too ambitious
too self possessed to compromise and betray herself in the eyes of the court and rodolph perceiving the necessity of dissimulation imitated sarah's prudence the lovers secret was carefully preserved for some time nor was it
until the brother and sister saw the unbridled passion of their dupe reach its utmost excess and that his infatuation which he could hardly restrain threatened to burst forth afresh and destroy all that they resolved
on their final coup the doctor's character authorising the confidence besides the morality which invested it seyton opened to him on the necessity of a marriage between rodolph and sarah otherwise
he added with perfect sincerity he and his sister would instantly leave gerolstein sarah participated in the prince's affection but preferring death to dishonour she could only be the wife of his highness
this exalted flight of ambition stupefied the doctor who had never imagined that sarah's imagination soared so high a marriage surrounded by numberless difficulties
and dangers appeared impossible to polidori and he frankly told seyton the reasons why the grand duke would never submit to such a union seyton agreed in the importance of the reasons but proposed
which although secret should be legal and only avowed after the decease of the grand duke sarah was of a noble and ancient house and such a union was not without precedent
seyton gave the prince eight days to decide his sister could not longer endure the cruel anguish of uncertainty and if she must renounce rodolph's love she must act up to her painful resolve as promptly as might be
certain that he could not mistake sarah's views the doctor was sorely perplexed he had three ways before him to inform the grand duke of the matrimonial project to open rodolph's eyes
to lend himself to the marriage
to enlighten rodolph on the interested views of sarah was to expose himself to the reception which a lover is sure to give when she whom he loves is depreciated in his eyes and then
what a blow for the vanity or the heart of the young prince to let him know that it was for his royal rank alone that the lady was desirous to wed him on the other hand by lending himself to this match
polidori bound rodolph and sarah to him by a tie of the strongest gratitude or at least by the complicity of a dangerous act no doubt all might be discovered and the doctor exposed to the anger
of the grand duke but then the marriage would have been concluded the union legal the storm would blow over and the future sovereign of gerolstein would become the more bound to polidori in proportion
after much consideration therefore he resolved on serving sarah but with a certain qualification which we will presently refer to rodolph's passion had reached a height almost of frenzy
violently excited by constraint and the skilful management of sarah who pretended to feel still more than he did the insurmountable obstacles
which honour and duty placed between them and their liberty in a few days more the young prince would have betrayed himself thus
or possess her by a secret marriage rodolph threw himself on polidori's neck called him his saviour his friend his father he only wished that the temple and the priest were at hand
that he might marry her that instant the doctor resolved for reasons of his own
the management of all he found a priest witnesses and the union all the formalities of which were carefully scrutinised and verified by seyton was secretly celebrated during a temporary absence
of the grand duke at a conference of the german diet the prophecy of the scotch soothsayer was fulfilled sarah wedded the heir to a throne without quenching the fire of his love
possession rendered rodolph more circumspect and cooled down that violence which might have compromised the secret of his passion for sarah but directed by seyton and the doctor the young couple managed so well
and observed so much circumspection towards each other that they eluded all detection an event impatiently desired by sarah soon turned this calm into a tempest she was about to become a mother
it was then that this woman evinced all those exactions which were so new to and so much astonished rodolph she protested with hypocritical tears streaming from her eyes
that she could no longer support the constraint
rendered the more insupportable by her pregnancy in this extremity she boldly proposed to the young prince to tell all to his father
fonder than ever of her no doubt she added he will be very angry greatly enraged at first but he loves his son so tenderly so blindly and had for her sarah so strong
an affection that his paternal anger would gradually subside and she would at last take in the court of gerolstein the rank which was due to her she might say in a double sense because she was about
to give birth to a child which would be the heir presumptive to the grand duke these pretensions alarmed rodolph he knew the deep attachment which his father had for him
but he also well knew the inflexibility of his principles with regard to all the duties of a prince to all these objections sarah replied unmoved i am your wife in the presence of god and men
in a short time i shall no longer be able to conceal my situation and i ought not to blush at that of which i am on the contrary so proud and would desire openly to acknowledge
the expectation of posterity had redoubled rodolph's tenderness for sarah and placed between the desire to accede to her wishes and the dread of his father's wrath he experienced the bitterest anguish
seyton sided with his sister the marriage is indissoluble said he to his royal brother in law the grand duke may exile you from his court you and your wife nothing more
but he loves you too much to have recourse to such an extremity he will endure what he cannot prevent these reasons strong enough in themselves did not soothe rodolph's anxieties at this juncture
seyton was charged by the grand duke with an errand to visit several breeding studs in austria this mission which he could not refuse would only detain him a fortnight he set out with much regret
and in a very important moment for his sister she was chagrined yet satisfied at the departure of her brother for she would lose his advice but then he would be safe from the grand duke's anger
sarah promised to keep seyton fully informed day by day of the progress of events so important to both of them and that they might correspond more surely and secretly they agreed upon a cipher
of besides her love for rodolph in truth this selfish cold ambitious woman had not felt the ice of her heart melt even by the beams of the passionate love which had been breathed to her
her maternity was only with her a means of acting more effectually on rodolph and had no softening effect on her iron soul the youth headlong love and
and so perfidiously ensnared into an inextricable position hardly excited an interest in the mind of this selfish creature and in her confidential communications with him
who lived however very long in a word this correspondence between the brother and sister clearly developed their unbounded selfishness their ambitious calculations their impatience
which almost amounted to homicide and laid bare the springs of that dark conspiracy crowned by the marriage of rodolph one of sarah's letters to her brother was abstracted by polidori
the channel of their mutual communications for what purpose we shall see hereafter a few days after seyton's departure sarah was at the evening court of the dowager grand duchess
many of the ladies present looked at her with an astonished air and whispered to their neighbours the grand duchess judith in spite of her ninety years had a quick ear and a sharp eye and this little whispering did not escape her
she made a sign to one of the ladies in waiting to come to her and from her she learned that everybody was remarking that the figure of miss sarah seyton of halsbury was less slender
less delicate in its proportions than usual the old princess adored her young protegee and would have answered to god himself for sarah's virtue indignant
at the malevolence of these remarks she shrugged her shoulders and said aloud from the end of the saloon in which she was sitting my dear sarah come here sarah rose it was
requisite to cross the circle to reach the place where the princess was seated who was anxious most kindly to destroy the rumour that was circulated and by the simple fact of thus crossing the room
calumniators and prove triumphantly that the fair proportions of her protegee had lost not one jot of their symmetry and delicacy alas the most
perfidious enemy could not have devised a better plan than that suggested by the worthy princess in her desire to defend her protegee sarah came towards her
and it required all the deep respect due to the grand duchess to repress the murmur of surprise and indignation when the young lady crossed the room the nearest sighted persons saw what sarah
would no longer conceal for her pregnancy might have been hidden longer had she but have chosen but the ambitious woman had sought this display in order to compel rodolph to declare his marriage
the grand duchess who however would not be convinced in spite of her eyesight said in a low voice to sarah my dear child how very ill you have dressed yourself to day you
whose shape may be spanned by ten fingers i hardly know you again we will relate hereafter the results of this discovery which led to great and terrible events at this moment
we will content ourselves with stating what the reader has no doubt already guessed that fleur de marie was the fruit of the
and that they both believed their daughter dead it has not been forgotten that rodolph after having visited the house in the rue du temple
this fault much too common is one of the greatest inconsistencies of the human mind you use all your exertions to please the world which you only see cursorily
power to procure a few moments of pleasure and you neglect to be agreeable to your husband or wife from whom you expect the happiness of a whole life
and sustained in the same manner
that it should not have interruption or relaxation but it should be free from all impoliteness and indelicacy
nor give any suspicion of the cause by abruptly changing the conversation in
lest domestic familiarity raise itself by degrees to the pitch of a quarrel it is especially to females that this advice is addressed and to the impressive words of scripture woman was not created for wrath
we may add these she was created for gentleness to entertain with a politeness particularly affectionate the friends of a person with whom you are connected by marriage to respect inviolably the letters
never to act contrary to her inclinations unless they are injurious to herself and even in this case not to oppose her but to endeavor to check them with address and kindness
to beware of confiding to strangers or to domestics the little vexations which she causes you to dread like poison marks of contempt
and in an affectionate manner if you have allowed yourself to run into any ill humor to receive her counsels with attention and benevolence and to execute them as quickly as possible
these are the obligations of propriety and love to which husbands
of gentleness bind themselves by the sanctity of the vows
there is a still more rigorous duty for a new husband and for well married persons they must abstain in public from every mark of affection too conspicuous and every exclusive attention
married persons who in society place themselves continually near
for a husband or a wife is another self and we must forget that self mothers in particular spare no caresses towards your children occupy yourselves entirely with them
if on the other hand you treat them with severity before strangers if you reprimand or punish them be assured every one will consider you
importunate as well as ridiculous domestic propriety which is at once a duty of justice
servants treated with suitable regard are attentive zealous and grateful and consequently every thing is done with propriety and affection who does not know the charm and value of this
duties of this class require that you should never command your domestics with hauteur and harshness every time that they render you a service it claims an expression a gesture or at least a look of thankfulness
it requires that you should be still more affectionate towards the domestics of your acquaintances and especially
whom you ought always to treat kindly as to your own domestics
carefully beware of addressing to them any confidential or even useless conversation for fear of rendering them insolent or familiar but propriety requires you to listen to them with kindness
and give them salutary advice when it is for their interest it commands us also to show them indulgence frequently in order to be able when there is cause
my people well bred persons simply say the nurse the cook the chamber maid
what is still better they designate
if you have ever met with those merciless housekeepers
of the commodities which they have been to market to purchase
of which they require the value and make you witness and judge of pert discussions
and have seen them hand reluctantly to
one key after another
brought by them with a good supply of ill humor if you have seen them go to the cellar themselves and when
if turning your head away with confusion and disgust you have not an hundred times said to yourself
it is hard enough to think of lives going out still as the doctor was so fond of saying man is born to die and woman too but that the great works of men his bequest to the coming generations should be wantonly destroyed
seemed even more horrible especially to those who love beauty and the idea of the charred leaves of the library flying in the air above the historic city of catholic culture made us all feel as if we were sitting down to a funeral service rather than a very good dinner
had rings round her eyes which told of sleepless nights and why we were mere spectators we had been interested to dispute and look on but she knew that somewhere out there in the northeast her man was carrying a gun
yet all about us the country was so lovely and so tranquil horses were walking the fields and even as we sat at dinner we could hear the voices and the heavy feet of the peasant women as they went home from their work
the garden had never been more beautiful than it was that evening with the silver light of the moon through the trees and the smell of the freshly watered earth and flowers we had no doubt who was to contribute the story the divorcee was dressed with unusual care for the role
and carried a big lace bag on her arm and as she leaned back in her chair she pulled one of the big old fashioned candles in its deep glass toward her and said with a nervous laugh
you know i am not accustomed to this sort of thing it is really my very first appearance and i could not possibly tell it as the rest of you more experienced people can do and she took the manuscript out of her lace bag and settling herself gracefully unrolled it
the youngster put a stool under her pretty feet and the doctor set a cushion behind her back while the journalist with a laugh poured her a glass of water and the violinist ceremoniously leaned over and asked shall i turn for you she could not help laughing
but it did not make her any the less nervous or her voice any the less shaky as she began it was after dinner on one of those rare occasions when they dined alone together they were taking coffee in missus shattuck's especial corner of the drawing room
and she had just asked her husband to smoke she was leaning back comfortably in a nest of cushions in her very latest gown with a most becoming light falling on her from the tall yellow shaded lamp
he was facing her astride his chair in a position man has loved since creation he was just thinking that his wife had never looked handsomer finer in fact in all her life quite the satisfactory all round desirable sort of a woman
a man's wife ought to be she was wondering if he would ever be any less attractive to all women than he was now at forty two or any better able to resist his own power as she put her coffee cup back on the tiny table at her elbow
he leaned forward and picked up a book which lay open on a chair near him and carelessly glanced at it schopenhauer and he wrinkled his brows and glanced half whimsically down the page i never can get used to a woman reading that stuff and in french at that
if you took it up to perfect your german there would be some sense in it missus shattuck did not reply when a moment later she did speak it was to ignore his remark utterly and ask
the kaiser wilhelm got off in good season this morning speaking of german things oh yes was the indifferent reply at ten o'clock quite promptly i suppose she was comfortable
certainly one of your beastly head aches she understood thank you
still turning the leaves of the book he held that this pleases you not exactly well amuses you instructs you if you like that better no i mean to say simply since you insist that he speaks the truth
and there are some even among women who must know the truth and abide by it well thank heaven said the man pulling at his cigar that most women are more emotional than intelligent as nature meant them to be
missus shattuck examined her daintily polished nails rubbed them carefully on the palm of her hand as women have a trick of doing
i kick against civilization which makes laws regardless of nature which deliberately shuts its eyes to all natural truths in regard to the relations of men to women and is therefore forced to continually wink to avoid confessing its folly
civilization seems to me to have done the best it could with a very difficult problem it has not actually allowed different codes of morals to men and women and it may have had to wink on that account
right there in your schopenhauer you have a primal reason that is if you chose to follow your philosopher to the extent of actually believing that nature has deliberately from the beginning protected women against that sin of which so much is made
i do believe it truly you are no more charitable toward my sex than most women are yet neither your teacher nor you may be right a theoretic arguer like schopenhauer makes good enough reading for calm minds
but he is bad for an emotional temperament and by jove naomi he was a bad example of his own philosophy my dear dick i am afraid i read schopenhauer because i thought what he writes long before i ever heard of him i read him because
did i not find a clear logical mind going the same way my mind will go i might be troubled with doubts and afraid that i was going quite wrong well the deuce and all with a woman when she begins to read stuff like that is her inability to generalize
the natural course of your life could hardly have provided you with the pessimism with which i hope you will pardon my remark my dear you have treated me several times in the past few months chamfort and schopenhauer did that but these are not subjects a man discusses easily with his wife indeed
then that is surely an error of civilization if a man can discuss such matters more easily with a woman who is not his wife it is because there is no frankness in marriage dick did it ever occur to you that a man and woman strongly attracted toward one another
how easily you say that i have heard that most women think they are not understood but i never reflected on the matter you and i have not troubled one another much with our doubts and perplexities you and i have been very happy together
i hope there was a little pause before the last two words as if he had expected her to anticipate them with something and there was a half interrogative note in his voice she made no response so he went on
i know i've not been unloving and i hope you've not suffered many discomforts on my account i think as women go i am fairly reasonable or i have been
for some reason shattuck seemed to find the cigar he was smoking most unsatisfactory either it had been broken or he had unconsciously chewed the end a thing which he detested and there was a pause while he discarded the weed and selected a fresh one
he appeared to be reflecting as he lighted it and if his mind could have been read it would have probably been discovered that he was wondering how it had happened that the conversation had taken this turn
he was conscious all the time that his wife was looking rather steadily at him and he knew that at least a conventional reply was expected of him my dear girl he said i look back on ten very satisfactory years of married life
that my wife has developed rather singular to say the least unflattering ideas of life
though they are a bit disconcerting to me as a husband i suppose the development is logical enough you were always even as a girl inclined to making footnotes i suppose their present daring is simply the result of our being just a little older than we used to be
i suppose if we did not outgrow our illusions the road to death would be too tragic for a moment she made no reply then as if for the first time owning to the idea which had long been uppermost in her mind she said suddenly
that i really believe marriage is foolish i do believe that no man ever approached it without regretting that civilization had made it necessary and that many men would escape at the very last moment if women did not so rigidly hold them to their promises
and if between two ridiculous positions marriage having been pushed nearest had not become desperately inevitable
calmly or eagerly to their fate every day nevertheless i think the pre nuptial confessions of a majority of men of our class would prove that what i say is true are you hinting that it was true in your case
perhaps shattuck gave an amused laugh do you mean to say that you kept me to the point not exactly at that time
besides a man does not own up even to himself not always when he finds himself face to face with the inevitable
but of what they feel of the fact that in too many instances nature not having meant men for bondage after they have passed the rubicon to that spot from which the code of civilized honor does not permit them to turn back they usually have a period of regret
and are forced to make a real effort to face the future to go on in fact the smile had died out of shattuck's face and he said quite seriously as far as we are concerned naomi i have very different recollections of the whole affair
have you and yet months before we were married i knew that it would not have broken your heart if the wedding had not come off at all my dear the modern heart does not break easily in this age we are schooled to meet the accidents of life with some philosophy and yet
to have lost you then would have killed me shattuck looked at her sharply with one might almost have said a new interest but she was no longer looking at him she went on hurriedly you loved me of course i was of your world
i was a woman that other men liked and therefore a desirable woman i was of good family altogether your social equal in fact quite the sort of woman it became you to marry i pleased you and i loved you
in ten years i doubt if you have ever made so frank a declaration as that in words he was wondering if after all she were going to develop into an emotional woman
things are so much harder
she went on for the protection of the community perhaps still it is not always pleasant to be a woman and yet think a woman whose reason has been mistakenly developed at the expense of her capacity to enjoy being a woman
and who is forced at the same time to encounter the laws of nature and pay at the same time the penalty of being a woman and the penalty of knowledge for just so surely as we live we must encounter love
you might take it out interrupted the husband in feeling flattered that it takes so much to conquer such as you so we might but that once conquered neither man nor nature has any further use for us and regret like art is long
that life is very unfair to women well i don't see that
i have never been able to discover them love itself is hard on a woman it seems to stir a man's faculties healthily
it does not seem to uproot a man's whole being does it serve women in that way i bear witness that it makes some of you deucedly handsome and i have heard that it makes some of you good yes as chastisement does
very unjustly and yet as this life is the only one we know we must adjust ourselves to it as we find it no no we had better have accepted the thing as nature gave it to us
we came into this world like beasts why aren't we content to live like beasts and make no pretenses women would have nothing to expect then and there'd be no such thing as broken hearts in spite of all the polish of civilization man is simply bent on conquest
woman is only one phase of the chase to him a chase in which every active virile man is occupied from his cradle to his grave you are the conquerors we are simply the conquered shattuck tried to make his voice light as he said
not always unhappy ones i fancy i suppose all men flatter themselves that way and argue that probably the sabine women preferred their fate to no fate at all
missus shattuck seemed to be thinking as he passed her he stopped picked up her cushions and re arranged them about her with an idle caress by the way a kiss gently dropped on the inside of her white wrist
she followed his every movement with a strange speculative look in her eyes almost as if he were some new and strange animal that she was studying for the first time when she spoke again it was to go on as if she had not been interrupted
it seems to me that man comes out of a great passion just as good as new while a woman is shattered in a moral sense and never fully recovers herself shattuck's back was toward her when he replied
sorry to spoil any more illusions dear child but how about the long list of men who are annually ruined by it the men in the prisons the men who kill themselves the men who hang for it those are crimes i am not talking of the criminal classes
but of the world in which normal people live our set he laughed but that is not the whole world alas i know that men well bred cultivated refined even honorable men seem to be able to repeat every emotion of life
a woman scales the heights but once hence it must depend in the case of women capable of deep love on the men whether the relation into which marriage betrays them be decent or indecent what i should like to be able to discover is what provision does either man
or civilization propose to make for the woman whom fate in wanton irony reduces even in marriage to the self considered level of the girl in the street there was amazement even a foreboding on shattuck's face as he paused in his walk
and for the first time speaking anxiously ejaculated i swear i don't follow you she went on as if she had not been interrupted as if she had something to say which had to be said as if she were reasoning it out for herself
take my case i don't claim that it is uncommon i do claim that i was not the woman for the situation i was an only child my father's marriage had not been happy i was brought up by a disappointed man on philosophy and pessimism
old sceptics and modern scoffers i remember it well before i was out of my teens i had imbibed a mistrust for all emotions perhaps you did not know that you may have thought because they were not all on the outside that i had none
my poor father had hoped with his teachings to save me from future misery he had probably thought to spare me the commonplace sorrows of love but he could not there is one thing my child that the passing generation cannot do for its heirs live for them luckily
why you might as well forbid a rose to blossom by word of mouth as try to thwart nature in a beautiful healthy woman it seems to me that to bring up a woman as i was brought up only prepares her to take the distemper the quicker
i do not remember that of you but i do know that no woman was ever wooed as hotly as you were or ever i swear it more ardently desired no woman ever led a man the chase you led me if ever in those days you were as anxious for my love as you have said you were this evening
no one would have guessed it least of all i my reason had already taught me that mine was but the common fate of all women that life was demanding of me the usual tribute to posterity that the sweetness of the emotion was nature's trick to make it endurable
but according to nature's eternal plan my heart could not listen to my head it beat so loud when you were by it could not hear perhaps but there was something of my father's philosophy left in me
even when i believed in you because i wanted to and half hoped that all my teaching was wrong i made a bargain with myself i told myself quite calmly that i knew perfectly well all the possibilities of the future
that if i went forward with you i went forward deliberately with open eyes knowing what logically i might expect to find in the future ignorance that blissful comfort of so many women was denied me still
the spell of nature was upon me and for a time i dreamed that a depth of passionate love like mine a life of loyal devotion might wrap one man round and keep him safe might in fact work a miracle
and make one polygamous man monogamous but even while that hope was in my heart reason rose up and mocked it bidding me advance into the future at my peril i did it but i made a bargain with myself
i agreed to abide the consequences and to abide them calmly and during all those days when i supposed we were so near together you showed me nothing of this that was in your heart
men and women know very rarely anything of the great struggles that go on in the hearts of one another besides i knew how easily you would reply naturally we are all on the defensive in this life it was with things deeper than words that i was dealing
the things one does not says even in the early days of our engagement i knew that i was not as essential to you as you were to me life held other interests for you even the flattery of other women still had its charm for you
young as i was i said to myself if you marry this man with your eyes open blame yourself not him if you suffer i do believe that i have been able to do that
shattuck was astride his chair again his elbows on the back his chin in his hands he no longer responded words were dangerous his lips were pressed close together and there was a long deep line between his eyes
but i seemed to lack some of the qualities that aid to reconcile other wives to life i seemed to be without mother love my children were dear to me only because they were yours the maternal passion which in so many women is the absorbing emotion of life was denied me
as the penalty of your love nothing more i must be singularly unfitted for marriage because when the hour came in which i felt that i was no longer your wife your children seemed no longer mine they merely represented the next generation born of me
i know that this is very shocking i have become used to it and it is the truth i have not blamed you i could not and be reasonable no man can be other than nature plans or permits but how i have pitied myself
i have been through the tempest alone in spite of reason in spite of philosophy i have suffered from jealousy from shame from rage from self contempt but that is all past now
she had not raised her voice which seemed as without feeling as it was without emphasis she carefully examined her handkerchief corner by corner and he noticed for the first time how thin her hands had become naturally she went on in that colorless voice
my first impulse was to be done with life but i could not bring myself to that much as i desired it it would have left you such a wretched memory of me you could never have pardoned me the scandal and i felt that i had at least the right to leave you a decent recollection of me
shattuck's head fell forward on his arms the idea of denial or protest did not occur to him the steady voice went monotonously on i could not bear to humble you in the eyes of others even by forcing you to face a scandal
i could not bear to humble you in your own eyes by letting you suspect that i knew the truth i could not bring myself to disturb the outward respectability of your life by interrupting its outward calm to be absolutely honest though i had lost you i could not bring myself to give you up
as i felt i must if i let any one discover most of all you what i knew so like a coward i lived on becoming gradually accustomed to the idea that my day was past but knowing that the moment i was forced to speak
singularly enough as i grew calm i grew to respect this other woman i could not blame her for loving you i ended by admiring her i had known her so well she was such a proud woman
i looked back at my marriage and saw the affair as it really was i had not sold myself to you exactly i had loved you too much to bargain in that way nevertheless the marriage had been a bargain in exchange for your promise to protect and provide for me to feed me clothe me
share your fortune with me and give me your name i had given you myself
gives that same permission to almost any one who asks for it naomi he groaned from his covered mouth what ghastly philosophy isn't that the marriage law how much better am i after all than the poor girl in the street
who is forced to it by misery to be sure i believe there is some farcical phrase in the bargain about promising to love none other
at which nature laughs yet this other woman proud high minded unselfish hitherto above reproach had given herself for love alone with everything to lose and nothing to gain i have come to doubt myself
i have had my day for years it was an enviable one no woman can hope for more what right have i to stand in the way of another woman's happiness a happiness no one can value better than i who so long wore it in security
i bore my children in peace with the divine consolation of your devotion about me what right have i to deny another woman the same joy shattuck sprang to his feet it's not true he gasped it's not true
she went on carefully inspecting the filmy bit of lace in her hands it is true she replied never mind how i discovered it i know it that is why she has gone abroad alone
but not enough of one to bear the thought of her alone in a foreign country with mind and emotions clouded i may be cowardly enough to wish that i had never found it out i am not coward enough to keep silent any longer
a torrent of words rushed to the man's lips but he was too wise to make excuses yet there were excuses any fair minded judge would have said so but he knew better than to think that for one moment they would be excuses in the mind of this woman
besides the first man's excuse for the first sin has never been viewed with much respect under the modern civilization he felt her slowly rise to her feet and when he raised his head to look at her not yet fully realizing what had happened to him
that he felt as if she were already a stranger to him she took a last look round the room her eyes seemed to devour every detail i shall find means to give you your freedom at once you will actually leave me
go away can we two remain together now but your children your children dick i have forgotten that i have any i have had my life you have still yours to live
she swept by him down the long room everything in which was so closely associated with her before she reached the door he was there and his back against it she stopped but she did not look at him
all that she had been in her loyalty her nobility was so much a part of this man's life what compared to that were petty sins or big ones he saw the past as a drowning man sees the panorama of his existence
yet he knew that everything he could say would be powerless to move her it was useless to remind her of their happy years together they could never be happy again with this between them it would be equally useless to tell her that this other woman had known but too well
that he would never desert his wife for her had he not betrayed her of what use to tell her how he had repented his folly that he could never understand it himself there were the facts and nature and his wife's philosophy against him
and he had dared be gay the moment the steamer slid into the channel was that only this morning it seemed to be in the last century she approached and stretched her hand toward the door he did not move
don't stop me she pleaded don't make it any harder than it is let me take with me the consolation of a decent life together a decent life decently severed
she shrank back with a shudder crying out that he should spare her her own contempt that he should leave her the power to seek peace and her voice had such a tone of terror as she recoiled from him that he felt how powerless any protest would be
he stepped aside without looking at him she quickly opened the door and passed out
no one dared men can't rough house that kind of a woman after a moment's silence the critic spoke up you were right to read that story it is not the sort of thing that lends itself to narrating
of course you might have acted it out but you were wise not to i can't help it got to say it said the journalist what a horrid woman the divorcee looked at him in amazement how can you say that
i thought i had made her so reasonable just what all women ought to be and what none of us are
i'd as lief live in a world created and run by george bernard shaw
come come interrupted the doctor who had been eyeing her profile with a curious half amused expression all through the reading don't let us get on that subject to night a story is a story you have asked and you have received
none of you seem to really like any story but your own and i must confess that among us we are putting forth a strange baggage on the contrary said the critic
i deny it said the critic mine had real literary quality and a very dramatic climax oh well if death is dramatic perhaps you are the only one up to date who has killed his heroine
no story is finished until the heroine is dead said the journalist
did she asked the critic of the divorcee who was still nervously rolling her manuscript in both hands i don't know how should i and if i did i shouldn't tell you it isn't a true story of course
and she rose from her chair and walked away into the moonlight do you mean to say ejaculated the violinist who admired her tremendously that she made that up in the imagination she carries around under that pretty fluffy hair
i'd rather that it were true that she had picked it up somewhere as we began to prepare to go in the doctor looked down the path to where the divorcee was still standing
he took her lace scarf from the back of her chair and strolled after her the sculptor shrugged his shoulders with such a droll expression that we all had to smile then we went indoors well said the doctor as he joined her
she told me about it afterwards was that the way it happened no no replied the divorcee petulantly that is not a bit the way it happened that is the way i wish it had happened
oh no i was brought up to believe in the proprietary rights in marriage and i did what i thought became a womanly woman i asserted my rights and made a common or garden row the doctor laughed as she stamped her foot at him
she said pettishly it serves me quite right now i suppose they've got all sorts of queer notions in their heads nonsense said the doctor all authors you know run the risk of getting mixed up in their romances think of charlotte bronte
i'm not an author and i am going to bed
and she sailed into the house leaving the doctor gazing quizzically after her before she was out of hearing he called to her i say you haven't changed a bit since ninety two
they bicker about the ford in the grey of the morning was otter afoot with the watchers and presently he got on his horse and peered over the plain but the mist yet hung low on it
so that he might see nought for a while but at last he seemed to note something coming toward the host from the upper water above the ford so he rode forward to meet it and lo
it was a lad of fifteen winters naked save his breeches and wet from the river and otter drew rein and the lad said to him art thou the war duke
yea said otter said the lad i am ali the son of grey
as if it were painted with cinnabar said otter art thou going back to wolfstead son yea at once my father said ali then tell her said otter
and when he cometh we shall both together fall upon the romans either in crossing the ford or in the wolfing meadow but tell her also that i am not strong enough to hinder the romans from crossing
father said ali the hall sun saith thou art wise in war now tell us shall we hold the hall against the romans that ye may find us there
for we have discomfited their vanguard already and we have folk who can fight
belike it were better to leave the hall and let the wood cover us
get thee back my son and bid the hall sun trust not to warding of the hall for the romans are a mighty host and this day even when thiodolf cometh hither
shall be hard for the goth folk let her hasten lest these thieves come upon her hastily let her take the hall sun her namesake and the old men and children and the women
and let those fighting folk she hath be a guard to all this in the wood and hearken moreover it will maybe
tell her i will cast the dice for life or death
that they may have other things to think of than burning old men and women and children in their dwellings thus may she reach the wood unhindered hast thou all this in thine head
then go thy ways but the lad lingered and he reddened and looked on the ground and then he said my father
and i came near to them and noted what they were doing
now then do what thou wilt therewith he turned about and went his way at once running like a colt which has never felt halter or bit
but otter rode back hastily and roused certain men in whom he trusted and bid them rouse the captains and all the host and bid men get to horse speedily
and with as little noise as might be so did they and there was little delay for men were sleeping with one eye open as folk say and many were already astir
so in a little while they were all in the saddle and the mist yet stretched low over the meadow for the morning was cool and without wind
then otter bade the word be carried down the ranks that they should ride as quietly as may be and fare through the mist to do the romans some hurt
and all men to heed well the signal of turning and drawing aback and therewith they rode off down the meadow led by men who could have led them through the dark night
but for the romans they were indeed getting ready to cross the ford when the mist should have risen and on the bank it was thinning already and melting away
and the sunrise which was just at hand and the bank moreover was stonier and higher than the meadow's face which fell away from it as a shallow dish from its rim thereon yet lay the mist
like a white wall so the romans and their friends the dastards of the goths had well nigh got all ready and had driven stakes into the water from bank to bank to mark out the safe ford
and most of their goths were by now in the water or up on the wolfing meadow
and the rest of the host was drawn up in good order band by band
of a sudden one of the dastards of the goths who was close to the captain cried out that he heard horse coming but because he spake in the gothic tongue few heeded but even therewith
an old leader of a hundred cried out the same tidings in the roman tongue and all men fell to handling their weapons but before they could face duly toward the meadow
and therewithal burst forth the sound of the markmen's war horn like the roaring of a hundred bulls mingled with the thunder of horses at the gallop
and then dark over the wall of mist showed the crests of the riders of the mark though scarce were their horses seen till their whole war rank came dark and glittering
into the space of the rising ground where the mist was but a haze now and now at last smitten athwart by the low sun just arisen therewith came another storm of shafts
wherein javelins and spears cast by the hand were mingled with the arrows but the roman ranks had faced the meadow and the storm which it yielded swiftly and steadily
because of their haste so that few were slain by them and the roman captain still loth to fight with the goths in earnest for no reward
and still more and more believing that this was the only band of them that he had to look to bade those who were nighest the ford not to tarry for the onset of a few wild riders
but to go their ways into the water else by a sudden onrush might the romans have entangled otter's band in their ranks and so destroyed all as it was
the horsemen fell not on the roman ranks full in face but passing like a storm athwart the ranks to the right fell on there where they were in thinnest array for they were gathered to the ford as aforesaid
and slew some and drave some into the deeps and troubled the whole roman host so now the roman captain was forced to take new order and gather all his men together and array his men for a hard fight
and the sun was bright and hot his men serried their ranks and the front rank cast their spears
and slew both men and horses of the goths as those rode along their front casting their javelins and shooting here and there from behind their horses if occasion served or making a shift to send an arrow even as they sat a horseback
and all the mass of them flowed forward together looking as if it might never be broken but otter would not abide the shock since he had lost men and horses
and had no mind to be caught in the sweep of their net so he made the sign and his company drew off to right and left yet keeping within bowshot so that the bowmen still loosed at the romans
but they for their part might not follow afoot men on untired horses and their own horse was on the west side with the baggage
as the roman captain knew so they stood awhile making grim countenance and then slowly drew back
who shot at the goths as they rode forward but abode not their shock but otter and his folk followed after the romans again and again did them some hurt
and at last drew so nigh that once more the romans stormed forth and once more smote a stroke in the air nor even so would the markmen cease to meddle with them
though never would otter suffer his men to be mingled with them at the last the romans seeing that otter would not walk into the open trap and growing weary of this bickering began to take the water little by little
while a strong company kept face to the markmen and now otter saw that they would not be hindered any longer and he had lost many men and even now feared lest he should be caught in the trap
and on the other hand it was high noon by now
so that they might get them into the wood so he drew out of bowshot and bade his men breathe their horses and rest themselves and eat something and they did so gladly
since they saw that they might not fall upon the romans to live and die for it until thiodolf was come or until they knew that he was not coming
but the romans crossed the ford in good earnest and were soon all gathered together on the western bank making them ready for the march to wolfstead and it must be told that the roman captain
was the more deliberate about this
there the morning before he thought that the roof was held by warriors of the kindreds and not by a few old men and women and lads therefore he had no fear of their escaping him
otter falls on against his will
working in him belike that the roman captain set none to guard the ford on the westward side of mirkwood water the romans tarried there but a little hour
and then went their ways but otter sent a man on a swift horse to watch them and when they were clean gone for half an hour he bade his folk to horse and they departed
all save a handful of the swains and elders
when he should come into mid mark so otter and his folk crossed the ford and drew up in good order on the westward bank and it was then somewhat more than three hours after noon
who had gotten out of the wood and had fallen in with the men whom he had left behind
and the wormings for they had out gone the others who were afoot it may well be thought how fearful was their anger when they set eyes on the smouldering ashes of the dwellings
nor even when those folk of otter had told them all they had to tell could some of them refrain them from riding off to the burnt houses to seek for the bodies of their kindred but when they came there
and amidst the ashes could find no bones their hearts were lightened and yet so mad wroth they were that some could scarce sit their horses and great tears gushed from the eyes of some
and pattered down like hail stones
so they rode back to where they had left their folk talking with them of otter and the bearings were sitting grim upon their horses and somewhat scowling on otter's men
then the foremost of those who had come back from the houses waved his hand toward the ford but could say nought for a while
spake to that man and said what aileth thee sweinbiorn the black what hast thou seen he said now red and grey is the pavement of the bearings house of old
but the hearth all grey and cold i knew not the house of my fathers i could not call to mind the fashion of the building of that warder of the wind o wide were grown the windows
and the roof exceeding high for nought there was to look on twixt the pavement and the sky
and methought its staining fair
and the red flame flickered o'er it and never a staining wight hath red earth in his coffer so clear and glittering bright and still the little smoke wreaths curled o'er it pale and blue
yea fair is our hall's adorning for a feast that is strange and new
what sawest thou therein o sweinbiorn
where were the bones of thy mother lying said sweinbiorn we sought the feast hall over and nought we found therein of the bones of the ancient mothers or the younglings of the kin
and will try if the hoary elders may yet outlive the way that leads to the southland cities till at last they come to stand with the younglings in the market to be sold in an alien land
and we deem it certain that they crossed the water before the coming of the romans and that they are now with the stay at homes of the wolfings in the wild wood behind the wolfing dwellings for we hear tell that the war duke
then sweinbiorn tossed up his sword into the air and caught it by the hilts as it fell and cried out on on to the meadow where these thieves abide us
but turned his horse and rode down to the ford and all men followed him and of the bearings there were an hundred warriors save one and of the wormings eighty and seven
so rode they over the meadow and into the ford and over it and otter's company stood on the bank to meet them and shouted to see them but the others made but little noise as they crossed the water
so when they were on the western bank
where then is otter where is the war duke is he alive or dead and the throng opened to him and otter stood facing him
thou art alive and unhurt war duke when many have been hurt and slain and methinks thy company is little minished though the kindred of the bearings lacketh a roof
that ye stand here with clean blades and cold bodies said otter thou grievest for the hurt of thine house arinbiorn but this at least is good
the shell is gone but the kernel is saved for thy folk are by this time in the wood with the wolfing stay at homes
the romans may not come at them to hurt them
had ye time to learn all this otter when ye fled so fast before the romans that the father tarried not for the son nor the son for the father he spoke in a loud voice so that many heard him
and some deemed it evil for anger and dissension between friends seemed abroad but some were so eager for battle
and they laughed for pride and anger then otter answered meekly for he was a wise man and a bold we fled not
but as the sword fleeth when it springeth up from the iron helm to fall on the woollen coat are we not now of more avail to you o men of the bearings than our dead corpses would have been
as if he were struggling with a weight hard to lift then said otter
arinbiorn answered calmly maybe in a little hour from now or somewhat more said otter my rede is that we abide him here
and when we are all met and well ordered together fall on the romans at once for then shall we be more than they whereas now we are far fewer and moreover we shall have to set on them in their ground of vantage
but an old man of the bearings
came up and spake warriors
though this is no hallowed thing to bid us what we shall do and what we shall forbear and to talk thus is less like warriors than old women wrangling over the why and wherefore of a broken crock
let the war duke rule here as is but meet and right yet if i might speak and not break the peace of the goths then would i say this
that it might be better for us to fall on these romans at once before they have cast up a dike about them as fox telleth is their wont and that even in an hour they may do much
but otter spake sharply for he was grieved thorbiorn thou art old and shouldest not be void of prudence
then thorbiorn reddened and was wroth
let the war duke rule as is but right
and if much diking shall be done in an hour yet little slaying forsooth shall be done and that especially if the foe is all armed and slayeth women and children yea if the bearing women be all slain
yet shall not tyr make us new ones out of the stones of the waste to wed with the galtings and the fish eating houses this is easy to be done forsooth yea easier than fighting the romans and overcoming them
and he was very wrath and turned away and again there was a murmur and a hum about him but while these had been speaking aloud
sweinbiorn had been talking softly to some of the younger men and now he shook his naked sword in the air and spake aloud and sang ye tarry bears of battle
ye linger sons of the worm ye crouch adown o kindreds from the gathering of the storm ye say it shall soon pass over and we shall fare afield and reap the wheat with the war sword
when twixt the snowy mountains and the edges of the sea these men have swept the wild wood and the fields where men may be of every living sword blade and every quivering spear
and in the southland cities the yoke of slaves ye bear lo ye whoever follows i fare to sow the seed of the days to be hereafter and the deed that comes of deed therewith
he waved his sword over his head and made as if he would spur onward
come ye sons of the bear ye children of the worm
then on he rode nor looked behind him and the riders of the bearings and the wormings drew themselves out of the throng and followed him and rode clattering over the meadow towards wolfstead
a few of the others rode with them and yet but a few for they remembered the holy folk mote and the oath of the war duke and how they had chosen otter to be their leader
man looked askance at man as if in shame to be left behind but otter bethought him in the flash of a moment if these men ride alone they shall die and do nothing
and if we ride with them it may be that we shall overthrow the romans and if we be vanquished it shall go hard but we shall slay many of them
and bade certain men abide at the ford for a guard then he drew his sword and rode to the front of his folk and cried out aloud to them now at last has come the time to die
and let them of the markmen who live hereafter lay us in howe set on sons of tyr and give not your lives away but let them be dearly earned of our foemen
nor were they otherwise than exceeding glad
save the joy of fighting for the kindred and the days to be so otter led them forth and when he heard the whole company clattering and thundering on the earth behind him and felt their might enter into him
his brow cleared and the anxious lines in the face of the old man smoothed themselves out and as he rode along the soul so stirred within him that he sang out aloud
time was when hot was the summer and i was young on the earth and i grudged me every moment that lacked its share of mirth
for me and my heart's deliverance that hour was newly wrought i have passed through the halls of manhood i have reached the doors of eld and i have been glad and sorry but ever have upheld
my heart against all trouble that none might call me sad but ne'er came such remembrance of how my heart was glad in the afternoon of summer neath the still unwearied sun of the days when i was little
as now at last it cometh when e e n in such like tide for the freeing of my trouble o'er the fathers field i ride many men perceived that he sang
and saw that he was merry howbeit few heard his very words and yet all were glad of him fast they rode being wishful to catch up with the bearings and the wormings and soon they came anigh them
with joyous shouting and laughter so then they ordered the ranks anew and so set forward in great joy without haste or turmoil
after many years the briar appeared
she foretold to her stepson kilhuch that it was his destiny to marry a maiden named olwen or none other and he at his father's bidding went to the court of his cousin king arthur
to ask as a boon the hand of the maiden he rode upon a grey steed with shell formed hoofs
in his hand were two spears of silver well tempered headed with steel of an edge to wound the wind and cause blood to flow
when the dew of june is at its heaviest a gold hilted sword was on his thigh and the blade was of gold having inlaid upon it a cross of the hue of the lightning of heaven two brindled white breasted greyhounds
with strong collars of rubies sported round him and his courser cast up four sods with its four hoofs like four swallows about his head upon the steed was a four cornered cloth of purple
and an apple of gold was at each corner precious gold was upon the stirrups and shoes and the blade of grass bent not beneath them so light was the courser's tread as he went towards the gate of king arthur's palace
arthur received him with great ceremony and asked him to remain at the palace but the youth replied that he came not to consume meat and drink but to ask a boon of the king then said arthur
since thou wilt not remain here chieftain thou shalt receive the boon whatsoever thy tongue may name as far as the wind dries and the rain moistens and the sun revolves and the sea encircles and the earth extends
save only my ships and my mantle my sword my lance my shield my dagger
so kilhuch craved of him the hand of olwen
then said arthur o chieftain i have never heard of the maiden of whom thou speakest nor of her kindred but i will gladly send messengers in search of her and the youth said
i will willingly grant from this night to that at the end of the year to do so then arthur sent messengers to every land within his dominions to seek for the maiden
and at the end of the year arthur's messengers returned without having gained any knowledge or information concerning olwen more than on the first day then said kilhuch every one has received his boon and i yet lack mine
i will depart and bear away thy honour with me then said kay rash chieftain dost thou reproach arthur go with us and we will not part until thou dost either confess that the maiden exists not in the world
or until we obtain her thereupon kay rose up kay had this peculiarity that his breath lasted nine nights and nine days under water and he could exist nine nights and nine days without sleep
a wound from kay's sword no physician could heal very subtle was kay when it pleased him he could render himself as tall as the highest tree in the forest and he had another peculiarity
so great was the heat of his nature that when it rained hardest whatever he carried remained dry for a handbreadth above and a handbreadth below his hand and when his companions were coldest
it was to them as fuel with which to light their fire and arthur called bedwyr who never shrank from any enterprise upon which kay was bound none was equal to him in swiftness throughout this island except arthur
ail kibthar and although he was one handed three warriors could not shed blood faster than he on the field of battle
his lance would produce a wound equal to nine opposing lances and arthur called to kynthelig the guide go thou upon this expedition with the chieftain
for as good a guide was he in a land which he had never seen as he was in his own
he was the best of footmen and the best of knights he was nephew to arthur the son of his sister and his cousin and arthur called menw the son of tiergwaeth in order that if they went into a savage country
he might cast a charm and an illusion over them so that none might see them whilst they could see every one they journeyed on till they came to a vast open plain wherein they saw a great castle
which was the fairest in the world but so far away was it that at night it seemed no nearer and they scarcely reached it on the third day when they came before the castle they beheld a vast flock of sheep boundless and without end
they told their errand to the herdsman who endeavoured to dissuade them since none who had come thither on that quest had returned alive they gave to him a gold ring which he conveyed to his wife telling her who the visitors were
on the approach of the latter she ran out with joy to greet them and sought to throw her arms about their necks but kay snatching a billet out of the pile placed the log between her two hands
and she squeezed it so that it became a twisted coil o woman said kay if thou hadst squeezed me thus none could ever again have set their affections on me evil love were this they entered the house
and after meat she told them that the maiden olwen came there every saturday to wash they pledged their faith that they would not harm her and a message was sent to her so olwen came clothed in a robe of flame coloured silk
and with a collar of ruddy gold in which were emeralds and rubies about her neck more golden was her hair than the flower of the broom and her skin was whiter than the foam of the wave
amidst the spray of the meadow fountain brighter were her glances than those of a falcon her bosom was more snowy than the breast of the white swan her cheek redder than the reddest roses
whoso beheld was filled with her love four white trefoils sprang up wherever she trod and therefore was she called olwen then kilhuch sitting beside her on a bench told her his love
and she said that he would win her as his bride if he granted whatever her father asked accordingly they went up to the castle and laid their request before him raise up the forks beneath my two eyebrows which have fallen over my eyes
that i may see the fashion of my son in law they did so and he promised them an answer on the morrow
that lay beside him and threw it back after them and bedwyr caught it and flung it back
truly i shall ever walk the worse for his rudeness this poisoned iron pains me like the bite of a gad fly cursed be the smith who forged it
the herdsman but the next day at dawn they returned to the castle and renewed their request
and her four great grand sires the knights again withdrew and as they were going he took the second dart and cast it after them but menw caught it and flung it back
a cursed ungentle son in law truly says he the hard iron pains me like the bite of a horse leech cursed be the hearth whereon it was heated henceforth whenever i go up a hill
i shall have a scant in my breath and a pain in my chest
but kilhuch caught it and threw it vigorously and wounded him through the eyeball so that the dart came out at the back of his head a cursed ungentle son in law truly as long as i remain alive my eyesight will be the worse
whenever i go against the wind my eyes will water and peradventure my head will burn and i shall have a giddiness every new moon
is it thou that seekest my daughter it is i answered kilhuch i must have thy pledge that thou wilt not do towards me otherwise than is just and when i have gotten that which i shall name my daughter thou shalt have
name what thou wilt i will do so said he throughout the world there is not a comb or scissors with which i can arrange my hair on account of its rankness except the comb and scissors that are between the two ears
said arthur not to injure thee came i hither but to seek for the prisoner that is with thee i will give thee my prisoner though i had not thought to give him up to any one and therewith shalt thou have my support and my aid
his followers then said unto arthur lord go thou home thou canst not proceed with thy host in quest of such small adventures as these then said arthur
for thou knowest all languages
likewise with my men in search of thy cousin
that ye will achieve it achieve ye this adventure for me these went forward until they came
tell me if thou knowest aught of mabon the son of modron who was taken when three nights old from between his mother and the wall and the ousel answered when i first came here there was a smith's anvil in this place and i was then a young bird
and from that time no work has been done upon it save the pecking of my beak every evening and now there is not so much as the size of a nut remaining thereof yet the vengeance of heaven be upon me if during all that time
nevertheless there is a race of animals who were formed before me and i will be your guide to them so they proceeded to the place where was the stag of redynvre
behold we are come to thee an embassy from arthur for we have not heard of any animal older than thou say knowest thou aught of mabon the stag said
without any trees save one oak sapling which grew up to be an oak with an hundred branches and that oak has since perished so that now nothing remains of it but the withered stump and from that day to this i have been here
yet have i never heard of the man for whom you inquire nevertheless i will be your guide to the place where there is an animal which was formed before i was so they proceeded to the place where was the
and the owl said if i knew i would tell you when first i came hither the wide valley you see was a wooded glen and a race of men came and rooted it up and there grew there a second wood
and this wood is the third my wings are they not withered stumps yet all this time even until to day
nevertheless i will be the guide of arthur's embassy until you come to the place where is the oldest animal in this world and the one who has travelled most the eagle of gwern abwy when they came to the eagle
i have been here for a great space of time and when i first came hither there was a rock here from the top of which i pecked at the stars every evening and now it is not so much as a span high from that day to this i have been here
and i have never heard of the man for whom you inquire except once when i went in search of food as far as llyn llyw and when i came there i stuck my talons into a salmon thinking he would serve me as food for a long time
but he drew me into the deep
but he sent messengers and made peace with me and came and besought me to take fifty fish spears out of his back
however i will guide you to the place where he is so they went thither
i have come to thee with an embassy from arthur to ask thee if thou knowest aught concerning mabon the son of modron who was taken away at three nights old from between his mother and the wall and the salmon answered
as much as i know i will tell thee with every tide i go along the river upwards until i come near to the walls of gloucester
and in the three islands adjacent
in ireland where the boar truith was with his seven young pigs and the dogs were let loose upon him from all sides but he wasted the fifth part of ireland and then set forth through the sea to wales
arthur and his hosts and his horses and his dogs followed hard after him but ever and awhile the boar made a stand and many a champion of arthur's did he slay throughout all wales did arthur follow him
and one by one the young pigs were killed at length when he would fain have crossed the severn and escaped into cornwall mabon the son of modron came up with him and arthur fell upon him together with the champions of britain
on the one side mabon the son of modron spurred his steed and snatched his razor from him whilst kay came up with him on the other side and took from him the scissors
but before they could obtain the comb he had regained the ground with his feet and from the moment that he reached the shore neither dog nor man nor horse could overtake him until he came to cornwall
there arthur and his host followed in his track until they overtook him in cornwall hard had been their trouble before but it was child's play to what they met in seeking the comb win it they did
and the boar truith they hunted into the deep sea and it was never known whither he went
and they took the marvels with them to his court and kaw of north britain came and shaved his beard skin and flesh clean off to the very bone from ear to ear art thou shaved man said kilhuch
i am shaved answered he is thy daughter mine now
and to the profound astonishment of our hero presented toward him in the light of the lantern the dawn shining pretty strong through the skylight the face of that very man who had conducted the mysterious expedition that night across kingston harbor
to the rio cobra river this man looked steadily at barnaby true for a moment or two and then burst out laughing and indeed barnaby standing there with the bandage about his head
must have looked a very droll picture of that astonishment he felt so profoundly at finding who was this pirate into whose hands he had fallen well says the other and so you be up at last and no great harm done i'll be bound
seated himself at the table over against the speaker who pushed a bottle of rum toward him together with a glass from the swinging shelf above he watched barnaby fill his glass and so soon as he had done so
i am sorry for the way you were handled but there is this much to say and of that you may believe me that nothing was meant to you but kindness and before you are through with us all you will believe that well enough
here he helped himself to a taste of grog and sucking in his lips went on again with what he had to say do you remember
and how we were all of us balked that night why yes said barnaby true nor am i likely to forget it and do you remember what i said to that villain jack malyoe that night as his boat went by us
as to that said barnaby true i do not know that i can say yes or no but if you will tell me i will maybe answer you in kind why i mean this said the other i said
that the villain had got the better of us once again but that next time it would be our turn even if william brand himself had to come back from hell to put the business through i remember something of the sort said barnaby
now that you speak of it but still i am all in the dark as to what you are driving at the other looked at him very cunningly for a little while his head on one side and his eyes half shut
and i'll show you something and therewith moving to one side disclosed a couple of traveling cases or small trunks with brass studs
that barnaby putting this and that together knew that they must be the same our hero had a strong enough suspicion as to what those two cases contained and his suspicions had become a certainty when he saw sir john malyoe struck all white
when that man lifted the lids of the two cases the locks thereof having already been forced and flinging back first one lid and then the other displayed to barnaby's astonished sight a great treasure of gold and silver
brimming the cases to the very top barnaby sat dumb struck at what he beheld as to whether he breathed or no i cannot tell but this i know that he sat
staring at that marvelous treasure like a man in a trance until after a few seconds of this golden display the other banged down the lids again and burst out laughing whereupon he came back to himself with a jump
well and what do you think of that said the other is it not enough for a man to turn pirate for but he continued
but to tell you that you are not the only passenger aboard but that there is another whom i am to confide to your care and attention
so if you are ready master barnaby i'll fetch her in directly he waited for a moment as though for barnaby to speak but our hero not replying he arose and putting away the bottle of rum and the glasses
crossed the saloon to a door like that from which barnaby had come a little while before this he opened and after a moment's delay and a few words spoken to some one within ushered thence a young lady
who came out very slowly into the saloon where barnaby still sat at the table it was miss marjorie malyoe very white and looking as though stunned or bewildered by all that had befallen her
barnaby true could never tell whether the amazing strange voyage that followed
whether it occupied three days or ten days for conceive if you choose two people of flesh and blood moving and living continually in all the circumstances and surroundings as of a nightmare dream
yet they two so happy together that all the universe beside was of no moment to them how was anyone to tell whether in such circumstances any time appeared to be long or short
the vessel in which they sailed was a brigantine of good size and build but manned by a considerable crew the most strange and outlandish in their appearance that barnaby had ever beheld some white
some yellow some black and all tricked out with gay colors and gold earrings in their ears and some with great long mustachios and others with handkerchiefs tied around their heads
but which might have been portuguese from one or two phrases he caught nor did this strange mysterious crew of god knows what sort of men seem to pay any attention whatever to barnaby or to the young lady
they might now and then have looked at him and her out of the corners of their yellow eyes but that was all otherwise they were indeed like the creatures of a nightmare dream only he
who was the captain of this outlandish crew would maybe speak to barnaby a few words as to the weather or what not when he would come down into the saloon to mix a glass of grog or to light a pipe of tobacco
nearly a week later joyce sat at her desk hurrying to finish a letter before the postman's arrival dear jack it began you and mary will each get a letter this week
hers is the fairy tale that cousin kate told me about an old gate near here i wrote it down as well as i could remember i wish you could see that gate it gets more interesting every day and i'd give most anything to see what lies on the other side
maybe i shall soon for marie has a way of finding out anything she wants to know marie is my new maid cousin kate went to paris last week to be gone until nearly christmas so she got marie to take care of me
i believe marie would be shocked to death if she knew that i had ever washed dishes or pulled weeds out of the pavement or romped with you in the barn yesterday when we were out walking i got so tired of acting as if i were a hundred years old
that i felt as if i should scream marie i said i've a mind to throw my muff in the fence corner and run and hang on behind that wagon that's going down hill
she just smiled very politely and said oh mademoiselle impossible how you americans do love to jest but it was no joke you can't imagine how stupid it is to be with nobody but grown people all the time
i'm fairly aching for a good old game of hi spy or prisoner's base with you there is nothing at all to do but to take poky walks yesterday afternoon we walked down to the river there's a double row of trees along it on this side
and several benches where people can wait for the tram cars that pass down this street and then across the bridge into tours marie found an old friend of hers sitting on one of the benches such a big fat woman and oh such a gossip
everybody in saint symphorien then i gossiped too
kept up the place for a long time just as his father had done but he never married all of a sudden he shut up the house sent away all the servants but the two who take care of it and went off to algiers to live
five years ago he came back to bring his little grand nephew but nobody has seen him since that time clotilde says that an orphan asylum would have been a far better home for jules
for brossard the caretaker is so mean to him doesn't that make you think of prince ethelried in the fairy tale little and lorn no fireside welcomed him and no lips gave him a friendly greeting
marie says that she has often seen jules down in the field back of his uncle's house tending the goats i hope that i may see him sometime oh dear the postman has come sooner than i expected
and if i do not post this letter now it will miss the evening train and be too late for the next mail steamer tell mamma that i will answer all her questions about my lessons and clothes next week oceans of love to everybody in the dear little brown house
hastily scrawling her name joyce ran out into the hall with her letter anything for me she asked anxiously leaning over the banister to drop the letter into marie's hand one mademoiselle was the answer
but it has not a foreign stamp oh from cousin kate exclaimed joyce tearing it open as she went back to her room at the door she stooped to pick up a piece of paper that had dropped from the envelope
it crackled stiffly as she unfolded it money she exclaimed in surprise a whole twenty franc note what could cousin kate have sent it for the last page of the letter explained
i have just remembered that december is not very far off and that whatever little christmas gifts we send home should soon be started on their way enclosed you will find twenty francs for your christmas shopping it is not much
so that there will be some purpose in your walks into tours i am sorry that i can not be with you on thanksgiving day we will have to drop it from our calendar this year not the thanksgiving itself but the turkey and mince pie part
joyce smoothed out the bank note and looked at it with sparkling eyes twenty whole francs the same as four dollars all the money that she had ever had in her whole life put together would not have amounted to that much
all the time that joyce was pinning her treasure securely in her pocket and putting on her hat and jacket all the time that she was walking demurely down the road with marie she was planning different ways in which to spend her fortune
then mademoiselle might not object to stopping in the garden of the villa which we are now approaching she said my friend clotilde robard is housekeeper there and i have a very important message to deliver to her
joyce had no objection but marie she said as she paused at the gate i think i'll not go in it is so lovely and warm out here in the sun that i'll just sit here on the steps and wait for you
it was dull sitting there facing the lonely highway down which no one ever seemed to pass joyce stood up looked all around and then slowly sauntered down the road a short distance
here and there in the crevices of the wall blossomed a few hardy wild flowers which joyce began to gather as she walked i'll go around this bend in the road and see what's there she said to herself
no one was in sight in any direction and feeling that no one could be in hearing distance either in such a deserted place she began to sing it was an old mother goose rhyme that she hummed over and over
on two others a tall hedge but the side next her sloped down to the road unfenced joyce with her hands filled with the yellow wild flowers stood looking around her singing the old rhyme
the song that she had taught the baby to sing before he could talk plainly little boy blue come blow your horn the sheep's in the meadow the cow's in the corn little blue blue oh where are you
oh where are you u u u the gay little voice that had been rising higher and higher sweet as any bird's stopped suddenly in mid air for as if in answer to her call there was a rustling just ahead of her
and a boy who had been lying on his back looking at the sky slowly raised himself out of the grass for an instant joyce was startled then
as if he were groping his way through some strange dream it is time to go in he exclaimed as if repeating some lesson learned long ago
thinking that she had made a mistake that she had not heard aright joyce spoke in french he answered her timidly she had not been mistaken he was jules he had been asleep he told her and when he heard her singing
he thought it was his mother calling him as she used to do and had started up expecting to see her at last where was she did mademoiselle know her surely she must if she knew the song
it was on the tip of joyce's tongue to tell him that everybody knew that song that it was as familiar to the children at home as the chirping of crickets on the hearth or the sight of dandelions in the spring time but some
instinct warned her not to say it she was glad afterwards
woven in as it was with his one beautiful memory of a home it was all he had and the few words that joyce's singing had startled from him were all that he remembered of his mother's speech
if joyce had happened upon him in any other way it is doubtful if their acquaintance would have grown very rapidly he was afraid of strangers but coming as she did with the familiar song that was like an old friend
he felt that he must have known her sometime that other time when there was always a sweet voice calling and fireflies twinkled across a dusky lawn
joyce was not in a hurry for marie to come now she had a hundred questions to ask and made the most of her time by talking very fast marie will be frightened she told jules
if she does not find me at the gate and will think that the gypsies have stolen me then she will begin to hunt up and down the road
so i must hurry back i am glad that i found you i have been wishing so long for somebody to play with and you seem like an old friend because you were born in america i'm going to ask madame to ask brossard to let you come over sometime
jules watched her as she hurried away running lightly down the road her fair hair flying over her shoulders and her short blue skirt fluttering once she looked back to wave her hand long after she was out of sight
he still stood looking after her as one might gaze longingly after some visitant from another world
and glad enough he was of the opportunity as anyone may guess for when you consider a brisk lively young man of one and twenty and a sweet beautiful miss of seventeen so thrown together day after day for two weeks
the weather being very fair as i have said and the ship tossing and bowling along before a fine humming breeze that sent white caps all over the sea and with nothing to do but sit
and look at that blue sea and the bright sky overhead it is not hard to suppose what was to befall and what pleasure it was to barnaby true to show attention to her but oh
those days when a man is young and whether wisely or no fallen in love how often during that voyage did our hero lie awake in his berth at night tossing this way and that without sleep
not that he wanted to sleep if he could but would rather lie so awake thinking about her and staring into the darkness poor fool he might have known that the end must come to such a fool's paradise before very long
for who was he to look up to sir john malyoe's granddaughter he the supercargo of a merchant ship and she the granddaughter of a baronet nevertheless
things went along very smooth and pleasant until one evening when all came of a sudden to an end at that time he and the young lady had been standing for a long while together
leaning over the rail and looking out across the water through the dusk toward the westward where the sky was still of a lingering brightness she had been mightily quiet and dull all that evening but now of a sudden
captain malyoe who was stationed in garrison at that place then she went on to say that captain malyoe was the next heir to the devonshire estate
but poor barnaby what a fool was he to be sure methinks when she first began to speak about captain malyoe he knew what was coming but now that she had told him he could say nothing but stood there
staring across the ocean his breath coming hot and dry as ashes in his throat she poor thing went on to say in a very low voice that she had liked him from the very first moment she had seen him
and had been very happy for these days and would always think of him as a dear friend who had been very kind to her who had so little pleasure in life and so would always remember him then
they were both silent until at last barnaby made shift to say though in a hoarse and croaking voice that captain malyoe must be a very happy man and that if he were in captain malyoe's place
he would be the happiest man in the world thus having spoken and so found his tongue he went on to tell her with his head all in a whirl that he too loved her
and that what she had told him struck him to the heart and made him the most miserable unhappy wretch in the whole world she was not angry at what he said nor did she turn to look at him
for that he was indeed a terrible man to this poor barnaby could only repeat that he loved her with all his heart that he had hoped for nothing in his love
but that he was now the most miserable man in the world it was at this moment so tragic for him that some one who had been hiding nigh them all the while suddenly moved away
and barnaby true could see in the gathering darkness that it was that villain manservant of sir john malyoe's and knew that he must have overheard all that had been said the man went straight to the great cabin
and poor barnaby his brain all atingle stood looking after him feeling that now indeed the last drop of bitterness had been added to his trouble to have such a wretch overhear what he had said
the young lady could not have seen the fellow for she continued leaning over the rail and barnaby true standing at her side not moving but in such a tumult of many passions that he was like one bewildered
and his heart beating as though to smother him so they stood for i know not how long when of a sudden sir john malyoe comes running out of the cabin without his hat
but carrying his gold headed cane and so straight across the deck to where barnaby and the young lady stood that spying wretch close at his heels grinning like an imp you hussy
shrinking back almost upon the deck crouched as though to escape such a blow you hussy he bawled out with vile oaths too horrible here to be set down
what with the whirling of barnaby's brains and the passion into which he was already melted what with his despair and his love and his anger at this address
he would wrench the stick out of his hand and throw it overboard sir john went staggering back with the push barnaby gave him and then caught himself up again then with a great bellow
ran roaring at our hero whirling his cane about and i do believe would have struck him and god knows then what might have happened had not his manservant caught him and held him back keep back
keep back if you strike me with that stick i'll fling you overboard by this time what with the sound of loud voices and the stamping of feet some of the crew and others aboard were hurrying up and the next moment
and who are you anyhow he cried out to threaten to strike me and to insult me who am as good as you you dare not strike me
but stood stock still his great bulging eyes staring as though they would pop out of his head what's all this cries captain manly bustling up to them with mister freesden what does all this mean
but as i have said our hero was too far gone now to contain himself until all that he had to say was out the damned villain insulted me and insulted the young lady he cried out
panting in the extremity of his passion and then he threatened to strike me with his cane but i know who he is and what he is i know what he's got in his cabin in those two trunks and where he found it
and whom it belongs to he found it on the shores of the rio cobra river and i have only to open my mouth and tell what i know about it at this captain manly clapped his hand upon our hero's shoulder
so that he could scarcely stand calling out to him the while to be silent what do you mean he cried an officer of this ship
at this master barnaby came somewhat back to himself and into his wits again with a jump
had he seen when she had gone nor whither she went as for sir john malyoe he stood in the light of a lantern his face gone as white as ashes and i do believe if a look could kill
the dreadful malevolent stare he fixed upon barnaby true would have slain him where he stood after captain manly had so shaken some wits into poor barnaby he unhappy wretch
and there shutting the door upon himself and flinging himself down all dressed as he was upon his berth yielded himself over to the profoundest passion of humiliation and despair
there he lay for i know not how long staring into the darkness until by and by in spite of his suffering and his despair he dozed off into a loose sleep
that was more like waking than sleep being possessed continually by the most vivid and distasteful dreams from which he would awaken only to doze off and to dream again
it was from the midst of one of these extravagant dreams that he was suddenly aroused by the noise of a pistol shot and then the noise of another and another and then a great bump and a grinding jar
running across the deck and down into the great cabin then came a tremendous uproar of voices in the great cabin
striking violently against the partitions and bulkheads at the same instant arose a screaming of women's voices and one voice
crying out as in the greatest extremity you villains you damned villains and with the sudden detonation of a pistol fired into the close space of the great cabin
barnaby was out in the middle of his cabin in a moment and taking only time enough to snatch down one of the pistols that hung at the head of his berth flung out into the great cabin
to find it as black as night the lantern slung there having been either blown out or dashed out into darkness the prodigiously dark space was full of uproar the hubbub and confusion pierced through and through by that
keen sound of women's voices screaming one in the cabin and the other in the stateroom beyond almost immediately barnaby pitched headlong over two or three struggling men scuffling together upon the deck
you bloody pirate would you choke me to death wherewith some notion of what had happened came to him like a flash and that they had been attacked in the night by pirates looking toward the companionway
he saw outlined against the darkness of the night without the blacker form of a man's figure standing still and motionless as a statue in the midst of all this hubbub and so by some instinct he knew in a moment
that that must be the master maker of all this devil's brew therewith still kneeling upon the deck he covered the bosom of that shadowy figure point blank as he thought with his pistol
and instantly pulled the trigger in the flash of red light and in the instant stunning report of the pistol shot barnaby saw as stamped upon the blackness a broad flat face
with fishy eyes a lean bony forehead with what appeared to be a great blotch of blood upon the side a cocked hat trimmed with gold lace a red scarf across the breast
my god tis william brand therewith came the sound of some one falling heavily down the next moment barnaby's sight coming back to him again in the darkness
that a leaden bullet might do it no harm though if it was indeed an apparition that barnaby beheld in that moment there is this to say that he saw it as plain as ever he saw a living man in
all of his life this was the last our hero knew for the next moment somebody whether by accident or design he never knew struck him such a terrible violent blow upon the side of the head
that he saw forty thousand stars flash before his eyeballs and then with a great humming in his head swooned dead away
when barnaby true came back to his senses again it was to find himself being cared for with great skill and nicety his head bathed with cold water and a bandage being bound about it
as carefully as though a chirurgeon was attending to him he could not immediately recall what had happened to him nor until he had opened his eyes to find himself in a strange cabin extremely well fitted and painted with white and gold
the light of a lantern shining in his eyes together with the gray of the early daylight through the dead eye two men were bending over him one a negro in a striped shirt with a yellow handkerchief around his head
and silver earrings in his ears the other a white man clad in a strange outlandish dress of a foreign make and with great mustachios hanging down and with gold earrings in his ears
he shut his eyes again contriving with great effort to keep himself from groaning aloud and wondering as to what sort of pirates these could be who would first knock a man in the head so terrible a blow as that which he had suffered
and then take such care to fetch him back to life again and to make him easy and comfortable nor did he open his eyes again but lay there gathering his wits together and wondering thus
seeing that it was required of him to meet some one without arose though with a good deal of effort and permitted the negro to help him on with his coat still feeling mightily dizzy and uncertain upon his legs
mister bumble mister bumble cried noah with well affected dismay and in tones so loud and agitated that they not only caught the ear of mister bumble himself who happened to be hard by
but alarmed him so much that he rushed into the yard without his cocked hat
he imparted additional effect thereunto by bewailing his dreadful wounds ten times louder than before and when he observed a gentleman in a white waistcoat crossing the yard he was more tragic in his lamentations than ever
rightly conceiving it highly expedient to attract the notice and rouse the indignation of the gentleman aforesaid the gentleman's notice was very soon attracted for he had not walked three paces when he turned angrily round
and inquired what that young cur was howling for and why mister bumble did not favour him with something which would render the series of vocular exclamations so designated an involuntary process
exclaimed the gentleman in the white waistcoat stopping short i knew it
said mister bumble with a face of ashy paleness and his missis interposed mister claypole and his master too i think you said noah added mister bumble no
replied noah he said he wanted to ah
inquired the gentleman in the white waistcoat yes sir replied noah and please sir
said the gentleman in the white waistcoat smiling benignly and patting noah's head which was about three inches higher than his own you're a good boy a very good boy here's a penny for you bumble
just step up to sowerberry's with your cane and see what's best to be done don't spare him bumble no
replied the beadle and the cocked hat and cane having been by this time adjusted to their owner's satisfaction mister bumble and noah claypole betook themselves with all speed to the undertaker's shop
here the position of affairs had not at all improved sowerberry had not yet returned and oliver continued to kick
at the cellar door the accounts of his ferocity as related by missus sowerberry and charlotte were of so startling a nature
exclaimed missus sowerberry meat ma'am meat
you've over fed him ma'am you've
and spirit in him ma'am unbecoming a person of his condition
who are practical philosophers will tell you what have paupers to do with soul or spirit it's quite enough that we let em have live bodies if you had kept the boy on gruel ma'am
when the lady brought her eyes down to earth again
all through the apprenticeship
excitable natures missus sowerberry
at this point of mister bumble's discourse oliver just hearing enough to know that some allusion was being made to his mother recommenced kicking with a violence that rendered every other sound inaudible sowerberry returned at this juncture
oliver's offence having been explained to him with such exaggerations as the ladies thought best calculated to rouse his ire he unlocked the cellar door in a twinkling and dragged his rebellious apprentice out by the collar
oliver's clothes had been torn in the beating he had received his face was bruised and scratched and his hair scattered over his forehead the angry flush had not disappeared however
and when he was pulled out of his prison he scowled boldly on noah and looked quite undismayed
giving oliver a shake and a box on the ear he called my mother names
she deserved what he said and worse she didn't said oliver she did said missus sowerberry it's a lie said oliver missus sowerberry burst into a flood of tears
this flood of tears left mister sowerberry no alternative if he had hesitated for one instant to punish oliver most severely it must be quite clear to every experienced reader that he would have been
according to all precedents in disputes of matrimony established a brute an unnatural husband an insulting creature a base imitation of a man and various other agreeable characters too numerous for recital
within the limits of this chapter to do him justice he was as far as his power went it was not very extensive kindly disposed towards the boy perhaps because it was his interest to be so
perhaps because his wife disliked him the flood of tears however left him no resource so he at once gave him a drubbing which satisfied even missus sowerberry herself
and rendered mister bumble's subsequent application of the parochial cane rather unnecessary for the rest of the day he was shut up in the back kitchen in company with a pump and a slice of bread
and at night missus sowerberry after making various remarks outside the door by no means complimentary to the memory of his mother
ordered him upstairs to his dismal bed it was not until he was left alone in the silence and stillness of the gloomy workshop of the undertaker that oliver gave way to the feelings which the day's treatment
he had listened to their taunts with a look of contempt he had borne the lash without a cry for he felt that pride swelling in his heart which would have kept down a shriek to the last
though they had roasted him alive but now when there were none to see or hear him he fell upon his knees on the floor and hiding his face in his hands wept such tears
as god send for the credit of our nature few so young may ever have cause to pour out before him for a long time oliver remained motionless in this attitude the candle was burning low in the socket
when he rose to his feet having gazed cautiously round him and listened intently he gently undid the fastenings of the door and looked abroad it was a cold dark night
the stars seemed to the boy's eyes farther from the earth than he had ever seen them before there was no wind and the sombre shadows thrown by the trees upon the ground
from being so still he softly reclosed the door having availed himself of the expiring light of the candle to tie up in a handkerchief the few articles of wearing apparel he had
sat himself down upon a bench to wait for morning with the first ray of light that struggled through the crevices in the shutters oliver arose and again unbarred the door one timid look around
one moment's pause of hesitation he had closed it behind him and was in the open street he looked to the right and to the left uncertain whither to fly he remembered to have seen the waggons as they went out
toiling up the hill he took the same route and arriving at a footpath across the fields which he knew after some distance led out again into the road struck into it and walked quickly on
along this same footpath oliver well remembered he had trotted beside mister bumble when he first carried him to the workhouse from the farm his way lay directly in front of the cottage his heart beat quickly when he bethought himself of this
he had come a long way though and should lose a great deal of time by doing so besides it was so early that there was very little fear of his being seen so he walked on he reached the house
there was no appearance of its inmates stirring at that early hour oliver stopped and peeped into the garden a child was weeding one of the little beds as he stopped he raised his pale face
and disclosed the features of one of his former companions oliver felt glad to see him before he went for though younger than himself he had been his little friend and playmate they had been beaten and starved and shut up together many and many a time
hush dick said oliver as the boy ran to the gate and thrust his thin arm between the rails to greet him is any one up nobody but me replied the child you musn't say you saw me dick said oliver i am running away
i don't know where how pale you are
yes yes i will to say good b'ye to you replied oliver i shall see you again dick i know i shall
and happy i hope so replied the child
not before i know the doctor must be right oliver because i dream so much of heaven and angels and kind faces that i never see when i am awake kiss me said the child
climbing up the low gate and flinging his little arms round oliver's neck good b'ye dear god bless you the blessing was from a young child's lips
was late next morning when oliver awoke from a sound long sleep there was no other person in the room but the old jew who was boiling some coffee in a saucepan for breakfast and whistling softly to himself as he stirred it round and round with an iron spoon
he would stop every now and then to listen when there was the least noise below and when he had satisfied himself he would go on whistling and stirring again as before although oliver had roused himself from sleep he was not thoroughly awake
there is a drowsy state between sleeping and waking when you dream more in five minutes with your eyes half open
and your senses wrapt in perfect unconsciousness at such time a mortal knows just enough of what his mind is doing to form some glimmering conception of its mighty powers
when freed from the restraint of its corporeal associate oliver was precisely in this condition he saw the jew with his half closed eyes heard his low whistling and recognised the sound of the spoon grating against the saucepan's sides
and yet the self same senses were mentally engaged
when the coffee was done the jew drew the saucepan to the hob standing then in an irresolute attitude for a few minutes as if he did not well know how to employ himself he turned round and looked at oliver and called him by his name
he did not answer and was to all appearances asleep after satisfying himself upon this head the jew stepped gently to the door
which he placed carefully on the table his eyes glistened as he raised the lid and looked in dragging an old chair to the table he sat down and took from it a magnificent gold watch sparkling with jewels aha
said the jew shrugging up his shoulders and distorting every feature with a hideous grin clever dogs clever dogs staunch to the last never told the old parson where they were never poached upon old fagin
no no no fine fellows fine fellows with these and other muttered reflections of the like nature the jew once more deposited the watch in its place of safety at least half a dozen more were severally drawn forth from the same box
and surveyed with equal pleasure besides rings brooches bracelets and other articles of jewellery of such magnificent materials and costly workmanship that oliver had no idea even of their names having replaced these trinkets
the jew took out another so small that it lay in the palm of his hand there seemed to be some very minute inscription on it for the jew laid it flat upon the table and shading it with his hand pored over it long and earnestly
at length he put it down as if despairing of success and leaning back in his chair muttered what a fine thing capital punishment is dead men never repent
as the jew uttered these words his bright dark eyes which had been staring vacantly before him fell on oliver's face the boy's eyes were fixed on his in mute curiousity and although the recognition was only for an instant
for the briefest space of time that can possibly be conceived it was enough to show the old man that he had been observed he closed the lid of the box with a loud crash and laying his hand on a bread knife which was on the table started furiously up
he trembled very much though for even in his terror oliver could see that the knife quivered in the air what's that said the jew
i wasn't able to sleep any longer sir replied oliver meekly
you were not awake an hour ago said the jew scowling fiercely on the boy no no indeed replied oliver are you sure cried the jew with a still fiercer look than before and a threatening attitude
upon my word i was not sir replied oliver earnestly i was not indeed sir tush tush my dear said the jew abruptly resuming his old manner and playing with the knife a little before he laid it down
of course i know that my dear i only tried to frighten you
did you see any of these pretty things my dear said the jew laying his hand upon it after a short pause yes sir replied oliver ah said the jew turning rather pale they
the folks call me a miser my dear only a miser that's all oliver thought the old gentleman must be a decided miser to live in such a dirty place with so many watches
but thinking that perhaps his fondness for the dodger and the other boys cost him a good deal of money he only cast a deferential look at the jew and asked if he might get up
replied the old gentleman stay there's a pitcher of water in the corner by the door bring it here and i'll give you a basin to wash in my dear oliver got up walked across the room and stooped for an instant to raise the pitcher
when he turned his head the box was gone he had scarcely washed himself and made everything tidy by emptying the basin out of the window agreeably to the jew's directions when the dodger returned accompanied by a very sprightly young friend
the four sat down to breakfast on the coffee and some hot rolls and ham which the dodger had brought home in the crown of his hat well said the jew glancing slyly at oliver and addressing himself to the dodger
hard replied the dodger as nails added charley bates good boys good boys said the jew what have you got dodger a couple of pocket books replied that young gentlman
lined inquired the jew with eagerness pretty well replied the dodger producing two pocket books one green and the other red not so heavy as they might be said the jew after looking at the insides carefully
but very neat and nicely made ingenious workman ain't he oliver very indeed sir said oliver at which mister charles bates laughed uproariously
said fagin to charley bates wipes replied master bates at the same time producing four pocket handkerchiefs
they're very good ones very you haven't marked them well though charley so the marks shall be picked out with a needle and we'll teach oliver how to do it shall us oliver eh ha ha ha
if you please sir said oliver
said the jew very much indeed if you'll teach me sir replied oliver master bates saw something so exquisitely ludicrous in this reply that he burst into another laugh
which laugh meeting the coffee he was drinking and carrying it down some wrong channel very nearly terminated in his premature suffocation he is so jolly green said charley when he recovered
as an apology to the company for his unpolite behaviour the dodger said nothing but he smoothed oliver's hair over his eyes
changed the subject by asking whether there had been much of a crowd at the execution that morning this made him wonder more and more
for it was plain from the replies of the two boys that they had both been there and oliver naturally wondered how they could possibly have found time to be so very industrious
when the breakfast was cleared away the merry old gentlman and the two boys played at a very curious and uncommon game which was performed in this way the merry old gentleman placing a snuff box in one pocket of his trousers
a note case in the other and a watch in his waistcoat pocket with a guard chain round his neck and sticking a mock diamond pin in his shirt buttoned his coat tight round him and putting his spectacle case and handkerchief in his pockets
sometimes he stopped at the fire place and sometimes at the door making believe that he was staring with all his might into shop windows at such times he would look constantly round him for fear of thieves
and would keep slapping all his pockets in turn to see that he hadn't lost anything
all this time the two boys followed him closely about getting out of his sight so nimbly every time he turned round that it was impossible to follow their motions
at last the dodger trod upon his toes or ran upon his boot accidently while charley bates stumbled up against him behind and in that one moment they took from him with the most extraordinary rapidity
snuff box note case watch guard chain shirt pin pocket handkerchief even the spectacle case
when this game had been played a great many times a couple of young ladies called to see the young gentleman one of whom was named bet and the other nancy they wore a good deal of hair not very neatly turned up behind and were rather untidy about the shoes and stockings
they were not exactly pretty perhaps but they had a great deal of colour in their faces and looked quite stout and hearty being remarkably free and agreeable in their manners oliver thought them very nice girls indeed
as there is no doubt they were the visitors stopped a long time spirits were produced in consequence of one of the young ladies complaining of a coldness in her inside and the conversation took a very convivial and improving turn
at length charley bates expressed his opinion that it was time to pad the hoof
for directly afterwards the dodger and charley and the two young ladies went away together having been kindly furnished by the amiable old jew with money to spend there my dear said fagin that's a pleasant life isn't it
they have gone out for the day have they done work sir inquired oliver yes said the jew
and they won't neglect it if they do my dear depend upon it make em your models my dear make em your models tapping the fire shovel on the hearth to add force to his words do everything they bid you
and take their advice in all matters especially the dodger's my dear he'll be a great man himself and will make you one too if you take pattern by him is my handkerchief hanging out of my pocket my dear
said the jew stopping short yes sir said oliver see if you can take it out without my feeling it as you saw them do when we were at play this morning oliver held up the bottom of the pocket with one hand
as he had seen the dodger hold it and drew the handkerchief lightly out of it with the other is it gone cried the jew here it is sir said oliver showing it in his hand
said the playful old gentleman patting oliver on the head approvingly i never saw a sharper lad here's a shilling for you
and now come here
oliver wondered what picking the old gentleman's pocket in play had to do with his chances of being a great man
and even after death kept alive in the eyes of the world by the testimony of statues tombs medals and other memorials of that kind none the less it is clearly seen that the ravening maw of time
has not only diminished by a great amount their own works and the honourable testimonies of others but has also blotted out and destroyed the names of all those who have been kept alive by any other means than by the right vivacious
and pious pens of writers pondering over this matter many a time in my own mind and recognizing from the example not only of the ancients but of the moderns as well
and finally having received from this both profit and pleasure i have judged it expedient nay rather my duty to make for them whatsoever memorial my weak talents and my small judgment may be able to make in honour then
and for the benefit for the most part of all the followers of these three most excellent arts architecture sculpture and painting i will write the lives of the craftsmen of each according to the times wherein they lived
not touching on the ancients save in so far as it may concern our subject
who have come down to our own age
or to the history of the craftsmen it seems to me right to touch a little
without reason as to the sovereignty and nobility not of architecture which they have left on one side but of sculpture and painting there being advanced on one side and on the other
i say then that the sculptors as being endowed perchance by nature and by the exercise of their art with a better habit of body with more blood and with more energy
for the reason that god almighty made man who was the first statue and they say that sculpture embraces many more arts as kindred
subordinate to itself than has painting such as low relief working in clay wax plaster wood and ivory casting in metals
every kind of chasing engraving and carving in relief on fine stones and steel and many others which both in number and in difficulty surpass those of painting and alleging further
than is painting which by its very nature not to say by external accidents perishes in the most sheltered and most secure places
nay more they insist that
saying that sculpture calls for a certain better disposition both of mind and of body that are rarely found together whereas painting contents itself with any feeble temperament so long as it has a hand if not bold at least sure
and that this their contention is proved by the greater prices cited in particular by pliny by the loves caused by the marvellous beauty of certain statues and by the judgment of him who made the statue of sculpture of gold
and that of painting of silver and placed the first on the right and the second on the left nor do they even refrain from quoting the difficulties experienced before the materials
such as the marbles and the metals can be got into subjection and their value in contrast to the ease of obtaining the panels the canvases
for the smallest prices and in every place and further the extreme and grievous labour of handling the marbles and the bronzes through their weight
through the weight of the tools in contrast to the lightness of the brushes of the styles and of the pens chalk holders and charcoals besides this that they exhaust their minds together with all the parts of their bodies
which is something very serious
using only his mind and hand moreover they lay very great stress on the fact that things are more noble and more perfect in proportion as they approach more nearly to the truth
and they say that sculpture imitates the true form and shows its works on every side and from every point of view whereas painting being laid on flat with most simple strokes of the brush and having but one light
shows but one aspect and many of them do not scruple to say that sculpture is as much superior to painting as is truth to falsehood but as their last and strongest argument
a perfection of judgment not only ordinary as for the painter but absolute and immediate in a manner that it may see within the marble the exact whole of that figure which they intend to carve from it
and may be able to make many parts perfect without any other model before it combines and unites them together as michelagnolo
has done divinely well although for lack of this happiness of judgment they make easily and often some of those blunders which have no remedy
or to the small judgment of the sculptor this never happens to painters for the reason that at every slip of the brush
or being told by others to cover and patch it up with the very brush that made it
that it not only heals as did the iron of the spear of achilles but leaves its wounds without a scar
say in the first place that if the sculptors wish to discuss the matter on the ground of the scriptures the chief nobility is their own and that the sculptors deceive themselves very grievously
and they say that if we consider it apart from the scriptures the opinions of the ages are so many and so varied that it is difficult to believe one more than the other and that finally considering this nobility
that they have many more than the sculptors because painting embraces the invention of history the most difficult art of foreshortening all the branches of architecture needful for the making of buildings perspective colouring in distemper
and the art of working in fresco an art different and distinct from all the others likewise working in oils on wood on stone and on canvas illumination too an art different from all the others
weaving brocades with figures and flowers and that most beautiful invention woven tapestries that are both convenient and magnificent being able to carry painting into every place whether savage or civilized
not to mention that in every department of art that has to be practised design which is our design is used by all so that the members of painting are more numerous and more useful than those of sculpture they do not
deny the eternity for so the others call it of sculpture but they say that this is no privilege that should make the art more noble than it is by nature seeing that it comes simply from the material
would have a soul more noble beyond compare than that of men
and on the little favour or avarice as we would rather call it of rich men who give them no supply of marble and no opportunity to work
in contrast with what may be believed nay seen to have happened in ancient times when sculpture rose to its greatest height indeed it is manifest that he who cannot use and waste
a small quantity of marble and hard stone which are very costly cannot have that practice in the art that is essential he who does not practise does not learn it and he who does not learn it can do no good wherefore
as for the higher prices of sculptures they answer that although theirs might be much less
or their cheap stools whereas the sculptors besides the great cost of their material require many aids and spend more time on one single figure than they themselves do on very many
from the aids that it requires for its completion and from the time that is taken in working it rather than from the excellence of the art itself and although that does not suffice and no greater price is found
as would be easily seen by anyone who were willing to consider it diligently let them find a greater price than the marvellous beautiful
for the most splendid and excellent work of apelles bestowing on him not vast treasures or high estate
enamoured of her and naturally subject to the passions of love and also both a king and a greek and then from this let them draw what conclusion they please
as for the loves of pygmalion and of those other rascals no more worthy to be men cited as proof of the nobility of the art
if from a very great blindness of intellect and from a licentiousness unbridled beyond all natural bounds
and painting of silver they are agreed that if he had given as much sign of judgment as of wealth there would be no disputing it and finally they conclude that the ancient golden fleece however celebrated it may be
none the less covered nothing but an unintelligent ram wherefore neither the testimony of riches nor that of dishonest desires but those of letters of practice of excellence and of judgment
are those to which we must pay attention nor do they make any answer to the difficulty of obtaining the marbles and the metals save this that it springs from their own poverty and from the little favour of the powerful as has been said
and not from any degree of greater nobility to the extreme fatigues of the body and to the dangers peculiar to them and to their works laughing and without any ado they answer that if greater fatigues and dangers prove greater nobility
the art of quarrying the marbles from the bowels of mountains by means of wedges
must be more noble than sculpture that of the blacksmith must surpass the goldsmith's and that of masonry must be superior to architecture they say next that the true difficulties lie rather in the mind than in the body
call for more study and knowledge are more noble and excellent than those that avail themselves rather of strength of body and they declare that since the painters rely more on the worth of the mind than the others this highest honour belongs to painting
for the sculptors the compasses and squares suffice to discover and apply all the proportions and measurements whereof they have need for the painters there is necessary besides the knowledge how to make good use of the aforesaid instruments
an accurate understanding of perspective for the reason that they have to provide a thousand other things beyond landscapes and buildings not to mention
than in a single statue for the sculptor it is enough to be acquainted with the true forms and features of solid and tangible bodies subordinate on every side to the touch
the fruits and the minerals than by anything else and this knowledge is supremely difficult to acquire
they say moreover that whereas sculpture through the stubbornness and the imperfection of the material does not represent the emotions of the soul save with motion which does not however find much scope therein
they must have besides long practice in the art a complete understanding of physiognomy whereof that part suffices for the sculptor which deals with the quantity and the quality of the members
without troubling about the quality of colours as to the knowledge of which anyone who judges by the eye knows how useful and necessary it is for the true imitation of nature whereunto
the closer a man approaches the more perfect he is after this they add that whereas sculpture taking away bit by bit at one and the same time gives depth to and acquires relief for
and makes use of touch and sight the painters in two distinct actions give relief and depth to a flat surface with the help of one single sense and this when it has been done by a person intelligent in the art
as the others say and not to be remedied save by patches which even as in garments they are signs of poverty of wardrobe so too both in sculpture and in pictures are signs of poverty of intellect and judgment
they conclude then that this difficulty which they put down as the greater is nothing or little when compared to those which the painters have when working in fresco
it being sufficient for the former to execute good models in wax clay or something else even as the latter make their drawings on corresponding materials or on cartoons
and that finally the quality that little by little transfers their models to the marble is rather patience than aught else but let us consider about judgment as the sculptors wish
than to one who chisels in marble
which are most mortal enemies to the union of the plaster and the colours but the eye does not see the true colours until the plaster is well dry nor can the hand judge of anything but of the soft or the dry
in a manner that anyone who were to call it working in the dark or with spectacles of colours different from the truth would not in my belief be very far wrong nay
i do not doubt at all that such a name is more suitable for it than for intaglio for which wax serves as spectacles both true and good they say too that for this work it is necessary to have a resolute judgment
i chose this gentleman for my confidant from among all those with whom i had been brought in contact by my position as witness in a case of this magnitude first because he had been present at the most tragic moment of my life
and not visit whatever folly i might be guilty of on the head of him for whom i risked my reputation for good sense nor was i disappointed in this
and his tone altogether gentle as in reply to my excuses for troubling him with my opinions he told me that in a case of such importance
little partizan as myself the word fired me and i spoke you consider mister durand guilty and so do many others i fear in spite of his long record for honesty and uprightness and why
because you will not admit the possibility of another person's guilt a person standing so high in private and public estimation that the very idea seems preposterous and little short of insulting to the country
but i did not quail i only subdued my manner and spoke with quieter conviction
i acknowledge that it is the frightful position into which i threw mister durand by my officious attempt to right him which has driven me to make this second effort to fix the crime on the only
other man who had possible access to missus fairbrother at the fatal moment how could i live in inaction how could you expect me to weigh for a moment this foreigner's reputation against that of my own lover
if i have reasons reasons reasons which would appeal to all if instead
but such as they are i must give them but first it will be necessary for you to accept for the nonce mister durand's statements as true are you willing to do this i will try then
to put some confidence in my judgment i saw the man and did not like him long before any intimation of the evening's tragedy had turned suspicion on any one i watched him as i watched others
i saw that he had not come to the ball to please mister ramsdell
but for some purpose much more important and that this purpose was connected with missus fairbrother's diamond indifferent almost morose before she came upon the scene he brightened to a surprising extent
the moment he found himself in her presence not because she was a beautiful woman
i perceived such a change in his face that if nothing more had occurred that night to give prominence to this woman and her diamond i should have carried home the conviction that interests of no common import lay behind a feeling so extraordinarily displayed
happily i have no clerk here to listen i would not speak if you had
not even my uncle suspects the direction of my thoughts proceed he again enjoined upon which i plunged into my subject missus fairbrother wore the real diamond and no imitation to the ball
of this i feel sure the bit of glass or paste displayed to the coroner's jury was bright enough but it was not the star of light i saw burning on her breast as she passed me on her way to the alcove
miss van arsdale the interest which mister durand displayed in it the marked excitement into which he was thrown by his first view of its size and splendor
that at that time he believed the stone to be real and of immense value wearing such a gem then she entered the fatal alcove and with a smile on her face prepared to employ her fascinations
but now something happened please let me tell it my own way a shout from the driveway or a bit of snow thrown against the window drew her attention to a man standing below
i judge that you have not so i may go on with my suppositions missus fairbrother took in this note she may have expected it and for this reason chose the alcove to sit in
probably we shall never know the whole truth about it but what we can know and do if you are still holding to our compact and viewing this crime in the light of mister durand's explanations is that it made a change in her
and made her anxious to rid herself of the diamond it has been decided that the hurried scrawl should read take warning he means to be at the ball expect trouble if you do not give him the diamond or something to that effect
was not mister durand but one whom i need not name and that the reason you have failed to find the messenger of whose appearance you have received definite information
if you will be patient with me you will soon see but first i wish to make it clear that missus fairbrother having received this warning
reckless scheming woman that she was sought to rid herself of the object against which it was directed in the way we have temporarily accepted as true
thus linking himself indissolubly to a great crime of which another was the perpetrator that other or so i believe from my very heart of hearts was the man i saw leaning against the wall at the foot of the alcove
a few minutes before i passed into the supper room i stopped with a gasp hardly able to meet the stern and forbidding look with which the inspector sought to restrain what he evidently considered the senseless ravings of a child
and i hastily proceeded before the rebuke thus expressed could formulate itself into words i have some excuse for a declaration so monstrous
about which you have expressed some curiosity inspector have you ever solved the mystery of the two broken coffee cups found amongst the debris at missus fairbrother's feet it did not come out in the inquest i noticed
he cried but you can not tell me anything about them possibly not but i can tell you this
i looked back and providentially or otherwise only the future can determine that detected mister grey in the act of lifting two cups from a tray left by some waiter on a table standing just outside the reception room door
i did not see where he carried them i only saw his face turned toward the alcove
or anywhere near there i have dared to think here the inspector found speech
and much too unmistakably his lack of interest in the general company for his every movement to be watched as at his first arrival but this is simple conjecture
i have from the pictures it is very quaint and among the devices on the handle is one that especially attracted my attention see this is what i mean
so far succeeded in tracing this weapon to its owner why didn't your experts study heraldry and the devices of great houses
i shall see about this he muttered crumpling the paper in his hand but this is a very terrible business you are plunging me into i sincerely hope that you are not heedlessly misleading me
your eye was not on him as mine was when you made your appearance in the hall with the recovered jewel he showed astonishment eagerness
with the request to take the diamond in his hand
is it likely sir is it conceivable even that any such cry as we heard could in this day and generation
unless it came with ventriloquial power from his own lips you observed that he turned his back that his face was hidden from us discreet and reticent
yet he did stop to argue saying in the next breath you forget that the stone has a setting would you claim that this gentleman of family place and political distinction had planned this hideous crime with sufficient premeditation
you would make him out a cagliostro or something worse miss van arsdale i fear your theory will topple over of its own weight he was very patient with me he did not show me the door yet such a substitution took place
and took place that evening i insisted
name to england no inspector uncle has a code and i made use of it to ask a friend in london for a list of the most noted diamond fanciers in the country mister grey's name was third on the list
we love each other and to her i dared appeal on one point inspector here my voice unconsciously fell as he impetuously drew nearer a note was sent from that sick chamber on the night of the ball a note surreptitiously written by miss grey
while the nurse was in an adjoining room the messenger was mister grey's valet and its destination the house in which her father was enjoying his position as chief guest she says that it was meant for him but i have dared to think
that the valet would tell a different story my friend did not see what her patient wrote but she acknowledged that if her patient wrote more than two words the result must have been an unintelligible scrawl since she was too weak to hold a pencil firmly
which had already figured in the inquest as the mysterious communication taken from missus fairbrother's hand by the coroner
yes the pencil was at her bedside the paper was torn from a book which lay there she did not put the note when written in an envelope but gave it to the valet just as it was he is an old man and had come to her room for some final orders
the nurse saw all this has she that book no it went out next morning with the scraps it was some pamphlet i believe
what is this nurse's name henrietta pierson does she share your doubts
no only the one time is she discreet very on this subject she will be like the grave unless forced by you to speak and miss grey she is still ill
too ill to be disturbed by questions especially on so delicate a topic
and my abominable theory i could not gather his intentions from his expression and was feeling very faint
a girl as ill as you say miss grey was must have had some very pressing matter on her mind to attempt to write and send a message under such difficulties
and i an agent of crime other than one of england's most reputable statesmen so that mister durand is shown the same consideration i am content said i it is the truth and the truth only i desire
i am willing to trust my cause with you he looked none too grateful for this confidence indeed now that i look back on this scene i do not wonder that he shrank from the responsibility thus foisted upon him
or if proof is not possible pray allow me the privilege of doing what i can myself to clear up the matter you there was apprehension disapprobation almost menace in his tone i bore it
with as steady and modest a glance as possible saying when i thought he was about to speak again i will do nothing without your sanction i realize the dangers of this inquiry and the disgrace that would follow if our attempt was suspected before proof reached a point sufficient
very however he added suddenly growing grave something i must admit may be excused a young girl who finds herself forced to choose between the guilt of her lover and that of a man esteemed great by the world
turning upon me with some severity he declared there are nine hundred and ninety nine chances in a thousand that my next word to you will be to prepare yourself for mister durand's arraignment and trial but an infinitesimal chance remains to the contrary
and experiences of the millionaire husband of the murdered lady than in those of the unhappy but comparatively insignificant man upon whom public opinion had cast the odium of her death
it seems that when the first news came of the great crime which had taken place in new york mister fairbrother was absent from the hotel on a prospecting tour through the adjacent mountains
couriers had been sent after him and it was one of these who finally brought him into town he had been found wandering alone on horseback among the defiles of an untraveled region sick and almost incoherent from fever indeed
his condition was such that neither the courier nor such others as saw him had the heart to tell him the dreadful news from new york or even to show him the papers to their great relief he betrayed no curiosity in them
and this was an easy way for them out of a great responsibility they listened to his wishes and saw him safely aboard
not only of the circumstances of his great bereavement but of the bereavement itself
was regarded by those who knew him best as proving the truth of the affirmation elicited from him in the pauses of his delirium
of the genuineness of the stone which had passed from his hands to those of his wife at the time of their separation and further despatches coming in some private and some official
on a subject so painful the authorities in new york decided to wait no longer for his testimony but to proceed at once with the inquest great as is the temptation to give a detailed account of proceedings
at the mercy of a verdict which may stigmatize him as a possible criminal i see no reason for encumbering my narrative with what
mister durand's intimate and suggestive connection with this crime the explanations he had to give of this connection frequently bizarre and i must acknowledge not always convincing
nothing could alter these nor change the fact of the undoubted cowardice
nor did any better success follow an attempt to fix the ownership of the stiletto
to show that the latter might have come into mister durand's possession in some of the many visits he was shown to have made of late to various curio shops in and out of new york city
and his testimony ignored but this expectation did not make the ordeal any easier and when i noticed the effect of witness after witness leaving the stand without having improved mister durand's position by a jot
i felt my spirit harden and my purpose strengthen till i hardly knew myself i must have frightened my uncle for his hand was always on my arm and his chiding voice in my ear bidding me beware
whose eye was seldom away from my face the verdict however was not the one i had so deeply dreaded while it did not exonerate mister durand it did not openly accuse him
and i was on the point of giving him a smile of congratulation and renewed hope
in a new country amid new conditions prince andrew found life easier to bear after his betrothed had broken faith with him which he felt the more acutely the more he tried to conceal its effects the surroundings in which he had been happy became trying to him
and the freedom and independence he had once prized so highly were still more so
had suddenly turned into a low solid vault that weighed him down in which all was clear but nothing eternal or mysterious of the activities that presented themselves to him
army service was the simplest and most familiar as a general on duty on kutuzov's staff he applied himself to business with zeal and perseverance and surprised kutuzov
by his willingness and accuracy in work not having found kuragin in turkey prince andrew did not think it necessary to rush back to russia after him
despite his contempt for him and despite all the proofs he deduced to convince himself that it was not worth stooping to a conflict with him he knew that when he did meet him he would not be able to resist calling him out any more than a ravenous man can help snatching at food
and the consciousness that the insult was not yet avenged that his rancor was still unspent weighed on his heart and poisoned the artificial tranquillity which he managed to obtain in turkey by means of restless plodding
and rather vainglorious and ambitious activity
prince andrew asked kutuzov to transfer him to the western army kutuzov who was already weary of bolkonski's activity
encamped at drissa prince andrew visited bald hills which was directly on his way being only two miles off the smolensk highroad during the last three years there had been so many changes in his life he had thought felt
and seen so much having traveled both in the east and the west that on reaching bald hills it struck him as strange and unexpected to find the way of life there unchanged and still the same in every detail
he entered through the gates with their stone pillars and drove up the avenue leading to the house as if he were entering an enchanted sleeping castle the same old stateliness the same cleanliness the same stillness reigned there
and inside there was the same furniture the same walls sounds and smell and the same timid faces only somewhat older princess mary was still the same timid plain maiden getting on in years
uselessly and joylessly passing the best years of her life in fear and constant suffering mademoiselle bourienne was the same coquettish self satisfied girl enjoying every moment of her existence and full of joyous hopes for the future
she had merely become more self confident prince andrew thought dessalles the tutor he had brought from switzerland was wearing a coat of russian cut and talking broken russian to the servants
and pedantic preceptor the old prince had changed in appearance only by the loss of a tooth which left a noticeable gap on one side of his mouth in character he was the same as ever only showing still more irritability
and skepticism as to what was happening in the world little nicholas alone had changed he had grown become rosier had curly dark hair and when merry and laughing
but though externally all remained as of old the inner relations of all these people had changed since prince andrew had seen them last the household was divided into two alien and hostile camps who changed their habits
for his sake and only met because he was there to the one camp belonged the old prince mademoiselle bourienne and the architect to the other princess mary dessalles little nicholas and all the old nurses and maids during his stay at bald hills all the family dined together
and prince andrew felt that he was a visitor for whose sake an exception was being made and that his presence made them all feel awkward involuntarily feeling this at dinner on the first day he was taciturn and the old prince noticing this also became morosely dumb
and retired to his apartments directly after dinner in the evening when prince andrew went to him and trying to rouse him
blaming her for her superstitions and her dislike of mademoiselle bourienne who he said was the only person really attached to him the old prince said that if he was ill it was only because of princess mary
that she purposely worried and irritated him and that by indulgence and silly talk she was spoiling little prince nicholas the old prince knew very well that he tormented his daughter and that her life was very hard
but he also knew that he could not help tormenting her and that she deserved it why does prince andrew who sees this say nothing to me about his sister does he think me a scoundrel or an old fool who without any reason keeps his own daughter at a distance and attaches this frenchwoman to himself
he doesn't understand so i must explain it and he must hear me out thought the old prince and he began explaining why he could not put up with his daughter's unreasonable character if you ask me
said prince andrew without looking up he was censuring his father for the first time in his life i did not wish to speak about it but as you ask me i will give you my frank opinion if there is any misunderstanding and discord between you and mary i can't blame her for it at all
i know how she loves and respects you since you ask me continued prince andrew becoming irritable as he was always liable to do of late i can only say that if there are any misunderstandings they are caused by that worthless woman who is not fit to be my sister's companion
and an unnatural smile disclosed the fresh gap between his teeth to which prince andrew could not get accustomed what companion my dear boy eh you've already been talking it over eh
father i did not want to judge said prince andrew in a hard and bitter tone but you challenged me and i have said and always shall say that mary is not to blame but those to blame the one to blame is that frenchwoman ah he has passed judgment
passed judgement said the old man in a low voice and as it seemed to prince andrew with some embarrassment but then he suddenly jumped up and cried be off be off let not a trace of you remain here
prince andrew wished to leave at once but princess mary persuaded him to stay another day that day he did not see his father who did not leave his room and admitted no one but mademoiselle bourienne and tikhon
but asked several times whether his son had gone next day before leaving prince andrew went to his son's rooms the boy curly headed like his mother and glowing with health sat on his knee and prince andrew began telling him the story of bluebeard
but fell into a reverie without finishing the story he thought not of this pretty child his son whom he held on his knee but of himself he sought in himself either remorse for having angered his father or regret at leaving home
for the first time in his life on bad terms with him and was horrified to find neither what meant still more to him was that he sought and did not find in himself the former tenderness for his son which he had hoped to reawaken by caressing the boy
and taking him on his knee well go on said his son prince andrew without replying put him down from his knee and went out of the room as soon as prince andrew had given up his daily occupations and especially on returning to the old conditions of life amid which he had been happy
weariness of life overcame him with its former intensity and he hastened to escape from these memories and to find some work as soon as possible so you've decided to go andrew asked his sister
thank god that i can replied prince andrew i am very sorry you can't why do you say that replied princess mary why do you say that when you are going to this terrible war
mademoiselle bourienne says he has been asking about you
her lips trembled and her tears began to fall prince andrew turned away and began pacing the room ah my god my god when one thinks who and what what trash can cause people misery he said with a malignity that alarmed princess mary
andrew one thing i beg i entreat of you she said touching his elbow and looking at him with eyes that shone through her tears i understand you she looked down don't imagine that sorrow is the work of men
men are his tools she looked a little above prince andrew's head with the confident accustomed look with which one looks at the place where a familiar portrait hangs
sorrow is sent by him not by men men are his instruments they are not to blame if you think someone has wronged you forget it and forgive we have no right to punish and then you will know the happiness of forgiving if i were a woman i would do so mary
and though till that moment he had not been thinking of kuragin all his unexpended anger suddenly swelled up in his heart if mary is already persuading me to
who he knew was now in the army princess mary begged him to stay one day more
soon be back again from the army and would certainly write to his father but that the longer he stayed now the more embittered their differences would become good bye andrew remember that misfortunes come from god and men are never to blame
were the last words he heard from his sister when he took leave of her then it must be so thought prince andrew as he drove out of the avenue from the house at bald hills
she poor innocent creature is left to be victimized by an old man who has outlived his wits the old man feels he is guilty but cannot change himself my boy is growing up and rejoices in life in which like everybody else he will deceive or be deceived and i am off to the army why
i myself don't know i want to meet that man whom i despise so as to give him a chance to kill and laugh at me these conditions of life had been the same before but then they were all connected while now they had all tumbled to pieces only senseless things
those bursts of anger and the last dryly spoken words i will detain you no longer general you shall receive my letter balashev felt convinced that napoleon would not wish to see him and would even avoid another meeting with him an insulted envoy
especially as he had witnessed his unseemly anger but to his surprise balashev received through duroc an invitation to dine with the emperor that day bessieres caulaincourt and berthier were present at that dinner
napoleon met balashev cheerfully and amiably he not only showed no sign of constraint or self reproach on account of his outburst that morning but on the contrary tried to reassure balashev
it was evident that he had long been convinced that it was impossible for him to make a mistake and that in his perception whatever he did was right not because it harmonized with any idea of right and wrong but because he did it
the emperor was in very good spirits after his ride through vilna where crowds of people had rapturously greeted and followed him from all the windows of the streets through which he rode rugs flags and his monogram were displayed
and the polish ladies welcoming him waved their handkerchiefs to him at dinner having placed balashev beside him napoleon not only treated him amiably but behaved as if balashev were one of his own courtiers one of those who sympathized with his plans
and ought to rejoice at his success in the course of conversation he mentioned moscow and questioned balashev about the russian capital not merely as an interested traveler asks about a new city he intends to visit
how many inhabitants are there in moscow how many houses is it true that moscow is called holy moscow how many churches are there in moscow he asked and receiving the reply that there were more than two hundred churches he remarked
why such a quantity of churches the russians are very devout replied balashev but a large number of monasteries and churches is always a sign of the backwardness of a people said napoleon turning to caulaincourt for appreciation of this remark
balashev respectfully ventured to disagree with the french emperor every country has its own character said he but nowhere in europe is there anything like that said napoleon i beg your majesty's pardon returned balashev besides
russia there is spain where there are also many churches and monasteries this reply of balashev's which hinted at the recent defeats of the french in spain was much appreciated when he related it at alexander's court but it was not much appreciated at napoleon's dinner
where it passed unnoticed the uninterested and perplexed faces of the marshals showed that they were puzzled as to what balashev's tone suggested if there is a point we don't see it or it is not at all witty their expressions seemed to say
so all roads lead to moscow there were many roads and among them the road through poltava
after dinner they went to drink coffee in napoleon's study which four days previously had been that of the emperor alexander
napoleon was in that well known after dinner mood which more than any reasoned cause makes a man contented with himself and disposed to consider everyone his friend it seemed to him that he was surrounded by men who adored him
napoleon turned to him with a pleasant though slightly ironic smile they tell me this is the room the emperor alexander occupied strange isn't it general he said evidently not doubting that this remark would be agreeable to his hearer
since it went to prove his napoleon's superiority to alexander balashev made no reply
yes four days ago in this room wintzingerode and stein were deliberating continued napoleon with the same derisive and self confident smile
that i do not understand
and let him know that i will do so said napoleon rising and pushing his cup away with his hand
yes i'll drive them out let him prepare an asylum for them in russia
and only listened because he could not help hearing what was said to him napoleon did not notice this expression he treated balashev not as an envoy from his enemy but as a man now fully devoted to him
and who must rejoice at his former master's humiliation and why has the emperor alexander taken command of the armies
war is my profession but his business is to reign and not to command armies
again napoleon brought out his snuffbox paced several times up and down the room in silence
as confidently quickly and simply as if he were doing something not merely important but pleasing to balashev he raised his hand to the forty year old russian general's face and taking him by the ear pulled it gently smiling with his lips only
to have one's ear pulled by the emperor was considered the greatest honor and mark of favor at the french court well adorer and courtier of the emperor alexander
why don't you say anything said he as if it was ridiculous in his presence
duroc said that napoleon would receive the russian general before going for his ride after some minutes the gentleman in waiting who was on duty came into the great reception room and bowing politely asked balashev to follow him
balashev went into a small reception room one door of which led into a study the very one from which the russian emperor had dispatched him on his mission he stood a minute or two waiting he heard hurried footsteps beyond the door
both halves of it were opened rapidly all was silent and then from the study the sound was heard of other steps firm and resolute they were those of napoleon he had just finished dressing for his ride and wore a blue uniform
opening in front over a white waistcoat so long that it covered his rotund stomach white leather breeches tightly fitting the fat thighs of his short legs and hessian boots his short hair had evidently just been brushed
his plump white neck stood out sharply above the black collar of his uniform and he smelled of eau de cologne his full face rather young looking with its prominent chin wore a gracious and majestic expression
of imperial welcome he entered briskly with a jerk at every step and his head slightly thrown back his whole short corpulent figure with broad thick shoulders
and chest and stomach involuntarily protruding had that imposing and stately appearance one sees in men of forty who live in comfort it was evident too that he was in the best of spirits that day
he nodded in answer to balashav's low and respectful bow and coming up to him at once began speaking like a man who values every moment of his time and does not condescend to prepare what he has to say but is sure he will always say the right thing and say it well
and am very glad to see you he glanced with his large eyes into balashav's face and immediately looked past him it was plain that balashev's personality did not interest him at all
evidently only what took place within his own mind interested him nothing outside himself had any significance for him because everything in the world it seemed to him depended entirely on his will
he emphasized the word i am ready to receive any explanations you can give me
judging by the calmly moderate and amicable tone in which the french emperor spoke balashev was firmly persuaded that he wished for peace and intended to enter into negotiations when napoleon having finished speaking
looked inquiringly at the russian envoy balashev began a speech he had prepared long before sire the emperor my master but the sight of the emperor's eyes bent on him confused him
you are flurried compose yourself napoleon seemed to say as with a scarcely perceptible smile he looked at balashev's uniform and sword balashev recovered himself and began to speak
he said that the emperor alexander did not consider kurakin's demand for his passports a sufficient cause for war
had acted on his own initiative and without his sovereign's assent that the emperor alexander did not desire war and had no relations with england not yet interposed napoleon and as if fearing to give vent to his feelings
he frowned and nodded slightly as a sign that balashev might proceed after saying all he had been instructed to say balashev added that the emperor alexander wished for peace
but would not enter into negotiations except on condition that here balashev hesitated he remembered the words the emperor alexander had not written in his letter
but had specially inserted in the rescript to saltykov and had told balashev to repeat to napoleon balashev remembered these words so long as a single armed foe remains on russian soil but some complex feeling restrained him
he could not utter them though he wished to do so he grew confused and said on condition that the french army retires beyond the niemen napoleon noticed balashev's embarrassment when uttering these last words
his face twitched and the calf of his left leg began to quiver rhythmically without moving from where he stood he began speaking in a louder tone and more hurriedly than before
who more than once lowered his eyes involuntarily noticed the quivering of napoleon's left leg which increased the more napoleon raised his voice i desire peace no less than the emperor alexander he began
have i not for eighteen months been doing everything to obtain it
but in order to begin negotiations what is demanded of me he said frowning and making an energetic gesture of inquiry with his small white plump hand the withdrawal of your army beyond the niemen
repeated napoleon looking straight at balashev the latter bowed his head respectfully
instead of the demand of four months earlier to withdraw from pomerania only a withdrawal beyond the niemen was now demanded napoleon turned quickly and began to pace the room you say the demand now is that i am to withdraw beyond the niemen before commencing negotiations
but in just the same way two months ago the demand was that i should withdraw beyond the vistula and the oder and yet you are willing to negotiate he went in silence from one corner of the room to the other and again stopped in front of balashev
balashev noticed that his left leg was quivering faster than before and his face seemed petrified in its stern expression this quivering of his left leg was a thing napoleon was conscious of the vibration of my left calf is a great sign with me
he remarked at a later date such demands as to retreat beyond the vistula and oder
napoleon almost screamed quite to his own surprise if you gave me petersburg and moscow i could not accept such conditions you say i have begun this war but who first joined his army
the emperor alexander not i and you offer me negotiations when i have expended millions when you are in alliance with england and when your position is a bad one you offer me negotiations
but what is the aim of your alliance with england what has she given you he continued hurriedly evidently no longer trying to show the advantages of peace and discuss its possibility but only to prove his own rectitude and power
and alexander's errors and duplicity the commencement of his speech had obviously been made with the intention of demonstrating the advantages of his position and showing that he was nevertheless willing to negotiate but he had begun talking
the whole purport of his remarks now was evidently to exalt himself and insult alexander
i hear you have made peace with turkey
peace has been concluded he began but napoleon did not let him speak he evidently wanted to do all the talking himself and continued to talk with the sort of eloquence and unrestrained irritability to which spoiled people are so prone
yes i know you have made peace with the turks without obtaining moldavia and wallachia
i promised and would have given the emperor alexander moldavia and wallachia and now he won't have those splendid provinces
catherine the great could not have done more said napoleon growing more and more excited as he paced up and down the room
all that he would have owed to my friendship oh what a splendid reign he repeated several times
what a splendid reign the emperor alexander's might have been
and as soon as the latter tried to make some rejoinder hastily interrupted him what could he wish or look for that he would not have obtained through my friendship demanded napoleon
but no he has preferred to surround himself with my enemies and with whom with steins armfeldts
wintzingerode a fugitive french subject bennigsen rather more of a soldier than the others but all the same an incompetent who was unable to do anything in eighteen o seven and who should awaken terrible memories in the emperor alexander's mind
proving how right and strong he was in his perception the two were one and the same but they are not even that they are neither fit for war nor peace barclay is said to be the most capable of them all but i cannot say so
judging by his first movements and what are they doing all these courtiers pfuel proposes armfeldt disputes bennigsen considers and barclay called on to act does not know what to decide on and time passes bringing no result
bagration alone is a military man he's stupid but he has experience a quick eye and resolution and what role is your young monarch playing in that monstrous crowd they compromise him and throw on him the responsibility for all that happens
a sovereign should not be with the army unless he is a general said napoleon evidently uttering these words as a direct challenge to the emperor
he knew how alexander desired to be a military commander the campaign began only a week ago and you haven't even been able to defend vilna you are cut in two and have been driven out of the polish provinces your army is grumbling
and following these verbal fireworks with difficulty the troops are burning with eagerness i know everything napoleon interrupted him i know everything i know the number of your battalions as exactly as i know my own
you have not two hundred thousand men and i have three times that number i give you my word of honor said napoleon forgetting that his word of honor could carry no weight i give you my word of honor that i have five hundred and thirty thousand men this side of the vistula
the turks will be of no use to you they are worth nothing and have shown it by making peace with you
their king was insane and they changed him for another bernadotte who promptly went mad for no swede would ally himself with russia unless he were mad napoleon grinned maliciously and again raised his snuffbox to his nose
balashev knew how to reply to each of napoleon's remarks
he continually made the gesture of a man wishing to say something but napoleon always interrupted him to the alleged insanity of the swedes balashev wished to reply that when russia is on her side sweden is practically an island
but napoleon gave an angry exclamation to drown his voice napoleon was in that state of irritability in which a man has to talk talk and talk merely to convince himself
began to feel uncomfortable as envoy he feared to demean his dignity and felt the necessity of replying but as a man he shrank before the transport of groundless wrath that had evidently seized napoleon
he knew that none of the words now uttered by napoleon had any significance
looking at the movements of napoleon's stout legs
i have allies the poles there are eighty thousand of them and they fight like lions and there will be two hundred thousand of them
and that balashev still stood silently before him in the same attitude of submission to fate napoleon abruptly turned round drew close to balashev's face and gesticulating rapidly and energetically with his white hands almost shouted
know that if you stir up prussia against me i'll wipe it off the map of europe he declared his face pale and distorted by anger and he struck one of his small hands energetically with the other yes i will throw you back beyond the dvina and beyond the dnieper
that barrier which it was criminal and blind of europe to allow to be destroyed yes that is what will happen to you that is what you have gained by alienating me and he walked silently several times up and down the room his fat shoulders twitching
he put his snuffbox into his waistcoat pocket took it out again lifted it several times to his nose and stopped in front of balashev he paused looked ironically straight into balashev's eyes and said in a quiet voice
and yet what a splendid reign
said that from the russian side things did not appear in so gloomy a light napoleon was silent still looking derisively at him and evidently not listening to him balashev said that in russia the best results were expected from the war napoleon nodded condescendingly
as if to say i know it's your duty to say that but you don't believe it yourself i have convinced you when balashev had ended napoleon again took out his snuffbox sniffed at it and stamped his foot twice on the floor as a signal the door opened
a gentleman in waiting bending respectfully handed the emperor his hat and gloves another brought him a pocket handkerchief napoleon without giving them a glance turned to balashev assure the emperor alexander from me said he taking his hat
that i am as devoted to him as before i know him thoroughly and very highly esteem his lofty qualities i will detain you no longer general you shall receive my letter to the emperor and napoleon went quickly to the door
and then the train crawled through a towering bench of rock the mouth of it on the other side opened into a mighty amphitheatre with solid rock walls shooting vertically hundreds of feet upward
vertically he thought with the back of his head between his shoulders as he looked up they were more than vertical they were actually concave the almighty had not only stored riches immeasurable in the hills behind him
he had driven this passage himself to help puny man to reach them and yet the wretched road was going toward them like a snail on the fifth night thereafter he was back there at the tunnel again from new york
with a grim mouth and a happy eye he had brought success with him this time and there was no sleep for him that night he had been delayed by a wreck
and not a horse was available so he started those twenty miles afoot and day was breaking when he looked down on the little valley shrouded in mist and just wakening from sleep things had been moving while he was away as he quickly learned
the english were buying lands right and left at the gap sixty miles southwest two companies had purchased most of the town site where he was his town site and were going to pool their holdings and form an improvement company
but a good deal was left and straightway hale got a map from his office and with it in his hand walked down the curve of the river and over poplar hill and beyond early breakfast was ready when he got back to the hotel
he swallowed a cup of coffee so hastily that it burned him and june when she passed his window on her way to school saw him busy over his desk she started to shout to him but he looked so haggard and grim that she was afraid
the operator who was speculating in a small way himself smiled when he read the telegram a thousand an acre he repeated with a whistle
i know said hale there's time enough yet then he went to his room pulled the blinds down and went to sleep while rumour played with his name through the town
it was nearly the closing hour of school when dressed and freshly shaven he stepped out into the pale afternoon and walked up toward the schoolhouse
at the gate there was a sudden commotion he saw a crimson figure flash into the group that had stopped there and flash out and then june came swiftly toward him followed closely by a tall boy with a cap on his head
that far away he could see that she was angry and he hurried toward her her face was white with rage her mouth was tight and her dark eyes were aflame then from the group another tall boy darted out
and behind him ran a smaller one bellowing hale heard the boy with the cap call kindly hold on little girl i won't let em touch you june stopped with him and hale ran to them here he called what's the matter
june burst into crying when she saw him and leaned over the fence sobbing the tall lad with the cap had his back to hale and he waited till the other two boys came up
then he pointed to the smaller one and spoke to hale without looking around why that little skate there was teasing this little girl and she slapped him said hale grimly the lad with the cap turned
his eyes were dancing and the shock of curly hair that stuck from his absurd little cap shook with his laughter slapped him she knocked him as flat as a pancake yes an you said you'd stand fer her
he was near bursting with rage you bet i will said the boy with the cap heartily right now and he dropped his books to the ground hold on said hale jumping between them
you ought to be ashamed of yourself he said to the mountain boy i wasn't atter the gal he said indignantly i was comin fer him the boy with the cap tried to get away from hale's grasp
no use sir he said coolly you'd better let us settle it now we'll have to do it some time i know the breed he'll fight all right and there's no use puttin it off it's got to come you bet it's got to come said the mountain lad you can't call my brother names
well he is a skate said the boy with the cap with no heat at all in spite of his indignation and hale wondered at his aged calm every one of you little tads he went on coolly waving his hand at the gathered group
is a skate who teases this little girl and you older boys are skates for letting the little ones do it the whole pack of you and i'm going to spank any little tadpole who does it hereafter and i'm going to punch the head off any big one who allows it it's got to stop now
why i'm taking care of this little girl oh well you see i didn't know that i've only been here two days but his frank generous face broke into a winning smile
you'll let me watch out for her there sure i'll be very grateful not at all sir not at all it was a great pleasure and i think i'll have lots of fun he looked at june
so don't you soil your little fist any more with any of em but just tell me er er june she said and a shy smile came through her tears june he finished with a boyish laugh
good by sir you haven't told me your name i suppose you know my brothers sir the berkleys i should say so and hale held out his hand you're bob yes sir i knew you were coming
and i'm mighty glad to see you i hope you and june will be good friends and i'll be very glad to have you watch over her when i'm away i'd like nothing better sir he said cheerfully and quite impersonally as far as june was concerned
then his eyes lighted up my brothers don't seem to want me to join the police guard won't you say a word for me i certainly will thank you sir that sir no longer bothered hale
and he was not particularly pleased but when he knew now that the lad was another son of the old gentleman whom he saw riding up the valley every morning on a gray horse with several dogs trailing after him
he knew the word was merely a family characteristic of old fashioned courtesy isn't he nice june yes she said have you missed me june june slid her hand into his i'm so glad you come back
they were approaching the gate now june you said you weren't going to cry any more june's head drooped i know but i jes can't help it when i git mad she said seriously
i'd bust if i didn't all right said hale kindly i've cried twice she said what were you mad about the other time i wasn't mad then why did you cry june
and then her long lashes hid them cause you was so good to me hale choked suddenly and patted her on the shoulder go in now little girl and study then you must take a walk i've got some work to do i'll see you at supper time
all right said june she turned at the gate to watch hale enter the hotel and as she started indoors she heard a horse coming at a gallop and she turned again to see her cousin dave tolliver pull up in front of the house
she ran back to the gate and then she saw that he was swaying in his saddle hello june he called thickly her face grew hard and she made no answer i've come over to take ye back home
i've come over to take ye home you oughter be ashamed o yourself she said hotly and she turned to go back into the house oh you ain't ready now well git ready an we'll start in the mornin i'll be aroun fer ye
bout the break o day he whirled his horse with an oath june was gone
and she ran across to the hotel and found hale sitting in the office with another man hale saw her entering the door swiftly he knew something was wrong and he rose to meet her
well said hale he won't do it will he june shook her head and then she said significantly dave's drinkin hale's brow clouded
but he said cheerily all right you go back and keep in the house and i'll be over by and by and we'll talk it over and without another word she went she had meant to put on her new dress and her new shoes and stockings that night
that hale might see her but she was in doubt about doing it when she got to her room
she wondered if dave might not get into a fight or perhaps he would get so drunk that he would go to sleep somewhere she knew that men did that after drinking very much and anyhow he would not bother her until next morning
and then he would be sober and would go quietly back home she was so comforted that she got to thinking about the hair of the girl who sat in front of her at school it was plaited and she had studied just how it was done
and she began to wonder whether she could fix her own that way so she got in front of the mirror and loosened hers in a mass about her shoulders the mass that was to hale like the golden bronze of a wild turkey's wing the other girl's plaits were the same size
thus she argued to herself but how did that girl manage to plait it behind her back she did it in front of course so june divided the bronze heap behind her and pulled one half of it in front of her and then for a moment she was helpless
then she laughed it must be done like the grass blades and strings she had plaited for bub of course so dividing that half into three parts she did the plaiting swiftly and easily when it was finished she looked at the braid much pleased
for it hung below her waist and was much longer than any of the other girls at school the transition was easy now so interested had she become she got out her tan shoes and stockings and the pretty white dress and put them on the millpond
was dark with shadows now and she went down the stairs and out to the gate just as dave again pulled up in front of it he stared at the vision wonderingly and long and then he began to laugh with the scorn of soberness and the silliness of drink
a pistol gleamed in the hand of each and slowly thrust his own weapon into his pocket get off that horse added the stern voice just then hale rushed across the street and the mountain youth saw him
ketch his pistol cried june in terror for hale for she knew what was coming
suppose we let him go home all right said logan the calaboose or home will you go home
he was staring at june with wonder amazement incredulity struggling through the fumes in his brain to his flushed face she a tolliver had warned a stranger against her own blood cousin
that told him plainer than words that more was yet to come hale had heard june's warning cry but now when he looked for her she was gone he went in to supper and sat down at the table and still she did not come
she's got a surprise for you said missus crane smiling mysteriously she's been fixing for you for an hour my but she's pretty in them new clothes why june june was coming in
she wore her homespun her scarlet homespun and the psyche knot she did not seem to have heard missus crane's note of wonder and she sat quietly down in her seat her face was pale and she did not look at hale
i'm sorry little girl the girl lifted her great troubled eyes to him but no word passed her lips and hale helplessly left her june did not cry that night she sat by the window wretched and tearless
that was why instinctively she had put on her old homespun with a vague purpose of reparation to them she knew the story dave would take back home the bitter anger that his people and hers
would feel at the outrage done him anger against the town the guard against hale because he was a part of both and even against her dave was merely drunk he had simply shot off his pistol that was no harm in the hills
and yet everybody had dashed toward him as though he had stolen something even hale yes even that boy with the cap who had stood up for her at school that afternoon he had rushed up his face aflame with excitement
eager to take part should dave resist she had cried out impulsively to save hale but dave would not understand no in his eyes she had been false to family and friends to the clan she had sided with furriners
what would her father say perhaps she'd better go home next day perhaps for good for there was a deep unrest within her that she could not fathom
on which her feet were set the old mill creaked in the moonlight below her sometimes when the wind blew up lonesome cove she could hear uncle billy's wheel creaking just that way
a sudden pang of homesickness choked her but she did not cry yes she would go home next day she blew out the light and undressed in the dark as she did at home and went to bed
and that night the little night gown lay apart from her in the drawer unfolded
the improvement company had been formed to encourage the growth of the town a safe was put in the back part of a furniture store behind a wooden partition and a bank was started up through the gap and toward kentucky
more entries were driven into the coal and on the virginia side were signs of stripping for iron ore a furnace was coming in just as soon as the railroad could bring it in and the railroad was pushing ahead with genuine vigor
more young men drifted in from all points of the compass a tent hotel was put at the foot of imboden hill and of nights there were under it much poker and song the lilt of a definite optimism was in every man's step
and the light of hope was in every man's eye and the guard went to its work in earnest every man now had his winchester his revolver his billy and his whistle drilling and target shooting became a daily practice
bob who had been a year in a military school was drill master for the recruits and very gravely he performed his duties and put them through the skirmishers drill advancing in rushes throwing themselves in the new grass
and very gravely he commended one enthusiast none other than the hon samuel budd who rather than lose his position in line threw himself into a pool of water all to the surprise scorn and anger
of the mountain onlookers who dwelled about the town many were the comments the members of the guard heard from them
huh i could take two good men an run the whole batch out o the county look at them dudes and furriners they come into our country and air tryin to larn us how to run it our boys air only tryin to have their little fun
they don't mean nothin but someday some fool young guard'll hurt somebody and then thar'll be hell to pay hale could not help feeling considerable sympathy for their point of view
each volunteer policeman with his back to the target and at the word of command wheeling and firing six shots in rapid succession and he did not wonder at their snorts of scorn at such bad shooting
and their open anger that the guard was practising for them but sometimes he got an unexpected recruit one bully who had been conspicuous in the brickyard trouble after watching a drill went up to him with a grin hell he said cheerily
an danged if i don't jine you if you'll let me sure said hale
became members and thus getting a vent for their energies were as enthusiastic for the law as they might have been against it of course the antagonistic element in the town lost no opportunity to plague and harass the guard
and after the destruction of the blind tigers mischief was naturally concentrated in the high license saloons particularly in the one run by jack woods whose local power for evil and cackling laugh
seemed to mean nothing else than close personal communion with old nick himself passing the door of his saloon one day bob saw one of jack's customers trying to play pool with a winchester in one hand
and the boy stepped in and halted
and bob did not know whether or not he had the legal right to arrest him so he turned
pinioned the fellow's arms from behind and bob took his weapon away hell said the mountaineer i didn't aim to hurt the little feller i jes wanted to see if i could skeer him well brother tis scarce a merry jest
quoth the hon sam and he looked sharply at jack through his big spectacles as the two led the man off to the calaboose for he suspected that the saloon keeper was at the bottom of the trick jack's time came only the next day
he had regarded it as the limit of indignity when an ordinance was up that nobody should blow a whistle except a member of the guard and it was great fun for him to have some drunken customer blow a whistle
and then stand in his door and laugh at the policemen running in from all directions that day jack tried the whistle himself and hale ran down who did that he asked jack felt bold that morning i blowed it
hale thought for a moment the ordinance against blowing a whistle had not yet been passed but he made up his mind that under the circumstances jack's blowing was a breach of the peace since the guard had adopted that signal so he said
you mustn't do that again jack had doubtless been going through precisely the same mental process and on the nice legal point involved he seemed to differ i'll blow it when i damn please he said blow it again and i'll arrest you
said hale jack blew he had his right shoulder against the corner of his door at the time and when he raised the whistle to his lips hale drew and covered him before he could make another move woods backed slowly into his saloon
to get behind his counter hale saw his purpose and he closed in taking great risk as he always did to avoid bloodshed
jack managed to get his pistol out
and held the weapon away so that it was harmless as far as he was concerned but a crowd was gathering at the door toward which the saloon keeper's pistol was pointed and he feared that somebody out there might be shot so he called out drop that pistol
the order was not obeyed and hale raised his right hand high above jack's head and dropped the butt of his weapon on jack's skull hard jack's head dropped back between his shoulders his eyes closed and his pistol clicked on the floor
hale knew how serious a thing a blow was in that part of the world and what excitement it would create and he was uneasy at jack's trial for fear that the saloon keeper's friends would take the matter up but they didn't
and to the surprise of everybody jack quietly paid his fine and thereafter the guard had little active trouble from the town itself for it was quite plain there at least that the guard meant business
across black mountain old dave tolliver and old buck falin had got well of their wounds by this time and though each swore to have vengeance against the other as soon as he was able to handle a winchester
both factions seemed waiting for that time to come moreover the falins because of a rumour that bad rufe tolliver might come back and because of devil judd's anger at their attempt to capture young dave
grew wary and rather pacificatory and so beyond a little quarrelling a little threatening and the exchange of a harmless shot or two sometimes in banter sometimes in earnest nothing had been done
sternly however though the falins did not know the fact devil judd continued to hold aloof in spite of the pleadings of young dave and so confident was the old man in the balance of power that lay with him that he sent june word
that he was coming to take her home and in truth with hale going away again on a business trip and bob too gone back home to the bluegrass and school closed the little girl was glad to go
miss anne was still there to be sure and if she too had gone
the quiet smile of that astute young woman had told hale plainly and somewhat to his embarrassment that she knew something had happened between the two but that smile she never gave to june
indeed she never encountered aught else than the same silent searching gaze from the strangely mature little creature's eyes and when those eyes met the teacher's always june's hand would wander unconsciously to the little cross at her throat
and the pink flecked laurels were in bloom when june fared forth one sunny morning of her own birth month behind old judd tolliver home back up through the wild gap they rode in silence past bee rock
out of the chasm and up the little valley toward the trail of the lonesome pine into which the father's old sorrel nag with a switch of her sunburnt tail turned leftward june leaned forward a little
and there was the crest of the big tree motionless in the blue high above and sheltered by one big white cloud it was the first time she had seen the pine since she had first left it
and little tremblings went through her from her bare feet to her bonneted head thus was she unclad for hale had told her that to avoid criticism she must go home clothed just as she was when she left lonesome cove
she did not quite understand that and she carried her new clothes in a bundle in her lap but she took hale's word unquestioned so she wore her crimson homespun and her bonnet
with her bronze gold hair gathered under it in the same old psyche knot she must wear her shoes she told hale until she got out of town else someone might see her but hale had said she would be leaving too early for that
and so she had gone from the gap as she had come into it with unmittened hands and bare feet the soft wind was very good to those dangling feet and she itched to have them on the green grass or in the cool waters
time wings slowly for the young and when the sensations are many and the experiences are new slowly even for all and thus there was a double reason why it seemed an age to june since her eyes had last rested on the big pine
where hale had put his big black horse into a dead run and as vivid a thrill of it came back to her now as had been the thrill of the race then they began to climb laboriously up the rocky creek the water singing a joyous welcome to her along the path
ferns and flowers nodding to her from dead leaves and rich mould and peeping at her from crevices between the rocks on the creek banks as high up as the level of her eyes up under bending branches full leafed
and making a playfellow of her sunny hair
had slid from his horse and stormed with tears what a little fool she had been when hale had meant only to be kind he was never anything but kind jack was dear dear jack that wouldn't happen no more she thought
and straightway she corrected that thought it won't happen any more she said aloud whut'd you say june the old man lifted his bushy beard from his chest and turned his head nothin dad
she said and old judd himself in a deep study dropped back into it again how often she had said that to herself that it would happen no more she had stopped saying it to hale because he laughed and forgave her
and seemed to love her mood whether she cried from joy or anger and yet she kept on doing both just the same several times devil judd stopped to let his horse rest and each time of course the wooded slopes of the mountains
and across the widening valley the tops of the mountains beyond dropped nearer to the straight level of her eyes while beyond them vaster blue bulks became visible and ran on and on as they always seemed
to the farthest limits of the world even out there hale had told her she would go some day the last curving up sweep came finally and there stood the big pine majestic unchanged
and murmuring in the wind like the undertone of a far off sea as they passed the base of it she reached out her hand and let the tips of her fingers brush caressingly across its trunk turned quickly
and then the two passed into a green gloom of shadow and thick leaves that shut her heart in as suddenly as though some human hand had clutched it she was going home to see bub and loretta and uncle billy and old hon
and her step mother and dave and yet she felt vaguely troubled the valley on the other side was in dazzling sunshine she had seen that the sun must still be shining over there it must be shining above her over here
but the mood was gone when they emerged at the deadening on the last spur and she saw lonesome cove and the roof of her little home peacefully asleep in the same sun that shone on the valley over the mountain
colour came to her face and her heart beat faster at the foot of the spur the road had been widened and showed signs of heavy hauling there was sawdust in the mouth of the creek and from coal dust the water was black
the ring of axes and the shouts of ox drivers came from the mountain side up the creek above her father's cabin three or four houses were being built of fresh boards and there in front of her was a new store
to a fence one side of it two horses were hitched and on one horse was a side saddle before the door stood the red fox and uncle billy the miller who peered at her for a moment through his big spectacles
and gave her a wondering shout of welcome that brought her cousin loretta to the door
and june saw his face darken while she looked why honey said the old miller have ye really come home agin while loretta simply said my lord and came out and stood with her hands on her hips looking at june
why ye ain't a bit changed i knowed ye wasn't goin to put on no airs like dave thar said she turned on dave who with a surly shrug wheeled and went back into the store uncle billy was going home come down to see us right away now he called back
all right uncle billy said june early termorrer the red fox did not open his lips but his pale eyes searched the girl from head to foot git down june said loretta and i'll walk up to the house with ye
june slid down devil judd started the old horse and as the two girls with their arms about each other's waists followed the wolfish side of the red fox's face lifted in an ironical snarl
bub was standing at the gate and when he saw his father riding home alone his wistful eyes filled and his cry of disappointment brought the step mother to the door whar's june he cried and june heard him
and loosening herself from loretta she ran round the horse and had bub in her arms then she looked up into the eyes of her step mother the old woman's face looked kind so kind
that for the first time in her life june did what her father could never get her to do she called her mammy and then she gave that old woman the surprise of her life she kissed her right away she must see everything and bub in ecstasy
wanted to pilot her around to see the new calf and the new pigs and the new chickens but dumbly june looked to a miracle that had come to pass to the left of the cabin
chapter five the glacier even that day
our tent being gone we drew his hide over us and rested as best we could knowing that at least we had no more avalanches to fear that night it froze sharply
when the snow slide began it would i think have gone hard with us as it was we suffered a great deal horace said leo at the dawn i am going to leave this if we have to die i would rather do so moving
but i don't believe that we shall die very well i said let us start if the snow won't bear us now it never will so we tied up our rugs
now although the mount was under two hundred feet high its base fortunately for us for otherwise it must have been swept away by the mighty pressure of the avalanche was broad
so that there was a long expanse of piled up snow between us and the level ground since owing to the overhanging conformation of the place it was quite impossible for us to descend in front
where pressure had made the snow hard as stone we were obliged to risk a march over the looser material upon its flank as there was nothing to be gained by waiting off we went leo leading and step by step trying the snow
to our joy we discovered that the sharp night frost had so hardened its surface that it would support us about half way down however where the pressure had been less it became much softer
over a larger surface and thus slither gently down the hill all went well until we were within twenty paces of the bottom where we must cross a soft mound
formed of the powdery dust thrown off by the avalanche in its rush leo slipped over safely but i
following a yard or two to his right of a sudden felt the hard crust yield beneath me an ill judged but quite natural flounder and wriggle
completed the mischief and with one piercing but swiftly stifled yell
any one who has ever sunk in deep water will know that the sensation is not pleasant but i can assure him that to go through the same experience in soft snow is infinitely worse
mud alone could surpass its terrors down i went and down till at length i seemed to reach a rock which alone saved me from disappearing for ever now i felt the snow closing above me and with it came darkness
and a sense of suffocation so soft was the drift however that before i was overcome i contrived with my arms to thrust away the powdery dust from about my head thus forming a little hollow into which air filtered slowly
getting my hands upon the stone i strove to rise but could not the weight upon me was too great then i abandoned hope and prepared to die the process proved not altogether unpleasant
are supposed to do but and this shows how strong was her empire over me my mind flew back to ayesha i seemed to behold her and a man at her side standing over me in some dark rocky gulf
she was wrapped in a long travelling cloak and her lovely eyes were wild with fear i rose to salute her and make report but she cried in a fierce concentrated voice what evil thing has happened here
where is my lord leo
or die the vision was extraordinarily real and vivid i remember and considered in connection with a certain subsequent event in all ways most remarkable but it passed as swiftly as it came then
my senses left me i saw a light again i heard a voice that of leo
something was thrust against my outstretched hand
i did not move then bethinking me i drew up my legs and by chance or the mercy of heaven i know not got my feet against a ridge of the rock on which i was lying again i felt the strain and thrust with all my might
of a sudden the snow gave and out of that hole i shot like a fox from its earth i struck something it was leo straining at the gun and i knocked him backwards then down the steep slope we rolled
landing at length upon the very edge of the precipice i sat up drawing in the air with great gasps and oh how sweet it was my eyes fell upon my hand and i saw that the veins stood out on the back of it
black as ink and large as cords
how long was i in there i gasped to leo who sat at my side
don't know nearly twenty minutes i should think twenty minutes it seemed like twenty centuries how did you get me out you could not stand upon the drift dust no i lay upon the yak skin where the snow was harder and tunnelled
towards you through the powdery stuff with my hands for i knew where you had sunk and it was not far off at last i saw your finger tips they were so blue that for a few seconds i took them for rock but thrust the butt of the rifle against them
luckily you still had life enough to catch hold of it and you know the rest were we not both very strong it could never have been done
why should you thank me he asked with one of his quick smiles
come if you have got your breath let us be getting on you have been sleeping in a cold bed and want exercise
well it will save us the trouble of carrying the cartridges and he laughed drearily then we began our march heading for the spot where the road ended four miles or so away for to go forward seemed useless in due course
we reached it safely once a mass of snow as large as a church swept down
and leaping over our heads vanished with an angry scream into the depths beneath but we took little heed of these things our nerves were deadened and no danger seemed to affect them there was the end of the road
the sight of them affected me for it seemed strange that we should have lived to look upon them again we stared over the edge of the precipice yes it was sheer and absolutely unclimbable come to the glacier said leo
so we went on to it and scrambling a little way down its root made an examination here so far as we could judge the cliff was about four hundred feet deep but whether or no the tongue of ice reached to the foot of it
of the overhanging rocks on either side was such that we could not see where it terminated we climbed back again and sat down and despair took hold of us bitter black despair
what are we to do i asked in front of us death behind us death for how can we recross those mountains without food or guns to shoot it with
here death for we must sit and starve we have striven and failed leo our end is at hand only a miracle can save us a miracle
he answered well what was it that led us to the top of the mount
why should the destiny be baulked at last he paused
i would not turn back upon our spoor since to do so would prove me a coward and unworthy of her i will go on
is a road to death well if so horace it would seem that in this land men find life in death or so they believe if we die now we shall die travelling our path and in the country where we perish
we may be born again at least i am determined so you must choose i have chosen long ago leo we began this journey together and we will end it together perhaps ayesha knows and will help us
and i laughed drearily if not come we are wasting time then we took counsel and the end of it was that we cut a skin rug and the yak's
tough hide into strips and knotted these together into two serviceable ropes which we fastened about our middles leaving one end loose for we thought that they might help us in our descent
i was old it was time that i should die i had lived innocently if it were innocent to follow this lovely image this siren of the caves who lured us on to doom no
i was proud of him so in broken accents i blessed him and wished him well through all the aeons
praying that i might be his companion to the end of time in few words and short he thanked me and gave me back my blessing then he muttered come so side by side we began the terrible descent
at first it was easy enough although a slip would have hurled us to eternity
accustomed to such places moreover and made none about a quarter of the way down we paused standing upon a great boulder that was embedded in the ice and turning round cautiously leaned our backs against the glacier and looked about us
truly it was a horrible place almost sheer nor did we learn much for beneath us a hundred and twenty feet or more the projecting bend cut off our view of what lay below so
feeling that our nerves would not bear a prolonged contemplation of that dizzy gulf once more we set our faces to the ice and proceeded on the downward climb now matters were more difficult
for the stones were fewer and once or twice we must slide to reach them not knowing if we should ever stop again but the ropes which we threw over the angles of the rocks or salient points of ice letting ourselves down by their help
and drawing them after us when we reached the next foothold saved us from disaster thus at length we came to the bend which was more than half way down the precipice being so far as i could judge
of the narrow gulf here were no stones but only some rough ice on which we sat to rest we must look said leo presently but the question was how to do this indeed there was only
one way to hang over the bend and discover what lay below we read each other's thought without the need of words and i made a motion as though i would start no said leo i am younger and stronger than you come help me
and he began to fasten the end of his rope to a strong projecting point of ice now he said hold my ankles it seemed an insanity but there was nothing else to be done so fixing my heels in a niche
i grasped them and slowly he slid forward till his body vanished to the middle what he saw does not matter for i saw it all afterwards but what happened was that suddenly all his great weight came upon my arms with such a jerk that his ankles were torn from my grip
or who knows perhaps in my terror i loosed them obeying the natural impulse which prompts a man to save his own life if so may i be forgiven but had i held on i must have been jerked into the abyss then the rope ran out
what it really said was don't come but indeed and may it go to my credit i did not pause to think but face outwards just as i was sitting began to slide and scramble down the ice
in two seconds i had reached the curve in three i was over it beneath was what i can only describe as a great icicle broken off short and separated from the cliff by about four yards of space this icicle
was not more than fifteen feet in length and sloped outwards so that my descent was not sheer moreover at the end of it the trickling
had worn away the ice leaving a little ledge as broad perhaps as a man's hand there were roughnesses on the surface below the curve upon which my clothing caught also i gripped them desperately with my fingers
the little ledge remained almost upright with outstretched arms like a person crucified to a cross of ice then i saw everything and the sight curdled the blood within my veins hanging to the rope
was leo out of reach of it and out of reach of the cliff as he hung turning slowly round and round much as for in a dreadful inconsequent fashion the absurd similarity struck me even then a joint turns before the fire
below yawned the black gulf and at the bottom of it
white sheet of snow that is what i saw think of it think of it i crucified upon the ice my heels resting upon a little ledge my fingers grasping excrescences
on which a bird could scarcely have found a foothold round and below me dizzy space to climb back whence i came was impossible to stir even was impossible since one slip and i must be gone and below me
hung like a spider to its cord leo turning slowly round and round i could see that rope of green hide stretch beneath his weight
the hide or the knots or whether it would hold till he dropped from the noose limb by limb oh i have been in many a perilous place
never in such a one as this agony took hold of me a cold sweat burst from every pore i could feel it running down my face like tears my hair bristled upon my head and below in utter silence
leo turned round and round and each time he turned his up cast eyes met mine with a look that was horrible to see the silence was the worst of it the silence and the helplessness if he had cried out if he had struggled
it would have been better but to know that he was alive there with every nerve and perception
oh my god oh my god my limbs began to ache and yet i dared not stir a muscle they ached horribly or so i thought and beneath this torture mental and physical
my mind gave i remembered things remembered how as a child i had climbed a tree and reached a place whence i could move neither up nor down and what i suffered then
remembered how once in egypt a foolhardy friend of mine had ascended the second pyramid alone and become thus crucified upon its shining cap where he remained for a whole half hour
with four hundred feet of space beneath him i could see him now stretching his stockinged foot downwards in a vain attempt to reach the next crack and drawing it back again could see his tortured face a white blot upon the red granite then
that face vanished and blackness gathered round me and in the blackness visions of the living resistless avalanche of the snow grave into which i had sunk oh
blackness and silence through which i could only hear the cracking of my muscles suddenly in the blackness a flash
and the sound was that of the noise he made a ghastly noise half shout of defiance and half yell of terror as at the third stroke it parted i saw it part the tough hide was half cut through and its severed portion
curled upwards and downwards like the upper and lower lips of an angry dog whilst that which was unsevered stretched out slowly slowly till it grew quite thin
another instant and i heard a crackling thudding sound leo had struck the ground below leo was dead a mangled mass of flesh and bone as i had pictured him i could not bear it
my nerve and human dignity came back i would not wait until my strength exhausted i slid from my perch as a wounded bird falls from a tree no i would follow him at once
of my own act i let my arms fall against my sides and rejoiced in the relief from pain that the movement gave me then balanced upon my heels i stood upright took my last look at the sky
muttered my last prayer for an instant i remained thus poised shouting i come i raised my hands above my head and dived as a
we cannot do better than open this chapter with an account of the work of volcanoes in the mountain girdled east indian island of java this large and fertile tropical island has a large native population and many european settlers are employed in cultivating spices coffee and woods
the island is rather more than six hundred miles long and it is not one hundred fifty miles broad in any part and this narrow shape is produced by a chain of volcanoes which runs along it
there is scarcely any other region in the world where volcanoes are so numerous even in the east where the volcano is a very common product of nature some of the volcanoes of java are constantly in eruption while others are inactive
one of their number galung gung was previous to eighteen twenty two covered from top to bottom with a dense forest around it were populous villages the mountain was high there was a slight hollow on its top a basin like valley carpeted with the softest sward
brooks rippled down the hillside through the forests and joining their silvery streams flowed on through beautiful valleys into the distant sea in the month of july eighteen twenty two there were signs of an approaching disturbance this tranquil peacefulness was at an end
one of the rivers became muddy and its waters grew hot in october without any warning a most terrific eruption occurred
a loud explosion was heard the earth shook and immense columns of hot water boiling mud mixed with burning brimstone ashes and stones were hurled upwards from the mountain top like a waterspout
every valley near the mountain became filled with burning torrents the rivers swollen with hot water and mud overflowed their banks and swept away the escaping villagers and the bodies of cattle wild beasts and birds were carried down the flooded stream
eruption of galung gung a space of twenty four miles between the mountain and a river forty miles distant was covered to such a depth with blue mud that people were buried in their houses and not a trace of the numerous villages and plantations was visible
and hot water and mud were cast forth with masses of slag like the rock called basalt some of which fell seven miles off a violent earthquake shook the whole district and the top of the mountain fell in and so did one of its sides leaving a gaping chasm
hills appeared where there had been level land before and the rivers changed their courses drowning in one night two thousand people at some distance from the mountain a river runs through a large town and the first intimation the inhabitants had of all this horrible destruction was the news that the bodies of men
and the carcases of stags rhinoceroses tigers and other animals were rushing along to the sea no less than one hundred fourteen villages were destroyed and above four thousand persons were killed by this terrible catastrophe fifty years before this eruption
mount papandayang one of the highest burning mountains of java was constantly throwing out steam and smoke but as no harm was done the natives continued to live on its sides suddenly this enormous mountain fell in and left a gap fifteen miles long and six broad
forty villages were destroyed some being carried down and others overwhelmed by mud and burning lava no less than two thousand nine hundred fifty seven people perished with vast numbers of cattle moreover most of the coffee plantations in the neighboring districts were destroyed
even more terrible was the eruption of mount salek another of the volcanoes of java the burning of the mountain was seen one hundred miles away while the thunders of its convulsions and the tremblings of the earth reached the same distance
later volcanic eruptions in java include that of eighteen forty three
and those of eighteen forty nine and eighteen seventy two when mount merapi a very active volcano covered a great extent of country with stones and ashes and ruined the coffee plantations of the neighboring districts
off the javan coast this event was so phenomenal as to deserve a chapter of its own for which we reserve it the united states as one result of its recent acquisition of island dominions has added largely to its wealth in volcanic mountains
the famous hawaiian craters far the greatest in the world now belong to our national estate and the philippine islands contain various others of less importance yet some of which have proved very destructive
a description of those of the island of luzon which are the most active in the archipelago is here sub joined the luzon volcanoes
volcanoes have played an important part in the formation of the philippine islands and have left traces of their former activity in all directions most of them however have long been dead and silent only a few of the once numerous group being now active
of these there are three of importance in the southern region of luzon taal bulusan and mayon or albay the last named of these is the largest and most active of the existing volcanoes in form it is of marvellous grace and beauty
forming a perfect cone about fifty miles in circuit at base and rising to a height of eight thousand nine hundred feet it is one of the most prominent landmarks to navigators in the island from its crater streams upward a constant smoke accompanied at times by flame
while from its depths issue subterranean sounds often heard at a distance of many leagues the whole surrounding country is marked by evidences of old eruptions this mountain in seventeen sixty seven sent up a cone of flame of forty feet in diameter at base
for ten days and for two months a wide stream of lava poured from its crater a month later there gushed forth great floods of water which filled the rivers to overflow doing widespread damage to the neighboring plantations
but its greatest and most destructive eruption took place in eighteen twelve the year of the great eruption of the saint vincent volcano on this fatal occasion several towns were destroyed and no less than twelve thousand people lost their lives
a disaster different in kind and cause occurred in eighteen seventy six when a terrible tropical storm burst upon the mountain the floods of rain swept from its sides the loose volcanic material
and brought destruction to the neighboring country more than six thousand houses being ruined by the rushing flood bulusan and taal bulusan a volcano on the southern extremity of the island resembles vesuvius in shape
for many years it remained dormant but in eighteen fifty two smoke began to issue from its crater in some respects the most interesting of these three volcanoes is that of taal which lies almost due south of manila and about forty five miles distant
on a small island in the middle of a large lake known as bombom or bongbong a remarkable feature of this volcanic mountain is that it is probably the lowest in the world its height being only eight hundred fifty feet above sea level
there are doubtful traditions that lake bombom a hundred square miles in extent was formed by a terrible eruption in seventeen hundred
thousand or nine thousand feet high was destroyed the vast deposits of porous tufa in the surrounding country are certainly evidences of former great eruptions from mount taal the crater of this volcano is an immense cup shaped depression
a mile or more in diameter and about eight hundred feet deep when recently visited by professor worcester during his travels in these islands he found it to contain three boiling lakelets of strangely colored water one being of a dirty brown hue
a second intensely yellow in tint and the third of a brilliant emerald green the mountain still steams and fumes as if too actively at work below to be at rest above
in past times it has shown the forces at play in its depths by breaking at times into frightful activity of the various explosions on record the three most violent were those of seventeen sixteen seventeen forty nine and seventeen fifty four
in the last named year the earth for miles round quaked with the convulsive throes of the deeply disturbed mountain and vast quantities of volcanic dust were hurled high into the air sufficient to make it dark at midday for many leagues around
the roofs of distant manila were covered with volcanic dust and ashes molten lava also poured from the crater and flowed into the lake which boiled with the intense heat while great showers of stones and ashes fell into its waters
volcanoes in the southern islands extinct volcanoes are numerous in luzon and there are smoking cones in the north and also in the babuyanes islands still farther north volcanoes also exist in several of the other islands
on negros is the active peak of malaspina and on camiguin an island about ninety miles to the southeast a new volcano broke out in eighteen seventy six the large island of mindanao has three volcanoes
of which cottabato was in eruption in eighteen fifty six and is still active at intervals apo the largest of the three estimated to be ten thousand three hundred twelve feet high has three summits within which lies the great crater now extinct and filled with water
the hot springs in various localities and the earthquakes which occasionally bring death and destruction of the many of these on record the most destructive was in eighteen sixty three when four hundred people were killed and two thousand injured while many buildings were wrecked
another in eighteen eighty wrought great destruction in manila and elsewhere though without loss of life an earthquake in mindanao
these convulsions of the earth affect the form and elevation of buildings which are rarely more than two stories high and lightly built while translucent sea shells replace glass in their windows
while java is the most prolific in volcanoes of the islands of the malayan archipelago other islands of the group possess active cones including sumatra bali amboyna banda and others
in the central region of the north pacific ocean lies the archipelago formerly known as the sandwich islands now collectively designated as hawaii
and in making it part of our national domain we have not alone extended our dominion far over the seas but have added to the many marvels of nature within our land one of the chief wonders of the world the stupendous hawaiian volcanoes
the island of hawaii the island of hawaii the principal island of the group we may safely say contains the most enormous volcano of the earth indeed the whole island which is four thousand square miles in extent
may be regarded as of volcanic origin it contains four volcanic mountains kohola hualalia
the two last named are the chief the former being thirteen thousand eight hundred feet the latter thirteen thousand six hundred feet
although their height is so vast the ascent to their summits is so gradual that their circumference at the base is enormous
on the adjoining island of maui is a still larger volcano the mighty haleakala long since extinct but memorable as possessing the most stupendous crater on the face of the earth
the mountain itself is over ten thousand feet high and forms a great dome like mass of ninety miles circumference at base
with a total area of about sixteen square miles the only approach in dimensions to this enormous opening exists in the still living crater of kilauea on the flank of mauna loa a volcanic island group
the peaks named are the most apparent remnants of a world rending volcanic activity in the remote past by whose force this whole hawaiian island group was lifted up from the depths of the ocean here descending some three and a half miles below the surface level
which forms the base of the archipelago
it must not be supposed that this action was a violent perpendicular thrust upward over a very limited locality for the mountains continue to slope at about the same angle under the sea and for great distances on every side
the process was probably a gradual one of up building by means of which the sea receded as the land steadily rose some idea of the mighty forces that have been at work beneath the sea and above it can be gained by considering the enormous mass of material now above the sea level
thus the bulk of the island of hawaii the largest of the group has been estimated by the hawaiian surveyor general as containing three thousand six hundred cubic miles of lava rock above sea level
we must remember however that what is above sea level is only a small fraction of the total amount since it sweeps down below the waves hundreds of miles on every side crater of haleakala
it is easy of access the mountain sides leading to it presenting a gentle slope while the walls of the crater in places perpendicular in others are so sloping that man and horse can descend them the pit varies from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet in depth
some of these cones are over five hundred feet high there is a tradition among the natives that the vast lava streams which in the past flowed from the crater to the sea continued to do so in the period of their remote ancestors they still indeed appear as if recent though there are
to day no signs of volcanic activity anywhere on this island in fact the only volcano now active in the hawaiian islands is mauna loa in the southern section of the island of hawaii a striking feature of this is that it has two distinct and widely disconnected craters
the other on its flank at a much lower level the latter is the vast crater of kilauea the largest active crater known on the face of the globe
we cannot offer a better description of the aspect of this lava abyss than to give miss bird's eloquent description of her adventurous descent into it
but such a pit it is quite nine miles in circumference and at its lowest area which not long ago fell about three hundred feet just as the ice on a pond falls when the water below is withdrawn covers six square miles the depth of the crater varies from eight hundred to one thousand feet
according as the molten sea below is at flood or ebb signs of volcanic activity are present more or less throughout its whole depth and for some distance along its margin in the form of steam cracks jets of sulphurous vapor blowing cones accumulating deposits of
and the pit itself is constantly rent and shaken by earthquakes
the abode of the dreaded goddess pele is approachable with safety except during an eruption the spectacle however varies almost daily and at times the level of the lava in the pit within a pit
is so low and the suffocating gases are evolved in such enormous quantities that travellers are unable to see anything
from it for a week and as nothing was to be seen but a very faint bluish vapor hanging round its margin the prospect was not encouraging after more than an hour of very difficult climbing we reached the lowest level of the crater pretty nearly a mile across presenting from above the appearance of a sea at rest
but on crossing it we found it to be an expanse of waves and convolutions of ashy colored lava with huge cracks filled up with black iridescent rolls of lava only a few weeks old parts of it are very rough and ridgy jammed together like field ice
or compacted by rolls of lava which may have swelled up from beneath
these are riven by deep cracks which emit hot sulphurous vapors as we ascended the flow became hotter under our feet as well as more porous and glistening it was so hot that a shower of rain hissed as it fell upon it
that my strong dogskin gloves were burned through as i raised myself on my hands
and by all calculations were close to the pit yet there was no smoke or sign of fire and i felt sure that the volcano had died out for once for my special disappointment suddenly
i think we all screamed i know we all wept but we were speechless for a new glory and terror had been added to the earth it is the most unutterable of wonderful things the words of common speech are quite useless it is unimaginable indescribable
a sight to remember forever a sight which at once took possession of every faculty of sense and soul removing one altogether out of the range of ordinary life here was the real bottomless pit the fire which is not quenched the place of hell
the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone the everlasting burnings the fiery sea whose waves are never weary perhaps those scripture phrases were suggested by the sight of some volcano in eruption there were groanings rumblings and detonations
rushings hissings splashings and the crashing sound of breakers on the coast but it was the surging of fiery waves upon a fiery shore but what can i write such words as jets fountains waves spray convey some idea of order and regularity
but here there are none the inner lake while we stood there formed a sort of crater within itself the whole lava sea rose about three feet a blowing cone about eight feet high was formed it was never the same two minutes together
broken by jagged cracks of a bright rose color
but the movement of the centre itself appeared independent and always took a southerly direction before each outburst of agitation there was much hissing and throbbing with internal roaring as of imprisoned gases now it seemed furious
demoniacal as if no power on earth could bind it then playful and sportive then for a second languid but only because it was accumulating fresh force sometimes the whole lake took the form of mighty waves
and surging heavily against the partial barrier with a sound like the pacific surf lashed tore covered it and threw itself over it in clots of living fire it was all confusion commotion forces terror glory
majesty mystery and even beauty and the color eye hath not seen it molten metal hath not that crimson gleam nor blood that living light
to this description we may add that of mister ellis a former missionary to these islands and one of the number who have descended to the shores of kilauea's abyss of fire
fifty one conical islands of varied form and size containing as many craters rose either round the edge or from the surface of the burning lake twenty two constantly emitted columns of gray smoke or pyramids of brilliant flame
and several of these at the same time vomited from their ignited mouths streams of lava which rolled in blazing torrents down their black indented sides into the boiling mass below
the existence of these conical craters led us to conclude that the boiling cauldron of lava before us did not form the focus of the volcano that this mass of melted lava was comparatively shallow
in which it was contained was separated by a stratum of solid matter from the great volcanic abyss which constantly poured out its melted contents through these numerous craters into this upper reservoir
the sides of the gulf before us although composed of different strata of ancient lava were perpendicular for about four hundred feet and rose from a wide horizontal ledge of solid black lava of irregular breadth but extending completely round
three hundred or four hundred feet lower it was evident that the large crater had been recently filled with liquid lava up to this black ledge and had by some subterraneous canal emptied itself into the sea or spread under the low land on the shore
the long banks of sulphur on the opposite side of the abyss the vigorous action of the numerous small craters on its borders the dense columns of vapor and smoke that rose at the north and west end of the plain
together with the ridge of steep rocks by which it was surrounded rising probably in some places three hundred or four hundred feet in perpendicular height
mauna loa in eruption of the two great craters of mauna loa the summit one has frequently in modern times overflowed its crest and poured its molten streams in glowing rivers over the land
this has rarely been the case with the lower and incessantly active crater of kilauea whose lava when in excess appears to escape by subterranean channels to the sea
the immense pressure causing it to spout in great flashing fountains high into the air in eighteen fifty two the fiery fountains reached a height of five hundred feet in some later eruptions they have leaped one thousand feet high
the lava is white hot as it ascends but it assumes a blood red tint in its fall and strikes the ground with a frightful noise the quantities of lava ejected in some of the recent eruptions have been enormous
the river like flow of eighteen fifty five was remarkable for its extent being from two to eight miles wide with a depth of from three to three hundred feet and extending in a winding course for a distance of sixty miles
who ventured to the source of this flow while it was in supreme action thus describes it
we came to open orifices down which we looked into the fiery river which rushed madly under our feet these fiery vents were frequent some of them measuring ten twenty fifty or one hundred feet in diameter
in one place we saw the river of lava uncovered for thirty rods and rushing down a declivity of from ten to twenty five degrees the scene was awful the momentum incredible the fusion perfect white heat and the velocity forty miles an hour
the banks on each side of the stream were red hot jagged and overhanging
and in the twinkling of an eye diving again into its fiery den it seemed to say stand off scan me not i am god's messenger a work to do away later he wrote again
and the devouring stream rushes madly down toward us it is now about ten miles distant and heading directly for our bay
that our lovely our inimitable landscape our emerald bowers our crescent strand and our silver bay are blotted out a fiery sword hangs over us a flood of burning ruin approaches us devouring fires are near us
with sure and solemn progress the glowing fusion advances through the dark forest and the dense jungle in our rear cutting down ancient trees of enormous growth and sweeping away all vegetable life
the wrathful stream has overcome every obstacle winding its fiery way from its high source to the bases of the everlasting hills spreading in a molten sea over the plains penetrating the ancient forests driving the bellowing herds
the wild goats and the affrighted birds before its lurid glare
his anticipation of the burial of hilo under the mighty flow was happily not realized
the eruptions of eighteen fifty nine and eighteen sixty five in january eighteen fifty nine mauna loa was again at its fire play throwing up lava fountains from eight hundred to one thousand feet in height
one stream probably formed by the junction of several smaller attained a height of from twenty to twenty five feet and a breadth of about an eighth of a mile great stones were thrown up along with the jet of lava and the volume of seeming smoke composed probably of fine volcanic dust
is said to have risen to the height of ten thousand feet an eruption of still greater violence took place in eighteen sixty five characterized by similar phenomena particularly the throwing up of jets of lava this fiery fountain continued to play without intermission for twenty days and nights
varying only as respects the height to which the jet arose which is said to have ranged between one hundred and one thousand feet the mean diameter of the jet being about one hundred feet this eruption was accompanied by explosions so loud as to have been heard at a distance of forty miles
the current of lava on this occasion flowed to a distance of thirty five miles burning its way through the forests and filling the air with smoke and flames from the ignited timber
the glare from the glowing lava and the burning trees together was discernible by night at a distance of two hundred miles from the island the lava flow of eighteen eighty
a succeeding great lava flow was that which began on november sixth eighteen eighty mister david hitchcock who was camping on mauna kea at the time of this outbreak saw a spectacle that few human eyes have ever beheld we stood writes he
bearing on its surface huge rocks and immense boulders of tons weight as water would carry a toy boat
the whole front edge was one bright red mass of solid rock incessantly breaking off from the towering mass and rolling down to the foot of it to be again covered by another avalanche of white hot rocks and sand the whole mass at its front edge was from twelve to thirty feet in height
along the entire line of its advance it was one crash of rolling sliding tumbling red hot rock we could hear no explosions while we were near the flow only a tremendous roaring like ten thousand blast furnaces all at work at once
this was the most extensive flow of recent years and its progress from the interior plain through the dense forests above hilo and out on to the open levels close to the town was startling and menacing enough
it was not an infrequent thing for parties to camp out close to the flow over night
as soon as one would be inclined to walk on cooling iron in a foundry this notable flow finally ceased within half a mile of hilo where its black form is a perpetual reminder of a marvellous deliverance from destruction
kilauea in eighteen forty kilauea seems never in historic times to have filled and overflowed its vast crater to do so would need an almost inconceivable volume of liquid rock material
a raging sea of fire
then it forced a passage through a subterranean cavity twenty seven miles long and reached the sea forty miles distant in two days
an eye witness of this extraordinary flow thus describes it
when the torrent of fire precipitated itself into the ocean the scene assumed a character of terrific and indescribable grandeur the magnificence of destruction was never more perceptibly displayed
for two score miles it came rolling tumbling swelling forward an awful agent of death rocks melted like wax in its path forests crackled and blazed before its fervent heat the works of man were to it but as a scroll in the flames
imagine niagara's stream above the brink of the falls with its dashing whirling madly raging waters hurrying on to their plunge instantaneously converted into fire a gory hued river of fused minerals volumes of hissing steam arising
which give utterance to as many deep toned mutterings and sullen confined clamorings gases detonating and shrieking as they burst from their hot prison house the heavens lurid with flame the atmosphere dark and oppressive
the horizon murky with vapors and gleaming with the reflected contest such was the scene as the fiery cataract leaping a precipice of fifty feet poured its flood upon the ocean
the old line of coast a mass of compact indurated lava whitened cracked and fell
they boiled with the heat and the roar of the conflicting agencies grew fiercer and louder
streaks of the intensest light
the outskirts of the burning lava as it fell cooled by the shock were shivered into millions of fragments and scattered by the strong wind in sparkling showers far into the country for three successive weeks the volcano disgorged an uninterrupted
burning tide with scarcely any diminution into the ocean on either side for twenty miles the sea became heated with such rapidity that on the second day of the junction of the lava with the ocean fishes came ashore dead in great numbers
at a point fifteen miles distant six weeks later at the base of the hills the water continued scalding hot and sent forth steam at every wash of the waves
the sinking of kilauea's fire lake in eighteen sixty six the great crater of kilauea presented a new and unlooked for spectacle in the sinking and vanishing of its great lava lake
mister thrum in a pamphlet on the suspended activity of kilauea says of it
with the dawn the shocks and noises ceased and revealed the changes which kilauea had undergone in the night all the high cliffs surrounding halemaumau and new lake which had become a prominent feature in the crater had vanished entirely
and the molten lava of both lakes had disappeared by some subterranean passage from the bottom of halemaumau there was no material change in the sunken portion of the crater except a continual falling in of rocks and debris from its banks
as the contraction from its former intense heat loosened their compactness and sent them hurling some two hundred or three hundred feet below giving forth at times a boom as of distant thunder followed by clouds of cinders and ashes shooting up into the air one hundred to three hundred feet
proportionate doubtless to the size of the newly fallen mass this remarkable recession of the liquid lava in halemaumau was probably due to the opening of some deep subterranean passage through which the lake of lava made its way unseen to the ocean's depths
actually descended into that crumbling pit to a point
but halemaumau had only taken an intermission
and unmistakable and in june culminated in the sudden outbreak of a lake that has since then steadily increased in activity
the goddess pele we cannot close this chapter without some reference to the goddess pele to whom the hawaiians long imputed the wonder work of their volcanic mountains
being the glass like product of volcanic fires it resembles prince rupert's drops and the tradition is that whenever the volcano becomes active
it is because pele the goddess of the crater emerges from her fiery furnace and shakes her vitreous locks in anger this fabled being according to emerson in a paper on the lesser hawaiian gods
at other times the innate character of the fury showed itself and pele appeared in her usual form as an ugly and hateful old hag with tattered and fire burnt garments scarcely concealing the filth and nakedness of her person
she was a jealous and vindictive monster delighting in cruelty and at the slightest provocation overwhelming the unoffending victims of her rage in widespread ruin
the superstition regarding the goddess pele was thought to have received a death blow in eighteen twenty five when kapiolani an hawaiian princess and a christian convert ascended with numerous attendants to the crater of kilauea
where she publicly defied the power and wrath of the goddess
and faith in pele's power was widely shaken
and in his hand he grasped the flag they laid him at anna's feet and she recognised that it was her fritz she fell on her knees and snatching the kerchief from her throat and breast strove to stanch the blood that welled from his heart
french rascals mother remember me i die for the dear fatherland and a comrade standing by said do not give way to your grief anna arler your son has died the death
of a hero then she stooped over him and saw the glaze of death in his eyes and his lips moved she bent her ear to them and caught the words i am not because you would not there is no fritz you cast my soul into the brook
and i was carried over the mill wheel
all to a dead hush anna staggered to her feet and turned to go back to her cottage and as she opened the door heard the cuckoo call two
but as she entered she found herself to be not in her own room and house she had strayed into another and she found herself not in a lone chamber not in her desolate home but in the midst of a strange family scene
a woman a mother was dying her head reposed on her husband's breast as he sat on the bed and held her in his arms the man had grey hair his face was overflowed with tears
and his eyes rested with an expression of devouring love on her whom he supported and whose brow he now and again bent over to kiss about the bed were gathered her children ay and also her grandchildren quite young
looking on with solemn wondering eyes on the last throes of her whom they had learned
to cling to and love with all the fervour of their simple hearts one mite held her doll dangling by the arm and the forefinger of her other hand was in her mouth her eyes were brimming and sobs came from her infant breast
she did not understand what was being taken from her but she wept in sympathy with the rest kneeling by the bed was the eldest daughter of the expiring woman reciting the litany of the dying and the sons and another daughter
her lips moved and she poured forth her last petitions that left her as rising flakes of fire kindled by her pure and ardent soul
o god comfort and bless my dear husband and ever keep thy watchful guard over my children and my children's children
that they may walk in the way that leads to thee and that in thine own good time we may all all be gathered in thy paradise together united for evermore amen a spasm contracted anna's heart
this woman with ecstatic upturned gaze
and in the fine outline of her features was joseph's profile all again was hushed the father slowly rose and quitted his position on the bed gently laid the head on the pillow put one hand over the eyes that still looked up to heaven
and with the fingers of the other tenderly arranged the straggling hair on each side of the brow then standing and turning to the rest with a subdued voice he said my children it has pleased the lord to take to himself your dear mother and my faithful companion
the lord's will be done then ensued a great burst of weeping and anna's eyes brimmed till she could see no more the church bell began to toll for a departing spirit and following each stroke there came to her as the after clang of the boom
there is not there has not been an elizabeth there would have been all this but thou wouldest it not for the soul of thy elizabeth thou didst send down the mill stream and over the wheel
frantic with shame with sorrow not knowing what she did or whither she went anna made for the front door of the house ran forth and stood in the village square
it was vastly changed moreover the sun was shining brightly and it gleamed over a new parish church of cut white stone very stately with a gilded spire with windows of wondrous lacework
silent anna stood and looked around and as she stood she heard the talk of the people about her
he was the son of that joseph the jaeger who was killed by the smugglers in the mountains that is true but do you not know that the king has ennobled him he has done such great things in the residenz he built
and he has rebuilt very many churches and designed mansions for the rich citizens and the nobles but although he is such a famous man his heart is in the right place he never forgets that he was born in siebenstein
look what a beautiful house he has built for himself and his family on the mountain side he is there in summer and it is furnished magnificently but he will not suffer the old humble arler cottage here to be meddled with
they say that he values it above gold and this is the new church he has erected in his native village that is good oh he is a good man is johann he was always a good and serious boy
and never happy without a pencil in his hand you mark what i say some day hence when he is dead there will be a statue erected in his honour here in this market place to commemorate the one famous man that has been produced by siebenstein
but see see here he comes to the dedication of the new church then through the throng advanced a blonde middle aged man with broad forehead clear bright blue eyes and a flowing light beard
all the men present plucked off their hats to him and made way for him as he advanced but full of smiles he had a hand and a warm pressure and a kindly word and a question as to family concerns for each who was near
all at once his eye encountered that of anna a flash of recognition and joy kindled it up and extending his arms he thrust his way towards her crying my mother my own mother then just as she was about to be folded to his heart
all faded away and a voice said in her soul he is no son of thine anna arler he is not because thou wouldest not he might have been god had so purposed
and then faintly as from a far distance sounded in her ear the call of the cuckoo three the magnificent new church had shrivelled up to the original mean little edifice anna had known all her life the square was deserted
the cold faint glimmer of coming dawn was visible over the eastern mountain tops but stars still shone in the sky
with a cry of pain like a wounded beast anna ran hither and thither seeking a refuge and then fled to the one home and resting place of the troubled soul the church she thrust open the swing door pushed in sped over the uneven floor and flung herself on her knees before the altar but see before that altar stood a priest in a vestment of black and silver
and a serving boy knelt on his right hand on a lower stage the candles were lighted for the priest was about to say mass there was a rustling of feet a sound as of people entering and many were kneeling shortly after on each side of anna
and still they came on she turned about
men women and children young and old seemed to bear in their faces something a trace only in many of the arler or the voss features and the little serving boy as he shifted his position showed her his profile
then the priest turned himself about and said oremus and she knew him he was her own son her joseph named after his dear father the mass began and proceeded to the sursum corda
lift up your hearts when the celebrant stood facing the congregation with extended arms and all responded we lift them up unto the lord
he raised his hands high above his head with the palms towards the congregation and in a loud stern voice exclaimed cursed is the unfruitful field amen cursed is the barren tree
amen cursed is the empty house amen cursed is the fishless lake amen forasmuch as anna arler born voss
might have been the mother of countless generations as the sand of the seashore for number as the stars of heaven for brightness of generations unto the end of time
even of all of us now gathered together here but she would not therefore shall she be alone with none to comfort her sick with none to minister to her broken in heart with none to bind up her wounds
feeble and none to stay her up dead and none to pray for her for she would not she shall have an unforgotten and unforgettable past and have no future remorse but no hope
but no laughter for she would not woe woe woe he lowered his hands and the tapers were extinguished the celebrant faded as a vision of the night
the server vanished as an incense cloud the congregation disappeared melting into shadows and then from shadows to nothingness
and anna with a scream of despair flung herself forward with her face on the pavement and her hands extended two years ago during the first week in june an english traveller arrived at siebenstein
and put up at the krone where as he was tired and hungry he ordered an early supper when that was discussed he strolled forth into the village square and leaned against the wall of the churchyard
the sun had set in the valley but the mountain peaks were still in the glory of its rays surrounding the place as a golden crown he lighted a cigar and looking into the cemetery observed there an old woman
bowed over a grave above which stood a cross inscribed joseph arler and she was tending the flowers on it and laying over the arms of the cross a little wreath
of heart's ease or pansy she had in her hand a small basket presently she rose and walked towards the gate by which stood the traveller as she passed he said kindly to her gruess gott
but can never be undone and went on her way he was struck with her face he had never before seen one so full of boundless sorrow almost of despair
his eyes followed her as she walked towards the mill stream and there she took her place on the wooden bridge that crossed it leaning over the handrail and looking down into the water
out of her basket and drop it into the current which caught and carried it forward then she took a second and allowed it to fall into the water then after an interval a third a fourth and he counted seven in all
after that she bowed her head on her hands her grey hair fell over them and she broke into a paroxysm of weeping
the traveller standing by the stream saw the seven pansies swept down and one by one pass over the revolving wheel and vanish he turned himself about to return to his inn
who seems so broken down with sorrow that replied the man is the mother of pansies the mother of pansies he repeated well it is the name she has acquired in the place actually she is called anna arler
she was the wife of one joseph arler a jaeger who was shot by smugglers but that is many many years ago she is not right in her head
but she is harmless when her husband was brought home dead she insisted on being left alone in the night by him before he was buried alone with his coffin